Personality disorders are dysfunctions of our whole identity, tears in the fabric of who we are. They are all-pervasive because our personality is ubiquitous and permeates each and every one of our mental cells. I just published the first article in this topic titled “What is Personality?”. Read it to understand the subtle differences between “personality”, “character”, and “temperament”.

In the background lurks the question: what constitutes normal behavior? Who is normal?

There is the statistical response: the average and the common are normal. But it is unsatisfactory and incomplete. Conforming to social edicts and mores does not guarantee normalcy. Think about anomic societies and periods of history such as Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Russia. Model citizens in these hellish environments were the criminal and the sadist.

Rather than look to the outside for a clear definition, many mental health professionals ask: is the patient functioning and happy (ego-syntonic)? If he or she is both then all is well and normal. Abnormal traits, behaviors, and personalities are, therefore defined as those traits, behaviors, and personalities that are dysfunctional and cause subjective distress.

But, of course, this falls flat on its face at the slightest scrutiny. Many evidently mentally ill people are rather happy and reasonably functional.

Some scholars reject the concept of “normalcy” altogether. The anti-psychiatry movement object to the medicalization and pathologization of whole swathes of human conduct. Others prefer to study the disorders themselves rather to “go metaphysical” by trying to distinguish them from an imaginary and ideal state of being “mentally healthy”.

I subscribe to the later approach. I much prefer to delve into the phenomenology of mental health disorders: their traits, characteristics, and impact on others.

For many years, scholars have recognized the link between a good breakfast and improved student behavior and academic performance. Boston schools see breakfast as their first tool of success.

In 2000, the Boston schools partnered with the Massachusetts General Hospital to conduct a study on the impact of the federal School Breakfast Program in 16 of their elementary schools. Researchers found that a simple breakfast of milk, juice and cereal provides a fourth of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of key nutrients needed by growing children. Breakfast reduces hunger in the classroom and improves the overall nutrition of the students. They found that student behavior and grades improved, especially in mathematics. Students were able to spend more time on tasks and were more creative. Attendance improved. Students demonstrated better concentration facilities and improved emotional functioning. Trips to the nurse’s office were drastically reduced.

Breakfast is by far the least expensive program for improving academic achievement, yet less than half the children eligible for the free or reduced price meals participate nationwide. One major obstacle is perception &ndash breakfast programs are viewed as programs for the “poor kids”, a label many students wish to avoid. The other major obstacle is timing. Most schools across the country serve breakfast before the start of school &ndash children who arrive late due to tight morning schedules or on buses that are late, miss breakfast.

Many of the Boston schools have implemented innovative strategies to overcome the obstacles of perception and timing:

• Nearly 80 elementary schools now offer a universal breakfast &ndash all children eat together for free. The “poor kid” stigma has been eliminated.

• Participating Boston schools make breakfast a normal and expected part of the morning schedule &ndash no different than taking attendance.

• Boston schools serve breakfast in a variety of ways, using the method that works best for each individual school’s culture. Methods range from serving cold or hot food in the classroom from a cooler or thermal pack; grab and go, brown bag breakfasts; sending students to the cafeteria after attendance; or a combination of these approaches.

• Involving the children makes the program more successful. Children rotating being in charge of food delivery to the classroom, after-breakfast trash removal, and returning leftovers to the cafeteria instills pride and responsibility. They become part of the program, not just participants.

The Boston schools have been recognized for their efforts in the School Breakfast Program. Project Bread, the state’s leading anti-hunger organization and Boston schools partner in the School Breakfast Program, awards Boston schools that have achieved an 80 percent or greater student participation &ndash the point at which the breakfast program pays for itself with federal dollars.

In 2002, Project Bread recognized 10 elementary schools with the School Breakfast Excellence Award. Each award is $1,000 that the school’s principal can use for any school-related expense.

The Boston schools have found that when their educators make it a priority and part of the daily schedule, it is more acceptable to the students and has a better chance to succeed. Breakfast is such an inexpensive way for Boston schools to achieve substantial academic results &ndash especially in the children who need it the most.

Everyone gets those situations in life where an emergency has come up, and you don’t have the time (or sometimes the ability) to get a good lesson plan in to school for your students. Maybe you have a family emergency or a disrupted travel plan and you just cannot get into school to leave detailed lessons. That is why it is essential for you to have an emergency lesson plan available and handy.

The emergency lesson plan should be able to be used at ANY point in the year. It doesn’t have to fit in with what you’re currently doing (nor should it - it is to be used when you cannot leave normal sub plans). The lesson should be related to your normal curriculum, but it could be a supplement or an enrichment activity.

Get a folder (or a three-ring binder), and label it appropriately on the outside cover. There are even folders you can purchase (some schools even make these available to teachers) labeled ’sub folder’ or ‘emergency plans’. Also make sure you have an appropriate spot for your emergency folder on or in your desk area. Some schools will ask you to keep an emergency plan in the office. In either case, make sure it is easily accessible by a substitute teacher.

Think about keeping class activities to 10 to 15 minute increments. This way the sub will have better control of your kids. Students have difficulties adjusting to changes in their routines, and you don’t want to have to return to discipline referrals.

Keep the information organized and easily accessible for a sub. Remember, the sub won’t know where you normally keep things, and they can’t read your mind. Spell out exactly what you want done, where it can be found, and what you want done with it when they’re finished.

Make sure you have made enough copies of any worksheets so the sub doesn’t have to. And be sure to leave answer keys. Many subs will actually even grade your assignments for you if you ask them in your plans.

Get this done early in the year, and you can save yourself many headaches later, not to mention worries about what will happen in your room if you are unable to be there.

EMERGENCY LESSON PLAN IDEAS:

Language Arts: Include short writing activities involving students opinions. Thus they don’t have to have ‘background’ information, and they can write from their own experiences. Parts of speech review can include mad-libs or easy, fun worksheets.

Math: Leave a calculator activity. These could even be puzzles or partner games. Or give review problems.

Science: Copy a science article and have students read carefully and answer questions. Make speculations and use the scientific method. Or have students create the plans for a lab activity.

Reading: Leave students a copy of a short story or article, and questions to answer. You could even set up a ‘test-taking’ exercise, and discuss appropriate answers and strategies.

Social Studies: Map activities are great for emergency plans. You can even set up a one-day unit on any area/region of the world, including your own town or city.

Everyone gets those situations in life where an emergency has come up, and you don’t have the time (or sometimes the ability) to get a good lesson plan in to school for your students. Maybe you have a family emergency or a disrupted travel plan and you just cannot get into school to leave detailed lessons. That is why it is essential for you to have an emergency lesson plan available and handy.

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Making the decision to custom build a swimming pool in your backyard is very exciting! Many people envision their children laughing and splashing in the water, their friends sitting around with cold beverages and neighbourhood BBQ’s with the pool being the main centerpiece. But building a pool is major construction and the vision sometimes gets lost with the noise of the yard being dug up and construction workers milling around. This article will help those future pool owners understand what’s really happening during the process and keep the vision of the finished product in their heads.

The first step is the fun part and that’s designing your swimming pool! A qualified team of contractors and designers will sit down with you to decide what type of pool you would like. They will take into consideration what your needs are and what will be most suitable to your yard. You will choose things such as the pool’s shape, the colour, and the different materials that will be used.

Before any excavation is begun, a representative of the company you have chosen will come to layout the new pool in your backyard. This layout will show where your pool area will be, where the deck area will be, and where the location of the pool equipment will be. This will all be based on the custom design you have chosen. After you approve the layout, building will begin!

The next step is the grading and excavation. The excavating equipment will be brought in and the digging will begin. It usually takes about one full day to dig out the pool area and remove the soil from your yard. If there are soil or rock issues to contend with, it may take longer than one day.

To protect the pool from ground forces, steel is brought in next. Steel-reinforcing rods, or rebar, are placed inside the pool area. These will travel along the bottom, up the sides, and around the perimeter. After this is done, the plumbing and electrical can be completed. Plumbing crews will install the proper piping to clean and purify your swimming pool. The electricians will also hook up to your main electricity service and connect the pool equipment and lighting. A concrete mixture called gunite is then applied. This is applied with a lot of pressure so it can bond tightly around the steel reinforcing rods. This reinforces the steel and gives it much more strength.

The swimming pool tile is installed next. This will be installed up to what will be the waterline in the pool. The coping, or the ‘lip’, of the pool may also be installed around the perimeter of the pool at this time. Tile and coping are available in a wide variety of colours, designs, and textures. You will have chosen these when you were designing your pool. The decking will be installed after the tile. This is an important part of the design as it frames and accents the pool. The materials can be concrete, brick, or stone.

The pool equipment set will then be placed on a concrete pad and be made operational. The pool will then be covered with a strong, waterproof finish that will seal the pool and provide the finishing touches. There will be different colours available that will affect the colour of the pool when reflecting the sun.

After that, your pool is finished! All it needs is some landscaping, some patio furniture, and voila! Your vision has finally arrived!

One of the most important telescopes in the history of astronomy, the Hubble telescope has allowed observers to peer farther into space than any previous telescope. By moving outside and above the atmosphere of the earth, the Hubble telescope has been able to observe visual data much more clearly than a terrestrial telescope, and it has been able to see much farther into the ultraviolet and infrared spectrums as well, since these spectra are largely absorbed by the earth’s atmosphere. Thus, by moving the observing platform into open space, the Hubble telescope has given a much clearer view of the universe, allowing scientists to peer even deeper into space.

The Hubble telescope is named for Edwin Hubble, the astronomer who originally determined that the universe is expanding. This discovery, one of the foundations of modern astronomy and cosmology, made Hubble an excellent choice for the honor of having this telescope named for him.

The concept for the Hubble telescope was originally the idea of Lyman Spitzer back in 1946. He clearly saw that earth-based telescopes were inherently limited in their ability to see into the heavens, since dust, clouds, and even turbulence in the atmosphere interfered with telescopes’ clarity. Which meant that the best way to get a clear image from a telescope was with a telescope that was in orbit around the earth.

After some success with the smaller Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, the plan for a large scale telescope was born. There were some fits and starts however, mostly due to budget constraints, and the project did not really take off until the 1970’s and funding was not approved until 1978. Then, with funding in place, plans were made to launch the Hubble telescope in 1983. However, due to various delays, it was not actually launched until 1990.

After a few early problems, the Hubble telescope finally started sending back clear images. And those images were well worth the effort. The Hubble telescope was able to achieve a sharpness and resolution that was unimaginable with a standard, earth-bound telescope; crisp images that not only showed new detail in known areas of space, but also peered deeper into space than ever before. And with these new images, astronomers have been able to discover new and exciting information about our universe.

However, it is not only astronomers who have been amazed at the images that the Hubble telescope has produced. In fact, the images from Hubble are delights to view all on their own. From the clearly defined galaxies, to pictures of nebulae, to the Apollo 15 landing site, Hubble has been as exciting for the public as it has been for scientists.

As the Hubble telescope ages, its future is uncertain. Corrective software has allowed earth-based telescopes to pick up much of the information previously possible only with a space-based telescope. And as NASA retools itself to follow its mandate to take a man to Mars, money that would be spent on maintenance of the Hubble is being spent elsewhere. However, before the Hubble telescope enters the atmosphere sometime in 2010, it will provide a remarkable window into the universe and all that is in it.

Telescopes act as windows to the universe. It is with the help of telescopes that we can study the solar system and view the conjunctions of stars. Not just that, the various planets, galaxies, satellites and asteroids that we get to see only in the books and magazines are made more familiar to us via the telescopes. They act as barrier- breaking instruments between the human beings and the outer space. The universe is no more a mystery to us that exists beyond our reach and we owe it all to the telescopes.

The modern day telescopes bring with them a wide array of accessories and it is with the aid of these accessories that it becomes much more easier to successfully put the telescopes into proper use. Let us see what are the important accessories that go well and are a “must-have” for most telescope users: -

Filters- These are very essential for telescope users because they reduce the glare on the eyepiece and scatter the light thereby making it less strenuous for us to view distant objects.

Eyepiece- this is a very important piece of equipment and its absence can render a telescope useless. Eyepieces come in a variety of sizes and if you add more than one eyepiece to your telescopes then you can have the pleasure of viewing even the tiniest and distant objects with clarity.

Mounts- Mounts are the stands for telescopes. It is a mount on which the telescope rests. Since a telescope wont function favorably in vibrations therefore you should ensure that it is placed on a stable mount.

Barlow lens- A Barlow lens helps in the magnification of telescopes. These lenses are available in different sizes and we must be careful in choosing the size that best fits the eyepiece.

There are two main types of telescopes, the refractor (Galileo) telescopes and the reflector (Newton) telescopes. The refractor telescope uses an objective lens that bends the light towards the eyepiece. While the reflector telescope uses a mirror, which collects the light and then directs it towards the eyepiece.

Though both the refractors as well as the reflector telescopes are easily available in the market we should take the following points into consideration before buying a telescope.

Do not get impressed by the magnification of the telescopes. This is because magnification alone is of no use if it just produces large but hazy images.

Aperture- This is the most important factor while deciding on a telescope. Aperture is the opening that collects light so its important to choose a telescope with a larger aperture that will ensure a clearer and a more detailed image quality.

Resolution- This enables the telescopes to produce a more detailed image. So always opt for a telescope, which has a higher resolution. Moreover since resolution is also determined by the aperture, therefore the larger the aperture the better the resolution.

Focal length- The distance between the optical center of the lens or the mirror and the optical center of the eyepiece is known as the focal length. The focal length is what determines the magnification in telescopes. Larger focal lengths imply more magnification.

If we are careful about remembering the above points then it wont take us long to choose a telescope the next time we want to buy one for ourselves.

I watched your programme broadcast on 16th January on Channel 4. You expressed indignation that Christians and Jews should be allowed to teach their faith to their children. Does it ever occur to you that what you believe about the origin of life is equally a ‘faith’ which is to be accepted without question by millions of children and adults who are taught it in the education system and the media?

Since none of us were there when life began everything we believe about it is an act of faith. You are reading back into time supposedly scientific conclusions, which are actually extremely questionable. I have never found a satisfactory explanation from evolutionists for some very basic questions about your theory.

1. Where did the matter which exploded in the ‘Big Bang’ come from?

2. If the Big Bang is the explanation for the existence of the universe, how did an ordered world come into being out of something which would have generated disorder (an explosion)? Our observation of explosions (e.g. a bomb going off) shows that they cause matter to move from order to disorder, not disorder to order. How can you explain our marvellous planet which has all the hugely complex parameters necessary for life (distance from the sun, atmosphere, water cycle, soil, plants able to provide food etc) coming into being by a random process?

3. Darwin himself had little to say about the origin of the first life form by the forces of natural selection. Since the discovery of DNA we now know that there are no simple life forms but every cell contains a huge amount of information. To believe that this could have come about by random forces is the equivalent of believing the information in the Encyclopaedia Britannica could have been put there in the same way. According to your belief not only did such incredibly complex matter have to arise by accident it also had to have the power to reproduce itself otherwise the arrival of life would have been no more than a very temporary blip on the evolutionary horizon. All reproductive systems are highly complex but vital to the survival of the species.

4. Darwin acknowledged that ‘to suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection (evolution) seems absurd in the highest possible degree.’ You are on record as saying that ‘it would only take about 364,000 generations to evolve a good fish eye with a lens.’ This does not explain how a creature which needs sight to survive managed to carry on living for all these millions of years without eyes. Hugely complex organs like the eye, the heart, the brain etc are all vital to survival. Even more vital are the reproductive systems of creatures. All creatures that reproduce sexually require a perfectly functioning male and female to produce the next generation. How can such a system have developed over millions of years of trial and error as must be assumed by evolution? If the system is not functioning in the first generation the species dies out. The Genesis record that God made all creatures able to reproduce after their own kind makes much more sense on this issue than the conclusion of evolution.

5. Darwin acknowledged the absence of transitional forms in the fossil record and in observable life forms. There is no problem in believing in variation within species (short beaked and long beaked finches etc). But there is absolutely no evidence of variation from one species to another taking place or in the fossil record. There are also huge problems with this theory. For example how did the first bird develop the power to fly? If wings evolved over millions of years during the time they were evolving they would have been an encumbrance not an advantage. What would stop cat eating bird before the bird developed its wings? In which case bird species dies out before it learns to fly!

No doubt you have answers to these questions which satisfy you, but they do not satisfy everyone. You are asking people to believe that something could come out of nothing, that an explosion could create an ordered universe, that incredibly complex life forms could arise spontaneously out of non life and have the ability to reproduce and develop higher life forms. I don’t believe this! But you are allowed to teach this to our children and to ridicule those who don’t believe your theory on TV without giving them a fair opportunity to give a reasoned defence of your faith. The Christians you chose to interview were either on the very wacky end of the US evangelical scene like the man who agreed with killing those who work in abortion clinics or liberals like the Bishop of Oxford who agrees more with you than with what the Bible teaches.

On the subject of the Bible, your highly selective use of quotations to pillory the God of the Bible as a sadist ignored context and the overall teaching of the book. The significance of the Abraham and Isaac story is that Abraham did not sacrifice Isaac. Child sacrifice was common in the pagan religions of the tribes around Israel at the time and is consistently condemned in the Bible. In our time child sacrifice has again returned as we sacrifice unborn children to our gods of convenience and lust. There is a deeper message about faith in Genesis 22 which is beyond the scope of this letter. The incident of the man sending his daughter out to be raped by the mob in Judges 19 is hardly held up as a model of practice in the Bible! As the Bible is a realistic book it tells it like it is and does not gloss over gross acts. The period of the Judges is summed up in the last verse of the book ‘Everyone did what was right in his own eyes’ &ndash i.e. everyone did their own thing rather than doing what was right in the eyes of God &ndash rather like today!

Finally your view that supposedly scientific developments and the influence of evolution have always exercised a benign influence on the human race does not stand up to examination. Nietzsche, a disciple of Darwinism, wrote in his diatribe against Christianity, ‘The Antichrist’, ‘Pity on the whole thwarts the law of evolution, which is the law of selection. It preserves what is ripe for destruction; it defends life’s disinherited and condemned.’ The Nazis took hold of this idea to justify eliminating what they considered to be ‘life’s disinherited and condemned’ in the Holocaust. On the other side of the same coin, the Soviet Communists used pamphlets like ‘The part played by labour in the transition from ape to man’ written by Engels as the basis for their indoctrination of society with atheism and evolutionism. The end result was the gulags and the KGB and the persecution of non-believers in Soviet atheism (in particular believing Christians).

Not many people would agree that we are doing as marvellously in the moral sphere in our present society as you concluded in your programme. In fact we are on the brink of a collapse of the whole social and economic order as drug taking and alcoholism, sexual immorality, pornography and the breakdown of the family, violence and debt spiral out of control. We are fouling up the only planet we can live on and creating weapons of destruction which threaten the whole survival of humanity. All these things happening can be seen as the result of a rejection of God and the salvation offered us through the Lord Jesus Christ, not the result of following Him.

It would be interesting if Channel 4 or the like would be willing to put on a real debate on these issues, with Christians who know what they are talking about. Yours sincerely, Tony Pearce.

Home gym workouts need not be any less effective than workouts done in a gym, provided certain basic principles are observed. A home gym is unlikely to have the same professional equipment as a commercial gym, so some adjustments will be necessary. Here is how to get the best results from a home gym workout.

Cardio

It can never be quite the same at home. Gym workouts often commence with either running, or exercises using a treadmill or elliptical trainer. If your home gym is especially well equipped, you may well want to start in the same way. Most will not be so lucky, and will need a different type of exercise to warm up with. You could just go for a run outside, or you could use something like a small trampoline to get your blood moving.

Chest

Here again if you have a weight bench available, it is ideal for this stage of your home gym workout. Use bench presses, either with dumbbells or barbells. Dumbbells will allow you more freedom to develop your body evenly. Not many will have access to this facility, however, and in this case you will need to improvise. Try some declined pushups. They are hard work, but if you feel that you are not getting the necessary work load, try raising your feet. That will be much harder, but if you need it harder still, try using one hand.

Legs

Legs are not the easiest part of the body to build using home gym workouts, but with a bit of ingenuity, a lot can be achieved. It will, of course, be easier if you have a bench. You can then employ basic leg curls. Using weights, try squats as they are very effective in developing the thighs. Calves are more difficult to deal with, but if you can stand on your bottom step with one foot, without your heel touching the step, then you can raise yourself using that one foot. This is a very physically demanding exercise, and will yield good results.

Arms

The arms are much easier to make part of a home gym workout. Although professional gym equipment is always a help, to develop your arms you only really need a set of dumbbells. Perform basic curls to build the biceps effectively, and work your triceps by doing easy seated triceps extensions. As well as these, make use of the dumbbell kickback, as this is a proven workout for those just starting.

Hopefully this guide will have illustrated what can be done with home gym workouts, and that you can get a lot of results from them.

The difference between natural acne treatments products and non-natural acne treatment products is that difference except natural treatment products does not include any side effects. Although natural acne treatment products have been increasing its popularity over the latest few years, another popular type of acne treatment was found, the home made acne treatment products.

Home made acne treatment products may range from natural products to non natural products. The greatest advantage is that one can use different acne treatment products until you find one that they prefer and that works best on them. So this way they do not need to buy many different products to find one that works best but easily make the product at home to try it and then make more when it gives a good result.

Still sometimes these treatment products can be natural, they also give the advantages of natural treatment products, no side effects. They are still acne treatment products but they may take longer to treat the acne, sometimes it may take up to months with a home made acne treatment product to make the acne go away.

Basically home made acne treatments are made with the sources that one has. Since everyone is different, the identical acne treatment product will not give the same results to everyone. So therefore home made acne treatment can quickly find the perfect acne treatment product for you. This type of acne treatment has been gaining popularity for a long time now. This type of acne treatment is also the cheapest kind of acne treatment out there. Some researches have found that other people’s remedies for acne will not work sometimes but then when using a home made acne remedy, it could do the job and get rid of your acne.

There is also one bad point in using home made acne treatments. They might not work and may sometimes add to the problem. If the treatment has not been made correctly it may add to the acne problem with side effects and other skin issues. Most people would just use trail and error because most of the skin issues that is caused by a side effect can be cured. It is best to do some research before making your own home made acne treatment product.

The classic elegance and luster of pearls has become more of a curse than a blessing. They may be considered lovely jewelry but are usually relegated into the background, in stuffy events like weddings, christenings and coming out balls. Pearl necklaces have sometimes been equated with “squares”, spinster aunts, grandmothers and the old South. Pearls have had a hard time competing with more edgy jewelry like the luscious and high-class gemstones like diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and even semi-precious stones like opal and garnet.

Pearls have therefore become remnants of the past than beautiful gems that can be used as modern accessories. That has changed. Pearls have made a huge comeback into the modern scene just a few years ago. They did not really leave the fashion world but only had limited and specialized use. Today, pearls can be found in almost all kinds of fashion-related items.

The reason for this is the accessibility of pearls in the form of freshwater pearls. Japan has started this industry in the 1920s by culturing pearls using freshwater mussels. However, it has declined production but China has claimed the production of cultured pearls because of the high demand for them.

Donor mussels are inserted with irritants that form the pearls and some of these mussels can produce up to 40 freshwater pearls. The pearls are not as high-quality as the ones made naturally but the color and shape can be controlled and some freshwater pearls can be breathtakingly beautiful as natural ones.

A pearl strand belonging to Mary, Queen of Scots dating from 1550 is made of freshwater pearls. Scotland has been cultivating freshwater pearls, as well as North America but the extinction of almost 35 species of mussels in Europe and America has left Asia with this booming industry.

Because of its reentry into the world of edgy fashion, more and more pearl companies are striving to provide jewelry ideas for the modern woman. There are many ways that freshwater pearls can be used and integrated into a woman’s fashion sense. They can be used as accessories. Pearl jewelry today tries to incorporate contemporary design and color into pearl necklaces. The classic pearl necklace and pearl choker has given way to long strands of irregularly shaped freshwater pearls in all sizes and colors. They can be paired with casual wear such as jeans, blouses and short dresses.

Pearl bracelets and pearl earrings come in magnificent colors such as red, turquoise and canary yellow that makes any outfit pop. Other jewelry options for pearls include adding beads made of semi-precious stones or crystals.

Pearls have dominated all aspects of the jewelry trade. Even the mother-of-pearl shell of mollusks is used for inlay work on bracelets with freshwater pearls as accentuating items. Pendants for necklaces and rings are now also popularly made of freshwater pearls. Even younger people have seen the flexibility and the touch of beauty that pearls give to an otherwise ordinary outfit and include these accessories while shopping.

Office women rely on pearl necklaces to give them that polished corporate look. Jewelry designers are coming up with more and more ideas for pearls. Edgy and contemporary jewelry designs have freshwater pearls in them, either as the main piece or an accentuating item. Indeed, pearls are here to stay.