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Archive for August, 2014 Today’s post comes from Dan Ruprecht, intern in the Center for Legislative Archives at the National Archives in Washington, DC. From its earliest days, the Federal Government has been concerned with preserving its records. During its very first session, the First Congress under the new Constitution in 1789 passed the Records and Seals Act, setting the expectation that government records were to be preserved for future generations. The Records and Seals Act holds a special place in the heart of the National Archives and Records Administration. During the formative years of the Republic, the act established the importance of recordkeeping and provided that copies of government records would be made available to the public via newspapers. With the act’s passage, the Founding Fathers attempted to archive the nation’s documents and set a precedent to record, preserve, and report national history—a reflection of their belief that the American public ought to be a well-informed citizenry. Many of the nation’s founders shared the belief that it was imperative for the people of the young nation to be educated and informed in order for the government to properly function. The act changed the name of the Department of Foreign … [ Read all ] Today’s post comes from James Zeender, Senior Registrar at the National Archives. The Emancipation Proclamation will be on exhibit at the Nevada Museum of Art for 36 hours from October 30 to November 2, 2014. This will be the capstone to the museum’s exhibition “The 36th Star: Nevada’s Journey from Territory to State,” which opened on August 2. It features other original documents from the National Archives, including President Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation establishing Nevada as the 36th state in the Union and the state’s constitution transmitted by the Nevada Governor to Secretary of State William Seward. (The Governor sent the constitution in a 175-page telegram that cost $4313.27 at the time (over $60,000 in 2014 dollars). Nevada became the 36th state in the Union just before the 1864 Presidential election. Its two Electoral College votes for Lincoln played little role in the outcome of the election—Lincoln handily defeated his opponent, Gen. George McClellan, in the popular vote, getting 55% of the popular vote to McClellan’s 45%, and overwhelmed him in the Electoral College vote of 212 to 21. However, Nevada’s votes in Congress for the 13th Amendment—where Lincoln’s opponents posed more of … [ Read all ] Today’s post commemorates National Dog Day, which celebrates dogs everywhere on August 26. Bow-wow! Calling all dog lovers—arguably history’s best known Presidential pet was Franklin Roosevelt’s Scottish terrier, Murray the Outlaw of Falahill (Fala for short), who was named after FDR’s famous Scottish ancestor, John Murray. He was given to Roosevelt in 1940 as a Christmas gift by his cousin Margaret Suckley. Not long after entering the White House, fame encompassed Fala’s life as he began to appear in political cartoons, news articles, movie shorts, and even FDR’s campaign speeches. He was beloved by all White House staff, so much so that he was hospitalized after his first few weeks at the White House from being overfed by the kitchen staff. Due to this incident, FDR issued an order to his staff stating that Fala was to be fed by the President alone—talk about royal treatment. Furthermore, Fala was so well known that Secret Service agents called him “The Informer” because, during secret wartime Presidential trips, the dog was instantly recognized while out on his walks. Aside from being President Roosevelt’s right hand man, Fala’s political side was put to good use in … [ Read all ] Today’s post comes from Marisa Hawley, intern in the National Archives Strategy and Communications office. As part of the “six weeks of style” celebration to recognize the Foundation for the National Archives’ partnership with DC Fashion Week, we are showcasing fashion-related records from our holdings. This week’s fashion theme is Classy Women (and Men) of the 19th Century. The 1860s was unquestionably one of the most turbulent decades in our nation’s history. The tension between the North and South states over issues like slavery, states’ rights, and economic disparity had been simmering for nearly half a century. In 1861, the conflict reached a boiling point as the Southern states seceded from the Union and the country engaged in the Civil War. Despite their numerous ideological, political, and social differences, the North and South certainly had one thing in common: a flair for facial hair. After the failure of many liberal revolutions in Europe in the late 1840s, beards quickly lost their association with radicalism. In fact, from the mid- to late 19th century, hairiness became synonymous with masculinity, dignity, and power. Men of varying political and social statuses started to embrace all sorts of fascinating facial hair styles: long, … [ Read all ] This post continues our celebration of the 225th anniversary of the First Congress. The Constitution gives the President the “power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties.” This first time the President attempted to seek that advice occurred in August 1789 when first President George Washington sent a message to the Senate asking “to advise with them” on a treaty with the Southern Indians (at that time the United States treated Indian tribes as foreign nations). On August 22, 1789, Washington arrived at Federal Hall in New York City (then the capital) with Secretary of War Henry Knox, and they proceeded to read aloud a series of documents related to the various Southern Indian tribes. The incident was not recorded in the Senate Executive Journal, but Senator William Maclay of Pennsylvania kept a diary and documented what transpired: apparently the noise from the Manhattan traffic below drowned out the reading of the documents. As a result, the Senate decided to appoint a committee rather than debate the issue in front of the President, which caused great consternation to Washington. After regaining his composure, Washington agreed to come back to receive the Senate’s advice. Shortly thereafter, however, Washington decided that all future dealings with the Senate … [ Read all ]

Scientists have found that the way ice bonds to metal does not obey the ‘ice rules’. Andrew Hodgson, together with teams from the UK and Spain, wanted to understand water–metal and hydroxyl–metal interactions, to devise molecular models of wet metal interfaces for studying catalytic and electrochemical reactions that occur on these types of surfaces. Using scanning tunnelling microscopy and density functional theory calculations, the teams produced a phase diagram for water and hydroxyl on a copper surface, providing a complete molecular description of the complex hydrogen bonding structures formed. They saw three distinct phases as the temperature was decreased and the water/hydroxyl ratio increased: pure OH dimers, extended 1H2O:1OH chains aligned along the close-packed Cu rows, and finally a distorted 2D hexagonal c(2 × 2) 2H2O:1OH network. Binding geometry and simulated STM images for (a) an isolated OH group, (b) an OH dimer and (c) an array of OH forming a dimer chain on the copper surface None of these phases obey the conventional ‘ice rules’. Instead, their structures can be understood based on weak H donation by hydroxyl, which favours H-bonding structures dominated by water donation to hydroxyl, and competition between hydroxyl adsorption sites. Found out more by downloading the Chemical Science Edge article.

The Vatican’s Observatory has announced that for the first time it will be hosting a workshop analysing the relationship between faith and astronomy for parish educators, which is slated to take place next spring, reports the Catholic News Agency. 'We had done something similar to this only for bishops, held in Rome back in 1990. After nearly 25 years it was certainly time to try it again!' Br Guy Consolmagno told CNA on March 24. Br Guy Consolmagno SJ is an American research astronomer and planetary scientist at the Vatican Observatory, which is an astronomical research and educational institution supported by the Holy See. Having received a master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD. at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in planetary science, the religious brother entered the Society of Jesus in 1989 and currently serves as curator of the Vatican Meteorite collection. Referring to the four-day workshop, sponsored by the Vatican Observatory Foundation, entitled What can modern astronomy tell us about creation – and its Creator? Br Consolmagno explained that originally 'the idea of a faith-astronomy workshop for parish educators didn't come from us'. Instead, 'it came, out of the blue,' he recalled, 'from a diocesan priest in Wisconsin who wrote to us last fall with the idea.' FULL STORY Vatican launches astronomy class for parish educators (CNA)

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) on a typical microprocessor board is related to the clock. If the clock is a square wave, it contains frequencies at the clock frequency and harmonics. A perfect square wave clock would have harmonic frequencies at f, 3 × f, 5 × f, 7 × f, and so on. For a perfect square wave, or any string of pulses with a fast rise time, the strength of the harmonics declines inversely with frequency. So, the eleventh harmonic would be one-eleventh as strong as the fundamental frequency. This corresponds to a decline in harmonic amplitude of 20 dB per decade. Real time clocks are not perfect square waves, and pulses do not have infinitely fast rise times. As a result, the higher harmonics of any real waveform start dropping faster than 1/n at higher frequencies, generally dropping as 1/(n2), or 40 dB per decade, after the frequency is high enough. You can see this in Figure 1. The antenna efficiency of PC board structures or cables increases 20 dB per decade as frequency increases and wavelength gets shorter and closer to the size of structures found on typical PC boards. As a result, the beginning part of the radiated spectrum tends to be uniform, the 20 dB per decade decline in harmonic strength being balanced by the 20 dB per decade increase in antenna efficiency, until a high enough frequency is reached where the curve takes a bend and harmonics start declining at 40 dB per decade zone (see Figure 1). Above this frequency, the radiated spectrum starts declining by 20 dB per octave. But, the amplitudes of the real harmonics of a real device are often quite irregular because of resonances that weaken some and reinforce others. What is not usually understood is that the biggest source of EMI is not the clock directly, but a train of pulses generated on both edges of the clock when current surges into the microprocessor for a nanosecond or two when the clock transitions up or down. This pulse train has a frequency that’s double the clock frequency. It seeps out of the processor chip into the power supplies and generally infects the board with high-frequency EMI. It also gets into the output lines emanating from the processor package; therefore, it’s further spread around the board and to cables and devices connected to the board. The current surges on both clock edges are related to the clock tree. The clock tree is a system consisting of a branching network of buffers that distribute the internal clock around the silicon die. Because these buffers drive considerable capacitance and have both polarities of the clock present, there is a surge of current on both edges of the clock. This occurs as current flows into the chip to charge up the capacitance in the part of the clock tree that is transitioning from 0 V to the power supply voltage. On-chip devices, such as flip-flops, also contain internal gates and buffers where both polarities of the clock are present and contribute to the current surge. An additional current surge is related to the crossover current when both the N and P transistors in a CMOS buffer are momentarily conducting during a logic transition. The silicon chip tries to suck in the required current to service these fast transients through its power supply pins. However, these connections have inductance created by the bond wires and lead frame, so the voltage drops briefly on the die, creating an on-chip power supply voltage drop with an amplitude on the order of a few tenths of a volt and the duration of a nanosecond or so. If this same on-chip power supply drives the output buffers that carry signal lines out of the chip, these lines will also be infected with the fast pulses present in the power and ground supplies. This is because the power supply noise is directly transmitted through the buffer power inputs to the output lines. The on-chip current surges create fast noise that passes out through the power supply pins to the power and ground planes on the PC board, further spreading the infection. The amplitude of the harmonics of the periodic noise pulses, at least at lower frequencies, declines inversely with frequency (1/f). Unfortunately, the effectiveness of a short antenna, such as a PC board trace, increases directly with frequency (~f). The result is that the radiated EMI tends to be flat across the spectrum. Fortunately, the amplitude of the harmonics starts declining more rapidly than 1/f; it’s more like 1/(f2) at some higher frequency determined by the finite rise time of the pulses in the pulse train. The balance of these countervailing effects is such that the most trouble is often found in the area of 100 to 300 MHz for lower-speed 8- and 16-bit microprocessor boards. Decoupling capacitors and the intrinsic capacitance of the power and ground planes can be used to short circuit or filter noise on the power supply. However, this technique loses effectiveness above 100 MHz, because the decoupling capacitors have inductance of about 1 nH, giving an effective resistance of about 0.5 Ω at 200 MHz. The large currents involved will develop millivolt-level voltages across such capacitors. REDUCTION TRICK #1 The problem of noise on the I/O lines of a processor can be addressed with two sets of power supply pins. One set is used for the processor core; the other is for the output drivers that are located in the I/O ring on the periphery of the die (see Figure 2). If the I/O buffers are supplied with the same power that is made dirty by the fast transients in the processor core, every output pin of the processor will spread EMI. The EMI that tries to come out of the power pins for the core can be blocked by a combination of decoupling capacitors and PC board trace inductance. This keeps the PC board power planes a relatively clean source of power for the processor I/O ring. The design team figured this feature decreases EMI amplitudes by 10 dB, which is a factor of three in EMI electrical field strength measured by the prescribed calibrated antenna. This is a lot because it’s common to flunk the tests by 5 dB. REDUCTION TRICK #2 Most microprocessors have I/O and memory devices connected to the same bus with distinct control signals for the devices. Generally, there is a lot more activity at a higher frequency for the memory devices. For instance, a Digi International Rabbit 3000 microprocessor has an option to use separate pins for memory and I/O devices, both address and data. The advantage is that the physical scope of the high-speed memory bus is limited to the memory devices. A separate address and data bus handles I/O cycles and has a much lower average operating frequency. In particular, the address lines toggle only during I/O bus cycles, greatly limiting the emissions from the I/O bus. This avoids the situation where the fast-toggling address and data lines of the memory bus have to be run all over the printed circuit board of a large system. This scheme also limits the capacitive loading on the memory bus, which does not have to extend to numerous I/O devices. REDUCTION TRICK #3 A line spectrum is the spectrum generated by a square wave clock or by a train of short pulses. All of the energy is concentrated in a narrow spectral line at the harmonic frequencies. When the FCC EMI measurement tests are performed, the spectrum analyzer measures the amplitude of the signal from a 120-kHz wide filter that is swept across the frequencies of interest. With a line spectrum, all of the energy in a single line passes through the filter, resulting in a strong signal. If the energy in the line could be spread out over a wider frequency, say 5 MHz, only one-fortieth the energy would pass through the 120-kHz wide filter, considerably reducing the reading (by 16 dB in amplitude for one fortieth of the energy). This is what a clock spectrum spreader does. It modulates the clock frequency by a little so as to smear out the spectral line in frequency. The idea to do this for the purpose of reducing EMI was patented by Bell Labs in two patents during the 1960s. There are numerous ways to modulate the clock frequency. One method is to use a voltage-controlled oscillator and phase-lock loop so that the frequency sweeps back and forth at a low modulation rate (e.g., 50 kHz). Another method is to insert random delays or dithers into the clock. These methods are all covered in the original Bell Labs patents. The Bell Labs people were probably interested in EMI because telephone switches involve a large amount of equipment in a small space. In addition, it’s conceivable that the early computerized switches suffered from EMI problems. We installed a clock spectrum spreader in the Rabbit 3000 based on a combination of digital and analog techniques. The spectrum spreader reduces FCC-style EMI readings by around 20 dB, which is a lot. A control system makes sure that the modulated clock edge is never in error by more than 20 ns compared to where the clock edge would be if it were not modulated. This prevents disruption in serial communications or other timing functions. For example, a UART operating at 460,000 bps can tolerate about 500 ns of clock edge error before it will be near to generating errors. This is far less than our 20-ns worst error in clock edge position.—Circuit Cellar 146, Norman Rogers, “Killing the EMI Demon,” 2002. This piece originally appeared in Circuit Cellar 146, 2002. Author: Norman Rogers, who was President of ZWorld, Inc. and Rabbit Semiconductor.

We’ve become a 24-hour culture. It used to be that the only place to find a restaurant or hardware store open at 3 a.m. was New York City. Today, even the smallest communities have a 24-hour convenience store or burger joint. Our mobile phones buzz and blink with new emails and texts at all hours. Televisions and computer screens light up our rooms most of the night. While all these tools and conveniences make things easier for people who have to work through the night, including police officers, doctors, and nurses, research suggests that women who work at night have a higher risk of breast cancer compared to women who work during the day. But what is it about working at night that seems to increase the risk of breast cancer? There may be several reasons. Women who work at night tend to weigh more, exercise less, and consume more junk food. They also tend to be exposed to much more light each 24-hour day than women who work during the day. Concern about potentially higher breast cancer risk from too much light and not enough darkness was further illuminated (pun intended) by a fascinating study from Israel. It showed that women who live in areas with extra external light at night (through street lights, clocks, bathroom nightlights, and other sources) have a higher risk of breast cancer. Too much light exposure at night may increase breast cancer risk by lowering levels of melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate the body’s sleep cycle and normal cell function. Melatonin production peaks at night and is lower during the day when your eyes register light exposure. Women who work at night or who have a lot of outside light at night tend to have low melatonin levels. Research suggests that normal night melatonin levels can encourage normal cell growth and limit the development of cancer cell activity. Even though the connection between light and breast cancer risk isn’t completely understood yet, we all know how much better we feel and function when we’ve had a good night’s sleep. In my house, sleep is KING. We all try to help each other get as much quality sleep as possible. So what’s the best way to block out light at night, short of sleeping in a cave? Below are the changes I’ve made. All the changes have made a big difference and all have become indispensable to my day and night rituals. Consider thick curtains and an eye mask. It’s not clear how much light exposure at night decreases melatonin production. And while closing your eyes does a fairly good job of blocking light, installing thick curtains, blackout shades, and/or wearing an eye mask can help make sure you’re sleeping in darkness. Don’t turn on the lights if you get up at night. Use low-wattage or red bulbs in nightlights around the house and in bathroom(s). Cover up your clock. If you have an illuminated clock next to your bed, dim it to the lowest level, cover it with a heavy cloth, or put a book in front of it so the light doesn’t disturb your sleep. Keep your phone or computer in a room that isn’t your bedroom. Keep all electronics that light up out of the bedroom. If they must be there, turn them off so they don’t give off any light. Try to expose yourself to morning sunlight. Some researchers think that exposure to only dim light during the day also decreases how much melatonin your body produces. For example, if you leave for work before the sun comes up and work until the sun goes down in an area with no windows, you get almost no exposure to natural light. Most researchers agree that people exposed to bright sunlight in the morning begin producing melatonin sooner in the evening. Depending on what time you get up and the temperature, try drinking your coffee or tea outside when the sun is bright. Besides healthy light, you’ll also be exposing yourself to a shot of beauty to start your day (particularly at sunrise). If it’s too cold to stand outside, try to stand in front of a window that faces east. Check with your doctor if you’re considering supplements. Some people say taking melatonin supplements helps them sleep better. But no research has studied melatonin supplements and breast cancer risk. Before you take any supplements, talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of the product. Do you sleep better in a pitch-dark room? Have you tried any of these methods to reduce light in your bedroom and noticed a difference? Visit the Breast Cancer Risk Factors: Light Exposure at Night page for more information.

Orthodox mission center "Shestodnev" Genesis, Creation and Early Man The Orthodox Christian Vision Reproduced with the permission and blessing of the publisher (Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood) Part I. An Orthodox Patristic Commentary of Genesis . Why Study the Book of Genesis? . How to read Genesis . The Six Days of Creation (General Observations) . The Six Days (Day by Day) Chapter Four. The Creation of Man (Genesis 1:26-31,2:4-7) Chapter Five. Paradise (Genesis 2:8-24) Chapter Six. The Fall of Man (Genesis 3:1-24) Chapter Seven. Life Outside Paradise (Genesis 4:1-6:5) Chapter Eight. The Flood (Genesis 6:6-8:22) Chapter Nine. The Dispersion of The People (Genesis 9:1-11:32)

This is the third of six posts in what was the BarMittzva Romba series, now a dance series. A further step taken in 1962 made it possible to shape the raw material from clinical trials into the perfect product. This development hinged on the strategy chosen to reward pharmaceutical companies. In 1962, the options were to offer product, or process patents for drugs or some other form of reward such as a prize for the development of a medicine that has real social benefit (see Kremer and Glennerster’s Strong Medicine). With process patents if another pharmaceutical company can find a different way to make a drug they too can bring that drug on the market. Process patents had been the norm in Europe prior to 1960. They had been the method in place for a century during which the German pharmaceutical industry developed as the most successful on earth. Under process patents, it does not make economic sense for pharmaceutical companies to put all their eggs in one basket. They are more likely therefore to diversify and hold a portfolio of compounds. Process patents give more drugs, and cheaper drugs, so … On reviewing the differences between countries with process and product patents in 1962, Senator Kefauver’s staff, charged with looking at the regulation of the pharmaceutical industry, discovered that countries with process patent systems were more innovative than those with product patent systems and that the cost of drugs in countries with process patent systems was considerably less. Initially in the 1960s holding a product patent meant having a patent that applied to a national territory. The United States was the one leading country who had consistently adopted product patents. As of 1962, despite the data on pharmaceutical innovation and the price of drugs, Congress opted to maintain a product patent system. Other countries also switched from process to product patents. In 1962, product patents were confined to a national territory and the monopoly they offered was therefore limited. But the development of TRIPS in the 1980s, a development in which Pfizer played a significant part, means that product patents now have a global reach. This has transformed the market for drugs. TRIPS laid the basis for the emergence of blockbuster drugs in the late 1980s – drugs worth a billion dollars a year or more for pharmaceutical companies. There have been two important unforeseen consequences of the emergence of blockbuster drugs. One was that the ability to make so much money put a premium on drugs that could be marketed to the widest number of people rather than a premium on drugs that were effective for diseases that needed cures. By focussing on such drugs companies could most effectively realize the rewards that a global product patent regime offered. This reward system also put a premium on drugs for chronic conditions, so that there was a premium put on transforming where possible acute illnesses into chronic conditions. It also means that if companies develop substance P antagonists, nicotine receptor antagonists or other novel drugs, they test these out in the big lifestyle indications first and if the drugs fail there they are jettisoned. A great deal of the development costs of modern drugs stems from trying desperately to demonstrate efficacy in conditions like pain or depression for a drug with minimal effects on pain or depression. It would have cost next to nothing to bring the SSRIs on the market for premature ejaculation, but vastly more to create the appearances of efficacy for depression. A drug that proved useful for melancholia today would be abandoned as unlikely to offer a return on investment. In contrast, process patents encouraged companies to bring a range of diverse drugs on to the market and make their money from a range of genuinely useful drugs. Una pharma, una voce The second feature was that in addition to marketing panaceas, as companies fortunes have come to depend on the fortunes of a single drug they have had incentives to conceal any hazards that might be linked to the drug. Since 1962 companies have increasingly found ways to shut down any reference to the hazards their drugs might pose, and the length of time to the discovery of the major hazards of a treatment has got steadily longer. In contrast if several different companies can produce a drug that comes with a hazard the benefits of innovation will lie with the company that can find a way to manage rather than conceal the hazard. The 1962 regulations were ostensibly about enhancing safety, as the 1906 and 1938 regulations had been. But in fact the motivational incentives pointed the opposite way. One of the important consequences of this is that safety in practice is more neglected now than it was in the 1950s. It almost appears to be assumed that if a drug is efficacious it cannot pose a safety risk. It is highly likely that if a new thalidomide were to come on the market that it might remain on the market for a decade or more as today the risks of prescription only drugs take over a decade to travel from first description to wider recognition. There is a second notable aspect to the patent system that developed after 1962. In a free market, the patent system is recognized as a perversion, whereby the citizenry of a country for a limited period give a third party rewards beyond what the market would ordinarily support in return for some originality or utility that will benefit the country. Before 1962 patent officers were a force to be reckoned with, but over the past 20 years this has changed. Companies have applied for and been granted patents on isomers or metabolites of already patented compounds, as with Lexapro, Pristiq, Nexium, Invega and others. They can for instance get patents by modifying the salt composition of an already existing compound – as with Depakote. They are able to take patents out on compounds that their own scientists describe as being as alike to already marketed compounds as two drops of water. The requirement for originality has de facto been abandoned. The requirement for utility has also been abandoned. If the second drop of water currently being patented were patented for a novel and needed indication this might be acceptable but second drops of water are typically patented for the same conditions for which the first drop of water is already available – as in all the drugs listed above. Indeed in a number of cases, once a new compound is patented companies seem to be able to find safety issues with their initial compound sufficient to withdraw it from the market. Our most expensive bottled water Sir, I presume In the face of such laxity in the application of patent law, what happens next depends on the consumers of the product. If the consumers of these products cannot be easily fooled into buying a much more expensive on patent version of an identical cheaper off-patent product, patent laxity might not matter. But as we shall see the 1962 amendments have also created the perfect consumer, one who can be fooled into buying the most expensive bottled water in the shop. The 1962 regulations created the perfect product. They have gone as close as possible to enabling companies to take product patents out on water. Reflecting this laxity, pharmaceutical companies, which once had scientific divisions and engaged in research, have outsourced most of these functions, and become close to the kind of pure marketing operations expected from a bottled water or patent medicines company, where the brand is all.

Project management is the set of skills applied to control and monitor a team's progress through a project. An example of these skills is managing project scheduling, where tasks within a project are given durations and prerequisites are determined. In this Demonstration there are five tasks. One or several tasks can depend on other tasks; for example, the task of "watching a film at the cinema" has a prerequisite of "purchasing ticket" and "getting snacks", where both tasks need to be completed before you can watch a film. The "network diagram" is referred to as an "activity-on-node" diagram, where tasks are performed on the nodes of the graph. It is very important to observe that task durations have no effect on this diagram. Network diagrams only indicate task dependencies (as shown in Snapshot 2). The Gantt chart indicates the interrelationship between task durations and precedence. Task durations are indicated in black. Snapshot 2 shows the duration of the tasks that can only start when prerequisite tasks are complete, and upon completion allow other tasks to be completed. Tasks may have several prerequisites. However, it is possible that there is an opportunity to delay the start of a task without impacting the project duration. This is referred to as slack time, and is indicated by gray bars on the Gantt chart. Tasks that have no slack (in Snapshot 2, these are tasks 1, 2, 3, and 5) are referred to as critical tasks; delaying these tasks will delay the time to finish the project. Therefore, the critical path is the set of critical tasks, and the sum of task durations on the critical path is the project duration. This process is called the critical path method (CPM). However, the project's duration is equally calculated by determining the longest possible path through the project network. Therefore, it is not possible to have loops within the project. For example, if you need to "view car speedometer" and "alter car speed" (two activities that form a feedback loop), then this cannot be depicted in a network diagram and CPM cannot be performed (as the project duration, in theory, will be infinite). A practical method of bypassing this dilemma is to create a master task (in the example, this can be "drive car") and give this master task a fixed duration. Snapshot 3 shows a summary table showing key information for each task: a task's early start (the earliest time a task can commence), late start (the latest time a task can commence), early finish (the earliest time a task can finish if started at the earliest start time), late finish (the latest time a task can finish if started at the latest time), and slack time (the difference between the late finish and early finish, or late start and early start). A task's duration is the difference between the early finish and early start, or the late finish and late start. Snapshot 1: Gantt chart of example project (display mode = "Gantt chart") Snapshot 2: network diagram of example project (display mode = "network diagram") Snapshot 3: summary table of example project (display mode = "information")

Subscribe to RSS feed Demonstrations 41 - 60 of 359 Hinged Dissection of One Pentagon to Five Pentagons Twist-Hinged Dissection of Squares Three Dissections by Leonardo da Vinci Dissection of a Regular Decagon into Three Pentagrams and Eight Pentagons Dissection of a Latin Cross into a Square Dissection of Five Equilateral Triangles into One Dissection of a Regular Decagon into Two Pentagrams and Six Pentagons Twist-Hinged Dissection of a Regular Polygon into a Polygram Dissection of a Sphinx into a Triangle Obtuse Random Triangles from Three Parts of the Unit Interval Dissecting a Latin Cross into a Greek Cross A Wide-Tie-Cross-to-Square Dissection Decomposing a Regular Polygon with an Odd Number of Sides into Rhombuses and Triangles Hanegraaf's Dissection of a Nonagon into a Triangle Hinged Dissection of One Pentagram into Five Pentagrams Langford's Dissection of Five Pentagons into One Pentagon Largest Disk in a Convex Polygon Twist-Hinged Dissection of Two Attached Squares into One Square Twist-Hingeable Dissection of a Wide-Tie Cross to a Square Twist-Hingeable Dissection of an Ellipse into a Heart The #1 tool for creating Demonstrations and anything technical. Explore anything with the first computational knowledge engine. The web's most extensive Course Assistant Apps » An app for every course— right in the palm of your hand. Wolfram Blog » Read our views on math, science, and technology. Computable Document Format » The format that makes Demonstrations (and any information) easy to share and interact with. STEM Initiative » Programs & resources for educators, schools & students. Join the initiative for modernizing Note: Your message & contact information may be shared with the author of any specific Demonstration for which you give feedback. © 2015 Wolfram Demonstrations Project & Contributors | Note: To run this Demonstration you need Mathematica 7+ or the free Mathematica Player 7EX Download or upgrade to Mathematica Player 7EX I already have

[USS Missouri ] [Mille Atoll Surrender] [Northern Palaus Island Surrender] [Rota On August 22, 1945 USS Levy DE162, was host to the first formal surrender of Japanese territory as World War II ended. Although the Japanese Empire signed the Unconditional Surrender terms September 2 aboard Battleship Missouri, the historic beginning of the end came aboard DE Levy in the lagoon of little-known but strategically important Mille Atoll in the Marshall Islands group. Chuck Hays, a crewmember of the Levy, recalls: "We went over to the island in the whaleboat, five or six of us...I think this was on the 18th....we had a .50 caliber mounted on the bow...and they started shooting, rifle fire...it came close but no one was hit. We returned fire and so did the ship." Soon the situation was corrected and the truce terms were to be worked out. Japan had capitulated August 15 (Japanese time). Four days later, on the 19th, a Japanese party from Mille boarded Levy to discuss surrender terms and left after about three hours saying that it had to discuss the specifics with Tokyo. When the island was ready to formally sign, the Japanese would signal that they were giving up by building a cross out of white sheets and uniforms and place it where Navy patrol plane pilots would observe it. That signal was viewed on the 20th. Sporadic shelling of the island took place in the span, recalls Woody Story, crewmember of the Levy. He added, "We were trying to shoot out the tops of their trees to reduce their food supply." Levy entered the lagoon early on the 22nd and awaited the arrival of Capt. H. B. Grow, commander of Majuro, by PBM. Grow had been present at the meeting aboard Levy on the 19th. Grow was taken by whale boat to the DE and then the ship's boat went ashore to pick up the Japanese party. The signing began at noon and was completed within an hour. "Generally the mood aboard the ship was one of happy relief." Hays recalled. "The captain used the PA to pass the word of what was going on as it happened. Not a lot of shouting and such, just back slapping and congratulating each other among the crew. There was a saying in those days in the Pacific: Golden Gate in 48...well we knew we wouldn't have to wait that long anymore to get home." After the surrender was signed, the Japanese were given five days to make the island safe for the occupying force. On the 28th of August the American Flag was raised on Mille Atoll. On September 5, Levy was present at the signing of the surrender at Jaluit Atoll which took place aboard her sister ship the USS McConnel DE 163. Credit: The pictures with this account were provided by crewmen Chuck Hays and Woody Story, both of whom also contributed a vast amount of historical material from their memory. The photos were taken by Norm Gray of Levy's ship's company, whose present whereabouts are not known. Click on a photo for a larger view Copyright © 1998-2011 desausa.org. All rights reserved.

A new University of Houston (UH) experiment takes an unconventional look at the treatment for domestic violence, otherwise known as intimate partner violence (IPV), by focusing on changing the perpetrators’ psychological abuse during arguments rather than addressing his sexist beliefs. “There is a lot of research that studies the victim of intimate partner violence, but not the perpetrator,” said Julia Babcock, an associate professor in the department of psychology and co-director of the Center for Couples Therapy, a clinical research center at UH that offers therapy for couples. “The predominant model for IPV intervention is based on what was gleaned from women in battered women shelters and focuses on men’s patriarchal attitudes about power and control. Since most domestic violence occurs in the context of an argument, the experiment I conducted evaluated whether I could change how the communication goes during an argument with the batterer and his partner. The findings indicated the batterers could learn communications skills and when they applied them in an argument with their female partners, the argument improved and the participants felt better about the argument and more understood.” Babcock notes this research is significant in that it breaks new ground in applying experiments to domestic violence and may improve batterers’ intervention programs. In a review of the research studies on the efficacy of batterers’ intervention programs, Babcock found the results disappointing. There was a small change when a perpetrator completed a batterers intervention program and only a 5 percent reduction rate in repeat offenses. “There is definitely a need to improve batterers’ intervention programs, since research suggests that they’re largely ineffective, but frequently prescribed by courts as a remedy for convicted IPV perpetrators,” said Babcock. Babcock’s research focuses on male batterers because men are the perpetrators in about 85 percent of the abuse cases, and women are 10 times more likely to be murdered by an intimate than are men. Read more at ScienceDaily:

Maryland's Wild Acres Creating a Wild Backyard - Purple Martins Purple Martins are members of the Swallow family which historically nested in cliffs and hollow trees. However, east of the Rockies, Purple Martins are dependent on man-made nesting structures. They are also very likely to return to the same nest site used in past years. Martins are social birds which often nest in colonies. However, they will not tolerate House Sparrows or European Starlings in their colony. In the spring, male Purple Martins arrive first to scout out potential nest sites. Once the females arrive, they start hunting for a nest site and a mate. After a female pairs with a male, 2 - 3 weeks may pass before a nest is built. Their nests are made of straw, leaves, twigs and mud. An average brood generally consists of 3-5 eggs, which are solid white. Female martins normally incubate the eggs; however, both sexes feed the young. Young martins remain in the nest for 28 - 35 days. After fledging, the young are still dependent on their parents for an additional 2 weeks and may even return to the nesting area during the night. About three weeks after the young leave the nest (late July through August), martins begin migrating south. They congregate in huge flocks for the trip. Normally the adult males leave first, followed by adult females and the young hatched that summer. Purple Martin Diet One reason many homeowners welcome Purple Martins is due to the fact that their entire diet consists of flying insects, which they catch in flight. Their assorted diet includes dragonflies, damselflies, flies, midges, mayflies, stinkbugs, leafhoppers, Japanese beetles, June bugs, butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, cicadas, bees, wasps and flying ants. Contrary to popular belief, they do not readily prey on mosquitoes. Unfortunately, Purple Martins are extremely vulnerable to starvation during cool and rainy weather, when insects are low in numbers. Purple Martins are powerful flyers and alternate short glides with rapid wing flapping while changing direction, often in the pursuit of insects. They have a special ability to fold their wings and dive like a ball from high in the sky right into their birdhouse door. You can attract martins to your backyard by eliminating pesticide use and erecting nest boxes. Since martins feed on insects, using pesticides in your yard will eliminate their food sources which will make your yard less appealing to martins. Martins, like other birds, also need a source of fresh water. Martins will readily nest in boxes or communal houses, but the placement of these boxes is a key factor to martins taking up residence. Martin nest boxes should be placed 30-120 feet from human housing in an open area. Generally, the more open the area (i.e. lack of trees), the better the area is for martins. The housing should then be placed on a pole at least 10 feet high but no more than 20 feet high. Predator guards should be placed on poles to discourage predators from raiding the nests. The Purple Martin Conservation Society also has very detailed information on how to attract and tend to martins in your backyard. The information listed below is a housing design example for Purple Martins. Mark all pieces on a plywood sheet, and then cut out. Make all entrance holes into a 3" wide semicircle that is 1 & 3/16 " tall. The size of the hole is important to discourage European Starlings from using the nest box. The bottom of the entrance hole should be no more than 1/2" above the porch, and is most effective in excluding starlings when placed flush with the porch and compartment floor. Construct the base using 7d galvanized siding nails. Drill a 1/4" hole through the center for the metal rod. Drill a similar hole through the floor piece. Assemble the sides, alternating one and three-hole pieces. Use glue and three 1" nails on each end of each side. Mark the position of the sides on the floor and glue 1/4" x 1" x 1" blocks to floor in the four marked corners. Attach sides to floor with glue and 1" nails. Assemble and insert the partitions using glue. Position the ceiling piece, mark the corners and attach 1/4" x 1" blocks at the corners using glue. Drill a 1/4" hole through the center of the ceiling. Place ceiling in position. Glue three pairs of triangular roof supports together to form 1/2" thick ends and middle support. Attach the screen to cut ventilation holes. Attach the supports to the ceiling piece with glue and nails. Bevel one long side of each roof piece and attach to roof supports with glue and nails. Attach the floor piece to base with carpenter's glue and 1" nails. Cut the wooden block for chimney to fit the roof and drill a 1/4" hole through it and the roof to accommodate the rod. Nail chimney in place. Insert rod. Use 1/2" diameter dowels to make a fence about 2" high around balcony. Corner posts for the railing can be made from 1" x 1" x 3" of wood. Use the shelf brackets, stove bolts, and wood screws to attach the nest box to the pole. Set the pole 4' in the ground and secure by pouring a little cement around the base. Cover the roof with the roofing paper and paint with aluminum paint before painting the entire house white. Invite Wildlife to Your Backyard! For Additional Information, Contact: Wildlife and Heritage Service 580 Taylor Ave, E-1 Annapolis, MD 21401 We want to hear from you! Letters, e-mail, photos, drawings. Let us know how successful you are as you create wildlife habitat on your property. Complete the online Habichat Reader's Survey. Write to Me! Natural Resources Biologist II Maryland Wildlife and Heritage Service MD Dept of Natural Resources 580 Taylor Ave., E-1 Annapolis MD 21401

The jetty.xml is the configuration file when you run the server java -jar server.jar etc/jetty.xml. However, you may create one with your own configuration and settings and explicitly specify it when you run the server ...etc/my_own_config.xml. Once the server is running, the elements declared and placed in between its parameters are called and/or created. Here's a more descriptive oveview of the jetty.xml: All tags and elements declared inside jetty.xml will be pointing to this resource, configure.dtd. This only means tags and/or elements will be readable based from this data type file. The first instance called when you run the server is the Server class. The org.mortbay.jetty.Server is the main class for the Jetty HTTP Servlet server. It aggregates connectors (HTTP request receivers) and request Handlers. The server is itself a handler and a ThreadPool. Connectors use the ThreadPool methods to run jobs that will eventually call the handle method. This class implements the pooling of threads. It avoids the expense of thread creation by pooling threads after their run methods exit for reuse. If the maximum pool size is reached, jobs wait for a free thread. By default there is no maximum pool size. Idle threads timeout and terminate until the minimum number of threads are running. Implementations of this interface provide connectors for the HTTP protocol. Classes defined under these are: As the Set element sets the handler class, it will handle all classes that have requests. If there are property files that define security authentications inside the jetty_home/etc folder like realm.properties, realms should be constructed also. You can check the whole configuration file by looking at the jetty.xml of Jetty6_installation/etc directory.

One of the most difficult tasks a teacher faces is motivating students to learn. While some students have a natural love of learning, others arrive at a class under protest and act as if they’re being tortured rather than taught. Teachers must find a way to motivate these challenging students. A teacher can tap into two basic types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation occurs when the student pursues learning due to their interest in a specific topic. MBA Online states that having the motivation to execute ideas you’re deeply interested in is an important skill to have when starting a business or looking for a job. For example, a student who wants to be an astronaut when they grow up will exert extra effort into their astronomy class just because they’re interested in the topic. Giving positive feedback frequently can instill intrinsic motivation, as can using the students’ interests to teach a subject. Another example would be a student interested in dinosaurs will have a greater interest in learning about types of plants if they are given a chance to set up a dinosaur habitat with plants they’ve chosen to support dinosaur life. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside the students. A student who makes an A and gets $10 for it may want to make more A’s to make more money. Because of this, many teachers set up reward systems for reading a certain number of books, for completing homework or for successfully finishing learning tasks. While this may sound like a falsified form of educating children, the end result may be the same; students end up learning the same amount of material regardless of how they are motivated to do so. However, research into the long-term gains, or lack thereof, with such an approach should caution teachers against overuse. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation have their benefits and drawbacks. Intrinsic motivation can be difficult to tap into because of its personal nature. In some cases, students may be dealing with difficulties in their personal lives that use up their energy and leaves little room for academic enthusiasm. In those cases, some interest in the subject can often be encouraged by a teacher willing to show concern for the student. One first step is to listen to your students, get to know them, their interests, and their dreams. Use these “data” points to tailor curricula to help hook them into the topic. Cultivating and maintaining intrinsic motivation is a life-long skill that all students can develop. Although grade school is typically a place for students to learn fundamentals of a wide range of topics, teachers must also help students learn how to learn. Understanding research methods, how to analyze texts, and ways to study for tests are all just as important as learning the Pythagorean theorem. Adults often have tasks at work or home that must be done even though they will receive no outside payment or recognition. Learning to be satisfied with a job well done is an important part of growing up. Extrinsic motivation is much easier to establish once the teacher knows what the student is willing to work for. Whether it is stickers, a bit of extra free time or some sort of prize, students usually have a reward they value. An extrinsic reward system can teach students to put in hard work in order to get a reward, another life skill. However, in jest, a downside to extrinsic motivation is that it can get expensive for the motivator. The real problem, though, is that extrinsic motivation works in the short term, but it does little to light (and keep lit) the fire of curiosity that leads to life long learning. It may be that the book a teacher bribes a student to read hooks them into reading, however, there is little guarantee of this. Better to find books that link naturally with the student’s interest and provide multiple entry points for that student to engage in the topic in a meaningful and relevant context. For the teacher balancing the pace of a fast moving curriculum with a desire to make learning fun and engaging, perhaps the best motivation system is one that provides both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. While students may get tangible rewards for their work, they also get positive feedback and chances to explore their own interest within the scope of their subject. For example, a teacher might let students choose their own topic for a research project related to their subject area. Hopefully students get intrinsic motivation from picking a topic they are interested in and having a choice in how they will approach the topic. When students display the final product of their research, they get the extrinsic motivation of a grade and perhaps even the positive attention of their peers. While motivation is often a challenging task for teachers, the rewards of having students who are interested and eager to learn make the hard work worth the effort. By combining intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, teachers can help students learn the subject at hand as well as valuable life skills. Image: Move to the Groove

High Student Achievement: How Six School Districts Changed into High-Performing Systems July 04, 2001 The Educational Research Service's new study of high-performing districts expands on an appraisal of high-performing schools that it published three years ago. This one highlights four districts: Brazosport Independent School District (in Clute, Texas); Twin Falls School District (in Idaho); Ysleta Independent School District (in El Paso); and Barbour County School District (in Philippi, West Virginia). All four districts serve a significant number of low-income children, yet showed significant gains in student achievement over the past five years. The study found an unsurprising correlation between strong leadership, a culture of high expectations, clearly articulated goals and standards, and a combination of empowerment and accountability among school staff and student achievement. A key factor contributing to district success, however, was item-level analysis of assessment results so as to identify specific weaknesses in students' knowledge and skills. This helped schools to focus classroom and individual instruction on improving these areas. Extensive efforts to provide immediate and appropriate corrective instruction contributed to the impressive score gains that these four districts made. To order a copy of the report, surf to http://www.ers.org/CATALOG/description.phtml?II=WS-0420&UID=2001070509040184.108.40.206 or contact the Educational Research Service at 1-800-791-9308.

Purdue engineers develop “cool” MEMS device WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Engineers at Purdue University have developed a “micro-pump” cooling device small enough to fit on a computer chip that circulates coolant through channels etched into the chip. The new MEMS device has been integrated onto a silicon chip that is about one centimeter square. Innovative cooling systems will be needed for future computer chips that will generate more heat than current technology, and this extra heating could damage electronic devices or hinder performance, said Suresh Garimella, a professor of mechanical engineering. Chips in today’s computers are cooled primarily with an assembly containing conventional fans and “heat sinks,” or metal plates containing fins to dissipate heat. But because chips a decade from now will likely contain upwards of 100 times more transistors and other devices, they will generate far more heat than chips currently in use, Garimella said. The prototype chip contains numerous water-filled micro-channels, grooves about 100 microns wide. The channels are covered with a series of electrodes, electronic devices that receive varying voltage pulses in such a way that a traveling electric field is created in each channel. A pumping action is created by electrohydrodynamics, which uses the interactions of ions and electric fields to cause fluid to flow. Nanostars could shine light on chemical sensing HOUSTON - Optics research from Rice University’s Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) suggests that tiny gold particles called nanostars could become powerful chemical sensors. Nanostars, named for their spiky surface, incorporate some of the properties of often-studied photonic particles like nanorods and quantum dots. For example, they deliver strong spectral peaks that are easy to distinguish with relatively low-cost detectors. But Jason Hafner, associate director of LANP, and his team found unique properties too. Nanostars, named for reasons that are obvious by looking at the image above, could open up new possibilities for sensing applications. Image courtesy of Rice University An analysis revealed that each spike on a nanostar has a unique spectral signature. Preliminary tests show that these signatures can be used to discern the three-dimensional orientation of the nanostar, which could open up new possibilities for 3-D molecular sensing. Their findings appeared in the journal Nano Letters. Nanoparticles found to improve ultrasound images COLUMBUS, Ohio - Nanotechnology may one day help physicians detect the very earliest stages of diseases like cancer, a study in the journal Physics in Medicine and Biology suggests. It would do so by improving the quality of images produced by one of the most common diagnostic tools used in doctors’ offices, the ultrasound machine. In laboratory experiments on mice, scientists found that nanoparticles injected into the animals improved the resulting images. This study is one of the first reports showing that ultrasound can detect these tiny particles when they are inside the body, said Thomas Rosol, a study co-author and dean of the college of veterinary medicine at Ohio State University. The particles also can brighten the resulting image. Clemson group develops “carbon dots” CLEMSON, S.C. - Chemists at Clemson University say they have developed a new type of quantum dot that is the first to be made from carbon. Like their metal-based counterparts, these nano-sized “carbon dots” glow brightly when exposed to light and show promise for a broad range of applications, including improved biological sensors, medical imaging devices and tiny light-emitting diodes, the researchers say. The carbon-based quantum dots show less possibility for toxicity and environmental harm and have the potential to be less expensive than metal-based quantum dots. Cheap, disposable sensors that can detect hidden explosives and biological warfare agents such as anthrax are among the possibilities envisioned by the researchers. “Carbon is hardly considered to be a semiconductor, so luminescent carbon nanoparticles are very interesting both fundamentally and practically,” said study leader Ya-Ping Sun. “It represents a new platform for the development of luminescent nanomaterials for a wide range of applications.” The research was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Researchers explore nanotubes as minuscule metalworking tools TROY, N.Y. - Bombarding a carbon nanotube with electrons causes it to collapse with such incredible force that it can squeeze out even the hardest of materials, much like a tube of toothpaste, according to an international team of scientists. The researchers suggest that carbon nanotubes can act as minuscule metalworking tools, offering the ability to process materials as in a nanoscale jig or extruder. Engineers use a variety of tools to manipulate and process metals. For example, handy “jigs” control the motion of tools, and extruders push or draw materials through molds to create long objects of a fixed diameter. The new findings suggest that nanotubes could perform similar functions at the scale of atoms and molecules, the researchers say. The results also demonstrate the impressive strength of carbon nanotubes against internal pressure, which could make them ideal structures for nanoscale hydraulics and cylinders. A multi-walled carbon nanotube is partly filled with an iron carbide nanowire. The work is the result of an international collaboration. Photo courtesy of Johannes Gutenberg University/Banhart “Researchers will need a wide range of tools to manipulate structures at the nanoscale, and this could be one of them,” says Pulickel Ajayan, professor of materials science and engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an author of the paper. “For the time being our work is focused at the level of basic research, but certainly this could be part of the nanotechnology tool set in the future.” The paper is the latest result of Ajayan’s longtime collaboration with researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany; the Institute for Scientific and Technological Research of San Luis Potosi, Mexico; and the University of Helsinki in Finland. The paper appeared in Science. UCLA engineers announce spin wave breakthrough LOS ANGELES - Engineers at the University of California at Los Angeles Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science announced new semiconductor spin wave research. Adjunct professor Mary Mehrnoosh Eshaghian-Wilner, researcher Alexander Khitun and professor Kang Wang created three novel nanoscale computational architectures using technology they pioneered, called “spin-wave buses,” as the mechanism for interconnection. The three nanoscale architectures are power efficient and possess a high degree of interconnectivity. “Progress in the miniaturization of semiconductor electronic devices has meant chip features have become nanoscale. Today’s current devices, which are based on complementary metal oxide semiconductor standards, or CMOS, can’t get much smaller and still function properly and effectively. CMOS continues to face increasing power and cost challenges,” Wang said. In contrast to traditional information processing technology devices that simply move electric charges around while ignoring the extra spin that tags along for the ride, spin-wave buses put the extra motion to work transferring data or power between computer components. Information is encoded directly into the phase of the spin waves. Unlike a point-to-point connection, a “bus” can logically connect several peripherals. The result is a reduction in power consumption and less heat. Nanotube membranes open possibilities for cheaper desalinization LIVERMORE, Calif. - A nanotube membrane on a silicon chip the size of a quarter may offer a cheaper way to remove salt from water. Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have created a membrane made of carbon nanotubes and silicon that may offer, among many possible applications, a less expensive method for desalinization. Billions of nanotubes act as the pores in the membrane. The super smooth inside of the nanotubes allows liquids and gases to rapidly flow through, while the tiny pore size can block larger molecules. The team was able to measure the flow of liquids and gases by making a membrane on a silicon chip with carbon nanotube pores as the holes of the membrane. The membrane is created by filling the gaps between aligned carbon nanotubes with a ceramic matrix material. The pores are so small that only six water molecules could fit across their diameter. The research resulted from collaboration between Olgica Bakajin and Aleksandr Noy, both recruited to Lawrence Livermore Lab as “Lawrence Fellows” - the laboratory’s initiative to bring in young, talented scientists. The principal contributors to the work are postdoctoral researcher Jason Holt and Hyung Gyu Park, a UC Berkeley mechanical engineering graduate student and student employee at Livermore. The research appeared in the journal Science.

|Awarded by Australia, New Zealand and United Kingdom| |Eligibility||Members of the British Armed Forces and Merchant Navy| |Awarded for||Any length of service above the Arctic Circle in World War II| |Description||Six pointed star| Ribbon bar of the medal The medal is awarded for any length of service above the Arctic Circle by members of the British Armed Forces and the Merchant Navy. The Arctic Star is a retrospective award, coming nearly seventy years after the end of World War II, being announced in late 2012. The Arctic Star was formally approved by The Queen, and began production in early 2013. The first Arctic star medal was presented to approximately 40 veterans on 19 March 2013, in London. The Arctic Star is awarded for operational service of any length north of the Arctic Circle, defined as 66° 32’ North Latitude. The inclusive qualifying period of service is 3 September 1939 to 8 May 1945. Though the Arctic Star is intended to recognize the service of personnel in the Arctic convoys of World War II, other members of the military and civilians may qualify. Eligibility is defined as follows: - Royal Navy and Merchant Navy personnel must have served anywhere at sea north of the Arctic Circle including, but not limited exclusively to, those ships participating in, and in support of convoys to North Russia. Fleet Air Arm personnel, not qualified by sea service, may qualify under the criteria applicable to Royal Air Force personnel. - Aircrew of the Royal Air Force are eligible if they landed north of the Arctic Circle or served in the air over this area. Non aircrew on operational service in the area, for example ground crew or those sailing with CAM ships (Catapult Aircraft Merchant Ships), are also eligible. - Army personnel serving in His Majesty’s ships or in Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships qualify under the rules applying to the Navy or Merchant Navy. Personnel taking part in land operations north of the Arctic Circle are also eligible for award. - Civilian Members of the few approved categories who qualify for Campaign Stars will be eligible so long as they meet any qualifying criteria while serving in support of military operations. - Foreign nationals serving in British or Dominion Forces, such as the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Australian Navy, are eligible for the Arctic Star so long as the individuals have not been recognized by a similar award from their own governments. Eligibility for the Arctic Star does not affect an individual's eligibility for any other previously awarded campaign medals, nor does it automatically entitle individuals for any further awards. The Arctic Star is a six-pointed bronze star similar in appearance to the other Campaign Stars awarded for service in World War II. It is 40 mm high and 40 mm wide. The obverse has a central design of the Royal Cypher of King George VI, surmounted by a crown. The cypher is surrounded by a circlet containing the words ‘The Arctic Star'. The star is suspended by a ribbon with colours representing the three Armed Services, red for the Merchant Navy, and a central white stripe, edged in black, representing the Arctic. - "Recognition for veterans of Arctic Convoys and Bomber Command". GOV.UK Announcnements. Ministry of Defence. 19 December 2012. Retrieved 14 March 2013. - "ARCTIC STAR AND BOMBER COMMAND CLASP". veteransuk.net. Service Personnel and Veterans Agency. Retrieved 14 March 2013. - "Convoy veterans given first Arctic Star medals". BBC. 19 March 2013. Retrieved 21 November 2014. - Bannister, Sam (19 March 2013). "Veterans presented with their Arctic Star medals in London". The News. Retrieved 19 March 2013. - "Eligibility Criteria". [www.veterans-uk.info/ www.veterans-uk.info/]. Service Personnel and Veterans Agency. Retrieved 14 March 2013. - Maddox, David (26 February 2013). "Arctic Star medal for Russian Convoys veterans". The Scotsman (Johnston Press). Retrieved 21 November 2014. - "Arctic convoy heroes can begin applying for their WW2 campaign medal now". royalnavy.mod.uk. Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 21 November 2014. - Government provided rendering of the Arctic Star and Bomber Command Clasp - Transcript of presentation speech

Desktop replacement computer |This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2008)| A desktop replacement computer (DTR) was a class of short-lived personal computer that provides the full capabilities of a desktop computer while remaining mobile. They are often larger, bulkier laptops. Because of their increased size, this class of computer usually includes more powerful components and a larger display than generally used in smaller portable computers and can have a relatively limited battery capacity (or none at all). Some use a limited range of desktop components to provide better performance at the expense of battery life. These are sometimes called desknotes, a portmanteau of the words "desktop" and "notebook", though the term is also applied to desktop replacement computers in general. The forerunners of the desktop replacement were the portable computers of the early to mid-1980s, such as the Osborne I, Kaypro II, the Compaq Portable and the Commodore Executive 64 (SX-64) computers. These computers contained the CPU, display, floppy disk drive and power supply all in a single briefcase-like enclosure. Similar in performance to the desktop computers of the era, they were easily transported and came with an attached keyboard that doubled as a protective cover when not in use. They could be used wherever space and an electrical outlet were available, as they had no battery. The development of the laptop form factor gave new impetus to portable computer development. Many early laptops were feature-limited in the interest of portability, requiring such mobility-limiting accessories as external floppy drives or clip-on trackball pointing devices. One of the first laptops that could be used as a standalone computer was the EUROCOM 2100 based on Intel's 8088 CPU architecture, it duplicated the functionality of the desktop models without requiring an external docking station. The development of the modern desktop replacement computer came with the realization that many laptops were used in a semi-permanent location, often remaining connected to an external power source at all times. This suggested that a market existed for a laptop-style computer that would take advantage of the user's reduced need for portability, allowing for higher-performance components, greater expandability, and higher-quality displays. Desktop replacement computers are also often used with a port replicator, to fully enjoy the desktop comfort. Modern desktop replacements generally perform better than traditional laptop-style computers as their size allows the inclusion of more powerful components. The larger body means more efficient heat-dissipation, allowing manufacturers to use components that would otherwise overheat during normal use. Furthermore, their increased size allows for greater expandability and features, as well as larger and brighter displays. However, these advantages generally come at a price premium, with many computers in this class costing as much as two desktop computers with similar specifications. Using a laptop form factor, however, desktop replacements still often suffer from limitations similar to those of more mobile laptops. They usually lack the ability to accept standard PCIe expansion cards, limiting their expandability somewhat. While desktop replacements can offer better cooling than other laptops, they rarely dissipate heat efficiently enough to allow for high-end desktop-class components, and thus may not reach the same performance levels as desktop computers. Desktop replacement computers are, with a few exceptions, difficult to upgrade compared to desktop computers, with many of their major components (such as the display) integral to the design of the machine, and others (such as the CPU and GPU) often being hard to access and replace. A small segment of desktop replacements do not include a battery as a standard feature, while some do not include ExpressCard support. They have the same limitations on serviceability as laptops, and can rarely use identical components to a desktop computer. - Desktop notebooks stake their claim, accessed April 2010 - Osborne 1 - The First Portable Computer from 1981, accessed April 2010 - Compaq Portable, the Company's First Product in 1982, accessed April 2010 - Commodore SX-64 portable computer, accessed April 2010 - Upgrading and Repairing Laptops, accessed April 2010

Dillberg transmitter is a transmitting facility of the Bavarian Broadcasting Company (German: Bayerischer Rundfunk) on the 595 metre high Dillberg mountain west of Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Bavaria, Germany. Dillberg transmitter went into service in 1955 for serving the area of Nuremberg with TV and FM radio programmes from a 198 metre tall guyed mast. Medium wave transmissions In 1969 Dillberg transmitter took over the medium wave transmissions from Nuremberg-Kleinreuth transmitter, which was shut down in this year. As the mast of Dillberg transmitter is grounded, it was equipped with a cage antenna for this purpose. The frequency of the transmitter was, until 1978, 800 kHz and then changed to 801 kHz in 1978 after the waveplan of Geneva went in service. Although it was possible to use also the frequency 909 kHz for Dillberg transmitter, the Bavarian Broadcasting Company decided to run it on 801 kHz forming with Transmitter Ismaning a single frequency network, as operating on 909 kHz would have required an expensive extension of the antenna as directional radiation would be required at night time for this frequency. In 1986 a 62 metre tall telecommunication tower was built nearby for directional radio services. A second mast for TV transmission with a height of 231 metres was built in 1991. This mast is, like the old mast, grounded and equipped with a cage antenna for medium wave broadcasting. After completion of this mast, the old mast is used only as a backup antenna mast. Short wave transmitter At Dillberg transmitter there is the control centre for transmitter operation of Northern Bavaria of Bavaria Broadcasting Company. From this installation, the radio and TV transmitters of Bavarian Broadcasting Company, which are not always staffed, are remotely controlled. Frequencies of Dillberg transmitter |BR SPEZIAL||801 kHz||20 kW| |BAYERN 1||88,9 MHz||25 kW| |BAYERN 1||104,5 MHz||5 kW| |BAYERN 2||92,3 MHz||25 kW| |BAYERN 2||102,5 MHz||10 kW| |BAYERN 3||97,9 MHz||25 kW| |BAYERN 4 KLASSIK||87,6 MHz||25 kW| |B 5 AKTUELL||102,0 MHz||25 kW| |ANTENNE BAYERN||100,6 MHz||25 kW| - Reservesendemast Dillberg (1955) at Structurae - Entry of old transmission mast of Dillberg transmitter at Skyscraperpage - Sendemast Dillberg (1991) at Structurae - Entry of new transmission mast of Dillberg transmitter at Skyscraperpage - Entry of directional radio tower at Skyscraperpage - Dillberg transmitter on Google Maps

Ek' Balam[pronunciation?] is a Yucatec-Maya archaeological site within the municipality of Temozón, Yucatán, Mexico. It lies in the Northern Maya lowlands, 25 kilometres (16 mi) north of Valladolid and 56 kilometres (35 mi) northeast of Chichen Itza. From the Preclassic until the Postclassic period, it was the seat of a Mayan kingdom. The site is noted for the preservation of the plaster on the tomb of Ukit-Kan-Lek-Tok, a king buried in the side of the largest pyramid. Ek' Balam was occupied from the Middle Preclassic through the Postclassic, although it ceased to thrive as a major city past the Late Classic. Beginning in the Late Preclassic, the population grew and the city expanded throughout the following periods. It eventually became the capital of the polity that controlled the region around the beginning of the Common Era. At its height from 770 to 840 CE, Ek' Balam provides a rich resource of information for understanding northern Classic cities, due to the poor preservation of many other notable northern Maya sites (e.g. Coba, Izamal, and Edzna). It was during this height that the Late Yumcab ceramic complex (750-1050/1100 CE) dominated the architecture and pottery of Ek’ Balam. The population decreased dramatically, down to 10% of its highest, during the Postclassic period as Ek’ Balam was slowly becoming vacant. There are several theories to why it was eventually abandoned and to the degree of haste at which it was abandoned (see: Defensive Walls). Ek Balam is mentioned in a late-sixteenth century Relación Geográfica, an official inquiry held by the colonial government among local Spanish landowners. It is reported to have belonged to a kingdom called 'Talol', founded by a Ek' Balam, or Coch Cal Balam, who had come from the East. Later, the region was dominated by the aristocratic Cupul family. There are 45 structures, including: - These are the city’s Defensive Walls, which end on both sides at an unsurpassable, steep sink hole. - The Entrance Arch stands at the entrance of Ek’ Balam on four legs, constructed over the road that leads into the city, and was probably ceremonial in purpose. - The Oval Palace contained burial relics and its alignment is assumed to be connected to cosmological ceremonies. - Structure 17 or The Twins atop of which there are two mirroring temples on either side. - A carved stela which depicts a ruler of Ek Balam, possibly Ukit Kan Le’k Tok’. - Structure 12 - Structure 10 is a platform whose base dates to the Late Classic but was built upon by later generations. - Structure 7 - The Ballcourt was completed in 841. - Structure 2 on the West corner of the Acropolis is one of the large platforms that make up the main plaza and contains a temple in one corner. - Steam Bath - Structure 3 on the East corner of the Acropolis is an unexcavated platform that borders the main plaza. - Structure 1 or the Acropolis on the North side of the site is the largest structure at Ek' Balam and is believed to contain the tomb of Ukit Kan Le'k Tok', an important ruler in Ek’ Balam. Excavations on it began in 1998, when it was just a mound. - This is the temple in which Ukit Kan Le'k Tok' was buried, called El Trono (‘The Throne’). The doorway is in the shape of a monster-like mouth, possibly depicting a jaguar. The layout of the site is surrounded by two concentric walls which served as defense against attack. There were many smaller walls that snaked through the city as well. The inner wall encompasses an area of 9.55 hectares (23.6 acres). The carved stone of the inner wall, 2 metres (6.6 ft) tall and 3 metres (9.8 ft) wide, is covered in plaster; the outer wall serves purely for defense, as it is less substantial and less decorative. These walls were the largest in the Late Classic Yucatan, and seem to have a symbolic meaning of protection and military strength. Theories claiming a hasty desertion of the city are backed up by the fourth wall inside the city, which “bisects the Great Plaza, and, at less than a meter wide and made of poorly constructed rubble, it was clearly built as a last ditch effort at protection” against invading attackers. Structures Inside the Walls Only the center of Ek’ Balam has been excavated. Large, raised platforms line the interior wall, surrounding internal plazas. Sacbé roads stem off of the center in the four cardinal directions, an architectural allusion to the idea of a “four-part cosmos”. These roads are often understood to have been sacred. The buildings were designed in the northern Petén architectural style, as were the surrounding large cities of the time, although it has its dissimilarities with them as well. The Acropolis houses the tomb of king Ukit Kan Le'k Tok', who ruled from 770 (the starting year of the “height” of this city) to 797 or 802 CE. In rooms of the Acropolis, wall paintings consisting of texts have been found, amongst these the 'Mural of the 96 Glyphs', a masterwork of calligraphy comparable to the 'Tablet of the 96 Glyphs' from Palenque. Another wall painting of the Acropolis features a mythological scene with a hunted deer, which has been interpreted as the origin of death. A series of vault capstones depict the lightning deity, a specific decoration also known from other Yucatec sites. Ek’ Balam was rediscovered and explored first by influential archaeologist Désiré Charnay in the late 1800s but extensive excavation did not take place until a century later. Bill Ringle and George Bey III mapped the site in the late 1980s, and continued to do extensive research into the 1990s, their works being cited by many others who later write on the site. Subsequently, the Acropolis was excavated by Leticia Vargas de la Peña and Víctor Castillo Borges from the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Stucco jaws principal pyramid of Ek Balam(Yucatan) - O'Neill, Zora and Fisher, John (2008). The Rough Guide to the Yucatan (second ed.). London: Rough Guides (Penguin). pp. 196–197. ISBN 978-1-85828-805-5. - Bey III, et al (1998) - Martin and Grube (2000) - Aimers (2007) - Witschey and Brown (2011) - Dahlin (2000) - Rider (2005) - Lacadena 2004 - Chinchilla Mazariegos 2011: 167 figs. 65, 66 - Aimers, James J. “What Maya Collapse? Terminal Classic Variation in the Maya Lowlands.” Journal of Archaeological Research 15.4 (2007): 329-77. < http://www.jstor.org/stable/41053243>. - Bey III, George J., et al. "The Ceramic Chronology of Ek Balam, Yucatan, Mexico." Ancient Mesoamerica. 9. (1998): 101-20. - Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo. Imágenes de la mitología maya. Guatemala: Museo Popol Vuh, 2011. - Dahlin, Bruce H. "The Barricade and Abandonment of Chunchucmil: Implications for Northern Maya Warfare." Latin American Antiquity. 11.3 (2000): 283-98. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/972179>. - Lacadena, Alfonso, 'The Glyphic Corpus from Ek' Balam, Yucatán, Mexico', FAMSI report 2004. - Martin, Simon, and Nikolai Grube. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens. 2nd ed. London: Thames & Hudson, 2000. - Rider, Nick. Yucatan & Mayan Mexico, 3rd. 3rd. Cadogan Guides, 2005. - Witschey, Walter R. T., and Clifford T. Brown. Historical Dictionary of Mesoamerica. illustrated. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2011. Web. - Photos of Ek' Balam - Recent Finds at Ek' Balam at Mesoweb |Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ek' balam.|

|This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2007)| English number words include numerals and various words derived from them, as well as a large number of words borrowed from other languages. |2||two||12||twelve (a dozen)||20||twenty (a score)| |4||four||14||fourteen||40||forty (no "u")| |5||five||15||fifteen (note "f", not "v")||50||fifty (note "f", not "v")| |8||eight||18||eighteen (only one "t")||80||eighty (only one "t")| |9||nine||19||nineteen||90||ninety (note the "e")| If a number is in the range 21 to 99, and the second digit is not zero, one typically writes the number as two words separated by a hyphen. In English, the hundreds are perfectly regular, except that the word hundred remains in its singular form regardless of the number preceding it. So too are the thousands, with the number of thousands followed by the word "thousand" |10,000||ten thousand or (rarely used) a myriad| |100,000||one hundred thousand or one lakh (Indian English)| |999,000||nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand (inclusively British English, Irish English, Australian English, and New Zealand English) nine hundred ninety-nine thousand (American English) |10,000,000||ten million or one crore (Indian English)| In American usage, four-digit numbers with non-zero hundreds are often named using multiples of "hundred" and combined with tens and ones: "One thousand one", "Eleven hundred three", "Twelve hundred twenty-five", "Four thousand forty-two", or "Ninety-nine hundred ninety-nine." In British usage, this style is common for multiples of 100 between 1,000 and 2,000 (e.g. 1,500 as "fifteen hundred") but not for higher numbers. Americans may pronounce four-digit numbers with non-zero tens and ones as pairs of two-digit numbers without saying "hundred" and inserting "oh" for zero tens: "twenty-six fifty-nine" or "forty-one oh five". This usage probably evolved from the distinctive usage for years; "nineteen-eighty-one", or from four-digit numbers used in the American telephone numbering system which were originally two letters followed by a number followed by a four-digit number, later by a three-digit number followed by the four-digit number. It is avoided for numbers less than 2500 if the context may mean confusion with time of day: "ten ten" or "twelve oh four". Intermediate numbers are read differently depending on their use. Their typical naming occurs when the numbers are used for counting. Another way is for when they are used as labels. The second column method is used much more often in American English than British English. The third column is used in British English, but rarely in American English (although the use of the second and third columns is not necessarily directly interchangeable between the two regional variants). In other words, British English and American English can seemingly agree, but it depends on a specific situation (in this example, bus numbers). |Common British vernacular||Common American vernacular||Common British vernacular| |"How many marbles do you have?"||"What is your house number?"||"Which bus goes to the high street?"| |101||"A hundred and one."||"One-oh-one." Here, "oh" is used for the digit zero. |109||"A hundred and nine."||"One-oh-nine."||"One-oh-nine."| |110||"A hundred and ten."||"One-ten."||"One-one-oh."| |117||"A hundred and seventeen."||"One-seventeen."||"One-one-seven."| |120||"A hundred and twenty."||"One-twenty."||"One-two-oh", "One-two-zero."| |152||"A hundred and fifty-two."||"One-fifty-two."||"One-five-two."| |208||"Two hundred and eight."||"Two-oh-eight."||"Two-oh-eight."| |334||"Three hundred and thirty-four."||"Three-thirty-four."||"Three-three-four."| Note: When writing a cheque (or check), the number 100 is always written "one hundred". It is never "a hundred". Note that in American English, many students are taught not to use the word and anywhere in the whole part of a number, so it is not used before the tens and ones. It is instead used as a verbal delimiter when dealing with compound numbers. Thus, instead of "three hundred and seventy-three", one would say "three hundred seventy-three". For details, see American and British English differences. For numbers above a million, there are two different systems for naming numbers in English (for the use of prefixes such as kilo- for a thousand, mega- for a million, milli- for a thousandth, etc. see SI units): - the long scale (decreasingly used in British English) designates a system of numeric names in which a thousand million is called a ‘‘milliard’’ (but the latter usage is now rare), and ‘‘billion’’ is used for a million million. - the short scale (always used in American English and increasingly in British English) designates a system of numeric names in which a thousand million is called a ‘‘billion’’, and the word ‘‘milliard’’ is not used. |Short scale||Long scale||Indian (or South Asian) English |1,000,000||106||one million||one million||ten lakh| a thousand million a thousand million |one hundred crore a thousand billion a million million |one lakh crore a thousand trillion a thousand billion |ten crore crore a thousand quadrillion a million billion |ten thousand crore crore a thousand quintillion a thousand trillion |one crore crore crore| The numbers past a trillion in short scale system, in ascending powers of ten, are as follows: quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, nonillion, decillion, undecillion, duodecillion, tredecillion, quattuordecillion, and quindecillion (that's 10 to the 48th, or a one followed by 48 zeros). The highest number listed on Robert Munafo's table, is a milli-millillion. That's 10 to the 3000003rd. Although British English has traditionally followed the long-scale numbering system, the short-scale usage has become increasingly common in recent years. For example, the UK Government and BBC websites use the newer short-scale values exclusively. The terms arab, kharab, padm and shankh are more commonly found in old sections of Indian Mathematics. Here are some approximate composite large numbers in American English: |1,200,000||1.2 million||one point two million| |3,000,000||3 million||three million| |250,000,000||250 million||two hundred fifty million| |6,400,000,000||6.4 billion||six point four billion| |23,380,000,000||23.38 billion||twenty-three point three eight billion| Often, large numbers are written with (preferably non-breaking) half-spaces or thin spaces separating the thousands (and, sometimes, with normal spaces or apostrophes) instead of commas—to ensure that confusion is not caused in countries where a decimal comma is used. Thus, a million is often written 1 000 000. A few numbers have special names (in addition to their regular names): - 0: has several other names, depending on context: - zero: formal scientific usage - naught / nought: mostly British usage - aught: Mostly archaic but still occasionally used when a digit in mid-number is 0 (as in "thirty-aught-six", the .30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge and by association guns that fire it) - oh: used when spelling numbers (like telephone, bank account, bus line [British: bus route]) - nil: in general sport scores, British usage ("The score is two–nil.") - nothing: in general sport scores, American usage ("The score is two–nothing.") - null: used technically to refer to an object or idea related to nothingness. The 0th aleph number () is pronounced "aleph-null". - love: in tennis, badminton, squash and similar sports (origin disputed, often said to come from French l'œuf, "egg"; but the Oxford English Dictionary mentions the phrase for love, meaning nothing is at risk) - zilch, nada (from Spanish), zip: used informally when stressing nothingness; this is true especially in combination with one another ("You know nothing—zero, zip, nada, zilch!"); American usage - nix: also used as a verb; mostly American usage - cypher / cipher: archaic, from French chiffre, in turn from Arabic sifr, meaning zero - goose egg (informal) - duck (used in cricket when a batsman is dismissed without scoring) - blank the half of a domino tile with no pips - ace in certain sports and games, as in tennis or golf, indicating success with one stroke, and the face of a die, playing card or domino with one pip - birdie in golf denotes one stroke less than par, and bogey, one stroke more than par - linear the degree of a polynomial is 1; also for explicitly denoting the first power of a unit: linear meter - unity in mathematics - brace, from Old French "arms" (the plural of arm), as in "what can be held in two arms". - deuce the face of a die, playing card or domino with two pips - eagle in golf denotes two strokes less than par - quadratic the degree of a polynomial is 2 - also square or squared for denoting the second power of a unit: square meter or meter squared - trey the face of a die or playing card with three pips, a three-point field goal in basketball, nickname for the third carrier of the same personal name in a family - trips: three-of-a-kind in a poker hand. a player has three cards with the same numerical value - cubic the degree of a polynomial is 3 - also cube or cubed for denoting the third power of a unit: cubic meter or meter cubed - albatross in golf denotes three strokes less than par. Sometimes called double eagle - hat-trick or hat trick: achievement of three feats in sport or other contexts - cater: (rare) the face of a die or playing card with four pips - quartic or biquadratic the degree of a polynomial is 4 - quad (short for quadruple or the like) several specialized sets of four, such as four of a kind in poker, a carburetor with four inputs, etc, - condor in golf denotes four strokes less than par - cinque: (rare) the face of a die or playing card with five pips - nickel (informal American, from the value of the five-cent US nickel, but applied in non-monetary references) - quintic the degree of a polynomial is 5 - quint (short for quintuplet or the like) several specialized sets of five, such as quintuplets, etc. - 11: a banker's dozen - 12: a dozen (first power of the duodecimal base), used mostly in commerce - 13: a baker's dozen - 20: a score (first power of the vigesimal base), nowadays archaic; famously used in the opening of the Gettysburg Address: "Four score and seven years ago..." The Number of the Beast in the King James Bible is rendered "Six hundred threescore and six". - 50: half a century, literally half of a hundred, usually used in cricket scores. - 120: a great hundred (twelve tens; as opposed to the small hundred, i.e. 100 or ten tens), also called small gross (ten dozens), both archaic; also sometimes referred to as duodecimal hundred - 144: a gross (a dozen dozens, second power of the duodecimal base), used mostly in commerce - a grand, colloquially used especially when referring to money, also in fractions and multiples, e.g. half a grand, two grand, etc. Grand can also be shortened to "G" in many cases. - K, originally from the abbreviation of kilo-, e.g. "He only makes $20K a year." - 1728: a great gross (a dozen gross, third power of the duodecimal base), used mostly in commerce - 10,000: a myriad (a hundred hundred), commonly used in the sense of an indefinite very high number - 100,000: a lakh (a hundred thousand), loanword used mainly in Indian English - 10,000,000: a crore (a hundred lakh), loanword used mainly in Indian English - 10100: googol (1 followed by 100 zeros), used in mathematics; not to be confused with the name of the company Google (which was originally a misspelling of googol) - 10googol googolplex (1 followed by a googol of zeros) - 10googolplex googolplexplex (1 followed by a googolplex of zeros) Combinations of numbers in most sports scores are read as in the following examples: - 1–0 British English: one-nil; American English: one-nothing, one-zip, or one-zero - 0–0 British English: nil-nil, or more rarely nil all; American English: zero-zero or nothing-nothing, (occasionally scoreless or no score) - 2–2 two-two or two all; American English also twos, two to two, even at two, or two up. Naming conventions of Tennis scores (and related sports) are different from other sports. A few numbers have specialised multiplicative numbers expresses how many times some event happens (adverbs): Compare these specialist multiplicative numbers to express how many times some thing exists (adjectives): Other examples are given in the Specialist Numbers. The name of a negative number is the name of the corresponding positive number preceded by "minus" or (American English) "negative". Thus −5.2 is "minus five point two" or "negative five point two". For temperatures, Americans colloquially say "below" — short for "below zero" — so a temperature of −5° is "five below" (in contrast, for example, to "two above" for 2°, occasionally used for emphasis when referring to several temperatures or ranges both positive and negative). Ordinal numbers refer to a position in a series. Common ordinals include: |0th||zeroth or noughth (see below)||10th||tenth| |2nd||second||12th||twelfth (note "f", not "v")||20th||twentieth| |8th||eighth (only one "t")||18th||eighteenth||80th||eightieth| |9th||ninth (no "e")||19th||nineteenth||90th||ninetieth| Ordinal numbers such as 21st, 33rd, etc., are formed by combining a cardinal ten with an ordinal unit. Higher ordinals are not often written in words, unless they are round numbers (thousandth, millionth, billionth). They are written using digits and letters as described below. Here are some rules that should be borne in mind. - The suffixes -th, -st, -nd and -rd are occasionally written superscript above the number itself. - If the tens digit of a number is 1, then write "th" after the number. For example: 13th, 19th, 112th, 9,311th. - If the tens digit is not equal to 1, then use the following table: |If the units digit is:||0||1||2||3||4||5||6||7||8||9| |write this after the number||th||st||nd||rd||th||th||th||th||th||th| - For example: 2nd, 7th, 20th, 23rd, 52nd, 135th, 301st. These ordinal abbreviations are actually hybrid contractions of a numeral and a word. 1st is "1" + "st" from "first". Similarly, "nd" is used for "second" and "rd" for "third". In the legal field and in some older publications, the ordinal abbreviation for "second" and "third" is simply "d". - For example: 42d, 33d, 23d. NB: The practice of using "d" to denote "second" and "third" is still often followed in the numeric designations of units in the US armed forces, for example, 533d Squadron. Any ordinal name that doesn't end in "first", "second", or "third", ends in "th". There are a number of ways to read years. The following table offers a list of valid pronunciations and alternate pronunciations for any given year of the Gregorian calendar. |Year||Most common pronunciation method||Alternative methods| |1 BC||(The year) One Before Christ (BC)||1 before the Common era (BCE)| |1||(The year) One Anno Domini (AD)||of the Common era (CE) In the year of Our Lord 1 Two hundred (and) thirty-five Nine hundred (and) eleven Nine hundred (and) ninety-nine |1000||One thousand||Ten hundred |1004||One thousand (and) four||Ten oh-four| |1010||Ten ten||One thousand (and) ten| |1050||Ten fifty||One thousand (and) fifty| One thousand, two hundred (and) twenty-five |1900||Nineteen hundred||One thousand, nine hundred |1901||Nineteen oh-one||Nineteen hundred (and) one One thousand, nine hundred (and) one Nineteen aught one |1919||Nineteen nineteen||Nineteen hundred (and) nineteen One thousand, nine hundred (and) nineteen |1999||Nineteen ninety-nine||Nineteen hundred (and) ninety-nine One thousand, nine hundred (and) ninety-nine |2000||Two thousand||Twenty hundred |2001||Two thousand (and) one||Twenty oh-one Twenty hundred (and) one |2009||Two thousand (and) nine||Twenty oh-nine Twenty hundred (and) nine |2010||Two thousand (and) ten Twenty ten |Twenty hundred (and) ten Fractions and decimals In spoken English, ordinal numbers are also used to quantify the denominator of a fraction. Thus "fifth" can mean the element between fourth and sixth, or the fraction created by dividing the unit into five pieces. In this usage, the ordinal numbers can be pluralized: one seventh, two sevenths. The sole exception to this rule is division by two. The ordinal term "second" can only refer to location in a series; for fractions English speakers use the term 'half' (plural "halves"). |1/10 or 0.1||one tenth| |2/10 or 0.2||two tenths| |1/4||one quarter or (mainly American English) one fourth| |3/10 or 0.3||three tenths| |4/10 or 0.4||four tenths| |6/10 or 0.6||six tenths| |7/10 or 0.7||seven tenths| |3/4||three quarters or three fourths| |8/10 or 0.8||eight tenths| |9/10 or 0.9||nine tenths| Alternatively, and for greater numbers, one may say for 1/2 "one over two", for 5/8 "five over eight", and so on. This "over" form is also widely used in mathematics. Numbers with a decimal point may be read as a cardinal number, then "and", then another cardinal number followed by an indication of the significance of the second cardinal number (mainly U.S.); or as a cardinal number, followed by "point", and then by the digits of the fractional part. The indication of significance takes the form of the denominator of the fraction indicating division by the smallest power of ten larger than the second cardinal. This is modified when the first cardinal is zero, in which case neither the zero nor the "and" is pronounced, but the zero is optional in the "point" form of the fraction. - 0.002 is "two thousandths" (mainly U.S.); or "point zero zero two", "point oh oh two", "nought point zero zero two", etc. - 3.1416 is "three point one four one six" - 99.3 is "ninety-nine and three tenths" (mainly U.S.); or "ninety-nine point three". In English the decimal point was originally printed in the center of the line (0·002), but with the advent of the typewriter it was placed at the bottom of the line, so that a single key could be used as a full stop/period and as a decimal point. In many non-English languages a full-stop/period at the bottom of the line is used as a thousands separator with a comma being used as the decimal point. Fractions together with an integer are read as follows: - 1 1/2 is "one and a half" - 6 1/4 is "six and a quarter" - 7 5/8 is "seven and five eighths" A space is required between the whole number and the fraction; however, if a special fraction character is used like "½", then the space can be done without, e.g. - 9 1/2 Whether to use digits or words With very little deviation, most grammatical texts rule that the numbers zero to nine inclusive should be "written out" – meaning instead of "1" and "2", one would write "one" and "two". - Example: "I have two apples." (Preferred) - Example: "I have 2 apples." After "nine", one can head straight back into the 10, 11, 12, etc., although some write out the numbers until "twelve". - Example: "I have 28 grapes." (Preferred) - Example: "I have twenty-eight grapes." Another common usage is to write out any number that can be expressed as one or two words, and use figures otherwise. - "There are six million dogs." (Preferred) - "There are 6,000,000 dogs." - "That is one hundred and twenty-five oranges." (British English) - "That is one hundred twenty-five oranges." (US-American English) - "That is 125 oranges." (Preferred) Numbers at the beginning of a sentence should also be written out. The above rules are not always used. In literature, larger numbers might be spelled out. On the other hand, digits might be more commonly used in technical or financial articles, where many figures are discussed. In particular, the two different forms should not be used for figures that serve the same purpose; for example, it is inelegant to write, "Between day twelve and day 15 of the study, the population doubled." Colloquial English has a small vocabulary of empty numbers that can be employed when there is uncertainty as to the precise number to use, but it is desirable to define a general range: specifically, the terms "umpteen", "umpty", and "zillion". These are derived etymologically from the range affixes: - "-teen" (designating the range as being between 10 and 20) - "-ty" (designating the range as being in one of the decades between 20 and 100) - "-illion" (designating the range as being above 1,000,000; or, more generally, as being extremely large). The prefix "ump-" is added to the first two suffixes to produce the empty numbers "umpteen" and "umpty": it is of uncertain origin. There is a noticeable absence of an empty number in the hundreds range. Usage of empty numbers: - The word "umpteen" may be used as an adjective, as in "I had to go to umpteen stores to find shoes that fit." It can also be used to modify a larger number, usually "million", as in "Umpteen million people watched the show; but they still cancelled it." - "Umpty" is not in common usage. It can appear in the form "umpty-one" (parallelling the usage in such numbers as "twenty-one"), as in "There are umpty-one ways to do it wrong." "Umpty-ump" is also heard, though "ump" is never used by itself. - The word "zillion" may be used as an adjective, modifying a noun. The noun phrase normally contains the indefinite article "a", as in "There must be a zillion sites on the World Wide Web." - The plural "zillions" designates a number indefinitely larger than "millions" or "billions". In this case, the construction is parallel to the one for "millions" or "billions", with the number used as a plural count noun, followed by a prepositional phrase with "of", as in "Out in the countryside, the night sky is filled with zillions of stars." - Empty numbers are sometimes made up, with obvious meaning: "squillions" is obviously an empty, but very large, number; a "squintillionth" would be a very small number. - Some empty numbers may be modified by actual numbers, such as "four zillion", and are used for jest, exaggeration, or to relate abstractly to actual numbers. - Empty numbers are colloquial, and primarily used in oral speech or informal contexts. They are inappropriate in formal or scholarly usage. See also Placeholder name. - Indefinite and fictitious numbers - List of numbers - Long and short scales - Names of large numbers - Number prefixes and their derivatives - Natural number - "Hat trick, n.". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 26 December 2014. - What is a partitive numeral? - Gary Blake and Robert W. Bly, The Elements of Technical Writing, pg. 22. New York: Macmillan Publishers, 1993. ISBN 0020130856 |Look up Appendix:English numerals in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.| - English Numbers - explanations, exercises and number generator (cardinal and ordinal numbers)

Great Irish Warpipes ||This article is written like a personal reflection or opinion essay that states the Wikipedia editor's particular feelings about a topic, rather than the opinions of experts. (March 2012)| The Great Irish Warpipes (Irish: píob mhór; literally "great pipes") is an instrument that is based on the Great Highland Bagpipe. "Warpipes" is an English term; the first use of the Gaelic term in Ireland is recorded in a poem by Seán Ó Neachtain (c. 1650-1728), in which the bagpipes are referred to as píb mhór. The Great Highland Bagpipe was first recorded in Scotland as early as 1300, but didn't arrive in Ireland until at least the late 16th century. The 'Great Irish Warpipes' seems to have become an instrument of war in Ireland sometime in the 16th century when it first arrived from Scotland . An Irish Gaelic version of “Fierabas” may contain the first reference to warpipes: the quote “sinnter adharca agus piba agaibh do tinol bur sluaigh” translates as “let horns and pipes be played by you to gather your host.” The manuscript may date to the 15th century and the writer may have had bagpipes in mind. Clear references to the Irish píob mhór begin to appear at about the same time as they do in Scotland. Our first relate to Henry VIII's siege of Boulogne. A muster roll of the “Kerne to be transported into Englaunde to serve the kinge” contains entries of various pipers attached to these forces, such as “The Baron of Delvene’s Kerne — Brene McGuntyre pyper”. Most helpful is an entry in Holinshed’s Chronicles (1577) for May 1544: “In the same moneth also passed through the citie of London in warlike manner, to the number of seaven hundred Irishmen, having for their weapons darts and handguns with bagpipes before them: and in St. James Park besides Westminster they mustered before the king.” In a 1581 volume, musician Vincenzo Galilei, the father of the astronomer Galileo, wrote that the bagpipe "is much used by the Irish: to its sound this unconquered fierce and warlike people march their armies and encourage each other to deeds of valor. With it they also accompany the dead to the grave making such sorrowful sounds as to invite, nay to compel the bystander to weep". In the same year, John Derricke published the poem "The Image of Ireland", in which the pipes are already used to convey signals in battle: - Now goe the foes to wracke - The Kerne apace doe sweate - And baggepype then instead of Trompe - Doe lull the back retreate One famous description of the pipes from Richard Stanihurst's De Rebus Hibernicis (1586), reads as follows in English translation: |“||The Irish also use instead of a trumpet a wooden pipe constructed with the most ingenious skill to which a leather bag is attached with very closely plaited (or bound) leather bands. From the side of the skin issues a pipe through which as if through a tube the piper blows with swollen neck and distended cheeks, as it is filled with air the skin swells: when it swells he presses it down again with his arm. At this pressure two other wooden pipes, a shorter and a longer, emit a loud and piercing sound. There is also a fourth pipe, pierced with several holes which by opening and closing the holes with nimble fingers the piper manages to elicit from the upper pipes a loud or low sound as he thinks fit. The stem and stern of the whole affair is that the wind should have no outlet through any part of the bag except the mouths of the pipes. For if anyone (as is the practice of merrymakers when they want to give annoyance to these pipers) make even a pinhole in the skin the instrument is done for because the bag collapses. This sort of instrument is held among the Irish to be a whetstone for martial courage: for just as other soldiers are stirred by the sound of trumpets, so they are hotly stimulated to battle by the noise of this affair.||”| The pipes seem to have figured prominently in the war with William of Orange. When the exiled King James II arrived in Cork City in March 1689, he was greeted with “bagpipes and dancing, throwing their mantles under his horse’s feet”. On his way to the castle in Dublin, “the pipers of the several companies played the Tune of The King enjoys his own again”. There are also late 17th century reports of peacetime use of the pipes, for example to play for hurling teams. For 18th century references, however, it is often difficult to tell whether the pipes referred to in a particular case are píob mhór or another instrument. There are a number of reports of pipers in Irish regiments of the British Army in the 18th century; for example, a Barney Thompson (reportedly of Hillsborough, Co. Down) is attested in Lord Rawdon’s Volunteers of Ireland in New York in 1778. Information from a muster roll indicates that there was at least a Piper Barney Thompson in the regiment. The fact that he is listed as a piper, while, for example, a William Neil is listed as a fifer, indicates that Thompson played bagpipes and not a fife. However, Thompson seems to have played a bellows-blown (Pastoral/Union) bagpipe, which could be sung to, and not a warpipe. One way or another, by the 19th century, the Irish warpipes died out, or at least fell into obscurity. Perhaps the píob mhór, while played by a few individuals, came to be seen as mainly Scottish, the bellows-blown union or uilleann pipes being the new "Irish pipes". Business directories of Dublin in 1840 show a Maurice Coyne as a maker of Union and "Scotch" bagpipes at 41 James Street. In the second half of the 19th century, however, the general revival of Irish nationalism and Gaelic culture seems to have coincided with a return of the popularity of the warpipes. The art picked up again until the pipes achieved considerable popularity in both military and civilian use. Today, pipe bands of the same kind as the known Highland form are a standard feature of British regiments with Irish honors and the Irish Armed Forces, and there are many local bands throughout both the Republic and Northern Ireland. The Irish warpipes as played today are one and the same with the Scottish Highland bagpipe. Attempts in the past to make a distinct instrument for Irish pipers have not proven popular in the long run. In the first half of the 20th century, it was very common to play pipes with only one tenor drone; the reason for this will be discussed later. Several attempts were made to improve the pipes; the most successful was the London pipemaker Starck’s “Brian Boru” bagpipe, with a keyed chanter that could play a full range of traditional music and a baritone drone, often held with the tenor and bass in a common stock. Such pipes are produced by few makers today and are played by only a minority of pipers. Starck’s pipes for Irish players, whether two- or three-droned, were also typically turned in a distinct, somewhat antique-looking style, with button-sized mounts instead of the normal projecting mounts, cup-shaped drone tops with slightly projecting ringcaps, and rows of narrow beads instead of combing and beading. A pattern more or less like this was made by several makers, but is also rare today. In the 1950s and early 1960s, some Irish pipers in the British Army, notably the Irish Guards, played pipes that more or less followed this pattern, but apparently with standard ringcaps and combing and beading. It should be noted that the notion that Irish warpipes were a somewhat distinct instrument from the Scottish Highland bagpipe before the revival, the evidence on which they have based their claims is suspect. Material evidence is scarce, but there are several reasons to believe that the old Irish and Scottish pipes were more or less the same instrument. For one thing, Scottish and Irish culture were not isolated, and artistic trends could be copied and shared. At the 1785 Highland Society of London piping competition, piper John MacPherson played “Piobrachd Ereanach an Irish pibrach”, and it is quite possible that at least some of this “typically Scottish” piping music (piobaireachd, the “classical music of the Highland bagpipe”) comes from Ireland. If it is true that the MacCrimmons of Skye once had some Irish students at their piping school, these would have presumably played piobaireachd on Scottish-type chanters. The reverse could also have been true: in his 1913 book "Irish Minstrels and Musicians", Francis O'Neill wrote: "That a School of Piob Mor or warpipe music existed in Ireland as late as the middle of the seventeenth century, is beyond question, for we find that Domhnall Mor, or Big Donald MacCrimmon, son of John, the founder of the famous College of Pipers, in the Isle of Skye, was sent by his chieftain, MacLeod, to a school or college of pipers in Ireland, to perfect himself on the instrument." This statement appears also to be apocryphal and would need corroboration. One way or another, the main dilemma when comparing the instrument in Scotland and Ireland lies in determining such technical points as the number of drones and the tuning of the old Irish pipes. Unfortunately, no early instruments that would provide material evidence are known to survive. Some illustrations of Irish mouthblown pipes do exist, but these are largely rough or inaccurate. They include among others: 1. A wood carving formerly at Woodstock Castle, Co. Kilkenny, dating to the 15th or 16th century showing a piper with a shorter and a longer drone and a chanter. The proportions of the instrument are quite questionable, the drones being surprisingly short and the chanter enormous. The picture is on the whole simplistic. 2. A c. 16th-century painting in the margin of a missal of the Abbey of Rosgall, Co. Kildare, and now in the Bodleian Library, showing a piper playing an instrument with two drones and a chanter in the usual positions. The drones are of unequal length and all pipes have flaring Medieval-style bell ends. Otherwise, however, the picture is quite rough and unrealistically proportioned. 3. A possibly 16th-century manuscript of a Dinnseanchus, an Irish topographical history, contains an initial letter in the form of a pig playing the pipes. The instrument has two drones, one clearly a bass and one shorter. The chanter and drones seem to slightly bell out at the end. The illustration looks relatively “normal” in configuration, but is still sketchy enough that no further details can be deduced from it. 4. An illustration from around 1575 by Lucas DeHeere. Now in the library of the University of Ghent, it bears the caption “Irish Folk as they were attired in the reign of the late King Henry”, and shows a group of people which includes a boy playing a bagpipe. There are again two drones, apparently in a common stock, and a large chanter, all of which end with flaring bell ends. The bag is very bulbous, and its position is odd; it appears to be held under the piper’s right arm, but the drones go over the piper’s left shoulder. Although this is our best-done illustration, the instrument does not seem to depict an Irish warpipe, but rather a German/Low Countries “dudelsack”, such as would have been more familiar to the painter, who may have copied it from a source common with Derricke's and had probably never seen an actual Irish piper. Despite the fact that these and other 16th-century sources show two-droned pipes, the modification in the 20th century of Highland pipes by Irish pipers who omitted one tenor seems to be a mistake in terms of making the pipes “more Irish”. At the time those descriptions were made, the Scottish pipes would probably have been the same; at any rate, there seems to be no evidence that there was a third drone until well into the 17th century. Indeed, a pig piper similar to the one in the Dinnseanchus with two drones exists in a 16th-century Scottish psalter. Like the missal picture, this too is roughly executed; what should be a tenor drone projects from what seems to be a bass, and the chanter again seems disproportionately long. Still, it seems to be suggestive enough of the instrument being similar in both countries. - Donnelly, Seán, "The Warpipes in Ireland I", Ceol, July 1981 - Donnelly, Seán, "The Warpipes in Ireland III", Ceol, April 1983 - Grattan Flood, W. H., The Story of the Bagpipe (London, 1911) - Volunteers of Ireland presumed at or near Camden, 1780 - Discussion on pipers T. Lawler and B. Thompson - Timoney, Frank, "Who Was the Earl of Antrim? A Discussion: On the Possible Influence of Scottish and Irish Ceol Mor on Each Other", The Piping Times, November/December 1997 - Reproduced in Stewart, Pete, The Day it Daws (2006)

International Day in Support of Victims of Torture |International Day in Support of Victims of Torture| |Also called||26 June| |Next time||26 June 2015| |Related to||Human Rights Day| The United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture – 26 June is held annually on 26 June to speak out against the crime of torture and to honour and support victims and survivors throughout the world. This is a day on which we pay our respects to those who have endured the unimaginable. This is an occasion for the world to speak up against the unspeakable. It is long overdue that a day be dedicated to remembering and supporting the many victims and survivors of torture around the world. On this International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, we express our solidarity with, and support for, the hundreds of thousands of victims of torture and their family members throughout the world who endure such suffering. We also note the obligation of States not only to prevent torture but to provide all torture victims with effective and prompt redress, compensation and appropriate social, psychological, medical and other forms of rehabilitation. Both the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council have now strongly urged States to establish and support rehabilitation centres or facilities. The day was selected by the United Nations General Assembly for two reasons. First, on 26 June 1945, the United Nations Charter was signed – the first international instrument obliging UN members to respect and promote human rights. Second, 26 June 1987 was when the United Nations Convention Against Torture came into effect. The decision to annually observe the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture was taken by the UN General Assembly at the proposal of Denmark, which is home to the world-renowned International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT). On 16 July 2009, the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture was chosen as a public holiday in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Every year the IRCT monitors the campaign plans of organisations around the world and towards the end of the year publishes the 26 June Global Report where it describes the events held in commemoration of the day. According to the latest 26 June Global Report (2012), at least 100 organisations in 60 countries around the world commemorated the day with conferences, workshops, peaceful rallies, cultural and musical events, events for children, etc. List of organisations reported to have held events to commemorate the day in 2012: Albania: Albanian Rehabilitation Centre for Trauma and Torture (ARCT) Argentina: Equipo Argentino de Trabajo e Investigación Psicosocial (EATIP) Armenia: Civil Society Institute (CSI), Foundation Against Violation of Law (FAVL) Australia: Phoenix Centre; Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Survivors (STARTTS); and Survivors of Torture and Trauma Assistance and Rehabilitation Service (STTARS) Bangladesh: Centre for Rehabilitation of Torture Survivors (CRTS); Bangladesh Centre for Human Rights and Development (BCHRD); and Bangladesh Human Rights Commission (BHRC) Bolivia: Instituto de Terapia E Investigación Sobre las Secuelas de la Tortura y la Violencia Estatal (ITEI) Bosnia and Herzegovina: Vive Žene Centre for Therapy and Rehabilitation Brazil: Grupo Tortura Nunca Mais / Rio de Janeiro Burundi: Solidarité d'Actions pour la Paix / Grand Lacs Cameroon: Trauma Centre Cameroon Cambodia: Transcultural Psychosocial Organization Canada: Canadian Centre for International Justice (CCIJ) Chad: Association Jeunesse pour la Paix et la Non Violence / Centre de Réhabilitation des Victimes de la Torture (AJPNV/CRVT) Colombia: Corporación Centro de Atención Psicosocial (CAPS-CO) Croatia: Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims (RCT) Zagreb Democratic Republic of the Congo: OASIS Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture and Trauma (OASIS); Committee of Observers of Human Rights (CODHO); GIPROCOME; Regroupement des Mamans de Kamituga (REMAK); SOS Jeunesse et Enfance en Detresse (SOS JED); Centre Psycho Médical pour la Réhabilitation des Victimes de la Torture / Solidarité Pour la Promotion Sociale et la Paix (CPMRVT/SOPROP); SAVE CONGO; Amis des Victimes des Violations des Droits Humains (AVVDH) Egypt: El Nadeem Center for Psychological Management and Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence El Salvador: Salvadoran Association of Torture Survivors (ASST) Finland: Centre for Survivors of Torture in Finland (CSTF) France: Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT) Georgia: EMPATHY, Psycho-Rehabilitation Centre for Victims of Torture, Violence and Pronounced Stress Impact (RCT/EMPATHY); Georgian Centre for Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT) Germany: Berlin Treatment Center for Torture Victims (bzfo); Medical Care Service for Refugees Bochum (MFH Bochum) Hong Kong: Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) Hungary: Cordelia Foundation for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims India: Centre for Care of Torture Victims (CCTV); Centre for Organisation, Research and Education / Human to Humane Transcultural Centre for Trauma and Torture (CORE/H2H); South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (SICHREM); Tibetan Torture Survivors' Program (TTSP) Indonesia: Alliance of Democracy for Papua (ALDP); Alliance of Civil Society for Anti-Torture (SIKAP); and Rehabilitation Action for Torture Victims in Aceh (RATA) Iran: Organization for Defending Victims of Violence (ODVV) Iraq: Bahjat Al-Fuad Rehabilitation of Medical & Psychological Centre for Torture Victims (BFRCT) Ireland: SPIRASI, The Centre for the Care of Survivors of Torture (CCST) Israel: Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) Kenya: Mwatikho Torture Survivors Organization (MATESO); Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU); Center for Victims of Torture (CVT-Kenya); Centre Against Torture (CAT-Kenya); International Rescue Committee at Hagadera Refugee Camp (IRC-Hagadera) Kosovo: Kosovo Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims (KRCT) Kyrgyzstan: GOLOS SVOBODY Public Foundation Lebanon: Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture (KRC) Liberia: Liberia Association of Psychosocial Services (LAPS) Mexico: Colectivo Contra la Tortura y la Impunidad (CCTI) Moldova: Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims – “Memoria” Morocco: Association Medicale de Réhabilitation des Victimes de la Torture (AMRVT) Namibia: People’s Education Assistance and Counselling for Empowerment (PEACE) Nepal: Centre for Victims of Torture Nepal (CVICT) New Zealand: Refugee Trauma Recovery (RTR) Nigeria: Youth Education on Human Rights and Civil Responsibility (YEHRCR); Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA) Pakistan: Human Development Organization (HDO); SACH Struggle for Change Palestinian Territory: Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture (TRC) Philippines: Asian Medical Students Association – Philippines (AMSA-Philippines); Balay Rehabilitation Center; Medical Action Group (MAG) Russia: Interregional Nongovernmental Organization Committee Against Torture (INGOCAT) Senegal: Victimes de Violences Rehabilitées, le Centre de Soins du CAPREC (VIVRE/CAPREC) Serbia: International Aid Network Centre for Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (IAN CRTV) Spain: Coordinadora para la Prevención y denuncia de la Tortura (CPDT) South Africa: Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconcialiation/Programme: Trauma and Transition Programme (CSVR/TTP); and The Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture (TCSVT) Sierra Leone: Community Association for Psychosocial Services (CAPS) South Africa: The Trauma Centre For Survivors Of Violence and Torture (TCSVT) Sri Lanka: Survivors Associated (SA); Family Rehabilitation Centre (FRC); Human Rights Office – Kandy Sweden: Red Cross – Stockholm; Red Cross – Malmö Switzerland: World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) Togo: Collective of Associations Against Impunity in Togo (CACIT) Turkey: Centre of Social Action, Rehabilitation and Readjustment for the victims of torture (SOHRAM-CASRA); Foundation for Social and Legal Studies (TOHAV) Uganda: African Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (ACTV) United Kingdom: London Guantanamo Campaign (LGC); Freedom From Torture; Refugee Therapy Centre (RTC); Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and Redress United States: Survivors of Torture, International; Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture; Center for Survivors of Torture, San Jose; Center for Survivors of Torture and War Trauma (CSTWT); Florida Center for Survivors of Torture – A Program of Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services, Inc. (FCST); Program for Survivors of Torture and Severe Trauma at the Center for Multicultural Human Services (a program of NVFS); Center for Victims of Torture (CVT); Center for Survivors of Torture, Dallas; National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) Venezuela: Red de Apoyo por la Justicia y la Paz In Asia the Asian Human Rights Commission holds regional events every year. Anti-torture networks in various Asian countries that still suffer from the widespread use of torture hold rallies and public events. - "UN Official Website for the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture". Background. United Nations. Retrieved 21 March 2011. - "UN Official Website for the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture". UN. Retrieved 21 March 2011. - "26 June 2012 Global Report". Sharing knowledge and awareness-raising. IRCT – International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims. Retrieved 13 November 2012. - http://www.rtrs.tv/vijesti/vijest.php?id=6363 (Serbian) - Official Website of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture – 26 June at the United Nations - 26 June – UN day against torture at the IRCT - http://www.communitytv.hk/AHRClive live stream of 2009's torture day commemoration in Asia/Hong Kong (26 June 2009 12 am HKT Time, 4am GMT) - Tibetan exiles ask China to “Stop Torture in Tibet”

A mirror image is a reflected duplication of an object that appears identical but reversed. As an optical effect it results from reflection off of substances such as a mirror or water. It is also a concept in geometry and can be used as a conceptualization process for 3-D structures. In two dimensions In geometry, the mirror image of an object or two-dimensional figure is the virtual image formed by reflection in a plane mirror; it is of the same size as the original object, yet different, unless the object or figure has reflection symmetry (also known as a P-symmetry). Two-dimensional mirror images can be seen in the reflections of mirrors or other reflecting surfaces, or on a printed surface seen inside out. In three dimensions The concept of reflection can be extended to three-dimensional objects, including the inside parts, even if they are not transparent. The term then relates to structural as well as visual aspects. The two versions of a molecule, one a reflection of the other, are called enantiomers or enantiomorphs. If a point of an object has coordinates (x, y, z) then the image of this point (as reflected by a mirror in the y, z plane) has coordinates (-x, y, z). Thus reflection is a reversal of the coordinate axis perpendicular (normal) to the mirror's surface. A mirror image does not have reversed right and left (or up and down), but rather reversed front and back. Reflection in a mirror does result in a change in chirality, more specifically from a right-handed to a left-handed coordinate system (or vice versa). As a consequence, if one looks in a mirror and lets two axes (up-down and front-back) coincide with those in the mirror, then this gives a reversal of the third axis (left-right). However, if we look at a two-dimensional object (such as writing) and then turn it towards a mirror, the object has turned through an angle of 180 degrees and we see a left-right reversal in the mirror. Another example is when we stand with our backs towards the mirror and face a picture that's in front of the mirror. Then we compare the picture with its reflection by turning ourselves 180 degrees towards the mirror. Again we perceive a left-right reversal. In these examples, it is not really the mirror itself, but our own viewing points and rotations that have caused the apparent left-to-right reversals. A mirror image appears three-dimensional if the observer moves, or if viewed using binocular vision. This is because the relative position of objects changes as the observer's perspective changes, or is different viewed with each eye. Looking through a mirror from different positions (but necessarily with the point of observation restricted to the halfspace on one side of the mirror) is like looking at the 3D mirror image of space; without further mirrors only the mirror image of the halfspace before the mirror is relevant; if there is another mirror, the mirror image of the other halfspace is too. Effect of mirror on the lighting of the scene A mirror does not just produce an image of what would be there without it; it also changes the light distribution in the halfspace in front of and behind the mirror. A mirror hanging on the wall makes the room brighter because additional light sources appear in the mirror image. However, the appearance of additional light does not violate the conservation of energy, because some light is missing behind the mirror as the mirror simply re-directs the light energy. In terms of the light distribution, the virtual mirror image has the same appearance and the same effect as a real, symmetrically arranged half-space behind a window (instead of the mirror): Shadows may extend from the mirror into the halfspace before it, and vice versa. In mirror writing a text is deliberately displayed in mirror image, in order to be read through a mirror. For example, emergency vehicles such as ambulances or fire engines use mirror images in order to be read from a driver's rear-view mirror. Some movie theaters also take advantage of mirror writing in a Rear Window Captioning System used to assist individuals with hearing impairments watching the film. Systems of mirrors In the case of two mirrors, in planes at an angle α, looking through both from the sector which is the intersection of the two halfspaces, is like looking at a version of the world rotated by an angle of 2α; the points of observations and directions of looking for which this applies correspond to those for looking through a frame like that of the first mirror, and a frame at the mirror image with respect to the first plane, of the second mirror. If the mirrors have vertical edges then the left edge of the field of view is the plane through the right edge of the first mirror and the edge of the second mirror which is on the right when looked at directly, but on the left in the mirror image. In the case of two parallel mirrors, looking through both once is like looking at a version of the world which is translated by twice the distance between the mirrors, in the direction perpendicular to them, away from the observer. Since the plane of the mirror in which one looks directly is beyond that of the other mirror, one always looks at an oblique angle, and the translation just mentioned has not only a component away from the observer, but also one in a perpendicular direction. The translated view can also be described by a translation of the observer in opposite direction. For example, with a vertical periscope, the shift of the world is away from the observer and down, both by the length of the periscope, but it is more practical to consider the equivalent shift of the observer: up, and backward. - Chirality, a property of asymmetry important in several branches of science - Flipped image - Flopped image - Relative direction |Wikimedia Commons has media related to Symmetric images.| - Adams, Cecil (1985-09-27). "Are dogs unable to see 2-D images (mirrors, photos, TV)?". The Straight Dope. Retrieved 2008-01-31.

Although the country's volcanic activity dates back to the Precambrian period, volcanic activity continues to occur in Western and Northern Canada where it forms part of an encircling chain of volcanoes and frequent earthquakes around the Pacific Ocean called the Pacific Ring of Fire. However, because volcanoes in Western and Northern Canada are in remote rugged areas and the level of volcanic activity is less frequent than with other volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean, Canada is commonly thought to occupy a gap in the Pacific Ring of Fire between the volcanoes of western United States to the south and the Aleutian volcanoes of Alaska to the north. However, the mountainous landscape of Western and Northern Canada includes more than 100 volcanoes that have been active during the past two million years and have claimed many lives. Volcanic activity has been responsible for many of Canada's geological and geographical features and mineralization, including the nucleus of North America called the Canadian Shield. Volcanism has led to the formation of hundreds of volcanic areas and extensive lava formations across Canada, indicating volcanism played a major role in shaping its surface. The country's different volcano and lava types originate from different tectonic settings and types of volcanic eruptions, ranging from passive lava eruptions to violent explosive eruptions. Canada has a rich record of very large volumes of magmatic rock called large igneous provinces. They are represented by deep-level plumbing systems consisting of giant dike swarms, sill provinces and layered intrusions. The most capable large igneous provinces in Canada are Archean (3,800-2,500 million years ago) age greenstone belts containing a rare volcanic rock called komatiite. No damages or casualties resulted from the Nazko earthquakes, which were too small to be felt by people, but local seismographs recorded them. The earthquake swarm occurred at the eastern end of a known volcanic zone called the Anahim Volcanic Belt. This is an east-west trending 600 km (370 mi) long line of volcanoes that extends from just north of Vancouver Island to near the small city of Quesnel. The Volcanism of Canada Workgroup is the central point of coordination for Wikipedia's coverage of Canadian volcanoes, volcanology, igneous petrology, and related subjects. Please feel free to join the workgroup and help! 17 February 2011: Earthquake activity occurs at Mount St. Helens, USA. The earthquake swarms occurred in the same area as those preceding St. Helen's famous 1980 eruption. No actions have yet taken place.

A rum row was a Prohibition-era term (1920-1933) referring to a line of ships loaded with liquor anchored beyond the maritime limit of the United States. The maritime limit was three miles prior to April 21, 1924, and 12 miles thereafter. These lines became established near major U.S. ports so that rum runners could load cargoes of alcoholic beverages from these freight ships and sneak them into port. This lucrative but dangerous business was often punctuated by murder, hijackings and other violent crimes. The cities were often in Florida at first and the product was rum from the Caribbean. However, as the importation of whiskey from Canada increased, rum rows became established in locations along all the coastlines of the U.S. Notable rum-row locations included the New Jersey coast (by far the largest), San Francisco, Virginia, Galveston, and New Orleans. Twenty American navy destroyers were turned over to the Coast Guard to fight rum runners. - American Whiskey Trail - Free State of Galveston - Malahat (schooner) - Rocky Springs Segment of the Whoop-Up Trail - Coulombe (2005), pg. 219 - Haley (2006), pg. 475 - Austin C. Lescarboura. "The battle of rum row". Popular Mechanics Jun 1926. Retrieved April 12, 2010. - Coulombe, Charles A. (2005). Rum: The Epic Story of the Drink That Conquered the World. Kensington Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8065-2583-9. - Haley, James L. (2006). Passionate nation: the epic history of Texas. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-86291-0. |This history article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.|

Soviet Union and the United Nations |United Nations membership| |Membership||Former full member| The Soviet Union was a charter member of the United Nations and one of five permanent members of the Security Council. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, its UN seat was transferred to the Russian Federation. Role in founding of the UN The Soviet Union took an active role in the United Nations and other major international and regional organizations. At the behest of the United States, the Soviet Union took a role in the establishment of the UN in 1945. The Soviet Union insisted that there be veto rights in the Security Council and that alterations in the United Nations Charter be unanimously approved by the five permanent members. From the creation to 1955, there was a Western majority in the UN. Other nations joining the UN were limited. 1955 marked the end of American hegemony over the General Assembly, because as more nations became states, they were accepted into the UN. The new states were often just beginning to understand what being their own state meant as they were pushed into the organization where they were often asked to pick between the West and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union made many new allies this way. The USSR initially protested the membership of India and the Philippines, whose independence was then largely theoretical (being basically colonies of the United Kingdom and the United States, respectively, in all but name). A demand by the Soviet Union that all fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics be recognized as member states in the UN was counter-demanded by the United States that all then forty-eight states be similarly recognized. Ultimately two Soviet Republics (Ukrainian SSR and Byelorussian SSR) were admitted as full members of the UN, so between 1945–1991 the Soviet Union was represented by three seats in the United Nations. The United States was also offered two additional seats, but due to political problems (regarding which two of the 48 states would be represented), it was never acted upon. Security Council and veto John G. Stoessinger argued the Soviet Union did not abuse its veto power.[page needed] The Soviet Union had cast its veto 109 times by 1973, out of a total 128 vetoes used by the council. The Soviet Union used the veto 18 times to protect their national interest against USA. Many more vetoes were used because of Cold War and anti-communist actions taken by Western states. Even with all the vetoes used not all stuck. It is shown that for 75 percent of the vetoes cast by the Soviet Union, further actions were taken by UN.[page needed] The Soviets believed strongly in the veto power, and insisted it be part of the UN Security Council. They voiced this option for the veto power to both the Security Council and the General Assembly. "The veto power is the paramount principle which constitutes the cornerstone of the United Nations" Relationship with China Debate over China's representation with the United nations began in 1949. The Communist Party of China took over the country's mainland, while the Nationalists moved to the island of Taiwan. The UN seat of China was held by the Nationalist government of the Republic of China, but conflict arose on which government should hold the China seat. The Soviet Union supported the communist party, leading to conflict with Western Powers. The Security Council sided with the United States and saw the Communist government of PRC as illegitimate, and prevented it from entering the UN until 1971. Before the China seat was transferred to the Communist government of PRC in 1971, the Soviet Union was one of sixteen states that viewed it as being the legitimate government. A major turning point in the Soviet UN relation occurred in January 1950, when Soviet representatives boycotted UN functions in protest over the occupation of the seat of China by the Republic of China. Jacob Malik was the sole Soviet representative that walked out of the UN, and announced that they would be boycotting further Security Council meetings. In the absence of the Soviet representatives, the UN Security Council was able to vote for the intervention of UN military forces in what would become the Korean War. This was a downfall to the action of the boycott that was unforeseeable to the Soviet Union at the time. Nations questioned Soviet actions on relations with China, and how they acted on the issue of representation. The Soviet Union always voted for China's Communist Party to have the seat. Relationship with Western Powers For many years, the Western powers played a guiding role in UN deliberations, but by the 1960s many former colonies had been granted independence and had joined the UN. These states, which became the majority in the General Assembly and other bodies, were increasingly receptive to Soviet "anti-imperialist" appeals. By the 1970s, the UN deliberations had generally become increasingly hostile toward the West and toward the United States in particular, as evidenced by pro-Soviet and anti-United States voting trends in the General Assembly. Western media reported in 1987 that Eastern European and Asian communist countries that were allies of the Soviet Union, had received more development assistance from the UN than what the Soviet Union had contributed. This contradicted communist states' rhetorical support for the UN's establishment of a New International Economical Order, which would transfer wealth from the rich Northern Hemisphere to the poor Southern Hemisphere states. The Soviet Union announced in September 1987 that it would pay back a portion of its debt to the UN. The Soviet Union did not, however, win support in the UN for its foreign policy positions. The Soviet Union and Third World states often argued that "imperialism" caused and continued to maintain the disparities in the world distribution of wealth. They disagreed, however, on the proper level of Soviet aid to the Third World. Also, the Soviet Union encountered fierce opposition to its invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia and received little support (as evidenced by Third World abstentions) for its 1987 proposal on the creation of a "Comprehensive System of International Peace and Security." Participation in special agencies After walking out of the UN in January 1950 known as the Chinese Boycott, the Soviet Union returned to various UN bodies in August 1950. The return brought with it a beginning of a new policy of active participation on international and regional organizations. By the late 1980s the Soviet Union belonged to most of the special agencies of the UN. They did, however, resist joining various agricultural, food and humanitarian relief efforts. During the Mikhail Gorbachev era, the Soviet Union made repeated suggestions for increasing UN involvement in the settlement of superpower and regional problems and conflicts. Though these proposals were not implemented, they constituted new initiatives in Soviet foreign policy and represented a break with the nature of past Soviet foreign policy. This lessened world tensions. Dissolution and succession by Russia In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, 11 Soviet republics—all except the Baltic states and Georgia—signed the Alma-Ata Protocol on 21 December 1991, establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States and declaring that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. The Protocol provided that the Russian Federation would assume Soviet Union's UN membership, including its permanent seat on the Security Council. The resignation of Soviet President Gorbachev on 25 December 1991 and the dissolution of the Soviet of the Republics the following day formalized the end of the Soviet Union. On 24 December 1991, the Soviet Permanent Representative to the UN Yuli Vorontsov delivered to the Secretary-General of the UN a letter from the Russian President Boris Yeltsin. The letter stated that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist, and that Russia would continue the Soviet Union's membership in the UN and maintain the full responsibility for all the rights and obligations of the Soviet Union under the UN Charter. The letter was circulated among the UN membership without any objection, and Russia formally took over the Soviet Union's seat in the UN General Assembly, in the Security Council and in other organs of the United Nations. The letter also confirmed the credentials of Soviet representatives to represent Russia, and Soviet representatives to the various UN agencies continued serving as Russian representatives without presenting new credentials. Ambassador Vorontsov continued serving as the first Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN. On 31 January 1992 Russian President Boris Yeltsin himself was in the Russian Federation’s seat in the Security Council during the ‘summit meeting’ of the Council attended by heads of state and government. - Zickel, Federal Research Division, Library of Congress ; edited by Raymond E. (1991). "10: Foreign Policy". In Raymond E. Zickel. Soviet Union : a country study (2nd ed. ed.). Washington, D.C.: The Division. p. 445. ISBN 0160363802. - Stoessinger, John G. (1977). The United Nations & the superpowers : China, Russia, & America (4. ed. ed.). New York, NY: Random House. p. 25. ISBN 0394312694. - Stalin: The Man and His Era. by Adam B. Ulman - Stoessinger, John G. (1977). The United Nations & the superpowers : China, Russia, & America (4. ed. ed.). New York, NY: Random House. ISBN 0394312694. - Stoessinger, John G. (1977). The United Nations & the superpowers : China, Russia, & America (4. ed. ed.). New York, NY: Random House. p. 3. ISBN 0394312694. - Stoessinger, John G. (1965). "Two; The General Assembly; Problems of Membership and Representation of China". The United Nations and the Superpowers: China, Russia, and America (third ed.). New York: Random House. - "Soviets boycott United Nations Security Council". History. Retrieved 10 April 2013. - Zickel, Federal Research Division, Library of Congress ; edited by Raymond E. (1991). "10 Foregin Policy". Soviet Union : a country study (2nd ed. ed.). Washington, D.C.: The Division. p. 446. ISBN 0160363802. - Blum, Yehuda Z. "Russia Takes Over the Soviet Union's Seat at the United Nations". - This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies. – Soviet Union (May 1989).

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Greece, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Greece on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks. This article is within the scope of WikiProject Middle Ages, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the Middle Ages on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks. I observed the name and wish to add that there is a Region named after Tzimisces. It is called Tzimisgezek. My ancestors came fromm theis area of Anatolia, Turkey. To furthere state that they lived here up until 1915, when they were forcibly sent into exile and the great genocide against the ARmenian nation by the Young Turks. I have created a stubby little placeholder of an article on the marginal Byzantine general Curcuas, a catepan of Italy. Is Curcuas a Latinisation of Kourkouas and, if so, is he a relative of the emperor John I? Srnec 06:19, 31 July 2006 (UTC) Are there any more info on them? The article says they were of Armenian origin, which is the only piece of information I found about them in wiki till now, what were the sources you used? Until now I thought that their name root was Greek, coming from the word phoke(gr:φώκη, en:seal), and thus betrayed Greek origin, I would appreciate some insight. Thanks. Maniakes 04:53, 25 April 2007 (UTC) The name is most certainly of Greek origin. They were hailing from Cappadocia and thus could have been Greek or Armenian, I think why some scholars assigned Armenian origins to that family is because of the occurance of many Armenian first names such as Bardas within their ranks. More info here: http://www.geocities.com/ritahorvath/CAP4.html--ΕυπάτωρTalk!! 19:37, 25 April 2007 (UTC) Thanks for the link, but as it says there, their Armenian origin isnt proved, only speculated, and the usage of the name Bardas could be explained by marriages between them and other families of Armenian origin, just like the Kourkouai in Tzimiskes occasion. Yet in this wiki article it is given as a fact. Maniakes 20:57, 25 April 2007 (UTC) Problem is we have some sources that say they were Armenian, others that say they could have been Greek or Armenian. Anyway back then they were all Romanoi, it's just their origin. I'll go and dig up my Peter Charanis book and reference that sentence.-- ΕυπάτωρTalk!! 22:57, 25 April 2007 (UTC) If a subject is still up to debate then AFAIK wikipedia should aknowledge it and present both sides of the argument if any at all, that is the reason Im asking for sources, if you have indisputable sources then please do present them and put an end to this controversy, above all I wish to learn. And allow me to disagree, not all were Romaioi and its not just their origin, or else there wouldnt be that much fuss going on about it, neither then, nor now. ;) Maniakes 23:19, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

George H. Thomas Eulogy To the recital of the deeds of the man whose loss we lament and whose memory we honor to-night, I have nothing to add. Neither are those who praise him, obliged to indulge in the exaggerations of panegyric or in the arts of apology and palliation to cover up weaknesses and faults. The American people knew General Thomas, and they honored and loved him, because they knew him. His eulogy was written in the hearts of many millions before he died. No epitaph can be more enviable. Whatever I might say in his praise, I can say nothing new. He forgot the traditions of his home and resisted the seductive appeals of his kindred when the country was in danger and called her faithful sons into her service. The oath he had taken to defend the Republic and to be true to her laws was more potent in his patriotic heart than even the voice of his Mother. Thus he staked his life upon the battlefield. His genius was not of the flashy, sensational kind, but the vicissitudes of war found it always equal to the emergencies it had to meet, to the difficulties it had to overcome. No man was greater when the danger was greatest. No success rendered him overweening and no disaster was ever known to stagger his firmness. He rose from obscurity to fame and fame did not affect the glorious simplicity of his heart. He performed great deeds, and to others he modestly left their appreciation. He fulfilled the highest expectations of his country and the ambition that animated him never went beyond the performance of his whole duty. Thus he stands in the hearts of the American people as the great ideal of the republican soldier. When the conflict of arms was over, it became his duty to wield the national power among those we had conquered. All the teachings of his early education, all the prejudices of his youth were sunk in the conscientious endeavor to secure the rights of the oppressed, to frustrate the designs of the wicked, to respect and make respected the laws, and to be just to all. Those who needed his protection , found in him an ever ready unfaltering friend, and even those who feared him could not deny him their esteem. The voice of criticism never accused him of an unjust distribution of favor or a willful abuse of power. His bitterest enemy would have regarded as ridiculous any attempt to throw the faintest suspicion upon his integrity, and unselfishness. No man in the nation gained more genuine affection or inspired more unbounded confidence, for none deserved more. Thus he lives in the hearts of the American people as a model citizen of the Republic. When the tidings of his untimely death flashed over the country, the whole nation exclaimed: “Alas, we have lost one of the best men!” And coming generations will point him out as long as this Republic lives as one of the great examples of Republican virtue. When Epaminondas fell mortally wounded and his friends deplored that he left no sons, he said, “do I not leave two glorious daughters, the victories of Leuctra and Mantinea?” General Thomas leaves no children behind him to bear his name, but he will have an offspring more glorious even than the fields of Chickamauga and Nashville: it is the good deeds which will spring from the noble ambition inspired and guided in many an American heart by the great example of his life.

The New International Encyclopædia/Strict Constructionists STRICT CONSTRUCTIONISTS. A term in American politics applied to those who, for various reasons, have maintained that the Federal Constitution should be construed strictly in accordance with its letter, as opposed to those, known as ‘broad constructionists,’ who have believed that the Constitution should be construed liberally, and have claimed for the General Government more or less extensive powers, called ‘indirect powers’ or ‘implied powers,’ not granted specifically by the Fundamental Law. Conflicts between the adherents of the two views have recurred frequently in the history of the United States, e.g. in the controversies over the chartering of a United States Bank, over the question of ‘internal improvements,’ and over the power of the General Government with regard to the restriction or prohibition of slavery in the Territories; and it is upon this question that, directly or indirectly, party differences in the United States have been largely based. In general, it may be said that the strict constructionist view has been held, more or less consistently, by the Anti-Federalist and Democratic parties (qq.v.); and the broad constructionist view, more or less consistently, by the Federalist, National Republican, Whig, Free-Soil, and Republican parties (qq.v.); though there has been a tendency for the party iu power, irrespective of its platform, to lean to the side of broad or liberal construction, and for the party in opposition, also irrespective of its platform, to lean to the side of strict construction. A broad constructionist policy has always had for its effect the strengthening of the Central Government as compared with the States; and a strict constructionist policy the strengthening of the States as compared with the Central Government. See Constitution; United States, section on History.

The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen (Stratton)/A Week with Olé Luk Oie A Week with Olé Luk-Oie OLÉ LUK-OIE; OR, THE DUSTMAN So, when the children have fallen to sleep, Ole Luk-Oie sits upon their bed. He is very well dressed, for his coat is made of some silk stuff, though it is impossible to tell its colour, for it changes from green to red or to blue, according to which side he turns. He carries an umbrella under each arm, and he spreads one of these, all lined with pretty pictures, over the heads of good children, which makes them dream of amusing stories all night long; but as for the other umbrella, which is completely blank, he spreads that over naughty children, who then sleep so heavily that next morning when they wake they find they have dreamed nothing at all. Now we are going to hear how Olé Luk-Oie came every evening, for a whole week, to a little boy named Hjalmar, and what he told him. There were seven stories, as there are seven days in the week. "What is that?" said Olé Luk-Oie, going to the table and opening the box. It was the slate that was all up in arms because there was a wrong figure in a sum, and threatened to fall to pieces. The pencil was hopping about and leaping as far as its string would allow, just as if it had been a little dog trying to help the sum, but not able to manage it. And then there came a groan from Hjalmar's copy-book—and an ugly one it was too. On each leaf stood the capital letters according to order, and every one had a small letter by its side—these formed the copy. Next to them stood other letters that thought they looked like the former, and these had been penned by Hjalmar, but they lay very much as if they had fallen over the pencil line on which they ought to have stood upright. "Look! this is the way you ought to stand upright," said the copy; "you seem as if you had been bent double by a violent blow." "Oh, we should be willing enough to stand upright," said Hjalmar's letters, "only we can't. We are such deplorable things." "Then you must take physic," said Olé Luk-Oie. "Oh, no!" cried they, placing themselves as straight as could be. "There, now—we shan't be able to have any stories!" said Olé Luk-Oie; " for I must drill them. One, two—one, two!" and he drilled the letters till they all stood as slim and as straight as ever copy could be. But when Olé Luk-Oie was gone, and Hjalmar looked at them next morning, they were just as deplorable as ever. Over the chest of drawers hung a large picture in a gilt frame, that represented a landscape. In it might be seen old trees, flowery meadows, and a broad river skirting a forest and flowing past a number of castles, till it reached the open sea. Olé Luk-Oie touched the picture with his magic wand, and immediately the birds began to sing, the branches to rustle, and the clouds to sail; even the shadows of the latter might be seen gliding over the landscape. Olé Luk-Oie now lifted little Hjalmar up to the frame, and placed his feet in the tall grass inside the picture; and there he stood, with the sun shining upon him through the branches of the trees. He then ran to the water's edge, and got into a little boat that was lying there; the boat was painted red and white, the sails were as dazzling as silver, and six swans all wearing gold crowns round their necks, and a brightly beaming blue star on their heads, towed the boat ON THE BALCONIES STOOD PRINCESSES. past the green forest, where the trees related stories of robbers and witches, and the flowers told all about pretty little elves, as well as what the butterflies had said to them. The most beautiful fishes with gold and silver scales swam after the boat; and every now and then they gave a leap that ruffled the surface of the water, while birds both red and blue, great and small, flew behind in two long rows. The gnats kept dancing, and the cockchafers saying: "Buzz! buzz!" They all wanted to follow Hjalmar, and they each had a story to tell. What a pleasant sail he had! Sometimes the woods were quite thick and dark, at other times they were laid out like the most enchanting garden, full of flowers and sunshine; then there were castles built of glass or of marble, and on the balconies stood princesses, all of whom wore the familiar faces of the little girls Hjalmar knew and had played with. Each held out her hand to offer him the prettiest sugar heart that ever confectioner sold; and Hjalmar caught hold of one side of the sugar heart, as he sailed past, and the princess kept firm hold of the other, so that each had a piece, the smallest falling to her share and the largest to Hjalmar's. At each castle little princes stood upon guard as sentinels; they presented arms with tiny golden swords, and made it rain plums and tin soldiers, so that one saw at once they were real princes. Hjalmar went on sailing, now through forests, now through vast halls, now through the middle of some city; and he passed through the town where lived the nurse who had carried him in her arms when he was quite a little boy, and had been so kind to him. And she nodded and smiled, and sang the pretty little stanza that she had herself composed and sent to Hjalmar:— "How oft thine image doth arise, And all the birds joined in the song, the flowers danced on their stems, and the old trees nodded, just as if Olé Luk-Oie were telling them stories. OW it did rain, to be sure! Hjalmar could hear it in his sleep; and when Olé Luk-Oie opened the window, the water stood as high as the window-seat. There was a complete lake outside, but the prettiest ship in the world stood close to the house. "Will you sail with me, little Hjalmar?" asked Olé Luk-Oie; "if so, you can reach foreign lands to-night and yet be back by morning." And Hjalmar found himself suddenly standing, in his holiday clothes, on the beautiful ship, when the weather immediately grew fine, and they sailed through the streets, rounded the church, and then emerged into the open sea. They sailed till they lost sight of land, when they saw a flock of storks who were likewise leaving their home to go to a warmer climate; one stork flew behind the other, and they had already flown a long, long way. One of them was so tired that his wings could scarcely carry him any further; he was the last in the row, and was a good bit behind the others. At last he kept sinking, with outspread wings, lower and lower still; then he flapped his wings twice more, but to no purpose; his feet now touched the rigging of the vessel, then he glided down from the sails, and, plump I there he stood on the deck. A sailor-boy now took him and put him into the hen-house, amongst ducks, hens and guinea-fowls. The poor stork remained quite confounded in the midst of them. "Look at that chap!" said the hens. And the guinea-fowl puffed himself out to look as big as he could, and inquired who he might be, while the ducks walked backwards, cackling, "Quack! quack!" And the stork told all about warm Africa and the Pyramids, and the ostriches that run through the desert like wild horses. But the ducks could not understand what he said, and they then cackled amongst each other: "I think we are all of opinion that he is very stupid." "WE SHALL COOK YOU TO-MORROW," SAID HJALMAR. "Yes, stupid enough in all conscience," said the guinea-fowl, and fell into a rage. So the stork remained silent, and thought of his dear Africa. "Those are very dainty, thin legs of yours," said the guinea-fowl; "pray, what may they cost per yard?" "Quack! quack! quack!" tittered all the ducks, but the stork pretended not to have heard what had been said. "You may as well laugh too," said the guineafowl to him, "for it was very witty. Or was it above your understanding? In truth, I fancy he is not very deep; we must try and lower ourselves to his level." And then he clucked, and the ducks cackled, "Ghick, ghack! Ghick, ghack!" It was quite abominable to hear how they amused themselves. But Hjalmar went to the hen-house, and opened the door, and called to the stork, who hopped out to him upon deck. He was now rested, and it seemed as if he nodded to Hjalmar to thank him. He then spread his wings, and flew to warmer lands; while the hens clucked, the ducks set up a cackling, and the guinea-fowl turned scarlet in the head. "We shall cook you to-morow for broth," said Hjalmar, and thereupon he awoke, and found himself in his little bed. It was a singular voyage, to be sure, that Olé Luk-Oie had made him take during that night! "But how can I creep through a little mouse's hole in the floor?" asked Hjalmar. AWAY THEY WENT TO THE MOUSES WEDDING. "Leave that to me," said Olé LukOie; "I'll contrive to make you little enough." And he touched Hjalmar with his little magic wand, whereupon he became less and less, till at last he was not so long as one's finger. "Now you can borrow the clothes of the lead soldier, which I think will just fit you; and it looks well to wear a uniform when one goes into company." "That's true," said Hjalmar; and in a moment he was dressed like the sprucest lead soldier. THE MICE WERE NEAR TREADING EACH OTHER TO DEATH. "Will you have the goodness to sit in your mamma's thimble?" said the little mouse, " and then I shall have the honour to draw you." "Dear me! will you take all that trouble yourself, madam?" said Hjalmar. And away they went to the mouse's wedding. First of all they descended beneath the floor into a long passage that was only just high enough to admit of their driving through it with the thimble. The whole passage was lit up with phosphorescent wood. "Does it not smell nice here?" asked the mouse that drew him. "The whole passage is smeared with rinds of bacon. Nothing can be more delicious." They now came into the room where the wedding party was assembled. On the right side stood all the lady mice, who were whispering and gossiping, as if they were making game of each other. To the left stood the gentlemen mice, stroking their moustaches with their paws; and in the middle of the room were seen the bridal pair standing side by side in a scooped-out cheese-rind, and kissing each other most heartily before all the company, for they were betrothed, and were just about to be married. More and more strangers kept arriving; the mice were near treading each other to death; and the bridal pair had placed themselves in the doorway, so that it was impossible to go in or to come out. The room had been daubed over with rinds of bacon like the passage, and that was all the refreshment offered to the guests; but at dessert they brought out a pea in which a mouse belonging to the family had bitten the name of the bride and bridegroom — that is to say, the first letter of their name. And this was something quite extraordinary. All the mice declared that it was a very grand wedding, and that the entertainment had been very agreeable. Hjalmar then went home. He had certainly been into very genteel society; but then, on the other hand, he had been obliged to creep into a little hole, and make himself small, and put on the uniform of the lead soldier. "What shall we do to-night?" asked Hjalmar. "Why, I don't know whether you'll care to go to another wedding to-night, though it is a different one from yesterday's. Your sister's large doll that looks like a man, and is called Hermann, is going to marry the doll Bertha. It is, moreover, the doll's birthday, and so they will receive a great many presents." "Yes, I know," said Hjalmar. "Whenever the dolls wants new clothes, my sister is sure to celebrate their birthday or their wedding. This happened, at least, a hundred times." THE BRIDAL PAIR WERE SITTING ON THE FLOOR. "So it has; only to-night is the hundred wedding; and when that has taken place, it must be the last; therefore, this one will surpass all the magnificence. Only look!" Hjalmar turned towards the table. There the little pasteboard dolls'-house, with lights in the windows, and all the lead soldiers outside were presenting arms. The bridal pair were sitting on the floor in a pensive mood, as they had good cause to be, leaning against the leg of the table. But Olé Luk-Oie, dressed up in grandmamma's black gown, soon married them. When the ceremony was over, all the furniture in the room joined in the following beautiful song, which the lead-pencil had written, and which was adapted to a military tattoo: "Our song shall float upon the wind, And they now received presents; but all eatables were prohibited, as love was their food. "Shall we go to a country-seat, or shall we travel?" asked the bridegroom. And they consulted the swallow, who had travelled so much, and the old hen in the yard, who had sat upon five batches of chickens. The swallow told of beautiful warm climates, where large bunches of grapes hung heavily on the vines, where the air was so mild, and where the mountains are tinged with colours that we know nothing about here. "But they haven't our red cabbage!" said the hen. "I was one whole summer in the country, with all my chickens; and there was a sand-pit, where we could walk about and scratch up the earth; and, besides this, we had admittance to a garden, where grew red cabbages. Oh, how nice they were! I can't imagine anything finer!" "But one cabbage-stalk is as good as another," observed the swallow; "and we have bad weather so often here." "Oh, yes; but we're accustomed to it," said the hen. "But it is so cold here, and it freezes!" "That is good for cabbages," said the hen; "besides, we have warm weather sometimes. Had not we a summer that lasted five whole weeks, some four years ago?—and wasn't it so hot one couldn't breathe? And then we have none of the venomous animals that they have yonder; and we are free from robbers. Wicked, indeed, must he be, who does not think our country the finest of any! Such an one does not deserve to be here!" And the hen then wept, and added, "I, too, have travelled. I once went above twelve miles in a tub. I can assure you there is no pleasure in travelling." "The hen is a sensible person," said the doll Bertha. "I don't care, either, for travelling over mountains; it is but going up here and down there. No; let's go to the sand-pit in front of the gate, and then walk about in the cabbage-garden." And this was accordingly agreed upon. We shall not have time for any this evening," said Olé Luk-Oie, spreading his prettiest umbrella over the little boy. "Now, look at these Chinese." And the umbrella seemed like a large china bowl, with blue trees and pointed bridges, with little Chinese upon them, who stood nodding their heads. "We must put the whole world to rights, that it may look smart to-morrow," said Olé Luk-Oie; "for it will be a holiday, as it is Sunday. I must be off to the steeples, to see if the little elves that live in the church turrets have polished all the bells, so that they may sound prettily; I must go into the fields, and see if the wind has swept all the dust off the grass and leaves, and, what's the longest job of all, I must take down all the stars, to furbish them up a bit. I put them into my apron; but they have all to be numbered first, and the holes I take them from must be numbered likewise, in order that they may be put back into the same places, or else they would not stick fast, and then we should have too many falling stars, as they would all tumble down one after the other." "I say. Master Olé Luk-Oie," cried an old portrait, that hung on the wall against which was placed Hjalmar's bed, "I am Hjalmar's great grandfather. I am obliged to you for telling the boy stories; only you must not warp his understanding. The stars cannot be taken down and polished. The stars are spheres like our earth, and that is their principal merit." "Thank you, old great-grandfather!" said Ole Luk-Oie—" thank you! You are unquestionably the head of the family, and a very aged head, too; but I happen to be older still than you. I am an ancient heathen. The Greeks and Romans used to call me the God of Dreams. I have been into the highest houses, and still visit such to this day. I know how to behave towards the humblest, as well as towards the greatest, upon earth. So you may just tell stories yourself, if you please." And Olé Luk-Oie went away, taking his umbrella with him. "Well, well! I suppose next, one must not even give one's opinion," grumbled the old portrait. And thereupon Hjalmar awoke. "Now you must tell me the stories of the five green peas that lived in a pod, and of the ranunculus that made love to the chick-weed, and of the darning-needle that was so grand that it fancied itself a sewing-needle." "One may have too much of a good thing," said Olé LukOie. "You know that I like better to show you something; so I'll show you my brother. His name is Olé Luk-Oie, like mine; but he never comes to anybody more than once; and whomsoever he comes to, he takes him away on his horse, and tells him stories. He only knows two stories, however, one of which is so wonderfully beautiful, that nobody in the world can imagine anything like it; and the other so ugly and so frightful, that it is beyond description!" And then Olé Luk-Oie lifted little Hjalmar up to the window, and said. "There, now, you may see my brother, the other Olé Luk-Oie, who is likewise called Death. You may perceive that he does not look as dreadful as in the picture-books, where he is only a skeleton No, his clothes are embroidered with silver, and he wears a most splendid hussar's uniform; a black velvet mantle flies behind him over his horse. Only look how he gallops along!" OLÉ LUK-OIE LIFTED LITTLE HJALMAR UP TO THE WINDOW. And Hjalmar saw this Olé Luk-Oie rode on, taking up both young and old, and carrying them away on his horse. He placed some before, and others behind; but he always inquired first, "How stands your book of merit?" "LOOK HOW HE GALLOPS ALONG." "Very satisfactorily," was the universal answer. "Let me see it myself," then they were obliged to hand over the book. And all those who could show upon its pages the words "Very good," or "Remarkably good," were placed on the front of the horse, and were treated to the pretty story; while those who could show nothing but the words "Tolerably good," or "Middling," were obliged to sit behind, and were forced to hear the frightful story, while they trembled and cried, and would fain have jumped down from the horse; but they could not, for they had immediately grown rooted to it. "Why, Death is the prettier Olé Luk-Oie of the two," said Hjalmar. "I am not at all afraid of him." "No more you need be," said Olé Luk-Oie, "if you only mind and keep a good book of merit." "Now, that I call something instructive," murmured the great-grandfather's picture. "It is some use, after all, to speak one's mind." And he felt quite satisfied. So that is the story of Olé Luk-Oie; and now let us hope he will himself tell you some others this evening.

Introduction to Swedish Swedish (or svenska) is a North Germanic language, related to Danish and Norwegian. It is spoken primarily in Sweden but also in parts of Finland as well as isolated parts of Russia and Ukraine. The purpose of this course is to teach the basics of Swedish grammar as well as some vocabulary. Hits this month for the page Introduction to Swedish - (Hold down CTRL key to display in separate tab in browser)

Also called CMV. The majority of the adult population has this virus, which is a strain of herpetoviridae ), although not considered a STD Infected cells enlarge and have a characteristic inclusion body (composed of virus particles) in the nucleus. Causes disease only in utero (leading to abortion or stillbirth or to various congenital defects), although can be opportunistic in the immunocompromised host. The American Red Cross gives preferential treatment to donors who are CMV-negative, since this blood is given to infant s, children, and others with weak or compromised immune systems. They even stamp your donor card with "CMV NEG" next to the blood type. As the lady at the Red Cross told me, CMV can produce minor symptoms in adults, rarely amounting to much. However, in children and infants, and people with compromised immune systems, it can be very damaging, even lethal

John Arvin, our Research Coordinator, casually asked yesterday if any of us had ever seen a grebe in flight. Honestly, I'd never thought about it. And, no I haven't. And he doesn't know anyone who has (in 55 years of birding). Grebes are obviously nocturnal migrants, and they have great difficulty taking flight. The process involves a long run across the water, much like an airplane taxiing down the runway. There are instances of migrating birds coming down on land, and being unable to take off again. When disturbed, grebes dive under water. As always, when confronted with this sort of question, I immediately went online to look for answers, in this case, photos of flying grebes. I found two in an hour of searching, and one was barely large enough to identify. The other was a Little Grebe from the Phillipines. You can see that here. It might be fun next spring to set up a camera near a pond with grebes, wait, and see if I can get lucky. If you know of anyone who has a photo of a grebe in flight, I'd love to see it. Please email me. Photo by Greg Lavaty

Current Geography Projects - Food: An Atlas FOOD: There is nothing so simple nor anything so complicated. Food is the neighborhood blackberry bramble foraged in midsummer. Food is the rice grain that finds its way to the table from halfway around the world. The agricultural food base has become the first link in a chain of industries that deliver the fuel needed to energize the human body and mind. From it a vast complex of interrelated businesses—the global food industry—is focused on the production, distribution, preparation, and consumption of comestibles. There is almost no segment of the economy untouched by this network. And there is certainly no human unaffected by it. Despite the industrialization of food, it remains a personal and intimate human endeavor. We find community and identity in the food we eat. James Beard, American chef and early food writer, stated the profoundly obvious, “Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” An Atlas is a collection of maps with a common purpose—either to present a holistic picture of place through repeating geography that maps various phenomena of the atlas’s subject area, or to examine a theme across a broad geography, striving to edify the reader on a particular subject. Food: An Atlas is of the latter. It illuminates a theme by its examination of food phenomena over a wide range of geographical scales, locations, and research disciplines. Free download of the atlas here... - Mission Possible: A Neighborhood Atlas - Mission Possible: A Neighborhood Atlas is the product of a collaboration with Mission Loc@l and a project in experiential learning by students in the Cartography and GIS Education (CAGE) Lab at UC Berkeley’s Geography Department. Students examined and mapped phenomena of the Mission in an effort to look at the neighborhood from different viewpoints and to offer users useful information. The maps in this atlas are products of students’ work and imagination. Mission Possible employs a cartographic style that is a hybrid of traditional cartography, poster art, infographic, and map as narrative. The map is conceived as a narrative of place, using data visualization techniques, cartographic symbology, and graphic art and design concepts to tell different stories. - The Living New Deal Project - The Living New Deal Project is an unprecedented effort to inventory and interpret the impact of New Deal public works projects around the United States. We invite informants to contribute information and photographs to help us map the vast matrix of public buildings, parks, and infrastructure we have come to take for granted. Through this archaeological dig into America's lost history, we are revealing an indispensable but all-too-often invisible landscape of public service, economic development and civic beauty. - Urban Food - Cultivating the Commons: Assessing the Potential for Urban Agriculture on Oakland's Public Land Here in Alameda County, California, almost one-third of the population is food insecure. An even larger number live in areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious food. Many residents of Oakland’s flatlands neighborhoods have few healthy, culturally-appropriate, or affordable food choices. Their food choices are further constrained by other factors such as purchasing power and access to transportation. - California Studies Association - The California Studies Association (CSA) is an independent organization, dedicated to the exchange of ideas about California, the promotion of an integrated understanding of California as a region, and to creating a public discourse on the future of this richly textured state. - San Francisco Bay Estuary: A key to identifying the seeds of wetland species - Assists researchers in examining climate and wetland changes in the last 10,000 years through identification of seeds found in sediment cores or samples, thus allowing them to date the occurrence of the particular species. - Plant Communities of California - A chart of plant communities in California with detailed information on vegetation type, distribution, elevation, growing season, edaphic properties, adaptations, diversity and cover. - Niger Delta Economies of Violence Project - A program of research and training addressing questions of why oil-producing communities in the Niger Delta suffer intense conflict and what can be done about it. - Key to Wetland Pollen - This pollen key is a collection of pollen images and taxonomic information for plants of the San Francisco Bay Region, with an emphasis is on tidal wetland species. - Aztec Place Name Glyphs Project - An online version of Don Antonio Peñafiel's 1885 book Nombres Geográficos de México, which is an annotated listing of all the place name glyphs included in the Matricula de Tributos and the Codex Mendocino. The book includes an Atlas with 39 colored plates and a total of 462 glyphs. - Gender Bibliography - A bibliography of geography and gender, compiled by Kate Davis. - Environmental History of North America Bibliography - A bibliography for the study of the Environmental History of North America, compiled by Jessica Teisch. - Maya Atlas Website - A site describing the Maya Atlas, a project of the Mayan People of Southern Belize that uses community mapping in the struggle to preserve Maya Land in Southern Belize.

If you’re a wine drinker, you’re in a powerful position. Viticulture (the science, production and study of grapes) is a branch of the science of horticulture. “Sustainable viticulture” goes vital steps further and views the vineyard as a whole system which creates a high level quality fruit production reducing reliance on synthetic chemicals and fertilizers to protect the growers, the consumers and the environment. Many conscientious vintners ascribe to this method and produce some very fine wines while pursing a responsible higher goal. Universities and private organizations responsibly teach and encourage these practices. What’s worse than a roaming monkey? How about a monkey that’s on-the-go because he’s been pushed out of his habitat by climate change? Talking about White Bearded De Brazza’s monkeys, who got their name from French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. Normally found in the wetlands of Africa, these guys have recently been spotted far from their natural homes, hiding in the forests of Kenya’s Great Rift Valley. According to Richard Leakey, son of famed paleontologist Louis Leakey, this extremely rare migration is just one of several pieces of evidence that Africa’s climate is rapidly changing. Leakey’s peeved at African authorities, claiming they’re ignoring the crisis. He continues to urge them to take action and address the issues at hand. The Solar Tower plant that was once constructed and successfully operated in Manzaneres, Spain, is now the prototype for Australian company Enviromission Limited’s Solar Tower plant. The 50 kilowatt tower in Spain, originally designed by Jorg Schlaich of Schlaich Bergermann Partners, ran from 1982 to 1989. Now Enviromission hopes to have their 200 megawatt scaled-up version running in Australia by 2008. So far, the location is thought to be Buronga in the Wentworth Shire of New South Wales. Once built, it will be one of the world’s tallest structures. At 1,000 meters, its height alone makes the concept seem a bit surreal. But in reality, the plant has been proven to work and is based on some very simple and tangible principles: the greenhouse, the turbine and the chimney. The higher and wider the chimney, the greater the efficiency. Take it from me, bamboo is the fabric for the future. This super versatile plant has long been used in construction, as a food source (for humans and pandas alike) as well as providing the raw materials for everything from chopsticks to food steamers to martial arts weaponry. Now fashion forward designers can’t enough of bamboo. Why? Well, it’s cool in summer, warm in winter, is anti-bacterial and is as soft and luxurious as cashmere. And best of all, it’s sustainable. Seems simple to me, if the world is ninety percent water, a crucial part of preserving our environment should be the monitoring and maintaining of our oceans. However, due to the massive volume of water and inclement weather conditions, it’s almost nearly impossible to do this year round. But a possible solution may be in sight. Enter the robotic floats that collect argo data from the ocean’s heat. First used in the Indian Ocean by Australia in ’99, there are now about 2,100 currently in use, with another 900 or so ready to dive in. According to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the floats are less-compressible than seawater and therefore drift at depth. By pumping fluid from inside the float to an external bladder, they’re able to rise to the surface. When the float needs to dive, the fluid is drawn back inside, making the gadget denser than the seawater surrounding it. These floats can be deployed from ships or aircraft. Espadrilles are so ‘80s… what, with their fussy wedges and the ties. Why not get your hands (or, shall we say, feet) on an aughty’s equivalent -– Tom’s Shoes, which are inspired by traditional Argentine footwear. They’re unisex, minimalist and most importantly, ethical. It’s simple concept really: you buy a pair of Tom’s, and Tom’s donates a pair on your behalf to a child in need. Designer Blake Mycoskie stumbled upon the idea while traveling around Argentina. While he instantly fell in love with the culture and people, he was deeply affected by the poverty. He visited many villages without running water and where the children went without shoes, often leading to infection, disease and even death. Pro Skater Bob Burnquist And His Friends Are Taking The Fitness Business Green. How by focusing on Fitness apparel of course. Fitness makes me think of athletic apparel. Which reminds me of the days I worked at a major athletic shoe licensee here in West L.A. The marketing director at the time always used to say “FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION.” I never bothered to ask what it meant, although I found myself repeating it when ordering food, dating or getting new pair of pants. That’s why Wikipedia is the greatest thing ever… and the Wiki sez: “form follows function… the basic principle stating the shape of an object should be predicated or based on its intended function or purpose.” And that got me thinking G Fitness… what would it look like if fitness followed sustainability? (An exhausting intro to an article, I know… welcome to my mind.) In my effort to answer my new question, I found the Action Sports Environmental Coalition (ASEC). ASEC, supported by action-sports athletes, industry leaders and natural-products companies, aims to answer their own question: “What would happen if the action sports industry became a role model for sustainability?” (Fitness Follows Sustainability?). ASEC founders Frank Scura, Bob Burnquist, Jen O’Brien and Damon Way answered the call in 2001 by creating the organization. ASEC specializes in progressive eco-education and empowers people to adopt a sustainable existence in a way that embraces their current lifestyle and enhances it. Sounds totally “G” to me! The world is changing from Global Warming, but how does this effect the communities and populations on the edges of the oceans and arctic ice sheets. How will the rising seas effect all of us? According to the world’s scientists, sea level rise is arguably one of the world’s most important potential impacts of global climate change. This documentary explores two remote regions of the world, the Marshall Islands and the Arctic. It investigates the problems of climate change from the perspective of these two environmentally threatened cultures. It’s good to look backwards once in a while and reflect on your journeys. This video interview with Professor Howard Zinn is one of the amazing things which have happen to us on our journey while developing G Living. This is a low quality version of the interview which I posted on youtube.com a few years ago. I will try and find the time to re-edit this interview and include the full speech Professor Zinn gave that night about the true cost of war. CNN highlights the growing trend of using all those wasted shipping containers as building blocks for new homes. CNN producers talk with Architect Peter De Maria, a previous guest on G Living’s Room101. Peter specializes in Container based homes here in Southern California. He is even building a Container home just down the street from the G Living studios. Architects are designing modern homes from the millions of excess shipping containers that are piling up at the port of LA due to the US trade deficit with China. By using the steel shipping containers as building material, homes can save 50% of construction costs, while reducing the waste and blight caused by trying to store them. What happens when a carpenter / artist learns about primitive techniques of building and experiments with tree saplings as a construction material? Natural organic forms of art on a grand scale. Internationally acclaimed sculptor Patrick Dougherty is known for large-scale installations that incorporate tree saplings. Working only with these saplings, the North Carolina based artist twists and wraps his medium to create large, organic sculptures. The surrounding environment and its given materials play a significant role in shaping his sculptures. Dougherty often uses saplings gathered near the installation site, adjusting his designs to the different ways local materials bend and respond in his hands.

Both gravestones are tall tablets with matching willow-and-urn motifs. Both carry poetic epitaphs borrowed from hymn lyrics. died Oct. 23, 1831; aged 73 years. She through firey [sic] trials trod, She through great affliction came, Now before the throne of God, Sealed with his eternal name, The epitaph is adapted from the hymn “What Are These in Bright Array,” lyrics written by James Montgomery (b. 1771, d. 1854), an English hymn writer and poet: What are these in bright array, This innumerable throng Round the altar night and day, Hymning one triumphant song? “Worthy is the Lamb, once slain, Blessing honor, glory, power, Wisdom, riches, to obtain, New dominion every hour.” These through fiery trials trod; These from great affliction came; Now before the throne of God Sealed with His almighty Name, Clad in raiment pure and white, Victor-palms in every hand, Through their dear Redeemer’s might, More than conquerors they stand. Hunger, thirst, disease, unknown, On immortal fruits they feed; Them the Lamb amidst the throne Shall to living fountains lead: Joy and gladness banish sighs; Perfect love dispel all fear; And for ever from their eyes God shall wipe away the tear. Africa Cemetery, Delaware County, Ohio

Yeah, Right, and Greenland Is Melting Study confirms that rising ocean temps mean more intense hurricanes A major new study in Science confirms the findings of previous studies: rising ocean temperatures are the primary factor behind stronger, more intense hurricanes in the last few decades. Since 1970, global sea-surface temperatures have risen by 1 degree Fahrenheit, while the yearly number of Category 4 or 5 hurricanes has doubled, it shows. The new study also posits that higher temperatures may lead to a greater number of hurricanes in the North Atlantic basin. Of course, this being a climate-change-related study, there is controversy: skeptics cite other natural phenomena like decreased wind shear as factors behind stronger hurricanes. The study doesn’t address why the ocean temperature is rising in the first place. We have a little fringe theory about greenhouse gases, but we’ll see how it plays out.

Research into natural chemicals that mimic marijuana's effects in the brain could help to explain--and suggest treatments for--pain, anxiety, eating disorders, phobias and other conditions By Roger A. Nicoll and Bradley N. Alger Marijuana is a drug with a mixed history. Mention it to one person, and it will conjure images of potheads lost in a spaced-out stupor. To another, it may represent relaxation, a slowing down of modern madness. To yet another, marijuana means hope for cancer patients suffering from the debilitating nausea of chemotherapy, or it is the promise of relief from chronic pain. The drug is all these things and more, for its history is a long one, spanning millennia and continents. It is also something everyone is familiar with, whether they know it or not. Everyone grows a form of the drug, regardless of their political leanings or recreational proclivities. That is because the brain makes its own marijuana, natural compounds called endocannabinoids (after the plant's formal name, Cannabis sativa). The study of endocannabinoids in recent years has led to exciting discoveries. By examining these substances, researchers have exposed an entirely new signaling system in the brain: a way that nerve cells communicate that no one anticipated even 15 years ago. Fully understanding this signaling system could have far-reaching implications. The details appear to hold a key to devising treatments for anxiety, pain, nausea, obesity, brain injury and many other medical problems. Ultimately such treatments could be tailored precisely so that they would not initiate the unwanted side effects produced by marijuana itself. A Checkered Past Marijuana and its various alter egos, such as bhang and hashish, are among the most widely used psychoactive drugs in the world. How the plant has been used varies by culture. The ancient Chinese knew of marijuana's pain-relieving and mind-altering effects, yet it was not widely employed for its psychoactive properties; instead it was cultivated as hemp for the manufacture of rope and fabric. Likewise, the ancient Greeks and Romans used hemp to make rope and sails. In some other places, however, marijuana's intoxicating properties became important. In India, for example, the plant was incorporated into religious rituals. During the Middle Ages, its use was common in Arab lands; in 15th-century Iraq it was used to treat epilepsy; in Egypt it was primarily consumed as an inebriant. After Napoleon's occupation of Egypt, Europeans began using the drug as an intoxicant. During the slave trade, it was transported from Africa to Mexico, the Caribbean and South America. Marijuana gained a following in the U.S. only relatively recently. During the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, cannabis was freely available without a prescription for a wide range of ailments, including migraine and ulcers. Immigrants from Mexico introduced it as a recreational drug to New Orleans and other large cities, where it became popular among jazz musicians. By the 1930s it had fallen into disrepute, and an intense lobbying campaign demonized "reefer madness." In 1937 the U.S. Congress, against the advice of the American Medical Association, passed the Marijuana Tax Act, effectively banning use of the drug by making it expensive and difficult to obtain. Ever since, marijuana has remained one of the most controversial drugs in American society. Despite efforts to change its status, it remains federally classified as a Schedule 1 drug, along with heroin and LSD, considered dangerous and without utility. Millions of people smoke or ingest marijuana for its intoxicating effects, which are subjective and often described as resembling an alcoholic "high." It is estimated that approximately 30 percent of the U.S. population older than 12 have tried marijuana, but only about 5 percent are current users. Large doses cause hallucinations in some individuals but simply trigger sleep in others. The weed impairs short-term memory and cognition and adversely affects motor coordination, although these setbacks seem to be reversible once the drug has been purged from the body. Smoking marijuana also poses health risks that resemble those of smoking tobacco. On the other hand, the drug has clear medicinal benefits. Marijuana alleviates pain and anxiety. It can prevent the death of injured neurons. It suppresses vomiting and enhances appetite--useful features for patients suffering the severe weight loss that can result from chemotherapy. Finding the Responsible Agent Figuring out how the drug exerts these myriad effects has taken a long time. In 1964, after nearly a century of work by many individuals, Raphael Mechoulam of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem identified delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) as the compound that accounts for virtually all the pharmacological activity of marijuana. The next step was to identify the receptor or receptors to which THC was binding. Receptors are small proteins embedded in the membranes of all cells, including neurons, and when specific molecules bind to them--fitting like one puzzle piece into another--changes in the cell occur. Some receptors have water-filled pores or channels that permit chemical ions to pass into or out of the cell. These kinds of receptors work by changing the relative voltage inside and outside the cell. Other receptors are not channels but are coupled to specialized proteins called G-proteins. These G-protein-coupled receptors represent a large family that set in motion a variety of biochemical signaling cascades within cells, often resulting in changes in ion channels. In 1988 Allyn C. Howlett and her colleagues at St. Louis University attached a radioactive tag to a chemical derivative of THC and watched where the compound went in rats' brains. They discovered that it attached itself to what came to be called the cannabinoid receptor, also known as CB1. Based on this finding and on work by Miles Herkenham of the National Institutes of Health, Lisa Matsuda, also at the NIH, cloned the CB1 receptor. The importance of CB1 in the action of THC was proved when two researchers working independently--Catherine Ledent of the Free University of Brussels and Andreas Zimmer of the Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology at the University of Bonn--bred mice that lacked this receptor. Both investigators found that THC had virtually no effect when administered to such a mouse: the compound had nowhere to bind and hence could not trigger any activity. (Another cannabinoid receptor, CB2, was later discovered; it operates only outside the brain and spinal cord and is involved with the immune system.) INDIAN FAKIRS prepare bhang and ganja in this painting from the mid- 1700s. The history of marijuana extends far back in history, with written records on its medical use appearing in ancient Chinese and Egyptian texts. Discovery in the 1960s of its active component, THC, eventually led to identification of the brain's own "marijuana." As researchers continued to study CB1, they learned that it was one of the most abundant G-protein coupled receptors in the brain. It has its highest densities in the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus, cerebellum, basal ganglia, brain stem, spinal cord and amygdala. This distribution explains marijuana's diverse effects. Its psychoactive power comes from its action in the cerebral cortex. Memory impairment is rooted in the hippocampus, a structure essential for memory formation. The drug causes motor dysfunction by acting on movement control centers of the brain. In the brain stem and spinal cord, it brings about the reduction of pain; the brain stem also controls the vomiting reflex. The hypothalamus is involved in appetite, the amygdala in emotional responses. Marijuana clearly does so much because it acts everywhere. Over time, details about CB1's neuronal location emerged as well. Elegant studies by Tamás F. Freund of the Institute of Experimental Medicine at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest and Kenneth P. Mackie of the University of Washington revealed that the cannabinoid receptor occurred only on certain neurons and in very specific positions on those neurons. It was densely packed on neurons that released GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), which is the brain's main inhibitory neurotransmitter (it tells recipient neurons to stop firing). CB1 also sat near the synapse, the contact point between two neurons. This placement suggested that the cannabinoid receptor was somehow involved with signal transmission across GABA-using synapses. But why would the brain's signaling system include a receptor for something produced by a plant? The Lesson of Opium The same question had arisen in the 1970s about morphine, a compound isolated from the poppy and found to bind to so-called opiate receptors in the brain. Scientists finally discovered that people make their own opioids--the enkephalins and endorphins. Morphine simply hijacks the receptors for the brain's opioids. It seemed likely that something similar was happening with THC and the cannabinoid receptor. In 1992, 28 years after he identified THC, Mechoulam discovered a small fatty acid produced in the brain that binds to CB1 and that mimics all the activities of marijuana. He named it anandamide, after the Sanskrit word ananda, "bliss." Subsequently, Daniele Piomelli and Nephi Stella of the University of California at Irvine discovered that another lipid, 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG), is even more abundant in certain brain regions than anandamide is. Together the two compounds are considered the major endogenous cannabinoids, or endocannabinoids. (Recently investigators have identified what look like other endogenous cannabinoids, but their roles are uncertain.) The two cannabinoid receptors clearly evolved along with endocannabinoids as part of natural cellular communication systems. Marijuana happens to resemble the endocannabinoids enough to activate cannabinoid receptors. Conventional neurotransmitters are water-soluble and are stored in high concentrations in little packets, or vesicles, as they wait to be released by a neuron. When a neuron fires, sending an electrical signal down its axon to its tips (presynaptic terminals), neurotransmitters released from vesicles cross a tiny intercellular space (the synaptic cleft) to receptors on the surface of a recipient, or postsynaptic, neuron. In contrast, endocannabinoids are fats and are not stored but rather are rapidly synthesized from components of the cell membrane. They are then released from places all over the cells when levels of calcium rise inside the neuron or when certain G-protein-coupled receptors are activated. As unconventional neurotransmitters, canna-bin-oids presented a mystery, and for several years no one could figure out what role they played in the brain. Then, in the early 1990s, the answer emerged in a somewhat roundabout fashion. Scientists (including one of us, Alger, and his colleague at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Thomas A. Pitler) found something unusual when studying pyramidal neurons, the principal cells of the hippocampus. After calcium concentrations inside the cells rose for a short time, incoming inhibitory signals in the form of GABA arriving from other neurons declined. At the same time, Alain Marty, now at the Laboratory of Brain Physiology at the René Descartes University in Paris, and his colleagues saw the same action in nerve cells from the cerebellum. These were unexpected observations, because they suggested that receiving cells were somehow affecting transmitting cells and, as far as anyone knew, signals in mature brains flowed across synapses in one way only: from the presynaptic cell to the postsynaptic one. A New Signaling System it seemed possible that a new kind of neuronal communication had been discovered, and so researchers set out to understand this phenomenon. They dubbed the new activity DSI, for depolarization-induced suppression of inhibition. For DSI to have occurred, some unknown messenger must have traveled from the postsynaptic cell to the presynaptic GABA-releasing one and somehow shut off the neurotransmitter's release. Such backward, or "retrograde," signaling was known to occur only during the development of the nervous system. If it were also involved in interactions among adult neurons, that would be an intriguing finding--a sign that perhaps other processes in the brain involved retrograde transmission as well. Retrograde signaling might facilitate types of neuronal information processing that were difficult or impossible to accomplish with conventional synaptic transmission. Therefore, it was important to learn the properties of the retrograde signal. Yet its identity remained elusive. Over the years, countless molecules were proposed. None of them worked as predicted. Then, in 2001, one of us (Nicoll) and his colleague at the University of California at San Francisco, Rachel I. Wilson--and at the same time, but independently, a group led by Masanobu Kano of Kanazawa University in Japan--reported that an endocannabinoid, probably 2-AG, perfectly fit the criteria for the unknown messenger. Both groups found that a drug blocking cannabinoid receptors on presynaptic cells prevents DSI and, conversely, that drugs activating CB1 mimic DSI. They soon showed, as did others, that mice lacking cannabinoid receptors are incapable of generating DSI. The fact that the receptors are located on the presynaptic terminals of GABA neurons now made perfect sense. The receptors were poised to detect and respond to endocannabinoids released from the membranes of nearby postsynaptic cells. Over time, DSI proved to be an important aspect of brain activity. Temporarily dampening inhibition enhances a form of learning called long-term potentiation--the process by which information is stored through the strengthening of synapses. Such storage and information transfer often involves small groups of neurons rather than large neuronal populations, and endocannabinoids are well suited to acting on these small assemblages. As fat-soluble molecules, they do not diffuse over great distances in the watery extracellular environment of the brain. Avid uptake and degradation mechanisms help to ensure that they act in a confined space for a limited period. Thus, DSI, which is a short-lived local effect, enables individual neurons to disconnect briefly from their neighbors and encode information. A host of other findings filled in additional gaps in understanding about the cellular function of endocannabinoids. Researchers showed that when these neurotransmitters lock onto CB1 they can in some cases block presynaptic cells from releasing excitatory neurotransmitters. As Wade G. Regehr of Harvard University and Anatol C. Kreitzer, now at Stanford University, found in the cerebellum, endocannabinoids located on excitatory nerve terminals aid in the regulation of the massive numbers of synapses involved in coordinated motor control and sensory integration. This involvement explains, in part, the slight motor dysfunction and altered sensory perceptions often associated with smoking marijuana. Recent discoveries have also begun to precisely link the neuronal effects of endocannabinoids to their behavioral and physiological effects. Scientists investigating the basis of anxiety commonly begin by training rodents to associate a particular signal with something that frightens them. They often administer a brief mild shock to the feet at the same time that they generate a sound. After a while the animal will freeze in anticipation of the shock if it hears the sound. If the sound is repeatedly played without the shock, however, the animal stops being afraid when it hears the sound--that is, it unlearns the fear conditioning, a process called extinction. In 2003 Giovanni Marsicano of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich and his co-workers showed that mice lacking normal CB1 readily learn to fear the shock-related sound, but in contrast to animals with intact CB1, they fail to lose their fear of the sound when it stops being coupled with the shock. The results indicate that endocannabinoids are important in extinguishing the bad feelings and pain triggered by reminders of past experiences. The discoveries raise the possibility that abnormally low numbers of cannabinoid receptors or the faulty release of endogenous cannabinoids are involved in post-traumatic stress syndrome, phobias and certain forms of chronic pain. This suggestion fits with the fact that some people smoke marijuana to decrease their anxiety. It is also conceivable, though far from proved, that chemical mimics of these natural substances could allow us to put the past behind us when signals that we have learned to associate with certain dangers no longer have meaning in the real world. Devising New Therapies The repertoire of the brain's own marijuana has not been fully revealed, but the insights about endocannabinoids have begun helping researchers design therapies to harness the medicinal properties of the plant. Several synthetic THC analogues are already commercially available, such as nabilone and dronabinol. They combat the nausea brought on by chemotherapy; dronabinol also stimulates appetite in AIDS patients. Other cannabinoids relieve pain in myriad illnesses and disorders. In addition, a CB1 antagonist--a compound that blocks the receptor and renders it impotent--has worked in some clinical trials to treat obesity. But though promising, these drugs all have multiple effects because they are not specific to the region that needs to be targeted. Instead they go everywhere, causing such adverse reactions as dizziness, sleepiness, problems of concentration and thinking abnormalities. One way around these problems is to enhance the role of the body's own endocannabinoids. If this strategy is successful, endocannabinoids could be called forth only under the circumstances and in the locations in which they are needed, thus avoiding the risks associated with widespread and indiscriminant activation of cannabinoid receptors. To do this, Piomelli and his colleagues are developing drugs that prevent the endocannabinoid anandamide from being degraded after it is released from cells. Because it is no longer broken down quickly, its anxiety-relieving effects last longer. Anandamide seems to be the most abundant endocannabinoid in some brain regions, whereas 2-AG dominates in others. A better understanding of the chemical pathways that produce each endocannabinoid could lead to drugs that would affect only one or the other. In addition, we know that endocannabinoids are not produced when neurons fire just once but only when they fire five or even 10 times in a row. Drugs could be developed that would alter the firing rate and hence endocannabinoid release. A precedent for this idea is the class of anticonvulsant agents that suppress the neuronal hyperactivity underlying epileptic seizures but do not affect normal activity. Finally, indirect approaches could target processes that themselves regulate endocannabinoids. Dopamine is well known as the neurotransmitter lost in Parkinson's disease, but it is also a key player in the brain's reward systems. Many pleasurable or addictive drugs, including nicotine and morphine, produce their effects in part by causing dopamine to be released in several brain centers. It turns out that dopamine can cause the release of endocannabinoids, and various research teams have found that two other neurotransmitters, glutamate and acetylcholine, also initiate endocannabinoid synthesis and release. Indeed, endocannabinoids may be a source of effects previously attributed solely to these neurotransmitters. Rather than targeting the endocannabinoid system directly, drugs could be designed to affect the conventional neurotransmitters. Regional differences in neurotransmitter systems could be exploited to ensure that endocannabinoids would be released only where they were needed and in appropriate amounts. In a remarkable way, the effects of marijuana have led to the still unfolding story of the endocannabinoids. The receptor CB1 seems to be present in all vertebrate species, suggesting that systems employing the brain's own marijuana have been in existence for about 500 million years. During that time, endocannabinoids have been adapted to serve numerous, often subtle, functions. We have learned that they do not affect the development of fear, but the forgetting of fear; they do not alter the ability to eat, but the desirability of the food, and so on. Their presence in parts of the brain associated with complex motor behavior, cognition, learning and memory implies that much remains to be discovered about the uses to which evolution has put these interesting messengers. ROGER A. NICOLL and BRADLEY E. ALGER first worked together in the late 1970s, when they both were forming what has become an enduring interest in synaptic transmission. At that time, Nicoll had just moved to the University of California, San Francisco, where he is now professor of pharmacology; Alger, currently professor of physiology and psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, was his first postdoctoral fellow. Nicoll is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and recent winner of the Heinrich Wieland Award

Grade Range: K-12Resource Type(s): Web LinkDate Posted: 9/10/2008 The New England Museum Association’s goal is to strengthen member museums in the region. NEMA fosters communication and ethical conduct; provides professional development; promotes excellence in museum operations; and encourages support for the museum community. American flintlock musket, .69 caliber, with "TOWNE OF BOSTON" branded into the stock. museum, twentieth, 20th, century, museum, history, New, states, American, education, United, 1900’s This book provides a readable account of the Pilgrim's journey aboard the Mayflower and their fir... Support for Smithsonian's History Explorer is provided by the Verizon Foundation

Welcome to episode 96. This episode was a request from Jonathan Grunert via email. The Spanish armada also called just armada or the invincible armada. The Spanish Armada was the great fleet sent by Philip II of Spain in 1588 to attack England in conjunction with a Spanish army from Flanders (present-day Belgium). England’s attempts to drive back this fleet involved the first naval battles to be fought entirely with heavy guns, and the failure of Spain’s venture saved England and the Netherlands from possible assimilation into the Spanish empire. Philip had long been considering an attempt to re-establish the Roman Catholic faith in England, and English piracies against Spanish trade and property gave him that opportunity. The treaty of Nonsuch (1585) which England undertook to support the Dutch rebels against Spanish rule, along with damaging raids by Sir Francis Drake against Spanish commerce in the Caribbean in 1585-86, finally convinced Philip that a direct invasion of England was necessary. He decided to use 30,000 troops belonging to the veteran army of the Spanish regent of the Netherlands, the Duke de Parma, as the main invasion force, and to send from Spain sufficient naval force to defeat or deter the English fleet and clear the Strait of Dover for Parma’s army to cross from Flanders over to southeastern England. After nearly two years’ preparation and extended delays the armada sailed from Lisbon in May 1588 under the command of the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, a replacement for Spain’s most distinguished administrator who proved to be resolute and capable in action but he had relatively little sea experience. The Spanish fleet consisted of about 130 ships with about 8,000 seamen and as many as 19,000 soldiers. About 40 of these ships were line-of-battle ships, the rest being mostly transports and light craft. The Spanish were aware that even their best ships were slower than those of the English and less well armed with heavy guns, but they counted on being able to force boarding actions if the English offered battle, after which the superiority of the Spanish infantry would prove decisive. The English fleet was under the command of Charles Howard, 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham; he was no more experienced an admiral than Medinoa-Sidonia but was a more effective leader. His second in command was Sir Francis Drake. The English fleet at one time or another included nearly 200 ships; but, during most of the subsequent fighting in the English Channel, it numbered less than 100 ships, and at its largest it was about the same size as the Spanish fleet. No more than 40 or so were warships of the first rank; but the English ships were unencumbered by transports, and even their smallest vessels were fast and well armed for their size. The English placed great dependence on artillery; their ships carried few soldiers but had many more and heavier guns than the Spanish ships. With these guns mounted in faster and handier ships, they planned to stand off and bombard the Spanish ships at long range. Gales forced the armada back to the port of La Coruna (in northern Spain) for refitting, and it finally got underway again in July. The Armada was first sighted by the English off Lizard Point, in Cornwall, on July 29. The larger part of the English fleet was at Plymouth, dead to leeward, but by a neat maneuver was able to get to the windward, or upwind, side of the enemy (west of the Armada, given the prevailing west winds) and hence gain the tactical initiative. In three encounters (off Plymouth, July 31; off Portland Bill, August 2; and off the Isle of Wight, August 4) the English harassed the Spanish fleet at long range, easily avoided all attempts to bring them to close action but were unable of inflict serious damage on the Spanish fleet. The Armada reached the Strait of Dover on August 6 and anchored in an exposed position off Calais, France. The English also anchored, still to windward (west of the armada), and were reinforced by a squadron that had been guarding the narrow seas. The first certain news of the armada’s advance reached Parma in the Flanders the same day, and he at once began embarking his troops in their invasion craft; but the process required six days, and the armada had no safe port in which to wait for him, nor any means of escorting his small craft across the costal shallows where Dutch and English warships patrolled to intercept them. This defect in Spanish strategy was to prove disastrous. At midnight on August 7-8, the English launched eight fire ships before the wind and tide into the Spanish fleet, forcing the Spanish fleet to cut or slip their cables (thus losing the anchors) and stand out to sea to avoid catching fire. The Spanish ships formation was thus completely broken. At dawn on the 8th the English attacked the disorganized Spanish ships off Gravelines, and a decisive battle followed. The English ships now closed to effective range and were answered largely with small arms. The Spanish ships’ heavy guns were not mounted, nor were Spanish gunners trained to reload in action; and they sustained serious damage and casualties without being able to reply effectively. Three Spanish ships were sunk or driven ashore, and other badly damaged. At the same time the English were forced by shortage of ammunition to break off the action and follow at a distance. By the morning of August 9, the prevailing westerly winds were driving the Spaniards toward the shoals of the Zeeland banks. At the last minute however, the wind shifted and allowed them to shape a safe course to the northward. Both the west wind and the English fleet now prevented the armada from rejoining Parma, and it was forced to make the passage back to Spain around the northern tip of Scotland. The English fleet turned back in search of supplies when the armada passed the Firth of Forth and there was no further fighting, but the long voyage home through autumn gales of the North Atlantic proved fatal to many of the Spanish ships. Whether through battle damage, bad weather, shortage of food and water, or navigational error, some ships foundered in the open sea, while others wrecked. Only 60 ships are known to have reached Spain, many of them too badly damaged to be repaired, and perhaps 15,000 men perished. The English lost several hundred, perhaps several thousand, men to disease but sustained negligible damage and casualties in action. The defeat of the Armada saved England from invasion and the Dutch republic from extinction, while dealing a heavy blow to the prestige of the greatest European power of the age. Tactically the armada action had enduring historical significance as the first major naval gun battle under sail and from that moment, for over two and a half centuries, the gun-armed sailing warship dominated the seas.

- Good Habits for Following - (Time estimate = - Learn to follow directions. - Understand how mistakes are made when - How to avoid making mistakes in following - Print out "Habits for Following Directions" - - - - Make copies for all students plus - Download booklet.rtf. Open it with your word processor, and print it. Follow the direction on page 3 of that printout. You will be producing a 1/4 sheet sized booklet, that has four sets of reminders. Students are to keep these for referral at any time. They will be expected to have them out in class, ready to use, and to use them. We will learn a few general ideas about how to follow directions. There will be tests to see how well you can follow Following directions is not something you just do in school. You will be doing it for the rest of your lives. You will do it in your job. You will do it when you buy things and have to connect it, install it, or use it. You will do it when being treated by a doctor. If you learn how to follow directions well, you will make fewer mistakes and be more efficient. That means you won't be wasting time when you could be doing something else, maybe something you really want to do. If you can whiz through a set of instructions and do it all correct the first try, people will think highly of you. If you fumble and stumble and have to redo things to get them correct, people will think something like "What a fumbler!" - Get out pencil and paper. I am going to read an essay to you. You are to take notes out-of-the-air as I read. Then I will call on some of you to answer questions about what the essay said. You should be able to answer from your notes. I will read - Read essay "Habits for Following - When you receive a set of instructions, normally what is the first thing you should do? - Read all the instructions completely - What is the third thing you should do? - Figure out what you are to - What is the fourth thing? - Familiarize yourself with - What is the seventh thing? - What is the eighth thing to remember? - What is the ninth thing to remember? - Reread to clarify what to - What is the tenth thing? - What is the eleventh thing? - Pretend to be teacher. Look for - What is the twelfth thing? Hand out copies of the essay. - Teacher Follow-up See to it that each student has out the little booklet when: - Doing work that has a set of - Taking a test. - Doing self-study where taking notes would be a - Advanced Personhood Sequence. Links to grade 6 Lesson As of: 26 Dec 2002

Any huge amount of matter, like a cluster of galaxies, creates a gravitational field that distorts and magnifies the light from distant galaxies that are behind it but in the same line of sight. The effect is like looking through a giant magnifying glass. It allows researchers to study the details of early galaxies too far away to be seen with current technology and telescopes. Smaller objects, like individual stars, can also act as gravitational lenses when more distant stars pass directly behind them. For a few days, light from the more distant star temporarily appears brighter because it is magnified by the gravity of the closer object. This effect is known as gravitational microlensing. HubbleSite and STScI are not responsible for content found outside of hubblesite.org and stsci.edu

Since I started writing this blog I have learned a lot about the importance of creating rough prototypes even if it’s just to prove to yourself that your concept works. Your prototype doesn’t have to be a work of art, just functional. I have collected together a series of articles, videos and prototyping materials that I hope you will find useful. Hand Mouldable Plastic Sugru is a material which you can mould in your hands like plasticine. It dries after a day to a Waterproof material, that has a bit of give like silicone or rubber Clay such as Sculpey or Fimo Making Your own Prototype Moulds Amazing mould putty or sculpey mould maker are puttys which can be hand moulded around things (such as a clay model) and then left to cure to create a mould that you can then use to fill with different materials. TAP plastics have a range of videos which show you how to make your own moulds so you can create prototypes in a variety of materials. Inventables – To Source Materials for your Prototype Inventables has a great range of materials which can be used in prototypes or just used to spur ideas Make your own Vacuum Forming Machine I am not sure if I would dare try this one, but instructables has directions for how to create a home made vacuum forming machine a finished one is shown in the video below. Ponoko Online Fabrication for Prototypes Ponoko is an online site where you can get your designs made on demand (ie. One at a time) Shapeways 3D Printing Shapeways offer 3d printing via their website Parts for Making Game Prototypes Rolco Games is a place to buy dice, spinners and counters for your game prototype. Materials from the Local Hardware Store I have found the local hardware store extremely useful, and recently build a rough outdoor toy prototype out of plumbing pipe and some plastic funnels amongst other things. I created a rough drawing of my toy and then took that to the hardware store to try and find suitable parts. In the podcast interview I did with Peter Wachtel a toy inventor and designer he talks about finding most of the things he needs in the hardware store and that anyone who has done model shop (woodwork, metalshop etc) at school should be able to put basic prototypes together. Take Apart Other Products Using Universities or Fabrication Labs to Help Create your Prototypes When I interviewed Inventor Lyndsey Young, The Queen of Easy Green she talked about how she had help with prototyping and IP research by a local university. Check if your local college or university could help you at all. There are also fabrication labs in many countries where you can go in and use their equipment (for a charge) to create your prototype) Create a Video of your Prototype When I interviewed Mary Ellroy Toy a inventor and agent, she said toy companies like to see videos of your invention. Create a rough prototype and then even if it doesn’t work make it look like kids are playing with your toy or game. Making Paper and Card Models Inventor Stephen Key is a big advisor of using paper and card to create your prototype mock ups. Kenny the inventor, an Inventor on Youtube also uses paper and card for his prototypes Make Miniature Prototypes to Test if your Idea Works Mark Sanders who did an inventor interview about his Strida Bike invention started off with small prototypes to get an idea if the design would work Articles about Prototyping Creating an Invention Prototype – Start up Nation A guide to prototyping yourself – Ayers Concepts If you have any suggestions for other ways to make cheap prototypes yourself please let me know in the comments below

You notice your tears most after a good cry or while slicing an onion, but actually your eyes are constantly moistened by a thin film of tears. Protecting The Eye This film has three distinct layers: an outer, oily layer to prevent evaporation; a middle layer of lacrimal fluid, the main ingredient of tears; and an inner, mucous layer. This three layer film is replenished every time you blink, and it provides essential protection for your eyes. Most of your body is protected by skin of course, and your outer layer of skin is made of dead cells and keratin, an opaque, protective substance. Your eyes need to be transparent; they can’t be covered by a layer of dead cells and keratin. One of the main functions of tears therefore, is to keep these cells alive. Tears are loaded with electrolyte salts, chemicals that are also found deep inside your body. These salts make your outer eye cells feel like they’re inside your body, preventing them from turning into cells similar to skin cells. Tears help your eyes in other ways too. When a speck of dust gets in your eye, it’s coated with mucous from glands in the white of your eye, then washed out with extra fluid from the lacrimal glands, the main tear producing glands above the eye. To protect your eyes from germs, tears also contain bacteria fighting enzymes. What’s more, tears provide a good optical surface. They smooth out the microscopically uneven cells of your cornea. Without tears, tiny irregularities in your eye would give you constantly fuzzy vision. Although they’re most apparent during a good cry, tears are actually an essential part of everyday life.

What is the meaning of silat al-rahm (upholding the ties of kinship)? Praise be to Allaah. Islam calls for the upholding of the ties of kinship because of the great effect that this has on achieving social cohesion and perpetuating cooperation and love among the Muslims. Upholding the ties of kinship is a duty because Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “… and fear Allaah through Whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (do not cut the relations of ) the wombs (kinship)…” “And give to the kindred his due and to the miskeen (poor)…” Allaah has warned us against cutting the ties of kinship (interpretation of the meaning): “And those who break the Covenant of Allaah, after its ratification, and sever that which Allaah has commanded to be joined (i.e., they sever the bond of kinship and are not good to their relatives), and work mischief in the land, on them is the curse (i.e., they will be far away from Allaah’s Mercy); And for them is the unhappy (evil) home (i.e., Hell).” [al-Ra’d 13:26] What punishment could be worse than the curse and the evil home that awaits those who sever the ties of kinship ? They deny themselves the reward for upholding the ties of kinship in the Hereafter, in addition to denying themselves much good in this world, which is a long life and ample provision. The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever would like his rizq (provision) to be increased and his life to be extended, should uphold the ties of kinship.” (Reported by al-Bukhaari, 5986 and Muslim, 2557). Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: “The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: ‘Allaah created the universe, and when He had finished, kinship (al-rahm) stood up and said, “This is the standing up of one who seeks Your protection from being cut off.” Allaah said, “Yes, would it please you if I were to take care of those who take care of you and cut off those who cut you off?” It said, “Of course.” Allaah said, “Then your prayer in granted.”’” The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “Recite, if you wish (interpretation of the meaning): ‘Would you then, if you were given the authority, do mischief in the land, and sever your ties of kinship? Such are they whom Allaah has cursed, so that He has made them deaf and blinded their sight.’ [Muhammad 47:22-23].” (Saheeh Muslim bi Sharh al-Nawawi, 16/112). Once we understand this, we need to ask: who is the one who upholds the ties of kinship? This was explained by the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) when he said: “The one who maintains a relationship with his relatives only because they maintain a relationship with him is not truly upholding the ties of kinship. The one who truly upholds those ties is the one who does so even if they break off the relationship.” (Reported by al-Bukhaari, 5645). If the relationship is merely one of returning favours and giving like in return for like, and not taking the initiative, then this is not upholding the ties of kinship, it is only responding in kind. Some people follow the principle of giving a gift in return for a gift, and visiting in return for a visit, so if someone does not give them a gift, they do not give him a gift, and if he does not visit them, they do not visit him. This is not what is meant by upholding the ties of kinship at all, and this is not what is required by Islam. This is merely responding in kind, it is not the higher degree which Islam urges us to reach. A man said to the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), “I have relatives with whom I try to keep in touch, but they cut me off. I treat them well, but they abuse me. I am patient and kind towards them, but they insult me.” The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “If you are as you say, then it is as if you are putting hot dust in their mouths. Allaah will continue to support you as long as you continue to do that.” (Reported by Muslim with commentary by al-Nawawi, 16/115). Who could bear to put up with hot dust? We seek refuge with Allaah from cutting off the ties of kinship.

PALMER - The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Community Forestry Program has announced a workshop on Thursday, Oct. 21 aimed at producing and planting bare root trees. This workshop will explore how to produce, store and plant bare root trees. A classroom presentation will be followed by a root-washing and tree-planting demonstration. The workshop is intended for nursery growers, landscape designers, arborists, contractors, garden retailers, public and private land managers and government agencies. Bare root trees establish quickly because they retain a greater percentage of their root system compared to balled and burlap trees, which can lose up to 90 percent of their roots when dug from a nursery. Another benefit of bare root trees is a reduced risk of spreading unwanted weeds and seeds because no soil or growing medium is transferred from the nursery to the planting site. Since the root system is visible, the correct planting depth is easy to determine, which results in translating trees that will be healthy and likely live longer. The workshop will be held at the Alaska Division of Agriculture, Plant Materials Center, 5310 S. Bodenburg Spur in Palmer. Registration is due by today, Oct. 15. More information about the workshop and a registration form can be found online at: http://forestry.alaska.gov/community/news.htm or by calling 907-269-8465.

Three, two, one...Blast off! Written for the KidsKnowIt Network by: Gemma Lavender, MPhys, FRAS Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go up into space? What it would be like to see the Solar System without the need for a telescope? What do you think it would be like? Some have been able to answer these questions and these people are called astronauts. You might even want to be an astronaut yourself! After putting on their spacesuits and jumping into their rocket, the first thing that astronauts notice when they reach space is that they feel much lighter - so much lighter in fact that they start floating around their spacecrafts when they leave the Earth’s atmosphere! Do you know why this is? The answer is quite tricky so here’s a clue: it’s nothing to do with there being more gravity on Earth than in space! You might have heard of the word gravity, but do you know what it is? We experience it everyday; from when you drop something on the floor to walking to school or to your friend’s house. Gravity makes sure that we are able to walk on the ground and that everything on Earth is how it should be. It is a force that gives us weight. But if the Earth has gravity, then surely the further we move from it, the less gravity there will be? While this is true, it is not the right answer to why astronauts are lighter in space than on the Earth. So far, astronauts have not gotten too far away from our planet and so, the gravity is 11% less where they are compared to us walking around on the surface. Imagine if you had a ladder; one that reached high enough to reach a shuttle’s orbit. If you measured your weight at the first rung and you weighed yourself to be 100 pounds, then by the end of your climb to the very last step of the ladder, you would find that if you weighed yourself again, you would only weigh 89 pounds - all thanks to a very small change in gravity. However, it is not until you let go of the ladder at the very top, that you will notice that you are not too heavy at all. This effect won’t last for long if you are not inside your spacesuit and shuttle meaning that you will end up falling back down to the Earth! Inside your spaceship, things are a little bit different. You probably know that the Earth is curved and thanks to this, that’s where the magic really begins! You, your spaceship and everything inside it might all be falling towards the Earth, but because it is curved and you’re moving in a quick sideways movement in orbit, such that our planet is continually curving away, you never really reach the surface so start floating around instead. So while you are up in space for a long time, what do you think is the most important thing to have? Here’s a clue: it’s something to give your body fuel. That’s right – food! If you went up into space, what is on the menu might disappoint you - there’s no fast food delivery into outer space so there would be no freshly cooked pizzas or burgers! So instead, every few months, a spacecraft will deliver food to the hungry astronauts loaded with ready made meals, frozen vegetables and other foods that you’re likely to find in the refrigerator at home along with frozen desserts and dairy products. Astronauts are also given ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise as well as salt and pepper. Space condiments have to be in liquid form - and that includes salt and pepper! Their food is either canned or wrapped in aluminum foil and in some cases, they have to add hot water to it to cook. It’s not all boring though and luckily they don’t have to drink flavourless water all of the time - they are allowed to have coffee, tea and orange juice as well as fizzy drinks like root beer. Image: NASA - Astronauts also enjoy treats while in orbit. You might be wondering how they can run on a treadmill or cycle on a fitness bike when it is so easy for them to float away. The answer is that they have to be tied to their fitness machines so they do not end up drifting off when they should be exercising! Astronauts do not have to stay on their spacecraft though - they can go for a stroll; a little wander called a spacewalk! But first they need to make sure that their spacesuits are on. Do you know why? That’s right, there is no oxygen in space, so they need them to breathe as well as to protect them from the harmful radiation thrown out by the Sun. Space is also very very cold, so an astronaut's spacesuit keeps them warm, while protecting them from deadly radiation. Astronauts often go on spacewalks to fix and build space stations - it’s amazing how a suit can allow them to go on a stroll through space! All of that exercise can be quite tiring, but where do you go for a lay down without floating away? There are beds on the spacecraft, the only trouble is that an astronaut needs to be tied to their bed to get a proper night’s sleep - you could say that it is very much like when your parents tuck you in too tightly when you turn in for the night! Watch astronauts on the International Space Station answer students' questions about what life is like in space. Astronauts can get a sense of weightlessness before they travel into orbit. NASA uses a large plane equipped with padded inside walls to travel high into the atmosphere where it then flies upward at a 45 degree angle and then down at a 45 degree angle to create 25-30 second periods of weightlessness. Each flight performs about 40-60 of these maneuvers. These flights take place over the Gulf of Mexico.

176 Years Ago, Samuel Colt Changed Everything It was on this date, February 25, 1835, inventor Samuel Colt took out his first patent and founded the Patent Arms Company in Paterson, New Jersey. His pistol was different from others; its design allowed several shots to be fired in succession without reloading. It was said that he came up with the idea for the revolver on a trip to India, while watching the ship’s paddlewheel turn. Colt’s US revolver patent gave him a monopoly on revolver manufacture until 1857. His was the first practical revolver and the first practical repeating firearm due to progress made in percussion technology. No longer a mere novelty arm, the revolver became an industrial and cultural legacy as well as a contribution to the development of war technology, ironically personified in the name of one of his company’s later innovations, the “Peacemaker“. – Wikipedia A slogan from Colt’s Arms Company read, “God made man. Sam Colt made them equal.”, referring to the ability of the Colt Revolver to be used to protect oneself from one or several attackers. This year Colt was awarded the contract by the Marine Corps for a ‘$22,500,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract July 18, 2012 for production, delivery and logistical support of the Close Quarter Battle Pistol.’ Close Quarter Battle Pistol is modeled after earlier versions of the semi-automatic 1911 pistol. The contract is for 400 to 12,000 pistols as part of a contract worth up to $22.5 million, according to Marine Corps Systems Command. That means the price per pistol is $1,875. Sources tell us the Marine Corps is ordering 4000 pistols. Do you know the history between Colt and the Texas Rangers?

Po Po is Cantonese for the word grandmother Like many grandmothers, Po Po loves to tell stories to her young granddaughter Ella, and Ella loves to listen to each and every one of them. But what makes Po Po’s stories unique is that they are all about true events that have occurred in Asian American history. Po Po shares eight different stories to teach Ella about the struggles and successes that different people were able to overcome. And the lessons that can be learned from the good and the bad in our history. Comience a crear su propio libro hoy desde 3.99 US $.

Angle measurement is recorded in degrees. Using only the polygons (no protractor! no formulas!) and logical reasoning, determine the measure of each of the angles in the polygons, and record your measures in the table. Be able to explain how you determined the angle size. One approach would be to use the known measurement of one angle to determine the measures of other angles. For example, Polygon N is an equilateral triangle -- notice that all the angles are equal. If we arrange six copies of the polygon around a center point, the angles completely fill up a circle. So each angle measure must be 60 degrees. Similarly, since two N blocks fit into the vertex angles of Polygon H, the measure of each of the angles in H must be 120 degrees. Close Tip Describe two different methods for finding the measure of an angle in these polygons. One method would be to use multiple copies of the angle under investigation to form a circle around a point. Close Tip Video Segment In this video segment, Jonathan and Lori are trying to figure out the measures of the angles inside different polygons. They use logical reasoning and prior knowledge to find the measures of the unknown angles. How does this hands-on approach help them gain an understanding of angles? If you are using a VCR, you can find this segment on the session video approximately 9 minutes after the Annenberg Media logo. Based on the data in the table, what is the sum of the angles in a triangle? How might we prove this? Trace around four different triangles and cut them out. Label 1, 2, and 3 in each triangle. Then tear off the angles and arrange them around a point on a straight line (i.e., each vertex point must meet at the point on the line), as shown below: Note 3 What do you notice? Is it true for all four of your triangles? Will it be the same for every triangle? Explain. Note 4 Now draw two parallel lines with a triangle between them so that the vertices of the triangle are on the two parallel lines. The angles of the triangle are A, B, and ACB: Earlier you reviewed the relationships between angles (e.g., alternate interior angles). Use some of these relationships to describe the diagram above. Use what you know about angle relationships to prove that the sum of the angles in a triangle is 180 degrees. Examine the polygons in the table in Problem B7 that are quadrilaterals. Calculate the sum of the measures of the angles in each quadrilateral. What do you notice? How can we explain this sum? Will the measures of the angles in an irregular quadrilateral sum to this amount? Explain.

view a plan This idea is for studying other countries and is called “See The World” 7, 8, 9, 10 Title – See the World! By – Jennifer Jury Primary Subject – Social Studies Secondary Subjects – Grade Level – 7-10 See the world! You have been given the money to travel to any country in the world! After you choose a country, plan for your trip by using encyclopedia and/or Internet resources to locate information and become a prepared tourist. Fill in all the information on the “Tourist Fact Sheet” for the country that you will visit. Suggested countries to visit: Brazil, Kenya, China, Spain, Australia, India, France, Colombia, Russia, Canada, England, Switzerland, etc. Tourist Fact Sheet Country to be visited: ___________________________ 1. Will you need to change your money to a different currency? If so, what currency, and what will be the exchange rate? 2. How should you dress while you’re in the country? (Think about the weather, customs, etc.) 3. What popular native foods might you eat while you’re there? 4. What Famous places or landmarks might you visit? 5. Draw and color the Flag: 6. Choose one of the following ways to record your trip: · Write a postcard for each day that you are visiting the country (minimum of 3 days). Include details about what you have seen, eaten, etc. · Make a travel brochure for the country you visit · Write a journal entry for each day that you are visiting the country (minimum of three days). Include details about what you have seen, eaten, etc. · Write a one-page newspaper or magazine article about your visit to the country. · Write an informative essay about the country. · Make up your own idea (it must be approved by the teacher). You should use all of the information that you gather on your fact sheet to do the writing assignment. Describe the places that you visited. Tell us what you ate. Explain how your visit sounded, smelled, tasted, and what it felt like, etc. Help those of us who have not “visited” the country imagine what your trip was like! Have a nice trip! (Teachers should create a rubric to grade student projects. Although these will vary based on the grade level of the students and the activity chosen, some ideas for grading include quantity/quality of research, accuracy of information, visual appeal of display, organization, neatness, and mechanics.) E-Mail Jennifer Jury !

Oppositional-Defiant Disorder in Children An all too common problem in our children is Oppositional-Defiant Disorder: This diagnosis is not given to children over 18 years of age, or to those who qualify for a more problematic diagnosis of Conduct Disorder (discussed preveiously). Oppositional-defiant disordered children are disobedient, hostile, defiant, and negative toward authority figures. They fight compliance with instructions or requests and they are stubborn and will not compromise with adults or friends. They often test limits and do things to purposefully annoy others. These children show frequent hostility to authority figures and peers by arguing with and, in other ways, deliberately annoying them. They also purposefully break the rules that they are reasonably expected to follow. Oppositional-defiant children are often angry, resentful, spiteful and vindictive. Generally, their aggression remains at the verbal level and any physical aggression, if it occurs, remains mild to moderate in nature. The oppositional and defiant behaviors displayed by these children are often focused intensively upon those who they are closest to (at home with parents and siblings), but they can also be directed at anyone who sets rules or limits upon their behavior. Psychologists and other therapists may not see a child’s oppositional-defiant behavior in their office (even with the parents present) but it will be abundantly present at home and sometimes elsewhere too. A child’s oppositional-defiant behavior may or may not be in evidence at school. Rates of Oppositional-Defiant Disorder have been estimated to be from 2 to 16%, depending upon the populations sampled and the measures used. Over the past 40 years, I have been called into schools to consult with teachers and principals to help with student’s behavior problems. I am convinced that oppositional-defiant rates have increased substantially. Rates of occurrence are higher for males before puberty, but are more equal between males and females after puberty is reached. Even so, males tend to be more confrontational than females. These children may also show other psychological disorders such as ADHD, depression, anxiety, or learning and communication disorders. One adolescent male was born and raised in a family where the father was exceedingly demanding upon him. His mother was permissive and protective towards the boy and there was almost constant conflict between she and her resentful and compulsively demanding husband over the boys disciplinary issues. The boy was very bright and got good grades at school, but the father insisted upon all A’s stating that he was not living up to his potential. The boy’s behavior at school was exemplary and he was in various clubs and athletics. However, at home, he was manipulative and demanding of money, car privileges, and excessive freedom. His father almost always said “no” to these demands and his mother almost always countermanded the father’s judgement. The adolescent’s tactics involved angry, insulting and disrespectful behavior, and noncompliance with the requests of both of his parents. But, he was most likely to focus his blustery and unrelenting tantrum-like demands upon his mother. This was especially likely when his father was not at home. The mother frequently gave-in to her son’s demands. As you might guess, this rewarded the boy’s behavior and set the occasion for the next round of arguments between the mother and father. This adolescent’s oppositional-defiant characteristics appeared to be born of his parents polarized disunity, his resulting ability to further split and alienate them from each other, the ensuing conflict between the parents, and the family chaos that resulted. The adolescent was therefore in a better position to divide and conquer his parents authority in the future. Oppositional-Defiant Disorder is more prevalent in families that have had many different care-givers and where inconsistent, harsh, abusive or neglectful child rearing methods have been used. It is also more likely to be found in homes where at least one parent has had a mood disorder (depression/bipolar), or other similar, perhaps more intense, disruptive disorders Oppositional Defiant Disorder is more prevalent in males and children who are temperamental and show low self-esteem and low frustration tolerance. This disorder thrives on disorganization and is more common in homes where there have been many care-takers. Im my experience divorce or multiple mates and pregnancies out-of-wedlock frequently set the stage for this kind of chaos. Also, harsh or abusive treatment, irresponsible and neglectful parents, or significant mental illness, is frequently involved in the lives of children who show Oppositional-Defiant Disorder. Sometimes all that is necessary for the development of this problem is a clash between two parenting styles, one very demanding and the other very permissive. Prevention or early correction In many cases, parents can prevent these problems, they will recognize the development of this problem early and seek the assistance of an experienced behavior therapist with very good counseling and behavior modification skills. Almost always, with early intervention and treatment, the problem of oppositional defiant behavior in young children can be improved significantly. Please pass this on to others who may need to know.

1492. Columbus. The date and the name provoke many questions related to the linking of very different parts of the world, the Western Hemisphere and the Mediterranean. What was life like in those areas before 1492? What spurred European expansion? How did European, African and American peoples react to each other? What were some of the immediate results of these contacts? 1492: An Ongoing Voyage addresses such questions by examining the rich mixture of societies coexisting in five areas of this hemisphere before European arrival. It then surveys the polyglot Mediterranean world at a dynamic turning point in its development. The exhibition examines the first sustained contacts between American people and European explorers, conquerors and settlers from 1492 to 1600. During this period, in the wake of Columbus's voyages, Africans also arrived in the hemisphere, usually as slaves. All of these encounters, some brutal and traumatic, others more gradual, irreversibly changed the way in which peoples in the Americas led their lives. The dramatic events following 1492 set the stage for numerous cultural interactions in the Americas which are still in progress - a complex and ongoing voyage.

Note: This message is displayed if (1) your browser is not standards-compliant or (2) you have you disabled CSS. Read our Policies for more information. The Division of Chronic Disease, Primary Care and Rural Health work closely with their partners throughout Indiana in coordinating sustainable efforts to improve Indiana’s burden of chronic disease and improve care. Chronic diseases are those illnesses and health conditions which have prolonged impact on a person’s health. These diseases include heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity. Chronic diseases are the leading causes of death and disability in Indiana and the United States. In addition to the human cost, the economic burden associated with chronic diseases is tremendous – billions of dollars are spent annually in Indiana in treatment of chronic diseases and their complications; billions are also estimated to be lost due to decreased workplace productivity related to chronic diseases. A large majority of Indiana’s 6.3 million persons are affected by one or more chronic diseases. Indiana has significantly higher rates than the national median for a variety of chronic diseases. Heart disease, cancer, and stroke represent the top three killers in Indiana. Many of these cases directly link to the alarming rates of obesity and tobacco use in Indiana - 30% of Hoosier adults report being obese and Indiana ranks among the highest in states in adult smoking (BRFSS 2009). Chronic diseases are among the most prevalent and costly health problems in Indiana and the nation. They are, however, often preventable and manageable through early detection, improved nutrition, increased physical activity, avoiding tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke, and treatment therapy.

Eigg is the most easterly of a group of islands lying between Ardnamurchan and the Isle of Skye in the Scottish Hebrides. Early in the seventh century it was ruled by a pagan Pictish queen. One day she was told that Abbot Donnan, an Irishman, had founded a monastery on the island in a place where she kept her sheep. "Let them all be killed," she said. "That would not be a religious act," said her people. So she employed some pirates to kill them. When the pirates burst into the monastery, on the bright night of Pascha, April 17, 617 (or 616 or 618), the Divine Liturgy was being served. "Let us have a respite until the Liturgy is ended," said Donnan. "Thou shalt have it," they said. When the Liturgy was finished, the pirates herded Donnan and fifty-two of his monks into a building and set fire to it. Those who tried to escape were killed by the sword. And so was fulfilled the prophecy of St. Columba of Iona that Donnan would suffer "red martyrdom" for Christ. 11 churches were dedicated to his memory in Scotland. Holy Hieromartyr Donan, pray to God for us! By Vladimir Moss. Posted with permission. (Sources: Calendar of Marianus Gorman; Tighernach; Martyrology of Tamhlacht; Angus the Culdee; Donald Attwater, The Penguin Dictionary of Saints, Penguin books, 1965, p. 106; David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978, p. 109; Lucy Menzies, Saint Columba of Iona, Felinfach: J.M.F. Books, 1920, p. 139; Alexander Forbes, Calendars of Scottish Saints, Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas, 1872, p. 325) We confidently recommend our web service provider, Orthodox Internet Services: excellent personal customer service, a fast and reliable server, excellent spam filtering, and an easy to use comprehensive control panel.

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim For Soviet strategic planners in the Kremlin, 1939 had proven to be a very good year. The signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on 23 August 1939 had temporarily, at least, removed the immediate prospect of war with Hitler’s Germany and had also opened the way for Soviet expansion into the west. Thus, seventeen days after German troops crossed the Polish frontier, Russian army units — in keeping with the secret protocols of the August agreement — moved into Eastern Poland, Latvia, and Estonia. Unexpectedly for the German Führer, however, Stalin — apparently not wanting to see a perfectly good crisis go to waste — also decided to grab Lithuania (which was originally supposed to go to Germany) and, just for good measure, the Romanian provinces of Bukovina and Bessarabia. These initial Soviet moves went off without a hitch and, with the south and central buffer areas with Germany now expanded, Russian attention inevitably turned to tiny Finland in the north. Hitler, as part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, had already callously consigned Finland to the role of a future Soviet vassal state; nonetheless, the Russians, hoping to avoid unnecessary difficulties with the west, decided to attempt a diplomatic, rather than a military approach with the Finns. Kiril A. Meretskov At issue, for the Russians, was the protection of the Soviet Baltic Fleet, and also increased safety for both the city of Leningrad and the Leningrad-Murmansk rail line. To accomplish these ends, the Russians put forward a simple, if unpersuasive, proposal: to avoid war, the Finns had only to abandon their prepared defenses on the Karelian Peninsula and around Lake Ladoga, and, in a further gesture of friendship, allow the establishment of a Soviet base on Finnish territory. In return, the Russians generously offered to give up a tract of uninhabited and essentially worthless swamp and forestland as compensation. The Finns were unimpressed. At stake for the Finnish government were both its national independence and the sovereignty of its territory. Negotiations, not surprisingly, quickly broke down. The Russians, however, would not be dissuaded from their strategic goals because of a little Finnish stubbornness. Thus, once it became evident that their diplomatic efforts had clearly failed, the Soviets went forward with plans for the invasion of Finland. Kremlin planners contemplated very little serious Finnish resistance; with the population of the Soviet Union outnumbering that of Finland by almost fifty-to-one, Russian military leaders expected a quick and easy victory. Soviet soldiers on the Raate Road in minus 40 degree weather. On 30 November 1939, Soviet troops crossed the border into Finland. The Kremlin, apparently impressed with Hitler’s earlier use of a ‘manufactured’ frontier incident as a provocation for the war with Poland, did exactly the same thing with the Finns. Russian commanders and their troops were optimistic: the war would last a few days or, at most, a few weeks. Once the Red Army had both punched through the ramshackle defenses of the Mannerheim Line and had driven across the heart of Finland to the Gulf of Bothnia, the Finnish government would, Soviet planners were sure, rush back to the peace table. Russian commanders, in fact, were so confident that they cautioned their men to take care not to violate Swedish territory in the course of the offensive. Things, however, would turn out much differently than the Soviet military leadership expected. Instead of glory and an easy victory, months of bloodshed, freezing misery, and death lay ahead for the men of the Red Army. And, as the war got under way, little could the still unsuspecting Russian soldiers know that, for all the progress that the Soviet columns would actually make in their offensive against central Finland, the Swedish frontier might as well have been on the surface of the moon. WINTER WAR: The Russo-Finnish Conflict, November 1939-March 1940 is an operational-level (patrol/battalion/regiment/division/corps) simulation of the Russian invasion of Finland in winter 1940, and the bitter fighting that resulted from the Finns’ courageous and tenacious defense of their homeland. The game map displays all of Finland, parts of Sweden and Norway, and that portion of northern Russia that borders Finland and that also encompasses the Leningrad Murmansk rail line. Each map hex is 20 kilometers from side-to-side. The various game counters represent the historical combat units that actually took part — or that could have played a role — in the historical battle. The game is played in game turns, each of which is divided into a Russian and a Finnish player turn. A complete game turn is equal to ten days of real time. The game is ten turns long and spans the period from 30 November 1939 to 12 March 1940, during which the major events of the conflict transpired. The game turn sequence for WINTER WAR is symmetrical, and proceeds as follows (the Soviet player moves first): reinforcement phase, movement phase, and combat phase; the Finnish player then repeats the same set of phases. At the conclusion of both player turns in the Historical Game, the turn record marker is advanced one space, and the next game turn begins. In the case of the Optional ‘Special Events/Scenario’ Game, a Scenario Interphase is inserted into the turn sequence at the end of the Finnish player turn, but prior to the advance of the turn record marker. The actual mechanics of play for WINTER WAR are comparatively simple, but quite interesting, none-the-less. Stacking, for both players, is limited to two combat units per hex on or south of the ‘A’ hex row, and one unit per hex north of the ‘A’ hex row. Interestingly, stacking limits apply only at the end of a movement phase, but are in effect throughout the combat phase; moreover, there is no penalty to stack or unstack with other friendly units during movement. Zones of control (ZOCs) are rigid but not sticky. This means that all units must halt immediately upon entering the ZOC of an enemy unit, but may exit an enemy ZOC in a subsequent movement phase so long as they do not move directly from one enemy ZOC to another. In addition, ZOCs block both supply paths and retreat routes; however, the presence of a friendly unit in the affected hex negates the ZOC in both cases. Interestingly, Finnish 1-1-3 and 0-0-3 units do not exert a ZOC when operating outside of Finland (i.e., in Russia); also, NKVD units’ ZOCs do not extend into Finland, and Russian headquarters and all isolated units exert no ZOC, whatsoever. Finally, Russian ZOCs do not extend into a Finnish occupied or controlled fortified line hex, but Finnish ZOCs are not limited in any way by their own fortified hexes. The terrain and movement rules for WINTER WAR are familiar and generally quite conventional. One feature of the movement rules, however, does stand out: because of the difficult weather conditions during the actual campaign, the movement allowances of all units are relatively small. This seasonal effect magnifies the impact of terrain on movement. The different terrain types represented in the game, interestingly enough, are actually relatively few; these are: clear, swamps, Finnish and Soviet cities, Finnish fortified line hexes, mountains, rivers, lakes, ice, roads, and railroads. Lakes and mountains are impassable, and all units pay one extra movement point to cross an unbridged river hex-side. In addition, all swamp and ice hexes cost Soviet units two movement points to enter; Finnish units pay two movement points to enter both ice and Soviet swamp hexes, but only one movement point for swamp hexes in Finland. Roads are especially important in WINTER WAR (particularly for the Russians) because they negate all terrain penalties so long as units are moving directly from one connected road hex to another. In addition, an unlimited number of combat units from both sides may be transported using friendly rail lines. Units that begin their movement phase on a railroad hex are automatically entrained; those that must move onto a rail hex must pay one additional movement point to entrain. Once entrained, a unit may travel without additional movement cost to any other connected rail hex in its home country. There is no additional cost to detrain. Finally, units in friendly cities or friendly fortified line hexes, or attacked across river hex-sides are doubled on defense. Combat in WINTER WAR occurs between adjacent opposing units and is resolved using a traditional "Odds Differential" combat results table (CRT). The CRT displays a conventional range of combat outcomes (AE, AR, NE, DR, Ex, and DE); however, at higher odds, it also lists a certain percentage of combat results in parentheses. These parenthetical outcomes apply only to Russian attacks against Finnish units in fortified line hexes; and, without exception, they directly benefit the Finnish defender. The rules governing minimum and maximum attacking odds also work to the advantage of the Finns: for example, voluntary attacks at odds of less than 1 to 4 are not permitted, and attacks at odds greater than 6 to 1 are still treated as 6 to 1’s. Other rules governing combat between adjacent enemy units also differ in important ways for the two sides. Finnish attacks against adjacent enemy units are always voluntary: a Finnish unit may attack all adjacent enemy occupied hexes, some enemy hexes, or even none. In the case of the Russians, however, combat is always mandatory, and all adjacent enemy hexes must be attacked at ‘legal odds’ by at least one Russian unit. Defending stacks must be attacked as a unitary whole; in contrast, different units in an attacking stack may choose to attack the same or a different adjacent hex, so long as all units participate in at least one of the attacks. One of this title’s most notable innovations is that all Finnish 1-1-3 and 0-0-3 units have the option to retreat before combat if a legal retreat route is open, these units occupy a hex in Finland that is north of the ‘A’ hex row, and the Russians have not cleared all four hexes of the Mannerheim Line. Soviet Headquarters, assuming they have an unblocked retreat route may always retreat before combat whichever country they are in. Supply effects in WINTER WAR are identical for both the Finns and the Russians, and there are only two supply states: ‘Supplied’ and ‘Isolated’. Supplied units operate normally in every respect; isolated units, on the other hand, are halved (retain fractions) for defense, may not attack, and may only move one hex per turn. In addition, neither Russian nor Finnish units are ever eliminated purely as a result of being isolated; however, all isolated units do lose their ZOCs until supply is restored. The rules for tracing supply impose very different requirements on the two sides. Finnish units are in supply if they are able to trace an unblocked supply path of any length to a hex in Finland. This means, in essence, that Finnish units can never be isolated while in their home country. Things are much tougher for the Russians. All Soviet combat units — except for Headquarters and NKVD units which cannot be ‘isolated’ — are in supply if they either occupy an ‘active’ Soviet Supply City, or if they can trace a supply path of five or fewer hexes to a Headquarters unit that, itself, is then able to trace an unblocked line of ten or fewer hexes to an ‘active’ Russian Supply City. An ‘active’ Russian Supply City, by the way, is one that is connected by an unblocked rail line to Leningrad. In addition, all Russian Supply Cities have a ‘supply capacity’ which limits the number of units (computed on the basis of attack factors) that they can actually support at any given time. The winner of WINTER WAR is determined by victory points, and players may — depending on their accumulated victory points at game end — achieve one of five victory levels: Soviet Decisive, Soviet Substantive, or Soviet Marginal; a Draw; or a Finnish Decisive victory. The Russian player accrues victory points by capturing key Finnish cities and by clearing the whole of the fortified Mannerheim Line. In addition, the Russians can gain victory points by advancing into the western part of Finnish territory north of the ‘A’ hex row. If the Optional Game rules are in effect, the Soviet player can also receive victory points for any special ‘Allied’ units that are destroyed. The Finnish player, for his part, receives varying numbers of victory points for capturing different Soviet cities; he also receives points for each game turn that the Russian player fails to maintain seven combat units within five hexes of Murmansk. WINTER WAR offers two versions: the Historical Game, and the Optional ‘Variable Scenario’ Game. In the Optional Game, the Finnish player rolls a die during the end-of-turn interphase and implements the specific scenario, if any, mandated by the die roll. These randomly-selected scenarios include, but are not limited to, provisions for such historically plausible occurrences as: Allied (French and British) intervention on the side of Finland, foreign Finnish volunteers, Russian paratroops, severe weather, better Soviet logistics, Russo-German tensions, and an early Cease Fire. There are no other optional rules. A PERSONAL OBSERVATION Finnish machine gunners, Russo-Finnish War, 1939-40 James Goff’s WINTER WAR is, in a number of different respects, a very odd little game for SPI to have put forward. To begin with, the subject matter, itself, would appear to be an unlikely choice for an SPI design. After all, the historical details of the Russo-Finnish War were and are relatively obscure; the outcome to the conflict was seemingly preordained; the opposing commanders were all unknowns; and, even as the bitterly-fought war between the Russians and Finns played out, events elsewhere in Europe were rapidly building towards a much more important military confrontation on the Franco-German frontier. And if these factors weren’t already enough to discourage Dunnigan from publishing WINTER WAR, the game was also an independent design. In fact, so far as I know, WINTER WAR was the only commercially-produced wargame that Jim Goff was able to design before blindness overcame him. So, the fact that the game ever saw print at all, was probably something of a minor miracle. Finnish troops in trench. Nonetheless, when I and my friends received our respective copies of S&T #33 back in 1972, the response to the insert game was enthusiastically positive. In fact, WINTER WAR, PANZER ARMEE AFRIKA, BORODINO, and PANZERGRUPPE GUDERIAN were probably the only four magazine games ever published by SPI that virtually everyone I knew was happy to receive. This is not to say that play-balance issues did not begin to surface almost immediately. The Soviets may have managed to grind out a bloody victory in the real war, but on the WINTER WAR game map, the Russians started to run into problems just as soon as players began to gain a little experience with the Finnish defense. And it only got worse with time. Very soon, the occasional Russian victory gave way to an unbroken string of Soviet defeats. In most such cases, of course, this type of serious play-balance problem means that the offending game quickly gets shunted aside and forgotten. Oddly enough, that didn’t happen with WINTER WAR. And that, in its own right, probably merits a little discussion. Soviet POWs with Finnish guards, Lementi area of Ladoga Karelian The willingness of my circle of regular opponents to continue to play WINTER WAR, despite the ‘baked-in’ certainty of a Finnish win, probably says something both about the uniqueness of the historical situation and also about the several interesting challenges presented by the game system. For the Finnish player, needless-to-say, it was a blast to take a badly-outnumbered force and then proceed to cut to pieces any Russian incursions into central Finland. For the Soviet player, on the other hand, there always seemed to be just one more strategic wrinkle to try; one more combination of attacks that might actually succeed in finally clearing the Mannerheim Line. Moreover, among my friends, paired games became the rule; that is: each player would alternate sides and then compare a tally of victory points and combat losses to determine the final winner of the pair of games. And players being players, I should also note that it was inevitable that a number of minor rules adjustments gradually emerged that succeeded very nicely both in restoring play balance and in heightening the overall excitement of the game, itself. These rules changes and game variants, by the way, are useful enough that I will probably discuss them in some detail in a later post. Contemporary game designs, needless-to-say, tend to be far more nuanced, detailed, and colorful than WINTER WAR. After all, 1972 was a long time ago. Nonetheless, there are elements in this relatively simple simulation that — in my eyes, at least — continue to have great appeal. For one thing, the wide variation in unit strengths and capabilities still makes this title interesting, and given its scale, almost unique. How many other game systems, for example, have successfully managed to mix counters as small as a Finnish 0-0-3 ski patrol with units as powerful as a 20-12-2 Soviet corps and still have the whole game work? Moreover, the rules governing Russian supply are actually relatively sophisticated and, even more importantly, directly impact the strategic direction and flow of the game. And the game doesn’t take a whole day to play. All this, of course, doesn’t mean that WINTER WAR is going to be a good choice for every type of player. Armored warfare enthusiasts, for example, and players who like to see big moves and sweeping maneuvers are probably not going to crank up much enthusiasm for a game in which much of the map is covered by lakes and swamps, there is no mechanized movement phase, and the speediest unit on the map has a movement factor of ‘four’. On the other hand, for those players and collectors interested in games from the ‘golden years’ of SPI; or for those who are willing to do a minor amount of tinkering with the basic design, I recommend it highly. In my opinion, with just a few minor ‘rules tweaks’, WINTER WAR can be made to be both a competitive and exciting face-to-face challenge, and a really great solitaire game. - Time Scale: 10 days per game turn - Map Scale: 20 kilometers per hex - Unit Size: patrol/battalion/regiment/brigade/division/corps - Unit Types: headquarters (Soviet only), infantry, armor (Soviet only), cavalry, artillery (Soviet only), ski, and NKVD (Soviet border guards) - Number of Players: two - Complexity: average - Solitaire Suitability: average/above average - Average Playing Time: 2-3 hours - One 22” x 34” hexagonal grid Map Sheet (with Turn Record/Reinforcement Tracks, Combat Results Table, Terrain Effects Chart, Victory Points Schedule, and ‘Special Events’ and ‘Scenario Charts’ incorporated) - 120 ½” back-printed cardboard Counters - One 8½” x 11” WINTER WAR Rules Booklet - One small six-sided Die - One 3¾” x 8½” SPI Customer Complaint Card - One SPI 12” x 15” x 1” flat 24 compartment plastic Game Box (with clear compartment tray covers) and Title Sheet

Although Fortran 90 standardized an intrinsic function for wall clock time, it does not include a function for CPU time. At the time of this writing, it is anticipated that a CPU time intrinsic function will be added to the language in Fortran 95. If this happens, then StopWatch can become fully system independent once Fortran 95 compilers are widespread. Meanwhile, StopWatch requires that a system dependent CPU time subroutine be provided by the user. Several versions of this subroutine are included with the StopWatch package. One of these may work on your system. The current versions, systems they have been tested on, and clock precisions are shown in Table 7.1. The computers and version numbers of the operating systems and compilers can be found in Table 3.1. Those based on the Cray routine second and the Fortran 95 routine cpu_second do not provide the user and sys clocks. The version cpusec.nil.f contains no CPU clock information, and can be used on systems where there is no routine to measure CPU time. If this routine is used, only the wall clock will be available. Table: Available versions of cpu_second with clock precisions. If none of the cpu_second versions work on your system, you will have to write your own. The interface is subroutine cpu_second(cpu,user,sys) real, intent(OUT) :: cpu, user, sys The first argument is for CPU time in seconds. Where available, the second and third arguments should break down the CPU time into ``user'' and ``system'' CPU time. If the underlying system does not provide for a way of accessing the breakdown (i.e., has only CPU time), then return a negative constant in user and sys (for example, user=-1.; sys=-1.). The value returned in cpu (and user and sys where available) should be a nonnegative real number such that the difference between two successive calls is the amount of elapsed CPU time in seconds. If you write a new version of cpu_second because none of the supplied versions worked on your system, please send this information to the author so that it can be included in the next release.

Sum of a Sequence Library Home || Primary || Math Fundamentals || Pre-Algebra || Algebra || Geometry || Discrete Math || Trig/Calc |Discrete Math, difficulty level 3. Determine the sum of a sequence of numbers in terms of n: 1, (1+2), (1+2+22),(1+2+2^2+2^3)... (1+2+2^2+2^3...2^(n-1) ).| |Please Note: Use of the following materials requires membership. Please see the Problem of the Week membership page for more information.| © 1994-2012 Drexel University. All rights reserved. The Math Forum is a research and educational enterprise of the Drexel University School of Education.

6 digit number we want to create a 6 digits number from the digits 1-5, and to keep the condition that each of the 5 digits, appear at least once. what is the probability that the number 11 ( the digit 1 twice ), will appear ? ( meaning what is the prob that 1 will appear twice and in a row ) In each of those 6-digit numbers there will be five different digits and one which repeats. Originally Posted by WeeG There are 5 ways to pick the one that repeats. Then there are ways to arrange these six digits. There are ways arrange the string “112345” so that the 1’s are together.

A new study led by City College of New York psychologist Margaret Rosario found that youths of same-sex orientation are more likely to engage in behaviors associated with cancer risk than heterosexuals. The peer-reviewed findings appear in the February 2014 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Titled "Sexual Orientation Disparities in Cancer-Related Risk Behaviors of Tobacco, Alcohol, Sexual Behaviors, and Diet and Physical Activity: Pooled Youth Risk Behavior Surveys," the study pooled YRBS (Youth Risk Behavior Survey) data from 2005 and 2007. The YRBS is a national survey of high school students conducted biennially. Dr. Rosario, professor of psychology in CCNY's Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership and The Graduate Center, CUNY, and her research team then studied 12 cancer-risk behaviors in sexual minorities (youth with same-sex orientation) and heterosexuals in grades 9 through 12. Of an available sample of 65,871 youth, 7.6 percent were found to be a sexual minority. The 12 cancer-risk behaviors included tobacco use, drinking alcohol, early sex, multiple sexual partners, higher body mass index (BMI) and lack of exercise. The report found that for all 12, sexual minorities were more likely than heterosexuals to engage in the risky behavior. "Sexual minorities are at risk for cancer later in life, I suggest, from a host of behaviors that begin relatively early in life," said Professor Rosario. "No sex or ethnic racial group is at greater risk or protected for these behaviors. Overall, the study underscores the need for early interventions." Her collaborators included researchers from Boston Children's Hospital, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Fenway Institute, and Northwestern University. More information: ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/… 105/AJPH.2013.301506

Researchers use Neutral SNVs to estimate human population growthDecember 31st, 2013 by Bob Yirka in Genetics / This image shows the coding region in a segment of eukaryotic DNA. Credit: National Human Genome Research Institute (Medical Xpress)—A team of US researchers from several universities has used single nucleotide variants (SNVs) to estimate human population growth. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers describe how they applied principal component analysis (PCA) to whole-genome genotyping to a dataset of 9,716 people of European ancestry from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) database and found evidence that suggests a human population growth rate of approximately 3.4 percent over the past 140 generations. Historical evidence suggests human population growth has been rapid, particularly in the past 2000 years. Because of that, it would appear logical to assume that large numbers of genetic variants should be rare. That means that it should be possible to conduct gene sequencing on a wide variety of people and use the information found to arrive at a population growth rate for the human species as a whole. Current methods of estimating the entire worldwide population (and how fast we're multiplying) are based on a wide variety of numbers and sources, one of which is a calculation of the human population growth rate. Doing so presents a problem however, as human population growth rates have traditionally been calculated using historical data and more recently, by using protein-coding genes. But that allows for the impact of natural selection, which distorts the actual rate. To get around that, the researchers with this new effort used PCA, a type of genotyping that allows for targeted sequencing, or as they put it, they "examined genetic variants far from genes." To calculate the population growth rate, the researchers knew they would need a large sample size—to gain access to one, they used the ARIC database—it holds genetic information about European ancestry for people tested for atherosclerosis risk. The entire data set consisted of information on 9,716 people—from them 500 were extracted (in a way to insure the dataset was homogenous) and used as the basis for genetic sequencing. The result, a 3.4 percent growth rate over 140 generations of people (approximately 3000 to 4000 years) representing an increase in population size of two orders of magnitude. Of course, as with any new metric, the new method will have to be vetted and likely replicated by others before officials throughout the world begin using it as a yardstick for population growth and for estimating population size in general. More information: Neutral genomic regions refine models of recent rapid human population growth, PNAS, Elodie Gazave, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1310398110 Human populations have experienced dramatic growth since the Neolithic revolution. Recent studies that sequenced a very large number of individuals observed an extreme excess of rare variants and provided clear evidence of recent rapid growth in effective population size, although estimates have varied greatly among studies. All these studies were based on protein-coding genes, in which variants are also impacted by natural selection. In this study, we introduce targeted sequencing data for studying recent human history with minimal confounding by natural selection. We sequenced loci far from genes that meet a wide array of additional criteria such that mutations in these loci are putatively neutral. As population structure also skews allele frequencies, we sequenced 500 individuals of relatively homogeneous ancestry by first analyzing the population structure of 9,716 European Americans. We used very high coverage sequencing to reliably call rare variants and fit an extensive array of models of recent European demographic history to the site frequency spectrum. The best-fit model estimates ∼3.4% growth per generation during the last ∼140 generations, resulting in a population size increase of two orders of magnitude. This model fits the data very well, largely due to our observation that assumptions of more ancient demography can impact estimates of recent growth. This observation and results also shed light on the discrepancy in demographic estimates among recent studies. © 2013 Phys.org "Researchers use Neutral SNVs to estimate human population growth." December 31st, 2013. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-12-neutral-snvs-human-population-growth.html

When Are the Dogs Days of Summer? The official “dog days” of summer begin on July 3 and end on August 11. So how did this time frame earn its canine nickname? It turns out the phrase has nothing to do with the poor pooches who are forever seeking shade in the July heat, and everything to do with the nighttime sky. Sirius, the Dog Star, is the brightest star in the sky. The ancient Greeks noticed that in the summer months, Sirius rose and set with the Sun, and they theorized that it was the bright, glowing Dog Star that was adding extra heat to the Earth in July and August.

Here’s our handy little guide to banking terminology. We’ll add to it as we get questions about new terms and alter definitions as we see fit. Hopefully this is helpful… ATM: ATM is the term used to refer to an automated teller machine. These machines typically offer consumers convenient access to fund withdrawals, deposits, transfers and balance inquiries. BALANCE: The amount of money you have in your bank account. It can also refer to the amount owed in a credit account or loan. BANK: A regulated financial institution that offers you a place to keep your money and uses it to make more money. Banks make loans, cash and pay checks, accept deposits and provide other financial services. BRANCH MANAGER: The person who supervises the bank operation and helps fix problems that cannot be solved by other bank workers. BUDGET: A budget is an itemized list of all of one’s expenses.CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE: The person who can help you open your account. The representative explains services, answers general questions, and helps you resolve issues. DEBIT CARD: A plastic card, sometimes called a “check card.” The debit card has a VISA logo and a magnetic strip on the back that allows you to pay for goods and services at stores and other businesses that accept these cards. When you use a debit card, the money comes out of your bank account immediately. DEPOSIT: Money you add to your bank account. JOINT ACCOUNTS: Joint accounts are credit accounts which are held or owned by two or more persons. MOBILE BANKING: A bank service that allows you to make payments, check account balances, transfer money between accounts, obtain account history, such as deposits and withdrawals and obtain general bank information at any time from your personal cell phone. MONEY ORDER: Similar to a check, a money order is used to pay bills or make purchases where cash is not accepted. Many businesses sell money orders for a fee. ONLINE BANKING: A bank service that allows you to make payments, check account balances, transfer money between accounts, obtain account history, such as deposits and withdrawals, stop payments on a check, and obtain general bank information at any time from any computer with Internet access. PIN: For security purposes, credit cards and bank cards require the rightful owner to select and memorize a Personal Identification Number or PIN. This number or code is required in order to utilize the card in an automated teller machine. SAVINGS: Savings is the term used for money which is set aside into an interest bearing or investment account. TELEPHONE BANKING: A bank service that allows you to check account balances, transfer money between accounts, obtain account history, such as deposits and withdrawals, stop payment on a check, obtain information on branch hours, and report a lost, stolen or damaged debit or ATM card. TELLER: The person behind the bank counter who takes money, answers questions, cashes checks or refers you to the person who can help you. WIRE TRANSFER: A method of electronically transferring money from one bank to another. WITHDRAWAL: The process of taking money from your bank account. You do this by writing a check, using an ATM or debit card, or giving a teller a withdrawal slip.

Nayee Bhramin sagam The word Nayee Stems from the Sanskrit root “Nay’-which means to lead – stands for leadership.Nayee cast was one of the higher cast in India,They are the Kshatrias who had changed their profession with their willingness or non- Nayees acted ambassadors between the different states.They traditionally led wedding parties or carried messages between states,kingdoms,villages and communities.They are known for their wisdom and admiration for self respect.They work really hard to achieve their goals and never bend in front of any other caste,community or religion.They keep concentrating on and working hard until they attain their goals.They are known for keeping the secrets and following a strict disciplined life, keeping mind and their body clean,active and physically fit. But off late they are been discriminated by majority of the people,who are far more inferior to them socially. The Nai are associated with the barber profession. As they did traditionally, the Nai groom clients, such as cutting hair and nails and provide minor medical services like extracting teeth and setting sprains right.Infact earliest surgeons, like the ones tending to battlefield injuries.They were traditionally used as messengers and go-betweens in delicate matters. They abide by the teachings of BHAGWAD GITA. They also perform duties in connection with marriage, matchmaking and celebrations. Nai women, called ‘Naun’, are hairdressers, henna artists and midwives. The Nai are quiet people, which is important to their trade. A large-scale occupational change is taking place with many Nai taking up other trades and professions in modern India. The diet of the Nai usually consists of wheat, rice, lentil, maize and some seasonal fruit. For those eating meat the occasional fish, mutton or chicken and eggs are part of the menu. The traditional extended family is still common. Sons inherit equal shares in the family property and the eldest succeeds as head of the family. Nai women are secondary in status to males. The Nai community is listed as an Other Backward Class in various regions in India. These includes: The Nai is a Hindu and Sikh caste or clan originating in India. The Nai are located throughout India.Each Indian region has a different name for the Nai. They are called Raja in Punjab, Kuleen in Himachal Pradesh, Khawas in Rajasthan, Sen Samaj or Napit in Haryana and Nai-Thakur or Savita Samaj in In north India the caste is divided mainly into two endogamous subcastes:The gole and Bhanberu.Kacchawayas or Chaddibech(was found in delhi,Haryana & Rajasthan),Bachhas(in Delhi & Haryana),Tanwars (in Rajasthan,Haryana,Delhi & Uttar Pradesh),Ranas in Brijwasan,Gautam in Uttar Pradesh,Maans in Delhi,Haryana & Punjab,Dahiya&Mittalia in Haryana,Delhi,chauhan in Haryana & Delhi,Dabas in delhi,Dalals in Delhi &Haryana,badgujar in Rajasthan,Sisodia in Uttar Pradesh & Rajasthan,Gaur,Kaushik,Vats,Vashisth in Uttar Pradesh etc.Each of these divisions is Subdivided into numerous gotras.In Bihar, the Nayees have the surname of thakur. In West Bengal,they mainly have Paramanik as surname. In the state of gujrat theNai are referred by the name Valand are further divided into clans.Nayee or Mangali in Andra Pradesh in south India. Famous People in Nayee Caste • Koundinya, the Great Sage. • Mahapadma Nanda (The founder of Nanda Dynasty) • Karpoori Thakur (Dec 1970 to June 1971) was an Indian politician from the Bihar state. • Bhai Sahib Singh • Bijjalla II, the famous King of Kalachuri, in whose Court Basavanna was • All the rulers of Kalachuri ruled the North Karnataka, • Hadapada Appanna, the Great Sharana. • Heera Thakur,Ex MLC • Rameshwar Thakur, the Governor of Karnataka. • Dr. G. Ethirajulu, the first qualified Orthopaedic surgeon in A.P. • Saina, Nai , ethnic Marathi-speaker, wrote Abhangs devoted to Krishna • Sachidanand, Nai, devotee of Dattatreya. • Annavarapu Ramaswamy, who is well known violinist, at Vijayawada, AP • Dr. Rallapati Aravind, tha first guynic doctor in naayee comunity in • M.K.Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister of Tamil nadu. • Dayanidhi Maran, the Central Minister of Union of India. • Veerappa Moily, the Chief Minister of Karnataka • Madolin Srinivas, the great mandolin Player. • Karunakaran, The Chief minister of Kerala. • Kalanidhi Maran, Founder of SUN media network

Selwyn, George Augustus 11 Aug. 1719–25 Jan. 1791 George Augustus Selwyn, landowner, was born on his family's county estate near Maston in the Cotswold Hills overlooking the Severn Valley in England. His father, Colonel John Selwyn, a man of education, ability, extensive influence, and ample means, was well known in the courts of the Georges; Selwyn also served as a member of Parliament for Gloucester (1734–47) as well as the treasurer of Queen Caroline's pensions. George's mother, Mary, the daughter of General Sir Anthony Farrington of Kent, has been described as a woman of unusual beauty, vivacity, and wit. She was a Woman of the Bed Chamber of Queen Caroline. After his father and an older brother died in 1751, George inherited large tracts of land in Piedmont North Carolina that the Crown had granted to his father in 1737. George Selwyn's early education was at Eton College and continued at Hart College, Oxford. In 1745 he was forced to withdraw from Oxford without a degree to escape expulsion for using a chalice as a drinking cup at a student's party. Two years later, however, he entered Parliament where he remained until 1780. As a member of Parliament, Selwyn was silent and inactive, showing no serious interest in affairs of state. In general, he never exerted himself over either his business or his land interests, delegating this to agents. The town of Charlotte, N.C., was being established on a small part of Selwyn's land about the time he inherited it. The whole tract was known as "The Selwyn Grant." He appointed Henry E. McCulloh, Abraham Alexander, Thomas Polk, and John Frohock as trustees and directors of the new town. Frohock, Alexander, and Polk were also commissioners to hold land in trust for the county of Mecklenburg on which to erect a courthouse, prison, and stocks. Because the land was a grant from the king, they felt obliged to settle one person to every 200 acres. McCulloh saw that the interest of his employer, Selwyn, would be advanced by locating the county seat on his lands, so Charlotte was formally made the county seat by act of Assembly in 1766. In 1767 Selwyn had his Carolina land surveyed by McCulloh as his agent, and it was found that the tract contained over 200,000 acres. Even though he never visited his vast possessions in America, Selwyn showed a great deal of interest, as reflected in his correspondence and through his agent's activities. He also kept abreast of the movements of the British general, Lord Charles Cornwallis, through the Carolinas during the American Revolution. In England Selwyn's reputation rested on his unusual wit and humor, which he was believed to have inherited from his mother. An early member of the leading London clubs, he was widely known and frequently quoted. He was on friendly terms with statesmen, politicians, and literary men, as well as with the court circle. Nevertheless, Selwyn evidently lived a lonely personal life; he never married and had no near relatives in his last years. He adopted a girl named Maria Fagniani because of his fondness for children—a trait that he generously demonstrated frequently over a long period of time. There was a dispute between the Duke of Queensbury and Selwyn over the paternity of the girl, and both left large sums to her at their deaths, but recent studies suggest that Selwyn was not her father. In his later years, which he spent in London, Selwyn suffered from gout and dropsy. He died at his home in St. James's. There is a portrait of him at Castle Howard painted by his friend Sir Joshua Reynolds showing Selwyn with Frederick, fifth earl of Carlisle, and with his beloved dog, Raton. Selwyn is depicted as a handsome man with a periwig and dressed in the elegant and expensive style of the day—a velvet suit, silk hose, lace frills, and a fine stack buckle. DNB, vol. 17 (1882). Fanning-McCulloh Papers (Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill). North Carolina Booklet 16 (July 1916). William S. Powell, ed., The Correspondence of William Tryon and Other Selected Papers, vol. 1 (1980). William L. Saunders, ed., Colonial Records of North Carolina, vols. 5–7 (1887–90). Oscar Sherwin, A Gentleman of Wit and Fashion: The Extraordinary Life and Times of George Selwyn (1963 [portrait]). "CSR Documents by Selwyn, George Augustus, 1719-1791." Colonial and State Records of North Carolina. Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/creators/csr10377 (accessed August 5, 2013). Morrill, Dan L. "Chapter Two: Independence and Revolution." A History of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission. http://www.cmhpf.org/morrill%20book/CH2.htm (accessed August 5, 2013). Selwyn, Nick. "The Selwyn Family and the development of Richmond. A Talk given by Nick Selwyn to the Richmond Local History Society 2009." The Vineyard, Richmond. 2009. http://www.thevineyardrichmond.info/selwyn-family.html (accessed August 5, 2013). Hamilton, Hugh Douglas, and Hamilton, W., engraver. "George Selwyn." George Selwyn; his letters and his life. London: T.Fisher Unwin. 1899. Frontispiece. http://archive.org/stream/georgeselwynhisl00selwuoft#page/n9/mode/2up (accessed August 5, 2013). 1 January 1994 | Calder, Gayle E.

6.3. The X-ray BE One of the distinguishing features of quasars and AGNs is that they emit over virtually the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from -rays to radio wavelengths, and their optical/UV radiation is only a fraction of the total emitted. Furthermore, radiation at other wavelengths almost certainly provides some of the most important keys for understanding both the BE and the nature of quasars themselves. Multi-wavelength observations are a vital part of quasar/AGN research. The BE was discovered in the UV part of the spectrum, and observational constraints as well as atomic physics have dictated that studies of the luminosity dependence of broad-line emission are conducted almost exclusively in the rest-frame UV/optical bandpass. Improvements in the sensitivity and spectral resolution of X-ray telescopes have resulted in the detection of an important new line diagnostic of AGNs, in the form of the Fe K line at 6.4 keV. This feature is believed to form by fluorescence in high column-density material irradiated by an X-ray continuum. The observed K emission from Seyfert 1 nuclei can be very broad, and has been modeled as fluorescence in a relativistic accretion disk (Nandra et al. 1997b and references therein). Narrow components are also observed, however (e.g., Guainazzi et al. 1994), which may arise from structures such as a circumnuclear torus of high column density matter (Krolik et al. 1994; Ghisellini et al. 1994). The recent availability of X-ray spectra of QSOs with decent spectral resolution has made it possible to investigate the luminosity dependence of Fe K. Iwasawa & Taniguchi (1993) employed GINGA spectra to argue that K equivalent widths were systematically weaker in more luminous systems, and drew attention to the parallel with the ultraviolet BE. While this finding was subsequently challenged (Nandra & Pounds 1994), a recent analysis based on ASCA spectra (Nandra et al. 1997a), reviewed by Paul Nandra at this conference, lends strong support to a BE for the Fe K line. Several interesting comparisons can be made between the detailed phenomenology of the UV and X-ray BEs. The existence of an X-ray BE and its parallel in the UV lines initially led Iwasawa & Taniguchi to argue that this constituted evidence of a physical origin of the K emission in the BLR. However, the X-ray correlation appears to be strongly influenced by a luminosity dependence in the K wings, in contrast with the core-dominated UV trend. Under the existing interpretations of the K profile, this behavior can be taken as evidence that the X-ray BE is largely an accretion disk phenomenon. A connection between the K emission and the BLR may still be possible if the high-ionization broad lines are largely produced in a disk structure (e.g., Murray & Chiang 1998). While additional detailed physics is required to account for the different line profile behaviors of the UV features and K lines, a further interesting similarity exists in that the BE for K is strongest in the red wing, in agreement with the UV trend. Fluorescence of Fe K in the AGN context is apparently part of a larger pattern of spectral ``reflection'' signatures, resulting from scattering and emission by X-ray-irradiated media with large column density, which also include a Compton-reflection hump peaking in flux density at ~ 30-50 keV and Fe K-edge absorption at ~ 7 keV; theoretical studies predict an additional reflection component of thermal emission that would contribute to the optical/UV ``Big Blue Bump'' (BBB; Guilbert & Rees 1988; Lightman & White 1988). Nandra et al. (1995) have pointed out an important difficulty in associating the BBB with reflection, in that luminous QSOs that typically exhibit a prominent BBB (as parametrized, for example, by a steep ox) also exhibit weak reflection signatures in the X-ray bandpass, i.e. weak K and Compton reflection features. This result strongly suggests that processes other than reflection/reprocessing of the X-ray continuum dominate the generation of the optical/UV continuum in AGNs. The X-ray BE shows some dependence on source radio properties, with radio-quiet QSOs featuring characteristically larger W for K than radio-loud sources show (Nandra et al. 1997a; Reeves et al. 1997). This result runs counter to the UV pattern. A possible means of reconciling these findings is to postulate a beamed component to the X-ray continuum in radio-loud sources, which is seen by us (7) and the broad-line clouds but not by the medium responsible for Fe K fluorescence. This component would give rise to greater heating of the BLR clouds and hence the observed enhancement in UV line strengths, while strengthening the observed X-ray continuum and thus diluting the K equivalent widths. An anisotropic component to the ionizing continuum might well be expected for radio-loud sources, which show evidence of relativistic outflows that naturally produce beamed radiation fields in the observer's frame. An anisotropic component to the X-ray emission has been suggested previously for other reasons (e.g., Browne & Murphy 1987), and an enhancement of this component in radio-loud sources would be consistent with the fact that radio-loud quasars are characteristically harder in ox than radio-quiet systems (e.g., Zamorani et al. 1981). AGNs show substantial variability in the X-ray continuum, and recent work has also revealed detections of variability in Fe K emission in individual sources (Iwasawa et al. 1996; Yaqoob et al. 1996; Nandra et al. 1997c; Iwasawa & Taniguchi The existing studies do not provide a clear basis for drawing an analogy between the behavior of K, and the intrinsic BE seen in UV lines; the degree to which K flux is correlated with the continuum in variable sources is ambiguous at this point, and may be a complicated function of velocity across the line profile. Improved measurements are of more general interest for study of AGN structure on very small scales. Iwasawa & Taniguchi have also discussed variability in relation to the global X-ray BE, and suggest that the range in luminosity over which the correlation is observed (~ 4 orders of magnitude) argues, as in the UV case, against variability as the source of the ensemble trend. 7 This picture assumes that radio-loud objects for which our line of sight falls outside the beam would generally be classified as something other than quasars - e.g., FR II radio galaxies (Barthel 1989). Back.

There will also be power savings. Research funded by the U.S. military currently runs similar optical calculations using six standard PCs, Brinkworth says. But the hundred million or so nerves in an insect brain use less than one ten-thousandth of a wattor less than one-millionth the power of a standard light bulb. Brinkworth's prototypes are showing similar savings. "In the end stage, if we add these [devices] to cameras, hardly any extra power would be needed," he said. But Brinkworth is guarding the exact details of his work for commercial reasons. Brinkworth's work is part of a larger effort to give human-made vision systems such as security cameras the same robust seeing power as living eyes. (Related: "Animal Eyes Provide High-Tech Optical Inspiration" [December 2005].) Cells in living eyes each work individually to adjust to various parts of an image. So they can produce a more detailed picture of the world, Brinkworth says. "Millions of years of evolution have given living vision systems the ability to handle a wide variation in light," said Reid Harrison, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. "Digital cameras and chemical film don't have the same latitude." Engineers want software that can mimic biological photoreceptors and higher-level visual processing. Others are interested in motion detection. "Movement detection is key to security and defense applications," Brinkworth said. "When someone is creeping in shadow, you want that to pop out more." The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research funded early stages of his project. The military group wants target-detection systems that spot fast-moving objects in "noisy" surroundings, such as planes or missiles zooming across a cloudy sky. "This is providing some interesting and rather unexpected results, which could lead to novel, biologically-inspired solutions to digital image compression and recovery," said Mandyam Srinivasan, director of the Center for Visual Sciences at the Australian National University, who is familiar but unassociated with Brinkworth's project. But the development challenges remain daunting. "Some say roughly half of the brain deals with visual information in some way, and roughly half of an insect's brain is also dedicated just to seeing," the University of Utah's Harrison said. "So there is a lot more to be done after these initial stages." Free Email News Updates Best Online Newsletter, 2006 Codie Awards Sign up for our Inside National Geographic newsletter. Every two weeks we'll send you our top stories and pictures (see sample). SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES

Roman Martyrology records several feast days of martyrs of this name in different countries Leonidas (or LEONIDES), Saint.—The Roman Martyrology records several feast days of martyrs of this name in different countries. Under date of January 28 there is a martyr called Leonides, a native of the Thebaid, whose death with several companions is supposed to have occurred during the Diocletian persecution (Acta SS., January, II, 832). Another Leonides appears on September 2, in a long list of martyrs headed by a St. Diomedes. Together with a St. Eleutherius, a Leonides is honored on August 8. From other sources we know of a St. Leonidas, Bishop of Athens, who lived about the sixth century, and whose feast is celebrated on April 15 ("Acta SS.", April, II, 378; "Bibliotheca hagiographica graeca", 2 ed., 137). Still another martyr of the name is honored on April 16, with Callistus, Charysius, and other companions (Acta SS., April, II, 402). The best known of them all, however, is St. Leonides of Alexandria, father of the great Origen. From Eusebius (Hiast. Eccles., VI, 1, 2) we learn that he died a martyr during the persecution under Septimius Severna in 202. He was condemned to death by the prefect of Egypt, Lactus, and beheaded. His property was confiscated. Leonides carefully cultivated the brilliant intellect of his son Origen from the latter's childhood, and imparted to him the knowledge of Holy Scripture. The feast of St. Leonidas of Alexandria is celebrated on April 22. J. P. KIRSCH

Exploration of the Gulf of Mexico 2014: Leg 2 (Mapping) Map showing the planned area where the Okeanos Explorer will conduct mapping operations during the Gulf of Mexico Leg 2 Expedition. Image courtesy of ESRI, GEBCO, NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, the U.S. Continental Shelf Project, and National Geographic. Download high-resolution version (3.3 Mb). On March 19, 2014, the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer will sail out of Galveston, Texas, to conduct exploratory seafloor and water column mapping in the areas south and southeast of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS), located in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Seafloor bathymetry, acoustic backscatter, and sub-bottom stratigraphic data will be collected continuously throughout the duration of the cruise. On April 4, 2014, the Okeanos Explorer will return to port in to Pascagoula, Mississippi. Northwest Gulf of Mexico Mapping Exploration of the region south of FGBNMS will produce high-resolution bathymetry and acoustic backscatter maps. These maps will provide critical baseline information to scientists and resource managers interested in identifying and expanding our understanding of important biological habitats and ecological connections in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Additionally, the data collected will help scientists better understand the size and character of seafloor habitats in the area, allowing for improved targeting of future exploration and research. Ecological modeling suggests that this area has a high likelihood of containing deepwater coral habitat. The area may also contain biological communities associated with hardgrounds, brine pools, and hydrocarbon seeps. These habitats are often biological hotspots supporting a variety of fauna, including fish and invertebrate species. Scientists can use the data collected during this leg and future cruises to explore the physical and biological relationships between the existing marine sanctuary area, shelf-edge reefs, and deepwater features. This may ultimately help conservation managers determine if shelf banks and deepwater habitats should be protected. Partners in Exploration The NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer conducts community-driven exploration, working with the ocean science and management communities to identify priority exploration areas and data needs. Mapping priorities for this leg of the expedition were identified considering input from NOAA's Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, National Marine Fisheries Service Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program, National Centers for Coastal and Ocean Science, the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council, and gaps in contemporary, high-resolution mapping data. Leveraging community input on priority exploration needs ensures the data acquired meets a broad range of user needs. The data collected by the Okeanos Explorer during this expedition will provide baseline information about seafloor habitats and help improve our understanding of the ecological connection between mid-water and deepwater biological communities. All collected data will be available in NOAA's public data archives within 60-90 days of the conclusion of the cruise and can be accessed via the OER Digital Atlas. Sign up for the Ocean Explorer Email Update List.

A GIS application for assessing landslide hazard over a large area Zolfaghari, A. and Heath, A. C., 2008. A GIS application for assessing landslide hazard over a large area. Computers and Geotechnics, 35 (2), pp. 278-285. Related documents:This repository does not currently have the full-text of this item. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided below. (Contact Author) A sophisticated GIS application for assessing landslide hazard on a large scale is presented. In order to assess the landslide hazard, the critical natural slope in a small field of study, 200 m × 200 m, is found and the slope is analysed using a non-circular failure envelope with estimated soil properties, groundwater levels, earthquake, and surcharged loadings. The analysis uses a probabilistic approach, where groundwater, earthquake and soil properties each contribute to the analysis, even though some factors may have a relatively small influence. Landslide hazard can then be estimated within a period of time by analysing the probabilistic distribution of factor of safety. |Creators||Zolfaghari, A.and Heath, A. C.| |Uncontrolled Keywords||probabilistic, earthquake, slope stability, groundwater, gis| |Departments||Faculty of Engineering & Design > Architecture & Civil Engineering| Actions (login required)

Atheism is the belief that there is no God. It is not a mere lack of belief in God, nor is it a belief in ignorance of God, but specifically that there is no God. The belief that we cannot know or understand God or anything of a supra-material order (the previously mentioned belief in ignorance) is today generally termed "agnosticism." Both positions are condemned by the Orthodox Church for being a belief in error for denial (explicitly in the case of atheists and some agnostics, implicitly in the case of other agnostics) of the truth of God and Jesus Christ. Although the word "atheism" is actually more appropriately applicable to "agnosticism." The "a-" prefix meaning "lack of," and "-theism" indicating belief in a higher power, an atheist is etymologically one without belief in a higher power, not someone who specifically denies the existence of such as the "atheists" of today do by definition. The more appropriate term for the denial of the supernatural would be "antitheism," "anti-" meaning "against," indicating opposition to belief in a higher power. - Atheism on Wikipedia. - Orthodox Christianity and Militant Atheism in the Twentieth Century from Timothy Ware's The Orthodox Church (2nd ed), Penguin Books, London 1993, pp 145-9 and 162. - Atheism and Orthodoxy in Modern Russia delivered by Fr. Hilarion Alfeyev at the Orthodox Peace Fellowship retreat in Vézelay, France, 5-7 May 2001 - The Challenge of Atheism by Fr. Stephen Freeman - Christian Atheism by Fr. Stephen Freeman - History of the Orthodox Church: The Modern Church: Confrontation with Atheistic Regimes by Aristeides Papadakis, Ph.D.

Ninilchik was founded in 1847 as a subsistence agricultural retirement community for families of the Russian American Company. By that time, a number of the company's employees in Sitka and Kodiak had spent most of their adult lives in Alaska and had married Native women and had children. In addition to family ties, many were prohibited from retiring back to Russia. Russian law prohibited a serf from returning to his home territory in Russia as long as he owed money elsewhere. The Russian American Company granted easy credit to its employees to keep them in debt so they could not return to Russia. Ninilchik was chosen as a retirement settlement because it was one of the few areas in Alaska capable of sustaining subsistence agriculture. The first two families to occupy Ninilchik were those of Grigorii Kvasnikov and Iakov Knage, whose descendants still live on the Kenai Peninsula. By 1861, eight families lived at Ninilchik. The population continued to fish and grow subsistence gardens. Commercial fishing became the economic base after the turn of the last century. This photo was taken by Virgil Dahler in 1960 when the town was still nestled at the Ninilchik River mouth. Gradually the town center moved to the highway up on the bluff to the right. Development is now concentrated on either side of the Sterling Highway between the highway department and the fairgrounds. Today the economy has shifted to saltwater chartered halibut fishing. This text was written by Marge Mullen and Alan Boraas. The photograph is part of the photograph archives of the Anthropology Lab at Kenai Peninsula College. Peninsula Clarion ©2015. All Rights Reserved.

What’s Your Carbon Footprint? contributed by Lynne Heritage Our lives require energy for every task. Collectively, all the energy burned has led to global warming. We each are responsible for a portion of that. This Household Carbon Calculator allows you to measure your portion. Start by gathering last year’s utility and transportation records. The Excel spreadsheet will do the math for you. The total shows how many thousands of pounds of CO2 your household is responsible for emitting. The typical American household emits 50,000 – 60,000 pounds of CO2 each year. Then consult the list of steps to learn learn ways to cut your emissions. By taking any step, see how much lower your emissions can go. This all adds up to a smaller carbon footprint! Realize too, that this calculator is for the energy you use for your home and transportation choices. The energy used to transport the food you buy is a third major area where energy is consumed. Buying fresh, locally produced food dramatically shortens the trip to your table. The Ecohatchery Carbon Calculator includes credit for choosing a locally produced diet.

If you are struggling to retrieve a word that you are certain is on the tip of your tongue, or trying to perfect a slapshot that will send your puck flying into a hockey net, or if you keep stumbling over the same sequence of notes on the piano, be warned: you might be unconsciously creating a pattern of failure, a new study reveals. The research appears today in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Karin Humphreys, assistant professor in McMaster University’s Faculty of Science, and Amy Beth Warriner, an undergraduate student in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, suggest that most errors are repeated because the very act of making a mistake, despite receiving correction, constitutes the learning of that mistake. Humphreys says the research came about as a result of her own experiences of repeatedly getting into a tip-of-the-tongue (or TOT) state on particular words. “This can be incredibly frustrating – you know you know the word, but you just can’t quite get it,” she said. “And once you have it, it is such a relief that you can’t imagine ever forgetting it again. But then you do. So we began thinking about the mechanisms that might underlie this phenomenon. We realized that it might not be a case of everyone having certain words that are difficult for them to remember, but that by getting into a tip-of-the-tongue state on a particular word once, they actually learn to go into that incorrect state when they try to retrieve the same word again.” Humphreys and Warriner tested 30 students to see if their subjects could retrieve words after being given a definition. e.g. “What do you call an instrument for performing calculations by sliding beads along rods or grooves” (Answer: abacus). They then had to say whether they knew the answer, didn’t know it, or were in a TOT. If they were in a TOT, they were randomly assigned to spend either 10 or 30 seconds trying to retrieve the answer before finally being shown it. Two days later, subjects were tested on those same words again. One would assume that having been shown the correct word on Day 1 the subject would still remember it on Day 2. Not so. The subjects tended to TOT on the same words as before, and were especially more likely to do so if they had spent a longer time trying to retrieve them The longer time in the error state appears to reinforce that incorrect pattern of brain activation that caused the error. “It’s akin to spinning one’s tires in the snow: despite your perseverance you’re only digging yourself a deeper rut,” the researchers explained. There might be a strategy to solve the recurrence of tip-of-the-tongue situations, which is what Warriner is currently working on for her honours thesis. "If you can find out what the word is as soon as possible—by looking it up, or asking someone—you should actually say it to yourself,” says Humphreys. “It doesn't need to be out loud, but you should at least say it to yourself. By laying down another procedural memory you can help ameliorate the effects of the error. However, what the research shows is that if you just can't figure it out, stop trying: you’re just digging yourself in deeper." Source: McMaster University Explore further: Kids who lack sympathy more likely to share with virtuous friends

Building Fit Minds Under Stress: Neuroscientists Examine the Protective Effects of Mindfulness TrainingFebruary 15th, 2010 in Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry (PhysOrg.com) -- A University of Pennsylvania-led study in which training was provided to a high-stress U.S. military group preparing for deployment to Iraq has demonstrated a positive link between mindfulness training, or MT, and improvements in mood and working memory. Mindfulness is the ability to be aware and attentive of the present moment without emotional reactivity or volatility. The study found that the more time participants spent engaging in daily mindfulness exercises the better their mood and working memory, the cognitive term for complex thought, problem solving and cognitive control of emotions. The study also suggests that sufficient MT practice may protect against functional impairments associated with high-stress challenges that require a tremendous amount of cognitive control, self-awareness, situational awareness and emotional regulation. To study the protective effects of mindfulness training on psychological health in individuals about to experience extreme stress, cognitive neuroscientist Amishi Jha of the Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Penn and Elizabeth A. Stanley of Georgetown University provided mindfulness training for the first time to U.S. Marines before deployment. Jha and her research team investigated working memory capacity and affective experience in individuals participating in a training program developed and delivered by Stanley, a former U.S. Army officer and security-studies professor with extensive experience in mindfulness techniques. The program, called Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT™), aims to cultivate greater psychological resilience or “mental armor” by bolstering mindfulness. The program covered topics of central relevance to the Marines, such as integrating skills to manage stress reactions, increase their resilience to future stressors and improve their unit’s mission effectiveness. Thus, the program blended mindfulness skills training with concrete applications for the operational environment and information and skills about stress, trauma and resilience in the body. The program emphasized integrating mindfulness exercises, like focused attention on the breath and mindful movement, into pre-deployment training. These mindfulness skills were to regulate symptoms in the body and mind following an experience of extreme stress. The importance of regularly engaging in mindfulness exercises was also emphasized. “Our findings suggest that, just as daily physical exercise leads to physical fitness, engaging in mindfulness exercises on a regular basis may improve mind-fitness,” Jha said. “Working memory is an important feature of mind-fitness. Not only does it safeguard against distraction and emotional reactivity, but it also provides a mental workspace to ensure quick-and-considered decisions and action plans. Building mind-fitness with mindfulness training may help anyone who must maintain peak performance in the face of extremely stressful circumstances, from first responders, relief workers and trauma surgeons, to professional and Olympic athletes.” Study participants included two military cohorts of 48 male participants with a mean age of 25 recruited from a detachment of Marine reservists during the high-stress pre-deployment interval and provided MT to one group of 31, leaving 17 Marines in a second group without training as a control. The MT group attended an eight-week course and logged the amount of out-of-class time they spent practicing formal exercises. The effect of the course on working memory was evaluated using the Operation Span Task, whereas the impact on positive and negative affect was evaluated using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, or PANAS. The Positive Affect scale reflects the extent to which a person feels enthusiastic, active and alert. The Negative Affect scale reflects unpleasant mood states, such as anger, disgust and fear. Working memory capacity degraded and negative mood increased over time in the control group. A similar pattern was observed in those who spent little time engaging in mindfulness exercises within the MMFT group. Yet, capacity increased and negative mood decreased in those with high practice time over the eight weeks. The study findings are in line with prior research on Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, or MBSR, programs and suggest that MMFT may provide “psychological prophylaxis,” or protection from cognitive and emotional disturbances, even among high-stress cohorts such as members of the military preparing for deployment. Given the high rate of post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental-health disturbances suffered by those returning from war, providing such training prior to deployment may buffer against potential lifelong psychological illness by bolstering working memory capacity. In the several months prior to a deployment, service members receive intensive training on mission-critical operational skills, physical training and “stress-inoculation” training to habituate them to stressors they may experience during their impending mission. They also must psychologically prepare to leave loved ones and face potentially violent and unpredictable situations during their deployment. Persistent and intensive demands, such as those experienced during high-stress intervals, have been shown to deplete working memory capacity and lead to cognitive failures and emotional disturbances. The research team hypothesized that MMFT may mitigate these deleterious effects by bolstering working memory capacity. The study, published in the journal Emotion and also featured in the most recent edition of Joint Force Quarterly, the advisory journal for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was funded by the John W. Kluge Foundation and the Department of Defense. Provided by Pennsylvania State University "Building Fit Minds Under Stress: Neuroscientists Examine the Protective Effects of Mindfulness Training." February 15th, 2010. http://phys.org/news185466556.html

Here's a card game I'm experimenting with and I'm quite excited to use in my classes to help students become more fluent at reading intervals. I've made up these cards that can be used on its own (as flashcards) or for a game of Interval Snap. Instructions to play: - Distribute all cards equally to each student - All cards to be placed faced down. Each student opens the top card and the person with the largest interval snaps up all cards. If there is a tie, students continue to draw cards to determine who has the larger interval. Game continues until a student wins all cards. - For variation, the teacher calls out "move" and all students move to the right, playing the set of cards of the next student. Set a timer for a shorter game You are welcome to print Interval Snap for your studio use. I've also included a card backing which is optional to print on the other side. There is also a template for anyone who wishes to create additional cards for patterning or melody playback activities. Game making is fun!....now it's time for a test drive with a few students :)

Common name: Wild Violet Viola banksii K.R.Thiele & Prober APNI* Synonyms: Viola reniformis (Sweet) Endl. APNI* Description: Vigorous perennial herb spreading with stolons. Leaves broad-reniform, forming rosettes, mostly 18–25 mm long, 30–45 mm wide, glabrous, margins toothed. Stipules narrow-triangular to broad-triangular, usually with glandular teeth. Flowers on scapes to 15 cm long, exceeding the leaves, violet and white, anterior petal ovate to broad ellitpic, broadest in the middle third, with a large green V-shaped blotch at the base, then rich violet for over half its length and prominent large white apex., prominently 3-veined, lateral petals widely spreading and strongly twisted, rich violet at base gradually grading to white; dorsal petals erect to strongly reflexed, white for most of their length. Fruit white or pale green, often flecked. Seeds long glossy purplish black. 1.8–2.5 mm long. Distribution and occurrence: Common and widespread in near coastal sites from Ulladulla to just N of the Qld - NSW border. Characteristically found on coastal headlands, dune swales and soastal swamp and rainforest fringes, usually in moist areas. NSW subdivisions: NC, CC, SC Other Australian states: Qld Derivation of the name is after Joseph Banks (1743-1820), naturalist on the Cook voyage to Australia, and with Daniel Solander, the first collector of the Viola hederacea species complex. Text by Louisa Murray Taxon concept: Kevin R. Thiele amd Suzanne M. Prober Mulleria 18:7-25 (2003) APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data ***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.

Is there a glossary of environmental terms? Where can I locate a definition for an EPA abbreviation or acronym? EPA Terminology Services Home: http://ofmpub.epa.gov/sor_internet/registry/termreg/home/overview/home.do EPA's Terminology Services are a suite of tools and services intended to address several issues related to information management. These areas are: - Understanding EPA: EPA programs often define terms and acronyms differently, or use different terms to mean the same thing. Understanding the terms we use is essential to properly interpret information used in decision making. To be transparent, EPA needs to provide access to its terminology. - Information Access: EPA expends significant resources collecting information. Making that information ‘findable’ requires that it be cataloged and indexed. Terminology Services provides the tools and services needed to develop and manage vocabularies used to catalog and index our information assets. - Semantic Web: We need to manage terminology to position the agency for the Semantic Web. Terminology Services consists of: - Repository of environmental terms, their relationships, definitions, and relevant metadata (e.g., synonyms) - Tool for the creation and management of vocabulary resources 9e.g., glossaries, taxonomies, thesauri)* - Wiki-based platform for collaborative vocabulary development Additionally, Terminology Services includes: - Access to key EPA vocabularies, including EPA’s Web Taxonomy - Web services to import and export vocabularies* - Ability to publish vocabularies in human and machine readable/open formats* - "My Glossaries" allows users to create customized glossaries - Training and documentation (i.e., best practices and FAQs) for developing vocabularies - Access to vocabulary development expertise *Synaptica KMS Software is utilized for these tasks. EPA Terminology Services Terms & Acronyms: http://ofmpub.epa.gov/sor_internet/registry/termreg/searchandretrieve/termsandacronyms/search.do (Browse EPA terms and acronyms alphabetically.) EPA Terminology Services Vocabulary Catalog: (The Vocabulary Catalog contains 193 vocabularies that support the EPA's missions and operations. These vocabularies can be browsed by topic, EPA office, or EPA region.) Frequent Questions and Help with EPA Terminology Services can be found here: - About EPA - Chemicals and Toxics - Climate Change - Data, Methods, and Models - Emergencies and Natural Disasters - Greener Living - Health and Safety - Land and Cleanup - Laws and Regulations - Topic #: 23002-19275 - Date Created: 11/18/2004 - Last Modified Since: 12/29/2014 - Viewed: 3967

Massive, overwhelming and rich with meaning, Reid's black bronze sculpture features a fantastic canoe-bound collection of half-human, half-animal figures from Haida spiritual beliefs. The five tonne sculpture was installed at the Canadian embassy in Washington in 1991. It is so big that it had to be lifted by crane in order to be lowered down through a smokehole into a pool of water. The work is so impressive that a plaster cast of the sculpture is also prominently displayed at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec, and a replica was commissioned for Vancouver Airport's International Terminal. The Canadian Masterpiece The idea for The Spirit Of Haida Gwaii was born in 1985 when Vancouver architect Arthur Erickson asked Bill Reid to create a sculpture for the entry court of the Canadian Embassy in Washington D.C. Reid suggested a canoe full of travellers, an image which could serve as a symbolic bridge between cultures. The crowded canoe holds thirteen passengers (not including stowaways). They appear in the shape of humans, bears, rodents, birds, a wolf and an amphibian, yet upon closer inspection, each character bears both human and animal likeness. The Spirit of Haida Gwaii is Reid's largest and most complex work. The sculpture is made of cast bronze with black patina. Starting from the initial small clay sketch, it took five years to produce the 4900 kg (10,800 lb.), 6 m (19'10") long , 3.5 m (12'9") high final product. The work took place in Reid's Vancouver studio, and at a foundry in Beacon, New York. The sculpture went through a number of transformations including a plaster model, full-size prototype, complete plaster mold, and a hollow mold; all this before the months of welding, carving and recarving. Its surface was treated with commercial shoe polish to protect it from exposure. Haida Gwaii: the place The name Haida Gwaii, translated as The Islands of the People, is actually the short version of a Haida phrase which means The Islands at the Boundary of the World. This refers to an archipelago more commonly known to Canadians as the Queen Charlotte Islands. Captain George Dixon named the islands after his British merchant ship Queen Charlotte in 1787. But Haida people inhabited these islands long before Captain Dixon cruised by. Archaeological evidence and cultural memory suggest that the Haida first made these islands their home some 8,000 years ago. Carving his niche Born in Victoria B.C. on January 12, 1920, William Ronald Reid set out on an artistic life from very early on. He attended a private school run by Alice Carr, artist Emily Carr's sister. His grandfather's uncle, Charles Edenshaw, was known as the grandmaster of Haida argillite carving. Argillite is a sedimentary rock found in the Queen Charlotte Islands. Son of a Haida mother and naturalized Canadian father, Reid worked for ten years as a CBC radio announcer before studying Haida carving techniques at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The Haida are known for many beautiful and distinctive artistic traditions, including the giant totem poles lining the fronts of their rectangular wooden houses. Reid was fascinated by the history, legends and artistic traditions he studied. Those studies changed his life, and Reid is now recognized around the world as one of the greatest carvers of the modern age. Throughout his artistic career, Reid has experimented with a variety of media including jewellery-making, silk screening, carving canoes and totem poles, European art techniques and illustration, as well as sculpting with bronze and other materials. In all of his work, Reid draws upon his Haida heritage for inspiration, and it is widely felt that the power and grace of his work have done much to revive Northwest Coast Native arts that might otherwise have slipped into obscurity. French anthropologist Claude Levis-Strauss wrote that "our debt to Bill Reid, an incomparable artist, is that he has tended and revived a flame that was so close to dying." Bill Reid has received honorary degrees from five Canadian universities. He has won several awards recognizing artistic excellence, and has been studied and praised by people from many disciplines.

Catechists Background and Preparation To prepare for the session read all the readings. Psalm 138:1-2, 2-3, 6-7, 7-8 Spend a few minutes reflecting on what these readings mean for you today. Was there a particular reading which appealed to you? Was there a word or image that engaged you? Read the Word in Liturgy and Catholic Doctrine sections. These give you background on what you will be doing this session. Read over the session outline and make it your own. Check to see what materials you will need for the session. The Word in Liturgy Today’s reading from Genesis picks up where last week’s left off. After the departure of the mysterious strangers from his tent, Abraham finds himself walking with the Lord, bargaining over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. The scene should strike a chord with the attentive reader: Adam had been destined to walk in the garden with God, but lost that privilege by his sin. Now Abraham, by virtue of God’s promise, is accorded the great gift lost by Adam. The two walk together in intimate exchange, not as equals, but surely in respectful mutuality. Abraham seeks to know the Lord better, to understand his mind and will. The appearance may suggest the haggling at an oriental bazaar, but at a deeper level Abraham is coming to a better knowledge of the Lord with whom he is walking. He is not necessarily trying to change God’s mind, just to understand whether God’s justice would allow the just to perish together with the wicked. As an image of what our prayer should be like, the passage is a gold mine of insights. In Psalm 138 we find a song of praise and thanksgiving for God’s deliverance (perhaps from the exile). Its choice is surely guided by the first reading’s portrayal of a God willing to relent in punishment and spare the wicked if only a handful can be found who are faithful. It was the custom in Jesus’ day that a rabbi give to his followers a distinctive way of praying, by which their unique identity could be identified and fostered. Luke describes Jesus as being at prayer when his disciples ask for “their” special prayer. Scholars have long commented on the importance of the way that Jesus addresses God as “Abba,” a word equivalent to our “daddy.” In that intimate address to Yahweh, so unusual among Jesus’ contemporaries, we see the heart of the filial consciousness of Jesus. Luke has five petitions that follow, each one well documented elsewhere in the Gospel as characteristic of Jesus’ way of acting. Most likely, each of the petitions in its original form was highly eschatological; Luke has made them more relevant to the daily life of the Christian. Luke then adds three parables that illustrate Jesus’ teaching on the prayer of petition. Our reading, however, covers only the first two. The Lord’s Prayer: Summary of the Gospel The fundamental importance that the Catholic Church places on the prayer Jesus taught his disciples is reflected in The Catechism of the Catholic Church. A major portion of the section on Christian Prayer is dedicated to illuminating the text of the Lord’s Prayer. One-hundred and six paragraphs are given over to an explanation of this prayer (CCC 2759-2865). Indeed, we believe that all of the scriptures, whether from the Law, the Prophets or the Psalms, are fulfilled in Christ. When one refers to the “good news” of God, the point of reference is the person of Jesus Christ. Christ is the eternal Word of God who in his person, his ministry and his teaching brings to the world the gospel of Life. The initial proclamation of the gospel is recorded for us by St. Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount, and the text of Jesus’ prayer to the Father is found in the center of this teaching. (Note: While this Sunday’s gospel passage comes from Luke’s gospel, which also has a version of the Lord’s Prayer, the Church, in its liturgical tradition makes use of the seven petitions preserved in Matthew’s text.) In what way is this prayer text a summary of the good news? Why do we believe that it is unique and fundamental? It comes from the mouth of Jesus himself, he who is the eternal Word of God among us. As the incarnate Word, he understands in his human heart the needs of our own hearts and gives us the means to express our innermost longings through this text. In one sense, we have many needs, many prayers that we address to God. But God has only One prayer (if you will) for us, Jesus Christ. He is the very model of Christian prayer. Our own life of prayer is based in his example. The text of the Our Father is not merely words strung together, such that when we pray them we recite them automatically. We have also been given, along with these words and the teachings of Jesus, the Holy Spirit. In that Spirit we are adopted as sons and daughter of the Most High and therefore we can correctly address God as “Abba,” or Father.

Engineering drawings are used to facilitate the production of all engineering components and systems. An engineering drawing is only one document of a suite of documents used including calculations,design specification, data sheets, material specifications etc. etc. There is a strong economic motivation and often a vital (mandatory) safety requirement that the drawings are fit for their purpose. Standards including the ones referenced in BS 8888 provide guidance on the preparation of drawings. Unfortunately drawings are produced by humans or human substitutes (computers) and often include errors. The checking function is an important function enabling the reduction of errors to an acceptable level. Checking can be completed at various levels as listed below: - Signing the check box to get the drawing through the system - useless - Simple scan to check for neatness and presentation -virtually useless - Detailed check of ones own drawing - Useful but not substitute for independent check- One is often blind to ones own errors - Detailed dimension check by the designer of drawings produced by subordinate draughtsmen. Useful but design errors may be overlooked - Detailed dimension check by independent engineer- Very useful but fundamental design errors may be overlooked - Detailed design & dimension check by independent engineer- Very useful with some cost penalty - Design review by diverse design team with follow up detailed independent design /dimension check- extremely useful -expensive Engineering production includes an intrinsic self correcting facility in that in the manufacturing process drawings are used by number of downstream departments each using the drawing for their own purpose. Each responsible person in these departments seeing the drawing is able to feed back to the designer any errors noticed. In the various production stages drawing errors may result in obvious errors in the components produced resulting in scrap and then consequent correction of the offending drawings. The inspection of finished components often identifies drawing errors which are communicated to design department. The assembly and testing of produced components often uncovers problems resulting in correction of drawing errors. The end user of the component will also have some impact on the design when complaining about its low reliability. All of these feedback routes have progressively increased cost penalty. Preparation for Checking For a drawing check to be completed efficiently and correctly the following items must be available. - Checking pens/pencils three colours [ OK, Delete, Amend ] - Approved design specifications - Information on the service conditions if not included in above - Approved process /mechanical data sheets - Reports /minutes of relevant design review meetings - Company Drawing Standards /Relevant standards e.g. BS 8888 referenced standards - Company Material/Equipment Standards /Relevant Standards/Directives etc e.g Machinery Directive. - All relevant component literature. e.g. Bearing design data, gearbox information etc - Drawings of existing similar successful operating systems - Full set of completed drawings to be checked The checker should make himself fully aware of the design requirements by reviewing all documents prepared prior and following production of the drawings. The checker should, at this stage confirm that these documents are approved. The layout /arrangement drawings should be checked for the following features The drawings should clearly : - Illustrate the complete system design with no ambiguity - Position the system in the relevant world.e.g. Datum positions and Direction arrow pointing North - Identify the space required by the system. - Identify the access required for and to the system. - Ensure that all sub-assemblies and details are correctly referenced - Indicate floor static / dynamic / full/ empty loadings - Indicate important lifting provisions - Identify the relevant installation drawings. The checker should, at this stage review in outline that the system will operate satisfactorily and is aesthetically acceptable and that there are no obvious strength problems. The checker should check the design against any similar successful systems. Installation/ Assembly /Detail Drawings The drawing should be neat with bold outlines and clear hidden/centre lines The checker should ensure that the drawing is unambiguous and conforms to the accepted company standards ( Better to BS 8888 ref'd standards). The title block should be correctly completed and the title should be clear and provide the correct key words in the correct arrangement. The text size should be in accordance with the relevant standard and should be clear without undue style All elevations and sections should be made to show most clearly the shape of the items and the machining production processes to be completed. The drawing should clearly show the the complete shape and all necessary dimensions of the item. All sub items should be completely identified against a component schedule. The drawings should include sufficient notes to clearly identify all production stages, and surface coatings.. If needed sub-views should be used to show parts not easily shown in the main elevations. All parts should be checked for strength and rigidity by confirming that suitable strength calculations have been completed and the drawing conforms with these calcs. The check should include comparing the items with similar existing successful parts. The check should confirm that the design has included consideration of fatigue. If operating conditions include repeated/reversing loads it is important that sources of stress concentration have been minimised and calculated strength levels have been suitably adjusted All materials specified should be suitable for the functional requirements and the operating environment.. In the UK, at this time, material specifications seem to be in continuous flux. There is still a tendency to specify materials such as BS 970 EN8. This is probably acceptable as it is definitive but it is much better to use the latest material specification and the material should be specified as recommended in the relevant standard. The checker should provide an input on the suitability of the material form if a significant design improvement or cost reduction results.i.e forged, cast, Ensure the drawing includes all dimensions and that the dimensions are correct. Dimensions should be checked manually to confirm they are to scale. If any dimension is out of scale ensure that, if it is correct, then it is marked appropriately.. Overall dimensions should be clear and unambiguous and machining allowances should be identified. Reference dimensions provided only for information should be so identified All extension lines should go to the correct points on the drawings All arrow points should point to the correct witness points The geometric and linear tolerances and limits should be checked to ensure correct clearances and tightness Ensure there are no strings of dimensions where errors can accumulate If the machining process includes a requirement for co-ordinate positioning the parts should be dimensioned accordingly Checking for assembly Ensure all parts can be conveniently assembled with the associated parts Male parts filets/chamfers and female part radii/ fillets to be sized so they do not interfere on assembly . Ensure bearings fits are correct to allow relative motion The parts should include features to enable dismantling if required It is important when checking items made from casting that the requirements of the casting process are considered e.g. the method of supporting the cores, vent provisions, and pattern split lines. Cast items should be of uniform thickness - no adjacent thick and thin sections Generous fillets should be used Ensure that machining allowances are included for core movement and swelling. Ensure sufficient machining allowances are provided for distortion of the casting Ensure that the correct machining symbols are used and they are located against the correct surfaces or witness lines When specific machining operations are required ensure that the requirements are identified Confirm that the correct drill, reamer,and tap sizes are included on the drawing Ensure that all features required to ensure convenient machining are provided i.e. clamping points Ensure that where required suitable raised faces are included to allow clear machining operations Ensure clearances are provided for machining and fastening spanners Ensure that all details include the weights All heavy items than say > 300N should include provision for lifting All lifting points should be clearly identified Specific lifting features should include requirement for factory testing -e.g a note The checker should confirm that the necessary calculations for the the lifting points have been completed and approved All components and main assemblies should be clearly identified either by an code number which cannot easily be removed or a fixed on label When needed the drawing should identify clearly that heat treatment is required and should also identify the relevant specification The checker should confirm that the specified heat treatment is appropriate It is desirable that within a company all CAD drawings are produced to a common CAD standard. This aspect of the drawing process is generally checked as a separate Checking CAD drawings includes confirming that the following tasks have been completed correctly.. - Separating parts of the drawing onto separate layers (title blocks, Line Types, etc) - Using standard fonts - Using Designated line types - Allocating colours to drawing features - Using correct title blocks / labels /borders - Drawing to scale when plotted at designated size - Blocks correctly inserted and unused blocks purged - Associated dimensions used To Be continued

In addition to their herb treatment the Cherokees frequently resort to sweat baths, bleeding, rubbing, and cold baths in the running stream, to say nothing of the beads and other conjuring paraphernalia generally used in connection with the ceremony. The sweat bath was in common use among almost all the tribes north of Mexico excepting the central and eastern Eskimo, and was considered the great cure-all in sickness and invigorant in health. Among many tribes it appears to have been regarded as a ceremonial observance, but the Cherokees seem to have looked upon it simply as a medical application, while the ceremonial part was confined to the use of the plunge bath. The person wishing to make trial of the virtues of the sweat bath entered the â'sï, a small earth-covered log house only high enough to allow of sitting down. After divesting himself of his clothing, some large bowlders, previously heated in a fire, were placed near him, and over them was poured a decoction of the beaten roots of the wild parsnip. The door was closed so that no air could enter from the outside, and the patient sat in the sweltering steam until he was in a profuse perspiration and nearly choked by the pungent fumes of the decoction. In accordance with general Indian practice it may be that he plunged into the river before resuming his clothing; but in modern times this part of the operation is omitted and the patient is drenched with cold water instead. Since the âsï has gone out of general use the sweating takes place in the ordinary dwelling, the steam being confined under a blanket wrapped around the patient. During the prevalence of the smallpox epidemic among the Cherokees at the close of the late war the sweat bath was universally called into requisition to stay the progress of the disease, and as the result about three hundred of the band died, while many of the survivors will carry the marks of the visitation to the grave. The sweat bath, with the accompanying cold water application, being regarded as the great panacea, seems to have been resorted to by the Indians in all parts of the country whenever visited by smallpox--originally introduced by the whites--and in consequence of this mistaken treatment they have died, in the language of an old writer, "like rotten sheep" and at times whole tribes have been almost swept away. Many of the Cherokees tried to ward off the disease by eating the flesh of the buzzard, which they believe to enjoy entire immunity from sickness, owing to its foul smell, which keeps the disease spirits at a distance. Bleeding is resorted to in a number of cases, especially in rheumatism and in preparing for the ball play. There are two methods of performing the operation, bleeding proper and scratching, the latter being preparatory to rubbing on the medicine, which is thus brought into more direct contact with the blood. The bleeding is performed with a small cupping horn, to which suction is applied in the ordinary manner, after scarification with a flint or piece of broken glass. In the blood thus drawn out the shaman claims sometimes to find a minute pebble, a sharpened stick or something of the kind, which he asserts to be the cause of the trouble and to have been conveyed into the body of the patient through the evil spells of an enemy. He frequently pretends to suck out such an object by the application of the lips alone, without any scarification whatever. Scratching is a painful process and is performed with a brier, a flint arrowhead, a rattlesnake's tooth, or even with a piece of glass, according to the nature of the ailment, while in preparing the young men for the ball play the shaman uses an instrument somewhat resembling a comb, having seven teeth made from the sharpened splinters of the leg bone of a turkey. The scratching is usually done according to a particular pattern, the regular method for the ball play being to draw the scratcher four times down the upper part of each arm, thus making twenty-eight scratches each about 6 inches in length, repeating the operation on each arm below the elbow and on each leg above and below the knee. Finally, the instrument is drawn across the breast from the two shoulders so as to form a cross; another curving stroke is made to connect the two upper ends of the cross, and the same pattern is repeated on the back, so that the body is thus gashed in nearly three hundred places. Although very painful for a while, as may well be supposed, the scratches do not penetrate deep enough to result seriously, excepting in some cases where erysipelas sets in. While the blood is still flowing freely the medicine, which in this case is intended to toughen the muscles of the player, is rubbed into the wounds after which the sufferer plunges into the stream and washes off the blood. In order that the blood may flow the longer without clotting it is frequently scraped off with a small switch as it flows. In rheumatism and other local diseases the scratching is confined to the part affected. The instrument used is selected in accordance with the mythologic theory, excepting in the case of the piece of glass, which is merely a modern makeshift for the flint arrowhead. Rubbing, used commonly for pains and swellings of the abdomen, is a very simple operation performed with the tip of the finger or the palm of the hand, and can not be dignified with the name of massage. In one of the Gahuni formulas for treating snake bites (page 351) the operator is told to rub in a direction contrary to that in which the snake coils itself, because "this is just the same as uncoiling it." Blowing upon the part affected, as well as upon the head, hands, and other parts of the body, is also an important feature of the ceremonial performance. In one of the formulas it is specified that the doctor must blow first upon the right hand of the patient, then upon the left foot, then upon the left hand, and finally upon the right foot, thus making an imaginary cross. Bathing in the running stream, or "going to water," as it is called, is one of their most frequent medico-religious ceremonies, and is performed on a great variety of occasions, such as at each new moon, before eating the new food at the green corn dance, before the medicine dance and other ceremonial dances before and after the ball play, in connection with the prayers for long life, to counteract the effects of bad dreams or the evil spells of an enemy, and as a part of the regular treatment in various diseases. The details of the ceremony are very elaborate and vary according to the purpose for which it is performed, but in all cases both shaman and client are fasting from the previous evening, the ceremony being generally performed just at daybreak. The bather usually dips completely under the water four or seven times, but in some cases it is sufficient to pour the water from the hand upon the head and breast. In the ball play the ball sticks are dipped into the water at the same time. While the bather is in the water the shaman is going through with his part of the performance on the bank and draws omens from the motion of the beads between his thumb and finger, or of the fishes in the water. Although the old customs are fast dying out this ceremony is never neglected at the ball play, and is also strictly observed by many families on occasion of eating the new corn, at each new moon, and on other special occasions, even when it is necessary to break the ice in the stream for the purpose, and to the neglect of this rite the older people attribute many of the evils which have come upon the tribe in later days. The latter part of autumn is deemed the most suitable season of the year for this ceremony, as the leaves which then cover the surface of the stream are supposed to impart their medicinal virtues to the water.

When yacht designer William Starling Burgess developed new J-Class models and thoroughly tank-tested them at the University of Michigan in 1931, he found no immediate takers, certainly due to the bleak economic outlook following the Wall Street Crash. American J boats were laid up after the big 1930 season and were not put back into commission in following years, though yachting continued in the smaller M-class (for the wealthiest), the R-Class and the Herreshoff S Class. But Starling Burgess did find takers for his 1931 designs when a challenge for the America's Cup was announced by the Royal Yacht Squadron on behalf of Sir T.O.M. Sopwith on October 17th, 1933. A number of 23mR-to-J-Class conversions drove incentive to continue racing Big Class yachts in the United Kingdom, and British designer Charles Ernest Nicholson explained that his new challenger Endeavour would draw significantly from his latest J Velsheda (1933). An American syndicate of 18 owners joined Harold Stirling Vanderbilt and ordered a new defender from the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, to be designed by Burgess and to be christened Rainbow. In order to make up for the delay with the British, Rainbow was built to the existing 1931 Burgess design in a record 97 days and, according to historian John Leather, she had "fairer bilges, a fuller bow and a more restrained forward profile" than Burgess' previous J Enterprise. She also featured a number of firsts: she had a pear-sectioned duralumin mast and the "North Circular" boom (a flexible spar which featured lateral wire tensioners to trim the mainsail foot), and she introduced solid rod lenticular rigging. She featured a higher-aspect profile and higher-tensioned rig with double-headsails. Her sail inventory included the novel quadrangular jib (a quadrilateral with two clews) which Charles Sherman Hoyt had first spotted on Endeavour in her Solent trials and a perfected genoa: a sail rarely used in the British breeze, but setting well in the light Yankee airs. Simultaneously, both 1930 defence candidates Weetamoe and Yankee were significantly modified above and below the waterline to join the 1934 selection trials. Although these modifications proved extremely successful for Yankee, they were not for Weetamoe and her underbody was soon reverted close to her original lines. A re-rigged Vanitie (now officially rating in the I-Class) served them all well as a capable trial horse. America's Cup defence selection trials concluded with the last race won by a second by Rainbow over Yankee. During the America's Cup races, Rainbow's older hull lines proved slower than Charles Ernest Nicholson's artful Endeavour, but her strength lay with Vanderbilt's excellent sense of leadership, with crew members assigned to numbers and tasks. Her afterguard was an exacting team, comprising Vanderbilt acting as skipper and upwind helmsman, downwind relief helmsman Charles Sherman Hoyt, mast nurse William Starling Burgess, parachute spinnaker expert Frank Cabot Paine, and navigator Zenas Bliss, each providing a useful input to the decision making process. Endeavour, with her partly-amateur crew, won the first two races, and only made a few mistakes in the following races, but Rainbow faultlessly capitalised on all of them, won every subsequent race and successfully defended the America's Cup. After the races, the two yacht designers traded each other's lines, and the very strengths of Charles Ernest Nicholson's artful Endeavour were yielded to the American opposition - a bad stage-setting for the next challenge. The America's Cup defender which almost lost the trophy in 1934, has been rebuilt. She was ordered by the owner of the schooner Windrose of Amsterdam (Gerard Dijkstra design, Holland Jachtbouw, 2001) and re-designed by Dykstra & Parners, who have a wealth of experience in the J-Class. Gerard Dijkstra himself served as the main naval architect behind the Endeavour, Shamrock V and Velsheda J-Class refits. His firm was later sold to to his partner Thijs Nikkels, who carried out an extensive refit of the J replica Ranger after her first racing season in 2005 to improve the yacht's performance, and he served as the main architect on the J replica Hanuman, launched in 2009. So Rainbow is in effect the sixth J-Class project carried out by the firm. The boat's aluminium works themselves were built at Freddie Bloemsma's shipyard in Friesland; Joinery works and fitout have been completed at the Holland Jachtbouw shipyard in Noord Holland, where the boat is awaiting to be launched later this month. The new replica is slightly different from the original Rainbow, as the J-Class Association rules are different from the Universal Rule in effect in the 1930s. She will sit lower in the water (the 15ft maximum draught restriction has been lifted and she will draw 16ft) so the freeboard has been raised by one foot and the Designer's Waterline Length has been significantly increased. The lines themselves, although the same in essence, have been optimised. She is much heavier because her interiors are furnished for luxury charter, with the addition of a doghouse, whereas the original was very sparsely furnished. The original Universal Rule copied sail area variations directly into the boat's overall rating, but the new replica will carry a significantly larger rig and sailplan. Rainbow is also the fourth J built in aluminium, but this material was forbidden for the building of hulls in the 1930s. The new Rainbow will be in trials until April before delivery to her owner, and she is expected at the summer J-Class regattas in Falmouth and Cowes. There she will meet with Endeavour, which during Rainbow's build, underwent an 18-month refit at the Yachting Developments shipyard in New Zealand and also supervised by Dykstra & Partners. Endeavour now features lighter interiors, a new deck layout with dorades removed, and a completely new rig and sailplan, with entirely new load paths and fewer repositioned winches. Both boats have a lot of crew training to do, and excitingly, 2012 will reveal if Endeavour is still the faster boat, or if it is still all up to the crew. |SPECIFICATIONS FROM HJB||Rainbow (1934)||Rainbow (2012)| |naval architecture||William Starling Burgess||Dykstra & Partners| |builder||Herreshoff Manufacturing Company||Bloemsma Aluminiumbouw, Holland Jachtbouw| |sails||Ratsey & Lapthorn||North Sails| |Length OverAll||129ft 4in (39.40m)||130ft 3in (39.72m)| |Load Waterline Length||81ft 9in (24.90m)||89ft 3in (27.22m)| |beam||20ft 9in (6.30m)||20ft 11in (6.37m)| |draught||15ft (4.57m) with centerboard up||16ft, no centerboard| |displacement||141 tons||178 tons| |upwind sail area||7,530sqft (700m²)||10,005sqft (930m²)| |rating||76ft, Universal Rule / J-Class||J-Class Association / Velocity Prediction Program| |mast height||163ft (49.70m)||171ft 8in (52.33m)| |boom length||66ft 2in (20.16m)||61ft 2in (18.65m)| |ballast||lead, tobin bronze plated||lead, cased in aluminium hull| |rig||rivetted duralumin mast, rod rigging||Southern Spars carbonfiber 55.5m mast, EC6 rigging| Read the original yacht's full specifications at Jacques Taglang's AC-Clopaedia page and the new replica's at the official website. Mention of her hybrid propulsion systems are provided by the shipyard's press release. You can also follow Jan Kraak's beautiful model here, be sure to hit the next page link at the bottom.

Various plant spacing resulted in the increased plant height, onion bulb size, weight of the bulbs, number of the bulbs per plot and yield of the bulbs. In case of different nitrogen levels, all the parameters under the study were significantly affected. However, 12 cm plant spacing with 100 kg N ha -1 gave the best results. Maximum yield of onion bulbs (22.90 and 22.82 t ha -1) was obtained from 12 cm plant spacing with 100 kg N ha -1, respectively. Hizbullah Khan , Muhammad Iqbal , Abdul Ghaffoor and Kashif Waseem , 2002. Effect of Various Plant Spacing and Different Nitrogen Levels on the Growth and Yield of Onion (Allium cepa L.) . Journal of Biological Sciences, 2: 545-547.

Uses for Spray-on Solar Panels Solar panel efficiency, fabrication technology and manufacturing engineering are important not only in the solar industry but to you, the consumer. New technology and inexpensive materials and production mean more practical, every day applications. Currently, applications of traditional commercial PV solar panels and solar-energy systems are out of range for most of us, aside from affixing rigid solar panels to the rooftops of our homes. PV technology is used to power spacecraft, to bring electricity into remote villages in developing countries and to power remote buildings (or anything that requires electricity, really). Thin-film PV technologies have been on the market for about 15 years or so and are the solar technology most of us have come in contact with. Where? If you've ever used a solar-powered calculator, you've experienced the power of thin-film solar cells. Its flexible nature allows it to go places where traditional panels can't, including into private homes and electronic devices, but it's also used in similar energy-producing ways on buildings and in remote locations. Spray-on solar panels will be sold as a hydrogen film that can be applied as a coating to materials -- potentially everything from a small electronic device to a new way to power an electric car's battery. Similar to the solar technology of today, spray-on panels could be incorporated into buildings themselves, not just rooftops. One day you may buy clothing with solar film woven into the fabric.

From Science Olympiad Student Center Wiki |Earth Science & Study Event| |Test Exchange Archive| |There are no images available for this event| |Division B Champion||Winston Churchill Middle School| |Division C Champion||Troy High School (California)| Glaciers are the topic of Dynamic Planet for the 2013 season. For the 2012-2013 season, each team is allowed to bring four 8.5" x11" double sided Note Sheets, continuing the trend started with Earth's Fresh Water. What are glaciers? Glaciers are large masses of snow and ice that have accumulated over years of snowfall and have flowed at some point in their lifespan. Their thickness can vary from as little as 50 to as large as thousands of meters. They form when snow does not fully melt during the warm part of the year, allowing the snow to accumulate and begin to compress. Glaciers originate on land, but can flow into the sea. Glaciers can leave many unique landscapes, including new lakes, in their trails. The deposited material a glacier leaves is called a "moraine" or "glacial till". The front of a traveling glacier is called the "glacier head" while the back is called the "terminus." On earth, 99% of glacier ice is found in the polar regions. Glaciers are a large part of erosion and deposition. They grind rock as they pass and also pick some sediment up and deposit them on the way. Glaciers can change V-shaped valleys formed by rivers into U-shaped valleys. Glaciers are also important in lake formation. Kettle lakes are examples of lakes that are created by glaciers. Where are glaciers found? Glaciers can form anywhere that the average annual temp is low enough for snow to last all year round. These locations are normally in high latitudes or at high elevations. The direction that a mountain faces can also affect their formation. In the Northern Hemisphere, glaciers will often form on the Northern face of mountains, as the sun's rays will always be coming from the South. Glaciers are found in/ around all seven continents. The total area is about 15,000,000 sq. kilometers. Worldwide Coverage (sq.km): Antarctica: 11,965,000 (without iceshelves and ice rises) Central Asia: 109,000 United States: 75,000 (including Alaska) China & Tibet: 33,000 South America: 25,000 New Zealand: 1,159 The Worldwide Coverage info was taken from the following site: http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/glaciers/questions/located.html How do glaciers form? Glaciers form when snow and ice are able to remain throughout the year. Once snow begins to build up, it compresses the snow below it to form ice. First year glacial snow is known as neve. Accumulated snow that has survived one melt season is known as firn. Eventually the ice will reach a critical mass that will allow it to flow, and a glacier is born. Three mechanisms affect how glaciers are able to flow. The first is the slope of the bedrock surface. The steeper this surface is the easier it is for a glacier to flow. Until a glacier is greater than 60m thick it is unable to flow on level ground or uphill. The second mechanism of flow is internal deformation. Ice crystals inside the glacier can be flattened into sheets due to the immense pressure. This can allow ice crystals above them to slide on the flattened sheets in a form of plastic flow. The amount of basal meltwater is the final mechanism that affects glacial flow. Basal meltwater is water that accumulates at the base of the glacier either due to surface meltwater that has percolated through the glacier or due to the pressure melting effect at the base of the glacier. Both of these help to lubricate the glacier allowing it to flow more easily. Basal meltwater can also lead to glacial surges, when the glacier moves very quickly (up to cms or ms more movement per day) due to this lubrication. Glaciers can only flow forward, not backward. When melting is greater than the glaciers rate of flow, downwasting occurs. A glacier's mass balance is defined as the difference between accumulation levels and ablation. Accumulation is the addition of snow or ice onto the glacier. Ablation is the depletion of ice from the glacier, through processes such as sublimation and evaporation. In ~1930 Milutin Milankovitch proposed that variations in three parameters of the earth's orbit caused glacial fluctuations: 1. Orbital eccentricity - the orbit of the earth around the sun is not a circle, but is elliptical and also varies. This eccentricity is a minor cause for seasons. 2. Tilt variations in the axis of rotation (obliquity) - the tilt of the earth's rotational axis varies with time. A tilted axis is the primary cause of seasons. 3. Precession - the earth's axis of rotation wobbles which results in minor fluctuations in the amount of solar radiation we receive. Milankovitch pacing seems to best explain glaciation events with periodicity of 100k, 40k, and 20k years. This pattern seems to fit the info on climate change found in oxygen isotope cores. However, there are some problems with the Milankovitch theories. 100,000 year Problem eccentricity variations have a significantly smaller impact on solar forcing than precession or obliquity and may be expected to produce the weakest effects. The greatest observed response is at the 100k year timescale, while the theoretical forcing is smaller at this scale, in regard to the ice ages. During the last 1 million years, the strongest climate signal is the 100k year cycle. 400,000 year Problem (aka stage 11 problem) eccentricity variations have a strong 400k year cycle. That cycle is only clearly present in climate records older than the last million years. Stage 5 problem refers to the timing of the penultimate interglacial that appears to have begun 10k years in advance of the solar forcing hypothesized to have caused it. Effect exceeds cause climate behavior is much more intense than calculated variations. Various internal characteristics of climate systems are believed to be sensitive to the insolation changes, causing amplification(positive feedback) and damping reponses(negative feedback) Analyzing Oxygen Isotope Data There are 3 stable isotopes of oxygen, 16O, 17O, and 18O. There is approximately 1 atom of 18O for every 500 atoms of the most abundant isotope, 16O. H2O molecules containing the light isotope, 16O, are more active, evaporating slightly more readily than molecules containing the heavy 18O. Thus, the 18O/16O ratio in the water vapor is smaller than in ocean water; oxygen in water vapor is "lighter". During precipitation, the heavy isotope, 18O, is concentrated in the rain or snow, leaving the vapor mass, a small reservoir, depleted in 18O. While crossing the ice sheet, both vapor and local precipitation become isotopically lighter. The depletion process is even more effective at lower temperatures, making winter snow isotopically lighter than summer snows. In oxygen isotope analysis, variations in the ration of 18O to 16O by mass present in the calcite of oceanic core samples are used to find ancient ocean temperature change, and therefore climate change. Cold oceans are richer in 18O (which is included in the tests of the microorganisms, giving us calcite). Temperature and climate change are cyclical when plotted on a graph of temperature vs. time. Temperature coordinates are measured by deviation from today's annual mean temperature, taken as zero. Ratios are converted to a percent difference from the ratio found in the Standard Mean Ocean Water (SMOW). Either form of the graph appears as a waveform with overtones. Half of a period is a Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS). It indicates a glacial (below 0) or interglacial (above 0). Earth has experienced 102 MIS stages; early Pleistocene stages were shallow and frequent while the latest were the most intense and widespread. Stages are numbered from the Holocene, which is MIS1. Glacials receive an even number and interglacials receive an odd number. Glaciers are mainly classified based on size. Cirque glacier is the smallest and forms in a small bowl shaped depression in the mountains. These will be a few square kilometers in size. Cirque glaciers are also known an alpine glaciers. Valley glaciers, the next largest glaciers, which flow through valleys in the mountains, and sometimes are cirque glaciers that have escaped their depression. Piedmont glaciers Occur If valley glaciers flow out onto an adjacent plain. Sometimes, a large number of glaciers are able to collect and join together, when this happens ice fields and ice sheets form. Ice fields are hundreds of square miles of glaciation, while ice sheets can cover thousands of square miles. These usually cover everything but the highest mountain peaks, which are known as nunatucks when they stick out of the ice like islands. Ice fields sometimes feed outlet glaciers, glaciers that occupy valleys that extend below the coverage of ice field. Other glaciers include tidewater glaciers. These are when glaciers end up reaching the sea, but instead of spreading out to form ice sheets or shelfs, they terminate at the shoreline. They calve (break off edge pieces) rapidly, providing an efficient means of ice loss for ice sheets. Tidewater glaciers often have high acceleration rates. Ice streams are important parts of glacial systems due to the fact that they discharge a majority of ice and sediment. They are narrow and flow at rates of .5-1 kilometers per year, a much faster rate than the glacier around them. Since they flow so much faster, they are heavily crevassed from eroding downwards as well. They are known to have abrupt shear margins. Moving past ice streams, there are also subglacial lakes. They are, as the name suggests, bodies of freshwater that are contained deep within the layers of ice sheets. The largest known subglacial lake is Lake Vostok, located beneath the (East) Antarctic Ice Sheet. It is beneath more than 3 kilometers of ice, is 230km in length, has an area of 14000 square kilometers, and a volume of about 2000 cubic kilometers. Glaciers themselves also have a few important parts. The top end of a glacier is known as its head, and the downhill end is known as the terminus. The terminal moraine is a large mass of debris that marks the glaciers furthest advance. Glaciers also have a zone of ablation, where snow melts in the summer, and a zone of accumulation, where is lasts all year. These two zones are separated by the snow line, which moves during the summer. There are two important parts to glacial geology: erosion and deposition. These two processes cause the many features associated with glacial landscapes. yup Moraine: any ridge or mound of glacial debris that is deposited in glaciated regions. Moraines can consist of boulders, gravel, sand and clay, among other sediments. Terminal Moraine: deposited at the terminus (end) of the glacier, marking its furthest advance. Recessional moraines: related to them in that recessional moraines are ridges that are behind the terminal moraine- they mark other spots where the glacier had stopped in the past. Lateral moraines: are material that has been pushed off to the side of glaciers. Medial moraines: form when two glaciers converge. Ground moraine: the layer of till and other sediments underneath a glacier. Supraglacial moraines: accumulations of debris on top of the glacial ice. Drumlins: elongated, streamlined hills made out of deposited till. The steeper side of the drumlin points in the direction in which the ice flowed. Kames: smaller, irregularly shaped hills of deposit that accumulate as a glacier retreats. Eskers: long, winding ridges of stratified deposit, left behind by glacial meltwater streams. Kettles: often found as kettle lakes, formed by bits of glacial ice breaking off and forming depressions in the ground, which then melt. There are many essential erosional landforms to know, many of them occurring as a result of alpine glaciation, rather than continental glaciation. Arete- A sharp parallel ridge of rock that resists erosion, formed by two cirque glaciers coming together but not joining. The glaciers are usually flowing down opposite sides of a mountain. Cirque- A large bowl shaped area carved out of a mountain by a moving glacier. They are bounded by a steep cliff know as a headwall. Hanging Valley- Forms when a glacier erodes one area faster than the other. Found mostly towards the top of the mountain. Horn- A pyramidal peak formed by three or more cirque glaciers meeting. Roche moutonnée- A knob of bedrock carved into an asymmetrical hill. Entrainment is the picking up of loose material by the glacier from along the bed and valley sides. Entrainment can happen by regelation or by the ice simply picking up the debris. Basal ice freezing is thought to be to be made by glaciohydraulic supercooling, though some studies show that even where physical conditions allow it to occur, the process may not be responsible for observed sequences of basal ice. Plucking is the process involves the glacier freezing onto the valley sides and subsequent ice movement pulling away masses of rock. As the bedrock is greater in strength than the glacier, only previously loosened material can be removed. It can be loosened by local pressure and temperature, water and pressure release of the rock itself. Supraglacial debris is carried on the surface of the glacier as lateral and medial moraines. Summer ablation, surface melt water carries a small load and this often disappears down crevasses.Subglacial debris is moved along the floor of the valley either by the ice as ground moraine or by meltwater streams formed by pressure melting. Englacial debris is sediment carried within the body of the glacier. End Moraine is englacial debris subsequently dropped as the glacier stops advancing. Terminal Moraine is the end moraine farthest away from the glacier head. It marks the farthest extent for the glacier. Recessional Moraines These are end moraines behind the terminal moraine that form when the glacier temporarily stops retreating and remains stationary or advances. Till, or debris deposited directly by a glacier. It is unstratified and unsorted. Terminal and recessional moraines consist of till. Factors that Cause Glacial Periods Glacial periods are times in the Earth's history where average global temperatures were approximately 6 C lower and glaciers covered much of the planets surface. The last of these periods ended approximately 10,000 years ago. There are 6 main factors that contribute to global climate and can cause glacial periods: solar variability, insulation, dust, atmospheric composition, ocean current circulation, sea ice, and atmospheric circulation. All of these are natural processes and the only one that is affected by humans is atmospheric composition. Glacial History of the Quaternary The Quaternary System is that lasted from the present to approximately 2.588 million years ago with the Neogene system before the Quaternary. The Quaternary System contains two series: the Holocene and the Pleistocene with the Holocene being the present. In this period, ice sheets were able to form in Greenland and Antarctica and the continents were formed to their present shape. As glaciers formed and later retreated, thousands of lakes and rivers were created all over the world. As the glaciers retreated the sea level rose and the amount of biological diversity in the oceans increased. Glaciers are a very useful and abundant indicator for global climate change because they incase the air pockets from millions of years ago in the ice. Scientists are then able to drill out ice cores that hold these air pockets and study their air inside. The air can indicate what the atmospheric condition was like in the past, how the temperature variated, and different types of vegetation that were present millions of years ago. Glaciers can also indicate current climate change depending on where the snow line (firn line) is on a glacier and based on ice shelfs and how they are retreating. If the snow line on a glacier continues to move up the glacier then the ablation is greater than accumulation of snow and the glacier is retreating. This causes more water to be released from the glacier and to add to sea level and to form new lakes and rivers. Ice shelfs are able to indicate global climate change because if they continue to shrink and retreat that indicates that the global temperatures are increasing because the ice is melting. Retreat from any glacier can indicate climate change, but ice shelves are better at indication because they are located in places where the temperatures are normally colder. How are glaciers studied? Oftentimes the glacier's mass balance must be recorded on the ground, although satellites are sometimes used for rudimentary recording. The two main processes used to determine ablation or accumulation are probing and crevasse stratigraphy, which can give accurate measurements of snowpack thickness. Probing: researchers will place poles in the icepack at various points, at the beginning of the melt period or accumulation period. After a few months the researchers will return and look at the changes in levels of ice, by looking at the height of the ice along the pole. Crevasse stratigraphy: researchers will find crevasses, then observe the number of layers that formed. Based on the layers the researchers will be able to determine how much snow accumulated. The layers are almost like layers in a tree trunk. Glacial periods are characterized with large ice sheets and are normally known as ice ages. The periods between these are known as interglacial periods and currently we are in the Holocene interglacial period. The last glacial period was between 120,000 to 11,500 years ago and was during the Pleistocene Epoch. Interglacial periods are caused by shifts in the Earth's orbit and this causes a change in the amount of solar radiation that hits the Earth. When the amount of solar radiation increases, this is when the Earth shifts from a glacial to interglacial period. The Quaternary has had multiple shifts between glacial and inter-glacial periods and in the middle of this period, the change cycle between glacial and interglacial changed every 100,000 years. Antarctica is a great indicator if Earth is in a glacial or interglacial period because the amount of ice and snow on it indicates the amount of solar radiation that is hitting the Earth as well as the average temperature of the Earth. CO2 is also an indicator of the changing from a glacial to interglacial period or vice versa. As the CO2 levels increase the Earth's average temperature will increase and it will move into an interglacial period whereas if the CO2 levels were to fall, the average temperature would fall and the Earth would change to a glacial period. For a list of vocabulary relating to glaciers, please see Dynamic Planet/Glacier Vocabulary.

This work is a series of three photographs taken by James Presley Ball of William Biggerstaff in the year in 1896. Biggerstaff was a former slave from Lexington, Kentucky who had moved out West to Montana after gaining his freedom. In 1895, Biggerstaff was accused of murdering the African American prizefighter Dick Johnson in a quarrel over a white woman. Although Biggerstaff claimed the killing was done in self-defense he was nonetheless found guilty and hung. In this series of images, Biggerstaff is shown in life, just after his execution and in death. The first image is a posed portrait of Biggerstaff. His head rests on his right hand and he gazes solemnly in that direction. He is dressed formally wearing a suit with a flower pinned to the lapel. The second image is gruesome and depicts Biggerstaff’s hanging body shortly after his execution. His face is covered in a mask meant to preserve his dignity in death but which only adds to the horrific nature of the image. Biggerstaff wears the same coat as in the first picture and is flanked by a Reverend, Victor Day, as well as the sheriff, Henry Jurgens. A crowd of onlookers is clearly visible in the back indicating the public nature and spectacle of Biggerstaff’s death. In the final image, Biggerstaff is shown in his casket. The angle of the image draws attention to his hand on which a wedding ring is clearly visible. At first glance this troublesome series of images seems no different than the myriad of lynching images from this time period. Leigh Raiford describes such images as an essential component of the “reinscribing of the black body as commodity” and a mechanism that “helped extend [a unified white identity] far beyond the town, the county, the state, the South, to include whites nationwide and even internationally.” While this is certainly true of the vast majority of lynching images several features of this image complicate reading it in such a manner. The first is the presentation of the three images as opposed to a singular image of a lynched body as was the custom. Rather the photographer’s decision to use three images, including one showing Biggerstaff while he was still, creates a narrative that individualizes the work. Typical lynching images present bodies that are often unrecognizable, providing an anonymity that allows for a disassociation from the work that for white audiences at the time played into racist fantasies and for contemporary audiences makes it easier to stomach. Such dissociation is impossible with this series. By presenting Bigerstaff’s portrait side-by-side with those of his death, the photographer creates a narrative that contextualizes and brings meaning to Biggerstaff’s life as well as death. The wedding ring in the final image punctuates this narrative and again forces the viewer to think about the consequences of Biggerstaff’s death on those in his life. The second characteristic of the photograph that disrupts a conventional reading, is not a feature inherent to the work itself but is in fact the photographer, James Presley (J.P.) Ball. Ball was born a free man in 1825 in Virginia. He learned the art of daguerreotype and quickly became extremely successful as a photographer. As one of the most successful and famous photographers of the latter half of the 20th century, Ball photographed a number of notable people including Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria, Ulysses S. Grant and Frederick Douglass. However, in addition to his famous portraits, Ball also documented the horrors of slavery as well as lynchings, publishing a pamphlet addressing the horrors of slavery from capture in Africa through the Middle Passage, ” and serving as the official photographer for the 25th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. In addition, Ball was one of the leaders of the movement for William Biggerstaff’s clemency. Thus, when viewed in this light, these images necessarily take on a different meaning. If lynching images were commodify the black body for white consumption, as Raiford argues, then what does it mean that this particular set of images was taken by a photographer such as Ball? To some degree the images of Biggerstaff highlight the relevance of authorship and purpose when it comes to lynching images. Had the same set of images been taken by a white photographer for purposes more in keeping with most lynching images, they would remain part of the processes described by Raiford, lacking any notion of emancipation. At the same time, the mere fact that Ball may have intended the images to serve as a call to arms, or at the very least a powerful memorial to Biggerstaff, does not control how they would have been and continue to be interpreted. Thus, although the typical mechanisms of lynching images are unquestionably disrupted, Ball’s role and the photograph itself cannot be neatly summarized. The question then, becomes what the role of the art historian ought to be with regards to this image. Is it enough to merely draw attention to the ways in which interpretations of images are complicated by concepts of authorship, viewership, subject and object? Such an exercise seems to fall short. The San Francisco Call. (1896, April 8). Met Death with a Smile. The San Francisco Call, p. 1. Leigh Raiford, “The Consumption of Lynching Images,” p. 270. From Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self edited by Coco Fusco and Brian Wallis. http://www.lonniedawkins.com/JamesPresleyBall.htm#_edn5; (The San Francisco Call, 1896) The San Francisco Call. (1896, April 8). Met Death with a Smile. The San Francisco Call, p. 1. P. 246, A Spectacular Secret: Lynching in American Life and Literature by Jacqueline Goldsby. University of Chicago Press, 2006. Also: http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aaw/ball-james-presley-1825-1904, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma02/amacker/photo/death.html

What is Kamikaze ? Kamikaze is a utility package for effectively compressing sorted integer arrays, which are represented as docIdSets, and performing highly efficient operations on the compressed arrays or docIdSets. Kamikaze represents the compressed integer arrays as integer sets and calls them docIdSets (the docIdSet concept is similar to that used in Lucene). Kamikaze can achieve an extremely fast decompression speed with a decent compression ratio on sorted arrays (or docIdSets). It can efficiently find the intersection or the union of N compressed arrays (or docIdSets), quickly detect the existence of an given integer in the compressed arrays (or docIdSets), etc. Why is Kamikaze useful ? Traditionally, the compression techniques are used to save storage space on disks. More interestingly, in large-scale distributed system, they can be used to reduce the expensive costs of I/O traffic and network traffic. Various compression techniques on sorted integer arrays have been widely used in commercial search engines, for example, Google and Yahoo!, and in open-source search engine - Lucene. Such large-scale systems have shown that compression techniques can significantly improve the overall system performance, although they introduces an additional CPU cost of decompressing the compressed data. Where can Kamikaze be used ?Search indexes, graph algorithms, and certain sparse matrix representations make heavy use of compressed integer arrays. Use in search engines: The inverted index is used in search engines for efficient query processing. The index is a mapping from terms to lists of documents matching those terms. The basic steps of both indexing and query processing are as follows (shown in the above figure): During the indexing process, search engines convert the documents into inverted lists. An inverted list is for a particular term a sequence of document IDs (and other information which can also be considered as sequences of integers). Search engines often compress the inverted lists (at step2 in the above figure) before they write them to the persistent storage - disks at a cluster of machines. During query processing, given a query of K terms, the search engine often needs to do at least the following things: First, the engine loads inverted lists (related to those terms) from disks to memory. In a distributed environment, it might also involve a large amount of data transmission over network. Kamikaze can reduce the data size and thus the cost of disk and network traffic significantly. Second, the engine finds all documents on the compressed lists that contain most of the terms (at step6 in the above figure). This process often requires extremely fast decompression and look-up operations on compressed data, which can be done by Kamikaze in a very efficient way. Finally, the engine calculates the rankings for the matched documents and returns the documents with the highest rankings. Use in sparse graph algorithms : A graph is often implemented as a sparce adjacency list of nodes, where nodes are represented by integer ids. In this case, each list can be easily organized as a sorted integer array. For example, for the social graphs in large-scale social networks like Linkedin or Facebook, each list is, for a particular member, a sequence of his or her friends user ids. The performance of many algorithms on such graphs is thus greatly affected by the efficiency of various operations on such lists. For example, in order to find all common friends of two members, we need to find all intersected member IDs of their friend lists. Use in sparse matrix algorithms : A matrix can be considered as an alternative implementation of a graph especially when most nodes are directly connected with each other. However, when the matrix is sparse (which is very common for the first or second degree friends in social graphs), it is more efficient to first transfer it into the adjacency lists and then do various operations on the resulting lists. The Magic of Kamikaze: P4Delta Compression In the above applications (large scale search engines or social networks), we often need to process a huge amount of data (arrays of integers) within milliseconds. The data often need to be compressed to be hold in main memory. Due to compression, the disk traffic and the network traffic are also greatly reduced since much less amount of data needs to be communicated. We also need to be able to decompress the data very efficiently to maximize, for example, the query throughput of search engines. To achieve these goals, large search engines have been trying a lot of methods. For example, Lucene uses variable-byte coding (please refer to Managing Gigabytes for various inverted index compression methods) to compress indexes. Google also uses variable-byte coding to encode part of its indexes a long time ago and has switched to other compression methods lately (their new method can be seen as a variation on PForDelta, the same algorithm implemented in Kamikaze and optimized in Kamikaze version 3.0.0). Therefore, we can see that it is very important to build Kamikaze on top of a good compression method that can achieve both the small compressed size and fast decompression speed. Kamikaze implements PForDelta compression algorithm (or called P4Delta) which was recently studied and has been shown by paper and paper to be able to achieve the best trade-off of the compression ratio and decompression speed for inverted index of search engines. Many other techniques for inverted index compression have been studied in the literature; see Managing Gigabytes for a survey and paper and paper and for very recent work, especially the detailed performance comparison between most of those techniques and PForDelta. Unfortunately, Lucene does not support PForDelta now although paper and paper have shown that PForDelta can achieve much better performance than variable-byte coding in terms of both compressed size and decompression speed. Kamikaze builds an platform on top of PForDelta to perform efficient set operations and inverted list compression/decompression. Kamikaze Version 3.0.0 inherits the architecture of the first two versions and supports the same APIs. In Version 3.0.0., the PForDelta algorithm is highly optimized such that the performance of compression/decompression and the corresponding set operations are improved significantly. The PForDetla algorithm is implemented in Kamikaze as independent utility classes, supporting simple compression and decompression APIs. In Linkedin, Kamikaze has been used in the distributed graph team and search team, for representing over 100 million members. Version 1.0.0 and Version 2.0.0 The first two versions, version 1.0.0 and version 2.0.0, provide an awesome platform to perform set operations and effcient inverted list compression/decompression. They are based on the original PForDelta algorithm and an improved version developed in WestLab. Currently the optimizations include - Integer Array representation : Document set based on Dynamic Integer Arrays - OpenBitSet representation : Document Set based on OpenBitSet implementation from Lucene. - P4Delta representation : Document Set for sorted Integer segments compressed using a variation of the P4Delta compression algorithm. Kamikaze Version 3.0.0 inherits the architecture of the first two versions and supports the same APIs. In Version 3.0.0., the PForDelta algorithm is highly optimized such that the performance of compression/decompression and the corresponding set operations are improved significantly (Please refer to the Performance page for the detailed experimental results). In particular, compared to the previous two versions, Version 3.0.0 can achieve - More compact representation of document lists - Faster decompression speed - Doc Set Operations - Faster sequential scanning (iteration) speed over the compressed lists. - Faster random lookup of docIds on the compressed lists. - Faster finding intersections of the compressed lists. Version 3.0.5 has been released recently (Nov.1st, 2011). In Version 3.0.3, Kamikaze fixed a bug that the older versions can only compress and decompress integers less than 2 to 28 (instead of the normal 32-bit integer range). All versions since Version 3.0.3 are able to support normal 32-bit integers. Version 3.0.6 has been released on Jan.4th, 2012. In Version 3.0.6, Kamikaze resolved the docIdSet serialization backward compatibility issue. It replaced Java serialization with its own serialziation for PForDeltaDocIdSet, which significantly improves the serialization and deserialization speed. In addition, it resolved the null pointer exception encoutered when DocIdSet returns null iterators. This version upgraded Lucene to Lucene-3.5.0.

What is in this article?: - Rabies concerns growing for the Southwest - Vaccinations urged A rash of what is believed to be rabid skunks in Eddy County, New Mexico, has raised concerns that this year the disease could be as bad or worse than 2012. Cases of rabies in animals each year are common across the Southwest. The dreaded disease can spread easily and rapidly among wildlife and domestic animals, even horses and cattle. But health officials in Eddy County, New Mexico, say a rash of what is believed to be rabid skunks has raised concerns that this year could be as bad or worse than 2012 and advise local residents to vaccinate pets and warn children of the dangers of handling wild or unknown animals. While only four cases of animal rabies have been confirmed in New Mexico so far this year, a number of "skunks acting strangely" in Carlsbad have been reported by police officials and residents, and two cases have recently been confirmed. Carlsbad is the county seat for Eddy County, which was plagued by a major rabies outbreak two years ago. While the number of cases of confirmed rabies is just beginning to spike with the onset of summer weather, officials say several animal are currently under observation and confirm they are watching for skunks that were spotted but have eluded capture. For the latest on southwest agriculture, please check out Southwest Farm Press Daily and receive the latest news right to your inbox. The New Mexico Department of Health (NMDH) and the City of Albuquerque Environmental Health Department announced this week two bats from the South Valley of Albuquerque have tested positive for rabies in the last two weeks. The latest case happened this week when a rabid bat was found crawling on a woman’s bare foot before she kicked it away. The bat was confirmed to be infected with the rabies virus and the woman must now undergo a series of vaccinations as a safety measure to avoid the disease.

Reviewed by Allie K. (age 9) and Kelsey D. (age 9) We think the big idea is you should not judge a person by his/her color. We think this book is trying to tell you that all people should get along. Our favorite part is when Clover sees Annie sitting on the fence because Clover get curious of why Annie is always sitting on the fence. We do not like Sandra because she says no when Annie asks to play. We think it is not fair that white people and African American people were not able to be seen together long ago. This book makes us wonder how the people felt when the white children and the African American children went to different schools and when the African American people had to sit in the back of buses. We like the watercolor illustrations because it makes the pictures come to life. We recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about how things had to be a long time ago. We also think that people who like books about friendship would enjoy this book. If these recommendations are fit for you, and you like books about getting along, read The Other Side.

I heard this Coyote barking before I even saw it. I believe it is a female and I think she was warning her mate that I was in the area. The first photo shows her barking and how well she blends in with her surrounding. The second photo is when the male arrived and they posed for me before retreating into the corn stalks. The calls a coyote makes are high-pitched and variously described as howls, yips, yelps, and barks. These calls may be a long rising and falling note (a howl) or a series of short notes (yips). These calls are most often heard at dusk or night, but may sometimes be heard in the day, even in the middle of the day. Although these calls are made throughout the year, they are most common during the spring mating season and in the fall when the pups leave their families to establish new territories. When a coyote calls its pack together, it howls at one high note. When the pack is together, it howls higher and higher, and then it will yip and yelp and also do a yi-yi sound, very shrill, with the howl.

Lattice theory extends into virtually every area of mathematics and offers an ideal framework for understanding basic concepts. This outstanding text is written in clear, direct language and enhanced with many research problems, exercises, diagrams, and concise proofs. The author discusses historical developments as well as future directions and provides extensive end-of-chapter materials and references. Both novices and experts will benefit from this treatment, which combines the techniques of an introductory text with those of a monograph. It begins with a concise development of the fundamentals of lattice theory and a detailed exploration of free lattices. The core of the text focuses upon the theory of distributive lattices. Diagrams constitute an integral part of the book, along with 500 exercises and 67 original research problems. Eight appendixes, contributed by a group of experts, complement this accessible and informative text. Reprint of the W. H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco, 1971 edition. |Availability||Usually ships in 24 to 48 hours| |Dimensions||5 3/16 x 8 1/4|

Image: The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution I. EARLY LIFE Hamilton was born in 1757 on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies. His father was a poor itinerant Scottish merchant of aristocratic descent; his mother, an English-French Huguenot, was a planter's daughter. In 1766, Hamilton's father moved the family to St. Croix in the Danish (now United States) Virgin Islands, returning to St. Kitts himself. Hamilton's mother became a storekeeper. Hamilton received a basic education from his mother and a Presbyterian clergyman, and he learned to speak fluent French. About the time of his mother's death in 1768, he became an apprentice clerk in a mercantile establishment. Bearing letters of introduction, Hamilton traveled to New York City in 1772. Patrons he met there arranged for him to attend Barber's Academy at Elizabethtown (present Elizabeth), NJ. In 1773, Hamilton entered King's College (later Columbia College and University), but the Revolution interrupted his studies. Although not yet 20 years of age, in 1774-75 Hamilton wrote several widely read pro-Whig pamphlets. In 1780 Hamilton wed New Yorker Elizabeth Schuyler, whose family was rich and politically powerful; they were to have eight children. Hamilton read law at Albany and established a law firm in New York City in 1783. II. REVOLUTIONARY WAR, CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, & CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION Right after the war broke out, Hamilton accepted an artillery captaincy and fought in the principal campaigns of 1776-77. Winning the rank of lieutenant colonel, he joined the staff of General Washington as secretary and aide-de-camp and soon became his close confidant as well. In 1781, after some disagreements with Washington, he took a command position under Lafayette in the Yorktown, VA, campaign of 1781. He resigned his commission that November. Hamilton was elected to the Continental Congress in 1782-83. He represented New York at the Annapolis Convention in 1786, where he urged the calling of the Constitutional Convention. At the Constitutional Convention, Hamilton played a surprisingly small part in the debates. He was frequently absent on legal business; his extreme nationalism put him at odds with most of the delegates; and he was frustrated by the conservative views of his two fellow delegates from New York. He did, however, sit on the Committee of Style, and he was the only delegate from his state to sign the finished document. Although he felt the Constitution was deficient in many respects, Hamilton waged a strenuous and successful campaign for ratification in New York, including collaboration with John Jay and James Madison in writing The Federalist. In 1787 Hamilton was again elected to the Continental Congress. III. GOVERNMENT OFFICES When the new government got under way in 1789, Hamilton won the position of Secretary of the Treasury. He began at once to place the nation's disorganized finances on a sound footing. In a series of reports (1790-91), he presented a program not only to stabilize national finances but also to shape the future of the country as a powerful, industrial nation. He proposed that the new government establish a national bank, fund the national debt, assume state war debts, and encourage manufacturing. Hamilton's policies soon brought him into conflict with Jefferson and Madison. Their disputes with him over his pro-business economic program, his sympathies for Great Britain, his disdain for the common man, and his opposition to the principles and excesses of the French revolution contributed to the formation of the first U.S. party system. This system pitted Hamilton and the Federalists against Jefferson and Madison and the Democratic-Republicans. During most of the Washington administration, Hamilton's views usually prevailed, especially after 1793 when Jefferson left the government. In 1795, family and financial needs forced Hamilton to resign from the Treasury Department and resume his law practice in New York City. Except for a stint as inspector-general of the Army (1798-1800) during the undeclared war with France, he never again held public office. Nevertheless, Hamilton continued to exert a powerful influence on local and national politics. He tried to prevent the election of fellow Federalist John Adams to the presidency in 1796. When Adams won the election, he continued to use his influence secretly within Adams's cabinet. When Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied in Presidential electoral votes in 1800, Hamilton threw valuable support to Jefferson. In 1804, when Burr sought the governorship of New York, Hamilton again managed to defeat him. That same year, Burr, taking offense at remarks he believed to have originated with Hamilton, challenged Hamilton to a duel. The duel took place on July 11, and Hamilton died of his wounds the next day. He was buried in Trinity Churchyard in New York City. Image: Schaffer Library, Union College, Schenectady, NY I. EARLY LIFE On January 30, 1754, John Lansing was born in Albany, NY, to Gerrit Jacob and Jannetje Lansing. Lansing had completed his study of the law and was admitted to practice at age 21. In 1781 he married Cornelia Ray. They had ten children, five of whom died in infancy. Lansing was quite wealthy; he owned a large estate at Lansingburg and had a lucrative law practice. From 1776 to 1777, Lansing acted as military secretary to Gen. Philip Schuyler. From the military world Lansing turned to the political and served six terms in the New York Assembly--1780-84, 1786, and 1788. During the last two terms he was speaker of the assembly. In the two-year gap between his first four terms in the assembly and the fifth, Lansing sat in the Confederation Congress. He rounded out his public service by serving as Albany's mayor between 1786 and 1790. II. CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION Lansing went to Philadelphia as part of the New York delegation to the Constitutional Convention. As the convention progressed, Lansing became disillusioned because he believed it was exceeding its instructions. Lansing believed the delegates had gathered simply to amend the Articles of Confederation and was dismayed at the movement to write an entirely new constitution. After six weeks, John Lansing and fellow New York delegate Robert Yates left the convention and explained their departure in a joint letter to New York Governor George Clinton. They stated that they opposed any system that would consolidate the United States into one government. Lansing and Yates warned that the kind of government recommended by the convention could not "afford that security to equal and permanent liberty which we wished to make an invariable object of our pursuit." In 1788, as a member of the New York ratifying convention, Lansing again vigorously opposed the Constitution. III. GOVERNMENT OFFICES Under the new federal government Lansing pursued a long judicial career. In 1790 he began an 11-year term on the Supreme Court of New York; from 1798 until 1801 he served as its chief justice. Between 1801 and 1814 Lansing was chancellor of the state. Retirement from that post did not slow him down; in 1817 he accepted an appointment as a regent of the University of the State of New York. While on a visit to New York City in 1829, he left his hotel to post some letters. No trace of him was ever found, and it was supposed that he had been murdered. The son of Joseph and Maria Yates, Robert Yates was born in Schenectady, NY, on January 27, 1738. He received a classical education in New York City and later studied law with William Livingston. Yates was admitted to the New York bar in 1760 and thereafter resided in Albany. Between 1771 and 1775 Yates sat on the Albany board of aldermen. During the pre-Revolution years Yates counted himself among the Radical Whigs, whose vigilance against corruption and emphasis on the protection of liberty in England appealed to many in the colonies. Once the Revolution broke out, Yates served on the Albany Committee of Safety and represented his county in four provincial congresses and in the convention of 1775-77. At the convention he sat on various committees, including the one that drafted the first constitution for New York State. II. CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION In the 1780s, Robert Yates stood as a recognized leader of the Antifederalists. He opposed any concessions to the federal congress, such as the right to collect impost duties, that might diminish the sovereignty of the states. When he traveled to Philadelphia in May 1787 for the federal convention, he expected that the delegates would simply discuss revisions to the existing Articles. Yates was on the committee that debated the question of representation in the legislature, and it soon became apparent that the convention intended much more than modification of the current plan of union. On July 5, the day the committee presented its report, Yates and John Lansing (to whom Yates was related by marriage) left the proceedings. In a joint letter to Gov. George Clinton of New York, they spelled out the reasons for their early departure. They warned against the dangers of centralizing power and urged opposition to adopting the Constitution. Yates continued to attack the Constitution in a series of letters signed "Brutus" and "Sydney" and voted against ratification at the Poughkeepsie convention. In 1821, Yates's notes from the Constitutional Convention were published under the title Secret Proceedings and Debates of the Convention Assembled . . . for the Purpose of Forming the Constitution of the United States. III. GOVERNMENT OFFICES On May 8, 1777, Yates was appointed to New York's Supreme Court and presided as its chief justice from 1790 through 1798. While on the bench he attracted criticism for his fair treatment of Loyalists. Other duties included serving on commissions that were called to settle boundary disputes with Massachusetts and Vermont. In 1789 Yates ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York. Yates died in 1801, leaving his wife, Jannetje Van Ness Yates, and four of his six children.

it comes to the general population, 10 out of every 100 people tend to have sleep apnea, with about 40 to 50% going undiagnosed most, if not all of their lives. it comes to MS sleep apnea even more of a problem, since Multiple Sclerosis can set us up for sleep apnea to develop more often than it would for the average person without Multiple Sclerosis. do you know you have sleep apnea? apnea is a medical condition that can affect many people when they sleep at night, where they temporarily stop breathing times to hundreds of time a night, while they are sleeping. person with sleep apnea actually wakes themselves us several times a night to start breathing again and this can happen person even being aware that this is happening to them each time they Symptoms of MS sleep apnea can include: when you lie down to sleep at night * Headaches when you wake up in the morning * Feeling tired all of the time, like you never really feel rested depressed and feeling down most of the time * Feeling like you have no energy, no matter how long you actually lie down to sleep at night * Unexplained weight gain – prolonged sleep apnea can actually make you gain weight quickly, without being able to lose the weight, even if you are careful with eating healthy, and even if you exercise sleep study can be done at a sleep clinic or sometimes your doctor can arrange for you to be tested at home to see if you having a problem with sleep apnea. a screening is done to determine if sleep apnea is present or not. a diagnostic is done to determine what is going on with your particular case of sleep apnea. The diagnostic testing determines: often you stop sleeping at night * How much oxygen are you getting when you breathe at night you are going through the normal cycles of sleep you enter the more restful stage of sleep when you sleep at night * Whether you have other conditions, like restless leg syndrome, narcolepsy or other type of sleep problem besides sleep apnea. the problems with sleep apnea can: Help the brain to function better Help you to feel rested Help you go to sleep more easily Prevent waking up several times a night and help you to sleep the whole Help you lose weight, put on by the extreme insomnia and/or lack of Help to get rid of morning headaches and depression Help get rid of unexplained nauseousness Sclerosis adds another element to sleep apnea, since MS is known for attacking the central nervous system and causing problems with the nerves not functioning as they should. it comes to MS sleep apnea, fatigue and insomnia can already be present because of the effects of the Multiple Sclerosis, which can make it more difficult to decide if the person may have sleep apnea, which can be also contributing to the fatigue and insomnia problems. sleep apnea also has a hereditary element that can often contribute to sleep apnea appearing in those of diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, even if other members of our family are not diagnosed with MS, but do have the presence of sleep apnea. example of this would be in the case where your mother or father have the signs of sleep apnea, but they do not have Multiple Sclerosis along with the sleep apnea. my case, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis 13 years ago, but I was only recently diagnosed with a mild case of sleep apnea. didn't think that I had it, but both of my brothers, who do not have Multiple Sclerosis, were diagnosed with sleep apnea a few years ago and it appears that my mother may also have had sleep apnea for years and has gone undiagnosed with it. no one else in my family has been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, it appears that sleep apnea runs in my family. used to be just 10 to 20 years ago that sleep apnea was not tested for on a regular basis, but more and more people are being tested and diagnosed with sleep apnea in larger numbers, since more sleep study centers are popping up in more areas around the USA. you have MS sleep apnea testing can be a very good idea, since this may help your body to recover better from many of the effects of Multiple Sclerosis on your body. has been found by MS research that our nervous systems produce many more natural stem cells when we rest while we sleep at night. natural stem cells are the repair cells for our nervous systems. we get adequate restful sleep at night, this is when our bodies do a lot more of the repair work for our nervous system and other parts of we go for prolonged periods of time without adequate sleep, this not only weakens our immune systems, but this also prevents our bodies from recovering and repairing themselves at night, which can also prevent our bodies from recovering and repairing after each of the MS attacks on our bodies. we get adequate rest at night, this helps our bodies to do a better job at recovering and repairing the damage to our bodies after each MS

Ethiopia Takes Control of Its Coffee By Sarah Sherlock you next drink a cup of Ethiopian coffee remember the person who grew the beans, for you are now more likely to know precisely where it comes from. Up to now it has been impossible to know whose beans have gone into the sack, which arrives in the roasting house in London or Hamburg, because of an age-old system of middlemen within Ethiopia. The beans would be sold by a peasant grower, to a buyer for pulping, who would sell to an agent, who would sell to an exporter. During the past five years, however, the industry has seen some radical shifts in the face of global market lows. As a result a precedent has been set which is making traceability much easier. This will enable Ethiopia to hoist its reputation as the botanical home of Coffea arabica, with an almost fertilizer-free environment, producing a number of distinctive regional types. Certified organic Ethiopian coffee has only been available since 1999 when some producers were granted a waiver to bypass the government auction system. They can now sell direct to western importers through the cooperatives to which they belong, and cut out the services of two sets of buyers and an independent exporter to deal with the final processing. It also enables some of them to gain fair trade status, and receive a significant proportion of profits. As the birthplace of Arabica coffee, Ethiopians jealously guard their coffee gene pool. Ethiopia has led developing countries in their successful bid for an international biodiversity convention and it is illegal to remove any genetic material from the country. Its isolation and poverty has also limited the use of fertilizers by the mainly peasant producers. Ethiopians are not a people who care for the hard sell or western marketing techniques; but, for a long time, western importers, and industry members inside Ethiopia, had been pressing for organic certification, not only to meet demand in the West, but also to exploit Ethiopia’s natural advantages. The stage was set when the Marxist government fell in 1991, and the new government under Meles Zenawi set up an evolved constitution creating a number of regional governments. Coffee, both wild and planted, grows mainly in two of the regions, Oromia, and the Southern region. A more liberal market economy coincided with a fall in global coffee prices; and there were some who realized something had to be done to keep coffee revenues up. When coffee prices were high, the state derived 60% of its foreign exchange from coffee, and more than 15 million of its people depended directly or indirectly on coffee farming. All exports were channeled through the state auction centers in Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa, originally set up in 1973 to provide an open and fair relationship between local merchant and exporter. Later, minimum export price levels were set to control foreign exchange losses. As a small roaster in Scotland with an interest in ethical marketing and a deliberately personal relationship with my clients, the questions I wanted to ask were about the system by which organic and fair trade coffee was being traded. How were the ethics of this new system managed? And how could you justify certifying an organic product in a country that was largely organic anyway? Was it wise for Ethiopia to tie itself to western marketing devices? First I traveled to Sidamo where high grade washed garden coffee comes from. Four hours’ drive south of Addis Ababa, along a newly rebuilt highway running along the floor of the dusty, and largely degraded, Rift Valley, you come to Awasa. It’s a pretty location, on the edge of a lake, which is the headquarters to all those who would advise and control the industry to the south. A 2,000 m high mountain spine stretches another 150 miles to where the best Yirgacheffe and Sidamo coffees are grown. Alongside the road the economic role of coffee is evident. Every garden has its coffee bushes, usually intercropped with beans, peppers, cabbages or pineapples, and shaded by native trees. This area is currently being assessed by organic certifiers. I stayed with Gregory Missaillides, a Greek-Ethiopian, whose grandfather first came to Sidamo in 1916 as a refugee from Constantinople. He and his wife, Marica, own 11 hectares of land in Yirge Alem where they grow a small amount of coffee. But now they are embarking on a tourist project, building lodges in the local, beehive shape, and providing a conservation environment for the local flora and fauna. Aregash Lodges (named after Gregory’s mother) was a convenient and beautiful launch pad for a coffee tourist. Marica deals with their coffee. She has planted a large number of new bushes of a local hybrid, called Type 12. Shrugging hopefully, because this year she had been paid less than half the 1997 price, she remarked, “These replace some useless bushes, which we had been encouraged to grow by the authorities in the 1980s. This coffee will be better and is our future investment.” Nearby, along a fiendishly rough road, is the Ferro Farmers’ Cooperative. This coop supports 27,307 family members. Its pulpery was largely financed by Irish aid. In 2001, it made a net loss, the first in its 25-year history. One of its members, Ato Asefa, who farms coffee opposite the pulpery showed us his plot where he had dug up some of his coffee bushes last year but was persuaded against replacing them with food crops: “The government told me the prices would eventually go up,” he said, showing us some young Type 12s which he planted in good faith. In this area, the soil here is a reddish, sandy clay and Type 12 seems to be the preferred hybrid. Ferro coffee, still in its parchment, is auctioned in Addis Ababa to exporters. They do the final processing. Both before auction and after processing there is an impressive process of quality control liquoring in terms of its regional identity. Ato (Mr) Mulugeta, the district agronomist, was our guide and demonstrated what steps the state authorities are taking to protect their coffee biodiversity and to advise growers. He showed us the nursery where the two types of coffee hybrid (developed from local varieties) suitable for this area are offered for sale at 1¢ a seedling, and the plot of land where about 14 different natural varieties are grown for the genetic pool. This, as well as most other plots we saw, was shaded with Millettia ferruginea, Ensete ventricosa, both endemic trees, the former leguminous, and the latter providing a staple food starch, or Cordia africana, a protected indigenous tree. “There is hardly any fertilizer used on coffee in this area,” confirmed Ato Mulugeta, “and the farmers rely on natural mulches from the trees as well as coffee pulp generated in the pulperies.” Back in Addis Ababa I met Ato Taddesse, the dynamic and visionary general manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, and the man fronting the first organization granted Auction Waiver status. He is stoking the competition in the currently overstocked global market by offering the first traceable and organically certified Ethiopian coffee. Handing me a photograph of a member coffee-producing family in the Limu area, he said: “We represent 22,700 small holders, who are organized into 34 cooperatives. Because we bypass the auction we can sell directly and quickly to our clients.” Coffee from most regions is sold through the Union, including Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, Harrar, Limu, Jimma and Ghimbi/Lekempti. This system cuts out two types of middlemen in the process, and has won fair trade status for eight of its cooperatives by returning 70% of profits to the members of at least two buying stages. Their importing partners guarantee a fixed price. The cooperative system was an ideal starting point for the organic and fair trade regulators, who could now for the first time trace the product from source to consumer. Other cooperatives are following suit. The coffee organically certified comes from the lucky few, and it carries a premium. But some exporters ask: What about the other farmers, as virtually the whole country ought to be certified organic? In a largely peasant society, it is not easy for producers to do their own exporting and existing exporters should also have a role to play, they argue. Also, recognizing that a fair system of pricing to the producers is essential to the livelihoods of everyone else further up the pyramid, they feel the benefits of a ‘coffee exchange’ should be explored: a place where the mutual problems of producer and exporter can be addressed. Last year, the National Bank abolished minimum export price levels, effectively allowing markets to find their own level. So now pressure is on exporters to also move their own operations closer to the producer, cut out middlemen buyers, and control quality at source. There are still questions that need to be answered: how about those farmers who are producing exactly the same coffee as the certified organic ones over the fence, but are not benefiting from its premiums; do we relish the rise of the regulating bureaucrats who have become the new middlemen; and for how long can fair trade importers offer to pay prices over the odds? But these developments also mean that quality is on the up, and we can look forward to a time when it will be the norm to roast distinctive Ethiopian specialty coffees with the name of particular growers or communities on our bags. Sarah Sherlock runs a specialty coffee roaster/retailer shop in Scotland named Highland Coffees located at: P.O. Box 26307, Crieff, Perthshire PH7 3WB, UK; e-mail: [email protected] Tea & Coffee - April/May, 2004 Tea & Coffee Trade Journal is published monthly by Lockwood Publications, Inc., 3743 Crescent St., 2nd Floor, Long Island City, NY 11101 U.S.A., Tel: (212) 391-2060. Fax: (1)(212) 827-0945. HTML production and Copyright © 2000 - 2013 by Keys Technologies and Tea & Coffee Trade Journal. Terms and Conditions of Website Use. HTML Copyright © 2004 by Keys Technologies and Tea & Coffee Trade Journal. All rights reserved.

The first speaker was Spas Lazarov of GE Energy Service, who spoke about points of power loss in data centers. The power use ratio in a data center varies from one data source to another, but Spas showed the ratio in the following picture. Power use ratio in a data center In his graph, I think the cooling ratio is a little too small, but it is within a reasonable range. The two items that consume the most power are IT and cooling. The power required for power distribution is 10–20%, small enough not to be very noticeable. There has been a lot of discussion about conserving power for IT (refreshing hardware and virtualization) and cooling (hot and cold aisle, containment, and air economizer). Although some work has been done, efforts to curb power consumption for power distribution have been minimum. Once power enters a data center, it changes its voltage and form a few times before it hits IT equipment. The following is a picture that shows the normal course of power distribution in a data center. In a normal data center, UPSs are placed to prepare for power loss or poor quality power. There are several UPS configurations, but Spas talked about double conversion mode and high efficiency mode. In the double conversion model, power, which entered the data center from the grid, always goes through the UPS. This is to ensure that IT equipment always receives good quality power in terms of frequency and voltage. Power from the power grid is AC. When that AC enters a UPS, AC is transformed via a rectifier to DC power for the battery inside the UPS. Then DC power is taken out of the battery and converted to AC power via an inverter. Two conversions introduce power losses, with an additional loss at the battery. If instead the UPS is operated under the high efficiency model, which bypasses the UPS in a normal situation and taps the UPS battery only in the case of an emergency, power loss is minimized, as shown in the next picture. In the figure, PUE increases because more power is fed to IT equipment rather than wasted in power distribution. Spas pointed out that power quality in the US and most developed countries is good enough not to worry about. He gave us the example of a 50,000 square foot data center with a 5 MW load and a power price of $0.01 per kilowatt hour saving $3M annually by means of the high efficiency model. He also said that if all UPSs were operated under this model, $3B could be saved globally. |Virtualization: Optimized Power and Cooling to Maximize Benefits| This is great, but what if the supply power is cut off from the grid? Can your servers survive the power interruption? Spas showed a diagram, below, with some details about the way power components are put together inside a server. Normally, a server contains a capacitor. As in the power grid, which has capacitor banks at strategic locations like substations and distribution networks, this capacitor inside the server maintains power for the server in case of power loss from outside. As shown in the picture above, a typical capacitor can maintain power for 20 ms in case of power loss. When you check your server’s specification, that information should be described on it. Spas also showed us that operating UPSs in the high efficiency model does fit within the ITI (CBEMA) Curve set by the Information Technology Industry Council. ITI is the high tech sector’s advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., and in foreign capitals around the world. It deals with such issues as corporate tax reform, trade, telecommunications, cybersecurity, energy efficiency, workforce and STEM initiatives, regulatory compliance, accessibility, and environmental sustainability. The ITI (CBEMA) Curve and application note describe an AC input voltage envelope that typically can be tolerated (no interruption in function) by most information technology equipment. As I dive into smart grid and power engineering, I revisit the issues in electrical and mechanical functions in data centers. Although I came from the IT sector, I think I am beginning to understand the facilities perspective a little bit better.

September 23, 2009 > History: Pacific States Steel Corporation History: Pacific States Steel Corporation By Myrla Raymundo Pacific States Steel Corporation operated a very large plant in Union City, CA. The plant, located on Nursery Road between Niles and Decoto, was a landmark and the largest employer in the Decoto area for many years. At the height of its business, Pacific States Steel Corporation joined Western Pacific and Holly Sugar Company in charting Union City's future. Controller and General Manager Marion Newman was in charge of the plant. From 1938 to 1978, the mill manufactured steel products for a wide range of uses, including filling Government orders during World War II and building large structures such as the Oakland Coliseum and the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) rail line. The mill took old steel cars, melted and formed them into steel products such as reinforcement bars and round pellets for the mining industry. In its boom years, the company sold more than $50 million worth of steel goods annually. The work was hard and dangerous for the 400-800 blue-collar workers in the mill. In 1950, workers in the most dangerous part of the plant would make $100 a day, a very good wage at that time. But the plant's profit began to dwindle due to foreign competition in the steel industry and the cost of acquiring new and better technology. The plant continued to fail under restrictive union policies and the recession that gripped the United States in the late 1970s. In March 1985, seventeen fires had been reported at the plant. That was too many in one area of the city. While battling two large fires, firefighters discovered a dwindling water supply and were forced to lay 1,500 feet of hose to douse the flames. New industrial plants are now required to be within 150 feet of fire hydrants. In addition, Union City Fire Department Chief Voneda ordered all businesses operating at the mill to leave. Chief Voneda's order came one day after developers unveiled a $100 million plan to replace the old mill with 150 homes and some light-industrial buildings. Cleanup of toxic heavy metals in the ground would require city redevelopment funds. Traces of heavy metals detected in slag heaps and a large cooling pond resulted in the Pacific States Steel mill being placed on the State of California Department of Health Services list of 400 sites in California needing cleanup. After the plant closed, the mill sat rusting for almost ten years. In the late 1980's, the plant was torn down. Building on the site was delayed due to legal issues and the cost of removing the toxic waste but finally, after a lengthy court battle, the site was cleaned up and Pacific States Steel mill pensioners were paid. Today, the property that once housed the largest employer in the City of Union City is filled with large, beautiful homes, soon to be part of the urban landscape surrounding the Intermodal Station.

CONNELL, JOHN HENRY CONNELL, JOHN HENRY (1867–1943). John Henry Connell, whose first name may have been James, director of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station and developer of the concept of regional agricultural research, the son of John Tinsley and Orpha (Salmon) Connell, was born in Walnut Hill, Arkansas, on July 9, 1867. He entered Mississippi A&M College (now Mississippi State University) in 1884 and graduated in 1888 with a bachelor of science degree. Thereafter he worked as an agriculturalist and continued his education. In 1893, after directing research on tick feverqv and cottonseed rations for steers, Connell earned a master of science degree, also from Mississippi A&M. That same year he accepted the directorship of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station (see AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION SYSTEM). He shared the belief of the Texas A&M Board of Directors that experimental substations, later known as agricultural research and extension centers, should be established in each area of Texas that had distinct soil and climate characteristics. As director, he traveled the state, solicited sites for substations, and listened to farmers. He crusaded for farmers' institutes and wrote popular articles that related to fundamental, as well as practical, problems faced by farmers. Connell insisted that government funds be spent according to congressional intent and for the benefit of the largest number of farmers. Through farmers' congresses at Texas A&M, he expanded the reputation of the experiment station and the college, obtained greater cooperation among farmers, and educated them about the latest scientific discoveries. These included the adaptability of corn varieties to different Texas soils; information about the life cycle of the Texas tick, knowledge resulting in an inoculation program by George Curtis and Mark Francis; and the influence of cottonseed oil products upon the butter industry (see COTTONSEED INDUSTRY). When Connell resigned from the experiment station in 1902 to become associate editor and assistant general manager of Texas Farm and Ranch, he had developed a statewide system of substations. The locations and number of stations changed to meet the changing needs of Texas agriculture. Although others, such as Seaman Knapp, made important contributions to agricultural extension in the state, Connell seems to have done the most to foster the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. He continued to emphasize agricultural education with Texas Farm and Ranch. He became president of Oklahoma A&M College (now Oklahoma State University) in 1908. There he enjoyed the support of his friend William (Alfalfa Bill) Murrayqv and served until 1914. He subsequently moved to Dallas and served for twenty-five years as executive secretary and vice president of the Dallas Automobile Association. Connell was married to Maud Brock. He was a member of the First Methodist Church, the Masons, and the Sons of the American Revolution. He died in Dallas on May 26, 1943, and was buried in Grove Hill Cemetery, Dallas. Dallas Morning News, May 27, 1943. Irvin M. May, Jr., "J. H. Connell, Aggie Administrator: The Texas Years," Red River Valley Historical Review 3 (Winter 1978). Philip R. Rulon, Oklahoma State University since 1890 (Stillwater, Oklahoma, 1975). Texas Farm and Ranch, June 14, 1902. The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.Irvin M. May, Jr., "CONNELL, JOHN HENRY," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fco91), accessed February 26, 2015. Uploaded on June 12, 2010. Modified on September 29, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

The .xz file format The .xz file format is a container format for compressed streams. There are no archiving capabilities, that is, the .xz format can hold only a single file just like the .gz and .bz2 file formats used by gzip and bzip2, respectively. Compared to a few other popular stream compression formats, the .xz format provides a couple of advanced features. At the same time, it has been kept simple enough to be usable in many embedded systems. Here is a summary of the features: - Streamable: It is always possible to create and decompress .xz files in a pipe; no seeking is required. - Random-access reading: The data can be split into independently compressed blocks. Every .xz file contains an index of the blocks, which makes limited random-access reading possible when the block size is small enough. - Multiple filters (algorithms): It is possible to add support for new filters, so no new file format is needed every time a new algorithm has been developed. Developers can use a developer-specific filter ID space for experimental filters. - Filter chaining: Up to four filters can be chained, which is very similar to piping on the UN*X command line. Chaining can improve compression ratio with some file types. Different filter chain can be used for every independently compressed block. - Integrity checks: Integrity of all headers is always protected with CRC32. The integrity of the actual data may be verified with CRC32, CRC64, SHA-256, or the check may be omitted completely. It is possible to add new integrity checks in future, but there is no possibility for developer-specific check IDs like there is for filter IDs. - Concatenation: Just like with .gz and .bz2 files, it is possible to concatenate .xz files as is. The decompressor can decompress a concatenated file as if it was a regular single-stream .xz file. - Padding: Binary zeros may be appended to .xz files to pad them to fill e.g. a block on a backup tape. The padding needs to be multiple of four bytes, because the size of every valid .xz file is a multiple of four bytes. Once a new filter or integrity check has been added to the .xz file format specification, it won't be removed. This is to ensure that all .xz files, that use only the filters defined in the .xz file format specification, can always be decompressed in future. New filters, integrity checks, or other additions to the .xz file format are unlikely to occur very often. Useless bloat can be avoided when new filters are added to the official list only when the new filters are clearly useful. The official .xz file format specification The latest version of the official .xz file format specification is available in plain text form at http://tukaani.org/xz/xz-file-format.txt. Specific versions of the specification: At least the following software support the .xz file format: