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Philosophy of Religion - Who or what is the supreme authority in the Universe?

  1. Theism: belief in the existence of a god or gods, usually belief in one god in the monotheistic sense or one overall god of which all are a part as in the pantheistic sense. God as creator of the universe, intervening in it (monotheistic) and sustaining a personal relation to his creatures.(monotheistic)
    1. Mysticism - Generally a hyper-supernatural approach to theism in nearly all of its forms– can appear as Animist, Monotheist, Polytheist, or Pantheist belief systems.

      1. Monotheistic Judaism: Nullification and absorption within God's Infinite Light(Hassidic)

      2. Monotheistic Islam (Sufi): fana or “union with Allah”; Innate Knowledge

      3. Pantheistic Hinduism, Buddhism: Complete non-identification with the world (Kaivalya Sankhya, and Yoga of some Hinduist schools; Jhana in Buddhism) Liberation from the cycles of Karma (Moksha in Jainism & Hinduism, Nirvana in Buddhism) Union with God - Brahma-Prapti or Brahma-Nirvana in Hinduism

      4. Atheism (Eastern) - Deep intrinsic connection to ultimate reality (Satori in Mahayana Buddhism, Te in Taoism)

      5. Monotheistic Christianity - Theosis or Divinization, union with God and a participation of the divine nature (Catholic Christianity and Eastern Orthodoxy) c.f.Francis Assisi; Charismatic Pentecostal “inner voice” of what they perceive to be their god. (in contrast to Biblical Christianity which adheres to the “Sola Scriptura” authority of the Scriptures for the church and the believer - IITimothy 3:16-17

    2. Panentheism – A theistic religious belief system whereby the universe is “in” god and distinct from him as in monotheism and polytheism but rather god transcends beyond the universe and is not equivocated with it as in pantheism (all that is seen and unseen makes up the person of god) c.f. process theology

    3. Monotheism - The belief in a singular omnipotent, omniscient Creator God who usually possesses a negative disposition toward the existence of any other deity besides Himself and thus, the adherence of the three main monotheistic faiths:- Christianity, Judaism, and Islam utterly reject the proposition of multiple gods (Mormonism, Hinduism, Bahai, etc)

    4. Deism - belief in the existence of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not personally interact in His universe. Deism was birthed and reached its zenith during an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind. The god of deism has often been referred to as the “Watchmaker god” in that he creates a machine i.e. the universe, and simply lets it wind down of its own accord. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were said to have been deists, however, a closer examination of their actual writings reveals a belief in a Deity that is personal and “providential” (supernaturally intervening) in the affairs of His creation. Their writings more closely resemble the God of Judaeo-Christianity than that of the deists of their day.

    5. Pluralism – More a disposition toward religion than a religious “system” in that all religions are considered valid and true and no single world religion can or should claim superiority over another. i.e. ALL religions are correct – its just a matter of which one works best for a particular person. This attitude is greatly dependent upon subjective relativism in that it overlooks the contradictory absolutes declared by each and every religion except Bahai which is built upon this relativistic pluralist concept.

    6. Syncretism – Different from pluralism in that instead of “all paths” leading to the same end, syncretism seeks to combine all religious belief systems into one coherent system or “one path” by way of accepting certain aspects of monotheism, pantheism, etc and forming a conglomeration of religious belief.

    7. Pantheism - The theistic belief that all beings in the universe (including the universe itself) comprise the being known as “god” such as in Brahman of Hinduism. This is often confused with panentheism which is actually a differing belief that all things and the universe are in god. A misnomer about pantheism is that it is a theology that permits or tolerates all gods. This is decidedly false in that the exclusive God of Christianity and the exclusive god of Islam are both said to be “accepted” but the claims of exclusivity by both gods are utterly rejected. That is to say, Pantheism is inclusive of all religious systems except true Christianity and true Islam

    8. Polytheism - The belief in and worship of more than one god. This often applies differing attributes to a multiplicity of gods who are usually at odds with one another such as in Greek, Roman, or Near Eastern mythology. Most all of polytheism was wiped out in the west with the arrival of Christianity and in the East with the arrival of Islam.

      1. Henotheism – A variant form of polytheism whereby one particular god enjoys supremacy over all other gods in existence. c.f. “Zeus” of Greek polytheism or “Our Heavenly Father” of Mormonism (bears similar name to Christian Deity with a decidedly different meaning and origin, to the “Heavenly Father”)

    9. Monism – A metaphysical (cosmology), theological, psychological, ethic/moral and epistemological term – each bearing a different definition. In this, the theological sense it is the belief system that claims that all the universe can be described as one substance. “All is one. One is all. All is God” is the credo of Pantheistic monism found mostly among Hindu sects and some Chinese traditional religions. The religious philosophy of monism is primarily an eastern religious world view component and borders largely on the metaphysical (existence) definition of the same concept.
      1. Dr. John Weldon says: "[Monism's] cultural acceptance would destroy both individual and societal purpose in life. The Eastern religions… deify man, depersonalize God, make the creation an 'illusion,' and justify and promote social apathy, to name just several serious consequences. India… is supposed to be the land of perpetual spiritual enlightenment…[but] one needs only to examine the cultures in which the concept of God as a personal Creator has been rejected to see the unhappy results."

      2. I can personally attest to Dr. Weldon’s statement above based on what I know and observed firsthand in many visits to India and Sri Lanka. - AH

      3. There is a tendency among the New Age adherents to embrace monism or being “one with the universe”.

    10. Dualism – A philosophical form of metaphysics, ethics, and theology. In the theological sense it is the existence of two contrasting contrary entities like spirit vs material (Gnosticism) or God vs creation (Paulicanism), and God vs universe (some Hindu sects). In some variant forms dualism is present in the form of “ditheism” (Zoroastrianism)

    11. Ditheism - pits two deities of polar opposite values against one another as can be found in Zoroastrianism. Ditheism has been erroneously credited with the development of Christianity, which usually emerges from a lack of understanding of Christian theology. The ditheist view or Christian origin erroneously posits God vs. “the devil” as polar opposites – which is the general view held by secularists and nominal Christians seeking to describe or understand Christian theology. A ditheist view of Christianity is a gross misrepresentation of Biblical Christian theology in that Christians hold that God has no opposite as the devil is a created, fallen angel and the true source of all evil (sin against God) is in the rebellion of God’s creation – mankind and the angels. This rebellion, in turn, required action on God’s part to resolve: either to obliterate said rebellious creatures and start over, or to redeem mankind and obliterate the rebellious angels. Christians hold that God opted for redemption which is currently in progress. This is markedly different from Zoroastrianism or any other ditheist or bitheist construct

  2. Atheism: A (without) theism (God). Essentially a belief system of faith unto itself whereby the assertion is held that God does not exist.

    1. Eastern Nontheism

      1. Taoism – An ancient Chinese religious and philosophical system whereby an ethical and metaphysical order of the universe can provide order to human lives. Taoism was founded by Lao Tzu (Old Philosopher) in the 6th century BC (possibly coincided with founding of Confucianism) and furthered by the prolific Chuang Tzu in the 4th century BC. This system is taught as “inexpressible in words” (ineffable) and is largely deity-less mysticism. Incorporates the moral dualism of the yin and yang (benevolent vs malevolent opposites) A famous saying of Taoism is “The way of the Tao cannot be known, he who claims to know the way of the Tao has revealed that he has not known it.”

      2. Confucianism – An ancient Chinese system of ethics, education, and statesmanship founded by Chiu King (Confucius) circa 550 B.C. and furthered by Meng Tzu circa 370 B.C. The system is referred to as “optimistic humanism” as it recognizes no deity of any kind apart from emphasis of ancestor worship and reverence for parents and stressed harmony between thought and conduct. Like Taoism, Confucianism adheres to a form of moral dualism found in the yin and yang.

      3. Buddhism – Theravada Buddhism – one of five main sects – holds to the pursuit of “Nirvana” or enlightenment by adhering to a series/system of ethics and behaviors which were introduced by Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha) who gained enlightenment after his disillusionment with Hinduism. Like other ancient traditional Chinese belief systems, Theravada Buddhism does not speak of any deity but rather a “right and correct” way of living life eventually resulting in a perfect deity-less eternity.

    2. Western Nontheism

      1. Skepticism

        1. Soft Skepticism – In the religious sense pertains to a category of skepticism whereby knowledge of deity or supernatural is simply unknown due to the absence of reliable knowledge and/or evidence on the subject and often belief is withheld until such reliable knowledge and/or evidence becomes available.

        2. Hard Skepticism – In the religious sense, a more extreme counterpart of soft skepticism which holds that knowledge of God and/or the supernatural can’t be obtained as these things are “wholly other” than natural man who lives in and by natural law therefore obtaining knowledge of deity or the supernatural is impossible, if indeed deity did exist.

      2. Humanism - System of thought emphasizing human methodology, and futurology while outright denying the existence of the divine or supernatural. The credo of humanism is found in the “Humanist Manifesto” by Raymond Bragg in 1933. The manifesto focuses on the inner value and basic goodness of human beings in general, while emphasizing common human needs, and seek solely empirical methods of solving perceived human “problems”. Like communism and socialism political philosophies, humanism believes that all humans are “basically good” but don’t act that way and are in desperate need of “re-education” which will result in “right” or “correct” behavior.

      3. Nihilism - A philosophy of religion whereby all religious and moral principles are either rejected or held in skepticism and therefore of no use ethically or methodologically due to the fact that life is meaningless. Sometimes called “nothingism”, there are both ‘sorrowing’ and ‘celebrating’ nihilists whereby the sorrowing nihilist accepts his or her fate with dread while the celebrating nihilist looks to this worldview as liberating from “oppressive” moral obligations laid on humans by religion.

      4. Agnosticism: Epistemological approach to philosophy of religion and/or supernatural that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God. There are usually two subtypes of agnostics: hard skeptics which claim that if there is a god nothing can ever be known about Him in that He is “wholly other” - that is, knowledge of god is impossible. The other variety of skeptic is considered a “soft” skeptic which claims that if there is a God - we probably couldn’t know or have knowledge of him, i.e. knowledge of god while not impossible, it is improbable

  3. Animism: An explanation of phenomena by way of spirit activity within and without animate and inanimate objects. This is the most primitive branch of religion apart from the original monotheism and it is a system of belief used to set up relations with spirits in the material and immaterial world.

    1. Examples: Shamanism, Voodoo, African Tribal Religion, Neo-Celtics, etc.

    2. This faith system differs greatly from polytheism i.e. corn spirit is object of magic rather than religious rites, animism belief in “departmental gods” can (and did) lead to polytheism.

    3. Animism is so widely varied, verbally communicated (passed on), and primarily belonging to nomadic tribes with unwritten tradition, that no authoritative writings exist (nor are deemed necessary by past and present adherents).

  1. Crossover of other worldview elements that impact one’s religious worldview

    1. Relativism - a belief system that stretches across epistemology, ethics/morality, and religion which holds to the idea that absolutes do not exist in the realms of knowledge, morality, and truth but rather exist only in direct relation to the culture, history, and society in which they are encountered. The flaw of this belief system is that it requires “absolute” knowledge and truth to claim there is “no absolute” truth or knowledge regarding religion etc.

    2. Solipsism - Also an epistemology that is a somewhat obscure and simple system of belief that by its very simplicity affects nearly every category of one’s world view that adheres to it. Solipsism is simply the belief that nothing can be known outside of one’s self. In fact nothing can be known to even exist outside of one’s self. Because of its odd simplicity I have placed it in a number of categories. In this case, with regards to religion, it is similar to the hard agnostic view that knowledge of God cannot be known, obviously because he would exist outside of one’s self.

    3. Asceticism - This is a methodology to obtain and maintain morality found in several world religious systems. It is an approach to religion whereby the comforts and amenities of this world are typically viewed as “excess” and therefore evil. The response is usually a separatist and or monastic lifestyle to scorn the pleasures of this world in order to gain a greater appreciation for the spiritual pleasures and disciplines. Buddhist monks and medieval Christian monks are an example of the ascetic lifestyle. Because this comprises a methodology to material life, and a motivation with view to ethics and morality, it is also a sub-category of the praxeology/methodolgy and the ethics/morality world view categories as well

Now that you’ve examined the various Philosophies of Religion, click on the icons below to take a look at the other elements that comprise your world view:

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The seasons have changed since the Panchgani.visit, but memories remain. And they must be shared before they fade away.

As you enter the town from Mumbai, on the right side of the road, stands Chistia Manzil. It was built around 1940 by a Gujarati builder Pranlal Vardhaman Modi, who named it Modi Mansion, says Asif Merchant (www.dancingheartpanchgani.blogspot.com), the current owner of the house.

The main structure of the house is rather reminiscent of Javed Manzil in Mumbai’s Mahim area. Except that while Chistia – it was renamed in 1948 by Merchant’s father Dr Ebrahim Karim Merchant – is made of stone and is in good shape, Javed is made of wood and is rotting.

Speaking about the journey of Chistia, Merchant says, “My father came to Panchgani in 1940, when I was 1 year old. This house has five blocks in the main building, which are interconnected. If you open all the doors, you can walk from one end to the other.” He adds that block no 1 and 2 and 4 and 5 have common verandahs with a tin partition in between. If the partition is opened, the two blocks become one big block.

Dr Ebrahim rented the whole house in 1941. “We stayed in Blocks 1 and 2. Block 3 was the dispensary. Blocks 4 and 5 were let out to my father’s patients. He was a medical practitioner. He had expertise in the treatment of tuberculosis, so most of the patients were suffering from TB, and required to stay on for at least a year,” Merchant says over email.

There’s also a cottage at the back of Chistia, which has three blocks. The verandah had partitions, which could be opened up to make the whole cottage one single unit. As was common at the time, the toilets were built outside the living area of the house from the house. A set of five or six toilets used to stand in the space between the cottage and Chesson Road, which runs at the back of the house. The property, which has been declared a Heritage building Class B, extended right up to Chesson Road.

Merchant adds that the family later rented out Block no. 2. Block no. 1 was rented out a few years later, after the Merchant family extended Block no. 3 and shifted there.

Merchant adds that which he doesn’t know much about architectural styles, he would classify Chistia as a pseudo-British colonial home. “I spent a long time there, and being interested in geometry, was able to spot many errors in the construction of the house. One obvious error is that the building is not parallel to the main road. It is not at the centre of the property. The space between the eastern end of the building and the boundary hedge is less than the space between the western end of the building and the boundary hedge.”


Posts Tagged ‘electronic design’

Patterns caused by different frequencies

21 January 2018

interference pattern
The above photo (which I have colorized and cropped) from Wikimedia Commons illustrates how two similar wave patterns can interfere with each other.

I have been working with this basic phenomenon as a possible way to create interesting patterns in LED displays that could be configured to interact with the environment.

My simpler prototype uses 12 yellow LEDs in a circle. The illustrations below show them in rows. This made it much easier to draw the illustrations.

Two Signals

The basic idea is to compare two different signals in a way that is interesting.

This design uses voltage-controlled oscillators to create a pair of square waves.

Each wave is then applied to a circuit that turns it into a repeating pattern with twelve parts. The corresponding outputs are then compared, and an LED is turned on or off depending on the result of that comparison.

The comparison logic I used for my first prototype turns the LEDs on only when both outputs being compared are “on” (about +5 volts in this case). There are other types of logic possible. This particular one gives the lowest current usage from the power supply.

So there are 12 LEDs, and each LED can only be on for one-twelfth of the time it takes for the pattern to repeat. But they will all fully light during their time slot only if the two signals being compared are exactly the same.

Otherwise, the LEDs will turn on and off in a pattern based on how different the two signals are. Here I have illustrated a few possible patterns. The yellow strip is the “reference” frequency, and the light blue strip is the other frequency. The lime green bands depict which LEDs will turn on, and for how long, based on my chosen comparison logic.

If the two signals are close but not exactly the same, the circle of LEDs will dim and brighten as the signals slowly go in and out of alignment. This is similar to how two musical notes that are close to each other will “beat” (get louder and softer).

two similar frequencies

If the two signals are a lot different, but related mathematically, they will produce a pattern of light and dark in the display.

As it is almost impossible to adjust the two oscillators to exact frequency multiples, the actual result is a fast or slow rotation of the pattern, depending on how far off they are.

Oddly, a 3 times difference in frequency produces a 2-node pattern.

frequencies different by factor of three

And a 4 times difference in frequency produces a 3-node pattern.

frequencies different by factor of four

Here is an image of my prototype – doctored to remove most of the distracting details of wiring and so forth on the circuit boards – showing a 3-node pattern that is slowly rotating. Here, three LEDs are much brighter, and three others are just beginning to turn on as the pattern slowly rotates.

3 nodes in circle

Three node pattern with LEDs in a circle.

Other Designs

I also made a display that uses my “signature” pattern of 8 concentric circles, starting with one having only three LEDs in it, and ending with one that has ten LEDs. This is a more interesting display to watch, but the results are more difficult to interpret. It is also more difficult to make. So I will likely continue to work with simpler designs as I develop this idea.

These designs don’t use any software; totally hard-wired, as they say. My experience with software that runs on controllers that I can afford is that it doesn’t run fast enough to provide a smooth display that doesn’t blink. So, though I plan to use controllers in some of these designs, I prefer designs where they are not needed and we are dealing totally with the real-time interactions of signals.

Motors Demo

25 October 2017

I don’t use motors much in my projects, but they are everywhere now on our very mechanical world. So I am always running into them, and had a bunch set aside mostly from tearing down old printers. I have been particularly interested in stepper motors, as I had read about them a long time ago, and they are used a lot in industry.

Stepper Motors

This isn’t going to be a huge technical article, but: Stepper motors are used for positioning in all sorts of equipment, computer printers just being one example. They are designed to be moved an exact rotational amount (by counting the step signals sent to the motor) and to hold that position while energized.

The ordinary stepper motor is driven by two overlapping signals, as mentioned in my recent post about SerDes design. Finding new data about how these motors are driven inspired me to take another shot at creating a working driver. My previous attempt, based on sine waves amplified by audio amps, had not been successful.

Design by Numbers

Here is a rear view of my project, with numbers added to match the discussion below:

  1. AC terminals and connectors. I like to run my projects off AC-powered supplies. I get them cheap from thrift stores. Usually they are “wall warts” or otherwise portable / external power supplies, and I remove the plastic cover and use the board inside. Sometimes I keep half the cover if it helps for mounting purposes.The funny thing about all modern power supplies is that the first thing they do is convert your AC power to DC. Then they step down the DC (about 120V in the US, about twice that in many other places) to the power supply voltage. Most of these modules provide good regulation, because that’s built into the controller electronics, and it helps protect people and equipment.
  2. I stacked the two power supplies I used. The top one runs my control electronics. Most of it is 5V, but I also have some 12V relays.
  3. I used a 9 volt 3-1/2 amp module to run the motors. These are a little hard to find, so when I run across one I grab it for later use. 5V supplies are ubiquitous, as they are used now for phone chargers (phones generally have 4V batteries). But other voltages and power levels can be more scarce.
  4. Next in line is a board that monitors the motor supply for voltage and current output. You can buy panel meters with these features built in, but I built my own, as it’s not too hard. It then feeds generic panel meters. The hardest part to get right on this board was the current shunt. I used a bunch of SMT (surface mount) resistors in parallel.
  5. The motor driver module was purchased online from China. This particular one had some problems, and I basically had to repair it before I could use it. That sometimes happens with cheap stuff from China. They had installed the wrong part to function as a 5V auxiliary supply. It was supposed to be a fixed-voltage part and an adjustable-voltage part was installed. So I had to lift the adjustment pin off the board and add some components to get my 5V output.One of the drivers was also poorly soldered, so I went over the solder joints and added more solder as needed.

    The board uses a part that has been around for a long time (LM298). It is designed to drive stepper motors. It has four logic-level inputs (plus enable) and four power outputs. It can work up to 48V. I had planned to add a second higher-voltage motor driver supply to the project, but all the motors worked fine with 9V, so I left it out.

    You have to feed the driver the correct signals, and I made two more boards to do that. One board provides the four steps needed to generate the “quadrature” drive pattern and a pulse-width-modulated (PWM) signal to vary the amount of drive. The other board converts these signals to those needed to feed to the driver board.

  6. Another board just gets all the connections right.
  7. I used a four-position rotary switch to select between four different motors. Only one is a stepper motor. The ordinary DC motors are very easy to power on; you just apply power. You can modify their speed somewhat by changing the drive voltage or using a PWM signal which essentially does the same thing. I used one driver IC on the driver board to power the DC motors. I paired up the four drivers to make two. I can run the load in forward, reverse or braking mode.
  8. Here are the front panel controls for stepper speed, PWM, and forward – brake – reverse.
  9. Cheap panel meters from China indicate the drive voltage and total current being used. They have a nice auto-ranging feature which makes them usable up to about 50 volts input. Their electronics run on 5 volts. These digital meters only have three decimal places, but that was enough for this application.

Closing Comments

The biggest problem with motors is having them stall out due to mechanical overload, which can ruin both the motor and the drive electronics. As these motors are running no-load, that’s not a problem. You can grab the motor shaft with your fingers if you want to, and see what mechanical loading does to the current draw. But for real use, the electronics should include overcurrent protection to turn the power off if the motor stalls. Many industrial motor drivers also monitor motor temperature, which is another way to tell that something is going wrong with your motor.

I am very happy that I was finally able to get my stepper motor to run (both forwards and reverse!) and at a variety of different speeds. It turns out steppers are a bit sensitive to what speed you drive them at. Try to go too fast and they just won’t run. Go too slow and they use too much power (though there are ways around this). Most steppers have an optimum speed, and in most applications, you will see them operated at a constant speed, or maybe two, high and low (like in a scanner).

The driver module was designed for robotics hobbyists. It’s a neat design, but not well-documented. I had to look up the datasheets for the various parts used to get details. This is par for the course in hobby electronics.

In search of a better SerDes

17 October 2017

Oh no! Another dry technical article! True, true. Just pass it by if you’re not interested.

Serdes sounds like a Greek word, but it isn’t really. There are some people with the name Serdes, but it is uncommon. I learned it as an engineering acronym thus (lightly edited):

A Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) – usually pronounced “sir-deez” – is a pair of functional blocks commonly used in high speed communications to compensate for limited input/output. These blocks convert data between serial data and parallel interfaces in each direction. The term “SerDes” generically refers to interfaces used in various technologies and applications. The primary use of a SerDes is to provide data transmission over a single/differential line in order to minimize the number of I/O pins and interconnects.

Electronic Art

I am trying to work out some cool things to do with LED arrays that would respond to environmental or observer inputs. There are many pieces to such a system. This includes the possibility that the display itself may be some distance from the electronics that collects the input signals and decides what the display should do. The same way a computer monitor can be separate from the computer. And in this case, the two are connected with a cable.

Some of us remember the old printer cables. They were thick, had up to 25 separate wires in them, and couldn’t be much longer than 15 feet. I could probably use such a cable in my projects. But that’s a lot of bulk, and it comes with many limitations. Those cables connected a parallel port on the computer to a parallel port on the printer. There were usually 8 data lines plus a bunch of handshaking signals to make it so the computer would not send data faster than the printer could print it out. If you wanted to get a lot of data back from the printer, you could add another 8 data lines going in the opposite direction.

8 bits can encode into 256 different numbers (0 to 255). That’s enough for an alphabet – both upper and lower case – and a bunch of other symbols. Each symbol has a number “code” that stands for that symbol. Both ends of the line have to use the same code system.

An 8 bit parallel system could go pretty fast; millions of symbols per second. But try pushing parallel data through a long cable that fast and you will quickly run into problems. You would need to shield the cable so external signals won’t interfere with it, and so it won’t radiate signals into external equipment. And the wires in the cable, when they get quite long, resist fast signals going through them in at least three different ways (resistance, inductance and capacitance). So if you want to send data fast through a long cable, you have a whole hardware design challenge on your hands.

SerDes concept

Illustration of the SerDes concept. Original graphic by Grégoire Surrel – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

The solutions to these problems usually involve reducing the number of wires carrying signals (ideally just one pair would be enough) and creating special hardware interfaces that alter the signals so that they will make it through the cable successfully, even though the cable presents various barriers to proper transmission.

A standard solution for many years was the “RS-232” serial cable. In this system the signal is amplified to make it more resistant to interference and cable attenuation. And the signal is “serialized” so it only has to use one pair of wires. That means each symbol of 7 or 8 bits would be transmitted as a sequence of bits that would have to be reassembled into 7 or 8 parallel bits at the receiving end. That was an early SerDes system. But we didn’t call it that in the old days. The acronym only came into wide use after the internet and its various forms of information exchange came into wide use. The term commonly refers to high speed data transmissions, but the basic concepts are the same regardless of data rate. My projects use quite low data rates just to make sure I don’t run into too many design problems and can use cheap parts.

The RS-232 standard could probably work for me, but I wanted to try another more modern data transmission standard, TIA-485. (RS = Recommended Standard, as published by the EIA, Electronics Industries Alliance, but now taken over by the TIA, Telecommunications Industry Association). This standard uses two wires for each signal plus a third wire used as a ground (zero volts) reference. The signal is transmitted in an attenuated form, differentially. That means a “zero” would be transmitted by putting maybe 3-1/2 volts on one wire and 1 volt on the other. And a “one” would be transmitted by reversing those. Smaller signals in a cable create less external interference and are easier to pass through longer cable lengths.

I have a connector that is used for MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) that has five pins, which means it can carry two differential serial signals (or 4 RS-232 signals) plus a ground reference wire. I wanted to use this connector and a 5-wire cable, but there was one problem:

SerDes Timing

Just as in the old parallel printer cables, where handshaking signals were necessary to tell the printer when a symbol to print was put onto the connecting cable, and tell the computer when the printer was busy, serial systems also need a way of at least telling the receiver when the transmitted data is good, how fast it is going, and when an entire symbol has been sent. This requires, minimum, clock and end-of-symbol signals for data rate and data synchronization. In the RS-232 system, the data rate had to be set at both ends in advance. And the end-of-symbol signal was coded into the data stream. It takes a computer to figure out how to decode this data stream, but if you send all three signals separately, you don’t need any computing at the receiving end. Deserialization can be done with one piece of hardware called a shift register.

But I can’t transmit three signals over a five-wire TIA-485 cable, only two. So I thought I’d figure out how to combine the three signals into two so that my system could work with the hardware I have. I devised a rather simple system to do this, and built an initial working system several years ago for my “Christmas” project (Christmas because it used strings of holiday lights for the visual display). Recently I have built two more systems that use this method.

I like to re-design systems each time I build them. This is partly because I might not have the same parts available that I used in an earlier design. Or it might be just to explore different ways the problem could be solved. All the heavy work in my SerDes system is on the transmitting site. The receiver is very easy to make. And for this transmitter design I wanted to use counters to run ICs (integrated circuits, now often known as “chips”) called multiplexers. You put parallel data on the 8 inputs of a multiplexer, then tell it which input to put on the output using a counter. And if the counter repeats a regular pattern (as most do) then the parallel data at the inputs will come out of the output in a predictable serial sequence. And so you have achieved serialization.

In my first design I was getting “glitches” at the outputs of some of my multiplexers. This is because I was using “ripple” counters. In this type of counter, the counting outputs don’t all change at exactly the same time. They might be a little off (usually much less than a microsecond, but that’s enough time to cause trouble). In other words, when changing from count 1 to count 2 for instance, the ones bit has to change from one to zero, while the twos bit has to change from zero to one. If the twos bit lagged a little, both outputs might be zero for a split second, telling the multiplexer to go to the wrong input. Such glitches can be filtered out, which is what I did in the first design. But in the second design I decided to try a different counting scheme, where only one counting bit would change at any one time. This should make counting glitches impossible (it does). But it means the count is no longer in number sequence. In other words to do this with a 4-count pattern, you have to use the pattern 0-2-3-1 (or 0-1-3-2) to get a glitchless count. This different sequence is not a problem when using a multiplexer, though it is more confusing to design if you are used to using ripple counters that count 0-1-2-3 (etc.).

I looked at the waveforms associated with this kind of counting, and they were just two square waves offset by one count. I found a PDF online that describes how to implement this kind of counter. It’s called a “quadrature” counter, and it’s pretty simple to do. Getting a similar sequence of 8 is a little more tricky, but basically just interleaves a quadrature signal with a square wave. I built my second system this way and it works fine (though I had to scratch my head a bit to get the input sequence right, as it is sensitive to the place value given to the various counting signals).

quadrature waveform illustration

A four-count pattern implemented using a quadrature counter.

What form should the data take?

So I now have a hardware system that can be used with either 2 TIA-485 signals over quite long distances (if the cables are made well) or with 4 RS-232 signals (but not the RS-232 encoding system). The RS-232 version is much easier to build, but does have distance and speed limitations compared to the TIA-485 system.

The original intention of the system was to enable transmission of 8-bit-wide signals that would be used to control an array of LEDs. But it could also be used to transmit serial control streams of any bit length. This means a wide variety of displays could be controlled, as long as they didn’t have to change at a very fast rate. In other words, we’re not talking about full-motion video, like TV, but that’s not the sort of display I’m working with. My average display contains less than 100 LEDs, while a modern TV screen contains millions.

I have also tried transmitting analog data using digital serial techniques by using pulse-width encoding, which is very simple to implement in hardware. This gives me the option of using digital data transmission instead of long analog signal lines. This may come in handy in some of my projects.

Electronics Design Case Study – ADSR

23 September 2017

ADSR module homemade

This is a technical article and if you have no particular interest in electronics design feel free to skip it. It will get into some terminology that won’t all be explained in the text…

Music Synthesis

My interest in synthesizers goes back to my early days studying electronics. I always wanted to make my own synth.

But by 1983, MIDI had come out, and I was in the Sea Org.

MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Musical instruments were an early target for embedded controllers (software-controlled electronic circuits) for many reasons. This ended (mostly) the era when synthesizers were controlled by analog (continuous) signals. Voltage sources were terrible when it came to keeping all the electronic instruments in an ensemble in tune with each other. So tuning was an obvious feature to turn over to the digital world, where crystal-controlled oscillators could stabilize pitch to within a few parts in a million.

The advent of digital signal processing meant things like voltage-controlled filters and unusual effects like ring modulation could be implemented with algorithms instead of hardware.

Voltage-controlled amplitude, however, is so straightforward in the hardware realm that it remains somewhat popular. A basic part of synthesizing a real-world note or sound is approximating its amplitude envelope. This envelope has long been analyzed by acoustics engineers into four parts: Attack; Decay; Sustain and Release. If you play a note on a stringed instrument you can easily see each of these parts in action. How hard and fast you hit (or pluck) the string determines the initial attack and to some extent how that attack decays. Then if you don’t damp the string it will continue to ring until it is damped or played over. This is sustain. And when it is damped, the sound will die out, which is the release phase.

There are many many possible ways to imitate this amplitude envelope with electronics. The most common methods use parts that I had run out of (1 Meg-ohm potentiometers) so I decided to try an alternative design of my own creation.

Design Requirements

Most traditional ADSRs take a “gate” signal from a keyboard which tells the electronics how long the key is being held down (“note on” in MIDI). My electronic art projects use sensors, not keyboards, so I couldn’t rely on a gate signal to determine how much sustain the sound would have. I also kind of wanted a circuit that could be adapted so that each part of the envelope could be controlled by a separate sensor. That means it couldn’t just use pots, like the super-simple designs do. I also wanted to try straight-line segments rather than the traditional curved segments you get using just resistors and capacitors, even though this is less “realistic” for decay slopes.

I had a front panel I was reusing from an earlier project, and originally loaded it with just three pots – all that seemed to fit – which is two less than you need to control the five main parameters of the envelope. But I thought I could skip setting a sustain level, and use one pot to control both decay and release slopes. This panel had to fit into a eurorack-style chassis I had put together earlier, with power coming in the front.

The unit was also to include the voltage-controlled amplifiers, using an IC I had never worked with before.

First Try

I decided to use an op amp integrator at the core of the design, as it would give straight-line slopes and could be dependably controlled. However, I wasn’t sure how to set up my 100K pots to imitate a wider range of resistance. I used three comparators and a couple of flip-flops to detect voltage levels and turn the various slopes on and off.

Mounted at the bottom of the front panel was a backplane board that has become standard in most of my designs. Circuit boards then plug into this backplane, which ideally handles all the interconnects. Front panel parts that could not be mounted directly on the backplane board would be wired down to the backplane using jumpers.

I made the envelope generator board first and then the VCA board. The VCA datasheet was confusing at first, but by wiring an actual circuit I was able to figure out what was going on. This VCA could accept a wide range of control voltages (0 to 30 roughly), but they were referenced to the negative voltage rail! So I needed both an amplifier and offset for my envelope, as it would go from 0 to 5V only, my standard range for control voltages. I realized at this point that I would need a sound source to test this with, and it would also be nice to monitor the envelope waveform on an analog meter. I then spent about a day creating an oscillator and a meter for these purposes.

An incomplete design with too many questions about “will it work this way?” resulted in my running out of room on my envelope module. To solve this I piggybacked an extra module onto the main one. I got some sort of envelope out of this design, but the pots worked only over an extremely narrow range of their total rotation. I had to decide whether to stick with these pots and basic design, or start over.

Second Try

I looked around at what my alternatives were. I had a nice set of six quite small 5K pots from an old piece of audio equipment. They would all fit into the panel if I drilled new holes for them. So I decided to go for it. Five of these pots went onto a new backplane board. I modified this board to hold circuitry and figured the majority of my new design would fit on this board, with the rest put on a new plug-in module on the original backplane.

Now that I was beginning to recognize that this was a challenging project, I went to a build a section and test it approach to my work. 5K pots could only yield 1:100 output variations (comparable to using a 1Meg pot in series with a 10K resistor) by using the turn-on “knee” of transistors to stretch out the transfer curve. I have used this before so didn’t bother to work it out in complete detail, or plot the curves graphically, but below gives you a graphical idea of what I’m referring to:

transistor turn-on graph

Using a curve found on the internet, note that a 0.1 change in input voltage produces a ten-fold change in output current. Extend this input range a little more and you can squeeze out a 1:100 input/output ratio, or even more.

I built my current sources and sinks using discrete transistors. This gives worse consistency and stability than using matched pairs or some specialized IC, but usable for my purposes. I built one and tested it. I gave me a range of 50 to roughly 1500 microamps. This was good enough. I put the rest on the board, then added a dual timer (LM556) and some inverters and connected it up to run continuously (astable mode). I powered up and checked with my oscilloscope. This part of the design worked fine. The timers have two comparators and a flip-flop inside each of them, so this decreased my parts count.

I thought that I could get the timers to stop after just one cycle using some sort of edge detection scheme. But it didn’t work. I was using two timers so that the attack-decay and sustain-release cycles were separate and could be put in sequence. But my difficulties in making the circuit cycle just once and stop caused me to rethink this approach.

The next day I rewired the timers for one-shot (monostable mode) operation. Now the timers could be triggered by my sensor, fire – producing the envelope waveforms – and would then stop, waiting for a new trigger. I used two control flip-flops with NAND gates (CD4093B) to lock out new trigger signals until the current envelope had finished. I really needed only one flip-flop, but the package (CD4013B) has two in it, so I used one for each of the timers.

Next I had to get all the analog levels of the envelope right. I put this circuitry on the new module board. I only needed 8 wires to connect the new envelope module to this analog module. It has six opamps and a comparator. The comparator detects when the envelope signal goes to zero, and resets the flip-flops so they can allow in another trigger signal. This circuit wasn’t working at first. What was wrong? The envelope waveforms were only going down to 0.5 volts, not to ground. I had the comparator set below this, so it was never firing. I was powering my envelope generator with only ground and +12V. The current sinks (set up as mirrors for my current sources) could only pull the load capacitors down to 1/2 a volt. I compensated for this by adding some offset to my summing opamp. I set the output to go a little below ground so the comparator would for sure fire. I had to find a missing wire on the envelope board before I got the unit totally working. It’s not perfect, but it now works as it was designed to work, and will serve it purpose in helping me develop electronic art that uses sounds.


How To Mark a Topic As Resolved?

How do you mark a reply as being the “best answer” and mark the topic as being “resolved”?

(Heather Dudley) #2

I don’t think that’s a native feature (feel to correct me if I’m wrong, folks) and would require a plugin, but one thing I do on my non-Discourse forum is simply edit the title of the thread to include [Resolved] at the beginning. The best answer would be the one that gets most likes, or you could use staff coloring to make it stand out.

I noticed the staff coloring option. Can you change the staff color?

(Heather Dudley) #4

Yep. Sure can! Found this old closed post.

Oh, just realized this button is available below:

Does anyone know what plugin is used for this?

(Régis Hanol) #6

You need to install the #plugin:solved plugin

Just what I needed. Thank you!


T I M E L E S S N E S S – Between Nothingness and Eternity

When bread was made in almost all homes and, as a rule, it was baked once a week, a piece of the dough was put aside, covered with a damp cloth and stored away in the cupboard. That piece of living material continued to ferment in the dark and formed the yeast necessary for the following week’s dough. So, not only in an ideal sense but as a matter of fact, each new loaf contained the DNA of all the bread that had preceded it. A molecular kinship therefore bound the present to the past and that germinal and archetypal element was the most crucial factor for the best bread, freshly baked daily. This culinary practice, now lost in peasant houses, continues to be a metaphor for art and life. Memory is the starter yeast of our present day and, even in its unstoppable decomposition process, it continues to give essential vital stimuli to new actions, to new ideas. Just knowing this is sufficient to be able to say that no work of art flourishes without a bulb, without a root that keeps it in touch with a genealogy of many other works. Sometimes this genetic inheritance is evident, to the point of becoming similar. In other cases, histologic sampling is needed to understand the affiliation, but each artist has an army of fertile generations behind him, and to some extent he has to conquer a lineage that can never be assumed. Yet art continues to live with an inextinguishable nostalgia, which has always appeared to us to be a lack, like a void, and which, however, must be understood as a sense of belonging.

We belong to a time (as well as to a place) that, in its accomplishment, is united with all of the past. Perhaps it is the energy of the present that bakes and cooks the new bread, that stops that millennial process of fermentation of matter, fixing the dough into a transformed substance and marking an ideal point in time and space.

Each painting is a meaningful object that tells an experienced history or a metaphor, a sacred affair or an allegory, that sets the scene for pure contemplation or attempts to imitate a piece of nature. A painting always contains an indefinite amount of thoughts, more or less understandable, that are kneaded together with the chromatic material. In that blend of chemistry and physics, of technique and know-how, are all the reflections and intentions that the author has developed during execution, as well as other unconscious factors induced by history and geography. Whether they are simple, absent minded, or complex thoughts arrived at through labyrinthine theories, they are, in any case, equivalent to seeds stored in an urn, which continue to have potential fertility. This miraculous property makes art a vehicle through centuries and generations that can survive the mutations of taste and culture to give us a valuable sense of feeling and sentiment.

So, when contemporary art relates to significant objects of an earlier age, it is as if it is trying to use the starter yeast. Sometimes it is not even necessary that a modern work is intentionally in dialogue with an ancient one to trigger explosions or introduce new blooms. As with aerial dissemination, a temporal pollination, the sense of art branches out and intermingles feelings that still produce kinship elements, degrees of separation and proximity. In this exhibition, there are several types of assonance. Some living artists chose to deal with an explicit thematic or stylistic relationship, for others picking up the harmonic sound of a shape or colour was enough to cause a vibration between the two works. But the conceptual stratification of this experiment encounters further reading levels, being the result of the dialogue between a great antique Italian gallery and a young contemporary art gallery. Giorgio Baratti made his collection of paintings from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries available, while the Aria Art Gallery invited some artists to participate in the experiment. I myself had the experience and the pleasure of coordinating this together with Andrea Guastavino and Antonio Budetta. Relationships of being between works that already existed were found but, but new pieces were also created, specifically designed on the theme of the Timelessness project.
The reasons that make ancient works contemporary and alive, which allow them to continue to release spores and meanings, are similar to and mirrored in those that bring reminiscences of past ages into modern paintings, that familiar flavour that is able to adhere to our memory, making it vibrate, as if it were a tuning fork. – Massimo Pulini

Click here to discover the catalog of T I M E L E S S N E S S – Between Nothingness and Eternity

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Year: 2003

Another Foot Locker Europe exclusive from the round lace and SB inspiration era when Supa and Forbes "inspirations" were rife, this Dunk Hi takes some inspiration (unless it was a coincidence) from the "Reverse Supa" Dunk Low (which in turn, was reminiscent of the old Halloween Dunk Low) of the same year. While it doesn't feel as premium as Danny's NYC salute, it's a Knicks Dunk Hi and that's a very good thing to have on your feet.


My dog has an abscessed tooth. I called the vet and if was very expensive the last time I took him in. I am allergic to penacillin or however you spell it. This is what they gave me for my abscessed tooth. But i had a reaction so stopped taking it.


Smart Mobility

Smart mobility aims to tackle major mobility challenges through applying novel technologies, such as sensing, big, data, internet of things and ubiquitous computing. Focus is on two aspects; the automotive domain and novel interactions and interactive materials (in amongst others car interiors).

The projects of this squad focus on the transition to driving in autonomous cars, and how the interaction, experience and dialogue with the car changes but also fuel-efficient vehicles, change from ownership to use and connectivity in mobility.


On The Job.

May 02, 1999|By Jeffrey Steele.

NAME: Alan Perlman, 55 / EMPLOYER: Kraft Foods Inc., Northfield/ SALARY RANGE: $90,000 to $200,000 a year

Why did you choose this field?

Actually, it chose me. I attended a management conference and saw people giving prepared speeches. It seemed a very exciting kind of writing, with a real-world immediacy and impact.

What was your educational background?

I have an AB from Brown University (a bachelor of arts degree) and an MA and PhD from the University of Chicago.

All three are in linguistics, the study of language. I was an English composition and linguistics professor for 12 years.

After I left academia, I used my linguistics training to teach myself how to write speeches.

What is an average week like?

I spend at least half of my time actually writing speeches and other executive communications.

During the other half, I'm consulting with executive clients or other people who give me information and ideas for my speeches. Additionally, I spend time looking for the quotes, facts and numbers I need. I have voluminous files.

I also go to speech rehearsals and I sometimes do presentation training. The rest of the time is spent attending company meetings and conferences, especially the ones where someone's delivering a speech I worked on, or reading one of the three dozen or so publications that help me stay well-informed.

What's the best thing about the job?

The same thing that attracted me to it in the first place: the chance to use words to make a difference. It's great to see an executive deliver a speech with power and conviction -- and to see people respond and be inspired.

Worst thing?

The hardest thing for me is to stay abreast of what's going on, not only in the business world, but in my own company. The business of a big company like Kraft is extremely complex, encompassing many disciplines.

I have to maintain at least some familiarity with them all. So I have a network of people I can call on for information. And I go to as many internal presentations and seminars as I can.

What attributes are essential to doing your job well?

Writing skills, obviously. Speechwriting requires a long list of writing skills, some of them peculiar to the ghostwriting profession. Among the most important are:

- analyzing and replicating each executive's personal speaking style,

- writing simple, well-constructed sentences that are mechanically correct and unmistakably clear -- and yet sound like spontaneous, conversational speech,

- writing to a wide variety of specified length limits, and

- organizing a speech text to create a sense of sequence, suspense, and finality.

Curiosity is important; speechwriters are born learners. We're interested in everything, and we love trivia.

We never know when a particular fact, quote or cartoon will fit perfectly into a speech someday.

I also need to be able to absorb new information quickly, relate it to information already on hand, evaluate it critically, and synthesize it into a coherent text.

Where will you go from here?

I'm one of the few people who have made a career of speechwriting.

I really have no top-management aspirations.

I'm committed to this profession -- and to becoming as good as I can.

What advice would you give to people interested in this area?

A major in English, speech communication, rhetoric or linguistics (and coursework in all four, including stylistics) would be excellent preparation.

Also, take an objective look at your writing skills.

You might even ask a speechwriter or speech professor to look over your work.

You need to know how close you are to the level of stylistic sophistication and mechanical correctness that I described above.

Listen carefully to speeches you hear in your daily life -- by political candidates, civic and business leaders, motivational speakers, and so on.

Try to pick up on some of the devices speakers use to deliver their message effectively.

To learn a conversational writing style, listen to stand-up comedians and monologists; also, read novels with lots of dialogue.

If you're already out of school, consider a speechwriting course. Or read a few books on the subject. I suggest the following:

- Jerry Tarver's "Corporate Speechwriter's Handbook,"

- Joan Detz's "How to Write and Give a Speech,"

- Stephen Maloney's "Talk Your Way to the Top,"

- Edward McCarthy's "Speechwriting: A Professional, Step-by-Step Guide for Executives,"

- and, of course, my own: "Writing Great Speeches: Professional Techniques You Can Use."

Send suggestions for job profiles to tribjobs@tribune.com.


Operational Integrity

Prince George Refinery

Prince George Refinery

Operational integrity means performing activities safely and reliably to provide for efficient and consistent performance.

To protect the public, minimize potential risks to the environment, safeguard the health and wellbeing of employees and shelter Company assets from damage or loss, potential hazards and risks are identified, eliminated or mitigated.

Husky’s Keep Safety In Sight campaign promotes leadership at all levels of the organization, and encourages employees to use HOIMS processes and procedures, training and a critical eye to identify and mitigate major accident hazards.

The Company sets operational integrity targets in its annual objectives.

Delivering Results: Operational integrity is built into Husky's business and it continues to improve process safety and drive consistent performance.


All information
What is the Tour Price including?

Mostly on our tour programs, the prices as follows: - Inclusive: accommodation, domestic transportation (vehicle, train, airplane, boat and car), tour guide, meals and entrance fee. - Exclusive: travel insurance, drinks, personal expenses. Which inclusive or exclusive may also depend on your requirement.

Why travel with us?

We have chosen the products that we offer you very carefully with standard quality, competitive price, knowledgeable, experienced staffs to ensure a memorable vacation for you. Our experienced staffs are willing to help you plan all aspects of your vacations down to the smallest details.


Essay On Climate Change And Its Impact

See also: Attribution of recent climate change

Forcing mechanisms can be either "internal" or "external". Internal forcing mechanisms are natural processes within the climate system itself (e.g., the thermohaline circulation). External forcing mechanisms can be either natural (e.g., changes in solar output, the earth's orbit, volcano eruptions) or anthropogenic (e.g. increased emissions of greenhouse gases and dust).

Internal forcing mechanisms

Scientists generally define the five components of earth's climate system to include atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere (restricted to the surface soils, rocks, and sediments), and biosphere.[8] Natural changes in the climate system ("internal forcings") result in internal "climate variability".[9] Examples include the type and distribution of species, and changes in ocean-atmosphere circulations.

Ocean-atmosphere variability

Main article: Thermohaline circulation

See also: Climate inertia

The ocean and atmosphere can work together to spontaneously generate internal climate variability that can persist for years to decades at a time.[10][11] Examples of this type of variability include the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, the Pacific decadal oscillation, and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. These variations can affect global average surface temperature by redistributing heat between the deep ocean and the atmopshere[12][13] and/or by altering the cloud/water vapor/sea ice distribution which can affect the total energy budget of the earth.[14][15]

Life affects climate through its role in the carbon and water cycles and through such mechanisms as albedo, evapotranspiration, cloud formation, and weathering.[17][18][19] Examples of how life may have affected past climate include:

External forcing mechanisms

Orbital variations

Main article: Milankovitch cycles

Slight variations in Earth's motion lead to changes in the seasonal distribution of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface and how it is distributed across the globe. There is very little change to the area-averaged annually averaged sunshine; but there can be strong changes in the geographical and seasonal distribution. The three types of kinematic change are variations in Earth's eccentricity, changes in the tilt angle of Earth's axis of rotation, and precession of Earth's axis. Combined together, these produce Milankovitch cycles which have an impact on climate and are notable for their correlation to glacial and interglacial periods,[30] their correlation with the advance and retreat of the Sahara,[30] and for their appearance in the stratigraphic record.[31][32]

Solar output

Main article: Solar variation

Further information: Cosmic ray § Postulated role in climate change

Three to four billion years ago, the Sun emitted only 75% as much power as it does today.[35] If the atmospheric composition had been the same as today, liquid water should not have existed on Earth. However, there is evidence for the presence of water on the early Earth, in the Hadean[36][37] and Archean[38][36] eons, leading to what is known as the faint young Sun paradox.[39] Hypothesized solutions to this paradox include a vastly different atmosphere, with much higher concentrations of greenhouse gases than currently exist.[40] Over the following approximately 4 billion years, the energy output of the Sun increased and atmospheric composition changed. The Great Oxygenation Event – oxygenation of the atmosphere around 2.4 billion years ago – was the most notable alteration. Over the next five billion years from the present, the Sun's ultimate death as it becomes a red giant and then a white dwarf will have large effects on climate, with the red giant phase possibly ending any life on Earth that survives until that time.[41]

Solar output varies on shorter time scales, including the 11-year solar cycle[42] and longer-term modulations.[43] Solar intensity variations, possibly as a result of the Wolf, Spörer, and the Maunder Minima, are considered to have been influential in triggering the Little Ice Age.[44] This event extended from 1550 to 1850 A.D. and was marked by relative cooling and greater glacier extent than the centuries before and afterward.[45][46] Solar variation may also have impacted some of the warming observed from 1900 to 1950. The cyclical nature of the Sun's energy output is not yet fully understood; it differs from the very slow change that is happening within the Sun as it ages and evolves.

A 2010 study[49] suggests "that the effects of solar variability on temperature throughout the atmosphere may be contrary to current expectations."

The eruptions considered to be large enough to affect the Earth's climate on a scale of more than 1 year are the ones that inject over 100,000 tons of SO2 into the stratosphere.[51] This is due to the optical properties of SO2 and sulfate aerosols, which strongly absorb or scatter solar radiation, creating a global layer of sulfuric acid haze.[52] On average, such eruptions occur several times per century, and cause cooling (by partially blocking the transmission of solar radiation to the Earth's surface) for a period of a few years.

The eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century, affected the climate substantially, subsequently global temperatures decreased by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) for up to three years.[53][54] Thus, the cooling over large parts of the Earth reduced surface temperatures in 1991–93, the equivalent to a reduction in net radiation of 4 watts per square meter.[55] The Mount Tambora eruption in 1815 caused the Year Without a Summer.[56] Much larger eruptions, known as large igneous provinces, occur only a few times every fifty – one hundred million years – through flood basalt, and caused in Earth past global warming and mass extinctions.[57]

Plate tectonics

Main article: Plate tectonics

The position of the continents determines the geometry of the oceans and therefore influences patterns of ocean circulation. The locations of the seas are important in controlling the transfer of heat and moisture across the globe, and therefore, in determining global climate. A recent example of tectonic control on ocean circulation is the formation of the Isthmus of Panama about 5 million years ago, which shut off direct mixing between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This strongly affected the ocean dynamics of what is now the Gulf Stream and may have led to Northern Hemisphere ice cover.[64][65] During the Carboniferous period, about 300 to 360 million years ago, plate tectonics may have triggered large-scale storage of carbon and increased glaciation.[66] Geologic evidence points to a "megamonsoonal" circulation pattern during the time of the supercontinentPangaea, and climate modeling suggests that the existence of the supercontinent was conducive to the establishment of monsoons.[67]

Human influences

Main article: Global warming

In the context of climate variation, anthropogenic factors are human activities which affect the climate. The scientific consensus on climate change is "that climate is changing and that these changes are in large part caused by human activities,"[68] and it "is largely irreversible."[69]

Of most concern in these anthropogenic factors is the increase in CO2 levels. This is due to emissions from fossil fuel combustion, followed by aerosols (particulate matter in the atmosphere), and the CO2 released by cement manufacture.[70] Other factors, including land use, ozone depletion, animal husbandry (ruminant animals such as cattle produce methane,[71] as do termites), and deforestation, are also of concern in the roles they play – both separately and in conjunction with other factors – in affecting climate, microclimate, and measures of climate variables.[72]

Other mechanisms

Physical evidence

Temperature measurements and proxies

Historical and archaeological evidence

Main article: Historical impacts of climate change

Climate change in the recent past may be detected by corresponding changes in settlement and agricultural patterns.[78]Archaeological evidence, oral history and historical documents can offer insights into past changes in the climate. Climate change effects have been linked to the rise [79] and also the collapse of various civilizations.[78]

Glaciers are considered among the most sensitive indicators of climate change.[80] Their size is determined by a mass balance between snow input and melt output. As temperatures warm, glaciers retreat unless snow precipitation increases to make up for the additional melt; the converse is also true.

Arctic sea ice loss

Main articles: Arctic sea ice decline and Climate change in the Arctic

The decline in Arctic sea ice, both in extent and thickness, over the last several decades is further evidence for rapid climate change.[85] Sea ice is frozen seawater that floats on the ocean surface. It covers millions of square kilometers in the polar regions, varying with the seasons. In the Arctic, some sea ice remains year after year, whereas almost all Southern Ocean or Antarctic sea ice melts away and reforms annually. Satellite observations show that Arctic sea ice is now declining at a rate of 13.2 percent per decade, relative to the 1981 to 2010 average.[86] The 2007 Arctic summer sea ice retreat was unprecedented. Decades of shrinking and thinning in a warm climate has put the Arctic sea ice in a precarious position, it is now vulnerable to atmospheric anomalies.[87] "Both extent and volume anomaly fluctuate little from January to July and then decrease steeply in August and September".[87] This decrease is because of lessened ice production as a result of the unusually high SAT. During the Arctic summer, a slower rate of sea ice production is the same as a faster rate of sea ice melting.

Forest genetic resources

Pollen analysis

Palynology is the study of contemporary and fossil palynomorphs, including pollen. Palynology is used to infer the geographical distribution of plant species, which vary under different climate conditions. Different groups of plants have pollen with distinctive shapes and surface textures, and since the outer surface of pollen is composed of a very resilient material, they resist decay. Changes in the type of pollen found in different layers of sediment in lakes, bogs, or river deltas indicate changes in plant communities. These changes are often a sign of a changing climate.[93][94] As an example, palynological studies have been used to track changing vegetation patterns throughout the Quaternary glaciations[95] and especially since the last glacial maximum.[96]

Cloud cover and precipitation

See also: Cloud and Precipitation

Estimated global land precipitation increased by approximately 2% over the course of the 20th century, though the calculated trend varies if different time endpoints are chosen, complicated by ENSO and other oscillations, including greater global land cloud cover precipitation in the 1950s and 1970s than the later 1980s and 1990s despite the positive trend over the century overall.[98][102][103] Similar slight overall increase in global river runoff and in average soil moisture has been perceived.[102]

Dendroclimatology is the analysis of tree ring growth patterns to determine past climate variations.[104] Wide and thick rings indicate a fertile, well-watered growing period, while thin, narrow rings indicate a period of lower rainfall and less-than-ideal growing conditions.

Ice cores

Similarly, the historical abundance of various fish species has been found to have a substantial relationship with observed climatic conditions.[107] Changes in the primary productivity of autotrophs in the oceans can affect marine food webs.[108]

Sea level change

Main articles: Sea level and Sea level rise

According to recent studies, global-mean sea level rose by 195 mm during the period from 1870 to 2004 (John A. Church et al. , Geophysical Research Letters, 2006). Since 2004, satellite-based records indicate that there has been a further 43 mm of global-mean sea levels rise, as of July 2017 (Unknown Author, , 2017).

See also

Climate of recent glaciations

Climate of the past

Recent climate

  2. ^Solomon, S.; Qin, D.; Manning, M.; Chen, Z.; Marquis, M.; Averyt, K. B.; Tignor, M.; Miller, H. L., eds. (2007). "Understanding and Attributing Climate Change". Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Increase in atmospheric CO2 levels
Decline in thickness of glaciers worldwide over the past half-century
Top:Arid ice age climate Middle:Atlantic Period, warm and wet Bottom: Potential vegetation in climate now if not for human effects like agriculture.[97]
The estimated change in sea level caused by carbon dioxide emissions.

What is Climate Change?

Climate change is real, and it is really something serious that people downplay a whole lot. The problem is that most people don’t really understand what it really is, and what causes it. The truth is, the climate is changing each and every day. There are many different problems that are leading to our climate change, some of them having to do with the Greenhouse Effect, and other changes are occurring due to human activity and solar irradiance. The earth is becoming hotter, whether we want to admit it or not. Here is what is happening.

Causes of Climate Change

Man-made Factors

The Greenhouse Effect

First, we need to take a closer look at the Greenhouse Effect and gain a better understanding of it. When you do this, you will find that this is one of the main causes of the climate changes that are taking place currently. The warming of our atmosphere is actually happening because the atmosphere is continuing to trap the heat that radiates from the earth and traps it between earth and space. There are gases that can play a part in the greenhouse effect, and most of these gases will actually block the heat. This is what happens to force the climate change, and this is the part that we can’t do that much about- other than going green.

Gases that Play a Part in Climate Change

Here are a few of the gases that can play a part in climate change.  First, you will find water vapor. This is the most abundant gas that plays a part in the Greenhouse Effect. It increases because the earth is getting warmer, and it also makes more clouds and precipitation.

Carbon dioxide also plays an important role, even though it is one of the more minor components in our atmosphere. It can be found through a variety of different processes, including respiration, volcanic activity, deforestation, fossil fuel burning, and others. The carbon dioxide that is found in our atmosphere continues to increase, making the climate change much more prominent these days than before.

Next, you will find that methane gas also plays a part. This is a hydrocarbon gas that is produced through a variety of different processes and sources. It can be produced through decomposition of trash in landfills, and can also be found a lot around places with a lot of domestic livestock. These gases are active in the greenhouse effect, leading to more climate change.

CFCs, or chlorofluorocarbons, which are basically synthetic compounds that are created in the industrial setting, also play a part. They are usually what plays a part in the depletion of the ozone layer. The more the ozone layer is depleted, the hotter our earth will get.

Finally, you have nitrous oxide. This is another type of gas that is often times formulated from the soil when it is cultivated. It is used in many of the fertilizers that you find in your local stores, and can also be formed by the combustion of fossil fuels and other processes. It is one of the other gases that has an impact on our climate change.

Natural Factors

Volcanic Eruptions: A volcano releases large amount of sulphur dioxide (SO2), water vapour, dust, and ash into the atmosphere, when it erupts. These large volumes of gases and ash can trigger climate change by increasing planetary reflectivity causing atmospheric cooling. Aerosols are tiny particles that are are produced by volcanoes. Aerosols remain in the atmosphere for only a few days and reflect solar energy back into space they have a cooling effect on the world.

Ocean Currents: Variations in ocean currents can also influence climate change for short periods of time. Ocean currents move vast amounts of heat across the planet. Movement of cold water deep under the oceans towards the regions near the equator and movement of warm water near the equator back towards the pole play an important role in determining the atmospheric concentration of CO2.

Solar Radiations: The sun is the ultimate source of supply of energy for earth’s climate system. A small change in the output of sun’s energy can influence the climate change. These changes include changes within the sun and changes in Earth’s orbit. Changes occurring in the sun can cause climate to become more warm during periods of stronger solar intensity and cool during periods of weaker solar intensity. Studies suggests that solar variations have played a role in past climate change. For example, period between approximately 1650 and 1850 is known as “Little Ice Age” which may have been partially caused by a low solar activity.

Earth Orbital Changes: A slight change in the tilt of the earth can lead to climatic changes. While less tilt means cooler summers and milder winters; more tilt means warmer summers and colder winters. These small and slow changes can lead to important changes in the strength of the seasons over tens of thousands of years.

Effects of Climate Change

Climate change can really have a lot of negative consequences. It is important to do something about it to help decrease the amount of change that occurs and make it not happen so fast. At some point, the earth will be too hot for people to live comfortably if we don’t make some changes. It is already having and impact on the plant and animal life, and if you really don’t want to see it get much worse- it is time to go green.

Change in Rainfall Patterns: In last couple of decades, excess rainfall, droughts, hurricanes and floods have become quite frequent. While few areas experience plenty of rainfall, then there are areas that face droughts throughout the year.

Depletion of Arctic Ice: Though greenhouse effect is necessary for all of us to survive on this planet but an increase in greenhouse gases causes temperature to rise which can result in harmful effects to the ecology and environment. The increase in temperature of atmosphere has resulted in shrinking of arctic ice.

Wildfires: The hot and dry conditions causes wildfires to spread across dense forests and makes it a perfect recipe for disaster. They not only reduce green cover but also push forest animals towards higher altitudes. Animals that could not survive become extinct and gets their name registered in the list of endangered species.

Heat Waves: The large amount of greenhouse gases released from industries, vehicles, agricultural activities increases the concentration of CO2 and heats up the atmosphere. The increased temperature then cause heat waves and makes it difficult for people to survive.

Loss of Wildlife Species: Wildfires, deforestation, shifting habitat have caused several species to become extinct, pushed few of them towards extinction and rest of them have migrated to some other place. If experts are to be believed, one-fourth of Earth’s species could extinct by 2050. In year 2008, polar bear was added to the list of animals that could become extinct due to rise in sea level.

Rise in Sea Level: Some parts of the earth are going to naturally be warmer than others, but as the climate changes that means that so will these areas.  Warmer conditions may also lead to other areas not getting enough precipitation, and even some areas that may get more than they should.  It will also cause parts of glaciers to melt, which could lead to flooding in certain areas and could make the sea levels rise.

Shifting Habitat: Prolonged heat waves, deforestation, wildfires, high temperatures have pushed plants and animals towards higher altitudes. The worst part is that most of them are not able to survive due to changing climatic conditions and have moved more towards extinction.

High Temperatures: The continuous increases of greenhouses gases in the atmosphere has caused temperature to rise which is called as greenhouse effect. Though greenhouse effect is necessary for survival of all of us on this planet but increase of these gases beyond a limit will only create harmful effects for us and this environment. During last century, earth’s average temperature rose by 1 degree Fahrenheit which in itself is a cause of concern.

As you can see, climate change can really be a negative force on our planet earth. It is time for you to take a look at the things that can be done to help improve the environment and help to slow down the process of climate change. If we can do that, then the world will be able to be sustainable for much longer. That doesn’t mean that climate change is completely avoidable though.

Image credit: hmcotterill , Twm

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What does the word bandy mean?

Usage examples for bandy

  1. The figure of fun was a middle- aged man of small stature, and very bandy- legged, dressed in a blue coat and brass buttons, and carrying a great bass- viol bigger than himself, in a rough baize cover. – Tom Brown at Oxford by Thomas Hughes
  2. The old plainsman, scarred veteran of many a frontier brawl, was too quick tempered and too proficient with his six- shooter to take back- talk from the despised sheep herders or to bandy words with a man he feared and hated. – Hidden Gold by Wilder Anthony
  3. That evening a bandy drove up to the nursery, and she saw the explanation of the pressure and the answer to the prayer. – Lotus Buds by Amy Carmichael


At the Center for Open Science, our mission is to increase openness, integrity, and reproducibility of scholarly research. By the late Middle Ages, a synthesis of Catholicism and Aristotelianism known as Scholasticism was flourishing in western Europe , which had become a new geographic center of science, but all aspects of scholasticism were criticized in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Although there is often disagreement between scholars and well educated theologians regarding the validity of scriptures and why humans exist, this research exposes the possibility that both the knowledge of science and the understanding of scripture can reason together.sciencescience

Notions such as the center kindergarten science for the center kindergarten science of the center kindergarten science or holographic structure of the Parthenon program revealed that strange illusionary optical engineering principles, as being barbarians only suited for continual warfare.


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Kinesiology for Kids

Kinesiology for children works much in the same way that it does for adults, however UPMOST care and respect is shown for their developing energy bodies and therefore sessions are shorter and less intensive.

Simply put, the focus of Kinesiology for kids is to ‘clean the pipes’ (ensure maximum chi flow) and for children to feel seen, heard and safe.

Sessions will include stress identification for:

-       Developmental issues (neurological & behavioural)

-       Allergies, food intolerances, vaccination stress

-       Structural, anatomical and physiological stress

-       Chakras and meridians

-       Emotions and environmental factors

Children develop their own chakras and energy bodies around the age of 6/7, so working with children of this age and older generally is autonomous and straight forward.

For younger children, who are relying on their parents’ energy bodies to feel safe and confident in the world, we occasionally find that the child’s issue (particularly emotional and behavioural) is best treated through the parent receiving the session. This will vary case by case and will be discussed during the consult.

Children who aren’t old enough to remain still on the table, can play in the studio, whilst mum or dad surrogate for them. Surrogation in Kinesiology means that the work is being done on you as the energetic vessel for your child.

Sarah’s previous life as a primary school Physical Education teacher and School Administrator means that her knowledge of child pedagogy, school support systems, developmental milestones and general rapport and instincts for children is conducive to making these sessions highly positive for both parent and child.

Article: Kinesiology Explained.


10/1 We are the Champions

Okay, not really,
but my daughter's soccer team WON a game today and that is Something New.
It's interesting how sweet and satisfying a victory feels after four straight "very wide margin" losses.....for the parents anyway!
It's the small sense of wonderment -
They are actually understanding the game.
They are becoming confident in their skills.
They are trying their best.
And they have been having a great time all season, regardless of what the score has been....they really are champions.

Sweet smiles of the Sparkly Spartans

Do you feel like a champion regardless of the score in your life?