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Posted 1/4/11
Most students of American history understand that a dramatic re-peopling of North and South America began in the years after Christopher Columbus first landed in the New World. But they may not realize that it was Africa, not Europe, that formed the wellspring of this repopulation process. In the 3¼ centuries between 1492 and about 1820, four enslaved Africans left the Old World for every European. During those years, Africans comprised the largest forced oceanic migration in the history of the world. Who were they? Who organized the slaving voyages? Which parts of Africa did they come from? How did they reach the Americas? And where exactly did they go? Strikingly, we can now provide better answers to such questions for Africans than we can for European migrants. The African slave trade reduced people to commodities, but commodities generated profits, and where there were profits there was generally good record-keeping. Since the onset of the computer revolution in the early 1960s, early modern business and government records have allowed historians to retrieve information on 35,000 slave voyages from Africa to the Americas and make the information available on the internet. For many of these voyages, we have rich detail on the slave ship itineraries, as well as who was put on board, who survived and how they traveled. "...in the West Indies, their hard-hearted overseers have neither regard to the laws of God, nor the life of their fellow men."
--Captive Ottobah Cuguano, writing in 1787, quoted by David Eltis and David Richardson A new "Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade" draws on five decades of research in archives around the north and south Atlantic to provide 189 detailed and sumptuously drawn maps that answer many questions. These maps show that almost every port in the early modern Atlantic world organized and sent out a slave voyage, and that the bigger the port, the greater the number it sent out. Such ubiquity suggests that before the abolitionist era, there was no moral outrage or public disgrace associated with trading in African slaves. The maps also show that almost half of all voyages were organized and set out from the Americas, not Europe. As a result, bilateral (that is out and return) itineraries were almost as common as the famous "triangular voyage" pattern based on voyages dispatched from Europe.  The new "Atlas" of the slave trade provides 189 maps tracing the voyages.
Within the United States, we now know that slave voyages left from almost every port and that although Rhode Island might be well-known as a slave trading region, it was far from synonymous with the U.S. slave trade. New York and Charleston, South Carolina, were also major centers. A profile of those on board ship as well as the conditions to which they were subjected also emerges from the pages of the Atlas. Thus, Samuel Adjai Crowther, liberated from a slave ship as a child in 1821, became the first Anglican African bishop and was largely responsible for creating the first written version of the Yoruba language. Remarkably, he married Asano, whom he had first met as a girl on the slave ship from which they were both rescued. The Atlas also contains the story of Mahommah G. Baquaqua, who was enslaved probably in what is now western Nigeria in 1845 as a 20-year old. He was first taken to Recife in Brazil, and after a ship's captain purchased him in Rio de Janeiro, he was taken to New York where he escaped, fled to Haiti, and after returning to New York to study and then moving to Canada, he wrote his autobiography. For most there was no escape. As another captive, Ottobah Cuguano, wrote in 1787 in his own narrative, "the misery of that of any of the inhabitants of Africa meet with among themselves is far inferior to those of the inhospitable regions of misery which they meet with in the West Indies, where their hard-hearted overseers have neither regard to the laws of God, nor the life of their fellow men." Some of the survivors lived on into the age of photography. Photographs of Crowther as well Cudjoe and Abache Lewis, who arrived on the last slave vessel to come into the US (the Clotilde in 1860) are displayed among the maps along with stories and paintings of some of their 18th century predecessors, such as Venture Smith and Phillis Wheatley. The Atlas also charts more general patterns among captives such as their age and sex and, for two regions, evidence of ethno linguistic origins. The maps show that both mortality and voyage length in days declined over the slave trade era, but, as with ports in Europe from which free migrants left, risk of death was persistently greater from some regions of departure than from others. Captives leaving from what is now eastern Nigeria were particularly at risk with, on average, almost one fifth of those embarked dying on the Middle Passage. Almost half of all voyages were organized and set out from the Americas, not Europe.
--David Eltis and David Richardson But the major contribution of the Atlas is to make it clear that the slave trade was not a random process. Systematic connections between Africa and the Americas can be tracked in the same way that people have been doing for years between Europe and the Americas. Particular ports and regions in Africa were linked via winds, currents and political circumstances with particular islands, regions and ports in the Americas. For example, Angola supplied four out of every five captives in the very large branch of the trade that went to the southern cone region of South America (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay). The United States drew a larger proportion of its slaves from Senegambia south to Liberia than any other region in the Americas. And Amazonia drew almost all of its captives from what is now Guinea-Conakry. Where a given part of the Americas drew on a number of African regions, it tended to do so in sequence. Thus Jamaica drew heavily on what is now Ghana and Benin in the 17th century before switching to first eastern Nigeria and then northern Angola and the Congo region. Such transatlantic links bear an uncanny resemblance to the patterns established by free migrants leaving Europe for the Americas. Finally, the Atlas shows that the Atlantic slave trade remained strong until it was suppressed. Like the institution of slavery, the traffic that supplied captives did not die a natural economic death. The maps establish that in all the major importing areas of the Americas, the volume of the traffic peaked in the years just before its suppression. This pattern held for Brazil, the United States, and the British Americas as a whole. It is becoming commonplace to claim that there are more slaves in the world today than ever and that large-scale trafficking in people continues. The "Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade" suggests that such claims tend to obscure the horrors -- unique in human history -- of the Middle Passage from Africa to the Americas. It is indeed hard to imagine circumstances in which any parallel to the transatlantic slave trade could ever happen again. |
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Hey, baka di mo ito alam o... baka nakalimutan mo na ito !!! (Wait, I'm animated, wait for me to move) !!! Posted 12/7/2010 Posted 12/3/10 First successful human heart transplant - the human body , just like other complex machines, is composed of many important parts that need to function properly in order for the body to work. The necessity of organ transplant was recognized by the earliest doctors, and experiments in transplantations date back 300 years. But it was just 43 years ago today that the field marked its most astounding breakthrough when a South African surgeon performed the first successful human heart transplant. On December 3, 1967, Dr. Christiaan Barnard and his team at Groote Hospital in Capetown, South Africa, harvested the heart of a 25-year old woman who had died in a car accident, and transplanted it into the body of a 55-year old man who was dying from heart damage. The patient, Louis Waskansky, lived for 18 days after the transplant. The global medical community recognized the procedure as a major success, and other medical institutes around the world were eager to follow suit. Medical researchers had been experimenting with heart transplants for some time. Surgeons had performed organ transplants on animals, including about 50 heart transplants in dogs. The first human-to-human kidney transplant had been performed in the US in 1953. Teams of doctors around the world were waiting for the opportunity to perform a heart transplant. Doing so required a rate set of circumstances to present themselves. They needed a patient sick enough to warrant the risky procedure, and willing to consent to have the surgery, plus an organ donor with a suitable heart who had died from causes unrelated to heart disease or damage. The donor heart needed to be harvested from the donor and preserved within hours, and must be transplanted into the recipient almost as quickly. On Dec. 2, 1967, a tragic automobile accident claimed the life of Denise Darvall in Capetown. Her father agreed to donate her heart for the surgery. Washkansky, who was going to die without the new heart, agreed to have the surgery. The healthy young woman, snatched from life prematurely, and the terminally-ill older man, together became the world's first heart donor and heart transplant recipient. The main challenge and risk of organ transplant is that the body will reject the foreign new organ. To prevent this, patients take drugs that suppress their immune system. This treatment prevents the body from rejecting the new organ, but it leaves the patient without an immune system t fight off infections and viruses. When Washkansky died 18 days after the operation, it wasn't because his new heart failed, but from pneumonia he contracted because his immune system was compromised. Because of advancements made in the science of immunology and the development of new drugs, doctors can prevent their patients from rejecting their new hearts without completely compromising their immune systems. Heart transplants patients can now live for decades after their transplants, and new advancements in this life-saving science are always being accomplished. Posted 11/1/09 Kazakhstan Several years ago, a British comedian made a movie called "Borat" about a fictional foreign journalist's misadventures visiting the United States. The journalist was supposedly from Kazakhstan. The movie wasn't intended to insult Kazakhstan, but to ridicule people whose view of foreign cultures were limited. Some people who saw the movie thought Kazakhstan was a fictional nation. But it is very much a real place, an enormous country landlocked between Russia to its north, China to the east, and the nationsl of Turkemenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgystan along it southern border. At one million square miles, it is nearly four time sthe size of Texas. This vast nation is located in the center of a region known as Eurasia, so called because it is where Europe meets Asia. For much of the 29th century, Kazkhstan was part of the Soviet Union, suffering some of the most devastating consequences of Soviet policies. During the 1920's, the Soviet's agricultural system caused mass starvation in Kazakhstan, killing 1.5 million people - 40 percent of the population. Today, Kazakhstan is a sovereign, multicultural, politically stable country rich in natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, coal, oron ore, gold and uranium, with an economy larger than all other central Asian states combined. Its capital, Astana, is a modern, booming city. It is an ancient land rich in historic significance. It was part of the vast empire ruled by Attila the Hun, the 5th century emperor and military general whose relentless campaign against the Roman Empire triggered its downfall. It was the land of the 11th century Mongolian conqueror Ghengis Khan, whose empire included central Asia and much of China. The earlies civilization record in Kazakhstan was the nomadic Scythiansaka tribe. Then came the Huns, Turks, Mongols and Chinese. In the 15th centruy these groups began to unite as a single people sharing a national identify. By the early 16th centuray, the nation-state of Kazakh emerged. Kazakh literally means "free people". In the 1800's, worn down by years of fending off attacks and invasions from the Chinese, Kazakh sought military protection from Russia. Russia in turn conquered the country in 1871. After Russia's communist revolution , Kazakh became the Soviet state of Kazakhstan in 1936. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Kazakhstan declared independence and elected its first president in 1991. The "free people" were free once again. .....check erlanidrissov.com for more information. Posted 10/30/09 HTTP - Hyper Text Transfer Protocol WWW - World Wide Web URL - Uniform Resource Locator The Internet A loosely-linked group of young scientists, engineers and students followed their passions - and changed the world. The Internet was started by the U.S> military nearly 60 years ago. The Department of Defense wanted a small group of researchers and scientists working for its Advanced Research Project Agency to be able to share information by linking their computers together. The revolutionary technology that allowed these computers to share information is known as packet switching, and the computer network ARPA created was the first packet switching network in the world. The network was named ARPANET, and was eventually renamed the Internet. The Internet was not invented by any one person or specific gorup of individuals but is the result of the contributions of many visionary scientists and engineers from the worlds of government, academia and private industry. But there are several people universally recognized as the human genius behind the Internet. Leonard Kleinrock - as a graudate student at MIT, Kleinrock developed the principles of packet switching, the data-communication technology that makes the Internet possible. Kleinrock served as an adviser during the building of ARPANET. J.C.R Licklider Licklider was a visionary computer scientist who first conceived of computers as devices for communication, not just as giant calculators. He was the first person to describe the idea of a world-wide network of computers, which he called an "Intergalactic Network". His published work foresaw just about all of the components of the modern Internet. Robert Taylor As young computer enthusiast, Robert Taylor was inspired by the work of J.C.R. Licklider. He eventually took over Licklider's job as the director of ARPA's office of information processing. Basically, the ARPANET was Robert's brainchild. It was his idea to link ARPA's computers together. He autholrized the funding to research andbuild the ARPANET. Larry Roberts When it was time to actually build the ARPANET, Robert Taylor wanted a young MIT computer scientist named Larry Roberts for the project. Roberts had experience in computer networking and served as the principle architect of the Internet. Vin Cert and Robert Kahn One of the major obstacles of the early Internet was the problem of linking different computer networks together. Each network "spoke" its own language. Cerf and Kahn solved this problem by developing the transmission control-protocol, a protocol of all computers could use to communicate. This became the standard for all Internet communication. Posted 9/30/09 www.amnh.org/exhibitions Butterflies & Moths some of the world's mostbeautiful insects are butterflies and moths. There are 150,000 known species of butterflies and moths. Butterflies and moths belong to the insect order Lepidoptera. These winged creatures, and the caterpillars they start out as, come a variety of colors and sizes. The Atlas moth is as big as a dinner plate, while the Western pygmy blue butterfly is not much wider than your thumb. What's the difference ? There is a fine line between what can be called a butterfly and what can be called a moth. But in general, these are helpful clues: Butterflies fly durig the day, but moths fly at night. Butterflies have knobs, or clubs, on the ends of their antennae, while moths do not. Butterflies have smooth, slender bodies; moths are plump and fuzzy. Butterflies rest with their wings held together, straight up in the air, while moths spred them apart and to the sides. Butterflies are often brightly colored; moth are often shades of brown and other "earth tones". The English word "butterfly" is very old, and its origin is now known for certain. One story is that butterflies were named after crafty witches who were believed to take their shape, fly into villagers' homes and steal milk and butter. In other languages, the name for this insect has nothing to do with butter. As with many creatures, colors give butterflies camouflage. Camouflage is the ability to blend into the surroundings. Certain color patterns on their wings help butterflies and moths blend into the background of flowers and plants, so predators cannot see them. Their colors also serve a purpose for mating. When butterflies are courting, colors help males and females of the same species find each other. A blue butterfly will look for another blue butterfly, orange will look for orange, etc. Color is also helpful for protection. Certain brightly colored butterflies, like monarchs, tast bad to birds and other predators. Bright wings are like a big sign that says "I tasted bad, stay away". Other butterflies and moths that might taste perfectly fine to birds have colors that mimic, or look like, the bad tasting species. As a result, predators stay away from them, too. Posted 10/08/08 Hurricanes wreak havoc ! A hurricane has three parts: Eye - the low pressure calm center of the storm; Eye Wall - the area around the eye with the most violent winds and Rain Bands - thunderstorms circulating from the ye that feed the condensation and evaporation cycle that powers the storm. The word hurricane is similar to words used by other cultures to describe these violent and deadly storms. Hurakan is the name of a Mayan god that blew his breath over the water. Hurricanis the name of an ancient evil Caribbean god. With as many as 100 tropical storm forming during hurricane season, naming them is necessary to keep track of them. Both male and female names are used. If a storm has killed many people, or cost a lot of money in damages, its name is retired and not used again. Deadly storm names Agnes, Hazel, Andrew, Camille Gloria and Katrina are retired. Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster in the American history, causing more than $ 81 billion in damages. Autumn or Fall Season - Just how do the leaves change color? Chemical changes are taking place in the leaves throughout the spring and summer. During these seasons, leaves act as factories that manufacture food for the trees. The leaves get their green color from chlorophyll. They also contain yellow or orange carotenoids - which, by the way, are also responsible for the carrots' orange color. All of these colors exist in the leaf. But during the spring and summer, since the leaf is in full food - production mode, the chlorophyll is dominant. As fall sets in, the dwindling daylight and cooler temperatures cause the chlorophyll to break down. It's here that the other colors appear, making fall the most colordul time of the year. The brightest leaf colors will appear when the days are sunny and somewhat warm, with cool nights below 45 degrees. Sugar is made in the leaves during the day and trapped there at night. The caputred sugar helps form the red pigment called anthocyanin. A warm, dry summer and early rain in autumn will stop the leaves from falling too fast, giving their colors a chance to show. The leaves finally fall when a special layer of cells develops and destroys the tissue that attaches them to the tree. The place where the leaf grewis marked by a scat. The dead fallen leaves create a blanket on the forest floor and contain large amounts of calcium and potassium that were used to nourish the tree that they came from. As they decompose, they give these minerals back to the earth. Posted 4/1/08 The establishment of the National Disaster Coordinating Council is embodied in Sec. 2 of PD 1566. The Secretary of National Defense heads the NDCC with the heads of 18 departments/ agencies as members. These include the Chief of Staff, Armed Forces of the Philippines; Secretary-General, Philippine National Red Cross; Philippine Information Agency; Executive Secretary and the Administrator, Office of Civil Defense who is the Executive Officer of the Council. It is through the NDCC member-agencies that disaster preparedness, prevention, mitigation and response carry out its corresponding tasks and responsibilities under the NDCC system. The NDCC, unlike other department coordinating bodies, does not have its own regular budget to disburse. It operates through the member-agencies and its local networks, which are the regional and local disaster coordinating councils. NDCC Functions At the national level, the NDCC serves as the President’s adviser on disaster preparedness programs, disaster operations and rehabilitation efforts undertaken by the government and the private sector. It acts as the top coordinator of all disaster management and the highest allocator of resources in the country to support the efforts of the lower DCC level. In the discharge of its functions, the NDCC utilizes the facilities and services of the Office of Civil Defense as its operating arm.
NDCC Functions - At the national level, the NDCC serves as the President’s adviser on disaster preparedness programs, disaster operations and rehabilitation efforts undertaken by the government and the private sector. It acts as the top coordinator of all disaster management and the highest allocator of resources in the country to support the efforts of the lower DCC level. In the discharge of its functions, the NDCC utilizes the facilities and services of the Office of Civil Defense as its operating arm.
The New Year's Eve Ball was a geodesic sphere, six feet in diameter, and weighed approximately 1,070 pounds. It was covered with a total of 504 Waterford crystal triangles that varied in size and ranged in length from 4.75 inches to 5.75 inches per side. For the 2007 New Year's Eve celebration, 72 of the crystal triangles featured the new "Hope for Peace" design, consisting of three dove-like patterns symbolizing messengers of peace. The remaining 432 triangles featured Waterford designs from previous years, including the Hope for Fellowship, Hope for Wisdom, Hope for Unity, Hope for Courage, Hope for Healing, Hope for Abundance, and Star of Hope triangles. These crystal triangles were bolted to 168 translucent triangular lexan panels which were attached to the aluminum frame of the Ball. The exterior of the Ball was illuminated by 168 Philips Halogená Brilliant Crystal light bulbs, exclusively engineered for the New Year's Eve Ball to enhance the Waterford crystal. The interior of the Ball was illuminated by 432 Philips Light Bulbs (208 clear, 56 red, 56 blue, 56 green, and 56 yellow), and 96 high-intensity strobe lights, which together create bright bubbling bursts of color. The exterior of the Ball featured 90 rotating pyramid mirrors that reflect light back into the audience at Times Square. All 696 lights and 90 rotating pyramid mirrors were computer controlled, enabling the Ball to produce a state-of-the-art light show of eye-dazzling color patterns and a spectacular kaleidoscope effect atop One Times Square. The now-retired 2000-2007 New Year's Eve Ball is the property of the building owners of One Times Square. Posted 10/ 19/07 |
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Posted 11/1/09
Kazakhstan Several years ago, a British comedian made a movie called "Borat" about a fictional foreign journalist's misadventures visiting the United States. The journalist was supposedly from Kazakhstan. The movie wasn't intended to insult Kazakhstan, but to ridicule people whose view of foreign cultures were limited. Some people who saw the movie thought Kazakhstan was a fictional nation. But it is very much a real place, an enormous country landlocked between Russia to its north, China to the east, and the nationsl of Turkemenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgystan along it southern border. At one million square miles, it is nearly four time sthe size of Texas. This vast nation is located in the center of a region known as Eurasia, so called because it is where Europe meets Asia. For much of the 29th century, Kazkhstan was part of the Soviet Union, suffering some of the most devastating consequences of Soviet policies. During the 1920's, the Soviet's agricultural system caused mass starvation in Kazakhstan, killing 1.5 million people - 40 percent of the population. Today, Kazakhstan is a sovereign, multicultural, politically stable country rich in natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, coal, oron ore, gold and uranium, with an economy larger than all other central Asian states combined. Its capital, Astana, is a modern, booming city. It is an ancient land rich in historic significance. It was part of the vast empire ruled by Attila the Hun, the 5th century emperor and military general whose relentless campaign against the Roman Empire triggered its downfall. It was the land of the 11th century Mongolian conqueror Ghengis Khan, whose empire included central Asia and much of China. The earlies civilization record in Kazakhstan was the nomadic Scythiansaka tribe. Then came the Huns, Turks, Mongols and Chinese. In the 15th centruy these groups began to unite as a single people sharing a national identify. By the early 16th centuray, the nation-state of Kazakh emerged. Kazakh literally means "free people". In the 1800's, worn down by years of fending off attacks and invasions from the Chinese, Kazakh sought military protection from Russia. Russia in turn conquered the country in 1871. After Russia's communist revolution , Kazakh became the Soviet state of Kazakhstan in 1936. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Kazakhstan declared independence and elected its first president in 1991. The "free people" were free once again. .....check erlanidrissov.com for more information. Posted 10/30/09 HTTP - Hyper Text Transfer Protocol WWW - World Wide Web URL - Uniform Resource Locator The Internet A loosely-linked group of young scientists, engineers and students followed their passions - and changed the world. The Internet was started by the U.S> military nearly 60 years ago. The Department of Defense wanted a small group of researchers and scientists working for its Advanced Research Project Agency to be able to share information by linking their computers together. The revolutionary technology that allowed these computers to share information is known as packet switching, and the computer network ARPA created was the first packet switching network in the world. The network was named ARPANET, and was eventually renamed the Internet. The Internet was not invented by any one person or specific gorup of individuals but is the result of the contributions of many visionary scientists and engineers from the worlds of government, academia and private industry. But there are several people universally recognized as the human genius behind the Internet. Leonard Kleinrock - as a graudate student at MIT, Kleinrock developed the principles of packet switching, the data-communication technology that makes the Internet possible. Kleinrock served as an adviser during the building of ARPANET. J.C.R Licklider Licklider was a visionary computer scientist who first conceived of computers as devices for communication, not just as giant calculators. He was the first person to describe the idea of a world-wide network of computers, which he called an "Intergalactic Network". His published work foresaw just about all of the components of the modern Internet. Robert Taylor As young computer enthusiast, Robert Taylor was inspired by the work of J.C.R. Licklider. He eventually took over Licklider's job as the director of ARPA's office of information processing. Basically, the ARPANET was Robert's brainchild. It was his idea to link ARPA's computers together. He autholrized the funding to research andbuild the ARPANET. Larry Roberts When it was time to actually build the ARPANET, Robert Taylor wanted a young MIT computer scientist named Larry Roberts for the project. Roberts had experience in computer networking and served as the principle architect of the Internet. Vin Cert and Robert Kahn One of the major obstacles of the early Internet was the problem of linking different computer networks together. Each network "spoke" its own language. Cerf and Kahn solved this problem by developing the transmission control-protocol, a protocol of all computers could use to communicate. This became the standard for all Internet communication. Posted 9/30/09 www.amnh.org/exhibitions Butterflies & Moths some of the world's mostbeautiful insects are butterflies and moths. There are 150,000 known species of butterflies and moths. Butterflies and moths belong to the insect order Lepidoptera. These winged creatures, and the caterpillars they start out as, come a variety of colors and sizes. The Atlas moth is as big as a dinner plate, while the Western pygmy blue butterfly is not much wider than your thumb. What's the difference ? There is a fine line between what can be called a butterfly and what can be called a moth. But in general, these are helpful clues: Butterflies fly durig the day, but moths fly at night. Butterflies have knobs, or clubs, on the ends of their antennae, while moths do not. Butterflies have smooth, slender bodies; moths are plump and fuzzy. Butterflies rest with their wings held together, straight up in the air, while moths spred them apart and to the sides. Butterflies are often brightly colored; moth are often shades of brown and other "earth tones". The English word "butterfly" is very old, and its origin is now known for certain. One story is that butterflies were named after crafty witches who were believed to take their shape, fly into villagers' homes and steal milk and butter. In other languages, the name for this insect has nothing to do with butter. As with many creatures, colors give butterflies camouflage. Camouflage is the ability to blend into the surroundings. Certain color patterns on their wings help butterflies and moths blend into the background of flowers and plants, so predators cannot see them. Their colors also serve a purpose for mating. When butterflies are courting, colors help males and females of the same species find each other. A blue butterfly will look for another blue butterfly, orange will look for orange, etc. Color is also helpful for protection. Certain brightly colored butterflies, like monarchs, tast bad to birds and other predators. Bright wings are like a big sign that says "I tasted bad, stay away". Other butterflies and moths that might taste perfectly fine to birds have colors that mimic, or look like, the bad tasting species. As a result, predators stay away from them, too. Posted 10/08/08 Hurricanes wreak havoc ! A hurricane has three parts: Eye - the low pressure calm center of the storm; Eye Wall - the area around the eye with the most violent winds and Rain Bands - thunderstorms circulating from the ye that feed the condensation and evaporation cycle that powers the storm. The word hurricane is similar to words used by other cultures to describe these violent and deadly storms. Hurakan is the name of a Mayan god that blew his breath over the water. Hurricanis the name of an ancient evil Caribbean god. With as many as 100 tropical storm forming during hurricane season, naming them is necessary to keep track of them. Both male and female names are used. If a storm has killed many people, or cost a lot of money in damages, its name is retired and not used again. Deadly storm names Agnes, Hazel, Andrew, Camille Gloria and Katrina are retired. Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster in the American history, causing more than $ 81 billion in damages. Autumn or Fall Season - Just how do the leaves change color? Chemical changes are taking place in the leaves throughout the spring and summer. During these seasons, leaves act as factories that manufacture food for the trees. The leaves get their green color from chlorophyll. They also contain yellow or orange carotenoids - which, by the way, are also responsible for the carrots' orange color. All of these colors exist in the leaf. But during the spring and summer, since the leaf is in full food - production mode, the chlorophyll is dominant. As fall sets in, the dwindling daylight and cooler temperatures cause the chlorophyll to break down. It's here that the other colors appear, making fall the most colordul time of the year. The brightest leaf colors will appear when the days are sunny and somewhat warm, with cool nights below 45 degrees. Sugar is made in the leaves during the day and trapped there at night. The caputred sugar helps form the red pigment called anthocyanin. A warm, dry summer and early rain in autumn will stop the leaves from falling too fast, giving their colors a chance to show. The leaves finally fall when a special layer of cells develops and destroys the tissue that attaches them to the tree. The place where the leaf grewis marked by a scat. The dead fallen leaves create a blanket on the forest floor and contain large amounts of calcium and potassium that were used to nourish the tree that they came from. As they decompose, they give these minerals back to the earth. Posted 4/1/08 The establishment of the National Disaster Coordinating Council is embodied in Sec. 2 of PD 1566. The Secretary of National Defense heads the NDCC with the heads of 18 departments/ agencies as members. These include the Chief of Staff, Armed Forces of the Philippines; Secretary-General, Philippine National Red Cross; Philippine Information Agency; Executive Secretary and the Administrator, Office of Civil Defense who is the Executive Officer of the Council. It is through the NDCC member-agencies that disaster preparedness, prevention, mitigation and response carry out its corresponding tasks and responsibilities under the NDCC system. The NDCC, unlike other department coordinating bodies, does not have its own regular budget to disburse. It operates through the member-agencies and its local networks, which are the regional and local disaster coordinating councils. NDCC Functions At the national level, the NDCC serves as the President’s adviser on disaster preparedness programs, disaster operations and rehabilitation efforts undertaken by the government and the private sector. It acts as the top coordinator of all disaster management and the highest allocator of resources in the country to support the efforts of the lower DCC level. In the discharge of its functions, the NDCC utilizes the facilities and services of the Office of Civil Defense as its operating arm.
NDCC Functions - At the national level, the NDCC serves as the President’s adviser on disaster preparedness programs, disaster operations and rehabilitation efforts undertaken by the government and the private sector. It acts as the top coordinator of all disaster management and the highest allocator of resources in the country to support the efforts of the lower DCC level. In the discharge of its functions, the NDCC utilizes the facilities and services of the Office of Civil Defense as its operating arm.
The New Year's Eve Ball was a geodesic sphere, six feet in diameter, and weighed approximately 1,070 pounds. It was covered with a total of 504 Waterford crystal triangles that varied in size and ranged in length from 4.75 inches to 5.75 inches per side. For the 2007 New Year's Eve celebration, 72 of the crystal triangles featured the new "Hope for Peace" design, consisting of three dove-like patterns symbolizing messengers of peace. The remaining 432 triangles featured Waterford designs from previous years, including the Hope for Fellowship, Hope for Wisdom, Hope for Unity, Hope for Courage, Hope for Healing, Hope for Abundance, and Star of Hope triangles. These crystal triangles were bolted to 168 translucent triangular lexan panels which were attached to the aluminum frame of the Ball. The exterior of the Ball was illuminated by 168 Philips Halogená Brilliant Crystal light bulbs, exclusively engineered for the New Year's Eve Ball to enhance the Waterford crystal. The interior of the Ball was illuminated by 432 Philips Light Bulbs (208 clear, 56 red, 56 blue, 56 green, and 56 yellow), and 96 high-intensity strobe lights, which together create bright bubbling bursts of color. The exterior of the Ball featured 90 rotating pyramid mirrors that reflect light back into the audience at Times Square. All 696 lights and 90 rotating pyramid mirrors were computer controlled, enabling the Ball to produce a state-of-the-art light show of eye-dazzling color patterns and a spectacular kaleidoscope effect atop One Times Square. The now-retired 2000-2007 New Year's Eve Ball is the property of the building owners of One Times Square. Posted 10/ 19/07 |
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Posted 10/08/08
Hurricanes wreak havoc ! A hurricane has three parts: Eye - the low pressure calm center of the storm; Eye Wall - the area around the eye with the most violent winds and Rain Bands - thunderstorms circulating from the ye that feed the condensation and evaporation cycle that powers the storm. The word hurricane is similar to words used by other cultures to describe these violent and deadly storms. Hurakan is the name of a Mayan god that blew his breath over the water. Hurricanis the name of an ancient evil Caribbean god. With as many as 100 tropical storm forming during hurricane season, naming them is necessary to keep track of them. Both male and female names are used. If a storm has killed many people, or cost a lot of money in damages, its name is retired and not used again. Deadly storm names Agnes, Hazel, Andrew, Camille Gloria and Katrina are retired. Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster in the American history, causing more than $ 81 billion in damages. Autumn or Fall Season - Just how do the leaves change color? Chemical changes are taking place in the leaves throughout the spring and summer. During these seasons, leaves act as factories that manufacture food for the trees. The leaves get their green color from chlorophyll. They also contain yellow or orange carotenoids - which, by the way, are also responsible for the carrots' orange color. All of these colors exist in the leaf. But during the spring and summer, since the leaf is in full food - production mode, the chlorophyll is dominant. As fall sets in, the dwindling daylight and cooler temperatures cause the chlorophyll to break down. It's here that the other colors appear, making fall the most colordul time of the year. The brightest leaf colors will appear when the days are sunny and somewhat warm, with cool nights below 45 degrees. Sugar is made in the leaves during the day and trapped there at night. The caputred sugar helps form the red pigment called anthocyanin. A warm, dry summer and early rain in autumn will stop the leaves from falling too fast, giving their colors a chance to show. The leaves finally fall when a special layer of cells develops and destroys the tissue that attaches them to the tree. The place where the leaf grewis marked by a scat. The dead fallen leaves create a blanket on the forest floor and contain large amounts of calcium and potassium that were used to nourish the tree that they came from. As they decompose, they give these minerals back to the earth. |
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The establishment of the National Disaster Coordinating Council is embodied in Sec. 2 of PD 1566. The Secretary of National Defense heads the NDCC with the heads of 18 departments/ agencies as members. These include the Chief of Staff, Armed Forces of the Philippines; Secretary-General, Philippine National Red Cross; Philippine Information Agency; Executive Secretary and the Administrator, Office of Civil Defense who is the Executive Officer of the Council. It is through the NDCC member-agencies that disaster preparedness, prevention, mitigation and response carry out its corresponding tasks and responsibilities under the NDCC system. The NDCC, unlike other department coordinating bodies, does not have its own regular budget to disburse. It operates through the member-agencies and its local networks, which are the regional and local disaster coordinating councils. |
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Tubbataha Reefs in Palawan - Formed from the eruption of undersea volcanoes nearly 15 million years ago, Tubbataha or "long reef" in the Samal tongue plays host to 479 kinds of fish that frolic amongst 396 types of soft and hard coral. Other denizens include seven breeding seabird, nine marine mammal, seven shark and two turtle species.
The north and south reefs has each a single small islet that protrudes from the sea, separated by a channel eigth kilometers wide. The north islet also serves as a nesting site for both marine turtles and seabirds, including terns, red-footed and brown boobies and frigate avaians. The Tubbataha Reefs form the apex of the coral triangle, the world's centre of marine biodiversity. In 1998, fishing, collection and harvesting of any life form was banned throughout its 33,2000 span. However, piracy and an dillegal fishing pervades. To minimize any external intrusions, a composite team from the Philippine Coast Guard maintains a ranger station on a single sand bar. |
