dieseltaylor

Ho hum. 1. Poor food in early life lowers IQ ! 2. If you have no words[signs] for numbers you lose numeracy. Always a favourite of mine as I hold words form the way we think. 1. http://www.labspaces.net/108998/Processed_food_diet_in_early_childhood_may_lower_subsequent_IQ A diet, high in fats, sugars, and processed foods in early childhood may lower IQ, while a diet packed full of vitamins and nutrients may do the opposite, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The authors base their findings on participants in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), which is tracking the long term health and wellbeing of around 14,000 children born in 1991 and 1992. Parents completed questionnaires, detailing the types and frequency of the food and drink their children consumed when they were 3, 4, 7 and 8.5 years old. Three dietary patterns were identified: "processed" high in fats and sugar intake; "traditional" high in meat and vegetable intake; and "health conscious" high in salad, fruit and vegetables, rice and pasta. Scores were calculated for each pattern for each child. IQ was measured using a validated test (the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) when they were 8.5 years old. In all, complete data were available for just under 4,000 children. The results showed that after taking account of potentially influential factors, a predominantly processed food diet at the age of 3 was associated with a lower IQ at the age of 8.5, irrespective of whether the diet improved after that age. Every 1 point increase in dietary pattern score was associated with a 1.67 fall in IQ. On the other hand, a healthy diet was associated with a higher IQ at the age of 8.5, with every 1 point increase in dietary pattern linked to a 1.2 increase in IQ. Dietary patterns between the ages of 4 and 7 had no impact on IQ. The authors say that these findings, although modest, are in line with previous ALSPAC research showing an association between early childhood diet and later behaviour and school performance. "This suggests that any cognitive/behavioural effects relating to eating habits in early childhood may well persist into later childhood, despite any subsequent changes (including improvements) to dietary intake," they say. The brain grows at its fastest rate during the first three years of life, say the authors, by way of a possible explanation for the findings, adding that other research has indicated that head growth at this time is linked to intellectual ability. "It is possible that good nutrition during this period may encourage optimal brain growth," they suggest, advocating further research to determine the extent of the effect early diet has on intelligence. BMJ-British Medical Journal: http://www.bma.org 2. http://www.labspaces.net/108990/Words_help_people_form_mathematical_concepts Language may play an important role in learning the meanings of numbers, scholars at the University of Chicago report. A study based on research on deaf people in Nicaragua who never learned formal sign language showed that people who communicate using self-developed gestures, called homesigns, were unable to comprehend the value of numbers greater than three because they had not learned a language containing symbols used for counting. By contrast, deaf people who acquire conventional sign language as children can learn the meaning of large numbers. Researchers believe this is because conventional sign language, like spoken languages, imparts a counting routine early in childhood. The study illustrates the complexity of learning the symbolic relationships embedded in language, including seemingly simple numerical concepts. The work may help researchers learn more about how language shapes the way children learn early mathematical concepts, and how that crucial process can go awry in the preschool years. "It's not just the vocabulary words that matter, but understanding the relationships that underlie the words––the fact that 'eight' is one more than 'seven' and one less than 'nine.' Without having a set of number words to guide them, deaf homesigners in the study failed to understand that numbers build on each other in value," said Susan Goldin-Meadow, the Bearsdley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at the University. The findings are reported in the paper, "Number Without a Language Model," published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The lead author is University researcher Elizabet Spaepen, a 2008 Ph.D. graduate in psychology who did field work in Nicaragua as part of the study. Inability to think rather than communicate about numbers Scholars have previously found that people in isolated cultures do not learn the value of large numbers when they are not part of the local language. Two groups studied in the Amazon, for instance, do not have words for numbers greater than five and are unable to match two rows of checkers containing more than five items. Their local culture does not require the use of exact large numbers, which could explain the Amazonians' difficulty with them. However, most Nicaraguans do use exact numbers in everyday monetary transactions. Although the deaf homesigners in the UChicago study understood the relative worth of different currency items, they apparently had an incomplete understanding of their numerical values because they had never been taught number words, Spaepen said. For the study, scholars gave homesigners a series of tasks to determine how well they could recognize money. They were shown 10-unit and 20-unit bills and asked which had more value. When asked if nine 10-unit coins had more or less value than a 100-unit bill, each of the homesigners was able to determine the money's relative value. "The coins and bills used in Nicaraguan currency vary in size and color according to value, which give clues to their value, even if the user has no knowledge of numbers," Spaepen said. The deaf homesigners could learn about currency based on its color and shape without fully understanding its numerical value. To see if the homesigners could express numerical value outside of the context of money, the scholars showed them animated videos in which numbers were an important part of the plot. They then asked the deaf individuals to retell the video to a friend or relative using homesigns. As the numbers grew, the homesigners became increasingly less able to produce an accurate gesture for the number with their fingers. They were then shown cards with different numbers of items on them, and asked to give a gesture that represented the number of items. The homesigners were accurate only up to the number 3. In addition, they had difficulty making a second row of checkers match a target row when there were more than three checkers in the target, despite the fact that this task did not require any comprehension or production of number gestures. Their difficulty in understanding large numbers therefore did not stem from an inability to communicate about large numbers, but rather from an inability to think about them, the researchers concluded. Researchers performed the tests on hearing, unschooled Nicaraguans, as well as deaf individuals trained in American Sign Language. Both groups outperformed the Nicaraguan homesigners in the study. University of Chicago: http://www-news.uchicago.edu

I listen to some great tracks that have stood the test of time from not overly commerially famous groups. What I find is most groups can manage a few truly great tunes and it is rare that they have a whole catalogue of really ggod stuff. Probably some very recognisable tunes here - particularly Air's All I Need. That one really goes stright for the emotion buttons in the brain. I prefer up-tempo most of the time as I am convinced up-tempo is pyschologically better. But then like the weather you need all sorts to appreciate the difference! Zero 7 Give it Away In the waiting line Air AND THE ETERNAL All I Need Minus 8 Elysian Fields

Why not have an imaginary pool of reinforcements who bring the squads up to strength before each battle? Or cannabilise a squad to make others full strength?

Blimey a resurgence of interest from Indiana with two rare visitors posting consecutively! Hooray extra players : ) answer: http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?t=369156

Hey what about the good stuff other than fish? And it must be tricky living in a port ME to have to eat fish : 0. Anywya it is probably like taking low dose aspirin - its always has some effect no matter how late you start.! Sources of Alpha-linolenic Acid Since the body cannot make ALA, this fatty acid must be consumed in the diet. Approximately 35 percent of ALA found in food is converted to EPA and DHA. Good sources of ALA include: Flaxseeds and flaxseed oil Soybeans and soybean oil Walnuts Brazil nuts Soy nuts Olive oil Hemp seeds Pumpkin seedsOmega-3 fatty acids are not only found in fish, nuts, seeds and oils. Fruits and vegetables that are good sources of omega-3s include: kidney beans, navy beans, tofu, winter and summer squash, certain berries such as raspberries and strawberries, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, romaine lettuce, and collard greens. Wheat germ and free-range beef and poultry are also good sources of omega-3s. If foods rich in ALA are the only dietary sources of omega-3 fatty acids, it is important to limit saturated and trans fats in the diet as both can interfere with the conversion of ALA to EPA and DHA. Read more at Suite101: Foods Rich in Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Dietary Sources of Essential Fats EPA, DHA and ALA http://www.suite101.com/content/foods-rich-in-omega3-fatty-acids-a143527#ixzz1CbDVk86l The US and Canada with a huge number of lakes should be able to provide a lot of fresh fish anyway. The other thing is the cutting out of the fats that decrease omega 3 fats take-up http://www.fatsoflife.com/omega-3-in-fish-food-and-supplement.php

and for htose societies where food is industrialised http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-deficiency-dietary-omega-depressive-behaviors.html http://www.suite101.com/content/foods-rich-in-omega3-fatty-acids-a143527

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@home Is a distributed research project where home computers and games machines solve problems such as defective DNA structures. I have a PS 3 and joined and am also going to link my PC where possibly both the CPU and the GPU can be used. I have no problem with paying for electricity to power the worlds most powerful computer system if it is sorting out problems to benefit the world. I just hope you will have a look : ) btw my team number is 200317. But there is no reason why there could not be BF teamNZ etc..

Here is the message that has just been posted: *************** They should've hired Bill Clinton... Mord. P.S. I am starting to think you guys need an intervention... *************** Fair enough Mord don't be shy. I kind of like that ideea! But I can't see Bill lying on that one!! People can do what they like as far as I care but getting paid $20000 to talk about ones mistakes is a complete travesty of natural justice. You would think if she resally cared she would do it virtually for free. With thousands of people on the breadline this trollop gets given $20K 'cos of her mother. Even so what chance do you think she has to persuade anyone to go for Abstinence on her say-so! Sheesh. I wonder if anyone would have asked her if she has given up completely herself. : ) Sorry but the cult of the mediocrely infamous living off this kind of money gets my goat whichever country it is in.

Ignoring the first 6 minutes the first hour is interesting. After that it seems to lose its way in setting the problems of the world to be sorted by an architect inspired fantasy world. I lasted 107 minutes. I do not dispute the problems, a lot of which I have posted about myself previously. But, ht esimple solutions posited make me wish for a more practical film. BTW the first section is worthwhile in highlighting the nature of heredity in affecting life. Particularly interesting was the highlighting that the brest cancer gene was only an indicator. So for every 100 women with breast cancer only 7 had the the propensity gene. And more to the point the not all the women who have the gene are going to get breast cancer. The speaking heads all make good reasoned points about biology/child rearing etc. And all scientists with pedigree. Dysfunctional socities, the obscene gaps between rich and poor, the corruption on Wall St. are all familiar and are concerns that need to be addressed. This Utopia view though is not going to be effective -I could be wrong the exciting bit may be at the end - but I doubt it.

http://www.rommelinlibya.com/ run by an ex-libyan general it has a great stash of pictures .... and probably more as I have only just looked at it.

This is almost unbelievable in the hypocrisy evident. Incidentally I would have been on the panel for less. But I suppose if you are "famous" you get the good gigs. "Bristol Palin Gets Dumped by Washington University After Students Protest the School Spending $20K on Her Pro-Abstinence Speech Bristol Palin has landed herself in the news again, this time for the "furor" that was stirred up among Washington University students when the school agreed to spend an outlandish $20,000 for Palin to give a pro-abstinence speech at the university. The appearance, which was to occur next month as part of Wash U's Student Sexual Responsibility Week, has now been called off, with school officials saying "that the message that they intended on sharing would be overshadowed by controversy." A Facebook petition launched by Wash U's College Democrats group to protest Palin's exorbitant speaker's fee and "lack of expertise" (indeed, her track record with abstinence isn't so great) garnered at least 800 participants. The university claims the decision to cancel Palin's appearance was "100% mutual," according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Slate's Dave Weigel confirms that Wash U students are right to be pissed off about Palin's speaker's fee: This stuff happens all the time on campuses. I spent one mildly happy year on my college's student government, and the scandal of the time was a massive fee that the arts council wanted to pay a guest at an annual concert. It was the pre-Facebook era (2001), so petitions were signed on paper and delivered to a student council that struck some of the funding. Bristol Palin wasn't involved (true, she was 11 at the time), so there was no great media attention. But the dispute would never have gone large if it wasn't for the fee. That was Palin's problem; $20,000 is a fairly ridiculous amount to ask for an appearance on a panel."

According to this source the drop-out rate was 8% in 2010. Which might be assumed to be remarkable : ) Now I have two problems here. 1. In the UK there appears to be a dumbing down so more people pass more exams 2. Type of exams. I am particularly wary of the move to multiple choice answering as opposed to answers requiring reasoning skills. As Rossling proves chimpanzees would beat his students and fellow professors at some multiple choice tests! http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html Anyway this is fairly chilling and one doubts that the things complained of have changed: and in the UK

I felt that way too after the first read when I got one wrong. But all correct in the second : ) The Vocabulary andcomprehension tests I got excellents on. But then it is my native language and I liike words. It has always been a weakness of mine that I assume everyone comprehends as I do but that is not the case: This following is fairly scary and may be representative of all civilised countries in terms of percentages. However it does make me wonder how in a democracy how complicated ideas can be explained to the electorate - even if dressed up in easy sentences.! http://www.informatics-review.com/FAQ/reading.html

how about? Ambrotox and Limping Dick Author: Oliver Fleming (Philip MacDonald) Co-author: Ronald MacDonald Published: 1920 BTW my reading speed was 595wpm

Bring mortars for long range guns : )

Whewee that IR is one cute piece of kit. Makes FS much more attractive. a serious guy I have just sprung for Thrustmaster GT5 steering wheel:

Yeah! Result.

A bit of a quiz on speed reading and comprehension here http://rocketreader.com/ I did their 6 minute course and slowed down by 6 words per minute! As I explore arounf Gutenbergs associated sites I come across classic titles - who could forget: The Postage Stamp in War Author: Fred J. Melville Published: 1915 Language: English Wordcount: 25,071 / 89 pg Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 69.3 LoC Category: CJ Downloads: 263 Added to site: 2010.09.28 mnybks.net#: 29101 Origin: gutenberg.org Genres: Non-fiction, History, War

No seriously guys - Il-2 relies on a different set of skills than CM. I am not saying they are any less valuable just different. Being able to become an ace needs good visualisation, an understanding of planes attributes, and dexterity which is so not CM requirements. Juggling and chess : )

Wicky's - Looks favourite and I have sent a link to this thread : )

http://www.zdnet.com/blog...arrives/8136?tag=nl.e539 Screenshots: New features from LibreOffice 3.3 LibreOffice 3.3 includes numerous new features when compared to its OpenOffice parent. To my mind, the most important of these for modern office workers is that it has much better import and export tools for Microsoft Office 2007 and above OpenXML formats. Love them or hate them–I hate them myself–more and more businesses are using these formats and being able to work with them is becoming a business-critical feature. In addition, LibreOffice can also now import Adobe PDF, Microsoft Works, and Lotus Word Pro documents and has better WordPerfect document import facilities. According to The Document Foundation, “LibreOffice 3.3 also incorporates all the new features of OpenOffice.org 3.3, such as new custom properties handling; embedding of standard PDF fonts in PDF documents; new Liberation Narrow font; increased document protection in Writer and Calc; auto decimals digits for ‘General’ format in Calc; 1 million rows in a spreadsheet; new options for CSV import in Calc; insert drawing objects in Charts; hierarchical axis labels for Charts; improved slide layout handling in Impress; new easier to use print interface; more options for Changing case; and colored sheet Tabs in Calc.”

Too many trees on the White cliffs!. Looks neat and I suspect high rig required. HOwever end of day too much physical activity and minimal forwrd thinking -as required in CM.

Easy : ) .... but i suspect we would not be quite so good searching in French!

Helpful for a non-native English speaker! Perhaps you could message the number : ) It would be useful to see what the original post says as there are a lot of Kevin Christensens in the US [545 plus]. So if it is not the dentist ....... There is another KC who has moved on to Pennsylvania and I have sent those details to Eric. BTW here is the nittygritty: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Does anyone know any good accounts of this battle during the Nordwind Offense in January 1945. Besides the stories I heard from my Dad, and Von Luck's comment from the German side that it was the worst fighting he saw anywhere, I haven't seen much. Nordwind is typically treated as an afterthought to the Bulge, if at all. As I recall, Charles Whiting's book on Nordwind doesn't say anything about the action. A reviewer of that book at Amazon makes this intriguing comment: "Hatten and Rittershoffen was an extremely vicious battle. Reviewer: A reader In the battle of Hatten and Rittershoffen over 5000 German and American soldiers were killed wounded or missing. Over 100 destroyed tanks of both sides littered the battlefield within and surrounding the utterly pulverized villages on the Northern Alsatian Plain along the upper Rhine River during the 12 day tank-infantry battle. This battle between the U.S 14th Armored,79th Infantry and 42nd Infantry Divisions and the German 21st Panzer, 25th Panzer Grenadier, 7th Parachute, and 47th Volks Grenadier Divisions should be the subject of exhaustive research because its received little attention from historians." I've seen a little bit in the 79th Divisional history, and some in a book called Winter Storm : War in Northern Alsace, November 1944 - March 1945 by Lise M. Pommois. Plus, I've seen a little bit about some of the 827th TD actions during the fight. All of this makes me very very curious. Anyone know any good sources or accounts? Kevin Christensen Lawrence, KS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for the information about "The Final Crisis"... that looks like a must have. Here's what I know, off the top of my head. At that point in the war, my Dad was a 1st Lt., acting as adjutant in headquarters company in the 813th TD battalion attatched to the 79th Infantry division. He spent Christmas with a French family in Hatten, and was pulled back when the offensive started. He talks about being strafed by rocket-firing Me 262s, watching the P-51 fighter cover run like hell when the jets came by, and coming back down when they were gone. He describes the sound of the big RR gun shells coming down, and taking out huge chunks of the town he was in. In the little villages of Hatten and Rittershoffen, the Germans occupied one side of the street, and the Americans the other for days. In the mornings, Panzers would drive down, shooting up one side, and in the evening, the Shermans would drive down the other. The wounded in the middle of the streets could only be retrived by sending Shermans to drive over them and pull them up through the hatches. Mortar crews were firing almost vertically, trying to shell directly across the street. The 79th Divisional history mentions moments when German and Americans were upstairs and downstairs in the same houses. The book Winter Storm shows before and after pictures of the villages.. and after it's all rubble. The 813th suffered more casualties in those two weeks than during the whole war from Tunisia, and Normandy to Berchtesgarten. They lost 24 our of 36 M10s. For part of the action, the took over some abandoned M18s. I've also seen lately that an 827th crew jumped aboard an abandoned M10, and broke up an attack. My dad said that at one point, surviving M10s and M18s of the 813th and 827th were formed into a quick-reaction force, responding to any German attacks. part of one company of the 813th was cut off, and until Harry Dunigan's little book about some 813th veterans, A War to Win, came out, no one in the battalion had any idea what happened to them. Dunigan talks about being surrounded and having to surrender. After the twelve days, the US forces pulled back under cover of a blizzard. Until Von Luck's Panzer Commander came out, my Dad was under the impression that the Germans had pulled out the same night. Jadgtigers were used during Nordwind. I got a third-hand account from a hobbiest in a San Jose model shop about meeting an old TD vet who showed him a picture of the young TD soldier standing next to a Jadgtiger with a hole in the side, and passing on the comment, "He got my buddy, but I got him." Kevin Christensen Lawrence, KS kskchris@sunflower.com

I am not sure on a couple of points: 1] I was under the impression that the Tiger class recieved the "best" armour so 80mm there was superior to a degree over other 80mm armour on the Stug fronts. 2] From what I recall from "Tigers in the Mud?[snow] the commander says they were unpopular with the infantry as their presence in the front line would bring down all manner of artillery. And when advancing the Tiger commanders big concern [other than breakdown] was the tracks so hail fire in itself was a concern. So the Russians could have found that in the face of high firepower the Tigers would rarely push an attack home - unless of course it was part of a major attack.