Subtopia: Pejorative term derived from 'suburb' and 'utopia', meaning an area that is neither urban nor rural.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
News; Climate Change, Water Use Threaten Lake Mead
Sid Perkins
If climate changes as expected, and future water use goes unchecked, there's a 50 percent chance that Lake Mead—one of the southwestern United States' key reservoirs—will become functionally dry in the next couple of decades, a new study suggests.
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BATHTUB RING. Water levels in Lake Mead have dropped significantly in recent years, as chronicled by the white mineral deposits on rocks that were formerly submerged. |
Besides providing water for millions, flow from Lake Mead—the reservoir formed as the Colorado River collects behind Hoover Dam—generates prodigious amounts of hydroelectric power. Over the past century, on average, about 18.5 cubic kilometers of water flowed into Lake Mead each year, says Tim P. Barnett, a climatologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. Of that amount, about 2.1 km3 evaporate into the dry desert air or soak into the ground beneath the lake each year. What's left in the lake is more than spoken for: The amount of water drawn from Lake Mead this year to meet demand in cities as far-flung as Los Angeles and San Diego will exceed 16.6 km3.
And the situation will likely get worse, Barnett and colleague David W. Pierce speculate in an upcoming Water Resources Research. By 2030, the researchers note, annual demand for Lake Mead's water is projected to rise to 17.4 km3. Also, some climate studies suggest that the Colorado's flow will drop between 10 and 30 percent in the next 30 to 50 years. Using these data, as well as weather simulations that impose random but reasonable annual variations in river flow volume, Barnett and Pierce used a computer model to estimate the remaining useful life of the Lake Mead reservoir.
Thanks in part to the worst drought in the Southwest in the past 500 years (SN: 6/26/04, p. 406), Lake Mead is now at about 50 percent capacity. If current allocations of water persist, there's a 50 percent chance that by 2023 Lake Mead won't provide water without pumping, and a 10 percent chance that it won't by 2013. Moreover, there's a 50 percent chance that Hoover Dam won't be able to generate power by 2017, the researchers estimate.
"We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how fast it was coming at us," says Barnett.
Results of the new study are "fairly provocative, an eye-opener," says Connie Woodhouse, a climatologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Using estimates of river flow based on an average of the past century may be optimistic, she adds, because tree ring–based reconstructions of the region's climate suggest that the 20th century was one of the wettest in the past 500 years. "The more we learn about the Colorado River and its hydrology, the more worried we need to be," says Peter H. Gleick, a hydrologist at the Pacific Institute in Oakland, Calif.
Today In History; Victor Hugo, Poet
1802: Victor Hugo was one of France's most powerful and popular Romantic authors. He wrote a large number of poems and was as important and innovative a poet for the French as Wordsworth was for the English, even though outside of France Hugo's novels are better known than his poems. As a republican he was exiled during the reign of Napoleon III and lived in the Channel Islands, but his death threw France into collective mourning.
Monday, February 25, 2008
News; Harriet Tubman: Civil War Spy
Text by Catherine Clarke Fox
Tubman was often called Moses, after a Biblical hero who led his people out of slavery in Egypt.
Photograph by James A. Gensheimer
In this painting, Harriet Tubman, in the dark blue dress, leads escaped slaves to freedom.
Harriet Tubman is well known for risking her life as a “conductor” in the Underground Railroad, which led escaped slaves to freedom in the North. But did you know that the former slave also served as a spy for the Union during the Civil War and was the first woman in American history to lead a military expedition?
During a time when women were usually restricted to traditional roles like cooking and nursing, she did her share of those jobs. But she also worked side-by-side with men, says writer Tom Allen, who tells her exciting story in the National Geographic book, Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent.
Tubman decided to help the Union Army because she wanted freedom for all of the people who were forced into slavery, not just the few she could help by herself. And she convinced many other brave African Americans to join her as spies, even at the risk of being hanged if they were caught.
In one of her most dramatic and dangerous roles, Tubman helped Colonel James Montgomery plan a raid to free slaves from plantations along the Combahee (pronounced “KUM-bee”) River in South Carolina. Early on the morning of June 1, 1863, three gunboats carrying several hundred male soldiers along with Harriet Tubman set out on their mission.
Tubman had gathered key information from her scouts about the Confederate positions. She knew where they were hiding along the shore. She also found out where they had placed torpedoes, or barrels filled with gunpowder, in the water.
As the early morning fog lifted on some of the South’s most important rice plantations, the Union expedition hit hard. The raiders set fire to buildings and destroyed bridges, so they couldn’t be used by the Confederate Army. They also freed about 750 slaves—men, women, children, and babies—and did not lose one soldier in the attack.
Allen, who writes about this adventure and many others, got to know Tubman well through the months of research he did for the book. The historic details he shares bring Tubman and many other important figures of her time to life.
To gather the facts, Allen searched libraries and the Internet, and even walked in Tubman’s footsteps. “I went on the river just south of the area where the raid took place,” he says. “You are in that kind of country she would have known, with plenty of mosquitoes and snakes, and there are still dirt roads there today—so you get a feeling of what it was like.”
Allen says his most exciting moment came when a librarian led him to written accounts by people who actually saw Tubman and the raiders in action.
“She was five feet two inches (157 centimeters) tall, born a slave, had a debilitating illness, and was unable to read or write. Yet here was this tough woman who could take charge and lead men. Put all that together and you get Harriet Tubman. I got to like her pretty quickly because of her strength and her spirit,” Allen says.
To find out more about this courageous and adventuresome woman, read the book, Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent.
Today In History; Elizabeth I of England Excommunicated
1570: At the end of the 16th century, England was religiously divided and Elizabeth's reign marked by religious tension. She had restored the Anglican Church's status after the Catholic interlude by her elder sister, Mary, now Queen of Scots. Negotiating the succession, Elizabeth demanded that Prince James be brought up in England. Mary Stuart declined, and was consequently imprisoned at Sheffield Castle. Pope Pius V, giving way to his antagonism to Elizabeth, retaliated. He excommunicated her and published a bull which released her subjects from their allegiance.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Jane Austen
:*({Introduction})*:
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose books, set amongst the English middle and upper classes, are notable for their wit, social observation and insights into the lives of early 19th century women.
Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775 in the village of Steventon in Hampshire. She was one of eight children of a clergyman and grew up in a close-knit family. She began to write as a teenager. In 1801 the family moved to Bath. After the death of Jane's father in 1805 Jane, her sister Cassandra and their mother moved several times eventually settling in Chawton, near Steventon.
Jane's brother Henry helped her negotiate with a publisher and her first novel, 'Sense and Sensibility', appeared in 1811. Her next novel 'Pride and Prejudice', which she described as her "own darling child" received highly favourable reviews. 'Mansfield Park' was published in 1814, then 'Emma' in 1816. 'Emma' was dedicated to the Prince Regent, an admirer of her work. All of Jane Austen's novels were published anonymously.
In 1816, Jane began to suffer from ill-health, probably due to Addison's disease. She travelled to Winchester to receive treatment, and died there on 18 July 1817. Two more novels, 'Persuasion' and 'Northanger Abbey' were published posthumously and a final novel was left incomplete.
/\/ \|":Biography:"|/ \/\
Jane Austen was born on 16 December, 1775, at the rectory in the village of Steventon, near Basingstoke, in Hampshire. The seventh of eight children of the Reverend George Austen and his wife, Cassandra, she was educated mainly at home and never lived apart from her family. She had a happy childhood amongst all her brothers and the other boys who lodged with the family and whom Mr Austen tutored. From her older sister, Cassandra, she was inseparable. To amuse themselves, the children wrote and performed plays and charades, and even as a little girl Jane was encouraged to write. The reading that she did of the books in her father's extensive library provided material for the short satirical sketches she wrote as a girl.
At the age of 14 she wrote her first novel, Love and Freindship (sic) and then A History of England by a partial, prejudiced and ignorant Historian, together with other very amusing juvenilia. In her early twenties Jane Austen wrote the novels that were later to be re-worked and published as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. She also began a novel called The Watsons which was never completed.
The first 25 years of her life Jane spent in Hampshire. On her father's unexpected retirement, the family sold off everything, including Jane's piano, and moved to Bath. Jane, aged twenty-five, and Cassandra, her elder sister, aged twenty-eight, were considered by contemporary standards confirmed old maid, and followed their parents. Torn from her friends and rural roots in Steventon, Austen abandoned her literary career for a decade.
As a young woman Jane enjoyed dancing (an activity which features frequently in her novels) and she attended balls in many of the great houses of the neighbourhood. She loved the country, enjoyed long country walks, and had many Hampshire friends. It therefore came as a considerable shock when her parents suddenly announced in 1801 that the family would be moving away to Bath. Mr Austen gave the Steventon living to his son James and retired to Bath with his wife and two daughters. The next four years were difficult ones for Jane Austen. She disliked the confines of a busy town and missed her Steventon life. After her father's death in 1805, his widow and daughters also suffered financial difficulties and were forced to rely on the charity of the Austen sons. It was also at this time that, while on holiday in the West country, Jane fell in love, and when the young man died, she was deeply upset. Later she accepted a proposal of marriage from Harris Bigg-Wither, a wealthy landowner and brother to some of her closest friends, but she changed her mind the next morning and was greatly upset by the whole episode.
After the death of Mr Austen, the Austen ladies moved to Southampton to share the home of Jane's naval brother Frank and his wife Mary. There were occasional visits to London, where Jane stayed with her favourite brother Henry, at that time a prosperous banker, and where she enjoyed visits to the theatre and art exhibitions. However, she wrote little in Bath and nothing at all in Southampton.
Then, in July, 1809, on her brother Edward offering his mother and sisters a permanent home on his Chawton estate, the Austen ladies moved back to their beloved Hampshire countryside. It was a small but comfortable house, with a pretty garden, and most importantly it provided the settled home which Jane Austen needed in order to write. In the seven and a half years that she lived in this house, she revised Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice and published them ( in 1811 and 1813) and then embarked on a period of intense productivity. Mansfield Park came out in 1814, followed by Emma in 1816 and she completed Persuasion (which was published together with Northanger Abbey in 1818, the year after her death). None of the books published in her life-time had her name on them — they were described as being written "By a Lady". In the winter of 1816 she started Sanditon, but illness prevented its completion.
Possibly suffering from Addington’s disease, Jane Austen died on 18 July, 1817. She lies buried in the north aisle of the nave in Winchester Cathedral in Winchester, England.
In the Memory of
Jane Austen
youngest daughter of the Late
Rev.d George Austen
formerly rector of Steventon in this County
She departed this Life on the 18th of July, 1817,
Aged 41, after a long illness supported with
the patience and the hopes of a Christian
''^^Quick Facts^^''
Dates: December 16, 1775 - July 18, 1817
Occupation: novelist, Romantic period.
Jane Austen's Family:
- Father: George Austen, Anglican clergyman, died 1805
- Mother: Cassandra Leigh
- Siblings: Jane Austen was the seventh of eight children.
- James, also a Church of England clergyman
- George, institutionalized, disability uncertain (may have been mental retardation, may have been deaf)
- Henry, banker then Anglican clergyman, served essentially as Jane's agent with her publishers
- Francis and Charles, fought in the Napoleonic wars, became admirals
- Edward, adopted by a wealthy cousin, Thomas Knight
- older sister Cassandra who also never married
- Aunt: Ann Cawley; Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra studied at her home 1782-3
- Aunt: Jane Leigh Perrot, who hosted the family for a time after George Austen retired
- Cousin: Eliza, Comtesse of Feuillide, whose husband was guillotined during the Reign of Terror in France, and who later married Henry
The family was associated with the Tories and maintained a sympathy for the Stuart succession rather than the Hanoverian.
Education:
- Early education at home, as was usual for girls of the time; her brothers were educated at Oxford
- widely read; her father had a large library of books including novels
- 1782-1783 - Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra studied at home of their aunt, Ann Cawley
- 1784-1786 - boarding school in Reading, with her sister Cassandra
Novels Published:
- Northanger Abbey - sold 1803, not published until 1819
- Sense and Sensibility - published 1811 but Austen had to pay the printing costs
- Pride and Prejudice - 1812
- Mansfield Park - 1814
- Emma - 1815
- Persuasion - 1819
__Quotes__
I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them.
To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.
Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?
One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.
Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.
A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.
Everybody likes to go their own way--to choose their own time and manner of devotion.
I cannot think well of a man who sports with any woman's feelings; and there may often be a great deal more suffered than a stander-by can judge of.
I pay very little regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person.
If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out.
It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation.
Nothing amuses me more than the easy manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves.
Oh! Do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.
One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy.
The enthusiasm of a woman's love is even beyond the biographer's.
There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere.
We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.
Where any one body of educated men, of whatever denomination, are condemned indiscriminately, there must be a deficiency of information, or...of something else.
But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.
Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.
In every power, of which taste is the foundation, excellence is pretty fairly divided between the sexes.
For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?
Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with _______
Bibilography
_______
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/austenjane/p/jane_austen.htm
http://www.jasa.net.au/jabiog.htm
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jausten.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/austen_jane.shtml
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Jane_Austen
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=active&q=jane+austen&btnG=Search+Images
News; The Secret Language of Dolphins
Scientists are studying wild and captive dolphins to decipher their secret language.
Dolphins can swim at a speed of 20 miles (32 kilometers) an hour.
Dolphins compete for dominance.
Deciphering "dolphin speak" is tricky because their language is dependant on what they are doing.
Here's a conversation worth talking about: A mother dolphin chats with her baby…over the telephone! The special call was made in an aquarium in Hawaii, where the mother and her two-year-old calf swam in separate tanks connected by a special underwater audio link. The two dolphins began squawking and chirping to each other—distinctive dolphin chatter.Cracking the Code
"It seemed clear that they knew who they were talking with," says Don White, whose Project Delphis ran the experiment. "Information was passing back and forth pretty quickly." But what were they saying? That's what scientists are trying to find out by studying wild and captive dolphins all over the world to decipher their secret language. They haven't completely cracked the code yet, but they're listening…and learning.
Chatty Mammals
In many ways, you are just like the more than 30 species of dolphins that swim in the world's oceans and rivers. Dolphins are mammals, like you are, and must swim to the surface to breathe air. Just as you might, they team up in pods, or groups, to accomplish tasks. And they're smart.
They also talk to each other. Starting from birth, dolphins squawk, whistle, click, and squeak. "Sometimes one dolphin will vocalize and then another will seem to answer," says Sara Waller, who studies bottlenose dolphins off the California coast. "And sometimes members of a pod vocalize in different patterns at the same time, much like many people chattering at a party." And just as you gesture and change facial expressions as you talk, dolphins communicate nonverbally through body postures, jaw claps, bubble blowing, and fin caresses.
Thinking Dolphin
Scientists think dolphins "talk" about everything from basic facts like their age to their emotional state. "I speculate that they say things like 'there are some good fish over here,' or 'watch out for that shark because he's hunting,'" says Denise Herzing, who studies dolphins in the Bahamas.
When the going gets tough, for instance, some dolphins call for backup. After being bullied by a duo of bottlenose dolphins, one spotted dolphin returned to the scene the next day with a few pals to chase and harass one of the bully bottlenose dolphins. "It's as if the spotted dolphin communicated to his buddies that he needed their help, then led them in search of this guy," says Herzing, who watched the scuffle.
Language Lessons
Kathleen Dudzinski, director of the Dolphin Communication Project, has listened to dolphins for more than 17 years, using high-tech gear to record and analyze every nuance of their language. But she says she's far from speaking "dolphin" yet. Part of the reason is the elusiveness of the animals. Dolphins are fast swimmers who can stay underwater for up to ten minutes between breaths. "It's like studying an iceberg because they spend most of their lives underwater," Dudzinski says.
"I have not found one particular dolphin behavior that means the same thing every time you see it," says Dudzinski. "If you like mysteries and detective work, then this is the job for you." And who knows—maybe someday you'll get a phone call from a dolphin.
Today in History; Cloning of Dolly Announced
Dolly was the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. The technique used places the nucleus from one of the donor's non-reproductive cells into a de-nucleated embryonic cell. This is called somatic cell nuclear transfer. The controversy about cloning still continues today.
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