The $5tn financial energy market critically impacts everyone on this planet

Tallarium

tallarium

Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . SUSPENSE here CHAPTER XVIII. SUSPENSE When the balloon had reached an elevation of about 2,500 yards, Lieutenant Procope determined to maintain it at that level. A wire-work stove, suspended below the casing, and filled with lighted hay, served to keep the air in the interior at a proper temperature. Beneath their feet was extended the basin of the Gallian Sea. An inconsiderable speck to the north marked the site of Gourbi Island. Ceuta and Gibraltar, which might have been expected in the west, had utterly disappeared. On the south rose the volcano, the extremity of the promontory that jutted out from the continent that formed the framework of the sea; whilst in every direction the strange soil, with its commixture of tellurium and gold, gleamed under the sun’s rays with a perpetual iridescence. Apparently rising with them in their ascent, the horizon was well-defined. The sky above them was perfectly clear; but away in the northwest, in opposition to the sun, floated a new sphere, so small that it could not be an asteroid, but like a dim meteor. It was the fragment that the internal convulsion had rent from the surface of the comet, and which was now many thousands of leagues away, pursuing the new orbit into which it had been projected. During the hours of daylight it was far from distinct, but after nightfall it would assume a definite luster. The object, however, of supreme interest was the great expanse of the terrestrial disc, which was rapidly drawing down obliquely towards them. It totally eclipsed an enormous portion of the firmament above, and approaching with an ever-increasing velocity, was now within half its average distance from the moon. So close was it, that the two poles could not be embraced in one focus. Irregular patches of greater or less brilliancy alternated on its surface, the brighter betokening the continents, the more somber indicating the oceans that absorbed the solar rays. Above, there were broad white bands, darkened on the side averted from the sun, exhibiting a slow but unintermittent movement; these were the vapors that pervaded the terrestrial atmosphere. But as the aeronauts were being hurried on at a speed of 70 miles a second, this vague aspect of the earth soon developed itself into definite outlines. Mountains and plains were no longer confused, the distinction between sea and shore was more plainly identified, and instead of being, as it were, depicted on a map, the surface of the earth appeared as though modelled in relief. Twenty-seven minutes past two, and Gallia is only 72,000 miles from the terrestrial sphere; quicker and quicker is the velocity; ten minutes later, and they are only 36,000 miles apart! The whole configuration of the earth is clear. “Europe! Russia! France!” shout Procope, the count, and Servadac, almost in a breath. And they are not mistaken. The eastern hemisphere lies before them in the full blaze of light, and there is no possibility of error in distinguishing continent from continent. The surprise only kindled their emotion to yet keener intensity, and it would be hard to describe the excitement with which they gazed at the panorama that was before them. The crisis of peril was close at hand, but imagination overleaped all consideration of danger; and everything was absorbed in the one idea that they were again within reach of that circle of humanity from which they had supposed themselves severed forever. And, truly, if they could have paused to study it, that panorama of the states of Europe which was outstretched before their eyes, was conspicuous for the fantastic resemblances with which Nature on the one hand, and international relations on the other, have associated them. There was England, marching like some stately dame towards the east, trailing her ample skirts and coroneted with the cluster of her little islets; Sweden and Norway, with their bristling spine of mountains, seemed like a splendid lion eager to spring down from the bosom of the ice-bound north; Russia, a gigantic polar bear, stood with its head towards Asia, its left paw resting upon Turkey, its right upon Mount Caucasus; Austria resembled a huge cat curled up and sleeping a watchful sleep; Spain, with Portugal as a pennant, like an unfurled banner, floated from the extremity of the continent; Turkey, like an insolent cock, appeared to clutch the shores of Asia with the one claw, and the land of Greece with the other; Italy, as it were a foot and leg encased in a tight-fitting boot, was juggling deftly with the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica; Prussia, a formidable hatchet imbedded in the heart of Germany, its edge just grazing the frontiers of France; whilst France itself suggested a vigorous torso with Paris at its breast. All at once Ben Zoof breaks the silence: “Montmartre! I see Montmartre!” And, smile at the absurdity as others might, nothing could induce the worthy orderly to surrender his belief that he could actually make out the features of his beloved home. The only individual whose soul seemed unstirred by the approaching earth was Palmyrin Rosette. Leaning over the side of the car, he kept his eyes fixed upon the abandoned comet, now floating about a mile and a half below him, bright in the general irradiation which was flooding the surrounding space. Chronometer in hand, Lieutenant Procope stood marking the minutes and seconds as they fled; and the stillness which had once again fallen upon them all was only broken by his order to replenish the stove, that the montgolfier might retain its necessary level. Servadac and the count continued to gaze upon the earth with an eagerness that almost amounted to awe. The balloon was slightly in the rear of Gallia, a circumstance that augured somewhat favorably, because it might be presumed that if the comet preceded the balloon in its contact with the earth, there would be a break in the suddenness of transfer from one atmosphere to the other. The next question of anxiety was, where would the balloon alight? If upon , would it be in a place where adequate resources for safety would be at hand? If upon the ocean, would any passing vessel be within hail to rescue them from their critical position? Truly, as the count observed to his comrades, none but a Divine Pilot could steer them now. terra firma “Forty-two minutes past!” said the lieutenant, and his voice seemed to thrill through the silence of expectation. There were not 20,000 miles between the comet and the earth! The calculated time of impact was 2 hours 47 minutes 35.6 seconds. Five minutes more and collision must ensue! But was it so? Just at this moment, Lieutenant Procope observed that the comet deviated sensibly in an oblique course. Was it possible that after all collision would not occur? The deviation, however, was not great; it did not justify any anticipation that Gallia would merely graze the earth, as it had done before; it left it certain that the two bodies would inevitably impinge. “No doubt,” said Ben Zoof, “this time we shall stick together.” Another thought occurred. Was it not only too likely that, in the fusion of the two atmospheres, the balloon itself, in which they were being conveyed, would be rent into ribbons, and every one of its passengers hurled into destruction, so that not a Gallian should survive to tell the tale of their strange peregrinations? Moments were precious; but Hector Servadac resolved that he would adopt a device to secure that at least some record of their excursion in solar distances should survive themselves. Tearing a leaf from his note-book, he wrote down the name of the comet, the list of the fragments of the earth it had carried off, the names of his companions, and the date of the comet’s aphelion; and having subscribed it with his signature, turned to Nina and told her he must have the carrier-pigeon which was nestling in her bosom. The child’s eyes filled with tears; she did not say a word, but imprinting a kiss upon its soft plumage, she surrendered it at once, and the message was hurriedly fastened to its neck. The bird wheeled round and round in a few circles that widened in their diameter, and quickly sunk to an altitude in the comet’s atmosphere much inferior to the balloon. Some minutes more were thus consumed and the interval of distance was reduced to less than 8,000 miles. The velocity became inconceivably great, but the increased rate of motion was in no way perceptible; there was nothing to disturb the equilibrium of the car in which they were making their aerial adventure. “Forty-six minutes!” announced the lieutenant. The glowing expanse of the earth’s disc seemed like a vast funnel, yawning to receive the comet and its atmosphere, balloon and all, into its open mouth. “Forty-seven!” cried Procope. There was half a minute yet. A thrill ran through every vein. A vibration quivered through the atmosphere. The montgolfier, elongated to its utmost stretch, was manifestly being sucked into a vortex. Every passenger in the quivering car involuntarily clung spasmodically to its sides, and as the two atmospheres amalgamated, clouds accumulated in heavy masses, involving all around in dense obscurity, while flashes of lurid flame threw a weird glimmer on the scene. In a mystery every one found himself upon the earth again. They could not explain it, but here they were once more upon terrestrial soil; in a swoon they had left the earth, and in a similar swoon they had come back! Of the balloon not a vestige remained, and contrary to previous computation, the comet had merely grazed the earth, and was traversing the regions of space, again far away! About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jules Verne (1998). Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1353/pg1353-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

A wire-work stove, suspended below the casing

Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . THE BOWELS OF THE COMET here CHAPTER XII. THE BOWELS OF THE COMET The whole night was spent in speculating, with gloomy forebodings, upon the chances of the future. The temperature of the hall, now entirely exposed to the outer air, was rapidly falling, and would quickly become unendurable. Far too intense was the cold to allow anyone to remain at the opening, and the moisture on the walls soon resolved itself into icicles. But the mountain was like the body of a dying man, that retains awhile a certain amount of heat at the heart after the extremities have become cold and dead. In the more interior galleries there was still a certain degree of warmth, and hither Servadac and his companions were glad enough to retreat. Here they found the professor, who, startled by the sudden cold, had been fain to make a precipitate retreat from his observatory. Now would have been the opportunity to demand of the enthusiast whether he would like to prolong his residence indefinitely upon his little comet. It is very likely that he would have declared himself ready to put up with any amount of discomfort to be able to gratify his love of investigation; but all were far too disheartened and distressed to care to banter him upon the subject on which he was so sensitive. Next morning, Servadac thus addressed his people. “My friends, except from cold, we have nothing to fear. Our provisions are ample—more than enough for the remaining period of our sojourn in this lone world of ours; our preserved meat is already cooked; we shall be able to dispense with all fuel for cooking purposes. All that we require is warmth—warmth for ourselves; let us secure that, and all may be well. Now, I do not entertain a doubt but that the warmth we require is resident in the bowels of this mountain on which we are living; to the depth of those bowels we must penetrate; there we shall obtain the warmth which is indispensable to our very existence.” His tone, quite as much as his words, restored confidence to many of his people, who were already yielding to a feeling of despair. The count and the lieutenant fervently, but silently, grasped his hand. “Nina,” said the captain, “you will not be afraid to go down to the lower depths of the mountain, will you?” “Not if Pablo goes,” replied the child. “Oh yes, of course, Pablo will go. You are not afraid to go, are you, Pablo?” he said, addressing the boy. “Anywhere with you, your Excellency,” was the boy’s prompt reply. And certain it was that no time must be lost in penetrating below the heart of the volcano; already the most protected of the many ramifications of Nina’s Hive were being pervaded by a cold that was insufferable. It was an acknowledged impossibility to get access to the crater by the exterior declivities of the mountain-side; they were far too steep and too slippery to afford a foothold. It must of necessity be entered from the interior. Lieutenant Procope accordingly undertook the task of exploring all the galleries, and was soon able to report that he had discovered one which he had every reason to believe abutted upon the central funnel. His reason for coming to this conclusion was that the caloric emitted by the rising vapors of the hot lava seemed to be oozing, as it were, out of the tellurium, which had been demonstrated already to be a conductor of heat. Only succeed in piercing through this rock for seven or eight yards, and the lieutenant did not doubt that his way would be opened into the old lava-course, by following which he hoped descent would be easy. Under the lieutenant’s direction the Russian sailors were immediately set to work. Their former experience had convinced them that spades and pick-axes were of no avail, and their sole resource was to proceed by blasting with gunpowder. However skillfully the operation might be carried on, it must necessarily occupy several days, and during that time the sufferings from cold must be very severe. “If we fail in our object, and cannot get to the depths of the mountain, our little colony is doomed,” said Count Timascheff. “That speech is not like yourself,” answered Servadac, smiling. “What has become of the faith which has hitherto carried you so bravely through all our difficulties?” The count shook his head, as if in despair, and said, sadly, “The Hand that has hitherto been outstretched to help seems now to be withdrawn.” “But only to test our powers of endurance,” rejoined the captain, earnestly. “Courage, my friend, courage! Something tells me that this cessation of the eruption is only partial; the internal fire is not all extinct. All is not over yet. It is too soon to give up; never despair!” Lieutenant Procope quite concurred with the captain. Many causes, he knew, besides the interruption of the influence of the oxygen upon the mineral substances in Gallia’s interior, might account for the stoppage of the lava-flow in this one particular spot, and he considered it more than probable that a fresh outlet had been opened in some other part of the surface, and that the eruptive matter had been diverted into the new channel. But at present his business was to prosecute his labors so that a retreat might be immediately effected from their now untenable position. Restless and agitated, Professor Rosette, if he took any interest in these discussions, certainly took no share in them. He had brought his telescope down from the observatory into the common hall, and there at frequent intervals, by night and by day, he would endeavor to continue his observations; but the intense cold perpetually compelled him to desist, or he would literally have been frozen to death. No sooner, however, did he find himself obliged to retreat from his study of the heavens, than he would begin overwhelming everybody about him with bitter complaints, pouring out his regrets that he had ever quitted his quarters at Formentera. On the 4th of January, by persevering industry, the process of boring was completed, and the lieutenant could hear that fragments of the blasted rock, as the sailors cleared them away with their spades, were rolling into the funnel of the crater. He noticed, too, that they did not fall perpendicularly, but seemed to slide along, from which he inferred that the sides of the crater were sloping; he had therefore reason to hope that a descent would be found practicable. Larger and larger grew the orifice; at length it would admit a man’s body, and Ben Zoof, carrying a torch, pushed himself through it, followed by the lieutenant and Servadac. Procope’s conjecture proved correct. On entering the crater, they found that the sides slanted at the angle of about 4 degrees; moreover, the eruption had evidently been of recent origin, dating probably only from the shock which had invested Gallia with a proportion of the atmosphere of the earth, and beneath the coating of ashes with which they were covered, there were various irregularities in the rock, not yet worn away by the action of the lava, and these afforded a tolerably safe footing. “Rather a bad staircase!” said Ben Zoof, as they began to make their way down. In about half an hour, proceeding in a southerly direction, they had descended nearly five hundred feet. From time to time they came upon large excavations that at first sight had all the appearance of galleries, but by waving his torch, Ben Zoof could always see their extreme limits, and it was evident that the lower strata of the mountain did not present the same system of ramification that rendered the Hive above so commodious a residence. It was not a time to be fastidious; they must be satisfied with such accommodation as they could get, provided it was warm. Captain Servadac was only too glad to find that his hopes about the temperature were to a certain extent realized. The lower they went, the greater was the diminution in the cold, a diminution that was far more rapid than that which is experienced in making the descent of terrestrial mines. In this case it was a volcano, not a colliery, that was the object of exploration, and thankful enough they were to find that it had not become extinct. Although the lava, from some unknown cause, had ceased to rise in the crater, yet plainly it existed somewhere in an incandescent state, and was still transmitting considerable heat to inferior strata. Lieutenant Procope had brought in his hand a mercurial thermometer, and Servadac carried an aneroid barometer, by means of which he could estimate the depth of their descent below the level of the Gallian Sea. When they were six hundred feet below the orifice the mercury registered a temperature of 6 degrees below zero. “Six degrees!” said Servadac; “that will not suit us. At this low temperature we could not survive the winter. We must try deeper down. I only hope the ventilation will hold out.” There was, however, nothing to fear on the score of ventilation. The great current of air that rushed into the aperture penetrated everywhere, and made respiration perfectly easy. The descent was continued for about another three hundred feet, which brought the explorers to a total depth of nine hundred feet from their old quarters. Here the thermometer registered 12 degrees above zero—a temperature which, if only it were permanent, was all they wanted. There was no advantage in proceeding any further along the lava-course; they could already hear the dull rumblings that indicated that they were at no great distance from the central focus. “Quite near enough for me!” exclaimed Ben Zoof. “Those who are chilly are welcome to go as much lower as they like. For my part, I shall be quite warm enough here.” After throwing the gleams of torch-light in all directions, the explorers seated themselves on a jutting rock, and began to debate whether it was practicable for the colony to make an abode in these lower depths of the mountain. The prospect, it must be owned, was not inviting. The crater, it is true, widened out into a cavern sufficiently large, but here its accommodation ended. Above and below were a few ledges in the rock that would serve as receptacles for provisions; but, with the exception of a small recess that must be reserved for Nina, it was clear that henceforth they must all renounce the idea of having separate apartments. The single cave must be their dining-room, drawing-room, and dormitory, all in one. From living the life of rabbits in a warren, they were reduced to the existence of moles, with the difference that they could not, like them, forget their troubles in a long winter’s sleep. The cavern, however, was quite capable of being lighted by means of lamps and lanterns. Among the stores were several barrels of oil and a considerable quantity of spirits of wine, which might be burned when required for cooking purposes. Moreover, it would be unnecessary for them to confine themselves entirely to the seclusion of their gloomy residence; well wrapped up, there would be nothing to prevent them making occasional excursions both to the Hive and to the sea-shore. A supply of fresh water would be constantly required; ice for this purpose must be perpetually carried in from the coast, and it would be necessary to arrange that everyone in turn should perform this office, as it would be no sinecure to clamber up the sides of the crater for 900 feet, and descend the same distance with a heavy burden. But the emergency was great, and it was accordingly soon decided that the little colony should forthwith take up its quarters in the cave. After all, they said, they should hardly be much worse off than thousands who annually winter in Arctic regions. On board the whaling-vessels, and in the establishments of the Hudson’s Bay Company, such luxuries as separate cabins or sleeping-chambers are never thought of; one large apartment, well heated and ventilated, with as few corners as possible, is considered far more healthy; and on board ship the entire hold, and in forts a single floor, is appropriated to this purpose. The recollection of this fact served to reconcile them, in a great degree, to the change to which they felt it requisite to submit. Having remounted the ascent, they made the result of their exploration known to the mass of the community, who received the tidings with a sense of relief, and cordially accepted the scheme of the migration. The first step was to clear the cavern of its accumulation of ashes, and then the labor of removal commenced in earnest. Never was a task undertaken with greater zest. The fear of being to a certainty frozen to death if they remained where they were, was a stimulus that made everyone put forth all his energies. Beds, furniture, cooking utensils—first the stores of the , then the cargo of the tartan—all were carried down with the greatest alacrity, and the diminished weight combined with the downhill route to make the labor proceed with incredible briskness. Dobryna Although Professor Rosette yielded to the pressure of circumstances, and allowed himself to be conducted to the lower regions, nothing would induce him to allow his telescope to be carried underground; and as it was undeniable that it would certainly be of no service deep down in the bowels of the mountain, it was allowed to remain undisturbed upon its tripod in the great hall of Nina’s Hive. As for Isaac Hakkabut, his outcry was beyond description lamentable. Never, in the whole universe, had a merchant met with such reverses; never had such a pitiable series of losses befallen an unfortunate man. Regardless of the ridicule which his abject wretchedness excited, he howled on still, and kept up an unending wail; but meanwhile he kept a keen eye upon every article of his property, and amidst universal laughter insisted on having every item registered in an inventory as it was transferred to its appointed place of safety. Servadac considerately allowed the whole of the cargo to be deposited in a hollow apart by itself, over which the Jew was permitted to keep a watch as vigilant as he pleased. By the 10th the removal was accomplished. Rescued, at all events, from the exposure to a perilous temperature of 60 degrees below zero, the community was installed in its new home. The large cave was lighted by the lamps, while several lanterns, suspended at intervals along the acclivity that led to their deserted quarters above, gave a weird picturesqueness to the scene, that might vie with any of the graphic descriptions of the “Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.” Dobryna’s “How do you like this, Nina?” said Ben Zoof. “ ” replied the child. “We are only living in the cellars instead of upon the ground floor.” Va bene! “We will try and make ourselves comfortable,” said the orderly. “Oh yes, we will be happy here,” rejoined the child; “it is nice and warm.” Although they were as careful as they could to conceal their misgivings from the rest, Servadac and his two friends could not regard their present situation without distrust. When alone, they would frequently ask each other what would become of them all, if the volcanic heat should really be subsiding, or if some unexpected perturbation should retard the course of the comet, and compel them to an indefinitely prolonged residence in their grim abode. It was scarcely likely that the comet could supply the fuel of which ere long they would be in urgent need. Who could expect to find coal in the bowels of Gallia,—coal, which is the residuum of ancient forests mineralized by the lapse of ages? Would not the lava-cinders exhumed from the extinct volcano be their last poor resource? “Keep up your spirits, my friends,” said Servadac; “we have plenty of time before us at present. Let us hope that as fresh difficulties arise, fresh ways of escape will open. Never despair!” “True,” said the count; “it is an old saying that ‘Necessity is the mother of invention.’ Besides, I should think it very unlikely that the internal heat will fail us now before the summer.” The lieutenant declared that he entertained the same hope. As the reason of his opinion he alleged that the combustion of the eruptive matter was most probably of quite recent origin, because the comet before its collision with the earth had possessed no atmosphere, and that consequently no oxygen could have penetrated to its interior. “Most likely you are right,” replied the count; “and so far from dreading a failure of the internal heat, I am not quite sure that we may not be exposed to a more terrible calamity still?” “What?” asked Servadac. “The calamity of the eruption breaking out suddenly again, and taking us by surprise.” “Heavens!” cried the captain, “we will not think of that.” “The outbreak may happen again,” said the lieutenant, calmly; “but it will be our fault, our own lack of vigilance, if we are taken by surprise.” And so the conversation dropped. The 15th of January dawned; and the comet was 220,000,000 leagues from the sun. Gallia had reached its aphelion. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jules Verne (1998). Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1353/pg1353-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

THE BOWELS OF THE COMET

Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . GALLIA WEIGHED here CHAPTER VII. GALLIA WEIGHED A quarter of an hour later, the visitors to the had reassembled in the common hall of Nina’s Hive. Hansa “Now, gentlemen, we can proceed,” said the professor. “May I request that this table may be cleared?” Ben Zoof removed the various articles that were lying on the table, and the coins which had just been borrowed from the Jew were placed upon it in three piles, according to their value. The professor commenced. “Since none of you gentlemen, at the time of the shock, took the precaution to save either a meter measure or a kilogramme weight from the earth, and since both these articles are necessary for the calculation on which we are engaged, I have been obliged to devise means of my own to replace them.” This exordium delivered, he paused and seemed to watch its effect upon his audience, who, however, were too well acquainted with the professor’s temper to make any attempt to exonerate themselves from the rebuke of carelessness, and submitted silently to the implied reproach. “I have taken pains,” he continued, “to satisfy myself that these coins are in proper condition for my purpose. I find them unworn and unchipped; indeed, they are almost new. They have been hoarded instead of circulated; accordingly, they are fit to be utilized for my purpose of obtaining the precise length of a terrestrial meter.” Ben Zoof looked on in perplexity, regarding the lecturer with much the same curiosity as he would have watched the performances of a traveling mountebank at a fair in Montmartre; but Servadac and his two friends had already divined the professor’s meaning. They knew that French coinage is all decimal, the franc being the standard of which the other coins, whether gold, silver, or copper, are multiples or measures; they knew, too, that the caliber or diameter of each piece of money is rigorously determined by law, and that the diameters of the silver coins representing five francs, two francs, and fifty centimes measure thirty-seven, twenty-seven, and eighteen millimeters respectively; and they accordingly guessed that Professor Rosette had conceived the plan of placing such a number of these coins in juxtaposition that the length of their united diameters should measure exactly the thousand millimeters that make up the terrestrial meter. The measurement thus obtained was by means of a pair of compasses divided accurately into ten equal portions, or decimeters, each of course 3.93 inches long. A lath was then cut of this exact length and given to the engineer of the , who was directed to cut out of the solid rock the cubic decimeter required by the professor. Dobryna The next business was to obtain the precise weight of a kilogramme. This was by no means a difficult matter. Not only the diameters, but also the weights, of the French coins are rigidly determined by law, and as the silver five-franc pieces always weigh exactly twenty-five grammes, the united weight of forty of these coins is known to amount to one kilogramme. “Oh!” cried Ben Zoof; “to be able to do all this I see you must be rich as well as learned.” With a good-natured laugh at the orderly’s remark, the meeting adjourned for a few hours. By the appointed time the engineer had finished his task, and with all due care had prepared a cubic decimeter of the material of the comet. “Now, gentlemen,” said Professor Rosette, “we are in a position to complete our calculation; we can now arrive at Gallia’s attraction, density, and mass.” Everyone gave him his complete attention. “Before I proceed,” he resumed, “I must recall to your minds Newton’s general law, ‘that the attraction of two bodies is directly proportional to the product of their masses, and inversely proportional to the square of their distances.’” “Yes,” said Servadac; “we remember that.” “Well, then,” continued the professor, “keep it in mind for a few minutes now. Look here! In this bag are forty five-franc pieces—altogether they weigh exactly a kilogramme; by which I mean that if we were on the earth, and I were to hang the bag on the hook of the steelyard, the indicator on the dial would register one kilogramme. This is clear enough, I suppose?” As he spoke the professor designedly kept his eyes fixed upon Ben Zoof. He was avowedly following the example of Arago, who was accustomed always in lecturing to watch the countenance of the least intelligent of his audience, and when he felt that he had made his meaning clear to him, he concluded that he must have succeeded with all the rest. In this case, however, it was technical ignorance, rather than any lack of intelligence, that justified the selection of the orderly for this special attention. Satisfied with his scrutiny of Ben Zoof’s face, the professor went on. “And now, gentlemen, we have to see what these coins weigh here upon Gallia.” He suspended the money bag to the hook; the needle oscillated, and stopped. “Read it off!” he said. The weight registered was one hundred and thirty-three grammes. “There, gentlemen, one hundred and thirty-three grammes! Less than one-seventh of a kilogramme! You see, consequently, that the force of gravity here on Gallia is not one-seventh of what it is upon the earth!” “Interesting!” cried Servadac, “most interesting! But let us go on and compute the mass.” “No, captain, the density first,” said Rosette. “Certainly,” said the lieutenant; “for, as we already know the volume, we can determine the mass as soon as we have ascertained the density.” The professor took up the cube of rock. “You know what this is,” he went on to say. “You know, gentlemen, that this block is a cube hewn from the substance of which everywhere, all throughout your voyage of circumnavigation, you found Gallia to be composed—a substance to which your geological attainments did not suffice to assign a name.” “Our curiosity will be gratified,” said Servadac, “if you will enlighten our ignorance.” But Rosette did not take the slightest notice of the interruption. “A substance it is which no doubt constitutes the sole material of the comet, extending from its surface to its innermost depths. The probability is that it would be so; your experience confirms that probability: you have found no trace of any other substance. Of this rock here is a solid decimeter; let us get at its weight, and we shall have the key which will unlock the problem of the whole weight of Gallia. We have demonstrated that the force of attraction here is only one-seventh of what it is upon the earth, and shall consequently have to multiply the apparent weight of our cube by seven, in order to ascertain its proper weight. Do you understand me, goggle-eyes?” This was addressed to Ben Zoof, who was staring hard at him. “No!” said Ben Zoof. “I thought not; it is of no use waiting for your puzzle-brains to make it out. I must talk to those who can understand.” The professor took the cube, and, on attaching it to the hook of the steelyard, found that its apparent weight was one kilogramme and four hundred and thirty grammes. “Here it is, gentlemen; one kilogramme, four hundred and thirty grammes. Multiply that by seven; the product is, as nearly as possible, ten kilogrammes. What, therefore, is our conclusion? Why, that the density of Gallia is just about double the density of the earth, which we know is only five kilogrammes to a cubic decimeter. Had it not been for this greater density, the attraction of Gallia would only have been one-fifteenth instead of one-seventh of the terrestrial attraction.” The professor could not refrain from exhibiting his gratification that, however inferior in volume, in density, at least, his comet had the advantage over the earth. Nothing further now remained than to apply the investigations thus finished to the determining of the mass or weight. This was a matter of little labor. “Let me see,” said the captain; “what is the force of gravity upon the various planets?” “You can’t mean, Servadac, that you have forgotten that? But you always were a disappointing pupil.” The captain could not help himself: he was forced to confess that his memory had failed him. “Well, then,” said the professor, “I must remind you. Taking the attraction on the earth as 1, that on Mercury is 1.15, on Venus it is 0.92, on Mars 0.5, and on Jupiter 2.45; on the moon the attraction is 0.16, whilst on the surface of the sun a terrestrial kilogramme would weigh 28 kilogrammes.” “Therefore, if a man upon the surface of the sun were to fall down, he would have considerable difficulty in getting up again. A cannon ball, too, would only fly a few yards,” said Lieutenant Procope. “A jolly battle-field for cowards!” exclaimed Ben Zoof. “Not so jolly, Ben Zoof, as you fancy,” said his master; “the cowards would be too heavy to run away.” Ben Zoof ventured the remark that, as the smallness of Gallia secured to its inhabitants such an increase of strength and agility, he was almost sorry that it had not been a little smaller still. “Though it could not anyhow have been very much smaller,” he added, looking slyly at the professor. “Idiot!” exclaimed Rosette. “Your head is too light already; a puff of wind would blow it away.” “I must take care of my head, then, and hold it on,” replied the irrepressible orderly. Unable to get the last word, the professor was about to retire, when Servadac detained him. “Permit me to ask you one more question,” he said. “Can you tell me what is the nature of the soil of Gallia?” “Yes, I can answer that. And in this matter I do not think your impertinent orderly will venture to put Montmartre into the comparison. This soil is of a substance not unknown upon the earth.” And speaking very slowly, the professor said: “It contains 70 per cent. of tellurium, and 30 per cent. of gold.” Servadac uttered an exclamation of surprise. “And the sum of the specific gravities of these two substances is 10, precisely the number that represents Gallia’s density.” “A comet of gold!” ejaculated the captain. “Yes; a realization of what the illustrious Maupertuis has already deemed probable,” replied the astronomer. “If Gallia, then, should ever become attached to the earth, might it not bring about an important revolution in all monetary affairs?” inquired the count. “No doubt about it!” said Rosette, with manifest satisfaction. “It would supply the world with about 246,000 trillions of francs.” “It would make gold about as cheap as dirt, I suppose,” said Servadac. The last observation, however, was entirely lost upon the professor, who had left the hall with an air almost majestic, and was already on his way to the observatory. “And what, I wonder, is the use of all these big figures?” said Ben Zoof to his master, when next day they were alone together. “That’s just the charm of them, my good fellow,” was the captain’s cool reply, “that they are of no use whatever.” About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jules Verne (1998). Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1353/pg1353-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

GALLIA WEIGHED

THE STARS OF WINTER

The Terminator (Sega Mega-CD) Review

The Stolen Mind

La mente robada

L'esprit volé

चोरी का दिमाग

盗まれた心

A mente roubada

Tâm trí bị đánh cắp

偷来的心

Recently, a lot of my work has been in pushing our newest joint venture with Bittrex, Palladium, to its full potential, a process which starts in the early stages. Palladium aims to bring users the ability to trade and bank tokenized crypto assets and securities on Europe’s first regulated platform, and we’re on pace to do so. Our initial announcement last month, Unikrn, Bittrex and the broader Palladium team took over the floor of the Malta Stock Exchange to act as the premiere example of how Malta is pushing itself to be the blockchain island. The basic concept: we’re launching the world’s first regulated tokenized security and blockchain security exchange & bank. That launch was groundbreaking and showed the strong support this project has already earned from regulators and policymakers in Malta. I’m proud to be pushing boundaries with this project, just like we do with UnikoinGold. “It will be increasingly a regular occurrence in our country to attend to launch speak about the work being carried out in the areas of emerging technologies,” said Dr. Joseph Muscat, Malta’s prime minister, “We have worked our fingers to the bone in order to Live days like today and see companies such as Palladium launch.” Malta’s Prime Minister gives an address at Palladium’s launch at the Malta Stock Exchange Palladium has captured the attention and imagination of many in financial services and government in Malta and across Europe precisely because of its vision to solve the most pressing issues facing blockchain technologies today. There are a few things that need to be solved in blockchain in order for it to be truly mainstream. Companies need regulatory certainty to innovate, banks need to embrace the space and make it easier to interact between cryptocurrency and fiat, and companies like Unikrn need to make our solutions seamless and easy to use. This stuff is too hard. Palladium will make it easier and lift the whole ecosystem when it does. Ultimately, Unikrn is bumping into these problems or their results every day, which is why we’re working with Bittrex to build up Palladium,a crypto-banking and tokenized security exchange which should help tackle all of these major problems. As the first tokenized security exchange, Palladium will offer one of the most significant solutions to ICO accountability and value, creating an outlet for companies to explicitly share regulated ownership with token investors. This creates greater incentive for transparency and greater accountability, which can help lift downward pressure on the cryptosphere. Palladium’s plan includes the creation of a unified interface with the Bittrex-powered exchange and a European regulated bank, creating the first one-stop option for all payments, asset management and crypto investments. In and outside of Malta, the cryptosphere has become increasingly signalled as the definitive future of fintech, showcasing dizzying progress in the last five years despite regulatory uncertainty. With an already approved European Prospectus, the Malta-based Palladium has every expectation of creating tremors of disruption throughout Europe and beyond. “The pace of change and technological innovation over the next five years will be breathtaking when compared to the previous five years,” Joseph Cuschieri, the Chairman of the Malta Gaming Authority, declared from the launch event, “Blockchain is revolutionising the way we carry out Financial transactions and Palladium is a clear example of how financial services are being transformed through technological innovation.” Malta has worked hard over the last year to create a forward-looking legislative framework to attract and regulate emerging technologies, culminating in Palladium’s decision to base its announcement and company in the blockchain island. “We have embraced the fact that Innovation is a way forward for further economic growth,” said Silvio Schembri, the Parliamentary Secretary responsible for financial services, digital economy, and innovation, “Thank you [Palladium] for being part of our vision and I wish you all the success in the universe.” We’re calling qualified investors to join the future of fintech. Prime Minister Muscat ended his own statements by addressing Palladium Founder and Chairman Prof. Paolo Catalfamo directly: “[Palladium] is not just a flash-in-the-pan. You have shown the commitment to our financial services industry to our country as a whole.” To those of you asking how this will affect UnikoinGold, you’ll see early examples of how we will make it easy for our customers to access UKG very soon, and so many others will follow our lead. Stay tuned. To find out more, visit . Palladium’s website

How Palladium will help make crypto easier from Malta

Scientific American Supplement, No. 799, April 25, 1891 by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . ALLOTROPIC FORMS OF METALS. here ALLOTROPIC FORMS OF METALS. Writing on some curious properties of metals and alloys, Mr. W.C. Roberts-Austen, says the , remarks that the importance of the isomeric and allotropic states has been much neglected in the case of metals. Joule and Lyon Playfair showed, in 1846, that metals in different allotropic states possess different atomic volumes, and Matthiessen, in 1860, was led to the view that in certain cases where metals are alloyed they pass into allotropic states, probably the most important generalization which has yet been made in connection with the molecular constitution of alloys. Instances of allotropy in pure metals are: Bolley's lead, which oxidizes readily in air; Schutzenberger's copper; Fritsche' tin, which falls to powder when exposed to exceptionally cold winter; Gore's antimony; Graham's palladium and allotropic nickel. Joule has also proved that, when iron is released from its amalgam by distilling away the mercury, the metallic iron takes fire on exposure to air, and is therefore clearly different from ordinary iron. Engineer About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Various (2004). Scientific American Supplement, No. 799, April 25, 1891. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/11649/pg11649-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

ALLOTROPIC FORMS OF METALS

Scientific American Supplement, No. 799, April 25, 1891 by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . SPECTRUM OF THE SUN AND ELEMENTS. here SPECTRUM OF THE SUN AND ELEMENTS. The , No. 85, issued in February, contains Prof. Rowland's report of progress in spectrum work. The spectra of all known elements, with the exception of a few gaseous ones, or those too rare to be yet obtained, have been photographed in connection with the solar spectrum, from the extreme ultra-violet down to the D line, and eye observations have been made on many to the limit of the solar spectrum. A table of standard wave lengths of the impurities in the carbon poles extending to wave length 2,000 has been constructed to measure wave lengths beyond the limits of the solar spectrum. In addition to this, maps of the spectra of some of the elements have been drawn up on a large scale, ready for publication, and the greater part of the lines in the map of the solar spectrum have been identified. The following rough table of the solar elements has been constructed entirely according to Prof. Rowland's own observations, although, of course, most of them have been given by others: Johns Hopkins University Circular . Elements in the Sun, arranged according to Intensity and the Number of Lines in the Solar Spectrum According to intensity.             According to number.


  Calcium   Zirconium         Iron (2,000 or more) Magnesium (20 or more)
  Iron      Molybdenum        Nickel               Sodium (11)
  Hydrogen  Lanthanum         Titanium             Silicon
  Sodium    Niobium           Manganese            Strontium
  Nickel    Palladium         Chromium             Barium
  Magnesium Neodymium         Cobalt               Aluminum (4)
  Cobalt    Copper            Carbon (200 or more) Cadmium
  Silicon   Zinc              Vanadium             Rhodium
  Aluminum  Cadmium           Zirconium            Erbium
  Titanium  Cerium            Cerium               Zinc
  Chromium  Glucinum          Calcium (75 or more) Copper (2)
  Manganese Germanium         Scandium             Silver (2)
  Strontium Rhodium           Neodymium            Glucinum (2)
  Vanadium  Silver            Lanthanum            Germanium
  Barium    Tin               Yttrium              Tin
  Carbon    Lead              Niobium              Lead (1)
  Scandium  Erbium            Molybdenum           Potassium (1)
  Yttrium   Potassium         Palladium . Doubtful Elements Iridium, osmium, platinum, ruthenium, tantalum, thorium, tungsten, uranium. . Not in Solar Spectrum Antimony, arsenic, bismuth, boron, nitrogen, cæsium, gold, indium, mercury, phosphorus, rubidium, selenium, sulphur, thallium, praseodymium. With respect to these tables, Prof. Rowland adds: "The substances under the head of 'Not in the Solar Spectrum' are often placed there because the elements have few strong lines or none at all in the limit of the solar spectrum when the arc spectrum, which I have used, is employed. Thus, boron has only two strong lines at 2497. Again, the lines of bismuth are all compound, and so too diffuse to appear in the solar spectrum. Indeed, some good reason generally appears for their absence from the solar spectrum. Of course, there is but little evidence of their absence from the sun itself; were the whole earth heated to the temperature of the sun, its spectrum would probably resemble that of the sun very closely." The powerful instrument used at Baltimore for photographing spectra, and the measuring engine constructed to fit the photographs so that its readings give the wave lengths of lines directly within 1/100 of a division on Angström's scale, give the foregoing results a weight superior to many others published. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Various (2004). Scientific American Supplement, No. 799, April 25, 1891. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/11649/pg11649-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

SPECTRUM OF THE SUN AND ELEMENTS

Business English: A Practice Book by Rose Buhlig is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . INTERESTING WORDS here INTERESTING WORDS Business English is the expression of our commercial life in English. It is not synonymous with letter writing. To be sure, business letters are important, but they form only a part of one of the two large divisions into which the subject naturally falls. First, there is , important because so many of our business transactions are conducted personally. Thousands of salesmen daily move from place to place over the entire country, earning their salaries by talking convincingly of the goods that they have to sell. A still greater number of clerks, salesmen, managers, and officials orally transact business in our shops, stores, offices, and banks. Complaints are adjusted; difficulties are disentangled; and affairs of magnitude are consummated in personal interviews, the matter under discussion often being thought too important to be entrusted to correspondence. In every business oral English is essential. oral expression Second, there is . This takes account of the writing of advertisements, circulars, booklets, and prospectuses, as well as of letters. And in the preparation of these oral English is fundamental. It precedes and practically includes the written expression. For example, we say colloquially that a good advertisement "talks." We mean that the writer has so fully realized the buyer's point of view that the words of the advertisement seem to speak directly to the reader, arousing his interest or perhaps answering his objection. Oral English is fundamental, too, in the writing of letters, for most letters are dictated and not written. The correspondent dictates them to his stenographer or to a recording machine in the same tone, probably, that he would use if the customer were sitting before him. written expression But in taking this point of view, we should not minimize the importance of written business English. In a way, it is more difficult to write well than it is to talk well. In talking we are not troubled with the problems of correct spelling, proper punctuation, and good paragraphing. We may even repeat somewhat, if only we are persuasive. But in writing we are confronted with the necessity of putting the best thoughts into the clearest, most concise language, at the same time obeying all the rules of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. The business man must be sure of these details in order to know that his letters and advertising matter are correct. The stenographer, especially, must be thoroughly familiar with them, so that she may correctly transcribe what has been dictated. Business English is much the same as any other English. It consists in expression by means of words, sentences, and paragraphs. Moreover, they are much the same kind of words, sentences, and paragraphs that appear in any book that is written in what is commonly called the literary style. In a business letter the words are largely those of every day use, and but few are technical. It is the manner in which the words are put together, the idea back of the sentence, that makes the only difference. We shall begin the study of business English with a study of words, for in all expression, whether oral or written, a knowledge of words, of their meaning and suggestive power, is fundamental. On the choice of words depends not only the correctness but also the effectiveness of expression—the courtesy of a letter, the appeal of an advertisement, the persuasiveness of a salesman's talk. A mastery of words cannot be gained at once. Every time one speaks, he must consider what words will best convey his idea. In this chapter only the barest beginning of such study can be made. The exercises show the value of the subject. The study of words is interesting because words themselves are interesting. Sometimes the interest consists in the story of the derivation. As an example, consider the word . Many words in this book are written in italic to draw attention to them. Literally the word means "relating to Italy or its people." It is now applied to a kind of type in which the letters slope toward the right. The type was called italic because it was dedicated to the states of Italy by the inventor, Manutius, about the year 1500. An unabridged dictionary will tell all about the word. italic The word tells a curious story. It is derived from a Latin word, , meaning "salt money." It was the name of the money that was given to the Roman soldiers for salt, which was a part of their pay. Finally, instead of signifying only the salt money, it came to mean the total pay. salary salarium Practically all of this information a good dictionary gives. In other words, a dictionary is a story book containing not one, but hundreds of thousands of stories. Whenever possible it tells what language a word came from, how it got its different meanings, and how those meanings have changed in the course of time. For it is natural that words should change just as styles change, names of ancient things being lost and names for new things being made. As the objects themselves have gone out of use, their names have also gone. When a word has gone entirely out of use, it is marked in the dictionary. On the other hand, new inventions must be named. Thus new words are constantly being added to the language and the dictionary because they are needed. obsolete There is a large class of words that we shall not have time to consider. They are called . Every profession, business, or trade has its distinctive words. The technical words that a printer would use are entirely different from those which a dentist, a bookkeeper, or a lawyer would use. You will learn the technical terms of your business most thoroughly after you enter it and see the use for such terms. technical None of the words, therefore, that you will be asked to search out in the dictionary are, strictly speaking, technical. It is evident that it will do you no good to search out the words in the dictionary, unless you learn them—unless you use them correctly in speaking and writing. There is pleasure in thus employing new material, as everybody knows. Use your eyes and ears. When you hear a new word, or read one, focus the mind upon it for a moment until you can retain a mental picture of its spelling and of its pronunciation. Then as soon as possible look it up in the dictionary to fix its spelling, pronunciation, and definition. Do this regularly, and you will have reason to be proud of your vocabulary. An excellent way to increase the number of words that you know is to read the right kind of books. The careful study of the words used in the speeches and addresses of noted men is good practice. The conditions that called forth the speech were probably important, and the speech itself interesting, or it would not be preserved. When a man has an interesting or important message to give, he usually gives it in clear, exact, simple language. Therefore the vocabulary that he uses is worth copying. As for stories, there is a kind that furnishes a wealth of material that modern authors are constantly using or referring to, and this is found in stories of the Bible, stories of Greek and Northern gods and goddesses, stories of the , the , the , stories of chivalry—all old stories. Every one should know them well, because they are the basis of many allusions in which a single word oftentimes suggests a whole story. The meaning of the word , for instance, is missed if you do not know the story of Hercules and know that he was famous for his strength. Iliad Odyssey Æneid herculean Exercise 1 is an interesting word. Originally it was the name of a Greek god, who carried the world on his shoulders. Then it is supposed that in the sixteenth century the famous geographer Mercator prefixed his collection of maps with the picture of Atlas supporting the world. Thus a collection of maps in a volume came to be called an . Consult an unabridged dictionary for the origin of each of the following: Atlas atlas rival fortune cereal boycott dollar finance china derrick bankrupt milliner java mercury cash pullman cashmere colossal mint grocer macadam turbine Exercise 2 The days of the week and the months of the year are interesting in their derivation. Monday, for example, represents the day sacred to the Moon as a deity. Explain the origin of each of the following: Sunday Saturday May October Tuesday January June November Wednesday February July December Thursday March August Friday April September Exercise 3 Look up the derivation of the following: cancel bead ambition hospital pecuniary paper influence pavilion cheat book virtue mackintosh speculation bayonet peevish chapel phaëton tawdry disaster omnibus Exercise 4 Explain the origin of each of the following: curfew tulip turquoise good-bye pompadour aster amethyst dismal hyacinth dunce tantalize titanic dandelion humor umbrella volcano dahlia villain sandwich tangle begonia echo lunatic babble Exercise 5 Name the image that each of the following suggests to you: howl sputter rasping munch skim prance clatter trickle squeal click wheeze shuffle moan thud trudge bulge squeak patter chuckle gobble squawk spatter toddling swish Exercise 6 Bring to class a list of words which, because they are the names of modern inventions, have come into the language in modern time. Exercise 7 How many words can you name which might be called the technical terms of school life, words which always carry with them a suggestion of the school room? Bring in a list of twenty such words. Exercise 8 How many words can you name which are used only in the business world? Bring in a list of twenty such words. Exercise 9 How many words can you name which apply particularly to money and the payment or non-payment of money? Bring in a list of twenty or more such words. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Rose Buhlig (2011). Business English: A Practice Book. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/38046/pg38046-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

INTERESTING WORDS

The Duty of American Women to Their Country by Catharine Esther Beecher, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . The following extract from an address of Prof. Stowe, delivered at Portland in 1844, corroborates the views expressed by the author on the subject of moral training. here THE FOLLOWING EXTRACT FROM AN ADDRESS OF PROF. STOWE, DELIVERED AT PORTLAND IN 1844, CORROBORATES THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ON THE SUBJECT OF MORAL TRAINING. But in this country, in consequence of our unbounded religious freedom, the subdivisions of sect are almost innumerable; it is impossible, in a system of public instruction, to provide separately for them all; and, unless religious instruction can be given , it must be abandoned. without sectarianism “In this country the rights of all sects are the same, and any denomination that would have its own rights respected must respect the rights of others. “The time which can be devoted to religious instruction in schools is necessarily very limited; and if there be an honest and sincere desire to do right, the whole of this time certainly can be occupied, with efficiency and profit, without encroaching on the conscience of any sect which really has a conscience. “Facts show plainly that, notwithstanding the diversity of sects, there is common ground on which the sincerely pious of all sects substantially agree. For example, the most acceptable books of practical piety, which are oftenest read by Christians of all denominations, have proceeded from about all the different sects into which Christendom is divided, and are read by all with scarcely a recognition of the difference of sect. Such are the writings of Thomas à Kempis and Fenelon, who were Roman Catholics; of Jeremy Taylor and Bishop Hall, who were Churchmen; of Baxter, Watts, and Doddridge, who were Presbyterians or Congregationalists; of Bunyan and Andrew Fuller, who were Baptists; of Fletcher and Charles Wesley, who were Methodists. This fact alone shows that there is common ground, and enough of it too, to employ all the time which can properly be devoted to religious instruction in our public institutions. “All Christian sects, without exception, recognise the Bible as the text-book of their religion. They all acknowledge it to be a book given of God, and replete with the most excellent sentiments, moral and religious. None will admit that it is unfavourable to their peculiar views, but, on the contrary, all claim that it promotes them. To the use of the Bible, then, as the text-book of religious instruction in our schools, there can be no serious objection on the part of Christians of any sect; and even unbelievers very generally admit it to be a very good and useful book. “But shall it be the whole Bible? or only the New Testament? or selections made from one or both? “A book of mere selection would be very apt to awaken jealousy; and the exclusion of any part of the Scriptures would, to my mind, be painful. Let every scholar, then, have a whole Bible. The book can now be obtained so cheap, that the expense can be no objection. “But how can the teacher instruct in the Bible without coming on to sectarian ground? He can teach a great deal in regard to its geography and antiquities, and can largely illustrate its narrations, and its , and even , beauties. An honest, intelligent teacher can find, in this way, abundant employment for all his time, if he be himself a lover and student of the Bible, without ever passing into sectarian peculiarities, or giving any reasonable ground of offence. moral religious “But, apart from all this, the chief business of instruction in this department may be the committing to memory of portions of the Divine Word. The most rigidly orthodox will not object to this, for they believe every portion of the Bible to be the , and that , , , ; and the liberal, though they may not sympathize in the high orthodox view of the divine excellence of the Word, yet regard it as, on the whole, the best of books, and the more of it their children have treasured up in their minds, the better it must be for them. If the parent chooses, he can always himself select the portions to be committed by his child, or he may leave it to the discretion of the teacher, or he may give general directions, as selections from the Gospels, the Proverbs, the Psalms, &c. It is not at all essential that all the children of the same school, or even of the same class, should recite the same passages. Each child may be called upon, in turn, to recite what each one has committed, and the recitation may or may not be accompanied by remarks from the teacher, as circumstances may seem to justify or require. word of God which liveth and abideth forever all Scripture is profitable for doctrine reproof correction and instruction in righteousness “But there is another difficulty. The Roman Catholics, it is said, do not desire that their children should be instructed in the Scriptures; they receive the apocryphal book as a part of Scripture, and contend that we have not the whole Bible unless we include the Apocrypha; and they object to our common English translation. “In reply to this, I remark, in the first place, there are many parts of our land where there are no Roman Catholics, and, of course, the difficulty will not occur in those places. “Secondly, if Roman Catholics choose to exclude their children from a knowledge of the Bible, they have a perfectly legal right to do so, and we have no legal right to prevent it; nor should we desire any such legal right, for the moment we desire any such legal right, we abandon the Protestant principle and adopt the Papal. Catholic parents are perfectly competent to demand that their children should be excused from the Bible recitation, and this demand, if made, should be complied with; but they have no right to demand that the Bible should be withheld from the schools because they do not like it, nor do their objections render it necessary or excusable for Protestants to discard the Bible from schools. “Again, if Roman Catholics desire that children take Bibles into the schools, and recite from them, by all means let them do so; and so of Jews, let them recite from the Old Testament, if they choose, to the exclusion of the New. We allow to others equal rights with ourselves; but we claim for ourselves, and shall insist upon having, equal rights with all. I am perfectly willing to give to the Roman Catholics all they can justly claim, but I am not willing to encroach on any one’s rights, or the rights of any Protestant denomination, for the sake of accommodating the Roman Catholics. Nor do I suppose that the Romanists have a claim to any special accommodation, for they have never yet manifested any particular disposition to accommodate others. Let them have the same privileges that our Protestant sects have—that is enough; and they have no right to demand, our legislators have no right to grant, any more; and we Protestants will be perfectly satisfied when Protestants can enjoy as great privileges in Italy as Roman Catholics now enjoy in the United States. In judicious practice, I am persuaded there will seldom be any great difficulty, especially if there be excited generally in the community anything like a whole-hearted honesty and enlightened sincerity in the cause of public instruction. their their “It is all right for people to suit their own taste and convictions in respect to sect; and by fair means and at proper times, to teach their children and those under their influence to prefer the denominations which they prefer; but farther than this no one has any right to go. It is all wrong to hazard the well-being of the soul, to jeopardize great public interests for the sake of advancing the interests of a sect. People must learn to practise some self-denial, on Christian principles, in respect to their denominational preferences, as well as in respect to other things, before pure religion can ever gain a complete victory over every form of human selfishness. “Happily, there are places where religious instruction that is purely denominational can be freely given, so that there is no need whatever of introducing it into our public schools. The family and the Sunday school are the appropriate places for such instruction; and there let each denomination train its own children in its own peculiar way, with none to molest or to find fault. It is their right, it is their duty. “As to the objection, that the use of the Bible in schools makes it too common, and subjects it to contempt, as well might it be objected that the sun becomes contemptible because he shines every day and illumines the beggar’s hovel as well as the bishop’s palace. Where is the Bible most respected, in Scotland and New-England, or in Italy and Austria? The works of man, the robed monarch, may make themselves contemptible by being too often seen; but never the works of God. The children may, and ought to be, taught to treat the book with all possible reverence, and to preserve it as nice and unsullied as the Catholic preserves his crucifix; and in this way, I am sure, on all the principles of human nature with which I am acquainted, that the Bible will be no more likely to suffer from the habit of daily familiarity than the crucifix. “Let no one say that the religious instruction here proposed for schools is jejune and unprofitable. I do not so view the words of God. In any view, if the child faithfully commit to memory so much as the single Gospel of Matthew, or the first twenty-five Psalms, or the first ten chapters of Proverbs, or portions of the book of Genesis, those divine sentences will be in his mind forever after, ready to be called up to check him when any temptation assails his heart, to cheer him when any sorrow oppresses his soul, to be a lamp to his feet and a light to his path; to be in all respects of more real and permanent value to him than any creed, or catechism, or system of theology, or rules of ethics, of merely human origin, ever can be. “Why should we prevent so great a good by claiming what we have no right to claim? Are we not willing to trust the Word of God to cut its own way? Or can we claim to be Christians at all, while we consent to have the Word of God and all Christian teaching banished from our institutions of public instruction? Let not , , or , rob our schools of their greatest ornament and most precious treasure, the Bible of our fathers. Let not denominational feeling so far prevail as to lead us to destroy the greatest good while attempting to secure the less, as has so often been done in the Christian world heretofore. We are willing to give up much for the sake of peace and united effort; but the Bible, the word of God, the palladium of our freedom, the foundation of all our most precious hopes, we never can, we never will give up. Let all who love the Bible unite to defend it, to hold on upon it forever.” infidel coldness jesuitical intolerance sectarian jealousy About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Catharine Esther Beecher (2016). The Duty of American Women to Their Country. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/53739/pg53739-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

The following extract from an address of Prof. Stowe, delivered at Portland in 1844

THE BATTLE FOR DELIVERANCE FROM THE MOTHER

The Thornes of Ullathorne

Sustainability is a hot topic these days. It's often viewed as a hazy concept, but life cycle assessment provides a scientific way to measure environmental impacts and take concrete action. In this blog post, we'll outline the notion of life cycle assessment, its benefits, and key stages. What Is Life Cycle Assessment? The life cycle assessment methodology (LCA) is an environmental impact measurement technique, often a part of , that considers a product's lifespan, from manufacture to disposal. sustainability consulting services It encompasses factors such as energy use, emissions and waste output, and depletion of natural resources. LCA is essential for businesses that want to minimize their environmental impact. It provides reliable quantitative data that can be used to identify areas of improvement and find opportunities to develop more sustainable products and processes. Companies should evaluate the total environmental impact of their activities or product, which is where the LCA methodology comes in handy. It's essential to assess an entire business activity rather than just one part because many products have hidden ecological impacts that may not be immediately obvious, such as shipping raw materials to a factory or disposing of a product at its end of life. Key Benefits of Life Cycle Assessment Conducting an LCA of your product provides valuable insights into its environmental performance and the factors that influence it, such as the choice of materials and power sources. The key benefits depend on different stakeholders' perspectives, but here are some of the commonly cited ones: A Holistic View of the Impact An LCA lets you see the big picture by looking at your product's life cycle from manufacturing to disposal. It helps you identify ways to make improvements, evaluate the need for changes in operations or supply chains, and establishes and optimizes sustainability goals such as carbon reduction and energy efficiency. Deeper Insights The LCA offers enormous benefits when it comes to innovating with products and materials. Knowing which items in your supply chain have the most potential to impact the environment positively can help you make more informed choices about how best to proceed. Additionally, LCA provides a way to compare and test out different alternatives, particularly for products that are made from a combination of several materials. Access to these results gives you a solid scientific basis for improving production processes for alternative fibers and working collaboratively with suppliers on research and development projects to increase the environmental benefits of your innovation efforts. Empirical Data LCA provides rock-solid environmental data to back up the sustainability claims you make about your products. Energy and emissions must be accounted for along a product's life cycle to determine its true environmental impact. Studies based on LCA provide much-needed credibility, both with stakeholders and customers, when it comes to assessing just how sustainable your products really are. Sustainable Brand LCA is a powerful marketing tool that can help your brand stand out in the industry striving for sustainability. By providing data-driven transparency, you can build trust with consumers while showing them the positive environmental attributes of your products. LCA gives you a competitive advantage by enhancing your brand value and making your product pitch more compelling. The Four Steps of the Life Cycle Assessment Process The emergence of the LCA methodology can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s but it lacked consistency. The first steps to standardize the process were made in the 1990s, resulting in International Organization for Standardization (ISO) creating today's LCA standards. Today, LCA methodology is a popular tool used as part of sustainability initiatives that can be divided into four steps: goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory, impact assessment, and interpretation. Let’s walk through each stage. Step 1: Goal and Scope Definition The first stage of the LCA process provides the foundation for further analysis and ensures that results are relevant and meaningful by providing an understanding of what is to be analyzed and what is to leave out and how to do it. After this stage, you should have answers to such questions: What is the reason for conducting the assessment? What is the assessment's subject, also known as the functional unit? For example, will it be a product, process or activity, or some elements related to it? What are analysis boundaries? What life cycle stages of the product are to be included in the assessment, and what to exclude? Is there a time frame for the evaluation? Life Cycle Assessment Example: Goal & Scope Let’s take a laptop as an example to better understand each step of LCA. Here are the possible outcomes of the goal & scope stage: The goal of the LCA study is to evaluate the environmental impacts of a laptop throughout its life cycle. Goal: The functional unit for the study is one laptop computer that meets the average usage and performance expectations of a typical user, over a 5-year period. Functional unit: The scope of the assessment includes the entire life cycle of a laptop computer, including raw material extraction, manufacturing, use phase, and disposal or recycling. The geographic scope is unlimited. Analysis boundaries: The study will evaluate the environmental impacts of a laptop over a 5-year period, which is the average lifespan of a laptop according to industry . Timeframe for evaluation: reports Step 2: Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) The second stage involves collecting data on resources used and waste generated throughout a functional unit's life cycle, including raw materials, emissions, energy consumption, etc. The data can be gathered from various high-quality sources, such as industry reports, product specifications, and other relevant sources of information. The streamlined data collection process at this stage can be easily achieved with different software solutions. For example, ELEKS Dakar can automatically gather accurate data on electricity consumption and related emissions. The collected data is further used to calculate the environmental impacts of a functional unit in the next stage. Life Cycle Assessment Example: LCI By collecting data at each stage of the functional unit's life cycle, you can get different datasets, for example, on materials needed to manufacture a laptop (engineered plastics, steel, copper, aluminum, and precious metals like gold, platinum, and palladium, etc.), on energy and water consumption associated with its production (190,000 liters of water are used and of earth dug and mined to produce the components for laptops) and energy consumption of the laptop during its use (on average a laptop consumes per month). 1,200kgs 1.433 kWh Step 3: Impact Assessment Now that all the relevant data has been collected, it's time to begin the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). It is where one takes inventory of all the data gathered to evaluate and quantify potential environmental or human health damage. Life Cycle Assessment Example: LCIA A laptop, on average, emits of CO2 over its lifespan – including production, transportation, and the first 4 years of use. At the end of a laptop’s life cycle, recycling programs are designed to recover materials used in its manufacture for reuse. 422.5 kgs However, according to , only 38% of laptops disposed of in 2009 were actually collected for recycling - the rest ended up in landfills where their reclaimable components could no longer be used. NSCEP Step 4: Interpretation Without interpreting the data, making informed decisions or recommendations based on the findings would be impossible. This stage also involves identifying areas for improvement and waste minimization. Even though LCA results can be interpreted at any stage of the assessment, the interpretation after all the data has been collected gives a complete picture and ensures that all aspects are considered. As a result, one can make the best conclusions and recommendations. Note that the examples described above have been taken from various reports and research and are meant to demonstrate what kind of outcomes a product's life cycle assessment could have. The actual results of an LCA can be more or less detailed depending on your needs. Final Thoughts The LCA is essential for businesses wanting to reduce their environmental impact and develop more sustainable products and processes. LCA provides a comprehensive view of a product's impact, offering invaluable insights into the factors influencing its sustainable performance, like the choice of materials or power sources. And because it involves all four steps of goal and scope definition, inventorying, assessment, and interpretation – with rock-solid data to back up sustainability claims about products – LCAs help businesses gain consumer trust, enhance brand value and get ahead of the competition. If you want to learn more about life cycle assessments or conduct one for your product, process, or activity, ! don't hesitate to contact us

Life Cycle Assessment: Why It's the Key to Effective Sustainability Management

Evaluación del ciclo de vida: por qué es la clave para una gestión eficaz de la sostenibilidad

Analyse du cycle de vie : pourquoi c'est la clé d'une gestion efficace de la durabilité

जीवन चक्र आकलन: यह प्रभावी स्थिरता प्रबंधन की कुंजी क्यों है

ライフ サイクル アセスメント: 効果的な持続可能性管理の鍵となる理由

Avaliação do ciclo de vida: por que é a chave para uma gestão eficaz da sustentabilidade

Đánh giá vòng đời: Tại sao nó là chìa khóa để quản lý bền vững hiệu quả

生命周期评估：为什么它是有效的可持续发展管理的关键

Meteors, Fire-Balls, and Meteorites

Worlds Within Worlds: The Story of Nuclear Energy, Volume 3 (of 3), by Isaac Asimov is part of HackerNoon’s Book Blog Post series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Volume III, NUCLEAR FISSION: New Elements Enrico Fermi (left) and Niels Bohr discuss physics as they stroll along the Appian Way outside Rome in 1931. NUCLEAR FISSION New Elements In 1934 Enrico Fermi began his first experiments involving the bombardment of uranium with neutrons—experiments that were to change the face of the world. Fermi had found that slow neutrons, which had very little energy, were easily absorbed by atomic nuclei—more easily than fast neutrons were absorbed, and certainly more easily than charged particles were. Often what happened was that the neutron was simply absorbed by the nucleus. Since the neutron has a mass number of 1 and an atomic number of 0 (because it is uncharged), a nucleus that absorbs a neutron remains an isotope of the same element, but increases its mass number. For instance, suppose that neutrons are used to bombard hydrogen-1, which then captures one of the neutrons. From a single proton, it will become a proton plus a neutron; from hydrogen-1, it will become hydrogen-2. A new nucleus formed in this way will be at a higher energy and that energy is emitted in the form of a gamma ray. Sometimes the more massive isotope that is formed through neutron absorption is stable, as hydrogen-2 is. Sometimes it is not, but is radioactive instead. Because it has added a neutron, it has too many neutrons for stability. The best way of adjusting the matter is to emit a beta particle (electron). This converts one of the neutrons into a proton. The mass number stays the same but the atomic number increases by one. The element rhodium, for example, which has an atomic number of 45, has only 1 stable isotope, with a mass number of 103. If rhodium-103 (45 protons, 58 neutrons) absorbs a neutron, it becomes rhodium-104 (45 protons, 59 neutrons), which is not stable. Rhodium-104 emits a beta particle, changing a neutron to a proton so that the nuclear combination becomes 46 protons and 58 neutrons. This is palladium-104, which is stable. Fermi’s laboratory in Rome in 1930. As another example, indium-115 (49 protons, 66 neutrons) absorbs a neutron and becomes indium-116 (49 protons, 67 neutrons), which gives off a beta particle and becomes tin-116 (50 protons, 66 neutrons), which is stable. There are over 100 isotopes that will absorb neutrons and end by becoming an isotope of an element one higher in the atomic number scale. Fermi observed a number of these cases. Having done so, he was bound to ask what would happen if uranium were bombarded with neutrons. Would its isotopes also be raised in atomic number—in this case from 92 to 93? If that were so it would be very exciting, for uranium had the highest atomic number in the entire scale. Nobody had ever discovered any sample of element number 93, but perhaps it could be formed in the laboratory. In 1934, therefore, Fermi bombarded uranium with neutrons in the hope of obtaining atoms of element 93. Neutrons were absorbed and whatever was formed did give off beta particles, so element 93 should be there. However, four different kinds of beta particles (different in their energy content) were given off and the matter grew very confusing. Fermi could not definitely identify the presence of atoms of element 93 and neither could anyone else for several years. Other things turned up, however, which were even more significant. Before going on to these other things, however, it should be mentioned that undoubtedly element 93 was formed even though Fermi couldn’t clearly demonstrate the fact. In 1939 the American physicists Edwin Mattison McMillan (1907- ) and Philip Hauge Abelson (1913- ), after bombarding uranium atoms with slow neutrons, were able to identify element 93. Since uranium had originally been named for the planet, Uranus, the new element beyond uranium was eventually named for the planet Neptune, which lay beyond Uranus. Element 93 is therefore called “neptunium”. Lise Meitner Emilio Segrè Edwin M. McMillan Otto R. Frisch Glenn T. Seaborg Philip H. Abelson 121 What happened was exactly what was expected. Uranium-238 (92 protons, 146 neutrons) added a neutron to become uranium-239 (92 protons, 147 neutrons), which emitted a beta particle to become neptunium-239 (93 protons, 146 neutrons). In fact, neptunium-239 also emitted a beta particle so it ought to become an isotope of an element even higher in the atomic number scale. This one, element 94, was named “plutonium” after Pluto, the planet beyond Neptune. The isotope, plutonium-239, formed from neptunium-239, was only feebly radioactive, however, and it was not clearly identified until 1941. The actual discovery of the element plutonium came the year before, however, when neptunium-238 was formed. It emitted a beta particle and became plutonium-238, an isotope that was radioactive enough to be easily detected and identified by Glenn Theodore Seaborg (1912- ), and his co-workers, who completed McMillan’s experiments when he was called away to other defense research. Neptunium and plutonium were the first “transuranium elements” to be produced in the laboratory, but they weren’t the last. Over the next 30 years, isotopes were formed that contained more and more protons in the nucleus and therefore had higher and higher atomic numbers. At the moment of writing, isotopes of every element up to and including element 105 have been formed. A number of these new elements have been named for some of the scientists important in the history of nuclear research. Element 96 is “curium”, named for Pierre and Marie Curie; element 99 is “einsteinium” for Albert Einstein; and element 100 is “fermium” for Enrico Fermi. 122 Element 101 is “mendelevium” for the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeléev, who early in 1869 was the first to arrange the elements in a reasonable and useful order. Element 103 is “lawrencium” for Ernest O. Lawrence. “Rutherfordium” for Ernest Rutherford has been proposed for element 104. And “hahnium” for Otto Hahn (1879-1968), a German physical chemist whose contribution we will come to shortly, has been proposed for element 105. Neptunium, however, was not the first new element to be created in the laboratory. In the early 1930s, there were still 2 elements with fairly low atomic numbers that had never been discovered. These were the elements with atomic numbers 43 and 61. In 1937, though, molybdenum (atomic number 42) had been bombarded with neutrons in Lawrence’s laboratory in the United States. It might contain small quantities of element 43 as a result. The Italian physicist Emilio Segrè (1905- ), who had worked with Fermi, obtained a sample of the bombarded molybdenum and indeed obtained indications of the presence of element 43. It was the first new element to be manufactured by artificial means and was called “technetium” from the Greek word for “artificial”. The technetium isotope that was formed was radioactive. Indeed, all the technetium isotopes are radioactive. Element 61, discovered in 1945 and named “promethium”, also has no stable isotopes. Technetium and promethium are the only elements with atomic numbers less than 84 that do not have even a single stable isotope. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Isaac Asimov. 2015. Worlds Within Worlds: The Story of Nuclear Energy, Volume 3 (of 3). Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved May 2022 from https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10616/pg10616-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html .

The Story of Nuclear Energy: Nuclear Fission | New Elements

Over the last few months, we have seen the issues that the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has caused for global supply chains. There have already been some serious short-term implications. Yet as it becomes clearer that the war is likely to last even more months and possibly years, and that Russia has severed many of its economic ties with the West - at least for now - the longer-term outcomes for global supply chains are becoming apparent. The war is clearly a tragedy for everyone involved. Personally, I am the Ukrainian CEO of a Berlin-based startup, who has already taken time out to ensure that my family has safely left the country and to help my fellow Ukrainians. Yet I run a technology business whose main product has been designed to improve safety and efficiency in the supply chain. The war has once again made me ask questions about the resilience of the supply chain and how my startup can help solve those problems that will emerge in the future. Resource issues The main problems facing the West are around resources. Russia and Ukraine between them are huge providers of key resources like natural gas, oil and wheat. And this has had a big impact on global prices. Ukraine also produces 90% of the semiconductor-grade neon used in the United States, while Russia provides the US with more than a third of its palladium - a rare metal that’s a key component of semiconductors. Away from the materials the war is also significantly slowing down the movement of goods. The closing of air space in the region means that goods moving from China to Europe or the US may need to be rerouted or use slower or more expensive modes of transportation. Factor into this too the number of goods that are now holed up in ports as authorities try to work out how the sanctions against Russia impact on the movements of their goods. End-to-End tracking of supplies is key In the short term, there clearly is chaos in the way that goods and supplies are moving across Europe. In recent years technology has enabled logistics providers to add trackers to transported goods, which deliver ongoing information as to their passage. Here is how this works in more conventional times. Express delivery tracking typically relies on a proprietary network of checkpoints and back-end systems: inbound and outbound scanners at the warehouses and sorting centres, GPS trackers on delivery vehicles, and air freight schedules. This system works well when one can assume these checkpoints are operational and there is normal working infrastructure. Typically this is all under the control of the one company. Currently, due to massive infrastructure disruption, the majority of goods inside Ukraine are being transported in a loosely defined network that makes tracking anything almost impossible. It includes everyone from commercial shipping companies and volunteers with cars who deliver goods from either the Moldova/Ukraine border or the Poland/Ukraine border to the final destination. There are no barcode scanners, no ‘normal’ working infrastructure, and few (if any) defined processes. Fortunately, Ukrainians are very good at achieving results in a highly chaotic environment, but this isn’t sustainable long-term. Another challenge is what actually happens to the goods when they finally reach Ukraine. Simply tracking them, to ensure their arrival, is virtually impossible. Upon arrival in Lviv, for example, the initial shipping container may be separated into boxed shipments destined for secondary destinations (such as Kyiv or Vinnica), and from there, individual boxes are delivered to hospitals or civil defence groups. So how can the goods be tracked? The default in conventional times is non-disposable GPS trackers. These deliver basic information such as location etc to the logistics company. The key problem for these generally - and this is even more exacerbated in the current situation - is their high cost. What makes them totally unsuitable for use in Ukraine is that they rely on the recipient to return them, which is a massive bind at any time, and virtually impossible at the current time. The solution we worked on and launched a year ago is a disposable tracker. We wanted a tracker that could give information such as location (like every 4-6 hours), temperature, humidity (5-minute intervals), vibration shocks and more, yet didn’t need to be returned, rather just recycled by the recipient. Crucially, the implementation of Moeсo trackers does not require a lot of time and staff training. Initially, this innovation was designed to take logistics tracking to a new level, but as is obvious it is ideally suited to help logistics companies as they face the new issues caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It is, for example, possible to track not only the direct supply of medicines to Lviv, but also further distribution by city too. Pallet/package level conditions monitoring and visibility is in high demand and obviously not just in the war zone. It reduces dependency on human work and critical infrastructure, and scales quickly. In other words, you don’t need to hire more people as the shipping volumes go up. We think that “self-talking” cargo is the way we can solve not only the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine but also to remove logistics bottlenecks in the supply chain around the world. What does the future look like for supply chains? The way forward for Russia, Ukraine, and indeed the entire world is not clear. In many ways, the conflict has underlined the resilience of the supply chain in that global trade traffic as a whole hasn’t been too badly disrupted. Further goods that have been bound for Ukraine have, sometimes against the odds, found a way through. I think ultimately the conflict will mean that the world looks again at supply chains: How efficient are they? How can we improve them? And how we can ensure the minimum disruption if a similar conflict occurs. I am a great believer in the way that people come together and harness technology to solve problems. And that is what I think we are going to see in the coming months and years with the supply chain.

The Impact of European War on the Supply Chain: What it Teaches us About Resilience and Disaster 

The last month will go down in history as "black February" and not so much because of volatility in the markets as growing geopolitical tensions. Despite all the promises, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the green light to a so-called "military operation" in Ukraine. It didn’t take long for Europe and the US to respond. In a matter of days, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the prohibited United States persons from engaging in transactions with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. Treasury This action effectively immobilizes any assets of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation held in the United States or by U.S. persons, wherever located. On top of that, the United States and its allies have announced that they are prepared to restrict imports of Russian technology products by 50%. Lose-lose situation The only problem is that anti-Russian sanctions have also punished the global economy: gas and oil prices are skyrocketing, whereas prices for metals, including palladium, which is widely used in the manufacture of automotive catalysts, have hit multi-year highs. In this context, it shouldn’t be a surprise that inflation expectations have spiked once again. According to the latest , Eurozone consumer prices rose by a record 5.8 percent in February. data The jump in the cost of living in the Eurozone to well above the ECB’s 2 percent inflation target has divided the central bank into two groups: those who are pushing for tighter monetary policy to tackle inflation and those who want a pause to assess the economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Prepare for High Gas Prices Regarding energy prices, the biggest issue is that the world's leading oil powers simply cannot increase production due to lack of capacity because of extremely low investment in the industry in recent years. Even the current quotas are not fully taken by OPEC+ countries. The good news is that the prospects for the Iran nuclear deal remain important for the oil market. Negotiators are gradually moving closer to a consensus, which could mean the removal of sanctions on Iranian oil exports and would add up to 1 million barrels to the market by 2022. Iran currently produces about 2.5 million b/d. It is forecasted that the rapid growth of commodity prices could end up pushing up inflation in the U.S. and EU. The monetary authorities will inevitably react to this by raising refinancing rates, which will raise the cost of loans for businesses. Given the rise in the cost of industrial raw materials, along with energy, this will inevitably lead to a downturn in the global economy. In particular, JPMorgan Chase & Co. a run-up to $150 a barrel would almost stall the global expansion and send inflation spiraling to over 7%, more than three times the rate targeted by most monetary policymakers. warns How to Save Money Despite rising inflation expectations, the major cryptocurrency failed to justify its safe-haven status. Possible reasons for the continuation of the sideways trend include geopolitical tensions, as well as increased hawkish sentiment at the Federal Reserve. If risk-off in the markets continues, Bitcoin's return to historical records may be delayed. In the meantime, Exchange-traded funds that in gold and other precious metals have seen massive inflows. Data from Refinitiv Lipper showed and other precious metal ETFs have seen an inflow of $4.7 billion this year, after witnessing outflows worth $7.8 billion last year. invest gold Regarding the stocks, the best idea would be to follow Buffett’s principle: not to rush and invest in enterprises with a long-term economic outlook. It is worth mentioning that in the last quarter, Berkshire Hathaway shares of Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) and Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI), and bought securities of Formula One Group (FWONK), Activision Blizzard (ATVI), and Nu Holdings (NU). sold In addition, Berkshire increased its stake in Chevron (CVX) by more than 33%, decreasing its stake in Kroger (KR) by 0.61%, and Charter Communications, Inc. (CHTR) by 8.8%. Also, the company continued to get rid of pharma securities, with shares in AbbVie ( ) down -79%, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) down -76%, and Royalty Pharma (RPRX) down 34%. ABBV Another option would be to invest in real physical assets: real estate, cars, or bars of gold or other metals. In addition, it could be a good idea to focus on businesses that don't depend too much on market conditions and external circumstances. Everything that generates cash is a possible defense against inflation.

Stories, News & Mentions about TALLARIUM

Tallarium’s Stories on HackerNoon