More than 170 groups urged the United States Congress to significantly increase the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s budget for endangered species conservation from $291.7 million to $592.1 million. This marks an increase of approximately $300 million from last year’s budget.
According to the U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service’s data, hundreds of endangered species receive less than $1,000 per year for their recovery. Many species receive no funding at all from the agency.
“We can’t possibly begin to combat, let alone reverse, the global extinction crisis if our nation’s strongest conservation law is operating on a shoestring budget,” Stephanie Kurose, a senior policy specialist with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.
As yesterday’s letter notes, to make up for lost ground and support the Biden administration’s commitment to address the threat of climate change to biodiversity, the Service requires a budget of $592.1 million, distributed across five programs, starting in fiscal year 2022. The critical move includes ensuring that every listed species receives a minimum of $50,000 per year for recovery.
“The science is clear: Species are being lost faster than ever before in human history,” noted Dr. Jacob Malcom, Director of the Center for Conservation Innovation at Defenders of Wildlife. “The science also shows what works to save species: funding. We urge Congress to fully fund the Endangered Species Act so that the most vulnerable species have a fighting chance at survival and recovery.”
Scientists have sounded the alarm that unless urgent action is taken, one million animal and plant species may become threatened with extinction in the coming decades due to habitat loss, climate change, wildlife exploitation, pollution, and other human activities.
Today’s letter, joined by groups including Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and Sierra Club, notes that “The Endangered Species Act is one of the best tools we have to stem the current wildlife extinction crisis.”
For more than 45 years, despite being chronically and severely underfunded, the Endangered Species Act has successfully protected, and worked to recover, many of the most imperiled species in the United States.
You can help all animals and our planet by choosing compassion on your plate and in your glass. #GoVeg


New gas and water technologies could add decades to the lifespan of oil reserves in the North Sea, according to Edinburgh researchers.
A Heriot-Watt University team said they had made a breakthrough in developing clean and cheap methods to maximise extraction from existing fields.
The university has been working on a technique known as low-salinity water injection.
The team has been researching which fields would benefit most from it.
Researchers have also been developing gas injection technologies for use in reservoirs that are already flooded with water.
Professor Mehran Sohrabi, director of the university’s centre for enhanced oil recovery, believes new technologies could be a game changer for the industry and has called for more investment to reverse the decline in North Sea production.
He said: “At least half of the original oil still remains in the North Sea reservoirs but there are great challenges in extracting it using enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques.
“These include limited platform space and large well spacing, making extraction too expensive to pursue.
“Following years of research at the university, we now believe we can overcome these challenges.”
Low-salinity water injection works by reducing the salt levels in sea water that is already injected into reservoirs.
Mr Sohrabi said: “It has the potential to make a huge impact on the current output of the North Sea’s oil production.
“We have developed a robust method to screen oil reservoirs to identify the ones that would respond positively to low salinity water injection.
“This allows us to estimate the size of incremental oil recovery, which is vital for economic calculations of enhanced oil recovery projects.”


Kerala lies situated between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea, on the southern tip of India.
The official language is Malayalam. English and Hindi are also spoken, as is Kannada in the north and Tamil in the east.
Around half the population are Hindu, a quarter Muslim and a quarter Christian. St Thomas the apostle was believed to have arrived in the ancient port of Muziris in AD 52, converting many people to Christianity and founding seven churches, which formed the basis of the Syrian Christian tradition.
A small Jewish community was also established from around AD68, from the Malabari Jews to the arrival of the Pardesi (or white) Jews, after expulsion from Spain in the late 15th century. For centuries, Kerala’s port city of Kochi (Cochin) has been an important centre for trade, particularly in spices, such as cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and crucially pepper – the black gold.
In 1498, the Portuguese arrived with Vasco de Gama. They formed settlements and built forts, taking advantage of tensions between native communities to assume control of the region. By 1663 the Portuguese were forced to retreat to Goa after the Dutch captured Kochi, and in 1682, the British arrived… India gained its Independence in 1947, and Kerala State, was formed in 1956, by the merging of the state of Travancore-Cochin with the Malabar district.
2 thoughts on “kerala കേരള”
Great to know about you . I’m glad that a keralite bagged prestigious reputation here and in the English language.
As a keralite and a literature enthusiast It’s a proud moment for me to read about you .
Gracias ..Go ahead
Thank you so much for your kind words, it means a lot to me. Best wishes Annie


The pH value is a dimensionless measure of the acid, neutral or basic character of an aqueous solution. The activity of the hydrogen ions is measured and then calculated. The pH scale is a logarithmic scale from 0 to 14 without any dimension. A pH value of 7 being considered neutral. This is also the pH of distilled pure water without solved CO2 in it. Values smaller than pH 7 are considered acidic and values bigger than 7 pH are considered alkaline.
Hence at the lower end of the scale one will find the acids whereas at the higher end of the scale the bases.
The pH value of drinking water
The authorities stipulate that drinking water should have a pH of not less than 6.5 and not more than 9.5. Therefore a lot of waterworks are adding lime slurry to the raw water. To bring down the pH, to come as close as possible to a neutral pH of 7.
To make this rather dry pH value, a little bit more understanding here a few examples. The pH value of:
|vinegar 2.0||pure water 7.0||blood 7.4|
|sulfuric acid 2.75||soap 10.0|
|acid rain 5.0||bleach 12.5|
|human urine 6.0||caustic soda 14.0|
This pH values in the table above are average values, they might vary from case to case. The pH of the human urine for instance, depends a lot on the diet, the medicines or the diseases one has. It can go as low as 5.0 considered as acidic or as high as 8.5 considered alkaline.


Elephant’s foot yam
Elephant’s foot yam is a spectacular shrubby climber, which grows up to 1.5m high. It has a huge tuber reaching a diameter of up to 75cm, which is mainly exposed above ground. The epidermis (skin) of the tuber is greyish-brown and hard, with numerous small plates of thick cork, (resembling the plates of a tortoise shell). Others have thought to resemble the skin of an elephant, hence the common name elephant’s foot yam. The inner tissue is yellowish-white, opaque and brittle.
Place of origin
Dioscorea elepantipes is restricted to South Africa.
Did you know?
Elephant’s foot yam contains very high levels of saponins (a class of chemical compounds from which steroid drugs come, which aid healing). Wild plants are often dug up by unscrupulous succulent plant collectors, or harvested for indigenous medicines. In the past the tubers were eaten by indigenous people in South Africa, after removing the toxic compounds. Nowadays the tubers are normally only consumed in times of famine.
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LEDs Have Lower Impact Than CFLs Over Lifetime
Life-cycle assessment shows LED lamps slightly outperform compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) on environmental impacts related to their manufacturing, transport, and use. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released the second of three reports in its “Life-Cycle Assessment of Energy and Environmental Impacts of LED Lighting Products,” which compares the impacts of an incandescent lamp, a CFL, a 2012 Philips EnduraLED, and a hypothetical 2017 LED based on projected improvements in technology.
In the course of 20 million lumen-hours of light service—roughly equivalent to the lifetime output of one Philips EnduraLED, three CFLs, or 22 incandescent lamps—LED lamps perform far better than incandescent lighting and better than CFLs on most measures. While energy consumed in use constitutes the majority of the impact for all of these products, the 2012 LEDs were found to contribute slightly more to landfills due to manufacturing waste and issues with disposal of their large aluminum heat sinks. The authors recommend that DOE work with manufacturers to reduce the size of those heat sinks and explore alternative materials.
Part 3 of the report will examine the impacts of LED disposal.
Published July 30, 2012 Permalink Citation
Weaver, E. (2012, July 30). LEDs Have Lower Impact Than CFLs Over Lifetime. Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/newsbrief/leds-have-lower-impact-cfls-over-lifetime
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One of the main components of ICE Panels is Expanded Polystyrene – also known as EPS. It arrives at our manufacturing plant as raw resin beads and is expanded in our plant using steam. The steam activates pentane, a gas that causes the beads to expand approximately 40 times in size. There are no chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) or hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) released when expanding EPS – making it one of the most environment-friendly foam insulations on the market.
When the EPS is expanded using the steam method, it absorbs atmospheric air while other insulations use toxic gasses to expand the raw resin EPS, creating inflated R-values. These “better” R-value claims don’t account for the years of off-gassing to follow, leaving you with a much lower R-value than you had to begin with. The foam cells in these products are filled with artificial gas, which slowly escapes from the EPS over time known as off-gassing. Not only is it toxic to the occupants of the building, but its also your R-value escaping from your insulation, reducing the efficiency of your walls.
One of the main components of ICE Panels is Expanded Polystyrene – also known as EPS. It arrives at our manufacturing plant as raw resin beads and is expanded in our plant using steam.
With ICE Panels, after the EPS is expanded, the pentane is completely off gassed in a highly controlled environment, leaving just the expanded EPS bead filled with atmospheric air. By the time the ICE Panels leave our plant, they are permanently stable and no further off-gassing will occur. This ensures that the R-value of the ICE Panels remains the same long-term.


This report explains how public housing authorities in various U.S. jurisdictions are expanding access for people with conviction histories.
Formerly incarcerated people are 10 times more likely than the general public to be without housing, with a rate of 203 people experiencing homelessness per 10,000 people. Homeless people are more likely to interact with police and are 11 times more likely to be arrested than those with stable housing. There are about 3,300 public housing authorities (PHAs) that serve approximately 1.2 million households, but they are often inaccessible resources for people released from incarceration. Exclusionary criteria governing much of public housing bar people who were formerly incarcerated from moving back with their families, who are often committed to helping the returning family member reintegrate into society. Such housing restrictions affect local public housing development as well as federal housing-choice vouchers under Section B. The latter provide rental assistance to low- and moderate-income families. In 2017, the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) launched a new initiative (Opening Doors: Safely Increasing Access to Public Housing for People with Conviction Histories) to remove barriers to housing for people with conviction histories. This initiative has worked with a wide range of partners, including PHAs, law enforcement agencies, county and state corrections departments, reentry service providers, homeless service providers, continuum of care organizations, and resident advocates. As a result of their partnership with Vera, some PHAs created reentry programs to increase access to public housing for people with conviction histories. From 2017 to 2021, Vera collaborated with 13 PHAs. Four of these Vera-PHA collaborations are described, along with other jurisdictions that are exploring innovations in policies and practices that expand housing access for people with criminal records.


Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine report that an experimental drug first developed to treat kidney disease prolongs survival and improves muscle function in mice genetically engineered to develop a severe form of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). According to the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), DMD affects 1 in every 5,000 live male births and results in severe muscle wasting and weakness because of the lack of a protein called dystrophin, which is needed to strengthen muscle cells and protect them from mechanical injury. The dystrophin gene is in the X chromosome, so DMD mainly affects boys. Girls only get the disease if both X chromosomes are affected. Muscle symptoms begin between the ages of 2 and 4, and, by their early teens, most individuals with DMD are unable to walk. Dystrophin is also important to heart muscle, so heart failure often occurs in later teenage years into the early 20s. According to the MDA, people with DMD generally live until their late 20s or early 30s. There is no cure, but physical therapy and corticosteroids reduce inflammation and help delay muscle decline, helping symptoms, and improving quality of life. Newer gene-targeting treatments are being tested, but they remain limited to a small number of patients targeted.
Blocking Ion Channel (TRPC6) Improves Muscle Function and Survival in Mice with Severe Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), Hopkins Study Shows
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Just as a healthy diet and exercise are vital components for maintaining good health, sleep too is equally essential. Sleep is a natural means of body repair and helps one to stay healthy and mentally sound. Several studies have indicated that lack of sleep can result in various ailments such as depression, diabetes, heart diseases, stroke and how sleep can change your life.
A noble-winning genius that Einstein is, reportedly slept for 10 hours per pay. Doctors recommend at least 7 to 8 hours of peaceful sleep to remain healthy and function properly. Here is how sleep can change your life:
● Boosts Immunity – Research claims that individuals getting less than 7 hours of sleep per night are 3 times more likely to be susceptible to various illnesses over the ones who get 8 hours of sleep.
Because when the human brain is asleep, cytokines are released (a type of protein). Cytokines help in regulating immunity and act as a defence system to fight off infections, if any. Taking proper sleep boosts the immunity levels and wards off infections.
● Slows Down the Aging Process – Sleep deprivation results in the breaking down of tiny telomere caps that are gene protectors, speeding up the aging process.
While, on the contrary, getting enough sleep activates the telomerase enzymes. It helps in repairing the damage and reversing the aging process, making you look genetically youthful.
● Enhances Cognitive Ability – Lack of sleep results in declining cognitive ability. If the sleep deprivation is chronic, the brain performance and memory gets affected. Proper sleep leads to drastic improvement of intellectual and physical capacity on multiple levels.
● Happiness Dose – Proper sleep allows your brain to rest and acts as a mood stabilizer. Lack of sleep or insomnia can result in feelings of anxiety and depression. But taking appropriate sleep helps in keeping the mind fresh and happy.
● Weight Reduction – If you aim to reduce weight, focus on improving your sleep quality and time. A sleep-deprived brain releases more of ghrelin (an appetizing hormone) that induces appetite and increases cravings for junk food high in carbohydrates.
Additionally, inadequate sleep results in insulin impairment and reduced sugar metabolism that results in weight gain and puts you at the risk of diabetes.
Given the several benefits, it is so important to take regular doses of sleep. Ensuring a healthy sleep regimen can transform your life to a next level. Sleep also reduces cortisol levels, keeping you stress-free!


New guidelines to help recognize depression in teens
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) just released guidelines for pediatricians to help diagnose depression in teens. One in five teens will experience depression at some point in adolescence, according to new findings. The AAP has called for every child 12 years and older to be screened for depression.
20% of adolescents report a history of depression and 50% go undiagnosed and only half of those diagnosed receive appropriate treatment for depression according to pediatrics.
Without appropriate treatment depressed adolescents are at significant risk for social problems, school problems, family problems, substance abuse, and suicidality.
The guidelines released by the American Academy of pediatrics suggests, starting at the age of 12, yearly screenings of adolescence for depression, alone time with the pediatrician and the patient and the patients parents. In addition, the pediatrician should develop a safety plan, a treatment plan, and discuss risk factors for depression and what they may look like.
Research has shown that screen time on electronics can increase risk for suicidality and depression.
If you or someone you know may be depressed please contact Charles R. Davenport, Psy.D., LLC with psychology offices in Sarasota, Florida and Venice, Florida. Dr. Charles R. Davenport, Licensed Psychologist can be reached at 941-321-1971.


About this Project
Through the collaboration of cognitive psychologists, education researchers, and geoscience educators, the Geoscience Education Transdisciplinary Spatial Learning Network aims to develop educational tools that can help students, across classroom and field settings, to better understand and build upon historically difficult geoscience concepts. These educational tools will be developed as a result of interdisciplinary effort, with a focus on two spatial learning principles: Spatial feedback and spatial accommodation. Spatial feedback is feedback in the form of spatial information which will allow students to not only understand that they have made an error but will also provide guidance on how to correct or reduce the error. Spatial accommodation is the adjustment needed to accommodate mental models to feedback. This accommodation can be in the form of small adjustments to a mental model, significant reconstruction of an existing model, or creation of an entirely new model. These three cases may require different types of support, and the team aims to develop tools and approaches for the range of models. The findings of this research could ultimately improve retention and learning in geosciences, with broader implications to improve retention and learning for many other Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) domains that require spatial thinking.
Read more about our project in our NSF proposal abstract.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation, under grant award #1640800.
Disclaimer: Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this website are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.


IU’s Annual Experts’ Survey on Congress’s Performance Shows Key Differences Among Political Parties
BLOOMINGTON, Ind., April 20 — Democrats and Republicans have different views about the importance of a free press, an independent judiciary, the Bill of Rights, and a potent Congress, according to a survey of public attitudes about Congress and public affairs conducted by Indiana University’s Center on Representative Government and Center on American Politics in late 2019.
IU has been conducting its public survey since 2007, and the annual effort is overseen by Distinguished Professor of Political Science Edward G. Carmines, the Warner O. Chapman Professor of Political Science and a Rudy Professor at IU.
Survey findings that exhibit key differences in the opinions of Democrats and Republicans include:
- 22 percent of Republicans said it is very important that the United States have a Congress with equal power to that of the president, while 63 percent of Democrats said it's very important.
- 50 percent of Republicans rated an independent judiciary as very important to America's representative government, much below the 67 percent of Democrats who said an independent judiciary is very important.
- 41 percent of Republicans said it was very important to have “a Bill of Rights that guarantees the rights of a political minority,” compared to 60 percent of Democrats.
- 48 percent of GOP respondents regarded a free and independent press as very important, compared to 76 percent of Democrats who see the media's role as very important.
- 54 percent of Republicans surveyed said that the checks and balances afforded by our three branches of government -- the judiciary, the legislative and the executive -- are very important, compared to 77 percent of Democrats.
However, these results do not signal that Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to such institutions – just that they are lukewarm. For example, while only 49 percent of Republicans said that a free press was “very important,” another 42 percent granted that it was “important.”


No one should have to take unnecessary risks to their health to earn a paycheck.
But whether their workplace is a factory, a retail store, or an office building, far too many workers are surrounded by chemical hazards day in and day out.
Good jobs are healthy jobs. That’s why Toxic-Free Future educates policymakers and retailers about how they can help build healthy workplaces. We work to change policies so that the norm is safer solutions, instead of hazardous workplaces.
One of our most enduring and powerful partnerships has been with workers who have borne the brunt of the failure to make products and buildings safe—firefighters. Devastated by high rates of cancer, firefighters are passionate advocates for getting toxics out of products. Together, we have succeeded in passing bans on toxic flame retardants, moving the firefighting foam market away from PFAS-based foam toward safer replacements, and addressing PFAS in the protective gear firefighters wear.
- Protecting workers at chemical plants and oil and gas refineries by reducing the demand for dangerous chemicals
- Ending the use of PFAS in firefighting foam and firefighter turnout gear
- Stopping the use of deadly methylene chloride-based paint strippers on the job
- Winning restrictions on the use of asbestos
- Reducing the use of toxic chemicals in building materials and furniture to protect everyone who works inside, whether in an office, school, restaurant, or other space


The MaRS Cleantech Fund has completed a venture deal with Toronto-based energy storage firm Hydrostor, whose technology converts surplus electrical energy to underwater compressed air and stores it for use at peak times.
‘Our fund targets technologies that change the energy game, and low-cost storage is at the top of our list,’ says Tom Rand, co-managing director of the MaRS Cleantech Fund. ‘This is grid-scale technology, meaning that it has the ability to store energy on a level that will significantly impact our electricity grid. If you combine Hydrostor's technology with solar or wind, you get cost-competitive base-load renewable power that will disrupt global energy markets.’
According to the companies, the technology uses surplus renewable electricity to drive a compressor that pressurizes atmospheric air to the pressure found at the sea floor offshore. The heat produced during compression is extracted from the air and stored in underwater accumulators, where the weight of the water keeps it at a constant pressure until required.
When demand for electricity is again high, the companies continue, the system is reversed: The weight of the water forces the air back to the surface, where it collects the stored heat and drives an expander, reproducing approximately 70% of the input electricity and releasing the air back into the environment.
Hydrostor has two commercial projects under development. The first is in collaboration with utility host Toronto Hydro-Electric System Ltd. The second, with the national utility of a Caribbean island, will store wind power generated at night when it cannot otherwise be used.


Today, there are more than 16 billion active wireless-connected devices, and that number will more than double and exceed 40 billion by 2020, according to ABI Research. With more and more smart things surrounding us in smart homes, offices, streets, and cities, can our 2D and 3D design also become smarter and connected? Can our design data become a smart living thing that connects to the physical world, monitors and interacts with the surrounding environment, and helps deliver performance visibility toward predictive maintenance and reduced downtime? The answer is yes! In this class we will explore new ways of building “smart connected” design and demonstrate how you can connect your design with physical microcontrollers and communicate with sensors in real time. We will also show you how to turn your design into an interaction-on-demand system that enables anyone to interact with any device at any time, all with the power of Autodesk 360 web service and Internet of Things (IoT).
- Explore new ways of making smart connected design and data
- Discover A360 Web Service and the View and Data API and its functionalities
- Learn step by step how to connect design with Internet of Things using Autodesk Web Service and open-source APIs
- Learn how to turn a design into an interaction-on-demand system that interacts with any device at any time


Sri Mariamman Temple, Singapore
[Throwback] Sri Mariamman Temple is Singapore’s oldest Hindu temple, and was founded by Naraina Pillai in 1823 after the site along South Bridge Road was granted to him for the purpose of erecting a Hindu temple. The present 6 tiered gopuram was built in 1925.
“Built in the South Indian Dravidian style, this temple features a gopuram that rises above the main entrance along South Bridge Road. It is richly embellished with six tiers of sculptures of Hindu deities, other figures and ornamental decorations. The tower tapers up towards to a moulded ornamental ridge. The scale of each tier and its sculptures is slightly smaller than that of the tier immediately below it. This helps to create the illusion of height and adds to the symbolic importance of the building. Flanking the gopuram are a sculpture of Murugan on the right and Krishna on the left (as one enters). The sculptures are all of plaster, which allows for fine detailing. They are painted in a variety of bright colours, which adds to the visually spectacular quality of the gopuram.” (wikipedia)
This sketch or drawing of the temple’s facade was done in 2011, on a “Nude” journal book that I found and bought off the shelf of a stationery shop. The book was hand sewn and was made in Thailand and imported to Singapore (which later I found out). It was a small book measuring about 14.5cm X 14.5cm. The square format of the book opens nicely into a long landscape that I used for this perspective of the temple. I am always very impressed by the intricacies of the embellishments and the variety of sculptures on the temple facade. Armed with a Hero fountain pen, I decided to draw as much detail as possible to capture my fascination for the building’s architecture and design.
There wasn’t much space to sit and draw at the location, so I have to stand and I stood for about 40 minutes to complete the spread. I was pretty satisfied with the result. This piece was later sold to Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I believe it is somewhere in a part of the world right now hanging proudly on the wall of an embassy. 😀
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Diabetes and Foot Care: A Patient’s Checklist
March 24, 2021
Many people with diabetes have problems with their feet. Ask your doctor to explain your own risk factors for foot problems. You can prevent serious foot problems by following these basic guidelines.
- check your feet every day for cuts, cracks, bruises, blisters, sores, infections, or unusual markings.
- use a mirror to see the bottom of your feet if you can’t lift them up.
- check the colour of your legs and feet. If there is swelling, warmth or redness or if you have pain, see your doctor or foot specialist right away.
- if you have a cut or scratch, clean it with a mild soap and water and cover with a dry dressing for sensitive skin.
- trim your nails straight across.
- wash and dry your feet every day, especially between the toes.
- apply a good skin lotion every day on your heels and soles. Wipe off any excess lotion.
- change your socks every day.
- always wear a good supportive shoe.
- always wear professionally fit shoes from a reputable store. Professionally fit orthotics may help.
- choose shoes with low heels (under 5 cm high).
- buy shoes in the late afternoon (since your feet swell slightly by then).
- avoid extreme heat and cold (including the sun).
- exercise regularly.
- see a foot care specialist for advice and education.
- cut your own corns or calluses.
- treat your own in-growing toenails or slivers with a razor or scissors. See your doctor or foot care specialist.
- use over-the-counter medications to treat corns and warts. They are dangerous for people with diabetes.
- apply heat to your feet with a hot water bottle or electric blanket. You could burn your feet without realizing it.
- soak your feet.
- take very hot baths.
- use lotion between your toes.
- walk barefoot inside or outside.
- wear tight socks, garters or elastics, or knee highs.
- wear over-the-counter insoles—they can cause blisters if they are not right for your feet.
- sit for long periods of time.


March is National Athletic Training Month (NATM), and Athletico Physical Therapy is using the month of awareness as an opportunity to educate athletes, coaches, and parents on tips for purchasing and wearing helmets.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 3.8 million people suffer from concussions during sports and recreational activities each year.
This year’s National Athletic Training Month theme is Your Protection is Our Priority. At Athletico, athletic trainers work with physical therapists to help provide comprehensive care for patients on and off-the-field. With that being said, Athletico’s athletic trainers developed sport-specific helmet tips designed to educate parents and athletes on how to properly wear helmets that fit comfortably and provide the most maximum protection as possible.
Football players are not the only athletes that suffer from concussions. Baseball and softball players account for 45 percent of all facial injuries in common sports. By athletes wearing properly fitted helmets, one can significantly reduce the risk of head or facial injuries. Athletico’s athletic trainers suggest that when selecting a batting helmet for baseball or softball you should:
Measure the circumference of the head, ½” to 1″ above the eyebrow to obtain helmet size
Ensure the helmet fits snug around the entire head
Make sure there are no gaps/spaces between the head and helmet
Do not wear anything such as a baseball hat under the batter’s helmet
Ensure the helmet is not sitting too high or low by lining up the ear holes with the athlete’s ears.
Confirm the athlete is able to see forward and side-to-side without obstruction
To ensure gapping does not occur, try the helmet on with damp or wet hair
Helmets are so important because they provide crucial protection for a variety of sports all year long. Athletico has also developed helmet fitting tips for football, lacrosse, and hockey. In addition, Athletico will increase awareness of the athletic trainer profession and showcase the value it has on preventing and treating injuries for an array of active individuals.


|Your dental health is important, and our patients' safety is our top priority. Please read our office update letter on COVID-19|
Posted on 10/23/2017 by Office - Boone DMD
Your body doesn't like a lot of acid in it. This is especially true in your mouth. If you consume too many acids, it can not only hurt your entire body, but it can also do a lot of damage to your teeth. While you may not think that you consume a lot of acid, most people really do.
A lot of unintentional acid comes with the things that we drink each day. Here are some ways of cutting down on the acids you consume to protect your teeth from harm.
Protecting Your Teeth from Acid DamageTomatoes, onions, and garlic, while good for you, can be highly acidic, depending on how they are cooked. Whenever you eat them, you should make sure that you follow the meal with something that will cut down on how acidic your mouth is. Consider eating some cheese after a meal to help cut down on the remaining acid after a meal.
What you drink is also a concern. If you typically drink only coffee, soda, and sports drinks, that is a problem. All of these items are full of acid. They need to be drunk in moderation, and a lot of water should be consumed after drinking them to help remove excess acid from your mouth.
If you don't cut down on the acid you consume, your teeth are going to pay the price.
It can cause a lot of erosion in your teeth, and it can lead to both sensitivities of different tastes and temperatures, plus cavities. Give your teeth the tender care they need.
If you are going to consume acids, make sure to take care to lessen the acidic levels in your mouth as soon as you are done. Plus, make sure you talk to your dentist about your acid intake so they can keep an eye on your teeth.
If you have any questions or would like to schedule an appointment, please call us at (503) 601-0610 today.


Does it sometimes seem that science and faith are at odds with each other when we talk about climate change? Is our faith life disconnected from our actions and how they affect God’s creation? This Lent, join us in a new Seed Bed book study examining how faith and science, together, bring hope for our planet. A Hopeful Earth- Faith, Science, and the Message of Jesus, by United Methodist bishop Sally Dyck and her niece, educator Sarah Ehrman, looks at creation care from both a biblical and scientific viewpoint. “Sally Dyck and Sarah Ehrman weave science and faith into a truth that inspires awe and respect for the universe and gives birth to a strong desire to be faithful stewards of this magnificent earth that is home to all living things,” says Rueben Job, author of Three Simple Rules. Join Fleeta Holcomb and others members of the Creation Care Ministry Team as we delve into this powerful and plainspoken book.
We will meet on Thursdays, 6:30-7:30 pm, Feb. 23-March 30. Sign up at church Sunday or contact the office so we can order the right number of books. Want to download the book instead of a paper copy? Let the office know.


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Road Network Operations
& Intelligent Transport Systems
A guide for practitioners!
The purpose of mode transfer is to create conditions that foster greater use of public transport (modal shift) to counter increased traffic volumes and congestion during rush hours, or following a major capacity reduction over an extended period (with risk of major daily traffic jams over several months). Both situations can lead to an acute drop in road network service levels due to a lack of roadway capacity.
The measure is attractive:
Mode transfer incentives can also be used in response to other situations such as poor air quality and a forcast increase in air pollution.
The objective is to promote greater use of public transport in order to reduce the number of vehicles on the road. A common approach is the use of information to the user in real-time on public transport services and on the existence of multi-modal journey transfer points, such as "park-and-ride". (See Transportation Demand Management) This is done through journey planning websites, and in real-time with VMS or in-vehicle information devices (conventional broadcasting, RDS-TMC, route guidance systems). (See En-Route Information)
The anticipated problems (for example daily traffic jams, or lengthy delays) must be well-publicised in advance or braodcast in real-time through travel aid and user information measures (VMS or in-vehicle equipment, smart-phone text messages and social media).
Car pooling or use of public transportation can be encouraged by upgrading the service frequency and capacity, especially during rush hours.
This measure requires preparation involving all partners starting several months before the planned disruptions are scheduled. (See Traffic Management Plans) It is implemented in the following stages:
Publicity need to convincing and persuasive enough to overcome reluctance and rigidity in the response of road users. Success also depends on:
Different strategies are needed to achieve a mode transfer for freight. Integrating actions on freight management. This may be seen as a long-term measure within the road network operations strategy. particularly when the aim is to shift goods off the road amd onto other modes. (See Users and the Delivery Process)


The Rice Purity Test is not meant to be a definitive measure of one’s character or morality, but rather a fun and informal way to compare experiences with friends. While some people may take their score more seriously than others, it is ultimately up to the individual to decide what their score means to them.
That being said, a low Rice score generally indicates that an individual has experienced more activities that are traditionally associated with risk-taking or deviant behavior. This could include activities like sexual activity or breaking the law. While these experiences may be exciting or adventurous in the moment, they can also have negative consequences, such as health problems, legal trouble, or emotional distress.
On the other hand, a high Rice score indicates that an individual has experienced fewer of these activities and may be more inclined to follow traditional social norms and values. While this could be seen as a positive trait in some contexts, it is important to note that not all “risk-taking” behaviors are inherently bad or immoral.
Ultimately, whether a low Rice score is “good” or not depends on the individual’s personal values and beliefs. Some may see it as a badge of honor or a sign of independence, while others may view it as a cause for concern or a reflection of poor decision-making. It is up to each individual to decide what their score means to them and how they want to use that information to guide their future choices and actions.


Introduction / History
The crowning glory of the Aroras was the elevation of Dr. Manmohan Singh as a former Prime Minister of India, who is Arora. His elevation as prime minister is a tribute to the Indian democracy in which a man who belongs to a family that became penniless after the 1947 Partition rose to become prime minister. It also speaks of the grit and determination of the Arora community in which parents attach a lot of importance to education for their wards and instill in them a desire to live a life of dignity and honor.
What are their lives like?
There have been many times in history when the Arora people have been violently persecuted. Their people were slaughtered during both the Arab and the Moghul invasions of the Subcontinent. Arora Hindus and Sikhs had to flee with nothing but the clothes they were wearing during the bloody Partition of India in 1947. Those who arrived in India were often taken advantage of by India's more powerful communities.
These are a resilient people, and they managed to become an influential community in India. Today, many of them are prominent in the areas of business, education, medicine, finance, technology, engineering, manufacturing, entertainment, and the armed forces. Why do they seem to rise to the top? Most likely it's because of their rigorous work ethic. It could also be because of their insistence on making sure that their children get a higher education.
What are their beliefs?
The Aroras are divided into three religions (Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism), yet they are open to visiting the sacred places of other religious communities. They are noted for their religious tolerance, yet very few have embraced Christ as the only way to salvation.
Pray that prominent Arora from all three religious communities will find Jesus to be the only way to eternal life.
Pray that God will raise up Arora believers as His ambassadors to those without Christ throughout the subcontinent.
Text source: Global Prayer Digest


Critics have argued that the introduction of a National Minimum Wage will not solve problems in South Africa’s labour market.
However, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant has described the National Minimum Wage Bill as a milestone and a direct response to the Freedom Charter.
“This Bill seeks to improve the lives of the lowest paid workers in the labour market and carries the promise of addressing the inequality challenge in South Africa and by extension poverty. The Bill established the National Minimum Wage Commission, the statutory wage minimum level and the exemption from those who cannot afford,” says Oliphant.
Oliphant was speaking in the National Assembly during a debate on the three labour Bills including the Basic Conditions of Employment and the Labour Relations Amendment Bills which the House also passed.
The National Minimum Wage Bill also seeks to establish a commission that will replace the current Employment Commission.
Oliphant says, “The National Minimum wage will take over the functions of the current Employment Commission. The commission will also recommend an annual adjustment to the level of the National Minimum Wage and review it on a regular basis in order to take into account the impact of employment on the level of poverty and inequality.”
Minimum Wage App
SABC Digital News and OpenUp (formerly Code for South Africa) has partnered to develop a Minimum Wage App that will give answers to the question: “Can South Africans survive on R3 500?”
Where does the information come from?
OpenUp has used the following data sources:
- Stats SA “Poverty Trends in South Africa” report
- Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action (PACSA) “Food Price Barometer“
- Stats SA “Income and Expenditure of Households Survey”
How is it calculated?
The money available for food is calculated by subtracting the money used for other expenses from household income.


Hamilton the Treasury Secretary
With the new Constitution in place, the United States held its first presidential election starting in December 1788. To no one's surprise, the highly popular George Washington came out on top when the final vote was tallied. He quickly set about the business of building his cabinet of advisors and, remembering his old friend's loyal service during the war, appointed Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the Treasury.
Remember, when Hamilton took charge of the Treasury in 1789 the United States' economy was nothing like it is today. It was underdeveloped and relied heavily on agriculture. Hamilton set out to change that, laying out his vision for a new economy based on four main policies: high tariffs, investment in infrastructure, consolidation of state debt under the federal government, and the creation of a central bank [source: Cohen and DeLong].
You might be wondering what all that exactly means, but it boils down to this: Hamilton wanted to create an economy that helped industry. High tariffs, or taxes on imports, for British-made products gave American businessmen a reason to invest in equipment and facilities of their own. These taxes in turn gave the government the money to improve roads, canals, ports, and other infrastructure that was crucial for trade and manufacturing [source: Cohen and DeLong].
An additional benefit of the tariff revenue was that it gave the Treasury the money it needed to back the debt states incurred during the Revolutionary War. While taking on a bunch of debt may sound like a bad move, it actually made the federal government much stronger (and remember, Hamilton was all about a strong central government). That's because the existence of a national debt allowed the government to issue bonds traded on the open marketplace, which then allowed it to borrow money at a much lower rate. Together, with the creation of a national bank — which could loan the government money, issue banknotes and provide a stabilizing force to the nation's banking system — these policies are credited with saving the fledgling country from financial ruin and setting it on a path to become an industrialized nation [source: Gordon].
When family and financial factors converged, Hamilton resigned as Treasury secretary in 1795 and returned to his law practice in New York. Still, he remained heavily involved in state and national politics with a passion that ultimately led to his demise.


Education for environmental sustainability covers a fundamental aspect of the Agenda 2030, but should also be seen in the context of a broader approach of education for sustainability, encompassing – in addition to environmental protection in light of planetary boundaries – aspects of social equality, prosperity and well-being. These aspects need to be seen with their interlinkages, which requires system thinking, and inter- and transdisciplinary learning. Promoting education for environmental sustainability should entail initiatives to break down silos between different education levels and sectors while maintaining autonomy for individual institutions.
In the context of the upcoming Council Recommendation on Education for environmental sustainability, LLLP and other civil society organisations under the umbrella of SDG Watch Europe have put forward a joint statement highlighting these crucial issues.
When it comes to addressing global problems such as climate change or environmental sustainability, a holistic approach is key. Bridging the formal, non-formal and informal sectors will be crucial to achieving the Council Recommendation and the Agenda 2030 goals. Learning can happen anytime, anywhere. In this sense, lifelong and lifewide learning must be at the centre of the debate on achieving sustainable societies and all learning sectors should have a voice in this debate. Cooperation between these sectors is therefore key to unlocking the innovation required to tackle the related environmental, economic and social challenges. This cooperation can support institutions in the process of transforming learning and training environments and the integration of sustainability principles into all education and training settings (from early childhood to adulthood and into old age).


Trauma and Bone Fractures in Children
Although we have made great progress with automobile and sports safety programs, childhood injury remains a common reality. Despite the best efforts of parents, children, from toddlers to adolescents, can get hurt breaking a bone or dislocating a joint.
Boys are generally at a higher risk of traumatic injuries than girls, although there are exceptions. Among recreational injuries, bicycling, basketball, and football are the most common causes of injuries to muscles and bones.
The two most common fractures which occur in children are fractures of the elbow and fractures of the femur. While the vast majority of children with these injuries can go on to have a perfect outcome without any problems in the future, it is important that these fractures are treated quickly and appropriately.
Children are actively growing, which presents both advantages and disadvantages to the treatment of a fracture. On one hand, we can count on remodeling. A certain amount of angulation in a child’s bone will straighten over time as the child grows. However, children have open growth plates at the end of most every bone and if this growth plate is injured there is a risk of the bone stopping growth or not growing straight.
Pediatric orthopedists like Dr. Vitale are specialists in the care of children (age 0-18 years) with injuries to the bones in any part of the body. While surgery is sometimes necessary, many childhood injuries can be treated with casting and close observation.


Due February 13 at 11:59 PM
The discussion assignment provides a forum for discussing relevant topics for this week on the basis of the course competencies covered.
For this assignment, make sure you post your initial response to the Discussion Area by the due date assigned.
To support your work, use your course and text readings and also use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.
Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates initial postings. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Cite sources in your responses to other classmates. Complete your participation for this assignment by the end of the week.
The dangers inherent in police work are brought to the publics mind when police are killed in the line of duty. This is especially true when it is apparent that the officers were deliberately ambushed. Clearly, the relationship between police and community differs widely from place to place.
- Discuss how perceptions of police can differ across different communities or cultures.
- Critics of police have questioned the militarization of local police in America. Explain what is meant by this term and analyze whether it is an accurate characterization.
- Earlier in the course, we examined positive theories, which suggest that criminal behavior is often influenced by factors outside the offenders control. Can positive theories apply also to police officers who use excessive force or otherwise abuse their power?
- Police agencies across the country are increasingly turning to the use of body cams. These are devices worn on the uniform of a patrol officer in order to record audio and video during encounters with residents. Proponents believe body cams will deter and detect instances of police misconduct. What are the drawbacks of body cameras? What position do police unions take on this issue?


Dent Stands with LGBTQ+ Community
June 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Pride celebrations across the United States. Pride month came about as a result of the Stonewall uprising. During the 1960s, New York City police were known to harass members of the LGBTQ+ community by raiding establishments where LGBTQ+ community often socialized. On the night of June 28th, 1969, New York City Police raided the Stonewall Inn. This time, frustrated patrons fought back against the police officers. Marsha P. Johnson, an African American gay liberation activist, threw a shot glass at police officers. This sparked the initial riots against the harsh and unjust treatment of members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Baltimore has held an annual Pride festival including a parade, block parties, and other events for 44 years. This year would have made the 45th annual Pride in Baltimore, but due to COVID-19, they were canceled. However, members of the LGBTQ+ community are still being celebrated this year through virtual events organized within Baltimore to commemorate and celebrate Pride.
Dent stands in solidarity with members of the LGBTQ+ community. Always remember that love is love, and Black lives matter. Make sure to put a Dent in your weekend!
-Reagan Moore & Breonna Massey


Some Critical Leadership Lessons
By Tim Cloyd
All great leaders develop narratives with a central story and message and root them in their personal experiences. These stories are flexible – used and told in different ways depending on the audience. And when the external environment changes their adaptive capacity allows them to create new stories.
All human beings have crucible experiences. Leaders learn from theirs and turn them into stories of lessons they have learned and what they have overcome. This makes the leader easier for the common man to identify with, sympathize with, and confirms the common man’s desire to believe in the leader’s authenticity.
Four things great leaders do:
1) they stay attuned to the audience recognizing that most people are searching guidance about identity;
2) they attend to the vision and storytelling mission while making sure others maintain and nurture his organizational base;
3) they deliberately create time for reflection to have an uncluttered mind that is necessary for innovation and creative decisions and not distracted by the transitory events of the day. The demands on you for personal attention can become so great that you lose the ability to step back and take stock in which case you risk losing your sense of agency and may become the tool for other forces or individuals;
4) finally, great leaders resist the temptation to make off the cuff comments even if they believe they are in private with their own staff (betrayal and leaks are the fuel of politics ) and they resist making on the spot commitments or decisions especially if under pressure to do so and particularly if the leader is hungry, angry, lonely, or exhausted.
And from Machiavelli
The Prince should try and isolate himself from other powerful aristocrats who would draw him into one-on-one exchanges thereby making it easier to extract (extort) commitments. Some Princes do this by forming trusted advisory groups that vet any and all requests for favors.
“Beware who you trust – for those who believe that they had a hand in putting you into power will become your worst enemies – they feel entitled.”
“Fortuna always goes to the Bold!”


Child Passenger Safety Week 2018
September 23-29 is Child Passenger Safety Week
Car accidents are a leading cause of death in children and teenagers. Child Passenger Safety Week is designed to raise awareness of common safety mistakes, and give parents and caregivers the information they can use to keep their children safe on the road. PennDOT and safety advocacy groups will be working with the public to spread awareness. There will also be free “car seat checks” set up all throughout Pennsylvania to help parents ensure that their seats are installed properly.
Children are particularly vulnerable in car accidents, but many injuries can be prevented, or at least made less severe. One easy way to help keep your child safe is by making sure they are in the right seat. All children under 12 should ride in the back seat, as air bags can cause harm to a child’s small body in the event of a crash.
One thing all parents (and family members) can do to improve their children’s car safety: be a good example. Don’t just insist that your child (or niece, nephew, younger sibling) wear a seat belt – make sure they see you wearing one too, every time you get in the car. Don’t just preach about texting and driving – set an example by always driving distraction-free.
Test your child passenger safety knowledge:
Do you know Pennsylvania’s child car seat laws?
Even the most fastidious parents might be making these common car seat mistakes.
Expecting parents: Is your car ready for your new baby?
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Posted in Munley News.


Things You'll Need
Pot metal pieces
Small paint brush
Safety glasses or goggles
Pot metal (a nickname for inexpensive casting alloys) can be difficult to solder. There is no standard composition of pot metal, and so melting points and other metallurgical properties can vary from sample to sample. If you would like to join two pieces of pot metal, it's advisable to do a test-solder with a scrap of the same type of pot metal first. Fortunately, with the right materials and preparation, you can maximize your chances of a successful pot metal solder.
Hold your test pieces of pot metal together to test the fit – make sure you have sufficient overlap between the two pieces, no less than a quarter of an inch.
Video of the Day
Paint a small amount of flux onto each part to be joined, covering the joint area.
Place a small amount of solder on the tip of the soldering iron, and heat the iron. As soon as the solder begins to melt, coat the joint area with a thin layer of solder, using the tip of the iron like a paint brush.
Clamp the joint tightly together, and apply a second coat of liquid flux to the joint with a paintbrush.
Heat the pot metal pieces adjacent to the joint – not the solder itself – with a butane torch. Heat the metal pieces until the solder in the joint melts and flows freely into the joint.
Allow the joint to cool completely before unclamping or handling.
Always wear safety goggles or glasses when soldering.


Integrated school sanitation programming
conference contributionposted on 2018-02-12, 15:09 authored by Nomfundo Mqadi
The conditions of school sanitation facilities in South Africa range from excellent to appalling and shocking. Most facilities can be classified as poor or unacceptable. It is estimated that about 90 per cent of rural and peri-urban schools lack well designed and appropriate sanitation facilities. In the Gauteng Province, the economic capital of South Africa, sanitation in schools are of equally low standard. Gauteng Integrated School Sanitation Improvement Programme (GISSIP) is a pilot programme involving 70 schools. It aims to improve school sanitation through focusing on building facilities, providing health and hygiene education with a special focus on maintenance issues.
- Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
- Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)
Published inWEDC Conference
CitationMQADI, N., 1999. Integrated school sanitation programming. IN: Pickford, J. (ed). Integrated development for water supply and sanitation: Proceedings of the 25th WEDC International Conference, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 30 August-2 September 1999, pp.58-60.
Publisher© WEDC, Loughborough University
- VoR (Version of Record)
Publisher statementThis work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
NotesThis is a conference paper.


Portable Hydrogen Ion Potentiometer
- Circa 1960
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Potentiometers are used to measure electromotive force (emf) by balancing it with a known emf. The concept was first developed in 1841 by J. C. Poggendorff and improved throughout the 19th century by Latimer Clark and J. A. Fleming.
|Place of manufacture|
|Rights||Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License|
Science History Institute. Portable Hydrogen Ion Potentiometer. Photograph, 2016. Science History Institute. Philadelphia. https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/db78tc09t.
This citation is automatically generated and may contain errors.
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Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33464722 [accessed: 18/07/2015]
Programme description: «How to make an Archive on 4» available on BBC iPlayer
Ever wondered how to make an Archive on 4? Here’s your chance to find out!
Alan Dein enters the strange world of instructional records where you can teach yourself just about anything – from yodelling to training your budgie to talk.
It all started in 1901 when Polish émigré Jacques Roston harnessed the new technology of sound recording to teach foreign languages, signing up such luminaries as George Bernard Shaw and JRR Tolkien to lend their support.
By the 50s and 60s you could buy LPs on how to do just about anything – from keep fit to playing a musical instrument, relaxation and passing your driving test.
Perhaps the most surprising are those which help you to train your pet budgerigar to talk – with help from Sparkie, Britain’s favourite budgie, who supposedly had a vocabulary of over 500 words.
With help from Sparkie, Alan Dein tells the story of instructional records and, along the way, reveals a few of the secrets of how to make an Archive on 4.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b062dhgb [accessed: 18/07/2015]


Fennel is commonly associated with Mediterranean cooking. It is a highly aromatic and flavorful herb with both culinary and medicinal uses. Both the bulbs and the feathery fronds can be eaten raw and cooked. The leaves are delicately flavoured and similar in shape to those of dill. The bulb is a crisp vegetable that can be sautéed, stewed, braised, grilled, or eaten raw. The leaves used in soups and fish sauce and sometimes eaten raw as salad. Fennel has a slightly sweet, crunchy, anise or licorice flavor, with the bulbs more strongly flavored than the fronds.
It’s high in vitamin C, fiber, potassium, and manganese. Like many of its fellow spices, fennel contains its own unique combination of phytonutrients—including the flavonoids rutin, quercitin, and various kaempferol glycosides—that give it strong antioxidant activity. he most fascinating phytonutrient compound in fennel, however, may be anethole—the primary component of its volatile oil. In animal studies, the anethole in fennel has repeatedly been shown to reduce inflammation and to help prevent the occurrence of cancer. (Source: WHFoods.com)
“… one of the easiest vegetables: it slices beautifully into crescent shapes. It is lovely sautéed, baked, braised, or steamed, and delicious sliced thinly into salads or dipped in hummus…it goes with light flavours, like peas, as well as stronger ones… like the onion, it turns sweet when cooked. Fennel suits potatoes, pasta, and white fish like sea bass.” — Nina Planck, The Farmers’ Market Cookbook


In this article I want to give you three ideas to improve your English. They all start with the letter b. First, let’s talk about the basics…
Are you studying effectively?
Are you studying effectively or does it feel like you are spending too much time without feeling you have achieved (managed to do) anything or completed anything? Try these 3 study tips!
What is your English Level and why you need to know. January 2020
It’s a new year and a new decade. Let’s start the new year knowing your current level of English. It’s always good to know your starting point (for this year) and then you can see how much or little you have improved by January 2021.
Have you cut your hair or have you had your hair cut?
Today’s article is about
the difference between: Have you cut your hair? and Have you had your hair cut? talking about services you have done for you. a quiz on the used structure the answers to last week’s crossword
The more difficult vocabulary is identified with an asterisk * and a definition is in brackets ( ).
How to describe a bad person.
Last week, I told you some adjectives and an idiom about good characteristics of a person’s personality. So this week it is the turn of the negative qualities. Which politician do you think I have included as an example of one of the adjectives? And which adjective? Read on (continue reading) to find out. An idiom, 6 adjectives, study, pronunciation and spelling tip, recommended reading, Adjectives Crossword


Financially literate people are more tolerant of migrants
The more financial knowledge a person has, the more likely they are to hold positive views on immigration, according to a new study.
The British Election Study (BES) has collated around 30,000 reports analyzing Britain’s electoral behavior dating back to 1964, and found that people who correctly understood key financial principles such as interest rates and inflation were less likely to agree with the notion that migrants posed a "burden" to society.
However, the report noted that relatively few people had a sophisticated level of financial knowledge, meaning that the majority of people are likely to be swayed by anti-immigration policies at the upcoming election.
This underlines the fact that knowledge and understanding are crucial for designing effective labor market policies, and securing public support. Several IZA World of Labor authors discuss the benefits of migration, namely Klaus F. Zimmermann, who shows why migration patterns are typically circular, and can help to fill labor shortages and boost economic growth.
Meanwhile, Amelie F. Constant negates the notion that migrants take the jobs of native workers, highlighting evidence which shows that migrants are most likely to take jobs that natives will not or cannot do. Migration often complements native labor markets, and helps them to work efficiently.
Giovanni Peri also helps to dampen fears that immigrant workers depress native workers’ wages. He collates evidence to show that immigration has a very small effect on native wages; furthermore, he shows how immigration can boost innovation, which can in turn increase productivity and lead to wage increases.
Read more here.
Circular migration, by Klaus F. Zimmermann
Do migrants take the jobs of native workers, by Amelie F. Constant
Do immigrant workers depress the wages of native workers? by Giovanni Peri


Learn welcoming phrases in languages most spoken by refugees for World Refugee Day
Refugees are always told that it’s their responsibility to integrate, but assimilation should be a two-way street. So, for World Refugee Day 2021, instead of focusing efforts on teaching refugees to speak a new language, we created the #SayWelcome campaign for Duolingo, encouraging people to learn welcoming phrases in the languages most spoken by refugees.
Our aim was to inspire people to create more welcoming communities for refugees by teaching everyone phrases such as “my home is your home” and “we are more beautiful with you” in Amharic, Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Kurdish, Nepali, Pashto, Somali, Spanish, Swahili and Urdu.
In addition, an AR face filter was created for Instagram that gamified the idea by randomising phrases and challenging users to #SayWelcome on-camera on the day itself (20 June, 2021).
By turning different touch points into lessons, those who care and understand the power of language most were armed to take the first step towards making societies more welcoming towards refugees.
“Using language is the first step to having a voice. Learning a few welcoming words can be the first step to creating welcoming communities for refugees.” Emma Mällinen, W+K Amsterdam Creative
Duolingo also announced a partnership expansion with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and one with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), making commitments together to help support its mission to provide educational opportunities to refugees and other underserved communities around the world. Click here to find out more.


Our brain is a complex tangle of 86 billion neurons wired through trillions of connections. These neurons interact in networks through small pulses of electricity to give rise to movement, behavior, thought and emotion. Understanding how our brain cells enable this complex behavior is still the Holy Grail in neuroscience. Over the past decades, neuroscientists have intercepted the communication between neurons to get a clue about brain mechanisms but also about brain disorders.
For this, they used small needle-shaped brain implants called neuroprobes that record brain activity as small voltage fluctuations (“spikes”). Starting out from a wire with one recording site or electrode, the big push came to the field of neuroscience with the introduction of micro- and nanofabrication techniques that yielded silicon devices (neuroprobes) with several tens of recording sites.
In this article in IEEE Spectrum, Barundeb Dutta, chief scientist at imec, talks about Neuropixels, a new generation of neuroprobes with more than 5,000 recording electrodes that enable neuroscientists to stably register the activity of thousands of neurons from different brain areas over long time periods, while barely causing damage to brain tissue.
Barun Dutta is Chief Scientist of Semiconductor Technology and Systems (STS) at imec where he has been since 2010, and serves as a Program Director, initiating and leading various new R&D programs semiconductor materials and device technology and more recently in Neurotechnology. He conceived and has led the Neuropixels program at imec since its inception. As a venture capitalist and General Partner at Sevin Rosen-Alta Berkeley, between 1998-2010, he worked with over 20 immensely successful founding teams in semiconductors and networking systems, incubating, mentoring, and/or as a Board Member. He spent the first decade of his career at Bellcore/Bell Labs and as an assignee at imec. He was educated at Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
More about these topics:
24 October 2022


From the field to you
Agroecosystem management takes the whole agricultural system into account. Watch as Marshall McDaniel describes some of the co-benefits of this holistic approach to managing a field.
Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas with 300 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. How do we measure it in the field, and what can we do to cut emissions?
The "gold standard" of soil sampling is getting physical samples from multiple spots throughout the field. But all that could be changing--watch Steven Hall explain why.
Integrated Pest management (IPM) is a strategy to manage pest and disease threats to your crops. But it could have bigger benefits—it’s also an important part of your toolkit to improve crop resilience in the face of extreme weather events and changing conditions.
Temperature, rainfall, weather, pests, disease—there are lots of circumstances that can negatively impact your crops. But seed treatments are one tool in your toolkit to improve crop resilience.
When a host plant, virulent pathogen, and favorable environment are all in the same place at the same time, diseases can pop up. And nothing is worse than losing healthy plants to disease. Luckily, there are ways you can reduce disease pressure on your crops.
Interested in finding out how much carbon is in your soil? One of the first things to tackle is taking manual soil cores.
Wayne Fredericks, a farmer in Osage, IA, adopted cover crops after many years of no-till soybean and strip-till corn. Watch as he talks through the impacts of cover crops on his farm's soil, and how cover crops and reduced tillage can be complementary practices.
Growing crops is all about making good use of solar energy. Though many farms only make use of the sun’s energy from about May through September, Wayne Fredericks maximizes his solar energy harvest with cover crops, improving his soil health in the process.
Wayne Fredericks, a farmer in Osage, IA, has been using cover crops on his farm since 2012. Here, he talks about his journey testing cover crops to help reduce nutrient loss and improve water quality.
One barrier keeping farmers from adopting cover crops is the cost. But Mitchell and Brian Hora have turned their cover crop into an additional cash crop by harvesting mature standing rye over a growing soybean crop.


Listed in: Art and the History of Art, as ARHA-351
Formerly listed as: EUST-44 | FIAR-36 | FIAR-51
Nicola Courtright (Section 01)
(Offered as ARHA 351 and EUST 351.) This course treats painting, sculpture, and architecture of the art historical periods known as the Early and High Renaissance, Mannerism, and the Counter Reformation. It will dwell upon works by artists such as Giotto, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo, Raphael, Bramante, Michelangelo, and Titian in the urban centers of Florence, Rome, and Venice, art produced for patrons ranging from Florentine merchants and monks to Roman princes and pontiffs. The art itself--portraits, tombs, altarpieces, cycles of imagined scenes from history, palaces, churches, civic monuments--ranges from gravely restrained and intentionally simple to monumental, fantastically complex or blindingly splendid, and the artists themselves range from skilled artisans to ever more sought-after geniuses. Emphasis will be upon the way the form and content of each type of art conveyed ideas concerning creativity, originality, and individuality, but also expressed ideals of devotion and civic virtue; how artists dealt with the revived legacy of antiquity to develop an original visual language; how art imparted the values of its patrons and society, but also sometimes conflicted with them; and how art and attitudes towards it changed over time. Rather than taking the form of a survey, this course, based on lectures but regularly incorporating discussion, will examine in depth selected works and will analyze contemporary attitudes toward art of this period through study of the art and the primary sources concerning it. Upper level.
Requisite: One other art history course or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Courtright.


Sorry to break it to you, but autonomous vehicles won’t rid the world of gridlock, according to new research.
The study: A report released today by the World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group used simulations to examine how traffic flows would change around the city of Boston as more robotic cars hit the roads.
The results: They found that self-driving cars could lead to a 5.5 percent increase in traffic in the city’s downtown. While there will be fewer cars on the road overall, congestion will increase because commuters will likely choose the new vehicles over public transportation.
The silver lining: Surrounding neighborhoods like the Allston-Brighton area would see about a 12 percent decrease in traffic. The number of parking spaces needed in Boston would also fall by 48 percent.
Why it matters: As we’ve written about extensively, US cities could be transformed by shared autonomous vehicles. Urban areas similar to Boston can prevent more gridlock by encouraging sharing of self-driving vehicles and continued use of mass transit. To do this, the report recommends lowering prices for autonomous carpoolers, converting parking lots into pick-up and drop-off zones, and creating self-driving-only lanes.
Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build
“I have suddenly switched my views on whether these things are going to be more intelligent than us.”
ChatGPT is going to change education, not destroy it
The narrative around cheating students doesn’t tell the whole story. Meet the teachers who think generative AI could actually make learning better.
Meet the people who use Notion to plan their whole lives
The workplace tool’s appeal extends far beyond organizing work projects. Many users find it’s just as useful for managing their free time.
Learning to code isn’t enough
Historically, learn-to-code efforts have provided opportunities for the few, but new efforts are aiming to be inclusive.
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Introduction Malliga Och WOMEN AS VOTERS The very first step toward equal representation is gaining universal suf- frage, that is, the right to vote and stand for election. The struggle for women’s suffrage started in the late 1800s and continued until 2015. Women won universal suffrage in three waves centered around World War I, World War II, and the periods of decolonization when colonies achieved independence. Women suffrage in most countries was delivered piecemeal (IPU n.d.): First, countries limited suffrage to the right to vote and only later allowed women to run for office (or vice versa). For example, women in New Zealand could vote in 1893 but had to wait until 1919 to be able to run for office. In the United States, women could stand for elections since 1788 in some territories and states but did not gain the right to vote until 1920. Second, a contested question was whether women should be granted the right to vote under the same conditions as men. At that time, the vote was often restricted to white, educated, and wealthy men. Some suffrag- ettes, particularly those belonging to the international socialist movement, wanted to extend the right to vote to more people, while upper-class, edu- cated, wealthy, and white women, who often were the main leaders of the suffragette movements, preferred to have the vote limited by socioeco- nomic status and race. As a result, many of the early states who granted women the right to vote limited the vote to a small group of women. For example, in Australia, white women were enfranchised in 1902, while Aboriginal women had to wait until 1962. Similarly, in South Africa, white women were granted the right to vote in 1930 however, Indian and Colored women (mixed race) had to wait until 1984, and Black women had to wait until the apartheid regime ended in 1994.


URAN TOGOO MOUNTAIN
ABOUT URAN TOGOO MOUNTAIN
The Uran Togoo and Tulga Mountain is Natural Monument is a national protected area in the Bulgan Province of Mongolia. All four mountain names allude to their volcanic past with designations borrowed from around the fireplace. Uran means “Artistic”, Mongols named it so because its ridge of the crater is one of many examples of circles that arise in nature resembled a nice creature of a craftsman. It was designated as a Natural Monument with an area of 5,800 hectares in 1995.
Known as “The Dark Blue Pearl” Lake Khovsgol is the Mongolia’s largest and second-most voluminous freshwater lake in Asia and 1% of all the fresh water in the world. This lake is located about 900 km (560miles) northwest of Ulaanbaatar.
Uushig Deer Stone Monument – A deer-decorated stones in Uushigiin uver of Khuvsgul province considered as most clearly depicted deer stones in Mongolia. These deer stones were aligned from north to south in a single
People in Khuvsgul most commonly practice shamanism and some of the most powerful shaman live in this area. The shamanism rituals is based on the view that besides the visible world the shaman interacts with many other worlds or universes.


Superfund Research Program
Oxidative Remediation of Superfund Contaminants
Project Leader: David L. Sedlak
Co-Investigator: Daniel K. Nomura
Grant Number: P42ES004705
Funding Period: 2006-2022
News Items List
Toxic Breakdown Products Formed During Contaminant Clean-Up
Research Brief - September 2020
Chemical oxidation is a process commonly used to treat water contaminated with aromatic compounds like benzene. But, unexpected and potentially harmful breakdown products may result from this treatment process, according to a recent study from the NIEHS-funded University of California, Berkeley Superfund Research Program Center.
Toxic Byproducts Formed During UV Water Treatment
Research Brief - April 2018
Common water treatment methods that remove phenols and other hazardous compounds may produce low levels of toxic byproducts, according to a new study by the University of California (UC), Berkeley Superfund Research Program (SRP) Center.
Remediation of Contaminated Groundwater by Persulfate
Research Brief - November 2014
Researchers at the University of California (UC) Berkeley Superfund Research Program (SRP) are one step closer to developing more efficient and effective treatment systems to remove organic contaminants from groundwater and soil.


Speech and Language Therapy
It is the aim of speech and language therapy to investigate, diagnose and treat disorders of comprehension, spoken and written language, speech, breathing, voice, mouth function, hearing, swallowing and perception, which can occur in all age groups. Speech and language therapists draw up a therapy target based on the examination and diagnosis and a suitable therapy plan. They apply all methods to suit the patients and target and advise the patients as well as those around them. The therapy thus takes into consideration methodical, social and inter-personal aspects and therefore helps to enable the optimum reintegration of the affected person into their daily routine and job.
Speech and language therapists have a wide spectrum of methods from various scientific disciplines, e.g. from medicine, linguistics, psychology and pedagogics.
- outpatients clinics
- rehabilitation centres
- kindergartens and schools
- counselling centres
- old people‚Äôs homes and nursing homes
- facilities for people with special needs
- own surgery or practice or group practices
Possibilities of further education
The graduation of this Bachelor Programme entitles the graduate to participate in professional, but also in management or pedagogical Master Programmes in the field of the health professions. It is also possible to do further master and doctorate studies in Austria or abroad.


International Red Panda Day is celebrated every year on the third Saturday of September to support Red Panda conservation. It is a day to celebrate the Himalayan Mountains’ elusive Firefox and generate much-needed awareness about the species.
Taking a step forward in the conservation efforts, SBI Foundation and WWF India entered into a partnership to generate fine-scale information on the species at a transboundary level and engage with communities in safeguarding key habitats of the Red Panda in the Khangchendzonga landscape of Sikkim and West Bengal. SBI Foundation is the CSR arm of the State Bank of India.
An event was organised at the Himalayan Zoological Park in Gangtok to celebrate International Red Panda Day. This Zoological Park is the first-of-its-kind, where animals are kept in their natural habitat.
The red panda (Ailurus fulgens), also known as the lesser panda, is a small mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It has dense reddish-brown fur with a black belly and legs, white-lined ears, a mostly white muzzle and a ringed tail. It is well adapted to climbing due to its flexible joints and curved semi-retractile claws. The species has been listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2015. It is protected in all range countries.
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Mammalia
- Order: Carnivora
- Family: Ailuridae
- Genus: Ailurus
F. Cuvier, 1825
- Species: A. fulgens


Have you ever experienced a memory of yours being disproved? Maybe you learned that information you had believed for years wasn’t true. While this can be disorienting, it may help to know that misremembering information is actually very common. In fact, a recent memory study showed that 76% of adults failed to recall information accurately. In some cases, large groups of people can misremember the same information, and this is known as the Mandela Effect.
The Mandela Effect was coined in 2009 as an umbrella term to describe memory related phenomenon. While some people may be hesitant to believe that so many people can all misremember the same information, it is actually quite common and psychologists have offered multiple explanations for it.
One of the most common explanations for the Mandela Effect is conformity. When multiple people all believe the same information, it can be difficult for someone to disagree with them. Over time, if you continue to conform to beliefs, you may forget your original opinion which can lead to source memory errors and the Mandela Effect.
To avoid the Mandela Effect in your own life, make sure to analyze your opinions and beliefs critically to ensure they are your own and that you are not falling victim to conformity. Fact checking information can also help to build a foundation for your beliefs that may help you better argue your opinions and feel more confident. To learn more about conformity and the Mandela Effect, take a look at the infographic below:
Brought to you by: Online-Psychology-Degrees.org


The canal and its significance-
The Panama Canal is an artificial waterway running across Panama, connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean, dividing north and south America. It aids the ships in passing through the two oceans by avoiding the hazardous Cape Horn route around South America and reducing their time. It takes 8-10 hours to navigate the canal compared to a two-week journey around the South American continent.
This 82km long route was inaugurated in August 1914 and is considered one of the most significant and challenging engineering projects ever. It has also been ranked as ‘one of the seven wonders of the modern world’ by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
The canal is substantial due to its strategic geographical location. It has more than 1,700 ports connecting more than 160 countries. It is also a significant US trade route. 68.5% of its trade has its origin or destination in the United States. Furthermore, it handles 3% of the world’s maritime trade.
Earnings and contribution-
The canal welcomes around 13000-14000 ships each year, 35-40 each day. Due to increasing demand and high competition throughout the years, it has undergone constant improvements and expansion projects. In 1934, the maximum capacity of the canal was 80 million tons, and by 2015, its traffic reached 340.8 million tons.
The Panama Canal Authority regulates the Panama Canal. Its revenue is generated chiefly (roughly 80%) by the transit toll paid by the vessels. Tolls are based on the vessel type, size, and type of cargo. The average transit toll is around $54000.
The canal generates about $2 billion a year, and approximately 40% ($800 million) goes to Panama’s General Treasury each year. The proceeds contribute to around 3% of Panama’s annual GDP.
Also Watch The World’s Shortcut: How the Panama Canal Works
The revenue generated by the canal was $2.7 billion in 2020, witnessing a 7.2% growth from the previous year. In the same year, 13,369 ships passed through the channel with a gross tonnage of 255.7 million.
Due to a vessel surge, the canal continuously improves and expands. The New Expansion Project of the waterway will increase its capacity from 330 million tonnes to 600 million tonnes. To cover the expansion expenses, we can expect the tolls to increase by 100% in the next few years.


Debt to drop by 900 bln
The government has found a way, through transfer of interest payments and other operations, of attaining its goal of reducing total debt by 900 billion drachmas, to 97.3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product by the end of 2002. The exact nature of the operations is not known, but they are believed to be costly, a fact pointed out by International Monetary Fund experts who visited Greece recently and provided the government with a summary of their findings last week. According to sources, one operation involves the transfer of a 400-billion-drachma interest payment to an unspecified future date, thought to be five years. This accounting method allows the payment to be entered in the 2002 budget. The actual payment, however, whenever it takes place, will be augmented by extra interest. The second operation involves the payment of part of the principal, worth some 500 billion drachmas, over a period of 15 years. This also incurs an annual interest, which has not been revealed. Both operations have been agreed on with lending banks which, sources say, are state-owned. The banks stand to make handsome earnings from the interest. Regulating debt payments this way is not peculiar to Greece. It has also been tried by Italy, whose debt level is even higher than Greece’s. Both countries, and others with them, have become eurozone members with the specific commitment of reducing debt below 60 percent of GDP over a reasonable period of time. When Italy’s accounting methods became widely known, however, the European Union balked. Eurostat, the EU’s statistics body, said this method of debt reduction was incompatible with accepted practices, causing the European Commission to intervene. The exact nature of the agreements, as well as the commission charged by banks, is known only to the Public Debt Management Organization. Other costly arrangements, including debt swaps from one currency to the other, are also performed in the utmost secrecy; even the Bank of Greece is kept in the dark.


Chem-E-Car is a multi-disciplinary engineering design team that competes in the annual AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) Regional and National Chem-E-Car Competitions.
The goal of the competition is to build a shoebox sized car that travels a specified distance. Chem-E-Car provides the opportunity for UBC Engineering students to work on Mechanical, Propulsion, Circuitry, Laboratory teams - learning valuable technical, interpersonal, and project management skills!
Designs and develops the body and other mechanical components of the car. The car is custom built, made of 3D printed components and various other purchased materials; the car and all its parts must fit inside a 40cm x 30cm x 20cm box and be able to carry an extra load of water ranging from 0-500 mL. The design team must incorporate and organize the reactor, power source, microcontrollers and wiring onto the car, as well as ensure its stability and ability to travel in a straight line.
Builds an energy source (battery, fuel cell, combustion engine) to power the motor, and hence the propulsion of the car. The energy sources must provide a consistent output of energy and be able to be constructed at the day of the competition. It must also be heavily tested in varying conditions to ensure successful operation for competition day.
Codes the car to respond to the stopping mechanism and programmes the motor to run the car. Design the sensor system which is responsible for reacting to the changes in the chemical reaction which would eventually stop the car. The sensitivity and exactness of the sensor system impacts how accurately the calibration curve is applied to stop the car as it covers a specified distance.
Designs a chemical-based stopping mechanism for the car. The chemical reaction’s rate of completion is used to stop the car motor. The lab teams must design a precise and accurate reaction, calibration curve and equation that will calculate the concentrations or quantity of reagents that will result in the completion of the reaction at the required time


Data analysis ELISA
We recommend including a standard curve of 7 dilutions on each ELISA plate, from which a concentration-response relationship is generated.
Prepare the standard curve by plotting the mean OD of each standard dilution (Std 1-7) minus the mean OD of the blank (see formula below) on the y-axis against the corresponding concentration on the x-axis.
Formula: OD = mean ODStd 1-7/sample – mean ODblank
Most laboratories have (plate reader) software that allows various methods of curve fitting. Since ELISA data are essentially sigmoid rather than linear, we recommend using the 4- or 5-parameter logistic fit for quantitative analysis of the samples. Alternatively, a linear regression curve may be acceptable for the linear portion of the curve consisting of at least 3 concentrations.
After selection of the regression model, the analyte concentration in unknown samples can be determined by interpolate the mean OD of the unknown sample minus the mean OD of the blank (see formula above) within the range of standard curve.
- The OD value of the sample should fall close to the midpoint between the known concentrations (standard curve). Samples showing an OD below the lowest concentration of the standard curve should be re-analyzed at a lower dilution. Samples showing an OD that exceeds the highest concentration of the standard curve should be re-analyzed at a higher dilution.
- If samples have been diluted, the calculated concentration must be multiplied by the dilution factor.


Centrally Protected Monuments :Site-Specific Limits
The 100-metre radius around Centrally protected monuments where construction is prohibited could be replaced with site-specific limits to be decided by an expert committee, as the Union Culture Ministry was working on amendments to the relevant Act.
- The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act, 1958, was amended in 2010 to declare the 100-metre radius of protected monuments as prohibited areas and the next 300-metre radius as regulated areas.
- However, according to Ministry officials as well as a recent Parliamentary Standing Committee report, there was no specific reason for the 100-metre and 300-metre limits.
- The proposed amendment would change Section 20A of the Act, which refers to the prohibited area, to rationalise the prohibited and regulated areas. Expert monument committees would decide the prohibited area around a monument.
- These areas could be as wide as 500 metres for some sites like the Taj Mahal.
- The amendment would also enable the ASI to act against encroachment by holding the relevant authorities liable in case of illegal buildings at a protected site, the official said.
- This would be similar to the enforcement powers under the Indian Forest Act.


A lady in the USA has just been found to be carrying the first antibiotic resistant bacteria, a top health official has reported that this could be “the end of the road” for treatments using antibiotics.
This particular antibiotic-resistant strain was discovered in April 2016 in a 49 year old Pennsylvania woman’s urine. Department researchers agreed that she was carrying a strain of E. coli that was resistant to colistin (antibiotic) a study published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, from the American Society for Microbiology. The authors wrote that this “heralds the emergence of a truly pan-drug resistant bacteria.”
Colistin was originally withdrawn due to its side effects but is now being used as so many other antibiotics are ineffective. Colistin is the antibiotic of last resort for dangerous types of superbugs, some of which health officials have called “nightmare bacteria.” This family of bacteria is so dangerous that they can kill up to 50% of patients.
This is the first time this colistin-resistant strain has been found in the United States. The BBC aired a show in the UK about the use of these on farm animals, officials worldwide reacted with alarm when British and Chinese researchers found the colistin-resistant strain in pigs.
“It basically shows us that the end of the road isn’t very far away for antibiotics — that we may be in a situation where we have patients in our intensive-care units, or patients getting urinary tract infections for which we do not have antibiotics,” reported the CDC Director Tom Frieden
This could well open the way for medical researchers to look for other avenues in treatment of these superbugs. Back in 2014 BICOM® practitioners were alerting us to this warning from the World Health Organization. A white paper was produced with very detailed protocols for treatment.
Read the full article.


The grey parrot, also known as the Congo grey parrot, Congo African grey parrot or African grey parrot, is an Old World parrot in the family Psittacidae. The Timneh parrot was earlier treated as a subspecies but has since been elevated to a full species.
Besides being one of the most popular pet bird species, African Grey Parrots are also one of the most intelligent. In recent years, much research has been done on the mental capacity of African Grey parrots by scientists around the world. The most famous instance of this is the work that Dr. Irene Pepperberg conducted with her famous African Grey, Alex. Using Alex and other African Greys in research trials focusing on communication, she was able to show that not only can African Grey parrots learn an incredible amount of human words, they can learn to use them in context to communicate with their owners. It has been said that these impressive birds have the mental and emotional capacities of a 5-year-old human child.
Caring for an African Grey Can Be Hard Work
Because they are so intelligent, African Grey Parrots form very strong bonds with their owners and can be quite emotionally needy. Due to this trait, they do best with owners who can devote ample time to handling and socializing with them on a daily basis. In addition, African Grey parrots need a lot of exercise in order to keep their strong muscles toned and maintain an adequate physical condition. This means that they must be able to spend several hours per day outside of their cages, playing in supervised, “parrot proof” areas.


This study investigates gender-differentiated determinants of rice farm households’ adaptive measures to salinity intrusion in three rice-producing provinces in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The sample covered 430 farm households (274 male-headed and 156 female-headed). A multivariate probit model was used to identify factors affecting male and female farmers’ choices of adaptive measures. The six adaptive measures most commonly used by these households were: changing from rice to other crops, saving rainwater for daily use, digging ponds for water storage in the garden, reducing the number of rice crops per year, seeking other income sources, and purchasing agricultural inputs on credit. We found that demographic, socioeconomic, and farming characteristics, as well as institutional conditions and salinity-related variables, influenced female farmers’ adaptation choices. Female farmers have to overcome more barriers to undertaking adaptive measures than male farmers. They are also less likely to seek other income sources due to limited access to education and training. Attending agricultural extension services increases the probability that female farmers will change from rice to other crops or will seek other income sources. Therefore, extension services, educational opportunities, training on adaptation strategies, and income-generating opportunities should be made accessible for all farmers, especially women, to increase their resilience to climate change and salinity intrusion.
Keywords: adaptation, farmers, gender, Mekong Delta, salinity intrusion, Vietnam