Muslim Brotherhood and pro-Mubarak candidates face second round run off

The first round of Egypt’s presidential election put the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, Mohamed Mursi, in first place. Just one percentage point behind was Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister under ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

Has the revolution that began on January 25th 2011 moved into reverse gear? The results show that it may have stalled, but will surge forward again. The winner was in fact the main loser!

Mass protests followed the results in Cairo and Alexander and other cities and towns. These were reportedly not just against Shafiq but also in opposition to the MB candidate. Hundreds stormed the campaign HQ of the Shafiq campaign in Cairo, setting it on fire.

The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) had ten million votes (47%) in the parliamentary elections a few months ago. This time Mursi’s vote was just over five million (25%). He was the MB’s second choice for candidate – their first choice, Khairat al-Shater, was disqualified because he was convicted under the Mubarak regime. Al-Shater is one of Egypt’s wealthiest businessmen – an indication of the outlook of the MB leadership.

Former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq (left) and Mohamed Mursi (right), head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party

In the parliamentary elections, the ultra-conservative Salafist party, Nour, took 24% of the vote. Their candidate, Hazem Abu Ismail, was also disqualified from the presidential election, because his mother allegedly held dual US nationality. A candidate who defected from the MB and stood as an independent with an appeal to secular liberals, Abdel-Moneim Aboul-Fotouh, got 18% of the vote – much less than predicted in earlier opinion polls. He gained support from Salafists, which probably lost him votes from others who hoped he would bridge the gap between Islamist and secular supporters of the revolution.

Another candidate predicted in early polls to do well, former Arab League general secretary Amr Moussa, came fifth with 11%. He had been an establishment favourite, with just about enough opposition credentials to be able to claim to support the January 25th revolution. Moussa and Aboul-Fotouh had been seen as the front runners and given a TV debate, which seems to have damaged both their results!

Rapid growth for left candidate

The two candidates who did better than expected were Shafiq, an unapologetic remnant of the old regime, and Hamdeen Sabbahi. Of the major candidates, Hamdeen Sabbahi is most identified with the revolution. He gained 22% of the vote, double the prediction a week earlier, topping the poll in Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said. In the January parliamentary election, his Karama (Dignity) party won just 6 out of 478 seats. Sabbahi has over 30 years record of opposition to the Mubarak regime and was jailed by it. His election slogan - “One of us” – reflected this, as well as his poor family background.

Sabbahi stood on a programme that included raising the minimum wage from LE700 (116US$) to LE1200 (200US$) per month, a maximum wage, unemployment benefit for youth and a minimum grant of LE500 to four million poor families. He opposed austerity measures that “have a harmful effect on citizens’ standards of living and contribute to a recession that the citizen pays for.” He also proposed a big increase in use of solar power, a state bank to help farmers, free education and the elimination of illiteracy.

Welcome though all these measures would be, Sabbahi’s programme for implementing them is the Nasserist idea of “a planned development economy, and creating balance between the three economic sectors – public, private and cooperative.”

Although Nasser was able to balance for a few years between the capitalist West and Stalinist Russia, the global domination of capitalism today means there can be no ‘balance between public and private economic sectors.’ Only public ownership of all the big companies, banks and large estates can lay the basis for a ‘planned development economy.’ And planning has to be under the democratic control of workers, small traders and small farmers, rather than a bureaucratic elite of state and military officials.

Old regime’s candidate support

Shafiq emerged as the candidate most supported to restore ‘law and order’ and a sense of security to all those feeling threatened by the upheavals since January 25th 2011. Many of these are likely to be small shopkeepers, traders and small businessmen who have lost trade (including from tourists) during the unrest. Others feel tired after 16 months of revolutionary and counter revolutionary upheaval, with the ruling class and old regime still seemingly clinging to power. Some nostalgia for an apparently more settled past can grow. His campaign was well-financed by the remnants of the old regime and by big business, which want a president that could push back the gains of the revolution.

Ahmed Shafiq’s supporters

The Christian minority also appears to have voted quite strongly for Shafiq due to their increasing fears of Islamisation of the state and the threat of persecution that could follow. However, the combined vote of the two main Islamist candidates, Mursi and Aboul-Fotouh, was only 43%, compared to the combined 72% vote for the MB and Nour in the parliamentary elections.

Turnout in the first round of presidential elections was down, at about 45%, reflecting a widespread view that the election would not lead to change in people’s lives and some disappointment already with the parliament. "We are expecting a lot of this parliament,” one Nour Party voter had said celebrating its electoral success in January. “We expect they will answer our needs and solve the problems the country has been facing including unemployment and shortage of gas cylinders." (Ahram 23.1.12)

Turn to industrial struggle

The two candidates heading into the second round, Mursi and Shafiq, gained only 49% of the first round vote between them. The working class and radicalised youth will not have the choice of voting for a candidate that stands for the aims of the revolution and for independent working class policies. Given this, the abstention rate could be higher in the second round, as many workers and youth see no reason to vote for either candidates, which represent parties and forces that stand in the way of the fundamental social, economic and political change sought by the January 25th 2011. The MB, as the ‘lesser evil’ option, can pick up working class and youth votes, to keep out Shafik. Other voters, particularly Christians, may vote for the Mubarak-era candidate in opposition to fears of political Islamist forces taking over the presidency, as well as parliament. Mubarak’s old big business friends will be hoping Shafiq wins and continues to let them make huge fortunes while workers and the poor suffer.

Whichever of them wins, the working class and poor will need to fight to defend their interests against the ruling class. A Mursi win will disappoint MB voters, as he and the MB leaders do not represent any real change to workers’ lives. In turn, this could see gains being made by the Nour party, if no viable workers’ alternative is built.

But workers have already had some experience of a right wing, political Islam election victory. Striking bus drivers in March had to resist strike-breaking by the army “while the Brotherhood and Salafi MPs who we voted for in Port Said have ignored our demands," a bus driver said. "They’re not defending our rights or the rights of commuters.” (Egypt Independent 13.3.12)

The MB says it is trying to build a coalition government with “all political groups, especially the revolutionary groups.” A spokesman claims it "believes in the true value of a national consensus."

Any revolutionary groups joining a MB coalition to keep out Shafiq would soon be tainted by its anti-working class policies. Sabbahi has correctly refused to enter any coalition talks (although his Karama party did join the MB’s Freedom and Justice Party in the ‘Democratic Alliance’ for a few months, last year).

Whatever the outcome of the presidential election, it is clear that Egyptian society remains in a state of rapid flux. Neither reaction nor revolution has been able to stabilise its support. If Shafiq becomes the new president he will face widespread opposition from the start, particularly from the workers and youth who led the revolutionary struggle. After almost six months of electioneering, attention will start turning towards other means to improve living standards. More strikes are likely, providing the newly formed independent trade unions with opportunities to show that solidarity and struggle can win victories.

But any gains won will always be under threat from employers (and this includes the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, with its large economic interests). Building a political party that can unite workers, youth and the poor around a programme of action to change society can challenge the ruling class.

A workers’ and poor people’s government, implementing a socialist programme, based on nationalisation of the major companies, and genuine democratic workers’ control, would end the dictatorship of capitalism and the poverty, repression and insecurity it brings. The fight for real democracy cannot be separated from the fight for socialism.

Committee for a workers' International publications

p248 01

p304 02


A Day in the Life...

What will historians make of this?

Auntie Ro
I have had this journal for what feels like ever. I stopped writing in it regularly about four years ago. My writing is becoming more consistent again ... In my other LJ. Lol This journal is where I tend to capture my thoughts, deal with whatever is stressing me out, ruminate on the twists of life, and just generally navel gaze. Most of my posts are private to me, but now and then I'll post to my friends.

If I don't know you in real life and you want to read this LJ, please send me a message and introduce yourself.


Due to continued outward expansion of industry and community development into the wildland-urban interface (WUI), the threat to life safety and property from wildland fires has become a significant problem. Such fire scenarios can be better understood through the use of computation fluid dynamics based fire-spread models. However, current physical fire models must be specifically adapted to handle the phenomena associated with WUI fires. Only then can they be reliably used as research and decision making tools to help mitigate the problem. In this research, the current standard in wildland fire modeling for representing the effect on wind flow from a porous vegetative medium is examined. The technique used employs basic correlations for object drag, and its validity with respect to real vegetation has yet to be examined in detail by the scientific community. The modeling of vegetation is studied within the framework of the existing Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Dynamics Simulator (WFDS), and the potential need for continued development is assessed. Comparisons are made to both experimental and numerical studies. Additionally, the validity of the model is considered at both the scale of an individual tree, as well as that of a whole forest canopy. Results show that as a first approximation the model is able to perform well in the latter case. At the scale of an individual tree, however, the behavior is governed by theoretical constants. The assumption of cylindrical vegetation elements performs slightly better than the commonly used spherical case, but neither adequately captures experimental tendencies. Accurate flow representation for single trees is crucial to modeling the key driving factors of fire behavior (such as combustion and heat transfer) in small scale WUI scenarios. Ultimately, this study illustrates the need for well-designed experiments, specifically to generate empirical constants which will improve the behavior of the simplified theory.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Degree Name

Fire Protection Engineering

Project Type

Date Accepted

vegetation, wind, les, cfd, wildland fires, drag force


Brown Bag The Abolitionist Origins of Radical Reconstruction: Charles Sumner, Thaddeus Stevens and Black Citizenship 7 December 2016.Wednesday, 12:00PM - 1:00PM Manisha Sinha, University of Connecticut

This talk will examine how Radical Republicans such as Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens helped convert a radical social movement into a program for political change. It will illustrate how state formation and progressive constitutionalism during Radical Reconstruction were inspired by the abolitionist vision of an interracial democracy.


Costa Rica is one of the favorite destinations of many tourists in the world. In this sense, this wonderful country of Central America collects all the essential characteristics to enjoy an unforgettable family trip, especially for children.

A happy family arriving at the airport terminal

Certainly, the Costa Rican territory offers great adventures for the littlest ones. These activities range from observing animals in danger of extinction in national parks and visiting paradisiacal beaches, to practicing canopy in the tropical rainforest.

If you want to go into this adventure and travel with your little ones to Costa Rica, then you should take into account the following aspects:

  1. Because it is a destination visited frequently by families from all over the world, it is totally accessible and the preparations for the trip are not complicated.
  2. The minor child must be accompanied by his father, mother, or whoever is exercising legal representation.
  3. Children over 12 years old must present their identity card, in good condition and current. Minor children, whose age ranges between 0 and 11 years, must present the birth certificate issued by the Civil Registry and their current passport (minimum 6 months).
  4. If you are a tourist, it is essential that you have the round trip ticket for each member of the family.
  5. Children under 12 years have a 25% discount on domestic flights, while children under 2 years do not pay for tickets; that is, they fly for free (since they do not occupy seats).
  6. On city buses, all children over 3 years old pay their full ticket.
  7. If you have children under 5, be sure to request a child seat when renting a vehicle. With this, you will be complying with the current safety regulations.

Then remember that if you come to Costa Rica with your children, make sure you meet all these requirements. This way you will avoid setbacks and enjoy an unforgettable trip.


World War II — Ebook

Auteurs : Diane Taylor ,
Publication : 01/05/2018
Langue : English
Éditeur : Nomad Press
Collections : Inquire & Investigate
ISBN : 9781619306561
Catégories : Non-fiction jeunesse / Histoire / Moderne, Non-fiction jeunesse / Histoire / Militaire et guerres, Non-fiction jeunesse / Histoire / États-Unis / 20e siècle, Non-fiction jeunesse / Histoire / Holocauste

Why did the world find itself immersed in another global conflict only two decades after World War I?

World War II: From the Rise of the Nazi Party to the Dropping of the Atomic Bomb introduces kids ages 12 to 15 to the political, military, and cultural forces that shook the globe from 1939 to 1945 and beyond. Germany suffered terribly after World War I, due to the harsh repercussions imposed on the country with the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. Hitler and the Nazi party, with their extremist views on racial superiority and their eagerness to erase certain ethnicities and cultures through systemic murder, found a country ready to rise up and conquer weaker nations. Totalitarianism wasn’t limited to Germany, however. The Axis countries of Italy and Japan also saw opportunities to overcome surrounding nations. The early events of the 1940s convinced the Allied countries of France, Britain, Russia, and the United States to join forces against the aggressor nations.

World War II invites middle school students to examine the events leading up to, during, and after WWII and the repercussions of these events on populations around the world. Readers learn about Germany's invasion of Poland and the resulting domino fall of events that engaged several countries and eventually caused the deaths of 60 million people, including 40 million civilians. They also see how the dark side of Hitler’s ideology was always present, eventually resulting in the Holocaust, the systematic murder of 11 million people, including 6 million Jews and other populations.

Through primary sources, essential questions, and engaging text, readers gain a comprehensive understanding of the politics, the economics, the strategy, and the human experience of this global conflict. They also work to find comparisons and parallels between the world as it was before and during WWII and as it is now. Investigative activities, including deconstructing patriotic songs of the era and examining maps of Europe, Asia, and Africa during different time periods serve as jumping-off points for further critical thinking and explorative inquiry as kids delve into the legacy of World War II. What did the world learn from World War II? Could World War II ever happen again?

World War II is one book in a set of four that explore great events of the twentieth century. Other titles in this set include Globalization: Why We Care About Faraway Events; The Vietnam War; and The Space Race: How the Cold War Put Humans on the Moon.

Détails du livre numérique

Format de fichier Protection Services 7switch
ePub DRM Adobe Digital Edition Aucun


What Is A CB Radio?

What Is A CB Radio?

A Citizens Band radio, more commonly referred to as a CB radio, is a system that allows for short-distance communication via two-way radios.

What is a CB Radio?

They offer 40 channels for communication and can be used within the 27 MHz band.

History of the Citizens Band Radio

In 1945, the Citizens Band Radio Service was created in the United States. It was designed to offer citizens a way to communicate with one another personally. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) monitored and regulated the Citizens Band Radio Service.

Initially, CB radios offered 23 channels. Of those channels, 1 through 22 were on an 11 meter band. The last channel – channel 23 – could also be used by devices that were controlled by radios.

Sometime in the 1960s, CB radios started to become popular tools used by truck drivers and small business owners. People who were interested in and had a passion for radio were also enthusiastic about their use. As advances in technology were made, the size, the weight, and the cost of CB radios significantly decreased. These factors made it possible for the public at large to start utilizing these devices, as well. It was then that CB clubs started to form. CB users developed their own form of slang, which they used to communicate with one another on these devices. They also utilized the 10-codes, which were intended to transmit emergencies and other pertinent information.

The Rise in Popularity

In the 1970s, the popularity of CB radios exploded. In part, they were made popular as a result of the oil crises that occurred in 1973. They were also made popular as a result of the introduction of a national speed limit of 55 miles per hour.

CB radios were often used by truck drivers. They used these devices to assist one another, helping them find service stations with fuel and to warn them of speed traps. CBs became extremely important tools for truck drivers. In fact, in 1974, the played an instrumental role in the organization of blockades as a way to protests the introduction of the 55 mile per hour speed limit.

The popularity of CB radios continued to grow throughout the 1970s and well into the 1980s. CBs were tools that people could use to easily communicate with one another. In fact, they were so popular that they became a focal point of many television shows, movies, and even songs.

At first, a license was required to use a CB radio. Users also had to pay a fee and use a call sign. When the popularity of CB use was in full-swing, most people began ignoring those regulations. Moreover, once the FCC began receiving more than a million applications for licenses a month, the requirement to have a license was removed.

Introduction of 40 Channels

It wasn’t until 1977 that the 40 channel band that is used on CB radios today was introduced. In 1960, it was decided that channel 9 would be used strictly for emergencies (which still applies today). Initially, channel 10 was reserved for highway communications, which then changed to channel 10 east of the Mississippi River and channel 19 west of the Mississippi River. Eventually, channel 19 became the high channel that users preferred because it lacked the interference issues with emergency channel 9.

Channels 9 through 15 were used for inter-station calls an channels 1 through 8 and 16 through 22 were used for intra-station calls until 1975.

Decrease in Popularity

The popularity of CB radios has fizzled out in recent years. That is largely due to the introduction of newer, more advanced, and more reliable methods of communication – such as mobile phones.

The decrease in popularity can also be attributed to the difficulties in communication that developed as a result of millions of people using CB radios. It was difficult to hear and challenging to communicate.

The CB Radio Today

While they may not be as popular as they were in their heyday, CB radios are still useful tools. Several manufacturers still make them, and they are of much higher quality and offer many more features today than they ever did before.

For those who need to communicate while driving and don’t want to risk the dangers of using mobile phones, a CB radio is still a great choice.

Are you looking for a CB Radio?  Thwen check out our latest post on the Top 10 Best CB Radios around right now.

For more info on CB Radios take a look at this great article on wiki.

For help on how to use them check out this post.

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Clinical and experimental immunology

Complement alternative pathway genetic variation and Dengue infection in the Thai population.

PMID 23919682

Dengue disease is a mosquito-borne infection caused by Dengue virus. Infection may be asymptomatic or variably manifest as mild Dengue fever (DF) to the most severe form, Dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF). Mechanisms that influence disease severity are not understood. Complement, an integral component of the immune system, is activated during Dengue infection and the degree of activation increases with disease severity. Activation of the complement alternative pathway is influenced by polymorphisms within activation (factor B rs12614/rs641153, C3 rs2230199) and regulatory [complement factor H (CFH) rs800292] proteins, collectively termed a complotype. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the complotype influences disease severity during secondary Dengue infection. In addition to the complotype, we also assessed two other disease-associated CFH polymorphisms (rs1061170, rs3753394) and a structural polymorphism within the CFH protein family. We did not detect any significant association between the examined polymorphisms and Dengue infection severity in the Thai population. However, the minor allele frequencies of the factor B and C3 polymorphisms were less than 10%, so our study was not sufficiently powered to detect an association at these loci. We were also unable to detect a direct interaction between CFH and Dengue NS1 using both recombinant NS1 and DV2-infected culture supernatants. We conclude that the complotype does not influence secondary Dengue infection severity in the Thai population.


The Vietnam war

The Vietnam war from the beginning

The Vietnam war started in 1958 because early on, south Vietnam refused to hold unification elections with north Vietnam. After north Vietnam attacked south Vietnam, the United states sent in 2,000 military advisers to support south Vietnam and eventually grew to 80,000. The casualties were catastrophic. The U.S. lost nearly 60,000 deaths and the Vietnamese deaths were estimated at about 2 million dead. Before the war ended, president Richard Nixon advocated vietnamizatoin, withdrawing US troops. In the end, south Vietnam surrendered to north Vietnam on April 30, 1975 when Saigon (south Vietnam leader) was captured by north Vietnam's forces.

The United States involvement in the war:

At the end of the TET offensive, both sides had experienced high losses and both said that they won and led to more arguments. After, President Johnson announced that the bombing of north Vietnam would stop above the 20th parallel (5000 mile radius of Vietnam) and also withdrawed US forces out of Vietnam. By helping south Vietnam, the united states economy began to wither because of the war costs.

The Casualties: :(

The Hostile deaths: 47,359

Non-hostile deaths:10,797

Total Deaths:58,156

9,087,000 US military personnel served in the Vietnam war

7,484 women served in the military as nurses

Vietnam War Documentary: Inside the Viet Cong - Tactics, Weapons, Tunnels, Uniform

My sources:

"Digital History." Digital History. N.p., n.d. Web. 4/8/13 Apr. 2013.

"Office of the Historian." N.p., n.d. Web.

"Vietnam War Statistics." Vietnam War Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 4/9/13 Apr. 2013

"Vietnam War." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 12 Apr. 2013.


The concept of tactics known from the ancient scientific works on military Affairs. In ancient Chinese treatise "Thirty six stratagems" were determined the basic principles of warfare. The strategy and tactics outlined in the treatise, have been used successfully in various military operations since ancient times. Some of them, in fact its principles, has survived to the present day. The flip side of the strategy – tactics. This ability to achieve appointed goals using the priorities of the current reality.Tactics are

Similarity and difference

Any achievement of the goal in the short and long term is a combination of certain actions. Strategy and tactics - this is the very complex of measures that helps to achieve success. In a narrower sense, these terms can be explained as an idea capable of helping to achieve a goal or a military victory.

The similarity of these two concepts lies in the fact that both are aimed at the realization of the conceived idea. The difference is determined by the scale of the action. The price of decisions, and their consequences, are taken into account. They say that a bad tactic of action leads to a lost day. A bad strategy leads to a lost year.

Action Planning Model

Any direction to a successful business is dictated primarily by strategic development objectives. The development model of a successful company has at least two levels of direction of force application – global strategic objectives and tactics to ensure their implementation. The structure of the tasks can be imagined as a two-story house. Abstract upper floor assigns strategic goals. Ground floor – tactics. This division is very clearly represents the interaction of strategy and tactics, dictates the selection of priority problems for immediate solution.

Multilevel structures

In the case of multi-level structures, for example, when dealing with the interaction of different single-level divisions, a complex of tasks can be represented as a multi-storey building. What is considered a strategy for one level is a tactic for the other. Just like the fifth, for example, the level, is the strategy for the fourth and tactics - for the sixth. Everything depends on the point of view of the task.

Business and war

It should not be forgotten that the method of solving the tasks set by the division of priorities came to us from military affairs. Treatises on the art of killing and conquering were written long before business plans. Strategic issues were raised before the armies and commanders-in-chief, and the tactics of combat varied depending on certain objective factors.

A good example is the actions of the regular army in order to liberate their own country and the actions of partisan detachments. The global task is the liberation of the occupied territory. This is the strategy of the war of liberation.

Army units can handle large volumes of equipment and manpower. Battle tactics for the army is in full opposition to the enemy army. Regular military units are able to withstand the onslaught, to conduct a counter-offensive and the loss in the scale of the military operations are permissible.

Quite the other tasks are confronting partisan detachments. They pursue the same strategic task, but they use completely different from the army tactic. This, above all, small but painful operations, attacks and acts of sabotage designed to inflict damage to the occupied territory, demoralize him, get to lose morale. The personnel of the partisan detachment and its technical resources are very limited, therefore frontal collisions with the army of the enemy will not bring any benefit. Only particularly large partisan detachments can draw upon themselves the army units of the enemy and weaken his positions on the fronts.

As can be seen in this example, the basis of tactics in one or another case involves the evaluation of real opportunities. It's pointless to use the army for point-like diversions, and the partisan detachment is for large-scale offensive operations. Using the available resources for the intended purpose and applying a certain tactic, you can achieve much more significant success.

Tactics and business

According to statistics, only 4 % of employees of organizations and companies become national leaders in a particular industry. In each of these cases, the leadership of the company lay a clear strategic objective, and applied the right tactics. This is a proper separation of strategic and tactical priorities and provided small enterprise success, fame and access to the international market.

The remaining 96% solve tactical tasks, not having a clear strategy or setting themselves erroneous goals. For example, the goal - to make a lot of money - is impractical and unreal. After all, money is only a consequence of the strategic goal achieved. They can be won in the lottery or inherited - they have no relation to the strategic plan of the enterprise. But to become the leader in sales in the city, to make a new product or service known and known is the right goal. To achieve them, you need to analyze all available resources.

An example of the correct business tactics

For example, the company has set itself the task of developing a retail chain of convenience stores. This is a strategic plan. A tactical solution to the task is to analyze the available resources. For example, one of the partners of the enterprise owns a pig farm, the branch of the company is a wholesale supplier of beer. There is also a confectionery shop. Analysis of market requests indicates that bread and milk will be in demand. To begin with, small shops near the house can only trade these products, gradually expanding their range and attracting more and more customers. At this stage, the chain of stores uses the tactics of guerrilla movement, only denoting its presence on the market.

Increasing sales is impossible without attracting new customers. This requires a larger range and reasonable prices. The basic network can already dictate its terms to various distributors and certain marketing techniques to achieve price reductions - for example, large-scale purchases. This is the tactics of a large partisan detachment. The next step in the management of the retail network is the ousting of competitors. This task is similar to the actions of regular army units.

Thus, the various stages of doing business are quite comparable with the stages of military operations. Such an analogy can contribute to a clearer understanding of the tasks in the ordinary life. This means that less time and money will be needed to solve complex issues.


The Italian Divas and the "gowns of emotions"

  Lyda Borelli, Postcard, Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino

Lyda Borelli, Postcard, Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino

The diva films of the early years of the 20th century starring Lyda Borelli and Francesca Bertini “showcased a distinctly Italian style” (Bertellini, 2014, 14). They were the precursors of the Italian and foreign stars who populated Italian cities and Rome in the years of Italy’s post war reconstruction and the parallel phenomenon of divismo. The diva films, and their glamorous actresses are the protagonists of an important debate on identity, style, models of femininity, fashion and modernity that took place in Italy at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Nestoroff? Was it possible? It seemed to be her and yet it seemed not to be. That hair of a strange tawny color, almost coppery, that style of dress, sober, almost stiff, were not hers. But the motion of her slender, exquisite body, with a touch of the feline in the sway of her hips, the head raised high, inclined a little to one side, and that sweet smile on a pair of lips as fresh as a pair of rose leaves, whenever anyone addressed her; those eyes, unnaturally wide, open, greenish, fixed at the same time vacant, and cold in the shadow of their long lashes, were hers, entirely hers, with that certainty all her own that everyone, whatever she might say or ask, would answer yes.

(Luigi Pirandello, Shoot!)[i]

[…] Because everything – from costume and coiffure down to gesture, glance and smile-- for each age has a deportment, a glance, a smile of its own. […] This transitory, fugitive element, whose metamorphoses are so rapid, must on no account be despised or dispensed with.

(Charles Baudelaire, “The Painter of Modern Life”)[ii]

In his description of the diva and with his usual wit, Pirandello captures her theatricality and the power of her performance on screen. If, at first, neither physical features nor style of dress identify her, it is the motion of her “slender and exquisite body” that unmistakably tells us who she is. The diva holds the scene, grabbing the imagination of a mesmerized and enslaved audience to such a degree that “everyone, whatever she might say or ask, would answer yes.”

Thus, Nestoroff, the exotic name given by Pirandello to his diva in Shoot!, is the embodiment of a powerful femininity; she is a femme fatale destined for either destruction or self-destruction. The diva does not lose the power and aura she holds in the audience’s imagination even when she dies, either by killing herself on screen or on the stage in front of her lover, as the diva Lyda Borelli does in Mario Caserini’s Ma l’amore mio non muore (1913), the film that launched the genre of the diva film. Once again, Pirandello’s description of the diva captures the essence of her power: motion and gestural performance. The image of the diva is not a static picture. Rather, it is a body in motion.

Lyda Borelli, L’amore mio non muore, 1913, dir. Mario Camerini

Cinema as a powerful vehicle of emotions that affect the imagination and world view of the viewing public (women spectators in particular), who then go on to imitate and reproduce the dresses they have seen worn by the actresses on screen. The movie screen becomes, then, akin to the shop window where women’s desires for fashionable clothing and accessories take on concrete form.

It should be pointed out, though, that the consumer gaze of women spectators “was not merely acquisitive.”[iii] Rather, a more attentive eye towards the complex nuances of the process of negotiating identity and subjectivity for women at this time is needed if we are to have a fuller picture of the role played by fashion and cinema in these early years of the twentieth century. The case of the divas, in fact, helps us understand the dynamics of producing and consuming images and points to how these actresses need to be seen not only in their glamorous on screen dimension, but also as “ladies of Labor and girls of adventure,” to quote an important study by historian Nan Enstad that focuses on American culture at the turn of the twentieth century.  Enstad argues that the gaze of women, especially those working class women who became “movie-struck” “was interwoven with complex narratives and fantasies.” She adds that: “When working women gazed at posters, dreamed of stars, and attended shows, they enacted subjectivities in a new public arena and engaged contradictions that they experienced…” in their daily lives.[iv] In the context of Italian culture, the divas were quite a unique phenomenon that was testament to the complexities and contradictions of the process of modernity.  Divas brought with them a notion of changing female subjectivities at a time when women in the off-screen world were fighting for the vote and more humane working conditions.

“La donna e la cinematografia,” an article published in the magazine La Donna in 1916, begins by describing the excitement of the young women working in a milliner’s shop when one of the divas they have seen at the movies, but now in the flesh, is trying on several hats in the midst of a shopping spree:

The bellissima, breezing through the store,  was trying on hundreds of little hats, one after the other. […] This no, this yes… One after the other, asthe parade progressed, the purchases were being piled up on a table. The milliner was happy, the customers were amazed. The young women working in the atelier, who were peeping from behind all the doors and curtains – their eyes wide open and having a great time. […]

The frail diva, in her fast automobile coupé, was already going somewhere else to do more shopping. Outside the atelier’s door facing the street, curious and envious eyes of young women were following her, their eyes shining with thousands and thousands of envious desires; one of the apprentices ran towards her car and when she reached it, she threw a small bouquet of flowers to the diva: an homage that was much more eloquent and sincere than those of the aristocratic admirers. [v]

The article gives us both a depiction and a reflection of the impact of cinema on the working class women who admired the diva and fantasized about her. The fantasy induced by the glamour world lived by the actress is accompanied by the apprehension that the new role of women working in the nascent film industry has given them the chance to be paid astronomical salaries. The article mentions, in fact, that Bertini (the diva who came from modest social origins and who could conceivably have been one of the women working in the millinery workshops, atelier and sartorie) had received a salary of 2,500 lire that was then increased during the war to 10,000 lire.

In the article, the power of cinema over the mass audience seems inevitable and parts of modern times, in the same way as the telephone, electric lighting, the newspaper were. Cinema is aligned with the power of the diva to make the magic of the spectacle seductive enough to be dreamed of and imitated:

In Paris as in St. Petersburg, in Italy as in Latin America, the young beauties aspiring to live of love and art are subject to a cult for the great stars of the cinema; each one of them has a favourite: there are some who adore Borelli (in general, men like her more…), there is those who love Bertini (…) There are also those also who judge Menichelli unique […]. All of them end expressingtheir admiration by way of some tangible sign or other, sometimes perhaps unconsciously and inadvertently--they imitate the suffering poses, the gait—the Marquis Colombi would say--a bit rambling, the insistent but pretty sneer. The gentle sex now bertineggia as some time ago it had borrelleggiato or tomorrowmenichellerà. The easy way the queens of the silent film acquired fame and wealth in such a short time is the preferred topic of their conversation. The young women working in workshops know that some of the divas belong to the same breed as they do, who once went to work every morning, and received a poor salary for long hours of work: they speak about their salary, their small town house, their automobile, their stay at the seaside, and their numberless princely admirers. (35)

The article stresses how the motion and gestural performance of the divas defines not only their on screen identity, but also represents a blue print for women of all classes to pose, walk and fantasize:

You laugh at the sartina who touches up her hair copying the pose of Borelli, or the women intellectuals who before entering a drawing room will stay for a few seconds near the door gazing towards the infinite in that narrow space feigning an interrogative gaze a la Bertini. (Emphasis mine, ibidem}

The divas’ gestural performance is, then, characterized both by motion (duration in film), but also by pose, which represents an interruption in movement, a still image that stems the flow of the film.  Specific accessories such as the shawl in Assunta Spina, the Owl Hat in Il Fuoco, have a structural meaning in the context of film and costume. These objects, in calling attention to themselves, become in Bergsonian’s terms “intervals of duration.” At the same time, as philosopher Federico Luisetti has noted in commenting on the futurist photographer Bragaglia’s Bergsonism, these intervals of duration help us to understand the dynamics between movement and pose in the fashion show and on film.[vi] By extension, clothes and accessories act as catalysts in this process of materialization and dematerialization of the visible. Movement and pose, in fact, are the gestures identified by Caroline Evans in her study of the origin of the fashion show, but they are also terms that describe the way the divas parade their costumes on film. Miming both film and photography, the fashion show is characterized by flow and duration as well as by intervals and interruptions through the pose. In the case of the diva films, the plot or the story of the film in question assumes a function that is secondary and subservient to the form of the film.

In the absence of Italian newsreels of fashion shows during the 1910s, the diva films with the magnificent costumes exhibited on the bodies of Borelli, Bertini, Menichelli and others not only fill this void, but also by way of the high visibility they enjoyed take some of the first steps toward the creation of an Italian style. In this way, dress and costumes on the bodies of the diva play a role in the context of a larger history of the origin of the fashion show as studied by Evans in reference to France and the US. Looking rather closer at the performance of dress in the Italian diva films, we can see how the fashion parades present in them both resemble, but also differ from, the parades organized in France and the US as a spectacle and a marketing strategy for promoting French and American fashion. In the 1910s, an autonomous Italian fashion and an organized infrastructure did not yet exist.  This might be the reason why in Italy fashion shows newsreel of the kind produced by Pathé-Fréres or Gaumont and those advertising Poiret’s fashion or the English entrepreneurial dressmaker Lady Duff Gordon (Lucile), which were part of the French fashion scene, were absent.

LYDA BORELLI (1887-1959): The ethereal melancholic beauty

  Borelli as Salomè, postcard, Album/Art Resource NY

Borelli as Salomè, postcard, Album/Art Resource NY

I am very fascinated […] with clothes, with the question of a woman’s elegance, with that fantastic and, without a doubt, complicated world which is a woman’s wardrobe. I, just like you, believe that a wardrobe is a sort of poetic medium or instrument.
(Lyda Borelli, Letter to a writer)
Movement, time, rhythm of the gestures, are all undoubtedly influenced largely by what is worn.
(Georg Simmel, Fashion, 1906, in Purdy, 295
  Lyda Borelli, postcard, 1910-18 (b/w photo), Italian Photographer, (20th century) / Private Collection / Alinari / Bridgeman Images

Borelli was such a visible star that Italy gave itself over to a Salomania craze and with it a growing fascination with the orient and the exotic on a par with other European countries and the US. But it was with cinema that Borelli achieved international popularity and a mass audience.  The aura that grew up around her and her beauty led to an early manifestation of what today we call celebrity culture. Borelli was certainly the precursor to what later on Hollywood would project through stars like Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Bette Davis and others.

The veil: modernity in motion in Nino Oxilia’s Rapsodia Satanica

And as far as people saying that the cinema is a new art? Yes it is, in its form […] Perhaps it is a transformation of the art of posing which Euripides valued so much, after all, precisely because it is the simplest, the dance of human passions—transformed for our modern mentality--[…] I would call the cinema the art of silence in the sense that it is an art of sculptures, one following the other.

(Nino Oxilia, emphasis added)[viii]

A dress wrongly worn is like an adjective that is not appropriate to the name that it is supposed to modify or the object that it is supposed to define. Its intrinsic value is out of tone and it seems that it cannot regain its useful function. This harmony between exteriority and interiority of the artist is as all the more necessary for the cinematographic interpreter as it is more difficult to create a mood in front of the camera if it does not really happen on the set […] And who does not know that emotions are the absolute condition to render the life of creatures in which we have to transform ourselves?

(Lyda Borelli, “Bellezza ed Eleganza,” L’arte muta, I (1916), n. 6-7

Transparent fabric – which also serves practical and morally religious purposes (e.g. as a veil)--and lace (originally a mere luxury product) have received their most refined configuration and most ingenious application only through the creative spirit of eroticism. […] For he knew that clothing is more naked than nakedness, and that we see more behind a veil than in the unveiled…

(Karl Kraus)

Francesca Bertini (1892-1985): the glamorous embodied

  Francesca Bertini, c.1921, Italian photographer (20th century), private collection/Alinari/Bridgeman Images

Since the early years of my adolescence, I gave all of myself, with always growing passion, passing through the thorns of obstacles and going on to the roses of hopes and the glowing joys of victories, to the art of silent film,. My daily dream was to climb ever-higher steps on the golden staircase of beauty. This art of oursis like Greek art, it is in the sun, and it has direct relationships with things and nature, it is not a new art, but the continuation of the old thanks to the developments and the unforeseen possibilities that are continuously multiplied by the perfecting of technical elements.

(Francesca Bertini)[x]

As noted by Cristina Jandelli, the public image that Bertini managed to create through the popularity of her many films was consacrated in the postcards that celebrated her beauty.  But she kept the details of her private life a mystery.  She had delicate features like Borelli, but unlike her, she had dark hair, which lent to one of her screen personae the quintessential representation of the Mediterranean beauty.   She says in her autobiography:

I never went out in the evening. Usually I was in bed at nine. Only during the winter months did I go to the Theatre at the Opera […]. I used to arrive late, when the performance had already started and I left before it ended.[…] My lifewas completely immersed in mystery.

Later she says: “Nobody could ever find me, see me or knew where I was.”The strategy of separating her public image from her personal life had the effect of amplifying her attractiveness and cache as a star. In the journal Film, a column called “Piccola Posta dei curiosi” (1916) offers a glimpse of the status she enjoyed. Men sent several letters in which they declared they were madly in love with her, so much so that they wanted to commit suicide; they wanted to know the kind of food she preferred, if she smoked or not etc. Such curiosity towards celebrities is still very present in our post-digital world where the “piccola posta dei curiosi” has been replaced by tweets sent directly by the stars to inform their followers of their lives, daily activities and food preferences. In 1916, the divas epitomized the beginning of celebrity culture and its world of popular press and film gossip. In the rich landscape of magazine publications that flourished in Italy, the journal Film became one of the vehicles that was used to advertise the nascent Italian phenomenon of divismo by publishing several pictures including portraits and set scenes. The fast growing film industry and its female stars were becoming part of mass and popular culture.

Assunta Spina moves and poses on screen, her shawl draped around her shoulder and arms, moving her hands, neck and face; her eyes looking with a certain defiant air. She expresses both the awareness and the pleasure of being in front of the camera. She is not a passive executor or receiver. Even as an object to be regarded, she is also an active producer of her gaze and of her image on screen. In her article “Sensazioni e ricordi,” which appeared in the film journal In Penombra (as shown in the paragraph opening this section), she makes it clear that she took immense pleasure in becoming one of the protagonists of popular culture and the popular imagination. In particular, she notes how cinema as a new medium gave her as an actress the opportunity to delve into a complex process of identity awareness and negotiation of new forms. Some years later, in 1938, she will declare that:

I understood from the very beginning of my involvement with cinema, how this new art would require a simple and humane acting style: an economy of gestures, of attitudes and expressions. Film […} was completely different from the stage. For the most part, my secret consisted in the intuition that allowed me to adjust interpretations to particular needs of cinema. Stylization: here it is in brief, a good definition of my art.[xi]

Bertini, the diva, is then the author of her own image. She legitimates the figure of the artist as a maker; she sees herself at the same level as the men working in the film industry producing dream worlds. New art and technology allowed women like Bertini and other major and minor divas to be protagonists and creators of their own new models of femininity and subjectivity.

Pina Menichelli (1890-1981): "the other woman and the end of an era"

  Pina Menichelli, c. 1915-25, Italian photographer(20th century) Private collection/Alinari/Bridgeman

Pina Menichelli, c. 1915-25, Italian photographer(20th century) Private collection/Alinari/Bridgeman

Pina Menichelli speaks to me of the role of stage manager in cinema,  and we agree completely, because she believes, like me, that the driving force and the creator of a work is the cinematographer. And yet, I add, with all the actresses in cinema that I have interviewed on other occasions, it has never happened that any of them have spoken about the role of the stage manager. (Interview with Pina Menichelli by Giovanni Innocente, In Penombra…)

Eroticism received its essential meaning only with the invention of clothing. The configuration of eroticism has gone hand in hand with the configuration of clothing and in our unconscious experience eroticism and clothing are no longer at all separable from one another.

              (Karl Kraus, in Purdy 241-42)

Fashion is a public act. It is the placard, displayed advertising of how one intends to officially manage the business of public morality. Hence, fashion always contains the most precise formula of the general historical situation. “Appearing naked in full dress” is exactly this. For it is nothing other than the solution, construed by moral hypocrisy, to the fashion problem of women’s clothing: to be dressed completely, that is, up to the neck and down to the tips of the toes, and yet also to stand before male fantasy in erotic nudity.

             (Edward Fuchs, in Purdy 325)

Pina Menichelli is most remembered for her power of seduction and femininity in sinister and almost diabolic form. The titles of her films--Il Fuoco (1915, dir. Giovanni Pastrone) and Tigre Reale (1916, dir. Giovanni Pastrone), two of her most well known films, both directed by a big name director, Giovanni Pastrone who had just been internationally acclaimed for his big epic production of Cabiria—immediately give the game away.  They suggest destructive and seductive power of her beauty and eroticism. She is the sex symbol of Italian divas, far more than her fellow actresses Borelli and Bertini, and epitomizes what Fuchs has identified as the notion of “appearing naked in full dress.” Pina Menichelli represents the “other woman,” the seductress, the femme fatale on the verge of becoming a vamp, an antagonistic spectre to the apparent bourgeois order. Once again, clothing and costume play a pivotal role in the way her erotic charge is conveyed and constructed. Menichelli acknowledges the role played by the direttore di scena (set designer) in the meticulous construction of her image and of films in general, as she made clear in an interview published in the journal In Penombra, quoted in the epigraph to this section. Film, she says, is the result of a collective effort; the diva is the beneficiary of this effort as well as being part of it.

[i] Pirandello, L. [1915], 2005, Shoot! Ibidem, pp.22-23.

[ii] Baudelaire C., [1863] 2004, “Modernity” in Purdy L D ed. The Rise of fashion. A Reader, Minneaopolis: University of Minnesota Press, p 217.

[iii] Nan Enstad, ((1999) Ladies of Labor. Girls of Adventure, New York: Columbia University Press, p. 163.

[iv] Enstad, N. (1999), ibid. p. 163

[vi] Luisetti F. (2015) ibid. p. 7-8.

[vii] Lyda Borelli, quoted in Dalle Vacche.

[viii] Mario Oxilia, quoted in Dalle Vacche.

[ix] Kraus K, (2004), “The Eroticism of Clothes” from Die Fackel (1906)” in Purdy D. L. ed., The Rise of Fashion. A Reader, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 243-44.

[x] This is an article Francesca Bertini published in the journal (1918) In Penombra, "Sensazioni e ricordi. La prima posa,” June, 22-25, p. 25.

[xi] Quoted in Jandelli, C. (2006), Le dive italiane del cinema muto, Palermo: L’Epos, pp. 47-48


Matters of the Council

The European Ceteacean Society is a body of marine mammal specialists and enthusiasts.

Letters of Concern

Letters of concern state specific issues that are embraced by the society and express certain needs either from a scientific or conservation perspective.


Israel and Syria on the brink of war

19 July 2018

After the Syrian government forces achieved success in combating the armed groups in the provinces of Daraa and Suweida, they are able to travel westward to the Golan Heights.

The Syrian newspaper “Nezavisimaya Gazeta” said that the Syrian Arab army has recently been able to compete with the armed opposition in the provinces of Daraa and Quneitra to a large extent, and approached the borders of Israel.

It is expected that the Syrian army will be able to continue to advance and encircle the armed groups in a narrow location close to the positions of the United Nations peacekeeping forces.

According to the newspaper, the progress of the Syrian army towards the Israeli border could lead to a war with Israel. The Israeli army has mobilized many of its units in the Israeli part of the Golan Heights, and the IDF forces there must confront the Syrian forces if the latter enters the disengagement line. Israeli land was shelled by accident.


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About Our Sports Performance Programs

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Reason for Review To summarize proof characterizing the relationships between adrenal-

Reason for Review To summarize proof characterizing the relationships between adrenal- and calcium-regulating human hormones, as well as the relevance of the interactions to human being cardiovascular and skeletal wellness. which might be mediated from the RAAS. Research of main hyperparathyroidism implicate PTH-mediated activation from the RAAS, and latest evidence demonstrates the supplement D-vitamin D receptor (VDR) complicated may adversely regulate renin manifestation and RAAS activity. Ongoing human being interventional research are analyzing the impact of RAAS inhibition on PTH as well as the impact of VDR agonists on RAAS activity. Overview While previously regarded as self-employed endocrine systems, growing evidence helps a complex internet of relationships between adrenal and calcium-regulating human hormones, with implications for human being cardiovascular and skeletal wellness. Troxacitabine [21], and PTH infusion leads to improved AngII amounts [22]. (F) The 1,25(OH)2D-Supplement D Receptor complicated inhibits renin manifestation [23**], insufficient Supplement D status continues to be associated with improved plasma renin activity [24], and Supplement D supplementation can downregulate the RAAS [25**]. RAAS, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone program; PTH, parathyroid hormone; 1,25(OH)2D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D; Ca, calcium mineral; AGT, angiotensinogen; AngI, angiotensin I; ACE, angiotensin transforming enzyme; AngII, angiotensin II. RAAS-MEDIATED CONTROL OF CALCIUM-REGULATORY Human hormones Observational research of individuals with main aldosteronism (PA) possess reveal a detailed interaction between your RAAS as well as the calcium-regulating hormone program. Early tests by Resnick while others 1st described modifications in calcium rate of metabolism and raised PTH amounts in individuals with PA [26, 27]; nevertheless, levels of supplement D, a feasible confounder, weren’t measured. Recently, Pilz et al. explained 10 individuals with PA with considerably higher PTH amounts than 182 important hypertensive settings despite related 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) amounts [14**]. In a more substantial observational research of 44 individuals with PA, Maniero et al. found out elevated PTH amounts (+31%), while 25(OH)D, Rabbit Polyclonal to Collagen VI alpha2 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25[OH]2D), serum and urinary calcium mineral measurements were equal to several 61 important hypertensive settings Troxacitabine [15**]. Improved PTH amounts are so very much an attribute of aldosteronism that Rossi et al. shown that raised PTH levels might even serve as a useful marker in distinguishing unilateral Troxacitabine aldosterone-producing adenoma from bilateral adrenal hyperplasia as factors behind PA in hypertensive individuals [28*], potentially because of an increased intensity of hyperaldosteronism in aldosterone-producing adenoma. In each case, treatment of PA with either adrenalectomy or a mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) antagonist considerably decreased PTH to amounts comparable with important hypertensive settings [14**, 15**, 27, 28*]. These research determine a reversible condition of hyperparathyroidism connected with autonomous aldosterone hypersecretion. Provided the data of raised PTH in PA and pet studies describing bone tissue reduction in hyperaldosteronism [29, 30], Salcuni et al. lately demonstrated lower bone tissue mineral denseness (BMD) in 11 individuals with PA weighed against 15 non-PA settings, with accompanying improved PTH amounts [31*]. PA was connected with osteoporosis (OR 15.4; 95% CI 1.83C130) and with vertebral fractures (OR 30.4; 95% CI 1.07C862) with this human population [31*]. Furthermore, in the subset who underwent medical procedures or medical MR blockade, treatment was connected with decreased PTH amounts and improved lumbar backbone BMD at 6- and 12-month follow-up, respectively [31*], recommending a potential PTH-mediated system of reversible bone tissue loss. In a more substantial prospective research, Ceccoli et al. examined PTH and calcium mineral guidelines in 116 individuals with PA and 110 important hypertensive settings, and assayed BMD and bone tissue Troxacitabine markers inside a subset of 40 individuals before and after medical or medical procedures of PA [32*]. Once again, individuals with PA had been found to possess elevated PTH amounts compared with settings. At 18C36 weeks after treatment of PA, Z-scores of BMD had been improved in the lumbar backbone, femoral throat, and total hip, and C-telopeptide, a marker of bone tissue turnover, demonstrated a nonsignificant tendency toward improvement [32*]. In both research, PA subjects experienced similar 25(OH)D amounts weighed against their non-PA settings. These studies possess identified reversible lack of bone tissue mass in PA and recommend a feasible PTH-mediated system of bone tissue metabolism. However, extra mechanisms have already been suggested, including a.


Music Education

Music Technology & Home Recording Glossary D

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D.A.T. - Acronym of Digital Audio Tape.

D/A Conversion / Converter: - Digital to Analogue conversion. A converter is a piece of circuitry which acheives this. The quality of conversion is highly dependent on the amount of bits used in the conversion process, hence a 24 bit converter will acheive a much more accurate resolution of the sound than say, an 8 bit converter. This aside a good "rule of thumb" for measuring the quality of D/A and A/D converters is to examine the S/N or "Signal to Noise" ratio of the device in question, which is measured in dBs. The process by which digital data (0’s and 1’s in binary computer language) is reconverted back to an analog (electrical) audio signal. This is how compact disk players play back CDs, and is the same means by which digital synthesizers and samplers play back their sounds through analog outputs such as speakers or headphones.

Damping: Damping refers to the ability of an audio component to stop after the signal ends. For example, if a drum is struck with a mallet, the sound will reach a peak level and then decay in a certain amount of time to no sound. An audio component that allows the decay to drag on too long has poor damping and less definition than one wants. An audio component that is over-damped does not allow the initial energy to reach the full peak and cuts the decay short. Boomy or muddy sound is often the result of under-damped systems. Dry or lifeless sound may be the result of an over-damped system. In the context of reverberation, damping refers to the rate at which the reverberant energy is absorbed by the various surfaces in the environment.

DAO: Disc at Once; a recordable CD method where the session is recorded in one pass without interruption (the laser does not turn off). This is ideal when sending audio recordings to be mastered or pressed as most mastering and/or duplication facilities machines will fail or error out if it detects that the laser was turned off.

DAT - Digital Audio Tape. A tape-based digital audio recording and playback system, developed by Sony, which use a sampling rate of 48 kHz (slightly higher than CDs, which use 44.1 kHz). Audio Industry Standard format for 2 track digital recording. Achieves CD quality audio on a tape about 1/3 the size of a cassette. Abbreviation for “Digital Audio Tape,” it is a digital tape-recording format using a small cassette that provides up to two hours of 16-bit, linear, PCM digital recording at a sampling rate of 32, 44.1 or 48 kHz. A significant advantage that a DAT has over most MiniDisc is that most DAT players will have a digital output, useful when transferring the file to the computer for editing, provided that the soundcard has a digital input. The Edirol UA-1D is the perfect device for this digital transfer with both digital ins and outs. Digital recorders using fixed or stationary heads (such as DCC) are known as S-DAT machines.

Data Wheel: A knob that allows you to scroll through Programs and change parameter values. Usually used when a keypad is not available or for fine tuning and scrolling through infinite variables.

Data: Information a computer needs in order to make decisions or carry out a particular action. Information stored and used by a computer.

DAW: Digital Audio Workstation, such as Roland’s VS-2480.

dB (Decibel): A logarithmic measure of sound pressure level, a "Decibel" is one tenth of a "Bel". To put this in human terms, someone with pretty good hearing will be able to pick up sounds from @ 0 - 10dB (a quiet room can be as much as 40dB), and will start to feel pain and possibly sustain hearing damage if they are exposed to levels in excess of 135dB for any length of time (The public address speakers of the kind used at very large concerts may realize this if they are running at their maximum). A reference for the measurement of sound energy. The minimum change in volume that the human ear can perceive. Named after Alexander Graham Bell. A decibel is 1/10th of a Bel. A ratio based measure of the comparative amount of some quality, usually sound level, power or voltage, relative to some reference amount. It is often qualified to indicate what property is being compared i. e. dB(A), dB(v) etc. e. g. One might talk about a signal to noise ratio of 80 dB(v). This would be a comparison between the amplitude of the signal (which we want to hear) and the noise (which we don't). In this case the signal voltage becomes the reference point, (whatever the actual value was) and would be called 0 dB(v), the noise voltage (whatever the actual value was) would therefore be 80 dB(v) smaller. The logarithmic nature of the decibel allows us to compare two values of enormously different magnitudes with conveniently small numbers. e. g. the limits of hearing in terms of absolute pressure level cover the range from 20µPa to 200,000,000 µPa. Any arithmetic on this basis is quite tedious. The same range expressed in dB SPL is 0 -140 dB SPL. Much more convenient.

dB SPL A decibel based unit intend to give an absolute measurement of sound pressure, where 0 dB ="20µPa (micro Pascals). The human range of hearing is related to this scale with 0 dB(SPL) being the threshold of hearing, while 120-140 dB(SPL) (depending on which reference book you use) being the threshold of pain.

dBv: Variation on dB referenced to 0dB = 0.775 volts.

dBV: Variation on dB referenced to 0dB = 1 volt.

dbx: - Form of noise reduction patented by the dbx corporation of the United States. Works by compressing the sound during recording, and expanding it during playback. A commercial encode/decode tape noise reduction system that compresses the signal during recording and expands it by an identical amount on playback.

DC (DIRECT CURRENT) - an electrical current that flows in one direction. Direct Current, which is electrical current where the flow of electrical charge is ALWAYS in the same direction. Whilst almost all household elctricity is AC, the power produced by batteries is invariably DC. See also AC. When looked at through an oscilloscope, DC electricity produces a nice, even Sine Wave.

DCO: Digitally Controlled Oscillator.

DDL: Digital Delay Line.

DECAY - one of the four basic stages of an envelope. Refers to the time the sound takes to settle into its sustain level.

DEFAULT - the "normal" or "startup" state of a hardware device or software application.

DELAY - a common effect in a sampler or synthesizer that mimics the time difference between the arrival of a direct sound and the first reflection to reach the listener's ears. An effect that is used to add depth or space to an audio signal by repeating the input one or more times after a brief pause of a few milliseconds to a few seconds. Delay is also often referred to as echo. - (device which will repeat sound at regular intervals producing echo-like effect). Delay": - see Effects or "FX" Processing . A common effect in a sampler or synthesizer [or effects] that mimics the time difference between the arrival of a direct sound and its audible first reflection. A controllable time parameter giving the ability to start an event only after a predetermined amount of time.The Delay function on the EIII allows you to delay the start of a sound from 0 to 1.5 seconds from the time a key is pressed.

DEOXIDISING COMPOUND: Substance formulated to remove oxides from electrical contacts.

Depth: The amount of modulation. Sometimes called Amount, Width, Intensity or Modulation Index.

Detent: - A stop or catch. In electronics usually placed in a variable resistor such as a the middle point of a "pan" control on a mixing desk, to tell you where the "default" setting is. Physical click stop in the center of a control surface such as a pan or EQ cut/boost knob.

Digital Audio Tape (DAT): The medium that a machine that records sound digitally uses. They generally use a spinning drum similar to those found in VCR's as opposed to the record and playback heads found on regular analog tape recorders.

DIGITAL DELAY: Digital processor for generating delay and echo effects.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act: This newly enacted law implements two global treaties designed to protect creative works in the digital era. It prohibits the manufacture and distribution of devices the primary purpose of which is to "pick" the electronic "locks" protecting copyrighted material online. This prohibition enables effective enforcement against those seeking to pirate copyrighted music online. The greatest gains from passage of this legislation will be realized internationally. This bill will serve as a model for ratification and implementation of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties in other countries, where protection of sound recordings online is not sufficient. Formal U.S. ratification of the treaty package helps move the worldwide ratification effort closer to the 30 countries that must ratify the treaties for them to take legal effect. The law also includes important provisions that clarify the rights of copyright owners and the responsibilities of online service providers to guard against piracy online. In addition, the DMCA also contains critical provisions relating to the licensing of music on the Internet and amending the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995 (described below).

Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995: For more than 20 years, the RIAA has been fighting to give copyright owners of sound recordings the right to authorize digital transmissions of their work. Before the passage of the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995, sound recordings were the only U.S. copyrighted work denied the right of public performance.

DIGITAL REVERB: Digital processor for simulating reverberation.

Digital Signal Processor: Most signal processors these days are digital. They allow the instant recall of all the parameter settings of the device without having to manually reset all the controls every time a different sound effect is required. Increasingly DSP's are becoming software based, accessed via an audio recording or editing application as a plug-in.

DIGITAL SYNTHESIS - the use of numbers to create sounds. Method most often used in today's synthesizers for generating sounds, as compared to analog method employed previously.

Digital to Analog Converter (DAC): A device which interprets Digital information and converts it to Analog form. All digital musical instruments must have a DAC so that we can hear their output.

Digital versatile disc (DVD) audio and high-density disc: DVD audio is a high-density disc with about seven times the capacity of a CD. The extra capacity in the disc will be used to achieve a high-quality, multi-channel surround sound that is significantly better than current CDs, and may also be used to include features such as text, graphics, video and interactivity. DVD audio discs will require new players, but most, if not all, new DVD players will also play consumers’ existing CD collections.

DIN PLUG - a five-pin connector used by MIDI equipment.

Direct Injection (DI) Box: - Transfomer device which allows a musician to plug an an electronic instrument such as a guitar or bass, directly into one of the inputs of a mixing desk.

Direct time lock (DTL) and enhanced time lock (DTLe): A synchronization standard that allows Mark of the Unicorn's Mac-based sequencer, Performer, to lock to SMPTE through a converter which supports these standards

Directional Pattern: - see Polar Pattern.

DirectX Plug-In - a program that uses Microsoft's DirectX technology to obtain digital audio samples which are then manipulated by applying reverb, compression or some other type of audio signal effect. The output signal may be rendered off-line or generated in real-time while the plug-in's host program performs playback. See Plug-In for more details.

DISC: Used to describe vinyl discs, CDs and MiniDiscs.

disc-at-once (DAO) - single session burning process that cannot be interrupted and does not allow any data to be added once burned on a disc. Does not add 2 second gaps between tracks as does track-at-once recording

Display: A device that gives information in a visual form.

DISTORTION - a process, often found desirable by guitar players, that alters a sound's waveform.

Divestiture: Removing state investments, usually in the form of pension funds for retired state workers, from entertainment companies producing what some politicians believe is "objectionable" music. This policy threatens the First Amendment and undermines the retirement security of senior citizens by allowing politicians, instead of financial professionals, to decide how to invest state funds.

Dolby Digital: A five-channel audio system with all processing in the digital domain consisting of left, center, right and left rear, and right rear channels and optional subwoofer. This is also referred to as Dolby Digital 5.1. Unlike Dolby Prologic in which the rear effects channel’s frequency is limited to approx. 100-7000Hz, Dolby Digital rear channels are specified to contain the full 20-20Khz frequency. When an audio file has already been encoded with Dolby Digital, Edirol’s USB audio interface, the UA-3D has the ability to pass through the signal. An encode/decode tape noise reduction system that amplifies low level, high frequency signals during recording, then reverses this process during playback. There are several different Dolby systems in use: types B, C and S for domestic and semi-professional machines, and types A and SR for professional machines. Recordings made using one of these systems must also be replayed via the same system.

Dollar value: The monetary worth of a stated quantity of shipped product multiplied by the manufacturer’s suggested retail price of a single unit. The value of shipments is given in U.S. dollars.

DRIVER: Piece of software that handles communications between the main program and a hardware peripheral, such as a soundcard, printer or scanner. Piece of software that handles communications between the operating system and a hardware peripheral such as a soundcard, printer, MIDI card or scanner.

DVD-A: DVD audio authoring is DVD encoding software. Minnetonka’s discWelder STEEL allows formats supported in the DVD-A specification, including non-encoded, uncompressed surround and or high-resolution stereo (two channels of 24-bit, up to 192 KHz audio), in WAV or AIFF file format. Surround and stereo tracks may be used on the same disc, and a discWelder-burned disc will play on any DVD-A player that supports DVD-R/RW.

Dynamic Allocation: On the EIII, Dynamic Allocation defeats any pre- assigned output channel assignments and assigns the output channels according to a modified circular algorithm.

Dynamic Microphone: - Microphone which works through a diaphragm being attached to a coil which operates within a strong magnetic field. The diaphragm vibrates in response to soundwaves, which, in turn stimulates motion of the coil. The magnetic field causes an electric current to flow through the coil, with a voltage which varies in sympathy with the motion of the diaphragm. This measured change is the transduction of sound waves into an electrical signal. Not as good in terms of fidelity as a condenser type of microphone, but more sturdy and less prone to noise interference, hence it's wide use on stage, or where a certain kind of "grittiness" is required.

DYNAMIC MICROPHONE: A type of microphone that works on the electric generator principle, where a diaphragm moves a coil of wire within a magnetic field. Where a diaphragm moves a coil of wire within a magnetic field and is typically less sensitive than Condenser Microphones where you need more gain.

Dynamics Processing: - Processing which alters aspects of the dynamics (difference in sound level) of an audio signal.


Name: bay leaf
Energy: 20 kj
Calory: 4,78 kcal
Weight: 100 g

We find it in every household. It is used to adjust the beef, tomato sauce, cream sauce or with venison. Bay is an evergreen tree that grows in the Mediterranean, Iran, Syria and elsewhere in the semi-arid conditions. In Greek mythology bay had an important mission, at the begining as a sacred herb rather than a spice. For a spice are used dried leaves, which have specific aroma and bitter taste. Bay leaves stimulates digestion and appetite, and therefore it is used in kitchens of many nations in the preservation of meat and fish, the pickles, mushrooms, cucumbers, vinegar and in a mixture of spices, the venison, the meat roasting on a spit etc. 40 sheets weighs about 1 gram.

Ingredient bay leaf have seen 1182 users.


I get it, he signs the book....so much repeating

I get it "He signs the book" must you ask this 20 times in a chapter. There are about 50 other verbs in this chapter we could practice but you're harping on "él firma el libro".....

Seriously, I've spelled this right at least 15 times, it's time to stop repeating these

6 years ago

I have this issue myself -- there is a fair amount of repetition in the lesson, which is boring when it's the exact same sentence. I'd recommend reducing the lesson size (by simply removing all the third and fourth repeats of the phrase). If you want users to practice more, give more distinct phrases.

What's even more surprising is this sort of repetition in a test. If a user didn't know that phrase before the test, they'll know it during the test and then may forget it afterwards. In effect, you're giving them free questions.

6 years ago

I agree. I think this is one of the weakest aspects of DuoLingo as it stands. Surely it should at least be possible to code sentences with a selection of suitable words (Las [niñas/mujeres] comen [arroz/pollo/frutas/pasta/...]). That might help to reinforce more of the vocabulary, too, as some words seem to be introduced in a lesson then ignored until much later (if ever), whereas others crop up far too often.

6 years ago


By Leonida Kombo,

mSurvey recognises that every customer has their own unique experiences and preferences in the same way that every zebra has its own unique stripes. We’re helping today’s leading brands to listen to their customers unique needs in real-time to ultimately improve their customer experience and drive revenue growth over time.

In recognition of businesses that go the extra mile to understand their customers unique demands, mSurvey is unveiling its official mascot dubbed the feedback zebra to help build engagement between businesses and their customers and spread awareness on the importance of customer feedback in a fun way.

The zebra which is painted in mSurvey’s unique motif symbolizes the uniqueness of each customer, distinctly standing out from the crowd, or in the case of our zebra, standing out from the herd. A business that truly values its customers is able to see each of their customers as unique individuals and not just a crowd of people.

Mascot infographic.png

In addition to our mascot aims to promote businesses which have shown a commitment to their customers by using mSurvey’s customer feedback platform and identifying them as brands that care about their customers. The mascot will be  placed on their premises for a designated duration of time, as proof of the brand actively listening to you to their customers and acting on their feedback to deliver best in class products and services.

Customers today more than ever want to enjoy personalised experiences that they can share. They want to be engaged in a hospitable manner and most of all they want to be empowered. An empowered customer has the ability to give feedback with confidence that it will be acted upon.

Now more than ever,  businesses need to create memorable customer experiences before, during and after the sale to earn customer loyalty, drive repeat business, boost customer acquisition and grow profits. Ultimately, using real-time feedback prevents customers from feeling unwelcome and disengaged from their brands.

About mSurvey

Since mSurvey’s inception in 2012, we have been helping businesses better understand consumers in Africa with mSurvey’s flagship product Voice of the Customer. Through this product, businesses have been able to access customer feedback directly from their customers at scale and in real time through mobile conversations using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) a global metric which enables businesses to measure their customer loyalty and boost their customer retention.

mSurvey’s platform enables businesses to inform their strategies through real-time customer feedback to  improve their customer experience and grow their revenues. After a successful run in Kenya, with the acquisition of several major clients such as Java House, entering a partnership with Safaricom, East and Central Africa’s largest telco and the integration with Safaricom’s mobile money giant mPesa, mSurvey has expanded its operations to Africa, starting from Nigeria.


For the past century, power producers in the United States have been driven to provide affordable, safe, and reliable electricity to the American populace. As the country becomes more aware of the consequences that come with power production, society has continued to ask for cleaner energy options to provide for our growing population and economy, while ensuring the health of our future.
Will there be only one survivor in the battle between electric vehicles and traditional cars? The two technologies will co-exist for a while yet.
As economic development has spread, cities in many emerging economies have repeated one of the key transport-policy mistakes of western countries — they have allowed space-inefficient private cars to become an important mode of transport in dense cities.