Datasets:
text
stringlengths 237
516k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 17
499
| date
stringlengths 20
20
| file_path
stringclasses 370
values | language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.65
1
| token_count
int64 58
105k
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
In addition to the fossil record, the insuperable anatomical gulfs between human beings and apes also invalidate the fairy tale of evolution. One of these has to do with walking.
Human beings walk upright, on two legs, using a special movement not encountered in any other living thing. Some mammals may have a restricted ability to move on two legs, such as bears and apes, and stand upright on rare occasions for short periods of time, such as when they wish to reach a food source or scout for danger. But normally they possess a stooped skeleton and walk on four legs.
However, bipedalism (walking on two legs) did not evolve from the four-legged gait of apes, as evolutionists would have us believe.
First off, bipedalism establishes no evolutionary advantage. An ape’s mode of walking is easier, faster and more efficient than a human’s. Human beings cannot move by leaping from branch to branch like apes, nor run at 125 kilometers/hour (77 miles/hour) like cheetahs. Since they walk on two legs, humans actually move very slowly over the ground, making them one of the most defenseless creatures in nature. According to the logic of evolution, there is therefore no point in apes “evolving” to walking on two legs. On the contrary, according to the survival of the fittest, human beings should have begun walking on four.
Another dilemma facing the evolutionists is that bipedalism is wholly incompatible with Darwin’s model of stage-by-stage development. This model suggested by evolution presupposes some “compound” form of walking, both on four and two legs. Yet in his 1996 computer-assisted research, the British paleoanthropologist Robin Crompton showed that such a compound walking style was impossible. (See Compound walking.) Crompton’s conclusion was that “a living being can either walk upright, or on all fours.” A walking style between these two would be impossible, as it would consume too much energy. Therefore, it is impossible for any semi-bipedal life form to have existed. (See, Origin of walking upright, the.)2009-08-12 17:55:52 | <urn:uuid:a8635c2b-f165-4d9d-8919-71e198266228> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://harunyahya.com/en/works/16295/Bipedalism | 2013-06-19T06:28:37Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949574 | 467 |
One in 10 teens reported being physically abused by a boyfriend or girlfriend in the last year. Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month is a national effort to raise awareness and protect teens from violence.
You can make a difference: Encourage schools, community-based organizations, parents, and teens to come together to prevent teen dating violence.
How can Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month make a difference?
We can use this month to raise awareness about teen dating violence and take action toward a solution – both at home and in our communities.
Here are just a few ideas:
- Encourage parents to talk with their teens about healthy relationships.
- Ask teachers to hold classroom discussions about dating violence and prevention – or to invite speakers in to talk about these issues.
- Help schools create policies that support healthy relationships and involve student voices.
How can I help spread the word?
We’ve made it easier for you to make a difference. This toolkit is full of ideas to help you take action today. For example:
Take action to raise awareness about teen dating violence.
- Write a letter to a public official – like a mayor or governor – asking them to recognize Teen Dating Violence Month.
- Host an event, like a play or a poetry slam, to raise awareness in your community.
- Join a group that supports the movement against dating abuse.
- Share materials from loveisrespect about healthy relationships and the warning signs of abuse.
- If you are concerned about a loved one, reach out for support.
Adapted from Break the Cycle.
Contact the Break the Cycle at [email protected] for more information and materials. | <urn:uuid:1f2dbf80-8723-461c-aecf-37837f739e97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://healthfinder.gov/nho/FebruaryToolkit2.aspx | 2013-06-19T06:41:40Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919418 | 343 |
Women and lesbians: discrimination on multiple grounds, an ILGA panel at the UNCHR
The discrimination that lesbian and bisexual women face is not only connected to their gender and their sexual identity. They also suffer from discrimination based on their social class, religion, “race,” minority background, age, disability, etc.
This was illustrated with various examples by all the panellists.
Claudine Ouellet, a human rights lawyer, described how including discrimination in the national constitution, in international conventions or elsewhere in the Bill of Rights can help protect the most vulnerable group of people.
She gave the example of the Canadian and the South African constitutions as being the most advanced in the protection against all forms of discrimination. Discrimination based on sexual orientation has been included in Canadian law since 1977!“This is a dream in many countries were homosexuality is still illegal like Sri Lanka”
, pointed out Rosanna Flamer Caldera, moderator of the panel and Co-secretary general of ILGA. She reported on how multi-facets of discrimination have become interwoven in Sri Lankan culture. Often, for a lesbian woman, being part of a minority group means being poor and suffering violence including within your own family, by having to accept forced marriage.
Susana Fried, of IGLHRC, gave examples of lesbians and bi-sexual women suffering discrimination on various grounds, even in areas where they would expect protection: within their family, the police, health service providers, and social groups.
She also stressed the difficulty of defining a lesbian or a bisexual woman, as in many instances these terms do not correspond to how they define themselves. The hetero-normativity
that only accepts male and female makes these definitions even more difficult. And if you are not part of the norm you simply do not exist.
Dorothy Aken’ova pointed out that in many African countries women have no rights, only obligations
and it is not even possible to speak of a woman choosing another way of life or being different from the norm. It is an exclusively patriarchal, male-dominated system.
In order simply to survive you need to have a man in your life.
Anna Leah Sarabia described the relation between sexual orientation and gender identity.
A woman is particularly affected by these strict standards: a woman must be heterosexual, feminine and virgin until she gets married. Though society accepts only two sexes and two gender identities, the male masculine hetero and the female feminine hetero, social sciences describe up to at least 48 types of gender identities.
She also underlined the double discrimination suffered by lesbian and bisexual women because of their gender and because of their sexual orientation. The task of a lesbian feminist is “to make people aware of these other 48 gender identities”
, she said “so that every person who does not fall into the hetero-normative standard is given the same respect and dignity.” | <urn:uuid:c32ed00f-f4fc-48c6-b473-3bf2a982f2aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ilga.org/ilga/en/article/587 | 2013-06-19T06:50:25Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959626 | 605 |
|15-Nov-2002 Judaism / Judaism Today
Unearthing clues to the biblical past
Restored statue of a Semite who occupied a high office in ancient Egypt. Could this be Joseph of Egypt?
Many archaeologists treat the Bible more as a work of myth than of history. Helen Jacobus meets the author of a new book, David Rohl, who argues why they are wrong. Egyptologist David Rohl is well known for upsetting the academic world. While many scholars of ancient history see the Bible as little more than fiction, Rohl regards it as an historical document whose stories can tell us about real events and characters who lived thousands of years ago.
His best-known book, “A Test of Time: From Myth to History” was turned into a three-part television documentary, “Pharaohs and Kings.” It revealed, among other details, that a smashed-up, cult statue of a Semitic high official, or vizier, had been found in a mud-brick pyramid tomb in an area in Egypt where, according to the Bible, the Israelites had been enslaved. The vizier had pale skin, red hair and wore a coat of colours. Rohl argued the statue was a representation of Joseph.
His new book, “The Lost Testament,” synthesises all his research with archaeological findings, to retell the Bible epic from the Garden of Eden to the exile of the Jews in Babylon. It is, he says, the culmination of 25 years’ work.
Speaking in his drawing room in Tunbridge Wells in Kent, which is adorned with replicas of ancient Egyptian and classical Graeco-Roman artefacts, he declares: “The Bible should be treated like any other ancient document. My approach is: let’s look at the document and see what we can find out about the history of the period and see if it’s consistent with the archaeology, rather than approaching it like some mythical text in the first place.
“The whole basis upon which the Jewish religion rests is the Passover and the Exodus from Egypt. That’s where it all began. And if that never happened, what do you do with the whole of Jewish tradition?”
As a child, Rohl had a “passion for ancient Egypt,” teaching himself hieroglyphics and the names of all the pharaohs. His mother encouraged his interest by taking him on an unforgettable trip down the Nile at the age of 10. Brought up as a Catholic, in Manchester, Rohl describes himself as “completely agnostic, with no religious beliefs as such.”
A successful career in the music industry, as a producer and engineer, enabled him to earn enough to return to his “first love,” and study for a degree in ancient history and Egyptology at University College London.
It was while doing his thesis on the last dynasties of pharaohs, from the 11th to the 5th centuries BCE, that he “found that scholars had artificially made the period too long.”
So he revised the dates downwards. The effect of that was to make the most famous pharaoh, Rameses II, not the pharaoh of the Exodus to whom Moses said “Let my people go,” in about 1279 BCE according to conventional dating, but a king contemporary with Solomon — in about 943 BCE. “By changing the dates of the pharaohs, such as Rameses II, there were obvious implications for biblical history,” he says.
Rohl, in fact, puts the Exodus around 1447 BCE, a couple of hundred years earlier than the conventional biblical dating. He describes his historical dating as the “New Chronology,” in contrast to the previously accepted “Old Chronology.” The “mistake” in the Old Chronology, he argues, stems from the Victorian era, when excavators “held the Bible in one hand, and the trowel in the other.”
Victorian biblical historians regarded Rameses II as the pharaoh of the Exodus, based on the names of cities mentioned in the Bible where the children of Israel were enslaved. But the cities of Pithom and Rameses, known as Pi-Ramesse to the ancients, Rohl says, were anachronistic city names for a far older name of the same place, Avaris. They were inserted by later text editors in antiquity, he suggests, so that people could identify the place.
To compound the error, Victorian historians also wrongly identified the Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenk I with the Shishak of the Bible, who sacked Solomon’s temple. “They added up dates of the kings before him to get a date for Rameses II, and thus a [wrong] date for Moses,” he maintains.
Rohl backs up his theory by pointing out that the archaeological dates for the destroyed walls of Jericho are in the 15th century BCE. But in the conventional system, Joshua is placed in 1200 BCE. “Archaeologists are looking in the right place, but in the wrong time,” he says.
He has a similar dispute with Professor Israel Finklestein, head of archaeology at Tel Aviv University, who has claimed there was no conquest of Canaan, no Joshua, and no Davidic nor Solomonic empire.
Although Rohl does not challenge Finklestein’s dates for David and Solomon — regarded by the Israeli as no more than tin-pot tribal chieftains — he believes that Israeli archaeologists have assigned incorrect archaeological eras to their kingdoms.
In other words, David and Solomon have been placed in the Iron Age, when there is a dearth of monuments and artefacts, a kind of archaeological Dark Ages in the Ancient Near East. But according to Rohl, King David and his son belong to the earlier Late Bronze Age, a period of great wealth.
“It’s like finding a Coca Cola tin and ascribing it to the Tudor period,” says Rohl, “and then, uncovering a skyscraper and concluding it was built in the reign of Elizabeth I.
“‘They say: ‘This is when Moses existed,’ and they look for evidence for the date and time, and there is no evidence. We say: ‘Moses was around in 1447 to 1450 BCE and there is evidence.’”
Rohl has also searched for the geographical basis of the Garden of Eden, as described in Genesis, and accordingly, he begins “The Lost Testament,” on the border between western Turkey and eastern Iran, where he has located what he says was the Garden, 7,000 years ago.
When he set out more than two decades ago, it was “to solve the puzzle of Egyptian chronology.” He had not expected his findings to have an impact on biblical chronology, too. “The Bible story is the heart and foundation of our culture. If the Egyptian chronology affected the Bible, it was important to investigate. I didn’t set out to prove that the Bible was true,” but he is now convinced that it is based on “real history.”
“The Lost Testament: From Eden to Exile — The Five-Thousand Year History of the People of the Bible,” David Rohl, Century, £18.99
David Rohl will be speaking on “The Bible — Myth or Reality?” at Northwood Synagogue, Murray Road, Northwood, Middlesex, on December 11, at 8pm.
For the rest of Rohl's views, see this week's edition of the JC. | <urn:uuid:4837ad1c-6709-4921-ab5e-9ebc6f322985> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://individual.utoronto.ca/mfkolarcik/jesuit/HelenJacobus.html | 2013-06-19T06:15:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969833 | 1,627 |
Taxonomic name: Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say, 1824
Synonyms: Anopheles annulimanus Wulp, 1867
Common names: common malaria mosquito, Gabelmücke (German)
Organism type: insect
Anopheles quadrimaculatus a mosquito is the chief vector of malaria in North America. This species prefers habitats with well-developed beds of submergent, floating leaf or emergent aquatic vegetation. Larvae are typically found in sites with abundant rooted aquatic vegetation, such as rice fields and adjacent irrigation ditches, freshwater marshes and the vegetated margins of lakes, ponds and reservoirs.
Anopheles quadrimaculatus is described as a large, dark brown mosquito. The tarsus is entirely dark (The Ohio State University Mosquito Pest Management Bulletin,1998). O'Malley (1992) reports that, "All Anopheles adults are characterized by an evenly rounded scutellum and palpi about as long as the proboscis. A. quadrimaculatus is a medium-sized species. Wings are entirely dark scaled and 4 mm or more in length. Scutal bristles are short and wings are spotted with patches of dark scales. The tip of the wing is dark without copper-colored fringe scales. The palpi have dark scales and are unbanded, and the wing has 4 distinct dark-scaled spots .."
Rafferty et al. (2002) found, "A simple method for rapid identification of large numbers of Anopheles mosquitoes based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of rDNA." The authors state that, "This method allows rapid analysis of large numbers of mosquitoes without robotic equipment and should enable rapid and extensive PCR analysis of field-collected samples and laboratory specimens."
Anopheles diluvialis, Anopheles inundatus, Anopheles maverlius, Anopheles smaragdinus
agricultural areas, lakes, riparian zones, urban areas, water courses, wetlands
Chase and Knight (2003) state that, "Many species of mosquitoes are habitat generalists which breed, grow as larvae and emerge from a wide variety of aquatic habitats .." O'Malley (1992) reports that, "In North America, most anophelines prefer habitats with well-developed beds of submergent, floating leaf or emergent aquatic vegetation. Larvae are typically found in sites with abundant rooted aquatic vegetation, such as rice fields and adjacent irrigation ditches, freshwater marshes and the vegetated margins of lakes, ponds and reservoirs. Investigators have suggested that aquatic vegetation promotes anopheline production because it provides a refuge for larvae from predators, such as Gambusia affinis. Additional hypotheses for the beneficial effects of aquatic vegetation include: enhanced food resources in vegetated regions, shelter from physical disturbance and favorable conditions for oviposition (Orr and Resh 1989)."
Comparing and contrasting different mosquito species, Chase and Knight (2003) state that, "Although these species have somewhat distinct habitat preferences, they readily lay eggs in, and emerge from wetlands of all types (Carpenter & LaCasse 1955). Although A. quadrimaculatus will also breed in smaller water-filled habitats (e.g. containers, ditches), which are often associated with humans, wetlands provide a much greater area for potential larval habitats, and often produce many more adult mosquitoes, than the smaller habitats traditionally associated with mosquito control." The Ohio State University Mosquito Pest Management Bulletin (1998) reports that, "These mosquitoes breed chiefly in permanent freshwater pools, ponds and swamps that contain aquatic vegetation or floating debris. Common habitats include borrow pits, sloughs, city park ponds, sluggish streams and shallow margins of reservoirs and lakes. During the daytime, adults remain inactive, resting in cool, damp, dark shelters such as buildings, and caves."
Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say is historically the most important vector of malaria in the United States. Malaria was a serious plague in the United States until its eradication in the 1950s (Rutledge et al. 2005). However there are still occasional cases of local transmission of malaria in the United States vectored by A. quadrimaculatus in the east and Anopheles freeborni in the west (CDC 2005 in Rios and Connelly, 2008).
This mosquito is susceptible to infection with malaria causing Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium malariae(Carpenter and LaCasse 1955). The Ohio State University Mosquito Pest Management Bulletin (1998) reports that, A. quadrimaculatus is the most important vector of malaria attacking humans in the eastern United States and can be found frequently in houses and other shelters. Their bites are less painful than many other mosquitoes and often go unnoticed.
A. quadrimaculatus can also transmit Cache Valley virus (CV) (Blackmore et al), West Nile Virus (CDC, 2007) and transmission of St. Louis encephalitis has been obtained with this species in laboratory experiment (Horsfall 1972 in O’Malley, 1992).
A. quadrimaculatus has been found to be an excellent host for dog heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis). According to Lewandowski et al. (1980), this is probably one of the most important species involved in the natural transmission of dog heartworm in Michigan. In central New York, this species was also the most efficient host of dog heartworm out of several species tested, both in the laboratory and the wild (Todaro and Morris 1975).
A. quadrimaculatus can be a vector for the myositic parasite Trachipleistophora hominis. Weidner et al. (1999) found that, Microsporidian spores of T. hominis Hollister, isolated from a human, readily infected larval stages of both A. quadrimaculatus. The authors state that, "Nearly 50% of the infected mosquito larvae survived to the adult stage. Spores recovered from adult mosquitoes were inoculated into mice and resulted in significant muscle infection at the site of injection".
Levine et al. (2004) report that, "A. quadrimaculatus was considered to be a single species until biological evidence necessitated subdividsion into a species complex in the late 1900s. A combination of genetic crossing, isozyme, and ctytological information convincingly showed that there are at least five species in the group and they include: A. quadrimaculatus, A. smaragdinus, A. diluvialis, A. inundatus, and A. maverlius." The A. quadrimaculatus complex as a whole is often referred to as A. quadrimaculatus (sensu lato), whereas A. quadrimaculatus (sensu stricto) refers to the individual species (Rios and Connelly, 2008). The authors state that A. quadrimaculatus is the most widely distributed of the species complex in the eastern United States and southeastern Canada (Seawright et al. 1991)."
In the United States, O'Malley (1992) states that, "A. quadrimaculatus is a clean water-loving mosquito. The current wetlands regulations could be seen as actually impeding our efforts to control this mosquito. By improving water quality within water management project sites per the regulations, we are actually increasing the number of habitats available."
Native range: North America; Anopheles quadrimaculatus has a distribution that covers much of the eastern United States. Its range extends from southern Canada to the Florida Everglades, and to the west from Minnesota to Mexico (Kaiser, 1994). Please follow this link for a distribution map (Levine et al. 2004).
O'Malley (1992) reports that, "A. quadrimaculatus larvae are indiscriminate feeders whose natural food includes a wide range of aquatic organisms, both plant and animal, as well as detritus. This food may be living or dead at the time of ingestion. The main criterion in selecting food seems to be whether the suspended material is small enough to eat. When feeding, A. quadrimaculatus larvae lie horizontally, with the dorsal side just under the surface film. The head rotates 180 degrees horizontally so that it is actually upside down and the venter of the head is dorsal. Feeding is either "eddy feeding" or "interfacial feeding". Eddy feeding is employed for infusions when the surface contains islets of floating oil materials. Two eddies with converging streams unite in front of the larva to form a current toward the mouth from a distance of about half the length of the larva. Efferent currents flow outward at right angles to the body from the antenna. Particles too large to eat are held by the maxillae, drawn below the surface and discarded as the head is rotated to the normal position. Interfacial feeding on the membranes of algae, bacteria, debris and fungi is common in nature. Feeding in this manner is accomplished by setting up currents which draw particles to the mouth from all directions in a straight line and at nearly equal velocities. Surface tension of the larval habitat determines the type of feeding. Eddy feeding occurs at a surface tension of less than 60 dynes per square cm; interfacial feeding is practiced in habitats with a surface tension above 62 dynes per square cm." O'Malley (1992) reports that, "Mosquito feeding patterns are largely regulated by host availability and preference (Apperson and Lanzaro 1991). Female A. quadrimaculatus are primarily mammalian feeders and actively feed on man and on wild and domesticated animals. As noted previously, this is a significant pest species. Females repeatedly seek their hosts, often visiting the same feeding site several times during the course of a bloodmeal."
Chase and Knight (2003) state that, "Larvae of the two most common mosquito species encountered in the natural and artificial wetlands, A. quadrimaculatus and C. pipiens, and other types of mosquito larvae, utilize different feeding behaviours and have slightly different diets (e.g. Merritt et al. 1992). They are both generalists, however, and readily consume detritus, microbes and algae, both from the benthos and the water column. As such, they are likely to compete for resources with several other co-occurring species."
The Ohio State University Mosquito Pest Management Bulletin (1998) reports that, "Anopheles quadrimaculatus eggs are laid singly on the water surface with lateral floats to keep them at the surface. One hundred or more eggs are laid at a time. A single female may lay as many as 12 batches of eggs and a total of more than 3,000 eggs." O'Malley (1992) reports that, "Mating occurs as soon as the females emerge. Males wait in nearby vegetation and seek females as they begin to fly. Copulation is completed in flight and takes 10-15 seconds. One insemination is usually sufficient for the fertilization of all eggs."
Floore (2004) states that, "The mosquito goes through four separate and distinct stages of its life cycle: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Each of these stages can be easily recognized by its special appearance." Egg stage: Eggs are laid one at a time or attached together to form "rafts." They float on the surface of the water. In the case of Culex and Culiseta species, the eggs are stuck together in rafts of up to 200. Anopheles, Ochlerotatus and Aedes , as well as many other genera, do not make egg rafts, but lay their eggs singly. Culex, Culiseta, and Anopheles lay their eggs on the water surface while many Aedes and Ochlerotatus lay their eggs on damp soil that will be flooded by water. Most eggs hatch into larvae within 48 hours; others might withstand subzero winters before hatching. Water is a necessary part of their habitat.
Larval stage: The larva (plural - larvae) lives in the water and comes to the surface to breathe. Larvae shed (molt) their skins four times, growing larger after each molt. Most larvae have siphon tubes for breathing and hang upside down from the water surface. Anopheles larvae do not have a siphon and lie parallel to the water surface to get a supply of oxygen through a breathing opening. Coquillettidia and Mansonia larvae attach to plants to obtain their air supply. The larvae feed on microorganisms and organic matter in the water. During the fourth molt the larva changes into a pupa (Floore, 2004).
Pupal stage: The pupal stage is a resting, non-feeding stage of development, but pupae are mobile, responding to light changes and moving (tumble) with a flip of their tails towards the bottom or protective areas. This is the time the mosquito changes into an adult. This process is similar to the metamorphosis seen in butterflies when the butterfly develops - while in the cocoon stage - from a caterpillar into an adult butterfly. In Culex species in the southern United States this takes about two days in the summer. When development is complete, the pupal skin splits and the adult mosquito (imago) emerges (Floore, 2004).
Adult:: The newly emerged adult rests on the surface of the water for a short time to allow itself to dry and all its body parts to harden. The wings have to spread out and dry properly before it can fly. Blood feeding and mating does not occur for a couple of days after the adults emerge (Floore, 2004).
This species has been nominated as among 100 of the "World's Worst" invaders
Principal sources: Shiff, 2002 Integrated Approach to Malaria Control
Levine et al. 2003. Distribution of Members of Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say s.l. (Diptera: Culicidae) and Implications for Their Roles in Malaria Transmission in the United States.
Compiled by: National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) and Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG)
Last Modified: Monday, 23 November 2009 | <urn:uuid:82d832e6-90c0-4652-bcb5-4008cb164e5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=140&fr=1&sts=sss | 2013-06-19T06:41:31Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92056 | 3,006 |
Motility refers to the movement of contents through the gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus.
Esophageal (esophagus) Motility Study, Antroduodenal (stomach, upper small intestine) Manometry and Colonic (large intestine) Motility Study
These tests are performed by placing catheters with special pressure sensors in the esophagus, stomach, upper small intestine and large intestine to measure the frequency and strength of muscular contractions in these areas of the body. These tests may be performed in children with longstanding swallowing problems, abdominal distention, feeding intolerance or chronic constipation to see if their symptoms are due to a motility problem.
A device with three small balloons is placed in the child's rectum to measure muscle contractions. Younger children are sedated with general anesthesia while older children are usually able to remain awake during the test. This test is performed in children with severe constipation and may also be used to diagnose Hirschprung's disease. | <urn:uuid:0b52bde9-0ee6-4dcf-9a3b-a1bbf8fd82af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://iuhealth.org/riley/gastroenterology/tests-procedures/motility-tests/ | 2013-06-19T06:28:21Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933067 | 202 |
Aristotle was the originator of the word ethics. His influence on the study of ethics comes mostly from his works such as Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle argued that all of man's pursuits seek to bring about some form of good - some happiness - for one's self or others. Where we differ is in what we perceive as happiness. Aristotle, unlike others before him, applied a scientific approach to his study of ethics. | <urn:uuid:52e769de-b439-43c8-bb15-05d783783675> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.thinkquest.org/12160/people/aristotle.htm | 2013-06-19T06:48:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974713 | 87 |
[FEUDALISM] [WOMEN IN POLITICS] [BIOGRAPHIES]
Feudalism was the major political system of the Middle Ages. A lord's (or lady's) lands were worked in vassalage by serfs and freemen, who owed their liege farm goods and work for the privilege of his protection The lord might then owe his services in war to a lord or church official over him, who in turn owed the king of the country. (Rowling42).
However unsophisticated (or, well, feudal) the system may seem, it was agreed on by most medieval political theorists. The 12th-Century cleric John of Salisbury declared that the king existed for the benefit of the people, not vice-versa. Therefore, a king who truly did his job was a king; a usurper who was merely trying to fill his own pockets was a tyrant and was not intended by God to rule (Hoyt 396). In 1301, Egidius Romanus concluded that since all power derived from God, the pope was the supreme ruler of the Christian world. Through him, kings gained the Divine Right to Rule (398). Authority came from right, not might. Right came from God, but not through any particular moral or intellectual fitness (401).
WOMEN IN POLITICS
Women were not represented in the town councils, so ordinary women had no voice in local politics. Women who did involve themselves in politics were wealthy, clerical, or upper-class, and their politics were often on an international scale (Gies and Gies, City 53-4).
For women, the secular political scene consisted mainly of flesh trafficking. A woman was technically under her father's control until she married, at which time she was supposed to be completely obedient to her husband's will. The lands that came with a bride at marriage were valued commodities, as were the sons she would produce. To a miserly father, daughters represented only the potential loss of lands when they married. Though peasants had some free choice in marriages, upper-class women rarely did. Their lands and potential for childbearing were far too important to be given away indiscriminately (Gies and Gies, Castle 78). In this way, the lady was often a tool in politics, used by men for their own purposes. Though a woman could hold property, recieve inheritance, participate in trade, and go to court, she was always under a man's guardianship -- her father's, her husband's, or that of another male relative (Gies and Gies, Castle 78).
To intelligent, resourceful women, a marriage of convenience did not always provide such a bleak outlook. Women who were married to young, weak, ignorant, inexperienced, absent, or tolerant husbands could take control of the husband's politics. Queens often waited until their husbands were away at the Crusades or some other war to begin to change things at home. In turn, they used their sons and daughters as networks of connections; and as no dutiful child could neglect his or her mother's wishes, a mother could often accomplish much. Women politicians, in keeping with the beliefs of the cult of the , were often regarded as intercessors (Moriarty 93).
|Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen of Louis VII of France and later queen consort of the younger Henry II of England, became a powerful force in Church and secular politics. To find out more about her and other women active in politics, click here.|
[home] [the inquisition] [visit the city] [biographies] [sister cities] [miscellany] | <urn:uuid:3ebdcaec-3cc1-42de-a161-9d2915b68d32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.thinkquest.org/12834/text/throneroom.html | 2013-06-19T06:22:34Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986331 | 758 |
This was another attempt to mislead people by the Fed. I hope that my answers, kept in the same simple idiom as the Fed’s, are helpful.
Image via Wikipedia
In 2006 the Federal Reserve decided it was time to begin to reach out and influence middle schoolers with the party line about the Fed, and launched the Federal Reserve Kids Page. Consisting of 10 harmless-appearing questions, either in English or Spanish, the Fed’s answers gloss over, and sometimes deliberately misstate, the correct answers:
What is the Federal Reserve System?
Fed’s answer: The Fed is a bank for other banks and a bank for the federal government. It was created to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system.
Better answer: The Fed is a cartel (a formal organization of service providers that agrees to fix prices and limit competition. The aim of such collusion is to increase individual members’ profits by reducing or eliminating competition) which was formed to protect its member banks from suffering the consequences of bank runs (which occur when a bank’s customers try to withdraw their money all at once because they’re afraid the bank is, or might become, insolvent and unable to pay off their customers).
Thus, the Fed is known as the “lender of last resort” which means that if one of the cartel’s banks gets in trouble, it can go to the Fed for money to tide the bank over until the run on the bank ends.
The Fed has no money of its own, but it can print money that looks like real money, which people will accept because other people will take it in trade for goods and services. This is often called fiat currency (money that has value only because the government says it does).
The Fed’s answer that the Fed was “created to provide the nation with a safer…monetary and financial system” must be challenged with the question, Safer than what? What was used as money before it became fiat or paper money? How does a person define safe for himself? At present, a piece of paper currency may be easily exchanged for goods and services at the store. It is easily recognized, and easily divisible into smaller or larger denominations. It is convenient to carry around, and since it represents purchasing power, it gives some people a sense of comfort and security in the event of an emergency. But will that piece of paper money always be able to buy the same amount of goods and services in the future? Is it safe to store paper money away to be spent later, perhaps much later?
The Fed also says it was created to provide the nation with a more flexible monetary system. What does flexible mean? Does it mean that paper is easier to carry than coins or checks or credit cards? Does it mean that money can be moved around from one bank to another quickly in the event of an emergency? Does it mean that the Fed can take some of your money and give it to someone else without your permission?
The Fed says it was created to provide the nation with a more stable system. What does stable mean? Does it mean that people everywhere will always accept your paper money when you want to buy things? Does it mean that prices will never change? Does it mean that we will never have to worry about runs on the banks because experts at the Fed are watching things, so we don’t have to? Does it mean that we can make plans for the future without having to worry about using our money then?
Who created the Federal Reserve, and when was it created?
Fed’s answer: Congress created the Federal Reserve System on December 23rd, 1913, with the signing of the Federal Reserve Act by President Woodrow Wilson.
Better answer: The creation of the Fed in 1913 was the culmination of efforts by bankers to create a central bank since the end of the Civil War in 1865. Resistance to central banking was very strong and as a result much of the negotiating had to take place secretly or else the public would find out and stop it. The most secret meeting took place in November, 1910 on Jekyll Island, off the coast of Georgia, where seven men (bankers affiliated with the biggest banks in the country) met to draw up plans for the Fed.
Here are some questions to ask about the creation of the Fed. Why was it done in secret? Why would the public have stopped the Fed if it had known about it beforehand? What didn’t the public like about banks and bankers after the Civil War? What was wrong with the money system that needed to be fixed? Did the Fed fix what was wrong with the money system?
What is the Board of Governors?
Fed’s answer: The Board of Governors oversees the Federal Reserve System. It is made up of seven members who are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
Better answer: The Fed’s answer is accurate, but it doesn’t go very far. Who are the people who sit on the Board? Where did they come from? Are they bankers themselves? Who nominated them? Do they have special expertise and skills that qualify them? Are they political pay-offs to friends inside the banking system?
Who are the members of the Board of Governors?
Fed’s answer: Click here to find out.
Where is the Federal Reserve Board of Governors located?
Fed’s answer: The Federal Reserve Board of Governors is located in Washington, DC.
What are the twelve Federal Reserve Districts?
Fed’s answer: Click on Question 6 here
What are some of the main responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System?
Fed’s answer: Conduct…monetary policy to help maintain employment, keep prices stable, and keep interest rates relatively low. ” “To make sure [the banks] are safe places for people to keep their money. ” “Provide financial services [such as] clearing checks, processing electronic payments, and distributing coin and paper money to the nation’s banks, credit unions, savings and loan associations, and savings banks.
Better answer: How does the Fed do that? How does the Fed keep prices stable when the paper money supply can be expanded at any time, which makes each piece of paper worth less? How does it maintain employment? With unemployment higher now than it has been in years, does that mean the Fed is failing in its purposes? How does it know how low interest rates should be? Isn’t that set by people making purchases and loans in the marketplace? What if the interest rates that the Fed sets are too low? Won’t that trick people into making bad economic decisions, such as when to buy a house or invest in a business? What if interest rates are too high? Won’t that slow down economic activity, and put people out of work? And why is the Fed involved in processing checks and making sure that banks have enough coin and currency? Isn’t that something a private company could do just as well?
What are interest rates and why are they important?
Fed’s answer: Interest rates are the prices people pay to borrow money or are paid to lend money. Interest rates, like other prices, are determined by the forces of supply and demand…the Federal Reserve System is able to affect the level of interest rates through its monetary policy.
Better answer: Part of the Fed’s answer is true: interest rates are the prices people pay to borrow and lend money, and they are “determined by the forces of supply and demand. ” But then the Fed contradicts itself, doesn’t it, when it says it’s “able to affect the level of interest rates through its monetary policy”? Why would it want to affect interest rates if people are already setting interest rates through supply and demand? If the Fed lowers interest rates, won’t that mislead people into thinking that money is cheap and then decide to borrow while rates are low? If lots of people borrow while rates are low, what happens if those rates go up? What if lots of people make bad decisions all at the same time? Won’t that create an imbalance in the economy? What happens if lots of people can’t pay back those cheap loans? What does the Fed do then? What do those people who borrowed the money do?
What is inflation?
Fed’s answer: Inflation means that the general level of prices of goods and services is increasing. When inflation is rapid, the prices of goods and services can increase faster than consumers’ income, and that means the amount of goods and services consumers are able to purchase goes down. In other words, the purchasing power of money has declined. With inflation, a dollar buys less and less over time.
Better answer: Inflation as defined by the Fed is the increase in the prices of goods and services. But what made those prices go up in the first place? Some prices might go up due to a shortage, or a poor crop, or a disruption in the manufacturing process. But other prices might go down as companies figure out ways to make things cheaper, or because consumers no longer want to buy a particular item. For example, a desktop computer 10 years ago might have cost $3,000, but today might cost only $500. So prices go up and down, according to supply and demand. But if you see prices of everything go up at the same time, isn’t that different? Doesn’t that mean that something else is responsible? Think about it: if the Fed is in charge of the supply of money, and it decides to increase the supply of money, what does that do to each piece of money already in your pocket? Doesn’t it mean that each piece is worth less and will consequently purchase less when you go to spend it?
The Fed’s answer is backwards. They increase the supply of money (to keep interest rates low, let’s say). That is inflation. When that new money comes into the market place, it means that each piece of money is worth less which is then reflected as higher prices. In other words, higher prices are the result of the inflation that the Fed already created by increasing the supply of money. Think of it this way: prices aren’t going up. The value of each piece of paper money is going down. That’s the result of inflation.
What is the FOMC, and what does it do?
Fed’s answer: FOMC stands for the Federal Open Market Committee. The FOMC consists of twelve members…The purpose of the FOMC is to determine the nation’s monetary policy…The actions taken…affect…the prices of goods and services.
Better answer: There is no better answer! The FOMC decides to adjust interest rates according to their “policy”, and increases the supply of money accordingly, which then “affect[s]…the prices of goods and services. ” In other words, when there is inflation (prices rising in the marketplace) it’s because the Fed wanted it that way.
Sign up to to receive Bob's explosive articles in your inbox every week, and as a thank you we'll send a copy of his most popular eBook - completely free of charge!
How can you help stop the Democrat's latest gun grab? How is the Federal Reserve deceiving America today? What is the latest Obama administration scandal coverup? Sign up for the Light from the Right email newsletter and help stop the progressives' takeover of America!
Pingback: Van Lee | <urn:uuid:6b90024b-c65b-4c23-bb4a-20075be2c0c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lightfromtheright.com/2011/06/06/federal-reserve-kids-page/ | 2013-06-19T06:48:10Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970607 | 2,423 |
To receive more information about up-to-date research on micronutrients, sign up for the free, semi-annual LPI Research Newsletter here.
Minerals are elements that originate in the Earth and cannot be made by living organisms. Plants obtain minerals from the soil, and most of the minerals in our diets come directly from plants or indirectly from animal sources. Minerals may also be present in the water we drink, but this varies with geographic locale. Minerals from plant sources may also vary from place to place, because soil mineral content varies geographically.
Select a mineral on the left for more information.
The information from the the Linus Pauling Institute's Micronutrient Information Center on vitamins and minerals is now available in a book titled "An Evidence-Based Approach to Vitamins and Minerals." The book can be purchased from the Linus Pauling Institute or Thieme Medical Publishers.
Thank you for subscribing to the Linus Pauling Institute's Research Newsletter.
You should receive your first issue within a month. We appreciate your interest in our work. | <urn:uuid:fc25adfc-e040-4908-99e0-fee4c9a4ff81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/minerals.html | 2013-06-19T06:41:47Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.893049 | 223 |
The ultimate guide to effects: delay
7th Jun 2011 | 13:54
Find out how it works and which delay plug-ins you should consider
Is there an echo in here? If you happen to be sitting in a recording studio, chances are there is indeed an echo (or two) sitting in the rack or on the hard drive. By far the most common function of the delay effect – echoes - make an appearance on just about any mix you can name.
In the earliest days of rock 'n' roll, slapback echo adorned the vocal recordings of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and others. It was an easy sound to create, by simply feeding a tape back to the record head without erasing the material that already existed on the tape.
This was often achieved using a pair of tape machines, but it wasn't long before dedicated echo boxes were introduced to grateful musicians, particularly those of a psychedelic bent.
Needless to say, these tape-based units were quickly overtaken by their digital descendants, and the initials DDL (for 'digital delay line') became common parlance among musicians and studio engineers. These units worked by sampling the incoming audio and replaying it alongside the dry signal. They would serve as the templates for modern software delays, even if they were quite simple by comparison.
Today's delay effects are as diverse as the producers who use them. They run the gamut from simple digital echo boxes that play back exactly what you put into them, to much more elaborate devices that provide synchronised echoes and a bevy of modulation options. Some developers go to great lengths to provide dead-on accurate emulations of the gritty, grainy digital and tape delays of decades past.
Back to basics
So what exactly is a delay, and how does it work? At the simplest level, a delay does just what the name implies: it delays an incoming signal. Old-school units used tape or digital sampling technology, whereas modern plug-ins operate by recording the incoming data and storing it in a buffer.
Normally, the length of delay is determined by the user and the buffer will spit out the signal after the specified length of time. Some plug-ins provide a number of interesting ways to manipulate the buffer's output, however, resulting in backwards signals or any number of odd, glitchy effects.
Delayed playback is fine, but it means very little if it is not paired with the dry signal. That isn't to say that it has no use at all - in fact, a delayed signal can be used to adjust timing or phase discrepancies. For the classic echo effect, though, the dry signal needs to be present. Like most effects, delay units usually provide a means by which the original signal and the processed signal are mixed together.
In addition to the basic delay effect, there is usually some form of 'feedback' or 'regen(eration)' on offer. This function determines how much of the effected signal is fed back through the effect, providing multiple repetitions of the processed signal. Each one of these repetitions will gradually fade out as new ones are created, unless you have the feedback cranked up full, in which case the signal will keep compounding until it reaches a deafening squall.
Just about any delay is going to provide some method of control over the delay time. Some will be of the free-spinning variety, displaying their values in milliseconds, while others will be lashed to the host's tempo and provide their timing values as beat divisions.
Choosing the appropriate delay time is crucial. Short delays (50ms or less) can be used to simulate double-tracking, while delay times of 100ms or longer will provide the classic slapback echo. Longer still will put you into space-rock territory.
In addition to the bog-standard delays described above, you might encounter variations on the theme. Ping-pong delays are quite common, providing a stereo output wherein alternating echoes are hard-panned in the stereo sound field. Multi-tap delays are also a popular choice - these behave the same as those described above, with the exception that multiple delay lines are provided, each with independent times and levels.
Many of the best delays are those that combine delay effects with other processing, particularly filter or modulation effects. Both of these are present in retro-style tape delay or early digital delay emulations. You see, the echoes of a vintage delay unit degraded over time, losing frequency content and timing stability.
Likewise, it is fairly common to find an LFO onboard their modern-day counterparts. This is provided as a means by which the pitch and timing of the echoes can be altered over time. Such effects can be used to simulate chorusing or flanging, as well as wacky, seasickness-inducing wobbling.
Needless to say, the above applications are just the beginning. There are loads of clever delay designs out there, ranging from reverse echo generation to wild, crunchy dub-echo devices. Often a delay will be built into an instrument, even becoming an integral part of its architecture. Modular synthesisers often come with a delay module in tow, and great fun can be had modulating the delay parameters with various other bits in a complex patch.
As we've suggested, delay is a vital element in any production, even when you don't consciously hear it. Delay lines are crucial in chorusing, reverb and other effects processors. In fact, they're so ubiquitous that you probably already have a number of them to hand, so open them up and get to know them!
Four top-notch delay plug-ins
FabFilter Timeless, £69
Now in its second incarnation, Timeless is maxed out with all manner of modulation. At its heart it's a classic stereo tape delay, but FabFilter has added filtering, time-stretching and its magnificent modulation matrix. Tap tempo is supported, or Timeless can sync to the host.
Artificial Audio Obelisk, €99
A wonderfully advanced multi-effect built around a spectral delay. Incoming audio is separated into multiple frequency bands which are treated independently. LFOs, spectral filter and gate are included to warp your sound, and modulation can be 'drawn' into the Analyzer Point View. Neat!
PSP Audioware Lexicon PSP 42, $149
One of a trio of delays built around its classic hardware units, the PSP 42 adheres to Lexicon's design and is approved by Lexicon. A stereo unit with a very retro sound, it has all the original's modulation options plus the ability to invert the feedback and delay channels.
Togu Audio Line TAL-Dub, Free
Togu Audio Line has provided yet another brilliant freebie with this vintage-style delay effect. There's a 12dB filter on board, along with the ability to set independent delay times and feedback for each channel (though these can be linked if you want). It can be used as a plain old filter too.
For a comprehensive selection of effects tutorials and techniques, check out Computer Music Special: Effects (issue 47) which is on sale now.
Liked this? Now read:The effects that changed music
Get MusicRadar straight to your inbox: Sign up for the free weekly newsletter | <urn:uuid:500395bb-963b-4e14-811a-72477dd1f769> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/the-ultimate-guide-to-effects-delay-457920 | 2013-06-19T06:15:19Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948136 | 1,503 |
Minnesota River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles
(534 km) long, in the U.S. state of
Minnesota. It drains a watershed of nearly 17,000 square miles
(44,000 km2), 14,751 square miles
(38,205 km2) in Minnesota and about 2,000 sq mi
(5180 km2) in South Dakota and Iowa.
in southwestern Minnesota, in Big Stone Lake on the Minnesota–South Dakota border just south of
the Laurentian Divide at the
Gap portage. It flows southeast to Mankato, then turns northeast. It joins the
Mississippi south of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, near the historic Fort Snelling.
The valley is one of several distinct
regions of Minnesota
. As shown
on old maps of Fort Snelling, early explorers dubbed the waterway
the St. Pierre or St. Peter's River. Pierre-Charles Le Sueur
to visit the river, but there
is no consensus as to the origin of its original name.
Its name comes from the Lakota
meaning "water" and sota
is alternately translated "smoky-white" or "like the cloudy sky".
, and later
the state, were named for the river.
The valley that the Minnesota River flows in is up to five miles
(8 km) wide and 250 feet (80 m) deep. It was carved
into the landscape by the massive glacial River Warren
between 11,700 and
9,400 years ago at the end of the last ice
in North America
The river valley is notable as the origin and center of the
in Minnesota. In 1903 Carson Nesbit
Cosgrove, an entrepreneur in Le Sueur presided at the organizational meeting of the
Minnesota Valley Canning Company (later renamed Green Giant).
By 1930, the Minnesota
River valley had emerged as one of the country's largest producers
of sweet corn. Green Giant had five canneries in Minnesota in
addition to the original facility in Le Sueur. Cosgrove's son,
Edward, and grandson, Robert also served as heads of the company
over the ensuing decades before the company was swallowed by
. Several docks for
exist along the river. Dried goods are
transported to the ports of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and then
shipped down the Mississippi River.
Cities and towns
Notes and references
- Das Illustrirte Mississippithal, or, The Valley
of the Mississippi Illustrated. St. Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota
Historical Society, 1967
- Sansome, Minnesota Underfoot, pp. 118-19. | <urn:uuid:e1a54e65-8441-4b7a-b26d-586be71ef728> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://maps.thefullwiki.org/Minnesota_River | 2013-06-19T06:15:53Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.896531 | 568 |
52 years ago in August 1958 the United States was so confident in our ability to provide clean nuclear energy that we put one hundred and sixteen men in a tin can called the USS Nautilus and sent them along with a nuclear reactor under the North Pole. Many of the crew from that voyage remain alive and well today.
What puzzles me is why the USA isn’t the undisputed world leader in nuclear power. Perhaps the title of undisputed leader in nuclear weaponry and leader in nuclear power are mutually exclusive. So it’s France who produce most of their power from nuclear reactors.
Google getting into the business of Nuclear power is the most exciting development in nuclear power in this country since the Nautilus. Google’s data centers are massive power consumers, but what also consumes a lot of resources is power transmission. It consumes land, steel, and a lot of power is lost during transmission.
If you can put a nuclear reactor on a 320ft submarine 60 years ago, you can build a clean nuclear reactor in 2010 with enough power to supply a local data center and the local town it provides employment for. My hope is that this is Google’s nuclear vision. | <urn:uuid:bb7b38c8-fb4d-426b-bbf7-235a9234328f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://markmaunder.com/2010/03/31/a-nuclear-google-may-be-a-very-good-thing/ | 2013-06-19T06:48:43Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94859 | 242 |
The Bridges of Königsberg
Library Home || Full Table of Contents || Suggest a Link || Library Help
|This problem inspired the great Swiss mathematician Leonard Euler to create graph theory, which led to the development of topology.|
|Levels:||High School (9-12), College|
|Math Topics:||Graph Theory, Topology|
© 1994-2013 Drexel University. All rights reserved.
The Math Forum is a research and educational enterprise of the Drexel University School of Education. | <urn:uuid:df883f86-cf13-43c8-8373-f78d2463ae13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mathforum.org/library/view/7472.html | 2013-06-19T06:17:15Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.733922 | 110 |
Climate change is expected to affect flooding through changes in rainfall, temperature, sea level and river processes. Climate change will exacerbate the existing effects of flooding on infrastructure and community services, including roads, stormwater and wastewater systems and drainage, river flood mitigation works, and private and public assets including houses, businesses and schools.
Climate change may change flood risk management priorities and may even increase the risk from flooding to unacceptable levels in some places. It is therefore important that your flood risk assessments incorporate an understanding of the impacts of climate change on the flood hazard.
Managing present-day and future risk from flooding involves a combination of risk-avoidance and risk-reduction activities. The treatment options could be a combination of avoiding risk where possible, controlling risk through structural or regulatory measures, transferring risk through insurance, accepting risk, emergency management planning, warning systems, and communicating risk (including residual risk) to affected parties. The best combination will consider the needs of future generations and not lock communities into a future of increasing risks from flooding. | <urn:uuid:7c71047c-cf11-4e42-b246-2371c6dd2036> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mfe.govt.nz/publications/climate/preparing-for-future-flooding-guide-for-local-govt/page6.html | 2013-06-19T06:22:23Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927329 | 207 |
Under intense persecution, hundreds of Puritan preachers, followed by tens of thousands from their flocks in the Old Country, answered freedom’s beckoning call and headed for America. Governor John Winthrop would describe what they hoped to build as a “shining city on a hill.”
Among those arriving in Boston were the Rev. Thomas Shepard and Simon Crosby and his relatives. Simon had heard Shepard preach and had undergone a profound religious conversion. The Crosbys would settle across the river and Cambridge (Newtowne) and become prominent citizens whose heirs were pillars of local Puritan and Presbyterian churches, as well as noted soldiers in the War for Independence.
It was into such a community of faith that young Francis (Fanny) Crosby would be born. At six weeks old, Crosby developed an eye inflammation, which an unschooled traveling medical man treated with “mustard poultices.” According to the story, this was the cause of her permanent blindness, although modern scientists believe she was probably congenitally blind.
Crosby herself would always speak of the occasion as a remarkable working of God’s providence, opening doors to her that would not have been opened otherwise. Her grandmother Eunice was of particular importance in instilling in young Crosby a love for the gospel and the Scriptures.
Biographer Edith L. Blumhofer describes the home environment as sustained by “an abiding Christian faith”: “At its center stands the Bible in the classic rendering of the Authorized Version. Crosby frequently admitted its centrality in her childhood home, where the family altar found a regular place. Although she could not read for herself, she memorized Scripture under the patient tutelage of her grandmother. … Shaped by the Calvinist reading of Scripture that years before prompted the family’s migration to the New World, the Crosbys of Southeast understood that God had a purpose for whatever happened. … They knew God as the source of all true pleasure and believed that all they had – meager or abundant – came from God’s hand.”
When Crosby was 19, her family learned of the Institute for the Blind in New York, where Crosby’s world suddenly became much larger. When a traveling phrenologist (a faddish “science” that presumed to discern intelligence and capability by carefully feeling the bumps on one’s head) pronounced Crosby extremely gifted, the Institute gave Crosby every opportunity for learning. She excelled and was soon working as an instructor.
Fanny Crosby’s self-styled “primitive Presbyterianism” gave her decidedly low-church views, yet she seems to have manifested a very open and warm attitude toward all of Christian faith. One incident, in particular, captures the essence of young Crosby and dismisses immediately the notion that the Institution was a dour and mournful place.
Alice Holmes, a year younger than Crosby, was born in England and struck by yellow fever on the ocean crossing to America. The ship was quarantined for months, and when the family finally stepped onto American soil, 9-year old Alice was completely blind.
Years later, Holmes would remember her first encounter with the new roommate in her book “Lost Vision”: “At a quarter before ten, Miss Crosby announced that she would take charge of the new pupil from New Jersey, as I was to room with her, and at once, with a kind good-night to all, and taking me by the hand, she started off at a pace which rendered me rather timid, every step being new and strange to my ‘unfrequented feet.’ Which, observing, she told me not to be afraid as she would not let me break my neck; and after crossing one of the main halls and reaching the third floor beyond a long flight stairs, she remarked, ‘Here we are; this is our room … here on this side is your bed, and here is your trunk, and here is a place to hang your clothes;’ in short ‘she tended me like a welcome guest.’ Before saying our prayers, however she inquired as to my religious views, and I at once declared myself an Episcopalian, to which she humorously replied, ‘Oh, then, you are a churchman,’ and made a rhyme which ran something like this:
‘Oh, how it grieves my poor old bones,
To sleep so near this Alice Holmes.
I will inform good Mr. Jones,
I cannot room with a Churchman!’
“Then she hoped I would not be offended or feel hurt, as she was only in fun; and with a warm goodnight retired to her side of our apartment,” Holmes writes.
At the Institution, Crosby became acquainted with a broad range of evangelical Protestants who served on the board and faculty and took the opportunity to visit many of the local churches. Her first contacts with Methodism clearly broadened her experience with church music. In her last Presbyterian church before leaving the Institution, hymns were often written more or less on the spot by the deacons and elders each Sunday, a practice which, to no one’s surprise, has not survived in many quarters.
The chief instructor at the institution was Professor William Cleveland, the son of a Presbyterian minister. When the elder pastor Cleveland died, Professor Cleveland’s younger brother was quite depressed and came to spend some time at the Institution.
As Crosby recounts, “In 1853, our head teacher, Prof. William Cleveland, was called to New Jersey by the death of his father, a Presbyterian clergyman. After a few days absence, he returned, bringing with him his younger brother, a youth of 16; and the next morning afterward he came to consult me in regard to ‘the boy.’
“‘Grover has taken our father’s death very much to heart,’ he said, ‘and I wish you would go into the office, where I have installed him as clerk, and talk to him, once in a while,’” Crosby writes.
“So I wend down as request, and was introduced to the young man,” she continues. “We talked together unreservedly about his father’s death, and a bond of friendship sprung up between us, which was strengthened by subsequent interviews. He seemed a very gentle, but intensely ambitious boy, and I felt that there were great things in store for him, although … there was not though in my mind that he would ever be chose from among the millions of his country to be its president.”
As Crosby’s own fame spread later in life, her circle of friends and acquaintances would expand to include a staggering range of political, social and literary figures. And she moved freely among well-schooled Presbyterians and circuit-riding Methodists. Her hymns, like “To God Be the Glory” and “Blessed Assurance” have found places in hymnals of virtually every denomination and assembly of God’s people throughout the world.
For the full article on Fanny Crosby, please visit Leben’s website. | <urn:uuid:f24001e4-7a94-44dc-9cb9-9fd19a744b69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mobile.wnd.com/2012/06/how-a-blind-hymn-writer-consoled-a-president/ | 2013-06-19T06:29:01Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981058 | 1,509 |
ASP.NET Web pages provide the user interface for your Web applications. The topics in this section provide information on how ASP.NET Web pages work and how to create and program them.
Provides general information on the structure of ASP.NET Web pages, how pages are processed by ASP.NET, and how ASP.NET pages render markup that conforms to XHTML standards.
Describes the basic markup elements that make up an ASP.NET page.
Provides information on how to create event handlers in ASP.NET pages and how to work with client script.
Provides an overview of the programming model inherent to all ASP.NET pages, which includes the single-page model, the code-behind model, and how to decide which model to use.
Describes the run time class that is generated and then compiled to represent a page, and provide a programmable object corresponding to that page.
Describes XHTML standards and explains how to implement them in ASP.NET Web pages.
Describes Web accessibility standards and explains how to implement them in ASP.NET Web pages.
Provides a tutorial on creating a simple ASP.NET Web page.
Provides a tutorial on creating a simple ASP.NET Web page using the code-behind programming model.
Illustrates various features of the code editor. Some of the features of the code editor depend on what language you are coding in. Therefore, in this walkthrough you create two pages, one that uses Visual Basic and another that uses C#.
Provides a procedure for adding new and existing ASP.NET Web pages to a Web site in Visual Studio.
Provides information on how to create, customize, and manage an ASP.NET Web application (sometimes referred to as a Web site).
Provides information about how ASP.NET Web server controls work, how to add them to ASP.NET pages, and how to program them.
Provides information on displaying and editing data in ASP.NET Web pages.
Provides information on storing information between page requests.
Provides information on security threats to your ASP.NET applications, ways in which to mitigate threats, and ways to authenticate and authorize users.
Provides information on handling errors, debugging ASP.NET pages, viewing trace information during page processing, and using monitoring the health of your application. | <urn:uuid:ef8fcd00-c6d4-4ec9-b38f-cac764ecef30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fddycb06.aspx | 2013-06-19T06:51:58Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.810711 | 480 |
There are some lessons that students just can't learn in the classroom — and one of those is about life on the farm.
So on Oct. 8, more than 70 fourth and fifth graders from Clara Barton Elementary School in Chicago made the trek to a working hog farm in Yorkville, IL, to get a firsthand education in agriculture and discover the source of some of the foods they eat every day. State Rep. Mary Flowers (D-31st District) accompanied the students on the trip.
During their field trip to Kellogg Farms, sponsored by the Illinois Pork Producers Association, the students got to view a modern pork production facility, including the farrowing rooms where piglets are born. They also learned how corn and soybeans are ground to make feed at the farm's feedmill and got to sit in the driver's seat of a huge tractor.
“Most of our students have never been to a farm before,” says Kim Otto, fifth grade teacher at Clara Barton Elementary School. “This is a rare opportunity for them to see firsthand where their food comes from and to better understand what it is like to live and work outside the city.”
John Kellogg, a fifth-generation farmer, his wife Jan and their son Matt have hosted hundreds of tour groups at their 1,300-acre farm where they grow crops and raise pigs, farrow-to-finish.
The Kelloggs partner with the Kendall County Pork Producers and the Kendall County Farm Bureau to host student field days, along with other activities designed to educate the general public about the importance of pork production.
Seventeen years ago, the Kelloggs' vision and leadership helped create “Teachers on an AgriScience Bus,” a nationally recognized program to educate suburban teachers about various aspects of agriculture, including pork production.
“We know that many kids — and adults, too — don't know how animals are raised or what's involved in modern farming,” says Kellogg. “These tours allow us to show people how we provide the best care for our animals to ensure high-quality pork for consumers, while also caring for the environment. The students ask great questions, so we know they are taking it all in. We are helping the next generation to be well-informed consumers.” | <urn:uuid:bc202632-185d-4f36-aa5c-9d5926c9b7f0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nationalhogfarmer.com/print/behavior-welfare/1115-students-visit-farm | 2013-06-19T06:30:25Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971327 | 478 |
By JEROD CLAPP
After all the scientists had measured and weighed their victims, they cut in, gutted them and took count of the contents to see if their size made any difference.
They sound mad, but they were just fifth-graders diving into pumpkins on Halloween.
Students at Utica Elementary School conducted experiments on pumpkins to see if their size had anything to do with the number of seeds inside.
Allen Keith, a fifth-grade teacher at the school, said students liked finding the circumference, height and weight of their pumpkins, but getting orange goop on them is always their favorite part.
“They’re all just hands-on at this age,” Keith said. “So many kids like to get their hands on things and a lot of them don’t get to help in the kitchen much anymore, so this is new to some of them.”
Keith said students often find there is no correlation between size and seeds, but the kids have fun and get to take their seeds home to roast, if they so choose.
Kamie Thompson, a fifth-grader, had a three-pound pumpkin. She said she expected maybe 70 seeds because of its size, but found 280 in the guts of her pumpkin.
“I didn’t think there would be more [seeds] in a small one,” Thompson said. “I don’t know if size really affects it. A lot of pumpkins have a lot of seeds, but I wouldn’t expect that a small one would have all these seeds.”
Oliver Sabol, another fifth-grader, said he got similar results. His two-pound pumpkin yielded 224 seeds. Though he said he was surprised at the results, he said the measuring wasn’t the best part of the experiment.
“I would say the gutting was the best because you get dirty, and I like getting dirty,” Sabol said.
Josh Emily, another fifth-grade teacher, said he liked the idea of the project because it’s another way to interject science into something they might not think of that way.
“I think that’s the key, to bring science into everyday life,” Emily said. “Here, we had a simple idea — come up with an experiment and figure out how to execute it.”
Keith said bringing science down to earth is something teachers always strive to do.
“We hope they’ll think a lot more about science in their everyday lives,” Keith said. “That’s kind of the goal.” | <urn:uuid:61f30a09-05d0-4fb3-aed6-06f484e9006e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newsandtribune.com/schools/x253575173/Gory-gourds-Utica-Elementary-students-dig-into-pumpkins/print | 2013-06-19T06:42:09Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983566 | 561 |
Note FYI: A reader told me that when they tried to reach this article via a Google news alert they were redirected to a spyware site. Going directly to this article was not a problem.
Nextbigfuture has covered the micro-fusion for space propulsion work of Freidwardt Winterberg.
Friedwardt Winterberg's ideas were largely the basis of Project Daedalus, the British Interplanetary Society’s starship design that would evolve into a two-stage mission with an engine burn — for each stage — of two years, driving an instrumented payload to Barnard’s Star at twelve percent of the speed of light.
Some highlights of the interview:
When I first had thought of the fusion-micro-explosion propulsion system almost 40 years ago, I never thought about interstellar spaceflight. I rather thought about a high specific impulse – high thrust propulsion system for manned spaceflight within the solar system. Instead of an interstellar probe, one could build in space very large interference “telescopes” with separation distances between the mirrors of 100,000 km, for example, in the hope to get surface details of other earthlike planets. And by going to 500 AU at the location of Einstein gravitational lens –focus, one could use the sun as a telescopic lens with an enormous magnification.
All this needs a very powerful propulsion system. Before going to Alpha Centauri (or Epsilon Eridani), one should aim at comets in the Oort cloud. Since there is water abundantly available, [this] invites the use of deuterium as rocket fuel. Unlike a DT micro-explosion where 80% of the energy goes into neutrons, unsuitable for propulsion, it is not much more than 25% for deuterium. A deuterium mini-detonation though requires at least 100 MJ for ignition, but this can be provided with a magnetically insulated Gigavolt capacitor, driving a 100 MJ proton beam for the ignition of a cylindrical deuterium target...In reaching the Oort cloud, and there establishing human colonies, one may by “hopping” from comet to comet ultimately reach a “new” earth.
The DD reaction produces T and He3, which in a secondary reaction burn with D. This was “nicely” demonstrated by the 15 Megaton fission triggered deuterium bomb test in 1952.
For propulsion, the pure fusion fire ball can with much higher efficiency (if compared to a pusher plate) be deflected by a magnetic mirror, also avoiding the ablation of a pusher plate. The ignition, requiring more than 100 MJ, can be done with some kind of particle accelerator. The LHC at CERN can store several 100 MJ energy in a particle beam moving with almost the velocity of light. No laser can that do yet. Unlike lasers, particle accelerators are very efficient. And to get a high fusion yield of say about 1kt, cylindrical targets with axial detonation should be used, where a mega-gauss magnetic field entraps the charged fusion products, as it is required for detonation
I would agree that the best way to go interstellar is to rapidly turn human civilization into a kardashev 2 civilization over the next 50-200 years and then expand out through the Oort comet cloud and over to other solar systems.
Relatively crude molecular nanotechnology would enable a rapid advance to kardashev level 1 (Storrs Weather machine).
Ignition of a Deuterium Micro-Detonation with a Gigavolt Super Marx Generator
Deuterium microbomb Rocket Propulsion
Ways Towards Pure Deuterium Inertial Confinement Fusion Through the Attainment of Gigavolt Potentials | <urn:uuid:2f7a28af-1244-4665-be44-be41ecedf650> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/04/friedwardt-winterberg-on-starship.html | 2013-06-19T06:41:49Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902279 | 781 |
My two digit number is special because adding the sum of its digits
to the product of its digits gives me my original number. What
could my number be?
If you wrote all the possible four digit numbers made by using each
of the digits 2, 4, 5, 7 once, what would they add up to?
A rhombus PQRS has an angle of 72 degrees. OQ = OR = OS = 1 unit. Find all the angles, show that POR is a straight line and that the side of the rhombus is equal to the Golden Ratio.
The problem is how did Archimedes calculate the lengths of the sides of the polygons which needed him to be able to calculate square roots?
Four cards are shuffled and placed into two piles of two. Starting with the first pile of cards - turn a card over...
You win if all your cards end up in the trays before you run out of cards in. . . . | <urn:uuid:5a1ded6c-32b1-403f-8348-58690a25ddb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nrich.maths.org/thismonth/3and4/2002/08 | 2013-06-19T06:36:42Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933158 | 202 |
[Found under: "Our English Items"]
What is Poi?
Mr. Lorrin Andrews in his Hawaiian Dictionary gives the following definition of the word Poi: “The paste or pudding which was formerly the chief food of Hawaiians, and is so to a great extent yet. It is made of kalo, sweet potatoes or breadfruit, but mostly of kalo, by baking the above articles in ovens under ground, and afterwards peeling and pounding them with more or less water (but not much); it is then left in a mass to ferment; after fermentation, it is again worked over with more water until it has the consistency of thick paste. It is eaten cold with fingers.”
The learned Hawaiian lexiographer [lexicographer] do not give the exact meaning of the word. Poi is a name given to mashed Kalo, potatoe, breadfruit or banana. The Kalo (a species of arum ex-culentum [arum esculentum] when cooked, is mashed or pounded with a stone, especially made for that purpose, until it becomes like a good soft (flour) dough. From that stage it is then reduce to what is called—poi. It is only at this stage the word poi is used. When the taro is merely mashed, or pounded into a hard pulpy mass, it is called a pa’i-ai or pa’i-kalo. When it is reduced to a still softer condition, and could be twisted by fingers, it is then called poi—whether hard or soft (poi paa or poi wali). When the poi is too soft, it is called poi hehee.
Our kanaka savant ventures to give his definition of Poi. He thinks that it primarily means to gather up; to collect, to pull up; to hold or lift up an article, lest it falls down or spills over. It is analogous to the word Hii, “to lift up; to carry upon the hips and support with the arms, as a child.” An expert poi pounder will call the attention of an unskillful person when pounding taro, saying: “E poi mai ka ai i ole e haule mawaho o ka papa.” (Gather up the ai (foot [food]) lest it falls over the board). He found a French definition of the word “poi” in Boniface Mosblech’s “Vocabulaire Oce’anien—Francais, et cetera, (Paris, 1843) to wit: “boullie de taro” (soft taro). That does not give the derivative definition of the word (kalo) any better than Mr. Andrews.
In conclusion we add the old legend pertaining to the origin of Kalo (taro).
Wakea was the husband, and Papa was the wife, and they two were supposed by some ancient Hawaiian tradition, the first progenitors of the Hawaiian race. They lived on the Koolau side of the Island of Oahu, and also at Kalihi. Their first born son was of premature birth. The little fellow died and its body was buried at one end of their house. After a while, from where the child’s body was buried a new kind of plant shot up. Nobody knows what it was. Finally, green leaves appeared. Wakea called the leaves “Lau-kapa-lili” (the quivering leaves) and the long stalk or stem of the plant was called “Ha-Loa” (long stalk or stem). The plant was finally called by Wakea as “Haloa.”
(Kuokoa Home Rula, 1/1/1909, p.1) | <urn:uuid:2c00954c-055a-4e3b-adcb-9ac4bcaa463b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nupepa-hawaii.com/tag/breadfruit/ | 2013-06-19T06:40:45Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961942 | 819 |
The Historical Origins, Convergence and Interrelationship of International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law, International Criminal Law and Public International Law and Their Application from at Least the Nineteenth Century
University of South Africa
November 20, 2008
Human Rights and International Legal Discourse, Vol. 1, 2007
Hofstra Univ. Legal Studies Research Paper No. 08-24
The emergence and scope of international law, whether in treaties or in customary international law, is especially relevant to those seeking reparations for atrocities committed against indigenous populations during colonization.
This article examines the origins, interrelationship, and dimensions of international law, the law of armed conflict, international human rights law, and international criminal law. It explores the time when these legal regimes came into being and when the protections accorded by them against various types of conduct became available.
It is submitted that by the turn of the twentieth century many of these laws were already available and in force. While it is commonly held that international protections against human rights violations were activated in the post-World War II era, they actually were accessible much earlier.
A specific focus of this article is the Martens Clause adopted into the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907. The Martens Clause it is argued constitutes one of the origins of international human rights law in the positivistic sense, and is considered applicable to the whole of international law, and has indeed shaped the development of customary international law. It will be shown that the Martens Clause is a specific and recognized provision giving protection to groups and individuals during both war and peace time.
A further focus of this article is the origins and interconnectedness of concepts such as crimes against humanity and genocide. This article looks as the origins of these notions. It argues that they are tied to the origins of international human rights law and finds they existed at least in the ninetieth century, if not before.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 41
Keywords: law of armed conflict; international human rights law, international criminal law, Marten's clause, Hague Convention, genocide, crimes against humanity, reparations, historical human rights violations, transitional justiceAccepted Paper Series
Date posted: November 24, 2008
© 2013 Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This page was processed by apollo7 in 0.797 seconds | <urn:uuid:783ccf19-daf6-4ac5-b912-d0e6296c2a7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1304613&rec=1&srcabs=980970&alg=1&pos=2 | 2013-06-19T06:48:24Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928545 | 478 |
The Law and Economics of Post-Civil War Restrictions on Interstate Migration by African-Americans
George Mason University School of Law
George Mason Law & Economics Research Paper No. 96-03
Texas Law Review, Vol. 76, 1998
An edited and revised version of this paper later became Chapter 1 of Only One Place of Redress: African Americans, Labor Organizations and the Court from Reconstruction to the New Deal (Duke University Press 2001).
In the decades after the Civil War, southern states attempted to prevent African-Americans from migrating by passing emigrant agent laws. These laws essentially banned interstate labor recruitment. The Supreme Court upheld emigrant agent laws in the little-known case of Williams v. Fears in 1900. The history of emigrant agent laws provides evidence that: (1) state action played a larger role in discrimination against African-Americans than is generally acknowledged; (2) laissez-faire jurisprudence was potentially helpful to disenfranchised African-Americans; and (3) the federalist structure of the U.S. provided African-Americans with opportunities to improve their lot through internal migration. Chapter 1 of the book Only One Place of Redress: African Americans, Labor Regulations and the Courts from Reconstruction to the New Deal (Duke University Press 2001) is based on this Article.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 68
Keywords: Civil Rights, Migration, Economics
JEL Classification: J6, J7working papers series
Date posted: June 27, 2008 ; Last revised: September 15, 2008
© 2013 Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This page was processed by apollo1 in 0.313 seconds | <urn:uuid:44ff7bcc-bc74-499d-9e4c-674a6da51348> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=876873 | 2013-06-19T06:23:22Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.904663 | 344 |
Factors Affecting Growth and Development Prepared by: Lovelyn M. Mataac 1. Heredity Heredity is the passing on of characteristics from parents to their children. Healthy children grow and develop faster…
"Good Governance" is central to the agenda for growth and for aid in low income countries. The broad contours of what this implies are clear, and there is strong evidence that deep- rooted economic ...
NAICS Code 541712 Industry Report - Identify current and future Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology) opportunities to win government ...
Factors Affecting Growth and Development Prepared by: Lovelyn M. Mataac
Heredity is the passing on of characteristics from parents to their children.
Healthy children grow and develop faster than sickly children.
Health means being physically, mentally and socially fit.
Children inherit some physical characteristics from parents. If a child inherited shortness, he or she will be short even with the proper nourishment.
A child who is healthy grows and develops faster than the one who is sickly.
3. Food and Food Habits
The body needs different kinds of nutrients for growth, energy and repair.
The body needs different nutrients; carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and water.
Carbohydrates and fats provide the body with the energy needs. Proteins provide the materials for growth and repair. Vitamins and minerals keep the body in good condition. Water is essential for metabolism and for bowel movement. It also determines the amount of blood in circulation.
Minerals are nutrients that are needed for building strong bones and teeth, for helping the nerves work, for regulating growth and for the clotting of blood.
Metabolism refers to all the activities going on in the cells so that they can absorb food and produce energy.
It is important to practice good food habits that are necessary for one’s health. When one is healthy, he or she grows and develops fast.
4. Good Food Habits
Eat plenty of food from grains and cereals. They are the food that give you energy.
Eat protein-rich food. They are the foods that make you grow.
Eat fruits and vegetables. They are foods that regulate your growth. Some vegetables are good if eaten raw. Others should be lightly cooked so that their nutrients will not be lost.
Eat less fatty, salty or sweet foods. Too much of these can cause illnesses.
Drink plenty of water. Your body parts need water to do their work.
Eat a balanced diet. A balanced diet has the right kinds of food in the right amount.
5. Good Health Habits
Keeping Clean-make cleanliness a habit. Take a bath daily. Wash your hands as often as needed. Brush your teeth. Be sure to clean your nose and ears. Keeping yourself clean can keep off some germs that caused diseases.
Exercise-your body also needs exercise. Exercise makes your muscles strong. It also improves your flexibility and makes your heart, lungs and other body parts work efficiently.
Playing is also an exercise.
Rest-while you need exercise, you also need rest. Muscles get tired when they overworked. When your muscles are tired, they cannot work well.
Rest after work or play. You rest when you sit down and read a book or listen to music. Sleep is a form of rest.
Some diseases may affect babies before they are born or at birth. These diseases may affect some parts of the body like the brain, in which case the child may become paralyzed or mentally retarded. Blindness may also affect development of physical and social capabilities of children.
Cerebral palsy is a disorder that affects a person’s movement and posture.
Immunization means injecting into the body a weakened form of germs.
SOME DISEASES SLOW DOWN ONE’S GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
7. Rest and Recreation
Recreation- an activity engaged in to restore strength and spirits after work.
It is an activity done for enjoyment.
Recreational Activities-Activities that you do voluntarily because you like it to.
Rest and recreation help a child develop physically, mentally and socially.
8. Family and Surroundings
Children grow up in a family. What children experience in the family affect their growth and development. Children who are loved grow up with a feeling of security. If their physical, emotional and social needs are provided
For, children grow up to be well-adjusted and confident of themselves. Negative experiences in the family may affect children.
Surroundings affect children. If the place they live in is polluted, children are likely to be sickly.
Family affects the growth and development of children. A small family can meet its basic needs.
Surroundings affect the growth and development of children. A clean surrounding is good for one’s health.
Answer the following with a Yes or a No. Answers only.
1. Eat fruits and vegetables daily.
2. Practicing good food habits will make us healthy.
3. Rest after work or play.
4. proteins are nutrients that come from both plants and animals.
5. Foods which contain vitamins and minerals are called Glow Foods.
6. Children inherit their neighbors’ characteristics.
7. Inherited traits can affect one’s growth and development.
8. Cerebral Palsy is injected into a body.
9. Diseases and defects can affect one’s growth and development.
10. Rest is doing what you like.
B. Write Rest or Recreation
1. Playing “taguan” with friends and neighbors.
2. Sleeping under the tree.
3. Playing badminton.
4. Making sketches of cartoon characters.
Write Good or Bad.
1. Living in a polluted surrounding.
2. Playing with stray animals.
3. It is right to drink contaminated water.
4. Healthful surroundings are free from garbage and junks.
5. Parents of a small family cannot provide the needs of the children.
Share Factors That Affect Growth And Development to:
Download Factors That Affect Growth And Development | <urn:uuid:80fdd869-91d2-4733-b5ec-a4dde623d0ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pdfcast.org/pdf/factors-that-affect-growth-and-development | 2013-06-19T06:49:09Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94149 | 1,298 |
The current swine flu cases are caused by a virus.
Specifically, they are being caused by a swine influenza A (H1N1) virus, a new strain of flu virus.
It is because this is a new strain of flu virus that it is spreading so easily and why so many kids are getting sick with the swine flu this year.
Fortunately, there are treatments for the swine flu.
Keep in mind that the CDC states that the 'priority use for these drugs this season is to treat people who are very sick (hospitalized) or people who are sick with flu symptoms and who are at increased risk of serious flu complications, such as pregnant women, young children, people 65 and older and people with chronic health conditions.'
That means that most people who get swine flu, including healthy children over age five years of age, won't need Tamiflu or Relenza.
Swine Flu Treatments
What makes this confusing is that there were many reports this past flu season that the seasonal flu virus was resistant to Tamiflu. In fact, it was recommended that doctors go back to using older medicines like Symmetrel (amantadine) or Flumadine (rimantadine) with Tamiflu or Relenza instead, if someone had a seasonal influenza A (H1N1) virus infection.
In contrast, the swine influenza A (H1N1) virus is still sensitive to Tamiflu and Relenza.
As with seasonal flu, Tamiflu and Relenza should be started within 48 hours of your child developing swine flu symptoms. According to the CDC, these flu medications can even be started after 48 hours though, especially if a patient is hospitalized or is at high risk to develop complications from the flu.
Swine Flu Treatments for Kids
Although Tamiflu is available as a syrup, it has never been approved for use in children under 12 months of age. Fortunately, the Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Tamiflu for infants under an Emergency Use Authorization.
Dosing of Tamiflu for treatment of swine flu in infants includes:
- 12 mg twice daily for 5 days in infants under 3 months old
- 20 mg twice daily for 5 days in infants 3 to 5 months old
- 25 mg twice daily for 5 days in infants 6 to 11 months old
Dosing of Tamiflu for prevention (prophylaxis) of swine flu in infants includes:
- 20 mg once daily for 10 days in infants 3 to 5 months old
- 25 mg once daily for 10 days in infants 6 to 11 months old
It is not recommended that infants under 3 months old routinely take Tamiflu for prevention of swine flu.
Children over 12 months old would take routine dosages of Tamiflu, just like they would for seasonal flu, to prevent and treat swine flu.
Relenza is still only recommended for children who are at least 7 years old (treatment) and who are at least 5 years old (prevention).
The increasing flu activity has already led to limited supplies of Tamiflu suspension. Fortunately, the CDC reports that 'supplies of adult formulation (75 mg) oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) are meeting current demand.'
So what do you do if your younger child who can't swallow pills needs Tamiflu?
- having your pharmacist follow the FDA-approved instructions for the emergency compounding of an oral suspension from Tamiflu 75mg capsules
- having your pediatrician prescribe Tamiflu capsules, which are available in 30mg, 45mg, and 75mg capsules, and then open and mix the appropriate capsule size with a sweetened liquid, such as regular or sugar-free chocolate syrup
CDC. Antiviral Drugs and Swine Influenza. Accessed April 2009. CDC. Interim Guidance on Antiviral Recommendations for Patients with Confirmed or Suspected Swine Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection and Close Contacts. Accessed April 2009. CDC. 2009-2010 Influenza Season: Information for Pharmacists. Accessed September 2009.
CDC. Antiviral Drugs and Swine Influenza. Accessed April 2009.
CDC. Interim Guidance on Antiviral Recommendations for Patients with Confirmed or Suspected Swine Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection and Close Contacts. Accessed April 2009.
CDC. 2009-2010 Influenza Season: Information for Pharmacists. Accessed September 2009. | <urn:uuid:cd4307f5-51c7-4615-881e-ecf37efb856f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pediatrics.about.com/od/swineflu/a/409_treatments.htm | 2013-06-19T06:49:40Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935964 | 947 |
Dione and Rhea pair up for an occultation, or mutual event, as seen by Cassini. While the lit portion of each moon is but a crescent, the dark side of Dione has begun to take a bite out of its distant sibling moon.
Dione is 1,126 kilometers (700 miles) across and Rhea is 1,528 kilometers (949 miles) across.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 17, 2006 at a distance of approximately 3.4 million kilometers (2.1 million miles) from Dione and at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 120 degrees. Resolution in the original image was 21 kilometers (12 miles) per pixel on Dione and 25 kilometers (16 miles) per pixel on Rhea. The image has been magnified by a factor of two and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org. | <urn:uuid:5739ae75-cf2b-4a46-a55f-ffe5c4d3d328> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08183 | 2013-06-19T06:29:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90823 | 340 |
Something I can never understand is that where the cosmic background radiation spreads? If I know well, the cosmic background radiation is actually the light of the Big Bang. If it happened exactly ...
I'm wondering whether the residual light of the Big Bang comes from one particular direction and what possibilities do we have to detect its position?
One of the experimental evidence that supports the theory of big bang is cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). From what I've read is that CMBR is the left over radiation from an early stage ...
Possible Duplicate: Why can we see the cosmic microwave background (CMB)? We all have seen evidence of radiation left from the Big Bang, but how is it still detectable? Why didn't it ...
I understand that we can never see much farther than the farthest galaxies we have observed. This is because, before the first galaxies formed, the universe was opaque--it was a soup of subatomic ... | <urn:uuid:d6903642-357f-45c4-85ba-877c29848823> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/cmb+big-bang | 2013-06-19T06:24:11Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945355 | 193 |
Though overt racism has diminished greatly over the last 30 years, most American cities remain deeply segregated. A host of other problems, such as the lack of both public services and private enterprise in inner-city black neighborhoods, have persisted in part because of this segregation. The challenge today is no longer to thwart individual white racists or, certainly, the patent discrimination of the old "neighborhood improvement associations," which flatly excluded blacks. Rather we must address the legacy of nearly a century of institutional practices that embedded racial and ethnic ghettos deep in our urban demography. Specifically, the practices of mortgage lenders and property insurers may have done more to shape housing patterns than bald racism ever did.
Real estate agents and federal housing officials long listened to sociologist and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) advisor Homer Hoyt, who concluded in 1933 that blacks and Mexicans had a very detrimental effect on property values. In its 1939 Underwriting Manual the FHA warned of "inharmonious racial groups" and concluded that "if a neighborhood is to retain stability, it is necessary that properties shall continue to be occupied by the same social and racial classes." Until the 1960s the FHA insured the financing of many homes in white suburban areas while providing virtually no mortgage insurance in the urban markets where minorities lived. Similarly, until the 1950s the National Association of Realtors officially "steered" clients into certain neighborhoods according to race, advising that "a realtor should never be instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood a character of property or occupancy, members of any race or nationality whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values in the neighborhood." Racially restrictive covenants were actually enforced by the courts until the Supreme Court declared them to be "unenforceable as law and contrary to public policy" in its decision in Shelley v. Kraemer, in 1948. But such covenants have persisted in practice even after they were officially declared illegal. In 1989, Urban Institute researchers found that racial steering and other forms of disparate treatment continued to block opportunities for approximately half of all black and Hispanic home seekers nationwide, whether they were potential home buyers or renters. Fair housing groups have continued to document the same practices through the 1990s.
By concentrating public housing in central city locations and financing highways to facilitate suburban development, the federal government has further reinforced emerging dual housing markets. And by subsidizing the costs of sewer systems, school construction, roads, and other aspects of suburban in fra structure, government policy nurtures urban sprawl, which generally benefits predominantly white outlying communities at the expense of increasingly nonwhite urban and inner-ring suburban communities.
The problem today is not that loan officers or insurance agents are racist. Rather, it's that their decisions are largely dictated by considerations of financial risk—and the evaluation of that risk has often been colored by questions of race. Unfortunately, it is sometimes hard to disentangle discrimination based explicitly on race from discrimination based on the credit and overall financial status of home owners, the condition of the homes they want to purchase, and the state of the neighborhood as it affects property values. Even if race per se is not a leading factor in lending or insurance decisions, urban blacks are more likely to have poor credit ratings and are more likely to be purchasing homes in neighborhoods with lower property values. These factors hurt their mortgage and insurance applications.
The Mortgage Gap
While the federal government actively encouraged racial segregation in the nation's housing markets until the 1960s, since then its official record on prohibiting discrimination has been more favorable. For example, the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Equal Credit Oppor tunity Act of 1974 outlawed racial discrimination in mortgage lending and related credit transactions, and in 1975, Congress enacted the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), which requires most mortgage lenders to disclose the geographic location of their mortgage lending activity. In 1989, Congress expanded HMDA to require lenders to report the race, gender, and income of every loan applicant, the census tract location of his or her home, and whether the application was accepted or denied. And in 1977, Congress enacted the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), requiring depository institutions (primarily commercial banks and savings institutions) to seek out and be responsive to the credit needs of their entire service areas, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.
Still, recent research using HMDA data has found that black mortgage loan applicants are denied twice as often as whites. The most comprehensive study, prepared by researchers with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and published in the American Economic Review in 1996, found that even among equally qualified borrowers, blacks were rejected 60 percent more often than whites. The causes of this disparity, and particularly the extent to which outright discrimination accounts for them, continue to be hotly debated.
Other research suggests that discrimination of some sort must be stubbornly persisting. Paired testing—an investigative procedure whereby pairs of equally qualified white and nonwhite borrowers or borrowers from white and nonwhite neighborhoods approach the same lenders to inquire about a loan—has found that applicants from black and Hispanic communities are often offered inferior products, charged higher fees, provided less counseling or assistance, or are otherwise treated less favorably than applicants from white communities. Under writing guidelines like minimum loan amounts and maximum housing age requirements that are used by many lenders also are found to have an adverse disparate impact on minority communities. Over the past seven years the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Depart ment of Housing and Ur ban Devel opment (HUD) have documented similar practices in settling fair housing complaints with 17 lenders involving millions of dollars in damages to victims and billions of dollars in loan commitments and other services previously denied to minority communities.
Fortunately, there is some evidence that racial gaps are closing. Between 1993 and 1997 the number of home purchase mortgage loans to blacks and Hispanics nationwide increased 60 percent, compared to 16 percent for whites. The percentage of those loans going to black and Hispanic borrowers, therefore, grew from 5 percent to 7 percent for each group. These positive trends likely reflect several developments. The multimillion-dollar DOJ and HUD settlements of fair housing complaints certainly attracted the industry's attention. And under the Community Reinvestment Act, community-based advocacy groups have negotiated reinvestment agreements with lenders in approximately 100 cities in 33 states, totaling more than $400 billion in lending commitments. These settlements and agreements call for a variety of actions, including opening new branch offices in central city neighborhoods, advertising in electronic and print media directed at minority communities, hiring more minority loan officers, educating consumers on mortgage lending and home ownership, and developing new loan products. Sources ranging from the National Community Reinvest ment Coalition to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan maintain that lenders have discovered profitable markets that had previously been underserved due to racial discrimination.
Yet this progress may be threatened by consolidation within and across financial industries as well as between financial and commercial businesses. For several years Congress has debated financial mod ern ization legislation that would permit and encourage consolidation activities among banks, insurers, and securities firms that are currently prohibited by various post–Depression era statutes, most notably the Glass-Steagall Act. Even in the absence of such legislation, financial institutions have found loopholes in the laws, and consolidation has occurred within and among financial service industries.
Several studies indicate that mergers and acquisitions decrease CRA performance. The Woodstock Institute, a Chicago-based research and advocacy group that focuses on community reinvestment issues, recently found that small lenders make a higher share of their loans in low-income neighborhoods than do larger lenders. According to John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, small, local lenders have an intimate knowledge of their customers that larger and more distant institutions cannot develop. In addition, consolidation across financial industries can result in the shifting of assets away from depositories currently covered by CRA to independent mortgage banks and other institutions not covered by this law.
No Insurance, No Loan
Before potential home owners can apply for a mortgage loan, they must produce proof of insurance. As the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals stated in its decision in the 1992 case of NAACP v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co., "No insurance, no loan; no loan, no house." Unfortunately, not much is known about the behavior of the property insurance industry, in part because there is no law comparable to HMDA requiring public disclosure of the disposition of applications and geographic location of insured properties. What evidence does exist, however, demonstrates the persistence of substantial racial disparities—though as with mortgage lending businesses, it is impossible to determine precisely to what extent this disparity is due to outright racial discrimination.
In 1992, 33 urban communities voluntarily provided zip code data to their state insurance commissioners on policies written, premiums charged, losses experienced, and other factors. Analysis of the data by the National Association of Insurance Commission ers revealed that even after loss costs were taken into consideration, racial composition of zip codes was strongly associated with the price and number of policies written by these companies. Insurers were underwriting relatively fewer policies for black neighborhood applicants, and the policies they did write were often at higher premiums than for comparable white applicants from white areas.
More recently the National Fair Housing Alliance conducted paired testing of large insurers in nine cities and found evidence of discrimination against blacks and Hispanics in approximately half of the tests. Applicants from minority communities were refused insurance, offered inferior policies, or forced to pay higher premiums. Some applicants from these areas were required to produce proof of inspection or credit reports not required in other areas. Applicants from minority communities were also found to be held to more stringent maximum age and minimum value policy requirements. (Companies sometimes require that a house not be older than a certain age, or have a minimum appraisal value, before they will insure it.)
But there is evidence here, too, that these racial gaps may be closing, at least in certain markets. Four major insurers (Allstate, State Farm, Nation wide, and American Family), accounting for almost half of all home owners' insurance policies sold nationwide, have settled fair housing complaints since 1995 with HUD, the DOJ, and several fair housing and civil rights organizations. In October 1998 a Richmond jury found Nationwide guilty of intentional discrimination and ordered the insurer to pay more than $100 million in punitive damages to the local fair housing group, Housing Opportunities Made Equal (Home), which filed the lawsuit. These insurers have agreed to eliminate discriminatory underwriting guidelines, open new offices in minority areas, and market products through minority media to increase service in previously underserved minority communities. At the same time, several insurers, trade associations, and state regulators have launched voluntary initiatives to educate consumers, recruit minority agents and more agents for urban communities, and generally increase business in urban neighborhoods.
As a first step toward greater understanding of the issue, insurance companies should be required to publicly disclose information about the geographic distribution of insurance policies, which would lead to a range of studies just as HMDA did in the mortgage lending field. In addition, researchers should undertake follow-up studies to document the impact of recent legal settlements and indicate what has worked and why. Currently, evaluations of these efforts are included as part of the settlements, but the results are not for public consumption.
Institutions, Not Individuals
Discriminatory practices in the housing industry are often treated as the problem of selected individuals—consumers who happen to have the wrong credit or color, or providers who have prejudicial attitudes and act in discriminatory ways. Thinking this way, one loses sight of the structural and political roots of the problem and of potential solutions. Dismantling our cities' dual housing markets will require appropriate political strategies that address the structural causes.
Several steps should be taken to augment ongoing community reinvestment efforts. First, Congress should enact an insurance disclosure law, comparable to HMDA, that would permit regulators, consumers, and the insurance industry itself to understand better where insurance availability problems persist and why. This information would likely stimulate additional organizing, enforcement, and voluntary industry efforts to respond to remaining problems.
Second, additional paired testing would reveal specific policies and practices (related to pricing, types of products offered, and qualifying standards) that are delivered in a discriminatory manner, enabling enforcement agencies to target their resources and secure more comprehensive remedies.
Third, Congress should establish the following requirements for any significant merger, consolidation, or acquisition involving banks, insurers, securities firms, and related financial industries:
- CRA provisions should assure that all institutions determine and respond to the needs of low-income residents and communities;
- low-cost checking, savings, and other basic banking services should be available to low-income residents;
- regulatory reviews should be conducted of all proposed restructurings to assure that an adequate plan is in place to meet community reinvestment objectives;
- public hearings should be offered on any proposed significant restructuring to permit comment by all parties that would be affected prior to any decision by a regulatory agency on the proposal;
- any subsidiary currently or subsequently found to be in violation of the Fair Housing Act or related fair lending rules should be excluded or divested.
None of these provisions would prohibit lenders, insurers, or other providers of financial services from engaging in transactions they find beneficial. But these guidelines would assure that the products and services of these industries are available throughout all of the nation's metropolitan areas.
If we are to address seriously the segregation and poverty that persist in urban America, we must continue to educate consumers about effective money management and providers of financial services about lingering discrimination. Public officials must also intensify redevelopment efforts in inner cities—once a city can demonstrate tighter labor markets, higher wages, and more jobs, lenders and insurers will start to market their products more aggressively in distressed but recovering areas. But as long as racial discrimination—whether by intent or effect—persists in the housing services industry, our cities will remain riven by segregation, leaving blacks and other minorities in underserved, undesirable locations.
You need to be logged in to comment.
(If there's one thing we know about comment trolls, it's that they're lazy) | <urn:uuid:0d818561-0944-468d-b2c8-98f2fd462d30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://prospect.org/article/indelible-color-line | 2013-06-19T06:49:40Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962216 | 2,854 |
Well, it turns out that empathy across group boundaries is a complicated matter. Although part of the glue holding society together is a desire to reduce the suffering of others, and though we’re quick to empathize with and help members of our own groups, this dynamic can go haywire when it must extend to members of different groups (Cikara, Bruneau, & Saxe, 2011).
When we witness a member of our own ethnic group suffering (like Katniss, if you’re European-American), our brain activates the same experience for ourselves, leading us to feel the same pain as she does.
But when we witness a member of a different ethnic group suffering (like Rue, if you’re not African American), this response short-circuits – our brains do not activate a shared experience. This is especially true of people high in implicit racism (that is, people who harbor biases toward other groups, even if they won’t admit that bias to themselves or others).
Instead of empathy, when competition abounds (and it is undeniably encouraged in The Hunger Games) we may respond to the suffering of people from different groups with Schadenfreude, taking pleasure in their pain. That is, reward regions of the brain light up when viewing someone from another, competing group receive a painful electric shock.
So although she was clearly Katniss’s ally in the book, when Rue’s race was made salient to viewers (by actually seeing her onscreen) in a savagely competitive context, it’s possible that many viewers felt they could no longer relate to Rue or empathize with her suffering. Feeling robbed of an emotional relationship with a beloved character (yes, we do build one-sided “parasocial” relationships with characters), and perhaps having to face a sick feeling of relief or joy at her death, it appears some viewers coped with these aversive feelings in a very public way: by posting racist things – some subtle, some not – on the Internet.
This topic has inspired an intense public dialogue about modern expressions of racism, and multitudes of fascinating essays and blog posts – here’s a good one.
So what should we take away from this? Rather than writing it off as “Well, some people are just racist,” or adopting a “colorblind” stance that ignores group differences and strips Rue and Thresh of their cultural identity, it’s essential that we celebrate group differences and carefully examine our own assumptions and biases. This latter task can be extremely difficult. Best of all, by cultivating friendships with members of different groups (according to the work of Elizabeth Page-Gould), we can build bridges between our own identity and that of the other group, and in turn become more comfortable when interacting with people of ethnicities different than our own.
Were you among those who had imagined Rue to be European-American? Why do you think that was? How did you react when you saw her in the movie?
Cikara, M., Bruneau, E., & Saxe, R. (2011). Us and Them: Intergroup Failures of Empathy Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20 (3), 149-153 DOI: 10.1177/0963721411408713 | <urn:uuid:7431b3fc-a138-423e-bc97-f4a4e6ecec81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://psych-your-mind.blogspot.com/2012/04/rue-and-racism-intergroup-dynamics-and.html | 2013-06-19T06:28:20Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938284 | 682 |
Focus and Concentration
- Minimize distractions e.g. email, kids
- Know your best concentration span for reading and stick to it and then take a break. Try the 50-10-50 technique: 50 minutes reading, 10 minute break, 50 minutes reading.
- Don't try to read when tired
- If you are a kinesthetic /tactile learner, you need to DO something while you read.
For more information and strategies to help with focus and concentration, see:
Ideas Just Sweep Me Away: How to Stay On-Task While Reading (99 KB)
For more information, see TOOL "Improving your Concentration". Go to the Undergraduate Student tab. Download the module "Academic Reading". In the pdf version, go to p. 16. | <urn:uuid:7f4d308e-078c-4e2c-a56a-c68c836593ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://queensu.ca/learningstrategies/grad/reading/module/gradfocus.html | 2013-06-19T06:50:10Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.822926 | 166 |
Baseball was part of the long and varied life of John W. Dickins for only a few years, and it seems to have played no role at all after the 1869 advent of open professionalism. Nevertheless, he made important contributions to the post-Civil War spread of the game in the South, a development that lent credence to descriptions of baseball as the “national game.”
John Whitby Dickins was born in Wigan, Lancashire County, England, on June 24, 1841, the son of Samuel Dickins, a schoolmaster, and his wife Eliza. When he was sixteen John was sent to the United States to study at the Williston Seminary in Easthampton, Massachusetts. After a year of teaching school, he moved to Brooklyn and commenced the study of law while working for the law firm of Hagner & Smith. Brooklyn was a baseball-mad city at the time and the young Englishman must have been introduced to the sport at this time, if not before.
The outbreak of the Civil War interrupted his law studies as he began what was supposed to be a three-month enlistment in the 71st New York State Militia. Instead, Dickins was captured at the Battle of Bull Run, spending four months in Libby Prison in Richmond, four months in Parish Prison in New Orleans, and another three months in the Confederate Prison in Salisbury, North Carolina. While imprisoned, he became the associate editor of “The Stars and Stripes in Rebeldom,” a collection of the writings of Union prisoners.
After close to a year behind bars, Dickins was exchanged and promptly reenlisted in the 165th New York Infantry, a regiment that became known as “Duryea’s Zouaves.” One of his fellow soldiers in the 165th was future National League president Abraham G. Mills, who would later recollect having regularly packed a bat and ball in with his field equipment and having played in a Christmas Day 1862 game at Hilton Head, South Carolina, said to have been watched by 40,000 soldiers. The figure is preposterous, but it seems a safe assumption that Dickins’ time in Duryea’s Zouaves increased his familiarity with baseball. He was promoted from Corporal to Full Sergeant on February 25, 1863, and was wounded at the battle of Port Hudson, Louisiana, on May 27, 1863.
After another promotion to Sergeant-Major, Dickins was transferred to a captaincy in the 100th U.S. Colored Troops Infantry Regiment in July of 1864. He led his new charges at the Battle of Nashville that December and was brevetted Major and Lieutenant-Colonel for “uniform gallantry and good conduct, and for especial bravery” at this pivotal battle.
It was not until the end of 1865 that John Dickins was mustered out, but he must have been free to travel after the war’s end, as he took advantage to return to England in the summer of 1865 and marry a young woman named Emma Lowe. The young couple returned to the States in October, and on Christmas Day the Civil War service of John Dickins officially ended. His discharge read: “Character, excellent; a brave, skillful and most efficient officer.”
It had now been more than four years since he had put aside his law studies, and, instead of resuming them, Dickins chose to accept a position in Nashville with the Bureau of Freedmen and Abandoned Lands. Upon his arrival in Nashville, the young Englishman used his familiarity with baseball to help organize the Cumberland Base Ball Club of Nashville, of which he served as captain and president.
Nor was his ambassadorial service on behalf of the sport restricted to Nashville. In July of 1866, he made two trips to Louisville to umpire a series for the local championship. His umpiring earned high praise from the Louisville press, and after the final out of the first contest, both clubs joined in giving him three cheers and a “tiger” – a distinctive growling cheer created by Princeton students. Not to be outdone, Dickins then called for three cheers for “base ball in general.” There was another type of drama at the end of the second game, which saw the Louisville Base Ball Club retain local bragging rights. After announcing the result, Dickins challenged the Louisville Club to face his club for the “championship of Kentucky and Tennessee.” While the right of these two clubs to contest for this honor was debatable at best, there could be no argument about the excitement the series generated in a region where baseball had yet to take firm root.
The first game was scheduled for July 31 in Tennessee. The excited members of the Louisville Club made the 183-mile trip to Nashville on the night train and engaged in “many a lusty shout and cheer for all that pertained to base ball either generally or specifically” before finally turning in for the night. Their time in Nashville lived up to their expectations as the Cumberland Club hosted them in style. The contest took place on the grounds of the Cumberland Club, located near Fort Gilliam, and in spite of intense heat a crowd estimated at 2,000-3,000 turned out to watch the visitors pull out a 30-23 triumph. One feature of the game that drew special attention was the identity of the score-keeper for the home club: Emma Dickins.
The return game took place in Louisville a couple of weeks later. It was originally scheduled for August 15, but the train carrying the Nashville players was delayed by an accident on the line, forcing a one-day postponement. Even with the delay, an overflow crowd of over 5,000 was on hand to watch, including Emma Dickins, who again acted as score-keeper for the Cumberland Club. The match ended with the Louisville Base Ball Club winning and wrapping up the best-of-three series, a result that led a reporter for the Louisville Daily Democrat to call the “exciting” contest “an epoch in the history of base ball.” He exuberantly declared that there was “not a more healthy, interesting and innocent recreation than that of base ball, a game which is recognized throughout the entire country.” He concluded by describing the Louisville Base Ball Club as “entitled to the proud CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE SOUTH” and “the equal of any in the country.”
John Dickins must have felt very proud to be a part of a match that so vividly demonstrated the extended reach of baseball. Yet his familiarity with the caliber of baseball played in other regions must have made him less sanguine about the contest’s significance. The Louisville Club’s right to claim the championship of the South was debatable at best, while the assertion that it was on a par with the national powers was mere hyperbole. Of more direct concern to Dickins was the lopsided 72-11 score by which his club had lost. The enormous gap highlighted a recurring problem for the still-young sport of baseball – that even great enthusiasm and the best of planning could not ensure the competitive balance necessary for long-term success.
As it happened, John and Emma Dickins moved to Louisville that winter, where he became an accountant. He also took over as shortstop for the Louisville Base Ball Club, and was described as an old Brooklyn player. Over the next two seasons, Dickins played shortstop for this club as it hosted a series of national powerhouses, beginning with the historic visit of the Nationals of Washington on July 17, 1867. The arrival of this club on the first-ever trans-Allegheny tour was another important milestone for a game that was still mostly confined to the Northeast. The contest led one reporter to declare that baseball had “undoubtedly established itself as the National game of our country,” so it was fitting that John Dickins played in the game.
But by this time the best days of the Louisville Base Ball Club were past, with many core players having less time for baseball because of the demands of careers and families. In the thirteen months after the game against the Nationals, the Louisville Club played host to the Athletics of Philadelphia, the Atlantics of Brooklyn, the Unions of Morrisania, and the Cincinnati club that was soon to become known as the “Red Stockings.” But none of these matches were remotely close, and the Louisville public became disenchanted with the lopsided losses. Even after the loss to the Nationals, the attitude of the Daily Democrat had begun to change, and its reporter wrote that he was “disappointed” by the “poor playing” of Dickins and second baseman Walter Brooks. Subsequent defeats prompted more grumbling and led to the departure of more regulars from the “first nine” of the Louisville Base Ball Club.
John Dickins remained a fixture in the Louisville Club’s lineup in 1868, though the birth of their first son put an end to Emma’s days as a score-keeper. He also found time to umpire numerous local contests, performing his duties “in a long-tailed duster, under a sun umbrella” on one humid summer day.
The Louisville Base Ball Club barely managed to retain local supremacy in 1868, but it came as no surprise to anyone when it disbanded at the end of that season. That was also the end of any recorded connection between John W. Dickins and the sport he had helped to popularize in the South. His family continued to grow, and by 1880 he and Emma were raising six children. His father eventually emigrated from England and joined the household.
John Dickins remained in Louisville for the rest of his life, and in 1902 he accepted a commission in the Internal Revenue Service. Emma Dickins died at some point, and he remarried around 1898 and started a second family. He died at his Louisville home on October 17, 1916, survived by his second wife and by five children from his two marriages. By then the game he had helped to introduce to the South in the 1860s was long established, with Louisville having obtained and lost two different major league franchises. It would be fascinating to learn what Dickins thought about the many changes to baseball during those years, but alas those reflections remain unknown.
History of the Second Battalion Duryee [sic] Zouaves : One Hundred and Sixty-Fifth Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry, mustered in the United States service at Camp Washington, Staten Island, N.Y. (Salem, Mass.: Higginson Book Co., 1905); Album of the Second Battalion, Duryee [sic] Zouaves, One Hundred and Sixty-fifth Regt., New York Volunteer Infantry. (1906); LDS Film 1469056, Lancashire County Baptisms 1841-1846 from the Bishop’s Transcripts, Page 2, Entry 15; BMD Birth and Marriage Records for Lancashire County; Obituary of John W. Dickins in the Louisville Evening Post, October 19, 1916, 2; Ancestry.com. Kentucky Death Records, 1852-1953 [database on-line]. (Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007); Chadwick Scrapbooks; census listings and city directories; contemporaneous news coverage, as cited in notes.
Louisville Journal, July 18, 1866, 3; Louisville Daily Democrat, July 18, 1866, 2
Louisville Daily Democrat, July 27, 1866, 2
Louisville Journal, August 1, 2 and 3, 1866
Louisville Daily Democrat, August 16, 1866, 2
Louisville Daily Democrat, August 17, 1866, 2
Chadwick Scrapbooks, unidentified clipping
Louisville Journal, July 18, 1867, 3
Louisville Daily Democrat, July 18, 1867, 1
Louisville Daily Democrat, July 21, 1868
Louisville Evening Post, October 18, 1916, 1, and October 19, 1916, 2 | <urn:uuid:3f3c3285-5b04-41c9-a378-d5fa7c675518> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/f4bd13cc | 2013-06-19T06:16:21Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980334 | 2,505 |
Sammy's Valentine's Gala - Saturday February 15, 2014 - Email [email protected] or call 514-703-2911
SMA is an autosomal recessive genetic disease. In order for a child to be affected by SMA, both parents must be carriers of the abnormal gene and both must pass this gene on to their child. Although both parents are carriers the likelihood of a child inheriting the disorder is 25%, or 1 in 4.
An individual with SMA has a missing or mutated gene (SMN1, or survival motor neuron 1) that produces a protein in the body called Survival Motor Neuron (SMN) protein. This protein deficiency has its most severe affect on motor neurons. Motor neurons are nerve cells in the spinal cord which send out nerve fibers to muscles throughout the body. Since SMN protein is critical to the survival and health of motor neurons, without this protein nerve cells may atrophy, shrink and eventually die, resulting in muscle weakness.
As a child with SMA grows their bodies are doubly stressed, first by the decrease in motor neurons and then by the increased demands on the nerve and muscle cells as their bodies grow larger. The resulting muscle atrophy can cause weakness and bone and spinal deformities that may lead to further loss of function, as well as additional compromise of the respiratory (breathing) system.
There are four types of SMA, SMA Type I, II, III, IV. The determination of the type of SMA is based upon the physical milestones achieved. It is important to note that the course of the disease may be different for each child.
Type I SMA is also called Werdnig-Hoffmann Disease. The diagnosis of children with this type is usually made before 6 months of age and in the majority of cases the diagnosis is made before 3 months of age. Some mothers even note decreased movement in of the final months of their pregnancy.
Usually a child with Type I is never able to lift his/her head or accomplish the normal motor skills expected early on in infancy. They generally have poor head control, and may not kick their legs as vigorously as they should, or bear weight on their legs. They do not achieve the ability to sit up unsupported. Swallowing and feeding may be difficult and are usually affected at some point, and the child may show some difficulties managing their own secretions. The tongue may show atrophy, and rippling movements or fine tremors, also called fasciculations. There is weakness of the intercostal muscles (the muscles between the ribs) that help expand the chest, and the chest is often smaller than usual. The strongest breathing muscle in an SMA patient is the diaphragm. As a result, the patient appears to breath with their stomach muscles. The chest may appear concave (sunken in) due to the diaphragmatic (tummy) breathing. Also due to this type of breathing, the lungs may not fully develop, the cough is very weak, and it may be difficult to take deep enough breaths while sleeping to maintain normal oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.
The Diagnosis of Type II SMA is almost always made before 2 years of age, with the majority of cases diagnosed by 15 months. Children with this type may sit unsupported when placed in a seated position, although they are often unable to come to a sitting position without assistance. At some point they may be able to stand. This is accomplished with the aid of assistance or bracing and/or a parapodium/standing frame. Swallowing problems are not usually characteristic of Type II, but vary from child to child. Some patients may have difficulty eating enough food by mouth to maintain their weight and grow, and a feeding tube may become necessary. Children with Type II SMA frequently have tongue fasciculations and manifest a fine tremor in the outstretched fingers. Children with Type II also have weak intercostals muscles and are diaphragmatic breathers. They have difficulty coughing and may have difficulty taking deep enough breaths while they sleep to maintain normal oxygen levels and carbon dioxide levels. Scoliosis is almost uniformly present as these children grow, resulting in need for spinal surgery or bracing at some point in their clinical course. Decreased bone density can result in an increased susceptibility to fractures.
The diagnosis of Type III, often referred to as Kugelberg-Welander or Juvenile Spinal Muscular Atrophy, is much more variable in age of onset, and children can present from around a year of age or even as late as adolescence, although diagnosis prior to age 3 years is typical. The patient with Type III can stand alone and walk, but may show difficulty with walking at some point in their clinical course. Early motor milestones are often normal. However, once they begin walking, they may fall more frequently, have difficulty in getting up from sitting on the floor or a bent over position, and may be unable to run. With Type III, a fine tremor can be seen in the outstretched fingers but tongue fasciculations are seldom seen. Feeding or swallowing difficulties in childhood are very uncommon. Type III individuals can sometimes lose the ability to walk later in childhood, adolescence, or even adulthood, often in association with growth spurts or illness.
Type IV (Adult Onset)
In the adult form, symptoms typically begin after age 35. It is rare for Spinal Muscular Atrophy to begin between the ages of 18 and 30. Adult onset SMA is much less common than the other forms. It is defined as onset of weakness after 18 years of age, and most cases reported as type IV have occurred after age 35. It is typically characterized by insidious onset and very slow progression. The bulbar muscles, those muscles used for swallowing and respiratory function, are rarely affected in Type IV.
Patients with SMA typically lose function over time. Loss of function can occur rapidly in the context of a growth spurt or illness, or much more gradually. The explanation for this loss is unclear based on recent research. It has been observed that patients with SMA may often be very stable in terms of their functional abilities for prolonged periods of time, often years, although the almost universal tendency is for continued loss of function as they age.
For information on Kennedy’s Disease, please see www.KennedysDisease.org. | <urn:uuid:13cf851e-778a-4ae9-98aa-5e39cc2d6ade> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sammycavallaro.com/understanding-sma/what-causes-sma/ | 2013-06-19T06:29:39Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965421 | 1,317 |
It is a bright red crystalline solid. It is a strong oxidizing agent in acidic conditions. It is poisonous because it contains dichromate, which is carcinogenic. It can be destroyed by reaction with reducing agents. It can be reduced to green chromium(III) compounds such as chromium(III) oxide.
Potassium dichromate can be made by oxidation of potassium hydroxide and chromium(III) oxide. It can also be made by adding an acid to potassium chromate.
It is very rarely found in the earth. It is only found in very dry areas. If it rains, it dissolves in the water and is washed away.
It is used as a reagent for many chemicals, such as alcohol. Some breath alcohol testers use this, and the red turns to green when there is alcohol in the breath. It can be used to make chromic acid, which is used to clean glass. It can be used in cement. It is used to tan leather. It can be used in photography and to test for certain metals. It can be used to treat wood.
Potassium dichromate is very irritating. It can cause cancer when the dust is inhaled. It is a strong oxidizing agent and can start fires. It can be reacted with iron(II) sulfate to detoxify (remove the toxicity of) it. | <urn:uuid:6c0f0a2b-3645-40f0-a326-cde882cd332c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_dichromate | 2013-06-19T06:48:06Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951542 | 282 |
I did some script in python that connects to GMAIL and print a email text... But, often my emails has words with "accent". And there is my problem...
For example a text that I got: "PLANO DE S=C3=9ADE" should be printed as "PLANO DE SAÚDE".
How can I turn legible my email text? What can I use to convert theses letters with accent?
The code suggested by Andrey, works fine on windows, but on Linux I still getting the wrong print:
>>> b = 'PLANO DE S=C3=9ADE' >>> s = b.decode('quopri').decode('utf-8') >>> print s PLANO DE SÃDE
Thanks, you are correct about the word, it was misspelled. But the problem still the same here. Another example: CORRECT WORD: obersevação
>>> b = 'Observa=C3=A7=C3=B5es' >>> s = b.decode('quopri').decode('utf-8') >>> print s Observações
I am using Debian with UTF-8 locale:
>>> :~$ locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8
Thanks for your time. I agree with your explanation, but still with same problem here. Take look in my test:
s='Observa=C3=A7=C3=B5es' s2= s.decode('quopri').decode('utf-8') >>> print s Observa=C3=A7=C3=B5es >>> print s2 Observações >>> import locale >>> ENCODING = locale.getpreferredencoding() >>> print s.encode(ENCODING) Observa=C3=A7=C3=B5es >>> print s2.encode(ENCODING) Observações >>> print ENCODING UTF-8 | <urn:uuid:4408a06c-e606-4365-9883-08919c94f0f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3680352/reading-text-with-accent-python | 2013-06-19T06:23:37Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.797047 | 443 |
- Green Minute
- Green Campuses
- Green Media
- Contact Us
The Middle Reef, part of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, is growing more quickly than reefs in other areas with lower levels of sediment stress, a new study has found. Rapid coral reef growth has been identified in environments with large amounts of sediment, conditions previously thought to be detrimental to reef growth.
Middle Reef is located on the inner Great Barrier Reef shelf just 4 km off the mainland coast near Townsville, Australia. Middle Reef grows in water that is always ‘muddy’ unlike most reefs that grow in clear water. The sediment comes from seasonal river flood plumes and the mud churning up from the floor of the sea. Since European settlement, The Queensland coast has changed significantly. The sediment runoff has increased due to the clearing of natural vegetation for agricultural use. It is believed that the poor water quality, due to high levels of sediment, has a detrimental effect on marine biodiversity.
Cores through the structure of Middle Reef were collected by the research team to analyze how it had grown. Radiocarbon dating was used to map out the exact rate of growth of the reef. The results show that the reef started to grow only about 700 years ago but that it has subsequently grown rapidly towards sea level at rates averaging nearly 1 cm per year. These rates are notably greater than those measured on most clear water reefs on the Great Barrier Reef and elsewhere. When the accumulation rates of land-derived sediment within the reef structure were at their peak is when the most rapid growth took place, averaging 1.3 cm a year. They discovered that, while the reef faced high sediment levels after the European settlers arrived in the 1800s, these same conditions were also part of the long-term environmental regime under which the reef grew.
The findings suggest that in some cases reefs can adapt to these conditions and flourish, although there is evidence that other reefs have suffered degradation from high levels of sediment. Middle Reef has probably been aided by the high sedimentation rates causing the rapid rate of vertical growth. The team believe this is because after the coral dies, the accumulating sediment quickly covers the coral skeleton preventing destruction from fish, urchins and other biological eroders thus promoting coral framework preservation and rapid reef growth.
Professor Chris Perry of Geography at the University of Exeter said: “Our research challenges the long-held assumption that high sedimentation rates are necessarily bad news in terms of coral reef growth. It is exciting to discover that Middle Reef has in fact thrived in these unpromising conditions. It is, however, important to remain cautious when considering what this means for other reefs. Middle Reef includes corals adapted to deal with high sedimentation and low light conditions. Other reefs where corals and various other reef organisms are less well adapted may not do so well if sediment inputs increased.”
“Our research calls for a rethink on some of the classic models of reef growth. At a time when these delicate and unique ecosystems are under threat from climate change and ocean acidification, a view endorsed in a recent consensus statement from many of the World’s coral reef scientists, it is more important than ever that we understand how, when and where reefs can grow and thrive.”
Photo Credit: University of Exeter | <urn:uuid:27e21214-f7df-4d16-bb0e-a32eb3996382> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thegreenregister.com/thriving-coral-reef-in-muddy-waters/ | 2013-06-19T06:22:32Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964053 | 674 |
General Structure of the Digestive System
The long continuous tube that is the digestive tract is about 9 meters in length. It opens to the outside at both ends, through the mouth at one end and through the anus at the other. Although there are variations in each region, the basic structure of the wall is the same throughout the entire length of the tube.
The wall of the digestive tract has four layers or tunics:
- Muscular layer
- Serous layer or serosa
The mucosa, or mucous membrane layer, is the innermost tunic of the wall. It lines the lumen of the digestive tract. The mucosa consists of epithelium, an underlying loose connective tissue layer called lamina propria, and a thin layer of smooth muscle called the muscularis mucosa. In certain regions, the mucosa develops folds that increase the surface area. Certain cells in the mucosa secrete mucus, digestive enzymes, and hormones. Ducts from other glands pass through the mucosa to the lumen. In the mouth and anus, where thickness for protection against abrasion is needed, the epithelium is stratified squamous tissue. The stomach and intestines have a thin simple columnar epithelial layer for secretion and absorption.
The submucosa is a thick layer of loose connective tissue that surrounds the mucosa. This layer also contains blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, and nerves. Glands may be embedded in this layer.
The smooth muscle responsible for movements of the digestive tract is arranged in two layers, an inner circular layer and an outer longitudinal layer. The myenteric plexus is between the two muscle layers.
Above the diaphragm, the outermost layer of the digestive tract is a connective tissue called adventitia. Below the diaphragm, it is called serosa. | <urn:uuid:255d9629-07ea-4e9e-8601-854d4f2b89d6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://training.seer.cancer.gov/anatomy/digestive/structure.html | 2013-06-19T06:16:29Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909892 | 384 |
Unitary and Orthogonal Matrices
First a unitary transformation on a complex vector space. We pick a basis and set up the matrix
We can also set up the matrix for the adjoint
That is, the adjoint matrix is the conjugate transpose. This isn’t really anything new, since we essentially saw it when we considered Hermitian matrices.
But now we want to apply the unitarity condition that . It will make our lives easier here to just write out the sum over the basis in the middle and find
Now, this isn’t particularly useful on its face. I mean, what does that mess even mean? But if nothing else it tells us that we can describe unitary matrices in terms of (a lot of) equations involving only complex numbers. We can then pick out all the complex matrices which represent unitary transformations. They form the “unitary group” .
What about orthogonal matrices? Again, we pick a basis to get a matrix
and also a matrix for the adjoint
Here the adjoint matrix is just the transpose, not the conjugate transpose, since we’re working over a real inner product space. Then we can write down the orthogonality condition
Again, this doesn’t really seem to tell us much, but we can use these equations to cut out the matrices which represent orthogonal transformations from all real matrices. They form the “orthogonal group” .
But there’s something else we should notice here. The equations for the unitary group involved complex conjugation, so we need some structure like that to talk sensibly about unitarity. However, the orthogonality equations only involve basic field operations like addition and multiplication, and so these equations make sense over any field whatsoever. That is, given a field we can consider the collection of all matrices with entries in , and then impose the above orthogonality condition to cut out the matrices in the orthogonal group , while the first orthogonal group is .
One useful orthogonal group is . This is not the same as the unitary group , though it can be confusing to keep the two separate at first. The unitary group consists of matrices whose inverses are their conjugate transposes, instead of just their transposes for the complex orthogonal group. The unitary group preserves a sesquilinear inner product, which has a clear geometric interpretation we’ve been talking about. The orthogonal group preserves a bilinear form, which doesn’t have such a clear visual interpretation. They are related in a way, but we’ll be coming back to that subject much later on. | <urn:uuid:17e438ab-a6c6-4e9a-8f33-4a52f164f55f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://unapologetic.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/unitary-and-orthogonal-matrices/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=5b12459335 | 2013-06-19T06:36:30Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92508 | 580 |
- Prayer and Worship
- Beliefs and Teachings
- Issues and Action
- Catholic Giving
- About USCCB
USCCB Advocacy:USCCB insists that a just peace demands an end to violence, recognition and security for the state of Israel, an end to Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and the establishment of an internationally-recognized and viable Palestinian state. It also requires an agreement on Jerusalem that protects religious freedom and other basic rights for all faiths, and an equitable sharing of resources, especially water. USCCB supports consistent and persistent U.S. leadership to challenge and restrain both parties to the conflict and to hold them accountable for mutual steps needed for a just peace. Palestinians must improve security by halting attacks on civilians, blocking illegal arms shipments and disarming militias, and improve governance and transparency as they build capacity for a future state. Israel needs to freeze expansion of settlements, withdraw "illegal outposts," ease movement for Palestinians by reduc-ing military check points, and refrain fromdisproportionate military responses. The dire humanitarian situation in Pal-estinian areas is not in the best interests of either Israelis or Palestinians. Non-governmental organizations, including Catholic Relief Services, play a crucial role in delivering aid.
The Middle East is a land holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims, but tragically it is also a violent land that yearns for a just peace. USCCB has had a long history of pursuing justice and peace by supporting a two-state solution: a secure and recognized Israel living in peace alongside a viable Palestinian state.
The conflict between Jewish and Arab populations dates back to before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Tensions rose between Arabs and Jews in response to Jewish migration to the region. In 1947 the UN rec-ommended partition of Mandate Palestine, at the time under British rule, into two states: one Jewish and one Arab. Armed conflict ensued as British forces withdrew and Israel declared its independence in 1948. Many Arab Palestinians became refugees. The 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors resulted in the occupa-tion of Gaza and the West Bank. In 1979 and 1994 Israel signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan respective-ly, but no other Arab countries recognize Israel and a Palestinian state has not been established.
Events of the past few years have created a particularly volatile situation. In January 2005 Palestinians elected President Mahmoud Abbas. Despite new leadership, the Palestinian Authority was viewed as plagued by cronyism and inefficiency that crippled its ability to improve the lives of the Palestinian people. The unilateral Israeli with-drawal from Gaza in 2005, while welcome, was not seen as a result of the peace process or of President Abbas' efforts and led to a collapse of security in Gaza. Palestinians believe Israeli settlements and the route of the secu-rity barrier which Israel constructed in Gaza in 1994 and began constructing in the West Bank in 2002 effectively confiscate Palestinian lands and water resources in the West Bank.
These factors and others contributed to the Hamas party winning a majority in the January 2006 Palestinian par-liamentary elections. This was a serious setback for the peace process. Hamas, unlike President Abbas and his Fatah party, refuses to recognize Israel, accept previous agreements and renounce violence. Its designation as a foreign terrorist organization led to reductions in international assistance to the Palestinian Authority as donors struggled with how to assist Palestinians without supporting Hamas. In 2006 armed conflict was precipitated by unjustifiable acts by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, including cross-border raids against Israeli mili-tary personnel and rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. Israel defended itself, but its military response was dis-proportionate and indiscriminate in some instances, endangering civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure.
In June 2007 Hamas took control of Gaza. In response President Abbas dissolved the Hamas-Fatah unity gov-ernment and formed a new Palestinian Authority (PA) government. The PA remains in control of the West Bank and is trying to implement political and economic reforms. But persistent rocket attacks from Hamas-controlled Gaza and continued indefensible suicide attacks on civilians contributed to legitimate Israeli security concerns. In late December 2008, Israel launched a major military response that resulted in high levels of civilian Palestinian casualties in Gaza and significant destruction of property and infrastructure. Israel's military response, its contin-uing blockade of Gaza, expansion of settlements, maintenance of numerous check-points within the West Bank, and construction of a security wall deep in Palestinian areas have contributed to a dramatic decline in the Palestin-ian economy, deepening poverty and rising Palestinian anger and hopelessness.
The Christian Communities in the Holy Land: Concern for Christians in the Middle East, particularly in the Holy Land, led the Holy Father to convene a Middle East Synod of Bishops. Christians continue to emigrate due to the con-tinuing conflict, fears about the future, a lack of economic opportunities, and Israeli residency requirements and visa regulations that separate family members. Negotiations on the 1993 Fundamental Agreement between Israel and the Holy See, which is critical for the future of the Church and for religious freedom, remain incomplete. Some Church institutions are put at risk by Israeli tax policies and land confiscation, and the ministry of Church personnel is ham-pered by visa problems. Since 1998 leaders of bishops' conferences from Europe and North America have met annually in the Holy Land to visit with public officials and the local Church.ACTION REQUESTED:Engage in prayer, pilgrimage, persuasion, and projects; see website for guidelines. Despite discouraging developments, Catholics cannot abandon the Holy Land's people or pursuit of a just peace.
″ Support strong U.S. leadership that holds both parties accountable for building a just peace: the Palestinians to halt violence, improve security and governance; the Israelis to stop settlements and allow movement of people and goods. Ask Congress to support funding to build the Palestinian Authority's capacity for governance and to provide urgently needed humanitarian aid for Palestinians.
″ Join the Catholic Campaign for Peace in the Holy Land. Reach out to Jewish and Muslim religious leaders to work together to support strong U.S. leadership. Website: www.usccb.org/sdwp/holylandpeace/.
″ Support the Church in the Holy Land. Urge members of Congress and Jewish leaders to press Israel to success-fully conclude negotiations with the Holy See related to the Fundamental Agreement.
Contact: Stephen Colecchi, Director, USCCB Office of Internation-al Justice and Peace, 202-541-3160 (phone), 541-3339 (fax)
By accepting this message, you will be leaving the website of the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. This link is provided
solely for the user's convenience. By providing this link, the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops assumes no responsibility for,
nor does it necessarily endorse, the website, its content, or | <urn:uuid:330935c7-59cc-4454-8dfe-8042fd3d8156> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/global-issues/holy-land-2011.cfm | 2013-06-19T06:48:23Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942323 | 1,406 |
Caspian Sea and Volga River Delta
Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
This true-color MODIS image from May 10, 2002, captures Russia’s Volga River (running south through the center) emptying into the northern portion of the Caspian Sea. The waters of the Caspian Sea are quite murky in this image, highlighting the water quality problems plaguing the sea. The sea is inundated with sewage and industrial and agricultural waste, which is having measurable impact on human health and wildlife. According reports from the Department of Energy, in less than a decade the sturgeon catch dropped from 30,000 tons to just over 2,000 tons. National and international groups are currently joining together to find strategies of dealing with the environmental problems of the Caspian Sea. | <urn:uuid:9fecbc27-695d-4a2b-86b9-26e4ba961b46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=59036 | 2013-06-19T06:41:58Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.91255 | 175 |
World War II Heroes Who Rival Oskar Schindler
While Spielberg guaranteed that the world would remember Oskar Schindler, there were others who also saw the plight of the European Jews and went the extra mile to save as many as possible. While TopTenz has already mentioned Raoul Wallenberg and Chiune Sugihara there were others who rose to the challenge, taking incredible risks and saving thousands of Jews fleeing the Nazi Death Camps.
10. Giorgio Perlasca
After the collapse of Italy, the Nazis rounded up thousands of Italian government officials in German-controlled Italian territory. One of these was Giorgio Perlasca. After spending months in detention, he was able to escape to Hungary, where he conned the local Nazis into thinking he was a Spanish diplomat. In that guise, he was able to give out thousands of VISAs that allowed Jews to escape the Nazi death camps.
When the real Spanish diplomat was forced to flee, the Hungarians thought they could finally seize the “Spanish” Jews. Perlasca, at great risk, convinced local officials that he was now the number one Spanish diplomat in Hungary. Therefore, the protection provided by the Spanish government could be maintained. Once the Red Cross had shipped the Spanish Jews to safety, he returned to Italy and kept his amazing heroics secret until a group of grateful Jewish survivors tracked him down in the 1970s.
A Spanish diplomat in Hungary, he saved thousands by using his diplomatic powers to turn houses, hospitals, hotels into Spanish territory. He would find Jews living in a house and run up a Spanish flag, making it Spanish territory, and then the Nazis would be blocked from entering. If they did leave then they could be arrested, so Briz would have to bring food and supplies to all the little Spanish enclaves he created in Hungary. He stayed as long as he could before advancing Soviet forces forced him to head to Switzerland.
Palatucci was an Italian police official in the city of Fiume. He saved thousands of Jews from being deported to Nazi extermination camps by destroying city documents showing their location and names. Following the 1943 capitulation of Italy, Fiume was occupied by Nazis. Palatucci remained as head of the police administration, where he continued to clandestinely help Jews and maintain contact with the Resistance, until his activities were discovered by the Gestapo. A friend at the Swiss Consul to Trieste offered him safe pass to Switzerland but, instead of taking this lifeline, he sent his young Jewish fiancée instead. Palatucci was arrested on September 13, 1944. He was sentenced to death by the Germans, who sent him to the Dachau prison camp where he died on February 10, 1945.
7. Colonel José Castellanos Contreras
Colonel Castellanos was the Salvadorian diplomat in neutral Switzerland during the War. While the war raged around Switzerland, he was approached by György Mandl, a Jewish refugee who needed the Colonel’s help to get his family to safety in Switzerland. Touched by his situation, he gave Mandl a position at the Salvadorian embassy. While stationed there, with the help of Mandl, he was able to save up to 25,000 Jews by issuing them Salvadorian citizenship or VISAs. After the war, he married a Swiss national and lived a quiet anonymous life.
6. Monsignor O’Flaherty
Monsignor O’Flaherty was an Irish priest during World War II that was based in the Vatican at the start of the war. As a member of the Vatican, the Germans would let him visit POW camps looking for Allied missing-in-action (MIA) soldiers. When Italy switched sides, the Italian prison camps released their Jewish and Allied prisoners. But because the camps were often behind German lines, the Jews turned to the priest, who would also visit their camps, for help. Acting independently, he hid thousands of POWs and Jews as the Allied lines advanced up the Italian peninsula.
The SS eventually discovered that he was leading the effort to Jewish refugees and tried to arrest and kill him, but couldn’t enter the Vatican. A white line was painted on the Vatican courtyard and he was told that, if he crossed it, he would be fair game. Due to his ability to evade the traps set by the Gestapo, Monsignor O’Flaherty earned the nickname “the Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican”.
5. Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches
As the French army crumbled under the German Blitzkrieg, thousands of Jewish refugees fled to southern France. As the Portuguese consulate official in France in charge of granting VISAs, Aristides de Sousa Mendes saved ten of thousands of people from the Nazis by issuing VISAs from the Portuguese embassy, even though his government had forbidden helping the Jews. Even though he was a hero and savior to thousands of people, he was blacklisted by the Portuguese government for helping the Jews and died in poverty.
4. Ernst Werner Techow
(Editor’s Note: No pictures of Techow seem to exist so, in his place, here’s a shot of Walter Rathenau, the man he is famous for assassinating.)
In the 1920s Techow was part of an Anti-Semantic German terrorist group who was infamously imprisoned for taking part in the killing of famous German Jewish diplomat, Walter Rathenau. While in jail, he saw the error in his ways and sought to make up for his past deeds. After he was released, he joined the French Foreign Legion; during the Nazi invasion of France he saved hundreds of Jews by smuggling them out on ships in the Southern French ports. As a German national, he was under incredible danger; if the German or even Vichy French found out, he would be arrested and possibly charged with treason by the Nazis.
3. Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz and Denmark
Proving that not all Germans are anti-Semites, in 1943 German official Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz found out that the Nazis were going to round up all the Danish Jews. He then went to Sweden to see if the neutral Swedes would take the Dainsh Jews. When they said yes, he told the Danes about the round-up. Denmark’s underground then smuggled out 99% of its Jewish population. To get past the German patrol dogs, Danish scientists developed a mixture of rabbit blood and cocaine that was spread over the Danish ports. The rabbit’s blood would attract the dogs and then the cocaine would render them useless. Duckwitz’s role was never discovered by the Nazis, and he served in the West German government after the war.
2. Charles Coward
Charles Coward, nicknamed the “Count of Auschwitz,” was held as a British POW but, since he had escaped so many other POW camps, he was sent to Auschwitz III, a POW camp near Auschwitz II in Birkenau. Once, during an escape, he blended in with German wounded and was accidentally awarded the Iron Cross by Nazi officers. In the Auschwitz POW camp, he met a British doctor who would visit the camp from the Jewish side. One day he switched clothes with the doctor and spent a day in the Auschwitz death camp witnessing the horrors only a few meters away.
Seeing how the other half lived, he started buying dead bodies (usually dead Belgians,) and French civilian forced labourers, from the SS guards. He would then tell the Jews to fall in the ditches on their walks outside the camp, essentially playing dead. He would then switch the dead bodies for the Jewish prisoners, while giving them their ID papers too. Coward did this on many occasions and is estimated to have saved hundreds of Jewish slave labourers.
1. Irena Sendler
Anxious about the people inside the Warsaw Ghetto, Irena Sendler was able to get access by forging a nurse’s identity card. With their parents’ blessing, she then proceeded to smuggle out children in boxes, secret compartments in cars, and just about anywhere else. She even brought a dog with her and trained it to bark at the German uniform, to cover the crying of infants hidden in her car. Once the children were out of the Ghetto, she placed them with Polish foster parents under the pretext of giving them back after the war.
She was able to smuggle thousands of Jews, mostly children, to safety, until her luck ran out and she was caught by the Nazis. Brutally tortured, she was freed from the prison by her friends and a timely bribe to the guards. The bribe was able to list her as executed by the Nazis and she continued her rescue efforts. She survived the war, but was persecuted by the Communist government for her ties to the Polish exile group in London.
- Schindler factory site memorial facing major hurdles (timesofisrael.com)
- Righteous Among The Nations (drschiffman.wordpress.com)
- Story of Muslim Shoah heroes is finally told (thejc.com) | <urn:uuid:d0cde8be-c6fe-4ffe-8b0d-d5329608848d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://waldina.com/2012/06/07/ | 2013-06-19T06:22:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981714 | 1,885 |
Snapshot Issue 17 December 2005
What do Peking duck and the French aperitif pastis have in common? A scent: that of badian – otherwise known as star anis. And if star anis has been of growing interest recently it is less for its spicy perfume than for its antiviral virtues… Indeed, a molecule known as shikimic acid is found in the Chinese star anis and it is from this that the popular drug Tamiflu is designed. Now that the dread of an outbreak of the Avian flu carried by the H5N1 strain is hovering over us, badian has an aftertaste of Tamiflu.
The Avian flu virus makes use of two surface proteins in the process of infection: hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. Hemagglutinin binds to a healthy cell where it initiates infection and virus entry. Once the virus has multiplied inside the cell, copies are freed. That is…almost freed. The new viruses bind to receptors – sialic acid – on the infected cell’s surface. And for infection to pursue, the virus must disengage itself. It does so by way of its neuraminidase which cleaves sialic acid. Once cleaved, the virus is free to infect new healthy cells.
How can infection be checked? It so happens that a molecule which resembles sialic acid can be designed from shikimic acid, which is where star anis and Tamiflu come in. Indeed, Tamiflu tricks the Avian flu virus by mimicking sialic acid. Neuraminidase gets confused and chases after Tamiflu instead of cleaving the true sialic acid. As a consequence, the viruses are trapped on the infected cell’s surface and the organism’s immune system can deal with them all that more easily.
Like most antiviral drugs, Tamiflu has certain advantages over vaccines. The Avian flu virus changes its appearance constantly by modifying its surface hemagglutinins and neuraminidases, which is bad news for the immune system. Tamiflu is seemingly not all that concerned by such transformations because it goes for a part of the neuraminidase which is crucial for infection and hence not subject to much modification. Despite this, an H5N1 virus isolated from a young Vietnamese girl turned out to have acquired resistance to Tamiflu, which is cause for concern. Moreover, Tamiflu seems to be only effective on a moderate scale which is why parallel strategies – such as the production of additional antiviral drugs and the development of vaccines – should be found before the Avian flu becomes pandemic.
Read also : "Avian flu : The new Yellow Peril ?"
Neuraminidase, Influenza A virus (souche H5N1): Q9W7Y7
L'édition française de cette chronique est disponible dans l'Instantanés du mois de Prolune.
- Need to reference this article ? Please use this link: | <urn:uuid:207cb3d9-f37b-442a-b280-d91059416cb9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://web.expasy.org/spotlight/snapshots/017/ | 2013-06-19T06:29:46Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926107 | 645 |
For teenagers struggling to quit smoking, a new study has some advice. To break the habit, try breaking a sweat.
It showed that teenage boys who took part in a smoking cessation program and combined it with exercise were several times less likely to continue smoking than those who received only traditional anti-smoking advice. Exercise did not have a comparable effect on teenage girls; researchers aren’t sure why. But the research is among the first to show that an exercise plan for teenage smokers can help them kick two bad habits at once, smoking and inactivity, which often go hand in hand.
For young smokers, breaking the habit before adulthood can be particularly crucial. Studies show that starting as a teenager makes it much more difficult to quit later on. About 80 percent of adult smokers began their habit before turning 18. Yet every day, 3,500 teenagers light their first cigarette.
The new study, published this week in the journal Pediatrics, took place in a state with one of the worst teen tobacco problems, West Virginia, where roughly a third of all high school students are smokers. Previous studies have shown that in adults, exercise — even if it’s just a walk around the block or lifting some weights — can help curb smoking by easing withdrawal symptoms and controlling cravings when people are confronted with cigarettes and other strong cues. Since West Virginia also suffers high rates of teenage obesity, the researchers wanted to see what effect exercise could have in combating two major health threats.
“It seemed logical to address these two together,” said Kimberly Horn, a professor of community medicine at West Virginia University and the lead author of the paper. “Exercise is known to mediate factors that often co-occur with smoking cessation, like increased stress levels, weight gain, withdrawal and cravings.”
To find out, the researchers recruited 233 smokers ages 14 to 19 at West Virginia high schools, and randomly assigned each to one of three groups. Some students received a single smoking-cessation session. A second group went through a 10-week anti-smoking program called Not on Tobacco, or NOT. And those in the third group went through the NOT program and were given pedometers and counseling on starting an exercise plan, which they could then schedule on their own time.
After three months, the study found that only 5 percent of the students who got the single anti-smoking session had quit smoking. But almost twice as many who went through the 10-week program had quit. When exercise was added to the mix, the effect on boys was remarkable: 24 percent of male students in the exercise group quit smoking, while only about 8 percent in the 10-week program that did not encourage exercise had stopped. They were also more likely to have stayed away from cigarettes after six months as well. The teenage girls in the exercise group, though, were no more likely to have quit smoking than those who received only counseling on quitting smoking.
“The kids in this study were pretty hard-core smokers,” Dr. Horn said. “They smoked about a half pack a day during the week and up to a pack a day on weekends. They were pretty addicted, and most started when they were about 11 years old.”
The data did not explain why a gender divide would exist, but Dr. Horn speculated that a few things could be responsible. Teenage boys are generally more enthusiastic about engaging in vigorous exercise, and are “more confident in their ability to be physically active,” Dr. Horn said, while physical activity levels typically plummet as teenage girls get older.
“It’s puzzling to us; it was a surprise finding,” she said. “I think we also need to look at issues of self-confidence. It could be the girls started with some stronger fitness barriers to overcome than boys.”
Nonetheless, the results over all were encouraging, since getting teenagers to give up smoking — or change any potentially harmful habits — can be notoriously difficult.
“One of the important things to point out is that oftentimes people believe that kids aren’t interested in quitting smoking,” she said. “I think this demonstrates that kids can quit, they’re interested in quitting and they can be successful, given the right tools.” | <urn:uuid:8aca8318-8422-4127-91f4-32b69ef6deff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/exercise-spurs-teenage-boys-to-stop-smoking/ | 2013-06-19T06:17:42Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982108 | 882 |
From Unreal Wiki, The Unreal Engine Documentation Site
A class is a piece of UnrealScript that can be thought of as a small program. See Wikipedia:class (computer science) and Object Oriented Programming Overview for the basics of this concept. The rest of this page covers the UnrealScript syntax for declaring classes.
Class definition syntax:
class MyClass extends ParentClass <modifiers>;
expands vs. extends
UnrealScript originally used the keyword expands in the class declaration, but long ago switched to extends, the keyword used in Java. The UT-generation compiler supports both and treats them the same (although expands was considered deprecated for a while already), but in newer engine generations expands won't work. So, always use extends when you have a choice.
Optional modifiers
...that affect only this class
- This class cannot be spawned, it's a base class only. Usually the useful functionality is implemented in subclasses. Examples: Keypoint, Triggers, Pawn.
- config or config(name)
- This class supports saving its config properties to a configuration file. By default this is the Game Ini File (the configuration file that has the same name as the executable file of the game, e.g. UnrealTournament.ini or UT2003.ini). Using config(name) overrides the default config file name for this class. There are two special names that can be used here: System uses the game ini file, User uses the User.ini. Both names can be mapped to other files via the game's -ini=...- and -userini=...- command line parameters.
- Only in UT or earlier engine versions. This class cannot be placed in a map using UnrealEd. In newer versions, use notplaceable.
- Some behaviour of this class is handled by native code. See Native Coding.
- Replication of variables and functions declared in this class is completely handled by native code.
- From a now disappeared page about undocumented UnrealScript features: Specifies that a reference to this class may safely be set to Null or default if the class object can't be found in any packages. For example, you create a map that uses textures from the package "Rugs.utx". You have two floors in your map, one surface using the "Persian" texture and the other using the "Throw" texture. If you close your map, delete "Persian" from the texture package and reload your map, the surface that was referencing Persian will be changed to reference the default texture. This is because the texture class was declared SafeReplace. Note that packages are not SafeReplace. That means if you had deleted the Rugs.utx package completely (deleting the file), your map would not load because the package must be found.
- Within ClassName
Only works in Unreal Engine 2.0 and later engine version, and with classes not derived from Actor. It allows access to the holding class's members it is declared in. The holding class is optionally pointed to by the identifier 'Outer'. For this to work, the class can only extend Object.
Examples include PlayerInput, AdminBase, and CheatManager. All three of these are declared to be "within PlayerController" and extend object. Since they aren't actors, their functions and variables cannot be replicated. Also, if you look carefully, you will notice that these classes can call Outer functions (and possibly reference Outer variables) without making an explicit reference to "Outer". This has an effect that is somewhat like multiple inheritance, because it can call Outer and Super functions.
- Stores configuration information on a per-object basis rather than a per-class basis. This means that each object should have a separate configuration section in the configuration file based on its name.
- This class is not included when saving a game state.
- Don't export to C++ header. "ucc make -h" won't automatically generate a C++ header for native functions/events. Please see the following pages for more information:
- * Native Functions
- * UnrealScript Q&A (May 2000)
Only works in Unreal Engine 2.0 and later and takes a class name as parameter. Tells the compiler to process another class of the same package first because this class depends on an enum or struct declared in that other class. If your class depends on more classes you have to use the modifier several times, like in xPawn:
class xPawn extends UnrealPawn config(User) dependsOn(xUtil) dependsOn(xPawnSoundGroup) dependsOn(xPawnGibGroup);
Note: The compiler does not check dependson for accuracy and will cause a GPF if you misspell a class name or if you include spaces inside the brackets, like this:
class AClass extends Object dependsOn( SomeOtherClass );
To access the structs in a class that is depended on in this way, you must prefix it with the class name, like so:
class A extends B dependson(ThirdClass); var ThirdClass.SomeStruct Somevariablename.
In certain cases the DependsOn() modifier might not be neccessary. Note that you cannot use it to resolve circular dependencies between classes in the same package.
- Export all structs declared in this class to C++ header. This is equivalent to declaring all structs in the class as "native export"
- UT2004 only. Only used in cache metaclasses, such as GameInfo, Mutator, Weapon, Vehicle; ignored for any non-cached class. This class modifier is used to indicate that the values of this class's cacheable properties should not be exported to the .ucl file. In general, mod authors will probably never need to use this specifier, as it used for gametypes, weapons, mutators, etc., which should not appear in GUI/webadmin lists.
- UT2004 only. This class will not appear in drop down listboxes in UnrealEd.
- UT2004 only. The .ini file for this class may be specified on the command-line, using the syntax ' -classname=filename.ini'. If no parameter is specified on the commandline, the class uses its default configuration file (the system ini, unless a different ini is specified in the class declaration using Config(xx)). For example, in order to specify a unique .ini file for the usernames & passwords used by the advanced administration system (xAdmin.xAdminConfigIni), add the parameter ' -xAdminConfigIni=filename.ini' to the startup commandline. If the commandline doesn't contain this parameter, username/password information will be stored in the xAdmin.ini file, because this is what the xAdminConfigIni class declares as its config file.
...that also affect subclasses
- Only works in Unreal Engine 2.0 and later. Collapses all property groups into one main property group.
- hidecategories(group list)
- Only works in Unreal Engine 2.0 and later. Takes a comma-seperated list of variable groups. These groups will not be shown in UnrealEd's property windows, e.g. the Actor Properties or Texture Properties. (also see Displaying Variables In UnrealEd)
- showcategories(group list)
- Only works in Unreal Engine 2.0 and later. Opposite of hidecategories. Variable groups that have been hidden in a superclass can be made visible again with this modifier.
- Only works in Unreal Engine 2.0 and later. The class must also be derived from actor or a subclass of actor. This means you can(not) place Actors of this class in a level.
- Only works in Unreal Engine 2.0 and later. Classes also cannot be a subclass of actor. See Editinline.
- See Automated Component.
From what I can gather this signifies that the member variable is owned by the class rather than just being a reference. It will replace what would normally be a 4-byte reference with an n-byte instance where n = sizeof(YourClass). The benefit is that it allows Object members to be visable and editable in the Unreal editor without having to derive from Component.
WARNING: when refactoring and changing to instanced old maps will crash when trying to load. To fix, delete appropriate world objects from map before refactoring and re-place them after building scripts.
Working with classes
- the class<foo> syntax – see peppers and pepper grinders
- the use of myObject.IsA(class)
rough snip from one of tarquin's unl33t forum postings:
Example of casting: the syntax MyGame(Level.Game).Leader Level.Game is a variable that's been declared to point to an object of class GameInfo. You can make it point to a subclass, that's the whole point of OO (polymorphism, isn't it?) GameInfo class doesn't have a Leader property, so to access that property, you've got to temporarily specialize that variable.
Related Topics
- Other important parts of a class script:
DaWrecka: Something I've been trying to find out lately is; Is it possible to find out whether an object or actor is abstract, based on the class reference? I'm trying to code a new monster manager for Fraghouse Extension, and I'd like to weed out the abstract classes from the monster list if possible. So far the only plan I've got is trying to spawn the monster, and testing whether it succeeded - a definite Plan Z due to the fact this would be from a GUI. Spawning would work, but the lack of a GameInfo would likely lead to multiple Accessed Nones.
Wormbo: There's no way to tell directly. Try spawning it in the entry level, that should have a GameInfo. | <urn:uuid:269b346b-26b7-4f6b-8a2d-8d9be8c77bc8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Legacy:Class | 2013-06-19T06:47:55Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142617/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.855879 | 2,067 |
End of preview. Expand
in Dataset Viewer.
README.md exists but content is empty.
Use the Edit dataset card button to edit it.
- Downloads last month
- 344