October 21st, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Build muscle and burn fat are the two most important factors in building an exceptional body, so you will want to heed the advice in this guide. The desire for a strong, healthy body is common enough, and there is no shortage of information out there. Not all of it is accurate, so here in this article we show you how to build muscle and burn fat properly.
Step 1
The basics which you need to know to build muscle and burn fat effectively are cardio exercises and resistance training, which more often than not involves lifting weights at a gym. Weight lifting is excellent for your muscles, giving them more strength, and improving their efficiency. The weight lifting will then bulk up the muscles with extra size, and the cardio burns off excess fat, and gives your heart a stimulating workout.
Step 2
Once you have developed a settled exercise program with both cardio and resistance training, the most effective way to build muscle and burn fat as quickly as possible is to cut the rest periods in between exercises right down. This makes your gym work a lot more strenuous, and you need to be careful. Provided you stay within your limits, your muscles will benefit enormously from working at the point of exhaustion.
Step 3
One often overlooked, but extremely important, factor in the efficacy of your workouts is your diet. Learning which foods to eat at any given stage is a vital factor in being able to build muscle and burn fat. Very few bodybuilders really know how to do this. Muscles need protein to rebuild themselves after a strenuous workout, so take in protein food as soon as you can. Try it for a month, and see what happens. Try it with low fat protein such as tuna or chicken, and you should be pleased with the results.
Step 4
Make sure the weights you lift are right. Whereas most people will tell you to make sure you are not lifting too much weight, and that is indeed sound advice, you also need to know that there are more people in gyms under lifting than over lifting. Many weightlifters struggle to see gains because they aren’t lifting enough weight to work the muscles. A weight which you can only manage to lift for 6 or 8 reps is ideal to build muscle and burn fat. Find a weight which you can only lift around 6 times, and keep practising lifting until you can lift the weight more than six times. When you can lift the weight ten times with relative ease, it is time to increase the weight again.
Follow the simple but effective advice in this guide, and you will find yourself able to build muscle and burn fat.
It’s parent-teacher conference time! Some are positive experiences where teachers are able to make great connections with parents. And yet other meetings are foretold by apprehension and met with strife. Over the years, you will encounter the gamut of positive and negative experiences, and everything in between. However, there are strategies you can use to make the best of any situation.
It is extremely important to make a good first impression (even if you already know the parents). Make eye contact with them, and greet the parents with a firm handshake. No weak grips! If you’ve never met the parents, stand up to introduce yourself. Welcome them with a smile. Remember that you are building relationships, and setting the tone for the conference.
A good way to open the conference is to ask how the student is doing in other classes. Ask about their other grades, and start building an overall picture. You will often find the student’s strong and weak areas, and you may even find surprises. I’ve found students who were failing every class but mine. And I’ve found the opposite too. A good overall picture can really give you a new perspective on your students.
Always try to say something positive. Even in the cloudiest of situations, you should find some ray of sunshine. And if you do have bad news to share, opening with good news can help ease the transition.
Be objective with bad news. Give truthful and accurate facts, and keep from making speculations. Make sure you have your facts straight! Work with parents, and try to offer suggestions. Most parents will look to you for ideas. Plan what you’ll say ahead of time. If you’ve taken the time to get to know your students well, you’ll find the conferences easier.
Positive parents are what we all expect and hope for. They come in with an open mind, are pleasant, and are willing to both listen to your comments and help with solutions to problems that do occur. These are often very short conferences at the middle and high school levels. The parents have heard the stories all before, and with good reason; students whose parents regularly attend conferences have higher grade averages and fewer instances of behavior problems than those students whose parents rarely interact with school personnel.
The truth be known, many parents are intimidated by teachers. Many do worry that their concerns and critiques will be turned around and used against their kids. Even though teachers find this entire concept laughable and preposterous, it does, nonetheless, cross many parents’ minds.
So, what do you do with a hostile parent? Diffuse the situation by being patient and listening. Sometimes its hard to just listen while parents are going off on you. They may be right or wrong, misinformed or even plain out of line. It is only a mistake to interrupt them, especially if they are on a roll. Stop yourself, focus on what they’re saying, even take notes to show you’re listening, and let them burn themselves out. Sometimes the hostile parents are looking for an audience, and sometimes they just need to vent. By giving them the time to ‘get it all out of their system’, you allow them to calm down so you both can reasonably discuss the situation.
Be sure to stand when they leave, again this is being courteous and polite. Thank them for attending. And let them know you’ll contact them if anything changes. Parents generally want to be kept informed about their kids, both the good and bad.
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Frank Holes, Jr. is the editor of the StarTeaching website and the bi-monthly newsletter, Features for Teachers. Check out our latest issue at:
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Scales of critical attacks and remarks addressing the well-known theory of special relativity have recently acquired so imposing a scope that it is right to speak about an approaching crisis. Gradually to an increasing number of scientists, the numerous imperfections of this theory and the dead state of the scientific methodology introduced by it become apparent. Apparently, it is time to seriously upgrade STR and to subject it to corrective revision. With what is it necessary to begin?
In a rebuke to writers on STR, the fact was repeatedly put that they were really mathematicians rather than physicists. In building the theory, the formula of Lorentz‘s transformations already prevailed, and they tried “to adjust” reality to them. And as the selection had been initially made, all other alternatives “had been simply killed off and it had unwittingly blocked off a road to them. Thus, the deductive “mathematical” methodology prevailed.
Frankly, positivistic philosophical-methodological methods absolutizing the observer s position and denying availability of objective characteristics for natural subjects and other phenomena have also played a noxious role. Within the framework of a materialistic methodology, the situation when each of two observers moving past one another would fix alternative spatial and time reductions in the other system and thus would be right, never could be considered. The problem is natural to scientists gravitating to materialism in similar situations: and what takes place in these two systems actually? But instead of an answer, they here receive a positivistic-philosophical “fico”: it appears, there is nothing actually; there is only one subjective semblance of the phenomena which is taken as the scientific basis.
So, two essential methodological defects which STR promoted created the deadlock observed today. Therefore, it is necessary for us to subject a problem within a relativistic situation to more stringent methodological analysis in which the path to the correct solution can be found.
Earlier, in the article “Relativity of Simultaneity Versus Other Relativistic Effects”, we have already identified that creators of STR have demonstrated scandalous tendentiousness in the consideration of specific space-time relativistic effects. They have preferred relative reductions of lengths and reducing periods as main effects, and the effect of a relativity of simultaneity has
been pushed into the second plan, and presented in the capacity of being dependent on the first two. For this reason they designedly did not deduce the value of mistiming of clocks, basing the last effect, on the thought experiment with Einstein’s train that would be quite natural and rather simple. Writers on STR have used this experiment qualitatively and the quantitative ratio was deduced later, after obtaining the formulas of Lorentz’s transformations for space and time coordinates.
The outcome of this tendentious approach was that the effect of the relativity of simultaneity found itself in the backyard of STR and the methodological specificity introduced by it has remained scantily studied. There was a fatal error in it as will be exhibited below. The specific features introduced by this effect in a methodological situation, appear so considerable, that it causes a radical change in the attitude towards the problem.
It is considered that the effect of the relativity of simultaneity s “mistiming” of clocks lays in points along the line of relative motion for two moving systems. Formulas for the value of this mistiming are deduced in STR. However the importance of some details of mistiming for physics, in our opinion reflected badly on the theory. In our preceding article we attempted more deeply to uncover this situation.
Actually, the question is that in any points removed from each other along the line of relative motion of two systems, there is a relative distortion and a relative displacement of the time scale. We shall pay attention to the relative displacement. Clearly, in one of the systems, all events happening at any point removed from the origin of coordinates for two systems will happen with relative forestalling, and in other, accordingly, with relative delay. The value of this displacement demonstrates dependence on the relative velocity of the systems and the distances between the points along the line of motion.
It is important to realize that the indicated displacement occurs along the trajectory at the same time, changing from point to point. The question is about a new total factor in our time-space perception, a role and value which is very important to evaluate correctly! This total factor essentially distorts our customary cognitive methods. It is necessary to strain our space-time imagination a little to understand it.
The special situation generated by the relativity of simultaneity
Earlier, we had already drawn attention to the unforeseen problem generated by the effect of the relativity of simultaneity. If we combine the space-time origins of coordinates of two systems at any point (O=O`) then in all remaining points of the line of their relative motion, the relative displacement of the time scale will occur. In outcome synchronize in two systems those events which happen instantaneously in point O=O ` can only. In particular, only the instantaneous values of the vector quantities present at this point can be compared. All remaining events appear with some relative time-shift, and this fact of relative forestalling/delay is necessary for the relative comparison of the two systems. Actually these two systems demonstrate essential relative nonlinearity. Events meet in one point and then change along the x axis.
So, with solitary instantaneous events all is simple enough. And how would it be with a simultaneous comparison of two and more events occurring at miscellaneous points in space? Here appears a major problem. The factor of relative forestalling/delay of events in miscellaneous points makes the act of such comparison impossible in principle! What does this imply?
The classical act of measurement of spatial parameters implies simultaneous matching of the ends of a measured object with marks on a template. Clearly, that the effect of a relativity of simultaneity makes such classical act of direct measurement in a relativistic situation when the subject and a template are in two systems moving past one another, essentially impossible. We must look into this problem in detail. So, it is methodologically impossible, impermissible, to compare space segments directly in two systems! We have the same problem concerning time increments. Their direct comparison is also methodologically incorrect. All this results in the fact that direct comparison of any processes consisting of two and more events becomes impossible. In particular, it concerns any motion along any non-zero spatial segment or during any non-zero period.
And now let’s recollect Michelson s experiment and the “strictly scientific” deduction of the well-known Lorentz’s transformations on the basis of its results. In light of the problems found by us, the expectation of experimenters and theoretical-geometrical calculations of the creators of STR look at best, naive or ridiculous. The methodology, with which they were guided, is completely impermissible. It in mechanics of Newton one could join simultaneous processes of motion of a boat and a river (in the classical example of traversing a fast river) in one spatial drawing or a graphic diagram, and then get the resultant velocity from a right triangle. In relativistic mechanics, all this is impermissible! There can be no direct comparisons of spatial segments, periods and processes of motion, especially on one linear diagram! No direct comparisons of vectors spreading in the space and time, of right triangles composed of them and simple formulas of transformations! Specific relative space-time nonlinearity of the worlds, of the parallel flows of a development of events in two systems causes us to refuse former primitive methodological methods and to search for others (probably, indirect) methods of comparison. Events occur in the special time proportions in each of two flows, and the arbitrary transfer, mixing of formulas, and values of variable data are completely impermissible in these flows.
So, the correct methodology of direct comparisons does not exist and cannot exist in principle.
What then do the formulas of Lorentz’s transformations offer us? Here, each of two moving experimenters independently (subjectively) makes a decision about what instants to consider as the beginning and the end of the act of measurement of a spatial segment or time period within the current process. But for all that, as it has been exhibited in our previous article, the solutions of the two experimenters contradict one another. Therefore it is no wonder that the results of such measurements are different. The situation where each experimenter considers that there are reductions of lengths of segments and periods in the other system is the effect of these subjective comparisons. Apparently, the cognitive value of similar comparisons and measurements is specifically subjective and comparable to the value of routine visual or acoustic illusions.
It is given that Lorentz’s transformations are deduced from biased (non-objective) methodology and concern only private subjective - illusionary aspects of reality. They do not suit the extraneous objective observer. Watching for the meaningless measurements of two experimenters moving past one another and knowing about the absence of a correct methodology for direct comparisons, this observer should come inevitably to the conclusion that it is necessary to deny any statement about such comparisons in principle. And in the causes of the illusions of relative reductions, he needs to put forward a progressing relative displacement of the time scale along the line of relative motion of two systems. Then the point at issue will vanish. Then the absurd and irritating paradoxes, over the last hundred years will vanish also. In total, all of special relativity will be reduced to the one indicated phenomenon. Contrasted to the former version, the new special relativity theory appreciably wins in simplicity; therefore there is every reason to call it Special Relativity Lite.
Geothermal energy is a platform tapping the inherent energy found within the Earth. Her is an overview of how the process works from a practical perspective.
Producing Energy From Geothermal Resources
There are several types of energy used in the world that are considered eco-friendly. These energy types include solar, which harnesses the power of the sun, and hydroelectric, which uses the power of water to generate electricity. One often neglected ecologically sound energy source that should be grouped with the others is geothermal energy. Geothermal energy involves using the Earth’s own heat to create energy and warmth to be used by people.
Geothermal energy is so named because it derives from the Greek words for “earth heat”, “geo” and “therme”. Extreme amounts of heat are generated in the Earth’s core, which reaches temperatures of up to 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The Earth’s core then transfers heat to the mantle, a crust of rock surrounding the core. This rock liquefies due to the intense heat becoming magma (molten rock). In this magma layer, water collects in columns or reserves. This trapped water, which can be heated to temperatures of about 700 degrees Fahrenheit, is known as a geothermal reservoir. When engineers want to use geothermal energy, they “tap” in to this geothermal water and use the resulting hot water and steam for various purposes.
Geothermal energy plants work by using the steam resulting from tapping into the geothermal water reservoirs to power turbines. These turbines spin producing electricity which can then be used to power industries or even residential areas. The first geothermically engineered power plant was built in Italy in 1904.
These days, roughly 7000 megawatts of electricity is produced by geothermal power plants per year. Geothermal power plants are located in 21 countries throughout the world. In the United States alone, enough geothermal power is generated per year to be the equivalent to the burning of 60 million barrels of oil, to wit, geothermal energy is a major source of power.
Geothermal energy has been used by cultures throughout history for thousands of years. The process used to harness geothermal energy has always been relatively simple compared to that of other energy processes, and the components used are familiar to everyone. The concept of using super hot water from the Earth’s magma layers may seem high tech, but once you have tapped into this resource, it is easy to maintain and use as a continual power source.
The best analogy for geothermal energy production is another alternative energy source. It works in the same way as hydropower. Water is used to spin turbines which produce electricity. In the case of geothermal energy, however, the water comes from the internal chambers of the Earth in, most often, the form of steam.
Did you read the DaVinci Code or maybe see the movie? Did it get you interested in history and secret codes? You do not have to travel to Europe to see the true secrets from history; technology now lets us unlock the oldest secret code in the world, the bible code. For centuries there have been rumors about the secret codes of the bible. Now with the power of your home computer you can unlock the bible codes and see the truth for your self. Whether you are a true believer or a doubtful skeptic, evidence can be found with your own research on the secret codes of the bible.
Bible codes, sometimes referred to as Torah codes, have been part of the Jewish tradition and mystery for over 2000 years. In Hebrew (the language of the original bible) the bible codes are called Gematria which is a translation from ancient Greek which when translated in to English is numerology. Around the time that the Old Testament was written the Greeks were the world leaders in math, so it would be natural that they would influence the composers of the original bible codes. It is information like this that can be found in the software responsible for unlocking the bible codes.
The bible codes can also be seen in other forms of the bible not just the original Hebrew. The King James Version has hidden bible codes and mysteries just waiting to be unlocked. The Greek version of the bible was the first ever translation of the bible and it too has many secrets waiting for you.
Using your home computer you can unlock the bible codes and explore history on your own. There are plenty of wonderful programs and DVDs which reveal the secrets of the bibles codes, and let you explore the magical Holy Land from home. One program called Holy Land Journey takes you on an interactive tour of the Holy Land and matches up bible stories with pictures. There are several bible decoders which are made to work in your native language and help you to start unlocking the secrets of the bible in a simple way so that you can understand.
Start your research now on the Bible codes.
If you’ve ever gotten Lyme disease from an infected tick bite, then you know how uncomfortable the illness can be. Some people don’t realize just how frustrating and painful the disease can be for those suffering from it. Joint and muscle pain that lasts for days or weeks at a time, countless trips to the doctor’s office, misdiagnoses and failed treatments all can make for an extremely stressful period of time.
Coping with Lyme disease can be particularly difficult because oftentimes the illness is misdiagnosed, which leads to treatment plans that don’t work and ongoing sickness and pain from the disease. Because there is no conclusive test to determine whether or not a Lyme disease infection is present, misdiagnosis is common. This can be especially frustrating for people that are told that their symptoms are “all in their head” or that the symptoms are purely psychiatric and that they need anti-depressants. There are more than 100 different symptoms of Lyme disease, which can make it extremely difficult for doctors to narrow down the symptoms into one illness. The disease is also commonly misdiagnosed as another type of ailment, such as arthritis, and so the patient does not receive proper treatment.
If you are coping with Lyme disease in your life, following are some tips that may help you as you fight the disease:
Understand Lyme disease &ndash Get familiar with the disease. Educate yourself on the basics of Lyme disease, such as its causes, symptoms, how it is diagnosed and prognosis. Lyme disease develops from the bacteria Borrelia, which is most commonly transmitted via the bite of a deer tick. Once the bacteria invade your body, you’ll most likely begin to experience symptoms within a matter of weeks. Symptoms include a reddish bulls-eye shaped rash, fever, fatigue, and arthritis-like muscle and joint pain. Coping with Lyme disease and its symptoms certainly is not fun, but by examining your symptoms and medical history, your doctor will hopefully be able to make a proper diagnosis. Once a diagnosis is made, treatment can begin. This will most often include either oral or IV antibiotics to rid your body of the bacteria. Understanding the illness and how it affects your body is an important part of coping with Lyme disease.
Explore your treatment options &ndash Talk to your doctor about different treatment that may be available. Antibiotics are most commonly used to fight the disease. However, there are alternative therapies available, although they have not been studied thoroughly during clinical trials and therefore may not be as effective.
Be patient &ndash This is the hardest thing to do when you’re feeling awful, but it’s very important when coping with Lyme disease. You need to give your body time to heal and respond to treatments, and worrying or stressing over how long it’s taking or dwelling on how bad you feel will NOT help you recover any faster. In fact, it’s more likely to slow down your recovery. So just hang in there — you will get better in time.
Los Angeles schools announced the results of the 2004-2005 school year, state-mandated California High School Exit Exam. Of the students slated to graduate in 2006, 69 percent (more than two thirds) of the class passed both the English language arts and the mathematics portions of the exam. Of the remaining 31 percent of the Class of 2006 students (12th graders):
• Fifteen percent (approximately 5,500 students) must pass both the English language arts and the mathematics portions,
• Ten percent (3,700) must pass the mathematics portion, and
• Six percent (2,000) must pass the English language arts portion.
State law now requires all students to pass both portions of the exit exam in order to graduate from high school and receive a diploma. Students begin taking the exam in the spring of their 10th grade year. If they do not pass one or both portions of the exam, they have the opportunity to retest in both 11th and 12th grades. Los Angeles schools’ Class of 2006 was the first graduating class required to pass both portions of the exam in order to graduate.
The excellent results of the 2004-5 testing is the direct result of focused instruction and successful intervention, and demonstrates that every student is capable of passing the exam. These intense efforts on the part of Los Angeles schools educators were specifically designed to assist students with coursework directly connected to the exit exams.
In the 2004-5 school year, Los Angeles schools developed intervention strategies for students having problems passing the exam. The strategies introduced small learning communities and supported the core curriculum. Personalized teaching and learning approaches were developed for each student, such as an outreach program and intervention on an individual basis. The Los Angeles schools further made attendance at exit exam preparation classes mandatory for students who had yet to pass one or both test portions. These classes met outside of the normal school day and were provided free of charge to the students through the district’s Beyond the Bell, a branch of Los Angeles schools that oversees all student extended day programs.
These combined efforts have had a direct and significant impact upon the graduation rate at Los Angeles schools, as proven not only by the Class of 2006 test results but those for the Class of 2007, as well. When the Class of 2006 was in 10th grade, the students had a first-time pass rate of 60 percent in English language arts and 58 percent in mathematics. The Class of 2007, when in 10th grade, surpassed these first-time pass results by 66 percent in English language arts and 59 percent in mathematics &ndash a significant increase in scholastic achievement.
These results clearly demonstrate that the dropout rate can be turned around, which is just one of the many student achievement goals of Los Angeles schools. The district continues to aggressively focus upon the development of rigorous curriculum for its middle and senior high schools. Los Angeles schools recognize and the exit exam results underscore the importance of improved high school instruction, which can directly impact higher graduation rates and allow students to matriculate and move on to viable options in their adult lives.
How to build muscle mass is the most fundamental question of bodybuilding. The basic answer is simple enough, as dietary considerations, combined with consistent, sustained resistance training is what will produce results. Here in this article we show you how to build muscle mass.
Tip 1
Dietary considerations are fundamentally important when learning how to build muscle mass. Even the simple matter of what to eat is overlooked by many bodybuilders, but the question of what time to eat is hardly ever considered. On waking, your body is in what is known as a catabolic state. This is a poor state for a bodybuilder to be in, as a lack of nutrients causes the body to consume its own muscle mass. If you can give your body a quick, easily absorbed protein boost, that will help enormously. Shakes are ideal for this.
Tip 2
Most importantly, make your workouts regular. Half hearted efforts will produce half hearted results, and consistent effort is needed to see any serious benefit. Make a commitment to consistent training, and you will learn how to build muscle mass on an ongoing basis. The other factor to be aware of is that the body needs to keep being pushed, so as you continue to grow, you need to be lifting ever greater amounts of weight. Consistency will also train your body to expect exercise at certain times, and this will speed up results.
Tip 3
It is easy to tell people to get a personal trainer, but you should think about it if you can. Failing this, someone who works at a gym can produce a written schedule for you to follow. Gyms are happy to do this, as it increases the chances of them keeping your business. Their staff will tell you how to build muscle mass. If you find it difficult to commit to regular workouts, you may find that this helpful, as someone else will be there to push you along.
Tip 4
Start using sports drinks. Sports drinks are specially formulated to replace the electrolytes after strenuous exercise. There is no need to understand the science behind this, just use it to your advantage. Taking a sports drink around 15-20 mins after your workout will have you feeling less tired. Reducing tiredness is another factor in learning how to build muscle mass..
It is not difficult to learn the basics of how to build muscle mass, and hopefully this guide will have shown you the way.
There is one place in which one’s privacy, intimacy, integrity and inviolability are guaranteed &ndash one’s body, a unique temple and a familiar territory of sensa and personal history. The torturer invades, defiles and desecrates this shrine. He does so publicly, deliberately, repeatedly and, often, sadistically and sexually, with undisguised pleasure. Hence the all-pervasive, long-lasting, and, frequently, irreversible effects and outcomes of torture.
In a way, the torture victim’s own body is rendered his worse enemy. It is corporeal agony that compels the sufferer to mutate, his identity to fragment, his ideals and principles to crumble. The body becomes an accomplice of the tormentor, an uninterruptible channel of communication, a treasonous, poisoned territory.
It fosters a humiliating dependency of the abused on the perpetrator. Bodily needs denied &ndash sleep, toilet, food, water &ndash are wrongly perceived by the victim as the direct causes of his degradation and dehumanization. As he sees it, he is rendered bestial not by the sadistic bullies around him but by his own flesh.
The concept of “body” can easily be extended to “family”, or “home”. Torture is often applied to kin and kith, compatriots, or colleagues. This intends to disrupt the continuity of “surroundings, habits, appearance, relations with others”, as the CIA put it in one of its manuals. A sense of cohesive self-identity depends crucially on the familiar and the continuous. By attacking both one’s biological body and one’s “social body”, the victim’s psyche is strained to the point of dissociation.
Beatrice Patsalides describes this transmogrification thus in “Ethics of the Unspeakable: Torture Survivors in Psychoanalytic Treatment”:
“As the gap between the ‘I’ and the ‘me’ deepens, dissociation and alienation increase. The subject that, under torture, was forced into the position of pure object has lost his or her sense of interiority, intimacy, and privacy. Time is experienced now, in the present only, and perspective &ndash that which allows for a sense of relativity &ndash is foreclosed. Thoughts and dreams attack the mind and invade the body as if the protective skin that normally contains our thoughts, gives us space to breathe in between the thought and the thing being thought about, and separates between inside and outside, past and present, me and you, was lost.”
Torture robs the victim of the most basic modes of relating to reality and, thus, is the equivalent of cognitive death. Space and time are warped by sleep deprivation. The self (”I”) is shattered. The tortured have nothing familiar to hold on to: family, home, personal belongings, loved ones, language, name. Gradually, they lose their mental resilience and sense of freedom. They feel alien &ndash unable to communicate, relate, attach, or empathize with others.
Torture splinters early childhood grandiose narcissistic fantasies of uniqueness, omnipotence, invulnerability, and impenetrability. But it enhances the fantasy of merger with an idealized and omnipotent (though not benign) other &ndash the inflicter of agony. The twin processes of individuation and separation are reversed.
Torture is the ultimate act of perverted intimacy. The torturer invades the victim’s body, pervades his psyche, and possesses his mind. Deprived of contact with others and starved for human interactions, the prey bonds with the predator. “Traumatic bonding”, akin to the Stockholm Syndrome, is about hope and the search for meaning in the brutal and indifferent and nightmarish universe of the torture cell.
The abuser becomes the black hole at the center of the victim’s surrealistic galaxy, sucking in the sufferer’s universal need for solace. The victim tries to “control” his tormentor by becoming one with him (introjecting him) and by appealing to the monster’s presumably dormant humanity and empathy.
This bonding is especially strong when the torturer and the tortured form a dyad and “collaborate” in the rituals and acts of torture (for instance, when the victim is coerced into selecting the torture implements and the types of torment to be inflicted, or to choose between two evils).
The psychologist Shirley Spitz offers this powerful overview of the contradictory nature of torture in a seminar titled “The Psychology of Torture” (1989):
“Torture is an obscenity in that it joins what is most private with what is most public. Torture entails all the isolation and extreme solitude of privacy with none of the usual security embodied therein… Torture entails at the same time all the self-exposure of the utterly public with none of its possibilities for camaraderie or shared experience. (The presence of an all powerful other with whom to merge, without the security of the other’s benign intentions.)
A further obscenity of torture is the inversion it makes of intimate human relationships. The interrogation is a form of social encounter in which the normal rules of communicating, of relating, of intimacy are manipulated. Dependency needs are elicited by the interrogator, but not so they may be met as in close relationships, but to weaken and confuse. Independence that is offered in return for ‘betrayal’ is a lie. Silence is intentionally misinterpreted either as confirmation of information or as guilt for ‘complicity’.
Torture combines complete humiliating exposure with utter devastating isolation. The final products and outcome of torture are a scarred and often shattered victim and an empty display of the fiction of power.”
Obsessed by endless ruminations, demented by pain and a continuum of sleeplessness &ndash the victim regresses, shedding all but the most primitive defense mechanisms: splitting, narcissism, dissociation, Projective Identification, introjection, and cognitive dissonance. The victim constructs an alternative world, often suffering from depersonalization and derealization, hallucinations, ideas of reference, delusions, and psychotic episodes.
Sometimes the victim comes to crave pain &ndash very much as self-mutilators do &ndash because it is a proof and a reminder of his individuated existence otherwise blurred by the incessant torture. Pain shields the sufferer from disintegration and capitulation. It preserves the veracity of his unthinkable and unspeakable experiences.
This dual process of the victim’s alienation and addiction to anguish complements the perpetrator’s view of his quarry as “inhuman”, or “subhuman”. The torturer assumes the position of the sole authority, the exclusive fount of meaning and interpretation, the source of both evil and good.
Torture is about reprogramming the victim to succumb to an alternative exegesis of the world, proffered by the abuser. It is an act of deep, indelible, traumatic indoctrination. The abused also swallows whole and assimilates the torturer’s negative view of him and often, as a result, is rendered suicidal, self-destructive, or self-defeating.
Thus, torture has no cut-off date. The sounds, the voices, the smells, the sensations reverberate long after the episode has ended &ndash both in nightmares and in waking moments. The victim’s ability to trust other people &ndash i.e., to assume that their motives are at least rational, if not necessarily benign &ndash has been irrevocably undermined. Social institutions are perceived as precariously poised on the verge of an ominous, Kafkaesque mutation. Nothing is either safe, or credible anymore.
Victims typically react by undulating between emotional numbing and increased arousal: insomnia, irritability, restlessness, and attention deficits. Recollections of the traumatic events intrude in the form of dreams, night terrors, flashbacks, and distressing associations.
The tortured develop compulsive rituals to fend off obsessive thoughts. Other psychological sequelae reported include cognitive impairment, reduced capacity to learn, memory disorders, sexual dysfunction, social withdrawal, inability to maintain long-term relationships, or even mere intimacy, phobias, ideas of reference and superstitions, delusions, hallucinations, psychotic microepisodes, and emotional flatness.
Depression and anxiety are very common. These are forms and manifestations of self-directed aggression. The sufferer rages at his own victimhood and resulting multiple dysfunction. He feels shamed by his new disabilities and responsible, or even guilty, somehow, for his predicament and the dire consequences borne by his nearest and dearest. His sense of self-worth and self-esteem are crippled.
In a nutshell, torture victims suffer from a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Their strong feelings of anxiety, guilt, and shame are also typical of victims of childhood abuse, domestic violence, and rape. They feel anxious because the perpetrator’s behavior is seemingly arbitrary and unpredictable &ndash or mechanically and inhumanly regular.
They feel guilty and disgraced because, to restore a semblance of order to their shattered world and a modicum of dominion over their chaotic life, they need to transform themselves into the cause of their own degradation and the accomplices of their tormentors.
The CIA, in its “Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual &ndash 1983″ (reprinted in the April 1997 issue of Harper’s Magazine), summed up the theory of coercion thus:
“The purpose of all coercive techniques is to induce psychological regression in the subject by bringing a superior outside force to bear on his will to resist. Regression is basically a loss of autonomy, a reversion to an earlier behavioral level. As the subject regresses, his learned personality traits fall away in reverse chronological order. He begins to lose the capacity to carry out the highest creative activities, to deal with complex situations, or to cope with stressful interpersonal relationships or repeated frustrations.”
Inevitably, in the aftermath of torture, its victims feel helpless and powerless. This loss of control over one’s life and body is manifested physically in impotence, attention deficits, and insomnia. This is often exacerbated by the disbelief many torture victims encounter, especially if they are unable to produce scars, or other “objective” proof of their ordeal. Language cannot communicate such an intensely private experience as pain.
Spitz makes the following observation:
“Pain is also unsharable in that it is resistant to language… All our interior states of consciousness: emotional, perceptual, cognitive and somatic can be described as having an object in the external world… This affirms our capacity to move beyond the boundaries of our body into the external, sharable world. This is the space in which we interact and communicate with our environment. But when we explore the interior state of physical pain we find that there is no object ‘out there’ &ndash no external, referential content. Pain is not of, or for, anything. Pain is. And it draws us away from the space of interaction, the sharable world, inwards. It draws us into the boundaries of our body.”
Bystanders resent the tortured because they make them feel guilty and ashamed for having done nothing to prevent the atrocity. The victims threaten their sense of security and their much-needed belief in predictability, justice, and rule of law. The victims, on their part, do not believe that it is possible to effectively communicate to “outsiders” what they have been through. The torture chambers are “another galaxy”. This is how Auschwitz was described by the author K. Zetnik in his testimony in the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem in 1961.
Kenneth Pope in “Torture”, a chapter he wrote for the “Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender”, quotes Harvard psychiatrist Judith Herman:
“It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement, and remembering.”
But, more often, continued attempts to repress fearful memories result in psychosomatic illnesses (conversion). The victim wishes to forget the torture, to avoid re-experiencing the often life threatening abuse and to shield his human environment from the horrors. In conjunction with the victim’s pervasive distrust, this is frequently interpreted as hypervigilance, or even paranoia. It seems that the victims can’t win. Torture is forever.
Note &ndash Why Do People Torture?
We should distinguish functional torture from the sadistic variety. The former is calculated to extract information from the tortured or to punish them. It is measured, impersonal, efficient, and disinterested.
The latter &ndash the sadistic variety &ndash fulfils the emotional needs of the perpetrator.
People who find themselves caught up in anomic states &ndash for instance, soldiers in war or incarcerated inmates &ndash tend to feel helpless and alienated. They experience a partial or total loss of control. They have been rendered vulnerable, powerless, and defenseless by events and circumstances beyond their influence.
Torture amounts to exerting an absolute and all-pervasive domination of the victim’s existence. It is a coping strategy employed by torturers who wish to reassert control over their lives and, thus, to re-establish their mastery and superiority. By subjugating the tortured &ndash they regain their self-confidence and regulate their sense of self-worth.
Other tormentors channel their negative emotions &ndash pent up aggression, humiliation, rage, envy, diffuse hatred &ndash and displace them. The victim becomes a symbol of everything that’s wrong in the torturer’s life and the situation he finds himself caught in. The act of torture amounts to misplaced and violent venting.
Many perpetrate heinous acts out of a wish to conform. Torturing others is their way of demonstrating obsequious obeisance to authority, group affiliation, colleagueship, and adherence to the same ethical code of conduct and common values. They bask in the praise that is heaped on them by their superiors, fellow workers, associates, team mates, or collaborators. Their need to belong is so strong that it overpowers ethical, moral, or legal considerations.
Many offenders derive pleasure and satisfaction from sadistic acts of humiliation. To these, inflicting pain is fun. They lack empathy and so their victim’s agonized reactions are merely cause for much hilarity.
Moreover, sadism is rooted in deviant sexuality. The torture inflicted by sadists is bound to involve perverted sex (rape, homosexual rape, voyeurism, exhibitionism, pedophilia, fetishism, and other paraphilias). Aberrant sex, unlimited power, excruciating pain &ndash these are the intoxicating ingredients of the sadistic variant of torture.
Still, torture rarely occurs where it does not have the sanction and blessing of the authorities, whether local or national. A permissive environment is sine qua non. The more abnormal the circumstances, the less normative the milieu, the further the scene of the crime is from public scrutiny &ndash the more is egregious torture likely to occur. This is especially true in totalitarian societies where the use of physical force to discipline or eliminate dissent is an acceptable practice.
What is a fossil? While this is a simple question, the answer can be simple or a bit more complicated.
The short and sweet answer to that question is “A fossil is the remains or evidence of any creature or plant that lived on the earth in a past geologic age.”
But there are so many KINDS of fossils. A more important question for a curious student is “What kinds of fossils are there?” The answer to that question will take a bit more exploration. You’ll have to dig a little deeper…pun intended!
The Long Answer
There are several fossil classification systems in use today, but the one that I like the best is the one used by Peter Larson and Kristin Donnan in their book, Bones Rock! They group fossils into two categories:
Type I-the remains of the dead animal or plant or the imprint left from the remains.
Type I includes:
So now you have one short and one long answer to the question: “What is a Fossil?” Let’s build on that.
Type II- Something that was made by the animal while it was living that has hardened into stone. These are called trace fossils.
Type II includes:
Type I fossils can be the actual thing that it once was, like a piece of bone or hair or feather. More often the bone material is replaced by different minerals contained in the liquid of the sediments that buried it. What was once bone is now some sort of crystal or mineral.
This process also takes place with shells, exoskeletons and wood. If the spaces in the bone are filled with liquid minerals which later harden it is called permineralization.
Sometimes the organic material is dissolved by the mineral-laden water. The process happens so slowly that each cell is dissolved and replaced by a particular liquid mineral before it hardens. This is called petrification. In petrification, every detail down to the cellular level is duplicated in the minerals.
Type I can also be molds or casts of the original animal or plant part. If the original organism decays, leaving an imprint and an empty space, it is called an exterior mold or simply a mold. If a space in the structure is filled with minerals as the original animal or plant part dissolves, it is called a cast.
So now you have the short answer and the long answer to the question “What is a fossil?”
Was that more info than you were seeking? I hope not! Fossils are the illustrations on the pages of rock that are the earth’s history. I think the more you know, the more you’ll want to discover about these fascinating traces of life we call fossils.
