Building an Environmentally Sustainable Economy

Author Lester R. Brown explains how building an environmentally sustainable economy will help with the global environmental challenges we face.
By Lester R. Brown
February/March 2002
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The author shares his essay on creating an environmentally sustainable economy.

Lester R. Brown started his career as a farmer, growing tomatoes in southern New Jersey with his younger brother. After earning a degree in agricultural science from Rutgers University in 1955, he spent six months living in rural India. With advanced degrees in agricultural economics and public administration, he has served as an advisor to the U.S. government on agricultural issues and was one of the founders of the Overseas Development Council. In 1974 he founded the Worldwatch Institute, a research institute devoted to the analysis of global environmental issues. In 1984 he launched the "State of the World" reports, annual assessments that have become a bible of the global environmental movement. A MacArthur Fellow, he is the recipient of many international prizes and awards and has authored more than 20 books on the environment and the economy. In May he founded the Earth Policy Institute to promote an environmentally sustain able economy.

Why we must use ecological reality to build a new economy.

Today we need a similar shift in our worldview in how we think about the relationship between the Earth and the economy. The issue now is whether the environment is part of the economy or the economy is part of the environment. Economists see the environment as a subset of the economy. Ecologists, on the other hand, see the economy as a subset of the environment.

Like Ptolemy's view of the solar system, the economists' view confuses efforts to understand our modern world and has created an economy out of sync with the ecosystem on which it depends.

Economic theory and economic indicators do not explain how the economy is disrupting and destroying the Earth's natural systems. Evidence the economy is in conflict with the Earth's natural systems can be seen in the daily news reports of collapsing fisheries, shrinking forests, eroding soils, deteriorating rangelands, expanding deserts, rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, falling water tables, rising temperatures, more destructive storms, melting glaciers, rising sea level, dying coral reefs and disappearing species. These trends, which mark a stressed relationship between the economy and the Earth's ecosystem, are taking a growing economic toll. At some point this will overwhelm the worldwide forces of progress, leading to economic decline. The challenge for our generation is to reverse these trends before environmental deterioration leads to long—term economic decline, as it did for so many earlier civilizations.

These increasingly visible trends indicate that if the operation of the subsystem — the economy — is not compatible with the behavior of the larger system — the Earth's ecosystem — both eventually will suffer. The larger the economy becomes relative to the ecosystem, and the more it presses against the Earth's natural limits, the more destructive this incompatibility will be.

An environmentally sustainable economy — an eco-economy — requires that the principles of ecology establish the framework for economic policy and that economists and ecologists work together to fashion the new economy. Ecologists understand that all economic activity, indeed all life, depends on the Earth's ecosystem — the complex of individual species living together, interacting with each other and their physical habitats. These millions of species exist in an intricate balance, woven together by food chains, nutrient cycles, the hydrological cycle and the climate system. Economists know how to translate goals into policy. Economists and ecologists working together can design and build an environmentally sustainable economy, one that can sustain progress.

A Question of Limits

The gap between economists and ecologists in their perception of the world could not be wider as the new century begins. Economists look at the unprecedented growth of the global economy and of international trade and investment and see a promising future with more of the same. They note with justifiable pride that the global economy has expanded sevenfold since 1950, raising output from $6 trillion of goods and services to $43 trillion in 2000, boosting living standards to levels not dreamed of before.

Ecologists look at this same growth and realize it is the product of burning vast quantities of artificially cheap fossil fuels, a process that is destabilizing the climate. They look ahead and predict more intense heat waves, more destructive storms, melting ice caps and a rising sea level that will shrink the land area even as population continues to grow.

Economists rely on the market to guide their decision making. They respect the market because it can allocate resources with an efficiency a central planner can never match (as the Soviets learned at great expense). Ecologists view the market with less reverence because they see a market that is not telling the truth. For example, when buying a gallon of gasoline, customers in effect pay to get the oil out of the ground, refine it into gasoline and deliver it to the local service station. But they do not pay the health care costs of treating respiratory illness from air pollution or the costs of climate disruption, or military costs of protecting our oil supplies.

We have created an economy that cannot sustain economic progress, an economy that cannot take us where we want to go. Just as Copernicus had to formulate a new astronomical worldview after several decades of celestial observations and mathematical calculations, we, too, must formulate a new economic worldview based on several decades of environmental observations and analyses.

Although the idea that economics must be integrated into ecology may seem radi cal to many, evidence is mounting that it is the only approach that reflects reality. When observations no longer support theory, it is time to change the theory what science historian Thomas Kuhn calls a paradigm shift. If the economy is a subset of the Earth's ecosystem, as this article con tends, the only formulation of economic policy that will succeed is one that respects the principles of ecology.

The good news is economists are becoming more ecologically aware, recognizing the inherent dependence of the economy on the Earth's ecosystem. For example, some 2,500 economists — including eight Nobel laureates — have endorsed the introduction of a carbon tax to stabilize climate. More and more economists are looking for ways to get the market to tell the ecological truth. This spreading awareness is evident in the rapid growth of the International Society of Ecological Economics (www.ecologicaleconomics.org), which has 1,200 members and chapters in Australia/New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, India, Russia, China and Europe.

Economy Self Destructing

The economic indicators for the last half century show remarkable progress. As noted earlier, the economy expanded sevenfold between 1950 and 2000. International trade grew even more rapidly. The Dow Jones Index, a widely used indicator of the value of stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange, climbed from 3,000 in 1990 to 11,000 in 2000. It was difficult not to be bullish about the long-term economic prospect as the new century began.

Difficult, that is, until you look at the ecological indicators. Here virtually every global indicator was headed in the wrong direction. The economic policies that have yielded the extraordinary growth in the world economy are the same ones that are destroying its support systems. By any conceivable ecological yardstick, these are failed policies. Mismanagement is destroying forests, rangelands, fisheries and croplands — the four ecosystems that supply our food and, except for minerals, all our raw materials, as well. Although many of us live in a high-tech urbanized society, we are as dependent on the Earth's natural systems as our hunter-gatherer forebears were.

To put ecosystems in economic terms, a natural system, such as a fishery, functions like an endowment. The interest income from an endowment will continue in perpetuity as long as the endowment is maintained. If the endowment is drawn down, income declines. If the endowment is eventually depleted, the interest income disappears. So it is with natural systems. If the sustainable yield of a fishery is exceeded, fish stocks begin to shrink. Eventually stocks are depleted and the fishery collapses. The cash flow from this endowment disappears, as well. As we begin the 21st century, our economy is slowly destroying its support systems, consuming its endowment of natural capital.

Even as expanding economic activity has been creating biological deficits, it has been upsetting some of nature's basic balances in other areas. With the huge growth in burning of fossil fuels since 1950, carbon emissions have overwhelmed the capacity of the Earth's ecosystem to fix carbon dioxide. The resulting rise in atmospheric CO2 levels is widely believed by atmospheric scientists to be responsible for the Earth's rising temperature. The 14 warmest years since record keeping began in 1866 have all occurred since 1980.

One consequence of higher temperatures is more energy driving storm systems. Three powerful winter storms in France in December 1999 destroyed millions of trees, some of which had been standing for centuries.

Thousands of buildings were demolished. These storms, the most violent on record in France, wreaked more than $10 billion worth of damage — $170 for each French citizen. Nature was levying a tax of its own on fossil fuel burning.

Andrew Dlugolecki, a senior officer at the CGMU Insurance Group — Britain's largest insurance group — reports property damage worldwide is rising roughly 10 percent a year. He believes we are only beginning to see the economic fallout from climate change. At this rate of growth, by 2065 the amount of damage would exceed the projected gross world product. Well before then, Dlugolecki notes, the world would face bankruptcy.

Perhaps the most disturbing consequence of rising temperature is melting ice. Over the last 35 years, the ice covering the Arctic Sea has thinned by 42 percent. A study by two Norwegian scientists projects that within 50 years there will be no summer ice left in the Arctic Sea. The discovery of open water at the North Pole by an ice breaker cruise ship in mid-August 2000 stunned many in the scientific community.

This particular thawing does not affect sea level because the ice that is melting is already in the ocean. But the Greenland ice sheet is also starting to melt. Greenland is three times the size of Texas, and the ice sheet is up to two kilometers (1.2 miles) thick in some areas. An article in Science notes that if the entire ice sheet were to melt, it would raise sea level by some 7 meters (23 feet), inundating the world's coastal cities and Asia's rice-growing river flood plains. Even a 1 meter rise would cover half of Bangladesh's rice land, dropping food production below the survival level for millions of people:

Humanity is being squeezed between deserts expanding outward and rising seas encroaching inward. Civilization is being forced to retreat by forces it has created. Even as population continues to grow, the habitable portion of the planet is shrinking.

Aside from climate change, the economic effects of environmental destruction and disruption have been mostly local — collapsing fisheries, abandoned cropland and shrinking forests. But if local damage keeps accumulating, it will eventually affect global economic trends. In an increasingly integrated global economy, local ecosystem collapse can have global economic consequences.

The Acceleration of History

The pace of change is reaching an extraordinary rate, driven in part by technological innovation. Rapidly advancing technology is accelerating history, making it difficult for social institutions to manage change effectively. This is also true for unprecedented world population growth, even faster economic growth and the increasingly frequent collisions between the expanding economy and the limits of the Earth's natural systems. The current rate of change has no precedent.

Until recently population growth was so slow it aroused little concern. But since 1950 we have added more people to world population than during the preceding 4 million years. Economic expansion in earlier times was similarly slow. To illustrate, growth in the world economy during the Year 2000 exceeded that during the entire 19th century.

Throughout most of human history, the growth of population, rise in income and development of new technologies were so slow as to be imperceptible during an individual life span. For example, the climb in grain land productivity from 1.1 tons per hectare in 1950 to 2.8 tons per hectare in 2000 exceeds that during the 11,000 years from the beginning of agriculture until 1950.

The pace of history also is accelerating as soaring human demands collide with the Earth's natural limits. National political leaders are spending more time dealing with the consequences of the collisions described earlier — collapsing fisheries, falling water tables, food shortages and more destructive storms — along with a swelling international flow of environmental refugees and the many other effects of overshooting natural limits. As change has accelerated, the situation has evolved from one where individuals and societies change only rarely to one where they change continuously. They are changing not only in response to growth itself, but also to the consequences of growth.

Restructure or Decline

Whether we study the environmental undermining of earlier civilizations or look at how adoption of the Western industrial model by China would affect the Earth's ecosystem, it is evident the existing industrial economic model cannot sustain economic progress. In our shortsighted efforts to sustain the global economy as currently structured, we are depleting the Earth's natural capital. We spend a lot of time worrying about our economic deficits, but it is the ecological deficits that threaten our long-term economic future. Economic deficits are what we borrow from each other; ecological deficits are what we take from future generations.

Transforming our environmentally destructive economy into one that can sustain progress depends on a Copernican shift in our economic mindset, a recognition that the economy is part of the Earth's ecosystem and can sustain progress only if the economy is restructured so that it is compatible with the ecosystem. The pre-eminent challenge for our generation is to design an eco-economy, one that respects the principles of ecology. A redesigned economy can be integrated into the ecosystem in a way that will stabilize the relationship between the two, enabling economic progress to continue.

Unfortunately, present-day economics does not provide the conceptual framework needed to build such an economy. It will have to be designed with an understanding of basic ecological concepts, such as sustainable yield, carrying capacity, nutrient cycles, the hydrological cycle and the climate system. Designers must also know natural systems provide not only goods, but also services — services that are often more valuable than the goods.

We know the kind of restructuring that is needed. In simplest terms, our fossil fuel-based, automobile-centered, throwaway economy is not a viable model for the world. The alternative is a solar/hydrogen energy economy, an urban transport system that is centered on advanced-design public rail systems and that relies more on the bicycle than on the automobile, and a comprehensive reuse/recycle economy. And we need to stabilize population as soon as possible.

Telling the Truth

How do we achieve this economic transformation when all economic decision makers — whether political leaders, corporate planners, investment bankers, or individual consumers — are guided by market signals, not the principles of ecological sustainability? How do we integrate ecological awareness into economic decision making? Is it possible for all of us who are making economic decisions to "think like ecologists," to understand the ecological consequences of our decisions? The answer is probably not. It simply may not be possible.

But there may be another approach, a simpler way of achieving our goal. Everyone making economic decisions relies on market signals for guidance. The problem is the market often fails to tell the ecological truth. It regularly underprices products and services by failing to incorporate the environmental costs of providing them.

Compare, for example, the cost of wind-generated electricity with that from a coal-fired power plant. The cost of the wind-generated electricity reflects the costs of manufacturing the turbine, installing it, maintaining it and delivering the electricity to consumers. The cost of the coal-fired electricity includes building the power plant, mining the coal, transporting it to the power plant and distributing the electricity to consumers. What it does not include is the cost of climate disruption caused by carbon emissions from coal burning — whether it be more destructive storms, melting ice caps, rising sea level or record heat waves. Nor does it include the damage to freshwater lakes and forests from acid rain, or the health care costs of treating respiratory illnesses caused by air pollution. Thus the market price of coal-fired electricity greatly understates its cost to society.

One way to remedy this situation would be to have environmental scientists and economists work together to calculate the cost of climate disruption, acid rain and air pollution. This figure could then be incorporated as a tax on coal-fired electricity that, when added to the current price, would give the full cost of coal use. This procedure, followed across the board, would mean that all economic decision makers — governments and individual consumers — would have the information needed to make more intelligent, ecologically responsible decisions.

We can now see how to restructure the global economy so as to restore stability between the economy and the ecosystem on which it rests. When I helped to pioneer the concept of environmentally sustainable economic development some 27 years ago, at the newly formed Worldwatch Institute, I had a broad sense of what the new economy would look like. Now we can see much more of the detail. We can build an ecoeconomy with existing technologies. It is economically feasible if we can get the market to tell us the full cost of the products and services that we buy.

The question is not how much will it cost to make this transformation but how much it will cost if we fail to do it. Oystein Dahle, retired vice president of Esso for Norway and the North Sea, observes, "Socialism collapsed because it did not allow prices to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow prices to tell the ecological truth."

From Lester R. Brown, Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth. In Part II, to be featured in the April/May 2002 issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS, Brown outlines how each sector of the economy must be transformed, including his predictions of which careers will be in greatest demand in the new economy.

Earth Policy Institute continuously updates its data and analysis as issues unfold.

How Does all This Add Up?

As we begin the 21st century, our economy is slowly destroying its support systems, consuming its endowment of natural capital. Demands of the expanding economy, as now structured, are surpassing the sustainable yield of ecosystems.

  • A third of the world's cropland is losing topsoil at a rate that is undermining its long-term productivity. Fully 50 percent of the world's rangeland is overgrazed and deteriorating into desert.
  • The world's forests have shrunk by about half since the dawn of agriculture and are still shrinking.
  • Two-thirds of oceanic fisheries are now being fished at or beyond their capacity; over-fishing is now the rule, not the exception.
  • Overpumping of underground water is common in key food-producing regions.

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To Rise, To Shine

Egyptain Bennu

The Bennu, the sacred bird, is the quintessence of rebirth...
by Athon Veggi and Alison Davidson

Bennu... To Rise, To Shine

The wonderful Bennu, with its brilliant red and golden plumage, was the sacred bird of Heliopolis. Identified as a heron with its long straight back and head adorned at the back with two erect feathers, the Bennu was later called Phoenix by the Greeks and fabulous stories were told about it.

In Heliopolis, the Bennu bird played a major role in Egyptian mythology, dwelling on the ben-ben stone or obelisk within its sanctuary and revered alongside Ra and Ausar (Osiris). For it was in the City of the Sun where the work of creation began.

The Bennu bird was said to create itself from the fire that burned on the top of the sacred Persea tree in Heliopolis, and in the Metternich Stele, Auset (Isis) says to her son Heru: 'Thou art the Great Bennu who was born on the Incense Trees in the House of the Great Prince in Heliopoli.'
(Budge, 1969, vol. 2209)

As the 'soul of Ra,' the sun rose in the form of the Bennu to shine out across the world renewed each morning. But the Bennu was also a manifestation of Ausar (Osiris) and was said to spring from his heart as a living symbol of the god. In the 'Book of the Dead,' there are formulae to transform the deceased into the Great Bennu. Here, the deceased says, 'I am the Bennu, the soul of Ra, and the guide of the gods in the Duat.' In another verse, he says, 'I am pure. My purity is the purity of the Great Bennu which is in the city of Suten-henen.'

For the Bennu is the quintessence of rebirth, it rises from its ashes as the spiritual body rises from the dead physical form, as the new sun rises from the old. It is the new condition reached when the return to life is accomplished, namely the resurrection of Ausar (Osiris).

Herodotus records the Bennu bird -- making its appearance only once in 500 years -- as coming from Arabia, carrying in its beak an egg of myrrh that contained its father's body. This egg is similar to Geb's egg that was laid on the primordial hill and gave birth to the sun, the egg within which the whole alchemical process of transformation is effected.

When the Bennu became old, he built a nest of incense twigs in the sacred tree, and lay down and died. In Pliny's account, a small worm appeared from his body that metamorphosed into a bird, and thus the Bennu was reborn.

The planet Venus was called the 'star of the ship of the Bennu-Ausar' (Osiris), mentioned as the Morning Star in this invocation to the sacred sun bird.

I am the Bennu, the soul of Ra,
and the guide of the gods in the Tuat;
let it be so done unto me that
I may enter in like a hawk,
and that I may come forth like Bennu,
the Morning Star.

"The Book of Doors: An Alchemical Oracle from Ancient Egypt."
From: Veggi, Athon and Davidson, Alison

The Ascending One

Its Egyptian name is "Benu" means as much as "the Ascending One".

She was a kind of primordial god, which built its nest on the willow which is on the top of the primordial hill.

Because of its birdlike nature, the phoenix was called "ba of Re" - the soul of Re.

The soul was believed to be a birdlike spiritual being.

The phoenix was called "the famous ba, which came out of the heart of Osiris".

The Phoenix/Bennu bird is said to arise 'at dawn from the waters of the Nile'.
It is linked with summer.

Back to Legends of the Phoenix

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The Segundo Dining Commons.

3 locations on campus (see below)
Monday - Friday
Breakfast 7:00 - 10:15 am
Lunch 11:00 - 2:00 pm
Brunch 9:30 am - 2:00 pm
Dinner 5:00 - 7:00 pm
Brunch 9:30 am - 2:00 pm
Dinner 5:00 - 8:00 pm
Web site
Weekly Menu

The Dining Commons, or DC for short, are where freshmen living in the dorms eat. All freshmen living in dorms are required to buy a meal plan through Student Housing, but anybody can purchase meals at the dining commons. All of the DCs are run by the corporate giant Sodexho, the largest food service provider in North America; Sodexho also controls The Silo and the cafe at the ARC.

The pizza at Tercero is by far the inferior pizza, and while I prefer Tercero (even though I am a Segundo resident), it is for aesthetic reasons: There is more light, less people, its on the second floor, etc. On the other hand, Tercero was designed for convenience of the staff, so while all the cooking and cleaning areas are together, we the sutdents have to travel from one side of the DC to the other in order to get The Bistro and a glass of Milk. The food quality of the two DCs average out, and they often serve the same meals (which can get irritating if you want any sort of variety or differentiation). —Max Mikalonis

Tercero and Segundo DCs have exactly the same number of food stations do they not?

The Segundo and Tercero dining commons have a different layout, but serve the same thing. Sometimes you'll see differences in sodas/juices offered, or condiments at the salad bar. But usually if you nag them about it for a couple weeks via the comment box, they'll put in the flavor you want (I did this with cranberry juice in Tercero). The Tercero kitchen and dining area is BY FAR more spacious than Cuarto, and slightly larger than Segundo so maybe that effects the outcome of the food? -AbbyLawson

2006-03-05 11:59:34   From what I've heard, meal plans can be exchanged for $2 per meal at the housing office, if you graduate or leave the school without doing this, then the meals are just wasted.

Update: Just found out that, for freshman anyway, the meals are turned into Aggie Cash (Munch Money) at the end of the Spring Quarter, at a rate of $2.00 per meal.—ManiGandham

Leftover meals from dorm resident block plans will be converted to Aggie Cash at the close of the academic year as Mani says; however, Gold Plus monies are forfeited at the close of each academic year. Not sure what happens if you just purchase Aggie Cash and have it added to your reg card.

I wouldn't say they add laxatives (I do not understand why you saw the need to capitalize this), however the food likely contains fatty oils such as is seen in many common potato chip varieties, viz pringles. In would be illogical for them to poison the students in any way, what they provide is the simple basic caloric needs of the students without great account for the healthyness or tastiness of what they call food. ~Dave

Technically, no—but there have been some exceptions (based on when I was in the dorms and from more recent discussions). You were able to use one of your meals to make a fairly hearty bag lunch, which was my mode of choice since I could never make the lunch window due to work/classes. You could take out a piece of fruit that you were in the process of eating (the enforcement of this policy varied). Furthermore, it would seem that one can fit quite a bit of food in the Campus Mug you receive upon entering dorm life. This last, of course, is purely conjecture since it would obviously be frowned upon. —KevinChin

At the Segundo DC, you are entitled to carry out one fruit from the fruit bins or one soft served ice cream cone or one of the popsicles/ice creams/ice cream bars/whatever-icy-things-happened-to-be-stored-in-the-freezer. The particular item does not have to be in the process of being consumed. I cannot say for sure that this policy applies to all DCs, but there is a good chance it does. —il


• GTK3 cleanup tasks
  ‣ GtkObject deprecation / removal (bug: 615666)
  - widget flags deprecation
  - move ::destroy to GtkWidget
  - some churn, especially for gnome-canvas/eelcanvas
  - possibly deprecate ::destroy altogether: use weak-pointer/weak-ref
    or move ::destroy to Window & Menu instead

  ‣ gtk_widget_hide_all deprecation / removal (bug: 438318)
  - limited use: hide the container
  - deprecate show_all()? too much churn, only makes sense with a change
    of default visibility for non-toplevels

  ‣ uri hooks cleanup (bug: 339745)
  - hooks are a pain for language bindings, both static and introspection
  - Dialog URI hook → ::link-activated signal (like GtkLabel)
  - LinkButton URI hook → ::clicked signal

  ‣ remove notebook unneeded code (bug: 96834)
  - needs a hero to write a patch
  - also: remove tab scrolling with the scroll button (bug: 630226)
  - bratsche wrote a patch
  - conservative option: make it conditional and turned off by default
  - bold option: remove it
  - also: revisit the DnD API

  ‣ GTK_POLICY_AUTOMATIC as default (bug: 468672)
  - general consensus

  ‣ Since tags
  - 1. do we remove "Since: 2.x"?
  - 2. do we need "Since: 3.0"?
  - baggage, but not much
  - what happens for changes between 2.2[24] and 3.0?

• coding style conventions
- proposal: adopt the Clutter document, as it codifies the gtk+ as well
- investigate an indent script to distribute with gtk+

• rending-cleanup
- ready to be merged
- blocking on the patches for mutter
- merge will happen with mutter, gtk3-engines, gnome-terminal, nautilus
- poke Company for ${YOUR_APPLICATION}

• async error traps in GDK
- use them with gdk_error_trap_pop_ignored()
- remove sync/flush calls around the gdk_error_trap_pop()

log available at: http://live.gnome.org/GTK%2B/Meetings

next meeting: 2010-10-05 @ 20:00 UTC

W: http://www.emmanuelebassi.name
B: http://blogs.gnome.org/ebassi


Latias and Latios the eon duo of Hoenn. They ruffle their feathers and cry loudly when there is hostility toward them. Their downy feathers can enfold their bodies and refract light, which allows them to become invisible or alter their appearance. They normally do not make contact with humans or other Pokémon, and disappears when an enemy is nearby. They forms herds with several members, and is usually found near water.


GAM – Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Turin

Curator Alessandro Rabottini

The group exhibition Mimesi permanente. Una mostra su simulazione e realismo (Permanent Mimesis – An Exhibition on Realism and Simulation) brings together thirteen representatives of a new generation of International artists from Europe, the United States and Asia. Displaying photography, painting, sculpture, video and installation works, the show revolves around the particular moment in which images reveal themselves as self-evident constructions and manifest illusions.

Our visual scenery is now significantly shaped by the deep transformations brought about by the new technologies involved in digital image production. On the one hand, we are witnessing the widespread and always-increasing popularity of software and devices that elaborate, edit and share images; on the other hand we seem to have broaden our criteria in the perception of reality. Thus we can relate to digitally created images – as in the case of 3D animation – and despite being aware of their artificial nature we are still capable of identifying ourselves with the illusion they produce.

The exhibition explores the works of a group of contemporary artists who use digital images as their subject, while still recurring to analogical and more “traditional” formats, such as painting, sculpture and drawing. And their practice, rather than a nostalgic approach, actually constitutes an attempt to underline a sort of production paradox, defining a fundamental aspect of art itself: the possibility to clearly show the production process of an illusion and, despite this, to create a sort of unparalleled and effective ambiguity, as seen in the works by Elad Lassry (1977, Israel / USA) and Michael Riedel (1972, Germany).

Many of the exhibited works alternate between two moments: the moment of simulation and “manifest” fiction, and that of a believable hyper-realism, through a constant shift in the use of expressive means. Artists such as Anna Barriball (1972, UK), Frank Benson (1976, USA), William Daniels (1976, UK) and Giuseppe Gabellone (1973, Italy), for instance, present drawings that take on the feature of sculpture; their surfaces mimicking space and materials, moving in between bi-dimensional and three-dimensional forms, in between their being image and object.

Many artists today work with elements of both realism and abstraction. These two dimensions can no longer be conceived as opposite categories in art, and neither in our everyday reality. For instance, the economic, as well as the political field, have progressively become more complex as they seem to involve specific and abstract languages, just like the ones used in non-figurative art. Thus, the exhibition includes works by artists such as Roman Ondák (1966, Slovakia), Pratchaya Phinthong (1974, Thailand) and Carey Young (1970), who extend their artistic investigations to the area of business and political action. Their works deal with themes such as fluctuation of money value, the nature of a legal contract, future forecast and political rhetoric, which are all considered as “representations”, conventions, acts of faith and parts of a general role play.

These young artists watch the constant flux of images and information that surrounds us, placing their work on an intermediary terrain, where the oppositions between mass media and private sphere, between pop collective imagination and individual psychology are no longer effective. Artists Seth Price (1973, USA), Sterling Ruby (1972, Germany / USA) and Kelley Walker (1969, USA) often use images taken from magazines or the Internet, interiorizing and filtering them through a transformation process, and often turning them into something mysterious and obscure. They are artists who reflect upon the actual state of the image, and upon their lives as an endless sequence of adjustments, from one medium to the next, from one screen to the other, as they question a fundamental concept in the history of modernity: that of the specific nature of the media and of the supporting devices and technologies.

In the works on display, images seem to become the sediment of time, which does no longer coincide with the idea of velocity promoted by modernity but, on the contrary, it expresses the manifold time dimensions of the Internet.
Alessandro Rabottini

The accompanying bi-lingual catalogue (Italian and English) is published by Electa Mondadori.

Alessandro Rabottini is an Art Critic and Chief Curator at the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bergamo.

Featured Artists:

Anna Barriball (1972, Plymouth. Lives and works in London)
Frank Benson (1976, Virginia. Lives and works in New York)
William Daniels (1976, Brighton. Lives and works in London)
Simon Denny (1982, Auckland. Lives and works in Auckland and Frankfurt)
Giuseppe Gabellone (1973, Brindisi, Italy. Lives and works in Milan and Paris)
Elad Lassry (1977, Tel-Aviv, Israel. Lives and works in Los Angeles)
Roman Ondák (1966, Slovakia. Lives and works in Bratislava, Slovakia)
Pratchaya Phinthong (1974, Thailand. Lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand)
Seth Price (1973. Lives and works in New York)
Michael Riedel (1972. Lives and works in Berlin)
Sterling Ruby (1972, Germany. Lives and works in Los Angeles)
Kelley Walker (1969, Columbus, Georgia. Lives and works in New York)
Carey Young (1970, Lusaka, Zambia. Lives and works in London)

GAM-Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art
Via Magenta 31
10128 Turin, Italy
+39 011 4429518, +39 011 4429595
Opening Hours:
Tuesday-Sunday 10am-6pm
Monday closed.
Last admission: one hour prior to closing time.

Media Contact: Daniela Matteu – Tanja Gentilini tel. 011 4429523;

Organized by:

GAM-Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art


Total Time
Prep 10 mins
Cook 15 mins

Light and sweet, super easy. Don't know the origin.

  1. Allow the raspberries to thaw, store in the fridge.
  2. Preheat oven to 350F/180C while you oil a muffin tray with butter or oil.
  3. Cut sheets of pastry into 4 equal squares and gently push into muffin tray. Bake for 15 minutes until golden. Allow to cool and push down pastry with the back of a spoon.
  4. Combine the raspberries and icing sugar and blend until smooth. Pour a little of the mixture into each pastry cup ready to serve.


NAD re-invents the iconic 3020

NAD re-invents the iconic 3020, widely recognized as one of the most influential audio products of the 20th century, to introduce a new generation of music lovers to high fidelity music reproduction. Supporting popular digital music interfaces like Bluetooth and Asynchronous  USB, the D 3020 benefits from the highly efficient operation of Hypex Class D technology. Hypex is proud to be associated with NAD and to have contributed to the new Hybrid Digital architecture developed by NAD.

NAD D3020 Vert3-4


March 15, 2010

Stanford Computational feat speeds finding of genes to milliseconds instead of years

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Stanford University computer scientist Debashis Saho claims to be able to find in a fraction of a second and for practically zero cost, new genes involved in the same developmental pathway as any two genes provided.

Sahoo went on to show that this amazing feat could actually be performed. The proof-of-principle for his idea, published online March 15 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, opens a powerful, mathematical route for conducting stem cell research and shows the power of interdisciplinary collaborations in science. It also demonstrates that using computers to mine existing databases can radically accelerate research in the laboratory. Ultimately, it may lead to advances in diverse areas of medicine such as disease diagnosis or cancer therapy.

Four years ago, while studying for his doctorate in electrical engineering with advisor David Dill, PhD, professor of computer science, and co-advisor Sylvia Plevritis, PhD, associate professor of radiology, Sahoo took an immunology class and realized that many of the relationships in biology are not symmetric, but asymmetric. As an analogy, Sahoo noted that trees bearing fruit almost certainly have leaves, but trees outside of the fruiting season may or may not have leaves, depending on the time of year.

Sahoo and Dill realized that these asymmetric relationships could be found by applying Boolean logic, in which the researchers established a series of if/then rules and then searched data for candidates that satisfied all the rules. For example, scientists might know that gene A is very active at the beginning of cell development, and gene C is active much later. By screening large public databases, Sahoo can find the genes that are almost never active when A is active, and almost always active when C is active, in many other types of cells. Researchers can then test to determine whether these genes become active between the early and late stages of development.

In the paper, lead author Sahoo looked at gene expression patterns in the development of an immunological cell called a B cell. Starting with two known B-cell genes, Sahoo searched through databases with thousands of gene products in milliseconds and found 62 genes that matched the patterns he would expect to see for genes that got turned on in between the activation of the two genes he started with. He then examined databases involving 41 strains of laboratory mice that had been engineered to be deficient in one or more of the 62 genes. Of those 41 strains, 26 had defects in B cell development.

“This was the validation of the method,” Sahoo said. “Biologists are really amazed that, with just a computer algorithm, in milliseconds I can find genes that it takes them a really long time to isolate in the lab.” He added that he was especially gratified that the information comes from databases that are widely available and from which other scientists have already culled information.

Sahoo is now using the technique to find new genes that play a role in developing cancers.

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Consulting Services

The development and commercialization environment in Belgium is more complex than a year ago.

Regulators, healthcare providers and payors more demanding. Patients more empowered. Our four consulting practice areas and European-based pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device consultants provide you with actionable intelligence to help navigate smoothly from development milestone to business result. All with a focus on the aspects unique to market success in Belgium.

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Water and sanitation are a human right!

Water is a public good, not a commodity. We invite the European Commission to propose legislation implementing the human right to water and sanitation as recognised by the United Nations, and promoting the provision of water and sanitation as essential public services for all. The EU legislation should require governments to ensure and to provide all citizens with sufficient and clean drinking water and sanitation. We urge that:

  3. The EU increases its efforts to achieve universal access to water and sanitation.

Latest News

(24 March 2016) Spain’s largest private operator Agbar has enjoyed a monopoly in the Metropolitan area of Barcelona by supplying 28 municipalities out of 36 including the city of Barcelona.

(22 March 2016) On World Water Day it will be two years since the EPSU-led Right2Water campaign became the first ever successful European Citizens Initiative.


Federal Politics

Government bows to concerns over school funding review

The federal government has extended the consultation period for a review into school funding after public school advocates accused it of running a biased and overly secretive process.

The Education Department is conducting a review of the school funding loading for students with low socio-economic status. The loading, which provides additional funding to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, was introduced as part of the Gonski school reforms.

The Education Department is conducting a review of school funding loading.
The Education Department is conducting a review of school funding loading.

Submissions to the review, which had not been widely publicised, were due to close on Wednesday but will now be accepted until the end of the month on the department's website.

The government has also removed a question from the discussion paper that sparked concerns it was open to scrapping loadings for disadvantaged students altogether.

The new paper, reissued on Tuesday, no longer includes the question: "Is there a need for a low SES loading?"

A spokesman for Education Minister Christopher Pyne said: "Stakeholders requested an extension to the review deadline in order to complete their submission which the government has agreed to."

Trevor Cobbold, national convener of public schools lobby group Save our Schools, said he was glad the government had extended the consultation period for the "hitherto secret review".

He said it was "scandalous" that the government had not publicly announced the review and that only selected organisations had been asked to participate in it.

Mr Cobbold said the review had been "rigged" because only nine of the 47 organisations invited to a stakeholder briefing represented government schools, compared with 19 private school groups and 11 Catholic organisations.

The government counters that public schools were represented by state and territory education departments and the independent sector has a more diverse group of representative bodies.

Australian Education Union president Angelo Gavrielatos said: "Extending this review does not stop it from being an exercise designed to legitimise the dismantling of Gonski's needs-based funding reforms."


A town which belongs to the Aljarafe region and is situated 7 km from Seville. The current settlement dates from 1595, the year when the previous site, next to the river, was abandoned because of frequent flooding. In the district are the archaelogical remains of the Roman town of Itálica, founded by the general Escipión in the 3rd century BC. It was one of the most important cities of the age and gave Rome two emperors: Hadrian and Trajan. The town is divided into two areas: the Vetus Urbs (old city), which lies under the centre of Santiponce, and the Nova Urbs (new city), created by Hadrian as an extension of the existing town. The area open to the public includes part of the neighbourhood built by Hadrian, a theatre situated in the old city and a modern park built around the amphitheatre, one of the largest in the Roman Empire, with a capacity to hold 25,000 spectators. Santiponce also has another area of great interest, the Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo, declared to be a National Monument in 1872. Built in the Gothic style, it was founded by Alonso Pérez de Guzmán in the 14th century for Cistercian monks. It is made up of two Gothic churches and two cloisters in the Mudejar style.

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Face to Face: Language Trainers typical prices shown are per hour and are typically based on a two-hour (120 minutes) lesson for a course of 100 hours (50x2-hour lessons). Prices are for major languages (English, Spanish, German, Italian and French); for other languages prices might be slightly higher. There is no sales tax or HST to pay on any of our courses. Usually, our trainer's travel costs are included in the price where the training takes place in the city center and is within walking distance of bus, subway or train. For other locations, prices may be slightly higher. Course books cost $50 (USA) or C$60 (Canada) per participant and will be arranged by the trainer after the first session. Note: Our prices shown here are only for guidance and might vary depending on the type of language needed (e.g. Business language usually costs slightly more than General language). Please contact us for a precise quotation.

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Habitat associations of Yellow Wagtails Motacilla flava flavissima on lowland wet grassland

*Corresponding author.
Email: richard.bradbury@RSPB.org.uk

In common with many other previously widespread British birds, Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava flavissima populations have declined substantially in the UK in recent decades. Recent national data suggest particular problems in grassland. We investigated how habitat management in a grassland area of East Anglia, England, influenced the habitat selection of this species. Breeding territories were associated with fields previously subject to prolonged winter floods and which contained shallow-edged ponds or wet ditches during summer. Territories were also associated with fields with short, sparse swards and high proportions of bare earth within the sward, and these features were themselves associated with previous winter flooding. However, nests were associated with taller swards than were random points within the same field, suggesting that Yellow Wagtails would benefit from within-field heterogeneity of sward height to provide both nesting and foraging habitat. We discuss how grazing, cutting and water-level management regimes could be used to promote optimal sward structure for Yellow Wagtails.


Celebrations Around the World

Millions of people are taking part in New Year's celebrations around the world. I'm Sarah Long. And I'm Bob Doughty. We tell about some of these activities on this VOA Special English New Year's program.

People around the world celebrate the coming of a New Year. The celebrations include parties and religious observances. Many people take part in special activities said to bring good luck and success in the New Year.

Ancient Romans observed New Year's Day on March first. Later, Roman leaders made January first the beginning of the year. One-thousand years ago, parts of Europe started the year on March twenty-fifth. By the year sixteen-hundred, many European nations agreed on a new system to measure time. It is called the Gregorian calendar. This calendar moved New Year's Day to January first.

Today, Europeans have many ways to celebrate the New Year. Scotland has a famous celebration called Hogmanay. No one knows for sure where the word came from. It could be from the Anglo-Saxon words for "holy month." Another possibility is a Gaelic expression for "new morning." Some people think Hogmanay could be from an old French word meaning "gift." That is because it was common to give gifts at the new year.

For many centuries, fire ceremonies have been an important part of Hogmanay. The Scots set small fires as a way to end the old year.

Today, Hogmanay includes huge celebrations on the streets of Glasgow and Edinburgh on New Year's Eve. More than one-hundred-thousand people attend these street parties. Bells ring at midnight. Everyone kisses each other and sings the traditional New Year's song Auld Lang Syne. Poet Robert Burns based some of the song's words on a Scottish poem.

Another tradition is called First Footing. Many Scots believe that the first person to enter your house in the New Year will bring either good or bad luck. A tall, dark-haired visitor who comes with a gift is considered very good luck.

January first is an important day in Greece. It is both the beginning of a New Year and Saint Basil's Day. Saint Basil was a leader of the early Greek Orthodox Church. Stories say he would come in the night and leave presents for children in their shoes. Many children leave their shoes out by the fireplace in the hope that Saint Basil will visit them.

In Greece, it is a New Year's tradition to serve Basil's Bread, or Vassilopitta. A piece of money is added to the bread before it is baked. When the bread is ready, it is divided in a traditional way. The first piece is cut for Saint Basil. The next goes to the oldest person in the house. Everyone is served, from the oldest to the youngest. Whoever finds the money in their piece of bread will have luck during the New Year.

Other European countries have New Year's traditions. In Belgium, for example, children write messages to their parents on colorful pieces of paper. The children read the messages to their families on New Year's Day.

In Spain, everyone must have at least twelve grapes ready on the final day of the year. One grape represents each month in the year. As the New Year begins, a person puts a grape in his or her mouth each time the clock rings. Each piece of fruit is said to bring good luck and happiness in the New Year.

The New Year is celebrated in a big way in Japan. Japanese people often begin by cleaning their homes in late December. Some people hang long ropes across the front of their home. This is supposed to keep bad spirits away.

Many Japanese people visit a Buddhist religious center, or shrine. Some people wear traditional Japanese clothing. Bells at Shinto shrines ring one-hundred-eight times. A traditional story says that there are one-hundred-eight desires in every person. The story says that people can clean their hearts by listening to the bells ringing.

Shrines in Japan offer visitors a small piece of white paper. Each has a message about what will happen to that person in the future. Many people tie the paper to a tree near the shrine.

January first is a special day for children because they often receive money from their parents. New Year's greeting cards are another popular tradition. Millions of people write and send these cards to friends in December. Japan's mail service works to guarantee that all the letters arrive by January first.

Not all countries celebrate the New Year at the same time. This is because people in different areas have different ways to measure time. Some systems are based on the movement of the moon. Others are based on the position of the sun. Still others are based on both the sun and the moon.

Like much of Asia, Korea has two New Year celebrations. One is on January first. The other is on the first day of the Lunar New Year. The Lunar New Year begins on the day of the first new moon of the new year. The first day of the Lunar New Year is called Sol-nal (sole-lahl). Sol-nal has many special meanings and events. It is a day for family members to re-unite.

On the day before Sol-nal, Koreans place objects made of grass on their doors and walls. This is supposed to protect their families from evil spirits in the New Year. Some families attend a bell-ringing ceremony.

Many Koreans make wishes for the New Year while watching the sunrise. Some wear traditional clothing. Family members gather early in the morning to remember their ancestors. After the observance, they eat a kind of rice cake soup. Koreans believe that eating this food will add an extra year to their life.

After the meal, young people lower their heads to honor their parents and older adults. This means good health and good wishes. Many parents give the children money.

Vietnam's New Year is officially known as Tet Nguyen Dan, or Tet. It begins between January twenty-first and February nineteenth. The exact date changes from year to year.

Tet lasts ten days. The first three days are the most important. Vietnamese people believe that how people act during those days will influence the whole year. As a result, they make every effort to avoid arguments and smile as much as possible.

Many Vietnamese people prepare for the holiday by paying their debts and cleaning their homes. Some people believe that different gods live in their homes. They say these gods watch over and protect family members.

Just before the first day of Tet, the mother or grandmother in each family lights a firecracker. This is done to welcome the New Year. Then people go to sleep and wait for the sun to rise. At sunrise, they get up and put on new clothes. Rice cake is a popular New Year's food.

Like people in Scotland, Vietnamese people believe that the first person through the door on New Year's Day brings either good or bad luck. Children receive gifts of money, as they do in other countries. Some Vietnamese families give money or other gifts to visitors during the holiday.

British Columbia, Canada has an interesting New Year's tradition. People of all ages put on swimwear and dive into the icy waters of English Bay, near Vancouver. The yearly event is called the Polar Bear Swim. It is named for the large, white animals native to northern Canada. The Polar Bear Swim started about eighty years ago. Today, the event has grown to more than two-thousand divers. Thousands of other people watch the event.

In Brazil, New Year celebrations also involve water. But it is the warm water of the Atlantic Ocean. Millions of people go to the beach on New Year's Eve to watch fireworks. They wear white clothes to welcome the New Year and to bring good luck. Some people jump over the waves and throw flowers into the water while they make wishes for the New Year. Others light candles on the beach.

However you choose to celebrate the holiday, we in Special English wish all our listeners a Happy New Year!

This VOA Special English New Year's program was written and produced by George Grow. This is Sarah Long. And this is Bob Doughty.

Voice of America Special English

Source: NEW YEAR'S EVE PROGRAM – December 31, 2002: Celebrations Around the World
TEXT = http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2002-12/a-2002-12-31-2-1.cfm?renderforprint=1


NK incorporates urban density, longevity, resource efficiency and return on investment into all of its designs. NK is known for reducing overall system loads and minimizing non-income generating spaces such as circulation, parking and mechanical areas.

Projects are designed to consume fewer resources and use long-lasting materials that lower maintenance and replacement costs. NK is an expert in sustainable rating systems, such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Built Green. The firm participates in the AIA 2030 Commitment, a program aimed at eliminating the need for fossil fuels in buildings by 2030.


Five Modern Prefabs Coming to the MOMA

A much more innovative and original collection of modern prefabs than shown in Wired can be found parked next to the Museum of Modern Art in New York this July. Five architects have been chosen to build prefabs for ""Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling." It is a mix: "I wanted a mix of existing buildings and prototypes," said Barry Bergdoll, the chief curator of architecture and design at the museum, who is organizing the exhibition with Peter Christensen, a curatorial assistant.

The five chosen are: -KieranTimberlake Associates of Philadelphia; (beloved of TreeHugger for the Loblolly House) Lawrence Sass of Cambridge, Mass.; Douglas Gauthier and Jeremy Edmiston of Manhattan; Oskar Leo Kaufmann and Albert RÃ¼f of Austria (of the iconic Su-si) ; and Richard Horden of Horden Cherry Lee in London (of the micro-compact home)

According to the New York Times, Each firm has a track record with prefabricated housing, but they all approach the form differently. The proposals were evaluated by a jury of MoMA curators and staff members and architectural professionals. The Manhattan architecture firm of Cooper Robertson & Partners will act as the consulting architect in assembling the houses, some created expressly for this exhibition and others designed earlier.

Mr. Bergdoll wants to counter other misconceptions about prefab housing, like the notion that the reason to build them is to save money. While they can be economical, he said, they also have potential environmental benefits. The goal for Mr. Gauthier and Mr. Edmiston, for example, is to cut the most complex prefab pieces with the least waste.

Intrinsic to the idea of prefab housing is serial production, an arguably radical notion at a time when one-of-a-kind homes are so valued. But computerized customization also makes it possible to produce nonidentical objects, Mr. Bergdoll said, adding that the exhibition may explore "the idea that mass production is reconcilable with the individual artistic spirit." ::New York Times

treehugger slideshows


FORT LEE, Va. (Feb. 10, 2010) -- A corporal with a mutilated left arm fights on with his right and refuses to leave the battlefield.

A volunteer unit, demanding equal recognition, refuses its wages and nevertheless fights gallantly.

A sergeant, deeming it imperative to risk his life, rescues the colors from a wounded standard bearer, despite being wounded numerous times himself.

All are examples of the noble and courageous actions black soldiers and their units carried out in support of the Union's cause during the Civil War - the most divisive, deadly and epic event ever to have occurred on American soil, and in many ways, the only one in which blacks fought for the right to fight for their own freedom.

"This war bought us to a point where we could either be true to ideas of the founders or we could simply be a nation that was consumed by its faults, by its hypocrisy," said Hari Jones, curator, African American Civil War Memorial and Museum, Washington, D.C. "The Union victory in this war and the way it was won was closer to the ideals that reflected the best side of our America versus the worst; one in which we could hold another man as property for profit."

The Civil War - also called the War Between the States, Freedom's War (by many blacks) and the War of Northern Aggression (by many Southerners) - was a pivotal event that pitted the United States (the North) against the Confederate States (the South) over issues such as state's rights and slavery. While specific reasons for the war have been debated since the war ended, the result was indisputable: it preserved the Union and abolished slavery.

The business of slavery had existed 242 years prior to the start of the war. Although blacks had served and fought in every major conflict over that time period - as slaves and free men - their participation was often the result of necessity. But this war presented a rare opportunity, one in which they were the central issue and one in which they, if summoned to take up arms, could play a central role in validating their humanity and exonerate them from two centuries of bondage, injustice and unequal treatment.

The fervor blacks felt about the prospect of participating in the fight for their own freedom might be best illustrated by the eloquence of Alfred M. Green in a Philadelphia speech one month prior to the start of the war. In it, he urged blacks to take a stand despite their bottom-rung status as citizens:

"The time has arrived in the history of the great republic when we may again give evidence of being a world of bravery and patriotism and of a race in whose hearts burns the love of country, of freedom, and of civil and religious toleration. It is these grand principles that enable men, however proscribed, when possessed of true patriotism, to say, 'My county, right or wrong, I love thee still!'"

Many northern blacks - free and slave - shared Green's view but many whites didn't. Some questioned why they were fighting for the rights of blacks and many balked at arming them. In fact, at the start of hostilities - the attack on Fort Sumter, S.C., April 12, 1861 - the Union had no plans to officially include blacks in the war.

But the tribulation of war, as history would have it, often makes partners of the unlikeliest parties. President Abraham Lincoln, who didn't make the abolishment of slavery an objective of the war, was awakened to the need for more soldiers after a number of crushing defeats and pressure to recruit blacks by the citizenry of the north, abolitionists and field commanders, some of whom had already employed blacks in the war effort. The president began deliberations to put blacks in the ranks of the military sometime in the summer of 1862. In the following statement to New York Tribune Editor Horace Greeley, he seemed to indicate that the freedom of blacks in the south, and their subsequent inclusion in the military, was a measure to save the Union.

"...What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help save the Union," wrote Lincoln.

On Jan. 1, 1863, Lincoln made effective his Emancipation Proclamation. The decision immediately freed some slaves but not the vast majority of the 3 million held in the south and the border states. It did, however, make each succeeding northern battlefield effort a liberation campaign. Whatever the political implications, it was a decision that prompted widespread jubilation amongst blacks everywhere and flung open the doors of legalized military service for them.

The U.S. Colored Troops were formed in the spring of 1863 to usher in the free blacks, runaways and freed slaves who would join the ranks. More than 180,000 blacks answered the call for service in the USCT and more than 29,000 served in the Navy.

Dr. E. Curtis Alexander, a Chesapeake history educator and USCT re-enactor whose relatives served in the war, said a black man donning military attire for first time clearly understood what the war held for him.

"He was wearing a uniform of acceptance and expectation," he said. "He understood that."

Black soldiers, brimming with pride and purpose but also burdened with the hopes of their race, fought with bountiful urgency and wiped away any previous misconceptions about their bravery. Both Confederate and Union soldiers could attest to their mettle in battle.

"No troops can be more determined or more daring," said Union Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks in reference the 1st and 2nd Regiments of the Louisiana Native Guards during the Siege of Port Hudson (La.) that took place in the late spring and early summer of 1863. "They made, during the day, three charges upon the batteries of the enemy, suffering very heavy losses, and holding their position until nightfall with the other troops...

"Whatever doubt may have existed before as to the efficiency of organizations of this character, the history of this day proves conclusively that those who were in condition to prove the conduct of these new regiments that the government will find in this class of troops effective supporters and defenders."

Another black unit, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, made a name for itself at the Confederate Fort Wagner (S.C.) July 18, 1863. Its mission was to attack the installation that was protected by a wall and bounded by a deep marsh. When the charge was executed, a fiercely intense battle ensued, but the enemy did not yield. The 54th's commander was killed and so were 29 of his men. Twenty-four more died of their wounds, 15 were captured and 52 were never found. Members of the 54th had steadfastly refused their pay of $7 a month (compared to $13 for white soldiers) because of the obvious, but more importantly, they didn't want their service to be trivialized, said Jones.

Blacks not only passed the tests of battle as units but as individuals as well. Corporal Miles James, Company B, 36th Regiment, USCT and a native of Princess Anne County (now Virginia Beach), suffered a paralyzing wound on the battlefield at Henrico County's Chaffin's Farm Sept. 30, 1864. His arm was essentially amputated, yet he continued to fight. His Medal of Honor citation reads:

"Having had his arm mutilated, making immediate amputation necessary, he loaded and discharged his piece with one hand and urged his men forward; this within 30 yards (27 m) of the enemy's works."

James was one of 14 black soldiers to earn the Medal of Honor at Chaffin's Farm and Newmarket Heights.

Perhaps the most the most symbolic acts of bravery by a black soldier occurred at Fort Wagner July 18, 1863. Sgt. William H. Carney a member of the 54th and a runaway slave who was born in Norfolk, saved the American flag from falling to ground during an assault then planted it on a low wall protecting the fort even though he was wounded. When the assault was repulsed, he once again secured the standard during the retreat, despite suffering two more wounds.

Carney earned the Medal of Honor for his actions, one of 25 awarded to black soldiers during the war.

By the time the war ended in 1865, more than 620,000 people had died. More than 36,000 blacks are included in that number. Their participation was a determining factor in the war's outcome. And although their sacrifices didn't guarantee black people total freedom, it was the most the critical contribution toward that aspiration.

That aspiration maybe be best exemplified by Carney's figurative deed on the battlefield - someone who liberated himself from slavery, volunteered to fight for his cause and that of his country; one who refused to invest his heart in the war without the respect and dignity afforded any fighting man; but more importantly, one who invested his blood as an American Soldier and assured the Union's victory, the country's survival and his people a prideful, gallant walk down the path toward justice and equality.


Songs from movie soundtracks that are not only great in their respective movies, but can stand on their own. Most are from indie movies & range from current to the 1980s (and I kinda couldn't help putting in at least 2 Garden State soundtrack songs because it's my favourite).

P.S. - What are some your favourite movie music moments? (Leave em in the comments section)

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2,505    1hr 0min (15 tracks)
6 comments on 15 Best Movie Moments

amelie, pulp fiction, kill bill, les petits mouchoirs, an education.... all of them have great soundtracks!!


Hyderabad, Jan 7 IANS | 9 months ago

Singer-composer R.P. Patnaik, who had worked with late actor Uday Kiran, says he doesn't have the courage to attend the funeral scheduled to take place here Tuesday.

Uday reportedly committed suicide Sunday by hanging himself from the ceiling in his flat. He was 33.

Uday's last rites will be performed in the evening. His body is kept at the Andhra Pradesh Film Chamber of Commerce for the public to pay their last respects.

"I don't think I have the courage to attend his funeral. I'm watching the proceeding on television and I feel so heavy listening to the songs I composed for him being played in the background," Patnaik told IANS.

Patnaik had composed music for six of Uday's films -- "Chitram", "Nuvvu Nenu", "Manasantha Nuvve", "Sreeram", "Nee Sneham" and "Neeku Nenu Naaku Nuvvu".

"I have so many memories with him. I can still remember the fun we have had every time we worked together. I still can't believe he chose to end his life like this," he said.

Uday reportedly ended his life because he was depressed after not getting roles in films.

Born on Jan 26, 1980, the actor made his cinematic debut with Telugu romantic-drama "Chitram" in 2000. He went on to act in several successful films such as "Nuvvu Nenu" and "Manasantha Nuvve".

He had also worked in Tamil films such as "Poi" and "Pen Singam".

(Posted on 07-01-2014)


Heaven's Gate Screening

Do a few isometric gluteal exercises and then head over to Capitol Hill for a screening of 1980’s Heaven’s Gate, the infamous Western that runs three hours and 39 minutes long and is commonly alleged to be the worst film ever made. Is it possible that everyone was wrong about this one?

September 6-12

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Home > About Us > History of UNHCR

History of UNHCR

A Global Humanitarian Organisation of Humble Origins

The UN Refugee Agency emerged in the wake of World War II to help Europeans displaced by that conflict. Optimistically, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14th, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly with a three-year mandate to complete its work and then disband. The following year, on July 28th, the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees - the legal foundation of helping refugees and the basic statute guiding UNHCR's work - was adopted.

By 1956 UNHCR was facing its first major emergency, the outpouring of refugees when Soviet forces crushed the Hungarian Revolution. Any expectation that UNHCR would become unnecessary has never resurfaced. In the 1960s, the decolonisation of Africa produced the first of that continent's numerous refugee crises needing UNHCR intervention. Over the following two decades, UNHCR had to help with displacement crises in Asia and Latin America. By the end of the century there were fresh refugee problems in Africa and, turning full circle, new waves of refugees in Europe from the series of wars in the Balkans.

© UNHCR/157/1951. The agency’s predecessor, the International Refugee Organisation, had helped 1 million people, including these Europeans from camps in Germany, Austria and Italy en route to a new life in the United States, to resettle in other countries.

The start of the 21st Century has seen UNHCR helping with major refugee crises in Africa, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia, and Asia, especially the 30-year-old Afghan refugee problem. At the same time, UNHCR has been asked to use its expertise to also help many internally displaced by conflict. Less visibly, it has expanded its role in helping stateless people, a largely overlooked group numbering millions of people in danger of being denied basic rights because they do not have any citizenship. In some parts of the world, such as Africa and Latin America, the original 1951 mandate has been strengthened by agreement on regional legal instruments.

In 1954, the new organisation won the Nobel Peace Prize for its ground-breaking work in helping the refugees of Europe. Its mandate had just been extended until the end of the decade. More than a quarter century later, UNHCR received the 1981 award for what had become worldwide assistance to refugees, with the citation noting the political obstacles facing the organisation. From only 34 staff members when UNHCR was founded, it now has 6,650 national and international members of staff, including 740 in UNHCR's Geneva headquarters. The agency works in 118 countries, with staff based in 108 main locations such as regional and branch offices and 151 often remote sub-offices and field offices.

The budget has grown from US$300,000 in its first year to more than US$5 billion in 2014. In 2014 UNHCR deals with around 51.2 million people of concern: 33.3 million internally displaced people and 16.7 million refugees, plus another 10 million stateless people and more than 1.2 million asylum seekers. An organisation with a three-year mandate to solve the problem of refugees celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2010, aware that these humanitarian needs are unlikely to disappear.

UNHCR/29015/1999/R.LeMoyne. Within days of NATO’s air strikes against Serb positions in 1999, nearly 1 million civilians fled or were forced into exile from Kosovo, including these civilians at a border crossing with the neighbouring Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

UNHCR turns 60

Founded on December 14, 1950 to help the forcibly displaced after World War Two, UNHCR has since assisted tens of millions around the world.

The 1951 Refugee Convention

The 1951 Refugee Convention

The Geneva Refugee Convention is just over 60 years old. It has been instrumental in helping an estimated 50 million people restart their lives.


LISA (Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis) is providing a series of evening short courses to help graduate students use statistics in their research. The focus of these two-hour courses is on teaching practical statistical techniques for analyzing or collecting data.

Wednesday, July 13, 4:30-6:30 pm;
Location: 1080 Torgersen Hall;
Instructor: Hamdy Mahmoud;
Title: Parametric versus Semi/nonparametric Regression Models;

Linear models, generalized linear models, and nonlinear models are examples of parametric regression models because we know the function that describes the relationship between the response and explanatory variables. In many situations, that relationship is not known. The primary goal of this short course is to guide researchers who need to incorporate unknown, flexible, and nonlinear relationships between variables into their regression analyses.

Nonparametric regression differs from parametric regression in that the shape of the functional relationships between the response (dependent) and the explanatory (independent) variables are not predetermined but can be adjusted to capture unusual or unexpected features of the data. When the relationship between the response and explanatory variables is known, parametric regression models should be used. If the relationship is unknown and nonlinear, nonparametric regression models should be used. In case we know the relationship between the response and part of explanatory variables and do not know the relationship between the response and the other part of explanatory variables we use semiparmetric regression models. Any application area that uses regression analysis can potentially benefit from semi/nonparametric regression. R software will be used in this course.

This course covers:

1. Differences between parametric and semi/nonparametric regression models.
2. How do I know if I should use nonparametric regression model for my data?
3. A comparison between parametric and nonparametric regression in terms of fitting and prediction criteria.
4. Methods of fitting semi/nonparametric regression models.

Data sets:

1. We begin with a classic dataset taken from Pagan and Ullah (1999, p. 155) who consider Canadian cross-section wage data consisting of a random sample taken from the 1971 Canadian Census Public Use Tapes for males having common education (Grade 13). There are n = 205 observations in total, and 2 variables, the logarithm of the individual’s wage (logwage) and their age (age). It is available in R software package.

2. Prestige of Canadian Occupations data set. This data have 6 variables: education, income, women, prestige, census, and type. Source: Canada (1971) Census of Canada. Vol. 3, Part 6. Statistics Canada [pp. 19-1–19-21]. It is also available in R.

3. Cross-sectional wage data are consisting of a random sample taken from the U.S. population survey for the year 1076. There are 526 observations in total. Available in R software [library(np), data(wage1)]

Below is an example for unknown nonlinear relationship between age and log wage and some different types of parametric and nonparametric regression lines. One can see that nonparametric regressions outperform parametric regressions in fitting the relationship between the two variables and the simple linear regression is the worst. We are going to cover these methods and more.

Course files are available on the course webpage (

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Learn about Life in the 1920s

56. PURPOSE OF BAKING.--The various processes in the making of bread that have been considered up to this point may be successfully carried out, but unless the baking, which is the last step, is properly done, the bread is likely to be unpalatable and indigestible. Much attention should therefore be given to this part of the work. So that the best results may be obtained, it should be borne in mind that bread is baked for the purpose of killing the ferment, rupturing the starch grains of the flour so that they become digestible, fixing the air cells, and forming a nicely flavored crust. During the process of baking, certain changes take place in the loaf. The gluten that the dough contains is hardened by the heat and remains in the shape of bubbles, which give the bread a porous appearance; also, the starch contained in the dough is cooked within the loaf, but the outside is first cooked and then toasted.

57. OVEN TEMPERATURE FOR BAKING.--In baking bread, it is necessary first to provide the oven with heat of the right temperature and of sufficient strength to last throughout the baking. As is indicated in Figure 4, the usual oven temperature for successful bread baking is from 380 to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, but in both the first and the last part of the baking the heat should be less than during the middle of it. An oven thermometer or an oven gauge is a very good means of determining the temperature of the oven. But if neither of these is available the heat may be tested by placing in the oven a white cracker, a piece of white paper, or a layer of flour spread on a shallow tin pan. If any one of these becomes a light brown in 5 minutes, the oven is right to commence baking. Every precaution should be taken to have the oven just right at first, for if the bread is placed in an oven that is too hot the yeast plant will be killed immediately and the rising consequently checked. Of course, the bread will rise to some extent even if the yeast plant is killed at once, for the carbon dioxide that the dough contains will expand as it becomes heated and will force the loaf up; but bread baked in this way is generally very unsatisfactory, because a hard crust forms on the top and it must either burst or retard the rising of the loaf. If the heat is not sufficient, the dough will continue to rise until the air cells run together and cause large holes to form in the loaf. In an oven that is just moderately hot, or has a temperature of about 400 degrees, the yeast plant will not be killed so quickly, the dough will continue to rise for some time, and the crust of the bread should begin to brown in about 15 minutes.

[Illustration: Fig. 14] [Illustration: Fig. 15]

58. Fig. 14 illustrates a loaf of bread that has risen too much. The inside texture is coarse and the shape of the loaf is not good. Fig. 15 shows the result of uneven temperature. The high side is caused by exposure to more intense heat than the opposite side, and the crack is the result of a too rapid formation of the crust. Sometimes it is advisable to keep the crust from becoming hard too rapidly. In order to do this, and at the same time produce a more even color, the top of the loaf may be moistened by brushing it with milk before it is put into the oven.

Fig. 16 shows a well-formed loaf of bread that has had the right amount of rising, and Fig. 17 shows the inside texture of bread for which the mixing, rising, and baking have been correctly done.

59. TIME FOR BAKING AND CARE OF BREAD IN OVEN.--The time required for baking bread and the care it should receive in the oven are also important matters to know. How long the bread should bake depends on the size of the loaf. Under proper oven temperature, a small loaf, or one made with 1 cupful of liquid, ought to bake in from 50 minutes to 1 hour, while a large loaf requires from 1-1/2 to 2 hours. As has been explained, the loaf should begin to brown, or have its crust formed, in about 15 minutes after it is placed in the oven, and the baking should proceed rather slowly.

[Illustration: Fig. 16]

To get the best results in baking, the pans should be placed so that the air in the oven will circulate freely around them. If they are so placed that the loaves touch each other or the sides of the oven, the loaves will rise unevenly and consequently will be unsightly in shape, like those shown in Figs. 14 and 15. If the loaves rise higher on one side than on the other, even when the pans are properly placed, it is evident that the heat is greater in that place than in the other parts of the oven and the loaves should therefore be changed to another position. Proper care given to bread while baking will produce loaves that are an even brown on the bottom, sides, and top and that shrink from the sides of the pan.

[Illustration: Fig. 17]

60. CARE OF BREAD AFTER BAKING.--As soon as the bread has baked sufficiently, take it from the oven, remove the loaves from the pans, and place them to cool where the air may circulate freely around them. A bread rack, or cake cooler, like the one on which the loaf rests in Figs. 14, 15, and 16, is very satisfactory for this purpose, but if such a device is not available, the loaves may be placed across the edges of the empty pans so that nearly the entire surface is exposed. Whichever plan is adopted, it should be remembered that the bread must be carefully protected from dust and flies. Bread should never be permitted to remain in the pans after it has been baked nor to cool on a flat surface; neither should the loaves be wrapped while they are warm, because the moisture will collect on the surface and the bread will not keep so well.

After the loaves have become sufficiently cool, place them in the receptacle in which they are to be kept. This should have been previously washed and dried and then allowed to stand in the sunshine, so as to be free from mold or any substance that will taint or otherwise injure the bread. After the loaves have been put into it, keep it well covered and allow no stale crumbs nor pieces of bread to collect. To keep such a receptacle in good condition, it should be scalded and dried every 2 or 3 days.

Next Section: Scoring Bread >>>>

Importance of Bread as Food | Ingredients for Bread Making | Utensils for Bread Making | Bread-Making Processes | Making the Dough | Care of the Rising Dough | Kneading the Dough | Shaping the Dough Into Loaves | Baking the Bread | Scoring Bread | Use of the Bread Mixer | Serving Bread | Bread Recipes | Recipes for Rolls, Buns, and Biscuits | Toast | Left-Over Bread


Tag Archives: Optimizations

Basic Culling Techniques

The best optimization when rendering is to not render anything unnecessary. And that is what culling is about, to find out what can be skipped when rendering because it cannot be visible anyway.  Below are the basic culling techniques which most renderers’ implements. The image is from a course slide.

Culling Techniques

Back Face Culling

Faces that faces away from the camera can not be visible on the screen so they don’t need to be drawn. This is so often used that it’s implemented by the hardware. It roughly cuts the amount of faces drawn in half. Just remember to turn it on!

View frustum Culling

The faces that is outside the view frustum can not be visible on the screen (we don’t bother about reflections now) so they can be culled. This check is done by checking if the geometries bounding volume is outside the view frustum volume or not. So the check will not be done on every face, as that would cost to much. Sometimes, the view frustum culling can cost more than what is gain ( for example when doing instancing). One way to speed up view frustum culling is to use a suitable spatial structure for the scene (octree, BSP or so).

All kind of bounding volume test that you can imagine can be found on this page:

Info about frustum culling:

Portal Culling

A technique that divides the scene into cells with portals between. When rendering, the camera will be in one of the rooms and that room will be rendered normally. But for each portal that is visible in the room a view frustum is set up for the size of the portal and then the room behind it is rendered. This will work recursively. The result will be that a lot of geometry can be culled by view frustum culling when rendering the other rooms. A very useful technique for indoor scenes.

Detail Culling

When a geometry is so far away that it’s not visible then there is no need to draw it at all so it can safely be culled. A more advanced scheme of detail culling that decreases the amount of details with the distance is LOD (level of detail).

Occlusion Culling

The hardest culling technique to implement. Geometry that is occluded by other geometry does not need to be rendered. One solution is to use the Z-buffer and sort the geometry in a front to back order. But this does not always work and all pixels needs to be checked against the Z-buffer so it will be costly for big scenes. Better occlusion culling techniques culls the geometry before it’s even sent to the GPU.

A good link to a couple of occlusion culling techniques

Instancing is a new way to offload the CPU from some work when rendering many copies of the same geometry.  It does it by reducing the overhead of drawing multiple copies of the same vertex buffer.

In OpenGL it’s only fast to use instancing when the instanced mesh consists of very few triangles.

Nvidias instancing demo, here with 136499 meshes rendered at once with 24 triangles per mesh. It runs at 20 fps stable on a GeForce 8800 GTS. (left image is all objects viewed from far away, right is zoomed in)

A image from Microsofts DirectX10 instancing demo

Some test made that shows when to use instancing and when not

HLSL instancing (therefore DirectX)

Nvidias DirectX10 implementation of instancing

Microsofts DirectX9 instancing sample

Microsofts DirectX10 instancing sample

An OpenGL implementation of a pseduo-instancing (recommended for old hardware).

OpenGL instancing:

Octrees are one of many ways to divide the space into smaller volumes structured in a tree. This is useful for culling objects while rendering or for finding collisions between objects. First cover the entire space that is of important into one big cuboid. Then the dividing algorithm for the tree goes as follows:

- First select the maximum number of objects in each cuboid. This determines how deep the tree will go.

- For each cuboid that contains more objects than the maximum allowed, split it into eight (oct = eight) new cuboids with the same volume and dimensions. Repeat this step until all cuboids fulfill the requirement.

The procedure looks like the following:

Octree creation process

More information about octrees.

Source of the image:

A little description of octrees.

Alpha Testing

When drawing for example lots of vegetation (with textures containing an alpha channel) you need to minimize overdraw and cost for each draw call. If you use blending for archiving the desired transparent effect on the leaves then you will need to sort all the triangles (back-to-front-order) to draw, (and sometimes this needs splitting of triangles) to get the correct look. Also when blending you might render the same pixel multiple times because you want the result to blend together. All this drawing and sorting takes a lot of time and a better way is to do alpha testing. In alpha testing (or alpha killing) you select an alpha threshold and all pixels with an alpha above (if you use GREATER as test function) this threshold will be drawn. Because no blending occurs, you don’t need to sort the triangles anymore (but preferably you will sort them front-to-back-order for optimization) . The drawback with alpha killing is that you will get sharp edges around the pixels drawn.
Alpha killing does not work with shadow volumes.

Alpha testing in OpenGL

Alpha testing in DirectX9 (in DirectX10 you must do your own implementation in a shader)