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Months after Cyclone Sidr killed 3,200 people along the Bangladesh coast, the devastated country turns its attention to climate change. A report on recovery efforts and worries about the long-term future of the country. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Months after Cyclone Sidr killed 3,200 people along the Bangladesh coast, many of the modest homes still lie in hopeless disrepair. The human suffering is on fullest display at distribution centers, like this one run by the charity Islamic Relief. On this day, 700 families were given care packages: cooking utensils, toiletries and some basic clothing. Many more went home empty handed. Sixty-two-year-old Saidur Rahman was among those who took home a bag. His family has gotten some emergency food supplies, scarcely enough to get by. The Rahmans had moved back into their badly damaged house after patching it up. But they say their life is still in tatters because of the death of their 27-year-old son. SAIDUR RAHMAN: He went out to fish, when the cyclone came he was trying to park his boat but another boat collided with him, he fell in his boat, he was injured and he died. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: November’s cyclone was the strongest ever recorded in a land that’s seen many. Yet the death toll was among the smallest. The previous storm, in 1991, killed 140,000. This time there were early warnings and schools were used as shelters. The relief effort, led mostly by international and non-government groups, is helping people put homes together temporarily with corrugated iron sheets. It will take years to build sturdier homes. But the long term future for the country is a real challenge. Many scientists have said climate change would cause more and more intense cyclones. These farmers have no doubt. FARMER: It’s not just Cyclone. We are facing a disaster every day with water problems. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: They say salt water from the encroaching sea is contaminating the rice fields in this low lying delta. Â FARMER: The crops have reduced productivity and you can see fewer trees grow here. From past years to now, gradually the land is decreasing, going further and further down. We don’t really know but it is our guess that the developed countries that have big factories and machinery, they’re producing some gases. Those gas mix with the air and that is making the environment polluted. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The country’s leading climatologist says with tens of millions of people living no more than 30 feet above sea level, Bangladesh is at ground zero for global warming. ATIQ RAHMAN, Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies: So, the ocean will rise this way and the central flood plain, which will be inundated more. Dr. Atiq Rahman says Bangladesh is pummeled from all sides, from the south by cyclones. From the north flow rivers increasingly swollen by melting glaciers in the Himalayas. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: So it’s making almost like a lake in the middle of the country? ATIQ RAHMAN: It already does that every year, certain amount of flooding takes place every year. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: In this, the dry season, it’s easy to measure the impact of erosion. Like people, the trees struggle to stay rooted. If, as some scientists predict, sea levels rise about three feet by the end of this century, a lot of Bangladesh will, simply, disappear. ATIQ RAHMAN: If the sea level rises by a meter, this is the amount the land, below that line south of that line that will disappear, that will go under water. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: About a quarter of the landmass. ATIQ RAHMAN: About a quarter of the land mass. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It’s already happening. In the capital’s burgeoning slums, precarious stilts a water mark of the wet season. Joynal Mollah moved into this small room four years ago with his wife and four young children, scraping by as laborers on less than two dollars a day. The land his family had farmed for 200 years and the home on it fell into the river. JOYNAL MOLLAH, Laborer: I used to have a piece of land, a third of an acre. We used to have a home, it had a big kitchen. As I lost my land and house in the village, the situation compelled me to come here, otherwise no one would live in a place like this. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The question is, where will all the people driven from their land go? Bangladesh has a landmass approximately the size of Wisconsin, which has a population of about five million. Bangladesh’s population is 146 million. If the country is running out of land, Mohammad Rezwan says it will have to look to the water. MOHAMMAD REZWAN, Teacher: People have to live on water in some way at the time. And it is the most densely populated country in the world, people they will not have any place to live. It is because of climate change. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: When Rezwan graduated from architecture school eight years ago, he began to use his skills to design a floating community. Its first building block was a boat to serve both as school bus — and school. MOHAMMAD REZWAN: We designed in a way that it has more space and a multi-layered water proof roof on it so that when it rains you still can continue working on it. And there are side windows and the bottom is flat so it can move through the flooded lands. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: His fledgling nonprofit caught the attention of donors including the Gates and Levi Strauss foundations. Today, there are 41 floating, solar-powered classrooms plying the Natore region in northwestern Bangladesh. For 1,200 students, school is no longer interrupted by flooding. One boat serves as a library. It makes three-hour stops along the river. Its young patrons can study, check out a book or learn to use the internet. There’s also a floating power station. Eighty percent of Bangladesh’s villages lack electricity. Rezwan provides families solar lamps, powered by small batteries that people bring in about once a month to be recharged. MOHAMMAD REZWAN: We always had surplus energy on the boat and at the same time the children in the rural houses, they couldn’t study during the night. We decided why don’t we share our surplus energy with these children? In this way we developed the solar lamp. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Rezwan is also trying to help struggling farmers survive on the land they have left. In a simple assembly line outside his headquarters, used bicycles are, well, recycled into irrigation pumps. They are sold at a 50 percent subsidy to farmers for about twenty-seven U.S. dollars. MOHAMMAD REZWAN: It is difficult for the landless or marginal farmers to cultivate. Earlier they could get only one crop a year because it is very difficult for them to get the diesel pump. Diesel pump is expensive. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The workers he’s hired to make the pumps and farmers like Jalal Ahmed have benefited. JALAL AHMED: Until two years ago, it was very difficult to bring water to the field so we used to bring it up in bowls that we carried. Before using this pump we used to get only one crop a year. Now I get up to five crops a year because we can irrigate the land. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Experts say it will take affordable, so called green technology — bicycle pumps, floating schools and homes — to quite literally keep communities above water, to produce enough food. The challenge, Dr. Rahman says, is the sheer scale of the problem and population. He says people will be forced to move and he suggests in future treaties that these so called carbon credits should be traded for climate refugees. ATIQ RAHMAN: So if U.S.A. is producing — a city or enterprise, it’s producing so many million tons of carbon, you have to take two villages — villages from Bangladesh. If Switzerland is doing that, take another three villages. You know, that’s probably a fair swap, which will not please a lot of people. FRED DE SAM LAZARO: You’re tongue in cheek. ATIQ RAHMAN: Well, it’s a global market and climate change is a global phenomenon, so if humans have to move, they shall find places to move. That’s how the Irish moved. That’s how the Italians moved. Why not Bangladeshis? FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Meanwhile, as scientists and relief agencies discuss the long term effects of climate change, their efforts to deal with them are likely to be hindered by the desperate, immediate needs of victims of this country’s increasingly frequent natural disasters.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have moved in to help restore one of the most important buildings in north Warwickshire. The Abbey Gateway, at Polesworth, near Atherstone, has been designated a 'building at risk' even though it is a building of national importance on a Scheduled Ancient Monument site. English Heritage is supporting the restoration project in the grounds of Polesworth Abbey and archaeologists Bob and June Meeson have launched a month-long survey charting the history of the Gateway, which dates from the early part of the 12th century. Father Philip Wells, the vicar of Polesworth, said: "This is the first stage in the conservation of the Gateway. The archaeologists are carrying out a detailed survey of the timber construction. "A lot can be known about the building from the construction and the way that modifications have been made over the centuries." As well as the archaeologists working on the site, others are looking at the historical documentation. Fr Philip said: "Very little about the history of the Gateway seems to have survived, but we want to leave no stone unturned so that the conservation can be done as sympathetically as possible." Polesworth Abbey already has experience of conservation. The cloister wall was also a building at risk. Repairs were completed five years ago and the Abbey won the John Betjeman Award from the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings. A street survey two years ago for the Abbey asked people about their perception of the heritage of Polesworth - and 98 per cent said the Abbey site was the most important historic asset to Polesworth. It's likely the Abbey Gateway was built in the early 12th century and possibly used as a school and, at some time, a dungeon. Its continued use as a school would explain its retention after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In the mid-19th century, the Gateway was turned into a Reading Room for meetings. In the 1960s, it was made into two flats. Fr Philip said external brick and stone would be repaired, but large areas were so dilapidated they would have to be taken down and rebuilt. He said: "Great care will be taken to see the new stonework exactly matches the original. The work will take at least nine months."

There really are a handful of technological developments made today and all of which, no matter what, have changed our lives for good, no matter how small the impact may be. If you are going to check and look into the overall impact these things have made, you can actually see that they are slowly changing our lives. We will be discussing some of them along for you to learn more about how we evolved from pre-internet to post-internet. The way we communicate is one thing that really has changed over the years. With the help of snail mail and telephones or telegraphs, people are able to contact their loved ones and friends. Today’s technology has reshaped such pattern that it is now very easy to get in touch with other people, even if they are on the other side of the planet. A Beginners Guide To Technology Social media also has made a huge impact in our lives that we get to know the very life of people through their statuses and posts. As a whole, we now learn how people live their lives through their posts. 5 Uses For News The learning system also has changed greatly since we were young because what used to be notes we share with our friends are now disappearing and are being shared via email. The change on how people take notes today are just among the very things that has changed since virtual classrooms today also are becoming more and more popular. The development of virtual classrooms also are found to have made a huge impact on how we live our lives today that impossible things in the past are slowly become a possibility today. The reason why these things are becoming popular is because they also are convenient and straightforward. Reading books also is changed greatly today as opposed to how we generally do it in the past. In the past, people who want to keep themselves updated with their author’s new release should have to visit the bookstore on a regular basis. People are now able to stay on track on what is upcoming and what is new via the internet and this can be made and done with the use of notifications and alarms to give them a heads up as a whole. That aside, you can also find all sorts of genre today with ease, not to mention that it can be accessed easily via any mobile device you could get your hands on today. As a whole, these are just some but on a general note, the development of today’s technology has made our lives easier and straightforward.

More than 26, 000 young Australians do not have a home. In most instances, they do not have a home because they are escaping conflict and violence. They find it almost impossible to find a home because of the housing affordability crisis in Australia. The vast majority of young people experiencing homelessness are hidden from view in refuges, couch surfing situations and sleeping in cars with their family, but their experience is very real. Youth homelessness is a national disgrace. To end youth homelessness we need a national plan. Pitifully low Youth Allowance payments, rising rents inflated by the housing crisis, insufficient supports for young people leaving state care and a lack of employment pathways for vulnerable youth have all combined to create a perfect storm in which young people are increasingly likely to fall into homelessness. About YHMD and Youth Homelessness Youth Homelessness Matters Day (YHMD) has been an exciting campaign since its inception in 1990. Started by a group of social advocates who believed that too many young people were moving out of home with no where to go, the day has since grown into a national celebration of young people’s resilience. For us, Youth Homelessness Matters Day started because of young people like Trent. Trent has Obsessive Compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety issues. As he did not want to drag his two year old brother, nine year old sister and grandmother down, he decided to run away. At first, Trent did not want to ask for help because he was told that refuges were not great. When he finally decided to call a service, they did not have any bed for him. A week later he was given a spot and he loved the place: ‘even nicer than most colleges and everyone is so nice’ he said! Trent could get support for his mental health issues and fells must better now. Youth homelessness is something that affects most people, whether it’s a parent who lets their child’s friend crash on the couch for a couple nights or an Aunty who hears of her niece being kicked out. Yet many people don’t know the impact this issue has on our young people or what to do to help. We do this work for people like Trent, who was one of the lucky ones. We see this as a good story. For many others, the school counselor doesn’t know what to do or doesn’t care. Most of the time there aren’t any vacancies at youth accommodation services and young people have to move far from their childhood town. For others, they hear rumours about ‘youth refuges’ and are scared that they will just end up becoming a good-for-nothing bad kid. This campaign aims to address these problems. We’ll probably never live in a society where no young person has to leave home early (although that would be nice) and we are aware of the fact that family breakdown is sometimes inevitable. However, young people should not have to face homelessness and discrimination when their home life doesn’t work out. They shouldn’t be faced with a life of disadvantage just because they were dealt a bad hand and born to imperfect parents or a broken family. We look forward to creating brighter futures for the young people who have faced homelessness and showing them that they have the power and opportunity to become whatever they put their mind to. #1 Ensure that young people have greater access to support and services Young people at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness need access to supportive and well-resourced services which work with them in establishing foundations on which they can build a stable future. These services can be tasked with the provision of ensuring health and wellbeing, safety and stability, re-engagement and participation with education and employment services. #2 Break Stereotypes The aim of this campaign is to break the common stereotypes that are associated with youth homelessness, and the young people who experience disadvantage. The stigma attached to homelessness often prevents many young people from seeking help. As such, Youth Homelessness Matters Day aims to raise awareness that youth homelessness stereotypes are not accurate, and instead there needs to be more focus on recognising the signs of homelessness so there can be less shame and more productive help available. #3 Engage with Government and Business The campaign also aims to engage government and corporate sectors to resource specialist youth homelessness services, also known as youth refuges or shelters, which provide young people with the help they need in order to get back on their feet.

Robotics and web technologies start to work together. Robotics is becoming more open, thanks to a lot of open source projects for example, and web is adapting for more advanced use cases (Web is not only surfing on Html pages like it was 20 years ago !). So… How can robotics benefit from web technology ? Nowadays, you can do almost everything remotely : book your holidays, buy your groceries, turn on the light on the kitchen, … You will be able soon to control any new robot from a web interface, anywhere in the world ! For example, video streaming is now possible, even for very high definition images. It means that you can always, at least, see what the robot is doing. You can also compute image processing on a remote computer, using a video stream coming from the robot. The point here, is that with web technologies, you won’t have to put all the intelligence inside the robot, as long as it can communicate with the outside. This is time and money saving. Your robot will be lighter, so you have less constraints, less hardware to maintain and synchronize. So now you can remotely control a robot using web technologies. What if you could just control a robot from the cloud, and thus have no need for a powerful computer at home, at school or at work ? Here’s where cloud computing is coming in. If the robot can communicate with the outside through Internet, then you can use a remote server to make the bridge between the robot and the user. The remote server will be powerful and running an adapted robotics environment. A simple mobile application could then be enough to tell the robot what you want it to do. Robotics simulation on the cloud will also allow you to remotely control a virtual robot, for teaching and testing purposes. It means you can always learn with your robot, even if it is not physically working, because you have a remote simulation of it. Robot Web Tools Now let’s take a look at a technical solution that brings some reality to what have been discussed : One of the most used, Rosbridge, allows web and mobile applications to communicate with a robot. Technically, Rosbridge provides a JSON API to ROS functionality for non-ROS programs. This tool is used on Niryo One, so anyone can control the robot from a user friendly interface. On the contrary, if you want to program directly on a robot, you can just dive into the low-level code to build a strong, reliable and fast program, and thus let other people work on the web interface to control the robot and connect to the Internet for more user-centric use cases. Robot as a Service This reunion of multiple expertises will accelerate robotics democratization. The web is already everywhere in our lives, it will now help robotics to stand out from the crowd faster. Robots will be more than just products, they will become a part of a set of higher-level services. This is a topic we’ll cover in the next blog post : After having heard so much about Software as a Service, let Robot as a Service begin !

By Silas Sativarius The cannabis industry is without question on the absolute cutting edge of plant nutrient science. While the perfect nutrient combination may have a greater effect on Cannabis yield than other crops, there is no concrete evidence of that. But the real reason nutrient research and products are booming in the Cannabis cultivation industry is simply the vast amount of money Cannabis growers are willing to spend on nutrients compared to ANY other commercial crop. The difference is literally ten fold higher than any other crop bar none. And with this willingness to spend for the “best” has come a plethora of exaggerated claims to support this huge market. I will not try to evaluate any specific products or claims in this article, but instead I will attempt to help you understand the basics of how to best use your expensive and high tech nutrients. Nutrient Concentrations and Feeding Let’s start with the fact that overfeeding or excessive nutrient ppm levels is THE most common mistake inexperienced or ambitious growers make. One misconception that can lead to this mistake is the idea that the maximum level of ppms a plant can handle continues to go up proportionally as the plants growth rate increases. In reality, the maximum PPM level a plant can tolerate, or better, that is optimum (they aren’t the same) is based on a very complex relationship of factors in the root zone far too complicated to discuss here. But the bottom line is, the optimum is relatively static within a narrow range and does NOT increase proportionally with plant growth. So how does the plant get more nutrients as it grows faster? Water transpiration. Water transpiration is the amount of water that literally flows through the plant from the roots to the leaves and out into the atmosphere. There are strict limitations on the concentration of minerals in the water flowing through the Xylem (the plants vascular system) So the more water transpiring, the more nutrients are transported. This is the most important factor in nutrient uptake. And it depends on several factors. The higher the temperature, the faster the plant will transpire water to cool the plant. CO2 intake also increases. See 3 Keys for Maximizing.. for more details on Co2 and Temp. Higher temperatures also increase evaporation rates. The lower the relative humidity (RH) i.e. the dryer the air, the less resistance to evaporation and the easier it is for the plant to evaporate water from the vacuoles in the leaves. The more water taken IN, the more must go OUT, so decreasing humidity helps facilitate water transpiration and prevents the potential for water condensation on the leaves which further restricts transpiration and makes the plant vulnerable to fungi like mildew. 3) Root capacity The more root capacity the plant has, which literally comes down to the total surface area of the entire root system, the faster water/nutrients can be absorbed. Root surface area can be dramatically increased in two ways, optimizing air space in the soil, and Mycorrhiza. • Air space – in general, the optimum ratio of air to water in the root zone is 50/50. Soil porosity or the amount of air space in the root zone throughout the life of the plant is CRITICAL to root function, and lot’s of air space creates “feathery” roots with high surface area. • Mycorrhiza – Mycorrhiza are a variety of fungi that grow on the root surface creating a webbing network that not only dramatically increase the functional surface area of the root, but also helps break down and make more available certain nutrient compounds. More on Mycorrhiza in the upcoming Root Zone article. 4) Osmotic pressure Osmotic pressure is created by the ratios of solutes (minerals) between the exterior and interior of the root. It is here that nutrient PPM really comes into play because lower PPM’s decrease Osmotic pressure, but too high will stop transport completely. So for this reason, unless you suspect you have excessive nutrient levels in the root zone or salt buildup, plants should never be watered with pure Reverse Osmosis (RO) water, for it can negatively impact transpiration. So you can see that keeping the root zone conditions optimal is ESSENTIAL to both nutrient and water uptake. Evaporation in this context is the root zone moisture that is evaporated away from the roots without being used by the plant. When this moisture evaporates, it leaves the dissolved nutrients behind, initially just increasing the nutrient ppm level in the root zone, but ultimately, if the root zone gets too dry, usually towards the top, the nutes will dry completely and oxidize into salts, which are difficult to redissolve and create unhealthy conditions in the root zone. There are 2 environmental factors that effect evaporation. Air and/or root-zone temperature, and air relative humidity (RH). Both an increase in temp and /or a decrease in RH will increase evaporation. Also, the “airier” or more porous the media and/or container, the faster the evaporation. To compensate for this loss of unused water in the root zone, nutrient levels have to be reduced to effectively keep the existing root zone nutrient ppms consistent. This can be accomplished by either lowering feed water ppms on-going, or by periodically watering with 1/4 to 1/3 strength normal nutrient mix. The amount of reduction depends on the level of evaporation, but a good way to test this is to water the plants starting with a 10-20% reduction and measure the ppms of the nutrient run off coming out of the media. Adjust the feeding nutrient ppm until you get roughly the same coming out (or within 100ppm or so) as going in, each feeding. And remember. The harder you push the plant, i.e. the closer you run it to that maximum threshold, the less headroom you have for environmental fluctuations. LED vs HPS/MH As mentioned in Tips and Tricks for LED’s, LEDs produce no Infra Red (IR) and consequently require higher ambient air temperatures to achieve similar plant metabolism rates to that achieved with HPS, all other factors being equal. With this increase in air temp comes an increase in evaporation, so it is extra important when using LED’s to adjust your ppm schedule to accommodate these changes. There is another factor that has a big impact on both the ability of the plant to absorb nutrients, and consequently your optimum levels of nutrient ppm. It is Chelation. Chelates are compounds that react with the more stable nutrient molecules found in fertilizers (so they can stay unchanged in the package) and make them less stable, but far more absorbable by the plant. Chelates can also break down harmful salts, turning them back into absorbable nutrients. EDTA, Humic Acid, and Fulvic acid are the most common Chelates used in fertilizers. EDTA and other Chelates are also the active ingredient in most “Final Flush” type additives, (such as Advance’s Final Phase) advertised for use in the last two weeks of flower because they break down salt residue preventing nute lock up in the crucial final weeks. Chelates are maybe the one nutrient ingredient that really can have a significant impact on growth rate because they make the nutrients more easily absorbed. There really isn’t any toxic threshold for these compounds, but the more you use of them, the less actual nutrients you can add to maintain a safe PPM level, so it is a balancing act. TIP FROM SILAS – I personally use Liquid Karma (and no they don’t pay me to say this, I just love the stuff) as my organic Humic / Folic acid chelation agent (as well as providing some vitamins) through all phases of growth and I have found that while I may adjust the ratios of the various nutrients –nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus etc—for the different stages, i.e. veg, pre-flower, flower, and ripening, I slowly increase the ratio of Karma to Nutrients from 1 tsp/ gal Karma in Veg, to as high as 4tsp/gallon Karma at peak flower. Do it and WATCH what happens! I will give more details of this and all topics discussed on this site in my “Secrets to Massive Cannabis Yields” book coming out soon. There are many other sources besides Karma for organic Humic /Folic acid chelation additives so take your pick, but Karma is the only nute I have used religiously for almost a decade. I also add a little EDTA additive (1/4 label) anytime I use chemical nutes or flower boosters. Because chelates make the dissolved nutrients (and salts) suddenly more absorbable to the plant, they can take a perfectly safe ppm level and make it toxic. Thus, whenever you use Chelation additives, you should reduce the nutrient ppm levels by 20% or so and then increase them slowly over time. And never use an EDTA flushing agent at full strength immediately after feeding with nutrients at full strength. Always flush with clear water at least once prior to using these additives at label strength. However, they are actually more effective if used throughout the grow cycle at roughly ¼ label strength, but nutrient PPMS must be adjusted accordingly. As with any changes in nutrient PPM, start low, say 6-700ppm and gradually increase and watch carefully. The fastest way to detect nutrient toxicity is a rapid browning of the normally white stamens of the flower, (Literally over-night) anytime before the last week of flower. This will happen before the leaves may show any symptoms. Spraying of flowers can have the same effect however. Also, browning of the leaf tips can be a sign of longer term excessive nutrient levels. As roots grow, they slough off their outer skin like a snake. This skin, is a carbohydrate material and can accumulate and reduce the water /nutrient uptake of the root. In organic humus based soil, there are naturally occurring bacteria such as Bacillus Subtilis and Bacillus Cereus, that eat (breakdown) the organic material in the soil as well as the carbohydrates shed by the roots. These are the same bacteria that break down plant matter in a compost pile. However, in wet or soiless hydro, healthy root bacteria (flora) do not occur naturally. You have to add the bacteria and then provide them food ongoing, because most hydroponic nutrients do not have significant organic components that could provide food for these organisms, and they will quickly reproduce beyond the amount of food the roots are producing and then begin to die off. And without them, the root system will not be able to uptake water or nutrients efficiently, or breakdown any extra organic material from organic based nutrients that can accumulate and dense up soiless medias, reducing the oxygen present. So it is important for proper nutrient uptake, that from the first week in veg, you supply periodic doses of healthy bacteria through supplements or compost teas to keep the roots and media clean and healthy, and it is strongly advised that you include a small amount of simple sugar (Glucose or Fructose) to feed the existing bacteria when the root detritus runs low (i.e your roots are clean). ¼ the label recommendation of most sugar products is plenty, but don’t worry, if the sugars are simple forms like glucose or fructose, they can be absorbed by the roots (and leaves) and thus can replace some of the sugars the plant normally has to produce through photosynthesis. Feeding sugar will also replace a small part of the nitrogen requirements. But DO NOT use excessive sugars in the nutrients because it can cause unhealthy conditions in the root zone. Less is more, and 50 (normal) to 100ppm (late flower) is a safe upper limit for sugar supplementation. People go WAY overboard with sugar, let me be clear, sugar DOES NOT translate directly into fragrance or resin. Phosphorus drives resin production. I will discuss this more in future articles. Normally when plants grow in organic soil with all that good humus being acted on by countless bacteria and fungi, the soil will naturally stabilize around a PH of 6.0-6.5. This is adequate for proper absorption of organic forms of nutrients which are more stable and slightly less bio-available, and watering with simple PH7 water like rain does not alter the PH of this system virtually at all. But when you are growing in a Hydroponic environment, both wet, aeroponic, or soil-less (peat, rockwool, etc..) the media the plant is growing in has no organic material except what you add in the nutrients. For this reason, it is very difficult to establish prolific enough flora (bacteria etc..) to really buffer the PH conditions. Thus YOU have to adjust your PH on every feeding to the correct level. Different minerals (nutrients) favor different PH ranges, but when you distill it all down with the dozen or so minerals really essential to an optimally healthy plant, the sweet spot for all hydroponics (not Soil) turns out to be PH 5.7- 6.0. Phosphorus is the most sensitive nute to PH above 6.0 and it is ESSENTIAL to high quality Cannabis. And if you want optimum growth, and you are not using exclusively organic nutrients, you had better keep your PH between 5.7 and 6.0 ALL THE TIME. I’m not going to try to explain it here, but look at the chart above and suffice to say, you need to keep your PH in that range EVERY TIME you feed. Not just when you mix the tank. Every time you feed, RECHECK IT. Be diligent, and you will notice the difference. And buy a GOOD PH meter and keep a back up meter as a reference, because when they fail, they don’t tell you. They just give you incorrect readings and you won’t know till it’s too late and your wondering why everything is SH*T. And it can only take a couple feedings that are PH 6.2 or higher, especially during the CRUCIAL first 2-3 weeks of flower, and especially if your using chemical nutes, to ruin an entire crop from Phosphorus deficiency. In those first weeks, the plants aren’t sucking up the nutes as fast, so it sits there longer, and often there is a bunch of fresh clean media (Peat, etc..) from a recent re-pot to a larger media, so there’s just not much resident organic residue and bacteria to help buffer the PH, so it has lots of time to mess with your plants. And it will RUIN an entire crop. Oh the plants will still grow, but they will never be optimal, and there is no fixing it. You can protect yourself from PH issues somewhat by always using an organic Base nutrient. Also, bacterial treatments help as well. Organic nutes are less PH sensitive and over time leave behind material that will set this natural PH buffer mentioned previously. But this material also slowly clogs up the media, so if you use organics with soil-less media, increase the aeration in your starting media with additional perlite etc.. But ask any pro grower, organics nutes are safer and easier, and make for a little better taste and smell etc.. but plants grow much faster and bigger with high quality chelated chemical nutes. So it is a tradeoff. For Wet Hydro, organics will simply clog your jets and kill things, so you have to be very careful in avoiding nutes with organic particulates, which is in almost all of them. I will get into more detail in future publications. But spend the money, spend the time, and watch your PH like a HAWK. 5.8-6.0. 6.0 for the first 2-3 weeks to favor Nitrogen and keep them good and green, then you can slowly begin to slide it down towards 5.8 during ripening to favor Phosphorus and Potassium absorption for flower production. Doing so will make the sun leaves begin to yellow, but don’t worry, that’s ok, they are less important at this stage than high phosphorus absorption. TIP FROM SILAS: Ammonium based nutrients will slowly decrease the media PH, most other forms of nutrients will slowly increase media PH. So ammonium based nutes will be less sensitive to excess (>6.0) PH levels because the absorption at the root naturally creates free hydrogen that drops the PH. If your media or soil PH is too low (exp. general leaf yellowing from nitrogen starvation), use non-ammonium based nutrients to correct. I hope I have not sacrificed too much literal accuracy (my disclaimer for all you PHD plant biologists out there) in the interest of simplification here, but I think you can see that optimizing nutrient uptake is a very complex system that requires careful and gradual adjustments to find the optimal levels for your plant and environment. And the most important thing to remember is — of the core factors in plant metabolism (growth rate), namely Light, CO2, Temperature, Water, and Nutrients — Nutrients are the LEAST important factor in optimizing yield, and the most problematic. Ppm levels DO NOT need to be raised significantly as plant metabolism goes up, because the plant naturally increases the amount of water and nutrients taken up into the plant proportionally with the metabolism. You are better served by optimizing the other elements that facilitate water transpiration, namely temp, humidity, and root health. Increasing nutrients should be the last consideration in trying to optimize yield, and you should always be conservative. There is little downside to running conservative PPM’s and LOTS of potential downside to running too much. To those who grow, we salute you!

The Sermon on the Mount is the longest recorded sermon of Jesus. It starts as Jesus walks up the mountainside, sets down with His disciples and starts to teach them. Setting down to teach was the common and authoritative posture for the rabbi’s of Jesus’ day. By doing this Jesus was demonstrating to His disciples that what He was about to say was very important. It’s important for us to recognize that in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus was primarily talking to His disciples. While there was a crowd gathered around Him, they were not His primary audience. Jesus was primarily teaching those who had already committed their lives to being His disciples. In the Sermon On The Mount Jesus teaches us what it means to be His disciple. The idea is that those who follow Jesus do the things talked about in the Sermon on the Mount because they follow Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount is one of my favorite passages so I’m going to spend a little while blogging in this great passage. I’m going to start with the Beatitudes. Jesus starts this teaching by laying out the type of attitudes His followers should demonstrate. We know these as the Beatitudes or the Blessed Attitudes. It is extremely important for us to understand that Jesus expected every believer to possess and exhibit every one of these attitudes. The attitudes described here do not describe eight separate types of disciples, but the total character of each and every disciple “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3 (NKJV) The Old Testament gives us some important background info that helps us understand this attitude. In the Old Testament it frequently talks about God helping or caring for the poor and needy. The idea wasn’t just their physical reality, they were poverty stricken, but it also referred to their spiritual attitude. The poor man in the Old Testament is one who is poverty stricken and is unable to save himself and so looks to God for deliverance from this problem. These people didn’t go to God with an attitude of entitlement that said God owed them something. They didn’t go to God with an attitude of merit that said God should help them because of anything they had done. They didn’t go to God with a demanding attitude telling God what to do. Instead they went to God as beggars seeking His help. They went to God recognizing that He didn’t owe them anything. They went to God with fully acknowledging that they were helpless to fix their situation and were totally dependent on God for help. This is basically the same kind of attitude Jesus is talking about here. Those who are poor in spirit… Recognize their spiritual poverty (lack of righteousness). This means they understand they have sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard (Romans 3:23). One of the first things that we have to understand is that God has an absolute standard of right and wrong and that we have failed to keep it. The basics of God’s standards would be the 10 Commandments. If we were to take the time to read the 10 Commandments we would all recognize that we had failed to meet this standard. It is our failure to meet this standard that has kept us from having any inherent righteousness of our own. Recognize they cannot earn Gods favor. This means they understand that their righteous deeds are like filthy rags in the eyes of a Holy God. “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6 (NKJV) I don’t think any passage more powerfully demonstrates how God sees our righteousness and good deeds apart from Christ. Recognize they are completely dependent on God for salvation. This means they understand that their righteousness comes from Christ alone. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV) Even after we’ve been saved our righteousness is never based on us or anything we do. We are righteous only because of Christ. So the first attitude that Jesus wants us to have is an attitude of dependence. We are to be totally dependent on God for our righteousness and our salvation. Jesus gives a promise to those who totally depend on God for their salvation and righteousness. The promise is that theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. What this means to us on a practical level is that their sins are forgiven and they receive eternal life. It is only those who are poor in spirit that truly confess their sins to God and receive the salvation that He offers. These are the ones who stop trusting in their own goodness and cry out that they need Christ. These are the ones that receive forgiveness for their sins, are made new and are given eternal life. Which of the two men displayed an attitude of dependence on God? How did He do this? Which one could be said to receive the promise Jesus gave in Matthew 5:3? Are you poor in spirit? Do you recognize your total dependence on God for salvation and righteousness? If spiritual pride is something you wrestle with, take some time today to confess this to God and ask Him to forgive you for it and help you forsake it.

Art Science Research Laboratory (ASRL), a New York based, not-for-profit organization, is committed to the creation of intellectual environment and advocacy of interdisciplinary study, encompassing the areas of research, collections and publishing. Founded in 1998 by Rhonda Roland Shearer and the late Professor Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002), ASRL provides a unique setting where art historians, scientists, artists, designers, and programmers work together. Everyone is encouraged to contribute ideas, participate in a dynamic environment, and challenge the outdated but still prominent structures of practices in the arts, sciences, and humanities. Our goal is to promote and facilitate a fast, thorough, and efficient global exchange of knowledge in fields ranging from art and science, scholars collective, and journalism ethics, to the cyberBOOK+ system, to generate a network of people sharing knowledge and research methodologies for mutual understanding of cultures and histories. ASRL’s first major project in art-science education focuses on the lifework of the French-American artist, Marcel Duchamp (1887~1968). Duchamp constantly challenged the boundary separating the cultural from the scientific. Throughout his life, he incorporated mathematics, optics and perceptual theory into his art and design work. He presented his viewers with a series of mental games, still relevant today, that impelled them to re-evaluate Intuition, Memory, and the Creative Act. His brain-teasing games of perception and knowledge and the underlying mathematics within his complicated oeuvre lie at the core of ASRL research. In November 5-7, 1999,” The Method of Understanding Art and Science: The Case of Duchamp and Poincare “(the internationally acclaimed symposium examining topics relevant to both Henry Poincare and Duchamp) was held at the Harvard University Science Center. Shortly after the Harvard Symposium, in December 1999, the first electronic journal on Duchamp study, Tout-Fait: The Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal, was launched. Since its inauguration, Tout-Fait has established itself as the accredited asset for scholarly study, recommended by the BBC, the New York Times, the Leonardo Digital Review, and AICA-USA (the United States section of the International Association of Art Critics). Most of all, in the Lab is the largest private collection of works by or related to Duchamp, and an extensive archive of historical ephemera materials, which is accessible, free of charge, to interested scholars, students, and the general public. Ms. Rhonda Roland Shearer, together with London Allen, initiated the WTC Ground Zero Relief Project a day after the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The mission for this project is to work closely, directly and systematically with the WTC recovery staff at Ground Zero and Fresh Kills to expediently identify and provide essential tools, equipment, and health, safety and comfort supplies. Because of the daily participation of volunteers, WTC Ground Zero Relief kept up with the pace of the on-site recovery effort until the effort’s conclusion in July 2002. In keeping with its conviction of the necessity of correct and honest historical documentation, ASRL presents the WTC Living History Project, September 11 2001 History Magazine, and Journalism Ethics Studies, which resulted from Ms. Shearer’s scrutiny of 9/11 literatures and news reports. ASRL introduces methodologies normally practiced by science to help improve the process of creating good journalism. ASRL has recently partnered with Stanford University Library on the creation of the Stephen Jay Gould Archive. Equipped with the state-of-the-art digitalizing technology and knowledge, Stanford University Library will scan and digitize the antiquarian book collection, manuscripts, papers, and ephemeral materials of Professor Gould, making them available online in the Official Stephen Jay Gould Archive.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for May. Overall inflation decelerated after an energy induced sharp increase in April, while core inflation (excluding food and energy) increased slightly. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.6% in May, down from 5.0% in April. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, “core” CPI rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.5%, slightly higher than the 2.4% in April. The price index for a broader set of energy sources rose at an annual rate of 16.0%, slowing from the 50.2% in April. As mentioned in the previous month, headline inflation has been heavily influenced by energy prices since mid-2014. In May, the deceleration in energy prices, as well as declines in food prices, have contributed to the decline in headline inflation. Excluding the volatile food and energy prices, core inflation rose slightly in May, in contrast to headline inflation. Given the volatility of food and energy prices, core inflation is a better indicator of broad based inflation trends. A “real” rent index is constructed to indicate whether inflation in rents is faster or slower than overall inflation. It provides insight into the supply and demand conditions for rental housing. When inflation in rents is rising faster (slower) than overall inflation, the real rent index rises (declines). The real rent index is calculated by dividing the price index for rent by the core CPI (to exclude the volatile food and energy components). After declines during the recession, inflation in real rents accelerated from 2012 to 2014, a period of strong recovery in the multifamily sector, reaching a peak average annual rate of 1.7% in 2014. In 2015, real rent inflation slowed down slightly, averaging 1.6%. In 2016, real rent inflation was averaging 1.3% for the first five months.

Our 3D printed virus ornaments are ready! We are selling these ornaments to raise money for science outreach. We have: Last week, I shared our first few prints on Twitter and they were well received. We had plans to add glitter, but I learned that I should be nowhere near a spray can – and that the viruses look better in their classic original print. How did these happen? A wonderful woman I work with, Jenny McQueen, altered the virus files uploaded to Thingiverse by Dave (username educator). Because all proceeds are going to our science outreach program, everyone has given us permission to use their work – thank you! Every virus ornament is going to come with a festive bit of information. Hepatitis B (HepB) - Attacks the liver and can cause both acute and chronic disease - Transmitted through blood or other bodily fluids - Kills more than 780,000 people every year Source: WHO website – HepB (accessed November, 2014) Human Papillomavirus (HPV) - More than 100 types, at least 13 are cancer-causing - Most common viral infection of the reproductive tract and most sexually active women and men will be infected at some point, with some people re-infected - HPV16 and HPV18 cause 70% of cervical cancers and precancerous cervical lesions - More than 270,000 women die from cervical cancer every year - Vaccines against HPV16 and HPV18 are available Source: WHO website – HPV (accessed November, 2014) Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) - Used in gene therapy trials because it can bring in extra genes as it infects cells - Small virus that can infect humans and other primates, but is not currently known to cause disease Source: Russel DW, Deyle DR (2010). “Adeno- associated virus vector integration”. Current Opinion in Molecular Therapy 11 (4): 442–447 We are also making… - DNA icicles - Cross stitch Science like Christmas ornaments for molecular biologists and others who love looking at small things. - And more…

The Penn Diabetes Research Center (DRC) participates in the nationwide interdisciplinary program established over three decades ago by the NIDDK to foster research in diabetes and related metabolic disorders. The mission of the Penn DRC is to support and develop successful approaches to the prevention, treatment, and cure of diabetes mellitus. Located at and administered by the University of Pennsylvania, the Penn DRC serves over 110 diabetes-oriented investigators, primarily from Penn's Perelman School of Medicine but also from other Schools within the University as well as collaborating Philadelphia institutions including Thomas Jefferson University, Temple University School of Medicine, the Monell Chemical Senses Center, and the Wistar Institute. The Penn DERC is highly interactive and interdisciplinary, representing many basic science and clinical departments. The Research Base of the Penn DRC is organized in 4 focus groups: 1) Beta Cell Physiology and Pathology;2) Signaling by Insulin and Other Hormones;3) Obesity;and 4) Cardiovascular Metabolism and Complications. The Penn DRC facilitates and supports diabetes research in a variety of ways. Six Biomedical Research Cores facilitate the work of Penn DRC investigators: Functional Genomics Core;Islet Cell Biology Core;Mouse Phenotyping, Physiology, and Metabolism Core;Radioimmunoassay/Biomarkers Core;Transgenic and Chimeric Mouse Core;and Viral Vector Core. Collaborative research and application of emerging technologies to diabetes investigation are further promoted by the Regional Metabolomic Core at Princeton. A Pilot and Feasibility Grant Program that has been highly successful for over three decades serves to nurture new investigators and to foster new initiatives in diabetes research. A broad and intensive Enrichment Program organizes weekly Diabetes and Endocrinology Research seminars, special events, and an annual Spring Diabetes Symposium, all designed to enhance communication and collaboration of Penn DRC investigators while keeping them abreast of the latest discoveries. Penn DRC investigators mentor trainees at every level (undergraduate, predoctoral, and post-doctoral Ph.D., M.D., and combined M.D. /Ph.D), and the Enrichment Program provides a superb environment for training in diabetes research. The Biomedical Cores, Pilot and Feasibility Grant Program, and Enrichment Program are coordinated and publicized by an Administrative Component that governs the DRC. Its organizational structure, including the Director and Associate Director, Executive Committee, Committee of Core Directors, and external as well as internal advisory boards, functions to maintain the diabetes-related research at the Penn DRC at the forefront of biomedical science. It is estimated that 25.8 million people in the United States (8.3 percent of the population) currently have diabetes, and the rate is higher among the elderly and Hispanics, Native Americans, and African-Americans. The mission of the Penn Diabetes Research Center is to prevent and cure this devastating disease and its complications through interdisciplinary basic and translational research. |Wang, Yi; Frank, David B; Morley, Michael P et al. (2016) HDAC3-Dependent Epigenetic Pathway Controls Lung Alveolar Epithelial Cell Remodeling and Spreading via miR-17-92 and TGF-β Signaling Regulation. Dev Cell 36:303-15| |Shearin, Abigail L; Monks, Bobby R; Seale, Patrick et al. (2016) Lack of AKT in adipocytes causes severe lipodystrophy. Mol Metab 5:472-9|

The Korea Herald article: "An interim tsunami warning system is operating in the Indian Ocean basin. The Inter-governmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has overseen the installation or upgrading of tide gauges, deep ocean pressure sensors and seismic equipment across the region. This equipment is already transmitting information about climate, tide changes and other scientific data at hourly intervals. "IOC teams have also been sent to several Indian Ocean countries to assess their needs with a view to helping them set up national plans for dealing with such disasters, including public education programs, communications and other vital infrastructure such as evacuation routes, emergency accommodation and medical facilities."

Neuroendocrine differentiation is diffusely seen in this case of prostatic adenocarcinoma. About 50% of the tumor cells have bright eosinophilic granules in their cytoplasm. Majority of such cells stain with antibodies to serotonin and chromogranin. A variety of other neuroendocrine markers have been detected in numerous studies. Although these cells resemble Paneth cells of small intestine, they lack lysozyme activity.

Two separate studies confirm its loss is inevitable and will cause up to four meters of additional sea-level rise. The collapse of the western Antarctic ice sheet is inevitable and is already underway, scientists said on Monday. The melt will cause up to four meters (13 feet) of additional sea-level rise over the coming centuries, devastating low-lying and coastal areas around the world – from Bangladesh to New Jersey – that are already expected to be swamped by only a few feet of sea-level rise. But the researchers said the sea-level rise – while unstoppable – was still several centuries off, potentially up to 1,000 years away. The study, from researchers at the University of Washington, was one of two sets of findings published on Monday projecting the loss of the western Antarctica ice sheet, the largest remaining grounded repositories of ice in the world. Scientists at NASA were also due to publish their research on Antarctic ice on Monday. Both came to broadly similar conclusions – that scientists are now increasingly sure the thinning and melting of the Antarctic ice sheet has begun. They also suggest that recent accumulation of ice in Antarctica was temporary. In the NASA study, to be published in Geophysical Research Letters, researchers studied the retreat of three glaciers in western Antarctica over 20 years including the Thwaites glacier studied by the University of Washington team. The NASA study concluded the grounding lines of the glaciers under study were “inherently unstable”. It added that its observations “concur with recent ice sheet model simulations to indicate that this sector of west Antarctica has developed a marine instability”. In the University of Washington study, which will be published in the journal Science, researchers used detailed topography maps, airborne radar and computer modelling to reach greater certainty about the projected timeline of the ice sheet collapse. The study honed in on the Thwaites glacier – a broad glacier that is part of the Amundsen Sea. Scientists have known for years that the Thwaites glacier is the soft underbelly of the Antarctic ice sheet, and first documented that it was unstable decades ago. The University of Washington researchers said that the fast-moving Thwaites glacier could be lost in a matter of centuries. The loss of that glacier alone would raise global sea level by nearly 2ft. But Thwaites also acts as a dam that holds back the rest of the ice sheet. Once Thwaites goes, researchers said the remaining ice could cause another 10 to 13ft (3-4m) of global sea-level rise. "Many scientists suspected that this kind of behavior is under way," said Ian Joughin, a glaciologist at the University of Washington. "This study provides a more quantitative idea of the rates at which the collapse could take place." However, he cautioned that the “collapse” of the western Antarctic ice sheet would occur over the course of centuries. The fastest scenario is within 200 years – and the collapse could be as far away as 1,000 years, depending on future warming. The loss of the ice sheet, however, is inevitable, and the most likely timeframe was between 200 and 500 years, the scientists said. "Previously, when we saw thinning we didn't necessarily know whether the glacier could slow down later, spontaneously or through some feedback," Joughin said. "In our model simulations it looks like all the feedbacks tend to point toward it actually accelerating over time; there's no real stabilising mechanism we can see." The scientists use new techniques to map the layers of ice down to the continental shelf, and to study the rate of glacier movement. In some areas of Thwaites glacier, where the ice is thinner, the feature has been losing tens of feet in elevation each year. As the ice edge retreats, the ice face becomes steeper and less stable, hastening its rate of collapse. "All of our simulations show it will retreat at less than a millimeter of sea level rise per year for a couple of hundred years, and then, boom, it just starts to really go," Joughin said.

In the 25th session of the World Heritage Committee held December 11-16, 2001, in Helsinki, Finland, the United Nations Organization for Education, Science, and Culture (UNESCO)included on its list of World Heritage Sites Cuba's Parque Nacional Alejandro de Humboldt (PNAH), home to the Caribbean's greatest biodiversity, with the largest number of endemic species, and among the most important in the world with these characteristics. Additionally cited by UNESCO as motivation for the inclusion was the fact that the area is one the region's principal evolutionary centers, a bio-geographical bridge and refuge for Caribbean and American flora and fauna from the Miocene-Pleistocene era (fundamentally the Ice Age), as well as the site of important habitats which support terrestrial and fresh water biodiversity in Cuba, and the development of ecological communities. Alejandro de Humboldt National Park covers 70,680 hectares (706.8 km²) on the eastern end of the island's northern coast, in the Guantánamo municipalities of Baracoa, Yateras, and Manuel Tames, plus two in Holguin: Sagua de Tánamo and Moa. It is composed of four conservation departments or sectors: Baracoa, La Melba, Ojito de Agua, and Cupeyal del Norte, with it's administrative center in Guantánamo. A total of 22 communities are linked to the park, seven of these within its boundaries. The park is Cuba's most important protected area, not only because of its natural wealth and endemic species, but also because found here are the country's remaining, well preserved mountain ecosystems, which form the core of the Cuchillas del Toa Biosphere Reserve. A CUBAN NATURAL LANSCAPE Created in 1996, with the name of the eminent German scientist Alejandro de Humboldt (described by José de la Luz y Caballero as the second discoverer of Cuba) the park is distinguished by its extensive tropical forests and ecosystems, including well preserved, ecologically healthy, marine areas. Experts estimate that it is home to 2% of the planet's plant species, over 900 of which are endemic (a third of all plants found on the entire Cuban archipelago), many of them exclusive to this particular region, and some inhabiting only a few dozen square meters here. Among these endemic botanical jewels are five carnivorous plants; two from the genera Podocarpus and Dracaena, some of the most primitive species in the Plant Kingdom, and one in the Buxus genus, thought to be extinct. Located within the park are 16 of the 28 plant regions present in Cuba, including three types of Cuban rainforest: the low altitude, submontane, and montane; in addition to others like the low altitude cloud forest, the broad and needle leaf evergreen, gallery, spiny scrub, mangrove, and the plant systems existent on the coastline which can be sandy or rocky, and include mogotes. Precisely the combination of mountains with forests, valleys, mesas, clear rushing rivers; along side coral reefs, pocket bays, and keys; as well as springs, lakes, and waterfalls, in the cool, rainy climate typical of the territory, make this national park one of Cuba's most impressive natural landscapes, carefully preserved to protect the delicate ecosystem and the species living there. Its woods serve as a refuge for a great number of endemic species, including both resident and migratory birds, like the endangered cotorra and catey, while its marine ecosystems are home to a significant colony of manatees. Rare species of amphibians, reptiles, and fish are found throughout the area. / Granma The modality on Natural and Traditional medicine (MNT) remains unknown to many people and it is really basic for the asthmatic people and the health filed in general. The local Diotherapy (Diet therapy) is aimed at adjusting the food consumption to keep related healthy habits. It is recommended not to eat animal fat and it is warned its harmful effect to fry several times with it, as well as avoiding the excess of salt. It is also instructed how to prepare salads at the moment of eating so that they do not lose their vitamins and minerals while waiting for them. Moreover, it is also taught that the vegetables have to be cooked with steam given they keep their properties. That discipline warns about the harmful usage of candies and the long fasting which are kept by those ones who want to lose weight. It also explains the benefit about drinking a daily fruit and which are the plants with a therapeutic action to expectorate. They are the local onion, Caña Santa plant and eucalyptus, among other ones. It is surprising to some people the use of the new and little known terms: The Bio architecture is about the influence of the hygienic and decorative conditions of a house on the human psyche given it lighten the mind and fade away the breathlessness sensation that is caused by the overcrowding and the lack of aesthetics, taking into account the fact about avoiding ornamental plants and domestic animals, as well as eliminating the curtains and bookcases from the rooms, besides, it is important to know that it should be swept or shaking woolen cloth (wet ones) in those rooms where there are children and asthmatic people sleeping, and it is especially important to keep an air, clean and vector-free house.

In the confrontation between the Torah, on the one hand, and external negative influences, on the other, there are two possible approaches. One approach chiefly involves banishing the negative, struggling against it, condemning it, declaring it illegitimate, forbidding it and rendering it taboo. Following this approach, it often happens that even positive and essential things as well are swept away, when their whole crime consists of their juxtaposition to those negative things. For some people this approach might be essential. Otherwise they are liable to succumb to sin. Without a doubt there are situations and age-groups for whom this approach Yet there is another approach which instead focuses on the positive. This involves increasing Torah study, learning in greater depth and with such great quality and quantity that negative influences can gain no foothold. There, to a certain extent, even the negative things themselves become good. The positive components within are annexed to the Torah and assist it in its work. In the struggle between Torah and Greek Culture, there were two approaches, that of Bet Shammai and that of Bet Hillel. Bet Shammai said, “Light one less candle each night” (starting the first night with eight), In the same way, with the seventy bulls offered over the course of Succot, representing the seventy nations of the world and their negative culture, one less was sacrificed each day. Bet Hillel, by contrast, “light one more candle each night” (starting the first night with one). They “ascend in holiness.” The more a person ascends in holiness, the more the negative influences are dwarfed. When such a person reaches the pinnacle of holiness, then evil, which is found far below, not only cannot harm him, but portions of that evil join together to assist him in his spiritual ascent. In halachic terms, some say that in this debate there has been no decision in favor of Bet Hillel over Bet Shammai (see Biur Halachah 675), because both approaches have their time and place. Practically speaking, however, Bet Hillel’s approach has been accepted. Yet those who apply this approach in our spiritual and cultural lives as well have to realize that only diligence in Torah learning, increased Torah learning, delving deeply in Torah learning, expanding the tents of Torah in both quantity and quality, can guarantee that indeed the inner positive content will not be harmed by negative influences, but will, in fact, influence and radiate outward as well. Those engaged in science, in secular fields, in culture and the arts, must be rooted in Torah. In fact, it is more important for those people to study Torah in depth than it is for those who have cut themselves off from all outside influences. The number of people studying Torah, their quality and their level, has to be many times greater among the public that has decided to follow this path, than amongst those who have cut themselves off from mundane activities and from the general life of the community. The former group have to be exceedingly careful not to be attracted by every new style and every negative phenomenon which secular life produces in such abundance. There is just one piece of advice for them: They must magnify the Torah and make it glorious. Darkness cannot be chased away with sticks, nor can evil be banished just by talking bad about it. Only by increasing light can we banish the darkness. As Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook said (Erpalei Tohar 39): Do not complain about wickedness, but increase righteousness. Do not complain about heresy, but increase faith. Do not complain about ignorance, but increase wisdom.”

The Combined Pill This pill contains oestrogen and progestogen. It is >99% effective when used correctly. The combined pill works via the prevention of ovulation, thickening the mucus plug and reducing implantation in a thinner uterine lining. Types of combined pills include Micogynon. Effects of the combined pill include: - Reduces or prevents dysmenorrhoea - Reduces PMT - Reduces risk of ovarian, endometrial and colon cancers - Reduces the risk of pelvic inflammatory disease - Helps in treating/preventing acne - Reduces the risk of fibroids/cysts - Nausea and vomiting - Breast tenderness - Fluid retention - Mood changes - Increased risk of thromboembolism Absolute contraindications of the combined pill include: - Past medical history of thrombosis - Past medical history of heart or liver disease - Blood pressure of > 160/95 - Age >50 - Age >35 + smoker - Smoker of > 40 cigarettes daily Other avoidances include at least 2 of: - Family history of thromboembolism Advice on taking the combined pill should include taking 21 pills and one week off. The lady should start on the first day of her period, and if one pill is missed, barrier contraception should be used for seven days. The Progesterone-only Pill This pill is 99% effective, and usually administered when the combined pill is contraindicated such as when the patient has a history of hypertension or previous DVT/PE. Examples of the POP include Cerazette. The POP thickens the mucus plug, thins the lining of the uterus and, in high doses, may prevent ovulation. - Dysfunctional bleeding - this is true of all progesterone only contraception - Breast tenderness - Increased risk of ectopic pregnancy (note: this is compared to the COC, as there is a reduced rate of pregnancy in general than without pill) - Increased risk of ovarian cysts Contraindications include previous cysts, ectopic pregnancies, and breast cancer. Advice on taking the progesterone only pill should include taking the pill continuously for 28 days at the same time each day. If patient <25 years or has >1 partner over last year, then you should offer swabs for STIs before inserting coils. 1:20 chance of coming out spontaneously, and 1:1000 chance of perforating the uterus. Inter Uterine System (Hormonal) The mirena coil is a progesterone-only contraceptive that releases levonogestrel directly into the uterine cavity. The mirena coil is recommended for contraception for women with heavy periods, as it treats menorrhagia after 3–6 months. The IUS also prevents endometrial hyperplasia. The mirena coil works by reducing the proliferation of the endometrium, thickening cervical mucus and preventing ovulation. Advantages (over copper IUD) - Decreases the risk of pelvic inflammatory disease - Decreases the risk of dysmenorrhoea - Reduces periods and decreases the risks associated with blood loss - Avoid five years following breast cancer - Mood swings - Increased risk of ectopic pregnancy if pregnancy already present. Inter Uterine Device (Copper) The mechanism of the copper IUD is not fully understood. It is believed that it induces a prolonged inflammatory state, which in turn reduces the chance of implantation. Furthermore it is believed that copper is toxic to sperm. Risks associated with copper IUD include an increased risk of ectopic pregnancy, and an increased risk of pelvic inflammatory disease. Moreover, side effects can include longer and heavier periods . These side effects can be treated with tranexamic acid, an antifibrinolytic, or mefanemic acid, an NSAID. - Implant – lasts for 3 years, progesterone only - Depo injection – lasts 3 months, progesterone only - Nuvaring -ring inserted into vagina which releases combined hormones, 3 weeks in 1 week out - Morning after pill - emergency contraception, can be used 72–120 hours after sex - Male or female condoms - the only way to prevent STIs - Patch - releases combined hormones) - Male or female sterilisation - Natural family planning - withdrawal (not recommended as very ineffective and frankly impractical) or rhythm method (can be effective if done accurately) If someone has intramenstrual bleeding on hormonal contraception check for the following things: - Disease – chlamydia or cervical cancer - Default bleeding– missed pill - Drugs – enzyme inducing ABX (e.g. rifampicin) - Disorders of pregnancy – miscarriage - Duration – if short duration, could be pregnancy, light bleeding common at start of pregnancy as zygote attaches to endometrial lining - D+V – therefore missed pills and returning to default - Dose – irregular bleeding can be common in lose dose pills In many of these situations the intramenstrual bleeding is due to pills being ‘missed’ and the menstrual cycle returning to the body’s own rhythm. Therefore these things will also make the contraception ineffective and barrier methods (such as condoms) should be used, in conjunction with the hormonal method, to avoid unwanted pregnancies. These are the criteria for prescribing contraception to under 16s. If under 12s disclose any sexual activity, however, it must be reported to social services. The criteria to prescribe contraception is that the patient must: - Demonstrate that they understand the advice they are given - Continue to, or start, having sex regardless of whether they get contraception - Have their mental or physical well-being suffer without contraception

No parent wants to lead his child to failure; we all want our children to succeed, to be happy, and to lead balanced & healthy lives. A recent study published in the May 2012 Journal of Physiology showed that over consumption of food with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) slows brain function and hinders memory and learning abilities. The findings are no surprising, what you eat affects how you think! High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) affects children’s memory as well as adult’s memory. No excuses here. Previous studies showed that HFCS increases the risk for type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart diseases, and allergies. HFCS can’t be used as body’s fuel; most of the HFCS eaten gets turned into triglycerides by the liver and stored in the liver or fat cells. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an average American consumes 40 and 60 pounds of HFCS every year. We have to distinguish between the natural fructose and the high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) which is added to most commercial foods, sweeteners, and preservatives. Fructose is a simple sugar that occurs naturally in foods. It gives fruits their sweet taste. It also contains antioxidants and vitamins which we want to consume. Most fruit contains mostly glucose, not fructose. And our bodies can absorb fructose from fruits. This is one of the reasons why it doesn’t spike blood glucose levels or trigger insulin which eventually harms our memory. Many processed foods, commercially prepared and commercially baked foods contain high levels of HFCS. Products like ketchup, soups, topping, sauces, sweet pickles, frozen foods, boxed breakfast cereals, salad dressing, canned foods, boxed dinners, breads, crackers, pies, dried fruits and vegetables, energy bar (yes, even energy bars!), yogurt, soft drinks and fruit drinks may contain large amounts of HFCS. The best advice for you is: - Read labels - Choose products with low HFCS level & if possible HFCS-free products. Eat local, fresh & organic foods to support your health Now it’s the season of this great starchy vegetable. Great source of fibers and proteins. Can be added to salads, served as a side dish and just eaten like cooked Edamame. – 1 lb. fresh organic cranberry beans in their pods – Cook cranberry beans in a large pot of water. – Bring to a simmer, cover, reduce heat to low, and cook for 30 min. or until beans are tender. – Peel the pods, sprinkle with Himalayan salt, relax and enjoy snaking it.

Being holy doesn’t mean that our lives are perfect, serene or easy. It means that no matter what’s going on, we love one another and try to help one another be our best. by Jen Schlameuss-Perry I have always loved that on the day the Church celebrates the Holy Family—Jesus, Mary and Joseph—the Gospel is the story of when Jesus went missing. It’s a great story because it shows the care and concern that parents have for their children, the challenge that is parenthood and the real point of family life—to help one another to fulfill our destinies; to become what we are called to be. The Holy Family does this with mutual love, respect and patience. Mary and Joseph were truly scared when they couldn’t find Jesus. Mary said, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” They didn’t understand what he meant when he replied,“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”, but they loved and cared for him all the same. Even though he was God, he “was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.” This shows us a little glimpse into the Holy Family’s life—it wasn’t easy. It was a struggle. The Holy Family was poor, insignificant and real. This story is the last time we hear about Joseph—he may have passed away shortly after this, for all we know. Family life is not always easy—but when we trust in God and live God’s plan for us, it can make us more holy. Break Open the Word with Your Family Do you know what the word “holy” means? If not, ask your parents. What are some ways that your family is holy? How are you holy? When Jesus was twelve, he had a situation with his parents—and probably not the only one—where they didn’t get him. Do you ever feel like that? What was their conversation like when Mary and Joseph found Jesus? What kind of a conversation would you like to have with your parents when they don’t “get” you? What is your favorite thing about living in your family? What things do you “ponder in your heart”? How can you help to make yours a holy family? A little lectio The ancient practice of prayerfully reflecting on bits of Scripture is known as lectio divina. Want to try it out with your family? Head over to Lectio Divina for Kids to find out how to adapt this prayer practice for your kids. A little Bible study Want to do a little Bible study with your kids? Here are some tips: - During Ordinary Time, the Church pairs the Old Testament and New Testament readings in a way that each sheds light on the other. Ask your kids to look for the common theme connecting the two readings. (Sometimes it’s obvious, sometimes it is subtle.) How does the “dialogue” between the readings help you understand them better? - Get a New American Bible, Revised Edition, and take a look at the footnotes for these readings. How do they change your understanding of what is going on? - Take a look at the context for the readings—what happens before, or after? - Read the NABRE’s introduction to the book of the Bible that the readings are taken from. How does that help you understand the readings? - If you don’t have a copy of the NABRE at home, you can view it online at the USCCB website at the Daily Readings web page. (The link will take you to today’s reading; click forward or backward on the dates to get to Sunday’s readings.)

Learn about the symptoms and causes of urinary incontinence or urge incontinence. - Urinary Incontinence The symptoms and causes of urinary incontinence or urge incontinence. - Erectile Dysfunction Facts about erectile dysfunction (ED), including causes. - Hysterectomy Why a hysterectomy is performed and different surgeries available. - Contraceptive Implants Facts about contraceptive implants; how they work, benefits & risks. - Overactive Bladder Facts about overactive bladder (OAB): risk factors, symptoms & causes. - Prostate Cancer Get the facts about prostate cancer, including the different types.

Why is rebranding important and needed? There are three main reasons which you may have already read in my earlier post. - Loss of industry – In the 1980s, Asia grew in manufacturing goods and resources. Hence, importing goods from overseas became so cheap that firms stopped buying goods and resources from the UK and switched to imports. This meant that people who were trained and working in the primary and secondary sector lost their jobs as firms could not compete with import prices. - Population change – This meant that people started emigrating to other part of the country in search of jobs for which they had skills. The state of the economy changed because economy was now made up of majority of service sector and many people did not have the skills to deal with these jobs. - The spiral of decline – This is the negative multiplier effect. People emigrating, business declining and a lack of jobs meant that even if a business did start up as people did not jobs they did not have the money to spend on it hence the new business would suffer to. This would carry on into a negative multiplier circle So what about East London, Cornwall and Manchester? London Docklands used to be one of the largest docks in London. However, they had to shut which lead to the deprivation of the area. They had to shut because ships increased in size and they needed deeper water which the docks could not provide. So Tilbury 20 miles downstream and Felixstowe 70 miles away was better adapted to larger ships and commerce moved to those places leaving the original docks deprived and derelict. Why did Cornwall need rebranding? Cornwall is peripheral town in the South West of England. Due to lack of access and cheaper abroad holidays the number of visitors has been declining in Cornwall. Seasonal tourism is what is prevalent in Cornwall and this means that many business suffer. Also, as with the docklands many primary sectors jobs especially farmers lost there job because importing agricultural goods become cheaper. The end result was that the negative multiplier effect took place and Cornwall became deprived. Why did Manchester need rebranding Manchester had a negatively perceived image because of the decline in textile and mill factories which led to the spiral of decline just like in the Docks.It led to gun crime and violence, giving Manchester the name ‘Gunchester’. To put the icing on the cake, Manchester was bombed by the IRA making the rebranding process a necessity. So why is rebranding important? Rebranding is important because it makes derelict landscapes dynamic and vibrant again. The main thing is that it is tried and tested method of increasing quality of life for local residents.

Check Your Goals… Hanging around the worlds of education over the past 10+ years I’ve come to the conclusion that our goals are simply not powerful enough. To be more accurate, they really aren’t goals at all. They’re more like objectives, or maybe targets. Moving up in rankings is not a goal. Achieving some threshold on a set of assessments is not a goal, nor is obtaining a desired pass rate. While there is nothing wrong with these activities, and in fact they can be significant steps forward, they need to be framed within larger and more meaningful aspirations in order to be impactful. When thinking about goals I like to employ the “necessary and sufficient” rule that was first introduced to me in graduate school, when we were studying human reasoning and problem solving. We learned that certain concepts that are highly logical and well defined can be described by a set of conditions that are both individually necessary and collectively sufficient to define that concept. Take a square for example. If you know that a shape has 4 right angles and 4 equal sides that are all connected, you know that it must be a square. There is no ambiguity. Clearly, few problems in life are so logical or well defined that they can be reduced to a set of necessary and sufficient conditions. Yet I find helpful in setting and evaluating goals. Once you have a working set of goals consider immersing yourself in a game of logic to help refine and test them. To test the sufficiency condition, ask yourself, “could I possibly achieve my vision without successfully completing this goal? If the answer is yes, then your “goal” is not actually a goal, but probably an objective or some lower level activity that might be helpful but not essential. So keep trying, going progressively “higher” until you find one that is critical. To test the sufficiency condition imagine that your “goal” is successfully met to the highest possible degree and then ask yourself whether that success would result in meaningful change with regard to your overall vision. Why is it important to make sure our goals are both necessary and sufficient? Well, the undeniable truth is that the complexities of the challenges we face today- especially in education- can only be addressed through powerful and clearly articulated visions and corresponding goals that can be translated into action. If we continue to invest our resources and energies (both individually and collectively) working toward goals that aren’t even goals, then we will never get unstuck and actualize the potential of our greatest natural resources – human capital.

You are here Wearing latex gloves, a man applies a large cotton swab to the steps of a central Paris metro station before sealing it in a plastic tube. Although similar to a scene from the television show CSI, no one is tracking down a dangerous criminal. The aim of the operation, repeated several times throughout the day of June 21, 2016, at the entrances of several Paris metro stations, was strictly scientific: to identify the microorganisms that have taken up residence in this suburban environment. This unprecedented study is part of an international consortium framework dubbed MetaSUB.1 The project, which will be used to create microbial maps of the underground transit networks of the world’s largest cities, already includes 53 international megalopolises including New York, London, São Paulo, Tokyo, Berlin and Shanghai. The study in the French capital will be supervised by Hugues Richard and Ingrid Lafontaine, of the LCQB2 at the IBPS.3 “Using high throughput sequencing of the DNA samples collected on the steps of the metro, we will learn a bit more about the microbial diversity in this relatively unexplored environment,” says Alessandra Carbone, computer science professor of at the UPMC and director of LCQB. Largely unknown bacteria To successfully complete this ambitious investigative project, the consortium’s scientific teams are using metagenomics. At the intersection of genetics, ecology and data processing, this powerful genetic analytical method makes it possible to draw up a practically exhaustive list of the microbial species living in a given environment. “By comparing all the bacterial DNA fragments from one environment with those of species that are already categorized, metagenomics not only reveals the metabolic functions of a given community of micro-organisms, but also enables partial genome reconstruction of hitherto unknown bacterial species,” explains Carbone. Judging by the results of the pilot campaign conducted in the New York underground between 2013 and 2015, the outcome appears very promising for the dozen other cities included in the project. Following an 18-month campaign spent sampling 468 stations and innumerable trains that crisscross one of the world’s largest metropolitan transportation networks, scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College were able to identify 562 bacterial species among the 15,000 DNA samples collected. Another highly surprising finding was that half of the samples did not belong to any species of microorganism classified to date. Although decoding this plethora of unknown genetic sequences may be extremely laborious, members of the MetaSUB project will nevertheless save enormous amounts of time using the approach developed by Carbone’s team. This highly precise analytical method based on the annotation of protein domains allows faster characterization of the functional activities of microbial communities. “To better discriminate between the different gene sequences of entirely new bacteria, our process uses information contained in the DNA sequences of known organisms throughout the entire tree of life,” says the researcher. In each metropolitan underground transport network, MetaSUB also aims to better determine the organization and functioning of this impenetrable microcosm made up of bacterial populations. To this end, the consortium will be taking samples at regular intervals over five years in the subway stations and trains of the various cities involved. By doing this, the researchers hope to understand the effects of seasons and of certain climatic events on microbial community structures within underground transport networks. “The year when a subway station was built, its depth and its humidity levels are all factors likely to affect this bacterial diversity,” stresses Carbone. “For example, in one New York underground station flooded in November 2012 during Hurricane Sandy, our US colleagues were able to identify 10 species of bacteria that normally dwell in marine environments.” New therapeutic strategies on the horizon In Paris, the LCQB is waiting for the regional transport authority, RATP, to greenlight initial sampling operations within its network, rather than just at station entrances. Once authorizations have been granted for each of the 16 Paris metro lines, tens of computer and biology students at the UPMC involved in the MetaSUB project will be able to collect bacterial samples from both platforms and trains within the metro. “By involving our students in a participatory science project like this one, we are preparing them for the type of biology and ecology problems set to emerge in the coming decades,” enthuses Carbone. Airborne bacteria will also be captured by means of filters in the ventilation systems. By crosschecking all of these data with specific characteristics for each station (cleaning dates, daily passenger traffic, air quality data, etc.), scientists hope to be establish links between the composition of underground bacterial populations and the presence of atmospheric pollutants and allergenic substances. In particular, such analyses could help improve our understanding of how pollution impacts the health of the city’s inhabitants. Ultimately, this unprecedented collection of information should enable the identification of new biosynthetic pathways in bacteria. This could provide an opportunity to discover new medicines or new antibiotic-resistant genes.

Keeping the little ones entertained this half term can easily become an expensive business – but it doesn't have to be that way. "Our research found that last half term parents planned to spend £276 per child, including toys, treats and the latest gadgets to keep children entertained," said American Express director Jenny Cheung. "Big ticket" purchases such as Alton Towers or Legoland could make a big dent in the family finances - with days out costing £74 a child according to American Express figures - but there are plenty of options which won't break the bank. "The half-term break is great for spending some quality time with your children," said Anita Naik, lifestyle editor from VoucherCodes.co.uk and mother of two. "But activities and day trips could leave a big hole in your wallet. With a bit of pre-planning, it's easy to keep costs down – and even do things for free." Here we take a closer look. Explore a museum There are more than 180 museums spread across the UK which you can visit completely for free. Many will also run extra free events over the school holidays, so it's worth checking their websites to see what's on offer. Why not try the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool, the Science Museum in London, or the Scottish National Gallery, all of which have an extensive schedule of events, talks and activities throughout the year – including February half-term. And remember to pack a picnic to make the day even cheaper. For an extensive list of free options, visit Moneysavingexpert.com/deals/free-museums-and-art-galleries . A simple way to find free family events is by heading to VisitEngland.com and using the filters to select "family" and "free." Your search should return almost 40 results nationwide, including "becoming a butterfly expert" at the tropical paradise at the Cumberland House Natural History Museum in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and outdoor fun at Bath's Skyline woodland play area in Somerset. Head to a festival During February half-term, York holds a celebration of its Viking heritage where children can play with Viking toys and games, and enjoy singing and story-telling events. Visit jorvik-viking-festival.co.uk . From February 11, Blackpool hosts a four-day festival of circus, magic and live performance called Showzam, Visitblackpool.com/showzam/ . For each of these festivals there are both free and ticketed events. Even if the weather is a bit wet and windy during the school break, it's still worth heading outdoors. "Why not organise a game of 'treasure hunt bingo' where you write down certain flowers or items in the garden or park or local woods, and get your little ones to find them," said Jody Leggett from Bargainbuysforbusymums.co.uk . "There's also a wide range of totally free activities for children aged from toddler to six-plus years available on the Woodland Trust website, including a mini-beast hunt and giant-nest build from sticks." Get down with the donkeys You can get free entry to the Donkey Sanctuary at Sidmouth in Devon not only during half-term, but all-year round. This site has more than 500 donkeys, farm trails, a maze and play centre. While the Devon location is the main site, there are also donkey sanctuaries in Birmingham, Derbyshire, Manchester, Leeds and Belfast, all of which are free, too (although donations are welcome). Take a trip down the high street Manchester Evening News It's worth checking out what's on offer on your local high-street stores, as some offer dedicated events for children. For example, Pets at Home runs free workshops for little ones at stores where they can pet animals and learn about how to care for them. Visit . Dobbies Garden Centres run the Little Seedlings Club, a free-to-join gardening club where youngsters between four and 10 can learn about plants, wildlife and the environment, visit Dobbies.com/events/little-seedlings/ . Elsewhere, Waterstones often runs author talks and story-time sessions from child novelists. Visit Waterstones.com/events . Sign up for a free skateboard lesson Skateboard fanatics and BMX lovers can enjoy a free two-hour session in London at the Skateboard School in Waterloo. Visit houseofvanslondon.com/book-skate-session . Bag a free cinema ticket If you fancy seeing a film for free at the end of half term, you can do so by signing up to cashback site Topcashback.co.uk . From February 17 until February 26, the site is offering a free cinema ticket worth up to £10 to all new members. Some of the top family films at the moment include The Lego Batman movie, Storks, and Disney favourite, Monna. For more information visit TopCashback.co.uk/snapandsave . Arrange a movie night Equally, rather than fork out on cinema tickets, why not arrange your own movie night at home for your little ones and their friends? Arrange sofas and bean bags with lots of cushions and blankets and settle down in front of a family favourite. You could even get crafty and make your own ticket-shaped invites and bake some treats – or make some popcorn for your guests," said Naik. Play make-believe games Why not create an imaginary world out of things you have lying around at home? "There's nothing more magical than creating a den out of sheets, pegs, chairs, cushion stacks or a big cardboard box," said David Pugh from finance site, Lemonade Money . "You and your little ones can then concentrate on sailing seas, conquering kingdoms, and rescuing princesses." Set-up some simple science experiments Alternatively, satisfy your children's curiosity by doing home-made science experiments. "Make a tornado in a plastic bottle using just water, glitter and washing-up liquid, or create a fizzy drink geyser. There are tonnes of ideas on YouTube, and you don't have to purchase any kit," Pugh added. The Berry Company You might not know it, but February 17 is a day devoted to doing good deeds for other people. Naik said: "This is a great opportunity to get the children involved and to do something for your local community. You could, for example, donate old toys to a local charity shop, send a letter or drawing to an old friend or relative, pick up rubbish at a local park, or make a 'thank you' card for someone who deserves it, such as a teacher, librarian – or even the postman."

WEST VALLEY CITY The largest metropolitan landholding by a single owner in the United States lies mostly undeveloped along the Salt Lake Valley's west bench, and its owners now have a final plan for what they want to do with it. The last of four summits was held Wednesday at the E Center to develop a master plan for the 75,000 acres of Salt Lake County land owned by the Kennecott Land Co. along the Oquirrh foothills. Planner Peter Calthorpe of Calthorpe Associates, the company designing Kennecott Land's plan, unveiled the company's updated vision, which would include all sizes of commercial and retail centers, housing from dense urban centers to spread-out foothill neighborhoods, a university campus, parks, community centers and possibly a ski resort. It would all be tied together by a "transit spine," ultimately connecting current light-rail lines to a new north-south line running the length of the west bench development, from the Davis County line to the Utah County line. And, one day, the area is expected to be home to a half-million new Wasatch Front residents. "We trusted that you'd help us make the plan better and you did," Kennecott Land vice president for long-range planning Jim Schulte told summit participants Wednesday. The summits have been part of Kennecott Land's unique planning process. Typically, developers and landowners develop an idea of what they want their land to become, plotting out subdivisions and strip malls and industrial sites. Then, they approach city and county governments seeking zoning changes and permits. But Kennecott Land, through the Salt Lake County Council of Governments, has been working with stakeholders from city and county leaders and planners to public utilities to environmentalists to regional planning groups to create a collaborative master plan first. The first summit, held in September, introduced the participants to Kennecott's ideas for the land walkable communities built on environmentally sound principles focusing on diverse housing and well-planned commercial development and gathered preliminary input. A draft of the plan was presented in October, and a few weeks later, participants gathered again to give their detailed feedback. That feedback led to the final plan presented Wednesday. Calthorpe incorporated more east-west transportation, plotted out locations for parks, schools and trails and made other changes based on the suggestions. The plan calls for an urban center off I-80 north of Magna. From that center, transit and roads would flow toward Kennecott Land's Daybreak community, already under construction in South Jordan. Along that spine would lie smaller clusters of development "town centers," "village centers" and "neighborhood centers." Most of the development would be centered there, a corridor meandering roughly along an 8400 West alignment. Farther west, most of the land would remain undeveloped it's too steep, too fragile, too wild. There would be a few foothill developments, including a possible ski resort town called Soldier Flats. Other place names in the plan include Little Valley near Magna and Barney's Canyon west of West Jordan. Whether these places would be unincorporated townships, annexed into existing cities, or one day become cities of their own remains to be seen. But county planning director Jeff Daugherty said the county's goal is to keep the planning flexible enough to fit any future jurisdictions. And it is the county that now holds the reins. County Mayor Peter Corroon said, "This is the end, but the beginning of a new chapter in the process."Now, the county will begin working toward adoption of the general planning principles and then the physical plan itself. Already county staff is working on creating a "community zone" that could be applied to parts of the land. Tentative plans call for a public open house in March to gather input. In April, county officials expect to meet with residents and community leaders in Magna and Copperton, and Daugherty hopes the County Council will have adopted a final plan by summer 2006.

Main Temple Complex The temple complex The temple complex consists of the Temple 1 (main temple complex), Temple 2 (Mayadevi Temple), Temple 3 (Vaishnava Temple) and many other subsidiary structures like the gateway, well, kitchen, enclosure wall, etc. Temple 1 (Main temple complex) As described above, the entire temple was conceived as a huge and colossal chariot drawn by seven horses (three on the northern side and four on the southern side) over twelve pairs of stone wheels. The twelve wheels may symbolise the twelve months of the year. Immediately below the platform and the bada is noticed an upana, which is a ledge-like projection and treated with decorations in friezes. The friezes are decorated with various themes, and the most recurring one is the elephant. The elephant motif is in various attitudes – elephants in defile, uprooting trees and branches, consuming the uprooted ones, feeding the younger ones, giving birth, fondling the younger ones and mates, etc. The next motif which dominates the upana is the military marches and processions. The procession consists of elephants, cavalry and infantry. The hunting of animals is also another theme that is depicted in the upana portion. Very often the king himself is shown hunting a boar or a deer and rarely a lion. The other themes that can be noticed are of the caravan scenes, pulling of a long rope by athletes, armed prince on a horseback, etc. The depiction of giraffe on the south side of the upana is an interesting and noteworthy one. The bada or the platform of the temple is also richly sculpted and decorated in various bands. The bada portion of the temple measures nearly 4 m in height. The lower portion of the bada is further sub-divided into several bands that are depicted with various motifs like lotus petals, beaded pendants, creeper in foils and flowers, leaves and different animals. The bada portion also consists of several upright slabs and in between these slabs are niches many of them decorated with beautifully sculpted kanyas (damsels) in various moods and attitudes. They are shown as wringing water from the wet hair, standing nearby a half-opened door, standing underneath a tree, holding a branch of a tree, caressing a pet bird, making toilet, simply in a standing pose, playing musical instruments, etc. The upright slabs are also decorated with motifs like a rampant vyala (a leonine figure on an elephant), erotic and amorous figures, nagas or nagis, each with human bust, a multi-hooded canopy and the tail of a serpent coiling round a pillar, beautifully depicted kanyas, miscellaneous figures, etc. The wheels as already stated above, shown along the northern and southern walls of the platform holding the pidha and rekha deuls are another specimen of exquisite and skilful decoration of the Orissan sculptural art. Each wheel consists of a central hub and sixteen spokes, out of which eight are broad and eight thin. The hub and spokes are intricately decorated and sculpted with various figures and motifs. The spokes of the wheels are also sculpted in such a way that they broaden at the centre like that of a diamond and are thinner at the ends. The spokes are minutely carved with motifs like scroll-work, floral motifs, creepers and foliate, beaded strings and stylised chaitya windows. The central portion of the spokes which resemble a diamond is also relieved with various deities like Isana, Isani, Surya, Vishnu and his incarnations), erotic and amorous figures, kanyas in various poses, a nobleman with a man standing with folded hands, a princely cavalier, man playing on cymbals, a boar hunting scene, elephant riders, hunting scenes, etc. The axle of the wheel also contain deities like a god with a goddess, Gajalakshmi, Krishna playing flute, gopis and cows, Narasimha, king on an elephant, etc. The mouldings of the pidha deul are also richly decorated with various sculptures and motifs. The bada portion of the pidha deul consists of several mouldings known as pabhaga, lower jangha, bandana, upper jangha and veranda, which in turn are sub-divided into several minor mouldings and richly decorated. The depiction of beautifully sculpted navagriha panes is noticed on the architrave portion of the pidha. The grihas which are depicted include that of Surya (Sun), Chandra (Moon), Mangala (Mars), Budha (Mercury), Brihaspati (Jupiter), Sukra (Venus) and Sani (Saturn). The Rahu and Ketu are also depicted nearby. Among the doorframes, the eastern one is well preserved and nearly complete. The northern doorframe is also partially preserved. These doorframes were carved out of the high quality chlorite stones. The doorframes are another excellent specimen of decorative art. The doorjamb is divided into eight divisions. The base of the each facet or division consists of a sculptural motif, starting from the innermost, are a demonish figure, standing naga, two kinnaras (half animal and half human), a female, a male and a man with cows. The remaining portion on the three faces of the jamb is decorated with low relief sculptural decorations like foliated leaves, double coil of a hooded naga couple, succession of miniature pavilions with vajra-mundis containing figures, a motif with frolicking boys shown on a meandering creeper, vertical series of dwarf pilasters, succession of pavilions with erotic or amorous figures and sapuria (a motif containing fruits resembling pineapples). As mentioned above, the entire gandi with the upper portion of the bada of the rekha deul has collapsed long time ago. However, the curvilinear shape of the sikhara could be gleaned out from the extant remains. The evidence of pabhaga, lower jangha, bandhana, upper jangha, veranda, gandi, etc could be discernible here. The lower jangha had provision for the housing of dikpalas, three of them are at present placed in the Konarak Museum, namely, the Agni, Yama and Nirruti, while the sculpture of Isana is now preserved in the National Museum, New Delhi. Several sculptures that might have originally adorned the rekha deul were also found in a clearance operation in 1906-07. These sculptures consist of one of the Adityas, worship of Jagannatha, Mahishasuramardini and linga, a marriage scene, King Narasimha in the company of priestly figures, King Narasimha on a swing, King Narasimha practising archery and a teacher discoursing to his pupils. The depiction of parsva-devatas, representing Surya could be seen on the lower jangha at the south, west and north raha portions. The depiction of Surya on the southern niche is over a saptaratha chariot drawn by seven horses, the charioteer Aruna is also depicted. The god Surya is shown depicted with all the paraphernalia including kinnaras, his four wives namely Rajni, Nikshubha, Chhaya and Suvarchasa. Usha and Pratyusha the two divinities are also shown who represent dispelling darkness by shooting arrows. A modern flight of steps along the northern face of the niche containing the western parsva-devata leads into the sanctum sanctorum. The sanctum contains a richly and lavishly decorated chlorite stone platform which could have once supported the presiding deity of the temple. The pedestal was found empty when it was first cleared off the debris. The Madala-panji mentions that the image was removed to the precincts of the temple of Jagannatha. The doorframe of the sanctum is also richly decorated as that of the eastern doorframe of the pidha deul. The porch has staircases on its three sides and once it was originally guarded by a pair of colossi, two lions, each rampant on a crouching elephant, on the east, and two elephants on the north and south. To the front of the eastern staircase of the porch, once stood the free-standing chlorite pillar, the dhvaja-stambha, with Aruna, the charioteer of Surya as the crowning element. The Aruna-stambha could be seen now in front of the main gate of the Jagannatha temple at Puri.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is facing criticism for its cigarette and tobacco control proposals at an upcoming November conference. WHO is considering an excise tax of up to 70 percent on cigarettes as well as new restrictions on electronic cigarettes that do not contain tobacco. As previously reported by the Free Beacon, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control indicated it might put a cigarette tax on the table at its November 12-17 conference in Seoul, Korea. WHO says the taxes could raise more than $5 billion in funds for world health efforts. However, critics of the tax increases say they would be regressive and lead to an increase in black market and counterfeit cigarettes. The proposed taxes also raise issues of national sovereignty. Additionally, the November conference will consider action on electronic cigarettes, which vaporize nicotine instead of burning tobacco. "Furthermore, under Article 13.2, Parties have an obligation to undertake a comprehensive ban of all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship," WHO wrote in a June report on electronic cigarettes. "‘Tobacco advertising and promotion’ is defined in Article 1(c) as ‘any form of commercial communication, recommendation or action with the aim, effect or likely effect of promoting a tobacco product or tobacco use either directly or indirectly.’ Therefore, Parties may also wish to consider whether the sale, advertising, and even the use of electronic cigarettes can be considered as promoting tobacco use, either directly or indirectly. Regardless of whether or not ENDS contain nicotine or tobacco extracts, they are used to mimic smoking, which could be considered as a [direct or indirect] promotion of tobacco use." However, critics of the proposal say the actions against electronic cigarettes would be counterproductive since the devices are safer than conventional cigarettes. Michael Siegel, a professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health who focuses on tobacco control, said that discouraging electronic cigarettes would only protect big tobacco companies. Siegel called the potential regulation of e-cigarettes "a dream come true" for tobacco companies in an interview with the Free Beacon. "Unfortunately, I think a lot of the WHO’s actions are concerned with protecting the tobacco market in these countries from competition and much safer products," Siegel said. "What it really comes down to is that the WHO simply cannot tolerate the fact that something which looks like smoking could possibly be a good thing, even if it is saving thousands of lives," Siegel wrote on his blog. "And so once again, it becomes clear that the WHO’s primary concern is not health, but ideology." U.S. Free market tax policy analysts have also derided the tax proposals. "First we had doctors without borders," David Williams, president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, told the Free Beacon. "Now you could have taxes without borders." Criticism from international tobacco farmers has also mounted as the conference approaches. The Daily Times of Pakistan reports: "Though it is being proposed to increase tax on tobacco, the increase would be self-defeating, as it would lead to an explosion in illicit trade in tobacco products, resulting in a decline in tax revenues and an increase in youth smoking," said Ahsan Ullah Khan, President Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI). The illicit and counterfeit cigarettes have already outgrown the legal industry in Pakistan that only last year contributed a whopping Rs 58 billion in lieu of certain taxes. Sale of smuggled cigarettes in 2011 increased by 65 percent, going from 1,018 million to 1,685 million alone while the overall illicit trade increased by 10 percent going from 18.7 percent to 20.6 percent of the market revenues. WHO has also been advocating for higher tobacco taxes in Cambodia. "The increase of the price of tobacco by national authorities through higher excise taxes is the single most effective way to encourage tobacco users to quit and prevent children from starting to smoke. In addition, it increases the revenue of governments without increasing illicit trade of tobacco," said the WHO’s Tarik Jasarevic.

Making plans credible - In spite of a long history of development planning, results have consistently fallen short of forecasts Oct 28, 2016-Despite a long budgeting and planning experience, Nepal’s development outcomes have been inadequate, which is reflected in massive unemployment and a large population below the poverty line. The 2016 per capita income is the second lowest among Asian countries. During the last two decades, the average growth rate has been the lowest among the member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc). The deviation between projections and actuals with respect to economic aggregates has become wider. Efforts to expedite investment-led socio-economic transformation has failed as shown by the actual ratio of the government’s gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) as a percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), which averaged 18.6 percent vis-à-vis the average plan target of 31.2 percent during the past 16 years. Therefore, the development process needs to be made credible by focusing on innovative policy interventions and sound implementation arrangements to address the development needs of the people and foster the long-term interest of the economy. Low growth, high inflation The economy has long been characterised by a low-growth and high-inflation syndrome. The 12th and 13th three-year plans (fiscal 2010-11 to 2012-13 and 2013-14 to 2015-16) projected average growth rates of 5.9 percent and 6.4 percent respectively. However, actual growth rates did not rise beyond 4.1 percent and 3.1 percent respectively. Likewise, average inflation was projected at 7.0 percent during both these plan periods. However, actual inflation rose to 9.2 percent and 8.7 percent respectively. This shows that the projected growth could not be achieved while actual inflation exceeded the estimate. Considering the performance of the past six years, when the average growth rate of 3.6 percent was well short of the projected 6.1 percent, attaining 7.2 percent growth as envisaged by the 14th three-year plan (fiscal 2016-17 to 2018-19) does not look feasible unless there is substantial capacity enhancement in the public sector. The incremental capital-output ratio (ICOR) in the six years covered by the 12th and the 13th plans was estimated to be 5.3:1, meaning that 5.3 units of investment were required to get one unit of output during the plan period. The actual ICOR during these six years averaged 6.9:1, much higher than the estimate. The higher ICOR meant that more investment was required to get one additional unit of output. It may be observed that the earthquake and the blockade in fiscal 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively decreased the efficiency of investment and increased the ICOR sharply. Ignoring the implications of such recent developments in the economy, it is premature to assume, in the absence of detailed analysis of the subject, that the ICOR will remain at the usual 5.2:1 during the 14th plan period. The budget deficit as a ratio of GDP was projected at an average of 8.6 percent during the 12th plan. This ratio was far higher than the 5.0 percent limit recommended for developing countries. Such a limit is placed to make the budget deficit sustainable, avoid unfavourable domestic and external macroeconomic impacts and implications, and ensure fiscal accountability. In actual terms, there was no budget deficit during the 12th plan period as projected; rather there was a budget surplus of 0.08 percent of GDP. During the 13th plan, the budget deficit/GDP ratio was drastically reduced to an average of 0.8 percent. Actually, there was a budget surplus/GDP ratio of 0.03 percent during this plan period also. The 14th plan has again projected a very high budget deficit/GDP ratio of 8.5 percent. The budget for the current year has projected a budget deficit/GDP ratio of 10.0 percent which is higher than the plan’s projection of 9.6 percent for the year. The reasons for projecting a high budget deficit ratio during the 12th and 14th plans and projecting a very low budget deficit ratio during the 13th plan—while the actual budget balance showed a surplus during the 12th and 13th plan periods—could not be identified. Similarly, uncertainty and risk characterise the implementation of the 14th plan for reasons including the projection of such an excessive budget deficit where the problems of price spiral and supply shocks have not yet been addressed. Price policy which has been treated as a separate macroeconomic policy since the second plan (fiscal 1962-63 to 1964-65) has been discontinued in the 14th plan. Especially when the constitution has adopted a policy of ending black marketeering, monopolies and artificial shortages and controlling competition, thereby protecting consumer interest, the subject should be retained when a detailed plan document is being prepared. Erosion of public trust Ad hoc assumptions on subjects like ICOR and budget deficit show that the National Planning Commission has adopted a totally ritualistic process of plan formulation. Besides, such an approach undermines the credibility of Nepal’s planning and development endeavours. In an economy which has the lowest growth rate among Saarc countries and the second lowest per capita income among Asian countries, such negligence and lack of accountability towards plan formulation is indeed deplorable. To conclude, planning, budgeting and other policymaking exercises in Nepal have not yet delivered the desired outcomes. There is a massive level of unemployment, forcing hundreds of thousands of youths to leave annually for job destinations abroad. A low implementation capacity and disruptions in project schedules resulting in cost and time overruns have become the norm rather than the exception in the government. Large differences in projected economic aggregates and actual outcomes point to an urgent need to raise the government’s implementation capacity. Such a huge gap between the target and the performance has also eroded public confidence and credibility with regard to policymaking and implementation arrangements. Therefore, the capacity to formulate credible plans and the capability to monitor and evaluate the implementation process in the public sector should become a

In addition, it seems to me that far too many people in our country overlook the importance of child rearing. Many seem to feel that just about everything else--job, career, money, "success," etc.--occupies a higher priority than raising honest, God-fearing children. However, Connie and I decided years ago that raising our children would be a priority in our lives, and boy, we are glad we did! I'll say it straight out: it does not take a village to raise kids; it takes loving and courageous parents. Parents who are not afraid to discipline their children (yes, Martha, I mean old fashioned spanking: applying the board of education to the seat of knowledge); parents who are willing to spend time teaching their children right from wrong; parents who will take--not send--their children to church; parents who will pray with their children; parents who care more about truth and right than they do about being well-liked or politically correct; parents who will teach their kids to say "Yes, Sir," and "Yes, Ma'am"; parents who are not afraid to say "No" to their children; dads who think it is more important that they be a father to their sons than a "buddy"; and moms who would rather their daughters had pure hearts than popular friends. How is it that when it comes to leadership expectations, most people ignore a man's leadership at home? It is almost as if parental leadership is a complete non-factor in judging a person's fitness for anything. Now, please do not get me wrong: I am not suggesting that bad children cannot come from good homes. Goodness, no! I have seen very vile young people come out of some of the most righteous homes, and likewise, I have seen some of the most wonderful and Godly young people come out of the most wretched homes. I am only saying that real leadership is established and proven in the home first. Yet, it does not appear that too many people give parental leadership a second thought anymore. Perhaps this explains much as to what has gone wrong in our society. Yes, I am aware of the various and sundry political and societal attacks against marriage and parenting. I see the many battles in the "culture war." I see the attempts to redefine the meaning of marriage, to wrestle control and authority of the home away from the parents, and to bombard our children with ideas and philosophies that will ultimately ruin their lives. And, yes, it could come to a point that decent families will be forced to make the same kind of choices that our Pilgrim forebears had to make. That said, however, the power of marriage and parenting is still the greatest force in the world. Good families can stem the tide of humanism, socialism, fascism, globalism, or any other "ism" that seeks to enslave us. Good families can preserve liberty and independence, fight off totalitarianism, resist corporate elitism, and promote faith and virtue. Good families are the backbone of our country's greatness, and the lack of good families will be the cause of our country's fall from greatness. Greedy, power-mad politicians are no match for a generation of strong marriages. Young people with character and courage trump purveyors of pretension any day. One principled champion--trained and equipped by strong, stalwart parents--will put a thousand moral weaklings to flight. While Pharaoh built his monuments, a humble Hebrew mother taught and nurtured her son, a little boy miraculously drawn forth from the watery reeds. That little boy became the deliverer of his people. It was a Godly mother and father that produced the prophet who would anoint the greatest king of Israel. It was a Spirit-filled mother and father who produced the forerunner of the Messiah. And it was a virtuous, principled mother--not a government agency, educational institution, or commercial enterprise--whom God chose to bring the Savior of mankind into the world. Furthermore, while the potentates and governments of the earth gazed steadfastly upon the might and power of the British Empire, no one noticed the humble homes of Colonial America, where mothers and fathers worked by the light of hearth and candle to discipline, teach, and inspire a generation of patriots unlike the world has ever seen. Strong, committed, principled parenting has done more to change the course of history, depose despots, promote righteousness, protect virtue, and secure liberty than all of the colleges, corporate boardrooms, and presidential palaces combined. And who knows? At this very moment, mothers and fathers across America could be nurturing and training the next generation of patriots who will rise up and restore the principles of liberty and greatness to our land? I will tell you this: if parents do not do it, no one else can. I don't wish to generalise about children today as the vast majority of them are bright, inquisitive, loving and well-behaved (most of the time!) However, it is undeniable that the behaviour you would find at your local school is very different now to 30 years ago when smacking and even the cane was accepted practice. So it begs the question, have we gone too soft? And has the decline in physical punishment played a part, or has something else changed? Personally, I wonder if rather than it being a smack that kids are crying out for these days it is our time? If we have become so stressed and busy in our complicated lives we're depriving our children of the one thing they so desperately need, our attention. One of the comments on the previous blog stated that while physical punishment is not ideal, emotional punishment such as verbal abuse can be far more damaging and I wholeheartedly agree. But I believe even more damaging is the child who receives no punishment at all because nobody noticed the behaviour in the first place. Maybe the kids we complain about who roam the streets causing trouble would benefit from a smack, not because of the smack, but because it meant someone cared enough to punish them. You have to wonder if we've gone from one extreme to the other, from imposing punishments that were overly harsh to having no consequences at all. Or are we better parents than the previous generation because we have learnt to respect our children's rights and allow them opinions and choices? I guess I sit somewhere in the middle. I don't want to be too 'soft' and let my son run free with no rules or limits, but I also want to allow him to express his feelings even if it means the occasion tantrum is the result of it. I know some days I feel like throwing one! Interestingly, many of you commented that often the best way to dissolve a toddler tantrum is to talk to your child and see what the problem is rather than punishing the naughty behaviour. But couldn't we apply this to disruptive behaviour from a child of any age? If you looked into the background of a teenager who is fighting at school you would most likely find some serious emotional issues hidden under all that aggression. Thirty years ago that child would probably have been given the cane and a stern talking to. These days they would most likely be expelled, leaving them to fall between the cracks, branded as a failure and set for an uphill battle to prove otherwise. As much as I abhor the thought of the cane you do have to wonder which is potentially more damaging to that child's future. I certainly don't claim to be an expert, but in my opinion using praise to reward a child for good behaviour is a powerful tool. I believe children inherently want to do well to make us proud and will do whatever it takes to capture and hold our attention. So it stands to reason if they get more of our focus when they do the wrong thing than when they behave they will act up every time, whether they are two or fifteen. On the other hand, you don't want to praise them so much they end up with an over inflated ego thinking they can do no wrong. Perhaps some of the kids we see auditioning for Australian Idol could have benefited from a little more honesty and a little less praise! It's all about balance. That's the thing with parenting, there's no manual, no right or wrong way and you don't get a second chance. You just do the best you can with what you know at the time and hope like hell it is enough. The only thing I know for sure of is you can never say 'I love you' too much, or hug too many times. That is the one thing that will never change.Are we better parents now than the previous generation or are we getting it all wrong? As I read that wonderful front-page story in the Macclesfield Express of the golden retriever nursing a litter of kittens I though about our own dog Bustle. She’s had 30 pups over the last five years and they have each been well-balanced, confident little dogs and it’s all down to her. Bustle prepares well in advance for the arrival of her pups constantly cleaning and preparing her ‘nest’. Once they arrive she watches over them leaving her whelping box only for toilet duty. When they start to run around Bustle insists they show respect and will not tolerate petulance in her proximity. She’ll nudge the errant pup with her nose and if it doesn’t listen she’ll administer a little nip or whatever it takes to gain respect. As they grow Bustle takes regular leaves of absence preparing her pups for independence. Even under pressure from her exuberant litter Bustle is always calm, nudging and sorting her pups whenever the need arises. By the time her puppies leave home they are confident, sociable little dogs ready to face the world. Like the golden retriever nursing kittens Bustle allows her instinct to dictate what’s best for her puppies but parents today aren’t allowed to follow nature. Discipline has become a dirty word and respect is something children expect to receive but not give. Traders at Parsonage Green shops in Wilmslow are asking for a police presence to protect them from gangs of marauding school children and Sainsbury’s on Alderley Road will not serve kids at all during school hours. What does that say about our parenting skills? Of course there are lots of sociable, well-mannered children but we have far too many who are not and an increasing number who are simply feral. The schools dare not handle them, the police can’t and the parents won’t. I selected this post because I remember my mom's dog who died a few years back. This dog loved her pups, my mom and nobody else. She would bite anyone who would come near her or her pups but one word from my mom and she would quiet down. Wednesday, September 3, 2008 Develop vocal skills Gone are the days when a child must be seen and not heard. Our children must learn to express themselves and we must let them know that their thoughts are important. The more vocal children become, the more queries they will have, some of which you may be able to give a rationale answer to. Nonetheless, this is the perfect opportunity to introduce them to reading. For example, if your children want to know why Bob Marley is so important to our Jamaican culture, you can help to provide them with written material and have a discussion about their findings. Don't expect your children to be scholars overnight. If they are preteens, you could start them off with the Children's Own. Have them read the various features and encourage them to voice their thoughts on whichever article they have read. If their reasoning is beyond the Children's Own, then introduce them to the Youthlink. Whatever the case, encourage them to read material that they might be interested in. Logics vs fiction Whatever literature children indulge in, barring explicit and graphic content, reading is always a great hobby to develop. However, what your children read will play an integral role in how they think. I have nothing against fairy tales or novels. If your teens are addicted to these books, you must help them to acknowledge the fact that they are fictional. What is read is usually not real and not logical. Snow White never knew what it was to be unemployed, rejected or to struggle with self-acceptance. It's a great fairy tale, but it's also the furthest thing from reality. Whichever book you choose to introduce to your teens, let it be something that addresses the various issues in society. Whether it is about morals or social structure, the book should enlighten and educate. The more your teens read, the more opinions they will form. This is one of the good or bad consequences of reading, it depends on what type of parent you are. If you are an open-minded parent, you will welcome these discussions, if not, they will be met with resentment. Your children may choose to discuss how society views a particular issue, such as why it is that the household helper is not respected in the same manner as the business owner. It is not wise to reject this as sentiment, rather, use it as a medium to start an open discussion.

Take your time and do your research about any company you are considering investing in, so that you can gain the most success. If you are looking for information on how to get the highest returns on your investments, keep reading! You can start to earn profits from the stock market today. Like many other areas in life, stock market investing involves simplifying things. Separate the noise from the signal. Keep your investments strategies such as examining data points, making predictions and trading real simple to help ensure you don’t take on too many risks on companies or stocks without having market security. Prior to using a brokerage firm or using a trader, figure out exactly what fees they will charge. This doesn’t mean simply entrance fees, but all the fees that will be deducted. These fees can take a significant chunk out of your profits over time. Maintain diversity in your investment choices. Avoid placing all of your eggs into one basket, like the familiar saying goes. So if something goes wrong in one stock, you have the potential to still earn profits from another. Be prepared with a high yield investment account stocked with six months of your salary that you can use in case of an unexpected problem with your finances. This way, if something crops up like an unexpected medical bill, or unemployment, you still have some money to take care of your mortgage/rent and have cash on hand to live on in the short-term. You should never try to time the markets. You will be more successful if you invest regularly and stick to a budget. Just figure out how much of your income is wise to invest. You should adopt a regular pattern of investments, for instance once a week. If you’re confident doing investment research on your own, try using an online brokerage. Fees and commissions will be cheaper online than those of brick-and-mortar brokers. Since one of your investing goals is to turn a profit, reducing the costs of your trading pushes you closer to that goal. Be aware of the limits of your expertise and do not try to push beyond them. For instance, when using a online brokerage, make sure you only invest in companies that you have some knowledge of. If you work in the technology sector, you may know more than the average investor when it comes to that. You may not know anything about the airline industry, though. Leave those investment decisions to a professional advisor. Don’t invest in a company’s stock too heavily. Supporting your company through stock purchases is alright, but be sure to only do so in small amounts. Your risk of loss of a large amount of money is greatly increased in the case of poor performance or company Step 2 Wealth busted by nobsimreviews.com failure. A financial advisor can be a great resource, even for those who plan to manage their stocks on their own. A good professional wont just give you great individual stock picks. They’ll help you understand your goals, retirement plans, risk tolerance and more. With the help of a qualified advisor, you can set out a reachable plan for your financial security. Steer clear of stock market advice which you did not actively seek. Listen to your investment adviser or planner, particularly if they are successful as well. But when it comes to outside advice from unfamiliar sources, you need to ignore it. Conducting research and doing the necessary homework on your own pays the most dividends in getting you prepared to invest, especially when you use this research and homework in lieu of advice that is given to you by people who are paid to provide it. Penny stocks are popular with many small time investors, but don’t overlook the potential value of blue-chip stocks that grow over the long term. Be sure to invest in both growing and major companies. The stock of major companies is likely to keep performing consistently well. Stay open to the fluctuations of a stock’s price. A golden math basic rule that must be reviewed, is that if you pay more for a stock with respect to the earnings, generally the lower the return will be. A stock which may look bad one day, might drop in price the next day and suddenly become a steal. If you’re going to use brokerage firms when it comes to investing, see to it that they are trustworthy. Many firms exist that claim they can gain you a large amount of money from the stock market, but be careful as not all are properly educated or skilled. The web is a valuable tool in the search for a good broker.

The Torah Ring As the German psychoanalysts Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich and their follower Tobias Freimüller have shown, it is not only hard for the Jews to deal with their collective trauma of the Holocaust, in which millions of Jews were mass-murdered by the Germans and their collaborators, it is also hard for the Germans as a group to deal with their painful collective memory of their Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945, which perpetrated crimes against humanity, genocide, and mass murder. The Germans have special words for their collective efforts to deal with that terrible past: Auseinadersetzung, which means “sorting out” [the past]; Vergangenheitsbewältigung, which roughly means “coming to terms with the past,” and Wiedergutmachung, which literally means “making good again,” and which refers to the German government’s reparations payments to Jews and to Israel, as well as to the personal contributions of individual German volunteers to the welfare of Holocaust victims and other people in need in Israel (see ,_Unf%C3%A4higkeit_zu_trauern). The German journalist Malte Herwig published an important book showing how the “flak helpers,” the youngest generation of German soldiers in the Second World War, who were drafted into Hitler’s Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe as Germany was losing the war, later concealed their Nazi past, convinced themselves that they had been forced to become Nazis, and went on to become prominent figures in post-war Germany (see https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/post-war-lies). For the past few years I have been writing a book about the psychology of German-Jewish relations and of how Germans, Jews and Israelis deal with their traumatic past. It all began in the summer of 2010, when Hans-Joachim Lang, a Holocaust historian and journalist in the German university town of Tübingen, who is now a professor of history at the university of Tübingen, contacted me. He had found my name in the Yad Vashem online archives, in a testimony page I had filled out for my Polish-Jewish maternal grandfather, Jozef Hersz Szpiro (1880-1941), who had died of hunger and disease in the Lodz ghetto. The Tübingen city government had just published the existence in its museum of a wooden Torah ring from Zgierz, my mother’s home town, which had been in its possession since 1994. This Torah ring turned out to be one of the four wooden rings of the Jerusalem-made housing (etz khayim) of a Torah scroll that my maternal grandfather had donated to his Zgierz synagogue in 1927 in memory of his deceased parents, after visiting Palestine with his Hasidic rebbe and buying the housing for his Torah scroll in Jerusalem. The Zgierz synagogue was attacked several times and burned down in the fall of 1939 (see ). A German NCO had come to see the rabbi of Zgierz on September 8, 1939; he may have been the same soldier who rescued the Torah Ring from the burning synagogue and later gave it to Prof. Otto Adam Michel (1903-1993), a German theologian and Evangelical pastor in Halle (Sachsen-Anhalt), a former Nazi and S.A. member, who moved to Tübingen in late 1940, who in 1957 founded the Institutum Judaicum in Tübingen, who kept my grandfather’s Torah ring in his private study for fifty-three years, until his death, and whose widow had given the Torah ring to the Tübingen city museum. Otto Michel had been a Nazi and SA member since 1933, even though he was also a member of the Bekennende Kirche. When that church had split into a pro-Nazi and an anti-Nazi faction, he stayed with the former. From 1943 to 1945, however, he had gone through a series of traumatic personal events, including the loss of his professorship, his humiliation as a simple Wehrmacht soldier who had to scrub barracks floors, and his arrest in 1944 on suspicion of being a member of the conspiracy to assassinate the Führer, that the British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion called a “catastrophic change.” He developed what another British psychoanalyst, Donald Winnicott, called a “false self.” After the Second World War, Otto Michel changed his middle name from Adam to Christoph, as part of his struggle to forge a new self. A similar transformation, as the German literary scholar Ottmar Ette has shown, took place with his famous colleague Hans Robert Jauss (1921-1977), who had been a captain in the Waffen-SS and had commanded military units that murdered hundreds of people, and was interned by the Allies at the end of the war, barely surviving execution. Jauss concealed his Nazi and SS past throughout his “second life” and, which is more important, the German society and his university collaborated with this incredible denial and gave him many honors. Since 2010, then, I have been trying to find out when and how this relic of my grandfather’s Torah scroll came into Michel’s possession, why the former Nazi had become “a friend of the Jews,” why Michel himself had said nothing about his Nazi past in his autobiography of 1989, and why he had told no one about how he had come by the wooden Torah disc. It turned out that during the war, in 1943-1945, Michel had undergone a series of traumatic experiences that made him undergo a spiritual conversion and re-create a “false self” for himself as a “Hebrew.” On November 24, 2011 I received this relic of my grandfather’s Torah scroll from the mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer, in a public ceremony in the Tübingen city hall, in the presence of my sister and her elder son, at which I delivered a German-language lecture on Otto Michel and the Torah scroll (see http://youtu.be/Wdaw4zujc2Q). The story was published in several local newspapers and in a full page article in Die Zeit (see http://www.zeit.de/2012/04/Judaistik-Theologe-Michel). Upon my return to Jerusalem, I took the Torah ring to a maker of wooden Torah-scroll housings in the ultra-orthodox quarter of Jerusalem, who at once identified its maker, the late Berysz Sztoker. I had the Torah ring, which was missing some mother-of-pearl decorations and flower-headed silver nails, restored by a local jeweler. In June 2015 my grandfather’s five heirs (my sister, myself, our Israeli-born New York cousin and her late brother’s son and daughter) had an emotional family reunion in my Jerusalem home, at which we decided to donate the ring to the new Jewish museum in Warsaw (see ), which was eager to have it. In late November 2015, the son of my late cousin personally delivered the restored Torah ring to the Jewish museum in Warsaw. This, however, is not the end of the affair; we still need to understand the individual and collective psychological processes involved in this drama. To that end, here is a brief summary of my frustrating five-year dealings with the German bureaucracy in my quest for the name of the German soldier who brought the Torah ring from Zgierz to Halle and gave it to Otto Michel. The Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) From German military history books I learned that the Panzer-Abwehr-Abteilung 545, a battalion-size anti-tank unit of the Wehrmacht, occupied my grandfather’s home town of Zgierz on September 8, 1939, during the Battle of the Bzura. The Zgierz Memorial Book tells of a junior German officer who visited the home of the rabbi of Zgierz that day and expressed an interest in Judaism (see ). I contacted the Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt), which possesses all the personal files of all Wehrmacht soldiers and all the dog-tag indices of all Wehrmacht units, but which, for historical reasons, is an authority of the Land of Berlin rather than of the German federal government. The Deutsche Dienststelle gave me some basic information but refused to give me the list of the soldiers of the Panzer-Abwehr-Abteilung 545. The governing mayor of Berlin, who is both the mayor of the city and the governor of the Land, refused to intervene, as did the German federal government. After a protracted struggle, with the help of the Axel-Springer-Verlag and of its Berlin lawyer, the Deutsche Dienststelle sent me the list of names and birth dates of the members of the staff and of the three anti-tank companies of this battalion, but with all the other details blacked out, and without those of the members of the machine-gun company and of the battalion’s supply units, which the Deutsche Dienststelle claimed not to have. In August 2016 I received some additional names, but that was as far as the bureaucrats would go. The university of Halle In 2012, after a prolonged foot dragging and a stubborn stonewalling, which necessitated a personal confrontation between the Israeli envoy in Berlin and the chancellor of that university, the Martin Luther university of Halle-Wittenberg sent the envoy the names of the students who registered to study theology at that university from 1935 to 1940. It refused to give out any further information on the students, especially their birth dates. Whenever I have found an identical name in the Panzer-Abwehr-Abteilung 545‘s dog-tag index and in the university’s theology-student list, the university claimed that they did not have the same birth date; there have been several such cases. The university still refuses to give out its students’ birth dates, and the Axel-Springer-Verlag is not interested in pursuing this matter in court. The university also refuses to give me access to documents that German scholars have freely seen; its archive director has ignored my last message of May 2016. The City of Halle After an initial resistance, the Evangelical Church in Halle gracefully sent me a list of eight Wehrmacht soldiers, five of whose children Otto Michel baptized, and three of whom he personally married, in 1939-1940, in Halle, where he was a military chaplain as well as a theology professor before moving to Tübingen in late 1940. There is one soldier in this small list whose name stands out. He is an anti-tank NCO named Otto Will Hans Hartung (born 1915), who served in several Wehrmacht anti-tank units in 1939, (but not in the Panzer-Abwehr-Abteilung 545) and who was married by Otto Michel in Halle in 1940; but the city of Halle, where he was born and married, has consistently ignored my requests for information on his descendants, whom I wish to ask whether they know about this story, and if they do, and if he is my man, to thank them for his having saved my grandfather’s Torah ring from the flames of the Zgierz synagogue. Personal appeals to the mayor of Halle haveremained unanswered. The matter remains unresolved. The Government of Sachsen-Anhalt After years of resistance, the government of the German Land of Sachsen-Anhalt, in which Halle is located, has tracked down a descendant of Otto Willi Hans Hartung, the soldier who may have rescued the Torah ring and brought it to Germany. It contacted him, asking him whether he would agree to my contacting him. He has refused my request. I have asked the government to make it clear to him that I wish to thank his ancestor and to find out what he may know about this. The matter remains open. The Psychology of German Bureaucratic Resistance The ostensible reason given by the German bureaucrats for this stiff resistance to my research is the very stringent German personal-data-protection laws, which were probably enacted as an extreme reaction to the complete absence of personal-data protection during Hitler’s Nazi regime, when the Gestapo knew everything about everyone in Germany. On the other hand, however, there are the German freedom-of-information laws, which stand in stark contrast to the data-protection laws, as well as the Washington and Terezin declarations, which Germany has signed, and under which all its institutions must collaborate fully with scholars like myself. Are there also unconscious reasons for this intractable resistance to my research? The Germans have a special word, Vergangenheitsbewältigung (mastery of the past), to describe their attempt to deal with their painful past. But is it really possible to master such a terrible past as that of Germany under Hitler’s murderous regime from 1933 to 1945? Are the German deluding themselves? Are they denying their past rather than mastering it? And what about the German Historikerstreit (historians’ dispute) of the 1980s, when the German historian Ernst Nolte attempted to rewrite the history of the Nazis, of the Second World War, and of the Holocaust in a subtle way that concealed guilt feelings and Holocaust denial, and when he was supported by several other German historians, while many other German historians bitterly opposed him (see )?And how do we, Israeli Jews, deal with our own traumatic past? These questions are what this book is about. My quest for the identity of the Wehrmacht soldier who saved my grandfather’s Torah ring from the burning Polish synagogue and brought it to Germany is ongoing. There has always been light at the end of the tunnel. The Germans will gradually learn to mourn their losses and come to terms with the enormity of their Nazi past.

The DANGERS of Being Overweight With well over half of the population being overweight or obese in Australia, I wonder if people really are aware of the potential health risk that they allow themselves to be exposed to. Being overweight and the development of obesity in this country has hit epidemic proportions and is continuing to grow at an alarming rate. If it’s continuing to grow then I can only imagine that people are not getting the message about how serious this problem is for their long-term health and the health of this countries Medical Industry to cope with it. Millions of dollars are spent each year by our government [Medicare] on the treatment of conditions that are directly related to the self-abuse of overeating and lack of physical activity. I wonder if Medicare itself would be in better shape financially if the people it supports would get into shape. Billions of dollars would be saved if people would take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing. Will this ever happen? I’ll leave that answer up to you. I am constantly amazed by the number of people that tell me that they don’t have any time to eat sensibly and exercise. These same people seem to have plenty of time to sit and eat more food than they need. It is a choice if you are overweight. For whatever reason, you choose what to eat, how much to eat and if you have the time to exercise. We must stop using excuses and take responsibility for our own actions. After all we live in a lucky country, no one is forcing us by gunpoint to do anything. Potential risk of being overweight: Heart Disease Back problems Certain Cancers Diabetes Snoring [Obstructive sleep apnea] Lack of fitness Gallstones Lack of energy High blood pressure Sleepiness High Cholesterol Knee, other joint problems High blood sugars Skin problems Breathing difficulties Sex problems Low self esteem Relationship problems Many of you may already be able to relate to a few of these, and I hope are taking responsible steps to improve your conditions. For those of you who aren’t too concerned then it’s time to re-evaluate your current thinking and start to make some positive plans for a healthy future. Many of the illnesses and conditions I have listed will shorten your life quite dramatically and the others will make it very uncomfortable. The interesting thing is that if you contract any of these illnesses or conditions from being overweight, then it’s fair to say they are preventable. Making the time to eat sensibly and get plenty of exercise is always going to be the best choice for your long-term health. See your doctor regularly for check ups and seek professional help for diets and exercise from qualified Dietitians/Nutritionist, Physiotherapist and Personal Trainers.

Is Your Body Older Than You? There are signs that indicate that your body is older than you, so make sure you recognize some of them. Being in the thirties, it really means that you’re still young. But is your body young? Studies show that more people are physically older than his age. What is the reason? Poor lifestyle – unhealthy diet, moving, stress, alcohol, smoking … There are signs that indicate that your body is older than you, so make sure you recognize some of them. Problems with teeth Somewhat tarnished teeth are normal between the ages of 30 and 50 years. Normally at this age is considered an occasional loss of enamel and sometimes inflammation of the gums. But it is not normal that your teeth fall out or nod, that hurts jaw or you bleeding gums. In such situations it is important to visit a dentist and, of course, maintain regular hygiene. After 45 years, most people purchased glasses because they can’t read the fine print, and this is normal. But it is not normal if the ages of 30 and 50 years can’t clearly see the faces or your eyesight field becomes limited as you are in the tunnel. If you are faced with such symptoms, be sure to talk to your doctor. If you are between 30 and 50 years, and backache and joint pain tormenting you just sometimes the pain is not fixed, you can consider that your health is fine. But if you’re at that age sore joints and back when you wear something in your hands or when you get up, you should see a doctor. These symptoms indicate that in your joints and back started something happen. In this situation it is important to consult a physician. Problems with memory That sometimes forget someone’s name, or you can’t remember where you left the keys is completely normal at the age of 30 and 50. It’s not normal if almost every day looking for your car in the parking lot because you can’t remember where you left it, if difficult to recognize faces and colors, or if you accidentally put the keys in the refrigerator. Memory problems are part of the aging process, but if you notice that indeed often forget, this could be an early sign of dementia. Excessive fatigue during physical activity Lightweight breathlessness after brisk walking or climbing stairs is perfectly normal in age from 30 to 50 years. But if you enter into this age category, and each had intense physical activity causes you discomfort such as dizziness, severe headache or loss of breath, you should consider visiting a doctor. In fact these problems are not considered normal for this age.

3 credits; 3 hours In this course, students will be introduced to the fields of anthropology-physical anthropology, archaeology, cultural anthropology, and anthropological topics in linguistics. The aim shall be to explore the origins and development of some of the world’s hunter-gatherer, agricultural, peasant and industrial societies. Utilizing examples from both extinct and modern-day societies, the student will gain an appreciation of the wide diversity of human cultures. Prerequisite: CSE099, ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101 This course examines the similarities and differences found in the various types of human cultures and societies. It acquaints students with the basic concepts that help explain differences and similarities. The role of culture and language in determining human behavior is examined as is the interrelationship of aspects of behavior (economics, politics, family, and religion) indifferent types of societies. Patterns of cultural change will also be discussed. This course provides an overview of the rapidly expanding field of Archaeology. Modern archaeological theories, the various disciplines of Archaeology, field techniques and the future of Archaeology will be covered. Emphasis will be placed on the history of the field, how modern archaeology varies from its earlier processes, and how archaeology relates to the various fields of social and natural sciences. Instruction will include both guided and assigned field trips. Prerequisites: CSE099, ENA/ENG/ESA/099/ENC101, MAT096 This course will focus on the different peoples and cultures of Latin America, including Indian groups, rural communities of peasants, blacks and other plantation workers, urbanized peasants, urban workers, new middle classes and elites. The social and cultural organization of each of these groups will be examined, particularly in their relationship to the larger society.The impact of the global economy on Latin American cultures will also be examined. This course will survey the evolution of cultures in the Caribbean from the original formation of Native American societies through the age of European conquest, colonization and cultural dominance, to the contemporary period of national independence, and the revival of previously marginalized, subordinated cultures. The focus will be on analyzing the unique Caribbean economic, family, stratification, political, and cultural systems formed out of the fusion of Native American, European, African and Asian peoples and cultures. This course examines urban culture and society in different partsof the world. It includes an examination of the role cities play indifferent societies, urbanization in developing societies, and acomparison of urban society and culture in developing societieswith urban life in the United States. Field trips to sites in NewYork City such as new immigrant communities will be includedto familiarize the students with recent changes in urban culture Prerequisite: CSE099, ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101, MAT095,and one Social Science elective from the list on page 174.This is a Writing Intensive course. The course introduces students to the dynamics of intercultural communication and enables them to communicate more effectively in multicultural settings. Through field trips, cultural research, and role-plays, students develop the skills needed to look objectively at other cultures. Using New York City as a laboratory, they gain experience identifying and analyzing dominant cultural patterns, thus improving their ability to understand the often perplexing behavior of people from cultures other than their own. Prerequisite: MAT095, ENC/ENG101, HUC101 or HUL100, and one Social Science elective from the list on page 174. This is a Writing Intensive course. 3 credits, 4 hours (3 classroom, 1 lab) The First Year Seminar is required of all new students majoring in Criminal Justice and transfer students with less than 15 credits. Special topics in Criminology and Criminal Justice are taught in conjunction with college transition skills. Themes may include any subject in Criminology and Criminal Justice, e.g. wrongful convictions, mass incarceration or the death penalty, along with critical thinking skills, active learning and E-portfolio. Prerequisite: CSE099, ENA/ENG099, ESA099, ENA/ENC101 This course provides an introductory survey of the American criminal justice system and its four key components: police,courts, corrections and the juvenile justice system. It will introduce students to the definition, measurement and causes of crime. General issues for consideration will include the role of discretion in the administration of criminal justice, due process,and contemporary changes in the American criminal justice system. This course explores the nature, causes and treatment of criminal behavior with an emphasis on classical and contemporary theories. The biological, social, psychological and environmental theories underlying crime and deviance are explored, as well as current approaches to punishment, treatment and prevention. This course examines the policies and practices of the criminal justice system following the arrest and conviction of a crime,including correctional law. The historical development of correctional institutions and corrections and sentencing ideology are discussed, as well as the functions of agencies that provide correctional services: probation, jails, prisons, parole and intermediate sanctions. In addition, important controversies and major trends in contemporary correctional practice are explored. This course examines the historical development, present organization and multiple functions of policing. Readings based on theory and empirical research will examine key areas in policing including: recruitment and training; stress and hazards of policing; police subcultures; methods of policing; criminal investigation; legal concerns; police accountability, ethics and corruption; community policing and police-minority relations. This course examines critical issues concerning crime and justice in urban settings. Some issues are current and topical, applying to the contemporary urban crime scene; others persist across generations. Themes explored include fear, crime and the city;social disorganization; prisoner reintegration; policing, gangs and gun control; and drug laws. This course will be a writing intensive and e-portfolio course with an experiential component. Prerequisite: ENC/G101, SSJ101This is a Writing Intensive course. This course will study price determination and distribution under alternative market structures as well as government intervention in the market. A comparison of the market economy to alternative systems will also be examined. Prerequisite: CSE099, ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101, MAT096 This course will examine what determines the aggregate level of economic activity. The levels of production, employment and prices will be studied in relationship to aggregate expenditures. Institution arrangements of monetary and fiscal policy to address unemployment and inflation will also be covered. This course introduces students to the allocation of resources in the world economy. Specifically, students will examine how capitalist and socialist countries manage their resources. In addition, students will learn about major issues in international trade and finance, economic development in third world countries, pollution and the environment, defense spending, and the economics of energy. The course studies the influence of physical features and climates of the world on human activities, production, distribution, and other economic activities. Emphasis is placed on the location and distribution patterns of the world’s resources and their uses. Topics studied include urban geography, geopolitics of oil and gas, and preparation and interpretations of maps by physical features and cultural aspects. Prerequisite: CSE099, ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101, MAT095 This course examines key economic problems facing cities and urban neighborhoods, particularly those of New York City. The students will study how supply and demand, land use, taxation,national product, unions and state and federal policies affect the local economy. Through visits in their neighborhoods, and such places as the Office of Economic Development and the Stock Exchange, students will apply the above concepts to local issues of employment, housing, transportation and business activity. Prerequisite: CSE099, ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101, MAT095,and one Social Science elective from the list on page 174 This is a Writing Intensive course. This course will focus on the major themes in American History from the colonial period to the Civil War. Topics such as slavery, women’s roles, expansion, urbanization, reform movements, and the development of the American character will be examined in this course. This course will examine American history since 1865. Such topics as industrialization, labor unions, immigration, organization, political parties, reform movements, foreign policy, and the rise of the U.S. as the major force in the world will be covered in this course. This course investigates the main features of human civilization from ancient times to the Renaissance. The importance of geography, religion, custom and ideology are explored for the purpose of capturing the spirit of the past as well as understanding its relationship to the present. This course discusses the major ways in which Western society has changed over the past 250 years. It covers the scientific revolution, the industrial revolution, and the major political revolutions. It also explores the impact of ideas such as liberalism, Marxism, Darwinism, Nazism and Freudianism. The two World Wars and prospects for world peace are examined. This course is an introduction to world history from the earliest human records to the renewal of contact between the Eastern and Western hemispheres around 1500 C.E. Students will read primary and secondary sources related to the political, economic, social and cultural history of humanity with emphasis on the comparative development of civilization, the role of nomadic and pre-literate societies, and the interactions among different peoples and civilizations. This course is an introduction to world history from around 1500 C.E. to the present. Students will read primary and secondary sources related to the political, economic, social and cultural history of humanity in the modern era, including such topics as the development of the nation-state, industrialization, world trade, imperialism, democratic, socialist, and nationalistic revolutions, the position of women in society, population growth, and changes in the human environment. This course concentrates on one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world, East Asia, which includes, in geographical and cultural terms, the domains of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Using both chronological and topical approaches, the course examines historical and social development in East Asia. Topics include the dynastic transition, economic structures, social organizations and customs, as well as the scholarly and artistic traditions in East Asia. Throughout the course, students learn to appreciate the richness of East Asian culture and gain a knowledge of the growing political and economic power of this region. This is an introduction to some of the basic issues in the black American’s struggle against slavery and racist oppression in the United States. Special attention is given to the following: the methods that blacks have used in their attempts to bring about social change; important persons and institutions from the African beginning to the present; and the contributions black shave made to American society. This course begins with a study of the interaction between the Indian, European, and African peoples who shaped the history of Latin America and the Caribbean. It then considers the colonial period, the Independence movements, and the challenge of modernization in selected Latin American and Caribbean nations. The relationship between Latin America and the United States will also be discussed. This course focuses on the experiences of and challenges to minorities in the United States. It examines changing patterns of the immigration, settlement, and employment of various minority groups including Afro-Americans, Irish-Americans,Hispanic-Americans and Asian-Americans. In addition, the situation of the Native Americans, women, gays and the aged will be discussed in an historical context. This course will study the social, economic, and political changes of New York City neighborhoods. The focus will be on the people who migrated into, lived, and then moved out of these neighborhoods. Through field research, students will look closely at such things as immigration, housing, businesses, government legislation, and mass transit lines that have significantly affected neighborhood changes. The course will include field trips such as walking tours and a visit to Ellis Island. This course is about the development of New York City from colonial times to the present. It deals with changes in housing, transportation, immigration, politics and social classes. The rise of New York City as a financial and cultural center will be discussed. New York City’s current problems and future prospects will be assessed. The course includes a walking tour of old New York and a museum trip. Prerequisite: CSE099, ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101, and oneSocial Science elective from the list on page 174 This is a Writing Intensive course. This course explores alternative leadership theories and styles. It focuses on leadership within the urban context and on the importance of New York City figures such as Boss Tweed, Fiorello H. LaGuardia and Shirley Chisholm. Special reference will be made to the particular leadership problems presented by cities. The course will include speakers and field trips to centers of leadership in New York City, either on the citywide or community level, in the public or private sector. Prerequisite: CSE099, ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101 and one Social Science elective from the list on page 174This is a Writing Intensive course. This course examines New York City as a unique political entity within the context of urban politics in America. It explores the roles of elected officials, community boards, unions, minority groups and business interests in political decision making. The course includes guest speakers and field trips. Prerequisite: CSE099, ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101, and one Social Science elective from the list on page 174This is a Writing Intensive course. This course explores how urbanization and socio-economic development have made sexuality a political issue. Topics are discussed from a cross-cultural perspective and include separation of sexuality from reproduction, AIDS, alternative definitions of family, the extent of personal freedom as compared with social control of sexual expression and others. Special attention is given to how these topics are addressed through feminist, religious, gay/lesbian and other movements. At least two field trips are required. This course analyzes the relationship between the theory, form,and practice of American government. The course studies the strengths and weaknesses of the American political system. A major concern of the course is the nature of power in America and the options for reforming the American political system. This course will investigate the dynamics of global politics among nation states and other actors in global affairs. After an introduction to the international system and globalization, the class will study major international relations theories and use them to analyze current and past events in global politics. The course will explore various global issues including war, terrorism, genocide, security, peace building, development, human rights, free trade etc. Students will focus on case studies of their choice. This course will examine the major groups which seek power in Latin America and the Caribbean, and analyze the various strategies they use including revolution, populism, democratic reform, socialism and military authority. The prospects for modernization will be drawn from a variety of Latin American and Caribbean countries. The course includes discussion of the role of foreign nations in the politics of this area. This course deals with the purposes and problems of penal systems, old and new, national and international. The course will investigate the relationship between the criminal, punishment, society and politics. Selected famous cases will be studied in detail as will the American criminal justice system and the issue of the death penalty. This course explores the relationship between political ideas and practice. Political ideologies such as liberalism, conservatism, socialism, and liberation ideologies (feminist, black and `gay/lesbian) are examined in their historical development. The relationship between their goals and the methods used to achieve them is analyzed and criticized. The relevance of these ideologies for understanding current political issues is discussed. Readings include original theories of politics as well ascommentaries upon them. This course explores the relationship between the urban physical environment and human behavior. Topics to be considered include the effects of personal space, noise, crime, crowding, architectural design and urban blight on the actions and feelings of urban dwellers. Two field trips in this course will be based on research projects aimed at understanding behavior in such urban settings as subways, parks and neighborhoods. Prerequisite: CSE099, ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101, and oneSocial Science elective from the list on page 174This is a Writing Intensive course This course introduces students to psychological theories and issues relating to blacks in America. Emphasizing the shift from rural to urban environments, it examines the impact of slavery and racism on blacks. With special reference to New York City, the course investigates the relationship between black personality and family, education, work, culture and mental health. There will be field trips to Harlem and to a community mental health center. This course is an introduction to some of the major fields and theories in the science of psychology, covering a range of topics such as biological foundations, learning, cognition, emotion, perception, theories of personality, psychological disorders and their treatment and the research methods of psychology. This course examines the principles of child development from birth through adolescence, and explores how cognitive, emotional, physiological and social changes impact learning. The role of culture, family, race, class and environment will serve as the framework for understanding development and the nature of intelligence and its implications for how children learn in school. Students will be taught research and child observation methods and how to apply these tools in diverse educational and community settings. Prerequisite: ENC/ENG101This is a Writing Intensive course. Theories, methods, and selected issues in the field of personality will be discussed in the context of achieving greater self-awareness and insight into the behavior of others. Among the topics dicussed are: psychoanalytic, behavioristic, and phenomenological theories of personality types and traits, the achievement of self-knowledge, psychological testing, and personality research methods. This course will critically examine gender bias and gender exclusion in research and theory in psychology. The topics will include interconnections between biology and gender, focusing on the psychological factors of menstruation, sexuality, pregnancy, childbirth, motherhood, abortion and menopause.The course will focus on the experiences of women of different racial and ethnic backgrounds and examine how these biological functions shape their identity. Throughout the course, students will critically examine the social and political contexts that define women’s bodies and familiarize themselves with critical feminist consciousness. This course will provide students with an overview of behavior modification principles which are based on theories of learning in relation to the acquisition, maintenance and modification of human behavior. The course focuses on the specific application of these principles to special needs populations. Topics will include assessment and data collection techniques, design of effective multicultural behavioral programs, and ethical issues in behavior treatment. Prerequisite: ENC/ENG101, SSY101 This course introduces the major categories of psychological disorders and their symptoms, including diagnostic procedures, causal factors and treatment. Among the disorders covered are psychotic disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, disorders of childhood and adolescence and personality disorders. Theoretical perspectives for understanding psychological disorders will also be discussed. Prerequisite: CSE099, ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101, MAT095,SSY101 This course will address the theories of development while providing critical review of the relevant empirical data from conception to adolescence. It covers various domains of development in the growing child—physical, cognitive, social and emotional realms. Implications for parenting and schooling will be discussed within a cultural-historical context This course examines the biological, psychological, and social changes in adults and the principles underlying these changes.The course explores such topics as social sex roles, self-identity, self-esteem, worker productivity, ideas and values. Students will learn about adult life crisis issues such as marriage, divorce, mid-life crisis, menopause, unemployment and aging. This course examines how the individual’s personality is affected by the influences of other people and the physical environment. Among the topics discussed are: forming attitudes, conformityin groups, helping others, prejudice and environmental stress.Research methods will also be introduced. This is an introduction to the theory, research and practice of group dynamics, and small group interaction in a variety of settings. Methods and techniques utilized in the investigation of small group processes will be demonstrated and critically examined. Through participation in role playing and small group interaction, students will be introduced to basic principles of interpersonal and group dynamics in families, in groups, and at work. This course examines the relationship between human values, society, and technology. It begins with an explanation of how computers work and then investigates how technology affects such issues as jobs, privacy and education. Lab work is included. The course will examine the role of women in society from historical and cross-cultural perspectives. It will examine women’s psychological issues, economic functions, and their relationships to social institutions. The debates surrounding women at work, women in politics and women’s movements will be discussed. Prerequisite: ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101, SSS100 or SSB110 This course introduces social science perspectives on the theoryand practice of labor and community organizing within theurban environment. Students analyze case studies that focus onstruggles within a local and global context shaped by differentkinds of social inequality including class, race, ethnicity, gender,age and sexual orientation. Students will learn about newmodels of organizing, and organizing as a career. The class willgo on urban field trips and role-play organizing skills. This course is about the social dynamics of Black communities in urban America. With special reference to New York City, it examines the socialization process, the family, education and organizational life within urban Black communities. Current problems and future prospects for the urban Black community are discussed. Field trips to communities such as Harlem and Bedford Stuyvesant are included. Prerequisite: CSE099, ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101, MAT095, and one Social Science elective from the list on page 174This is a Writing Intensive course. This course examines changing ideas about the city and the changing impact of the city on American lifestyles. With reference to New York City, the course explores the origins and the social structure of the city. It focuses on the relationship of class to family, gender, education, ethnicity, religion, politics and economics. Visits to housing projects, community organizations or service delivery agencies will familiarize the students with the issues of planning and change in the city. Prerequisite: CSE099, ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101, MAT095, and one Social Science elective from the list on page 174Prerequisite for Computer Technology, and Engineering Science majors: CSE099, ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101, MAT095This is a Writing Intensive course. This course will trace the evolution of traditional and nontraditional religions among various groups within the New York City religious community. The course will focus on Latin groups and Eastern religions as well as social action projects sponsored by mainline major denominational groups. Field interviews by students will be made. This course examines sociological perspectives on the environment. It will explore how humans interact with and help to shape the environment. Special emphasis will be placed on the role that economics, politics, culture, science and technology play in urban environmental affairs. It will also apply basic sociological concepts such as social class, gender, race and ethnicity, inequality and conflict to environmental issues within urban settings. This course is designed to help students understand utopian movements in urban society from historical, psychological and sociological perspectives. This course will focus on both the causes for creating utopian experiments and the ways in which utopias approach family structure, religion, education, power and economic organization. Literary versions of utopian communities will be studied. Field trips may be taken to such places as Roosevelt Island and Shaker Village. This course offers students information and ideas with which to understand the social factors of human life. It places the study of social interaction, social processes, and social institutions in an historical context. It examines the human condition with particular reference to work, to culture, to personality, to ethnic, class, and gender relations, as well as to economic and political institutions. (SSB110 is the bilingual version of SSS100.) Prerequisite: CSE099, ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101Prerequisite for SSB110: CSE099, ESL/ESR098Pre- or Corequisite for SSB110: ESL/ESR099 This course will examines the political and cultural conditions and the processes involved in the formation and functioning of social movements. Social movements are undersood as the organized, collective efforts of people to influence the direction of social change. Against the bacground of a broad historical and cross-cultural perpective, emphasis will be on social movements in the USA, including the labor movement, the civil rights movement and the women's movement. There will be at leats two field trips. Prerequisite: ENA/ENG/ESA099/ENC101 and SSS100 orSSB110 This course will analyze the social structure and dynamics of large scale organizations such as the corporation, the government agency, and the labor union. It will examine the significance of these organizations in the larger world as well as investigate the social worlds which exist within these organizations. Through this course, the student will come to understand the interaction between individual personality and bureaucratic structure. This course examines the social, cultural, political, and economic forces that have shaped the relationships between educational institutions and society. The course will look at such factors as family, economic status, community, conflicting perspectives on the nature and purpose of education, and the role of government. This course will also examine current debates in the field, including the role of teachers and teacher education. This course examines the concepts of culture and community and their applications to the deaf and hard of hearing communities. This inquiry leads to an understanding of the implications of culture and community for the individual and to an exploration of the current economic, political, and social issues with the deaf and hard of hearing communities, as well as future directions. Prerequisite: ENC/ENG101, SSS100 or SSB110 The course will examine the contemporary American family from historical and cross-cultural perspectives. It considers sub-cultural variations within American society; the influence of industrial and technological changes on family life; relationship of socialization to personality development; programs to meet family needs; dating, courtship and marriage.

Water ebbing in north Louisiana, rising at Mississippi line NEW ORLEANS -- As floodwaters began receding Monday in northwest Louisiana, emergency officials along Louisiana's southeastern border with Mississippi were watching the rise of the Pearl River amid widespread flooding that has damaged thousands of homes. The water has started to ebb from flooded subdivisions in south Bossier City on the Red River in northern Louisiana. National Weather Service forecaster C.S. Ross in Shreveport says it will take at least a week before homeowners can get back to their homes and assess the damage. A 6-mile section of U.S. Highway 71 from Bossier Parish into Red River Parish was covered by water. Ross said Red Chute Bayou on the east side of Bossier City did not top the levee as feared. He said there was some seepage, but not enough to reach 3,500 homes. In Arkansas, a fast-moving weekend storm system brought rain, hail and reports of several tornadoes. National Weather Service Meteorologist Michael Brown says as many as four possible tornadoes may have touched down amid Sunday evening's severe weather. Weather Service crews will survey the areas Monday. Meanwhile, the National Weather Service has pushed back to timeline of flooding from the Pearl River at the southern end of the Louisiana-Mississippi line. Forecaster Phil Grigsby predicts the Pearl River could reach 21 feet by late Tuesday or early Wednesday -- the height of a 1983 flood. Hancock County Emergency Management Agency Director Brian Adam said he's been told to expect 5 to 7 feet of water. Adam said some 100 to 200 homes around Pearlington, Mississippi could take on water. At least four deaths have been reported in Louisiana amid the flooding that began last week and the search continued for two fishermen missing since Wednesday in Mississippi. In southeastern Louisiana, St. Tammany Parish officials said the town of Pearl River already was seeing flooding in one neighborhood. Farther to the south, officials were warning residents in eastern Slidell to be vigilant about rising water. Flood warnings were in effect for most of north Louisiana and scattered sections in the southern part of the state. In Mississippi, flooding warnings are in effect for areas along streams and bayous. Louisiana emergency officials said nearly 5,000 homes were damaged. That number is expected to rise as more reports come in from areas still battling floodwaters. Mississippi reported that 185 homes were damaged by floodwaters and about 650 homes sustained minor damage. The flood waters have caused several roads in a south Mississippi county to collapse. Lt. Bill Davis with the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office said anyone with flood damage should report it to their parishes' homeland security office. "Once the water goes down, cleanup kits will be made available" Davis said. "By the weekend, we should have a plan for distribution." On Sunday, President Barack Obama signed an order declaring the flooding in Louisiana a major disaster. The president's declaration triggers federal aid for flood victims. It's the most widespread non-hurricane flooding the Louisiana National Guard has ever dealt with, said Col. Pete Schneider, a guard spokesman. The National Guard said it had about 1,200 soldiers and air crews at work in flooded areas throughout Louisiana, deploying in high-water vehicles, boats and three helicopters. National Guard crews had evacuated more than 4,255 people and 354 pets as part of its round-the-clock operations by Monday morning. The Guard had also issued more than 71,570 bottles of water to Richland, Natchitoches, Vernon and Winn parishes, 576 MREs to Winn Parish and over 1 million sandbags to affected parishes.

In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to cure slices by rolling the wrist. Some people hit slice shots because they strike with a underhand or reverse position. The correct way is when your hand comes back for impact, it should rotate into position with the back of the left hand facing the target. If the back of your left and is facing anywhere else, the ball will slice. A drill that users can do is to use their wrist watch as a guide. Start with it at a 45 degree angle. When you swing, it should end with a 90 degree angle. This video will benefit those viewers who enjoy playing golf and would like to learn how to cure their slice shots.

officially XXI Olympic Winter Games, The XXI Olympic Winter Games opened in Vancouver, B.C., Can., on Feb. 12 and closed on Feb. 28, 2010. To celebrate the Games, Britannica is pleased to offer a broad selection of information on Vancouver and the Olympics, including a video highlighting the city’s history and geography; an interactive map of the Olympic venues; a brief history of the Winter Olympic Games and past Canadian Games, with tables featuring International Olympic Committee (IOC) presidents, sites of the Olympic Games through the years, and medal winners of 2006; a colourful photo gallery; and daily highlights of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Vancouver’s Olympic quest began in 1998, when the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) selected the city over Calgary and Quebec for Canada’s bid to host the 2010 Winter Games. The bid was technically a joint venture between Vancouver and the Coast Mountains resort town of Whistler, which lies about 70 miles (110 km) north of Vancouver and was the proposed site of most of the Games’ skiing and sliding events. The Vancouver bid to host the Games was shortlisted along with those from Bern, Switz., P’yŏngyang, N.Kor., and Salzburg, Austria, in August 2002. Bern withdrew its bid one month later after a referendum indicated that most Bern voters did not want to pay for the Games. On July 2, 2003, the final vote of the IOC was held in Prague. In the first round of balloting, P’yŏngyang captured 51 votes, while Vancouver trailed in second place with 40 and Salzburg received 16. Salzburg was eliminated for the second round of voting, which Vancouver won 56 to 53, bringing the Olympic Games to Canada for a third time (Montreal had hosted in 1976 and Calgary in 1988). The first organized international competition involving winter sports was introduced just five years after the birth of the modern Olympics in 1896. This competition, the Nordic Games, included only athletes from the Scandinavian countries and was held quadrennially in Sweden, beginning in 1901. Figure skating was included in the Olympics for the first time in the 1908 Summer Games in London, although the skating competition was not actually held until October, some three months after the other events were over. The great Ulrich Salchow (Sweden) won the first Olympic gold medal awarded for men’s figure skating. British skater Madge Cave Syers captured the first women’s title and won the bronze in pairs with her husband, Edgar Syers. Anna Hübler and Heinrich Burger of Germany won the gold medal in pairs. In 1911 Count Eugenio Brunetta d’Usseaux, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from Italy, suggested that Sweden should either include winter sports in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm or stage a separate Winter Olympics in the same year. Sweden, concerned that such a move would jeopardize the Nordic Games, refused. Germany supported plans to stage a competition of winter events in early 1916 as part of the Games of the VI Olympiad scheduled for Berlin later that year. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 caused the cancellation of the Berlin Olympics and made the question of Winter Games moot. At the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belg., athletes competed for medals in figure skating and ice hockey, despite continuing protests from the Scandinavian countries. Nordic nations dominated the figure skating events. Swedish skaters Magda Julin and Gillis Grafström won the women’s and men’s singles competitions, respectively, while Ludovika Jakobsson and Walter Jakobsson of Finland won the pairs. Another Swedish skater, Svea Norén, won the silver in women’s singles, while Norwegians captured silver in the men’s and pairs events, as well as the bronze in the men’s singles. Only the British team and American Theresa Weld, who won the bronze medals in pairs and women’s singles respectively, prevented a Scandinavian sweep. Canada captured the gold medal in ice hockey, with the United States winning silver and Czechoslovakia finishing with the bronze. Test Your Knowledge Wine: Fact or Fiction? Two years later an agreement was reached to celebrate an IOC-sanctioned International Winter Sports Week. It was held in Chamonix, France, from Jan. 25 to Feb. 4, 1924, and was a huge success. Norway topped the medals table with a total of 17, and the Scandinavian countries, which altogether captured 28 of the 43 medals awarded, dropped their previous objections. The following year the IOC altered its charter to create a separate Winter Olympics. The Games staged in St. Moritz, Switz., in 1928 were formally designated the second Winter Olympics. From 1928 the Winter Games were held every four years in the same calendar year as the Summer Games. In 1986 IOC officials, in response to concerns over the increasing cost and logistic complications of the Olympics, voted to alter the schedule. Only two years separated the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, and the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Nor. Thereafter the Winter and Summer Games were each held quadrennially, alternating in even-numbered years. Despite producing 32 world records and a host of memorable performances, the 1976 Games drew more attention to the apparent problems of the Olympic movement. Twenty-six countries, mostly from Africa, chose to boycott the Games when the IOC denied their request to ban New Zealand, whose national rugby team had recently toured South Africa. Taiwan also boycotted, when Canada, which officially recognized the People’s Republic of China, would not permit Taiwan to be identified at the Games as the Republic of China. Questions arose about the integrity of the competition itself. Many athletes—particularly the East German women swimmers—were suspected of using anabolic steroids to enhance their performance. There was also concern that the amateur spirit of the Games had been undermined by the growing commercial influence on sports in the West and the pervasive government control of athletes in the Eastern bloc countries. The Montreal Games were a financial disaster, placing a burden of debt on the people of Canada and Quebec that lasted for decades. More than 6,000 athletes competed, representing 92 countries. There were three double gold medal performances in the track-and-field competition: distance runner Lasse Virén of Finland repeated his 1972 double of the 5,000- and 10,000-metre events; Cuban Alberto Juantorena won the 400- and 800-metre runs; and Soviet runner Tatyana Kazankina earned gold medals in the 800- and 1,500-metre runs. East German Waldemar Cierpinski won the first of his consecutive Olympic marathon gold medals. Legendary hurdler Edwin Moses of the United States earned his first gold medal. The swimming was dominated by the American men and the East German women. The American men, led by John Naber (who took four gold medals), won all but one event and set 11 world records. Kornelia Ender, winner of four gold medals, led the East German team as it took 10 of the 11 individual events and set eight world records. Nadia Comăneci of Romania won three gold medals and scored a perfect score of 10 seven times in gymnastics. Women competed in basketball and rowing for the first time. Pertti Karppinen of Finland won the first of his three career gold medals in rowing. The U.S. boxing team—starring Leon Spinks, Michael Spinks, and Ray (“Sugar Ray”) Leonard—won 5 of the 11 divisions. The 1988 Calgary Winter Games The city of Calgary first organized a bidding committee for the Winter Olympics in 1957; 24 years later it was awarded the 15th Winter Games. The influence of television on the Games spread even deeper than in past years. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) paid $309 million for the television rights, and advertisers were able to influence the starting times of events to maximize their products’ exposure. Many charged that the Games resembled well-rehearsed shows instead of sporting contests. In figure skating Katarina Witt (East Germany) retained her title in the women’s event. The men’s figure skating competition was dubbed the “Battle of the Brians” as Brian Boitano (U.S.) and Brian Orser (Canada) vied for the gold. Though Orser held the edge in international competition, Boitano was victorious at Calgary, skating a nearly perfect performance to narrowly defeat his Canadian rival. The women’s speed skating competition was marked by upsets. While most attention was focused on the East German women and the American Bonnie Blair, Yvonne van Gennip of the Netherlands dominated, winning three gold medals. Blair and Christa Luding-Rothenburger (East Germany) claimed the other two golds. In the Alpine events the supergiant slalom (super-G) was added, and the Alpine combined returned after being absent from the Olympics for 40 years. The stars on the slopes were the flamboyant Alberto Tomba (Italy) and Vreni Schneider (Switzerland), each of whom won gold in both the slalom and giant slalom events. Nordic skiing underwent numerous modifications at Calgary. Team competitions were added in the Nordic combined and the ski jumping events. Cross-country events were revamped because of the “skating technique,” which was introduced at the 1984 Games. The men’s 15- and 30-km races and the women’s 5- and 10-km races were skied using the classic style. The longer distances and relay events used the freestyle, or skating, method. Ski jumping was dominated by Matti Nykänen (Finland), whose three gold medals made him the most successful male athlete at Calgary. Turin 2006: A Look Back In 2006 the Winter Games returned to Italy after a 50-year absence. Unlike the 1956 Games, which were held in the small resort town of Cortina d’Ampezzo, the 2006 Games were hosted by Turin, an industrial city and provincial capital located in northwestern Italy. The competition venues were spread between seven villages (most in the mountainous Piedmont region to the west) and Turin, and beforehand there was some concern that the widespread Games would suffer from logistics problems and low attendance. The concerns proved to be unfounded, as the competitions were both exciting and well-attended. The festive side of the Games was greatly helped by the nightly medal ceremonies held in the Piazza Castello, Turin’s main piazza. IOC president Jacques Rogge, impressed with the large, happy crowds that the medal ceremonies routinely attracted, suggested that the concept be carried over to subsequent Olympiads. The Games were attended by approximately 2,600 athletes representing 80 countries. New events included speed skating team pursuit, mass-start biathlon races, and snowboard cross, which pits four boarders against each other in a thrilling race downhill through a series of jumps and sharp turns. The women’s snowboard cross final produced the most drama when American Lindsey Jacobellis, who seemed assured of victory after the other three racers fell at the top of the course, took a tumble on the last jump and was passed by Switzerland’s Tanja Frieden. American snowboarder Shaun White, known as the “Flying Tomato” because of his long red hair, entertained onlookers with his back-to-back 1080s (three full turns in the air) on his way to claiming the gold medal in the halfpipe competition. The Alpine competition was marked by the surprising success of the Austrian skiers, who won 14 medals in all, including gold medals in the women’s downhill and super-G by Michaela Dorfmeister, and by the disappointing performance of the American team led by World Cup champion Bode Miller, who was entered in five events but earned no Olympic medals. Michael Greis of Germany won three gold medals in biathlon events, but his success was overshadowed by the drug controversies in the Nordic skiing competition. Olga Pyleva, a Russian silver medalist in the biathlon, was disqualified after failing her drug test. Coach Walter Mayer, who had been banned for suspicion of blood doping, was discovered in the Austrian camp, resulting in an investigation of 10 athletes. The Russian team dominated the figure skating competition, collecting three gold medals and a bronze. Men’s champion Yevgeny Plushchenko and pairs champions Tatyana Totmyanina and Maksim Marinin gave exceptionally brilliant performances, while ice-dancing gold medalists Tatyana Navka and Roman Kostomarov skated without mistakes to win a somewhat lacklustre competition. Irina Slutskaya, the favourite in the women’s competition, had to settle for the bronze medal after Japan’s Arakawa Shizuka gave a dazzling performance to win her nation’s first gold medal in that event. Canadian Cindy Klassen and Italian Enrico Fabris were the stars of the speed skating competition. Klassen won five medals in all—one gold, two silver, and two bronze. The young Italian collected two gold and a bronze, outshining American favourites Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis. German speed skater Claudia Pechstein won two medals in Turin, bringing her career total to nine and making her the top medal winner in her sport’s Olympic history. Ahn Hyun-Soo of South Korea dominated the short-track skating, winning three gold medals and one bronze. |18 ||Ukraine ||0 ||0 ||2 ||2 | The table provides a list of the sites of the modern Olympic Games. Sites of the modern Olympic Games |1896 ||Athens ||* | |1900 ||Paris ||* | |1904 ||St. Louis, Mo., U.S. ||* | |1908 ||London ||* | |1912 ||Stockholm ||* | |1916 ||** ||* | |1924 ||Paris ||Chamonix, France | |1928 ||Amsterdam ||St. Moritz, Switz. | |1932 ||Los Angeles ||Lake Placid, N.Y., U.S. | |1936 ||Berlin ||Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Ger. | |1940 ||** ||** | |1944 ||** ||** | |1948 ||London ||St. Moritz, Switz. | |1952 ||Helsinki, Fin. ||Oslo, Nor. | |1956 ||Melbourne, Austl. ||Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy | |1960 ||Rome ||Squaw Valley, Calif., U.S. | |1964 ||Tokyo ||Innsbruck, Austria | |1968 ||Mexico City ||Grenoble, France | |1972 ||Munich, W.Ger. ||Sapporo, Japan | |1976 ||Montreal ||Innsbruck, Austria | |1980 ||Moscow ||Lake Placid, N.Y., U.S. | |1984 ||Los Angeles ||Sarajevo, Yugos. | |1988 ||Seoul, S.Kor. ||Calgary, Alta., Can. | |1992 ||Barcelona, Spain ||Albertville, France | |1994 ||*** ||Lillehammer, Nor. | |1996 ||Atlanta, Ga., U.S. ||*** | |1998 ||*** ||Nagano, Japan | |2000 ||Sydney, Austl. ||*** | |2002 ||*** ||Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S. | |2004 ||Athens ||*** | |2006 ||*** ||Turin, Italy | |2008 ||Beijing ||*** | |2010 ||*** ||Vancouver, B.C., Can. | |2012 ||London ||*** | |2014 ||*** ||Sochi, Russia | |2016 ||Rio de Janeiro ||*** | |2018 ||*** ||P’yŏngch’ang, S.Kor. | |2020 ||Tokyo ||*** | |2022 ||*** ||Beijing |

Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bel Geddes The Posters and Influence of America’s Industrial Designer on The Greatest Show on Earth By Chris Berry After the labor troubles of the 1938 season, John Ringling North was convinced that the future success of Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey would be incumbent upon big moves that would get people talking about the circus. The acquisition of Gargantua and the hiring of Frank Buck were bold strokes that got ink for the circus, and for North himself. The world was changing, and North was convinced that in order to maintain the promise of being The Greatest Show on Earth, the circus of the future must be different than a show which had changed little in presentation since the days of Barnum and Forepaugh. One of the biggest events in the entertainment world in the waning days of the Great Depression was the New York World’s Fair of 1939-40. Over 44 million patrons attended the fair and marveled at its “World of Tomorrow” theme. Although John Ringling North’s contribution to the fair, a wild west-themed horse show titled “Cavalcade of Centaurs”, was widely panned, it was no doubt his involvement at fair which introduced him to the success of designer Norman Bel Geddes and his “Futurama” exhibit for General Motors. Bel Geddes was the talk of the fair, and then – as now – he was seen as a pioneer of industrial design. The aerodynamic products produced by Bel Geddes and his team and exhibited at the fair included everything from cocktail shakers to radio cabinets. It was "Futurama" that gave Bel Geddes and his studio broad acclaim, and shortly after that he was engaged by John Ringling North to redesign the look of the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Fortunately for North, Norman Bel Geddes (1893-1958) had a long history in show business prior to his association with The Greatest Show on Earth. Bel Geddes began designing theatrical sets in Los Angeles as early as 1916. Shortly after he moved east and took on the responsibilities of scenic designer for the New York Metropolitan Opera. He also had experience directing and designing sets for Broadway plays – Arabesque (1925) and The Five O’Clock Girl (1927) – and in collaboration with world champion ice skater Sonja Henie, he produced one of the first ice shows entitled It Happened on Ice (1940). Bel Geddes was a true visionary. and after his design studio opened in 1927 he and his team began looking at things from a new and different perspective. In doing so they developed plans for aerodynamic automobiles, streamlined furniture and art deco appliances. When applied to the 1941 edition of the circus, Bel Geddes’ out-of-the-box thinking created a bold departure from what audiences had become accustomed to during the years prior to John Ringling North taking the helm. New acts would be brought to America from war-torn Europe, and tremendous changes were in store for the circus fan, but among the projects that had to be completed before the trains left Sarasota for the opening at Madison Square Garden were the execution of bright new posters which would foreshadow the arrival of the bold new circus of 1941. Alfred Court (1941) One of the performers who John Ringling North had “discovered” in the days prior to World War II was French animal trainer Alfred Court. Although he first appeared with Ringling during the 1940 season, his presentation – so different from that of Clyde Beatty or Terrell Jacobs – was exactly the kind of departure from traditionalism that North and Bel Geddes embraced, and as a result his act was heavily promoted in 1941. This poster, used that season, was one of the first designed and produced at the studios of Bel Geddes. The bold colors and contemporary design were substantially different than the established works of respected lithographers Strobridge and Erie, and if the garish designs were not immediately embraced by traditional circus fans, Alfred Court’s act certainly was. This poster represents only a fraction of what Court presented in 1941 – an act which featured three rings of simultaneously performing wild animals. In one-ring: lions, tigers and bears. In the other end ring: a similar lineup plus jaguars and Great Dane dogs, and in the center ring: a variety of wild felines including leopards, cougars, pumas, panthers and ocelots. Although this particular lithograph does not carry any signature other than the modest initials “G.H.”, documents uncovered while researching this article for Bandwagon confirm that the several posters created in 1941 with the initials “G.H.” were actually designed by the prominent architect George Howe (1886-1955), who became a partner of Norman Bel Geddes and Co. in 1941. In fact, one of the Ringling-Barnum circus posters designed by Howe was included in an exhibit entitled Printed Art – Pictures and Designs that Work which ran from May 25 until October 18, 1941 at the Brooklyn Museum. These modern circus poster designs, which can now be attributed to George Howe, have the same feel as those of the highly-regarded poster artist E. McKnight Kauffer, who would design – and sign – other lithographs and program covers used by Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey in the 1940s. Gargantua was a household name and still a tremendous attraction in 1941, yet the acquisition of a female gorilla – M’Toto – gave the Ringling press office the opportunity to “advance the story” before the opening in New York and promote a primate romance which culminated in a “marriage” of the two apes. During the 1940s three posters depicting Mr. and Mrs. Gargantua were included in the litho hods of billposters and lithographers of Ringling-Barnum, but this poster – again the work of George Howe – is perhaps the most striking and is much different than the classic Gargantua lithographs executed by Strobridge in 1938. Although this particular litho references "For 80 Years, The Greatest Show on Earth", the reference is as inaccurate as it is inexplicable. In 1941 it had actually been about seventy years since Barnum and his partners first used the famous slogan to promote his show. Mr and Mrs Gargantua (1941) The two gorillas were never actually as close as they are seen here, as this poster is a composite photo of the pair, again promoting the addition of M'Toto (Swahili for "Little One") to “The Greatest Show on Earth”. Not only did the designers at the Bel Geddes studios take some artistic license in putting the couple in this friendly pose, but M’Toto’s breasts were also augmented, no doubt in hopes of titillating those who would see the pair staring from the window of a shop or empty store window. Although John Ringling North had hoped to mate the two gorillas, it never happened, yet the publicity worked as tens of thousands flocked to the Bel Geddes-designed gorilla tent, constructed without center poles but rather with four towers which suspended the canvas by cable. Inside the tent were two air-conditioned cage wagons – spotted back-to-back, giving easy access in the event that a gorilla romance did blossom during the season-long honeymoon. Incidentally this particular one-sheet features a date tail for a one-day stand in Oakland, California on September 7, 1941. Exactly three months later the United States was at war - and travel restrictions during the ensuing war years kept the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey circus from returning to California until 1948. Oakland didn't see the Big Show again until September 1949 - the last time it played that city under canvas and just two months prior to Gargantua succumbing to a case of double-pneumonia. Leopard Head (1941) This poster image surely holds the record for longevity by a circus, with Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey using variations of it for nearly 30 years starting in 1941. Over the decades the Ringling-Barnum advance crews posted window cards, half-sheets, one-sheets and wall work with this striking image of a snarling leopard.. The original design (seen here) was among that first group of posters which John Ringling North commissioned Bel Geddes to produce. Over the years the font changed, the background was temporarily switched from green to red and in 1954 the image of the leopard was sharpened by the artists at Cincinnati's Strobridge Litho Company, one of the last posters that the venerable firm ever printed for Ringling-Barnum (that version used during the 1954-56 seasons is identified by a small printers union seal in the corner of the poster). Felix Adler (1943) This original design of Felix Adler and his parasol was produced in both an "upright" and "flat" format and was used throughout the 1940s and into the early 1950s with only slight changes in design - most notably the font used on the title. This one-sheet dates from 1943 - a time when North had been replaced at the helm by his cousin Robert Ringling. It promotes an appearance at Hartford's Barbour Street Showgrounds - the same lot where fire would consume the big top less than one year later. The stamp of designer Norman Bel Geddes was everywhere in 1941, from the bright colors of the midway, a blue big top, a red menagerie tent and even brightly colored sawdust (reddish pink in rings one and three, white in the middle - and blue on the hippodrome track). While the traditional circus fan might have questioned the changes, the innovations dreamed up by Bel Geddes received rave reviews. The April 26, 1941 edition of The Billboard said that “it’s the best costumed, best lighted, and best presented circus in the big show’s history” and ticket sales went through the roof. During the 28 day stand at Madison Square Garden, 55 performances were held and 600,000 patrons paid an average of two-dollars a ticket. Once the show left the Garden the audiences continued to flock to the performances, and the influence of Bel Geddes was clear from the moment they set foot on the lot. The sideshow banners had been repainted with a Bel Geddes theme, and in the menagerie paintings of jungle scenes were added between and on the cage wagons. The crowds loved it and showed their appreciation at the ticket wagon. The new big top, made of blue canvas, could seat eleven thousand people and the attendance numbers were staggering. Sixty thousand attended the four shows in Cleveland, Ohio. Another seventy-four thousand for Detroit’s four-day stand and 120,000 saw the show during the ten-day stand in Los Angeles. According to the December 27 edition of The Billboard, the 1941 season was “the best ever” at the box office. Kitty Clark and Elephant (1941) This particular design, which also carries the initials of George Howe, continues the Bel Geddes theme of bold colors and was produced in both an upright and flat (horizontal) format. This poster continued to be used – with some minor variations – throughout the 1940s, but this is the original 1941 design with the stylized font, the Bel Geddes studios logo, and Howe’s initials printed between the elephant's hind legs; three elements that would disappear in later renditions of this poster. Howe’s modern design was based on a photograph and is the first of three posters that featured the image of Kitty Clark - the other two from 1944 are much more traditional (Bill Bailey's "Panto's Paradise" spec poster and Maxwell Frederic Coplan's photograph of her with a white horse and a pink background). A rehash of this basic design was also used on the Ringling-Barnum souvenir program book of 1964. Old King Cole (1941) In retaining the services of Norman Bel Geddes, John Ringling North literally handed him a blank canvas to create his magic. In addition to the design of the color scheme of the tents, the posters, menagerie and costumes, he was also told to come up with a spec unlike anything that circus fans had become accustomed to. For the 1941 season the “spectacular fantasy”, titled "Old King Cole and Mother Goose", was moved from the opening act to Display #5, the first time in the show’s history that the spec didn’t open the performance. A Bandwagon article by Fred D. Pfening Jr from Jan-Feb 2004 provides notes from a meeting on January 24, 1941 when Bel Geddes and North discussed the spec. Notes from that meeting read in part, "Everything in the circus should look as if it is happening for the benefit of Old King Cole (clown Lou Jacobs). The Court animal act cannot be part of the King's entertainment, because it is too dominating in itself, a horse spectacle would be the same, as well as any other big arena act, except the elephants and things that have a special quality, or any period act that doesn't fit in with the Mother Goose idea. Therefore, we should start the circus with two or three obviously unrelated acts." Both an upright and flat version of this poster was printed. This lithograph also carries the initials of George Howe and its dark background punctuated by splashes of color foreshadows the design of the two Bel Geddes posters that were created specifically for the 1942 season by the famed poster artist E. McKnight Kauffer. Following the success that North had seen in 1941, he continued to use Bel Geddes services in 1942 and hired producer and director John Murray Anderson to help stage the show. That included not only the “Holidays” spec but also the “Elephant Ballet”. By the time that this litho was put up in 1942, thousands of posters designed at the Bel Geddes studios had already been displayed across the length and breadth of the United States. Although all of the posters produced by the Bel Geddes Studios in 1941 were in an avant garde style similar to those created by the influential modernist poster artist E. McKnight Kauffer, this design from 1942 is the first lithograph for Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey that actually bears his signature. The use of a well-known artist to create a circus poster was a departure from the mostly anonymous work created over the previous 75 years by the firms of Strobridge, Russell-Morgan, Erie and Central Printing & Illinois Litho. Born in Great Falls, Montana, Kauffer (1890-1954) studied at both the Art Institute of Chicago and in Paris where he was influenced by the post-modernism movement. Consequently many of his poster designs are abstract in nature. Described as the “Picasso of advertising design” Kauffer spent most of his career in England where he became one of the most important and prolific poster artists of the 1920s and 1930s. Kauffer designed hundreds of posters in his career and in 1915 he began producing posters for the London Underground. Over the next 25 years he created 140 classic images for the Underground which have become highly collectible. In 1940, as London was targeted by the Nazi blitz, Kauffer returned to New York, where John Ringling North and Norman Bel Geddes commissioned him to create this poster for the "Holidays" spec of 1942 - produced by John Ringling North, designed by Norman Bel Geddes and staged by John Murray Anderson. This particular poster - like many of those during the war years - also encourages passersby to "Buy Defense Bonds" - a tremendous patriotic campaign endorsed by Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey, Cole Bros and many other shows. A variation of this same artwork was used as the cover of the 1948 Ringling-Barnum souvenir program book. The 1949 program also features artwork signed by Kauffer of a polar bear, perhaps originally designed as a poster that was never executed. Elephant Ballet (1942) This lithograph features artwork by Kauffer and is the final in the series produced by the studios of Norman Bel Geddes and printed by the McCandlish Litho Corp of Philadelphia. When he began creating this artwork Kauffer knew the concept of the “Elephant Ballet”, and was able to execute a stark yet attractive design, even though the “ballet” had yet to be performed. "The Ballet of the Elephants" was written for the 1942 season by classical composer Igor Stravinsky at the request of George Balanchine - America's premiere ballet choreographer. According to the 1942 program, the act featured "Fifty Elephants and Fifty Beautiful Girls in an Original Choreographic Tour de Force. Featuring MODOC, premiere ballerina, the Corps de Ballet and Corps des Elephants". If the design of the circus was evolving in the early 1940s, press-agent puffery was as traditional as it was in the classic days of Barnum. While “Fifty Elephants” is a memorable number and highly promotable, according to elephant boss Walter McClain, there were actually 45 members in the “Corps des Elephants” at the start of the season, a number that was cut to 41 after the tragic menagerie fire in Cleveland killed four elephants on August 4, 1942. While the "elephant ballet" may have been a bit too high-brow for some of the circus-going public, this particular poster is sought-after by collectors because of the Kauffer design and the billing which mentions the collaboration of three superstars in their particular fields: Kauffer, Stravinsky, and Balanchine. Whether it was the changes in the performance and its advertising, or the recovering post-Depression economy, 1941 and the subsequent war years brought big money to the Ringling organization. In 1943 senior management of the circus changed from the North brothers to the group led by Robert and Edith Ringling. With those changes in leadership some of the “traditional” elements of the circus returned too – not only to the big top but also to the outdoor advertising that was used to promote the coming show. Posters bearing the artwork and signatures of Lawson Wood, Bill Bailey and Maxwell Frederic Coplan gradually replaced the avant garde style of Norman Bel Geddes, yet the influence that his design had on the circus and its advertising during a period when America was becoming more urban and sophisticated continued throughout the late 20th Century and into the 21st. It has been said that the only thing that is constant is change. That was as true in 1941 as it is today – 70 years after Norman Bel Geddes began his association with the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey circus. From lavish specs and costumes to customized music and coordinated performances the vision of Norman Bel Geddes has, over the decades, become a part of the fabric of The Greatest Show on Earth – and no doubt will continue to influence its performances, design and staging for some time to come.

Polygonum persicaria Cockscomb This plant is very common in humid, damp areas and is native to Europe and Asia. It can grow as tall as 80cms and flowers from July to November. It's leaves contain tannins and are effective against diarrhoea. The leaves can also be used in salads, as well as applying to the skin for sores and skin ulcers. They contain a yellow dye when infused. Monday, 17 October 2016 Limbarda crithmoides Golden samphire This plant was originally called Inula crithmoides and is a coastal, perennial, plant found on salt marshes or sea cliffs and can grow to a metre in height. The flowers are self-pollinating and the young leaves, rich in iodine, can be used as a vegetable. They can be eaten raw or cooked. It flowers from May to December. It is native to western and southern Europe, and the Mediterranean. Wednesday, 12 October 2016 Rumex crispus Curly dock I think I have identified this correctly, but I am not 100% certain. This pretty dock is native to Europe and west Asia, though it has now naturalised on other continents and classed as a pest. The curly leaves contain oxalic acid and have been used as a green vegetable, but have to be boiled many times to dilute the oxalic acid, which may cause kidney stones. The leaves are used on the skin to relieve irritation and rashes. The leaves also contain Vitamins A and C. Saturday, 8 October 2016 Orobanche ramosa Hemp broomrape This parasitic broomrape can be a pest on a vegetable plot or in agricultural fields. It is native to central and SW Europe and grow from 10 to 35cms tall. It is found among several cultivated plants, eg tomatoes, peas, sunflowers, aubergines and peppers. It has a thick root from which several slender stems grow. Being parasitic it feeds off the nutrients of its host and lacks leaves and chlorophyll. Thursday, 6 October 2016 Hippocrepis rupestris Horseshoe vetch This beautiful plant is found commonly in the Ronda mountains, and is native to southern Spain and NW Africa. I think I have identified it correctly, but someone may tell me I have it wrong. It flowers from March to May and grows to approx. 25cms in height. The seeds are shaped like an horseshoe, but I do not have photographs unfortunately. It is closely related to the Coronillas. Monday, 3 October 2016 Mentha pulegium Pennyroyal This common herb is native to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. It flowers from July to October and can grow to an height of 40cms. Tea can be made from the dried leaves, but is toxic to the liver and the uterus but has been used for centuries. It should only be used in moderation. The essential oil of Pennyroyal is used in aromatherapy, but ingestion of the oil can cause death.

What happens in the first 5 days directly impacts how long you nurse your baby. Your body starts stage two of the lactation process with the delivery of the placenta. After that, every stretch of your nipple cues your body how much milk to make. Most breasts start filling up with milk on day 2 or 3. Some take 5 or more days. If you have breastfed before, you can expect your colostrum to change over to milk within the first two days. Full term babies are born with extra fat that the liver can convert into fuel in case breastfeeding doesn't have an optimal beginning. If your baby is sleepy or has a problem latching or sucking, your breasts won't get the stimulation they need to make milk in a timely manner. Most medical professionals don't understand how breasts work and describe scary situations of "worst case scenarios." In addition, if your baby is unresponsive, confused and/or clearly hungry, you will be scared and worried because every little problem is magnified under a lens of uncertainty. When you are feeling frightened and uncertain, you may decide breastfeeding is just not worth it. The fastest way to be comfortable breastfeeding is to have a coach to help you through the first feedings and answer all your questions with accurate information. "Even though it was hard at the beginning, I am glad I stuck it out. I didn't know breastfeeding is so much more than feeding." Before you get discouraged, before you give that first bottle, before you have a big problem, before you waste a lot of time searching online, read breastfeeding books, pump, use bottles, nipples shields and shells, call Donna at (845) 750-4402. Your baby already knows how to breastfeed. What probably needs to happen is that YOU learn how to let your baby breastfeed. Breastfeeding is intuitive and natural, but often it's not easy. If you are nursing and it hurts, or you are unsure if you have enough milk, it can be one or several things together, that need adjusting. There are literally hundreds of things that can contribute to painful, problematic or ineffective nursing. What is breastfeeding like? Breastfeeding is not just about feeding your baby. It is a way to mother that nurtures you, too. While some mothers find it amazing, intuitive, easy, natural and satisfying from day 1, most women struggle a little (or a lot) in the beginning. Here are common problems during The First 5 Days: - Improper Latch - It is painful and can lead to inadequate feeding, low weight gain, insufficient or over-abundant milk, early weaning, and sore or cracked nipples. But it's almost always totally preventable. - Engorgement - It is overwhelming because it comes on suddenly and it can really hurt! It can lead to mastitis and other complications. But it's almost always totally preventable. - Dehydration, Weight Loss, and Jaundice These can happen if your baby is not breastfeeding well. This is totally preventable if you follow two simple techniques. - Forced Formula Supplementation - In a crisis, medical professionals act quickly in ways that often undermine breastfeeding and your confidence. This is totally preventable if someone educates them on a technique that makes more milk and increases your baby's weight quickly. (And improves bonding with your baby!) Instead of struggling, a home visit lets you sit in your own home with someone who listens, observes, gives encouragement, coaches you and answers all your questions. You naturally feel more confident. Confident you have enough milk. Confident you know how to feed your baby in an easy, relaxing way. And confident you are on the right track. "I had no idea what I was doing. I was tired and confused from the birth. I had so many questions!" It's easier to address a breastfeeding problem on Day 1, 2 or 5, than on Day 7 because you and your baby haven't learned any bad habits. And more importantly, your baby still has reserves from pregnancy while you aren't totally frustrated and overwhelmed. You may already be working with a Midwife or Doula and that is a great place to start. All Midwives and Doulas understand that there is an art and a science to breastfeeding. They understand the value of a home visit from a Lactation Consultant. They will be happy that you have brought in someone with lots of breastfeeding knowledge and experience.

You dream of being a writer, but how do you even begin to do that? Well, chances are, you’re already a writer. You write, don’t you? See? You’re a writer. But if your definition of a ‘writer’ earns a decent living with those skills, you’re aiming for a professional writing career—freelance or not. I know freelance has become the new American dream but there are many different kinds of occupational writers. There are also plenty of staff positions out there, many of which you can do from home—in your yoga pants/boxer briefs. Remote work isn’t necessarily freelance. The point is that ‘being’ a writer means something different to each and every writer there is, but as far as professional writing advice? Here’s the best I’ve got: Most Of The Fear Will Subside, The Exhilaration Will Not First of all, in the beginning of your freelance career, you’ll most likely experience fear and trepidation at the very thought of contacting job prospects and sending queries or pitches. You’ll agonize over each and every email, taking days to work up courage before shooting them off. Send those emails anyway—even if they take a few drafts and an act of bravery. Eventually most of this marketing will feel like another day at the computer, even if at first it’s terrifying. Now I’m not saying I don’t get a thrill when I send an article pitch or check my email (consistently for days) after applying for a juicy position. And I still doubt my ability to write—every time—but the overwhelming fear eventually lessened. Chances are yours will, too. Doing it daily makes it a bit old hat, eventually. Tenacity And Perseverance Make Professional Writers Keep at it, even though you’ll be turned down. All writers have to fight rejection for their start. It’s an occupational hazard. Accept your no-thanks-yous and your not-at-this-times, but keep writing and marketing your services. Even once you’re paying the bills full-time, you’ll still apply for jobs and won’t land them. Pitches, too. It can be hard not to take it personally and get discouraged, but stopping doesn’t make you a professional writer, now does it? And that right there is the difference between those who have made a living writing, and those who have not. Need Work? Do This! Market and write and market and write and then market and write some more. If you really want to write full time, like as your only job, put aside some savings or get together some money, get to the point where you’re turning down work—or could easily land enough work to meet your income goals—and then make the jump. I personally called in until Wal-Mart fired me after three years of employment—I was incredibly unhappy—and walked out with my two-week check, my vacation pay, 401k, and stocks—it was very Tim Ferriss-y—but it was enough to cover my expenses long enough for me to replace that income by writing online. Granted, I had clips and experience writing for two locally printed newspapers, but there’s no reason you can’t start without them. We all start somewhere. See the above point on tenacity. In the meantime, market and write. Work on your skills and keep applying. Keep brainstorming and email pitches. Outline non-fiction ideas. Read. Study the words and hidden equations in the formats of others’ work. Don’t Put All Your Income In One Basket Diversify your client roster so that, if you lose a client, it isn’t your one and only. Having savings tucked away can buy you time if your workload suddenly drops and it can also alleviate the sheer terror of being self-employed, if you’re anxious about your financial security, like I am. In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to add that I’m breaking this rule right now. One site I was writing for is undergoing a restructure, so we’re on hold. Another I’d planned on replacing. But I’m making more than enough to pay my bills, have enough savings that I’d have plenty of time to find more work should the worst happen, and this has been a steady client for well over a year. If something goes wrong, I’m covered. Unless you have a similar plan, I suggest you don’t leave yourself vulnerable to financial crisis. Keep a couple different eggs in your basket. Admit (To Yourself) If You’re Rusty The hardest advice to give to new writers is to practice writing. Just write. This is because there are so many writers out there who don’t spend their time writing, yet wonder why their pitches are declined. Pitches can’t be the only thing you write. Remember what makes a writer? A writer writes. Chances are you’re just rusty and it doesn’t matter if you admit that to me or anyone else. No judgement here. What matters is that you admit it to yourself so you can fix it. If your craft needs honing, fine. There’s a remedy for that: Write! Give yourself assignments. Try different formats. Read. Ask readers (they can be friends) and writers (join or start a group) for feedback on your work. Then, again, see the section on tenacity. Make A Plan Building a writing career isn’t impossible. We can even break it into manageable steps: Earn your first clips. Use them to create a portfolio. Build yourself an impressive website to link to in your emails to new clients. Calculate how much you’re making an hour—then set income goals for each week, each month, and a year. How much do you need to make? Could you make that if you were writing full time? Put some money away—it’s like buying yourself time. Then go for it! Once it gets easier and easier to land work, it’s just having the courage to jump. It won’t be easy and it won’t be quick, but it’s sure as hell worth it.

I like the idea of having essay assignments because they allow me to explore the subject I am studying in my own terms (to a certain extent). I can learn new things on my own and put my thoughts out there about the things I’ve learned. However, despite having to write many essay assignments during my four years in university, I still have problems with writing them. I get intimidated by word count and page numbers. The professor telling me how many pages or how many words I have to write is like giving me a whole chicken and asking me to eat it all in one go. I know that is not the case, but in my head that is what I am thinking about. Knowing that I have that huge goal in mind and looking at the blank Word document in front of me, I get anxious. To avoid my anxiety, I procrastinate - I convince myself that I still have time and that I can do it later. Deep inside I know that is not true, but I can be very persuasive at times, even towards myself. It is bad to fool others, but it is worse to fool oneself. I am still struggling with this fear, but I found 3 ways of dealing with it that seem promising. 1. Break the task into smaller pieces. I can’t eat the whole chicken in one sitting. If I have a 10-page essay to write, for example, then the first thing that I’ll do is break the task up into parts. For example, for the first week, I will only focus on the research that has to be done for the assignment. Then, the second week will be the time when I start on the blueprint of the essay. Then, I’ll move to the introduction. So on and so forth. A colossal task can be made manageable if I take it one piece at a time. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. 2. Don’t look at the page. Simple, but surprisingly effective. Since I am anxious when I look at the blank age in front of me, the best way to overcome it is to avoid looking at it. Not that I am avoiding the problem, but I am removing the restriction that prevents me from writing. Once I free myself from the shackles of the blank page, I can just focus on the one thing that matters at the time – writing. Word count and number of pages are not as important as getting the message across. I cover my computer screen with something and look at the keyboard. It is surprising how smoothly ideas flow from my brain to the tips of my fingers when I don’t have to think about how much I’ve written or how much more I need to write. I just focus on the writing and I write my minds off. Of course, there are going to be errors (lots of them) in my writing since I am looking not looking at the screen. I don’t worry about that because that is what editing is for. As long as the main ideas are written down, the process of editing will be a breeze. Don't let perfection get in the way of the writing. Just write. 3. Writer’s block? Write about it. Writer’s block: the enemy of all writers. Or is it? Once, I took a writing course and my professor gave me an interesting advice: when you have writer’s block, write about it. I don’t think writer’s block is the inability to generate ideas. Ideas are there, but words to express those ideas are not coming out. To overcome the blockage of words, write about anything on the side. What the professor suggested was brilliant: using the writer’s block itself as the topic of writing. Describe the block, the feelings, the fear, and be as detailed as possible. Turn a problem into an opportunity. The main point is to just write – let the words come out. Break the blockage with a constant stream of words. Pretty soon I'll find myself able to continue my original work. Having written all that, I still feel the fear and it is still affecting me. I even experienced it before writing this article. But here I am, writing my words and putting my thoughts out there, and there you are, reading them.

Pacific White-sided Dolphin Pacific white-sided dolphins travel in close-knit pods, and have been observed caring for sick or injured individuals. Like all members of the genus Lagenorhynchus, the Pacific white-sided dolphin is stocky with a short, very thick snout. The area at the tip of the snout, or "lips", are black. The most distinctive feature of this species is a prominent, strongly recurved and bi-colored dorsal fin. The dark grey back and sides are separated from the white belly by a black border. Light grey streaks starting at the sides of the melon (the bulbous forehead of many dolphins, porpoises, and whales) curve downward behind the eye and enlarge into grey thoracic patches. Grey "suspender stripes", start above the eye and widen into bands on the sides of the tail stock. Their large flippers are slightly rounded at the tips. Individuals may reach 200 kilograms (440 pounds) in weight and may be up to 2.5 meters (seven feet) in length, with males being slightly larger than females. Growth and Reproduction They breed and calve spring-summer, sometimes early fall. After a 10-12 month gestation period, a single calf is born which may be up to three feet long and weigh up to 14 pounds. Females will reach sexual maturity around five to six years, and males around eight to 10 years. Males and females travel in pods, exhibiting a polygynous mating system, with one dominant male who will breed with available females. The Pacific white-sided dolphin eats a variety of small schooling fish, such as anchovies and hake, as well as squid. There is evidence that these dolphins feed mostly on midwater concentrations of marine animals known as the "deep scattering layer," and sometimes use cooperative foraging techniques. They are also often seen at dawn or dusk feeding with gulls on small surfacing balls of unidentified bait fish. Seasonal movements are not very well understood in most areas. Off the California coast, there appear to be resident groups that are joined by influxes of animals from other areas during the fall through spring. In the summer, animals may travel as far north as Kodiak Island, and dolphins have been seen in the Aleutians and the Gulf of Alaska. Whether these individuals are members of the local North Pacific stock, or have migrated in from the California/Oregon/ Washington stock, is unclear. Pacific white-sided dolphins are very sociable and often seen traveling in multi-species herds of ten to several thousand animals. Most commonly they are found in groups of several hundred animals. Typically these groups contain all age classes and both sexes. They are fast swimmers, common bowriders, and very playful and acrobatic. They are often seen leaping, flipping, and somersaulting. These gregarious cetaceans often are observed in the company of many other marine mammals, most notably, the northern right whale dolphin. Range and Habitat Pacific white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens) inhabit temperate waters of the North Pacific Ocean and some neighboring seas. Despite their distribution largely in deep, offshore waters, Pacific white-sided dolphins also are found over the continental shelf and very near shore in some areas. While population structure is poorly understood for this species, they are managed as two distinct stocks: the California/Oregon/Washington stock, and the North Pacific stock (north of 45° N, including Alaska). Their southern range limits are near the mouth of the Gulf of California and Taiwan. The northern extent of their range extends into the Gulf of Alaska and west to Amchitka Island in the Aleutians. Dolphins are found rarely in the southern Bering Sea. The Pacific white-sided dolphin is naturally acrobatic. They are a treat for wildlife watchers and will interact with boats. They are easily trained as performers in oceanariums and thus make popular additions for human entertainment. They are also harvested in small amounts for consumption in Japan. The Pacific white-sided dolphin is protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Diana Arce Reyna is a full-time graduate student at UC Berkeley’s Master of Development Practice program. During the past few months, I remained an active observer of the tragedy that Peru suffered following intense rains and floods all over the country. I have watched the solidarity of my people throughout Peru and other parts of the world responding to this tragedy by sending donations or collaborating with different campaigns. These actions moved me and convinced me that we are on the right track towards a more sustainable future, a one that unites people not only in moments of tragedy but on a daily basis, and that assures adequate standards of living for the entire Peruvian population. However, I’m afraid that we will never reach that path if the government continues promoting economic growth as the only basis of its development policies with no attention to the preservation of natural resources for the benefit of the people. It is not by chance that Peru has 118 active social conflicts related to the environment, including 95 related to mining and 20 related to hydrocarbons.[i] As evidence that Peruvian policies are still prioritizing economic growth over conservation, I would like to highlight the program called “Plan150mil.” This plan was launched last April with the objective of increasing economic growth by more than 4% through a package of six concrete measures: acceleration of construction projects, increasing mining investments, formal juvenile labor, creation of social neighborhoods, and access to credit for small businesses.[ii] Although I searched for more detail about these measures, I did not find the detailed roadmap for their implementation that would assure that the proposed measures could be maintained without creating other significant economic problems and social conflicts, especially for future generations. The rapid response of the Peruvian government in facing the recent emergencies by providing resources for affected populations shows the real intention of assisting those people in need as quickly as possible. The eradication of poverty should be the first priority when designing policies, but this must be done in a way that people above the poverty line have opportunities to continue to strive towards success and to reach their full potential in any field they may choose. However, when talking about reconstruction or rebuilding of the areas affected by the floods, we cannot forget the human side of this tragedy. Development must not only address the infrastructure and rebuilding of local economies but, using a well-thought out plan, should also assure a reestablishment of people’s hope and optimism that allows them to build their own opportunities in the future. First, as people will have lost family members and close friends, a health plan is needed to address the inevitable resulting trauma and help ensure that people can continue their regular activities. Second, communities that are located in extremely vulnerable areas need to be relocated. Developing these processes effectively means the involvement and participation of members of the affected communities should be prioritized and taken into account during decision-making, thereby assuring ownership. Finally, there is a need of an education plan that allows people to understand why these natural phenomenon are happening from a scientific standpoint, and what they could do to ameliorate them. National policies should accelerate the integration of economic, social and environmental factors. This is a good opportunity for the Peruvian government to rebuild the country by employing innovative, people-focused, inclusive solutions that do not compromise ecosystems.

While watching one of my favorite daily series on the lives of medics, I was wondering how terrible it is for both doctors and patients to establish a personal relationship these days. No matter how caring they try to be to us, at the end of the day we are no more than a ‘case’ to them. And the number of these ‘cases’ keep increasing with every passing day. We as ailing sufferers and more importantly as the primary accountable person for your body now need to adopt some ferocious measures to stay healthy. Over the years I have seen people grow more conscious of their fitness and start following healthy regimes; to avoid falling prey to ailments. Clearly, mHealth App Development has had a role to play in this change. However, you just cannot avoid certain ailments and medical emergencies and that is the reason mHealth app development came into being. The biggest aim of mHealth app development is to ensure that you stay connected with the best and proximal medicinal provisions with the aid of technology. What is mHealth As I read in one of PWC’s reports and found it the most appropriate formulae: Doctors – Hospital Visits + Mobile Technology = mHealth Now you know that mHealth does not simply aid you in adopting the process of becoming health conscious. mHealth app development or mobile health as the term suggests is an ecosystem that connects your fitness with your mobile gadgets, which also include wearables and sensors. Earlier mHealth was restricted to sharing problems, remedies, reports, and prescriptions; however, over the years mHealth has expanded its realm and taken a more personalized approach, paving way for custom mobile app for healthcare. The market of mHealth is going to expand on a huge scale globally in the coming years and with it will expand the opportunities, for apps developers in the mobile health industry. I would like to stress here healthcare app development is not limited to smartphones alone, rather they have embraced newer technologies which fall into the category of mobile. What is the Difference between eHealth and mHealth App Development? Now at this stage, I would like to clarify that eHealth and mHealth are two different practices and although related to the same field; they have some distinctly different qualities. - First, mHealth has a more personal approach, since we are more attached to our mobile gadgets, thus making Custom Mobile App for Healthcare indispensable. - Although the eHealth platform has a wider reach, one finds a more concentrated audience for mHealth. This has lead to more advances being made in the field of healthcare mobile app development. - Another important factor that makes mHealth more favored is its localized appeal, medical practitioners are now able to communicate better on forums, and so are patients.With healthcare mobile app development, one can witness a better connectivity amongst patients and doctors. How mHealth Influences Healthcare and App Development Sectors According to a research, around 36% Health Apps have entered the app market in the last two years, to be counted easily as the majority. yet only the big fishes of the mobile application market have been able to make it big in the sector. - There are over 100,000 healthcare applications present in the app stores of both Apple and Android - Around 30% of these mHealth apps are fitness apps - The mHealth app market will grow to a considerable size of USD 26bn by 2017 - Lack of data security and app development standards are the commonest and biggest blockades in the health app market - 71% of mHealth apps are either already connected to or plan to connect to an API for the exchange of health data Although a report by Gartner published on August 11, 2014, states that mHealth isn’t yet in its flourishing stage; and it needs around 5 years to make it to the progressive platform. However, a definite rise has been seen amongst users, when it comes to using gadgets which are related to healthcare especially considering the launch of Apple Watch; and similar Smartwatches and wearables. This disparity can be implicated to the initiatives taken so far, which is more focused towards the Healthcare industry rather than individuals or end-users. What are the Present Challenges in mHealth One of my worries as a user of mHealth technology has been “does it make me too self-regulating?” Well! I’m not the only one who’s worried it seems, there are more users like me along with 64% doctors who fear that mHealth makes the users too independent. However, there’s no denying that doctors are also encouraging patients to adopt the mHealth techniques since it relieves them of the mounting pressure and helps connect, discuss and share their case studies with other experts when the need arises. The major challenges faced by the mHealth sector are: - The absence of recognized business models has come up as the biggest barrier to the development of the mHealth ecosystem. The need of the hour is to create awareness amongst Smartphone users about the availability as well as the usefulness of health-related apps. Alongside, healthcare app development needs the emergence of skilled and better enterprises. - Developing countries are being believed to be the biggest adopter of mHealth than developed countries, but technological reservation, as well as hesitancy amongst users, is obstructing the progress of this ecosystem, and it will be a difficult barrier for healthcare mobile app development to overcome. It is being predicted that in the coming years, sensors and data health collection will also become a predominant activity in the mHealth market, which means it’s high-time to work on the loopholes. What is the Future of mHealth With the advent of wearables and sensors mHealth or Mobile Health has been able to cause considerable disruption in the Healthcare sector. There are continuous inventions being made in the healthcare sector in collaboration with technology to ensure a proper handshake between the two fields. The consortium had been arranged for quite a while, a glimpse of which was strongly felt when Apple launched HealthKit to give an impression of stepping into the healthcare sector. In order to gauge the future of mHealth in the coming years, one needs to contemplate on different requirements of the users of mobile health technology. - Concentration on fitness - Consultation between patients and doctors - Knowledge sharing amongst medical practitioners Now, these different types of users of the health apps are dispersed on different scales globally. As a technologist, I always stress that we identify the target audience of our application and the scalability of the app because we are working in a field which is meant to see a lot of transformation in the coming years. Considering the fact that there are healthcare apps already flooding the market; the question arises on the download rate which hadn’t seen a rise until recently. Yet according to the latest estimations, the mHealth market will see a sweeping rise. Based on a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the California HealthCare Foundation, 52% of Smartphone users in the U.S are gathering health information through their gadgets and this data is certainly going to rise in the next few years. This opens up multiple frontiers for app developers in the mobile health domain. Wearables, Beacons, and Sensors Thinking about when this actually began, the first thing to come to my mind is the Nike+ app and related gears. One can consider it a well-executed marketing strategy but Nike was indeed able to instill within people the importance of fitness through its Running App. Wearables will soon become an indispensable part of our lives; another report by Gartner says wearable electronic devices for fitness will reach 68.1 million units in 2015. Not to mention that this rise also marks a bright future for mobile app developers who now have a new genre to build up their strength on. The creator of Google Glass Dr. Babak Parviz, who is now with Amazon also agrees that this wearable has a bright future with mHealth, “In the surgery, it can be used as a tool for medical education. The doctor can transmit the first-person point of view to the student; even if you’re standing right next to the doctor in the surgery, it’s hard to see what’s going on.” Wondering what beacons have got to do with the mHealth sector? Beacons, indeed have a very competitive market, especially after they have moved on from being simple Bluetooth reliant devices. Those simple Estimote Nearables can be of great help, when they send a reminder, “Hey, it’s time for your pills!” And the Cloud Beacons are a major advancement to help you connect with expert medical practitioners so that you know exactly who to consult for your health issues. The use of sensors in the mobile health sector will increase considerably in the coming years. Accounting for nearly 21% of mHealth apps sensors have already created a market for themselves in the mobile health sector. Moreover, in the coming years’ sensors will turn into one of the commonest devices of generic use; for instance measuring blood pressure, body temperature and even burning calories. All in all, this opens up opportunities for exploration and innvoation in mHealth App Development. mHealth will prove to be a commendable step in the healthcare industry in the coming days. The mobile app development companies are already studying and preparing to create worthy solutions for this sector, along with a parallel rise in the number of interested consumers, who will embrace this ecosystem.

As a young, black woman, I’ve naturally felt like the Labour party represented me. It’s always been the party of equality, social democracy and justice for all. Historically, it has fought against racial inequality and in 2015, I was glad to see a BAME manifesto released. It included ‘closing the BAME pay gap’, ‘taking robust action against hate crime’ and ‘strengthening representation in public life and in politics’. Unfortunately, Labour didn’t win in 2015 and right now, as a party we need to focus on winning a general election so we can work with the BAME community and make sure these changes actually happen. Last week, Owen Smith hosted a BAME roundtable discussion and it is clear to me that he is open and willing to listen to our concerns. It was attended by Seema Malhotra MP, several councillors and members who came ready with questions and were more than willing to voice their concerns. He said ‘I want to listen more than I’ll speak’ and that was incredibly moving to hear. Unfortunately, liberation issues are often used as a token in politics and end up being ignored and pushed aside but Smith made it clear that he wanted to change this stating that “As a party, we’re not taking these issues seriously enough”. Several topics came up but a constant was representation. Labour currently has the most BAME MP’s and it’s something we as a party should be so proud of but it is still not reflective of the multicultural society we live in. Having accurate representation is more than just having more members of parliament. One councillor, made a fantastic point about the lack of BAME representation at a European level stating that they are “often the only one at the European committee of the regions, where issues affecting our community are brought up”. Even at local levels, in areas with large populations of minorities, local councils are not entirely representative of their community. And in the party itself, advisors and parliamentary assistants are overwhelmingly white and this is something we need to change. We need to work with communities and encourage people from BAME backgrounds to stand for positions. Labour must do more than just state this, they need to actively change it. If we don’t we are at risk of being supplanted by the Tories as the most popular Party in a lot of ethnic communities. This is not just a concern in terms of winning elections but minorities are losing their innate allegiance and loyalty they have always had with the Labour party. I will openly admit that I did not vote for Corbyn in the last leadership election but I respected the clear mandate he had and was willing to support him as Labour leader. Unfortunately, he continued to disappoint me and his lacklustre performance during the EU referendum was the final straw. Even before the last general election, the atmosphere in the UK changed. The rise of groups like Britain First and the success of UKIP in the last general election has been harrowing and after the result of Brexit, there has been a huge surge in hate crime and racism. Islamophobia has gotten even worse and anti-Semitism is on the rise. We need a leader who will not just address these problems but act on it. I’m very aware of Corbyn’s history and his support for ethnic minorities in this country and it is something I am very grateful for but we need a leader who will speak for all. His response to the rise of anti-Semitism we have seen in recent months has been extremely disappointing and the Jewish Labour Movement’s overwhelming support for Smith shows that a Labour party lead by Corbyn will not be a party that welcomes everyone. It is not acceptable that many of my Jewish friends, who once felt proud to call themselves Labour party members have left because they no longer feel welcome. These are issues that we need to tackle and true change cannot happen unless we have an electable Labour party. The outcome of the review by the Equality and Human Rights Commission was frankly shocking. Figures like ‘black graduates earn 23.1% less than white graduates’ and ‘Ethnic minorities unemployment rates (12.9%) were twice as high than the white community (6.3%)’ are incredibly concerning but it’s a constant reality for ethnic minorities in this country and it’s clear we need a government to address and more importantly act on the BAME community’s concerns. Smith has shown me that he can do that and the Labour Party is the only party that can deliver that. That is why I’ll be voting for Owen Smith in the leadership race. He is the only one who can deliver the nation the Labour government it so desperately needs.

Headaches are one of the most common reasons for visiting the doctor. Although not all headaches are the same, they all share at least one thing in common -- they cause pain. The most common types of headaches are migraines and tension-type headaches. Migraines typically present with pulsing head pain, nausea, sensitivity to light and sensitivity to sound. Tension-type headaches occur randomly and are often the result of temporary stress, anxiety, fatigue, or anger. Symptoms usually include non-pulsing “bandlike” pressure on both sides of the head (a "vice-like" ache), a pulling feeling, pressure sensations, and contracting head and neck muscles. Regardless of the cause, if you have a headache, you want it to end fast! In the U.S., there is large market for medications that cover up the symptoms of headaches. Powerful drugs can numb your nervous system so the pain doesn't register. While these approaches may be convenient, they can cause adverse effects and kidney or liver damage. Worse, they don't correct the underlying cause of the headache. Research has shown that the most common types of headaches respond well to chiropractic care. The vast majority of even the most severe headaches are relieved when spinal subluxations (spinal joints that are out of alignment, don't move well and also irritate the nerves) and jaw problems are corrected.

Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification Oxford University Press, Apr 8, 2004 - Reference - 816 pages "Character" has become a front-and-center topic in contemporary discourse, but this term does not have a fixed meaning. Character may be simply defined by what someone does not do, but a more active and thorough definition is necessary, one that addresses certain vital questions. Is character a singular characteristic of an individual, or is it composed of different aspects? Does character--however we define it--exist in degrees, or is it simply something one happens to have? How can character be developed? Can it be learned? Relatedly, can it be taught, and who might be the most effective teacher? What roles are played by family, schools, the media, religion, and the larger culture? This groundbreaking handbook of character strengths and virtues is the first progress report from a prestigious group of researchers who have undertaken the systematic classification and measurement of widely valued positive traits. They approach good character in terms of separate strengths-authenticity, persistence, kindness, gratitude, hope, humor, and so on-each of which exists in degrees. Character Strengths and Virtues classifies twenty-four specific strengths under six broad virtues that consistently emerge across history and culture: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. Each strength is thoroughly examined in its own chapter, with special attention to its meaning, explanation, measurement, causes, correlates, consequences, and development across the life span, as well as to strategies for its deliberate cultivation. This book demands the attention of anyone interested in psychology and what it can teach about the good life.

Learn the basics for babies feelings and communication development. Make the most of playtime. Playtime is special. Not only is it fun, but it is critical to children's development. My curiosity can lead me into off-limits territory. I need you to keep me safe and to help me learn right from wrong. At this stage, children typically read by looking at the printed word, but they often rely on their memory of the story and on the pictures. Through talking with adults, listening to books read aloud, and discussing everyday experiences, they continue to develop the language skills that help them learn to read and write. At this stage, your child begins to focus in depth on the meaning of what she reads, and she uses reading as a way to help her learn many new vocabulary words and concepts.

A. Age, specifically, isn't a contraindication to anesthesia. Removing a MCT does require general anesthesia, typically, because we want to take wide margins of healthy tissue around the mass. Studies tell us that by taking 1.5 - 2 cm margins around the MCT we can almost always be assured of getting all of the disease and achieving a cure. Left on the body, MCTs may metastasize to internal organs, or to other subcutaneous areas. Unfortunately it's impossible to determine the grade of a MCT and predict how aggressive it will be without a biopsy, and that means removing the mass. Will your vet do blood work before the surgery, to look for other potential health problems that might make the anesthesia more risky? Will he do chest x-rays to ensure that the lungs are healthy? Is he competent and comfortable with doing anesthesia on senior animals? These are all questions you should ask before considering the surgery. In my experience dogs with low grade MCTs do very well. A. You should have your vet examine your dog and the mass. A needle aspirate biopsy can be performed in the clinic and submitted for pathology to rule in/out MCT. If it is a MCT, consider a consult with a veterinary oncologist to have the tumor staged. You can also discuss treatment options and prognoses at that time.

I was immediately struck by Bennett’s description of her philosophical project on the first page of the preface as an attempt “to think slowly an idea that runs fast through modern heads: the idea of matter as passive stuff” (vii). This immediately made me think of De Landa’s reference to glass as a slow-moving fluid, one that takes centuries to flow. Deleuze and Guattari often engage the phenomenon of speed as a way to indicate degrees of difference: “Speed turns the point into a line.” Her chapter on “Edible Matter” references the slow food movement, which I used to conceive of “the slow thought movement.” So how does one think slowly? Perhaps it is as easy as paying more attention. In the words of one aphorism, “a thing is simple or complex, depending on how much attention one pays it.” Slow thinking would suggest the kind of attention to historical process that De Landa makes famous in his A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History, a book that Bennett uses (among others) to frame her argument in chapter one. Perhaps the claim to a vitality intrinsic to matter itself becomes more plausible if one takes a long view of time. If one adopts the perspective of evolutionary rather than biographical time, for example, a mineral efficacy becomes visible. (10-11) She then provides a long example of such mineral efficacy from De Landa’s book, a quote which is worth repeating here since it’s so interesting: Soft tissue (gels and aerosols, muscle and nerve) reigned supreme until 5000 million years ago. At that point, some of the conglomerations of fleshy matter-energy that made up life underwent a sudden mineralization, and a new material for constructing living creatures emerged: bone. It is almost as if the mineral world that had served as a substratum for the emergence of biological creatures was reasserting itself” (11, quoting Nonlinear History p. 26). She also quotes Adorno at one point, who writes, “What we may call the thing itself is not positively and immediately at hand. He who wants to know it must think more, not less” (13). This “thinking more,” I believe, is enhanced by “the long view of time” Bennett mentions. Slow thinking allows for a sedimentation, a layering of processes and matter-energy flows that make up the complex expression of the here-and-now (or the wherever-and-whenever we happen to be attending to). Bennett’s discusses Adorno’s “negative dialectics” as a way to “become more cognizant that conceptualization automatically obscures the inadequacy of its concepts,” at one point quoting him as saying, “objects do not go into their concepts without leaving a remainder” (14, emphasis mine). I wondered here again about the possibility of a different way of thinking, along the lines developed in a previous blog post trying to think beyond the concept. Perhaps there’s something here that would allow me to develop the idea of “the incept” as a way in to an object, a kind of “becoming-thought-object,” a thinking-with or -through an object. Such inceptual thinking would require a slowing down, a kind of phase-alignment of one’s own energy with the objects under observation (for her it was the debris that “provoked affects in me” ).

Our cancer shame: Survival rates still lag behind EU despite spending billions Britain has not done enough to boost cancer survival rates and will fail to hit a target to match the success of other European countries by 2010, experts claimed yesterday. It is optimistic to expect the gap to be closed by the deadline because progress is too slow, according to medical journal The Lancet Oncology. At least £2billion extra was spent at the start of the Government's Cancer Plan, rising to a total of £4.35billion in 2006/07 in England. Despite the tripling of investment in cancer care in Britain over the past decade there has been no striking improvement in survival in a system 'riddled with bureaucracy', says cancer specialist Professor Karol Sikora. A technician checking a mammogram: Survival rates for breast cancer increased just 0.9 per cent The Cancer Plan for England was introduced in 2000 when Britain had one of the poorest levels of cancer survival in Europe. It was set up to increase the number of patients still alive five years after diagnosis to the level of the best-performing countries by 2010. A study in the journal compared survival rates with Wales, which did not adopt a plan until late 2006. Latest data shows five-year survival rates for most common cancers have improved in England. Cancer expert: Professor Karol Sikora In men, the highest five-year rate was for testicular cancer, with 96 per cent surviving five years or more. For women, the highest rate was for malignant melanoma, with 89.6 per cent surviving, according to the Office for National Statistics. Pancreatic cancer had the lowest five-year survival for men (2.8 per cent) and women (3.1 per cent). There were small improvements in the rates for prostate and colon cancer. But England recently came 15th in a league of five-year rates among 22 European countries. Professor Sikora, medical director of Cancer Partners UK, a private provider of cancer services which works with the NHS, said the study by the journal showed survival rates were still too low in England despite massive spending. He added: 'There is no striking improvement, despite the huge resources involved.' He said the 'well-conceived' plan had been hamstrung by a ' bureaucratic system of targets' and 'serial delays, poor access and serious under-capacity' in the NHS. 'Cancer patients' notes have become riddled with shabby stamps warning of targets about to be breached,' he added. 'Armies of administrators were recruited to operate the system, adding massively to the cost of care. The ridiculously poor performance of information technology in British hospitals dramatically increased the cost of trying to improve cancer care.' Professor Sikora also argued that access to new cancer drugs is poor in the NHS, with the use of six cancer drugs approved in the past three years equivalent to just a fifth of the average across the EU. 'The postcode lottery abounds, with those that shout loudest getting better services' he added. In an editorial, the journal warns: 'Perhaps the time has come to consider rather more fundamental change in the NHS than the Cancer Plan offers.' The study, which looked at survival rates for 21 common cancers, found wide regional variations, with people in the South having far better chances than those in deprived areas of the North. Researchers from Cancer Research UK's cancer survival group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine looked at survival for patients diagnosed before the cancer plan (1996-2000), during its running-in period (2001-03) and when it was fully operational (2004-06). The Government's cancer tsar, Professor Mike Richards, said a review in 2007 aimed to tackle late diagnosis which was 'largely responsible' for the survival gap. He added: 'Survival rates for most cases in England have been improving over the past decade. However, we recognise that further improvements can be made.' Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley said: 'While the Government has provided additional resources for cancer, the focus on a limited number of targets rather than overall cancer outcomes has distorted treatment.'

In a meta-analysis of 118 predictive models, the median area under the curve (AUC) was just 0.77, John Ioannidis, MD, of the University of Ioannina in Greece, and colleagues reported online in the Archives of Internal Medicine. "Most of the tools included in our analysis are not sufficiently accurate for wide use in clinical practice," they wrote. "I think that doctors should continue to use prognostic models but they should understand better what their performance is and its limitations," Ioannidis told MedPage Today in an email. "Typically, prognostic performance is limited, which means that putting too much trust in a model can lead to a wrong conclusion about whether a patient will die or not." A multitude of prognostic tools have been developed in order to predict death in a wide variety of conditions, as forecasting mortality can help patients make sound medical decisions and have realistic expectations. In order to assess the performance of these models, the researchers reviewed 94 studies, spanning 240 assessments of 118 predictive tools. All were published in 2009; to evaluate the entire predictive literature would be a huge task requiring hundreds of researchers, they explained. The most commonly evaluated models included the Acute Physiology And Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II model and the MELD score (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease). The majority of the studies were done in the U.S. or Europe, had a prospective design, and pertained to acute disease conditions -- mainly in critical illness; gastroenterology; and cardiovascular, infectious, and malignant diseases. The median sample size of the studies was 502 patients, with a median number of deaths of 71. Ioannidis and colleagues found that the AUC of the models ranged from 0.43 to 0.98, with a median of 0.77. A total of 40% of the tools had an AUC of 0.80 or better, but only 10% had an AUC above 0.90. Only 10 of the tools were evaluated in four studies or more. Of these 10, only one had a summary AUC above 0.80, the researchers said. As well, there was marked heterogeneity of these tools across diverse settings and studies, which could be due to selective analysis and reporting of studies, leading to exaggerated results of predictive discrimination, they explained. "Efforts at standardization of reporting are important in this regard," they wrote. Higher AUCs were associated with certain characteristics, including lower journal impact factor and larger sample size (P=0.01 and P=0.02, respectively). The association with journal impact factor may be explained by lower methodologic quality accepted in those journals, the researchers said. Higher predictive value of the tools was also seen among the highest-risk patients, and among children (P=0.002 and P<0.001, respectively). The study was limited because it was restricted to analyses published in a single year, and because it only evaluated AUC, even though there are other metrics to determine predictive value. Still, the researchers concluded that efforts are needed to "organize and synthesize the predictive literature," in order to ultimately "enhance the evidence derived from predictive research and to establish standard methods for developing, evaluating, reporting, and eventually adopting new predictive tools in clinical practice." In the meantime, they said, clinicians "should be cautious about adopting new, initially promising predictive tools, especially complex ones based on expensive measurements that have not been extensively validated and shown to be consistently useful in practice." The researchers reported no conflicts of interest.

Showering with soap and water is more than just comforting; it can reduce the chances that a child who plays in filthy gutters gets sick. But for many people in developing countries, showers are an unaffordable luxury. Jessica Yeh and Narbeh Dereghishian, students at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., have fashioned a cheap, simple shower from a pesticide sprayer and a lawn sprinkler — items that can be bought for about $17 in hardware and farm supply stores. A family using it fills the sprayer’s two-gallon tank with warm water, pumps up the pressure, and hangs the lawn sprinkler — a yellow halo-shaped ring — on a hook or branch. It is turned on or off by a valve on a hose connecting the sprinkler to the sprayer. “We tested it with families in Chile who were displaced by the 2010 earthquake,” Mr. Dereghishian said. “They were bathing ‘by parts’ — they’d heat water on the stove and splash it on themselves with cups. It takes a little more time to take our shower, but the experience makes up for it.” The two-gallon tank holds enough water for two adults or three children. The team is working on a stainless-steel version that can be directly heated on a stove or fire and has a foot pedal on the hose to control the flow.

The world's association of camel scientists fought back angrily on Monday over Australian plans to kill wild dromedaries on the grounds that their flatulence adds to global warming. The idea is "false and stupid... a scientific aberration", the International Society of Camelid Research and Development (ISOCARD) charged, saying camels were being made culprits for a man-made problem. "We believe that the good-hearted people and innovating nation of Australia can come up with better and smarter solutions than eradicating camels in inhumane ways," it said. The kill-a-camel suggestion is floated in a paper distributed by Australia's Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, as part of consultations for reducing the country's carbon footprint. The scheme is the brainchild of an Adelaide-based commercial company, Northwest Carbon, a land and animal management consultancy, which proposes whacking feral camels in exchange for carbon credits. Camels were introduced to the Outback in the 19th century to help early settlers cope with hot, arid conditions. Now they number around 1.2 million and, say some, are a pest because of the damage they inflict to vegetation and their intestinal gases. Each camel, according to the champions of a cull, emits 45 kilos (99 pounds) of methane, the equivalent of one tonne a year in carbon dioxide (CO2), the main warming gas. Northwest Carbon says it would shoot the camels from helicopters or corral them before sending them to an abattoir for eating by humans or pets. But ISOCARD, an association of more than 300 researchers headquartered at al Ain University in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said the calculations were absurd. "The estimation of methane emission by camels is based on cattle data extrapolation," it said in a press release. "The metabolic efficiency of camel is higher than that of cattle, (...) camels are able to produce 20-percent more milk by eating 20-percent less food, they have different digestive system and are more efficient in the utilization of poor quality roughages," it noted. In addition, the bacterial flora of camel intestines means their digestion is closer to that of monogastric animals, such as pigs, rather than as cattle and sheep, said ISOCARD. "Therefore, the estimation of camel methane emission is quite debatable, as well as the estimated feral population." The 28 million camels in the world represent less than one percent of all vegetation-eating biomass, and their emissions are just a tiny fraction of those made by cattle, it argued. "The feral dromedary camels should be seen as an incomparable resource in arid environments," the group said. "They can and should be exploited for food (meat and milk), skin and hides, tourism etcetera." Australia is heavily reliant on coal-fired power and mining exports and has one of the highest per-capita carbon levels in the world. The government plans to tax the nation's 1,000 biggest polluters for carbon emissions from mid-2012, with a fixed price giving way to a cap-and-trade scheme within five years. To offset their emissions, polluters could buy carbon credits -- CO2 or other greenhouse gases that are avoided through other schemes.

1) Identify pros and cons of a manager treating each employee as a unique individual. Do you think organizations must encourage or discourage this practice? Explain why. 2) Who is responsible for managing ethics in your organization? Who should be responsible? Explain why. 3) Evaluate the effect of an employment law, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, at your organization. What are some considerations the organization must take into account because of this law when determining policies, programs, and processes? 1) Identify pros and cons of a manager treating each employee as a unique individual. There are definitely pros and cons to this situation. When a manager treats each employee as an individual, the employee often places more value on the manager-employee relationship. The manager is also looked up to, in a different way as compared to managers treating all employees as a group, with no individual identity. In terms of productivity, it can be a disadvantage. When all employees are treated with high standards and held to high productivity levels regardless of individual characteristics, it can push productivity to higher levels. The problem is that if some employees can't keep up due to a lack of skills or other limitations, it can quickly turn into a hostile work situation. The ideal situation is to have a manager treat each employee as an individual but to keep expectations high so that employees don't decrease their productivity simply because the manager understands the limitations and unique characteristics of each employee. Do you think organizations must encourage or discourage this practice? Explain why. The practice should ... This solution identifies the advantages and disadvantages of treating employees as unique individuals. Ethics management and employment law are also thoroughly discussed.

Mass transfer is the net movement of mass from one location, usually meaning stream, phase, fraction or component, to another. Mass transfer occurs in many processes, such as absorption, evaporation, drying, precipitation, membrane filtration, and distillation. Mass transfer is used by different scientific disciplines for different processes and mechanisms. The phrase is commonly used in engineering for physical processes that involve diffusive and convective transport of chemical species within physical systems. Some common examples of mass transfer processes are the evaporation of water from a pond to the atmosphere, the purification of blood in the kidneys and liver, and the distillation of alcohol. In industrial processes, mass transfer operations include separation of chemical components in distillation columns, absorbers such as scrubbers or stripping, adsorbers such as activated carbon beds, and liquid-liquid extraction. Mass transfer is often coupled to additional transport processes, for instance in industrial cooling towers. These towers couple heat transfer to mass transfer by allowing hot water to flow in contact with hotter air and evaporate as it absorbs heat from the air. In astrophysics, mass transfer is the process by which matter gravitationally bound to a body, usually a star, fills its Roche lobe and becomes gravitationally bound to a second body, usually a compact object (white dwarf, neutron star or black hole), and is eventually accreted onto it. It is a common phenomenon in binary systems, and may play an important role in some types of supernovae and pulsars. Mass transfer finds extensive application in chemical engineering problems. It is used in reaction engineering, separations engineering, heat transfer engineering, and many other sub-disciplines of chemical engineering. The driving force for mass transfer is typically a difference in chemical potential, when it can be defined, though other thermodynamic gradients may couple to the flow of mass and drive it as well. A chemical species moves from areas of high chemical potential to areas of low chemical potential. Thus, the maximum theoretical extent of a given mass transfer is typically determined by the point at which the chemical potential is uniform. For single phase-systems, this usually translates to uniform concentration throughout the phase, while for multiphase systems chemical species will often prefer one phase over the others and reach a uniform chemical potential only when most of the chemical species has been absorbed into the preferred phase, as in liquid-liquid extraction. While thermodynamic equilibrium determines the theoretical extent of a given mass transfer operation, the actual rate of mass transfer will depend on additional factors including the flow patterns within the system and the diffusivities of the species in each phase. This rate can be quantified through the calculation and application of mass transfer coefficients for an overall process. These mass transfer coefficients are typically published in terms of dimensionless numbers, often including Péclet numbers, Reynolds numbers, Sherwood numbers and Schmidt numbers, among others. Analogies between heat, mass, and momentum transfer There are notable similarities in the commonly used approximate differential equations for momentum, heat, and mass transfer. The molecular transfer equations of Newton's law for fluid momentum at low Reynolds number (Stokes flow), Fourier's law for heat, and Fick's law for mass are very similar, since they are all linear approximations to transport of conserved quantities in a flow field. At higher Reynolds number, the analogy between mass and heat transfer and momentum transfer becomes less useful due to the nonlinearity of the Navier-Stokes equation (or more fundamentally, the general momentum conservation equation), but the analogy between heat and mass transfer remains good. A great deal of effort has been devoted to developing analogies among these three transport processes so as to allow prediction of one from any of the others.

Almost half of the world´s population lives in areas with an elevated risk of malaria, a disease that proves fatal for half a million people per year, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO). Malaria is transmitted through mosquito bites that introduce the parasite into a person´s bloodstream. The proper diagnosis of this disease, which is required for an effective treatment, requires the detection of the parasite in the patient´s blood. The Asturian engineer Miguel Luengo has developed the MalariaSpot project, which turns the distributed diagnostics for this disease into a videogame. The way it works is relatively simple: a picture is taken of a microscopic view of a drop of the individual´s blood with a smartphone camera, which is then sent to the network of players, and these compete to identify the presence of malaria parasites in the photograph. The first images utilized in the videogame were provided by a hospital in South Africa in order to test the effectiveness of this diagnostic method. After analyzing the results and incorporating more forces into the community of players, this year a pilot test was performed in Mozambique to measure its performance in real time. The next steps will be to manufacture the device which includes a microscope and can be attached to a smartphone, and the medical validation of the method. This young, Spanish innovator combines his work as a researcher in the Biomedical Imagery Technologies group at the Technical University of Madrid (Spain) with his position as the lead data scientist at the United Nations Global Pulse.

The vastness of the solar system offers a unique lesson in large numbers and in scale. THE SCHOOLYARD SOLAR SYSTEM was developed to demonstrate the solar system to scale; to show the relationship between units of thousands, millions, and billions; and to accomplish these goals with student involvement that will re-enforce the lessons. The Sun and the nine planets are represented on a set of web pages. Each contains information on an object's true and scaled size and on its distance from the Sun. A dot represents the body's scaled size. (Printers and monitors vary, the dots may not appear at exactly the size stated.) There are two models. The first is designed for a 100 foot (30 meter) space. At this scale only the planets Jupiter through Neptune are at least one pixel in size. The other model is designed for a larger space, and has Saturn out at 330 feet (100 meters), Jupiter at 180 feet (55 meters), and Pluto at 1360 feet (414 meters). While showing the full solar system at this scale may not be practical due to space limitations, it is the minimum size that shows all the planets at a size of at least one pixel. If a space this large is not available at your school, then part of the solar system, to Mars or Jupiter for example, may be laid out. Each model is given in U.S. units (miles, feet, and inches) and metric units (kilometers, meters, and centimeters). Using THE SCHOOLYARD SOLAR SYSTEM pages is easy. First, print out the pages, or cards, for the Sun and each planet. Then lay out the distance on an unobstructed area such as a playground or sporting field. Choose a student volunteer to represent the Sun, and to hold up the Sun card at the origin. Next give out the planet cards, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, and have each pupil hold their card at the correct scaled distance from the Sun (see the image above). Demonstrate the difference in scale between the size of the dots representing the planet diameters and their distances from the Sun. Point out that the true planet diameters are thousands of miles or kilometers, while the distances from the Sun are millions of miles or kilometers. Continue with the outer planets through Pluto. Here is where the enormity of scale becomes evident as the true distances to the Sun exceed a billion miles or kilometers. The individual pages on the Web can also be used to study the planets without printing them out. Clicking on the planet images will give larger version of the image. When the solar system is laid out to scale ask some of the students who are not holding a card to visit a planet and tell about its size and distance from the Sun. Ask the remaining students to visit a planet and say whether they can see any other planet's scaled dots from their location. Back in the classroom give a lesson on numbers in the thousands, millions, and billions, using the planet sizes and distances as examples.

. . . the nymph of the Castalian spring at the foot of mount Parnassus. She was regarded as a daughter of Achelous (Paus. x. 8.§ 5), and was believed to have thrown herself into the well when pursued by Apollo. (Lutat. ad Stat. Theb. i. 697.) Others derived the name of the well from one Castalius, who was either a simple mortal, or a son of Apollo and father of Delphis, who came from Crete to Crissa, and there founded the worship of the Delphinian Apollo. (Ilgen, ad Hom. hymn. in Apoll. p. 341.) A third account makes Castalius a son of Delphus and father of Thyia. (Paus. vii. 18. § 6, x. 6. § 2.) Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Alcaeus, Fragment 307 (from Himerius, Orations) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric I) (Greek lyric C6th B.C.) : “Kastalia (Castalia) flows in poetic fashion with waters of silver, and Kephisos (Cephisus) [river of Phokis and Boiotia] rises in flood surging with waves, in imitation of Homer’s Enipeus: for Alkaios is compelled just like Homer to give even water the power to sense the presence of gods.” Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 8. 9 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) : “You reach, on the right of the way [to the sanctuary of Delphoi in Phokis] the water of Kastalia (Castalia), which is sweet to drink and pleasant to bathe in . . .

What is Poverty ?Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being and comprises many dimension. Itincludes low income and the inability toacquire the basic goods and servicesnecessary for survival with dignity. Povertyalso encompasses low levels of health andeducation, poor access to clear water andsanitation, inadequate physical security,and lack of voice, and insufficient capacityand opportunity to better one’s life. General Overview of the Bangladesh EconomicEven though there are political instability,poor infrastructure, corruption, insufficientpower supplies, and slow implementation ofeconomic reforms, the economy has grown5-6% per year since 1996. However,Bangladesh still remains a poor,overpopulated, and inefficiently-governednation with about 45% of the Bangladeshisbeing employed in the agriculture sector. Rural and Urban PovertyThe population in Bangladesh is predominantly rural, with almost80% of the population living in the rural areas. Many of them livein remote areas that lack services such as education, health clinicsand adequate roads, particularly road links to markets. They sufferfrom persistent food insecurity, own no land and assets, are oftenuneducated and may also suffer serious illnesses or disabilities.Women are among the poorest of the rural poor, especially whenthey are the sole heads of their households. They sufferdiscrimination, have few earning opportunities.In the urban areas, there is about 37% of the urban populationliving below national poverty line. For those living in urban areas,especially the capital Dhaka, and major industrial cities such asChittagong, Khulna, and Rajshahi, they enjoy a better standard ofliving, with electricity, gas, and clean water supplies. Despite this,there is still a significant proportion of Bangladeshis living in slumsthat fall apart during the monsoon season and have no regularelectricity, limited access to health care and to clean drinking water. One of the main causes of rural poverty is due the country’sgeographical and demographic characteristics. A largeproportion of the country is low-lying, and thus is at a highrisk to flooding. Many of the rural poor live in areas that areprone to extreme annual flooding which cause huge damageto their crops, homes and livelihoods. These natural disastersalso cause outbreaks of cholera and other waterborne anddiarrheal diseases such as dengue and malaria which willaffect them physically and lower their productivity levels.The causes of urban poverty are due to the limitedemployment opportunities, degraded environment, and badhousing and sanitation. The urban poor hold jobs that arelabor demanding, thus affecting their health conditions.Therefore, the urban poor are in a difficult situation to escapepoverty.Causes of Rural and Urban Poverty Steps for Poverty Alleviation in Bangladeshi. Trends in the Economyii. Regional Trends in Povertyiii.Mortality and Health Indicatorsiv.Literacy Rates in Bangladesh TRENDS IN ECONOMYBangladesh made noteworthy progress in poverty reduction andthe attainment of “Millennium Development Goals” during the1990-2000 period in spite of pitfalls such as instability, inefficiency,leakage, mis-targeting and erosion of regulatory standards.Economic growth was most robust in the industrial sector, whichincreased in importance from 21 percent to 26 percent of GDP, withits real GDP rising by an impressive 86 percent during the nineties.The export-oriented ready-made garment (RMG) sector recordeddouble-digit annual growth. Even within the agricultural sector,however, notable achievements marked the period. The countryattained food grain self-sufficiency in FY2000 and estimatedaggregate production reached approximately 25 million tons.Despite its declining importance, continues to be the main sourceof employment in Bangladesh. REGIONAL TRENDS IN POVERTYWhile poverty reduction has occurred for both rural and urbanareas, a disaggregation by geographic regions reveals sharpregional variations. The largest decline in poverty incidenceoccurred for the Dhaka division, followed by Chittagong andSylhet. By contrast, poverty headcount stagnated in Barisal andincreased slightly for Khulna. As a result of this unequal pattern ofpoverty reduction, regional differences were quite sharp in 2005.The poverty headcount ranged from a low of 32 percent in Dhakaand 34 percent in Chittagong and Sylhet, to over 50 percent inBarisal and Rajshahi. Mortality and Health IndicatorsDeprivation in health and deprivation in nutrition are the two mostimportant causes and consequences of poverty. The report citesthree principal health-problems of Bangladesh: over population,malnutrition and communicable diseases. Children, women and thepoor constitute the high risk-groups for ill health and the pooresthouseholds bear a disproportionate share of the burden of illhealth; their mortality rate is 85 percent higher than that of therichest households. The major objectives of policies of the sectorare to reduce mortality and to improve nutritional status, especiallyof women and children, the elderly and the poor by providing fairaccess to food, water and sanitation. The Government policy seeksto create conditions whereby people of Bangladesh have theopportunity to reach and maintain the highest attainable level ofhealth. Since the present level of public resources devoted to thehealth sector falls far short of the requirements, policies are to bedesigned to harness the resources of the private sector forinvesting in the health sector. LITERACY RATES IN BANGLADESHIn 2005, the national literacy rate in Bangladesh was 51.9percent; in rural areas, 46.7 percent of the population isliterate and in urban areas 67.9 percent.

From Inside Climate News: "A relatively modest jog around the Sandhills"—that's how one TransCanada executive describes the Keystone XL oil pipeline's new route through Nebraska, which is expected to be released in the next few weeks. But while the path will avoid the Nebraska Sandhills—a region of grass-covered sand dunes that overlies the critically important Ogallala aquifer--it could still pass through areas above the Ogallala, where the water supply is vulnerable to the impacts of an oil spill. "If they're not going to be generous about the Sandhills boundary," we're going to continue to protest, she said. "TransCanada is putting in as little effort as they can. They're not taking our water and land seriously." The problem for TransCanada is that the environmental assessment done on the pipeline was pretty thorough. And it wasn't rocket science either. You simply tally up how many property owners will be effected, how many streams and other sensitive areas will be crossed, and so on. The route with the fewest number of trouble spots is by definition the safest from an environmental perspective And as I wrote previously: ...the bottom line is that the proposed route is almost certainly the best among the available alternatives. Thus any rejig simply transfers the environmental risk to some place other than Sandhills, and increases it overall. If the Obama administration can't get behind the current route, it would be even more difficult to get behind any of its major competitors. And note too that Nebraska lawmakers themselves are only talking about moves that would increase the pipe length by 30 or 40 miles, which doesn't sound like any of the possibilities considered in the EIS and which, therefore, will almost certainly not solve the problem of the pipe's crossing Nebraska's environmentally sensitive areas in the first place. Note that TransCanada is not even looking at a 30 or 40 mile extension anymore; they're now talking about a mere 20 miles of extra pipe. So the only difference between the current and proposed routes will be that that TransCanada will have swapped one set of aggrieved land owners for another, probably slightly larger set.

A credit score is a three-digit number based on the information in your credit report. Credit bureaus don’t release the exact math behind this number, but what we do know is that your credit score increases when you can demonstrate that you use credit responsibly (paying bills on time) and that your credit score decreases when you show that you have difficulty managing credit (a bill is paid late or goes to collections). Your credit score, also known as a FICO score, is used to tell a lender the likelihood that you’ll be able to pay back the money they’re lending. It’s up to each lender to decide the lowest credit score they feel comfortable with and will likely use this score to set an interest rate and a credit limit. The higher the score, the lower the interest rate, because, generally speaking, the risk for the lender is lower. In Canada, credit scores range from 300 to 900, with the best being 900. Credit scores change every time your credit report is updated.

It is imperative to begin this discourse by stating that economic and fiscal governance is a serious business and a matter that requires the best of national efforts. The design, formulation and implementation of economic and fiscal policies reflect on the standard of living of any society and its ranking in the order of civilisation and development in the comity of nations. Nigeria is no exception to this aphorism and cannot therefore seek to do things differently from established national and international norms. Last week, the Senate literally threw away a borrowing request from President Muhammadu Buhari. By a letter dated October 20, 2016, and addressed to the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, entitled, “Request for approval of Federal Government 2016-2018 external borrowing (rolling) plan”, the President sought approval to borrow a total sum of $29.960bn. The President indicated that the projects for which he sought borrowing approval cut across all sectors with special emphasis on infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, water supply, growth and employment generation, poverty reduction through social safety nets and governance and financial management reforms among others. Proposed projects and programmes were for the sum of $11.274bn; special infrastructure projects amounted to $10.686bn; Euro bonds of $4.5bn and Federal Government budget support of $3.5bn. With the exception of the projects for the North-East zone, the letter provided no further details. Indeed, the request letter referred to an attached draft of the Federal Government 2016-2018 External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan which was actually not sent to the National Assembly. What is the position of our fiscal laws in respect of a request from the President to the legislature in terms of approving a borrowing plan? A review of extant laws will provide a clue as to whether the legislature was right in refusing the request and what needs to be done if the President intends to represent same. The Fiscal Responsibility Act in Section 41 states that the framework for debt management during the financial year shall be based on the following rules vis: Government at all tiers shall only borrow for capital expenditure and human development, provided that such borrowing shall be on concessional terms with low interest rate and with a reasonably long amortisation period subject to the approval of the appropriate legislative body. The Act further states that any Government in the Federation or its agencies and corporations desirous of borrowing shall specify the purpose for which the borrowing is intended and present a cost-benefit analysis, detailing the economic and social benefits of the purpose to which the intended borrowing is to be applied. Also, the Government shall ensure that the level of public debt as a proportion of national income is held at a sustainable level as prescribed by the National Assembly from time to time on the advice of the minister of finance. Against the background of the provisions of this Act, there are no details of the projects and programmes for which borrowing is sought. Neither is there any evidence of the cost-benefit analysis of the projects. Whether the borrowing is on concessional terms is also not stated and nothing was said on whether the debts will be sustainable in the short, medium to long terms. Thus, this was a request not cognisable within the letters of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. And to ask for an anticipatory approval without the details further makes the presidential request void from the beginning. In terms of sustainability of our debts, we seek to add $30bn in one fell swoop to our already existing $61bn national debt to take it up to $91bn which is a 50 per cent addition in two years. If previous governments had been borrowing in this geometric proportion, we would not have had any elbow room for this new request. Why not build up the indebtedness gradually and see how effective the projects are in solving the economic challenges for which they have been proffered as a solution? The proposed borrowing is denominated in foreign currency, mainly dollar terms. I am sure many “experts” are going to come up with our relatively low debt to gross domestic product and compare our ratio with other countries. But this is where they miss the point. In Nigeria, you have the oil and gas sector generating over 90 per cent of our foreign exchange receipts but contributing less than 10 per cent of the GDP. The same sector was responsible for over 70 per cent of the resources shared between the three tiers of government in previous years but now still provides a sizable share of the Federation Account receipts. If the debt to GDP argument is to be taken seriously, why is 90 per cent of our GDP not contributing meaningfully to earning foreign exchange and funding the Federation Account? Until we activate this virtually dead 90 per cent of the GDP, we cannot use the same as a basis of debt to GDP. The reasonable thing to do is to use that component that will contribute to our ability to pay back the debt as a basis for calculating our ratio. The fiscal authorities should be more interested in calculating debt to revenue ratio. For the Medium Term Expenditure Framework 2017-2019, the projection of retained revenue in 2017 is $4.169tn while the debt service is $1.311tn. With debt service at about 33 per cent of retained revenue before the new borrowing is taking into account, we may end up using 50 per cent of retained revenue for debt service. Let us hear the experts who will claim that this is sustainable. Again, in the usual Nigerian practice, the retained revenue projection may be overly optimistic and may not materialise if we continue with our socio-economic trajectory. The expected oil revenue may not hold if the Niger Delta crisis is not resolved. Thus, whilst the debt is not subject to the vagaries of externalities, the revenue projection can be affected by a thousand and one factors. For 2016, we have already paid over N1.1tn as debt pay back whilst releasing only N753bn for capital expenditure and for which there is no guarantee that whole capital expenditure sum has been cash backed. How sustainable in terms of ability to repay is this new borrowing arrangement? Definitely, the fiscal provisions of the MTEF 2017-2018 will need to be reworked as it has not taken cognisance of the new debt proposals. What exactly are we borrowing for? Are the projects for which we seek to borrow regenerative enough so that they can help the economy generate the needed foreign exchange to pay back the debt. This question is pertinent considering the foreign exchange risk of borrowing in dollars at a time the naira is fast losing value vis-à-vis major foreign currencies. By the time of repayment, the naira may have lost much value and this will make the repayment a heavy burden for the treasury. To be concluded.

This Dryer Blasts Water Out of Fabric with Sound Waves An ultrasonic dryer can extract moisture from your clothes faster and more efficiently than heat. Forget heat—drying laundry is about cranking up the volume. At least, that’s how it goes in a lab at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where researchers have built an ultrasonic clothes dryer that uses far less energy than conventional devices. If you can be bothered to find out, you’ll find that clothes dryers are hugely energy hungry. A 2014 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council suggested that a typical household’s dryer used as much energy over the course of a year as its refrigerator, dishwasher, and clothes washer combined. Dryers account for as much as 4 percent of all domestic energy consumption, according to the Energy Information Administration. That didn’t escape the attention of Oak Ridge’s Ayyoub Momen, who has been developing a new way to wrench moisture out of fabric over the last few years. His vision: a clothes dryer whose drum is lined with piezoelectric ultrasound transducers to blast laundry with high-frequency sound rather than heat. The theory is that the ultrasound vibrates small water droplets out of a piece of fabric, forming a fine mist—as you can see happening in the GIF above. The mist is then driven to the edge of the drum, where it can be siphoned off, much the way it would happen in a regular dryer. A prototype built by Momen and his colleagues shows that it seems to work in practice. The full-size dryer his team assembled is able to dry a medium-size load in 20 minutes, compared with 50 minutes for a regular machine. It’s also claimed that the device uses 70 percent less energy than a regular dryer. And the good news is that this isn’t idle research. The project was carried out in collaboration with General Electric Appliances, which is now planning to use the ultrasonic approach in a press dryer and, at some point in the future, a regular drum dryer. So you might soon be able to turn up the volume on your laundry, too.

Public policy refers to the essential guidelines on which laws rest, principally policy not yet articulated in specific rules. This is the general or most common definition of public policy. In Law, however, it takes a slightly different meaning: the rule that injury to the public good or public order comprises of a foundation for setting aside, or refutes effect to, acts or transactions. Simply put, it is the rules that govern laws that are not in the laws or constitutions. BASIC CONCEPTS ASSOCIATED WITH PUBLIC POLICY As defined above, public policy brings out the moral sense in all transactions, be it in business or governance of a country. One concept or theory associated with this is normative theory. This is the subdivision of philosophical ethics that scrutinize the set of questions that come up when we think about the query “How should someone act, morally speaking?” Normative theory is mostly confused with other terms such as meta-ethics and descriptive ethics. Normative theory is different from meta-ethics because it examines standards for the correctness and wrongness of actions, while meta-ethics studies the implication of moral language. Normative concept is also distinct from descriptive ethics, as the latter is an experimental analysis of people’s moral beliefs, while normative ethics concerns itself with whether it is correct to hold such beliefs. Hence, normative ethics is regulatory, rather than explanatory. Another theory tied in with policymaking is the scientific theory. This theory encompasses a set of concepts, including abstractions of observable phenomena articulated as quantifiable properties, together with rules that express interaction between observations of such concepts. A scientific theory matches available practical facts about such studies, and puts forth as a body of main beliefs for explaining a set of facts. The scientific theory is a form of instructive theory, in that a reserved system of reason contains or controls it. REASONS FOR STUDYING PUBLIC POLICY Governments the world over have a reputation of being secretive when making policies the citizens will use. Some policies prove advantageous while others do not bring up the expected results. The study of policymaking is steadily becoming popular in universities, especially in the United States. This study helps the young minds of today and future leaders of tomorrow gain a deep view of how to create appropriate policies. The total extent of the involvement of government in public, the economy, and world affairs formulates the study of public policy vital for a conscientious citizen. In the same way, the quantity of expenditure by government at all levels makes this an important subject. The taxpayers have a stake in effective public strategy and the larger scale of the government in their lives. Another reason for studying public policy is gaining knowledge for actualizing solutions to practical problems in the society. The government receive the problems and solves them. A citizen with knowledge on public policymaking will assist in the creation of solutions. People say if a person cannot be a part of the solution then they are part of the problem. An individual with knowledge on policymaking can create a solution, which will be of benefit to himself and the community at large (Why Study Public Policy?, 2009).As defined earlier, public policy is the controlling factor in most institutions. When making rules or policies that will affect the society, the government must have in place this system so that no harm comes to the citizens. If absent, some rules and regulations presumably for the good of the citizens, would in the end become harmful. Hence, public policy curbs these and ensures there is fairness in all aspects. Policy analysis is the shaping of various alternative policies that will mainly realize a given set of goals in light of the affairs between the policies and the objectives. Analysis of policy is diagnostic and descriptive, meaning it tries to elucidate policies and their development. Analysis for policy is prescriptive, concerned with formulating policies and proposals. This is a total lack of movement or progress ensuing in a backup or dormant state. Disagreements at any level bring about gridlock. Gridlock occurs from the most basic unit in society, the family, to the high ranks of the government. Disparities or differences about funding caused legislative gridlock in Congress making it impossible for formulation of new policies. This is a planned itinerary of action within a given situation. It provides obstacles or prospects that the policy proposes to make use of or overcome in an endeavour to reach a goal or objective. If applied in government dealings, the definition is a projected line of action by a government to meet a requirement or take hold of an opportunity expressed as ideal outcomes correlated to definite effects (Providing Policy Advice). This is a political theory in which a group of members with a central commissioned head bound together by covenant. The term "federalism" also depicts a system of the government in which self-government is constitutionally separated between a principal authority and basic political units. PURPOSE OF SEPERATION OF POWERS The separation of powers is a representation for the control of a state. Under this model, the state separates into branches, each with detached and independent powers and area of accountability so that no one division has more power than the other does. The purpose of the separation of powers in government is because a creation of equal government is better than a government where one person or group has absolute power. The government has three branches: legislative, judiciary and executive to create a balance in power. ROLE OF POLICY SUBGOVERNMENT AND ISSUE NETWORKS The role or function of sub governments is to create a compact network of participants that have a considerable amount of influence in a particular area of policy. Someone who is not part of the sub government enjoys no benefits. The function of issue networks is closely similar. The difference is that the players involved are more and have public interest at heart. IMPACT OF PUBLIC OPINION ON POLICY MAKING Policies are formulated for the greater good of the public. When it comes to policymaking, public opinion can weigh heavily on whether it will pass or not. An example is the issue on abortion. If a person tried to bribe his opinion on the issue, whether to pass it or not, it will not work because the public identifies with it and cares about it. On the other hand, if the public does not care then there will be no influence of the public on the matter. ROLE OF INTEREST GROUPS IN PUBLIC POLICY Interest groups play several roles creation of public policy. They lobby specific issues affecting the public to those in power by providing relevant information to the politicians. They keep close tabs on a range of public agencies and officials to make sure that they execute their responsibilities in the correct way. REASONS FOR GROWTH OF GOVERNMENT The government is not a solitary thing that can be measured in terms of length or width or height. It contains numerous avenues and branches responsible for a myriad of tasks. The size of a government can transform into diverse dimensions, many of which are above perception. The reasons for growth of a particular government include: - Level of taxation - Government expenditure - Government employment MODELS AND THEORIES OF POLITICS AND PUBLIC POLICY In the whole policy process, policymaking is just a part. There are three models of public policy making. They are: - Institutional model- It centers on the conventional organization of government. The institutional model describes the functions and arrangements of government department. It reflects on constitutional provisions, governmental and common law, and judicial decisions. - Elite-Mass Model- A policy-making elite or highly privileged person acts in an atmosphere characterized by laziness and information misrepresentation, and govern a largely passive mass. The policies stream downwards from the elite to the mass. The society is alienated into those who have power and those who do not. Those high in society and powerful share values that distinguish them from the mass. The prevailing public policies reflect elite values, which generally preserve the status quo. - Group Model- This model of public policy results from a structure of forces and pressures acting on and reacting to one another. Usually, the model focuses on the legislature, but interest groups also pressure the executive. The groups they are meant to regulate may capture agencies, and bureaucrats become increasingly unable to differentiate between policies that will promote the good of the general public and policies that will benefit the groups being regulated.

Divine Fungus: This organic motif in Chinese mythology symbolizes longevity and immortality. This abstruse motif, sometimes difficult to find hidden in the embroidery, is often placed on Parsi garments particularly jhablas and gives protection to the wearer. The Unesco Parzor Project has been working in diverse fields. Over the past year the Youth of the community and the Elderly have been interviewed across the country by teams headed by Dr. Lata Narayan and Dr. Siva Raju respectively for their separate studies. Prof. Shalini Bharat is conducting detailed surveys into the Parsi Family while Dr. Katy Gandevia and her team have studied numerous Parsi medical practitioners in Mumbai. Along with the demographic researches, the medical projects are also progressing thanks to support from the community. Volunteers have willingly donated blood for cancer and genetic studies and given their time for the neurological surveys. In other fields, Sabeena Gadihoke’s book on Homai Vyarawalla, India’s First Woman Photo Journalist is about to go into print while Dr. Bharati Modi’s linguistic study of Parsi Gujarati is being finalized for publication. Embroidered sarees showing Chinese influence were very popular. These family heirlooms depict the aquatic world, birds and animals. For the past four years Parzor’s Craft Documentation programme has also continued across India. Ashdeen Lilaowala and other researchers, have recorded Parsi crafts in areas ranging from Navsari to Madras. Parsi crafts and their designs are a special contribution of this community, which have so far not received the acknowledgement deserved. Garas, Kors, Jhablas carry specific designs, which are often found on Tanchoi fabrics, Torans and even chalk boxes. Can this be just a coincidence? Parsis today seem to forget a great tradition of creativity, which has produced beautiful crafts in the past. The aim of the crafts module of the Parzor Project is to rekindle interest and pride in this tradition while at the same time recording it for posterity. The Parsis were influenced by both the eastern and western cultures of the world. Parsis also used Western motifs such as the Swiss roses and bows in garas, jhablas and kors. In the first ever-serious research into the origin, history, development and technique of what is known as Parsi embroidery, the Parzor Project has traveled across India and plans many more field trips in the country while also tracing roots and routes from Yazd and Kerman in Iran to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Canton in China. Many discoveries have already been made ‘ the Zoroastrian reverence for nature has been celebrated in the motifs of their embroidery since time immemorial, the Rooster , symbolizing Sarosha and the Divine Fungus seen regularly on textiles give protection, especially to children when embroidered on their Jhablas, Taoist symbols decorate Parsi Kors, the Sassanian ‘Circlet of Pearls’ traveled from Zoroastrian Persia to China in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) and then traveled back to the Parsis embroidered on the gara. So ‘Parsi embroidery’ is not just expensive, beautiful silk embroidery conceived, designed and executed by skilled Chinese craftsmen and simply ordered by prosperous Parsi traders who were involved in the China trade for their women folk, it is much more. The Paisley has been used in various cultures of the world. In Parsi embroidery both the Indian and Chinese paisley have been used. The Indian paisley or Ambi is more ornate as compared to the Chinese paisley, which is larger and squarish. Community accounts verbally passed down and still recalled by the elderly across India from Bharuch to Kolkata confirm the role the Chinese pherias played in familiarizing Parsi women with Chinese embroidery. Parsi elders recall how these cycle wielding Chinese men would leave their bundles of embroidered silk cloth on verandahs of Parsi homes, while they made their rounds selling their silk ware. When they returned in the afternoons, Parsi women, also free from their house hold chores would sit on the verandahs with them observing them working on their small embroidery frames, thus learning their special embroidery stitches including their use of curved needles. With this newly acquired skill Parsi women created their own Garas, Jabhlas and Kors. The creations by Parsi women exhibited their preference for certain motifs such as the rooster and fish, which have significance in Zoroastrian tradition as against dragons and snakes popular in Chinese tradition. Chinese embroidery often depicted daily life with the help of fine threads and a balanced use of colour. These scenes portrayed Chinese men and women (cheena-cheeni) with birds and animals. architectural details such as pagodas are finely embroidered on this red ghat silk gara The Chinese had over centuries perfected the craft of embroidery in their great Embroidery Schools. Archaeological finds have established that Chinese embroidery was first produced during the Shang Dynasty (1600-1027 BC). They were therefore well trained in their use of the finer aspects of colour, stitch, stylization of the motifs and overall balance, proportion and harmony in their work. As the demand from the Parsis increased, Indo-Chinese settlements dealing in embroidery are believed to have flourished in Western India. The craftsmanship of the embroidery and designs done in India was distinguishable from the original Chinese. Enterprising Parsis traveled and settled in other parts of India especially the Deccan and hence acquired local skills like Zardozi embroidery and incorporated it in their embroidery repertoire. With European influence came European stitches, designs and new shades of colour. There was a large crossover of vocabulary as Parsis imbibed the best from east and west to create a special form. * Parsi textiles depict two confronting birds,a motif which originated in Western Asia, but was transmitted to China through Sogdiana in the Tang Dynasty. This favourite motif is seen here both woven in Tanchoi fabric and embroidered in Parsi textiles. In order to endure, a craft needs to cater to the needs of the time. While the classic embroidery patterns of the gara and kor will be a treasured part of Parsi heritage, the actual craft technique needs to be invigorated. In a constructive effort to preserve and adapt this craft for the community and the country, Mr. Ashdeen Lilaowala has conducted craft seminars/workshops in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Navsari and Delhi. These sessions are especially aimed at creating awareness and sensitizing the Parsi community giving a sense of pride in this wonderful heritage. The workshops have drawn upon the expertise of some of India’s best designers as well as older Parsi practitioners of the craft both interacting with and motivating the chosen craftsmen. After familiarizing them with the Parsi embroidery tradition, the workshops have encouraged them to initiate new ideas to carry the craft forward. A craft can only prosper if the craftsmen are patronized to innovate and create new forms, thus constantly challenging and improving their own skills. There is an assurance of benefit to the craftsmen involved. Effort will be made to ensure that the contemporizing for product development would be sensitive to the original and carry the hallmark of Parsi tradition. Parzor hopes to encourage young Parsis to continue an ancient heritage as well as use the sessions as an opportunity for enterprising Zoroastrians to build teams, collaborate with craftsmen and develop a business module, which will take this heritage into the future. The workshops have empowered members of the community with technical knowledge, introduced them to professional designers as well as taught basic management skills, packing of products and interaction with prospective buyers.

It is no secret that exercise is one of the keys to good health. However, the problem with a lot of people who try to exercise is that they tend to limit their routine to one or two types of exercises. Some only do what they enjoy, and then just ignore the others. In this article, we will discuss the most essential kinds of exercises that you should be doing. - Aerobic Exercises Aerobic exercises are among the most important types of exercises that you shouldn’t skip. Aerobics is effective for making your heart rate and breathing faster—giving your heart and lungs a good workout. When done regularly, it could also improve endurance. One sign that you need more aerobic exercises is that you’re finding yourself out of breath every time you walk up a flight of stairs. Through this type of exercise, you’ll be able to condition both your heart and lungs, as well as supply sufficient blood to make your muscles work effectively. Some of the specific health benefits that this can bring include blood pressure regulation, blood sugar level reduction, elimination of body fat, boosting mood, as well as lowering the risk for stroke, Type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, and breast and colon cancer. It is recommended to perform 150 minutes of aerobic exercises per week. - Strength Training Exercises As people get older, muscle mass may be lost. Hence, strength training is recommended to build it back. Through regular strength training, you will be able to become more confident with your capacity to perform different daily tasks such as gardening and carrying groceries. Aside from making your muscles stronger, strength training can also promote bone growth, regulate your blood sugar, control your weight, enhance your posture, as well as minimize pain experienced in your joints and lower back. For best results, it is recommended to have a physical therapist to develop a strength training program that you can execute for about 2 to 3 times per week. The plan will most probably include body weight exercises such as lunges, squats, and push-ups. Moreover, this may also include routines that involve resistance from a band or weight machine. - Stretching exercises Stretching exercises can be effective in maintaining flexibility. As people age, it is normal for muscles and tendons to lose flexibility. When this happens, they won’t be able to function effectively. In addition, this can also increase your risk for muscle pain and damage, cramps, joint pain, and strain. Once you lose flexibility, you will find it difficult to accomplish simple tasks such as bending down to reach for something. This is the reason, you should never overlook this important type of exercise. By stretching regularly, you will be able to make your muscles longer, improve your range of motion, and minimize your risk of getting injured. We would recommend you to perform this type of exercise on a daily basis or for about 3 to 4 times each week. Start with dynamic stretches which involve repetitive motion such as marching in place. Doing so will get blood and oxygen to the muscles of your body. After doing your dynamic stretches, perform static stretches for the various parts of your body such as hip flexors, calves, hamstrings, muscles of the shoulders, neck, and lower back, as well as quadriceps. - Balance Exercises Basically, improving your balance can help you feel steadier and prevent frequent falls. Balance exercises become more important as you become older—when your inner ear, leg muscles, vision, and joints become weaker. Some of the balance-focused exercises that you can perform include yoga and tai chi. Even if you don’t experience balancing problems, it is still a good idea to perform this regularly so you won’t have this kind of issue when you get older. Aside from going to the gym to have a trainer who can help you with balance exercises, you may also go to a physical therapist who can determine your balance abilities and recommend certain exercises that will improve your current areas of weaknesses. One of the most common types of balance exercises include standing on one foot. Depending on your needs, your physical therapist may also prescribe exercises that can boost your joint flexibility and strengthen your leg muscles. While these types of exercises can help you stay active, healthy, and feel great, it is equally important to ensure that you have a healthy diet that can provide all the essential nutrients that you need.

CoolSculpting is a non-surgical technique that eliminates stubborn pockets of fat by literally freezing the fat cells away. Pretty cool, right? Patients certainly think so! According to the latest statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), non-invasive fat reduction procedures such as CoolSculpting increased 5% last year. Board certified plastic surgeon Dr. Steven Camp has certainly seen this happen in his Forth Worth practice, especially among men. He discusses how this technology is shaking up the body contouring landscape for those who never considered cosmetic surgery prior to non-surgical options. What is CoolSculpting? FDA approved in 2010 for treating the abdomen, flanks and thighs, CoolSculpting is a non-invasive way to get rid of stubborn pockets of fat that are resistant to diet and exercise. It works by freezing the fat in the targeted area. The fat cells are neutralized and then ultimately eliminated by your lymphatic system. “What a great idea,” says Dr. Camp. The technology evolved from two scientists at Harvard studying kids with popsicles. They noticed that when children sucked on a frozen treat, they got dimples in their cheeks because the cold was freezing away tiny pockets of fat. Hugely popular with over 4 million procedures performed worldwide, plastic surgeons like Dr. Camp have seen phenomenal applications for this device and technology in both men and women. “I find that patients really, really enjoy the flexibility of the technology and the power of what it can do for body contouring.” It’s just an easy way to take care of something that bothers a lot of patients because it requires: - no anesthesia - no surgery - no needles - no incisions - no down time One of the best things about CoolSculpting is that it’s performed in the comfort of your surgeon’s office. Patients can read or catch up on emails while getting their fat eliminated and the procedure is fast, 35 minutes or less. While the treatment area is numb during the procedure and for awhile afterwards, it’s something that most patients find relatively comfortable. There will be a bit of post-treatment soreness and tension in the targeted area, but patients typically go back to work immediately and many will even hit the gym that night. “That is revolutionary,” shares Camp, since liposuction patients suffer extensive post-op swelling that prohibits them from getting back to their daily life in a timely fashion. Patients love CoolSculpting because they are able to see meaningful results in, “a way that has a low impact on their lives”. Results Are Permanent Patients always want to know if the results are permanent. Bottom line, when a fat cell dies, it does not come back, but the remaining fat cells can still get bigger. It is then up to the patient to maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle. If a patient reduces the size of her love handles, for example, with CoolSculpting, she can’t then go out and gain 10 pounds and expect those great results to last. It is important that your plastic surgeon take time during the consultation to explain exactly what is expected of you post treatment in order to ensure that your results endure. It Usually Requires 2 or More Treatments The other important point that patients seeking CoolSculpting versus liposuction must understand is that CoolSculpting will require more than one treatment to see results. Dr. Camp typically treats an area twice. He knows, scientifically, that the amount of fat reduction that he’ll get in the treatment area is about 20%. And though sometimes a patient will get a result after only one treatment, he wants them to be really satisfied so he always recommends two treatments, spaced about 45-60 days apart. The final results will take about 90 days to appear. The most popular treatment areas for men and women are the same: the waistline, hips, love handles, and lower abdominal pooch. “It’s really about the gut. It’s the battle of the bulge and how are you going to beat it,” explains Camp. CoolSculpting makes patients feel better, and look better both in clothes and out. Dr. Camp offers his patients the Cool Advantage which is a new CoolSculpting probe that delivers the same great results in about half the time as well as DualSculpting. Because he is lucky to have two machines, it gives him the flexibility to attach the right and left side probes at the same time which really streamlines the process for the patient. Men Love CoolSculpting “I think one of the really powerful things about having minimally-invasive body contouring is that it’s unlocked access to a whole new group of patients – men,” says Camp. The reality is that men want to look good just as much as women, but they’re not as willing to put up with the fuss. Even if a man needs liposuction, the idea of wearing a compression garment for weeks would probably make him lose interest. Thanks to CoolSculpting, Dr. Camp has seen a real shift in the volume of men in his practice. Historically, his practice has been 85-90% women with some men seeking certain procedures such as eyelid rejuvenation and neck lifts. Now, 30-40% of his CoolSculpting patients are men. They treat the fat under the neck, the waistline, and the love handles. With men especially, CoolSculpting has proven to be an unexpected winner.

Kirkgate Market in the center of Leeds in Yorkshire in the north of England is the largest indoor market in Europe. There were five markets in Leeds at one time – some dating back to the Middle Ages – but as the city became richer and the middle of Leeds became ritzier, the markets were amalgamated in the early 1800s in one central location that expanded until it reached the size it is today. Although I left Leeds when I was eighteen and came back just three years ago, I still feel that I know the market well. I used to walk through it every day on my way to and from school. I remember varying my route so that I would through different sections of the market on different days. My mother and grandmother bought fish in the market so I had a certain liking for the fish stalls and would mentally acknowledge that when I passed them. It was from listening to my mother talking with the stallholders that I learned a little about what to look for in a fish – from the way the fish would curl at the head and tail to the way its eye sinks slightly into its head when it has lost its freshness. The ‘New’ Building The building you can see in the photograph above dates back to 1904 – to the heyday of Edwardian England when Leeds was proudly ensconced as a national and international center of the woollen industry. This new building with its fancy cupolas provided a more upmarket frontage onto Vicar Lane and was built onto the existing market buildings. Behind The Facade This map shows the full extent of the market. It is all the of the area shown shaded blue. Within it, the part shown shaded dark grey is the building in the photograph. As you can see, the posh building is only a comparatively small part of the whole area over which the market extends. The less grand buildings run for hundreds of yards with an open air market at the very far end. The Origin Of Marks & Spencer Many firms started their businesses in the market and generations of immigrant and native-born entrepreneurs have passed through on their way to better things. Marks & Spencer, the world-famous store with branches all over the world started life in Kirkgate market in 1884 as the ‘Penny Bazaar’. From Destruction By Fire To Architectural Recognition The market suffered terribly when a fire swept through it in 1975. A large part of the market was destroyed, but the famous glass roof and the cupolas were saved from destruction and no one was seriously injured in the fire. The building was refurbished and was then placed on the statutory list of buildings of ‘Special Architectural or Historic Interest’. It was given a Grade 1 listing – the highest rank given in England to buildings that are recognised as being of special importance. That means that every architectural feature of the building is noted, and any changes to the building that are proposed have to pass a stringent set of checks to ensure that the character of the building is preserved. In a nutshell, it means that very little can be done to the building. In the case of great public buildings like Kirkgate Market, it means that the site is safe from the hands of developers who might see a chance to build another carbuncle in the city. The Crowning Glory The market’s crowning glory is the series of cupolas and towers that you can see in the photograph at the beginning of this article. Behind those is a central glass roof that sits high above the bustle below. I photographed it from the vantage point of an upper floor balcony and it was only while I was doing so that I noticed the colorful design that reminds me of Scandinavian architecture. Photography And ‘Looking’ As an aside, that is one of the things I love about photography – how it insists that the photographer ‘looks’. Seeing the photograph at 100% on a computer screen makes it all the more easy to let the eye follow the curves and features of the design of the glass roof. Don’t you think the colors are attractive? In The Market The abattoir that stood next to the market is gone but early in the morning the workers still carry whole animal carcasses in from the out-of-town abbatoir and through to the butchers stalls. The butchers stalls run down one side of the market, while fish and delicatessen stalls line the other side. Meat, fish, flowers, biscuits, and a million other things that are sold in the market continue to contribute to a unique smell that has been ground into the Yorkshire stone flagstones (local paving stones) by generations of tradesmen and customers. Some of the businesses in the market have been there for a long time. T.E. Bethel fishmongers is one such, having operated from Kirkgate market for more than 100 years. In days gone by, Bethel’s sold cod, haddock, hake, plaice, and mackerel from the fishing grounds off the British coasts and the north Atlantic. But times have changed and Leeds is now more cosmopolitan than at any other time in its history. And to meet the palates and tastes of this new customer base, Bethel’s now offer many fish that would have seemed exotic just a few years ago. - Golden Pomfret from India and China Snappers from the Carribean Dorade from Greece Tilapia from Mozambique – and others. Jamie Oliver’s Ministry Of Food When I came back to live in Leeds three years ago, I noticed empty stalls and a lack of ‘sparkle’ in the way the market operated. Over the last year however I have seen more stalls opening up and the market is open for longer hours and the future may look brighter than it did a little while ago. As a sign of this revival, the nationally famous chef Jamie Oliver has opened a stall named the Ministry of Food in Kirkgate Market. As long as I have known Kirkgate market it has been the province of ‘working class’ Leeds. Some people in Leeds never shop there, preferring to shop in more upmarket places. So to see Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food in Kirkgate market helps to bring about a paradigm shift in the way markets are seen. Jamie also has Ministry Of Food stalls in the markets in Rotherham and Bradford, so all three are in West Yorkshire. I was surprised to learn that there were only these three in the country. I would have expected him to have stalls in markets ‘down South’ near London. The Ministry of Food offers taster sessions for the courses it runs. The courses themselves run over ten weeks and are dedicated to helping anyone learn how to make ‘fabulous tasty, healthy and simple meals from scratch.’ To join a course, no qualification is needed beyond a desire to learn how to cook. This is of course in line with Jamie Oliver’s mission to bring healthier eating to the tables of British households. The Language Of The Market As I walked through the market today, I was thinking about the give and take, the banter and the discussions and the exchanges – and I took a few photographs as I walked along. It was while doing this that I saw the same action over and over again. Of course, it was the exchange of money for goods, and of change given. As I thought about life in the market, I couldn’t help but think that the human contact is in marked contrast to how we shop in the supermarket.

Doctor insights on: What Can I Do To Make Running Less Painful On My Shins Shin splints: Make sure you wear the proper running shoe for your foot strike: neutral vs. Supination vs. Pronation. A good running store should be able to make that assessment. Mid foot strike has become more popular with the renewed interest in "barefoot running.". ...Read moreSee 1 more doctor answer Rest: Shin splints or tibial stress syndrome heals at a different rate in different people. You should avoid running for the next 6 weeks. If you have access to an exercise bike change your exercise so that you do not loose your fitness level. When you re-start, make sure you are wearing good shoes with cushioned support and run on softer surface such as dirt or grass. If the pain is back stop! ...Read moreSee 1 more doctor answer Painful shins have to quit running hurt after run painful climbing stairs. Pain does not increase when i put pressure onit.Islight swelling along shin? Shin splints???: Not everyone gets shin splints, but it created pain and discomfort over time. Need to stretch before and after, and make sure you are will hydrated. Shin splints (medial tibial stress syndrome) is an inflammation of the muscles, tendons, and bone tissue around your tibia. Pain typically occurs along the inner border of the tibia, where muscles attach to the bone. ...Read moreSee 1 more doctor answer I have a small lump above my foot on my shin looks like a bite, isn't painful or itchy it's just there! I've recently started running could this be y Watch and document.: There are just too many things that could cause a small lump to make even an educated guess. The fact that it's not painful, color indicated that is probably not inflamed or infected. The depth of the lump as well as it's firmness could possibly narrow down the possibilities. Keep an eye on it, maybe even take a picture of it, and resubmit the information if the lump gets larger. ...Read moreSee 1 more doctor answer My shin on my right knee that meets the knee protrudes outward, very painful. Painfull to walk, kneel, stand up from kneeling, running for a long period of time sometimes very tender to the touch. If : If you are young and still growing, this may be due to a condition known as osgood schlater's or tibial tubercle apophysitis. This is a problem that generally heals on its own with time and maturity, although there are several options to help the discomfort in the mean time. Ice, anti-inflammatory medications (oral or topical), and a counter-force strap known as a chopat strap can be helpful. Sometimes a period of rest is needed to allow the symptoms to settle down. While the pain will usually eventually resolve, you may be left with a permanent protrusion or bump just below the knee even into adulthood. If you are already an adult...Different diagnosis but similar treatment is often successful. Ultimately it would be best to have this evaluated by you primary care doctor or preferably an orthopedic surgeon. ...Read more Localized pain in tibia. Hurts to the touch. Hurt while running but hurts still after running. 2 weeks later. Still painful. X-rays showed nothing? Stress injury?: If you increased your mileage and/or intensity too fast, you may have a tibial periostitis and/or muscle strain. Focal pain over bone should raise suspicion of a stress fracture, focal pain over muscle-tendon is likely a strain or tendinopathy;diffuse pain over the postmedial tibia is likely a medial tibial periostitis. X-ray are usually negative, consider repeating x-ray or more advance imaging. ...Read moreSee 1 more doctor answer What could be wrong if my sister's period is a week late and she has painful cramps running down her leg and side? Burning, tingling on top of foot, feels like electricity running down my leg, sitting on it makes worser, it's painful, what's wrong? Feels like electricity is running running through my foot. Not painful just kind of vibrating for days. Entire leg painful, neg for clots. Blood fine. I feel something on my head.Its like a water running on my right side of my head.And its painful.When i feel that, my left leg feels aching and weaknes? Headache & leg pain: You need to see a neurologist asap. It is diffcult to answer your question without a full neurological exam. ...Read more Hi.. I have tight leg muscles which affects my sports and running and can be very painful, what is the best way to rid them? Overuse injury...: Sounds like shin splints. You need to reduce intensity and distance to 50-60% levels. Run on flat and forgiving surfaces. You might want to evaluate your shoes and their ware. Application of ice, heat, stretching can all afford some degree of relief, but over use is the problem and reduction of activity is the answer. ...Read more Shin splints???: Not everyone gets shin splints, but it created pain and discomfort over time. Need to stretch before and after, and make sure you are will hydrated. Shin splints (medial tibial stress syndrome) is an inflammation of the muscles, tendons, and bone tissue around your tibia. Pain typically occurs along the inner border of the tibia, where muscles attach to the bone. ...Read more Shin splints: This is traumatic compressive damage to the muscle running along the shin bone. The muscle is in a compartment and if it swells from the repeated banging of certain exercises, you will get pain that can be severe. You can use ice to help, pre treat with Ibuprofen in the future, and get some advice from an exercise therapist about how to minimize this in the future. ...Read moreSee 1 more doctor answer Several things: If you only have pain running on the treadmill, there are several things. Try adjusting the inclination of the treadmill. Have your running shoes checked to make sure they are appropriate for your type foot. If you hyperpronate, you may want to try an over-the-counter orthotic device. Alternate the treadmill with another form of exercise. If the pain persists, see your orthopaedist. ...Read more Whenever I try running I feel this sharp pain in my shins after some time that compels me to stop running coz I feel like the bone is about to break? Shin pain : Shin pain is not uncommon to runners, and has many factors. The following can be reasons for shin pain: improperly fitting shoes, improper stretching/warm up,poor running form, and running too far too soon. In addition, I would seek medical evaluation to make sure there are no "shin splints" or small fractures. I would also find a good running supply store to be properly fitted for running shoes. ...Read moreSee 1 more doctor answer ?: Shin is the bone are , there is no muscle there. ...Read more Shin splints: Pain in the shins when running is commonly known as "shin splints." if you have no other symptoms and lack redness, this is your likely diagnosis. Shin splints are difficult to treat and can be a chronic problem. I tell my patients take some time off running and consider icing the area after a run. Sometimes it may help to run on a softer surface such as grass. ...Read more

laser surgery for fibroids removal and pregnancy myomin for uterine fibroids Unfortunately, uterine fibroids can have a serious impact on the physical and emotional wellbeing of laser surgery for fibroids removal and pregnancy women, and this has been made worse by the limited options that have been available to them in the past. The Ontario Schedule of Benefits professional fees for UAE were confirmed by a number of experts and are presented in Table A6 The fees include charges associated with the angiography suite as well as the embolization procedure itself. What's more, I was not Uterine experience how women fibroids not pathologist' advanced that oestrogen has a significant effect on bladder and indeed on other connective tissue- something else for you to think about as you seem to be a similar age. One study found that 63 percent of women treated with Lupron still had small placenta attachment over fibroid fibroids left over after surgery laser surgery for fibroids removal and pregnancy compared to 13 percent of women who didn't take the drug. The reason that fibroids and obesity seem to coexist is that fat cells are linked with oestrogen, a hormone that is also linked to obesity. Combining Fibroid Formula with a good diet, and avoiding xenoestrogen substances can help you both shrink fibroids and stop them from growing back. ultrasound picture of fibroid in pregnancy For both patients and the healthcare system as a whole, there are significant benefits to this noninvasive procedure particularly against currently alternative procedures for the fibroids, which include hysterectomy, myomectomy and uterine artery embolization. Some foods make hormonally-sourced conditions worse, and some make them better. You might try comparing both fried and fresh fennel seeds and seeing which is better as relieving intestinal gas for you. do fibroids cause cramps 3dpo Diet suggestions should be in place regardless of where fibroid growth is at, since those are supportive of hormonal balance and may reduce the chance of new 9 cm fibroid pregnancy growth or advanced growth of existing uterine fibroids. If the fibroids are located centrally in the uterus near the lining, they will stretch that lining not allowing it to heal. However, the procedure may not always be possible as it depends on individual circumstances, such as the size, number and position of the fibroids. Women with fibroids not distorting the uterine cavity can achieve high live birth rates without intervention. Some uterine fibroids may be so small that they can't be felt even during an internal examination; some may be large enough to make a prominent bulge in your stomach. Another challenge in studying endometriosis and uterine fibroids placenta attachment over fibroid together is the age of the patients. Then we will use the going into the future do fibroids cause cramps 3dpo technique, which involves laser surgery for fibroids removal Try This Out pregnancy traveling forward in time, to a time when the fibroids have disappeared. fibroids and fetal growth Animal studies have discovered that vitamin D reduced fibroid size, indicating that vitamin D supplementation may provide an affordable and effective therapy of uterine fibroids. Heavier women and women who have had weight fluctuations throughout adulthood may be at greater risk for postsurgical weight gain, suggesting that lifestyle interventions to maintain or lose weight fibroids and fetal growth may be particularly helpful for these women in the months following hysterectomy. Don't worry about a tiny uterus at the uterosacral ligaments to take one capsule daily. I know how painful it is to undergo placenta attachment over fibroid a surgical process and not only that but also you open to other health complications. Uterine fibroids grow in our around the uterine wall, or the womb where a baby is held. Practitioner prescribed herbal formula composed of 10 herbs: Angelica sinensis 10g, Bighead Atractylodes Rhizome 10g, Radix Paeoniae Rubra 15g, Radix 9 cm fibroid pregnancy Bupleuri 10g, Poria Cocos 20g, Rhizoma Sparganii 10g, Curcuma Zedoary 10g, Rhizoma Cyperi 10g, Rhizoma Pleionis 15g, Raw Oyster 30g. The ultrasound picture of fibroid in pregnancy post-operative impression was a posterior wall fibroid with degeneration, and the procedure performed was total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. While hysterectomy is a proven way to resolve fibroids, it may not be the best surgical treatment for every woman. Because of the heavy bleeding, anemia can be a symptom of an enlarged uterus as well, causing fatigue. posterior removal of fibroid in uterus Myomectomy is the surgical removal of the fibroid while preserving the uterus but recurrences are often observed. McGarey intended. An underlying cause should be considered if a woman does not respond to standard treatment for suspected primary dysmenorrhoea. Serious cramping during the first 12 to 24 hours after UAE is common and treated with oral or intravenous painkillers. Laparoscopic approaches have been tried for myomectomy with different levels of success. Some women experience symptoms such as abnormal bleeding, heavy blood flows during menstruation, back pain, bloating, constipation, bellyache, as well as including a range of other minor symptoms. Recently the procedure was signs of fibroids shrinking signs as helpful also for post-menopausal women whose fibroids had not regressed with menopause. Hormones - growth of leiomyomata is affected by levels of oestrogen and progesterone. I could not lay flat for 2+ days without severe pain and shortness of breath all due to the anasthesia. Homeopathic medicines cannot take the place of surgery but can be of great help to the patients who do not want to go for surgery or cannot be operated upon due to various medical reasons. We searched Medline and Embase, Cochrane Reviews, personal references and reference lists in general articles on uterine fibroids. However, if she is someone who was going to try to become pregnant by standard therapies other than IVF, she needs to be aware of what is going on and it needs to be fully discussed in terms of the surgery and its alternatives. The majority of women with uterine fibroids will have normal pregnancy outcomes. Uterine fibroids are a painful condition to have, and it's not the kind of thing that is easy to talk about thanks to Fibroids Miracle. inflammatory fibroid polyp immunohistochemistry I would love any feedback about this drug being used pre-surgery in response to fibroids. It also works as an immunomodulator and is said to works as an excellent are fibroids cancer uterine remedy for the uterine fibroids. The authors concluded that uterine artery embolization was a definitive procedure for symptomatic fibroids equal to currently available surgical methods. When there are symptoms they can be severe and women are encouraged to seek medical care in the case of on-going pelvic pain, heavy and painful periods, pain during intercourse, an enlarged abdomen and difficulty emptying their bladder. center for uterine fibroids at brigham and women's hospital Adenomyosis has been a frustrating disease to treat; medical treatment with oral progesterone or birth control pills often does not work and uterine artery embolization often fails. Should you have any health care the chart above, the higher the on the inside of your uterus. Some other problems that can be the reason of pain during the time of ovulation include ectopic pregnancy, chronic what is the best holistic treatment for uterine fibroids inflammatory disease, gastrointestinal problems, etc. Progestins or progesterone medicines work much like birth control pills and can be taken by women who can't take estrogen. In those patients who achieved pregnancy, 35.7% of those with a type 0 myoma delivered at term, as compared to 28.5% with a type I myoma and 25% with a type II myoma after having undergone fibroid resection. If any of these three modalities suggests cancer, excisional biopsy is warranted. Your doctor may recommend treatment options if your symptoms interfere with your daily activities. A procedure fibroids and iodine how long does it take to work which a sample of tissue is taken through a tube inserted into the uterus. This procedure is considered better when compared to other forms of treatment for fibroids in the sense that it is more effective than medications and injections and does not require surgery. Nascent Iodine is a consumable iodine in its atomic form rather than its molecular form. Hormonal Therapy treatments involve the use of hormones to shrink fibroids or control fibroid related bleeding. See Breast Lumps in Young Women: Diagnostic Approaches , a Critical Images slideshow, to help identify and manage palpable breast lumps in young women. My friends and family saw the former Patricia once again, I look much more younger, energized and I also lost weight. The root aids in liver health and stimulates digestion for improved estrogen metabolism. But talk with your doctor if you have symptoms of fibroids, since early treatment can reduce your risk of complications. UAE involves complete occlusion of both uterine arteries with particulate emboli, with the objective of causing ischaemic necrosis of the uterine fibroids but no permanent adverse effect on the otherwise normal uterus. It has slowed down, but I don't like the side effects of the BC. Major complications occurred in 3% of women, including serious infection in 2%. It was simply eye-opening to me. If you have fibroids and are trying to conceive without success, don't assume your fibroids are responsible. Compared with conventional medication, one herbal preparation, Tripterygium wilfordii, may have a more beneficial effect in reducing the volume of uterine fibroids Another five herbal medicines appeared to be similar to conventional medication in etiology symptoms of fibroid uterus the volume of fibroids The herbal medicine Guizhi Fuling formula showed a significantly greater effect in reducing the volume of the fibroids when combined with mifepristone versus mifepristone alone. We generally use intravenous sedation so that the procedure is virtually painless. Use visualization exercises such as guided imagery to focus on decreasing the size of the growths. This minimally invasive technique is usually an option when there are fewer than 10 fibroids and none exceed 12 cm in size. I was fine for the rest of the day and even had some light activity in the evening that didn't result in any pain. Therefore, when the health of the digestive and liver detoxification systems is addressed, the body is given the opportunity to reverse fibroids or at least stop the painful symptoms. Our study supports the opinion that non-cavity distorting intramural fibroids have a detrimental effect on live births, clinical pregnancy, implantation and delivery rates in patients undergoing ART. Because menstrual cups are worn internally, they may present particular issues for some women with fibroids. I agree with you in that if your symptoms are manageable do you need to have a hysterectomy. how to shrink large fibroids during pregnancy The team sees around 1,600 patients every year between their NHS and private gynaecology practice. It is now my wish that any woman who has fibroids grab the opportunity to see Dr. This supplement should be cervical fibroids and cancer in conjunction with a healthy diet and regular exercise program. There be heterogeneous signal intensity on T2, with no enhancement post-gadolinium administration, Fibroids that demonstrate high signal on T1W images prior to embolization are likely to have a poor response to UAE as they already have outgrown their blood supply and undergone hemorrhagic necrosis. I was making slow but steady progress after my op until about 3 weeks ago when left sided abdominal pain returned and gradually increased until I was virtually sofa or bed bound. The radiologist reviews all the pictures and will report the results to your doctor. More often than not, fibroids are nothing more than a pain in the belly, so don't let them worry you too much unless your symptoms grow problematic. Many can be safely removed from the uterus, but depending on size and location can the culprit of hysterectomy. It was accompanied with a few small clots that were meaty in texture so I'm assuming that it was my fibroids breaking down. But there are reports of successful and safe treatment even of large tumors by the laparoscopic approach 19. In desperation I started using these drops in conjunction with EGCG and Chi's Myomin, plus adding grape seed oil to my greens at meals. Because they are also high in fat and estrogen is stored in fat cells, these foods may cause additional problems for women with fibroids. Generally, fibroids the size of a grapefruit or bigger can be felt by the patient and are readily noted on bimanual pelvic palpation. Due to the small lesion, it is more difficult to make a diagnosis compared to the focal or diffusion-type adenomyosis and is often missed. Fibroids seem to run in families, but we are not sure at present whether this is a genuinely genetic predisposition, or whether lifestyle and diet play in role in some families. This and many other healing properties of this enzyme makes serrapeptase not only beneficial for naturally shrinking uterine treatment of subserosal fibroid and pregnancy but also for treating many other gynecological issues such as endometriosis, ovarian cysts as well as many other inflammatory autoimmune diseases while also helping with pain control. Total hysterectomy can be performed through the vagina when medically appropriate, however, in the case of large fibroids or when the surgeon deems medical necessity total hysterectomy is performed through the abdomen. Since you are 29 years old, it would not be surprising if you developed a new fibroid. It is a combination of two technologies - an MRI scanner that locates the fibroids and ultrasound waves that destroys the growths. A single, large fibroid can often be removed, leaving the uterus largely intact. It has been shown to decrease the size and bleeding from fibroids at lower doses of five to 50 mg per day over a six-month period. This is an important health problem that requires long-term treatment and errors in treatment may lead to greater hormonal imbalances than the existing ones. She discusses, how fibroids or as they are also called myomas, fibromyomas, or leiomyomas, have affected her daily life and the adjustments that she was forced to make. In addition to the many kinds of completely harmless breast lumps, there are some that may slightly increase your risk of getting breast cancer in the future and a few that may not be cancer but should be removed anyway. Interventional radiologists interpret the MRI images to determine if a fibroid tumor can be embolized, detect alternate causes for the symptoms, identify conditions that could prevent the procedure and avoid ineffective treatments. Parker of removes 18 fibroids from the uterus of a 49 year old patient during this open surgery. With break-outs I encourage you to avoid foods that stagnate the system, such as: Red meats, pork, white sugar, dairy and all fibroids diabetes in pregnancy symptoms foods. Thus, some patients may experience symptoms of increased or urgent urination, urinary escape with coughing, pain associated with bowel movements, and even pain episodes with sexual intercourse. Hypertension is one of the most common problems in pregnancy and is diagnosed or develops in about one in 7 women. fibroid tumors and gas UFE has a 90 percent cure rate of symptoms7 and is effective treating fibroids of all sizes, but risk of recurrence does exist, in some cases warranting further rounds of treatment. There cure for fibroid in nigeria many non surgical ways of treating fibroids before they get too big/block the opening of the uterus. Whatever you do though, don't let your gyn tell you a hysterectomy is the ONLY option....no matter what the size is. Once there, the catheter is used to deliver agents that block off the blood vessels that feed the uterine fibroids. Tamoxifen, a weak oestrogen given to women to prevent recurrence of breast cancer, increases the risk of not only endometrial cancer, but also for uterine leiomyosarcoma.

In the August 2015 issue of Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine six writers who grew up near the Northern Michigan water reflect on how freshwater continues to shape their lives today. Traverse City native Geoffrey Gagnon, who now lives in Manhattan, is one of the six writers. He writes about his unofficial job as a “kind of cultural missionary who had come to live among these philistines.” Read on for the rest of the essay… These days, I live on an island, a place encompassed—so the map suggests—by water. Technically, I’m never more than a quick walk to the shore. And every afternoon, from the windows of an office tower, I can watch the rivers roil past the ends of each street and see the harbor spread south toward the horizon. But proximity can be misleading. All this endless water and I’d never so much as touched it. Who would? In plenty of ways, I’ve never felt farther from the water than I do here in New York—completely surrounded by it. When I first moved east, right after college, I was offended by what little was known of American geography here on the seaboard. A shocking percentage of the people I’d meet assumed that I, coming from the middle part of this country, had never laid eyes on a sizable body of water. The ignorance astounds. Tell a person you’re from the Midwest and they’ll imagine many pleasant things about your upbringing, but their mental tableau of wholesomeness won’t often include much in the way of sand and surf and languid beach scenes. Narrow it down for them, tell them you’re from Michigan—a place literally called the Great Lakes State and second only to Alaska in coastlines mileage—and very few will comprehend the profusion of sandy beaches or understand the local preeminence of water. Inexplicably, their imaginations run instead to glorified swamps and fetid ponds. Ask about the big lakes and many of these otherwise right-thinking souls figure that one can probably see across each of the Great Lakes. As a kind of cultural missionary who had come to live among these philistines, I made a point to offer my help, rather than my scorn. I set about educating my friends on how the various beaches of New England, Long Island, and New Jersey (along with a good many others I judge without visiting) paled in comparison to the ones I knew back home. I talked big and grew contented in my smugness, secure in a belief that few of these people would ever be in a position to refute my claims. Then, last summer, I brought home to Northern Michigan a visitor whose reaction would make me anxious. Having been raised in the tides of the New Jersey Shore and the Florida coast, my girlfriend had, over many years, cultivated a fierce talent for beach-going and a rather sophisticated expertise on matters of maritime leisure. This only brought out the braggart in me, and I spent the bulk of our early courtship testifying breathlessly to the superiority of the beaches I knew back home, brandishing dog-eared copies of this very magazine to enter into evidence the photographic proof of our freshwater utopia. But I had to wonder, as we boarded the plane, whether she would love it. Whether she would understand why I did. I drove her first to a spot past Glen Haven, one of those postcard-perfect Lake Michigan beaches. I had told her that despite the perfect weather, the place would be empty—and I didn’t just mean empty compared to the clogged beaches she knew. Literally, it was devoid of people. Just water and sky and sand in all directions. She made for the waves, went under in a leap, and came up grinning through a shiver. I sensed a convert, but was unsure. The convincer came later that day, when she promptly began making good on a challenge to herself to jump into every lake she saw. Daunting, sure, but that’s how she wound up in West Bay, and that’s how it came to pass that—with the sun going down and nobody else contemplating a swim—she and a friend’s dog launched themselves off a dock into a green inland lake. By the time she popped up, she was smitten, and her smile said what she was thinking. All this endless water, why wouldn’t you go in?

We often take up smoking to fit in with our peers, especially while at school. Its conceived by some as being hip and schoolchildren are the largest group to take up smoking. When Do We Start Smoking Some recent and startling statistics revealed here, show that in the UK by ages 12-13-yrs 31% of kids had tried smoking, and by ages 14-15 yrs is almost double at 59%. There are also mumblings that subliminal advertising is aimed at the teen girl market implying that smoking keeps you slim. How Cool Is It To Start Smoking? Back in the day smoking played a large part in the movies, especially between the two world wars and then afterwards when youth culture really began to take-off. In 1953 when Marlon Brando played the first sexual screen idol/rebel in the filmThe Wild One. It made a hero of and helped launch the bad boy image (as we know it today), then James Dean took up the baton, in the three films that established him (before his early demise) as the indolent adolescent that imitators fail to capture. The anti-establishment rights-of-passage examples we’ve seen time and again since, provide a screen image for displaced youth who can display anything from dire vulnerability through to sheer arrogance/ And whatever your first cigarette story is – telling the tale of how you first started – it certainly becomes an expensive, fairly non-glamorous habit as time goes by. When To Stop The Anti-Smoking Law introduced in the UK in July 2007, has seen an increase in the numbers of people quitting the habit, as it’s becoming more challenging to have a smoke in a public area, for example your local pub, which is not such fun, out in the cold, in the dead of winter. And once you stop you can look forward to breathing normally again, reducing aches and pains that often inhabit a smoker’s body, gain more clarity and reclaim your taste buds. I know I tried for a long long time and then one day I was ill, I went to a dinner party that culminated in giving away my remaining cigarettes and lighter, a first for sure. And stranger still, I didn’t have one bout of craving, so what was different? I knew I was moving across the country later that year (1996) and was visiting family in the area I was moving to, and during that weekend I started with yet another chest infection and something inside of me said … no more! And that was it! If I was asked what components contributed towards that and how it differed from every other time I’d stopped, I just wouldn’t be able to place it, apart from the timing, because this was just right for me and I haven’t looked back or had any regrets. This was because I’d attempted it about 30-times and back then I’d not discovered the techniques I making change in my life now and personally it was one of the best decisions I’ve made. The Stop Smoking Options Every year the UK has a Stop Smoking day which they promote beforehand in an effort to gather national support for smokers to quit and become free of the habit. What are the options when it comes to stop smoking, well here in the UK there are a range of ways to do it through the NHS or the chemist. - Fake cigarettes (to draw on) - Quit Kit People worry most about the side effects of cravings and whether they’ll replace one unhelpful habit for another, which happens all too often. But it’s where the techniques I use are so handy because we deal with the underlying habit that drives a need to turn to substances, albeit alcohol, food, shopping, etc. However, the good news is the quick-change techniques used here are excellent for releasing the tracks and triggers of a habit, that help unravel it’s grip. The Smoking Habit These habits are born out of a reaction to stressful situations/relationships, and are poor coping strategies as they turn on us with avengence. Therefore, stopping smoking is a great time to dig out those drivers so they no longer trigger you in the first place. Is this something that has been affecting you? Did you give it a go on the Stop Smoking Day but ditched it and resumed normal service by getting back to the cigarettes. I for one know how comforting cigarettes can be, and it may be the only peace and quiet you get but if your health is being affected, if your kids look at you with those pleading eyes, begging you to stop (because they worry) and you really would like to stop but just can’t imagine it would work for you, then drop a line into the contact form and arrange a chat. It can be done, it’s much easier than you think and these techniques allow you to address everything you need to become a Non-Smoker!

2012 Election Snapshot New Jersey Over the past several months, Pew collected data about the 2012 presidential election from nearly every state and the District of Columbia. We used the findings to create a snapshot of each jurisdiction, focusing on how many people voted, how long they waited to cast their ballots, how they cast them, and how many ballots were not counted. These snapshots will be released over the coming months, five at a time, and the Election Data Dispatches will take a closer look at the latest snapshots each week. 2012 Election Snapshot—New Jersey The rates of provisional ballots cast and rejected in New Jersey changed significantly from 2008 to 2012. This change probably occurred because Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno—who serves as the state’s chief election official—issued a directive allowing any voter displaced by Hurricane Sandy to cast a provisional ballot at any polling place in the state. County election boards were responsible for counting each vote for president, U.S. Senate, statewide races, and any other questions on the ballot for which the voter was eligible to cast a vote. Among the results: - In 2012, a total of 97,481 provisional ballots were cast, a 36 percent increase from the 71,536 in 2008. - The rejection rate of provisional ballots, however, decreased between these elections. In 2012, a total of 13,081 provisional ballots were rejected, down 38 percent from 2008 when the figure was 18,032. Residents of New Jersey and New York who were affected by Hurricane Sandy needed a way to locate polling places and access other voting information. The Voting Information Project partnered with Mobile Commons to ensure that more than 243,000 voters received their information via text message.

Four children have been admitted to the Sick Kids Hospital on suspicion of a polio-like virus which carries a risk of paralysis, reports suggest. A small cluster of children from the south east Scotland have been struck down by enterovirus D68, a rare respiratory bug spread through coughs and sneezes. The virus, which has no cure or anti-viral vaccine, can leave patients unable to walk and unable to breathe or swallow in the most extreme cases. The Scottish cases are all being treated at the Sick Kids Hospital, in Edinburgh. It is understood that the four primary-age children had struggled to move their limbs, while two are believed to have been in intensive care. The health board would not confirm their condition this morning but said all the children were now testing negative for the virus. Dr Kate Templeton, chair of incident management team and a consultant clinical scientist at NHS Lothian, said: “We have been investigating a possible cluster of patients infected with enterovirus D68. “The patients are all now testing negative for the virus and are being cared for at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh.” Health protection officials said there have been 36 cases across Scotland in 2016, mostly among children who are more vulnerable to the virus. A Health Protection Scotland (HPS) spokesperson said: “HPS is aware of 36 detections of EV-D68 in Scotland in 2016, mainly in children. We have issued two professional briefings to the NHS on EV-D68 to date - on September 23 and October 5.”

As part of efforts to protect the country’s hardwood forests, the Mozambican parliament on Thursday unanimously passed the second and final reading of a bill that will ban the export of unprocessed timber logs. Under the new law, which will come into effect on 1 January 2017, semi-processed timber (such as beams, planks and parquet) may be exported, but will be subject to an export tax. There is no tax on the export of finished wooden goods, such as furniture. The law is expected to halt the devastation of the southern African country’s forests which is experiencing depletion. The issue of illegal logging in the country has also been identified as a key source of revenue loss to the government. We have seized more illegal wood in one year than Mozambique has since independence. We are passing a new forestry law and a new conservation law. China is the main importer of wood from Mozambique – and there have been incidents of Chinese nationals participating in logging without a licence. Chinese traders according to the environmental research organization, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) accountred for over 90% of Mozambican timber exports. Another research group, found that in 2014 Mozambican wood entering China surpassed $400m, up from $90m in 2009. Celso Correia, the minister for land, environment and rural development is quoted in an article published in the UK Guardian as saying, “We are cleaning the house now”, in reference to the corruption and illegal logging that has dogged the country’s timber sector for more than a decade. “We have seized more illegal wood in one year than Mozambique has since independence. We are passing a new forestry law and a new conservation law,” he added.

York, Yorkshire, England, 6 June 2013. We (Lisa, Ruth, Mike, and I) came down from the city wall, crossed the river, and approached Clifford’s Tower. In front of the tower we found this reminder of a dark event. On the night of Friday 16 March 1190 some 150 Jews and Jewesses of York having sought protection in the Royal Castle on this site from a mob incited by Richard Malebisse and others chose to die at each other’s hands rather than renounce their faith. ISAIAH XLII 12 Clifford’s Tower is a 13th Century addition to York Castle, roughly on the site of the massacre, a stone structure replacing the previous timber keep, which was seriously damaged. The massacre reflects a grim union of prejudice and greed under a veneer of Christian faith, which was not isolated to this event, this time, or this place. A brief summary of the massacre in its historical context can be found at ddickerson.igc.org/cliffords-tower.html

And 2 more authors. Journal of Vegetation Science | Year: 2010 Question: Are vines light-demanding species? Location: Temperate evergreen rain forest of southern Chile (401390S, 721110W). Methods: In 45 plots of 25m2 distributed in treefall canopy gaps, secondary forest stands and oldgrowth forest (15 plots per light environment), all climbing and non-supported vines were counted and identified to species level, and canopy openness was quantified using hemispherical photographs. Vine abundance and diversity (species richness and Simpson's index) were compared in the three light environments and similarity between vine communities was estimated using Jaccard's similarity coefficient. We also determined the relationship between light niche breadth and local dominance at the species level. Results: In total there were 2510 vine individuals of 14 species. Canopy openness was significantly different in the three light environments. Species richness, diversity, community composition and density of vines were similar in treefall gaps, secondary and old-growth forest. Of the seven more common vine species, which accounted for 91% of all vines, three had even distribution, two were more abundant in the shaded understorey, and two had higher density in well-lit sites. Local dominance of vine species and niche breadth were not significantly associated. Conclusions: Our study in a temperate rain forest questions the widespread notion of vines as pioneer-like species, which may be a consequence of the abundance of some lianas in disturbed sites of tropical forests. Functional arguments are needed to justify a general hypothesis on light requirements of vines, which constitute a vast group of species. © 2009 International Association for Vegetation Science. Lopez-Jamar J.,University of Castilla - La Mancha | Casas F.,Institute Investigacion en Recursos Cinegeticos | Diaz M.,Institute Recursos Naturales | Morales M.B.,Autonomous University of Madrid Bird Conservation International | Year: 2011 Local changes in land use can influence patterns of habitat selection by farmland birds, thus biasing predictions of population responses to land use changes based on wildlife-habitat or niche modelling. This study, based in arable farmland in south-central Spain, determined whether habitat selection (use of agricultural habitats and the distance to roads, tracks and buildings) by Great Bustards Otis tarda varied between two nearby areas with differing land uses. The western sector has experienced a process of land abandonment and infrastructure development linked to an airport project that started in 1998 and finished in 2009, while the eastern sector maintains extensive dry farmland systems. Great Bustards avoided ploughed fields and selected short- and long-term fallows. Selection of fallows was more intensive in the sector suffering recent land-use changes, where these substrates were more abundant. Great Bustards were distributed further from roads, paths and buildings than would be expected if individual birds selected habitats at random. Avoidance of infrastructure was strongest in the area suffering recent land-use changes. Local patterns of habitat selection seemed to change in relation to agricultural abandonment and infrastructure development. Consequently, conservation measures based on knowledge of broad patterns of habitat use and selection such as agri-environmental schemes may fail to ensure steppe bird conservation locally if such local effects are overlooked. Specifically, schemes should include landscape-scale restrictions on the development and use of infrastructure (roads, tracks and buildings). Analyses of the patterns and causes of local and regional changes in habitat selection are essential to conserve populations of endangered farmland birds. Copyright © 2011 BirdLife International. Increased drought severity is expected in the Mediterranean Basin over the twenty-first century, but our understanding of the potential of most forest tree species to cope with it remains uncertain. In this study, (1) we examined the potential effects of long-term selection and the capacity to respond to future changes in selective pressures in three populations of cork oak (Quercus suber L.). For this purpose, we evaluated the response to dry conditions of 45 open-pollinated trees originating from populations in Morocco, Portugal, and Spain. Growth, leaf size, specific leaf area (SLA), carbon isotope discrimination (Δ13C), leaf nitrogen content (Nmass), and total chlorophyll content (Chlmass) were measured in 9-year-old plants. (2) We also investigated the relationships between functional traits and aboveground growth by regression models. Plants presenting larger and more sclerophyllous leaves (low SLA and high leaf thickness) exhibited higher growths, with results suggesting that these traits are subjected to divergent selection in this species. Heritability estimates were moderately high for Δ13C (0.43 ± 0.25-0.83 ± 0.31) and stem diameter (0.40 ± 0.15-0.71 ± 0.28) for the tree populations. For the rest of the traits (except for annual growth), heritability values varied among populations, particularly for height, leaf size, leaf thickness, and Nmass. Our results suggest that natural selection has led to local adaptations and has also affected the genetic variance intrapopulation in these cork oak populations, although studies with a higher number of populations should be carried out across different years. Additionally, the absence of significant genetic correlations and the fact that correlated traits did not undergo opposing selection provided little evidence for constraints on evolution caused by genetic correlations. © 2010 Springer-Verlag. Journal of Ecology | Year: 2012 Recent studies have suggested that the simultaneous maintenance of multiple ecosystem functions (multifunctionality) is positively supported by species richness. However, little is known regarding the relative importance of other community attributes (e.g. spatial pattern, species evenness) as drivers of multifunctionality. We conducted two microcosm experiments using model biological soil crust communities dominated by lichens to: (i) evaluate the joint effects and relative importance of changes in species composition, spatial pattern (clumped and random distribution of lichens), evenness (maximal and low evenness) and richness (from two to eight species) on soil functions related to nutrient cycling (β-glucosidase, urease and acid phosphatase enzymes, in situ N availability, total N, organic C, and N fixation), and (ii) assess how these community attributes affect multifunctionality. Species richness, composition and spatial pattern affected multiple ecosystem functions (e.g. organic C, total N, N availability, β-glucosidase activity), albeit the magnitude and direction of their effects varied with the particular function, experiment and soil depth considered. Changes in species composition had effects on organic C, total N and the activity of β-glucosidase. Significant species richness×evenness and spatial pattern×evenness interactions were found when analysing functions such as organic C, total N and the activity of phosphatase. The probability of sustaining multiple ecosystem functions increased with species richness, but this effect was largely modulated by attributes such as species evenness, composition and spatial pattern. Overall, we found that model communities with high species richness, random spatial pattern and low evenness increased multifunctionality. Synthesis. Our results illustrate how different community attributes have a diverse impact on ecosystem functions related to nutrient cycling, and provide new experimental evidence illustrating the importance of the spatial pattern of organisms on ecosystem functioning. They also indicate that species richness is not the only biotic driver of multifunctionality, and that particular combinations of community attributes may be required to maximize it. © 2011 The Authors. Journal of Ecology © 2011 British Ecological Society. Plants distributed across a wide range of environmental conditions are submitted to differential selective pressures. Long-term selection can lead to the development of adaptations to the local environment, generating ecotypic differentiation. Additionally, plant species can cope with this environmental variability by phenotypic plasticity. In this study, we examine the importance of both processes in coping with environmental heterogeneity in the Mediterranean sclerophyllous cork oak Quercus suber. For this purpose, we measured growth and key functional traits at the leaf level in 9-year-old plants across 2 years of contrasting precipitation (2005 and 2006) in a common garden. Plants were grown from acorns originated from 13 populations spanning a wide range of climates along the distribution range of the species. The traits measured were: leaf size (LS), specific leaf area (SLA), carbon isotope discrimination (Δ13C) and leaf nitrogen content per unit mass (Nmass). Inter-population differences in LS, SLA and Δ13C were found. These differences were associated with rainfall and temperature at the sites of origin, suggesting local adaptation in response to diverging climates. Additionally, SLA and LS exhibited positive responses to the increase in annual rainfall. Year effect explained 28% of the total phenotypic variance in LS and 2.7% in SLA. There was a significant genotype × environment interaction for shoot growth and a phenotypic correlation between the difference in shoot growth among years and the annual mean temperature at origin. This suggests that populations originating from warm sites can benefit more from wet conditions than populations from cool sites. Finally, we investigated the relationships between functional traits and aboveground growth by several regression models. Our results showed that plants with lower SLA presented larger aboveground growth in a dry year and plants with larger leaf sizes displayed larger growth rates in both years. Overall, the study supports the adaptive value of SLA and LS for cork oak under a Mediterranean climate and their potentially important role for dealing with varying temperature and rainfall regimes through both local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity. © The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

— Few people in Japan would have considered driving to Fukushima prefecture in the immediate aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeast coast of Japan. But Beau Retallick and his friends did just that, buying a Geiger counter and stuffing two vans with water, food, fuel, plastic suits to protect against radiation and makeshift toilets before setting off on a trip that would take them within 25 miles of the crippled and leaking nuclear power plant there. “The fight that I have put forward to try and help the people up north is because I believe in the country, I believe in the people,” said Retallick, a 36-year-old Australian who runs a bungee jumping business and a hotel in Japan, where he has lived for 12 years. Retallick is one of a number of expats turned volunteers who have dropped their day jobs and pitched in to help their adopted country recover from the devastation that the United Nations says forced 170,500 people from their homes and damaged 138,000 buildings. “I’m feeling pretty tired — obviously this is not what we normally do — so it’s been a bit of a strange, strange experience going through all this,” he told msnbc.com in a telephone interview, noting they had “just sort of dealt with the change and tried to help out.” Retallick said his involvement in the relief effort began shortly after the quake, when a friend, Ed Hanman, asked if he wanted to join him on a journey to the Fukushima area to evacuate his wife’s family and deliver supplies to an area that had no water or other necessities. Retallick agreed, but decided that one precaution would be prudent. Amid the preparations, he went to Tokyo to buy a Geiger counter. “We thought taking the expressway, which is probably 30 to 40 kilometers (20 to 25 miles) from the reactor, was reasonably safe. It was only a short time that we’d be on that expressway passing the reactor, so we figured we’d push through,” he said. “We just thought it was some sort of responsibility that we had to get up there and do that.” 'Made a bit of a mistake' They got a reality check soon after they arrived at Hanman’s in-laws’ home on March 14, when they heard reports of an explosion at the Fukushima plant, which was less than 20 miles away. “I thought of it as a bit of a storm in a teacup when they talked about that kind of stuff. I think, yeah, in hindsight I probably underestimated it a little bit,” he said. “When we were there and it popped we thought, ‘Oh God, we’ve made a bit of a mistake,’” noting that sirens were sounding and a friend told them to place wet towels over their heads. But they also saw the desperate plight of many survivors. On their second trip to the area, while visiting the town of Rizukentakata, which was flattened, they found hundreds of survivors huddled in a single building with virtually none of life’s necessities. “They had less than 100 liters of water left,” he said. “They had nothing to possibly make it through the night, no food. They had 300, 400 people in one building.” He recalled one Japanese woman taking him by the arm and begging him to leave a water tank — a serious gesture in the reserved Japanese culture. Encounters like that one steeled the resolve of Retallick and his friends to help. They decided to get residents in Retallick’s hometown of Minakami, in the mountains northwest of Tokyo, involved in their ragtag relief effort, talking up their mission at a town meeting. “From what we did then, the people from the town started taking loads up and basically disobeying the tourism board, which was saying that we shouldn’t go past the reactor,” Retallick said. “We sort of started a bit of a cascade in our town of people going up past the reactor and taking aid up to the north, and since then, we sort of just couldn’t stop.” Volunteers have now made six trips to dozens of cities and towns in hard-hit Iwate prefecture, delivering about $3,000 worth of goods each time, weighing from 2,645 pounds to 4,400 pounds, he said. They have also made good use of the Geiger counter, Retallick said, noting that it helped calm people’s nerves to get checked and learn that they had not been contaminated with radiation. Other expat groups — no one can say how many — are pitching in with similar “guerrilla-style” aid efforts. Timo Budow, a 44-year-old entrepreneur from Alexandria, Va., said he and about a dozen other volunteers — including Japanese, Irish, British, Canadian and Americans — quickly pooled their resources after the disaster and set up a donation depot. “We wanted to do something to help out and be as effective as possible,” he said, noting that they also wanted to counter the bad impression of foreigners skipping town amid the nuclear scare. “We didn’t leave, and we’re here, trying to help people.” So far, Budow and others have made four trips to the hard-hit cities of Ishinomaki and Sendai in Miyagi prefecture and Soma in Fukushima prefecture, hauling water, canned goods, undergarments, adult diapers for the large elderly population, crayons, paper and pens for children, he said. He has another trip coming up this weekend. “The devastation up there is just so massive that the government can’t handle it on its own and there’s going to be lots of different organizations helping out and lots of individuals helping out for the next — not just weeks — but months … maybe even a year,” he said. “Our objective was mainly just to sort of put a dent in their misery somehow.” All told, Foreign Volunteers Japan now has about 150 active members working on relief supply efforts and fundraising, including concerts planned in Rome and in Tokyo in the summer. They have made about 30 trips, carrying an estimated 80 tons of supplies, said a spokesman for the group. 'A self-satisfying mission'? Despite their good intentions, some Japanese are uncomfortable with the foreigners’ efforts. One woman, Rieko Terui, wrote on the Facebook page of Budo’s group, Foreign Volunteers Japan, that she felt more emphasis should be put on supporting efforts by the local government. “While it’s nice to come all the way up here to help individually, it’s also important to help existing efforts be more effective,” she wrote last week. “As I live in Iwate with my American husband, we get a lot of requests from foreign donors and helpers and cannot help feeling that this is becoming like tourism or some kind of self-satisfying mission as they seem condescending about local governmental efforts.” “I’m sorry if I sound harsh because I know you all mean well,” she added. But Kirsten Mildren, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that even makeshift operations like those of Retallick and Budow can play a role in helping with the recovery. “Any volunteer that, if they can find their own way to get there and to actually be able to help, then you know of course it’s going to be well-received, as long as they are not a drain on resources,” she said from Tokyo. In a report last week on the situation facing Japan, OCHA wrote that an ongoing fuel shortage was preventing many volunteers and nongovernmental organizations from reaching the devastated areas. “Much of local media’s focus at the moment is on the coordination challenges and local authorities’ capacity to absorb volunteers,” the report said. “They report that many municipalities in the affected areas are unable to receive the increasing number of volunteers because of limited coordination capacity and lack of fuel and food to spare. As a result, most municipalities have limited the number of volunteers and existing volunteers are exhausted.” Retallick said he has seen the impact that individual efforts can produce, so much so that he has rearranged his responsibilities at work to commit himself to the aid effort. He said some heart-wrenching moments have deepened his dedication to the cause: Japanese politely lining up to receive food, even though they were told they didn’t need to; out-of-work fisherman going out to sea to provide food for hungry survivors, and women cleaning the fish alongside the road; salutes and waves from Japanese as the group passed by in their vans outfitted with a notice that they were engaged in quake relief. One of the most touching moments occurred during his last trip north, where the group was seeing “heavier levels of destruction” in an area farther from the epicenter than many other hard-hit communities. There, a family approached to thank them for their efforts, bowing according to Japanese custom and shaking his hand in the Western style. Only after speaking with them did he learn that the family had traveled to Iwate to help 10 relatives – all of whom they eventually learned had died.

Summer is approaching. The holiday break and warm weather doesn’t mean that learning has to stop. There are numerous activities and places to visit around Toronto that are fun and promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) learning. Here are some of our favourites for families of all ages: Ontario Science Centre: The Science Centre features over 500 exhibits, live demonstrations, Toronto’s only public planetarium and IMAX® films in the dome theatre. The AstraZeneca Human Edge is a new exhibition hall that explores all the wonders of the human body. Bring your little ones to KidSpark, a unique discovery playground and learning space for children age 1-8. Canada’s Wonderland: How does an amusement park teach us about science? At Canada’s Wonderland with all the excitement of roller coasters, there is a ton of science behind building all of the structures. Consider all of the measurement, motion, gravity, speed and acceleration that teaches children about science and physics. Lego Land Discovery Centre: Looking for a STEM activity on a rainy summer day? Look no further than the Lego Land Discovery Centre a family experience with over 3 million bricks under one roof. There are Rides, a 4D cinema, Master Model Builder workshops and more! You can also see Toronto’s iconic attractions made out of LEGO in MINILAND. Ripley’s Aquarium: Experience one of Toronto’s newest and most exciting attractions. Containing over 5.7 million litres of water, the 12,500 square metre (135,000 square foot) interactive aquarium immerses guests in a thrilling underwater adventure that showcases more than 16,000 marine animals Staycation: After a busy couple of weeks, why not bring the activities home. Click here for some fun science experiments for kids do with you at home. These activities have a Canadian bend to it to celebrate Canada 150.

A critical challenge for practitioners and foundations is how to develop linkages across sectors in a way that broadens and deepens the overall impact and support base for community wealth-building strategies. Ideally, an integrated approach would encompass mutually reinforcing government, community, and individual wealth-building efforts. It might include direct government asset-based efforts that promote local job stability (such as local investment policies and municipal enterprise), matched savings programs, and community-based wealth-building efforts. Each of these strategies can have a positive impact on community development on its own; in combination the potential for anchoring jobs and promoting community development could be greatly enhanced. In some areas, cross-sectoral collaboration is already common as, for instance, between CDCs and CDFIs, which share both common roots (the civil rights movement) and a common focus on community economic development. In a number of other areas, different asset-based approaches have also worked in a coordinated manner for mutual benefit. For instance, some community development financial institutions provide financing to cooperatives and many CDCs administer IDA and micro-enterprise programs on behalf of their communities. A number of local community foundations have also adopted a broad cross-sectoral community development focus.

With the Mexican Presidential Election approaching, below Maria Elena Enríquez, FDA Researcher with a background in political science and international relations and Mexican citizen, shares her opinion on the Mexican election. Based on her research and opinion, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the candidate for Party of Democratic Revolution, focuses on austerity, job creation, and economic growth, while Peña Nieto and the PRI Party are linked to authoritarianism and organized crime, and incumbent Josefina Vazquez Mota and the PAN party are criticized for Mexico's economic and social decline and failure to meet the people's expectations. 2012 Mexican Election Mexico’s future course will be defined on July 1st. With less than two weeks until the Presidential election, the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN, National Action Party), the political party in power, is struggling to keep power. The situation is complicated. Twelve years ago the PAN’s (right-wing party) election triumph, represented a new direction after a long hegemony of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI, Institutional Revolutionary Party), the same party that today is favored to win the presidential elections again. The democratic transition in Mexico began with a very fragile citizenship (due to social and economic pressures) but with high expectations, which never really came to be realized, and, therefore, today the citizens seems to have a desire to punish the party that they had brought to power 12 years ago. The PAN administration certainly did not have an easy job, but still they do not appear to have worked strongly enough to build off their public support so that it responds to voters’ expectations. This was already perceived in the beginning of their second presidential period, in which Felipe Calderón, the Mexican president, won the elections with only 0.56% advantage over the candidate of the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD, Party of the Democratic Revolution, Andrés Manuel López Obrador;) who is running again for the presidency this year. During the past years, there hasn’t been economic growth (Mexico has an annual growth rate of less than 2% and poor job creation) and both social insecurity as well as inequality has deepened. As a result, the people perceive that Mexico situation has worsen. Although it is difficult to objectify the social decline, this is a fundamental factor that will affect voting. The PRI took advantage of this situation, winning back the majority of seats in the House of Representatives, as well as several States, in some of the elections that have taken place since the PAN won the presidency. The PRI today rules two thirds of the State legislatures. There are currently four parties running for the presidential elections. The PRI, with Enrique Pena Nieto; the PAN, with Josefina Vazquez Mota; the PRD, with Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and the Nueva Alianza, with Gabriel Quadri. Some citizens see the PRI as the experienced party; their way of doing politics is the way they are familiar with, and the way it is necessary to deal with the current problems. Also, the PRI nominated a young and strategic candidate for the Presidential election: the governor of the Estado de México (the most important state after Mexico City) who was already very popular. But one month ago everything began to change. Peña Nieto was not well received and confronted by the students of the Universidad Iberoamericana, where he had been invited to participate in a conference. He was questioned about delicate situations that happened during his term as governor of the Estado de Mexico, as well as other subjects, such as media manipulation. After several allegations that the situation had been orchestrated by the other parties, and even calling it a plot; 131 students published a video on social media showing that they were students at that university and that they had acted on their beliefs and nothing more. Some media covered these events and students from all over the country began supporting a movement called “Yo soy #132” (I am #132), in which, most of them, protest against media manipulation favoring the PRI’s return to power. Some of the movement followers have openly declared they do not support any specific party, while some others have declared they support the left party’s candidate, López Obrador. In order to present their proposals, the four candidates have held two presidential debates. Both had similar formats, in which the four candidates continued with their known proposals, the same old speeches, empty of innovative proposals and that didn’t cause any major impact in the citizens’ preferences; rather it consolidated them. What certainly stood out from the last debate is that the fight is now between two candidates, Enrique Peña Nieto y Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who now has advantage over the PAN candidate, Josefina Vázquez Mota, before second in the polls. López Obrador, taking advantage of the situation against Peña Nieto, and aware of his mistakes in the past elections, appeared calm in the debates and gave moderated speeches aimed at all sectors of the country, inviting them to join his campaign against “the corruption and privileges of the regime”. He promises government austerity and, in order to fight insecurity, he promises to alleviate poverty generating jobs and economic growth. He is the only candidate to reveal his proposed cabinet, which would feature well-known personalities such as the writer Elena Poniatowska in the Ministry of Culture (which would be a new Ministry), Marcelo Ebrard in the Ministry of the Interior and Cuautémoc Cárdenas in Pemex (Mexican Petroleums). On the other hand, Peña Nieto promises an inclusive Mexico without poverty. He also promises to promote major citizen participation and to take advantage of the neighboring countries for greater integration of production in order to compete with the rest of the world and also promises to have a safer border. The fact is that after the article published by the English paper The Guardian, which cited documents that prove the largest Mexican network (Televisa) supports his campaign by favouring him in the media and attacking other candidates; and after an investigation of two former governors of his party for ties to drug trafficking, his own party has began questioning if their candidate is suitable for the Presidency. Third in polls, the PAN candidate Josefina Vázquez Mota, with nothing to lose, was the most aggressive candidate in the last debate. Her proposals, primarily for family and women, were not strong, but she accused the PRI for supporting a return to authoritarianism and complicity with organized crime and the PRD of supporting populism and resentment/envy. According to the polls, 20 percent of Mexicans are undecided. The fourth party, Nueva Alianza party candidate, is targeting this segment of voters. It should be noted that Nueva Alianza is a small party created by the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE, National Union of Education Workers), the largest trade union in Latin America, led by Elba Esther Gordillo, the controversial former general secretary of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and that it is a party that has no real chance of winning the elections but are only pursuing a 2% of the votes needed for the party to maintain its party registration. With no possibility of winning, Quadri states that if given the strategic voters (those more interested in preventing a party from winning than voting their beliefs), the votes will used to support structural reforms the country needs in fiscal, education and energy. He has been presented as a people's candidate and has been particularly proactive in environmental, cultural and technological proposals. He promises the creation of a Coasts and Seas Agency, as well as an economic free trade agreement with China to promote foreign investment and technology exchange, and affirms that the only way to create equal economic opportunity is a better educational system, which he would finance by reallocating fuel subsidies to education. With days before the election, a favorite candidate seen a decline in his support, fueled by student protests and biased media allegations. These developments have benefited the left candidate, who is now in second place. Dropping to third place is the incumbent ruling party, despite the strong performance of Josefina Vazquez Mota during the last debate. According to recent surveys, voter preference is 37.7% PRI, 23.2% PRD, 22.5% PAN and 2.2% NA. It is important to note that none of the candidates has talked about the thousands of victims of the war against the organized crime or the problems Mexican law faces today in terms of credibility, fairness, and equal application. The country needs, no doubt, effective institutions and regulations as well as creative public policies. Whoever wins the July 1st elections will need to show that he or she has the proper credentials to exercise a competent and efficient government, helping to build a more participatory and transparent democracy.

Gobnata of Ballyvourney V (AC) (also known as Gobnet, Gobnait) Born in County Clare, Ireland; died 5th or 6th century (?). In order to escape a family feud, Saint Gobnata fled to the Aran Islands. There she built a church, which is still named after her, but angels told her that she would find the place of her resurrection where nine white deer grazed. So she went to southern Ireland and founded the church of Kilgobnet (near Dungarvan), where she saw the nine deer. Saint Abban of Kilabban, County Meath, Ireland, is said to have founded a convent in Ballyvourney, County Cork, on land donated by the O'Herlihy family, and to have placed Saint Gobnata over it as abbess. This is Ballyvourney, the place of which the angels spoke. A 13th-century wooden statue of Gobnata, in the hereditary keepership of the O'Herlihy family, was venerated there until 1843. A well still exists at Ballyvourney that is named after her. As with many Irish saints, there are stories of wondrous interactions with nature. Gobnata (meaning Honey Bee, which is the equivalent of the Hebrew "Deborah") used her bees to keep out unwelcome visitors. Her grave in the churchyard at Ballyvourney is decorated with crutches and other evidence of cures obtained through Gobnata's intercession. Among the miracles attributed to her intercession were the staying of a pestilence by marking off the parish as sacred ground. Another tradition relates that she routed an enemy by loosing her bees upon them. Her beehive has remained a precious relic of the O'Herlihys. The round stone associated with her is still preserved. Several leading families of Munster have a traditional devotion to this best-known and revered local saint. The devotion of the O'Sullivan Beare family may have been the reason that Pope Clement VIII honored Gobnata in 1601 by indulgencing a pilgrimage to her shrine and, in 1602, by authorizing a Proper Mass on her feast. About that time the chieftains of Ireland were making a final struggle for independence and the entire clan migrated to the North having dedicated their fortunes to Gobnata in a mass pilgrimage that included O'Sullivan Beare, his fighting men, and their women, children, and servants (Benedictines, D'Arcy, Farmer, Montague, Neeson, O'Hanlon, Sullivan). In art, Saint Gobnata is represented as a beekeeper (Farmer). Santa Gobnat (Gobnait) Vergine E' commemorata nei Martirologi irlandesi all'11 febbraio. Il Martirologio di Tallaght la chiama Gobnat di Ernaidhe nel Muskerry, ma le notulae ad Oengus parlano anche di Gobnat di "Bairnech in Moin Mor nel Sud dell'Irlanda". Un tale sdoppiamento permane anche nei martirologi posteriori, tuttavia, è un fatto storicamente accertato che il culto di Gobnat si è localizzato a Ballyvourney, nella baronia di Muskerry, contea di Cork, dai tempi più remoti fino ai nostri giorni. I resti archeologici testimoniano qui dell'antichità del suo culto, ma non è facile assegnarle un floruit, anche approssimativo. Si può accettare la connessione di Gobnat con s. Abbano, così come è detto nella Vita, ma tutto fa pensare che gli Acta dell'Abbano associato a Gobnat siano stati confusi con quelli del più famoso santo omonimo del Leinster. Con qualche dubbio Gobnat può essere assegnata al VI secolo.

New Orleans has its Bourbon Street. Chicago has the South Side. Now, New York City will honor its own hallowed ground of jazz as it prepares to designate the neighborhood of Addisleigh Park in southern Queens a historic district for its role as home to some of the nation’s greatest African-American musicians. The bucolic enclave near St. Albans, just north of Linden Boulevard, was once home to Count Basie, Lena Horne and Ella Fitzgerald, among dozens of other jazz greats. Superstar athletes also laid down roots there, including Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Joe Louis. The Landmarks Preservation Commission took the first step yesterday by proposing the neighborhood’s designation, which would put restrictions on changes to the appearances of homes and limit what developers could build there. “I’m proud to put this extraordinary community on the path to historic-district designation,” said commission chairman Robert Tierney. “Its cultural heritage and architectural treasures clearly warrant the commission’s serious attention.” The proposed district would include 426 mostly single-family homes, remarkably well-preserved after the seven or more decades since they were built. The list of jazz giants who populated the mere 60 blocks is astounding, beginning with Fats Waller, whose move to the neighborhood broke the barrier against blacks owning, or even renting, homes there. Greg Mays, a longtime resident of Addisleigh Park and former president of its civic association, said homeowners there consider themselves the stewards of an important chapter of history — and most are eager for historic designation. “The sense of the historic significance of this place is palpable,” said Mays, “by both the young and the old who live here.” Mays said old-timers remember the days when Count Basie opened his home so neighborhood kids could swim in his backyard pool. Or the recording sessions in jazz great Illinois Jacquet’s house. A public hearing on creating the historic district is set for March 23. A final vote has yet to be scheduled.

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. The Church, built of local ragstone and Caen stone was erected on a hill in Norman times between the years 1100 and 1154 with just a nave and the square chancel. In about 1270 the chancel was extended to its present length. This is offset to the nave. The east window is typical of Edward 1st reign, 1272-1307. In about 1300 a small chapel was added on the south side. An arch has been cut through at the head of the nave. The window in the nave has a more decorated top than that of the east window. From the Lambeth Registers we have a record of the first vicar in 1315 and from that time to the present date, the church has had 45 vicars/priest in charge (click here to download a list of St. Mary’s vicars.) In about 1400 the tower was built and the nave extended a few feet. At this time some of the windows would have had glass added. The small chapel, known as the Kingsley Chapel, was extended to nearly the length of the chancel. Some of the Kingsley family are buried there. Two arches were made leading from the chancel to the new chapel which was divided by 16 iron bars, removed in about 1850. The font dates from the 15th century. A top lid was originally hinged. There are holes where the hinges have been and it would have had a padlock. In medieval times this was done to prevent witches from stealing holy water to use in their black masses. The oldest doors are the heavy medieval doors to the church from the porch and some of the roof timbers in the porch. By 1552 the Kennington church had five bells in the “steeple”. One, the “A” bell was cast in 1540 by Oldfield and continues to ring after 453 years. Three other bells of 1540 were recast in 1605, 1784 and 1804. A further bell was added in 1605 an “E” in 1883. The chalice and paten are inscribed “Kennington 1634”. Click here to read more about the bells. The monuments are dominated by those of Carters. George Carter Esquire rebuilt Kennington Hall in about 1775. Their monuments extend from Baby Sarah, 1815, in the aisle, through the generations, (the family being recorded on the wall tablets and hatchments above the chancel arch), to Charles Carter, in 1905, whose memorial is the Mary Magdalene window. Renovations were chiefly carried out in 1852 and 1878. A donation of £600 was made by the Earl of Winchelsea but it is doubtful if this was paid. The incorporated Society for Buildings and Churches granted £25 in 1877 towards re-seating and restoring the church. A notice in the porch read “All seats are for the free use of the parishioners”. In 1879 an arch was cut in the north wall of the chancel and the boiler room and organ chamber built. The 2-manual Walker organ has 14 stops. The original organ was hand- pumped and later changed to an electric blower. In 1987 it was completely renovated. A vestry was built as a memorial to Canon Welldon by his daughter. He was the vicar of St. Mary, 1876 to 1896. To do this, a space between the porch and the chapels was closed by a stone wall, roofed and the arched doorway was cut into the church. The medieval glass looks pale beside the brilliant east window with its nine scenes from the life of Our Lord. This is a memorial to Henry Tritton, 1877. There are 2 “Kemp” windows, the “Mary Magdalene”, in memory of Charles Carter, and “the Raising of Jairus’ Daughter”, in memory of William Young, a churchwarden for 43 years, 1897. The Kemp trademark, a weatsheaf, can be found on a capital in each of the windows. The Burra family of Bockhanger is remembered in the “Emmaus” window, 1911, and also the “Saints” window in the tower, 1913. Major alterations in the fabric were made in 1985. A circulation area was constructed, pews and screens in the small chapel removed and the floor raised. Windows have been double glazed with polycarbonate panels. The above was part of the History of St. Mary Church by Miss Margaret Ford in 1987. In 1993 a new flagpole with lightning conductor was erected and a St. George flag with the crest of Canterbury Diocese was dedicated. The church oil-fired central heating system was extended and improved; pipes removed from either side of the aisle and put in gratings the floor below the pews and radiators added. In July 1997 a church extension was built to the south side of the church to accommodate a Sunday School room, a choir vestry, a parish office, a kitchen area and toilets for the church. On 18th September 2002. new oak church doors on the outside of the entrance were fitted. These have replaced cast iron gates. The oak doors on the inside wall of the church, which were part of the original screen, have been removed and now hang on the west wall either side of the bell tower window. On 13th December 2002, new glass doors were fitted to replace the baize-fronted doors to the church. In the spring of 2004 all the gutters and down pipes were renewed with cast iron replacements. More recent additions to St. Mary’s include items of a more technological nature. A screen, projector and sound system means we can use modern media to supplement our teaching and worship.

Students of anomalistic psychology study human behavior and experiences that are generally described as paranormal. However, these scientists operate without the assumption of paranormal activity; and studies often “bust” popular paranormal myths. Koestler Parapsychology Unit, University of Edinburgh Located in Edinburgh, Scotland this research center has churned out studies on a wide variety of popular myths, both paranormal and psychological. Earlier this year, Dr. Caroline Watt, Senior Researcher of the Koestler Unit, worked with other scientists to tackle the claim that eye movement is an indicator of truth-telling. The study proved the popular myth – that liars look up and to the right when telling falsehoods – to be inaccurate. Last year, Dr. Watt and Dr. Dean Mobbs published a paper on the psychology and neuroscience of near-death experiences. The study may have ruffled a few feathers in the paranormal community as it attributed symptoms of NDE’s to chemical and neurological mechanisms. The study also confronted another common misconception: that people return from the dead. “The idea of surviving clinical brain death is mythical,” Watt said. “NDEs are sometimes reported after a person experiences some of the preliminary ‘stages’ of death — for instance, when the heart stops beating for a while and the person is then revived. I think it’s curious, however, that a survey has shown that 82 percent of individuals who have survived being actually near death do not report a near-death experience. That would seem to undermine the idea that these experiences give a glimpse into life after death.” – As quoted by Discovery News Currently, Dr. Watt and her team are studying precognitive dreams. The SOPHIA Research Program, The University of Arizona This research program was originally called the VERITAS Research Program and was created to test the hypothesis that humans survive physical death in some capacity. The original VERITAS project released an interesting study in 2006 that featured a triple-blind study confirming some psychics’ anomalous ability to glean information about deceased people without “conventional mechanisms” or telepathy. The study suggests that some mediums are capable of direct communication with the dead, but there were no hypotheses formed as to how the communication was possible. Today, the SOPHIA Research Program investigates supernatural claims of communication. The entity communications study is currently underway, led by Gary E. Schwartz, PhD. The study is intended to investigate the psychological mechanisms behind communications experienced between humans and a wide variety of paranormal/supernatural entities. The Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes, The University of Northampton Students and professors of the CSAPP seek a scientific understanding of anomalous phenomena such as extrasensory perception, psychokinesis and other supernatural experiences and states of mind. The center is currently conducting various research projects that test and re-test theories and scenarios involving psi. Dr. Chris Roe, a Senior Lecturer at CSAPP, has researched the role of ESP in dreams. His most recent research has explored the unconscious measures of psi. Other research projects vary widely to include the role of intuition among stock traders; directed intention as related to healing; and telephone telepath – just to name a few.

David Laskin’s book, The Family: Three Journeys Into The Heart of the Twentieth Century, is a gripping tale that traces the roots of his ancestors. Although it is a non-fiction book it reads more like a novel, with characters who are interesting and well developed. Any American will enjoy this story since it is really a history of the period from the late 1830s to the late 1940s. Amazon has chosen it as its book of the month for October. The story begins with the birth of Laskin’s great-great-grandfather in Russia. It traces how the family separated into three branches. One branch immigrated to America, including a former Russian revolutionary who ended up founding the Maidenform Bra Company. Another branch went to what was then Palestine and participated as a pioneer in the birth of Israel. The third branch, seventeen members, unfortunately remained in Europe and was killed during the Holocaust. Laskin told blackfive.net, “My family reflected these movements of the early twentieth Century. It is a book of how history swept up my family and changed us. I believe every family has a story like this. I hope the readers care about the individuals and see how they were touched by history.” The book will remind readers of the “Fiddler on the Roof ” story, especially with his great aunt Itel who became a revolutionary and feminist, making sure she chose her own husband. She is by far the most interesting character because of her many different views. After coming to America she maintained her socialistic ideology while becoming a very rich industrialist, the owner of Maidenform. In explaining the quote, “Itel, the socialist capitalist,” who eventually bought a house that he described as a palace, Laskin commented to blackfive.net, “Itel was a socialist in views but a capitalist at heart. She is not utterly consistent, but that is how many people were back then.” Besides the interesting characters Laskin also fascinatingly describes how different historical events affected his family. The description of World War I as seen through his family’s eyes is very potent. Hyman, a great uncle, became an American GI who was attacked with mustard gas, and luckily lived to tell about it. This scene was described with great thought-provoking detail. Yet, those in his family who remained in Eastern Europe had to endure the Russian Revolution and a war fought in their backyard. People forget that the Germans of WWI were not the Nazis of WWII. After the peace treaty with Russia many of Laskin’s family fell under German control. They were treated with more respect, did not have to endure the Russian reign of terror, and for the most part had their Jewish customs accepted. Laskin hopes to show, “The Germans in WWI were more tolerant. The Pogroms, attacks on Jews, came from the Russians. Also, Jews were able to climb up in the German and American armies to become officers which was not permitted in the Russian army.” In tracing the backgrounds of his family from the late nineteenth to mid twentieth centuries Laskin captures the historical significance of the eras. The Family enriches the reader to see how history plays a role in many amazing and disturbing ways. It reminds people that the past should never be forgotten with a very riveting story.

“Empathy isn’t dictated to us by a focus group or a statistical analysis. Empathy is the powerful (and rare) ability to imagine what motivates someone else to act. […] What is required is a persistent effort to understand how other people see the world, and to care about it.” Seth Godin in “If I Were You“ Engineers and scientists tend to have more of an affinity for technology than people and can find the conversations with prospects and early customers particularly challenging. Face to face conversations and phone conversations unfold in real time and require that you manage a number of things in parallel: - actively listening to not just what’s said but the tone and emphasis - considering the implications (especially for what is not said) - developing and prioritizing follow on questions - considering what additional informational from your own perspective to provide, in particular to establish a common context - managing your own emotions so that your tone is consistent and allows your words to be heard (for example when a prospect calls your baby ugly). In a face to face conversation you also must manage: - paying attention to the other participants facial expressions and body language - managing your own facial expressions and body language All of the subtleties of tone and body language mean that an audio recording captures perhaps 30-50% of what’s being said and a transcript perhaps 10-20%. This means that a webinar filters a lot of what you can learn from a prospect and reading a transcript is less useful than reading a participant’s written summary of their impressions and key statements from the conversation. The goal of these conversations is not only to learn more about a particular prospect’s needs (and therefore more about what niche market requirements are) but also to establish trust so that you can have additional conversations spanning e-mail, phone, and face to face interactions. And in some cases the goal evolves to a financial transaction where they pay for a product or service. So it’s not only exchanging information and perspectives but establishing trust and credibility that can support an ongoing business relationship. At a deeper level the ability to have a serious conversation looks like a lot like riding a bike, you have to integrate several simultaneous activities into a mindful whole. Sustaining a serious conversation requires not only self-awareness and the ability to manage your own transient emotional reactions to their statements or reactions, but empathy for nuances of the other person’s responses (verbal and non-verbal). “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Viktor E. Frankl in “Man’s Search for Meaning” We help entrepreneurs anticipate, mitigate, and recover from communication mismatches with prospects, customers, and partners. These communication challenges are common, especially in the early part of a new relationship. The good news is that there are a number of things you can do to get better and minimize the chances for a problem: - Practice an opening statement or an answer to a commonly asked question so that it flows naturally. Record and listen to yourself. Video tape yourself to gain insights into when you body language and facial language may be working against a point you are trying to make or may discourage the other person from elaborating. - Review e-mails and presentations with others who are a reasonable proxy for your audience. Read e-mails aloud so that you make sure you have captured a conversational style. Record live talks and presentations in audio or video to be able to assess where you need to improve. - Take notes in public: type key comments a prospect or customer says into the chat window in a webinar to let them know that you are listening. Do the same in a skype call. Provide an e-mail summary of a conversation or phone call to communicate what you heard, also include what you felt were the key points you made but start with the other person’s key points first. They will often amend or extend their remarks and minimize the risk of a misunderstanding. - Ask for feedback: ask a prospect in a follow up communication what was the most useful thing they heard, the least useful, the most surprising, and anything that you failed to do that they expected you to do. Many sales opportunities fail to progress because there is a mismatch between the communication style and content that a prospect needs or prefers, so that they are able to - understand your offering, - believe that you can deliver, - act on particular proposal. We Can Help Please contact us if you find it difficult to get conversations started or sustained with prospects or you feel that your current approach could be more effective. We can assist in several ways: - de-brief on existing calls or presentations - help you to rehearse. provide specific actionable suggestions for how to improve - review current e-mails, forum postings, and other communication with an eye toward improving and creating a common set of templates so that a consistent tone can be maintained - interview current customers and former prospects to determine areas for improvement and opportunities for case studies and testimonials, additional content that can make it easier to initiate or sustain a conversation as well as shorten the time a prospect needs to make a decision about your offering.

Summarize the movements in the exchange rate of the Australian dollar against the US dollar over the last 36 months. Using appropriate models, explain the various factors which have caused these movements. Considering current national and international economic conditions, critically discuss the impacts of the overall exchange rate outcome on the Australian economy and its implications for monetary and fiscal policies. A useful source of information is the Australian Financial Review. This newspaper publishes articles on the fluctuations in the exchange rate almost daily. A prime source of information is, of course, the Reserve Bank of Australia. In analyzing the impacts of the rising dollar on the Australian economy, you should be familiar with the challenges it is currently facing. As a starting point, read the article: "Cuts won't stave off a recession" (The Australian July 2, 2013). Although this article (attached) discusses mainly the recent RBA's interest rate decision, it provides a good snapshot of our current economic issues. Show evidence (by quotations and/or references/in-text referencing) of wide reading. While the work is to be presented as an essay it is expected that appropriate use will be made of chosen diagrams and tables which enable you to concisely demonstrate your line of reasoning. In compliance with BrainMass rules this is not a completion of assignment but only background help. On November 07, 2010 for the first time the Australian Dollar breached the $1.00 mark. This was a strong recovery from the $0.83 in June 2010. There are several factors that accounted for this increase in the value of Australian Dollar. The economic recovery had gained momentum. This was supported by significant increases in commodity prices, stronger corporate profitability, higher wage growth and strong corporate profitability. Private domestic demand fuelled economic recovery. Also at that time the US was still affected by the recession. Its GDP growth rate was weak (1). Under these circumstances the value of the Australian Dollar increased vis-à-vis the US dollar. In 2011, the Australian Dollar reached $1.09 on July 31st, 2011. However, on October 9th, 2011, the Australian Dollar dropped to $0.965. The increase in the value of the Australian Dollar up to July 31st, 2011 is attributable to global economic recovery. The strong economic growth in Asia had increased the demand for Australian resources exports, and improved the Australian terms of trade of record highs. The boom was restricted to be concentrated in sectors related to the resource boom and in sectors of the service sector. The strong Australian dollar was expected to hurt manufacturing and trade exposed sectors. The drop in the Australian Dollar is attributable to high uncertainty and volatile economic environment. Even though the terms of trade remained favorable, the Australian Dollar declined because of increased uncertainty in the global economic outlook, weak consumer, and business confidence (2). The high exchange rate of Australian Dollar inhibited exports and led to strong competition from cheap Asian produced substitutes. Even the overall employment in Australia began to decline in full time jobs. In 2012 February, the foreign exchange rate was $1.076 on February 27, and later the exchange rate dipped to $0.97 on June 3, 2012. The increase in the foreign exchange rate of ...

After the ship breaking yard in Bangladesh’s port city Chittagong’s Sitakunda region, the country is all set to see yet another ship breaking yard near the Sundarban Forest (a world heritage site). According to Bangladeshi law and the UN Convention of RAMSA, no heavy industry or structure can be built within the radius of 10 Kilometers surrounding the Sundarbans, however the proposed 52.24 Acres of land on the Gab’baria Coast of the Patharghata region in Barguna district of Bangladesh is just within a 6 Kilometer radius of the Sundarbans Forest. The ship breaking industry that developed along the coastal areas of Sitakunda thana (administrative region) stretching from Fouzderhat to Barabkunda is posing a serious threat to environment of both human and animal habitation along with ecosystem in the sea already. During the scrapping of old ships, different types of poisonous chemicals including oil used in the ships are spread in the yards. Spill-over of these poisonous chemicals and oils on the sea near the coast is causing severe environmental pollution. One survey conducted by the students of the Institute of Marine Science of Chittagong University recently revealed that the soil of the locality contains heavy element of chemicals. It contains 0.5 to 2.7 ppm of mercury, 0.5 to 21.8 ppm of lead, 220 ppm of chromium, 0.3 to 2.9 ppm cadmium, 2.6 to 5.6 ppm of iron, 5.2 to 23.2 ppm of calcium and 6.5 to 10.57 ppm of magnesium. For this reason the ecosystem of the coastal areas is being severely affected. The major environmental concern relates to lack of containment facilities to prevent pollutants from entering water, ground and air in addition to the direct exposure of workers. Apart from the venomous effect these chemicals have on the workers, the task of ship breaking in itself is a major cause of death of ordinary workers. More than 90 workers died in a span of 7 years till 2012 , and these are only the reported deaths. The number of qualified ship breakers and safe facilities are less in Bangladesh, and the rights of workers are often left at bay. As per a leading Bengali news broadsheet (The Prothom Alo, 21 July 2013, p1), the Industry Ministry already have finalized the construction of this new ship breaking yard and its initial work has started. In face of strong criticism and warnings by the Forest Department, the Industry Minister promised to construct a more environmentally friendly ship breaking yard in the near future. As per the UN Vessel Convention, if any country is to import a sea vessel then the exporting country must clear the vessel of toxic substances. However, this convention is not followed and old vessels brought for their scrap metals contain toxic chemicals and waste which are spilled in the Bay of Bengal or other areas of Bangladesh. Moreover, according to the European Union the old and retired ships (which are mostly filled with toxic chemicals and waste) must be removed from within the territory of the member nations within the year 2015, and it has also been mentioned in one of the European Commission Publication that most of such ships will head towards Bangladesh. A very grave prospect if urgent decisions are not taken to make ship breaking safer for the workers and friendly towards the environment of this tropical country. There are more than 60 species of animals, most of them endangered, exist in the Sundarban Mangroove Forest, and among them the near extinct Royal Bengal Tigers of the Sundarban survives. If the ship breaking yard is finally built without keeping the concerns of environmentalists and conservationists in relevance, the fate of the Sundarbans will meet that of the poor workers who die unnoticed and uncared for.

2018 is set to be a game-changing year for retail banking. As the PSD2 (Revised Payment Service Directive) becomes implemented, banks’ monopoly on their customer’s account information and payment services is about to disappear. The new EU directive opens the door to any company interested in eating a bank’s lunch. In short, PSD2 enables bank customers, both consumers and businesses, to use third-party providers to manage their finances. In the near future, you may be using Facebook or Google to pay your bills, making P2P transfers and analyse your spending, while still having your money safely placed in your current bank account. Banks, however, are obligated to provide these third-party providers access to their customers’ accounts through open APIs (application program interface). This will enable third-parties to build financial services on top of banks’ data and infrastructure. Banks will no longer only be competing against banks, but everyone offering financial services. PSD2 will fundamentally change the payments value chain, what business models are profitable, and customer expectations. Through the directive, the European Commission aims to improve innovation, reinforce consumer protection and improve the security of internet payments and account access within the EU and EEA. It introduces two new types of players to the financial landscape: PISP and AISP. AISP (Account Information Service Provider) are the service providers with access to the account information of bank customers. Such services could analyze a user’s spending behavior or aggregate a user’s account information from several banks into one overview. PISP (Payment Initiation Service Provider) are the service providers initiating a payment on behalf of the user. P2P transfer and bill payment are PISP services we are likely to see when PSD2 is implemented. For banks, PSD2 poses substantial economical challenges. IT costs are expected to increase due to new security requirements and the opening of APIs. In addition, 9 percent of retail payments revenues are predicted to be lost to PISP services by 2020 . And, as non-banks take over the customer interaction, banks may find it increasingly difficult to differentiate themselves in the market for offering loans. This, in addition to changed customer expectation and increased digitalisation, may be why we today are witnessing more and more banks experimenting with their APIs, collaborating with fintechs (financial technology companies), focusing on customer centricity and setting up innovation labs. In upcoming articles, EVRY will explore how banks can prepare and build the necessary capabilities to achieve competitive advantages for the future financial landscape. But first, we will paint the picture of how we envision the European market for financial services will look like when PSD2 is implemented and beyond. Introduction to framework The entry of PSD2 requires that banks take a number of strategic choices. This is not an easy task, as the choices partly depend on how the payment landscape will evolve after PSD2. We envision four possible scenarios, based on two variables: 1) how domestic or European the financial market will be (horizontal line), and 2) whether the consumers will stick to traditional banks or trust non-banks for making payments (vertical line). In the following chapter, we will take a closer look at these variables, discuss where we are today, and how the landscape might change in the future. Will PSD2 unify the European market for financial services? The globalisation illusion How global is the world today, really? Surprisingly little, many might say. Following figure 1, we rarely interact with people abroad . And regarding financial services, as few as 3 % of European consumers have bought banking products from another EU country. Of course, many consumers have a bank relationship with a bank originating from another country, like Danske Bank in Norway and Santander in Portugal. But then it is usually Danske Bank’s Norwegian subsidiary and Santander’s Portuguese subsidiary, and therefore not a cross-border banking relationship. You might think that this is because the services and prices are homogeneous, that it does not ‘pay off’ to look beyond the borders of your current country. But the statistics in figure 2 shows otherwise: Average prices among four consumer finance products vary greatly from country to country. Despite this, consumers do not seem to have a cross-border bank relationship. Figure 1: Infographic showing average level of activities across borders. Source: Ghemawat.com Figure 2: How will financial product prices differ across Euorope. Source: European Comission3 So why is it like this? A survey conducted by the European Commission revealed that 80 % said they would not consider buying a financial product in another EU Member State in the future because “they can purchase all the financial products they need in their own country, or they prefer to do so” . This shows how far from a unified market the EU really is. We view this as a consequence of the European market lacking effective mechanisms supporting cross-border banking, such as communication of its benefits, smooth on-boarding processes and harmonized regulations. Regarding the latter, differentiated domestic legal frameworks is identified as the main barrier for both providers and consumers to enter a foreign market by the European think tank CEPS . The costs related to regulatory understanding and compliance might be seen by banks as too large compared to the market’s potential revenues, making the bank’s investment into a new country unattractive. Aiming to open up The European Commission’s commitment to unify the European market for financial services is strong and it is working with several initiatives aimed at harmonizing the domestic regulations . For example, PSD2 lets third party providers of financial services operate in the entire EU as long as they are licensed by their home state’s financial authority. So even though banks still need bank licenses in each country they are operating in, the third party providers only need one. PSD2 was a response to unsatisfactory consequences following the first PSD, and we would not be surprised to see a PSD3 initiative if PSD2 fails too. The question is: If it succeeds in cutting the actors’ compliance costs related to multinational retail banking, will that be enough? We do believe that it will be reinforced by four other factors, accelerating the transformation from autonomous domestic markets into one unified European market: 1. Bigger return: As the European market grows from several autonomous markets into a unified big market, the ‘pie’ gets a lot bigger. This will attract new entrants and new services as the reward goes up. 2. Scale: It is cheaper for banks to operate in several countries when their legal frameworks are harmonized and the compliance costs are reduced. 3. Well-informed consumers: As the competition in the unified market increases, the transparency in the financial services and prices offered by European banks will increase, which in turn will equip the European consumers with improved market information. This will likely motivate the consumers to consider offers from abroad. 4. International e-commerce: Consumers are increasingly more open towards online purchasing from international companies7. This shopping behavior could also influence the consumers’ banking behavior. All together, we expect to see an increase in investments into financial services targeting the unified European market. And remember: This will not only open up to European banks, but also to other international banks and non-banks interested in getting a chunk of the European market for financial services. So will this transition into a unified European market happen overnight? Of course not. But when we get there, the European financial ecosystem will be a lot different than the one we have today. Will PSD2 be the end of banks´ monopoly? Moving from banks to banking The traditional way to think about banking and financial services, is to think about banks as the main providers. This might be explained partly by the required bank licenses that makes it difficult and troublesome for new entrants to enter the market, and partly by a low consumer-trust towards third-parties. However, with PSD2 this might change, as it will be easier for non-banks to enter the market with financial service solutions. The belief that non-bank FinTech companies will play a significant role in the future financial landscape is well established in the investments markets. Cumulative investments globally in financial technology has more than ten-doubled the last five years and is estimated to exceed $150bn the next 3-5 years9. A changing financial market There are several reasons why the entrance of non-banks to the financial market is predicted to become easier and faster, among them: PSD2, innovation fueled by technology and changed consumer preferences. One way that PSD2 opens up for non-banks is through open APIs. By using banks’ APIs non-banks can enter the financial market without the heavy compliance and infrastructure which banks are required to maintain. This opens up the financial market to new entrants with fresh ideas about how to shape the banking experience. Some banks have already started making their APIs available. Examples hereof are the Danish Saxo Bank, that opened up for their APIs in September 201510 and Capital One, a UK based bank, that already now enables affiliates to benefit through their APIs. Innovation fueled by technology The innovation within technology has been moving fast. This maturity of technological development forces banks to keep up with the speed of change. Up until now, many banks have traditionally been hesitant with fully using new technology, as old business models gave them full control. This is a risky approach as 37% of European consumers say they would change their bank if it did not offer them up-to-date technology12. One prediction in this perspective is that new entrants no longer will offer the full banking experience package to enter the financial market due to the increased use of APIs. New entrants can now focus on offering just a single service and connect to other service providers through cloud solutions or APIs13. Also, new improved services within payments are emerging, making banking both faster and easier. Contactless payments and mobile solutions are services that technology have recently led to. Consumer preferences and trust With the consumer becoming more digital and mobile in their approach to companies, the banks as well as non-banks will need to follow this trend14 . These tech savvy consumers are asking for financial service offerings that are faster, less formal, more personalized, easy accessible and cheap . So far, non-banks have proven to meet these requirements in a more innovative and human-centric way than many traditional banks. Consumers are slowly getting used to using non-banks for financial tasks and it seems like this trend is only continuing. Paypal has already existed in close to 15 years and has gained great consumer trust. Swedish Tink and the Danish Billy are companies that have also gained a great market share without a banking license. And every fifth European consumer say they would use by financial products from challengers such as Google, Facebook and Amazon16 . It is arguable that the competition within the financial sector will be dramatically increased, due to the introduction of PSD2, technological innovations and changing customer demands. We see several reasons to this. One is, that new entrants in form of non-banks will get easier access to the market after PSD2. The regulation removes some entry barriers to the financial market, and hence, more competitors are likely to emerge. Furthermore, customers can easily choose new financial service providers with the introduction to PSD2. This means, that customers will be enabled to create their own collection of smaller service providers instead of choosing one specific bank for all financial needs. In conclusion, this increased competition along with consumers increasingly turning to non-banks for financial services, we might see an exponential growth in consumer trust in non-banks in the future. How will the change happen? The framework we use to analyze the impact of PSD2 is based on two axis: multiple domestic markets versus one unified European market on the horizontal axis, and the presence of banks only versus banks and non-banks on the vertical axis. We can already today see a distinct trend that fintechs and other non-banks are emerging and taking market shares within financial services. As PSD2 will increase the opportunities for companies without a banking license to enter the financial market, it is likely that the trend of increased consumer trust in non-banks will continue to grow. Following our analysis, we picture that initially we will see the financial services landscape moving towards scenario 2, an open domestic market, and finally to scenario 3, a free market. As we already today see the trend of growing trust in non-banks and that PSD2 most likely will accelerate this further, an open domestic market is a likely prediction for the near future. A unified European financial market is also a change we believe will follow PSD2. However, this may take longer as there are more factors at play here than consumer habits and what the changes in the EU directive can offer, as described previously. A unified European market has been one of the desired outcomes for both the first and the revised Payments Services Directive for the European Commission. When the Commission wanted to broaden the scope of the first directive, it tried again with the PSD2, and it is likely that the Commission will keep improving this through a PSD3 in the future.

Naval Air Station Brunswick Naval Air Station Brunswick is the last, active-duty Department of Defense airfield remaining in the northeast, and is home to five active duty and two reserve squadrons. Flying Lockheed P-3 "Orion" long-range maritime patrol aircraft tasked by Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing Five, active duty squadrons regularly deploy overseas for six months at a time. NAS Brunswick has 29 tenant commands, including a Reserve P-3 squadron and a Reserve Fleet Logistics Support Squadron flying C-130 "Hercules" transports. In addition, over 1,600 Naval Reservists travel from throughout New England to drill at Naval Air Reserve Brunswick, SeaBee Battalion and numerous other reserve commands. There is one satellite location served by this installation and that is Naval Security Group Activity, Winter Harbor, ME. With the BRAC-driven closure of NAS South Weymouth, NAS Brunswick became the only large scale DoN flight installation in New England, and in fact stands alone as a full service active duty DoD airfield in the region. NAS Brunswick supports operations by three active duty and one special mission P-3C and EP-3 squadrons (VPU-1, VP-8, VP-10 and VP-26, one reserve C-130 squadron (VR-62) and one reserve VP squadron (VP-92). NAS Brunswick is also the host for Commander Patrol Reconnaissance Wing 5 (CPRW-5). The airspace dedicated to this mission includes a close-in mine warfare practice area (the Small Point Mining Range), and Warning Areas W-102, W-103 and W-104. W-102 and W-104 are vertically stratified for efficiency. W-102 High is actually scheduled by the Northeast Air Defense Sector, a 1st Air Force (USAF) unit. Units assigned to NAS Brunswick indicate no difficulty in gaining access to required airspace. The airfield itself is large enough to accommodate necessary activity, and has few encroachment or community support concerns. Approximately 20 percent of NAS Brunswick's activities, facilities and services are in direct support of the AEGIS Destroyer shipbuilding program at nearby Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Bath and the Bath Iron Works Corporation. Also, the Navy's only cold weather Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) school is taught at Brunswick and on 12,000 acres near Rangeley in northwestern Maine. As Maine's second largest employer, NAS Brunswick employs 4,863 military and civilian personnel, including 713 officer, 3,493 enlisted personnel and 657 civilians. The air station provides over $187 million to the local economy, including $115 million in salaries, $38 million in contracts and material purchases and $34 million in medical purchases. With several area organizations dedicated to maintaining a seamless relationship between the military and civilian communities, NASB officials are actively working as partners with the Military-Community Council, the Mid-Coast Council for Business Development, the combined Bath-Brunswick Chamber of Commerce, the American Red Cross, and numerous other state, regional and local organizations. Located near great circle routes for both shipping and air lanes, NAS Brunswick is the base closest to the European theater and NATO commands. As the last active duty DOD airfield in the northeast, with room to grow, the base is poised to provide expanded services and facilities to additional fleet commands as they are needed. The Naval Air Station in Brunswick, Maine, is located 26 miles northeast from Maine's largest city, Portland, and 31 miles south from the capital city of Augusta. Brunswick is the largest town of a tri-town area made up of Brunswick, Topsham, and Bath. The total population of the 3 towns is approximately 37,000. Brunswick is situated on the Androscoggin River which flows into Merrymeeting Bay and then into the Atlantic Ocean only a few miles away. The area provides most of the conveniences of living in the city yet retains its rural atmosphere. If you like the outdoors, you will love being stationed at Brunswick. Constructed on land which from the 1700's has been used only for the purpose of growing blueberries, Naval Air Station, Brunswick, Maine, was commissioned on April 15, 1943. The primary purpose was to train Canadian and British Air Force pilots of the British Naval Command. This activity continued until the end of WWII. The base was deactivated in 1947 and reactivated in 1951 with the primary mission of anti-submarine warfare. On July 1, 1971, Commander Patrol Wings US Atlantic Fleet/Commander Patrol Wing Five established his headquarters at NAS Brunswick. Changes have occurred on the base since 1971 so that at present, three patrol squadrons flying the P3 Orion perform their duties here at the NAS. In addition, two reserve squadrons are also based at the Naval Air Station. The NAS also provides support for the ships at Bath, the Navy Security Group at Winter Harbor, the US Naval Survival School at Rangeley, and the Department of Naval Sciences at the Maine Maritime Academy at Castine, Maine. The town of Brunswick was originally settled in 1628 along the falls of the Androscoggin River. It was incorporated in 1738 and named to honor the British House of Brunswick. As the home of Bowdoin College (chartered in 1794) and the Naval Air Station, Brunswick has a diversity of population. Several National Historic Districts with grand sea captains' mansions serve as testaments to the Greek Revival and Federal styles of architecture. The grassy tree-lined mall links Bowdoin College with the downtown district. Industries include L.L. Bean, MBNA credit card company, fiberglass construction material, electrical switches, Mid-Coast health services, and several facilities of Bath Iron Works. Brunswick serves as a commercial center for surrounding communities and home to many who work in Augusta and Portland. With a population of approximately 37,000 (Brunswick, Bath, and Topsham), Brunswick provides a combination of the best of rural and urban Maine. The climate in the Brunswick area of Maine has pleasant warm summers and cold snowy winters. The average snowfall is 75" a year but it is not unusual to have as much as 140" of snow in a single year. Likewise, the average temperature in the summer may be 70 degrees but it is not totally unusual for a summer to be very hot with an average of 90+ degrees. There is approximately 45" of rain a year but that can vary from year to year. The average temperature in the winter is 28 degrees. Temperatures, however, can be a chilling -10 degrees for several days. The nicest thing about Maine weather is that there are 4 distinct seasons. All four have their good points but the fall is positively spectacular. The trees are the colors of the rainbow for several weeks during this part of the year and attract many visitors who come to see the beauty. Secretary of Defense Recommendation: Realign Naval Air Station Brunswick, ME, to a Naval Air Facility and relocate its aircraft along with dedicated personnel, equipment and support to Naval Air Station Jacksonville, FL. Consolidate Aviation Intermediate Maintenance with Fleet Readiness Center Southeast Jacksonville, FL. This recommendation was modified to Close Naval Air Station Brunswick, ME as an addition the Secretary's recommendation list. The total estimated one-time cost to the Department of Defense to implement this recommendation would be $147.2M. The net of all costs and savings to the Department during the implementation period would be a cost of $112.6M. Annual recurring savings to the Department after implementation would be $34.9M with a payback expected in four years. The net present value of the costs and savings to the Department over 20 years would be a savings of $238.8M. This recommendation indicates impacts of costs at the installations involved, which reported $0.2M in costs for waste management and environmental compliance. These costs were included in the payback calculation. Assuming no economic recovery, DoD estimated that this recommendation could result in a maximum potential reduction of 4,266 jobs (2,420 direct jobs and 1,846 indirect jobs) over the 2006-2011 period in the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford ME Metropolitan Statistical Area, which would be 1.3 percent of economic area employment. Secretary of Defense Justification: The realignment of Naval Air Station Brunswick will reduce operating costs while single-siting the East Coast Maritime Patrol community at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. This recommendation retains an operational airfield in the northeast that can be used to support the homeland defense mission, as needed, and maintains strategic flexibility. The Fleet Readiness Center portion of this recommendation realigns and merges depot and intermediate maintenance activities. It supports both DoD and Naval transformation goals by reducing the number of maintenance levels and streamlining the way maintenance is accomplished with associated significant cost reductions. Community Concerns: The Brunswick community argued that the facility is the last active duty DoD airfield in New England and, other than McGuire Air Force Base, NJ, in the Northeast. DoD's realignment recommendation would harm US homeland defense, and forgo a militarily strategic location near North Atlantic sea lanes and the closest point to Europe and the Middle East. NAS Brunswick, with over $130 million of recapitalization since 2001, had modern facilities that could support the entire military aircraft inventory and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) with parallel runways, unimpeded access to the ocean with over 60,000 square miles of unencumbered training airspace, and the only hangar in the Navy that will accommodate the Multimission Aircraft (MMA), which is the follow-on to the P-3. They further argued that realignment would result in redeployment of P-3 forces back to the same base for little if any savings while adding additional aviation excess capacity due to required construction at the receiving site to accommodate relocated aircraft. DoD's savings were overestimated because of unrealistic personnel eliminations associated with aircraft maintenance support that are not required with MMA. The community maintained that economic impacts on the local community were grossly understated in DoD calculations, as were costs associated with aircraft relocation. With respect to the Commission's vote to formally consider closure of Brunswick, the community argued that closure of the Naval Air Station raised all the issues attendant with DoD's realignment recommendation, plus the loss of the only cold weather survival school as well as Reserve facilities supporting the entire New England area and crews of Naval ships at nearby Bath Shipyard. They further argued closure would violate Criteria 2 (homeland defense). Also noted were the arguments made by Northern Command and Fleet Forces Command, which opposed closure by emphasizing Brunswick's strategic location and future capability (Criteria 2 and 3). DoD's senior deliberative body, the IEC, concurred in the assessment that Brunswick's strategic location was essential. Brunswick supports one of the last reserve force populations in the Northeast, and could support Coast Guard and UAV air assets as future missions. The community has worked hard to prevent any encroachment issues at the base and staunchly support the air station and its personnel. Commission Findings: Closure of Naval Air Station Brunswick, ME was initially added by the Commission for consideration so that it could fairly and properly evaluate all possible options for this facility: full closure, realignment, or remaining open. The Commission's review and analysis of the certified data found that closure would reduce excess capacity and result in significant savings while realignment would accomplish neither. The Commission found DoD's realignment proposal would remove military value from the installation, while still incurring many ongoing base operation support (BOS) costs. Moreover, realignment would eliminate the vast majority of the jobs, while making it virtually impossible for the community to successfully redevelop the site. The Commission found there were suitable detachment operating sites for Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Squadrons to support homeland defense and other Department of Defense mission support responsibilities in New England. The Multimission Aircraft (MMA), when developed, procured, and deployed, will not replace P-3s on a one-for-one basis, and therefore there will continue to be excess installations, making a backfill at NAS Brunswick unlikely. Furthermore, the MMA could be deployed from other civilian or Air National Guard airfields in the event of future mission requirements in the New England region. The Commission found that other realignments under this bill addressed the homeland defense needs of New England. The Commission found that the Secretary of Defense deviated substantially by not recommending closure of Naval Air Station Brunswick, ME. Commission Recommendations: The Commission found that the Secretary deviated from selection criteria 2 and 5 and the Force Structure Plan. Therefore the Commission recommends the following: Close Naval Air Station Brunswick, ME. Relocate its aircraft along with dedicated personnel, equipment and support to Naval Air Station Jacksonville, FL. Consolidate Aviation Intermediate Maintenance with Fleet Readiness Center Southeast Jacksonville, FL. The Commission found that this change and the recommendation as amended are consistent with the final selection criteria and the Force Structure Plan. The full text of this and all Commission recommendations can be found in Appendix Q.

As of 2017, all ballast water which is to be released into the environment will have to be treated first. This is certainly a landmark step for the health of our planet but possibly also for the health of the depressed shipping market. Vessels use ballast water for a wide range of operational matters, including stability and draft. Issues have arisen over the years because the water used is not treated and contains aquatic species, pathogens and organisms. When a vessel takes in ballast water from one part of the world, it then goes on to discharge it somewhere else, thereby transferring the ballast water containing potentially invasive non-native species into a foreign eco-system, causing irreversible damage to the environment. All vessels will be responsible for treating their ballast water, as stipulated by the Ballast Water Management Convention* (BWMC or the Convention) The BWMC requires all ballast water which is to be released into the environment to be treated first so that it complies with the necessary standards and is not harmful to the environment. The organisms in the ballast tank are required to be "non-viable" before the water is released into the sea so that it cannot contribute to further bio-invasion. Specific water management system will have to be installed on all vessels In order for the ballast water to be treated a Ballast Water Management System (BWMS) is required to be installed on-board most, if not all ships. The BWMS must be specifically fitted for each ship after extensive work, and surveys have been conducted to assess the type of systems required and the space available to install the same. The system on-board the ship must be approved by the Flag State and be considered compliant by the states to which the ship trades. Each State which is a signatory to the Convention will have a list of approved systems which they have determined compliant. This is where further problems occur, and complications will arise in the future. It is likely, particularly in the current depressed market, that some operators will be forced to scrap their ships or cease owning ships entirely. International requirements: facing practical issues BWMC requires the organisms to be non-viable, which is not the same as "dead", whereas the United States Coast Guard ("USCG") requires the organisms to be "dead-dead" which is a higher standard; this may end up being the de-facto global standard. The BWMSs are not future compliant, so operators have to select their system very diligently to ensure it will be fit for purpose for the life span of the ship. Estimates indicate there are a maximum of 27,500 BWMSs' currently installed worldwide. Considering the capacity of yards and the type of approved BWMSs available, a maximum of 13,000 BWMSs can be installed per year. Accordingly, it is unlikely that more than 40,000 BWMSs will be installed by the time the Convention comes into effect in the second half of 2017, although luckily ships will be able to wait until their first scheduled IOPC renewal survey. It is estimated that in 2016, merchant shipping tonnage alone is in excess of 50,000 ships. Compliance issues: owners' responsibilities Thankfully, there are some BWMSs which are approved by the USCG as alternative management systems and a further 19 BWMS manufacturers which are currently seeking approval. However, an approved system is one thing; uniformity in sampling and assessing conformity with the standards is another. To ensure compliance with the Convention, Owners must: - Have a valid BWM certificate on-board; - Maintain their BWM record book; - Train their crew; - Implement essential BWM procedures; and - Produce samples in compliance with the standards applicable; Companies which have already started testing and putting on-board approved BWMSs can benefit from grandfather provisions, allowing them a further 5 years to be compliant if the BWMS which was installed does not meet the standards required. A costly measure The BWMS is expensive and retro-fitting can cost up to USD 5 million, plus additional maintenance and operational costs. Considering these types of costs, it is likely that a significant number of ships may be scrapped rather than modified. Older ships which are currently laid up might also be scrapped in favour of new builds in order to benefit from the longevity. Other ships will have to be scrapped where retro-fitting a BWMS will practically be impossible. If more ships are scrapped than built, this will result in the decrease of ocean going tonnage, and with fewer ships comes a less saturated market which may work in favour of increased hire and freight rates. Whilst the increased costs and practical difficulties involved in fitting a BWMS are, and will continue to be, of significant concern to operators trying to make their vessels compliant with the Convention when it enters into force, the silver lining might come in the form of a modern and more environmentally friendly global fleet, a reduction in global overcapacity and improved hire and freight rates.

I admire AC Grayling as a writer and reviewer, but his "Scientist or storyteller" (Review June 22) hardly does justice to Freud, to psychoanalysis, or to himself. Most of his criticism is accepted by analysts today; much of it was by Freud himself in his later years. Grayling largely ignores what Freud wrote and did after 1905, and pulls out the hoary old "snatched flowers" and Emma Eckstein's nose. Psychoanalysis has moved a very long way from Grayling's description. It is far less centred on sexuality, more developmental, less set in the pattern of disease and cure, more aware of society and the realities of family life. Its practice is heuristic and suggestive; the archaeological model is long gone, with the imperious analyst unearthing hidden secrets and telling the patient what they mean. Freud, like many pioneers, got things wrong; but he often admitted as much, and moved on, as did the psychoanalytical movement he founded. His illumination of the human condition, of civilisation and its discontents, remains as his profound legacy. He is still one of the giants of our time. Yes, there were many ways in which Freud "got it wrong" and I don't doubt that there are a few Freudian fundamentalists who practise psychotherapy/analysis strictly according to the principles contained in Freud's work. However, if only Mr Grayling could bring himself forward 50 years and refer to the work of DW Winnicott, or even be super-modern and look at David Malan's research, he would discover that the principles which Freud uncovered have been developed and applied in a way which has not only been beneficial to their patients, but has also been tested scientifically, the case study method being an acceptable method of scientific investigation. Freud was, by his own admission, a pioneer and should be validated as one who opened up a field so that others could refine and develop it, rather than be denigrated because he didn't get it right all the time. There is absolutely no doubt that many of Freud's conclusions had nothing to do with observational science and many of them were dubious in the extreme. Where Freud did make his mark and continues to do so, was in the framework of his new methodology, the so-called talking cure, which included dream and language analysis that opened the doors between science and art. In his achievements he stands with Marx, another thinker whose conclusions were found wanting but whose methodology of critical analysis still stands today. As Popper rightly observed, Marx (and by analogy Freud) elevated their "observations" into closed systems that could not be falsified through experimental method. Indeed, both thinkers were notoriously unable to take other people's criticisms, although they were very able self critics. Both Freud's and Marx's methodologies were transgressive in their implicit undermining of the status quo. The very fact of their continuing vilification leads one to conclude that this fear of transgression still exists. During her time as a university lecturer, AS Byatt noted her students knew less and less Shakespeare - down to a play, or even parts thereof (June 22, "Reading while you're wonder-wounded"). Does she realise that now a student can gain a degree in English literature without having studied any Shakespeare? I'm shocked - is Ms Byatt? Helene R Perrin-Summers Wells in the shadows I read the first column and a half of Terry Eagleton's review of Shadow Lovers: The Last Affairs of H G Wells (June 22) expecting to read a perceptive critique set against an informed opinion of HGW's work. But I was not to be so lucky. Mr Eagleton seems to display the petulance and pathological jealousy that he attributes to someone who, for all the controversy of his life and thought, was a considerable literary force and who appeared to have attracted women. Of course HG Wells was flawed. But does this justify character assassination? Terry Eagleton describes Wells as a "sparse-haired, anti-semitic runt" whose sole achievement was to "pen a few science fiction stories". Such language demeans your newspaper. Through his novels, scientific romances and short stories Wells made a permanent contribution to English literature. He was, moreover, a great popular educator in such works as The Outline of History and A Short History of the World, which Mr Eagleton does not mention. Wells was first and foremost a writer. He should surely be judged by his writings, not by the minutiae of his private life or his physical appearance. Dr JR Hammond President, the HG Wells Society Terry Eagleton tells us that Shadow Lovers is a third-rate book about a fourth-rate subject. Fine. So why take half a page to tell me? Why not give the space to a book of more worth?

A wallet full of censorshipDavid Marr Expensive though they are, the arts must get more funds, writes David Marr. Every Tuesday morning of sitting weeks, government MPs gather in a long white room on the ground floor of Parliament House. These joint party meetings rarely give the Prime Minister any trouble. But on March 15 this year, the meeting broke into open revolt. Men and women - on the whole, decent men and women - who had made no fuss when Howard trapped refugees on the deck of the Tampa and sent troops to invade Iraq - had him on the mat over the fate of three orchestras. His Government had asked James Strong, businessman, to find a way of guaranteeing "the long term vibrancy and sustainability" of all the nation's orchestras without spending any more money. Strong looked at the problem for 10 months and came up with an impeccable business solution: clear the debts and force the weak to live within their means. So the Queensland Symphony was to lose 15 players; the Tasmanian Symphony would be cut to a chamber orchestra of 38; and the Adelaide orchestra - covered in honours after the 2004 performance of The Ring - would be pruned from 74 players to a miserable 56. Alexander Downer had already confronted the arts minister Rod Kemp. On the morning of the MPs' meeting, proud Adelaide's grubby Advertiser had Downer saying: "I made it perfectly clear to him I regarded this as unacceptable." The Foreign Minister denounced Strong's plans for "dumbing Adelaide down" and pledged to fight them "tooth and nail". The debate that began that morning in the party room rolled on all week in the Senate. It was the rarest of events: a passionate debate about the arts among the nation's conservative parliamentarians. Debate is perhaps not the right word because no one rose to support the trimming of the orchestras. One after the other, Queenslanders, South Australians and Tasmanians struggled to their feet to plead for the right of their constituents to hear Mahler and Beethoven as Sydney and Melbourne hear Mahler and Beethoven: at full strength. The Government put up no fight at all. Even on day one, Howard had expressed "sympathy" in the party room and Rod Kemp emerged that day making vague promises that the embattled orchestras would "thrive long into the future at their current size". The money was to be scrounged from somewhere. That money has not yet quite been found - as usual NSW is holding out - but the defeat of James Strong's business plan in March was an important moment in a very old debate in this country. Here were conservative politicians putting into words why they believed governments must support the arts. They didn't use the sort of election rhetoric both sides still roll out for every campaign. They said nothing about the arts making us better human beings or even better Australians. Multiculturalism went unmentioned. The sensitive arguments of many commentators over many years on the proper role of government were ignored. Their advocacy was simply grounded in civic pride - the right of civilised communities in a prosperous country. Queenslander senator George Brandis argued the case this way: "Since no Australian orchestra is sustainable in the sense of being commercially self-sufficient or even close to being so, the real issue, given that reality, is whether the government nevertheless accepts that orchestras are a sufficiently important part of the infrastructure of our community and of the social capital of our nation that they should be supported." The arts as infrastructure. In John Howard's Australia, libraries, museums, theatres and orchestras are on the same list as ports and roads and hospitals - traditional institutions, and necessary parts of the civic fabric. To understand what's happened under Howard to the arts in general and theatre in particular - the odd mix of generosity and meanness, celebration and indifference, abuse and support - it's best to keep in mind the lessons learnt in the kafuffle over the orchestras: that the bedrock arts policy of the Howard Government is not support for the arts - it's support for arts institutions. Big, traditional institutions. And in the way we understand these things in Australia - let's not talk of what's possible in Europe - the big traditional arts companies are flourishing under John Howard as never before. Except for theatre. Baz Lurhman deserves credit for bringing to perfection an art form as dead and gone as opera seria. I'm talking about those star studded Arts for Labor election campaign launches which reached their height with the 1993 extravaganza at the State Theatre in Sydney that's credited with helping Paul Keating win the unwinnable election. Always the drawcards at these shows were stars of stage and screen. The political affiliations of people working in theatre have never been in doubt: they are overwhelmingly Labor. In this almost-post-union world, theatre remains one of the most unionised corners of the nation. The arts in general and theatre in particular seemed set for annihilation once Labor lost power. But the politics were never as simple as the rallies and rhetoric suggested - on one side arts 'elites' and on the other the barbarians of the suburbs. The Liberals saw the arts could be won over because they were looking at the audiences. You don't need to survey subscribers to the Sydney Theatre Company to know they're North Shore - just look at them. Certainly I can tell because I grew up there. Even this theatre - Company B Belvoir - draws its audiences from suburbs no longer implacably hostile to the Liberal party. So in the great Howard strategy for creating a new middle ground in Australian politics dominated by the Liberals, there was no reason to needlessly antagonise theatre and its audiences - indeed, the arts and their audiences. When the inevitable day came and the people sent Paul Keating home to Woollahra, the barbarians of the Coalition did not lay waste to the arts. Even so, it was a turning point, a moment of change. Under Labor, the arts had surfed along on the notion that theatre, painting, music were part of a larger enterprise of national renewal and discovery. This was the underpinning of the rhetoric of Keating's Creative Nation but the sense that Australia was on our way somewhere new, went back at least to the time of Harold Holt. Dismantling White Australia, piece by piece, was the great change once Menzies was out of the way. But from this time, the arts were also seen as part of this project of national renewal. Even before Whitlam burst onto the scene, Canberra was backing the film industry and funding the Australia Council. For the next 25 years we took for granted that the arts and government were working together to build a new Australia. Then along came Howard - the first prime minister in 30 years to come to office with no talk, however vague, of changing Australia for the better. Of course he had big plans for economic change - many of them secret - but otherwise he wasn't planning to take us anywhere. There would be no more preaching about improvement and renewal. Howard didn't need the arts to prove we were a country getting somewhere. His political mantra has always been that we're fine just the way we are. The arts don't mean much for Howard. Theatre isn't his thing. Music is difficult for him because of his hearing. He reads and his wife loves the ballet. That makes him not unrepresentative of middle class Australian men of a certain age. The arts don't inform his view of the world or the country he leads. His understanding of Australia - an Australia many of us flinch from - is profound and profoundly political. In a way that Keating was not quite, John Howard is a political animal to the tips of his fingers. Nothing is exempt from his political scrutiny - certainly not the arts. That hasn't meant stuffing arts boards with party hacks. Party political affiliation counts a great deal under Howard - and few if any of the high profile Labor appointees to arts boards had another turn once their time was up - but Canberra has a more subtle aim than colouring the arts Liberal. They want the arts to reflect well on the government. The ground rules are that they don't the arts getting up their noses; they don't want to be embarrassed; and they want the arts minister to look good. Back at the beginning that mean Richard Alston. He grasped more clearly than most of his colleagues, that the arts were not a lost cause for the government, that whatever the politics backstage, the politics in the stalls were not necessarily hostile. He had his passions - Aboriginal art, opera, early music and theatre - and he proved a persuasive advocate in the cabinet. The shape of the arts today owes a great deal to the fact that from 1996 until he left parliament in 2003, there was an arts minister who really understood the dynamics of arts funding. Unfortunately, Alston was also minister for the ABC and thus in charge of bringing the national broadcaster to heel - the fate the arts in general escaped when Howard came to power. Not that this was simple party politics. The boxing of the ABC is a perfect example of the rule of thumb that says what's bad under Howard usually began under Labor. Most ABC viewers and listeners are Liberal voters and love the national broadcaster - but Alston followed the vindictive course set by Labor to rein in the ABC's reporters and commentators. The target was news and current affairs but the arts - and particularly drama - bore the brunt of the budget cuts. That the ABC is now so starved of money that it will broadcast less than 20 hours of new Australian drama this year - three or four minutes a day - is the result of a bi-partisan campaign going back to the early 1990s. Of course this has had a devastating effect on drama - on writers, actors, cameramen, directors and designers. The ABC was always a mean employer but it was once the training ground, the innovator. If the aim of government is to have drama flourishing in Australia, what's been done to the ABC makes no sense at all. But remember the bedrock principle here: Canberra's focus is on the institutions not the art. After only two years in government, Alston announced the Nugent Inquiry. These great reports - Tribe, Waks, Nugent, Myer, Roberts, Strong - are provoked not by artistic collapse but looming financial disaster. The pattern is crisis, rescue, flatlining for a few years, crisis, report and rescue again. As Jean Battersby remarked the other day when in one of the Alfred Deakin Innovation Lectures: "Ever since governments began to provide funds for them, the arts have been studied within an inch of their lives." Helen Nugent started out with the idea that the answer to the problems of the major companies - the orchestras, the opera, the ballet, the festivals, Musica Viva and big theatres like Belvoir - was a bit more money and lots managerial wizardry. But the doctrine that everything can be solved by smart management came up against the iron rule of the arts: that the fundamental costs are the cost of labour and that these costs rise on a trajectory of their own. The Nugent team concluded that the only way the big companies could be put on a sound financial basis was first a step jump in government funding, and then realistic indexing of grants. Alston was persuaded. He persuaded Howard. It took, apparently, only a brief conversation. In September 2000, it was announced that Canberra would given an extra $45 million and the states an extra $25 million to the major companies over the following four years. It was the biggest single boost in arts funding since the Whitlam years. But for Tap Dogs, theatre might have done much better from Nugent. The financial returns her teams of management consultants used, showed the Sydney Theatre Co awash with money from Tap Dogs. On these unusually rosy figures, she declared the this the nation's benchmark theatre company, decided it should get 13% of its turnover in subsidy and that funding for all the other big theatre companies would build from there. When the tap dance craze died and costs rose inexorably - the STC would not be the only big theatre company hit hard. Nugent did nothing for the little theatre companies. Here is another example of the maxim that problems under Howard usually began under Keating. Back then, arts companies were sorted into big and little. We're talking Griffin, Sidetrack, Deckchair, La Mama, Legs on the Wall, La Boite, Flying Fruit Fly Circus - and so on. Most of these 35 little companies are theatres, funded through the Theatre Board of the Australia Council. There has never been enough money for them. Now there is less than ever. Yet they create most of the new Australian work for the theatre. Most new writers begin here; and most new directors; and their audiences are as big as the audiences for the major companies. They are not surviving. Melbourne has lost Anthill, The Church and the Gas Works. The Pram Factory went years ago. There has been a culling of this middle rank across Australia - the small theatres that once were stepping stones between co-ops and the majors. If you're not one of the majors these days, you're starving. According to the Roberts report commissioned by the Australia Council, these theatres are not badly managed but their profits are static and their margins are slim. Their infrastructure is under pressure. They are forced to be less creative. In 2002, Roberts considered half of them to be financially at risk and he predicted what he called "a spiral of decline" as penny pinching produced fewer and poorer productions. Once audiences start to fall away, he said, "Sponsorship, philanthropic giving and other government funding is likely to follow the trend." Not that there's much of any of those. They all go to the big companies. The big theatre companies - the state theatre companies, Belvoir, Black Swan, Malthouse and Bell Shakespeare - have the sponsors, the donors, the political backers and the board members with the kind of business cred to lobby Howard government ministers effectively. But Canberra has left the fate of the little theatre companies to the States. And those Labor governments are not responding. In John Howard's Australia, the little companies have no political friends. The fate of these companies presents intractable difficulties for the theatre industry and for the Australia Council. The Roberts report predicting catastrophe is already two years old. Later this year when all the cultural ministers of the States, territories and Commonwealth meet again, it will be discussed again. No one is holding out much hope. In the face of their difficulties it's a little hard to ask for sympathy for the big theatre companies. As you stride down the wharf under the fluttering Myer banners towards that sophisticated little restaurant with one of the best views in the world, for the launch of the new Sydney Theatre Company permanent ensemble, dire straights is not the first thought that comes to mind. Indeed, the major theatre companies are not about to go under. What's at stake - to use a terrible term popularised by Nugent - is their "artistic vibrancy". Most of the cost-cutting measures Nugent identified back in 1999 - smaller casts, younger casts, fewer shows, safer shows, fewer new productions - are more extreme now than they were then, despite the fresh money that began to flow when her report was accepted five years ago. Here's one example: between 1992 and 1998, the Queensland Theatre Company cut its average cast size by a third - from 12.4 actors per show to 8.7. That's now down to five actors per show. Another example: in 1991, the Melbourne Theatre Company over 120 actors in its season. This year it's employing 81. I'm one of the outsiders Belvoir drags in to sit on a little committee that read plays and advises Neil Armfield. It isn't easy. We dream and Rachel Healy sits there asking - how many in the cast. Belvoir takes the risks other companies don't. It's got history with big shows. They turn the fortunes of the company around. Hamlet saved Belvoir in 94; Cloudstreet gave the theatre its war chest; and who can forget the moment when the lights came up on this stage for Stuff Happens and 16 men and women walked forward into the light. The sight of all those fine actors on stage together was one of the most thrilling moments in a thrilling night. But the risks Belvoir takes are not taken across theatre in Australia. Part of the trouble is that theatre is so damn flexible. Opera lovers demand Verdi and Verdi sets the numbers on the stage and in the pit. Beethoven is as bossy. But Australian theatre makes ends meet with one-man shows, two handers - thank God for unhappy marriages - and new work commissioned under the no-more-than-six actors rule. Many of the big companies tremble before investing in the traditional repertoire. Chekov, I'm told, is disappearing from the Australian stage. And who bears the brunt of this? Writers, designers and directors, of course. But sadly, actors most of all. We live in a peculiar country where acting schools are funded as never before, schools that pump out over 500 graduates every year to find a place in a profession where there hasn't been so little work since the 1980s. It's Canberra once again funding institutions not art. There's much more to actors' problems than cash-strapped theatres. Glamorous television commercials are rarely made in Australia these days thanks to rule changes introduced by Keating. Work has all but dried up at the ABC thanks this time to both Howard and Keating. There is work in offshore film and television production but little - at least over the past few years - in Australian film. The bread and butter for the profession remains commercial television drama - an investment the free to air channels are happy to make, but only so long as the government virtually guarantees their profits. The networks have signalled that drama quotas would be under real pressure if Canberra were to allow a fourth commercial network to give them a run for their money. Change the mix of television in this country and Australian television drama might virtually disappear. Let's forget the wannabe actors for a while and the handsome men and women who will grow old serving coffee on King Street. Let's look at the profession's most successful and ask how are they getting on in Howard's Australia. Like all unionists they pay their dues on a sliding scale according to earnings. The top of the scale is reached at the alarmingly low figure of $45,000 a year. According to the union, they have only 43 members paying that top rate. The big state theatres talk of a crisis - not the kind of spectacular crisis that faced the orchestras before Strong or the Sydney Dance Company now its audiences have deserted Graeme Murphy. It's a different kind of crisis. In a joint submission to arts minister Rod Kemp in May this year, Rob Brookman of the Sydney Theatre Company and Ann Tonks of the Melbourne Theatre Company called it: "The kind of crisis that will see the steady and continuous erosion of the vitality and diversity of the Australian theatre and will eventually render it increasingly irrelevant to its audiences." So what happened to the Nugent windfall of only five years ago? The answer is this: once more, costs are edging ahead of income. Sorry to talk about money like this all the time. But you can't have art without money. Theatre companies have five streams of income and all are under pressure. Here's a quick checklist. First: ticket prices are already high and have been rising faster than consumer price index for years. Companies are loathe to hike them even faster. It's called the price barrier. Second: sponsorship is reaching its limit. Corporate sponsors particularly seek value for money. The more successful a company the more likely that sponsorship has - as they say in the trade - "matured". Sponsorship is limited by theatre size, season size, audience size, city size. As it happens, Australian business has little taste for sponsoring the arts. In 2000/2001, only 5% of the $1.5 billion given by business went to arts and culture. Third: benefactions are growing but coming off a very low base. One of the problems in Australia is that we have no death duties to avoid. They've been a great source of wealth for the arts abroad. John Howard has made benefactions more attractive by making it easier for the rich to set up private foundations - but these have a long way to go before they have big bucks to offer theatre. Fourth: David Williamson is retiring. For 20 years, he has been the great cross subsidiser of Australian theatre. Each new Williamson has been worth about $400,000 first to the Sydney Theatre Company, then to the Melbourne Theatre Company and so on around Australia. Twelve of the 25 biggest grossing shows since the Sydney Theatre Company began were written by Williamson. And so far, no one has come up with a substitute. Fifth - and most remarkable: an ideological obsession has seen the Howard government claw back millions from its arts grants. Again, the rot began with Keating. He introduced the idea that to make the bureaucracy leaner and meaner, its funding should be shaved by a percent or so every year. This strategy comes with the Orwellian name of the "efficiency dividend". Howard made the situation much worse about the time the Nugent money started pouring through, by applying the "efficiency dividend" not just to the administrative budget of the Australia Council but to all its grants - including grants to theatre companies, big and little. Over four years it clawed back $10 million from the major arts companies. Ever since Nugent, the Australia Council and the industry have been conducting a quiet campaign - lobbying, begging, arguing- to be saved from this annual squeeze. The annual cut is even worse because the underlying indexation of government grants doesn't match the real rising costs of the arts. Then comes the "efficiency dividend" to drag grants down further every year. Late last year there was a private presentation at the Australia Council of a draft internal report called Arts Catalyst. I have a copy of the power point presentation. There is no doubt how seriously the council takes the crisis caused by years of cumulative "efficiency dividends". The predictions were dire. The power point reads: "Government funding model is unsustainable, squeezed by partial indexation both for arts organisations and Australia Council." I have this good news: in the May budget Canberra effectively exempted the major companies from the "efficiency dividend" - though only the major companies and only for the next three years. Ten days ago, the Australia Council out of its own pocket pledged to help the little companies, at least for those same years, survive Canberra's bizarre habit of Indian giving. Nugent is now - as Helen Nugent herself recommended in 1999 - being reviewed. Indeed, she wanted a full scale review to happen much sooner than this. Nugent 1 was run by a team of the country's leading business brains. The focus was solvency. Perhaps Nugent 2 might take the daring step of addressing issues of quality. Not that the financial challenges are entirely solved. Successful as Nugent 1 has been politically, there's now a danger of the arts drifting back into the old cycle that was supposed to be broken forever: crisis, report, rescue, flat lining, then back to crisis again. John Howard works by embracing his natural opponents. The forestry workers rising to cheer him in Launceston's Albert Hall in the last week of the election campaign, was a very John Howard moment. His government has embraced the arts. They're ticking over without any big vision fuss. Labor - spooked by the abuse of "elites" and anxious to shake off the memory of Keating - has all but abandoned them. Labor's last couple of arts policy campaign launches were held in backrooms of Sydney pubs. Arts leaders couldn't get anywhere near Mark Latham before the last elections. He was deliberately distancing himself. Remember his insider/outsider critique of Australia? Well, he didn't want to be seen with arts insiders. He did come to Hedda Gabler at the Wharf Theatre and members of the cast recall his hopelessly awkward appearance at drinks afterwards. It's hard to credit, but Latham had nothing to say to Cate Blanchett. He couldn't wait to get away. Since losing to Howard, Labor has had eight or nine arts spokesmen. The latest is Peter Garrett. He's full of goodwill and getting himself up to speed. But it's a sign of how little clout the arts have these days with Labor that Garrett is not even a member of the shadow cabinet. The Libs in Canberra have the field to themselves. Inside the party, there's no shortage of generalised, educated, middle class good will towards the arts. And on the surface at least, the big infrastructure companies are flourishing - or at least busy and solvent. The focus on institutions means, curiously, that this is a government very reluctant to see companies fail. So Graeme Murphy's Sydney Dance Company will be rescued come what may. And when Bell Shakespeare feels short changed by the Major Performing Arts Board, they can come to Canberra to be topped up from the minister's Playing Australia fund. There comes a time when some companies should fail. It's the phoenix principle in the arts. All of us old enough to remember how wonderful it was when the Old Tote died and the Sydney Theatre Company rose from its ashes - will know what I mean. But this government in this field would seem to lack the courage to let this happen. It would be read as a failure, the government's failure. The imperative is to maintain the structures. There's perhaps more political pressure these days to avoid failure than achieve success. What the government wants from the arts - and I'd be saying much the same if Labor were in power in Canberra - is solvent companies, happy constituents, no embarrassments and votes. So in almost every way, the principle of arms-length funding is a political stumbling block. These days, bluff Rod Kemp waves goodbye each year to about $150 million on its way to the Australia Council. Not that he ever really loses the power of the purse. No minister has had so much arts money to dispose of personally as Kemp has now through various funds. And the power of the purse - the fact that so much is in Canberra's gift - means arts industry leaders are extremely reluctant to criticise publicly John Howard, his government or Rod Kemp. The arts world is schizophrenic: raging in private, silent in public. Robyn Nevin last year took a famous swipe at the prime minister in her Australia Day address: "A new railway can attract the presence of the Prime Minister" she said "but the opening of a new theatre, the Sydney Theatre, also of national and international significance, can't." She wasn't thanked. Though she hadn't said anything particularly rude, she had broken the rule of the trade that complaints are kept in house; that arts CEOs don't ventilate their worries in public, don't lobby through the press and use all their professional skills to disguise the problems of the system. Robyn Nevin had a swipe and arts bureaucrats had the vapours. They said to one another: "It just doesn't help." This is a government - and again, would I be saying much different if Labor were in power - that is extraordinarily sensitive to criticism. There's a maxim in the industry that when the arts and government collide, it's not much use pleading that we "live in a democracy". They don't mind democracy in Canberra, they just can't get their heads around the notion of public funding for projects critical of Australian government policy. It's the ABC all over again. The Howard government is unhappy when the same sort of questioning - or worse, ridicule - crops up in what the Murdoch papers call the "taxpayer funded" arts. Censorship is never censorship. There's always some other principle invoked. But it wasn't hard to reply to Ruddock's attempt to find other reasons to push the government's political barrow. One of the video makers, Kate Wild, remarked: "There are plenty of computer games where people get shot and run over and mutilated, and there's no controversy about that." The Australia Council was condemned for backing the game by politicians, newspapers of both stables and even a leading refugee advocate who thought the game demeaning. But how times change: in March this year, Escape from Woomera could be played at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne's Federation Square and in April at the Griffith Artworks and Dell Gallery. It's doing the rounds right now without a hint of controversy - but then this is not the time for Ruddock or Amanda Vanstone to be preaching good behaviour to the arts. Why is it always about boatpeople and detention? Through the Wire was a verbatim piece written by Ros Horin who was then artistic director of Sydney's Griffin Theatre. A staged reading in January last year at the Riverside in Parramatta caused an extraordinary buzz. The show was to open in the Sydney Opera House studio in October. Another 22 venues across Australia wanted to take it too. The prospects could hardly have been more favourable for subsidy from the arts minister's Playing Australia fund. But it didn't happen. It went in a winner and came out with nothing. The fate of Through the Wire is a cause of speculation and distress across the theatre industry. The story can still only be partly told because the people directly involved wont talk. They have to survive. What appears to have happened at the meeting of Playing Australia last year was this: despite the show having a very high score on application, the minister's representative persuaded the committee not to recommend it for funding - on the basis that it was not yet a fully fledged production. Other shows were rejected at the same meeting on the same - unexpected - ground. That's where the story stands for the moment. In the industry there's little doubt that Canberra was simply not going to back a politically unpalatable show. Through the Wire was rescued by the NSW Ministry for the Arts which funded eight weeks of what was to have been an 18 week tour. Private backers took it to Melbourne. It won the 2004 Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award and was highly commended a few weeks ago in the Victorian Premier's literary awards. Another new rule was cited by Playing Australia as a reason for not funding a tour of Version 1.0's new work about the Iraq War, The Wages of Spin. It had a season at Sydney's Performance Space in May this year and the Theatre Board of the Australia Council pledged $90,000 'Mobile States' funding towards a five city tour of little venues. It was rejected by Playing Australia for being too capital city focussed. These were flurries. Two Brothers was a crisis in which the displeasure of the government was made clear to the Australia Council and to the two principle theatres where Hannie Rayson's play ran to mixed reviews and - in Melbourne - abusive controversy. From the start it was promoted as a play "inspired by the relationship between Treasurer Peter Costello and his clergyman brother and outspoken critic, Tim". Again the subject was boatpeople, this time drowning by the hundreds as the Australian Navy watches on. The lone survivor of the catastrophe reaches Australia only to be knifed in the dark by the nasty brother - and soon to be Prime Minister - 'Eggs' Benedict. As the Melbourne Theatre Company opening approached, Rayson was targeted by the Herald Sun's Andrew Bolt. Here's just a sample: "While the rest of us debate what medals to give our dead soldiers, sailors and airmen, the MTC accuses them and their comrades of being so evil that they deliberately left woman and children to drown. And you subsidise this vomit of smug hate. If you still need proof of how far up its own fundament our artists have crawled, go to tonight's premier of Hannie Rayson's play, Two Brothers. You must excuse my crudity, though Rayson should be the last to complain. After all, see how cruelly and hysterically she smears our defence personnel, and anyone who even votes Liberal. God, to think such stuff passes now for art." So stung was the government by Two Brothers, that a debate began among senior ministers about abolishing the Australia Council. The military was particularly enraged. As it happens, a number of arts budget proposals were sitting on Peter Costello's desk when all this blew up. But John Howard calmed this behind-the-scenes debate down. The proposals went through. But Kemp made the displeasure of the government known to the general managers of the Melbourne Theatre Company and the Sydney Theatre Company. He also spoke to the chair of the Melbourne company - and now chancellor of Melbourne University - Ian Reynard. According to reports, the minister said to Reynard: "Why do you persist in biting the hand that feeds." Kemp does not deny making his feelings known at the time. He told me: "The generally poor reviews by critics across the political spectrum suggest that Two Brothers was more of a political rant than a significant contribution to Australian theatre and political commentary. Equally, comments by those closely associated with the play that it wasn't aimed at particular individuals were entirely unconvincing." On ABC TV's Insiders, Barrie Cassidy asked the Treasurer if he were annoyed by the thinly disguised portrait of him in the play. He was. "What else can they say about you: mass killer, serial adulterer? You know, in some sections of the theatre anyone who votes Liberal is just considered fair game." So what could the arts industry could look forward to while he was treasurer or prime minister, Cassidy asked. The contender replied: "I will always make a good subject for their plays, Barry. I would only ask they be a little more accurate in the future." We need to know, this is a man who took Two Brothers literally, personally and politically. Bottom couldn't bear to leave the stage. Remember him, after performing Pyramus and Thisbe, offering the duke a bergomask or an epilogue? Well, I'm offering a couple of last thoughts and a song. We've been having these debates about the arts, governments, policy and funding from the year dot. Philip Parsons, who we're remembering and honouring today, campaigned on this front all through his career. All the reports, all the ingenuity, all the carefully drafted policies for decades have been driven, of course, by a passion for the arts - but driven also by the political imperative that the arts in Australia are made to get by with too little. From my Patrick White years I have a favourite image of his mother, Mrs Victor White, patroness of little theatre companies, arriving swathed in furs and pearls to advise them that everything on stage can be made with hessian. We're still in the hessian years. Let's cut through all this and get to the point. Expensive as they are, the arts need more money - not for the sake of the companies, certainly not for the bureaucrats, and not only for the sake of the artists. For our sake. To release this country's imagination by mining the creativity that's there, waiting to be discovered. In its private soul searching late last year, the Australia Council gave a figure that would transform the arts in this country: another $40 million a year. It's peanuts. It's a few miles of freeway. But there's no limit to where it could take us all. Well now give me money A lot of money Wow, yeah, I wanna be free If I could hold a tune I'd sing this Beatles' classic now on behalf of all the arts and my particular love, theatre: Now give me money A lot of money That's what I want, yeah That's what I want

The Lagos State House of Assembly at its plenary has passed a resolution to revive and enhance the teaching and learning of History in the state’s schools for nation building. The House called on Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to direct the Deputy Governor Dr Idiat Adebule, who doubles as the Commissioner for Education, Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board and other relevant agencies to enhance the teaching of History. The Assembly also called on the Ministry of Education to brief its House Committee on Education on the strategies to be used to achieve the teaching of History. The prime mover of the motion and Deputy Majority Leader, Mr Olumuyiwa Jimoh, said: “There had been a decline in the teaching of History in schools, which plays down the importance of historical events. “Our history and collective patrimonies should be taught in schools to address some of the fundamental issues on nation building and give us direction. “Without history, we are a lost race, it is through history we know our origin and tradition. We need to resuscitate it and make its teaching compulsory. Without our history, there is no way we can develop,” Jimoh said. The lawmakers, who took turns to decry the decline in the teaching of History in schools, said the country as a whole had suffered from such decline and negligence. According to him, History is so important for nation building as well as the socio-economic, cultural and political development of the nation. The lawmaker decried the decision of the National Council of Education in 2007 that teaching of History was not necessary in schools. Contributing, Chairman of the House Committee on Education, Hon. Olanrewaju Ogunyemi from Ojo Constituency 2, confirmed that History was no longer being taught in primary and secondary schools in the state. He explained that the importance of history in the schools could not be over-emphasised, adding that it helps the people to remember their past and make plans for the future. “The Minister of Education once called for the re-introduction of History in our schools. The subject was replaced with Civic Education and Government. “All these have not been able to give the students what they need to know about the society. No one can kill History no matter how they try. The earlier we bring back the subject the better,” he said. Also, Hon. Abiodun Tobun from Epe Constituency 1 said learning is continuous, adding that History should be taught from primary to secondary school and the university. He said most Nigerians know about their national and political leaders through History, and that people adopt role models by learning about them. Hon. Bisi Yusuf from Alimosho Constituency 1 stated that the decline in history was affecting the nation’s social institutions. “We have moral decadence in our society today because we don’t study history anymore unlike what used to happen in the past,” he said. In his submission, the Speaker of the House, Mr Mudashiru Obasa described history as a “teacher”, saying its teaching has so many benefits to the nation. Obasa said: “History is like a teacher teaching us where we were, where we are and the way to go. It is to our own advantage – politically, economically, culturally and others. “It is important to return history to our curriculum.” The Speaker added that there was a need for an overhaul of the educational curriculum to move the nation forward.

It’s easy to get excited about big butterflies such as Monarchs and Swallowtails. It takes more effort to see and appreciate the smaller ones, but I find them just as exciting. My friend, Connie May, has a keen eye for small things, especially caterpillars, which she often gives to me to photograph and raise. She recently discovered a half-inch Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) chrysalis while pulling weeds and gave it to me. The next morning I saw orange and black wing markings showing through the previously opaque chrysalis, and suspected the butterfly would soon emerge. With camera ready, I was watching when “poof” the magic happened and the butterfly appeared. The wings gradually lengthened and after a minute the butterfly became still while the fully formed wings hardened. In a couple of hours, it was ready to fly. Crescents get their name from the markings near the bottom of the hind wings. At three-fourths inch wide, Pearl Crescents are one of our smaller butterflies. They are also one of the most common in North America. A great way to encourage Crescents is to plant native asters. They are the only plants on which Pearl Crescents lay their eggs. As an added benefit, the beautiful aster blossoms are an excellent source of nectar for many fall butterflies. I feel fortunate that Connie discovered the tiny chrysalis and gave it to me, and that I was able to see it emerge and set it free in the backyard. As to butterflies, large or small, I like them all.

Doctor’s Office Managers are dedicated to oversee the overall business operations of a doctor’s office. They ensure that the setting is running efficiently and effectively. Their responsibilities include organize the office set-up, managing the employee schedule, supervising the staff, evaluating the staff’s performances, monitor patient scheduling policy, supervising the billing procedures, planning to improve the quality in delivering healthcare services, developing goals and budgets of the setting etc. These professionals need to stay up to date with evolving rules, regulations and health policies. Doctor’s Office Managers find employment in various health care settings such as doctor’s offices, hospitals, nursing homes, residential care facilities, group medical practices at clinics etc. They mostly work full time. Since their services are sometimes needed in emergencies, they may be required during weekends or overnight shifts. To become a Doctor’s Office Manager, the aspiring candidates need to complete a four-year bachelor’s degree in business administration, health administration or any related area. The candidates can pursue a master’s degree in related field to find better job opportunities. However, an associate degree is required to enter the occupation for smaller practices. The syllabus includes human resources administration, accounting and budgeting, hospital organization and management, strategic planning, law and ethics, health economics, and health information system. Licensure and Certification Since all the states in USA require a Doctor’s Office Manager to be licensed, the aspiring candidates must have a bachelor’s degree, pass a licensing exam and complete a state-approved training program. The Professional Association of Health Care Office Management offers certification to these professionals. A Doctor’s Office Manager possesses various skills such as attention to detail, extremely organized, empathy towards patient, ability to handle multiple priorities, competent in resolving conflict, high medical ethics, management and problem solving abilities, tolerance for irregular working hours, effective communications and interpersonal skills, computer skills etc. Job Outlook and Salary The job outlook for a Doctor’s Office Manager remains excellent in USA. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the growth rate for job opportunities in this profession may rise 23% from 2012 to 2022. The average annual salary of a Doctor’s Office Manager was $88,580 in May 2013.

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in testimony before the House Rules Committee announced that FDA supports “ending the use of antibiotics for growth and feed efficiency in the United States.” Sharfstein also stated that FDA believes all medications used in animal agriculture should be “under the supervision of a veterinarian.” This is a major change in policy by the FDA. The House Rules Committee hearing was regarding H.R. 1549, the “Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2009,” which would ban the use of antibiotics for livestock except when the animal is sick. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY), chairwoman of the committee and sponsor of H.R. 1549, said, “When we go to the grocery store to pick up dinner, we should be able to buy our food without worrying that eating it will expose our family to potentially deadly bacteria that will no longer respond to our medical treatments. Unless we act now, we will unwittingly be permitting animals to serve as incubators for resistant bacteria.” The witnesses who endorsed the bill included the Pew Environment Group, Union of Concerned Scientists, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Bon Appétit, and the Center for Metagenomics and Human Health. Last year Congressman Leonard Boswell (D-IA) presented testimony on the House Agriculture Committee’s review of this issue. Boswell stated: “All antibiotics used to keep animals healthy have passed the in-depth FDA process, and have been shown to be safe and effective and have undergone review of their potential to cause increased antibiotic resistance.” Boswell also told the committee that if H.R. 1549 is enacted and products are removed from use, “livestock producers will be left with few, if any, medicines to prevent and control animal disease.” Phase Out Ethanol Support — Congressmen Joe Crowley (D-NY) and Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) have introduced legislation that would phase-out government support for corn-based ethanol over a five-year period. The “Affordable Food and Fuel for America Act” would phase out the tariff on imported ethanol and the blenders’ tax credit. U.S. Ag Trade Still Positive — The latest USDA report shows that U.S. agriculture continues to have a trade surplus with the rest of the world. For the fiscal year, to date, U.S. agricultural exports are at $66.874 billion compared to imports of $50.641 billion for a surplus of $16.234 billion. This compares to a surplus of $24.252 billion a year ago. New FSA Administrator — Jonathan Coppes has been named the new administrator of USDA’s Farm Service Agency. Prior to joining USDA, Coppes served as legislative assistant for agriculture, energy and environment to Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE). Coppes is originally from Ohio.