6/28/09

Academic Listening_Writing

This is the lecture on how to write academically.

Happy listening.

6/25/09

Reading list

If you want to read in English, this is a good site for you to download.

Enjoy your reading.

6/22/09

THE SCALE OF THE UNIVERSE—THE SOLAR SYSTEM

§ 1

The story of the triumphs of modern science naturally opens with Astronomy. The picture of the Universe which the astronomer offers to us is imperfect; the lines he traces are often faint and uncertain. There are many problems which have been solved, there are just as many about which there is doubt, and notwithstanding our great increase in knowledge, there remain just as many which are entirely unsolved.
The problem of the structure and duration of the universe [said the great astronomer Simon Newcomb] is the most far-reaching with which the mind has to deal. Its solution may be regarded as the ultimate object of stellar astronomy, the possibility of reaching which has occupied the minds of thinkers since the beginning of civilisation. Before our time the problem could be considered only from the imaginative or the speculative point of view. Although we can to-day attack it to a limited extent by scientific methods, it must be admitted that we have scarcely taken more than the first step toward the actual solution.... What is the duration of the universe in time? Is it fitted to last for ever in its present form, or does it contain within itself the seeds of dissolution? Must it, in the course of time, in we know not how many millions of ages, be transformed into something very different from what it now is? This question is intimately associated with the question whether the stars form[Pg 10] a system. If they do, we may suppose that system to be permanent in its general features; if not, we must look further for our conclusions.
The Heavenly Bodies

The heavenly bodies fall into two very distinct classes so far as their relation to our Earth is concerned; the one class, a very small one, comprises a sort of colony of which the Earth is a member. These bodies are called planets, or wanderers. There are eight of them, including the Earth, and they all circle round the sun. Their names, in the order of their distance from the sun, are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and of these Mercury, the nearest to the sun, is rarely seen by the naked eye. Uranus is practically invisible, and Neptune quite so. These eight planets, together with the sun, constitute, as we have said, a sort of little colony; this colony is called the Solar System.
The second class of heavenly bodies are those which lie outside the solar system. Every one of those glittering points we see on a starlit night is at an immensely greater distance from us than is any member of the Solar System. Yet the members of this little colony of ours, judged by terrestrial standards, are at enormous distances from one another. If a shell were shot in a straight line from one side of Neptune's orbit to the other it would take five hundred years to complete its journey. Yet this distance, the greatest in the Solar System as now known (excepting the far swing of some of the comets), is insignificant compared to the distances of the stars. One of the nearest stars to the earth that we know of is Alpha Centauri, estimated to be some twenty-five million millions of miles away. Sirius, the brightest star in the firmament, is double this distance from the earth.

We must imagine the colony of planets to which we belong as a compact little family swimming in an immense void. At distances which would take our shell, not hundreds, but millions[Pg 11] of years to traverse, we reach the stars—or rather, a star, for the distances between stars are as great as the distance between the nearest of them and our Sun. The Earth, the planet on which we live, is a mighty globe bounded by a crust of rock many miles in thickness; the great volumes of water which we call our oceans lie in the deeper hollows of the crust. Above the surface an ocean of invisible gas, the atmosphere, rises to a height of about three hundred miles, getting thinner and thinner as it ascends.

LAPLACE
One of the greatest mathematical astronomers of all time and the originator of the nebular theory.

Photo: Royal Astronomical Society.
PROFESSOR J. C. ADAMS
who, anticipating the great French mathematician, Le Verrier, discovered the planet Neptune by calculations based on the irregularities of the orbit of Uranus. One of the most dramatic discoveries in the history of Science.

Photo: Elliott & Fry, Ltd.
PROFESSOR EDDINGTON
Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge. The most famous of the English disciples of Einstein.

FIG. 1.—DIAGRAMS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
THE COMPARATIVE DISTANCES OF THE PLANETS
(Drawn approximately to scale)

The isolation of the Solar System is very great. On the above scale the nearest star (at a distance of 25 trillions of miles) would be over one half mile away. The hours, days, and years are the measures of time as we use them; that is: Jupiter's "Day" (one rotation of the planet) is made in ten of our hours; Mercury's "Year" (one revolution of the planet around the Sun) is eighty-eight of our days. Mercury's "Day" and "Year" are the same. This planet turns always the same side to the Sun.

THE COMPARATIVE SIZES OF THE SUN AND THE PLANETS
(Drawn approximately to scale)
On this scale the Sun would be 17½ inches in diameter; it is far greater than all the planets put together. Jupiter, in turn, is greater than all the other planets put together.

Except when the winds rise to a high speed, we seem to live in a very tranquil world. At night, when the glare of the sun passes out of our atmosphere, the stars and planets seem to move across the heavens with a stately and solemn slowness. It was one of the first discoveries of modern astronomy that this movement is only apparent. The apparent creeping of the stars across the heavens at night is accounted for by the fact that the earth turns upon its axis once in every twenty-four hours. When we remember the size of the earth we see that this implies a prodigious speed.

In addition to this the earth revolves round the sun at a speed of more than a thousand miles a minute. Its path round the sun, year in year out, measures about 580,000,000 miles. The earth is held closely to this path by the gravitational pull of the sun, which has a mass 333,432 times that of the earth. If at any moment the sun ceased to exert this pull the earth would instantly fly off into space straight in the direction in which it was moving at the time, that is to say, at a tangent. This tendency to fly off at a tangent is continuous. It is the balance between it and the sun's pull which keeps the earth to her almost circular orbit. In the same way the seven other planets are held to their orbits.

Circling round the earth, in the same way as the earth circles round the sun, is our moon. Sometimes the moon passes directly between us and the sun, and cuts off the light from us.[Pg 12] We then have a total or partial eclipse of the sun. At other times the earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, and causes an eclipse of the moon. The great ball of the earth naturally trails a mighty shadow across space, and the moon is "eclipsed" when it passes into this.

The other seven planets, five of which have moons of their own, circle round the sun as the earth does. The sun's mass is immensely larger than that of all the planets put together, and all of them would be drawn into it and perish if they did not travel rapidly round it in gigantic orbits. So the eight planets, spinning round on their axes, follow their fixed paths round the sun. The planets are secondary bodies, but they are most important, because they are the only globes in which there can be life, as we know life.

If we could be transported in some magical way to an immense distance in space above the sun, we should see our Solar System as it is drawn in the accompanying diagram (Fig. 1), except that the planets would be mere specks, faintly visible in the light which they receive from the sun. (This diagram is drawn approximately to scale.) If we moved still farther away, trillions of miles away, the planets would fade entirely out of view, and the sun would shrink into a point of fire, a star. And here you begin to realize the nature of the universe. The sun is a star. The stars are suns. Our sun looks big simply because of its comparative nearness to us. The universe is a stupendous collection of millions of stars or suns, many of which may have planetary families like ours.

6/18/09

Mammoths survived late in Britain

By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News



Mammoths were in Britain 6,000 years longer than had been suspected
Woolly mammoths lived in Britain as recently as 14,000 years ago, according to new radiocarbon dating evidence.

Dr Adrian Lister obtained new dates for mammoth bones unearthed in the English county of Shropshire in 1986.

His study in the Geological Journal shows the great beasts remained part of Britain's wildlife for much longer than had previously been supposed.

Mammoths may finally have died out when forests encroached on the grassland habitats they favoured for grazing.

The radiocarbon results from the adult male and four juvenile mammoths from Condover, Shropshire, reveal that the great beasts were in Britain more than 6,000 years longer than had previously been thought.

It's not the climate - in the main - that affects these animals. The climate affects the vegetation and the vegetation affects them

Dr Adrian Lister, Natural History Museum
Researchers had supposed that mammoths disappeared from North-West Europe between 21,000 and 19,000 years ago, during a climatic freeze known as the last glacial maximum (LGM).

Britain's mammoth populations may indeed have vanished with this big chill.

But according to the new study, they were not gone forever. Instead, they returned when conditions eased and clung on in southern England until 14,000 years ago.

"What this usually means is that (mammoths) die out locally and then re-emigrate from refugia somewhere else," Dr Lister told BBC News.

Purification method

The specimens have been radiocarbon dated before. But the Natural History Museum researcher used a relatively new method of radiocarbon dating to get very accurate ages for the Condover fossils.

"The big issue with all radiocarbon dating is contamination from different sources. You have to be sure the sample you extracted from the fossil is absolutely pure," said Dr Lister.

"There have to be methods for purifying the sample that is extracted from the bone. In the last few years, a new method of purification has been developed at Oxford University called ultra-filtration."

"Various bone specimens that were dated before they developed this new purification method have been shown to be out by a significant amount. Not always, but often. What they do is re-run the sample using the new method and obtain a more accurate date. That's what we did here."

Other large mammals that disappeared as the last Ice Age relented include woolly rhino, bison and giant deer.

At the same time as these species were vanishing from the Earth, human populations were expanding.

Similar die-outs of so-called "megafauna" occurred around the world at similar times, prompting some scientists to ask whether climate or human hunting played the dominant role in their extinction.

Human question

No traces of human occupation were found at the Shropshire site. But it is entirely possible that humans could have been in Britain at the same time as these last mammoths.

Dr Lister said that humans might have finished off some of the last remaining pockets of mammoths in Siberia. But he did not think people were the main cause of megafaunal extinctions at the end of the last Ice Age.

During the Ice Age, grasslands were commonplace in Europe because conditions were too cold for trees.

But as the climate warmed up, forests began to spread north, squeezing out the grassland habitats favoured by the majestic beasts.

"It's driven by climate change, but it's not the climate - in the main - that affects these animals. The climate affects the vegetation and the vegetation affects them," said Dr Lister.

"These were grass-eating animals."

Mammoths first appeared in the Pliocene Epoch, about 4.8 million years ago.

One population lived on in isolation on Russia's remote Wrangel Island until about 5,000 years ago, making them the most recent surviving population known to science.

Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

6/15/09

Australia Facts

Aboriginal AustraliaPrint Page Find out how you can connect with the world’s oldest living culture.
Discover it the same way Aboriginal Australians have passed it down for at least 50,000 years - through art, dance, myths, music and the land itself. See Aboriginal art and contemporary dance in the cities. Or head to the outback and listen to Dreamtime myths of creation by the campfire. Bushwalk and snorkel, share bush-tucker or learn to craft spears and catch fish in the traditional way. Let Aboriginal Australians help you understand this ancient land and its spirituality and wonder.


Six special places you can connect to Aboriginal Australia
Uluru1. Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Northern Territory

Visit Uluru and you’ll see why the rock and surrounding land have such huge spiritual significance for the Anangu Aboriginal people. According to their creation myths, ancestral spirits formed Uluru, which lies in Australia's red centre like an enormous, moody heart. Aboriginal guides will share these ancient tales as you walk around the rock’s base. Just 32 kilometres away is another sacred site - Kata Tjuta. You’ll be awestruck by these steep, rounded, russet domes over 3,500 hectares.



Kimberley2. Kimberley, Western Australia

Featuring vast horizons and ancient gorges, the Kimberley region is one of the world’s last great wilderness areas. See Wandjina figures painted in caves and the mysterious Gwion Gwion paintings. Ride a camel on Broome’s breathtaking Cable Beach and 4WD the red-dirt road along the Dampier Peninsula. Learn the legend of the orange and black beehive domes of the Bungle Bungles and fly over vast Lake Argyle in Kununurra.



The Daintree3. The Daintree, Queensland

More than 135 million years old, our stunning Daintree Rainforest is the oldest rainforest in the world. Traverse this canopy of green with traditional owners the Wujal Wujal people. Learn about bush tucker and fish for barramundi. See fresh-water crocodiles sunning themselves on the mangrove-lined river banks and rare tropical birds and animals, many of which are not found anywhere else on earth.

Coorong4. Coorong, South Australia

Become one with nature as you kayak along the lagoons and waterways of the Coorong. Your Ngarrindjeri guide will tell you about bush tucker, traditional medicines and the incredible local birdlife. As night falls, you can listen to stories unfold and smell the mouth-watering aroma of fresh damper (outback bread) as it is pulled from the embers of a campfire.

Gippsland 5. Gippsland, Victoria

Discover a rich Aboriginal history along Gippsland’s rugged coastline. Wander the fern gullies, sandy beaches and eucalypt forests of the sacred land now known as Wilsons Promontory National Park. Trace Aboriginal trading routes up to 18,000 years old. Watch local Aboriginal people make baskets, spears, shields and canoes in the traditional way at Bairnsdale. Or learn where the Dreamtime touched the rugged gorges, rainforest and gullies of Woolshed Creek.

Sydney harbour cruise6. Sydney cultural tours, New South Wales

Get a glimpse into the lives of Sydney’s original inhabitants on a harbour cruise or walking tour. You can learn the Aboriginal names and meanings of significant Sydney landmarks as you cruise the harbour with Aboriginal guides. Visit rock-carvings and old Aboriginal settlements and stop off for a traditional Aboriginal welcome on Clark Island. Off the boat, you can taste bush food and learn about Aboriginal use of plants on a walking tour through Sydney’s lush harbourside Botanical Gardens.

6/11/09

Speaking_Kitaro Matsuri

For over a quarter century, Kitaro has been an internationally recognized icon and globally acclaimed composer and musician. His pioneering fusion of electronic artistry, traditional Japanese forms, and pop-inflected Western idioms created a lush, harmonic, and poetic sound that won the now legendary artist a huge international following.

1980's Volume 1 in the revered Silk Road series is considered an all-time masterpiece, with subsequent volumes only adding to its luster. '87's GRAMMY-nominated The Light Of The Spirit, a collaboration with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, exceeded sales of two million in the U.S. alone. 1992's Dream, made with Yes' Jon Anderson, elevating Kitaro's presence Stateside to an unprecedented degree.

The following year, Kitaro's ethereal accompaniment to Oliver Stone's film, Heaven & Earth, was honored with the Golden Globe® for Best Original Score. In 2000, Kitaro's "Thinking Of You", which online music bible allmusic.com calls "one of the most beautiful CDs of all time," won a GRAMMY for Best New Age Album.

Most fundamentally, at its heart, Kitaro's music is always about sending a profound message of peace and spiritual development, both personally and globally and coalesces into an elegant and wondrously integrated masterwork, Sacred Journey Of Ku-Kai Volume 3. The first in an important series, it offers a beautifully expressed and richly resonant experience through which to contemplate our changing world.

6/10/09

Life in Australia

If you want to find out about life in Australia, pls watch these series on students' life in Australia from Australia Network (ABC Channel).

Lot of fun.
Enjoy!

Academic Reading

How to read academic materials
Pls listen to the lecture
Part 7.

6/7/09

Speaking_House Swap Holiday

Pls click to the title and listen to the talk

Kate: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I'm Kate Colin and today we’re
talking about home swapping.
Jackie: Hi Kate, yes our topic today is about the growing trend of exchanging your
house or apartment with someone in a different country for a limited period. So
instead of paying for an expensive hotel to go on holiday, you simply swap
your house with someone in a place you want to visit and you can get a lowcost
holiday anywhere in the world.
Kate: What do you think Jackie – would you be willing to swap your house with a
stranger rather stay in a hotel?
Jackie: Answers
Kate: Before we go any further, here's my question for this week. According to a
recent survey which is the most of the most popular destination for UK home
swaps?
a) Australia
b) UK
c) USA
Jackie: Answers

Kate: So how does home swapping work exactly? Well, you just think of a country
you'd like to go to, register with one of the many companies which deal in
home swapping who will list your house on their website, and hopefully you'll
find another family or individual who wants to swap their house for yours.
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
Page 2 of 5
Kate: Now we're going to listen to someone who has tried it. She says she's a
tremendous fan of home swapping – which means she likes it. Why is she a fan?
Link 1
Well I'm a tremendous fan of home swapping, for all kinds of reasons not least because it's
free. But also it's the most marvellous opportunity to become somebody else because you
inhabit someone else's life when you swap homes with them.
Jackie: She says she's a fan of home swapping because it's free and it's a great opportunity
to live someone else's life. I suppose she means it is a unique chance to see how
other people live around the world, something you wouldn't experience so much if
you stayed in a hotel.
Kate: Now she goes on to talk about the cost. She mentions home swapping being part
of the mainstream.
Jackie: If something is in the mainstream, it means that some is accepted and known by
most people.
Kate: So let's listen to the next extract – what makes home swapping a cheap holiday?
Link 2
It's become part of the mainstream. Usually they include cars as well, so when you think
about it you're not paying for your accommodation or your vehicle. It really makes it a cheap
holiday. Basically all you've got to pay for is the airfares.
Jackie: She said that many home swaps include a car and this means that you get your
accommodation and vehicle for free. All you pay for is your travel and airfare.
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
Page 3 of 5
Kate: Now, let's look at some words for the different types of homes you could end
up swapping with:
Kate: A flat is the equivalent an apartment, or you could end up with a penthouse,
this is a luxurious apartment at the top of a building. A cottage is a small selfcontained
house which is usually in the countryside. A townhouse is a house
in a town or city, usually a comfortable, expensive one in a fashionable area. A
houseboat is a special boat which people use as their home, often kept in one
place on a river or canal and a holiday home or 2nd home is where people
don’t live full time but visit at the weekends and on holidays.
Let's listen to the next extract – which of these types of accommodation does
she mention?
Clip 3
There's a wide range of options in unexpected locations from a houseboat in Kerala to an
apartment in Fairbanks, Alaska and a friend of mine recently spent Christmas in an apartment
on Bondi Beach.
Jackie: She mentioned a house boat in Kerala, India and an apartment in Alaska and a
friend of hers spending Christmas on Bondi Beach in Australia.
Kate: Now we're going to hear from some members of a family from London who
regularly house swap. What does the first speaker like about it?
Clip 4
I quite like living in other people's houses. You're not living in a hotel so you don't have to
live out of a suitcase. You can unpack and live like you would at home but in somebody else's
house.
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
Page 4 of 5
Jackie: She said she likes being to unpack and doesn't have to live out of a suitcase. If
you live out of a suitcase you don't unpack your things, you have to keep then
in your bag, so she says she likes this because she can put all her clothes and
things in a cupboard and feel at home. What does her dad think?
Clip5
And I think the other thing I quite like is that because you're living in someone's house you
can kind of pretend you're not a tourist and you're actually nearly a local so you can feel a bit
smug about that.
Jackie: He said that because you're living in someone else's house, you can feel like a
local and not a tourist. That makes him feel smug which means pleased with
himself because he's done something in quite a clever way.
Kate: Yes, I think that's one of the main benefits of home swapping. Often if you
stay in a hotel, you get to see very little of the real culture of the country you're
visiting. What better way of finding out about how people live than living in
someone's house? Before we finish for today, let's have a look at some of the
vocabulary we've come across:
Jackie: We had mainstream which that something that happens often and is known.
Kate: And we had various different types of accommodation:
6 Minute English © bbclearningenglish.com 2009
Page 5 of 5
A flat is an apartment
A penthouse is a luxurious apartment or set of rooms at the top of a hotel or
tall building.
A cottage is a small self-contained house which is usually in the countryside
A townhouse is a house in a town or city, usually a comfortable, expensive
one in a fashionable area: it can also mean it is joined on to another house.
A houseboat is a special boat which people use as their home, often kept in
one place on a river or canal and a holiday home or 2nd home is where people
don’t live full time but visit at the weekends and on holidays.
Jackie: And we had that term to live out of a suitcase which means that you have to
keep all your things packed and you can't take them and put them in a
cupboard. And we also had the term smug which means to feel pleased with
yourself.
Kate: And finally the answer to the question I asked you earlier. According to a
recent survey, which country is the most popular this year for home swapping.
Jackie: I think I said Australia.
Kate: I'm afraid you were wrong - the answer is USA with 15% of respondents
preferring to go there. 12% chose to stay in the UK and 11% chose Australia.
That's all we have time for. Thanks for listening everyone. Goodbye!

6/6/09

Speaking_solar Energy and its future

In a world where energy is a supply that is always in demand, a cheap, clean energy source is hard to come by. Luckily, in recent years solar energy technology has improved greatly, and due to the recent sky-rocking price in oil and coal, solar energy has come back into the spotlight. The new design for these “solar energy catching” devices is called the parabolic solar trough. It focuses all the sunlight into a liquid-filled tube at the bottom of the parabola and all the sunlight is focused on it creating a blistering 750 degree F liquid. This liquid is then used to heat water and cause it to turn into steam, which is used in a steam turbine, just like coal and oil plants. The second design isn’t so new, but has been “reborn” with new materials, lowering the price and making mass production possible. The solar energy companies are using the solar panel design with new semiconductors to catch the electricity caused by the positive charge. This new panel has been used in a new dish design which also focuses the sunlight into one spot, but this time to a temperature of 1450 degrees F. This design also comes with its own Stirling engine which is independent from all the other dishes, so if one fails; it doesn’t cause production to halt to repair the broken dish.

In such an unstable market, and with such an uncertain future in oil, solar energy seems the way to go. It will not only help keep America green, it will also create jobs for Thousands of Americans, and possibly open up a new market for our economy. In deserts where nothing could be done in the first place, solar dishes or troughs could be placed to gather the blistering desert sun and giving us access to a supply in high demand, clean energy. Also, once the dishes or troughs are built, they are virtually cost free (minus a repair or two over long periods of time). So, as an alternative to buying oil and coal all the time, why not go for a slightly larger one-time payment for solar panels and troughs and never have to pay again? Pure profit could come from these dishes, allowing American energy companies to stay competitive with foreign energy companies with less regulation, lower pay for workers, and in some cases, no labor laws. “Power plants are a major source of air pollution, with coal-fired power plants spewing 59% of total U.S. sulfur dioxide pollution and 18% of total nitrogen oxides every year” (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "National Air Quality and Emissions Trends Report." 2003. Appendix A.) With solar power, there are no emissions making for a greener, healthier America.

speaking_ water polution

Water. We won’t live without it. Water is life and pollution is putting that at risk.

Water pollution is a enormous issue globally and is thought to be the leading cause of deaths and disease daily.

I always was under the impression that there are only one type of pollution, but the fact is there is three types of water pollution.

Point source pollution - containments enter a waterway through a discrete transportation such as a pipe or ditch (includes sewage treatment plants, factories or a city storm drain).

Non-Point source pollution - diffuse contamination that doesn’t come from a single source. NPS pollution is a small collective of infectivity from a large area.
Examples of this type of NPS is nutrient runoff in storm water from “sheet flow” over agricultural or a forest. Contaminated storm water washed of parking lots, roads and highways (urban runoff) is also falls under this category.

Groundwater- a spill of chemical contaminate on soil, located from water bodies that may contaminate the aquifers below.
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconcluded materials (sand, gravel, silt or clay) from which ground water can be removed by a water well.

To keep the point source pollution under regulation the Clean Water Act established in 1972. The law mandates the Untied States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish and enforce waste water standards.

6/5/09

How Touch Affects Your Children

The Devastating Effects of Child Abuse and Neglect

Telling your children you love them is not as powerful a reassurance as demonstrating your love for them, and depriving your children of genuine physical affection can have devastating consequences. Years ago many motorists had this sticker affixed to their bumpers: Have you hugged your child today? Many of those stickers have disappeared, along with their message. We become so wrapped up in our own lives that we don't have time to show our children affection anymore. We come home exhausted and we still have to cook for them, bathe them, clean up after them, and shop for them. We use grueling work hours as excuses for not stopping long enough to just hold them and hug them for a few minutes - "Not now - I'm busy." Do we really need to spend more time showing them affection?

In a word: Yes. We can't afford to ignore our children's need for physical affection. Here is why:

While much research has been devoted to the visual, auditory, and olfactory senses, very little research has been conducted on the subject of touch, specifically, its neglect. Volumes have been written on physical and sexual abuse, and many books and articles have been written on the healing properties of touch, but the consequences of its absence can be glimpsed only in sporadic sentences in college psychology texts. More has been written about neglect of touch on monkeys than on human beings, despite the infinitesimally small amount of human research indicating that more needs to be conducted.

Before our eyes see clearly, before we understand what we hear, and long before we identify taste or smell, we feel. Touch is one of the first sensory foundations from which we gain knowledge about life.

We are as affected by touching others as we are by others touching us. If exercised sensitively and wisely, touch in the form of affection and nurturing heals us.

But abusive (physical and/or sexual) touch, if exercised to its fullest expression, may result in our death, either physical or spiritual.

Being deprived of touch can drain us of life, too - physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually.

6/3/09

Earth's Atmosphere

Read this interesting article.

- structure of the earth's atmosphere
- important elements (gases) in the atmosphere.

For Vietnamese terms pls view this page about "Cac tang khi quyen"
http://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%E1%BA%A5u_tr%C3%BAc_kh%C3%AD_quy%E1%BB%83n

Scientists imagine earth’s atmosphere as an “ocean” of air hundreds of mile deep


The atmosphere of the earth exerts a lot of pressure, about 14.7 pounds per a square inch. This is normally referred to as atmospheric pressure. The air is composed of a mixture of several gases. Nitrogen is the most abundant followed by oxygen. Next to oxygen we have argon then carbon dioxide. After carbon dioxide is the “other” gases but I wont go into detail about those ones. Mixed in with theses gases is water vapor, which is the gaseous form of water. There are several important ingredients in the atmosphere. First there is oxygen, which is vital to human life, and then there is carbon dioxide, which is important to plants. Also there is water vapor in the air, which gives us precipitation, and also with the help of carbon dioxide it traps the heat of the sun within the atmosphere giving the earth a milder and more stable climate. The atmosphere is divided into to section based on the make-up. The two sections are the lower and the upper atmosphere. The lower atmosphere is referred to as the homosphere because it has a uniform mixture of gases. The upper layer of the atmosphere is referred to as the heterosphere because it has several layers of different gases. The atmosphere can be divided into several specific layers by density and temperature. The lowest layer of the atmosphere is called the troposphere also known as the “weather layer”. Next comes the tropopause, which is the upper boundary of the troposphere. The next layer is the stratosphere also called the jet stream because of its strong’ but steady winds with little or no change of weather. Above the stratosphere is the stratopause. In the stratopause lies the ozone layer, which protects the earth from the suns dangerous UV radiation. There are 3 types of radiation: first there is UVC, which is the most powerful and dangerous yet all of it is absorbed in the ozone layer. Next is UVB this type of radiation causes tanning and sunburn most but not all of it is absorbed by the ozone layer. Last but not least is UVA the least harmful and all it passes through the ozone layer with no trouble at all. Right above the ozone layer is the mesosphere, and above the mesosphere is the mesopause the mesopause is the coldest point in the atmosphere and averages to about negative 101-110 degrees Celsius (negative 150-165 degrees Fahrenheit) After the mesopause the temperature rises very quickly. The next layer in the atmosphere is the thermosphere named for its high temperature. Within the thermosphere and the mesosphere is the ionosphere and it is named that way because it is composed of many ions. Also in this same region the auroras occur they are known as the northern lights in the north and in the south the southern lights. After the thermosphere is the thermopause, which is the outer most boundary of the thermosphere. Last is the exosphere, which is the outermost layer of the atmosphere.

Heat or thermal energy that is absorbed differs from place to place. This so called heat from the sun is solar radiation. The solar radiation that reaches the earth is called insolation meaning incoming solar radiation. Our earth only receives about 47% of the suns solar radiation the rest is either reflected (37%) or absorbed by the atmosphere (18%). There are several factors affecting the earth’s insolation. First is cloudy weather because clouds are very reflective. Second is the length of daytime. Less daytime hours mean less insolation for the earth. Third is the angle of the sun’s rays. The more slanted the rays of the sun the longer it takes to heat up the earth. Last is the earth distance from the sun. When the earth is at perihelion, the closest point to the sun. It receives more insolation, but when it is at aphelion, the farthest point from the sun. The earth receives less insolation. The sun’s energy that enters the earth’s atmosphere is called the energy budget. This “energy” heats the land, water, and air.

So how does the earth contain this thermal energy? It is called the greenhouse effect. The water vapor and the carbon dioxide let the insolation in but they don’t let it escape out like the glass windows of a greenhouse. The thermal energy that the earth and its atmosphere receive from the sun is distributed several ways. One reason is because the land warms much faster then bodies of water and also the land cools faster then the bodies of water. Heat is distributed by radiation, which is heat transferred by electromagnetic waves, conduction which is direct contact between two objects, and also convection, which is the transfer of heat by moving currents of hot air, or fluids also called convection waves. Also winds are formed from convection. When rising air’s temperature heats up it’s compressed but does not have a heat loss this is called adiabatic heating; if there is no heat added and the temperature of the air-cools as it expands this is called adiabatic cooling So when masses of air rise, its temperature drops and as it sinks it heats back over and the process of cooling and heating are started over and over again.

When there is a higher than normal concentration of heat it will produce convection currents of rising air creating a low pressure called a low. If there is lower than normal heat concentration it will produce currents of sinking air creating a high pressure called a high. The way the earth rotates and causes changes in the course of the winds is called the Coriolis effect. It can be explained by two combined factors. First inertia the resistance to change in speed or direction keeps the winds in the same condition of motion. Second objects on earth’s rotating surface travel at different speeds. This causes two types of rotating winds. One is the cyclone this happens when the winds form a circulating spiral around the low. Second is the anticyclone this happens when winds form a wind system around a high. There are several wind zones in the earth. First there is the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) this is where the winds of both the Northern and Southern hemisphere converge and rise. The next wind zone is the doldrums here there is little or periods of no wind and back then in the days of sailing vessels this was bad. Next comes the horse latitudes they are located about 30 degrees at both north and south latitudes. After the horse latitudes come the trade winds these winds blow toward the equator from the high-pressure regions of the horse latitudes.

Next come the polar easterlies these winds blow out of the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and out of the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere together they make the polar easterlies. Another wind zone is the prevailing westerlies these winds come out of the southwest or the northwest. Last there is the jet stream these are high altitude winds concentrated in narrow, meandering bands of rapidly moving air that come mostly out of the west but it can come from all directions. Winds are normally named from the direction they come. There are also a few local winds. One is the monsoon or monsoon effect, which is when the winds reverse their direction from season to season. There is also the sea and land breeze the sea breeze brings cool air to the land during the day and at night it brings warm air to the land. The land breeze brings warm air farther inland during the day and at night it brings cool air further inland. Last is the mountain and valley breeze. During the day the cool mountain air warms as it travels to the valley and heats it. At night the warm valley air-cools and travels up the mountain and warms it.

Is TV delaying child development?

By Clare Murphy
BBC News health reporter



Does CBeebies have a lot to answer for?

New research suggests having the TV on may impair young children's development by reducing the amount of conversation between infant and adult. So how bad is the box for young minds?

A US team recorded more than 300 children aged between two months and four years on several days every month over two years.

They found that when the TV was audible - either on in the background or being watched - the number of words spoken and sounds made by either adult or child reduced considerably.

It is the latest study to imply that delays in language development may be the fault of TV, a medium blamed for a host of other modern ills, from bullying to obesity. But while it is not without its problems, experts warn that to expunge it from our children's lives completely may be as undesirable as it is unrealistic.

Mixed picture

Certainly there is a body of research building up that finds a correlation between heavy TV viewing at an early age and linguistic problems.

This study is the first to demonstrate that when the television is on, there is reduced speech in the home

Dimitri Christakis
Lead researcher
The exact nature of the relationship is unclear, and the role that family circumstances and other social influences play has not been established. However lack of interaction at a personal level is thought to be a key culprit.

But there is equally evidence that, for those over two at least, monitored levels of age-appropriate programmes can in fact foster language skills and indeed improve attention.
Watching with an adult and discussing the contents after a shared experienced has been found to be particularly beneficial, but not always necessary providing children are watching high-quality, tailored programmes which contain familiar words and scenarios.

Indeed some psychologists argue that given young children cannot read their own books or surf the internet, watching may be an empowering experience that gives them access to other worlds which present useful information in a way their parents may not be able to.

But there are some serious caveats: what appears to be particularly undesirable is the viewing of general audience or adult programmes both alone or in the company of a carer.


National Literacy Trust's TV tips
Limit TV time to one hour for 3-5 year olds
Where possible, watch together
Switch off when finished
Encourage imaginative play based on what was watched
Videos/dvds may be better due to repetition of words
Avoid TV in the bedroom


In addition while some TV may be beneficial for the over twos, the evidence for those younger is more shaky. First words, it is argued, are learnt far more effectively from real people than voices on the TV.

In the US, the American Academy of Paediatrics recommends no exposure to TV and computer screens for those under two, but lack of evidence for such a measure means there is no such policy in the UK.

Constant hum

This latest study into TV's effect on children comes from the University of Washington's Dimitri Christakis, the researcher who made headlines after reporting that infants who watched the Baby Einstein series - a set of programmes billed as educational - learnt fewer new words than those who did not.

His new study did not differentiate between TV being watched or background TV, nor did it examine the kind of programmes that were on. But it did find that overall, adults barely spoke to children when the TV was audible.

Research published last year also in the US also found problems with background TV, concluding that it affected both the quality and quantity of play in young children.

Liz Attenborough, director of Talk to Your Baby at the UK's National Literacy Trust, agrees that the permanent presence of the TV in the background is something parents should try to reduce.

"Even if you think you're not paying attention to it, you probably are - and this may well interfere with how much you speak to your child. The TV shouldn't be on all the time.
"But we are lucky to have some high-quality children's programmes in the UK. They are usually well thought-out, often featuring a clear, single voice, and incite children to make responses," she said.

"Of course we need to be aware of the problems TV can pose, but equally we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater."

'Oldest pottery' found in China

By Jason Palmer
Science and technology reporter, BBC News

Examples of pottery found in a cave at Yuchanyan in China's Hunan province may be the oldest known to science.

By determining the fraction of a type, or isotope, of carbon in bone fragments and charcoal, the specimens were found to be 17,500 to 18,300 years old.

The authors say that the ages are more precise than previous efforts because a series of more than 40 radiocarbon-dated samples support the estimate.

The work is reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Yuchanyan cave was the site where the oldest kernels of rice were found in 2005, and it is viewed as an important link between cave-dwelling hunter-gatherer peoples and the farmers that arose later in the basin of the nearby Yangtze River.

“ Archaeologists before haven't looked at this closely enough to realise what's going on in caves ”
David Cohen Boston University
The previous oldest-known example of pottery was found in Japan, dated to an age between 16,000 and 17,000 years ago, but debate has raged in the archaeological community as to whether pottery was first made in China or Japan.

The most recent dig at Yuchanyan was in 2005 by a team led by Elisabetta Boaretto of the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. They believe they have found a more precise way to read the history of human activity written in layers of sediment, or stratigraphy.
'Layer cake'
"The way people move around and mess up caves is very difficult to see archaeologically," David Cohen, an archaeologist at Boston University and a co-author on the research, told BBC News.

"Imagine you have a fire and then people come in again have another fire and another, so you have the ashes of all these fires building up but at the same time people are digging and clearing, pushing things to the side; this messes things up.
"If you have an open-air site, you sometimes get a very clean 'layer cake' stratigraphy. Archaeologists before haven't looked at this closely enough to realise what's going on in caves so they interpret this stratigraphy as a layer cake. But in actuality, it's 'lenses' of stuff that's been mixed up and moved around."

It is comparatively easy to find evidence of human occupation in caves through the dating of charcoal from fires or bones from long-ago dinners, Dr Cohen said. However, because of the unclear layering of sediment it is not easy to correlate well-dated layers with the pottery that may be nearby.
Part of the problem lies in the areas over which previous digs have searched: squares of perhaps five metres on a side.
"It's an issue of association, knowing where everything comes from in space across the cave," Dr Cohen explained. "If you're excavating in a huge unit, you can only say it comes from within this 5m area and this 20cm of sediment, and that's not good enough for understanding human activity."

Instead, the team worked in sub-divisions of just a quarter of a metre square, painstakingly collecting bone and charcoal fragments. The samples were then radiocarbon dated, revealing a clean distribution stretching between 14,000 and 21,000 years ago.
'Fantastic cave'
One fragment of pottery was found in a layer between two radiocarbon-dated fragments that both measured about 18,000 years old, taking the record for oldest pottery.
The team hope that their smaller-scale searching and taking into account the effects of human activity on cave stratigraphy will help with future digs at Yuchanyan, and elsewhere.

"It's a fantastic cave, and we hope that the way these excavations were done would set a precedent for how other caves will be looked at," said Dr Cohen.
Dr Tracey Lu, from an anthropologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who was not an author on the latest study, noted that the dates reported in this paper were slightly older than dates on pottery found in Japan.

However, she said the accuracy of radiocarbon dates in the limestone area has been under debate for many years.
"I agree that pottery was made by foragers in South China," she told the Associated Press news agency.

"But I also think pottery was produced more or less contemporaneously in several places in East Asia... from Russia, Japan to North and South China by foragers living in different environments."

6/2/09

Tourism benefits and drawbacks

In general, tourism has several advantages as a sector for pro-poor economic growth (Ashley et al., 2000):

Ø The consumer comes to the destination, thereby providing opportunities for selling additional goods and services.
Ø Tourism is an important opportunity to diversify local economies. It can develop in poor and marginal areas with few other export and diversification options. Remote areas particularly attract tourists because of their high cultural, wildlife and landscape value.
Ø It offers labour-intensive and small-scale opportunities compared with other non-agricultural activities, employs a high proportion of women and values natural resources and culture, which may feature among the few assets belonging to the poor.
In case tourism is being considered as one of several land use options, an assessment should be carried out of the likelihood of all the benefits and drawbacks, or advantages and limitations. At the same time, they represent the key issues to bear in mind in impact assessments and in strategies to maximise tourism's benefits and minimise negative impacts. Note that especially many of the disadvantages are not unique to tourism, but can be attributed to other economic activities in rural areas as well. The table gives a listing of the main points, as they have emerged from numerous analyses of tourism practice (many interesting cases illustrating these issues and ways to address them can be found in Boo, 1990; Lindberg, 1991; Wight, 1991; Whelan, 1992; Wells & Brandon, 1992; Lindberg et al, 1993 and 1998; McIntyre, 1993; Ceballos-Lascurain, 1996; France, 1997; Goodwin et al., 1998; Ashley et al., 2000; Carey et al., 2000).

Table. Advantages and Limitations of Tourism for Development




Advantages
- the positive scenario




Limitations and disadvantages

- the negative scenario



For local development


Ø Jobs (also for labour force with little formal education)

Ø Community income

Ø Enterprise opportunities

Ø Opportunities for training skills and upward mobility

Ø Diversify livelihoods

Ø Improved infrastructure and community facilities in marginal areas

Ø Institutional development

Ø Renewed cultural pride and self-esteem, appreciation of natural and cultural heritage

Ø Recreational and cultural facilities can also be used by residents


Ø Menial jobs only

Ø A ‘bad deal’ for communities

Ø Limited spin-off, high leakage

Ø Limited investment in training

Ø Inequitable distribution of all the above

Ø Conflict with agriculture and livelihood strategies. Risky investment.

Ø Infrastructure only for tourists, not residents, may result in hostility

Ø Local conflicts exacerbated

Ø Control by outsiders

Ø Disempowerment of residents

Ø Cultural disruption

Ø Conflicts over land rights

Ø Conflicts over resources between locals and migrants attracted by tourism success

Ø Possible competition with tourists for basic commodities makes them too scarce or expensive for locals (water, staple foods)





For economic growth


Ø Growing industry

Ø Steady prices (compared to traditional exports)

Ø Job creation, spin-off enterprises, and multiplier effects

Ø Attracts private investment

Ø Economic diversification

Ø Sustainable utilisation of natural assets

Ø Increased markets for local products




Ø Volatile demand

Ø High leakage out of economy; enclave tourism with few spin-offs

Ø Private control not partnership

Ø Over-dependence

Ø Over-use of natural resources

Ø May divert investments from other sectors or regions of higher local importance to tourism infrastructure elsewhere







For conservation


Ø Improved environmental quality

Ø Increased local benefits from wildlife justify its management as a land use option

Ø Enhanced local appreciation of values of nature

Ø Enhanced environmental awareness among tourists; possibly become private donors to conservation projects

Ø Economic justification for establishing PAs or investing in more effective management

Ø Revenues help to cover costs of conservation




Ø Benefits insufficient, narrowly distributed, and not visibly linked to conservation of the resource base.

Ø Capacity and other prerequisites lacking

Ø Conflicts with wildlife protected as tourist attraction (health risks, crop damage)

Ø Deforestation for infrastructure development or to supply fuel wood to tourists

Ø Pollution due to absent waste or sewage treatment at tourism facilities

Ø Disturbance of wildlife, trampling of sensitive vegetation

Ø Immigration as result of tourism success increases pressure on sensitive ecosystems

Tourist attraction, rising oxymoron

Tourism: attraction and drawbacks


New York's Little Italy not so Italian anymore
By Alvin Powell
Harvard News Office

Tourism changes everything it touches, homogenizing and sanitizing even as it brings in bodies and dollars.

This is tourism's "central paradox," according to Susan Fainstein, a Columbia
Columbia's Susan Fainstein explains that exotic locales marketed for their distinct culture and history become a little less exotic when the streets are teeming with tourists instead of local residents. (Staff photo Justin Ide/Harvard News Office)
University professor and author of the book on tourism "The City Builders." It's the task of local officials and regulators, she said, to keep those homogenizing forces in check even as they promote what can be an important contributor to a region's economy.

Fainstein, who spoke at the John F. Kennedy School of Government's Taubman Building on Thursday afternoon (March 4), outlined tourism's benefits and drawbacks in a presentation before about 40 people in the Taubman's Allison Dining Room. The event was sponsored by the Taubman Center for State and Local Government.

The point of tourism is to escape, even briefly, from life's problems, Fainstein said. So tourist destinations are under pressure to make themselves prettier, to add entertainment and insulate tourist areas from crime, and to hide away evidence of manual labor and poverty.

Exotic locales marketed for their distinct culture and history become a little less exotic when the streets are teeming with tourists instead of local residents. Some locations even change their physical look to meet the expectations of tourists, who in this information age can research even the most remote locations and who arrive with bags packed with expectations as well as garments.

"The old places take on new clothes," Fainstein said. "The real places are scurrying to remake themselves to match the expectations of what people think they should be."

Fainstein described different types of tourist destinations, each with their own characteristics. Tourist cities, such as Cancun and Las Vegas, are created with the tourist in mind. Converted cities, such as Detroit and San Antonio, have more uneven development, and attempt to keep tourists segregated from the rest of the city in special districts.

"In an effort to protect visitors from the city, they are separated," Fainstein said.

Her talk dealt mostly with a third category of city, historic and multicultural cities. Tourism in these cities tends to be much more integrated with the fabric of life.

But in integrating, tourism also changes.

Fainstein offered many examples, describing how tourism changes the experience of a place. Touring a historic European church, she said, is a different experience entirely from worshipping there. Touring a castle, she said, is a different experience from visiting there at the bequest of the king.

Given enough time, she said, tourism becomes part of the fabric of a place. In Venice, for example, glassmakers have been making things for tourists for so long that they're part of the background.

"For 200 years, people have been spinning glass to sell to tourists. That's what people in Venice do," Fainstein said. "The meanings of the places have changed."

Tourism promotes what Fainstein termed "fakery" such as the neighborhood Italian restaurants in New York's Little Italy, where the neighborhood these days is mostly made up of ethnic Asians, rather than Italians.

Though tourism has its drawbacks, it's not purely negative. As a form of economic development, it can be more stable than manufacturing, Fainstein said. Manufacturing jobs can be shipped out of state or overseas, but tourists coming to New York City can't go anywhere else but New York.

Jobs in the tourism industry have been criticized as being low-wage, seasonal, and exploitative. But Fainstein said they're also low-skilled, which makes them accessible to entry-level workers or those laid off from manufacturing jobs.

In addition to bringing dollars to a region, tourism can foster positive change.

Sports teams, conventions, and cultural institutions enrich the life for city residents as well as for visitors, she said.

In Harlem, Fainstein said, tourism has helped revive black culture. Streets are better lit, and jazz clubs and restaurants have opened. Still, Fainstein said, there is resentment among some residents.

"People say, I don't want to be in a 'zoo' walking down the street while a bus full of people seeing 'real life' goes by," Fainstein said.

That highlights the tension that tourism has always brought. The tension is familiar in traditional summer resort areas such as Cape Cod, where the local residents dread the annual onslaught of tourists, even as they rely on them for their livelihood.

"Tourism always inspires ambivalence among the people being visited," Fainstein said. "There is a question whether culture can be maintained, because once you sell it and market it, you change it."

Aloe Vera - The miracle Plant and the Real Boon by Nature

Aloe Vera is a miracle medicinal plant that has been used for health and beauty purposes since ancient times.



The miracle herb Aloe Vera is one of the real boons gifted by nature to human beings. One of the oldest known plants, it has been used in several millennia for various health and beauty purposes. Greeks, Egyptians, Indians, Mexicans, Japanese, Chinese, all loved to use the plant alike. Where Christopher Columbus and Alexander the Great used Aloe Vera to treat their soldier’s wound, beauty legends and Egyptian queens like Cleopatra and Nefertiti used it as a part of their regular beauty regimes.

A brief introduction of Aloe Vera- The plant derives it’s name “Aloe” from Arabic word “Alloeh” which means bitter, where as “Vera” in Latin means “true or genuine”. Due to it’s area of origin, plant is also referred as “Lily of desert” and due to it`s magical healing potency, it is called “the plant of immortality”, “Wand of Heaven” and the “First Aid plant”. In ancient Greece it was regarded as universal panacea. The very first reference to Aloe Vera in English was given by John Good yew in A.D. 1655 in a book that he translated from any other language. Although the species was described as “Aloe Vera” by Nicolas Laurens Burman in 1768 in his book “Flora Indica”. In India it is found mainly in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and TamilNadu. It`s various common Indian names are - Hindi: Guarpatha, Ghikanvar, Sanskrit: Gritakumari, kumari, Malayalam: Kumari, Marathi: Korphod, Tamil: Chirukuttali, Telugu: Chinna Kalabanda, Oriya: Kumari, Canarese: Lolisara etc. Aloe Vera is a stem less or very short stemmed succulent plant that probably originated in African countries and gradually spread in tropical and sub tropical regions world wide, where weather conditions were not chilling. Today there are around 250 species of Aloe Vera found world wide, but only 4 or 5 are commonly used in medicines. The most common of them is Aloe Babandensis. Aloe Vera spreads by offsets and root sprouts. It`s leaves are green or gray-green, flashy, and thick with a serrated margin. Some varieties show white flecks on the upper and lower stem surface. The plant produces yellow flowers in summer which grows on a spike up to 90cm tall. Each leaf of Aloe Vera is made of three layers- (1) inner clear gel containing 99% of water, rest of this layer contains glucommannas, amino acids, lipids, sterols and vitamins. (2) Middle layer of latex which is bitter and contains anthraquinones and glycosides. (3) The outer thick layer or rind which synthesizes carbohydrates and proteins.

Medicinal properties and uses- Aloe Vera has almost all the chief nutrients that the human body requires. That’s why herbalists describe it as universal panacea. It contains almost 75 potentially active constituents like vitamins, minerals, enzymes, salicylic, lignin, sugars, acids and amino acids, saponins etc.

The plant is so rich in amino acids that it provides 20 out of 22 amino acids required by the human body. It contains vitamin A, C and E which acts as antioxidants. Besides, the plant is a good source of vitamin B12, chlorine and folic acid and enzymes. Aloe Vera is a rich source of minerals. Its leaves contain calcium, copper, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium, Zink, chromium, selenium etc. The plant also contains hormones like Auxins and gibberellins. These are the components that give the plant wound healing potency and have anti- inflammatory actions. Aloe Vera is considered very effective in treating the pancreas, kidney, liver stomach and small intestine diseases. It stimulates the immune system hence helps the body fighting various diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, and fungus.

Use in dermatology- Due to it’s special effects on skin, Aloe Vera is regarded as the queen plant by the dermatologists It stabilizes digestive system, therefore providing proper nourishment to the skin. It acts as a good cleanser for the skin by fighting extra amount of melanin. Aloe Vera gel helps to erase blemishes and dark spots that are generally caused as after pregnancy-effects on the face. It makes the skin pores clear and healthy and free from acne. It’s anti- aging potency is now well proved by the scientists. It’s anti-oxidant components help in fighting with age related changes. It also acts as a good moisturizer for the skin. Not only this, Aloe Vera products also work as a good conditioner for hair giving them proper nourishment.

Side effects- Although herbalists deny any serious side effects but in some cases it has showed some mild side effects like redness, burning, stinging sensation etc. According to doctors it is better to not take Aloe Vera orally during pregnancy and breastfeeding, because some of the components present in it may create some health complications for mother as well as the little baby.

speaking_pets for children

Have you guy's ever went to the pet store to buy a pet, and can't decide which pet to buy? When your standing in front of a pet you want, but you think their too much trouble, and they'll cause a big commotion in your house? Well, here are some small pet's and some small notes about them!


Hamsters
Adorable little animals that are very amusing, and fun to play with. Well, it's not hard to pick what colour you want your hamster to be, they come in a variety of colours! Some are very furry, some have marks around there body, and more! They're not much of a trouble, they need water, food, some company once in a while, and a toy to play with. One thing about hamster's is that their nocturnal, sleep in the day and stay awake at night. They can get really grumpy if they're awoken in their sleep during the day, and will sometimes bite you if you start to bother them.

Gerbils
They're a lot like hamster's, but they tend to be more active and they seem to get frightened more easily. They get startled when they get picked up, and other then that, they are basically like hamster's.



Guinea Pigs
Guinea pig's are just like hamster's or gerbil's, but one more advantage they have, is that they're stronger and can take more of a hit then hamster's can. They don't need all the fancy stuff, like tube's, wheel's and other stuff. Just water, food, and some fruit once in a while. Other then that, there one of the best small pet's a child can have.



Rats
Rats make a great pet for people without the fear of them, people who are scared of rats, might not want to get rats as a pet. One of these people are me, personally I'm afraid of these little creatures. Even though I do agree they are cute, but I'm just not fond of them. They do make better pet's in a larger cage, and they might need a cage mate, but don't worry, two rat's are easier to take care of! They're very social, and won't just sit there, they're fun to teach tricks to, and they are not as fragile. They bond with humans better then guinea pigs, and they have fun!



Fish
Fish, in my opinion are one of the EASIEST pet's to take care of, and they are very amusing to watch. All you need to do is basically buy it an aquarium and a couple of friend's and feed it once in a while. I would put a couple of toys inside so it could have fun, and maybe a mini castle, or a rock so it can maybe play hide and seek. Who knows, in a couple of week's they could have breed-ed a couple of fish, and maybe be more social with each other. One thing I don't recommend, is leaving it in a small area, or near another pet, because if someone grabs a hold of the fish, they might tip over the aquarium, and maybe kill the fish, and we don't want that to happen!



Well, next time you go to the pet store, you might have a better idea of what pet to buy! (:
Have fun, and take care.

6/1/09

Energy of the future

Some countries use fossil fuels such as coal, gas, ... Other countries encourage the use of alternative sourses of energy such as wind and solar power.

What might be positive and negative development of each?
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Current energy sources will not be able to sustain our growing society. We must look to alternate energy sources for the answer.

For further readings on alternative energy (hydro, solar, wind, biomass, nuclear) pls read this (20 pages)
https://www.wellsfargo.com/downloads/pdf/about/csr/alt_energy.pdf
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Alternate energy sources must replace our traditional energy sources because they are sustainable for our lifestyles. Since the age of industrialization, we have relied heavily upon traditional energy resources (mostly the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas). These traditional resources have shaped our culture as well as our development. However, when these resources are used to produce energy, they negatively impact our delicate environment. They are also nonrenewable and will one day run out. However, we may solve the problem of our depleting resources through current technology, which promise new alternative methods to produce energy. Using these alternative resources will greatly increase our sustainability.

Alternative sources must replace traditional sources because they are renewable (the resource will never deplete). One example of an alternate resource is hydroelectricity which generates power via moving water. Due to the hydrologic cycle, the fast-moving water will never deplete. Hydroelectricity is therefore a renewable energy resource. Another example of renewable energy is solar power, which generates energy by collecting heat or light from the sun. Since the sun will not stop emitting heat and light (at least not for the next 4,000,000,000 years) it is considered a renewable resource. Wind can also be used to generate large amounts of electricity. As long as the sun’s heat creates wind currents, we will be able to produce power from the wind. Coal will be gone in 200 years, whereas natural gas will have disappeared in less than 100 years. However, these three resources mentioned above, hydro, solar, and wind power, cannot be depleted.
Another advantage alternative power sources have over traditional sources is that they have little to no impact on the environment. Hydroelectricity relies solely on fast-flowing water to generate power. Once a hydroelectric dam is operating it does not emit any pollutants into the atmosphere. Geothermal energy is considered to be the cleanest energy resource yet explored. A geothermal plant does not burn any fossil fuels and requires minimal land space to operate. Its environmental impact is nearly zero. Hydrogen energy promises to be an excellent substitute to gasoline products currently used in cars and trucks. The element hydrogen is much more powerful per liter than gasoline. Unlike gasoline, the exhaust products of hydrogen do not pollute the atmosphere with CO2 or CO1 (carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide respectively) but release clean H­2O (water). Since alternative energy sources have minimal effects on the environment, the must be used as substitutes for traditional energy sources which are currently trashing our earth.

The only disadvantages of alternative energy are that they are often unreliable and have high start-up costs. For example, solar energy requires a great number of solar cells to produce any significant amount of electricity. The cells are expensive and may not be affordable for family households or small companies. They also only produce electricity on sunny days. Because the sun is not always shining, the source is not reliable. Another example of an energy resource that is expensive to start up is hydroelectric dams. Though running costs are cheap the building of a hydroelectric dam far exceeds that of a fossil-fuel-burning plant. Many governments and companies may stay away from alternative energy sources such as these because the resource is unreliable or they cannot afford the initial start-up costs.
Alternative energy has more benefits than drawbacks. Unlike traditional resources, it is renewable and has little to no impact on the environment. The only drawbacks to these sources are that they are often unreliable and command high startup costs. Our current technologies employed to produce energy are not sustainable. The resources will not last for future generations. We therefore need to move to alternate energy resources to ensure that our lifestyles are sustainable, both for us and for future generations.

Testicular cancer genetic advance

Testicular cancer tends to affect younger men
Researchers have for the first time found inherited genetic factors which raise the risk of testicular cancer.

A UK team found many testicular cancer patients shared common DNA variants on chromosomes five, six and 12 that healthy men did not have.

This finding was echoed in a separate US study in the same journal, Nature Genetics, which highlighted two of the same variations.

Both studies raise hopes of better treatments and diagnostic tests.

The UK team, from the Institute of Cancer Research, compared the profile of 730 testicular cancer patients with those of healthy men.


TESTICULAR CANCER
Mainly affects young men aged 20-44
Around 1,900 new cases a year in the UK
Treatment cures over 95% of patients
Untreated, cancer cells may spread to nearby lymph nodes. The disease can also spread to the lungs or, rarely, other organs
They found men who inherit any of the three genetic variants have a raised risk of the disease.
Those who carry the variant most closely linked to the disease have two to three times the risk of the general population.

And inheriting all three variants raises the risk by up to fourfold.

However, it is still the case that only a small proportion of men who carry the higher risk variations will actually develop testicular cancer.

Researcher Dr Elizabeth Rapley said: "We have known for some time that men whose father, brothers or sons had testicular cancer are much more likely to get it themselves and we have been searching for this genetic link.

'More to be found'

"We have identified three genetic factors linked to an increased risk of testicular cancer. We believe there are more still to be found and we are working on identifying the rest."

Professor Mike Stratton, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, also worked on the study.

He said: "By combining these genetic risks with other known risk factors it may be possible in future to identify men who are at high risk of developing testicular cancer, particularly those who have a brother or father already affected by the disease.

"This may allow early detection or prevention.

All three genetic variants uncovered by the study were found near genes involved in the survival and development of cells which go on to form sperm.

The finding suggests that disrupting the work of these genes may be one mechanism by which cancer is able to grow.
More tests due

One of the variants was found in a gene called KITLG, which is also known to play a role in skin pigmentation.

The higher risk variant was found much more commonly in white men, and may explain why they seem to have a higher risk of testicular cancer.

Ed Yong, of the charity Cancer Research UK, said: "While more than 95% of testicular cancer patients are successfully treated, finding genes that increase the risk of this cancer is important.

"It tells us more about its basic biology and presents new opportunities to prevent, diagnose and treat the disease in those men most at risk - men aged under 50."

Previously, a small US study found a specific gene was more active in some types of testicular cancer cells, but did not establish whether it was inherited, or triggered only in cancer cells after the disease started to develop.

In the latest study, the researchers established the key genetic variations were found in every cell of the patients' bodies - clear evidence that they were definitely inherited.
The researchers are now looking for up to 3,000 men who have had testicular cancer to participate in the study to identify more genetic risk factors.