Topics

181

Common Forum/Request/Suggestions / Surprising Tricks to Be Happier (Without Really Trying) 1

« on: March 10, 2016, 02:43:56 PM »

Give money awayDonating $500 has the same effect on how wealthy you feel as earning an extra $10,000 in income, a Harvard Business School study found last year. Other studies have found that donating much smaller amounts of money makes people feel pleasure. Whether it's spare change or a higher-than-expected tax return, consider giving to a favorite charity to be happier.

182

Geography / Fossil fuel use must fall twice as fast as thought to contain global warming -4

« on: March 10, 2016, 02:31:44 PM »

Complex calculations

But Dr Rogelj and his colleagues found that a significant cause of variation was simply a consequence of the different assumptions and methodologies inherent in such complex calculations.

So the researchers have re-examined both the options and the approaches, and have worked out a global figure that, they suggest, could be relevant to “real-world policy”.

It takes into account the consequences of all human activity, and it embraces detailed outlines of possible low-carbon choices. It also offers, they say, a 66% chance of staying within the internationally-agreed limit.

“We now better understand the carbon budget for keeping global warming below 2C,” Dr Rogelj says. “This carbon budget is very important to know because it defines how much carbon dioxide we are allowed to release into the atmosphere, ever.

“We have figured out that this budget is at the low end of what studies indicated before, and if we don’t start reducing our emissions immediately, we will blow it in a few decades.”

183

Geography / Fossil fuel use must fall twice as fast as thought to contain global warming -3

« on: March 10, 2016, 02:30:55 PM »

The global carbon budget is really the balance between what animals emit – in this context, the word animals includes humans with cars and aeroplanes and factories – and what plants and algae can absorb. So the calculations are bedevilled by uncertainties about forests, grasslands and oceans.

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To make things simpler, climate scientists translate the target into the billions of tons of carbon dioxide that, ideally, may be released into the atmosphere from 2015 onwards. Even these, however, are estimates.

There is general agreement that a limit of 590 bn tons would safely keep the world from overheating in ways that would impose ever greater strains on human society. The argument is about the upper limit of such estimates.

Dr Rogelj says: “In order to have a reasonable chance of keeping global warming below 2C, we can only emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide, ever. That’s our carbon budget.

“This has been understood for about a decade, and the physics behind this concept are well understood, but many different factors can lead to carbon budgets that are either slightly smaller or slightly larger. We wanted to understand these differences, and to provide clarity on the issue for policymakers and the public.

“This study shows that, in some cases, we have been overestimating the budget by 50 to more than 200%. At the high end, this is a difference of more than 1,000 billion tons of carbon dioxide.”

The same study takes a closer look at why estimates of the “safe” level of emissions have varied so widely.

One complicating factor has been, of course, uncertainty about what humans might do, and another has been about the other more transient greenhouse gases, such as methane and the oxides of nitrogen.

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Although short-lived and released in smaller quantities, some of these are potentially far more potent than carbon dioxide as an influence on planetary temperatures.

184

Geography / Fossil fuel use must fall twice as fast as thought to contain global warming -2

« on: March 10, 2016, 02:30:14 PM »

Available levels

In effect, that halves the levels of diesel and petrol available for petrol tanks, coal for power stations, and natural gas for central heating and cooking available to humankind before the global average temperature – already 1C higher than it was at the start of the Industrial Revolution – reaches the notional 2C mark long agreed internationally as being the point of no return for the planet.

In fact, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change summit in Paris agreed a target “well below” 2C, in recognition of ominous projections − one of which was that, at such planetary temperatures, sea levels would rise high enough to submerge several small island states.

The Nature Climate Change paper is a restatement of a problem that has been clear for decades. Carbon dioxide proportions in the atmosphere are linked to planetary surface temperatures and, as they rise, so does average temperature. For most of human history, these proportions oscillated around 280 parts per million.

The global exploitation, on a massive scale, of fossil fuels drove the expansion of agriculture, the growth of economies, a sevenfold growth in human population, a sea level rise of 14cms, and a temperature rise of, so far, 1C.

To stop temperatures increasing another 3C or more and sea levels rising by more than a metre, humans have to reduce fossil fuel emissions. By how much these must be reduced is difficult to calculate.

185

Geography / Fossil fuel use must fall twice as fast as thought to contain global warming 1

« on: March 10, 2016, 02:28:49 PM »

Climate scientists have bad news for governments, energy companies, motorists, passengers and citizens everywhere in the world: to contain global warming to the limits agreed by 195 nations in Paris last December, they will have to cut fossil fuel combustion at an even faster rate than anybody had predicted.

Joeri Rogelj, research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria, and European and Canadian colleagues propose in Nature Climate Change that all previous estimates of the quantities of carbon dioxide that can be released into the atmosphere before the thermometer rises to potentially catastrophic levels are too generous.

Instead of a range of permissible emissions estimates that ranged up to 2,390 bn tons from 2015 onwards, the very most humans could release would be 1,240 bn tons.

186

Animals and Pets / why is 2016 smashing heat records part 4

« on: March 10, 2016, 02:26:19 PM »

Steffen says quantifying the relative contributions of El Niño and climate change on a monthly or even annual basis cannot help to answer how fast the world is warming. Only trends over 30 years really matter.

But the pile up of records we have had in the early part of this century are significant. All things being constant, record hot years should occur once every 150 years. Yet 1998, 2005, 2010, 2014 and 2015 have all been record breakers.

A study published in January found that even without last year’s mammoth anomaly such a run was 600 to 130,000 times more likely to have occurred with human interference than without.

“The fact that you are getting records so close, one after the other is really striking. And that is symptomatic of that long-term trend,” said Steffen.

But while they may be poor signals for long-term climate change, record hot months and years do have an immediate and tangible impact.

“It’s making heat waves worse. Here in Australia it bumps up the bushfire danger weather really fast. It tends to lead to drier conditions in our part of the world. These things are exacerbated by El Niños, so I don’t want to downplay the importance of them for human suffering,” said Steffen.

187

Animals and Pets / why is 2016 smashing heat records part 3

« on: March 10, 2016, 02:25:30 PM »

“The bottom line is that the contributions of the current El Niño and wind patterns to the very warm conditions globally over the last couple of months are relatively small compared to the anthropogenically driven increase in global temperature since pre-industrial times,” he added.

Steffen said the definitive assessment of this El Niño and its effect on the world’s temperature would only be possible once the event had run its course (it has now peaked and is expected to end in the second quarter of this year). But he agreed that past El Niño cycles could be an appropriate guide for the order of magnitude of the effect.

The picture becomes less clear cut when we talk about monthly records. Even weather trends can have small effects on the monthly average temperature, said Knight. The effect of El Niño traditionally increases as it dies, so Mann believes it may have added more than the “nominal” o.1C during the past three months.

In the Arctic, the effect of El Niño is poorly understood but likely to be weak, said Knight. “Given that the Arctic has been very warm for a number of years, with record low sea ice, it is more likely that the warmth there currently is part of a long-term trend rather than the response to a episodic event like El Niño.”

188

Animals and Pets / why is 2016 smashing heat records part 2

« on: March 10, 2016, 02:24:46 PM »

These tumbling temperature records are often accompanied in media reports by the caveat that we are experiencing a particularly strong El Niño - perhaps the largest in history. But should El Niño and climate change be given equal billing?

No, according to Professor Michael Mann, the director of Penn State Earth System Science Centre. He said it was possible to look back over the temperature records and assess the impact of an El Niño on global temperatures.

“A number of folks have done this,” he said, “and come to the conclusion it was responsible for less than 0.1C of the anomalous warmth. In other words, we would have set an all-time global temperature record [in 2015] even without any help from El Niño.”

Global surface temperature is the major yardstick used to track how we are changing the climate. It is the average the UN Paris agreement refers to.

But the atmosphere doesn’t stop at the surface. In fact 93% of the extra energy trapped by the greenhouse gases humans have emitted gets sunk into the oceans – just 1% ends up in the atmosphere where temperature is most often and most thoroughly measured. During El Niño, which occurs every three to six years, currents in the Pacific Ocean bring warm water to the surface and heat up the air.

Jeff Knight from the Met Office’s Hadley Centre, said their modelling set the additional heat from a big El Niño, like the current one, at about 0.2C. He said wind patterns in the northern hemisphere had added another 0.1C to recent monthly readings.

189

Animals and Pets / Why is 2016 smashing heat records part 1

« on: March 10, 2016, 02:23:43 PM »

Yet another global heat record has been beaten. It appears January 2016 - the most abnormally hot month in history, according to Nasa - will be comprehensively trounced once official figures come in for February.

Initial satellite measurements, compiled by Eric Holthaus at Slate, put February’s anomaly from the pre-industrial average between 1.15C and 1.4C. The UN Paris climate agreement struck in December seeks to limit warming to 1.5C if possible.

“Even the lower part of that range is extraordinary,” said Will Steffen, an emeritus professor of climate science at Australian National University and a councillor at Australia’s Climate Council.

It appears that on Wednesday, the northern hemisphere even slipped above the milestone 2C average for the first time in recorded history. This is the arbitrary limit above which scientists believe global temperature rise will be “dangerous”.

The Arctic in particular experienced terrific warmth throughout the winter. Temperatures at the north pole approached 0C in late December – 30C to 35C above average.

Mark Serreze, the director of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre, described the conditions as “absurd”.

“The heat has been unrelenting over the entire season,” he said. “I’ve been studying Arctic climate for 35 years and have never seen anything like this before”.

All this weirdness follows the record-smashing year of 2015, which was 0.9C above the 20th century average. This beat the previous record warmth of 2014 by 0.16C.

190

Animals and Pets / Hotter planet spells harder rains to come- study

« on: March 10, 2016, 02:19:38 PM »

Severe rainfall has increased throughout the world’s wettest and driest regions and is set to intensify this century, new research suggests.

Since 1950, daily extremes have risen 1-2% a decade, a study published in journal Nature said on Monday.

That trend is expected to last until at least 2100, prompting emergency planners to take precautions against flash flooding. Dry regions such as Saharan Africa, the Arabian Peninsula or Australia, whose parched soil poorly absorbs excess water, would be most vulnerable.

Global warming increases the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere, leading to heavier downpours.

The study led by Markus Donat at the University of New South Wales in Australia couldn’t say exactly where extreme rainfall would occur, but underlined the heightened risks. Tropical regions were most uncertain.

Floods made up almost half of all weather-related disasters in the last two decades, according to the UN office for disaster risk reduction. They affected 2.3 billion people, 95% of whom were in Asia.

191

English / 5 important items for teaching portfolio

« on: September 15, 2015, 05:02:29 PM »

Must-Have Teacher Portfolio Items
Teaching Philosophy:
Your philosophy of education statement is your interpretation of what YOU think teaching and learning means. Included in your statement should be a brief description of how you teach and why you teach that way.
Resume
This is the first glimpse prospective employers get of you, so you better make it stand out. All of the items you list on this document will serve as a catalyst for the rest of your portfolio. Focus on making it look professional and include certification, education, teaching experience,professional goals and related qualifications.
Degree/Certificates/Awards
Although your resume may list your degree, awards and certificates, now is the chance for you to physically show off your accomplishments. In this section of your teaching portfolio, include a copy of your degree, teaching license, awards of honor and specialized training certificates.
Planning Materials
Prospective employers will want to see proof that you know how to prepare lesson plans and teach them. For this section of the portfolio, include a thematic unit along with curriculum standards for each activity.  It's a good idea to include photographs of the students participating in the activities, so the potential employer will be able have a visual of how you taught the lesson.
Additional Materials to Add:
•   Lesson plans
•   Field trips
•   Exam sheets
•   Syllabi
•   Interactive Bulletin Boards
Letters of Recommendation
You have put a lot of hard work and dedication into being a teacher, and now it's time to get credit for it. This section is essential to have in your portfolio because it gives potential employers the opportunity to learn about what kind of teacher you are. Include letters from past employers, college professors and supervisors.
(coll.)

192

You need to know / 5 important items for teaching portfolio

« on: September 14, 2015, 09:50:39 AM »

Must-Have Teacher Portfolio Items
Teaching Philosophy:
Your philosophy of education statement is your interpretation of what YOU think teaching and learning means. Included in your statement should be a brief description of how you teach and why you teach that way.
Resume
This is the first glimpse prospective employers get of you, so you better make it stand out. All of the items you list on this document will serve as a catalyst for the rest of your portfolio. Focus on making it look professional and include certification, education, teaching experience,professional goals and related qualifications.
Degree/Certificates/Awards
Although your resume may list your degree, awards and certificates, now is the chance for you to physically show off your accomplishments. In this section of your teaching portfolio, include a copy of your degree, teaching license, awards of honor and specialized training certificates.
Planning Materials
Prospective employers will want to see proof that you know how to prepare lesson plans and teach them. For this section of the portfolio, include a thematic unit along with curriculum standards for each activity.  It's a good idea to include photographs of the students participating in the activities, so the potential employer will be able have a visual of how you taught the lesson.
Additional Materials to Add:
•   Lesson plans
•   Field trips
•   Exam sheets
•   Syllabi
•   Interactive Bulletin Boards
Letters of Recommendation
You have put a lot of hard work and dedication into being a teacher, and now it's time to get credit for it. This section is essential to have in your portfolio because it gives potential employers the opportunity to learn about what kind of teacher you are. Include letters from past employers, college professors and supervisors.
(coll.)

193

English / quote 1

« on: July 26, 2015, 12:03:11 PM »

Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
Francis Bacon

194

Story, Article & Poetry / Poetry: Urban Experience

« on: July 22, 2015, 11:27:52 AM »

Urban Experience

 It is urbanexperience
When you can’t separate
Faces, old or new
But leave behind
And say, “Keep in touch”.
Yes technology keeps us, touches too.
But can’t remind us how it feels
To say Goodbye.
 
It is urban experience
When you are stuck in traffic
To let your demo-crazy
Sorry, democracy ruler pass,
When you envy or desire
To be a dummy
In an elite showroom.
 
It is urban experience
When a lady leaves her seat
For a mother holding a child
And men on the bus, watching
And feeling safe,
Seated not on “ladies-seat”.
 
It is urban experience,
When you walk beside
The Prime Minister Office
Barefooted, at 10 pm.
Yes, there are police at every point
Not for your security
But for the democracy.
 
It is urban experience,
When you search a place
But get that not by postal address
Advertising billboards or banners
Catch your eyes to names,
Not missing address, unless
You have microscopic eyes.
 
It is urban experience
When you get too much before the wish
Either for heat or raindrops,
As tiny drops land on
And turn into a giant flood.
 
It is urban experience,
When your writing are
Shown in gallery, and
You hardly call it poetry.
But at the end of the day
You selfish mind opens up
And receives something
An experience or  apoetry.
 

195

English / Excerpt from an Interview of SMI

« on: July 13, 2015, 12:50:01 PM »

I wrote this note when I was a student of M.A
Excerpt from an Interview of SMI:
I was going through some website for my research purpose.It usurped half of my brain and made that inactive. But I couldn't let myself aside from some interesting pieces whether they are important for me or not. One of that was Prof. Syed Manzoorul Islam's interview on his recent published book "The Merman's Prayer and other Stories". Two things interested me most. One of them is the background anecdote behind the name of the book. As it is published in The Daily Star, Friday, November 8,2013 named "The Deeper the roots, the taller the trees" by  Rifat Munim. I copied a few excerpt as:
"In your stories we see a blending of harsh realities with magical events. Why so?Let me start by giving you an example. There was this time when I was on board a plane from Taipei to Bangkok. The flight failed to find an air corridor due to heavy traffic so it took a tour around the Bay and at one point, the captain, who was perhaps a British man, showed up and told us the waters below were famous for mermaids and if we looked down, may be we’d be able to spot one or two. To my utter surprise, everyone looked down, me included. So every passenger on board was hoping against hope that there might be real mermaids. Iplayed a prank saying, ‘O, there it is!’ and everybody exclaimed, ‘Where? Where?’I said you can’t see the mermaids anymore but maybe there are mermen. A lady from behind said, ‘Hey! What do you mean by mermen? How does one become a merman?’ I said, ‘You just jump into the water, then into the hands of a mermaid and you pray that you become a merman, and that’s it!’ She believed me,saying ‘Wow! Is that how the mermen began in history?’ I said yes, it began in a prayer.So, this is the possibility of your stories because people in real life want to believe in many things and they love those things so intimately that it doesn’t matter whether they really exist or not, because all these dreams andimagination become real in the inner recesses of their mind.
Is thathow you found your title story ‘The Merman’s Prayer and Other Stories’?Well, there’s more to it. I went to Cox’s Bazar. A hotel owner told me, with firm belief, that forty years ago this place was visited by mermaids! He said terrible things occurred if anyone made them cry. One of his friends became paralyzed because he wronged a mermaid. He insisted that if I went to the beach in Teknaf, I might still meet with one or two of them! After that he went to say his prayers, just like that! That shows you that people are willing to believe things. People’s dreams, beliefs, desires are not merely non-existent,may be they remain in a different world than this one we see. It won’t be an exaggeration to say we all live in two worlds, which are entirely different from each other.I believe people always have double lives. There’s no man who does not have dreams, desires, longings which have hardly anything to do with reality.There’s no man who does not want to be child again. And if we really shut these things out, then we deny ourselves the basic conditions of our existence. You have to be a child at times; you have to be a lover in your college life or atleast once in your life, otherwise the world of beauty shuts itself out.Tagore, one of my most favourite writers, understood this very well, the importance of this two-facedness. If you see his self-portraits you’ll notice the deliberate use of black, his faces are simply dark. Why does a sage like Tagore have to portray himself as dark? In my interpretation, it is his otherself he wanted to refer back to, and that other self gave validity to his sage-like self so that he could stand here taking a deep breath and say I exist for this world.".................................
The second thing came to my mind is very interesting or may be it is considered as mere assumption. SMI told about this short story collection that "These stories were written over the last twenty years. I started with a story in Bichitra in 1973, titled ‘Bishal Mrittu‘. It was a very surrealistic kind of story. A famous short story writer read it and said it didn’t make any sense. Then I went to Canada to do my PhD and decided to keep it on hold." Here I got a similarity of him with Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short story Collection "Strange Pilgrims". In the "Prologue: Why Twelve, Why Stories, Why Pilgr4ims" of the book we can see quite a similar story that how Marquez couldn't publish the first draft of his stories.
However, it is plausible that we see the reflection of the Author of our text in syllabus with the teacher who teach that. But it may be  Magical Realism (in my eyes) that the suddenly we find a distinctive similarities in a background history of the creation of literary piece.Hope I will find something more when I finish reading the book "The Merman's Prayer and other stories".