to receive new members. the illustrious order of servite, founded in 1233 and approved by alexander iv in 1256 ( const. " deo grata " ), happily survived this condemnation. concerning the four greater orders, the council concludes : " be it understood, however, that we do not conceive of the extension of this constitution to the orders of friars preachers and of friars minor, whose evident service to the universal church is sufficient approval. as for the hermits of st. augustine and the order of carmelites, whose foundation preceded the said council ( fourth lateran ), we wish them to remain as solidly established as heretofore " ( lib. iii, tit. xvii, c. un., in vi ). the importance of the orders thus singled out and exempted was afterwards still further emphasized by the insertion of this canon into the " corpus juri " in the " liber sixtus " of boniface viii. the so - styled lesser orders, of which the following are today the most flourishing, were founded and approved at various subsequent periods : the minims ( 1474 ), the third order regular of st. francis ( 1521 ) ; the capuchin — as constituting a different branch of the franciscan order — ( 1525 ) ; the discalced carmelites — as constituting a distinct branch of the carmelites — ( 1568 ) ; the discalced trinitarians ( 1599 ) ; the order of penance, known in italy as the scalzetti ( 1781 ). reifenstuel, schmalzgrueber, and other writers on titles xxxi and xxxvi of bk. iii of the decretals of gregory ix ; ferraris, bibliotheca : relig. regulares ( rome, 1885 - 96 ), i, 24 ; suarez, de virtute et statu religionis ( mainz, 1604 ), pt. ii tract. ix ; barbosa, juri eccl. universi ( lyons, 1699 ), i, c. xli, n. 207 ; vermeersch, de relig. inst. et personis ( 2nd ed. bruges, 1907 ), i, 38 ; wernz, jus decretal. ( rome, 1908 ), iii pt. ii, 262 ; heimbucher, die orden und kongregationen ( 2nd ed., pad


despite the development of the formidable t - 34, the idea of a new mass - produced tank emerged inside the soviet military circles. so two soviet factories in leningrad ( kirovsky factory and voroshilovsky factory no. 174 ) were ordered to develop a new 14 - ton tank armed with 45 mm gun and protected by medium armor, similar to t - 34. in 1939, the kirovsky factory was ordered to develop a light cs tank ( close support tank ). in 1940 the first prototype, named " object 126 " or t - 126sp, was developed, manufactured and tested. its protection was equal to the t - 34 ' s : its welded hull was assembled from 37 mm homogeneous armor plates ; its roof was composed of 20 mm plates. frontal, upper side and rear armor plates were sloped 40 - 57 degrees. the new tank did have the 45mm tank gun model 1932 / 38 supplied with 150 rounds plus a coaxial 7. 62 mm dt machine - gun. additionally, it was armed with the 7. 62 mm ds bow machine - gun. the tank was powered by a 250 hp v - 4 diesel engine, which provided the 17 - ton vehicle with a maximum speed of 35 km / h. the tank had torsion bar suspension. its chassis consisted of six steel road wheels ( each with internal shock absorber ), idler, rear driver wheel with removable cogged rim, and three support wheels. the transmission consisted of the two - disk main friction clutch, the 4 - speed gearbox, multiple - disk side clutches and side gears. measured by aggregate armament and protection, " object 126 " was superior to most of the soviet light and medium tanks of that time. in fact, the german pz - iii played a notable role in development of the " object 126 ". having many advantages, the soviet tank had some disadvantages as well. first of all, it had limited range and little room for crew. on the second prototype the internal room was increased by removing the ds machine - gun. the second prototype received new lighter road wheels with rubber tires. simultaneously, at lkz factory ( kirovsky factory ) engineer l. s. troyanov developed another variant, named " object 211 ". both tanks were sent to comparison trials which the first tank ( " object 126 " ) won. on february 12, 1941, " object 126 " was accepted for servise and named t - 50. t - 50 was intended to be the most mass - produced soviet tank. it was


the first tank ( " object 126 " ) won. on february 12, 1941, " object 126 " was accepted for servise and named t - 50. t - 50 was intended to be the most mass - produced soviet tank. it was the very first soviet tank successfully passed all steps of govermental trials without any fails. in their construction the t - 50 and the " object 126 " were quite similar. like its prototype, the t - 50 had well - sloped welded armor. the driver ' s hatch was located in the upper frontal armor plate. bow machine - gun was absent. t - 50 ' s design was hi - tech and weighed only 13. 5 tons, with 37 - mm frontal armor on hull and turret. the three - man conical turret had a commander ' s cupola with six vision slits. the turret was welded, of conic form, with flat rear armor hatch. the t - 50 was still armed with the 45 - mm gun model 1932 / 38 and one coaxial 7. 62 mm dt tmg. the t - 50 had the torsion bar suspension with road wheels with internal shock absorbers. the tank was powered by 300 hp v - 4 diesel engine ( specific power - 21 hp / ton ). average ground pressure - 0. 57 kg / cm2, top speed - 60 km / h. all tanks were equipped with radio. on those times point of view, the t - 50 was intended to be a kind of " universal " tank and should replace t - 26 and bt light tanks. here i would like to notice, the t - 50 wasn ' t light tank, also it wasn ' t intended to be light. according to the nomenclature of that time, the t - 50 was rather a support tank for motorised and mechanised troops of the red army. at that time, an artillery testings congucted at nii - 48 research lab. these tests proved the t - 50 couldn ' t be penetrated by the soviet 76 mm gun model 1939 at 400 metres at any angle. moreover, during these tests, the t - 50 wasn ' t penetrated by the ex - german pak 40 antitank gun, while the t - 34 was penetrated three times. in april 1941, the t - 50 was accepted for service. until the beginning of the great patriotic war, factory no. 174 produced not a single t - 50, however. the most serious problem was with v - 4 engine that was in fact very unreliable and expensive. till the


50 was accepted for service. until the beginning of the great patriotic war, factory no. 174 produced not a single t - 50, however. the most serious problem was with v - 4 engine that was in fact very unreliable and expensive. till the end of war, soviet industry was unable to build an efficient and reliable v - 4. through extreme efforts soviet industry was able to produce 50 tanks during the second half of 1941. an attempt to set up mass production of t - 50 at factory no. 37 in moscow failed. in august 1941, the factory no. 174 was evacuated : mostly in omsk, but several parts in nizhnij tagil and barnaul. on october 13, 1941, the goko issued an order to build two new factories in barnaul : the first to manufacture t - 50s and the second to manufacture diesel engines for the t - 50. however, in january 1942, the manufacture of the t - 50 and its engines was cancelled and never resumed. factory no. 174 in omsk manufactured 15 t - 50s, but then was switched to building t - 34s. history has left few combat records of this very interesting tank. i know only that t - 50 tanks manufactured in leningrad served in one of the soviet tank brigades on the karelian isthmus. some were captured by finns and used till the end of war ( 1944 ). the t - 50 was adequately protected, its armor protection was almost equal to t - 34. tank was intended to rearm with 57mm zis - 4 tank gun. its speed and maneuverability was much better then t - 34. also, the commander ' s cupola and restricted duties of the tank commander were also important improvement ( comparing to the t - 34 ). the steel intensity of the t - 34 was twice as much then t - 50. so why the production of such advanced tank was ceased? in fact, there were three reasons. at first, the mass production was tried to set up after the beginning of the great patriotic war. at second, from autumn 1941, the red army began to receive british and canadian " valentine " tanks, which were quite close to the t - 50 ( with exception to maneuverability ). at third, there were no available factory ready to produce v - 4 engines. that ' s why the fate of the t - 50 was so short. only 69 t - 50 tanks were manufactured ; after that it was finally removed from production. important to mention there were two types of t


brussels, 1 december 2010 reach system for safer use of chemicals – frequently asked questions what is reach? reach, which stands for registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals, is a system for ensuring the safe use of chemicals within the eu. the system was set up by eu legislation which came into force on 1 june 2007, creating a single regulatory system for dealing with new and existing chemical substances. reach seeks to close the knowledge gap that previously existed concerning the risks associated with particular chemicals and to encourage the progressive replacement of dangerous chemicals with safer ones by means of its authorisation system. reach places greater responsibility on industry to manage the risk of chemicals and provide appropriate safety information to professional users and, as far as the most hazardous substances are concerned, also to consumers. what are the main benefits of reach? the main benefit of reach is that the hazards and risks of chemicals are more systematically identified, which allows for appropriate risk management measures by industry or, if necessary, further regulatory action by the public authorities. this will contribute to the prevention of health problems caused by exposure to chemicals, leading to a lower occurrence of diseases and preventable deaths, and, with that, lower costs for the national health systems. the benefits will come gradually as more and more substances are phased into reach. the anticipated overall benefits to the environment and human health are generally expected to be significant although a quantitative assessment is difficult. the commission ’ s impact assessment in 2003 developed an illustrative scenario which put the health benefits alone in the order of magnitude of €50 billion over a 30 year period. the european chemicals industry will benefit from a single eu regulatory system, a decision - making system with clear deadlines, and more consumer confidence in their products. downstream users of chemicals will get relevant information on the safe use of the chemical substances they use in their production process which will help them to ensure better protection of their workers. the chemicals industry ' s products will be safer for consumers and the environment and it will be easier to put corporate social responsibility into practice. what is the purpose of reach registration? the aim of reach registration is to ensure the safe use of chemicals by gathering safety information on the chemical substances available on the eu market in a single and comprehensive database. enterprises that manufacture or import more than one tonne of a chemical substance per year are required to register the chemical in a central database. this will give industry greater knowledge about the chemicals it uses and whether these are hazardous to human health and the environment. this should ultimately lead to better risk assessment and safer use of chemicals throughout


per year are required to register the chemical in a central database. this will give industry greater knowledge about the chemicals it uses and whether these are hazardous to human health and the environment. this should ultimately lead to better risk assessment and safer use of chemicals throughout the eu. it will lead to less chemical pollution, greener choices by consumers and industry, and a cleaner environment. what is the scope of reach? reach covers all chemical substances manufactured in, or imported into the eu in quantities of one tonne or more per year. registration under reach is for substances only. however, the provisions of the regulation apply to the manufacture, placing on the market or use of substances on their own, in preparations or in articles. what are industry ' s obligations under reach? reach requires manufacturers and importers of chemical substances to obtain information on the physical and chemical, health and environmental properties of their substances and use this information to determine how these can be used safely. each manufacturer and importer must submit a registration dossier to the european chemicals agency documenting the data and assessments. all users of dangerous chemicals are obliged to ensure the safe use of those chemicals through risk management measures identified in the registration dossiers and communicated to the users of chemicals through extended safety data sheets. manufacturers and importers are obliged to register substances they produce or import in quantities over 1 tonne per year. the registration requirement applies to substances on their own, in preparations and in articles under special conditions ( intentional release of the substance ). failure to register means that the substance cannot be manufactured, imported or used in the eu. downstream users of chemicals – those who use a substance in the course of their industrial or professional activities – must apply the risk management measures for dangerous substances identified by the supplier and communicated via safety data sheets. they have the right to make their use of a substance known to the manufacturer so it can be registered as an identified use and covered in the supplier ’ s chemical safety assessment. in this case they have to provide sufficient information to enable the supplier to prepare an exposure scenario for the use. alternatively, for example if they prefer to keep their use confidential for business reasons, they can conduct their own chemical safety assessment and report this use to the chemicals agency. who did the 30 november deadline apply to? the 30 november 2010 deadline applied to eu manufacturers and importers of chemical substances in very large quantities ( above 1000 tonnes per year ) and the most dangerous ones. substances that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction ( " cmr " ) had to be registered


to eu manufacturers and importers of chemical substances in very large quantities ( above 1000 tonnes per year ) and the most dangerous ones. substances that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction ( " cmr " ) had to be registered if they are manufactured or imported in a volume of above 1 tonne per year. substances that are very toxic for the aquatic environment also had to be registered if they are produced or imported in volumes above 100 tonnes per year. what happens to companies that did not register their substances in time? article 5 of the reach regulation imposes the principle of " no data no market ". member states are responsible for enforcing this principle, and each member state has its system in place to check that companies subject to the deadline did register. if a company did not register a substance in time and continues to produce it and put it on the market, it is in breach of the law and can expect to be penalised. how long will it be until we know how many and which substances have been registered? the european chemicals agency ( echa ) will be busy processing all the registration dossiers in the coming months and must complete this work by the end of february 2011 according to the reach regulation. so by then we will know the number of registered substances more precisely – although new substances may still come in and there may also be dossiers that failed the completeness check and which will be registered later. what kind of information will we learn from this first registration? we will learn which chemicals that meet the criteria for the first registration deadline are currently on the market, and in what tonnage range. we will also learn what these chemicals are used for, what risks are associated with them and how these risks are managed so they can they be handled safely. all the safety information contained in the registration dossier has to be passed down the supply chain ( the downstream users ) and the downstream users need to comply with the requirements for safe use within one year after receiving the safety data sheet with the reach registration number. this information will be available in a central database hosted by echa, which is growing as more registrations come in. reach registration will lead to a concentration of knowledge that industry as a whole possessed but was divided between different companies all over europe. now this information has been brought together in the european chemicals agency. this is new and unique in the world. what happens once companies have successfully registered their substances? the agency assigns a registration number after checking that the dossier is complete. this initial check does not


information has been brought together in the european chemicals agency. this is new and unique in the world. what happens once companies have successfully registered their substances? the agency assigns a registration number after checking that the dossier is complete. this initial check does not include an examination of the quality or the adequacy of the data submitted. reach stipulates that the quality assessment is carried out independently from the registration process, through a process called evaluation ( the e in reach ). reach specifies three independent evaluation processes to meet three distinct objectives : first, a compliance check is used to check whether the information submitted by registrants is in compliance with the legal requirements. second, all testing proposals are examined to avoid unnecessary animal testing. registrants must seek permission to undertake certain tests by submission of a testing proposal. testing proposals which include animal tests undergo public consultation. third, substance evaluation aims to clarify whether the use of a substance may cause harm to human health or the environment. the substances are selected by the agency in cooperation with member states. substances are evaluated according to priority criteria, considering hazardousness, exposure and volume. how has industry been affected by the registration process? industry has known about registration for many years and large companies started working on their registration dossiers as soon as reach entered into force or even before. smaller companies and those who are not part of the chemical sector but use chemicals in the course of their work probably started work on their dossiers at a later stage. reach has required a lot of work of gathering data. this included setting up or strengthening the use of communication channels between suppliers and customers to find out for example what they are using a certain substance for. but this has also meant exchanging data and testing results in substance information exchange forums ( sief ) whereby all those who had to register the same substance shared data and shared costs. this process led to new insights into uses of substances and their safety. registration is a tremendous amount of work but it leads to better safety and improved communication in the supply chain. what are the next registration deadlines? 31 may 2013 : registration deadline for substances manufactured or imported in quantities of 100 tonnes and more. 31 may 2018 : registration deadline for substances manufactured or imported in quantities of 1 tonne and more. registration prior to the deadline is of course possible. all new substances need to be registered before they are placed on the market. what is the reach authorisation process and how will it work in practice? authorisation means that the substance may no longer be used or placed on the market


of course possible. all new substances need to be registered before they are placed on the market. what is the reach authorisation process and how will it work in practice? authorisation means that the substance may no longer be used or placed on the market unless a company has obtained an authorisation to do so. substances that are subject to authorisation will be listed in reach annex xiv. the authorisation system is intended to ensure that the risks from such substances are properly controlled and that these substances will be progressively replaced by suitable alternative substances or technologies where these are economically and technically viable. in particular, there may be applications where exposure to human beings or the environment is very limited and where risks can be adequately controlled. in other cases, the use of such substances can create substantial socio - economic benefits that outweigh the risks associated with the use ( e. g. ensuring safety of equipment ) and there is no suitable alternative. in these cases, an authorisation will be granted. for certain substances that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to the reproductive system ( so - called " cmr " substances ), an authorisation will be granted if the applicant can show that risks from the use in question can be adequately controlled. this means that scientists can agree on a " safe threshold " below which a substance does not create negative effects to the human body or the environment. for other cmr substances and substances with persistent, bio - accumulative or toxic properties ( pbt, vpvb substances ), where adequate control is not possible, an authorisation will only be granted if no safer alternative exists and if the socio - economic benefits of the use of the substance outweigh the risks. what is the candidate list and how many substances are on it? the candidate list is a step in the reach authorisation process. it is a list of substances of very high concern that have been nominated by the european commission or by the member states and decided upon by echa after public consultation. these substances may be subject to authorisation later. currently there are 38 substances on the list. by the end of 2012, there should be 135. the candidate list can constitute a reference list for consumers and retailers. when asked by a consumer whether a certain product contains a substance listed on the candidate list, the retailer has a legal obligation under reach to reply. what are the most dangerous substances? substances of very high concern are : carcinogens ( category 1a and 1b ) mutagens ( category 1a and 1b ) substances which are toxic to reproduction


, the retailer has a legal obligation under reach to reply. what are the most dangerous substances? substances of very high concern are : carcinogens ( category 1a and 1b ) mutagens ( category 1a and 1b ) substances which are toxic to reproduction ( category 1a and 1b ) persistent, bio - accumulative and toxic substances ( pbts ), very persistent and very bio - accumulative substances ( vpvbs ) substances identified from scientific evidence as causing equivalent concern to those mentioned above, for example substances which disturb the hormone system ( endocrine disruptors ). how will reach promote innovation and development of safer substitutes? to enhance industry ' s competitiveness, one of the objectives of reach is to promote research and development and innovation. for example : - uses of substances in product or process - oriented r & d do not need to be registered for up to 5 years, renewable for a further maximum of 5 years in the case of a substance being exclusively used in the development of medicinal products or, under certain conditions, for a further maximum of ten years if the substance is not placed on the market. the reach threshold for registration ( 1 tonne / year ) is much higher than the threshold of 10 kg for new substances under the previous regulatory system. the costs of registering a new substance will be significantly lower than the cost of notification under the previous regulatory system. registration will be quicker than notification, reducing the time to market. the authorisation requirement for substances of very high concern will encourage companies to increase their research into safer substitutes. discrimination between new substances and existing substances will come to an end. how much will reach cost? testing and registration costs for producers and importers of chemicals : the commission ’ s impact assessment in 2003 estimated the direct costs of reach to the chemicals industry at a total of some €2. 3 billion over an 11 year period. costs to downstream users : the costs to downstream users of chemicals were estimated in the commission ’ s impact assessment of 2003 at €0. 5 to 1. 3 billion, under the assumption that 1 to 2 % of the substances would be withdrawn because continued production would no longer be profitable. costs could rise to €1. 7 – 2. 9 billion when industry would face higher substitution costs in the downstream supply chains. total costs : consequently, the overall costs of the commission ’ s proposal of 2003 to the chemicals industry and its downstream users were estimated to be in the range of €2. 8 - 5. 2 billion. from a macroeconomic perspective, the overall impact


first, we should clarify what " evolution " means. like so many other words, it has more than one meaning. its strict biological definition is " a change in allele frequencies over time. " by that definition, evolution is an indisputable fact. most people seem to associate the word " evolution " mainly with common descent, the theory that all life arose from one common ancestor. many people believe that there is enough evidence to call this a fact, too. however, common descent is still not the theory of evolution, but just a fraction of it ( and a part of several quite different theories as well ). the theory of evolution not only says that life evolved, it also includes mechanisms, like mutations, natural selection, and genetic drift, which go a long way towards explaining how life evolved. calling the theory of evolution " only a theory " is, strictly speaking, true, but the idea it tries to convey is completely wrong. the argument rests on a confusion between what " theory " means in informal usage and in a scientific context. a theory, in the scientific sense, is " a coherent group of general propositions used as principles of explanation for a class of phenomena " random house american college dictionary. the term does not imply tentativeness or lack of certainty. generally speaking, scientific theories differ from scientific laws only in that laws can be expressed more tersely. being a theory implies self - consistency, agreement with observations, and usefulness. ( creationism fails to be a theory mainly because of the last point ; it makes few or no specific claims about what we would expect to find, so it can ' t be used for anything. when it does make falsifiable predictions, they prove to be false. ) lack of proof isn ' t a weakness, either. on the contrary, claiming infallibility for one ' s conclusions is a sign of hubris. nothing in the real world has ever been rigorously proved, or ever will be. proof, in the mathematical sense, is possible only if you have the luxury of defining the universe you ' re operating in. in the real world, we must deal with levels of certainty based on observed evidence. the more and better evidence we have for something, the more certainty we assign to it ; when there is enough evidence, we label the something a fact, even though it still isn ' t 100 % certain. what evolution has is what any good scientific claim has - - evidence, and lots of it. evolution is supported by a wide range of observations


converting to binary from normal base ten numbers is a difficult and time consuming process. using our excel based binary converter will save you much time and frustration. get your own binary converter for free here! how a binary converter works to understand how a binary converter works, you must first understand what binary, or base two, is. in our normal base ten accounting each number has a ones place, a tens place a hundreds and so on. in base two there is a twos place, a fours place an eights place, a sixteens place and so on. for an example of a binary convert, lets use the number fifty. the highest base number that would go into fifty is 32 so that place would get a 1. subtract 32 from 50 and there is 18 left. the next highest base two number to try is 16, since that ’ s less than 18 that place gets a 1 and there are now 2 left. since 8 and 4 won ’ t go into 2 those places get a 0 and the twos place gets a 1. the ones place them gets a 0 since there is nothing left and your result for 50 is 110010. wow that ’ s a lot of work for one binary convert! now it ’ s becoming clear how time saving our binary converter can be. why a binary converter is useful binary convert processes are used by computer programmers to communicate directly to a computer. most professionals use a binary converter like ours rather than do the work manually. because of the way computer memory works a computer can only understand two states, off and on, represented by 1 and 0. eight of these ones and zeros constitutes one bit of information which can represent one character to a computer. writing the word “ hello ” then requires 5 bits of information and 5 seep rate binary convert calculations, thus the need for our ultra reliable binary converter. our binary converter is an amazing piece of excel programming allowing the time consuming binary convert process to be completed in seconds. and, converting to binary is not all we offer. the same minds that brought you this also offer many other excel templates for business, home and gaming use. be sure to look at them all!


it depends in what context you mean but basically streaming data is analagous to asynchronous data. take the web as an example. the web ( or http specifically ) is ( basically ) a request - response mechanism in that a client makes a request and receives a response ( typically a web page of some kind ). http doesn ' t natively support the ability for servers to push content to clients. there are a number of ways this can be faked, including : - polling : forcing the client to make repeated requests, typically inconspicuously ( as far as the client is concerned ) ; - long - lived connections : this is where the client makes a normal http request but instead of returning immediately the server hangs on to the request until there ' s something to send back. when the request times out or a response is sent th eclient sends another request. in this way you can fake server push ; - plug - ins : java applets, flash, silverlight and others can be used to achieve this. anything where the server effectively sends data to the client ( rather than the client asking for it ) - - regardless of the mechanism and whether or not the client is polling for that data - - can be characterised as streaming data. with non - http transports ( eg vanilla tcp ) server push is typically easier ( but can still run afoul of firewalls and th elike ). an example of this might be a sharetrading application that receives market information from a provider. that ' s streaming data. how do you detect it? bit of a vague question. i ' m not really sure what you ' re getting at.


alaska court recordsedit this page from familysearch wiki district courts had jurisdiction over all civil and criminal matters in alaska before statehood. federal district judges were appointed as early as 1884. the entire territory had only one district, administered by a judge in sitka, until 1903, when three districts were created with judges at juneau, saint michaels, and eagle city. the fourth district was added in 1909, and the four seats were placed in juneau, nome, valdez ( moved to anchorage in 1943 ), and fairbanks. the areas served by these districts are as follows : - juneau, district 1 : southeastern alexander archipelago and the cities of ketchikan, wrangell, sitka, and juneau. - nome, district 2 : north, including nome and barrow. - anchorage, district 3 : south, including anchorage, kodiak, and the aleutian islands. - fairbanks, district 4 : central, including fairbanks, bethel, and toksook bay. since 1959 district court jurisdiction has been limited to minor civil and criminal matters such as issuing marriage licenses and arrest warrants, hearing misdemeanor cases, and acting as the temporary custodian of the property of deceased persons. a superior court, a supreme court, and magistrate courts have also served alaska since 1959. the family history library does not have copies of any court records from alaska. the alaska state archives has most of the territorial court records ( except probate records ) for the first district and some for the second and fourth districts. the archives has the court journals but not the complete case files for the first district. the case files of the first district, the records of the third district ( 1900 - 59 ), and some miscellaneous records of the other districts are at the national archives — alaska region. copies of documents not at these two archives can be obtained by writing to the appropriate local clerk ' s office. - this page was last modified on 10 july 2012, at 21 : 35. - this page has been accessed 829 times. new to the research wiki? in the familysearch research wiki, you can learn how to do genealogical research or share your knowledge with others. learn more


who owns the land of israeli? by richard kelly hoskins there is much confusion over the ownership of the land of old israel in the near east. god made a covenant with abram ( genesis 15 : 18 - 21 ), to give his seed for the land “ from the river in egypt [ nile ] unto the great river, the river euphrates. ” the only seed born to abram while he had that name was ishmael ( genesis 16 ). the present descendants of ishmael living in that area base their claim on this promise. abram ’ s name was then changed to abraham ( genesis 17 : 5 ) and he fathered isaac, who fathered jacob, whose name was changed to “ israel ” ( genesis 32 : 28 ). the children of israel were then given canaanland, a small portion of that larger land grant, but only on a conditional promise, i. e. they had to obey god ’ s laws, statutes and judgments, or they would lose the land. the promise of the larger area to the ishmaelites was unconditional and so could not be lost. the israelites disobeyed, lost their claim to canaanland, and were driven out, first to [ syria, then ] assyria and then to babylon. although a tiny remnant returned under nehemiah to rebuild jerusalem, they never again occupied all of canaanland. finally, all israelites were driven out of even that small area of palestine by persecution a few years after jesus ’ death and resurrection. a thousand years later the united effort of the entire west during the crusades was unable to secure this land for much more than a few generations. the feeble ownership effort by the british between ww i and ww ii [ were ] easily broken. the khazars, who call themselves jews because of their religion, now claim this land from the ishmaelites. this was prophesied in ezekiel 36 : 2 “ thus saith the lord god ; because the enemy hath said against you, aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession. ” that “ enemy ” is given a name in verse 5, “ idumea, ” meaning edom. edom means “ red ”, so reds would take possession of “ the ancient high places ” in the old land of israel while israel would multiply in other lands to fulfill numbers “ as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore. ” ( genesis


| see what ' s going on with flipcode! | radiosity in english - the basics by ( 20 may 1999 ) | return to the archives | i ' ve found many people shy away from radiosity simply because of the mystique surrounding it. i ’ ll admit that i was a bit intimidated by the topic when i decided to tackle it. but the truth be known, it boils down to some pretty simple techniques, most of which are very common. as a matter of fact, if you ’ ve got access to a rendering architecture that supports z - buffering, you ’ ve got 90 % of a basic radiosity processor that can produce some excellent results. | i understand that " aggravated nosebleed " ( the source of this q & a entry ) has some basic knowledge of radiosity, but i ’ d like to take this opportunity to cover the basics from the very beginning. hopefully he / she as well as some other readers will gain enough of a fundamental understanding to help ease the learning curve from some of the more notable references ( which i will list later. ) in the beginning the introduction of radiosity came in 1984 from cornell university in a paper titled " modelling the interaction of light between diffuse surfaces " written by goral, torrance & greenberg. the idea was to simulate energy ( light ) transference from diffuse surfaces. diffuse surfaces are surfaces that reflect light equally in all directions - the opposite of a shiny surface. | this result was considered " view independent. " this simply meant that the illumination on a surface looked the same no matter what angle you were viewing it from. for the sake of clarity, an example of the opposite ( " view dependent " ) would be a reflective surface. reflective surfaces are view dependent because the specular highlights would appear at a different position on the surface based on the angle at which the surface was viewed. this view independence was nice, especially considering the cost ( in processor power & running time ) of radiosity processing. the illumination could be calculated once and the scene could then be rendered very quickly from any angle. this translates directly into many of today ’ s modern " first - person shooter " games. the first approach consider a simple room with only four walls, a ceiling and a floor. can you see it in your mind ’ s eye? you better not be able to ; i haven ’ t specified a light source yet. : - ) in radiosity, light sources aren ’ t your typical point or spot light sources. in radiosity, light is emitted from


mind ’ s eye? you better not be able to ; i haven ’ t specified a light source yet. : - ) in radiosity, light sources aren ’ t your typical point or spot light sources. in radiosity, light is emitted from surfaces. so, rather than adding a surface for a light source, lets just make the entire ceiling an " area light source. " in the real world, this would translate to a cubic room where the ceiling was a huge panel of fluorescent lights behind a huge diffuse reflector ( those smoked - glass looking things that spread light out. ) | this example is a simple one since every surface can see every other surface. in other words, there ’ s nothing to block the light from reaching any surface ( i. e. no shadows. ) each surface has two values associated with it. an amount of how brightly it is illuminated ( its illumination ) and how much of a surplus of energy it has ( its radiative energy. ) to start with, only the ceiling will have any radiative energy and all other surfaces will have no radiative energy or illumination. what we need to do now is calculate the interaction of energy from every surface to every other surface. this is an n ^ 2 problem since we need to calculate this interaction from each surface to every other surface in the scene. this can be calculated based on their geometrical relationships ( distance between surfaces, relative orientation, relative area, etc. ) the math that calculates this relationship results in a single value. this value is called a " form factor. " the attentive readers ( the one ’ s that are still awake ) might have already guessed that there are only ( n ^ 2 ) / 2 individual form factors since the relationship between surfaces 5 & 6 is the same as the relationship between 6 & 5. however, this is not true since relative area is taken into consideration. we can calculate all the form factors in a scene and store them in a grid that is n elements wide by n elements tall. this grid is referred to as the " radiosity matrix " and it works just like a 2 - dimensional table. each element in this matrix contains a form factor for the interaction from the surface indexed by the column and the surface indexed by the row. remember how i said that there are n ^ 2 interactions and not ( n ^ 2 ) / 2? this is because each form factor is like a diode in that it only handles energy going in one direction : from a " source surface " to a "


i said that there are n ^ 2 interactions and not ( n ^ 2 ) / 2? this is because each form factor is like a diode in that it only handles energy going in one direction : from a " source surface " to a " destination surface. " in this case, we ’ ll say that the source surfaces are index by columns and destination surfaces are indexed by rows. source surfaces will emit their energy to the destination surfaces. now lets solve the matrix. to do this, we simply visit each column ( source ) in the matrix and emit energy to each row ( destination ) in that column. when we do this, we ’ ll be placing some of that radiated energy ( from the source ) in the illumination value for the destination. but these surfaces are reflectors, which means they ’ re going to reflect some energy back into the scene. based on the surface ’ s reflectivity, we ’ ll add a little bit of energy to the destination ’ s radiative energy. this radiative energy will eventually make its way back into the scene ( i. e. to the other surfaces ) as we progress through the matrix. if the destination is a perfect reflector ( i. e. it reflects every single bit of energy it receives - a mirror ) then there will be no energy stored in the destination ’ s illumination, it would all go to its radiative energy. the inverse is also true : a perfectly black surface might not reflect any energy back into the scene, absorbing it all, so every bit of energy it receives is stored in its illumination value. if you ’ re starting to think that we ’ re making a black surface white, we ’ re not. remember, we ’ re dealing with light, so the color of a surface is ultimately multiplied by its illumination. in the case of the perfectly black surface, the surface remains visually black. once we ’ ve gone through the matrix once, we do it all over again. this is necessary because we we ’ re storing some energy as illumination, and some as radiative energy. now it ’ s time to go through the matrix again and start distributing that reflected radiative energy. we ’ ll go through this matrix over and over again until the total amount of radiative energy for all surfaces is relatively small. the next step if you made it this far without getting lost, you ’ re in the home stretch. there ’ s still a lot we haven ’ t covered yet, so let ’ s move on. i ’


for all surfaces is relatively small. the next step if you made it this far without getting lost, you ’ re in the home stretch. there ’ s still a lot we haven ’ t covered yet, so let ’ s move on. i ’ ll start with a few shortcomings of the basic radiosity matrix as i ’ ve described it thus far and common solutions to these issues. | our surfaces have only one illumination value for the entire surface, so there is no change in illumination across a single surface. to solve this problem, we can simply subdivide each surface into a series smaller polygons called " patches. " if you do this, you simply treat each patch as its own surface as a replacement for the original surface. your matrix will grow to the number of patches in the scene squared. this brings us to our next issue : the matrix can be quite large ( especially if you subdivide into a number of patches ) if the scene is very simple ( say, a meager 1, 000 polygons ) then our illustrious matrix will be pretty big ( 1, 000, 000 elements. ) if you ' ve subdivided each of those surfaces to a meager 8x8 grid of patches per surface, then we ' re talking about 4, 096, 000, 000 total elements in our matrix ( 8 * 8 = 64 patches per surface, 64 * 1000 = 64000 patches per scene, 64000 * 64000 is = 4, 096, 000, 000 total matrix elements. ) this is pretty tough for any computer to swallow. before i discuss the solutions to this ever - increasing matrix, let ’ s talk about a related issue : a matrix of this magnitude would take a long time to solve. especially considering the fact that we ’ ll have to solve it multiple times. if a mistake was made in the modeled scene, wouldn ’ t it be nice to know this sooner rather than later? in 1988, cohen, chen, wallace & greenberg published a paper called " a progressive refinement approach to fast radiosity image generation. " this paper described a new way of solving radiosity. it was quite clever in that it reordered the way things were done. | in the matrix method, illumination was gathered by each destination element from its source element. ironically, this is called " gathering. " the progressive refinement approach reversed this and defined ( the other incredibly ironic term ) " shooting. " the basic idea behind progressive refinement starts by finding the surface with


element from its source element. ironically, this is called " gathering. " the progressive refinement approach reversed this and defined ( the other incredibly ironic term ) " shooting. " the basic idea behind progressive refinement starts by finding the surface with the most energy to contribute to the scene ( i. e. has the highest amount of radiative energy. ) this surface would then iterate through all other surfaces, distributing its energy along the way. after this process was completed, the image was then rendered for the user, and the process began again, finding the surface with the most energy to contribute to the scene. each pass would cause another render of the scene, allowing the user to progressively evaluate the progress. if the progress showed a problem along the way ( an illumination surface was in the wrong place or the wrong color ) they could stop the process and make the needed adjustments. during this process, the user would see a completely dark scene progress to a fully lit scene. to accommodate this sharp contrast in visual difference from beginning to end, the progressive refinement technique added something called the " ambient term ". before i continue, i want to point something out that is pretty important in radiosity. there is no such thing as ambient light in real life. ambient light is something that was invented to accommodate the need for what appears to be a " global light " in real life. but in reality, ambient light doesn ’ t exist. rather, light is always being reflected from surface to surface, which is how it finds its way into all the nooks and crannies of real - world detail. before the advent of radiosity, ambient light was the best thing available to the typical rendering architectures. it is safe to think of radiosity is a more accurate solution to ambient ( global ) light. this is why radiosity is considered a technique for " global illumination. " the ambient term starts off as a " differential area sum " of the radiative energy for the entire scene. what this means is that it ’ s a number that represents the average amount of light that each surface will receive throughout the processing of the entire radiosity solution. we can calculate that average without doing all the work simply because it ’ s an average amount of energy, not a specific amount of energy for a single surface. as each progressive pass emits the radiative energy for a surface, the ambient term is slowly decreased. as the total radiative energy of the scene approaches zero, so does the ambient term ( though


amount of energy for a single surface. as each progressive pass emits the radiative energy for a surface, the ambient term is slowly decreased. as the total radiative energy of the scene approaches zero, so does the ambient term ( though, at different rates, of course. ) a nice advantage here is that you can use the ambient term to figure out when you ’ ve distributed enough energy as to make only a negligible difference. at this point, you can stop processing. so, the progressive approach has solved the massive memory requirements for the radiosity matrix by simply not storing it, and it partially solves the processing time issue by speeding things up, and further improving this by allowing users to preview their works in progress. a note on patches before i continue, i want to cover the topic of patch subdivision just a little. i only touched on it lightly so as not to confuse the reader. it ’ s time we dive just a little bit deeper in to these ever useful things. | first, let ’ s be perfectly clear on something. if you use subdivision in your radiosity code, then you will not be using " surfaces " since the patches are a higher resolution representation of the original surface geometry. it will be the patches that shoot and gather energy amongst themselves, not the surfaces. if you use patch subdivision, you can probably discard your original surfaces since they have been replaced by a higher resolution representation, their patches. patches are how we simulate area light sources. rather than actually treating the surface like an area light source, we simply split it up into lots of smaller light sources across the entire area of the original surface. if the surface is subdivided enough, then the results can be quite pleasing. patch subdivision can be done blindly or intelligently. an example of blind subdivision might be to subdivide every surface into a set of patches that are one square foot each. this can be quite a waste, since we only really need the subdivision in high - contrast areas ( i. e. an area of a surface that has a dramatic change in energy across a relatively small area - like a shadow boundary. ) there is a multitude of intelligent subdivision techniques. one of the most common is to subdivide progressively by adding another step to the process. once a surface has fully emitted its energy, each patch in the existing data - set is visited and a decision is made if two adjoining patches have too much of a difference in their illumination values. if they do, there will be a sharp contrast between


once a surface has fully emitted its energy, each patch in the existing data - set is visited and a decision is made if two adjoining patches have too much of a difference in their illumination values. if they do, there will be a sharp contrast between these two patches so you should subdivide each of them. you can pick any threshold you wish to contain your subdivisions to a minimum. you can also set a maximum subdivision level to prevent from subdividing too much. patches, however, are just the first step to subdivision. patches themselves can be subdivided into " elements ". the usefulness of elemental subdivision is for performance reasons as well as aesthetic reasons. patch subdivision can be pre - set to a specific resolution. in this case, the entire scene is subdivided evenly into patches of a specific size. this sounds like a waste, but let ’ s not get hasty. the subdivision resolution can be quite low in this case. as the radiosity solution progresses, the patches are intelligently subdivided into elements based on high contrast areas ( or whatever intelligent subdivision technique you decide to use. ) you can think of elements as a higher resolution representation of their " parent " patches. but unlike patch subdivision where the surfaces are discarded and replaced by patches, patch subdivision does not discard the patches. the advantage here, is that the patches are maintained for shooting, while the elements are used for gathering. let ’ s look at that a little more closely. a patch is subdivided into a grid of 8x8 elements. during the distribution process, the patch with the highest amount of radiative energy is chosen for energy distribution. energy is distributed from that patch to all of the elements in the scene. the elements retain their illumination value ( for beauty ’ s sake ) and the radiative energy that would be reflected from all the elements is then sent up to their parent patch. later, the patch will do the shooting, rather than each individual element. this allows us to have a high resolution of surface geometry with a lower resolution distribution. this can save quite a lot of processing time, especially if the average patch is subdivided into 8x8 elements. for the sake of this example, i ’ ll just assume we ’ re not at the elemental subdivision stage yet, and work from patches. did somebody say shadows? i didn ’ t. not yet, at least. : - ) | to obtain shadows, we need to have some visibility information, so we ’ ll know how much of a patch is visible from another patch. one of


did somebody say shadows? i didn ’ t. not yet, at least. : - ) | to obtain shadows, we need to have some visibility information, so we ’ ll know how much of a patch is visible from another patch. one of the most common ways of doing this in today ’ s world is to use a z - buffer. and radiosity is no different. to do this, however, we ’ ll need a way to generate a z - buffer from a patch. this is where the hemicube comes in handy. a hemicube is exactly what it sounds like. it ’ s exactly one half of a cube, split orthogonally along one axis. this gives us one whole face, and four half - faces. what ’ s it for? try to picture this : place a pin - hole camera at the base of the hemicube ( i. e. the center of the cube prior to cutting it in half ) and point the camera at the center of the top face. now set your camera to a 90 - degree frustum. you can consider the top face of the hemicube now, to be the rendering surface of the camera. this surface has a pixel resolution ( which i ’ ll discuss shortly. ) if you render the scene from this perspective, you ’ ll " see " what the patch " sees ". remember when i said that we need to take the relative distance and relative orientation of two patches into account to calculate their form factors? well, in this case, we no longer need to do that. the hemicube takes care of that for us. as patches are rendered onto the surface of the hemicube, they ’ ll occupy " hemicube pixels ". the farther away the surface is, the fewer pixels it will occupy. this is also true for patches at greater angles of relative orientation. the greater the angle, the fewer pixels it will occupy. using a z - buffer we can let some patches partially ( or fully ) occlude other patches, causing them to occupy even fewer pixels ( or none at all ) which gives us shadows. for this to work, we need to translate these renders into energy transmission. let ’ s talk about that for a bit. a standard z - buffer renderer will render color values to a frame buffer and store depth information into a z - buffer. a hemicube implementation is very similar. it keeps the z - buffer just like normal. but rather than


bit. a standard z - buffer renderer will render color values to a frame buffer and store depth information into a z - buffer. a hemicube implementation is very similar. it keeps the z - buffer just like normal. but rather than storing color values into a frame buffer, it stores patch ids into a frame buffer. when the render is complete, you have partial form factor information for how much energy gets transmitted from one patch to another. i say " partial form factor information " because we ’ re missing one piece. this information is lacking some of the relative angle information between two patches. the relative angles are used to decrease the amount of energy shot from one patch to another. the greater the angle, the less energy is transmitted. our hemicube gives us part of this information by only telling us ( in an indirect way ) how much of an angle the destination patch is relative to us. but we also need to take the shooter ’ s relative angle into account as well. it ’ s much like lambert shading. as the surface turns away from the light, the surface receives less light. we ’ ve got this information ( indirectly ) in the hemicube frame buffer. but our light source is also an area, which means it can turn, too. so we ’ ll need to take its angle into consideration before we shoot any energy to anybody. the hemicube has a wonderful mechanism for this. it ’ s called the " delta form factor. " this is simply a table of values. it is the same resolution as the surface of the hemicube and it contains values that are used to scale the amount of energy that each hemicube pixel can transmit. the values in this table associated with the center pixels of the top face have the highest value, and the values fall off as they get near the edges of the hemicube face. the reason for this is simple. the values associated with the center of the hemicube face have the highest value since anything rendered to this area of the " screen " will be directly in front of the hemicube ( i. e. the least incident angle. ) the values in the table associated with the edges of the hemicube face are at a 45 - degree angle, so they are considerably less than those found near the center. there is a very specific calculation for the " delta form factor " table which can be found in most radiosity references. to finish up our hemicube explanation


45 - degree angle, so they are considerably less than those found near the center. there is a very specific calculation for the " delta form factor " table which can be found in most radiosity references. to finish up our hemicube explanation, we need to pull it all together. rather than shooting light from the source patch to the destination patches, we do this through each pixel in the hemicube ’ s frame buffer ( remember, we ’ ve stored patch ids in there so we can reference them later, and this is later : - ). visiting each hemicube pixel, we simply scale the amount of the shooter ’ s total radiative energy by the delta form factor associated with that pixel. this means that each patch will receive a little bit of energy for each pixel it resides in, in the hemicube ’ s frame buffer. each of these partial energy transmissions to an individual destination patch will all add up to the proper amount of total transmitted energy, just like magic. how do we know that we ’ ve transmitted all the energy from the shooter? well, if you add up all the delta form factors for the hemicube, you ’ ll find they add up to 1. 0. this is a good test, by the way, to make sure your hemicube delta form factor table is correct. remember to account for error, so the value might not equal exactly 1. 0, rather something very close. a typical hemicube resolution might be 128x128. however, you may decide to go with a higher resolution. either way, remember this : each pixel in the hemicube ’ s delta form factor table contains a very small fractional value. you should consider using doubles to store these values as they can get very small. to save confusion, i purposely neglected to mention a few things. each hemicube has five sides. i only described the process for rendering the top face. the remaining half - faces also require rendering, but the process is identical to that of the top face. don ’ t worry, your radiosity references will cover how to calculate the delta form factors for all faces of the hemicube. and don ’ t forget that when you run your little test that adds up all the delta form factors to a result of 1. 0, you ’ ll need to include all of the delta form factors, not just those for the top face. in closing, i should mention that there are issues with hem


test that adds up all the delta form factors to a result of 1. 0, you ’ ll need to include all of the delta form factors, not just those for the top face. in closing, i should mention that there are issues with hemicubes ( like aliasing artifacts under certain circumstances. ) there are some solutions to these issues as well as totally different techniques. but hemicubes are a great place to start your radiosity adventures. " advanced animation & rendering techniques " by watt & watt | " computer graphics principles & practice " by foley, vandam, feiner & hughes " radiosity : a programmer ' s perspective " by ashdown " radiosity and realistic image synthesis " by cohen & wallace " radiosity and global illumination " by sillion & puech personally, i originally learned the concepts & fundamentals of radiosity from " advanced animation & rendering techniques. " i learned enough to get my first radiosity processor up and running. since this book has such a wealth of other information, i highly recommend it for first - timers on the subject. from there, you can graduate to any of the other references listed. if you make it to the more advanced stuff, you ’ re welcome to visit my site and grab some research papers on the subject. - paul nettle


the building blocks of sandbox and open world games : eve, gta, minecraft, and beyond the term “ sandbox ” has become a bit of an overused buzzword over the past few years, with many games using it to attract attention. it ’ s a difficult concept to define due to its abstraction, so i ’ m going to take you on a journey through gaming history to help you understand the evolution of sandbox games, and the advantages and disadvantages they offer to a game designer. minecraft : a good modern example a picture of a castle made by a player, luis prado, in minecraft minecraft is a great example of a popular modern sandbox game. it ’ s sold 8 million copies, yet its community is still growing. the game allows you to construct buildings in a randomly generated world made of cubes. you can gather resources, craft, explore and combat strange creatures to survive in the world – but mostly, you are free to do anything you want. the goals come from your imagination ; there is no ultimate objective. ( at least, none that you must aim for. ) and yet, although it ’ s a great example of a sandbox game, minecraft does not offer a perfect definition of the term. i ’ m not even sure whether there can be a true definition of “ sandbox ” because the concept is huge. there are many games in the market that use sandbox mechanisms, and they are quite different from each other. a town in the desert created by a group of players in a multiplayer minecraft server. let ’ s start by imagining a real - world sandbox. magically, a child appears inside that sandbox. now he or she is free to do whatever they want – but there is only sand in the box and without any tools the child will get bored of playing with the sand rather quickly. at this point there is nothing else to do other than to leave and play something else. without proper tools, the sandbox is no fun. imagination is a problem it ’ s essential to have the right tools to create a joyful box of sand. the same rule applies to virtual sandbox games as to real sandboxes : if the developer doesn ’ t give the right tools to the player, the player will get bored pretty easily. game designers have to think about a way to make people like and spend time playing their games. if you add some tools – a bucket and a shovel – to the sandbox and guide the child in his first


the player will get bored pretty easily. game designers have to think about a way to make people like and spend time playing their games. if you add some tools – a bucket and a shovel – to the sandbox and guide the child in his first steps, he will be able to achieve something magnificent. with the right tools he will build a sculpture of a lion blowing water out of his mouth while wearing a three - point hat. can you imagine it? imagination is the second problem for a game designer. the limits of imagination won ’ t allow some players to fully explore the world the game designer created – but on the other hand, the game designer can ’ t allow the player to imagine everything he wants and apply it to the game. this means the designer must create some boundaries and rules. and there will always be rules in any kind of game, even in sandbox games. let ’ s put aside the box full of sand for a while. ever played a pen and paper role playing game ( p & p rpg )? you gather a group of friends around a table, and create an adventure for them to live through. one player is the storyteller, and the rest create their own characters that will fit an imaginary world. the difficult part in the process is finding a good group of players. there are many online games that allow people to play together in the comfort of their homes, but no other game is like a tabletop role playing game, because there you are truly free to do anything. tabletop games : the source of it all a character sheet and a set of dice ready to play a role playing game. i ’ ve found that the only way to make people try an rpg without any 3d graphics or cut scenes is to sell them on this idea of total freedom. after gathering my p & p rpg group i could start creating stories, but as i told you before, there is always a set of rules. total freedom, yes, but within the game ’ s boundaries. i had to read a 300 page book to learn all the rules of a fantasy world i was going to keep alive for some months. for some days we, as a group, created true tales of heroes. stories that were out of this world, stories that we couldn ’ t tell in a linear game. we had our little big sandbox where we could try out everything we wanted, and as the storyteller i could change some settings and create a whole new environment to change the dynamic of the game. i won ’ t tell


a linear game. we had our little big sandbox where we could try out everything we wanted, and as the storyteller i could change some settings and create a whole new environment to change the dynamic of the game. i won ’ t tell you the stories or the amount of fun we have playing p & p rpg. if you are a developer that didn ’ t try to play such kind of game i encourage you to try it out. you will find a lot of ideas to apply to your own games ; no - one has yet made a game offering the same freedom as our tabletop sessions, but sandbox game designers keep getting closer and closer. from elite to freelancer elite was released in 1983 with its superb wireframe graphics – very advanced for the time! dungeons & dragons was the first commercial p & p rpg, released as a tabletop game in 1974. the ideas around this theme started to flow and coders were keen to apply them to computer games. in 1983, elite – an open world space trading video game based on a tabletop rpg called traveller – was published. it was a huge success due to how the player had the possibility to make decisions making him feel free. the typical labyrinthine maps were nowhere to be seen, and you could fly across systems completing quests. and elite had another peculiarity : as well as the quests, you had a market where you could “ buy here, sell there ” to make a profit and buy new parts for your spaceship. one year later, the seven cities of gold was released, ushering in a new genre where players could trade, explore, fight and go on adventures under the role of a spanish empire explorer. there were a lot of successors ; games like wing commander and freelancer made their way to the top, but the greatest innovation here was in the creation of multiplayer gaming and the evolution of 2d graphics to 3d graphics. of course, every year it was also possible to save a lot more data on hard drives than before, making the lives of developers a lot easier when creating larger worlds and interactions, which was something they had been trying to do since the beginning. simcity and gta the gta series of games sit at the frontier of the open world and sandbox genres. some years later the city - building games gained popularity. utopia was released in 1982 but the free city building genre only started to get famous when simcity hit the market in 1989. simcity is another perfect example of a sandbox game, and yet it is totally different


city - building games gained popularity. utopia was released in 1982 but the free city building genre only started to get famous when simcity hit the market in 1989. simcity is another perfect example of a sandbox game, and yet it is totally different from the games i mentioned above : as mayor, you were given the tools to build a city in the way you want. the year after that, railroad tycoon was released ; like simcity, it gave players objectives to complete within an economic simulation, but this time the player was tasked with running a railroad business rather than a city. railroad tycoon brought something new to the world of gaming : the “ sandbox mode ”. you were given infinite resources to create anything you ’ d like with infinite resources ( but always within the game ’ s boundaries, of course ). remember the child i spoke of earlier? imagine that child with a lot of tools, a big imagination, and now infinite resources, building cities, roads, places … the release of the sims, at the turn of the century, was another milestone in the evolution of sandbox gaming. again, it is quite different from any other game i spoke about, and changed the way we look at the sandbox concept : you built the house ( and the life ) of a single person or family. the grand theft auto series marked another important change. you can call gta an open world sandbox game, but there is a massive difference between the sims and gta – and yet both fit in the genre, as they allow players to create and interact with the world. be a witch in salem salem is a new sandbox world. it ’ s in beta for now. the games industry is always expanding and game developers are trying their best to give players new experiences, grabbing ideas from the past, applying them in the present, to improve the future. that ’ s why i want to talk about online sandbox games. with the advent of massively - multiplayer online games, companies like sea tribe explored the sandbox concept, applying it to online gaming. they envisioned giant worlds where each person could have their own place to live, maintaining it through diplomacy ( or fighting ). sea tribe ’ s game heaven & hearth is a free to explore world where people play together constructing anywhere they ’ d like. it ’ s a mutable world that players change every day. a house built by players in xsyon shows what ’ s possible to achieve in terms of architecture. sea tribe is working on their new title salem


constructing anywhere they ’ d like. it ’ s a mutable world that players change every day. a house built by players in xsyon shows what ’ s possible to achieve in terms of architecture. sea tribe is working on their new title salem. like heaven & hearth, salem is a 3d world in a 17th century setting. you play as a colonist but you can take your ways into witchcraft. salem and its witches … sea tribe is not the only company preparing to launch a sandbox game to the market. games like the repopulation by above and beyond technologies and xsyon by notorious games explore the same model each one with their different settings and capabilities. these games are based around crafting, as a player needs to craft to be build things. developers had to find a solution to make the game playable and enjoyable. as in any other mmorpg a player needs to level up to gain new skills. in these sandbox games you will earn points when crafting materials – instead of killing every monster you see to finish a quest – in order to get new items to build. those items will help you to develop your village, town, or even city. it ’ s hard to manage a city on your own ; that ’ s why the multiplayer aspect is a very important ( and fun ) part of these games. eve : freedom and fear an artwork artist creating new content for the sandbox world of eve online. another feature is the constant fear of player vs. player battles. this is something you see in eve online, which for my money is the best sandbox game out there at the moment. the mmo games i ’ ve pointed out are in alpha and beta versions, but eve has been out and stable for a while now. eve ’ s player vs. player combat exists in every corner of space. you won ’ t find it only in dog - fighting ; it exists between corporations, in the economy, during transportation … the creators of eve online tried their best to create a world where you can be anything from a simple miner to a great leader of a gigantic corporation. the whole game is shaped by players ’ actions, crafting, and capacity to change the market and control it. that ’ s pretty much what i look for in a sandbox game : the capacity to build a place of your own and manipulate everything you can to fit you perfectly. open world vs. sandbox a final note about the concepts of “ open world ” and “ sandbox ” games : they are very similar, and


: the capacity to build a place of your own and manipulate everything you can to fit you perfectly. open world vs. sandbox a final note about the concepts of “ open world ” and “ sandbox ” games : they are very similar, and i ’ ve used the words almost interchangeably in this article. however, i do think it ’ s useful to try to separate them ; here ’ s my take on that : while open world games let you visit every single place and explore every little piece of artwork, a sandbox game lets you actually help to build and manage the world around you. many see the gta series or assassin ’ s creed games as belonging to the sandbox genre. i can ’ t totally disagree with that, but i feel they ’ re better described as open world games. you can change and interact with stuff in the world of gta, but you ’ re not helping to build it. and that ’ s a huge difference from games like salem, the repopulation, minecraft and xsyon. for me, those are the real sandbox games, where you have a set of tools and you can modify the world you live in. but that ’ s just part of the evolution i guess. it ’ s hard to understand what a true sandbox game is, and what it will be in the future, but it looks like the industry has taken a leap in another direction and that will happen again some day soon. the concept may change, but for now i accept it as it is and i ’ m betting it will take a while until someone figures out a way to recreate it. but the past will always be connected to the future, that ’ s for sure.


news & policies > policies in focus president bush ' s initiative against illegal logging "... i ' ve also ordered the secretary of state to develop a new initiative to help developing countries stop illegal logging, a practice that destroys biodiversity and releases millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. " what is illegal logging? illegal logging is generally understood to mean timber that is harvested, transported, processed or sold in contravention of a country ' s laws. illegal logging destroys forest ecosystems, robs national governments and local communities of needed revenues, undercuts prices of legally harvested forest products on the world market, finances regional conflict and acts as a disincentive to sustainable forest management. international trade in illegally harvested timber and timber traded in violation of parties ' obligations under the convention on international trade in endangered species ( cites ) exacerbates the problem. illegal logging is also a primary factor in the escalating african bush meat crisis, opening up vast areas to illicit hunting to feed loggers and for commercial sale in urban centers. underlying causes of illegal logging and related corruption are rooted in a lack of strong institutions based on democratic principles : rule of law, participatory and transparent decision - making, public accountability, clear land tenure and property rights and due process for dispute settlement. the world bank estimates that illegal logging results in annual losses in developing countries of $ 10 - 15 billion worldwide. the united states has been a leader in raising international awareness of the devastating global problem of illegal logging and identifying actions to address it, notably through the g - 8, regional initiatives such as the south asia and africa ministerial conferences on forest law enforcement and governance, and bilateral development assistance activities. developed at the direction of president bush, this initiative builds on those efforts.


haiti : the duvaliers and their legacy elizabeth abbot ( new york : mcgraw - hill, 1998 ) eyes of the heart : seeking a path for the poor in the age of globalization jean - bertrand aristide ( common courage press, 2000 ) jean - bertrand aristide ( paris : editions du seuil ) in the parish of the poor : writings from haiti jean - bertrand aristide ( new york : orbis books, 1990 ) bitter sugar : slaves today in the caribbean ( chicago : banner press, 1985 ) sacred arts of haitian vodou donald j. cosentino, ed. ( los angeles : ucla, fowler museum of cultural history, 1995 ) masters of the dew jacques roumain ( portsmouth : nh, heienman, 1944 ) farming of bones edwidge danticat ( new york : soho, 1998 ) under the bone anne - christine d ' adesky ( new york : farrar, straus and giroux, 1994 ) the faces of the gods : vodou and roman catholicism leslie g. desmangles ( 1992 ) haiti in the new world order : the limits of democratic revolution alex dupuy ( westview press, 1997 ) infections and inequalities : the modern plagues paul farmer ( university of california press, 1999 ) the uses of haiti paul farmer ( common courage press, 1994 ) aids and accusations : haiti and the geography of blame paul farmer ( university of california press, 1993 ) caribbean : a literary companion james ferguson ( chicago : passport books, 1997 ) the making of haiti : the saint - domingue revolution from below carolyn e. fick ( knoxville : university of tennessee, 1990 ) dancing spirits : rhythms and rituals of haitian vodun gerdes fleurant ( westport, conn. : greenwood press, 1996 ) the catholic church in haiti : political and social change greene ( east lansing : university of michiganpress, 1993 ) graham greene ( new york : viking press, 1966 ) written in blood : the story of the haitian people 1492 - 1995 robert debs heinl jr., nancy gordon heinl and michael heinl ( university press of america, 1996 ) haitian art : the legend and legacy of the naive tradition l. g. hoffman ( davenport, iowa : beaux arts fund committee, 1985 ) haiti ; dangerous crossroads edited by deidre mcfadyen... [ et al. ]... from the north american congress on latin america ( nacla ) ( boston, ma : south end press, 1995


committee, 1985 ) haiti ; dangerous crossroads edited by deidre mcfadyen... [ et al. ]... from the north american congress on latin america ( nacla ) ( boston, ma : south end press, 1995 ) tell my horse : voodoo and life in haiti and jamaica zora neale hurston ( new york : harper and row, 1938 ) the black jacobins : toussaint l ' ouverture and the san domingo revolution c. l. r. james ( new york : vintage books, 1989 ) urban life in the caribbean : a study of a haitian urban community michael s. laguerre ( cambridge, mass. : schenkman pub. co., 1982 ) peripheral migrants : haitians and dominican republic sugar plantations samuel martinez ( university of tennessee press, 1996 ) crossroads and unholy water marlene phipps ( southern illinois university press, 2000 ) like the dew that water the grass : words from haitian women marie m. b. racine ( washington, dc : epica, 1999 ) the haiti files : decoding the crisis james ridgeway ( washington, d. c. : essential books, 1994 ) the miracle of haitian art selden rodman ( garden city, n. y. : doubleday, 1974 ) where art is joy. haitian art : the first forty years selden rodman ( new york : ruggles delatour, 1998 ) haiti renewed : political and economic prospects edited by robert i. rothberg ( brookings institute, 1997 ) hideous dream ; a soldiers memoir of the us invasion of haiti stan goff ( new york : soft skull press, 2000 ) the immaculate invasion bob schacocis ( viking press, 1999 ) silencing the guns in haiti : the promise of deliberative democracy irwin p. stotsky ( university of chicago press, 1997 ) a taste of salt frances temple ( new york : harpercollins, 1992 ) haiti - state against nation : orgigins and legacy of duvalierism michael - rolph trouillot ( new york : monthly press review, 1990 ) the haiti crisis in international law marc weller and ana maclean ( 1999 ) voodoo and the art of haiti sheldon williams ( london : morland lee ltd., 1969 ) the rainy season, haiti since duvalier amy wilentz ( new york : simon and schuster, 1989 ) fort dimanche, dungeon of death patrick lemoine ( freeport, ny : fordi9, 1997 ) haiti en marche haitian


the rainy season, haiti since duvalier amy wilentz ( new york : simon and schuster, 1989 ) fort dimanche, dungeon of death patrick lemoine ( freeport, ny : fordi9, 1997 ) haiti en marche haitian weekly in french and creole. order from 173 nw 94th street, miami fl 33150. ( 305 ) 754 - 0705 ( $ 78 / year ) english every three weeks by the haitian information bureau, c / o lynx air, box 407139, ft. lauderdale, fl 33340. available by mail. regular source of information on haiti ' s democratic and popular movement. published three times per year. subscriptions ( $ 12 ) and directory submissions to peter kinney, 131 n. main street, sharon, ma 02067. ( 617 ) 784 - 8067. haitian weekly in french and creole. order from 1398 flatbush avenue, brooklyn, ny 11210. ( 718 ) 434 - 8000 the haitian times weekly, available through www. haitiantimes. com or via mail at 32 court street, suite 805, brooklyn, ny 11201. ( $ 59 / year ). nacla report on the americas bi - monthly journal. order issues for $ 4. 75 from nacla, 475 riverside drive # 454, new york, ny 10115. ( 212 ) 870 - 3146. haiti : harvest of hope kevin pina ( 1998 ) charles najman ( 2004 ) royal bonbon is the first major film to come out of haiti. director charles najman filled the entire project on haitian soil and used non – professional locals as actors. the film is a comedy / drama about a villager, chacha who believes he is the reincarnation of king christophe, a former slave who led haiti to independence in 1804. jacques arcelin ( 1983 ) a documentary featuring interviews with peasants, landowners, merchants, and us businessmen. it concentrates on history between the haitian revolution and the duvalier regimes. haiti : coup de haiti : coup de grace rudi stern ( 1995 ) a documentary which follows president jean - bertrand aristide during his first exile and return to haiti. haiti : killing the dream rudi stern, babeth, katherine kean ( 1992 ) a film that looks at the history of haiti until the point of president aristide ' s first exile. this film investigates the role us policies have played in the problems of haiti. krik? krak,


, katherine kean ( 1992 ) a film that looks at the history of haiti until the point of president aristide ' s first exile. this film investigates the role us policies have played in the problems of haiti. krik? krak, tales of a nightmare vanyoska gee ( 1992 ) a combination of documentary and fiction illustrating the horror of the tonton macoutes and the duvalier regieme. of men and gods anne lescot and laurence maglorie ( 2002 ) this film explores the relationship between homosexual men and the voodoo religion. looking for life claudette coulanges ( 1999 ) a documentary, which follows the lives of two women surviving in haiti. it raises questions about the influence the importation of north american goods have had on the haitian economy. gillo pontecorvo ( 1968 ) a film starring the late, great marlon brando. this film is about a fictitious island, but closely follows the history of the haitian revolution. johnathan demme ( 2003 ) documentary about the life and assassination of jean dominique, the voice of radio haiti inter. and human rights activist.. haiti solidarity week packet a free, updated packet available by mail and at www. quixote. org / haiti in late january of each year. use it to plan events for your community. requests by mail : haiti reborn / quixote center, p. o. box 5206, hyattsville, md 20782. media skills for haitian activists 1992, a 50 minute video. guide to working with the media by progressive media consultants gwen mckinney and alfredo lopez. $ 17 with training manual included from green valley film and art, 209 college street, burlington, vt 05401. ( 802 ) 658 - 2523. mickey mouse goes to haiti : walt disney and the science of exploitation 18 minute free video. available from the national labor committee, 275 7th avenue, 15th floor, new york, ny 10001. ( 212 ) 242 - 3002. slide show on haiti contains 140 powerful slides chronicling the rise of lavalas, the coup d ' etat, and the plight of refugees at guantanamo. available from the haitian commission, 39 w. 14th street, new york, ny 10011. ( 212 ) 633 - 2889. town meeting on the crisis in haiti september 1993. 90 minute audio tape features former president aristide, ambassador ben dupuy, peasant leader chavnnes jean baptiste, naacp ' s don rojas, dgap economist and activist


##9. town meeting on the crisis in haiti september 1993. 90 minute audio tape features former president aristide, ambassador ben dupuy, peasant leader chavnnes jean baptiste, naacp ' s don rojas, dgap economist and activist laurie richardson. order from pacific radio archives, 3729 chahuenga blvd. west, north hollywood, ca 91604. ( 818 ) 506 - 1077. ( $ 16. 50 ) carribean close - up : dominican republic and haiti 28 minute video from the children of the earth series. available from maryknoll world productions, p. o. box 308, maryknoll, ny 10545. ( 800 ) 227 - 8523. haiti ' s piggy bank : the story of the loss and recovery of the haitian creole pig this video teaches many lessons : the self - interest of usaid, the interconnected nature of resources, the trauma caused from harsh policies imposed from above. it also teaches that resistance can bring with it renewal and hope. available from grassroots international, 179 boylston street, 4th floor, boston, ma 02130. ( 615 ) 524 - 1400. www. grassrootsonline. org. feeding dependency, starving democracy : usaid policies in haiti by laurie richardson, a report by grassroots international. available from grassroots international, 179 boylston street, 4th floor, boston, ma 02130. ( 617 ) 524 - 1400. www. grassrootsonline. org. ( $ 10 ) many of the resources contained on this page were obtained from haiti reborn.


methodism in the united states there are in the united states sixteen distinct methodist denominations, all agreeing essentially in doctrine. john wesley had been conducting his united societies for more than twenty years before the movement took root in north america. the first american conference was held in 1773, and consisted of ten preachers, all of whom were born in england or ireland. asbury came to america to remain permanently ; but rankin, unable to identify himself with its people, to take the test oaths required in the revolution, or to sympathize with the colonies, returned to england, as did all the english preachers except as bury. by may 1776 there were 24 preachers and 4, 921 members ; but in the first year of the revolution there was a loss of 7 preachers and nearly i, 000 members. the preachers in the south determined upon administration of the sacraments, and a committee was chosen whose members ordained themselves and others. the northern preachers opposed this step and for several years the connexion was on the verge of disruption. an agreement was finally made to suspend the administration until wesley ' s desires and judgment should be ascertained. he perceived that the society would disintegrate unless effective measures were speedily taken, and early in 1784 he ordained thomas coke ( 1747 - 1814 ), already in orders of the church of england, as superintendent. wesley sent coke to america as his commissioner to establish, for the methodist soci ety, a system of church government, which should include the administration of baptism and of the lord ' s supper. wesley also appointed thomas coke and francis asbury " to be joint super intendents over our brethren in north america. " soon after coke and his companions arrived they met asbury and fifteen preachers, and a special conference was called, which opened on the 24th of december, 1784, in the suburbs of baltimore, mary land. this convention organized itself into a methodist episcopal church, in which the liturgy sent by wesley should be read, and the sacraments should be administered and deacons to be ordained by a presbytery using the episcopal form. coke and asbury were unanimously elected superintendents, coke, aided by his clerical companions from england, ordaining asbury as deacon and elder and formally consecrating him a general superintendent. this con vention adopted the first discipline of the methodist episcopal church. it adopted the existing doctrinal standards, consisting chiefly of wesley ' s sermons and his notes on the new testament ; also twenty - five


initial surveys began this week and are focusing on the collection of water samples for edna analysis. electroshocking and netting survey efforts will also be conducted starting next week. the edna surveys will occur in the sandusky river and bay, and the maumee river and bay. samples will be collected in the areas where positive edna samples were collected in 2011 and at additional locations believed to provide suitable bighead and silver carp habitat. mdnr research program manager tammy newcomb said, " our coordinated sampling efforts with partner agencies are very important in order to revisit areas where positive samples were collected last year, and to expand sampling to areas that may be reproductively favorable for bighead or silver carp. these are the areas where we can be most effective in preventing expansion of these species should they be present. " mdnr and odnr requested assistance from the usfws to develop and implement this assessment effort. the usfws is contributing significant technical and logistical expertise, as well as personnel, survey equipment and vessels. the us army corps of engineers ( usace ) will analyze the collected edna water samples. access the joint release with additional details and links to information including videos and images ( click here ). [ # glakes ] 32 years of environmental reporting for serious environmental professionals


the rare greenback cutthroat trout, colorado ’ s state fish, is even more imperiled than scientists thought, a new study suggests. by analyzing dna sampled from cutthroat trout specimens pickled in ethanol for 150 years, comparing it with the genes of today ’ s cutthroat populations, and cross - referencing more than 40, 000 historic stocking records, researchers in colorado and australia have revealed that the fish survives not in five wild populations, but just one. stocking records and the tangled genetic patchwork of trout in the southern rocky mountain region suggest that efforts to replenish populations were far more extensive and began earlier than previously recognized. between 1885 and 1953, state and federal agencies stocked more than 750 million brook trout, rainbow trout and cutthroat trout from hatcheries into streams and lakes in colorado, the researchers found. the study, published on monday in the peer - reviewed journal molecular ecology as a follow - up to a 2007 study led by the same biologist, jessica metcalf, yielded some findings that “ may be uncomfortable, ” kevin rogers, a researcher for colorado ’ s state parks authority, said in a call with reporters. doug krieger, senior aquatic biologist for the same agency, colorado parks and wildlife, predicted that the study would shift the direction of conservation efforts. a shift in the scientific landscape is not an entirely new experience for fish managers working with the cutthroat trout in the region. the 2007 study shook the very foundations of cutthroat trout recovery efforts, showing that managers had accidentally mixed a different subspecies of cutthroat trout, the colorado cutthroat, with the rare greenback, and then stocked these hybrid strains into otherwise pure greenback streams. the latest study, whose co - authors also include the biologist chris kennedy of the fish and wildlife service and scientists with the university of adelaide ’ s australian center for ancient dna and the university of colorado, boulder, shows that the last surviving greenback population lies within a four - mile stretch of a small alpine stream known as bear creek. the stream is about five miles southwest of colorado springs, on the eastern slope of pikes peak. located outside the greenback ’ s native range, this holdout population is probably descended from fish stocked at the bear creek headwaters in the 1880 ’ s by a hotelier seeking to promote a tourist route up pikes peak, the researchers say. to map out the historic distribution and range of a species whose taxonomic record is, to quote the latest study,


the bear creek headwaters in the 1880 ’ s by a hotelier seeking to promote a tourist route up pikes peak, the researchers say. to map out the historic distribution and range of a species whose taxonomic record is, to quote the latest study, “ rife with errors, ” dr. metcalf sampled skin, gill, muscle and bone from trout specimens collected in colorado and new mexico from 1857 to 1889, before the state and federal efforts to propagate and stock native trout were ramped up. now housed in museums including the smithsonian museum of natural history and the california academy of sciences, the specimens were preserved in ethanol. “ the dna was very degraded, and there wasn ’ t very much of it, ” dr. metcalf said. “ so this took a lot of effort and repeated sequencing for each specimen. ” still, ethanol preservation opened a window to the past. “ after the 1900 ’ s, a lot of things were fixed in formalin, which keeps them looking the way they were when they were collected, ” dr. metcalf said. “ before that, things were just straight up pickled ” in ethanol. ” the problem for latter - day genetic sleuths is that formalin actually binds with dna, making the latter impossible to recover. it ’ s not always obvious what chemicals were used for a given specimen, but the fact that some fish appeared partially decayed was a good sign these trout were preserved the old - fashioned way ( in ethanol only ), leaving fragments of dna intact. “ the dna i get out of 15, 000 - year - old, extremely degraded animals from patagonia is in better shape than these ethanol - preserved fish, ” she said. aside from presenting an approach for using pre - 1900 museum specimens to provide a baseline for historic diversity, the study effectively yanks the rug out from under cutthroat trout restoration efforts and raises the stakes in a lawsuit filed last week by the center for biological diversity against federal land managers. the center claims that “ rampant motorcycle use ” permitted on trails running along and across bear creek is destroying precious habitat. “ we ’ ve asked the forest service to close that trail to motorcycle use and move it, ” the director of the organization ’ s endangered species program, noah greenwald, said in an interview. even after the construction of bridges and other projects designed to minimize erosion, mr. greenwald said, heavy trafficking of erosive soil around bear creek causes sediments to fill pools that are vital to cutthroat trout


, said in an interview. even after the construction of bridges and other projects designed to minimize erosion, mr. greenwald said, heavy trafficking of erosive soil around bear creek causes sediments to fill pools that are vital to cutthroat trout survival. “ it ’ s a really small stream, ” he said. “ so the pools are super - important during drought, when the stream freezes in the wintertime, and to hide from predators. ” the fish and wildlife service does not plan to take immediate action around bear creek in response to the metcalf research, which the agency helped finance as a member of the greenback cutthroat trout recovery team. other funds flowed from the forest service, the bureau of land management, the national park service and trout unlimited. a fish and wildlife service representative told reporters on monday that the greenback ’ s status would not be changed from threatened to endangered until a thorough scientific review was carried out and the public had a chance to weigh in. separate research that the agency will use to crosscheck dr. metcalf ’ s genetic results is to be completed this fall. historic records indicate that bear creek, like many high - alpine streams made inaccessible by waterfalls and other natural barriers, once had no fish at all. when frontiersmen arrived in the area, they typically would settle near a creek, dr. metcalf said., “ the first thing you ’ re going to do is stock it, so you have a good food resource right by your house all year round, ” she said, the revelation that bear creek is home to the last remaining greenback cutthroats underscores the importance of protecting the population, said mr. greenwald of the center for biological diversity. “ if we can ’ t protect it, if we don ’ t do what ’ s necessary to protect it, “ we ’ re at risk of losing another one of these cutthroat trout subspecies, and that would be a real tragedy, ” he said.