Selflessness at sea, in World War II The invention of the camera Why tourists can’t help but get hooked Terror reigned during the Salem Witch Trials CONNECTING TO INDUSTRY SPRING 2012 asia/pacific – fall 2012 The Right Connection ™ Why fish farming is becoming the fastest growing industry in agriculture Aquaculture, Ahoy! 6 Healing Hands A neurosurgeon who beat the odds 34 Soft Landings Taking the plunge with the parachute 20 Going Dutch The Netherlands: More than windmills 26 A Radical Idea The founding of Parliament
Transcript
Selflessness at sea,in World War II
The invention ofthe camera
Why tourists can’t helpbut get hooked
Terror reigned duringthe Salem Witch Trials
C O N N E C T I N G T O I N D U S T R Y
S P R I N G 2 0 1 2asia/pacific – fall 2012
The Right Connection™
Why fish farmingis becomingthe fastestgrowing industryin agriculture
Aquaculture,Ahoy!
6 Healing HandsA neurosurgeonwho beat the odds
34 Soft LandingsTaking the plungewith the parachute
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A RUN OF OLYMPIC PROPORTIONSIn preparation for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, a relay of the Olympictorch—which will extend across the United Kingdom—will begin on May 19. Oneof the featured runners will be Dixon’s Tony Lee, Bayco sales manager. Lee willcarry the Olympic flame for a 300-meter (328-yard) leg of the journey, which willextend over 70 days and involve 8,000 runners.
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BY MICHAEL JOSEPHSONBUILDING CHARACTER/
Conquering Fear> The fear of bodily injury is notunusual. But there are other fears,though less intense, that are even morecommon. These fears imprison thou-sands of men and women in unhealthy,dysfunctional and even abusive person-al and work-related relationships.
First is fear of change and uncer-tainty. Believing that “the devil youknow is better than the devil you don’t,”people infected with this fear think badrelationships and jobs are better thannothing and their self-image is so lowthey can’t imagine something bettercoming along.
Second is fear of disapproval. Somepeople dread embarrassment or rejection
so much they are unwilling to do any-thing that risks the disapproval of others.
Third is fear of failure.Many peopleare so frightened by the possibility offailure they accept whatever they haveas enough.
Last is fear of financial insecurity.Some people worry so much about howthey will survive financially that theychain themselves to unhappy situations.The common thread is an abiding
but false feeling of inadequacy concern-ing the ability to handle challenges.There is no chemical antidote to fearand it’s usually futile to lecture fearfulpeople about replacing apprehensionwith self-assurance. We can’t change
timidity to boldness by edict or exhor-tation, but there is a strategy that canwork. We can’t simply manufacturecourage and confidence, but we canforce ourselves to act courageously evenin the face of fear.Don’t wait to feel unafraid or certain.
Think of yourself as an actor and actthe way a brave person would. Fake it ifyou have to, but get moving! Each timeyou look fear in the face, you gain powerover fear. And whether you believe it ornot, you will survive—and in taking overyour life, you will eventually thrive.
>He was, by his own admission, ahorrible student.It was just one of many hurdles
blocking Benjamin Carson’s path to suc-cess. Anger issues and low self-esteemalso ranked. And, of course, there wereother obstacles—growing up poor asthe son of a single mother who had onlya third-grade education and anotherson to provide for.Carson’s rise from poor and quick-
tempered inner-city Detroit teenagerto internationally renowned pediatricneurosurgeon has catapulted him intothe spotlight—in a made-for-televisionmovie on TNT, in books, in numeroustelevision interviews—and garnered himcountless awards, including the nation’shighest civilian award, the 2008Presidential Medal of Freedom.Best known as the first physician to
successfully separate conjoined twinsconnected at the back of the head,
Carson has traveled the world perform-ing separations that most believedimpossible. Meanwhile, as his successesgained attention, his personal storybegan to resonate as well.Often, in that narrative, it is the vio-
lent and unmanageable temper of hisadolescence that plays one of the mostdefining roles. By his own account, he
once tried to attack his mother with ahammer and, later, attempted to stab afriend during a fight over a radio station.The knife’s blow was deflected by theyoung man’s belt buckle, so no harm wasdone. But Carson walked away shaken.Terrified of his own actions, Carson
realized he had to gain better control ofhis temper and himself. Having longdreamed of becoming a physician,Carson decided to immerse himself inhis studies. He graduated from highschool with honors and then worked hisway through Yale University, where heearned a degree in psychology. He con-tinued on to medical school at the
University of Michigan, where he madea fascinating self-discovery: While histemper once proved unsteady, his handsnever did.“I became acutely aware of an unusu-
al ability—a divine gift, I believe—ofextraordinary eye and hand coordina-tion,” Carson wrote in his autobiography,Gifted Hands. “It’s my belief that Godgives us all gifts … and the gift of eyeand hand coordination has been aninvaluable asset in surgery. This gift[encompasses] the ability to understandphysical relationships, to think in threedimensions. Good surgeons must under-stand the consequences of each action,for they’re often not able to see what’shappening on the other side of the areain which they’re actually working.”After medical school, Carson accept-
ed a neurosurgery residency at JohnsHopkins Hospital. When his training
BY LAUREN GLENNPROFILES/
Ben Carson overcame tough odds to becomeone of the world’s top neurosurgeons
Healing Hands
“IT’S MY BELIEF THAT GOD GIVES US ALL GIFTS ... ANDTHE GIFT OF EYE AND HAND COORDINATION HAS BEENAN INVALUABLE ASSET IN SURGERY.”
was finished, he began work as a neuro-surgeon at Sir Charles GairdnerHospital in Australia. A year later in1984, he returned to Hopkins, where, atage 33, he was appointed director ofpediatric neurosurgery. From there, hisaccomplishments continued mounting.In 1987, Carson made history when
he successfully separated 7-month-oldtwins Patrick and Benjamin Binder,who were joined at the head. The sur-gery, which took 22 hours and a teamof 70 doctors, nurses and other supportstaff, was the first in a long series ofseparation procedures. In a career filledwith operations that most surgeonswould never dare attempt, not everycase was as successful. “Every time apatient dies, I’ll probably carry anemotional scar just as people receivean emotional wound when a familymember dies,” Carson has said. “As Ilook back on my own history of surgery
and the work we do at Hopkins, Iremind myself that thousands wouldhave died if we hadn’t operated.”Aside from his work with conjoined
twins, Carson has broken medicalground in other ways. He was the firstsurgeon to perform an intrauterine pro-cedure to relieve pressure on the brainof a hydrocephalic fetal twin. He is alsoknown for his pioneering work in radi-cal hemispherectomies—removing aportion of the brain to restore quality oflife for patients with profound epilepsy.In 2002, Carson was diagnosed with
prostate cancer, and he cut back hisworkload significantly. Today he is can-cer-free and still performs about 300surgeries each year. He also has writtenseveral books, including Think Big:Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence,which offers advice for success.Today, the neurosurgeon who got
his start on the tough streets of Detroit
actively works to inspire disadvantagedyoung people through the CarsonScholars Fund. The nonprofit, whichhe founded with Candy, his wife ofmore than 30 years, awards scholarshipsto children in grades 4 through 11 whoexemplify academic excellence.And, prompted by the way that
reading transformed his own life,Carson and his wife also have estab-lished the Ben Carson Reading Project,which provides funding and supportto schools to build and maintain BenCarson Reading Rooms—warm, invit-ing spots “where kids can escape intothe world of books.”“Knowledge is the key that unlocks
all the doors,” Carson writes in ThinkBig. “You can be green-skinned withyellow polka dots and come from Mars,but if you have knowledge that peopleneed, instead of beating you, they'll beata path to your door.”
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OR DECADES, JOHNNYShockley fought the winds andthe tides on the Chesapeake
Bay, dredging along its silted bottom tobring up the plumpest, rounded oystershe could find. He did it for the samereason his father did it, and his grand-father before him: Oystering made fora good living in the small watermen’svillage where the Shockley men wereborn and raised.But in 2009, Shockley found that the
tide had turned—not just on his belovedHooper’s Island, but on the entireMaryland coast. Oyster populations hadreached less than 1 percent of their his-toric levels. Because oysters are impor-tant filter feeders that help reduce pollu-tion, the state was moving to close nearlya quarter of the public oyster grounds in
DAVE
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Top:Working the floats at a Choptank River oyster farm in Cambridge, Md. Above: JohnnyShockley shows off his crop of “Chesapeake Gold” oysters on Hooper’s Island. Many aqua-farmers “tumble” their oysters to give them a rounder, smoother shell.
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Central and South AmericaAquaculture is thriving in theSouthern Hemisphere. Topproducers include Brazil,Chile, Peru, Mexico andArgentina. Chile is the largestproducer of farmed salmon,after Norway. Increasingly,Peru is a major producer offishmeal—ground-up wild fishthat farmers feed to the farm-raised crops. Argentina’s mainexport is rainbow trout, withoysters and mussels gainingground as top crops. Braziland Mexico are known fortheir tilapia production. Allthese countries have a com-petitive advantage with theirwarm climates.
AsiaThe Chinese were reportedlythe first to raise fish in ponds5,000 years ago, and they arethe world leaders in aquacul-ture. China accounts for two-thirds of the world’s fish pro-duction. Its main export is thecommon carp. In 2005, thevalue of China’s aquaculturewas close to $40 billion, abouthalf of the worldwide value ofaquaculture. In Asia, India isthe second-ranked producer ofseafood.
CanadaCanada’s waters support freshsalmon and its Great Lakes arehome to a variety of trout. Butin aquaculture, salmon aredown and mussels are up. In2009, salmon sales droppedabout 9 percent, while musselsales increased by about thatamount. Operating revenuesfor the country jumped 20.8percent, to $908.2 million.Canada continues to growlarge numbers of Great Lakesspecies to stock for the thriv-ing sport-fishing industry onboth sides of the border.
Aquaculture in the WorldThe seafood we get at the local place down the road is often anything but local. The crabmeat at a seaside shack in North Carolinamay be from Thailand; the salmon at an upscale Oregon bistro may have been raised in a Chilean pond. Increasingly, customerswant to know where their fish is coming from, and upscale grocery labels sometimes tell them when it’s caught in the wild. Butoften, the answer is a pond, somewhere far away. Here’s a look at aquaculture around the world.
EuropeNorway has been raising fishfor nearly half a century. In2003, its production of salmonwas valued at $350 million.Salmon accounted for 80 per-cent of Norwegian fish farm-ing, followed by rainbow trout,halibut and cod. Norwegiansalso raise mussels and oys-ters. More than 90 percent ofthe fish farms throughoutEurope are small, family-styleoperations. Norway accountsfor 23 percent of Europe’saquaculture operations, fol-lowed by France at 17 percent.The French are known for theircultivation of oysters, andfarmers from all over the worldtravel to the French coast tolearn from those operations.
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
hopes of bringing the population back.In the midst of the cuts, Maryland
officials threw watermen a lifeline.They relaxed century-old rules pro-hibiting oyster and clam aquaculture.Though Maryland watermen had resis-ted the practice of raising shellfish sincethe late 1800s, watermen in Virginiahad long been successful at it. And,with a new cultured oyster that couldgrow more than twice as fast as a wildone, they were getting even better.Shockley drove south to take a look.
Within a year, his aquaculture business,the Hooper’s Island Oyster Co., had setup at the end of a winding island roadnear the offices of his partner, seafoodbuyer Ricky Fitzhugh. On Tar Bay’sbottom, Shockley is growing millionsof oysters in cages. He’s calling them
Chesapeake Gold.“It’s a change from what we’re used
to,” Shockley says of aquaculture. “Butwhen people see how this plays out, it’sgoing to make sense.”To scientists, it already does. Dr.
Mark Luckenbach, a Virginia Instituteof Marine Science oyster biologist, likesto say that, for most places, aquacultureisn’t the future: It’s the present.“To the best of my knowledge,” he
says, “there are no wild oyster fisheriesin the world that aren’t going in thesame direction as ours.”That’s true for most aquaculture.
In Asia, shrimp and fish farming is aglobal business. China and Thailandproduce most of the world’s shrimp intanks and ponds throughout the coun-tryside. The French have grown oysters
in cages and bags for close to a century,while the states along the MississippiRiver in the United States have longraised catfish in ponds. Governmentshave gotten into aquaculture, too:Canadian authorities spend severalmillion dollars each year to raise andculture fish, which they then deposit inthe Great Lakes and rivers to support therecreational trout and salmon fishery.In some cases, aquaculture can pro-
vide a product that consumers love butcan no longer find in abundance. Inother cases, consumers are looking forhealthy options but want to know thatthe fish or shellfish is grown sustainably.“We’re running out of fish,” says
Dr. Yonathan Zohar, chair of theDepartment of Marine Biotechnologyat the University of Maryland,
Aquaculture has brought fish that had been scarce back to the menu, notes Yonathan Zohar,who is seen here with Mediterranean sea bream.
Baltimore County (UMBC). “Fish arethe last hunt-and-gather live crop. Youdon’t go into the wild to harvest yourchickens, your bovines, but you do withfish. And as a result of that, aquaculturehas become the fastest growing agricul-ture industry in the United States.”Zohar, a marine endocrinologist
who was born in Israel and educated inParis, grows fish in a basement lab atBaltimore’s Inner Harbor. He startedwith sea bream, graduating to bronziniand cobia. A veteran of many interna-tional conferences on the topic, Zoharsays that small-scale and sustainableaquaculture not only provides employ-ment opportunities—it also bringsspecies on the verge of disappearingback to the menu.Sea bass is an example of a well-
loved fish that became scarce. ChileanSea Bass, which was originally calledthe Patagonian toothfish, used to gracethe plates of the finest restaurants.Then it became very difficult to stock,after conservationists warned that the
fish was in danger of extinction.That led enterprising farmers to
raise different varieties of sea bass inponds thousands of miles from Chile—from Australia to India to Poland. Inthe Philippines, Finfish Hatcheries Inc.is the country’s largest commercial fryhatchery, and the only source of seabass fingerlings, according toAgriculture Business Week.It takes a sea bass about one year to
grow from fingerling to table size (400to 600 grams or 0.9 pound to 1.3pounds). During their first month, thefingerlings grow from 1 inch to 4 inch-es in a nursery setting, eating groundfish or fry mash. Then fish farmersmove them to a sea pond known as a“transition pond,” where they spendtwo or three months as juveniles.Finally, they enter marine cages, wherethey subsist on baitfish and continue togrow until reaching maturity.Finfish Hatcheries notes that
farming sea bass is relatively easy—and profitable. “This type of fish rarely
schools or moves,” says a FHIspokesman, “and they can grow in avery wide range of salinity.” Stocking apond with 1,000 sea bass fingerlingswill produce about 5,000 kilograms(roughly 11,000 pounds) of maturedsea bass, according to a study by theBrackishwater Aquaculture Center ofthe University of the Philippines.Of course, there are some draw-
backs to growing fish. Aquaculture canintroduce unwanted invaders thatbecome expensive problems for ecosys-tems. For example, catfish farmers onthe Mississippi River brought in Asiancarp to eat the algae fouling the ponds.The carp escaped after a flood in the1990s and got into the Mississippiwhere, absent any natural predators,they ate their way through the foodchain. Now, scientists believe that thecarp have invaded the Great Lakes,though no one is certain of the num-bers or the damage they could do.“That is probably the biggest issue,
[introducing] an invasive species when
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you’re bringing in a new species togrow. A flood comes along, and thatspreads the fish all out,” says Dr. JimDiana, director of the Michigan SeaGrant program and a longtime profes-sor of fisheries and aquaculture at theUniversity of Michigan in Ann Arbor.“So the technique is not to culturethings outside of their native areas, orindividuals that are not viable.”
Profits on the Half ShellShellfish aquaculture is the fastestgrowing segment of the United States’aquafarming industry, according to theNational Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration. And within shellfish,oysters are a major growth area.The sterile oyster has become a
game-changer in Virginia, where oystergeneticist Dr. Standish Allen beganproducing them in large quantitiessix years ago as part of a government-financed experiment. Only bred in labsand hatcheries, sterile oysters have threechromosomes instead of two. Since theyput all their energy into growth andnone into reproduction, they reach mar-ket size in 12 to 18 months instead of thethree years it takes an oyster in the wild.
That quicker growth rate is key.Disease began to hit Chesapeake Bayoysters in the 1950s; by the 1990s, pop-ulations were devastated. The three-chromosome oyster is not immune tothe parasites—known as MSX andDermo—that attacked the native oys-ters. But it can outrun them; diseaseusually hits in the second or third year,and the sterile oysters have alreadyreached market size by then.Once entrepreneurs showed what
they could do, more farmers jumped in.In 2005, Virginia oyster culturists planted6.2 million oysters. By 2009, that numberincreased nearly fivefold, to 28.3 million,according to the Virginia ShellfishAquaculture Crop Reporting Survey.
Farmers grow oysters in two ways.The oldest method is spat-on-shell. In atank, when the temperature is ready forspawning, oysters shoot sperm and eggsat each other. Once the gametes fertil-
ize, they become oyster larvae andswim freely for one to two weeks. Thenthey search for a place to spend the restof their lives. They’ll find it in a shellthat is placed in the tank, usually withina plastic mesh bag. Then the farmertakes the shell bags out to a leased bed,opens the bags, and plants them on thebottom of the bay. In about two years,the oysters will reach market size.Spat-on-shell is cheap, because
equipment costs are low and nature doesmost of the work. But it has limitations.Growers can’t control conditions. Andbecause the oysters grow clumped togeth-er, they don’t look as pretty on a plate.They are ideal for the shucking houses,but they need to be managed consistently
if they are going to restaurants.Consequently, some oyster growers
have turned to cultchless oysters. In thismethod, the hatchery seed settles noton a large shell but in a tiny sliverknown as microcultch. These oystersmust be nurtured in a nursery systemuntil they are large enough to plant.These nurseries, called upwellers, pipein seawater to feed the oysters. Differentsized screens let the water enter andprevent the oysters from leaving.When they’re large enough, cultch-
less oysters can be grown in floats ontop of the water, in cages or in bags ontop of racks—a technique known asrack-and-bag that’s common in NewEngland and France.In all of these methods, the farmers
have a lot of quality control. They cantake out the oysters, wash them, tumblethem and move them around. Thatcontrol can be expensive, as upwellerscan run as high as $9,000 and sortingand tumbling systems can be twice that.But the advantage is a higher price atmarket. These are the oysters gracing
Left: Hundreds of trout swim in two pools at a trout farm in Abruzzo, Italy. Right: An oysterfarm at low tide on Orcas Island inWashington state.
In 2005, Virginia oyster culturists planted6.2 million oysters. By 2009, that numberincreased nearly fivefold, to 28.3 million.
the tables of high-end restaurants at$12 for a plate of six.Floats have one major disadvantage:
Wealthy waterfront neighbors wouldrather not look at them. In the case ofthe Choptank Oyster Co. in Cambridge,Md., managers had to move their floatsafter neighbors complained.In Virginia, and increasingly in
Maryland, cage culture is becomingmore popular. In this method, the oys-ters are grown in mesh bags—one oneach side of a cage placed several inchesoff the Bay bottom. Passers-by cannotsee the cages. Oystermen put theircrops in ever larger bags as they grow,washing the product and running themthrough a tumbler to make sure theyare round and smooth.
Unlikely FarmersAquafarmers come from all walks oflife. They are bankers, engineers, scien-tists and teachers. Increasingly, though,they are commercial watermen andfishermen like Shockley, which doesn’tsurprise anyone who’s worked on thewater. Tommy Leggett, an oyster growerin Virginia, used to ply the Bay in asmall boat dredging for clams and oys-ters. He earned a master’s degree infisheries science and, in 1996, startedhis own aquaculture business. He also
runs the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’soyster demonstration farm nearHampton Roads, Va.Watermen and fishermen, Leggett
says, are riggers. “They know how tofigure things out.”
In Rhode Island, clam farmerPerry Raso saw the potential for oysteraquaculture when he was just 23 yearsold. He started with one acre in 2002;now, his Matunuck Oyster Farmincludes a popular restaurant,Matunuck Oyster Bar.Raso invested $90,000 during the
first three years in his business; duringthat time, he says, he didn’t make muchmoney. Perhaps that’s why aquacultur-ists joke that the way to make a smallfortune in the business is to start witha large one.“You can’t just quit your job and
say you’re going to start an aquafarm,because you’re not going to get paidfor two years,” Raso warns.But eventually, he says, you will get
paid, and not just with cash. Matunuckearns raves for its consistently freshseafood, and environmentalists havepraised Raso’s oyster grounds, whichare available for tours.Raso raises about half a million
oysters a year for the restaurant market.In Washington state, Taylor ShellfishFarms, the largest oyster company onthe West Coast, produces about 100million oysters a year.Shockley would like to be one of
the big guys, selling not just oystersbut also nurseries, cages and the otherequipment he’s taught himself how toconstruct. Once other watermen seethat they can succeed, Shockley believeshe’ll have a ripe equipment market.And he’s not worried about competi-tion; there is a big enough market foreveryone to have a bite.“This is where we have a leg up,”
Shockley says of the watermen. “This iswhy we’re going to be great at it. We cando all these things. To us, this is easy.”
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Left: Cage culture, in which oysters are grown in mesh bags, is becoming increasingly popular. Right: Oyster farmer Perry Raso shucksoysters at his restaurant, Matunuck Oyster Bar, in Rhode Island. His oyster grounds are available for tours.
Aquafarmers come from all walks of life.They are bankers, engineers, scientists andteachers. Increasingly, though, they arecommercial watermen.
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Aquacultureis the art of growing fish and shellfish
in closed marine systems. Though
close to 5,000 years old, this ancient
Asian practice only came to the United
States about 100 years ago. It has
been growing steadily since the
1960s. The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration recently
announced a new policy to encourage
aquaculture across the nation, in part
to help the U.S. catch up with places
like China and Latin America, where
the practice has thrived for decades.
Here’s a look at aquaculture by the
numbers:
BY THE NUMBERS/
Source: NOAA; Fish Technology Associates
� Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing industries worldwide, grow-ing at about 6.5 percent each year.
� China produces 61 percent of the world’s aquaculture products.
� More than 50 percent of the fish consumed worldwide is grown inponds and tanks.
� The value of U.S. aquaculture production is more than $1.3 billion ayear. U.S. aquaculturists produce more than 500,000 metric tons ofplants and animals each year.
� Some 84 percent of the seafood Americans consume is imported,according to the NOAA.
� The No. 1 fish species grown in the United States? Catfish, largelyraised in the South. Tilapia and rainbow trout are a distant second andthird.
� Shellfish is one of the fastest growing aquaculture segments in theUnited States, according to NOAA. Nearly 80 percent of marine aqua-culture in the U.S. is shellfish: oysters, crayfish, clams or shrimp.
A fish farm in the Canal Puyugapi in Patagonia, Chile.
A young boy walks ona bronze sculpture ofAlbert Einstein, outsidethe National Academyof Sciences building inWashington, D.C.Bottom right: A specialpostage stamp, issued inBerlin, Germany, on June15, 2005, commemorates“100 years of relativity,atoms, quants.”
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LIGHT IS BOTH PARTICLE ANDWAVE.Time flows differently for objects inmotion. Gravity is not a force but a warp-ing of space. A little mass holds a fantasticamount of energy.Albert Einstein’s theories still boggle
the mind, more than a century after heused them to ignite a scientific revolution.But who was this shaggy-haired icon ofgenius? Did he inherit his creativity or justhave lucky breaks in life—or both?He was born on March 14, 1879, in the
city of Ulm, in the Germanic kingdom ofWürttemberg. His family moved toMunich soon after, where his father,Hermann, and Uncle Jakob started a cut-ting-edge tech business, selling generatorsand other electrical supplies. Thus, youngAlbert, almost uniquely among the chil-dren of his day, had a thorough exposureto emerging concepts of electromagnetism.Hermann, a non-practicing Jew and
an opponent of the drive to unify greaterGermany, also set a clear example of stubborn,non-conformity for his son—which Albert’sstrong-minded mother, Pauline, reinforced.Although he did well in math and
physics at Munich’s Luitpold Gymnasium(essentially a high school), Einstein chafedat its traditional, rote memorization meth-ods, and was seen as a loner and a rebel.“Your mere presence in this class destroys
the other students’ respect for me,” com-plained a Greek teacher—a fellow who alsoblustered that Einstein would amount tonothing in life. The school later revised itsview of him enough to rename itself theAlbert Einstein Gymnasium. But Einsteinnever forgot how its methods had nearlycrushed his spirit. The natural curiositythat is essential for science, he wrotedecades later, is like “a delicate little plant”that “stands mainly in need of freedom.”Einstein might well have inherited a cre-
ative bent, but if so, it was not entirely a gift.He often showed a chilly detachment frompeople. Presented with his newborn youngersister, he asked, “Where are its wheels?” anduntil the age of 7 he had the strange habit ofsoftly repeating, to himself, sentences he hadjust spoken. He shunned sports and crowds,preferring to read or to play the violin. Somemodern psychologists think he hadAsperger’s syndrome, a mild autism-spec-trum disorder. Einstein himself would later
ORIGINSOF GENIUS
Albert Einstein’s transformation from an obscure patent clerk to theworld’s most famous scientist began during one ‘miracle year’
admit to a “pronounced lack of need fordirect contact with other human beingsand human communities.”Before turning 16, when he would
have been called up for military serv-ice, he renounced his citizenship andmoved to Switzerland. (His parents bythen had moved to northern Italy after
the failure of the business in Munich.)Einstein tried to get into ZurichPolytechnic two years early, but failedthe entrance exams, and instead spenttwo years finishing high school in thenearby town of Arau.He was in luck, though. The school
used progressive educational methods,and put unusually strong emphasis onvisual conceptualization. One daythere, Einstein asked himself: Whatwould it be like to move alongside abeam of light? He later described thisthought-experiment as his first steptoward the theory of relativity.He entered Zurich Polytechnic in
1896, and once again was a bit of arebel. “I played hooky a lot, and stud-ied the masters of physics alone,” heremembered later. Einstein wouldgraduate in 1900 near the bottom ofhis class. But he made friends at the
school, and these included a rarefemale physics student, a Serbianyoung woman named Mileva Maric.“We understand each other’s dark soulsso well,” he told her. Soon they wereliving together: two nerdy bohemianswhose domestic talk was infused withadvanced physics. “When I read [the
physicist] Helmholtz for the first time,”he once wrote to her, “I could not …believe that I was doing so without youbeside me.”When Maric became pregnant in
1901, Einstein sent her to stay with herparents in Serbia, to avoid scandal. Heseems to have rather coldly insistedthat their first child, Lieserl, born outof wedlock, be put up for adoption. Butthe couple married in 1903, and hadtwo more children. Although they sep-arated in 1914 and eventually divorced(Einstein later married his first cousin,Elsa), Maric gave Einstein emotionaland even intellectual support in thoseearly years. She also kept house forhim—which, throughout his life, hewas never able to do for himself.Einstein’s poor showing at Zurich
Polytechnic meant that he could not get adecent academic job. He scraped by with
family money and occasional freelanceteaching assignments, but his underem-ployment was a source of frustration.It may have been yet another stroke
of luck, though, for his isolation fromacademia in those years freed him tomove along his own creative paths.Physics at the turn of the century—
especially the classical mechanics ofIsaac Newton—was rattling itself loose.Experimenters were gathering newdata on phenomena such as the speedof light, and these data didn’t always fitthe existing theories. Einstein knewthat there was a vast opportunity for atheorist who could find a way to makephysics whole again.In 1902, he finally got a steady job, at
the Swiss patent office in Bern, as a jun-ior examiner of patent applications forelectrical devices. Again, he was in luck.He found that he could do his patentwork in a few hours daily, leaving himplenty of time for his theorizing. Hisoffice and apartment also were not farfrom the train station and Bern’s famousclock tower, a reference for all train-timekeeping in the vicinity. Clocks andtrains were to be for Einstein what thefalling apple had been for Newton.
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“What would it be like to move alongside a beam of light?”Einstein would later describe his teenage thought-experiment as his first step toward the theory of relativity.
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Miracle YearEinstein’s transformation from anobscure patent clerk to the world’smost famous scientist began in 1905.In that year he managed, despite hav-ing no academic affiliation, to get threetruly revolutionary papers published inAnnalen der Physik, one of the topphysics journals of its day.In the first, he solved a conundrum
about the way in which light knockselectrons out of metal—the “photoelec-tric effect” by which modern solar cellswork. He proposed that light interactswith electrons as it does because it ismade of discrete, albeit wavelike parti-cles (later called photons) and each ofthese carries a discrete level of energy,corresponding to its wave frequency.The second big paper outlined his
initial theory of relativity—later calledthe “special theory of relativity.” Itsessence was remarkably simple: Newexperiments showed that the speed oflight (in a vacuum) was always thesame in all directions and for anyobserver whether moving or stationary.But if the speed of light is fixed andabsolute in this way, Einstein reasoned,then other properties such as timemust be changeable and relative, evenif the changes they undergo are usuallyvery subtle. From a train speeding pasta stationary clock tower, for example,the clock will seem to run slow. The
light that carries the clock’s image willtake a tiny bit longer to reach thereceding train, with every tick of itshands. (By the same logic, a clock on areceding train also will seem, from theplatform, to run slow.)In his final paper that year, Einstein
showed that, in part due to relativity,the light-speed constant c links mass toenergy: E=mc2. One implication wasthat nothing can travel faster than c.Another was that a little mass is equiv-alent to a lot of energy—a key insightthat would lead to the development ofnuclear power and nuclear weapons.
CelebrityWithin a few years, Einstein began tobe offered academic jobs, and hiscareer took off. Meanwhile, he devel-oped the “general theory of relativity.”Its most revolutionary concept wasthat gravity reflects a warping ofspace—and time—in the vicinity of alarge mass. When astronomers con-firmed during a 1919 solar eclipse thatthe sun’s mass bent starlight to thedegree that Einstein’s theory predicted,he became a global celebrity virtuallyovernight. The New York Times quotedthe eminent British physicist J.J.Thomson: “It is not the discovery ofan outlying island, but of a whole con-tinent of new scientific ideas of thegreatest importance…”
Einstein moved his work to the U.S.in 1933, after the Nazis came to powerin Germany. By the time he died in1955—while based at a special instituteat Princeton University—he had writ-ten or co-authored more than 300papers. Even today his ideas continueto underlie large areas of physics andthe technologies derived from it.Yet the aspects of his personality
that had helped him to persevere inhis pre-celebrity days may have been anet liability to him in his later years.Despite being instrumental in per-suading President Franklin D.Roosevelt to set up the ManhattanProject—to build an atomic bombbefore Nazi Germany did—Einsteinembraced an uncompromising paci-fism after the war, and even publiclywished that the U.S. had never builtnuclear weapons. He also somewhatobstinately resisted the emergence ofquantum physics and its assertion offundamental uncertainties, complain-ing that God “does not play dice”—and wasting years trying to prove that.After Einstein died of an aortic
aneurysm at the age of 76, fellowPrinceton physicist RobertOppenheimer gave a eulogy that cap-tured, in one sentence, much of thegenius’ character: “There was alwayswith him a wonderful purity at oncechildlike and profoundly stubborn.”
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Left to right: Einstein, pictured here atage 14, showed a chilly detachment frompeople throughout most of his life; thescientist enjoyed playing the violin, apastime he began as a child; Einstein inParis in 1929, four years before his moveto the United States; an avid sailor, heloved to take his boat out on a lake,wherehe could relax and think; newly trans-planted in America, Einstein sets the firstline of type for the first enlarged editionof the Jewish Daily Bulletin in 1934.
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Best known forits tulips and windmills,
the nation is alsohome to rich
cultural treasures
BY SUE DE PASQUALE
IT’S HARDTO IMAGINEA SETTINGMORE BEAUTIFULthan the vast fields of North Holland in mid-April, whenthe region’s legendary tulips are at their peak. TheBollenstreek, a 30-kilometer stretch (19 miles) betweenthe cities of Leiden and Haarlem, blooms aglow withcolor—a kaleidoscope quilt of magenta, goldenrod, scarletand deep plum—that visitors can gaze upon while hiking,driving or pedaling by on bikes.Indeed, the Netherlands is a nation rich in natural
beauty, with its fine, sandy beaches, rolling green plainsdotted by windmills and picturesque villages. Compactenough to traverse with ease (it encompasses just 41,547square miles, or 66,863 square kilometers, about one-tenththe size of California), it is a country where water plays astarring role. The French poet Voltaire once famously said,“God created the Earth—except Holland, for the Dutchdid that,” referring to the Dutch’s centuries-long efforts toreclaim their land from the sea (through, among othermethods, their famous dikes). These methods haveworked: Almost half of today’s provinces of North andSouth Holland were underwater during the Middle Ages.Water also brought trade. While the rest of Europe
struggled economically in the 17th century, merchantships brought great prosperity to the region, making theNetherlands the financial center of the world by the mid-1600s. During this Golden Age, the city of Amsterdambecame a hub for artists like Rembrandt, scientists likeVan Leeuwenhoek and architects. Three great canals, bor-dered by magnificent houses, were built in a triple ring
around the city during this period,and many great buildings wereerected.Fortunately for visitors, much of
this original architecture survivestoday—in the merchant houses ofDelft, the Lakenhal in Leiden and theMauritshuis in The Hague.
Amazing AmsterdamAmsterdam, located just a 15-minutetrain ride from the AmsterdamAirport Schiphol, makes an idealhome base for your travels.Start your visit with an overview
canal tour of the city. The 100Highlights Tour, offered throughAmsterdam City Tours, slips throughthe old center of the city, with its mer-chant mansions, carillon-crownedchurches and warehouses dating backto Holland’s Golden Age. Keep yourcamera handy: Each waterway, churchand merchant house you pass is more
picturesque than the next. You canalso use the canal boat as a way to getaround the city. There are hop on/hopoff canal bus packages that can becombined with discounted tickets to ahost of museums.Once you have your bearings, you
might best explore Amsterdam onfoot, with leisurely strolls along thecanals and cafes. Don’t miss thebustling Dam Square, a mecca fortourists—and pigeons. The historicalcity center is flanked by the neoclassi-cal Royal Palace (City Hall from 1655until 1808), the 15th-century GothicNieuwe Kerk (New Church), MadameTussaud's Wax Museum, the NHGrand Hotel Krasnapolsky and theupscale department store DeBijenkorf.Stay alert as you walk the narrow
streets of Amsterdam. Many of thelocals rely on bikes to get themaround (there are many more bikes
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WHAT’S IN A NAMEWhile many people use “theNetherlands” and “Holland” inter-changeably, it’s worth noting thatHolland comprises just two of thenation’s 12 provinces (North andSouth Holland). Because this centralwestern region historically dominat-ed foreign trade (it is home toAmsterdam, Rotterdam and TheHague), it’s easy to see why theNetherlands came to be calledHolland overseas. But even thelocals often opt for the moniker,particular in sports, where thenational football team (soccer) ischeered on with the cry “Holland!”
The cheese market in Alkmaar; the Peace Palace in The Hague; Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat, 1887, at the Van Gogh Museum.
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1 2
3 4
DAY TRIPS Visit the destinations below to get a full flavor of the Netherlands:
1) Delft: Best known for itsblue-and-white pottery (onsale across the city), Delft isthe resting place of William ofOrange (1533-84), the “fatherof the Netherlands” who ledresistance against theSpanish in the 80 Years War.His imposing mausoleum sitsinside the Nieuwe Kirk, achurch with a 100-meter-hightower (328 feet) overlookingthe Delft market. The DePorceleyne Fles factory, dat-ing from 1652, is just one ofseveral Delftware potteriesthat offers tours to the public.2) Volendam: Step back intime in this old fishing villageon the Ijsselmeer, just northof Amsterdam, where thelocals are decked out in tradi-tional garb: tight bodices,lace caps and striped shirtsfor the women; and loosejackets and trousers for the
men. You can also don anoutfit and have your picturetaken. Built along a dike,Volendam has a bustlingharbor where fishmongershawk their catches. On theother side of the dike liesan ancient maze of narrowstreets, wooden housesand canals.3) Marken: Isolated as a fish-ing community for nearly 800years, Marken became linkedto the mainland with theconstruction of a causewayin 1957. But visitors will finda tranquil sanctuary of 17th-century wooden homes,where little has changed.Rent bikes and pedal yourway around the seasidevillage for a relaxing after-noon. Be sure to visit thePaard Lighthouse and theMarken Museum (six historichouses), as well as the clog-
making workshop andcheese factory.4) Rotterdam: Much ofRotterdam was decimatedduring World War II by theGerman blitz, forcing the cityto reinvent itself. Today it isone of Europe’s most vibrantand multicultural cities,featuring cutting-edgearchitecture and a livelycultural life. Most important-ly, Rotterdam boasts thelargest port in the world.Home to the Rotterdam V,a floating museum/hotel,the port also serves asthe launching pointfor HollandAmerica Linecruises boundfor NorthernEurope and theMediterranean.
than people in the city) and they zip toand fro at great speed, seemingly fromboth directions. Likewise, it’s notunusual for cars to drive in the bikelanes or even park up on the sidewalks.With the city’s rich cultural heritage,
museums abound. Art lovers will wantto devote at least a day or two to theMuseum Quarter, one of the wealthiestdistricts in Amsterdam, which featuresa stately green park ringed by majorcultural centers. Among them: the
Rijksmuseum, a Neo-Gothic wonderthat offers the best collection ofDutch art in the world; the Van GoghMuseum, featuring exhibits of 19th-century art; the Stedelijk Museum,
the national museum of modern art,with works by Picasso, Matisse andMonet, among many others; and theConcertgebouw, Amsterdam’s premierconcert hall.There are many more attractions
outside the district, too many to listhere, but a few bear noting. The AnneFrank House, where the Jewish Frankfamily hid from the Nazis during WorldWar II and young Anne penned hernow-famous diary, draws nearly 1 mil-
lion visitors each year. Lines are long,so it’s best to purchase tickets online inadvance for the 45-minute tour. Parentstraveling with children can balancethis somber experience with a trip to
NEMO, the Netherlands’ largest sciencemuseum, which is built in the shapeof a gigantic ship and offers plenty ofhands-on fun and learning. A shortwalk from there is the Artis Royal Zoo,constructed in 1838; the historicalzoo/park features a butterfly pavilion,planetarium and a bird house, as wellas animals of every stripe—from wilde-beests to zebras.While Amsterdam is family friendly,
it is also known for its decidedly “adult”side, exemplified in the bawdy RedLight District, which dates back to the14th century when sailors arrived look-ing for female company. Today thisarea, with its garish sex shops and seedyclubs, is relatively tame by day.By night, it’s best not to wander offthe main streets, for safety’s sake.Smoking marijuana is legal in parts ofAmsterdam, and smoke-filled “coffeehouses” are not confined just to theRed Light District. But the district is
Clockwise: Science museum NEMO; bikes at Central Station in Amsterdam; a canal in Amsterdam.
Art lovers will want to devote at least a day ortwo to the Museum Quarter, one of the wealthiestdistricts in Amsterdam, which features a statelygreen park ringed by major cultural centers.
Currency:The Netherland uses the euro,though some souvenir shops accept U.S.dollars. The best place to change moneyis at a bank ATM.Language: English is widely and fluentlyspoken, particularly in the major cities.But learning a few Dutch phrases (“Dag”for “Good Day”) will earn you points withthe locals.Climate: Cool summers (20C, or 68F) andmild winters (temperatures rarely dipbelow 0C or 32F) characterize the region.Pack a raincoat and umbrella; showersare frequent, especially in summer.Getting Around: For traveling betweenmajor cities, trains are a great bet; theyrun frequently and on time. For inter-citytravel, use the well-established publictransportation system (buses, light rail),or rent bikes.Accommodations: The Netherlands offersa wide range of places to stay, from bed-and-breakfasts to hotels (budget to luxu-ry) to old castles and historical buildingsthat have been converted to lodgings.
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THE ESSENTIALShome to the Museum of Hash,Marijuana, and Hemp, which includesa small room where hemp plants aregrown under artificial light.Beer lovers will feel right at home
in Amsterdam, where the numerouscafes are well stocked with Belgianbrews and local favorites likeHeineken. To learn more about thatbeer’s origins, visit the HeinekenExperience—a tour that culminates ina couple of crowded bars where youcan partake of two nice-sized samplesof the amber brew.Foodies will be pleased to find a
wide variety of gastronomic offeringsin the restaurants and cafes ofAmsterdam and beyond. Be sure tosample a tosti or two—variations ongrilled cheese and ham that vary byestablishment—and a broodje kroket(croquette), as well as some drop(licorice) that comes both sweet (zoete)and salty (zout), or a piping hot box ofvlaams frites huis (fries with Belgianmayonnaise). And, of course, the city
is dotted with cheese shops, whichoffer shelves of giant waxed roundsof Edam, Gouda and other locallymade cheeses.For those less than enthusiastic
about meat-and-potatoes Dutchfare (and herring!), take heart:Amsterdam embraces global cuisinewith a vengeance. Restaurants offerThai, Ethiopian, South African,Moroccan, Italian, Greek and Indianfood, with the most popular foreigncuisine being spicy Indonesian. Fordinner, it’s best to make reservationsin advance: Restaurants fill up quicklyand once gregarious Amsterdamerssit down, they are usually there forthe evening.One last tip … on tips: Restaurant
and hotel staff in the Netherlands donot expect the 18 to 20 percent gratu-ity that is customary in the UnitedStates. Feel free to tip for good serviceif you’d like, but you won’t be consid-ered a cad if you leave 5 or 10percent—or nothing at all.
A statue of Simon de Montfort on the HaymarketMemorial Clock Tower in Leicester, England.
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IN 1215, REBELLING AGAINSTthe repressive rule of King John,the barons of England forced thecowed monarch to sign the MagnaCarta, a charter of concessionsdefining and restricting his power.Henceforth, the king could nolonger arbitrarily arrest anEnglishman or seize his property.Neither John nor any other Englishking would again be a tyrant.However, the Magna Carta did
not guarantee the king’s compe-tence. The monarch was still free tobe weak, inept and reckless; andHenry III—the son of John—fullyexercised those dubious preroga-tives. In 1264, the barons rebelledagain, now to impose somerestraining responsibilities on thebankrupt crown. And the rebels’leader Simon de Montfort had aremarkable idea about how toaccomplish that: a governing coun-cil with elected representatives.Ironically, the pioneer of parlia-
mentary government had nothingliberal in his pedigree or upbring-ing. Simon de Montfort was anaristocrat, the son of a warlordwho had made a fortune in theCrusades. Nor was Simon evenEnglish, but French. France, how-ever, afforded him few opportuni-ties; his older brother would inher-it the family estates. But he didhave a tenuous claim to an Englishtitle: The last Earl of Leicester haddied childless, and Simon was hisgreat-nephew. So in 1230 the 22-year-old Frenchman traveled toEngland to become an earl.Thirteenth-century England
was a feudal society. The king and200 nobles ruled 4 million people.There were some 80 boroughs,their term for cities and towns.London was the largest—with apopulation of approximately30,000. Most of the English—atleast 80 percent—were peasants,and half of those peasants were
serfs, considered little more thanhuman livestock. The ruling classand their subjects barely spoke thesame language. The French spo-ken by the aristocracy and theAngle-Saxon spoken by the com-moners was gradually evolvinginto a mutually understood lan-guage: Middle English. And onthe English throne was the affablecatastrophe Henry III.De Montfort was not the only
fortune hunter at the Englishcourt, and most of them wereFrench like him. The king hadmany Gallic relatives and they allmade themselves his guests. ButSimon, with his soldier’s bearing,stood apart from the fawningcourtiers. Henry was impressedand so granted Simon part of theLeicester inheritance. De Montfortcould have the lands and incomeof the earldom but not the actualtitle. That would have to beearned. The king expected mili-
THE FOUNDING OF
PARLIAMENTHow one earl’s radical idea became the precedent
tary service, but Simon chose a differ-ent type of campaign. EleanorPlantagenet was an attractive youngwoman; she was also the king’s sister.Simon married her, and Henry’s wed-ding present was the earldom.In his rise to prominence and
power, the Earl of Leicester earned boththe envy and the enmity of othercourtiers. The king could be easilyswayed by malicious reports, and soSimon often found himself the victimof the royal whimsy. Although he hadcertainly proved himself adept at courtpolitics, Simon loathed it. He fled thesordid intrigues by going on a crusadein 1240. He returned to England andthe politics a year later, but he wouldalways speak longingly of the Crusadesand their moral clarity.When the king summoned the
Royal Council, an assembly of England’sleading nobles and clergy, it was some-times for their advice but usually fortheir money. The Magna Carta forbidthe king from raising taxes without thecouncil’s consent. Of course, the Earl of
Leicester was a member of theRoyal Council. He had first beena staunch supporter of the king; thatmight be expected of a rising courtierand a brother-in-law. Over time, how-ever, experience and disillusionmentturned him into a critic.Henry’s rule was an appalling farce.
Royal offices were doled out to corrupt,incompetent favorites. Wars were lostthrough cowardice and mismanage-ment. The king bankrupted the treas-ury pursuing ridiculous schemes; onewas a campaign to win the crown ofSicily. And, in 1258, when the kingwanted more money for this Sicilianfiasco, the council not only refusedbut, led by de Montfort, demandedconstraints upon Henry and the reformof the government.The outraged nobles could not be
ignored. Each one had a personal armyand their combined might could over-whelm the king’s forces. Intimidated,Henry agreed to abide by whateverreforms would be determined by aspecial session of the Royal Council.Representatives of the king and thebarons met at Oxford to create a pro-gram of reforms. They intended tolimit the king’s power and to imposeon government officials a standard ofethics and competence. Their proposalsare now remembered as the “Provisionsof Oxford.”
In 1215, King John (left) was forced to sign the Magna Carta, restricting the power of the monarch.While still a prince, King Edward I(right) led the military effort that defeated Simon de Montfort.
When the kingsummoned theRoyal Council,an assembly ofEngland’s leadingnobles andclergy, it wassometimes fortheir advice butusually fortheir money.
According to the provisions, theking would be under the supervision ofa 15-member governing council calleda “parliament.” “There are to be threeparliaments a year. … To these threeparliaments the chosen counselors ofthe King shall come, even if they arenot summoned, in order to examine thestate of the kingdom and to considerthe common needs of the kingdom andlikewise of the King.” Note that the par-liament would meet regardless ofHenry’s approval. The provisions alsoimposed term limits of one year on allroyal appointees, and these appointeeswould have to report to the parliament.Henry agreed to the provisions in
October 1258, and then spent the nexttwo years stalling on their implementa-tion. All the while, Henry was corre-sponding with the pope, pleading forthe church to absolve him from hispledge. In April 1261, the pope did, andnow Henry could sanctimoniouslyreject the reforms.However, the church had not threat-
ened to excommunicate de Montfortand the barons; so they could stilldemand the provisions. With Englandon the verge of civil war, Henry offeredanother proposal. King Louis IX ofFrance was renowned for his sense ofjustice; why not let him arbitrate thedispute? De Montfort agreed, however,Louis was still very much a king, andhe was not going to undermine theprinciples of monarchy. In January 1264,he decided in Henry’s favor.The nobles had no alternative but
war; and they had no better leaderthan Simon de Montfort. He was 56years old, an old man in those times,but still eager to lead this crusade.King Henry and his son Edward weregathering their forces at Lewes, inSoutheastern England. De Montforthad a smaller army but he knewHenry’s incompetence and Edward’sinexperience. The earl attacked; by theend of the day, Henry and Edwardwere prisoners and Simon de Montfortwas “the uncrowned king of England.”Henry would remain king, if only inname. The actual power would be inthe hands of a triumvirate of regents:de Montfort, of course, and his allies
the Bishop of Chicester and the Earlof Gloucester.But de Montfort knew that there
had to be a sound and lasting basis forresponsible government. Both the pro-visions’ proposed parliament and theRoyal Council had been an assemblyof aristocrats. De Montfort wanted aparliament that drew upon the adviceand consent of the commoners. So, hewould convene a parliament in January1265, and he ordered the 37 countiesand some 80 towns of England to sendelected representatives. It was unprece-dented, and many of de Montfort’sfellow barons were appalled. Some,including the Earl of Gloucester, wouldnow conspire to restore the king. Whathappened at de Montfort’s parliament?Ironically, we do not know the detailsof this momentous event. No recordshave survived.Those enemies were gathering
strength. With the help of the treacher-ous Gloucester, Prince Edward hadescaped and now was rallying an armyin the west of England. De Montfort ledan army in pursuit, bringing alongHenry as a hostage. The earl camped atEvesham and awaited reinforcements.They never came. Prince Edward, prov-ing himself a bold and capable com-mander, had destroyed that force andnow would surprise de Montfort. Theearl was killed, and his body mutilated,its parts sent throughout the kingdomas trophies. King Henry was releasedfrom one captivity but placed in anoth-er. The real ruler would be PrinceEdward. Ironically, Edward was exactlywhat the defeated barons had wanted ina king: strong, efficient and responsible.He would also prove a statesman.
When King Edward I summoned a par-liament in 1275, he ordered the coun-ties and towns of England to send elect-ed representatives. A wise king wouldwant the support and the advice of thecommoners. So de Montfort’s radicalidea became the precedent of parlia-ment, and the basis of representativegovernment. Today, a descendant ofEdward sits on the British throne, butthe heirs of Simon de Montfort—theelected members of Parliament—ruleBritain.
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1215: the barons of Englandforce King John to sign the
Magna Carta�
1230: Simon de Montfort trav-els to England to become an
earl, under King Henry�
1258: de Montfort leadsreform of the corrupt ruleof King Henry; The king
agrees to form an elected“parliament” but stalls on
implementation�
1261: the pope absolvesHenry from his pledge and he
rejects the reforms�
1264: King Louis IX of Francearbitrates the dispute
and decides in Henry’s favor�
1264: de Montfort launchesan attack; becomes “the
uncrowned king of England”after taking Henry and son
Edward prisoner�
1265: De Montfort convenesa parliament, calling forelected representativesfrom 37 counties and 80
towns of England�
August 1265: Edward escapesand leads victorious effort
to kill De Montfort�
1275: Now King, Edward Irealizes that support of thecommoners is important; He
> The hose shop’s new hire quicklyrealized that if there were a dirty, dis-gusting job to be done, it would landin his lap. One day, a customer’s truckpulled up and the shop leader wentover to it to see what was up. After ashort conversation with the chemicalplant driver, the shop leader motionedfor the newbie. The shop leaderexplained that the customer’s hose hadonly been in service for a week andhad gotten run over by a tanker truck.The hose was shot and it needed to bereplaced, but the fittings were basicallynew and the company had paid goodmoney for them. He then told the newguy to cut the fittings out of the hose,get the same hose from stock, and putthe customer’s fittings in the new hose.Using some colorful language, theshop leader instructed the newbie todo it quickly, since the driver wasgoing to wait.Cutting fittings out of a hose was
something the new guy had never donebefore so he asked his boss how to goabout it. His boss replied, “Take that airgrinder, cut the bands off, then cut upand down the hose where the fitting isuntil it starts to open up and pull the fit-ting out.” After the band clamps werecut off, the newbie quickly understoodwhy he was selected for the job. As soonas the air grinder touched the hose,smoke and dirt went everywhere. Thesmoke got so bad after a while that hecouldn’t see where he was cutting. Hekept going up and down the hose like hewas told, and occasionally sparks wouldfly along with the smoke and dirt. After
a few minutes (whichseemed like an hour),the hose opened up and the fitting fellto the floor. He picked up the fitting andnoticed grinding marks on the shankthat were particularly deep and sharp onthe end. He went to ask his boss aboutthis, but before he could say anything hewas told in no uncertain terms to finishthe job—now.A few days later, the distributor
received a call from the chemical planttelling them their new hose started leak-ing through the cover near one of thefittings; the leak sent thousands of dol-lars’ worth of chemicals down a stormdrain. Because of the type of chemical,the leak could lead to many thousandsof dollars in EPA fines. The distributoralso was informed that the cause of thespill was that the fitting had cut throughthe plastic tube in the hose.Before reusing any industrial hose
coupling, consult the manufacturer. Askif it can be reused and, if so, what theinspection procedures are. Fittings inchemical service pose additional dan-gers. First, there could be some residualchemical trapped between the hose andthe coupling, and the heat from thegrinding wheel could produce noxiousfumes or catch fire. Second, the shankcould look perfectly fine, but be erodedpast a safe wall thickness. Permanentfittings should not be reused becausethe shank can deflect from the pressureof swaging or crimping. If reused anddeflection has occurred, fitting dimen-sions, which are proprietary, are altered.This negatively affects the swage/crimp
parameters and can reduce the cou-pling’s holding power.Removing any fitting from a hose
must be done with extreme care. Eventhe slightest mark on the shank alters itfrom its original design and is reason todiscard it. Product alteration is not con-doned by any manufacturer and voidsall warranties. Once you alter a productyou “own” it and are responsible for anyand all consequences. The few dollarssaved today could cost you many thou-sands tomorrow.
Alteration: Dixon does not recommendthe altering of any of our clamps, fittingsor other products by anyone in the field.The Dixon product line is engineered toprecise tolerances and intended for spe-cific services. Altering a finished productcan cause changes in the metal or otherproperties resulting in safety concernsfor the user. If you have a special appli-cation not covered by our standardproduct line, please contact Dixon oryour Dixon distributor for advice.Fitting Inspection: An ongoingprogram of inspection of fittings,clamps and/or ferrules must beinstituted to maintain safe and operableassemblies. The inspection shouldinclude the body, all threads, sealsand clamps (ferrules). If gaskets aredamaged or missing, they must bereplaced immediately. Damaged fittings,clamps or ferrules must be removedand replaced immediately.
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DRILLER Dates inHistory
THE DIXON
“Published once a moon since 1932”
TRIVIA
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
Did you know that...
SPRING 2012
Dixon FireSince 2006, Dixon Fire has steadilybuilt the trust of its customer basethrough the manufacture anddistribution of quality UL and FMapproved brass fire products.
In June of 2011, Dixon acquiredNorthline Coupling Systems, basedin Mississauga, Ontario. This acqui-sition further expanded its product
offering to include aluminum fireproducts, valve hardware, Storz con-nections and dry hydrant systems.
The entire span of Dixon Fire’sproduct offering, including both thePowhatan and Northline brands,are available through Dixon’s 12warehouses around the UnitedStates, three in Canada and one
in Mexico. This broad product mixis also illustrated in the 2012 DixonFire catalog or through the websitedixonfire.com.
To order a 2012 catalog, orfor additional information, callcustomer service in the U.S. at877-712-6179, or 800-786-9697 inCanada, or visit dixonfire.com.
To read The Dixon Driller on a monthly basis, visit our website:www.dixonvalve.com
Vanilla flavoring is derived fromorchids.
The term used for the science ofgrowing an apple is Pomology.
Amen in Hebrew means “so be it.”
1 knot of speed is equivalent to1 nautical mile per hour.
A bull’s-eye is worth 50 points inthe game of darts.
Monaco is the world’s mostdensely populated country.
Pinocchio, in Italian, means pinehead.
A barometer measures atmospher-ic pressure.
At the start of a chess game eachplayer begins with eight pawns.
Greenland is the world’s largestisland.
An Olympic size swimming poolhas eight lanes.
In 1952, Israel offered AlbertEinstein its presidency.
The southern most capital cityin the world is Wellington, NewZealand.
The first U.S. billionaire was JohnD. Rockefeller.
The diameter of a golf hole is fourinches.
You have $1,500 at the start of thegame Monopoly.
The Latin word circa before a datemeans “about.”
The elephant is the only animalwith four knees.
The second largest country in theworld is Canada.
www.randomtriviagenerator.com
A lady went to a psychiatrist com-plaining of a terrible phobia. “Everytime I lay down on my bed I get thisterrible fear that there is somethingunderneath.” “Wow,” respondedthe psychiatrist, “I’ve never heardof such a phobia, but like all pho-bias it can be treated, but it willlikely take around 20 sessions.”“OK,” responded the lady. “Howmuch is each session?” “Oh it’sjust $80 a session, but trust me it’swell worth it.” When the lady didn’tcome back to the psychiatrist hegave the lady a call. “How come Ididn’t hear from you?” he asked.“Well,” responded the lady, “whenI came home and told my husbandabout the cost he thought hewould save some money. He justcut the legs off the bed!”
Three engineers and three account-ants are traveling by train to a con-ference. At the station, the threeaccountants each buy tickets andwatch as the three engineers buyonly a single ticket.”How are threepeople going to travel on only oneticket?” asks an accountant. “Watchand you’ll see,” answers an engineer.All of them board the train. Theaccountants take their respectiveseats but all three engineers craminto a restroom and close the doorbehind them. Shortly after the trainhas departed, the conductor comesaround collecting tickets. He knockson the restroom door and says,“Ticket, please.” The door opensjust a crack and a single armemerges with a ticket in hand. Theconductor takes it and moves on.
The accountants saw this and agreedit was a clever idea. So after the con-ference, the accountants decide tocopy the engineers on the return tripand save some money. When theyget to the station they buy a singleticket for the return trip. To theirastonishment, the engineers don’tbuy a ticket at all. “How are yougoing to travel without a ticket?”says one perplexed accountant.“Watch and you’ll see,” answers anengineer. When they board the trainthe three accountants cram into arestroom and the three engineerscram into another one nearby.Thetrain departs. Shortly afterward, oneof the engineers leaves his restroomandwalks over to the restroomwherethe accountants are hiding. He knockson the door and says, “Ticket, please.”
March 1, 1932Lindbergh baby kidnappedOn March 1, Charles Lindbergh III,the 20-month-old son of aviationhero Charles Lindbergh, waskidnapped from the family's newmansion in Hopewell, N. J.
March 1, 1966Soviet probe crashes into VenusOn March 1st, Venera 3, a Sovietprobe launched from Kazakhstanon Nov. 15, 1965, collided withVenus, the second planet from thesun. Although Venera 3 failed in itsmission to measure the Venusianatmosphere, it was the firstunmanned spacecraft to reach thesurface of another planet.
March 1, 1961Kennedy establishes Peace CorpsOn March 1st, John F. Kennedy issuedan executive order establishing thePeace Corps. This force would bemade up of civilians who would vol-unteer their time and skills to travelto underdeveloped nations to assistthem in any way they could. Duringthe 1960s and 1970s, thousands ofAmericans—especially young peo-ple—flocked to serve in dozens ofnations, particularly in Latin America,Africa, Asia and the Middle East.The program continues to function,and thousands of Americans eachyear are drawn to the humanitarianmission and sense of adventure thatcharacterizes the Peace Corps.
March 5, 1963Hula-Hoop patentedOn March 5th, the Hula-Hoop, a hip-swiveling toy that became a huge fadacross America when it was first mar-keted by Wham-O in 1958, is patent-ed by the company's co-founder,Arthur "Spud" Melin. An estimated25 million Hula-Hoops were sold inits first four months of productionalone.
March 6, 1899Bayer patents aspirinOn March 6th, the Imperial PatentOffice in Berlin registered Aspirin,the brand name for acetylsalicylicacid, on behalf of the German phar-maceutical company Friedrich Bayer
>There’s a new food icon in town,and it doesn’t wear a chef ’s hat orparticipate in high-profile televisioncooking competitions.Enter the food plate, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s new sym-bol of healthy eating that replaces theold food pyramid. The new graphic isa familiar one: a dinner plate. It isdivided into four nearly equal portionsof fruit, vegetables, grains and proteins,with a serving of dairy on the side. TheUSDA’s website, www.choosemyplate.gov, offers sample menus and encour-ages Americans to reduce portionsize, add a variety of foods to theirdaily diet and cut back on consumptionof sugary drinks while upping waterintake.Dietitians such as Bethany Thayer,
American Dietetic Association spokes-woman, praise the plate graphic for its
“simpler, visual approach.” The pyra-mid, says Thayer, gave “too much infor-mation” and was “too abstract andoverwhelming.”By contrast, she says, “everyone
knows [and recognizes] what a plate is.”Below, three registered dietitians
offer tips on how adults can use the plateto guide their way to healthier eating.
Three meals a day make allthe differenceThe plate model emphasizes three mealsa day because “skipping meals can bejust as bad as overeating,” says JimWhite, ADA spokesman. When youmiss breakfast or lunch, you tend toovercompensate or make bad decisions
on the next meal because you’re starv-ing. During the workday, unhealthy eat-ing habits also can lead to lack of energyand confidence, not to mention stress.Breakfast is the most important
meal of the day, says White, and missingit is gambling with obesity. White sug-gests easy breakfasts like a whole grainEnglish muffin with peanut butter,
whole grain cereal with skim milk or acup of yogurt plus a piece of fruit as agood way to start the day.Healthy lunch options include
chicken burritos with rice or beans(skip the cheese and sour cream butnot the avocado), sandwiches on wholegrain bread paired with soups and sal-ads and veggie-heavy stir fries, accord-ing to dietitian Manuel Villacorta,founder and creator of Eating Free.
Size mattersPortion size also is crucial, remindsVillacorta. You may be eating all theright things, but eating too much ofeven healthy food can result in “grow-ing your waistline organically,” he saystactfully.Half of your plate at each meal
should be vegetables and fruit. Theremaining half should be one-quartergrain and one-quarter protein. But how
HEALTH &FITNESS/ BY MARY K. ZAJAC
Look to ‘the plate’ to guide healthier eating
Dishing It Up
THE PLATE MODEL EMPHASIZES THREE MEALS A DAYBECAUSE “SKIPPING MEALS CAN BE JUST AS BAD ASOVEREATING,” SAYS JIM WHITE.
S P R I N G 20 1 2 � BOSS 33WWW. D I X O N V A LV E . C O M
much is a quarter?When it comes to protein, says
Villacorta, “talk to the hand.” Whetherit be pork, chicken, lean meat or fish,your protein should be “the size of yourpalm.” For men, this means 5 or 6ounces (for women, it’s more like 3ounces, the size of a deck of cards).Keep this in mind in restaurants,
which often serve larger portions ofmeat and potatoes with little emphasison vegetables. Prepare for a restaurantmeal by cutting back on portion sizeduring the day. Plan to take homerestaurant leftovers and consider order-ing a side vegetable or salad to roundout your meal, suggests Villacorta.
Variety is the spice of lifeA colorful plate is a healthy plate, con-tends Villacorta, so when you’re choos-ing vegetables, the more variety the bet-ter. “Different colors give you different
health benefits,” says Villacorta. “Don’tjust do green. Don’t just do red. Add atleast two or three colors.”Remember, too, to balance starchy
vegetables like potatoes and corn withleafy greens such as salads or spinach orcruciferous vegetables like broccoli andcauliflower.
Make it easy on yourselfEveryone has something they dislike eat-ing, says White. The trick is to “find foodsyou do like and stick to them.” Say you’renot a fruit eater. White suggests seekingout pure juices made from concentratedfruit or mixing a fruit you do like into asmoothie with yogurt and peanut butter.If adding a little low-fat whipped cream isgoing to make those blueberries morepalatable, White says do it.Salads are also an easy way to load
up on items that might be lacking inyour diet. “Make your salad fun by adding
fruit, like oranges or dried cranberries,or nuts or cheese,” advises RebeccaDenison, doctor of integrative medicine,and diabetes educator at GreaterBaltimore Medical Center in Maryland.And don’t overlook grocery store
conveniences. It can be a lot easier tobuild a salad or snack healthily if youbuy already cut-up pineapple or “baby”varieties of vegetables like carrots andgrape tomatoes.
Give yourself a day offFace it. Even though we want to eathealthy, we also want to indulge everynow and then. White says choosing oneday a week to enjoy dark chocolate ora glass of red wine is a good thing. “Ifyou can be moderate, say 100 to 150calories, indulging once a week canhelp your psyche,” explains White. “Aslong as it’s not in excess, don’t feelguilty.”
> Sixteenth-century painter Leonardoda Vinci is best known for his artisticmasterpieces, which still have thepower to take our breath away. Butmany historians also credit him withthe first real concept for the modernday parachute. Da Vinci sketched thedevice in his Codex Atlanticus in 1485;it consisted of a canopy of clothstretched over a wooden frame that wasroughly the shape of an inverted icecream cone.That design was just an idea,
though, until 1617, when Croatianscholar Faust Vrancic elaborated on it(he changed the frame to a rectangle)and leapt from a Venetian tower wear-ing it. He must have survived theplunge, because drawings of his “HomoVolans” (Flying Man) appeared 30 yearslater in a book by John Wilkins.
But credit for the first really practical,modern parachute often goes to Frenchphysicist and inventor Louis-SebastienLenormand. In 1783, he became the firstperson to make a witnessed publicdescent via parachute when he jumpedfrom a tower of the MontepellierObservatory while he was affixed to a 14-foot wooden-framed parachute.Around that time, fellow Frenchman
and balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchardcame up with the term “parachute,”combining “para” (against) and “chute”(fall). In these early days, parachutes
were mainly seen in circus acts, withtrapeze artists using them to performstunts. Public opinion of the device wasunderstandably negative after 61-year-old amateur scientist Robert Cockingplunged 5,000 feet to his death—despitebeing attached to a cone-shaped para-chute—in front of a crowd duringGrand Day Fete in 1837 at London’sVauxhall Gardens.Nonetheless, some intrepid individ-
uals continued to work on the inven-tion’s design, with the addition of a har-ness and a “breakaway” component (inwhich one parachute inflates, is releasedand pulls open a second) taking placein the late 1890s. An 85-poundCalifornia teen—Georgia “Tiny”Broadwick—made the first free fallparachute jump in 1908 and technologyimproved rapidly after that, with a
parachute testing and training centerestablished by the military at WrightField in Dayton, Ohio, in 1918.From World War I to the 1930s,
round silk chutes were used by the mili-tary in the United States, Europe andRussia. During World War II,Germany’s Luftwaffe corps showed theworld just how effectively the devicesworked to strategically move troops tobattle sites. Improvements in designand materials to make the chuteslighter, stronger and safer continued inthe decades after the war.
Today, most parachutes used byskydivers are self-inflating “ram-air”airfoils—known as “parafoils.” Thesehave two layers of fabric that are con-nected by “cells” of airfoil-shaped fabricribs. For safety’s sake, contemporaryparachutes are designed to open softly,thanks to a “slider,” a piece of fabricthat slows the spread of the parachute’srigging lines.Despite ongoing advances, the world
record for the highest parachute jumpdates to Aug. 16, 1960, and the U.S. AirForce’s Excelsior Project (experimentsaimed at ensuring that jet pilots coulddescend safely after high-altitude ejec-tion). Pilot Joe Kittinger stepped from ahot-air balloon at 31,333 meters (102,800feet) and into a free fall that lasted anamazing 4 minutes, 36 seconds—withspeeds reaching 988 kilometers per hour(614 mph) and temperatures as low as−94 F (−70 C). Finally, at an altitude of5,330 m (17,500 feet), Kittinger deployedhis main parachute and landed safely inthe NewMexico desert. The total time ofthe descent: 13 minutes, 45 seconds.Aptly, a plaque was afterward attached
to the open door of the Excelsior gondola,with the words, “This is the highest stepin the world.”
BY LISA DeNIKEINVENTIONS/
The advent of the parachute makes it possibleto take the plunge safely
Soft Landings
DA VINCI’S SKETCH CONSISTED OF A CANOPY OF CLOTHSTRETCHED OVER A WOODEN FRAME THATWAS ROUGHLYTHE SHAPE OF AN INVERTED ICE CREAM CONE.
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