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• The Vocalist’s Tool Kit
in Piano,Vocal
Post image for The Vocalist’s Tool Kit
In this lesson, you will discover the tools that are in the vocalist’s tool kit.
The vocalist career is a profession just like Engineering, Medical, Legal, or any other profession. If a technical profession like engineering, demands the use of tools for its job delivery, what makes you think the vocalist profession doesn’t?
The reason why it is necessary for you as a vocalist to have your tool kit is because it helps to enhance your vocal delivery. Imagine a doctor that wants to check your temperature without thermometer, or imagine an engineer that wants to drill a hole without a drilling machine, or loose a screw without a screwdriver.
So, let’s bring it down to a career vocalist.
“Who Is A Vocalist?”
A vocalist is someone that makes music with his/her voice. A vocalist is like an upgraded version of a singer. When you reach the point of being called a vocalist, it indicates what you can make with your voice.
Do you know that most of the songs that you hear on films and animation, were created by vocalists? Do you know that there is so much money to make from this, that you can earn a living exploring this career path?
“What Are The Tools In A Vocalist’s Tool Kit?”
The vocalist tool kits include:
• Writing materials
• A media player
• Voice recorder
• Stopwatch
• Voice lubricant (like water)
• Headphones
These are for the basic level, but by the time you progress you will need a:
• Personal voice mixer
• Personal microphone (for rehearsal and performance)
The Functions Of The Tool Kits
The tool kits outlined above serve the following functions:
Writing Material
This does not necessarily mean a book and a pen, it could be a writing app on your mobile device. One of the things a vocalist can do with the writing material is to write out the plot of a song.
For example, if I am planning a birthday, and I ask you- a vocalist, to come and sing for me, the writing material helps you to compile a collection of songs that will suit the event, and it will also help you organize your act. Your writing materials need to be handy.
You could use your phone or writing software, so you don’t have to move around with pen and paper to show that you are a well-equipped vocalist. The writing materials are basically used to organize and sketch out your rehearsal and performance plan, just like an architect.
A Media Player
This refers to any device you use to listen to music, either what you recorded or what other people have recorded. Even though your job as a vocalist is to sing, you will be required to do more of listening because how good you sound is a function of what you hear and recognize with your ear.
A good vocalist must have a stereo system, and if possible, set up a music player that will play nonstop. This will expose your ear to different varieties of music, and develop your singing style and creativity.
Voice Recorder
The beauty of voice recording is that it’s like your own personal teacher. When you record yourself, and listen to your recording, you will observe certain errors, and can easily spot your fault, which will lead you to re-record until you fix it.
If you practice this all the time, you will notice a self-evaluation trend that can easily shape your voice to create audible and clear sound. Another thing a voice recorder does is it helps you record an inspiration you receive immediately it comes, before you lose it.
Well, I know that it’s good to read music, but how many people want to sit down and write music? So, always keep your voice recorder handy so you can retain all your creative work as a vocalist. When you record your voice, it retains the feeling, the passion, and even the originally inspired key.
It’s been proven that the key of a song is the best key to use when performing the piece because if you use another key it might alter the feeling and effect. Can you see all that you can achieve with just a voice recorder?
Over time, you will notice that music and time are related. So, beginning from your warm up and practice session, a stopwatch is necessary to help you measure duration in your exercise or drill, such as, learning how to sustain a particular note like ‘do.’
You can also use it to measure your progress in terms of timing a song, timing how long you can hold your breath, etc.
Voice Lubricant (Water)
Water contains air which makes your voice to be refreshed, and to a great extent water balances your temperature. Most of the time when you sing and your throat gets dry, water or healthy and edible liquids make you breath more easily.
There are four things a headphone will do for you:
• Headphones can also give you intimacy especially when you want to be alone to rehearse or score songs properly.
• It helps you record in a very busy, noisy, or crowded environment. With your headphones on, you can record in a noisy place because it can eliminate the noise and pick only your voice.
• It will help you hear what you recorded, or the song you are listening to clearly.
• Headphones help you not to disturb your neighbor or colleagues who may be affected by your music if you play it out loud.
Voice Mixer
What a mixer does for a performing vocalist is that it helps you get the right blend of vocal effect for your microphone. You use the mixer while rehearsing, to get acquainted with the right combination for a particular effect on your microphone.
You understand your microphone and your microphone understands you. Just like a guitarist that goes to perform with the personal guitar he practices with, get your personal microphone too.
Final Words
The moral of this lesson is to make sure you won’t be like a doctor who does not have a thermometer or an engineer who does not have a screwdriver. So, start gathering your tools one after the other if you want to be professional.
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Explain the main features of 'The New Deal'
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(a) Explain the main features of 'The New Deal' When Roosevelt came to power in 1933 he immediately set about stopping the depression and to bring economic recovery. He done this by a bill called 'The New Deal', the main aim of this was to provide relief for victims of the depression. Because of Roosevelt was so successful with his plan and term of presidency he was elected for another three more times until 1948. The main important time during his presidency and 'The New Deal' was the first 100 days, these important times were when the foundations of the recovery were put in place and also it resulted in the growth of the 'alphabetic agencies'. The first hundred days of the 'New Deal' were important because in March to June 1933 Roosevelt laid down his foundations on which he would build upon for 'The New deal'. Roosevelt used the sort of powers he had in which he would use if America were to go to war. ...read more.
This was one of the main features of 'The New Deal'. Agriculture had many problems; one of them was over production. This meant even the prices stayed low and many farmers would not be able to make a decent living out of this, so they just left their crops to rot in the fields. The solution, which Roosevelt came up with, was to pay farmers who were not producing; it was called the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). Helping the farmers was a main part of the 'New deal' that Roosevelt focused on. Roosevelt helped the unemployed by creating more useful jobs, 500 airports; roads, schools, parks and playgrounds were built by the unemployed. Also a Federal Theatre gave work to 25,000 actors, this was called the F.E.R.A. The sick and old people were considered Roosevelt's most important achievement. It was called the Social Security Act, it gave pensions to certain old people and widows, made arrangements for the government to help other people such as the blind, crippled and orphaned, and the most important aspect was that it gave Americans a national system of unemployment insurance. ...read more.
Both Deals were directed for the same purpose, but there were actually many differences and contradictions between them. The first New Deal was more of temporary changes and the second focused more on long term ones. The first was like Roosevelt's first attempt, which did not completely work and did not satisfy everyone, it had many weak points and many were declared unconstitutional. His plan was to provide the unemployed jobs, conserving national forests and parks, restoring Civil War battlefields, building roads, and generally improving many of America's natural resources. On the Second New Deal was basically that the depression was not over and many were still unemployed, so his first deal came under attack. Then Roosevelt had to reform the New Deal with better and more long-lasting ideas. The measures Roosevelt took during the Second New Deal seemed very radical, but actually they were all programs that had been floating around in Congress for many years. Like that of The Wagner Act which provided more sense of freedom for the people. And the Social Security Act (SCA), which really helped, balance the economy by taking money from the rich. ...read more.
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Related GCSE USA 1919-1941 essays
1. How successful was the new deal? Explain why Roosevelt Introduced the New Deal?
The Emergency Banking Act was one of the New Deals big successes. This act was both a success in the short term and the long term. In the short term it ended the crisis that had threatened to ruin the US finance and reopened most banks within days.
2. Explain the main features of the New Deal
experts assigned to examine every bank in the country and only reopen them if they were found to be financially secure. This way people would not invest their money in banks which would probably go bankrupt and lose their money.
1. What was the most significant aspect of Roosevelt's Presidency and the New Deal?
and the electoral vote had risen in 1928 from 87 to 472 in 1932. On the other hand the change wasn't as complete as it first appears. The percentage increase from when they lost the presidency and when they won it was only 16%.
2. The USA and The New Deal
for one state to deal with and it was very difficult for states to co-operate. Roosevelt therefore set up an independent organisation called the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) which cut across the powers of local sate governments. The main focus of the TVA's work was to build a series of dams on the Tennessee River.
1. T.Roosevelt and the New Deal.
it worked, and the banks were saved. The Securities Act Roosevelt also wanted to reform the harmful practices that had got the USA into the trouble it now faced. He was determined to bring Wall Street under control in order to prevent another crash.
If any point in the cycle of prosperity stopped, the whole of America's economy would, stop and decline which would mean the cycle to spiral downwards. If America's economy declined, this would result to the whole worlds economy to fall because America provided many goods for the rest of the world.
1. Depression and The New Deal
Poverty in the midst of plenty Many people did not share the country's increasing wealth hence they were overlooked as they struggled to make ends meet. The people that suffered most existed in urban ghettos - squalid areas which were separated from the rich cities, where people from minority groups tended to live and rural areas.
2. Explain The Main Features of the New Deal
Obviously, another contributing factor to the conception of the New Deal was his overwhelming passion to help with the struggle he himself was fighting. He saw that a quarter of the population of his country was unemployed, and industrial and agricultural markets had dropped by 60%.
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Is there any realistic sense in which Parliament controls the government?
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Is there any realistic sense in which Parliament controls the government? The UK is supposed to operate a system of Parliamentary Government, where Parliament holds the supreme authority, but in reality this rarely is the case. Parliamentary Government only really occurs during a low or no majority government or hung Parliament, for example in 1979, when James Callaghan's minority labour government lost it's liberal support and a vote of no confidence voted him out. Parliament was first established to control the reigning monarch, but as the power of the monarch has been reduced, it is debatable whether or not the same power has not just been given to the executive. Theoretically the executive is supposed to be controlled by Parliament, as one of it's main functions, but in reality this is quite the opposite way around. Due to the First Past the Post electoral system the M.P.s and therefore the party, elected need only to have majority in large numbers in certain areas; for parties who's support is thinly spread but not great, these parties may not even be represented. ...read more.
For example in the 2001 election Labour only got 40.7% of the vote but were allocated 62.7% of the seats. This meant that not only was the proportion of seats wrong for them, it was wrong for every other party, and this gave Labour a big majority. This period of Government proves to be a perfect example of how the executive can dominate Parliament. Even the Legislative process, one of Parliament's most important functions, is susceptible to control by the Government. There are many stages of the process which are designed to prevent any one body controlling this but many are flawed and easily manipulated by the Executive. The first stage which can be noted is the Second Reading where the Bill is debated and then voted on in the House of Commons. If the Whips are called in then the M.P.s belonging to the Government will vote with in accordance to this and if it is a Government suggestion and there is majority, the law will pass this stage. ...read more.
Parliament, however, does have certain ways of controlling the Executive and their government. The Public Accounts Committee is chaired by a senior member of the opposition and is a Select Committee, which means it is permanent. This committee has the power to summon Ministers and make them explain the spending of their department. This means that they don't have infinite power to spend or do whatever they want. The National Audit Commission accounts for the spending and ensures minimal dishonesty and incompetence. However they still do not have the authority to compel ministers and civil servants to answer their questions. Another method of control is the Prime Minister's Questions, which means the Prime Minister can be asked any question and must explain himself to the House of Commons. As a last resort, Parliament can call for a Vote of No Confidence which means the M.P.s vote on whether or not to remove a Prime Minister or Government. There is also, of course the stages in the Legislative process but, as I have already discussed, they end up under the control of the Executive in the end. ...read more.
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Related GCSE Politics essays
Jeffrey Miron discovered that 734,497 people were arrested in the year 2000 on possession charges (6). Some insight into the demographics of the offenders is provided by Somdahl. He states that five times as many non-whites are arrested on marijuana-related charges despite the fact that eighty percent of marijuana-related crimes are committed by whites (97).
2. UK Written Constitutionshould the legislative process in Parliament be designed to secure that 'unconstitutional' ...
Since Parliament's legitimacy derives from democracy, its legislation must follow constitutionally democratic principles, and hence the legislative process should ensure that bills adhere to these principles. Many of these principles are inherent in the European Convention of Human Rights, which was internalised into the UK by the Human Rights Act 1998.
1. A Modernizing Monarch
Liberal reform had barely advanced, and in industry Russia trailed Britain, France, and Germany. Although most Russian citizens were loyal to the Russian nation, the people were internally divided along class and ideological lines. The resulting social and political unrest eventually ended tsarist rule.
2. To what extent does executive dominance over parliament prevent M.P.'s from carrying out their ...
If the constituent's problem is unsatisfactorily answered from a minister the M.P. can report the matter to parliamentary ombudsman who will investigate the matter further. However many M.P.'s complain that they have insufficient resources given to them from the executive, thus undermining their role as redresser of grievances, as if
1. Politics and Parliament - What's it all about?
India has also shown itself capable of operating a parliamentary system and can lay claim to being the world's largest parliamentary democracy; its lower house, the Lok Sabha, having the largest electorate for a genuine parliament. Next door in Pakistan, however, the experience with parliaments has been less happy and more frequently disrupted.
2. 'The government controls parliament but it cannot always rely on getting its own way.' ...
These analysed, it will be possible to draw a conclusion on the government's ability to 'rely on getting its own way,' that is, on the extent of its control. Studies of British parliamentary government have identified four main factors upon a combination of which governments must rely for their power over the House of Commons.
1. Whether or not Parliament is effective as a government watchdog
including proposals for expenditure, and to debate the major issues of the day. In carrying out all these functions Parliament helps to bring the relevant facts and issues before the electorateiii. By custom, Parliament is also informed before all-important international treaties and agreements are ratified.
2. European Parliament
C. McMillan-Scott Eryl Margaret McNally David W. Martin Bill Milletr Claude Moraes Eluned Morgan Simon Francis Murphy William Francis Newton Dunn James Nicholson Baroness Nicholson Of Winterbourne Barbara O'Toole Ian R. K. Paisley Neil Parish Roy Perry James L.C. Provan John Purvis Imelda Mary Read Brian Simpson Peter William Skinner Struan Stevenson Catherine Stihler Earl Of Stockton
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Sudden Cardiac Arrest For Tachycardia
What is Sudden Cardiac Arrest?
350,000 lives are lost to Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) every year in United States.1
SCA is an electrical problem with the heart that triggers a dangerously fast heart rate (ventricular tachycardia) or irregular rhythm (ventricular fibrillation). If not treated immediately, SCA can be fatal. Approximately 95% of people who experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest event and are not treated by defibrillation within 10 minutes will die.1
SCA vs. Heart Attack
Sudden cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack. A heart attack is a “plumbing” problem, caused by blockage(s) in the arteries leading to the heart and killing heart muscle. A heart attack may lead to a sudden cardiac arrest event.
What are the risk factors for SCA?
• Previous heart attack or SCA
• Family history of SCA or other heart disease
• Heart failure
• Low ejection fraction
• Rapid or abnormal heartbeats starting in the bottom chambers of the heart
What are the symptoms of SCA?
• Dizziness
• Racing heartbeat
• Loss of consciousness
Treating SCA Through Defibrillation
The most effective way to treat SCA is through defibrillation. It involves delivering electrical shock to your heart to restore the normal heartbeat. There are two types of devices that can deliver these electrical shocks: AEDs and ICDs.
Automated External Defibrillator (AED)
An AED is a portable device used by emergency response teams or the general public to shock the heart, giving the heart a chance to restart normal electrical activity and resume beating effectively. However, if defibrillation is delayed by more than 10 minutes, the survival in adults is less than 5%.2
Implantable Defibrillator (ICD)
An ICD is a device implanted underneath the skin, usually near the collarbone. One or more wires, called leads, run from the ICD through the veins and into the heart. It continuously monitors the heart rhythm. If it detects an abnormal or fast heart rhythm, low or high energy shocks are sent to reset the heart to a normal rhythm.
ICDs are proven to be 98% effective in treating dangerous ventricular arrhythmias that can lead to sudden cardiac arrest.3,4
Zipes DP, Roberts D, for the Pacemaker-Cardioverter-Defibrillator investigators. Results of the International Study of the Implantable Pacemaker Cardioverter-Defibrillator: A Comparison of Epicardial and Endocardial Lead Systems. Circulation. July 1, 1995;92(1):59-65.
Volosin, et al. Virtual ICD: A Model to Evaluate Shock Reduction Strategies. Presented at HRS 2010 (PO3-125).
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Image: Totalled car
This car did not have any side-impact protection system.
updated 3/21/2008 1:12:25 PM ET 2008-03-21T17:12:25
You see something coming toward you, so you flinch, tightening your muscles to absorb the impact. What if your car could do the same thing — especially against side impacts, where there's typically no air bag protection?
Researchers in Europe have found a way to design cars that can anticipate impacts, but flinch-power is several years away from showing up in the family car.
Two technologies
The research is part of a project funded by the European Union called APROSYS, or Advanced Protection Systems, aimed at cutting the rate of traffic fatalities. The car-flinching system, or "intelligent side-impact protection system," involves two technologies, Dieter Willersinn of the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany told LiveScience.
First is a system of computer-controlled stereo cameras and radar proximity detectors that scan the car's environment and can decide (at least a fifth of a second before impact) if something is about to hit the car.
The system can distinguish between objects that are moving (such as other cars) and stationary objects (such as trees) that only seem to be moving because the car is in motion, Willersinn said.
Once the system decides that a side impact is imminent, the second technology kicks in. A spring-loaded steel bolt built into the seat is released and wedges itself against a metal box that springs into position in the door.
3.5 extra inches
Field tests demonstrated that the system could reduce the depth to which the body of the car was smashed during a side impact by 9 centimeters, or about 3.5 inches, Willersinn said.
If that doesn’t seem like much, consider this: It's about the width of your ankle. If the side of your car caves in enough to occupy the space taken by your ankle, that's very bad news.
Willersinn also noted that the reduced intrusion would make other safety systems, especially air bags, more effective. But the impact speed at which you can expect to emerge unharmed will still involve numerous factors, including the make of car you're in, Willersinn said.
He noted that the project was applied research rather than product development, meaning that the results will probably not show up in new cars for another five years or so. When they do, they will probably be combined with other safety systems, Willersinn said.
© 2012 All rights reserved.
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What Causes a Stroke?
Ischemic Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack
An ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) occurs if an artery that supplies oxygen-rich blood to the brain becomes blocked. Many medical conditions can increase the risk of ischemic stroke or TIA.
For example, atherosclerosis (ath-er-o-skler-O-sis) is a disease in which a fatty substance called plaque builds up on the inner walls of the arteries. Plaque hardens and narrows the arteries, which limits the flow of blood to tissues and organs (such as the heart and brain).
Plaque in an artery can crack or rupture (break open). Blood platelets (PLATE-lets), which are disc-shaped cell fragments, stick to the site of the plaque injury and clump together to form blood clots. These clots can partly or fully block an artery.
Plaque can build up in any artery in the body, including arteries in the heart, brain, and neck. The two main arteries on each side of the neck are called the carotid (ka-ROT-id) arteries. These arteries supply oxygen-rich blood to the brain, face, scalp, and neck.
When plaque builds up in the carotid arteries, the condition is called carotid artery disease. Carotid artery disease causes many of the ischemic strokes and TIAs that occur in the United States.
An embolic stroke (a type of ischemic stroke) or TIA also can occur if a blood clot or piece of plaque breaks away from the wall of an artery. The clot or plaque can travel through the bloodstream and get stuck in one of the brain’s arteries. This stops blood flow through the artery and damages brain cells.
Heart conditions and blood disorders also can cause blood clots that can lead to a stroke or TIA. For example, atrial fibrillation (A-tre-al fi-bri-LA-shun), or AF, is a common cause of embolic stroke.
In AF, the upper chambers of the heart contract in a very fast and irregular way. As a result, some blood pools in the heart. The pooling increases the risk of blood clots forming in the heart chambers.
An ischemic stroke or TIA also can occur because of lesions caused by atherosclerosis. These lesions may form in the small arteries of the brain, and they can block blood flow to the brain.
Hemorrhagic Stroke
Sudden bleeding in the brain can cause a hemorrhagic stroke. The bleeding causes swelling of the brain and increased pressure in the skull. The swelling and pressure damage brain cells and tissues.
Examples of conditions that can cause a hemorrhagic stroke include high blood pressure, aneurysms, and arteriovenous (ar-TEER-e-o-VE-nus) malformations (AVMs).
"Blood pressure" is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps blood. If blood pressure rises and stays high over time, it can damage the body in many ways.
Aneurysms are balloon-like bulges in an artery that can stretch and burst. AVMs are tangles of faulty arteries and veins that can rupture within the brain. High blood pressure can increase the risk of hemorrhagic stroke in people who have aneurysms or AVMs.
Source: National Institutes of Health
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Glossary - Safety and Injury Prevention
ANSI - American National Standards Institute, an organization that evaluates and approves personal protection equipment, such as bicycle helmets.
ASTM - American Society for Testing and Materials, an organization that evaluates and approves the materials used to make things like helmets.
Air bags - safety devices installed in newer vehicles that inflate to protect the driver and/or passenger in certain collisions.
Asphyxiation - a medical term for suffocation, which leads to lack of oxygen in the blood.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) - the use of breathing and chest compressions to help save a person's life.
Chemical burns - burns due to strong acids or alkaloids coming into contact with the skin and/or eyes.
Convertible safety seat - a child safety seat that can be a rear-facing infant seat at first, and then turned around to become a forward-facing, upright child safety seat for small children.
Electrical burns - burns caused by contact with an electrical current.
Hyperthermia - a high body temperature that can cause heat stroke.
Infant safety seat - smaller child safety seats that are rear-facing in vehicles, especially designed for infants up to age 1 and 20 pounds.
Scald burn - a skin burn that results from contact with a hot liquid, food, or other item.
Smoke alarms - devices that operate on batteries or electricity which can detect smoke from a fire within the home. A smoke alarm will begin to beep to alert people within the home that there is smoke.
Tether anchors - a standardized child safety seat system that uses special anchors in newer vehicles' seats, combined with tethers on the child safety seat, to secure a child safety seat tightly.
Ultraviolet radiation (UV) - invisible rays that come from the sun. UV radiation can damage the skin and cause melanoma and other types of skin cancer. UV rays are also produced by tanning beds and lamps and can damage the skin.
Underwriter's laboratories (UL) - most electrical appliances are approved by UL.
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COLA-ENGL-371 Language, Dialects, and Identity 0502-447
This course is an introduction to sociolinguistic theory, application, and methodology with a focus on the US context. We will examine varieties of language that result from regional and social factors (gender, race, ethnicity and class). We will also explore the ways in which language is tied to our identity and marks our place in society as a result of such variation. Topics could include but are not limited to: dialects of American English, language and gender, bi/multilingualism, attitudes toward non-standard and standard varieties of English, and language policy (e.g. the movement to declare English the national language; African American English/“Ebonics”).
COLA-ENGL-470 The Evolving English Language 0502-449
Where do our words come from? Why does Old English look like a foreign language? What causes English to change? Is the English language evolving into Englishes? This course surveys the fascinating story of the English language and its context from its modest beginnings to its present status as a global language to answer such questions as these. Designed for anyone who is curious about the history and periods of the English language or the nature of language change.
COLA-ENGL-310-Introduction to Language Science N/A
This course introduces the basic concepts of linguistics, which is the scientific study of human languages. Students will be introduced to core linguistic disciplines (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and to principles of linguistics through discussion and the analysis of a wide range of linguistic data based on current linguistic models. English will often serve as the reference language, but we will discuss a wide variety of languages, including sign languages, to illustrate core concepts in linguistics. The course will have relevance to other disciplines in the humanities, sciences, and technical fields. Students will be encouraged to develop critical thinking regarding the study of human languages through discussions of the origins of languages, how languages are acquired, their organization in the brain, and languages' socio-cultural roles. Some other topics that will be introduced are: language globalization and language endangerment, language and computers, and forensic linguistics.
COLA-ENGL-351-Language Technology N/A
We will explore the relationship between language and technology from the invention of writing systems to current natural language and speech technologies. Topics include script decipherment, machine translation, automatic speech recognition and generation, dialog systems, computational natural language understanding and inference, as well as language technologies that support users with language disabilities. We will also trace how science and technology are shaping language, discuss relevant artificial intelligence concepts, and examine the ethical implications of advances in language processing by computers. Students will have the opportunity to experience text analysis with relevant tools. This is an interdisciplinary course and technical background is not required.
COLA-ENGL-482 Language & Brain 0502-463
This course introduces students to topics that illuminate the way language is represented in the human mind: neurolinguistics (where in the brain language is localized), the language “instinct” or innateness of language (how the human brain is biologically programmed for language), psycholinguistics (how language is acquired and processed), language and thought (whether our thoughts are controlled by the particular language we speak), language disorders (atypical language due to aphasia, autism, etc.), and language evolution (how language first evolved, from sign to speech). Students will read in-depth yet accessible research from the field (e.g. Stephen Pinker’s best-selling The Language Instinct) and will write on these topics in cognitive science. Guest speakers from other disciplines will appear in class throughout the term.
COLA-ENGL-481 Intro to Natural Language Processing N/A
This course provides theoretical foundation as well as hands-on (lab-style) practice in computational approaches for processing natural language text. The course will have relevance to various disciplines in the humanities, sciences, computational, and technical fields. We will discuss problems that involve different components of the language system (such as meaning in context and linguistic structures). Students will additionally collaborate in teams on modeling and implementing natural language processing and digital text solutions. We will program in Python and use the Natural Language Toolkit and related tools (such as Weka). Required previous coursework: Language Technology or a programming class (or a similar course with instructor’s consent).
COLA-ENGL-582 Advanced Topics in Computational Linguistics N/A
Study of a focus topic of increased complexity in computational linguistics. The focus topic varies each semester. Students will develop skills in computational linguistics analysis in a laboratory setting, according to professional standards. A research project plays a central role in the course. Students will engage with relevant research literature, research design and methodology, project development, and reporting in various formats. Prerequisite: Introduction to Natural Language Processing or instructor’s consent.
Job Posting: Tenure Track
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http://www.rit.edu/cla/english/linguistic-language-science
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Defining and Classifying Skill in Sport
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Defining and Classifying Skill in Sport
When explaining or defining a skill, the explanation or definition must contain the following key words and ideas:
A learned ability - the basketball player has to learn how to perform a lay-up shot.
Pre-determined results - the basketball player sets out to put the ball in the basket.
Maximum certainty - the basketball player expects to put the ball into the basket every time.
Maximum efficiency - the basketball player will appear to make the lay-up look effortless, with little energy required and apparently lots of time to do it.
A suitable quote to put these four ideas into was written by Barbara Knapp in 1963 and states that:
Skills can be sub-divided into two categories:
Also known as motor skills form the basis of all sports and can in tern be sub-divided into two types:
Simple motor skills that require very little intricate body movement and are similar in most sports. Examples are running, jumping, throwing, catching and hitting.
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Complex motor skills that require intricate body movements with finer control of many body parts. An example of this is the lay-up shot in basketball.
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Most performances in sport require some form of mental activity. The simple motor skills require little mental input, whereas activities such as orienteering require the performer to mentally assess the situation before making a decision about the next move.
Mental input is required to 'read the game' knowing when to smash in badminton as opposed to playing a drop shot.
Working out why errors occurred during a performance before repeating that performance requires a high level of mental input.
Top performers will therefore, have as high a level of mental agility as physical.
The learning of one skill may help in the learning of another skill sometimes in a different activity. This is known as positive transfer.
An example of this is learning a chest pass in netball and learning the chest pass in basketball.
A previously learned skill may hinder the learning and the way in which another skill in a different activity is performed. This is known as negative transfer.
An example of this is the basic racket action of a squash shot as opposed to the basic racket action of a tennis shot.
There are several ways of classifying skills, three of the most regularly used methods are discussed below:
Open and closed skills
The environment, for example, wind and rain or the terrain can affect the performance of a skill. Skills affected by the environment are known as open skills.
They are also found in sports that involve where there is an opposing player or team.
Wherever there is an element of unpredictability then the skills can be classified as open.
In sports where an opponents actions play very little or no part in the performance of a skill and skills where the athlete is in almost total control of their performance, then these skills are known as closed skills.
The physical environment does not affect closed skills either.
Some skills will fall between these extremes and therefore there is what is known as a continuum between open skills and closed skills.
Using your knowledge of sports, drag the following sport into their appropriate position on the continuum:
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The pacing continuum
Like the open and closed continuum, this continuum is based on the amount of control the athlete has based upon when the performance takes place or when the skill in executed.
At either end of the continuum there is external pacing and self-pacing.
External pacing is when external factors determine when the skill or performance is carried out, for example, a shot at goal and when the goalkeeper makes the save.
Self-pacing is when the performer decides when they are going to perform the skill, for example, hitting a golf ball.
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The serial continuum
This continuum describes skills that range from continuous to discrete.
Continuous skills describe activities such as cycling and walking.
Discrete skills describe those skills that have a distinct start and finish such as a high dive.
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http://www.s-cool.co.uk/gcse/pe/skill-in-sport/revise-it/defining-and-classifying-skill-in-sport
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Map of Earth's surface reflection
Map of Earth's surface reflection
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Caption: Map of Earth's surface reflection. Map showing the varying intensities of sunlight being reflected from Earth's surface. The intensity of the reflected sunlight is known as the albedo. This map shows the white sky albedo, which is the albedo under conditions of a uniform cloud cover. The most reflective regions are dark red. Areas with decreasing intensities are then coloured orange, yellow, green and blue, with violet being the lowest. White indicates that no data is available for those regions. Data obtained by the MODIS instrument on board NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites between 7th-22nd April 2002.
Keywords: 2002, 21st century, albedo, april, aqua, ball, brightest, brightness, chart, charted, charting, circle, circular, concentration, concentrations, cut out, cut-out, cutout, data, earth, earth observation, earth science, earth sciences, geographical, geography, global, global data, global warming, globe, imaging, imaging spectroradiometer, intensities, intensity, level, levels, map, mapped, mapping, measurement, measurements, moderate-resolution, modis, nasa, reflected, reflecting, reflection, reflective, reflectivity, research, round, satellite, satellite image, satellites, sciences, sphere, spherical, statistics, sun light, sunlight, surface, terra, volume, white sky, world map
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F/col Landsat image of sand dunes in Rub-al-Khali
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Caption: False-colour satellite image of sand dunes in the Rub al Khali - the "Empty Quarter", one of the World's most extreme deserts. Located between Oman and South Yemen to the south and southern Saudi Arabia to the north, the Rub al Khali occupies a region measuring 1300km by 500km. This desert supports few plants or animals and no permanent human settlements; its major features are long ridges of dry wind-blown sand (sief dunes). The dry sand appears yellow in this false-colour image. This particular image is of a section near the border of Saudi & South Yemen, & was recorded by the Landsat earth resources mapping satellite on 2nd December, 1972.
Keywords: arabian desert, desert landscape, empty quarter, environment, from space, geography, landsat image, landsat imagery, rub al khali
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http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/175960/view
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When you look in the mirror, you might see a person you don't like. People don't talk to you or pretend to like being around you just to be nice. These are things that can negatively impact the self-esteem. As you sink further into depression, you sometimes can't make yourself feel like you matter. Fortunately, there are a few ways that you can increase your self-esteem so that you feel better about yourself whether you're at school or spending time with your friends.
Tell Yourself to Stop
You can be your own worst critic. It's time to tell that voice to stop saying negative things. This voice can tell you to do things that you aren't comfortable doing just to fit in with others. It can also tell you that you're ugly or that no one likes you, decreasing the confidence that you have in yourself.
Get Healthy
Take a walk, eat healthier foods or start an exercise regimen to feel better about your body. When you begin seeing a change in your body, then you'll start to feel better about yourself, passing along those feelings to others around you. Your body will thank you as well because the blood will flow smoothly, and you'll be feeding it the nutrients that it requires for the organs to function as they should.
Appreciate Yourself
When you're standing in front of the mirror, give yourself a pep talk. Write down a few things that you like about yourself. You can also make small posters and notes that you display around the house that you can read when you need encouragement. When you begin training the mind to think positively, then you'll start to see how wonderful of a person you are in the eyes of others.
Brighter and Whiter
The teeth can often pose an issue for many people. If your teeth are yellow white and can't seem to get clean the way you want them with proper brushing, then consider teeth whitening. There are a few different processes to consider, such as whitening strips, gels, or a professional process by someone like Cosmetic Dental Studios: Victoria Veytsman, DDS or a similar professional. Take the time to figure out which option makes the most sense to you financially and emotionally. Once you see a sparkling smile, you'll want to pass it along to others, increasing your self-esteem in the process.
Helping others can make you feel good about yourself. Find an organization that you're passionate about, such as an animal shelter. Put in a few hours each week to care for an animal or even another person if you want to volunteer at a nursing home. Whatever you like to do, there's often someone out there who is willing to accept the help you offer.
Your self-esteem can become damaged in no time. There are a few things to do that will help build your confidence once again so that you don't focus on what others think. Putting outside thoughts out of your head is the first step on the road to a better you.
Author's Bio:
Kara Masterson is a freelance writer from West Jordan, Utah. She graduated from the University of Utah and enjoys writing and spending time with her dog, Max. Kara is the youngest of four. She has two hilarious brothers and one beautiful sister. She also is the aunt of 5 crazy little girls that she loves more than anything!! Kara is not yet able to be a mom, but she loves being around kids and being like a second mom to her nieces. She dreams of the day that she can start her own little family.
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http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/crafting-confidence-5-ways-to-increase-your-self-esteem
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What is a Mythicist?
by D.M. Murdock/Acharya S
The terms "mythicism" and "mythicist" may be new to many people, even though they have been around for a couple of centuries. "Mythicist" was first coined in German and English to describe people who doubted the historical veracity of the Judeo-Christian Bible. The word is used these days particularly to define scholars, researchers and others who investigate whether or not the New Testament character of Jesus Christ was a real, historical person or a myth along the lines of the gods, godmen and heroes of other cultures, such as Hercules, Mithra or Horus. Therefore, the word "mythicist" has come into greater currency of late, because of the increasing popularity of one of its main foci: To wit, the evident non-historicity of Jesus Christ.
A mythicist may also question the historicity of other biblical figures such as Adam, Eve, Satan, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon and so on. When the religion and mythology of other ancient cultures are studied, there exists good reason to doubt that these figures are historical, especially since we possess no credible and scientific archaeological or historical evidence for their existence as real people. The Bible is often the only purported proof we have of these individuals' alleged reality as historical personages.
The Definition of Mythicism
The term "mythicism" as it has come to be developed in the present day may be defined as I have done in my book Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection (12):
Jesus AscensionMythicism represents the perspective that many gods, goddesses and other heroes and legendary figures said to possess extraordinary and/or supernatural attributes are not "real people" but are in fact mythological characters. Along with this view comes the recognition that many of these figures personify or symbolize natural phenomena, such as the sun, moon, stars, planets, constellations, etc., constituting what is called "astromythology" or "astrotheology." As a major example of the mythicist position, it is determined that various biblical characters such as Adam and Eve, Satan, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, King David, Solomon and Jesus Christ, among other entities, in reality represent mythological figures along the same lines as the Egyptian, Sumerian, Phoenician, Indian, Greek, Roman and other godmen, who are all presently accepted as myths, rather than historical figures.
A "mythicist" thus represents in part someone who perceives certain biblical characters as mythical, the same as the gods, godmen and heroes of other cultures. In short-
myth-i-cist [mith-uh-sist]
a person who views various figures of antiquity, including both pagan gods and major biblical characters, as mythical.
Moreover, a mythicist may also recognize the origins of these myths as based in nature worship and what is called "astrotheology."
The Mythicist Position and Astrotheology
One of the major planks of mythicism is recognizing the ancient astrotheology and nature worship engaged in by the cultures of antiquity whose religions and myths contributed to the formation of the Bible-based, Abrahamic faiths such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam in particular, but other religions as well. This astrotheology can be summed up in a nutshell as the reverence for and personification of the sun, moon, earth, planets, stars and constellations, as well as other celestial bodies and natural phenomena. The study of mythicism, astrotheology and archaeoastronomy reveals a very ancient body of knowledge that is both highly fascinating and far too overlooked in today’s society.
The astrotheological aspect of mythicism may be seen in remarks such as those by the ancient Greek writer Diodorus Siculus (c. 90-21 BCE):
Isis Egyptian moon goddess"Now when the ancient Egyptians, awestruck and wondering, turned their eyes to the heavens, they concluded that two gods, the sun and the moon, were primeval and eternal; and they called the former Osiris, the latter Isis..." (Murphy, 14)
Latin writer Macrobious (c. 400 AD/CE) also wrote about the astrotheology of the ancients, asserting that "all the gods of the Greek and Roman mythology represent the attributes of the one supreme divine power-the sun." In the modern era, archaeologists and archaeoastromers have confirmed this ancient astrotheology in numerous sites throughout the world, as summarized by astronomer Dr. Edwin C. Krupp in his book In Search of Ancient Astronomies:
Chichen Itza observatory"At Stonehenge in England and Carnac in France, in Egypt and Yucatan, across the whole face of the earth are found mysterious ruins of ancient monuments, monuments with astronomical significance. These relics of other times are as accessible as the American Midwest and as remote as the jungles of Guatemala. Some of them were built according to celestial alignments; others were actually precision astronomical observatories... Careful observation of the celestial rhythms was compellingly important to early peoples, and their expertise, in some respects, was not equaled in Europe until three thousand years later."
The mythicist position brings forward the ancient astrotheology as expressed in these numerous cultures and ties it into the more modern religious traditions, which in many aspects are simply rehashes of the earlier religion and mythology of antiquity: To reiterate, Jesus Christ is a mythological character along the same lines as the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Sumerian, Phoenician, Indian or other mythical gods, goddesses, godmen and heroes. This particular field is called "Jesus mythicism," while its adherents are sometimes (derogatorily) labeled "Christ mythers."
The History of Mythicism
Although many people may not be aware of the long-term and voluminous studies involved in what is called "mythicism," the questioning of the Bible as representing mythology goes back several centuries. Much of the major work in this field has occurred in Europe, especially in France and Germany. In France, at the end of the 18th century appeared the multi-volume work of Professor Charles François Dupuis (1742-1809), who put together a massive amount of evidence showing that many of the ancient gods and goddesses were solar in nature and that biblical characters such as Jesus shared numerous aspects in common with these deities. Dupuis was followed by Count Volney (1757-1820), both of whom tutored French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who himself is reported as having stated that it was a "big question" whether or not Jesus Christ really existed.
Dr. David Friedrich Strauss
In the 19th century, these French scholars were followed by Dr. F.C. Baur of the Tübingen School in Germany, along with his pupil Dr. David F. Strauss, who was attacked and lost his occupation for writing a "Life of Jesus" asserting that much of the gospel story was mythical. Strauss practically defined "mythicism" for a time, but was followed famously by Dr. Bruno Bauer (1809-1882), who likewise cast doubt on the Bible as "history."
Although they brought forth novel notions, Baur, Strauss and Bauer were preceded by many others who stepped out from the shadows of the Catholic Inquisition to voice unpopular ideas that had doubtlessly circulated surreptitiously for centuries. Prior to this seemingly sudden burst of mythicism, there appeared in addition to the voluminous writings published in 1795 by Dupuis, as well as those of Volney, the works of Rev. Dr. Robert Taylor (1784-1844), who spent three years in prison in the late 1820's and early 1830's for two convictions of "blasphemy," based on his popular lectures asserting that Christ was a myth. This punishment did not deter Taylor from publishing a number of books on the subject, including The Syntagma (1828), The Diegesis (1829), and The Rev. Dr. Robert TaylorDevil's Pulpit (1831). Yet, his ordeal was so infamous and horrifying that it haunted evolutionist Charles Darwin, who feared his own writings would land him a similar fate. Following this brouhaha, in 1840 an individual wisely maintaining his anonymity by calling himself merely a "German Jew" (J.C. Blumenfeld?) published a series of pamphlets in a volume entitled, The Existence of Christ Disproved by Irresistible Evidence.
Strauss and Bauer were also succeeded by the publication in 1841 of The Christian Mythology Unveiled, whose anonymous author later published under the name of Logan Mitchell. Mitchell was followed by lay Egyptologist Gerald Massey (1828-1907), whose monumental works highlighted the comparisons between Christianity and the Egyptian religion. Another earlier scholar who extensively dipped into mythicism was Sir Godfrey Higgins (1772-1833), although he was not a mythicist per se but an evemerist who believed that under all of the mythical attributes of various godmen lay a "real person."
The Evemerist Position
The evemerist or euhemerist perspective, named for the Greek philosopher Euhemerus (4th cent. BCE), who posited that the gods of old were in reality kings and assorted other heroes who were deified, remains one of the most commonly held opinions regarding Jesus Christ, along with the believing and mythicist perspectives.
Multiple JesusAlthough many people believe evemerism to be a "reasonable" position, often expressing that, while they do not believe Jesus was the Son of God, they do believe he was a "real person," the fact is that there simply exists no valid, scientific evidence for this "real person," such as any historical record or archaeological remains. Moreover, when the mythological layers are peeled, there remains no "historical" core to the onion. To paraphrase Massey, a composite of 20 people is no one. Evemerism is generally the result of skepticism as concerns miracles, yet lacking an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the mythicist position.
The evemerist position has been popular enough for a definition to be widely available in dictionaries and encyclopedias, while the mythicist position does not likewise enjoy such widespread recognition. Considering that mythicism was the major thrust of many well respected scholars for centuries in Europe-as well as an interest of several American Founding Fathers and European dignitaries-this oversight would seem to be both contrived and egregious. We hope that this article will help to establish this previously marginalized and ignored position as a viable option worthy of respect and scientific study.
Mythicism in Modern Times
In modern times, there exists a real reluctance within the hallowed halls of academia to delve into mythicism, despite the mountain of fascinating evidence, expressed now and again by individual scholars within a variety of fields. With the treatment endured by Dr. David Strauss, Rev. Robert Taylor and others, this hesitancy may be viewed as understandable. However, the burying of this massive body of astromythological information, which reflects virtually the entire modus vivendi of certain cultures such as that of ancient Egypt, has been at the core of much cultural degradation and loss. The resurrection of this ancient astrotheological knowledge as one of the foundations of mythicism may indeed constitute one of the most important, world-changing events we can strive to achieve, a paradigm shift comparable to that of Galileo.
Despite the pitfalls, more than a few scholars, researchers and writers in the 20th century and today fall within the category of "mythicists" as well. Individuals who continued the mythicist position into the modern era include John E. Remsburg (1848-1919), Dr. William Benjamin Smith (1850-1934), John M. Robertson (1856-1933), Dr. Arthur Drews (1865-1935), Edouard Dujardin (1861-1949), Herbert Cutner (fl. 1950), Dr. John G. Jackson (1907-1993), Dr. Frank Zindler, Dr. Robert M. Price, Earl Doherty, Ken Humphreys and others. I myself have three published books specifically about the mythical nature of Jesus Christ, as well as other popular religious figures, while a fourth investigates the non-historical character of the gospels:
The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold
Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled
Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection
Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ
The first three texts in this list delve specifically into comparative religion and mythology, demonstrating that there is little original or "historical" about the Christ myth as a whole. The last inspects the canonical gospels themselves to see whether they could possibly be considered reliable history. These various approaches constitute the main planks of mythicism in a nutshell, which, again, often highlights the astrotheological origins of the myths, such as I demonstrate throughout my books, articles and ebooks, including:
Jesus as the Sun throughout History
The Companion Guide to ZEITGEIST, Part 1
A popular form of mythicism may be seen also in the first part of internet movie "ZEITGEIST," which purportedly has been viewed over 100 million times worldwide and for which my work served as a significant source. Comedian and cultural commentator Bill Maher's "Religulous" also touches upon the subject of the Horus-Jesus comparisons, which serve as a significant basis for the mythicist position and which can be found in my book Christ in Egypt.
The Value of Mythicism
Hercules Herakles HydraOne criticism as concerns the mythicist position is that it has not been taken seriously by mainstream academia because it is "absurd." But, what is more "absurd," accepting the fabulous fairytales of a particular culture as "historical" without a shred of credible, scientific evidence, or suspecting these tall tales to be along the same lines as those of other cultures, such as the Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman, which are currently accepted as myths? When it comes to the gods of all other cultures, including those of the ancient religions and extending to those still in currency in "modern" faiths such as Hinduism, Christians and mainstream non-Christian and atheistic scholars alike are in agreement that these entities are myths. Hercules, Zeus, Athena, Neptune, Diana, Ganesha, Hanuman-these are all myths. Therefore, as concerns the non-biblical characters in religions globally for eons, Christians and mainstream scholars are mythicists. It is only the biblical figures who receive special consideration and pleading. In reality, in dismissing mythicism, Christian believers are in effect negating themselves.
Again, mythicism allows us to step outside the theist-versus-atheist box and to value the vast human creation of religion and mythology, without being either antagonistic toward it or believing it as dogma. Mythicism goes beyond the ceaseless theist-atheist debate, in fact, which is in the end futile, since cases for both perspectives can be and have been made ad infinitum, under a variety of circumstances, and since experience shows us that this discussion will never be resolved-except, indeed, in the mythicist position, which neither believes nor dismisses but which understands and appreciates humanity's longstanding interest in religion and spirituality. The mythicist position does not necessarily accept religious traditions as based in third-dimensional reality and history. Nevertheless, mythicism itself is rooted in reality and is an end product of freethought and scientific endeavors as well as the recognition of profound human imagination and creativity. The mythicist position allows us to create greater harmony by acknowledging and enjoying the similarities and differences in religious traditions founded upon valid evidence grounded in natural phenomena.
Sources & Further Reading
Force, James E. and Popkin Richard H., Essays on the Context, Nature, and Influence of Isaac Newton's Theology, Springer, 1990.
Jenaische Allegemeine Literatur-Zeitung vom Jahre 1815, IV, Leipzig, 1815.
Matheson, George, Aids to the Study of German Theology, T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1876.
Murphy, Edwin, The Antiquities of Egypt: A Translation, with Notes, of Book I of the Library of History of Diodorus Siculus, Transaction Publishers, 1990.
Nampon, Adrien, Catholic Doctrine as Defined by the Council of Trent, Peter F. Cunningham & Son, Philadelphia, 1869.
Röhr, Johann Friedrich, Kritische Prediger-Bibliothek, Johann Karl Gottfried Wagner, 1836.
Strauss, David Friedrich, Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet, Verlag von C.F. Osiander, Tubingen, 1835.
-The Life of Jesus, or A Critical Examination of His History, Taylor, Smallbrook, Birmingham, 1844.
-The Opinions of Professor David F. Strauss, as Embodied in His Letter, John Chapman, London, 1844.
The History of Mythicism
Astrotheology of the Ancients
Was Jesus God, Man or Myth?
Evemerist v. Mythicist Position
Astrotheology and Mythicist Videos
Acharya S on DVD
Acharya S Interview with Metafysiko.org
Acharya's Online Videos
Astrotheology of the Ancients
Celebration of Life
Christ Conspiracy in the News!
Christ in Egypt Preface
D.M. Murdock/Acharya S's Media Appearances
David Mills's Review of 'Who Was Jesus?'
Did Buddha exist?
'Did Moses Exist?' reviewed by Robert Tulip
Did Jesus Fulfill Prophecy? | Who Was Jesus?
Ezekiel's Vision of a Wheel within a Wheel
Easter: The Resurrection of Spring
The Gospel Dates
Is the King James Bible Inerrant?
Jesus Christ as the Sun God throughout History
Is Jesus an Egyptian Myth?
The Jesus Myth
Jesus, Son of Joseph, and Horus, Son of Seb
Man Made God Review
Moses, the Promised Land and Easter | Passover | Exodus
The Origins of Halloween
The Real ZEITGEIST Challenge
Skeptic Mangles ZEITGEIST (and Religious History)
The Great Chaos | Paradise Found
The Healing Power of the Gospel
The Nativity of Amenhotep III at Luxor
The History of Mythicism | The Mythicist Position
Was Horus Crucified?
Was Jesus God, Man or Myth?
Was Krishna Born on December 25th?
What is a Mythicist? | The Mythicist Position | Mythicism
Who Is Gerald Massey?
Who Was Jesus?
Stellar House Articles
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Adaptation shown by Opuntia
Options :
1. CAM pathway
2. Root pockets
3. Phyllody
4. Pseudocarps
Answer and Explanation :-
Answer: Option 1
Opuntia is a succulent cactus in which Crassulacean Acid Metabolism takes place (CAM)
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-Evinda Lepins Coffee Hour with Chicklit Power A Cup of Encouragement for the Day
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Methanogens that are responsible for the production of biogas belong to the category of
Options :
1. Eubacteria
2. Cyanobacteria
3. Autotrophic bacteria
4. Archebacteria
Answer and Explanation :-
Answer: Option 4
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There is hope in forgiveness
-John Piper A Sweet and Bitter Providence: Sex Race and the Sovereignty of God
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The European Union has introduced a free global positioning system that it claims is almost five times more accurate than the US system currently in use.
The US military-run GPS system, in widespread use across the globe, offers a 10 meter (32 feet) accuracy level, but EGNOS promises to fine tune this experience and deliver accuracy levels to around 2 meters (6 feet).
The EU sees various uses for its more accurate GPS system, which was in testing mode since 2006. Farmers would benefit from precision spraying fertilisers, and blind people could have personal guides. It could automatically charge road tolls or pay per use car insurance.
It is also expected that the next generation of GPS-enabled smartphones such as the Apple iPhone, Palm Pre or Google Android devices, will benefit from the improved accuracy of EGNOS. Some standalone GPS devices might soon use EGNOS as well, given that the manufacturers release firmware updates to support the system.
Find your next job with techworld jobs
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Symphonic Drama
The symphonic outdoor drama is a kind of historical play, set outdoors on the very site depicted in account. It combines music, dance, and drama in a unique way to tell the story. It is most like historical pageantry performed in Europe in the Middle Ages. The best known example of a religious pageant in this style is at Oberammergau, Germany. Many big, spectacular stage events became popular in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These pageants were not exactly plays, but they showed a series of scenes in which historical events followed one another.
The University of North Carolina Press Article on The Lost Colony: A Symphonic Drama of American History’.
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3 Ways Antennas Have Helped Shape Modern Technology
January 28, 2017
People rarely stop to think about the humble antenna, but modern technology actually owes a great debt to the devices. Modern communication technology still depends on them, but they’re greatest role was enabling the development of those technologies. They formed vital infrastructure that allowed entire industries to develop, so their influence can be felt even after some of those industries moved on to other things.
Enabling Radio
The first radio was a world-changing development, and it depended on antennas to function. Prior to the radio, communicating over long distances was slow, so most people only had contact with others in a small area. That kept communities small and made people identify more with regions than nations, since they didn’t know anything about people on the other side of the country. It also meant that soldiers and governors had to operate relatively independently, since they couldn’t communicate with their superiors while they were working.
The radio changed all of that. It caused mass media to blossom, so that people who lived thousands of miles away from each other could hear the same stories on the radio. Government figures could communicate quickly, so centralization became easier. Most importantly, it proved that wireless communication was technically feasible and very useful, which encouraged people to fund later developments.
Encouraging Satellites
Antennas also made it easy for humans to both receive messages from space and send them back. In the earliest periods, this was used for scientific advancement, but it did not take long for people to recognize the business potential. They launched satellites to gather data on the weather, to enable GPS technology, to provide Internet access, and even to expand television offerings. When those efforts became profitable, even more people invested, and that investment helped to fuel the development of satellite technology.
Creating Cell Phones
Cell phones are one of the most important pieces of technology in the modern world. While the phones don’t include antennas, both their supporting infrastructure and the technology that led to their development does. Handheld radio sets proved the value of portable communication systems, and they needed antennas to broadcast and receive information. Modern cell phones are the natural development of that technology, and they never would have been invented without that first step.
Antennas are also necessary for modern cell networks to function. The phones work by connecting to cell towers, which are essentially very large antenna arrays. These capture signals that the cell phones send, transmit them to other cell towers, and broadcast those signals so that the appropriate phone can pick them up. The modern world couldn’t function without them, and they came from improving on the same principles that allowed old radio antennas to function.
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Top 5 Need To Know Facts about Gravitational Waves
Script written by Sean Harris The way we interact with the universe around us has been changed forever. Welcome to WatchMojo News, the weekly series from, where we break down news stories that might be on your radar. In this instalment, we're counting down 5 need to know facts about Einstein's gravitational waves. What did you think of this segment? Got any ideas for our next production? Head over to WatchMojo.comsuggest to submit your ideas today!
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Script written by Sean Harris
Top 5 Need-to-know Gravitational Waves Facts
The way we interact with the universe around us has been changed forever. Welcome to WatchMojo News, the weekly series from where we break down news stories that might be on your radar. In this instalment, we’re counting down 5 need to know facts about Einstein’s gravitational waves.
#5: What Are Gravitational Waves?
The Definition
Gravitational waves were first predicted in 1916 by Albert Einstein, as part of his theory of general relativity. The waves are a transportation of energy through space-time, whenever an object accelerates or moves. The effect is similar to that of a boat travelling through water (creating ripples), or of a heavy object being dropped onto a trampoline (shifting tension toward the center). Crucially,gravitational waves travel unimpeded across the universe. Whereas light may become blocked out or softened over space and time, gravitational waves are unchanged by intervening matter between their source and us. Therefore, to receive gravitational waves is to engage with parts of the universe previously impossible for humans to observe.
#4: What Is General Relativity?
The Theory
The General Theory of Relativity was published in 1915, and forms the basis for Einstein’s prediction that gravitational waves existed. It’s essentially a rethink of Isaac Newton’s classical law of universal gravitation, developed in the late 1600s. Einstein’s theory says that gravity isn’t a specific force, but the natural result of matter and energy existing in space-time. Large objects such as the sun and Earth displace energy in space-time, and pull smaller objects (like people, for example) inwards. The idea allows us to view the universe as though it’s a kind of landscape; a geometry in which the place and movement of all objects (planets included), are dictated by the curvature of space-time in which they exist. Therefore, because of the apparently infinite reach of gravitational waves, the theory can also help us understand the history of the universe, potentially as far back as the beginning of time.
#3: How Were They Discovered?
The Detection
The first detection of gravitational waves occurred at almost 09:51 UTC on September 14th, 2015. The observation, which consisted of a ‘chirp’ signal lasting 0.2 seconds, was recorded by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, at Hanford, Washington State and Livingston, Louisiana. After follow-up tests and analysis, the recording was granted a confidence level of 99.99994%, and presented as an almost certainly legitimate result. The signal came from the merging of 2 black holes over 1.3 billion light-years away from Earth. The black holes would’ve been spiraling toward each other with increasing velocity before combining, at which point the gravitational wave was strong enough to be detected by the most sensitive technologies on Earth. Executive director of LIGO, David Reitze announced the breakthrough on February 11th, 2016. [“We have detected gravitational waves,” he said, “We did it.”]
#2: How Did the World React?
The Scientific Community
All across the planet, scientists greeted the ‘chirp’ with excitement. Reitze explained that ‘up until now we have been deaf to gravitational waves, but today, we are able to hear them’; while Dr. Szabolcs Marka, an astrophysicist at Columbia University, said ‘the skies will never be the same’. Renowned Royal Society professor, Brian Cox, said, ‘this opens up an entirely new way of observing the Universe’. Professor Alberto Vecchio, of the University of Birmingham and a member of the team behind the detection, elaborated, ‘this observation marks 3 milestones for physics: the first detection of gravitational waves, the first observation of a binary black hole, and the most convincing evidence to-date that Nature’s black holes are the objects predicted by Einstein’s theory’. For professor Karsten Danzmann of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, the significance is clear. ‘There’s a Nobel Prize in it,’ he said, ‘there is no doubt’.
#1: What Does This Mean for Science?
The Future
It has been labeled as one of the most important developments in modern science, on a level with the discovery of the Higgs particle and the decoding of DNA. It has also been listed as the most significant step in our understanding of space, since Galileo pioneered the telescope. Humankind is now able to ‘hear’ the universe beyond even that which it can see, and the LIGO detection could be a major step in answering humanity’s greatest questions. Scientists anticipate similar detections to occur with increasing frequency, especially regarding some of the Universe’s most powerful and destructive events, such as neutron star collisions. Looking further into the future though, gravitational waves could help us understand previously invisible dark energy. And then there’s the ultimate quest to provide an answer to the ultimate question; theoretically, there should be gravitational wavesout there carrying the imprint of the Big Bang, which could provide humans with details as to how and why the universe was initially created.
Did these facts get you thinking? To vote for which news story is covered next head over to WatchMojo.comsuggest, and be sure to hit that subscribe button for more newsworthy top tens published every week!
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Idea of a “Merit Based Cabinet” Ignores Politics and History of Canada
Conservative Cabinet, 1886 (Library and Archives Canada)
Conservative Cabinet, 1886 (Library and Archives Canada)
On Wednesday, November 4th Justin Trudeau and his new Cabinet will be sworn in at Rideau Hall. What marks this swearing in ceremony as historic is that it will be the first federal cabinet in Canadian history to feature an equal number of men and women. Yet if we are to believe some of the more shrill political commentators in this country, Trudeau’s Cabinet will be Canada’s first “affirmative action cabinet”. Others like Andrew Coyne have also warned that Trudeau’s actions move Canadian politics further away from achieving the goal of meritocracy. Ultimately, all these arguments, whether forwarded in print or on television, boil down to the basic idea of, “why can’t we just appoint the best person for the job?” However, this argument fails to grasp the fundamental nature of cabinet making and cabinet governance in Canada, dating back to the days of Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir. John A. Macdonald.
In 1864 at the Charlottetown Conference, Macdonald signed the guestbook for what is now Province House (and the PEI Legislature) as John Alexander Macdonald and listed his occupation as cabinet maker. A clever joke for sure, but one that also recognized the political reality of governing the northern portion of North America. Macdonald’s years in the fractious and divided Legislature of the United Provinces of Canada taught him the importance of taking a variety of factors into account when crafting cabinets. While gender was not a consideration, language, residency and religion all needed to be represented at the cabinet table. Indeed, Macdonald’s first cabinet, appointed shortly after Confederation in 1867, contained an equal number of Protestants and Catholics; six each. Such an equal division made perfect sense, the country was fairly evenly split between the two Christian faiths and Macdonald wanted to ensure that both groups felt their interests were represented in the federal government.
While the importance of having an equal split between Catholics and Protestants in cabinet has declined, the idea that cabinet needs to be representative of Canada as a whole has largely been accepted as a governing principle; one that Prime Ministers ignore at their peril. Think of John Diefenbaker, who despite winning 50 seats in Quebec in 1958, failed to appoint a francophone to any key ministries. Quebecers rightly saw this slight as evidence of Diefenbaker’s larger indifference (some would say hostility) to francophone Quebec interests’ and in 1962 punished the Progressive Conservative Party, electing only 14 MPs from the party.
Stephen Harper, when appointing his first cabinet in 2006, similarly grappled with the political necessity of regional representation. Achieving such representation was particularly difficult for Harper, as no Conservative Party MPs came from a major urban centre and only 10 were from Quebec. In response, Harper enticed former Liberal Industry Minister David Emmerson (who held the urban ridding of Vancouver Kingsway) to join the Conservatives, while also appointing Michael Fortier as Minister of International Trade and as a Quebec Senator, thus making Fortier eligible to serve as a Minister of the Crown. While many people criticized Harper’s decision to appoint a senator after promising to only appoint those chosen by provincial elections, most observers recognized the political imperative of regional representation that compelled Harper to act as he did.
So why is gender any different? If the argument is that men can represent women’s interests just as effectively, then why don’t we apply that logic to language or regional issues? Why do we need Francophones or British Columbians in cabinet? Can’t Anglo-Ontarians represent their interests just as effectively? Nobody would ever attempt to advance such a proposition, yet in the past week, a number of political commentators in this country have made just such an argument, just change language to gender. Canadians as a whole should be equally incredulous.
Opponents of Trudeau’s policy have also suggested that enforcing gender parity is the beginning of a slippery slope, suggesting that in the future it will be necessary to include ministers from every possible minority group. While I would argue that having a variety of voices and experiences at the cabinet table makes for better governance and more just outcomes, the basic point is even more obvious. Women don’t represent a small section of the population, rather, they are the majority of people in the country. Gender parity in cabinet is simply saying that literally half the country deserves an equal voice in governing the country as the other half. Not actually a radical proposal when you think about it that way.
An even more fundamental problem with advocates of the “merit only” view of cabinet formation is that they either don’t understand how Canada is governed, or they are feigning ignorance for the purpose of making a political point. As Coyne argues in his National Post piece, cabinet is important because it is intended to governor the country and that is certainly true. However, governing goes beyond simply managing one’s ministry. Due to the centralized nature of Canadian governance, cabinet, and particularly cabinet committees, are where the majority of important decisions are made. Certainly a minister on the Priorities and Planning Committee has more power and influence than anyone else in parliament. Ministers and cabinet as a whole are not only making technical decisions about how best to run the country, they are making policy decisions based on values and as far as I know, there are no objective standards for assessing values.
Obviously there needs to be a minimum level of competency for one to hold a cabinet post. Merit (in this case defined as management skills) is not all together unimportant, but it is one of a panopoly of factors a Prime Minister needs to take into account when crafting their cabinet. To suggest that it should be – or ever has been – the only consideration is to ignore Canada’s history. To suggest that it is the most important factor that needs to be emphasized above all overlooks the important political role ministers in Canada play.
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https://1930sortoday.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/idea-of-a-merit-based-cabinet-ignores-politics-and-history-of-canada/
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Explore BrainMass
Financial Analysis of CPI
Based on the analysis on CPI's valuation and in the context of the valuation of the major consumer products companies (look at the price-to-earnings ratio of CPI versus the competitors), do you believe analysts think your firm is undervalued? Could that perception change if the economic climate changes? Do you believe CPI's valuation is being impacted today because the firm is only a regional player? What is the basis for your conclusion?
Explain the macroeconomic and microeconomic concepts and how they relate to the management of a global organization.
Apply various risk methodologies to economic situations using a variety of approaches ranging from basic statistics to certain equivalency.
Critically analyze and evaluate real-life economic problems and opportunities by applying economic concepts, principles, and theory.
Solution Preview
The response addresses the queries posted in 662 words with references.
// Before writing about the valuation of the firm, it is essential to gain knowledge about the financial analysis of CPI. One should know about the different types of ratio, which further will aid to assess the financial position of the firm, effectively//
Financial Analysis of CPI
Price Earnings Ratio= Market price per share/Earnings per share
A higher P/E Ratio suggests that investors are expecting a higher earnings growth in the future compared to companies with a lower P/E. It is sometimes also known as multiple, example if a company's PE Ratio is 15, it means that the investor is ready to pay 15$ for 1$ current earnings of the company.
//Above is the explanation of financial analysis of the firm. Moving to the next direction, explanation about the valuation of firm, perception, CPI valuation and the basis for the conclusion is to be thrown light upon.//
Yes, the firm is undervalued and it has a great potential of growth in future. Yes the perception can change if ...
Solution Summary
460 words, APA
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https://brainmass.com/economics/economic-growth/financial-analysis-of-cpi-144586
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Explore BrainMass
Technology and communication
What types of technology do people use to communicate?
How does technology change the way people communicate?
What does technology bring to communication other than the technology itself?
What form of technology is used in your workplace to communicate? Is it effective? Why or Why not?
Solution Preview
People use all kinds of technology to communicate. From the far reaches of space using satellite to home and the cell phone and smart phone, dsl broadband and cable internet, to television, radio, online phone service and bluetooth access, people can communicate all day, every day. Video feeds and the ability to see and hear people through access by internet and satellite is a very important step in accessing information or communicating across the world or the street. So many people are not hooked up to the internet that accessing information from a company in Thailand is as easy ...
Solution Summary
The uses of technology for people to communicate and how it changes the ways they communicate.
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https://brainmass.com/english-language-and-literature/communication-public-speaking/314100
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Explore BrainMass
Holocaust & Auschwitz
Discuss Auschwitz in terms of location, structure, and implications for the Jews and others.
Solution Preview
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
provides excellent photographs of the atrocities of the Holocaust. Soon after liberation, surviving children of the Auschwitz camp walk out of the children's barracks (Poland, after January 27, 1945 see attachment). Refer to this same attachment for various maps depicting the defeat of Nazi Germany (1942-1945).
Auschwitz was the largest camp established by the Germans. A complex of camps, Auschwitz included a concentration, extermination, and forced-labor camp. It was located 37 miles west of Krakow (Cracow), near the prewar German-Polish border in Eastern Upper Silesia, an area annexed to Germany in 1939. Three large camps established near the Polish town of Oswiecim constituted the Auschwitz camp complex: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II (Birkenau), and Auschwitz III (Monowitz).
Auschwitz I, the main camp, was the first camp established near Oswiecim. Construction began in May 1940 in a suburb of Oswiecim, in an artillery barracks formerly used by the Polish army. The SS continuously expanded the physical contours of the camp with forced labor. The first prisoners were German criminal prisoners deported from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany and Polish political prisoners from Tarnow.
Defeat of Nazi Germany, 1942-1945
Although Auschwitz I was primarily a concentration camp, serving a penal function, it also had a gas chamber and crematorium. An improvised gas chamber was located in the basement of the prison, Block 11, and a larger, more permanent gas chamber was later constructed in the crematorium.
SS physicians carried out medical experiments in the hospital, Barrack (Block) 10. They conducted pseudoscientific research on infants, twins, and dwarfs, and performed forced sterilizations, castrations, and hypothermia experiments on adults.
Between the crematorium and the medical-experiments barrack stood the "Black Wall," where SS guards executed thousands of prisoners.
Construction of Auschwitz II, or Auschwitz-Birkenau, began in the vicinity of Brzezinka in October 1941. Of the three camps established near Oswiecim, the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp had the largest total prisoner ...
Solution Summary
Discusses Auschwitz in terms of location, structure, and implications for the Jews and others. This solution also provides an informative pictorial representation of Auschwitz.
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https://brainmass.com/history/north-american-history/holocaust-auschwitz-22464
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Inventor Ronald Howes dies at age 83
From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!
Jump to: navigation, search
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Ronald Howes died at the age of 83 on Tuesday. Howes was best known for his invention of the Easy-Bake Oven. As director of research and new product development for Cincinnati-based Kenner Products, Howes made his famous invention in the early 1960s. The inspiration came from hearing the sentiment of a Kenner salesman returning from a trip to New York City. Kenner engineers concluded that the safest and most practical method of heating the Easy-Bake would be to use a light bulb. The bulb was later replaced by a heating element.
Howes was raised by his German grandmother and her American husband, as his mother died soon after his birth. He attended Walnut Hills High School but left during World War II to enlist in the United States Navy. Nancy Howes remarked that his grandmother assisted him in, "fib[bing] about his age". Howes later attended the University of Cincinnati. According to Christopher Howes, his son, one of his first jobs at Kenner was to remove potentially poisonous chemicals from the toy Play-Doh. Howes also contributed to what would later become a modern version of the Spirograph.
Christopher Howes said, "He had a fondness for the innocent, simple things in life." Howes continued to consider possible product designs even outside of work. His wife remarked, "We no longer have a garage in our house – it’s a physics lab". Howes was also a spiritual man and often taught Catechism classes for the Catholic Church. He had six children and fourteen grandchildren during his lifetime.
A memorial will be held in his honor next Monday, at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church.
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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Caerleon
From Wikisource
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CAERLEON, an ancient village in the southern parliamentary division of Monmouthshire, England, on the right (west) bank of the Usk, 3 m. N.E. of Newport. Pop. (1901) 1411. Its claim to notice rests on its Roman and British associations. As Isca Silurum, it was one of the three great legionary fortresses of Roman Britain, established either about a.d. 50 (Tacitus, Annals, xii. 32), or perhaps, as coin-finds suggest, about a.d. 74-78 in the governorship of Julius Frontinus, and in either case intended to coerce the wild Silures. It was garrisoned by the Legio II. Augusta from its foundation till near the end of the Roman rule in Britain. Though never seriously excavated, it contains plentiful visible traces of its Roman period—part of the ramparts, the site of an amphitheatre, and many inscriptions, sculptured stones, &c., in the local museum. No civil life or municipality seems, however, to have grown up outside its walls, as at York (Eburācum). Like Chester (see Deva), it remained purely military, and the common notion that it was the seat of a Christian bishopric in the 4th century is unproved and improbable. Its later history is obscure. We do not know when the legion was finally withdrawn, nor what succeeded. But Welsh legend has made the site very famous with tales of Arthur (revived by Tennyson in his Idylls), of Christian martyrs, Aaron and Julius, and of an archbishopric held by St Dubric and shifted to St David's in the 6th century. Most of these traditions date from Geoffrey of Monmouth (about 1130-1140), and must not be taken for history. The ruins of Caerleon attracted notice in the 12th and following centuries, and gave plain cause for legend-making. There is better, but still slender, reason for the belief that it was here, and not at Chester, that five kings of the Cymry rowed Edgar in a barge as a sign of his sovereignty (a.d. 973). The name Caerleon seems to be derived from the Latin Castra legionum, but it is not peculiar to Caerleon-on-Usk, being often used of Chester and occasionally of Leicester and one or two other places.
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Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to: navigation, search
See also: Degeneration
From French dégénération, from Latin degeneratio.
degeneration (usually uncountable, plural degenerations)
1. (uncountable) The process or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse.
• 1913, B. H. Carrol, An Interpretation of the English Bible:
The modern cry of "more liberty and less creed" is a degeneration from a vertebrate to a jellyfish.
2. (uncountable) That condition of a tissue or an organ in which its vitality has become either diminished or perverted; a substitution of a lower for a higher form of structure.
fatty degeneration of the liver
3. (uncountable) Gradual deterioration, from natural causes, of any class of animals or plants or any particular organ or organs; hereditary degradation of type.
4. (countable) A thing that has degenerated.
• Sir Thomas Browne
cockle, aracus, [] and other degenerations
Related terms[edit]
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Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to: navigation, search
See also: Hose, hōse, and hőse
A US naval officer using a fire hose
Wikipedia has an article on:
From Middle English hose (leggings, hose), from Old English hose, hosa (hose, leggings), from Proto-Germanic *husǭ (coverings, leggings, trousers), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kew- (to cover). Compare West Frisian hoas (hose), Dutch hoos (stocking, water-hose), German Hose (trousers). Compare Tocharian A kać (skin), Russian кишка́ (kišká, gut), Ancient Greek κύστις (kústis, bladder), Sanskrit कोष्ठ (koṣṭha, intestine). More at sky.
hose (countable and uncountable, plural hoses or hosen)
1. (countable) A flexible tube conveying water or other fluid.
2. (uncountable) A stocking-like garment worn on the legs; pantyhose, women's tights.
3. (obsolete) Close-fitting trousers or breeches, reaching to the knee.
• Bible, Daniel iii. 21
• Shakespeare
Usage notes[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
hose (third-person singular simple present hoses, present participle hosing, simple past and past participle hosed)
1. (transitive) To water or spray with a hose.
• 1995, Vivian Russell, Monet's Garden: Through the Seasons at Giverny[1], ISBN 9780711209886, page 83:
2. (transitive) To deliver using a hose.
• 2003, Tony Hillerman, The Sinister Pig, ISBN 0061098787, page 57:
He had just finished hosing gasoline into his tank, a short man, burly, needing a shave, and wearing greasy coveralls.
3. (transitive) To provide with hose (garment)
• 1834 July to December, Pierce Pungent, “Men and Manners”, in Fraser's magazine for town and country[2], volume X, page 416:
The mighty mass of many a mingled race,
Who dwell in towns where he pursued the chase;
The men degenerate shirted, cloaked, and hosed-
Nose and eyes only to the day exposed
4. (transitive) To attack and kill somebody, usually using a firearm.
• 2003, John R. Bruning, Jungle ace[3], Brassey's, ISBN 9781574886948, page 136:
5. (transitive) To trick or deceive.
• 1995, Keath Fraser, Popular anatomy[4], The Porcupine's Quill, ISBN 9780889841499, page 458:
6. (transitive, computing) To break a computer so everything needs to be reinstalled; to wipe all files.
• 2006 Spring, Joel Durham Jr., “Pimp Out Win XP with TweakUI”, in Maximum PC[5], Future US, Inc., ISSN 1522-4279, page 63:
Derived terms[edit]
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What makes up an effective leadership?
19 Apr 2017Psychology Essays
One of the most crucial elements of a successful group work is the leadership ability of the group head. Above anyone else in a group, the leader is the person with the vision; a person whose vision transcends beyond the limits of time, age, race, resources, and any other barriers.
Clark (2007) clearly had it: Good leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader and good leaders develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience. This suggests that in every individual, there lies leadership ability. It just needs honing. Further Clark (2007) added that in order for a leader to inspire his/her workers into higher levels of teamwork, there are certain things he/she must be, know, and, do. “These do not come naturally, but are acquired through continual work and study. Good leaders are continually working and studying to improve their leadership skills; they are NOT resting on their laurels,” said Clark (2007). Indeed, of what meaning would laurels be if the individual is not continuously updating his/her knowledge and skills to become an effective leader?
Leadership, being a broad topic as it is, could not be defined by just a single author. Leadership is a dynamic field. One culture may see leadership differently compared with another culture. In any event, it all depends upon each culture’s situation; set of most abiding beliefs and attendant values; and needs.
There is a myriad of concepts of what constitutes an effective leadership. First, this paper aimed to discuss the three general forms of leadership: (1) democratic, (2) laissez-faire, and (3) autocratic. Second, this paper offered a critique on the best form of leadership to adopt. The data supporting the author’s concept were gathered through the author’s leadership history and through various published works on leadership.
Forms of Leadership
There are different forms of leadership. For purpose of simplicity, this paper adopts the categorization proposed by Kurt Lewin (1939).
Democratic Style. Also called the participative style, the democratic style of leadership encourages members to be a part of the decision making process. The leader keeps his or her members informed about everything that affects their work and participates decision making and problem solving responsibilities. This style requires the leader to be a coach who has the final say, but gathers information from staff members before making a decision. This is opposed to autocratic style of leadership where all the decisions come from the leader and the members do not participate in the decision-making process.
Laissez-faire Style. This French term means “leave it be.” True to it, the laissez-faire leadership style is also referred to as the “hands-off¨ style. In this form of leadership, the leader provides little or no direction and gives the members as much freedom as possible. All authority or power is given to the employees and they must determine goals, make decisions, and resolve problems on their own.
Autocratic Style. This is often considered the classical approach. It is one in which the manager retains as much power and decision-making authority as possible. The leader does not consult his or her constituents nor are the constituents allowed to express any idea or input. The constituents are expected to obey orders without receiving any explanations. The motivation environment is produced by creating a structured set of rewards and punishments. Those who obey the leader get rewards while those who do not get punished.
Authoritarian leaders provide clear expectations for what needs to be done, when it should be done, and how it should be done.
Critique: What is the best form of leadership to adopt?
Ideally, the form of leadership that one should adopt must depend of the needs and goals of the organization.
But democratic style is gaining popularity because of its participative nature. Let us critique each style of leadership.
Autocratic leadership, as its nature suggests, is undermining the capabilities of its members to create, think, decide, and suggest. This form of leadership relies on punishments and threats to influence the members. Since the leader does not allow the members to suggest ideas, essentially, he does not trust the intellectual faculty of its members.
But do not get the impression that autocratic style of leadership is evil and restrictive and ineffective. It may work somehow on certain situations like having new members in a group who are inexperienced and do not know what tasks to execute and procedures to follow. In this case the leader dictates and usually makes the decision. Time can also influence the form of leadership that one adopts. If there is limited time, the leader may actually decide without consulting its members. Of course this is a case-to-case basis. That is why it is very important for a leader to know how to PROPERLY use this type to achieve the goal of the organization.
Laissez-faire type of leadership may be effective when the members of the group are highly educated, highly skilled, and highly experienced. In such case, the role of the leader is limited to being the mediator in the group.
Of all the leadership style, the democratic style is gaining popularity because it is participative in nature. They say two brains are better than one. Indeed! Problems are easier solved when many brains search for the solution. A more polished plan is produced if many brains would constructively critique the plan. And most importantly, history would tell that many of human successes were born out of collective action rather than by an individual enterprise.
So therefore, what is the most effective style of leadership to adopt? It all depends on the leader’s experience and personal background, the members, and the vision and mission of the organization. At some point, the leader may be autocratic or democratic or a combination of different types. That is why it is very important the leader should be dynamic, intelligent, quick-thinker, flexible, respectful, trustworthy, and all those positive attitudes.
However, Lewin’s research in 1939 discovered that democratic leadership is generally the most effective leadership style. Not only do democratic leaders offer guidance to group members, but also enable participation in the group and allow input from other group members. In Lewin’s 1939 study, children in this group were less productive than the members of the authoritarian group, but their contributions were of a much higher quality.
There is no restriction to human imagination and creativity. Surely, the leader knows the best form of leadership to adopt in order to achieve the goal of the group.
The different types of leadership according to Kurt Lewin (1939) have been discussed. There are no hard and fast criteria as to what makes up an effective leadership. The style of leadership that a leader assume depends on many factors such as, but not limited to, the experience of the leader, the characteristics of the members, and the mission and vision of the organization.
• Clark D. (2007). The Art and Science of Leadership [internet]. Available from: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leader.html [Accessed 11 August 2007].
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Mental and Sensory Trickery
As machine learning produces virtual reality that feels more real than ever, the divide separating “human” and “machine” is shrinking. We are teaching AI to beat us at our own games, and it’s proving to be a limitlessly powerful student. The world in which the phrases “seeing is believing” and “show me” mean something is receding in the rearview mirror rapidly, giving way to a reality where you can’t always trust your sensory data. Which — like any other data — can be hacked or faked. Though, in this case it could be at your own direction — and to your advantage.
The human brain evolved to keep us safe in a world of predatory animals, deep, unnavigable waters, high cliffs, and sharp edges. Optimization for survival and reproduction of our genes demanded accurate sensory input, and generations of reliance on that data led to hard-wired fears that feel as real as anything we experience. Something moving fast at the periphery of your field of vision startles; the sight of a sheer drop opening into yawning space causes the heart to pound. Danger! Avoid, survive.
Now, we have learned that we can work, learn, and play at our highest levels by tricking our minds into perceiving what isn’t there. Like a wizened mentor, turning the lessons inward to the self, we shape the lesson and provide the interpretation for our own brains, translated into unmistakable sensory data. In other words, we provide ourselves with learning opportunities that are based in sensory experiences.
Smart sensory devices are changing the depth to which we experience virtual reality. Oculus earbuds, for example, along with acoustic filtration apps like H_ _ r provide a sense of true immersion in a virtual environment — something that’s only been recently made possible. It’s also possible now to smell things without a nose, thanks to advancements in “artificial olfaction” technology produced by companies like eNose. We can taste things that aren’t there and even “send” them to each other online for tasting. If these artificial sensory experiences were to work in tandem, we might not be able to tell the difference between virtuality and the real thing beyond actually telling ourselves what is real and what isn’t.
In fact, virtual experiences may soon provide more sensory data than we can get by any conventional means; an even more “realistic” experience than reality. This would be even more powerful, as TechCrunch points out, with the help of chemical stimulation strengthening the synapses that cement our memories.
The irony of relying on our brains to remind ourselves of what’s real—precisely because we know we won’t be able to trust whatever data our brains themselves come up with—is itself amusing. One of our most fascinating cyborg moments of the coming years may be the merging of technologies with the human body in the pursuit of more realistic virtual experiences.
Our Virtual Future: The Virtual Reality Headsets of Today and Tomorrow
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Opening Up New Worlds
The implications of the abilities we’ve developed to trick our brains are more than amusing. They are changing the way we learn, work, and relate to each other as well, not to mention motivating us to learn how to recapture neuroplasticity and use it to our advantage. The quest for the perfect virtual experience is opening up new worlds for anyone who’d like to experience them.
Right now it’s possible to drive through sandcastles or map enemy territory. We are using VR to learn and teach, taking trips through museums, and learning how human organs work. VR is changing the way we work, too: easing pain for patients and allowing developers to prototype apps. Even porn is going virtual — because if we’re going to take work to the next level, play is definitely coming with it.
All of these things would be little more than novelties if our technologies were not so adept at tricking our sense. Thanks to better tech and improved sensory swindling, though, each of these virtual applications holds deeper meaning for us as a species.
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Monday, March 1, 2010
Essay on Hills like White Elephants
Hills like White Elephants Essay
Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills like White Elephants” is mainly told through the dialogue of two protagonists at a railway station in rural Spain. The labels on the luggage they carry are an indication of their nomadic life, and their conversations reveal their struggling romantic relationship. The girl, Jig, laments that their mundane lifestyle consists of nothing but “look at things and try new drinks” The lack of mentioning of the girl’s relationship to the American suggests that their relationship is not particularly serious or meaningful.
The calm, and simple setting as well as the lack of colorful imagery on their side of Ebro hills reflects their life, but contrasts the escalation of tension in their conversation. As they drink beer, Jig comments that the distant white hills against the “brown and dry” country “look like white elephants.” The American’s careless response to her observation and her disappointed reaction establishes the story’s pivotal issue.
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As tension between the couple continues to multiply through various attempts at small talk and the ordering of more drinks, the problem in the relationship emerges as an operation the American wants Jig to have. When he encourages Jig to have the “awfully simple” operation, and tells her that “They just let the air in and then it’s perfectly natural,” it becomes apparent that the operation is an abortion. The title of the short story insinuates pregnancy since the dictionary definitions of “a white elephant” defines it as a property requiring much care and expense and yielding little profit; an object no longer of value to its owner but of value to others, and something of little or no value. The child inside Jig will require unconditional care, love, and various expenses once it is born. Even though the pregnancy is invaluable to Jig, it means nothing but problems to her lover. The imagery of the hills and the curves of the Ebro characterize the shape of a pregnant woman, and symbolize that the pregnancy is a large hill in their relationship. The American likes traveling to places with Jig and enjoys their lifestyle since their relationship is only based on what they have now and not what they can have. He is unwilling to take the chance to give up or change anything in order to make their present life better because he is afraid to lose his possessions once he assumes his role as a father. He promises Jig his support for her after the operation, and assures her that life will go on as before as if nothing has happened.
Unfortunately, he fails to understand that the pregnancy has occurred and everything will be different no matter what Jig decides.
Jig is aware that the real concern is one of going past the point when care and respect can endure difficulties in a relationship. This seems to be the first critical issue they've had to face, to measure the depth of their relationship. Their weak relationship will eventually fall apart because the relationship lacks substance and understanding. If they cannot decide and agree on simple matters such as whether or not to have water in the drink, they cannot possibly agree on the important issues in their relationship such as having a baby.
The climax of the story appears when Jig is agitated by their irritating conversation and their romantic relationship. She begins to question about their uncertain future and his true feelings for her. She seems persuaded by the American when she comments on her willingness to do the operation despite her wants and needs because “she doesn’t care” about herself. At the same time, Jig begins to realize that life may not turn out the way she had planned. She remarks that the Anis del Toro “tastes like licorice,“ and that “everything tastes of licorice“, “especially all the things you’ve waited so long for.” She likes to try new things, like the drink, but is often disappointed in the end. She indicates that it is too late for him to make things better. The American believes that Jig is being reasonable for not wanting to having the “simple” operation done so they can “be all right and be happy“ again. He informs her that he has “known lots of people that have done it” in order to convince her to have the “awfully simple” operation. He says that the pregnancy is “the only thing that bothers us. It's the only thing that's made us unhappy.” He sees the whole issue as “simple” because he does not understand the real problem that is causing the misery. When he finally leaves Jig to get their bags for the train, he observes that the other people are “waiting reasonably for their train” because in his mind, Jig is the one to blame their troubles because she is “unreasonably waiting” for a future that he cannot imagine having with her. Ironically, he is unreasonable one because he is the one causing the problems by wanting the abortion. Jig realizes that their withering relationship is not the result of her pregnancy but the result of their failure to understand each other. She realizes that they are incompatible as a couple to have a family together. Even if she does have the abortion, she can no longer stay with him because he can never give her what she longs for. The story ends with an assurance from Jig that she is “fine,” as if she has made up her mind on the abortion issue.
Hemingway leaves the reader wondering about their final destination. He chooses the setting in the valley of the Ebro to symbolize the couple’s situation and options in life. They are on the sunless and barren side of the mountain where they can only see hills that looks like white elephants. At the end of the story, the American remarks “I'd better take the bags over to the other side of the station,” the side where there is growth and life. The train is representative of two different directions if life, however is unclear whether this signifies that the man has changed his mind about the abortion, or that Jig has decided to go through with the operation and leave him so they have to live separate lives. Jig has desires to change and to live a different life because she is aware of it. She is ready and willing to experience a different life while her lover is not. Hemingway strategically calls the man just “American,” and gives the girl a simple name to show the commonality of their problem reflected in society. He conveys that elements such as understanding, communication, honesty, and maturity, are essential to every healthy relationship. The lack of those elements leads to inevitable disintegration of a relationship.
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Words and Their Stories: Expressions That Hit the Spot
Now, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES - a VOA Special English program about American expressions. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with some expressions containing the word hit.
Hit is a small word but it has a lot of power. Baseball players hit the ball. Missiles hit an airplane. A car hits a tree.
Hit also joins with other words to create many colorful expressions. One is hit the road. It means to travel or to leave a place, as suggested in this song, "Hit the Road."
Another common expression is hit the spot. At first it meant hitting a spot at the center of a target with an arrow. Someone who did so was satisfied with his shooting. Now, hitting the spot usually means that a food or drink is especially satisfying.
Many years ago, Pepsi Cola sold its drink with a song that began, "Pepsi Cola hits the spot, twelve full ounces, that's a lot…"
Another expression involving hit is hit bottom. Something that has hit bottom can go no lower. If the price of shares of a stock hits bottom that might be the time to buy it. Its value can only go up.
A student who tells you his grades have hit bottom is saying he has not done well in school.
When a student's grades hit bottom it is time to hit the books. Hit the books is another way to saying it is time to study. A student might have to tell her friends she can not go with them to the movies because she has to hit the books.
Not hitting the books could lead to an unpleasant situation for a student. The father or mother may hit the ceiling when they see the low grades. Someone who hits the ceiling, the top of the room, is violently angry. A wife may hit the ceiling because her husband forgot their wedding anniversary.
To build something of wood, you usually need a hammer. That is what you use to hit nails into the pieces of wood to hold them together. When you hit the nail on the head, exactly on its top, it goes into the wood perfectly. And when someone says your words or actions hit the nail on the head, he means what you said or did was exactly right.
If you are tired after hitting all those nails on the head, then it is time to hit the hay. That expression comes from the days when people slept on beds filled with dried grass or hay. Some people slept on hay in barns where they kept their farm animals.
Hitting the hay simply means going to bed. That is a good idea. I think I will hit the hay now.
This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Frank Beardsley. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt.
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Chagall’s Crucifixions
By Kayla Green
For the first time in history, Marc Chagall’s Bible-themed engravings, originally intended as a gift for his second wife, are on display to the public. The engravings are part of the “Chagall and the Bible” exhibit in Paris’s Museum of Jewish Art and History which contains 105 of Chagall’s engravings illustrating the 1956 edition of the Bible. The full exhibit consists of half of Chagall’s preliminary sketches for the book’s engravings, 25 oil paintings of Biblical scenes and watercolor and gouache mock-ups of Chagall’s glass work. These intimate and historically rich pieces lend insight into the deep complexity of Chagall’s Jewish legacy, from his identity as a Jew in exile to his reawakening upon his first visit to Israel. Most importantly, they are able to convey Chagall’s interesting perspective of what it means to be a Jew in a Christian world, as well as the Jewish aspects of Christian life.
The three-story exhibition is filled with bright colors and dramatic artistic touches. The whimsical Biblical scenes are accompanied by multi-lingual Biblical verses, ensuring comprehension for each viewer, while the gouache mock-ups of stained glass windows are eye-catching with their vivid orange and purple hues. More amazing than the splendor and beauty of Chagall’s work is the symbolism and meaning that underlies it.
Chagall’s art attempts to reconcile Jews and Christians, usually by depicting Christian beliefs and history through a Jewish lens, creating the effect that Jews and Jewish history are integral to Christian survival and legacy. In one painting, entitled White Crucifixion, Jews flee their Nazi persecutors while Jesus hangs above them on the cross, trying to protect them. This heartbreaking image exposes Chagall’s perception that gentile society could only understand the plight of the Jews in Christian terms. In fact, Chagall painted more than 100 scenes of Jesus and the crucifixion in his life. The connection between Judaism and the New Testament was a common theme in Chagall’s art, says Susan Goodman, senior curator of New York’s Jewish Museum. “It was a way of asserting an ideological challenge to the dominant Christian culture. He was asserting the Jewishness of Christ.” Here, moreover, we can see Chagall trying to downplay the “otherness” of the Jews by reasserting the original connection between Christ and Judaism.
Chagall’s worldview represents the difficulties he faced as a Jew, from his exile from Russia to France and his eventual move to the United States during the time of World War II. The inspiration he found in his trip to Israel, where he visited Jerusalem and the Western Wall is also palpable from the exhibit. What it best describes though, is the complexity of Jewish-Gentile relations. In the middle of Paris, a city known for both philo-Semitism, and xenophobia, art-lovers are introduced to one man’s attempt to explain the plight of the Jews by emerging them in familiar Christian settings as well as his ability to demonstrate the Jewish roots of Christianity. The overall effect is both unifying and eye-opening, as it conveys that peace and understanding art can convey.
4 responses to “Chagall’s Crucifixions
1. Thank you for this informative view of Chagall. His work has always been mystical with a historic feel but reading your blog has made me rethink how he approached his life. His relationship to his faith and with those of his Christian neighbors is an interesting way to view his art.
2. I walk past and glance at the Chagall glass windows at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, New York daily. Although they are not the ones you depict, I will now think of his art and life in a different way. Thank you for your choice in subject, and for giving your reader another way to approach Chagall’s work.
3. Pingback: Marina Nebro: Arts and Culture - Art, Museums, Music, and Theatre
4. Pingback: Museums and Culture - Marc Chagall at the NCMA
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Open Access
Green Synthesis, Characterization and Uses of Palladium/Platinum Nanoparticles
Nanoscale Research Letters201611:482
Received: 4 June 2016
Accepted: 19 October 2016
Published: 2 November 2016
Biogenic synthesis of palladium (Pd) and platinum (Pt) nanoparticles from plants and microbes has captured the attention of many researchers because it is economical, sustainable and eco-friendly. Plant and their parts are known to have various kinds of primary and secondary metabolites which reduce the metal salts to metal nanoparticles. Shape, size and stability of Pd and Pt nanoparticles are influenced by pH, temperature, incubation time and concentrations of plant extract and that of the metal salt. Pd and Pt nanoparticles are broadly used as catalyst, as drug, drug carrier and in cancer treatment. They have shown size- and shape-dependent specific and selective therapeutic properties. In this review, we have discussed the biogenic fabrication of Pd/Pt nanoparticles, their potential application as catalyst, medicine, biosensor, medical diagnostic and pharmaceuticals.
Biogenic fabrication Herbal extract Phytochemicals Metal nanoparticles Cancer
The main aim of green synthesis is to minimize the use of toxic chemicals to prevent the environment from pollution. The biogenic routes for the fabrication of nanomaterials are therefore becoming more and more popular.
The three main conditions for nanomaterials preparation are (i) the choice of environment-friendly solvent medium, (ii) reducing agent and (iii) a nontoxic material for their stabilization. Nanomaterials fabricated from plants, fungi and bacteria have several potential applications in all fields of science and technology [110]. The reduction of metal ions occur by the proteins, amines, amino acids, phenols, sugars, ketones, aldehydes and carboxylic acids present in the plants and microbes. The geometrical shape, size and stability of nanoparticles may be controlled by monitoring the pH, temperature, incubation time and concentrations of plant extract and that of the metal salt.
Both palladium and platinum are high-density silvery white precious metals. Biogenic fabrication of palladium and platinum nanoparticles using various plant species such as Anogeissus latifolia, Cinnamom zeylanicum, Cinnamomum camphora, Curcuma longa, Doipyros kaki, Gardenia jasminoides, Glycine max, Musa paradisica, Ocimun sanctum, Pinus resinosa and Pulicaria glutinosa have been reported. The properties of fabricated palladium and platinum nanoparticles using various plants parts are summarized in Table 1 and Figs. 1 and 2. They are employed both as heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysts due to their large surface-to-volume ratio and high surface energy [11]. They are used in many medical diagnoses without destructing the DNA structure [12]. Palladium and platinum nanoparticles fabricated from herbal extracts have been examined for their heterogeneous catalytic activity in Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reaction [13]. Since it is a ligand-free catalytic reaction, it can be easily carried out in an aqueous medium in open without the fear of dissociation. The yield is very high even with one mole % palladium and platinum nanoparticles under ordinary condition.
Table 1
Important example of phytosynthesis of palladium and platinum nanoparticles with their size and shape
Part used
Size (nm)
Anogeissus latifolia
Azadirachta indica
Small and large spheres
Cinnamom zeylanicum
Cinnamomum camphora
Curcuma longa
Doipyros kaki
Euphorbia granulate
Gardenia jasminoides
Glycine max
Moringa oleifera
Waste petal
Moringa oleifera
Peel extract
27 ± 2
Musa paradisica
Peeled banana
Crystalline irregular
Ocimun sanctum
Pulicaria glutinosa
Whole plant
Crystalline and spherical
Pinus resinosa
Pinus resinosa
Prunus x yedoensis
Fig. 1
Biogenic synthesis of palladium and platinum nanoparticles
Fig. 2
Application of palladium and platinum nanoparticles
In this review, we have discussed the biosynthesis of palladium/platinum nanoparticles and their characterization using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. In addition, their application in catalysis, treatment of cancer and other disciplines of biological sciences has been assessed.
Biosynthesis of Palladium Nanoparticles
When an aqueous solution of [Pd(OAc)2] was stirred with a methanolic extract of Catharanthus roseus for 1 h at 60 °C, a change in colour occurred. It showed absorption peak in 360–400 nm range in UV-visible spectrum which corresponds to spherical palladium nanoparticles of ~40 nm. C. roseus extract is a mixture of eight compounds containing –OH groups which reduce the metal ion to metal nanoparticles.
$$ \mathrm{P}\mathrm{d}{\left({\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{C}\mathrm{O}\mathrm{O}\right)}_2+\mathrm{Reducing}\kern0.5em \mathrm{extract}\to \mathrm{P}\mathrm{d}+2{\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{CO}\mathrm{O}\mathrm{H} $$
Synthesis, characterization and application of palladium nanoparticles as photocatalytic agent have been reported [14, 15]. The degradation of phenol red by palladium nanoparticles has been investigated. The nanoparticles were added to phenol red and stirred at room temperature at varying pH (2–10). The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band of dye at 433 nm disappeared at pH 6 showing the degradation of phenol red [15].
Palladium nanoparticles synthesized from aqueous leaf extract of Hippophae rhamnoides have been reported [13]. They have been characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, UV-vis and FTIR spectroscopy. The presence of polyphenols indicated that they act as reducing and capping agents for the palladium nanoparticles. The particle size ranged between 2.5 and 14 nm and most of them were spherical. Their catalytic activity as heterogeneous catalyst was evaluated for Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reaction in water under lignin-free conditions. Iodobenzene with phenylboronic acid in the presence of palladium nanoparticles at 100 °C in alkaline medium gave 100 % yield of the product. Different aryl halides with phenylboronic acid were tried, and all of them gave the corresponding compounds in high yield (91–95 %).
Momeni and Nabipour [16] used Sargassum bovinum alga for palladium nanoparticles fabrication. Authors observed the conversion of palladium ions into metallic palladium using UV-vis spectroscopy in the range of 300–800 nm (Fig. 3). Change in colour from yellow to dark brown indicated the formation of palladium nanoparticles. Figure 3 represents the absorption spectra of palladium nanoparticles after 24 h of reduction from the crude extract and compared with those of PdCl2 solution. The palladium nanoparticles of 5–10 nm were checked for catalytic activity by electrochemical reduction of H2O2. Since they were stable up to 5 months, it was believed that they were stabilized by polysaccharides present in the algal extract. The reduction of H2O2 was also confirmed by cyclic voltametry.
Fig. 3
UV-vis spectroscopy of (a) PdCl2 solution and (b) palladium nanoparticles after reduction by crude extract of Sargassum bovinum at 60 °C for 24 h. The inset shows an image of the as-prepared Pd colloidal solution and the PdCl2 solution before reaction [16]
Bimetallic nanoparticle with core-shell structure and shape-controlled synthesis has been reported for Au@Pd nanoparticles [17, 18]. To a reduced gold nanoparticle, another metal was added and subsequently reduced chemically or by plant extract containing a mild reducing agent (Cacumen platycladi leaf extract). The gold nanoparticles were enveloped by the second metal nanoparticles giving a particular shape which depends on the arrangement of the second metal nanoparticles around gold. The bimetallic flower-shaped Au@Pd nanoparticles can be seen from a dark central core surrounded by a light colour shell. Their average size ranged between 47.8 ± 2.3 nm with face-centred cubic structure [19].
Green synthesis of Pd/Fe3O4 nanoparticles from Euphorbia condylocarpa M. bieb root extract and their catalytic activity have recently been reported [20]. The extract contains flavonoids which provide electrons for the reduction of metal ions. The Fe3O4/Pd is a good catalyst and can be used for several cycles for Sonogashira and Suzuki coupling reactions without loss of activity, but Fe3O4 is highly sensitive to air. Since Pd and Fe are magnetic, they were recovered from the reaction mixture by a magnet and recycled several times for Sonogashira coupling reaction with negligible loss of activity (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4
Reusability of Pd/Fe3O4 nanoparticles for Sonogashira coupling reaction [20]
Biosynthesis of palladium nanoparticles on reduced graphene oxide using barberry fruit extract and their application as a heterogeneous catalyst for the reduction of nitroarenes to amines has been done at 50 °C in 1:2 alcohol–water mixture [21]. Vitamin C appears to be a major phytochemical in the extract, and therefore, it reduced the metal ions to nanoparticles. The average size of palladium nanoparticles was found to be nearly 18 nm. Catalytic activity was determined by the reduction of nitrobenzene to aniline with NaBH4. The reduction occurs on the surface of catalyst and depends on the speed of absorption of nitrocompounds on the active site of the catalyst. The process is complicated but occurs stepwise. Adsorption of H2- and nitrocompounds, followed by electron transfer from BH4 unit to nitroderivative and finally, desorption of amino compounds from the surface of catalyst occur. The catalyst can be used for five cycles without significant loss of activity.
Very recently, palladium nanoparticles were synthesized from Salvadora persica root extract. Extract was found to contain polyphenols which acted both as bioreductant and stabilizing agent [22]. The average nanoparticles of 10 nm at 90 °C were obtained which was ascertained from the loss of colour and disappearance of an absorption band at 415 nm in UV-vis spectrum of the colloidal solution.
Palladium nanoparticles have been synthesized from C. zeylanicum bark extract and PdCl2 at 30 °C [23]. Although, reaction started after 24 h, it was completed after 72 h. The nanoparticles were polydispersed, spherical in shape ranging between 15 and 20 nm. Their formation was dependent on the increasing concentration of leaf extract. The XRD pattern confirmed the presence of crystalline palladium. The effect of pH on the formation of nanoparticles is insignificant, but precipitation occurs above pH 5. However, it does not influence the shape of nanoparticles but slightly affect their size [24]. It was noticed that nearly 60 % of PdCl2 was reduced to palladium nanoparticles when only 5-ml extract was treated with 50 ml of 1 mM PdCl2 at 30 °C. Higher concentration of the biomaterial may reduce the remaining 40 % PdCl2; otherwise, the suspension would contain both the Pd2+ ions and palladium nanoparticles. The C. zeylanicum bark extract is known to contain linalool, eugenol, methyl chavicol, cinnamaldehyde, ethyl cinnamate and β-caryophyllene [25] which have distinct aroma and convert Pd ions to Pd nanoparticles. However, no clear mechanism has been given for the reduction process of PdCl2 to Pd nanoparticles.
Sathishkumar et al. [26] have reported the biosynthesis of palladium nanoparticles from C. longa extract. The nanoparticles of 10–15 nm are believed to be formed by a redox process involving polyphenols as the reducing agent. They were found to be stable even after 3 months. The pH of the solution had almost negligible effect on the formation of nanoparticles, but size increases with pH.
Green synthesis of palladium nanoparticles from dried fruit extract of G. jasminoides Ellis has been achieved at 60 °C after 1.5 h of incubation [27]. Formation of nanoparticles was indicated by a change in colour from orange to dark brown. The extract had three distinct absorption peaks at 238, 322 and 440 nm corresponding to geniposide [28], chlorogenic acid [29] and crocins/crocetin [30], respectively. These compounds are antioxidants [3032] and contain carbonyl, carboxyl and hydroxyl groups. The orange colour was mainly due to crocins/crocetin which disappeared after 1.5 h although the other absorptions did not change even after 12 h at this temperature. The XRD pattern showed the presence of face-centred cubic structure of Pd0, with 3.9-nm diameter. The FTIR spectra showed the presence of various functional groups. Some new peaks were detected after the reduction of Pd2+ to Pd0. Since all Pd2+ ions are not completely reduced, the appearance of new peaks was attributed to its coordination with the carbonyl compounds present in the extract. The TEM images showed spherical, rod and three-dimensional polyhedral structures at 40 °C, but they vary with increasing temperature. The smaller particles are nicely dispersed at 70 °C while the larger ones are agglomerated. Normally, the particles size varies between 4.47 and 13.63 nm at temperature between 40 and 90 °C although more than 75 % of the palladium nanoparticles were 3–5-nm diameter.
Biogenic synthesis of palladium nanoparticles has been done from degradable banana peel extract and characterized them via UV-vis, IR, SEM and XRD [33]. The peel extract powder reacted with PdCl2 at 80 °C for 3 min in water. The UV-vis spectra of all mixtures showed a peak at 400 nm, but after the reduction of Pd2+ to Pd0, the peaks were either shifted or disappeared with a constant change in colour from yellow to red due to excitation of surface plasmon vibration in the palladium nanoparticle. The SEM images showed nanoparticles and aggregates. After accumulation, the dendrites are formed which look like a beautiful flower twig. However, at higher magnification, dendrites are shown to be composed of microcubes, nicely arranged as a motif (Fig. 5a–d). The average size of palladium nanoparticle was 50 nm. The FTIR spectral data showed the presence of carboxyl, amino and hydroxyl groups which are supposed to be active ingredients for the reduction of PdCl2.
Fig. 5
Scanning electron micrographs of a palladium nanoparticles. b– d Microwire networks at the periphery due to coffee ring effect. a Magnification: ×10,000, inset bar: 1 μm. b Magnification: ×200, inset bar: 100 μm. c Magnification: ×1000, inset bar: 10 μm. d Magnification: ×4500, inset bar: 5 μm [33]
Petla et al. [34] have reported the synthesis of palladium nanoparticles from soybean leaf (G. max) extract. Although, the reduction started after 5 min, the characteristic absorption peak at 420 nm for Pd2+ disappeared completely after 48 h indicating complete conversion of Pd2+ → Pd0. The TEM micrograph showed the formation of uniform spherical particles of ~15 nm. The authors claim that only 8 out of 20 essential amino acids are IR active and they reduce the Pd2+ ions. They have misunderstood the fundamental basis of IR spectroscopy that any molecule which can exhibit a change in dipole moment can be IR active. It is therefore suggested that all amino acids and proteins are IR active and some of them may act as reducing agents.
Biosynthesis of palladium nanoparticles from P. glutinosa plant extract has been done at 90 °C after stirring the mixture of PdCl2+ extract for 2 h [35]. A change in colour from light yellow to dark brown showed the formation of palladium nanoparticles which was confirmed by UV-vis spectral study. TEM micrograph showed palladium nanoparticles of 20–25-nm diameters covered with organic layer from extract which act as the capping agent as well as reducing agent. The IR spectrum of the plant indicated the presence of flavonoids and polyphenols. Their catalytic activity was examined in Suzuki reaction of bromobenzene with phenylboronic acid (Fig. 6) in an aqueous medium [36] without prior activation [37] in the presence of SDS and K3PO4 under anaerobic conditions. Biphenyl was obtained when only 5 mol % of palladium nanoparticles were used as catalyst. Nearly 60 % conversion was achieved within first 1 min and was completed only in 4 min; the reaction was fast and effective.
Fig. 6
a Schematic representation of the Suzuki reaction of bromobenzene with phenylboronic acid under aqueous conditions. b Time-dependent conversion efficiency of the Suzuki reaction of bromobenzene with phenylboronic acid under aqueous and aerobic conditions determined by GC analysis [35]
Recently, palladium nanoparticles from Arabidopsis plant culture and K2PdCl4 were prepared [38]. The reduction was complete in 24 h. TEM images of different sections of the plant showed well-dispersed spherical metallic nanoparticles of an average diameter of 3 nm during first 3 h. As the incubation time increased, the size and concentration of nanoparticles also increased up to 32 nm. They were distributed uniformly in the apoplast regions. Plant had attained maximum palladium concentration after 18 h. The mechanism underlying the reduction of Pd2+ ion to elemental Pd inside the plant system is not yet clear. However, the binding of Pd2+ ions to carboxyl, amino and sulfhydryl groups, present in the plant, prior to the formation of nanoparticles is one of the likely steps. The authors have not found any enzyme in plants, and therefore, it is suggested that reduction of metal is a chemical rather than biological process. A chemical-based reduction process was carried out using a single chemical in an isolated system whereas biological reductions occur in the presence of biomolecules in a biological system such as plants or microbes. The conversion is a redox process irrespective of the chemical or biological system used.
Besides biosynthesis of palladium nanoparticles, Kora and Rastogi [39] have studied its properties as antioxidant and as catalyst. A water soluble plant gum polymer, gum ghatti (A. latifolia), was allowed to react with PdCl2 at 121 °C and 103 K Pa for 30 min which showed a change in colour followed by the disappearance of absorption peak at 427 nm in UV-vis region. The nanoparticles were spherical in shape and polydispersed, and the average size ranged between 4.8 ± 1.6 nm. Hydroxyl and carboxyl groups of the gum are supposed to be bonded to Pd2+ ions in the beginning which subsequently reduce and also stabilize them. The nanoparticles are believed to be stabilized and capped by proteins and polysaccharides of the gum. The present protocol of palladium nanoparticles synthesis is superior to other similar methods [33, 40] because it takes little time and produces nanoparticles of very small size (4.8 nm). Homogeneous catalytic activity of palladium nanoparticles was investigated by the reduction of dyes, for instant coomassie brilliant blue G-250, methylene blue, methyl orange and 4-nitrophenol with NaBH4. The characteristic absorption peaks for coomassie brilliant blue at 588 nm was monitored during palladium nanoparticles catalysed NaBH4 reduction. The dye decolorised within 2 min with the disappearance of the above peak showing its complete reduction in such a short span of time. Reduction of methylene blue has also been studied in the same way. Its characteristic absorption at 664 and 612 nm disappeared, and the dye became colourless showing its reduction to colourless leuco methylene blue. Similarly, methyl orange peak at 462 nm also vanished during reduction process. The reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol was also monitored by examining the absorption at 318 nm which was shifted red to 400 nm due to the formation of nitrophenolate ions in the presence of NaBH4. With the addition of palladium nanoparticles, the intensity of the peak at 400 nm diminished with concurrent emergence of a new absorption peak at 294 nm indicating the reduction of nitrophenol to aminophenol. The conversion was also visible by the disappearance of yellow colour. The reduction of all above dyes is thermodynamically favoured but kinetically hindered due to large potential difference between donor and acceptor molecules. However, in the presence of palladium nanoparticles, both these substances are adsorbed on its surface and nanoparticles facilitate the transfer of electrons from the reductant NaBH4 to substrate oxidant. Since palladium nanoparticles act as redox catalyst, they decrease the activation energy of the ensuing reaction via electron relay effect [41].
Synthesis of palladium nanoparticles from Moringa oleifera biomass containing bis-phthalate as a natural reducing and capping agent has been reported. Their average size ranged between 10 and 50 nm. They were spherical, well dispersed and did not show any aggregation [42]. TEM studies showed a smaller size of palladium nanoparticles stabilized by the phytochemicals. It was also confirmed by the Zeta potential and GC-MS. M. oleifera peel extract has also been used for palladium nanoparticle fabrication [43]. They were characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, XRD, SEM and HR-TEM studies.
Palladium nanoparticles synthesized from Euphorbia granulate leaf extract have been used as a heterogeneous catalyst for the phosphine-free Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reaction at room temperature [44]. TEM micrograph showed that palladium nanoparticles were 25–35 nm in size.
Biosynthesis of palladium nanoparticles has been done from Prunus x yedoensis leaf extract and characterized by UV-vis, XRD, FTIR, HR-TEM and SAED [45]. Formation of palladium nanoparticles was confirmed from a change in colour from light yellow to dark brown. Manikandan et al. [45] have suggested the optimization parameters for the production of palladium nanoparticles, i.e. pH 7, 40:5 Pd(II): leaf extract, 3 mM Pd(II) and 30-min time. The UV-vis spectrum showed an absorption peak at 421 nm, XRD peak (2θ = 42.5°). XRD pattern confirmed the crystalline nature of the palladium nanoparticles. TEM images showed the particle size (50–150 nm) and their spherical shape. The FTIR spectrum of Prunus x yedoensis leaf extract (Fig. 7) showed the presence of alcohol, ethers, esters, carboxylic acids and amino acids [15, 4648] which acted as the reducing agent to convert palladium ion to palladium nanoparticles.
Fig. 7
Characterization of palladium nanoparticles using FTIR studies [45]
Application of Palladium Nanoparticles
Palladium adsorbs about 1000 times its own volume of hydrogen when heated to dull redness. Their catalytic activity is due to the dissociation of molecular hydrogen into atomic state: H2 → 2H.
Palladium nanoparticles doped with chitosan–graphene have been employed as biosensor for glucose estimation [36]. Palladium nanoparticles on graphene oxide have also been used as recyclable heterogeneous catalyst for the reduction of nitroarenes using sodium borohydride. Since the recovered catalyst can be used for five cycles, it can be used on a large-scale reduction of nitroarenes. It has also been used in the reduction of methylene blue, methyl orange and nitrophenol. The nanoparticles exhibited excellent degradation of the above dyes, and therefore, they can be used to treat the affluents containing dyes. Both palladium and platinum are extensively used in oxidative addition and reductive elimination of hydrogen. Platinised asbestos is used in many catalytic [49] reactions. For instance, (i) in the contact process for the manufacture of H2SO4, (ii) in Ostwald process for the oxidation of NH3 to NO for the manufacture of HNO3, (iii) oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde and (iv) decomposition of hydrazine to nitrogen and ammonia. Platinum-gold dendrimer-like nanoparticles supported on polydopamine graphene oxide reduce nitrophenol to aminophenol [50]. The ability to catalyse the reduction depends on platinum to gold ratios.
Palladium nanoparticles have been fabricated from S. persica root extract, and their catalytic activity was examined in the Suzuki coupling reactions of aryl halides with benzeneboronic acid in water to biphenyl [22]. The efficiency of the conversion rate as a function of time and yield follows the order iodobenzene > bromobenzene > chlorobenzene, although the major conversion occurred in the first 2 min. The palladium nanoparticles as catalyst can be successfully reused for only three cycles. In another study, Myrtus communis leaf extract was used for the production of Pd/TiO2 nanoparticles [51]. Authors have demonstrated that Pd/TiO2 nanoparticles as a highly efficient, stable and recyclable catalyst for the ligand-free Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reaction.
Biosynthesis of palladium nanoparticles from dried fruit extract of G. jasminoides Ellis has been investigated for its catalytic activity by the hydrogenation of p-nitrotoluene to p-toluidine and subsequently to p-methyl-cyclohexylamine [27]. It is interesting to note that conversion of p-toluidine was 100 %, but second reduction was only 26 % at 80–90 °C. The palladium nanoparticles had been recycled five times without their agglomeration.
Kora and Rastogi [39] have used A. latifolia for the biosynthesis of palladium nanoparticles and demonstrated their antioxidant and catalyst potential. In many studies, palladium nanoparticles were used as catalyst for Suzuki–Miyaura reactions to synthesize pharmaceutical intermediates and other important chemicals. Palladium nanoparticles containing plant material was heated to 300 °C which contained 18 % Pd2+ or PdO but no palladium nanoparticles. The material Pd-300 was used as a catalyst for Suzuki–Miyaura reactions. High yield of aryliodides and arylbromides [52] were obtained which were higher than palladium nanoparticles used for similar reactions. This catalyst is far superior to commercially available palladium catalyst (10 % Pd/C) and Pd(OAc)2 and, hence, can be used as a potential catalyst of future.
Sheny et al. [52] have reported the biosynthesis of palladium nanoparticles from dried leaf powder of Anacardium occidentale at pH 6–9. TEM images showed irregular rod-shaped particles which were crystalline. They have observed that the quantity of leaf powder plays a vital role in determining the size of palladium nanoparticles. FTIR spectrum of the suspension suggested the presence of secondary metabolites having hydroxyl group which reduced Pt(IV) ions to palladium nanoparticles. These palladium nanoparticles exhibited catalytic activity in the reduction of aromatic nitrocompounds.
Biosynthesis of Platinum Nanoparticles
Platinum nanoparticles from tea polyphenol acting both as reducing and capping agent have been fabricated [52]. These functionalized nanoparticles of 30–60 nm were crystalline in nature with face-centred cubic structure. TEM images showed that the capped nanoparticles were flower shaped. Tea polyphenols are known to contain a number of phenolic compounds which can form complexes with metal ions and subsequently reduce them to nanoparticles of different shapes and sizes [5, 53, 54].
Biosynthesis of platinum nanoparticle pellets using O. sanctum leaf broth was achieved at 100 °C in 1 h [55]. The reduction was quantitative and identified by a change in colour from yellow to brown and finally black indicating reduction in successive steps as shown below:
$$ \begin{array}{cc}\hfill {\mathrm{Pt}}^{4+}\overset{2\mathrm{e}}{\to}\hfill & \hfill {\mathrm{Pt}}^{2+}\overset{2\mathrm{e}}{\to}\mathrm{P}\mathrm{t}{}^{\circ}\hfill \end{array} $$
Ascorbic acid and terpenoids are known to be present in the O. sanctum leaf extract which act as reducing as well as stabilizing agents. The average particle size was found to be 23 nm. The energy dispersive absorption X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX) showed net 71 % platinum while XRD indicated the presence of PtO2, K2(PtCl4), Pt and PtCl2 (Fig. 8a, b).
Fig. 8
a EDAX spectrum. b XRD analysis of the reduced platinum from Ocimum sanctum leaf broth [55]
A facile route for the synthesis of Pt–Au alloy nanoparticles supported on polydopamine-functionalized graphene has been reported by Ye et al. [50]. Their catalytic activity against 4-nitrophenol reduction has also been studied. Platinum exhibited higher catalytic activity than those of platinum nanoparticles deposited on reduced graphene sheets (RGO). Ascorbic acid has been used as a reducing agent instead of any natural source for nanoparticle fabrication, and therefore, this method cannot be termed “green”. It was shown earlier that the multifunctional polymer disperses the reduced graphene oxide in aqueous solution and the functional groups in the biopolymer are then bonded to metal ions and metal nanoparticles. Ye and co-workers [50] had suggested that in the case of reduced graphene oxide, coated with polydopamine, PDA/RGO containing amine and catechol groups act as a reducing agent for PdCl4 2−/HAuCl4, followed by the reduction of ascorbic acid and production of Pt-Au-PDA/RGO. It is not a convincing hypothesis. When the functional groups on the biopolymer act as the reducing agent, obviously there is no need of ascorbic acid as a secondary reductant for the production of nanoparticles from H2PdCl4/HAuCl4. Besides, how ascorbic acid is reduced when it is a well-known reducing agent. Naturally, the PDA would act as a stabilizer and ascorbic acid as a reducing agent. The catalytic activity of monometallic Pt-PDA/RGO or Au nanoparticle is two to four times lower than those of bimetallic nanoparticles. During the reduction of 4-nitrophenol by NaBH4, the electron transfer from BH4 to 4-nitrophenol occurred when both are adsorbed on the surface of the catalyst. Interestingly, it has been noted that the 4-nitrophenol is preferentially adsorbed on Au [56, 57].
One-pot synthesis of platinum and palladium nanoparticles has been reported from natural lignin and fulvic acid in water at pH 7 at 80 °C under aerobic conditions [58]. These polymers act both as reducing and stabilizing agents. The formation of platinum nanoparticles with lignin was followed by UV-vis spectra which showed the disappearance of a characteristic peak for Pt4+ at 257 nm after 4 h with a consequent change in colour from orange to dark brown. The formation of platinum nanoparticles with fulvic acid showed a band at 280 nm due to the presence of phenolic group in it. The NMR spectra showed the presence of PtCl6 2− and PtCl5(H2O) species which slowly disappear as a result of the formation of nanoparticles. TEM images showed platinum nanoparticles of irregular size which form clusters. Their average size ranged between 6 and 8 nm in diameter. Palladium nanoparticles formed with lignin and fulvic acids were always spherical and larger than platinum nanoparticles. They were of 16- to 20-nm diameter. Both platinum and palladium nanoparticles were investigated for their catalytic efficiency for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol in the presence of NaBH4. The absorption peak of nitrophenol at 399 nm was diminished, and a new absorption band corresponding to 4-aminophenol appeared at 292 nm after 15 min.
Platinum nanoparticles have been prepared from polyols in the presence of poly vinyl pyrrolidone which stabilized the nanoparticles and prevented their aggregation. They were of 5–7- and 8–12-nm diameter with cubic, hexagonal, square and tetrahedral shapes [59]. Time and temperature are controlling factors for the nanoparticle formation. AgNO3 was added to the mixture of H2PtCl6 and polyols to control the size and shape of platinum nanoparticles.
Extracellular synthesis of platinum nanoparticles of 2–12 nm from leaf extract of D. kaki has been reported at 95 °C using H2PtCl6·6H2O as precursor [60]. Formation of nanoparticles was confirmed by a change in colour which had an absorption at 477 nm. It was also noted that 95 °C was the optimum temperature for the reduction of Pt4+ to Pt nanoparticles [61]. Also, the size of nanoparticles decreased with increasing temperature, perhaps due to the increased rate of reduction. The reduction is believed to be done by terpenoids and reducing sugars present in the leaf extract.
Thirumurugan et al. [62] have reported the biosynthesis of platinum nanoparticles from Azadirachta indica extract. TEM studies indicated the formation of polydispersed nanoparticles of small to large spheres (5–50 nm). The rate of platinum nanoparticle fabrication was increased with the increase in the reaction temperature. FTIR spectrum showed sharp peaks at 1728.22, 1365.60 and 1219.01 cm−1 corresponding to the presence of carbonyls, alkanes and aliphatic amines, respectively. A. indica leaf broth was believed to contain the terpenoids which act as the reducing agent as well as stabilizer for the nanoparticles [60].
Application of Platinum Nanoparticles
Platinum-based nanomaterials have been shown as excellent therapeutic agents [6370]. Platinum compounds such as cis-platin, carboplatin and oxaliplatin are frequently used in chemotherapy especially in the treatment of ovarian and testicular tumours [71].
Since platinum group compounds are cytotoxic, the tea capped platinum nanoparticles were investigated for their toxic behaviour towards human cancer cells. It was also important to examine if these are toxic to both the healthy and cancer cells similar to the platinum complexes such as cis-platin and carboplatin used in the treatment of cancer. They have many side effects like nausea, vomiting, nephrotoxicity, neurotoxicity, ototoxicity, hematuria and aloepecia. Cervical cancer cells (SiHa) were therefore treated with different concentrations of tea capped platinum nanoparticles. The influence on cell viability, nuclear morphology and cell cycle distribution showed that the proliferation of SiHa cells was inhibited by platinum nanoparticles. The tea polyphenol capped platinum nanoparticles exhibited excellent viability at concentration between 12.5 and 200 μgml−1 for 24 and 48 h. A significant dose dependent decrease in cell viability was noticed with increasing concentration of nanoparticles. When the concentration is enhanced, the surface area is also enhanced along with the large size of the tea polyphenol. The particle size and their agglomeration are equally responsible for the cytotoxicity of platinum nanoparticles [72].
Effect of tea polyphenol capped nanoparticles on nuclear morphology and their fragmentation has also been investigated to understand the mode of apoptosis. The fluorescence microscopic image of nanoparticles in treated and placebo SiHa cells showed deformation and fragmentation of chromatin during 24 and 48 h. However, Jensen et al. [73] and Smitha et al. [74] have shown that cell death induced by nanoparticles is solely dependent on their size, shape and surface area. Tea catechin compounds exhibit cytostatic properties in tumour cells [75, 76] and induce apoptosis in U937 cells and in human colon cancer (HCT116) cells [77]. Catechin hydrate exhibits anticancer effects by blocking the proliferation of MCF7 cells and inducing apoptosis [78].
Although platinum alloys have been used in the coronary artery disease, neuromodulation devices and catheters, [79] they are not selective for cancer because they influence both the normal cells and cancer cells, leading to many complications. Functionalized platinum nanoparticles have shown size- and shape-dependent specific and selective therapeutic properties [64, 67, 80]. In many cases, platinum nanoparticles containing other organic substances have also been used as pro-drug [67, 70, 81]. Manikandan et al. [82] have shown that small platinum nanoparticles (5–6 nm) are biocompatible and exhibit apoptosis-inducing properties [49, 83]. This ability is enhanced manifold when they are coated with polymers or fortified with phytochemicals. For instance, the herbal extracts, generally used for green synthesis of nanoparticles, contain phenols, sugars and acids which act as reducing as well as stabilizing agents. Such phytochemicals in combination with cis-platin synergise apoptosis in breast cancer and cervical cancer [52, 72, 84]. A combination of platinum nanoparticles with ion irradiation has been found to enhance the efficiency of cancer therapy [85].
One-pot biogenic synthesis of palladium and platinum nanoparticles from herbal extracts, algae and fungi can be done under moderate conditions. A variety of nontoxic nanoparticles with different shape and structural motifs (spheres, rods and rings) can be fabricated and stabilized. Further, their optimization may be done by controlling the pH, temperature, incubation time and concentrations of plant extract and those of the metal salts. Application of these biogenic nanoparticles as nanocatalyst can be done in environmental remediation to scavenge the dye from the textile industries and also in the Suzuki coupling reactions for the production of many organic compounds. Fabricated nanoparticles have also shown antibacterial activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. The platinum group metal complexes are used as anticancer drugs, but they leave toxic effects on normal cells. It is interesting that biogenically synthesized palladium and platinum nanoparticles capped and stabilized by phytochemicals are nontoxic. The functionalized nanoparticles can be used as medicine in the treatment of cancer and also as drug carrier. A new protocol may be developed for cancer therapy using palladium and platinum nanoparticles which may be more effective and less toxic than the existing conventional drugs. Their efficacy may be increased by coating them with nontoxic and soluble biopolymers. It is sincerely anticipated that improved version of the platinum group metal nanoparticles will one day replace the conventional drugs for cancer and, also, new nanocatalyst will revolutionize the manufacture of organic compounds.
Authors are thankful to the publishers for the permission to adopt figures in this review.
Authors’ contributions
AH gathered the research data. AH and KSS analyzed these data findings and wrote this review paper. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors’ Affiliations
Department of Chemistry, Aligarh Muslim University
Department of Biology, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, University of Gondar
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© The Author(s). 2016
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Friday, October 01, 2010
The Science of Science Fiction: Life on Another Planet?
By now, you may have heard about Gliese 581g, a newly discovered extrasolar planet only about 20 light-years from us. What's special about this planet is that it's in the habitable zone (also known as the Goldilocks zone, where water could be liquid) and could possibly support life. It's also a rocky planet with an atmosphere (I haven't seen data on the composition of this) and gravity comparable to Earth's. According to this article on CNN, some scientists think it's a given that there really is life on Gliese 581g. Personally, I think they should confirm first that there really is water on that planet. I haven't seen a report stating that they have detected water on Gliese 581g, so if you've seen one, please provide a link.
(Of course, there may be types of life out there that don't require liquid water, but for purposes of this blog post, let's stick to lifeforms that operate on similar principles to Terran life.)
If there is life on this planet, what would it be like? Let's extrapolate from what we know about this planet so far:
It orbits a red dwarf star which is cooler than our sun but has a much longer life span. I don't know enough about astronomy or physics to state how the light given off by the red dwarf would differ from sunlight, other than to say it would be different. Plants (or plant-like creatures) might have to use a different wavelength of light than they do here. This would mean that they would use some other energy-capturing protein besides chlorophyll, so they might not be green. Also, if the type of light given off by the red dwarf doesn't provide enough energy, life on Gliese 581g might rely on thermal vents or other sources of energy instead.
The planet is tidally locked, with one side always facing its star and the other always facing away. Although the overall temperature of the planet is similar to Earth's (highest average temperature of -12ºC or 10ºF), I don't know what the temperature is on the warm side or what the variation is from equator to pole. Is this planet tilted on its axis? Does it have seasons? Its year is only about 37 Earth days, so seasons would only be a week or so long. Any life on this planet would have to adapt to this short span, suggesting that life might have a shorter life span as well and move at a fast pace.
As you can see, there's still a lot of data missing that would tell us more about what type of life this planet could support. Can anyone think of science fiction books or stories set on a planet orbiting a red dwarf? If so, please share the titles/authors with us. It would be very interesting to see how well science fiction matches science's findings.
Maria Zannini said...
I read this article! I was so excited about the potential. And it's relatively close too. --at least close enough that we might someday send a probe.
I'm looking forward to any future updates they have on this planet.
Arlee Bird said...
You lost me with this stuff. I don't really keep up with it much and don't read much science fiction these days. Back when I did read science fiction a lot (1960s) I don't recall any talk like that, but I will say a lot of what I read about then did come to pass and surpassed the way things are now. Who would have dreamed about the internet and capabilities of computers back then.
Tossing It Out
PK Hrezo said...
Awesome! I hadn't heard of this. SO thanks for posting it. This stuff blows my mind... I love it. But I still can't get used to Pluto being a moon.
The Golden Eagle said...
I'm thinking Nemesis by Isaac Asimov; I'm not positive that it was a red dwarf, but it was something like it.
Sandra Ulbrich Almazan said...
Maria--yes, it is exciting. I wonder if they will send a probe soon. I don't know if we'll still around when the probe arrives, though.
Lee--Sorry about that, but since I'm a science geek, I do post stories like this occasionally. Computers sure have come a long way since how they were portrayed on the original Star Trek.
PK--I think Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet, not a moon. It is weird that it's not a real planet anymore.
Golden Eagle--Thanks; I'll have to check out that book.
Talli Roland said...
Interesting - how fascinating! I hadn't heard of this!
Carolyn Abiad said...
Very interesting - though I got lost in some of the details for a minute there...
I've posted an award for you over on my blog. Enjoy!
lbdiamond said...
Man, this stuff is so fascintating!!!!
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Open Access
Zika Virus on a Spreading Spree: what we now know that was unknown in the 1950’s
Virology Journal201613:165
Received: 22 August 2016
Accepted: 26 September 2016
Published: 6 October 2016
Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that is transmitted through the bite of Aedes spp mosquitoes and less predominantly, through sexual intercourse. Prior to 2007, ZIKV was associated with only sporadic human infections with minimal or no clinical manifestations. Recently the virus has caused disease outbreaks from the Pacific Islands, the Americas, and off the coast of West Africa with approximately 1.62 million people suspected to be infected in more than 60 countries around the globe. The recent ZIKV outbreaks have been associated with guillain-barré syndrome, congenital syndrome (microcephaly, congenital central nervous system anomalies), miscarriages, and even death. This review summarizes the path of ZIKV outbreak within the last decade, highlights three novel modes of ZIKV transmission associated with recent outbreaks, and points to the hallmarks of congenital syndrome. The review concludes with a summary of challenges facing ZIKV research especially the control of ZIKV infection in the wake of most recent data showing that anti-dengue virus antibodies enhance ZIKV infection.
Zika virus Sexual transmission Neurological development Microcephaly Antibody-dependent enhancement
• ZIKV can be transmitted sexually and during pregnancy from a mother to her fetus.
• In addition to microcephaly, ZIKV causes miscarriage.
• ZIKV persists in whole blood for close to 2 months.
• Dengue viral infections enhance ZIKV infections.
• Anti-ZIKV antibodies in domestic animals suggest that ZIKV can infect domestic animals.
Zika virus (ZIKV) is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus in the genus Flavivirus. The virus is related to other flaviviruses (dengue viruses-DENVs, yellow fever virus-YFV, Japanese encephalitis virus, St. Louis encephalitis virus, West Nile virus, tick-borne encephalitis virus, Langat virus, Powassan virus, Modoc virus, Rio Bravo virus) in terms of genome size and genome organization [1, 2] (Fig. 1). The genome is ~10.7 kb in length and codes for a single polyprotein (~10.2 kb), which is processed into three structural proteins (Capsid-C, pre-Membrane/Membrane-prM/M and Envelope-E) and seven nonstructural proteins (NS1, NS2A, NS2B, NS3, NS4A, NS4B, and NS5) (Fig. 1). The genome is flanked by the 5’ and 3’ untranslated regions (UTRs) [1, 3, 4]. ZIKV has been associated with a lot of disease outbreaks within the last decade. With this in consideration, we searched peer-reviewed articles, government news briefings in Associated Press, and press releases by international organizations for information related to ZIKV. We searched specifically for ZIKV isolation, what was known when the virus was first isolated (clinical manifestations), modes of transmission, the vectors that can transmit the virus, disease outbreaks especially from 2007, and the clinical/pathological manifestations observed in recent outbreaks. The information gathered from these searches was then used to write this review, which summarizes incidences & global distribution of ZIKV infection (within the last decade), modes of transmission, and challenges associated with ZIKV research.
Fig. 1
ZIKV genome. The linear genome is made up of structural proteins, nonstructural proteins, and UTRs. The 5’ and 3’ UTRs are ~107 nucleotides and ~428 nucleotides , respectively
Although ZIKV is closely related to other flaviviruses in terms of genome size and genome organization, the virus is most closely related to DENVs and YFV in terms of mosquito vector transmission. ZIKV is a mosquito-borne virus that is transmitted primarily through the bite of Aedes spp mosquitoes. The virus was first isolated in 1947 from monkeys in Zika forest in Uganda, Africa [5]. Since then, the virus has been isolated from other Aedes mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus, Aedes africanus, Aedes hensilli, Aedes polynesiensis, Aedes furcifer, Aedes vitattus) [6] and more recently from a domestic mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus [7]. In sylvatic habitats, ZIKV is transmitted in an enzootic cycle between non-human primates by mosquitoes. In an epidemic cycle, the virus is transmitted between humans primarily by infected mosquitoes [5, 8, 9] (Fig. 2). Introduction of the virus to a human community may be initiated by a spillover mosquito from sylvatic habitats; alternatively, the virus may be imported by humans from countries with ZIKV breakout. Antibodies against ZIKV have been detected in domestic animals such as goats, sheep, rodents [10] but it is unknown whether mosquitoes can transmit the virus between domestic animals or between domestic animals and humans.
Fig. 2
ZIKV transmission cycles. ZIKV is transmitted in sylvatic habitats in an enzootic cycle by infected mosquitoes to rhesus monkeys and vice versa. Humans can be infected with the virus in sylvatic habitats following a mosquito bite or if there is a spillover of an infected mosquito from sylvatic habitats (middle dotted black line) to rural/urban areas. An epidemic cycle starts when humans are bitten by an infected mosquito followed by viral replication in humans and viremia. The virus can spread to the reproductive organs and can be transmitted during sexual intercourse. Infected pregnant women can also transmit the virus to the fetus during pregnancy. The virus can then be transmitted from an infected person back to mosquitoes through mosquito bites. The virus then replicates in mosquitoes and it is transmitted back to humans and the cycle continues. It is not known whether the virus can be transmitted by mosquitoes between domestic animals and humans (right dotted gray lines with question mark) or whether the virus can be transmitted sexually between monkeys (left dotted gray line with question mark)
Phylogenetically, ZIKV can be divided into two main lineages—African and Asian—based on geographic origin. The African lineage is further sub-divided into West and East African sub-lineages [11]. ZIKV has been associated with a number of sporadic human infections, based on the detection of anti-ZIKV antibodies in serum, starting from 1952 in Africa [12] and 1954 in Asia [13]. In 2007, the virus caused the first major outbreak in the Pacific Islands [14], which later spread to other countries.
1. a)
ZIKV outbreak path since 2007
From 2007, ZIKV outbreaks have been reported in many islands and continents as follows:
1. i)
Pacific Islands: In 2007, a ZIKV outbreak from autochthonous transmission was reported in Yap Island in the Federated States of Micronesia with 185 people infected (includes confirmed, probable, and suspected cases) [14]. This outbreak was caused by the Asian lineage of ZIKV. Six years later (in 2013), another outbreak was reported ~5000 miles from Yap Island, in French Polynesia (Fig. 3); more than 28,000 people were infected with ZIKV in this outbreak [15, 16]. The ZIKV strain in the French Polynesia outbreak had 99.9 % nucleotide and amino acid identities with the Asian strain outbreak in the Yap Island [1, 3, 15] suggesting that the French Polynesia outbreak originated from Yap Island. Given the distance between the two Islands, it is unlikely that the virus was introduced into French Polynesia my mosquitoes; this suggests that ZIKV was imported into French Polynesia. The French Polynesia outbreak was subsequently spread to other Pacific Islands. Towards the end of 2013, imported cases from French Polynesia were reported in New Caledonia and cases of autochthonous transmission were reported in January 2014 [17, 18] (Fig. 3). At the same time in January, an outbreak was reported in Easter Island, off the coast of Chile [19] and in February, another outbreak was reported in Cook Islands [17, 18], (Fig. 3). The nucleotide sequence of the ZIKV strain in Easter Island was 99.9 % identical to the ZIKV strain in the outbreak in French Polynesia, thus suggesting that the Easter Island outbreak originated from French Polynesia. Then in March 2015, first cases of ZIKV outbreak (from autochthonous transmission) were reported in Bahia, Brazil. Nucleotide sequence analysis from this outbreak showed 99 % identity with the ZIKV strain that caused the 2013 outbreak in French Polynesia [20] thus suggesting that ZIKV was introduced to the Americas from any of the Pacific Islands (French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Easter Island, or Cook Islands). It is likely that the outbreaks in almost all these islands including the one in Brazil were first imported to these islands/country by an infected individual(s), who later served as reservoir host(s) for mosquito transmission to naïve individuals; ZIKV vectors are endemic in the Pacific Islands and in Brazil [21, 22]. Alternatively, the virus could have been transmitted sexually from an infected traveler to a naïve person in any of these countries.
Fig. 3
ZIKV outbreaks and transmission paths in the Pacific Islands. The first ZIKV outbreak in the Islands was reported in Yap Island in Micronesia (2007) and it was later transmitted (indicated as red arrow number 1) to French Polynesia in 2013. From French Polynesia, the virus was then transmitted to New Caledonia, Easter Island, and to Cook Island (in the order listed and indicated as red arrow numbers 2, 3, 4)
2. ii)
The Americas: The first cases of ZIKV outbreak in Latin America were reported in Brazil (March 2015). Since then, more than 1.5 million people are estimated to have been infected in Brazil alone [23]. Mosquito-transmitted cases of the virus have been reported throughout the Americas (except Canada and Chile) [2326], as predicted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) (Fig. 4), with more than 65,000 confirmed and suspected cases reported in Colombia alone [27]. Although the number of cases are decreasing in most countries in the Americas and the Caribbean [28], the number of mosquito-transmitted cases are increasing in some countries. For example, as of mid September, more than 85 cases of autochthonous transmissions have been reported in the State of Florida in continental United States [29]. Furthermore, the number of ZIKV imported and sexually transmitted cases continue to increase; more than 3130 imported cases (numbers correct as of mid September) have been reported in the continental United States since the outbreak started in Brazil [30] (Fig. 4). In Cuba, the number of imported cases increased from 1 case in March to 33 cases (3 local transmissions) as of mid September [31]. In summary, an estimated 1.6 million people are suspected to be infected in the Americas.
Fig. 4
Autochthonous and imported cases of ZIKV around the world from 2015. ZIKV was first introduced to the Americas (Brazil) from the Pacific Island (indicated as red dotted circle with red arrow). From Brazil, the virus then spread to countries in South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and off the cost of West Africa (Cape Verde). Countries with only imported ZIKV cases, from the Americas, are shown in purple color. Countries with both mosquito-transmitted and imported cases are shown in different colors with an estimated number of suspected ZIKV cases in the respective countries. Countries with white colors have not reported any imported cases since 2015 (numbers correct as of September)
3. iii)
Off the cost of West Africa, Cape Verde: ZIKV outbreak has also been reported in the Islands of Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa. The first ZIKV cases in the Islands were reported in late September to mid October of 2015 and as of August 2016, more than 7550 people were already infected [32] (Fig. 4). The genetic sequence of the ZIKV strain in Cape Verde has recently been determined and it is identical to the Asian strain in the outbreak in Brazil [32]. The virus was likely imported into the Islands from Brazil by traveler(s) and it was subsequently transmitted from the traveler(s) to naïve individuals through mosquito bites or through sexual contact. Brazil and Cape Verde are close countries (distance-wise) that speak the same language (Portuguese), share almost the same culture and as such, their citizens travel frequently between the two countries. This made it very easy for an asymptomatic ZIKV-infected individual to carry the virus from one country to the other.
It is worth mentioning that since the 2015 outbreak in Brazil, imported cases of ZIKV by travelers from countries with outbreaks have been reported all over the world.
1. b)
Imported cases around the world:
In North America, the number of ZIKV imported cases from Latin America continue to increase. As of mid September 2016, the number of imported ZIKV infections reported in Canada were more than 279 [33] (Fig. 4). The number of imported cases are also increasing in Europe; the number of imported cases increased from 224 in March 2016 to 1265 cases in August 2016. The highest number of imported cases have been reported in France and Spain [34]. In Eurasia/Asia, 6 imported cases have been reported in Russia and more than 21 cases have been reported in China [35, 36]. In Singapore and Thailand, more than 300 and 200 cases have been reported, respectively (numbers correct as of mid September) [37]. In Africa, 1 imported case from Columbia has been reported in South Africa [38]. In-between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, 12 and >44 imported cases have been reported in Hawaii [30] and Australia [39], respectively. Thus, the virus has been imported to at least one country in every continent except Antarctica, making this the first ZIKV pandemic the world has ever experienced.
ZIKV was believed (until less than a decade ago) to be transmitted to humans only through the bites of Aedes spp mosquitoes. Recently, other modes of human transmission have been documented as follows:
1. i)
Sexual transmission. ZIKV has been detected in the urine and semen of ZIKV-infected patients [40, 41] with more than 30 cases of sexual transmission from male to female, 1 case from male to male and 1 from female to a male have been reported [4247]. This observation shows that the virus can be transmitted between both sexes but the highest frequency of transmission is from male to female.
2. ii)
Vertical transmission from mother to fetus. ZIKV has been detected in amniotic fluid, fetal brain, and also in the serum of babies, 4 days after birth [4851], thus demonstrating that the virus can be transmitted to the fetus during pregnancy (Fig. 2).
3. iii)
Blood transfusion. Two cases of ZIKV transmission by blood transfusion have been reported in Brazil [52]. This observation will make ZIKV transmission more complicated given the fact that a majority of ZIKV-infected patients do not show symptoms; in fact, 3 % of ZIKV asymptomatic blood donors have tested positive for ZIKV [53]. This makes it very easy for the virus to be transmitted from blood donors to blood recipients. The situation is also exacerbated by the fact that the virus can persists in whole blood of patients for close to 2 months [46, 54].
Clinical manifestations
When anti-ZIKV antibodies were first detected in human sera in the early 1950s, the authors pointed out that “The effects of this agent in man are quite unknown” [13]. The reason they made this statement was due to the fact that the population sampled at that time did not show any clinical or pathological manifestations, that could be associated with ZIKV infection. As mentioned above, most people infected with ZIKV are asymptomatic. However, 20–25 % of infected patients develop symptoms such as fever, skin rash, joint pains, headache, and conjunctivitis within 1 week after infection; in addition to this, some patients experience hematospermia [43, 46, 55]. Although ZIKV infection is not life threatening in healthy adults, the virus can cause the following debilitating conditions:
1. i)
Neurological problems such as guillain-barré syndrome (GBS; an autoimmune disease) [56]. Ninety-eight to a hundred % of patients diagnosed with GBS during the French Polynesia ZIKV outbreak had anti-ZIKV antibodies, compared to 56 % of patients without GBS [57]. The mechanism(s) underlying the contribution of these anti-ZIKV antibodies to GBS is still unknown.
2. ii)
Miscarriage and congenital syndrome such as microcephaly (a neurodevelopmental disorder whereby babies are born with an abnormally small head) or an abnormally developed congenital central nervous system [48, 56, 58, 59]. ZIKV infects a population of developing brain cells including embryonic forebrain-specific human neural progenitor cells, neurospheres and brain organoids thus causing increased cell death, cell cycle dysregulation and ultimately reduced cell growth [60, 61]. These developmental changes are probably the hallmarks of congenital syndrome. In fact, these observations may explain the reason behind the increase in the number of congenital syndrome cases reported in ZIKV-infected countries in the Americas and Cape Verde; more than 16 countries have reported cases of ZIKV-related congenital syndrome (Fig. 5). In Brazil alone, 1911 cases have been confirmed with 371 neonatal deaths reported; in Columbia and Cape Verde, 40 and 14 cases, respectively, of ZIKV-related congenital syndrome have also been reported (numbers correct as of September) [31, 62]. Additionally, cases of ZIKV-related miscarriages have been reported in other countries [51, 59]. These devastating effects have prompted many countries to advise pregnant women to avoid visiting regions (most recently, Florida in the US, Singapore and Thailand in Asia) with ZIKV outbreaks [42, 63]. Overall, ZIKV infection seems to have the highest morbidity in newborn infants.
Fig. 5
Countries and territories with cases of ZIKV-related congenital syndrome (microcephaly or congenital central nervous system anomalies). ZIKV-related congenital syndrome cases have been reported in Brazil, Colombia, Cape Verde, Martinique, Panama, El Salvador, Paraguay, French Guiana, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United States, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Suriname
Challenges associated with ZIKV infections
1. i)
There are no vaccines to protect against ZIKV infection or drugs to treat infected patients. The majority of ZIKV infected patients recover from the infection and do not need treatment. However, as mentioned above, transmission of the virus from pregnant women to fetuses affects normal fetal neurological developments. As such, women, especially those who plan to be become pregnant, need to be immunized. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop a vaccine to stop the spread of ZIKV infection, especially from pregnant women to fetuses. The development of an effective ZIKV vaccine will be challenging for the following reasons:
1. a)
although 9 % of anti-dengue virus monoclonal antibodies can cross-neutralize ZIKV infections, a majority of anti-dengue virus antibodies are not neutralizing [64]; instead, they enhance ZIKV and dengue viral infections, a condition known as antibody-dependent enhancement of infection [65, 66]. This observation may complicate ZIKV infections in countries were ZIKV and dengue viral infections co-circulate and especially in countries (Brazil, Mexico, El Salvador, and the Philippines) where dengue virus vaccine (dengvaxia) has been licensed; the effect of the vaccine on ZIKV infection needs to be evaluated. With this in mind, an ideal ZIKV vaccine should not enhance dengue infection and vice versa.
2. b)
a candidate ZIKV vaccine should protect against all ZIKV strains. Additionally, it should lack the propensity to be accidentally transmitted by mosquitoes from vaccinees to unvaccinated population. This will be a big challenge for an attenuated ZIKV vaccine given the fact that the virus is transmitted by mosquito-bites.
3. c)
the vaccine should be safe in pregnant women in order to avoid complications during pregnancy.
4. d)
an effective ZIKV vaccine should elicit a systemic immune response in addition to genital immunity given the fact that the virus can also be transmitted sexually. A ZIKV vaccine that cannot protect against sexual transmission may not be highly valuable.
1. ii)
ZIKV is transmitted by some of the same Aedes mosquitoes (e.g. Aedes aegypti) that transmit DENVs, YFV, and Chikungunya virus (an alphavirus) [18, 67]. To aggravate the situation, the symptoms (fever, skin rash, joint pains, and headache) for ZIKV infection are similar to those caused by these three viruses. As such, most ZIKV infections are clinically misdiagnosed as DENV infections.
2. iii)
Serological tests for ZIKV targeting the envelope glycoprotein domains, EI and EII, are not specific; they cross-react with other flaviviruses such as DENVs and YFV [1, 4, 65, 68]. These domain-cross-reactive antibodies can misdiagnose ZIKV infections as dengue and vice versa.
3. iv)
ZIKV RNA/viral particles have been isolated or detected in nasopharynx [69], saliva [49, 70, 71], and in breast milk [49]. Nevertheless, it is not known if the virus can be transmitted through saliva, nasal secretions, or breast milk. Moreover, it is unknown if anti-ZIKV antibodies are present in these secretions. Studies are needed to assess if the virus can be transmitted through these routes and if anti-ZIKV antibodies are present in body secretions such as saliva and breast milk.
4. v)
Although ZIKV RNA and viral particles have been isolated from saliva, non-invasive methods using saliva to diagnose ZIKV are lacking. As such, there is need for rapid diagnostic kits for detecting ZIKV infection using saliva.
5. vi)
Although we know that ZIKV can be transmitted sexually from male to female, male to male, and female to male, there has been no report on transmission from female to female couples. Studies are required to assess transmission between female-sex partners.
6. vii)
Recent isolation of ZIKV infection from Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes [7] may also make the control of ZIKV infection challenging. Culex quinquefasciatus just like Aedes mosquitoes is a domesticated mosquito that breeds in standing water, is widespread in the Americas (except Canada), Africa, Asia, the United Kingdom, and Pacific Islands [72], and feeds on humans, domestic animals, including birds [73]. Thus, measures to control Aedes mosquitoes also have to take the control of Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes into consideration.
7. viii)
It is unknown why some patients (65 %) with anti-ZIKV antibodies do not develop GBS whereas some patients do. Does the genetic make-up of an individual pre-dispose that individual to ZIKV-associated GBS or microcephaly?
ZIKV infection is a major public health problem that has already spread to many countries around the globe, and is likely to spread to more given the fact that the virus can be transmitted sexually and by mosquitoes to humans. Imported ZIKV by asymptomatic travelers will likely be transmitted to sexual partners thus increasing the number of infected people and consequently the availability of ZIKV-infected blood meal for naïve mosquitoes. A blood meal from infected patients, following a mosquito bite, will be all it takes to establish an outbreak in countries with imported cases, as has been demonstrated in the United States. This observation puts China, Singapore, Thailand and Europe, which all have Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, at high risk for mosquito transmission given the fact that ZIKV has already been imported to these regions [21, 22, 37]. An infected mosquito in any of these regions can cross, irrespective of country borders, from one country to another thus increasing the spread of the virus. It is also likely that people moving across country borders will spread the virus to other countries.
We now know, unlike in the 1950s, that ZIKV cannot only be transmitted through mosquito bites; it can also be transmitted sexually, via blood transfusion, and from mother to fetus. We also know that the virus is associated with symptoms such as joint pains, skin rash, and that it causes neurological problems such as GBS, microcephaly and abnormally developed congenital central nervous system. Nevertheless, there are a lot of things we still do not know about ZIKV; we do not know whether the virus can be transmitted through nasal secretions, saliva or breast milk. Also, there are still unanswered questions as to why the outbreak in Brazil spread to almost all of the Americas and why this outbreak had a higher mortality and morbidity compared to sporadic outbreaks prior to 2007. With these in consideration, there is an urgent need to develop vaccines and therapeutics to prevent or stop the spread of ZIKV infections. In addition to this, there is an urgent need to develop robust diagnostic tests that can detect and discriminate ZIKV infections from other flaviviruses (DENVs, Chikungunya, and YFV), 5 days after onset of symptoms. Fortunately, recent studies have shown that antibodies targeting NS1 proteins are ZIKV-specific and can be used to develop ZIKV-specific diagnostic kits [65]. If an antigen diagnostic test targeting ZIKV NS1 is successfully developed, it can be used to diagnose ZIKV infections from the onset of viremia. In fact, a ZIKV antigen diagnostic test will be more valuable because they can detect ZIKV infections prior to the appearance of anti-ZIKV antibodies in serum. Such a test can be used along-side with a specific molecular test, such as reverse transcription (RT) PCR, to confirm ZIKV infection. Until then, specific detection of ZIKV infections has to rely on RT-PCR.
We would like to thank Mr. Lukai Zhai (Michigan Technological University) and Dr. Kathryn Frietze (University of New Mexico School of Medicine) for reading the review and for their critical comments and suggestions.
Start-up fund from Michigan Technological University.
Availability of data and material
Not applicable.
Authors’ contributions
RB and ET wrote the review. RB and ET generated the figures. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Authors’ Affiliations
Department of Biological Sciences, Michigan Technological University
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Solar system with Earth-size planet found
Astronomers studying a star 127 light-years away have discovered an intriguing solar system with at least five Neptune-class planets and possibly two more, including an Earth-size world.
After six years of painstaking observations, astronomers have identified a distant solar system with at least five Neptune-class worlds orbiting within 130 million miles or so of the parent star--closer than Mars is to the sun. Two other planets are believed to be present, including one just 1.4 times as massive as Earth.
The presumed Earth-size planet orbits a scant 2 million miles from its star, completing a full orbit, or "year," every 1.18 days. If confirmed with additional observations, this hellish world would be the smallest yet discovered, additional proof that Earth-size planets are falling within the reach of current Earth-based instruments.
An artist's impression of a distant solar system with up to seven planets, including a world just slightly bigger than Earth. European Southern Observatory
"We have probably found the system with the most planets known today, coming close to the solar system," Christophe Lovis of the University of Geneva, lead author of a paper reporting the discovery, told CNET in an e-mail exchange. "This means that we are now able to detect very complex systems of low-mass planets, which will help us a lot [in] understanding their diversity. This a step towards answering long-standing questions, such as, how common are habitable planets in the universe?"
As for the presumed Earth-size planet, Lovis said "it is probable that such a low-mass body cannot retain an atmosphere so close to its star. Most likely, this body is like a big melted-lava ball. Hard to imagine, since this is unknown in our solar system."
Over six years, Lovis and his colleagues used a sensitive spectrograph mounted on the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter (11.8-foot) telescope at La Silla, Chile, to measure subtle changes in the light from a sun-like star known as HD 10180 in the southern constellation Hydrus.
Located 127 light-years from Earth, HD 10180 wobbles ever so slightly, as it is tugged this way and that by the gravity of a retinue of unseen planets. Over the course of 190 observations, astronomers were able to confirm the presence of at least five Neptune-like planets between 13 and 25 times as massive as Earth.
All five worlds orbit HD 10180 at distances ranging from 0.06 and 1.4 times the distance between the Earth and the sun, out to about 130 million miles. The much smaller, yet-to-be-confirmed planet orbits inside the five Neptune-class worlds. A seventh Saturn-class planet is believed to be at a range of 3.4 times the Earth-sun distance, taking six Earth years to complete one orbit.
According to the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia maintained by the Paris Observatory, 488 planets beyond Earth's solar system have been discovered to date. Some 15 solar systems feature at least three planets. A star known as 55 Cancri has five confirmed planets, including two Jupiter-class worlds.
The HD 10180 solar system is unique in that its planets circle the parent star in nearly circular orbits and seem to be positioned according to a relatively simple arithmetic rule that may be "a consequence of the various gravitational interactions that occur between the planets during their evolution," Lovis said.
"It is difficult to say at this point how significant this result is, but it will be very interesting to hear what our theoretician colleagues think of it," he added.
Surprisingly, perhaps, it appears the HD 10180 solar system is gravitationally stable over long time scales, despite the effects of five Neptune-class planets orbiting so close to their star.
"This was not an easy question, and answering it required in-depth dynamical analyses," Lovis said. "When modeling all major effects properly (including effects of general relativity), it turns out that the system is indeed stable over long time scales."
He said additional observations will be needed to pin down the orbit and mass of the innermost, Earth-class planet.
"We will dedicate some more telescope nights to observe the improve the coverage of the 1.18-day period," he said of the smaller planet. "At the moment, we are suffering from the fact that we take one single data point per night, which makes it difficult to be sure about a 1.18-day period. I expect that we will make progress on this system within a year or so."
The observations are extremely difficult. The gravitational tug of the low-mass planet amounts to a 1.8 mph wobble in a star 127 light-years away, "which is hard to measure and, if confirmed, would represent a new record in precision," Lovis said.
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language arts
posted by .
choose which metaphor, melting pot or salad bowl, you think is best for the united states and explain why.
I said melting pot because:
- people from different cultures marry and have children
- people from different cultures assimilate into our country
- some learn the ways of other cultures
- we mix different aspects of cultures (clothing, food, language, etc.)
I'm not sure if I'm leaving anything out. It has to be about one paragraph... any suggestions please?
• language arts -
I agree.
After a generation or two, with families intermarrying and adapting to other cultural traditions, the U.S. is like a melting pot. It's difficult to separate the mixtures into separate pots.
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posted by .
The question is:
Kelly wants to center the rug in her living room.
The rug is 8 3/4 feet wide. The total width of her
Living room is 12 1/2 feet. How far from each
Wall of her living room should she place her rug?
I did 12 1/2 divided by 8 3/4
So 12 2/4 divided by 8 3/4
50/4 divided by 35/4
1 3/7
So the rug should be 1 3/7 away from each wall
Is this correct ? If not can you please explain
Thank you
• Math -
Try subtracting as your first step.
• Math -
If you subtract and divide by 2 will the answer be
1 7/8
• Math -
• Math -
Thank you
• Math -
You're welcome.
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A throw rug is 8 feet long and 4 feet wide it is a rectangular room with an area of 100 square feet how much of the room is not covered by the rug
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https://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1352569100
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Isaiah 30–32: Trust in the Lord
Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide, (2002), 146–147
Isaiah 30–32 was written when Assyria threatened to attack Israel after having conquered other neighboring countries. Fearful, many in Israel sought Egypt’s help in defending themselves against the Assyrians. But the Lord helped the children of Israel escape wicked Egypt in the days of Moses; He fought their battles and helped them obtain their promised land. To join with Egypt in a treaty instead of relying upon the Lord, who delivered them in the past, showed how little faith the Israelites had in their God. Isaiah’s counsel in chapters 30–32 was to trust the Lord, not Egypt, for deliverance. Isaiah also told the children of Israel of the blessings they would receive if they put their trust in the Lord and warned of the consequences of not trusting Him.How do you decide whether or not to trust someone? Have you ever trusted someone and had him or her take advantage of you? Whom should we trust? Do we fear what others can do more than we trust that the Lord will bless us for being faithful to Him? Do we trust in our own power to solve problems instead of trying the Lord’s way? These may seem like foolish questions, but because many people think the commandments are “too hard” or don’t see the immediate rewards of keeping the commandments, they trust in their own power and judgment, or the power and judgment of others, and disregard the commandments.
Understanding the Scriptures
Isaiah 30:15–21
Pursue (v. 16)Chase
Beacon, ensign (v. 17)Signal
Adversity, affliction (v. 20)Trials and troubles
Studying the Scriptures
Do activity A as you study Isaiah 30–32.
Activity A iconIn Your Own Words
In Isaiah 30:15–21, the Lord explained to the Israelites why they should trust in Him instead of in their own strength, the strength of others, or objects designed to help in battle. After you read these verses, respond to the following questions in your own words:
1. 1.
What did the Lord say would happen if the Israelites trusted in their own strength? (see vv. 16–17).
2. 2.
What should the Israelites trust? (see v. 15).
3. 3.
According to verses 18–21, what did the Lord ask of the people, and then what would the Lord do for them?
4. 4.
In what kind of situation do you think this counsel would be helpful today?
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https://www.lds.org/manual/old-testament-seminary-student-study-guide/isaiah-30-32?lang=eng
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Dec 01
The making of europe
Written by Christopher Dawson in 1932, this scholarly tome discusses the philosophical, theological and political issues form the end of the Roman empire to the rise of mediaeval unity. It is not a standard history book and assumes a solid knowledge of that period by the reader assisting the reader to better understand why the west drifted into its political and philosphical unity as the basis for the mediaeval era, highlighting the first attempts at the fruition of the renaissence and humanism of the furture.
Hermann Borg Xuerebimage
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https://www.maltahumanist.org/the-making-of-europe/
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Turtles Find Themselves in the Middle of Political Rift in Cyprus
Sea turtle (Photo: Terry Ross/Flickr)
Terry K. Ross
Sea turtles on the island of Cyprus are endangered because of politics that divide the island's Greeks and Turks, their governments and their scientists. The turtles nest on both sides of the island, and they're threatened by human activities on both sides of the island as well.
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Listen to the Story.
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https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-06-12/turtles-find-themselves-middle-political-rift-cyprus
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In a landmark study two Canadian researchers in developmental psychology, Gene Ouellette and Monique Sénéchal (2017), have mapped the powerful beginning reading-writing connection, moved us closer to being successful teachers of reading in first grade, and cleared up decades of confusion. It’s important because reading scores in first grade have flatlined for decades—especially in the United States. This study can move us forward.
As far back as 1982 Marie Clay, the late world-renowned expert in developmental and clinical child psychology who founded Reading Recovery, issued a call for educators to find the writing connection in learning to read (Clay, 1982). Could teachers and parents capitalize on the potential for beginning writing to complement learning to read? Should we be encouraging pencil and paper activity from the very beginning?
Ouellette and Sénéchal have mapped out the way. Counterintuitively, it turns out that allowing and encouraging children’s early “invented spelling”—a much maligned and controversial practice in some quarters—is the key.
What is Invented Spelling?
Before children become conventional readers and spellers at the very beginnings of learning to read—often in preschool, kindergarten, or the beginning of first grade—they use self-directed and spontaneous attempts to represent words in print. If teachers and parents engage beginners in pencil and paper activity by having them draw their picture and write their story or information, beginners will naturally over time “invent” spellings. The emerging spellings demonstrate what the child knows about the sounds in words, along with how he or she thinks letters represent these sounds. As I have written before, one can literally “see” the child’s development—that is, monitor the child’s progress in the process of breaking the complex English code—by looking at his or her spelling (Gentry, 2006, 2000). This doesn’t vitiate the need for teaching correct spellings beginning as early as kindergarten. But what researchers, including myself, and exemplary teachers have found over the last 30+ years of research and practice is that the act of inventing a spelling greatly increases the child’s chances of breaking the code and learning to read by the end of first grade.
When inventing a spelling, the child is engaged in mental reflection and practice with words, not just memorizing. This strategy strengthens neuronal pathways so as the reader/writer becomes more sophisticated with invented spelling, she or he is developing a repertoire of more and more correctly spelled words at the same time. These words are stored in the word form area of the brain where the child can retrieve them automatically as sight words for reading and eventually as correctly spelled words for writing.
Well-educated, exemplary beginning reading teachers know how to provide a conventional model enabling the inventive speller to fluently read back his or her own writing in conventional English without stifling the child’s creativity or desire to make meaning (Feldgus, Cardonick, & Gentry, 2017). Having the child read back his or her own writing in conventional English written by the teacher integrates the child’s invented spelling into a reading and fluency lesson.
The human brain generally gets better at whatever it practices—including invented spelling. Reflection about how to spell a word allows the child to actively practice making decisions, rather than passively memorizing. This active practice likely results in synaptic changes in the child’s brain by strengthening neuronal pathways for long term-retention of spellings to be retrieved for reading and writing.
Eventually a parent or teacher can read what the child has invented. For example, can you read these kindergarten samples?
*(Are you deaf?) (I can write!) (My motorboat goes fast.) (Rico went under the covers.) (One night I was in my bed and the tooth fairy came.)
Importantly, invented spelling outcomes and likely neural development happen in developmental phases (Ehri. 1987; Ehri & Wilce,1987; Gentry 2006, 2000). Over time, a word such as eagle that a child might wish to write will be presented first as random letters, then as E or EG, then as EGL, then as EGUL, and eventually, given teacher scaffolding and appropriate spelling instruction, as eagleLady will likely follow from random letters to L, to LAD with LA for /lā/ and the letter name D for /dē/, to LADE, which is spelled in chunks such as LA for the /lā/ chunk and DE for the /dē/ chunk.
Here are lady samples from the 2017 study:
By Gene Ouellette with permission
Source: By Gene Ouellette with permission
With explicit grade-by-grade spelling instruction, along with vigorous reading and writing, the child will master lady and plant it in his or her brain for eternity. This representation of the spelling lady in the brain will literally be “re-presented” in the person’s mind when the reader needs to match the print on the page to recognize the word for reading or when the writer needs to spell the word for writing. It takes about 250 milliseconds for the spelling representation to connect to sound and meaning in the brain and pop up in the mind’s eye automatically.
When early invented spelling is modeled by a knowledgeable beginning reading teacher and taught in five developmental evidenced-based phases followed by proper feedback along with research-based grade by grade systematic and explicit spelling instruction, children build a dictionary of words in their brains that they can easily retrieve for reading and writing. Thus, both reading and writing words—decoding and encoding respectively—become automatic, leaving the child’s brain free for making meaning. It’s the key to comprehension (along with vocabulary and background knowledge). It is this automaticity in retrieving words that allows us to think about what we are reading or writing.
Over the years detractors, albeit with good intentions, have touted invented spelling as being nonacademic, harmful to traditional values, and a deterrent to conventional spelling. They think it’s best to teach accurate spelling as soon as possible. The Ouellette and Sénéchal study has set the record straight.
The researchers report that “…fears that allowing children to ‘invent’ their own spelling may prevent them from learning conventionally correct spelling can be alleviated.” Rather, the researchers point out, it appears to be just the opposite. The meticulously designed and methodically sound study found “a direct path from kindergarten invented spelling to Grade 1 conventional spelling.” Ouellette and Sénéchal state, “invented spelling attempts do not set children on a path where they will not learn to spell correctly.”
Ouellette and Sénéchal conclude that invented spelling is engaging and analytical and it facilitates literacy growth. It integrates phonological and orthographic growth. In their words it is “…developmentally appropriate and falls naturally within a child’s zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1962); children are not being asked to memorize or reproduce a spelling that may be beyond their current level of development but rather they are creating a spelling that reflects, and potentially increases, their current knowledge” (2017, p. 86).
In the final analysis, here’s what’s most important: Ouellette and Sénéchal found a direct line from invented spelling leading to improved reading scores at the end of first grade. In their carefully crafted longitudinal study, they found invented spelling to be “a unique predictor of growth in early reading skills, over and above children’s alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness.” Now that’s a huge finding! For two decades we have been perseverating on phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge alone.
The end of first grade is when the child’s reading brain should work essentially like yours and mine, allowing the child to read easy chapter books and informational texts independently, proficiently, and fluently with joy and comprehension. It’s when beginning literacy learners have enough brain power and spellings stored in their brains to write joyfully and expressively albeit with a few misspellings. If we add grade-by-grade explicit spelling instruction—along with vocabulary, background knowledge, and motivation—it’s when children are on the way to academic success, career readiness, and personal fulfillment.
Don’t underestimate the importance of the 2017 Ouellette and Sénéchal study or of two important studies that preceded it (Ouellette and Sénéchal, 2013, 2008). I’ve been heralding this message for more than thirty years: invented spelling paves the way to literacy.
Dr. J. Richard Gentry is the author of Raising Confident Readers, How to Teach Your Child to Read and Write–From Baby to Age 7. Follow him on FacebookTwitter, and LinkedIn and find out more information about his work on his website.
Clay, M. (1982). Observing young readers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann
Feldgus, E., Cardonick, I. & Gentry, R. (2017). Kid writing in the 21st century. Los Angeles, CA: Hameray Publishing Group.
Ehri, L. (1997). Learning to read and learning to spell are one and the same, almost. In C. Perfetti, L. Rieben, & M. Fayol (Eds.), Learning to spell: Research, theory and practice across languages (pp. 237–269). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
You are reading
Raising Readers, Writers, and Spellers
Why Our Students Can’t Write
Preparing K-1 teachers to teach writing is one effective solution.
Lousy Spelling—Why Americans Can’t Read or Think Well
Spelling is for reading. Teach spelling for better reading test scores!
5 Research-based Practices for Kindergarten and First Grade
Here's what every kindergarten and first grade teacher should be doing.
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What are the receptors for vision?
Quick Answer
The receptors for vision are the rods and cones. Rods and cones lie inside the inner layer, or retina, of the eye, according to Dr. Kimball of Kimball's Biology Pages.
Continue Reading
Full Answer
Dr. Kimball further states that the rods have extreme sensitivity to light, but they only provide a coarse picture in black and white tones. Cones, on the other hand, provide sharper images, but they are not as sensitive as rods. Each of the three types of cone receives a different wavelength of light: red, green or blue. Most of the cones are amassed at the fovea, a small area of the retina that gives the sharpest vision.
Learn more about Organs
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Patterns of Anti-Christian Persecution
In light of recent attacks against Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq by the jihadist group ISIS, as well as ongoing attacks against Christian minorities in other regions, Cornerstone has asked respondents to discuss global Christian persecution. Contributors focus on the patterns of persecution and the attitudes informing these human rights violations.
By: Paul Marshall
The contemporary Christian church exists in every country; in most it is growing, and in many it is persecuted. Currently Christians are the most widely persecuted religious group in the world, suffering discrimination, harassment, repression, and violence in approximately 133 countries, and, in some areas, particularly in the Muslim-majority world, this is increasing. This persecution is also often underreported or downplayed.
There are currently five major patterns of anti-Christian persecution: while these do not include all the instances, they cover over 90 percent of them. These patterns are:
1. The remaining self-professed communist countries—China, Vietnam, Laos, North Korea, and Cuba. Here the state is the usual persecutor.
2. South Asian religious nationalism—in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan, reactionary Hindu and Buddhist elements attack religious minorities. The persecution here is primarily societal rather than state, but states or local governments can be complicit.
3. The Muslim-majority world. This does not involve the most Christians, but is the site of the most widespread persecution, and it is where persecution is increasing.
4. Post-communist, national security, and other authoritarian states, including Burma, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Belarus.
5. Western secularism—this is a milder pattern than elsewhere, but the idea that religion must be excluded from societal life is growing, as are religious hostility and restrictions.
These categories are not precise, since countries themselves do not reduce to simple patterns—for example, Burma has combined a national security state with religious nationalism—but they do indicate the major trends.
The reasons for persecution are varied and do not constitute a unitary ‘war’ on Christians. But one common feature is that in the modern age, the traditional Christian belief that sacerdotium (church) and regnum (state) were two distinct bodies manifests itself practically in a denial that the state is all encompassing or the ultimate arbiter of human life, and hence this belief is a foundation for social and political pluralism. This means that Christians are often subject to persecution by those who have a monistic conception of the social order and the state—that there is one order of authority in society whose reach applies to every person and institution and to which all must submit. Contemporary monisms include communism, other authoritarianisms, radical Islamist conceptions, religious nationalisms, and several contemporary secularisms.
Other factors in the persecution of Christians include the claim that Christians are foreigners, often coupled with opposition to conversion to Christianity, which is often seen as a threat to the political and social order. Finally, the Christian stress on new birth often challenges traditional orders in which social position is ascriptive and inherited from original birth.
While there are still repressive and reactionary forms of Christianity, one of the major contemporary factors in the persecution of Christians is the association of Christianity with freedom.
Paul Marshall is a senior fellow of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom.
This post is the executive summary of Marshall's chapter "Patterns of Contemporary Anti-Christian Persecution" in the forthcoming RFP publication Christianity and Freedom: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. The post in this form was originally published on August 26, 2014 for the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs.
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Some elephants get the point | Science News
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Wild Things
The weird and wonderful in the natural world
Sarah Zielinski
Wild Things
Some elephants get the point
African elephants get the point
African elephants can now be added to the list of animals that understand what it means when a human points.
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Not all animals understand what a human means when he points at something. Dogs get it, as do several other domesticated animals. Now we can add African elephants to that list.
The pointing test, known as the “object-choice” task, is one of the ways that scientists investigate whether animals, including humans, understand social cues. The set-up is simple: A reward, often food, is placed in one of two containers, and then an experimenter points at the container with the reward. If the animal being tested picks the correct container more than 50 percent of the time (the amount they would get through random picks), scientists interpret this as the animal understanding the gesture.
Scientists think that this ability to understand human pointing might be linked to domestication because many domesticated animals pass the test, but nonhuman primates do not. Domesticated animals might have evolved the ability to interpret human actions, or animals inclined to respond to people may have been the ones chosen for domestication. Elephants have never been domesticated, but they make an interesting test case because they can be tamed and trained to work with people.
Anna Smet and Richard Byrne of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland applied the object-choice task to a group of 11 African elephants housed at an organization in South Africa that provides elephant-back safaris. The elephants had been raised in captivity since infancy, and they were trained to understand only verbal cues. The results of the experiment were published October 10 in Current Biology.
When the research team set up the experiment, with Smet as the pointer, the elephants selected the correct container 67.5 percent of the time. That’s more than they would get by chance alone, and 1-year-old kids don’t do much better, only getting it right about 73 percent of the time. And the elephants got it even if Smet was standing closer to the empty container.
But not all elephants have passed this test. In a study published earlier this year by a group of scientists led by the University of Cambridge, Asian elephants given a similar object-choice task failed. The human pointers in this test were the mahouts (caretakers) who worked with the animals every day, and they were actually upset that their animals failed. Unlike the African elephants, these animals encountered both verbal cues and the occasional pointing gesture in their daily work.
Those researchers suggested that the Asian elephants might not have understood the gesticulations because the experimental setup was different from what they encounter every day. Smet and Byrne also point to experimental design and posit that the simpler setup of their experiment might explain the success with African elephants. Perhaps they should test some Asian elephants and see just what happens.
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NASA's New Robot 'RoboSimian' Moves Just Like a Primate
- Jul 22, 2013
References: & gizmodo
NASA's new robot is the 'RoboSimian,' inspired by the movements of a primate. The agile movements of monkeys inspired this new bot, which will primarily be used in search and rescue missions. This ape-inspired robot has a form that resembles a human or monkey form, with limbs that resemble arms and legs. However, unlike living creatures, this bot has no front or back, making it always oriented in the correct position even if it is accidentally rolled onto its side or knocked over.
The 'RoboSimian' is set to compete in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Robotics Challenge, which is designed to spur the creation of robots to provide relief in the event of a man-made or natural disaster. 'RoboSimian' is expected to be able to handle tasks like climbing ladders, stairs and driving vehicles.
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An instance is a specific example or case of something. One instance of being chased by a growling dog can make a person spend his whole life being afraid of animals.
It's common to find instance used in the expression "for instance," meaning "for example." Bright colors — for instance, pink, green, and blue — can cheer you up when you're feeling sad. Instance can also mean "occurrence." Several instances of cheating might be reported after a math test, for example. In the sixteenth century, the Medieval Latin word instantia meant "example to the contrary," leading to an early definition of instance as "single objection."
Definitions of instance
example, illustration, representative
show 11 types...
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apology, excuse
a poor example
an instance that does not conform to a rule or generalization
case in point, precedent
the most typical example or representative of a type
a small part of something intended as representative of the whole
an example regarded as typical of its class
a test sample of some substance
cross section
a sample meant to be representative of a whole population
grab sample
random sample
a sample grabbed at random
a small amount (especially of food or wine)
Type of:
knowledge acquired through study or experience or instruction
n an occurrence of something
“another instance occurred yesterday”
case, example
humiliation, mortification
bit, piece
an instance of some kind
clip, time
an instance or single occasion for some event
Type of:
happening, natural event, occurrence, occurrent
an event that happens
v clarify by giving an example of
exemplify, illustrate
Type of:
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https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/instance
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A tirade is a speech, usually consisting of a long string of violent, emotionally charged words. Borrow and lose your roommate’s clothes one too many times, and you can bet you’ll be treated to a heated tirade.
The noun tirade is related to the Italian word tirata, which means "volley." So imagine a very angry person lobbing harsh words and strings of profanity in your direction when you want to remember what tirade means. Although, tirades don't necessarily have to include bad words — any long, drawn out speech or epic declaration can be called a tirade.
Definitions of tirade
n a speech of violent denunciation
broadside, philippic
Type of:
denouncement, denunciation
a public act of denouncing
vehement oratory
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<urn:uuid:b04f5c6e-6c6a-48cd-8367-03a4cfce7a50>
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https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/tirade
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How can we better handle the threat to international security posed by groups who turn new technologies into weapons? To make a change by 2030, Espen Barth Eide, United Nations Special Adviser on Cyprus and co-chair of the Global Future Council on International Security, says we need international cooperation and experts from a wide range of fields to think through the potential dark side of technological advances.
Why do we need a Global Future Council on International Security?
Issues of security and power relations are always there, under the surface. They may seem less pertinent if you live in Switzerland rather than Syria, but a peaceful and predictable daily life doesn’t mean those issues have gone away. It simply says that they are being managed effectively and kept under control - for now.
What are the key trends that could change international security between now and 2030?
Imagine ruling a country 110 years ago and thinking: “I have a powerful army and navy, I don’t need to worry about airplanes.” You wouldn’t have remained powerful for long. Technological change has always shaped the evolution of international security and threatened to upset the balance of power, that’s not new. What is different is the rapid and accelerating pace of technological change.
Our growing reliance on connected services has made cyberspace an entirely new domain of warfare, just as the invention of the plane created the need to defend against attacks from the air, at a time when battles had previously been fought only on land and at sea.
More generally, we’re seeing an undesired democratisation of the capacity to inflict major damage. Even very small groups of people with innovative ideas and access to new technology can now effectively challenge much larger and more organised collectives. Historically, it’s been easier to defend than attack, but that’s now rapidly changing.
What are some examples of potentially game-changing new capabilities?
Get some yeast and a few more easily accessible ingredients. Then, with the help of information found online, you can set up a home microbrewery that’s capable of manufacturing bacteriological weapons. Another example: combine homemade explosives with an off-the-shelf drone, a smartphone, and commercial face recognition and geolocation software, and you could rig up a device that’s capable of autonomously targeting particular types of individual.
Seized plastic handguns which were created using 3D printing technology are displayed at Kanagawa police station in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, in this photo taken by Kyodo May 8, 2014. Yoshimoto Imura became the first man to be arrested in Japan for illegal possession of two guns he created himself using 3D printing technology, Japanese media said on Thursday. The 27-year-old, a college employee in the city of Kawasaki, was arrested after police found video online posted by Imura claiming to have produced his own guns. Gun possession is strictly regulated in Japan. Police raided Imura's home and found five guns, two of which could fire real bullets, Japanese media said. Mandatory credit REUTERS/Kyodo (JAPAN - Tags: CRIME LAW SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. MANDATORY CREDIT. JAPAN OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN JAPAN. THIS PICTURE IS DISTRIBUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS - RTR3OA4Z
Image: REUTERS/Kyodo
Such weapons may be less powerful than nuclear weapons, but they are far more difficult to control. We needn’t fear bright college students who understand how to make a nuclear bomb, because they can’t buy fissile material on eBay. As it becomes easier to make weapons with more destructive power, there may come a time when we grow nostalgic for the relative simplicity of the task of preventing nuclear weapons from falling into the wrong hands.
Who are the key players in controlling the spread of new weapons?
Think about a company like Lockheed Martin: they’re obviously aware that they make weapons and know they have to try to follow rules and regulations, sell only to state actors, and so on. But what about the people who are developing drones, face recognition software, 3D printers, gene therapies, or myriad other technologies? Generally they are enthused by the potential for civilian public good or commercial development. The idea that what they’re doing might be weaponized couldn’t be further from their minds.
So we need to get private sector innovators thinking about the potential dark side of what they’re doing without stopping beneficial technologies from being developed. We need expertise from politicians, military, academics and civil society to think through the implications of weaponizing new technologies. In all kinds of areas, from civil liberties to geopolitics, we are identifying questions, but not yet arriving at many answers.
Is non-proliferation of new weapons a task that needs to go beyond the United Nations?
There are pockets of interest in the United Nations in addressing these issues, and the arrival of a new team with the incoming Secretary-General offers some opportunities. But the UN has a strong preference for working through state actors, and member states need to be willing to participate. It can’t be the only place for these discussions – we need platforms that can bring in a wider range of stakeholders, and the Forum is an ideal candidate.
Where could we be by 2030?
In a best case scenario, we would have more widespread awareness and be better at having these discussions. More academic organisations will think like the Korea Institute of Advanced Study, which explicitly encourages its students to reflect on the ethical implications of the scientific fields they are exploring. More innovators will consider the potential dark side of what they’re doing, and if they have concerns will know how to express them responsibly. We will have functioning mechanisms of international cooperation that effectively minimise the dangers of technological advance, without standing in the way of innovation.
In a worst case scenario, none of that happens, and the world by 2030 is unstable and unpredictable, with varied threats coming from many sources. It’s a world we need to do our best to avoid.
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<urn:uuid:5a1b7789-1dad-4c13-89e5-2171a8e76a61>
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https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/how-do-we-stop-tech-being-turned-into-weapons
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5 Most Effective Exercises to Enhance Brain Power and Sharpen Your Mind
Here are some of the most effective exercises to boost memory.
With trillions of neural connections, brain is an extraordinary organ that controls all the other organs and functions of the body. It is one organ that keeps all the organs functioning properly and so, it is important to keep the brain healthy and active. Like the rest of the body, our brain gradually loses its vigor with age. The degeneration of cells in the brain because of the age and other factors can affect our memory and brain power. As working out is important to keep your body healthy and fit, it is important to exercise our brain to sharpen your mind and improve memory. Here is a list of exercises to improve memory and enhance your brain power.
1. Draw a rough map from your memory :-
No, you do not have to look into the Google maps. Visit a new place and after returning home, draw a map of the place. For example, if you visit a new museum tomorrow, draw a map of how you reached the museum after you return home.
2. Do math in your head :-
We use calculator these days but try to do calculations in your mind to challenge your brain and keep it active. Do not use pen or paper. Up the challenge by walking while you do the math.
3. Solve puzzles :-
It may seem childish, but try solving puzzles and challenge your brain. Start with easy puzzles and then gradually proceed to complex ones. It will improve your hand and eye coordination. There are so many online puzzle games. Try jigsaw puzzles and building blocks.
4. Try to identify different smell and taste in your food :-
While eating your meal, don t just gulp it down. Try to identify the taste and smell of the ingredients used in preparing the food. Try this with different types of cuisines. It is a tasty challenge for your brain.
5. Test your memory :-
List down several items in a paper and memorize it. After an hour, try to recall it and write it down in another sheet of paper. See how many items you could recall. Make this exercise challenging by adding random items in the list.
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<urn:uuid:5bec6284-7f76-4ca2-8110-b4230306b891>
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https://yogoyouonlygraduateonce.wordpress.com/2017/05/24/5-most-effective-exercises-to-enhance-brain-power-and-sharpen-your-mind/
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Thursday, 3 March 2011
How a housewife changed the world!!
This morning I was talking to a colleague of mine about hobby scientists. People at home that buy a microscope, people that find some interesting physical phenomenon and post on youtube using their LCD displayed smartphone, or the many astronomers looking to the sky to find solar bursts. Science can be found everywhere around us like in the night sky, out in our backyard and even in our kitchen sink. What better place to discover science than your kitchen sink?
A German woman and independent scientist, Agnes Pockels, did just that in 1890. Legend has it that doing the dishes in her own kitchen Agnes discovered the influence of impurities on the surface tension of fluids. So she set out to measure these surfactant impurities (different oil from cooking) and started experimenting. To measure the tension she developed the Pockels trough, precursor to the Langmuir scale, and published the first stearine acid. She wrote to Lord Rayleigh a scientist at Cambridge (who discovered Argon which later won him the Nobel Prize) shortly after he published initial suggestions that oil might form a monolayer on water.
In this letter she described an apparatus she had designed to measure the surface tension of monolayers of hydrophobic and amphiphillic substances. Agnes made a simple trough from a tin pan with tin inserts to determine the size of a surface. She had a balance on one side with a 6 mm disk to the measure the force required (e.g. the surface tension) to pull the disk from the surface. With various oils she hand around the house she described the behavior of surface tension. She added to this by calculating the amounts of material required to form a monolayer and commented on the purity and cleanliness required to accurately perform measurements of surface tension. She also reported the thickness of the film of the of various amphiphillic substances on the surface of water. Quite extraordinary for a housewife. The paper was published in Nature!!
Now monolayers and Langmuir-Blodgett troughs (they later modified Agnes Pockels' home built trough) are used to uncover many fascinating discoveries. For example they are used to fabricate nanoscale electronics using materials like graphene, understand how drugs permeate into the blood brain barrier, or fabricate LCD (liquid crystalline display) for your smartphone. So the next time you pick up your smartphone think about Agnes Pockels and try not to drop it in the sink.
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http://72dynes.blogspot.fi/2011/03/how-housewife-changed-world.html
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“Canada Will Experiment With Basic Income — Giving Out Salaries Just for Being Human” (Mic.com)
Jack Smith IV (Mic.com):
When robots come to take our jobs — not just assembly-line work, but truly every kind of job — humans will still need a paycheck to survive. Canada has a solution, and that solution is to simply hand out money for nothing. The idea is called basic income.
Buried away in Ontario’s 2016 budget documents are unspecific plans for the Canadian government to start giving a guaranteed, unconditional salary away to a few people just for being alive.
Canada isn’t first in line to give basic income a try. In June, Switzerland will vote on a referendum to give out a basic salary of $2,500 a month, and pilot programs similar to Ontario’s proposed test are popping up in Germany and Finland.
Welfare for everyone: Basic income has been around for about a century as a radical vision for welfare reform. It could allow people a safety net to pursue meaningful work, give control to people who have restricted welfare programs and compensate homemakers for their historically unpaid labor.
Critics of basic income question where the money will come from. Popular suggestions for funding the service involve progressive taxation and cutting other welfare programs. But there are bigger concerns about the recipients of those paychecks: Namely, what will people do if they don’t have to work to survive?
Reagan-era capitalists will tell you that without incentive to work, everyone will sit back and mooch off the government. But economists and futurists will tell you that there’s no body of evidence that supports the idea that welfare programs make you lazy.
The only way we’ll know if basic income is our future is by dipping our toes in the water.
Full article here
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<urn:uuid:d2f95cf7-6f90-4344-8656-f657f6a13ea2>
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http://canadianmediareview.ca/2016/03/canada-will-experiment-with-basic-income-giving-out-salaries-just-for-being-human-mic-com/
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[guhn-ter] /ˈgʌn tər/
noun, Nautical.
a jib-headed sail fastened to a vertical spar that is attached to a short mast, usually by two rings, in such a way that the spar can slide up the mast to spread the sail.
[guhn-ter] /ˈgʌn tər/
Edmund, 1581–1626, English mathematician and astronomer: inventor of various measuring instruments and scales.
Edmund. 1581–1626, English mathematician and astronomer, who invented various measuring instruments, including Gunter’s chain
Read Also:
• Gunter grass
[grahs; German grahs] /grɑs; German grɑs/ noun 1. Günter (Wilhelm) [goo n-ter wil-helm;; German gyn-tuh r vil-helm] /ˈgʊn tər ˈwɪl hɛlm;; German ˈgün tər ˈvɪl hɛlm/ (Show IPA), 1927–2015, German novelist, poet, and playwright. /ɡrɑːs/ noun 1. any monocotyledonous plant of the family Poaceae (formerly Gramineae), having jointed stems sheathed by long narrow leaves, flowers […]
• Gunter rig
/ˈɡʌntə/ noun 1. (nautical) a type of gaffing in which the gaff is hoisted parallel to the mast
• Gunters-chain
noun 1. See under (def 8a). [cheyn] /tʃeɪn/ noun 1. a series of objects connected one after the other, usually in the form of a series of metal rings passing through one another, used either for various purposes requiring a flexible tie with high tensile strength, as for hauling, supporting, or confining, or in various […]
• Gunther
[guhn-ther for 1, 3; goo n-ter for 2] /ˈgʌn θər for 1, 3; ˈgʊn tər for 2/ noun 1. John, 1901–1970, U.S. journalist and author. 2. (in the Nibelungenlied) a king of Burgundy and the husband of Brunhild, beheaded by Kriemhild in her revenge for the murder of Siegfried. Compare . 3. a male given […]
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http://definithing.com/define-dictionary/gunter/
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Sunday, 18 January 2009
Whenever you learn a French word, don't forget to learn the gender. It is either masculine or feminine. It is le or la. It is un or une. When a child grows up in France they are told to put something on the table. The word 'the' naturally occurs and the French child knows it is la table not le table.
One simple way in which you can improve your confidence in speaking French is to learn the difference in pronunciation between un and une. Un is pronounced with just a hint of an N, whereas the N is definitely pronounced with une. Use the internet. There are many sites where you can hear these words. Very often people find speaking the hardest of the language skills so get these words right and you will get a few words right in every sentence that you say.
A common question is why do the French make their language so complicated with two genders? The question should be why has English lost its gender? Old English words had gender which was lost in the Middle Ages. We are lucky that we don't have to learn different words for the or a, but English is complicated enough. Be grateful that you speak English already and don't knock the French for any complications, as French is relatively easy.
A bientôt
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<urn:uuid:18569687-14fa-4cec-85f0-3bb039124b68>
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http://frenchfornovices.blogspot.com/2009/01/gender.html
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Skip to content
more: math take on metropolis and question for the class
2009 March 16
by aaclh
I want to build a little more off of what Eva (sp?) said in class today.
Metropolis seemed to set up or suggest a lot of dichotomies, for example above and below ground, head and hand(s), ladylike and unladylike behavior, human and robot, good and evil, etc. The moral (stated at least three times) of the movie was that the head and the hand(s) need a mediator. I am not really sure how this was supposed to work. Was the mediator another thing? Was the mediator a head and a hand? Or, what seems more plausible from the movie, was the mediator a relationship between the head and the hand? (Thinking in terms of math (category theory in particular) – head and hands are objects and mediator is a morphism).
Supposing this is the case, that the mediator relates the head and hands together – why were the other dichotomies not similarly resolved with appropriate relationships? Were they, and I just missed it? Why this particular dichotomy?
2 Responses
1. Anne Dalke permalink*
March 16, 2009
what’s a “morphism”?
still waiting also for an explanation of “the ultimate answer is 42”…?
2. aaclh permalink
March 16, 2009
“The ultimate answer is 42” is a reference to the radio program (or series of books if you like) The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. (NB: the following might spoil the storyline.)
In the story: Earth is a computer program so complicated it requires organic matter. The program was set in motion to find the Ultimate Question to Life, the Universe and Everything. Basically, mice wanted an answer to Life, the Universe and Everything and so they made a computer who would compute this. The computer (called Deep Thought), did so and found the Ultimate Answer to be 42. Everyone was so upset about this answer (because it didn’t make sense), until Deep Thought told them that it could make a computer that could compute the Ultimate Question so that they could understand the Ultimate Answer. (Ironically Earth was destroyed shortly before it finished running to create a hyperspace bypass – so they never got the Ultimate Question).
The reason I brought this up was because I was thinking that perhaps we are too fixated on understanding things – so then having the Ultimate Answer be 42 (ie incomprehensible) could really be telling us to worry about something besides understanding life.
A morphism is a bit harder to explain. Perhaps it would be easier to explain in terms of functions. (So just pretend I said function instead of morphism) So, in this case you can just think of a function (called the mediator) whose domain, is just the one thing: a head, and whose range (or image) is all of the hands. In this sense, a function might relate a head to the hands (or things it its domain to things in its range). Thus you can think of a function as a relation between objects. Is that clear?
Comments are closed.
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http://gandt.blogs.brynmawr.edu/2009/03/16/more-math-take-on-metropolis-and-question-for-the-class/
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Month: January 2014
Norovirus Outbreak- What You Need to Know
What is it? Virus that causes acute gastroenteritis in humans. How would I get Infected? You ingest (swallow) the virus by viral particles from feces or vomit entering your mouth. The virus incubates for 24-48 hours after ingestion, depending partially
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http://hexistat.com/2014/01/
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Using Feelings Glasses to Teach Kids About Emotions
Feelings Glasses
Feelings Glasses is a great game to use to teach a group of kids, teens or adults what it looks like when we express emotions. In fact. one of the keys to teaching kids about emotions is helping them to recognize how those emotions make them look and act. Like any good “role-playing” exercises, Feelings Glasses mixes exaggeration and fun with learning. Here’s how it works:
1. Buy a few pairs of different colored glasses. I got mine at a party store around Halloween for a couple of dollars each, but I’ve also seen them at various dollar stores and Hobby Lobby in a variety of colors. I purchased six different colors (orange, blue, green, red, yellow and purple). You can definitely get by with fewer pairs, but if you want to do the exercise with more kids or multiple groups, it’s nice to have more choices.
2. Select kids to come up on put on each pair of glasses. You may want to participate as well to “keep things moving along.”
3. Explain to the kids that each pair of glasses represents a different emotion (start with basic emotions, but feel free to mix it up as the kids get older and as they learn more emotions). Sticking with the theme of the movie Inside Out, let’s make
• Blue represent sadness.
• Yellow equals joy.
• Red for anger.
• Green can be disgust.
• Purple equates to fear.
• We’ll leave orange out for purposes of this example, but you could keep it for yourself and let it represent sarcasm (which is not an emotion but can be helpful for keeping the exercise moving). Other ideas include, “Orange has to copy whatever emotion the last person who spoke had.” or “Orange is not allowed to speak but has to physically express the emotions of the person who is speaking.” Use your imagination!
4. Explain the rules of the game
• You will give the kids a scenario.
• They have to act out the scenario.
• They can only express things using the emotion represented by their glasses.
5. Lay out a scenario for the kids. Try to be specific enough to get the ball rolling but not so detailed that you stifle creativity.
6. After the exercise is over, talk about each emotion and what the kids noticed.
Alternate Ways to Play
Some kids have trouble improvising a scene. You may need to help them along. Alternatively, you can propose an individual situation (rather than something to the group), and each person has to react to that prompt using their emotions. Play with the idea and figure out what works best with your group.
Feelings Glasses are a great way for a group of kids to have fun together and learn at the same time!
This idea was adapted from a game originally found on Their version, which is geared specifically at school teachers, is great too if you want to give it a try.
Written by Wayne Stocks
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http://hope4hurtingkids.com/emotions/exploring-emotions/using-feelings-glasses-teach-kids-emotions/
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Wednesday, September 2, 2009
UNCG and the Big Picture (part 2)
For the next part, we went up Walker Avenue to the Stone Building, McIver Building, and (our big topic right now) the Sullivan Science Building. Now, we will return to the Stone Building for the final part because there's a mystery behind this building and Walker Avenue that we shall explore later. Now, the Science Building is a special building to UNCG. It was built in 2005 and named for Patricia Sullivan. This sideview of the building shows that UNCG must love their history because this building is a powerful part of the building! Now, it's a little hard to tell with this picture, but this combines the future and the past together. The building shows it all! On one side, you see a white wall with the futuristic part. Can you guess what it is? It's the glass windows that makeshifts for walls too! Still, the building goes back to its roots with the pitch roof and the brick building. It's very interesting to see because I believe that this building represents the value changes in UNCG from a small, isolated university to a diverse, historic campus that believes in the history of a university.
Now, we move on to one of the most popular buildings on the UNCG campus, the Music Building. The Music Building is the building that took the music curriculum away from the Brown Building, hence the name. The building is a more recent building, but not as young as the Science building. Now, this building defies all the rules of the UNCG buildings. For one thing, this building has round areas unlike the rest of the buildings. The inside will explain more of this. As you can already see, this building truly represents the switch in values. The columns turn from the round, old-fashioned style of Brown and changes into a cartoonish style of columns. It's almost as if the columns could blend in with the wall. Now, we'll move inside and see the big differences and why I have a theory about the structure of this building.
First, this is where we came in. This is the top of a column that was a bulletin board. Now, there's nothing out of the ordinary here really. The design, though, is very interesting. Ity's a very artistic piece that shows a interest in the arts. Now, the reaosn why I brought this up is because this column with a bulletin board and the statue on top is what we call a beat. If you remember from my last blog, a beat is a place where many people cross and use this area. Also, it leads to a theory that maybe the university is trying to be funny with this building, which I'll explain in due time.
The floor of the Music Building is a funny factor in the theory of the non-uniformity. I wish I had a better picture of the floor because this is amazing in itself. It's all not the same color or the same design. It has lines that look like vibrations that come off the columns and other objects on the floor. Also, there's a special hallway that fits the bill perfectly. The hall has blocks on the floor right beside displays on the walls. Now, I thought that this would be like the Foust building windows and it made a puzzle, but something was missing. Now, in order for this to fit the bill of a puzzle, it has to be on all parts of the hall, wall or ceiling. This case, there was nothing on the ceiling. So, all this has led me to believe that for this building, all rules of UNCG building were thrown out the window. Non-uniformity was the key for this building. Why? I believe that it is to show that music and the arts are becoming a bigger part of the UNCG community and society. Also, UNCg wanted to show that they're grasping the future by this one building. So, if there is a bigger expansion, then will the buildings look more like this or the Science Building? Only time will tell. To be Continued in the mystery of Walker Avenue!! Onward we go!!
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<urn:uuid:8f9745e1-7863-4f74-9c4d-88e29cee7702>
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http://hss105taylor.blogspot.com/2009/09/uncg-and-big-picture-part-2.html
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Latin dancers looking to IMPROVE your DANCING should explore the IMPORTANT of Muscle Memory techniques and how they can be adopted to improve your dancing.
Muscle Memory Helps IMPROVE your DANCING!
Muscle Memory is a motor skill acquired by repetition. When you teach yourself any type of movement, like one of the many Latin Dance Styles, your brain creates a blueprint of those movements and stores it in your brain ready to be recalled when you next perform those steps or routines.
Zen and Salsa Dancing - Improve your Dancing
The best thing about muscle memory is that it’s something you can practice as part of your daily routine.
So take a 3-5 minute during the day and practice a specific move you have being trying to refine or acquire.
After doing this couple times, move on to one of the many other moves and soon you would have built up a handful of steps, ready to be performed at any social latin dance event with ease.
The more you do an exercise, the more you build up the procedural memory so that your brain can quickly instruct your muscles to perform that movement.
“Your brain creates pathways through your central nervous system, and movements become automatic,
– ” says Wayne Westcott, Ph.D., fitness research director at Quincy College in Massachusetts.
Those well-worn pathways become your muscle memory
One of the MOST important points to remember is that Muscle Memory does not judge whether you are doing your steps the correct way, so it is EXTREMELY important to have mastered your latin dance style step before you commit to it using any muscle memory techniques.
Muscle memory is a form of procedural memory and can help you become very good at something
or absolutely terrible at that same thing.
REMEMBER when you repeat a mistake again and again, you build a muscle memory with those mistakes which eventually become even harder to overcome later.
Perfect Practice helps you develop that Perfect Latin Dance Step and show off your moves on the dance show.
Finger Salsa - Improve your Dancing
Develop a solid foundation of techniques first and then develop your muscle movement and that will serve you well in developing your latin dance moves and style.
Perfect repetition linked by some mysterious connection to our muscle memory enables us to eventually not have to think about our steps and just feel the rhythm of the music.
Soon our bodies just seem to know what to do, leaving our brains free to our imaginations and to perform with elegance and style.
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Discover Latin Dance Classes & Events in Melbourne
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http://improveyourdancing.com/improve-your-dancingi/muscle-memory/
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Noteput (2010)
A prototype for an interactive music table with tangible notes, that combines all three senses of hearing, sight and touch. Noteput aims to make learning the classical notation of music more easy and accessible.
The table has two modes: A standard mode, where you can place notes on the table in a playful and experimental way and explore the related music outcome. And an excercise mode, where excercises and tutorials sort by topic and difficulty have to be mastered.
To activate “Noteput”, simply put the treble clef on the table. As soon as a note is placed on the staves, the respective sound is heard. That serves as a kind of preview and an orientation while putting the notes. If several notes are on the table, you can hit the play button and listen to the notes in relation to each other and considering note values. In addition to piano other instruments like guitar, flute, vibraphon or e-piano can be chosen. It is also possible to play the notes in a loop. That way it is easy to compare how the current note sequence sounds like and how changes of the notation immediatly influence the music.
The theoretical basis for the Output project was the theses, that a combination of as much as many senses leads to the best learning results. One’s motivation plays a key role in the process of learning and remembering. With the fundamental approach of tangible notes Output does not only want to reach music interested children and pupils, but mostly those who have not yet enjoyed music lessons and have thought of learning the notation as a burden.
As proof of concept we built and programmed a functional prototype of the table with slightly reduced functions. All elements were cut out of thin wood plates, weighted differently with lead balls and painted black matte. The technical part was done with the visual programming language vvvv and the so-called reacTIVision Fiducial Markers. Each object has a unique marker at its bottom, which is tracked with a camera placed inside the table. The software recognizes the marker and is therefore able to define which note with what note value is at what position on the staves. With this data a vvvv-patch computes the respective note sequence and sends it via MIDI to a sound software, which then can play these singals for different instruments.
Messy vvvv patching :)
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http://jonasheuer.de/?noteput
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Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Next Generation Audience Response Systems for Teachers and Trainers
Audience Response Systems (ARS) establish interactivity between presenters and their audience. Traditionally ARS consist of several units of wireless hardware (a clicker pad which looks like a remote control) used by the audience, and it is combined with a presentation software used by the presenter.
Among the several well-known benefits of ARS, the most important one is that it creates an interactive and fun learning environment. Presenters can gain and retain audience attention, help increase knowledge retention, and confirm audience understanding of material presented. This is done in several ways: polling anonymously, tracking individual responses, displaying polling results immediately and so forth. Some presenters gather data or even take attendance using ARS.
According to Wikipedia, audience response systems may present some difficulties in both their deployment and use.
1. The per-unit purchase price of ARS devices
2. The maintenance and repair of devices when owned by a central unit or organization
3. The configuration, troubleshooting and support of the related presentation software
4. The reliability and performance of the devices
One can further state that the next generation should support some, if not all, of the following requirements.
1. Must work in a webinar / online meeting environment where people are not in the same location. Increasingly, meetings and classes take place in this mode. Clickers are no good for webinars.
2. Must avoid the need for purpose-built special hardware even when the audience is physically in same room (refer to my earlier post on Microsoft Mouse Mischief)
3. Should provide the option of using generic reliable hardware such as computers, tablets or even smart phones as participation devices
4. Should work with popular presentation software such as PowerPoint
5. Must allow free text entry (apart from selecting from multiple choices)
6. Must make it possible for the presentation software to share with everybody the result of participation instantly, thus fostering interaction
Any other thoughts on the next generation audience response systems?
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Content Authoring with Video Interactions
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http://learningharbinger.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html
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Adjective "havoc" definition and examples
Definitions and examples
Widespread destruction.
1. 'Marcellus was struck down sick and incapacitated when a galactic storm struck the outer planets, creating destruction and havoc.'
2. 'With that, the fight broke loose, along with pure havoc and destruction.'
3. 'But the championship got off to an inauspicious start with the tsunami wreaking havoc on the Kollam coast on the inaugural day.'
4. 'A tornado is a funnel-shaped cloud that descends on land, creating havoc and destruction in its wake.'
5. 'Ivan tore through Grenada last year, wreaking havoc and taking with it lives, homes and livestock.'
6. 'The AIDS epidemic is wreaking havoc in sub-Saharan Africa.'
7. 'Yesterday afternoon's heavy downpour and hail here caused havoc and widespread powercuts across the province.'
8. 'It is obvious that if foxes were a serious threat to agriculture, half a million of them would cause devastation and havoc.'
9. 'On that fateful night a disastrous landslide wreaked havoc on their scenic community.'
10. 'Windows have been smashed, paving pulled up, shop staff intimidated and telephone boxes destroyed as yobs caused havoc in the Thornhill area of the city.'
11. 'if they weren't at school they'd be wreaking havoc in the streets'
12. 'It appears that the beast has escaped, and is again wreaking havoc on the unsuspecting residents of Bucharest.'
13. 'Her family work as daily labourers and a day off can wreak havoc for the family's economy.'
14. 'In this one, she's a scientist trying to deal with an enormous octopus wreaking havoc in San Francisco.'
15. 'Off-road bikers wreaking havoc are being warned that police could soon have the power to confiscate their machines.'
16. 'The novel deals with a small band of ‘radicals’ who try to stir up revolt in a small town and end up wreaking havoc.'
17. 'He said a gang of about 30 teenagers have been causing havoc for the past six months.'
18. 'My mother-in-law is mentally ill and wreaking havoc on our marriage.'
19. 'But the group insists that the size of the development is too large for the conservation area and would bring traffic havoc to already congested lanes.'
20. 'The black striped mussel has caused millions of dollars worth of damage to marine industries around the world, and can cause havoc for shipping.'
21. 'A series of lightning strikes in the North and the South-East have been wreaking havoc with supply.'
Lay waste to; devastate.
1. 'The lack of participants is associated to a large storm that havocked Latvia in January 2005 and uprooted and destroyed large forest areas.'
More definitions
4. cry havoc, to warn of danger or disaster.
5. play havoc with, to create confusion or disorder in: The wind played havoc with the papers on the desk. to destroy; ruin: The bad weather played havoc with our vacation plans.
More examples(as adjective)
"rains can be havoc with schedules."
"weathers can be havoc with crops."
"scandals can be havoc with aspirationses."
"impositions can be havoc with valuations."
"downpours can be havoc with trainings."
More examples++
Late Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French havok, alteration of Old French havot, of unknown origin. The word was originally used in the phrase cry havoc ( Old French crier havot) ‘to give an army the order havoc’, which was the signal for plundering.
play havoc with
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http://listofadjectives.net/adjective-havoc-definition-and-examples
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How to Recognize Prehistoric Stone Age Tools
Prehistoric tools are often difficult to distinguish from natural debris because of their simplicity. It is not only that the techniques of tool-making developed gradually; so too did the conceptual range of tool types develop gradually. Today, hammers, wrenches, screwdrivers and saws are all clearly distinguished from each other by large differences in appearance; stone age tools, by contrast, are very similar to each other in appearance, even when they served different functions. Manufactured prehistoric tools are only distinguished from naturally-occurring gravel by the signs of consistent modification.
This is an important observation because, in the final analysis, any natural object can be utilized as a tool if it serves a need, and not only by humans. Chimpanzees have also been observed in using sticks and flat rocks as tools; surely, early humans did the same thing, even after early tool-making technologies had been developed. Most impromptu tools will never be identified; some, such as sticks, are made of perishable materials, while durable tools of this sort, such as flat rocks, are indistinguishable from rocks that have never been used in this manner. Only tools that have endured physical modification to suit human purposes can be identified.
Most of these manufactured tools are made of stone, and the earliest of these go back some two million years. Prehistoric stone tools were created by a process that is still practiced today, known as flintknapping. In this process, hard, brittle rocks like flint, obsidian and quartz are struck at oblique angles by another rock in order to knock off chips and flakes. This process serves both to shape the rock and to give it a cutting edge. Skillful flintknappers are good at guiding the final shapes of their tools, but the process is not perfect; internal flaws in the rock sometimes cause the primary piece, known as a core, to break apart in unexpected shapes. Early humans were likely opportunistic, using the larger pieces and the smaller chips alike, depending upon their needs.
In the earlier phases of stone age development, the dominant style of manufactured tool is the hand axe or hand chopper, a vaguely leaf-shaped piece knapped fairly flat with sharp edges on both sides. It was probably used in a variety of ways, being capable of slicing meat, scraping it off bones, cutting hides, and so on. Later, in the Upper Paleolithic and moving into the Neolithic, smaller and more carefully shaped flakes were prepared, presenting distinct patterns such as points, scrapers and burins.
Distinguishing these types from each other can be difficult for a layman; what is essential in identifying these pieces as manmade is the faceted surface that is created when chips are knocked off the primary piece. Naturally-broken rocks may have chips missing on one side, or in a random configuration, while manufactured tools show a systematic effort to remove flakes, often including dozens of tiny chips along the edges where a cutting blade was intended.
Stone is not the only durable material that was used in the Stone Ages to create tools. Bone and similar materials (teeth, ivory, and antlers) have also been utilized. These are softer, and therefore more easily carved. Moreover, bones begin with standard, recognizable shapes, and so modification of shape is more clearly identifiable. At the same time, one must remember that bones can break naturally; the discovery of a broken animal fibula with a sharp point at one end does not conclusively prove that it was made or even used by early humans. In an article in Burenhult 1993 (page 60 f), Peter Rowley-Conwy pointed out that even experts have hotly disputed some of these examples, with some scholars arguing persuasively that bones found with signs of cutting were actually the result of damage caused by the teeth of predators, rather than the tools of humans.
Unambiguous evidence of human manufacture in bone-type objects consists of two possible characteristics, either or both of which might be found in a given object: radical transformation or decoration. Radical transformation refers to the removal of a significant amount of material to create a shape determined by human planning rather than the natural form of the piece. A length of bone broken at one end, revealing a sharp point, has not been transformed and may not be the result of human action. A Neolithic sewing needle, however, created by whittling down a sliver of bone is clear evidence of human activity. Decoration is an obvious sign of human activity when it is found on a piece of bone or ivory, whether it consists of representational or abstract art.
The key to recognizing prehistoric stone age tools lies in awareness of the kinds of procedures that were used in creating them. Tools that are definitively identified as manufactured tools show signs of systematic manipulation and transformation that could only be performed by humans. Marginal cases surely exist where a minimal amount of modification was performed before the tool was used, and to modern eyes, there is nothing to distinguish these pieces from bones or rocks that were broken by natural processes. Perhaps tests may one day be discovered to distinguish these cases more thoroughly. For the layman, however, the criteria outlined above are currently the best ways to distinguish prehistoric tools from naturally-occurring debris.
Burenhult, Goran, ed. The First Humans: Human Origins and History to 10,000 BC. Harper San Francisco, 1993.
Midant-Reynes, Beatrix. The Prehistory of Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the First Pharaohs. Blackwell, 1992.
Wright, Edmund, ed. The Desk Encyclopedia of World History. Oxford, 2006.
© 2011, 2013. All rights reserved.
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http://michaeltfassbender.com/nonfiction/other-nonfiction/how-to-recognize-prehistoric-stone-age-tools/
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Mata Hari
Mata Hari (7 August 1876-15 October 1917), born Margaretha Gertruida Zelle, famous as both the most notorious female spy of the First World War and as a nude dancer during the Belle Epoque period that lasted from 1871-1914.
Early Life (1876-1904)
During her career, Mata Hari told many lies about herself and her ancestry, and others were spread after her death. She claimed that she had been born in India, and she was also said to be Javanese, Eurasian, or even Jewish. In Javanese (Indonesian), “Mata Hari” means “eye of the day”. “Mata Hari” is also one of the many names of Parvati, a Hindu goddess and consort of Shiva, the god of creation, destruction, and dance. In fact, Margaretha Zelle had no Asian blood at all. She was born in Leeuwarden the capital of the Dutch province of Friesland. Her father, Adam Zelle, was a prosperous hatter of German descent. Her mother, Antje Van Der Meulen, came from a well-off Frisian family. There was reportedly some Woudker blood in Mata Hari’s ancestry, the Woudkers being a gypsy-like local minority with dark complexions.
Mata Hari’s early childhood was happy and she soon gave evidence of the strong personality and talent for self-dramatization that were to remain with her as an adult. In 1889, however, her father went bankrupt and the family split up. Margaretha’s mother died in 1891. The young Margaretha went to a teachers’ college in Leiden where she trained as a kindergarten teacher, but there were whispers that she had conducted an affair with the headmaster. In 1894, Margaretha was living with an uncle and was still without a job or a stable home life. She answered a personal ad that had been placed by Rudolph MacLeod, a Dutch Army officer of Scottish descent. The two married in 1895, after only a brief acquaintanceship. Soon after their marriage the couple sailed to Indonesia, where MacLeod’s unit was stationed.
The MacLeods soon had two children: Norman, born in 1897, and Jeanne (called Non), born in 1898. The marriage, however, was unhappy. MacLeod was twice Margaretha’s age, a rough soldier who drank hard and slept with prostitutes. According to Pat Shipman, Mata Hari’s most recent biographer, MacLeod may have suffered from syphilis, and may also have passed the disease on to his wife and children. The young, romantic, and elegant Margaretha attracted the attention of many men in Indonesia. There is no solid evidence that she was ever unfaithful, but MacLeod was still highly suspicious of his young wife. He complained often of Margaretha’s expensive taste in clothes, and probably beat and even whipped her when he was drunk. The couple’s son Norman was allegedly poisoned by a native servant in 1899, and his death effectively ended any affection that remained between husband and wife. In 1902, the MacLeods returned to Holland and were soon separated.
The Exotic Dancer and Prostitute (1904-1914)
Margaretha soon drifted to Paris, the city of her dreams, but she was unable to find steady work and lived a precarious existence as a prostitute and artist’s model. Despite her sensuous nature, Margaretha was initially very reluctant to take off her clothes for artists, which of course limited her usefulness as a model. She got some help in these early Parisian years from Henri de Marguerie, a French consular offical whom she had met in Holland. She finally got a good job as an equestrienne in a Parisian circus. The owner of the circus suggested that she try dancing. Margaretha knew something of Indonesian dance and had often worn Indonesian dress when she lived in that country. In her original act, Margaretha performed three dances in Oriental costume: the “passion flower dance”; the “kris dance” (in which she wielded a spear or a long Malay dagger); and the “veil dance”, the most famous and successful of all. In this, Margaretha danced before a statue of Shiva, shedding her clothes until at the end of the performance she was completely naked save for a jeweled brassiere. (On some occasions, however, Margaretha wore an ultrathin see-through body stocking.)
Billing herself as Madame MacLeod, Margaretha gave her first private performances late in 1904. During this period she met Émile Étienne Guimet, a wealthy art collector and amateur Orientalist who had turned his home into a museum for Asian antiquties. Guimet served as an adviser to Margaretha, and helped improve her act. Guimet gave her expensive Asian costumes from his private collection, and apparently suggested her new stage name: Mata Hari. Margaretha’s public debut as Mata Hari came on 13 March 1905 at the Musee Guimet. The audience of 300 included the German and Japanese ambassadors. Mata Hari’s performance was a triumph, making her an overnight sensation with the public and the critics alike. For several years afterwards Mata Hari was a top star in Paris, performing at such choice venues as the Trocadero, the Cercle Royale, and the Olympia. Later in her career, Mata Hari also performed at the famed Folies Bergere. She also made several successful foreign tours, dancing in Madrid, Vienna, Berlin, and Monte Carlo. Mata Hari was much in demand for private performances, dancing in the homes of the rich and in leading Paris salons. At her peak, Mata Hari could command fees of up to 10,000 francs for an engagement. She was so popular that her name was used on brands of cigars, cigarettes, and other products.
Mata Hari always maintained that her dances were authentically Asian and had religious significance, just as she also claimed to be Indian or Indonesian herself. Ignorance of Asian dance was so widespread at the time that few challenged her claims. Though taken seriously both by critics and a few anthropologists, Mata Hari’s dances were in fact a pastiche of her own invention. Her success was largely due to the contemporary fascinations with exotic eroticism and all things Oriental. Since the 1890’s European writers and composers had been fascinated by the figure of Salome. Oscar Wilde’s 1892 play began the “Salomania” craze, and in 1905 (the very year of Mata Hari’s public debut) Richard Strauss wrote his hit opera on the same theme. Dangerous, highly-sexed Asian women were in demand by the public. The strip-tease had been known in France since at least the 1890’s. It was hardly fashionable or respectable, but semi-nude dancing was a feature of the developing modern dance movement. Isadora Duncan had already shown the way, but she had not been a great popular success in France and had not dared to take all her clothes off. Mata Hari chose the right place at the right time, not only artistically but legally. In 1902, the French courts struck down previous restrictions on nudity, both on the legitimate stage and in print media. Ordinary strippers might still get into legal trouble, but Mata Hari’s “artistic” and “religious” dances were within the law. By 1905 nude postcards were being widely sold in France, and nude images of Mata Hari became highly popular.
Contemporary critics identified Mata Hari with the modern dance movement; some thought her superior to Isadora Duncan. Without a filmed record, her true ability is difficult to assess. Her performances were certainly exciting, and she was a master at subtle changes of mood and expression. Mata Hari enjoyed performing and smiled frequently during her dances. At the end of the ‘veil dance,’ she fell prone to the floor and simulated orgasm. Mata Hari first did this in 1904, years before the dancer Nijinsky of the Russian Ballet created a major artistic sensation by doing the same thing in his performance of “The Afternoon of a Faun”.
Sometimes Mata Hari claimed to be a great artist and poured scorn on her “inauthentic” imitators. On other occasions, she said cynically that no one would have come to see her dance at all if she had not taken her clothes off. Her agent, Gabriel Astruc, represented the Russian Ballet and other major talents of the day, and Mata Hari later tried very hard to raise her own artistic level. Late in her career, she worked with the Indian musician and Muslim mystic Inayat Khan to create a truly authentic Indian dance. Mata Hari longed to dance the role of Salome, and in 1912 she finally did so. She gave a private performance of the part for the Prince di San Faustino, an aging womanizer, at the Palazzo Barberini in Rome. This performance received excellent reviews, but did not lead to a public engagement. None of Mata Hari’s later ventures brought her the same popular success as her early nude dances.
Mata Hari’s newfound stardom came at a personal cost. Her bankrupt father wrote an exploitative book about her. Mata Hari had been separated from her husband for several years, but her nude appearances on stage gave Rudolph MacLeod grounds for divorce. MacLeod got custody of the couple’s daughter, Non, and this was a heavy blow to Mata Hari. MacLeod would not allow Mata Hari to send letters or gifts to Non, much less to see her. Mata Hari allegedly paid her maid to kidnap the girl, but the attempt failed. Despite her father’s hostility, Non remained loyal to her mother’s memory and carried a picture of Mata Hari in her lunchbox.
Despite her early success, Mata Hari did not pursue her dancing career consistently. From 1908 to 1912, she lived mainly off of men. Mata Hari became one of the most sought-after prostitutes in Paris, and had numerous clients and lovers. She had a special fondness for military officers, and also preferred wealthy and powerful men: diplomats, bankers, and lawyers. Among Mata Hari’s certain or probable lovers were the composers Jules Massenet, Giacomo Puccini, Baron Henri de Rothschild, Gaston Menier, a chocolate magnate, art collector, and enthusiastic amateur photographer who shot Mata Hari in the nude; Edouard Clunet, a leading expert on international law; General Adolphe-Pierre Messimy, French minister of war in 1914; Henri de Marguerie, French ambassador to Holland and Japan; and Jules Cambon, French ambassador to the United States, Spain, and Germany.
Mata Hari was certainly hard for men to resist. A German policeman who investigated Mata Hari on a charge of “indecency” eventually took her to dinner and slept with her. Jules Massenet admired her enough to write a dancing part for her in his 1906 opera, “Le Roi de Lahore”. Felix Xavier Rousseau, a successful banker and a married man, was another of Mata Hari’s lovers and her chief patron for several years. Rousseau bought Mata Hari an expensive villa in the fashionable Parisian suburb of Neuilly (nearly bankrupting himself in the process) and he also allowed her to use his chateau in the country, where she rode frequently. For a number of years, Mata Hari also had an on-and-off affair with a wealthy German cavalry officer named Alfred Kiepert. Under pressure from his family to end the relationship, Kiepert finally paid Mata Hari off with the enormous sum of 300,000 marks. Kiepert also took Mata Hari to see the German Army manuevers in Silesia. Mata Hari spent a good deal of time in Germany and later claimed that the Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany also had an affair with her, but there is little evidence for this. Such German associations, however, were later to prove dangerous for Mata Hari.
Although frequently absent from the stage in these years, Mata Hari remained a prominent figure in the social and artistic world of Belle Epoque Paris, and many famous persons knew her well (a fact they would later deny). Mata Hari was an excellent rider and doted on her horses, of whom she had several. She often attended fashionable horse races at Auteuil, Longchamps, and elsewhere. She ate at the best Parisian restaurants (Maxim’s, Rumpelmeyer’s, and the Larue) and stayed in the city’s finest hotels (including the Grand and the Meurice). In her prime years as a prostitute, Mata Hari rented rooms for her business in the Rue de Galilee, one of the most fashionable brothel quarters in Paris.
Clothes had always been one of Mata Hari’s passions, and she spent a great deal of money on them after she became famous. Erte, the brilliant designer who later worked for the Russian Ballet, designed his first theatrical costume for Mata Hari. Mata Hari’s other “couturieres” included Georgette Brama, Louise Emery, and Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon, better known in France as Lucille. They knew Mata Hari as a demanding customer who preferred her dresses to be as revealing as possible. Though she spent much of her time at home in the nude (even receiving some visitors unclothed), Mata Hari was acknowledged by many to be the best-dressed woman in Paris. She was photographed by Paul Boyer, Lucien Walery, and Leopold-Emile Reutlinger, the leading theatrical and fashion photographers of the day.
During this period, Mata Hari tried repeatedly to enter the world of legitimate dance, opera, and theatre. In 1910, she performed a dancing role in Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “Antar”. In 1912, she performed in Gluck’s opera “Armide” and Antonio Marceno’s ballet “Bacchus and Gambrinus” at the prestigious La Scala in Milan. Unfortunately, Mata Hari seems to have won a reputation as a “difficult” performer who often quarrelled with directors, managers, and other artists. Her attempt to join Sergei Diaghilev’s famous Russian Ballet ended in disaster. Diaghilev and his assistants insisted that Mata Hari audition for them in the nude. Mata Hari found this condition insulting but submitted to it, only to be humiliatingly rejected.
Mata Hari’s career was not entirely unique. Other women had followed a similar path in France. The stage was not completely respectable for a woman before 1914, and some women who became famous as singers, dancers, actresses, models, or prostitutes moved easily from one of these professions to the other, sometimes practising several at a time. The most successful and desirable of these “Demimondaines” became true courtesans or “Grandes Horizontales”, well above the level of the ordinary streetwalker. They had their pick of wealthy and powerful lovers, sometimes wielded political influence, and often married well and became respectable hostesses, presiding over their own salons. The dancer La Belle Otero and the actress Liane de Pougy, both near-contemporaries of Mata Hari, followed this path to success. Mata Hari never quite rose to such an influential level. She longed for respectability and aristocratic connections, but never fully acquired either. Her outspoken and erratic personality may have worked against her. Certainly none of Mata Hari’s fellow courtesans exhibited their sexuality in such a blatantly public way. In that respect, Mata Hari’s career more nearly resembled that of a modern pop star like Madonna.
By 1913, Mata Hari was aging, deep in debt, and no longer in such great demand as a performer. She faced increasing competition from similar dancers like Maud Allan, who made the part of Salome her own. Mata Hari was also finding it harder to attract and keep wealthy lovers, and had taken to trolling for men in hotel lobbies. In May 1914 she began rehearsals for a new show in Berlin, but the outbreak of the First World War prevented the show from opening. Mata Hari’s luggage and costumes were impounded by the German government, and she was forced to return to Holland (a neutral country) after an absence of many years. Before long she met up with an old lover, Colonel Baron Van Der Capellen of the Dutch Army, who set her up in a modest house in The Hague. Mata Hari found her new life boring, however, and she pined for the bright lights of Paris. This was to prove her undoing.
The “Spy” and the Victim (1914-1917)
Until recently, Mata Hari was commonly depicted as a brilliant spy. In fact, she was barely a spy at all. Mata Hari was a typical figure of the free-living Belle Epoque, and she never understood the fundamental change in attitudes brought about by the First World War. In all belligerent countries, including France, the war brought a new atmosphere of sexual repression, spy mania, and xenophobia. Mata Hari was an independent, cosmopolitan woman, an outspoken individualist with a reputation for sexual license. Many men and some women had always regarded such “femmes fortes” as socially and morally threatening. In the grim and earnest wartime atmosphere, a woman like Mata Hari was bound to appear suspicious and dangerous to the authorities not for what she did but simply for what she was. Mata Hari’s failure to recognize this basic reality led her into a pattern of recklessly self-destructive behavior.
In December 1915 Mata Hari travelled via Britain to Paris. Mata Hari later testified that she did this of her own will and with her own money (or rather Van Der Capellen’s money). Yet according to Leon Schirmann, the most thorough of her French biographers, in late 1915 Mata Hari was approached by a neighbor of hers, Karl Cramer, an official of the German consular service in Holland. Cramer offered her money to go to Paris and obtain low-level intelligence information. (In her court testimony, Mata Hari later dated this meeting to the following year, after she had returned from her first wartime trip to France.) Mata Hari was initially cautious, but finally accepted Cramer’s proposal. Mata Hari’s motives are uncertain but she was certainly anxious to return to Paris, her only real home, where she had to dispose of her house at Neuilly and the posessions it contained. Van Der Capellen was wealthy, but not overgenerous to her. Finally, Mata Hari may have hoped that in return for her services the German government would release to her the costumes and personal items that they had seized the previous year. She may also have felt resentment towards France because she was no longer a top star there. In any case, she had no intention of doing any real spying, and used Cramer’s money for her own purposes. The German intelligence service gave her the designation Agent H21. The H stood for Hoffmann, the latter being the name of the German intelligence officer who ran the network to which Mata Hari was assigned.
To get to France, Mata Hari took passage via the United Kingdom, an act which quickly brought her under suspicion from British intelligence. The British passed on their suspicions of Mata Hari to the French. Mata Hari spent a month in Paris, closing up her Neuilly house and earning money by prostitution. While staying in a Paris hotel Mata Hari met a fellow guest who was one of her old lovers, Henri de Marguerie, and also found a new lover in Major the Marquis de Beauffort of the Belgian Army. All three lived in the hotel and the men shared Mata Hari’s favors. According to Schirmann, during this time Mata Hari sent in only one very brief report to the Germans about a possible French offensive in the coming spring. This was no more than common cafe gossip, which the Germans might just as easily have learned from reading neutral newspapers. French agents watched her every move. She soon returned to Holland, but from that point on Mata Hari was a marked woman.
Mata Hari’s initial performance as a secret agent had been very disappointing, but Cramer’s superiors were determined to make use of her, perhaps in the hope of redeeming their investment. In May 1916 Cramer approached her again. This time he offered even more money. In return, Mata Hari was asked to undertake a more serious mission. Several of Mata Hari’s former lovers held prominent positions in the French military and diplomatic hierarchy. Because of her connections, Colonel Walter Nicolai, head of the German General Staff’s intelligence service (Section 3B) regarded Mata Hari as a potenially excellent agent. Nicolai interviewed her personally in Cologne, but was rather disconcerted when she attempted to seduce him. Despite this, he assigned Mata Hari to gather information from her highly placed friends and lovers in Paris. Messimy was to be the prime target. Nicolai gave Mata Hari the additional code name “Beauty”.
Mata Hari may have had some doubts about all this, but having gone so far with the Germans (and done so little for them) she was not in a good position to refuse. Mata Hari’s new mission required some training, and she travelled to Frankfurt to attend a brief course at a German spy school. Here she came under the tutelage of Elsbeth Schragmueller, a former female professor known as “Fraulein Doktor”. This woman later became nearly as notorious as Mata Hari herself, and many wild legends circulated about her. In her autobiography Schragmueller said that Mata Hari was a charming, witty, and sophisticated woman, whose company she enjoyed. Yet Schragmueller also considered Mata Hari very poor spy material, and she accurately predicted that “this demimondaine” would turn out to be more trouble than she was worth. According to Julie Wheelwright, however, Schragmueller was actually quite enthusiastic about Mata Hari’s potential as an agent. Wheelwright also states that Schragmueller met Mata Hari in Antwerp, not Frankfurt, and that Mata Hari approached Cramer rather than the other way around.
Mata Hari took the German money and sailed from Holland to England. When the British refused to let her pass through en route to France, she travelled via ship to Spain instead. A Dutchman named Henry Hoedemaker (who claimed to be a British agent but was probably simply a civilian obsessed by spy-mania), harassed Mata Hari on the ship and tried to search her cabin. Mata Hari confronted Hoedemaker and slapped him hard enough to draw blood. Hoedemaker made trouble for Mata Hari with the French authorities, and she was stopped at the Franco-Spanish border. Mata Hari appealed to her old lover, Jules Cambon, whose influence allowed her to enter France.
Mata Hari spent more than 5 months in Paris, once again plying her trade as a prostitute in the city’s hotels. Wars are always flush times for prostitutes, and Mata Hari was much in demand. In less than 6 weeks she slept with 11 officers from 4 different Allied armies. Despite later allegations, however, she never attempted to get any intelligence information from her military customers. She certainly made no special effort to pursue her old lover Messimy. Ernest Hemingway later claimed that he had slept with Mata Hari around this time, but this was untrue.
Unfortunately for herself, Mata Hari now made the worst mistake a prostitute can make: she fell in love. The man in question was a very young Russian officer, Vadim Masloff, who was soon badly wounded. Mata Hari’s deep and genuine love for Masloff seems to have affected her attitude towards her German employers. She had done virtually nothing for the Germans anyway, but now she felt that she could no longer work at all for the side her lover was fighting against. Masloff proposed marriage, and Mata Hari accepted. She was anxious to help Masloff recover from his injuries, and she also wanted to give up prostitution so that she could be true to him. This, however, would require a great deal of money.
In order to see Masloff, Mata Hari also had to get a special pass to travel to a restricted military zone. The pass required the approval of Captain Georges Ladoux, the chief of French military counterintelligence (the Deuxieme Bureau). Ladoux was an extremely ambitious officer of doubtful competence. He had been reading reports on Mata Hari since December 1915. Ladoux later insisted that he had already made up his mind that she was a German spy, and that he sought only to draw her out and expose her. Actually, Ladoux probably believed that he could “turn” Mata Hari to the French side and make some real use of her. One of Mata Hari’s favorite customers, Lieutenant Jean Hallaure, was actually one of Ladoux’s agents, and he steered Mata Hari towards his chief. Ladoux said he would give Mata Hari the pass she sought if she would become a spy for France. Mata Hari agreed, but asked for no less than 1 million francs in return. Ladoux put off her demand for money, but gave her the pass she wanted.
In November 1916 Mata Hari left Paris on her way to Belgium via Holland. She was now a French agent and she intended to spy on the Germans in Belgium. Her plans were certainly ambitious. She aimed to seduce at least three German officers: General Moritz Von Bissing, the elderly German military governor of occupied Belgium; Ernst August, Duke of Cumberland, a younger officer whom Mata Hari claimed to have known before the war; and Crown Prince Wilhelm, whom she had supposedly slept with previously.
Travelling via Spain and England, Mata Hari was detained by the British when she arrived in the United Kingdom. The British confused her with another woman named Clara Benedix, whom they believed to be a German agent. The extent of British suspicion was indicated by the high-powered team they assigned to interrogate Mata Hari: Basil (later Sir Basil) Thomson of Scotland Yard, one of that force’s most distinguished detectives, and Captain (later Admiral Sir) William Reginald “Blinker” Hall of the Royal Navy, one of the greatest intelligence officers in history. Mata Hari told the British that she was a French agent, but the angry and embarassed Ladoux denied it and asked the British to send her back to Spain.
Scarcely grasping the dangerous subtleties of the game in which she was engaged, Mata Hari refused to give up. Without orders from Ladoux, Mata Hari tried to spy on German officials in the Madrid embassy. She had sex with the German military attache, Major Arnold Von Kalle, who passed on some minor rumors to her. These were the only real pieces of intelligence that Mata Hari ever collected for France, and were just as worthless as the rumors she had earlier reported to her German employers. Mata Hari passed her findings to the French, but was puzzled and then angered when she got neither congratulations nor 1 million francs from Ladoux.
The Germans in fact had a grudge against Mata Hari, and they entrapped her deliberately. She had taken money from Cramer and done almost nothing in return for it. Her approaches to Von Kalle were so awkward and obvious that Von Kalle was immediately suspicious of her. The French military attache in Madrid, Colonel Denvignes, was unaware of Mata Hari’s plans, but he pursued her ardently, and this made the Germans even more wary of her. Mata Hari even sent reports to the French through ordinary mail, reports which the Germans easily intercepted. The Germans in Madrid then sent a series of radio signals to Berlin, identifying Mata Hari as their Agent H21. These signals were sent in a code which the Germans knew the French had broken. Their interception was enough for Ladoux; he determined to arrest Mata Hari. Mata Hari obliged him by returning to Paris in January 1917. She was anxious to confront Ladoux and demand payment, but she never got the chance. The French arrested her on 13 February 1917.
For months, Mata Hari endured grim conditions in several French prisons. She was thoroughly interrogated, but continued to maintain her innocence. Her accusers gave her no opportunity to prove it. Most of the letters she wrote in prison were never forwarded by the French. The many famous persons who had known her now denounced or ignored her. Mata Hari was not brought to trial until July, 1917, and the trial lasted only two days. Even by the low standards of wartime military courts, Mata Hari’s trial was a miscarriage of justice. There were many procedural irregularities. Witnesses whom Mata Hari requested were not allowed to appear. Edouard Clunet, her lawyer and former lover, had no experience of criminal cases. Under his advice, Mata Hari committed a serious tactical blunder when she admitted to having been in contact with the Germans. Under the court’s interpretation of French military law, this was almost tantamount to a confession. Clunet and Mata Hari may have hoped that such an admission would win clemency or a reduced sentence, but Mata Hari would have been much better off to deny everything. Lieutenant Andre Mornet, the prosecutor, later admitted that there was not enough evidence in the case “to hang a cat”. Mornet failed to cite a single specific instance of espionage; mere association and contact with the Germans was considered evidence enough. Unable to produce real examples of espionage, Mornet used misogynist rhetoric to blacken Mata Hari’s character instead; he called the former nude dancer a “Salome” and a “Messalina”. Mata Hari’s many lies about herself did nothing to help her in the eyes of the court. The worst blow to Mata Hari came in a letter to the court from Masloff, who now denounced the lover who had endangered her life for his sake. In fact, Masloff had remained secretly loyal to Mata Hari, but she never knew this; his love letters to her while she was in prison were held back by the authorities.
The court took only half an hour to reach a verdict. Mata Hari was condemned to death on 25 July 1917. She remained in prison, however, for nearly three more months, as her lawyer tried every conceivable appeal. The Dutch government asked for a pardon, but this was rejected and other appeals also failed. It was never likely that they would succeed.
In her last days, Mata Hari was bitter towards former lovers and friends who refused to aid her. Yet she also showed considerable dignity and honesty. She admitted that she had made mistakes, but she refused to apologize for herself or her life. The Catholic nuns who were sent to comfort her grew very fond of her. Mata Hari was finally executed by a firing squad on 15 October 1917. She showed great bravery, refusing a blindfold and exhorting the weeping nuns to be strong. No one claimed her body, which went to a French hospital for examination and dissection.
There is still a great deal of controversy about Mata Hari’s trial and execution. Most of the French Army’s dossier on the case has now been published. The French have so far declined to revise the verdict, and the French Army still adheres to a narrow interpretation of the facts in the case. In the strictest sense, Mata Hari was guilty of being a German agent. This being so, the fact that she gave the Germans no useful information was of no importance in the eyes of French military law.
This interpretation, however, ignores a multitude of other facts in the case. Mata Hari’s change of loyalties to France was certainly sincere, since it was motivated by her love for Masloff (which no one has ever questioned). By the time she reached Madrid, the Germans had clearly ceased to regard Mata Hari as one of their own agents, and were in no doubt that she was working (however clumsily) for the French. The incrimination of such a useless or hostile double agent with the enemy intelligence service, ”burning”, as it is known, was and is common in espionage, and the Germans practiced it frequently in World War I. Given her poor performance when in their service, and her clear change of loyalties to France, the Germans had every motive to frame Mata Hari. The French simply took the German bait.
Mata Hari’s trial took place in a tense atmosphere. In 1917, France and the Allies appeared to be losing the war. In the spring of that year, the failure of an offensive on the Western Front led to massive mutinies that affected most of the French Army. War-weariness was growing on the home front, and a defeatist movement was gaining strength. This movement included some prominent politicians, and some defeatists were in contact with the Germans. The Germans secretly subsidized some French newspapers to spread anti-war propaganda. Under these circumstances, the French Army and the French people were vulnerable to spy mania and prone to lash out at scapegoats. Mata Hari was available for just such a role. As Mornet allegedly said, “Innocent though she was, she had to disappear”.
The irregularities in the trial and general conduct of Mata Hari’s case by the French have already been mentioned. The military court that tried Mata Hari, the 3eme Conseil de Guerre, had an ugly record of such misconduct. The court was specially constituted to try sensitive and politically charged cases of espionage and disloyalty, and its job was to convict whatever the cost to justice and proper procedure. The anarchist Miguel Almereyda, whose case was tried by the 3eme Conseil de Guerre, was later found dead in his cell, mysteriously strangled. Two defeatist politicians accused by the court, Louis Malvy and Joseph Caillaux, would probably have been executed like Mata Hari but for their political influence; their cases were handled with equal unfairness by the 3eme Conseil de Guerre.
Mornet and the chief investigator in Mata Hari’s case, Captain Pierre Bouchardon, remained together on military courts for many years after 1917 and even served the pro-German Vichy Regime during World War II. Despite this, they also formed the prosecuting team in the post-World War II trial of Pierre Laval, the Vichy prime minister. Laval may well have deserved his ultimate sentence of execution, but his trial was conducted with scandalous partiality. Mata Hari, then, was simply another victim of the Mornet-Bouchardon team.
The whole case was surrounded by ironies. Such was the extent of French spy mania at the time that Ladoux himself was jailed and accused of espionage. The Germans had “burned” Mata Hari in revenge for her faithlessness to them. Once she was dead, however, the Germans made great propaganda capital out of the French execution of an innocent woman from a neutral country. Rudolph MacLeod hated his ex-wife, but even he was shocked by her execution.
Misfortune continued to pursue Mata Hari even in death. Her body was unclaimed and went to a French medical school for dissection. Her head was preserved in alcohol and used for medical study as well, but eventually disappeared decades later. Non, Mata Hari’s only surviving child, lived only a few years later than her mother, dying of illness while still a very young woman.
The Mata Hari Legend
Mata Hari’s death was the beginning of her legend as the archetypal female spy. The French did much to propagate this myth, in order to justify her execution. The first biography of Mata Hari in English, by a British intelligence officer named Coulson, was made up largely of sensational stories and allegations and bore little relationship to the facts. For nearly 50 years, such stories were universally accepted and repeated, even in otherwise reliable histories of intelligence and espionage.
In recent decades, however, the truth of Mata Hari’s life and espionage career has been gradually uncovered. In the 1960’s, the Dutch author Sam Waagenaar published a biography based on Mata Hari’s own surviving papers, interviews with those who had known her since her schooldays, and other primary sources. Waagenaar was the first to cast doubt on the image of Mata Hari as a superspy. In 1985, author Russell Warren Howe finally got the French government to open its files on Mata Hari. The flimsiness of the French case was thus revealed. In recent years, Julie Wheelwright and Toni Bentley have placed Mata Hari and her career in proper historical context. For such writers, many of whom are feminists, Mata Hari is a wronged woman and even something of a heroine, a victim of wartime hysteria and sexual repression. Leon Schirmann has organized a campaign to clear her name, and an international society for that purpose now exists. Mata Hari, once a scandal to her home town of Leeuwarden, has become a leading tourist attraction there and a statue of her now stands in the town square. A recent exhibition on her life at the Friesmuseum in Leeuwarden was opened by Xaviera Hollander, the Dutch-born prostitute of “Happy Hooker” fame. The Amsterdam Sex Museum now features an animatronic semi-nude figure of Mata Hari.
The innaccuracy of the historical record allowed the mass media of popular culture free rein to distort Mata Hari’s life even further. Novels, plays, musicals, and operas have been written about her. Numerous films and television series have been made of her life.
In the James Bond pastiche “Casino Royale”, Joanna Pettet played Mata Bond, supposedly the daughter of Mata Hari and Agent 007.
In the “Young Indiana Jones Chronicles” episode “Paris, October 1916”, the films “Demons of Deception” and “Flirting with Danger - The Fantasy of Mata Hari”, and novel “The Mata Hari Affair”; Mata Hari gives the young Indy his first sexual experience.
The comic book writer and graphic novelist Alan Moore is fascinated by Mata Hari, who makes several appearances in his work. Mata Hari is a main character in the steampunk graphic novel series “Alter Nation”.
In the “Andromeda” episode “Star-Crossed” Harper uses the comparison of Mata Hari to a ship’s avatar who is used as an unwilling spy and saboteur.
In the “M.I. High” episode “The League of Mata Hari” the name Mata Hari is used for an espionage/intelligence social club. The name is telling as the arrests are used to imprison the loyal agents and provide credibility to the enemy’s double agents.
She has been featured in several video games.
A bogus “Diary of Mata Hari” has become something of a pornographic classic. Nearly all fictional depictions of Mata Hari portray her simply as the typical femme fatale. To this day, to call a woman a “Mata Hari” evokes a traditional stereotype.
Most recently, the British filmmaker Martha Fiennes has announced plans for a film of Mata’s life starring the American stripper Dita Von Teese.
Appearance and Personality
Mata Hari was not a classic beauty by the standards of her own day, lacking the fine features and pale complexion then favored by popular taste. The many photographs of her, however, show that she was indeed a strikingly handsome woman. Her dark eyes were particularly expressive, and in some images she looks very Asian. Mata Hari was a tall (5’ 9” or 5’ 10”), dark-haired woman with a classic hourglass figure: narrow waist, wide hips, and long, strong legs. She usually wore her hair up, though she sometimes let it down or braided it. On rare occasions, she may have bleached her hair blonde. Mata Hari seems to have been rather sensitive about her breasts. She usually kept her breasts covered with a “cache-sein” (a thinly padded bra), even while having sex and in performances where she was otherwise nude. She claimed that her ex-husband had bitten off her nipples in a fit of jealous rage, but this was untrue. The doctor who examined her body after her execution said that her breasts were ugly, but a former lover denied this strongly, insisting that Mata Hari had “quality breasts”. One official French Army document described her breasts as “heavy”. Mata Hari danced bare-breasted more than once, and her topless performance as Salome in 1912 brought her great acclaim. Her breasts may not have been ideal according to some standards, but more probably she knew that concealing a small part of the body while exposing the rest had an exciting effect. Exotic dancers today still observe the same principle.
Mata Hari put on a little weight in her last years, but she still wore clothes elegantly. More importantly, she never lost the powerful sexual magnetism that had been hers from the beginning. The fact that she could find and keep a lover as young and handsome as Masloff is testimony to this. As a man who knew her well said, “she was “a personality”“.
Mata Hari in her Own Words
Mata Hari’s strong character was evident in her words. She was a good writer with a beautiful hand, composing her own advertising copy. Mata Hari was also well spoken, and excelled at charming and deceiving interviewers and reporters. Much of what she said and wrote was done with the tongue in the cheek. She had a sharp wit and a gift for making memorable phrases, as the following quotes show:
On her life: “Remember that all my life as a woman, I have lived as Mata Hari, that I think and act as such, that I have lost all notion of travel, distances, dangers, nothing exists for me...I lose--I win--I defend myself when someone attacks me--I take when someone has taken from me”.
On herself: “I am a woman who enjoys herself very much; sometimes I lose, sometimes I win”.
On dance: “The dance is a poem, of which each movement is a word”.
On her own nude dancing: “In my dancing one forgets the woman in me, so that when I offer everything and finally myself to the god--which is symbolized by the loosening of my loincloth, the last piece of clothing I have on--and stand there, albeit for only a second entirely naked, I have never yet evoked any feeling but the interest in the mood that is expressed by my dancing”.
On what she would have done if her act had failed and she had not become a star: “I had a gun ready and my decision was taken”.
On being accused of prostitution and espionage: “Harlot? Yes. Traitoress? Never!”
Mata Hari’s dialogue with Captain Ladoux, when she asked for money to spy for France:
• Ladoux: “You must be very expensive”.
• Mata Hari: “That--definitely!”
• Ladoux: “What do you think you are worth?”
• Mata Hari: “All or nothing!”
On one occasion, Mata Hari danced nude at a women-only lesbian party (see below). During the performance, she discovered that one of the party guests was actually a man dressed as a woman. She chased him from the room with a spear, yelling: “There is an intruder in the house!”
A poem written by the young Margaretha Zelle for a school friend:
• ”If your eyes in reader’s quest,
• Seeking joy among these pages
• Upon this sheet have come to rest,
• Remember that the writer’s best
• Wishes are yours throughout the ages”.
Mata Hari and Lesbianism
Colette wrote that one of Mata Hari’s performances at Barney’s house “brought the male--and a good portion of the female, audience to the limit of decent attention”. The American lesbian writer, Janet Flanner, became a close friend of Barney’s after the war and also talked to many of Barney’s friends who had witnessed Mata Hari’s performances. Of her nude dancing, Flanner said that “The only woman who had that kind of extraordinary style was Mata Hari. “There” was a woman who was equal to any event”. Mata Hari remained part of Barney’s circle, and frequently lunched with Barney and her friends. Barney wore mannish “Amazonian” style dresses, and Mata Hari often wore similar outfits while riding. According to Flanner, Mata Hari got a brand new “Amazonian” dress from Barney just before her execution, and was wearing it when she was shot.
After she was safely dead, Barney, Colette, and Pougy all criticized Mata Hari harshly. They even said that they had never found her attractive. This was a curious assertion indeed, since Mata Hari had performed nude for them 3 times. Unattractiveness would hardly have earned her 2 return engagements at the Barney home.
Mata Hari and Nancy Makuhari
A key character in “Read or Die”, Nancy Makuhari (codename Miss Deep) is a clone of Mata Hari. In the “Read or Die” OVA, Nancy’s true identity is revealed when Ikkyu Sojun, her lover, addresses her as Mata Hari in his broadcast. A list seen earlier in Joseph Carpenter’s hands shows Mata Hari on the list of famous persons whose DNA has been preserved by the Special Operations Division. It is possible that Nancy may have been cloned from a stolen sample of this DNA.
Nancy has many traits in common with Mata Hari. Like Mata Hari, Nancy is an intensely sexual woman with a strong personality. Nancy is outspoken, cynical, deceptive, and unconventional. Beneath this, however, she is romantic and a little sentimental. She is physically and morally brave and can be surprisingly gentle and kind. Mata Hari had the same qualities. Like Mata Hari, Nancy has a self-destructive streak, tends to prefer fantasy to reality, and can be her own worst enemy. Nancy even shares Mata Hari’s enjoyment of fine clothes and dressing up. The two are also similar physically. Both are tall, strong, and dark-haired. Nancy, however, has finer features, reddish instead of dark eyes, and very large breasts.
The alias of Nancy Makuhari is a clue to her real identity. "Makuhari" is a near spelling of "Mata Hari".
Oddly enough, Mata Hari had some Japanese connections. Henri de Marguerie, one of her lovers, was French ambassador to Japan for several years. Baron Kurino, the Japanese ambassador to France, was one of Mata Hari’s biggest fans, though he would certainly have known that her “Asian” dances were inauthentic. He was present at Mata Hari’s public debut in 1905, and in 1908 she gave a private repeat performance for him at the Musee Guimet.
There is controversy in the Read or Die fandom over the question of Nancy’s sexuality. Both Nancies (Nancy 1 and Nancy 2) are lovers of Ikkyu Sojun, and both are willing to kill and die for him. Yet both Nancies also show an intense affection for Yomiko Readman, and this feeling often seems to border on the sexual. On the whole, it seems that Nancy’s leanings in this direction are somewhat stronger.
In some respects, however, Nancy is modeled more on the myth of Mata Hari than on the real person. Mata Hari was a mediocre secret agent, while Nancy is a brilliant secret agent. Mata Hari was seldom violent, but both Nancies are trained killers.
• Toni Bentley, “Sisters of Salome” (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002)
• Colette, “My Apprenticeships; and Music-Hall Sidelights” (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979)
• Phillipe Collas, “Mata Hari: Sa Veritable Histoire” (Paris: Plon, 2003)
• Thomas Coulson, “Mata Hari, Courtesan and Spy” (London: Harpers & Brothers, 1930)
• Janet Flanner, “Paris Was Yesterday” (New York: Popular Library, 1972)
• Russell Warren Howe, “Mata Hari, the True Story” (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1986)
• Marijke Huisman, “Mata Hari (1876-1917): De Levende Legende” (Hilversum: Verloren, 1998)
• Julia Keay, “The Spy Who Never Was: The Life and Loves of Mata Hari” (London: Michael Joseph, 1987)
• H.W. Keikes, “Mata Hari” (Den Haag: Kruseman, 1981)
• Fred Kupferman, “Mata Hari, Songes et Mensonges” (Brussels: Editions Complexe, 1982)
• Jean-Marc Loubier, “Mata Hari: La Sacrifiee” (Paris: Acropole, 2000)
• Christine Lueders, “Apropos Mata Hari” (Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Neue Kritik, 1997)
• Axel Madsen, “The Sewing Circle: Hollywood’s Greatest Secret: Female Stars Who Loved Other Women” (Secaucus (NJ): Carol Publishing Group, 1995)
• Erika Ostrovsky, “Eye of Dawn: the Rise and Fall of Mata Hari” (New York: Macmillan, 1978)
• Tammy M. Proctor, “Female Intelligence: Women and Espionage in the First World War” (New York: New York University Press, 2003)
• Suzanne Rodriguez, “Wild Heart, a life: Natalie Clifford Barney’s Journey from Victorian America to Belle Epoque Paris” (New York: Ecco, 2002)
• Leon Schirmann, “Mata Hari: Autopsie d’une Machination” (Paris: Italiques, 2001)
• Pat Shipman, “Femme Fatale: Love, Lies, and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari” (New York: HarperCollins, 2007)
• Diane Souhami, “Wild Girls: Paris, Sappho and Art: the lives and loves of Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks” (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2004)
• Jean-Pierre Turbergue, ed., “Mata Hari: Le Dossier Secret du Conseil de Guerre” (Paris: Italiques, 2001)
• Sam Waagenaar, “Mata Hari” (New York: Appleton Century, 1964, 1965)
• Richard M. Watt, “Dare Call It Treason” (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1963)
• Julie Wheelwright”,The Fatal Lover: Mata Hari and the Myth of Women in Espionage” (London: Collins & Brown, 1992)
• George Wickes, “Amazon of Letters: the life and loves of Natalie Barney” (New York: Putnam, 1976)
• Theodore Zeldin, “France, 1848-1945: Ambition and Love” (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973, 1979)
• ”France, 1848-1945: Taste and Corruption” (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977, 1980)
External Links
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The concept of the waystation could be extended from cislunar
space to Mars or elsewhere in the solar system, as needed.
(credit: J. Strickland)
Cislunar transportation: the space trucking system
by John K. Strickland
Monday, January 21, 2013
All along our interstate and other major roads, we have truck stops designed to service and refuel large trucks. The space equivalent we really need is the waystation.
Many people wonder what all the fuss is all about when they keep hearing the phrase “cislunar architecture.” Many of us are using the phrase to refer to what is essentially a space trucking system, with the equivalent of truck stops and cargo loading yards (freight terminals). Lets use the trucking analogy to explain what we are talking about.
You do not use an expensive truck to carry a load just a single time, and then immediately send the truck to the junkyard to be scrapped. Trucking businesses could not operate this way. Some truck cab and trailer combinations today are probably worth close to a quarter million dollars new. Some cabs alone are close to $100,000 used. Most of the current rockets used today cost over $100 million, so large rockets can be up to 1,000 times more valuable than a tractor-trailer, yet all of them smash into the ocean or desert and become scrap metal after just one flight.
For rockets that take off from the ground, one obvious way to allow re-use is for them to land on the ground intact. SpaceX and some other companies are trying to do just that. Quite a few rockets have now accomplished short flights and landed again safely. Without wings, the landings must be vertical. Re-use with a vertical landing was first done by the DC-X at White Sands on September 11, 1993.
For rocket vehicles in space, the problem is different. We do not want to bring the vehicle back to the ground to refuel, since it is extremely costly to get it up into space in the first place. Once it is in orbit, we want to be able to re-use that vehicle in space over and over again.
However, there is currently no fuel supply or “space gas station” in space where such a vehicle could refuel. After all, what good is a truck without fuel? What good would the Interstate routes be without gas stations? When we refer generically to space “fuel”, we usually mean two propellants: a real combustible fuel such as hydrogen or kerosene, and an oxidizer like oxygen.
Read more: The Space Review: Cislunar transportation: the space trucking system.
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William Lyon Mackenzie King
AS NOTED TO THE RIGHT, The Right Honourable William Lyon Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, said in a radio address, August 2, 1935, while campaigning to become Prime Minister:
"Wow! That's quite a statement. He talks about 'the issuance of currency and credit' as being 'the MOST conspicuous and sacred responsibility' of government."
"Yes, King recognized that. He nationalized the Bank of Canada in 1938-- for that very reason! He knew what he was doing.
The Government of Canada is the single shareholder of the Bank of Canada: that is, it's our Bank!
Initially, the Bank of Canada was used to the advantage of Canadians for 35 years, from about 1938 to 1973, during which time many Canadian projects were completed, government debt was manageable, robust social programs were developed, and jobs were a-plenty. Many feel it was the best 35 years of the 20th century..."
"So what happened? Why don't we still conduct our government operations like that?"
"Good question..."
Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation.
Back: Media Next: Ideology
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June 24, 2012
God of Wine Part II: The Church of Bacchus
In the year 1820, Ephraim Lyon of Eastford, Connecticut came up with a surprising idea: he decided to found a church dedicated to Bacchus, the god of wine.
The temperance movement was starting to gain influence at this time, so perhaps Ephraim's religious revelation was in reaction to the movement's anti-alcohol messages. Whatever the reason, Ephraim took his calling seriously. As the History of Windham County, Connecticut notes,
The rest of the church's membership was composed of those who "used intoxicating liquids to excess." Members didn't need to apply, and Ephraim didn't ask permission before adding someone to the church's membership list. Instead, he added a new member's name whenever he learned of someone who had been drinking heavily. Eventually, the Church of Bacchus had more than 1,000 members, both male and female, in its congregation. The only way to be removed from Ephraim's list was to go on the wagon.
Unfortunately because of the growing temperance movement many of the church's members didn't want their names on the list, and asked Ephraim to be removed. He refused. The requests became threats, but still Ephraim refused. Fearing for life and property, Ephraim's wife finally burned her husband's list, but he recreated it from memory and hid it someplace secure. It was rumored that he shared the list only with an inner circle of church deacons derived from Windham County's most zealous drinkers.
A Roman sarcophagus decorated with a Bacchic scene.
Despite threats and being socially ostracized, Ephraim maintained his devotion to the god of wine until his death in 1840. The deacons and other devout Bacchants memorialized his life with plenty of strong liquor and merrymaking. Ephraim claimed that "members who died in full membership were said to go the Bacchanalian revels of their patron god," so I hope he's happy somewhere with a big glass of wine in his hand.
Was Ephraim Lyon serious about his church? Did he really believe in Bacchus as the god of wine? I suppose it's impossible to say. Maybe he was just protesting against the temperance movement, or perhaps it was just all an elaborate joke.
I do wonder, though, if a joker would risk his life and his home the way Ephraim did. And Ephraim's statements about the afterlife match what the ancient followers of Bacchus believed. Perhaps he did receive a genuine divine revelation, even if it was a drunken one. As I noted in last week's post, Windham County did have a history of encounters with Bacchus.
I got this information from David Philips Legendary Connecticut (2001) and History of Windham County, Connecticut (1889) by Richard Bayles.
June 17, 2012
God of Wine Part I: The Windham Bacchus
One of the archetypal images of New England is the white steepled church standing next to the town common. These churches can be seen all over the region, and are a testament to early settlers' devotion to Christianity.
Sometimes, though, a little bit of paganism crept in, as this story illustrates.
On June 10 in the year 1776 the British ship Bombrig was captured by American naval forces in Long Island Sound. Four of the ship's crew were sent to a crude jail in Windham, Connecticut.
The four men were Edward Sneyd, the ship's commander; John Coggin, the ship's Irish boatswain, who supervised the deck crew; John Russell, the ship's carpenter; and a fourth sailor named William Cook. Although the men were not tortured or particularly mistreated, prisons and jails in the 18th century were grim places where prisoners were confined in small, poorly ventilated cells and fed poorly.
Luckily for the sailors, the owner of a tavern on the other side of Windham's Green (the town common) took pity on them and provided them with good food and plenty of alcohol. Very little is known about the owner except her name - Widow Carey. Who Mr. Carey was and how he passed away is unknown. History is also mute about why she acted so charitably towards the prisoners, but it doesn't take much imagination to guess why a lonely woman might be drawn to four needy sailors. Some people just love a man in uniform!
To repay Widow Carey's charity the sailors asked their wardens for a large log, which they were given. Using just their jackknives they carved from it an image of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine.
The Windham Bacchus
Roughly two feet tall, the Windham Bacchus portrays the god as a naked chubby man astride a keg of wine. Bacchus holds a bowl of grapes and apples in front of his unmentionables, and he has chubby cheeks and a big smile. Widow Carey accepted the carving from the sailors and mounted it in front of her tavern.
In November the sailors escaped from Windham's jail and made their way to Norwich, Connecticut, where they stole a canoe. While paddling their way towards Long Island, the canoe capsized and Sneyd, Russell and Cook drowned. John Coggin survived but was recaptured.
The sailors met a grim fate, but their masterpiece lived on. Widow Carey kept it in front of her tavern for many years, until she married another tavern owner and moved it to his establishment. From there Bacchus was sold in 1827 to Lucius Albee, who ran the Staniford House tavern. Albee hung Bacchus from a giant elm tree, where it remained for many years until a large storm blew the sculpture down, breaking one of its arms. After languishing in a woodshed Bacchus was purchased for twenty-five cents, repaired, and celebrated as an iconic image from the Revolutionary War. You can now see it (or should I say him?) in the Windham Free Library.
I like to read about ancient Greco-Roman religion, so this story made my antennas perk up. I don't know much about the history of New England taverns, but it's interesting that tavern owners in Puritan-founded Connecticut would exhibit a statue of a pagan god. It's also interesting how the historical events surrounding the carving parallel ancient Bacchic myths and rituals.
Bacchus is the Roman name for Dionysos, the primordial god of wine and ecstasy. It makes sense for him to be associated with a tavern, but what about those British sailors? Dionysos was associated with water and the sea, and in some Greek rituals a statue of the god was pulled through the streets in a wagon shaped like a ship. In many myths Dionysos seeks refuge in the sea from his oppressors, and also emerges from it to triumph over his enemies. In one famous myth, Dionysos is kidnapped by sailors who want to sell him into slavery. He transforms them into dolphins and they leap into the sea.
Dionysos was also associated with trees and even was addressed as Dionysos Dendrites ("Dionysos of the Trees"). Paintings from Greece show people worshiping his image attached to a tree, and he also guarded orchards. It's only fitting that Lucius Albee hung him from an elm.
Unfortunately there is a dark side to many of Dionysian myths. People who introduced his worship into an area or city often died by drowning, much like the sailors. For example, Dionysos taught Icarius of Athens to make wine, but Icarius was drowned in a well by drunken shepherds who erroneously thought he poisoned them. As an infant Dionysos was nursed by his aunt Ino, but she was driven mad by the jealous goddess Hera and drowned herself and her son Melicertes in the sea. At the god's sanctuary in Lerna a lamb was thrown into an allegedly bottomless lake as an offering to underworld deities.
Was there some supernatural or divine force at work in 18th century Windham? I don't want to speculate too much. After all I don't want to sound too paranoid. Maybe historic events just sometimes follow ancient mythic patterns.
On the other hand, there was an actual Bacchus cult in Windham County in the 19th century. But that's my post for next week!
I got my information from History of Windham County, Connecticut (1889) by Richard Bayles, and The Story of Bacchus (1876) by Brigham Payne, William Lawton Weaver, and Samuel Peters.
June 11, 2012
Noah Webster and His Wife
Did you ever wonder why Americans spell the word "color" one way, while the British spell it "colour?"
There are lots of ways American spellings differ from the British: center vs. centre, theater vs. theatre, wagon vs. waggon, etc. American spellings seem simpler and more intuitive than their British counterparts.
The American versions of these words were codified by Connecticut's own Noah Webster. Webster was born in Hartford in 1758 to a well-off farm family, and was home schooled by his mother in mathematics, music, and spelling (of course). Webster attended Yale and got a law degree, but after floundering around for a while he eventually found his true calling as an educator, opening a school in Goshen and writing a speller, a grammar book, and a reading book for his students.
Webster strongly supported the American Revolution, and carried his political opinions into his educational work. He felt America should be free of European ornamentation and ostentation, so he simplified the spelling of words. Get that letter "u" out of "glamour" and "colour" - it's too showy! His spelling book sold over 15 million copies and created the tradition of spelling bees. He also thought America should be a rational nation, so his grammar book and reading book drew on secular stories rather than the Biblical tales that had been used in schools previously.
In 1825 Webster published An American Dictionary of the English Language, which had taken him fifteen years to compile. An American Dictionary contained 12,000 words which had never appeared in dictionaries before, including common American words like "skunk" and "squash" that had been omitted from British dictionaries.
Noah Webster
Noah Webster clearly had a very impressive intellect, and made an enormous impact on the life of all Americans. As a result, folktales about his life were once very common. They have now mostly disappeared, but David E. Philips includes this one in his wonderful book Legendary Connecticut.
One day Noah's wife Rebecca needed their pretty young maid to run an errand, but she couldn't find her anywhere. Rebecca looked in the kitchen, she looked in the barn, and she looked in the orchard but the maid was nowhere to be seen.
Rebecca Greenleaf Webster
The only room left unchecked was Noah's study. The door was shut, and Rebecca knew this meant her husband was hard at work on some intellectually strenuous project. The errand was urgent, though, so she quietly opened the door to her husband's study to see if the maid was inside.
She was, and Noah was passionately kissing her.
Rebecca cried out, "Noah, I'm so surprised!"
Noah turned to his wife, and always eager to demonstrate his masterful vocabulary said, "I beg to differ with you, my dear. I am surprised. You are astonished."
Neither tradition nor Legendary Connecticut record Rebecca's reply, but I'm sure many of her words were of the four-letter kind.
June 03, 2012
Raising Hell
Did you ever want to summon Satan? You know, maybe become rich and famous overnight without any hard work? Just make sure you read the fine print on that contract Old Scratch is handing you...
Apparently it's not that hard to call up the Devil. According to Clifton Johnson's book What They Say in New England, if you simply say the Lord's Prayer backwards the Devil will appear. I don't know if this charm really works, and I'm not going to experiment.
This superstition appears in other New England lore, like the story about two young ladies looking for love who accidentally summon a demon. I don't think it originated in New England, though, since similar beliefs are found around the world. For example, in Newfoundland saying the Lord's Prayer in reverse will summon a terrible hag that gives your enemy nightmares, while Scotsmen who want to meet the Devil trace a circle of chalk and recite the Pater Noster backwards.
It's a belief that has persisted into the present, as a quick search of the Internet will show. It's also related to the Satanic music scares of the 1970s and 1980s when rock stars allegedly backwards messages into their music. Even as late as 1991 a band with the charming name Cradle of Filth put a backwards Lord's Prayer on an album.
In his classic of 1970s occultism, Mastering Witchcraft, Paul Huson recommends reciting the Lord's Prayer backwards as the first step to becoming a witch or warlock. Not that it will really summon Satan, Huson claims, but rather it will clear the nouveau witch of all that pesky Christian conditioning. Huson is obviously skilled in the ways of magic, since he wrote several successful TV shows, including The Colbys, a spinoff of night-time soap opera Dynasty.
The images for today's post were painted by Thomas Deas and John Quidor in the 19th century, and are illustrations for Washington Irving's story "The Devil and Tom Walker." Tom Walker is a greedy Yankee who makes a deal with Satan and becomes Boston's most successful loan and mortgage broker. As you can tell from the paintings things don't end well.
One interesting thing about Irving's story is that Satan is summoned in an abandoned Indian fort in the woodsy wilderness of Brighton, Massachusetts. How our landscape and traditions have changed! These days Brighton is a dense Boston neighborhood full of Boston University and Boston College students, who do their hell-raising primarily with kegs and red plastic Solo cups.
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Delving into bunker 'bat caves'
Bat workers count a group of the mammals
Bat workers make a count in one of the tunnel networks
A Scottish bat conservation worker has returned from Poland where he helped count bats hibernating in derelict war-time underground bunkers.
John Haddow, from Dunblane, encountered greater mouse-eared bat and bunkerowcy, a group of people who spend weekends in the tunnels.
The bunkers and tunnels provide shelter to tens of thousands of bats, the latest count found a drop in numbers.
Here Mr Haddow throws some light on life inside the Polish bat caves.
Hibernating bats are not easy to find in Scotland, in spite of having some of the largest summer colonies in the UK in Scotland's central belt.
Even the largest bat hibernation sites in the UK rarely reach three figures.
Borders re-drawn
In complete contrast, I visited western Poland in mid-January as part of an international team counting a total of 33,473 bats of 10 different species.
All the more remarkable since 21,581 of these bats belong to one of the largest European species, the greater mouse-eared bat. In the UK there is only a single male of this species known, since he turns up most winters in a disused mine in Sussex.
The hibernation site in Poland is remarkable in many ways. Now known generally as Nietoperek after a village in the area where there is an underground complex of tunnels.
The tunnels connect a series of fortifications at ground level, built by the Germans before World War II as part of the defensive east wall extending from the Baltic Sea to the now Czech Republic along Germany's eastern border.
Sign to Polish bunkers
Tourism poses a threat to the bat habitat
In 1945 Poland's borders were re-drawn by the allies and effectively the whole country shifted westwards.
Nietoperek is now 70km inside Poland, and the villages which had German names have been renamed in Polish.
Sometimes the new name was a translation, so the village that Hitler visited in 1936 to inspect the fortifications, Hochwalde (high wood) became Wysoka (high in Polish).
Other names were just "Polish-ised" including Niepter which became Nietoperek, a remarkable coincidence since it means "little bat" in Polish.
We can be fairly certain that neither Hitler, nor the new occupants of the land, foresaw that these defences would become famous for their bats.
The underground system includes 30km of tunnels extending 10km from north to south, linking a number of ground level defensive bunkers.
Many of the ground level structures have been destroyed, but some are intact and allow entry to the lower levels.
Old farmhouse
Bats must have begun to find their way into the system from the 1950s, but it was not until the 1980s that serious investigation of these bats began.
Although the bats present in winter have been counted since then, annual counts of the whole underground system started in the last decade.
In order to keep disturbance of these bats to a minimum, this happens on one day in mid-January, under a special licence from the Polish government.
This year, a team of 50 led by Dr Tomasz Kokurewicz, a Polish biologist with a long association with Nietoperek, stayed in an old farmhouse in order to carry out the census.
We were divided into 10 teams made up of a mix of Polish, German, Czech, Dutch, Belgian and British.
The first groups left to drive over snow-covered roads at five in the morning and the last returned at eight at night, some people walking up to 15km underground and seeing no daylight that day.
That evening, following a warming meal and a few bottles of Polish beer, the results were compiled, presented and discussed by the assembled team in the farmhouse cellar.
The outcome this year was a surprise, since the total was "only" 33,500, compared with 37,500 in 2008.
It is thought that bats moved into the tunnels in the 1950s
From the year 2000 the count had increased steadily to the highest ever count last year. We have to wait and see if this indicates a real downward trend. January 2009 was very cold, with temperatures locally down to -24C.
The last three winters were relatively mild, so perhaps that had some influence on the increases. However, since the temperatures in the underground system remains at a fairly stable 8C the "missing" 4,000 bats are a bit of a mystery.
Nietoperek is recognised as a site of European importance for bats - those wintering there come from as far as 250km away in Germany and Poland.
Because of its history and character, many visitors are attracted for reasons other than bats. This is not a problem in the summer months, but in the winter it is legally closed to visitors.
There is however pressure to officially open up sections for tourism in winter, and then there are the unofficial "bunkerowcy" - bunkermen and women - who like to spend their weekends in the underground.
Since one of the steel grilles barring an entrance had been destroyed in December, many of these bunkermen have visited the tunnels.
I met two of these illegal groups during the census day, about 17 people in all. One group shook hands with us but complained that they had been woken up too early by the "bat people".
However, it is the official winter tourism which is likely to be more of a threat to the hibernating bats, since sections of the system will be visited regularly, and it is known that bats cannot survive the winter if exposed to frequent sounds, lighting and warmth from human bodies.
Currently there are negotiations to find a solution which protects the bats and permits limited and controlled visiting.
Meanwhile, the bunkermen continue to hack and blast their way through any obstacle to their entry to the underground system, and resources have to be found to repair the damage.
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Logo of blackwellopenThis ArticleFor AuthorsLearn MoreSubmit
Biotechnology Journal
Biotechnol J. 2012 July; 7(7): 856–866.
Published online 2012 May 31. doi: 10.1002/biot.201200085
PMCID: PMC3440575
Despite the efforts that bioengineers have exerted in designing and constructing biological processes that function according to a predetermined set of rules, their operation remains fundamentally circumstantial. The contextual situation in which molecules and single-celled or multi-cellular organisms find themselves shapes the way they interact, respond to the environment and process external information. Since the birth of the field, synthetic biologists have had to grapple with contextual issues, particularly when the molecular and genetic devices inexplicably fail to function as designed when tested in vivo. In this review, we set out to identify and classify the sources of the unexpected divergences between design and actual function of synthetic systems and analyze possible methodologies aimed at controlling, if not preventing, unwanted contextual issues.
Keywords: Complexity, Context, Environment, Gene expression, Synthetic biology
1 Introduction
Living systems are problem-solving systems. Even “simple” bacteria and viruses have solved the problem of surviving in every environment in which life can exist. They inhabit niches that are nearly completely isolated in the depths of the earth or in hyper-dense diverse, competitive communities in top soils or around plant roots. It is extraordinary how robust these organisms can be to changes in their environment [1]. No one appreciates this capability more than biological engineers who have yet to learn to design systems that are similarly flexible yet conserve designed function.
One of the common goals of synthetic biology is to make the design of new function vastly more efficient, safe, understandable, and predictable [2]. This field is likely to have a profound impact on chemical, pharmaceutical and material manufacturing, environmental and agricultural engineering, and health [3, 4]. A much cited barrier to predictability in design is context. Context, in this definition, is the environment in which a system finds itself. Organisms find themselves in environmental contexts where fluctuations of physical variables, such as temperature and osmolarity, and dynamical change in population density, diversity and interaction occur. These fluctuations impact physiology and fitness in complex ways. In fact, every process in the cell is also subject to context since each depends on the life of the host via direct and indirect interactions with cellular resources and components. They are also affected by the levels of both substrates and products, and the parameters of the cellular milieu, including the local redox potential, osmolarity, porosity/viscosity/crowding, and temperature.
We tend to assume that, for processes endogenous to the cell, most of these dependencies are evolutionarily optimized in some way to provide robust and effective cellular function and thereby fitness. It has also been conjectured that there might also be optimization for plasticity/evolvability [5]. Heterologous pathways have not had the advantage of long periods of co-evolution with other cellular substrates. They are generally subject to environments, such as bioreactors, that they have not experienced at length previously in the evolutionary history of the system. Thus, their function often suffers from uncontrolled/unpredicted interactions with the surrounding cellular context and environment. Unlike the mode in natural systems, the designer likely does not want the system to evolve, thus making plasticity undesirable. Further, the heterologous pathway itself is generally constructed from individual subsystems whose composition (physical and functional) is novel and therefore may generate spurious interactions unwanted or not predicted by the designer. We define all the implicit dependencies and spurious or unconsidered interactions mentioned above as context effects.
2 Subdividing context problems
Recently several authors have analyzed design strategies to directly integrate synthetic circuits with endogenous cellular processes [6], or to create systems that are more insensitive (i.e. robust) to variation in conditions [7]. Problems of context are barriers to the reliable function of biological pathways, and they are often intermixed with problems of robust and modular circuit design. In this review, we attempt to focus on the contextual mechanisms that are sources of variability/uncertainty that plague robust design. We also look at the contextual violations of interface definitions that challenge modular design of biological circuitry or circuit-host integration, and point to possible solutions for many of the effects. We define three broad classes of context: compositional context, host context, and environmental context.
Compositional context concerns the interface among biological components and the issues that arise in their physical and functional integration (Box 1a). Host context relates to the implicit dependence of a biological device on factors provided by the host organism for its operation. One consequence of this is a global coupling and competition among implanted and endogenous functions (Box 1b). Environmental context originates from variables that are asserted outside the host and that affect circuit function. Temperature, for example, is a variable that can directly affect heterologous circuit parameters as well as host functions, which, together with nutritive factors, stressors, and even other cells in the population, can affect the fitness of the host and modulate the effect of heterologous circuit function on that fitness (Box 1c).
Box 1: Sources of context dependencies in synthetic systems
a. Compositional context
• Physical integration of multiple regulators (e.g. transcriptional), genetic devices or polypeptides [8, 9, 12, 18].
• Approximate knowledge of RNA folding and cis-/trans-interaction of multiple regulators [13, 16].
• Functional composition of devices that leads to unexpected circuit failure [2023].
b. Host context
• Parasitic interactions between transplanted and host-endogenous components [27, 28, 31, 33].
• Reliance on cellular components can affect host physiology [3538], can depend on circuit “state” [40] and be host specific [43].
• Synthetic devices depend on cellular processes such as growth [46, 47], replication [53, 54] and partitioning at cell division [49, 50].
c. Environmental context
• Temperature and pH can directly affect cellular functions like transcription [57, 60, 61] or synthetic devices [62, 63].
• The host can mediate the effect of environmental context on the activity of synthetic components [70] or on population dynamics [72].
Below we review the evidence for the mechanisms underlying these different types of context effect, how they affect circuit and host function, and their implications for effective and reliable circuit design.
3 Compositional context
Compositional context is perhaps the easiest to address in improving the design of synthetic systems. Designers have a choice of what elements they use in their design and how they are physically instantiated and interconnected in a host (biological or otherwise). Thus, it may prove possible to make judicious choices in the elements we use to form the basis set for controlling ubiquitous cellular functions, although the biological principles of how to create such sets of parts are far from clear. Here we dissect examples of relevant mechanisms into physical and functional composition problems.
3.1 Physical composition
In genetic circuits, the activity/effect of regulatory and expressed sequences arrayed on the same DNA molecule depends on their precise ordering, how they are linked across defined boundaries and their structural interaction. Similarly, domains on the same polypeptide or subunits within protein complexes often have activities that are mediated by defined interfaces and are affected by immediate sequence/structural context. When those interactions are “desirable”, they become design parameters. However, undesigned interactions can occur because of the often-necessary spatial co-localization of synthetic components, which can undermine their function. We define these unwanted, implicit interactions as physical context (Fig. 1A).
Figure 1
Sources of context effects and their connectivity. (A) Compositional context. An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is biot0007-0856-mu1.jpg, Physical composition: undesigned direct interaction between synthetic parts on the same molecule. An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is biot0007-0856-mu2.jpg, Functional composition: unexpected effects from module coupling, component ...
The meaning of cis-regulatory transcription factor (TF)-binding sequences in or near a promoter depends on the physical context through their spatial arrangement. In one study, Cox et al. [8] shuffled promoter elements to obtain a library of promoter architectures. The library generated a large range of expression strengths and logic gating from simple re-positioning of the operator sequences of a two-input promoter. In promoters that integrated binding of two repressors, the predominance of one or the other relied, often not intuitively, on their reciprocal position relative to the transcription start site [8]. If sufficiently elucidated, cis-regulation at the promoter will become a powerful design parameter for more complex regulation. However, as noted above, currently many spatial arrangements lead to surprising or unexpected results, making this a physical context problem. Promoters themselves can be composed together and tandem promoters have been used to produce gates with an OR logic. With just two inputs and one output, these OR gates could be assembled to construct all possible logic functions through compartmentalization of each circuit in a different strain of Escherichia coli [9]. In this case, while little interference was present between promoters for the majority of tandem combinations, the combination Ptet – PBAD did not function as predicted. Why this combination failed was not obvious, although effects on DNA looping or occlusion of TF-binding sites were proposed [9]. In fact, if more complex transcriptional regulation becomes necessary, occlusion of regulator binding will probably gain importance as a design issue, and construction and screening of large part libraries will remain popular as an approach to design. Finally, multigene expression can still present a challenge because of poor termination at some Class I transcription terminators [10] or efficient transcription run-through in vivo [11]. These issues remain object of an intense engineering effort particularly to improve the efficiency of terminators for T7 RNA polymerase [12].
Integrating multiple regulatory inputs on RNA molecules can also be subject to undesigned interaction that could undermine functionality. Recently, Isaacs and co-workers exploited the versatility of RNA folding and the sequence specificity of RNA regulation to construct pairs of riboregulators that both repressed and activated translation from specific mRNA targets in vivo [13]. In this study, the observed parasitic interaction involved the 5' unstructured region of the engineered RNA riboregulator, which potentially formed alternative interactions that interfered with the riboregulator function [13]. In RNA-based devices, insulation of different functional elements can be the key for restoring part behavior. For example, modification of structural (stem) and spacer elements [14, 15], or self-cleaving ribozymes [16], can all be used to insulate RNA synthetic parts. In one study, Win and co-workers introduced a cis-acting aptazyme in the 3' untranslated region (UTR) region of the gene target of post-transcriptional regulation [15]. In this case, a designed sequence spacer was used to prevent potential interaction between the synthetic RNA device and other sequences on the target mRNA. However, while attempting to compose attenuators of different specificity, Lucks and co-workers reported that spacer sequences ranging from 100 to 1000 bp failed to provide sufficient insulation to tandem RNA attenuators, possibly because of strong structural interactions between RNA elements (upstream sense RNAs and downstream antisense RNAs). Instead, hammerhead ribozyme constructs were used to cleave off single attenuator elements and provided the necessary insulation to restore functionality [16].
Protein-protein interactions can be engineered to precisely direct signal transduction pathways by recruiting or sequestering regulators [17] or to artificially co-localize enzymes and substrates, e.g. to improve the yield of a biosynthesized product [18]. However, in this case, the co-localization of components (e.g. protein domains) can also lead to unwanted context effects. When heterologous protein-protein interaction domains were added to enzymes of the mevalonate pathway, the product titer increased stoichiometrically with the number of scaffold-recruiting, peptide-ligand domains. However, this effect reverted when the number of “scaffolded” domains increased above a certain level, possibly as consequence of enzyme misfolding or uncharacterized allosteric interaction caused by excess of ligand-peptide [18]. A precise definition of the number and relative stoichiometry of enzymes in designed scaffolds seems to be the key to avoid such compositional issues. However, the limits set by “microcompartment” formation, which is their most likely mechanism of function [19], might lead to further compositional problems.
3.2 Functional composition
Unlike physical composition, context effects in functional composition arise only when linking the output of one process to the input of another, and are not a direct consequence simply of physical interaction. Nearly all of these result from some competition for resources occurring between the output and the, possibly multiple, inputs. That is, the output of an upstream process is a molecule (or often more formally the production rate of this molecule) that is consumed as input by multiple downstream processes. To understand the effect for biochemical systems, a simple example would be a signaling molecule A that is produced at a constant rate and decays via a first order decay. Imagine two downstream processes that consume A to make B and C. The amount of A at steady state in this system is inversely proportional to the rates of conversion to these molecules. Thus, the steady-state rate of, say, B production depends on both these conversion rates. If conversion to C suddenly became faster, there would be less A at steady state and thus less B produced per unit time. Hence, the interconnection of A production to B production is affected by C production – the latter is in the “functional context” of B and vice versa [20]. This is not a desirable coupling in a modular design. Were all of these systems linear, there would be a relationship to the concept of low-input impedance that could lead to fan-out failure [21]. Recently, a formal mathematical definition of this type of context coupling in biochemical systems (called retroactivity), similar to the concept of impedance, has been developed [22, 23] and advances some approaches to mitigating these effects.
4 Host context
The task of synthetic biologists is constrained by the host organism that will contain their engineered designs. They depend explicitly or implicitly on the host resources and machinery for function, and ultimately their intermediate or final products are released in a cellular context with which they interact. It is the implicit interactions – those aspects of host function that are assumed to be constant and unlimited for the function of a design and to be insensitive to the operation of the circuit – that we define as host context (Fig. 1B). We classify undesigned host interactions into two classes: the first includes parasitic interaction in which unwanted molecular interactions between components of the heterologous circuit and host interfere with the function of both or either. The second class comprises functional interaction or coupling issues. The unaccounted dependence of circuit function on variable and limited host resources as well as cellular processes induces variable/unpredictable circuit behavior, coupling between components, or failure of circuit/host interface. Of course, the coupling is a closed loop. The functioning of the heterologous circuit can place a load on the host, affecting its fitness and consuming resources that would normally be available for endogenous processes. This, in turn, can create host resource limitations that restrict circuit function (e.g. by preventing optimal expression of an enzyme).
4.1 Parasitic interaction
Cellular pathways and circuits are defined, more or less, by a set of molecular species, the specific interactions among them, and the physical transformations permitted by the interactions (e.g. chemical reactions). However, it is also known that enzymes can be promiscuous [24], individual TFs can bind nonspecifically to DNA [25], and certain peptide-binding domains can bind many disordered target peptides with differing affinities [26].
Nonspecific binding and cross talk induce competition for the subject molecule among the specific modules that depend on them and the nonspecific consumers. TFs with new binding specificities have recently been obtained through directed evolution [27] or rational design [28, 29]. In at least one case the presence of undesigned parasitic interactions of the engineered regulators with the host was observed. Desai and co-workers [28] used an analysis of co-variation of TF and DNA target sequences to identify residues in the global regulator cAMP receptor protein (CRP) that confer different specificities, and constructed orthogonal regulator-operator pairs. Despite engineering several retargeted variants of CRP, they encountered unexpected cross-talk problems with the endogenous wild-type CRP, which was more promiscuous than the engineered regulators. In their work, Desai and co-workers suggested that the higher promiscuity of wild-type CRP towards operator sequences imported into E. coli from different species of bacteria originates from the lack of regulator-operator co-evolution in this organism [28]. Removing promiscuous binding or enzymatic activities by rational engineering, without compromising function, may be difficult given the long evolutionary selection for these attributes [30].
In an attempt to engineer the binding specificity of the lactose operon repressor LacI, Zhan and co-workers [29] used the extensive structural and functional knowledge of LacI protein-DNA interactions to design new repressor/operator pairs. These orthogonal regulators showed limited cross talk and could be assembled in various logic circuits. However, the authors also noted that the necessity for LacI repressors to oligomerize for repression, which relies on protein-protein interaction surfaces not involved in DNA binding, could be a source of undesigned cross talk and possible interference with host proteins of the same repressor family. In fact, in one study at least, strain-specific parasitic interactions with the host, e.g. host genome or proteome, have been confirmed for the LacI family of regulators. Wang and co-workers [31] constructed several logic circuits with orthogonal regulators imported from Pseudomonas syringae. This device did not function properly in five of seven different E. coli strains when engineered variants of E. coli promoters Plac and Pbad were used as inputs, but it worked according to design when the exogenous promoter Plux was used in place of Plac. In this study, the authors uncovered an unexpected parasitic interaction of the lacI promoter with components of the LacI family of transcriptional regulators in E. coli, which undermined circuit functionality.
It is thought that protein complexes are subjected to both positive and negative selection during their evolution [32]. Positive selection could lead to increased binding affinity, but this occurs at the expense of possible synergistic, nonspecific binding to non-cognate partners. Alternatively, negative selection against binding to such unintended partners is thought to be an important driving force in the evolution of cognate versus non-cognate protein interactions, and could help to insulate signaling pathways in large paralagous protein families. In an elegant study, Zarrinpar and co-workers [33] demonstrated the effects of negative selection in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The authors constructed chimeras of the yeast osmosensor protein Sho1 with its SH3 domain replaced with other yeast as well as distant metazoans SH3 domains. When the authors tested the amount of specificity stored in this interaction surface, they found that only the cognate domain recognized its peptide target sequence, and none of the paralogous domains could. However, SH3 domains from other organisms did bind the target peptide with varying affinities, possibly because they were not selected to not interact with the endogenous effector. The implication is that using these domains, heterologously, in S. cerevisiae would lead to undesired cross talk between the implanted system and the host. Such barriers to heterologous expression of genes have also been studied in a broader scope. Sorek et al. [34] attempted to pass 246, 045 genes from 79 prokaryotic genomes into E. coli and determined how many failed horizontal gene transfer. As expected, generally, proteins that are involved in fundamental cellular processes such as transcription and translation have little propensity to transfer. Intriguingly, beside several ribosomal proteins, a number of other classes of protein, including several membrane transporters and pumps, could not be transferred into E. coli. Possibly, these proteins could engage in spurious interactions with other cellular functions affecting cell viability [34].
4.2 Host loading: Reliance on host resources
Synthetic genetic circuits must function in a cellular environment, and normally use host resources and enzymes such as nucleotides, tRNAs or ribosomes for fulfilling their process requirements. Drawing from these pools of central resources can impact the normal homeostasis of the host cell. Expression of a heterologous protein can compete for limiting free ribosomes, which decreases the expression of other proteins [35, 36], and even reduces the number of functional ribosomes in the cell [36]. In particular, Dong and co-workers [36] showed that overexpression of β-galactosidase such that it comprised 30% of total cell protein completely halted cell growth. A more recent example shows that a particular coding sequence can interact with the host differentially and lead to indirect coupling between systems [37]. Here, the expression of two of three encoded proteins varied linearly with plasmid copy number. The third, GFP, fell off differently at high copy number apparently due to specific load from expression of this sequence. The load from gfp affected the linearity of the expression of the other sequences when placed on the same plasmid.
Models describing in detail the coupling between protein synthesis and cell homeostasis remain very important. The impact of protein overexpression on growth was recently found to be largely a consequence of re-allocation of ribosomes, constrained by a parameter describing nutritional capacity [38]. Interestingly, in their model Scott and co-workers [38] predict the presence in E. coli of a feedback mechanism that balances the amount of cellular ribosomes, possibly triggered by changes in the endogenous pool of tRNAs, in response to reduced translational activity. The constraints imposed by host resources are beginning to set bounds on the size and activity of synthetic circuits that may be expressed in different hosts and point to bottlenecks for which, in the future, we might design solutions. Importantly, the host organism also plays a strong role in determining which configurations of codons lead to optimal translation of the protein, particularly by defining the relative abundance of each charged tRNA [39].
It is likely that almost all heterologous circuits place some load on the cell, thereby affecting either its growth or its ability to carry out certain processes. The significance of the load on cellular resource and hence on fitness is, of course, both dependent on the “state” of the circuit and the “environment” of the cell. For example, in the yeast S. cerevisiae, Burrill and co-workers [40] engineered a positive-feedback device to sense the activation of DNA damage response and trigger a persistent output from the circuit that functioned as memory device. Nevertheless, circuits in the “ON” state could still affect the growth rate of activated versus non-activated cells, with the former being outgrown and diluted in the population, which could lead to partial loss of the long-term memory function of the device [40]. The design of this memory switch naturally leads to different host loading in the two states since the ON state expresses a protein at a high level and the OFF state does not. However, there are alternative switch designs in which load can be better balanced. DNA inversion-based memory switches in which state is held by the configuration of DNA after action of a recombinase could provide a lower load on the host [41, 42]. An invertase can flip a fragment of DNA to a different orientation, a mechanism that can serve directly as memory. Alternatively, if a protein must be expressed, the fragment might contain a promoter that expresses different proteins in each orientation, which assert similar loads on the cell and avoid subpopulations of cells with different growth characteristics.
As synthetic biologists expand the number of hosts in which they wish to transplant synthetic devices, being able to predict how each circuit will function in a new context or “environment” is clearly desirable. Nevertheless, genetic circuits can function differently even in different strains of the same species of bacteria. For example, in the work of Balagadde et al. [43], their population control circuit experienced unexpected oscillations over several days before reaching a lower steady-state population density. The cause of the oscillations was not clear and, of the two different E. coli strains tested, one – MC4100Z1 – had dampened oscillations, while the other – Top10 – had sustained oscillations for the whole length of the experiment. Furthermore, the two strains had a very different phenotypic response to the killer protein CcdB: MC4100Z1 showed a distinct stress phenotype, while Top10 did not [43]. These strain-specific dynamics are clear examples of unaccounted, contextual issues that arise from interfacing a circuit with the host genetic background. However, because MC4100Z1 and Top10 are so closely related, it is likely that the genetic basis of this difference in circuit response to the host can be mapped, and the mechanistic causes determined.
Predicting what cellular process, metabolite or resource will affect the function of a device is, for now, very difficult. In a surprising example of a load issue being beneficial to circuit function, Stricker et al. [44] designed a genetic oscillator that behaved more robustly and functioned at a wider range of inducer concentrations than predicted. They discovered that their circuit saturated the endogenous proteolytic machinery, inducing coupling among circuit components that was critical for robust oscillations to occur. There are likely a finite number of such key interaction points of heterologous circuit with cellular resources, and it is a key challenge to design against them or, alternatively, exploit them. It is more complicated, perhaps, to isolate a heterologous circuit from dependence on host “housekeeping” machinery and metabolism. One possibility that we have already mentioned is to physically confine different subsystems of a design to different cells [9]. With this method, both the metabolic load on the host and the interference of parasitic interactions can be limited by reducing the number of circuit components present in each cell type. Importantly, multicellular computing also has the benefit of reducing intercellular variability with a population-wide global output [9] and allowing division of labor and the execution of incompatible chemistries in the same circuit.
4.3 Growth-coupled context effects
Apart from host resources, synthetic devices in a cell are subject to the unavoidable recurrence of at least three cellular processes: growth, replication and partitioning. The dependence of the cellular macromolecular composition on growth rate has been a focus of intense investigation for over 30 years [45, 46]. In some bacteria, gene copy number is strongly correlated with growth; at higher growth rates multiple rounds of replication can simultaneously occur. Recently, a theoretical approach was adopted to analyze data of protein expression from different promoters in different media [47]. In this work, Klumpp and co-authors [47] established growth-rate dependencies of the transfer function of several types of gene circuits. Additionally, they extended the notion of “growth feedback” [48] identifying nonlinearity in host-circuit interaction that could lead to both expression and growth bistability in absence of positive feedback. In this case, the growth feedback enters in the form of the dilution of circuit intermediates and is dependent on whether the circuit is encoded on a plasmid or in the host genome. At the design stage, it is important to carefully consider whether gene circuitry is implemented on a multicopy plasmid or the host chromosome and which replication system is adopted because their copy number can be differently affected by growth feedback as recently demonstrated [47]. This is also necessary to counter issues associated with plasmid partitioning at cell division [49], and methods for controlling the dependence of circuit function on the abundance of encoding genetic material can be useful. In particular, Bleris and co-workers showed that certain types of circuit topology, such as the incoherent feed-forward loop (iFFL), adapt to changes in the DNA template abundance [50].
Plasmid maintenance can have unexpected, toxic consequences on the cell such as, for instance, increased glucose uptake and detrimental accumulation of metabolite intermediates [51]. As one further confirmation of the multiple, unexpected consequences of unbalanced metabolite pools, a dramatic change in charged tRNAs can interfere with plasmid replication control and lead to a dramatic increase in plasmid copy number [52]. Clearly, there is a positive feedback between plasmid-associated activities and host metabolism that can lead to unregulated “runaway” plasmid replication (uncontrolled plasmid amount) and have detrimental consequences on the protein synthesis apparatus or the integrity of the outer membrane [53, 54]. Accurate control of plasmid replication can go a long way toward limiting the metabolic burden of recombinant expression and plasmid maintenance on the host cell. Identifying and modeling feedback between indicators of growth and components of replication regulation will be important to implement copy-number stabilization in circuit design [55, 56].
5 Environmental context
Biological circuits and their hosts are subject to fluctuations in the environment. Resources may change, physical conditions such as volume and temperature may vary, and, of course, there may be other cells competing for resources in the environment. In addition, the cell is continuously sensing the environment; therefore, various problems for the function of a genetic circuit can originate from the very diverse interplay of host and environmental variables (Fig. 1C). We define environmental context as the unintentional coupling to variations in the environment that modifies the behavior of biological components either directly or indirectly through the mediation of the host organism.
5.1 Direct effects
Environmental factors can directly affect physical-chemical properties of biological components and, therefore, their function. Temperature can directly modulate transcriptional activity per se, without the involvement of trans-acting factors. For example, the promoter of bacteriophage λ PL shows increased transcription when the temperature is lowered [57]. Temperature-dependent changes in the curvature of the DNA can favor the binding of activators [58] or repressors [59, 60]. Temperature effects need to be accounted for during design of gene circuits, particularly when RNA parts are used. Recently, efforts to characterize novel synthetic RNA “thermometers” were hindered by the observation that transcription/translation processes are somewhat more efficient at higher temperature, which can compromise proper characterization of other regulatory devices as well [61]. Riboswitches have been found to function under equilibrium conditions, in which temperature can be an important factor [62]. In a recent attempt to engineer riboswitches that functioned in bacteria other than E. coli, Topp and co-workers [63] determined that the temperature of the culture was an important variable to be considered in predicting riboswitch function in the bacterium Magnetospirillum magneticum, the optimal growth of which is at 30°C.
The pH of the growth medium is another important design variable in engineering biological parts. Probably the most investigated case is that of the quorum-sensing signal acyl homoserine lactone (AHL) molecule. Non-enzymatic, temperature- and pH-dependent hydrolysis of AHL is noticeable in aqueous solutions [64] (for a review see [65]). When the response to pH is predictable, this parameter can be used to effectively modulate circuit output. For example, the steady-state cell density reached by a bacterial population engineered with a population-control device could be tuned by changing the pH of the growth medium [66]. However, pH affected other parameters in the model such as cell growth and, unexpectedly, the toxicity of the killer protein CcdB [66].
5.2 Host-mediated environmental effect
Host resources and subsystem activity vary with the environment. The accessibility of common metabolite pools, the energy charge, and the availability of polymerases and ribosomes are all greatly affected by growth phase and available external nutrients [46, 67, 68]. Global regulators such as H-NS, IHF and Lrp in E. coli can change DNA accessibility in ways that impact circuit expression; proteases change their levels and thereby their ability to be saturated; and cells change volume, shape and other parameters that might affect circuit function. Likewise, the load imposed on a cell by a heterologous circuit is affected by the availability of external resources, and, in the extreme, can lead to changes in cell fitness that can have deep consequence for circuit function and stability. Undesigned interactions among different populations of cells, such as cross-feeding and cross-protection, can lead to unexpected dynamics that can ultimately alter circuit functionality.
One recent example of multi-level coupling with environmental regulation arose in the attempt to engineer a propionate-regulated promoter from Salmonella enterica. This promoter (PprpB) is activated by the regulator PrpR, which, in turn, is activated by 2-methylcitrate derived from the metabolism of propionate. Additionally, the promoter is regulated by the 3'–5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)-CRP complex (e.g. catabolite repression) and possibly by the global regulator IHF, suggesting strong environmental sensitivity of propionate-dependent transcription regulation [69]. Indeed, PprpB was shown to be environment sensitive in a manner that depended on the particular strain and media used for expression. The promoter showed no activity in E. coli BL21 (BLR) cells and in Terrific broth (TB) medium but functioned properly when tested in Luria broth (LB) medium. In addition, when E. coli DH1 cells were used, the promoter was active in both LB and TB media [70]. The novel propionate promoter was not the only one to show strong host-mediated environmental effect. For example, the long-established lac promoter was repressed by the addition of 1% glucose to the medium, which is known to activate catabolite repression, and showed leaky expression in TB [70]. These data demonstrated that complex regulatory mechanisms used by bacteria to deal with nutrient availability, such as catabolite repression, could have strong and unexpected impacts on synthetic gene circuits when probed outside the experimental conditions used for optimization.
Microbes also modify their local environment by secreting metabolites and signals, originating complex subpopulation and subpopulation/interspecies dependencies through cross-feeding and cross-protection. Cross-feeding, trade-offs in growth-phase parameters, and spatial constrains within the culture, which affect the dilution of shared agents, are important factors involved in the emergence and maintenance of polymorphic subpopulations of bacteria (reviewed in [71]). Recently, during growth in a bioreactor, a polymorphic subpopulation of cells resistant to antibiotics such as norfloxacin or gentamicin was found to protect the majority of non-resistant cells by secreting the signaling molecule indole into the media, a molecule involved in stress tolerance in E. coli [72]. The design of synthetic devices with phases that can differently impact fitness trade-offs between cell subpopulations, such as a host-integrated memory/non-memory states [40] (often encoded on plasmids that can lead to the emergence of polymorphic, cooperative cells or “cheaters” [73]), will have to rely on careful analysis of complex population dynamics to engineer safer device containments and evolutionary and functional robustness during prolonged culture.
6 Concluding remarks
Synthetic devices are extraneous elements that are implanted in a cellular system that has used millions of years of evolutionary tuning to reach equilibrium. Currently, we cannot map genomes to account for all parasitic interactions that may occur between the vast array of synthetic biological parts being built and the organisms in which they will function. Neither we will probably, in the near future, be able to precisely model production and partitioning of all cellular resources in all different growth conditions for many types of organisms. However, as synthetic biologists expand the number of hosts in which they wish to transplant synthetic devices, especially to more complex biological systems found in higher eukaryotes, being able to predict how a circuit will function in a new context is clearly desirable. Context dependencies need to be part of the standard characterization of biological parts and some proposals to this end have already been made [74]. However, it remains an open challenge to create the physical map of where and how such dependencies arise with similar precision to that found in electrical or mechanical engineering. Results from genome-scale studies on gene-phenotype interaction suggest that, although host and immediate context effects might be complex, they are finite [75, 76], and could likely be dealt with by formal design. In fact, as the studies cited above have demonstrated, diagnosing the failures of designed systems to meet specification is leading to deeper understanding of different types of molecular mechanisms, the nature and limitations of cellular resources, and the indirect coupling among cellular subsystems, and has hinted at undiscovered processes.
Recently, it has been pointed out that it may be possible to design genetic circuit “probes” to precisely dissect these new cellular processes [6]. Further, new theories of robust design and design frameworks for biological insulation elements are emerging in the toolkits of designers [7]. The synthetic biology community does not lack engineered biological parts or experimental tools to identify and characterize these contextual effects; hence, the field is ready to systematically address these issues and improve predictability in the design of biological systems.
Dr. Stefano Cardinale is a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, USA). During his PhD program at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland, UK), Wellcome Trust Center for Cell Biology, he worked on the construction, manipulation and application of Synthetic Human Chromosomes in human tissue cells. This work led to two patent applications and several scientific publications. In his carrier, Dr. Cardinale has received an EMBO Short-Term Fellowship to pursue research on nuclear structures in human cells and a Darwin Trust Scholarship for his graduate studies. His current research focuses on the effect of each gene of the E. coli genome on cellular physiology and the activity of synthetic genetic circuits to identify key sources of failure of synthetic devices in bacteria and to improve predictable design of synthetic systems. His research interests are Systems and Synthetic Biology, and biotechnology.
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Prof. Adam Arkin, Director of the Berkeley Synthetic Biology Institute and of the Physical Biosciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), is the Dean A. Richard Newton Memorial Professor in UC Berkeley's Department of Bioengineering. He is also the Chief Executive and Science Officer of the Department of Energy Systems Biology Knowledgebase, technical co-manager of the large scale Ecosystems and Networks Integrated with Genes and Molecular Assemblies (ENIGMA) program, Director of Bioinformatics at the Joint Bioenergy Institute, and Co-director of the BIOFAB (International Open Facility Advancing Biotechnology). His research centers on uncovering the evolutionary design principles of cellular networks and populations, and exploiting them for applications. He and colleagues are developing a framework to facilitate applications in the fields of health, environment, and bioenergy by combining comparative functional genomics and genetics, quantitative measurement of cellular dynamics, systems biological modeling of cellular networks, and cellular design. He has been a member of the UC Berkeley faculty since 1999, and earned his PhD in physical chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2007, and has been profiled in Time Magazine as a “future innovator”. He was a member of the founding class of the MIT Technology Review Young Innovators program. He is the author or co-author of over 190 scientific papers and reviews.
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The authors would like to thank Jeffrey Skerker, Chang Liu and Vivek Mutalik for proofreading and commenting the manuscript. The work described in this report was funded by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program titled: “Predictive High-Throughput Assembly of Synthetic Biological Systems: From Gene Expression to Carbon Sequestration” of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
transcription factor
cAMP receptor protein
terrific broth
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52. Wegrzyn G, Wegrzyn A. Is tRNA only a translation factor or also a regulator of other processes? J. Appl. Genet. 2008;49:115–122. [PubMed]
53. Ryan W, Parulekar SJ. Recombinant protein synthesis and plasmid instability in continuous cultures of Escherichia coli JM103 harboring a high copy number plasmid. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 1991;37:415–429. [PubMed]
54. Togna AP, Shuler ML, Wilson DB. Effects of plasmid copy number and runaway plasmid replication on overproduction and excretion of beta-lactamase from Escherichia coli. Biotechnol. Prog. 1993;9:31–39. [PubMed]
55. Klumpp S. Growth-rate dependence reveals design principles of plasmid copy number control. PloS One. 2011;6:e20403. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
56. Kittleson JT, Cheung S, Anderson JC. Rapid optimization of gene dosage in E. coli using DIAL strains. J. Biol. Eng. 2011;5:10. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
57. Giladi H, Goldenberg D, Koby S, Oppenheim AB. Enhanced activity of the bacteriophage lambda PL promoter at low temperature. FEMS Microbiol. Rev. 1995;17:135–140. [PubMed]
58. Perez-Martin J, Espinosa M. Correlation between DNA bending and transcriptional activation at a plasmid promoter. J. Mol. Biol. 1994;241:7–17. [PubMed]
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Breaking News
What Is The Typical Diabetic Meal Plan?
What Is The Typical Diabetic Meal Plan?
The typical diabetic meal plan is a plan that controls carbohydrates. This plan is one that keeps sugars down so that the body is not overwhelmed by the need for insulin. It usually involves eating several small meals a day to keep the blood sugar level stable. This diet does not count calories or fats instead it counts carbohydrates.
There are several types of diabetic diets but a common one is the food exchange. This is a healthy eating plan for diabetics. You do not need special foods. You need to eat the same foods that are good for everyone, even those that don't have diabetes. The three main parts of a good diet include carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
It is helpful for most diabetics to eat about the same amount of carbs at around the same time each day. This helps to maintain the blood glucose levels. Carbohydrates are processed into glucose when you eat them so it is especially important to be aware of the amount and type of carbohydrates that you eat.
A healthy daily meal plan would include at least two to three servings of zero-starch vegetables; two servings of fruits; six servings of grains, beans and starchy vegetables; two servings of low-fat or fat-free milk; about six ounces of meat or meat substitutes and small amounts of fat and processed sugars. The exact amounts you need of each of these depends on the number of calories you need for your age, sex, size and activity level.
Many starches have fifteen grams of carbohydrates. You need to eat three or more servings of whole grains each day. A serving is about one-half cup of cooked cereal or grain, or one slice of whole-grain bread. A typical serving of fruit has fifteen grams of carbohydrates. A cup of milk has twelve grams of carbohydrates. A low starch vegetable serving is one-half cup cooked vegetables. One cup of raw vegetables equals approximately five grams of carbohydrates. Plant-based proteins can vary, so read labels.
The typical diabetic meal plan has a goal of 130 grams of carbohydrates daily. This will vary somewhat depending upon medications and activity level. Walking and lifting weights helps the body metabolize the sugars in the carbohydrates so that they are not stored in the circulatory system. The storing of excess sugar in the blood stream can cause many health problems. There is substantial information available on diabetic diets, so finding one that works with your food preferences will help you to be able to live within your carbohydrate constraints.
Anto Walker
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http://santaiselalu.blogspot.com/2013/04/what-is-typical-diabetic-meal-plan_11.html
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Environmentalists Employ Solar Energy Collecting as an Alternative Power Source
solar calculator
Alternative energy is continuing to become popular among a lot of people as the cost of using it has fallen. A good example is the solar battery, which is now on a lot of homes and businesses. The black squares on solar panels, known as solar cells, have become inexpensive and more efficient to use. As the design is improved, the cells are able to collect solar energy in a much smaller area than the older cells could. These solar cells have become very useful as they can now be made at smaller sizes and at lower cost. The cost per watt to create solar energy has been cut in 50% fifty percent in the last twenty years.
For environmentalists, the nice thing about solar-powered energy production is that it emits absolutely no pollution. For some people, the nice thing about solar power is the amount of money that can be saved on their energy bill. Because majority of people are more concerned with saving moneyhow much money they can save than the environment, it has taken the lowering of costs to get them to use solar power. But today the collection cells are a practical way for heating one's home, being easy to install on rooftops, they are no longer a difficult system to use.
To produce hot water through photovoltaic cells, the water is heated while it is inside the cells, and then sent through your pipes. The cells have become efficient enough to collect energy on overcast days. A company knowns as Uni-Solar has developed solar collection arrays that can gather energy during stormy weather. This system is designed as such so that on sunny days, energy is stored in huge amounts in case severe whether comes around. There is one other system called PV that a lot of people are using. The PV System allows a home to hook up to an electrical grid and share any extra power to the grid. This is to bring down the dependence of the grid on electric power from hydro-electric plants.
The benefits of the PV System are taking pressure off of the grid system, along with reducing pollution, and lowering your costs also. There are small communities across the country that have centralized solar collection arrays. In addition, numerous major companies are using solar energy as their primary source of power nowadays. Google has been using a 1.6 megawatt system to power its offices and Wal Mart is trying to develop their own 100 megawatt solar energy system to power their stores.
Governments in countries like Japan, Germany, Switzerland and the United States are giving people tax incentives to employ solar energy for their houses or businesses. Many private investors also discover the benefit of green energy and solar collection so they will keep on investing to ensure its future. As more and more people use it, the cost will continue to decrease.
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Wednesday, January 7, 2009
The Population Growth of the World's Largest Country
China Population
The Population Growth of the World's Largest Country
Jul 30 2008
As recently as 1950, China's population was a mere 563 million. The population grew dramatically through the following decades to one billion in the early 1980s.
China's total fertility rate is 1.7, which means that, on average, each woman gives birth to 1.7 children throughout her life. The necessary total fertility rate for a stable population is 2.1; nonetheless, China's population is expected to grow over the next few decades. This can be attributed to immigration and a decrease in infant mortality and a decrease in death rate as national health improves.
China's population officially passed 1.3 billion citizens, with the birth of a baby boy early on Jan 6, 2005.
The boy was born Thursday at the Beijing Maternity Hospital at 12:02 a.m. (1602 GMT Wednesday) to a father who works for Air China and a mother employed by Shell China, Xinhua said. The newborn baby's overjoyed father was quoted as saying his son would be blessed his whole life.
China's population is expected to increase by about 10 million a year, hitting a peak of 1.46 billion in the 2030s.
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http://trendsbridge.blogspot.com/2009/01/population-growth-of-worlds-largest.html
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Finding math in nature on the road
Math is cool.
Math is cool.
I never was good at numbers, but one of my fondest memories of math as a teenager was learning about the Fibonacci Sequence.
Ms. Sheehan, my teacher at the time, described this as a series of accumulating numbers in which the next number is found by adding the previous two together beginning with zero and one. The chain of numbers produced (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, and so on) describe natural phenomenon from leaf growth to the curl of a shell. And once you are familiar with what that chain looks like (check out this video), it’s easy to spot Fibonacci just about everywhere in nature.
A recent article in Sierra magazine reminded me of this. The piece, written by an author named Mikey Jane Moran, makes a bold leap from Fibonacci to the importance of play-based learning, and the need to avoid screens. A snip:
“Tell your children to hunt for the curling Fibonacci shape outdoors and they will start to see the patterns everywhere, in the cowlick on their brother’s head and in spider webs—places where there aren’t really Fibonacci patterns. But the beauty is that they are noticing. Instead of staring at a video game screen on long road trips, they are looking at clouds. Walks may take longer as they stop to look at every little thing, but how can anyone complain?”
If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know this notion of play over technology is a big one for me. Quite frankly, it’s nice just to see mainstream publications championing the same priorities for a change.
That said, Moran is right—finding Fibonacci in nature is DAMN cool, and something worth doing.
Whenever I head out with the girls, we try to look for Fibonacci and other phenomena like it. The hunt becomes a big part of our adventure; L and R look everywhere for examples, and the two girls compete to see who can find more (they are sisters, after all). As Moran suggests, the search (and subsequent success or failure) introduces a much-needed component of play into the learning-from-nature mix. The result is a wonderful way to experience new stuff.
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http://wanderingpod.com/tag/fibonacci/
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Monday, March 16, 2009
Good Grammar = Good Writing?
RCBonay said...
I was discussing the topic of basic grammar with a friend at work today. We both agreed that, if asked, we could easily explain what defines a noun or a verb but we'd have to look in a textbook to remind ourselves what defines everything else. To respond to your question I do believe it's important to be aware of what good grammar is in order to write clearly. Once this is established,and your audience understands you, you can use bad grammar-in the form of artistic license-to write in your own voice.
kitsimpson said...
"Do you think having a better handle on grammar makes you a better writer?"
Obviously you're not a college English prof faced with a room-full of students whose grasp of grammar is equivalent to their grasp of synchronised electron-spin dynamics.
No, no. I'm not bitter towards the education system. Nope. Not at all.
Anyway, the point is, it's kind of like art. Not everyone can become an artist, but if they learn the basics, almost everyone can at least draw a decent picture. Likewise, not everyone can write, but if they have a grounding in the structure of the craft, they're at least not going to sound like morons.
I guess, what I'm saying is grammar may not produce good writing, but bad grammar is guaranteed to produce bad writing.
Christopher Simpson said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
kitsimpson said...
(Sorry -- I screwed up the above deleted post by Christopher Simpson. Trying it again.)
Perhaps this might help. It's a comic book I put together for my students illustrating the basic concepts of grammar by means of Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem, The Jabberwocky.
You can find it here
purplume said...
My dream is to find a writer who loves to edit up a piece of writing and be writing partners with them.
That would leave me free to write a creative story line and leave the rest to them. I'm thinking there may be people who prefer that part of it?
I immediately liked your voice and writing.
Best luck with it.
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Pin Me
Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss! Ideas for Preschool
written by: Kara Bietz • edited by: Donna Cosmato • updated: 12/16/2014
March 2 is Dr. Seuss' birthday. Celebrate with your preschoolers by planning a Dr. Seuss themed week. Included are ideas for three of his classic books: The Foot Book, Green Eggs and Ham, and If I Ran the Zoo.
• slide 1 of 4
Dr. Seuss, or Theodore Geisel, was born on March 2, 1904. Because of the impact his books have had on adults and children alike, a Dr. Seuss from Wikimedia Commons popular preschool theme for March is Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!
He had a vast body of work and published 46 children's books in his lifetime. You should be able to create activities across the curriculum to tie-in with almost any of his books. Whether you decide to dedicate each day to a specific book or mix-up several books every day, celebrate March in silly, rhyming style with these simple Dr. Seuss birthday preschool ideas for circle time and art.
• slide 2 of 4
Circle Time
Several of his more popular books, such as Yertle the Turtle and Bartholomew and the Oobleck, are quite long. If you choose to read these longer works to your preschool students, it is best to break them into sections, reading just a few pages each day until the book is finished. Many of his other books, such as The Foot Book, Green Eggs and Ham, and If I Ran The Zoo are an appropriate length for preschool circle time.
The Foot Book: Use the book to introduce the concept of right and left to your preschoolers. Have the children stand up and tap their feet while you recite the lines "left foot, left foot, right foot, right". Practice this concept several times. Placing a piece of masking tape on the children's right shoes can help the children easily distinguish the difference.Green Eggs and Ham
Green Eggs and Ham: While reading the story, encourage the children to join in for the repeating lines "I do not like them, Sam I am", and "I do not like green eggs and ham". Use the story as a jumping off point to discuss foods that the children like and dislike. Another point to discuss after reading the story would be animals that lay eggs. Can the children think of any other animals besides a chicken that lay eggs? Make a chart of egg-laying animals and non-egg laying animals.
If I Ran the Zoo: What are the children's ideas for running the zoo? Discuss ideas for creating a zoo with your class. Be sure to document each child's ideas for creating their own zoo.
• slide 3 of 4
It is possible to create developmentally appropriate art activities for preschoolers using the three books highlighted in the circle time activity section.
The Foot Book: Make a classroom foot collage. Using a large piece of butcher paper, paint the bottom of your children's feet, and let them walk across the paper. If possible, this activity is best done outdoors or where there is lots of room. If you are able to be outdoors, ask the children to run across the paper. Do the running footprints look different from the walking footprints?
Green Eggs and Ham: Luckily, March is the time of the year when it is easy to find egg coloring kits. Boil and color a few dozen eggs with your preschool class. Encourage the children to peel the shells off the eggs, and serve the boiled eggs for a snack. Use the shells as collage material in your art center. Allow the children to create with the egg shells any way they would like.
If I Ran The Zoo: Using the ideas the children had for running their own zoo, encourage the children to illustrate their ideas. Ask each child to explain their picture to you, and document their explanation on their artwork. Take pictures of each child creating their zoo drawings, and attach it to the back of the artwork. Laminate each piece of art, and use it to create a class book.
• slide 4 of 4
Curriculum Stretchers
Given the vast amount of work Dr. Seuss created over his lifetime, it would be possible to plan an entire week of preschool activities based on his books and never repeat the same idea twice. Celebrate literacy and the contributions of this incredible author when you plan Dr. Seuss birthday preschool ideas. For more ideas, check out these lessons with Hop On Pop or The ABC Book.
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A Prisoner of the Boxer Rebellion, 1900
The Galveston Hurricane of 1900
Farm Wife, 1900
The Death of Queen Victoria, 1901
The Assassination of President William McKinley, 1901
The Roosevelts Move Into the White House, 1901
Riding a Rural Free Delivery Route, 1903
First Flight, 1903
The Gibson Girl
Early Adventures With The Automobile
Immigrating to America, 1905
San Francisco Earthquake, 1906
Henry Ford Changes the World, 1908
A Walk with President Roosevelt, 1908
Children At Work, 1908-1912
On Safari, 1909
Birth of the Hollywood Cowboy, 1911
Doomed Expedition to the South Pole, 1912
Sinking of the Titanic, 1912
1st Woman to Fly the English Channel, 1912
The Massacre of the Armenians, 1915
The Bolsheviks Storm the Winter Palace, 1917
The Execution of Tsar Nicholas II, 1918
President Wilson Suffers a Stroke, 1919
Making Movies, 1920
King Tut's Tomb, 1922
Coolidge Becomes President, 1923
Adolf Hitler Attempts a Coup, 1923
Air Conditioning Goes to the Movies, 1925
Prohibition, 1927
Lindbergh Flies the Atlantic, 1927
Babe Ruth Hits His 60th Home Run, 1927
The Wall Street Crash, 1929
The Bonus Army Invades Washington, D.C., 1932
The Reichstag Fire, 1933
Shoot-out with Bonnie and Clyde, 1933
Migrant Mother, 1936
The Bombing of Guernica, 1937
The Rape of Nanking, 1937
Dining with the King and Queen of England, 1938
Images Of War 1918-1971
The Death of President Franklin Roosevelt, 1945
Thoughts Of A President, 1945
Jackie Robinson Breaks Baseball's Color Barrier, 1945
The Assassination of Gandhi, 1948
The Russians Discover a Spy Tunnel in Berlin, 1956
The Hungarian Revolution, 1956
The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 1963
First Voyage to the Moon, 1968
President Nixon Meets Elvis, 1970
Payoff to the Vice President, 1971
President Nixon Leaves the White House 1974
Prohibition, 1927
The US soldiers returning from the war in Europe came home to an America much different from the one they left. Two Amendments had been added to the Constitution in their absence. The 18th Amendment, ratified in 1919, introduced the era of Prohibition by outlawing the manufacture, sale or transportation of alcohol. The 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, enfranchised half of the population by giving women the vote. It was anticipated that the combination of these two legislative acts would transform America for the better: first by eradicating the deleterious effects of "Demon Rum" and secondly by bringing the calming influence of the woman's perspective to national policy.
"Belly up to the bar."
Patrons get their last drink the
night before Prohibition becomes law
Alcohol had been a source of concern since the colonial era. The temperance movement gained strength following the Civil War with the rise of such organizations as the Anti-Saloon League and the Women's Christian Temperance Union. The saloons that dotted America's neighborhoods were seen as the source of many of the nation's social problems. Maladies such as crime, poverty, marital abuse and even low worker productivity could be purged by eliminating their source - the consumption of alcohol. The 18th Amendment was to be a "Noble Experiment" that would transform America for the better.
The great hopes that inspired the experiment soon turned to dissolution. Enforcement was next to impossible. Congress allocated a paltry $5 million for this purpose. Illicit "speakeasies" thrived. The nation's borders were a sieve through which foreign booze flowed. Home-grown stills proliferated. The manufacture, distribution and sale of liquor became a growth industry for under-world gangs in America's major cities. Al Capone - the head of Chicago's most notorious mob - became a millionaire. By the end of the decade, the nation had had enough of the experiment. This exasperation combined with the realization that taxes on legal alcohol would provide much needed revenue for state and national governments led to the ratification of the 21st Amendment in 1933 that rescinded the 18th Amendment. The "Noble Experiment" was dead.
"I learned that not everything in America was what it seemed to be."
Count Felix von Luckner was a German naval war hero who visited the United States with his wife in 1927. He provides a visitor's impression of Prohibition:
I suppose I should set forth my investigations into the subject of prohibition. Here is a new experience, at a club's celebration. Each man appears with an impressive portfolio. Each receives his glass of pure water; above the table the law reigns supreme. The brief cases rest under the chairs. Soon they are drawn out, the merry noise of popping corks is heard, and the guzzling begins.
Or, I come to a banquet in a hotel dining room. On the table are the finest wines. I ask, 'how come?' Answer: 'Well, two of our members lived in the hotel for eight days and every day brought in cargoes of this costly stuff in their suitcases.' My informant was madly overjoyed at this cunning.
My first experience with the ways of prohibition came while we were being entertained by friends in New York. It was bitterly cold. My wife and I rode in the rumble seat of the car, while the American and his wife, bundled in furs, sat in front. Having wrapped my companion in pillows and blankets so thoroughly that only her nose showed, I came across another cushion that seemed to hang uselessly on the side. 'Well,' I thought, 'this is a fine pillow; since everybody else is so warm and cozy, I might as well do something for my own comfort. This certainly does no one any good hanging on the wall.' Sitting on it, I gradually noticed a dampness in the neighborhood, that soon mounted to a veritable flood. The odor of fine brandy told me I had burst my host's peculiar liquor flask.
A "Flapper" reveals her
hidden hip flask as she
proposes a toast
In time, I learned that not everything in America was what it seemed to be. I discovered, for instance, that a spare tire could be filled with substances other than air, that one must not look too deeply into certain binoculars, and that the Teddy Bears that suddenly acquired tremendous popularity among the ladies very often had hollow metal stomachs.
'But,' it might be asked, 'where do all these people get the liquor?' Very simple. Prohibition has created a new, a universally respected, a well-beloved, and a very profitable occupation, that of the bootlegger who takes care of the importation of the forbidden liquor. Everyone knows this, even the powers of government. But this profession is beloved because it is essential, and it is respected because its pursuit is clothed with an element of danger and with a sporting risk. Now and then one is caught, that must happen pro forma and then he must do time or, if he is wealthy enough, get someone to do time for him.
Yet it is undeniable that prohibition has in some respects been signally successful. The filthy saloons, the gin mills which formerly flourished on every corner and in which the laborer once drank off half his wages, have disappeared. Now he can instead buy his own car, and ride off for a weekend or a few days with his wife and children in the country or at the sea. But, on the other hand, a great deal of poison and methyl alcohol has taken the place of the good old pure whiskey. The number of crimes and misdemeanors that originated in drunkenness has declined. But by contrast, a large part of the population has become accustomed to disregard and to violate the law without thinking. The worst is, that precisely as a consequence of the law, the taste for alcohol has spread ever more widely among the youth. The sporting attraction of the forbidden and the dangerous leads to violations. My observations have convinced me that many fewer would drink were it not illegal.
This eyewitness account appears in Von Luckner, Count Felix, Seeteufel erobert Amerika (1928), reprinted in Handlin, Oscar, This Was America (1949); Coffey, Thomas, M., The Long Thirst: Prohibition in America 1920-1933 (1975); Sann, Paul, The Lawless Decade (1957).
How To Cite This Article:
"Prohibition, 1927" EyeWitness to History, (2007).
Copyright © Ibis Communications, Inc.
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Different Flower Bulbs
Grown in a wide variety of colors, sizes and bloom shapes, flower bulbs provide a long-lasting display and once planted, spring up year after year to provide a constant source of color and texture to the garden. Many flower bulbs emerge in spring while others pop up in summer and fall to keep the garden in bloom throughout the year. Some flower petals on flower bulbs are fringed or ruffled to provide unusual textures to the landscape.
Peruvian Daffodil
Peruvian daffodil (Hymenocallis narcissiflora) is an early summer-blooming flower bulb. They grow 1 to 3 feet tall and have a spread of 6 to 12 inches. The fragrant, curved petals are white and yellow and flank the daffodil-like cup. The leafless stems on the Peruvian daffodil reach a maximum height of 24 inches tall and the dark green basal leaves are long, arching and strap-shaped. Peruvian daffodils can be grown within the ground or tucked into a container. Peruvian daffodils grow best in part sun to shade and well-drained, moist soil. Plant in USDA zones 9 to 11.
Tulip (Tulipa) is a spring-blooming bulb that reaches a maximum height of 2 feet and a spread of 3/4 inch. Each tulip has six petal-like tepals that are often smooth but can be fringed or ruffled. The shape of tulip flowerheads is often cup-shaped with a teardrop form but also grow in bowl, star and goblet shapes. Some tulip flowers are single while others are double to create a layered display. Tulips grow in every color of the rainbow except true blue, making for a versatile flower bulb variety. The basal leaves on tulips are green to gray to blue and range from oval- to strap-shaped. They grow best in full sun and well-drained soil that is fertile. Plant tulips in USDA zones 3 to 8.
Siberian Iris
Siberian iris (Iris sibirica) is a late spring-blooming flower bulb that grows in upright clumps that reach heights between 1 and 3 feet tall. The flowerheads that sit atop the grasslike, 18-inch-long stems grow in a wide range of colors including rich purples, bright pinks and deep blues. Siberian iris flowers begin blooming in May and last into June. Often found growing along ponds and streams, they require medium to wet soil moisture and when planted in a flowerbed, require extra attention to ensure they are kept moist. Siberian iris grows best in full sun to part shade and heavy, acidic and clay soils. By lifting the clumps out of the bed in early fall, they can grow in other areas of the garden. Plant Siberian iris in USDA zones 3 to 9.
Keywords: different flower bulbs, Peruvian daffodil, tulip bulb, Siberian iris
About this Author
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Down the drain | india | Hindustan Times
Today in New Delhi, India
Aug 19, 2017-Saturday
New Delhi
• Humidity
• Wind
Down the drain
The government must workout to improve the current state of sanitation facilities which has a huge impact on health, mortality as well as the economy.
india Updated: Nov 01, 2007 22:52 IST
The hype around India’s urbanisation will prove nothing more than a chimera if a random check were to be undertaken of the state of public amenities in cities. Definite lacuna would be the lack of access to, and availability of, clean toilets. According to the 2006 World Health Organisation Report, only 22 per cent of rural and 59 per cent of urban India has access to sanitation, the national average a measly 33 per cent. The 7th World Toilet Summit, being held in the Capital, has brought the focus back on this important issue, which has a huge impact on health, mortality as well as the economy.
According to one estimate, treating health hazards like diarrhoea (an offshoot of poor sanitation) may cost the country Rs 200 crore; the loss of working days due to the ailment, a whopping Rs 300 crore. Worldwide, the WHO estimates, 200 million people suffer from schistosomiasis, a disease caused by lack of access to hygienic sanitation facilities. As things stand, the Millennium Development Goal on sanitation, which hopes to halve the proportion of people who do not have access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation by 2015 and to provide toilets for all by 2025, seems to be an uphill task. The UN has declared 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation.
In urban India, even pay and use public lavatories often don’t make the cut in terms of cleanliness and maintenance. Naturally, the target population sees them as stinking and unhygienic. Moreover, these toilets tend to concentrate around areas that are advertisement worthy, leaving more needy areas uncovered. As for the slums in urban areas, they always figure at the bottom of the list of priorities. Since governments tend to look at people living in these areas as a burden on civic infrastructure, their needs are shortchanged at all times. To make toilets available to the maximum number of people, the government needs to invest in low-cost options that are suitable and simple to replicate. It also needs to rope in NGOs and corporates to build more facilities. It must understand that there is a direct correlation between urban poverty and poor health, which is largely a result of inadequate sanitation facilities.
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The Winter War
The Winter War was fought between Finland and Russia between November 1939 and March 1940. After the blitzkrieg attack on Poland by Germany, the Winter War was the only other major military campaign until Hitler unleashed blitzkrieg on western Europe in the Spring of 1940.
winter2Finnish infantry
When war broke out, the Finnish army was small. The country only had a population of 4 million and as a result of this, any army could only have been small. Finland could muster a small army of professionals. The country also had a peacetime army of conscripts which was boosted each year by an annual intake of new men. There was also a reserve which all conscripts passed into after a year’s service. Compared to the vast potential resources of the Red Army, the Finnish Army was dwarfed.
In time of war, it was planned by Mannerheim that the peacetime army should act as a covering force to delay any attack until the reservists got to the front. The army was also short of equipment including uniforms and modern artillery pieces – the army only had 112 decent anti-tank guns at the start of the war. The means of producing modern weaponry was also short of the standards of Western European countries. Basic things such as ammunition could not be produced in large quantities and the army’s communication system was basic, relying in part on runners. From whatever angle the Finnish army was looked at, it seemed an easy victim for the Russians.
However, in one sense the Finnish Army was in an excellent position to defend its nation. Finnish troops were trained to use their own terrain to their advantage. Finnish troops were well suited to the forests and snow-covered regions of Finland and they knew the lay of the land. Finnish ski troops were highly mobile and well trained. However, these men were used to working in small units and large scale manoeuvres were alien not only to them but to the officers in command of them. Money simply had not been spent in Finland prior to 1939 for many large-scale military training exercises. However, as it became more and more obvious that a conflict with the Russians was likely, patriotism took a firm hold and no-one was prepared to tolerate a Russian invasion of their homeland.
To go with the army, the Finnish Navy was small and the Finnish air force only had 100 planes but some of these were incapable of being flown in battle.
The Russian army was completely different. However, in September 1939, Russia had committed a number of men to the Polish campaign. But with 1,250,000 men in the regular army, there were many more Stalin could call on. For the Winter War, Russia used 45 divisions – each division had 18,000 men; so by that reckoning Russia used 810,000 men; nearly 25% of the whole of Finland’s population. In fact, for the whole duration of the war, the Russians used 1,200,000 men in total in some form of military capacity. The Russians also used 1,500 tanks and 3,000 planes. Whereas the Finns had difficulty supplying her troops with ammunition, the Russians had an unlimited supply and a vastly superior system of communications. But the Russian army had two major weaknesses. It was used to war games on large expanses of open ground. The snow covered forests of Finland were a different matter and the Russians were to find that they were frequently confined to the area around roads as many of their men were unused to Finland’s terrain. Their tactics developed during training did not include such terrain.
The Russian Army also had another fundamental weakness: its command structure was so rigid that military commanders in the field would not make a decision without the approval of a higher officer who usually had to get permission from a political commissar that his tactics were correct. Such a set-up created delays in decision-making. Therefore the leviathan that was the Russian Army in late 1939, was frequently a slow moving dinosaur hindered by both the geography of Finland and its rigidity in terms of decision making. Whereas Blitzkrieg had been designed to incorporate all aspects of Germany’s army and air force, each part of the Russian army acted as separate entities. Whether this was a result of the purges in the military which decimated its officer corps or a result of fear of taking a decision that was unacceptable to higher authorities is difficult to know: probably it was a combination of both.
The Red Army was ill-equipped for a winter war. Whereas the army was well supplied with standard military equipment, it had little that was required for the snow-covered forests of Finland. White camouflage clothing was not issued and vehicles simply could not cope with the cold. The winter of 1939-40 was particularly severe.
The Russians were also forced to fight on a small front despite the sheer size of the Russian-Finnish border. Many parts of the 600 miles border were simply impassable, so the Finns had a good idea as to the route any Russian force might take. The Russian air force was also limited in the amount of time it could help the army because the days were so short during the winter months. When they did fly, the Russians took heavy casualties, losing 800 planes during the war – over 25% of the planes used in the war.
The Finnish High Command, led by Mannerheim, believed that the only weak spot they had was in the Karelian Isthmus. This area was fortified with the Mannerheim Line – a complex of trenches, wire, mine fields and obstacles. Concrete emplacements were built but they were few and far between with each emplacement having little ability to give any other covering fire. In no way could the Mannerheim Line compare to the Maginot Line.
The war started on November 30th. The initial stages of the war went to the Finns plan as they held up the first advances of the Red Army in the Karelian Isthmus. The Finnish troops also picked up valuable experience of fighting tanks; in this the Russians all but assisted the Finns as the tanks of the Russians operated separate to the infantry and the Finns found it relatively easy to pick off individually operating tanks. The Finns had less success around the northern shores of Lake Lagoda where the Russians did make gains. However, by mid-December, the Russians had been held in all areas and a stalemate took place. The main worry for Mannerheim was that he had already used up 50% of his reserves. Despite this, the Finns felt confident enough to launch a counter-attack against the Russians on December 27th. It lasted until December 30th when it became apparent that it was not going to be successful as the Russians had dug in well and the Finnish troops were unused to large scale offensive campaigns. So by the end of the year, an effective stalemate had occurred in all areas – but Finnish military commanders were aware that their reserves were fast dwindling.
The winter in January 1940 meant that little military action of value took place. What the Finns perfected, though, was a tactic in attacking Russian convoys. The Finns knew that Russian vehicles had to stay on the road. They therefore used their knowledge of the terrain to get behind the convoy and attack from the sides and from the rear thus blocking off any form of Russian retreat. The Russians then had to dig in (the Finns called these positions ‘mottis’) where they fought back. Some of the mottis were so big that the Russian troops held out in them until the end of the war. Other smaller ones were ruthlessly destroyed. Though the Finns did not achieve a major victory at this time, their victory at Summosalmi did a great deal to boost the nation’s morale. However, on February 1st, the Russians launched a major offensive.
Aware that they had not been successful up to the end of December, the Russians had started preparing for a major assault on December 26th when they essentially started creating a new army for the Finnish front. On December 28th, an order was given that no more mass frontal assaults were to be allowed as they had proved to be very costly in terms of men lost. Instead the Russians adopted a step-by-step advance tactic that was preceded by a massive artillery bombardment which was intended to smash any concrete emplacements that the Finns had built. One month was spent practicing this tactic combining infantry, tanks and artillery. On January 7th 1940, Marshall Timoshenko was given command of the Russian Army in Finland.
On January 15th Russia started a systematic artillery bombardment of Finland’s defences in the Karelian Isthmus. The Russians had a free hand in this as their artillery guns were more powerful than Finland’s and so could fire at Finnish positions in the Isthmus but were out of range from any Finnish attack. Also with complete mastery of the air, Russian gunners were given specific co-ordinates to aim for.
The main Russian attack came on February 1st. The Finns had six divisions (about 85,000 men) at the front and three in reserve positions. However, two of the reserve divisions were newly created and had no experience of combat. The Russians had learned their lessons from the previous two months. Tanks attacked first with infantry literally in tow as many tanks pulled along infantry soldiers on sledges. The tanks placed themselves in front of the Finnish bunkers therefore protecting the infantry soldiers. The usual tactic of the Finns against this was to evacuate all fortified emplacements during the day and return to them at night once the Russians had moved back. During the night, the bunkers would be repaired. However, this was exhausting work and wore down the Finnish defenders. The Russians used a policy of attacking for three days and then pausing for 24 hours before attacking again for another three days. On February 11th, the Russians made an expected breakthrough at Summa in the Karelian Isthmus. The Mannerheim Line was broken at this point.
“The breakthrough at Summa was the military turning point of the war. The reasons for it are complex. There were mistakes in that the structure of the defences, particularly in placing the bunkers so that they could not support one another and so could be eliminated individually. The careful planning of the Russian attacks exploited this weakness to the fullest.” A Upton
The Russians simply wore down the defenders and exhaustion was a major factor in why the front line at Summa collapsed. By February 17th, those survivors at Summa had withdrawn from the Mannerheim Line. On February 25th, the Finns attempted a counter-attack using the remaining fifteen tanks that they possessed. Ironically, as these tanks advanced to the front line to support the infantry, they caused panic among many Finnish troops who did not know that Finland had any tanks – they assumed that they were Russian tanks that had got behind them in an encircling movement. The counter-attack failed.
Wary of previous problems encountered in Finland, the Russians advanced steadily. However, they did advance and the Finns had to retreat despite the cautious approach of the Russians. By March 13th, the Finns were in retreat.
“The general military position on March 13th was roughly as follows. The Russian offensive on the isthmus showed no sign of slackening.” Upton
By mid-March the troops in the Finnish army were exhausted. However, the Russians seemed disinclined to pursue them – the doctrine of step-by-step established in December 1939, still dominated tactics, as did a healthy respect for the Finnish army.
A peace settlement was not long in coming. If the Russians had fully broken through the Karelian Isthmus, Helsinki was less than 200 miles away. If the Finnish army had been destroyed, nothing would have been in the way to stop the Russian army. In fact peace talks had been going on while Russia had made military gains. The Finns had been told the precise terms the Russians wanted on February 23rd. The Russians wanted:
A 30-year lease of Hanko.
The cessation of the whole of the Karelian Isthmus and the shores of Lake Lagoda on the Finnish side.
In return, the Russians would evacuate the Petsamo area.
The Finnish government was unwilling to negotiate on these terms. However, the declining military situation meant that they were not in a position to do so. The hope of military assistance from Britain and France failed to materialise. In all senses, the Finns were by themselves. Sweden urged Finland to accept the Russian demands. The Russians had set March 1st as a deadline for negotiations. With the ever decreasing military situation confronting them, the Finnish government saw no alternative to acceptance.
The March 1st deadline passed but the Finnish government was assured that the terms still stood and that the deadline had been extended.
On March 6th, a Finnish delegation left for Moscow. Talks opened on March 8th. The Russians, led by Molotov, now demanded more land than their earlier terms. The Finns were outraged but could do little about this because of their poor military situation. On March 12th, the Finnish government gave its permission for the delegation to accept the terms. On March 13th, the Treaty of Moscow was signed and hostilities ceased at 11 a.m.
The Russians defended their actions by stating that their newly acquired land would give them military protection and security. In particular, Leningrad would be better protected.
Why didn’t Stalin simply order his vastly superior army to continue conquering Finland after the fall of the Karelian Isthmus? The answer is not known for sure but it is thought that Stalin was looking at the bigger picture – seeing that a war against Nazi Germany was unavoidable, the campaign in Finland may well have been seen as a distraction taking up valuable troops.
There is no doubt that Russia decisively won the war but at great cost. The Russians admitted that 48,000 of their men were killed and 158,000 wounded. The Finns put the Russian casualties much higher. Also the Russians lost many tanks and planes. However, Russia could accommodate such manpower losses and the greatest value it got from the war was the experience of fighting a modern war.
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Why do some individuals want to destroy the social peace that others work so hard to preserve? Parents and community residents have speculative views on the causes of crime, but among educators there is the view that crime is a learned behavior. They tend to think students learn criminal behavior through interaction with peers who defy the law. There is also the notion that youths who see themselves as delinquents behave according to their negative self-image.
According to Pelfrey (1993), juvenile delinquency is influenced by many factors, and no one perspective or theory can be considered the "correct" explanation. His story about the judge, the mother, the police officer, and the teacher questioning the causes of hostile behavior in the following courtroom scenario indicates a need to find answers regarding the causes of delinquency.
Juvenile in Court
The Judge
Trying to interpret the youth's hostility, the judge stared at the young man in front of him. Was he as uncaring as his record indicated? Had he been influenced by other wiser and more mature of¬fenders? Why had he engaged in these seemingly senseless criminal acts? Is society to blame? Is this young man salvageable? As the judge drummed his fingers on the desk top, he realized that he had ample facts concerning the youth's offenses but only guesses concerning the causes of his behavior.
The Mother
The young man's mother sat tensely, watching the judge and her son. She had not been surprised when told that her son was in the detention center and, thinking back, she had even anticipated that call. She had tried so hard and failed so miserably with this child that it was almost as if he were destined to do the things he had done. Had she caused his behavior? Was it unfair to this child and to her other children to have divorced and given him only a one-parent home? Had she been too lenient? Too strict? What could she have done differently? What could she do differently in the future? No answers, only guesses.
The Police Officer
The police officer had seen scenes like this unfold many times. This young man had been stoic during his arrest and hearings. Others took different tactics and used apologies, confessions, and tears to cleanse their souls or manipulate the system. Only a seasoned observer could guess at the different motives. Had the die been cast with this young man? Is there any hope for his future?
The Teacher
A caring teacher willing to expend hours of extra work with problem children may be a rarity in many school systems today. Such a teacher sat in the audience and sadly watched the proceedings. This young man had potential, the capability to do well, but he had chosen other ways to define success. Could she have motivated him another way? Could she have spent more time with him and stimulated his interest in academic success? Could she have trained him to defer gratification and think to the future? Could she have seen this coming and referred him to others within the school system more capable of handling his problems?
As they looked for answers, did the thoughts and questions of individuals in the courtroom scenario overlook the possibility that this young man alone was responsible for his behavior-that he had freely chosen to commit the offenses? The answers to all of their questions as well as this last one could be yes-or no-or maybe. Every person interested in this young man's situation tried to understand his or her role in causing or altering his behavior. Cooperative efforts between family, school, and the juvenile justice system to find solutions will have to include the development of innovative approaches.
For instance, judges could do more than decide the sentencing appropriate to fit the crime. When juveniles are allowed to go back to school following a court hearing, judges should not only insist that they return to school but also lecture them about getting good grades, attending school every day, being prepared to learn, and setting long-term educational goals. The school system has to consider how teachers and staff members will treat students who have been arrested or charged with a crime. Measures should be taken to keep them from becoming repeat offenders. Such measures would mean more cooperation between the school system and social service agen¬cies to provide counseling, an expanded alternative school curriculum, and additional family education activities.
Special provisions and programs for juveniles to examine the role models and influences in their life (e.g., peers, family members, teachers, community leaders, etc.) may offer the insight they need to explore the causes of and elements that contribute to their behavior. Furthermore, if they are coerced to conduct criminal activities through their association with others, it is imperative for them to understand how their interaction with individuals who commit crimes can have a negative effect on their future.
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• You're all caught up!
What Is the Major Difference Between Static & Dynamic Stretching?
What Is the Major Difference Between Static & Dynamic Stretching?
A young woman is doing a forward bend. Photo Credit Alexey_Arz/iStock/Getty Images
You might think that stretching is only for athletes, but everyone can benefit from stretching exercises. Stretching is an important component of physical fitness, according to the American Council on Exercise -- and without it, your joints can stiffen and your risk of injury increases. Static and dynamic are two stretching techniques that can help you maintain flexibility or prepare your body for a vigorous activity and help it recover. The main differences between the two are in how and when you perform them.
Static Stretching Explained
A static stretch involves stretching your muscle to a point where you feel a slight discomfort, but not to the point where you feel pain. The stretch and your position are then held with no movement for a period of time. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends holding the stretch 15 to 30 seconds and performing it three to five times. When done correctly, static stretches are relatively safe and can improve your flexibility. An example of a static stretch is the seated hamstring stretch. This is where you sit on the floor, extend your legs straight out in front of you and lean forward, trying to touch your toes, until you feel the stretch at the back of your thighs.
Dynamic Stretching Explained
Dynamic stretching is a technique used more by athletes. When you perform dynamic stretches, instead of holding the stretch for a period of time, you repeatedly move your joints and muscles through a full range of motion. Dynamic stretches also improve your flexibility and help reduce risk of injury. Your movements are controlled and deliberate and are meant to mimic the movements your joints and muscles go through in a specific sport or activity. Examples of dynamic stretches are walking lunges, high knee marching and arm circles.
When to Stretch
The type of stretches you perform and when you perform them can impact your performance. Studies have shown that static stretching before an athletic event or vigorous activity can reduce your strength and power. It's best to perform static stretches after an activity, when your muscles are still warm. A post-activity static stretch helps reduce muscle tension and soreness by elongating the muscle and increasing blood circulation. Dynamic stretches are most effective before an activity or athletic event because they help prepare your body for the specific movements. They elevate your heart rate and increase body temperature, which allows your muscles to move more efficiently -- and dynamic stretches wake up your nervous system, which gets your brain talking to your muscles.
Stretching Tips and Considerations
Stretching is most effective when done properly. Avoid static stretching if your muscles are cold. Perform a short warm-up to get blood flowing to your muscles. Avoid quick, bouncing or jerking movements when doing static stretches because this could result in muscle tears and pulls. Stretching should not be painful. If you have stretched to the point of pain, ease back slightly. Other than before or after a sporting event or activity, the ACSM recommends stretching a minimum of two days each week. Stretching every day is recommended if you have lost the flexibility in your joints, which has caused a reduction in your range of motion.
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TRY IT, You will not be SORRY: Use lemon like this and say GOODBYE to CANCER obesity and diabetes!
Lemons are rarely consumed as a stand-alone fruit due to their intense, sour flavor but when mixed with something can cure alot of health problems.
It is also one of the world's most widely consumed tropical fruits. It is great for detoxifying the body.
You can make it as a juice by adding an amount of water but it is best if it's frozen while consuming together with the peel.
Based on a scientific study, peel is the healthiest part of the lemon. Lemon peel contains 5 to 10 times more vitamins of the fruit.
It can improve your immune system that can prevent cancer, regulate cholesterol, treat infections and expel parasites and bacteria out of the body. It is also proven that can destroy cancer cells, colon cancer, lung cancer and breast cancer.
Here are some of the most important benefits of lemon:
§ prevents asthma
§ boosts immunity
§ Combats inflammation
§ Detoxifies the liver and kidneys
§ It regulates blood pressure
§ prevents cancer
Marilyn Granville claims, doctor and nutritionist revised that the peel of many fruits can you improve your health. Since the lemon peel is very bitter, she recommended to freeze the lemon, then grind with the peel, seeds and pulp.
Note: You can use apple cider to clean the lemon to protect from all the dirt and pesticides.
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Part 1: 1450-1750
Part 2: 1750-1805
<--Part 3: 1791-1831
Part 4: 1831-1865
Narrative | Resource Bank | Teacher's Guide
Modern Voices
Julie Winch on the economic impetus for kidnapping
Resource Bank Contents
Q: What do these kidnapping rings say about the expansion of the cotton South and the spread of the domestic slave trade?
Julie Winch
A: I think it really shows the intense demand that there is for slave labor, particularly the labor of healthy young adults, on the part of many planters, particularly planters who are jut setting up in business. They've acquired some land. They need to get a work force as quickly as they can and as cheaply as they can. They're very often cut off from the regular urban centers where slaves are sold, and so they are really eager to take advantage of a slave trader who comes along with a bunch of fairly healthy looking slaves that he's willing to sell at an attractive price. And even if they suspected that these slaves were not legally slaves, I doubt most of them would have asked too many questions. Just needed bodies. They just needed workers.
Julie Winch
Professor of History
University of Massachusetts, Boston
previous | next
Part 3: Narrative | Resource Bank Contents | Teacher's Guide
WGBH | PBS Online | ©
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The Garifuna History, Language and Culture
Historical accounts prove that long ago, around 200 BC, native Amerindians had inhabited the Greater Antilles as well as parts of the South American mainland.
Two main groups of such Amerindians namely the Arawaks and Caribs, were always in conflict over the occupation of territories both on the mainland and on the islands. While the Arawaks were settled on the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, the Caribs chose to settle on smaller islands like Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada and Trinidad & Tobago.
The native Caribs led by Joseph Chatoyer fought fiercely against the European influence in defense of their territories. Chatoyer was subdued in 1795. This followed a deportation of the Caribs off their stronghold occupation of St. Vincent. They were driven off to nearby Becquia and soon set sail en route to Roatan on March 11, 1797.
Both Black and Red Caribs occupied Roatan. They came from the Lesser Antilles by the thousands and before long they had occupied other coastal territories off the coast of Honduras. Carib intermarriage with subdued enemies gave rise to an exchange of cultures. Hence today we have the Garifuna - a fusion of the native Amerindians and early European influence.
The first recorded arrival of the Garifuna to Belize was in 1802. From that time onwards they had become recognized in the coastal township of Dangriga and soon spread to other nearby shores. Thomas Vincent Ramos led the Garinagu into the occupation of several coastal communities.
Today we have come to know the Garinagu as a distinct culture having their own language, food, music, and even a very intricately weaved religion.
A burial feast known as Beluria (Spanish: Velorio) is a nine-day prayer and devotion in honor of the dead which is culminated with a festive show of drumming, dancing and food galore. The Dugu is a more diverse and deeply religious ceremony in which a Buyei (high priest) leads a generation into contact with deceased relatives.
The ancestral rites come in three parts: The Amuyadahani (Bathing the Spirit of the Dead); the Chugu (Feeding of the Dead), and the Dugu (the actual Feasting of the Dead).
These religious activities bring together relatives from Honduras, Guatemala, even from as far away as the U.S.A. The Buyei summons the presence of three drummers, a group of Afuna-hountiuya (dressed in red cultural outfit), a number of Gayusa (singers) and fishermen to gather seafood (Adugahatinya).
The purpose of having a Dugu is to appeal to ancestors for help in resolving some problem in the designated family. The Ancestral Spirit or Gubida penetrates the congregation and communicates with his people during an Owehani (comparable to Pentecost).
The major highlight of the Dugu is a series of dancing which comes in four parts: Abeimahani, Amalihani, Awangulahani, and Hugulendu.
The entire Dugu ceremony usually lasts a few days in addition to several weeks of tedious preparatory work. Forty eight hours of continuous drumming and dancing in the temple (Dabuyaba) creates the mood for dialogue with the Spirits which satisfies the purpose of the Dugu.
Apart from dances highlighted in the Dugu, the Garinagu, a festive people, have to date earned recognition for the Punta: a dance in which coupled dancers try to outdo each other with a variation of movements. A milder version of this dance would be the Hugu-Hugu involving the singing of sacred rhythms by Gayusa in unison. A fusion of these two dances creates modern-day Combination.
Another very colorful dance is the John Canoe (Wanaragua). Dancers in white costumes and Caucasian masks dance to intimidate European slave masters. Even the lyrics are designed with the same objective. This dance is mostly done around Christmas time culminating with a grand showdown on January 6th (Dia de los Reyes).
Collectively other dances, like the Chumba, Sambai and Gunjai call for fancy footwork and a variation of costuming and style. Other less significant dances include the Matamuerte, Eremuna Eigi and Leremuna Wadagumani. Worthy of mention also is the Charikanari which is a dance accompaniment to the John Canoe.
Today's unique people, the Garinagu in Belize, have gained respect for having a very diverse culture. The Garifuna language is of alarming interest to others, both locally and internationally. The language is derived from several other languages fused together through an intermarriage of the Caribs with French, Arawak and German as well as Spanish cultures.
In 1922 the Carib Development Society (CDS) evolved through the efforts of Thomas Vincent Ramos in Dangriga. After the death of this champion in 1955, the work was taken up by the National Garifuna Council (NGC) along with the CDS. It was in 1981 that the NGC tabled its objectives and since then its tiresome efforts continue up to the present. It has branches in several Garifuna communities in Belize as well as a strong affiliation with Sister Societies in Honduras, Guatemala, St. Vincent and the U.S. The work of preserving the Garifuna-ness of a people continues and today we have even seen the formation of a Garifuna committee in San Pedro Town, A.C. "There is no turning back" is the theme under which we operate.
The Garifuna History, Language and Culture
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Beijing --
Latest news videos
For years, the United States and China have been at odds over how much each country should contribute to reducing climate change. China insists that as a developing country it shouldn't be held to the same stringent emissions caps as the rich world. The U.S. says that means failing to sufficiently address the problem, given that China has significantly surpassed the U.S. as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gas that is a byproduct of burning coal, oil and gas.
Climate change activists complain that both countries have failed to take adequate steps to curb emissions. President Obama recently announced a plan to cut by 30 percent greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, but set a deadline of 2030, by which time researchers say the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will already have caused drastic changes to the planet.
Xie and Stern made their remarks as Chinese and American officials - led by Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew - are meeting in Beijing for annual strategic and economic talks that aim to forge a more cooperative relationship between the world's two largest economies.
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Oct 01, 2015 08:11pm
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The thylacine , Thylacinus cynocephalus, (Greek for "dog-headed pouched one") was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger (because of its striped lower back) or the Tasmanian wolf. Native to continental Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea, it is believed to have become extinct in the 20th century. It was the last extant member of its family, Thylacinidae; Specimens of other members of the family have been found in the fossil record dating back to the late Oligocene, extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present.
Like the tigers and wolves of the Northern Hemisphere, from which it obtained two of its common names, the Tasmanian Tiger was an apex predator. As a marsupial, it was not closely related to these placental mammals, but because of convergent evolution it displayed the same general form and adaptations. Its closest living relative is thought to be either the Tasmanian Devil or the numbat. The Tasmanian Tiger was one of only two marsupials to have a pouch in both sexes (the other being the water opossum). The male Tasmanian Tiger had a pouch that acted as a protective sheath, covering his external reproductive organs while he ran through thick brush. The Tasmanian Tiger has been described as a formidable predator because of its ability to survive and hunt prey in extremely sparsely populated areas.
The Tasmanian Tiger is a candidate for cloning and other molecular science projects due to its recent demise and the existence of several well preserved specimens.
The modern Tasmanian Tiger first appeared about 4 million years ago. Species of the family Thylacinidae date back to the end of the Oligocene period; since the early 1990s, at least seven fossil species have been uncovered at Riversleigh, part of Lawn Hill Natinal Park in northwest Queensland. Dickson’s thylacine (Nimbacinus dicksoni) is the oldest of the seven discovered fossil species, dating back to 23 million years ago. This thylacinid was much smaller than its more recent relatives. The largest species, the powerful Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus potenus) which grew to the size of a wolf, was the only species to survive into the late Miocene. In late Pleistocene and early Holocene times, the modern thylacine was widespread (although never numerous) throughout Australia and New Guinea.The modern thylacine first appeared about 4 million years ago. Species of the family Thylacinidae date back to the beginning of the Miocene; since the early 1990s, at least seven fossil species have been uncovered at Riversleigh, part of Lawn Hill Natinal Park in northwest Queensland. Dickson’s thylacine (Nimbacinus dicksoni) is the oldest of the seven discovered fossil species, dating back to 23 million years ago. This thylacinid was much smaller than its more recent relatives. The largest species, the powerful thylacine (Thylacinus potenus) which grew to the size of a wolf, was the only species to survive into the late Miocene. In late Pleistocene and early Holocene times, the modern thylacine was widespread (although never numerous) throughout Australia and New Guinea.
Numerous examples of Tasmanian Tiger engravings and rock art have been found dating back to at least 1000 BC. Petroglyph images of the Tasmanian Tiger can be found at the Dampier Rock Art Precinct on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia. By the time the first European explorers arrived, the animal was already extinct in mainland Australia and rare in Tasmania. Europeans may have encountered it as far back as 1642 when Abel Tasman first arrived in Tasmania. His shore party reported seeing the footprints of "wild beasts having claws like a Tyger". Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, arriving with the Mascarin in 1772, reported seeing a "tiger cat". Positive identification of the Tasmanian Tiger as the animal encountered cannot be made from this report since the tiger quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) is similarly described. The first definitive encounter was by French explorers on 13 May 1792, as noted by the naturalist Jacques Labillardière, in his journal from the expedition led by D'Entrecasteaux. However, it was not until 1805 that William Paterson, the Lieutenant Governor of Tasmania, sent a detailed description for publication in the Sydney Gazette.
The first detailed scientific description was made by Tasmania's Deputy Surveyor-General, George Harris in 1808, five years after first settlement of the island. Harris originally placed the Tasmanian Tiger in the genus Didelphis, which had been created by Linnaeus for the American opossums, describing it as Didelphis cynocephala, the "dog-headed opossum". Recognition that the Australian marsupials were fundamentally different from the known mammal genera led to the establishment of the modern classification scheme, and in 1796, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire created the genus Dasyurus where he placed the thylacine in 1810. To resolve the mixture of Greek and Latin nomenclature, the species name was altered to cynocephalus. In 1824, it was separated out into its own genus, Thylacinus, by Temminck. The common name derives directly from the genus name, originally from the Greek thýlakos, meaning "pouch" or "sack".
Several studies support the Tasmanian Tiger as being a basal member of the Dasyuromorphia and the Tasmanian devil as its closest living relative. However, research published in Genome Research in January 2009 suggests the numbat may be more basal than the devil and more closely related to the Tasmanian Tiger.
The Tasmanian Tiger held the title of Australia's largest predator until about 3500 years ago. The Tasmanian Tiger resembled a large, short-haired dog with a stiff tail which smoothly extended from the body in a way similar to that of a kangaroo. Many European settlers drew direct comparisons with the hyena, because of its unusual stance and general demeanour. Its yellow-brown coat featured 13 to 21 distinctive dark stripes across its back, rump and the base of its tail, which earned the animal the nickname "tiger". The stripes were more pronounced in younger specimens, fading as the animal got older. One of the stripes extended down the outside of the rear thigh. Its body hair was dense and soft, up to 15 mm (0.6 in) in length; in juveniles the tip of the tail had a crest. Its rounded, erect ears were about 8 cm (3.1 in) long and covered with short fur. Colouration varied from light fawn to a dark brown; the belly was cream-coloured.
The mature Tasmanian Tiger ranged from 100 to 130 cm (39 to 51 in) long, plus a tail of around 50 to 65 cm (20 to 26 in). Adults stood about 60 cm (24 in) at the shoulder and weighed 20 to 30 kg (40 to 70 lb). There was slight sexual dimorphism with the males being larger than females on average.
All known Australian footage of live Tasmanian Tigers were shot in Hobart Zoo, Tasmania, in 1911, 1928, and 1933. Two other films are known to be shot in London Zoo
The female Tasmanian Tiger had a pouch with four teats, but unlike many other marsupials, the pouch opened to the rear of its body. Males had a scrotal pouch, unique amongst the Australian marsupials, into which they could withdraw their scrotal sac.
The Tasmanian Tiger was able to open its jaws to an unusual extent: up to 120 degrees. This capability can be seen in part in David Fleay's short black-and-white film sequence of a captive Tasmanian Tiger from 1933. The jaws were muscular but weak and had 46 teeth.
The Tasmanian Tiger's footprint is easy to distinguish from those of native and introduced species. Thylacine footprints could be distinguished from other native or introduced animals; unlike foxes, cats, dogs,wombats or Tasmanian devils, Tasmanian Tigers had a very large rear pad and four obvious front pads, arranged in almost a straight line. The hindfeet were similar to the forefeet but had four digits rather than five. Their claws were non-retractable.
The early scientific studies suggested it possessed an acute sense of smell which enabled it to track prey, but analysis of its brain structure revealed that its olfactory bulbs were not well developed. It is likely to have relied on sight and sound when hunting instead. Some observers described it having a strong and distinctive smell, others described a faint, clean, animal odour, and some no odour at all. It is possible that the Tasmanian Tiger, like its relative, the Tasmanian devil, gave off an odour when agitated.
The Tasmanian Tiger was noted as having a stiff and somewhat awkward gait, making it unable to run at high speed. It could also perform a bipedal hop, in a fashion similar to a kangaroo—demonstrated at various times by captive specimens. Guiler speculates that this was used as an accelerated form of motion when the animal became alarmed. The animal was also able to balance on its hind legs and stand upright for brief periods.
Although there are methods that can be used to identify the diet and feeding behavior of Tasmania Tiger, findings and theories on this subject remain hotly debated. A study published in 2011 yields some insight: "Dental and biogeochemical evidence suggests that T. cynocephalus was a hypercarnivore restricted to eating vertebrate flesh" The Tasmanian Tiger was exclusively carnivorous. Its stomach was muscular, and could distend to allow the animal to eat large amounts of food at one time, probably an adaptation to compensate for long periods when hunting was unsuccessful and food scarce. Analysis of the skeletal frame and observations of it in captivity suggest that it preferred to single out a target animal and pursue that animal until it was exhausted. Some studies conclude that the animal may have hunted in small family groups, with the main group herding prey in the general direction of an individual waiting in ambush. Trappers reported it as an ambush predator.
Little is known of the Tasmanian Tiger's diet and feeding behaviour. Prey is believed to have included kangaroos, wallabies and wombats, birds and small animals such as potoroos and possums. One prey animal may have been the once common Tasmanian emu. The emu was a large, flightless bird which shared the habitat of the thylacine and was hunted to extinction around 1850, possibly coinciding with the decline in thylacine numbers. Both dingoes and foxes have been noted to hunt the emu on the mainland. European settlers believed the Tasmanian Tiger to prey upon farmers' sheep and poultry. Throughout the 20th century, the thylacine was often characterised as primarily a blood drinker; according to Robert Paddle, the story's popularity seems to have originated from a single second-hand account heard by Geoffrey Smith (1881–1916) in a shepherd's hut. In captivity, Tasmanian Tigers were fed a wide variety of foods, including dead rabbits and wallabies as well as beef, mutton, horse, and occasionally poultry. Tasmania's leading naturalist Michael Sharland published an article in 1957 stating that a captive Tasmanian Tiger refused to eat dead wallaby flesh or to kill and eat a live wallaby offered to it, but "ultimately it was persuaded to eat by having the smell of blood from a freshly killed wallaby put before its nose.
A 2011 study by the University of New South Wales using advanced computer modelling indicated that the Tasmanian Tiger had surprisingly feeble jaws. Animals usually take prey close to their own body size, but an adult Tasmanian Tiger of around 30 kilograms (66 lb) was found to be incapable of handling prey much larger than 5 kilograms (11 lb). Researchers believe Tasmanian Tigers only ate small animals such as bandicoots and possums, putting them into direct competition with the Tasmanian devil and the tiger quoll. Such specialisation probably made the Tasmanian Tiger susceptible to small disturbances to the ecosystem.
Although the living grey wolf is widely seen as the Tasmanian Tiger's counterpart, a recent study proposes that Tasmanian Tiger was more of an ambush predator as opposed to a pursuit predator. In fact, the predatory behaviour of the Tasmanian Tiger was probably closer to ambushing felids than to large pursuit canids. Consequently, at least in terms of the postcranial anatomy, the vernacular name of "Tasmanian tiger" may be more apt than "marsupial wolf"
In 1921 a photo by Henry Burrell of a thylacine with a chicken was widely distributed and may have helped secure the animal's reputation as a poultry thief. In fact the image was cropped to hide the fenced run and housing, and analysis by one researcher has concluded that this Tasmanian Tiger is a mounted specimen, posed for the camera.
The Tasmanian Tiger probably preferred the dry eucalyptus forests, wetlands, and grasslands in contential Australia. Indigenous Australian rock paintings indicate that the Tasmanian Tiger lived throughout mainland Australia and New Guinea. Proof of the animal's existence in mainland Australia came from a desiccated carcass that was discovered in a cave in the Nullarbor Plain in Western Australia in 1990; carbon dating revealed it to be around 3,300 years old.
In Tasmania it preferred the woodlands of the midlands and coastal heath, which eventually became the primary focus of British settlers seeking grazing land for their livestock. The striped pattern may have provided camouflage in woodland conditions, but it may have also served for identification purposes. The animal had a typical home range of between 40 and 80 km2 (15 and 31 sq mi). It appears to have kept to its home range without being territorial; groups too large to be a family unit were sometimes observed together.
Extinction from mainland Australia
The Tasmanian Tiger is likely to have become near-extinct in mainland Australia about 2,000 years ago, and possibly earlier in New Guinea. The absolute extinction is attributed to competition from indigenous humans and invasive dingoes. However, doubts exist over the impact of the dingo since the two species would not have been in direct competition with one another as the dingo hunts primarily during the day, whereas it is thought that the Tasmanian Tiger hunted mostly at night. In addition, the Tasmanian Tiger had a more powerful build, which would have given it an advantage in one-on-one encounters. Recent morphological examinations of dingo and Tasmanian Tiger skulls show that although the dingo had a weaker bite, its skull could resist greater stresses, allowing it to pull down larger prey than the Tasmanian Tiger could. The Tasmanian Tiger was also much less versatile in diet than the omnivorous dingo. Their environments clearly overlapped: Tasmanian Tiger subfossil remains have been discovered in proximity to those of dingoes. The adoption of the dingo as a hunting companion by the indigenous peoples would have put the Tasmanian Tiger under increased pressure.
Prideaux et al. (2010) examined the issue of extinction in the late Quaternary period (1,000,000 to 500,000 years ago) in southwestern Australia. This paper notes that Australia lost 90% or more of its larger terrestrial vertebrates during this time, with the notable exceptions of the kangaroo and the Tasmanian Tiger. The results show that the humans were obviously one of the major factors in the extinction of many species in Australia. But in reality, it was not until the humans had an adverse effect on the environment and brought disease to Australia that their arrival drove the Tasmanian Tiger to extinction.
Menzies et al. (2012) examined the relationship of the genetic diversity of the Tasmanian Tigers before their extinction. The results of their investigation indicated that the last of the Tasmanian Tigers in Australia, on top of the threats from dingoes, had limited genetic diversity, due to their complete geographic isolation from mainland Australia.
Johnson and Wroe (2003) observed the relationship between the dingo and the extinctions of the Tasmanian devil, the Tasmanian Tiger, and the Tasmanian native hen and the arrival of humans. The paper observed the obviously competitive relationship between the dingo and the Tasmanian Tiger and the Tasmanian devil, and noted that the dingo may have actually fed on the native hen. Yet, the paper concludes, people ignore the emergence of humans on the continent among all of this. In the end, the competitiveness of the dingo and Tasmanian Tiger populations led to the extinctions of the Tasmanian Tiger but the arrival of the humans only further exacerbated this.
Another study brings disease into the debate as a major factor in Tasmanian Tiger's extinction: "Casually collected anecdotal records and early boutity analyses have, at times, prompted the suggestion that disease was a major factor in the extinction of the species, that occurred when the last known specimen died in Hobart Zoo during the night of 7th September, 1936. This study also suggests that were it not for an epidemiological influence, the extinction of Tasmanian Tiger would have been at best prevented, at worst postponed. "The chance of saving the species, through changing public opinion, and the re-establishment of captive breeding, could have been possible. But the marsupi-carnivore disease, with its dramatic effect on individual Tasmanian Tiger longevity and juvenile mortality, came far too soon, and spread far too quickly
"While anecdotal accounts exist in the literature of epidemic disease as a significant factor in recent mammalian extinctions, harder data has not previously been presented. The statistics from the deliberate killing of thylacines as a pest species support contemporary records at the turn of the twentieth century, of an epidemic disease in thylacines and other marsupi-carnivores. For the first time, detailed symptoms and statistics of the disease are presented, as recorded by museum staff, and zoological-garden curators and veterinarians. It is argued that the effects of the disease in captivity, which more than halved thylacine longevity, and preferentially affected juveniles, are conformable with the expression of the disease recorded amongst wild thylacines, and demand a recognition of the importance of this disease as a major factor in the thylacine's recent extinction, and its consideration as an influential factor on the distribution and population dynamics of extant marsupi-carnivores. It also practically demonstrates the obvious potential for disease to have been involved in megafaunal extinctions in the past." [Source: Australian Zoologist;Apr2012, Vol. 36 Issue 1]
Extinction in Tasmania
Although the Tasmanian Tiger was extinct on mainland Australia, it survived into the 1930s on the island state of Tasmania. At the time of the first European settlement, the heaviest distributions were in the northeast, northwest and north-midland regions of the state. They were rarely sighted during this time but slowly began to be credited with numerous attacks on sheep. This led to the establishment of bounty schemes in an attempt to control their numbers. The Van Diemen’s Land Company introduced bounties on the Tasmanian Tiger from as early as 1830, and between 1888 and 1909 the Tasmanian government paid £1 per head. (Current value today, after inflation and introduction of decimal currency: $132.29) for dead adult thylacines and ten shillings for pups. In all they paid out 2,184 bounties, but it is thought that many more Tasmanian Tigers were killed than were claimed for. Its extinction is popularly attributed to these relentless efforts by farmers and bounty hunters. However, it is likely that multiple factors led to its decline and eventual extinction, including competition with wild dogs introduced by European settlers, erosion of its habitat, the concurrent extinction of prey species, and a distemper-like disease that also affected many captive specimens at the time. Whatever the reason, the animal had become extremely rare in the wild by the late 1920s. Despite the fact that the Tasmanian Tiger was believed by many to be responsible for attacks on sheep, in 1928 the Tasmanian Advisory Committee for Native Fauna recommended a reserve to protect any remaining Tasmanian Tigers, with potential sites of suitable habitat including the Arthur-Pieman area of western Tasmania.
The last captive Tasmanian Tiger, later referred to as "Benjamin", was trapped in the Florentine Valley by Elias Churchill in 1933, and sent to theHobart Zoo where it lived for three years. Frank Darby, who claimed to have been a keeper at Hobart Zoo, suggested "Benjamin" as having been the animal's pet name in a newspaper article of May 1968. However, no documentation exists to suggest that it ever had a pet name, and Alison Reid (de facto curator at the zoo) and Michael Sharland (publicist for the zoo) denied that Frank Darby had ever worked at the zoo or that the name "Benjamin" was ever used for the animal. Darby also appears to be the source for the claim that the last Tasmanian Tiger was a male; photographic evidence suggested it was female. Paddle was unable to uncover any records of any Frank Darby having been employed by Beaumaris/Hobart Zoo during the time that Reid or her father was in charge and noted several inconsistencies in the story Darby told during his interview in 1968.
The gender of the last captive Tasmanian Tiger has been a point of debate since its death at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania. Recent detailed examination of a single frame from the historic motion film footage taken by David Fleay in 1933, has confirmed that the Tasmanian Tiger was male. In Fleay’s historic film footage of the last captive Tasmanian Tiger, the Tasmanian Tiger is seen seated, walking around the perimeter of its enclosure, yawning (exposing its impressive gape), sniffing the air, scratching itself (in the same manner as would a dog), and lying down. When frame III is enlarged the scrotum can clearly be seen, confirming the Tasmanian Tiger to be male. By enhancing the frame (increasing exposure to 20% and contrast to 45%), the outline of the individual testes is discernable.
The Tasmanian Tiger died on 7 September 1936. It is believed to have died as the result of neglect—locked out of its sheltered sleeping quarters, it was exposed to a rare occurrence of extreme Tasmanian weather: extreme heat during the day and freezing temperatures at night. The Tasmanian Tiger features in the last known motion picture footage of a living specimen: 62 seconds of black-and-white footage showing it pacing backwards and forwards in its enclosure in a clip taken in 1933, by naturalist David Fleay. National Threatened Species Day has been held annually since 1996 on 7 September in Australia, to commemorate the death of the last officially recorded Tasmanian Tiger.
Although there had been a conservation movement pressing for the Tasmanian Tiger's protection since 1901, driven in part by the increasing difficulty in obtaining specimens for overseas collections, political difficulties prevented any form of protection coming into force until 1936. Official protection of the species by the Tasmanian government was introduced on 10 July 1936, 59 days before the last known specimen died in captivity. It was too little too late to prevent the extinction.
A number of ongoing search efforts are currently being undertaken; typically these are self-funded initiatives conducted by Tasmanian Tiger enthusiasts who vary in approach, background knowledge and general modi operandi. Some searchers are 'believers', conducting searches on the basis that they firmly believe the Tasmanian Tiger to be yet alive. Other groups have a more practical and pragmatic view, hoping the Tasmanian Tiger to be extant although understanding the probabilities of its being extinct. The two different view points are important when understanding how each group views potential evidence or proof: the 'believers' group tend to err on the side of interpreting evidence with bias toward the Tasmanian Tiger being extant, while the skeptics will look for more plausible explanations regarding any evidence presented. One such group that is relatively active in producing videos for debate and analysis is the Thylacine Research Unit. This team of scientists conducts frequent expeditions and searches to various parts of Tasmania looking for evidence that the Tasmanian Tiger is still extant. They frequently receive foot prints from members of the public to analyse and report on. They operate a web site that allows people who have had sightings of Tasmanian Tiger (past or present) to confidentially report the details.
The Tasmanian Tiger held the status of endangered species until the 1980s. International standards at the time stated that an animal could not be declared extinct until 50 years had passed without a confirmed record. Since no definitive proof of the Tasmanian Tiger's existence in the wild had been obtained for more than 50 years, it met that official criterion and was declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1982 and by the Tasmanian government in 1986. The species was removed from Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 2013.
Some sightings have generated a large amount of publicity. In 1973, Gary and Liz Doyle shot ten seconds of 8 mm film showing an unidentified animal running across a South Australian road. Attempts to positively identify the creature as a Tasmanian Tiger have been impossible due to the poor quality of the film. In 1982 a researcher with the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service, Hans Naarding, observed what he believed to be a Tasmanian Tiger for three minutes during the night at a site near Arthur River in northwestern Tasmania. The sighting led to an extensive year-long government-funded search. In 1985, Aboriginal tracker Kevin Cameron produced five photographs which appear to show a digging Tasmanian Tiger, which he stated he took inWestern Australia. In January 1995, a Parks and Wildlife officer reported observing a Tasmanian Tiger in the Pyengana region of northeastern Tasmania in the early hours of the morning. Later searches revealed no trace of the animal. In 1997, it was reported that locals and missionaries near Mount Carstensz in Western New Guinea had sighted Tasmanian Tigers. The locals had apparently known about them for many years but had not made an official report. In February 2005 Klaus Emmerichs, a German tourist, claimed to have taken digital photographs of a Tasmanian Tiger he saw near the Lake St Clair National Park, but the authenticity of the photographs has not been established. The photos were published in April 2006, fourteen months after the sighting. The photographs, which showed only the back of the animal, were said by those who studied them to be inconclusive as evidence of the Tasmanian Tiger's continued existence. Due to the uncertainty of whether the species is still extant or not, the Tasmanian Tiger is sometimes regarded as a cryptid
In 1983, the American media mogul Ted Turner offered a $100,000 reward for proof of the continued existence of the Tasmanian Tiger.
A letter sent in response to an inquiry by a Tasmanian Tiger-searcher, Murray McAllister in 2000, indicated that the reward had been withdrawn. In March 2005, Australian news magazine The Bulletin, as part of its 125th anniversary celebrations, offered a $1.25 million reward for the safe capture of a live Tasmanian Tiger. When the offer closed at the end of June 2005 no one had produced any evidence of the animal's existence. An offer of $1.75 million has subsequently been offered by a Tasmanian tour operator, Stewart Malcolm. Trapping is illegal under the terms of the Tasmanian Tiger's protection, so any reward made for its capture is invalid, since a trapping licence would not be issued.
Modern research and projects
In late 2002, the researchers had some success as they were able to extract replicable DNA from the specimens. On 15 February 2005, the museum announced that it was stopping the project after tests showed the DNA retrieved from the specimens had been too badly degraded to be usable. In May 2005, Archer, the University of New South Wales Dean of Science at the time, former director of the Australian Museum and evolutionary biologist, announced that the project was being restarted by a group of interested universities and a research institute.
The International Thylacine Specimen Database was completed in April 2005, and is the culmination of a four-year research project to catalog and digitally photograph, if possible, all known surviving Tasmanian Tiger specimen material held within museum, university and private collections. The master records are held by the Zoological Society of London.
In 2008, researchers Andrew J. Pask and Marilyn B. Renfree from the University of Melbourne and Richard R. Behringer from theUniversity of Texas at Austin reported that they managed to restore functionality of a gene Col2A1 enhancer obtained from 100 year-old ethanol-fixed thylacine tissues from museum collections. The genetic material was found working in transgenic mice. The research enhanced hopes of eventually restoring the population of Tasmanian Tigers. That same year, another group of researchers successfully sequenced the complete thylacine mitochondrial genome from two museum specimens. Their success suggests that it may be feasible to sequence the complete Tasmanian Tiger nuclear genome from museum specimens. Their results were published in the journal Genome Research in 2009.
Mike Archer spoke about the possibilities of resurrecting the Tasmanian Tiger and the gastric-brooding frog at TED2013. Stewart Brand spoke at TED2013 about the ethics and possibilities of de-extinction, and made reference to Tasmanian Tiger in his talk.
Cultural references
The best known illustrations of Thylacinus cynocephalus were those in Gould's The Mammals of Australia (1845–63), often copied since its publication and the most frequently reproduced, and given further exposure by Cascade Brewery's appropriation for its label in 1987. The government of Tasmania published a monochromatic reproduction of the same image in 1934, the author Louisa Anne Meredith also copied it for Tasmanian Friends and Foes (1881).
The Tasmanian Tiger has been used extensively as a symbol of Tasmania. The animal is featured on the official Tasmanian coat of arms. It is used in the official logos of Tourism Tasmania and City of Launceston. It is also used on the University of Tasmania's ceremonial mace and the badge of the submarine HMAS Dechaineux. Since 1998, it has been prominently displayed on Tasmanian vehicle number plates.
The plight of the Tasmanian Tiger was featured in a campaign for The Wilderness Society entitled We used to hunt thylacines. In video games, boomerang-wielding Ty the Tasmanian Tiger is the star of his own trilogy. Characters in the early 1990s cartoon Taz-Mania included the neurotic Wendell T. Wolf, the last surviving Tasmanian wolf. Tiger Tale is a children's book based on an Aboriginal myth about how the Tasmanian Tiger got its stripes. The Tasmanian Tiger character Rolf is featured in the extinction musical Rockford's Rock Opera. The Tasmanian Tiger is the mascot for the Tasmanian cricket team, and has appeared in postage stamps from Australia, Equatorial Guinea, and Micronesia.
The Hunter is a novel by Julia Leigh about an Australian hunter who sets out to find the last Tasmanian Tiger. The novel has been adapted into a 2011 film by the same name directed by Daniel Nettheim, and starring Willem Dafoe. In 2012, a demonic Tasmanian Tiger shapeshifter was introduced as the main antagonist in the #DeadThings series by author Reese Riley.
There was so much information available about the Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine when I was collecting material for my slide shows on animals that became extinct between 1900 and 2000, that I felt impelled to write an additional blog on Thylacine. I would also be posting more blogs on the Barbary Lions and some other mammals.
Source: id=x3Xqp7DAo1gC&pg=PA59#PPA59,- M1 & Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia.
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Science and Technology
Boning—Boon or Bane?
The subject of human cloning (reproductive cloning) is shrouded in controversy, right from its conception. On the other hand therapeutic cloning, which is sometimes misunderstood as reproductive cloning, is not the creation of an offspring but instead, vital stem cells are taken from human embryos, which are then used to generate tissues and organs. These organs and tissues can be then used for transplantation. The ultimate aim of this process is strictly to treat various heart diseases, Alzheimer's disease, and to combat cancer. Since reproductive cloning is used for the conception of a specific offspring possessing specific characteristics, it is much more controversial, and has much more at stake than therapeutic cloning. Though there are certain advantages of reproductive cloning like individuals having fertility problems would be then able to produce biologically-related children. Besides that those couples who art: at risk of transferring genetic disease to offspring would then be able to have healthy children, Cloning technology is in the primary Stage and still requires more technical know-how to achieve the perfection. Human reproductive cloning is temporarily banned because of inadequate technical knowledge, inefficient procedures and is extremely; dangerous, and ethically irresponsible. Although many mammalian^ species have been cloned successfully, cloning techniques are still primitive, and thus, are prone to failure.
Some animal species, including humans, are found to be more resistant to somatic cell nuclear transfer than others, and thus nave a poorer success rate. It took 276 nuclear transfer procedures by the Scottish scientists at the Roslin Institute in order to produce the world's first cloned animal. Dolly, the sheep in 1997. The success rate by means of reproductive cloning remains pale when compared to natural procreation, and thus does not justify cloning as a form of reproduction for the time being. The current success rate for reproductive cloning stands at one or two viable offspring per 100 experiments. The .perils, which arises from reproductive cloning are numerous. During mammalian reproductive cloning, a large section of clones suffered from weakened immune systems, which highly reduces the animal's capability to ward off infections, disease, and other health disorders. Besides that many of the offspring produced through cloning suffer enormous abnormalities, such as missing or deformed organs. Various studies done on reproductive cloning have shown that more than 90% of cloning attempts fail to produce on: viable offspring. Early human cloning experiments are likely to result in the same abnormalities found in other, species, which will possibly result in numerous medical failures, miscarriages, abortions, or births of offspring having highly-deformed organs and other abnormal features. Because of the lack of knowledge surrounding the mental facets of reproductive cloning, many scientists believe that an attempt to clone humans would be unethical. The foremost uncertainty correlated to reproductive cloning is its impact on the clone's mental development. While mental features in cloned animals may or may not be significant, but they are vital to the development of a healthy human offspring. Reproductive cloning could possibly put heavy psychological burdens on the cloned offspring. Reproductive cloning only replicates the genetic material of the progenitor, thus the possibility of producing a precise "replica" will not be possible because both children raised under different environments will have different personalities. Therefore, cloning will merely attempt to fill a void, but difficult to reach a pinnacle where this technique can precisely replicate a human being. Numerous other uncertainties linked to mental development of the offspring, along with extreme dangers and inefficiency, attempting to clone humans for the time...
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http://www.studymode.com/course-notes/English-Through-Literature-1349567.html
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Violence in Mexico.
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• Download(s) : 195
• Published : February 5, 2013
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Nothing is surprising today that many today’s newspapers articles, publicized about how elderly people around the world had been discriminated, especially in Mexico. These older people gave us life, they are harmless, defenseless, some society members see them as an obstacle, also a heavy load that need to be carry on their backs. They are jeopardizing their life because of the way society treats them and because of the actual violence in Mexico. There are 600 million elderly people in the world; seven of them living in Mexico, according to the INEGI (Mexico’s census) showed statistics that elderly population is living longer and their population is increasing. Doctors and medicines can reach now the rural areas where before was impossible to get medical aid, also better medicines had being discovered and doctors are getting better preparation than before. The welfare of the elderly population has numerous dimensions, poverty, health care, and the receipt of pension income. In Mexico, many benefits such as having access to health care and receiving a pension at old age are associated with a form of employment. Since women historically have participated less in the labor market than men have, it is natural to expect that women would experience lower living conditions than men would in old age; also the wellbeing of the elderly group is dramatically inferior comparing to other age groups. Fewer older parents wish to assume the uncertainties of following their children across international borders, especially if they or their children have no legal documents. Instead, older people tend not to move, and sending areas often become old as the young migrate and leave their parents and grandparents behind. Mexico’s large population has a high level of poverty and hunger compared to rest of the world. Migration is a fluid process, however one that not only influences social behavior in U.S. destinations, but also lives and lifestyles across the border in Mexico. Although...
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http://www.studymode.com/essays/Violence-In-Mexico-1406802.html
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Ozone falls to the ground during strong thunderstorms
by Alex William Cushing
(Pontiac IL, United States)
There is a lot of differing views on Ozone about the possible uses and safety in using it. We all know that it can kill harmful viruses and bacteria, can turn unwanted free radicals in our body to less harmful elements, and we also know that it is unsafe in too big of quantities.
It is not to be underestimated that O3 is very highly charged by the strongest of the sun's UV light.
They say that the Ozone protects us from the sun's strongest UV light, but in reality what is happening is that when those rays hit O2, O2 is being fused into O3 and then falling to the top of the atmosphere where it is constantly being converted from O2 to O3 to O2 to O3, thus the Ozone is formed. It is this process that keeps the strongest UV light from reaching the Earth's surface and keeps us from frying under direct sunlight.
So how much ozone is just right? I believe the answer can be found by studying the habits of powerful thunderstorms that form at very high altitudes, in the Ozone.
O3 falls up in the Earth's atmosphere which is why it all sits at the top and is also why it takes a very powerful, high altitude thunderstorm to bring it down to the Earth's surface in rain droplets. When it reaches the ground it immediately begins to fall back towards the sky and along the way it either reacts with pollution or other dirty things and cleans them up, or it disperses itself into O2 fairly quickly.
However much is allowed to fall during the strongest thunderstorms (which I take every opportunity to sit outside in, and it feels great to breathe, and on the skin) is likely to be in the range of where we should be at when ingesting O3 either by our air passages and lungs or by drinking it into our stomachs by way of water.
So, since this process happens somewhere on Earth every single day, of course it is a necessary part of Earth's ecology. This element can and should be used when it is appropriate to do so, which may be A LOT more often than it is being used today. - February 13, 2016.
Personally, I'd like to see it being used as an alternative remedy for the onslaught of the globalist's vaccination agenda being forced on more and more people every day. America is the sickest 1st world country in the world and we also have the most vaccination AND total control of the medical industry by big money interests. Hard to say it is coincidence or just fast food doing it.
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http://www.waterbenefitshealth.com/ozone-falls-to-the-ground-during-strong-thunderstorms.html
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Cross Ditch Fire
Cross Ditch Fire
By: Saffron | June 16, 2017
The cross ditch fire name does a pretty good job describing this fire, it is a cross of two ditches in the ground with a fire built in the middle.
This fire build is popular in survival and hunting as it is quick to build, creates a relatively well ventilated and protected fire and is adaptable to changing wind conditions.
Having a small well burning fire like this means it is quick and easy to build, cook on, extinguish, cover back so no one can see that you were even there (which should always be the case).
How to Build a Cross Ditch Fire
1/ Assess the location. This fire needs a relatively soft top soil so you can easily create the ditches. As always take into account the surroundings for fire hazards, wind direction and similar.
2/ Create the cross. Each ditch only needs to be about 4 inches/10cm wide and 2 inches/5cm deep. This can easily be achieved by scraping the back of your boot through the ground to create the indentation needed. The length can vary on the fire being made, but it’s main purpose is to encourage air flow, so a 2 feet/60 cm from the fire in every direction would be more than adequate.
These dimensions can be adjusted based on the conditions, if fairly windy, the length of the cross can be less and the depth deeper to create a better burning and protected fire.
3/ Lay the fire. The fir itself is small and can be any of the foundation fire lays like, tepee or log cabin. It is placed in the center of the cross, for quick burning, cooking and moving on it only needs to be small and the majority of it can fit in the crossover square. Only thing sticks and twigs are needed.
4/ Light the fire. Light the fire in the center, it should burn quickly and hot, with it being able to be boiled on quickly and without adding additional wood. If needed it to burn longer or use it as a heating fire then additional wood may need to be added.
5/ Maintaining the fire. This design and use is for quick set-up use and move on. If wanting it to burn longer then add wood as required, keeping it relatively small and in the center of the cross.
6/ Extinguishing the fire. This fire will burn out into itself fairly quickly. Continue to push any outlaying twigs or sticks to ensure they burn also. If still hot/warm and you are ready to move on, splash with water to cool then cover the ditches again with your boot, and flatten the surface, slight mound over the actual fire location. If done correctly it will not be possible to see you were there.
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https://bushcooking.com/cross-ditch-fire/
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Using Imbalance to Create Confict in a Plot: A Steampunk Perspective
Imbalance can take many forms in a plot. It can be an imbalance of power, and power can take many forms: physical power, intellectual power, emotional power, just for starters. It might be an imbalance of status: academic, cultural, societal. It might be an imbalance of emotions, where one character loves/hates a second character, while this second character doesn’t feel that emotion at all. All these sorts of imbalance can be used to create tension, tension creates conflict, and conflict is what pushes a plot into motion. Imbalance can create interesting contrasts in your characters and settings.
Need an example? Think of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, with the plot revolving around social inequality like a wheel around an axel. Dickens was to revisit this theme again and again. All of Oliver’s adventures are due his poverty, and he would have had no escape if it wasn’t for the fact he was the scion of a comfortable family. The ethical and moral issues created by poverty were underlined by the fact that Dickens’ protagonist had suffered needlessly. Life for the poor in Victorian London was monumentally unfair, but poor Oliver didn’t experience more bad luck than most. Dickens didn’t need to highlight an unbalance that existed in real life. And he did give Oliver a happy-ever-after.
Mark Lester as Oliver Twist in the film 'Oliver'
It is easy to create an imbalance, but it is harder to create an effective imbalance. Dickens knew what is was about, and you should take note of his technique. He made the imbalance clear from the start. You want to provide tension straight off.
Terry Pratchett jumps head first into creating imbalances in his books. In I shall Wear Midnight, the very first scene sets up Tiffany as a powerful witch, but not one respected in her own community because of her lack of age. As well, the boy who had been her ‘romantic interest’ in the previous Tiffany books is getting married to someone else, and the community knows it. He is minor nobility marrying another minor noble; she is a farm girl. Imbalance on top of imbalance on top of imbalance, a tower of conflict that exploded into a plot of epic proportions. (I picked this book at random from my shelves … feel free to make your own observations.)
In another example from Terry Pratchett, look at how he has used imbalances to create the character of Sam Vimes. Same breathes and grows because of these imbalances in his life. He is a poor man who has married a very wealthy woman. He is a policeman who is now a political force in his city and in his culture; and like all policemen, he dislikes the way politics interferes with justice and the law. He is a man who thinks with his feet – and if you can’t see the beauty in that trait, you need to look harder. The Sam Vimes in Guards, Guards is a very different man to the one in Raising Steam; however, his basic personality hasn’t changed, he has just grown with time and experience.
You can use even imbalances to create a contrast in a setting. The messy bedroom versus the tidy office. The City looming over the Rural landscape. The sewer running under a mansion…
The Industrial Revolution was all about imbalances created by technology. As a writer in the Steampunk genre, the contrast between Science and superstition fascinates me. As well, I concentrate on the imbalance of rights and power between Victorian-era men and women. I’m certain you can think of a dozen examples on your own.
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https://cogpunksteamscribe.wordpress.com/2015/02/08/using-imbalance-to-create-confict-in-a-plot-a-steampunk-perspective/
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Impact of GST on India
Amidst the entire economic crisis across the globe, India is demonstrating hope with determined growth targets, supported by a slew of important projects like “Make in India”, “Digital India”, etc. The biggest tax reform since Independence, the Goods and Service Tax (GST) is expected to act as the much-needed catalyst for economic growth in India altering the indirect taxes levied on goods and services within the economy and eliminating the cascading effect of the tax system. GST has created high anticipation not only in India but also among all the neighboring and developed economies of the world. Among all the rumours about the negative impact of this bill on the SME sector, would the pros outweigh all the cons?
But first, a quick recap of GST.
What is GST?
The Goods and Service Tax will bring into place a unified taxation system, which would merge most of the existing taxes into a single taxation system. It replaces the taxes levied by the central and state governments separately and at different stages of sale and purchase including State Value-Added Tax (VAT), Central Excise, Service Tax, Entry Tax or Octroi and a few other indirect taxes. GST is expected to completely restructure the way India does business by introducing a single platform, the GST Network (GSTN), where businesses can upload their invoices for tax processing and availing tax benefits.
How is GST beneficial?
In simple words, GST simplifies the tax structure, unifies states, reduces tax evasion and increases government revenue.
But how does it help SME’s?
Apart from the obvious ease of paying taxes and reduced paperwork with GST, businesses can also claim the cost of depreciation on the goods purchased with ease. Once the invoices are logged in the GST network, the GST Credit will automatically get deducted from the purchase price. This allows SME’s to use them to calculate the depreciation cost on the goods and then claim it online.
A taxation system such as GST eliminates tax evasion, which is otherwise rampant in the business world. The intention of introducing GST is to expand taxpayers base and not increase the burden on businesses. This is expected to level the playing field and give equal opportunities to all players alike. What this does is create a highly competitive environment among businesses, resulting in a more competitive product pricing making it helpful for the end user. This, in turn, is expected to lead to an increase in consumer demand, which otherwise has been the bane of the SME world so far.
The tax incidence in every product currently being manufactured in India is about 27-30%. With the introduction of GST, this is expected to reduce to 20%. This will especially be beneficial for the manufacturing SME’s.
GST will also bring about the possibility for SME’s to expand existing markets as it eliminates tax burden of interstate sales. A unified market will aid in flexible transferring of goods.
Also read: GST Registration: How To Get Your Small Business GST Ready
A closer look at the impact of GST on various sectors of the Indian economy
Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)
Product GST Rate Prev. Tax Rate Impact Stocks Impacted
Toothpaste, Soaps, Hair Oil 18% 23-24% Positive due to reduction in indirect tax Colgate, Marico, ITC, etc
Detergents 28% 23-24% Negative due to increase in indirect tax HUL, Jyothy Lab, etc
Edible Oil 5% 3-9% Positive especially for companies manufacturing coconut oil Marico
Consumer Discretionary
Product GST Rate Prev. Tax Rate Impact Stocks Impacted
Paints/Varnish 28% 24-27% Positive Asian Paints, Nerolac, etc
Lamps and Fixtures 12% 15 & 22% respectively Positive because Government’s efforts to promote usage of efficient lighting products Havells India, Bajaj Electricals, etc
Air Cooler 18% 26% Positive which is beneficial for organized players in terms of shift in demand from unorganized categories Bajaj Electricals, Voltas, Havells, etc
Air Conditioner 28% 26% Neutral
Wires and Cables/Switches 28% 18% Neutral because of increase in price of the products Havells India, V-Guard, etc
PVC Pipes 18% 18% Positive which would lead to a shift in demand from unorganized companies to organized companies Supreme Industries, Wim Plast, etc
Furniture 28% 28%
Financial Sector
Product GST Rate Prev. Tax Rate Impact Stocks Impacted
Banks 18% 15% (Including Swachh Bharat Cess) Neutral All banks &
insurance policies
Insurance 18% 15% [Including Swachh Bharat Cess] Neutral. Premium will increase on both life and non-life insurance policies.
Product GST Rate Prev. Tax Rate Impact Stocks Impacted
Entertainment 28% 27% Neutral PVR, Inox, etc
Food & Beverages 18% 13% Neutral Future Consumer, Heritage Foods, etc
The companies were expecting a tax rate of 18% but the rate is maintained almost same as the previous tax rate. So, the ticket prices may almost remain the same. But in the food & beverages sector, though the tax rates higher than the F&B VAT rate of 12.5%, the companies will be able to avail input tax credit paid on the raw materials leading to benefits to the tune of 100-150 bps.
Pharma & Healthcare
Product GST Rate Prev. Tax Rate Impact Stocks Impacted
API 18% 18% Neutral Cipla, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, etc
Formulation 12% 10-11%
Life Saving Drugs 5% 0%
Healthcare 0% 5-12%
Basically, the impact on overall healthcare industry remains neutral. Nothing seems to have changed drastically because an increase in the tax rate will increase the overall cost which in turn can affect the lives of people. However, a negative impact of 4-5% is expected on the domestic formulations due to downsizing of inventory at the pharmacy/dealer level over concerns on availing credit on their closing stock a day before implementation of GST.
Hospitality, Aviation and Recreation Services
Product GST Rate Prev. Tax Rate Impact Stocks Impacted
Luxury Hotels 28% 21-24% Negative Taj GVK, IHCL, etc
Air Travel (Economy class) 5% 6% Marginally Positive since it boost demand for economic airline companies Jet Airways, AirAsia, IndiGo, etc
Air Travel (Business class) 12% 9% Neutral as the incremental tax rate is much higher than the prevailing tax rate
Tour Operators 5% 9% Positive because of reduced pricing, thereby boosting demand SOTC, Cox & Kings, etc
Theme Parks 28% 18-36% Negative WonderLa, Water Kingdom, etc.
Power and Capital Goods
The Power Industry is the backbone of the industrial world that supplies essential energy to industrial, manufacturing, commercial and residential customers around the globe. In developed economies with mature power markets, investment is driven by the transition of fuel and energy sources, increased environmental legislation and an ever-aging generation fleet and transmission/distribution infrastructure.
Capital goods are tangible assets such as machinery, equipment, vehicles and tools that an organization uses to produce goods or services in order to produce consumer goods and goods for other businesses. Manufacturers of automobiles, aircraft, and machinery fall within the capital goods sector because their products are used by companies involved in manufacturing, shipping and providing other services.
Product GST Rate Prev. Tax Rate Impact Stocks Impacted
Coal 5% 12% Positive especially for private IPPs who operate on merchant rate model and competitive bid based model NTPC, Private IPPs, etc
Steel 18% 18-19% Neutral Nil
EPC/ Construction work Contract 12% 15-20% Positive L&T
Transformers 28% 18% Negative. The demand may decrease and competitive intensity is high especially with low voltage segment. Entire transformer sector
Product GST Rate + cess of 1-15% Prev. Tax Rate Impact Stocks Impacted
Two-wheeler 28% 24% Neutral Bajaj Auto, Hero Motors, etc
Small Cars 29-31% 24% Neutral Maruti, Tata Motors, etc
(< 1500cc)
43% 32% Negative. Cars like Ciaz and Ertiga fall in this segment that form Maruti’s 9% domestic sales. Maruti
(> 1500cc)
43% 36% Neutral Tata Motors
CV 28% 24% Neutral. Marginal increase in rates. Tata Motors, Eicher Motors, etc
Tractors 12% 12%
The price of two-wheelers below 350cc is just increasing by 0.5%. Considering there is a cess of 3% on motorcycles above 350cc, the price post new GST will be by 2.6%. However, motorcycles above 350cc contribute only 0.4% of the domestic two-wheeler sales.
Small cars- There is a tax rate hike from the prevailing rate to the new GST rates which increases the price of the vehicles in the range of 1-3% post GST implementation because the base will also change with GST implementation. This potential price increase will not have an impact on demand.
Also read: Should India Press For A Unified GST Tax Rate?
Logistics management is the part of supply chain management that plans, implements, and controls the efficient, effective forward, reverse flow, storage of goods, services and related information between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customer’s requirements.
Product GST Rate Prev. Tax Rate Impact Stocks Impacted
Road Transport 5% 4.5-6% Positive TCI
Rail and Coastal Shipping 5% 4.5-6% Positive GPPL
Container Rail 12% 6% Neutral Container Corporation
Express Warehousing and other value added services 18% 15% Positive due to a trigger in volume growth, which would benefit the industries to have a pan-Indian presence Gati and Blue Dart
Freight Prices will remain the same as the current price in the case of road transport. However, input tax credit for road isn’t allowed to promote movement of goods from rail and coastal. The introduction of e-way bill would enable seamless movement of goods resulting in cost savings and improving vehicle efficiency.
For Rail and Coastal Shipping, the rates are maintained at the same rate as the current rate.
However, input tax credit, including capex is allowed. This would bring in effective tax rate lower or close to existing rates.
Higher taxes coupled with elevated haulage charges in the container rail sector would impact the competitive positioning of rail vis-à-vis road. Any input credit allowed in the sector would provide a breather. The market leader would be able to pass on the hike in rates thereby maintaining the realizations.
Also read: Logistics Financing- Invoice Discounting
Agriculture and Chemicals
Product GST Rate Prev. Tax Rate Impact Stocks Impacted
Agro Chemicals 18% 18% Neutral Rallis India
Seeds 0% 0% Neutral Rallis India
Pen and Pencils 12% 2% flat rate with no input credit Neutral Linc Pens and Pencils, Nataraj Pencils, etc
Technical Textiles 18% 18% Neutral Kanpur Plastipack, Shree Pushkar Chemicals, etc
Industrial Chemicals 18% 18% Positive
Tractors and Chemicals (Carbon Black) 12% and 18% respectively 0% and 17.5-19% respectively Neutral VST Tillers & Tractors and Phillips Carbon Black
Oil and Gas
The oil and gas industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting and marketing of petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline. Petroleum is also the raw material for many chemical products. This industry is divided into three major components: upstream, midstream and downstream.
Product GST Rate Prev. Tax Rate Impact Stocks Impacted
Upstream and Downstream Oil Sector NA NA Negative ONGC, HPCL, MRPL, etc
Downstream Oil Sector 5% LPG & Kerosene: – 0% Excise Duty and 0-5% VAT Neutral HPCL, IOC, etc
Lubricants 18% 24-28% Positive as companies will be able to retain a large portion of tax savings Castrol India, Gulf Oil Lubricants
Oil industries in earlier tax regime claimed input tax credit against excise duty and VAT on crude oil, petrol and diesel. Under the new GST tax regime, the oil industries will be unable to claim input tax/GST paid on procurement of plant, machinery and services as a majority of its products like crude oil, diesel and petrol are excluded from GST structure which will have an impact on profitability.
Earlier the VAT on PDS-kerosene and LPG earlier was in the range of 0-5% varying from state to state with nil excise duty. The new GST rate of 5% will increase PDS-kerosene and LPG prices in some states where VAT was lower than 5%. Overall, the impact remains neutral as additional tax shall be passed on to the customers.
Real Estate and Building Materials
Product GST Rate Prev. Tax Rate Impact Stocks Impacted
Cement 28% 26-27% Neutral Ambuja Cement, etc
Real Estate 12% 5-12% Negative Oberoi Realty, Mantri, etc
Tiles 28% 26.5-29% Neutral Kajaria Ceramics, Somany Ceramics
Plywood 28% 27-29% Neutral Greenply, Century Laminates, etc
Laminates 18% 27-29% Positive Century Laminates, etc
The new GST tax rate is just a little higher than the prevailing rate for cement companies. However, considering improved demand outlook, the cement companies will pass on the additional tax levy by adding a price hike on the product.
Bags and Luggage
Product GST Rate Prev. Tax Rate Impact Stocks Impacted
Bags and Luggage 28% 18-19% Negative VIP Industries, Safari Industries, etc
Breweries and Distilleries
Product GST Rate Prev. Tax Rate Impact Stocks Impacted
Malt 28 22-24% Negative United Breweries and United Spirits
Glass 12-18% 5-6% Negative
Also read: How GSTN is going to change the way India does Business
The Flip Side – How GST can impact SME’s
Impact of GST on SME's
While everybody hails the tax reform, there are some who are not too enthusiastic about the upcoming changes. The SME sector who has so far received some forms of protection through various scheme from the government will no longer be entitled to them. Exemptions such as excise duty exemption for SME manufacturers will cease to exist. SME’s will be liable to pay the full amount which thereby puts these SME’s in direct competition with the industry leaders in terms of tax costs involved.
By lowering the tax threshold for North Eastern states from the current Rs.1.5 crore, it is expected to eat into the SME’s capital to pay taxes. Though this is being done to expand the base of taxpayers, this will likely impact the working capital of SME’s concentrated in this area. Since the introduction of GST is expected to impact SME’s access to their lifeline, i.e. working capital, SME’s are more likely to explore the alternative financing industry who can help them tide over any post-GST-cash crunches. KredX is one such alternative financing option that helps businesses grow by meeting their working capital requirements through invoice discounting. KredX is India’s leading invoice discounting marketplace that assists businesses to gain collateral-free access to working capital funds in 24-72 hours as opposed to a traditional payment tenure of 30-120 days. This ensures a healthy cash flow and subsequent business growth.
Also read: What is Invoice Discounting?
The SME service sector is likely to be the worst hit with an increase in tax rate post-GST instead of the current 15%. The bill also does not differentiate between luxury items and normal goods. Without a luxury tax, it will make it hard for SME’s to compete against the larger players.
Though there are a few worrying factors here, the benefits clearly offset the negatives. Experts expect an initial inflation once GST is put into action, but are betting on growth brought about by GST after the initial turbulence settles down. As India looks to GST with hope to increase its GDP, it is also crucial that the government ensures the effective implementation of the system to avoid damages to the backbone of the country, the SME industry.
Also read: Infographic : How Invoice Discounting Helps Your Business
How has your experience been so far after the implementation of GST? We would love to know if KredX can in any way assist with your transition. Please let us know if you require any additional information from our end at or leave a comment in the comments section below.
1. Goods and Services Tax (GST), May 2017, ICICI Securities Ltd.
2. Goods and Services Tax in India: Taking stock and setting expectations, Deloitte Publication
3. The Impact of GST Bill on SMEs’ Bottom Line, July 2016, Kotak Mahindra Bank
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https://community.kredx.com/2017/07/25/gst-and-its-impact-on-smes-and-sectors-of-the-indian-economy/
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Designing Intersections Your Grandma Can to Cross
There is a huge push for protected bike lanes in the U.S. that separate bike and car traffic. While this is a great step, neglecting to continue this protection and separation through intersections defeats the whole purpose. Most crashes between cars and bikes occur at intersections–it only makes sense to enhance safety measures here, and not abandon them completely. Still, this is the case in many places in the U.S. where the bike lane is dropped right before going into an intersection–it really doesn’t make any sense. A low-stress cycling network is only as good as its weakest link.
The Dutch Way
In 2011, Mark Wagenbuur posted a video on his blog, Bicycle Dutch, reviews the last design guidelines for intersections from the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), a North American transportation association. He disagreed with the recommended best practices including the two-stage left turn (with queuing boxes) and the “bike lane/turn lane” or “bicycle pocket” approach that allows a through bike lane and a pocket right turn lane (creates a mixing zone between cars and bikes).
Right Pocket Turn Lane.png
Screenshot from “Junction design the Dutch – cycle-friendly – way” depicting the “mixing zone” for cars and bikes on a standard U.S. roadway. Source: Bicycle Dutch, 2011
The Dutch no longer commonly use these practices, but rather opt for safer designs that keep bike and car traffic separated. In follow-up blog post from Wagenbuur in 2014, he discusses designs for a common Dutch protected intersection, roundabouts, and underpasses/overpasses. He reviews a few designs from cities that have not quite interpreted the Dutch protected intersection correctly. He also mentions Nick Falbo’s protected intersection video, which he suggests is a good interpretation of the Dutch model.
Designing a Protected Intersection
When approaching Dutch protected intersections, the bike lane or cycle track is kept to right of motorized traffic lanes. At the intersection, the Dutch use a few key design prinicples to ensure the safey, comfort, and convenience for bicyclists:
1. Create good flowing cycle tracks without tight turns that allow cyclists to ride at faster speeds.
2. Corner islands protecting cyclists have the same radius as the existing curbs and are opened up to allow for through-bike traffic.
Corner islands with color.png
Curbs and corner islands create a permeable barrier for bikes at every corner of the intersection. Adding color to the cycle tracks and dashed lines at crossings provides further clarity for road users. Source: Bicycle Dutch, 2011
3. The corner islands allow for an advanced stop line for bicyclists to avoid right-hook conflicts. Cars meet bikes at the crossing at a 90 degree angle, which allows for better eye contact.
A right-turning car and a cyclist meeting at a 90 degree angle. Source: Nick Falbo, 2011
4. Shifting back the stop line for cars provides space for a better, shorter pedestrian crossing.
Zebra crossing
Shifting back the stop line for cars gives room for a shorter pedestrian crossing.
5. Often bikes and pedestrians are given priority at crossings. In the Netherlands, this is indicated by sharks teeth yield markings for cars. By giving cyclists priority at intersections, they are able to quickly and safely clear the intersection.
Other notable intersection designs that the Dutch commonly use include roundabouts and bicycle underpasses or overpasses. Roundabouts with cycle tracks that give priority to cyclists are considered much safer than traditional four-way intersections and are preferable to use when space allows. They can be employed in both urban and rural settings. They also allow for better flow and capacity than traditional intersections. Bicycle underpasses and overpasses are used when bicycle routes cross busy arterials or highways where it is best to completely separate the two types of traffic.
Moving Forward in the U.S.
The protected intersection an important design that needs to be better implemented in the U.S. Currently, only six cities in North America have protected intersections including Chicago, Austin, Vancouver B.C., Davis, Montreal, and Salt Lake City. It does not take up anymore space than a traditional intersection design and can be used for signalized and even unsignalized intersections depending on traffic volumes.
While roundabouts and bicycle underpasses/overpasses are also great designs for crossings, they may require more convincing and/or funding in the U.S. to make them feasible.
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https://dylanbikes.wordpress.com/2016/07/11/designing-intersections-your-grandma-can-to-cross/
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Final Essay and Reflection
Although Shakespeare’s play Hamlet was written in around the sixteenth century, each film that has been produced almost five centuries later still connects to Shakespeare’s story and goes even further as to provide a unique interpretation and addition to Hamlet’s character. One of Hamlet’s most famous soliloquies, “To be or not to be”, exemplifies an extension of Hamlet’s character in the 1990 film version. Hamlet’s monologue can be separated into the changing opinions of life or death, but the setting, actor, mood, and symbolism in the movie lift the words off the page and give a clearer new meaning on screen.
The famous “To be or not to be” speech that Hamlet makes is so well known because it signifies a pivotal point in the play. Hamlet is considering life or death and battling with some of life’s most puzzling questions. This depth that we see in Hamlet’s character can be distinguished by each part of this monologue. Hamlet first debates what is the nobler option when he asks, “’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And, by opposing, end them?” (III.I.58-61). As true heir to the throne, Hamlet’s first thought is which route is more upright. This proves that his primary concern between life and death is which decision will appear honorable to the people of Elsinore Castle.
The first glimpse on screen that we see of Hamlet as he begins his “To be or not to be speech” is what surrounds him. Hamlet descends a set of dark stairs into what later are revealed to be some catacombs. Being surrounded by this room of tombs, it is immediately apparent that Hamlet is thinking about death by surrounding himself by it. The setting of this soliloquy from the beginning adds a clearer sense of what Hamlet’s original intent is becoming. The beginning tone of Hamlet is curious, and he descends the stairs as he continues to seek his answer.
Next as to make death seem less ominous and simple, Hamlet equates death with sleep, a sleep that ends all “heartache and the thousand natural shocks”. In the play, Hamlet appears to be convincing himself that death is not as serious a state, and at this point seems to be leaning towards death as a more viable option. Hamlet even goes as far as to say that if he “sleeps” he is even “perchance to dream” (III.I.66). Hamlet wants to show the positive aspects of ending his suffering and that an eternal sleep is the solution to the unfortunate events that have ensued beginning with the murder of his father.
As Mel Gibson, the actor who portrays Hamlet, speaks the lines about death being equivalent to sleep, his tone and actions show how seriously Hamlet weighs this option. Hamlet kneels beside a tomb to feel closer and more connected to death itself. As Hamlet recites the lines “To die, to sleep”, his eyes are closed and he takes a moment of silence immediately following. This silence signifies how Hamlet would expect to feel if he were asleep, and in the same position as the remains of the body in the tomb. This moment provides a clearer picture to the viewer through the tone, positioning, and even silence of Hamlet.
Once Hamlet begins to ponder the possibility of dreaming once he is dead, a realization of what can go wrong from death overcomes him. Hamlet gains the insight that “[f]or in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil” (III.I.67-68) Hamlet has not yet experienced death, but knows that his dreams may become nightmares that can never be interrupted by a new day and instead must be endured for eternity. Hamlet was previously inclined to choose death, but death is now becoming more terrifying due to the uncertainty of ending his life. This line signifies the struggle as Hamlet debates both sides.
In the movie, Hamlet is startled by his realization that the uncertainty of what he may dream is a reason to die. Hamlet opens his eyes after his moment of imagining the feeling of death, and moves away from his kneeling position by the tomb signifying his movement away from the decision of death. His voice is now laced with a greater sense of worry and panic as he moves quickly to another section of the catacombs. This movement shows Hamlet now leaning towards continuing life.
Hamlet begins to dig deeper as to why people want to live if they always have to option to die at any time. He wishes to know why people and especially he himself should “bear the whips and scorns of time” (III.I.71) and endure“[t]he pangs of despised love, the law’s delay”(III.I.74). This question is something that even the audience or reader can identify with and establishes a connection to Hamlet. This relationship places both the audience and reader in a position that leaves them feeling just as hopeless and confused as the main character.
To enhance the feeling of being confused, the on-screen Hamlet’s body positioning hints to the viewer what his emotions are becoming. His head facing the ground as his body is supported by another tomb shows the struggle that Hamlet is experiencing. Each hardship in life that Hamlet describes is said with such pain that the viewer can immediately identify with his internal struggle and understand his original reasons for questioning life in the first place. By the end of this section of the monologue, Hamlet grows with passion and looks up from his defeated stance. His tone becomes more crazed illustrating his want for life to end before Hamlet ends in a heap on the ground. The increase of passion expresses the back-and-forth nature of Hamlet’s critical choice of life or death.
Hamlet concludes his speech by saying that the reason for living is that the fear of death drives people to endure the hardships that life always provides and people stay with the evils that they know. Hamlet boldly states that the reason for living was simply because people were cowards and “And thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought” (III.I.87). Hamlet finds that overthinking death is what causes people not to be bold enough to end life. Because Hamlet’s first thought is which option is nobler, the fact that he believes cowards choose life causes Hamlet to again lean towards death to avoid being viewed as a coward. Hamlet ends his speech once he reaches the view that overthinking the question of life or death will prevent him from taking any action or reaching any conclusion. Hamlet does not want to “lose the name of action” (III.I.90), which means have his decision be anything other than his own action. Once his decision is overthought, it no longer becomes an action but changes direction.
Following Hamlet’s first spike in emotions, Hamlet ends up on the floor of the catacombs. Here is where Hamlet makes another realization and again another shift in his fate. Hamlet questions what reason any person would have to live, and concludes that people only live because they are scared of death. These lines spark a change in Hamlet where his tone again emulates curiosity, which come across slightly crazy on screen. Hamlet rises from the ground and once more walks around the catacombs as he realizes people endure the hardships of life only out of fear. This fear therefore makes them a coward because they will not die to see what unfamiliar misery they may experience. Hamlet then stares up at the opening of light that streams through the room of tombs, signifying a movement from his darker thoughts of death back towards life. At the conclusion of Hamlet’s soliloquy, Hamlet leaves the catacombs and climbs back up the flight of stairs. This simple action is fitting for the ending as it shows Hamlet leaving the environment of death and instead returning up to the life above. The movie adds a greater sense of closure, although Hamlet’s choice is still somewhat unknown, and Hamlet’s actions lead the viewers to believe that Hamlet has chosen life. The emotion and positioning of the main character help tie the viewer to conflict and change of emotions of the character.
Shakespeare’s use of the “To be or not to be” monologue to add depth to the character of Hamlet is effective only if the scene is broken down and studied. Hamlet shifts his thoughts from life to death numerous times to the point where it is still unclear which side he lands on. But through the lens of a camera, Hamlet’s speech adds the clarity and perspective that the viewer needs to relate to Hamlet’s struggle to reach the final verdict of life or death.
My final essay for the year has shown a progression in writing throughout this year as well as a combination of the habits of mind that show my improvement as a writer and my range in terms of what I have written about. When thinking about what to choose for the topic of my final paper on Hamlet, and seeing that there was an option to compare the play to the film(s), I immediately knew that was something I wanted to do. After comparing Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now, I felt more comfortable comparing a work of literature and film together. Unlike before, I decided to alternate my paragraphs by play and movie unlike I did in the Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now essay because I believe it was more cohesive and seen less as a concluding thought. Because I was so eager to incorporate the films into my paper, I started out a little overambitious by wanting to compare a section of the play to that scene in all three movies. I ended up only being able to write about the section of the play and the scene that matched it from my favorite out of the three because there was too much for me to say that by the end I was past the page limits.
When watching the “to be or not to be” speech in the movie, I paused it many times just like I did when I was writing my Pride and Prejudice paper and tried to pay attention to the message the camera was trying to convey. By seeing how the music escalated or how the camera moved, it provided a better understanding to the scene to support my analysis.
By examining the specificity in the language, I was able to take a closer look at what Hamlet was questioning, and how he switches from life to death multiple times. Without this look at the details and picking apart the text, I would not have been able to make the same conclusions.
I am glad that I wrote this paper because now I understand what this speech means and because it is so popular, I will now feel informed when I hear a reference to it which I do very often. I think this was a great piece to end my junior year with, and shows my growth as a writer. If I tried to write the same paper at the beginning of the year, I think it would be far weaker and less supported, but through the papers that I have written in both the fall and spring semesters, each one has prepared me and built upon each other to get me to this point. I was nervous that because this was an AP level course I would be unprepared but the gradual build up of these habits of mind has made the course fit seamlessly with the outside writing experience I have had.
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https://juliaallenblog.wordpress.com/final-essay-and-reflection/
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Palm Sunday and the Greeks
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Notes & Transcripts
In the verses immediately prior to our text, we see the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The people received Him gladly in the name of the Lord (vv. 12-13). It is common for preachers to expand on the fickleness of crowds by contrasting this reception with the mob yelling “crucify Him” a few days later, but we have no reason for thinking these were the same people. Jesus entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, fulfilling the word of the prophet (vv. 14-15). The disciples did not understand the import of all this until later, until after Christ’s glorification (v. 16). The word about Lazarus was being spread around (v. 17), and the crowd received Him because of this (v. 18). The Pharisees then said, “Look, this is worthless. The world loves this man” (v. 19). This is how John sets up the episode with the Greeks.
It is possible that these were Jews of the Dispersion, but in this context, it is much more likely that they were Gentile Greeks. They were there to worship at the feast, which was Passover (v. 20). They came to Philip, who was from (John makes a point of telling us here) the town of Bethsaida in Galilee. Galilee was “of” the Gentiles (Matt. 4:15), and Bethsaida meant “House of Fish.” Jesus had promised Peter that the disciples would be fishers of men, and He was not talking about a cane pole and a quiet trout stream. He was talking about bursting nets and a fishing industry. So these men came to Philip and said they wanted to see Jesus (v. 21). Philip tells his brother Andrew about it, and they both tell Jesus (v. 22). We are not explicitly told whether these Greeks ever met Jesus, but Christ’s cryptic answer tells us what the conditions would have been if they did. This seems to hint at a positive response, however stringent the conditions. The hour was approaching for Christ’s glorification (v. 23), and in this regard He was here talking about the cross (vv. 27-28). A grain of seed that does not die “abideth alone,” but if it goes in the ground and dies, it brings forth much fruit (v. 24). This pattern of “much fruit” is generational. It multiplies because the seed corn that is produced will itself die, and be fruitful as well (v. 25). Christ then closes the loop on the request of the Greeks. They wanted to see Him (v. 21), but Jesus slides right into “serve me” (v. 26). He who would serve must follow (v. 26). Follow where? To death and fruitfulness. For, Jesus says, where I am (the ground), there also will His servant be (v. 26). If a man does this, the Father will honor him as well (v. 26). As Christ rose, so shall we. If we die as Jesus did, we are glorified in the dying. If we die with Him we will also rise with Him (Rom. 6:5). And if we rise with Him, then we are honored as He was—and this is the place where the fruit is harvested.
Jesus came into the world to confront the world, and to subvert its entire system. Worldliness and godliness therefore represent two different approaches to the questions about life and living. The world is dedicated to a life that is based on not dying. Given our sinfulness and the curse that God laid on the world, this is a futile and vain endeavor, an impossible standard. This is the core of worldliness—don’t let go, don’t give up, don’t surrender, get whatever you have in a death grip. And that is just what it is—a death grip. Once matured, this worldliness is the beating heart of Hell.
The core of godliness is this—Jesus came so that we might have life, and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). Who would shy away from abundant life? Well, everyone, just as soon as they discover that this abundant life is on the other side of death. As the old Albert King blues song puts it, “everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die.” As that song also notes, everybody wants to hear the truth, but everybody wants to tell a lie.
Now this is not just worldliness as opposed to godliness on the grand scale—dealing with actual death, for example. It is not just the day before you physically die that the contrast between the two kinds of living is made. Jesus said we were to take up our cross daily (Luke 9:23), which means that these issues are present every day, all day long.
Once the teaching of Jesus at this point is made clear, it would be easy to believe that throughout the course of human history, we might be able to come up with three Christians, if that. But the cross is not the ultimate test that we must pass. It is the ultimate test that the Lord Jesus passed, and because He was glorified in passing it, that glorification draws men inexorably to their fruitful deaths.
We have been contrasting this fruitful death and resurrection with the way of the world. Here it is explicity. How did Jesus save the world? He did it by judging the world. Now is the judgment of the world, and all its clinging-to-life ways (v. 31). Now the prince of the world was to be cast out—and we are to have a new prince, one who died and rose, not one who clung to everything. And Jesus, lifted up in agony and death, would be glorified, and would draw all men to Him. And this He is in the process of doing, even down to the present hour.
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See the rest →
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https://soundfaith.com/sermons/111869-palm-sunday-and-the-greeks
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A Long Way Gone Fiona Grannan
The Atlantic Ocean corners the underside of Sierra Leone, and Liberia and Guinea surround it. Diamonds, gold, and iron are all found and mined from Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is a Unitary System. A unitary state is a state governed as a single power where the central government is ultimate and any other divisions exercise only what the central government chooses to delegate.
Map of Sierra Leone
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was a rebel army that aimed to dismantle the government of Sierra Leone. They fought for freedom, but they quickly became disliked by their brutality towards locals.
Leading up to the war, politics in Sierra Leone were often corrupt, mismanaged, and violent, which led to a weak society, and a collapse of the education system, and, by 1991, an entire generation was dissatisfied and wanted to overthrow the government. During the war, many people were killed, injured, and abducted by the rebels to fuel the fighting, which made living in Sierra Leone at the time dangerous and upsetting. They also used child soldiers to guard diamond mines and weapon stockpiles during the war, fight, and kill.
In Eritrea, Somalia, and Zimbabwe, children are being used for labor to produce and manufacture various items such as clothing and cars. In Liberia, Congo, and Sudan, kids are being used to fight in wars as child soldiers.
Many organizations are trying to deflect that, however, and there are projects in Mozambique, Angola and Somalia helping former child soldiers. They offer rehabilitation and shelter during hard times. Organizations against using children soldiers include The Child Soldiers International, War Child, and Invisible Children. As for the UN, it wishes to protect children from armed conflict. They hope to shelter and save them from war torn countries.
Ishmael Beah is 36 years old, and he wrote the book A Long Way Gone. He started writing as a project while at Oberlin College. He was prompted to continue working on it, and he claims he wrote what he thought, he just laid down his past, and wrote to write, just letting everything flow.
Hip-hop gave Ishmael interest in the English language, these people who spoke English so quickly intrigued him so much as a kid. He recalls it fondly,
This video from CBS News delivers Ishmael discussing the war he fought in, and the effects it had on him at the time, and after it was all said and done.
Ishmael discusses the ignorance around America, and the fact that so many people knew so little about Africa, Sierra Leone, and the conflicts arising there.
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https://spark.adobe.com/page/6WQDCLonA4rNS/
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An inside look: Frisian languages
Does anyoold frisianne remember their primary school days? There was always this one kid who, for whatever reason, would get picked on by his or her fellow classmates, often without a valid or any reason at all. If you look at languages, they share the same similarities: whether it is a particular dialect or accent being picked on, for whatever reason. In The Netherlands, we have lots of accents, several dialects and even a 2nd official language, which happens to be the Frisian language.
Just as between France and Belgium, in The Netherlands, the Frisian community is one of the most common targets for jokes. However, over the years, I have discovered how much history the language and its province possess.
The Frisian languages have a surprisingly long history, considering the number of people that speak the languages. There are three Frisian languages still spoken today, namely the West and North Frisian languages and the Saterland Frisian language. In The Netherlands, West Frisian is spoken within the province of Friesland, it is also the largest community that speaks one of the Frisian languages. Therefore, West Frisian is considered to be the main Frisian language.
With such a small number of people speaking any of the Frisian languages, it is remarkable to see that they have preserved their identity for at least eight centuries, with texts dating back to the 13th century.
Based on the study of texts written in Old Frisian, it has been discovered that the language shares similarities with the Old English language. Various books have been published on the subject such as An Introduction to old Frisian , written by Professor R.H. Bremmer, of the university in Leiden, comparing Old Frisian and Old English.
War is one of the agents to be blamed for the decline of the Frisian language. From the 16th to the 19th century, the province of Friesland had to face many events including the Fries-Hollands oorlog, which was a war amongst the Fries and the Dutch people. The Frisian people, had for a long time been independent from Holland (until the 19th century), and to this day it is still something the Frisian population takes pride in.
According to the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), that publishes every year a World Atlas, showing the vitality rank of endangered languages, West Frisian is listed to be an endangered language.
In recent years, the Dutch government has taken extra measures to promote the language in its already small community. Most recently, in May this year, the Dutch government invested larger funds in the public sector, to encourage civil servants to start making use of the Frisian language.
So, do you remember that kid in your primary school days that would get picked on? As often can be the case, years down the road, they have interesting stories to share on what they have experienced and accomplished in their lifetime. Although it is unlikely that the Frisian language will soon disappear, we still should appreciate the language and its history, because these are the things that give a country its identity.
Written by Nigel Marneef, trainee at TermCoord
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https://termcoord.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/an-inside-look-frisian-languages/
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The New Harmony
New Harmony
Date Published 23 May, 1831
Robert Malachi here, reporting to you today from the Washington Post, today I will be discussing the utopia known as The New Harmony. The New Harmony was established in the year 1825 and was disband in 1829. Although I will not be going very in depth on the New Harmony as a utopia unlike I will on my future articles, I am going to give you more of an idea of what utopia is and why people choose to live in them.
The Harmony Society was founded by Robert Owen, Owen was born in England in the year 1771. he then ventured to the United States in the year 1824, a year before the New Harmony was founded. Owen did not believe in God so there the utopia didn’t last as long as he had liked it to. People living at the New Harmony didn’t seem to have connections and the connections that were made were through manual labor, which isn’t the most ideal place to build relationships.(1) Everyday life at the town didn’t involve much affection, because Owen didn’t allow marriage he believed in what is called “free love”. The town also wasn’t just filled with people who didn’t understand the philosophy behind utopias they were mostly brilliant scholars and well versed intellectuals. They also seem to prefer thinking rather than working, they spent a lot of their days in the town conversing with one another. Although all of this constant conversation and thinking really may have seem like the ideal world to them Owen was having to make up for the work they weren’t doing by using almost all of the family fortune, a total of 200,000 dollars.(2) Although the utopia seemed to last more than others of its time it still was unsuccessful according to Owen. He created a place where people felt safe and were enjoying themselves, but they had a parasitic relationship. Owen got what he wanted out of the New Harmony for the first few years then he really didn’t seem to benefit at all, if anything it seemed to negative affective him. He had to leave the utopia and his sons, David and Richard remained in the utopia until it shorty ended after Owen left in the year 1829. The New Harmony then broke off after his sons took charge. Now in 1834, the New Harmony still continues to exist as a town, but the buildings of what was the New Harmony have been closed for the public. (3)
ImageRobert Owen
Would you want to be part of a utopia? Well, I know I wouldn’t, it would be odd to me how their would be no conflict in a world that is split off from what is actually going on outside of their own town. It would feel more like of a purgatory to me. The main people wanted to be part of utopias was because they strongly agreed with the religion of transcendentalism: a system developed by Immanuel Kant, based on the idea that, in order to understand the nature of reality, one must first examine and analyze the reasoning process that governs the nature of experience. (4) I don’t identify myself with transcendentalism personally and the reason I wouldn’t want to be a part of a utopia is because everyones utopia is different now a days no one has the exact same ideal world or we would hopefully be living in it. People I talked to over the years about why they happened to join certain utopias is because they felt like they weren’t surrounded with people who wanted to enjoy life. Others simply joined because they didn’t have anyone else and wanted to feel like they were a part of a bigger community so they wouldn’t end up grieving their way to death. In the next few years I will be following the trend of utopias and seeing where they go, I will mainly be examining what works and what doesn’t work to try and find the guidelines for what truly makes a utopia, a utopia for a more than one type of person.
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https://ush1unit2assessment.wordpress.com/2013/11/22/the-new-harmony/
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You've got family at Ancestry.
Find more Maretsky relatives and grow your tree by exploring billions of historical records. Taken every decade since 1790, the U.S. Federal Census can tell you a lot about your family. For example, from 1930 to 1940 there were 8 less people named Maretsky in the United States — and some of them are likely related to you.
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Create, build, and explore your family tree.
What if you had a window into the history of your family? With historical records, you do. From home life to career, records help bring your relatives' experiences into focus. There were 35 people named Maretsky in the 1930 U.S. Census. In 1940, there were 23% less people named Maretsky in the United States. What was life like for them?
Picture the past for your ancestors.
In 1940, 27 people named Maretsky were living in the United States. In a snapshot:
• 1 owned their homes, valued on average at $600
• 4% were disabled
• For 15 females, Ida was the most common name
• 4 women had paying jobs
Learn where they came from and where they went.
As Maretsky families continued to grow, they left more tracks on the map:
• 18 were born in foreign countries
• The most common mother tongue was Jewish
• 17 were first-generation Americans
• 51% were born in foreign countries
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https://www.ancestry.com/family-trees/maretsky
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