text:
Popular Science Monthly/Volume 79/October 1911/Genetics
< Popular Science Monthly | Volume 79 | October 1911
←The Progress of Science
Popular Science Monthly Volume 79 October 1911 (1911)
Genetics by William Bateson
Civilization and Vegetation→
1538814Popular Science Monthly Volume 79 October 1911 — Genetics1911
GENETICS[1]
By W. BATESON, M.A., F.R.S.
THE invitation to preside over the agricultural sub-section on this occasion naturally gave me great pleasure, but after accepting it I have felt embarrassment in a considerable degree. The motto of the great society which has been responsible for so much progress in agricultural affairs in this country very clearly expresses the subject of our deliberations in the words "Practise with Science" and to be competent to address you, a man should be well conversant with both. But even if agriculture is allowed to include horticulture, as may perhaps be generally conceded, I am sadly conscious that my special qualifications are much weaker than you have a right to demand of a president.
The aspects of agriculture from which it offers hopeful lines for scientific attack are, in the main, three: Physiological, pathological and genetic. All are closely interrelated, and for successful dealing with the problems of any one of these departments of research, knowledge of the results attained in the others is now almost indispensable. I myself can claim personal acquaintance with the third or genetic group alone, and therefore in considering how science is to be applied to the practical operations of agriculture, I must necessarily choose it as the more special subject of this address. I know very well that wider experience of those other branches of agricultural science or practical agriculture would give to my remarks a weight to which they can not now pretend.
Before, however, proceeding to these topics of special consideration, I have thought it not unfitting to say something of a more general nature as to the scope of an applied science, such as that to which we here are devoted. We are witnessing a very remarkable outburst of activity in the promotion of science in its application to agriculture. Public bodies distributed throughout this country and our possessions are organizing various enterprises with that object. Agricultural research is now everywhere admitted a proper subject for university support and direction.
With the institution of the development grant a national subsidy is provided on a considerable scale in England for the first time.
At such a moment the scope of this applied science and the conditions under which it may most successfully be advanced are prominent matters of consideration in the minds of most of us. We hope great things from these new ventures. We are, however, by no means the first to embark upon them. Many of the other great nations have already made enormous efforts in the same direction. We have their experience for a guide.
Now, it is not in dispute that wherever agricultural science has been properly organized valuable results have been attained, some of very high importance indeed; yet with full appreciation of these achievements, it is possible to ask whether the whole outcome might not have been greater still. In the course of recent years I have come a good deal into contact with those who in various countries are taking part in such work, and I have been struck with the unanimity that they have shown in their comments on the conditions imposed upon them. Those who receive large numbers of agriculture bulletins purporting to give the results of practical trials and researches will, I feel sure, agree with me that with certain notable exceptions they form on the whole dull reading. True they are in many cases written for farmers and growers in special districts, rather than for the general scientific reader, but I have sometimes asked myself whether those farmers get much more out of this literature than I do. I doubt it greatly. Nevertheless, to the production of these things much labor and expense have been devoted. I am sure, and I believe that most of those engaged in these productions themselves feel, that the effort might have been much better applied elsewhere. Work of this unnecessary kind is done, of course, to satisfy a public opinion which is supposed to demand rapid returns for outlay, and to prefer immediate apparent results, however trivial, to the long delay which is the almost inevitable accompaniment of any serious production. For my own part, I greatly doubt whether in this estimate present public opinion has been rightly gauged. Enlightenment as to the objects, methods and conditions of scientific research is proceeding at a rapid rate. I am quite sure, for example, that no organization of agricultural research now to be inaugurated under the Development Commission will be subjected to the conditions laid down in 1887 when the experimental stations of the United States were established. From them it is decreed in Sec. 4 of the Act of Establishment:
That bulletins or reports of progress shall be published at said stations at least once in three months, one copy of which shall be sent to each newspaper in the states or territories in which they are respectively located, and to such individuals actually engaged in farming as may request the same and as far as the means of the station will permit.
It would be difficult to draft a condition more unfavorable to the primary purpose of the Act, which was "to conduct original researches or verify experiments on the physiology of plants and animals." I can scarcely suppose the most prolific discoverer should be invited to deliver himself more than once a year. Not only does such a rule compel premature publication—that nuisance of modern scientific life—but it puts the investigator into a wrong attitude towards his work. He will do best if he forget the public and the newspaper of his state or territory for long periods, and should only return to them when, after repeated verification, he is quite certain he has something to report.
In this I am sure the best scientific opinion of all countries would be agreed. If it is true that the public really demand continual scraps of results, and can not trust the investigators to pursue research in a reasonable way, then the public should be plainly given to understand that the time for inaugurating researches in the public's name has not arrived. Men of science have in some degree themselves to blame if the outer world has been in any mistake on these points. It can not be too widely known that in all sciences, whether pure or applied, research is nearly always a very slow process, uncertain in production, and full of disappointments. This is true, even in the new industries, chemical and electrical, for instance, where the whole industry has been built up from the beginning on a basis developed entirely by scientific method and by the accumulation of precise knowledge. Much more must any material advance be slow in the case of an ancient art like agriculture, where practise represents the casual experience of untold ages and accurate investigation is of yesterday. Problems moreover relating to unorganized matter are in their nature simpler than those concerned with the properties of living things, a region in which accurate knowledge is more difficult to attain. Here the research of the present day can aspire no higher than to lay the foundation on which the following generations will build. When this is realized it will at once be perceived that both those who are engaged in agricultural research and those who are charged with the supervision and control of these researches must be prepared to exercise a large measure of patience.
The applicable science must be created before it can be applied. It is with the discovery and development of such science that agricultural research will for long enough best occupy its energies. Sometimes, truly, there come moments when a series of obvious improvements in practise can at once be introduced, but this happens only when the penetrative genius of a Pasteur or a Mendel has worked out the way into a new region of knowledge, and returns with a treasure that all can use. Given the knowledge it will soon enough become applied.
I am not advocating work in the clouds. In all that is attempted we must stick near to the facts. Though the methods of research and of thought must be strict and academic, it is in the farm and the garden that they must be applied. If inspiration is to be found anywhere it will be there. The investigator will do well to work
As if his highest plot
To plant the bergamot.
It is only in the closest familiarity with phenomena that we can attain to that perception of their orderly relations, which is the beginning of discovery.
To the creation of applicable science the very highest gifts and training are well devoted. In a foreign country an eminent man of science was speaking to me of a common friend, and he said that as our friend's qualifications were not of the first rank he would have to join the agricultural side of the university. I have heard remarks of similar disparagement at home. Now, whether from the standpoint of agriculture or pure science, I can imagine no policy more stupid and shortsighted.
The man who devotes his life to applied science should be made to feel that he is in the main stream of scientific progress. If he is not, both his work and science at large will suffer. The opportunities of discovery are so few that we can not afford to miss any, and it is to the man of trained mind who is in contact with the phenomena of a great applied science that such opportunities are most often given. Through his hands pass precious material, the outcome sometimes of years of effort and design. To tell him that he must not pursue that inquiry further because he can not foresee a direct and immediate application of the knowledge he would acquire, is, I believe almost always, a course detrimental to the real interests of the applied science. I could name specific instances where in other countries thoroughly competent and zealous investigators have by the shortsightedness of superior officials been thus debarred from following to their conclusion researches of great value and novelty.
In this country where the Development Commission will presumably for many years be the main instigator and controller of agricultural research, the constitution of the advisory board, on which science is largely represented, forms a guarantee that broader counsels will prevail, and it is to be hoped that not merely this inception of the work, but its future administration also will be guided in the same spirit. So long as a train of inquiry continues to extend, and new knowledge, that most precious commodity, is coming in the enterprise will not be in vain and it will be usually worth while to pursue it.
The relative value of the different parts of knowledge in their application to industry is almost impossible to estimate, and a line of work should not be abandoned until it leads to a dead end, or is lost in a desert of detail.
We have, not only abroad, but also happily in this country, several private firms engaged in various industries—I may mention especially metallurgy, pharmacy and brewing—who have set an admirable example in this matter, instituting researches of a costly and elaborate nature, practically unlimited in scope, connected with the subjects of their several activities, conscious that it is only by men in close touch with the operations of the industry that the discoveries can be made, and well assured that they themselves will not go unrewarded.
Let us on our part beware of giving false hopes. We know no "of sovran use against all enchantments, mildew blast, or damp." Those who are wise among us do not even seek it yet. Why should we not take the farmer and gardener into our fullest confidence and tell them this? I read lately a newspaper interview with a fruit-farmer who was being questioned as to the success of his undertaking, and spoke of the pests and difficulties with which he had had to contend. He was asked whether the Board of Agriculture and the scientific authorities were not able to help him. He replied that they had done what they could, that they had recommended first one thing and then another, and he had formed the opinion that they were only in an experimental stage. He was perfectly right, and he would hardly have been wrong had he said that in these things science is only approaching the experimental stage. This should be notorious. There is nothing to extenuate. To affect otherwise would be unworthy of the dignity of science.
Those who have the means of informing the public mind on the state of agricultural science should make clear that though something can be done to help the practical man already, the chief realization of the hopes of that science is still very far away, and that it can only be reached by long and strenuous effort, expended in many various directions, most of which must seem to the uninitiated mere profitless wandering. So only will the confidence of the laity be permanently assured towards research.
Nowhere is the need for wide views of our problems more evident than in the study of plant-diseases. Hitherto this side of agriculture and of horticulture, though full of possibilities for the introduction of scientific method, has been examined only in the crudest and most empirical fashion. To name the disease, to burn the affected plants and to ply the crop with all the sprays and washes in succession ought not to be regarded as the utmost that science can attempt. There is at the present time hardly any comprehensive study of the morbid physiology of plants comparable with that which has been so greatly developed in application to animals. The nature of the resistance to disease characteristic of so many varieties, and the modes by which it may be ensured, offers a most attractive field for research, but it is one in which the advance must be made by the development of pure science, and those who engage in it must be prepared for a long period of labor without ostensible practical results. It has seemed to me that the most likely method of attack is here, as often, an indirect one. We should probably do best if we left the direct and special needs of agriculture for a time out of account, and enlisted the services of pathologists trained in the study of disease as it affects man and animals, a science already developed and far advanced towards success. Such a man, if he were to devote himself to the investigation of the same problems in the case of plants could, I am convinced, make discoveries which would not merely advance the theory of disease-resistance in general very greatly, but would much promote the invention of rational and successful treatment.
As regards the application of genetics to practise, the case is not very different. When I go to the Temple Show or to a great exhibition of live stock, my first feeling is one of admiration and deep humility. Where all is so splendidly done and results so imposing are already attained, is it not mere impertinence to suppose that any advice we are able to give is likely to be of value?
But as soon as one enters into conversation with breeders, one finds that almost all have before them some ideal to which they have not yet attained, operations to perform that they would fain do with greater ease and certainty, and that as a matter of fact, they are looking to scientific research as a possible source of the greater knowledge which they require. Can we, without presumption, declare that genetic science is now able to assist these inquirers? In certain selected cases it undoubtedly can—and I will say, moreover, that if the practical men and we students could combine our respective experiences into one head, these cases would already be numerous. On the other hand, it is equally clear that in a great range of examples practise is so far ahead that science can scarcely hope in finite time even to represent what has been done, still less to better the performance. We can not hope to improve the Southdown sheep for its own districts, to take a second off the trotting record, to increase the flavor of the muscat of Alexandria, or to excel the orange and pink of the rose Juliet. Nothing that we know could have made it easier to produce the Rambler roses, or even to evoke the latest novelties in sweet peas, though it may claimed that the genetic system of the sweet pea is, as things go, fairly well understood. To do any of these things would require a control of events so lawless and rare that for ages they must probably remain classed as accidents. On the other hand, the modes by which combinations can be made, and by which new forms can be fixed, are through Mendelian analysis and the recent developments of genetic science now reasonably clear, and with that knowledge much of the breeder's work is greatly simplified. This part of the subject is so well understood that I need scarcely do more than allude to it.
A simple and interesting example is furnished by the work which Mr. H. M. Leake is carrying out in the case of cotton in India. The cottons of fine quality grown in India are monopodial in habit, and are consequently late in flowering. In the United Provinces a comparatively early-flowering form is required, as otherwise there is not time for the fruits to ripen. The early varieties are sympodial in habit, and the primary apex does not become a flower. Hitherto no sympodial form with cotton of high quality has existed, but Mr. Leake has now made the combination needed, and has fixed a variety with high-class cotton and the sympodial habit, which is suitable for cultivation in the United Provinces. Until genetic physiology was developed by Mendelian analysis, it is safe to say that a practical achievement of this kind could not have been made with rapidity or certainty. The research was planned on broad lines. In the course of it much light was obtained on the genetics of cotton, and features of interest were discovered which considerably advance our knowledge of heredity in several important respects. This work forms an admirable illustration of that simultaneous progress both towards the solution of a complex physiological problem and also towards the successful attainment of an economic object which should be the constant aim of agricultural research.
Necessarily it follows that such assistance as genetics can at present give is applicable more to the case of plants and animals which can be treated as annuals than to creatures of slower generation. Yet this already is a large area of operations. One of the greatest advances to be claimed for the work is that it should induce raisers of seed crops especially to take more hopeful views of their absolute purification than have hitherto prevailed. It is at present accepted as part of the natural perversity of things that most high-class seed crops must throw "rogues," or that at the best the elimination of these waste plants can only be attained by great labor extended over a vast period of time. Conceivably that view is correct, but no one acquainted with modern genetic science can believe it without most cogent proof. Far more probably we should regard these rogues either as the product of a few definite individuals in the crop, or even as chance impurities brought in by accidental mixture. In either case they can presumably be got rid of. I may even go further and express a doubt whether that degeneration which is vaguely, supposed to be attendant on all seed crops is a physiological reality. Degeneration may perhaps affect plants like the potato which are continually multiplied asexually, though the fact has never been proved satisfactorily. Moreover it is not in question that races of plants taken into unsuitable climates do degenerate rapidly from uncertain causes, but that is quite another matter.
The first question is to determine whether a given rogue has in it any factor which is dominant to the corresponding character in the typical plants of the crop. If it has, then we may feel considerable confidence that these rogues have been introduced by accidental mixture. The only alternative, indeed, is cross-fertilization with some distinct variety possessing the dominant, or crossing within the limits of the typical plants themselves occurring in such a way that complementary factors have been brought together. This last is a comparatively infrequent phenomenon, and need not be considered till more probable hypotheses have been disposed of. If the rogues are first crosses the fact can be immediately proved by sowing their seeds, for segregation will then be evident. For example, a truly round seed is occasionally, though very rarely, found on varieties of pea which have wrinkled seeds. I have three times seen such seeds on my own plants. A few more were kindly given me by Mr. Arthur Sutton, and I have also received a few from M. Philippe de Vilmorin—to both of whom I am indebted for most helpful assistance and advice. Of these abnormal or unexpected seeds some died without germinating, but all which did germinate in due course produced the normal mixture of round and wrinkled, proving that a cross had occurred. Cross-fertilization in culinary peas is excessively rare, but it is certainly sometimes effected, doubtless by the leaf-cutter bee (Megachile) or a humble-bee visiting flowers in which for some reason the pollen has been inoperative. But in peas crossing is assuredly not the source of the ordinary rogues. These plants have a very peculiar conformation, being tall and straggling, with long internodes, small leaves and small flowers, which together give them a curious wild look. When one compares them with the typical cultivated plants which have a more luxuriant habit, it seems difficult to suppose that the rogue can really be recessive in such a type. True, we can not say definitely a priori that any one character is dominant to another, but old preconceptions are so strong that without actual evidence we always incline to think of the wilder and more primitive characteristics as dominants. Nevertheless, from such observations as I have been able to make I can not find any valid reason for doubting that the rogues are really recessives to the type. One feature in particular is quite inconsistent with the belief that these rogues are in any proper sense degenerative returns to a wild type, for in several examples the rogues have pointed pods like the cultivated sorts from which they have presumably been derived. All the more primitive kinds have the dominant stump-ended pod. If the rogues had the stump pods they would fall in the class of dominants, but they have no single quality which can be declared to be certainly dominant to the type, and I see no reason why they may not be actually recessives to it after all. Whether this is the true account or not we shall know for certain next year. Mr. Sutton has given me a quantity of material which we are now investigating at the John Innes Horticultural Institution, and by sowing the seed of a great number of individual plants separately I anticipate that we shall prove the rogue-throwers to be a class apart. The pure types then separately saved should, according to expectation, remain rogue-free, unless further sporting or fresh contamination occurs. If it prove that the long and attenuated rogues are really recessive to the shorter and more robust type, the case will be one of much physiological significance, but I believe a parallel already exists in the case of wheats, for among certain crosses bred by Professor Biffen, some curious spelt-like plants occurred among the derivatives from such robust wheats as Rivet and Red Fife.
There is another large and important class of cases to which similar considerations apply. I refer to the bolting or running to seed of crops grown as biennials, especially root crops. It has hitherto been universally supposed that the loss due to this cause, amounting in sugar beet as it frequently does to five, or even more, per cent., is not preventable. This may prove to be the truth, but I think it is not impossible that the bolters can be wholly, or almost wholly, eliminated by the application of proper breeding methods. In this particular example I know that season and conditions of cultivation count for a good deal in promoting or checking the tendency to run to seed, nevertheless one can scarcely witness the sharp distinction between the annual and biennial forms without suspecting that genetic composition is largely responsible. If it proves to be so, we shall have another remarkable illustration of the direct applicability of knowledge gained from a purely academic source. "Let not him that putteth his armor on boast him as he that putteth it off," and I am quite alive to the many obstacles which may lie between the conception of an idea and its realization. One thing, however, is certain, that we have now the power to formulate rightly the question which the breeder is to put to nature; and this power and the whole apparatus by which he can obtain an answer to his question—in whatever sense that answer may be given—has been derived from experiments designed with the immediate object of investigating that scholastic and seemingly barren problem, "What is a species?" If Mendel's eight years' work had been done in agricultural school supported by public money, I can imagine much shaking of heads on the county council governing that institution, and yet it is no longer in dispute that he provided the one bit of solid discovery upon which all breeding practise will henceforth be based.
Everywhere the same need for accurate knowledge is apparent. I suppose horse-breeding is an art which has by the application of common sense and great experience been carried to about as high a point of perfection as any. Yet even here I have seen a mistake made which is obvious to any one accustomed to analytical breeding. Among a number of stallions provided at great expense to improve the breed of horses in a certain district was one which was shown me as something of a curiosity. This particular animal had been bred by one of the provided stallions out of an indifferent country mare. It had been kept as an unusually good-looking colt, and was now traveling the country as a breeding stallion, under the highest auspices. I thought to myself that if such a practise is sanctioned by breeding acumen and common sense, science is not after all so very ambitious if she aspires to do rather better. The breeder has continually to remind himself that it is not what the animal or plant looks that matters, but what it is. Analysis has taught us to realize, first, that each animal and plant is a double structure, and next that the appearance may show only half its composition.
With respect to the inheritance of many physiological qualities of divers kinds we have made at least a beginning of knowledge, but there is one class of phenomena as yet almost untouched. This is the miscellaneous group of attributes which are usually measured in terms of size, fertility, yield and the like. This group of characters has more than common significance to the practical man. Analysis of them can nevertheless only become possible when pure science has progressed far beyond the point yet reached.
I know few lines of pure research more attractive and at the same time more likely to lead to economic results than an investigation of the nature of variation in size of the whole organism or of its parts. By what factors is it caused? By what steps does it proceed? By what limitations is it beset? In illustration of the application of these questions I may refer to a variety of topics that have been lately brought to my notice. In the case of merino sheep I have been asked by an Australian breeder whether it is possible to combine the optimum length of wool with the optimum fineness and the right degree of crimping. I have to reply that absolutely nothing is yet known for certain as to the physiological factors determining the length or the fineness of wool. The crimping of the fibers is an expression of the fact that each particular hair is curved, and if free and untwisted would form a corkscrew spiral, but as to the genetics of curly hair even in man very little is yet known. But leaving the question of curl on one side, we have in regard to the length and fineness of wool, a problem which genetic experiment ought to be able to solve. Note that in it, as in almost all problems of the "yield" of any product of farm or garden, two distinct elements are concerned—the one is size, and the other is number. The length of the hair is determined by the rate of excretion and length of the period of activity of the hair follicles, but the fineness is determined by the number of follicles in unit area. Now analogy is never a safe guide, but I think if we had before us the results of really critical experiments on the genetics of size and number of multiple organs in any animal or even any plant, we might not wholly be at a loss in dealing with this important problem.
A somewhat similar question comes from South Africa. Is it possible to combine the qualities of a strain of ostriches which has extra long plumes with those of another strain which has its plumes extra lustrous? I have not been able fully to satisfy myself upon what the luster depends, but I incline to think it is an expression of fineness of fiber, which again is probably a consequence of the smallness and increased number of the excreting cells, somewhat as the fineness of wool is a consequence of the increased number and smallness of the excreting follicles.
Again the question arises in regard to flax, how should a strain be bred which shall combine the maximum length with maximum fineness of fiber? The element of number comes in here, not merely with regard to the number of fibers in a stem, but also in two other considerations, first, that the plant should not tiller at the base, and, secondly, that the decussation of the flowering branches should be postponed to the highest possible level.
Now in this problem of the flax, and not impossibly in the others I have named, we have questions winch can in all likelihood be solved in a form which will be of general, if not of universal, application to a host of other cognate questions. By good luck the required type of flax may be struck at once, in which case it may be fixed by ordinary Mendelian analysis, but if the problem is investigated by accurate methods on a large scale, the results may show the way into some of those general problems of size and number which make a great part of the fundamental mystery of growth.
I see no reason why these things should remain inscrutable. There is indeed a little light already. We are well acquainted with a few examples in which the genetic behavior of these properties is fairly definite. We have examples in which, when two varieties differing in number of divisions are crossed, the lower number dominates—or, in other words, that the increased number is a consequence of the removal of a factor which prevents or inhibits particular divisions, so that th do not take place. It is likely that in so far as the increased productivity of a domesticated form as compared with its wild original depends on more frequent division, the increase is due to loss of inhibiting factors. How far may this reasoning be extended? Again we know that in several plants—peas, sweet peas, Antirrhinum and certain wheats—a tall variety differs in that respect from a dwarf in possessing one more factor. It would be an extraordinarily valuable addition to knowledge if we could ascertain exactly how this factor operates, how much of its action is due to linear repetition, and how much to actual extension of individual parts. The analysis of the plants of intermediate size has never been property attempted, but would be full of interest and have innumerable bearings on other cases in animals and plants, some of much economic importance.
That in all such examples the objective phenomena we see are primarily the consequence of the interaction of genetic factors is almost certain. The lay mind is at first disposed, as always, to attribute such distinctions to anything rather than to a specific cause which is invisible. An appeal to differences in conditions—which a moment's reflection shows to be either imaginary or altogether independent—or to those vague influences invoked under the name of selection, silently postponing any laborious analysis of the nature of the material selected, repels curiosity for a time, and is lifted as a veil before the actual phenomena; and so even critical intelligences may for an indefinite time be satisfied that there is no specific problem to be investigated, in the same facile way that, till a few years ago, we were all content with the belief that malarial fevers could be referred to any damp exhalations in the atmosphere, or that in suppuration the body was discharging its natural humors. In the economics of breeding, a thousand such phenomena are similarly waiting for analysis and reference to their specific causes. What, for instance, is self-sterility? The phenomenon is very widely spread among plants, and is far commoner than most people suppose who have not specially looked for it. Why is it that the pollen of an individual in these plants fails to fertilize the ova of the same individual? Asexual multiplication seems in no way to affect the case. The American experimenters are doubtless right in attributing the failure of large plantations of a single variety of apples or of pears in a high degree to this cause. Sometimes, as Mr. W. O. Backhouse has found in his work on plums at the John Innes Horticultural Institution, the behavior of the varieties is most definite and specific. He carefully self-fertilized a number of varieties, excluding casual pollination, and found that while some sorts, for example, Victoria, Czar and Early Transparent set practically every fruit self-pollinated, others including several (perhaps all) Greengages, Early Orleans and Sultan do not set a single fruit without pollination from some other variety. Dr. Erwin Baur has found indications that self-sterility in Antirrhinum may be a Mendelian recessive, but whether this important suggestion be confirmed or not, the subject is worth the most minute study in all its bearings. The treatment of this problem well illustrates the proper scope of an applied science. The economic value of an exact determination of the empirical facts is obvious, but it should be the ambition of any one engaging in such a research to penetrate further. If we can grasp the rationale of self-sterility we open a new chapter in the study of life. It may contain the solution of the question, What is an individual?—no mere metaphysical conundrum, but a physiological problem of fundamental significance.
What, again, is the meaning of that wonderful increase in size or in "yield" which so often follows on a first cross? We are no longer content, as Victorian teleology was, to call it a "beneficial" effect and pass on. The fact has long been known and made use of in breeding stock for the meat market, and of late years the practise has also been introduced in raising table poultry. Mr. G. N. Collins,[2] of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, has recently proposed with much reason that it might be applied in the case of maize. The cross is easy to make on a commercial scale, and the gain in yield is striking, the increase ranging as high as 95 per cent. These figures sound extravagant, but from what I have frequently seen in peas and sweet peas, I am prepared for even greater increase. But what is this increase? How much of it is due to change in number of parts, how much to transference of differentiation or homœosis, as I have called it—leaf-buds becoming flowerbuds, for instance—and how much to actual increase in size of parts? To answer these questions would be to make an addition to human knowledge of incalculably great significance.
Then we have the further question, How and why does the increase disappear in subsequent generations? The very uniformity of the cross-breds between pure strains must be taken as an indication that the phenomenon is orderly. Its subsidence is probably orderly also. Shull has advocated the most natural view that heterozygosis is the exciting cause, and that with the gradual return to the homozygous state the effects pass off. I quite think this may be a part of the explanation, but I feel difficulties, which need not here be detailed, in accepting this as a complete account. Some of the effect we may probably also attribute to the combination of complementary factors; but whether heterozygosis, or complementary action, is at work, our experience of cross-breeding in general makes it practically certain that genetic factors of special classes only can have these properties, and no pains should be spared in identifying them. It is not impossible that such identification would throw light on the nature of cell division and of that meristic process by which the repeated organs of living things are constituted, and I have much confidence that in the course of the analysis discoveries will be made bearing directly both on the general theory of heredity and on the practical industry of breeding.
In the application of science to the arts of agriculture, chemistry, the foundation of sciences, very properly and inevitably came first, while breeding remained under the unchallenged control of simple common sense alone. The science of genetics is so young that when we speak of what it also can do we must still for the most part ask for a long credit; but I think that if there is full cooperation between the practical breeder and the scientific experimenter, we shall be able to redeem our bonds at no remotely distant date. In the mysterious properties of the living bodies of plants and animals there is an engine capable of wonders scarcely yet suspected, waiting only for the constructive government of the human mind. Even in the seemingly rigorous tests and trials which have been applied to living material apparently homogeneous, it is not doubtful that error has often come in by reason of the individual genetic heterogeneity of the plants and animals chosen. A batch of fruit trees may be all of the same variety, but the stocks on which the variety was grafted have hitherto been almost always seminally distinct individuals, each with its own powers of luxuriance or restriction, their own root-systems and properties so diverse that only in experiments on a colossal scale can this diversity be supposed to be levelled down. Even in a closely bred strain of cattle, though all may agree in their "points," there may still be great genetic diversity in powers of assimilation and rapidity of attaining maturity, by which irregularities by no means negligible are introduced. The range of powers which organic variation and genetic composition can confer is so vast as to override great dissimilarities in the conditions of cultivation. This truth is familiar to every raiser and grower who knows it in the form that the first necessity is for him to get the right breed and the right variety for his work. If he has a wheat of poor yield, no amount of attention to cultivation or manuring will give a good crop. An animal that is a bad doer will remain so in the finest pasture. All praise and gratitude to the student of the conditions of life, for he can do, and has done, much for agriculture, but the breeder can do even more.
When more than fifteen years ago the proposal to found a school of agriculture in Cambridge was being debated, much was said of the importance of the chemistry of soils, of researches into the physiological value of food-stuffs, and of other matters then already prominent on the scientific horizon. I remember then interpolating with an appeal for some study of the physiology of breeding, which I urged should find a place in the curriculum, and I pointed out that the improvement in the strains of plants and animals had done at least as much—more, I really meant—to advance agriculture than had been accomplished by other means. My advice found little favor, and I was taken to task, afterwards, by a prominent advocate of the new school for raising a side issue. Breeding was a purely empirical affair. Common sense and selection comprised the whole business, and physiology flew at higher game. I am, nevertheless, happy now to reflect that of the work which is making the Cambridge School of Agriculture a force for progress in the agricultural world the remarkable researches and results of my late colleague, Professor Biffen, based as they have been on modern discoveries in the pure sciences of breeding, occupy a high and greatly honored place.
In conclusion I would sound once more the note with which I began. If we are to progress fast there must be no separation made between pure and applied science. The practical man with his wide knowledge of specific natural facts, and the scientific student ever seeking to find the hard general truths which the diversity of nature hides—truths out of which any lasting structure of progress must be built—have everything to gain from free interchange of experience and ideas. To ensure this community of purpose those who are engaged in scientific work should continually strive to make their aims and methods known at large, neither exaggerating their confidence nor concealing their misgivings,
Till the world is wrought
To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not.
↑ Address to the Agricultural Sub-section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
↑ Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin No. 191, 1910.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_79/October_1911/Genetics&oldid=8841547"


text:
Breast Cancer Survivor & Comedian Wanda Sykes 'Suffered' Through a Spoonful of Black-Eyed Peas In Hopes It Will Bring Luck in 2021
Reid Champlin
Sykes's Superstition for a Better 2021
Comedian and breast cancer survivor Wanda Sykes, 56, is reviving an old family tradition for good luck in the new year.
10% of all breast cancer cases are hereditary – it's key to know your family history with the disease!
Genetic testing can be a valuable way to assess your risk.
Comedian and breast cancer survivor Wanda Sykes is taking a hilarious step to make sure this year is better than 2020, reviving an old family tradition in hopes it'll bring good fortunes.
Related: Wanda Sykes, Breast Cancer Survivor, On Marriage Under Quarantine: "We Said in Sickness And Health, But Nobody Said 24/7!"
In an Instagram video posted just after New Year's, Sykes, 56, is seen resurrecting her childhood tradition of making black-eyed peas for good luck in 2021.
"When I was a little kid, my mom, grandma, everyone always tried to get to eat a spoonful of black-eyed peas on New Year's. I hated them. I said, when I get older, I said I was never going to eat them again, and I haven't. But after going through 2020, not only am I going to eat some, I actually made a pot."
A post shared by WS (@iamwandasykes)
Sykes has always been a hilarious presence across dozens of television programs and comedy specials, but she's dealt with serious issues too: in 2011, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy.
But cancer never slowed her down, and now, she's looking forward to a hopefully brighter future.
"Here's to a blessed 2021. Blessings upon blessings upon blessings. Good health, lot of love, and all that."
Family History & Breast Cancer
Wanda previously told People, "I have a history of breast cancer in my family, so I was going to do whatever it took to reduce my chances of getting an invasive cancer. "
Women like Wanda with a family history of breast cancer are more likely to contract the disease themselves: as many as 10% of breast cancers are hereditary. Certain gene mutations, like BRCA1 or BRCA2, can be inherited and increase your likelihood of developing breast cancer.
Related: Do You Know Your Risk Factors for Breast Cancer, asks Brave Advocate Shannon Doherty: Age & Family History Matter
Knowing your family history with breast cancer is crucial to developing a plan to detect and treat the disease should it develop.
Risk Factors for Breast Cancer
To know whether your genes put you at an increased risk of breast cancer, experts recommend women go through genetic testing to detect mutations like BRCA1 or BRCA1. While genetic screening might not help people without a family history of breast cancer, it can be lifesaving for those with a history to see if they are at higher risk.
"The real question of who is going to qualify for genetic testing is, to be honest, a moving target," Dr. Ophira Ginsburg, Director of NYU Langone's High-Risk Cancer Program, told SurvivorNet in a previous interview. "Nowadays, you can even self-refer and ask for testing. We encourage only those who have a family history to really get that kind of service if you need it."
Understanding your unique genes could help you and your doctor understand your risk for breast cancer and help inform the best screening and treatment plan for you.
Should I Get Genetic Testing to Assess My Risk for Breast Cancer?
Multiple Myeloma: How to Tell if Induction Therapy Is Working
What Are the Various Treatment Options for Multiple Myeloma Induction Therapy?
After a Devastating Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Diagnosis, 26-Year-Old is Planning Her Wedding & Vowing to Make the Most of Life
First Lady and Breast Cancer Fighter Casey DeSantis Pushes for Change
Mom Battles Breast Cancer Three Times Despite Double Mastectomy
Remembering 'Young Frankenstein' Star Madeline Kahn Who Died from Ovarian Cancer at Age 57
Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis, 41, Who is Fighting Breast Cancer, Says She Always Thought 'It'll Never Happen To Me,' Urges Early Screenings

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Ad BlockingIndustry News & Views
Understanding the Power of Persuasion in Contextual Advertising
By Gary PortneyOctober 29, 2019 No Comments
ELM Central vs Peripheral Processing Routes.
In today's fraught world of digital advertising, some of the key original tenets and scientific thinking that built the industry have been lost in the ether. The scourge of programmatic advertising platforms, poor quality content and a blatant disregard of the consumer needs and experiences has had a damning effect. Take the major backlash from an estimated 1.7 billion frustrated consumers now using ad blockers. We firmly believe that for advertisers to be successful, they must make a return to high-quality contextual ads that require little engagement from the consumers.
It all started with Petty & Cacioppo when in the early 80's they published their Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion (ELM) which identified two routes to effective advertising to different consumers known as the central and peripheral routes. It was one giant leap for advertising and marketing. Once this science was unleashed to the industry, it stood as a primary foundation for brand and advertising development. As the original authors concluded, ''The ELM provides a fairly comprehensive framework for organizing, categorizing, and understanding the basic process underlying the effectiveness of persuasive communications.''
Central Processing Route
The central route relies on thoughtful consideration of a message including ideas, content and hard facts. The consumers are motivated by their degree of interest in the subject. These were classified as 'high involvement' readers who carefully think about issue relevant information and weigh the arguments and content to their own standards; the cognitive crowd.
Peripheral Processing Route
Other viewers of advertising are influenced by peripheral cues that tap emotional or sensory source perceptions. Content presentation appeals to them without their need to process a lot of information on the brand or product. Well known endorsers, happy polar bears, romantic images or "the real thing" carry the appeal, or persuasiveness, of the ad to 'low involvement' viewers. Only the appeal of a peripheral cue was enough to form a consumer's connection with the ad, product or brand.
Peripheral vs Central Route for Advertising
At the time, the original research posited that the central route had greater influence, was longer lasting and more resistant to change. Involvement and desire was key to this route. The peripheral route took less effort by the viewer as it relied on visual, emotional and similar cues, not details, to trigger an affinity toward the ad, brand or product. While this took less or even passive involvement, it was historically thought to be a lesser anchor between the consumer and brand or ad.
One critical factor that later came to the fore was the importance of demographics as advertisers realized they needed to accurately target content to the right consumers and choices had to be made as to which "persuasive route" to take. For example would somebody looking to buy a car require a central or peripheral route approach? And what about someone looking to buy apparel?
In 2002, Wendy Winn and Kati Beck quoted a respondent in a research investigation of effective web pages. "I do like the little pictures. I'm doing most of my shopping by looking at the tiny little pictures, not actually reading the descriptions. And I think I'm making decisions just looking at each for less than a second. But I find it much more convenient that way."
As we look at the current state of digital advertising, other variables have come into play that were not present in previous decades. Brands abound, and information about them can be found on potentially thousands of web sites with incredible frequency. Social channels and blogging hold so much information and opinion on everything that contradictions clearly must be present on some level. And this should be problematic for advertisers as unbiased consideration by consumers is not a guaranteed outcome. Furthermore, thanks to programmatic advertising brands can find themselves paying for ad placements in places that would horrify them like an automaker finding their ads on neo-Nazi site.
The net result is that advertisers are paying millions of dollars for ad placements that are either completely missing their target audiences or are not being seen at all due to the sheer scale of ad blocking. When money is the only motivator for these platforms, the quality of advertising, targeting of advertising and brand exposure in totality leaves the purity of advertiser intent lying in the dust of the clutter.
With so much opinion and information and so little discretionary time available to consumers, it's time that advertisers take a breath, reflect on what has worked in the past, high-quality contextual ads that are designed to maximize the interest of their audiences. We believe in today's environment that peripheral or soft, emotional cues, are at least as effective as detailed messaging in swaying attitudes. At Adtoniq we have already seen the amazing impact doing right by consumers is having particularly in recovering the trust of ad block users who are now willing to see such ads. The power of persuasion is alive and kicking.
Previous PostThe Resurgence of Contextual Advertising as Consumers Opt for Privacy
Next PostThe Advertising Industry Had Its Chance. Consumers Are Taking Control Back by Force.
The Value of Permission in Digital Advertising
Gary PortneyDecember 18, 2019
Why Whitelisting Is Not The Answer For Ad Blocking
Gary PortneyDecember 3, 2019
The Resurgence of Contextual Advertising as Consumers Opt for Privacy
Pat WhelanNovember 19, 2019
© 2020 Adtoniq. Terms of Service Privacy Policy Privacy Philosophy


First of all, hello. It's been a while since my last blog post. Sure, I moved house, and had a lot to deal with in regards to that, but I've also been incredibly lazy recently. But now you know my excuse! In case you don't already know from Twitter, I've just announced that I'm three months pregnant. 😀 I've known since I was 4 weeks pregnant, but I had my first scan on Monday and it was fantastic, and all was well, so now I'm happy to let everyone know.
Morning sickness hasn't been too bad, I have only thrown up three times. Nausea has been quite frequent, but if I eat something then I'm OK. I've been really tired though, dragging myself out of bed and taking afternoon naps. Getting a bit better now though, although today has been pretty bad, yawning right now! No bump to speak of yet, just a bit wider and fatter at the moment. Hopefully it won't be long until I pop. I'm not just fat, I'm pregnant!!! For those with a pregnancy fetish, I've already been doing weekly videos and photos, but they are not yet uploaded. I plan to do a lot of videos when I get my belly, so keep an eye out in my store. I do not intend to flood my member site with pregnancy fetish specific videos, but you'll see some of them there too. Obviously I'll be pregnant no matter what but I mean a lot of the videos that are 100% about the pregnancy will just be in my store to be purchased for download.
Because of tiredness I haven't been keeping an exact schedule on cam, because sometimes I need to nap! I'm also taking a little break from Skype at the moment, although I am happy to come online for an existing select few who are hassle free and fun to play with! The Skype break is not pregnancy related, but I just need some time away from it.


Unfortunately sizes XL and XXL are currently out of stock. Please sign up for a Notify Me notification to be informed when it is back in stock.
Art by John Warner Studios with a helping hand from Liquid Blue. Features all of the Fare Thee Well dates on the back. Printed on a 100% cotton tee and available in SM-4XL.


Francis' encyclical on environment to be released June 18.
A CNS video: Catholicism and the challenge of ecology.
Head of Evangelical Environmental Network: Climate action is pro-life, a moral imperative.
Catholic school teachers in Archdiocese of San Francisco say revised handbook could reduce legal protection against discrimination "based on personal life issues."
Tracy K. Smith's Ordinary Light: A Memoir explores middle-class blackness in the post-civil rights era.
Fortunate Families, a Catholic group supporting parents of LGBT children, told it can't exhibit at World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.
Swift exit for controversial Archbishop Leonard, primate of Belgium. He turned 75 in May.
Phyllis Zagano: Imagining that women could image Christ.
Pope Francis picks up tab so homeless people can make pilgrimage to the Shroud of Turin.
Patient persistence of Holy Family Sisters in Western India transforms lives of children with physical and learning disabilities.
Is solar energy on the rise? A brief look at changing attitudes and practices.


text:
Got The Blues, The Mean Reds, Or The Evil Yellows?
Holly Golightly Battles "The Mean Reds" At Tiffany's
Truman Capote's Breakfast At Tiffany's should be required reading for psychiatrists. Nobody ever painted a more terse and pithy picture of clinical depression than Holly Golightly: "You know those days when you've got the mean reds... the blues are because you're getting fat or maybe it's been raining too long. You're sad, that's all. But the mean reds are horrible. You're afraid and you sweat like hell, but you don't know what you're afraid of. Except something bad is going to happen, only you don't know what it is." The National Library Of Medicine has created an exhibit that adds the third primary color to Capote's mental health palette. It's an investigation of what could be called "the evil yellows."
This exhibit, The Literature of Prescription, describes the birth of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1892 short story, The Yellow Wallpaper. This literary creation is the world's finest illustration of the old bromide: "the cure is worse than the disease." And the illness was bad enough: a crushing case of post-partum depression.
Charlotte Anna Perkins was born on July 3, 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut. She was a poor relation of the illustrious Beecher Family, including Uncle Tom's Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Soon after her birth, her father Frederick left the family. Charlotte, her mother Mary, and brother Thomas were forced to live on the handouts of various aunts and uncles, shuttling from relative to relative seeking charity. Her mother was an emotionally cold, sickly woman who forbade her children to make friends or read fiction. Predictably, the lonely Charlotte began stealing away to the public library, and reading voraciously. She also showed a natural talent for writing and drawing.
Writer And Reader Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
At 18, Charlotte enrolled at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. She was a talented commercial artist, and for a time made a living designing trade cards. Here she met her first husband, fellow artist Walter Stetson. They married in 1884, and had their only child, Katharine Beecher Stetson, a year later.
Almost immediately after the birth, Charlotte became despondent. She found no joy in motherhood, and felt it did not suit her. She wanted nothing more than to return to her work as an artist. This attitude was considered unwholesome, unladylike, and unacceptable. Walter Stetson wanted a wife, not a business partner. Charlotte's mental frailty became so acute she sought help from the nation's leading specialist in "nervous diseases," Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell.
Rest Cure Proponent Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell.
Dr. Mitchell specialized in treating women suffering from "nervous exhaustion." He believed that the cause of an epidemic of neurasthenia among upper class women was an overdose of education. Women who participated in intellectual activities were "exceeding their natural limits." The cure: an intense period of isolation, total bed rest, deliberate overfeeding of fatty foods like butter and cream, and a complete elimination of reading, writing, drawing, conversation, or any other mental activity.
Charlotte took the rest cure and got well fast. At least well enough to escape Dr. Mitchell's "care" in a month, with the following prescription: "Live as domestic a life as possible...And never touch pen, brush, or pencil as long as you live." The beaten-down patient tried to follow Weir's advice: "I went home and obeyed those directions for some three months, and came so near the borderline of utter mental ruin that I could see over. Then, using the remnants of intelligence that remained... I cast the noted specialist's advice to the winds and went to work again."
An 1892 Illustration From The Yellow Wallpaper.
That work became Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Gothic horror classic: The Yellow Wallpaper. It is the tale of young woman driven mad by the rest cure. The nameless narrator is confined to a locked room with barred windows. In her forced isolation she defies her doctor-husband by secretly writing in a diary. As weeks go by she becomes obsessed with the garish colors and serpentine patterns of the room's wallpaper. She begins to see shapes behind the paper, and eventually becomes convinced there is a woman entrapped beneath it. Hoping to free the imprisoned woman, the narrator begins tearing the paper from the wall. In the end she surrenders completely to her visions, and is last seen compulsively circling the room amidst a sea of tattered paper. Her husband is so shocked by her maniacal behavior that he faints dead away.
Despite having the backing of author and literary critic William Dean Howells, The Yellow Wallpaper was rejected outright by the editor of The Atlantic Monthly. Horace E. Scudder's rejection letter read, in its entirety, "Mr. Howells has handed me this story. I could not forgive myself if I made others as miserable as I have made myself." The story was ultimately published in the January 1892 issue of The New England Magazine. Public reaction was swift, and not positive. A letter to the editor called the story "perilous stuff," and the writer found it so morbidly fascinating and sensational that he wondered if such literature might better remain unpublished. Gilman replied that the story "was not intended to drive people crazy but to save people from being driven crazy."
The Shocking Finale Of The Story, As Illustrated In 1892.
After the story's publication, Charlotte Perkins Gilman divorced her first husband, and in a move shocking for the times, gave him custody of their daughter. She later married a cousin, George Houghton Gilman. The marriage was a happy one, and Charlotte spent the remainder of her life as a writer and crusader for women's rights. She penned both fiction and nonfiction books, as well as essays and poetry, and published her own monthly magazine, The Forerunner, from 1909 through 1916. Most of this work is forgotten today, but The Yellow Wallpaper was rediscovered by feminists in the 1970's, and is now a standard text in Women's Studies classes.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman ended her own life in 1935. Her suicide was NOT a result of depression. A firm believer in euthanasia, she chose to inhale chloroform when diagnosed with inoperable breast cancer. Thanks to her harrowing story, the "Three Color Literary Diagnostic Test for Depression" is complete: the blues are manageable, the mean reds borderline, but evil yellows? See your mental health professional, stat!
Posted by Nancy Mattoon
Posted by Nancy Mattoon at 6:31 PM
Labels: books, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Depression, Libraries, National Library Of Medicine, Yellow Wallpaper
I never read the story, but the 1989 Masterpiece Theater presentation was depressing.
Australian Library's Exhibit Is Unbearably Cute
Treasure Discovered at Rare Book Round-Up
At Yale University's Library Recycling Is The Law
Got The Blues, The Mean Reds, Or The Evil Yellows?...
Don Draper Eats A Naked Lunch
Kaplan Boxing Archive: From Contender To Champ
Collecting Nurse Jackie's Patron Saint: The Urtext...
Peake Archive Takes British Library To New Heights...
Yoko Ono Collects Rare Books: The Booktryst Interv...
Sacco & Vanzetti: Jazz Age Terrorists?
The World's Most Expensive Inexpensive Bible
Attendance Numbers For 2010 New York Antiquarian B...
Paper Your Walls With Books
Thomas Hardy Stays At Home Thanks To 104 Year Old ...
Bloom Returns to Rare Books at 2010 New York Antiq...
Will Anarchy Reign at Anarchist Book Fair?
Chicago Library Is Turning Japanese
Yale Exhibit Romances The Last Of The Gentleman Sc...
Charles Dickens' Model for the Modern Rehab Facili...
2010 New York Antiquarian Book Fair or Sunny?
200 Rabbit Holes Await At Canadian Library
Attack of the Beast People, aka The Social-Monster...
For Cornell Library "The Time Of The Singing Of Bi...
17th Century Scandal: 14 Yr Old Girl Falls for Ba...


text:
2,3-Diclor-5,6-diciano-1,4-benzochinona este un reactiv chimic pentru sinteză cu formula C8Cl2N2O2.

Referințe
 Merck România Accesat la 8 iunie 2012

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Coco Rocha sat down with People magazine to talk about motherhood while promoting her Co+Co Street Wear Collection Launch at RonRobinson in Santa Monica.
The supermodel says because her husband James Conran manages her that they often bring their 1-year-old daughter Ioni to work.
"It's not necessarily every day like that, but it's just the fact that I can do that — so I take that opportunity," explains Rocha.
Rocha understands that she is lucky to be able to spend so much time with her daughter.
When it comes to parenting, the Canadian-native says she and her husband have a flexible schedule.
"I think that the one thing people should do is just not have this repetition of a schedule," she says. "Let things happen. I mean schedule bath time and night-night time and feeding time, but when it comes to moving around and you're like, 'Oh, I can't leave the house it's almost bath time.' Let it loose a little and I think that that's worked for us," she explains.
Meanwhile, Rocha says she can't believe how fast her daughter is growing up.
"I hate when people say, 'Time flies.' But it's weird. Time flies," she admits. "Eleven months she was walking. Ten months she was crawling and now she's just starting to really [connect words] … It's crazy," she says.
Rocha and Conran married in 2010.
They welcomed their daughter last March.


"Today we learned that the U.S. economy is shrinking due to a fall in government spending. That should tell us that government austerity is not just wrong, it's bad economic policy.
"The Bureau of Economic Affairs' announcement that GDP fell by 0.1 percent reinforces our message that we need jobs, not cuts – especially to Social Security, Medicare and education.
"Teamsters around the country are participating in actions today to demand that big corporations and the richest 2 percent pay their fair share of taxes. I hope extremists in Congress pay attention to their message that Americans need jobs, not cuts.


text:
Astronomy, Science
A Wishlist for Solar System Exploration
March 27, 2014 Jay Dee	3 Comments
Space exploration has been quite exciting in recent years. Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, and Saturn currently have probes in orbit or on the surface. There are probes en route to Pluto, Ceres, Mars, and Jupiter. There are planned probes to Venus, Mars, the Moon, asteroids, and Jupiter's moons. There's a lot going on. However, I feel there could be more.
I have six missions in mind that I would like to see happen. These are currently not planned, but some have been discussed in recent years.
Venus Lander and Flyer
Venus currently has an orbiter, and has had several orbiters and landers in the past. It has been completely mapped by radar, and the atmosphere is currently being studied. Although there have been landings in the past by the Soviet space program, those landers succumbed to Venus' incredibly high temperatures and volatile atmosphere. I'd like to see a lander built to survive on the surface and provide us with several weeks of data. I'd also like to see a flyer that can observe both the atmosphere and the landscape. Maybe it can also see lightning.
Europa Lander
Galileo studied Europa, and there's currently a probe on its way to Jupiter to study the planet, as well as the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer planned to launch in 2022, but nothing planned to land on Europa. This is one of those places in our solar system that may have life. It has a liquid ocean under its icy crust, and that ocean is covering a silicate mantle. It's quite possible that it could be geologically active with hot smokers like in Earth's oceans, where microbial life may exist. But we have to be careful not to contaminate the world if we drill through the ice into the ocean.
Titan Lander
Saturn's largest moon has already been visited by a lander, the Huygens probe, but it only lasted a short time. Cassini has done a great job seeing through the clouds to study this remarkably Earth-like moon's hydrocarbon lakes in the polar regions. Titan needs a dedicated lander that can study the conditions for a much longer time. Perhaps a flyer would be useful, as well. I'd love to see some of Titan's landscapes.
Uranus Orbiter
Uranus has only been visited once, by Voyager 2. This is a fascinating planet that's sitting on its side. It has a ring system and plenty of very interesting moons, like Miranda, Titania, Ariel, Umbriel, and Oberon. This is a system that needs to be studied up close by a dedicated orbiter. We also need to understand more about the interior of the planet, as it's most likely very ice. It's called an ice giant, not a gas giant.
Neptune Orbiter
The other ice giant, Neptune, has also been visited by Voyager 2. This planet has a more dynamic-looking atmosphere, but most of the moons are quite small. However, it has a unique moon, Triton, that is likely to be a captured Kuiper Belt object. It's also geologically active. The most distant planet in the solar system needs an orbiter.
Eris Probe
The largest dwarf planet (larger than Pluto) should be explored in the future, as well. It's a lot farther away than Pluto, but it could be reachable by a probe within our lifetime, I hope. Pluto will be explored next year, but I'd love to see what Eris is like, too. What is a world so far away like? It would be amazing to see it.
These are the missions I would love to see in my lifetime. I'm anxious to know about these worlds. What would you like to see?
astronomyErisEuropaNeptunesciencespace explorationTitanUranusVenus
Updated About Page with Contact Information
March 27, 2014 Jay Dee	Leave a comment
I've just updated my About page with a contact form in case you'd like to email me. You can use my email address or just fill out the form.
I've also got some other updates in the works. I'll be making some individual pages for reading challenges. I'm also considering a change in the theme of this blog. It's been this way for two years, and I'm interested freshening it up.
Any comments? You know what to do.
aboutblogcontactupdates


text:
Hello Youngstown
Youngstown Photos
Youngstown Videos
Youngstown Ohio
There are so many wonderful things about Youngstown when it comes to sport, but there are far worse things to come. The list of football players is long, the list of baseball players is very short, and there is one sport we are proud of: baseball.
Warren is not exactly Youngstown, but it stands alone in that it is in a neighboring county. It is located on the Mahoning River, near the Pennsylvania border, and is a small town with a population of just over 1,000.
This piece of paradise makes walking, hiking and biking as part of the Ohio Lake and River Greenway even more enjoyable. If you're flying to Ohio, read our guide to staying healthy and avoiding getting sick on a plane. One of our healthy activities in Youngstown is to leave the car behind to go on foot / bike / skate.
You can sign up here to learn more about Ohio Lake and River Greenway and other healthy activities in Youngstown. Join the Great Lakes Health and Wellness Alliance's Healthy Streets campaign and sign up for our free e-mail newsletter to learn more.
The region has been part of the Western Reserve since John Young, a surveyor from New York, bought a piece of land there from the Connecticut Land Company and built the city himself. The Park District serves Mahoning County residents and welcomes visitors from all over the nation and the world. Mill Creek Park covers 2,530 acres and includes a variety of outdoor activities for children and adults, including hiking, biking, picnicking, canoeing, kayaking, fishing and enjoying views of Ohio Lake and the River Greenway and the Great Lakes. Rocky Ridge is home to a 70-year-old maple grove that had never been tapped until a few years ago.
In the 1820s, Youngstown's population began to grow due to industrialization and the opening of the Pennsylvania-Ohio Canal. In 1890, the city's population grew to 33,000, and in 1920, the population stood at 132,358, making it the country's fiftieth largest city. In the 1920s, it reached its highest population level in its history and secured itself as a viable subway area. By 1930, it had reached a population peak of more than 1,200,500 people, which is about 2.5 percent of the total population of Mahoning County. At the time, it was ranked 50th, according to the US Census Bureau's Bureau of Labor Statistics - a major city in the nation, measured in population, but by the 1930s it was up to 132,000.
Youngstown is also home to NFL receiver David Givens, who didn't play high school ball in the city. Kosar grew up as a former city treasurer and played at Warren-G. Harding High School, a public school in Youngstown, Ohio. It was the same school where Jets receiver Brad Smith attended Chaney High School before playing quarterback in Missouri. Warren G. Harding High School also produced two other NFL players, John Warfield Jr., who played for the Miami Dolphins and the Cleveland Browns, as well as a number of other players.
Since the railroad was built in the 1850s, Youngstown has grown and had more than 1.5 million inhabitants. The neighbors of Rocky Ridge helped build the "Rocky Ridge Sugar House" and organized to make it the largest sugar house in North America at the time.
Youngstown has evolved from a booming steel town to a city much smaller today than it was in its prime - days of glamour. Today, new industries are emerging in Youngstown and the city is experiencing an economic revival as new industry and businesses are attracted to the area. The city has experienced so much growth that it would have seemed impossible in just a few years.
Rental of trucks and pickup trucks is booming for local businesses, students and small businesses in Youngstown, OH. U-Haul is one of the largest U.S. truck rental companies in the country, and our rental cars are individually billed to save you money, time and energy when you move to Youngtown. OH to reserve a van for your moving needs or rent a truck for a short trip to your local store or college.
If you're visiting Youngstown, Ohio, check out our online schedule to see if there are any outdoor live concerts that interest you and your family. If you're looking for action, a visit to the Covelli Center is one of the most popular activities on your Youngtown tour. The outdoor amphitheater in Wean Park is an impressive addition to the list of fun activities in and around Youngstown Ohio. This asphalt trail stretches over ten kilometers in the Mahoning County landscape and offers a variety of landscapes that connect to nature.
Officially known as Mill Creek MetroParks, this city park is considered one of the most popular parks in Youngstown, Ohio, and a popular outdoor recreational destination.
www.HelloTallmadge.com
www.HelloNorthCanton.com
www.HelloCanton.com
www.HelloTwinsburg.com
www.HelloAkron.com
www.HelloSolon.com
© 2021 Hello Youngstown - All Rights Reserved.


text:
Eucordyloporus cervinus är en mångfotingart som beskrevs av Carl Graf Attems 1912. Eucordyloporus cervinus ingår i släktet Eucordyloporus och familjen Chelodesmidae. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Banddubbelfotingar
cervinus


text:
Local court Blumenthal
The Bremen wool combing works plc (BWK)
The Schönebecker Aue
Castle Blomendal
Jenny Ries Square
Rönnebeck Harbour
The Sattelhof
Bahrsplate
Submarine bunker Valentin
out in the open
Holiday homes/ private accommodations
Bunker C178
Blumenthal library e.V.
DOKU Blumenthal
NUNATAK
Exercise Garden in the Löh
The Blumenthal SV
Lüssum Sports club
old login
You are here: Home1 / The Bremen wool combing works plc (BWK)
THE BREMEN WOOL
COMBING WORKS (BWK)
-were a worldwide active company in the wool textile industry with its company seat in Bremen-Blumenthal.
It was for a long time the biggest company of its kind on a worldwide scale. They had branches near Istanbul (Turkey), in Australia and New Zealand.
The company activity comprised the processing of raw materials like sheep's wool and synthetic fibres as well as the trade with semi-finished products.
The company was founded in 1883 as a public limited company.
Capital givers were the consuls Albrecht, Weinlich and Delius as well as the merchants H. Claussen, J. Fritze, J. Hachez and C. Kulenkampff.
Among these founders, Ferdinand Ullrich was appointed commercial and Paul Zschörner technical director.
At Zschörner's suggestion, the site for the plant was chosen to be a 500,000 square meter area between the river Aue and the Weser in the district town of Blumenthal, which at the time belonged to the Prussian province of Hanover (since 1939 to Bremen).
The site had proven, thanks to its size, favourable transport links and good, sufficient water resources (company-owned deep wells), sustainable till the end of 2008.
In September 11th, 1884, the production started with 150 workers.
In 1896, there were already 2000 workers, among them many from Poland, Silesia, Eastern and Western Prussia, Saxony and the Rhineland.
In 1897, the connection to the railway network was made with the Farge-Vegesacker railway.
Until 1930, the number of employees increased up to 3700, therefore the BWK also built residential complexes.
It was supported by the then county commissioner Paul Berthold.
As the first industrial company in the rural location, the BWK changed the the structure of Blumenthal comprehensively.
In addition to population growth, housing construction, and railroad connections, the construction of schools, churches, and the district hospital, as well as street lighting and general electricity supply by 1904, are also attributable to the influence or support of the BWK.
Second World War & the development after
In the Second World War, the company employed a high number of forced labourers, in 1944 1198 people.
The houses in which they were housed still exist today, on the nearby Bahrsplate was a residential camp that has since been demolished.
In June 2000, former forced labourers visited the BWK.
The development after the Second World War:
The development of labour costs, rates of exchange and the liberalisation of imports threatened the competitiveness of the combing works in the early 1960s compared to the foreign competition.
Therefore, the company was restructured and developed into the biggest of its kind at one single site.
Its capacity sufficed to process the wool of 20.000 sheep a day.
As a result of the structural changes in the international trade with wool and wool products, since the 1980s the company has made the transition from the previously predominant product orientation to the now decisive market orientation.
The former contract combing works, a producer for third parties, became a supplier of tops made of wool, synthetic fibres and blends.
The company played an important part in the development of Blumenthal.
So, at the beginning of the 20th century, streets with residential houses were built to provide homes for the up to 5.000 workers.
After rationalisation measures because of the changed situation on the global markets, the falling demand for woollen textiles and technical progress, only 260 jobs remained to 2006, including branches.
In 2003, production in a combing plant in Istanbul, where production costs are lower, began.
Since March 20, 2007, company shares are not traded anymore at the stock exchange.
The previous major shareholder and investor took over the public limited company to 100%.
Thus, an important part of the Bremen stock exchange ended after 119 years.
In December 3rd, 2008, the prospective closing of the combing works was promulgated in Bremen.
The main reasons given were high production cost for the products, transport costs for sheeps' wool from New Zealand or
Australia and the sharp drop in demand for woollen tops during the financial crisis.
The processing of raw wool on the Bremen location was discontinued on February 27th, after 125 years.
After the end of the wool combing works
Two companies were spun off from BWK AG, which are based at the old location:
Bremer Wollhandelskontor GmbH (Bremen wool trading office Ltd)
BWK Chemiefaser GmbH (BWK synthetic fibres Ltd)
BREWA wte GmbH operates the Blumenthal substitute fuel cogeneration plant, an evaporation plant for wastewater and aqueous waste, a high-temperature incineration plant for liquid waste and a biological wastewater treatment plant on the site.
The municipality of Bremen has taken over big parts of the former BWK company premises to develop an industrial estate there.
Bremer Woll-Kämmerei AG
Landrat-Christians-Str. 95
© Copyright - vege.net GmbH
Diese Website benutzt Cookies. Wenn Sie die Website weiter nutzen, gehen wir von Ihrem Einverständnis aus.
OKzur Datenschutzerklärung


text:
Future of EU
Engine Breakdown or Power Shortage? How the Franco-German Engine Is No Longer Driving Europe
Edouard Gaudot
Jens Althoff
More by Edouard Gaudot
Is Bulgaria Stuck in a Cycle of Political Turmoil? Critical Understanding: The Changing Politics of Science Benedict Anderson: Reimagined, Re-engineered, and Restored Communities
Since the outset, the 'Franco-German engine' has been the driving force in the European construction process. In times of upheaval, Franco-German political cohesion and solidarity has guided the process of forging a common European spirit. When the French-German duo struggles, so too does the entire European family. But what was once an asset has become a liability. Solidarity between Paris and Berlin is absent, undermining the European Union's ability to face its accumulating crises. Imbalances in the Eurozone, threats to democracy, handling the influx of refugees – the future of Europe hinges in part on re-establishing veritable French-German solidarity.
The Franco-German engine is a special force in the European construction process. The symbolic figures of France's Marianne and Germany's Michel grew progressively close during the early days. They courted each other, building the common European house.
Perhaps it was calculated, but no matter, when François Mitterrand took Chancellor Kohl's hand during their September 22nd 1984 visit to the Douaumont ossuary in Verdun, the political emotion conjured by the image was a testament to just how much road had been travelled since the end of the war. They had moved beyond the past: the moral shock of the "Strange Defeat" of 1940; the shameful collaboration; the bitterness of being vanquished and having a master and occupier who had erstwhile been occupied. The failure in 1954 of the European Defence Community for fear of German rearmament was erased nine years later on January 22nd 1963 when de Gaulle and Adenauer signed the Elysée Treaty. Since then, French Presidents and German Chancellors have carried on the tradition of showing Europe and the world that it is possible to fight three wars in the span of a lifetime (1870-1940) – including two which caused destruction on a global scale – only to become the closest of partners.
Yet, reconciliation and cooperation are not founded solely on brotherly voluntarism: there is also the disequilibrium of the two former powers. The voluntary and imposed atrophy of German political power stood in stark contrast to the French Gaullist political grandeur. One struck the modest stance of a small country without any international ambition and without any outlook beyond its economic "miracle". Meanwhile, the other played up its position as a Great Nation with a future as glorious as its past, never mind the realities of decolonisation and the clear limits to its economic model.
This disequilibrium played out in a relatively small European Community: first, six countries, and then twelve, all of which were either smaller than Germany and France or in less of a position to make a play for leadership. Therefore, it was a natural progression for a Franco-German 'engine' to be built. France, defending without hesitation its own interests, and speaking for itself or Germany – carefully avoiding doing just that for historically evident reasons – made it preferable to speak on behalf of the European Economic Community (EEC); every agreement was tinged with general European interest. Through ups and downs, in a Europe learning to mature from its crises, the Franco-German couple's strength and political solidarity became one of the most important and reliable forces in the construction of a united Europe.
Marriage of convenience and lovers' quarrels
Marianne and Michel's is perhaps a marriage of convenience, yet it is a solid union, and the road travelled is a testament to that. The ties that bind on a daily basis are strong and even when the relationship is being tested the most, as presently, daily business runs smoothly between Paris, Berlin and Brussels, leading one to believe that all is well. The administrations know each other, work together, share mutual understanding and respect. Yet, despite these political appearances, the ever-present cooperation, the requests of one side or the other, the Franco-German couple is no longer a driving force of the Union. The relationship has become a bit stale and technocratic, it is hamstrung by rituals and stripped of its political content. It is running out of the steam and the passion needed to rise to the major challenges that threaten the very existence of the European Union: Brexit, the pressure of the influx of refugees, imbalances in the Eurozone and the increase in so-called 'illiberal democracies' within Europe. All of this is compounded by the broken down 'engine' of Europe.
Perhaps a bit of historical perspective is needed to fully comprehend the worrisome weakening of this relationship. The last big test of solidarity that the couple faced was in 1989-92. With the fall of the iron curtain in 1989 and German reunification on October 3rd 1990, the European Community's balance was thrown off. Europeans were surprised by events and had not fully contemplated the extent to which an end to the Cold War would mean a coming to terms with a history that is disquieting to the neighbours.[1]
The Franco-German couple's strength and political solidarity became one of the most important and reliable forces in the construction of a united Europe.
Indeed, it was the strength of the Franco-German couple that meant that 1990's Europe could find its way in the face of a newly re-unified Germany. Germany made a huge sacrifice in giving up its currency. Emblematic icon of the re-established power and symbol of the soft domination of Europe, the Deutsche Mark was pivotal in reunification, more so even than the Grundgesetz and the rule of law.
Chancellor Kohl imposed the new currency on a reluctant German people, concerned about the economic divergences with the countries of what was coming to be known as 'Club Med'. The scorn shown at that time foreshadowed the worst moments in the current debate. Giving up the Deutsche Mark was a magnanimous European act and the historic mark of the joint Franco-German leadership.
The irony of history would have it that the single currency did not put an end to the Deutsche Mark's dominance or German-dominated monetary policy. On the contrary, the Euro further boosted the economic success of Germany and further exacerbated the struggles of the rest of the Eurozone and the European Union, as described by Ulrich Beck in his book German Europe.[2]
The couple's decisive moment of weakening was precisely in its response to the 2008 financial crisis – and subsequent social and political crises – spurred by the collapse of the US banking system. Acting alone and without respect for her partners, specifically Nicolas Sarkozy's France, who never grasped nor accepted the importance of the couple[3], Angela Merkel's Germany abused its dominant position to impose on the EU a twofold catastrophic edict. First, that solutions to the debt crisis were to be national; and second, that said decisions be in strict compliance with the common rules set at the time of the establishment of the European Economic and Monetary Union. In other words: climb the tree of your choice to escape the flames, but too bad if you lack the agility of a monkey or the wings of a bird.
German pride and French prejudice
Rejecting a European solution (e.g. eurobonds to pool debt risk) to the problem, when the very nature of a European single currency transforms each national problem into a European one, violates the very spirit of the European community, as it casts doubt on whether all the Member States are indeed equal. The technocratic and dehumanised handling of the Greek facet of the crisis was further evidence of this diminished European spirit.
The fallout of this tragic decision can be seen around Europe, above and beyond the devastating breakup of the Franco-German relationship; one that feeds mutual incomprehension. In Germany, Merkel and Schäuble refuse to account for the rigidities of the French political model. How could a French president – the Republican monarch, directly elected by the people – possibly go begging for solidarity from Berlin? Especially when that solidarity no longer comes naturally. Nothing wrong with helping Paris save face.
In France, pressure from the extreme-right is mounting. The consequences of this disagreement are pervasively felt. A new version of a "Germany will pay" rhetoric is blowing a 1930's wind onto public opinion, not accustomed to self-criticism. Worse still, cultural and political defiance seems to be increasingly relevant. Left to its own devices, lost without any historical bearings, broken by economic competition which favours Germany, floundering in an EU which has expanded too much for its taste and which has made Berlin and Frankfort the new epicentres, the French political class no longer understands the Franco-German couple. Just like it no longer understands Europe.
This historical defiance is quite well illustrated by Jean-Luc Mélenchon's rants against Germany. Instead of the poised analytical tone of his excellent readings on Merkel's harmful policies (Ulrich Beck, Wolfgang Streeck[4] and Guillaume Duval[5]), the French leftist-sovereignist Bonaparte-wannabe has no qualms about turning to the most basic nationalist tendencies, using all of the most German-phobic culturalist clichés while celebrating the genius of the Grande Nation.[6]
From Marine Le Pen to Frauke Petry, on both sides of the Rhine, nationalist, extreme-right, anti-European movements are impeding the ability of governments to drop this pretence and to recognise that European solidarity is struggling – and also, more specifically, that Franco-German solidarity is struggling – and to find the answers needed.
The partners could have rallied to a common cause or challenge to European political integration, one that is not domestic and that they could share. Yet, even the threat of a Brexit did not seem to focus the minds of the Franco-German couple to move them out of their state of passive spectatorship, overcome by resigned stupor. Why is there no appeal, on behalf of the 27 Member States, to the British to stay in the EU and continue to contribute towards political union? Why are there no initiatives being taken to ensure that if the dis-United Kingdom leaves the EU, it does so alone? Why are there no new Lamers-Schäuble initiatives?[7]
How could a French president – the Republican monarch, directly elected by the people – possibly go begging for solidarity from Berlin?
European sense and Franco-German sensibility
Whether we like it or not, the United Kingdom is an essential building block of the European edifice. A departure would strengthen nationalist extreme-right movements making pleas for an end to the European Union. Marine le Pen, Viktor Orbán, Jarosław Kaczyński and the recent showing of the Freedom Party (FPÖ) in Austria are examples of this increasing demand for 'illiberal democracy' movements and regimes abound. This is a serious subject and an existential threat to the European Union. Meanwhile, the Franco-German couple looks on awkwardly and essentially passively. Rather than taking the pulse of the real European threat; rather than responding firmly; rather than a riposte to the increasing influence of Moscow; France and Germany prefer to maintain a domestic approach to the problem – as with the issue of debt, everyone has their own neo-fascist domestic approach.
The tragic absurdity of this passivity is that it results in the crises reinforcing each other. All of the crises are aggravated by the locking up of the Franco-German engine: refugees; the rise in populism; Brexit; the Euro. Disunited, Paris and Berlin are struggling to formulate a common security and foreign policy. Worse still, the couple's weakness on the inside is the European Union's weakness on the outside. Before it became a sordid game of haggling between a beleaguered EU and President Erdogan's authoritarian Turkey, the refugee deal was a cynical agreement hatched by the Franco-German couple. In exchange for its complete lack of solidarity with Germany on the refugee issue, Paris left Berlin to outsource the dirty work to Ankara. France – the so-called home of human rights – has obstinately failed to do its part in handling the burden of the refugee and migrant tragedy. It mirrors perfectly German deafness to the pleas for solidarity during the early phases of the Euro crisis.
Yet, when they want to, they know precisely how to rally the full clout of the European Union to weigh in on all of the partners who respond to a raw power struggle: from Riyadh to Moscow and Tehran to Ankara. The handling of the crisis in Ukraine and the Normandy format[8] are an illustration that it can be done; it really can. The conflict in East Ukraine was hurtling towards a civil war with a whole other source of refugees coming to Europe and all of the disastrous effects of the full destabilisation of a country bordering the European Union, and Merkel and Hollande were able to contain the crisis, bringing all of Europe together to impose sanctions on Putin's Russia.
The conflict is still far from over of course. Nonetheless, this is an excellent example of what the EU can do in the face of a crisis if the Franco-German couple puts the engine in the driving role and not the brake slowing things down. To make this possible, the spark of political passion must be lit again in an old couple that is worn down by the daily humdrum of administrative and technocratic management. It comes down to a question of the quality of the political staff, but also of their embodiment (that old idea of a Franco-German minister who would be a part of the governments of both countries), and most importantly, an invested civil society. Franco-German cooperation in the 1950s and 1960s was nourished by twinned towns, language courses, exchanges and a will to transcend the cultural and political borders. Today, more and more, the French and Germans tend not to speak to each other in their respective languages. They increasingly communicate in English.
Free movement of peoples and open borders are threatened and the historic couple exudes lethargy, misunderstanding, and irritation.
When the Franco-German couple is strong and shows solidarity, it has proven to carry Europe very far on the path to political integration. But today, it has become a deadweight for Europe. It will have to rekindle the faith and commitment it had in the early days – and strive to save Europe from the threat of disintegration.
[1] Samy Cohen (Ed.) Mitterrand et la sortie de la guerre froide, PUF, 1998. In France debates on the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht did not actually focus on Europe but on Germany. Either surround Germany with a tight solidarity net (vote 'yes') or fear Germany would dominate the new European structure (vote 'no').
[2] Ulrich Beck, Das deutsche Europa. Neue Machtlandschaftenim Zeichen der Krise, (Suhrkamp, 2012)
[3] Sylvie Goulard, Le Coq et la perle, 50 ans d'Europe (Le Seuil, 2007)
[4] Wolfgang Streeck, Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism (Verso Books, 2014)
[5] Guillaume Duval, Made in Germany : Le modèle allemand au-delà des mythes (Le Seuil, 2013)
[6] Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Le Hareng de Bismarck (Le poison allemand), (Plon, 2015)[7] The Lamers-Schaüble Report from 1994 proposed to the French a vision of Europe integrated around the French-German couple which was very consistent with the « engine » idea. It met the silence of the Balladu Government, the total inaction of François Mitterrand and the scepticism of the then Secretary General of the President, Hubert Védrine.
[8] Normandy format is a diplomatic group of senior representatives of four countries (Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France) to resolve the situation in the East of Ukraine.
From the paper edition
Tremors in Europe: Mapping the Faultlines
This edition of the Green European Journal sets out to identify and apprehend some of the forces of integration and disintegration at work in Europe today.
The Anxieties That (Dis)Unite: Terrorism and the Forces of Integration
Judith Sargentini, Michal Berg
EU Economics Meets Democracy
Cosmopolitan Peripheries
Marta Loja Neves
Saving the Eurozone: Is There a Green Way out of the Crisis? Finance and Economy
By Francisco Padilla Olivares
Today, the debate surrounding the Eurozone focuses essentially on two questions: whether it would be preferable or even unavoidable to break up the euro area, at least in its current form, and whether it would be possible to fulfill the necessary political and economic conditions for a more resilient, prosperous and integrated EMU.
Building European Sovereignty: A Condition for Effective Political Agency Future of EU
By Sophie Heine
In order to regain momentum, a vision of European integration infused with bold notions of European sovereignty should be put forward.
Cosmopolitan Peripheries Politics
By Marta Loja Neves
The imbalance and lack of solidarity between Member States is such that the project is running out of political energy, bringing adverse consequences for us all.


text:
Onderdistrict in Indonesië
 Sobang (onderdistrict van Lebak), een onderdistrict in het bestuurlijke gebied Lebak in de provincie Bantam
 Sobang (onderdistrict van Pandeglang), een onderdistrict in het bestuurlijke gebied Pandeglang in de provincie Bantam
Plaats in Indonesië
 Sobang (plaats in Lebak), een plaats in het bestuurlijke gebied Lebak in de provincie Bantam
 Sobang (plaats in Pandeglang), een plaats in het bestuurlijke gebied Pandeglang in de provincie Bantam


YouTube is world's biggest streaming service by far. On an average, the platform sees a total of more than a billion hours of videos watched on its website and apps. However, have you ever thought, why people consume so much content on YouTube?
Well, you might think people like you and me are in control of our watching habits and we decide what to consume but if YouTube's Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan is to be believed, 70% of the content that people watch on YouTube is because of YouTube's recommended feed.
This shows the power of Google's software prowess. The ability to scour the ever-increasing catalog of the YouTube and send a personalized feed to everybody who is consuming content on YouTube, that too with such accuracy that 70% of their watch time is spent on watching recommended videos is extraordinary.
YouTube has long been reigning supreme at the free video streaming side of things. It has everything to gain with increasing watch time hours on its platform as its ad supported and more watch time directly results in more ad commissions. Moreover, the ad-revenues keep on attracting more and more new creators who keep viewers engaged with their content and the cycle goes on.
Still, to think that 70% of my time spent on YouTube is because the platform is designing an experience to keep me locked in is scary. It almost feels like being in a casino where everything is designed to make you keep playing and keep loosing. So next time, when you are spending too much time on YouTube watching videos, remember that 70% of it is not by your choice.