A courage and devotion of an age that is no longer ours…

Dominique-Jean Larrey

At the height of the fighting at the battle of Waterloo in 1815 the Duke of Wellington spotted a surgeon in the French lines working on wounded while under fire. When he was told it was Dominique-Jean Larrey he gave orders for his men not to fire in the doctor’s direction and doffed his hat in salute. When asked by the Duke of Cambridge what he was doing Wellington pointed at Larrey and said, “I salute the courage and devotion of an age that is no longer ours.”

By the end of the Napoleonic wars Larrey, the son of a humble shoemaker, was famous for his medical skill, his innovations in the field of battlefield medicine and his devotion to his patients.

Born in 1766, it was on his father’s death that he went to live with his uncle who was a surgeon. Deciding on a career in medicine he was a medical student in Paris when Revolution erupted in France. Fully believing in the ideals of the Revolution he took part in the storming of the Bastille in 1789.

In the early years of the Revolutionary Wars Larrey served in the Army of the Rhine and it was there that he noted the speed at which horse-drawn artillery could move around the battlefield.

Flying ambulance

Convinced that speedy treatment of battlefield wounds was the best way of saving soldiers’ lives he proposed the construction of lightweight carts which could be driven into the thick of the fighting to retrieve wounded and get them to the surgeons as fast as possible.

ambulance1During the next couple of years he developed his design and ideas for the use of what he called his “flying ambulances”. Each vehicle was manned by teams trained in first aid who would perform basic patching up of the wounded before transporting them back to central stations manned by surgeons and their medical staff. There, the injuries were assessed and the patients prioritised based on the nature of their wounds rather than rank, prestige or even nationality. In effect Larrey invented the practice of battlefield triage as we know it now.

In 1797 Bonaparte requested Larrey’s transfer to the Army of Italy and thereafter Larrey was closely associated with the man who was to become First Consul then Emperor.

At the end of the abortive Egyptian campaign when Bonaparte decided to abandon the army and return to France, Larrey was one of the few who Bonaparte selected to accompany him but Larrey declined, insisting that the wounded soldiers left behind needed him more than Bonaparte. Napoleon duly accepted the doctor’s suggestion and Larrey stayed behind. After the surrender of the French army he was finally repatriated to France and immediately promoted and made Chief Surgeon to the Consular Guard.

From 1805 for the next ten years Larrey was constantly on campaign.

At Eylau in 1807 the Russian attack on the French flank nearly overran Larrey’s field hospital. Refusing appeals to evacuate, he calmly carried on with his operations insisting that he would die with his patients if necessary. It was only the last minute counter-attack by General Lepic’s cavalry that saved the situation and Lepic was only able to ride because of the treatment he had received from Larrey that very morning.

In 1809 during the battle of Aspern-Essling he personally amputated the legs of his close friend Marshal Jean Lannes who had been struck by roundshot. Despite the emotions of performing the procedure on a friend, Larrey carried out the operation impeccably but the wounds became infected and despite his best efforts Lannes died six days later. Larrey hadn’t left his friend’s side for the last three days of his life.

larrey and durand

Larrey treating wounded

Rewards followed for Larrey. He was made Companion of the Legion of Honour and Baron of the Empire. But more important to him was the esteem in which he was held by the soldiery. This was to save his life in Russia in 1812.

On the advance to Moscow the French and their allies fought the Russians at Borodino. The carnage was unbelievable and Larrey estimated he performed over 200 amputations during the battle and in the following 24 hours. But it was on the infamous retreat at the catastrophic crossing of the Beresina where he came closest to death. In a letter to his wife he related how much he owed to the ordinary soldier:

“In truth I owe my survival to the soldiers. [They] helped me to my feet and supported me when, from physical exhaustion, I fell in the snow. Still others shared with me the rations they had. If I approached their bivouac fire they would make room for me and I was even wrapped in straw or their coats. How many generals and senior officers were rebuffed and sent away without pity by their own soldiers! But at the name of Larrey all rose to their feet and welcomed me with a respectful friendship. Anyone but I would have perished at the Beresina when I crossed for the third time at the most dangerous moment [he had crossed repeatedly to try and save his medical equipment from the ambulances which had to be abandoned on the east bank]. But hardly had I been recognised than I was seized by strong hands and passed from one to the other, like a bundle of rags, to the end of the bridge… These signs of the love of the army for me are the greatest rewards I could wish for.”

Larrey continued to serve through the campaigns of 1813 and 1814 and when Napoleon escaped from Elba in 1815 Larrey came back to serve the Imperial Guard again. At the end of the battle of Waterloo when the French were in full retreat Larrey was cut down by a troop of Prussian lancers and left for dead. When he regained consciousness and tried to head away from the field he was captured by more Prussians.  He was about to be peremptorily shot when the Prussian surgeon recognised him (he had attended some of Larrey’s lectures) and persuaded his commanding officer to spare the French doctor. The Prussian agreed and sent Larrey off to Marshal Blücher’s headquarters where he was recognised and treated with respect having saved the life of the Marshal’s son after the battle of Dresden two years previously.

When Napoleon died he left 100,000 francs to Larrey but it was not his legacy that made Larrey’s heart swell but the words Napoleon had used to describe him in his will,

“The most virtuous man that I have known.”

Dominique-Jean Larrey died on 25 July 1842, three days after the death of Charlotte, his beloved wife of 48 years.


Jane Eyre, Chapter 1 - Audio

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Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855), remains popular even though it was first published in October of 1847. It has been, among other things, the subject of popular movies.

Its themes—including growing-up, gender/class discrimination and bullying—are as relevant today as they were in the mid-nineteenth century.

In this audio clip, Carole Bos reads the first chapter of the story.  As you listen, consider these topics.

ISSUES AND QUESTIONS TO PONDER:   Why would Charlotte Brontë publish her book, Jane Eyre, under the name of "Currer Bell," instead of her own name?  (It wasn't the first time she had used that pseudonym.)

Does Jane Eyre feel welcome in the home of her Aunt and cousins?  Is she treated as an equal with the other three children?

Jack Reed frequently bullies Jane.  Although she despises what Jack does, Jane puts up with the abuse.   Why?

Jane tells us that she has no recourse against Jack's bullying.  Why does she think that way?

Jack Reed is four years older than Jane.  Does he bully Jane emotionally, or physically, or both?

If the story took place today, would Jane have other options to prevent the bullying?  What would those options include?

Mrs. Reed sends Jane to "the red room."  What is the red room?  Do you think the red room stands for something other than a room in which a ghost might lurk?

Was sending Jane to "the red room" also a form of bullying?  Why, or why not?

What happens to individuals when they are "locked in" a room?

What happens to people if they perceive they are "locked in" to something over which they have no control - such as their gender, or class or ethnic background?

By Charlotte Brontë

    "Where the Northern Ocean, in vast whirls,
    Boils round the naked, melancholy isles
    Of farthest [mythical] Thule; and the Atlantic surge
    Pours in among the stormy Hebrides [off the Scottish coast]."

The words in these introductory pages connected themselves with the succeeding vignettes [increase the size of the Google-book font to better view this drawing and the following linked miniatures], and gave significance to the rock standing up alone in a sea of billow and spray; to the broken boat stranded on a desolate coast; to the cold and ghastly moon glancing through bars of cloud at a wreck just sinking.

"Where the dickens is she!" he continued.  "Lizzy!  Georgy! (calling to his sisters) Joan is not here: tell mama she is run out into the rain - bad animal!"

"It is well I drew the curtain," thought I; and I wished fervently he might not discover my hiding-place: nor would John Reed have found it out himself; he was not quick either of vision or conception; but Eliza just put her head in at the door, and said at once -

"What do you want?"  I asked, with awkward diffidence.

"Say, 'What do you want, Master Reed?'" was the answer.  "I want you to come here;" and seating himself in an arm-chair, he intimated by a gesture that I was to approach and stand before him.

"That is for your impudence in answering mama awhile since," said he, "and for your sneaking way of getting behind curtains, and for the look you had in your eyes two minutes since, you rat!"

"I was reading."

"Show the book."

I returned to the window and fetched it thence.

"Wicked and cruel boy!" I said.  "You are like a murderer - you are like a slave-driver - you are like the Roman emperors!"

"What!  what!" he cried.  "Did she say that to me?  Did you hear her, Eliza and Georgiana?  Won't I tell mama? but first -"

"Did ever anybody see such a picture of passion!"

Then Mrs. Reed subjoined -

Jane Eyre - Chapter 2

Jane Eyre - Chapter 3

For the Classics at AwesomeStories

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Jane Eyre, Chapter I, by Charlotte Brontë - read by Carole Bos for Awesome Stories.

"Jane Eyre, Chapter 1 - Audio" AwesomeStories.com. Oct 07, 2013. Apr 20, 2018.
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At our forest site in Calakmul Biosphere Reserve (Campeche, Mexico) water occurs in low density and mostly in the form of aguadas (semi-temporary natural ponds sustained by rainfall) during the majority of the year, and part of our research there is to investigate species that live in this unique environment. One such species is the endemic Morelet’s crocodile (Crocodylus moreletii). Although scientific knowledge has been rapidly increasing on the species over the past two decades, only rudimentary to non-existent information is available within the Selva Maya, where Calakmul is located. Information from this region is therefore essential, as amongst many things, due to its geographical structure and remoteness, may hold a different population and genetic structure from other studied C. moreletii populations within Yucatan Peninsula. Serious conservation concerns have been raised in the scientific community because throughout its geographical range, this crocodile species has been interbreeding with the American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) and nowadays the majority of populations are dominated by hybrids individuals. As so, very few non-hybrid (parental) populations of these two species exist in the wild. Consequently, the last parental C. moreletii populations have become critically endangered. Only three C. moreletii parental populations were identified in Mexico to this date, and none within the Yucatan Peninsula. We believe that Calakmul, due to its characteristics, also qualifies and still holds a parental population, highlighting the importance of this understudied region. As part of a collaborative project throughout Southern Mexico, we have started to collect genetic samples within and around the Mexican part of the Selva Maya, and unlike other regions in the Yucatan peninsula and Belize, it seems that, so far, crocodiles in Calakmul may represent the fourth identified C. moreletii parental population in all its distribution range. The outputs of our research project represent the first layer of knowledge for Calakmul and for the species in this type environment. We are providing useful baseline information and the building blocks to raise the profile of the reserve and its unique aguada habitats, which is essential when management actions need to be considered to ensure the preservation of aguadas and species inhabiting them. Major breakthroughs in our scientific knowledge of threatened species do not happen every day, so I thought you might like to hear about this and how the Operation Wallacea research is making a real difference on the ground.

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Opinion: ahead of Paschal Donohoe's first budget next week as Minister for Finance, a fundamental debate is needed on what the balance between spending and taxes should be

The drama which used be associated with the annual budget in Ireland has greatly decreased since Ireland ratified the EU’s Fiscal Treaty. This commits member states to implementing budgets which are balanced or in surplus and limits the capacity of governments to increase spending or reduce taxes.

It has given rise to the much talked about "fiscal space", which is the amount of money the government has available for increasing spending or reducing taxes while keeping within EU rules. Only €350 million is available this year, which is half of one per cent of total government spending.

While little can be done this year to increase spending or reduce taxes, the fiscal space in future years will be much greater as the economy is growing rapidly. The Nevin Economic Research Institute estimates that €10 billion may be available for increased spending or tax reductions by 2021.

A fundamental debate is needed on what the balance between spending and taxes should be. At present there is a misconception that taxes are high and public spending low in Ireland compared to other developed countries. The tax burden is measured by the proportion of GDP collected in taxes. In Ireland, this is 23.6 percent, which ranks us at 11th among developed countries and is much less than the OECD average of 34.3 percent.

Tax as a percentage of GDP in Ireland may understate the tax burden, as Ireland’s GDP is overstated due to the presence of multinational companies, but other more reliable measures show that Ireland is clearly not a high tax country. In Ireland, the income tax paid on a salary of €18,000 is €510, but it is an astonishing €4,770 in Germany. A German earning €75,000 pays €32,820 in tax, while an Irish person earning the same salary pays €26,129.  The "tax wedge", which includes income tax, social insurance contributions and levies, is 27.1 percent of income in Ireland compared to an OECD average of 36 percent.

The high taxes paid on relatively low incomes in other wealthy countries are explained by significantly higher social insurance contributions there. In France, social insurance contributions are 16.9 percent of GDP, while they are only 3.9 percent in Ireland. Even in the United Kingdom, which is regarded as a low tax regime, they are 6.9 percent of GDP. Employer’s social insurance contributions in Ireland are half the average for the 10 high income OECD countries.

Minister for Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe

While the overall "tax take" from high incomes in Ireland is less than in other developed countries, the higher rates of income tax in Ireland  are levied on lower levels of income. If PRSI and the USC are added to income tax, an unmarried Irish taxpayer pays an effective rate of tax of 49 percent on incomes of above €33,301. In the UK, a tax rate of 44 percent only applies on incomes over €49,906. These taxpayers are the "squeezed middle" about whom Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has expressed concern.

The overall burden of income tax is not excessive and income taxes are highly progressive in Ireland. However, taxes on consumption, mainly VAT and excise duties, are €200 higher per person here than the OECD average. These taxes are regressive in that they are higher burden on those on low incomes. Car tax and insurance in Ireland are also very high and are regressive because many people on low incomes need a car to get to work.

Ireland raises very little revenue from taxes on wealth

Over the past thirty years, there have been numerous reports from the Commission on Taxation and other groups recommending widening the tax base, but few of the recommendations have been implemented. Ireland raises very little revenue from taxes on wealth. The Local Property Tax is neither local, in that the rate is set by central government, or a property tax, as it applies only to housing, Capital Gains Tax is applied at 33 percent, much less than the higher rate of income tax, and does not apply to capital gain on a principal private residence. This results in all the tax on the sale of a second hand house being paid in the form of Stamp Duty by the buyer.

Farmers’ incomes are very lightly taxed and all agricultural land is regarded as a productive asset and therefore free of all taxes, although about one third or agricultural land is under-utilised. Keeping our Corporation Tax rate at 12.5 percent is an unshakable element of government policy, but the EU is moving slowly but inexorably towards harmonising corporation tax rates.

Most reasonable people would accept higher taxes if they saw the revenue raised spent effectively. But each year, the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General reveals shocking levels of wasteful and ineffective public spending. The Taoiseach has recently pointed out that Ireland’s health spending per capital is the fifth highest in the OECD, yet the health system is in permanent crisis. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has made some progress on improving the effectiveness of public spending, but drastic reforms of budgeting and control are needed in many areas. The message to Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe on Budget Day should be "some things done, a lot more to do".


• Chapter

Linking environmental exposure to toxicity

Oki, N., Leonard, J., Nelms, M., Bell, S., Tan, Y., Burgoon, L., & Edwards, S. (2017). Linking environmental exposure to toxicity. In R. J. Richdardson, & D. E. Johnson (Eds.), Computational Systems Pharmacology and Toxicology (pp. 60-88). (Issues in Toxicology). Royal Society of Chemistry. DOI: 10.1039/9781782623731-00060

As the number of chemicals and environmental toxicants in commerce continue to increase, so does the need to understand the links between exposure to these stressors and any potential toxic reactions. Assessing the impact of these stressors on public health as well as our environment requires an understanding of the underlying mechanistic processes connecting their introduction into the environment to the associated adverse outcomes.

Traditional in vivo methods of toxicity testing have become too costly and inefficient. In recent times, in vitro high-throughput toxicity screening methods have been introduced to reduce the burden of in vivo testing and keep pace with the ever increasing number of required tests. The adverse outcome pathway (AOP) concept has been adopted by many in the toxicology community as a framework for linking the biological events that occur from the point of contact with these stressors and the resulting adverse outcome. This provides a mechanistic framework for understanding the potential impacts of perturbations that are measured via in vitro testing strategies. The aggregate exposure pathway (AEP) has been proposed as a companion framework to the AOP. The goal of the AEP is to describe the path the introduction of the stressor into the environment at its source to a target site within an individual that is comparable with the concentrations in the in vitro toxicity tests. Together, these frameworks provide a comprehensive view of the source to adverse outcome continuum.

Standardizing our representation of the mechanistic information in this way allows for increased interoperability for computational models describing different parts of the system. It also aids in translating new research in exposure science and toxicology for risk assessors and decision makers when assessing the impact of specific stressors on endpoints of regulatory significance.


7-bit, 8-bit, and 10-bit I2C Slave Addressing – Total Phase

We often get inquiries from our customers about what slave address to use in order to communicate with their I2C slave device. Unfortunately a lot of this confusion stems from the fact that different vendors follow different slave address conventions.

The goal of this article is to clarify the slave address standard used by all Total Phase products and to help developers determine what slave address they should use.

7-bit Addressing

All I2C products from Total Phase, follow this standard convention. The slave address used should only be the top seven bits. In the case of the Aardvark I2C/SPI Host Adapter, the software will automatically append the correct read/write bit depending on the transaction to be performed. In the case of the Beagle I2C/SPI Protocol Analyzer, the slave address and the type of transaction are displayed in two different columns.

Reserved Addresses

The I2C specification has reserved two sets of eight addresses, 1111XXX and 0000XXX. These addresses are used for special purposes. The following table has been taken from the I2C Specifications (2000).

Slave Address R/W Bit Description
000 0000 0 General call address
000 0000 1 START byte(1)
000 0001 X CBUS address(2)
000 0010 X Reserved for different bus format (3)
000 0011 X Reserved for future purposes
000 01XX X Hs-mode master code
111 10XX X 10-bit slave addressing
111 11XX X Reserved for future purposes

(1) No device is allowed to acknowledge at the reception of the START byte.

(2) The CBUS address has been reserved to enable the inter-mixing of CBUS compatible and I2C-bus compatible devices in the same system. I2C-bus compatible devices are not allowed to respond on reception of this address.

(3) The address reserved for a different bus format is included to enable I2C and other protocols to be mixed. Only I2C-bus compatible devices that can work with such formats and protocols are allowed to respond to this address.

8-bit Addresses

Some vendors incorrectly provide 8-bit addresses which include the read/write bit. Often times, you can determine if this is the case because they will provide one address for writing to the slave device and another to reading from the slave. In this situations. please only use the top seven bits of the address.

Figure 2: 8-bit addresses. Some vendors incorrectly provide two 8-bit slave addresses for their device, one to write to the device and one to read from the device. This 8-bit number actually encodes the 7-bit slave address and the read/write bit. Since Total Phase's products use 7-bit addressing, it is important to only use the top 7 bits of the address as the slave address.

Another way to determine if a vendor is using 8-bit addresses instead of 7-bit addresses is to see if the slave address falls within the correct range. All 7-bit addresses should be greater than 0x07 and less than 0x78 (120). If your slave address is outside this range, chances are your vendor has specified an 8-bit address.

Figure 3: Valid 7-bit Slave Address Range. The range of valid 7-bit slave addresses are bound by two blocks of reserved addresses at either end of the range. Valid slave addresses are greater than 0x07 and less than 0x78.

10-bit Addressing

One of the reasons that Total Phase decided to use 7-bit addressing for all of its products was to ensure that 10-bit addressing could be properly handled.

10-bit addressing was designed to be compatible with 7-bit addressing, allowing developers to mix two types of devices on a single bus. When communicating with a 10-bit addressed device, the special reserved address is used to indicate that 10-bit addressing is being used.

Figure 4: 10-bit addressing. In 10-bit addressing, the slave address is sent in the first two bytes. The first byte begins with the special reserved address of 1111 0XX which indicates that 10-bit addressing is being used. The 10 bits of the address is encoded in the last 2 bits of the first byte and the entire 8 bits of the second byte. The 8th bit of the first byte remains the read/write flag.

If a 10-bit address is specified when using the Aardvark I2C/SPI Host Adapter, its software will take care of sending the correct bits. The developer does not need to perform any special steps to send the correct address data. The Beagle I2C/SPI Protocol Analyzer will also automatically detect 10-bit slave addresses in the captured data and display the information correctly.

Have more questions? Submit a request


World History: Journey Across Time

Chapter 4: The Ancient Greeks

Chapter Overviews

Greece's geography played a major role in the lives of the Greeks. The mountains, climate, and seas determined where people settled and what they did. The geography shaped Greece's government as well, dividing the people into distinct communities. The concept of citizenship was developed by the Greeks. The citizens ran the city-states, and people could meet and debate issues at the agora. Greek citizens could also choose officials, pass laws, vote, and hold public office. In exchange for these rights, Greek citizens were required to serve in government and fight as soldiers.

With the support of Greece's common people, tyrants were able to seize power from the nobles. The majority of the city-states replaced tyrants with new forms of government. Athens established a democracy and Sparta formed an oligarchy.

Cyrus the Great united the Persians and built the largest empire the world has ever seen. Persia paid men to be full-time soldiers, and as a result, its army was very impressive. Beginning around 490 B.C. the Persians and the Greek city-states battled over control of Greece. Sparta and Athens worked together to defeat the Persians. The Persian Empire was conquered by Alexander the Great in 334 B.C.

The Athenian democratic system was a direct democracy. Under the leadership of Pericles, the Athenian government became more democratic and Athens became a powerful figure in Greece. Athens grew wealthy from trade and the other city-states became suspicious. In 431 B.C. Athens went to war with Sparta and the other city-states for control of Greece. Sparta defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War with the help of Persia.

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Summer Berry Terrine

Now we‘re are talking - a Xmas desert that celebrates summer at its best!

You will need a 25 x 10cm terrine dish.

6 sheets (25g) leaf gelatine (see Notes)
200g caster sugar
60ml (1/4 cup) vodka
1 mango, peeled, stone removed
2 x 250g BENNY‘S BERRIES punnets strawberries, hulled, sliced
250g BENNY‘S BERRIES punnet raspberries
250g BENNY‘S BERRIES punnet blueberries
12 basil leaves, shredded
Thick cream, to serve

Lime syrup
50g caster sugar
4 limes, zested, juiced
1 tablespoon arrowroot*
1 tablespoon vodka

Line the terrine dish with plastic wrap leaving some plastic overlapping.

Place the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes to soften. Place the sugar and 500ml (2 cups) water in a saucepan over low heat and stir to dissolve the sugar.

Squeeze the excess water from the gelatine and add to the sugar syrup. Add vodka and stir to dissolve the gelatine. Pour into a jug.

Slice the mango into thin strips.

Fill a large bowl with cold water and ice. Pour a little jelly in the bottom of the terrine dish and place the dish in the bowl of iced water. Leave for 10 minutes or until set.

Start layering the fruit and jelly, alternating with basil leaves as you go, returning to the iced water to set between each layer. When the terrine is full, refrigerate (ensuring it‘s on a very flat surface) for 2 hours until set.

Meanwhile to make the lime syrup, place the sugar, lime juice and 150ml water in a saucepan over low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

Combine the arrowroot with 2 tablespoons cold water, then add to the mixture. Allow the mixture to simmer for 1 minute, then remove from heat. Strain, discarding the solids. Add the lime zest and vodka, then set aside at room temperature to cool. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to chill completely.

Gently pull on the plastic wrap to help remove the jelly from the terrine dish. Cut into slices and serve with the lime syrup and cream.


NCL Website header
NCL Home > Documentation > Functions > Regridding

Interpolates a scalar quantity from one fixed grid to another.

	function f2fsh (
		grid        : numeric,
		outdims [2] : byte, short, integer or long

	return_val  :  float or double

An array of 2 or more dimensions whose rightmost two dimensions must be latitude x longitude. The values must be in ascending latitude order.

An array indicating the dimensions of the rightmost two dimensions of the output grid (outdims[0] = nlatb, outdims[1] = nlonb).

As of version 6.0.0, this can be of type byte, short, integer or long.

Return value

The return array's dimensions are the same as grid's dimensions, except the rightmost two dimensions, nlata and nlona, are replaced by nlatb and nlonb. The type will be double if the input is double, and float otherwise.

f2fsh interpolates a scalar quantity from one fixed grid to another using spherical harmonics (via the Spherepack code). Values will be in ascending latitude order.

If missing values are encountered in a 2D subsection of the input array, then no interpolation will be performed on that 2D array, and the corresponding 2D subsection of the return array will be filled with missing values.

Arrays which have dimensions [...] x nlata x nlona should not include the cyclic (wrap-around) points when invoking this function. For example, if an array x has dimensions nlata = 64 and nlona = 129, where the "129" represents the cyclic point, then the user should pass the data to f2fsh via:

  z = f2fsh ( x(...,0:nlona-2) )  ; does not include cyclic points

This function can only be used on grids that span the globe. It cannot be used for limited area grids.

Please read the caveats that you should be aware of when using spherical harmonic regridding.

Use the f2fsh_Wrap function if metadata retention is desired. The interface is identical.

See Also

f2fsh_Wrap, f2fosh, f2gsh, fo2fsh, g2fsh, g2gsh

Assume x is dimensioned nt x nlat x nlon. The code below interpolates from a fixed 2.5 degree grid (nlat=73, nlon=144) to a one degree grid (jlat=181,ilon=360):

  X = f2fsh (x, (/jlat,ilon/) )    ; ==> X(nt,jlat,ilon)

  ; Use f2fsh_Wrap if metadata retention is desired
  ; X = f2fsh_Wrap (x, (/jlat,ilon/) )    ; ==> X(nt,jlat,ilon)

ier is equal to:

4 or 10 if nlona is less than 4
5 or 10 if nlata is less than 3
8 if nlonb is less than 4
9 if nlatb is less than 3


home Opinions Preparing for the Worst: Government Agencies Prepare for Nuclear Disaster

Preparing for the Worst: Government Agencies Prepare for Nuclear Disaster

Should we be preparing ourselves for nuclear emergency after the increasingly antagonistic (and absurd) exchanges between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un? Some government agencies are starting to prepare for the worst through training and drills that have not been relevant since the Cold War.

On January 2nd, after returning from a vacation in Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump resumed Tweeting and impacting international relations. Kim Jong-un raised some alarm bells earlier when he said that the US is “within the range of our nuclear strike and a nuclear button is always on the desk of my office.” In response, Trump tweeted, “Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”

This talk is reminiscent of the heated exchange between Trump and North Korea over the summer. On July 4th, North Korea successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that many believed was powerful enough to reach mainland US. On August 5th, the UN Security Council adopted harsh economic sanctions against North Korea in response to its missile tests. To worsen relations, Trump said that “any more threats to the United States” will prompt “fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

Despite the absurd character of these events, which many commentators have said are reminiscent of childish taunts, some organizations are treating them very seriously. Unification Minister Cho Nyoung-gyon from South Korea noted that the North has developed their nuclear capabilities faster than expected, and may be completed as early as 2018. Although there are strict protocols in place to prevent Trump from actually pushing his “bigger [and] more powerful” button on a whim, there are neither assurances that North Korea has such protocols nor certainty that Trump will haphazardly start that process.

For the past few months, some government agencies have been preparing themselves in case of a nuclear event. In August, during the most heated moments of nuclear rhetoric from the US and North Korea, Guam’s Homeland Security and Office of Civil Defense released a two-page fact sheet about how to prepare for an attack and what to do if it occurred. The prep includes making a list of concrete shelters near one’s home, school, or workplace to stay in, since the walls are often “thick and dense enough to absorb radiation given off by fallout particles.”

Similarly, in December Hawaii started monthly testing of a nuclear warning siren, which alerts residents of an impending nuclear strike. The system was first created during the Cold War in response to fears of a nuclear attack from the USSR. Notably, a warning system is most critical in Hawaii since it is only 4,700 miles from North Korea. Given the country’s current capabilities, Hawaii would only have about 20 minutes to respond to a missile launch.

Most recently, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) announced that it will have a grand rounds session on January 16 about how the public health sector can prepare for a nuclear event. Titled the “Public Health Response to a Nuclear Detonation,” the sessions teach health professionals how to lessen deaths and illnesses in the aftermath of the fallout. The sessions include topics like radiation preparedness and using data to drive response efforts. The CDC noted that, “[w]hile a nuclear detonation is unlikely, it would have devastating results and there would be a limited time to take critical protection steps.”

It is concerning that we seem to have suddenly entered a world where nuclear rhetoric is once again being used as a weapon of international relations – except this time, it is wielded by leaders who are known for their pride, haphazard decisions, and antagonistic approaches to global politics. Anything could set them off. Although part of me hopes that these events simply amount to sabre-rattling among schoolyard bullies, I can’t help but Google where the nearest shelter is…

Jerico cdc gov source


The Book of Trogool

Dividing up the pie

Another thing I meant to call out in the context of the Jupiter-goes-boom event was the nod to data gathered by people who aren’t connected to the formal research enterprise save tangentially.

Astronomy isn’t the only field where this happens, of course. The Center for History and New Media projects I mentioned in my previous post are essentially crowdsourced news-gathering turned into history. When I was a graduate student in linguistics back in the day, I had occasion to look at Mayan, which amateurs have been instrumental in deciphering. Birdwatchers no more skilled than I are of material help to ornithologists in providing localized bird counts and similar observations. I am also seeing some renewed excitement about “crowdsourcing” various scientific tasks that can’t be done by computers but are too laborious and time-consuming to assign to researchers.

So my question about all this is? who’s looking after their data? Do data have to come from an accredited scientist affiliated with an institution before they are worth preserving?

Sometimes these questions have answers. Sometimes, not so much.

This points to a larger question, an elephant-in-the-room question. Whose responsibility is all this data gathering and preservation, anyway? “Individual researchers” is an inadequate cop-out, let’s just get that on the table right now; without sustainable support, data die when grants fade or retirements happen.

This leaves a few possibilities: funders (notably government), disciplines, and institutions. None of them is unproblematic?in fact, I would go so far as to say that none of them can solve this problem unaided.

The line between disciplines and institutions is often a fuzzy one, honestly. The arXiv is the paradigmatic disciplinary preprint repository?but it is sustained by the Cornell University Libraries. Things were not always thus, but such a handoff isn’t exactly unusual.

However. When you ask a researcher about her “discipline,” she’ll probably start talking about her favorite scholarly society. Where are the scholarly societies in all this ferment about data? Gosh, wish I knew. We’ll just pass by the American Chemical Society in silence, shall we? They’re an outlier and we should all be glad of that? but where’s everybody else? Looking for services that members need? Materials that keep members coming back to the society? Why aren’t scholarly societies in the data business? I wonder.

Institutions. Institutions have a built-in challenge dealing with data: they have to deal with it over a wide swathe of disciplines. I can’t emphasize enough how hard that is! Different formats, different metadata standards (where there are any at all), different ontologies, different patterns of thought, different workflows? there’s just no end to the differences.

In these early days, I see a few different institutional approaches to this problem. One is “follow the money.” If you’ve got million-dollar grants, you’ll get red-carpet treatment. No grants? No service. When this model is accused of inequity, it throws its hands up and says “since when was life fair?” Another approach is what I call “help the First Son.” In the Pesach parable, the first son is the one who approaches his father asking detailed and intelligent questions about Pesach observance, and receives detailed and intelligent answers.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t know many First Sons among researchers. A few, yes, but not many. A lot of the researchers I know are Third Sons. “What is this?” they say. And a lot are Fourth Sons, who do not even know how to ask. A First-Son approach leaves our Third and Fourth Sons with no answers.

So what we’re left with, when we ask who’s responsible for data, is a big muddle. Some disciplines have this pretty much sorted. For them, institutional support may be redundant. Other disciplines are under the funder gun; it’s still unclear what the institutional role will be there. Many researchers fall into neither group; either their institution helps them or they get no help.

My worry is that as the pie is currently divided, a lot of researchers aren’t getting any.


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arrowhead909's Personal Name List

Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Spanish, Romanian, Polish, Ancient Germanic
Pronounced: ə-DEL-ə (English), a-DE-la (Polish)
Originally a short form of names beginning with the Germanic element adal meaning "noble". Saint Adela was a 7th-century Frankish princess who founded a monastery at Pfazel in France. This name was also borne by a daughter of William the Conqueror.

Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: al-əg-ZAN-dree-ə
Feminine form of ALEXANDER. Alexander the Great founded several cities by this name (or renamed them) as he extended his empire eastward. The most notable of these is Alexandria in Egypt, founded by Alexander in 331 BC.

Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, English (Modern)
Pronounced: A-LEK-SEE-A (French), ə-LEK-see-ə (English)
Feminine form of ALEXIS.

Gender: Masculine
Usage: English

Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology
Other Scripts: Αριαδνη (Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: A-REE-AD-NE (Classical Greek), ar-ee-AD-nee (English)

Gender: Feminine
Usage: Greek Mythology, English
Other Scripts: Αθηνα (Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: A-TE-NA (Classical Greek), ə-THEE-nə (English)
Meaning unknown, perhaps derived from Greek αθηρ (ather) "sharp" and αινη (aine) "praise". Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom and warfare, the daughter of Zeus and the patron goddess of the city of Athens in Greece. She is associated with the olive tree and the owl.

Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: AW-dree

Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Roman, Romanian, Italian, Spanish, Polish
Pronounced: ow-RE-lee-a (Classical Latin), ow-RE-lya (Italian, Polish)
Feminine form of AURELIUS.

Gender: Feminine
Usage: Medieval French
Medieval French form of KATHERINE.

Gender: Feminine
Usage: French
Pronounced: KAW-LET

Gender: Masculine
Usage: English
Pronounced: DAWM-i-nik
From the Late Latin name Dominicus meaning "of the Lord". This name was traditionally given to a child born on Sunday. Several saints have borne this name, including the 13th-century founder of the Dominican order of friars. It was in this saint's honour that the name was first used in England, starting around the 13th century. It is primarily used by Catholics.

Gender: Feminine
Pronounced: EE-dith (English), E-dit (German, Swedish)

ELI (1)
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English, Hebrew, Biblical, Biblical Greek, Biblical Hebrew
Other Scripts: עֵלִי (Hebrew), Ηλι (Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: EE-lie (English)

Eli has been used as an English Christian given name since the Protestant Reformation. A notable bearer was the American inventor of the cotton gin Eli Whitney (1765-1825).

Gender: Masculine
Usage: Biblical, English, Hebrew
Other Scripts: עֶזְרָא (Hebrew)
Pronounced: EZ-rə (English)

Gender: Feminine
Usage: Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, German
Pronounced: ING-rid (Swedish), ING-ree (Norwegian), ING-grit (German), ING-greet (German)

Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: JAYN

Gender: Masculine
Usage: Biblical
Other Scripts: יְהוּדָה (Ancient Hebrew)
Pronounced: JOO-də (English)

Gender: Feminine
Usage: Biblical, Ancient Roman

Gender: Masculine
Usage: Hebrew, English, Dutch, Biblical, Biblical Latin
Other Scripts: לֵוִי (Hebrew)
Pronounced: LEE-vie (English), LE:-vee (Dutch)
Possibly means "joined, attached" in Hebrew. As told in the Old Testament, Levi was the third son of Jacob and Leah, and the ancestor of one of the twelve tribes of the Israelites, known as the Levites. This was the tribe that formed the priestly class of the Israelites. The brothers Moses and Aaron were members. In the New Testament this is another name for the apostle Matthew. As an English Christian name, Levi came into use after the Protestant Reformation.

Gender: Feminine
Usage: French
Pronounced: NEE-KAW-LET
Diminutive of NICOLE.

Gender: Masculine

Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Hebrew, French, German, Dutch, Biblical, Biblical Latin, Biblical Greek, Biblical Hebrew
Other Scripts: רָחֵל (Hebrew), Ραχηλ (Ancient Greek)
Pronounced: RAY-chəl (English), RA-SHEL (French), RA-khəl (German), RAH-khəl (Dutch)
From the Hebrew name רָחֵל (Rachel) meaning "ewe". In the Old Testament this is the name of the favourite wife of Jacob and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin. She was the younger sister of Jacob's first wife Leah.

The name was common among Jews in the Middle Ages, but it was not generally used as a Christian name in the English-speaking world until after the Protestant Reformation. A notable bearer was the American conservationist Rachel Carson (1907-1964).

Gender: Feminine
Usage: Italian, Late Roman
Pronounced: ro-za-LEE-a (Italian)
Late Latin name derived from rosa "rose". This was the name of a 12th-century Sicilian saint.

Gender: Feminine
Usage: French, German, Dutch, English
Pronounced: RAW-ZA-LEE (French), ro-za-LEE (German), RO-zə-lee (English)
French, German and Dutch form of ROSALIA. In the English-speaking this name received a boost after the release of the movie 'Rosalie' (1938), which was based on an earlier musical.

Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: ro-EE-nə
Meaning uncertain, possibly a Latinized form of a Germanic name derived from the elements hrod "fame" and wunn "joy, bliss". According to the 12th-century chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth, this was the name of a daughter of the Saxon chief Hengist. It was popularized by Sir Walter Scott, who used it for a character in his novel 'Ivanhoe' (1819).

Gender: Feminine
Other Scripts: שָׂרָה (Hebrew), سارة (Arabic)
Pronounced: SER-ə (English), SAR-ə (English), SA-RA (French), ZA-ra (German), SA:-ra (Arabic)

In England, Sarah came into use after the Protestant Reformation. A notable bearer was Sarah Churchill (1660-1744), an influential British duchess and a close friend of Queen Anne.

Gender: Feminine
Usage: Ancient Greek, Greek
Other Scripts: Θεοδοσια (Greek)
Feminine form of THEODOSIUS.

Gender: Masculine
Usage: French, Romanian, German, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Czech, Russian, Bulgarian, Slovene, Croatian, Macedonian
Other Scripts: Валентин (Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian)
Pronounced: VA-LAHN-TEN (French), VA-len-teen (German), və-lyin-TYEEN (Russian)
Form of Valentinus (see VALENTINE (1)).

Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Pronounced: WES-ta (Classical Latin), VES-tə (English)
Probably a Roman cognate of HESTIA. Vesta was the Roman goddess of the hearth. A continuous fire, tended by the Vestal Virgins, was burned in the Temple of Vesta in Rome.

Gender: Masculine
Pronounced: VIN-sənt (English), VEN-SAHN (French)
Copyright © Mike Campbell 1996-2017.


Storytelling Performances

Storytelling performances delight the senses

Sherry’s storytelling is rhythmic and melodic, animated and exuberant, enlivened by a multiplicity of voices and sounds. A professional storyteller since 1981, she tells in libraries, schools, museums and festivals all over the United States. No matter the age of the listener, Sherry’s storytelling is vivid and enticing, compelling listeners to look through the kaleidoscope of story into the landscape of imagination.

Sherry Norfolk is an acclaimed performer, appearing at festivals all over the country. Her ebullient style and energetic command of stage bring a freshness to time-held folk tales and modern yarns.

–Read More–

Sherry tells beautifully-crafted, highly interactive international folktales, tailored to preschool, school-age or family groups. She has been recognized by the Urban Libraries Council, the National Association of Counties, the American Library Association, and the Florida Library Association as an innovative and creative library programmer.

–Read More–

School Assembly Programs

Animated, participatory storytelling programs fire the imagination and provide stimulating curriculum-based language experiences to engage students of all ages.

–Read More–


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Home > News > Content
How Does The Wire And Circuit Breaker Match?
Oct 26, 2017

Kitchen electric appliances, if there is electric oven, induction cooker, microwave oven, refrigerator, disinfection cabinet, rice cooker, electric cooker, range hood, pumping fan are open, 4 square line estimated a bit hard? With the 32A circuit breaker will not let the line burn.

To buy a 4 square line to do the socket and 1.5 square to do the whole house lighting (all with LED, a total of nine bulbs + five lamp), a 63A circuit breaker to do the main switch, two 32A leakage and a 16A circuit breaker Do sub-switch

The size of the circuit breaker is connected with the wire diameter, 6 square with 40A, 4 square with 32A, 2.5 square with 25A, from your first form can see the capacity of the circuit breaker slightly Less than the line current flow, for example, the total line is 6 square you can only use 40A circuit breaker, 10 square with 63A. Electricity, such as the concentration of places such as the best kitchen upstairs, "strict fit," said, add a few more circuits, so as to ensure the safety of electricity, and all the socket must be added PE line, or electricity to leakage.

According to how you empty and how to allocate the leakage to set how much, if you are in accordance with the building so that the largest insurance to buy, open the size of the line according to the line to buy.

Circuit breaker is also called air switch, it is an arc device called empty open, it is a switch function, but also to automatically protect the low-voltage distribution of electrical appliances, its role is equivalent to knife switches, fuses, thermal relays and other electrical components combination. Leakage circuit breaker is also called residual current action.

Circuit breaker is mainly used for short circuit and overload protection, generally divided into 1p, 1p plus n, 2P, 3p, 4p. 1p is only one line of fire into the empty line. 1p plus n is the line of fire and zero line at the same time into the open. 2P is the line of fire and zero line at the same time into the open, both are normally open when the trip at the same time off. 3p or 4p, etc., the working principle is simply a word, any electrical appliances in the studio will be hot, and the degree of fever and power is proportional to.

Leakage circuit breaker is also called residual current action, protector referred to as RCD, can be divided into the following three:

Without overload short circuit protection, only leakage protection RCD is also known as leakage switch.

RCD with overload protection, short circuit protection and leakage protection is also known as a leakage circuit breaker.

There is no overload short circuit protection function, nor directly split circuit, only the role of leakage alarm RCD, also known as leakage relay, is generally used for non-power important places, the principle is the use of RCD zero sequence current transformer to detect, To capture leakage current, contact and other ground fault current, and to release the power off the release device, according to its breaking reaction time can be divided into high sensitivity, medium sensitivity and low sensitivity.


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The Mystery and Myth of Petra

The rose-red city of Petra provides modern travelers a glimpse into an ancient civilization. This civilization carved the evidence of their existence deep into the sandstone rocks that jut into the Jordanian skies. As you wander through the…


The Buro North Wayfinding Project Wins AGDA Distinction Award

 - Oct 31, 2010
References: buronorth & core77
Having traveled a good bit now, I understand the importance of an infallible signage system such as the one seen in the Buro North Wayfinding project. It is so good, in fact, that it's won the AGDA Distinction Award.

Located at Falls Creek Ski Village in Australia, the Buro North Wayfinding signs take the shape of trees so as to complement their surroundings. Red accents allow it to be easily spotted by visitors. Able to withstand all sorts of weather conditions, the signs easily adapt to their environment.


dimanche 17 novembre 2013

Have you ever wished you could just pack up and hit the road? I have too, but we are not able to do that at the moment. Some families feel like they can't travel as they would like because their children are in school.

There are plenty of families who are hitting the road, despite having school aged children, or perhaps because they do have school aged children. These families are homeschooling their children, their homes just happen to be on wheels and move around the country.

Just as there are many different types of homeschoolers, there are many types of “roadschoolers”. Some families follow a completely traditional school model; they just do it on the road. They carry school books and sometimes even have virtual classes by connecting to other homeschoolers via the internet.

Other roadschoolers follow a different traditional homeschool method. They use the internet to provide curriculum. Some internet homeschool curricula, such as Time4Learning, provide all lessons on line, without requiring downloads or carrying CDs or DVDs around. Because a family would have access to an entire year of curriculum they can pick and choose what they will study by where they are in the country, using lessons that correspond to wherever they are travelling at the time.

Some roadschoolers are unschooled. They essentially let the road be the guide of what their children will learn. One roadschooling family thinks that unschooled has negative connotations and chose to use a term like lifeschool because in the process of experiencing life they children are gaining an education.

This family uses the internet for research, museums along their travels for further subject matter to study. They also use national parks and monuments as a great source of materials for their children to learn. Imagine travelling to Washington, D.C., and having such great resources as the Smithsonian as your child’s educational material for a week or more.

Not all families completely pull up stakes and take to the road to roadschool. Consider how much more interesting studying the Civil War would be if you took a family vacation to battlegrounds, museums, and forts that had some significance to the Civil War. History comes to life when a child can experience a location instead of just dryly reading about it.

Other homeschooling parents use time on the road to homeschool. For example, if one child has a piano lesson across town and all of the children in the family have to travel with her. Car travel time is a great time to get older children to read to younger children, have your children read signs, or to listen to audio books. Travel time can also be used for foreign language practice times.

This type of roadschooling also works if you are travelling to a field trip. Use the time en route to make sure the children understand what they are going to experience on a field trip as you travel to the field trip, and use the time returning home to discuss what they saw on the field trip and how it relates to other things they might have studied.

Roadschooling in the largest sense, when a family picks up roots and travels the country is legal, just as homeschooling is legal in all fifty states. One way to make sure that there are no issues with legality or truancy is to follow the homeschooling laws in the state of one’s permanent residence. Keep in mind, however, that some states require that you follow their laws regarding homeschooling if you stay within the state for more than two weeks. If you intend to participate in roadschooling over a long period of time it would be worth speaking with a legal defense association specifically aimed at homeschoolers.

Roadschooling can be anything from brief studies during commute time, to a way of life where a family picks up roots and hits the open road for an extended period of time. Technology is a great way to enhance education during travel time. With smart phones, computers, tablets, and mobile hot spots, learning can happen anywhere and anytime.

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Dealing with fb pages having offensive content

Dealing with fb pages having offensive content

The government is expected to sit with the Facebook this month to prevent posting of offensive contents. Discussion with the Facebook authorities to solve the issue and take necessary steps against those who run pages from abroad for spreading fundamentalism and militancy. State Minister for Telecommunications has said social networking sites run their activities as per their own choices and decisions but they should formulate and implement their policies in such a way that those don’t go against the norms and laws of any country and such sites should formulate their policies considering the social, religious and cultural values of different countries. The State Minister said that the Facebook has already shut down several pages for their provokative comments and posts after responding to government request within 48 hours.

In recent years, the country has observed some radical violence throughout the country where Facebook was used. After the appearance of a Facebook post showing a faked image of a Hindu deity placed inside a building in Makkah, extremists destroyed numerous Hindu temples and homes in Nasirnager, Brahmanbaria. The image later proved to be Photo-shopped. On 29 September 2012, mobs destroyed numerous Buddhist temples and monasteries in reaction to an image depicting the desecration of a copy of the holy Quran on a fake Facebook account under a fake Buddhist name. In 2016, DMP suspected 30 Facebook pages were used for campaigning extremism. Some Facebook pages had previously been closed but the militants still remain active by creating new pages. On December 8, 2015 the government sat with Facebook executives for the first time and said that it was threatening national security. Facebook was asked to set up an office in Bangladesh to filter local contents related to religious provocation and conspiracy against the state.
Militants use Facebook to collect new members and campaign extremism. Such groups examine attitudes of the targets on Facebook. If the target person seems suitable he is included in a specific facebook group and is provided with radical posts. Later, key functionaries contact the preferred person and give him final training for operation. Currently, it takes 48 hours for the Facebook authorities to respond to complaints lodged by the government. There is a tendency among the young generation to fish for ‘likes’ and thus, they do not focus on the content, which is sometimes objectionable. Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft have pledged to work together to identify and remove extremist content on their platforms through an information-sharing initiative.

Stability in Iraq depends on ending sectarian wounds
The loss of Mosul is perhaps the biggest military setback for the Islamic State. Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul was the jewel of the IS’s military gains, a place where its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his ‘Caliphate’ in June 2014. In less than three years, the IS’s territory has shrunk. It once controlled huge swathes in central and eastern Syria and north-western Iraq, but its influence is now limited to some pockets, through sustained military operations in which several actors such as Kurdish and Shia militias, Iraqi and Syrian armies and the U.S. and Russian air forces were involved. A few weeks ago, the IS lost the ancient city of Palmyra to the Syrian army. And now, it’s been practically defeated in Mosul. Iraqi troops have already captured the Mosul airport and major administrative buildings, and liberated population centers. What remains is isolated resistance by small groups of jihadists. It was a prolonged campaign.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered the Mosul offensive in October 2016, and the troops, backed by Kurdish Peshmerga and Shia militias on the ground and U.S. air power in the sky, moved inch by inch. They first liberated eastern Mosul, the left bank of the Tigris that divides the city into two, and then moved to the west, the IS’s power center.The defeat in Mosul does not mean that the threat from the IS is over. The group still has presence in some pockets in Iraq and in at least two major cities in Syria, Raqqa and suburbs of Deir ez-Zor. Even if the group loses its territories, it could transform itself into a state-less jihadist group like al-Qaeda and continue to target civilians in the region and beyond. But still, the larger argument is that without territories, the IS couldn’t claim to be a ‘Caliphate’. It will be driven away from cities to deserts and mountains, wrecking its conventional military capabilities.
In the short run, the military operations to liberate territories from the IS in Syria and Iraq should continue; in the longer run, the respective governments should adopt a more comprehensive approach to deal with the asymmetric threats the group will pose. In Iraq, for example, the IS’s eventual defeat depends on how the government addresses Shia-Sunni tensions. Prime Minister al-Abadi appears to be clear on his preferences. Unlike his predecessor whose Shia sectarian policies drove the Sunni population to revolt against Baghdad, a resentment which the IS exploited for popular support, Mr. al-Abadi tried to reach out to the Sunnis and promised to heal the sectarian wounds. After the military victory in Mosul, he has to make sure that the Sunnis are treated as equal citizens and share power equitably and start the process.

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Thursday, 9 June 2016

The Nature of Fire

In understanding the nature of hell, it is hard to get beyond the medieval paintings that are so viscerally imprinted on our cultural consciousness. To look beyond these lurid fantasies and focus on the scriptural teaching that was revealed by God involves peeling away our cultural preconceptions. It is important to realise that there is no horned red-skinned devil in the Bible, no pitchfork, no capering demons. There are no cloven feet or forked tails.

In fact there is no Hell at all.

By this I mean that the word Hell is not scriptural, it is an English noun used by the translators of the KJV Bible to translate four separate scriptural nouns. These scriptural words were Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, and one instance of the word Tartarus. Each word originally conveyed separate distinct meanings but unfortunately over the years and translations these have been somewhat obscured and conflated.

Unfortunately the translators of the KJV chose to sometimes translate Sheol as 'the Grave', when it talked about God's faithful being there, and yet translated it as ‘Hell’ when it talked about the unrighteous being there. In this the bias of their pre-existing theology came into play. But in the Israelites’ theology, everyone who died went to Sheol alike, whether good or bad, to sleep and await God's judgement. The dead in Sheol are described as being unknowing, asleep and unaware of their condition: “there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol” (Ecc 9:10); “in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?” (Ps 6:5); “the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward” (Ecc 9:5).

Wednesday, 30 March 2016

Free speech in Church

Paul wrote that “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be silent.” But what lessons can we draw from such an instruction today, when such a message seems so abhorrent to our modern culture. Are we supposed to follow Paul’s letter to Timothy as though it was written directly to us, ignoring the distance in time and geography that separates us from Paul? Many say yes. It doesn’t matter why Paul said what he said. Since he said it, we must obey. But to me this argument seems to rely solely on legalism, following the letter of what is written, rather than trying to discern a spiritual principle from it. Should we follow the spirit of the law, or its letter? This is a fundamental question that much of Christianity wrestles with, and is too great to go into here. But personally I do not believe Paul was attempting to set down a new law for the Church in his letters, not so soon after the joyful fulfillment of the old law. I believe he was advising the early churches based on underlying spiritual principles, and it is those that we should follow.

Firstly I believe that Christianity has to recognise the fact that the Scriptures were written in a time and culture when patriarchal dominance was both the standard and expected form of ordering society, family, and religious communities. Like the institution of slavery, it was very difficult to both imagine a different form of ordering human relationships, and to practically encourage such a counter-culture. Especially while at the same time ensuring that the fledgling religion wasn’t perceived by its neighbours as being detrimental or dangerous to the existing order.

The early Christians struggled with the tension between needing to set themselves to a different standard than the authorities of the world in which they lived, while not seeking to, or being seen to desire the revolutionary overthrowing of this established order. They were strictly a religion of peace, and they could not set themselves against the authorities they lived under otherwise not only would they be persecuted even more than they were, but they would be fundamentally going against their founding principles.


TEL, which provides Tennesseans with free, around-the-clock access to more than 40,000 resources, offers online courses for each of the GED’s test subject areas: math, science, social studies, writing, language arts and reading. Many of those resources available through TEL’sLearning Express Librarycan help people who want to prepare for the GED.The requirements for earning a GED are set to change Jan. 1, 2014, so those studying for the current test may have to start over if they don’t complete it this year, according to a prepared statement.

“Services like those available through the Tennessee Electronic Library are changing the way people think about libraries,” Secretary of State Tre Hargett said in a prepared statement. “Libraries aren’t just buildings where people can check out books anymore. They are also places where citizens can take prepare resumes, search for jobs or take online courses to improve their education. The Tennessee Electronic Library can assist in those efforts-without the need for people to actually visit a library. The Tennessee Electronic Library’s resources arefree andavailable 24 hours a day, seven days a week to Tennessee residents.”

-“GED Math”

-“GED en Español”

-“GED Test Prep”

-“GED Test Skill Builder: Language Arts, Reading”

-“GED Test Skill Builder: Math”

-“Pre-GED Language Arts, Writing”