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Well, it looks like Canada’s National Library is completely embracing April Fools Day, having just released the declassified journals and military records of James “Logan” Howlett. You know who James Howlett is, right? That’s right; he’s the freaking Wolverine! Yes, it’s Wolverine’s origin declassified thanks to Canada’s National Library and their incredibly authentic-looking documentation. Check it out!
This “misinformation” was shared through the Library and Archives Facebook page, and disseminated a lot of very interesting, facts regarding the once-shrouded history of Wolverine! A few of those interesting facts relayed through the aforementioned Library and Archives Facebook page:
“Logan was born in 1882 in Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada, to wealthy landowner Elizabeth Howlett and her grounds-keeper Thomas Logan.
Logan’s journals provide valuable insight into his early life in Canada, including work as a miner in a British Columbia stone quarry, a fur trader for the Hudson’s Bay Company, and a homesteader in the Canadian Rockies. His military career spanned multiple conflicts, making his personnel records an unprecedented study in Canadian military history. Logan was gravely wounded in action many times, and gained a reputation as a gritty survivor.”
• WWI: captain in the Canadian Armed Forces (Devil’s Brigade). Fought at Ypres in 1915. Wounded by a sword through the chest.
• WWII: Returned to the Devil’s Brigade in the Second World War, as an allied spy and paratrooper for the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion during the Normandy landings on D-Day.
• Cold War: based in Ottawa and Calgary, worked for both CSIS and the CIA.
• Logan later changed his operative name to ‘Wolverine’, and worked with various NGOs.”
It’s the completely accurate, fake facts regarding the origins of Wolverine! | <urn:uuid:93bdd828-2330-497e-b1c7-6d272fabde34> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://source.superherostuff.com/comics/wolverines-origin-declassified/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141195929.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20201128214643-20201129004643-00322.warc.gz | en | 0.951253 | 430 | 2.625 | 3 |
Ethiopian woman wears massive eight-inch lip disc
An Australian film crew had been traveling through the remote valleys of southern Ethiopia when they met Ataye Eligidagne. Upon setting eyes on the 20-year-old for the first time, the documentary makers were left speechless. That's because the young woman had an iron disc placed in her bottom lip that was almost as large as her head.
It took Ataye three years to stretch her lip out far enough to accommodate the eight-inch disc; she did so by gradually increasing the size of the discs. The Ethiopian even had two teeth removed so that the disc stays in place.
Wearing lip discs is a symbol of prestige for the pastoral Suri and Mursi tribes residing in South Sudan and southwestern Ethiopia — the larger the lip disc a woman has, the larger the dowry of cattle the woman's family would receive when she gets married.
It's fascinating to see how beauty is defined across different cultures around the globe. As demonstrated by Ataye, the human body is astonishingly stretchable, too! | <urn:uuid:e0d08ba5-f910-4b5b-970d-5cb07c295c57> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.hefty.co/ataye-eligidagne/?ref=fb | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141195929.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20201128214643-20201129004643-00322.warc.gz | en | 0.971867 | 221 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Black locust is among the hardest domestic woods, rated alongside hickory. It’s natural chemistries also make it an exceptionally rot and decay resistant wood. The color can range from pale greenish yellow to darker browns as it ages. The tree, which primarily grew through parts of the mid-Atlantic, was appreciated early on by pioneers for fence posts and to a lesser extent ship masts. Black locust has been increasingly valued as a natural and often more sustainable option for fence boards and posts, and in modern times, deck extensions. | <urn:uuid:42d75d37-7d64-43c3-8fde-5f4a79622cfa> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.sawkill.nyc/woods/black-locust-nyc/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141211510.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20201130065516-20201130095516-00402.warc.gz | en | 0.971236 | 112 | 2.578125 | 3 |
It truly was the night (and day) of the iguana.
After the National Weather Service sent an unusual alert to south Florida residents on Tuesday night, warning them of possible “falling iguanas” in light of unseasonably low temperatures, residents were indeed treated to a show of rigid reptiles out of the sky (or, actually, the trees).
The not-so-small creatures were seen motionless in the middle of sidewalks and backyards. While they looked dead, they were actually just too cold to move. Iguanas start becoming sluggish when temperatures drop below 50F and are susceptible to freezing once temperatures drop to around 40F. When frozen, they easily fall out of the trees they call home, appearing lifeless even though they aren’t dead.
Floridians shared videos of the phenomenon, giving Twitter an up-close look at the green-scaled reptiles that are probably dreaming of warmer climates, or at least spring.
One Twitter user happened to capture the resurrection of an iguana as it took in some warmth in the sunshine and slowly crawled back to life after being temporarily frozen.
Iguanas are an invasive species in Florida and can be little nuisances when not frozen. They can damage infrastructure by digging small burrows into sidewalks or foundations and leave droppings on decks and inside swimming pools.
Wildlife conservationists recommend people not touch frozen iguanas as they may come back to life and feel threatened if a person is close. | <urn:uuid:0069b028-a53e-4960-a4c7-b1545e7bf746> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/iguanas-fall-from-trees-florida | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141187753.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20201126084625-20201126114625-00442.warc.gz | en | 0.946433 | 305 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, Le Corbusier (1887–1965) is widely acclaimed as the most influential architect of the 20th century. From private villas to mass social housing projects, his radical ideas, designs, and writings presented a whole-scale reinvention not only of individual structures, but of entire concepts of modern living.
Le Corbusier’s work made distinct developments over the years, from early vernacular houses in Switzerland through dazzling white, purist villas to dynamic syntheses of art and architecture such as the chapel at Ronchamp and the civic buildings in Chandigarh, India. A hallmark throughout was his ability to combine functionalist aspirations with a strong sense of expressionism, as well as a broader and empathetic understanding of urban planning. He was a founding member of the Congrès international d’architecture moderne (CIAM), which championed “architecture as a social art.”
This book presents some of Le Corbusier’s landmark projects to introduce an architect, thinker, and modern pioneer who, even in his unrealized projects, offered discussion and inspiration for generations to come. | <urn:uuid:f69e17ae-3c96-4307-9c00-2d768316eda0> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/architecture/all/49211/facts.le_corbusier.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141685797.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20201201231155-20201202021155-00042.warc.gz | en | 0.957243 | 248 | 3.125 | 3 |
Spinning Patriotic Sentiment in Colonial America
“As for me, I will seek wool and flax, and work willingly with my hands; and indeed there is occasion for all our industry and economy.”
—Abigail Adams, in a 1774 letter to her husband, John Adams
Did you know that the humble spinning wheel was once a symbol of patriotic fervor in America? Colonial women in the years before the Revolution created their own homespun cloth as a way to disrupt the British monopoly on the textile market. In fact, spinning played such an important role in the conflict that the Daughters of the American Revolution chose a spinning wheel as a symbol for their organization.
It all started with Britain’s attempt to protect one of their biggest industries, textiles. Colonists imported most of their textiles from Britain, and wool production in the colonies was discouraged since Britain saw America as a supplier of raw materials for England’s factories. England could then sell the manufactured goods to the colonies at a handsome profit.
But early Americans had other ideas. By the end of the 1600s, America was exporting wool, which outraged England and led to the Wool Act of 1699, prohibiting the colonies from exporting wool, wool yarn, and wool cloth.
The passage of the Wool Act lit the fires of resentment in the colonies and many people resisted by making cloth from flax and hemp—and producing their own essential clothing instead of buying British imports.
The homespun clothing movement really gained steam when the Daughters of Liberty turned to their spinning wheels. This group of patriotic women organized mass spinning “bees’’ in town squares, churches, and private homes. Once the war started, they gathered to spin and sew uniforms for the Continental Army.
During Sheep-to-Shawl at Philipsburg Manor, interpreters demonstrate 18th-century spinning and weaving techniques similar to those used by the Daughters of Liberty. Although the owners of Philipsburg Manor sided with England during the Revolution and bought their textiles from Britain, it’s certain there were patriotic spinners among the manor’s many tenant farm households! | <urn:uuid:aa495f30-d94d-45e8-bfa6-478e27734691> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://hudsonvalley.org/article/spinning-patriotic-sentiment-in-colonial-america/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141188800.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20201126142720-20201126172720-00002.warc.gz | en | 0.961166 | 443 | 3.75 | 4 |
Forgiving is no easy task: in fact, it may be the most difficult endeavor one can undertake. St. Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, said, “I didn’t need to learn how to forgive, because God has taught me how to love.” Still, even this saint struggled with the trying task of forgiving. This collection of anecdotes from his life explores his experiences in offering and accepting forgiveness.
Life as a priest in the midst of the violent Spanish Civil War offered St. Josemaría countless opportunities to practice forgiveness. Owing to an attitude of prayer, mortification, and total confidence in God, he was as immediate and resolute in forgiving in dramatic situations as he was in the ordinary circumstances of everyday life. He knew when a situation necessitated silence, and was always prompt in offering an apology when he found himself in the wrong. Readers will find themselves equally amazed and humbled by the gentle charity that contributed to Josemaría’s sainthood.
In addition to anecdotes from St. Josemaría Escrivá’s life, this powerful introduction to forgiveness includes a biography of St. Josemaría, an explanation of the message of Opus Dei, excerpts from Pope John Paul II at the canonization of St. Josemaría and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) at the beatification of Josemaría Escrivá, as well as resources for further information in print and online. | <urn:uuid:25ba3f21-9ace-4188-862e-418b0e15b7d5> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://catholicbooksdirect.com/product/a-man-who-knew-how-to-forgive/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141194634.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20201127221446-20201128011446-00082.warc.gz | en | 0.951459 | 308 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Two immunologists, American James P. Allison and Japan's Tasuku Honjo, have been awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work on a new approach to treating cancer.
The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm announced the winners on October 1, citing "their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation."
"This year's Nobel Prize constitutes a landmark in our fight against cancer. The discovery made by the two Medicine Laureates takes advantage of the immune system's ability to attack cancer cells by releasing the brakes on immune cells," the assembly said.
Allison studied a protein that functions as a brake on the immune system. He realized the potential of releasing the brake and unleashing the body's immune cells to attack tumors, developing the concept into a new approach for treating cancer patients.
Separately, Honjo discovered a protein on immune cells and revealed that it can also operate as a brake, but with a different mechanism of action. Therapies based on his discovery have proven to be strikingly effective in the fight against cancer.
The two scientists will share the 9 million-Swedish-kronor ($1 million) prize. | <urn:uuid:9b65dee9-0b4d-456c-8ff4-d0779d75a7f7> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.rferl.org/a/two-scientists-win-nobel-prize-for-medicine-with-revolutionary-work-on-cancer-therapy/29519045.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141194634.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20201127221446-20201128011446-00082.warc.gz | en | 0.953248 | 244 | 2.734375 | 3 |
While South African novelist and Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee is best known for his fiction, he recently had a show celebrating his lesser-known creative work: his black and white photographs taken during his adolescence in apartheid-era South Africa. The photographs offer an intimate view of the writer and his upbringing.
Scholar Harald Leusmann analyzes J. M. Coetzee’s cultural critique of white, postcolonial, post-apartheid South Africa. He argues that Coetzee’s writing, often loosely autobiographical fiction, is important and even integral to understanding South African history. Leusmann notes that Coetzee’s 1999 novel Disgrace “written after the demise of the apartheid regime…deals with the collective mood of present-day South Africa’s white population at the end of the dark twentieth century.” According to Leusmann, the author “forces his readers to look into abysses they do not really want to look into but are actually unable to turn away from anymore.”
The exhibition of Coetzee’s previously unpublished photographs—many of which were never printed, only surviving as negatives until now—offers a similarly intimate look at apartheid South Africa, from the point of view of a white, Boer-English South African. The young Coetzee captured private moments at home with his family, along with significant events he happened to witness. One photo documents a white policeman pulling up to two black pedestrians; another photo from around 1955 immortalizes his family taking two black farmhands to the ocean for the first time.
Coetzee’s landscapes portray some of the same places he describes in his books. He spent time in the southernmost part of South Africa in Karoo, for instance, photographing the arid landscape. Later, he wrote about Karoo, where “there in the grandiose emptiness, the scattered islands of colonialism—the settlements of the white farmers—can be found.”
Through Coetzee’s literature, he “exposes layer by layer the nightmares South Africans must have and the mental deformations of and within a racist caste system.” As Leusman notes, Coetzee “is a white African in whose novels the country of apartheid and the postcolonial presence of South Africa are scrutinized in a clear and uncompromising light that makes sure no traces of injury and destruction can escape.” His photographs are similarly clear and uncompromising. | <urn:uuid:e5d06ebb-5a67-492e-ad64-ee10146efa48> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://daily.jstor.org/novelist-j-m-coetzee-apartheid-era-photographs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141216897.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20201130161537-20201130191537-00242.warc.gz | en | 0.957717 | 517 | 3.125 | 3 |
In an interview with the Chilean publication MasDeco, Urban Planning Professor Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris discussed design strategies necessary to make sidewalks safe for all users. Loukaitou-Sideris explained that, while sidewalks were originally designed with the sole purpose of accommodating foot traffic and separating pedestrians from fast-moving cars, these narrow corridors are now overwhelmed by bikes, scooters and pedestrians, all moving at different speeds within the same space. New laws require bikers in many cities to ride in the street instead of on the sidewalk, but Loukaitou-Sideris stressed the importance of creating a designated bike lane to protect bikers riding alongside cars. In the interview, published in Spanish, Loukaitou-Sideris said design should be informed by the demography of the area in order to create space for everyone, especially older adults and small children. She concluded that urban planning and design can minimize conflict by creating space for all types of sidewalk users. | <urn:uuid:d2d7c29a-09f9-4a2c-bc29-ee425fd526b7> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://luskin.ucla.edu/loukaitou-sideris-discusses-strategies-to-ease-sidewalk-congestion | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141686635.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20201202021743-20201202051743-00322.warc.gz | en | 0.926232 | 202 | 3.015625 | 3 |
People who use cannabis every day may be at increased risk for psychotic disorder, especially if they use a high-potency form of the drug, according to a 2019 study in Lancet Psychiatry. The risk is especially concerning because cannabis has been legalized or decriminalized in many countries, potentially making its use more common.
Researchers from 11 sites across Europe collected data from 2010 to 2015 on 901 people who had experienced a single episode of psychosis, in which people lose contact with reality, and 1,237 people who had not experienced psychosis. The study revealed that people who reported using cannabis on a daily basis had more than triple the odds of psychotic disorder compared with those who never used cannabis. Those who used a high-THC form of the drug every day had nearly five times the odds. (THC is the chemical responsible for most of marijuana’s psychological effects).
One weakness of the study is that participants reported their own use of cannabis, which is a less reliable way to obtain data than using an objective measure such as a blood test. Also, the study does not prove that daily cannabis use causes psychosis; it only shows an association. It’s possible that people predisposed to psychosis may be self-medicating with cannabis.
Although the medicinal properties of cannabis are being increasingly appreciated, people who decide to use it need to be aware of its adverse effects, especially with frequent or high-potency use. | <urn:uuid:3543b69b-3cda-4b74-8db1-bf6d234d9222> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.healthandwellnessalerts.berkeley.edu/blog/daily-cannabis-use-may-increase-risk-for-psychotic-disorder/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141745780.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20201204223450-20201205013450-00482.warc.gz | en | 0.969685 | 289 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Black and Blue Canyon
In a move that environmentalists and others fear could set a dangerous precedent, the U.S. Department of the Interior has ceded control over the waters in Colorado’s Gunnison National Park, allowing the state to sell it to cities. Interior Secretary Gale Norton said the decision to hand over control of the river (which was awarded to the federal government when the Black Canyon was made a national monument in 1933) reflects the Bush administration’s desire to let states control natural-resource policies, even on federal land. State officials joined the feds in welcoming the agreement, which they claim will help restore the natural flow of the river while encouraging economic development. Enviros say the plan sets a precedent that could spell disaster not just for the Gunnison River but for protected waterways and their ecosystems everywhere, and they have promised to challenge it in court. | <urn:uuid:ee652a4f-04c9-4bb3-81c2-2136b252a685> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://grist.org/article/black1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141171077.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20201124025131-20201124055131-00122.warc.gz | en | 0.944913 | 176 | 2.90625 | 3 |
You might not think of Canada as an important battle site in the Revolutionary War, but the fighting reached all the way up to the Quebec province. This historical map of Quebec city, created in 1776, shows the site of a decisive battle in the short-lived Canadian campaign of the Revolutionary War.
The Americans had high hopes for capturing British Canada, and early successes emboldened them. On Nov. 13, 1775, General Richard Montgomery and his army captured Montreal without firing a single shot. Caught flat-footed after quashing an attack by Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, the British had to surrender.
Ultimately, though, the American invasion failed. Forces under Gen. Montgomery joined Benedict Arnold (then a major-general in the Continental Army), and the two attacked Quebec in late December. The British shot Montgomery off his horse, killing him and routing his army. The Americans maintained a blockade of the city over the next several months, but they had to abandon the campaign.
The map above shows Quebec city in the months during and following the Americans’ defeat in Quebec. The map shows remarkable detail, including each building as well as shading that represents topography. Letters indicate various military strongholds, and the L (on the eastern shore, near the label for Cap Diamant) marks where Gen. Montgomery and his men began their (failed) assault.
In addition to its wartime importance, this map hints at the sociocultural forces at work in Quebec. Though (Protestant) England had taken over Canada in the 1760s, the Catholic Church remained highly influential among the French-speaking population. You can see this influence in how the town is laid out, with a “Bishop’s Palace,” buildings for the Jesuits and Ursulines (two Catholic religious orders) and a cathedral. This tension between Canada’s competing English-Protestant and French-Catholic influences remains even today.
This map comes from the Library of Congress, where you can find many great documents from the Revolutionary War. Those interested in Canadian genealogy should also check out the Library and Archives Canada’s website’s collection of historical maps of Quebec and other provinces. | <urn:uuid:8b4a30c5-56be-4806-a582-034a94abc8d7> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.familytreemagazine.com/heritage/canadian/historical-research-maps-quebec-city-1776/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141188899.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20201126171830-20201126201830-00282.warc.gz | en | 0.966018 | 453 | 3.9375 | 4 |
The fame and influence of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) were as immediate as they were unprecedented. It is not surprising, therefore, that he was the only living artist Giorgio Vasari included in the first edition of Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, published in 1550. Revised and expanded in 1568, Vasari’s monumental work comprises more than two hundred biographies; for centuries it has been recognized as a seminal text in art history and one of the most important sources on the Italian Renaissance.
Vasari’s biography of Michelangelo, the longest in his Lives, presents Michelangelo’s oeuvre as the culminating achievement of Renaissance painting, sculpture, and architecture. He tells the grand story of the artist’s expansive career, profiling his working habits; describing the creation of countless masterpieces, from the David to the Sistine Chapel ceiling; and illuminating his relationships with popes and other illustrious patrons. A lifelong friend, Vasari also quotes generously from the correspondence between the two men; the narrative is further enhanced by an abundance of colorful anecdotes. The volume’s forty-two illustrations convey the range and richness of Michelangelo’s art.
An introduction by the scholar David Hemsoll traces the textual development of Vasari’s Lives and situates his biography of Michelangelo in the broader context of Renaissance art history. | <urn:uuid:da926f63-05bb-4b4f-9f22-05b6531427fc> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://sanmin.com.tw/Product/index/006665779 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141486017.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20201130192020-20201130222020-00522.warc.gz | en | 0.950611 | 296 | 3 | 3 |
Check out these amazing videos! Another sign. Be prepared.
A small comet plunged into the sun this morning, and just before it arrived, the sun expelled a magnificent full-halo CME. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) recorded the action. In the final frames of the movie, the comet can be seen furiously vaporizing. Indeed, those were the comet’s final frames. It did not emerge again from its flyby of the hot sun. “With a diameter of perhaps a few tens of meters, this comet was clearly far too small to survive the intense bombardment of solar radiation,” comments Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab, who studies sungrazing comets.
The CME (coronal mass ejection) came from an explosion on the farside of the sun. Although the CME and the comet appear to intersect, there was probably no interaction between the two. The comet is in the foreground and the farside CME is behind it.
Occasionally, readers ask if sundiving comets can trigger solar explosions. There’s no known mechanism for comets to spark solar flares. Comets are thought to be too small and fragile to destabilize the sun’s magnetic field. Plus, this comet was still millions of kilometers from the sun when the explosion unfolded.
The comet, R.I.P., was a member of the Kreutz family. Kreutz sungrazers are fragments from the breakup of a single giant comet many centuries ago. They get their name from 19th century German astronomer Heinrich Kreutz, who studied them in detail. | <urn:uuid:582821e9-5882-48b5-8a8f-88acd3301fbc> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://cindeepthoughts.com/tag/seattle-earthquake/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141692985.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20201202052413-20201202082413-00602.warc.gz | en | 0.952325 | 339 | 3.03125 | 3 |
During this Mexican holiday, graves are cleaned and decorated with marigolds, which are thought to attract souls. Household altars are constructed and adorned with the deceased's favorite foods. It is hoped that on this day the spirits enjoy some of the things they loved when they were alive. More than the departed themselves, The Day of the Dead commemorates the good things in life, and culminates in parties and family gatherings.
At The Museum of the American Indian's celebration, visitors can learn how to make papel picado, "paper flowers," as well as plaster skeleton figurines called calacas. These figures, icons of the holiday, are usually dressed festively and represent joy rather than grief. Other festivities include dance performances by the troupe Danza Mexica Cetiliztli Nauhcampa, storytelling by playwrights Elvira and Hortensia Colorado, an art installation, and even skulls made of sugar!
Like the Day of the Dead, the Museum of the American Indian sheds light on the past while keeping the present, living traditions of the Americas' indigenous peoples in focus. Historical objects and contemporary art are given equal space, and an exhibit on clothing and identity tracks the changing role of native women through their dresses.
As if you needed one more reason to visit, the museum building, The Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, is a work of art itself. It was designed by Cass Gilbert, who would later plan the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. Exhibitions spread out in rooms around the main rotunda, a gorgeous beaux-arts style Roman dome illustrated with murals by Reginald Marsh and illuminated from above by a giant skylight.
A final incentive? This being a part of the Smithsonian, admission to The National Museum of the American Indian is free. | <urn:uuid:9f9d35b5-579a-47cf-8650-25fcc1144434> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.weekendnotes.com/day-of-the-dead-at-the-national-museum-of-the-american-indian/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141692985.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20201202052413-20201202082413-00602.warc.gz | en | 0.963517 | 377 | 2.625 | 3 |
For decades, Sesame has brought joy and learning to the lives of children across Europe. Our first production outside the U.S., Germany’s Sesamstrasse, was the template for adapting our approach to different needs and cultures around the world. The program is loved by generations of families, many of whom think of the show as an original German creation. In areas of the continent marked by cultural conflict, our programs bring lessons in mutual understanding to help sow the seeds of peace.
The Dutch version of Sesame Street is one of the longest-running kids’ shows in the Netherlands, reaching millions of children daily. The program has taught generations of preschoolers about letters and numbers while helping them form important social and emotional skills. Segments address issues of local and global importance like cultural stereotyping, bullying, peaceful problem solving, and expressing emotion in healthy ways.
Millions of children have grown up with Sesamstrasse, which first aired in Germany in 1973. Created for 3- to 5-year-olds, the show encourages creative play, asking questions, and using active imaginations. The characters tackle issues like sharing and taking turns, protecting the environment, and mutual respect and understanding—especially relevant for the diverse population of modern Germany.
In areas marked by conflict, Sesame Street helps promote respect and understanding among children of all backgrounds. Past examples include our Sesame Tree co-production in Northern Ireland, where two Muppet role models—Hilda the Irish Hare and Potto, a furry purple monster—overcame their cultural differences to become friends and live together peacefully in their tree. Likewise, our programs in Kosovo became a powerful tool for healing rifts between the Kosovo-Albanian and Kosovo-Serb peoples as they moved toward reconciliation.
When you support Sesame Workshop, you’re making a positive difference in the lives of children around the world. Join us! | <urn:uuid:c138e14c-0683-4f4e-9306-d48cf80754df> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.sesameworkshop.org/where-we-work/europe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141746320.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20201205044004-20201205074004-00042.warc.gz | en | 0.950786 | 391 | 2.84375 | 3 |
This spring was a wet one where I live. If the same goes for you, perhaps you’ve noticed a sprinkling of unsightly splodges coating leaves and stems in your flower bed or lawn. This is a slime mold, an ancient single-celled amoeba, similar to a fungus (using spores to reproduce), which lives in soils from Antarctica to the Arctic. For most of its life cycle, mold leads an unexceptional life, but sometimes it bands together in communities of thousands to form large shapeless blobs known as a plasmodium—an organism in its own right, encased in slime. It’s harmless and easily washed off with a hose, but before you exterminate this most primitive of life forms, consider how extraordinary it is.
An individual slime mold lives quietly, but once part of the blob, it is capable of incredible maneuvers and exploits. It can creep, crawl, pulsate, grow tentacles, and even negotiate a maze, seducing a substantial fan base of biologists eager to tinker with this most mundane research subjects. Their favorite is Physarum polycephalum, a yellow slime mold that conducts electricity. Scientists have wired it to a silicon-based circuit to create an interactive biocomputer, allowing technologists to get in on the act: Professor Eduardo Miranda, of Plymouth University in the United Kingdom, has performed a piano duet with a slime mold. Others have used the mold’s extraordinary ability to negotiate the shortest routes to map the Roman roads of ancient Britain.
The more we learn about the extraordinary skills of this most ordinary group of cells, the greater the parallels I see in our human communities. Individually, we may seem powerless to affect much beyond our immediate lives, but as a species—as humanity—we are altering the planet with unprecedented power. Humanity is changing the climate, the biodiversity of life, the chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans, global landscapes, and so much more. Like the blob, we are an extraordinary force. The challenge is to ensure that as individuals we are not as inconsequential as the amoeba in directing our powerful blob.
This column originally appeared at The American Scholar. | <urn:uuid:96257182-27f5-4698-b4ee-dbe44d96516c> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://wanderinggaia.com/2015/07/02/in-praise-of-slime-moulds/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141182794.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20201125125427-20201125155427-00482.warc.gz | en | 0.935516 | 453 | 3.078125 | 3 |
An art scholar in Italy believes that a recently unearthed sketch of Jesus Christ is a lost work from Leonardo Da Vinci. The intriguing drawing had reportedly been hidden away in a private collection for centuries until it was shown to Da Vinci scholar Annalisa Di Maria, who examined the piece and concluded that it had been created by the legendary Renaissance painter. "It is a remarkably beautiful and refined work," she marveled, "and I’m absolutely convinced it is a sketch by Leonardo."
Specifically, Di Maria points to how the "rendering of the beard is practically identical to Leonardo's self-portraits, as are the eyes." She also observed that "the posture of Christ is typical of Leonardo, who rarely drew figures front-on but from an angle." Additionally, Di Maria noted that the drawing was done using red chalk, which was the preferred medium that the painter used for his sketches. Taken together along with a dating test on the paper which indicates that it is from the 16th century, she told a French newspaper, the piece "recalls everything in the drawings of Leonardo: it is his language, and speaks loud and clear."
More on this story at the Coast to Coast AM website. | <urn:uuid:5ab36a95-acee-4731-8792-7d132ed56f89> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://wrko.iheart.com/featured/coast-to-coast-am/content/2020-11-18-remains-of-medieval-soldier-found-at-bottom-of-lake-in-lithuania/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141188947.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20201126200910-20201126230910-00562.warc.gz | en | 0.983238 | 246 | 3.125 | 3 |
A newly unearthed set of fossils may have just moved back the milepost for when the first forms of life appeared on Earth. A team of scientists from the University of Tokyo studying rock formations in Labrador, the northern region of the Canadian province of Newfoundland, found evidence that life may have formed as long as 3.95 billion years ago — a mere 590 million years after the Earth formed.
If they’re correct, this finding will move the date for the first life on Earth back 150 million years. Previously, scientists believed the earliest life on Earth emerged 3.8 billion years ago.
This research is outlined in a paper published Wednesday in Nature. In the paper, co-lead authors Yuji Sano, professor of marine analytical chemistry, and Tsuyoshi Komiya, associate professor of geology, explain that their microscopic analysis of the makeup of Labrador’s ancient rocks revealed evidence of early life.
They argue that the deposits of graphite — which is made of carbon — in the rock samples from the Saglek Block formation came from some of the earliest organisms on Earth. The rocks contain a particular mixture of carbon and carbonate isotopes that suggest they were left behind by autotrophic marine microorganisms.
Most graphite is made inorganically as carbon in the Earth’s crust is heated and pressurized to form the distinctively dark silver mineral. But in rare cases, graphite can form through biological means, as microorganisms pile up, die, and are crushed by heat and pressure into rock over time.
Living organisms tend to carry plenty of a specific carbon isotope known as carbon-12, which lingers long after they die. So, when scientists come across graphite that contains a lot of carbon-12, there’s a pretty good chance that it came from living organisms. That was the case here, and the scientists think the organisms that left all that carbon-12 behind might have been autotrophs — which, like modern algae, produce nutrients from inorganic molecules — but it’s still too early to know for sure.
Their next steps? Further analysis of the rocks will hopefully reveal not only what the heck the first forms of life actually were but, more importantly, how they lived — and where they came from.
If you liked this article, check out this video of a 99 million-year-old dinosaur fossil. | <urn:uuid:cdc41b34-b24f-482b-bc47-91ff1d13581b> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.inverse.com/article/36956-oldest-life-on-earth-first-autotrophs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141188947.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20201126200910-20201126230910-00562.warc.gz | en | 0.953321 | 491 | 4.1875 | 4 |
Prior to entering Saturn’s atmosphere, the Cassini spacecraft executed a series of 22 highly inclined orbits, the Grand Finale orbits, through the previously unexplored region between Saturn and its extensive ring system. The Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) aboard Cassini returned the first direct measurements of the planet’s upper atmosphere, revealing a much more chemically complex environment than previously believed. We present here an in-depth analysis of the mass spectra returned from INMS and provide further evidence of external material entering Saturn’s atmosphere from the rings. Density profiles of major and minor constituents suggest that multiple species exhibit behavior indicative of an external source, and that this external material heavily influences Saturn’s upper atmospheric composition. We use a new mass spectral deconvolution algorithm to determine the amount of each species observed in the spectrum and use these values to determine the influx and mass deposition rate for these species. These analyses are vital to improve our understanding of the interactions between Saturn and its rings, and the results are critical to advance photochemical modeling efforts of Saturn’s upper atmosphere. | <urn:uuid:edcd254e-eb99-4746-a9e0-ca8d93f8536c> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://baas.aas.org/pub/2020n6i314p02d/release/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141195069.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20201128040731-20201128070731-00642.warc.gz | en | 0.893891 | 224 | 2.828125 | 3 |
With every new year comes change, and change can be scary. Thankfully, we know that there's at least one way 2014 will be like every year that came before it. Watching scientists make stuff levitate is still cool as hell, same as it ever was.
The latest work comes from a group of researchers at the University of Tokyo. What we see in their latest proof of concept clip is fairly dumbfounding: Arrangements of tiny little beads lift into the air and glide around in perfect formation. An iron screw spins gently in space. Pieces of plastic, broken match heads, and even droplets of water all defy gravity, all thanks to the precise application of ultrasonic sound waves.
The idea itself is not entirely novel. As we're told in the clip, scientists have been experimenting with acoustic levitation for decades, using sound waves to suspend materials in mid-air. What's new here, though, is the ability to move those materials in three dimensions.
That's made possible by the unique arrangement of the speakers themselves. Where former setups bounced sound waves off a solid plate, the Tokyo researchers instead use four panels of speakers, all facing each other. These walls combine to create an "ultrasonic focal point," which can be moved—along with the object trapped in it—by adjusting the output from each speaker array. The sound waves are out of the range of human hearing, so the setup effectively operates in silence.
We're already seeing similar technology used in clever ways. McLaren recently announced it's doing away with windshield wipers, reportedly employing ultrasonic vibrations to let its cars repel rain. Other obvious applications range from hoverboards to flying carpets. In the meantime, I'd be OK with 2014 being the year of funny animated GIFs of floating ants. Don't let me down, science! | <urn:uuid:46116f13-b0ef-471b-827d-408d023247e9> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.wired.com/2014/01/whoa-watch-scientists-control-levitating-beads-with-sound-waves/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141195069.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20201128040731-20201128070731-00642.warc.gz | en | 0.950934 | 372 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Human brains are nearly three times larger than those of chimpanzees, but we’ve got nothing on our closest cousins in the testicle department. Whereas human testes top out at about 50 grams, chimpanzees’ routinely reach weights of 150 to 170 grams. Scientists think the difference has to do with each species’ mating habits. Among primates in which females tend to have one mate at a time, like humans and gorillas, testicles are generally smaller. Larger testes—along with more tissue designed for holding semen—are found in species in which females have sex with several males during a fertility cycle, like chimpanzees and rhesus macaques. New research suggests that the forces governing the difference lie in each species’ transcriptome, or the set of RNA molecules that translates genetic codes into actual physical traits. In more polygamous species, the transcriptome directs testicles to continue developing for longer after birth, researchers report this month in a study on the preprint server bioRxiv. In humans, testicle development starts later and ends earlier, leaving men about as well endowed as an adolescent chimpanzee. But hope is not lost, puny humans! Our primate ancestors appear to have switched between mating types—and, therefore, testicle size—at least six times before we came along, suggesting that testicle tissue may respond to evolutionary pressure more rapidly than other body parts do. | <urn:uuid:47dc69e1-e3c4-40d8-a823-ef6b97b2e784> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/10/why-humans-are-less-well-endowed-chimps | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141201836.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20201129153900-20201129183900-00002.warc.gz | en | 0.938665 | 284 | 3.578125 | 4 |
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump may come from vastly different backgrounds and espouse opposing views on most issues, but they both won the Michigan primary on March 8. Their victories are thanks in part to one issue they have similar views on: free trade deals. Both Sanders and Trump have argued that trade deals hurt the American economy.
According to conservative political commentator Laura Ingham, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), led to 281,000 lost manufacturing jobs in the U.S. through 2013, and economic opportunities remain scant, Real Clear Politics reports. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that Michigan was the hardest-hit state in the wake of NAFTA, the Huffington Post notes.
Although NAFTA was implemented back in 1994, and WTO was founded in 1995, trade deals have come back into the spotlight thanks to the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). TPP is a U.S. trade deal with 12 Pacific Rim countries. The deal has been championed by President Barack Obama, but many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have voiced concerns about the measure, specifically regarding its possible effects on the remaining U.S.-based manufacturing industries.
This revival of the free trade deal debate translated well in terms of votes for Sanders and Trump, both of whom are running as champions of the working class. Sanders has pressed his main rival Hillary Clinton on trade and her unclear stance on the issue has proven problematic. Trump meanwhile has cited America's trade policies with China as one reason why the manufacturing sector is crumbling.
Both Democrats and Republicans have become increasingly concerned about trade in 2016 and some have called it a “sleeper issue” in the 2016 presidential election. Although 55 percent of Republicans surveyed by CNN said they believe trade kills jobs, another 32 percent said they believe trade creates them.
Democrats polled in a similar pattern: 58 percent of Democrats believe increased trade takes away U.S. jobs and 30 percent believe it creates them. | <urn:uuid:68719720-a6d6-4153-9945-eeb7c30fd055> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.opposingviews.com/category/one-major-issue-bernie-sanders-and-trump-agree | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141542358.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20201201013119-20201201043119-00082.warc.gz | en | 0.962914 | 414 | 2.53125 | 3 |
The production of the Boeing 787 promised the next evolution in flight technology. Since its introduction, however, the plane has been fraught with crippling malfunctions. What's to blame for the potentially fatal mishaps of this one-time dream machine of the skies, and how much information is being hidden from an unsuspecting public?
The documentary Broken Dreams: The Boeing 787, produced by Al Jazeera, peeks behind the curtain to expose a troubling business model that places the lives of every day travelers at risk on a daily basis; one that is defined by compromised quality standards, operator error, and corporate cover-up.
Constructed by teams of manufacturers situated across the globe, the Boeing 787 was designed to be the most advanced commercial aircraft in the industry, and promised unparalleled comfort and fuel efficiency. It operates on a staggeringly complex electrical system - the foundation of which are its state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries.
Those batteries, in fact, have been fingered as one of the main culprits behind the airplane's misfortunes. Comprehensive independent studies had been conducted on the battery technology, and each had uncovered explosive instabilities that failed to meet operation standards. Boeing, who had been given free reign by the Federal Air Association (FAA) to conduct their own testing, reached an entirely different conclusion: the batteries harbored little to no risk of catching fire aboard an aircraft. But when two instances of mid-flight battery fires occurred within nine days of each other, the industry expressed grave concerns, and all 50 of the Boeing 787 models were eventually grounded in January of 2013. Only months later, a battery redesign ensured the aircraft could take flight once again.
Broken Dreams: The Boeing 787 presents convincing testimony from designers, engineers and company whistleblowers. They all contend that a series of issues exist that transcend volatile battery packs, including poor quality standards set in motion by irresponsible cost-cutting measures and restrictive scheduling considerations, errors in parts construction, rampant drug use, and a woefully under-trained and unregulated manufacturing and operating staff. These deficiencies work together to create a nightmare environment where human lives could be the ultimate cost. | <urn:uuid:3ceb6626-f98f-4f45-84f6-70ecbd2612bb> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/broken-dreams-boeing-787/?replytocom=561493 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141732835.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20201203220448-20201204010448-00242.warc.gz | en | 0.959038 | 435 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Norishige Kanai (right) pictured with fellow astronauts Mark Vande Hei of NASA (left) and Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos (center). (Credit: Wikimedia Commons) A Japanese astronaut grew three and a half inches during the course of his trip to the International Space Station. If that sounds too incredible to be true, you're right. It's not. But some people evidently believed Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai when he tweeted out a mistaken measurement from aboard the ISS Monday. He quickly re-measured himself after a Russian colleague questioned the measurement and found that the growth spurt was actually less than an inch — well within the range of what astronauts usually experience in space. Kanai tweeted out an apology, calling his initial measurement "fake news" and saying that he's happy he'll be able to fit in the Soyuz capsule that will take him home. His initial measurement was so extreme that he worried he'd be too big for the tight space, which contains seat liners custom-molded for each astronaut and cannot fit anyone above 6 feet, 3 inches tall. It's well known that astronauts grow a bit taller in the weightlessness of space, a result of the spine decompressing. The stretching is usually limited to no more than two inches though — Kanai's mistaken measurement put him at almost double that. It's not a permanent change though, as astronauts' spines compress again to their normal length when they return to the pull of Earth's gravity. Spinal stretching isn't just limited to spacefarers, either. Just laying in bed overnight, the spine will stretch out just a little bit, and then shrink again once we stand up. Adding an inch or two isn't the only bodily fluctuation astronauts experience. Most experience changes to their eyesight, probably caused by fluctuations in the fluid pressure behind their eyeballs. There are indications that astronauts are also at higher risk for heart disease after going to space, and they experience bone loss and diminished muscle density due to the effects of weightlessness as well. | <urn:uuid:c0dfc72f-0b18-4d7c-a82e-7ea37ad60dec> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/japanese-astronaut-grew-in-space-but-not-that-much | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141732835.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20201203220448-20201204010448-00242.warc.gz | en | 0.968243 | 416 | 2.703125 | 3 |
When a personal setback or national tragedy takes place, many people are searching for explanations. In the understandable desire to alleviate anxiety, a popular phrase is typically offered: everything happens for a reason. While uttered in a spirit of good intentions, this line of thinking is problematic for at least three reasons.
First, it is a disempowering worldview. People are framed as mere actors in a play directed by an external force. We become puppets who do nothing more than regurgitate from a script. Control is theorized as being outside the individual; thus reducing humanity to an instrument. Such an idea wages a frontal assault on agency and responsibility – sending the message that beings are just -and can only be- means to an end. Depending on the psychological makeup of each person, this could strengthen the original feeling of despondency that it seeks to ameliorate. Alternatively, this perspective might encourage a flight from reality to a world of sacred illusions where invisible Fathers have all the answers.
Second, the phrase raises more questions than it answers. Asserting that there is a reason does not even remotely address what that reason is. It’s like raising your hand to solve a problem in math class by stating: “I know there is an answer”… but never giving it. It’s a pointless rhetorical exercise that wastes everybody’s time.
And unless the speaker has psychic abilities, it is unknown whether that reason is good. The ‘reason’ is a mystery and one is forced to speculate. Without concrete facts, it is an empty declaration. Therefore, the cliché should not be presented as a statement – it should be framed as a question. We are really asking: everything happens for a reason, right? In some instances, the saying is more suitable as a prayer: everything happens for a reason, O Lord!
Third, the phrase promotes paralysis. In the face of social injustice, it is imperative that people organize and act to change their conditions. There must be an active resistance. However, the impulse of this phrase (the word ‘everything’) suggests that our decadent civilization is a self-correcting system that does not require intervention. So stay home! Sit back! Relax! | <urn:uuid:562f75d7-e17c-432a-a72e-9b0bfeb2891d> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://zoneofnonbeing.wordpress.com/2017/02/08/stop-saying-everything-happens-for-a-reason/?like_comment=2147&_wpnonce=e22d5be62e | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141732835.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20201203220448-20201204010448-00242.warc.gz | en | 0.950733 | 459 | 2.578125 | 3 |
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy, and a West Virginia local conservationist filed a complaint against Beech Ridge Energy and its parent company in June, contending that their massive industrial wind power facility being built in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, will unlawfully injure and kill the endangered Indiana bats who live near the project site.
“We were hoping to avoid a federal lawsuit,” says John Stroud, spokesperson for Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy. “However, Beech Ridge Energy is currently moving forward with construction, despite repeated requests to first bring the project into compliance with the Endangered Species Act.”
The wind project will include 124 turbines, each nearly 400 feet tall, along a 23-mile stretch of forested Appalachian mountain ridgelines. Habitat-destroying roads, buildings and transmission lines necessary to operate the facility will also be installed.
Meyer, Glitzenstein and Crystal, the public interest law firm representing the plaintiffs, had informed Beech Ridge Energy of the likelihood that its wind power project would adversely impact the endangered bats. The US Fish and Wildlife Service had also warned Beech Ridge of the project’s threat to bats, recommending a full three years of pre-construction wildlife monitoring before making a siting decision. Beech Ridge, however, failed to respond and has proceeded with construction plans.
Plaintiffs are particularly concerned about the project’s impacts in light of the increasing threat posed by White-nose Syndrome—a disease ravaging bat populations in the eastern US.
“According to conservative estimates, the Beech Ridge project alone is expected to kill more than 130,000 bats over a 20-year period,” says D.J. Schubert, AWI wildlife biologist. “Poorly sited wind power projects in the eastern US have already killed and maimed scores of bats.”
The date and location of the trial still remains to be scheduled in what is possibly the first lawsuit challenging an industrial wind energy project under the Endangered Species Act. | <urn:uuid:5797feba-7377-4514-840a-1c5969df1efb> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://awionline.org/awi-quarterly/2009-summer/turbines-threaten-endangered-bats | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141747323.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20201205074417-20201205104417-00322.warc.gz | en | 0.944631 | 429 | 2.859375 | 3 |
The world-leading quality of the Centre’s SiC layers has revealed material properties that can be used in a new generation of miniature sensors. Once incorporated into MEMS-based devices, a plethora of applications open up.
Their single crystal, nanometre-thin films can be applied to silicon wafers that are 300mm in diameter, and feature an ultra-smooth surface roughness of less than 0.5nm. The films were grown using ANFF Q’s low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) reactor at 1,000 °C.
The SiC samples have demonstrated a piezoresistive characteristic that provides 15 times more sensitivity to mechanical stresses than metals. They remain sensitive at 400ºC, making them ideal for sensing applications in harsh environments.
“With the platform technology for batch fabrication of SiC-MEMS/NEMS transducers, we can produce tens of thousands of micro sensors on a single SiC-on-Si wafer,” Professor Nam-Trung Nguyen, a researcher at QMNC and Deputy Director of ANFF-Q, said.
“This high throughput will significantly reduce the total cost of the sensors and is relevant to a wide range of applications. Especially sensing in harsh environments, such as those in mining, automotive, defence, and power industries, this will allow a quick penetration into the commercial market,” he continued.
QMNC is the only research centre in Australia with the capability of growing high-quality SiC nanometre-thin films, but the researchers there have maximised their outcomes through numerous inter-institutional collaborations. This includes work with UQ on SiC-on-glass waferbonding, with University of Tokyo on SiC piezoresistive effects, and with Stanford University on bulk SiC-based sensing devices.
“The support from ANFF and our industrial partner SPT in establishing world-class micro/nanofabrication facilities in the Queensland node was an important factor, which led to the success of this project,” Nam-Trung said. | <urn:uuid:32257546-865c-43a9-b40a-824cd98e0f27> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://anff-q.org.au/casestudy/australia-taken-lead-producing-sic-sensors/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141176049.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20201124082900-20201124112900-00682.warc.gz | en | 0.925697 | 437 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Clean energy offers a significant opportunity to diversify the rural economy while generating cheap, renewable power for rural homes and businesses.
Wind, solar, and other renewable energy projects help revitalize rural communities by taking advantage of their rich energy resources. New tax revenue from these projects help shore up local infrastructure, like schools and emergency services, while reducing the local tax burden on rural people. Meanwhile, farmers and landowners receive land-lease payments from project developers in an unpredictable farm economy. In addition, new jobs are created by the increased demand for local manufacturing and project operators.
To maximize the impact of clean energy development, a critical need arises for new and upgraded transmission capacity to carry renewable energy generated across wide geographic areas to consumers. Investing in transmission infrastructure creates new access to clean energy and allows rural economies in the Midwest and Great Plains to unlock their clean energy potential.
We aim to assist landowners and other rural stakeholders to ensure that clean energy transmission is built in an equitable, sustainable way—a way that works best for rural citizens and their communities.
Click here to view our wind energy story map, and watch the video below to see how the small town of Petersburg, Nebraska, realized its clean energy potential. Check out our clean energy transmission database, which provides project details on proposed or newly developed transmission projects in the Midwest and Great Plains. | <urn:uuid:6b79dcac-b537-465f-baee-46abdeb07296> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.cfra.org/clean-energy?page=21 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141176049.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20201124082900-20201124112900-00682.warc.gz | en | 0.918693 | 269 | 2.8125 | 3 |
In the later fifteenth century, the Kingdom of Hungary became the first land outside Italy to embrace the Renaissance, thanks to its king, Matthias Corvinus, and his humanist advisors, János Vitéz and Janus Pannonius. Matthias created one of the most famous libraries in the Western World, the Bibliotheca Corviniana, rivaled in importance only by the Vatican. The court became home to many Italian humanists, and through his friendship with Lorenzo the Magnificent, Matthias obtained the services of such great Florentine artists as Andrea del Verrocchio, Benedetto da Maiano, and Filippino Lippi. After Matthias’s death in 1490, interest in Renaissance art was continued by his widowed Neapolitan queen, Beatrice of Aragon, and by his successors Vladislav I and Louis II Jagiello.
The twenty-two essays collected in this volume provide a window onto recent research on the development of humanism and art in the Hungary of Matthias Corvinus and his successors. Richly illustrated with new photography, this book eloquently documents and explores the unique role played by the Hungarian court in the cultural history of Renaissance Europe. | <urn:uuid:b0c4211a-f4fc-4191-9ff8-d288860da6bc> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674063464 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141184123.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20201125183823-20201125213823-00042.warc.gz | en | 0.954704 | 251 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Standing Up Against Hate tells the stories of the African American women who enlisted in the newly formed Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in World War II. They quickly discovered that they faced as many obstacles in the armed forces as they did in everyday life. However, they refused to back down. They interrupted careers and left family, friends, and loved ones to venture into unknown and sometimes dangerous territory. They survived racial prejudice and discrimination with dignity, succeeded in jobs women had never worked before, and made crucial contributions to the military war effort. The book centers around Charity Adams, who commanded the only black WAAC battalion sent overseas and became the highest ranking African American woman in the military by the end of the war. Along with Adams’s story are those of other black women who played a crucial role in integrating the armed forces. Their tales are both inspiring and heart-wrenching. The book includes a timeline, bibliography, and index. | <urn:uuid:aee1a78b-75cb-4671-84b8-5f61a9e24438> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://books.apple.com/us/book/standing-up-against-hate/id1359122717 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141189038.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20201127015426-20201127045426-00122.warc.gz | en | 0.973847 | 195 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Snoring all night might not just be keeping your partner awake—it might be signaling something serious about your health.
Excessive snoring is a symptom of sleep apnea, a serious condition where you actually stop breathing in your sleep. It’s been linked to problems like morning headache, daytime sleepiness, and much more serious issues like high blood pressure, stroke, and heart attack. (Here are 7 signs you actually stop breathing in your sleep.)
The gold standard of diagnosing sleep apnea is a sleep study, usually a polysomnogram. This test records brain activity, heart rate oxygen levels, and snoring, among other signs. It’s painless, but you’ll have to go to a sleep lab to get it done. Some doctors offer home-based monitors, but they are difficult to use and tend to disrupt your sleep.
Now, a new device may bridge the gap between accurate diagnosis and convenience: Scientists have developed a one-ounce, adhesive patch that can confidently identify sleep apnea, according to preliminary research presented at SLEEP 2017, the annual meeting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
After testing the device on 174 people with sleep apnea, the researchers discovered 87 percent agreement on sleep apnea diagnosis from the patch and traditional in-lab polysomnography tests.
A separate study looking at how well patients were able to use the device on their own found that 38 out of 39 people got successful readings from it, according to a press release.
This skin-adhesive patch measures nasal pressure, blood oxygen saturation, pulse rate, any respiratory struggles, sleep time, and body position.
The results from this study will be used in petitioning the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval for the device.
In the meantime, if you think you’re suffering from sleep apnea—you snore, fall asleep easily in places outside your bed, wake up with a headachy or scratchy throat, or feel tired all the time—talk with your doctor. Until this device is approved, a sleep study may be your best bet to ID’ing sleep apnea. | <urn:uuid:1e043bb0-a332-48a2-980e-29e9ef15eb4c> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.menshealth.com/health/a19518875/patch-diagnoses-sleep-apnea/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141189038.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20201127015426-20201127045426-00122.warc.gz | en | 0.931567 | 449 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Students spent their first hands-on Materials Lab this morning working with objects donated by the YMCA Blacksburg that pose a significant challenge to their operation: furniture made from pressed wood. While affordable and functional, these furnishings do not typically age well. Each time they are assembled or disassembled, they sustain damage at their mechanical joints, and the wood-to-fastener connections lose integrity. They are also often left unfinished on the surfaces contacting the floor, which makes them vulnerable to moisture damage. When faced with space limitations and limited staff, the Y is forced to either reject donations of these types of furniture, or pay to dispose of them if they cannot be repaired to a sellable state. Particularly during move-out periods, the volume of donations greatly exceeds available resources to deal with them. A better solution is needed to deal with these types of donations more sustainably.
On a global scale, diminishing high quality forest resources and greater consumer demand for affordable furniture mean that this type of material is becoming much more common than raw wood. Our class has an opportunity in this lab to study the material properties of pressed board. This lab is an important preparatory step for our last lab of the semester, in which each team will propose a useful way to upcycle pressed board materials into something the YMCA can sell, therefore both reducing waste disposal costs and offering a potential new revenue stream. Through these labs, we'll apply our creativity not only to help the local YMCA solve its immediate problems, but also contribute to finding solutions that may help address the world's solid waste and resource scarcity problems. | <urn:uuid:f2912adc-7fdb-4cbc-af94-4f939b31218b> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.bc.vt.edu/news/bc-2044-students-investigate-upcycling-possibilities-furniture | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141733120.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20201204010410-20201204040410-00522.warc.gz | en | 0.958513 | 324 | 3.0625 | 3 |
A key function in emergency medicine is to assign an acuity rating to new patients shortly after their arrival. This is done by the triage nurse on the basis of a cursory evaluation. If the nurse underassesses the patient, a long wait may ensue, thereby putting a critically ill patient at risk. The most common type of medical negligence in this scenario results in delayed treatment of an impending cardiac arrest. Several professional organizations have set standards regarding acuity assessment at triage to assist caregivers in avoiding unnecessary delays.
According to the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHQR), “[t]he purpose of triage in the emergency department (ED) is to prioritize incoming patients and to identify those who cannot wait to be seen. The triage nurse performs a brief, focused assessment and assigns the patient a triage acuity level, which is a proxy measure of how long an individual patient can safely wait for a medical screening examination and treatment. *** With more patients waiting longer in the waiting room, the accuracy of the triage acuity level is even more critical. Under-categorization (undertriage) leaves the patient at risk for deterioration while waiting. *** And rapid, accurate triage of the patient is important for successful ED operations.”
A medical malpractice claim may arise under Ohio law out of a delay in treatment in the setting of an emergency department visit. In response to concerns about delays occurring at triage, the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) made joint recommendations for triage in emergency departments. A hospital’s failure to properly assess the patient’s acuity and risk of deterioration may fall below accepted standards for emergency medicine.
There are over 100 million visits to U.S. emergency departments each year according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of those visits, less than 20% of patients were seen within 15 minutes, leaving the majority of patients waiting in the waiting room. In dire cases, early, accurate assessment is crucial to good care. | <urn:uuid:b9d716b0-23e5-451c-b5e0-72f233484096> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.mishkindlaw.com/2013/05/15/acuity-ratings-emergency-medicine/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141733120.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20201204010410-20201204040410-00522.warc.gz | en | 0.940211 | 423 | 2.734375 | 3 |
by TM Conway, JV Vecht
Landscape and Urban Planning 138:1-102015
Many North American cities have set ambitious goals to increase their urban forests, as well as improving the diversity of the trees planted. Diversity considerations include both a larger range of species and an increased percentage of native species. However, it is unclear how the urban foresters and organizations involved in tree planting and supply make species selection decisions. This article explores the species selection process of several actors who are planting or selling trees in the city of Toronto, Canada. Researchers conducted interviews with, and surveyed landscape architects, non-profit organizations, retail nurseries, garden centers, and urban foresters to gain an understanding of decision-making related to tree species selection. Differences between the sets of actors were primarily related to neighboring tree species, native species status, and tree pests. The available tree supply influenced the type of species planted or sold, suggesting this may be the fundamental factor determining how species diversity goals are implemented. Additionally, contrasting decision-making criteria did not consistently result in different species being planted. This finding reaffirms that despite urban forestry goals being interpreted through different criteria, the resulting selections can still often lead to a diverse range of tree species planted. | <urn:uuid:29e1c34e-c7b2-4729-a07f-a404bd81c4f5> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | http://laurbanresearchcenter.org/entry/growing-a-diverse-urban-forest-species-selection-decisions-by-practitioners-planting-and-supplying-trees/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141184870.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20201125213038-20201126003038-00322.warc.gz | en | 0.945077 | 249 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Prior to its development in the 1880s as a luxury seaside resort, the Coronado peninsula was a brush-covered sandspit accessible only by rowboat. To create the lush landscape desired for the site, local horticulturist Kate Sessions selected hardy, drought-tolerant plants from comparable coastal climates like Mexico and the Canary Islands. When the Hotel del Coronado opened in 1888, its grounds boasted ornamental and specimen species that had not yet been planted in California.
Envisioned as a tropical garden at the heart of the hotel by developers Elisha Spurr Babcock and Hampton Story, and created by Sessions, a rectangular courtyard was filled with rich arrangements of palms, cycads, ferns, birds of paradise, and other exotic species. Designed by architects James and Merritt Reid, verandas and red cupolas jut out of the hotel’s white-clapboard façade to overlook the central courtyard gardens below. Between the hotel and the ocean, terraces give way to an elliptical, open lawn and colorful, low-lying plantings. Sandy berms planted with aloe and agave protect the beachfront lawn from erosion. Plantings along the resort’s meandering pathways echo Sessions’ original plant palette, and a dragon tree planted by Sessions along the Vista Walk is considered one of the hotel’s most iconic landscape features. Although the 28-acre property has been updated and renovated on several occasions, many of Sessions’ key specimen plants and primary design elements remain. Hotel del Coronado was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and became a National Historic Landmark in 1977. | <urn:uuid:ebcb2be0-1c23-4ff0-b165-3b9d62081048> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://tclf.org/hotel-del-coronado | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141184870.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20201125213038-20201126003038-00322.warc.gz | en | 0.927868 | 346 | 2.875 | 3 |
The news just keeps getting worse for bisphenol A. Lab and animal research has linked it to reproductive disorders, obesity, diabetes, and cancers sensitive to hormonal activity, like those of the breast and prostate. Studies show that more than the vast majority of Americans have measurable levels of BPA in their urine (though as Sydney Brownstone wrote on this blog yesterday, Old Order Mennonites seem to have less)—not surprising given that the chemical is used in thousands of consumer products, including cans and plastic packaging for food and beverages.
Now a new study from China has found an association, for the first time, between human exposure to BPA and brain tumors. The kind of tumor, called meningioma, is usually benign and occurs more frequently in women than in men. Since female hormones appear to fuel the growth of meningioma tumors, it’s not surprising that an endocrine-disrupting chemical like BPA, which mimics estrogen in the body, could play a similar role.
In the study, researchers compared BPA urine levels in about 250 Chinese adults diagnosed with meningioma to a similar number of healthy controls. Those with the highest levels were 60 percent more likely to have a meningioma tumor than those with the lowest, after adjusting for being overweight, having a history of hormone replacement therapy, and other factors that can influence the risk of the disease.
The study is far from conclusive. For one thing, the researchers determined BPA exposure levels from a single urine sample. Since the body quickly excretes BPA, a sample taken after a tumor has already developed does not necessarily indicate that exposure to the chemical predated the illness.
Despite the limitations, the findings are another reminder that ubiquitous chemicals like BPA are likely to inflict significant damage before the weight of evidence finally convinces federal agencies to take greater steps to cut human exposures. As Sydney noted in her post yesterday, the FDA still thinks it’s not a problem for us to ingest the chemical with our canned tomato soup. | <urn:uuid:c8732de9-babf-4126-84b4-66bc97250de1> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://practice.motherjones.com/politics/2012/06/bpa-linked-brain-tumor-first-time/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141189141.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20201127044624-20201127074624-00402.warc.gz | en | 0.95589 | 418 | 2.640625 | 3 |
While diving off the coast of Thailand, a group of adventurers were treated to a sight like no other: A giant manta ray, swimming around near the depths of the ocean. Captured on film, the moment has received tens of thousands of views since it surfaced online earlier this month. The footage is particularly spectacular because of its clarity, as the image quality truly allows a detailed view of the mysterious animal.
The giant manta ray, or oceanic ray, is different from the standard manta ray that most people are familiar with. Discovered less than a decade ago according to National Geographic, oceanic manta rays are distinguished from reef manta rays, another name for the normal-sized variety, in a few different ways. The oceanic ray can grow up to a 23-foot wing span, while the reef ray averages 10 feet, Manta Trust reports. The larger species has much wider migratory tendencies, and can be found in a variety of different waters.
Like its smaller cousin, however, the oceanic ray is not equipped with a barbed sting, unlike stingrays. This makes it a mostly harmless animal for divers to be around – and while it reportedly fears human contact, according to National Geographic, the animal is not considered a threat.
Surprisingly, oceanic manta rays have been found to be potentially very intelligent, self-aware animals. New Scientist reports that researchers at the University of South Florida who had placed oceanic manta rays in a tank equipped with a mirror seemed aware that the mirror was showing them a reflection of themselves, rather than another living creature. "The behavioral responses strongly imply the ability for self-awareness, especially considering that similar, or analogous, behavioral responses are considered proof of self-awareness in great apes," Csilla Ari, a USF biologist, told New Scientist.
The IUCN Red List classifies oceanic rays as vulnerable. National Geographic explains this is due to the massive value of their gills in Guangzhou, China. Manta rays are only capable of reproducing every two to five years, and give birth to only one pup at a time, which puts them in severe danger of massive losses in population.
Watch the video below for a look at this majestic animal, and make sure to share it with your friends on Facebook. | <urn:uuid:dd698b20-1a98-43d4-9558-6bb04410c505> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://worldofanimals.org/2016/03/24/giant-manta-rays-gracefully-enchanting/?src=bottomxpromo&ro=3&et=sxp&eid=70759&pid=50627&t=mxp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141189141.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20201127044624-20201127074624-00402.warc.gz | en | 0.956183 | 471 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Naturally iridescent materials such as opal or a butterfly’s wing have long fascinated onlookers for their ability to produce spectacular rainbow colors. Now, researchers have uncovered the cause of the vibrant display in another naturally iridescent material, the iron oxide mineral known as rainbow hematite. Pennsylvania State University geochemist Peter J. Heaney and his student Xiayang Lin used a variety of imaging and spectroscopy techniques to investigate the chemical makeup and surface structure of a rainbow hematite sample from Brazil (Gems & Gemol. 2018, DOI: 10.5741/GEMS.54.1.28). They found that the mineral contains stacked sheets of spindle-shaped nanocrystals that are arranged at 120-degree angles. The nanocrystal array acts as a diffraction grating, splitting and scattering beams of light to produce the rainbow effect. The researchers also calculated a chemical formula (Fe1.81Al0.23P0.03O3) for the mineral, which contains aluminum and phosphorus impurities in addition to its major iron and oxygen components. The presence of those impurities within the crystal structure may have prompted the nanoparticles to grow into spindle shapes rather than into more symmetrical rhombohedrons, Heaney says. He thinks the findings could inspire new nanocrystal-based iridescent coatings. | <urn:uuid:22eca4f7-bdb0-44d0-80b3-ba30dfa8fd89> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://cen.acs.org/physical-chemistry/geochemistry/Nanocrystals-give-hematite-rainbow-flair/96/i27?utm_source=YMAL&utm_medium=YMAL&utm_campaign=CEN&utm_content=pos1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141195656.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20201128125557-20201128155557-00482.warc.gz | en | 0.922235 | 279 | 3.625 | 4 |
A new small study out of Harvard and Boston University is targeting the use of soft robotic exosuits among stroke survivors. The aim is to demonstrate how such technologies could impact the rehabilitation of patients suffering hemiparesis, a kind of paralysis that impacts muscles and limbs on one side of the body.
The results so far seem promising. Among the six patients involved in the study, walking speed has been improved by an average of 0.14 meters a second. The patients are also able to walk 32 meters farther on average during a six-minute interval, with one walking more than 100 meters farther.
The suit itself is small and soft, weighing around 11 pounds, including battery. Electronics aside, it’s largely fabric-based, with actuators mounted on the wearer’s hip. Those are used to assist movement in the ankles by way of attached cables. The system can be worn on either side of the body.
“The vast majority of people who have had a stroke walk slowly and cannot walk very far. Faster and farther walking after physical therapy are among the most important outcomes desired by both patients and clinicians. If neither speed nor distance are changed by a therapy, it would be difficult to consider that therapy to be effective,” study co-author and Harvard Wyss faculty member Lou Awad says in a release. “The levels of improvement in speed and distance that we found in our exploratory study exceeded our expectations for an immediate effect without any training and highlight the promise of the exosuit technology.”
Awad says the team is “eager” to explore the results in settings outside of the lab. The team’s findings were published in IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology (OJEMB). | <urn:uuid:b5e46c81-330a-4e22-b853-c2d1054dad51> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://future.techcrunch.com/2020/05/13/robotic-exosuits-show-immediate-improvements-to-walking-speeds-of-stroke-survivors/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141203418.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20201129214615-20201130004615-00562.warc.gz | en | 0.957013 | 362 | 3.234375 | 3 |
Contributing writer Michael Behar has an intriguing feature today that details the science behind the link between injection wells and earthquakes. For a visual rundown of the fascinating process, check out the GIF below.
Drillers inject high-pressure fluids into a hydraulic fracturing well, making slight fissures in the shale that release natural gas. The resulting briny wastewater flows back up to the surface, where it is transported by truck or pipeline to nearby injection wells. The liquid is then pumped down the injection wells to a layer of deep, porous rock, often sandstone. Once there, it can flow in every direction, including into and around faults. Added pressure and lubrication can cause normally stable faults to slip, unleashing earthquakes.
Illustration: Leanne Kroll. Animation: Brett Brownell | <urn:uuid:876c2f07-9730-478c-9a42-edfeeb2cdf48> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://adops.motherjones.com/politics/2013/03/how-fracking-causes-earthquakes-animated-gif/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141672314.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20201201074047-20201201104047-00642.warc.gz | en | 0.908981 | 161 | 3.5 | 4 |
LOCATION: 159 Mulford Hall, UC Berkeley.
The galaxies of our night sky are as diverse and colorful as any garden—and for the most part, just as tranquil. When we look back at the ancient universe, however, a different picture emerges: a cosmos that buzzes with activity and teems with the fresh growth of stars and black holes. How did these processes that formed our Milky Way begin? Why did they stop? And where did it all come from, anyway?
This talk will explore the tumultuous history of our universe, focusing on its evolution from a (mostly) uniform cloud of plasma to the dizzyingly complex array of stars and galaxies we see today. We’ll discuss how the seeds of galaxy formation were planted during the Big Bang, how budding galaxies collect the food for new stars, and how, like a cosmic autumn, this rampant growth transitioned into the fading colors and staid calm of our current galactic epoch.
Leaving horticultural metaphors aside, we’ll also discuss topics that have no terrestrial analogy: the mysterious, yet essential, contributions of dark matter and black holes to galaxy evolution. They may not make wormholes (sorry, Interstellar fans), but we’ll examine the ways in which astronomers can actually harness the incredible power of black holes to study the most baffling aspects of galaxy growth.
Ryan Trainor is a postdoctoral fellow in astrophysics at the Miller Institute for Basic Research at UC Berkeley. After growing up in the foothills of Lake Tahoe, he went south to complete a BS at UC Irvine and a PhD at Caltech. Having happily returned to northern California, he now splits his time between studies of galaxy growth and more hands-on experiments on vegetable growth with his wife in their backyard garden.
Event Contact: email@example.com Webcast: Webcast. Events are recorded and typically made available a few days after the event. | <urn:uuid:0891bc1d-459a-40f9-b238-f0bb85cc6bec> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://live-scienceatcal.pantheon.berkeley.edu/december-lecture-how-to-grow-a-galaxy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141672314.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20201201074047-20201201104047-00642.warc.gz | en | 0.943016 | 396 | 3.109375 | 3 |
On a Confluence Park field trip earlier this month, a student saw a curious-looking caterpillar under the largest pavilion. He cordoned off the area with his arms to make sure his friends did not accidentally step on it. Together, with their faces inches from the ground, they studied the creature and named it “Tomato Head” because of its plump shape and vermillion color.
But that was not enough for this student. As his friends wandered away, he went into a trance staring back and forth from a butterfly identification card to “Tomato Head.” Only a few minutes later, his eyes grew wide with delight as he pointed to a photo of a white-striped long-tailed skipper, successfully determining the species on his own. In a single caterpillar, this student found a sense of discovery and potential. | <urn:uuid:c35058b6-38df-4f2d-b794-290052b44f6f> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://sariverfound.org/portfolio/the-story-of-tomato-head/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141672314.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20201201074047-20201201104047-00642.warc.gz | en | 0.982968 | 176 | 2.875 | 3 |
Meet the Mpumalanga man who uses bees to scare elephants
It’s unimaginable that a 6 000-kilogram animal would fear a tiny insect. But elephants are scared of bees. And Ronnie Makukule is using this simple fact to conserve vulnerable vegetation and protect crops. Elephants have the capacity to completely wipe out thickets of trees by eating or trampling on them.
Efforts to deter them – thorny hedges, deep trenches, or fighting back with rocks, spears, firecrackers and guns – have not only failed, but in some cases resulted in the loss of life of both humans and elephants. In the midst of what appears to be a lose-lose situation, Makukule manages the world’s largest land mammals with fences made from beehives.
The revolutionary method harnesses the natural animosity between the two creatures. When bees are aggravated by elephants, they target their vulnerable spots – their trunks and eyes. The elephants have since learned to stay away. Working in bee husbandry, Makukule’s fences provide a more humane method of control. It also allows him to explore his interest in conservation, which has been growing since he was a child.
After Makukule completed matric, he won a bursary to study environmental education and nature conservation at the Southern African Wildlife College. He then ran environmental awareness programmes at schools for the Timbavati Foundation. In 2016, Makukule joined Elephants Alive, using his ability to identify individual elephants and collect DNA samples to become a valuable researcher on the team. But it’s his work as head of the Bee Project that has made the most significant impact.
Human aggression towards elephants has contributed to their already dwindling numbers caused by poachers. Beehive fences are a peaceful means of alleviating the conflict between humans and elephants, without causing harm to either. The bees also pollinate plants and add to the biodiversity of the area.
Unlike electric fences, the initial cost of beehive fences is soon counteracted by the income from honey production. It’s an ingenious method, proof that nature has the best solutions. And with a little creative thinking, something small can make a huge difference in conservation and wildlife management. | <urn:uuid:ebecf672-4fbe-4ca1-92ed-438bb2a14922> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/mpumalanga/meet-the-mpumalanga-man-who-uses-bees-to-scare-elephants-17355734 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141716970.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20201202205758-20201202235758-00002.warc.gz | en | 0.960366 | 465 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Diseases Spread by Norway Rats
When Norway rats invade attics or kitchens, property damage and loss of food aren't the worst concerns. Residents should be much more worried about Norway rat diseases, which can damage the health and threaten the wellbeing of humans. Some of the more severe illnesses include:
- Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome - Any immediate contact with rodent saliva or droppings can spread HPS. Although it's somewhat rare, the potential severity of the disease makes it noteworthy. Symptoms include chills, nausea, and abdominal discomfort.
- Tularemia - Humans contract this fever-inducing Norway rat disease by either eating contaminated food or through the skin. The illness results in ulcers and the swelling of glands.
- Salmonellosis - This disease is spread via the accidental ingestion of food or drink polluted with rodent feces. Symptoms can last up to a week and include bloody stool, abdominal cramps, and vomiting.
Many Norway rat diseases are spread through the air. Dried fecal matter is easily kicked up in grass or gardens and disturbed while cleaning sheds or attics. Proper ventilation is necessary when cleaning up droppings, and homeowners must wear dust masks, gloves, and long sleeves to stay safe. To best avoid catching these diseases, contact the professionals at Critter Control to eliminate Norway rats safely. | <urn:uuid:c5ca0b6a-c052-4fe4-8cc5-4cdf4f00e72e> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.crittercontrol.com/wildlife/norway-rats/norway-rat-diseases | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141748276.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20201205165649-20201205195649-00162.warc.gz | en | 0.927436 | 270 | 3.46875 | 3 |
It’s officially winter, and we all know what that means: Dark days and dreariness. If you live east of the Cascades, you’ve probably already seen lots of snow, and if you live closer to the coast, you know we have months left in our annual rainy season—which could end up being just as cold and wet as it was last winter.
Instead of retreating to your couch and blanket when the weather’s less than desirable, consider braving the elements and finding a park, trail or other outdoor spot to visit. That might seem counterintuitive, since many people in this region experience seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, when our daylight hours grow shorter.
Yes, you’ll need rain gear—and patience—but going outdoors even on icky days could bring health benefits.
“I would encourage people to get out regardless of weather. Even just getting your steps in can be especially important on days that are gray and cold, since physical activity is important for both mental and physical health,” says Pooja Tandon, M.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine who studies the relationship between physical activity and children’s health.
Tandon and colleagues recently reviewed studies analyzing the many ways exposure to nature can affect health. Research shows that benefits of being in nature range from reduced anxiety and depression to better sleep, eyesight, immune function and better outcomes for people who have chronic conditions like congestive heart failure or ADHD. | <urn:uuid:bb347b8e-1378-42dc-a8a1-fb977d63448d> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/life/leisure/why-you-should-still-go-outside-when-weather-sucks | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141176922.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20201124170142-20201124200142-00522.warc.gz | en | 0.958415 | 317 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Since the legalization movement began hitting full stride, new research discoveries about marijuana’s potential health benefits have been surfacing with regularity. Among the most recent, a study shows that the psychoactive chemical in marijuana, THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), restores cognitive function in the brains of mice by rolling back the aging process.
The study builds from a theory that the brain’s endocannabinoid system (home of the receptors that THC binds to) is related to cognitive aging and decline. The older we get, the more the activity in this system slows down; our brains gradually produce fewer naturally occurring endocannabinoids. The outcomes from this slowdown aren’t entirely understood, but there’s enough evidence from animal models to suggest that it’s tied to memory loss and decreased learning ability.
"With increasing age, the quantity of the cannabinoids naturally formed in the brain reduces," quoting Professor Andreas Zimmer, one of the study’s authors. "When the activity of the cannabinoid system declines, we find rapid aging in the brain."
So, if it’s possible to somehow recharge the system, it could be possible to reverse or at least reduce the cognitive slowdown. That’s what the researchers tried with old mice, and the results were remarkable. When they studied the brain tissue and gene activity of the mice after a low-dose THC treatment, they found that the genetic signature no longer looked like that of old mice, but of very young mice. And they found increased nerve links in the brain tissue, which correlates with learning and thinking speed.
Again quoting Zimmer, “It looked as though the THC treatment turned back the molecular clock.”
Yes, these are mice and not humans, and yes, this sort of research would be difficult to perform on humans for obvious ethical reasons–but it’s still extraordinary. It sounds implausible to think that adding low doses of a chemical from a plant could reverse the brain’s aging process, but that’s exactly what this study shows glimpses of in the brain tissue of mice.
While we can’t draw solid conclusions from this study for humans, the results add to a promising list of findings that should continue encouraging cannabis research. It's imperative that that door stays open.
The study was published in the journal Nature Medicine. | <urn:uuid:1118b9ba-e6cf-4260-b10c-50b47b40384d> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2017/05/30/marijuana-may-be-a-weapon-against-brain-aging-suggests-new-study/?sh=7ae7102f51ca | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141205147.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20201130035203-20201130065203-00122.warc.gz | en | 0.945937 | 484 | 3.078125 | 3 |
When the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917, they set themselves the task of building socialism in the vast landscape of the former Russian Empire, a territory populated by hundreds of different peoples belonging to a multitude of linguistic, religious, and ethnic groups. Before 1917, the Bolsheviks had called for the national self-determination of all peoples and had condemned all forms of colonization as exploitative. After attaining power, however, they began to express concern that it would not be possible for Soviet Russia to survive without the cotton of Turkestan and the oil of the Caucasus. In an effort to reconcile their anti-imperialist position with their desire to hold on to as much territory as possible, the Bolsheviks integrated the national idea into the structure of the new Soviet state.
In Empire of Nations, Francine Hirsch examines the ways in which former imperial ethnographers and local elites provided the Bolsheviks with ethnographic knowledge that shaped the very formation of the new Soviet Union. The ethnographers—who drew inspiration from the Western European colonial context—produced all-union censuses, assisted government commissions charged with delimiting the USSR’s internal borders, led expeditions to study “the human being as a productive force,” and created ethnographic exhibits about the “Peoples of the USSR.” In the 1930s, they would lead the Soviet campaign against Nazi race theories . Hirsch illuminates the pervasive tension between the colonial-economic and ethnographic definitions of Soviet territory; this tension informed Soviet social, economic, and administrative structures. A major contribution to the history of Russia and the Soviet Union, Empire of Nations also offers new insights into the connection between ethnography and empire. | <urn:uuid:f8ab07b7-ebfb-47cf-abb1-de21e226f84e> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://history.wisc.edu/publications/empire-of-nations-ethnographic-knowledge-and-the-making-of-the-soviet-union/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141674594.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20201201135627-20201201165627-00202.warc.gz | en | 0.955746 | 348 | 3.734375 | 4 |
The Mungoma Caves in Vihiga County are a sight to behold. Tucked in the remote village of Mungoma, the caves are made up of several enormous boulders lumped together, leaving hollow winding openings inside. The caves are revered in the larger Vihiga for their tremendous cultural significance. The site offers a sneak peek into the history of the Maragoli, a sub-tribe of the Luhya people. The rocks serve as an enduring link between the people and their past. Two Maragoli traditional huts have been erected at the foot of the rocks to symbolize that the founders of the Maragoli nation once inhabited the place. | <urn:uuid:da550c70-57b7-43a0-9c37-5102badeb99d> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://twenzetu.com/local/maragoli-hills/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141717601.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20201203000447-20201203030447-00282.warc.gz | en | 0.963775 | 137 | 2.734375 | 3 |
What was once an agricultural field and a coal-burning facility on the shores of Lake Erie is now a solar electricity generating station. Ontario Power Generation partnered with the Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation and the Mississauga’s of the Credit First Nation to bring the communities their first 44-megawatt alternating current (AC) solar facility and a long-term revenue stream. The station is a part of the Ontario government’s future-thinking plan to phase out the province’s coal plants in favor of cleaner sources of energy.
Due to the land’s history, proper drainage during construction was imperative to prevent residual coal dust from washing into the lake, and we ensured all subcontractors followed set plans. Now, wildlife including deer and snapping turtles are once again thriving on the restored land. | <urn:uuid:3a5af409-466b-41d0-8499-cb760b199031> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.pcl.com/ca/en/our-work/nanticoke-solar---44-mw-ac-solar-facility- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141717601.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20201203000447-20201203030447-00282.warc.gz | en | 0.923291 | 166 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Provide a foundation for essential skills with the Complete Book of Grade PreK. With the colorful lessons in this workbook, your young learner will strengthen skills that include colors and shapes, letter and number recognition, and handwriting. The Complete Book series provides a dynamic way for students in prekindergarten to grade 4 to master essential skills. Each vivid workbook guides students through a variety of engaging activities in phonics, reading comprehension, math, and writing. Challenging concepts are presented in simple language with easy-to-understand examples, while stickers and full-color illustrations capture students' interest. The Complete Book series is a thorough, comprehensive guide to grade-level success. | <urn:uuid:4c367305-4bb6-4077-94bf-922d80c12b13> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.teachersparadise.com/c/complete-book-grade-pk | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141717601.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20201203000447-20201203030447-00282.warc.gz | en | 0.910225 | 140 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, have created a smartphone ultra-zoom solution that allows scientists in the field to image and size DNA. The tool, which uses a little 3D-printed box that acts as a high-resolution microscope, can be used to see objects as small as two nanometers in width.
“For perspective, that makes DNA about 50,000 times thinner than a human hair,” said Aydogan Ozcan, the UCLA professor involved in the project. “Currently, imaging single DNA molecules requires bulky, expensive optical microscopy tools, which are mostly confined to advanced laboratory settings. In comparison, the components for my device are significantly less expensive.”
From the release:
Considering current methods require non-portable heavy machinery and computers, this seems like a godsend for researchers in the field. The team is currently using the tool to “detect the presence of malaria-related drug resistance.” | <urn:uuid:0e05a27f-b078-4322-808f-467bcbf20fac> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/30/researchers-create-the-ultimate-smartphone-ultra-zoom-to-see-and-measure-strands-of-dna/?ncid=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141735600.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20201204101314-20201204131314-00362.warc.gz | en | 0.952081 | 199 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Spider Webs Are Chock Full of DNA from Devoured Insects
A spider’s web ensnares its prey for far longer than it takes the spider to down its next meal, a new study finds. Spider webs bear traces of DNA from whatever creatures have come in contact with them, according to the research led by University of Notre Dame biologists and published in PLOS ONE.
The scientists used black widow spiders from Indiana’s Potawatomi Zoo. After they built webs, the four spiders were fed crickets dropped into their webs. The researchers then took samples of the webs, and extracted DNA from them. They were able to identify the species of both spider and their prey from these web samples—even one from a spider that had died and been removed from its exhibit (along with its prey) almost 90 days before.
While the presence of little bits of spider DNA may make their webs seem a little creepier, it could be a boon for keeping track of spider and insect populations. Spiders tend to be elusive, but their webs are easier to track down, so researchers could use this genetic material to monitor spider biodiversity, even after the arachnids themselves have died or moved on from that habitat. DNA testing could also reveal information about what type of insects get caught in the webs.
However, this study tested webs housed indoors, and outdoor spider webs may deteriorate more rapidly, so the results might not be as clean-cut. | <urn:uuid:ea67eb87-2da4-480f-9ce3-36b1f3991cea> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/71760/spider-webs-are-chock-full-dna-devoured-insects | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141735600.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20201204101314-20201204131314-00362.warc.gz | en | 0.976065 | 298 | 3.765625 | 4 |
A novel imaging-based computer-aided diagnostic system is up to 90% accurate at spotting melanoma, according to a study published in Diagnostics.
Lithuanian researchers developed their method by combining various noninvasive imaging technologies, such as ultrasound and optical spectrophotometry.
And when tested on 100 lesions, the tool accurately distinguished melanoma from benign findings, topping the 90% mark in some situations.
“Based on the results of our research, we can confirm that the developed automated system can complement the noninvasive diagnostic methods currently applied in the medical practice by efficiently differentiating melanoma from a melanocytic mole,” Renaldas Raisutis, head of the team behind the research at Kaunas University of Technology, said in a statement published Monday.
In Europe, where this study was undertaken, melanoma is the fifth most common type of cancer, with mortality rates tallying 3.8 deaths per 10,000 individuals in northern regions.
Additionally, Raisutis noted that spotting melanoma relies on removing and then testing the entire lesion. This invasive approach is highly user-dependent and only 65% accurate.
For their research, the team developed four different binary classification algorithms and tested them on 91 cases, including 50 moles and 41 melanomas.
The models all utilized pathologic, ultrasonic and spectrometric images, but the support vector machine approach proved most accurate, the authors noted, diagnosing cutaneous melanoma with an accuracy of 98.9%.
Raisutis et al. said they designed their system specifically for medical professionals, but hinted they may also be considering an at-home option.
The tool may have a big impact on outcomes when used alongside current diagnostic approaches.
"An efficient diagnosis of an early stage malignant skin tumor could save critical time: More patients could be examined and more of them could be saved,” Raisutis explained.
Read the entire study here. | <urn:uuid:d4d59c44-4010-4b00-8680-5a50cfcfc828> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.healthimaging.com/topics/diagnostic-imaging/computer-aided-system-90-accuracy-melanoma | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141163411.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20201123153826-20201123183826-00003.warc.gz | en | 0.941753 | 407 | 2.71875 | 3 |
The Political Science major prepares students to be active, informed citizens in our increasingly complex and interdependent world. By studying American and international politics, comparative governments, law, and political theory, students are able to understand and evaluate various political systems and ideologies. Political Science majors examine the foundations of local, state, national, and international politics while analyzing world events to explore the relationship between theory and practice. As they investigate the multiple forces – economic, geographic, cultural, philosophical, historical – which affect the success of political systems, they develop tools for improving governance and diplomacy at home and abroad. Through opportunities on and off campus, they participate in political processes and promote awareness of some of the most pressing issues facing their country and the world.
Political Science majors apply what they learn through countless opportunities, gaining practical knowledge while forging valuable relationships with professionals in the field. Depending on their interests, students may choose to intern in government offices, law firms, nongovernmental organizations, embassies, consulting and lobbying firms, or other politically relevant settings. Graduates emerge with a profound knowledge of politics and enhanced critical thinking, speaking, analytical, and writing skills which aid them in launching significant careers and ensure success in law schools, graduate programs, or any number of important fields in our evolving global society.
Possible careers include:
Activism and Advocacy | <urn:uuid:d4793f70-1804-4528-93c2-324a369808b1> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://catalog.endicott.edu/preview_entity.php?catoid=28&ent_oid=1574&returnto=919 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141186761.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20201126055652-20201126085652-00163.warc.gz | en | 0.912125 | 269 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Science Has Found the Oldest Pieces of the Earth
Guys, these things are seriously older than dirt.
Unless you believe Jesus rode around on dinosaurs, the Earth is pretty darn old. It’s hard to learn about the Earth’s formation now that pretty much everything here has undergone massive changes since then, which is why scientists are so excited to have found the oldest surviving fragment of the Earth ever in the form of a tiny zircon crystal.
Geologists have been mining tiny fragments of zirconium from Jack Hills in Australia, and they were just recently able to confirm that the mineral samples are the oldest discovered surviving fragments of the early Earth. They date back 4.375 billion years (with a margin of error of 6 million), which means they formed very shortly after the Earth itself did 4.54 billion years ago.
What’s interesting about the zircons is that would have come from water-rich rock sources, which means that the Earth cooled enough for surface water to form relatively soon after its initial formation and the formation of the moon. That means that ancient Earth was a lot more hospitable than previously imagined and more similar to how it is today.
Of course, when you’re looking back that far, it’s difficult to pinpoint exact ages. Science has had trouble coming up with confident dates on the zircons in the past, but the team led by John Valley of the University of Wisconsin, Madison broke down the samples and examined them atom by atom.
Being a geologist sounds like tons of fun.
They found clusters of atoms that were intact and wouldn’t have allowed outside particles to interfere, so the team could have confidence in dating their radioactive decay. Now we know a lot more about the timeline of how the Earth formed, so think of geology as a fun alternate reality in which things that are old can be really useful.
Then, you can return to the rest of the Internet, where you can and will get mocked for posting something that everyone else has known about for more than an hour.
- The ocean is turning into acid, by the way, so that’s fun
- Old age has its benefits—like a higher probability of genius
- Paleontology has taken up the mystery of dinosaur pee
Have a tip we should know? email@example.com | <urn:uuid:61421683-a34b-45df-b54d-5d3a2989e714> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.themarysue.com/oldest-pieces-of-earth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141193221.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20201127131802-20201127161802-00243.warc.gz | en | 0.972422 | 488 | 3.46875 | 3 |
Wasps are annoying and sometimes painful for us humans but they are even more of a problem for insects that they prey upon. One particularly creepy new discovery made by insect researchers reveals that a a newly-discovered species of wasp in the Amazon basically zombifies spiders to do its bidding.
The research, which was published in Ecological Entomology, describes how the gruesome life cycle of the wasp species relies upon “social” spiders that live in groups. The spiders first act as hosts for parasitic larva and, eventually, as a full meal.
The researchers observed the wasps’ bizarre relationship with the spiders up close. First, a female wasp targets one of the spiders and lays an egg on the arachnid. Then, when the egg hatches, the larva latches on to the spider and feeds off of it. This type of parasitic relationship isn’t uncommon in insects, but the wasp takes things a step farther.
The larva doesn’t leave the spider after growing to a certain point but instead takes over the spider’s body, causing it to carry out specific tasks. The spider is forced to leave its colony and construct a web cocoon. The larva then eats the spider and uses the newly-constructed cocoon as its home while it matures into a full-grown wasp, starting the cycle all over again.
“The wasp completely hijacks the spider’s behaviour and brain and makes it do something it would never do, like leave its nest and spinning a completely different structure,” Samantha Straus, co-author of the research said in a statement. “That’s very dangerous for these tiny spiders.”
The team doesn’t have a great explanation for how the wasp commands the spider to do its bidding but thinks it might have something to do with the larva affecting the hormones of the spider. It’s all very strange and, if you’re a spider, downright horrifying. | <urn:uuid:9e9b69ed-e488-4289-9c91-1f82135c8d9d> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://bgr.com/2018/11/29/wasp-spider-zombie-parasite-study/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141187753.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20201126084625-20201126114625-00443.warc.gz | en | 0.940155 | 422 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Heating could be the best way to disinfect N95 masks for reuse
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, N95 face masks have been in short supply. Health care workers, in particular, desperately need these masks to protect themselves from the respiratory droplets of infected patients. But because of the shortage, many have to wear the same mask repeatedly. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Nano have tested several methods for disinfecting N95 materials, finding that heating them preserves their filtration efficiency for 50 cycles of disinfection.
N95 masks contain a layer of "meltblown" polypropylene fibers that form a porous, breathable network. To help capture smaller particles that could slip through the holes, the fibers are electrostatically charged. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended several methods for disinfecting N95 masks, such as heating, ultraviolet (UV) radiation and bleach treatment, but so far they have not been tested extensively, especially for multiple rounds of disinfection. Yi Cui and colleagues wanted to compare five of the methods that could reasonably be used within a hospital setting to see how mask materials hold up to repeated disinfections.
In this study, instead of analyzing N95 masks—which should be reserved for health care workers—the researchers examined pieces of the meltblown fabric used to make these masks. They treated the material with a particular disinfectant and compared its ability to filter aerosol particles (resembling respiratory droplets, but lacking coronavirus) before and after disinfection. The team found that spraying the fabric with an ethanol or chlorine bleach solution drastically reduced the filtration efficiency after only one treatment, from about 96% to 56% (ethanol) or 73% (bleach).
A single steam treatment maintained filtration, but five steam treatments led to a sharp decline in efficiency. UV radiation allowed up to 20 cycles of disinfection; however, administering the exact dose of UV that kills the virus without damaging mask materials could be problematic, the researchers note. The best disinfection method appeared to be heating. For example, heating at 185 F for 20 minutes allowed the fabric to be treated 50 times without loss of filtration efficiency. But frequently donning and removing N95 masks could affect fit, which also impacts performance, the researchers point out. | <urn:uuid:9bc36502-226a-4065-87fc-52325731297d> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-disinfect-n95-masks-reuse.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141187753.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20201126084625-20201126114625-00443.warc.gz | en | 0.933646 | 476 | 3.125 | 3 |
Jane T. Merritt, The Trouble with Tea: The Politics of Consumption in the Eighteenth-Century Global Economy [Studies in Early American Economy and Society from the Library Company of Philadelphia] (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016).
Americans imagined tea as central to their revolution. After years of colonial boycotts against the commodity, the Sons of Liberty kindled the fire of independence when they dumped tea in the Boston harbor in 1773. To reject tea as a consumer item and symbol of “taxation without representation” was to reject Great Britain as master of the American economy and government. But tea played a longer and far more complicated role in American economic history than the events at Boston suggest.
In The Trouble with Tea, historian Jane T. Merritt explores tea as a central component of eighteenth-century global trade and probes its connections to the politics of consumption. Arguing that tea caused trouble over the course of the eighteenth century in a number of different ways, Merritt traces the multifaceted impact of that luxury item on British imperial policy, colonial politics, and the financial structure of merchant companies. Merritt challenges the assumption among economic historians that consumer demand drove merchants to provide an ever-increasing supply of goods, thus sparking a consumer revolution in the early eighteenth century.
The Trouble with Tea reveals a surprising truth: that concerns about the British political economy, coupled with the corporate machinations of the East India Company, brought an abundance of tea to Britain, causing the company to target North America as a potential market for surplus tea. American consumers only slowly habituated themselves to the beverage, aided by clever marketing and the availability of Caribbean sugar. Indeed, the “revolution” in consumer activity that followed came not from a proliferation of goods, but because the meaning of these goods changed. By the 1750s, British subjects at home and in America increasingly purchased and consumed tea on a daily basis; once thought a luxury, tea had become a necessity. This fascinating look at the unpredictable path of a single commodity will change the way readers look at both tea and the emergence of America. | <urn:uuid:fc388fd9-132d-4cf9-97aa-4bca94a6d958> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://alcoholanddrugshistorysociety.org/2017/04/19/tea-and-the-18th-cent-global-economy-book/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141193856.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20201127161801-20201127191801-00523.warc.gz | en | 0.92944 | 429 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Outrage in Ohio - A Rural Murder Lynching and Mystery
Publisher: Indiana University Press
On a hot and dusty Sunday in June 1872, 13-year-old Mary Secaur set off on her two-mile walk home from church. She never arrived. The horrific death of this young girl inspired an illegal interstate pursuit-and-arrest, courtroom dramatics, conflicting confessions, and the daylight lynching of a traveling tin peddler and an intellectually disabled teenager. Who killed Mary Secaur? Were the accused actually guilty? What drove the citizens of Mercer County to lynch the suspects?David Kimmel seeks answers to these provoking questions and deftly recounts what actually happened in the fateful summer of 1872, imagining the inner workings of the small rural community, reconstructing the personal relationships of those involved, and restoring humanity to this gripping story. Using a unique blend of historical research and contemporary accounts, Outrage in Ohio explores how a terrible crime ripped an Ohio farming community apart and asks us to question what really happened to Mary Secaur. | <urn:uuid:0c74eb97-af68-4501-992c-bfd4825cdc7f> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.24symbols.com/book/english/david-kimmel/outrage-in-ohio---a-rural-murder-lynching-and-mystery?id=3588397 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141195967.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20201129004335-20201129034335-00603.warc.gz | en | 0.893417 | 210 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Sweden recently unveiled its revamped Arctic policy, having gone unchanged since 2011. The strategy’s details are familiar, focusing on climate change, multilateral cooperation, and sustainable development. The overhaul comes at a time of change in the High North. Facing new geopolitical pressures, Sweden is pressing forward with clear-eyed and agile Arctic policy.
Sweden and the EU’s Arctic Outpost
The Kingdom of Sweden’s Arctic position is unique in several respects. Their European Union membership provides them with substantial funding and avenues for collaborative effort in developing and defending their northernmost territory. Though formally a non-NATO state, in practice Sweden conducts joint operations with NATO frequently.
The economic and security benefits of a unified Scandinavian approach to Russia, China, and the United States generally outweighs any desire or ability for Sweden to act unilaterally. However, a formally unified strategy is far off. Near-Arctic and Arctic states alike are still in the midst of overhauling their blueprints for the region.
Sweden’s Arctic Interests
Sweden’s primary interests revolve around its resource rich Ferroscandian territory, specifically its iron, lumber, and hydropower. The new infrastructure and regulations needed for sustainable development of these resources is a key priority for the country moving forward. Historically, Swedish Arctic development conflicted with the indigenous Samí’s traditional practices modes of sustenance, such as reindeer herding. The Samí Parliament remains largely symbolic, but cooperation and mutual development with the Finno-Ugric group was earmarked in the updated whitepaper.
Though Sweden recognizes the possibility of further Chinese encroachment, the value of their trade networks and capital (especially with regards to mineral resource development) means that no significant action against the CCP is to be expected. However, Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist recently announced the reestablishment of five northern regiments to defend the country’s Arctic sovereignty. Expecting to increase military spending 85% by 2025, the five-year defense bill outlines a policy of increased cooperation with Norway and Scandinavia. Increasing tensions with Russia prompted the decision.
Sweden’s revamped Arctic policy is fairly standard fare, focusing on mineral resource development, climate change, Samí relations and sovereignty. The Kingdom will work via Arctic and European collaborative institutions to advance its interests, and will likely take on a greater role in Arctic institutional governance moving forward. | <urn:uuid:c662bba4-5bac-424c-97f4-33577370a355> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.wallaceinstitute.us/sweden-and-the-new-high-north/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141195967.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20201129004335-20201129034335-00603.warc.gz | en | 0.938986 | 495 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Jailing a Rainbow: The Marcus Garvey Case
Georgetown Journal of Modern Critical Race Perspectives, Vol. 2, 2009
69 Pages Posted: 8 Mar 2009 Last revised: 21 Apr 2010
Date Written: December 29, 2008
The relevance of narrative in the law continues to reemerge in legal scholarship. This article uses concepts from both Critical Race Theory and Law and Economics to reassess the conviction of Marcus Garvey, the Harlem Renaissance era civil rights activist. In this case, newly discovered evidence suggests that the manipulation of Garvey's legal narrative by his opponents played a larger role in his conviction than first thought; a role decisive enough to raise concerns of unethical judicial bias and warrant possible exoneration hearings.
This paper argues that not only was Garvey unjustly convicted of mail fraud in 1923, but this injustice was also the culmination of an unholy alliance between Garvey's political rivals and Jim Crow era government officials. Together, the legal narrative they crafted contributed to Garvey's untimely death, tainted his legacy for decades, and helped to misshape the future of the 20th century struggle for racial justice.
Many scholars have noted that legal narratives often subordinate the voices of people of color. However, this study goes further, exploring how unjust legal narratives have served to warp our collective cultural and historical narrative. This larger result has had a powerful impact on the course of political events in our country. In this case, Garvey's conviction and deportation facilitated the marginalization and silencing of his philosophy of racial justice, a strategy that focused primarily on economic empowerment for people of African descent throughout the world. As a result of the silencing of this voice, nearly a century later Blacks have obtained the political and social rights favored by Garvey's rivals, but as a whole still suffer from grave economic disparities worldwide.
The federal judiciary has a storied legacy, being peopled by men and women who have defended and fought for our highest values as a nation. This case appears to be one of the sad exceptions to that rule. But most of all, it should serve as a cautionary tale to practitioners who must learn how to identify and fight the destructive use of legal narrative in contemporary contexts.
Keywords: Law and Narrative, Legal Narrative, Legal Storytelling, African American History and the Law, Critical Race Theory, Marcus Garvey, Mail Fraud
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation | <urn:uuid:684c5969-fa3d-46a6-a904-6d145072a0ec> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1321527 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141727627.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20201203094119-20201203124119-00123.warc.gz | en | 0.954529 | 491 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Rocks may seem chemically inert, but carbon and oxygen constantly move between the atmosphere and the land. A new study reveals insights into tiny players in this cycle. Microorganisms can release carbon dioxide from eroding rocks to the atmosphere more quickly than researchers expected, according to the study.
Scientists previously thought that eroding mountains served as carbon sinks, pulling CO2 from the atmosphere by forming carbonate minerals. Jordon Hemingway of Harvard University and colleagues studied carbon release in the Central Mountain Range of Taiwan, which erodes quickly thanks to frequent typhoons and landslides.
They estimated that at least 67% of the organic carbon held in the bedrock had been released—presumably by oxidation to CO2.
To determine whether microbes were responsible for this oxidation, the researchers looked at the ratio of carbon-13 to carbon-12 in fatty acids present in the soil. The team knew that only bacteria could produce these fatty acids. The carbon isotope ratio matched that of the organic carbon found in the rock, indicating that the microbes were the ones oxidizing the carbon. Hemingway’s team estimates that 6.1 to 18.6 metric tons of carbon per km2 gets oxidized every year by microbes at these rapidly eroded sites (Science 2018, DOI: 10.1126/science.aao6463).
Hemingway points out that this microbial oxidation of carbon is important on the scale of millions of years. “In terms of anthropogenic climate change, the processes we looked at in our study are unlikely to have any measurable effect,” he says.
As a next step, Hemingway hopes to perform genomic analyses to determine which microbes are responsible for turning the carbon under our feet into CO2 in the air. | <urn:uuid:cfe8467f-a167-4e86-99fd-31642f06ed2b> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://cen.acs.org/environment/greenhouse-gases/Microbes-help-release-CO2-eroding/96/i17?utm_source=YMAL&utm_medium=YMAL&utm_campaign=CEN&utm_content=pos3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141743438.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20201204193220-20201204223220-00203.warc.gz | en | 0.951609 | 356 | 4.53125 | 5 |
As the Cerrado pledge demonstrates, when governments and businesses come
together to address land-use challenges, the impact is potent. Natural climate
solutions have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by an estimated
11.3 billion tons a year – equal to a complete halt in burning oil, according
to our study. One recent study calculated that if Brazil reached zero
deforestation by 2030, it would add 0.6% of GDP, or about $15 billion, to its
economy. Communities also reap secondary benefits—such as rural regeneration,
improved food and water security, and coastal resilience – when natural climate
solutions are implemented.
Yet, despite the data
supporting better land-use decision-making, something isn’t adding up. In 2016,
the world witnessed a dramatic 51% increase in forest loss, equivalent to an area about
the size of New Zealand. We need to buck this trend now, and help the world
realize that land-use planning is not simply a conservation story.
Some countries are moving in
the right direction. The Indian government, for example, has set aside $6
billion for states to invest in forest restoration. In Indonesia, the
government created a dedicated agency to protect and restore peatlands, bogs,
and swamp-like ecosystems that have immense CO2 storage capabilities.
But they are the exceptions.
Of the 160 countries that committed to implementing the Paris climate
agreement, only 36 have specified land-use management in their
Overcoming inertia will not be
easy. Forests, farms, and coasts vary in size, type, and accessibility.
Moreover, the lives of hundreds of millions of people are tied to these
ecosystems, and projects that restore forest cover or improve soil health
require focused planning, a massive undertaking for many governments.
One way to get things moving,
especially in the agricultural sector, would be to remove or redirect subsidies
that encourage excessive consumption of fertilizers, water, or energy in food
production. As Indian government officials reminded their peers during a World
Trade Organization meeting earlier this year, meaningful agricultural reforms
can begin only when rich countries reduce the “disproportionately large” subsidies they give their own | <urn:uuid:db809cfb-91ca-4417-8332-c3bda2afcc6f> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://tnc.internal.vigetx.com/content/natural-solutions-to-climate-change?intc=glob_sol.hp.author_content_list | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141743438.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20201204193220-20201204223220-00203.warc.gz | en | 0.902873 | 470 | 3.46875 | 3 |
In the Paleozoic Era, roughly 400 million years ago, Michigan wasn’t the chilly northern state we know it as now. It was somewhere near the equator and it was covered in a shallow, tropical sea, complete with ancient marine life.
Now, Petoskey State Park on the shore of Lake Michigan holds some of the only reminders that the Midwestern state was once an ocean. When Earth’s tectonic plates shifted and created the North American Continent out of this watery ecosystem, some of the coral life residing there came along for the ride.
The state park is named for Petoskey Stones. These are small, unremarkable rocks, only identifiable by the faint spots covering their surface. When polished though, the perfectly hexagonal pattern grows visible, revealing what they really are. These are no ordinary pebbles; they’re actually the skeletons of prehistoric coral. Each of the spots was once a coral polyp. The dark centers were mouths, and the “rays” surrounding them were tentacles. Time has scrubbed them down to a rounded rock, but combing the beach for these little fossils can offer even amateurs a connection to the very, very distant past. | <urn:uuid:30510538-7380-477f-bd01-8d3fa77264f0> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/petoskey-state-park | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141168074.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20201123211528-20201124001528-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.962446 | 249 | 3.609375 | 4 |
Home / Articles / What Is Democracy? Liberal Institutions and Stability in Changing Societies
Is it possible to export democracy? That question underlies current U.S. foreign policy, and answering it requires an operational definition of democracy that distinguishes its essential attributes from circumstantial ones. Liberal representative government under law, sustained by a political culture that accepts open disagreement and demands accountability, provides the only form of democracy that has sustained itself over time. Democracy typically emerges from within a society, and history demonstrates the difficulty of making democracy work. Imposing it externally presents further challenges while risking a backlash. The project of spreading democracy must therefore be separated from the objective of establishing a stable order favoring American interests so that the latter end can be achieved by more modest means. | <urn:uuid:01bb0609-aa53-4976-9d62-d1e6580bb215> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.fpri.org/article/2006/01/democracy-liberal-institutions-stability-changing-societies-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141168074.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20201123211528-20201124001528-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.923864 | 152 | 2.71875 | 3 |
BP is apparently barring cleanup workers from sharing photos of dead animals that have washed ashore. But whether we’re seeing them or not, the bodies are starting to add up.
Late last week, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other responders issued a tally of the animals collected as of Friday in oil-impacted regions of Alabama, Florida , Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas—dead and alive. Those stats are shocking: 444 dead birds, 222 dead sea turtles, and 24 mammals (including dolphins). I sent a request to the Unified Command office last week asking for data on wildlife collected over a normal time period, pre-oil-disaster, for comparison. I haven’t received a reply.
National Wildlife Federation senior scientist Doug Inkley has compiled some of the data on dolphins and sea turtles found stranded so far—meaning both dead and living animals that have clearly been harmed by their exposure to oil. He reports that the 244 sea turtles they found stranded by the spill is between six to nine times the average rate. The 29 stranded dolphins are between two and six times the normal rate for the region. The number of dead and dying critters, Inkley says, is “certainly higher” than usual.
But even these staggering totals might not be anywhere near the real figures. For starters, they don’t include the dead animals who may never be counted. Following the Exxon Valdez spill, scientists noted that many carcasses sunk and were never found, meaning the estimated deaths were probably far too low. | <urn:uuid:bd7e3ac9-0aca-4ede-8922-ff8afbdcd494> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://preprod.motherjones.com/politics/2010/06/bp-bars-photos-dead-wildlife-bodies-pile/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141181179.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20201125041943-20201125071943-00643.warc.gz | en | 0.955875 | 322 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Europe’s cutting-edge wind satellite should launch in 2017
Humanity is about to deepen its understanding of Earth’s winds. The European Space Agency has secured a rocket launch deal for its wind-tracking Aeolus satellite, which is now expected to enter orbit before the end of 2017. The once-problematic spacecraft (technical issues postponed its 2015 launch) will be the first to profile wind on a worldwide scale thanks to the novel use of ultraviolet lidar in space. By bouncing laser light off of atmospheric air, dust and water, Aeolus will measure everything from cyclones to the presence of aerosols.
Aeolus could have far-reaching effects. It’ll improve our grasp on atmospheric behavior, which could improve both weather forecasts and our knowledge of the human role in climate change. It should influence other projects, too, by demonstrating how lidar can offer a fresh approach to Earth studies. Even if the Aeolus launch doesn’t get you excited, it could make a significant impact on science as a whole. | <urn:uuid:b7a4d005-ef8d-4828-a443-0b63028c3dc8> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://blog.aivanet.com/2016/09/07/europes-cutting-edge-wind-satellite-should-launch-in-2017/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141188800.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20201126142720-20201126172720-00003.warc.gz | en | 0.931973 | 217 | 2.9375 | 3 |
What Will Happen When Queen Elizabeth II Dies?
One day Queen Elizabeth II will, unfortunately, pass away, resulting in arguably the biggest funeral of the century. The preparations for the days, weeks and months after her passing, are given the code name Operation London Bridge. Upon her death, her eldest son, Prince Charles, will immediately become King. This could signal great change, not just for the United Kingdom but potentially the world. | <urn:uuid:a2877190-b355-4994-8354-b5d8c375ee0d> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://thisis50.com/2019/11/06/what-will-happen-when-queen-elizabeth-ii-dies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141216897.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20201130161537-20201130191537-00243.warc.gz | en | 0.933781 | 89 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Smokers trying to quit often report that certain cues, such as seeing other people smoke, cause them to crave a cigarette, which typically triggers a relapse. But memory retrieval-extinction training-a technique that alters memories associated with craving-may help.
Researchers selected 72 adults (average age, 48) who smoked 10 or more cigarettes per day and randomly assigned them to undergo memory retrieval-extinction training or extinction training alone. To retrieve smoking-related memories, the first group viewed a five-minute video depicting people smoking. The others viewed a video of people washing dishes. After 10 minutes, both groups completed a 60-minute extinction training session designed to break the cue-reward cycle. Here, participants were repeatedly exposed to smoking triggers but were not permitted to smoke. The process was repeated the following day.
At one month, participants in the memory retrieval-extinction training group reported, on average, less craving than the control group and they smoked fewer cigarettes each day; seven and 10, respectively. These self-reported smoking findings were corroborated by the participants’ carbon monoxide levels, which were also assessed.
The authors, who published their findings in 2017 in JAMA Psychiatry, suggest that this approach could work well with other smoking cessation interventions. Larger studies that investigate the long-term efficacy of this technique will help clarify its true value. | <urn:uuid:1b7fb637-47a4-4b2e-8069-b40276ab5092> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.healthandwellnessalerts.berkeley.edu/topics/lung-disorders/manipulating-memories-may-help-smokers-kick-the-habit/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141745780.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20201204223450-20201205013450-00483.warc.gz | en | 0.963608 | 277 | 3.640625 | 4 |
Powerful advocacy for an emerging therapy.
Esty, a seasoned neurofeedback practitioner, and Shifflett (Migraine Brains and Bodies, 2011, etc.), a science and technology writer, argue that public ignorance and medical dogma plague the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injuries (used synonymously with concussion). In this primer, aimed at both lay readers and professionals, they deliver a searing indictment of the status quo and an impassioned plea for a new paradigm. The authors hook readers by opening with stories about concussion’s impact on famous figures, including Henry VIII, Mary Lincoln, Howard Hughes and Elvis Presley. This eases the transition to Esty’s client histories (using pseudonyms), which are woven throughout chapters that cover what happens physiologically during and after TBI and its manifold physical, psychological, emotional and social consequences. Their experiences personalize discussions about the frequency of misdiagnoses, overreliance on pharmaceuticals, the efficacy of neurofeedback to treat TBI and its role in conjunction with other therapies. Esty and Shifflett catalog the abundant chances for brain injury in modern life, particularly in sports, and dispel popular myths that lead to downplaying risks and tolerating repeated exposures. Citing evidence suggesting that frequent smaller injuries are as dangerous as large ones, they document how neurofeedback has brought relief even decades later, helping sufferers reduce or eliminate medications. While neurofeedback results seem miraculous, the authors avoid cure-all claims by discussing unresolved symptoms and physical distortions that brain wave treatment cannot fix. They acknowledge that science cannot yet explain why neurofeedback works—a valid source of skepticism. Critics may question whether the authors have cherry-picked examples to support their case, but the successes provided, often in clients’ own words, speak for themselves. The text is written clearly enough to engage lay readers while still providing the thoroughness and documentation demanded by professionals. They cite more than 300 references, mainly scientific journals and academic books, but they also draw from popular media to keep the discussion relevant and down-to-earth. Clear figures, photos and illustrations; a glossary; and a list of supplemental resources make the book even more user-friendly.
An eye-opener for anyone concerned about concussion—which the authors persuasively argue should include everyone. | <urn:uuid:22decbff-2333-4301-b2ab-8b94f4ac705c> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/mary-lee-esty/conquering-concussion/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141745780.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20201204223450-20201205013450-00483.warc.gz | en | 0.92981 | 477 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Earth's biggest telescope just snapped the best photo ever taken of planets forming around a baby star. The swirling disk of gas and dust looks like a colorful set of concentric rings surrounding a blazing dot hundreds of light-years away.
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a platoon of radio antennas arranged on a desolate Chilean plateau, is the only telescope capable of seeing a system like this in such detail. The protoplanetary system has concentric rings separated by clearly defined gaps, which suggests planets are already forming there.
Stars are born when clouds of dust and gas collapse under their own gravity. Planets are born when the leftover crumbs in that dust cloud also start to coalesce, growing into larger and larger rocks. As these planetisimals get bigger, they start clearing out their neighborhoods and gaps form in the dusty disk.
Scientists had developed computer models that predict this very method of planet formation, but nobody had seen it play out in real life before ALMA captured these images. You can't see this system with the Hubble Space Telescope, for instance, because Hubble images in visible light, which is blocked by gas and dust in the way. ALMA, a radio telescope, observes light in very long wavelengths allowing it to peer through the dust.
The star here is a very young one called HL Tau, no more than a million years old about 450 light-years from Earth, located in the constellation Taurus. It's a sun-like star, which means our own solar system might have looked a lot like this when it was very young.
"Such clarity is essential to understand how our own solar system came to be and how planets form throughout the universe," says Tony Beasley, director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Va., which manages ALMA for astronomers in North America. | <urn:uuid:c15d4799-4d86-479b-b7f7-5f4b3ece244f> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/telescopes/a12615/the-first-picture-of-new-planets-forming-17396182/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141171077.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20201124025131-20201124055131-00123.warc.gz | en | 0.958935 | 378 | 3.96875 | 4 |
Also referred to as a “control board,” the circuit board essentially serves as the brains of air conditioners, heat pumps, and furnaces, as they coordinate the sequence of operational events that occurs with every cooling or heating cycle. Some circuit boards also monitor the operational health of HVAC systems and provide warnings when its sensors detect a potential problem. Typically included as part of the air handler, some systems include them in the condensing system. Circuit boards tend to be highly reliable, though they can be damaged by power surges and other electric anomalies. HVAC circuit board problems are usually resolved through replacement rather than repair. | <urn:uuid:947cce32-69bf-4328-bfc2-69d41a79c677> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://coolzoneinc.com/glossary/circuit-board/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141729522.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20201203155433-20201203185433-00683.warc.gz | en | 0.97307 | 128 | 2.96875 | 3 |
New evidence deep beneath the Arctic ice suggests a series of underwater volcanoes have erupted in violent explosions in the past decade.
Hidden 2.5 miles (4,000 meters) beneath the Arctic surface, the volcanoes are up to a mile (2,000 meters) in diameter and a few hundred yards tall. They formed along the Gakkel Ridge, a lengthy crack in the ocean crust where two rocky plates are spreading apart, pulling new melted rock to the surface.
Until now, scientists thought undersea volcanoes only dribbled lava from cracks in the seafloor. The extreme pressure from the overlying water makes it difficult for gas and magma to blast outward.
But the Gakkel Ridge, which is relatively unexplored and considered unique for its slow spreading rate, is just the place for surprises.
Robert Reeves-Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts and his colleagues discovered jagged, glassy fragments of rock scattered around the volcanoes, suggesting explosive eruptions occurred between 1999 and 2001.
They hypothesize that the slow spreading could allow excess gas to build up in pockets of magma beneath the oceanic crust. When the gas pressure gets high enough, it pops like a champagne bottle being uncorked.
With news this week that polar ice is melting dramatically, underwater Arctic pyrotechnics might seem like a logical smoking gun. Scientists don't see any significant connection, however.
"We don't believe the volcanoes had much effect on the overlying ice," Reeves-Sohn told LiveScience, "but they seem to have had a major impact on the overlying water column."
The eruptions discharge large amounts of carbon dioxide, helium, trace metals and heat into the water over long distances, he said.
The research, detailed in the June 26 issue of the journal Nature, was funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation and WHOI.
- North Pole Could be Ice-Free This Summer
- Video: If a Volcano Erupts Under Water…
- Image Gallery: Scientists at the Ends of the Earth | <urn:uuid:2ca03095-1348-44ca-9beb-e7fa6cc13760> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.livescience.com/4992-volcanoes-erupt-beneath-arctic-ice.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141746320.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20201205044004-20201205074004-00043.warc.gz | en | 0.935966 | 429 | 3.75 | 4 |
The Collecting of African American Art I: Introduction
Alvia J. Wardlaw, associate professor, Texas Southern University and curator of modern and contemporary art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. For the inaugural lecture of the National Gallery of Art lecture series The Collecting of African American Art, recorded on February 10, 2008, Alvia J. Wardlaw provides an overview of the substantial history of collecting African American art. She regards the preservation of objects of cultural importance within the African American community as a holistic endeavor. Collecting was not merely about acquiring items for private holdings but also establishing a connection between African Americans and their African past, enabling families and communities to pass on traditions. Wardlaw relates the role of collectibles, including such cherished items as family photographs and Bibles, to the interest in collecting African American artworks, which arose in the 19th century. She also examines this phenomenon within the context of individual artistic careers, intellectual movements, and trends in the patronage of African American art. | <urn:uuid:233e283e-7a3c-47fd-923a-a9516624afa6> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.nga.gov/audio-video/audio/collecting-african-american-art-i.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141746320.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20201205044004-20201205074004-00043.warc.gz | en | 0.939789 | 201 | 2.875 | 3 |
Expanding upon previous projects that laid the foundation for making music from amino acid chains, MIT scientists can now use their process to create never-before-seen proteins—especially ones with beneficial properties. Using amino acids as notes, and artificial intelligence to turn them into chords, scientists can craft proteins based on frequencies and patterns that they can hear, and lean into rhythms or loops that lend proteins preferable traits. This would assist in making synthetic versions of naturally-available materials better and ultimately easier to invent. Spider silk, for instance, is a material that’s stronger than steel and kevlar, and could have antimicrobial properties. Read more about the project and its adjacent Android app, the Amino Acid Synthesizer, at Ars Technica. | <urn:uuid:764d4ca0-14da-45db-97d1-177e008cf646> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://coolhunting.com/design/mit-scientists-turn-amino-acids-into-music/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141182794.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20201125125427-20201125155427-00483.warc.gz | en | 0.938709 | 151 | 3.484375 | 3 |
Steffani Jemison’s Same Time consists of a sound piece and an abstract print. The title refers to the artist’s reprisal of a speech delivered in 1970 by Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton that has been reinterpreted by Brooklyn-based R&B group Sidetrack Boyz as a vocal improvisation. By relaying Newton’s words through popular music tropes, the performers reactivate his call for the transformation of American society through direct action and strategic rebellion. The work extends Jemison’s interest in the general condition of transparency and the rhetorical possibilities revealed in repetition.
Building on a practice that places African American history and culture at the intersection of conceptual art, Jemison’s Same Time considers how inherited visual strategies both limit and expand our access to history more broadly. | <urn:uuid:c19d810a-4c04-4034-ba3d-04003d4f4541> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://5e.centre.ch/en/tag/steffani-jemison/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141188947.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20201126200910-20201126230910-00563.warc.gz | en | 0.909798 | 170 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Christian Wolmar 416 pages hardcover
The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830 marked the beginning of a transport revolution that would forever transform the way we live. Blood, Iron, and Gold takes us on a journey encompassing jungle, mountain, and desert, revealing the huge impact of the railroads as they spread rapidly across entire countries, and linked cities that hitherto had little reach beyond their immediate environs. The rise of the train triggered daring engineering feats, great architectural innovation, and the rapid movement of people and goods across the globe. Cultures were both enriched and destroyed by the unrelenting construction of the railroads, and the new technology quickly took on a vital role in civil conflicts and two world wars.In this beautifully illustrated book, renowned transportation journalist Christian Wolmar celebrates the vision and determination of the ambitious pioneers who developed the railways that would dominate the globe. | <urn:uuid:825f6544-cf43-4385-989d-9d05f523d224> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.ronsbooks.com/BLOOD-IRON-GOLD--HOW-THE-RAILROADS-TRANSFORMED-THE-WORLD_p_17079.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141195069.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20201128040731-20201128070731-00643.warc.gz | en | 0.94195 | 177 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Why Were Women Not Allowed to Vote?
There were multiple arguments against women's suffrage. Common themes were that a woman's delicate constitution made her unfit for the evils of politics, that she was too occupied with domestic duties to ponder political debate, and that she was too stupid or weak to bear the responsibilities of voting.
Men of the early twentieth century argued that governing in any capacity required a measure of force. Because of their smaller stature, women were considered the weaker sex and therefore incapable of being forceful enough for any leadership role. They were also considered too frail to directly compete with men as voting required. Opponents to suffrage feared an imbalance in social roles as well. A woman's participation in the vote presupposed that men and women were equal. If this were true, men would lose their impulse to treat women in a chivalrous and compassionate manner. Another popular argument maintained that a woman did not need the vote because she already had too many responsibilities caring for her children, husband and household. According to this view, a proper and dutiful wife should devote all of her concern to these pursuits, which would leave her no time or energy to unravel the complexities of politics. Popular opinion held that a woman could trust her husband to take care of and speak for her in all things anyway, so there was no need for her to cast her own ballot. | <urn:uuid:9c2f39e8-cf08-4f50-9b9f-0f92a978d1ec> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.reference.com/world-view/were-women-allowed-vote-442e7949f34624fd | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141201836.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20201129153900-20201129183900-00003.warc.gz | en | 0.991088 | 277 | 3.203125 | 3 |
The Joshua Tree, Yucca brevifolia, is a member of the Agave family. Until recently, it was considered a giant member of the Lily family, but DNA studies led to the division of that formerly huge family into 40 distinct plant families. The Joshua tree is a monocot, in the subgroup of flowering plants that also includes grasses and orchids. The Joshua trees life cycle begins with the rare germination of a seed, its survival dependent upon well-timed rains. Look for sprouts growing up from within the protective branches of a shrub. Young sprouts may grow several inches in the first five years, then slow down, averaging one-half inch per year thereafter. The tallest Joshua tree in the park looms a whopping forty feet high, a grand presence in the Queen Valley forest; it is estimated to be about 300 years old! These trees do not have growth rings like you would find in an oak or pine. This makes aging difficult, but you can divide the height of a Joshua tree by the average annual growth of one-half inch to get a rough estimate.The Joshua tree provides a good indicator that you are in the Mojave Desert, but you may also find it growing next to a saguaro cactus in the Sonoran Desert in western Arizona or mixed with pines in the San Bernardino Mountains. Joshua Trees were named by Mormon pioneers after the biblical figure Joshua, comparing their sprawling limbs to his outstretched arms, guiding their travels. | <urn:uuid:d4e38060-5b16-4d35-a9a7-cab3ed75759e> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | http://fwww.protrails.com/lexicon/term/452 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141542358.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20201201013119-20201201043119-00083.warc.gz | en | 0.965632 | 303 | 3.59375 | 4 |
A recurring theme in Wuthering Heights is the way in which the speaker frames differences in gender, as well as the standard for each gender that characters are expected to meet. Catherine is looked kindly upon for her favorable, “feminine” qualities, like her beauty and quiet intelligence, but this is very much in spite of her less favorable, less “ladylike” qualities, speaking to her strong will and temperament. Heathcliff also insults Linton’s mother in Chapter 20, calling her a slut — yet another instance in which a man judges a woman based on characteristics perceived to be more or less feminine by societal norms at the time. This double standard is a pattern throughout the book; we can even go back to Chapter 8, for example, and examine the instance in which Catherine is looked down upon for her “unladylike temper” with Edgar, when they get into a small fight. This bit of sexism in such a dated book highlights what little value people placed on women in the age at the time, as well as the everyday ways in which women would be judged and characterized for personality, for example. | <urn:uuid:8bf158b7-b5d1-483a-982b-5bf697f3c8e1> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://c19.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2019/09/24/genders-double-standard-throughout-wuthering-heights/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141708017.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20201202113815-20201202143815-00163.warc.gz | en | 0.974238 | 235 | 3.4375 | 3 |
“You need to know what the habitat sounds like when it’s healthy. When the soundscape has changed, the habitat may have changed, too,” Chong Chen, a deep-sea biologist at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, tells The New York Times. This statement informs a burgeoning field of aquatic research wherein acousticians catalogue deep-sea soundscapes in order to understand and track issues in various ecosystems. The study could provide much-needed insight regarding diversity in the deep sea, a place untouched by high-quality cameras and unreachable by human divers. Hydrophones (underwater recorders) can delve into the darkness to capture the snaps, cracks, groans, grunts, clicks and meeps the sea-floor population makes. From these recordings, estimations can be made about what types of creatures inhabit the area, how many there may be and more. This information will prove especially pertinent as deep-sea mining expeditions often occur near populated areas. Read more at The New York Times.
Image courtesy of NOAA | <urn:uuid:96acec6f-c17c-4815-ad47-0d1c6d884809> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://coolhunting.com/culture/the-sonic-pulse-of-the-ocean/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141184123.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20201125183823-20201125213823-00043.warc.gz | en | 0.920093 | 217 | 3.421875 | 3 |
The Tales of the Heike is one of the most influential works in Japanese literature and culture, remaining even today a crucial source for fiction, drama, and popular media. Originally written in the mid-thirteenth century, it features a cast of vivid characters and chronicles the epic Genpei war, a civil conflict that marked the end of the power of the Heike and changed the course of Japanese history. The Tales of the Heike focuses on the lives of both the samurai warriors who fought for two powerful twelfth-century Japanese clans-the Heike (Taira) and the Genji (Minamoto)-and the women with whom they were intimately connected.
The Tales of the Heike provides a dramatic window onto the emerging world of the medieval samurai and recounts in absorbing detail the chaos of the battlefield, the intrigue of the imperial court, and the gradual loss of a courtly tradition. The book is also highly religious and Buddhist in its orientation, taking up such issues as impermanence, karmic retribution, attachment, and renunciation, which dominated the Japanese imagination in the medieval period.
In this new, abridged translation, Burton Watson offers a gripping rendering of the work's most memorable episodes. Particular to this translation are the introduction by Haruo Shirane, the woodblock illustrations, a glossary of characters, and an extended bibliography. | <urn:uuid:2b663d2a-58c2-462f-a1e4-4787ac5acbb7> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.fictiondb.com/title/the-tales-of-the-heike~haruo-shirane~410997.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141184123.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20201125183823-20201125213823-00043.warc.gz | en | 0.930362 | 280 | 3.5625 | 4 |
I have loved salt marshes ever since I first stepped into one during a college wetlands class in Washington. I breathed in earthy scents. I felt mud squish beneath my boots. I watched birds fly low over the water. Now, the Bay wetlands nourish my spirit, and I am truly grateful they are the place I call home.
As the Habitat Restoration Director at Save The Bay, I am proud that my work leading volunteer and education programs can directly benefit nearby wildlife. Our efforts provide critical habitat for endangered species like the salt marsh harvest mouse. But we never lose sight of the big picture.
Recently, we collaborated with other scientists on the Oro Loma Horizontal Levee Project – an innovative levee that mimics wetland habitats. Our expert restoration team joined more than 5,000 Save The Bay volunteers to construct the site’s giant outdoor nursery and plant more than 70,000 native seedlings.
The potential benefits are profound, since wetland marshes act like sponges, soaking up water as it rises. If replicated, this horizontal levee model could provide extensive flood protection and create thousands of acres of habitat around San Francisco Bay.
Right now, our Bay faces a triple threat of pollution, sea-level rise and habitat loss. Scientists estimate it needs 100,000 acres of wetlands to be healthy and sustainable. Today, only 40,000 acres exist.
With sincere thanks,
Habitat Restoration Director | <urn:uuid:98aa0b94-7bd6-48c1-be57-809df534cebf> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://savesfbay.org/mice-and-marshes | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141189038.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20201127015426-20201127045426-00123.warc.gz | en | 0.907905 | 297 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Digital x-rays are a more streamlined way of taking dental radiographs. Like traditional x-rays, digital versions provide an in-depth view of the structures of the mouth, helping dentists detect complications and develop effective modes of treatment. Digital x-rays are capable of revealing hidden caries, bone erosion, and even tooth decay hiding beneath restorations.
Requiring less radiation and no film to process, digital x-rays have become the standard for oral imaging. These systems produce instant digital images that can easily be enhanced and enlarged for a more accurate diagnosis. The images are captured, stored, and even transmitted via in-office computers. In fact, dentists can easily print or email copies of x-rays in just seconds.
Dental x-rays make for a better and more efficient patient experience. Office visits are faster, patients are exposed to less radiation, and radiographs can be sent to a specialist for review in a fraction of the time necessary for traditional film x-rays. | <urn:uuid:81e4baeb-6bb7-4f49-acb4-b1e357966ce2> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://lancewashburndental.com/digital-x-rays/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141652107.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20201201043603-20201201073603-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.919234 | 203 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Act out the classic folk story of The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs! This script features roles written to match different reading levels, supporting differentiation and English language learner strategies. By utilizing differentiation strategies, teachers can assign specific roles to their readers based on each student's current reading level. This feature allows everyone to get involved in the same activity, build fluency through performance, and feel successful!
While performing with others, students will practice interacting cooperatively, reading aloud, and using expressive voices and gestures to better tell the story. This script also features an accompanying poem and song to give readers additional fluency practice. This leveled script is the perfect tool for a classroom of diverse readers. | <urn:uuid:d8dc5068-39d5-41a4-8f05-c041cde7cc6d> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.teachercreatedmaterials.com/librarians/p/the-goose-that-laid-the-golden-eggs/11291/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141711306.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20201202144450-20201202174450-00443.warc.gz | en | 0.931634 | 139 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Giant animals colonizing the "Antarctic abyss" may sound like a plot out of a blockbuster horror movie. But scientists say this phenomenon is now actually happening. According to a report published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, large crabs stretching almost a meter wide have invaded the edge of the Antarctic, destroying ecosystems that took millions of years to build.
The King Crabs have colonized the "Antarctic abyss" of Palmer Deep, a basin more than 4,300 feet down, off the Antarctic Peninsula, reports the New Scientist.
Led by researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the findings are shown in a video filmed at the bottom of the ocean.
Treehugger notes that the rise in temperature is mainly to blame, given it was previously too cold for the crabs to live. In short, the researchers conclude the King Crab colonization of the Antarctic is linked to climate change.
According to the Independent, scientists say the number of species in areas colonized by the crabs is a quarter of that in areas that have escaped the invasion.
The invasion of the long-legged critters doesn't come as a surprise to scientists, given three years ago they predicted the King Crabs would invade within 100 years.
Last month, a study published in the journal Science showed that climate change is driving animals to the poles in search of their more normal natural habitats. The Guardian called it "one of the clearest examples of climate change in action." In fact, the leader of the research, Chris Thomas, professor of conservation biology, told The Guardian that for the past 40 years, animals and plants have been "shifting 20 cm per hour, for every hour of the day, for every day of the year." | <urn:uuid:748b0fc7-3451-4c16-93bf-fe293555dfe9> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.huffpost.com/entry/giant-red-crab-invasion-climate-change_n_956090?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141747774.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20201205104937-20201205134937-00603.warc.gz | en | 0.938372 | 355 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Substance use disorders and the harms associated with these diseases are a serious, growing public health problem in the United States. Almost 47,000 Americans died from an opioid overdose in 2018, which translates to 128 lives lost each day.
More than 2 million Americans suffer from opioid use disorder, but only about 25% of people receive any sort of care. For many, inpatient treatment often means leaving a job and loved ones behind to seek recovery.
Individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) struggle to get effective care: Of 2 million Americans with the illness, only 26% receive treatment. Now, as the coronavirus pandemic presents an added strain on the U.S. health care system, it is creating greater hardships for those seeking OUD treatment.
Opioid-related overdose deaths have devastated communities throughout the country. But fatalities related to psychostimulant drugs—which increase activity in the body’s central nervous system—are increasing, and complicating efforts to curb the nation’s overdose crisis.
More than 2 million Americans struggle with opioid use disorder (OUD), a chronic relapsing medical condition, but access to medication-assisted treatment remains limited. Buprenorphine helps alleviate painful symptoms associated with the disorder. But few clinicians prescribe the drug.
Opioid use disorder is a complex brain disease, but it is often still viewed as a moral failing. This stigma can keep people from accessing care for their disease, including medication-assisted treatment (MAT), which combines Food and Drug Administration-approved medications with behavioral therapies. Watch how MAT can help people manage their disease, a critical step in reducing the risk of overdose and improving health.
When Are Prescribers Required to Use Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs?
Prescriber use mandates are state laws that require health care providers to check the prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP)—a state-based electronic database intended to help reduce misuse and diversion of controlled substances—under specific circumstances. | <urn:uuid:d87f6722-b232-44d2-8119-e99fd6a72dbc> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | http://www1.pewtrusts.org/en/projects/substance-use-prevention-and-treatment-initiative | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141176864.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20201124140942-20201124170942-00243.warc.gz | en | 0.933851 | 408 | 3.28125 | 3 |
“This remarkable study of modern life expands historical archaeology in exciting, bold ways. We finally have a book that provides fresh perspectives on modernity and its everyday meanings to people living with its implications.”—Charles E. Orser Jr., author of The Archaeology of Race and Racialization in Historic America
“Innovative. Assessing how social, economic, and cultural life in the Midwest were codified and reproduced at the turn of the twentieth century, Graff elucidates the impacts of a rapidly developing industrial economy, the rise of labor unions and unrest, and burgeoning ideas of modernity.”—Deborah L. Rotman, author of The Archaeology of Gender in Historic America
“Graff has provided compelling insight into past Chicago society through the lens of archaeology, exploring that most revealing source—the trash people left behind.”—Matthew Johnson, author of Archaeological Theory: An Introduction
Through archaeological and archival research from sites associated with the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Disposing of Modernity: The Archaeology of Garbage and Consumerism during Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair explores the changing world of urban America at the turn of the twentieth century. Featuring excavations of trash deposited during the fair, Rebecca Graff’s first-of-its-kind study reveals changing consumer patterns, notions of domesticity and progress, and anxieties about the modernization of society.
Graff examines artifacts, architecture, and written records from the 1893 fair’s Ohio Building, which was used as a clubhouse for fairgoers in Jackson Park, and the Charnley-Persky House, an aesthetically modern city residence designed by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. Many of the items she uncovers were products that first debuted at world’s fairs, and materials such as mineral water bottles, cheese containers, dentures, and dinnerware illustrate how fairs created markets for new goods and influenced consumer practices.
Graff discusses how the fair’s ephemeral nature gave it transformative power in Chicago society, and she connects its accompanying “conspicuous disposal” habits to today’s waste disposal regimes. Reflecting on current plans to build the Obama Presidential Center at the site of the Chicago World’s Fair, she draws attention to the ways the historical trends documented here continue in the present.
Rebecca S. Graff is associate professor of anthropology at Lake Forest College. | <urn:uuid:6286b5c6-9f7a-4c4f-9961-23571a3917c8> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://floridapress.blog/2020/08/04/disposing-of-modernity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141189141.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20201127044624-20201127074624-00403.warc.gz | en | 0.908998 | 513 | 2.921875 | 3 |
How well do you really know the last 27 books of the Bible? This quiz will help you to identify subjects such as Jesus' miracles, the epistles, and parables that you may need to brush up on. Consider the mechanics of the New Testament when taking this quiz, since it explores authorship, form, and presentation of the Bible as much as it does the specific teachings of Christ.
The New Testament is a collection of books that offer details about the life, death, and legacy of Jesus. The plethora of his moral teachings contained therein form the basis of the Christian faith. The first four books are the Gospels, which detail Jesus' life. The book of Acts chronicles the trials of the disciples and one of Christ's fiercest crusaders for the faith, the Apostle Paul. Paul's epistles immediately precede Revelation, which illustrates in graphic detail why walking the narrow path is so crucial for Christians.
If you are new to this religion or you are simply a fan of the faith, this quiz is a great way to get familiar with solid Christian concepts. Enhance your quiz experience and see how many questions you can answer correctly without peeking in your Bible! | <urn:uuid:bd278731-fd99-4908-84fe-a03b6941be02> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://play.howstuffworks.com/quiz/the-new-testament-literacy-test?rmalg=es&remorapos=0&remorasrc=f221610f3c3c45c6ba04323676a53479&remoraregion=bottom | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141195656.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20201128125557-20201128155557-00483.warc.gz | en | 0.941314 | 240 | 2.984375 | 3 |
A graphically stunning introduction to constellations for the youngest readers, following the meteoric rise of global bestseller Seeing Stars. This stylish, informative board book helps younger children identify six of the most recognizable animal constellations from The Great Bear to The Southern Fish. Each constellation is introduced as a cluster of stars with its connected-line shape; readers then guess the animal through a series of read-aloud clues. A full animal illustration gatefold reveals the answer, accompanied by extra information about the constellation and its important stars.
Perfect for bedtime stargazing!
- Illustrator: Sara Gillingham
- 32 Pages
- Age recommendation: 2-4 | <urn:uuid:506fbd89-9b0e-4586-81f8-16a3147d25a4> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.boutiquelittle.com/products/animals-in-the-sky | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141716970.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20201202205758-20201202235758-00003.warc.gz | en | 0.893732 | 137 | 2.875 | 3 |
Boasting one of Western culture's oldest and richest literary traditions, French literature has long been a pioneer of style and innovation. From the farcical comedies of Moliere to the torment of Baudelaire's verse, it has inspired writers and artists everywhere throughout the ages. This comprehensive Beginner's Guide tells French literature's compelling story from the beginning right up to today. Highlighting its distinct qualities, Carol Clark explores how the literary styles of different periods took shape and shows what we can gain from reading classic and modern French works. With translations and explanations of noteworthy extracts from celebrated writers, this is the perfect introduction for anyone who wants to discover the delights French literature offers.
Carol Clark is an Emeritus Fellow of Balliol College and former University Lecturer in French at the University of Oxford. She has translated works by Baudelaire, Proust, and Rostand for Penguin Classics. | <urn:uuid:356c26ec-bc93-422c-bb7e-09ae78c4e45f> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/French-Literature/Carol-Clark/Beginners-Guides/9781780740928 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141176922.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20201124170142-20201124200142-00523.warc.gz | en | 0.948382 | 185 | 3.453125 | 3 |
According to data released by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on Friday, much of Greece is at a “low” or “medium” risk level for Covid-19.
The ECDC records the epidemiological burden across Europe, and classifies either entire countries or regions, depending on their coronavirus risk level.
Unlike much of Europe, excluding areas of Central and Northern Europe, which is considered high-risk, much of Greece is at low or medium risk.
The regions of Attica, Central Greece, Macedonia, Epirus, are at medium risk, and areas of Central Macedonia belong to the high-risk category.
Southern Greece, Eastern Macedonia, and Thrace are all considered very low risk areas.
All European countries, except for Greece, Cyprus, Finland, Estonia, Liechtenstein and Norway, which are considered “stable” by the ECDC, are in a situation of “great epidemiological concern” in terms of the virus.
Although the stable countries may report an increase in cases, like Greece, they are still considered to have a relatively low risk level for young and healthy citizens.
Older people and those who belong to vulnerable groups in these stable countries are still considered to be of high risk, however.
Despite their stable designations, the situation regarding Covid-19 in the six countries should be carefully monitored, as the virus can spread quickly, increasing the countries’ risk level, according to the authorities. | <urn:uuid:a768beb0-c444-4031-9847-f6d9fb9662da> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://greece.greekreporter.com/2020/10/23/european-data-considers-coronavirus-risk-in-greece-mainly-low-to-medium/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141185851.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20201126001926-20201126031926-00603.warc.gz | en | 0.948238 | 313 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The ovarian hormone estrogen has long been used to treat the physical symptoms of menopause and to aid in the prevention of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Cumulative evidence from basic science and clinical research suggests that estrogen also plays a significant neuromodulatory and neuroprotective role. The numerous estrogenic effects in the brain include the modulation of synaptogenesis, increased cerebral blood flow, mediation of important neurotransmitters and hormones, protection against apoptosis, anti-inflammatory actions, and antioxidant properties. These multiple actions in the central nervous system support estrogen as a potential treatment for the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common form of dementia. Evidence from epidemiological studies supports enhanced cognitive function in women with AD taking estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) as well as a reduced risk for developing AD in healthy women receiving ERT. Additional clinical evidence suggests that estrogen may modulate specific cognitive functions such as working memory and verbal learning and memory. However, results from more recent controlled trials have not consistently shown a beneficial effect of estrogen on the cognitive function of women with AD. Future research should focus on examining the influence of multiple potential mediators of ERT including the route of estrogen administration, form of estrogen (conjugated estrogens vs estradiol), duration of treatment, opposed versus unopposed estrogen and the use of estrogen analogues. Further, sensitive neuropsychological measures may provide more detailed information concerning the specific effects of estrogen on cognitive function. These important issues must be addressed in order to establish the role of estrogen for the prevention and treatment of AD in women. | <urn:uuid:50479fed-ea57-4466-a8a8-f023005d0203> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12149049/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141185851.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20201126001926-20201126031926-00603.warc.gz | en | 0.915349 | 322 | 2.625 | 3 |
Paris’s Gare du Nord is one of the busiest international transit centers in the world. In the past three decades, it has become an important hub for West African migrants—self-fashioned adventurers—navigating life in the city.
In this groundbreaking work, Julie Kleinman chronicles how West Africans use the Gare du Nord to create economic opportunities, confront police harassment, and forge connections to people outside of their communities. Drawing on ten years of ethnographic research, including an internship at the French national railway company, Kleinman reveals how racial inequality is ingrained in the order of Parisian public space. She vividly describes the extraordinary ways that African migrants retool French transit infrastructure to build alternative pathways toward social and economic integration where state institutions have failed. In doing so, these adventurers defy boundaries—between migrant and citizen, center and periphery, neighbor and stranger—that have shaped urban planning and immigration policy. Adventure Capital offers a new understanding of contemporary migration and belonging, capturing the central role that West African migrants play in revitalizing French urban life.
December 18th is International Migrants Day. Created by the United Nations, the day is observed “with the aim of creating more dialogues and interactions within countries and regions, as well as propelling …Read More > | <urn:uuid:f04e676d-3585-4f94-897e-d89c78140134> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520304413/adventure-capital | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141195745.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20201128184858-20201128214858-00043.warc.gz | en | 0.919579 | 258 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Hello from zero degrees longitude
This laser projected from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, in London, England, marks the prime meridian, dividing Earth’s Eastern and Western Hemispheres and helping travelers to chart their courses by establishing a universally adopted zero degrees longitude. The meridian itself is essentially an imaginary line, arbitrarily placed. By the early 19th century, most maritime countries had established their own prime meridians to aid in navigation. But on this date in 1884, delegates from 25 nations met at a conference in Washington, DC, where they established Greenwich as the international standard for mapping and timekeeping. The decision made sense, as the Greenwich meridian was already widely used. But there was one holdout: France abstained from the vote and used its own Paris meridian for several decades before eventually joining other countries in recognizing the Greenwich meridian.
‘Ghost Wood,’ Nienhagen, Germany | <urn:uuid:f94020a8-1407-49c8-83a1-8a79f2d1c7f9> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://majormike.us/subjects/greenwich/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141205147.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20201130035203-20201130065203-00123.warc.gz | en | 0.934969 | 191 | 3.625 | 4 |
Synopses & Reviews
It is widely believed that the Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity politicized religious allegiances, dividing the Christian Roman Empire from the Zoroastrian Sasanian Empire and leading to the persecution of Christians in Persia. This account, however, is based on Greek ecclesiastical histories and Syriac martyrdom narratives that date to centuries after the fact. In this groundbreaking study, Kyle Smith analyzes diverse Greek, Latin, and Syriac sources to show that there was not a single history of fourth-century Mesopotamia. By examining the conflicting hagiographical and historical evidence, Constantine and the Captive Christians of Persia presents an evocative and evolving portrait of the first Christian emperor, uncovering how Syriac Christians manipulated the image of their western Christian counterparts to fashion their own political and religious identities during this century of radical change. | <urn:uuid:52360d15-bf83-454e-b4dc-d46b7d0c691b> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.powells.com/book/constantine-and-the-captive-christians-of-persia-9780520289604 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141205147.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20201130035203-20201130065203-00123.warc.gz | en | 0.931585 | 169 | 2.71875 | 3 |
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Radiating fire and ice, comets as a phenomenon seem part science, part myth. Two thousand years ago when a comet shot across the night sky, it convinced the Romans that Julius Caesar was a god. In 1066, Halley’s Comet was interpreted as a foreshadowing of the death of Harold the Second in the Battle of Hastings. Even today the arrival of a comet often feels auspicious, confirming our hopes, fears, and sense of wonder in the universe.
In Comets, P. Andrew Karam takes the reader on a far-ranging exploration of these most beautiful and dramatic objects in the skies, revealing how comets and humanity have been interwoven throughout history. He delves into the science of comets and how it has changed over time; the way comets have been depicted in art, religion, literature, and popular culture; and how comets have appeared in the heavens through the centuries. Comprehensive in scope and beautifully illustrated throughout, the book will appeal not only to the budding astronomer, but to anyone with an appreciation for these compelling and remarkable celestial bodies. | <urn:uuid:95bfc1c8-5b80-4fc7-b99e-0620fc6dcd17> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.bibliovault.org/BV.book.epl?ISBN=9781780238586 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141735600.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20201204101314-20201204131314-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.953198 | 229 | 3.515625 | 4 |
The short story ”Konovalov" (1897) is an example of Maxim Gorky’s autobiographical writing, depicting the suicide of a quiet prisoner, Konovalov, whom Gorky decides to immortalize on the page. The narrative follows the chronological life of the main character, constructed from the memory of the narrator himself, adding a tinge of authenticity. The story brings some existentialist philosophies to mind, coating the ordinary situations with an air of nostalgia and universality, so characteristic of Gorky’s entire oeuvre.
Maxim Gorky has its place among the most talented and original Russian modern writers. A five-time Nobel Prize nominee, Gorky’s position in Russian literature is undisputable. He led a turbulent life of an exile, a dissenter, and a Bolshevik associate, which severely marked his literary endeavours. A strong supporter of Russia’s political, social, and cultural transformation, Gorky’s name still echoes in the annals of history. His best-known works include "The Lower Depths", "My Childhood,", "Mother", and "Children of the Sun". | <urn:uuid:003f6c3a-282f-48aa-b001-731e2e59533f> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.bookbeat.com/be/book/Konovalov-274330 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141735600.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20201204101314-20201204131314-00363.warc.gz | en | 0.903696 | 236 | 3.0625 | 3 |
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