Magnum was an old man
A wise and gentle Grandpa
From a half forgotten lifetime.
A homemade raggedy Andy
With wears and patches
Like a familiar slipper.
He had the lion heart
Of a thousand kindly patriarchs
And would pat down your hair
While his own was as tufty and unkempt
As an Arctic teddy bear.
He'd scold with steady stares
And turned backs and sulks
Because he was soft, and cared.
He would give cuddles
As warm as a summer holiday.
Bitten and wounded by hounds
We found him, even in such a state
He prevented a violent outbreak
Like a injured Greek God
Humble with understanding
He healed because he was harmed
(Loki would never have such, or any friend).
We took you in, but it was us that were lost
And orphaned, it was you who
Nursed us back to love and health.
When the injury returned
Like a watered down time warp of fear,
A single bite, infected and effective,
You pragmatically tied up a goodbye
And took your leave
Like you were visiting an old friend
For a forgettable while.
Magnum, RIP Oct 2009.
Oct 31, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Cat Shields for Keyboards
There is a problem every computer using person has who lives with a cat. At certain times, like if you have been working on the computer for a length of time, the cat will inevitably come and walk on, sit on or otherwise interfere with your keyboard. It could be because the computer is warm, which makes it a suitable sleeping spot in the cat's perspective. It could also be because the cat thinks staring at the screen for ages is interfering with your cat worshipping. Or it is showing concern for your health. The computer sounds different to the cat then to you, so that could be it. Or it is just being cattish. However, it is a real problem of nuisance proportions, as many a strange mess has been created for documents, music etc. I have an idea for a solution.
A clear plastic (or glass) dome that sits over the keyboard, with space for hands, wires, disk drive and mouse. It might make some things look a bit bifocal, but the slippery slopes of the dome will stop feline interference quite adequately. I also think that there is a huge demographic of people who have the problem, they would be very cheap to produce (recycled of course), and would make an excellent gift for the person who has everything, as well as for those of simple means. An earner, with the right publicity.
A clear plastic (or glass) dome that sits over the keyboard, with space for hands, wires, disk drive and mouse. It might make some things look a bit bifocal, but the slippery slopes of the dome will stop feline interference quite adequately. I also think that there is a huge demographic of people who have the problem, they would be very cheap to produce (recycled of course), and would make an excellent gift for the person who has everything, as well as for those of simple means. An earner, with the right publicity.
Vacuum Cleaner for the Sea
There is large amount of plastics in various states of decomposition floating around in the ocean in huge, toxic clumps called garbage zones. As they break down, they become even more toxic, as they become small enough to be eaten by fish and enter the food chain. They give off petrochemicals, causing raised toxin levels in the food chain. We also occasionally get oil spills from oceanic oil mining. The plastic kills birds, fish and larger ocean lifeforms by getting tangled up around them and in them.
What is needed for a regrettable side effect of the global societies lifestyle is a vacuum device for these by-products that were never intended for the sea. Sounds odd, but it really isn't that hard to separate oil from water. It could float on the surface, like an opposite of a pool cleaner, pulling in the surface substances, pumping it through a large pipe onto a ship for removal and recycling. Excess water can be drained in the stillness on board. It could also have a filter preventing animals below from being vacuumed. This is a low risk factor though, as wildlife tends to avoid or die in plastic pools or oil spills.
The products can still be used as salvaged product. This would be beneficial to oil companies as a way to reclaim lost product as well as being good for public relations and conscientious shareholders. Also it means fishing industries won't sue, and great grandchildren inherit beaches and oceans that are still enjoyable, and sea food products that won't make them sick. It also will need a handful of workers to operate and maintain it and the ship, which could be a tug type thing with a cargo barge type thing. That's an idea anyway, which could well be worth a penny as well as gaining the producer a medal from the good guys.
What is needed for a regrettable side effect of the global societies lifestyle is a vacuum device for these by-products that were never intended for the sea. Sounds odd, but it really isn't that hard to separate oil from water. It could float on the surface, like an opposite of a pool cleaner, pulling in the surface substances, pumping it through a large pipe onto a ship for removal and recycling. Excess water can be drained in the stillness on board. It could also have a filter preventing animals below from being vacuumed. This is a low risk factor though, as wildlife tends to avoid or die in plastic pools or oil spills.
The products can still be used as salvaged product. This would be beneficial to oil companies as a way to reclaim lost product as well as being good for public relations and conscientious shareholders. Also it means fishing industries won't sue, and great grandchildren inherit beaches and oceans that are still enjoyable, and sea food products that won't make them sick. It also will need a handful of workers to operate and maintain it and the ship, which could be a tug type thing with a cargo barge type thing. That's an idea anyway, which could well be worth a penny as well as gaining the producer a medal from the good guys.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Cures for Eutrophication
Eutrophication is where still or slow bodies, or parts of bodies, of water gain excess nutrients that weren't absorbed by the earth/living biomass. The nutrients stimulate excess plant growth (such as algae, or macrophytes, which are aquatic or semi-aquatic plants), resulting in a reduction of dissolved oxygen (hypoxic) in the water chemistry, suffocating the oxygen using aquatic animal life, especially immobile ones like fixed shellfish. The dead algae, bacteria, and fish sink to the bottom thus escalating the toxic fermenting nutritive situation. Also, some of the algae and bacteria (like cyanobacteria) are toxic, and get into the food chain, building up through to the predators (such as humans), damaging or killing them. It works like a negative feedback loop.
Where do these extra nutrients come from? The two biggest problems is phosphorus and nitrogen from fertilisers and sewerage. Fertilisers leach into the ground water and then into the drains, river systems and ocean from lawns, golf courses and other grounds, and agriculture. Nitrogen seems to affect fresh water systems and phosphorus affects salt water systems. Since the 1950's, due to human activity, phosphorus on the earth's surface has been raised by 4 times. Let's look at these chemicals.
Phosphorus is mined as apatite, a mineral compound. It is dissolved in sulfuric acid, releasing the phosphorus as a "super phosphorus", used in fertilisers. Animals eat plants and they absorb and excrete phosphorus, using it for ATP (energy utilisation), and it is a building block of RNA and DNA. Therefore phosphorus is found in excrement (sewerage and manure), which returns to the cycle, often through the waterways (these days).
Nitrogen is formed into ammonia in industry by putting atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen (usually from natural gas or petroleum) under great pressure and 600 degrees Celsius. This is used in fertilisers.
It is also formed from lightning, created in the great heat and energy of the event. It is also formed by bacteria and archaea in symbiosis with legumes (etc. alfalfa, soy, lentils). It is also found in the digestive system of termites and bivalves like shipworms. It is also free in soils. Also cyanobacteria have it in places like rice paddies.
Nitrogen is very stable as N2, so biologically an organism needs complex enzymes and a lot of ATP (energy) to utilise it. Nitrifying bacteria make it available to plant roots and crenarchae converts ammonia into nitrites.
Anaerobic bacteria (anaerobic means it doesn't use oxygen) living in deep soil and aquatic sediment has the task of denitrification, because it uses the nitrogen instead of oxygen. However, it is a slow process.
There are 375 hypoxic (oxygen depleted) coastal zones around the world. The results is an increased biomass of phytoplankton including toxic and inedible ones and an increase of soft, sticky zooplankton (phytoplankton predators). There is a decrease of beneficial algae, and macrophyte (aquatic plants) species change in range and amounts. The water becomes turbid (unclear), often getting blue, green or red blooms (often blocking out the light, which effects other plants). It looks and smells bad, and is difficult to treat, and the water's oxygen is reduced (especially at night when the plants breathe out carbon dioxide). Good, edible and harvestable shellfish and fish start dying off. It becomes dangerous to drink and swim in. The toxic anaerobic bacteria increase, poisoning fish, animals and birds. Extremes create "dead zones". The biodiversity is reduced, and species that prefer the new conditions start to invade (such as jellyfish in the ocean between China and Japan, which only the tough and virile would eat). Toxic algae blooms form, poisoning the food chain, with predators becoming diahorrhoetic, neurotoxic, and paralysed.
There are several things that can be done to reverse this situation. Firstly identifying the source is a good start. A point source is something definite such as a feedlot (that's where they keep livestock in a confined area, feeding them large amounts of food to fatten them, a cruel system which creates a lot of waste), or a raw sewerage pipe. Non point sources are things like the atmosphere (such as acid rain), or runoff (like when thawing snow takes manure into the storm drain).
Legislation for local and regional areas can protect particularly vulnerable areas such as lakes, estuaries and bays. If the farmers, fishers, sewerage treatment, water and dam workers co-operate, they reduce the risks to their interdependent industries. However, more remote places can be harder to police.
Riparian buffer zones along the banks of waterways act as a biomass that absorbs the sediments, nutrients and pollutants. This idea can be extended to buffer zones around farms, storm drains and roads, or between them and waterways. If the farmer also grows their orchards closer to waterways, and their crops of smaller plants (like grains) further away, it can have a riparian effect, as well as having the effect that the thirstier (usually bigger) plants are closer to the water source, saving time, energy and effort.
Using sewerage to run methane burning generators, especially in rural communities and large farms is a great system, as it provides electricity, reduces carbon waste, deals with the nitrogen and phosphorus, and provides a wonderful recycled fertiliser. China has established these already.
Nitrogen testing and modelling of the soil helps too. Often farmers, gardeners and groundskeepers use more fertilisers then they need to, which is wasteful and costly. Testing the soil to work out the least amount needed is very economical.
The farmer can also charge more for their products if they actually convert to the very fashionable organic farming, where demand still outstrips supply, so the grower can dictate prices, as opposed having the prices set for them by competition or a corporation.
Maintaining and protecting marshes and mangroves in estuaries etc is a natural filter. If they are damaged, drained or otherwise removed, there is nothing there to prevent silt, nutrients and erosion from wrecking havoc. They are a wonderful kind of halfway world where little fish hatch and feed in bizarre safety, like a surrealistic dream!
Because of the phytoplankton and alga outbreaks, introducing herbivore animals like bivalve shellfish to filter the plankton and then harvesting them is a great way to reduce the nutrients.
Adding beneficial macrophytes (aquatic plants), and macroalgae (seaweed), and then harvesting them is also a way to remove the nutrients from the cycle. Large coastal kelp forests with kelp grazers would be most effective. Reeds (some reeds absorb heavy metals), watercress, lilies, rice and seaweed are all cash crops.
If you allow reeds to grow in the marshlands and rivers, introducing or encouraging birds that eat micro-organisms (like a mud filter type thing) and use reeds to build their nests would be optimum. Also, insects that eat or otherwise harvest reeds are a good idea.
In the case of cyanobacteria, which lives in deep silt at the bottom, and is toxic, surely it has a predator? Looking for something in deep water like volcanic lakes may provide answers, as well as researching "bottom feeders" like catfish (probably not a likely candidate) or specialist worms who sift through deposits for food.
Introducing of extra useful and edible zooplankton and maybe krill could also reduce phytoplankton and algae blooms. They may need extra oxygen though. Agrobacteria reduce nitrates and give plants galls on their stems. However, adding species is an activity that needs a lot of thinking through, research and planning before being undertaken, as it can have unhealthy results if it has the wrong effect, such as the South American cane toads of Australia.
Oxygenating the water is another option, through pumping air or pure oxygen through the water or something like a watermill to stir the air through and to break up the stagnation could reduce the anaerobic build up.
Damming decreases silica going downstream in the silt, and added fertilisers creates cyanobacteria blooms, increasing toxicity. A ratio range of N:P:Si (1:1:16) is the best for maintaining the nutritive balance for a healthy biodiversity. Allowing tides and natural "flushing" from both up and down stream to flow uninterrupted increases high species diversity, by increasing edible phytoplankton species for zooplankton to graze upon, and so reducing blooms. Erosion and damming prevent flushing from either end, causing build up and stagnation. If there is damming, it could be flushed regularly to increase healthy ecology, or else the water gets "old" and bad. Build up can be cleared, rivers widened and bottlenecks opened.
Erosion also contributes to the excess nutrients in the water, so riparian buffer zones are essential. Personally I think if we continue to use chemicals the riparian buffer zones could be twice as wide. Stabilising dunes with appropriate living biomass on the coastal areas helps reduce erosion. Sand fences work sometimes temporarily, and it is useful to pin netting down to help establish seedlings such as sand grasses.
Anyway, there are some ideas. There are probably other ideas, however, if you use a little lateral logic. Just letting the natural world be and do it's own thing unmeddled with (just undo the permanent meddling artifacts) would probably be the best option, as it has amazing self healing powers and many blocks and checks built over many millennia to restore balance. However, that seems to be against the force of human nature. We always seem to try to "improve" things to pieces!
Where do these extra nutrients come from? The two biggest problems is phosphorus and nitrogen from fertilisers and sewerage. Fertilisers leach into the ground water and then into the drains, river systems and ocean from lawns, golf courses and other grounds, and agriculture. Nitrogen seems to affect fresh water systems and phosphorus affects salt water systems. Since the 1950's, due to human activity, phosphorus on the earth's surface has been raised by 4 times. Let's look at these chemicals.
Phosphorus is mined as apatite, a mineral compound. It is dissolved in sulfuric acid, releasing the phosphorus as a "super phosphorus", used in fertilisers. Animals eat plants and they absorb and excrete phosphorus, using it for ATP (energy utilisation), and it is a building block of RNA and DNA. Therefore phosphorus is found in excrement (sewerage and manure), which returns to the cycle, often through the waterways (these days).
Nitrogen is formed into ammonia in industry by putting atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen (usually from natural gas or petroleum) under great pressure and 600 degrees Celsius. This is used in fertilisers.
It is also formed from lightning, created in the great heat and energy of the event. It is also formed by bacteria and archaea in symbiosis with legumes (etc. alfalfa, soy, lentils). It is also found in the digestive system of termites and bivalves like shipworms. It is also free in soils. Also cyanobacteria have it in places like rice paddies.
Nitrogen is very stable as N2, so biologically an organism needs complex enzymes and a lot of ATP (energy) to utilise it. Nitrifying bacteria make it available to plant roots and crenarchae converts ammonia into nitrites.
Anaerobic bacteria (anaerobic means it doesn't use oxygen) living in deep soil and aquatic sediment has the task of denitrification, because it uses the nitrogen instead of oxygen. However, it is a slow process.
There are 375 hypoxic (oxygen depleted) coastal zones around the world. The results is an increased biomass of phytoplankton including toxic and inedible ones and an increase of soft, sticky zooplankton (phytoplankton predators). There is a decrease of beneficial algae, and macrophyte (aquatic plants) species change in range and amounts. The water becomes turbid (unclear), often getting blue, green or red blooms (often blocking out the light, which effects other plants). It looks and smells bad, and is difficult to treat, and the water's oxygen is reduced (especially at night when the plants breathe out carbon dioxide). Good, edible and harvestable shellfish and fish start dying off. It becomes dangerous to drink and swim in. The toxic anaerobic bacteria increase, poisoning fish, animals and birds. Extremes create "dead zones". The biodiversity is reduced, and species that prefer the new conditions start to invade (such as jellyfish in the ocean between China and Japan, which only the tough and virile would eat). Toxic algae blooms form, poisoning the food chain, with predators becoming diahorrhoetic, neurotoxic, and paralysed.
There are several things that can be done to reverse this situation. Firstly identifying the source is a good start. A point source is something definite such as a feedlot (that's where they keep livestock in a confined area, feeding them large amounts of food to fatten them, a cruel system which creates a lot of waste), or a raw sewerage pipe. Non point sources are things like the atmosphere (such as acid rain), or runoff (like when thawing snow takes manure into the storm drain).
Legislation for local and regional areas can protect particularly vulnerable areas such as lakes, estuaries and bays. If the farmers, fishers, sewerage treatment, water and dam workers co-operate, they reduce the risks to their interdependent industries. However, more remote places can be harder to police.
Riparian buffer zones along the banks of waterways act as a biomass that absorbs the sediments, nutrients and pollutants. This idea can be extended to buffer zones around farms, storm drains and roads, or between them and waterways. If the farmer also grows their orchards closer to waterways, and their crops of smaller plants (like grains) further away, it can have a riparian effect, as well as having the effect that the thirstier (usually bigger) plants are closer to the water source, saving time, energy and effort.
Using sewerage to run methane burning generators, especially in rural communities and large farms is a great system, as it provides electricity, reduces carbon waste, deals with the nitrogen and phosphorus, and provides a wonderful recycled fertiliser. China has established these already.
Nitrogen testing and modelling of the soil helps too. Often farmers, gardeners and groundskeepers use more fertilisers then they need to, which is wasteful and costly. Testing the soil to work out the least amount needed is very economical.
The farmer can also charge more for their products if they actually convert to the very fashionable organic farming, where demand still outstrips supply, so the grower can dictate prices, as opposed having the prices set for them by competition or a corporation.
Maintaining and protecting marshes and mangroves in estuaries etc is a natural filter. If they are damaged, drained or otherwise removed, there is nothing there to prevent silt, nutrients and erosion from wrecking havoc. They are a wonderful kind of halfway world where little fish hatch and feed in bizarre safety, like a surrealistic dream!
Because of the phytoplankton and alga outbreaks, introducing herbivore animals like bivalve shellfish to filter the plankton and then harvesting them is a great way to reduce the nutrients.
Adding beneficial macrophytes (aquatic plants), and macroalgae (seaweed), and then harvesting them is also a way to remove the nutrients from the cycle. Large coastal kelp forests with kelp grazers would be most effective. Reeds (some reeds absorb heavy metals), watercress, lilies, rice and seaweed are all cash crops.
If you allow reeds to grow in the marshlands and rivers, introducing or encouraging birds that eat micro-organisms (like a mud filter type thing) and use reeds to build their nests would be optimum. Also, insects that eat or otherwise harvest reeds are a good idea.
In the case of cyanobacteria, which lives in deep silt at the bottom, and is toxic, surely it has a predator? Looking for something in deep water like volcanic lakes may provide answers, as well as researching "bottom feeders" like catfish (probably not a likely candidate) or specialist worms who sift through deposits for food.
Introducing of extra useful and edible zooplankton and maybe krill could also reduce phytoplankton and algae blooms. They may need extra oxygen though. Agrobacteria reduce nitrates and give plants galls on their stems. However, adding species is an activity that needs a lot of thinking through, research and planning before being undertaken, as it can have unhealthy results if it has the wrong effect, such as the South American cane toads of Australia.
Oxygenating the water is another option, through pumping air or pure oxygen through the water or something like a watermill to stir the air through and to break up the stagnation could reduce the anaerobic build up.
Damming decreases silica going downstream in the silt, and added fertilisers creates cyanobacteria blooms, increasing toxicity. A ratio range of N:P:Si (1:1:16) is the best for maintaining the nutritive balance for a healthy biodiversity. Allowing tides and natural "flushing" from both up and down stream to flow uninterrupted increases high species diversity, by increasing edible phytoplankton species for zooplankton to graze upon, and so reducing blooms. Erosion and damming prevent flushing from either end, causing build up and stagnation. If there is damming, it could be flushed regularly to increase healthy ecology, or else the water gets "old" and bad. Build up can be cleared, rivers widened and bottlenecks opened.
Erosion also contributes to the excess nutrients in the water, so riparian buffer zones are essential. Personally I think if we continue to use chemicals the riparian buffer zones could be twice as wide. Stabilising dunes with appropriate living biomass on the coastal areas helps reduce erosion. Sand fences work sometimes temporarily, and it is useful to pin netting down to help establish seedlings such as sand grasses.
Anyway, there are some ideas. There are probably other ideas, however, if you use a little lateral logic. Just letting the natural world be and do it's own thing unmeddled with (just undo the permanent meddling artifacts) would probably be the best option, as it has amazing self healing powers and many blocks and checks built over many millennia to restore balance. However, that seems to be against the force of human nature. We always seem to try to "improve" things to pieces!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Vitamin B3
Vitamin B3, also known as niacin, naicinamide, nicotinic acid, is, like all B vitamins is water soluble so it needs regular renewal. It can be manufactured by the body from tryptophane. Tryptophane is the chemical in diary products that make you feel sleepy. It is used cell respiration, carbohydrates, lipid (fats), protein and glucose breakdown (like all B vitamins), blood circulation, healthy skin, nervous system function, healthy creation of bile and hydrochloric acid (digestive juices). Used also to synthesis cortisone, insulin, and sex hormones. It is used to treat schizophrenia and other mental conditions. It is known as a memory enhancer and is reported to improve mental alertness. Nicotinic acid is used as a drug to treat bad cholesterol levels and to remove organic compound poisons (like insecticides).
Lack causes pellagra (bilateral dermatitis, diarrhea and dementia). Canker sores, depression, diarrhea, fatigue, dizziness, halitosis, headaches, insomnia, extremities (limb) pains, muscular weakness, low appetite, low blood sugar, inflammation, and skin eruptions.
Minimum 15mg for women, and 15-19mg for men.
High doses given (200 mg is very high) may produce hyperuricemia and produce hepatic abnormalities. Nicotinic acid larger 200mg causes flushing by diluting blood vessels, causing drops in blood pressure. Very large doses causes itching, elevated blood glucose, peptic ulcers and liver damage.
Niacin works best with others in the vitamin B complex and vitamin C. Zinc, manganese, and phosphorus help. Consuming alcohol or people on vegetarian/low meat diets, high corn diets, high refined sugar diets, need more niacin. Aspirin, contraceptives, estrogen hormones or sleeping tablets reduce your niacin.
Diabetics, glaucoma, liver disease, peptic ulcers, should BEWARE of niacin supplements.
Cooking foods in water leeches niacin. It is also light sensitive.
It is found in liver, lean meat, poultry, fish, rabbit, nuts, peanuts, yeast, cereals, (sunflower) seeds, legumes, milk, asparagus, green leafy vegetables, coffee, yeasts, wheatgerm and beans.
Lack causes pellagra (bilateral dermatitis, diarrhea and dementia). Canker sores, depression, diarrhea, fatigue, dizziness, halitosis, headaches, insomnia, extremities (limb) pains, muscular weakness, low appetite, low blood sugar, inflammation, and skin eruptions.
Minimum 15mg for women, and 15-19mg for men.
High doses given (200 mg is very high) may produce hyperuricemia and produce hepatic abnormalities. Nicotinic acid larger 200mg causes flushing by diluting blood vessels, causing drops in blood pressure. Very large doses causes itching, elevated blood glucose, peptic ulcers and liver damage.
Niacin works best with others in the vitamin B complex and vitamin C. Zinc, manganese, and phosphorus help. Consuming alcohol or people on vegetarian/low meat diets, high corn diets, high refined sugar diets, need more niacin. Aspirin, contraceptives, estrogen hormones or sleeping tablets reduce your niacin.
Diabetics, glaucoma, liver disease, peptic ulcers, should BEWARE of niacin supplements.
Cooking foods in water leeches niacin. It is also light sensitive.
It is found in liver, lean meat, poultry, fish, rabbit, nuts, peanuts, yeast, cereals, (sunflower) seeds, legumes, milk, asparagus, green leafy vegetables, coffee, yeasts, wheatgerm and beans.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment can come from anyone of any sex, age, or background and be directed towards anyone of any sex (opposite or the same), age or background. Although most law claims come from women, it can be men that get harassed (social conditioning to be sexually available or shame may prevent them saying anything).
For sexual harassment to be illegal, the target does not have to be affected or offended (they may be desensitised for instance). A witness who finds it offensive is also in their rights to take action.
Their are several behavioural groups that sexual harassment falls into.
1. Public harasser, who is openly sexist or seductive (the guy in the pub who makes sexual advances in repulsive ways).
2. Private harasser, who carefully cultivate a restrained, respectable image, but transform when alone with the target (the person who is all charm in public, and then is all over the usually younger person in private).
3. Predatory harasser, who gets thrills from humiliating others. They harass to get a reaction, which is sexual extortion. A lack of resistance can escalate into rape, i.e. the baiting.
4. Dominance harasser, gets an ego boost from harassing target(s), i.e. the stand over.
5. Strategic or territorial harasser does it so they remove threats to or gain job privilege or location (in the hope the the other leaves), i.e. jobs for the boys.
Harassment types
Power player uses what is legally termed "qid pro quo" or this for that. They insist on sexual favours exchanged for benefits coming from their position (usually of authority).
Mother/father figure, will create mentor like relationship with their target, masking sexual intention.
One-of-the gang, are men or women who embarrass others with lewd comments, physical evaluations or other unwanted sexual attention. Can be an individual wanting to "belong" or impress, or can be a gang up on the target.
Serial harasser, carefully builds up a reputation as respectable so people are disbelieving that they could harass. Carefully strategies to strike in private so it is their word against the targets.
Groper will use opportunities when they present themselves for their eyes and hands to wander in unwelcome ways.
Opportunist, use physical settings and circumstances to mask premeditated intentional sexual behaviour towards target. May involve changing the environment to reduce inhibitory effects or "accidental" groping.
Bully, sexual harassment is used as a "punishment" for rejection or other "transgression" or to make the target feel inadequate. It's a way to put the target "in their place".
Confidante, shares their story and difficulty to get the target to open up and then make the relationship intimate and often unhealthy.
Situational harasser, when the perpetrator goes through a traumatic or very stressful life event (such as psychological, medical, or marital problems). Usually stops when the pressure decreases or the circumstances change.
Pest classically "won't take 'no' for an answer" type. Hounds for attention and dates after persistent rejection. Misguided but not malicious, usually.
Great Gallant is mostly a verbal harassment using excessive compliments and personal comments that are gender appearance based that are embarrassing or out of place. Often with leering.
Intellectual seducer usually educational authority situations where the perpetrator uses knowledge and access to information on students for sexual purposes. May take exercises to uncomfortable levels of personal exposure.
Incompetents are socially inept who desire the attention of the target, which is not reciprocated. Sense of entitlement, believe the target should be flattered. Rejected they may bully for revenge.
Stalking consists of persistent watching, following, contacting or observing target. The harasser believes it's love, or it is sexual obsession or anger and hostility.
Unintentional acts and comments that were of a sexual nature, and were not intended as harassment can constitute sexual harassment if the other was offended.
Sexualised environments have sexual "joking", obscenities, sexually explicit graffiti, degrading posters, pornography of any source and sexual objects can create an offensive environment.
Rituals and initiations is where sexual harassment is part of an sexually explicit or abusive ceremony or ritual like initiation or "hazing", commonly associated with first year students, members of the armed forces, sporting clubs, bucks nights etc. They are all illegal.
Retaliation for speaking up or taking legal action.
When people complain about harassment there is commonly a backlash against the harassed, compounding the problem. Often labeled "trouble makers" and power trippers, they are often made out to be the problem. The victim becomes the accused. There private life, appearance and character become a target, often when they are not at their former best. This scrutiny often does not happen to the perpetrator. They often get isolation and anger from bosses, teachers, work and classmates, friends and family. They risk relational aggression and even mobbing. Women are often as bad as the men in the condemning of the outspoken target, although this can change as circumstances develop, especially if others have been targeted.
Complainants can have their projects sabotaged, poor grades given, denied work or academic chances, be bullied and harassed until their productivity is greatly reduced, be fired or suspended, and the perpetrator or associate(s) sometimes successfully execute the threat temporarily that they will "never work anywhere again". Vengeance based stalking may occur.
If the target is prepared to open such a can of worms, they speak up with success. If they are not, silence and damage control is the way for the faint hearted.
Mostly harassment is just annoying. However, cases of severe and/or chronic harassment can be deadly. This is some of the things it can lead to:
1. Increased absenteeism
2. Decreased performance
3. Loss of work and income.
4. Leaving education, changing plans.
5. Personal life is attacked (appearance, lifestyle, private life)
6. Humiliation and objectification by public.
7. Publicly sexuality (are they "worth" the attention or risk to career)
8. Defamation.
9. Loss of trust in similar environments
10. Extreme stress in relationships with significant others, peers, work/classmates.
11. Weakening of networks of support, alienation.
12. Relocation to other locations and jobs (if possible)
13. Loss of recommendations and opportunities
Emotional and psychological effects are:
1. Depression
2. Panic attacks
3. Anxiety
4. Sleeplessness
5. Nightmares
6. Shame
7. Guilt
8. Difficulty concentrating
9. Fatigue
10. Loss of motivation
11. Headaches
12. Eating disorders
13. Stomach upsets
14. Alcoholism, excessive smoking, or drug addiction
15. Feeling violated and/or betrayed
16. Anger or violent feeling towards the perpetrator
17. Feeling out of control or powerless
18. Raised blood pressure and other stress related health problems
19. Loss of self esteem
20. Isolation and withdrawal.
21. Severe loss of trust in people
22. Traumatic stress
23. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.)
24. Complex P.T.S.D.
25. Suicidal thoughts
26. Attempted or successful suicide.
Perpetrators eventually get busted or reap some other karma, even if they seem to get away with it. The smirking, leering young man of today is the unwanted filthy old man of tomorrow. Just know that if you have experienced harassment, like most of us have, male and female, that you did not "ask" for it, no matter what is said or insinuated. You have a right to you own, healthy sexuality and freedom to be as you are. Often nice "decent" people are targeted for that very reason. Because they find it offensive and blush, or refuse to accept the demands, the indecent love to poke fun at them and bring them down. In fact, the more harassed you have been can be an indication of the strength of your basic innate decency.
For sexual harassment to be illegal, the target does not have to be affected or offended (they may be desensitised for instance). A witness who finds it offensive is also in their rights to take action.
Their are several behavioural groups that sexual harassment falls into.
1. Public harasser, who is openly sexist or seductive (the guy in the pub who makes sexual advances in repulsive ways).
2. Private harasser, who carefully cultivate a restrained, respectable image, but transform when alone with the target (the person who is all charm in public, and then is all over the usually younger person in private).
3. Predatory harasser, who gets thrills from humiliating others. They harass to get a reaction, which is sexual extortion. A lack of resistance can escalate into rape, i.e. the baiting.
4. Dominance harasser, gets an ego boost from harassing target(s), i.e. the stand over.
5. Strategic or territorial harasser does it so they remove threats to or gain job privilege or location (in the hope the the other leaves), i.e. jobs for the boys.
Harassment types
Power player uses what is legally termed "qid pro quo" or this for that. They insist on sexual favours exchanged for benefits coming from their position (usually of authority).
Mother/father figure, will create mentor like relationship with their target, masking sexual intention.
One-of-the gang, are men or women who embarrass others with lewd comments, physical evaluations or other unwanted sexual attention. Can be an individual wanting to "belong" or impress, or can be a gang up on the target.
Serial harasser, carefully builds up a reputation as respectable so people are disbelieving that they could harass. Carefully strategies to strike in private so it is their word against the targets.
Groper will use opportunities when they present themselves for their eyes and hands to wander in unwelcome ways.
Opportunist, use physical settings and circumstances to mask premeditated intentional sexual behaviour towards target. May involve changing the environment to reduce inhibitory effects or "accidental" groping.
Bully, sexual harassment is used as a "punishment" for rejection or other "transgression" or to make the target feel inadequate. It's a way to put the target "in their place".
Confidante, shares their story and difficulty to get the target to open up and then make the relationship intimate and often unhealthy.
Situational harasser, when the perpetrator goes through a traumatic or very stressful life event (such as psychological, medical, or marital problems). Usually stops when the pressure decreases or the circumstances change.
Pest classically "won't take 'no' for an answer" type. Hounds for attention and dates after persistent rejection. Misguided but not malicious, usually.
Great Gallant is mostly a verbal harassment using excessive compliments and personal comments that are gender appearance based that are embarrassing or out of place. Often with leering.
Intellectual seducer usually educational authority situations where the perpetrator uses knowledge and access to information on students for sexual purposes. May take exercises to uncomfortable levels of personal exposure.
Incompetents are socially inept who desire the attention of the target, which is not reciprocated. Sense of entitlement, believe the target should be flattered. Rejected they may bully for revenge.
Stalking consists of persistent watching, following, contacting or observing target. The harasser believes it's love, or it is sexual obsession or anger and hostility.
Unintentional acts and comments that were of a sexual nature, and were not intended as harassment can constitute sexual harassment if the other was offended.
Sexualised environments have sexual "joking", obscenities, sexually explicit graffiti, degrading posters, pornography of any source and sexual objects can create an offensive environment.
Rituals and initiations is where sexual harassment is part of an sexually explicit or abusive ceremony or ritual like initiation or "hazing", commonly associated with first year students, members of the armed forces, sporting clubs, bucks nights etc. They are all illegal.
Retaliation for speaking up or taking legal action.
When people complain about harassment there is commonly a backlash against the harassed, compounding the problem. Often labeled "trouble makers" and power trippers, they are often made out to be the problem. The victim becomes the accused. There private life, appearance and character become a target, often when they are not at their former best. This scrutiny often does not happen to the perpetrator. They often get isolation and anger from bosses, teachers, work and classmates, friends and family. They risk relational aggression and even mobbing. Women are often as bad as the men in the condemning of the outspoken target, although this can change as circumstances develop, especially if others have been targeted.
Complainants can have their projects sabotaged, poor grades given, denied work or academic chances, be bullied and harassed until their productivity is greatly reduced, be fired or suspended, and the perpetrator or associate(s) sometimes successfully execute the threat temporarily that they will "never work anywhere again". Vengeance based stalking may occur.
If the target is prepared to open such a can of worms, they speak up with success. If they are not, silence and damage control is the way for the faint hearted.
Mostly harassment is just annoying. However, cases of severe and/or chronic harassment can be deadly. This is some of the things it can lead to:
1. Increased absenteeism
2. Decreased performance
3. Loss of work and income.
4. Leaving education, changing plans.
5. Personal life is attacked (appearance, lifestyle, private life)
6. Humiliation and objectification by public.
7. Publicly sexuality (are they "worth" the attention or risk to career)
8. Defamation.
9. Loss of trust in similar environments
10. Extreme stress in relationships with significant others, peers, work/classmates.
11. Weakening of networks of support, alienation.
12. Relocation to other locations and jobs (if possible)
13. Loss of recommendations and opportunities
Emotional and psychological effects are:
1. Depression
2. Panic attacks
3. Anxiety
4. Sleeplessness
5. Nightmares
6. Shame
7. Guilt
8. Difficulty concentrating
9. Fatigue
10. Loss of motivation
11. Headaches
12. Eating disorders
13. Stomach upsets
14. Alcoholism, excessive smoking, or drug addiction
15. Feeling violated and/or betrayed
16. Anger or violent feeling towards the perpetrator
17. Feeling out of control or powerless
18. Raised blood pressure and other stress related health problems
19. Loss of self esteem
20. Isolation and withdrawal.
21. Severe loss of trust in people
22. Traumatic stress
23. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.)
24. Complex P.T.S.D.
25. Suicidal thoughts
26. Attempted or successful suicide.
Perpetrators eventually get busted or reap some other karma, even if they seem to get away with it. The smirking, leering young man of today is the unwanted filthy old man of tomorrow. Just know that if you have experienced harassment, like most of us have, male and female, that you did not "ask" for it, no matter what is said or insinuated. You have a right to you own, healthy sexuality and freedom to be as you are. Often nice "decent" people are targeted for that very reason. Because they find it offensive and blush, or refuse to accept the demands, the indecent love to poke fun at them and bring them down. In fact, the more harassed you have been can be an indication of the strength of your basic innate decency.
Pesticide Problems
After decades of using long lasting, evolving and potent pesticides, farmers in various parts of highly pesticided parts of the world are wondering why their bee populations are being decimated. Connect the dot. Bees are needed to pollinate their crops of grasses, fruits and even vegetables and herbs. Long term use of pesticides is the most likely culprit.
Unfortunately, pesticides built for potency and a long active life are hard to break down and build up in the soil, biomass, water and general ecology. After many repeated uses, the build up devastates ALL insects (and other animals, including the ones that eat insects), including the useful ones. Mycelium, the great recycler of carbon based life, will not go near it in high doses. An extremophilic mycelium might, but farmers and scientist will have to find one. The pesticides do not just evaporate come the next spring. It's still there.
Possible solutions include the extremophilic mycelium previously mentioned. There is also the use of unprocessed natural insect repulsing oils (diluted), such as pine, cedar, citronella or lavender.
Seaweed (diluted in liquid, or washed and added to mulch) is excellent for breaking down complex chemicals. So is fermented soy, as in miso (but the salt is not recommended for soil, obviously), so experimenting with soy or soy bi-products could prove beneficial. Vitamin B3 is also good for removing or breaking down pesticides specifically, so adding it somehow into the ecosystem (through mycelium or maybe feeding it in higher doses [but not too high as it can be damaging] to livestock and then applying the manure and urine to the soil and mycelium).
Spiders eat insects and so do certain types of birds. So do preying mantis. If you introduced spiders and insect eating birds in you crop, that would reduce insect populations quite effectively. The conditions would have to be suitable for their nest and web building, such as trees, wood, and other places for them to reside and hunt.
Another way to deal with the problem, once the current pesticides have been reduced to a workable level, is companion planting. If you plant rosemary, cedars, marigolds etc in a harvestable manner around and within your annual or perennial crops, and use basic rotation for the brief types (usually used already), unwanted insects will be reduced.
A change of attitude, also a good thing in cropping, would help. The need to have 100% perfect crop output is maybe a bit self-defeating. It may be OK to have a few bug infested fruits losing maybe 2% of your crop (for the hens and pigs and wildlife) in the short term as opposed to decimating your future crops by rendering them infertile.
The ancient Israelites used to leave 10% of their crops each year for the poor and the wildlife. There was more then charity as the pious motive. If the poor could eat, they did not have to rob and murder to survive. If the wildlife could eat, they did not have to steal and hunt livestock and people to eat. If the actual earth had enough biomass returning back to the ground, it would be more abundant in the coming year and the long run.
Well, there is a bunch of ideas for possible solutions to a very modern problem. The implementing of the ideas might get some resistance from the chemical companies, however, a smart farmer would be able to see through that. We haven't "always" used chemical cocktails to solve age old farming problems. It probably wasn't even used by your grandparents. Planting insect resistant plants (some are even cash crops in themselves) amongst your insect attracting crops or releasing insect eating birds and insects into the fold is a much cheaper, less dangerous and better (long term) planned way to deal with the problem. And no one will be dying of cancer from working in the factories that make the toxic substances that have been killing your wonderful bees (and probably you and the town downriver).
Unfortunately, pesticides built for potency and a long active life are hard to break down and build up in the soil, biomass, water and general ecology. After many repeated uses, the build up devastates ALL insects (and other animals, including the ones that eat insects), including the useful ones. Mycelium, the great recycler of carbon based life, will not go near it in high doses. An extremophilic mycelium might, but farmers and scientist will have to find one. The pesticides do not just evaporate come the next spring. It's still there.
Possible solutions include the extremophilic mycelium previously mentioned. There is also the use of unprocessed natural insect repulsing oils (diluted), such as pine, cedar, citronella or lavender.
Seaweed (diluted in liquid, or washed and added to mulch) is excellent for breaking down complex chemicals. So is fermented soy, as in miso (but the salt is not recommended for soil, obviously), so experimenting with soy or soy bi-products could prove beneficial. Vitamin B3 is also good for removing or breaking down pesticides specifically, so adding it somehow into the ecosystem (through mycelium or maybe feeding it in higher doses [but not too high as it can be damaging] to livestock and then applying the manure and urine to the soil and mycelium).
Spiders eat insects and so do certain types of birds. So do preying mantis. If you introduced spiders and insect eating birds in you crop, that would reduce insect populations quite effectively. The conditions would have to be suitable for their nest and web building, such as trees, wood, and other places for them to reside and hunt.
Another way to deal with the problem, once the current pesticides have been reduced to a workable level, is companion planting. If you plant rosemary, cedars, marigolds etc in a harvestable manner around and within your annual or perennial crops, and use basic rotation for the brief types (usually used already), unwanted insects will be reduced.
A change of attitude, also a good thing in cropping, would help. The need to have 100% perfect crop output is maybe a bit self-defeating. It may be OK to have a few bug infested fruits losing maybe 2% of your crop (for the hens and pigs and wildlife) in the short term as opposed to decimating your future crops by rendering them infertile.
The ancient Israelites used to leave 10% of their crops each year for the poor and the wildlife. There was more then charity as the pious motive. If the poor could eat, they did not have to rob and murder to survive. If the wildlife could eat, they did not have to steal and hunt livestock and people to eat. If the actual earth had enough biomass returning back to the ground, it would be more abundant in the coming year and the long run.
Well, there is a bunch of ideas for possible solutions to a very modern problem. The implementing of the ideas might get some resistance from the chemical companies, however, a smart farmer would be able to see through that. We haven't "always" used chemical cocktails to solve age old farming problems. It probably wasn't even used by your grandparents. Planting insect resistant plants (some are even cash crops in themselves) amongst your insect attracting crops or releasing insect eating birds and insects into the fold is a much cheaper, less dangerous and better (long term) planned way to deal with the problem. And no one will be dying of cancer from working in the factories that make the toxic substances that have been killing your wonderful bees (and probably you and the town downriver).
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