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Global warming in 20 years

James Lovelock: 'enjoy life while you can: in 20 years global warming will hit the fan' http://gu.com/p/x3k69

Geneva wheel

Historical notes for N08-Geneva Wheel

 

By Daina Taimina

 

The Geneva wheel, also known as the Maltese cross or Geneva ratchet, is a cam-like mechanism that provides intermittent rotary motion and is widely used, in both low- and high-speed machinery.

 

   

     Clock mechanism in 18th century pocket watch       Watchmaker, woodcut by Jost Ammann, 1568 

A watchmaker originally invented the Geneva mechanism. The watchmaker only put a limited number of slots in one of the rotating disks so that the system could only go through so many rotations. This prevented the spring on the watch from being wound too tight, thus giving the mechanism its other name, the Geneva Stop.

 

Spring-driven clocks appeared in Italy toward the end of the 15th century. Peter Henlein of Nuremberg, Bavaria, who qualified as a master locksmith in 1509, was building them in 1510. Watch making is one of the best-known industries in Switzerland and can be traced back to the arrival of French-Protestant refugees in Geneva in the 16th century. The development of the spring enabled watchmakers to build smaller and smaller timepieces. Such clocks also became more intricate and highly decorated, but they were not particularly accurate until 1660, when Robert Hooke invented the balance wheel and hairspring, made practicable by his friend Thomas Tompion. George Graham, who invented the deadbeat escapement, invented a cylinder escapement for watches in 1725.

 

Another well-known application of the Geneva wheel is a movie projector. Motion-picture photography is based on the phenomenon that the human brain can perceive an illusion of continuous movement from a succession of still images exposed at a rate above 15 frames per second. Although sequential posed pictures had been taken as early as 1860, photographers were not successful in capturing actual movement until 1877, when Eadweard Muybridge used 12 equally spaced cameras to demonstrate that all four hooves of a galloping horse leave the ground simultaneously at some time. In 1877-78 an associate of Muybridge devised a system of magnetic releases to trigger an expanded battery of 24 cameras.

 

The Muybridge pictures were widely published in still form. They were also made up as strips for a popular parlor toy, the Zoetrope "wheel of life," a rotating drum, which induced an illusion of movement from drawn or painted pictures. Although a contemporary observer of Muybridge's demonstration claimed to have seen "living, moving animals," such devices lacked several essential characteristics of true motion pictures.

 

A motion-picture camera must be able to advance the medium rapidly enough to permit at least 16 separate exposures per second, while at the same time bringing each frame to a full stop to record a sharp image. The principal technology that creates this intermittent movement is the Geneva wheel mechanism, in which a four-slotted star wheel, or "Maltese cross," converts the tension of the mainspring to the ticking of toothed gears. In 1882 Étienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904) employed a similar "clockwork train" type of intermittent movement in a photographic "gun" used to "shoot" birds in flight. Twelve shots per second could be recorded onto a circular glass plate.

 

Marey subsequently increased the frame rate, although for no more than about 30 images, and employed strips of sensitized paper (1887) and paper-backed celluloid (1889) instead of the fragile, bulky glass plates. The transparent material trade-named celluloid was first manufactured commercially in 1872. It was derived from collodion, nitrocellulose (gun cotton) dissolved in alcohol and dried. John Carbutt manufactured the first commercially successful celluloid photographic film in 1888, but it was too stiff for convenient use. By 1889 the George Eastman company had developed a roll film of celluloid coated with photographic emulsion for use in its Kodak still camera. This sturdy, flexible medium could transport a rapid succession of numerous images and was eventually adapted for motion pictures.

 

Thomas Edison (1847-1931) is often credited with the invention of the motion picture in 1889. However, the claim is disputable specifically because Edison's motion-picture operations were entrusted to an assistant, W.K.L. Dickson, and generally because there are several plausible pre-Edison claimants in England and France. Indeed, a U.S. Supreme Court decision of 1902 concluded that Edison had not invented the motion picture but had only combined the discoveries of others. His systems are important, nevertheless, because they prevailed commercially.

 

The heart of Edison's patent claim was the intermittent movement provided by a Maltese cross synchronized with a shutter. The October 1892 version of Edison's Kinetograph camera employed the format that is essentially still in use today. The film, made by Eastman according to Edison's specifications, was 35 millimeters (mm) in width. Two rows of sprocket holes, each with four holes per frame, ran the length of the film and were used to advance it. The image was 1 inch wide by 3/4 inch high.

 

At first Edison's motion pictures were not projected. One viewer at a time could watch a film by looking through the eyepiece of a peep-show cabinet known as the Kinetoscope. This device was mechanically derived from the zoetrope in that the film was advanced by continuous movement, and action was "stopped" by a very brief exposure. In the Zoetrope, a slit opposite the picture produced a stroboscopic effect. In the Kinetoscope the film traveled at the rate of 40 frames per second, and a slit in a 10-inch-diameter rotating shutter wheel afforded an exposure of 1/6,000th of a second.

The film ran over spools and a

n electric bulb positioned directly beneath the film provided illumination. Its ends were spliced together to form a continuous loop, which was initially 25 to 30 feet long but later was lengthened to almost 50 feet. A direct-current motor powered by an Edison storage battery moved the film at a uniform rate.

 

The Kinetoscope launched the motion-picture industry, but its technical limitations made it unsuitable for projection. Films may run continuously when a great deal of light is not crucial, but a bright, enlarged picture requires that each frame be arrested and exposed intermittently as in the camera. The adaptation of the camera mechanism to the problem of projection seems obvious in retrospect but was frustrated in the US by Dickson's establishment of a frame rate well above that necessary for the perception of continuous motion.

 

After the Kinetoscope was introduced in Paris, Auguste and Louis Lumièreproduced a combination camera/projector, first demonstrated publicly in 1895 and called the cinématographe. The device used a triangular "eccentric" (intermittent) movement connected to a claw to engage the sprocket holes. As the film was stationary in the aperture for two-thirds of each cycle, the speed of 16 frames per second allowed an exposure of about 1/25th of second.

 

At this slower rate audiences could actually see the shutter blade crossing the screen, producing a "flicker" that had been absent from Edison's pictures. On the other hand, the hand-cranked cinématographe weighed less than 20 pounds (Edison's camera weighed 10 times as much). The Lumière units could therefore be transported much more easily and were carried around the world by photographers to shoot and screen their footage.

 

The first American projectors that employed intermittent movement were devised in 1895 by Thomas Armat (1866 – 1948), who used a Pitman arm or "beater" movement taken from a 1893 French camera.

 

The following year Armat agreed to allow Edison to produce the projectors in quantity and to market them as Edison Vitascopes. In 1897 Armat patented the first projector with a four-slot star and cam (as in the Edison camera).

 

 

 

 

 

References:

 

1.      Dale, Rodney Timekeeping, Oxford University Press, 1992

2.      Encyclopædia Britannica. 1997

3.      National Clock and Watch Museum

4.      Oledzki, A.: Research on Vibrations of Geneva-Wheel Drives in Film Projectors. Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Technischen Hochshule Karl-Marx-Stadt. Jahrgang XIV, Heft 1 (in German).

 1972.

5.      Oledzki, A.: Optimal Design of Geneva-Wheel for 35 and 70 mm Movie Projectors. Proceedings of the Second World Congress for the Theory of Machines and Mechanisms.Zakopane, Poland. 1969.

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Bible's inaccurate

BIBLE STUDIESHome | Who Was Jesus Christ--Charlesk Badluah, 1860 | A Few Words about the Devil | Ancient Hebrew (Talmud) account of Christ--McKinsey | A review of references to Christ outside the Bible | EBIONITES--EARLY JEWISH CHRISTIANS | SEPTUAGINT BIBLE & the transmission of the Old Testament | 194 Contradictions New Testament | 62 Contradictions Old & New Testaments | 101 Contradictions Old Testament | CONTRADICTIONS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT| MARIJUANA AND THE BIBLE--Zion Coptic Church | Q, a product of Christian fantasy--jk | Sermon On the Mount--contradictions | Interpolation in Josephus on Jesus | Christian Treatment of Women | New Testament Supports Socialism101 Contradictions Old Testament101 CONTRADICTIONS—Old Testament

 

from  http://www.innvista.com/culture/religion/bible/contraot.htm

Old Testament

1.       Man was created equal, male and female. Gen.1:27.Woman was created as a companion to the man only after he rejected the animals. Gen.2:18-24.

Man was created after the plants. Gen.1:12, 26.Man was created before the plants. Gen.2:5-9.

The birds were created out of the water. Gen.1:20.The birds were created out of the land. Gen.2:19.

The animals were created before man. Gen.1:24-26.The animals were created after man. Gen.2:19.

On the first day, God created and separated light and darkness. Gen.1:3-5.On the fourth day, God again created and separated light and darkness. Gen.1:14-18.

God encouraged reproduction. Gen.1:28.He said it was an unclean process. Lev.12:1-8 (Note that bearing a daughter is more unclean than bearing a son).

God was pleased with his creation. Gen.1:31.God was not pleased with his creation. Gen.6:6.

Adam was to die the day he ate the forbidden fruit. Gen.2:17.Adam lived 930 years. Gen.5:5.

The name of "The Lord" was known in the beginning. Gen.4:26; Gen.12:8; Gen.22:14; Gen.26:25.The name of "The Lord" was not known in the beginning. Ex.6:3.

God preferred Abel's offering to Cain's. Gen.4:4, 5.God shows no partiality. 2 Chr.19:7; 2 Sam.14:14.

God asks Cain the whereabouts of his brother. Gen.4:9.God goes to see what is happening. Gen.18:20, 21.God is everywhere and sees everything. Prov.15:3; Jer.16:17; Jer.23:24.

It rained on the earth. Gen.7:4.There was rain from above and below. Gen.8:2.

Two pairs of each kind were to be taken aboard Noah's ark. Gen.6:19, 20; Gen.7:9, 14-16.Two pairs and seven pairs of some kinds were to be taken aboard. Gen.7:2, 3.

Noah entered the ark during the Flood. Gen.7:7.Noah entered the ark after the Flood. Gen.7:12, 13.

There were many languages before the tower at Babel. Gen.10:5, 20, 31.There was only one language before the tower at Babel. Gen.11:1.

Abraham married his half-sister and was blessed. Gen.11:29; Gen.17:15,16; Gen.20:11,12.Incest is wrong. Deut.27:22; Lev. 18:9; Lev. 20:17.

Abraham made a covenant with Abimelech and Phichol. Gen.21:22, 27, 32.It was Isaac who made the covenant with Abimelech and Phichol. Gen.26:26-28.

Hebron was the name at the time of Abraham. Gen.23:2.Hebron was named differently. Josh.14:15.

Jacob's name was changed at Peniel. Gen.32:28-30.Jacob's name was changed at Padanaram. Gen.35:9,10.

Isaac's servants dug a well at Beer-shebah. Gen.26:32, 33.Abraham dug a well at Beer-shebah. Gen.21:29-31.

Esau married two Hittite women. Gen.26:34.Esau married three Canaanite women. Gen.36:2, 3.

Bashemath was a daughter of Elon the Hittite. Gen.26:34.Bashemath was a daughter of Ishmael. Gen.36:3.

Luz was renamed Beth-el. Gen.28:19.Luz was a different place than Beth-el. Josh.16:2.

God renamed Jacob and called him Israel. Gen.35:10.God forgot the new name. Gen.46:2.

Eliphaz had six sons. Gen.36:11,12.Eliphaz had seven sons. Gen.36:15,16. Eliphaz had seven different sons. 1 Chr.1:36.

Dan had one son. Gen.46:23.Amazingly, this one son produced over 62,000 military-age males by the first census. Num.1:38,39.

Moses married a Midianite. Ex.3:1.Moses married an Ethiopian. Num.12:1.

All the beasts died in plague number six. Ex.9:6.All the beasts received boils in plague number seven. Ex.9:10.All the beasts were hit with hail and fire in plague number eight. Ex.9:25.All the beasts lost their firstborn in plague number ten. Ex.12:29.

All the plant life was destroyed by hail. Ex.9:25.All the plant life was destroyed by locusts. Ex.10:15.

God instructs the Israelites to spoil the Egyptians and plunder their enemies. Ex.3:22; Deut.20:13-17.God prohibits stealing or defrauding a neighbor. Lev.19:11,13.

Moses' father-in-law proposed the idea of judges for the people. Ex.18:17, 24.Moses proposed the idea of judges for the people. Deut.1:9-18.

Jethro was the name of Moses' father-in-law. Ex.3:1.Ruel was the name of Moses' father-in-law. Ex.2:18.Raguel was the name of Moses' father-in-law. Num.10:29.Hobab was the name of Moses' father-in-law. Jud.4:11.

The priests were with Moses at Mount Sinai. Ex.19:22, 24. Moses appointed the first priests later in the wilderness. Ex.28:1.

Moses was great. Ex.11:3. Moses was meek. Numbers 12:3.

Moses was the only allowed near God. Ex.24:2. Moses was not the only one allowed. Ex.24:9-11.

Moses condemned the making of an idol. Ex.32:19, 20.Moses made an idol. Num.21:9; 2 Ki.18:4.

The commandments were memorably given at the beginning of the wilderness trek. Ex. 19 and 20.The people appeared not to remember later in the wilderness. Lev.24:12; Num.15:34.

Moses told the people they would pass over the Jordan that day. Deut.9:1.It was Joshua who took them over much later. Josh.1:1, 2.

The number of Israelites, excluding children, was 600,000. Ex.12:37.The number of Israelites, including children, was only 7000. 1 Ki.20:15.

Manna tasted like coriander seed and honey. Ex.16:31.Manna tasted like fresh oil. Num.11:8.

The Sabbath Day was to remember creation. Ex.20:11; Ex. 31:17.The Sabbath Day was to remember the sojourn in Egypt. Deut.5:15.

God details sacrificial offerings. Ex.20:24; Ex.29:10-42; Lev.1:1-17; Num.28:1-31.God says he did not order sacrifices. Jer.7:22.

The Book of Jasher was written at the time of Joshua. Josh.10:13.The Book of Jasher was written at the time of David. 2 Sam.1:17,18.

The Israelites were a numerous and mighty people. Ex.1:8, 9.The Israelites were few in number. Deut.7:7.

The Israelites had plenty of water to wash their clothes for purification. Ex.19:10.The Israelites had no water and rioted for a drink. Ex.15:22-24.

God was with the people. Ex.3:12.God was not with the people. Ex.33:3.

Aaron died on Mt. Hor. Num.20:27, 28; 33:38,39.Aaron died at Mosera. Deut.10:6.

After Aaron's death, the people journeyed from Mt. Hor to Zalmonah to Punon etc. Num.33:41, 42.After Aaron's death, the people journeyed from Mosera to Gudgodah to Jotbath. Deut.10:6, 7.

The Canaanites were utterly destroyed. Num.21:3.The Canaanites were left to trouble the Israelites for years. Jud.3:1,2.

Stones were taken out of the Jordan River. Josh.4:3.Stones were placed in the Jordan River. Josh.4:9.

The Nazarite vow is broken if one goes near a dead body. Numb.6:6-9.Sampson, a Nazarite, apparently did not break this vow. Jud.13:5; 15:8,15,16; 16:17.

Samuel ministered to the "Lord". 1 Sam.3:1.Samuel did not know the "Lord". 1 Sam.3:7.

David killed Goliath. 1 Sam.17:49,50.Elhanan killed Goliath. 2 Sam.21:19-21. (Notice that the phrase "the brother of" has been added).

"God" caused David to number the people. 2 Sam.24:1."Satan" caused David to number the people. 1 Chr.21:1.

Saul utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 1 Sam.15:20.David utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 1 Sam.27:8, 9.David destroyed the Amalekites - again - almost. 1 Sam.30:1,17,18.

God chose Saul to save the people from the Philistines. 1 Sam.9:15-17.Saul dies and the Philistines overrun the Israelites. 1 Sam.31:6, 7.

God chose Saul. 1 Sam.9:16.God repents for choosing Saul. 1 Sam.15:35.God doesn't need to repent. Num. 23:19.

Saul inquired of God but received no answer. 1 Sam.28:6.Saul died for not inquiring. 1 Chr.10:13, 14.

Saul killed himself. 1 Sam.31:4; 1 Chr. 10:4, 5.Someone killed Saul. 2 Sam.1:5-10.The Philistines killed Saul. 2 Sam.21:12.God killed Saul. 1 Chr.10:13,14.

Jesse had eight sons. 1 Sam.16:10, 11; 1 Sam.17:12.Jesse had seven sons. 1 Chr.2:13-15.

Saul knew David before the encounter with Goliath. 1 Sam.16:19.Saul did not know David until after the encounter with Goliath. 1 Sam.17:55-58.

Michal was childless. 2 Sam.6:23.Michal had five sons. 2 Sam.21:8.

David sinned in taking the census. 2 Sam.24:10,25.David's only sin, ever, was another matter. 1 Ki.15:5.

David paid 50 pieces of silver for the property. 2 Sam.24:24.David paid 600 pieces of gold for the property. 1 Chr.21:25.

His name was Solomon. 2 Sam.12:24; 1 Chr.22:9.His name was Jedidiah. 2 Sam.12:25.

Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses. 1 Ki.4:26.Solomon had 4,000 stalls of horses. 2 Chr.9:25.

Solomon had 3300 supervisors. 1 Ki.5:16.Solomon had 3600 supervisors. 2 Chr.2:2.

Solomon's "molten sea" held 2000 "baths". 1 Ki.7:26.Solomon's "molten sea" held 3000 "baths". 2 Chr.4:5.

Solomon had thousands of horses. 1 Ki.4:26.A King must not multiply horses to himself. Deut.17:15,16.

Solomon had hundreds of wives. 1 Ki.11:1-3.A King must not multiply wives to himself. Deut.17:17.

There was no greater king before or after Hezekiah. 2 Ki.18:1, 5.There was no greater king before or after Josiah. 2 Ki.23:24, 25.

Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign. 2 Ki.8:26.Ahaziah succeeded his father, who was thirty-two years old when he became king and who ruled for eight years. 2 Chr.21;20.He was forty-two years old when he began to reign. 2 Chr.22:2. (Note that some versions have caught the error and corrected it.)

God prohibits the making of idols. Ex.20:4; Deut.5:8, 9.God commands idols to be made. Ex.25:18; Num.21:8, 9.

Children are to suffer for their parent's sins. Ex.20:5; Ex.34:7; Num.14:18; Deut.5:9; Is.14:21.Children are not to suffer for their parent's sins. Deut.24:16; Ezek.18:19,20.

God prohibits the killing of the innocent. Ex.23:7.God approves the killing of the innocent. Num.31:17; Josh.6:21; Josh.7:24-26; Josh.8:22-25; Josh.10:20, 40; Josh.11:15; 1 Sam.15:3.

God inflicts sickness. Num.11:33; 2 Chr.21:14, 15.Satan inflicts sickness. Job 2:7.

Death to a false prophet. Deut.18:20.Death also to a real prophet deceived by "God". Ezek.14:9.

God remembers sin even when it has been forgiven. Ex.34:7.God does not remember sin after it has been forgiven. Jer.31:34.

God promised the land to the people. Ex.12:25.God broke his promise. Num.14:30, 31.

Sisera was sleeping when Jael killed him. Jud.4:21.Sisera was standing and apparently, allowed Jael to kill him. Jud.5:25-27.

Joshua captured Debir. Josh.10:38,39.Othniel captured Debir. Jud.1:11-13.

God sows discord. Gen.11:7-9.God hates those who cause discord. Prov.6:16-19.

The census count was: Israel 800,000 and Judah 500,000. 2 Sam.24:9.The census count was: Israel 1,100,000 and Judah 470,000. 1 Chr.21:5.

The two pillars were 18 cubits high. 1 Ki.7:15.The two pillars were 35 cubits high. 2 Chr.3:15.

420 talents of gold were brought back from Ophir. 1 Ki.9:28.450 talents of gold were brought back from Ophir. 2 Chr.8:18.

Asa removed the high places. 2 Chr.14:2, 3.Asa did not remove the high places. 1 Ki.15:14.

Baasha died in the 26tth year of King Asa's reign. 1 Ki.16:6-8.Baasha built a city in the 36th year of King Asa's reign. 2 Chr.16:1.

Jehoshaphat did not remove the high places. 1 Ki.22:42, 43.Jehoshaphat did remove the high places. 2 Chr.17:5, 6.

Jehu's massacre was acceptable to God. 2 Ki.10:30.Jehu's massacre was not acceptable to God. Hos.1:4.

Jehu shot Ahaziah near Ibleam. Ahaziah then fled to Meggido and died there. 2 Ki.9:27.Ahaziah was found hiding in Samaria, brought to Jehu, and was then put to death. 2 Chr.22:9.

Ahaz was not conquered. 2 Ki.165.Ahaz was conquered. 2 Chr.28:5.

Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he began to reign. 2 Ki.24:8.Jehoiachin was 8 years old when he began to reign. 2 Chr.36:9. (Some versions have corrected this)

Jehoiachin reigned 3 months. 2 Ki.24:8.Jehoiachin reigned 3 months and 10 days. 2 Chr.36:9.

Jehoiachin was succeeded by his uncle. 2 Ki.24:17.Jehoiachin was succeeded by his brother. 2 Chr.36:10.

The father of Zerubbabel was Pedaiah. 1 Chr.3:19.The father of Zerubbabel was Shealtiel. Ezr.3:2.

God is near to all who call on him. Ps.145:18.God is far away and cannot be found in times of need. Ps.10:1.

God sometimes forsakes his children. Ps.22:1, 2.God is always a present help. Ps.46:1.

The righteous shall rejoice when he sees vengeance. Ps.58:10, 11.Do not rejoice when your enemy falls or stumbles. Prov.24:17.

God stands to judge. Is.3:13.God sits to judge. Joel 3:12.

Zedekiah watched his sons be put to death, then he had his eyes put out, and was left to die in prison. Jer.52:10, 11.God promised Zedekiah a peaceful death. Jer.34:4, 5.

Omri reigned 12 years beginning in the 31st year of Asa's reign. 1 Ki.16:23.Omri died and his son began his reign in the 38th year of Asa's reign, making Omri's reign only 7-years. 1 Ki.16:28, 29.

 

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Memory

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/02/04/271527934/our-brains-rewrite-our-memories-putting-present-in-the-past

Think about your fifth-birthday party. Maybe your mom carried the cake. What did her face look like? If you have a hard time imagining the way she looked then rather than how she looks now, you're not alone.The brain edits memories relentlessly, updating the past with new information. Scientists say that this isn't a question of having a bad memory. Instead, they think the brain updates memories to make them more relevant and useful now — even if they're not a true representation of the past.To figure this out, researchers at Northwestern University asked 17 people to look at images of a scene, like a beach or a farm, with a small object like an apple layered on top. They were then shown a scene with the object in a new location. Then they were asked to move the object to its location in in the first picture. They always got it wrong.iCourtesy Donna Jo Bridge and Joel VossFinally the participants were shown the original scene, with the apple in three places: the original location, the second or a brand-new one. They always picked the second, updated location."Their memory from the original location has been overwritten," says Joel Voss, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Northwestern. "It's taken that new location and stuck it to the original photograph."This is a contrived laboratory setting, Voss tells Shots, so it's not guaranteed that the brain is taking current events in your life and stuffing them into your past. But the researchers had people do the experiment while observing their brain with a special MRI scanner.The brain structure that the people in this experiment were using when they were rewriting their memories, the hippocampus, is very involved in autobiographical memory. "It's essentially as if the hippocampus doesn't care if it's putting together two new things," Voss says.The findings were published Wednesday in the Journal of Neuroscience.Voss and his co-author Donna Bridge tested the participants' memory of the original image, and they remembered it very well. So this wasn't a case of bad memory overall. It wasn't until they were asked to move the object and place it in the original spot that the memories changed.

Shots - Health News

When Memories Never Fade, The Past Can Poison The Present

"Our memories aren't perfect," Voss says. "They're not like tape recorders. There's a small current of thought that thinks these failures aren't necessarily a bad thing. Memory is not intended to allow you to remember what you did last week, or remember your childhood. The point is to help you make good choices right now."It can be disturbing to realize that cherished memories may not be true, Voss agrees. But plenty of other studies have shown that memories are indeed often faulty. This doesn't keep you from recalling memories and treasuring them, Voss says. "But they might not be perfectly accurate."And some things are worth forgetting. Voss, for one, is fine not remembering his father's 1980s mustache. "And the half-mullet," he says.

Unemployment long term

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About The Long-Term Unemployed: Your Sunday Morning Conversation - http://huff.to/1eqB1xI

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About The Long-Term Unemployed: Your Sunday Morning Conversation

Jason Linkins   |  Feb 02, 2014Back in April, The Atlantic's Matthew O'Brien reported on a study, conducted by Rand Ghayad of Northeastern University, that categorically confirmed that the long-term unemployed have had it so rough since the economic crisis because companies with available jobs have been systematically discriminating against them in hiring decisions. Per O'Brien:In a new working paper, he sent out 4800 fictitious resumes to 600 job openings, with 3600 of them for fake unemployed people. Among those 3600, he varied how long they'd been out of work, how often they'd switched jobs, and whether they had any industry experience. Everything else was kept constant. The mocked-up resumes were all male, all had randomly-selected (and racially ambiguous) names, and all had similar education backgrounds. The question was which of them would get callbacks.The results were unequivocal, and, to O'Brien's mind "terrifying": "Employers prefer applicants who haven't been out of work for very long, applicants who have industry experience, and applicants who haven't moved between jobs that much. But how long you've been out of work trumps those other factors."So it's not particularly surprising that President Barack Obama made mention of this problem in his State of the Union address: I've been asking CEOs to give more long-term unemployed workers a fair shot at that new job and new chance to support their families; this week, many will come to the White House to make that commitment real. Tonight, I ask every business leader in America to join us and to do the same -- because we are stronger when America fields a full team.This is a testament to two things -- the significance of the problem and the limitations on what presidential power can do to alleviate it. In this case, Obama can only ask those with the power to alter this dynamic for assistance. Largely, this weeding out of the long-term unemployed is occurring because of some sort of blanket heuristic being applied to pools of job applicants, in which "long-term unemployed" is getting equated with "weakest candidate." Let's face it: Even when the job market has boomed, an applicant with a long gap in work history would likely draw some scrutiny. But the times have changed, and this methodology was better suited for an environment of full employment, not one in which desperate Americans are looking for any port in a storm.So let's put some flesh and blood on the people being ground up in the gears of this heuristic. As a benefit to anyone in the position to hire someone who's been out of work for a long time as a result of the recession, here are some things you should know about the people who are asking to be hired:1. They've "played by the rules."Terry Harris of Jonesville, S.C., lost her job as an executive assistant at a promotional products company. The company, she said, went belly up."My boss actually cried when I was let go," Harris told me during an interview in May 2011. "I have an excellent letter of recommendation from him."In other words, Harris said, "It was purely an economic thing." She lost her job through no fault of her own.What she hadn't figured out was why she was still unemployed, and why her husband had been bounced from one wretched low-paying job to another. Why, she asked, if they both finished high school, got some post-secondary education, had solid work histories and held off on having kids, was it such a struggle to pay for things like getting the car fixed and visiting the dentist?"I think the thing that keeps me going is knowing that we are really lucky, even in spite of the challenges that we are facing," said Harris in an email. "I can't help but feel badly for those that I know are worse off than we are. And I am truly grateful. And knowing that we are not alone helps a great deal, too. But it seems to be getting harder. Harder not to worry, not to cry, not to give up hope. We did everything right, I thought."2. They believed a lifetime of hard work would provide some protection.Linda Hall of Spokane, Wash., has worked hard all her life, but hasn't earned respect from the labor market. Laid off for the first time at age 62, Hall has no health insurance, not enough savings for retirement and almost no chance of getting hired again."A year ago, I was absolutely certain that I had job security," Hall said. "Change is a part of life. But, truthfully, until a few weeks before [getting laid off], I just didn't see it coming and couldn't imagine such a thing happening."3. They keep "playing by the rules" when they lose a job, only to find it going nowhere.[Ted] Casper, then in his late 50s, followed a familiar route for unemployed blue-collar workers. He returned to school, enrolling at Blackhawk Technical College in Janesville, Wis.Two years later, he had an associate degree in industrial engineering technology. But he was 60, and competition was fierce -- and younger -- with thousands of unemployed factory workers in the area, many from a recently shuttered General Motors plant."I got zero responses," says Casper, of Edgerton, Wis. "I literally didn't even get the form letter that goes along with the 'thank you but no thanks.'"So last summer, Casper returned to Blackhawk to study business management."I kind of accepted the fact there's no employer out there that will hire me," he says wearily. He'd like to start a business -- making furniture is a possibility.4. They're diligent job-seekers who have already made hundreds of attempts to find work.Patty DiMucci of Cary, N.C., told HuffPost this week she's been out of work since losing her job as a director of event planning for a beauty products retailer in March 2009. She said her unemployment benefits will run out this month."This is the first time in my career I'm struggling to find a job," said DiMucci, 42. "I've applied for hundreds of jobs. The rejection takes its toll on you -- that is, when you even get a response from a company."5. They are people who never imagined having to explain this sort of hardship to the children in their once happy household.At first, little Emmalee didn't understand what it meant that her dad had lost his job. "She thought maybe I'd misplaced it," he said. But eventually, as her father's jobless spell dragged through spring and into a summer, during which they couldn't afford to fix their broken air conditioning system, Emmalee began to grasp the meaning of unemployment. After Halloween, as the holiday season approached, she asked her father what it would mean for her."She looked up at me and said, 'Daddy, are we still going to have Christmas this year?' Talk about taking your heart out and stomping on it."6. They've allowed themselves to become convinced they're "moochers" and "burdens."[Mike Schillim] said he lives in a cramped house with his wife and three grown sons, who've been able to find some part-time work. If Schillim's benefits run out before he finds a job, he said he might apply for food stamps."I didn't apply for them yet because I got boys that's working and because I don't feel it's right," he said. "I don't want to be accused of being a taker."Not that he feels like much of a maker. "I feel like I'm a hindrance to society," he said. "I'm disposable."7. They are people who fear even the most quotidian of inconveniences. For the long-term unemployed, merely getting a flat tire could be a disaster.Tatia Pritchett's 2002 Hyundai Sonata blew a tire early on a Friday morning in June when she was on her way to work."I was driving and all of a sudden, KAPOW," she said.She pulled over and started trying to change the tire, but after removing the first lug nut she couldn't budge the rest. Her mobile phone getting no reception, morning dissolved into afternoon as she waited for help and wondered.[...]Pritchett's job is in Baltimore, more than 60 miles from her house, and the trip can take two hours in the D.C. area's awful rush hour traffic. The job pays $14.44 an hour. Subtract the cost of commuting, she's left with near-poverty wages. But she never seriously considered quitting because unemployment would be worse.8. They have an easier time coping with the death of a spouse than they do being out of work.People who have been out of work a long time tend to be unhappier, on the whole, than people who have suffered many other types of negative life events, researchers have found. Even if you've lost your spouse to death or divorce, you have a better chance of climbing back up to your previous level of happiness.That seems to be because people invest a huge amount of their identities in their professional lives -- and it's hard to make the adjustment when those lives get put on hold.9. They have come perilously close to dying.[Lianne Valenti] spent the holidays with her sister in Utah, trying to put the pain out of her mind, hoping an herbal remedy she'd ordered online would fix her up when it finally arrived. Still, the feeling was hard to ignore when it radiated up from her diaphragm and across her shoulder. "A lot of times it would wake me up in the middle of the night," she said. "I spent so much time sweating, thinking it was just pain, I just need to breathe. And when it passed, it would pass immediately."Back home one night in early January, it didn't pass as quickly as usual. "I was sitting here in my chair and it lasted for two hours. It was all I could do to breathe. I couldn't open my eyes."A little after 5 a.m., Valenti called her sister in nearby Lakewood and asked for a ride to the emergency room. Once there, she described her symptoms to a doctor and said she thought she was having a gallstone attack. The doctor checked her out with an electrocardiogram and told her she'd suffered a heart attack.10. They have contemplated, and sometimes even attempted, their own suicide.Kerri, a 57-year-old living near Seattle, says she lost her software sales job three years ago -- and that age discrimination has made her ongoing search for work feel hopeless at times."I went to an interview and the guy actually excused me before we even started. He said, 'Well, we're looking at your resume and we don't feel that you'd be a good fit,'" Kerri recalls. "Why would I be brought in after two phone interviews with managers?"By the winter of 2009, she says, she'd taken all the rejection she could stand. She swallowed a bunch of pills."There was a reason: I had no hope," she recalls. "There was no point for the future. I had just lost another job opportunity that I thought I had done a really good job at and they just dismissed me. I was old, and they're not going to hire me. With that, I couldn't have my life back."These are the people who would like to come work for you._____________________SUNDAY MORNING MEMEWATCH: The big meme from Obama's State Of The Union address is going to be something on the order of "The Go-It-Alone Presidency," with a lot of hot talk about Obama's coming use of executive orders to "go around" a hostile House of Representatives. Despite the fact that Obama would have to really work hard to issue as many executive orders as his predecessors, it's already caused conniptions. One casualty is author Jon Meacham, who actually took leave of his senses attempting to analyze this matter. But as Jim Newell points out over at the Baffler, it's amazing that Obama managed to convince people that he's actually got "some sort of governing-by-executive-order agenda in mind":The bulk of the speech, then, was dedicated to outlining those "steps without legislation" that he had in mind. Of the ten or so he offered, only a few reasonably resembled "action" under the loosest definition possible: raising the minimum wage for federal contractors, accelerating fuel efficiency standards for heavy duty vehicles, and starting a new retirement savings bond program through the Treasury available to a targeted segment of the workforce. Fear the tyrant!The other "actions" aren't even actions; they're proposals to talk about further actions with corporate and community leaders, state and local politicians, and exemplary citizens. They're meetings.You should expect most of the Sunday Morning Talking Heads to miss this entirely.If you've got a story you want to share on Sunday, feel free to drop me a line!IN MEMORIAM: TYLER DOOHAN: Eight-year-old Tyler Doohan saved six people from a fire. He died trying to save two more. I don't know how a human being can override the sort of survival instincts our brains put in place to run into a burning building without the professional training and protective gear that professional firefighters receive, but somehow, this kid found whatever was needed deep within himself to do so. Doohan "will be laid to rest on Wednesday as the most honored of honorary firefighters, saluted by his local fire company as one of its own who made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty." Read about him here. A LETTER FROM WEST VIRGINIA:From Kirk Lundren, to Obama:My first child is due on February 20th, just three weeks away. As it currently stands, according to the CDC and our doctors, my wife, Sarah, is still not cleared to safely use the water in our home. We have been dealing with this for three weeks already, and based on the information available, it doesn't look like the water will be safe anytime soon for her use. Our water still smells like 4 methylcyclohexanol, and experts are saying that this chemical could be in our water system at a detectable amount for a very long time. I don't know how I am going to safely care for my son after he is born when I can't trust my water supply. We're not using it, so I'm surely not going to use it on my newborn.Credit is owed, by the way, to MSNBC's Karen Finney and the producers of her show. They've broken with media traditions and have covered the Elk River chemical spill. Here's one segment in which the show reports that "this is not just a West Virginia problem."DOES ANYONE REMEMBER WHO WON SUPER BOWL XXXVIII?*:Ten years ago, on Super Bowl Sunday, the world bore witness as the game's halftime show offered up the now-famous "wardrobe malfunction." What was all that even about, again? The inimitable Marin Cogan takes us back to a time where the exposure of a woman's breast for "nine-sixteenths of a second" was sufficient to make everyone in the world lose their minds completely. (*By the way, it was the New England Patriots.)"YOU KEEP A BABY? IN YOUR DESK?": There's going to be a "Lean In" movie, because why not?Slate's Amanda Hess imagines the screenplay.[You'll find more Sunday Reads and more on my Rebel Mouse page. What stories mattered to you this week? Drop me a line and let us know what you are reading.]ALSO ON HUFFPOSTSLIDESHOWState of the Union 2014

Word of god

http://atheismfuckyeah.tumblr.com/post/73050669932

Monopole

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140129164807.htm
urtesy of Heikka Valja[Click to enlarge image]Amherst College and Aalto University researchers have now created and photographed synthetic magnetic monopoles under laboratory conditions. These observations lay the foundation for the underlying structure of the natural magnetic monopole -- the detection of which would be a revolutionary event comparable to the discovery of the electron.Share721The results were recently published in the journal Nature.Although predicted over 80 years ago, the fundamentally quantum-mechanical configuration of the monopoles has not previously been observed in any physical system. The reported results demonstrate the structure in an ultracold atomic gas."The creation of a synthetic magnetic monopole should provide us with unprecedented insight into aspects of the natural monopole," says Prof. David S. Hall from Amherst College, USA. "It's not every day that you get to poke and prod the analogue of an elusive fundamental particle under highly controlled conditions in the laboratory," he continues.Evidence for magnetic monopoles has been sought in sources as diverse as lunar samples and ancient micas. The multibillion-euro LHC particle accelerator at CERN has also been used in the search -- but no magnetic monopoles have been convincingly identified. The discovery of the synthetic monopole provides a stronger foundation for these efforts."Our achievement opens up amazing avenues for quantum research. It feels incredible to have been a part of such a major breakthrough," says a delighted Dr. Mikko Möttönen from Aalto University, Finland. "Synthesis of the monopole is the starting point for many new breakthroughs in quantum physics research. In the future, we want to get even a more complete correspondence with the natural magnetic monopole," he continues.A magnetic monopole is a particle just like an electron, but with a magnetic rather than an electric charge. Some 80 years ago Paul A. M. Dirac, one of the founders of quantum physics, discovered a quantum-mechanical structure allowing the existence of magnetic monopoles. Dirac's original framework has now been experimentally realized for the first time.Video on the monopole creation: http://youtube.com/watch?v=HSDoIf5FY2sBackgroundMagnetic monopole"A magnetic monopole is an isolated magnetic pole, magnetic charge, and a point-like source of magnetic field."An electron is a point-like particle that carries a so-called elementary electric charge. This means that an electron is an isolated source of an electric field. Can a magnetic field have a similar point-like source?Every one of us has likely held two bar magnets and noticed that their ends either attract or repel one another. The ends of the magnet are referred to as poles and every magnet has one end that is a north pole and one that is a south pole. A magnetic north pole attracts a magnetic south pole, but repels another north pole. In general, opposite poles attract, and identical poles repel. In this respect, magnetism is very much like electricity, which exhibits the same attractive and repulsive behavior involving positive and negative electric charges.When a bar magnet breaks, two smaller bar magnets are created, each with its own north and south pole. You can break each of these smaller magnets in two, and so on, and every resulting magnet has a north pole and a south pole. Even at the atomic level, north and south poles always appear together. One cannot produce in this way a solitary pole, or monopole, that acts as a single point source of the magnetic field.Are there other ways to find magnetic monopoles? As yet, not a single natural magnetic monopole has been verifiably observed. This was initially considered to be a problem, because theoretical models that described the post-Big-Bang period predicted that they should be quite common. However, a special model for the expansion of the universe was developed that can explain the extreme rarity of these particles.According to some theories, the energy content (mass) of a single magnetic monopole is so large that if it were completely used to recharge the battery of an electric car, this vehicle would be able to travel for kilometres with the energy. This explains why magnetic monopoles are probably not likely to occur in a particle accelerator. If the mass of a magnetic monopole really is that large, the energy released from the collision of a negatively and positively charged monopole would be as much as the energy released in the explosion of a kilogram of dynamite!Dirac monopole"A Dirac monopole is a point-like source of a possibly artificial magnetic field that forms at the endpoint of a quantum whirlpool."In quantum mechanics, an electron is described by a diffuse wave-like object rather than a point-like particle. Paul Dirac was the first person to understand the importance of studying the end points of quantum-mechanical whirlpools within these electron waves. He noticed that when an electron has such a terminating vortex, a magnetic monopole inevitably forms at the end point. A terminating vortex is the defining characteristic of the Dirac monopole.Dirac also noticed that if the universe contains even a single magnetic monopole, it specifies the smallest possible value for an electric charge. All observed charges must be integer multiples of this minimum value; in other words, charge must be quantized. The existence of a monopole would therefore explain the experimental observation that electric charge is quantized.Dirac monopoles are generally analyzed in a fairly simple quantum-mechanical model. Magnetic monopoles have since been studied in more general, so-called unified field theories, in which they could exist in the absence of a terminating vortex.Synthetic magnetic field"A synthetic magnetic field is an artificial field that leads to particle dynamics equivalent to those of an electric charge in a corresponding natural magnetic field."Electrons are not the only physical systems that can exhibit terminating vortices. Thus a Dirac monopole can also appear in other systems, such as the Bose-Einstein condensate. Rather than being related to the natural magnetic field, this monopole can be associated with a synthetic magnetic field. Importantly, the structure of the monopole is identical to that of a Dirac magnetic monopole. This is why the Dirac monopole observed in the synthetic magnetic field is closer to a natural magnetic monopole than any earlier observation.Spin"Roughly speaking, spin indicates how fast a particle is spinning around its own axis and the orientation of that axis."Spin is a magnetic property of many particles, including electrons, protons, neutrons, and even many types of atoms. For example, the electron spin is composed of two basis states: up or down. This describes whether the electron is spinning around its axis in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction.A particle with a non-zero spin creates a magnetic field around it. However, this is not a monopole field -- it is a so-called dipole field with both north and south magnetic poles, just like a bar magnet. Even this smallest of bar magnets cannot be broken into two separate magnetic monopoles.In fact, bar magnets are composed of countless numbers of small spin dipoles, nearly all of which point in the same direction. Overlapping poles of different sign cancel out the field of each other, and thus the field of an ideal bar magnet looks as if it has magnetic poles only at its ends.Spins tend to align along an externally applied magnetic field, which is the key to the creation of the synthetic magnetic monopole.Synthesis of a monopole"A monopole is created in a Bose-Einstein condensate by using an external magnetic field to guide the spins of the atoms forming the condensate."In 2009, Aalto University researchers Ville Pietilä and Mikko Möttönen published theoretical results demonstrating a method to create Dirac monopoles in a Bose-Einstein condensate. The idea involves using external magnetic fields to rotate the atomic spins. A Dirac monopole forms in the condensate as a result of the spin rotation. This method was adopted by the researchers in creating the synthetic magnetic monopole.The Dirac monopole forms in the artificial magnetic field of the condensate, not in the physical magnetic field which steers the spin degree of freedom. Thus, a natural magnetic monopole is not needed to create the synthetic monopole.The Bose-Einstein condensate"A Bose-Einstein condensate behaves like a single giant atom, even though it can contain millions."A Bose-Einstein condensate is sometimes considered to be the fifth state of matter, in addition to solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. In the condensate, the importance and location of individual atoms becomes vague and the system behaves as if it were a single large atom. The first Bose-Einstein condensates were achieved in 1995, and this work received the Nobel Prize in 2001."Bose-Einstein condensates provide a window from our world into the quantum wonderland. The more often I peek at it, the more I want to stay there," says enchanted Dr. Möttönen. Since Bose-Einstein condensates contain many atoms, photographs of them can be taken using technology that is in part similar to that used in ordinary digital cameras. In addition, the condensates can be forced into the desired shape by means of external magnetic fields and laser beams. These properties make condensates a unique tool for developing new phenomena and quantum technologies. In addition to being used with magnetic monopoles, condensates can simulate the properties of various useful materials to the accuracy of a single atom. One of the daydreams of condensate researchers involves finding a solution for the development of superconducting materials that function at room temperature.What in the world is quantum physics?"Quantum physics describes natural phenomena most accurately."Quantum physics (also quantum mechanics) is a theory developed over the past 100 years that has been observed to describe the reality in more detail than any other model. It is particularly useful for explaining atomic-level phenomena, which is impossible using classical physics. On the other hand, quantum physics reproduces the same results as classical physics on the large scale.In quantum mechanics, an electron can take on wave-like properties, sometimes appearing as an extended object rather than a point particle. It is this property of extension, which is shared with Bose-Einstein condensates, that permits the observation of the quantum whirlpools essential to detecting the effect of the magnetic monopole.Quantum technologies use the laws of quantum physics relieved from classical restrictions to produce practical applications. For example, development of a quantum computer -- a potentially super-fast problem solver -- is one of the key goals of quantum technologies. A quantum computer would be able to find a solution to certain problems very quickly by using methods that are impossible in the logical framework of a normal computer."The laws of quantum physics make it possible to take shortcuts. Among other things, this is the basis of the super-fast speed of a quantum computer," explains Möttönen.Future directionsIn the future, the research groups will concentrate on more in-depth research into the structure of a synthetic magnetic monopole. They are also interested in the dynamics of monopoles and their interactions with other synthetic particles. One interesting idea involves trying to create a monopole that is not bound to a whirlpool in the same way as is the Dirac monopole. This type of structure could possibly describe a natural magnetic monopole in even more detail.