The yellow center of the ‘killer chrysanthemum’ contains a natural toxin that is a powerful insecticide.PHOTOGRAPHS BYVITO FUSCOBYJACOB KUSHNERPUBLISHED AUGUST 4, 2021• 15 MIN READ
GILGIL, KENYAThe deadliest flower in the insect world is soft to the touch. Each morning in the hills above Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, the white petals of the pyrethrum plant become laden with dew. To the people who pick them, the flower is utterly harmless. But bugs beware: Its yellow center contains a natural toxin that can kill them in seconds.
Discovered in Persia around 400 B.C., the flower produces an active ingredient, pyrethrin, that can be extracted and used to create natural insecticides that farmers spray on crops to protect them from mites, ants, and aphids without harming anyone’s health. Herders rub pyrethrin ointments on their cattle to repel flies and ticks.
In its most common applications, pyrethrin paralyzes pests by attacking their central nervous systems. “If you spray an insect with pyrethrum, for the first 30 seconds it goes mental, incredibly hyperactive, then it falls to the floor,” explains Ian Shaw, managing director of the pyrethrum producer Kapi Limited.
Simply growingChrysanthemum cinerariifolium near your home may be enough to repel parasite-carrying sand flies, whose bite can spread the skin disease leishmaniasis, which affects nearly one million people globally, including many throughout Kenya. The resulting rash can eat away at people’s faces and become fatal if left untreated.
Pyrethrin has also become a powerful tool in the global fight against mosquito-borne diseases like malaria, a parasite that sickens more than a million people and kills more than 400,000 each year, many of them in Kenya. Manufactured in spiral-shaped discs known as mosquito coils, they emit a shroud of smoke like incense that repels mosquitoes but is harmless to humans.
The deal includes a swap of late-round picks, the source said. NFL Network first reported the trade, the second in two months between the Saints and Texans after New Orleans acquired veteran cornerback Bradley Roby in Week 1.
You will not be graded on this exercise. This is for you to practice the craft of writing.
NORTH PORT, FL — With a forensic anthropologist analyzing Brian Laundrie’s remains, Steven Bertolino, the Laundrie family’s attorney, told Fox News Wednesday that autopsy results, including the cause and time of his death, aren’t expected for another two to three weeks.
Laundrie, a person of interest in the strangulation death of his fiancée, Gabby Petito, left his North Port home Sept. 13 — two days after she was officially reported missing — and hasn’t been seen since.
(From The Patch)
Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has a double-digit lead over Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli in the fight for New Jersey governor that ends with next week’s election, according to the latest poll of the race.
Murphy is ahead of Ciattarelli by 11 percentage points among registered voters, according to the Monmouth University Poll released Wednesday. It showed the governor with 50% support compared to his rival’s 39%.
(From New Jersey.com)
In a major win for climate advocates and supporters of wind and solar energy, New York State environmental regulators refused on Wednesday to allow two companies to upgrade their gas-fueled power plants — signaling a newly aggressive approach to ending fossil-fuel emissions that drive climate change.
With the decision — and a strong, immediate statement of support from Gov. Kathy Hochul — the officials took a clear and potentially influential position on a longstanding question that is at the center of national and global debates on renewable energy.
(New York Times)
A shootout at a popular outdoor restaurant in the trendy resort of Tulum that killed two foreign tourists and wounded three more ripped through the Caribbean town’s laid-back vibe and shocked many who’d considered the region an oasis immune to Mexico’s insecurity.
But the October 20 killings revealed the dark underbelly of Mexico’s Riviera Maya, one that tourism officials along the vacation corridor have struggled to hide. Over the past decade criminal organizations—including some of the country’s most notorious drug cartels—have established lucrative extortion and local drug peddling rackets that are leading to open conflict.
A 13-year-old boy wanted for shooting a rival his same age over a Snapchat feud was arrested after his mother saw a wanted poster and hauled him into a Bronx NYPD stationhouse, police said Wednesday.
The two boys had been sparring in messages to each other on the popular phone app — and on Oct. 6 the suspect sent a message threatening to shoot the victim, police said.
The next day, the argument moved from online messages to the street, with the 4-foot-11, 110-pound teen allegedly shooting the victim in the left knee inside Hunts Point Playground about 5:35 p.m., police said.
“You just shake your head,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said on PIX11 Wednesday morning. “It’s terrible all the way around. We have to do better as a society.”
EMS took the victim to Harlem Hospital in stable condition.
“It went in and it came out, so that’s good,” the victim’s mother, Suleykie Rivera, said. “They caught it in time, they called 911 in time. He was really lucky. If the bullet would have went in and stayed that would have been tragic.”
The boy was still recovering in Harlem Hospital on Wednesday. He had also tested positive for COVID-19, the mother said.
Rivera, 33, said she didn’t know the shooter or anything about the Snapchat feud.
Social media is really a bad thing for these kids. They shouldn’t even have social media,” she said.
Snapchat allows users exchange pictures and videos — called snaps — that are meant to disappear after they’re viewed. The app, which is particularly popular among teens, has about 293 million daily active users worldwide, according to the company.
She learned of the shooting from one of her son’s friends.
“I was just shocked,” she said. “I couldn’t think, I couldn’t feel, nothing, you know. He’s 13!”
The teen shooter ran off but was captured on surveillance video, gun in hand. A second suspect, still being sought, also appears on the video, clad in a red sweatshirt and riding his bike behind the shooter, police said.
Cops released the video Sunday and asked the public’s help tracking down the suspect, known to police by his nickname Chulo.
The suspected shooter’s mother, who declined comment, saw a wanted poster with her son’s image, took him to the 41st Precinct stationhouse Tuesday afternoon and asked for a lawyer, police said.
The pint-sized suspect was charged with attempted murder, assault and harassment. His name was not released because he is a minor. The Daily News is not naming the 13-year-old victim because of his age.
Cops said that the teen shooter was processed through Family Court and returned to his mother’s custody.
Shea said that the NYPD has been trying to get to children “before they get into the violence” but more needs to be done.
“What do you do with a 13-year-old in this circumstance?” Shea asked. “There is no right answer. The courts will figure it out and you hope. You feel for the victim, but you also think about the side of the family of the child that pulled the trigger here. There are no winners.”
Amanda Palermo, 30, said she heard the shots.
“I was sitting right next to the basketball court. Four shots,” she said. “A bunch of kids came and then all you heard was four shots and he got shot in his leg. “
She said the boy fell to the ground and the shooter dashed off.
“When that happened the other kids in the park ran away,” she said. “The only ones that stayed were (the victim’s) friends.”
Local parents said the suspect and his crew have slashed tires of cars, thrown beer bottles at mothers and scared little kids with threatening looks. One of the menacing boys has a black dog that he sics on smaller kids, they said.
“Last year, they stole my son’s bike,” a local mother said. “I called the police and they never came. ”
She said parents have to take more responsibility.
“These boys have been making this a violent area,” she said, adding that one of the boys punched her son in the stomach during the robbery.
“These young boys know that the police will never come” she said. “It’s a huge problem. And as an adult, I can’t do anything against minors.”
Scared neighbors said there are also mischievousgirls who egg the boys on to fight.
“They’re really aggressive,” one of the mothers said. “They’re always alone, they’re never with their parents. One time we asked about their parents and they laughed at us.”
The parents said one of the boys flashed a knife when they threatened to call the cops but they were unaware of any of the boys carrying guns.
Michael Greene, 63, a painter who has lived in the neighborhood since the 1960s, said locals have worked to improve the area. The shooting didn’t help.
“It was kind of disturbing, a 13-year-old shooting a 13-year-old in a public park,” Greene said. “This neighborhood is trying to clean up and it’s like we’re right back where we started.”
Greene praised the mother who turned in her own flesh and blood.
“Well, that was a good thing,” Greene said. “That’s what parents are supposed to do. The kids, they so-called don’t want to snitch.”
“I feel for the young kid because he’s so young,” Greene said of the suspect. “He’s got his whole life in front of him and you’re making decisions like that. You’re supposed to run around, play fighting, playing PlayStation, eating candy. Not doing stuff like that.”
Rivera said her son is focused on his recovery, hoping to get back on the field to play football again when his knee heels. She said the doctors have given him a good prognosis for his recovery.
“I’m so thankful. He’s gonna be good. He can go back to football. He can go back to school. He’s in shock right now, so right now he isn’t really talking. Right now, he can’t even believe he got shot,” she said.
“And it’s just sad. Kids are kids. Kids trying to kill each other. It’s sad for my son who got shot, but it’s sad for the little boy that shot my son, because he’s also a kid.”
How Young People’s Social Anxiety Has Worsened in the Pandemic They expected their 20s to be a time for friends and the passage to adulthood. Instead, they drifted into isolation. Now thousands of young people are struggling to socialize again.
One student had several panic attacks a week, alone in his room. One felt her hands shake when walking on busy streets. Another hid in a bathroom while at a restaurant with friends, wondering why she was hyperventilating at her own birthday party.
They are all living with some degree of social anxiety, a growing problem among young people as the disorder, amplified by the pandemic and intensified through months of isolation, fuels social withdrawal and entrenches reclusive habits.
About 9 to 10 percent of young adults and adolescents in the United States have the disorder, defined as an intense fear of being watched and judged by others, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Now many have felt their extreme self-consciousness grow more severe, psychologists say.
That was the experience of Garret Winton, 22, of Tallahassee, Fla. He recalled an afternoon last May when he curled up in bed and placed two fingers on his neck. One hundred thirty beats per minute, he guessed. The sign of another panic attack, his fourth that week.
Active writing allows you to say what you mean in a clear concise way with colorful verbs that paint a picture.
In 1946, the writer George Orwell, author of Animal Farm and 1984, complained about politicians and others who use fuzzy language to hide the truth.
“Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one’s own habits, and from time to time one can even, if one jeers loudly enough, send some worn-out and useless phrase — some jackboot, Achilles’ heel, hotbed, melting pot, acid test, veritable inferno, or other lump of verbal refuse — into the dustbin where it belongs,” Orwell wrote.
In his 1946 essay Politics and the English Language set out six rules for clear writing. “Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech that you are used to seeing in print; Never use a long word where a short one will do; If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out; Never use the passive where you can use the active; Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent; Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbarous.” – George Orwell
Here’s a contemporary example of what Orwell talked about from former Rochester Police Chief La’Ron D. Singletary.
“As a man of integrity, I will not sit idly by while outside entities attempt to destroy my character.”
“The mischaracterizations and the politicization of the actions that I took after being informed of Mr. Prude’s death is not based on facts, and is not what I stand for.”
How can he say the same thing simply and directly?
I have integrity and won’t put up with people who want to destroy my character. Critics distorted what I said and did after I learned about Mr. Prude’s death. Their comments do not reflect who I am.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell talking about his expectations for the Republicans in the midterm-elections.
“I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different — they’re statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.”
How can he say the same thing simply and directly?
I think Republicans will flip the House but not the Senate. Some of the candidates don’t have broad appeal and won’t do well in state-wide races.
Then there is outright political doublespeak that George Orwell wrote about. Here are examples from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin often uses words to mean exactly the opposite of what they really mean.
He claims that Russian troops want the “denazification” of Ukraine but he is attempting to overthrow or even kill Ukraine’s Jewish president, who is the grandson of a Holocaust survivor.
We want to make sure that we do not manipulate words or distort meaning and language.
Journalists want to write and speak truthfully and clearly.
How do we write a clear, direct sentence?
We make sure the subject does the action.
What does that mean?
Put the subject before the verb and the object.
Active sentence: Subject-Verb-Object
The verb determines action
Former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster
twisted a sentence when he defended former PresidentTrump’s discussion with Russian diplomats.
“At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed, and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly.”
Or he could say,
President Trump did not discuss intelligence sources or methods, nor did he disclose secret military operations.
Note that McMaster used the word “were.” The passive verb were makes a sentence fuzzy, or clunky.
You create a passive verb when you make the subject the object of the action.
Passive Sentence
The hardest hit baseball in recorded history, 122.4 mph,
was hit by Pittsburgh Pirate’s Oneil Cruz.
Active Sentence
Pittsburgh Pirate Oneil Cruz blasted a ball 122.4 mph, the fastest in baseball history.
Colorful verbs that tell a story and convey action create strong sentences.
Weak passive verbs make mushy sentences. You want to use action-filled verbs.
That brings us back to were and the to be verbs. They don’t convey action.
So we try avoid using: to be, am, is, are, was, were, being, been
EXAMPLES:
1.
Passive The roads were destroyed by heavy rains.
Heavy rains were responsible for the destruction of the roads.
Active
Heavy rains destroyed the roads.
2.
Passive
The goalie crouched low, reached out his stick, and sent the rebound away from the mouth of the net.
Active
The goalie swept out his stick, and hooked the rebound away from the mouth of the net.
3.
Passive
The cause of 130 fires so far in 2022 was lithium-ion scooter batteries.
Active
Lithium-ion scooter batters caused 130 fires so far in 2022.
4.
Passive
The legislation was sent to Congress by the president.
Active
The president sent the legislation to Congress.
or
The president sent Congress the legislation.
5.
Passive
The earthquake in Puerto Rico caused victims to be airlifted by helicopter to the hospital.
Active
A helicopter airlifted victims of the earthquake in Puerto Rico and rushed them to the hospital.
or
A helicopter airlifted earthquake victims and rushed them to the hospital.
6.
Passive
Carolina is responsible for monitoring and balancing the budgets for the journalists.
Carolina monitors and balances the budgets
or
Carolina monitors and balances budgets.
Use the passive voice when you want to emphasize the receiver of an action, not the actor.
Example:
Many Long Beach residents were forced to leave the beautiful beach area to escape the hurricane.
Use strong, colorful verbs
Example:
Violate instead of in violation
Resisted instead of was resistant
Avoid Passive Phrases Like These:
Have been
Had been passive
GERUNDS
A gerund acts like a verb and a noun. You form a gerund by adding –ing to the end of a verb:
Examples:
run, running play, playing
A gerund describes action or a state of being. Grammarians consider gerunds a lovely way to write.
But in ACTIVE writing a gerund can slow down a sentence.
Examples:
1.
The Mets are feeling like losers at this point in the season.
Better
The Mets feel like losers at this point in the season.
2.
Fans are wondering if the Jets will be losing games all season.
Better
Fans wonder if the Jets will lose games all season.
3.
Nets players are surprising their new coach with their driving ambition.
Better
Nets players surprised their new coach with their drive and ambition.
4.
We sat up all night reading.
Better
We read all night.
or
We sat up and read all night.
6.
I like to go jeeping in the woods.
Better
I live to ride my jeep in the woods.
But gerunds can work when you talk about continuous action.
Example:
You might tell someone:
We jumped over puddles last night.
But if it continued to rain:
We spent the week jumping over puddles because of the constant rain.
CLUNKY WORDS AND PHRASES
Some words and phrases make sentences fuzzy.
Currently Due to Prior to In an effort to For the purpose of In order to Is of the opinion that Due to the fact that In the near future At this point in time During my time Subsequent Affinity For Am Willing
PRESENT PERFECT, PAST PERFECT and FUTURE PERFECT Passive form: have/has been + past participle had been + past participle
Active: Present Perfect I have mailed the gift. Jack has mailed the gifts.
Passive: Present Perfect The gift has been mailed by me. The gifts have been mailed by Jack.
Active: Past Perfect Steven Spielberg had directed the movie. Penny Marshall had directed those movies.
Passive: Past Perfect The movie had been directed by Steven Spielberg. The movies had been directed by Penny Marshall.
Active: Future Perfect John will have finished the project next month. They will have finished the projects before then.
Passive: Future Perfect The project will have been finished by next month. The projects will have been finished before then.
FUTURE TENSES Passive forms: will + be + past participle is/are going to be + past participle
Active: Future with WILL I will mail the gift. Jack will mail the gifts.
Passive: Future with WILL The gift will be mailed by me. The gifts will be mailed by Jack.
Active: Future with GOING TO I am going to make the cake. Sue is going to make two cakes.
Passive: Future with GOING TO The cake is going to be made by me. Two cakes are going to be made by Sue.
PRESENT / FUTURE MODALS The passive form follows this pattern: modal + be + past participle
Active: WILL / WON’T (WILL NOT) Sharon will invite Tom to the party. Sharon won’t invite Jeff to the party. (Sharon will not invite Jeff to the party.)
Passive: WILL / WON’T (WILL NOT) Tom will be invited to the party by Sharon. Jeff won’t be invited to the party by Sharon. (Jeff will not be invited to the party by Sharon.)
Active: CAN / CAN’T (CAN NOT) Mai can foretell the future. Terry can’t foretell the future. (Terry can not foretell the future.)
Passive: CAN / CAN’T (CAN NOT) The future can be foretold by Mai. The future can’t be foretold by Terry. (The future can not be foretold by Terry.)
Active: MAY / MAY NOT Her company may give Katya a new office. The lazy students may not do the homework. MIGHT / MIGHT NOT Her company might give Katya a new office. The lazy students might not do the homework.
Passive: MAY / MAY NOT Katya may be given a new office by her company. The homework may not be done by the lazy students. MIGHT / MIGHT NOT Katya might be given a new office by her company. The homework might not be done by the lazy students.
Active: SHOULD / SHOULDN’T Students should memorize English verbs. Children shouldn’t smoke cigarettes.
Passive: SHOULD / SHOULDN’T English verbs should be memorized by students. Cigarettes shouldn’t be smoked by children.
Active: OUGHT TO Students ought to learn English verbs. (negative ought to is rarely used)
Passive: OUGHT TO English verbs ought to be memorized by students.
Active: HAD BETTER / HAD BETTER NOT Students had better practice English every day. Children had better not drink whiskey.
Passive: HAD BETTER / HAD BETTER NOT English had better be practiced every day by students. Whiskey had better not be drunk by children.
Active: MUST / MUST NOT Tourists must apply for a passport to travel abroad. Customers must not use that door.
Passive: MUST / MUST NOT A passport to travel abroad must be applied for. That door must not be used by customers.
Active: HAS TO / HAVE TO She has to practice English every day. Sara and Miho have to wash the dishes every day. DOESN’T HAVE TO/ DON’T HAVE TO Maria doesn’t have to clean her bedroom every day. The children don’t have to clean their bedrooms every day.
Passive: HAS TO / HAVE TO English has to be practiced every day. The dishes have to be washed by them every day. DOESN’T HAVE TO/ DON’T HAVE TO Her bedroom doesn’t have to be cleaned every day. Their bedrooms don’t have to be cleaned every day.
Active: BE SUPPOSED TO I am supposed to type the composition. I am not supposed to copy the stories in the book. Janet is supposed to clean the living room. She isn’t supposed to eat candy and gum. They are supposed to make dinner for the family. They aren’t supposed to make dessert.
Passive: BE SUPPOSED TO The composition is supposed to be typed by me. The stories in the book are not supposed to be copied. The living room is supposed to be cleaned by Janet. Candy and gum aren’t supposed to be eaten by her. Dinner for the family is supposed to be made by them. Dessert isn’t supposed to be made by them.
PAST MODALS The past passive form follows this pattern: modal + have been + past participle
Active: SHOULD HAVE / SHOULDN’T HAVE The students should have learned the verbs. The children shouldn’t have broken the window.
Passive: SHOULD HAVE / SHOULDN’T HAVE The verbs should have been learned by the students. The window shouldn’t have been broken by the children.
Active: OUGHT TO Students ought to have learned the verbs. (negative ought to is rarely used)
Passive: OUGHT TO The verbs ought to have been learned by the students.
Active: BE SUPPOSED TO (past time) I was supposed to type the composition. I wasn’t supposed to copy the story in the book. Janet was supposed to clean the living room. She wasn’t supposed to eat candy and gum. Frank and Jane were supposed to make dinner. They weren’t supposed to make dessert.
Passive: BE SUPPOSED TO (past time) The composition was supposed to be typed by me. The story in the book wasn’t supposed to be copied. The living room was supposed to be cleaned by Janet. Candy and gum weren’t supposed to be eaten by her. Dinner was supposed to be made by them. Dessert wasn’t supposed to be made by them.
Active: MAY / MAY NOT That firm may have offered Katya a new job. The students may not have written the paper. MIGHT / MIGHT NOT That firm might have offered Katya a new job. The students might not have written the paper.
Passive: MAY / MAY NOT Katya may have been offered a new job by that firm. The paper may not have been written by the students. MIGHT / MIGHT NOT Katya might have been offered a new job by that firm. The paper might not have been written by the students.
In general, do not use courtesy titles except in direct quotations. When it is necessary to distinguish between two people who use the same last name, as in married couples or brothers and sisters, use the first and last name.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, guarantees freedom of religion and speech, the press and the right of people to gather to protest and complain to the government.
In its own words:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to freely assemble, and petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
After the founders of the United States wrote the U.S. Constitution, some of them realized they had left out critical guarantees to safeguard the type of nation, free of tyranny, they and others wanted.
The newly minted senators and congressmen debated about whether “checks and balances” would protect the rights of the people, or whether they needed to write amendments to the Constitution.
Freedom of the press was one of the priorities for Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson wrote a letter to another lawmaker saying,
“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
Some wanted to rewrite the Constitution but worried that people would think that they intended to tear up what they wanted to protect. They turned to U.S. Virginia Representative James Madison, a good thinker and a good writer.
Madison argued that, “A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”
In 1789 Madison drafted amendments and presented them to the House of Representatives. The House approved 17 amendments. The Senate approved 12 and the states ratified 10 in December, 1791 as the Bill of Rights.
Thomas Jefferson became the third President of the United States and James Madison became the fourth.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, guarantees freedom of religion and speech, the press and the right of people to gather to protest and complain to the government.
