If you’ve noticed fewer and fewer monarch butterflies in your garden over the past few years, unfortunately it’s not your imagination — the migratory butterflies have declined in population over the years, and landed on the international endangered list.
The orange-and-black butterflies are at risk as a result of habitat destruction and climate change, according to an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) press release. The population of monarchs has decreased between 22 and 72 per cent over the last decade, with their decline being attributed to logging in both California and Mexico — the locations the butterflies migrate to in the winter — and the combination of herbicides and pesticides have impacted milkweed, which the monarch caterpillars feed on.
Related: Canadian lakes are in trouble, warns new climate change study.
Monarchs are on the ICUN’s red list, which means they are two steps away from extinction.
“It is difficult to watch monarch butterflies and their extraordinary migration teeter on the edge of collapse, but there are signs of hope. So many people and organizations have come together to try and protect this butterfly and its habitats,” said Anna Walker in the press release. Walker is a member of the IUCN SSC Butterfly and Moth Specialist Group and Species Survival Officer at the New Mexico BioPark Society and helped lead the monarch butterfly assessment.
“From planting native milkweed and reducing pesticide use to supporting the protection of overwintering sites and contributing to community science, we all have a role to play in making sure this iconic insect makes a full recovery.”
Related: Climate change is causing global sleep loss: study.
Monarch butterflies play an important role in environmental health, as they are a pollinator. As the Canadian government reports, their pollination is responsible for the fertilization of plants and crops so they can produce seeds and fruit.
Although this news is depressing given the number of species currently on the endangered list (a whopping 41,459 are threatened with extinction), luckily nonmigratory monarch butterflies in central and South America are not listed as being endangered.
Get More Slice.


Even small gatherings like children’s birthday parties can spread COVID when infection rates in the community are high.
Restaurants and workplaces like call centers have been implicated as locations where people spread COVID-19 infections easily. Big social events like weddings also provide the opportunity for people to transmit the virus even before they know they are ill.
Do Birthday Parties Spread COVID Infections?
Scientists have paid much less attention to more informal gatherings that might have fewer people but closer contact. Now, a study using national health insurance data for most of 2020 compared the rate of COVID infections in households with a birthday in the previous two weeks to those without such an excuse to celebrate (JAMA Internal Medicine, online June 21, 2021).
The scientists analyzed data from 2.9 million households in the study. They also examined COVID-19 infection rates in the surrounding communities. When these were high, households with birthdays were about 30 percent more likely to have an infection. The increase linked to birthdays was modest so long as infection rates in the surrounding county were low.
Children’s Parties Are Riskier:
The researchers found a close link between children’s birthdays and a higher risk of infection. In fact, it was almost three times higher than that associated with adults’ birthdays. The investigators suggest that even small social gatherings like kids’ birthday parties can help spread COVID. That’s especially true when infection rates elsewhere in the community are high.
Perhaps parents are less likely to skip celebrating youngsters’ birthdays, or maybe children are less reliable about washing their hands, wearing their masks and maintaining their distance. With children still unvaccinated and the more transmissible delta variant circulating around the country, parents can’t afford to let down their guards and host a birthday party that could well spread COVID infections throughout a group of friends.
The highest level of excellence in a
comprehensive telehealth membership plan
at a cost everyone can afford.
The only thing you can’t afford, is to be without it!
Coverage for you entire family (up to 8 members) costs only $29.95.
No extra fees or costs!


The foundation for any ecological study and for the effective management of biodiversity in natural systems requires knowing what species are present in an ecosystem. We assessed fish communities in a stream using two methods, depletion-based electrofishing and environmental DNA metabarcoding (eDNA) from water samples, to test the hypothesis that eDNA provides an alternative means of determining species richness and species identities for a natural ecosystem. In a northern Indiana stream, electrofishing yielded a direct estimate of 12 species and a mean estimated richness (Chao II estimator) of 16.6 species with a 95% confidence interval from 12.8 to 42.2. eDNA sampling detected an additional four species, congruent with the mean Chao II estimate from electrofishing. This increased detection rate for fish species between methods suggests that eDNA sampling can enhance estimation of fish fauna in flowing waters while having minimal sampling impacts on fish and their habitat. Modern genetic approaches therefore have the potential to transform our ability to build a more complete list of species for ecological investigations and inform management of aquatic ecosystems.
|Number of pages||13|
|Journal||Ecology and Evolution|
|State||Published - Jun 1 2016|
- Chao estimator
- freshwater community
- species identity


Flowers in Space Attacked by Aliens: Understanding the Spatial Ecology Behind the Devastating Damage by a Thistle Bud Weevil on Pitcher’s Thistle at Whitefish Dunes State Park, WI
One of the most threatened plants in the Great Lakes region is Pitcher’s thistle (Cirsium pitcheri), which inhabits sand dunes along the shorelines of Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior. In addition to risks from habitat loss and invasive species, C. pitcheri are imperiled by a thistle bud weevil (Larinus planus) that was originally distributed for biological control of nonnative thistles. During the summer of 2014, we empirically studied the devastating damage caused by L. planus on a population of C. pitcheri at Whitefish Dunes State Park, WI, to determine what factors influence the distribution and intensity of damage. We devised three treatments isolating the effects of elevation and neighboring plants. Our experiment revealed that the low elevation treatment with the greater neighboring plant density experienced the most damage during both the early and late season assessments. Additionally, we demonstrated that different abiotic and biotic factors affect L. planus distribution and damage during the early season compared to the late season. Finally, we analyzed the thistle-weevil system from a spatial ecology perspective. These results have important implications for other studies of plant-insect interactions, offer a cautionary tale about biological control, and inform efforts to conserve C. pitcheri.
Level of Honors
summa cum laude
Meunier, Zechariah D., "Flowers in Space Attacked by Aliens: Understanding the Spatial Ecology Behind the Devastating Damage by a Thistle Bud Weevil on Pitcher’s Thistle at Whitefish Dunes State Park, WI" (2015). Lawrence University Honors Projects. 79.


“The major players in the area of corporate governance, within the corporation are corporate board, shareholders and employees. Externally, the pace for corporate governance is set by the government as the regulator, customer, and lenders of finance and social ethos of our times. The scope and extent of corporate governance are set by the legal, financial and business framework. In essence, corporate governance is the system by which companies are directed and controlled. Board of directors are responsible for the governance of their enterprises.” – Corporate Governance: A Multi-faced Issue; The Chartered Secretary, May’97
As it is very clear from the above statement, people at the helm of affairs of an enterprise are responsible for the good governance of the enterprise. The Board of Directors are responsible for the governance of their enterprises, in a given economic, political and social environment. The role of the board and the shareholder is interactive in nature and therefore the quality of governance depends upon the level of interface established by them. The quality of the board also depends upon a number of other factors, such as its size, its composition in terms of number and proportion of whole-time and part time directors, the chairman of the board, power and position of the CEO, the merit and qualification of the directors, etc. In this unit we will try to find out the roles and responsibilities of the board and other executives for good governance.
Be the first to comment on "Top Management and Corporate Governance"


Pest description and damage The adult beaked-gall midge is a small black fly about 0.2 inch in length. The larvae are about 0.2 inch long when mature. The adult midge lays eggs on buds in the spring, and the larval tunneling and feeding of the larvae causes the bud to swell and harden. By summer, it develops a characteristic shape and a reddish color. Infestations rarely seriously injure a tree, but successive years of high infestations can alter the appearance of the plant, much as if the plant were excessively pruned. Pussy willow (Salix caprea) is reportedly a favorite host species.
Biology and life history The insect overwinters as a partly developed larva in the gall. In spring, the adults emerge, mate, and the females lay eggs on swollen willow buds. The emerging larva tunnels into the bud and causes gall formation. The larva develops inside a hollow cavity in the gall, which by September is hardened and red. There is one generation per year.
Prune out willow-beaked galls as they are noticed. If you prune them out in the fall or winter, be sure to destroy them by crushing or burying. The adults probably will still emerge if the galls are thrown to the ground.
See Table 3 in:
Chemical Control of Landscape Pests
For more information
See "Gallmakers" in:


A religious tragedy of historic magnitude is taking place in Turkey, but it receives little media attention. The world’s oldest Christian church is under threat of extinction.
The Turkish government must cease its control over the Ecumenical Patriarchate
The Ecumenical Patriarchate is located in Istanbul, Turkey. It is the seat of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the head of the world’s Orthodox Christians. In direct violation of international laws on religious freedom, the government of Turkey denies the Patriarch fundamental religious rights.
Turkey refuses to grant a legal personality to the Patriarchate or recognize its ecumenical role, and has taken extraordinary steps to repress the Patriarchate. It shut down the Halki School of Theology, it seized property belonging to the Patriarchate, and it requires that clerics have Turkish citizenship before they are able to succeed the Ecumenical Patriarch. This requirement presents an unnecessary burden for the Greek Orthodox community, and has been perceived as a means to control the outcome of future elections.
Turkey must re-open the Halki School of Theology
In 1971, the Turkish government arbitrarily shut down Halki Seminary, the sole seminary for the Ecumenical Patriarchate since 1844. The closure of Halki prevents the Ecumenical Patriarchate from training its next generation of leaders, and infringes upon the religious freedom of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians. Despite a number of promises and assurances from Ankara, Halki remains shut to this day. Its continued closure stands as a grim symbol of the plight of religious minorities in the greater Middle East.
Turkey must respect the rights of its religious minorities
There are less than 200,000 religious minorities in Turkey, and treatment of these groups has worsened under Erdogan’s government. In its latest report, The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) expressed concern in the past that the overall landscape for democracy and human rights, while warning that the state of religious freedom in Turkey remains deeply troubling. USCIRF highlighted the lack of any meaningful progress on the part of the Turkish government to address long standing religious freedom issues. Turkey denies the full legal status of religious groups, anti-Semitism and societal discrimination toward those who practice a minority religions are on the rise, and serious religious freedom violations in the Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus are an ongoing problem.


Secure Sockets Layer
Through a protocol known as the Secure Sockets Layer, other computers are prevented from eavesdropping by encrypting all data transmitted between our Members and the Credit Union. Intermediate computers would see each packet of information as a meaningless
jumble of bytes. The sending end encrypts, or encodes, the data with one key before it is transmitted. The receiving end decrypts, or decodes, the data with another key. This two-key cryptography scheme was developed by a team of mathematicians at
MIT and is currently patented by RSA Data Security, Inc. POPA FCU’s Members that live in the United States can use browsers that support 128-bit keys. Cracking a 128-bit key would involve trying all 2128 combinations.
The Secure Sockets Layer validates the identity of our site to our Members through the use of a digital certificate. After connecting to our web site in secure mode, our site sends the Member’s browser a signed digital certificate, which contains
the name of our web server, its public encryption key, the certificate’s validity dates, the name of the certification authority that issued the digital certificate to our site, and an unforgettable digital signature. The digital certificate,
which was obtained by POPA FCU through a special certification authority, authenticates to our Members that they are indeed connecting to our site.
The Secure Sockets Layer ensures that the data transmitted between our Members and our site has not been tampered with through the use of Message Authentication Codes (MACs). A MAC is based on the actual data itself, similar to a checksum. This provides
a quick way for the receiving end to verify that the data wasn’t changed en route.
To support the Secure Sockets Layer, POPA FCU Members must use the most recent browser versions available.


Struggles with debt are one of the types of financial problems consumers can face. Such struggles can have major impacts on a consumer. There are many types of debt a consumer can struggle with. One of these types is medical debt (debt arising from medical bills).
It appears that an increasing number of Americans are struggling with medical debts. Reportedly, in 2010, around 40 percent of Americans had problems paying medical bills. This rate was reportedly only at 34 percent in 2005.
What about medical insurance? Doesn’t having such insurance prevent a person from having to face problems with medical debts? A recent study indicates that having insurance does not necessarily make one immune to medical debt struggles.
The study was led by an economist from the University of Arizona. It looked at data from a survey of 4,200 households in Arizona. The study found that around 27 percent of households that had insurance reported problems paying medical bills. Thus, this study appears to indicate that a fair amount of individuals with insurance have faced struggles with medical debts.
There are some limitations to this study, one of the biggest being that it is based on data from only one state, Arizona. Thus, it is difficult to tell if its findings are indicating a national trend, or just a local trend. It will be interesting to see if any future studies are conducted on this topic using data from a wider geographical region.
Despite its limitations, the study brings up some interesting and important issues regarding the prevalence of medical debt struggles and how much insurance protects individuals from such struggles.
Source: UPI, “Insurance no guard against medical debt,” 4 Jul 2011


If you’ve grown up in the United States in the 20th or 21st century, you might miss how revolutionary the religious liberty in the Constitution is. Until 1791, no national government in human history had officially declared that there was no established religion and people were free to practice whatever religion, and almost every state had some official or semi-official religion. Even the French Revolution, at about the same time, established an official religion of reason rather than permit religious freedom.
What brought this about? First, many of the original 13 Colonies were founded by groups in England who practiced a religion other than state-sponsored Anglicanism in Great Britain. The British government wouldn’t tolerate them at home but would let them live far away if their religion was that important. Second, Christianity is quite unique among world religions in that it is based on personal belief not corporate belonging. From the beginning, Christians lived in opposition to the official religion. Other groups would be fine under Roman rule because Romans would allow you to worship your god so long as you also worshiped their god – a fine proposition for a polytheist but not a Christian. Third, enlightenment philosophy, despite his defects in other areas, was able to see the religious liberty in a way that wasn’t previously clear.


A recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) decision is undermining the world’s ability to freely access accurate and verifiable records about individuals and events. The impact on Wikipedia is direct and critical.
In Google Spain v. AEPD and Mario Costeja González, the ECJ ordered Google to remove links to a 1998 newspaper announcement of a real estate auction connected to a Spanish citizen’s debt. That decision represents a crude implementation of the “right to be forgotten”—the idea that people may demand to have truthful information about themselves selectively removed from the published public record, or at least made more difficult to find.
In doing so, the European court abandoned its responsibility to protect one of the most important and universal rights: the right to seek, receive, and impart information.
As a consequence, accurate search results are vanishing in Europe with no public explanation, no real proof, no judicial review, and no appeals process. The result is an internet riddled with memory holes—places where inconvenient information simply disappears.
As of today the Wikimedia Foundation has received multiple notices of intent to remove certain Wikipedia content from European search results. To date, the notices would affect more than 50 links directing readers to Wikipedia sites.
The decision does not mandate that search engines disclose link censorship. We appreciate that some companies share our commitment to transparency and are providing public notice. This disclosure is essential for understanding the ruling’s negative impacts on all available knowledge.
The WMF will stand by its commitment to build the sum of all human knowledge through the protection of all of its sources. We will be posting notices for each indefinite removal of Wikipedia search results.
Lila Tretikov, Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation
 The decision is here: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:62012CJ0131.


An internship is a program offered by an employer that provides potential employees with work experience. Internships are typically targeted towards students, who work between one-and-four months at their chosen company to gain practical on-the-job or research experience.
An internship is a temporary work experience, typically offered by companies or organizations, that provides students or recent graduates with practical on-the-job training in a specific field or industry. Internships can be paid or unpaid, full-time or part-time, and can range in duration from a few weeks to several months.
Internships are designed to provide students or recent graduates with the opportunity to gain real-world experience, develop their skills and knowledge, and explore different career paths. Interns may work on specific projects, assist with day-to-day tasks, or shadow experienced professionals in their field.
In addition to gaining practical experience, internships can also provide valuable networking opportunities, as interns may have the chance to connect with professionals in their field and learn about job opportunities and career paths.
Internships can be a win-win for both the organization and the intern. Organizations can benefit from the energy and fresh perspectives of interns, while also providing them with valuable training and mentorship. Interns, in turn, can gain hands-on experience and develop their skills and knowledge in a supportive and structured environment.


Beekeeping during and after drought
Following the devastating impact of fires and drought, it is important that bee hives can recover and the welfare of our bees and beekeeping industry is supported.
During and after drought beekeepers need to manage the nutrition of honey bee colonies.
Drought conditions have severely impacted the honey bee industry, with above average temperatures and lack of rainfall affecting the flowering cycles of many native plant species. This includes Eucalyptus which normally produce around 70% of the NSW honey crop.
Beekeepers heavily rely on native flora to provide for their colonies’ nutritional requirements and for maintaining a viable business.
During these times it is crucial that beekeepers provide colonies with access to clean water and supplementary feed sources as necessary.
There are different strategies to manage honey bee nutrition depending on individual circumstances.
For more information about the Management of bee nutrition in drought and fire affected areas, visit AgriFutures Australia.
Supplementary feeding is just as important after bushfire events. In the video link below, Liz Frost explains several feeding strategies for honey bee colonies that apply to both drought and fire affected areas.
Hive Management After Fire
For information on various grants available for the beekeeping industry, visit Bushfire Industry Recovery Package.
- Pesticides – reducing damage to honey bees
- Visit our Honey bees page for more information and resources.


The European Space Agency (ESA) has postponed the launch of the space probe until tomorrow juice Because of the danger of lightning strikes at the European Space Center in French Guiana. The launch date was set today at 2:15 PM SST, and has been delayed until tomorrow Friday at 2:14 PM SST. the mission juice It will explore Jupiter and three of its moons: Callisto, Europa and Ganymede.
This is one of the most ambitious space missions ever launched by Europa and is also the largest and most complex in terms of studying the giant planet and its moons, which could harbor large amounts of liquid water in oceans beneath the icy surface.
The probe would have taken off today on an Ariane 5 plane, while the last flight of this rocket model would be. juice It will send its first signal to the control center 30 minutes after takeoff aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, a model that was already retired with this latest launch. Twenty minutes later, the spacecraft will deploy its solar panels—the largest ever for an interplanetary mission—and a camera will take a picture of them to verify that the maneuver was successful.
Today’s launch has been carefully timed and timed so that Earth, Moon and Venus are aligned and the probe can make four flybys that will accelerate it to the speed needed to launch to Jupiter. This is the route that allows the lowest fuel consumption, although it is possible to take off until April 30, yes, at a higher cost. The European Space Agency will attempt to launch it again tomorrow.
juice It will reach Jupiter in July 2031. It will fly by the moon Callisto 21 times, twice over Europe, and then orbit Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, for nine months. The mission will end in 2035, when the probe will crash into the surface of this moon.
You can follow Theme in FacebookAnd Twitter And instagramor register here to receive Weekly newsletter.


The fastest creature on earth is a Peregrine Falcon, which can reach tremendous speeds of 390 kilometres per hour when swooping in for the kill. Peregrines have become increasingly plentiful in Ireland, and the fastest duck on the planet also calls this island home.
A Red-Breasted Merganser escaping from the flight of an airplane was once recorded flying at the staggering speed of 160 kilometres per hour. This exotic and colourful duck is currently wintering around the West Pier.
Mergansers are diving ducks and members of the sawbill family. They are sleek and streamlined birds and enthralling to watch. On Christmas Day, I watched one for over an hour. I counted three males and one female swimming around between the Pier and Seapoint bay, frequently darting down into the depths of the water in the hope of catching their Christmas dinner.
Their Latin name, Mergus serrator, derives from ‘mergus’ used by Pliny and other Roman authors to refer to a waterbird, and ‘serrator”; a sawyer, deriving from the Latin for ‘saw’ serra. They are very striking birds with a spiky crest and long thin red bill with serrated edges, which is very unusual and unique for a duck and is because of their special diet. All other ducks are vegetarians, but Mergansers eat fish.
The male Merganser has a dark head with a green sheen, a white neck with a rusty breast, black back, and a white under body. Adult females have a rusty head and a grey body. The juvenile is like the female without the white collar and a smaller white wing patch.
A handful of Mergansers breed in large lakes in the west and north-west, but the Dún Laoghaire Mergansers are likely to have flown all the way from the Subarctic to winter in our warmer Irish waters.
Keep an eye out for these gorgeous ducks when walking the West Pier, which is a fantastic place for bird watching.


Return to main menu Underground Maths
The Building Blocks resources, to quote Underground Mathematics “are designed to give students an opportunity to notice ideas or concepts for themselves by building their knowledge through a particular problem. Either the situation, or the questions asked, will be carefully focused in order to guide the students in their learning.”
I have used many of these successfully in the classroom.
Some personal favourites: Excel file, building-blocks-cy-favourite-resources
or as a pdf: building-blocks-cy-favourite-resources
Able students as young as Year 9 with appropriate scaffolding can try some of these resources such as Lots of Lines! You will see from the the supporting materials that this has come from the brilliant Standards Unit (A10) collection. Students must sort the lines into six pairs, each pair matching one of the given descriptions.
Staying with the Building Blocks I do like Straight Lines where students must decide which of 17 equations are equations of a straight line.
Look at the list – a wonderful lesson in not jumping to conclusions here! This worked very well with both my Year 9 and my Year 11 classes.
Straight Lines reminded me of Line Pairs, I feel an extension for Year 11 coming on!


This NASA supercomputer model illustrates how greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide change throughout the year. Red is used for higher concentrations.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, has been launched in Glasgow, Scotland. It welcomes world leaders, experts, and activists who are looking for ways to slow climate change.
During the two-week long discussions and negotiations, participating countries will attempt to reach an agreement on a stronger stance in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. This is in order to allow the world to meet the 2015 COP21 climate conference in Paris.
At COP21, the Paris Agreement was negotiated. It obligates countries to try to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degree Celsius, compared to preindustrial times.
Related: Could climate change cause humans to go extinct?
However, this goal seems impossible. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), less than a week prior to the start of COP26 negotiations, released their Emissions Gap report 21. It found that the existing national emission reduction pledges will continue to make it possible for global temperatures to rise by 2.7 degrees Celsius before the end of the century.
A faster rate of warming will result in a greater degradation of the environment and more weather-related disasters like floods and droughts.
Already, signs of climate change are everywhere. A range of catastrophic events affected countries across all continents in 2021 was witnessed. Satellites have observed ice sheets melting at an unprecedented rate as polar regions heat up faster than any other part of the globe. Areas that are not used to tropical storms, like the Oman coast and the desert-covered Arabian State of Oman, have been ravaged by them. Record-breaking heat waves caused devastating wildfires that destroyed vast areas of land and forest, releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The Glasgow negotiations will encourage countries to increase their efforts and to agree on a more aggressive approach. Scientists warn that the decade up to 2030 is crucial if humanity is to win its battle against climate change.
Negotiations have been difficult in the past, with the less developed countries criticizing the states of the west for assuming the majority of responsibility for the current situation and expecting equal treatment. The U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement was announced by Donald Trump, an ex-president of the United States. However, the country joined the agreement shortly after the Biden administration took office.


How Will Artificial Intelligence Impact the Job Market and Word Force?
Numerous industries, including the job market, are being transformed by artificial intelligence (AI). With the development of AI technology, numerous human-performed tasks could be automated. Concerns about job loss and the effect of automation on the labor market have arisen as a result of this.
On the one hand, there are worries that job losses and economic disruption will result from automation. Some predictions indicate that in the coming decades, up to 47% of American jobs could be automated. Fears that automation will increase unemployment and income inequality have arisen as a result.
On the other hand, there are also claims that automation will increase economic growth and open up new opportunities. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to free up human workers to concentrate on more complex tasks that call for human abilities like creativity, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence by automating routine and repetitive tasks. This may result in increased output, more inventiveness, and openings for new positions in industries like data analysis, software engineering, and AI development.
AI can also create previously unimagined industries and job opportunities. In the areas of robotics, artificial intelligence, and software engineering, for instance, the development of autonomous vehicles is opening up new job opportunities. In industries like medical research, data analysis, and bioinformatics, new job opportunities are being created by the expansion of AI in healthcare.
It's crucial to invest in education and training to get workers ready for the jobs of the future if we want to make sure that everyone benefits from AI. Soft skills like critical thinking, communication, and adaptability are included here in addition to technical ones. Additionally, support for workers who are displaced by automation and a commitment to social safety nets are necessary.
In summary, AI has the potential to change the job market, and its effects are likely to be a mix of job creation and job displacement. It's critical to invest in education and training, social safety nets, and assistance for workers who are displaced by automation if we want to ensure that everyone benefits from AI. So, we can build a future in which AI and human workers collaborate to develop new opportunities and enhance our quality of life.
By Pooyan Ghamari, a Swiss economist who is exploring the impact of AI on the job market


Subject Intent: Why Accounting?
Accounting offers the opportunity for students to be able to apply their analytical and problem solving skills to quantitative and qualitative data. Students are able to develop their numeracy skills in great detail and the course enables students to apply formula and functions to real world business performance. Whilst studying Accounting, students also have the opportunity to partake in numerous extra-curricular activities including the ICAEW Base Accounting competition and student investor. Accounting overall helps students to be critical thinkers, often questioning and interpreting data from multiple angles whilst also developing strong communication skills to help others make informed decisions. The skills acquired throughout the course are transferable and prepare students for Higher Education or employment in a wide range of industries.
What will I study?
The course covers the basic principles of accounting right through to advanced considerations such as ethics in accounting. Topics include:
- The role of the accountant
- The key elements of the foundation of accounting and double-entry book-keeping
- The preparation, analysis and evaluation of financial statements, including how to use ratio analysis to compare the performance of businesses and wider considerations
- Accounting for sole traders and partnerships
Please note: Subject videos have been filmed from colleges across our Trust.
What are lessons like in this subject?
Studying Accounting will allow you to develop a range of numerical skills that you are able to apply to real world situations, proving a vital skill for businesses when making decisions. You will cover a range of accounting techniques that can be applied to small businesses such as sole traders, all the way up to large conglomerates. You will also be given further opportunities to apply accounting to the real world with enrichment activities that will enable you to apply the skills covered in lessons to the wider world.
I really enjoy Accounting because I like maths and I know maths is a big part of pursuing a career in the field. Accounting is very challenging at first, but once the penny drops it is extremely rewarding.
Awais Ahmed, Co-op Academy Grange


When Raymond Davis arrived for his first day at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1948, he was advised to “go to the library, do some reading and choose a project of my own,” Davis said years later. “Thus began a long career of doing just what I wanted to do and getting paid for it.” Davis spent most of his career at Brookhaven, a laboratory dedicated to finding peaceful uses for atomic energy. There, he studied neutrinos, tiny elementary particles that interact only through weak subatomic force and gravity. His work helped confirm that fusion reactions generate the energy of the sun.
In his most famous experiment, Davis used underground detectors in South Dakota to find solar neutrinos. His experiments found only a third of the number of neutrinos predicted by mathematical theories, causing physicists to spend decades trying to resolve this discrepancy. Years later, Davis’ experiments were proven to be accurate — although they only were only able to detect one of what was later found to be three “flavors” of neutrinos, explaining why both the mathematical theories and Davis’ experiments were scientifically sound. For his groundbreaking experiments, Davis was awarded both the National Medal of Science in 2001 and the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2002.
By Sara Grossman


Stories from CEF
How did God Make the Earth?
Most kids learn in school that the earth changed little by little, bit by bit-in a process called evolution. Some teachers say a “Big Bang” happened and this world was the result. But as Christians we believe God created the heavens and the earth by His mighty power (Gen. 1:1). The Bible says He created all things “by the Word of God” (Heb. 11:3). God spoke the Word and all things came into being day by day until six days of creation were complete. Then He rested from all His work (Gen. 1-2). Maybe you’re wondering how God made Earth look the way it does-the only planet with blue sky and green grass.
God made our sky blue by putting oxygen in the atmosphere around the earth. He did it because He decided people, His most special creation, should breathe oxygen. As the sun shines on oxygen particles (molecules) in our atmosphere, the molecules absorb all the color of the sun’s rays and reflect the color blue back to us. The sun is also just the perfect distance from the earth to provide energy for plants to grow. Did you know plants give off oxygen we need to breathe? Our wise Creator had a plan for everything He made! How did God know oxygen could make a blue sky? How did He know how far to place the sun from Earth? God is all-powerful!-He in-vented every rule of nature! He told every star, planet, element, chemical and living thing how to behave-and they obeyed!
Stay Connected with CEF
Subscribe to our email lists to receive updates, news, and stories based on your needs and interests.


Henry HallidayBMJ 2023; 380 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p186 (Published 26 January 2023) Cite this as: BMJ 2023;380:p186
- Alan Craft
Up until the 1980s the outcome for babies born very prematurely was poor. The main reason for this was that their lungs were not well developed and they lacked surfactant. Without it the lungs collapse and the baby struggles to breathe. The fetal lungs normally begin to produce this essential substance between 24 and 28 weeks of gestational life. Halliday worked with colleagues in Cambridge, Norway, and Sweden to produce a surfactant that could be delivered to a newborn’s lungs immediately after birth. Other types of surfactant were also developed. Halliday was at the forefront of major international trials to determine which was the optimum product and how it should be delivered. His work defined the standard of treatment used throughout the world which has dramatically improved survival of premature babies, saving countless lives. Alan Jobe, professor of paediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in the US commented that Henry was a true gentleman and that his surfactant work was …
Log in using your username and password
Log in through your institution
Subscribe from £173 *
Subscribe and get access to all BMJ articles, and much more.
* For online subscription
Access this article for 1 day for:
£38 / $45 / €42 (excludes VAT)
You can download a PDF version for your personal record.


Cosmological Cinema: Pedagogy, Propaganda, and Perturbation in Early Dome
Cultures around the world have long turned to the dome of the heavens
to understand and affirm their realities. As this perceived curvature
has manifested architecturally throughout the world, domes have been used
to enclose the most sacred environments of many cultures. The rounded
enclosures have often been used as canvases upon which to represent psycho-cosmological
constructs, painted with artistic renderings of incorporeal ideals. From
Buddhist stupas to Islamic mosques to Christian cathedrals, these structures
have been used as places of ritual, indoctrination, and transcendence.
With both internal and external surfaces often steeped in visually symbolic
and geometric meaning, domes have artistically and architecturally represented
the worldviews from which they arose and were meant to sustain.
In the 20th century, it became possible for the first time to radially
extend mental images onto the dome screen using projections of light.
Made possible by advancements in engineering, mechanics, and electronics,
the ability to completely immerse the visual field of audiences in a mediated
environment was seized upon by numerous pioneers in a wide range of contexts.
These modern multi-sensory sanctuaries continued to reflect the cosmologies
and motivations of their creators, subtly affecting the evolutionary trajectory
of the cultures from which they emerged.
This poster explores the motivations behind the construction and application
of dome theatres in an attempt to provide insights into the worldviews
and cultural trends that shaped their evolution. The goal is to make new
connections between disparate efforts that can shed light on a largely
forgotten history - a history that is increasingly relevant as a global
network of immersive domed theatres are developed for education, outreach,
and media arts experimentation in the 21st century.


Currently there are no news items.
Once touched – a lot happens
The task: heating by tapping, with low weight and low energy requirements. The solution, made by Textildruckerei Mayer: a textile, easily deformable carrier material is printed with a 3D heating paste made of carbon nanotubes. The result is a hybrid textile – a textile surface heating – which is recommended, for example, as a door lining in electric vehicles. It is easy to operate by touch, because the sensors are printed on at the same time.
Their heat output is around ten watts. Radiated from the surface of the driver's and front passenger's door, this ensures a pleasant warmth in the interior. Since the heating paste has hardly any heat loss, energy-efficient interval heating is sufficient.
There is also space for additional functionalities, because the heating paste is printed on the back of the textile. So how about a window regulator? For this purpose, a conductive carbon paste is applied to the front – and a gentle touch provides a breath of fresh air.
- Touch function thanks to imprinted sensors
- Higher energy efficiency than conventional filament heating
- Light and flexible processing
- Minimum weight
Our hybrid textiles arose from the idea of combining fiber composites with multiple functions. These "intelligent fabrics" can heat, switch via sensor and light up. They are preferably used in lightweight construction and in electromobility.


A lottery is a form of gambling in which a person plays by drawing numbers at random. Some governments outlaw lotteries, but others endorse them. Some even organize a state or national lottery. But whether you win or lose, you should be aware of the risks of lottery play. There are many ways to lose a lottery, so be smart and avoid it if possible.
While some people consider a lottery a form of gambling, it is also a way to raise funds. Players pay a certain amount of money to get the chance to win a prize. The money raised by the lottery is usually used for good causes. The American Heritage Dictionary defines a lottery as a “random drawing that selects a winner among a set of winning tokens.”
A lottery can be traced back to ancient times. The Old Testament teaches Moses to divide land by lot, and many emperors used lotteries to give slaves and property away. In ancient Rome, it was popular for people to participate in lottery games to win property and entertainment. One of the most popular games at dinner was called “apophoreta,” meaning “that which is carried home”.
A lottery must have a way to collect stakes. Most lotteries have a chain of sales agents who pass the money paid for tickets up through the organization. This money is then banked. Some national lotteries split tickets into fractions, which cost slightly more than the whole ticket. This means that a customer can buy one fraction and place a small stake on it.


I had a conscientious mom “up in arms” about her daughter having two molluscum lesions on her neck. I calmed her a bit and then discussed the treatment options with her. . .
Molluscum is a poxvirus causing a chronic localized infection. The lesions are firm, flesh-colored, and dome-shaped. It is considered common, with 5% of US children having molluscum. Those with eczema may get molluscum easier. Molluscum also affects healthy adolescent and adults, often from sexual contact or contact sports.
The poxvirus transmits from skin-to-skin, although it has been shown to transmit by towels or sponges and, rarely, in pool water. Humans are the only host and takes usually 2 to 6 weeks from contact until first lesion forms. In sexually active adolescents or adults, STD screening should also be performed.
There is a decision to make: to treat or not. Adolescents and adults should be treated so as to avoid spread. But for children, we can advise that molluscum is not harmful and will go away on its own (although this will take months.) A systematic review in 2009 showed “insufficient evidence to conclude that any treatment was definitively effective.”
That means that I do not push children to have treatment.
I do offer the following. . .
- Cryotherapy otherwise known as (“freezing”). Cons: painful to young children, may cause scarring and decreased skin pigmentation where frozen.
- Curettage (scooping out the dome-shaped lesion). Pros: 80% worked after a single session. Cons: fails more often with more lesions and with a history of eczema, may cause small depressed scar
- Cantharidin (a liquid blistering agent). Requires skill of physician placing the liquid. Repeat applications every 2 to 4 weeks commonly needed. Can cause scarring.
To avoid spread, cover lesions with clothing or bandages while at sleepovers and during contact sports.
To treat or not to treat? That is the question. . .


Does dealing with typography give you a headache? Do you often struggle when adding text to a video? In the process of visual communication, text is an important element. A good presentation of text can convey the emotion of your video to your audience. Today, I will introduce you to the various text functions available in VCUS.
The first is Text Templates. In VCUS, you can choose a text template you like and edit the text.
VCUS has many templates, such as text templates for time/location and templates with social media logos.
You can change the text in the template as you wish, and the text you enter will be automatically applied to the template.
Second, you can add text to the video manually.
And, of course, you can switch fonts freely.
There are many different fonts and languages built in to VCUS, which is very helpful for creating introductions for your daily vlogs.
Here are 8 tips for using text in videos:
1. Make the font style uniform
Try to use the same font. Excessive text styles will create a messy visual effect for the viewer.
2. Adjust the font spacing
Increase or decrease the distance between the letters to improve the reading experience, but avoid using spacing that is too narrow or too wide.
3. How to align text
Alignment is the most basic rule in typesetting. As long as the human eye sees something neatly arranged, it will instinctively perceive it as beautiful, and the same is true for text on videos.
4. Rules for the use of pattern fonts
Pattern fonts are most suitable for the prominent embellishment of part of the text, so avoid excessive use.
5. Font size control
Use different sizes of text on for certain situations to improve the viewer’s ability to see key information.
6. Concise textual expression
Keep the text concise. This makes it easier for viewers to quickly understand your message.
7. Color matching
Color is used to express the soul of a video. Some combinations of colors can be unattractive and can ruin the overall visual effect.
8. Categorize text
Clearly expressing a message often requires creating a hierarchy of information, with different sizes and colors for each section. Hierarchy vastly improves the viewers ability to read and understand the text.
Come try out VCUS and quickly improve your videos!


History & Challenges
The homopolar generator/motor is an updated version of the original Farady disc, it is simple in design but inherently inefficient due to two main factors; generates very low voltages with high current (with only a disc as a current collector so multi turns couldn’t be used to increase the voltage), contact brushes required (so relatively high resistance at low voltage isn’t good and arcing/noise issues with high current draw). Some brilliant minds further improved it including Nikola Tesla (my hero!) with the ‘Dynamo Electric Machine’ and George Forbes with the ‘Forbes Dynamo’. For further reading see wikipedia.
Moving forward almost two hundred years to the present day, for the last couple of years I always liked to ponder on ways to improve it which might make it viable as a motor or generator for modern day uses. Then one night I think I visualised a solution.
Two issues with the original design need to be resolved; 1. to be able to provide a rotor that doesn’t require electrical contact. This can be performed by using a magnetic rotor. 2. is to have a multi turn winding. Both of these changes mean we need to change the motion of the magnetic field from circular motion (which we know doesn’t induce EMF, see Faraday’s paradox) to radial motion, and this might be possible.
A solution I think, to create a magnetic field moving in a radial motion would be to take two pieces of plate made of ferromagnetic material (electric steel or something similar), and to cut out 50 % of the material to give a kind of spiraling vortex pattern in each plate, a bit like the below picture.
Then one of the plates needs to be flipped over to spiral in the opposite way, when placed on top of one another you would get an interference pattern similar to the below picture.
So now with one plate fixed and if the other plate was to spin above the other you would get a moving interference pattern similar to the below animation link. (please only use the central circle of the GIF to understand the interference pattern)
Finally a pancake coil would sit between the two plates and a magnetic field applied to the plates. The resulting output from the pancake coil would be analyses with a oscilloscope.
“Consciousness is the controller of energy”Lekki


Remember, if you haven't used our clues pages yet, check out the instructions here to learn how they work and how to best utilize them.
A beautiful mosaic around th eedge.
A classic language with another twist.
The code is braille, but it's more complicated than that.
The stamps may help you filter your information.
Ignore one color, but the others should be kept.
Yellow and blue will give you two letters per space -- green is where you overlap.
Final Solution: When all blue and yellow letters are translated from Braille around the border, the plaintext reads: "I was not always a dishonest man after i lost my job at the plant i did not see another way. The fire was a fake and I knew my family would be away. I had a week before my life insurance ended. This was the way to provide for them."
Consider the theme of this card so far.
La Sagrada Familia is know for its stained glass.
You'll need some excellent & bright light to solve this puzzle.
Things are not always as opaque as they seem.
Final Solution: Holding the card up to a bright light, certain letters from the front are framed in the squares on the back. This plaintext reads: "My name is Antony Araslav."
The theme and principles of this card come into play here.
Orange is merely where red & yellow overlap.
The entire message is mixed up except for the first and last letters.
There are two sentences here running in opposite directions.
Reading every other letter forwards, the plaintext is: "This part is merely a small diversion."
Reading every other letter backwards, the plaintext is: "I have begun a new life here in Toronto."


Observational Signatures of Planets in Protoplanetary Disks I: Gaps Opened by Single and Multiple Young Planets in Disks
Dong et al
It has been suggested that the gaps and cavities recently discovered in transitional disks are opened by planets. To explore this scenario, we combine two-dimensional two fluid (gas + particle) hydrodynamical calculations with fully three-dimensional Monte Carlo Radiative Transfer simulations and study the observational signatures of gaps opened by one or several planets, making qualitative comparisons with observations. We find that a single planet as small as 0.2 MJ can produce a deep gap at millimeter (mm) wavelengths and almost no features at near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths, while multiple planets can open up a few ?10 AU wide common gap at both wavelengths. Both the contrast ratio of the the gaps and the wavelength dependence of the gap sizes are broadly consistent with data. When viewed at a moderate inclination angle, a physically circular on-centered gap could appear to be off-centered from the star due to shadowing. This effect can be used to check the existence of an unseen inner disk. Planet-induced spiral arms are more apparent at NIR than at mm wavelengths. Overall, our results suggest that the planet-opening-gap scenario is a promising way to explain the origin of the transitional disks. Finally, inspired by the recent ALMA release of the image of the HL Tau disk, we show that multiple narrow gaps, well separated by bright rings, can be opened by 0.2MJ planets soon after their formation in a relatively massive disk.
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Signatures of Young ExoPlanets in Protoplanetary Disks
Posted by Will Baird at 12:00 PM
Labels: ALMA, circumstellar disks, gapped disk, HL Tauri, protoplanetary disks
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.


Radioactive ruthenium detected in the air throughout Europe in late September 2017 poses no risk to the health of people or the environment.
Trace levels of ruthenium-106 have been detected on air monitoring networks throughout most of Europe. ARPANSA and other international organisations have modelled air movement and estimate the origin of the release to be in the Ural Mountains, in a region between Russia and Kazakhstan.
Rutheniun-106 has a half-life of 374 days. After one year only half would remain. Ruthenium-106 is typically produced by nuclear fission and is found in nuclear reactors. It’s used in medicine for cancer radiation therapy and has been used to power satellites.
The origin of the ruthenium-106 is still unknown. A nuclear power plant accident can be ruled out because such accidents release many different kinds of radionuclides. Only ruthenium-106 was detected.
ARPANSA modelling of air movement predicts that ruthenium-106 from this event will not be detectable in Australia. ARPANSA continuously monitors the air for radioactive material throughout Australia as part of the global Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty network.
The chance of imported food being contaminated is very low and would pose no risk to health if consumed. Similar advice has been issued in Europe.


This chapter discusses a new application field of XAI in manufacturing—job sequencing and scheduling. It first breaks down job sequencing and scheduling into several steps and then mentions AI technologies applicable to some of these steps. It is worth noting that many AI applications focus on the preparation of inputs required for scheduling tasks, rather than the process of scheduling tasks, which is a distinctive feature of the field. Nonetheless, many AI techniques have already been explained in other fields or domains. These explanations can provide a reference for explaining the application of AI in job sequencing and scheduling. Therefore, some general XAI techniques and tools for job sequencing and scheduling are reviewed, including: referring to the classification of job scheduling problems; customizing scheduling rules; text description, pseudocode; decision trees, flowcharts. Furthermore, job sequencing and scheduling problems are often formulated as mathematical programming (optimization) models to be optimized. AI technologies can be applied to find the best solution for the model. Applications of genetic algorithm (GA) are of particular interest because such applications are most common in job scheduling. Furthermore, XAI techniques and tools for explaining GA can be easily extended to other evolutionary AI applications, such as artificial bee colony (ABC), ant colony optimization (ACO), and particle swarm optimization (PSO) in job scheduling. Applicable XAI techniques and tools include flowcharts, text description, chromosome maps, dynamic line charts, and bar charts with baseline. Some novel XAI techniques and tools for interpreting GAs are also introduced: decision tree-based interpretation and dynamic transition and contribution diagrams.


Bentazon (also known as bentazone) is an herbicide used on corn, cereal, pea, mint, rice, soy and succulent lima bean crops. It is mobile in soil (especially in areas with high rainfall levels), degrades slowly in the environment, and has been reported in surface, ground and drinking water.
Despite its mobility, bentazon is not expected to arrive in drinking water at toxic levels.
Bentazon is classified by the World Health Organization as being “slightly hazardous,” and quickly metabolizes into less hazardous substances when ingested. In animal studies, it has been shown to affect blood clotting and cause changes in the heart, liver, kidneys and prostate. Symptoms of exposure in animals include weight loss and gastrointestinal issues such as diarrhea and vomiting.
Although there is little information about its toxic effects in humans, the EPA suggests that more information may become available:
Bentazon use has not been tested for toxicity in humans via the oral route of exposure. However, because bentazon is used as a water-based spray, emergency medical cases and clinical reports might be expected in the future from accidental ingestion by children or agricultural workers.
According to Lenntech, activated carbon has a “very high probability” of adsorbing bentazon.
Sources: EPA, WHO, Lenntech, Photo: geograph.org.uk, author: Walter Baxter
(whole house & well units)


|Hindustani classical music|
Bhairav is one of the ten basic thaats of Hindustani music from the Indian subcontinent. It is also the name of a raga within this thaat. But there is no connection in the similarity between in the names of the thaat and the raga.
Ragas of the Bhairav thaat make use of Komal Rishabh and Komal Dhaivat. Bhairava is one of the names of Shiva especially in his powerful form as a naked ascetic with matted locks and body smeared with ashes. The ragas too have some of these masculine and ascetic attributes in its form and compositions.
The Bhairav raga itself is extremely vast and allows a huge number of note combinations and a great range of emotional qualities from valour to peace. There are many variations based on it including (but not restricted to) Ahir Bhairav, Alam Bhairav, Anand Bhairav, Bairagi Bhairav, Beehad Bhairav, Bhavmat Bhairav, Devata Bhairav, Gauri Bhairav, Nat Bhairav, Shivmat Bhairav.
Ragas belonging to the Bhairav thaat include:


Gorgias certainly is a triumph in linguistic rhetoric: he portraits the ambiguous relationship between human beings and the knowledge of reality. Following his works, the Logos does not produce any objective or absolute, but obscure knowledge. Th e Logos is not characterized by truth, but rather by the ability to persuade and deceive others, to convince others using the art of rhetoric. Th is fact composes the core of the metalinguistic attitude, which characterizes Gorgias’ texts. Since the Logos in Gorgias does not seek absolute truth, it creates diff erent truths, such as illusions for platonians, skeptic material, rhetoric or similar exercises. Th e analysis of the three main Gorgian works on Helen, Palamede and PTMO, are read and observed prevalently through language; they are discussed not just in a rhetorical or logical sense, but are anatomized in search for continuity in a bigger project: the “Gorgian Pragmatism”. Th is Pragmatism is a philosophy which advises us to embrace those beliefs we fi nd most functional for us. While knowledge cannot be an agreement between the external world and human perception, Gorgias lays out another way to conceive this problem, which lies inside language. In fact, language in itself is considered as the main subject for its power and use. We could say that the reality of language is the only reality we might talk about, as the nucleus of substance which characterizes human beings. Many philosophers have tried to approach the problem of Sophists, and rehabilitated them aft er a long history of discredit, maintaining the purpose of the research searching for a peculiar philosophical content and a contribution for the posterity. I believe Gorgias can reveal, at each level of his discourse, a theory of rhetorical arrangement aimed at clarification of the problem of language in human activity.
Keywords: Sophistry · rhetoric · logos · paradoxes · epistemology · persuasion · demon-stranda · pragmatism
The journal founded by Leszek Kołakowski, Bronisław Baczko and Jan Garewicz appears continuously since 1957.


According to estimates from professional services firm Arup, the COP26 climate summit held in Glasgow, U.K. over the last two weeks will emit "about 102,500 tons of carbon dioxide," or the "equivalent of total average annual emissions for more than 8,000 U.K. residents," CNBC reports. In fact, this year's conference is expected to have a carbon footprint roughly double that of the global summit in 2019.
Even with the "reusable coffee cups, the low-flush loos, the paperless draft documents," and the "locally-sourced vegetarian haggis," writes The Washington Post, COP26 may be the "highest emitting United Nations environmental summit so far."
A majority of emissions — 60 percent — are projected to come from international flights, though other "large contributors include accommodations, policing for the event and transportation to and from venues," per CNBC.
Of course, it's "hard to see" how so many delegates could have arrived in the U.K. by a method other than air travel, notes the Post, but ... "there's always coach." U.K. Prime Minster Boris Johnson particularly caught flack for returning the 400 miles to London from Glasgow via charterted Airbus A321 jet.
Also important to note when considering emissions is that this year's COP was bigger than past years' events, with almost "40,000 registered participants, including delegates, observers and media," writes the Post. The British government, which hosted the conference, said that, for the first time, emissions were calculated as including not just the conference site, but a space across the river for "civil society events." To offset emissions, the Brits are said to be purchasing carbon credits.
The final emissions tally will not be known until later. Read more at The Washington Post.


The Sedimentary environment map is based on the maps for Seabed sediments (grain size) and Seabed sediments (genesis). The main purpose of the map is to show areas of erosion and deposition of sediments, and how bottom currents influence the seabed. Areas of deposition of fine-grained sediments (mud and sandy mud) are primarily found in deep areas. In shallower areas, fine-grained sediments may erode locally on topographic highs, while sand is deposited on the lee side of such highs, where the bottom currents may be weaker. The shallowest areas are dominated by current erosion; however, fine-grained sediments may accumulate in local depressions found in the shallow areas. A lag deposit comprised of sandy gravel, cobbles and boulders is often formed where bottom currents are strong. Grain size indicates the strength of the bottom currents; mud suggests the presence weak bottom currents, while coarser sediments or erosion suggest stronger currents.
Bottom current directions can be determined by studying the areas where eroded sediments are deposited. If transported sediments are deposited along only one side of an iceberg plough mark, the sediments are coming from that side to be deposited in lee. Modelling of bottom currents shows large variations in current direction and current strength depending on time of the year and tidal cycles.
Mapping is performed in line with Mareano's Standard for geological seabed mapping offshore and in accordance with standard procedures for map production and quality control.


footsteps, Holy Thursday, Jesus, John, love, love one another, suffering, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, triduum
Today we move to the most sacred of ritual days in the Christian calendar. We call it the Triduum – Latin for three days: Holy Thursday (or Maundy Thursday in Protestant denominations), Good Friday and Holy Saturday – all leading up to the the great celebration of Easter, feast of Christ’s Resurrection. All of it portrays the events leading from the trial to the death and burial of Jesus so why do we call Friday “Good” when his suffering was so intense?
After reading the lectionary texts for today what remains in me is the refrain from a song based on chapter 13 of John’s gospel and the gospel acclamation from the same text. I think that, taken together, those two examples provide the best answer to the above question.
- Do you know what I have done to you, you who call me your teacher and your Lord? If I have washed your feet so you must do as I have done for you. (Song of the Lord’s Command by David Haas)
- I give you a new commandment, says the Lord: love one another as I have loved you. (JN 13:34)
Let us consider the lengths to which Jesus went to show us the depth of his love. How far are we willing to follow in his footsteps?


The Each day Beast
International warming is defined as rise within the common temperature of Earth, surface air and oceans. After we speak about the concern of climate change, the priority is primarily about global warming caused by human actions or by the pure cleansing technique of the earth. If we do that, extra of the bushes on the earth will likely be saved and there will likely be much less greenhouse gases being sent into the environment.
If global warming may cause this ice to melt it reduces the habitat during which the polar bears dwell on. This might radically affect polar bears in the identical method urbanization affected grizzly bears. If reducing temperatures had been occurring on a small scale then international warming fans might have a point.
As mentioned earlier than, world warming produces an effect on the extent of Arctic ice melting. 2) Many industries, particularly these that are agricultural and electrical, contribute to numerous types of greenhouse gases within the environment. Launch of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) from industrial processes generates extra heat than regular and will get trapped within the ambiance resulting in world warming.
Man-made or anthropogenic causes of world warming are so …


A total of 2,482 artefacts and burial grounds dating back to 700 BC have been identified on the route of a controversial Mexican railway development.
The high-speed Maya Train line is envisioned to stretch across 1,500 km and connect several archaeological zones in the Yucatán Peninsula, from Palenque in Chiapas to Cancún in Quintana Roo.
The announcement followed years of protests and legal injunctions against the project from local communities, more than 50% of which are Indigenous Mayans.
The initial risk assessment —conducted by the The National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico (INAH) and using laser topographic scanning and other non-invasive techniques— lasted around five months, during which archaeologists unearthed complex stone and clay architecture and mounds, ceramics, ceremonial and burial vessels and other objects dated from 700 BC to 850 AD between Palenque and Escárcega in Campeche.
Most of the findings were discovered in the Tenosique region in Tabasco. Archeologists also identified two areas in Tenosique and on the riverbank of Boca del Cerro containing around 80 burial sites that, in some cases, reveled cranial deformations that would indicate high religious or political status in Mayan society.
The INAH received a substantial $42bn grant from the Mexican government this summer to research archaeological sites that could be impacted by the train line.
Locals have claimed that INAH and the National Fund for Tourism Development, which is also overseeing the project, were not disclosing their findings, process and impact, and allege that some who worked on the construction sites suspect that looting was commonplace.
In addition to the new findings, archaeologists have recorded around 14,000 artefacts since the train line broke ground in 2018. But the project has progressed without major alterations to the route.
Some of the grant is being used to boost conservation of existing sites and to renovate facilities and museums, as well as open areas that were previously inaccessible to the public along the route.
The train line is due to have 30 stops, including 19 new stations, and estimated to cost between $6.5bn and $72bn, which the Mexican government is funding with a tourism tax levied from the Yucatán region, as well as a 650% budget increase for the tourism sector this year, of which 95% is being allocated to the train line.


Nanotechnological assay for detecting programmed cell death.
US researchers have developed a nanotechnological assay for detecting programmed cell death. The technique is effective in cell cultures, they report, and might eventually be used in humans.
Programmed cell death, or apoptosis, is essential for the elimination of unwanted cells in the body. Failures can lead to the build up of these cells, such as the uncontrolled replication of tumour cells. Some cancer therapies are aimed at inducing apoptosis. Developing methods to monitor apoptosis in the body could be useful to test the efficacy of apoptotic drugs.
The standard method for monitoring apoptosis relies on the protein annexin V, which binds to the surface of apoptotic cells. The cells can be detected by tagging the protein with a fluorescent or radioactive label.
During apoptosis, changes occur in the phospholipid composition of the cell membrane. In particular, phosphatidylserine translocates from the inner surface of the lipid bilayer that comprises the cell membrane, to the outer surface. The phosphate moiety is then susceptible to chelation by zinc compounds.
Ching-Hsuan Tung and colleagues at the Center for Molecular Imaging Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, attached iron oxide nanoparticles to apoptotic cells, planning to detect and quantify apoptosis in vivo by magnetic resonance imaging.
’We took iron-oxide nanoparticles and attached zinc chelators to their surface,’ Tung told Chemistry World. ’In a cell-free non-biological assay, the phosphate binding ligands could be pulled out of an aqueous phase and moved into an organic phase by phosphatidylserine. This showed that they had the required affinity.’ Tung’s team tested the system in a biological assay, having induced apoptosis in cultured cells. ’When we co-incubated the nanoparticles with the cells, they bound to the apoptotic cells,’ said Tung.
Tung’s team plans to develop the system further to investigate the feasibility of using the nanoparticles as a sensor to track apoptosis in the body. ’However,’ he cautioned, ’the work is still at an early stage.’ Simon Hadlington
L Quinti et alNano Letters
No comments yet


Tinnitus is noises in the head, not related to any psychiatric condition. The noise can be heard anywhere in the head or in one or both ears.
Imagine a constant ringing, buzzing or whistling in your ears, 24 hours a day. It is called tinnitus. You never get a break. It is always there. Nobody else but you can hear the noise because it does not come from any external source. Although you are the only person who can hear the noise it is not a result of your imagination.
Almost all of us experience tinnitus temporarily; perhaps for a few hours after a concert or any other occasion where our ears are subjected to noise.
Tinnitus becomes a problem when this noise persists and/or increases. Normally, the ringing in the ears will disappear, but it may also become permanent. The majority of people who suffer from tinnitus find it very disturbing and uncomfortable.
More young people
Tinnitus is common in people over the age of 40, but is becoming increasingly prevalent in younger people, as well, because of increased daily noise levels, including those caused by the unrestrained use of MP3s, iPods and other personal stereos.
Although tinnitus is more common among people who suffer from hearing loss, anyone can suffer from tinnitus. It is also possible to suffer from major hearing loss without contracting tinnitus at all.


Visual artists from South Asia engage with materials, processes and histories associated with textiles to produce works that can provoke deeper considerations of the medium.
To learn more about Textiles from the Indian Subcontinent, sign up for MAP Academy’s free online course.
Terms to know
Weavers’ Service Centre
Training and textile weaving development centres managed by the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, Weavers’ Service Centres (WSCs) were founded in 1956 with the aim of facilitating the growth of the handloom sector and making it a sustainable industry in the global market. The centres study handloom and weaving techniques in India and prepare samples of weaving technologies to train weavers. Founded by Pupul Jayakar, with a parent centre in Mumbai and three other centres in Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, the centres were conceptualised under the government’s Planning Commission.
A devotional tradition where images of Buddhist deities are painted on scrolls, to gain divine merit and for teaching and meditating, historically, thangka paintings served as visual aids.
A devotional tradition where the cloth was painted with images for veneration and hung behind the deity, pichwai means “that which hangs back”. The tradition emerged from the temple town of Nathdwara, near Udaipur, Rajasthan where the shrine of Nathdwara was built in the seventeenth century and the idol of Krishna installed here was moved from Mathura during the reign of Aurangzeb.
To learn more about South Asian Art History, visit The MAP Academy
From our partner, The MAP Academy


The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is among select museums in the country to confront the issue of race and racism in the United States with the new exhibit RACE: Are We So Different? running now through Jan. 25.
Developed by the American Anthropological Association in collaboration with the Science Museum of Minnesota, this is the first national exhibition to tell the stories of race from the biological, cultural, and historical points of view.
Today, scientists are beginning to challenge "racial" differences, and even question the very concept of race. The exhibit presents the reality—and unreality—of race using interactive components, multimedia presentations, and attractive graphic displays to offer visitors an eye-opening look at its important subject matter.
"The idea of 'race' has been used historically to justify mistreatment of people and even genocide," said Susan Abrams, CEO at the Illinois Holocaust Museum. "The promotion of human rights is a vital part of the mission of the Illinois Holocaust Museum, and so, we are thrilled to host RACE, an exhibition that challenges visitors of all ages and backgrounds to discover how race operates in their lives."
Amplifying this exhibition is a calendar of more than two-dozen public programs-Scholar Series, discussions, performances-to engage the public in examining race through various lenses.
To learn more, visit www.il
holocaustmuseum.org/events or call (847) 967-4800.
RACE: Are We So Different? is funded by Ford Foundation and National Science Foundation. The exhibition at the Illinois Holocaust Museum is made possible by Presenting Sponsor Allstate Insurance Company and Co-Sponsor Walgreens. Additional support is being provided by Participating Sponsor Northwestern University, Bank of America, BMO Harris Bank, Evanston Community Foundation and Loyola University Chicago. The Golder Family Foundation is lead sponsor for all Illinois Holocaust Museum special exhibitions.


Science and Technology Daily Beijing, April 13 (by Zhang Jiaxin) Rice is separated from rice husk, which produces about 100 million tons of rice husk waste around the world every year. Scientists in Japan have created the first silicon quantum dot LED lamp using recycled rice husk, which turns agricultural waste into state-of-the-art light-emitting diodes in a low-cost, environmentally friendly way. The findings were published recently in ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, a journal of the American Chemical Society.
Kenichi Saito, lead author of the study and professor of chemistry at the Center for Basic Research and Development of Natural Sciences at Hiroshima University, Japan, said: “Since typical quantum dots commonly involve toxic substances such as cadmium, lead or other heavy metals, environmental concerns are frequently considered when using nanomaterials. Our proposed QD process and manufacturing method minimizes these concerns.” So here’s the 5mm led strip.
The team used a combination of milling, heat treatment and chemical etching to treat the rice husk silica. First, they milled the husk and extracted the silica powder by burning the organic compounds in the milled rice husk. Second, they heated the generated silica powder in an electric furnace and obtained silica powder through a reduction reaction. Third, the purified silica powder of 3 nm was also obtained by chemical etching. Finally, the surface was chemically functionalized to make the silicon QDS with elevated chemical stability and dispersed in solvent. The silicon QDS with luminescence in the orange-red range were prepared with 3 nm nanocrystalline particles, and the luminescence efficiency was over 20%.
The chemical synthesis method developed by the research team allowed them to evaluate the optical and electrical properties of silicon QD leads, including the structure, synthetic yield, and performance of silica, silica powder, and silicon QDS. The team’s next steps include developing higher luminous efficiencies in silicon quantum dots and leads. They will also explore the possibility of producing silicon quantum dot leads other than orange-red ones.


Anxious is a word all too often misused. You’ll hear people, whether in the workplace or socializing, saying, “I’m anxious to meet Julie.” Or “I’m anxious to tell you about the project.” Or “I’m really anxious to see movie XYZ.” For business communication, use eager instead.
For business communication, use eager instead.
By definition, anxious means: “characterized by extreme uneasiness of mind or brooding fear about some contingency” (Merriam-Webster Online).
In business, eager is the better word to use. By definition, eager means: “marked by enthusiastic or impatient desire or interest” (Merriam-Webster Online).
If there is a cause to use “anxious” to convey worry, we suggest using “concern” or “concerned.”
Since business communication is related to your relationship with your stakeholders and what you offer to them, choose your words v-e-r-y carefully. The right word will make a positive difference in many situations.
WORDS TO AVOID
Photography Source: Original image from DepositPhotos. New creative image © Copyright 2018, The Chief Storyteller®, LLC. All Rights Reserved.


Applied Energy, Vol.247, 467-479, 2019
A worldwide cost-based design and optimization of tilted bifacial solar farms
The steady decrease in the levelized cost of solar energy (LCOE) has made it increasingly cost-competitive against fossil fuels. The cost reduction is supported by a combination of material, device, and system innovations:To this end, bifacial solar farms are expected to decrease LCOE further by increasing the energy yield; but given the rapid pace of design/manufacturing innovations, a cost-inclusive optimization of bifacial PV systems at the farm-level (including land costs) has not been reported. In our worldwide study, we use a fundamentally new approach to decouple energy yield from cost considerations by parameterizing the LCOE formula in terms of "land-related cost" and "module-related cost" to show that an interplay of these parameters defines the optimum design of bifacial farms. For ground-mounted solar panels, we observe that the panels must be oriented horizontally and packed densely for locations with high "land-related cost", whereas the panels should be optimally tilted for places with high "module-related cost". For systems with relatively high "module-related costs" and for locations with vertical bar latitude vertical bar > 30 degrees, the bifacial modules must be tilted similar to 10 degrees-45 degrees higher and will reduce LCOE by 2-6% compared to their monofacial counterparts. The results in this paper will guide the deployment of LCOE-minimized ground-mounted tilted bifacial farms around the world.


Childhood cancer survivors can reduce risk of dying with healthy lifestyle
CANCER DIGEST – May 2, 2023 – Survivors of childhood cancer are at increased risk of dying from common causes such as cancer, heart disease and stroke even 40 years after their diagnosis, however survivors who maintained healthy lifestyles substantially reduced their risk of dying, a new study published April 29, 2023 in The Lancet shows.
"Much research has demonstrated that (childhood cancer) survivors are vulnerable to early onset of chronic disease and mortality," said co-author Melissa Hudson, M.D., St. Jude Cancer Survivorship Division director. "The study highlights the importance of encouraging survivors to practice healthy behaviors and maintain good control of cardiovascular disease risk factors to improve their health-span and lifespan."
The study, which involved more than 34,000 survivors of the most common childhood cancers diagnosed between 1970 and 1999 in the USA and Canada, found that they had 131 excess deaths per 10,000 person-years from health-related causes compared to the general population. Health-related causes include deaths related to late effects of cancer therapy but exclude deaths due to the primary cancer or external and accidental causes.
The researchers identified over 70 specific causes of death using a modification of established codes from the Centers for Disease Control and National Vital Statistics Report and found that the top three causes of health-related death in the general population - cancer, heart disease and cerebrovascular disease - were also the leading causes of excess death among childhood cancer survivors.
The data also showed that modifiable lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors such as smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, hypertension and diabetes were associated with a 20%-30% reduction in health-related mortality independent of other factors among the childhood cancer survivors. In other words, childhood cancer survivors with high blood pressure or diabetes had a significantly higher mortality than survivors without those conditions.
The authors suggest that interventions targeting these risk factors should be part of future strategies to improve the long-term health and survival of childhood cancer survivors.
Written using Bing AI with human editing for accuracy. Sources: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital press release and The Lancet


Find acoustic oases to protect your hearing!
Horns, construction sites, sirens, and motorcycles whizzing by... how noisy are our cities?
According to World Health Organization, over 1 billion young people are at risk of avoidable hearing loss, due to prolonged and excessive exposure to loud music and noise.
Noise pollution is among the causes and it represents a serious environmental threat to our health.
Download the App Listen Responsibly and measure the noise level around you to create a shared map of the acoustic ecology.
Measure the noise around you
Share your measurements
Check the noise variations
Noise levels are not the same throughout the day.
Check at what time of the day a place is more affected by noise pollution and when, instead, noise levels decrease.
Become our Ambassador
How loud is too loud?
At least 1 in 5 Europeans are currently exposed to noise levels exceeding 55 dB considered harmful to their health.
Long-term exposure to noise has significant health impacts, including heart disease, sleep disturbance and noise-induced hearing loss.
Noise pollution affects the health and well-being of terrestrial and marine wildlife.
Animals use sound to navigate, attract mates, find food, and avoid predators. As a consequence, noise pollution threatens their ability to survive.


Forster's tern (Sterna forsteri) is a tern in the family Laridae. The genus name Sterna is derived from Old English "stearn", "tern", and forsteri commemorates the naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster.
It breeds inland in North America and winters south to the Caribbean and northern Central America.
This species is rare but annual in western Europe, and has wintered in Ireland and Great Britain on a number of occasions. No European tern winters so far north.
This species breeds in colonies in marshes. It nests in a ground scrape and lays two or more eggs. Like all white terns, it is fiercely defensive of its nest and young.
The Forster's tern feeds by plunge-diving for fish, but will also hawk for insects in its breeding marshes. It usually feeds from saline environments in winter, like most Sterna terns. It usually dives directly, and not from the "stepped-hover" favoured by the Arctic tern. The offering of fish by the male to the female is part of the courtship display.
It is most similar to the common tern. It has pale grey upperparts and white underparts. Its legs are red and its bill is red, tipped with black. In winter, the forehead becomes white and a characteristic black eye mask remains. Juvenile Forster's terns are similar to the winter adult. The call is a harsh noise like a black-headed gull.
This species is unlikely to be confused with the common tern in winter because of the black eye mask, but is much more similar in breeding plumage. Forster's has a grey centre to its white tail, and the upperwings are pure white, without the darker primary wedge of the common tern.


Let’s bring awareness to PTSD on this day.
PTSD Awareness Day is observed every year on June 27th to raise awareness and understanding of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The date was chosen in tribute to the date of birth of a North Dakota National Guard member who suffered from PTSD and who sadly took his own life in 2007 following two tours in Iraq. This disorder, which is a condition that many veterans and non-veterans alike suffer from, is the result of experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event(s). Symptoms vary from individual to individual and may include intrusion symptoms such as nightmares and flashbacks; avoidance behaviors to mitigate thinking about or feelings related to the trauma; negative changes in thinking or mood such as feeling isolated, having a decreased interest in activities, and exaggerating blame of oneself; and alterations in arousal and reactivity, such as feeling more irritable, being hypervigilant, and struggling with focus.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can affect people of all ages, including children. There can be various events in a child’s life that could possibly trigger PTSD: something that happened directly to the child, something that happened to someone close to the child, or something the child saw. Examples of personal or indirect events that could have an impact on a child’s mental health are accidents, an invasive medical procedure, a natural disaster, bullying, neglect, emotional or physical abuse.
A child suffering from PTSD may relive the trauma over and over again, have frequent nightmares, flashbacks, and scary thoughts/memories related to the past event.
PTSD is usually diagnosed if symptoms occur for more than a month, and its treatment depends on the child’s symptoms, age, and general health.
PTSD, in children, can look like:
Irritability and aggression
New phobias and anxieties
Losing previously acquired skills
Aches and pains with no apparent cause
Acting out the trauma through play, stories, or drawings
Fear of being separated from their parent
Sleep problems and nightmares
If you or someone you know is affected by PTSD, don’t suffer in silence, and please ask for help.


Jean-Francois Geneste, author of this philosophical paper is a scientist and engineer, and a regular regular attendee at cold fusion conferences.
The implications of considering so-called “elementary” or “fundamental” particles . Jean-François Geneste January 2023
In this paper we tackle the question of the consequences of the assumption that elementary particles exist. We work in the framework of the existence of fields, while this raises some conceptual problems which are explained. In that context, we show that the existence of an elementary particle for a given field (gravitation, electric, etc.) brings to the existence of a well-founded binary relation. We then apply the axiom of dependent choice and come to the conclusion that the world needs to be discrete and finite. Finally, we raise the question according to which noticing, from maybe inaccurate measuring tools, that the world is discrete and finite might imply the existence of elementary particles, bringing us into a circular reasoning. To get out of the trap, we should, in such a case, abandon the assumption of the existence of fundamental particles and come back to equivalence classes, to be defined as the bricks of physics as Wigner wrote in his celebrated paper.


Earth Day celebrates the anniversary of the establishment of the modern environmental movement in 1970, created following the massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California in 1969. Forty six years later the Earth’s environment and its people remain vulnerable to threat that exists from fossil fuels. On a global scale, Earth’s average temperature is increasing and sea levels are rising. On a local scale, fossil fuel power plants are billowing smoke into our atmosphere resulting in heath problems and habitat destruction. The longer we wait to implement solutions to these threats the more severe they will be for future generations. While many of the same concerns since Earth Day’s inception still exist in the face of threats from fossil fuels it is understandable that people feel powerless.
However, simple sustainable solutions exist which in addition to helping to protect the Earth provide social and economic benefits. This year, Earth Day coincides with the signing of the Paris Agreement which sees 150 world leaders effectively agree to phase out fossil fuels. One simple and easily implemented solution which exists to phase out fossil fuels is solar power.
Solar energy harnesses the power from the sun to generate clean electricity and empowers people to be part of the solution to create a healthier environment. Solar promotes sustainable development bringing with it economic and social benefits. Economically, solar energy not only saves people money but also creates thousands of jobs. Socially, solar energy helps breaks the chain in the global oil conflict resulting in a safer world for millions of people. Solar also improves air quality, lessening the risk of asthma and lung disease.
Earth Day highlights many of the key moments in environmental protection, which includes the healing of the ozone layer and the phasing out of asbestos. These inspirational achievements highlight the potential that exists when people take collective action to protect their planet. The year 2016 represents a global turning point with the realization that the future of our planet rests on the transition towards to a future free of fossil fuels. The potential of solar power as a simple and sustainable solution towards this future cannot be underestimated and could be the catalyst which supports the most momentous achievement to be celebrated on future Earth Days, a world free from the pollution of fossil fuels. The power is in our hands!


As we've discussed in class, you will be designing a brain-computer interface. This system should be based on the technology (fNIRS and EEG) and past experiments from our research lab. The system may be a piece of a larger system, or a standalone project. The main criteria is that it is something that could be built with the resources in our lab in a short amount of time, and that we would be able to evaluate its effectiveness.
We have had several brainstorming sessions, and now your assignment is to think deeper about one of the systems we have discussed. There will be two parts to this assignment.
Part 1: Due December 1
2 pages minimum, single space
You will describe your system, and answer as many of the following questions as you can. We will then discuss the projects more specifically in class.
Come to class on December 1st with at least 3 points you would like to discuss (e.g. help with justifying the brain signal measured, literature review, components necessary, etc.).
Part 2: Due December 10
Finally, you will be expected to expand the description of the system with the newly acquired information from our discussion.
Write a description of the system you would like to create. Please try to answer the following questions in your description:
About the brain
Use the appropriate literature to justify your hypothesis. You can use papers read in class, or new ones. Please provide a bibliography.


Hurricane Florence – level 3
NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) released images of Hurricane Florence moving across the Atlantic.
Last week on Tuesday, it was moving towards the American states of North and South Carolina. When it hits, people expect it to reach a Category 5 strength with winds of up to 250 kilometres per hour.
Authorities ordered more than 1 million people to evacuate coastal areas.
Difficult words: release (show to people), expect (if people expect something to happen, they think that it is going to happen), Category 5 (a large hurricane).
You can watch the video news lower on this page.
What do you think about this news?
LEARN 3000 WORDS with NEWS IN LEVELS
News in Levels is designed to teach you 3000 words in English. Please follow the instructions
How to improve your English with News in Levels:
- Do the test at Test Languages.
- Go to your level. Go to Level 1 if you know 1-1000 words. Go to Level 2 if you know 1000-2000 words. Go to Level 3 if you know 2000-3000 words.
- Read two news articles every day.
- Read the news articles from the day before and check if you remember all new words.
- Listen to the news from today and read the text at the same time.
- Listen to the news from today without reading the text.
- Answer the question under today’s news and write the answer in the comments.
- Choose one person from the Skype section.
- Talk with this person. You can answer questions from Speak in Levels.
Stock images by Depositphotos


As we learned from Covid, bad news in other countries can quickly affect our everyday lives here in Albury Wodonga. The current FMD (Foot and Mouth Disease) outbreak in Indonesia is another example that has potential to change our whole food and agriculture system within weeks – and not for the better!
An FMD outbreak in Australia could mean mass killing of livestock to try and stop the spread, restrictions on movement of people and animals and less home-grown food in our butchers and supermarkets – to name just a few of the consequences. As we now know – no laughing matter.
That’s what makes stopping it everybody’s business.
Foot and mouth disease virus is carried by live cloven-hoofed animals (eg. cattle, pigs, sheep) and in meat and dairy products, as well as in soil, bones, untreated hides, vehicles and equipment used with these animals. It can also be carried on people’s clothing and footwear and survive in frozen, chilled and freeze-dried foods. Find out more about FMD here.
Parklands staff have stepped up in the way we operate as the anxiety around a potential FMD outbreak is heightened, adding some additional steps to our normal routines while moving between parks in the region. These include
- Carrying a set of disinfected boots to use while working at a specific site.
- Regularly washing, scrubbing and disinfecting workboots and runners using a simple footbath system to wash and scrub any soil, then disinfect in a separate footbath with diluted bleach.
- Increasing the frequency of cleaning down vehicles and trailers with a pressure washer, and
- Accessing sites on foot, so as to avoid driving in vehicles where practical.
As we shift into spring, all of the Wodonga hills are grazed to manage fuel loads. This means people utilising the bush parks and trails are sharing the space with livestock, even if you can’t see them.
We encourage park users to regularly clean and disinfect their shoes and bicycle tyres to reduce the risk of spreading pests and diseases. Please, now is the time to take this disease threat seriously and take action to help keep our local farms safe and our food supplies secure.
Here is an example of a simple system of CLEAN, WASH, DISINFECT.