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Brazilian televangelist tells followers to embark on media 'fast'
Bishop Edir Macedo's request to refrain from television, radio or the web criticised as diversion tactic from bad press
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Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 July 2011 14.06 BST
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macedo cult brazil
Followers of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, one of the richest evangelical cults in South America Photograph: Carlos Magno/AP
He is one of South America's most powerful televangelists, a billionaire preacher and media mogul who presides over one of the world's fastest-growing and most controversial Pentecostal churches.
But despite controlling one of Brazil's largest communications empires, Bishop Edir Macedo, the head of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, is urging his followers to embark on a complete media fast. Twitter and Facebook-obsessed Christians have been told to log-off and get closer to God.
"It will be a fast from each and every kind of secular information: TV, internet, newspapers, magazines, radios … from everything that is not Godly," Macedo wrote.
Many suspect the move, however, is a tactic to divert followers' attention from bad press.
The Christian news website Gospel+ noted that Macedo had called for "media fasts" twice in the past. On both occasions, the fasts coincided with negative stories about the Universal Church that were widely disseminated in the Brazilian media.
Earlier this month the Universal Church came under attack after claims that a nine-year-old boy had been coerced into selling his toys during one televised service. As his mother underwent a violent exorcism on stage, the boy told the preacher he hoped selling his toys and donating the proceeds to the church would stop his parents fighting at home.
Promoting the media fast his popular blog, the Blog do Macedo, the preacher claimed: "The spirit of the Lord will descend upon all sincere participants."
"In the first 21 days of August we will carry out a veritable spiritual clean-up," he added, calling on believers to "abstain from all forms of media and entertainment ... from all the trash of this world."
His numerous critics believe that while the fast will prevent churchgoers from following the latest developments on spicy telenovelas shown by Brazil's Globo media giant, they will be allowed to tune in to programmes on Macedo's rival Record network, as well as religious services.
Followers will also have access to Macedo's websites, radio stations, record label and the church's weekly newspaper, the Folha Universal.
One blogger suggested Macedo himself was unlikely to adhere to the media blackout since people who worked for or depended on the media were exempt.
Macedo's church was founded in 1977 in Rio de Janeiro and has since grown at a breakneck speed. Today it claims to have some 8 million followers worldwide, including "temples" in Africa, Asia, Europe and the US. Brazilian authorities have claimed that bishop Macedo is worth at least $2bn.
Earlier this month, the church opened its latest temple in the UK, inside a former cinema in Leicester. "This is no longer a cinema, but a church, a spiritual intensive care unit," Bishop Celso Júnior, one of the Church's UK leaders, reportedly said at the launch. The "gates of hell would never close on the city of Leicester", he added, according to the Arca Universal website, one of Macedo's numerous media outlets.
The church's hostile stance towards gay and lesbian people mean the church has become one of Brazil's most controversial.
terça-feira, 2 de agosto de 2011
terça-feira, 12 de julho de 2011
The viewer (test person) sees a picture representing a Venetian mask and is asked if he/she notices something special in it. A surprising number don’t notice that the main features of the mask are actually composed of two distinct faces: a man and a woman kissing one another.
Once the viewer discerns two individual faces, his/her brain will ‘flip’ between two possible interpretations of the mask, making the viewer perceive two faces or one face in alternation.
This kind of illusion, where the viewer experiences two equally possible interchangeable stable states in perception, is called “bistable illusion”.
Once the viewer discerns two individual faces, his/her brain will ‘flip’ between two possible interpretations of the mask, making the viewer perceive two faces or one face in alternation.
This kind of illusion, where the viewer experiences two equally possible interchangeable stable states in perception, is called “bistable illusion”.
segunda-feira, 4 de julho de 2011
The chief science legacy of NASA's space shuttle program may be the International Space Station, the gigantic orbiting lab that shuttle missions helped build over the past 13 years. But lots of interesting research has also been done aboard the shuttles themselves since they started flying in 1981.
Long before the station was up and running, space shuttle missions broke new ground in many different fields of research, taking advantage of the microgravity environment to perform studies that couldn't be done on terra firma.
As the last-ever shuttle launch nears — NASA's STS-135 mission aboard Atlantis will blast off July 8 — here's an admittedly subjective countdown at six of the coolest experiments ever done aboard NASA's iconic space plane.
Experiments aboard the space shuttle have shown that Salmonella bacteria, a common and sometimes deadly source of food poisoning, get more virulent in space. [9 Weird Things Flown On NASA's Space Shuttles]
Researchers first noticed this characteristic in studies performed aboard Atlantis' STS-115 flight in 2006 and the STS-123 mission of Endeavour two years later. And it's not a subtle change; Salmonella becomes three to seven times more virulent in microgravity conditions, researchers have said.
Scientists believe that the bacteria get ramped up because spaceflight tricks them into behaving as if they're inside the human gut. The shuttle missions also identified dozens of genes that seem to be involved in the hyper-virulence, as well as a "master switch" protein that regulates many of these genes.
The biotech firm Astrogenetix worked with NASA to conduct and extend this research, and the company recently developed a Salmonella vaccine based on it. Astrogenetix is also performing space-based studies of other pathogens, such as dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria, with the aim of finding better treatments down the road.
13-Mile Space Tether Tryout
Tethered Satellite System deployment
Credit: NASA
The experiment, called the Tethered Satellite System (TSS), was a joint effort between NASA and the Italian space agency. The idea was to show that tethered satellites could generate electric current as they cruised through Earth's magnetic field.
During STS-46, the tether unspooled just 840 feet (256 meters) from Atlantis before the reel jammed. Four years later, 12.2 miles (19.7 km) of cable were released before the 0.1-inch (0.25 centimeter) tether snapped, sending the probe shooting away into a higher orbit.
Though neither attempt was 100 percent successful, the TSS belongs on this list for its scale and ambition alone. And the 1996 experiment did return some interesting results. Before the tether snapped, the TSS had been generating 3,500 volts and up to 0.5 amps of current, according to NASA officials.
Long before the station was up and running, space shuttle missions broke new ground in many different fields of research, taking advantage of the microgravity environment to perform studies that couldn't be done on terra firma.
As the last-ever shuttle launch nears — NASA's STS-135 mission aboard Atlantis will blast off July 8 — here's an admittedly subjective countdown at six of the coolest experiments ever done aboard NASA's iconic space plane.
Experiments aboard the space shuttle have shown that Salmonella bacteria, a common and sometimes deadly source of food poisoning, get more virulent in space. [9 Weird Things Flown On NASA's Space Shuttles]
Researchers first noticed this characteristic in studies performed aboard Atlantis' STS-115 flight in 2006 and the STS-123 mission of Endeavour two years later. And it's not a subtle change; Salmonella becomes three to seven times more virulent in microgravity conditions, researchers have said.
Scientists believe that the bacteria get ramped up because spaceflight tricks them into behaving as if they're inside the human gut. The shuttle missions also identified dozens of genes that seem to be involved in the hyper-virulence, as well as a "master switch" protein that regulates many of these genes.
The biotech firm Astrogenetix worked with NASA to conduct and extend this research, and the company recently developed a Salmonella vaccine based on it. Astrogenetix is also performing space-based studies of other pathogens, such as dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria, with the aim of finding better treatments down the road.
13-Mile Space Tether Tryout
Tethered Satellite System deployment
Credit: NASA
The experiment, called the Tethered Satellite System (TSS), was a joint effort between NASA and the Italian space agency. The idea was to show that tethered satellites could generate electric current as they cruised through Earth's magnetic field.
During STS-46, the tether unspooled just 840 feet (256 meters) from Atlantis before the reel jammed. Four years later, 12.2 miles (19.7 km) of cable were released before the 0.1-inch (0.25 centimeter) tether snapped, sending the probe shooting away into a higher orbit.
Though neither attempt was 100 percent successful, the TSS belongs on this list for its scale and ambition alone. And the 1996 experiment did return some interesting results. Before the tether snapped, the TSS had been generating 3,500 volts and up to 0.5 amps of current, according to NASA officials.
sábado, 25 de junho de 2011
On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat (historical)
Published: September 4, 2007, 4:41 pm
Edited: September 4, 2007, 4:41 pm
Lead Author: Ida Kubiszewski
Topics: Physics & Chemistry, Energy
Rate:
1
2
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4
5
This article has been reviewed by the following Topic Editor: Cutler Cleveland
Originally Published As:
Title: On the Existence of an Equivalent Relation between Heat and the ordinary Forms of Mechanical Power
Author: James Prescott Joule
Source: Philosophical Magazine, series 3, vol. xxvii, p. 205
Year published: 1845
EDITOR'S NOTE: In a classic experiment in 1843, James Joule showed the energy equivalence of heating and doing work by using the change in potential energy of falling masses to stir an insulated container of water with paddles. Joule reported this and other related work in a letter to th editors of the Philosophical Magazine. Although German physicist Julius Robert von Mayer had made the same discovery independently of Joule a few years earlier, it was Joule who received the credit. Joule made a series of measurements and found that, on average, a weight of 772 pounds falling through a distance of one foot would raise the temperature of one pound of water by 1° F. This corresponds to 772 ft lbs × 1.356 J/ft lb = 59,453.6 Calories or 1 cal = 4.15 Joules; this is in close agreement with the current accepted value of 1 cal = 4.184 J. These findings contradicted the "caloric theory,” which embodied the day's widespread belief that heat was a fluid that could be neither created nor destroyed. Joule, on the other hand, claimed that heat was only one of many forms of energy and only the sum of all forms was conserved. This formed the basis for the theory of conservation of energy (the First Law of Thermodynamics).
Gentlemen,
The principal part of this letter was brought under the notice of the British association at its last meeting at Cambridge. I have hitherto hesitated to give it further publication, not because I was in any degree doubtful of the conclusions at which I had arrived, but because I intended to make a slight alteration in the apparatus calculated to give still greater precision to the experiments. Being unable, however, just at present to spare time necessary to fulfil this design, and being at the same time most anxious to convince the scientific world of the truth of the positions I have maintained, I hope you will do me the favour of publishing this letter in your excellent Magazine.
The apparatus exhibited before the Association consisted of a brass paddle-wheel working horizontally in a can of water. Motion could be communicated to this paddle by means of weights, pulleys, &c., exactly in the matter described in a previous paper.*
The paddle moved with great resistance in the can of water, so that the weights (each of four pounds) descended at the slow rate of about one foot per second. The height of the pulleys from the ground was twelve yards, and consequently, when the weights had descended through that distance, they had to be wound up again in order to renew the motion of the paddle. After this operation had been repeated sixteen times, the increase of the temperature of the water was ascertained by means of a very sensible and accurate thermometer.
A series of nine experiments was performed in the above manner, and nine experiments were made in order to eliminate the cooling or heating effects of the atmosphere. After reducing the result to the capacity for heat of a pound of water, it appeared that for each degree of heat evolved by the friction of water a mechanical power equal to that which can raise a weight of 890 lb. to the height of one foot had been expended.
The equivalents I have already obtained are; -- 1st, 823 lb., derived from magneto-electrical experiments (Phil. Mag. ser. 3 vol. xxiii. pp. 263, 347); 2nd, 795 lb., deduced from the cold produced by the rarefaction of air (Ibid. May 1845, p. 369); and 3rd, 774 lb. from experiments (hitherto unpublished) on the motion of water through narrow tubes. This last class of experiments being similar to that with the paddle wheel, we may take the mean of 774 and 890, or 832 lb., as the equivalent derived from the friction of water. In such delicate experiments, where one hardly ever collects more than one another than that above exhibited could hardly have been expected. I may therefore conclude that the existence of an equivalent relation between heat and the ordinary forms of mechanical power is proved; and assume 817 lb., the mean of the results of three distinct classes of experiments, as the equivalent, until more accurate experiments shall have been made.
Any of your readers who are so fortunate as to reside amid the romantic scenery of Wales or Scotland could, I doubt not, confirm my experiments by trying the temperature of the water at the top and at the bottom of a cascade. If my views be correct, a fall of 817 feet will course generate one degree of heat, and the temperature of the river Niagra will be raised about one fifth of a degree by its fall of 160 feet.
Admitting the correctness of the equivalent I have named, it is obvious that the vis viva of the particles of a pound water at (say) 51° is equal to the vis viva possessed by a pound of water at 50° plus the vis viva which would be acquired by a weight of 817 lb. after falling through the perpendicular height of one foot.
Assuming that the expansion of elastic fluids on the removal of pressure is owing to the centrifugal force of revolving atmospheres of electricity, we can easily estimate the absolute quantity of heat in matter. For in an elastic fluid the pressure will be proportional to the square of the velocity of the revolving atmosphere, and the vis viva of the atmospheres will also be proportional to the square of their velocity; consequently the pressure of elastic fluids at the temperatures 32° and 33° is 480 : 481; consequently the zero of temperature must be 480° below the freezing-point of water.
We see then what an enormous quantity of vis viva exists in matter. A single pound of water at 60° must possess 480° + 28° = 508° of heat; in other words, it must possess a vis viva equal to that acquired bt a weight of 415036 lb. after falling through the perpendicular height of one foot. The velocity with which the atmosphere of electricity must revolve in order to present this enormous amount of vis viva must of course be prodigious, and equal probably to the velocity of light in the planetary space, or to that of an electric discharge as determined by the experiments of Wheatstone.
* Phil. Mag. ser. 3, vol. xxiii, p. 436. The paddle-wheel used by Rennie in his experiments on the friction of water (Phil. Trans. 1831, plate xi, fig, 1) was somewhat similar to mine. I have employed, however, a greater number of "floats," and also a corresponding number of stationary floats, in order to prevent the rotatory motion of the can.
I remain, Gentlemen,
Yours Respectfully,
James P Joule.
Citation
Ida Kubiszewski (Lead Author);Cutler Cleveland (Topic Editor) "On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat (historical)". In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth September 4, 2007; Last revised Date September 4, 2007; Retrieved June 25, 2011
The Author
Ida Kubiszewski Stewardship Committee The Encyclopedia of Earth Dr. Ida Kubiszewski is a co-founder and former-Managing Editor the Encyclopedia of Earth. She is currently working as the Managing Editor for a new magazine/journal hybrid called Solutions. Solutions is an outlet for discussions focusing on solutions to the complex problems we are now facing in the context of whole systems design for a sustainable and desirable future. Dr. Kubiszewski is also the managing editor of Ecological E ... (Full Bio)
Published: September 4, 2007, 4:41 pm
Edited: September 4, 2007, 4:41 pm
Lead Author: Ida Kubiszewski
Topics: Physics & Chemistry, Energy
Rate:
1
2
3
4
5
This article has been reviewed by the following Topic Editor: Cutler Cleveland
Originally Published As:
Title: On the Existence of an Equivalent Relation between Heat and the ordinary Forms of Mechanical Power
Author: James Prescott Joule
Source: Philosophical Magazine, series 3, vol. xxvii, p. 205
Year published: 1845
EDITOR'S NOTE: In a classic experiment in 1843, James Joule showed the energy equivalence of heating and doing work by using the change in potential energy of falling masses to stir an insulated container of water with paddles. Joule reported this and other related work in a letter to th editors of the Philosophical Magazine. Although German physicist Julius Robert von Mayer had made the same discovery independently of Joule a few years earlier, it was Joule who received the credit. Joule made a series of measurements and found that, on average, a weight of 772 pounds falling through a distance of one foot would raise the temperature of one pound of water by 1° F. This corresponds to 772 ft lbs × 1.356 J/ft lb = 59,453.6 Calories or 1 cal = 4.15 Joules; this is in close agreement with the current accepted value of 1 cal = 4.184 J. These findings contradicted the "caloric theory,” which embodied the day's widespread belief that heat was a fluid that could be neither created nor destroyed. Joule, on the other hand, claimed that heat was only one of many forms of energy and only the sum of all forms was conserved. This formed the basis for the theory of conservation of energy (the First Law of Thermodynamics).
Gentlemen,
The principal part of this letter was brought under the notice of the British association at its last meeting at Cambridge. I have hitherto hesitated to give it further publication, not because I was in any degree doubtful of the conclusions at which I had arrived, but because I intended to make a slight alteration in the apparatus calculated to give still greater precision to the experiments. Being unable, however, just at present to spare time necessary to fulfil this design, and being at the same time most anxious to convince the scientific world of the truth of the positions I have maintained, I hope you will do me the favour of publishing this letter in your excellent Magazine.
The apparatus exhibited before the Association consisted of a brass paddle-wheel working horizontally in a can of water. Motion could be communicated to this paddle by means of weights, pulleys, &c., exactly in the matter described in a previous paper.*
The paddle moved with great resistance in the can of water, so that the weights (each of four pounds) descended at the slow rate of about one foot per second. The height of the pulleys from the ground was twelve yards, and consequently, when the weights had descended through that distance, they had to be wound up again in order to renew the motion of the paddle. After this operation had been repeated sixteen times, the increase of the temperature of the water was ascertained by means of a very sensible and accurate thermometer.
A series of nine experiments was performed in the above manner, and nine experiments were made in order to eliminate the cooling or heating effects of the atmosphere. After reducing the result to the capacity for heat of a pound of water, it appeared that for each degree of heat evolved by the friction of water a mechanical power equal to that which can raise a weight of 890 lb. to the height of one foot had been expended.
The equivalents I have already obtained are; -- 1st, 823 lb., derived from magneto-electrical experiments (Phil. Mag. ser. 3 vol. xxiii. pp. 263, 347); 2nd, 795 lb., deduced from the cold produced by the rarefaction of air (Ibid. May 1845, p. 369); and 3rd, 774 lb. from experiments (hitherto unpublished) on the motion of water through narrow tubes. This last class of experiments being similar to that with the paddle wheel, we may take the mean of 774 and 890, or 832 lb., as the equivalent derived from the friction of water. In such delicate experiments, where one hardly ever collects more than one another than that above exhibited could hardly have been expected. I may therefore conclude that the existence of an equivalent relation between heat and the ordinary forms of mechanical power is proved; and assume 817 lb., the mean of the results of three distinct classes of experiments, as the equivalent, until more accurate experiments shall have been made.
Any of your readers who are so fortunate as to reside amid the romantic scenery of Wales or Scotland could, I doubt not, confirm my experiments by trying the temperature of the water at the top and at the bottom of a cascade. If my views be correct, a fall of 817 feet will course generate one degree of heat, and the temperature of the river Niagra will be raised about one fifth of a degree by its fall of 160 feet.
Admitting the correctness of the equivalent I have named, it is obvious that the vis viva of the particles of a pound water at (say) 51° is equal to the vis viva possessed by a pound of water at 50° plus the vis viva which would be acquired by a weight of 817 lb. after falling through the perpendicular height of one foot.
Assuming that the expansion of elastic fluids on the removal of pressure is owing to the centrifugal force of revolving atmospheres of electricity, we can easily estimate the absolute quantity of heat in matter. For in an elastic fluid the pressure will be proportional to the square of the velocity of the revolving atmosphere, and the vis viva of the atmospheres will also be proportional to the square of their velocity; consequently the pressure of elastic fluids at the temperatures 32° and 33° is 480 : 481; consequently the zero of temperature must be 480° below the freezing-point of water.
We see then what an enormous quantity of vis viva exists in matter. A single pound of water at 60° must possess 480° + 28° = 508° of heat; in other words, it must possess a vis viva equal to that acquired bt a weight of 415036 lb. after falling through the perpendicular height of one foot. The velocity with which the atmosphere of electricity must revolve in order to present this enormous amount of vis viva must of course be prodigious, and equal probably to the velocity of light in the planetary space, or to that of an electric discharge as determined by the experiments of Wheatstone.
* Phil. Mag. ser. 3, vol. xxiii, p. 436. The paddle-wheel used by Rennie in his experiments on the friction of water (Phil. Trans. 1831, plate xi, fig, 1) was somewhat similar to mine. I have employed, however, a greater number of "floats," and also a corresponding number of stationary floats, in order to prevent the rotatory motion of the can.
I remain, Gentlemen,
Yours Respectfully,
James P Joule.
Citation
Ida Kubiszewski (Lead Author);Cutler Cleveland (Topic Editor) "On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat (historical)". In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth September 4, 2007; Last revised Date September 4, 2007; Retrieved June 25, 2011
The Author
Ida Kubiszewski Stewardship Committee The Encyclopedia of Earth Dr. Ida Kubiszewski is a co-founder and former-Managing Editor the Encyclopedia of Earth. She is currently working as the Managing Editor for a new magazine/journal hybrid called Solutions. Solutions is an outlet for discussions focusing on solutions to the complex problems we are now facing in the context of whole systems design for a sustainable and desirable future. Dr. Kubiszewski is also the managing editor of Ecological E ... (Full Bio)
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Brazil
Brazilian televangelist tells followers to embark on media 'fast'
Bishop Edir Macedo's request to refrain from television, radio or the web criticised as diversion tactic from bad press
Share
reddit this
Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 July 2011 14.06 BST
Article history
macedo cult brazil
Followers of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, one of the richest evangelical cults in South America Photograph: Carlos Magno/AP
He is one of South America's most powerful televangelists, a billionaire preacher and media mogul who presides over one of the world's fastest-growing and most controversial Pentecostal churches.
But despite controlling one of Brazil's largest communications empires, Bishop Edir Macedo, the head of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, is urging his followers to embark on a complete media fast. Twitter and Facebook-obsessed Christians have been told to log-off and get closer to God.
"It will be a fast from each and every kind of secular information: TV, internet, newspapers, magazines, radios … from everything that is not Godly," Macedo wrote.
Many suspect the move, however, is a tactic to divert followers' attention from bad press.
The Christian news website Gospel+ noted that Macedo had called for "media fasts" twice in the past. On both occasions, the fasts coincided with negative stories about the Universal Church that were widely disseminated in the Brazilian media.
Earlier this month the Universal Church came under attack after claims that a nine-year-old boy had been coerced into selling his toys during one televised service. As his mother underwent a violent exorcism on stage, the boy told the preacher he hoped selling his toys and donating the proceeds to the church would stop his parents fighting at home.
Promoting the media fast his popular blog, the Blog do Macedo, the preacher claimed: "The spirit of the Lord will descend upon all sincere participants."
"In the first 21 days of August we will carry out a veritable spiritual clean-up," he added, calling on believers to "abstain from all forms of media and entertainment ... from all the trash of this world."
His numerous critics believe that while the fast will prevent churchgoers from following the latest developments on spicy telenovelas shown by Brazil's Globo media giant, they will be allowed to tune in to programmes on Macedo's rival Record network, as well as religious services.
Followers will also have access to Macedo's websites, radio stations, record label and the church's weekly newspaper, the Folha Universal.
One blogger suggested Macedo himself was unlikely to adhere to the media blackout since people who worked for or depended on the media were exempt.
Macedo's church was founded in 1977 in Rio de Janeiro and has since grown at a breakneck speed. Today it claims to have some 8 million followers worldwide, including "temples" in Africa, Asia, Europe and the US. Brazilian authorities have claimed that bishop Macedo is worth at least $2bn.
Earlier this month, the church opened its latest temple in the UK, inside a former cinema in Leicester. "This is no longer a cinema, but a church, a spiritual intensive care unit," Bishop Celso Júnior, one of the Church's UK leaders, reportedly said at the launch. The "gates of hell would never close on the city of Leicester", he added, according to the Arca Universal website, one of Macedo's numerous media outlets.
The church's hostile stance towards gay and lesbian people mean the church has become one of Brazil's most controversial.
World news
Brazil
Brazilian televangelist tells followers to embark on media 'fast'
Bishop Edir Macedo's request to refrain from television, radio or the web criticised as diversion tactic from bad press
Share
reddit this
Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 July 2011 14.06 BST
Article history
macedo cult brazil
Followers of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, one of the richest evangelical cults in South America Photograph: Carlos Magno/AP
He is one of South America's most powerful televangelists, a billionaire preacher and media mogul who presides over one of the world's fastest-growing and most controversial Pentecostal churches.
But despite controlling one of Brazil's largest communications empires, Bishop Edir Macedo, the head of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, is urging his followers to embark on a complete media fast. Twitter and Facebook-obsessed Christians have been told to log-off and get closer to God.
"It will be a fast from each and every kind of secular information: TV, internet, newspapers, magazines, radios … from everything that is not Godly," Macedo wrote.
Many suspect the move, however, is a tactic to divert followers' attention from bad press.
The Christian news website Gospel+ noted that Macedo had called for "media fasts" twice in the past. On both occasions, the fasts coincided with negative stories about the Universal Church that were widely disseminated in the Brazilian media.
Earlier this month the Universal Church came under attack after claims that a nine-year-old boy had been coerced into selling his toys during one televised service. As his mother underwent a violent exorcism on stage, the boy told the preacher he hoped selling his toys and donating the proceeds to the church would stop his parents fighting at home.
Promoting the media fast his popular blog, the Blog do Macedo, the preacher claimed: "The spirit of the Lord will descend upon all sincere participants."
"In the first 21 days of August we will carry out a veritable spiritual clean-up," he added, calling on believers to "abstain from all forms of media and entertainment ... from all the trash of this world."
His numerous critics believe that while the fast will prevent churchgoers from following the latest developments on spicy telenovelas shown by Brazil's Globo media giant, they will be allowed to tune in to programmes on Macedo's rival Record network, as well as religious services.
Followers will also have access to Macedo's websites, radio stations, record label and the church's weekly newspaper, the Folha Universal.
One blogger suggested Macedo himself was unlikely to adhere to the media blackout since people who worked for or depended on the media were exempt.
Macedo's church was founded in 1977 in Rio de Janeiro and has since grown at a breakneck speed. Today it claims to have some 8 million followers worldwide, including "temples" in Africa, Asia, Europe and the US. Brazilian authorities have claimed that bishop Macedo is worth at least $2bn.
Earlier this month, the church opened its latest temple in the UK, inside a former cinema in Leicester. "This is no longer a cinema, but a church, a spiritual intensive care unit," Bishop Celso Júnior, one of the Church's UK leaders, reportedly said at the launch. The "gates of hell would never close on the city of Leicester", he added, according to the Arca Universal website, one of Macedo's numerous media outlets.
The church's hostile stance towards gay and lesbian people mean the church has become one of Brazil's most controversial.
The viewer (test person) sees a picture representing a Venetian mask and is asked if he/she notices something special in it. A surprising number don’t notice that the main features of the mask are actually composed of two distinct faces: a man and a woman kissing one another.
Once the viewer discerns two individual faces, his/her brain will ‘flip’ between two possible interpretations of the mask, making the viewer perceive two faces or one face in alternation.
This kind of illusion, where the viewer experiences two equally possible interchangeable stable states in perception, is called “bistable illusion”.
Once the viewer discerns two individual faces, his/her brain will ‘flip’ between two possible interpretations of the mask, making the viewer perceive two faces or one face in alternation.
This kind of illusion, where the viewer experiences two equally possible interchangeable stable states in perception, is called “bistable illusion”.
The chief science legacy of NASA's space shuttle program may be the International Space Station, the gigantic orbiting lab that shuttle missions helped build over the past 13 years. But lots of interesting research has also been done aboard the shuttles themselves since they started flying in 1981.
Long before the station was up and running, space shuttle missions broke new ground in many different fields of research, taking advantage of the microgravity environment to perform studies that couldn't be done on terra firma.
As the last-ever shuttle launch nears — NASA's STS-135 mission aboard Atlantis will blast off July 8 — here's an admittedly subjective countdown at six of the coolest experiments ever done aboard NASA's iconic space plane.
Experiments aboard the space shuttle have shown that Salmonella bacteria, a common and sometimes deadly source of food poisoning, get more virulent in space. [9 Weird Things Flown On NASA's Space Shuttles]
Researchers first noticed this characteristic in studies performed aboard Atlantis' STS-115 flight in 2006 and the STS-123 mission of Endeavour two years later. And it's not a subtle change; Salmonella becomes three to seven times more virulent in microgravity conditions, researchers have said.
Scientists believe that the bacteria get ramped up because spaceflight tricks them into behaving as if they're inside the human gut. The shuttle missions also identified dozens of genes that seem to be involved in the hyper-virulence, as well as a "master switch" protein that regulates many of these genes.
The biotech firm Astrogenetix worked with NASA to conduct and extend this research, and the company recently developed a Salmonella vaccine based on it. Astrogenetix is also performing space-based studies of other pathogens, such as dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria, with the aim of finding better treatments down the road.
13-Mile Space Tether Tryout
Tethered Satellite System deployment
Credit: NASA
The experiment, called the Tethered Satellite System (TSS), was a joint effort between NASA and the Italian space agency. The idea was to show that tethered satellites could generate electric current as they cruised through Earth's magnetic field.
During STS-46, the tether unspooled just 840 feet (256 meters) from Atlantis before the reel jammed. Four years later, 12.2 miles (19.7 km) of cable were released before the 0.1-inch (0.25 centimeter) tether snapped, sending the probe shooting away into a higher orbit.
Though neither attempt was 100 percent successful, the TSS belongs on this list for its scale and ambition alone. And the 1996 experiment did return some interesting results. Before the tether snapped, the TSS had been generating 3,500 volts and up to 0.5 amps of current, according to NASA officials.
Long before the station was up and running, space shuttle missions broke new ground in many different fields of research, taking advantage of the microgravity environment to perform studies that couldn't be done on terra firma.
As the last-ever shuttle launch nears — NASA's STS-135 mission aboard Atlantis will blast off July 8 — here's an admittedly subjective countdown at six of the coolest experiments ever done aboard NASA's iconic space plane.
Experiments aboard the space shuttle have shown that Salmonella bacteria, a common and sometimes deadly source of food poisoning, get more virulent in space. [9 Weird Things Flown On NASA's Space Shuttles]
Researchers first noticed this characteristic in studies performed aboard Atlantis' STS-115 flight in 2006 and the STS-123 mission of Endeavour two years later. And it's not a subtle change; Salmonella becomes three to seven times more virulent in microgravity conditions, researchers have said.
Scientists believe that the bacteria get ramped up because spaceflight tricks them into behaving as if they're inside the human gut. The shuttle missions also identified dozens of genes that seem to be involved in the hyper-virulence, as well as a "master switch" protein that regulates many of these genes.
The biotech firm Astrogenetix worked with NASA to conduct and extend this research, and the company recently developed a Salmonella vaccine based on it. Astrogenetix is also performing space-based studies of other pathogens, such as dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria, with the aim of finding better treatments down the road.
13-Mile Space Tether Tryout
Tethered Satellite System deployment
Credit: NASA
The experiment, called the Tethered Satellite System (TSS), was a joint effort between NASA and the Italian space agency. The idea was to show that tethered satellites could generate electric current as they cruised through Earth's magnetic field.
During STS-46, the tether unspooled just 840 feet (256 meters) from Atlantis before the reel jammed. Four years later, 12.2 miles (19.7 km) of cable were released before the 0.1-inch (0.25 centimeter) tether snapped, sending the probe shooting away into a higher orbit.
Though neither attempt was 100 percent successful, the TSS belongs on this list for its scale and ambition alone. And the 1996 experiment did return some interesting results. Before the tether snapped, the TSS had been generating 3,500 volts and up to 0.5 amps of current, according to NASA officials.
On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat (historical)
Published: September 4, 2007, 4:41 pm
Edited: September 4, 2007, 4:41 pm
Lead Author: Ida Kubiszewski
Topics: Physics & Chemistry, Energy
Rate:
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This article has been reviewed by the following Topic Editor: Cutler Cleveland
Originally Published As:
Title: On the Existence of an Equivalent Relation between Heat and the ordinary Forms of Mechanical Power
Author: James Prescott Joule
Source: Philosophical Magazine, series 3, vol. xxvii, p. 205
Year published: 1845
EDITOR'S NOTE: In a classic experiment in 1843, James Joule showed the energy equivalence of heating and doing work by using the change in potential energy of falling masses to stir an insulated container of water with paddles. Joule reported this and other related work in a letter to th editors of the Philosophical Magazine. Although German physicist Julius Robert von Mayer had made the same discovery independently of Joule a few years earlier, it was Joule who received the credit. Joule made a series of measurements and found that, on average, a weight of 772 pounds falling through a distance of one foot would raise the temperature of one pound of water by 1° F. This corresponds to 772 ft lbs × 1.356 J/ft lb = 59,453.6 Calories or 1 cal = 4.15 Joules; this is in close agreement with the current accepted value of 1 cal = 4.184 J. These findings contradicted the "caloric theory,” which embodied the day's widespread belief that heat was a fluid that could be neither created nor destroyed. Joule, on the other hand, claimed that heat was only one of many forms of energy and only the sum of all forms was conserved. This formed the basis for the theory of conservation of energy (the First Law of Thermodynamics).
Gentlemen,
The principal part of this letter was brought under the notice of the British association at its last meeting at Cambridge. I have hitherto hesitated to give it further publication, not because I was in any degree doubtful of the conclusions at which I had arrived, but because I intended to make a slight alteration in the apparatus calculated to give still greater precision to the experiments. Being unable, however, just at present to spare time necessary to fulfil this design, and being at the same time most anxious to convince the scientific world of the truth of the positions I have maintained, I hope you will do me the favour of publishing this letter in your excellent Magazine.
The apparatus exhibited before the Association consisted of a brass paddle-wheel working horizontally in a can of water. Motion could be communicated to this paddle by means of weights, pulleys, &c., exactly in the matter described in a previous paper.*
The paddle moved with great resistance in the can of water, so that the weights (each of four pounds) descended at the slow rate of about one foot per second. The height of the pulleys from the ground was twelve yards, and consequently, when the weights had descended through that distance, they had to be wound up again in order to renew the motion of the paddle. After this operation had been repeated sixteen times, the increase of the temperature of the water was ascertained by means of a very sensible and accurate thermometer.
A series of nine experiments was performed in the above manner, and nine experiments were made in order to eliminate the cooling or heating effects of the atmosphere. After reducing the result to the capacity for heat of a pound of water, it appeared that for each degree of heat evolved by the friction of water a mechanical power equal to that which can raise a weight of 890 lb. to the height of one foot had been expended.
The equivalents I have already obtained are; -- 1st, 823 lb., derived from magneto-electrical experiments (Phil. Mag. ser. 3 vol. xxiii. pp. 263, 347); 2nd, 795 lb., deduced from the cold produced by the rarefaction of air (Ibid. May 1845, p. 369); and 3rd, 774 lb. from experiments (hitherto unpublished) on the motion of water through narrow tubes. This last class of experiments being similar to that with the paddle wheel, we may take the mean of 774 and 890, or 832 lb., as the equivalent derived from the friction of water. In such delicate experiments, where one hardly ever collects more than one another than that above exhibited could hardly have been expected. I may therefore conclude that the existence of an equivalent relation between heat and the ordinary forms of mechanical power is proved; and assume 817 lb., the mean of the results of three distinct classes of experiments, as the equivalent, until more accurate experiments shall have been made.
Any of your readers who are so fortunate as to reside amid the romantic scenery of Wales or Scotland could, I doubt not, confirm my experiments by trying the temperature of the water at the top and at the bottom of a cascade. If my views be correct, a fall of 817 feet will course generate one degree of heat, and the temperature of the river Niagra will be raised about one fifth of a degree by its fall of 160 feet.
Admitting the correctness of the equivalent I have named, it is obvious that the vis viva of the particles of a pound water at (say) 51° is equal to the vis viva possessed by a pound of water at 50° plus the vis viva which would be acquired by a weight of 817 lb. after falling through the perpendicular height of one foot.
Assuming that the expansion of elastic fluids on the removal of pressure is owing to the centrifugal force of revolving atmospheres of electricity, we can easily estimate the absolute quantity of heat in matter. For in an elastic fluid the pressure will be proportional to the square of the velocity of the revolving atmosphere, and the vis viva of the atmospheres will also be proportional to the square of their velocity; consequently the pressure of elastic fluids at the temperatures 32° and 33° is 480 : 481; consequently the zero of temperature must be 480° below the freezing-point of water.
We see then what an enormous quantity of vis viva exists in matter. A single pound of water at 60° must possess 480° + 28° = 508° of heat; in other words, it must possess a vis viva equal to that acquired bt a weight of 415036 lb. after falling through the perpendicular height of one foot. The velocity with which the atmosphere of electricity must revolve in order to present this enormous amount of vis viva must of course be prodigious, and equal probably to the velocity of light in the planetary space, or to that of an electric discharge as determined by the experiments of Wheatstone.
* Phil. Mag. ser. 3, vol. xxiii, p. 436. The paddle-wheel used by Rennie in his experiments on the friction of water (Phil. Trans. 1831, plate xi, fig, 1) was somewhat similar to mine. I have employed, however, a greater number of "floats," and also a corresponding number of stationary floats, in order to prevent the rotatory motion of the can.
I remain, Gentlemen,
Yours Respectfully,
James P Joule.
Citation
Ida Kubiszewski (Lead Author);Cutler Cleveland (Topic Editor) "On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat (historical)". In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth September 4, 2007; Last revised Date September 4, 2007; Retrieved June 25, 2011
The Author
Ida Kubiszewski Stewardship Committee The Encyclopedia of Earth Dr. Ida Kubiszewski is a co-founder and former-Managing Editor the Encyclopedia of Earth. She is currently working as the Managing Editor for a new magazine/journal hybrid called Solutions. Solutions is an outlet for discussions focusing on solutions to the complex problems we are now facing in the context of whole systems design for a sustainable and desirable future. Dr. Kubiszewski is also the managing editor of Ecological E ... (Full Bio)
Published: September 4, 2007, 4:41 pm
Edited: September 4, 2007, 4:41 pm
Lead Author: Ida Kubiszewski
Topics: Physics & Chemistry, Energy
Rate:
1
2
3
4
5
This article has been reviewed by the following Topic Editor: Cutler Cleveland
Originally Published As:
Title: On the Existence of an Equivalent Relation between Heat and the ordinary Forms of Mechanical Power
Author: James Prescott Joule
Source: Philosophical Magazine, series 3, vol. xxvii, p. 205
Year published: 1845
EDITOR'S NOTE: In a classic experiment in 1843, James Joule showed the energy equivalence of heating and doing work by using the change in potential energy of falling masses to stir an insulated container of water with paddles. Joule reported this and other related work in a letter to th editors of the Philosophical Magazine. Although German physicist Julius Robert von Mayer had made the same discovery independently of Joule a few years earlier, it was Joule who received the credit. Joule made a series of measurements and found that, on average, a weight of 772 pounds falling through a distance of one foot would raise the temperature of one pound of water by 1° F. This corresponds to 772 ft lbs × 1.356 J/ft lb = 59,453.6 Calories or 1 cal = 4.15 Joules; this is in close agreement with the current accepted value of 1 cal = 4.184 J. These findings contradicted the "caloric theory,” which embodied the day's widespread belief that heat was a fluid that could be neither created nor destroyed. Joule, on the other hand, claimed that heat was only one of many forms of energy and only the sum of all forms was conserved. This formed the basis for the theory of conservation of energy (the First Law of Thermodynamics).
Gentlemen,
The principal part of this letter was brought under the notice of the British association at its last meeting at Cambridge. I have hitherto hesitated to give it further publication, not because I was in any degree doubtful of the conclusions at which I had arrived, but because I intended to make a slight alteration in the apparatus calculated to give still greater precision to the experiments. Being unable, however, just at present to spare time necessary to fulfil this design, and being at the same time most anxious to convince the scientific world of the truth of the positions I have maintained, I hope you will do me the favour of publishing this letter in your excellent Magazine.
The apparatus exhibited before the Association consisted of a brass paddle-wheel working horizontally in a can of water. Motion could be communicated to this paddle by means of weights, pulleys, &c., exactly in the matter described in a previous paper.*
The paddle moved with great resistance in the can of water, so that the weights (each of four pounds) descended at the slow rate of about one foot per second. The height of the pulleys from the ground was twelve yards, and consequently, when the weights had descended through that distance, they had to be wound up again in order to renew the motion of the paddle. After this operation had been repeated sixteen times, the increase of the temperature of the water was ascertained by means of a very sensible and accurate thermometer.
A series of nine experiments was performed in the above manner, and nine experiments were made in order to eliminate the cooling or heating effects of the atmosphere. After reducing the result to the capacity for heat of a pound of water, it appeared that for each degree of heat evolved by the friction of water a mechanical power equal to that which can raise a weight of 890 lb. to the height of one foot had been expended.
The equivalents I have already obtained are; -- 1st, 823 lb., derived from magneto-electrical experiments (Phil. Mag. ser. 3 vol. xxiii. pp. 263, 347); 2nd, 795 lb., deduced from the cold produced by the rarefaction of air (Ibid. May 1845, p. 369); and 3rd, 774 lb. from experiments (hitherto unpublished) on the motion of water through narrow tubes. This last class of experiments being similar to that with the paddle wheel, we may take the mean of 774 and 890, or 832 lb., as the equivalent derived from the friction of water. In such delicate experiments, where one hardly ever collects more than one another than that above exhibited could hardly have been expected. I may therefore conclude that the existence of an equivalent relation between heat and the ordinary forms of mechanical power is proved; and assume 817 lb., the mean of the results of three distinct classes of experiments, as the equivalent, until more accurate experiments shall have been made.
Any of your readers who are so fortunate as to reside amid the romantic scenery of Wales or Scotland could, I doubt not, confirm my experiments by trying the temperature of the water at the top and at the bottom of a cascade. If my views be correct, a fall of 817 feet will course generate one degree of heat, and the temperature of the river Niagra will be raised about one fifth of a degree by its fall of 160 feet.
Admitting the correctness of the equivalent I have named, it is obvious that the vis viva of the particles of a pound water at (say) 51° is equal to the vis viva possessed by a pound of water at 50° plus the vis viva which would be acquired by a weight of 817 lb. after falling through the perpendicular height of one foot.
Assuming that the expansion of elastic fluids on the removal of pressure is owing to the centrifugal force of revolving atmospheres of electricity, we can easily estimate the absolute quantity of heat in matter. For in an elastic fluid the pressure will be proportional to the square of the velocity of the revolving atmosphere, and the vis viva of the atmospheres will also be proportional to the square of their velocity; consequently the pressure of elastic fluids at the temperatures 32° and 33° is 480 : 481; consequently the zero of temperature must be 480° below the freezing-point of water.
We see then what an enormous quantity of vis viva exists in matter. A single pound of water at 60° must possess 480° + 28° = 508° of heat; in other words, it must possess a vis viva equal to that acquired bt a weight of 415036 lb. after falling through the perpendicular height of one foot. The velocity with which the atmosphere of electricity must revolve in order to present this enormous amount of vis viva must of course be prodigious, and equal probably to the velocity of light in the planetary space, or to that of an electric discharge as determined by the experiments of Wheatstone.
* Phil. Mag. ser. 3, vol. xxiii, p. 436. The paddle-wheel used by Rennie in his experiments on the friction of water (Phil. Trans. 1831, plate xi, fig, 1) was somewhat similar to mine. I have employed, however, a greater number of "floats," and also a corresponding number of stationary floats, in order to prevent the rotatory motion of the can.
I remain, Gentlemen,
Yours Respectfully,
James P Joule.
Citation
Ida Kubiszewski (Lead Author);Cutler Cleveland (Topic Editor) "On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat (historical)". In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth September 4, 2007; Last revised Date September 4, 2007; Retrieved June 25, 2011
The Author
Ida Kubiszewski Stewardship Committee The Encyclopedia of Earth Dr. Ida Kubiszewski is a co-founder and former-Managing Editor the Encyclopedia of Earth. She is currently working as the Managing Editor for a new magazine/journal hybrid called Solutions. Solutions is an outlet for discussions focusing on solutions to the complex problems we are now facing in the context of whole systems design for a sustainable and desirable future. Dr. Kubiszewski is also the managing editor of Ecological E ... (Full Bio)
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