The Independent Jane
For all the love, romance and scandal in Jane Austen’s books, what they are really about is freedom and independence. Independence of thought and the freedom to choose.
Elizabeth’s refusal of Mr. Collins offer of marriage showed an independence seldom seen in heroines of the day. Her refusal of Mr. Darcy while triggered by anger showed a level of independence that left him shocked and stunned.
The freedom she exhibited in finally accepting him in direct defiance of Lady Catherine and knowing her father would disapprove was unusual even for Austen. In her last book Anne Elliot is persuaded to refuse Captain Wentworth at Lady Russel’s insistence.
Although Jane played by the rules of the day, all of her writing is infused with how she wanted life to be. She ‘screams’ her outrage at the limitations for women in Emma.
When accosted by Mrs. Elton, Jane Fairfax says,
“Excuse me, ma’am, but this is by no means my intention; I make no inquiry myself, and should be sorry to have any made by my friends. When I am quite determined as to the time, I am not at all afraid of being long unemployed. There are places in town, offices, where inquiry would soon produce something — offices for the sale, not quite of human flesh, but of human intellect.”
“Oh! my dear, human flesh! You quite shock me; if you mean a fling at the slave-trade, I assure you Mr. Suckling was always rather a friend to the abolition.”
“I did not mean, I was not thinking of the slave-trade,” replied Jane; “governess-trade, I assure you, was all that I had in view; widely different certainly, as to the guilt of those who carry it on; but as to the greater misery of the victims, I do not know where it lies.”
That same sentiment is emphasized in Emma’s shock when Mrs. Weston tells her of Frank Churchill’s secret engagement to Jane.
“Good God!” cried Emma, “Jane actually on the point of going as governess! What could he mean by such horrible indelicacy? To suffer her to engage herself — to suffer her even to think of such a measure!”
I find it interesting that at the moment of Austen’s birth or there about, John Adams left his farm in Massachusetts for the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Doesn’t sound particularly interesting, I know but consider this.
John Adams left his home in mid-December 1775 to attend an unprecedented meeting of colonial representatives to consider severing ties with their mother country and her monarch; a decision that culminated in a document unlike any ever written. In the mother country, one day in that same cold December a baby girl was born at Steventon Rectory. Her cry was heard by only the people in the house but the years to come would see her pen create works unlike any the world had ever seen.
Comparing Austen’s words with Thomas Jefferson’s may seem a trivialization but I believe that Austen’s impact on the world is no less important than Jefferson’s. The effect of Jane’s writing maybe more subtle than that of the Virginian but it is no less influential.
Jefferson’s words instigated and promoted a revolution, a war of independence. Jane’s words had no such excessive consequence. Still in her own quiet, genteel yet powerful way she declared and promoted the same principles of freedom and self-regulated independence as our American forefathers. In all her novels Jane advocates independence of person and thought, the rights of all and acceptance of responsibility for those rights.
Jane may not have incited military action as Jefferson did but even as an avowed royalist, I doubt not that Jane Austen firmly believed in his declaration of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.


Tornadoes are the most intense storms on the planet, and they’re never discussed without at least some mention of the term wind shear. Many of us sitting at home, though, have no idea what wind shear is, or if we do, how it affects tornado production.
What is Wind Shear
Wind shear, although it might sound complex, is a simple concept. Wind shear is merely the change in wind with height, in terms of wind direction and speed. I think that we all understand that the wind is generally stronger in the atmosphere over our heads than it is here on the ground, and if we think of the atmosphere in terms of the three dimensions that it has, it should not be surprising that the wind above us might also be blowing from a different direction than the wind at the ground. When that happens–the wind speed and direction vary with height–wind shear is occurring.
Wind Shear and Supercell Thunderstorms
This wind shear is an important part of the process in the development of a supercell thunderstorm, from which the vast majority of strong tornadoes form.
All thunderstorms are produced by a powerful updraft–a surge of air that rises from the ground into the upper levels of the atmosphere, and when this updraft forms in an area where wind shear is present, the updraft is influence by this speed and different direction of the wind above, pushing the column of air in the updraft into a more vertical alignment.
Rain’s Influence on Tornado Production
Needless to say, thunderstorms typically produce very heavy rain, and rain-cooled air is much heavier than the warm air of the updraft, so the rain-cooled air, produces a compensating downdraft (what comes up, must come down). This downdraft pushes the part of the rotating air that was forced in its direction by the stronger wind aloft downward, and the result is a horizontal column of rotating air.
That’s Not a Tornado!
I know what you’re thinking that you’ve seen enough TLC or Discovery Channel shows to know that a horizontal column of air is NOT a tornado; you need a vertical column of air.
This Can Be a Tornado
You’re right, but remember the updraft that is driving the thunderstorm is still working, and it’s able to pull the horizontal, spinning column of air into the thunderstorm, resulting in a vertical column of spinning air.
(NOAA image showing vertical column of air in a supercell thunderstorm)
The result is a rotating thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado, and it would not be possible without wind shear.
(NOAA image showing tornado formation in supercell thunderstorm)


Is this bone a Neanderthal flute?
Cave Bear femur fragment from Slovenia, 43+kya
DOUBTS AIRED OVER NEANDERTHAL BONE 'FLUTE'
(AND REPLY BY MUSICOLOGIST BOB FINK)
Science News 153 (April 4, 1998): 215.
By B. Bower
Amid much media fanfare, a research team in 1996 trumpeted an ancient, hollowed out bear bone pierced on one side with four complete or partial holes as the earliest known musical instrument. The perforated bone, found in an Eastern European cave, represents a flute made and played by Neandertals at least 43,000 ye us ago, the scientists contended.
Now it's time to stop the music, say two archaeologists who examined the purported flute last spring. On closer inspection, the bone appears to have been punctured and gnawed by the teeth of an animal -- perhaps a wolf -- as it stripped the limb of meat and marrow report, April Nowell and Philip G. Chase, both of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. "The bone was heavily chewed by one or more carnivores, creating holes that became more rounded due to natural processes after burial," Nowell says. "It provides very weak evidence for the origins of [Stone Age] music." Nowell presented the new analysis at the annual meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society in Seattle last week.
Nowell and Chase examined the bone with the permission of its discoverer, Ivan Turk of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences in Ljubljana (S.N.: 11/23/96, p. 328). Turk knows of their conclusion but still views the specimen as a flute.
Both open ends of the thighbone contain clear signs of gnawing by carnivores, Nowell asserts. Wolves and other animals typically bite off nutrient-rich tissue at the ends of limb bones and extract available marrow. If Neandertals had hollowed out the bone and fashioned holes in it, animals would not have bothered to gnaw it, she says.
Complete and partial holes on the bone's shaft were also made by carnivores, says Nowell. Carnivores typically break open bones with their scissor like cheek teeth. Uneven bone thickness and signs of wear along the borders of the holes, products of extended burial in the soil, indicate that openings made by cheek teeth were at first less rounded and slightly smaller, the researchers hold.
Moreover, the simultaneous pressure of an upper and lower tooth produced a set of opposing holes, one partial and one complete, they maintain.
Prehistoric, carnivore-chewed bear bones in two Spanish caves display circular punctures aligned in much the same way as those on the Slovenian find. In the March Antiquity, Francesco d'Errico of the Institute of Quaternary Prehistory and Geology in Talence, France, and his colleagues describe the Spanish bones.
In a different twist, Bob Fink, an independent musicologist in Canada, has reported
on the Internet
(http://www.webster.sk.ca/greenwich/fl-compl.htm) that the spacing of the two complete and two partial holes on the back of the Slovenian bone conforms to musical notes on the diatonic (do, re, mi. . .) scale.
The bone is too short to incorporate the diatonic scale's seven notes, counter Nowell and Chase. Working with Pennsylvania musicologist Robert Judd, they estimate that the find's 5.7-inch length is less than half that needed to cover the diatonic spectrum. The recent meeting presentation is "a most convincing analysis," comments J. Desmond Clark of the University of California, Berkeley, although it's possible that Neandertals blew single notes through carnivore-chewed holes in the bone.
"We can't exclude that possibility," Nowell responds. "But it's a big leap of faith to conclude that this was an intentionally constructed flute."
TO THE EDITOR, SCIENCE NEWS (REPLY BY BOB FINK, May 1998)
(See an update of this discussion on Bob Fink's web site, November 2000)
The doubts raised by Nowell and Chase (April 4th, DOUBTS AIRED OVER NEANDERTHAL BONE 'FLUTE') saying the Neanderthal Bone is not a flute have these weaknesses:
The alignment of the holes -- all in a row, and all of equivalent diameter, appear to be contrary to most teeth marks, unless some holes were made independently by several animals. The latter case boggles the odds for the holes ending up being in line. It also would be strange that animals homed in on this one bone in a cave full of bones, where no reports of similarly chewed bones have been made.
This claim is harder to believe when it is calculated that chances for holes to
be arranged, by chance, in a pattern that matches the spacings of 4 notes of a
diatonic flute, are only one in hundreds to occur .
The analysis I made on the Internet (http://www.webster.sk.ca/greenwich/fl-compl.htm) regarding the bone being capable of matching 4 notes of the do, re, mi (diatonic) scale included the possibility that the bone was extended with another bone "mouthpiece" sufficiently long to make the notes sound fairly in tune. While Nowell says "it's a big leap of faith to conclude that this was an intentionally constructed flute," it's a bigger leap of faith to accept the immense coincidence that animals blindly created a hole-spacing pattern with holes all in line (in what clearly looks like so many other known bone flutes which are made to play notes in a step-wise scale) and blindly create a pattern that also could play a known acoustic scale if the bone was extended. That's too much coincidence for me to accept. It is more likely that it is an intentionally made flute, although admittedly with only the barest of clues regarding its original condition.
The 5.7 inch figure your article quoted appears erroneous, as the centimeter scale provided by its discoverer, Ivan Turk, indicates the artifact is about 4.3 inches long. However, the unbroken femur would originally have been about 8.5 inches, and the possibility of an additional hole or two exists, to complete a full scale, perhaps aided by the possible thumbhole. However, the full diatonic spectrum is not required as indicated by Nowell and Chase: It could also have been a simpler (but still diatonic) 4 or 5 note scale. Such short-scale flutes are plentiful in homo sapiens history.
Finally, a worn-out or broken flute bone can serve as a scoop for manipulation of food, explaining why animals might chew on its ends later. It is also well-known that dogs chase and maul even sticks, despite their non-nutritional nature. What appears "weak" is not the case for a flute, but the case against it by Nowell and Chase.
Letter to the Editor: Antiquity Journal:
"A Bone to Pick"
By Bob Fink
I have a bone to pick with Francesco d'Errico's viewpoint in the March issue of Antiquity (article too long to reproduce here) regarding the Neanderthal flute found in Slovenia by Ivan Turk. D'Errico argues the bone artifact is not a flute.
D'Errico omits dealing with the best evidence that this bone find is a flute.
Regarding the most important evidence, that of the holes being lined up, neither d'Errico nor Turk make mention of this.
This line-up is remarkable especially if they were made by more than one carnivore, which apparently they'd have to be, based on Turk's analysis of the center-spans of the holes precluding their being made by a single carnivore or bite (Turk,* pp.171-175). To account for this possible difficulty, some doubters do mention "one or more" carnivores (Chase & Nowell, Science News 4/4/98).
My arguments over the past year pointed out the mathematical odds of the lining up of the holes occurring by chance-chewing are too difficult to believe.
The Appendix in my essay ("Neanderthal Flute --A Musicological Analysis") proves that the number of ways a set of 4 random holes could be differently spaced (to produce an audibly different set of tones) are 680 ways. The chances a random set would match the existing fragment's spacing [which also could produce a match to four diatonic notes of the scale] are therefore only one in hundreds. If, in calculating the odds, you also allowed the holes to be out of line, or to be less than 4 holes as well, then the chance of a line-up match is only one from many tens of thousands.
And yet randomness and animal bites still are acceptable to account for holes being in line that could also play some notes of the scale? This is too much coincidence for me to believe occurred by chance.
D'Errico mentions my essay in his article and what he thought it was about, but he overstates my case into being a less believable one. My case simply was that if the bone was long enough (or a shorter bone extended by a mouthpiece insert) then the 4 holes would be consistent and in tune with the sounds of Do, Re, Mi, Fa (or flat Mi, Fa, Sol, and flat La in a minor scale).
In the 5 points I list below, extracted from Turk's monograph in support of this being a flute, d'Errico omits dealing with much of the first, and all of the second, fourth and sixth points.
Turk & Co's monograph shows the presence on site of boring tools, and includes experiments made by Turk's colleague Guiliano Bastiani who successfully produced similar holes in fresh bone using tools of the type found at the site (pp. 176-78 Turk).
They also wrote (pp. 171-75) that:
1. The center-to-center distances of the holes in the artifact are smaller than that of the tooth spans of most carnivores. The smallest tooth spans they found were 45mm, and the holes on the bone are 35mm (or less) apart;
2. Holes bitten are usually at the ends of bones rather than in the center of them;
3. There is an absence of dents, scratches and other signs of gnawing and counter-bites on the artifact;
4. The center-to-center distances do not correspond to the spans of carnivores which could pierce the bone;
5. The diameters of the holes are greater than that producible by a wolf exerting the greatest jaw pressure it had available -- it's doubtful that a wolf's jaws would be strong enough (like a hyena's) to have made the holes, especially in the thickest part of the wall of the artifact.
6. If you accept one or more carnivores, then why did they over-target one bone, when there were so many other bones in the cave site? Only about 4.5% of the juvenile bones were chewed or had holes, according to Turk (p. 117).
* Turk, Ivan (ed.) (1997). Mousterian Bone Flute. Znanstvenoraziskovalni
Center Sazu, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Maintained by Francis F. Steen, Communication Studies, University of California Los Angeles


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Lettris is a curious tetris-clone game where all the bricks have the same square shape but different content. Each square carries a letter. To make squares disappear and save space for other squares you have to assemble English words (left, right, up, down) from the falling squares.
Boggle gives you 3 minutes to find as many words (3 letters or more) as you can in a grid of 16 letters. You can also try the grid of 16 letters. Letters must be adjacent and longer words score better. See if you can get into the grid Hall of Fame !
Change the target language to find translations.
Tips: browse the semantic fields (see From ideas to words) in two languages to learn more.
1.the language of educated people in ancient Rome"Latin is a language as dead as dead can be. It killed the ancient Romans--and now it's killing me"
classical Latin (n.)
Latin inscription in the Colosseum
|Spoken in||Roman republic, Roman empire|
|Region||mare nostrum (Mediterranean)|
|Era||75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin|
|Writing system||Latin alphabet|
|Official language in||Roman republic, Roman empire|
|Regulated by||Schools of grammar and rhetoric|
The range of Latin, 60 AD
Classical Latin in simplest terms is the socio-linguistic register of the Latin language regarded by the enfranchised and empowered populations of the late Roman republic and the Roman empire as good Latin. Most writers during this time made use of it. Any unabridged Latin dictionary informs moderns that Marcus Tullius Cicero and his contemporaries of the late republic while using lingua Latina and sermo Latinus to mean the Latin language as opposed to the Greek or other languages, and sermo vulgaris or sermo vulgi to refer to the vernacular of the uneducated masses, regarded the speech they valued most and in which they wrote as Latinitas, "Latinity", with the implication of good. Sometimes it is called sermo familiaris, "speech of the good families", sermo urbanus, "speech of the city" or rarely sermo nobilis, "noble speech", but mainly besides Latinitas it was Latine (adverb), "in good Latin", or Latinius (comparative degree of adjective), "good Latin."
Latinitas was spoken as well as written. Moreover, it was the language taught by the schools. Prescriptive rules therefore applied to it, and where a special subject was concerned, such as poetry or rhetoric, additional rules applied as well. Now that the spoken Latinitas has become extinct (in favor of various other registers later in date) the rules of the, for the most part, polished (politus) texts may give the appearance of an artificial language, but Latinitas was a form of sermo, or spoken language and as such retains a spontaneity. No authors are noted for the type of rigidity evidenced by stylized art, except possibly the repetitious abbreviations and stock phrases of inscriptions.
Good Latin in philology is "classical" Latin literature. The term refers to the canonicity of works of literature written in Latin in the late Roman republic and the early to middle Roman empire: "that is to say, that of belonging to an exclusive group of authors (or works) that were considered to be emblematic of a certain genre." The term classicus (masculine plural classici) was devised by the Romans themselves to translate Greek ἐγκριθέντες (egkrithentes), "select", referring to authors who wrote in Greek that were considered model. Before then, classis, in addition to being a naval fleet, was a social class in one of the diachronic divisions of Roman society according to property ownership by the Roman constitution. The word is a transliteration of Greek κλῆσις (klēsis) "calling", used to rank army draftees by property from first to fifth class.
Classicus is anything primae classis, "first class", such as the authors of the polished works of Latinitas, or sermo urbanus. It had nuances of the certified and the authentic: testis classicus, "reliable witness." It was in this sense that Marcus Cornelius Fronto (an African-Roman lawyer and language teacher) in the 2nd century AD used scriptores classici, "first-class" or "reliable authors" whose works could be relied upon as model of good Latin. This is the first known reference, possibly innovated at this time, to classical applied to authors by virtue of the authentic language of their works.
In imitation of the Greek grammarians, the Roman ones, such as Quintilian, drew up lists termed indices or ordines on the model of the Greek lists, termed pinakes, considered classical: the recepti scriptores, "select writers." Aulus Gellius includes many authors, such as Plautus, who are currently considered writers of Old Latin and not strictly in the period of classical Latin. The classical Romans distinguished Old Latin as prisca Latinitas and not sermo vulgaris. Each author (and work) in the Roman lists was considered equivalent to one in the Greek; for example Ennius was the Latin Homer, the Aeneid was a new Iliad, and so on. The lists of classical authors were as far as the Roman grammarians went in developing a philology. The topic remained at that point while interest in the classici scriptores declined in the medieval period as the best Latin yielded to medieval Latin, somewhat less than the best by classical standards.
The Renaissance brought a revival of interest in restoring as much of Roman culture as could be restored and with it the return of the concept of classic, "the best." Thomas Sebillet in 1548 (Art Poétique) referred to "les bons et classiques poètes françois", meaning Jean de Meun and Alain Chartier, which was the first modern application of the word. According to Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, the term classical, from classicus, entered modern English in 1599, some 50 years after its re-introduction on the continent. Governor William Bradford in 1648 referred to synods of a separatist church as "classical meetings" in his Dialogue, a report of a meeting between New-England-born "young men" and "ancient men" from Holland and England. In 1715 Laurence Echard's Classical Geographical Dictionary was published. In 1736 Robert Ainsworth's Thesaurus Linguae Latinae Compendarius turned English words and expressions into "proper and classical Latin." In 1768 David Ruhnken (Critical History of the Greek Orators) recast the mold of the view of the classical by applying the word canon to the pinakes of orators, after the Biblical canon or list of authentic books of the Bible. Ruhnken had a kind of secular catechism in mind.
In 1870 Wilhelm Sigismund Teuffel in Geschichte der Römischen Literatur (A History of Roman Literature) innovated the definitive philological classification of classical Latin based on the metaphoric uses of the ancient myth of the Ages of Man, a practice then universally current: a Golden Age and a Silver Age of classical Latin were to be presumed. The practice and Teuffel's classification, with modifications, are still in use. His work was translated into English as soon as published in German by Wilhelm Wagner, who corresponded with Teuffel. Wagner published the English translation in 1873. Teuffel divides the chronology of classical Latin authors into several periods according to political events, rather than by style. Regarding the style of the literary Latin of those periods he had but few comments.
Teuffel was to go on with other editions of his history, but meanwhile it had come out in English almost as soon as it did in German and found immediate favorable reception. In 1877 Charles Thomas Cruttwell produced the first English work along the same lines. In his Preface he refers to "Teuffel's admirable history, without which many chapters in the present work could not have attained completeness" and also gives credit to Wagner.
Cruttwell adopts the same periods with minor differences; however, where Teuffel's work is mainly historical, Cruttwell's work contains detailed analyses of style. Nevertheless like Teuffel he encounters the same problem of trying to summarize the voluminous detail in a way that captures in brief the gist of a few phases of writing styles. Like Teuffel, he has trouble finding a name for the first of the three periods (the current Old Latin phase), calling it mainly "from Livius to Sulla." The language, he says, is "…marked by immaturity of art and language, by a vigorous but ill-disciplined imitation of Greek poetical models, and in prose by a dry sententiousness of style, gradually giving way to a clear and fluent strength…" These abstracts have little meaning to those not well-versed in Latin literature. In fact, Cruttwell admits "The ancients, indeed, saw a difference between Ennius, Pacuvius, and Accius, but it may be questioned whether the advance would be perceptible by us."
Some of Cruttwell's ideas have become stock in Latin philology for better or for worse. While praising the application of rules to classical Latin, most intensely in the Golden Age, he says "In gaining accuracy, however, classical Latin suffered a grievous loss. It became cultivated as distinct from a natural language… Spontaneity, therefore, became impossible and soon invention also ceased… In a certain sense, therefore, Latin was studied as a dead language, while it was still a living." These views are certainly debatable; one might ask how the upper classes of late 16th century Britain, who shared the Renaissance zealousness for the classics, managed to speak spontaneous Latin to each other officially and unofficially after being taught classical Latin by tutors hired for the purpose. Latinitas in the Golden Age was in fact sermo familiaris, the spoken Latin of the Roman upper classes, who sent their children to school to learn it. The debate continues.
A second problem is the appropriateness of Teuffel's scheme to the concept of classical Latin, which Teuffel does not discuss. Cruttwell addresses the problem, however, altering the concept of the classical. As the best Latin is defined as golden Latin, the second of the three periods, the other two periods considered classical are left hanging. While on the one hand assigning to Old Latin the term pre-classical and by implication the term post-classical (or post-Augustan) to silver Latin Cruttwell realizes that this construct is not according to ancient usage and asserts "…the epithet classical is by many restricted to the authors who wrote in it [golden Latin]. It is best, however, not to narrow unnecessarily the sphere of classicity; to exclude Terence on the one hand or Tacitus and Pliny on the other, would savour of artificial restriction rather than that of a natural classification." (This from a scholar who had just been complaining that golden Latin was not a natural language.) The contradiction remains; Terence is and is not a classical author depending on context.
After defining a "First Period" of inscriptional Latin and the literature of the earliest known authors and fragments, to which he assigns no definitive name (he does use the term "Old Roman" at one point), Teuffel presents "the second period", his major, "das goldene Zeitalter der römischen Literatur", the Golden Age of Roman Literature, dated 671 – 767 AUC or 83 BC – 14 AD according to his time reckoning, between the dictatorship of Lucius Cornelius Sulla and the death of the emperor Augustus. Of it Wagner translating Teuffel writes
The golden age of the Roman literature is that period in which the climax was reached in the perfection of form, and in most respects also in the methodical treatment of the subject-matters. It may be subdivided between the generations, in the first of which (the Ciceronian Age) prose culminated, while poetry was principally developed in the Augustan Age.
The Ciceronian Age was dated 671–711 AUC (83 BC – 43 BC), ending just after the assassination of Gaius Julius Caesar, and the Augustan 711–67 AUC (43 BC – 14 AD), ending with the death of Augustus. The Ciceronian Age is further divided by the consulship of Cicero in 691 AUC or 63 BC into a first and second half. Authors are assigned to these periods by years of principal achievements.
The Golden Age had already made an appearance in German philology but in a less systematic way. In Bielfeld's 1770 Elements of universal erudition the author says (in translation): "The Second Age of Latin began about the time of Caesar [his ages are different from Teuffel's], and ended with Tiberius. This is what is called the Augustan Age, which was perhaps of all others the most brilliant, a period at which it should seem as if the greatest men, and the immortal authors, had met together upon the earth, in order to write the Latin language in its utmost purity and perfection." and of Tacitus "…his conceits and sententious style is not that of the golden age…". Teuffel evidently received the ideas of a golden and silver Latin from an existing tradition and embedded them in a new system, transforming them as he thought best.
In Cruttwell's introduction, the Golden Age is dated 80 BC – 14 AD ("from Cicero to Ovid"), which is about the same as Teuffel's. Of this "Second Period" Cruttwell says that it "represents the highest excellence in prose and poetry," paraphrasing Teuffel. The Ciceronian Age is now "the Republican Period" and is dated 80–42 BC through the Battle of Philippi. Later in the book Cruttwell omits Teuffel's first half of the Ciceronian and starts the Golden Age at Cicero's consulship of 63 BC, an error perpetuated into Cruttwell's second edition as well. He must mean 80 BC as he includes Varro in Golden Latin. Teuffel's Augustan Age is Cruttwell's Augustan Epoch, 42 BC – 14 AD.
The literary histories list all authors canonical to the Ciceronian Age even though their works may be fragmentary or may not have survived at all. With the exception of a few major writers, such as Cicero, Caesar, Lucretius and Catullus, ancient accounts of Republican literature are glowing accounts of jurists and orators who wrote prolifically but who now can't be read because their works have been lost, or analyses of language and style that appear insightful but can't be verified because there are no surviving instances. In that sense the pages of literary history are peopled with shadows: Aquilius Gallus, Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, Lucius Licinius Lucullus and many others who left a reputation but no readable works; they are to be presumed in the Golden Age by their associations. A list of some canonical authors of the period, whose works have survived in whole or in part (typically in part, some only short fragments) is as follows:
The Golden Age is divided by the assassination of Julius Caesar. In the wars that followed the Republican generation of literary men was lost, as most of them had taken the losing side; Marcus Tullius Cicero was beheaded in the street as he enquired from his litter what the disturbance was. They were replaced by a new generation that had grown up and been educated under the old and were now to make their mark under the watchful eye of the new emperor. As the demand for great orators was more or less over, the talent shifted emphasis to poetry. Other than the historian Livy, the most remarkable writers of the period were the poets Vergil, Horace, and Ovid. Although Augustus evidenced some toleration to republican sympathizers, he exiled Ovid, and imperial tolerance ended with the continuance of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty.
Augustan writers include:
In his second volume, on the Imperial Period, Teuffel initiated a slight alteration in approach, making it clearer that his terms applied to the Latin and not just to the age, and also changing his dating scheme from years AUC to modern. Although he introduces das silberne Zeitalter der römischen Literatur, "the Silver Age of Roman Literature", 14–117 AD, from the death of Augustus to the death of Trajan, he also mentions regarding a section of a work by Seneca the Elder a wenig Einfluss der silbernen Latinität, a "slight influence of silver Latin." It is clear that he had shifted in thought from golden and silver ages to golden and silver Latin, and not just Latin, but Latinitas, which must at this point be interpreted as classical Latin. He may have been influenced in that regard by one of his sources, E. Opitz, who in 1852 had published a title specimen lexilogiae argenteae latinitatis, mentioning silver Latinity. Although Teuffel's First Period was equivalent to Old Latin and his Second Period was equal to the Golden Age, his Third Period, die römische Kaiserheit, encompasses both the Silver Age and the centuries now termed Late Latin, in which the forms seemed to break loose from their foundation and float freely; that is, literary men appeared uncertain as to what "good Latin" should mean. The last of the Classical Latin is the Silver Latin. The Silver Age is the first of the Imperial Period and is divided into die Zeit der julischen Dynastie, 14–68; die Zeit der flavischen Dynastie, 69–96; and die Zeit des Nerva und Trajan, 96–117. Subsequently Teuffel goes over to a century scheme: 2nd, 3rd, etc., through 6th. His later editions (which came out in the rest of the late 19th century) divide the Imperial Age into parts: the 1st century (Silver Age), the 2nd century: Hadrian and the Antonines and the 3rd through the 6th Centuries. Of the Silver Age proper, pointing out that anything like freedom of speech had vanished with Tiberius, Teuffel says
…the continual apprehension in which men lived caused a restless versatility… Simple or natural composition was considered insipid; the aim of language was to be brilliant… Hence it was dressed up with abundant tinsel of epigrams, rhetorical figures and poetical terms… Mannerism supplanted style, and bombastic pathos took the place of quiet power.
The content of new literary works was continually proscribed by the emperor (by executing or exiling the author), who also played the role of literary man (typically badly). The talent therefore went into a repertory of new and dazzling mannerisms, which Teuffel calls "utter unreality." Crutwell picks up this theme:
The foremost of these [characteristics] is unreality, arising from the extinction of freedom… Hence arose a declamatory tone, which strove by frigid and almost hyterical exaggeration to make up for the healthy stimulus afforded by daily contact with affairs. The vein of artificial rhetoric, antithesis and epigram… owes its origin to this forced contentment with an uncongenial sphere. With the decay of freedom, taste sank…
In Crutwell's view (which had not been expressed by Teuffel), Silver Latin was a "rank, weed-grown garden", a "decline." Cruttwell had already decried what he saw as a loss of spontaneity in Golden Latin. That Teuffel should regard the Silver Age as a loss of natural language and therefore of spontaneity, implying that the Golden Age had it, is passed without comment. Instead, Tiberius brought about a "sudden collapse of letters." The idea of a decline had been dominant in English society since Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Once again, Cruttwell evidences some unease with his stock pronouncements: "The Natural History of Pliny shows how much remained to be done in fields of great interest." The idea of Pliny as a model is not consistent with any sort of decline; moreover, Pliny did his best work under emperors at least as tolerant as Augustus had been. To include some of the best writings of the Silver Age, Cruttwell found he had to extend the period through the death of Marcus Aurelius, 180 AD. The philosophic prose of that good emperor was in no way compatible with either Teuffel's view of unnatural language or Cruttwell's depiction of a decline. Having created these constructs, the two philologists found they could not entirely justify them; apparently, in the worst implications of their views, there was no classical Latin by the ancient definition at all and some of the very best writing of any period in world history was a stilted and degenerate unnatural language.
Writers of the Silver Age include the following.
Of the additional century granted by Cruttwell and others of his point of view to Silver Latin but not by Teuffel the latter says "The second century was a happy period for the Roman State, the happiest indeed during the whole Empire… But in the world of letters the lassitude and enervation, which told of Rome's decline, became unmistakeable… its forte is in imitation." Teuffel, however, excepts the jurists; others find other "exceptions," recasting Teuffels's view.
The style of language refers to repeatable features of speech that are somewhat less general than the fundamental characteristics of the language. The latter give it a unity allowing it to be referenced under a single name. Thus Old Latin, Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin, etc., are not considered different languages, but are all referenced under the name of Latin. This is an ancient practice continued by moderns rather than a philological innovation of recent times. That Latin had case endings is a fundamental feature of the language. Whether a given form of speech prefers to use prepositions such as ad, ex, de for "to", "from" and "of" rather than simple case endings is a matter of style. Latin has a large number of styles. Each and every author has a style, which typically allows his prose or poetry to be identified by experienced Latinists. The problem of comparative literature has been to group styles finding similarities by period, in which case one may speak of Old Latin, Silver Latin, Late Latin as styles or a phase of styles.
The ancient authors themselves first defined style by recognizing different kinds of sermo, or "speech." In making the value judgement that classical Latin was "first class" and that it was better to write with Latinitas they were themselves selecting the literary and upper-class language of the city as a standard style and all sermo that differed from it was a different style; thus in rhetoric Cicero was able to define sublime, intermediate and low styles (within classical Latin) and St. Augustine to recommend the low style for sermons (from sermo). Style therefore is to be defined by differences in speech from a standard. Teuffel defined that standard as Golden Latin.


In some people, macular degeneration advances so slowly that it has little effect on their vision. But in others, the disease progresses faster and may lead to vision loss. Sometimes only one eye is affected, while the other eye remains free of problems for many years. People with dry macular degeneration in one eye often do not notice any changes in their vision. With one eye seeing clearly, they can still drive, read, and see fine details. Some people may notice changes in their vision only if macular degeneration affects both of their eyes. Both dry and wet macular degeneration cause no pain.
Symptoms of macular degeneration include:
Blurred vision —This is an early sign. An example of early findings is that you may need more light for reading and other tasks.
Difficulty seeing details in front of you —You may have a difficult time seeing words in a book or faces.
Blind spot —A small, growing blind spot will appear in the middle of your field of vision. This spot occurs because a group of cells in the macula have stopped working properly. Over time, the blurred spot may get bigger and darker, taking more of your central vision.
Crooked lines —An early symptom of wet macular degeneration is straight lines that will appear crooked or wavy. This happens because the newly formed blood vessels leak fluid under the macula. The fluid raises the macula from its normal place at the back of the eye and distorts your vision.
Lighting —Images appear more gray in color and colors are not as bright
Contact your ophthalmologist immediately for an eye exam if you notice:
- Visual distortions
- Sudden decrease in central vision
- A central blind spot
- Any other visual problems
- Reviewer: Christopher Cheyer, MD
- Update Date: 09/01/2011 -


There are many ways to effectively teach a dog.
Not so long ago, most of the accepted methods for training were forceful or aversive. Unfortunately, some of these methods still are in use among the abusive and uneducated.
One of the pioneers of gentle training techniques was Barbara Woodhouse. This English dog trainer was instrumental in paving the way for today’s nonaversive and positive methods of training. She was a genius at molding behaviors with lures and gently “modeling” a dog into positions without force. But even Woodhouse used some techniques that can be considered rough by today’s standards.
If you have researched dog-training methodologies at all, you probably have noticed that a percentage of the available training books advocate the use of a “choke chain” (otherwise called the training collar). When used properly, this training device relies on aversion to get the dog’s attention or to make a correction when your dog doesn’t respond to a command correctly. A sharp snap of the leash tightens the collar around the dog’s neck, startling the dog with a momentary, low-level pain.
The choke chain is not a training device for leash pullers, as is commonly thought, and when used incorrectly can, at the least, cause misalignment of the spine and trachea damage. At worst, it can cause brain damage and even death. Because there is such a high risk for misuse of this device (you may not realize that the choke chain should be worn with the free ring up, for instance), the training world probably would be much better off without it.
Your efforts to train your dog should focus on building a bond and nurturing trust. This bond becomes the motivator that drives your dog to learn, focus and respond.
Why would anyone want to use force or violence when positive reinforcement works so well? Why should your dog trust you if he knows that you are likely to hit him when he is unfocused or confused? That’s like your supervisor yelling at you when you have problems with a difficult task. Stress won’t help you concentrate or focus better. Abusive treatment of dogs in the name of training, just as abusive handling of employees in the name of supervision, doesn’t work. It does, however, tell us a lot about the trainer.
For any method of dog training to be successful, it must be:
Effective – If it’s not effective, what’s the point?
Efficient – Both you and your dog will become frustrated if training takes too long.
Enjoyable – Fun is an important ingredient in motivating both you and your dog.
The proper execution of any training program is dependent on these three ingredients.
But, ultimately, the most important ingredient in your training program is you, the owner. The trust you nurture in your dog will be evident in his willingness to look to you for leadership and his motivation to work with you in any and all situations. Those qualities are in your dog right now but cannot be developed through the use of harsh training methods.
Dog training can be whatever you want it to be. If you rely on anger and force, the relationship and trust will suffer. If you rely on motivation and reward, while providing appropriate consequences for misdeeds, training just gets better and better.
Julie Winkelman is a certified pet dog trainer and a certified dog trainer. Reach her at www.alphacanineacademy.com.


Fewer rare sea turtles will die on the swordfish industry's longlines in Hawaii under an agreement between environmental groups and the government. The agreement settles a lawsuit challenging the federal government's plans that would have dramatically increase the number of turtles that could be killed. The Turtle Island Restoration Network, Center for Biological Diversity and KAHEA sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for allowing 46 imperiled Pacific loggerhead turtles to be hooked last year. The new court-ordered settlement caps the number at 17 per year. Meanwhile the National Marine Fisheries Service is weighing whether loggerheads need more protection under the Endangered Species Act.
"It made absolutely no sense to have one arm of the National Marine Fisheries Service increasing the lethal capture of loggerheads, while the other arm is in the process of determining whether loggerheads should be uplisted from threatened to endangered," said Todd Steiner, biologist and executive director of Turtle Island Restoration Network. "With extinction looming, these animals need more protection, not less."
"With this decision, Hawaii's public-trust ocean resources can be better managed for our collective best interest, and not just the interests of this commercial fishery," said KAHEA program director Marti Townsend. "This is a victory not just for the turtles, but for Hawaii's people who rely on a healthy, functioning ocean ecosystem."
Conservation groups represented by Earthjustice filed a federal lawsuit challenging a 2009 rule allowing the swordfish fleet to catch nearly three times as many loggerhead sea turtles as previously permitted. This settlement freezes the number at the previous cap of 17 while the government conducts additional environmental studies and decides whether or not to classify the loggerhead as endangered, rather than its current, less-protective status of threatened. For leatherback turtles, the bycatch limit remains at 16 per year. In 2010, eight Pacific leatherbacks and seven loggerheads were caught in the longline fishery, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. There have already been 4 loggerheads captured in 2011, which has sea turtle conservationists concerned.
"Sea turtles have been swimming the oceans since the time of dinosaurs. But without a change in management, they won't survive our voracious quest for swordfish and tuna," said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "If loggerheads are going to survive in the North Pacific, we need to stop killing them in our fisheries."
"Pacific loggerhead sea turtles are nearly extinct, so this bycatch rollback helps right a serious wrong," said Teri Shore, program director at Turtle Island Restoration Network. "We can't allow these rare sea turtles to disappear for a plate of swordfish. It's tragic that it took a lawsuit to correct this fishery problem."
Swordfish longline vessels trail up to 60 miles of fishing line suspended in the water with floats, with as many as 1,000 baited hooks deployed at regular intervals. Sea turtles become hooked while trying to take bait or become entangled while swimming through the nearly invisible lines. These encounters can drown the turtles or leave them with serious injuries. Sea birds such as albatross dive for the bait and become hooked; marine mammals, including endangered humpback whales and false killer whales, also sometimes become hooked when they swim through the floating lines.


A bullock cart or ox cart is a two-wheeled or four-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen (draught cattle). It is a means of transportation used since ancient times in many parts of the world. They are still used today where modern vehicles are too expensive or the infrastructure does not favor them.
Used especially for carrying goods, the bullock cart is pulled by one or several oxen (bullocks). The cart (also known as a jinker) is attached to a bullock team by a special chain attached to yokes, but a rope may also be used for one or two animals. The driver and any other passengers sit on the front of the cart, while load is placed in the back. Traditionally the cargo was usually agrarian goods and lumber.
Costa Rica
In Costa Rica, ox carts (carretas in the Spanish language) were an important aspect of the daily life and commerce, especially between 1850 to 1935, developing a unique construction and decoration tradition that is still being developed. Costa Rican parades and traditional celebrations are not complete without a traditional ox cart parade.
In 1988, the traditional ox cart was declared as National Symbol of Work by the Costa Rican government.
In 2005, the "Oxherding and Oxcart Traditions in Costa Rica" were included in UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
In Indonesia, Bullock Carts are commonly used in the rural parts of the country, where it is used for transporting goods and carriages and also people. But it is mostly common in Indonesia that there are Horse Car than Bullock Carts on the streets of Indonesia.
Bullock carts were widely used in Malaysia before the introduction of automobiles, and many are still used today. These included passenger vehicles, now used especially for tourists. Passenger carts are usually equipped with awnings for protection against sun and rain, and are often gaily decorated.
See also
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ox-drawn carts|


|Birth name||Norman Percevel Rockwell|
February 3, 1894|
New York City
|Died||November 8, 1978
|Training||National Academy of Design
Art Students League
Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine for more than four decades. Among the best-known of Rockwell's works are the Willie Gillis series, Rosie the Riveter, Saying Grace (1951), The Problem We All Live With, and the Four Freedoms series. He is also noted for his work for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA); producing covers for their publication Boys' Life, calendars, and other illustrations.
Life and works
Early life
Norman Rockwell was born on February 3, 1894, in New York City to Jarvis Waring Rockwell and Anne Mary "Nancy" (born Hill) Rockwell. His earliest American ancestor was John Rockwell (1588–1662), from Somerset, England, who immigrated to America probably in 1635 aboard the ship Hopewell and became one of the first settlers of Windsor, Connecticut. He had one brother, Jarvis Waring Rockwell, Jr., older by a year and a half. Jarvis Waring, Sr., was the manager of the New York office of a Philadelphia textile firm, George Wood, Sons & Company, where he spent his entire career.
Norman transferred from high school to the Chase Art School at the age of 14. He then went on to the National Academy of Design and finally to the Art Students League. There, he was taught by Thomas Fogarty, George Bridgman, and Frank Vincent DuMond; his early works were produced for St. Nicholas Magazine, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) publication Boys' Life and other juvenile publications. Joseph Csatari carried on his legacy and style for the BSA.
As a student, Rockwell was given smaller, less important jobs. His first major breakthrough came in 1912 at age eighteen with his first book illustration for Carl H. Claudy's Tell Me Why: Stories about Mother Nature.
In 1913, the nineteen-year-old Rockwell became the art editor for Boys' Life, published by the Boy Scouts of America, a post he held for three years (1913–1916). As part of that position, he painted several covers, beginning with his first published magazine cover, Scout at Ship's Wheel, appearing on the Boys' Life September 1913 edition.
World War I
During World War I, he tried to enlist into the U.S. Navy but was refused entry because, at 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and 140 pounds (64 kg) he was eight pounds underweight. To compensate, he spent one night gorging himself on bananas, liquids and doughnuts, and weighed enough to enlist the next day. However, he was given the role of a military artist and did not see any action during his tour of duty.
Rockwell's family moved to New Rochelle, New York when Norman was 21 years old and shared a studio with the cartoonist Clyde Forsythe, who worked for The Saturday Evening Post. With Forsythe's help, he submitted his first successful cover painting to the Post in 1916, Mother's Day Off (published on May 20). He followed that success with Circus Barker and Strongman (published on June 3), Gramps at the Plate (August 5), Redhead Loves Hatty Perkins (September 16), People in a Theatre Balcony (October 14) and Man Playing Santa (December 9). Rockwell was published eight times total on the Post cover within the first twelve months. Norman Rockwell published a total of 323 original covers for The Saturday Evening Post over 47 years. His Sharp Harmony appeared on the cover of the issue dated September 26, 1936; it depicts a barber and three clients, enjoying an a cappella song. The image was adopted by SPEBSQSA in its promotion of the art.
Rockwell's success on the cover of the Post led to covers for other magazines of the day, most notably The Literary Digest, The Country Gentleman, Leslie's Weekly, Judge, Peoples Popular Monthly and Life Magazine.
Personal life
Rockwell married his first wife, Irene O'Connor, in 1916. Irene was Rockwell's model in Mother Tucking Children into Bed, published on the cover of The Literary Digest on January 19, 1921. However, the couple were divorced in 1930. Depressed, he moved briefly to Alhambra, California as a guest of his old friend Clyde Forsythe. There he painted some of his best-known paintings including "The Doctor and the Doll". While there he met and married schoolteacher Mary Barstow. The couple returned to New York shortly after their marriage. They had three children: Jarvis Waring, Thomas Rhodes and Peter Barstow. The family lived at 24 Lord Kitchener Road in the Bonnie Crest neighborhood of New Rochelle, New York. Rockwell and his wife were not very religious, although they were members of St. John's Wilmot Church, an Episcopal church near their home, and had their sons baptized there as well. Rockwell moved to Arlington, Vermont, in 1939 where his work began to reflect small-town life.
In 1953, the Rockwell family moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, so that his wife could be treated at the Austen Riggs Center, a psychiatric hospital at 25 Main Street, down Main Street from where Rockwell set up his studio. Rockwell himself received psychiatric treatment from the analyst Erik Erikson, who was on staff at Riggs. Erikson is said to have told the artist that he painted his happiness, but did not live it. In 1959, Mary Barstow Rockwell died unexpectedly of a heart attack.
World War II
In 1943, during World War II, Rockwell painted the Four Freedoms series, which was completed in seven months and resulted in his losing 15 pounds. The series was inspired by a speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt, in which he described four principles for universal rights: Freedom from Want, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, and Freedom from Fear. The paintings were published in 1943 by The Saturday Evening Post. The United States Department of the Treasury later promoted war bonds by exhibiting the originals in 16 cities. Rockwell himself considered "Freedom of Speech" to be the best of the four. That same year, a fire in his studio destroyed numerous original paintings, costumes, and props.
Shortly after the war, Rockwell was contacted by writer Elliott Caplin, brother of cartoonist Al Capp, with the suggestion that the three of them should make a daily comic strip together, with Caplin and his brother writing and Rockwell drawing. King Features Syndicate is reported to have promised a $1,000/week deal, knowing that a Capp-Rockwell collaboration would gain strong public interest. However, the project was ultimately aborted as it turned out that Rockwell, known for his perfectionism as an artist, could not deliver material as fast as required of him for a daily comic strip.
During the late 1940s, Norman Rockwell spent the winter months as artist-in-residence at Otis College of Art and Design. Students occasionally were models for his Saturday Evening Post covers. In 1949, Rockwell donated an original Post cover, "April Fool", to be raffled off in a library fund raiser.
In 1959, his wife Mary died unexpectedly from a heart attack, and Rockwell took time off from his work to grieve. It was during that break that he and his son Thomas produced his autobiography, My Adventures as an Illustrator, which was published in 1960. The Post printed excerpts from this book in eight consecutive issues, the first containing Rockwell's famous Triple Self-Portrait.
Later career
Rockwell married his third wife, retired Milton Academy English teacher Mary Leete "Molly" Punderson, on October 25, 1961. His last painting for the Post was published in 1963, marking the end of a publishing relationship that had included 321 cover paintings. He spent the next ten years painting for Look magazine, where his work depicted his interests in civil rights, poverty and space exploration. In 1968, Rockwell was commissioned to do an album cover portrait of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper for their record The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. During his long career, he was commissioned to paint the portraits for Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, as well as those of foreign figures, including Gamal Abdel Nasser and Jawaharlal Nehru. One of his last works was a portrait of Judy Garland in 1969.
A custodianship of his original paintings and drawings was established with Rockwell's help near his home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and the Norman Rockwell Museum is still open today year round. Norman Rockwell Museum is the authoritative source for all things Norman Rockwell. The museum's collection is the world's largest, including more than 700 original Rockwell paintings, drawings, and studies. The Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies at the Norman Rockwell Museum is a national research institute dedicated to American illustration art.
When he began suffering poor health, he placed his studio and the contents with the Norman Rockwell Museum, which was formerly known as the Stockbridge Historical Society and even more formerly known as the Old Corner house, in a trust.
For "vivid and affectionate portraits of our country," Rockwell received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's highest civilian honor, in 1977.
Body of work
Norman Rockwell was a prolific artist, producing over 4,000 original works in his lifetime. Most of his works are either in public collections, or have been destroyed in fire or other misfortunes. Rockwell was also commissioned to illustrate over 40 books including Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. His annual contributions for the Boy Scouts' calendars between 1925 and 1976 (Rockwell was a 1939 recipient of the Silver Buffalo Award, the highest adult award given by the Boy Scouts of America), were only slightly overshadowed by his most popular of calendar works: the "Four Seasons" illustrations for Brown & Bigelow that were published for 17 years beginning in 1947 and reproduced in various styles and sizes since 1964. Illustrations for booklets, catalogs, posters (particularly movie promotions), sheet music, stamps, playing cards, and murals (including "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "God Bless the Hills", which was completed in 1936 for the Nassau Inn in Princeton, New Jersey) rounded out Rockwell's œuvre as an illustrator.
In 1969, as a tribute to Rockwell's 75th-year birthday, officials of Brown & Bigelow and the Boy Scouts of America asked Rockwell to pose in Beyond the Easel, the calendar illustration that year.
Rockwell's work was dismissed by serious art critics in his lifetime. Many of his works appear overly sweet in modern critics' eyes, especially the Saturday Evening Post covers, which tend toward idealistic or sentimentalized portrayals of American life – this has led to the often-deprecatory adjective "Rockwellesque". Consequently, Rockwell is not considered a "serious painter" by some contemporary artists, who often regard his work as bourgeois and kitsch. Writer Vladimir Nabokov sneered that Rockwell's brilliant technique was put to "banal" use, and wrote in his book Pnin: "That Dalí is really Norman Rockwell's twin brother kidnapped by Gypsies in babyhood". He is called an "illustrator" instead of an artist by some critics, a designation he did not mind, as it was what he called himself.
However, in his later years, Rockwell began receiving more attention as a painter when he chose more serious subjects such as the series on racism for Look magazine. One example of this more serious work is The Problem We All Live With, which dealt with the issue of school racial integration. The painting depicts a young African American girl, Ruby Bridges, flanked by white federal marshals, walking to school past a wall defaced by racist graffiti.
Rockwell's work was exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2001. Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties sold for $15.4 million at a 2006 Sotheby's auction. A twelve-city U.S. tour of Rockwell's works took place in 2008. In 2008, Rockwell was named the official state artist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
- In the film Empire of the Sun, a young boy (played by Christian Bale) is put to bed by his loving parents in a scene also inspired by a Rockwell painting—a reproduction of which is later kept by the young boy during his captivity in a prison camp ("Freedom from Fear", 1943).
- The 1994 film Forrest Gump includes a shot in a school that re-creates Rockwell's "Girl with Black Eye" with young Forrest in place of the girl. Much of the film drew heavy visual inspiration from Rockwell's art.
- Film director George Lucas owns Rockwell's original of "The Peach Crop", and his colleague Steven Spielberg owns a sketch of Rockwell's Triple Self-Portrait. Each of the artworks hangs in the respective filmmaker's workspace. Rockwell is a major character in an episode of Lucas’ Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, “Passion for Life.”
- In 2005, Target Co. sold Marshall Field's to Federated Department Stores and the Federated discovered a reproduction of Rockwell's The Clock Mender, which depicted the great clocks of the Marshall Field and Company Building on display. Rockwell had donated the painting depicted on the cover of the November 3, 1945 Saturday Evening Post to the store in 1948.
- On Norman Rockwell's birthday, February 3, 2010, Google featured Rockwell's iconic image of young love "Boy and Girl Gazing at the Moon", which is also known as "Puppy Love", on its home page. The response was so great that day that the Norman Rockwell museum's servers went down under the onslaught.
- "Dreamland", a track from Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace's 2009 album Burn Burn, was inspired by Rockwell's paintings.
Major works
- Scout at Ship's Wheel (first published magazine cover illustration, Boys' Life, September 1913)
- Santa and Scouts in Snow (1913)
- Boy and Baby Carriage (1916; first Saturday Evening Post cover)
- Circus Barker and Strongman (1916)
- Gramps at the Plate (1916)
- Redhead Loves Hatty Perkins (1916)
- People in a Theatre Balcony (1916)
- Tain't You (1917; first Life magazine cover)
- Cousin Reginald Goes to the Country (1917; first Country Gentleman cover)
- Santa and Expense Book (1920)
- Mother Tucking Children into Bed (1921; first wife Irene is the model)
- No Swimming (1921)
- Santa with Elves (1922)
- Doctor and Doll (1929)
- Deadline (1938)
- The Four Freedoms (1943)
- Rosie the Riveter (1943)
- Going and Coming (1947)
- Bottom of the Sixth (or The Three Umpires; 1949)
- The New Television Set (1949)
- Saying Grace (1951)
- The Young Lady with the Shiner (1953)
- Girl at Mirror (1954)
- Breaking Home Ties (1954)
- The Marriage License (1955)
- The Scoutmaster (1956)
- The Runaway (1958)
- A Family Tree (1959)
- Triple Self-Portrait (1960)
- Golden Rule (1961)
- The Problem We All Live With (1964)
- Southern Justice (Murder in Mississippi) (1965)
- New Kids in the Neighborhood (1967)
- Russian Schoolroom (1967)
- The Rookie
- Spirit of 76 (1976) (stolen in 1978 but recovered in 2001 by the FBI's Robert King Wittman)
Other collections
- Norman Rockwell World War II posters, hosted by the University of North Texas Libraries Digital Collections
- Rockwell Collection at the National Museum of American Illustration
- Norman Rockwell and the Art of Scouting at the National Scouting Museum, Irving, TX
See also
- James K. Van Brunt, a frequent model for Rockwell
- William Obanhein, another one of Rockwell's models who would later become famous elsewhere
- Norman Rockwell's World... An American Dream, a 1972 short documentary film
- "Alex Ross Biography". alexrossart.com. Retrieved February 13, 2012.
- About the Saturday Evening Post[dead link]
- Boughton, James (1903). Genealogy of the families of John Rockwell, of Stamford, Connecticut 1641, and Ralph Keeler, of Hartford, Connecticut 1939. W.F. Jones. p. 441.
- Roberts, Gary Boyd, and David Curtis Dearborn (1998). Notable Kin: An Anthology of Columns First Published in the NEHGS Nexus, 1986–1995. Boston, Massachusetts: Carl Boyer in cooperation with the New England Historic Genealogical Society. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-936124-20-9.
- Claridge, Laura P. (2001). Norman Rockwell: A Life. New York, New York: Random House. p. 20,29. ISBN 978-0-375-50453-2.
- Rockwell, Margaret (1998). Norman Rockwell's Growing Up in America. Metro Books. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-1-56799-598-5.
- SSDI. – SS#: 177-01-3581.
- Claridge. – p.30,47,150.
- Rockwell, Norman, and Thomas Rockwell (1988). Norman Rockwell, My Adventures as an Illustrator. Abrams. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-8109-1563-3.
- "Rockwell and Csatari: A tour de force". Scouting magazine: 6. March–April, 2008.
- "A personal recollection". City of Alhambra. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
- Kamp, David (November 2009). "Norman Rockwell’s American Dream". Vanityfair.com. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
- "A portrait of Norman Rockwell - Berkshire Eagle Online". Berkshireeagle.com. July 3, 2009. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
- Elliott Caplin: Al Capp Remembered (1994)
- Gherman, Beverly (2000) "Norman Rockwell Storyteller with a brush"
- Claridge, p. 581
- Kamp, David. "Erratum: Norman Rockwell Actually Did Rock Well". Vanity Fair. Retrieved February 24, 2011.
- Official List of Silver Buffalo award Recipients (Retrieved July 17, 2007)
- William Hillcourt (1977). Norman Rockwell's World of Scouting. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-1582-0.
- Jim Windolf (February 2008). "Keys to the Kingdom". Vanityfair.com. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
- "Solomon, Deborah, In Praise of Bad Art". New York Times. January 24, 1999. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
- "Art of Illustration". Norman Rockwell Museum. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
- "Norman Rockwell Wins Medal of Freedom". Massmoments.org. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
- Miller, Michelle (November 12, 2010). "Ruby Bridges, Rockwell Muse, Goes Back to School". CBS Evening News with Katie Couric (CBS Interactive Inc.). Retrieved November 13, 2010.
- Norman Rockwell at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.[dead link]
- Gates, Anita (November 24, 1999). "Looking Beyond the Myth-Making Easel of Mr. Thanksgiving". New York Times. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
- RICHARD CORLISS (June 24, 2001). "The World According to Gump". Time.com. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
- Aronovich, Hannah (April 20, 2006). "Field's, Federated and More Feuds". Gothamist. Retrieved April 4, 2008.
- "Norman Rockwell Of Field's Store Goes Missing". NBC5.com. April 21, 2006. Retrieved April 4, 2008.
- Aronovich, Hannah (April 20, 2006). "Field's, Federated and More Feuds". Gothamist. Retrieved September 21, 2009.
- "Dreamland". Songfacts.com. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
- "Rosie the Riveter". Rosie the Riveter. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
- NRM, p. 109
- "The norman rockwell collection". Web.me.com. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
- "Norman Rockwell: Southern Justice (Murder in Mississippi)". Artchive.com. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
- "Museum > Exhibitions - Norman Rockwell and the Art of Scouting". Irving, Texas, USA: National Scouting Museum. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
Further reading
- Buechner, Thomas S (1992). The Norman Rockwell Treasury. Galahad. ISBN 0-88365-411-3.
- Finch, Christopher (1990). Norman Rockwell: 332 Magazine Covers. Abbeville Publishing Group. ISBN 0-89660-000-9.
- Christopher, Finch (1985). Norman Rockwell's America. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0-8109-8071-1.
- Gherman, Beverly (2000). Norman Rockwell: Storyteller with a Brush. ISBN 0-689-82001-1.
- Hennessey, Maureen Hart; Larson, Judy L. (1999). Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-6392-2.
- Rockwell, Tom (2005). Best of Norman Rockwell. Courage Books. ISBN 0-7624-2415-X.
- Schick, Ron (2009). Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera. Little, Brown & Co. ISBN 978-0-316-00693-4.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Norman Rockwell|
|Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Norman Rockwell|
- Booknotes interview with Laura Claridge on Norman Rockwell: A Life, December 2, 2001.
- Gallery of classic graphic design featuring the illustrations of Norman Rockwell.
- Art Directors Club biography, portrait and images of work
- Norman Rockwell at Find a Grave
- Footage of Norman Rockwell sketching a couple
- America, Illustrated – by The New York Times
- Norman Rockwell: Once upon a time there Was the American Dream by Tiziano Thomas Dossena, Bridge Puglia USA, April 2011


The names chiseled onto city tenement building entrances are often pretty puzzling.
The typical tenement is more than 100 years old. With the original builders long-gone, who can explain where some of these names come from, and why they were chosen?
Like Novelty Court, on Driggs Avenue in Williamsburg. Actually, a little research turned up an explanation: this used to be the site of the Novelty Theater, according to Cinema Treasures, which disappeared from city directories by the 1920s.
A. Segal’s (Secal’s?) Apartments are also in Williamsburg. But who was A. Segal, and why did he put his first initial and last name on his building?
Blennerhasset sounds like Manhasset, a town in Long Island. I’ve never seen the name anywhere else but on this tenement near Columbia University.
Who was Frances, and how would she feel about the terrible shape the building named for her is in, on Lexington Avenue in East Harlem?


This is an old lecture by linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky (professor at MIT) given at UC Berkeley in 2003. For that evening in the Charles M. and Martha Hitchcock Lecture series, Chomsky examined biolinguistics - the study of relations between physiology and speech.
A second video of Chomsky is featured below, which is the second half of this talk. Fair warning - this is not easy material - Chomsky is speaking to people who are well-versed in this field.
Chomsky has been one the most influential scholars over the last three or four decades - between 1980 and 1992, he was cited as a source more than any other living scholar, and ranked eighth overall.
As background for this lecture, Wikipedia offers a good summary of his influence in linguistics (below the video).
Chomskyan LinguisticsChomskyan linguistics, beginning with his Syntactic Structures, a distillation of his Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory (1955, 75), challenges structural linguistics and introduces transformational grammar. This approach takes utterances (sequences of words) to have a syntax characterized by a formal grammar; in particular, a context-free grammar extended with transformational rules.
Perhaps his most influential and time-tested contribution to the field, is the claim that modeling knowledge of language using a formal grammar accounts for the "productivity" or "creativity" of language. In other words, a formal grammar of a language can explain the ability of a hearer-speaker to produce and interpret an infinite number of utterances, including novel ones, with a limited set of grammatical rules and a finite set of terms. He has always acknowledged his debt to Pāṇini for his modern notion of an explicit generative grammar although it is also related to rationalist ideas of a priori knowledge.
It is a popular misconception that Chomsky proved that language is entirely innate and discovered a "universal grammar" (UG). In fact, Chomsky simply observed that while a human baby and a kitten are both capable of inductive reasoning, if they are exposed to exactly the same linguistic data, the human child will always acquire the ability to understand and produce language, while the kitten will never acquire either ability. Chomsky labeled whatever the relevant capacity the human has which the cat lacks the "language acquisition device" (LAD) and suggested that one of the tasks for linguistics should be to figure out what the LAD is and what constraints it puts on the range of possible human languages. The universal features that would result from these constraints are often termed "universal grammar" or UG.
The Principles and Parameters approach (P&P)—developed in his Pisa 1979 Lectures, later published as Lectures on Government and Binding (LGB)—makes strong claims regarding universal grammar: that the grammatical principles underlying languages are innate and fixed, and the differences among the world's languages can be characterized in terms of parameter settings in the brain (such as the pro-drop parameter, which indicates whether an explicit subject is always required, as in English, or can be optionally dropped, as in Spanish), which are often likened to switches. (Hence the term principles and parameters, often given to this approach.) In this view, a child learning a language need only acquire the necessary lexical items (words, grammatical morphemes, and idioms), and determine the appropriate parameter settings, which can be done based on a few key examples.
Proponents of this view argue that the pace at which children learn languages is inexplicably rapid, unless children have an innate ability to learn languages. The similar steps followed by children all across the world when learning languages, and the fact that children make certain characteristic errors as they learn their first language, whereas other seemingly logical kinds of errors never occur (and, according to Chomsky, should be attested if a purely general, rather than language-specific, learning mechanism were being employed), are also pointed to as motivation for innateness.
More recently, in his Minimalist Program (1995), while retaining the core concept of "principles and parameters," Chomsky attempts a major overhaul of the linguistic machinery involved in the LGB model, stripping from it all but the barest necessary elements, while advocating a general approach to the architecture of the human language faculty that emphasizes principles of economy and optimal design, reverting to a derivational approach to generation, in contrast with the largely representational approach of classic P&P.
Chomsky's ideas have had a strong influence on researchers of the language acquisition in children, though many researchers in this area such as Elizabeth Bates and Michael Tomasello argue very strongly against Chomsky's theories, and instead advocate emergentist or connectionist theories, explaining language with a number of general processing mechanisms in the brain that interact with the extensive and complex social environment in which language is used and learned.
His best-known work in phonology is The Sound Pattern of English (1968), written with Morris Halle (and often known as simply SPE). This work has had a great significance for the development in the field. While phonological theory has since moved beyond "SPE phonology" in many important respects, the SPE system is considered the precursor of some of the most influential phonological theories today, including autosegmental phonology, lexical phonology and optimality theory. Chomsky no longer publishes on phonology.


Deep-space communication improved with electromagnetic radiation antenna
- Robert C. Dye
- Technology Transfer
- (505) 667-3404
Electromagnetic radiation antenna has potential for deep-space communication
- Directed Energy
- Long-range communications
- Medicine (Oncology)
- RADAR imaging applications are countermeasure-resistant
- Communications can be spatially-encrypted
- 4-dimensional volumes of energy can be aimed at a single space-time point for directed energy applications
- Nonspherical decay of the cusp enables low-power communications and propagation over great distances
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) researchers have developed the Lightslinger, a completely new type of antenna that produces tightly-focused packets of electromagnetic radiation fundamentally different from the emissions of conventional transmitters. The device has potential applications in RADAR, directed-energy (non-kinetic kill), secure communications, ultra-long-range communications (e.g., deep-space), medicine (oncology) and astrophysics.
The Lightslinger functions by producing a moving polarization pattern in a ring of alumina. By careful timing of voltages applied to electrodes that surround the alumina, the polarization pattern can be made to move superluminally, i.e., faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. Nobel laureate Vitaly Ginzberg showed both that such superluminal polarization patterns do not violate the principles of special relativity and that they emit electromagnetic radiation. Once a source travels faster than the waves that it emits, it can make contributions at multiple retarded times to a signal received instantaneously at a distance. This effect is already well known in acoustics; when a supersonic airplane accelerates through the speed of sound, a violent “sonic boom” is heard many miles away, even if the airplane itself is rather quiet. The Lightslinger enables the same thing to be done with electromagnetic radiation; i.e., a relatively low-power source can make an “electromagnetic boom”, an intense concentration of radiowaves at a great distance.
The “electromagnetic boom” is due to temporal focusing, that is, focusing in the time domain. Because of this effect, part of the emitted radiation possesses an intensity that decays with distance r as 1/r rather than as the conventional inverse square law, 1/r2. These nonspherically-decaying wavepackets represent a game-changing technology in the applications of electromagnetic radiation.
Development stage: Working prototype
Patent status: Patent pending
Licensing status: Available for exclusive or non-exclusive licensing


Schools and Students
Private schools in 1999–2000 were located primarily in central cities (42 percent) and the urban fringe or large towns (40 percent) (table 2). About 18 percent of private schools were found in rural areas. In contrast, 24 percent of all public schools were in central city locations, 45 percent in the urban fringe or large towns, and 31 percent in rural areas. Most schools—61 percent of private and 71 percent of public—were elementary, but 10 percent of private schools and 25 percent of public schools were secondary. Finally, a much higher proportion of private schools (30 percent) were combined schools (usually grades K–12 or 1–12), compared with only 4 percent of public schools.
Figures and Tables
Table 2: Percentage distribution of schools according to community type and level, by sector and private school type: 1999-2000
Table S2: Standard errors for the percentage distribution of schools according to community type and level, by sector and private school type: 1999-2000


The test team views the use of a pulley as an intermediate step only, and has planned to shift to a reliance on windlasses like those that apparently were used to hoist sails on Egyptian ships.
"The whole approach has been to downgrade the technology," Gharib said. "We first wanted to show that a kite could raise a huge weight at all. Now that we're raising larger and larger stones, we're also preparing to replace the steel scaffolding with wooden poles and the steel pulleys with wooden pulleys like the ones they may have used on Egyptian ships."
For Gharib, the idea of accomplishing heavy tasks with limited manpower is appealing from an engineer's standpoint because it makes more logistical sense.
"You can imagine how hard it is to coordinate the activities of hundreds if not thousands of laborers to accomplish an intricate task," said Gharib. "It's one thing to send thousands of soldiers to attack another army on a battlefield. But an engineering project requires everything to be put precisely into place.
"I prefer to think of the technology as simple, with relatively few people involved," he explained.
Gharib and Graff came up with a way of building a simple structure around the obelisk, with a pulley system mounted in front of the stone. That way, the base of the obelisk would drag on the ground for a few feet as the kite lifted the stone, and the stone would be quite stable once it was pulled upright into a vertical position. If the obelisk were raised with the base as a pivot, the stone would tend to swing past the vertical position and fall the other way.
The top of the obelisk is tied with ropes threaded through the pulleys and attached to the kite. The operation is guided by a couple of workers using ropes attached to the pulleys.
No one has found any evidence that the ancient Egyptians moved stones or any other objects with kites and pulleys. But Clemmons has found some tantalizing hints that the project is on the right track. On a building frieze in a Cairo museum, there is a wing pattern in bas-relief that does not resemble any living bird. Directly below are several men standing near vertical objects that could be ropes.
Gharib's interest in the project is mainly to demonstrate that the technique may be viable.
"We're not Egyptologists," he said. "We're mainly interested in determining whether there is a possibility that the Egyptians were aware of wind power, and whether they used it to make their lives better."
Now that Gharib and his team have successfully raised the four-ton concrete obelisk, they plan to further test the approach using a ten-ton stone, and perhaps an even heavier one after that. Eventually they hope to obtain permission to try using their technique to raise one of the obelisks that still lie in an Egyptian quarry.
"In fact, we may not even need a kite. It could be we can get along with just a drag chute," Gharib said.
An important question is: Was there enough wind in Egypt for a kite or a drag chute to fly? Probably so, as steady winds of up to 30 miles per hour are not unusual in the areas where pyramids and obelisks were found.
(c) 2001 Caltech
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES


This collection consists of digital images of the correspondence of John Muir from 1856-1914. The vast majority of the letters
were sent and received by Muir, although the collection also includes some correspondence of selected family members and colleagues.
Muir’s correspondence offers a unique first-hand perspective on his thoughts and experiences, as well as those of his correspondents,
which include many notable figures in scientific, literary, and political circles of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The
correspondence forms part of the John Muir Papers microfilm set that filmed letters located at over 35 institutions.
A Scottish-born journalist and naturalist, John Muir (1838-1914) studied botany and geology at the University of Wisconsin
(1861-1863). He worked for awhile as a mill hand at the Trout Broom Factory in Meaford, Canada (1864-1866), then at an Indianapolis
carriage factory (1866-1867), until an accident temporarily blinded him and directed his thoughts toward full-time nature
study. Striking out on foot for South America, Muir walked to the Gulf of Mexico (September 1867-January 1868), but a long
illness in Florida led him to change his plans and turn his interests westward. Muir arrived by ship at San Francisco (March
1868), walked to the Sierra Nevada Mountains and began a five year wilderness sojourn (1868-1873) during which he made his
year-round home in the Yosemite Valley. Working as a sheepherder and lumberman when he needed money for supplies, Muir investigated
the length and breadth of the Sierra range, focusing most of his attention on glaciation and its impact on mountain topography.
He began to publish newspaper articles about what he saw in the California mountains and these articles brought him to the
attention of such intellectuals as Asa Gray and Ralph Waldo Emerson, both of whom sought him out during their visits to California.
Encouraged by Jeanne Carr, wife of his one-time botany professor, Ezra S. Carr, Muir took up nature writing as a profession
(1872). He set up winter headquarters in Oakland and began a pattern of spring and summer mountaineering followed by winter
writing based upon his travel journals that he held to until 1880. His treks took him to Mount Shasta (1874, 1875 & 1877),
the Great Basin (1876, 1877, 1878), southern California and the Coast Range (1877), and southern Alaska (1879). Muir found
that he could finance his modest bachelor lifestyle with revenue from contributions published in various San Francisco newspapers
and magazines. During this period he launched the first lobbying effort to protect Sierra forests from wasteful lumbering
Some of the materials in the John Muir Correspondence Collection may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.)
and/or by the copyright or neighboring rights laws of other nations. Additionally, the reproduction of some materials may
be restricted by privacy or publicity rights. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing
any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to reproduce or use the item.


Complete the following test so you can be sure you understand the material. Your answers are private, and test results are not scored.
When you create a new table in Datasheet view, you must define a primary key field.
You can't use the Lookup Wizard to alter an existing value list.
When you use a template to create a table, you must set data types for the fields in the new table.
Which of the following is the correct syntax for a value list?
'Option 1','Option 2','Option 3'
"Option 1";"Option 2";"Option 3"
"Option 1":"Option 2":"Option 3"


The Bible gives us a clear picture of foolish behavior and its consequences. It’s important for us to recognize these traits in others—and in ourselves. Dealing appropriately with people who behave foolishly requires prayer and wisdom. But remember, that foolish person is not in your life by accident, and you can by God’s grace respond to him or her in a Christ-like manner.
Characteristics of Foolish Behavior
1. Denying, disregarding, or rebelling against God.
The fool says in his heart “There is no God” (Psalm 14:1).
2. Slandering, lying, deceiving
The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever utters slander is a fool
3. Quick-Tempered A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult (Proverbs 12:16).
4. Acts Impetuously and Without Regard for Consequences
In everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly. (Proverbs 13:16).
One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless.
5. Talks endlessly, brags, spouts off frequently.
A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion
The wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near. (Proverbs 10:14).
A fool’s mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul. (Proverbs 18:7 ).
6. Refuses Advice, Accountability and/or Discipline
A fool despises his father’s instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent
A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool
7. Handles Money Recklessly
Of what use is money in the hand of a fool, since he has no desire to get wisdom?
In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all
he has (Proverbs 21:20).
8. Quarrels frequently, picks fights, is contentious
Fools get into constant quarrels; they are asking for a beating (Proverbs 18:6 NLT).
A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control
9. Lazy, Lacks Focus and Ambition
Foolish people refuse to work and almost starve (Ecclesiastes 4:5).
A wise person thinks much about death, while the fool thinks only about having a good time now
(Ecclesiastes 7:4 ).
Fools are so exhausted by a little work that they have no strength for even the simplest tasks
(Ecclesiastes 10:15 ).
10. Never Learns from Past Experience
As a do returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly (Proverbs 26:11).
You cannot separate fools from their foolishness, even though you grind them like grain with
mortar and pestle (Proverbs 27:22 ).
How are we to respond to foolish behavior?
1. First and most importantly, we pray for them.
2. Second, watch your attitude and motivation toward these foolish people:
Principle #1 – Don’t be surprised if they refuse good advice.
Don’t waste your breath on fools, for they will despise the wisest advice
(Proverbs 23:9 ).
Principle #2 – Don’t give them honor or luxury.
It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury – how much worse for a slave to rule over princes!
Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, honor is not fitting for a fool (Proverbs 26:1).
Principle #3 – Don’t argue with foolish people.
Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce
quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to
teach, not resentful (2 Tim. 2:23-24).
Principle #4 – Protect yourself from the resentment and anger caused by foolish people.
A stone is heavy and sand is weighty, but the resentment caused by a fool is heavier than both
(Proverbs 27:3 ).
Stay away from a foolish man, for you will not find knowledge on his lips (Proverbs 14:7).
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Each year more than 4 million homeless pets are killed as a result of overpopulation, but families who adopt from animal shelters or rescue groups can help preserve these lives and support the growing trend of socially responsible holiday shopping. Best Friends Animal Society encourages families this holiday season to give the precious gift of life by adopting homeless pets rather than buying from breeders, pet stores or online retailers.
Also, resist the urge to surprise a friend or family member with a living gift. Choosing the right pet is an extremely personal decision, one that should be made carefully by the adults who will be caring for the animal for its 15- to 20-year lifetime. Instead, offer an adoption gift certificate paired with a basket of pet care items or stuffed animal for the holiday itself, and then let the person or family choose the actual pet that feels right to them.
Once you’ve decided to adopt, keep in mind that welcoming a pet into your life is a big decision and requires important preparation. Best Friends offers tips and advice to help make a smooth transition at home:
* Determine roles and responsibilities – Before bringing home a new pet, discuss what roles and responsibilities each family member will take on. Who will be in charge of feeding, walks, changing the litter box and taking your pet for regular visits to the vet? Giving each family member a specific task will help everyone feel involved, especially young children.
* Prep the house – Adding a pet to the house means adding new items to your shopping lists. For dogs, the basics are a collar and leash, chew toys, a kennel and dog bed. Cats need a litter box and litter, a scratching post and a carrying crate for transportation. Also don’t forget food and toys.
* Have your pet spayed/neutered – Spaying or neutering is one of the greatest gifts you can provide your pet and community. It not only helps control the overabundance of pets, but can also help prevent medical and behavioral problems from developing. Most shelters include this with the adoption package or can recommend a local veterinarian in your area, so check with the staff at the shelter before you leave.
* Research community rules and resources – Do a little research on what identification (tags, microchips, etc.) you might need for your pet. Scout out the local dog parks and runs for future outdoor fun, and make sure you know where emergency vet clinics or animal hospitals are located.
* Set limits – Having pre-determined rules will create consistency in training and help make the home a pleasant environment for you and your pet. Will your pet be allowed to snuggle with you in bed or curl up with you on your furniture? Will treats be limited to one a day? It’s important to discuss these questions as a family before your new family member arrives.
An estimated 17 million people will be adding pets to their families this year, so this season, help bring some holiday cheer to a homeless pet by adopting your newest companion.


Taking Play Seriously
By ROBIN MARANTZ HENIG
Published: February 17, 2008
On a drizzly Tuesday night in late January, 200 people came out to hear a psychiatrist talk rhapsodically about play -- not just the intense, joyous play of children, but play for all people, at all ages, at all times. (All species too; the lecture featured touching photos of a polar bear and a husky engaging playfully at a snowy outpost in northern Canada.) Stuart Brown, president of the National Institute for Play, was speaking at the New York Public Library's main branch on 42nd Street. He created the institute in 1996, after more than 20 years of psychiatric practice and research persuaded him of the dangerous long-term consequences of play deprivation. In a sold-out talk at the library, he and Krista Tippett, host of the public-radio program ''Speaking of Faith,'' discussed the biological and spiritual underpinnings of play. Brown called play part of the ''developmental sequencing of becoming a human primate. If you look at what produces learning and memory and well-being, play is as fundamental as any other aspect of life, including sleep and dreams.''
The message seemed to resonate with audience members, who asked anxious questions about what seemed to be the loss of play in their children's lives. Their concern came, no doubt, from the recent deluge of eulogies to play . Educators fret that school officials are hacking away at recess to make room for an increasingly crammed curriculum. Psychologists complain that overscheduled kids have no time left for the real business of childhood: idle, creative, unstructured free play. Public health officials link insufficient playtime to a rise in childhood obesity. Parents bemoan the fact that kids don't play the way they themselves did -- or think they did. And everyone seems to worry that without the chance to play stickball or hopscotch out on the street, to play with dolls on the kitchen floor or climb trees in the woods, today's children are missing out on something essential.
The success of ''The Dangerous Book for Boys'' -- which has been on the best-seller list for the last nine months -- and its step-by-step instructions for activities like folding paper airplanes is testament to the generalized longing for play's good old days. So were the questions after Stuart Brown's library talk; one woman asked how her children will learn trust, empathy and social skills when their most frequent playing is done online. Brown told her that while video games do have some play value, a true sense of ''interpersonal nuance'' can be achieved only by a child who is engaging all five senses by playing in the three-dimensional world.
This is part of a larger conversation Americans are having about play. Parents bobble between a nostalgia-infused yearning for their children to play and fear that time spent playing is time lost to more practical pursuits. Alarming headlines about U.S. students falling behind other countries in science and math, combined with the ever-more-intense competition to get kids into college, make parents rush to sign up their children for piano lessons and test-prep courses instead of just leaving them to improvise on their own; playtime versus r?m?uilding.
Discussions about play force us to reckon with our underlying ideas about childhood, sex differences, creativity and success. Do boys play differently than girls? Are children being damaged by staring at computer screens and video games? Are they missing something when fantasy play is populated with characters from Hollywood's imagination and not their own? Most of these issues are too vast to be addressed by a single field of study (let alone a magazine article). But the growing science of play does have much to add to the conversation. Armed with research grounded in evolutionary biology and experimental neuroscience, some scientists have shown themselves eager -- at times perhaps a little too eager -- to promote a scientific argument for play. They have spent the past few decades learning how and why play evolved in animals, generating insights that can inform our understanding of its evolution in humans too. They are studying, from an evolutionary perspective, to what extent play is a luxury that can be dispensed with when there are too many other competing claims on the growing brain, and to what extent it is central to how that brain grows in the first place.
Scientists who study play, in animals and humans alike, are developing a consensus view that play is something more than a way for restless kids to work off steam; more than a way for chubby kids to burn off calories; more than a frivolous luxury. Play, in their view, is a central part of neurological growth and development -- one important way that children build complex, skilled, responsive, socially adept and cognitively flexible brains.
Their work still leaves some questions unanswered, including questions about play's darker, more ambiguous side: is there really an evolutionary or developmental need for dangerous games, say, or for the meanness and hurt feelings that seem to attend so much child's play? Answering these and other questions could help us understand what might be lost if children play less.