April 23, 2013
Last Monday, April 15, the National Museum of Natural History actually did come to life after hours. Not with mummies or miniature armies, of course, but with a small group of volunteers, a bunch of fancy-looking equipment and two guys at the forefront of museum digitization.
Adam Metallo and Vince Rossi, of the 3D Lab in the Smithsonian’s Digitization Program Office, work with laser scanners to create high resolution, three-dimensional digital models of objects and places around the Smithsonian Institution. Last week, they teamed up with curators at the Natural History Museum for the second of two nights of scanning the Dinosaur Hall, the museum’s iconic galleries that house prehistoric fossils from the ancient seas through the Ice Age. The hall is scheduled to close in 2014 for a ground-up, multi-year renovation, so Metallo and Rossi, dubbed the “Laser Cowboys” by their colleagues, were brought in to capture the hall’s present arrangement before all the fossils are removed.
“The main purpose of 3D scanning an exhibit like this is to have an archive of what an exhibit of this era might have looked,” Metallo says. “This is a documentation for folks in the future to know what a museum experience here was like.”
The scanning has immediate uses as well. With accurate digital 3D models of T-Rex and his friends’ skeletons, curators and designers will have a much easier time envisioning the exhibition’s future iterations and testing out ideas for optimal arrangements. Paleontologists, too, will suddenly have access to fossils anytime, anywhere. “There’s one specimen that’s on display two stories up in the air,” Metallo says. “Now, instead of a researcher having to get up on a scissor lift to look at it, we can just email him the digital model.”
And if digital models aren’t enough, 3D scanning might soon allow anyone interested in fossils to get even closer to the real thing. “We’re seeing a real democratization of 3D printing along with 3D scanning,” says Rossi. “There are apps for iPhones that allow you to use a camera as a 3D scanning device. Pretty much any museum visitor could create a pretty decent model of a museum object, and potentially take that through a 3D printer. There’s still a fair amount of expertise required at the moment, but it’s going to be a lot more user-friendly in the next two or three years.”
In other words, it’s not inconceivable that you could print out your own stegosaurus skeleton for your living room on your home 3D printer someday.
Ultimately, Rossi and Metallo dream of digitizing all 137 million of the objects in the Smithsonian’s collections. Because only two percent of the objects are displayed in the Institution’s museums at any time—and many people never have the chance to see even those in person—precise replicas could be printed and sent to local museums across the country, or viewed digitally on a computer screen anywhere in the world.
As for future of the Dino Hall, Matthew Carrano, the museum’s curator of dinosauria, says his team is still in the early stages of planning exactly how the exhibit will look when it reopens in 2019, but that it definitely will strive to incorporate humans into the dinosaurs’ story. “The biggest thing I hope for in the new hall is that a visitor comes here and is inspired, amazed and interested in the history of life on earth, and understands that this history is still relevant to them today, and to the world today,” he explains. “There are problems we face as human beings that paleontology can help address. Dinosaurs didn’t exist by themselves; they were part of environments and ecosystems just like we are today. And that connection is really important to everything we’re going to show in this hall.”
To learn more about 3D scanning and printing at Smithsonian, check out Metallo and Rossi’s Facebook page, and follow them on twitter @3D_Digi_SI. To learn more about dinosaurs, check out the Natural History Museum’s dinosaur page.
March 29, 2013
Thousands of years old, the ceramics of Central America tell us a great deal about the societies who made them. Religious beliefs, gender dynamics, societal hierarchies–all of this lies encoded in the sculptural and pictorial choices of the people who made the more than 160 objects that comprise the American Indian Museum’s new exhibition, “Cerámica de los Ancestros: Central America’s Past Revealed,” opening March 29 in Washington, D.C.
Sponsored by both the museum and the Smithsonian’s Latino Center, the new bilingual exhibition is supported by more than two years of research and a thorough investigation of the American Indian Museum’s archaeological collections, some 12,000 pieces from the region, many of which have never been displayed in public. The show seeks to display the diversity of not only the objects, but also the cultures of Central America, and showcases 160 works crafted from gold, jade, copper, marble, shell and stone and dating from 1,000 B.C. to the present.
Kevin Gover, the museum’s director and Eduardo Díaz, the director of the Latino Center, write that the materials, “testify to the complexity of long-lived governments and social systems, and to the importance and sophistication of the art and science in the communities where they were made. They speak of the patience, sensitivity, and innovation of their makers.”
The exhibition will be open through February 1, 2015 at the American Indian Museum.
March 8, 2013
When Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in 539 B.C., he encountered the same problem many political leaders face today: How do rulers keep the peace?
Cyrus, the King of Persia, was in the midst of building the largest empire that the world had ever seen. By his death in 530 B.C., his reign would extend from present-day Turkey to India.
For Cyrus, establishing control over vast miles of land with peoples of different cultures, languages and faiths created numerous obstacles in unifying his kingdom. The king sought order, not more war. “It is the first time anyone has had to address that challenge,” says Neil MacGregor, director of London’s British Museum.
“As well as a transport system, as well as an economic system, as well as an administration, you need to have policy, an ideal of what you’re trying to do to control this empire,” he adds.
Cyrus’s solution can be found today on a football-shaped cylinder of baked clay: give people the freedom to practice whatever religion they please.
The Cyrus Cylinder, one of the most significant archaeological artifacts in history, travels here from the British Museum and makes its United States debut on Saturday, March 9, 2013, at the Sackler Gallery. Inscribed with cuneiform, one of the earliest known scripts, the text denounces Nabonidus, the displaced Babylonian King, and boasts of liberating Cyrus’s newly conquered people from religious persecution by restoring their temples, their temple goods and their ceremonial vessels; and sending prisoners and the enslaved home to worship their own gods. ”[I] returned [the people] to their settlements, and the gods of the land . . . I returned them unharmed to their cells, in the sanctuaries that make them happy,” Cyrus declares in the text. “I have enabled all the lands to live in peace.” (See the full translation here.)
Cyrus’s tolerant approach has had a lasting impact. According to MacGregor, “For Europeans and Americans in the 18th century, there is only one political problem: How do you avoid the wars of religion that had devastated Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries? How do you create a state where people don’t kill each other for their faith? Everybody goes back to Cyrus.”
The exhibition entitled, “The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia,” features quotes and historical artifacts that trace the generations of political thinkers inspired by Cyrus’s philosophy. Thomas Jefferson studied the life of Cyrus; he owned two copies of a biography of the king.
Julien Raby, director of the Sackler Gallery, hopes the exhibit will encourage visitors to appreciate how different cultures learn to value objects in different ways. “There isn’t a single story,” he explains. “It’s actually about looking at the way in which we constantly reinterpret, the way that different eras and different agendas take objects and project onto them.”
MacGregor thinks Cyrus’s legacy is particularly important today. “We are confronting in every one of our cities, in Europe and in America, a new kind of diversity—people of different ethnicities, languages, faiths, traditions trying to live together,” he says. “We don’t really have a model for this. But we all know that somebody once did.”
“The Cyrus Cylinder and Ancient Persia” is on view at the Sackler Gallery from March 9 to April 28, before making a nation-wide tour. For a list of locations and dates, visit the exhibition’s website.
To learn more about the cylinder itself, watch MacGregor detail its history and significance in a 2011 TED talk, “2,600 Years of History in One Object.”


for all who make decisions that affect the mathematics education of students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12” (p. ix). NCTM is an organization of over 110,000 mathematics educators concerned with pre-K–12 mathematics education. This update of the NCTM's three previously developed sets of standards for curriculum, teaching, and assessment is intended to establish a curriculum framework to bring focus and coherence to K–12 mathematics. The document was developed through an extensive and inclusive process that engaged a wide spectrum of experts on issues concerning mathematics education. As such, Principles and Standards represents a negotiated position about appropriate content for school mathematics to which educators should give careful consideration.
The developers offer the standards as a guide for ensuring quality, developing goals, and promoting change by suggesting common language, examples, and recommendations to engage people at state, provincial and local levels in conversations about mathematics education. The document is intended to (p. 6):
Set forth a comprehensive and coherent set of goals for mathematics for all students that will orient curricular, teaching, and assessment efforts.
Serve as a resource for teachers, education leaders, and policymakers to use in examining and improving the quality of mathematics instructional programs.
Guide the development of curricular frameworks, assessments, and instructional materials.
Stimulate ideas and ongoing conversations about how best to help students gain a deep understanding of important mathematics.
Principles and Standards is built on the following vision (p. 5):
In this changing world, those who understand and can do mathematics will have significantly enhanced opportunities and options for shaping their futures. Mathematical competence opens doors to productive futures. A lack of mathematical competence keeps those doors closed. NCTM challenges the assumption that mathematics is only for the select few. On the contrary, everyone needs to understand mathematics. All students should have the opportunity and the support necessary to learn significant mathematics with depth and understanding. There is no conflict between equity and excellence.
To fulfill this vision, the document describes what mathematics in pre-K–12 school programs should look like including how mathematical ideas should be developed across five content areas and five process domains. The standards present a deeper look at the mathematics within each of four grade-level bands, pre-K–2, 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12; they also suggest how mathematics should grow


from A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.
Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.
The dusty attic spider-clad
He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
And through the broken edge of tiles
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.
Meantime his golden face around
He bares to all the garden ground,
And sheds a warm and glittering look
Among the ivy's inmost nook.
Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes.
Help your child make a picture of your family or friends and what you can do outside in the summer. Draw the pictures, color, or cut pictures from magazines.


How are HBSLs Used?
Concentrations of contaminants in water are compared to human-health benchmarks in screening-level assessments to provide an initial perspective on the potential relevance of detected contaminants to human health and to help prioritize further investigations. Two human-health benchmarks are used in USGS screening-level assessments: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) and USGS's Health-Based Screening Levels (HBSLs). Concentrations of regulated contaminants (those with MCLs) are compared to their MCLs and concentrations of unregulated contaminants (those without MCLs) are compared to their HBSLs, when available. See "Guidance
on Use of Benchmarks in Screening-Level Assessments" and SIR 2007-5106 for more information.
Comparisons of measured contaminant concentrations in water to MCLs and HBSLs are useful for local, State, and Federal water-resource managers and others charged with protecting and managing drinking-water resources. For example, these comparisons can indicate when measured concentrations may be of potential human-health concern and can provide an early indication of when contaminant concentrations in ambient water resources may warrant further study or monitoring.


June 22, 1976. North Atlantic. At 21:13 GMT a pale orange glow behind a bank of towering cumulus to the west was observed. Two minutes later a white disc was observed while the glow from behind the cloud persisted.
High probability that this may have been caused by interferometry using 3-dimensional artificial scalar wave? Fourier expansions? as the interferers.
Marine Observer. 47(256), Apr. 1977. p. 66-68.
"Unidentified phenomenon, off Barbados, West Indies."
August 22, 1969. West Indies. Luminous area bearing 310 degrees grew in size and rose in altitude, then turned into an arch or crescent.
High probability that this may have been caused by interferometry using artificial scalar wave? ((Fourier expansions.))
Marine Observer. 40(229), July, 1970. p. 107-108.
"Optical phenomenon: Caribbean Sea; Western North Atlantic."
Mar. 20, 1969. Caribbean Sea and Western North Atlantic. At 23:15 GMT, a semicircle of bright, milky-white light became visible in the western sky and rapidly expanded upward and outward during the next 10 minutes, dimming as it expanded.
High probability that this may be caused by interferometry using artificial scalar wave? Fourier expansions?.
Marine Observer, 40(227), Jan. 1970. p.17; p. 17-18.
7B.21 - Electricity
13.06 - Triple Currents of Electricity
14.35 - Teslas 3 6 and 9
((16.04 - Nikola Nikola Tesla describing what electricity is))
16.07 - Electricity is a Polar Exchange
16.10 - Positive Electricity
16.16 - Negative Electricity - Russell
16.17 - Negative Electricity - Tesla
16.29 - Triple Currents of Electricity
((Figure 16.04.05 and Figure 16.04.06 - Nikola Nikola Tesla and Lord Kelvin))
Part 16 - Electricity and Magnetism
Tesla - Electricity from Space
What Electricity Is - Bloomfield Moore
Page last modified on Wednesday 19 of May, 2010 05:23:05 MDT


Mandelberg, John and Janson, Annick (2010) Technology to enhance learning with students with disabilities. In: shar-E-fest 2010, 27-28 September, 2010, Hamilton, New Zealand. (Unpublished)
Full text not available from this repository.
Presentation about Technology to enhance learning with students with disabilities eg. using video as a tool, dessemination and distribution.
|Item Type:||Conference or Workshop Item (Speech)|
|Keywords:||Technology, disabilities, YANIV, video, art, learning|
|Subjects:||B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology|
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BH Aesthetics
L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1028 Education Research
N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1993 Motion Pictures
|Divisions:||Schools > School of Media Arts|
|Deposited On:||22 Jan 2012 21:53|
|Last Modified:||22 Jan 2012 21:53|
Repository Staff Only: item control page


Rosecrans House: Home of
Civil War General, William Starke
The sturdy thick-walled stone house on Lehman Road was built high on the hilltop in 1850 and its rear windows overlook the river. The stone used to build its three stories is believed to have been quarried from a nearby spot on Glenway Avenue. A tunnel running through the backyard and a sub-basement indicate that it was probably used as a station for the Underground Railroad, preceding the Civil War. During the war years it was headquarters for General William Starke Rosecrans (1819-1898), with Colonel Joseph Burke in command.
W. S. Rosecrans (1819 -1898) was born in Delaware County, Ohio. His father was Dutch, and his mother traced back her descent to Timothy Hopkins, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In Henry Howe’s Historical Collections of Ohio in Two Volumes, published in 1907, it was noted that “while other boys were at play, [the general and his brother, who later became a bishop] were noted for their studious habits.” W. S. Rosecrans attended West Point at 15 and later served in the Army Engineer Corps. In 1853 he came to Cincinnati to take a civil engineering position and to make his home here.
Barbara Pilaia of Delhi found a note to his wife
behind a photo of her great-great grandfather that she was given as
a child. It read: “This is a New Year’s present.
The note behind the picture was very likely written shortly before the battle of Stone River; one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War and was fought against General Bragg in Tennessee. Whether or not, General Rosecrans knew how difficult this battle would be, history doesn’t say, but his note would indicate that he did. The fighting started December 31 and was over on January 3, 1863, but by the time it was over each side had lost one third of their man, and it took six months for Rosecrans’ Army of the Cumberland to recover.
But Rosecrans was determined to pursue and finally defeat Bragg, as he had been ordered. Washington could not give him the additional troops, horses, and artillery he requested and badly needed, because Grant was in Vicksburg, and everything available was being sent there. However, the general had a real asset in his own men who admired him immensely and had dubbed him, “Old Rosey”. When he could finally advance, he skillfully maneuvered Bragg out of Tennessee and into Georgia, freely Chattanooga, which was the main artery of the Confederates provision lines. This was a real stroke of genius and Rosecrans was in hot pursuit of Bragg’s troops in North Georgia. But the South would not allow this blow to be dealt and Lee instantly dispatched Longstreet’s entire corps to aid Bragg. When Rosecrans realized that Bragg had been reinforced and was ready to strike back, he quickly re-grouped behind Chicamauga Creek. Immediately he sent Washington urgent telegrams explaining the dire situation and again begged for troops. This time Washington said yes, and asked General Grant to send two of his units. But Grant’s troops never arrived. After being hit by Bragg and 75,000 Confederates, General Rosecrans was able to move what was left of his 40,000 men back to Chattanooga and hold it until finally, General Hooker and 20,000 reinforcements came to his aid.
It was at this time, that Grant was given command of the Union armies from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi and his first official act was to remove General Rosecrans, still under siege at Chattanooga, from his command.
In 1863, Rosecrans also became the commander of the Department of the Ohio and was reputed to live on Lehman Road. He opened the Sanitary Fair on December 21, 1863 in which exhibits, lectures, and other fund-raising activities raised about $250,000 from Cincinnatians for soldier Relief. He resigned from the Army in 1867.
Rosecrans served as Minister to Mexico from 1868 to1869, a Democratic member of Congress from California from 1881 to 1885, and the Register of the United States Treasury from 1885 to 1893. A special act of Congress re-appointed Rosecrans a brigadier general and placed him on the retired Army list.
Records of the Sisters of Charity show that in 1850, 37 nuns moved into it and established a combination Mother House and school for women-Mount St. Vincent Academy. The school was later was moved to Glenway Avenue as The Cedar Grove School which finally became known as Seton High School. The Mother House is now at the College of Mount St. Joseph.
William Rosecrans’ brother, Sylvester Horton Rosecrans (1827-1878), was ordained a priest in Rome, Italy on June 5, 1853 and taught theology at the old Mount St. Mary’s Seminary on Grand Avenue. He was appointed titular Bishop of Pompeiopolis and first auxiliary Bishop of Cincinnati on March 25, 1863. It is during this period that he is believed to have lived on Lehman Road. On October 31, 1878, Bishop Rosecrans was appointed the first Bishop of the then new diocese with its center in Columbus and was buried in that city.
Mrs. Hoffman bought the building in 1955 and during remodeling she entered the attic and discovered a small trove of civil war mementos hidden under the floorboards. According to a 1959 newspaper clip, confirmed with her family, she found papers dealing with the court martial proceedings of AWOL soldiers, as well as several medical certificates. One allowed a soldier to stay in the shade for 30 days because of an aversion to sunlight. Another excused a man from bathing. Also recovered was a receipt showing that the Army paid 6 ½ cents each for 600 bars of soap, and 18 cents each for 350 candles.*The above information was researched at the Price Hill Historical Society, 3640 Warsaw Avenue, 513-251-2888 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 513-251-2888
|Price Hill Will | Price Hill History|
Return to Rosecrans, Part 3, Civilian Inventor, Engineer


|Stylistic origins||Rock and roll • folk • rockabilly • ska • surf rock • garage rock • glam rock • pub rock • protopunk|
|Cultural origins||Mid-1970s, United States, United Kingdom, and Australia|
|Typical instruments||Vocals • electric guitar • bass • drums • occasional use of other instruments|
|Mainstream popularity||Topped charts in UK during late 1970s. International commercial success for pop punk and ska-punk, mid-1990s–2000s.|
|Derivative forms||New Wave • post-punk • Gothic rock • alternative rock • grunge • emo|
|Anarcho-punk • art punk • Christian punk • crust punk • garage punk • glam punk • hardcore punk • oi! • Riot Grrrl • skate punk|
|2 Tone • anti-folk • avant-punk • Celtic punk • Chicano punk • cowpunk • folk punk • Gaelic punk • Gypsy punk • pop punk • psychobilly • punk blues • punk jazz • ska punk|
Punk rock (or "punk") is a music genre related to rock music. It is often described as harder, louder, and cruder than other rock music. Many punk rock songs have lyrics (words) which tell angry stories or which use rude or controversial words.
About punk rock[change]
Punk rock is a style of music. Many musicians and punk rock music listeners ("punk rockers") want to protest or rebel against the norms or rules of society. Punks say that people should "Do It Yourself", which means that people should try to accomplish their goals using the materials in their own communities. Many punk bands make their own music recordings and distribute them without using a major record company.
Many punks have strong political beliefs. Punk rock musicians are often mad at the government, the police, and laws. Many punk rock songs protest injustice, lies, and unfairness in countries. Almost all punks are leftists, who believe that a country should share the products and food that it produces with all the people in the country. Some punks are vegetarian or vegans, because they believe that animals should not be killed for food. Some punks are anarchists. Very few punks are conservative, libertarian, or Republican.
Punk rock developed in New York City in the mid-1970s. Bands like The Ramones, Television, The Heartbreakers, Blondie, and Patti Smith played loud, angry songs. Many bands played at a club called CBGB's. The music soon spread to Australia and Britain, were bands started playing punk rock in 1976-1977. British bands like Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Damned, Generation X, The Jam, and Sex Pistols played punk rock music that was inspired by the music being played in New York, as well as by garage rock, pub rock, and other protopunk music.
These early "punks" rejected the excesses of mainstream 1970s rock. They created fast, hard-edged music, with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. They often did controversial things, such as saying bad words in public. Many newspapers wrote articles about the "bad" behavior of punk rock musicians.
In the 1980s, a new type of punk rock called "hardcore punk" or "hardcore" developed. Punk rock music began being mixed with Heavy Metal rock music. Many hardcore bands began playing in the United States.
In the 1990s, punk rock began being mixed with pop music to create a new lighter style of music called pop-punk. Pop-punk bands include Green Day and Good Charlotte. Some pop-punk bands mixed punk rock with ska music.
Pop-punk was still popular in the 2000s. Some people who like the 1970s-style punk rock criticize pop-punk because pop-punk is commercialized.
Some people say that punk rock is dead. But that is not true, because the spirit lives on and many punk rockers are around today.
- Bad Brains
- Bad Religion
- Black Flag
- The Clash
- Dead Kennedys
- Green Day
- Iggy Pop
- Meat Puppets
- Minor Threat
- The Misfits
- New York Dolls
- The Offspring
- The Sex Pistols
- Social Distortion
- "punk rock" (in English). Springfield: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. 2010. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/punk+rock. Retrieved 23 January 2010.


Bernini's Bust of Medusa
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Bust of Medusa, marble, c. 1644-48 (Capitoline Museum)
Medusa, one of the three Gorgons, daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. She was the only one of the Gorgons who was subject to mortality. She is celebrated for her personal charms and the beauty of her locks. Neptune became enamoured of her, and obtained her favours in the temple of Minerva. This violation of the sanctity of the temple provoked Minerva, and she changed the beautiful locks of Medusa, which had inspired Neptune’s love to serpents.
According to Apollodorus, Medusa and her sisters came into the world with snakes on their heads, instead of hair, with yellow wings and brazen hands. Their bodies were also covered with impenetrable scales, and their very looks had the power of killing or turning to stones. Perseus rendered his name immortal by his conquest of Medusa. He cut off her head, and the blood that dropped from the wound produced the innumerable serpents that infest Africa. The conqueror placed Medusa's head on the shield of Minerva, which he had used in his expedition. The head still retained the same petrifying power as before, as it was fatally known in the court of Cepheus. . . . Some suppose that the Gorgons were a nation of women, whom Perseus conquered. (From Lempriére’s Classical Dictionary of Proper names mentioned in Ancient Authors Writ Large. Ed. J. Lempriére and F.A. Wright. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. As quoted by Modern American Poetry site, Department of English, University of Illinois)


Freighter (or barge) was the term given to any spacecraft that was used to transport freight or cargo (such as parts and supplies). Both legitimate businesspersons and smugglers could be found captaining such transports. Freighters were needed from the time space travel began because of the need for supplies to all reaches of the galaxy. Freighters usually traveled with hyperdrives because people would often pay more for quick delivery.
For obvious reasons, freighters were used mainly for trade. Although very few fought in great battles, many freighters did see action. Smugglers and legitimate traders alike had some tangles now and then, but freighters were often armed and shielded so that they could resist attempts on their cargo.
Smuggling was a very prominent criminal fringe activity in the galaxy that involved the transportation of contraband between planets. To do this, a freighter generally of small size such as the Millennium Falcon, was required to transport the contraband past planetary security forces. Some examples of contraband include spice, blasters and medical supplies.
Smugglers often added upgrades to their ships so that they could beat competitors and outwit planetary security forces. Almost every smugglers vessel had improved light speed and sub-light speed drives for increased speed as well as boosted weapons systems to fight their way out of tough situations. Another of the most prevalent modifications to a smugglers freighter were numerous secret compartments to hide contraband from security checks while legitimate cargo occupied the cargo bays. On the Millennium Falcon, these consisted of removable floor plates.
Some freighters became so heavily modified that the mess of cross wired and non traditional parts prevented starship mechanics from working on them effectively. The smugglers themselves were therefore required to have a detailed knowledge of freighter mechanics and electronics to be able to keep their vessels in working order. Most smugglers preferred it this way as they didn't trust anyone tampering with their prized possessions.
Most smugglers freighters required a crew of more than one and as such most smugglers hired a copilot, such as Chewbacca on the Millennium Falcon or the droid LE-BO2D9 aboard the Outrider. To a smuggler, their freighter was everything; their job, their home, their lives. Many smugglers lived in their freighters as they had no terrestrial home.
- Star Wars: The Old Republic
- Tempest Feud
- The Clone Wars: Decide Your Destiny: Crisis on Coruscant
- "The Heart"
- "Maze Run"—Star Wars Insider 131
- Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (First appearance)
- Choices of One
- Star Wars: Empire at War
- Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption
- "Sandbound on Tatooine" — Star Wars Galaxy 10
- "Slaying Dragons"—Star Wars Adventure Journal 9
- Slave Ship
- Hard Merchandise
- The New Rebellion
- Vision of the Future
- Emissary of the Void
- Force Heretic I: Remnant
- X-Wing Miniatures Mission 4: Den of Thieves
In other languages
- freighter on Wikipedia


The name of the island is Lohachara not that many of us are going to remember it for long. We'll probably recall it as that little island off India, the first once inhabited island to disappear from the surface of the earth due to rising sea levels attributed to global warming.
Lohachara was a small island that supported a population of 10,000 in the Bay of Bengal near where the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers meet the sea. It is believed that other islands in the area will soon also be submerged displacing some 70,000 more islanders.
Several uninhabited islands have disappeared in recent years, notably in the South Pacific. Lohachara is unique because it was inhabited.


We all get stages in our life where we feel a bit low. These troughs can be triggered by a number of factors: relationship problems, feeling stuck in a job we don’t like, not having enough time for relaxation and all kinds of other reasons. Such periods of low mood generally pass in time but there can be a danger that genuine clinical depression can develop and go undiagnosed.
. Because depression is such a serious condition, with the very real risk of self-harm and suicide if left untreated, there is a great deal of mental health support on offer for sufferers. If you think someone you know has depression here are some things you can do to help.
- Share The Load: One of the key symptoms of depression is a profound sense of isolation, which can lead the sufferer to withdraw from people, making them feel more isolated which feeds their feelings of anxiety and depression. Try and talk to them, and let them know you care about what is happening to them. Be as supportive as you can, and listen to what they are saying. Just being able to communicate how they feel to another person can be a huge help.
- Keep Them Active: People suffering with depression often find their energy levels sapped, so the thought of doing something as simple as getting dressed can seem an exhausting ordeal. However, mental health support professionals know that exercise increases endorphin levels in the brain, which leads to an uplift in mood. Don’t send them on a route march, but try and encourage them to go for a gentle walk, a swim or perhaps do something like yoga. Again, offer to go with them to keep them motivated.
- Seek Professional Help: This may seem obvious, but encouraging them to talk to a professional will help immeasurably. The first step should be to see their GP, who can diagnose the severity of the depression and begin treatment. This may include referral for counseling and other psychological therapies, and prescription of anti-depressants for severe cases. There is a wide range of mental health support out there, from cognitive behaviour therapy to alternative methods such as arts therapies and they are all worth exploring.
If you’re worried that you or someone you care about is suffering from depression then it’s important to seek help now. A charity that specializes in mental health support can be a good place to start. Beating depression isn’t easy, but by taking it one step at a time it can be overcome.
For more information go to: http://www.unitedresponse.org.uk/what-we-do/mental-health/


(CNN) -- Human concepts of beauty are shaping conservation efforts, protecting good-looking plants and animals over ugly ones, a study suggests.
The report, "The new Noah's Ark: beautiful and useful species only,"has been published in the 2012 edition of the scientific journal, Biodiversity.
It describes how vulnerable species that overtly display characteristics human beings respect or find desirable -- such as beauty, strength, power or cuddliness -- are more likely to be the focus of concerted conservation programs than animals or plants that are less appealing to the eye.
"People have biases towards species that are glamorous," said Dr. Ernie Small, author of the study and taxonomist for Agriculture Canada.
"Animals that are beautiful, entertaining or that command respect due to their size or power are almost always given greater forms of conservation protection."
The study highlights charismatic mega-fauna such as whales, tigers and polar bears as animals more likely to be the focus of successful conservation programs, protective legislation and public funding drives.
As a result, the plight of less glamorous -- but no less ecologically important organisms, such as snakes, spiders and frogs -- are often ignored.
Small argues that this focus on large, spectacular species could have profound consequences for a wide variety of finely balanced ecosystems and food chains.
"When you concentrate on the preservation of selective species ... you do an inadequate job of protecting biodiversity as a whole," he said..
He adds that by employing such selective methods human beings could also be manufacturing nature to reflect their own image or the characteristics they admire.
"We find attractive in animals the same qualities that we find attractive largely in our own species. These are not always the most ecologically important species however," he added.
For those working on the front line of conservation, the concerns raised by Small and his study are very real.
According to Dr Sybille Klenzendorf, director of World Wildlife Fund's species program, there is already a wide body of evidence that suggests people are most interested in vulnerable animals that most closely resemble human beings -- usually large mammals with forward-facing eyes.
But Klenzendorf argues that focusing conservation efforts on these vulnerable species can lead to the best conservation programs.
"These large, charismatic species are ... the ones that require the largest amount of wild habitat, and by preserving them we save the less impressive species too," said Klenzendorf.
"In order to ensure the survival of wild tigers, we not only have to protect vast amounts of natural forest, but we also need to ensure that the animals on which they prey, and the plants on which those animals depend, are all protected. The same is true for polar bears and elephants."
"By protecting those animals that we are the most attracted to, we are also influencing and supporting the survival of other species, as well protecting entire landscapes," she explained.
But while recognizing that these methods are "not entirely without benefit," Small believes that more must be done to protect less appealing wildlife.
"Aesthetic standards have become one of the primary determinants of which species are deemed worthy for conservation and this has to be looked at," he said.


- Many birds bred in captivity are hand-reared. Hand-rearing allows a
greater number of birds to be reared (initial clutches may be removed and hand-reared,
with the birds re-laying). The abnormal rearing environment may, however adversely
affect later behaviour. One potential problem is that birds reared in an abnormal
environment may not themselves exhibit normal parental behaviour as adults.
- A well-recognised problem, of more concern in some species than in
others, is that hand-reared birds may become imprinted on humans and not later recognise
their conspecifics as appropriate mates. This is less likely to occur if the birds are
reared alongside others of their own species. If reared together with chicks of another
species, they may preferentially mate with that species.
- Hand-reared birds may be less wary than parent-reared birds. This may be
useful or detrimental depending on the circumstances. It may increase vulnerability to
predation in birds intended for release, but may be useful in producing birds which are
less stressed in a captive situation, and therefore more likely to breed: this may be very
important in breeding endangered species.
- Hand-rearing also requires suitable equipment in the form of brooder
boxes, runs, heat lamps etc. and requires a considerable input of time and effort. Not all
species are easy to hand-rear and some require considerable experience and expertise.
- Hand rearing has the advantages of allowing good control over temperature
and food availability.
- Success with rearing, particularly of duck species, may be greatly increased with
hand-rearing. Losses due to predation and abandonment, in particular, may be decreased.
- Once downies have hatched and dried, they should be transferred from the hatching
incubator to a heated broody box. Broody boxes should have solid sides and a mesh top to
prevent active birds from jumping or climbing out.
- The most common method of providing heat is by an infra-red heat lamp. This is
usually suspended over the brooder box by means of a chain, allowing the lamp to be raised
or lowered as required to adjust the temperature inside the box. Incandescent bulbs may
also be used to provide heat, but are more vulnerable if knocked or splashed with water
(and may shatter), and do not allow for a period of darkness, which is important for all
except Arctic-breeding waterfowl.
- A thermal gradient should be present from directly under the lamp (warmest) to
the far end of the box, allowing the downies to chose for themselves the most comfortable
area. A sturdy thermometer may be placed inside the box to monitor the temperature, which
should initially be about 90-99F (32.2-37.2C) directly under the lamp, reducing to 65-70F
(18.3-21.1C) (or ambient temperature if higher) by about three weeks old.
- N.B. thermometer temperatures are a useful guide, but
behavioural monitoring should be used also: if the downies are all underneath the
lamp and huddling together, they are too cold and the lamp needs to be lowered. If they
are staying in the far corners of the box, as far away from the lamp as possible, panting
and appearing stressed, they are too hot and the lamp needs to be raised.
Substrate and Cleaning:
- Suitable substrates for young waterfowl should stay dry to avoid wetting and
chilling and a non-slip surface is preferred to avoid splay-leg. Newspaper is not very
suitable as it quickly becomes sodden and is also slippery when dry. Towels may be used
initially but quickly become soiled and wet. Hay and straw should be avoided as they may
be a source of Aspergillus spp. spores. Wood shavings, hay, straw and paper might
be eaten, which may lead to Impaction.
Rubber mats with a stippled surface have been used successfully, as has synthetic turf.
Plastic-covered weldmesh or stiff plastic mesh on a frame may be used and has the
advantage that spilled feed, water and droppings can fall though to a gutter area
underneath to be washed away. Good hygiene is very important and brooder boxes should be
cleaned daily to avoid bacterial and fungal growth and associated diseases.
- There are two main approaches to the provision of water for downy waterfowl.
Downies may be kept with full access to water for swimming from the first or second day.
In such conditions it is important to watch the birds carefully for the first few days and
ensure they are kept warm and dry when out of the water, as there is a risk of the birds
becoming too wet with resultant Chilling. It
is particularly important for the diving ducks (especially seaducks and stifftails) to
have access to water for swimming and diving from an early age (B29).
- Alternatively, downies may be maintained with only drinking water, provided in
small vessels or in shallow bowls partially filled with stones to prevent swimming; this
may be safer and requires less constant watching, and is often used for dabbling ducks and
geese, particularly for small delicate duck species. The amount of water is gradually
increased to allow paddling, and full access to water is allowed only after the first full
plumage of contour feathers has grown.
- If full water access is provided from an early age, a constant flow with
surface-level drainage should be used, and an area of stippled rubber matting or mesh must
be provided under the brooder lamp.
- If waterfowl have been reared without full access to water they must be watched
carefully when first let onto water as they may become water-logged and sink (see:
they are also at greater risk of Chilling
until the first plumage has become waterproof.
- Food should be provided once the birds are out of the hatcher. For most species
which normally peck at food, dry crumbs or small pellets may be provided in a bowl close
to water. For species which would sieve their food, food should be finely ground and made
up into a wet slurry. Initially, crumbs with a protein level of 19-20% may be given, with
this being changed to pellets of about 15-16% from two to three weeks old onwards. Fine
grit should also be provided.
- Some waterfowl are difficult to get feeding initially, and may fail to gain
weight and die, usually during their second week (see: Starveout). A
variety of techniques have been developed to encourage waterfowl downies to feed; see:
Stimulating Feeding of
- N.B. It is important to ensure that downies are actually eating,
not just appearing to eat. Daily weighing is a useful indication, although weights
normally decreases in the first two or three days as the yolk sac is absorbed. Careful
observation is required to ensure that food is actually being ingested, and tube feeding
may be required for some very difficult birds which are slow to begin to feed.
- For goslings and other grazing species access to growing grass (i.e. turf, not
just cut grass) is important.
- The number of hours of light provided should mimic the normal daylight hours of
the natural environment where the birds are reared. In the case or Arctic-breeding geese,
this would be constant daylight. Tropical species may be best maintained on a cycle of 13
hours daylight, 11 hours dark, while temperate species require something in between, such
as 16 hours of light, 8 hours dark. Temperate species given too many hours of daylight are
prone to overfeeding, with the attendant risk of the development of Angel Wing.
- Young waterfowl should be given access to an outside run in suitable weather as
young as possible, and may normally be moved outside at least in daytime by as early as
one to two weeks old, depending on the weather.
- The run should be placed on clean short grass in an area not used by waterfowl
(adults or juveniles) the previous year.
- Runs should provide sunny areas (weather permitting) and shade to avoid
sunstroke/heatstroke, and should be designed to exclude mice. Thought should be given to
the fact that the direction of the sun moves during the day, so that a board giving
adequate shade in the morning may need to be moved in order to continue to provide shade
later in the day.
- The young birds should be shut away at night until the down is being replaced by
the first proper feathers. Depending on climate, some heat may be required at night at
- Until birds are both fully feathered and waterproof it is advisable to ensure
that either the birds are shut in at night or the whole run is covered at night, to avoid
the risk of birds becoming soaked during a nightime downpour.
- Once fully feathered, juveniles may be placed in larger pens, with a good-sized
pool. At this stage, birds which have previously been maintained off water must be watched
and may need to be dried if they become to wet; waterproofing usually develops properly
within a couple of days. These pens should provide sun, dry spots for resting and shelter
from rain, as well as areas in sunshine.
- Ideally, birds are raised in broods of the same age and species. Juveniles of
different species but the same age and size may be reared together also; however some
birds reared with a different species may be prone to choose a bird of the wrong species
as a mate when adult. Every effort should be made to avoid rearing a youngster
without other waterfowl for company (except for Biziura
lobata - Musk duck ducklings).
B7, B13.46.w1, B29,
B41, B95, B97,


Almost every teen has heard about the kissing disease. Though only about 5-10 percent of them actually come down with the symptoms of Mono, tales of this infection are well known in adolescent circles.
When I see a teen in the clinic with the classic symptoms of fever, sore throat, fatigue and enlarged lymph nodes, I tell them it could be Mono. Many of them nod knowingly and flash an embarrassing smile because now they think their parents must know they’re kissing someone.
Truth is, while Mono can be commonly spread by sharing kisses, it’s also spread by sharing eating or drinking utensils and by sexual contact. Coming into contact with the bodily fluids of someone currently infected with Mono increases your chances of catching it.
What is Mono?
Mono is a viral infection caused by EBV (Epstein-Barr Virus). It’s incredibly ubiquitous and most children are exposed to it prior to adolescence. The difference is children rarely come down with the symptoms of Mono. So, the illness is most common in 15- to 24-year-olds who were not exposed in childhood. Eventually 90-95 percent of the population becomes EBV positive.
Fatigue and sore throat are by far the most common and most severe complaints of Mono. Fever may occur early in the disease but is not the most significant symptom. It’s often mistaken for strep throat or the flu since symptoms can greatly overlap. To confirm suspicions of Mono, many teens will need a blood test checking their white blood count and for presence of antibodies to EBV. A strep culture may also be done to rule out strep throat.
Caution in Mono
About 50-60 percent of teens with Mono will also have an enlarged spleen. Rupture of the spleen is rare but can be life threatening and for this reason, teens are not to participate in all sports activities for a minimum of 3 weeks. Contact sports, such as football, are definitely sidelined until 4 weeks after the onset of illness. Check with your child’s doctor to know when your teen gets the green light.
When can my teen return to school?
Once your teen is afebrile, sore throat is under control and fatigue has lifted then he/she is likely ready to return to school. There’s no hard and fast rule on this since contagiousness starts before onset of symptoms and shedding of the virus continues long after initial infection.
Remind your teens to not share eating or drinking utensils and to avoid intimate contact with someone else recently infected.
Dr. Mom's bottom line: The fatigue of Mono can linger for months. Make sure your teen is getting enough sleep (8.5 to 9 hours per night) and that any residual throat pain and/or swelling is addressed.


Constantinople AgreementArticle Free Pass
Constantinople Agreement, (March 18, 1915), secret World War I agreement between Russia, Britain, and France for the postwar partition of the Ottoman Empire. It promised to satisfy Russia’s long-standing designs on the Turkish Straits by giving Russia Constantinople (Istanbul), together with a portion of the hinterland on either coast in Thrace and Asia Minor. Constantinople, however, was to be a free port. In return, Russia consented to British and French plans for territories or for spheres of influence in new Muslim states in the Middle Eastern parts of the Ottoman Empire. This first of a series of secret treaties on the “Turkish question” was never carried out because the Dardanelles campaign failed and because, when the British navy finally did reach Istanbul in 1918, Russia had made a separate peace with Germany and declared itself the enemy of all bourgeois states, France and Britain prominent among them.
What made you want to look up "Constantinople Agreement"? Please share what surprised you most...


A new tool to identify the calls of bat species could help conservation efforts.
Because bats are nocturnal and difficult to observe or catch, the most effective way to study them is to monitor their echolocation calls. These sounds are emitted in order to hear the echo bouncing back from surfaces around the bats, allowing them to navigate, hunt and communicate.
Many different measurements can be taken from each call, such as its minimum and maximum frequency, or how quickly the frequency changes during the call, and these measurements are used to help identify the species of bat.
However, a paper by an international team of researchers, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, asserts that poor standardisation of acoustic monitoring limits scientists’ ability to collate data.
Kate Jones, chairwoman of the UK-based Bat Conservation Trust
told the BBC that “without using the same identification methods everywhere, we cannot form reliable conclusions about how bat populations are doing and whether their distribution is changing.
"Because many bats migrate between different European countries, we need to monitor bats at a European - as well as country - scale.”
The team selected 1,350 calls from 34 different European bat species from EchoBank, a global echolocation library containing more than 200,000 bat call recordings. This raw data has allowed them to develop the identification tool, iBatsID
, which can identify 34 out of 45 species of bats.
This free online tool works anywhere in Europe, and its creators claim can identify most species correctly more than 80% of the time.
There are 18 species of bat residing in the UK, including the common pipistrelle and greater horseshoe bat.
Monitoring bats is vital not just to this species, but also to the whole ecosystem. Bats are extremely sensitive to changes in their environment, so if bat populations are declining, it can be an indication that other species might be affected in the future.


Quick Tips for Lowering Cholesterol
6. Know Your Sources Of Trans Fat
Since 2006, the FDA has required food manufacturers to list reportable amounts of trans fat on the nutrition facts label. What’s considered reportable? Food manufacturers don’t have to report the trans-fat content if it’s less than 0.5 gram per serving. So check the ingredients list for hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils even if the nutrition facts label reports 0 grams of trans fat.
Next: 7. Go Fish »


Methods Used in Air Pollution Prevention
Air pollution is a major fear, particularly in very inhabited places around the world. The more traffic and people there is in some country the more air pollution that is registered. A little air pollution sums quite fast and with a crowded environment that has in mind in little time at all.
The consequences of air pollution can be really damaging to people and animals. It is really abusive to children and those with respiratory problems. Experiencing clean air is fundamental for a good quality of life and that is wherefore there is a major concentrate on air pollution prevention.
Air Pollution Threats
Transportation is the most evidential sphere that adds to air pollution. The air pollution induced by vehicles, airplanes, trains and other fashions of transportation is the biggest amount. Of course, air pollution can come from other sources.
Air pollution can be from chemicals, waste material, oil production, nuclear weapons and another toxic substances. On a smaller level air pollution is as well caused by house appliances and cigaret smoking. An important point about air pollution is that even tiny amounts of pollution sum up when there is a heavily inhabited domain.
The Clean Air Act is a superb representation of the government’s role in air pollution prevention. This act aids to influence and enforce laws that attempt to eliminate or dilute the causes of air pollution. The administration sets the standards and serve up to get everyone engaged for cleaner air.
The Environmental Protection Agency as well runs a significant role in air pollution prevention. The EPA is working hard to shape the discharges of vehicles. Standards are rigorously updated to ensure that the coming vehicles are to a greater extent environmentally friendly then those of the past times.
In the engagement for air pollution prevention the newest efforts have involved brand-new applied science and educational activity. Technologies like hybrid cars have been one of the greatest break throughs for the prevention of air pollution.
Vehicles contribute greatly to air pollution and through the use of hybrids that pollution level is greatly minimized. This is likewise being supplemented with ideas for innovative energy forms that can even allow a car to operate with no pollution being emitted.
Education of the public about air pollution and how to prevent it is evenly being found of the essence. The more people know about the damages of air pollution and what induces it, the better fit they are to do their portion. Air pollution prevention in truth is about everyone working together. Thus, everyone has to understand the situation and be armed with the necessary info so they can practice their part to prevent air pollution.
Eco Friendly Posts:
- Air Pollution Prevention Information Brings Importance of Issue to Light
- Freshwater Pollution Prevention: Clean Drinking Water For Everyone
- The Link Between Al Gore and Pollution Prevention
- Air Pollution Control Measures
- Learning About the Air Quality Index


8. Scurrula buddleioides (Desrousseaux) G. Don, Gen. Hist. 3: 421. 1834.
滇藏梨果寄生 dian zang li guo ji sheng
Shrubs 0.5-2 m tall, young branchlets, leaves, and inflorescences with dense short grayish yellow, rarely brown, verticillate and stellate hairs. Branches brownish, glabrous, scattered lenticellate. Leaves opposite; petiole 4-12 mm, pilose; leaf blade ovate, ovate-oblong to oblong, 6-10 × 3.5-8 cm, papery or thinly leathery, abaxial surface minutely tomentose, adaxial surface glabrous, lateral veins 4 or 5 pairs, base obtuse to rounded, apex acute. Racemes 2-5-fascicled, axillary, sometimes at leafless nodes, 3-5(-7)-flowered; peduncle and rachis 1.5-5 mm, brownish or grayish yellow tomentose. Flowers densely alternate; bracts ovate, ca. 1 mm. Pedicel 1-1.5 mm. Calyx pyriform, 2-3 mm, limb annular, ciliate. Mature bud tubular, 1.5-2 cm, tip ellipsoid. Corolla red, slightly curved and inflated, tomentose, lobes lanceolate, ca. 5 mm, reflexed. Style red; stigma subcapitate. Berry pyriform, 8-10 × 3.5-4 mm, pilose, base tapering into stalk. Fl. and fr. Jan-Dec.
Forests, thickets, mountain slopes, valleys; 1100-2200 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [India].
Recorded hosts include species of Caprifoliaceae, Coriariaceae, Fagaceae, Moraceae, Rosaceae, Rutaceae, and Tiliaceae.


PAO: Policy Activities » Briefing (November 2, 2011)
Using Science to Improve Flood Management
On November 2, 2011, ESA sponsored a congressional briefing: “Using Science to Improve Flood Management.” Emily Stanley (University of Wisconsin, Madison) and Jeff Opperman (The Nature Conservancy, Ohio Field Office) addressed the function of floodplains and managing rivers as systems and for multiple benefits.
Emily Stanley’s presentation focused on the work of rivers and the function of floodplains. Industry, transportation, and recreation all constitute work done by rivers. Less well known and valued is the work done by floodplains, responsible for such desirable services such as flood attenuation, fish production, improved water quality and groundwater recharge. Stanley noted that aging US levee and other infrastructure provide an opportunity to move beyond structural flood control and take greater advantage of the functions of floodplains.
Jeff Opperman’s presentation focused on the logic of managing rivers as a system and for multiple benefits. These include risk reduction for people and infrastructure as well as benefits such as water storage during droughts and increased fisheries production. Opperman said that because the Mississippi River is managed as a comprehensive system, the recent flood was far less damaging than that of 1927 even though a greater volume of water passed through the system in 2011. Opperman also pointed to the success story of California’s Yolo Bypass, which has reduced flood risk while increasing goods and services.
To view the complete presentations, please click on the links below:


Rugby (pop. 63,000) is a market town sitting on the River Avon at the boundary of Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. It is renowned for its prestigious Rugby School, one of the country's oldest public school (i.e. an expensive private school in the UK - see Eton), founded in 1567. Some of the famous people who attended Rugby School include Alice in Wonderland's author Lewis Carrol, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and essayist Salman Rushdie.
However, the town's main claim of fame is to have invented the sport that bears its name. The ball sport was first played by William Webb Ellis (1806-1872) in 1823, a student of Rugby School, who disrespecting the rules of football (AmE = soccer), took the ball into his hands and started running with it. The claim that he invented the game did not surface before 4 years after his death though.
Rugby School also educated the Australian Tom Wills, who in 1859 first codified the rules of Australian football.
The region of Rugby was settled since the Iron Age. The River Avon marked the boundary between the Dobunni and the Coritani Celtic tribes. The Roman founded Tripontium near present-day Rugby. Not until the 13th century did Rugby develop into a small town, after gaining a market charter.
1567 marks the founding of Rugby School by Lawrence Sheriff, a local grocer who left money for the establishment of a school for local boys. Fee-paying pupils were soon accepted to pay the bills, and Rugby gradually became a largely fee-paying school.
Rugdy's population remained around 1,000 until the Oxford Canal (linking Oxford to Coventry via Rugby) opened in the 1770's. The town only came into prominence in the 1820's when the school's headmaster, Dr Thomas Arnold, pioneered new teaching methods and changed radically public school education in England. Most of the buildings in th centre of Rugby date from this period.
As the railway was developing throughout England in the 1830's, Rugby became a major junction. It became so congested that Charles Dickens satirized it in his short story Mugby Junction (1866).
From the 1950s, Rugby gained a substantial Afro-Caribbean community, and a sizeable community from the Indian sub-continent, making Rugby a multi-cultural town (it even has a Hindu temple).
The town as it exists now is mostly Victorian in architecture, with a few older timber-framed houses. Rugby's town centre is said to have the highest concentration of pubs in England.
The 19th-century grandeur of Rugby School combined with the relaxing calm of Oxford Canal make for a pleasant stroll around the town.
How to get there
Rugby is located 24km south-east of Coventry, about half-way between Birmingham and Northampton.
Trains link Rugby to London Euston (55min, £19.90), Northampton
(20min, £3.30) and Birmingham
National Express has buses to Coventry (2h, £13).
Train timetables & reservations


The length of amyloid fibrils found in diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinson appears to play a role in the degree of their toxicity, according to researchers at the University of Leeds. Their findings are published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry in a paper titled “Fibril Fragmentation Enhances Amyloid Cytotoxicity.”
Sheena Radford, Ph.D., and colleagues systematically analyzed the effects of fragmentation on three of the 30 or so proteins that form amyloid in human diseases. Their results showed that in addition to the expected relationship between fragmentation and the ability to seed, the length of fibrils also correlated with their ability to disrupt membranes and reduce cell viability. This was evident even when there were no other changes in molecular architecture.
Co-author, Eric Hewitt, Ph.D., says that while the findings provide scientists with unexpected new insights for the development of therapeutics against amyloid deposit-related diseases, the next stage of research will involve looking at a greater numbers of the proteins that form amyloid fibrils. “We anticipate that when we look at amyloid fibers formed from other proteins, they may well follow the same rules.”
“It may be that because they’re smaller it’s easier for them to infiltrate cells,” Dr. Hewitt suggests. “We’ve observed them killing cells, but we’re not sure yet exactly how they do it. Nor do we know whether these short fibers form naturally when amyloid fibers assemble or whether some molecular process makes them disassemble or fragment into shorter fibers. These are our next big challenges.”


1997 the Department of the Interior added the Grove Street
Cemetery to the National Register of Historic Places.
Three years later the Department
declared the cemetery a National Historic Landmark, the first
cemetery so designated in New England, because "this
site possesses national significance in commemorating the
history of the United States of America."
the cemetery "represents a mile-stone in the development
of a cemetery as a distinct institution.
Its monuments reflect the history of funerary
art in America while its entrance gate is recognized as one
of the leading examples of Egyptian Revival style in the
"The Dead Shall Be Raised"
Thomas Clarke Williams


Click here to view an interactive map of the Northern Ireland dataset as currently collated by CEDaR.
The map is generated through the NBN Gateway using their Interactive Mapping Tool.
Coregonus autumnalis pollan Thompson
Pollan is a glacial relict of an Alaskan-Siberian whitefish species and is not found anywhere in Western Europe outside of Ireland. It is a good example of the importance of correct taxonomy in determining conservation importance. For most of the twentieth century, pollan was regarded as one or other of two coregonid species found in Britain. However, molecular studies in the 1970s showed conclusively that it was C. autumnalis, but that there were sufficient differences to regard it as a distinct subspecies C. a. pollan. In a recent revision, Kottelat has suggested that it should be designated as a full species C. pollan rather than a subspecies, which would make it an endemic Irish species. Further work is required to validate this proposal. Irrespective of its exact classification, pollan is one of the most unique elements of the Irish fauna. Pollan entered the Shannon system as a migratory fish at the end of the last Ice Age, some 14,000 years ago, and from there it spread to Loughs Erne and Neagh, all of which were interconnected in the period of glacial retreat. As the sea temperature and salinity increased, pollan lost its migratory habit and became restricted to freshwater. However, pollan have been found in the Erne estuary at Ballyshannon and downstream of Coleraine on the Lower River Bann. Since Neagh, Erne and Shannon (Ree and Derg) stocks have been isolated for over 10,000 years, undoubtedly genetic differences have evolved among them as a result of adaptation to local conditions and by genetic drift. There is also some evidence of distinct populations within Lough Neagh, presumably maintained as a result of natal homing to separate spawning areas.
Pollan is a silvery trout-shaped fish, with a dark greeny-blue back. Superficially, it resembles a herring but is easily recognised due to the presence of the diagnostic salmonid adipose fin, a small fleshy dorsal fin just in front of the tail.
Pollan spawn in December and January in shallow rocky areas of the loughs where wave action provides good oxygenation for the developing eggs. The young fish feed on animal plankton and on larger invertebrates as they grow older. $Mysis relicta$, a glacial relict crustacean, is an important food source in Lough Neagh, as are the abundant larvae of chironomid midges. Spawning takes place from about three years of age and individuals can generally live for about five years, although a seven-year-old has been recorded from Lower Lough Erne.
There are no similar freshwater species present in Ireland but two related whitefish species are found in Scotland, Cumbria, and Wales, although several populations of these have become extinct in recent decades.
How to see this species
Lough Neagh pollan are fished for commercially and can be seen as fishermen land their catches at various quays around the lough. They can be bought in some fish markets and shops during the fishing season (March to October). Pollan sometimes move down the Lower River Bann and they have been caught by anglers downstream of Coleraine.
Although still common in Lough Neagh, pollan is no longer found in Upper Lough Erne and has become very rare in Lower Lough Erne since the 1970s. It was abundant in Lough Erne in the early part of the twentieth century where it formed the subject of a substantial commercial fishery. Exploitation of Lough Neagh pollan is controlled by Fisheries Legislation, enforced by the Fisheries Conservancy Board Northern Ireland.
Why is this species a priority in Northern Ireland?
Pollan is not found anywhere else in Western Europe outside Ireland
Threats/Causes of decline
Pollan require water with a good level of oxygen and so eutrophication, due to nutrient enrichment, and climatic warming are major threats, especially in the deeper lakes where oxygenation due to wind-mixing is reduced. The other major threat is increase of non-native species such as pike, roach and zebra mussel, which have been linked to the decline in Lower Lough Erne, possibly as a result of predation and decline in zooplankton availability. The recent introduction of zebra mussel into Lough Neagh presents a serious threat to pollan in this lough.
Conservation of this species
An all-Ireland Species Action Plan was published in 2005. There is also a UK Species Action Plan which was published in 1995.
What you can do
Support the restoration of Northern Ireland lakes to high water quality status. Help prevent the further spread of zebra mussels within Lough Neagh.
Text written by:
Professor Andrew Ferguson


Almost all of the 33 developed and developing countries surveyed in a new study had introduced or progressed with significant climate-related legislation within their own borders in the past year.
In 2012, 18 countries made significant progress, according to the report by the Grantham Research Institute at LSE and Globe International, which brings together legislators from different countries.
Only Canada had gone backwards on climate change, by repealing the Act implementing its targets under the Kyoto Protocol treaty to cut global emissions.
Despite a tough economic year for many countries, such as those in the eurozone, some progress was made by developed nations.
The EU as a whole made progress through its new directive on energy efficiency, while the US pushed forward with regulating carbon dioxide through its Clean Air Act.
Action by developing countries was more significant, with Mexico leading the way with a new climate law to cut emissions by 30% compared to "business as usual" by 2020, and major progress by countries ranging from Kenya to Pakistan.


What is the media? What does it do? Students examine the types and roles of the media by taking on the role of newsmaker and agenda setter.
Students will be able to:
ANTICIPATE by asking students if they’ve ever seen a television newscast. Ask students to recall any details they remember (graphics, music, story topics). Ask students who they think makes decisions about what stories television newscasts discuss.
DISTRIBUTE the Reading pages to each student.
READ the two reading pages with the class, pausing to discuss as necessary.
CHECK for understanding by doing the T/F Active Participation activity. Have students respond “True” or “False” as a chorus or use thumbs up/thumbs down.
DISTRIBUTE scissors, glue, and the Agenda Cutout Activity pages. Students can complete this activity individually or in pairs.
READ the directions for the cutout activity.
ALLOW students to complete the cutout activity.
REVIEW the answers to the cutout activity.
DISTRIBUTE one worksheet to each student and review the directions for the activities.
ALLOW students to complete the worksheet.
DISTRIBUTE one Extension Activity to each student and review the directions.
ALLOW students to complete the extension activity.
CLOSE by asking students to silently recall as many roles of the media as they can. Call on students until all roles have been named.


Ask The Expert
October 29, 2010
"ITB syndrome" is short for iliotibial band syndrome. It refers to a common cause of knee pain.
The iliotibial band is a tough fibrous (scar-like) tissue that extends from the region of the hip to the knee along the outside of the leg. Along with other muscles of the leg, the IT band helps stabilize the knee, especially when the knee is stressed during physical activity.
ITB syndrome develops when there is damage, irritation or inflammation of the IT band. The most common site is at the outside of the knee where the tissue of the IT band rubs over a bony bump.
Pain over the outside of the knee is the most common symptom, although some people complain of pain higher up, along the outside of the thigh or hip. Repetitive knee flexing tends to make it worse. Rest usually relieves the symptoms.
While ITB syndrome may occur for no apparent reason, it's common among people who are:
Treatment options include:
In cases where these measures don't work, doctors may recommend a cortisone injection or even surgery to remove a bony bump that's irritating the IT band.


Eisenhower was President. Elvis was King. It was 19 August 1959, and a new era in Kalamazoo's history was about to begin. The nation's first pedestrian shopping mall opened on the two blocks of South Burdick Street between Water and South Streets with much fanfare, a mere two and a half months after construction first began. The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra was on hand to celebrate the event with 50,000 people who visited the mall on its first day, more than ten times the usual number.
So why would a city construct a pedestrian mall in the heart of its business district? Like the rest of the country, Kalamazoo faced urban decay. The growth of suburban shopping centers raised fears that downtown would lose its place as the business and cultural heart of the community. The city hoped that a mall would bring back business and counter the decline in real estate values.
The Gruen Plan
The Kalamazoo 1980 plan, also known as the Gruen Plan, was presented by the architectural firm Victor Gruen & Associates in March 1958. Its revolutionary design called for a loop street system that would encircle downtown; a series of pedestrian malls, new parking lots, and renovated stores and offices would lie in the center. Faced with maintaining the status quo or taking a bold step forward, the City Commission approved the design, although funding problems prevented the full plan from being implemented. Shared by the City of Kalamazoo and the property owners fronting the two-block mall, the cost of construction was only $60,000. A third block was added from South Street to Lovell Street in 1960, and a fourth between Water and Eleanor Streets in 1975. Through the leadership of Mayor Glenn Allen Jr., Elton Ham, Garret VanHaaften, Ray Dykema, Irving Gilmore, and others, the Kalamazoo Mall became a reality.
A Street Once More
Kalamazooans enjoyed the mall for nearly forty years, but ultimately it could not counter the continued effects of suburbanization. Critics complained of the lack of convenient parking, the exposure of shoppers to bad weather, public perceptions of crime, and less shopping diversity. In the mid-1990's the proposed introduction of an access street through two blocks of the mall became the most controversial component of Project Downtown's 10-point plan for Kalamazoo's revitalization. In a hotly contested election, voters approved the access street in May 1997. Construction on the 14-foot wide street began a year later in April 1998. The city officially reopened the street on 9 October 1998 with a weekend celebration highlighted by a visit from Governor John Engler, a big band concert reflecting the one in 1959, and a fireworks display. There was even a citywide raffle to select the lucky citizen who would drive the first car down the mall since 1959.
The unprecedented decision to construct a pedestrian mall in the heart of its business district placed Kalamazoo in the national spotlight in 1959. Today, critics argue that the heyday of the pedestrian mall has passed. Of the over two hundred pedestrian malls constructed in the 1970's and 1980's, only a few remain. People are still clearly divided over this issue. Yet despite the disagreement over the Kalamazoo Mall itself, the two sides ultimately want the same thing: a healthy and vibrant downtown.


Definition: 'Taenia Solium'
Taenia soliumType: Term
1. the pork, armed, or solitary tapeworm of humans, acquired by eating insufficiently cooked pork infected with Cysticercus cellulosae; hatching of ova within the human intestine may result in establishment of cysticerci in human tissues, resulting in cysticercosis.
The information shown above for Taenia solium is provided by Stedman's.
* Stedman's, part of Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, provide a comprehensive line of health-science publications for healthcare professionals and medical students.


UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. Its stated purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the UN Charter. In total, 191 nations belong to UNESCO. The organization is based in Paris, with over 50 field offices and several institutes and offices throughout the world. Most of the field offices are "cluster" offices covering three or more countries; there are also national and regional offices. UNESCO pursues its action through five major programmes: education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, and communication and information. Projects sponsored by UNESCO include literacy, technical, and teacher-training programmes; international science programmes; the promotion of independent media and freedom of the press; regional and cultural history projects, the promotion of cultural diversity; international cooperation agreements to secure the world cultural and natural heritage and to preserve human rights; and attempts to bridge the world-wide digital divide.
As early as 1942, in wartime, the governments of the European countries, which were confronting Nazi Germany and its allies met in the United Kingdom for the Conference of Allied Ministers of Education (CAME).
The Second World War was far from over, yet those countries were looking for ways and means to reconstruct their systems of education once peace was restored. Very quickly, the project gained momentum and soon took on a universal note. New governments, including that of the United States, decided to join in.
Upon the proposal of CAME, a United Nations Conference for the establishment of an educational and cultural organization (ECO/CONF) was convened in London from 1 to 16 November 1945. Scarcely had the war ended when the conference opened. It gathered together the representatives of forty-four countries. Spurred on by France and the United Kingdom, two countries that had known great hardship during the conflict, the delegates decided to create an organization that would embody a genuine culture of peace. In their eyes, the new organization must establish the “intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind” and, in so doing, prevent the outbreak of another world war.
At the end of the conference, thirty-seven countries made the birth of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The Constitution of UNESCO, signed on 16 November 1945, came into force on 4 November 1946 after ratification by twenty countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Greece, India, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States. The first session of the General Conference of UNESCO took place in Paris from 19 November to 10 December 1946 with the participation of representatives from 30 governments entitled to vote.
The ashes of the Second World War are reflected in the composition of the founding Member States of UNESCO. Japan and the Federal Republic of Germany became members in 1951, Spain in 1953. Other major historical factors, as the Cold War, the decolonization process and the dissolution of the USSR, also left their trace on UNESCO. The USSR joined UNESCO in 1954 and was replaced by the Russian Federation in 1992. 19 African States became Members in 1960. 12 Republics emanating from the former Soviet Union entered UNESCO in 1991-93.
As a consequence of the entry of the People’s Republic of China into the United Nations it has been the only legitimate representative of China at UNESCO since 1971. The German Democratic Republic was a Member from 1972 to 1990, when it joined the Federal Republic of Germany.
Origins of UNESCO
The main predecessors of UNESCO were:
• The International Committee of Intellectual Co-operation (CICI), Geneva 1922-1946,
• its executing agency, the International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation (IICI), Paris, 1925-1946
• the International Bureau of Education (IBE), Geneva, 1925-1968; the latter has since 1969 been part of the UNESCO Secretariat under its own statutes.
The new Director-General is elected every four years by the General Conference. Under his authority, the Secretariat is expected to translate into reality the programmes approved by the General Conference.
Visit the Official Portal of UNESCO


Almost incandescent in the soft light of an overcast sky, the remarkable color of this scrub oak apple gall contrasts sharply with the muted greens, grays and browns of the surrounding chaparral.
The gall forms in response to the larvae of the California gall wasp. The gall protects the developing larvae, as well as providing it a source of food.
On the right side of the gall there appears to be a "sun print" of an oak leaf in the red color, where a nearby leaf may have shielded the surface from sunlight.
From today's run on the Backbone Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains, near Saddle Peak.


The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) recently released a new infographic that demonstrates how the country’s medical schools and teaching hospitals work to improve patient care. The graphic can be downloaded and viewed here.
The graphic demonstrates how vital medical schools and teaching hospitals are to our country’s health care system. For instance, the nation’s nearly 400 major teaching hospitals train 80,000 residents in primary care and specialty areas each year. Nearly half of all external research funded by the National Institutes of Health is conducted at medical schools. And, AAMC teaching hospitals provide nearly 40 percent of hospital charity care.
UNC Health Care’s status as a teaching hospital allows us to better train the next generation of doctors and better serve the patients we see each day. We are proud to be a part of a nationwide effort to improve care and better train medical students.


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Painting birds often involves long periods outside, in all kinds of weather and at all times of year, but it's a job I feel privileged to have. One of the difficulties in capturing an accurate sketch or painting of a bird is their sheer dynamism. Granted, herons, swans and many of the larger birds are generally slow-moving, and offer extended opportunities for the wildlife artist to capture a portrait on paper, but the smaller songbirds tend to be fast-moving. Many are skulking and some, like the Goldcrest and Wren, are so tiny and quick that a glimpse is all that may be obtained. Nevertheless, a few pencil lines here, then a few more from another brief glimpse, and the image can be pieced together and gradually built on.
I am often asked if I use photographs, but I find that paintings done from photos can be stiff and lifeless. I've seen photos of friends or family, where the frozen instant, that photographic split second, has made their facial features seem so odd that it is difficult to recognize them. With bird portraits it's the same. The few sparse pencil lines, if done well, can portray the bird well. The fruit of long experience of the species and its postures movements and looks, a good painting will capture the character and vitality of a bird
Photographs do provide a useful reference for the minutiae of bird plumage and structure. How long a particular feather is in relation to other ones etc? What colour are the claws? Just how much white fringing was there on the wing feathers? This additional accuracy in the detail can add the final stamp of realism if the image demands it, but only if the character of the bird has already been imposed on the painting.
Spring is a great time to paint birds. Not only are the birds in pristine plumage, but the males, in particular, are at their showiest and will often sing from exposed perches for a considerable time. Many of my best views of Wrens, for example, have been in Spring, when they emerge from dense cover into the open and start proclaiming their territories. With so much bird activity in Spring, the source of artistic activity is endless. A Chaffinch on a flowering hawthorn; a Skylark singing constantly, hovering high over sand dunes, a Blackbird singing from an apple tree. The dynamism and energy of Irish birds in Spring is inspirational in every sense.
Who is not captivated by the sheer exuberance of a dawn chorus and the energy of birds defending territories and raising their young. As a wildlife artist, I can only hope to capture a tiny part of this frantic activity, but the inspiration and energy required to paint is as vibrant at this time of the year as the dawn chorus itself. Go, hear and see it for yourself! You too will be inspired!
Michael O'Clery graduated from NCAD in Dublin. He illustrated The Complete Guide to Ireland's Birds, which was a bestseller. Michael's work features in journals, books, magazines and in private collections around the world. He lives on the Dingle Peninsula.


A medieval siege engine used as a weapon!
The Catapult is a large machine on wheels with a basket attached to a long wooden arm and a power source (tension, torsion, traction, or gravity) for hurling projectiles.
Watch objects fly 10 feet away or more from this fantastic scale model of a working catapult with scoop.
Pre-cut, pre-drilled pieces of Basswood and simple instructions help you complete assembly in just a few hours.
Educational and entertaining, the Catapult Wooden Model Kit is an ideal introduction to Middle Age weaponry!
Size: 12"L X 5.5"W X 5"H.
Ages 10-16 yrs.
If you like these Medieval Weapon Kits, also see the:


PASADENA, Calif. -- Light-colored mounds of a mineral deposited on a volcanic cone more than three billion years ago may preserve evidence of one of the most recent habitable microenvironments on Mars.
Observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enabled researchers to identify the mineral as hydrated silica and to see its volcanic context. The mounds' composition and their location on the flanks of a volcanic cone provide the best evidence yet found on Mars for an intact deposit from a hydrothermal environment -- a steam fumarole, or hot spring. Such environments may have provided habitats for some of Earth's earliest life forms.
"The heat and water required to create this deposit probably made this a habitable zone," said J.R. Skok of Brown University, Providence, R.I., lead author of a paper about these findings published online today by Nature Geoscience. "If life did exist there, this would be a promising type of deposit to entomb evidence of it -- a microbial mortuary."
No studies have yet determined whether Mars has ever supported life. The new results add to accumulating evidence that, at some times and in some places, Mars has had favorable environments for microbial life. This specific place would have been habitable when most of Mars was already dry and cold. Concentrations of hydrated silica have been identified on Mars previously, including a nearly pure patch found by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit in 2007. However, none of those earlier findings were in such an intact setting as this one, and the setting adds evidence about the origin.
Skok said, "You have spectacular context for this deposit. It's right on the flank of a volcano. The setting remains essentially the same as it was when the silica was deposited."
The small cone rises about 100 meters (100 yards) from the floor of a shallow bowl named Nili Patera. The patera, which is the floor of a volcanic caldera, spans about 50 kilometers (30 miles) in the Syrtis Major volcanic region of equatorial Mars. Before the cone formed, free-flowing lava blanketed nearby plains. The collapse of an underground magma chamber from which lava had emanated created the bowl. Subsequent lava flows, still with a runny texture, coated the floor of Nili Patera. The cone grew from even later flows, apparently after evolution of the underground magma had thickened its texture so that the erupted lava would mound up.
"We can read a series of chapters in this history book and know that the cone grew from the last gasp of a giant volcanic system," said John Mustard, Skok's thesis advisor at Brown and a co-author of the paper. "The cooling and solidification of most of the magma concentrated its silica and water content."
Observations by cameras on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed patches of bright deposits near the summit of the cone, fanning down its flank, and on flatter ground in the vicinity. The Brown researchers partnered with Scott Murchie of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., to analyze the bright exposures with the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument on the orbiter.
Silica can be dissolved, transported and concentrated by hot water or steam. Hydrated silica identified by the spectrometer in uphill locations -- confirmed by stereo imaging -- indicates that hot springs or fumaroles fed by underground heating created these deposits. Silica deposits around hydrothermal vents in Iceland are among the best parallels on Earth.
Murchie said, "The habitable zone would have been within and alongside the conduits carrying the heated water." The volcanic activity that built the cone in Nili Patera appears to have happened more recently than the 3.7-billion-year or greater age of Mars' potentially habitable early wet environments recorded in clay minerals identified from orbit.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory provided and operates CRISM, one of six instruments on the orbiter. For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance