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Kidney stones – an overview

Posted Mar 14 2012 4:30am

This article, by a Consultant Urological Surgeon, discusses the problem of kidneyOne of two bean-shaped organs that are located on either side of the body, below the ribcage. The main role of the kidneys is to filter out waste products from the blood. stones. This is an increasingly common condition and this article outlines what kidney stones are and how they can be prevented.

Kidney stones, one of the most painful of the urologic disorders, have beset humans for centuries. Scientists have found evidence of kidney stones in a 7,000-year-old Egyptian mummy. Unfortunately, kidney stones are one of the most common disorders of the urinary tractThe channels that carry urine from the kidneys to the outside of the body..

A selection of kidney stones from the same patient but removed at different times

A kidney stone is a hard mass developed from crystals that separate from the urine within the urinary tract. Normally, urine contains chemicals that prevent or inhibit these crystals from forming. These inhibitors do not seem to work for everyone, so some people form stones. If the crystals remain tiny enough, they will travel through the urinary tract and pass out of the body in the urine without being noticed.

A less common type of stone is caused by an infectionInvasion by organisms that may be harmful, for example bacteria or parasites. in the urinary tract. This type of stone is called a struvite infection or triple phosphate stones as they are made up of magnesium, ammonium and phosphate. Another type of stone, uric acidA waste product of the breakdown of nucleic acids in body cells. stones, are a bit less common, and cystine stones are rare.
Urolithiasis is the medical term used to describe stones occurring in the urinary tract. Other frequently used terms are urinary tract stone disease and nephrolithiasis. Urologists may also use terms that describe the location of the stone in the urinary tract.

For unknown reasons, the number of people in the United Kingdom with kidney stones has been increasing over the past 30 years. In the late 1970s, less than four per cent of the population had stone-forming disease. By the early 1990s, the portion of the population with the disease had increased to more than five per cent.

  • Caucasians are more proneLying face-downwards. to develop kidney stones than Africans.
  • Stones occur more frequently in men.
  • Women most often develop kidney stones in their fifties.

The prevalence of kidney stones rises dramatically as men enter their 40s and continues to rise into their 70s. For women, the prevalence of kidney stones peaks in their 50s, however, in recent times, the peak age of stone formation in female appears to be falling. Now 13.1% of all male and 19.6% of all female stone-formers form their first stone before the age of 20 compared with 4.7% and 4.0% respectively in 1975. Once a person gets more than one stone, other stones are likely to develop.

A person with a family history of kidney stones may be more likely to develop stones. Urinary tract infections, kidney disorders such as cystic kidney diseases, and certain metabolic disordersA group of disorders in which some aspect of body chemistry is disturbed. such as hyperparathyroidismExcessive secretion of parathyroid hormone from the parathyroid glands. are also linked to stone formation.

In addition, more than 70 per cent of people with a rare hereditary disease called renalRelating to the kidney. tubular acidosis develop kidney stones.

Cystinuria and hyperoxaluria are two other rare, inherited metabolic disorders that often cause kidney stones. In cystinuria, too much of the amino acidAn organic compound that is the basic building block of all proteins. cystine, which does not dissolve in urine, is excreted, leading to the formation of stones made of cystine. In patients with hyperoxaluria, the body produces too much oxalate, a salt. When the urine contains more oxalate than can be dissolved, the crystals settle out and form stones.

Hypercalciuria is inherited, and it may be the cause of stones in more than half of patients. In this condition, calcium is absorbed from food in excess and is lost into the urine. This high level of calcium in the urine causes crystals of calcium oxalate or calcium phosphate to form in the kidneys or elsewhere in the urinary tract.

Other causes of kidney stones are hyperuricosuriaA medical condition whereby there are excessive amounts of uric acid present in the urine., which is a disorder of uric acid metabolismThe chemical reactions necessary to sustain life.; goutA common metabolic disorder that causes attacks of arthritis, usually in a single joint. Gout is due to high levels of uric acid in the blood.; excess intake of vitaminEssential substances that cannot be produced by the body and so must be acquired from the diet. D; urinary tract infections; and blockage of the urinary tract. Certain diureticsDrugs that help to remove excess water from the body by increasing the amount lost in urine., commonly called water pills, and calcium-based antacids may increase the risk of forming kidney stones by increasing the amount of calcium in the urine.

A calcium oxalate stone

Calcium oxalate stones may also form in people who have chronicA disease of long duration generally involving slow changes. inflammationThe body’s response to injury. of the bowelA common name for the large and/or small intestines. or who have had an intestinalrelating to the intestines, the digestive tract between the stomach and the anus bypass operation, or stoma surgery. As mentioned earlier, struvite stones can form in people who have had a urinary tract infection. People who take the protease inhibitor indinavir, a medicine used to treat HIVThe abbreviation for human immunodeficiency virus, which is the cause of AIDS. infection, may also be at an increased risk of developing kidney stones.

High-oxalate foods (from highest to lowest)

  • Rhubarb, spinach, wheat germ, soybean crackers, peanuts, okra, chocolate, black Indian tea, sweet potatoes, strawberries.

Orange juice is the most effective way to keep stones from forming. This is because it increases the alkalinity, and thus increases the potassiumAn element that is one of the main ions, or charged atoms, of intracellular fluid, and is also important in nerve and muscle function. and citrate content of the urine which helps prevent stone formation. Grapefruit, pineapple, and apple juice also help, but not quite as much as orange juice. Cranberry and lemon juice do not increase the citrate content, although they may reduce the rate at which stones form. High levels of citrate in urine helps prevent stone formation.

Typically, a person feels a sharp, cramping pain in the back and side in the area of the kidney or in the lower abdomenThe part of the body that contains the stomach, intestines, liver, gallbladder and other organs. which is called renal colic Spasms of severe pain in one side of the back usually caused by a kidney stone passing down the ureter. . Sometimes nausea and vomitingExpusion of the contents of the stomach through the mouth. occur. Later, pain may spread to the groin.

If the stone is too large to pass easily, pain continues as the muscles in the wall of the narrow ureterA tube that carries urine from the kidneys to the bladder. try to squeeze the stone into the bladderThe organ that stores urine.. As the stone moves and the body tries to push it out, bloodA fluid that transports oxygen and other substances through the body, made up of blood cells suspended in a liquid. may appear in the urine, making the urine pink. As the stone moves down the ureter, closer to the bladder, a person may feel the need to urinate more often or feel a burning sensation during urinationThe passing of urine from the body..

If feverThe raising of the body temperature above norma, which may be accompanied by symptoms such as shivering, headache and sweating. and chills accompany any of these symptoms, an infection may be present. In this case, a person should contact a doctor immediately or see a urologistA specialist in the treatment of diseases of the urinary tract, the channels that carry urine from the kidneys to the outside of the body..

Kidney stones – an overview

Sometimes “silent” stones those that do not cause symptoms are found on radiological imaging taken during a general health exam. If the stones are small, they will often pass out of the body un-noticed. Often, kidney stones are found on an x-ray, ultrasoundA diagnostic method in which very high frequency sound waves are passed into the body and the reflective echoes analysed to build a picture of the internal organs – or of the foetus in the uterus. or computerized tomography (CTThe abbreviation for computed tomography, a scan that generates a series of cross-sectional x-ray images) scan taken of someone who complains of blood in the urine or sudden pain. These diagnostic images give the doctor valuable information about the stone’s size and location. Blood and urine tests help detect any abnormal substance that might promote stone formation.

The doctor may ask the patient to collect urine for 24 hours after a stone has passed or been removed. For a 24-hour urine collection, the patient is given a large container, which is to be refrigerated between trips to the bathroom. The collection is used to measure urine volume and levels of acidity, calcium, sodiumOne of the chemical components of salt (sodium chloride) and an important blood chemical., uric acid, oxalate, citrate, and creatinineA product of the breakdown of creatine in muscle (creatine itself is fromed from the breakdown of protein).a product of muscle metabolism. The doctor will use this information to determine the cause of the stone. A second 24-hour urine collection may be needed to determine whether the prescribed treatment is working.

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activate to initiate action in; make active. [5 definitions]
activated carbon a form of very porous and thus very absorbent carbon, produced by heating charcoal so as to empty out contained gases, and used to absorb other gases, recover solvents, deodorize, and the like; activated charcoal.
activated charcoal see activated carbon.
active constantly doing something; busy; energetic. [6 definitions]
active duty the status of full-time service or work, esp. in the military.
actively in a way that involves making an effort, taking action, or participating; not passively.
activism the belief in or practice of trying to make social or political changes through active, militant, or demonstrative involvement, esp. in particular issues.
activist one who advocates a cause with vigor or militance.
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actress a woman or girl who plays roles in dramatic productions.
Acts see Acts of the Apostles.
actual truly existing or happening, not just potentially or in the imagination. [3 definitions]
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Carol B. Lynch
Professor Emeritus

Ph.D., University of Iowa, 1971

Carol B.  Lynch
Research Interests The genetic basis of evolutionary adaptation, and brain mechanisms underlying adaptive behaviors. A model system has been the study of cold adaptation in mice, with emphasis on nest-building. We have available replicated genetic lines in mice that have been selectively bred for over 60 generations for differences in nest-building. These lines also differ in genetically correlated traits, such as body weight and litter size, as well as circadian rhythms and brain (hypothalmus) neurochemistry and neuroanatomy. These lines facilitate studies of both constraints on adaptive evolution, and the path from genes to behavior.
Selected Publications

Bult, A. and C.B. Lynch . 1996. Multiple selection responses in house mice bedirectionally selected for thermoregulatory nest-building behavior: crosses of replicate lines. Behav. Genet. 26 (in press).

Bult, A., L. Hiestand, E.A. van der Zee, and C.B. Lynch . 1993. Circadian rhythms differ between selected mouse lines: a model to study the role of vasopressin neurons in the suprachiasmatic nuclei. Brain Res. Bull. 32:623-627.

Lynch , C.B. 1994. Evolutionary inferences from genetic analyses of cold adaptation in laboratory and wild populations of the house mouse, pp. 278-301, in C.R.B. Boake (ed.) Quantitative genetic studies of behavioral evolution. University of Chicago Press.

Lynch , C.B. 1992. Clinal variation in cold adaptation in Mus domesticus: verification of predictions from laboratory populations. Am. Nat. 139:1219-1236.


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Genome Biology 2011, 12:R81  doi:10.1186/gb-2011-12-8-r81

Published: 19 August 2011

We present the genome sequence of the tammar wallaby, Macropus eugenii, which is a member of the kangaroo family and the first representative of the iconic hopping mammals that symbolize Australia to be sequenced. The tammar has many unusual biological characteristics, including the longest period of embryonic diapause of any mammal, extremely synchronized seasonal breeding and prolonged and sophisticated lactation within a well-defined pouch. Like other marsupials, it gives birth to highly altricial young, and has a small number of very large chromosomes, making it a valuable model for genomics, reproduction and development.

The genome has been sequenced to 2 × coverage using Sanger sequencing, enhanced with additional next generation sequencing and the integration of extensive physical and linkage maps to build the genome assembly. We also sequenced the tammar transcriptome across many tissues and developmental time points. Our analyses of these data shed light on mammalian reproduction, development and genome evolution: there is innovation in reproductive and lactational genes, rapid evolution of germ cell genes, and incomplete, locus-specific X inactivation. We also observe novel retrotransposons and a highly rearranged major histocompatibility complex, with many class I genes located outside the complex. Novel microRNAs in the tammar HOX clusters uncover new potential mammalian HOX regulatory elements.

Analyses of these resources enhance our understanding of marsupial gene evolution, identify marsupial-specific conserved non-coding elements and critical genes across a range of biological systems, including reproduction, development and immunity, and provide new insight into marsupial and mammalian biology and genome evolution.


Archive for the 'monetary policy' Category

Forget the Monetary Base and Just Pay Attention to the Price Level

Here is how Hirshleifer concludes his discussion:

Another passage from Hirshleifer is also worth quoting:

John Cochrane Explains Neo-Fisherism

Again, we don’t have to be that pure.

Just How Infamous Was that Infamous Open Letter to Bernanke?

There’s been a lot of comment recently about the infamous 2010 open letter to Ben Bernanke penned by an assorted group of economists, journalists, and financiers warning that the Fed’s quantitative easing policy would cause inflation and currency debasement.

Critics of that letter (e.g., Paul Krugman and Brad Delong) have been having fun with the signatories, ridiculing them for what now seems like a chicken-little forecast of disaster. Those signatories who have responded to inquiries about how they now feel about that letter, notably Cliff Asness and Nial Ferguson, have made two arguments: 1) the letter was just a warning that QE was creating a risk of inflation, and 2) despite the historically low levels of inflation since the letter was written, the risk that inflation could increase as a result of QE still exists.

For the most part, critics of the open letter have focused on the absence of inflation since the Fed adopted QE, the critics characterizing the absence of inflation despite QE as an easily predictable outcome, a straightforward implication of basic macroeconomics, which it was ignorant or foolish of the signatories to have ignored. In particular, the signatories should have known that, once interest rates fall to the zero lower bound, the demand for money becoming highly elastic so that the public willingly holds any amount of money that is created, monetary policy is rendered ineffective. Just as a semantic point, I would observe that the term “liquidity trap” used to describe such a situation is actually a slight misnomer inasmuch as the term was coined to describe a situation posited by Keynes in which the demand for money becomes elastic above the zero lower bound. So the assertion that monetary policy is ineffective at the zero lower bound is actually a weaker claim than the one Keynes made about the liquidity trap. As I have suggested previously, the current zero-lower-bound argument is better described as a Hawtreyan credit deadlock than a Keynesian liquidity trap.

Sorry, but I couldn’t resist the parenthetical history-of-thought digression; let’s get back to that infamous open letter.

Those now heaping scorn on signatories to the open letter are claiming that it was obvious that quantitative easing would not increase inflation. I must confess that I did not think that that was the case; I believed that quantitative easing by the Fed could indeed produce inflation. And that’s why I was in favor of quantitative easing. I was hoping for a repeat of what I have called the short but sweat recovery of 1933, when, in the depths of the Great Depression, almost immediately following the worst financial crisis in American history capped by a one-week bank holiday announced by FDR upon being inaugurated President in March 1933, the US economy, propelled by a 14% rise in wholesale prices in the aftermath of FDR’s suspension of the gold standard and 40% devaluation of the dollar, began the fastest expansion it ever had, industrial production leaping by 70% from April to July, and the Dow Jones average more than doubling. Unfortunately, FDR spoiled it all by getting Congress to pass the monumentally stupid National Industrial Recovery Act, thereby strangling the recovery with mandatory wage increases, cost increases, and regulatory ceilings on output as a way to raise prices. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

Inflation having worked splendidly as a recovery strategy during the Great Depression, I have believed all along that we could quickly recover from the Little Depression if only we would give inflation a chance. In the Great Depression, too, there were those that argued either that monetary policy is ineffective – “you can’t push on a string” — or that it would be calamitous — causing inflation and currency debasement – or, even both. But the undeniable fact is that inflation worked; countries that left the gold standard recovered, because once currencies were detached from gold, prices could rise sufficiently to make production profitable again, thereby stimulating multiplier effects (aka supply-side increases in resource utilization) that fueled further economic expansion. And oh yes, don’t forget providing badly needed relief to debtors, relief that actually served the interests of creditors as well.

So my problem with the open letter to Bernanke is not that the letter failed to recognize the existence of a Keynesian liquidity trap or a Hawtreyan credit deadlock, but that the open letter viewed inflation as the problem when, in my estimation at any rate, inflation is the solution.

Now, it is certainly possible that, as critics of the open letter maintain, monetary policy at the zero lower bound is ineffective. However, there is evidence that QE announcements, at least initially, did raise inflation expectations as reflected in TIPS spreads. And we also know (see my paper) that for a considerable period of time (from 2008 through at least 2012) stock prices were positively correlated with inflation expectations, a correlation that one would not expect to observe under normal circumstances.

So why did the huge increase in the monetary base during the Little Depression not cause significant inflation even though monetary policy during the Great Depression clearly did raise the price level in the US and in the other countries that left the gold standard? Well, perhaps the success of monetary policy in ending the Great Depression could not be repeated under modern conditions when all currencies are already fiat currencies. It may be that, starting from an interwar gold standard inherently biased toward deflation, abandoning the gold standard created, more or less automatically, inflationary expectations that allowed prices to rise rapidly toward levels consistent with a restoration of macroeconomic equilibrium. However, in the current fiat money system in which inflation expectations have become anchored to an inflation target of 2 percent or less, no amount of money creation can budge inflation off its expected path, especially at the zero lower bound, and especially when the Fed is paying higher interest on reserves than yielded by short-term Treasuries.

Under our current inflation-targeting monetary regime, the expectation of low inflation seems to have become self-fulfilling. Without an explicit increase in the inflation target or the price-level target (or the NGDP target), the Fed cannot deliver the inflation that could provide a significant economic stimulus. So the problem, it seems to me, is not that we are stuck in a liquidity trap; the problem is that we are stuck in an inflation-targeting monetary regime.

Misunderstanding (Totally!) Competitive Currency Devaluations

Before becoming Governor of the Resesrve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan professor was Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago Business School. Winner of the Fischer Black Prize in 2003, he is the author numerous articles in leading academic journals in economics and finance, and co-author (with Luigi Zingales) of a well-regarded book Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists that had some valuable insights about financial-market dysfunction. He is obviously no slouch.

Unfortunately, based on recent reports, Goverenor Rajan is, despite his impressive resume and academic credentials, as Marcus Nunes pointed out on his blog, totally clueless about the role of monetary policy and the art of central banking in combating depressions. Here is the evidence provided by none other than the Wall Street Journal, a newspaper whose editorial page espouses roughly the same view as Rajan, summarizing Rajan’s remarks.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan warned Wednesday that the global economy bears an increasing resemblance to its condition in the 1930s, with advanced economies trying to pull out of the Great Recession at each other’s expense.

A clear symptom of the major imbalances crippling the world’s financial market is the over valuation of the euro, Mr. Rajan said.

The euro-zone economy faces problems similar to those faced by developing economies, with the European Central Bank’s “very, very accommodative stance” having a reduced impact due to the ultra-loose monetary policies being pursued by other central banks, including the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England.

The notion that competitive currency devaluations in the Great Depression were a zero-sum game is fallacy, an influential fallacy to be sure, but a fallacy nonetheless. And because it is – and was — so influential, it is a highly dangerous fallacy. There is indeed a similarity between the current situation and the 1930s, but the similarity is not that monetary ease is a zero-sum game that merely “shifts,” but does not “create,” demand; the similarity is that the fallacious notion that monetary ease does not create demand is still so prevalent.

The classic refutation of the fallacy that monetary ease only shifts, but does not create, demand was provided on numerous occasions by R. G. Hawtrey. Almost two and a half years ago, I quoted a particularly cogent passage from Hawtrey’s Trade Depression and the Way Out (2nd edition, 1933) in which he addressed the demand-shift fallacy. Hawtrey refuted the fallacy in responding to those who were arguing that Britain’s abandonment of the gold standard in September 1931 had failed to stimulate the British economy, and had damaged the world economy, because prices continued falling after Britain left the gold standard. Hawtrey first discussed the reasons for the drop in the world price level after Britain gave up the gold standard.

When Great Britain left the gold standard, deflationary measures were everywhere resorted to. Not only did the Bank of England raise its rate, but the tremendous withdrawals of gold from the United States involved an increase of rediscounts and a rise of rates there, and the gold that reached Europe was immobilized or hoarded. . . .

In other words, Britain’s departure from the gold standard led to speculation that the US would follow Britain off the gold standard, implying an increase in the demand to hoard gold before the anticipated increase in its dollar price. That is a typical reaction under the gold standard when the probability of a devaluation is perceived to have risen. By leaving gold, Britain increased the perceived probability that other countries, and especially the US, would also leave the gold standard.

The consequence was that the fall in the price level continued [because an increase in the demand to hold gold (for any reason including speculation on a future increase in the nominal price of gold) must raise the current value of gold relative to all other commodities which means that the price of other commodities in terms of gold must fall — DG]. The British price level rose in the first few weeks after the suspension of the gold standard [because the value of the pound was falling relative to gold, implying that prices in terms of pounds rose immediately after Britain left gold — DG], but then accompanied the gold price level in its downward trend [because after the initial fall in the value of the pound relative to gold, the pound stabilized while the real value of gold continued to rise — DG]. This fall of prices calls for no other explanation than the deflationary measures which had been imposed [alarmed at the rapid fall in the value of gold, the Bank of England raised interest rates to prevent further depreciation in sterling — DG]. Indeed what does demand explanation is the moderation of the fall, which was on the whole not so steep after September 1931 as before.

Yet when the commercial and financial world saw that gold prices were falling rather than sterling prices rising, they evolved the purely empirical conclusion that a depreciation of the pound had no effect in raising the price level, but that it caused the price level in terms of gold and of those currencies in relation to which the pound depreciated to fall.

Here Hawtrey identified precisely the demand-shift fallacy evidently now subscribed to by Governor Rajan. In other words, when Britain left the gold standard, Britain did nothing to raise the international level of prices, which, under the gold standard, is the level of prices measured in terms of gold. Britain may have achieved a slight increase in its own domestic price level, but only by imposing a corresponding reduction in the price level measured in terms of gold. Let’s see how Hawtrey demolishes the fallacy.

For any such conclusion there was no foundation. Whenever the gold price level tended to fall, the tendency would make itself felt in a fall in the pound concurrently with the fall in commodities. [Hawtrey is saying that if the gold price level fell, while the sterling price level remained constant, the value of sterling would also fall in terms of gold.DG] But it would be quite unwarrantable to infer that the fall in the pound was the cause of the fall in commodities.

On the other hand, there is no doubt that the depreciation of any currency, by reducing the cost of manufacture in the country concerned in terms of gold, tends to lower the gold prices of manufactured goods. . . . [In other words, the cost of production of manufactured goods, which include both raw materials – raw materials often being imported — and capital equipment and labor, which generally are not mobile, is unlikely to rise as much in percentage terms as the percentage depreciation in the currency. — DG]

But that is quite a different thing from lowering the price level. For the fall in manufacturing costs results in a greater demand for manufactured goods, and therefore the derivative demand for primary products is increased. [That is to say, if manufactured products become relatively cheaper as the currency depreciates, the real quantity of manufactured goods demanded will increase, and the real quantity of inputs used to produce the increased quantity of manufactured goods must also increase. — DG] While the prices of finished goods fall, the prices of primary products rise. Whether the price level as a whole would rise or fall it is not possible to say a priori, but the tendency is toward correcting the disparity between the price levels of finished products and primary products. That is a step towards equilibrium. And there is on the whole an increase of productive activity. The competition of the country which depreciates its currency will result in some reduction of output from the manufacturing industry of other countries. But this reduction will be less than the increase in the country’s output, for if there were no net increase in the world’s output there would be no fall of prices. [Thus, even though there is some demand shifting toward the country that depreciates its currency because its products become relatively cheaper than the products of non-depreciating currencies, the cost reduction favoring the output of the country with a depreciating currency could not cause an overall reduction in prices elsewhere if total output had not increased. — DG]

Hawtrey then articulates the policy implication of the demand-shift fallacy.

This competitive depreciation is an entirely imaginary danger. The benefit that a country derives from the depreciation of its currency is in the rise of its price level relative to its wage level, and does not depend on its competitive advantage. [There is a slight ambiguity here, because Hawtrey admitted above that there is a demand shift. But there is also an increase in demand, and it is the increase in demand, associated with a rise of its price level relative to its wage level, which does not depend on a competitive advantage associated with a demand shift. — DG] If other countries depreciate their currencies, its competitive advantage is destroyed, but the advantage of the price level remains both to it and to them. They in turn may carry the depreciation further, and gain a competitive advantage. But this race in depreciation reaches a natural limit when the fall in wages and in the prices of manufactured goods in terms of gold has gone so far in all the countries concerned as to regain the normal relation with the prices of primary products. When that occurs, the depression is over, and industry is everywhere remunerative and fully employed. Any countries that lag behind in the race will suffer from unemployment in their manufacturing industry. But the remedy lies in their own hands; all they have to do is to depreciate their currencies to the extent necessary to make the price level remunerative to their industry. Their tardiness does not benefit their competitors, once these latter are employed up to capacity. Indeed, if the countries that hang back are an important part of the world’s economic system, the result must be to leave the disparity of price levels partly uncorrected, with undesirable consequences to everybody. . . .

The picture of an endless competition in currency depreciation is completely misleading. The race of depreciation is towards a definite goal; it is a competitive return to equilibrium. The situation is like that of a fishing fleet threatened with a storm; no harm is done if their return to a harbor of refuge is “competitive.” Let them race; the sooner they get there the better. (pp. 154-57)

Hawtrey’s analysis of competitive depreciation can be further elucidated by reconsidering it in the light of Max Corden’s classic analysis of exchange-rate protection, which I have discussed several times on this blog (here, here, and here). Corden provided a deep analysis of the conditions under which exchange-rate depreciation confers a competitive advantage. For internationally traded commodities, it is hard to see how any advantage can be derived from currency manipulation. A change in the exchange rate would be rapidly offset by corresponding changes in the prices of the relevant products. However, factors of production like labor, land, and capital equipment, tend to be immobile so their prices in the local currency don’t necessarily adjust immediately to changes in exchange rate of the local currency. Hawtrey was clearly assuming that labor and capital are not tradable so that international arbitrage does not induce immediate adjusments in their prices. Also, Hawtrey’s analysis begins from a state of disequilibrirum, while Corden’s starts from equilibrium, a very important difference.

However, even if prices of non-tradable commodities and factors of production don’t immediately adjust to exchange-rate changes, there is another mechanism operating to eliminate any competitive advantage, which is that the inflow of foreign-exchange reserves into a country with an undervalued currency (and, thus, a competitive advantage) will normally induce monetary expansion in that country, thereby raising the prices of non-tradables and factors of production. What Corden showed was that a central bank willing to tolerate a sufficiently large expansion in its foreign-reserve holdings could keep its currency undervalued, thereby maintaining a competitive advantage for its country in world markets.

But the corollary to Corden’s analysis is that to gain competitive advantage from currency depreciation requires the central bank to maintain monetary stringency (a chronic excess demand for money thus requiring a corresponding export surplus) and a continuing accumulation of foreign exchange reserves. If central banks are pursuing competitive monetary easing, which Governor Rajan likens to competitive exchange-rate depreciation aimed at shifting, not expanding, total demand, he is obviously getting worked up over nothing, because Corden demonstrated 30 years ago that a necessary condition for competitive exchange-rate depreciation is monetary tightness, not monetary ease.

Monetary Theory on the Neo-Fisherite Edge

The Irrelevance of QE as Explained by Three Bank of England Economists

An article by Michael McLeay, Amara Radia and Ryland Thomas (“Money Creation in the Modern Economy”) published in the Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin has gotten a lot of attention recently. JKH, who liked it a lot, highlighting it on his blog, and prompting critical responses from, among others, Nick Rowe and Scott Sumner.

Let’s look at the overview of the article provided by the authors.

I start with a small point. What the authors mean by a “modern economy” is unclear, but presumably when they speak about the money created in a modern economy they are referring to the fact that the money held by the non-bank public has increasingly been held in the form of deposits rather than currency or coins (either tokens or precious metals). Thus, Scott Sumner’s complaint that the authors’ usage of “modern” flies in the face of the huge increase in the ratio of base money to broad money is off-target. The relevant ratio is that between currency and the stock of some measure of broad money held by the public, which is not the same as the ratio of base money to the stock of broad money.

I agree that the reality of how money is created differs from the textbook money-multiplier description. See my book on free banking and various posts I have written about the money multiplier and endogenous money. There is no meaningful distinction between “normal times” and “exceptional circumstances” for purposes of understanding how money is created.

I agree that commercial banks cannot create money without limit. They are constrained by the willingness of the public to hold their liabilities. Not all monies are the same, despite being convertible into each other at par. The ability of a bank to lend is constrained by the willingness of the public to hold the deposits of that bank rather than currency or the deposits of another bank.

Monetary policy is certainly a constraint on money creation, but I don’t understand why it is somehow more important (the constraint of last resort?) than the demand of the public to hold money. Monetary policy, in the framework suggested by this article, affects the costs borne by banks in creating deposits. Adopting Marshallian terminology, we could speak of the two blades of a scissors. Which bade is the ultimate blade? I don’t think there is an ultimate blade. In this context, the term “normal times” refers to periods in which interest rates are above the effective zero lower bound (see the following paragraph). But the underlying confusion here is that the authors seem to think that the amount of money created by the banking system actually matters. In fact, it doesn’t matter, because (at least in the theoretical framework being described) the banks create no more and no less money that the amount that the public willingly holds. Thus the amount of bank money created has zero macroeconomic significance.

Again the underlying problem with this argument is the presumption that the amount of money created by banks – money convertible into the base money created by the central bank – is a magnitude with macroeconomic significance. In the framework being described, there is no macroeconomic significance to that magnitude, because the value of bank money is determined by its convertibility into central bank money and the banking system creates exactly as much money as is willingly held. If the central bank wants to affect the price level, it has to do so by creating an excess demand or excess supply of the money that it — the central bank — creates, not the money created by the banking system.

QE initially increases the amount of bank deposits those companies hold (in place of the assets they sell). Those companies will then wish to rebalance their portfolios of assets by buying higher-yielding assets, raising the price of those assets and stimulating spending in the economy.

If the amount of bank deposits in the economy is the amount that the public wants to hold, QE cannot affect anything by increasing the amount of bank deposits; any unwanted bank deposits are returned to the banking system. It is only an excess of central-bank money that can possibly affect spending.

As a by-product of QE, new central bank reserves are created. But these are not an important part of the transmission mechanism. This article explains how, just as in normal times, these reserves cannot be multiplied into more loans and deposits and how these reserves do not represent ‘free money’ for banks.

The problem with the creation of new central-bank reserves by QE at the zero lower bound is that, central-bank reserves earn a higher return than alternative assets that might be held by banks, so any and all reserves created by the central bank are held willingly by the banking system. The demand of the banking for central bank reserves is unbounded at the zero-lower bound when the central bank pays a higher rate of interest than the yield on the next best alternative asset the bank could hold. If the central bank wants to increase spending, it can only do so by creating reserves that are not willingly held. Thus, in the theortetical framework described by the authors, QE cannot possibly have any effect on any macroeconomic variable. Now that’s a problem.

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Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities

Amor Mundi 8/3/14

Amor Mundi

The Conservative Spirit

Is Liberal Zionism at an End?

The Ivory Tower

The Crisis in Culture

"I'd Prefer To..."

America Drops a Nuclear Bomb

Featured Events

October 9-10

Registration is now OPEN! You can register here!

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From the Arendt Center Blog

The Hannah Arendt Center

National Security and the End of American Exceptionalism

So shall our nation, formed on Virtue’s plan,
Remain the guardian of the Rights of Man,
A vast republic, famed through every clime,
Without a kind, to see the end of time.

Roger Berkowitz

Arnold Gehlen on Arendt’s The Human Condition

Arnold Gehlen,"Vom tätigen Leben (Hannah Arendt)", Merkur Vol. 159 (1961) 482-6.

The conservative anthropologist Arnold Gehlen fell out of favor in post WWII Germany largely due to his support of the Nazis: he joined the party in 1933 but continued to teach after the war following a “denazification” process. However, with the recent rediscovery of thinking influenced by philosophical anthropology in Germany, his work is again becoming important. Gehlen can be seen as one pole of a broader debate about the relationship between the abstract qualities of humans and their environment. Gehlen’s signature idea describes man as a "deficient being" (Mängelwesen) who develops culture, including technology in the broader and narrower senses, as a kind of armor for survival. Man’s physical weakness ultimately forces him to create his own environment, but this is more a sign of the constant threat he is under rather than an opportunity for great progressive changes.

Peter Sloterdijk, a major figure in the re-emergence of philosophical anthropology has pressed the issue with his recent description of culture as “human zoo” that houses mankind. For Sloterdijk, man is a beastly creature, one who has over centuries struggled to tame himself with cultural ideals and the brute force of laws. As mass society has dissolved the cultural bonds of humanism, Sloterdijk writes, man is increasingly forced into the cages of a human zoo.

Gehlen was likely drawn to Arendt’s work by the broad scope of her history of civilization. He was interested in where humanity came from and where it is going. Some of these aspects might seem speculative, and indeed Arendt’s celebration of the Greeks and criticism of modern life continue to be fiercely criticized while her more technical innovations in terms of action and judgment garner broader acclaim (even if they still lead to debates over specifics). From a certain point of view, Gehlen’s Arendt is an thinker of a grand narrative and his review makes us ask about the value of such stories even when we are skeptical of their ultimate validity.

Gehlen’s forgotten but broadly positive review of The Human Condition offers a balanced evaluation of the book and a snapshot of it long before scholars built up the Arendt we know today of “action,” “natality,” and “judgment.” In terms of method, Gehlen praises Arendt's "ideological abstinence." Her sobriety in relation to established political frames of reference tended to get her in trouble during her lifetime, especially from her Left- leaning friends for her critique of Marx (despite her explicit remarks on her appreciation of his work). While Gehlen’s phrasing may have something of the coy conservative in it, I think is it a fitting way to describe her point of view. The independence of her work can be seen as a commitment to analysis that resists getting carried away by the overblown and often underdefined notions of the day.

Positively, Gehlen refers to Arendt’s "magnificent and dire analysis of contemporary scientific-technological culture and its massive biological repercussions." If philosophical anthropology inquires into the connection between the human environment and life, Arendt offers an update by specifying the technological dimension of culture. Saying she connects it to biology per se is a provocation on Gehlen’s part though it is one worth considering. Much work remains to be done on Arendt’s use of philosophers of science and her critical contribution to this field. Her engagement goes well beyond the better known references to Heisenberg and Whitehead in the Human Condition, as her references to such thinkers as Adolf Portmann in the Denktagebuch shows.

Towards the end of his review, Gehlen criticizes Arendt for placing too much emphasis on the power of philosophy to influence history (at the expense of social forces). Here I do not think he makes a fair criticism and suspect that his reading was unduly influenced by Arendt’s association with Heidegger. It’s interesting though that Gehlen’s conservatism also puts emphasis on the social, though without the progressive hopes of the Enlightenment tradition from Hegel to Marx and Habermas.

In a footnote to Chapter 5 of The Human Condition, Arendt appeals to Gehlen's major work Man: His Nature and Place in the World as the source of the scientific work that grounds her argument. There she directly engages essentialist anthropology and rejects it, but does not give way to mere metaphor. Instead, I argue that she develops natality as a concept that works from within rather above: it cannot do without real birth but isn’t limited or determined by this empirical reference.

-Jeff Champlin

See: Jeffrey Champlin, “Born Again: Arendt's "Natality" as Figure and Concept,” The Germanic Review 88(02), May 2012.

The Hannah Arendt Center

For the Sake of What is New

-Hannah Arendt, The Crisis in Education

—Thomas Wild, with Anne Posten

The Hannah Arendt Center

Leading Students Into the World

“The teacher's qualification consists in knowing the world and being able to instruct others about it, but his authority rests on his assumption of responsibility for that world.  Vis-à-vis the child, it is as though he were a representative of all adult inhabitants, pointing out the details and saying to the child:  This is our world."

-Hannah Arendt, "A Crisis in Education"

Teachers must lead their students into the world. They are qualified to do so because of their knowledge of the world as well as their ability to teach others that knowledge.  There is an inherent conservatism enmeshed in the activity of teaching.  That conservatism comes from simultaneously needing to protect children who are learning care for the world from being damaged by it and from needing to protect the world from representation by the child who does not yet understand it.

The culture wars have resulted from the loss of a unitary cultural world that serves as an authority for tradition.  This loss of authority is often taken for an inability to teach now that (in the case of The United States) the western tradition is not seen as the only measure of educational truth.  Nonetheless, we can still know a world that is, for lack of a better word, post-modern, and teachers can still represent that world to students.  The complexity of our world is that it does not share a single culture or tradition and that the authority of the public realm, which rested on these things, is gone.  But simply because our world is not tethered to a single idea (such as the polis of Ancient Greece) or to the cultural authority of one city (such as the Roman Empire’s ties to Rome), does not mean we are unable to represent it to students.

To represent the world, though, we have to understand it, in the old sense of standing in for the world—of being its representative.  If the world is the world of things, then the teacher who understands the world is the one who can bring it before students for them to learn it.  This process of understanding is “loving the world” according to Arendt.

A few weeks ago, Roger Berkowitz discussed another Arendt quote from “A Crisis in Education” in which Arendt equates the process of education to loving the world. In that post, Roger wrote that as teachers we must exclude our judgments of non-reconciliation (e.g. Arendt’s choice to condemn Eichmann to death so that the world no longer contains something that we cannot love) in the process of education because those moments are not about loving the world, but about shaping it or acting in it.  The process of education must be protected from these kinds of judgments because they are different modes of being human.  In the same way that we cannot think and will at the same time, we cannot divide ourselves from the world while trying to represent it to students.  Judging is a different task from understanding.

The authority of teachers lies, at least in part, in their ability to understand and to set aside judging. That is, teachers have a special authorial role in presenting the world to students.

We may have lost the permanence and reliability of the world as a singular, recognizable culture, but this is not the same thing as the loss of the world.  We still have the “human capacity for building, preserving, and caring for a world that can survive us and remain a place fit to live in for those who come after us,” as Arendt writes in “What is Authority?”  Teachers, qualified teachers, use this human capacity for preserving the world to show students how the world works, so that students may graduate and take their place in the world.

Taking up the activity of caring for the world belongs to all adults, but the task of representing the world belongs uniquely to teachers as a kind of authorship.  Authority here has two senses, the first underwritten by the second:  First, the teacher’s authority comes from the sense of a right conferred by their recognized social position. Second, this social authority is underwritten by the teacher’s authority as a qualified author:  Teachers create a work or a set of plans that is then read or built by others.  This combined educational authority is the authority of the teacher.

By representing the world to students in its richness (that of all adult inhabitants) the teacher preserves the world for its future adults by showing it to students as it is. The key is to present the world in such a way that it is both true to the teacher’s expertise and yet still recognizable to the students as having a place for them.  This requires a careful balance between the teacher’s expertise and the students’ newness.  This way of representing the world is a creative act that enables students to end their education and care for the world in the new ways that they create.

Not all people can manage this balance.  Arendt acknowledges that teachers can teach without learning and students can learn without becoming educated.  The teacher must have expertise to offer and the student must be willing and able to learn.

But when it comes to reform, however, Arendt insists tha neither of these things can be judged well from outside of the educational process itself.  She suggests that subject experts and teaching experts can best judge the process of education.  This may sound self-serving as those with the most at stake in education are the ones who should monitor its progress.  But to think otherwise is to misunderstand Arendt’s feeling that decisions that stand outside of the realm of politics should be made by experts.

For Arendt, this is a conceptual distinction between the realm of democratic politics in which decisions about government are made by citizens and the realm of social policy in which non-political decisions are made by experts in their respective fields.  Teachers are the experts who know the world well enough to represent it to students.  Excellent teachers are the ones who need to monitor the process of education.  Nonetheless, expertise is not the same thing as authority in this case.

-Ellen Rigsby

The Hannah Arendt Center


Holiday Weather

Portugal: Weather Overview

Saturday 25 April
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About Portugal

  • Capital: Lisbon
  • Area: 92,391km2
  • Population: 10,676,000
  • Currency: Euro (EUR)

About Portugal

Portugal is a small country, with a large range of weather conditions. The country can be climatically split up into 3 main regions: the north, the south and the islands. However, all coastal regions see a variation of the Mediterranean climate type.

On the whole the north has cooler temperatures than the south and sees significantly more rainfall. As you head east toward the Spanish border, winters become longer and summers hotter as the land as affected by the moderating Atlantic winds.

The climate along the 700km coast line is predominantly influenced by the currents and winds of the Atlantic Ocean, especially so in the northwest of the country where a mild, rainy climate is observed. As a rule, as you head south you will find temperatures and hours of sunshine tend to increase while precipitation declines. As in any coastal destination, the summer highs are tempered by the cooling sea breeze and the winters warmed by the ocean waters.

Northern Portugal

Northern Portugal is mountainous with central mountains and plateaus that rise over 6,000 ft in some places have a great affect on Portugal’s climate, as well as receiving varying climates themselves; the higher you are the cooler the temperature and the higher the rainfall. They create a barrier to the Atlantic winds, trapping cool air and rain on north side of the mountains. While temperatures near the coast are hot in the summer and mild in the winter, and rainfall follows the dry summer, wet winter pattern of a typical Mediterranean climate, coastal west Portugal sees much higher rainfall than true Mediterranean areas at all times of year. The high rainfall encourages greenery in abundance.

Starting in the very northeast of Portugal you will find yourself in the Cantabrian Mountains, a mountain chain that stretches east - west. In this region you will find Bragança which is a small city 22km from the Spanish border at an elevation of 700m. The climate here is primarily influenced by its altitude and its 200km from the coast. The city and the surrounding region experiences long severe winters and shorter, hot summers. Due to its altitude, snow in the area is a regular occurrence. It often settles for a few days. January sees highs of 6ºC while the peak of summer sees temperatures of around 28ºC. The record high in the city was measured when the mercury topped a sweltering 40°C, which shows the temperature extremes that occur when a city is not moderated by coastal influences.

Winters can often be so severe that the barometer dips to low of -15ºC. Total annual rainfall in the area averages 743 mm, and the area sees, on average of 123 rainy days per year and 20 days of snow. Although normally the area is relatively wet, the year of 2005 did see Portugal suffer a particularly dry year and Bragança suffered water shortages and devastating forest fires in the rural areas.

As you head further south, remaining inland, you will hit the Serra da Estrela which is the highest mountain range in Portugal. Its highest peak has an altitude of 1,993 m and is home to the Vodafone Ski Resort. Snow is frequent and heavy here in the throughout winter.

Moving westward toward the Atlantic coast you will find Porto, Portugal’s second largest city. Porto’s temperature follows a typical Mediterranean trends with an extended, hot summer and a mild winter. Rainfall is low at the peak of summer but quite high at other times.

June to September sees average highs in the 20s with July and August being the warmest months reaching average highs of 25°C. Porto can experience occasional heat waves which see temperatures as high at 40°C; these heat waves generally last 5 to 10 days and humidity is fairly low throughout.

Winter in Porto sees temperatures typically range between 5°C during morning and 16°C during the afternoon, though it is not entirely uncommon for the thermometer to hover just below freezing come night time. On average, the winter months from December to February see average maximums of 13°C to 14°C and an average minimum of 5°C.

Southern Portugal

The climate of Portugal heats up and dries out as you head further south. This is due partially to increasing proximity to the equator, but more significantly to the affect of the central mountains on northerly winds and to the influences of Africa and the Mediterranean. Higher temperatures are encouraged by weather systems coming over from the Mediterranean and up from Africa; the latter also brings aridity. With northerly winds trapped in the north, the south stays drier and temperatures are left largely un-moderated.

Once you hit Lisbon, the country’s capital, you see a fairly typical Mediterranean climate. Lisbon’s climate is mild, temperate and warm, consisting of sunny spring and summer months in which temperatures frequently reach over 30°C. Winters on the other hand are wet and windy with average temperatures of around 10ºC; the winter season is shorter than the summer season.

Lisbon Skyline Portugal

Lisbon City skyline, Portugal.

Temperatures begin to drop around autumn, but even throughout the cooler months of October to April, vibrant sunshine is almost a constant feature. However, as a result of its proximity to the sea, the presence of mist and drizzly rain can sometimes make Lisbon feel cooler than its inland neighbours. It is rare for temperatures to fall below freezing and even December and January only see average minimums of 8°C and 9°C.

Southern-most Portugal is the country’s most prized tourist destination: the Algarve.  The Algarve is the sunniest, driest, and warmest part of the country. While this region is undoubtedly the hottest in the country, it doesn’t reach the uncomfortable sweltering highs that some parts of south-eastern Spain reach, such as Seville, due to the cooling Atlantic winds. The region receives minimal rain, averaging 500mm annually falling on 50 days of the year.
Here you will find the popular destinations of Lagos, Praia da Luz , Sagres and Faro - the Algarve’s capital. There are many smaller towns which lie close to the Algarve’s famed beaches and are ideal for a less crowded summer getaway.

Lagos, Algarve Portugal

Idyllic Lagos, Algarve Portugal.

Sagres is the most southern point of both Portugal and Europe. It lies inside the Southwest Alentejo and Costa Vicentina Natural Park and is known to enjoy its very own microclimate.  In Sagres there is very little vegetation, the ground is mainly rock with barely any soil. However, if you head north from the town, vegetation becomes more interesting and you will find varieties of wild orchids. Sagres’s microclimate means it sees on average 300 sunny days per year and very mild winters.

As you head  immediately north of the cape you will find areas that are more exposed to the winds and high tides of the Atlantic which plays host to quite dangerous offshore currents. Heading further east you will reach the vibrant coastal town of Lagos, which like most of southern Portugal is a popular year round destination. Winter months see the average lows ranging from 9°C to 11°C, with a low rainfall for a Mediterranean climate. The spring and autumn months see temperatures in the mid teens. The months either side of summer (May, September and October) see conditions that resemble summer conditions in the UK. Another attraction of the shoulder seasons is that beaches and accommodation won’t be as busy and the whole experience will be more tranquil.

Summer in Lagos and neighbouring areas can be very hot. It is not uncommon for temperatures to reach in excess of 35°C, but generally they hover around the high 20s and low 30s. Days are somewhat cooled by sea breezes. If you are lucky, the wind will wash over the town and make sitting on the terraces and beaches more comfortable. If you can handle the crowds and love the heat than the peak season months from June to August will be your ideal time to visit.

Azores and Madeira Islands

The Madeira Islands

Madeira is an archipelago that is located in the Atlantic Ocean 860 km off the coast of mainland Portugal. The islands are much closer to Africa than to Europe.
Madeira has a mild climate with a small temperature range. Because of the mountain range in the centre of the island, the north side of the island sees a slightly different climate to the south side. The mountain acts as a rain shield, stopping a lot of rain from drifting to the south from the north. As a result, the southern part of the island sees less precipitation than the north and on the mountains. The south side sees most of its rainfall in the winter months, whereas the north witnesses precipitation throughout the year.
The average high temperature throughout the summer months, June to September, sits around 19°C to 23°C. For the remainder of the year the temperature sits at about 15°C to 18°C, with October to February being the coldest and wettest months. The sufficient rainfall on the island has led to a verdant landscape and Madeira has been labelled the ‘floating garden'.

Madeira archipelago.

The Azores are a Portuguese archipelago located about 1,500 km from Portugal’s capital of LisbonAzores witnesses a temperate, maritime climate which is characterized by agreeable temperatures with a small range. Due to its location in the North Atlantic the archipelago is in constant contact with the high pressure areas, polar and tropical air masses.

The average annual temperature sits at about 17ºC and varies between 13º and 14º C during the colder months of January and February and 22ºC - 23ºC during the summer months. Obviously as the region is an island and surrounded by water a high level of humidity (77% average/yr.) is therefore observed. Rainfall is well distributed throughout the year though the winter months see slightly more than the summer. The ocean temperature gets down to 15ºC in winter and up to 23ºC in summer.  The area is affected by the Gulf Stream, which is a Northern Atlantic current that brings warmer waters up into the region, this consequently warms the surrounding waters. The Gulf Stream affects all of Portugal.

Azores, Portuguese archipelago.

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Arcitectural Appraisal On The Taj Mahal
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Arcitectural Appraisal On The Taj Mahal

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This is the architectral Appraisal Submitted By me In partial Requirement to Degree In Architecture from Indian Institute Of Architects

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  • 3. 3
  • 4. AcknowledgementsMy sincere thanks to my guide Ar. Sandeep Pandey With out whose guidance This appraisal Would Not have seen Light of the day. 4
  • 5. ORIGINS AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE THE TAJMAHAL The Taj Mahal ( / tɑːʒməˈhɑːl/; Hindustani pronunciation: [taːdʑ mɛɦɛl]; Persian/Urdu:  )ﻣﺤﻞ ﺗـﺎجis a mausoleum ـ located in Agra, India, built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal (also "the Taj") is considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Islamic, Indian and Persian architectural styles.[1] [2] In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In a project that attempted to update the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, popularity poll was led by Canadian-Swiss Bernard Weber and The mausoleum of the Taj Mahal organized by the Swiss-based, government-controlled New7Wonders Foundation considered Taj Mahal to be one of the present new seven wonders of the world. While the white domed marble mausoleum is its most familiar component, the Taj Mahal is actually an integrated complex of structures. Building began around 1632 and was completed around 1653, and employed thousands of artisans and craftsmen.The construction of the Taj Mahal was entrusted to a board of architects under imperial supervision including Abd ul-Karim Mamur Khan, Makramat Khan, and Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. Lahauri is generally considered to be the principal designer. ORIGIN AND INSPIRATION Shah Jahan, who commissioned the Taj Mahal -"Shah jahan on a globe" Artistic depiction - Mumtaz Mahal 5
  • 6. In 1631, Shah Jahan, emperor during the Mughal empires period of greatest prosperity, was grief-stricken when histhird wife, Mumtaz Mahal, died during the birth of their fourteenth child, Gauhara Begum. Construction of the TajMahal began in 1632, one year after her death.The court chronicles of Shah Jahans grief illustrate the love storytraditionally held as an inspiration for Taj Mahal. The principal mausoleum was completed in 1648 and thesurrounding buildings and garden were finished five years later. Emperor Shah Jahan himself described the Taj inthese words: Should guilty seek asylum here, Like one pardoned, He becomes free from sin. Should a sinner make his way to this mansion, All his past sins are to be washed away. The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs; And the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes. In this world this edifice has been made; To display thereby the creators glory. 6
  • 7. The Taj Mahal incorporates and expands on design traditions of Persian architecture and earlier Mughal architecture.Specific inspiration came from successful Timurid and Mughal buildings including; the Gur-e Amir (the tomb ofTimur, progenitor of the Mughal dynasty, in Samarkand), Humayuns Tomb, Itmad-Ud-Daulahs Tomb(sometimes called the Baby Taj), and Shah Jahans own Jama Masjid in Delhi. While earlier Mughal buildings wereprimarily constructed of red sandstone, Shah Jahan promoted the use of white marble inlaid with semi-preciousstones, and buildings under his patronage reached new levels of refinement.ARCHITECTURETHE TOMBThe central focus of the complex is the tomb. This large, white marble structure stands on a square plinth andconsists of a symmetrical building with an iwan (an arch-shaped doorway) topped by a large dome and finial. Likemost Mughal tombs, the basic elements are Persian in origin.The base structure is essentially a large, multi-chambered cube withchamfered corners, forming an unequal octagon that is approximately55 metres (180 ft) on each of the four long sides. On each of thesesides, a huge pishtaq, or vaulted archway, frames the iwan with twosimilarly shaped, arched balconies stacked on either side. This motif ofstacked pishtaqs is replicated on the chamfered corner areas, makingthe design completely symmetrical on all sides of the building. Fourminarets frame the tomb, one at each corner of the plinth facing thechamfered corners. The main chamber houses the false sarcophagi of The Taj Mahal seen from the banks of riverMumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan; the actual graves are at a lower level. YamunaThe marble dome that surmounts the tomb is the most spectacular feature. Its height of around 35 metres (115 ft) isabout the same as the length of the base, and is accentuated as it sits on a cylindrical "drum" which is roughly7 metres (23 ft) high. Because of its shape, the dome is often called an onion dome or amrud (guava dome). The topis decorated with a lotus design, which also serves to accentuate its height. The shape of the dome is emphasised byfour smaller domed chattris (kiosks) placed at its corners, which replicate the onion shape of the main dome. Theircolumned bases open through the roof of the tomb and provide light to the interior. Tall decorative spires (guldastas)extend from edges of base walls, and provide visual emphasis to the height of the dome. The lotus motif is repeatedon both the chattris and guldastas. The dome and chattris are topped by a gilded finial, which mixes traditionalPersian and Hindu decorative elements.The main finial was originally made of gold but was replaced by a copy made of gilded bronze in the early 19thcentury. This feature provides a clear example of integration of traditional Persian and Hindu decorative elements.The finial is topped by a moon, a typical Islamic motif whose horns point heavenward. Because of its placement onthe main spire, the horns of the moon and the finial point combine to create a trident shape, reminiscent of traditionalHindu symbol of SHIVA. . 7
  • 8. The minarets, which are each more than 40 metres (130 ft) tall, display the designers penchant for symmetry. They were designed as working minarets — a traditional element of mosques, used by the muezzin to call the Islamic faithful to prayer. Each minaret is effectively divided into three equal parts by two working balconies that ring thetower. At the top of the tower is a final balcony surmounted by a chattri that mirrors the design of those on the tomb.The chattris all share the same decorative elements of a lotus design topped by a gilded finial. The minarets wereconstructed slightly outside of the plinth so that, in the event of collapse, (a typical occurrence with many tallconstructions of the period) the material from the towers would tend to fall away from the tomb. Base, dome, Finial Main iwan and side pishtaqs Simplified diagram and minaret of the Taj Mahal floor planEXTERIOR DECORATIONThe exterior decorations of the Taj Mahal are among the finest to be found in Mughalarchitecture. As the surface area changes the decorations are refined proportionally. Thedecorative elements were created by applying paint, stucco, stone inlays, or carvings. Inline with the Islamic prohibition against the use of anthropomorphic forms, thedecorative elements can be grouped into either calligraphy, abstract forms or vegetativemotifs.Throughout the complex, passages from the Quran are used as decorative elements. Recentscholarship suggests that the passages were chosen by Amanat Khan. The texts refer to themes ofjudgment and include:Surah 91 - The Sun Calligraphy on largeSurah 112 - The Purity of Faith pishtaqSurah 89 - DaybreakSurah 93 - Morning LightSurah 95 - The FigSurah 94 - The SolaceSurah 36 - Ya SinSurah 81 - The Folding UpSurah 82 - The Cleaving AsunderSurah 84 - The Rending AsunderSurah 98 - The EvidenceSurah 67 - DominionSurah 48 - VictorySurah 77 - Those Sent ForthSurah 39 - The CrowdsThe calligraphy on the Great Gate reads "O Soul, thou art at rest. Return to the Lord at peace with Him, and He at peace with you."The calligraphy was created by a calligrapher named Abd ul-Haq, in 1609. Shah Jahan conferred the title of "AmanatKhan" upon him as a reward for his "dazzling virtuosity".Near the lines from the Quran at the base of the interior 8
  • 9. dome is the inscription, "Written by the insignificant being, Amanat Khan Shirazi."Much of the calligraphy is composed of florid thuluth script, made of jasper or black marble inlaid in white marble panels. Higher panels are written in slightly larger script to reduce the skewing effect when viewed from below. The calligraphy found on the marble cenotaphs in the tomb is particularly detailed and delicate.Abstract forms are used throughout, especially in the plinth, minarets, gateway, mosque, jawab and, to a lesserextent, on the surfaces of the tomb. The domes and vaults of the sandstone buildings are worked with tracery ofincised painting to create elaborate geometric forms. Herringbone inlays define the space between many of theadjoining elements. White inlays are used in sandstone buildings, and dark or black inlays on the white marbles.Mortared areas of the marble buildings have been stained or painted in a contrasting colour, creating geometricpatterns of considerable complexity. Floors and walkways use contrasting tiles or blocks in tessellation patterns.On the lower walls of the tomb there are white marble dados that have been sculpted with realistic bas reliefdepictions of flowers and vines. The marble has been polished to emphasise the exquisite detailing of the carvingsand the dado frames and archway spandrels have been decorated with pietra dura inlays of highly stylised, almostgeometric vines, flowers and fruits. The inlay stones are of yellow marble, jasper and jade, polished and leveled tothe surface of the walls. Herringbone Plant Spandrel detail Incised painting motifsReflective tiles normal exposure Reflective tiles under exposedINTERIOR DECORATIONThe interior chamber of the Taj Mahal steps far beyond traditionaldecorative elements. Here, the inlay work is not pietra dura butlapidary of precious and semiprecious gemstones. The inner chamberis an octagon with the design allowing for entry from each face,although only the south garden-facing door is used. The interior wallsare about 25 metres (82 ft) high and topped by a "false" interior domedecorated with a sun motif. Eight pishtaq arches define the space atground level and, as with the exterior, each lower pishtaq is crownedby a second pishtaq about midway up the wall. The four central upperarches form balconies or viewing areas, and each balconys exteriorwindow has an intricate screen or jali cut from marble. In addition tothe light from the balcony screens, enters through roof openings. Jali screen surrounding the cenotaphs 9
  • 10. which are covered by chattris at the corners. Each chamber wall hasbeen highly decorated with dado bas relief, intricate lapidary inlay andrefined calligraphy panels, reflecting in miniature detail the designelements seen throughout the exterior of the complex. The octagonalmarble screen or jali which borders the cenotaphs is made from eightmarble panels which have been carved through with intricate piercework. The remaining surfaces have been inlaid in extremely delicatedetail with semiprecious stones forming twining vines, fruits and flowers. Muslim tradition forbids elaborate decoration of graves and hence Tombs of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal Mumtaz and Shah Jahan are laid in a relatively plain crypt beneath the inner chamber with their faces turned right and towards Mecca. Mumtaz Mahals cenotaph is placed at the precise center of the inner chamber on a rectangular marble base of 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) by 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in). Both the base and casket are elaborately inlaid with precious and semiprecious gems. Calligraphic inscriptions on the casket identify and praise Mumtaz. On the lid of the casket is a raised rectangular lozenge meant to suggest a writing tablet. Shah Jahans cenotaph is beside Mumtazs to the western side and is the only visible asymmetric element in the entire complex. His cenotaph is bigger than his wifes, but reflects the same elements: a larger casket on slightly Cenotaphs, interior of Taj Mahal taller base, again decorated with astonishing precision with lapidary and calligraphy that identifies him. On the lid of this casket is a traditional sculpture of a small pen box. The pen box and writing tablet were traditional Mughal funerary icons decorating mens and womens caskets respectively. The Ninety Nine Names of God are to be found as calligraphic inscriptions on the sides of the actual tomb of Mumtaz Mahal, in the crypt including "O Noble, O Magnificent, O Majestic, O Unique, O Eternal, O Glorious... ". The tomb of Shah Jahan bears a calligraphic inscription that reads; "He traveled from this world to the banquet-hall of Eternity on the night of the twenty-sixth of the month of Rajab, in the year 1076 Hijri." Arch of Jali Delicate Inlay detail Detail of Jali pierce work 10
  • 11. THE GARDENThe complex is set around a large 300-metre (980 ft) square charbaghor Mughal garden. The garden uses raised pathways that divide each ofthe four quarters of the garden into 16 sunken parterres or flowerbeds.A raised marble water tank at the center of the garden, halfwaybetween the tomb and gateway with a reflecting pool on a north-southaxis, reflects the image of the mausoleum. The raised marble watertank is called al Hawd al-Kawthar, in reference to the "Tank ofAbundance" promised to Muhammad.[18] Elsewhere, the garden is laidout with avenues of trees and fountains. The charbagh garden, a Walkways beside reflecting pooldesign inspired by Persian gardens, was introduced to India by the firstMughal emperor, Babur. It symbolizes the four flowing rivers of Jannah (Paradise) and reflects the Paradise gardenderived from the Persian paridaeza, meaning walled garden. In mystic Islamic texts of Mughal period, Paradise isdescribed as an ideal garden of abundance with four rivers flowing from a central spring or mountain, separating the garden into north, west,south and east.Most Mughal charbaghs are rectangular with a tomb or pavilion in the center. The Taj Mahal garden is unusual inthat the main element, the tomb, is located at the end of the garden. With the discovery of Mahtab Bagh or"Moonlight Garden" on the other side of the Yamuna, the interpretation of the Archaeological Survey of India is thatthe Yamuna river itself was incorporated into the gardens design and was meant to be seen as one of the rivers ofParadise.The similarity in layout of the garden and its architectural features with the Shalimar Gardens suggestthat they may have been designed by the same architect, Ali Mardan.Early accounts of the garden describe itsprofusion of vegetation, including abundant roses, daffodils, and fruit trees.As the Mughal Empire declined, thetending of the garden also declined, and when the British took over the management of Taj Mahal during the time ofthe British Empire, they changed the landscaping to resemble that of lawns of London.OUTLYING BUILDINGSThe Taj Mahal complex is bounded on three sides by crenellated redsandstone walls, with the river-facing side left open. Outside the wallsare several additional mausoleums, including those of Shah Jahansother wives, and a larger tomb for Mumtazs favorite servant. Thesestructures, composed primarily of red sandstone, are typical of thesmaller Mughal tombs of the era. The garden-facing inner sides of thewall are fronted by columned arcades, a feature typical of Hindutemples which was later incorporated into Mughal mosques. The wallis interspersed with domed chattris, and small buildings that may havebeen viewing areas or watch towers like the Music House, which is now used as The Great gate (Darwaza-i rauza)—gateway toa museum. the Taj Mahal 11
  • 12. The main gateway (darwaza) is a monumental structure built primarily of marble which is reminiscent of Mughal architecture of earlier emperors. Its archways mirror the shape of tombs archways, and its pishtaq arches incorporate the calligraphy that decorates the tomb. It utilizes bas-relief and pietra dura inlaid decorations with floral motifs. The vaulted ceilings and walls have elaborate geometric designs, like those found in the other sandstone buildings of the complex. Arches in the Taj Mahal Mosque interior At the far end of the complex, there are two grand red sandstone buildings that are open to the sides of the tomb. Their backs parallel the western and eastern walls, and the two buildings are precise mirror images of each other. The western building is a mosque and the other is the jawab (answer), whose primary purpose was architectural balance, although it may have been used as a guesthouse. The distinctions between these two buildings include the lack of mihrab (a niche in a mosques wall facing Mecca) in the jawab and that the floors Taj Mahal mosque or masjid of jawab have a geometric design, while the mosque floor was laid with outlines of 569 prayer rugs in black marble. The mosques basic design of a long hall surmounted by three domes is similar to others built by Shah Jahan, particularly to his Masjid-Jahan Numa, or Jama Masjid, Delhi. The Mughal mosques of this period divide the sanctuary hall into three areas, with a main sanctuary and slightly smaller sanctuaries on either side. At the Taj Mahal, each sanctuary opens onto an enormous vaulting dome. These outlying buildings were completed in 1643. CONSTRUCTIONThe Taj Mahal was built on a parcel of land to the south of the walled city of Agra. Shah Jahan presented Maharajah Jai Singh with a largepalace in the center of Agra in exchange for the land. An area of roughly three acres was excavated, filled with dirt to reduce seepage,and leveled at 50 metres above riverbank. In the tomb area, wells were dug and filled with stone and ubble to form the footings of thetomb. Instead of lashed, bamboo workmen constructed a colossal brick scaffold that mirrored the tomb. The scaffold was so enormous thatforemen estimated it would take years to dismantle. According to the legend, Shah Jahan decreed that anyone could keep the bricks taken from thescaffold, and thus it was dismantled by peasants overnight. A fifteen kilometer (9.3 mi) tamped-earth ramp was built to transport marbleand materials to the construction site and teams of twenty or thirty oxen was used to pull specially constructed wagons. Anelaborate post and pully system was used to used to raise the blocks into desired position. Water was drawn from the river by a series of purs,an animal-powered rope and bucket mechanism, into a large storage tank and raised to a large distribution tank. It was passed into three subsidiarytanks, from which it was piped to the complex. 12
  • 13. The plinth and tomb took roughly 12 years to complete. The remaining parts of the complex took an additional 10 years and werecompleted in order of minarets, mosque and jawab, and gateway. Since the complex was built in stages, discrepancies exist incompletion dates due to differing opinions on "completion". For example, the mausoleum itself was essentially complete by 1643,but work continued on the rest of the complex. Estimates of the cost of construction vary due to difficulties in estimating costs acrosstime. The total cost has been estimated to be about 32 million Rupees at that time.The Taj Mahal was constructed using materials from all over India and Asia and over 1,000 elephants were used totransport building materials. The translucent white marble was brought from Makrana, Rajasthan, the jasper fromPunjab, jade and crystal from China. The turquoise was from Tibet and the Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, while thesapphire came from Sri Lanka and the carnelian from Arabia. In all, twenty eight types of precious andsemi-precious stones were inlaid into the white marble.A labour force of twenty thousand workers was recruited across northern India.Sculptors from Bukhara, calligraphers from Syria and Persia, inlayers fromsouthern India, stonecutters from Baluchistan, a specialist in building turrets,another who carved only marble flowers were part of the thirty-seven men whoformed the creative unit. Some of the builders involved in construction of TajMahal are:• Ismail Afandi (a.ka. Ismail Khan) of the Ottoman Empire — designer of the main dome.[• Ustad Isa and Isa Muhammad Effendi of Persia — trained by Koca Mimar Sinan Agha of the Ottoman Empire and frequently credited with a key role in the architectural design.• Puru from Benarus, Persia — has been mentioned as a supervising architect• Qazim Khan, a native of Lahore - cast the solid gold finial.• Chiranjilal, a lapidary from Delhi — the chief sculptor and mosaicist.• Amanat Khan from Shiraz, Iran — the chief calligrapher.• Muhammad Hanif — a supervisor of masons. Artists impression of the Taj-Mahal,• Mir Abdul Karim and Mukkarimat Khan of Shiraz — handled finances and management of daily production.HISTORYSoon after the Taj Mahals completion, Shah Jahan was deposed by hisson Aurangzeb and put under house arrest at nearby Agra Fort. UponShah Jahans death, Aurangzeb buried him in the mausoluem next tohis wife.By the late 19th century, parts of the buildings had fallen badly intodisrepair. During the time of the Indian rebellion of 1857, the TajMahal was defaced by British soldiers and government officials, whochiseled out precious stones and lapis lazuli from its walls. At the endof the 19th century, British viceroy Lord Curzon ordered a sweeping Taj Mahal by Samuel Bourne, 1860. 13
  • 14. Taj Mahal restoration project, which was completed in 1908. He also commissioned the large lamp in the interior chamber, modeled after one in a Cairo mosque. During this time the garden was remodeled with British-style lawns that are still in place today. DIMENSIONAL ORGANISATION The Taj complex is ordered by grids. The complex was originally surveyed by J.A. Hodgson in 1825 however the first detailed scholastic examination of how the various elements of the Taj might fit into a coordinating grid was not carried out until 1989 by Begley and Desai. Numerous 17th century accounts detail the precise measurements of the complex in terms of the gaz or zira, the Mughal linear yard, equivalent to approximately 80-92 cm. Begley and Desai concluded a 400-gaz grid was used and then subdivided and that the various discrepancies they discovered were due to errors in the contemporary descriptions. Research and measurement by Koch and Richard André Barraud in 2006 suggested a more complex method of ordering that relates better to the 17th century records. Whereas Begley and Desai had used a simple fixed grid on which the buildings are superimposed, Koch and Barraud found the layouts proportions were better explained by the use of a generated grid system in which specific lengths may be divided in a number of ways such as halving, dividing by three or using decimal systems. They suggest the 374-gaz width of the complex given by the contemporary historians was correct and the Taj is planned as a tripartite rectangle of three 374-gaz squares. Different modular divisions are then used to proportion the rest of the complex. A 17-gaz module is used in the jilaukhana, bazaar and caravanserais areas whereas a more detailed 23-gaz module is used in the garden and terrace areas (since their width is 368 gaz, a multiple of 23). The buildings were in turn proportioned using yet smaller grids superimposed on the larger organisational ones. The smaller grids were also used to establish elevational proportion throughout the complex. Koch and Barraud explain such apparently peculiar numbers as making more sense when seen as part of Mughal geometric understanding. Octagons and triangles, which feature extensively in the Taj, have particular properties in terms of the relationships of their sides. A right-handed triangle with two sides of 12 will have a hypotenuse of 17; similarly if it has two sides of 17 its hypotenuse will be 24. An octagon with a width of 17 will have sides of exactly 7, which is the basic grid upon which the mausoleum, mosque and Mihman Khana are planned. Discrepancies remain in Koch and Barrauds work which they attribute to numbers being rounded fractions, inaccuracies of reporting from third persons and errors in workmanship (most notable in the caravanserais areas further from the tomb itself) Element Metres Gaz length / width / breadth / depth / height length / width / breadth /depth / height diameter side/diameter sideOverall complex 896.1 300.841112.5 374Overall preserved 561.2 300.84 696 374complexTaj Ganji 334.9 300.84 416.5 374Jilaukhana 165.1-165.23 123.51 204 153Great gate 41.2 34 23.07 51 42Charbagh 296.31 296.31 368 368Riverfront terrace 300 111.89 8.7 373 138Mausoleum 56.9 56.9 67.97 70 70Minaret 5.65 43.02 7Mosque 56.6 23.38 20.3 70 29All dimensions from Koch, p. 258-259 credited to Richard André Barraud 14
  • 15. ********************************************************************************************************************* Conclusion: The Taj Mahal is a massive project and Architectural master piece that stands tall among all the structures built in that period. In a nutshell we may conclude that Taj mahal Agra is a poetry in Architecture which is beholds the onlooker and takes him to a different world of architectural beauty and composition. ************************************************************************************** 15
  • 16. REFERENCES  Great Ages Of World Architecture- By G.K Hiraskar.  Islamic Architecture In India-By Satish Grover  Indian Architecture(Islamic)-By Percy Brown  A History Of Architecture-By Banister FletchureExternal links• Archeological Survey of India description (• Government of India - Description (• Taj Mahal travel guide from Wikitravel  Geographical coordinates: 27°10′27″N 78°02′32″E 16
  • 17. 17
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Fri, Apr 24, 2015 ●
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Short Relief: Portland suffers leadership short-circuit on Tasers for police

One of the first things that Portland's new police chief, James Craig, wanted to do when he arrived was to equip his force with Tasers – stun guns that use an electric charge to temporarily disrupt a person's muscle control, typically causing them to collapse.

On the continuum of force available to law enforcement, Tasers are generally considered nonlethal. They don't have the deadly force of a firearm, but are more disabling than batons, pepper spray and bean bag projectiles. Chief Craig had experience with Tasers in Los Angeles and believes they are a valuable option for an officer to have available.

A Taser provides an officer who encounters a dangerous situation with a means of incapacitating a person who presents a threat. Without that option, an officer may have to use some measure of force that is more than what is necessary to defuse the situation, or less than what is needed to be effective. Either way, a Taser can reduce the chance of injury to the officer and the other person.

This is not to say that Tasers can't be misused. Any tool can. But the response to that possibility should not be to ban Tasers. It should be to regulate them and hold accountable those who misuse them.

If Biddeford police had been equipped with Tasers in March, then they might have been able to avoid shooting Barbara Stewart when she confronted them with what appeared to be a firearm, but turned out to be a pellet gun. If South Portland police had used a Taser in August 2008, they might have been able to defuse a confrontation without shooting Michael Norton. (By then, that department had lost a lawsuit for using a Taser during a drunk driving arrest in 2005.)
Anecdotal evidence suggests that once law enforcement has been using Tasers for a while, people are more likely to comply with police orders and submit without a struggle.

Since Chief Craig asked for Tasers, the process in Portland has been anything but a model of clarity and decisiveness. City Manager Joe Gray seemed to authorize a trial period, but then stepped back from doing so when he realized that the City Council's Public Safety Committee had not taken a position on the matter. Tasers first appeared as an item on the Public Safety Committee's May agenda. Apparently, the matter is again on the Committee's July agenda.
The city's Web site features information about Tasers, including testimony from Amnesty International and the Maine Civil Liberties Union, as well as a Department of Justice study of fatalities associated with Taser use. The site features no favorable information about Tasers.

The chairman of the Public Safety Committee circulated a survey whose questions emphasized concerns about the health effects, human rights implications and cost effectiveness of Tasers. He has written that the most important factor in his mind is "majority consensus." Meanwhile, the chief and his officers are left hanging.

Whether the committee or the council as a whole has to approve Taser use is the source of debate that arises out of the current City Charter's allocation of authority among the various components of city government.
Under the charter, the manager proposes the budget, controls the departments – including the Police Department – and enforces laws and ordinances. That power would seem to include the power to authorize police use of Tasers. However, the council writes ordinances and orders and passes a budget. It could use that authority to refuse to fund Tasers, or to regulate or prohibit their use.

Some situations require leadership. When time is of the essence, when lives are in danger, when opportunities will be lost by delay, a decision needs to be made. Unnecessary delay doesn't result in better decision making. It just wastes time.

Someone needs to authorize the Portland Police Department's use of Tasers. After a reasonable trial period, the city should evaluate the results. And do so in an evenhanded manner that accounts for the injuries avoided by Taser use as well as any misuses and injuries incurred.


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Hawaiian Monk Seals

MCI-Hawaiian Monk Seals-Report-COVER-page-001.jpg Marine Conservation Institute's monk seal campaign focuses on working constructively with fisherman and other stakeholders to meet the seal's conservation needs, while also educating the public on how to co-exist with the growing number of seals in the main Hawaiian Islands. Our new report, Enhancing the Future of the Hawaiian Monk Seal: Recommendations for the NOAA Recovery Programtakes a detailed look at the seal recovery program and how it could be improved to achieve a self-sustaining population in the next several decades.

Although seals in the Main Hawaiian Islands are increasing through natural reproduction, the high mortality of seals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is causing and an overall population decline of about 4% per year. If that trend continues, in less than 20 years, the population would be halved to 450-550 seals and the species would be in an extremely precarious position, leaving it vulnerable to a disease outbreak or environmental disruption events like hurricanes or ocean warming.

William Chandler, the report's author, said, “Recovering the monk seal is not rocket science; we can do this, but NOAA has to be serious about implementing its own plan. The agency also needs to be more transparent about its activities and needs so that other agencies and nonprofits can help. If we lose the battle to save the Hawaiian monk seal, we’ll have only ourselves to blame.”

Image Gallery

HawaiinMonkSealTernIslandSeawall.2011.jpg   RF58-Post-Mortem-Jamie-Thompton-NOAA-JPG.jpg   SE-14-07_P&H_K2 (12).JPG   Littnan_MMS_5x7Inch.jpg

HMS and Honu - at FrenchFrigateShoals- by NOAA Mark Sullivan.jpg   mom pup.jpg   SE-14-07_P&H_K2 (13).JPG

Image Credits: Tern Island Seawall - USFWS; all others - NOAA