Pink Poison, the Surprising New Trend That’s Saving Rhinos With over 200 rhinos already dead this year at the hands of poachers in South Africa and no signs of the slaughter slowing, some innovative rhinoceros lovers are stepping up their game. Wildlife workers at Sabi Sand, a private game reserve at the southernmost tip of Kruger National Park, have injected a special cocktail into 100 rhino horns, turning them pink in an effort to deter illegal horn hunters. In addition to discoloring the horn, the pink dye can also be detected by airport scanners, even when the horn is ground into a powder to make the high-priced traditional "medicines" that help fuel the killing of rhinos. The hope is to make transport of the illegal product that much riskier. And that's not all. The indelible pink dye is mixed with parasiticides, usually used to control ticks. This comes at a time when the demand for traditional "medicines" is growing, says Tom Milliken, Rhino Program coordinator with Traffic, a leading wildlife trade-monitoring network. Dr.
Eight Secrets Which Writers Won’t Tell You Image from Flickr by Lazurite This is not particularly relevant to the post, but I’m getting an awful lot of comments telling me, often a little snarkily, “it’s ‘THAT’ not ‘WHICH’”. The “don’t use which for restrictive clauses” rule comes (as far as I can tell) from Strunk and White. Plenty of authors, including Austen, have used “which” exactly as I use it in the title. It’s very commonly used like this here in England, so I’m guessing my comments are coming from US readers. There was never a period in the history of English when “which” at the beginning of a restrictive relative clause was an error. I thought about putting “that” in the title – but I like the sound of “which” between “secrets” and “writers”. And with that out of the way, enjoy the post! A few years ago, I’d look at published writers and think that they were somehow different from me. They were real writers. I’m going to go through eight secrets. Secret #1: Writing is Hard The truth is, though, that writing is hard.
Creativity Contemplative Pedagogy “Opening the contemplative mind in schools is not a religious issue but a practical epistemic question… Inviting contemplative study simply includes the natural human capacity for knowing through silence, pondering deeply, beholding, witnessing the contents of consciousness and so forth.” ~ Tobin Hart, Opening the Contemplative Mind in the Classroom, Journal of Transformative Education Vol. 2 No. 1, January 2004 The ancient practice of contemplation is being explored by many institutions of higher education as a new means of enhancing liberal education. Research demonstrates that “contemplative pedagogy”-the integration of meditative practices into higher education-facilitates the achievement of traditional educational goals such as improved cognitive and academic performance. Studies also show that it fosters the development of the whole person, increasing capacities such as creativity, empathy, compassion, interpersonal skills and self-awareness. Tags: Contemplative Pedagogy
Book Review: Lee Smolin's 'Time Reborn' : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture iStockphoto.com We physicists are all romantics. Don't laugh; it's true. In our youth we all fall deeply in love. We fall in love with a beautiful idea: beyond this world of constant change lies another world that is perfect and timeless. This eternal domain is made not of matter or energy. Unless we lose faith in that Grail. I used to think my job as a theoretical physicist was to find that formula. For Smolin there is no timeless world and there are no timeless laws. Time, of course, seems real to us. Ever since Newton, physicists have been developing ever-more exact laws describing the behavior of the world. That means these laws are more real than time. Now before you say "that's crazy," remember that every modern miracle of physics — from jet planes to GPS — is built using these laws. But, according to Smolin, when it comes to cosmology, the ultimate study of the Universe as a whole, faith in timeless laws has led physicists astray.
36 Writing Essays by Chuck Palahniuk 1: Establishing Your Authority Chuck teaches two principal methods for building a narrative voice your readers will believe in. Discover the Heart Method and the Head Method and how to employ each to greatest effect. 2: Developing a Theme At the core of Minimalism is focusing any piece of writing to support one or two major themes. 3: Using “On-The-Body” Physical Sensation Great writing must reach both the mind and the heart of your reader, but to effectively suspend reality in favor of the fictional world, you must communicate on a physical level, as well. 4: Submerging the “I” First-person narration, for all its immediacy and power, becomes a liability if your reader can't identify with your narrator. 5: Nuts and Bolts: Hiding a Gun Sometimes called "plants and payoffs" in the language of screenwriters, Hiding a Gun is an essential skill to the writer's arsenal that university writing courses almost never touch upon. 6: Nuts and Bolts: “Thought” Verbs 8: Nuts and Bolts: Using Choruses
Workshops — Jugendfilmtage Die Schweizer Jugendfilmtage unterstützen Schulklassen und Jugendgruppen bei der Erstellung eines Kurzfilmes zum Thema «Fascht e Familie». Die Gruppen erhalten drei Tage inhaltliche und technische Unterstützung durch kompetente Fachpersonen. Die Durchführung der Workshops ist individuell planbar. Die Filme können für den Kurzfilmwettbewerb in der Kategorie B eingereicht werden und erhalten so die Chance, an den 38. Schweizer Jugendfilmtagen 2014 vorgeführt zu werden. Teilnehmen können Gruppen von Jugendlichen (mindestens drei Personen), die maximal 19 Jahre alt sind (bis und mit Jahrgang 1994). Drei Tage inhaltliche und filmspezifische Begleitung: Experten helfen vom Schreiben des Drehbuchs bis hin zum Schneiden des Films.Verleih von Kamera, Mikrophonen und zusätzlichem Equipement.Die Gelegenheit, den Film an den 38. Zu den folgenden Themen haben bereits Filmworkshops stattgefunden: Weiteres Angebot: Kurzfilme im Unterricht
What Professors Make - Almanac of Higher Education 2012 » View the 2013 AAUP Faculty Salary Survey data Full Professors+ Far above median percentile of doctoral institutions in the survey This college did not report data about its full professors. institutions paid full professors between and . Men: Women: Female pay as % of male Sector median Associate Professors+ 92nd percentile of doctoral institutions in the survey This college did not report data about its associate professors. institutions paid associate professors between and . Assistant Professors+ This college did not report data about its assistant professors. institutions paid assistant professors between and . Instructors+ This college did not report data about its instructors. institutions paid instructors between and . All ranks+ This college did not report aggregate salary data. institutions paid faculty members between and . Source: AAUP faculty salary survey. is a public four-year research university with students. Without faculty status: Source: U.S. Full professors Associate professors Instructors
The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge by Maria Popova “The real enemy is the man who tries to mold the human spirit so that it will not dare to spread its wings.” In an age obsessed with practicality, productivity, and efficiency, I frequently worry that we are leaving little room for abstract knowledge and for the kind of curiosity that invites just enough serendipity to allow for the discovery of ideas we didn’t know we were interested in until we are, ideas that we may later transform into new combinations with applications both practical and metaphysical. This concern, it turns out, is hardly new. We hear it said with tiresome iteration that ours is a materialistic age, the main concern of which should be the wider distribution of material goods and worldly opportunities. Mr. Flexner goes on to contend that the work of Hertz and Maxwell is exemplary of the motives underpinning all instances of monumental scientific discovery, bringing to mind Richard Feynman’s timeless wisdom. This lament, alas, is timelier than ever.
One Sentence - True stories, told in one sentence. Storytelling Promoting Hinduism? Parents Demand Removal Of School Yoga Class hide captionThird-graders at Olivenhain Pioneer Elementary School in Encinitas, Calif., perform chair pose with instructor Kristen McCloskey last month. Kyla Calvert for NPR Third-graders at Olivenhain Pioneer Elementary School in Encinitas, Calif., perform chair pose with instructor Kristen McCloskey last month. During first period at Olivenhain Pioneer Elementary School in Encinitas, Calif., Kristen McCloskey leads about two dozen third-graders through some familiar yoga poses. "All right, so let's do our opening sequence A," she says, instructing the kids. At the end of the half-hour class, 8-year-old Jacob Hagen says he feels energized and ready for the rest of the day. Schools across the country are focusing more on teaching students to make healthy choices; Encinitas Superintendent Tim Baird says yoga is just one element of the district's physical education curriculum. "We also have a nutrition program," he says. "Absolutely not — no.
New clues on origins of Maya civilization unearthed The Maya civilization is well-known for its elaborate temples, sophisticated writing system, and mathematical and astronomical developments, yet the civilization's origins remain something of a mystery.A new University of Arizona study to be published in the journal Science challenges the two prevailing theories on how the ancient civilization began, suggesting its origins are more complex than previously thought. Anthropologists typically fall into one of two competing camps with regard to the origins of Maya civilization. The first camp believes that it developed almost entirely on its own in the jungles of what is now Guatemala and southern Mexico. The second believes that the Maya civilization developed as the result of direct influences from the older Olmec civilization and its center of La Venta. "We really focused on the beginning of this civilization and how this remarkable civilization developed," said Inomata, UA professor of anthropology and the study's lead author.
What can Diane Arbus teach you about writing? I always thought of photography as a naughty thing to do - that was one of my favorite things about it, and when I first did it, I felt very perverse. -- Diane Arbus Diane Arbus (1923-1971) was an American photographer and a student of human diversity, often described as a "photographer of freaks." Maybe one should admit that freakishness comes from within and 'normal' is a mirage. Join me now, fellow freak, and let us contemplate the normalness of strangehood.* *Or normalhood of strangeness. Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006), starring Nicole Kidman, paints Diane as little more than a dissatisfied housewife who takes up photography to the detriment of her husband's serious -- if uninspired -- professional efforts. Curiously enough, for a movie that champions the discovery of your true self, Fur is not a little patronizing to the main character. Pfaugh. Diane did not orbit Allan like some apathetic satellite. Who was the real Diane? The year was 1923. 1929.