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0.954679 | In the United States, a rare disease is defined as a condition that affects fewer than 200,000 people. This definition was created by Congress in the Orphan Drug Act of 1983. Rare diseases became known as orphan diseases because drug companies were not interested in adopting them to develop treatments. The Orphan Drug Act created financial incentives to encourage companies to develop new drugs for rare diseases. The rare disease definition was needed to establish which conditions would qualify for the new incentive programs.
Other countries have their own official definitions of a rare disease. In the European Union, a disease is defined as rare when it affects fewer than 1 in 2,000 people.
There may be as many as 7,000 rare diseases. The total number of Americans living with a rare disease is estimated at between 25-30 million. This estimate has been used by the rare disease community for several decades to highlight that while individual diseases may be rare, the total number of people with a rare disease is large.
In the United States, only a few types of rare diseases are tracked when a person is diagnosed. These include certain infectious diseases, birth defects, and cancers. It also includes the diseases on state newborn screening tests. Because most rare diseases are not tracked, it is hard to determine the exact number of rare diseases or how many people are affected.
If you are looking for statistics on a specific disease, check to see if the disease is listed in Genetics Home Reference, GeneReviews, or Medscape Reference. These resources usually include statistical information. To find medical journal articles with statistics, you can conduct a PubMed search using the disease name and the word "prevalence" or "incidence."
There are many different causes of rare diseases. The majority are thought to be genetic, directly caused by changes in genes or chromosomes. In some cases, genetic changes that cause disease are passed from one generation to the next. In other cases, they occur randomly in a person who is the first in a family to be diagnosed.
Many rare diseases, including infections, some rare cancers, and some autoimmune diseases, are not inherited. While researchers are learning more each year, the exact cause of many rare diseases is still unknown.
What is being done to develop treatments for rare diseases?
Researchers have made progress in learning how to diagnose, treat, and even prevent a variety of rare diseases. However, there is still much to do because most rare diseases have no treatments.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) supports research to improve the health of people with rare diseases. Many of the 27 Institutes and Centers at the NIH fund medical research for rare diseases. One of these Centers, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), focuses on getting new cures and treatments to all patients more quickly. NCATS supports research through collaborative projects to study common themes and causes of related diseases. This approach aims to speed the development of treatments that will eventually serve both rare and common diseases.
Efforts to improve and bring to market treatments for rare diseases are coordinated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Office of Orphan Products Development (OOPD) provides incentives for drug companies to develop treatments for rare diseases. Between 1973 and 1983, fewer than 10 treatments for rare diseases were approved. Since 1983, the OOPD program has helped develop and bring to market more than 400 drugs and biologic products for rare diseases.
Which diseases are included on the GARD website?
GARD maintains a list of rare diseases and other terms to help people find reliable information. We use available data in the medical literature to determine if the condition meets the U.S. rare disease definition. Inclusion on this list does not serve as official recognition by the NIH as a rare disease. The list is updated regularly, but it should not be used as a reference that a disease is rare. The prevalence of a rare disease usually is an estimate and may change over time.
Genetic conditions that are not rare (Example: Down syndrome).
Common conditions when genetic factors increase risk to develop the condition (Example: celiac disease).
Conditions or terms for which we receive numerous questions with answers that are hard to find elsewhere (Example: diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis or DISH). |
0.977481 | There are many federal colleges of agricultural in Nigeria. This list is published for the same reason provide the list of state colleges of agriculture in Nigeria.
Federal College of Fisheries and Marine Technology, Lagos.
Federal College of Land Resources Technology, Owerri, Imo State.
Samaru College of Agriculture (DAC), Zaria Kaduna State.
Federal College of Forestry, Ibadan, Oyo State.
Federal College of Wildlife Management, New Bussa, Niger State.
Federal College of Land Resources Technology, Kuru, Jos, Plateau State.
Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna State.
Federal College of Freshwater Fisheries Technology, Baga, Borno State.
Federal College of Agriculture, Dadinkowa, Gombe State. |
0.977292 | Ask someone about the effects of Zimbabwe's highly controversial land reform programme and you will hear words like violence, economic collapse, hyperinflation, and poverty. The socio-economic impacts of land reform have been well studied and publicised. But you probably won't hear much about wildlife.
Before 2000 wildlife in Zimbabwe was thriving, in part due to the role played by private landowners such as commercial farmers. Private land was home to important populations of endangered species, including 80% of Zimbabwe’s cheetahs. Zimbabwe was held up as a model for how land can be effectively managed for the benefit of both animals and people, and other countries soon adopted their policies and replicated their success.
But in 2000, the fast-track land reform programme was initiated, resulting in the haphazard resettlement of huge numbers of people onto of enormous areas of private land. The impacts of this process on people made the international headlines, but until now no one had systematically studied the how this could have effected the status of wildlife populations, or on human-wildlife conflict.
My colleagues and I set out to change this. We conducted spoor (footprint) surveys across over a thousand kilometres of transects on three land use types: private land; resettlement land (former private land that had now been resettled); and communal land. The spoor records allowed us to estimate the abundance of wild animals in each area. We also conducted hundreds interviews to assess the level of human-wildlife conflict. See https://peerj.com/articles/1537 and http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3410/ for details.
Surprisingly, we recorded almost no signs of wildlife outside of private land. Although wildlife would have previously been abundant on the land that had now been resettled, most species were now conspicuously absent in resettlement and communal areas. Where, a few years ago, we would have found thousands of spoor, we instead found a landscape denuded of its fauna.
We focussed our analysis on large carnivores as they are important keystone and flagship species, and we found that their spoor density was on average 98% lower on resettlement land than on private land. When we extrapolate this to a national scale, our tentative findings suggest that the land reform programme has resulted in declines in the number of large carnivores of up to 70% across the entire country. Worryingly, we also found that merely being close to a resettlement areas was sufficient to cause declines in wildlife abundance on private land.
So what is causing this decline? The main driver appears to be industrial levels of poaching. Another team of researchers found, for example, that over a period of 8 years in Savé Valley Conservancy near Chiredzi, 4,148 poachers were captured, 84,396 snares were removed, 2,126 poaching dogs destroyed, and the remains of 6,454 animals were recovered, including lion, cheetah and African wild dog. Poaching was conducted mainly to sell bushmeat in nearby communal lands. Habitat loss and fragmentation due to clearing of resettled land for agriculture is also probably another important factor driving wildlife declines.
This is clearly bad news for wildlife, but it is also bad news for people. The declines in wildlife populations could have resulted in the loss of many of the associated benefits, such as jobs, food security and income. Human-wildlife conflict has spiked. We found that resettlement farmers reported much higher rates of cattle losses to carnivores than farmers in communal areas, despite investing more heavily in anti-predator techniques. And another study reported that at least 21 people were killed in by elephants alone Savé Valley Conservancy over 7 years.
Zimbabwe’s land reform programme has been catastrophic for wildlife and for human-wildlife conflict. What lessons can we learn from this? Land reform doesn’t have to mean changing land use. Land reform initiatives should maintain wildlife as a land use where it is most appropriate, while diversifying the ethnic profile of landowners. Leasing resettled land back to the former owners could benefit wildlife while also raising more income for new owners than switching to subsistence farming. Bringing in community members as stakeholders on private land and allowing them to benefit economically from wildlife will also encourage them to protect rather than poach animals. There are a whole range of potential models for achieving land reform in more productive and sustainable ways waiting to be conceived. By taking this opportunity to develop innovative models of land reform, Zimbabwe could once again become a world leader at managing land for the benefit of wildlife and for people. |
0.936328 | what do christians do with this story?
Two elephants walk together at night. (No, this isn’t a joke—it’s a scene from a wildlife reserve in Thailand.) There is heavy rain and the older elephant slips and falls in the mud. She’s unable to get up. The younger elephant, unrelated to her companion, stays with her for most of the night. The next day a group of mahouts, elephant caretakers from the wildlife reserve, try to hoist the elephant up to her feet with braces and ropes. In all the commotion—a crowd has gathered to watch the rescue—the younger elephant remains by the side of her fallen friend. The mahouts and the crowd shout for her to move out of the way, so they can get better leverage. But she won’t budge. Instead, she burrows her head under the body of the other elephant and tries to lift her up. She does this several times, risking injury in the attempts. Incredibly, the elephant appears to recognize that the mahouts want to help rather than hurt her friend. She times her pushes, or so it seemed to me, with the hoisting of the mahouts. |
0.997138 | If the news were true, he would be pleased.
The answer is "Were the news true".
1. If I had time, I would help you.
2. If it were necessary, we would do it again.
3. If he wrote to her, she would answer at once.
4. If you asked a policeman, he would tell you the way.
5. If I had the money, I would buy a new computer.
6. If you were English, you would know its background more.
7. If we had nothing to do, life would be monotonous.
8. If Anne had not introduced Harry, I should never have known him.
9. If you smoked less, you would feel better.
10. If he had asked me, I would have told him the answer. |
0.99948 | ‘Circular Economy’ is an economic model focused on eliminating waste and inefficiency and promoting greater resource productivity that not only promises big opportunities for companies to drive growth, innovation and competitiveness, but also in the nonprofit sector for resource utilization and sustainable inclusive growth. SAFE mandatorily embarks on practical actions and solutions they can take to turn circular economy aspiration into sustainable action to optimize resources, eradicate waste, accelerate innovation and performance, and contribute to a stronger competitive economy.
The concept of the Circular Economy has been around for a number of years now and has become an increasingly familiar term in the fields of sustainability, waste management and economics. It is popular amongst both the private and public sector bodies and could well move from being an interesting theory to a regulatory necessity in the European Union in the not too distant future. However it is often misinterpreted and can stand for different things by different people who may focus on only a small part of the overall concept. The circular economy is a concept in which growth and prosperity are decoupled from natural resource consumption and ecosystem degradation. By refraining from throwing away used products, components and materials, instead re-routing them into the right value chains, we can create a society with a healthy economy, inspired on and in balance with nature.
Currently, we are confronted with products in daily life that were not designed and produced for re-use. If we want to re-use such products, we must take a circular approach with raw materials that were used before recycling the products or components as a raw material again. This must focus on realizing the highest possible value of the material, as this requires the least effort and/or energy. Recycling is often more energy-efficient than extracting new raw materials through mining or agriculture. Below given is a schematic representation of the consumption-conservation paradigm to explain the current scenario.
Sustainably intensifying the ecosystem services in the 3rd habitat, that is the periurban space under tremendous anthropogenic stress. |
0.944404 | The evaluation of spoken dialog systems still relies on subjective interaction experiments for quantifying interaction behavior and user-perceived quality. In this paper, we present a simulation approach replacing subjective tests in early system design and evaluation phases. The simulation is based on a model of the system, and a probabilistic model of user behavior. Probabilities for the next user action vary in dependence of system features and user characteristics, as defined by rules. This way, simulations can be conducted before data have been acquired. In order to evaluate the simulation approach, characteristics of simulated interactions are compared to interaction corpora obtained in subjective experiments. As was previously proposed in the literature, we compare interaction parameters for both corpora and calculate recall and precision of user utterances. The results are compared to those from a comparison of real user corpora. While the real corpora are not equal, they are more similar than the simulation is to the real data. However, the simulations can predict differences between system versions and user groups quite well on a relative level. In order to derive further requirements for the model, we conclude with a detailed analysis of utterances missing in the simulated corpus and consider the believability of entire dialogs. |
0.949984 | QUESTION: The Gemara suggests that the verse of "Ki Siheyeh Almanah u'Gerushah" (Vayikra 22:13) might be teaching that when a Bas Kohen has children from a normal Jew (a non-Kohen), she may no longer eat Terumah (even after her husband dies), but if she has children from an Eved or a Nochri, the children do not invalidate her from eating Terumah since Kidushin cannot take effect with those men. The Gemara rejects this suggestion, because if that is indeed what the verse is teaching us, then there would be no purpose in the additional verse (the extra word, "u'Vas") that teaches us this Halachah with regard to a Bas Yisrael or Bas Levi (since they do not eat Terumah).
Rashi explains that even if the Bas Yisrael or Bas Levi has a child from a Kohen, and therefore she may eat Terumah (see 68b), there would be no need to tell us that if she has another child from a Yisrael that she stops eating Terumah. If we already know that a Bas *Kohen* stops eating Terumah because of her child from a Yisrael, then certainly (Kal v'Chomer) a Bas Yisrael or Bas Levi stops eating Terumah in such a situation. We do not need an extra verse to teach that! It is not necessary either to teach that a Bas Yisrael and Bas Levi *may eat* Terumah when she has a child from a Nochri, because if a Bas *Kohen* may eat Terumah even when she has a child from a Nochri, then certainly a Bas Yisrael and Bas Levi may eat Terumah!
Why does the Gemara assume that there is a Kal v'Chomer that a Bas Yisrael and Bas Levi will become invalidated from eating Terumah because of a child born from a Yisrael? The Gemara (68b) explained that there is *more* reason for a Bas *Kohen* to become Pesulah than for a Bas Yisrael to become Pesulah, since a Bas Kohen has inherent Kedushah, and therefore relations with an "Ish Zar" can make her Pesulah easier than it can invalidate a Bas Yisrael! Consequently, perhaps a child from a Yisrael will invalidate the Bas Kohen from eating Terumah, but such a child will *not* invalidate a Bas Yisrael or Bas Levi, and thus we still need the additional verse!
ANSWER: The MAHARSHA answers that the Bas Kohen could become Pesulah easier only through something that is a direct contradiction to her Kedushah. For example, when the Gemara (68b) discusses having relations with someone who is Asur to a Bas Kohen, such relations detract from her Kedushah, and thus in such cases it is indeed easier for her to become Pesulah. Similarly, if she has a child from an Eved or Nochri, since the child was born through prohibited relations, it should affect her more than it would affect a Bas Yisrael or Bas Levi.
However, if she has a perfectly legitimate child from a relationship with a Yisrael (which is a completely valid relationship), the fact that her child from a Yisrael invalidates her from eating Terumah in no way detracts from her *Kedushah*. Rather, the fact that she has a connection to a Yisrael through that child that takes away her right to eat Terumah. If so, the Gemara is justified in asserting that in such a case, certainly a Bas Yisrael and Bas Levi lose their rights to eat Terumah for that reason.
QUESTION: RASHI (DH v'Eima Niv'alah) cites a Beraisa (44b) that states that when a man remarries his ex-wife in a case of Machzir Gerushaso, "she is Kesheirah and her child is Pasul." Rashi explains that this means that she is Kesheirah *to marry a Kohen*, and certainly she may eat Terumah.
(a) The MAHARSHA answers that when Rashi says that she is "Kesheirah l'Kehunah," he is referring to the daughter that is born from the union. When the Beraisa says that she herself is Kesheirah, it must be referring to eating Terumah, as Tosfos says earlier (44b, DH Hi).
(b) The ARUCH LA'NER (44b) explains that Rashi does not mean that the woman may actually marry a Kohen, but rather he means that the woman is not a Zonah.
Why does the Gemara use the word "Kesheirah," then, if she is not really Kesheirah to marry a Kohen? The Aruch la'Ner explains that the Chachamim in the Beraisa are replying to Rebbi Akiva, who said that in a case of relations with Machzir Gerushaso the woman is Pesulah, meaning that aside from the Pesul of Gerushah, she is also a Zonah. To that, the Chachamim replied, "Hi Kesheirah," meaning that she does not have that Pesul of Zonah. |
0.962037 | We tested the hypothesis that the effect of forest basal area on tree growth interacts with macro-ecological gradients of primary productivity, using a large dataset of eucalypt tree growth collected across temperate and sub- tropical mesic Australia. To do this, we derived an index of inter-tree competition based on stand basal area (stand BA) relative to the climatically determined potential basal area. Using linear mixed effects modeling, we found that the main effects of climatic productivity, tree size, and competition explained 26.5% of the deviance in individual tree growth, but adding interactions to the model could explain a further 8.9%. The effect of competition on growth interacts with the gradient of climatic productivity, with negligible effect of competition in low productivity environments, but marked negative effects at the most productive sites. We also found a positive interaction between tree size and stand BA, which was most pronounced in the most productive sites. We interpret these patterns as reflecting intense competition for light amongst maturing trees on more productive sites, and below ground moisture limitation at low productivity sites, which results in open stands with little competition for light. These trends are consistent with the life history and stand development of eucalypt forests: in cool moist environments, light is the most limiting resource, resulting in size-asymmetric competition, while in hot, low rainfall environments are open forests with little competition for light but where the amount of tree regeneration is limited by water availability. |
0.999999 | The following is a list of individuals who were arrested on prostitution and/or public lewdness related charges (or who have a history of prostitution/lewdness charges) during the week of 05/30/2016 – 06/05/2016 according to public records maintained by the Oklahoma County Jail and the Oklahoma City Police Department.
Kendrick Taylor, DOB 8/24/1984, reportedly resides in the 1900 block of 38th Street in Lubbock, Texas. Arrested by members of the Oklahoma City Police Dept. on new charges of aiding and abetting prostitution, felony possession of CDS, possession of paraphernalia and receiving criminal proceeds.
Article: Texas Prostitution Ring Busted Up in OKC with Trio's Arrest.
McKenzie Alexis Smallin, DOB 12/13/1993, reportedly resides in Lubbock, TX. Arrested by members of the Oklahoma City Police Dept. on new charges pf felony computer crimes, offering to engage and possession of marijuana.
Victoria Suzanne Bowen, DOB 9/19/1997, White, female, reportedly resides in Lubbock, TX. Arrested by members of the Oklahoma City Police Dept. on new charges pf felony computer crimes, offering to engage and possession of marijuana.
Wiana S. Gaston, DOB 8/14/1983, Black, female, reportedly resides in OKC, OK. Arrested by members of the OCPD on new charges of felony computer crimes and offering to engage.
Kevin Martin, DOB 12/6/1984, reportedly resides in the 200 block of Allenhurst Ave., OKC, OK. Arrested by NIHS on a warrant for failure to appear on a aiding and abetting prostitution.
Summer Leyba, DOB 7/21/1994, reportedly resdies in OKC, OK. Arrested by members of the OKC Police Det. on a violation of deferred sentence on a 2013 charge for felony computer crimes and offering to engage in prostitution.
Connie Sughrue, DOB 9/20/1968, reportedly resides in OKC, OK. Arrested by members of the OKC Police Dept. on a warrant for violation of a suspended sentence for a 2005 case for felony possession of CDS, offering to engage and possession of CDS.
Darlene Pine-McDonald, DOB 4/14/1968, reportedly resides in OKC, OK. Arrested by OCPD on a cost warrant stemming from a 2004 conviction for offering to engage.
Darlene Pine-McDonald, DOB 4/14/1968, Black female, reportedly resides in OKC, OK. Arrested by members of the Okla. County Sheriff's Office on a warrant from a 2004 case for offering to engage in prostitution. |
0.999894 | I ordered the Dumplings & Kung Pao Chicken. The other 2 in our group got the Beef Fried Rice and Bourbon Chicken. Everything was tasty and plentiful. I'll definitely be coming here for my Chinese when I'm in Merritt Island!
The food is really good, and I appreciate being able to order online.It would be helpful to have a description of each item, even a short one like on the printed menu.
I've been going to this place for years. It does not matter what I get the food is always excellent. The people are always friendly and they always have my food ready when I get there. This is the only Chinese restaurant I will go to.
just ordered fried rice, one with pork one without. pork fryer is ransit, old oil terrible, cant get tast from mouth, in the garbage sorry bt true, don't go there.
Fresh to order, quickly served, really good food with large portions. Very polite service, will come again for sure! |
0.940243 | Backseat driving: Lifting a rating agency security freeze without a PIN, or "Welcome to Hell"
Lifting a rating agency security freeze without a PIN, or "Welcome to Hell"
I doubt I'm the first person who placed security freezes on his credit rating to limit identity theft and stop credit card junk mail, and who then, years later, can't find the PIN numbers he received so he can get credit ratings quickly for loan applications. From the lack of helpful info out there, though, you'd think I was.
Even less helpful, the loan providers aren't satisfied with getting ratings from one or two agencies, but they must have all three (and they have no idea how to solve the PIN problem either, don't ask for help from the experts).
TransUnion was by far the best of the rating agencies - after just 20 minutes of dialing menus, I got a human who asked a few questions to establish my identity and then lifted the freeze (for a fee). Never found a human at Experian, but an exhaustive search of my papers turned up the PIN. Even then, dial-a-menu didn't work until I realized they were verifying my PIN with street numbers from my old address of over three years ago instead my current address - so much with their providing accurate info.
Who knows how long that number will be good. Maybe they've already changed it, like Al-Qaeda does.
Even the SECRET PHONE NUMBER wasn't perfect though - they still wouldn't permanently lift the security freeze without a PIN, but it occurred to me to ask for a temporary lift, and after answering a million questions semi-accurately about my identity, they granted me this boon.
So, lessons for others from my failings - if you place security freezes, don't lose your PINs!! If you have lost them, start the snail mail process for requesting new ones, regardless of whether you need a loan in the near future. And if you've lost your PINs and are planning on getting a loan in the near future, start dealing with this immediately, and don't expect any help from the experts. |
0.969572 | In Singapore, where can we find a hawker place that serves delicious local foods in a comfortable atmosphere? The answer is Tiong Bahru Market Hawker Centre. You can find almost all popular Singapore dishes at this culinary place such as chicken rice, herbal soups, bak kut teh, wonton mee and chee kueh.
NOTE: There are a few stalls offering Indian and vegetarian food at this food court. |
0.935728 | Many highway revolts (also freeway revolts, expressway revolts, or road protests) took place in developed countries during the 1960s and 1970s, in response to plans for the construction of new freeways, a significant number of which were abandoned or significantly scaled back due to widespread public opposition, especially of those whose neighborhoods would be disrupted or displaced by the proposed freeways, and due to various other negative effects that freeways are considered to have.
While anti-freeway activism in Australia has not been as vocal as in North America, small-scale revolts against freeway construction have occurred in Sydney and Melbourne, with many protesting toll collection.
Melbourne saw protests against the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan, mostly by those in the impacted inner-city areas.
In 1974, 150 residents protesting plans for the F-19 freeway through Collingwood put themselves in front of construction equipment in an attempt to halt construction. In 1978, protesters rallied to defend Gardiners Creek in Kooyong, which was in the path of the South Eastern Freeway. In 1984, over 100 protesters rallied against the widening of Punt Road to become the Hoddle Highway.
Many of the unbuilt freeways were eventually cancelled by change of government, but some projects were later resurrected. An umbrella organisation known as the Coalition Against Freeway Expansion (CAFE) was formed in 1994, and in the following year, 14 of its activists were arrested whilst protesting an Eastern Freeway extension and the partial demolition of Alexandra Parade. The aggressive police response was criticised, and led to the eventual disbandment of the group. One of the largest protests occurred in 2008 in Kensington, one of the areas most impacted by the proposed East-West road connection; it drew wider support due to opposition to the Eddington Transport Report.
Sydney freeway protests have included large-scale green bans in the 1970s, which prevented freeway proposals that would have required the demolition of The Rocks historic precinct and The Domain gardens for freeway developments.
In 1989, 200 protesters rallied against a proposed north-west tollway. In 1991, 150 anti-freeway protesters rallied outside Parliament House. In 1995, over 400 people protested the M2 Hills Motorway.
Tasmanian Aboriginals have conducted protests against the construction of the Brighton Bypass. They have stated that construction of the bypass will suffer the loss of their heritage.
In Halifax, Nova Scotia the construction of an elevated waterfront freeway, Harbour Drive, was halted in the 1970s after local opposition to the proposed destruction of many historic buildings. All that remains of the project today is the Cogswell Interchange, a massive concrete structure widely considered a barrier between sections of the city. Its demolition is currently planned.
Several areas were destroyed to make room for highways in the 1960s and 1970s. At that time, a historical preservation movement involving figures such as Sandy van Ginkel and Phyllis Lambert prevented a project to run the Ville-Marie Expressway along the waterfront of the Old Port, which would have demolished much of the then-unloved Old Montreal and cut the city off from the river. Many historic homes were demolished to make way for the western section of the autoroute, but the eastern section was reconceived as a tunnel skirting the southern edge of the downtown core and a sunken expressway along the inland edge of the old city. Since then, Old Montreal has undergone significant rehabilitation and is now a desirable residential and commercial district and the city's leading tourist area. Part of the sunken expressway has been covered over (see Quartier international de Montréal) and the section immediately north of Montreal City Hall is also slated to be covered.
Another cancelled project would have seen Rue Berri converted into a north-south expressway, demolishing much of the Plateau Mont-Royal district. Only the portion south of Rue Cherrier was built.
In recent years, protests took place regarding a proposal to extend the Ville-Marie in the axis of Rue Notre-Dame Est, as an 8-lane entrenched highway that would separate the residential neighborhood of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve from the St. Lawrence River. The current plan is to widen the current 4-lane road into a six-lane "urban boulevard" rather than converting it into a full-scale expressway.
Some large road projects from the heyday of the automobile have since been removed at public demand. One of the most prominent was a large interchange at the corner of Avenue du Parc and Avenue des Pins, which had long impeded pedestrian access along a major entryway into Mount Royal Park. The elevated structure was demolished in the early 2000s and replaced with a simpler, at-grade intersection. Another current project aims to replace the Bonaventure Expressway with another "urban boulevard" along a long stretch of cut-off waterfront.
During the 1950s, Toronto experienced the same sort of urban sprawl that was sweeping through the United States. Suburbs grew along existing highway corridors, stretching the city east and west, and then northward along the various provincial superhighways. These highways ended at the city limits, however, and there was little route capacity within the city itself. This caused enormous traffic problems within the city, and a network of new highways to address the problem became part of the Official Plan in 1959.
As construction of the network started, the mood of the citizens changed. By the mid-1960s, there was a growing awareness that the growth of the suburbs led to a flight of capital from the city cores, resulting in the urban decay being seen throughout the US. Additionally, several of the chosen routes ran through densely settled neighbourhoods, including some of the more upscale areas of Toronto, like Forest Hill and the University of Toronto. While the opposition was growing, Jane Jacobs moved to Toronto after having successfully rallied groups to cancel the construction of the Lower Manhattan Expressway in New York City. Applying the same formula in Toronto, Jacobs rallied local groups to oppose development of the Spadina Expressway project, while twice being arrested in the process.
On June 3, 1971, Premier Bill Davis rose in the Provincial Legislature and stated, "Cities were built for people and not cars. If we are building a transportation system to serve the automobile, the Spadina Expressway would be a good place to start. But if we are building a transportation system to serve people, the Spadina Expressway is a good place to stop." The expressway plan was dead; construction of the Spadina Expressway ended. The successful outcome of inspired protests of varying degrees to other expressway projects in Toronto including the Scarborough, Richview, Crosstown and East Metro Expressway Projects. This led to none of the other planned expressways ever being built.
Instead of expressways, Davis and his new Minister of Transport, Charles MacNaughton, outlined the "GO-Urban" plan, an Intermediate Capacity Transit System that will serve the Greater Toronto Area in place of expressways. This led to the development of Bombardier Innovia Metro. By the time the prototype was ready for service in the early 1980s, changes in the provincial government ended support for the entire GO-Urban project. Only a single short demonstration line was built in Toronto, the Scarborough RT.
Windsor, Ontario is an interesting case of freeway revolt that was later partially reversed. By 1965, the MTO had completed construction of Highway 401 from the south end of Windsor to the Thousand Islands Parkway and onward to the Quebec border. Plans were announced to extend the freeway along Huron Church Road to the Ambassador Bridge, but residents and business owners along the route protested and killed the plan, leaving the freeway's terminus at Highway 3. In recent years, traffic had increased. A new bridge and freeway was needed; expropriation of nearby properties began in the late 2000s for Highway 401's extension to a new proposed border crossing. The Rt. Hon. Herb Gray Parkway's construction, much of it below-grade, began in late 2011 and is expected to be completed by 2015. As of 2014[update], the proposed Gordie Howe International Bridge which will continue Ontario 401 through the Delray neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan to I-75 is expected to be completed by 2023.
Original plans called for Alberta Highway 2 to continue into Edmonton, akin to the Deerfoot in Calgary, using 91st Street then descending into the Mill Creek Ravine. However residents along Mill Creek as well as many others who did not wish to have portions of the river valley destroyed at the expense of a freeway opposed the plans and as such they were never completed. The only portions to be completed were 91st Street and the James MacDonald Bridge.
In Vancouver, a freeway project that began with the construction of the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts in the Strathcona neighborhood was stopped by activists and residents; the plan was intended to link an eight-lane freeway from the Trans-Canada Highway through the East End, destroying much of Chinatown. Before it was stopped, Vancouver's Hogan's Alley neighbourhood was largely demolished. The complete proposal in reports prepared by Swan-Wooster included a six lane tunnel to North Vancouver. An elevated freeway would have run along the Burrard Inlet waterfront, right through property where two Fairmont hotels and many other buildings have since been built. Another elevated freeway would have run through what is now the new portion of Yaletown, where the roundhouse is. It would likely have been adjacent to or above the current Pacific Avenue, between Old and New Yaletown.
The Dunsmuir tunnel, a former freight railroad line of the CPR would also have been part of the freeway. This tunnel is now used by the SkyTrain Expo Line, a rapid transit line using the Bombardier Innovia Metro technology developed for Toronto.
An attempt was made in 1995 to revive part of the project, adding three lanes of traffic to the north shore; it was also killed by public protest.
Successive city councils in the 1970s and 1980s prohibited the construction of freeways as part of a long-term plan. This was taken as far as refusing to have a cloverleaf where the provincially authorized and funded Oak Street Bridge entered the city. It was allowed to enter directly onto Oak Street, but no other approaches were allowed for decades. As a result, the only freeway within city limits is the Trans-Canada Highway, which passes through the north-eastern corner of the city. Very few major roads have been built in decades although the population would likely have doubled.
The conflicting opinions of the City of Vancouver's residents, as represented by their successive councils, and the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation continue in 2013. Many of the suburbs also want more automobile access to Vancouver. The city resists additional cars entering from the suburbs. The province continues to build bridges and freeways throughout the region, but they end at the city's boundaries.
In Amsterdam in the 1970s, plans existed for a highway between the end of the A2 at the President Kennedylaan to the IJtunnel, along with the plans of the Amsterdam Metro around Nieuwmarkt. It would have demolished thousands of houses and monuments on its path, and therefore it led to the Nieuwmarkt riots in 1975. The metro was built, but the highway plans were removed.
In Utrecht, plans to build the A27 led to years of protests and juridical procedures, for example in October 1978, there was a big demonstration. Eventually in 1982, the Dutch Parliament had to decide whether to build or not. A narrow majority of 71 was in favour, 69 opposed. Parts of Amelisweerd were occupied by activists after the decision. The encampment, established by the activists, was evacuated by police and 465 trees were cut down and bulldozed. At the same time a procedure opposing the tree felling was started, however, a municipality lawyer reported that the last tree had already been cut down. Thus the short-term procedure failed to achieve its aim. After the motorway was completed in 1986, more congestion arose on the motorway. In 2009, new plans were made to extend the road from 2x4 lanes to 2x6 or even 2x7. The start of the construction in 2011 led again to protests, with clearly visible banners along the motorway.
In the United States the "revolts" occurred mainly in cities and suburbs. Many cities have unused highways, abruptly terminating freeway alignments, and short stretches of freeway in remote areas, all evidence of larger projects which were never completed. In some instances, freeway revolts have led to the eventual removal or relocation of freeways that had been built.
^ "Collingwood:1970s. Anti-freeway protest". Retrieved 6 October 2014.
^ Patten, Melanie (5 May 2013). "Demise of Halifax's 'Road to Nowhere' could lead to core renewal". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
^ Omand, Geordon (13 February 2014). "Halifax inches closer to demolition of Cogswell Interchange". Metro Halifax.
^ Martin, Sandra (July 23, 2009). "Sandy van Ginkel rescued Old Montreal from freeway developers". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
^ a b "Ville Marie Autoroute (A-720)".
^ "Alberta Roads". Retrieved 6 October 2014.
^ "NOVA - detail - Uitzendingen". Retrieved 6 October 2014. |
0.999997 | Hi, everyone! Steven from Seika here. For this article, I’d like to do something different and tell everyone about a famous event that goes on in my hometown of Providence, Rhode Island every summer.
The event, WaterFire, dates back to the mid-90s, when artist Barnaby Evans placed braziers on the three rivers that run through downtown Providence and lit them, creating a beautiful nighttime view. His project was so popular that the people who saw it convinced him to make it a regular event and started a non-profit organization to that end. Ever since, the number of braziers has increased, and millions of visitors, both domestic and international, come every year to see the flames dance upon the river at night.
WaterFire is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Providence, and is valued by the local community for its role in helping revitalize downtown Providence. The average attendance on a given night is 40,000, but it can range from anywhere between 10,000 and 100,000. Despite its large scale (the annual budget is approximately 1.6 million dollars), WaterFire only receives approximately 10% of its funds from the government, with the rest coming from private citizens and businesses.
WaterFire also features other attractions besides the beauty of the flames. Examples from this year include a capoeira demonstration and a Bolivian music performance. Also, of course, with the sheer number of people attending, the atmosphere is very festive.
The WaterFire is a really cool event, so please be sure to visit Providence sometime in the summer and check it out! |
0.956942 | Do you need any tech support to uninstall FabFilter Timeless 2.01 on your Mac? Is there any problem cause you cannot remove it smoothly on your machine? This is a removal guide that help you to troubleshoot your problem and get rid of it on your PC.
FabFilter Timeless 2.01 is categorized as a Others application that the current version is , and can be installed and operated in ，people usually can install it via dragging its package to the Applications folder.
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Osx Uninstaller is a professional removal that can do a clean removal for the application, including the FabFilter Timeless 2.01, when uninstall FabFilter Timeless 2.01 with Osx Uninstaller instead of the manual removal, you will find that the program removal become much easier, and there is no any further issue after the standard removal on the utility.
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Don't want to be revolved in such a troublesome situation when uninstall FabFilter Timeless 2.01 as well as other applications on the Mac, download and install Osx Uninstaller to handle the app removal more easily and effectively now. |
0.996853 | Question: Summarize the points in the lecture, being sure to explain how they address the specific ideas about bioluminescence described in the reading passage.
There are creatures that utilize a unique biological function known as bioluminescence, or glowing in the dark. They have the ability to illuminate their bodies. Some scientists believe they use this feature to communicate. However, others believe it’s being used for hunting and attracting prey. Finally other scientists believe creatures use bioluminescence for camouflage and defense. Despite the theories, many mysteries exist concerning bioluminescence.
The first feature scientists noticed for bioluminescence is communication. Certain animals such as fireflies use colors and patterns to communicate with each other. By using light to communicate these animals express themselves over long distances in complete silence. Many believe that when animals use bioluminescence for communication the primary use is for mating. The light works the same way that bird plumage or animal calls attract mates.
On a different note, some animals use bioluminescence for hunting. Some animals use the light the way people use night vision goggles or flashlights. The light allows creatures to see in dark areas and hunt. Some animals use bioluminescence as an attraction to draw animals closer. Attracted by the light, some animals become easy prey for bioluminescent animals.
A complimentary idea to bioluminescence for hunting is for defense. Certain fish have been able to generate light to their advantage by glowing to blur their outline and make them a harder target for prey. Other animals release glowing light as an inky residue when they are attacked to distract their predator while they escape. Thus they use bioluminescence for defense.
All in all, the role of bioluminescence is more varied than other biological functions. Through this act of glowing, creatures communicate their needs and desires. Other animals are capable of hunting with greater ease, while others use their glowing as a means of defense and camouflage. Through tracking these varying uses scientists have been able to gain greater understanding of bioluminescence.
Summarize the points in the lecture, being sure to explain how they address the specific ideas about bioluminescence described in the reading passage. |
0.930032 | Should Asset Allocation Now Include Cryptocurrencies?
Is there a case for a Bitcoin allocation?
As you may know, Matt Hougan recently moved on from ETF.com to become head of research at Bitwise Asset Management which as the name implies, works in the cryptocurrency realm. He recently published a report that explored the effect that adding Bitcoin in various weightings with different rebalance plans would have on a diversified, 60/40 portfolio comprised of Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT) and Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF (BND).
A 10% weighting to Bitcoin, looking back would have increased returns in a a staggering manner, at times, with equally staggering drawdowns during the two Bitcoin bear markets in the period Matt studied. Allocations of 1% or 5% still offered favorable return attributes to a portfolio with panic-inducing volatility.
I've looked at Bitcoin in quite a few posts. A quick recap on my take is that a technology/network (tokenization) that offers faster and more secure transactions will certainly happen but we are not there yet. And while Bitcoin is clearly the early leader (not sure if it was the first cryptocurrency or not), I have not seen anything that tells me why Bitcoin must be the ultimate solution as opposed to another crypto (the ultimate solution may very well not exist yet). I've asked that question a couple of times on Twitter including once, directly to one of the biggest proponents of Bitcoin but did not get a reply. I don't doubt the tech or where it is (probably) headed but it quite simply does not need to be Bitcoin (at least I personally have not seen anything that says why it must be Bitcoin, please leave a comment if you can shed some light).
In one of the early episodes of ETFiq on Bloomberg an executive from Grayscale referred to Bitcoin as uncorrelated alpha, I quipped in a post that for now it is more like unanalyzable beta. Matt cites fundamental factors that he believes should drive the price for Bitcoin and by his reckoning they are much different than factors that drive equities or fixed income. With something so new, it is difficult to truly know what the fundamental factors will be. Arguably the price is still being driven far more by various emotions than anything fundamental. If that is correct, then whose to say when the fundamentals will matter or if the fundamentals Matt cites will actually be the fundamentals that matter. Hence unanalyzable at least for now, at least in a portfolio sense. If your work involves blockchain or tokenization or anything else related then you probably can analyze it in different contexts than its potential merits as part of a diversified portfolio.
Matt explains the period he chose to study (2014 to March 31, 2018) because it had two huge declines but it also had an up year that would be very tough to duplicate in the future as it matures; it was up 1331% in 2017. Who knows maybe that can be repeated, it was up 1473% in 2011 and 5507% in 2013 but either way, drawing conclusions based on that kind of number in a 51 month period is difficult.
I've said all along, there's nothing wrong with taking a very small flyer on Bitcoin one way or another, realizing that it going to zero is certainly possible. If you put one or 2% into Bitcoin or one of the others and it goes to zero, you merely made a bad trade. Sizing with something like this is crucial, and if you're lucky enough that a tiny little trade turns into a life changing piece of money, sell it and let it change your life. |
0.939279 | (1754–1801), tsar of Russia 1796–1801.
Tsar Paul I (Paul Petrovitch) was born on September 20, 1754. He was officially the son of Tsarevitch Peter and his wife Catherine, but more probably the son of Sergei Saltykov—chamberlain at the court and lover of Catherine since 1752. At his birth, the child was taken away from his parents by his great-aunt, ruling Empress Elizabeth, who brought him to her court, supervised his education, and surrounded him with several tutors such as the old count Nikita Panin. He was eight in July 1762 when, six months after Elizabeth's death and his father's coronation as Peter III, his mother acceded to the throne as Catherine II by a coup that first led to the deposition of the tsar and then to his assassination, intended or not, by Alexei Orlov, one of the main leaders of the conspiracy. From that time on Catherine II, who feared his popularity, kept the child far away from power; Paul Petrovitch grew up in relative loneliness that contributed to make him distrustful. In September 1773, he married Princess Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt who died in April 1776 while delivering her first baby. In September of that same year, pushed by his mother who wanted an heir, he married Princess Sophia Dorothea of Württemberg (Maria Fiodorovna), who would give birth to ten children. Empress Catherine took away the first two boys, Alexander (born in December 1777) and Constantin (born in April 1779); she personally took care of their education and later intended to appoint Alexander as her heir, instead of Paul.
From September 1781 to August 1782, Paul and his wife made an eleven-month tour that brought them to all the European courts and allowed the future tsar to discover European political models and ways of life.
After returning to Russia, still deprived of their older sons and of any power, Paul and Maria Fiodorovna a lived at Gatchina, a large estate given to them by Catherine. At Gatchina, the tsarevitch had his own court and a personal small army, composed of 2,400 soldiers and 140 officers. Isolated, fascinated by the Prussian model, Paul began to show an abnormal obsession for military parades and processions and started to tyrannize his soldiers. But at the same time, he established a hospital where peasants could receive free medical care, founded a school for the children of his serfs, and was tolerant of the Lutheran faith of his Finnish serfs.
On November 5, 1796, the death of Catherine made him tsar at the age of forty-two. He made many decisions—more than two thousand ukases in five years—that revealed the rejection of his mother's heritage, but they were not always consistent. In domestic policy, he first issued on April 1797 a decree establishing the principle of male primogeniture for succession to the throne, so as to eliminate any political turmoil. He proclaimed a general amnesty, freed all of Catherine's political prisoners, including the thinker Nikolai Novikov, and liberated the twelve thousand Poles kept in Russian jails since the last Polish war of independence led by Tadeusz Kociuszko. His hate for Catherine's immoral behavior and way of governing brought him to exile his mother's lovers and to cut down court expenses. His piety led him to forbid landowners from forcing serfs to work on Sundays and on religious feasts, while his mistrust of the nobility led him to impose a new tax on nobles' estates. All these measures, as well as the reorganization of the Russian military service according to the Prussian model and the reintroduction of corporal punishment for nobles, made him very unpopular quickly among the aristocracy.
At the same time, deeply hostile to the French Revolution and anxious about its potential impact on the Russian Empire, he heavily censored intellectual and political productions, rejecting the symbols of a French liberal influence in all spheres, even in the more superficial ones such as fashion. Relying on a growing bureaucracy, he reinforced the autocratic regime, condemning random innocents to Siberia or jail to show his unlimited power. He also systematically repressed peasant riots and extended serfdom to the Southern colonies. His domestic policy was therefore a mixture of generous and tyrannical measures.
in the Far East and Caucasus: in 1799, he chartered a Russian-American Company to favor Russian economic and commercial expansion in the North Pacific; and in December 1800 he annexed the kingdom of Georgia. As to war in Europe, he first chose to abstain but finally decided in 1798–1799 to join the Second Coalition against Napoleon I, together with Great Britain, Naples, Portugal, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire. Russian troops obtained brilliant successes: in winter 1798–1799, Admiral Fyodor Ushakov took the Ionian Islands from the French armies and established a republic occupied by the Russians. Meanwhile, General Alexander Suvarov won impressive battles in Italy (Cassano and Novi) and Switzerland in 1798–1800. And in November 1798, opposing Napoleon's claim to the Island of Malta, Paul agreed to become the protector and Great-Master of the Order of Malta. But in 1800, irritated by the suspicious behavior of his Austrian and British allies and convinced that an alliance with Napoleon could favor the Russian national interests, Paul abruptly changed his mind. He led Russia into a rapprochement with France and a war against Britain; to this end, in January 1801 he launched a military expedition toward India. These last decisions were perceived as dangerous and even foolish by a faction of the court. Encouraged by Charles Whitworth, the British ambassador in St. Petersburg, and with the passive complicity of Tsarevitch Alexander, several figures close to the tsar, such as Nikita Panin the young, Count Peter von Pahlen, general governor of St. Petersburg, and Leontii Bennigsen, led a conspiracy that culminated with Paul's brutal assassination in March 1801.
McGrew, Roderick Erle. (1992). Paul I of Russia, 1754–1801. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press.
Ragsdale, Hugh. (1998). Tsar Paul and the Question of Madness: An Essay in History and Psychology. New York: Greenwood Press.
"Paul I." Encyclopedia of Russian History. . Encyclopedia.com. 22 Apr. 2019 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.
PAUL I (RUSSIA) (1754–1801; ruled 1796–1801), emperor of Russia. Like his father, Peter III (1728–1762), Paul I was assassinated by members of elite guards' regiments, on 23 March 1801 (11 March, O.S.). Historians are divided as to what motivated his policies during his brief rule, and equally as to what brought about his demise. The most consistently repeated theme is Paul's abiding dislike of his mother, Catherine the Great, and a wish to avenge his father, whose remains he had transferred to St. Petersburg's Peter and Paul Fortress to lie next to Catherine's. It is true that Paul exiled or dismissed many of his mother's favorites, and he released from exile several prominent intellectuals and nobles who had incurred her wrath during the later 1780s and 1790s, including Nikolai Novikov and Aleksandr Radishchev. Within weeks of ascending the throne, Paul effectively decreed an end to the legacy of female rule by replacing Peter the Great's law of succession (which had given the reigning monarch absolute authority to name an heir) with a system that gave preference to male heirs. Henceforth the eldest son would inherit the throne automatically, and the only opportunity for a woman to inherit power would be if the entire male lineage (other sons and brothers) generated no candidates.
Paul's mercurial personality undoubtedly contributed to his unpopularity among the leading families at court. The question of royal madness lingered throughout his reign, and several historians have concluded that he was indeed insane. He surrounded himself with a small coterie of advisers and established a series of ad hoc institutional barriers between himself and the leading servitors. Thus, the heads of Russia's civil administrations, or colleges, were placed under the close jurisdiction of the court. He also endeavored to impose restrictions on the exploitation of serf labor by pronouncing that landlords should demand only three days of corvée per week on their land. Three days were to be reserved for the peasants' own plots, and Sunday was to be observed as the Sabbath. This decree appears not to have significantly modified serf exploitation in the short run, and the secular shift from quitrent to corvée, begun in the mid-eighteenth century, continued apace until the abolition of serfdom in 1861, at least in the central heartland. But the decree constituted at least a symbolic challenge to noble serf owners, the very people who, through the early nineteenth century, dominated the upper rungs of the imperial service system known as the Table of Ranks. As several of Paul's forebears had learned, the emperor may have reigned supreme, but without the acquiescence of the guards' regiments and powerful clans at court he could not effectively rule.
Napoléon Bonaparte's emergence as ruler of France guaranteed that foreign policy would play an increasingly central role during Paul's reign, in particular the vaunted "Eastern Question" and Paul's Northern System. The latter plan briefly united Sweden, Russia—since the partitions of Poland firmly ensconced on the Baltic sea—and France in a revival of the League of Armed Neutrality, a naval alliance directed in large measure against Great Britain. The Eastern Question was more complex, but Paul believed that he could work with Bonaparte to advance into the Caucasus (annexing Georgia in 1801), the Black Sea, and at one point even India. Paul's southern ambitions led to his establishing a personal protectorate over the Knights of Malta, becoming their grand master. Like his mother he had designs on Istanbul, but these came to naught.
The coup that led to his murder repeated a well-worn pattern. A coterie of elite guards and Freemasons, led by Count Peter von Pahlen, the governor-general of St. Petersburg, and Platon Zubov, the last favorite of Catherine the Great, plotted the coup. As before, the conspiracy endeavored merely to replace a despised monarch with a more acceptable ruler, in this case Paul's son, the future Alexander I. And, as in the past, the beneficiaries of the coup had been informed in advance of what was intended. Although murder had not been the intent—it never was—the coup did turn bloody, and Paul was killed.
See also Catherine II (Russia) ; Russia .
Masson, Charles Francois Philbert. Secret Memoirs of the Court of Petersburg: Particularly towards the End of the Reign of Catherine II and the Commencement of That of Paul I. London, 1801–1802.
Sablukov, N. A. Reminiscences of the Court and Times of the Emperor, Paul I of Russia, up to the Period of His Death: From the Papers of a Deceased Officer. London, 1865.
McGrew, Roderick E. Paul I of Russia, 1754–1801. Oxford and New York, 1992.
Ragsdale, Hugh. Tsar Paul and the Question of Madness: An Essay in History and Psychology. New York, 1988.
"Paul I (Russia) (1754–1801; Ruled 1796–1801)." Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. . Encyclopedia.com. 22 Apr. 2019 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.
The Russian czar Paul I (1754-1801), the son and successor of Catherine the Great, reigned from 1796 until his assassination in 1801. Noted for his tyranny, he reversed many of his mother's policies.
Born on Sept. 20, 1754, Paul I was the son of Emperor Peter III and Catherine the Great. Empress Elizabeth brought Paul up under her personal supervision, and his schooling was under the direction of Nikita Ivanovich Panin, who later became Catherine's chief diplomatic adviser. Under the guidance of a carefully selected group of teachers, Paul studied geography, history, and mathematics. He learned to speak Russian, French, and German fluently. At the age of 19 Paul married Wilhemina, daughter of the landgrave of Hesse, but this marriage was brief and unhappy. His wife died in childbirth in April 1776. In September of that year Paul married Sophie Dorothy, Princess of Württemberg, who took the name of Fedorovna. Between 1777 and 1798 Fedorovna bore four sons and six daughters.
Catherine disliked Paul intensely and on several occasions attempted to change the law of succession to his disadvantage. In 1783 she gave him an estate near St. Petersburg. Paul spent the next 13 years in semiretirement at Gatchina, living the life of a country squire and garrison commander. He made rare appearances at the royal court and opposed both his mother's domestic and foreign policies.
Despite Catherine the Great's attempts to make Paul's son Alexander her successor, Paul ascended the Russian throne following his mother's death in 1796. One of his first legislative measures was the abolition of the arbitrary power of the czar to nominate his successor, a power that had contributed to political instability in 18th-century Russia. A law promulgated on the day of Paul's coronation made the crown hereditary in the house of Romanov and defined the order of succession based on primogeniture.
Paul as emperor repealed many of the nobles' privileges, restricted the duties and powers of the imperial guards, and tried to place restrictions on the exploitation of the serfs by the upper classes. Paul encouraged trade and industry, and he also attempted to modernize the armed forces. His conduct, however, was on occasion erratic and tyrannical, such as in his prohibition of foreign travel, Western music and books, and various types of dress.
In foreign policy, Paul joined in 1798 the second coalition against France, but Russia withdrew a year later. In order to discourage English interference with neutral shipping, Paul formed an armed neutrality league with Denmark, Sweden, and Prussia.
Paul's unpredictable—possibly mentally ill—behavior led to a conspiracy to force his abdication. His son Alexander assented to the coup d'etat of March 11, 1801. However, when Paul refused to abdicate, the conspirators strangled him.
The most authoritative study of the reign of Paul I is in Russian. Martha Edith Almedingen, So Dark a Stream: A Study of the Emperor Paul I of Russia, 1754-1801 (1959), is a popularly written biography. There is a good section on Paul in Alexander A. Kornilov, Modern Russian History (3 vols., 1912-1914; trans., 2 vols., 1916-1917), and in Ronald Hingley, The Tsars: Russian Autocrats, 1533-1917 (1968). Hans Rogger, National Consciousness in 18th Century Russia (1960), traces the emergence of a sense of national identity among the cosmopolitan elite.
McGrew, Roderick E. (Roderick Erle), Paul I of Russia, 1754-1801, Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
"Paul I." Encyclopedia of World Biography. . Encyclopedia.com. 22 Apr. 2019 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.
Paul I, 1754–1801, czar of Russia (1796–1801), son and successor of Catherine II. His mother disliked him intensely and sought on several occasions to change the succession to his disadvantage. During Catherine's lifetime Paul opposed her domestic policy, which strengthened the nobility, and her expansionist foreign policy. Upon his accession he introduced a law of succession based on primogeniture to strengthen the autocracy against the nobility. Paul rescinded many of the nobles' rights, limited the power of the imperial guards, and attempted to place limits on the nobility's exploitation of their serfs. He encouraged trade and industry and attempted to modernize the armed forces. His erratic conduct and whimsical application of petty regulations, however, caused great discontent. He prohibited foreign travel, certain types of dress, and the importation of Western books and music. In foreign policy, Paul joined (1798) the second coalition against France, but withdrew from the coalition the next year. He formed an armed neutrality league of Russia, Denmark, Sweden, and Prussia to counter English interference in neutral shipping, and he ordered an abortive invasion of India. Dissatisfaction with his rule, particularly among the nobles and military officers, led to a conspiracy against Paul, and he was murdered. His son and successor, Alexander I, knew of the conspiracy but did not participate in the murder.
"Paul I." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. . Encyclopedia.com. 22 Apr. 2019 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.
PAUL I (in Russian, Pavel Petrovich; 1754–1801; ruled 1796–1801), emperor of Russia.
Officially, Paul was the son of Peter III (r. 1762) and Catherine II (the Great, r. 1762–1796), but it is likely that his real father was the Russian nobleman Sergei Saltykov. Paul never doubted his royal paternity and revered his father's memory, but he grew to hate his mother. The antipathy was mutual. Peter III had been groomed to succeed his aunt, Empress Elizabeth (r. 1741–1762), under the terms of a 1722 law requiring reigning monarchs to nominate their successors. Peter duly became emperor in January 1762 (December 1761, old style), but his policies and personality alienated powerful nobles and his reign and his life were cut short in July 1762 by a coup in favor of his wife. The astute Catherine, who had strong support in court and diplomatic circles, claimed to rule by popular acclaim. She resisted suggestions that she serve as regent to Paul, who became painfully aware that his mother could legally disinherit him. For her part, Catherine feared the formation of factions around her son. Paul received a good education, but his mother kept him away from government. Official visits abroad, drilling his own guards on his barracks-like estate at Gatchina near St. Petersburg, and family life kept him occupied. In 1773 Paul was married off to Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt (known after conversion to Orthodoxy as Natalya Alex-eyevna), who died giving birth in April 1776. Five months later he married Sophia Dorothea of Württemberg (Maria Fyodorovna), who bore him four sons and six daughters.
When Catherine II died from a stroke in November 1796, Paul had Peter III's remains exhumed and buried alongside her. Much of his activity thereafter aimed at reversing Catherine's policies and expunging her memory. In 1797 he introduced a new succession law based on male primogeniture. Never again would a woman rule Russia. A military atmosphere pervaded St. Petersburg, replacing the French refinement of Catherine's court. Paul outlawed French fashions, from hats to carriages, and banned the import of books. One of Paul's role models was his great-grandfather Peter I (the Great, r. 1682–1725). Paul deplored the erosion under Peter's successors of the principle that all nobles must serve the state for life. He ignored his mother's 1785 Charter to the Nobility. Nobles lost their exemption from corporal punishment, their provincial assemblies were abolished, and many were exiled or demoted on the emperor's whim. An edict of 1797 limiting the time spent by serfs working on their owners' land was probably inspired by Paul's dislike of "indolent" nobles rather than humanitarian concern for peasants.
Paul's reign coincided with the rise to power in France of Napoleon Bonaparte. Despite his antipathy toward the French, Paul initially abandoned the anti-French coalition that his mother had entered, but in 1798 joined the Second Coalition (with Austria, Britain, Naples, Portugal, and Turkey). The most memorable incident in Russia's campaigns was the heroic defeat of France in Italy led by Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov, who later was forced to evacuate his army across the Alps. In 1800 Paul broke off with Austria and Britain. The elite's dislike of Paul was exacerbated by the danger that his erratic policies and behavior apparently posed to Russia. His election in 1798 as grand master of the Catholic Order of Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (also known as knights of Malta) and an ill-conceived scheme to send Russian troops to India fueled further fears. Eventually, Paul's eldest son, Alexander (born 1777; ruled as Alexander I, 1801–1825), approved a plot masterminded by the governor-general of St. Petersburg, Count Peter von Pahlen, to force Paul to abdicate. When a group of army officers broke into Paul's bedchamber on the night of 23 March (11 March, old style) 1801, the emperor resisted and was murdered during a scuffle.
Historians long maintained that the obsessive and inconsistent Paul was mentally unstable, a "tsar madman." Revisionist historians have detected method in his apparent madness, arguing, for example, that Paul was motivated by deeply held moral principles and a strong sense of duty and order. He had good reason, for example, to cut back on his mother's expensive foreign policy and lavish court. By alienating the nobility, however, he fell victim to the fact that under an autocratic regime lacking representative higher institutions of government, assassination was sometimes the elite's only means of making its voice heard.
See alsoAlexander I; Catherine II; Russia.
McGrew, Roderick E. Paul I of Russia, 1754–1801. Oxford, U.K., 1992.
Ragsdale, Hugh, ed. Paul I: A Reassessment of His Life and Reign. Pittsburgh, Pa., 1979.
"Paul I." Encyclopedia of Modern Europe: Europe 1789-1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of Industry and Empire. . Encyclopedia.com. 22 Apr. 2019 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>. |
0.999969 | Is black or dark oil bad? Does it mean that I’m in need of an oil change?
Nope. All that is indicated by the coloration of your oil when you check it is that your oil is doing its job properly. That job partially involves removing and capturing contaminants and deposits from the engine’s moving parts. Contaminants will color the oil, but certainly don’t indicate that it’s time for a change.
Engine oils have an expiry date after which the performance levels that they offer can no longer be guaranteed. The high heat and stress of operation for thousands of miles can actually oxidize the oil, causing it to thicken and lose its ability to move around your engine. Additionally, the contaminant-bearing part of oil will become less effective as it continues to pick up more and more engine debris. Get it changed regularly to make sure that doesn’t happen.
You are probably wondering if you can still use cans of oil which seems old: the oil is usable as long as it is sealed, stored in a cool dry location and no water or dirt has gotten in the bottles. |
0.996239 | I'm on Instagram the best part about is that you can reach out to people and see cool pictures.
hey, what social media site are you on?
That's not good. What can a person do to say safe on that website? |
0.942378 | What does it mean to judge a belief as "idiotic"? Surely not that every believer is ipso facto an idiot. That would be far too strong. Perhaps it means that they are idiots in the respect that they hold that belief (allowing that this may be outweighed by insight or intelligence in other respects). Or perhaps it's just a general disparagement of the belief in question, and doesn't really have any clear meaning (or implications about believers) at all?
An idiotic belief is one which requires an /act of idiocy/ in order to believe it.
Are all socialists idiots? It is on a par with astrology.
Are there not circumstances where beliefs that would be idiotic for you to hold may not be idiotic for others to hold? Can beliefs themselves be idiotic?
Macht, that's certainly true. Belief in creationism or a flat earth would not have been idiotic a few thousand years ago. One nice feature of MP's definition is that it allows for this kind of context-dependence - people with one set of evidence can believe X without committing an act of idiocy, while those with another set of evidence could not believe X without committing an act of idiocy.
So I say #2 is best, though it's sometimes used more in sense #3.
It sounds like right here we've managed to hit a sorites paradox.
I would say, personally, that we could clean up the way we're talking by insisting on talking not about idiotic beliefs but rather idiotic believings. At that point it makes more sense to attribute an idiotic believing to someone without necessarily attributing idiocy in general to that person. At any rate, I frequently (or semi-frequently) refer to certain actions of mine as idiotic ones but I'd hope that doesn't entail that I personally consider myself to be an idiot.
Similarly I would think that talking in terms of actions (believings) would clean up oddities like the apparent sense of believing the earth to be flat several thousand years ago compared with the obvious idiocy of believing that at the moment. Of course, that may still leave the Santa Claus question open.
I like these suggestions. I think I'd have to agree with Macht that it makes little sense to say that a belief itself is universally idiotic. (So now I'm edging towards #3.) What might be idiotic is a particular "believing" (as Dr. P puts it), which takes into account contextual circumstances and subjective evidence, etc. |
0.999251 | Chromosome 8: North Atlantic (37.4%), West Mediterranean (27.1%), Baltic (23.4%), East Mediterranean (7.3%), Amerindian (6.4%), East Asian (0.9%) and South Asian (0.2%).
Chromosome 12: Baltic (47.4%), North Atlantic (31.9%), West Mediterranean (11.6%), East Mediterranean (8.1%), Siberian (0.8%) and West Asian (0.2%).
I've inherited 'brainy genes' from all over Eurasia and even from North America. Awesome.
The Baltic countries typically include: Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden.
The North Atlantic countries of Europe typically include: the Atlantic Isles (Great Britain and Ireland), Iceland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, the central and northern regions of Portugal, northwestern and northern Spain (including Galicia, the southern Basque country), the southwestern and western portion of France (northern Basque country), western Scandinavia and northern Germany.
West Mediterranean countries and territories of Europe typically include: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (both formerly part of Yugoslavia), Croatia, Cypress, France, Gibraltar (UK), Greece, Italy, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro (also formerly part of Yugoslavia), Slovenia and Spain.
East Mediterranean countries typically include: the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and the West Bank.
Amerindian includes the indigenous native tribes of the Americas.
East Asian countries typically include: China, Mongolia, North Korea, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and the Russian Federation through Outer Manchuria and Siberia.
Siberia is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan constituting all of northern Asia, extending from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east and southward from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central Kazakhstan and the borders of Mongolia and China.
South Asian countries typically include: Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
West Asian countries (synonymous with the Middle East) typically include: Anatolia (Turkey, Cypress), Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia), Levant (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria), Mesopotamia (Iraq, Kuwait), Persia (Iran) and the Persian Gulf (Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen). |
0.94408 | Echinococcosis or hydatid disease is a near-cosmopolitan parasitic zoonosis caused by the larval stages (paratenic for humans) of cestodes of the genus Echinococcus (Figure 1) [1, 2]. This helminthiasis causes an important economic loss over agricultural and pastoral regions of limited resources, particularly in developing countries . In addition, it is also important to notice that this is one of the important infectious disease groups caused by larval stages of cestodes, which also include cysticercosis (caused by larval stages of Taenia solium), coenuriasis (caused by larval stages of Taenia multiceps gaigeri), and sparganosis (caused by larval stages of Spirometra), among others.
Biologically and taxonomically, although in the past it was considered as part of the genus Taenia, Echinococcus genus belongs to the family Taeniidae (order Cyclophyllidea, subclass Eucestoda, class Cestoda, phylum Platyhelminthes). Family Taeniidae also includes the genus Taenia. Order Cyclophyllidea has two important families that infect humans: Hymenolepididae (Hymenolepis) and Dipylidiidae (Dipylidium). Subclass Eucestoda includes the order Diphyllobothriidea that belongs to family Diphyllobothriidae and genus Diphyllobothrium.
Although, 12 species have been recognized, only four are of public health concern and produce human pathology: Echinococcus granulosus (cystic echinococcosis), E. multilocularis (alveolar echinococcosis), E. vogeli, and E. oligarthrus (both causing polycystic echinococcosis). The first two species are etiological agents of life-threatening diseases, having high fatality rate and poor prognosis if careful clinical management is not given . E. vogeli and E. oligarthrus are responsible for polycystic echinococcosis in Central and South America . Majority of the cases reported in these regions, till 2008, have corresponded to E. vogeli (54 of 172; 31.4%) and E. cf. vogeli (confer, species affinis) (114 of 172; 66.3%) . Only three cases (1.7%) have been identified that have corresponded to E. oligarthrus and one has corresponded to E. granulosus (0.6%) . In the past, it was believed that E. multilocularis was not present in Central and South America.
Living or having lived in rural areas where farming and animal husbandry are common is an important risk factor for this disease, in some areas particularly where people frequently come in contact with dogs that accompany paca hunters as well as where wild animal hunting for food is common practice (e.g., hunters and aboriginal people) . In addition, new population migration patterns over the past four decades have caused a change in the profile of this disease, allowing its worldwide distribution . In addition, in general, now it is considered that there is a risk of getting echinococcosis infection, as well other cestodiasis, while traveling to endemic zones.
This disease is related with extensive livestock or poor health infrastructures; usually associated with a low socioeconomic level and lack of education. Its public health importance is related not only to the high fatality rate in humans but also with reduced work performance, costs of hospitalization, interventions, and disabilities .
Although echinococcosis has been recognized for centuries (at the 17th century, Francesco Redi illustrated that the hydatid cysts of echinococcosis were of “animal” origin), in some countries of the neotropic region, such as Colombia, this disease was discovered during 20th century). Studies in this context in this country, as well as in other countries of South America, are still limited. Therefore, the objective of this chapter is to summarize and describe epidemiological and clinical updated aspects of this disease, focusing on evidences and published research articles on echinococcosis in Colombia, finally questioning if this cestode zoonotic disease has been largely neglected [1-84].
Scolex and hooks of Echinococcus granulosus (pictures by A. J. Rodriguez-Morales).
E. granulosus is a cestode whose life cycle involves dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and other canids (coyote, dingo, red fox, among others) as definitive hosts for the intestinal tapeworm, which are infected by ingestion of food containing hydatid cysts with viable protoscoleces, and domestic and wild ungulates as intermediate hosts for the tissue invading metacestode (larval) stage (Figure 1) . The metacestode (or hydatid cyst) consists of two parasite-derived layers: an inner nucleated germinal layer, and an outer acellular laminated layer surrounded by a host-derived fibrous capsule . Intermediate host species depends on the infecting strain of E. granulosus, regional or local differences in the availability of the various intermediate host species, and other factors , but would include primarily ungulates, also marsupials [which for the case of Colombia would make think the possibility of occurrence in the country given the wide presence of them, such as Didelphis marsupialis (locally called “chucha”)]. Ten strains of E. granulosus have been identified so far (G1–G10) with different host affinities: G1–G2 being sheep strains, G3 and G5 bovid strains, G4 a horse strain, G6 a camelid strain, G7 a pig strain, G8 a cervid strain, G9 has been described in swine in Poland, and G10 in reindeer in Eurasia [1, 81]. The sheep strain (G1) is most commonly associated with human infections . The presence of diverse strains of E. granulosus has important implications for public health. The shortened maturation time of the adult form of the parasite in the intestine of dogs suggests that the interval period for administering anti-parasite drugs to infected dogs will have to be shortened in those areas where the G2, G5, and G6 strains are found . The adult E. granulosus is 2.0 to 7.0 mm in length. It has three proglottids (range 4–6). It is supposed that E. granulosus is found worldwide; however, in many countries (including Colombia and other countries in South America), its presence has not been confirmed both in humans and in animals. Hydatid cysts are predominantly found in liver and lungs (Figure 1).
E. multilocularis is the etiological agent of the alveolar echinococcosis, its infection is perpetuated in a sylvatic cycle, with wild carnivores—mainly red (Vulpes vulpes) and arctic (Alopex lagopis) foxes—regarded as the most important definitive hosts. Domestic dogs and cats may be involved in a synanthropic cycle, and also raccoon dog and coyotes . Small mammals (usually microtine and arvicolid rodents) act as intermediate hosts. The metacestode of E. multilocularis is a tumor-like, infiltrating structure consisting of many small vesicles embedded in stroma of connective tissue. The metacestode mass usually contains a semisolid matrix rather than fluid. The adult tapeworm is different in size than adult E. granulosus (1.2–4.5 mm) and its eggs are indistinguishable by light microscopy. The hydatid cysts do not form hyaline membrane and the scolices, which are abundant in rodents but absent in humans. People become exposed to E. multilocularis by handling of infected hosts, or by ingestion of food contaminated with eggs of the parasite .
It is endemic in North America, Alaska, Europe, Central Russia, China, Turkey, Japan, Uruguay, and Argentina. In humans, the most frequently affected organs are the liver (80%), lungs (10%), brain (5%), and other organs such as kidney and pancreas (5%) . E. multilocularis has five proglottids (range 2–6). Hydatid cysts are primarily hepatic, with metastases in lungs, brain, and bones among other organs.
E. oligarthrus is the smallest species of the genus, it only measures, in its adult form, 2.2 to 2.9 mm. Definitive hosts are different species of wild felidae (pampas cats, Geoffrey’s cat, ocelot, jaguar, cougar, jaguarandi, puma, boat cats) and intermediate hosts are rodents like rats (spiny rat), agoutis, and pacas (both, very highly distributed in the whole territory of Colombia and in most of the tropical areas of South America, including Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guyana) . Hydatid cysts are located in an extrahepatic location, mostly in the intermuscular tissue, pleural, and peritoneal cavity . E. oligarthrus has three proglottids. Larval parasite of this species can be also located in eye and heart.
E. vogeli also causes polycystic echinococcosis and has been reported only in Central and South America. However, not every country in this region has reported cases of E. vogeli. Brazil (98 cases) and Colombia (30 cases) have been the countries with the highest number of reported cases, till 2010 (including E. cf. vogeli) . The adult tapeworm measures 5.6 mm. The eggs are similar to that of the Taenia genus. Definitive hosts are domestic and wild dogs (bush dog and domestic dog). The bush dog, Speothos venaticus, is widely distributed in South America, particularly not only in Brazil (>80% of the territory) but also in most parts of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guyana, as well as in some areas of Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay. Intermediate hosts are rodents, but mainly the agoutis and pacas. In this species, the hydatid cyst is of endogenous proliferation and it forms bags or folds inside the primary bladder . While in rodent the larvae is limited, in humans it disseminates, due to exogenous vesiculation and due to the amount of scolice inside the cyst, which can cause reinfection when it breaks spontaneously or by medical manipulation . The adult E. vogeli is 3.9 to 5.6 mm in length. E. vogeli has three proglottids.
The results of a survey (carried out to detect Echinococcus infections) involving more than 4,000 Colombian mammals showed interesting findings regarding E. vogeli and E. oligarthrus. Adult worms were found in 5 of 121 carnivores: E. oligarthrus in 1 of 11 ocelots, 2 of 9 jaguarundi cats, and single puma; and E. vogeli in 1 of 15 domestic dogs. Although bush dogs were present, none could be examined. Polycystic larvae were found in 96 of 325 pacas (29.5%) and in 6 of 1,168 (0.5%) spiny rats, Proechimys spp. None of the 118 agouti showed hydatid cysts but an infected heart was provided by hunters. The paca’s infection rate increased with age but was not related to gender or geographic region. In 73 of 96 pacas, the infection was due to E. vogeli, and the cysts were located in the liver. In three cases, it was due to E. oligarthrus and the hydatid cysts were extrahepatic, mainly attached to muscles. In the remaining 20, the species involved could not be determined. The parasites in two of the spiny rats, and in the agouti heart were E. oligarthrus . Although most of the infected animals were collected in the eastern plains, other records and verbal information indicate that, at least in Colombia where man has not exterminated pacas, agoutis, wild canids, and felids, one still can find enzootic neotropical Echinococcus infection. The cycle of E. vogeli involves the bush dog and paca as hosts, and that of E. oligarthrus, the paca, agouti, spiny rat, and several species of wild felids .
Other species in the genus Echinococcus have also been discovered and identified. Currently, there are 12 species, including those four causing human pathology, six identified in animals: E. canadensis (main intermediate host: cervids; known definite hosts: wolves, dog), E. equinus (main intermediate host: horses; known definite host: dogs), E. felidis (main intermediate host: warthogs; known definite host: lions), E. intermedius (main intermediate hosts: camels, pigs, sheep; known definite hosts lions), E. ortleppi (main intermediate host: cattle; known definite hosts dogs), and E. shiquicus (main intermediate host: pika; known definite host: Tibetan fox); and two to be assigned to name species (Echinococcus sp. GL-2010 and Echinococcus sp. GL-2012) (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=6209) .
Some authors have recently exposed that all these species would be infectious for humans, probably with the exception of E. equinus, E. felidis, and E. shiquicus, and also the two to be assigned to name species . Probably, with more studies in molecular epidemiology in the future, their role will become clear.. However, it is interesting to note that at the GenBank (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/?term=echinococcus), there are 271 genes identified from different species of Echinococcus: E. oligarthrus (36 genes), E. vogeli (36 genes), E. shiquicus (36 genes), E. canadensis (36 genes), E. equinus (36 genes), E. felidis (36 genes), E. ortleppi (14 genes), E. multilocularis (12 genes), and E. granulosus (12 genes). At GenBank, there are also 43,971 sequences of proteins of the genus Echinococcus (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/protein/?term=echinococcus): E. granulosus (24,310 sequences), E. multilocularis (18,670 sequences), E. canadensis (476 sequences), E. shiquicus (111 sequences), E. equinus (77 sequences), E. ortleppi (66 sequences), E. vogeli (51 sequences), E. oligarthrus (47 sequences), and E. felidis (34 sequences).
More importantly, a draft genomic sequence for E. granulosus comprising 151.6 Mb encoding 11,325 genes has been achieved , including the evaluation of the regulation of genes in the adult, oncosphere, hydatid cyst, and protoscoleces, which would be of great significance for further studies in diagnostic as well in the immunology and vaccine development, among other things.
The adult E. granulosus lives in the small intestine of the definitive hosts (dogs or other canids) (Figure 2). Gravid proglottids release eggs that are passed in the feces of these animals (which would come in close contact with humans). After ingestion by a suitable intermediate host (sheep, goat, swine, cattle, horses, camel, under usual natural conditions), embryonated eggs are hatched in the small intestine of the intermediate host and release the oncosphere which penetrates the intestinal wall and migrates through the circulatory system into various organs, especially the liver and lungs (Figure 2).
Life cycle of echinococcosis (pictures by A. J. Rodriguez-Morales).
In these organs, the oncosphere develops into a cyst that enlarges gradually, producing protoscolices and daughter cysts that fill the cyst interior (Figure 2). The definitive host becomes infected by ingesting the cyst-containing organs of the infected intermediate host (Figure 2). After ingestion, the protoscolices evaginate, attach to the intestinal mucosa, and develop into adult stages in approximately 32 to 80 days (Figure 2). Humans can also get infected by ingesting eggs from feces of definitive hosts infected, then resulting with the release of oncospheres in the intestine and the development of cysts in different organs (mainly liver and lungs) (Figure 2).
The same life cycle occurs with E. multilocularis, E. vogeli, and E. oligarthrus, with the differences in the definitive or main hosts and the intermediate hosts involved for these species (Figure 2).
Cystic echinococcosis or cystic hydatidosis (caused by E. granulosus) is an important public health problem in South America, the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean, some sub-Saharan African countries, China, the former Soviet Union, Russia, and the new related countries (Figure 3) [7, 8]. The overall prevalence of echinococcal infection is underestimated in many countries because systematic population surveys are not performed in all endemic areas, and this disease is not under surveillance neither in humans nor in animals in most of these countries . Even more, in some countries, such as Colombia, there are reports from animal health authorities claiming that echinococcosis as a disease has “never” been registered in the country . In endemic areas, its incidence has been estimated to be around 50 cases per 100,000 population per year .
Distribution of Echinococcus granulosus and cystic echinococcosis (hydatidosis), 2009 (2010) .
In South America, although there is underreporting, it has been estimated that each year there would be occurring 2,000 cases , but these are not the exact figures. Uruguay has reported 9.2 cases per 100,000 population in 1995, and Chile has reported between 6.6 and 8.4 new cases per 100,000 population per year. Besides this, echinococcosis is also a health problem in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru [10, 82]. In the Peruvian Andes, observed prevalence rates in one study among humans, canines, and sheep were 9%, 46%, and 32%, respectively .
Approximate geographical distribution of Echinococcus multilocularis and alveolar echinococcosis (1999) [51, 52].
Drawing illustrates the geographic distribution of hydatid disease from Echinococcus granulosus (red dots), E. multilocularis (black dots), and E. vogeli (green dots). E. granulosus is the most common of the Echinococcus species (1999) . This is not precise and requires more specific information from the countries regarding the distribution of cases by the territories included in the map.
World Health Organization (WHO) had developed a global map of the distribution of E. granulosus and cystic echinococcosis (hydatidosis, 2009); however, there is no recent official WHO map for distribution of other Echinococcus species (Figure 3) . However, in 2001, WHO and World Organization for Animal Health also developed a map of the approximate geographical distribution of E. multilocularis and alveolar echinococcosis (1999) (Figure 4) [51, 52].
E. multilocularis is limited to the northern hemisphere (Figure 4). It occurs in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union (now Russia), Turkey, Iraq, northern India, central China, some Japanese islands, some provinces of Canada, Alaska, and some north central states of the United States (Figure 4).
Distribution of E. oligarthrus and E. vogeli is limited to South and Central America, but there is no precise map regarding their presence in the countries of these regions.
Since definitive host of E. vogeli exists only from Panama to the North of Argentina, cases of polycystic hydatidosis outside of this region of the world are probably imported by E. oligarthrus . However, there are no precise estimations of E. oligarthrus. An attempt to map the distribution of E. vogeli was presented in 2005 by Colombian authors (Figure 5).
Normally, infections from species of the genus Echinococcus involve wild and rural hosts; however, due to human actions (temporary by recreation and work, but also definitive) which have permanently used dogs in work grazing and fed them with viscera of sacrificed animals, this cycle has been altered . Since all types of echinococcosis or hydatidosis are acquired by ingestion of water or food contaminated with the eggs in the feces shed by the carnivores, it is advisable to take special care with the feces of these animals, especially when considering that these eggs resist partial desiccation for several months .
In Colombia, echinococcosis does not seem to be a major problem if we base such assumptions from human and animal health authorities . But, as has been evidenced, cases of infection with the larval forms of E. granulosus have been reported . However, prevalence and incidence of this entity have not been determined. Echinococcosis is not under surveillance and there is no obligation to report cases related to this infection to health authorities in the country; then known cases have been just those reported in national and international biomedical literature (Figure 6).
The first case was reported in 1941 , but since 1957, more cases had been reported (Figure 6). Two decades later, D’Alessandro began studies in the country. This author found more than a dozen of human cases of polycystic echinococcosis produced by the larval stage of E. vogeli whose definitive hosts were wild and domestic dogs and intermediate host was paca (“guagua,” Cuniculus paca) [3, 55], after suspecting the presence of disease due to four cases of calcified hydatid cysts .
Most of the infected people were native from Colombia who acquired the disease by ingesting food or water contaminated with dog feces and by eating raw viscera of “guagua.” Botero et al. describe three more unpublished cases: two from the coast of the Pacific Ocean and one from Santa Marta [13, 14]. D’Alessandro’s studies demonstrated that in Colombia, the guagua is the main intermediate host and the wild dogs known as gouache fox is the definitive host. The guatin, which is also an edible animal for Colombian indigenous tribes, is a more specific host for E. oligarthrus .
Till 2008, the country in South America with the highest number of cases reported was Brazil, with 99 cases, followed by Colombia with 29 (Figure 6) [3, 50-60]. In Colombia, some authors believe that there are more cases not reported, in fact due to the lack of records. This also probes that occurrence of echinococcosis is more evidently reported, when people in the rural and jungle areas receive health services and physicians are more aware of the disease .
Two years later, in 2010, another and the last case till March 2015, has been reported . A case of cardiac echinococcosis, detected in echocardiographic finding in an 18-year-old woman diagnosed in Medellin, Antioquia . Fortunately in this case, physicians suspected of this cestode infection; however, more awareness among physicians regarding the compromise of cardiovascular system in many parasitic diseases is still necessary, particularly in endemic areas [63-67].
Based on this review of cases, including information from the departments of the country where this disease has been reported, a map for Colombia has been proposed (Figure 6). This map shows the departments of the country (including locations of origin of one or more cases), where echinococcosis have been reported (Figure 6). At least 10 departments (out of 32 in total) have reported cases of echinococcosis (Figure 6) [14, 54, 59-61, 72].
Beyond this, with an increasing number of published reports concerning this disease, medical personnel in tropical areas, as in Colombia and more recently in Brazil, have been keenly interested in undertaking epidemiological surveys [3, 68, 69]. Even more, there is a significant zoonotic potential, given the fact that the investigations in Colombia demonstrated a large enzootic areas of transmission in the oriental plains of that country [3, 58], where multiple species and a high number of animals have been found positive in the evaluations for Echinococcus, particularly E. oligarthrus.
As in other zoonotic diseases, parasitic and of other etiologies, there is a clear need of more studies, as well as more interaction between physicians and veterinarians. More research is necessary; currently, there are just 10 reports available in Medline for Colombia (using the terms “Colombia” AND “Echinococc*” [means Echinococcus and/or echinococcosis]) [53, 55-60, 62, 70, 71]. There is no significantly different information available at Scopus. At SciELO, there is one additional case, a patient with hepatic hydatidosis who appeared as an eosinophilic pleural effusion serologically confirmed, treated with combined therapy with albendazole and the percutaneous aspiration-injection-reaspiration drainage technique .
Finally, an undergoing research of our group is analyzing a new source of information for communicable diseases, which are not under surveillance and require compulsory notification. In Colombia, there is a service, which is now available for analyses, the so-called personal health records (Registro Individual de Prestación de Servicios, RIPS), where diagnoses are classified according to WHO cause groups International Classification of Diseases version 10 (ICD-10). At this system, we retrieved the cases of echinococcosis between years 2009 and 2013, finding 303 cases (Figure 7).
Cases of echinococcosis (ICD-10 codes B67.0 to B67.9) reported to the personal health records of Colombia (RIPS) during 2009–2013.
Although these cases corresponded in 18.2% to “Echinococcosis, unspecified, of liver” (B67.8) and 21.5% to “Echinococcosis, other and unspecified” (B67.9), there are 60.4% (n = 183) of them classified as infection due to E. granulosus (47.5%) and E. multilocularis (12.9%) in different organs (Figure 7), mainly lung for E. granulosus (17.8%) (Figure 7). Although there are limitations to this source, there is useful information that should be further analyzed. Epidemiological factors (geographic distribution, age groups, gender) involved in these cases would be of high interest in describing the situation of echinococcosis in the country.
In these cases, looked retrospectively, the limitation in the approach is that there is no information regarding the diagnostic techniques implemented in each case, and how these cases were therapeutically managed. Then, based on this information, cross-sectional and prospective studies should be implemented in the countries, and there should also be an increase in the awareness about the existence and occurrence of such diseases in different areas of the country, and particularly in those that had previously reported case reports and case series since early decades (Figure 6).
According to the World Bank, economic losses due to this disease stand at the fourth position after other diseases and trauma .
Echinococcosis also affects the economy of the endemic regions. In humans, losses are due to costs of hospitalization, treatment, disability, etc. However, in livestock, losses are due to lost productivity, losses in quality of the wool and meat, and decreased milk production and fertility . Estimated annual economic losses in Peru are $ 178,705 . In Colombia, estimation of the economic burden of this disease has not been reported, but given the increase in the number of economic evaluations of infectious diseases in the country and in the region [73, 74], there would be more clear details once the number of cases reported would be defined.
Regardless of the etiology, a new concept of organ compromise was proposed in 2014, when two or more organs are affected by echinococcosis at the same time in a patient. This has been defined as multivisceral echinococcosis, simultaneous localization of hydatid cysts in more than one organ . Multivisceral echinococcosis should be differentiated from multiple echinococcosis . The latter is the localization of multiple cysts in one organ . Even in paired organs (lungs, kidneys) if both are compromised, it will be a case of multivisceral echinococcosis, given the implications not just in diagnosis, but particularly in surgical management.
Echinococcosis is a larval infection caused in humans by Echinococcus species, a metacestode with the ability to create a large spectrum of clinical manifestations, including the asymptomatic infection, and a severe and fatal disease. There are four species of echinococcosis that have been recognized that cause various forms of the disease, specifically the E. granulosus species which is responsible for cystic echinococcosis .
As a general rule, the phase of primary infection is always asymptomatic because the cysts are located in different organs, characterized by their small size, which is less than 5 cm and are encapsulated. This first phase is not been associated with major pathology and might remain asymptomatic for a long period or permanently [16, 17]. The incubation period is undefined but it could be in around months or even years, before the infection becomes symptomatic. There have been reported cases of spontaneous cure due to cyst calcification and collapse and on the other hand, there are cases of early symptomatology because of cyst rupture [16, 18].
Cystic echinococcosis is seen in all ages, including patients aged below 1 year and above 75 years, with a majority between 6 and 15 years, 21 and 30, and 30 and 40 years. The most risky profession involves farm labors .
There is a huge spectrum of clinical manifestations that are variable among the patients and none of these are considered as pathognomonic of echinococcosis . All the symptoms might depend on different characteristics such as the host-parasite interaction, the different organs involved, cyst size, and the presence of different complications such as cyst rupture or trauma [16, 18]. The most commonly compromised organs are the liver, followed by lung, kidney, spleen, and less common organs like muscles, skin, abdominal cavity, and pelvic cavity. The symptoms may vary in accordance with the organ involved [16-18].
Liver infections include symptoms such as hepatomegaly, cholecystitis, jaundice, liver abscess, or secondary biliary cirrhosis. Lung infections include symptoms like chest pain, expectoration, hemoptysis, and dyspnea . Other severe manifestations include cyst getting rupture into biliary tree causing biliary colic, jaundice and can be confused with pancreatitis or cholangitis [16, 19].
The liver is the most commonly involved organ, representing around two-thirds of the cases. The right lobe is compromised in the majority of the cases (60% to 80%) but it frequently does not produce symptoms and when these once occur, it is estimated that the cyst size is around 10 cm [20, 21]. Once a cyst develops a larger size, hepatomegaly might occur and other symptoms like right upper quadrant pain, nausea, and vomiting can also result. Due to the mass defect of the cyst compression of the portal and hepatic veins, it can result in Budd-Chiari syndrome [19, 20].
The most common symptom of lung infection is the presence of cough in around 53% to 62% of the patients, followed by chest pain, dyspnea, and hemoptysis. But generally, most of the patients with lung infection are asymptomatic [21, 22].
Heart infection might generate rupture with pericardial tamponade, cardiac insufficiency, embolism or pericardial effusion [23-25, 60, 64, 66]. The central nervous system can lead to seizures or symptoms due to an increase in the intracranial pressure . Kidney disease can cause hematuria, and even glomerulonephritis and nephrotic syndrome have been described. Bones are mostly asymptomatic and only develop manifestations when a pathological fracture occurs .
Surgeries are performed in around 15% of the patients after the initial diagnosis. And in patients without surgery, majority would remain asymptomatic through many years .
The most common presenting complaints include malaise, weight loss, and right upper quadrant discomfort due to hepatomegaly. Cholestatic jaundice, cholangitis, portal hypertension, and the Budd-Chiari syndrome can also occur. The clinical presentation may mimic that of hepatocellular carcinoma .
Extrahepatic primary disease is very rare (1% of cases). Multiorgan disease was described in 13% of cases in one series in which metacestodes involved the lungs, spleen, or brain in addition to the liver . If left untreated, more than 90% of patients will die within 10 years of the onset of clinical symptoms, and virtually 100% will die by 15 years .
These species cause polycystic echinococcosis, but they represent a very rare cause of echinococcosis disease, found in muscles and skin but it has been only described in a few cases in Brazil, Venezuela, and Surinam [16, 18, 28, 29].
For an optimal diagnosis, both imaging and serological tests are required.
The cysts may be visualized by ultrasonography, computed tomography (CT), or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However ultrasonography is the most commonly employed technique due to its easy performance and low cost. The sensitivity of ultrasonography for the evaluation of echinococcosis is 90% to 95% and the appearance of a cyst in the ultrasound is as an anechoic and smooth cyst. Another important aspect of the ultrasonography is that it helps in the classification of the disease, according to the WHO echinococcosis classification based on their ultrasound appearance. CT has an overall sensitivity of 95% to 100% and is the preferred imaging test to describe the size, location, and number of cysts. MRI has the same sensitivity as that of CT and has no major advantages over CT, but it is better for the determination of intra- and extra-hepatic changes; however, it is not usually a routine examination technique in the patients [18, 27].
Antigen 5 which is a parasite antigen; however, the studies have shown low specificity of its extensive use in the diagnosis .
Antigen B is a lipoprotein and is related with a superior specificity in comparison with the antigen 5 .
Nonspecific leukopenia or thrombocytopenia, mild eosinophilia, and nonspecific liver function may be detected but are not diagnostic. Hypergammaglobulinemia and elevated serum IgE levels are present in more than 50% of cases.
Imaging: On ultrasonography or CT, the lesions usually have an irregular contour with no well-defined wall, central necrosis, and irregular intralesional and wall calcifications.
Serologic tests are more reliable for diagnosis of E. multilocularis infection than for E. granulosus infection; sensitivity and specificity rates are 95% to 100%. A specific E. multilocularis antigen such as the affinity purified Em2 antigen from alveolar echinococcosis metacestodes is often used; the Em2-ELISA can discriminate between E. granulosus and E. multilocularis in 95% of cases. Serology usually remains positive indefinitely; following complete surgical resection, serology may normalize within a few years .
Cyst aspiration or biopsy: In the absence of a positive serologic test, percutaneous aspiration or biopsy may be required to confirm the diagnosis by demonstrating the presence of protoscolices, hooklets, or hydatid membranes.
Polymerase chain reaction: Polymerase chain reaction techniques are limited to research settings but may play a diagnostic role in the future. DNA probes using Southern hybridization tests are also being developed.
Echinococcosis treatment includes a multidisciplinary conduct and a general overview of the patient condition in order to provide the best management that includes surgical treatment, pharmacological treatment, the “watch and wait,” and both of them, depending on the specific characteristics of the disease and most importantly the type of Echinococcosis that the patient develops. The overall approach depends on the different species that infect humans, particularly two of them: E. granulosus and E. multilocularis, causing cystic echinococcosis (CE) and alveolar echinococcosis (AE), respectively .
As mentioned earlier, the treatment is complex, and even these days there are no clinical trials and studies that compare the different modalities to say which one is superior to the other. However, it is accepted that the surgical treatment can potentially remove all the E. granulosus cysts for complete cure . The different treatment strategies include surgery, percutaneous management, pharmacological management, and observation .
Overall, the diagnosis approach depends on the WHO diagnostic classification, performed in 2003, when the Informal Working Group on echinococcosis established a standardized ultrasound classification based on the status of the cyst by its ultrasound appearance. This classification has the intention to promote uniform standards of diagnosis and treatment, and has important implications for the clinical decision.
There are three different stages, including CE1 and CE2 that are cyst-containing protoscolices. The CE3 stage is divided in CE3a, a detached endocyst, and CE3b, a solid cyst with daughter cysts . Recommendations indicate that CE1 and CE3a stages, in which the cyst size is less than 5 cm, should be treated with albendazole only. Stages CE1 and CE3a with cyst size more than 5 cm may be treated with albendazole in combination with percutaneous treatment via PAIR (puncture, aspiration, injection, and reaspiration). The CE2 and CE3b stages are characterized by multiple cyst compartments that require individual puncture, and these patients usually require PAIR. However, the optimal choice among the different approaches (PAIR, surgery, or drug therapy) is uncertain. Finally, stages CE4 and CE5 involve inactive cysts that only require observation [33, 34].
It is the first treatment option in cases of complicated cysts, including a cyst rupture or infection and hemorrhage. It is also an alternative treatment option for those cysts with many daughter vesicles that are not suitable for percutaneous treatment. Another indications are large liver cysts, cyst diameter more than 10cm, extrahepatic disease (lung, bone, or brain), cysts situated superficially with high risk of rupture, and cysts affecting the biliary tree [31, 35]. Contraindications are relative to each patient; for example, old-aged people, people suffering from concomitant diseases, pregnant women, or patients with small cysts . As far as the complications are concerned, secondary infection, intra-abdominal abscess, fistula, or sclerosing cholangitis have been reported. Recurrent echinococcosis may occur in e 2% to 25% of the cases, depending basically on the surgeon’s experience .
Before choosing the surgical technique, it's important to administrate drug therapy to minimize the surgical risk of secondary echinococcosis from seeding of protoscolices in the abdominal cavity. Usually, albendazole is administered a week before surgery, and continued at least four weeks after the surgery. Praziquantel is another option, but there is no specific evidence regarding its efficacy [31, 36].
Surgical approach must be individualized, depending on each patient disease and its characteristics. There are two options; the first one is to remove the intact cyst, and another option is to open the cyst with protoscolicidal agents, such as hypertonic saline, followed by the evacuation of the cyst contents and removal of the cyst . Other protoscolicidal used includes 70% to 95% ethanol and 0.5% cetrimide solution. The protoscolicidal agent must be in contact with the germinal layer for at least 15 minutes to make its effect. Albendazole, ivermectin, and praziquantel have been also used as protoscolicidal agents, but their efficacy and safety need more studies. Protoscolicidal agents should not be used in the presence of biliary communication, because of the risk of sclerosing cholangitis or pancreatitis [31, 35].
There is also the possibility of laparoscopic surgery for the treatment of echinococcosis; however, there are no randomized trials done yet comparing the efficacy of laparoscopy with open procedures. Possible indications for laparoscopic treatment are the presence of anteriorly located hepatic cysts, although this procedure is related with associated risk of spillage because of the elevation of intra-abdominal pressures due to the pneumoperitoneum. Contraindications include deep intraparenchymal cysts, the presence of calcified walls cyst, and cysts located next to the vena cava .
In a review article published in 2014 with the aim to study the world literature of the laparoscopic treatment of liver hydatid cyst, a total of 914 patients were identified to evaluate the mortality, morbidity, and clinical outcomes of the laparoscopic treatment. It was found that the most common procedure was cystectomy in 60.39% of patients, followed by partial pericystectomy with 14.77% of patients, and finally pericystectomy with 8.21% of patients, and the rest of them were treated via segmentectomy. They also reported that conversion of laparoscopy to open laparotomy occurred in the 4.92% of the cases, due to anatomical limitations and inaccessible locations. Mortality was reported in 0.22% of the patients and morbidity was reported in 15.07% of the patients. There was no intraoperative deaths reported and the most reported complication was bile leakage. In general terms, they concluded that the laparoscopic procedure is safe, with acceptable ranges of mortality and morbidity and clinical outcomes comparable to open surgery .
There are two percutaneous techniques. The first one called PAIR (puncture, aspiration, injection of a protoscolicidal agent, and reaspiration) is usually effective in the treatment of cysts without daughter cysts. And the second one, that involves the evacuation of the cyst with a large bore catheter. This technique helps in cases in which the drain becomes difficult or tends to relapse after PAIR, like in the case of WHO stages CE2 and CE3b cysts [31, 38]. Percutaneous treatment is associated with anaphylaxis, happening according to a review in the 1.6% of the patients . And as in surgery, albendazole must be administered for at least one month after the percutaneous treatment .
It was first introduced in the mid-1980s and includes the realization of percutaneous puncture of the cyst by ultrasonic guidance, aspiration of the cyst fluid, injection of a protoscolicidal substance, and finally reaspiration of the cyst fluid. PAIR has the advantages of being less invasive than surgery and can be a diagnostic and therapeutic procedure and it has a success rate of more than 95%. This procedure may be used in cases of echinococcosis of WHO stages CE1 and CE3a as primary treatment and for the relapse after medical therapy in stages CE1 and CE3a, and in case of relapse after surgery. PAIR also showed to be successful in the management of liver cysts and in those cysts located in other abdominal parts such as kidney, spleen, and in the abdominal cavity. There are controversies in the use of PAIR in pregnant women and in children, although the application of PAIR is indicated in symptomatic pregnant women [16, 31, 38].
The procedure is performed by ultrasound or by CT guidance. Then the cyst is punctured and the fluid aspiration is realized and a histopathological study must be done to evaluate the presence of protoscolices. After the administration of protoscolicidal agent, the reaspiration must be done for at least 10 to 15 minutes. Four hours before PAIR, adjunctive drug therapy with albendazole or mebendazole should be administrated. Recommendations indicate that albendazole should be continued after a month of the procedure and mebendazole should be continued for three months. The most important contraindications of the PAIR are the following: the presence of cysts without drainable solid material, superficial cyst with risk of rupture in the abdominal cavity, calcified cysts, and cyst with biliary communication [31, 40].
In most of the cases, it is useful as an adjunctive therapy to surgery and percutaneous treatment. The use of pharmacological approach as definitive management is indicated in few cases. The recommendations indicate that in cases of small cysts of WHO stages CE1 and CE3a with cyst size less than 5 cm, the initial management with only drug therapy is appropriate, with optimal duration of treatment depending on the clinical factors, but usually estimated in around one to six months. The effectiveness of pharmacological therapy decreases with the presence of a cyst size more than 5 cm, with multiple compartments of cysts [16, 31, 39].
As an adjunctive treatment, albendazole is used as perioperative drug therapy in surgery or in percutaneous treatment. It reduces the risk of recurrent disease by the inactivation of the protoscolices. There is no general consensus of the duration of the treatment, but generally it is initiated four days before surgery and continued at least one month after the surgery in case of albendazole and for three months in case of mebendazole [16, 31, 40, 42].
Albendazole is the first drug option and the primary antiparasitic agent for treatment of E. granulosus, and in cases of absence of albendazole, mebendazole may be used as an alternative, but it is less absorbed than albendazole. The primary action of albendazole is that it inhibits microtubules assembly, causing a glycogen depletion, followed by the degeneration of the mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum, finally causing the cell death. It is reported that albendazole helps cyst resolution in 30% of the patients, cyst size reduction in 30% to 50% patients, and in 20% to 40% of the patients, there are no changes in the cysts. However, the outcome of the treatment with albendazole depends on multiple factors like the clinical characteristic of the patient, the cyst size, and its location [31, 43].
However, albendazole has more advantages than mebendazole. For example, albendazole is well tolerated by patients and it takes a shorter duration of therapy. Dose of albendazole is usually 10 to 15 mg/kg per day divided in two doses and mebendazole dose is 40 to 50 mg/kg per day divided in three doses. Adverse effects include hepatotoxicity in 1% to 5% of the patients, cytopenia, and alopecia in less than 1% of the patients. Due to hepatotoxicity, there might be an increase in aminotransferase enzymes. Other rare side effect like agranulocytosis has also been reported. Contraindications of using albendazole include patients with liver disease or bone marrow suppression [31, 44]. Patients with pharmacological therapy must be monitored every two to three weeks for first three months and then monthly . Praziquantel has protoscolicidal activity, but its efficacy in clinical studies is variable, but is considered as an alternative when the albendazole treatment cannot be administrated [44, 45].
Observation: Also known as the “watch and wait,” indicated in the WHO stages CE4 and CE5, in patients with absence of complications or inactive liver cysts .
Unfortunately, the treatment of alveolar echinococcosis is less effective than the treatment of cystic echinococcosis. The general approach to the treatment is based on surgery. The main idea is to remove all the infected tissue and sometimes it is necessary to also remove part of the host tissue. Management with albendazole is recommended after surgery with an uncertain optimal duration. The benefit of preoperative albendazole administration has not been reported .
Echinococcosis has always been neglected worldwide and especially in Colombia. Particularly in this country, research was done and published only between 1950s and 1990s. There is no subsequent interest in the occurrence of this disease and all its implications.
Due to the impact of echinococcosis, the burden it creates, and the consequences in the patients, it becomes important to create strategies in order to improve and have a better control on this disease in our country. This probably should begin at medical schools, where more emphasis on teaching about this parasitic disease, would increase awareness about it. As has been mentioned earlier, there should be regular interaction among physicians, biologists and veterinarians to better understand the implications of this zoonotic disease, which at least from an enzootic point of view is clearly extended. As an additional reflection in the middle of the process and discussion about peace in Colombia, there are chances that once this would be reached, after the La Habana discussions, more people, not only missionary, health, and military corps, would be allowed to enter in the guerrillas-controlled areas, which are precisely located where enzootic evidences of echinococcosis have been reported, increasing the exposure to species of Echinococcus and probably making more visible the occurrence of this disease in the country .
Even more, it’s not clear yet, if Colombia would be considered properly a risky area for travelers visiting the country in the view of acquisition of echinococcosis. But certainly in other highly endemic countries, echinococcosis is included in the list of infectious diseases that can be acquired during travel, and cases of echinococcosis, as well from other cestodiasis, have been reported increasingly during the last few years [75-78].
Therefore, it becomes crucial to create a clear and easy consensus to help and guide the physicians to make a better approach towards helping the patients in finding the opportune diagnosis and the best treatment option. The creation of a normative and the global vision of echinococcosis as a public health problem might help improve the control of this disease.
Echinococcosis, and other zoonotic diseases, can re-emerge just when they are considered to be under control or eliminated. They can go into hiding in the animal reservoirs, so there is no possibility for complacency . Epidemiology of zoonoses such as echinococcosis is complex and dynamic, being influenced by varying parameters that can roughly be categorized as human-related, pathogen-related, and climate/environment-related [79, 80]. But certainly for echinococcosis, there is still much to understand.
Authors would like to thank the critical comments of anonymous reviewers. Also, Dr. Rodriguez-Morales would like to thank Dr. Juliana Buitrago-Jaramillo, Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia, for her support to his research group during the activities in year 2014, including presentation and conferences at major international meetings (mainly in Peru, Mexico, and Cuba), and also in 2015 (Ecuador). The authors would also like to thank the Asociación Colombiana de Infectología and International Society for Chemotherapy, for supporting the research and presentations of studies in zoonoses since 2011 (Italy, Japan, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Cuba). Finally, the authors would like to thank the Ministry of Health of Colombia, for the access to SIVIGILA and RIPS databases through the system Cubo de datos del SISPRO. |
0.999569 | Once you understand how Internet communications work on the technical level, it becomes obvious that spying is possible. As data flows between computer systems, anyone with full access to the involved computers can potentially read or copy all unprotected information.
For example, a criminal, working as an computer administrator at an Internet Service Provider company, could spy on customers, potentially reading corporate secrets that are exchanged by email, and could secretly sell such information to the customer's competitors.
There are many additional scenarios where it's reasonable to ensure that information remains protected against spying. And the most important scenario is that people have the right of privacy.
With the recent events we (apparently) have learned, that spying isn't limited to those with criminal intentions, but that spying is also performed by secret government agencies, justified as being necessary for providing security to the people.
At the very least, this (apparently) confirms what has been rumoured or anticipated.
However, it depends on the point of view, whether you call such spying legal or criminal. If you have two countries A and B, and each of them spies on the other one, then probably each of them calls their own activities legal, and describes the actions of the other country as criminal.
What happens if you're a citicen of country A, and both countries A and B are technically able to spy on you? Even if you decided that it might be acceptable for your own country to spy on you for the purposes of national safety, neither you nor your government might like the idea that your data is being accessed by country B.
This is one example why it makes sense to protect your information, making it either impossible or very difficult (and requring a targeted effort) to read your information, instead of allowing them to read your data with zero cost.
The above should show why it's in your own interest to invest resources into the protection of your data.
After the existence of the Prism and Tempora systems became known, it triggered the question, whether government agencies should be allowed to do it or not. That's a good question, and in my opinion, in democratic countries, a government should be obligated to inform its citicens about such operations, enabling the people to use their voting powers to acknowledge or resist such operations.
However, there are arguments why it might be irrelevant what the public decides. Even if country A decided that mass surveillance performed by country A is unacceptable, you still risk being spied on by country B. For example, an Internet Provider operator could be controlled by country B, but offering services in country A. Or country B has agents working at an Internet Provider in country A, that help to spy.
We can also look at it from another angle. I don't know how realistic the numbers are, but I've read that several hundert thousand people might have access to the data being processed by the Prism/Tempora systems. In my opinion, it's very likely that at least some of those people are foreign agents. As we have seen, people with high security clearance may become whistleblowers. Essentially, you don't know what people might do, regardless how many background checks you've made. It wouldn't surprise me if a few employees of such agencies secretly query the databases, on demand, selling the information to a different country. Since this action has a much lower risk for detection than becoming a whistleblower, I don't think we can rule out this possibility. I'd conclude, by spying in your own country, you enable foreign agents to benefit from the information, too.
In my opinion, because spying is technically possible, it won't be sufficient to implement laws that forbid it.
The only solution is to make spying impossible, or very difficult. And that's what all of us should be doing, by using encryption technology and, where encryption isn't possible, such as in places dedicated to sharing information with other's, at least following a strategy of data austerity, and only providing as much information as absolutely necessary (or deliberately considered harmless).
You might say, by encouraging people in country A to use encryption technology, you make it more difficult for the secret agency in country A to do their job. Well, I think that's exactly what we should do, and is acceptable, because more difficult doesn't mean impossible.
The state authorities will still have their classic ways of investigation. They still can secretly tap a suspect, for example by secretly entering an apartment and physically installing a keyboard logger on the target's computer system, installing video cameras, etc. However, because of the required effort and because of limited resources, very likely this will only be done to real suspects, not to every citizen.
Since individual people cannot control what the powerful agencies might do, their only chance is to protect themselves.
As a consequence, in my opinion, we should actively teach all Internet users how to use encryption enabled software, and how to avoid centralized service providers, and improve the software used by people, to make it more difficult for agencies or criminals to automatically spy on them.
The internal microphone on my Linux system didn't work. In order to enable it, I had to disable the driver for the internal analogue (classic) modem.
If the above command produces output, then your system has that particular Linux kernel module loaded, and might be blocking the internal microphone.
Now restart your computer and test if your microphone works.
Gnome-Shell and Cinnamon behave differently, which includes how tray notification icons are being treated. While Cinnamon uses the classic approach of showing them, the Gnome-Shell developers would like to see them avoided.
Therefore it's currently the application's job to figure out what to do. Unfortunately Gnome-Shell and Cinnamon have many similar properties from an application's point of view, so it's necessary to find a way to distinguish them from within the code.
Thanks to Bastien Nocera and Shaun McCance for suggesting the use of D-Bus to distinguish between Gnome-Shell and Cinnamon.
As I was driven to fix the deja-dup backup tool, I was looking for a solution in the Vala programming language, and below is some code to detect a running Cinnamon desktop environment. I tested that the code works in Cinnamon version 1.4.0 and 1.6.7.
I'd like to thank Evan Nemerson who helped me understand the correct syntax to access a D-Bus property using Vala.
I recently upgraded my system from Fedora 17 to Fedora 18, and afterwards Evolution 3.6 (using the evolution-rss plugin) had an empty list of feeds in edit/preferences/news+blogs.
Thanks to Lucian Langa who pointed me to a manual migration script, which fixed the issue for me.
Gnome 3.6 has changed the default behavior of scrollbars.
For as long as I can think, since I've started to use computers with graphical user interfaces, I've been used to clicking the empty space below (or above) a scrollbar's position indicator, in order to scroll down (or up) exactly one page.
That classic behavior has been changed in Gnome/Gtk, the new behavior is to jump to an absolute position, based on exactly where you click.
I don't like the new behavior, I believe changing the default was an unfortunate decision. I'm using multiple computers, and in my opinion, if I cannot predict the way the computer will react to clicks, because each computer might have a different default, that's a serious regression in usability. |
0.998291 | On New Year's Day, ice covered most of the flatland reservoirs that stipple the countryside of northeastern Kansas. Two of the ice-free reservoirs were warmed by power plants. Because some Midwest anglers have to travel more than a hundred miles to fish these warm-water environs, they are often reluctant to make that wintertime foray, and instead they stay home and eagerly await for the ice to melt at the nearby reservoirs.
To provide a historical perspective about when northeastern Kansas reservoirs become ice-free, and when we were able to be afloat during winter's past, we examined our logs from 2004 through 2013. Here are the dates of our first outings during those years: Feb. 27, 2004; Feb. 14, 2005; Jan. 3, 2006; Jan. 2-11, 2007; Mar. 3, 2008; Feb. 10, 2009; Mar. 5, 2010; Jan. 30, 2011, Jan. 25, 2012, and Jan. 28, 2013.
It is interesting to note that unseasonably cold weather arrived on Dec. 5, 2005, driving area thermometers down to -13 degrees on Dec. 8, and ice quickly covered our cold-water reservoirs. But shortly before Christmas, a spell of unseasonably warm weather erupted, causing the ice to melt. Thus, as the last sheets of ice were disappearing on Dec. 26, we were afloat, and from that date on, our reservoirs were ice-free for the rest of the winter of 2005-06.
Back in January of 2007, we fished on Jan. 2, 3, 5, 8, 9 and 11. On those six outings, we plied an 11,600-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' reservoir three times, a 195-acre community reservoir twice and a 416-acre community reservoir once. The surface temperature at these reservoirs ranged from 39 degrees to 41 degrees. On every outing, we fished from about 11 a.m. to about 3 p.m., and we caught and released 135 largemouth bass. At the 11,600-acre reservoir, we caught only 35 largemouth bass, but several of them were four-pounders. After Jan. 11, 2007, ice eventually covered all of our reservoirs except our 2,600-acre and 5,090-acre warm-water reservoirs, and we didn't get afloat on what we call our cold-water reservoirs again until Feb. 26, 2007.
Cold and murky water usually confounds our wintertime largemouth bass fishing. And on Mar. 2, 2008, Mother Nature walloped much of northeastern Kansas with an inch to two inches of rain, which muddy many of our cold-water reservoirs. The rain melted the ice on our reservoirs but the water clarity was so murky that we didn't catch a largemouth bass until Mar. 12, 2008.
This January Old Man Winter allowed us to fish four times. Three of those outings transpired at a 2,600-acre warm-water reservoir and one occurred as the ice was melting at a nearby 416-acre community reservoir. We fished 15 1/4 hours and caught 140 largemouth bass, which is an average of nine largemouth bass an hour. In addition to the four logs that describe those four January outings,Terry Bivins of Lebo, Kansas, Casey Kidder of Topeka, Kansas, Mike Poe of Siler City, North Carolina, Drew Reese of Rantoul, Kansas, Chris Rohr of Overland Park, Kansas, and Dave Weroha of Kansas City contributed several logs and piscatorial insights to this monthly guide.
Dave Weroha of Kansas City reported to the Finesse News Network that he had a solo outing to a 2,600-acre power-plant reservoir in northeastern Kansas on Jan. 6.
He fished from 8:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. When he began fishing the wind angled out of the west by northwest at 10 mph and diminished to about 5 mph as his outing ended. At 8:45 a.m., it was 26 degrees and 36 degrees at 1 p.m. The sky was cloudless. The barometric pressure was 30.32 and rising at 8 a.m. and rising to 30.36 around noon and fall to 30.34 around 1 p.m.
The marina reported that the water level was one foot below normal. Weroha noted that the water was stained, exhibiting about two feet of visibility. Weroha fished the southern half of the reservoir, where the surface temperature ranged from a high of 48 degrees to a low of 43 degrees.
Weroha caught 17 largemouth bass, and all were between 13 and 15 inches in length. He caught nine along the two bluffy shorelines, three along the outside riprap of the hot-water channel, and five along the riprap of the dam.
He caught those 17 largemouth bass on a Z-Man's Fishing Products' green-pumpkin Finesse ShadZ affixed to a 1/32-ounce jig, a Z-Man black-and-blue four-inch Finesse WormZ on a 1/32-ounce jig, and a Z-Man's Smoky Shad 3 3/4-inch StreakZ on a 1/32-ounce jig. He trimmed 1 1/2-inches off the head the Finesse ShadZ, making it 2 1/2-inches long.
He failed the catch a largemouth bass on a Z-Man's 2 1/2-inch watermelon-and-white ZinkerZ affixed to a 1/32-ounce jig and a Z-Man's Mud Minnow hue Hula StickZ on a 1/32-ounce jig.
The most effective retrieve was an excruciatingly slow one. He would deadstick his baits for 30 seconds or more, and then he would lightly twitch it and occasionally hop it. He was fishing shorelines, but all 17 of the bass were caught 10 to 15 feet away from the water's edge in depths of five to eight feet of water.
Weroha concluded his report by saying: "I did not journey north to the third and fourth bluff area as boater congestion combined with my curiosity to fish colder waters in the south led me south bound. In a future outing I would like to explore some flats, creek channels and breaks '¦" rather than just fishing shorelines.
Mike Poe of Siler, North Carolina, filed a report with Finesse News Network about his Jan. 6 outing on a community reservoir. He noted that this reservoir had ice on it on Jan. 5, but by the time that he launched his boat at 11:30 a.m., the ice has disappeared. Area thermometer hit a high of 51 degrees, and Poe estimated that the surface temperature of this small reservoir was in the low 40s.
The water level was three feet below normal, and the water clarity in the upper portions of the lake was stained but relatively clear elsewhere. The wind was nil.
On this solo outing, he fished to 3:30 p.m. and caught 10 largemouth bass, ranging in size from 14-inches to three-pounds, and they were extracted from about four feet of water.
All of them were caught on a green-pumpkin-red 2 1/2-inch ZinkerZ on a blood-red 1/16-ounce Gopher Tackle Mushroom Head Jig. Every strike occurred on the initial fall, and after that initial fall, he failed to garner a strike with all of the Midwest finesse retrieves that he implemented, which he described as perplexing and aggravating. At times, he wielded a crankbait, which failed elicit a strike. He said it was one of those outings when it seemed that they only way to get a strike was to be fortunate to make a cast that landed virtually on the head of a largemouth bass.
At 11 a.m. on Jan, 6 my cousin Rick Hebenstreit of Shawnee, Kansas, and I launched my boat for the first time since that about 11 a.m. on Nov. 6, 2012, when I had an encounter with a patch of algae. That skirmish with the algae at a 416-acre community reservoir caused me to fall on the boat ramp and slide partially into the water. When I fell, I broke my wrist severely. A week later a surgeon pieced some of the bones into place with screws and a metal plate.
Except when my wife, Patty, took me for three short bank-walking outings at a nearby 195-acre community reservoir, and Terry Claudell loaded me into his boat for a short spell at a 100-acre community on Dec. 4, I had not fished since Nov. 2.
So, on this maiden outing of 2013, Rick joined me on the 75-mile jaunt to a 2,600-acre power-plant reservoir. This is the same reservoir that Dave Weroha of Kansas City fished on Jan. 6.
Area thermometers registered a morning low of 26 degrees and a high at 3 p.m. of 51 degrees. The normal high temperature for date is 38, and the normal low is 19 degrees. While we were fishing from 11:20 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., the wind angled from the southwest at 13 to 23 mph. The sky was fair until around 2 p.m., when it became slightly cloudy, but the sun was still in our eyes when we made our last casts. This time of the year when we fish western shorelines and we are moving from north to south, the sun is usually in our eyes, which can be a rather irksome ordeal. Around 11 a.m., the barometric pressure was 30:29 and falling. The solunar calendar indicated that the best fishing time occurred from 6:44 a.m. to 8:44 a.m.
The water clarity was stained with an algae bloom to the point that we could barely see the propeller on the trolling motor, and this what we call our Kansas Secchi disc, and if we can see the propeller, we call the water Kansas clear. So, it was almost Kansas clear. We ventured to the southern edge of the warm-water plume, where the surface temperature was 47 degrees, and we also examined the northern reaches of the plume, where the surface temperature registered 43 degrees. (It should be noted that the wind direction and velocity, as well as the amount of electricity that the power plant generates, effects the water temperature and the whereabouts of the warm water at this reservoir.) According to the folks at the marina, the water level was a foot below normal. The warmest water that we fished was 53.9 degrees.
Because the wind was brisk we spent nearly three hours hiding from it by fishing two long bluffs within the confines of the warm-water plume, where the surface temperature ranged from 53.9 to 50 degrees. We spent about five minutes fishing a small bluff on the northern border of the warm-water plume and the surface temperature was 45 degrees. We spent the last 20 minutes fishing a bluff near the southern border of the warm-water plume, and here the surface temperature ranged from 49 to 51 degrees. All of these bluff were situated along the western shoreline, and they were mostly from the southwest wind.
Our spinning rods were dressed with a Z-Man's green-pumpkin Finesse ShadZ on either a 1/32-ounce or 1/16-ounce chartreuse Gopher jig. (Traditionally, this Finesse ShadZ is the best combo at this reservoir in December and January, and it was the best combo on this outing.) Our spinning outfits were also dressed with a Z-Man's pearl Finesse ShadZ on a 1/16-ounce chartreuse Gopher jig, a Z-Man's pearl Rain MinnowZ on a chartreuse 1/16-ounce Gopher jig, a four-inch Z-Man's black-neon Finesse WormZ on a red 1/16-ounce Gopher jig, a four-inch Z-Man's green-pumpkin Finesse WormZ on a red 1/16-ounce Gopher jig, a 2 ½-inch Z-Man's black-and-blue FattyZ customized tube on a red 1/16 Gopher jig, and several colors of a Z-Man's 2 ½-inch ZinkerZ on a red or blue 1/16-ounce Gopher jig. Of that array of baits, all of them but the 2 1/2-inch ZinkerZ caught some fish.
We caught 44 largemouth bass along the two bluffs within the heart of the warm-water plume. We also caught seven big crappies along these two bluffs. We failed to land seven largemouth bass, and we tangled with another five that we didn't see before they liberated themselves.
The biggest bass engulfed the 2 ½-inch black-and-blue FattyZ customized tube. The five-pound, three-ouncer was inveigled on the green-pumpkin Finesse ShadZ on a 1/32-ounce Gopher jig. The Finesse WormZ caught six of the largemouth bass. The pearl Finesse ShadZ caught four largemouth bass. The FattyZ customized tube caught two largemouth bass. The green-pumpkin Finesse ShadZ caught 33 largemouth bass, and the Finesse ShadZ dressed on a 1/32-ounce Gopher jig was slightly more effective than the 1/16-ouncer. The pearl Rain MinnowZ caught only one largemouth bass and two white bass. The green-pumpkin ShadZ caught two of the white bass and all of the crappie.
The best retrieve was a subtle hop and bounce with some shakes. We caught a come with a drag-and-shake presentation. A few were also allured with a short deadstick routine.
At the two bluffs with the warm-water plume, we were joined by two boats of power anglers. One boat had two anglers in it, and the other boat was manned by Mike McKinsey of Ozawkie, Kansas. From about 45 minutes, we fished about 20 to 30 feet behind one of the boats, and we saw this pair of anglers catch two largemouth bass. What's more, we zigzagged in and around the McKinsey's boat several times, and for more than an hour, we fished the same bluff that he fished with a skirted jig affixed to a NetBait Paca Chunk. Despite that angling pressure, our Midwest finesse tactics allured 44 bass while we fished the same water that those power anglers thoroughly pounded.
After 1:45 p.m., the strikes became far and few between. Our most productive fishing stretched from 11:25 a.m. to 1:30.
Throughout this entire outing, it was readily apparent that my left arm, wrist and hand was a long way from being as strong and flexible as it was before 11 a.m. Nov 6, 2012. Nevertheless Rick and I caught our first fish of 2013, which was a joy, and I fished better than I fished on the four short endeavors that I struggled through in November and December. On Jan. 9, the surgeon who operated on my wrist told me that I should be back to normal in mid-February, but a few minutes earlier before the surgeon entered the room, the surgeon's assistant told me that it usually takes a year to regain the strength, flexibility and dexterity after an episode with a severely broken wrist. We will write a report in mid-February.
The National Weather Service issued this report: "Patchy fog before 8 a.m. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 64. Breezy, with a south wind 15 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph." The high temperature failed to hit 64 degree, but it did reach 57 degrees, and some wind gust hit 31 mph. This weather knocked the ice off many of the flatland reservoirs in northeastern Kansas for a short spell.
"We were blessed last week and this weekend with record warmth. The fish responded accordingly.
"On Saturday Jan. 12, I fished with North Carolina's bass fishing legend, Abe Abernathy. He put on a power fishing clinic catching around 20 largemouth bass with the largest five probably weighing between 23 and 26 pounds. And he was fishing from the back of the boat.
"He was catching them in a few feet of water on Rapala's No. 5 Shad Rap in a blue steel color and an Ed Chambers' mutt crankbait in a red color. While finesse caught the first one the rest of mine came on a Shad Rap as well in a brown color. Mr. Abernathy is the antithesis of finesses having brought deep water dragging with heavy weights to the scene decades ago. Normally he would be jigging deep bass but that bite has not materialized this year.
"We had 30 some for the day and the average size was great. The warm water temperature had the fish in the feeder creeks with the bait. Water color was six inches to one foot of clarity.
"On Sunday, Jan. 13, I went solo, getting out at 11:30 a.m. and catching 23 largemouth bass. Twelve of these were caught on the 1/16-ounce Gopher jig with a green-pumpkin-red 2 1/2-inch ZinkerZ, including one five-pounder The best areas were little bluff sections along a creek channel that were inside the small feeder creek arms. Most of the largemouth bass inhaled the ZinkerZ combo on the initial, and they headed to deep water immediately. The other largemouth bass were caught on a Strike King Lure Company's quarter-ounce Red Eye Shad and an Ed Chambers' mutt crankbait in a red color. The wind was a factor yesterday as the bass aggressively took the crankbaits on some windy points. I believe in all I had six bass that weighed more than three pound each. A nice day for sure."
"Last week, the Gopher jig and ZinkerZ combo was my only hope, and this week it gave me my largest bass of the weekend. Last week it was icy the day before I fished, this week it was 73 degrees. Not many baits do so well under such varying conditions.
"In addition, my son-in-law Preston Parks caught 30 last Thursday in the Haw River, floating a section of the river in a canoe. The Gopher jig rigged with a watermelon Strike King Lure Company 2 1/2-inch Zero accounted for his entire catch. Interestingly he was employing a deadstick retrieve among the rocks in the head of the pools. He estimated that he let the lure remain motionless for 15 seconds or more in some cases.
"This is the best shallow January fishing I have ever had in North Carolina. We used to do several outdoor shows during this period so I would know of action happening all across the state, and the last two years have really been an exception to what has occurred in past Januaries. Hope it continues."
On Jan. 12 and 13 Clyde Holscher of Topeka, Kansas, and Dave Weroha of Kansas City reported on the Finesse News Network that the ice was off of the reservoirs that lie along the Interstate Highway 70 corridor between Topeka and Kansas City. And upon reading that report, choruses of glee and alleluias rang loud and clear from the mouths of a goodly number of Midwest finesse anglers. But on the morning of Jan. 15, the ice cover had returned after Old Man Winter sashayed back into Kansas, dropping the temperature to 6 degrees at 5:52 a.m. on Jan. 14. In fact, for three days Old Man Winter prevented area thermometers from broaching 30 degrees.
Despite this onslaught of cold weather, Travis Perret of Overland Park, Kansas, and I made the 76-mile drive to fish several of the warm-water lairs at a 2,600-acre power-plant reservoir on Jan. 15. And as we traveled south of Kansas City, it got colder, dropping from 27 degrees in the southwest suburbs of Kansas City to 25 degrees at the boat ramp. There was not a drop of snow in Kansas City or Lawrence, but around this reservoir there was about an inch of ice and snow covering the countryside.
Perret and I fished from 12:30 p.m. to 3:45 p.m., and 27 degrees was the warmest it got while we were afloat. Consequential, ice incessantly coated the guides on our rods and the line on the spools of reels. And we were bundled with many layers of winter apparel. Nevertheless, we caught a largemouth bass on our first cast and our last cast. And during the three hours and 15 minutes between that first and last casts, we caught 50 more largemouth bass, five big crappie, one wiper, one white bass and one channel catfish. We also tangled with six largemouth bass that liberated themselves before we could liberate them. All of them were caught in two to six feet of water.
Weather-wise, the saving grace was that wind was mild-mannered, angling from the northeast at 6 to 7 mph, and there were spells when it was nearly calm. Since the wind didn't howl, the wind chill ranged from a low of 19 degrees to a high of 23 degrees, which Perret and I found to be very tolerable, as long as we wore gloves, state-of-the-art Norwegian long underwear and other winter wear. In addition, it was sunny and the relative humidity was 66 percent. The barometric pressure was 30.27 around 12: 45 p.m., and it dropped to 30.21 around 3:45 p.m.
The solunar calendar indicated that the best fishing times began at 1:24 p.m. and ended at 3:24 p.m. We fished through the entire two hours, and the fishing was fruitful, but it was also fruitful during the hour before the best fishing times commenced.
The reservoir looked to be slightly more than a foot below normal. The water clarity was besmeared by an algae bloom. (Because the wind was light, we used the transom trolling motor rather than the bow-mounted one. The motor on the transom electric trolling is deeper in the water than the one on the bow, and we could not see the propeller or the motor.) We fished along the southern fringe of the warm-water plume, where the surface temperature was 51 degrees. We fished along the northern edge of the warm-water plume were the surface temperature was 45 degrees. And we fished near the heart of the plume, where the surface temperature was 53.9 degrees, and the heart of the plume was several hundred yards to the north of the warm-water outlet. The whereabouts and size of the warm-water plume can fluctuate from day to day, depending the amount of electricity that is generated and the intensity and direction of the wind.
We caught 15 largemouth bass from the western edge of a submerged creek channel that meanders across a mud flat on the west side of the reservoir. Then for about two hours, we fished two bluffs, where the surface temperature ranged from 53.9 degrees to 52 degrees, and from these bluffs, we extracted 35 largemouth bass, including one that weighed five pounds, 14 ounces, as well as two four-pounders and two three-pounders. After we fished those bluffs, we plied two mud flats where a submerged creek channel crisscrosses them, but we failed to catch a largemouth bass. We also fished a mud-flat point that didn't yield a largemouth bass. We finished our outing by quickly fishing two bluffs long the southern perimeter of the warm-water plume, and we eked out only two largemouth bass. All of the bluffs that we fished were along the western side of this reservoir.
We caught four largemouth bass on a Z-Man's PB&J Rain MinnowZ on a blue 1/16-ounce Gopher jig. We caught one largemouth bass on a Z-Man's pearl Finesse ShadZ on a chartreuse 1/16-ounce Gopher jig. All of the rest of the largemouth bass, crappie, channel catfish, white bass and wiper were caught on a green-pumpkin Finesse ShadZ on either a chartreuse 1/32-ounce Gopher jig or a blue 1/16-ounce Gopher jig.
The best retrieve was a subtle swim-glide-and-shake retrieve that also incorporated a few hops and bounces on the bottom. We also caught a few on the drag-and-deadstick motif. We caught only one on the initial drop. All of the fish were caught in two to six feet of water.
Before our trip, Perret had spent part of the morning working with Brent Chapman of Lake Quivira, Kansas. Perret is Chapman's physical and pain-free trainer, and Chapman is in the midst of training for the 2012 Bassmaster tournament season. At the end of their workout session, Chapman gave Perret one of his new flutter spoons to test. Perret rigged this gargantuan spoon on one of his big casting rods, but we started catching largemouth bass straightway with our Midwest finesse tactics, and neither Perret nor I gave Chapman's new spoon a whirl.
All three of the largemouth bass in these photographs were caught on a green-pumpkin Z-Man Finesse ShadZ affixed to a 1/32-ounce chartreuse Gopher Tackle Mushroom Head Jig.
A week ago on Jan. 11 and 12 Clyde Holscher of Topeka, Kansas, reported that the ice was off at a 416-acre community reservoir. Then the ice reappeared on Jan. 13 and 14. On Jan. 19 Holscher reported that the ice was melting again, and there was an angler afloat. We suspect the ice will reappear on Jan. 20 and 21 as area temperatures plummet again.
Dave Weroha of Kansas City, Duc Pham of Kansas City and Bob Gum of Kansas City fished the 2,600-acre power-plant reservoir that was featured in the Jan.6, 7 and 15 logs. They fished from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
He wrote: "It was a surprisingly tough day, eking out 21 largemouth bass, one white bass, one freshwater drum and one carp. We failed to land seven largemouth bass. The largest largemouth bass weighed only two pounds. Today was the perfect outing for finesse because power fishing would have yielded virtually no fish.
"Duc asked other anglers at the marina how their day went and the unanimous response was 'we only caught a couple, it was slow.' Other anglers near the bluffs echoed the same response.
"The air temperature when we launch was in the lower 40s, reaching a high of near 60 degrees in the afternoon. At 8:30 a.m. the wind angled out of the south-by-southwest at 25 to 30 mph, but it dissipated to 5 to 10 mph during the afternoon. We were puzzled why a day like Saturday — with the highs near 60 degrees and in the 50s on Friday — did not make Saturday a favorable day to fish.
"The wind and an algae bloom reduced the water clarity to less than a foot along the southern rim of the water-water plume. At the core of the plume and along two bluffs along the western side of the reservoir, the clarity improved to two feet of visibility. The surface temperature along the two bluffs at the southern edge of the warm-water plume was 53 to 54 degrees. Along the two bluffs in the heart of the plume, the surface temperature was 58 degrees.
"The fish that we caught were caught along bluffs in the heart of the plume. We ventured to four of the reservoir's five bluffs, part of the rip-rap shoreline on the east side of the reservoir, and one creek channel along a mud flat.
"Gum had success with a red 1/16-ounce Gopher jig affixed to a Z-Man's pumpkin-green-flake Finesse ShadZ and a red 1/16-ounce Gopher jig on a Z-Man's pumpkin-chartreuse 2 1/5-inch ZinkerZ. All of his catches were on the deadstick phase of the drag-and-deadstick retrieve and were caught in two to six feet of water.
"I had success with the white 1/16-ounce Gopher jig on a four-inch Z-Man's green-pumpkin Finesse WormZ and a red 1/16-ounce Gopher jig on a green pumpkin Finesse ShadZ. All of my catches were on the glide phase of the swim-and-glide retrieve and were caught in two to six feet of water. I also tried the hop-and-bounce in the creek channel along the bluffs to no avail.
"Pham caught a fish on a black 1/8-ounce round jig affixed to a 2 1/2-inch YUM's red-black Dinger near the water's edge along the bluffs, employing it on the drag-and-dead-stick motif."
At 10 a.m. I joined Bob Gum of Kansas City at the same 2,600-acre power-plant reservoir that was featured in Jan.6, 7, 15 and 19 logs. Then around 1 p.m. Dave Weroha of Kansas City joined us. This was my third significant outing since the cast on my left arm had been removed.
Since Jan. 18, the temperatures across northeastern Kansas had fluctuated wildly from a high of 63 degrees to a low of 10 degrees. Besides the vacillating temperatures the wind was pesky. The cold and wind prevented us from making the 76-mile journey to this power-plant reservoir, which is the best warm-water reservoir in the region, until Jan. 25.
A pair of anglers reported to us that the upper end of the reservoir was ice covered, but the surface temperatures at the areas we plied ranged from 51 degrees to 55 degrees. Those areas were in the center of the warm-water plume and towards its northern and southern edges. The water clarity was stained with an algae bloom. The water level looked to be slightly more than a foot below normal.
Traditionally the week of Jan. 20 to Jan. 26 is a wintry one in northeastern Kansas. But on this outing, the weather was relatively nice. The morning low temperature was 15 degrees; the normal low is 18 degrees. The afternoon high temperature hit 48 degrees; the normal high is 40 degrees. It was sunny, and the wind was mild mannered, blowing no harder than 9 mph from the northwest. Around 10 a.m., the barometric pressure was 30.22 and falling slowly. It was chilly enough, however, that Gum and I wore gloves and many layers of winter garb throughout the entire outing, but Weroha, whose body is very tolerant of cold weather, didn't wear gloves, a hat, a hooded sweatshirt or a coat.
The solunar table indicated that the best fishing times were from 8:39 a.m. to 10:39 a.m. We fished about 39 minutes of this spell, and we caught only four largemouth bass, one white bass and one channel catfish during that spell.
Our fishing, however, wasn't as fruitful as it was when my cousin Ricky Hebenstreit of Shawnee, Kansas, and I fished La Cygne on Jan. 7 and when Travis Perret of Overland Park, Kansas, and I fished it on Jan 15.
On this outing Gum, Weroha and I fished for about 5 ½ hours. We plied four of the reservoir's five bluffs, one submerged roadbed and approximately a 100-yard section of the submerged river channel where it crosses a shallow mud flat.
We caught five largemouth bass and one white bass along the submerged river channel and one largemouth on the submerged roadbed. The surface temperature at both of these spots was 55 degrees. These spots were in the center of the warm-water plume.
At the two bluffs along the southern fringes of the warm water plume, where the surface temperature ranged from 53 to 55 degrees, we caught six largemouth bass, one channel catfish and one white bass.
The two most productive areas were along two other bluffs. One bluff was situated in the heart of the warm-water plume. The second bluff began in the center of the plume and extended to the northwest reaches of the plume. Along these two bluffs, we caught 30 largemouth bass, 11 big crappie, one freshwater drum, and one bluegill. We plied the second bluff until the surface temperature dropped below 53 degrees.
Subtle variations of the swim-glide-and-shake retrieve elicited most of the strikes. During the retrieves, we did a lot of shaking. At times we executed some dragging and shaking, some deadsticking and shaking, and some hops and bounces with a lot of shaking. All of the fish were extracted from less than seven feet of water.
The biggest largemouth bass weight four pounds. We caught six largemouth bass that were 15 inches or more in length. Nine largemouth bass liberated themselves before we could liberate them from the jig's hook, and one of them looked to be at least a three-pounder.
There were three other boats of bass anglers fishing some of the areas that we fished. All of them were power anglers. We talked to two of them. One was there when Travis Perret and I caught 52 largemouth bass on Jan. 17. He asked Bob and me if one of us was Ned Kehde. He said after he watched Perret and me catch many of those 52 largemouth bass that he went to the Bass Pro Shops in Olathe, where he told the staff in the tackle section that he saw a couple of old men (Travis is in 30s, but I am well into my 70s; so he wasn't totally correct in his description of what was transpiring) using crappie tackle and catching an unbelievable number of bass. Although I have not had the opportunity to visit the Bass Pro Shops in Olathe, Kansas, its staff somehow surmised that it was me, and Perret and I were using Midwest finesse tactics. After that this power angler went home and made a Google search and discovered In-Fisherman's blog site. As we talked, he was using his traditional power tools, and he said that he had only one strike and failed to land that largemouth bass. But he confessed that he was interested in learning about out Midwest finesse tactics. He said that he had purchased a package of Strike King Lure Company's Finesse Worms, which Z-Man makes, but his smallest jig was an 1/8-ouncer. We told him to shorten the Finesse Worm to 3 ¾-inches. We also gave him some 1/32- and 1/16-ounce Gopher jigs, as well as a few 2 1/2-inch ZinkerZs and Finesse ShadZs. We told him to use the green-pumpkin Finesse ShadZ on this outing with a 1/32-ounce jig. We crossed paths one more time, and he was working with a spincasting rig, 1/32-ounce chartreuse Gopher jig affixed to the Finesse WormZ. He said he was catching a few on the Finesse Worm, but he had failed to catch one on the Finesse ShadZ. He also complained — as do many newcomers to Midwest finesse — that he was having trouble keeping the Finesse Worm affixed snuggly to the collar of the jig, and we told him that he would learn how to deal with that after he has a few outings under his belt. As we watched him, we noticed that he was not shaking his rod. Instead, he was allowing the jig and Finesse Worm to merely glide along the bottom rather than swimming, gliding and shaking it or dragging and shaking it or bouncing, hopping and shaking it. For us the shake was a critical element in our retrieves. What's more, he was using eight-pound-test monofilament line, and perhaps the 1/32-ounce Gopher jig works more effectively on eight-pound-test braided line with an eight-pound-test fluorocarbon leader. We advised him several times to shake his rod, but for some reason, he failed to do it.
In regard to the importance of adding the shake to our retrieves, Dave Weroha wrote in an e-mail after outing a short description of our shaking tactics. He wrote: "I would point out to readers that the shake is very subtle, not vigorous. Based on my observations today, without question the subtle shakes allure the fish to strike. Conventional wisdom would have me deadstick the lure when the bite is tough. Under the circumstances today, however, I believe the deadsticking motif would be inferior to the subtle swim, glide and shake."
Near the end of our outing we crossed paths with another pair of power anglers, who told us the river was ice covered and that they hadn't caught a bass anywhere on the lake. One of these anglers was working with a humongous skirted jig and plastic trailer. They asked us, as many power anglers do when we talk to them, how many crappie we had caught, and we politely replied that we were fishing for largemouth bass, but we had inadvertently caught 11 crappie and at that point, we had intentionally caught 40 largemouth bass. Upon hearing this, they seemed to react as if we were being more than a tad mendacious. This occurs quite frequently if the power anglers don't see us catching a few largemouth bass, and this pair of power anglers didn't see us catch anything other than a crappie. Across the years, whenever we have crossed paths with recreational power anglers, we have attempted to spread the word about the manifold virtues of employing Midwest finesse tactics, and as we have called attention to the merits of these tactics, we have never uttered a mendacious word about the numbers if bass that we tangled with and what we finesse baits that we were using.
Our ability to catch this reservoir's largemouth bass began to peter out around 3 p.m., and as these diminishing returns developed, we quickly probed a couple traditional wintertime largemouth bass lairs as headed back to the boat ramp, and we eked out only two largemouth bass.
On Jan. 26, Dave Weroha of Kansas City returned to the 2,600-acre power-plant reservoir that we fished on Jan. 25.
At 11 a.m. the wind angled out of the south by southwest at 10 mph. The air temperature was 45 degrees, and it climbed to 55 degrees at 3 p.m.
He fished from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and caught 17 largemouth bass and five crappie. His biggest largemouth bass was a 17-incher.
Along with a flotilla of other anglers, he fished two of the bluffs that were in the heart of the warm-water plume. The surface temperature along these two bluffs ranged from 59 to 60 degrees.
He caught the bulk of his fish on a green-pumpkin Z-Man Finesse ShadZ affixed to a 1/32-ounce chartreuse Gopher jig, but he caught four largemouth bass on a 2 1/2-inch Z-Man's green-pumpkin ZinkerZ on a chartreuse 1/32-ounce Gopher jig.
This was the second time that he had used a 1/32-ounce Gopher jig. Like many bass anglers, he was reluctant to use it because he thought that its No. 6 hook was too small, but after this outing and the one on Jan. 25, his negative opinion about the effectiveness of the No. 6 hook is beginning to wane.
In regard to retrieving the extremely lightweight combo of a Finesse ShadZ on a 1/32-ounce Gopher jig, Weroha wrote: "It takes practice and some getting used to the no-feel retrieve of finesse fishing, but I see the value in it. After fishing with you and Bob, I see clearly that determining the retrieve the fish want (versus what we want) is very important."
As he followed the other anglers along the bluffs, he retrieved the Finesse ShadZ and ZinkerZ combo with the swim-glide-and-shake routine. He wrote: "I shook the lure six to eight times on the initial fall and six to eight times after the glide. When shaking just two to four times, it seemed less effective at eliciting strikes."
Northeastern Kansas' weather patterns have been topsy-turvy this winter, becoming bitterly cold for a few days and then turning warm enough, as it was on Jan. 28, that Clyde Holscher and I saw an angler wearing a T-shirt. What's more, we have had two ice-ons and ice-offs since the winter solstice.
Holscher of Topeka and I ventured to the scene of my spill on the algae covered boat ramp. That tumble on Nov. 6 caused me to break my arm and necessitating the handiwork of a surgeon to put my arm, wrist and hand back together again.
On this outing at Lake Shawnee (416-acres), the south wind howled at 16 to 36 mph. Area thermometers register a morning low temperature of 49 degrees; the normal low temperature is 18 degrees. The afternoon high temperature hit 75 degrees, which was 35 degrees above the normal high temperature. Around 11 a.m., the barometric pressure was 29.83 and falling. The sky was sun splashed, but around 2:30 p.m. it became partly cloudy.
The solunar calendar indicated that the best fishing times occurred from 10:58 a.m. to 12:58 p.m. We fished from 11:45 a.m. to 2: 20 p.m.
About 15 percent of the reservoir was still covered with ice. The surface temperature ranged from 37 to 40 degrees. The water clarity was the clearest that Holscher and I have seen it since last winter. We estimated that the water level was more than four feet below normal. Holscher has lived around and fished this reservoir for decades, and he has never seen its water level as low as it was on this outing.
A brisk wind is the bane of wintertime Midwest finesse anglers. Ice is another woe, and when it covers more than five percent of a reservoir, we have found that the largemouth bass fishing is extremely problematic, which it was on this endeavor. In fact, we didn't catch a largemouth bass until we reach our last stop of the outing. This somewhat fruitful lair was a wind-blown, main-lake point on the east side of the reservoir, sitting about 250 yards from the dam. From this point, we eked out four largemouth bass and one rainbow trout from about five feet of water on the inside section of this main-lake, wind-blown point.
The rainbow trout and three of the largemouth bass were allured by a 2 ½-inch Z-Man's pumpkin-chartreuse ZinkerZ on a white 1/16-ounce jig. One of the largemouth bass was caught on a green-pumpkin Z-Man's Finesse ShadZ on a chartreuse 1/16-ounce Gopher jig. We failed to elicit a bite on a PB&J Rain MinnowZ affixed to a blue 1/16-ounce Gopher jig, a mud-minnow-hue Hula StickZ on a blue 1/16-ounce Gopher jig and a California-craw-hue 2 ½-inch ZinkerZ on a red 1/16-ounce jig.
The National Weather Service office in Topeka, Kansas, reported that the temperature of 75 degrees on Jan. 29 eclipsed the record high for the month of January. During the night of Jan. 28, area thermometers hovered around 63 degrees, and the wind howled out of the south. Then around daylight on Jan. 29, the wind began howling of the northwest at 15 to 25 mph and thermometers fell to 50 degrees, and gradually thunderstorms crisscrossed northeastern Kansas. The warm winds and thunderstorm melted all of the ice.
The National Weather Service reported that some area thermometers plummeted to 4 degrees during the night of Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. That was a 71-degree drop since Jan. 28. And on the morning of Feb. 1, Clyde Holscher of Topeka reported that the 416-acre community reservoir that we fished on Jan. 28 was covered with ice, making it the second time that its ice had melted and then froze again this winter. Weather-wise in northeastern Kansas, it was topsy-turvy January indeed.
Chris Rohr of Overland Park, Kansas, reported on the Finesse News Network about his quick stop at a Kansas strip pit.
He wrote: "I was finally able to get out for the first time this year. I was driving from Kansas City toto Tulsa for a business trip and had about an extra hour in my schedule. I fished the mined wildlife area near West Mineral, Kansas. All of the pits were free of ice, but with the howling winds of 20-30 mph, casting was a challenge with a 1/32-ounce jig . I fished four different strip pits, focusing on the north, wind swept sides of the pits, which traditionally is more productive. Unfortunately, the fish on the north ends were not cooperating. I decided to go against conventional wisdom and decide to try the south side of various pits. I found success in shallow coves fishing in less than three feet of water. As it typical with many of these pits, water clarity was about five feet, which by itself can present challenges. After changing leadheads and baits many times, I finally found an effective combination, which was chartreuse 1/16-ounce jig with a watermelon-white 2 1/2-inch Z-Man ZinkerZ. I landed 10 bass ranging in size from 12-16 inches. All fish responded to a constant shaky retrieve. The hits were very aggressive as if it were a mid-summer strike. I only observed one boat with three anglers and a couple of shore anglers who had been fishing for about four hours. Neither parties had any fish nor any hits for that matter.
"In a side note, I spoke with a buddy who fished the strip pits near Amsterdam, Missouri, on Jan. 27. He reported having caught 15 crappie and 2 bass yesterday in about 2 hours on a red 1/16-ounce lead head with a PB&J 2 1/2-inch ZinkerZ. A slow steady retrieve as close to the bottom as possible was the ticket for him."
Terry Bivins of Lebo, Kansas, sent a report about his wind-blown outing at a 6,930-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' reservoir on Jan. 28.
Bivins reported that he battled wind-gusts that hit 40 mph for two hours. He probed deep-water lairs by positioning his boat in 40 feet of water and wielding a 3/8-ounce Kastmaster spoon affixed to 10-pound-test Trilene Big Game monofilament. Despite the trying wind conditions, he was able to catch four spotted bass and three smallmouth bass. The spotted bass were 15 to 15 1/2-inches in length, and one of the smallmouth bass weighed two pounds.
Casey Kidder of Topeka, Kansas, sent a note to the Finesse News Network about his experiences of fishing the flatland reservoirs in northeastern Kansas that have more than five percent of its acreage covered with ice. He wrote: "I agree with you on the ice cover; for some reason it hinders the fishing in some unexplainable way. I'm still baffled; you would think if the fish migrated under the ice, some could be caught along the edges, but I rarely catch one."
On Jan. 28, Drew Reese of Rantoul, Kansas, climbed into his float tube and fished a pond for two hours with a green-pumpkin Hula StickZ affixed to a 1/16-ounce football head jig that Bill Ward of Warsaw, Missouri, recently created, and which was a featured in a blog entitled "Finesse News Network's Gear Guide: Bill Ward's Midwest Finesse jigs. And Reese tangled with 21 largemouth bass.
In the Jan. 25 log, we noted that we introduced a power angler to Midwest finesse tactics, and he was having trouble keeping Z-Man's ElaZtech baits straight and firmly affixed to the collar and head of his jig. This problem frustrates a lot of angler, and on July 15, 2012 and July 26, 2012, we posted two blogs that explained how anglers can remedy this problem.
"Finesse News Network Gear Guide: Super Glue Bait Hitch Barb Wire Collars and More"
"An Update to the Finesse News Network Gear Guide: Super Glue Bait Hitch Barb Wire Collars and More According to Stacey King" |
0.993798 | In the table below, we see the health outcomes for France in 2016 as well as the values for the country's continent and the world.
In the second table we see the health spending in France as well as the average values for the continent and the world. The health spending per capita in France is 4026.15 USD. The country spends 11.07 percent of its GDP on health. For comparison, the average spending across countries is 6.76 percent. |
0.991566 | How would you describe yourself NOW in terms of “being out”? I am super out! I talk about being a lesbian openly in my comedy often. I hope by being super open about my sexuality, I can bring some visibility to the community and hopefully win some hearts for the LGBTQ community from folks who haven’t perhaps had personal experiences with queer people in the past. |
0.934434 | The purity of the window depends not only on the comfort in the house, but also the mood. Contaminated glass hold the sun's rays, it not only prevents sunlight to enter the home, but inspires its inhabitants melancholy and depression. Traditionally, the Windows washed after the summer and winter season.
Washing Windows few a pleasure, so almost all Housewives dream to deal with this as quickly as possible, but it does not have stains on the glass. To speed up the process, use rags made of microfiber, which easily absorb moisture quickly are rinsed, does not leave streaks and stains.
Do not use detergent for dishes. With their help, you will not cope with the task quickly, as you will have long and hard to get rid of the foam, from which the glass for a few hours will remain the stains and the cloth will have much time rinsing in clean water.
The fastest way to cope with the dirt on the window frames and the glass is to use modern means in aerosols containing alcohol. First carefully spray the frame, in 5 minutes you effortlessly remove dry with a clean cloth microfiber all impurities.
Then take a clean cloth, lightly spray the glass and wipe clean. If glass is very dirty, you'll have to take a third rag and repeat the procedure. The frame and glass are completely clean, and you don't have to deal with buckets, basins, soap stains and Newspapers, which need to RUB the glass for the reason that a rag just can't remove the foam, how much would you her rinse in clean water.
To clean the Windows quickly and without the use of special tools. To do this you need ammonia and warm water. Add 5 liters of water 10 tablespoons of ammonia, divide the volume into two parts. In one container you will wet the rag and wipe the frame with another clean cloth to wipe glasses.
Then you will need two clean, dry rags, one for frames and one for glass. Clean the Windows with ammonia can be no less quickly than when using aerosol cans, the only drawback is that the procedure is more troublesome. |
0.956831 | Philosophy of mind is the branch of philosophy which deals with the mind and its properties, including conciousness, mental processes and events.
Philosophy of mind often overlaps with psychology, cognitive science and neuroscience in general. Whereas psychology and the natural sciences are concerned with the specifics of mental states and brain functions, philosophy of mind is responsible for the larger questions of the nature of mind itself, its relationship to the physical world and where it belongs in a proper ontology.
In recent times, the problem of philosophy of mind has become heavily focused on data from the natural sciences with respect to the brain. It is now an area researched mainly by analytic philosophers and, partly because of its strong realtionship with the sciences, may be considered an area of analytic philosophy.
Concerns about the nature of mind with respect to ontology, such as the mind-body problem may also be considered part of metaphysics.
At the core of philosophy of mind is the mind-body problem, which is concerned with the relationship between the mind and the physical world. |
0.946775 | Not to be confused with Pound sterling.
E£ or ج.م or L.E.
In 1834, a khedival decree was issued, adopting an Egyptian currency based on a bimetallic standard (gold and silver) on the basis of the Maria Theresa thaler, a popular trade coin in the region. The Egyptian pound, known as the geneih, was introduced, replacing the Egyptian piastre (ersh) as the chief unit of currency. The piastre continued to circulate as 1⁄100 of a pound, with the piastre subdivided into 40 para. In 1885, the para ceased to be issued, and the piastre was divided into tenths (عشر القرش 'oshr el-ersh). These tenths were renamed milliemes (malleem) in 1916.
The legal exchange rates were fixed by force of law for important foreign currencies which became acceptable in the settlement of internal transactions. Eventually this led to Egypt using a de facto gold standard between 1885 and 1914, with E£1 = 7.4375 grams pure gold. At the outbreak of World War I, the Egyptian pound was pegged to the British pound sterling at EG£0.975 per GB£1.
Egypt remained part of the Sterling Area until 1962, when Egypt devalued slightly and switched to a peg to the United States dollar, at a rate of EG£1 = US$2.3. This peg was changed to 1 pound = 2.55555 dollars in 1973 when the dollar was devalued. The pound was itself devalued in 1978 to a peg of 1 pound = 1.42857 dollars (1 dollar = 0.7 pound). The pound floated in 1989. However, until 2001, the float was tightly managed by the Central Bank of Egypt and foreign exchange controls were in effect. The Central Bank of Egypt voted to end the managed-float regime and allowed the pound to float freely on 3 November 2016; the bank also announced an end to foreign exchange controls that day. The official rate fell twofold.
The Egyptian pound was also used in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan between 1899 and 1956, and Cyrenaica when it was under British occupation and later an independent emirate between 1942 and 1951. The National Bank of Egypt issued banknotes for the first time on 3 April 1899. The Central Bank of Egypt and the National Bank of Egypt were unified into the Central Bank of Egypt in 1961.
Several unofficial popular names are used to refer to different values of Egyptian currency. These include (from the word nickel) nekla (نكلة) [ˈneklæ] for 2 milliemes, ta'rifa (تعريفة) [tæʕˈɾiːfæ] for 5 milliemes, shelen (شلن) [ˈʃelen] (i.e. a shilling) for 5 piastres, bariza (بريزة) [bæˈɾiːzæ] for 10 piastres, and reyal (ريال) [ɾeˈjæːl] ("real") for 20 piastres. Since the piastre and millieme are no longer legal tender, the smallest denomination currently minted being the 25-piastre coin (functioning as one-quarter of one pound), these terms have mostly fallen into disuse and survive as curios. A few have survived to refer to pounds: bariza now refers to a ten-pound note and reyal can be used in reference to a 20-pound note.
Different sums of EGP have special nicknames, for example: 1 EGP Bolbol meaning nightingale or Gondi meaning soldier, 1,000 EGP baku (باكو) [ˈbæːku] "pack"; 1,000,000 EGP arnab (أرنب) [ˈʔæɾnæb] "rabbit"; 1,000,000,000 EGP feel (فيل) [fiːl] "elephant".
Between 1837 and 1900, copper 1 and 5 para*, silver 10 and 20 para, 1, 5, 10 and 20 piastre, gold 5, 10 and 20 piastre and 1 pound coins were introduced, with gold 50 piastre coins following in 1839.
Copper 10 para coins were introduced in 1853, although the silver coin continued to be issued. Copper 10 para coins were again introduced in 1862, followed by copper 4 para and 21⁄2 piastre coins in 1863. Gold 25 piastre coins were introduced in 1867.
In 1885, a new coinage was introduced consisting of bronze 1⁄4, 1⁄2, 1, 2 and 5 millieme, silver 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 piastre coins. The gold coinage practically ceased, with only small numbers of 5 and 10 piastre coins issued.
In 1916 and 1917, a new base metal coinage was introduced consisting of bronze 1⁄2 millieme and holed, cupro-nickel 1, 2, 5 and 10 millieme coins. Silver 2, 5, 10 and 20 piastre coins continued to be issued, and a gold 1 pound coin was reintroduced. Between 1922 and 1923, the gold coinage was extended to include 20 and 50 piastre and 1 and 5 pound coins. In 1924, bronze replaced cupro-nickel in the 1 millieme coin and the holes were removed from the other cupro-nickel coins. In 1938, bronze 5 and 10 millieme coins were introduced, followed in 1944 by silver, hexagonal 2 piastre coins.
Between 1954 and 1956, a new coinage was introduced, consisting of aluminium-bronze 1, 5 and 10 millieme and silver 5, 10 and 20 piastre coins, with the size of the silver coinage significantly reduced. An aluminium-bronze 2 millieme coin was introduced in 1962. In 1967 the silver coinage was abandoned and cupro-nickel 5 and 10 piastre coins were introduced.
Aluminium replaced aluminium-bronze in the 1, 5 and 10 millieme coins in 1972, followed by brass in the 5 and 10 millieme coins in 1973. Aluminium-bronze 2 piastre and cupro-nickel 20 piastre coins were introduced in 1980, followed by aluminium-bronze 1 and 5 piastre coins in 1984. In 1992, brass 5 and 10 piastre coins were introduced, followed by holed, cupro-nickel 25 piastre coins in 1993. The size of 5 piastre coins was reduced in 2004, 10 and 25 piastre coins - in 2008.
On June 1, 2006, 50 piastre and 1 pound coins dated 2005 were introduced, and its equivalent banknotes were phased out and completely disappeared from circulation in 2010. The coins bear the face of Cleopatra VII and Tutankhamun's mask, and the 1 pound coin is bimetallic. The size and composition of 50 piastre coins was reduced in 2007.
* 1 para = 1⁄40 piastre.
** Not in circulation as of 2008.
*** As to commemorate the branching of the Suez canal, the obverse had the Arabic phrase, قناة السويس الجديدة "New Suez Canal".
In 1899, the National Bank of Egypt introduced notes in denominations of 50 piastres, £1, £5, £10, £50 and £100 were introduced. Between 1916 and 1917, 25 piastre notes were added, together with government currency notes for 5 and 10 piastres. Issued intermittently, the 5 and 10 piastres are today produced by the Ministry of Finance.
In 1961, the Central Bank of Egypt took over from the National Bank and issued notes in denominations of 25 and 50 piastres, £1, £5, £10 and £20 notes were introduced in 1976, followed by £100 in 1978, £50 in 1993 and £200 in 2007.
All Egyptian banknotes are bilingual, with Arabic texts and Eastern Arabic numerals on the obverse, and English texts and Western Arabic numerals on the reverse. Obverse designs tend to feature an Islamic building with reverse designs featuring Ancient Egyptian motifs (buildings, statues and inscriptions). During December 2006, it was mentioned in articles in Al Ahram and Al Akhbar newspapers that there were plans to introduce £200 and £500 notes. As of 2015, there are £200 notes circulating but there are still no plans for making £500 notes. Starting from 2011 the 25, 50 piastres and £1 banknotes have been phased out and replaced by more extensive use of coins. As of June 2016 the National Bank of Egypt reintroduced the £1 banknote into circulation as well as the 25 and 50 piastres notes in response to a shortage of small change.
^ Cuhaj, George S., ed. (2009). Standard Catalog of World Paper Money Specialized Issues (11 ed.). Krause. p. 1070. ISBN 978-1-4402-0450-0.
^ Feteha, Ahmed; Shahine, Alaa (3 November 2016). "Egypt Free Floats Pound, Raises Lending Rates to Spur Economy". Bloomberg. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
^ "CBE not to impose restrictions on foreign currency exchange". Egypt Independent. 3 November 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
^ "Wayback Machine". 10 December 2004. Archived from the original on 10 December 2004. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
^ "Nach Thund". Nachthund.biz. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
^ ""المركزى": تراجع قيمة الجنيه لن يدفعنا لطرح ورقة نقدية من فئة 500 - اليوم السابع". Youm7.com. 15 September 2012. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Money of Egypt.
This page was last edited on 13 April 2019, at 02:31 (UTC). |
0.999999 | What is the origin of the tradition of having a Christmas Dinner, or a special feast at Christmas?
Christmas dinner is the primary meal traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
As long as Christmas has been celebrated, the celebration appears to have included a large meal. Of course, food plays an important role in many celebrations, including Thanksgiving, Easter, and Passover.
However, the Christmas feast always followed an Advent fast that prohibited the eating of most animal products (other than fish) during the four weeks before Christmas. Therefore, the breaking of the Advent Fast was the primary motivation for the abundance of foods available at a Christmas celebration.
Ancient Christmas feasts were less focused than today's on the specific types of food to be available -- although even in older times traditions had developed around serving plum pudding, mince pie, or a boar's head. But for the most part, the focus of the ancient Christmas feast was on the abundance of the food -- not the type -- and the specific plates served would depend on what was available and popular, with the Christmas celebration inspiring more and better, rather than different.
Therefore, an ancient Christmas dinner might have featured goose, duck, pheasant, venison, chicken, beef, pork, rabbit, or whatever could be had in abundance, but not anything different from their normal diet, unlike the narrow modern preference for specific "Christmas" foods, such as turkey or ham, either of which might commonly be eaten only once or twice per year. |
0.998494 | One of our day trips during our stay on the Italian Riviera was to a small fishing village called Camoglia. As we strolled down to the village we were fascinated by the views and marveled at how crystal clear the water was.
During the Middle Ages this town was a prominent seaport. Now it thrives on tourism and is a great getaway for many Italians in this part of Italy.
The name Camogli refers to the wives (mogli) of the fishermen who watched over the town while their fishermen husbands were away at sea. The population now consists of about 6,000 people and is known for its colorful houses that line the beach.
As we strolled along the walkway it was dotted with boutique shops and small restaurants. While visiting this little town it was imperative to stop and taste some of the focaccia which is abundant in this part of Italy. It was beyond wonderful. The focaccia was thin and the dough was light. It is brushed with olive oil before baked and topped with herbs, cheeses and other vegetables.
Focaccia with mushrooms and potatoes topped with a green sauce.
Would I recommend my travelers to visit this village? Definitely YES!
Would I visit here again? Definitely yes! |
0.882592 | "What's wrong?" Justin asked her, his face filling with concern.
"Oh." Justin said. He had no idea how to respond.
Justin just sat there. He didn't know what to do.
Justin still sat there, as stiff as a board. |
0.99991 | Some people may be wondering why we are in a search for adventure when we live in a place as amazing as Alaska. It's a valid question, as Alaska has so much to offer. Beautiful scenery, wildlife, it may seem like adventure is around every corner!
In some ways, this is true. But in many ways, it is not. This is something I have experienced nearly every year I have lived here. With Jason's work schedule, it left very little time for us to get out and truly enjoy what Alaska has to offer. I think no matter where you live, it's all too common for people to get wrapped up in their day to day responsibilities and miss what's around them.
We moved into our camper the weekend before we were scheduled to close. We parked it in the driveway, close to the house so we could reach the water hose and plug the power in. It gave us a chance to learn to live in the camper, while still at home. After a few agonizing days of finally clearing and cleaning the house, we were completely out and everything was on track.
On our third night of sleeping in our camper, right in the driveway of the house, we had our first exciting adventure. Jason was sitting at the table, working on his computer. I was reading a book. It was getting late, past what we would normally consider a regular bedtime for us. Suddenly Jason hollered at me to come quick.
Right in our front yard was a bull moose. I couldn't believe it. In all my years living up here, I could count on one hand how many bull moose I've seen. Let alone one that close!
A few minutes later, a larger female moose came around the corner. It was super awesome to watch them wander around our yard.
Now, here's the thing. The ONLY reason we saw those moose, was because we were out in the camper. Any other regular night, of our regular life, we would have been in the house asleep in our bedroom.
They were super quiet, and I was thankful our pups were snoozing away. That is, until the mama moose zoomed up close to the window of our camper we were looking out! Josie took notice, and let out a buff. Luckily, I was able to settle her down quick. But the moose didn't stick around much longer before heading on their way.
It's a good reminder to stop and take notice. No matter who you are. No matter where you live. No matter what responsibilities you have. Put your phone down, and be mindful. You never know what adventure is waiting for you when you look up. |
0.960067 | John Ericsson, born 31 July 1803 in Vermland, Sweden, is best known for devising and building the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor. A prolific inventor, Ericsson advanced maritime science in many ways, perfecting the screw propeller and other devices which played a significant part in advancing naval engineering. Ericsson died in New York City 8 March 1890.
The first Ericsson, Torpedo Boat No. 2, was launched 12 May 1894 by Iowa Iron Works, Dubuque, Iowa; sponsored by Miss Carrie Kiene; and commissioned 18 February 1897, Lieutenant N. R. Usher in command.
On 18 May 1897, Ericsson arrived at Newport, R.I., her home port. Through the summer months, she cruised New England waters for trials and training, instructing regular and reserve officers in torpedo tactics. She left Newport 18 September 1897 for a cruise to Annapolis, Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, and several ports in Florida, arriving at Key West on the last day of the year. This was to be her base for operations in the Caribbean during the next 7 months.
As war with Spain approached, Ericsson patrolled the Florida Keys, intensified her training operations, and carried messages for the increasing number of the fleet present in the area. She continued this duty after the opening of the war, then on 22 April 1898 began a blockade patrol between Havana and Key West. She joined the fleet at Santiago 20 June, and during the Battle of Santiago, 3 July 1898, was in the thick of the fight, firing on the Spanish fleet. As the defeated Spanish ships blazed and threatened to explode, Ericsson played a leading part in the rescue efforts through which men of the U.S. Navy that day showed their courage, skill, and determination as clearly as they had in the fighting. She laid herself alongside Vizcaya, ignoring the fact that the Spanish ship's ammunition was already exploding, and that flames were firing; the loaded guns. Over a hundred Spanish officers and men were thus saved, and more were taken off the flagship Maria Teresa and Oquendo, as Ericsson towed small craft from her squadron's larger ships to the burning hulks.
Ericsson patrolled off Cuba through mid-August 1898, and on 23 August arrived at New York, where she was decommissioned 21 September 1898 and laid up. In December 1900, she was returned to commission, still in reserve, then sailed for Norfolk, where on 6 March 1901 she was assigned to the Reserve Torpedo Flotilla. In October 1908, she moved to Charleston Navy Yard, where she was decommissioned 5 April 1912. She was sunk in ordnance tests. |
0.990825 | With Joe Barry out, who makes sense for Redskins at defensive coordinator?
The Redskins defense under performed with Joe Barry as its coordinator, and in turn, Barry will be let go, along with the entire defensive staff.
The first report of that news comes from CBS' Jason La Canfora, but it's hardly a surprise.
With Barry on the way out, it's time to look at names that might make sense for the 'Skins, and expect a lot more names to pop up as the coaching carousel heats up.
Paul Guenther - He's worked on the coaching staff in Cincinnati for 12 seasons, and has been the D-coordinator with the Bengals for the last three seasons. Learning under defensive guru Marvin Lewis for much of that time, Guenther has familiarity with Jay Gruden from their days together with the Bengals. The Cincy D this season ranked in the Top 10 in points allowed and has been a strong group for some time.
Wade Phillips - This hire could make a lot of sense. Phillips has been one of the best at running defenses in the NFL for decades, and his son Wes works on the Redskins staff as tight ends coach. With Gary Kubiak resigning in Denver, Phillips has an expiring contract and questions about his future took the former head coach to Twitter to say, "Coaches life--unemployed to SB victory to unemployed in 3 years or less." Phillips also tweeted that he would like to stay in Denver, but who knows what that new staff will look like, and the appeal of possibly coaching with his son must have a major draw.
Rex Ryan - This seems unlikely, but Ryan is certainly a strong defensive mind. He's also bombastic and loud, something the steadily progressing Redskins organization might not want to deal with.
Gus Bradley - One of the hottest names in the NFL a few seasons back as Seahawks defensive coordinator, things went bad for Bradley as the head coach in Jacksonville. Some players on the Jags, notably Jalen Ramsey said they felt "caged" by Bradley's system and the team defense struggled as a whole. A fresh start could be a big help for Bradley, who overlapped with Scot McCloughan while in the Pacific Northwest.
Vic Fangio - When the Redskins hired Barry in 2015, fans screamed because they wanted Fangio. At the time, Fangio had been running the 49ers defense, but he left when the team foolishly divorced itself from Jim Harbaugh. Currently running the Bears defense - that Bears defense that allowed the Redskins to post 41 points on over Christmas - word is Fangio's job is safe. For now.
Greg Manusky - It's not a given that the Redskins will look for an internal hire, but if they do, Manusky is the name to watch. He goes back with Scot McCloughan to their days in San Francisco when Manusky was defensive coordinator for the 49ers and McCloughan ran the front office. |
0.946324 | Washington (CNN) - After several weeks in which the influx of tens of thousands of undocumented children illegally crossing the border into the United States has dominated the headlines, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush wrote an op-ed about the issue, calling for a change in how the children are handled after they are arrested - and also urging his fellow Republicans not to use this as an "excuse" to abandon comprehensive immigration reform.
His Wall Street Journal opinion piece that published Wednesday evening is similar to the statement he released to CNN last week and is just the second time he's spoken on the issue that has caused national debate as unaccompanied children continue to cross the border at an increasing rate.
The potential 2016 presidential candidate wrote in the in the Wall Street Journal, "We now have a humanitarian crisis on our Southern border that demands strong leadership that respects the rule of law."
SEATTLE (CNN) - As President Barack Obama helped Democrats bank millions in campaign cash on Tuesday, he acknowledged his administration is confronting "some big overseas challenges" in the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere.
Speaking at a fundraiser in a wealthy enclave of Seattle, Obama said there is a sense among Americans "that around the world the old order isn't holding and we're not quite where we need to be in terms of a new order that's based on a different set of principles."
Overseas, Israel continues its ground invasion of Gaza and investigators continue to probe the downing of a Malaysia Air jetliner over Ukraine. Some Republicans and pundits have chastised Obama for maintaining his three-day fundraising swing on the West Coast, though his aides argue the President can do his job from anywhere.
(CNN) - The Senate on Thursday confirmed Shaun Donovan to be the new director of the Office of Management and Budget.
The vote was 75-22 to confirm Donovan to become the next budget chief in the cabinet-level position central to the day-to-day running of the federal government. |
0.990547 | Albert Buitenhuis, a South African chef, faces deportation from New Zealand because he is too fat. Mr Buitenhuis, 50, is five feet eight inches tall (173cm) and weighs 286 pounds ( 20 stone 6 pounds, 130kg) and has lived in New Zealand for six years.
Mr Buitenhuis had worked in New Zealand for six years with an Essential Skills work visa. He then applied to Immigration New Zealand for a resident visa but was refused in May 2013 because his weight means that there is a significant risk that he would become a heavy burden on the New Zealand health system.
A manager at the New Zealand immigration service, Michael Carley, told New Zealand's 3 News, 'It is important that all migrants have an acceptable standard of health to minimize the costs and demands on New Zealand's health services.
Mr Buitenhuis's wife, Marthie, told Australian broadcaster ABC that the couple have been in New Zealand for six years. She said that no one had ever told her husband that his weight might cause the failure of a visa application, even though he used to weigh significantly more. He has, in fact, lost 66 pounds (four stone ten pounds, twenty kilograms) since 2007.
Immigration New Zealand said that the reason that Mr Buitenhuis was not informed of the possibility that his weight might cause the failure of his application was that his recent application was for a residence visa. The health requirements for a resident visa are different from those for a work visa.
Michael Carley added that it was not just Mr Buitenhuis's weight that led to the failure of his application. He said that medical tests show that Mr Buitenhuis's weight puts him at risk of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancer and joint failure. He added that the South African also has an enlarged, fatty liver and a bad knee and all these issues would have been considered by officers deciding the application.
Mr Buitenhuis says that he understands the rationale for the policy but agrees with his wife that it is unfair that he was never informed that his weight might have an impact on his resident visa application.
He says that he and his wife have now sold all their property in South Africa and have nothing to return to in that country. His sister lives in New Zealand. In addition, since his visa application was refused, he has been barred from working and so is now penniless and cannot afford to return to his native country. The couple have appealed against the decision.
Immigration New Zealand has agreed not to deport Mr Buitenhuis until his appeal has been heard.
Sanwar Ali of workpermit.com said 'if you are thinking of emigrating, or applying for permanent resident status in a country, you should be aware that poor health may affect your chances of success'. |
0.999095 | If you read two things by me, read my analysis on the Trump administration and the WTO and my piece on women and economics.
Economics can be fun: a graph a minute [Economics & Finance] Supply and demand walk into a bar.
Welfare: credit crunch [Britain] A plan to cut tax credits is defeated, for now. Coming up with a face-saving alternative will be hard.
Free exchange: reality cheque [Economics & Finance] Angus Deaton wins the Nobel prize.
Free exchange: prudence and profligacy [Economics & Finance] How much austerity have countries actually done?
Public services: pay-as-you-go government [Britain] From divorces to corpses, cash-strapped governments are finding unusual new sources of revenue.
Free exchange: Off the block [Economics & Finance] Economists may idolise auctions, but most people do not.
Wage inequality: are Americans passing up a chance at the best jobs?
Free exchange: credit where taxes are due [Economics & Finance] Tax credits and a high minimum wage are complements, not substitutes.
America’s labour market: is it working yet?
Mutual funds and airline competition: who really owns the skies?
Public debt: how much is too much? |
0.97866 | Who is Michael Chack, and why do people keep talking about him?
Michael Chack is the bronze medalist from 1993 US Figure Skating Championships. But his performance at that event was never shown on TV, an incident has become so notorious among skating fans on the Internet that it has added a new word to our jargon, the verb "to chack".
"To chack"--to leave a perfectly good, or very crucial, skating performance out of an edited TV broadcast for no apparent reason. Verb can be transitive ("They're going to chack him again, I just know it") or intransitive ("I waited all through the show for Brian Orser's performance on 'Canvas of Ice,' but it got chacked"). At times I have said that a skater whose performance was unusually poor has succeeded in chacking himself off a broadcast or out of a competition.
I can document my first printed usage of the term, in my Orser newsletter in December 1993. I just sort of ran it up the flagpole to see who would salute. Once I started using it on the 'net, that turned out to be a lot of people.
The term was created in honor of Michael Chack, after ABC failed to show his bronze-medal-winning freeskate at '93 U.S. nationals simply because he didn't skate live in the final group. They could have shown it later (as NBC later showed Mark Mitchell's fourth-place freeskate from '92 worlds even though he did not skate live on air in the final group)--but they never did. That same year, PBS ran the Evening of Championship Skating and showed performances from every skater there who was of note--except Chack. He was only briefly visible in the closing number. Thus the term "chack" was born. It has a nice, hard, violent sound that suggests something nasty was done to someone for no good reason, and expresses that sense of frustration skating fans feel at TV broadcasts that show only part of the story--and I think that's why it has been such a popular term amongst fans here.
Now, the usage "to chack" has even made it off the net and into print skating publications. It was used in an article in the May 1996 issue of American Skating World, as well as in the profile of Michael in the January 1997 issue of Blades on Ice. It's also been listed in Jerry Dunn's reference book on slang, Idiom Savant. How much longer will it be before it starts being used in non-skating contexts?
Michael started skating at the age of 5. When he was 11, he moved away from home to begin training with Peter Burrows at Sport-O-Rama in Monsey, NY. His first qualifying competition was as an intermediate at the 1986 North Atlantic championships (which he won), and his first trip to US Nationals was as a novice in 1987, at the age of 15.
In 1991, his first season at the senior level, Michael earned a 5th-place finish at US Nationals with a performance that included an (unsuccessful) attempt at a one-foot axel/quadruple salchow combination. At Skate America later that year, he landed his first triple axel in competition. He had a bad attack of nerves at 1992 US Nationals, but came back with strong performances to win the bronze at 1993 Nationals and the gold at the 1993 Olympic Festival.
Unfortunately, Michael has had problems with injuries and illnesses that have interfered with his competitive career since 1993. He missed the 1994 season because of a groin injury, was sick with the flu at 1995 US Nationals, and missed the 1996 season because of being injured again. His best showing during this period was a third-place finish at Trophee de France in late 1994.
After this, Michael made a coaching change, moving to the Los Angeles area in the spring of 1996 to work with Frank Carroll. He competed at the national level in 1997, 1998, and 1999. He has announced that the 1998-99 season will be his last as an eligible competitor; although he was once again injured at Nationals (this time with tendonitis in his jumping knee), he skated very well and still managed to end his eligible career on a positive note.
Why do I like Michael's skating so much? Since his early days when he was known primarily as a jumper, he's turned himself into a skater of considerable style and artistic talent. He moves across the ice with the deliberate poise of a dancer, and has gorgeous extension and body line. Even the jumps are landed with beautiful flow and erect carriage and turnout and stretch of the free leg. And Michael also has a nice sense of choreography and musical interpretation so that his programs have theme and structure and interesting connecting elements, and are not just "jump jump jump".
You can read an article I wrote with more details about Michael's situation as of March, 1996, and an update on Michael from July, 1996.
Michael's birthday is August 25, 1971. |
0.999928 | Stem cells offer great potential for use in clinical applications thanks to their ability to specialize into different cell types and to renew themselves. Although some of them have limitations, stem cells are still an amazing resource for the medical world, as no other cell inside the human body has the ability to generate new cell types with a more specific function that the source.
Stem cells can be considered the body’s raw building blocks, as all the other cells with specialized functions result from stem cells that divide and give birth to daughter cells. These cells, at their turn, divide or differentiate and become specialized, giving birth to muscle, bone, blood, brain or other specific cell types.
The characteristics and applications of stem cells vary not only depending on the type of cells they differentiate into, but also on the nature of the tissue they are derived from. From this point of view, stem cells can be classified into three main groups: embryonic, adult and induced pluripotent stem cells.
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) come from embryos of up to 5 days old, and are pluripotent, meaning that they can divide into several stem cells and specialize into any type of cell. This property allows embryonic stem cells to repair damaged tissues and organs and to stimulate the regeneration of diseased tissues. Researchers can grow and induce the differentiation of ESCs in the lab, but the use of embryonic stem cells is often avoided due to ethical considerations.
Adult stem cells, the second type, are found in adult tissues inside the human body and they can also differentiate into various cell types, but their ability to give birth to new cells is limited. Although until recently it’s been thought that an adult stem cells can only differentiate into the same type of cell as the tissue it comes from, emerging studies suggest that these cells, just like ESCs, can create unrelated cell types.
In other words, just like an embryonic stem cell derived from bone marrow can give birth to liver or muscle cells, adult stem cells taken from bone marrow can create bone or skin cells. There’s a limit though, as adult stem cells can’t be manipulated as efficiently as ESCs, and they’re not as versatile and the ones derived from embryos.
The third type of stem cells is somewhere in between the adult and embryonic stem cells, and it’s called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These are highly versatile, similarly to ESCs, but are made from adult specialized cells through laboratory techniques (genetic reprogramming). iPSCs have two main advantages: first one’s that they do not create any ethical debate, as they don’t come from embryos, and the second one is that the risk of rejection is lower than in adult stem cells, thanks to the fact that iPSCs are reprogrammed to act as ESCs.
We won’t discuss the ESCs here as the tendency is to not use embryonic stem cells, and opt for adult or induced pluripotent stem cells instead.
Perhaps the most used of all adult stem cells are those obtained from the bone marrow (mesenchymal stem cells), which can be differentiated into bone, cartilage and fat cells, and can encourage the production of new blood cells. These were not proven to be able to differentiate in any type of cell inside the human body, but existing research suggests mesenchymal stem cells may be useful in bone and cartilage repair or blood vessel repair after a heart attack .
In lab studies, bone marrow stem cells from adult rats were able to partially regrow the damaged liver, and to have beneficial effects when injected into the damaged heart. Also, scientists at the Children’s Hospital Boston have found adult bone marrow stem cells to protect against chronic lung disease in mice models.
Induced pluripotent stem cells have also been tested for their ability to differentiate, and lab results showed that iPSCs made from skin samples may be useful in treating neurological disorders like Parkinson’s disease or Down’s syndrome .
Researchers in Japan managed to generate human liver buds from induced pluripotent stem cells, the scientists using three different types of stem cells for this purpose: part of them were hepatocytes coaxed from iPSCs, others were endothelial stem cells and others were mesenchymal stem cells. The liver buds were grown in vitro for a few days then transplanted to mice, where they quickly connected with the blood vessels and continued to grow.
Other studies have shown that iPSCs grown from embryonic cord-blood cells can be used for repairing the damaged retina of mice and regrowing the vascular vessels. Scientists from the Japan Ministry Health are currently conducting a clinical trial using autologous iPSCs in six patients affected by age-related macular degeneration. IPSCs used for this trial are derived from skin cells, and reprogrammed to differentiate into retinal pigment epithelial cells.
Adult stem cells have been used in treating leukemia and blood or bone related cancers utilizing bone marrow transplants ; mesenchymal stem cells have been shown to help in repairing the damaged cartilage in patients with articular cartilage defects and to improve the outcome in spinal cord injuries . Peripheral vascular disease and liver cirrhosis may also be treatable with adult stem cells.
Although adult stem cells and iPSCs can be differentiated in a wider variety of cells, not all of them have been tested in human subjects, one of the biggest barriers being the potential immunological rejection.
Opioid Overdose Crisis in America. |
0.999406 | Would you like world peace with that?
For my Holocaust in History, Literature, and Film class taught by Professor Kevin Madigan, I decided to write my final paper on the behavioral analysis of Nazi propaganda.
As someone who is deeply interested in Behavioral Economics on a professional level, Nazi propaganda is a dark and fascinating topic. To understand the origins of Nazi propaganda, it is important to know Germany after World War I, hit by economic recession and paying for reparations from war.
Social & Attributional Biases: These are biases that affect our social perception and the means through which we determine who or what was responsible for a particular action or situation.
Memory Biases: These are biases that can either enhance or impair the recollection of a memory, either near-term or long-term.
Decision-Making Biases: These are biases that impair our ability to make rational decisions despite evidence to the contrary. This includes biases in probability and belief that impact decision-making.
Given this, I came up with the key set of biases that they Nazis chose to trigger in the population, and came up with a framework to identify such propaganda should the public encounter it.
You can find a copy of the paper here: Analysis of Nazi Propaganda: A Behavioral Study.
I deal with Third Reich militaria and i studied the nazi propaganda.
Another characteristic is the nazis present themself as victims.
E.g they didn’t want the war, the polish began, the same for the soviet, etc etc.
The paper is nice. The even more interesting bit about the Nazi regime, I find, is the regime’s internal power struggles and Germany’s political economy.
Awesome paper. It’s extremely interesting and seems fairly accurate. I find it odd however, that you’ve denoted an absence of the use of memory biases from employment in Nazi propaganda. From my understanding, all of these propaganda use the picture-superiority effect, and many use the levelling and sharpening, generation, spacing, and cryptomnesia effects. I must note that the only introduction I have to biases, aside from looking up memory biases, is from the short introduction to them in your paper. |
0.999999 | What are some dog allergy symptoms?
Just like humans, dogs experience different allergic reactions for different allergens. Allergic reactions to food include throwing up and looseness of the bowels. Allergies and fleas are also associated with hives and rashes.
The four causes of allergies in dogs are insects, contact, food and inhalant. Insect allergies are the most common types of allergies that dogs contract due to fleas and other parasites that feed on dog's blood. Food allergies are another common cause of allergies, especially fish, beef, milk, eggs and wheat. Inhalant allergies are due to breathing in pollens, dust, mold and other allergens from the environment. The last allergy type is contact dermatitis, which is due to your dog coming into contact with a substance.
The use of apple cider vinegar can improve a dog that is suffering from allergies. First, a pet owner must section the fur, then spray the vinegar on the itchy area. |
0.999954 | Übersetzung für 'dig' im kostenlosen Englisch-Deutsch Wörterbuch und viele weitere Deutsch-Übersetzungen. Übersetzung im Kontext von „I dig it“ in Englisch-Deutsch von Reverso Context: I dig it when you change colour. Lernen Sie die Übersetzung für 'dig' in LEOs Englisch ⇔ Deutsch Wörterbuch. Mit Flexionstabellen der verschiedenen Fälle und Zeiten ✓ Aussprache und. Beispiele für die Gibts gibts ich stehe drauf casino schwabach 2 Beispiele mit Übereinstimmungen. Suche I dig it in: Übersetzung Wörterbuch Rechtschreibprüfung Konjugation Synonyme. Dynastie unter Echnaton neu gegründeten Hauptstadt des Pharaonenreiches. Die korrekte sprachliche Einordnung und Bewertung der Beispielsätze ist für einen Sprachanfänger oder Schüler der Grund- und Mittelstufen nicht rtl casino spiele einfach. Beispiele für die Übersetzung Ich stehe auf ansehen 2 Beispiele mit Übereinstimmungen.
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In the seventh or eighth semester, students generally study at a foreign partner university or work abroad in a museum, art collection or archaeological dig , or at an organization for the conservation of cultural heritage.
Semester ist die Bachelor Thesis im Umfang von 12 Credits zu absolvieren. Her artistic universe is full of parallel worlds, enigmatically rampant plants, taxidermic specimens and puzzling phenomena.
Based on the most recent scientific findings from ongoing archaeological digs , the exhibition sheds light on the geographical expansion of the Vikings, their family life, settlements, lives and deaths, cult customs, and the famous conquest and trade journeys of this Nordic people.
The result is a lively and above all up-to-date picture of the Vikings. English It becomes more and more and more expensive to dig them out.
English The honourable Member invites me to dig deep into the soil of competence and its related terrain.
English And if you mark ants that are working outside, and dig up a colony, you never see them deep down. English Research into causes is the way to dig up crime by the roots, instead of playing about with its symptoms.
English And because of that, you start to dig around for your external memories -- where did you leave them? English I should like to end with a slight dig at the report.
English The motorway, as currently planned, will bury this site before an archaeological dig has been carried out. English But rarely do they dig deeper to comment on the alarming rates of HIV contamination, or outbreaks of hepatitis or TB.
Vor allem die USA haben jede Gelegenheit genutzt, sich zu sperren. The US, in particular, managed to dig its heels in at every opportunity.
Stay tuned as Global Voices digs up more documents from the leaked cache. They may even be persuaded to dig a fishpond and to try and eek out a living from that.
Stay tuned as our Global Voices Online team digs up more documents from the leaked cache. A single pit has been dug in the hospital yard so that the bodies can be piled into it.
This was made possible thanks to the archaeological digs of the Deutsche Orientgesselschaft German Oriental Society , and above all the businessman James Simon..
Construction work was accompanied by sophisticated archaeological digs.. In der Wiener Innenstadt wurde am There had been serious enlargements at the territorial and historical subject during the second part of the 19th century due to the fact of many archaeological discoveries, primarily the remaining parts of the roman Neckar bridge in Archaeological digs in Heidelberg and environs, especially after the 2nd world war, led to a significant growth of the stock..
Noble donations of Heidelberger citizens for example like the collection Posselt expanded the stock of collections.. A structure is built from start to finish in order to obtain, following experiments and observations, a set of conclusive results..
Forensic digs , encyclopedic glossary, cybernetic control: With the natural sciences and humanities, aesthetic experience and artistic research embracing nearly everything, the Anthropocene seems to be a great deal about knowledge and understanding..
The project partners not only aim to publish the findings of these older excavations, but also to conduct new digs at sites around the city.. Im Jahr wurde daher von Dr.
We are the interface between the military and academics, since traditional communication-related reservations still exist between the two groups..
It has often been the case that archaeologists did not talk to the military, but most archaeological digs are located right in major conflict areas.
Therefore we act as a kind of translation agency and encourage people on location to become intensively involved prior to catastrophes.. But the greatest attraction is the fascinating collection of archeological digs by Richard Lepsius and Ludwig Borchardt in Tell el-Amarna..
The now excavated gatehouse is part of what is the oldest Egyptian citadel in Canaan discovered to date.. The digs have uncovered an entire series of gate systems built one on top of the other, demonstrating the duration of the Egyptian military presence here..
Lebanese cedar was used to construct the second story of the mighty gatehouse and the beams are the oldest and largest discovered so far in Israel..
Their study is the first to examine DNA from fossil cattle bones uncovered during archaeological digs in Iran..
Located in the region in which cattle were first domesticated, the excavation sites date to the period shortly after the advent of agriculture and livestock holding..
Die Fundorte datieren in die Zeit kurz nach der Erfindung von Ackerbau und Viehhaltung und stammen aus der Region, in der Rinder erstmals domestiziert wurden..
But it underestimated its mighty neighbors and was destroyed, its treasures forgotten till this day.. Indeed, there is evidence that there has been a wide dissemination of the grape in the early Bronze Age..
Archaeological digs on the island of Crete attest to the pre-Hellenic history of wine growing there, and in Vathypetro, a site near Archanes, one of the oldest wine presses in the world can be visited..
The unearthed stone wine presses and the many clay pots from the Minoan culture prove that Crete was the cradle of commercial Greek wine growing..
Located in between such attractions as the Circus Maximus, the Colosseum, and the Roman Forum, evidence from archaeological digs demonstrates that the hill was inhabited as long ago as the tenth century BC..
This was followed some years later by the excavation of a predynastic cemetery in Abusir el-Meleq.. We are using the following form field to detect spammers.
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Ein Beispiel aus dem Internet. Vor allem die USA haben jede Gelegenheit genutzt, sich zu sperren. The US, in particular, managed to dig its heels in at every opportunity.
The coffins were then dug up and removed from the cemetery completely without ceremony. Hast du die Kartoffeln ausgegraben?
Indeed, advanced countries, including the US, have dug themselves into a deep hole. Sie grunzten was als Antwort und gruben weiter.
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I dig , Mr. Beispielsätze Beispielsätze für "dig" auf Deutsch Diese Sätze sind von externen Quellen und können mitunter Fehler enthalten. English The motorway, as currently planned, will bury this site before an archaeological dig has been carried out. Ich könnte es löschen, wenn ich meine Entmagnetisierungsspule ausgraben würde. Hier hast du beides in einem! English But we have emerged with valuable lessons about how to dig ourselves out. Britisches Lucky strike double click wild Amerikanisches Stuttgart gegen braunschweig dig in dig auf deutsch ribs. Ein Loch in einen Teich zu juegos de casino g Their study is the first to examine DNA from fossil cattle bones uncovered during archaeological digs in Iran. English The motorway, sparda bank sofortüberweisung currently planned, will bury this site before an archaeological derbysieg bvb has been carried out. Britisches Englisch Amerikanisches Englisch dig in! Forensic digsencyclopedic glossary, cybernetic control: Therefore we act as a kind of translation agency and encourage people on location to become intensively involved prior to catastrophes. To this was added the whole share of the find of the architect and Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt in Armara Bitte versuchen Sie es erneut. The coffins were then dug up and removed from the cemetery completely without ceremony. Archaeological digs on the island of Crete attest to the pre-Hellenic history of wine growing there, and in Rosenthal casino speisekarte, a site near Archanes, one of the oldest wine presses in the world can be visited. Semester ist die Bachelor Thesis im Umfang von 12 Credits zu absolvieren.
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0.999991 | Question: 25th edition of Partnership Summit took place in which of the following City?
On 12- 13th Jan. 2019 the 25th edition of Partnership Summit took place in the city of Mumbai.
It was inaugurated by Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu.
The summit is a global platform for dialogue, debate, deliberation and engagement among Indian and global leaders on economic policy and growth trends in India.
The summit will expectedly build new partnership and explore investment opportunities through high level exchanges and B2B (Business to Business) meetings and will showcase India in the present landscape of an emerging “New India”, the “New Global Economic Address”.
The summit was organized by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, State Government of Maharashtra and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Minister of Commerce and Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu presided over as Chair of the Summit and delivered keynote address in starting session.
The topics discussed in the session include Partnering with New India, Reforms and Deregulations, The Infra Exchange and The Inclusion Dynamics. It also witnessed discussions over critical sectoral series like Innovations, India 4.0: AI, Big Data, Agri and Food Processing, Healthcare, Tourism, Defence and Renewable Energy etc.
Suresh Prabhu also held bilateral dialogues with officials of various nations who took part in the summit. |
0.999905 | Toy collecting has been around for as long as there have been toys! While some collectors focus on toys that will bring them a return on their investment, others collect toys for personal reasons. But regardless of the collector's reasons for collecting, the key is knowing when the toys were made.
How do you tell when specific toys were made? The materials used, the size of the toy, and the marks on them should help the collector identify the specifics. While fakes and reproductions abound, a good toy collector is skilled in determining age and authenticity.
Determining what the toy is made of is the first step in figuring out its age. For example, cast-iron toys were prevalent from the 1840s to the 1940s, while celluloid was used from 1890 to the 1950s. Composition was used from the 1890s to the 1940s, die-cast metal has been used from 1906 to the present, paper was popular from the 1830s to the 1950s, and plastic has been used since the 1950s. Rubber was used for a short time during the 1930s, tinplate was used from the 1850s to the 1940s, and wood was used from the 1830s to the 1930s.
Toy marks can also give one an idea about when the toy was made. Toys made after 1891 and imported into the United States must be stamped with the country of origin by law. Toy mechanisms such as live steam, clockwork, lightweight electric mechanisms, electric motors, or friction motors can also indicate the time period during which the toy was made.
Toy collectors can find what they are looking for at live and online auctions, as well as at trade shows and flea markets. |
0.997124 | What is the best internet provider in Blaine?
Blaine is the northernmost and westernmost city in Washington, sitting on the state's northern border that the United States shares with Canada. With over 5000 residents, this community is growing steadily. It's also a major stopping point for those traveling between the United States and Canada. High speed Internet is a top priority for both residents and business customers in Blaine.
One option that has expanded rapidly in recent years is Frontier FiOS. This national provider offers DSL service in Blaine. Specific plan speeds vary, but you could reach download speeds as high as 25 Mbps throughout Blaine. The service area includes most of Blaine and quite a few outlying areas.
Looking for cable? Check out Xfinity. Through this national cable provider, the entirety of Blaine enjoys consistent service and download speeds up to 100 Mbps. The Xfinity network extends far past the city limits to the south and east, offering coverage options to other communities. |
0.863251 | Do you have at least 5 years software engineering experience with proficiency in Python and Java? Would you be interested in applying your skills to a completely greenfield project as part of a digital innovation hub?
My client is a digital innovator and disruption start up recognised as one of the best in the world to work with and they are tasked with building a team that will utilise cutting edge technology for a greenfield project.
This is a senior role within a small team so some lead experience and strong collaborative skills are essential. This will be limit testing, cutting edge and truly unique, lasting an initial 3 months.
Operating out of a cutting edge digital innovation hub, you will be supporting the Data Science team to implement and deploy scalable machine learning services in the cloud. Directly reporting to the engineering lead, you should have experience of putting Machine Learning algorithms and ETL pipelines into production. |
0.999998 | What are the different types of duck for cooking?
In 1873 nine ducks were exported from China to Long Island, New York in the United States. The animals and their meat are sometimes referred to as "Long Island duckling". Pekin duck, or Long Island duck (Anas platyrhynchos domestica, or Anas peking, is a breed of domesticated duck used primarily for egg and meat production. It was bred from the Mallard in China. Fully mature adult Pekin ducks weigh between 8 and 11 pounds (3.6 and 5 kilograms) in captivity.
Pekin duck breast with a rhubarb sauce (left). Pekin duck is the most popular duck used for cooking in the United States.
The Pekin duck has meat that is tender and mild in flavor. It is can be eaten either on the rare side or cooked through as in many Asian preparations.
The tender breast are best sautéed, but its muscular legs take to braising or confit style.
The Pekin duck is the most popular commercial duck breed in the United States, although some farming has since relocated to Indiana from Suffolk County, New York. Around 95% of duck meat consumed in the United States is Pekin duck.
The Muscovy Duck (Cairina moschata) is a large duck native to Mexico, Central, and South America. Small wild and feral breeding populations have established themselves in the United States, particularly in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, as well as in many other parts of North America, including southern Canada. Feral Muscovy Ducks have also been reported in parts of Europe. They are a large duck, with the males measuring about 76 cm in length, and weighing up to 15 pounds. Females are considerably smaller, and only grow to 7 pounds, roughly half the males' size.
Muscovy duck breeds are popular because they have stronger-tasting meat – sometimes compared to roasted beef – than the usual domestic ducks which are descendants of the Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos). The meat is lean when compared to the fatty meat of mallard-derived ducks, its leanness and tenderness being often compared to veal.
In discussing the halachic issues surrounding the species' kosher status, it was noted that the Muscovy duck was "highly controversial, due to its ban in America by the acerbic Rabbi Bernard Illowy in the mid 1800’s. As such, it is still not recognized as kosher in the [United] States today, but in Israel, no such ban ever existed."
The Mulard (or Moulard) duck is a hybrid variety of domestic duck produced by crossing a female Pekin with a male Muscovy Duck. Since the domestic Pekin is descended from the Mallard Duck (Anas platyrhynchos) and the Muscovy (Cairina moschata) is a separate species, all Mulards are sterile F1 hybrids. Most are bred through artificial insemination, and are sometimes also called "mule ducks."
Duck confit made using the moulard duck leg from Hudson Valley New York. The Moulard duck leg is the preferred choice of duck.
While Moulard duck leg meat starts off tough, after slow cooking confit for several hours the meat melts off the bone.
The Moulard duck is mostly produced commercially on farms for meat and for foie gras production. White Muscovies and the Pekin are the two most common pure breeds of duck commercially, and hybrids of the two are hardier and calmer, in addition to exhibiting natural hybrid vigor. The Lola duck is "a heritage breed" of Moulard duck that is specific to certain farms. It is a cross between a Pekin and male heirloom mallard. Lola is smaller,leaner and a gamier bird than the Moulard duck.
The Moulard duck has meaty breasts, which are sold separately and labeled "magret." They are best sautéed or grilled medium-rare like a steak.
The Mallard , or Wild Duck, is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia.
Wild duck is best eaten rare. The juices run red, not clear, more like a beautiful juicy red steak.
The taste of wild duck is highly dependent on where that duck has been feeding. According to the Joy of Cooking, shallow water ducks feeding on local grains, like mallards, widgeons, and teal, can be very succulent, while diving ducks feed on fish, affecting their flavor. Wild ducks are much more flavorful than domesticated ducks, as their muscles are getting a constant work-out, which is also why their flesh is so red. The taste is closer to steak than to chicken. |
0.948813 | The city of Decatur is located in northern Alabama along the Tennessee River and is the county seat of Morgan County. It is known as the "River City" because it was originally a river crossing for settlers west of the Appalachian Mountains; the location on the river still makes Decatur a major transportation hub in the Southeast. Decatur received its name on June 16, 1820, in honor of Stephen Decatur, a naval hero of the War of 1812. The Alabama Legislature officially incorporated the city in 1826. Decatur has a mayor-council form of government with a mayor who serves as the chief executive officer and five council members who each serve a five-year term each. Decatur has been home to several nationally and internationally recognized individuals. Actor Dean Jones, best known for his roles in Disney films such as The Love Bug, was born there in 1931. Actor Lucas Black, born in 1982, has appeared in such films as Jarhead, Friday Night Lights, Cold Mountain, and Crazy in Alabama. Football players RaTavious Anton "Taye" Biddle, wide receiver for several teams in the National Football League and the Canadian Football league, and Philip Rivers, starting quarterback for the San Diego Chargers, were both born in Decatur. Truett Banks "Rip" Sewell of Decatur became a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball. He played for the Detroit Tigers in 1932 and the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1938 to 1949.
Early settlers were drawn to Decatur because of the area's fertile soil and easy river access to other cities. In 1836, Decatur became the eastern boundary of the first railroad line west of the Appalachian Mountains. This event would change the city's history by boosting the economy and causing a rapid population increase in the area. With the arrival of the railroad, Decatur was connected with two major regional shipping outlets—the Tennessee River and the Tuscumbia, Courtland and Decatur Railroad—and soon became a primary industrial and transportation hub.
During the Civil War, Union and Confederate armies fought to maintain control over the strategic city. By war's end, the city was devastated, with all but three buildings having been dismantled by Union forces and used to construct barracks and other buildings. The citizens of Decatur immediately began rebuilding, but the city suffered a major yellow fever outbreak in 1877.
Not until the late 1880s did the city began to expand once again. In 1886, the Decatur Land, Improvement, and Furnace Company began promoting a new city to the southeast of Decatur called New Decatur. In 1888, the city again suffered a yellow fever outbreak, hampering the expansion of New Decatur. In 1905, the Southern Railway company built a depot in the city that is now the Decatur Union Depot Museum. In September 1916, the people of New Decatur voted to change the town's name to Albany to avoid the "Decatur" label. During the construction of the Keller Memorial Bridge across the Tennessee River, both Albany and Decatur cooperated financially. After a move toward municipal unity, the Alabama legislature attempted to make Albany part of Decatur on August 28, 1923, but conflicts arose over higher taxes in Albany and different debt loads between the two towns. Ultimately, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the union of the two towns was unconstitutional. Four years later, in 1927, after the issues were resolved, the legislature was finally able to merge the towns prior to the completion of the Keller Memorial Bridge.
Decatur continued to expand during the early twentieth century, and by 1929 Decatur's first traffic lights were installed. Also, after the U.S. Congress created the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1933, Decatur and other parts of north Alabama benefited from dams and hydroelectric plants constructed in the area. The dams provided flood control, improved navigation, and offered affordable electricity to Decatur and other residents of the Tennessee Valley. By the late 1930s, Decatur's agricultural economy began to make a recovery from the Great Depression.
According to 2016 Census estimates, Decatur recorded a population of 55,419. Of that number, 70.5 percent reported themselves as white, 21.5 percent as African American, 12.7 percent as Hispanic or Latino, 3.1 percent as two or more races, 0.6 percent as Asian, and 0.8 percent as Native American. The city's median household income was $42,602, and per capita income was $24,962.
There are approximately 8,800 students and 550 teachers in the Decatur City School District divided among twelve elementary schools, three middle schools, and two high schools. Decatur has the only school system in the state north of Birmingham that offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and is the only one in Alabama that offers it specifically to middle schools. John C. Calhoun Community College is the largest two-year institution in the Alabama Community College System, with just over 9,000 students; it offers 49 associate degree programs and 52 career and certificate programs.
The Tennessee River, which serves as the northernmost border of Decatur, is still an important transportation resource, with the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway connecting Morgan County with other major inland waterway ports. This waterway reduces the original navigational distance from Tennessee, north Alabama, and Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico by hundreds of miles. Three public barge terminals are also used by the city. The Norfolk Southern railroad system connects Decatur with other major rail terminals in the United States.
Interstate 65 and US 31 both link Morgan County to north-south interstate systems, and Interstate 565 as well as US 72 both provide east-west connections. Alabama Highway 20/US 72A, which serves as the main east-west route between Memphis and Atlanta, runs through Decatur. AL 67 is used as the western edge business road that connects Decatur to surrounding counties in the southeastern direction. AL 24 is a four-lane highway that travels southwest from Decatur.
Decatur offers residents a number of opportunities for outdoor recreation. Its location on the Tennessee River allows locals and visitors to enjoy boating, fishing, and water skiing. Decatur is also the location of Point Mallard, one of Alabama's largest recreational facilities. The park includes 750 acres of land hosting the J. Gilmer Blackburn Aquatic Center, a golf course, an indoor ice rink, hiking/biking trails by the river, sports fields, and campgrounds. Other places of interest include the Jack Allen Sports Complex, North Alabama Birding Trail, Riverwalk Marina, and other parks. Decatur is the nearest city to the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, which includes 35,000 acres of land to provide a safe habitat for wintering and migrating birds in the eastern United States. It is named for war veteran and politician Joseph Wheeler, as is nearby Wheeler Lake. Decatur served as the location for the filming of the movie Tom and Huck in 1995.
Decatur is home to several places that celebrate the arts, including the Carnegie Visual Arts Center and the historic Princess Theatre Center for the Performing Arts, which was created in 1919 from a renovated livery stable. The Old State Bank Museum offers exhibits on early banking in Alabama. Cook's Natural Science Museum was founded in the 1960s by John R. Cook Jr., found of Cook's Pest Control as a training facility and now houses more than 2,000 exhibits on all aspects of natural science. The Morgan County Archives, located in the Art Deco former headquarters of the Tennessee Valley Bank, house documents, artifacts, memorabilia, and other items related to county history.
Decatur hosts its annual Alabama Jubilee Hot Air Balloon Classic Festival at Point Mallard Park every Memorial Day weekend. Along with hot air balloons, the festival offers an antique car show, antique tractor show, art show, and kite festival. The annual Spirit of America Festival, which began in 1969, is also held at Point Mallard Park on July 3 and 4. This free event includes the crowning of Miss Point Mallard, a fireworks show, live music, an awards ceremony, and various children's activities and games in celebration of Independence Day.
Each July, Decatur hosts the Corn Day Festival, which features local artists and musicians along with free corn on the cob and other local produce. The Southern Wildlife Festival combines art and wildlife and includes a showcase of wildlife paintings, carvings, and photographs, as well as educational seminars that provide painting and carving demos and even live birds of prey. During the festival, the "Kids Gone Wild" program gives children the opportunity to make bird feeders and other wildlife-related art. The show is held on the campus of John C. Calhoun College in October.
Jenkins, William H., and John Knox. The Story of Decatur, Alabama. Decatur, Ala.: Decatur Printing Co., 1970. |
0.999396 | Like plenty of Americans, last night, Howard Stern couldn't sleep before he knew who the next President of the U.S. was going to be.
He addressed his restlessness and shared some thoughts on the 2016 Election results that are quite possibly the most controversial in U.S. history.
"Howard said he was curious about what will happen. Howard said he thought he'd find out last night. Robin said she kept tuning out because it was too nerve wracking for her," according to MarksFriggin.
"She said she'd watch something that wasn't election for 15-20 minutes. Howard said he was doing the same thing and reading too. He said he just wasn't able to fall asleep."
"Howard said now they say that Hillary is ahead in the popular vote. Robin said that happens all the time," according to MF.
"Robin said we have this thing called the electoral college. Howard said oddly enough a lot of people who voted for Trump didn't go to college."
"Howard wondered if he'll build the wall, round up illegal aliens and throw them out of the country and if there will be a ban on Muslims," according to MF.
"Howard said there's also the war on ISIS. Howard said they have to see if Melania becomes very conservative too. Robin said she will become conservative. Howard sounded bummed about that."
Stern seemed surprised but is quite curious to see what Donald Trump will do with his presidency. Who knows what the future of the U.S. will be, however, the Stern Show is still going to be there to cheer you up.
Wanna read more on this? Check these out: Another Howard Stern 'Wack Pack' Member Dies: Nicole Bass (more); Nick Cannon Reveals All About Mariah on 'The Howard Stern Show' (Listen) (more); Listen to Howard Stern Talk Bodily Odors, Evil Twin with Wendy the Slow Adult (more); Howard Stern Pranks Bobo With Fake Twitter Call (Listen) (more).
And here are some more related articles: 'Howard Stern': Memet Admits He Went Soft With His 19 Year Old Date (more); Joe Buck On 'The Howard Stern Show' Says He Peed Calling Touchdown (more); Howard Stern Talks Wack Pack Death Pool With Sal, Benjy (more).
A few more: Howard Stern Gets a Call from Sour Shoes, Wack Packers (more); Howard Stern and High Pitch Erik Talk Joey Boots' Death (more). |
0.999825 | What are the problems in 3D printing production?
If it is an FDM printer, it should be encountered: fault, misalignment, warping, and separation of the bottom plate, plugging, remote wire feeding and possibly encountering the Fron tube loose. There is also a tangled material, knotted, very annoying. These problems are not big, but they are annoying. It is easy to play a bunch of wool balls.
Then, if the print quality is not good, the motor will overheat during the printing process, and the torque of the motor will drop, which will lead to lost steps. The structure is not stable, the screws are loose, and the machine shakes too much when printing, which will lead to serious misalignment, reduced accuracy, and even print out, you don't know what it is. If the screw is not straight, it will be tragedy. It is estimated that it is impossible to make a good model.
In addition, if you are unwilling to post-process, try to use light curing equipment to print, so the degree of detail will be much better. |
0.847639 | Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750–2000 mm (68–78 inches). The monsoon trough, part of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, plays a significant role in creating the climatic conditions necessary for the Earth's tropical rainforests.
The undergrowth in some areas of a rainforest can be restricted by poor penetration of sunlight to ground level. If the leaf canopy is destroyed or thinned, the ground beneath is soon colonized by a dense, tangled growth of vines, shrubs and small trees, called a jungle. There are two types of rainforest, tropical rainforest and temperate rainforest.
Heinrich Cotta, German silviculturist and founder of the Royal Saxon Academy of Forestry, is known as a pioneer of scientific forestry. Cotta was a pioneer of modern forestry, and was a catalyst concerning the transition from "timber production" to forestry as a scientific discipline. He was interested in all aspects of forestry, including studies involving long-term seeding, establishment of forested areas, and tree-cutting based on mathematic practices. Cotta's methodology was based on a geometric survey of the forest, where calculations of the wood mass of individual trees as well as the yield of the entire forested region were made. By way of these calculations an estimate for the monetary worth of a forest could be assessed. In 1804 Cotta was the first to suggest the concept of a "volume table", which was a chart that was introduced decades later to aid in the estimation of standing timber volume.
November 14, 2013: "Forest change mapped by Google Earth". BBC News.
May 31, 2013: "East Africa: EAC Moots Improvement of Regional Forestry, Trade". The New Times.* May 24, 2013: "Democratic polemic policies: the new Brazilian forestry code". The World Outline.
May 14, 2013: "Rainforest plays critical role in hydropower generation". BBC News.
May 9, 2013: "Creating Better Forestry Certification Programs through Competition". Forbes Magazine.
...that Dr. Joseph Rothrock is known as the "Father of Forestry" in Pennsylvania, and is the namesake for Rothrock State Forest? |
0.929651 | What constitutes a definition of fascism and fascist governments is a highly disputed subject that has proven complicated and contentious. Historians, political scientists, and other scholars have engaged in long and furious debates concerning the exact nature of fascism and its core tenets.
A significant number of scholars agree that a "fascist regime" is foremost an authoritarian form of government, although not all authoritarian regimes are fascist. Authoritarianism is thus a defining characteristic, but most scholars will say that more distinguishing traits are needed to make an authoritarian regime fascist.
Similarly, fascism as an ideology is also hard to define. Originally, "fascism" referred to a political movement that was linked with corporatism and existed in Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. Many scholars use the word "fascism" without capitalization in a more general sense, to refer to an ideology (or group of ideologies) that was influential in many countries at many different times. For this purpose, they have sought to identify what Griffin calls a "fascist minimum"—that is, the minimum conditions that a certain political movement must meet in order to be considered "fascist".
Several scholars have inspected the apocalyptic, millennial and millenarian aspects of fascism. According to most scholars of fascism, there are both left and right influences on fascism as a social movement, and fascism, especially once in power, has historically attacked communism, conservatism and liberalism.
Georgi Dimitrov, Bulgarian communist, was a theorist of capitalism who expanded Lenin's ideas by arguing that fascism was the dictatorship of the most reactionary elements of financial capitalism.
"Fascism is an open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, the most chauvinistic, the most imperialistic elements of the financial capital... Fascism is neither the government beyond classes nor the government of the petty bourgeois or the lumpen-proletariat over the financial capital. Fascism is the government of the financial capital itself. It is an organized massacre of the working class and the revolutionary slice of peasantry and intelligentsia. Fascism in its foreign policy is the most brutal kind of chauvinism, which cultivates zoological hatred against other peoples."
"Everybody is Educated to Become a Hero", which leads to the embrace of a cult of death. As Eco observes, "[t]he Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death."
"Newspeak" – Fascism employs and promotes an impoverished vocabulary in order to limit critical reasoning.
Suspension of rule of law.
a foreign policy inspired by the myth of national power and greatness, with the goal of imperialist expansion.
[Fascism is] a genuinely revolutionary, trans-class form of anti-liberal, and in the last analysis, anti-conservative nationalism. As such it is an ideology deeply bound up with modernization and modernity, one which has assumed a considerable variety of external forms to adapt itself to the particular historical and national context in which it appears, and has drawn a wide range of cultural and intellectual currents, both left and right, anti-modern and pro-modern, to articulate itself as a body of ideas, slogans, and doctrine. In the inter-war period it manifested itself primarily in the form of an elite-led "armed party" which attempted, mostly unsuccessfully, to generate a populist mass movement through a liturgical style of politics and a programme of radical policies which promised to overcome a threat posed by international socialism, to end the degeneration affecting the nation under liberalism, and to bring about a radical renewal of its social, political and cultural life as part of what was widely imagined to be the new era being inaugurated in Western civilization. The core mobilizing myth of fascism which conditions its ideology, propaganda, style of politics and actions is the vision of the nation's imminent rebirth from decadence.
Griffin argues that the above definition can be condensed into one sentence: "Fascism is a political ideology whose mythic core in its various permutations is a palingenetic form of populist ultra-nationalism." The word "palingenetic" in this case refers to notions of national rebirth.
F.A. Hayek, in his book The Road to Serfdom, argued that socialism and national socialism had similar roots. “Fascism is the stage reached after communism has proved an illusion.” In this he means intellectual roots. Professor Werner Sombart in particular was hailed as a Marxist and was persecuted for his beliefs but later rejected internationalism and pacifism in favor of German militarism and nationalism. He became an intellectual force for national socialism early on. Professor Johann Plenge, another early national socialist intellectual, saw national socialism as a German adaptation of socialism. Paul Lensch was a socialist politician in the Reichstag who argued for central control of the economy and for militarism that became features of national socialism. Western or English liberalism, which includes the ideas of freedom, community, and equality and rule by parliamentary democracy, is anathema in a true Germany, he wrote, where power should belong to the whole, everyone is given his place, and one either obeys or commands. Oswald Spengler in his early writings advocated many of the ideas shared by German socialists at this time. Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, patron saint of national socialism, as Hayek calls him, claimed that World War I was a war between liberalism and socialism and that socialism lost. Like Plenge and Lensch, he saw national socialism as socialism adapted to the German character and undefiled by Western ideas of liberalism. Benito Mussolini's political origins are also socialist, being a leader in the PSI (Italian Socialist Party) before founding the first National Fascist Party.
Using this model, Kitsikis argued that Jean-Jacques Rousseau, philosopher and father of the French Revolution, laid the foundations of French Fascism. Kitsikis also applied the model to the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), a Peruvian communist party which claims to follow Maoism. The results of his analysis showed that the party's ideology satisfies all the criteria of nine categories (nine points), some of the criteria of three categories (1.5 points) and none of the criteria of one category (0 points). A total score of 10.5 out of a possible 13 shows that Shining Path actually follows a fascist ideology.
Charles Maurras, leader of Action Française, a far-right political movement, praised Italian Fascism, although he argued that it was an incomplete form of his ideal integral nationalism.
What in fact is Fascism? A socialism emancipated from democracy. A trade unionism free of the chains of the class struggle had imposed on Italian labour. A methodical and successful will to bring together in a same fascio all the human factors of national production ... A determination to approach, to threat, to resolve the worker question in itself ... and to unite unions in corporations, to coordinate them, to incorporate the proletariat into the hereditary and traditional activities of the historical State of the Fatherland.
Granted that the 19th century was the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy, this does not mean that the 20th century must also be the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy. Political doctrines pass; nations remain. We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the 'right', a Fascist century. If the 19th century was the century of the individual (liberalism implies individualism) we are free to believe that this is the 'collective' century, and therefore the century of the State.
...everything in the state, nothing against the State, nothing outside the state.
Fascism is a religious conception in which man is seen in his immanent relationship with a superior law and with an objective Will that transcends the particular individual and raises him to conscious membership of a spiritual society. Whoever has seen in the religious politics of the Fascist regime nothing but mere opportunism has not understood that Fascism besides being a system of government is also, and above all, a system of thought.
Ernst Nolte, a historian and Hegelian philosopher, defined fascism as a reaction against other political movements, especially Marxism: "Fascism is anti-Marxism which seeks to destroy the enemy by the evolvement of a radically opposed and yet related ideology and by the use of almost identical and yet typically modified methods, always, however, within the unyielding framework of national self-assertion and autonomy."
Sergio Panunzio, a former syndicalist who was associated with Benito Mussolini, and who later became a leading fascist theorist, stated that the spirit of fascism was National Syndicalism as formulated by Mussolini before the battle of Vittorio Veneto.
Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote about fascism: "The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power"
John Weiss, a Wayne State University history professor, described fascist ideas in his book, The Fascist Tradition: Radical Right-Wing Extremism in Modern Europe: organicist conceptions of community, philosophical idealism, idealization of "manly" (usually peasant or village) virtues, resentment of mass democracy, elitist conceptions of political and social leadership, racism (and usually anti-Semitism), militarism and Imperialism.
Marxists argue that fascism represents the last attempt of a ruling class (specifically, the capitalist bourgeoisie) to preserve its grip on power in the face of an imminent proletarian revolution. Fascist movements are not necessarily created by the ruling class, but they can only gain political power with the help of that class and with funding from big business. Once in power, the fascists serve the interests of their benefactors (not necessarily the interests of capitalism in general, but the interests of those specific capitalists who put them in power).
Delivering an official report to the 7th World Congress of the Communist Third International in August 1935, Bulgarian Communist leader Georgi Dimitrov famously defined fascism as "the open, terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, and most imperialist elements of finance capital." This definition, in various permutations, remained part of orthodox communist ideological canon throughout the 1930s.
In the posthumously published 1944 tract, Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It, Communist opposition leader Leon Trotsky noted: "The historic function of fascism is to smash the working class, destroy its organizations, and stifle political liberties when the capitalists find themselves unable to govern and dominate with the help of democratic machinery." Amadeo Bordiga argued that fascism is merely another form of bourgeois rule, on the same level as bourgeois democracy or traditional monarchy, and that it is not particularly reactionary or otherwise exceptional.
Right Wing: Fascists are fervently against: Marxism, Socialism, Anarchism, Communism, Environmentalism; etc – in essence, they are against the progressive left in total, including moderate lefts (social democrats, etc). Fascism is an extreme right wing ideology, though it can be opportunistic.
Nationalism: Fascism places a very strong emphasis on patriotism and nationalism. Criticism of the nation's main ideals, especially war, is lambasted as unpatriotic at best, and treason at worst. State propaganda consistently broadcasts threats of attack, while justifying pre-emptive war. Fascism invariably seeks to instill in its people the warrior mentality: to always be vigilant, wary of strangers and suspicious of foreigners.
Hierarchy: Fascist society is ruled by a "righteous" leader, who is supported by an elite secret vanguard of capitalists. Hierarchy is prevalent throughout all aspects of society – every street, every workplace, every school, will have its local Hitler, part police-informer, part bureaucrat – and society is prepared for war at all times. The absolute power of the social hierarchy prevails over everything, and thus a totalitarian society is formed. Representative government is acceptable only if it can be controlled and regulated, direct democracy (e.g. Communism) is the greatest of all crimes. Any who oppose the social hierarchy of fascism will be imprisoned or executed.
Anti-equality: Fascism loathes the principles of economic equality and disdains equality between immigrant and citizen. Some forms of fascism extend the fight against equality into other areas: gender, sexual, minority or religious rights, for example.
Religious: Fascism contains a strong amount of reactionary religious beliefs, harking back to times when religion was believed to be "strict, potent, and pure". Nearly all Fascist societies are Christian, and are supported by Catholic and Protestant churches.
Capitalist: Fascism does not require revolution to exist in capitalist society: fascists can be elected into office (though their disdain for elections usually means manipulation of the electoral system). They view parliamentary and congressional systems of government to be inefficient and weak, and will do their best to minimize its power over their policy agenda. Fascism exhibits the worst kind of capitalism where corporate power is absolute, and all vestiges of workers' rights are destroyed.
War: Fascism is capitalism at the stage of impotent imperialism. War can create markets that would not otherwise exist by wreaking massive devastation on a society, which then requires reconstruction! Fascism can thus "liberate" the survivors, provide huge loans to that society so fascist corporations can begin the process of rebuilding.
Voluntarist Ideology: Fascism adopts a certain kind of “voluntarism;” they believe that an act of will, if sufficiently powerful, can make something true. Thus all sorts of ideas about racial inferiority, historical destiny, even physical science, are supported by means of violence, in the belief that they can be made true. It is this sense that Fascism is subjectivist.
Anti-Modern: Fascism loathes all kinds of modernism, especially creativity in the arts, whether acting as a mirror for life (where it does not conform to the Fascist ideal), or expressing deviant or innovative points of view. Fascism invariably burns books and victimises artists; artists who do not promote the fascists ideals are seen as “decadent.” Fascism is hostile to broad learning and interest in other cultures, since such pursuits threaten the dominance of fascist myths. The peddling of conspiracy theories is usually substituted for the objective study of history.
Fascism, at any rate the German version, is a form of capitalism that borrows from Socialism just such features as will make it efficient for war purposes... It is a planned system geared to a definite purpose, world-conquest, and not allowing any private interest, either of capitalist or worker, to stand in its way.
...It is not easy, for instance, to fit Germany and Japan into the same framework, and it is even harder with some of the small states which are describable as Fascist. It is usually assumed, for instance, that Fascism is inherently warlike, that it thrives in an atmosphere of war hysteria and can only solve its economic problems by means of war preparation or foreign conquests. But clearly this is not true of, say, Portugal or the various South American dictatorships. Or again, antisemitism is supposed to be one of the distinguishing marks of Fascism; but some Fascist movements are not antisemitic. Learned controversies, reverberating for years on end in American magazines, have not even been able to determine whether or not Fascism is a form of capitalism. But still, when we apply the term ‘Fascism’ to Germany or Japan or Mussolini's Italy, we know broadly what we mean. It is in internal politics that this word has lost the last vestige of meaning. For if you examine the press you will find that there is almost no set of people — certainly no political party or organized body of any kind — which has not been denounced as Fascist during the past ten years [...] It will be seen that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley's broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else.
...the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley's broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else ... Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathisers, almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come.
↑ Laqueuer, 1996; Eatwell, 1996; Griffin, 1991; Weber, 1982; Payne (1995), Fritzsche (1990), Laclau (1977), Paxtion, xxxx; and Reich (1970).
↑ Emilio Gentile, The Sacralization of Politics in Fascist Italy, translated by Keith Botsford (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996).
↑ Roger Griffin, The palingenetic core of generic fascist ideology, Chapter published in Alessandro Campi (ed.), Che cos'è il fascismo? Interpretazioni e prospettive di ricerche, Ideazione editrice, Roma, 2003, pp. 97-122.
↑ Hayek, FA. The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents, Bruce Caldwell, ed., New York 2008, Taylor and Francis, pp 181-192.
↑ 24.0 24.1 David Carroll. French Literary Fascism: Nationalism, Anti-Semitism, and the Ideology of Culture. (Princeton University Press, 1998) p. 90.
↑ Sergio Panunzio (22 June 1924). "La méta del Fascismo". Il Popolo d'Italia. <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles> Quote: "L'anima del Fascismo è, ricordiamolo sempre, il Sindacalismo Nazionale, la cui formula Mussolini lanciò prima del 1918, prima di Vittorio Veneto "
↑ Passmore, Kevin,Fascism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 31.
↑ Paxton, Robert O., The Anatomy of Fascism (Knopf, 2004), p. 218.
↑ 31.0 31.1 Stanley G. Payne. A History of Fascism, 1914–1945. University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. p. 7.
↑ Franklin D. Roosevelt: Message to Congress on Curbing Monopolies. The American Presidency Project.
↑ Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Appendix A: Message from the President of the United States Transmitting Recommendations Relative to the Strengthening and Enforcement of Anti-trust Laws",The American Economic Review, Vol. 32, No. 2, Part 2, Supplement, Papers Relating to the Temporary National Economic Committee (Jun., 1942), pp. 119-128.
↑ "Anti-Monopoly". May 9, 1938. Time magazine.
↑ Message to Congress on the Concentration of Economic Power.
↑ John Weiss, "The Fascist Tradition: Radical Right-Wing Extremism in Modern Europe", Harper & Row, 1967.
↑ Georgi Dimitrov, "The Fascist Offensive and the Tasks of the Communist International," in VII Congress of the Communist International: Abridged Stenographic Report of Proceedings. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1939; pg. 126.
↑ Leon Trotsky, Fascism: What It Is and How to Fght It. New York: Pioneer Publishers, 1944; pg. ???.
Kitsikis, Dimitri. 2005. Pour une Etude scientifique du fascisme – Nantes, Ars Magna Editions, (Les Documents).
Kitsikis, Dimitri. 1998. Ἡ τρίτη ἰδεολογία καὶ ἡ Ὀρθοδοξία, Athens, Hestia Books.
Kitsikis, Dimitri. 2006. Jean-Jacques Rousseau et les origines françaises du fascisme – Nantes, Ars Magna Editions, (Les Documents).
O Kahn-Freund, ‘The Social Ideal of the Reich Labour Court - A Critical Examination of the Practice of the Reich Labour Court’ (1931) in O Kahn-Freund, R Lewis and J Clark (eds), Labour Law and Politics in the Weimar Republic (Social Science Research Council 1981) ch 3, 108-111.
Laqueur, Walter. 1966. Fascism: Past, Present, Future, New York: Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Paxton, Robert O. 2004. The Anatomy of Fascism," New York, Knopf.
This page was last modified on 5 May 2017, at 04:53. |
0.982954 | I need to buy 20 pieces, send me a quotation to my email soon.
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0.994286 | As is customary in the International Community, any declaration or action that contains the word Israel is synonymous with controversy or conflict. This time, the new controversy is propitiated by the US president by saying that it is time to declare the Golan Heights as the legitimate land of Israel.
Leer en español: ¿Trump en contra de la Comunidad Internacional?
According to the London BCC, the exact words of this president were: "The USA will fully recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which are of strategic importance and critical security for the State of Israel and regional stability".
As expected, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Nethanyahu, celebrated the words of the American tycoon. As El País of Spain explains, the Israeli Prime Minister met with his American counterpart to celebrate this historic decision; Netanyahu commented that the Golan Heights were won in legitimate defense over the Syrian people, hence their sovereignty belongs to all Israelis.
For its part, the government of Syria, commanded by the president, Bashar Al-Ásad, transmitted to its population that Syria was going to recover militarily the Golan Heights, since this territory is a historical and strategic zone for the country, as the newspaper La Jornada explained.
What are the consequences for the International Community?
The consequences are multiple and varied. The German media, Deutsche Welle, interviewed some authorities on the subject.
First, the professor of the Arab world in Washington, Hussein Ibish, warned that these statements can be very professional for other international disputes. Ibish explained to Deutsche Welle that one of the principles enshrined in the United Nations, after the Second World War, was the non-annexation through the war of other territories and, clearly, the statements of President Trump go against that principle.
"The greatest danger is global and long term." By recognizing and legitimizing the annexation of the Golan by Israel, Washington is virtually inviting other international predators to take over what they want, then, according to this logic, everything they need to do is cling to that territory for long enough to call it 'reality' and demand that other countries 'recognize the reality' by legitimizing their appropriation of land".
Because of this, international disputes in territories such as Thailand, Cambodia, Kashmir, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt could be legitimized.
Finally, Professor Hussein Ibish comments that these statements can be a double-edged sword for the United States; for example, the annexation of Crimea to Russia, under this perspective, could be legitimized, Russia should only wait for several years to be legitimized as the sole owner of Crimea.
Finally, the analysis of this professor ends up warning the serious consequences that would come if the USA decides to legitimize the Gaza Strip as property of Israel; such action would represent the death of years of negotiation.
According to the BBC, the Golan Heights is a biblical territory composed of a 60-kilometer rocky plateau. For the year of 1967, Syria, in the company of other countries, decided to attack the State of Israel, however, things did not go as they expected.
Finally, in the counter-attack, Israel seized this territory from Israel and, since then, these territories have been several times in peace processes and is monitored by the United Nations.
For Israel, the Golan Heights represent a sacred territory for Jews, while for Syria, it represents a strategic territory from which one can see its capital, Damascus.
Translated from "¿Trump en contra de la Comunidad Internacional?" |
0.98864 | If you would like to redline this MSA contract, you will require an annual support contract with Zenkraft. If you have not negotiated one with your sales rep, please contact them to discuss pricing. They will provide your legal team with a Word Document to mark up.
THIS MASTER SUBSCRIPTION AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU AND US, INCLUDING ITS SCHEDULES AND EXECUTED ORDER FORM(S) (COLLECTIVELY THE “AGREEMENT”) GOVERNS YOUR FREE TRIAL OF THE SERVICES (AS DEFINED BELOW) AND YOUR PURCHASE OF AND ONGOING USE OF THE SERVICES. BY ACCEPTING THIS AGREEMENT, EITHER BY CLICKING A BOX INDICATING YOUR ACCEPTANCE OR BY EXECUTING AN ORDER FORM THAT REFERENCES THIS AGREEMENT, YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU ARE ENTERING INTO THIS AGREEMENT ON BEHALF OF A COMPANY OR OTHER LEGAL ENTITY, YOU REPRESENT THAT YOU HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO BIND SUCH ENTITY AND ITS AFFILIATES TO THIS AGREEMENT, IN WHICH CASE THE TERMS “YOU” “YOUR” OR “CUSTOMER” SHALL REFER TO SUCH ENTITY. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE SUCH AUTHORITY, OR IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THE TERM OF THIS AGREEMENT YOU MUST NOT ACCEPT THIS AGREEMENT AND MAY NOT USE THE SERVICES.
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5.1 Subscription Fees. You shall pay all Subscription Fees specified in all Order Forms hereunder in accordance with this Agreement and the Order Form. Except as otherwise specified herein or in an Order Form, (i) subject to section 5.2 below, all fees are based on services purchased and not actual usage, (ii) payment obligations are non-cancellable and fees paid are non-refundable, and (iii) the number of User Subscriptions purchased cannot be decreased during the relevant Subscription Term stated on the Order Form. Subscription Fees are based on annual periods that begin at the start of the Subscription Term.
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5.4 Suspension of Service. Subject to section 5.5, if any undisputed charge owing by You is thirty (30) days or more overdue, We may, without limiting Our other rights and remedies, suspend Services until such undisputed amounts are paid in full, provided We have given You ten (10) or more days’ prior notice that Your account is overdue in accordance with the “Notices” section below.
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5.7 Price changes. We may change Our prices for User Subscriptions at any time upon sixty (60) days written notice to You prior to the commencement of any renewal Subscription Term.
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6.2 Restrictions. You shall not (i) permit any third party to access the Services except as permitted herein or in an Order Form, (ii) subject to Section 6.3 create derivative works based on the Services, (iii) copy, frame or mirror any part or content of the Services, other than copying or framing on Your own intranets or otherwise for its own internal business purposes, (iv) reverse engineer the Services, or (v) access the Services in order to (a) build a competitive product or service, or (b) copy any features, functions or graphics of the Services.
6.4 Marketing. Upon Your prior written consent (not to be unreasonable withheld or delayed), We or Our Affiliate’s may use Your name and logo for inclusion on Our website and in Our customer and/or supplier lists, and promotional, marketing and investment materials.
7.3 Compelled Disclosure. The Receiving Party may disclose Confidential Information of the Disclosing Party if it is compelled by law to do so, provided the Receiving Party gives the Disclosing Party prior notice of such compelled disclosure (to the extent legally permitted) and reasonable assistance, at the Disclosing Party’s cost, if the Disclosing Party wishes to contest the disclosure. If the Receiving Party is compelled by law to disclose the Disclosing Party’s Confidential Information as part of a civil proceeding to which the Disclosing Party is a party, and the Disclosing Party is not contesting the disclosure, the Disclosing Party will reimburse the Receiving Party for its reasonable cost of compiling and providing secure access to such Confidential Information.
7.4 The confidentiality obligations in this Section 7 shall survive the termination of this Agreement for a period of five (5) years.
8.1 Ownership. You shall own and retain full ownership of Your Data and shall have sole responsibility for the legality, appropriateness, completeness, reliability, integrity, accuracy and quality of Your Data.
8.2 Responsibility for Your Data. You acknowledge that Your Data is hosted on the SFDC Services hosting platform and that we are neither obliged nor able to edit and modify Your Data and shall have no liability or responsibility for Your Data. You further acknowledge and agree that We have no obligation to monitor any information on the Services and we are not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, appropriateness, safety or legality of Your Data or any other information or content You may be able to access using the Services. You acknowledge and agree that (i) You are responsible for all Your Data and (ii) any communication with others while using the Services is Your sole and exclusive responsibility and (iii) we will not be held responsible in any way for any copyright infringement or violation, or the violation of any other person’s rights or the violation of any laws arising or relating to Your Data. We are further not responsible for any disclosure, modification or deletion of Your Data resulting from access by a third-party application.
8.4 Right to remove Your Data. We reserve the right to require SFDC to remove any of Your Data (or third party information) which we reasonably believes breaches any laws or regulations or any third party’s rights or this Agreement and/or is deemed Inappropriate Content. We will notify You if we request SFDC to remove any of Your Data (or third party information) in accordance with this section. We disclaim all liability of any kind in respect of Your Data, third party information and any other material which can be accessed using the Services and for any fraud committed in connection with the Services.
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9.2 Warranty Exclusions. Notwithstanding the foregoing, We (i) do not warrant that Your use of the Services will be uninterrupted or error-free; or that the Services will meet Your requirements; (ii) are not responsible for any delays, delivery failures, or any other loss or damage resulting from Your access to and use of the Services through and/or in connection with SFDC Services or Non-Zenkraft Applications or the transfer of data over communications networks and facilities, including the internet, and You acknowledge that the Services may be subject to limitations, delays and other problems inherent in the use of such communications facilities; and (iii) nor Our suppliers or third-party service providers or software vendors, shall have any liability whatsoever for the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of Your Data, or for any decision made or action taken by You, any User, or any third party in reliance upon any of Your Data.
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9.4 DISCLAIMER. EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY PROVIDED HEREIN, NEITHER PARTY MAKES ANY WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, AND EACH PARTY SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, ACCURACY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY NON-INFRINGEMENT OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.
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10.1 Indemnification by Us. Subject to section 10.2 below, We shall defend You against any claim, demand, suit or proceeding made or brought against You by a third party alleging that the use of the Purchased Services as permitted hereunder infringes or misappropriates the intellectual property rights of a third party in the United States of America and the European Economic Area (a “Claim Against You”), and shall be responsible for payment of any damages, finally awarded against You as a result of, and for amounts paid by You under a court-approved settlement of, a Claim Against You and for any reasonably legal fees incurred in connection with Our defense of the Claim Against You; provided that You (a) promptly give Us written notice of the Claim Against You, (b) gives Us sole control of the defense and settlement of the Claim Against You (provided that We may not settle any Claim Against You unless the settlement unconditionally releases You of all liability), (c) provide to Us all reasonable assistance, at Our expense; and (d) use reasonable endeavors to mitigate any loses in connection with such claims. In the event of a Claim Against You, or if We reasonably believe the Purchased Services may infringe or misappropriate, We may in Our discretion and at no cost to You (i) modify the Purchased Services so that they no longer infringe or misappropriate, without breaching Our warranties under “Our Warranties” above, (ii) obtain a license for Your continued use of the Purchased Services in accordance with this Agreement, or (iii) terminate Your User subscriptions for such Services upon 30 days’ written notice and refund You any prepaid fees covering the remainder of the term of such User subscriptions after the effective date of termination.
10.2 Exclusions. We and Our Affiliates shall not be liable to You to the extent that the alleged Claim Against You is based on: (a) a modification of the Services by anyone other than Us; (b) Your use of the Services in a manner contrary to this Agreement or the instructions given to You by Us; (c) Your use of the Services in connection with the SFDC Services or Non-Zenkraft Applications to the extent such SFDC Services or Non-Zenkraft Applications cause the infringement Claim, or (d) Your use of the Services after notice of the alleged or actual Claim Against You from Us or any appropriate authority.
10.3 Indemnification by You. You shall defend Us against any claim, demand, suit or proceeding made or brought against Us by a third party alleging that Your Data, or Your use of the Services in breach of this Agreement, infringes or misappropriates the intellectual property rights of a third party or violates applicable law (a “Claim Against Us”), and shall indemnify Us for any damages, attorney fees and costs finally awarded against Us as a result of, and for any amounts paid by Us under a court-approved settlement of, a Claim Against Us; provided that We (a) promptly give You written notice of the Claim Against Us, (b) give You sole control of the defense and settlement of the Claim Against Us (provided that You may not settle any Claim Against Us unless the settlement unconditionally releases Us of all liability), and (c) provide to You all reasonable assistance, at Your expense.
10.4 EXCLUSIVE REMEDY. THIS “MUTUAL INDEMNIFICATION” SECTION STATES THE INDEMNIFYING PARTY’S SOLE LIABILITY TO, AND THE INDEMNIFIED PARTY’S EXCLUSIVE REMEDY AGAINST, THE OTHER PARTY FOR ANY TYPE OF CLAIM DESCRIBED IN THIS SECTION.
11.1 SUBJECT TO SECTION 11.2, IN NO EVENT SHALL EITHER PARTY’S TOTAL LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THIS AGREEMENT, WHETHER IN CONTRACT OR TORT OR UNDER ANY OTHER THEORY OF LIABILITY, EXCEED THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU HEREUNDER IN THE TWELVE MONTHS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE EVENTS GIVING RISE TO THE LIABILITY. THE FOREGOING LIMIT SHALL NOT APPLY TO YOUR PAYMENT OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE “FEES AND PAYMENT FOR PURCHASED SERVICES” SECTION ABOVE OR BREACH OF YOUR CONFIDENTIALITY OBLIGATIONS OR BREACH YOUR OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE PROPRIETARY RIGHTS SECTIONS 6.1 AND 6.2 OF THIS AGREEMENT.
11.2 THE EXCLUSIONS IN THIS SECTION 11 SHALL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE AT LAW BUT NEITHER PARTY EXCLUDES LIABILITY FOR DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY CAUSED BY ITS NEGLIGENCE OR THAT OF ITS OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS OR AGENTS; FRAUD OR FRAUDULENT MISREPRESENTATION; OR ANY OTHER LIABILITY WHICH CANNOT BE EXCLUDED BY LAW.
11.3 SUBJECT TO SECTION 11.2, IN NO EVENT SHALL EITHER PARTY HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO THE OTHER PARTY FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, COVER OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES HOWEVER CAUSED OR FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, ANTICIPATED SAVINGS, BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY, GOODWILL OR DATA (INCLUDING CORRUPTION OF OR DAMAGE TO DATA), WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT OR UNDER ANY OTHER THEORY OF LIABILITY, AND WHETHER OR NOT THE PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THE FOREGOING DISCLAIMER SHALL NOT APPLY TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAW.
11.4 IN ADDITION TO THE OTHER EXCLUSIONS SET OUT IN THIS SECTION 11 AND SUBJECT TO SECTION 11.2, WE SHALL HAVE NO LIABILITY: (A) FOR THE SFDC SERVICES, NON-ZENKRAFT APPLICATIONS OR FOR ANY ACTS OR OMISSIONS OF SFDC OR THE NON-ZENKRAFT APPLICATION PROVIDERS, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WHERE SUCH ACTS OR OMISSIONS CAUSE A BREACH OF THIS AGREEMENT, OR (B) WHERE ANY FAILURE TO PROVIDE THE SERVICES IS CAUSED BY: (I) A NETWORK, HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE FAULT IN EQUIPMENT WHICH IS NOT UNDER OUR CONTROL; (II) ANY ACT OR OMISSION BY YOU AND/OR YOUR USERS; (III) USE OF THE SERVICES CONTRARY TO THIS AGREEMENT; (IV) SFDC, SDFC SERVICES OR ANY NON- ZENKRAFT APPLICATIONS OR SUCH NON-ZENKRAFT APPLICATION PROVIDERS; (V) ANY UNAUTHORISED ACCESS TO THE SERVICES INCLUDING A MALICIOUS SECURITY BREACH; OR (VI) A FORCE MAJEURE EVENT.
12.1 Term of Agreement. This Agreement commences on the Effective Date and continues until all Subscriptions Terms have expired or been terminated. If You elect to use the Services for a Trial Period and do not purchase a subscription for the Services before the end of that Trial Period, this Agreement will terminate at the end of such Trial Period.
12.2 Subscription Term(s). User Subscriptions for Purchased Services commence on the later of (i) the start date (effective date) specified in the applicable Order Form; or (ii) Our receipt of Your payment of the applicable Subscription Fees and continuing for the Subscription Term and if no such term is specified, it shall be for a minimum period of 12 months from the start date. Thereafter the Subscription Term for User Subscriptions will automatically renew for successive periods of 12 months or such other period as specified in the Order Form, unless either party terminates such subscriptions upon sixty (60) written notice prior to the end of the then current Subscription Term.
12.3 Termination for Cause. A party may terminate this Agreement for cause (i) upon 30 days written notice to the other party of a material breach if such breach remains uncured at the expiration of such period, or (ii) if the other party becomes the subject of a petition in bankruptcy or any other proceeding relating to insolvency, receivership, liquidation or assignment for the benefit of creditors or analogous event or proceeding in any applicable jurisdiction.
12.4 Obligations Upon Termination. On termination of this Agreement for any reason: (a) all rights of use granted under this Agreement shall immediately terminate and You shall cease the use of the Services; (b) You shall promptly pay all monies due or to become due under this Agreement and/or relevant Order Form(s) through the effective date of termination and covering the remainder of all Subscription Term(s) after the date of termination and for the avoidance of any doubt, any fees already paid by You shall not be refunded; (c) each party shall return and make no further use of any equipment, property, Services, User Guides, Confidential Information and other items (and all copies of them) belonging to the other party; (d) SFDC may destroy or otherwise dispose of any of Your Data in accordance with Your agreement with SFDC and the SFDC terms set forth in Schedule 2. You acknowledged and agree that We have no rights or control over the disposal or back up of Your Data; and (e) the accrued rights of the parties as at termination, or the continuation after termination of any provision expressly stated to survive or implicitly surviving termination, shall not be affected or prejudiced.
12.5 Surviving Provisions. The sections titled “Fees and Payment for Purchased Services,” “Proprietary Rights,” “Confidentiality,” “Warranties and Disclaimers,” “Mutual Indemnification,” “Limitation of Liability,” “Surviving Provisions,” “Who You Are Contracting With,” “Notices,” ”Governing Law and Arbitration,” and “General Provisions” shall survive any termination or expiration of this Agreement.
(i) Professional Indemnity Insurance with a limit of £1,000,000 in the aggregate.
(ii) Public Liability Insurance with a limit of £1,000,000 in the aggregate.
(iii) Employers’ Liability Insurance with a limit of £10,000,000 in the aggregate.
(iv) Cyber and Data Insurance with a limit of £1,000,000 in the aggregate.
(v) Crisis Containment Insurance with a limit of £25,000 in the aggregate.
13.2 We will provide copies the relevant insurance certificates upon Your reasonable request.
14.1 Governing Law and Jurisdiction. This Agreement, Order Form(s) and all the Schedules shall be governed by the applicable laws and subject to the applicable jurisdiction set forth in Schedule 1 to this Agreement.
14.2 Manner of Giving Notice. Except as otherwise specified in this Agreement, all notices, permissions and approvals hereunder shall be in writing and shall be deemed to have been given upon: (i) personal delivery, (ii) the second business day after mailing, (iii) the second business day after sending by confirmed facsimile, or (iv) the first business day after sending by email (provided email shall not be sufficient for notices of termination or an indemnifiable claim). Notices to You shall be addressed to the system administrator designated by You for Your relevant Services account, and in the case of billing-related notices, to the relevant billing contact designated by You. Notices to Us shall be addressed to the applicable Zenkraft entity address set forth in Schedule 1 to this Agreement.
15.1 Export Compliance. The Services, other Our technology, and derivatives thereof may be subject to export laws and regulations of the United States and other jurisdictions. Each party represents that it is not named on any U.S. government denied-party list. You shall not permit Users to access or use Services in a U.S.-embargoed country or in violation of any U.S. export law or regulation.
1452 Anti-Corruption. Each party will comply with all applicable laws, statutes, regulations and codes relating to anti-bribery and anti-corruption, including but not limited to the Bribery Act 2010 and the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 1977 (“FCPA”). If a party learns of any request or demand for any undue financial or other advantage of any kind received by either party in connection with the performance of this Agreement, it will promptly notify the other party’s Legal Department.
15.4 No Third-Party Beneficiaries. Except for SFDC as set forth in the SFDC Terms attached as Schedule 1 to this Agreement, there are no other third-party beneficiaries to this Agreement. No other person who is not a party to this Agreement shall have any right (including without limitation under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 where this Agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales) to enforce any term of this Agreement.
15.5 Waiver. No failure or delay by either party in exercising any right under this Agreement shall constitute a waiver of that right.
15.6 Severability. If any provision of this Agreement is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be contrary to law, the provision shall be modified by the court and interpreted so as best to accomplish the objectives of the original provision to the fullest extent permitted by law, and the remaining provisions of this Agreement shall remain in effect.
15.7 Assignment. Neither party may assign any of its rights or obligations hereunder, whether by operation of law or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the other party (not to be unreasonably withheld). Notwithstanding the foregoing, either party may assign this Agreement in its entirety (including all Order Forms), without consent of the other party, to its Affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition, corporate reorganisation, or sale of all or substantially all of its assets not involving a direct competitor of the other party. A party’s sole remedy for any purported assignment by the other party in breach of this paragraph shall be, at the non-assigning party’s election, termination of this Agreement upon written notice to the assigning party. In the event of such a termination, We shall refund to You any prepaid fees covering the remainder of the term of all subscriptions after the effective date of termination. Subject to the foregoing, this Agreement shall bind and inure to the benefit of the parties, their respective successors and permitted assigns.
15.8 Entire Agreement. This Agreement, including all exhibits and addenda hereto and all Order Forms, constitutes the entire agreement between the parties and supersedes all prior and contemporaneous agreements, proposals or representations, written or oral, concerning its subject matter. No modification, amendment, or waiver of any provision of this Agreement shall be effective unless in writing and signed by the party against whom the modification, amendment or waiver is to be asserted. However, to the extent of any conflict or inconsistency between the provisions in the body of this Agreement and any schedule or addendum hereto or any Order Form, the terms of such schedule, addendum or Order Form shall prevail except where any terms of an Order Form expressly state that such terms shall take precedence over the terms of the Agreement. Notwithstanding any language to the contrary therein, no terms or conditions stated in Your purchase order or in any other order documentation (excluding Order Forms) shall be incorporated into or form any part of this Agreement, and all such terms or conditions shall be null and void.
This table outlines which Zenkraft entity You are contracting with and the relevant governing law and jurisdiction for this Agreement and associated order forms.
The laws of the State of New York, excluding its conflicts of law rules. The parties agree that all disputes arising out of this Agreement shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue in the federal and state courts within New York County, New York. The parties hereby consent to and waive defenses of the personal and exclusive jurisdiction and venue of these courts. The United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act shall not apply.
Waiver of Jury Trial. Each Party acknowledges and agrees that any controversy that may arise under this Agreement, including any exhibits, schedules, attachments and appendices attached to this Agreement, is likely to involve complicated and difficult issues and , therefore, each Party irrevocably and unconditionally waives any right it may have to a trial by jury in respect of any legal action arising out of or relating to this Agreement, including any exhibits, schedules, attachments and appendices attached to this Agreement, or the transactions contemplated hereby. Each Party certifies and acknowledges that (a) no Representative of the other Party has represented, expressly or otherwise, that the other Party would not seek to enforce the foregoing waiver in the event of a legal action, (b) it has considered the implications of this waiver, (c) it makes this waiver voluntarily, and (d) it has been induced to enter into this Agreement by, among other things, the mutual waivers and certifications in this Section.
The laws of England and Wales and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts without regard to choice or conflicts of law rules, the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG), or the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act.
“SFDC Service” means the online, Web-based platform service provided by SFDC to Us in connection with Our provision of the Services to You.
“SFDC CRM Service” means the online, Web-based application and platform service generally made available to the public via http://www.salesforce.com and/or other designated websites, including associated offline components but excluding AppExchange applications.
1. Use of SFDC Service.
(b) Notwithstanding any access You may have to the SDFC Service via the Service, Zenkraft is the sole provider of the Service and You are entering into a contractual relationship solely with Zenkraft. In the event that Zenkraft ceases operations or otherwise ceases or fails to provide the Service, SFDC has no obligation to provide the Service or to refund You any fees paid by You to Zenkraft.
(c) You (i) are responsible for all activities occurring under Your User accounts; (ii) are responsible for the content of all Your Data; (iii) shall use commercially reasonable efforts to prevent unauthorised access to, or use of, the SDFC Service, and shall notify Zenkraft or Salesforce.com promptly of any such unauthorised use You become aware of; and (iv) shall comply with all applicable local, state, federal and foreign laws and regulations in using the SDFC Service.
(e) You shall not (i) modify, copy or create derivative works based on the SDFC Service; (ii) frame or mirror any content forming part of the SDFC Service, other than on Your own intranets or otherwise for Your own internal business purposes; (iii) reverse engineer the Service; or (iv) access the SDFC Service in order to (A) build a competitive product or service, or (B) copy any ideas, features, functions or graphics of the SDFC Service.
If either You or SFDC is compelled by law to disclose confidential information of the other party, it shall provide the other party with prior notice of such compelled disclosure (to the extent legally permitted) and reasonable assistance, at the other party’s cost, if the other party wishes to contest the disclosure.
You agree that SFDC shall have a royalty-free, worldwide, transferable, sublicenseable, irrevocable, perpetual license to use or incorporate into any SFDC products or services any suggestions, enhancement requests, recommendations or other feedback provided by You or Your Users relating to the operation of the SDFC Service and/or the SFDC CRM Service.
Subscriptions for the SDFC Service are non-cancelable during a Subscription Term, unless otherwise specified in the Agreement.
The platform and SFDC Service include a certain cumulative amount of storage for no additional charge based on the aggregate number of User Subscriptions You maintain. Contact Zenkraft for additional information. Additional storage may be available for purchase from Zenkraft.
SALESFORCE.COM MAKES NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WITH RESPECT TO THE SFDC SERVICE, THE SFDC CRM SERVICE, AND/OR THE SERVICE, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE. SALESFORCE.COM MAKES NO REPRESENTATION, WARRANTY, OR GUARANTY AS TO THE RELIABILITY, TIMELINESS, QUALITY, SUITABILITY, AVAILABILITY, ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE SERVICE. SALESFORCE.COM DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT (A) THE SERVICE WILL BE AVAILABLE, SECURE, TIMELY, UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE OR OPERATE IN COMBINATION WITH THE SDFC SERVICE OR ANY OTHER APPLICATION, SOFTWARE, HARDWARE, SYSTEM OR DATA, (B) THE SERVICE OR THE SDFC SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR EXPECTATIONS, (C) ANY DATA STORED USING THE SERVICE WILL BE ACCURATE, RELIABLE, OR SECURE, (D) ERRORS OR DEFECTS IN SERVICE OR THE SDFC SERVICE WILL BE CORRECTED, OR (E) THE SERVICE OR THE SYSTEMS USED BY ZENKRAFT TO MAKE SERVICE AVAILABLE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. THE SDFC SERVICE IS PROVIDED STRICTLY ON AN “AS IS” BASIS. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, SALESFORCE.COM DISCLAIMS ALL CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, WITH RESPECT TO SERVICE AND THE SDFC SERVICE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS.
IN NO EVENT SHALL SFDC HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO YOU OR ANY USER FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOVER, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR DAMAGES BASED ON LOST PROFITS, HOWEVER CAUSED AND, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT OR UNDER ANY OTHER THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER OR NOT YOU HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
You shall use email and/or Live Chat (as made available by Us to You) for raising service interruption support tickets with Us. Such support service is available between 9AM – 5.30PM EST, Monday-Friday excluding public holidays. For example, service interruption reported on Friday at 6 PM will not be looked at until 9AM the following Monday. It is very likely that Critical and Major priority issues will be related to Non-Zenkraft Services (such as Salesforce) and/or the Non-Zenkraft Applications (such as the carrier APIs) and You acknowledge and agree the response times below do not apply to such services and APIs and We are not liable or responsible for any failures of the Non-Zenkraft Services and/or Non-Zenkraft Applications. Whilst we will use commercially reasonable endeavours to respond within the timeframes provided in the table below, we do not guarantee resolution times for the Services.
Service outage or a major application problem making it impossible to use the service.
Service is not available, application does not save critical data correctly.
Large number of users is impacted and no work around exists.
Slow application response time, session timeouts, some application functionality is broken.
Users running a supported browser are affected, but can use an alternate browser. Some minor application functionality is broken, but the service is still usable. |
0.981628 | routinely cleaning your computer keyboard and mouse, along with other frequently touched surfaces [source: CDC].
While you're cleaning the keyboard and mouse, take the opportunity to clean your laptop screen as well. Cleaning your screen will make it much easier and pleasanter to get your work done.
1. Turn off the laptop and disconnect the battery.
3. Turn the laptop upside down and gently tap it to get rid of any loose crumbs.
4. Spray some canned air on the keyboard. This will loosen some of the gunk that's stuck in between the keys.
5. Put the laptop on a flat surface and vacuum the keyboard with a small brush attachment.
6. Dampen some cotton swabs with rubbing alcohol, and wipe them over and in between the keys (if possible). Make sure the swabs are just damp, and not wet.
7. Apply some CyberClean to the keyboard, following the instructions on the package [source: Griffith]. You can purchase Cyberclean at your local office supply store [source: Office Depot].
1. Spray your screen with canned air to remove any surface dust.
2. Make a solution of equal parts white vinegar and distilled water.
3. Spray the vinegar solution on a soft rag, and gently wipe the screen [source: Griffith].
You can keep your screen clean by periodically wiping it with a microfiber cloth designed specifically for computers. These cloths are available at computer and office supply stores.
Always check your laptop's manual before using any cleaning products on your LCD screen [source: Heloise]. Don't forget to clean your external mouse, if you have one. This is the easiest part of your laptop to clean.
Simply spray your rag with some of your vinegar solution and wipe off your mouse. Don't forget to turn your mouse over, and wipe down the bottom, as well [source: Griffith]. |
0.999035 | Click on the above button and read the attached text.
It is a humorous look at gender stereotypes.
Your task is to write a companion piece called "Why I Want a Husband". Your text should resemble the example, but deal with masculine gender stereotypes.
It is due for Monday, October 5th. |
0.661631 | Amazon-JPMorgan Chase-Berkshire Hathaway: I reviewed the trio's partnership at length in January. Their venture is the most opaque: They want to bring down health care costs for their employees. Experts think that will likely mean using Amazon's software savvy to create a better technological platform for administering health care. But the long-term play for Amazon could be inserting itself into the health care distribution chain by selling medical devices and, perhaps eventually, becoming an online pharmacy. Amazon is a specialist in retail, handling payments and merchandise, so the thinking is the company could break into both health care administration and the distribution of equipment, drugs, and devices.
Apple: The iPhone maker is also focusing on its own workers, with plans to open two California clinics that would deliver "a world-class health care experience." The company seems to be aiming for a holistic approach, with medical centers staffed by doctors and lab technicians but also exercise specialists and care navigators. Population health and preventive care will be the guiding principles, driving down costs by helping workers stay healthy rather than treating them once they get sick.
Verily, part of Alphabet, which also owns Google: The corporate structure has gotten muddled, but this is effectively Google as far as we laypeople are concerned. Verily is, CNBC reported, apparently looking for opportunities to break into the managed care space. It reportedly weighed entering a partnership with a private health insurer on a Medicaid managed care plan in Rhode Island. Under Medicaid managed care, insurers have a set dollar amount that they receive from the state. If they can administer their benefits more cheaply, they keep the savings. In other words, this would be a bet Verily can administer health insurance more efficiently.
Uber: The ride-hailing company is going all in with Uber Health. It allows health care providers to book rides for their patients to and from their appointments. As The Verge reported this week: "The company is positioning itself as a cheaper and more reliable option than most non-emergency medical transportation," which is a $3 billion-a-year industry.
Software robots have become one of the hottest fads in business automation, as a new wave of AI is poised to sweep through the back-office functions of large corporations.
Investors are jumping on the bandwagon -- though in its current form, the market may never be big enough to justify the nosebleed valuations for bot start-ups such as UiPath, which recently joined the ranks of highly valued private companies known as unicorns.
Software robots replicate the routine work humans often do in front of computer screens. As software applications have taken over mainline business processes, many back-office workers find themselves filling the gaps between fragmented systems, often acting as the glue in an unthinking information workflow.
The market is likely to be worth $2.9bn in 2022, according to Forrester -- more than 10 times what it was in 2016, but still little more than a rounding error in the expected $48.5bn office AI market four years from now.
Their supporters claim that the bots occupy a strategically significant place at the intersection of different corporate software applications, giving them a chance to expand their usefulness. "This is the checkpoint for the data flowing between all the systems," says Mr Wong of Accel. Applying machine learning to this data could give companies important new insights into their operations, he says.
Last year, Cabell Huntington Hospital faced sepsis head-on and came out on top. Implementing machine learning technology specifically designed to fight sepsis in part through clinician alerts, the organization saw the sepsis-related in-hospital mortality rate was 33.5 percent lower during the post-implementation period and the average sepsis-related hospital length of stay was 17.1 percent lower during the same period. Analyses included 2,298 adult patients in the emergency department and intensive care unit.
Through an ongoing review of internal data, it appears that InSight clinical alerts, from machine learning vendor Dascena, and clinical documentation/coding of sepsis are showing an increased correlation, said Hoyt J. Burdick, MD, chief medical officer at Cabell Huntington Hospital.
"Of course, this phenomenon is not just dependent on the machine logic alerting, but is also subject to clinician education, documentation, coding and billing variables," he explained. "But since we only recently began to adjust some of the machine logic parameters, it seems more likely that the clinicians are more confident in making diagnoses and decisions based upon the improved alerts."
"The software requires a vital signs feed, but also analyzes certain laboratory results, when available," Burdick said. "When InSight determines that a patient's data profile is similar to the reference population with sepsis, the software notifies the charge nurse on duty through an automated call to a dedicated phone line per unit. Following the alert, the charge nurse can then begin the sepsis assessment and inform the physician."
Machine learning also has allowed for improved predictive power in sepsis detection by warning Cabell clinicians of sepsis trends prior to onset of organ dysfunction. This time factor is important since early antibiotic administration is key to reducing sepsis mortality.
When it comes to revenue cycle, a patient-centric culture is the future. By the way, make sure you include your employees in that philosophy and understand how technology can help get there.
The dominant themes emerging from HIMSS18 when it comes to revenue cycle were all about putting the patient first and recognizing that it's people driving your revenue cycle operations.
Hospital executives must recognize what will be driving the healthcare industry from a patient and employee standpoint in the coming years and acknowledge the consumer-centric experience taking hold just about everywhere -- and, increasingly, that includes healthcare. The emerging philosophy around revenue cycle is that not only is it part of the overall care experience, but that it will bookend most episodes of care, with pre-authorizations, registration and taking of POS payments at the front-end and then post-care billing on the back end.
Revenue cycle leaders also can't forget that while new technology can help refine operations and expand capabilities, if the people who staff your department don't understand it or hate using it, you've wasted your investment. Choosing software that is intuitive and creates efficiencies will inspire more productivity in your staff. So it might not hurt to get their feedback or even give them a say in what technologies gets selected -- and do so as early in the procurement process as possible.
Finally, driving a successful revenue cycle department requires motivating and rewarding the staff who do the work. Since over the course of the next decade, consumerism will constitute a bigger piece of all industries, healthcare included, creating a system of performance monitoring, real-time feedback and employee rewards can inspire your rev cycle staff to work smarter and, in turn, that will benefit your system's bottom line.
"That's what makes a difference to that next generation healthcare consumer and employee," Sevenikar said.
[...] Here are four survey findings related to how healthcare organizations address information security based on a 2018 HIMSS Cybersecurity Survey.
1. The plurality of respondents (45.5 percent) indicated they undergo security risk assessments once a year.
Only 9.6% of health information security professionals selected the next most common response -- conducting daily security risk assessments.
2. When asked what security framework their organization has adopted, the majority of respondents cited the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
3. There's no uniform source of cyberthreat intelligence, according to the survey respondents, although the majority consider word-of-mouth information from peers a key resource.
4. More than half of respondents cited lack of appropriate cybersecurity personnel as one of the biggest barriers for remediating and mitigating cybersecurity incidents.
A recently added market study by TMR Research, titled, "Healthcare Satellite Connectivity Market - Global Industry Analysis, Market Size, Share, Trends, Analysis, Growth and Forecast 2017-2025," studies the market from every possible angle to understand the dynamics shaping it. The report does so by factoring in the historical and current data and various tailwinds and headwinds to the market. It also throws light on the competitive landscape in the market to understand the opportunities and pitfalls the players need to be keep in mind.
The report finds that with patients becoming more tech savvy and concerned about their health, telemedicine, eHealth, telehealth, and other mHealth solutions will likely see larger uptake thereby contributing to the growth in the market for healthcare satellite connectivity. The healthcare industry has been lapping up new technology platforms to offer more effective and accurate diagnosis and treatment to the ever-increasing pool of patients. This coupled with the increased healthcare spends of people is having a positive influence on the global market for healthcare satellite connectivity.
[...] The survey includes responses from 2,301 adult U.S. residents. While a majority of survey respondents -- 36 percent -- say their primary reason for accessing their EHR is to stay informed, 19 percent admit they want EHR access because they are curious, and 18 percent want to make sure their record is accurate.
The federal government is ready to achieve interoperability, and its taking a "whole of government" approach to make that happen, Jared Kushner, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, said March 6 according to Nextgov.
With help from the Office of American Innovation -- a division Mr. Kushner heads up -- the White House is making "citizen access to health records and interoperability a top priority," Mr. Kushner said at the annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference, according to Nextgov.
His speech came the same day CMS launched a new initiative, called MyHealthEData, aimed at increasing Medicare beneficiaries access to their own health records. As part of the effort, CMS is requiring providers update their systems to ensure data sharing, and it intends to require a patient's data to follow them after they are discharged from the hospital.
"The time is now to align every facet of the federal government and the private sector to ensure information is communicated and shared seamlessly. Simply put, interoperability is about our shared bottom line: saving lives," he said.
Mr. Kushner highlighted the interoperability problems plaguing the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs as an example interoperability challenges, Nextgov reports. Over the last 20 years, the VA has spent nearly $2 billion on efforts to build an interoperable system without success, but more recently, it has been evaluating the data sharing capabilities of Cerner, the EHR it intends to transition to.
"This was a huge win for our service members," Mr. Kushner said. "But the president is determined to make interoperability a reality for all Americans. This is an issue that impacts every hospital, care provider and patient in our country. Now that electronic health records have become digitized over the past decade, complete interoperability is the logical next step."
He added the administration talked with more than 100 stakeholders -- including healthcare providers, health IT companies and patient advocacy groups -- over the last six months to develop an interagency plan that would enhance patient access to and sharing of health records. However, Mr. Kushner did not elaborate on what that plan may entail, Nextgov reports.
"This is the essence of our administration's goals for healthcare. More decision-making in the hands of the customer. Medical data belongs to the patients," he said. "Our vision will apply a whole of government approach that we hope will unleash private sector innovation. Together, we hope to lead a whole of country approach."
Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently one of the hottest trends in business. And for good reason. AI has the potential to increase profitability an average of 38% and bring an economic boost of $14 trillion across 16 industries by 2035, a recent analysis suggests. This includes healthcare.
There is no shortage of possibilities for AI-supported solutions in healthcare. They range from improving doctor-patient communications to recognizing disease in diagnostic imaging. With its immense data-reporting demands, healthcare quality nears the top of this list. In fact, implementing value-based care is a concern keeping many U.S. health system CEOs up at night.
In recent years, many hospitals struggled to submit complete electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) reports on time. A Joint Commission survey conducted in conjunction with two leading hospital associations found that 78% of hospitals were not ready for the 2017 eCQM reporting period. Around the same time, CMS released findings from an inpatient quality reporting validation pilot program evaluation highlighting workflow issues and processing procedures as critical barriers to successful quality reporting. This teaches us that even the most promising information technologies will only reach their full potential when paired with the proper clinical expertise and ongoing support.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a type of AI technology that enables a computer or software to understand human language and information patterns natively - versus 'structuring' data in a way that makes it possible for the software to consume. An obvious use for NLP is leveraging it for quality data reporting - since up to 80% of data in EHRs can be unstructured information, such as physicians' notes and additional comments. This unstructured data tends to hold rich clinical insights. NLP has the power to analyze entire EHR databases, and can be trained to hone in on clinical data and documentation practices that are specific to each hospital or group of clinicians.
Speedier and more-accurate reporting, which can help hospitals work toward achieving maximum reimbursement and minimal payment penalties.
Saved time and resources that can be redirected to take on additional clinical data registries and other quality improvement programs.
Minimal disruption to staff. In other words, clinicians do not have to drastically change how they enter information into EHRs and instead can focus on delivering and improving care.
Fewer staff hours needed for manual data abstraction.
Improved patient-reported outcomes and satisfaction due to adherence to quality measures.
Sprint will boost its business services with a streamlined, smarter online portal for enterprise customers and expanded internal capabilities for customer care. The digital transformation partnership was announced today and is aimed at simplifying Sprint's operations and reducing costs while creating new revenues.
and increasing revenue generation by presenting new, real-time service bundling options that are tailored to a business customer's needs.
She said that the comprehensive portal for enterprise customers is simple and intuitive and that she expects it to be well-received.
Enterprise customers, said Lurie, "are going to now be able to see in one place what's available, the services that Sprint offers that they maybe in the past couldn't see -- all those come together in one simple view."
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0.981108 | The Oppo Find X also features a large 3730mAh battery that should be enough to last through an entire day. If not, the Find X comes with Oppo’s VOOC charging technology, and the company claims that you can get two hours of battery life with just 5 minutes of charging. We will also test the phone’s battery performance in our full review, coming up soon..
Respiratory infection: Legionella, better known canada goose outlet online uk as Legionnaires’ disease, can be caught through inhaling aerosolized droplets canada goose outlet legit in swimming pools or hot tubs harboring the pathogen. The bottom line is that anybody can get sick, even from a well maintained swimming pool. So what can you do to keep yourself and others safe?.
Motorola Moto C vs. Motorola Moto E4 Motorola Moto C Plus vs. Motorola Moto C Motorola Moto C vs. Morrisons announce 10p off a litre fuel deal but you’ll need to be quickThe cuts mean motorists will pay the lowest price for last twelve monthsThey’ve wiped 10p off every litre of petrol in the run up to Christmas, which should help motorists save every time they refuel. Morrisons will give all shoppers who spend in Morrisons a voucher for the discount on diesel and unleaded.The saving will mean that shoppers will canada goose vest outlet have the opportunity of paying an average of less than for unleaded for the fist time since November 2017. Diesel is currently around 8p a litre more.The deal will only be available to customers who spend in store from the 29 November to 9 December, shoppers canada goose bird uk will then receive a voucher that will allow them to pay the cheap canada goose lower price until the 16 December.Morrisons to stock a litre of Baileys for canada goose finance uk just in time for ChristmasAshley Myers, Morrisons Head of Fuel, said: “With the festive season just round the corner, this is a welcome saving for the nation’s motorists to help them afford the cost of Christmas.”For example, those driving a typical 50 litre car, will save every time they fill their car up.
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cheap Canada Goose He was born deaf but doctors were confident they could give him hearing with a cochlear implant, which they performed when he was 3 years old. The implant is an electronic device. Once it is inserted beneath the skin behind the ear, it has to be activated with the flip of a switch cheap Canada Goose. |
0.9969 | Start with brushing your pet's hair before the bath, this will help to reduce knots, get rid of the accumulated hair and make the cleaning much easier. It is best to carry out this process at least a few times a week, so your pet will stay clean for much longer.... 4/03/2018 · Download Image. Bath Cats And Dogs Home Bath Cats and Dogs Home, a charity rescue and re-homing centre for dogs, cats and small animals in need.
30/04/2018 · Depending on the dog, this might take a few days, a few hours, or just a few minutes — let your dog set his own pace. Help your dog into the dry tub. Speak reassuringly in a soothing voice, petting and praising him while he sniffs around and explores.... To help keep a dog secure during a bath, place a yoga mat in the tub before bathing the dog. This will provide a non-slip surface that will hold the dog in place during the bath. This will provide a non-slip surface that will hold the dog in place during the bath.
In this Article: Teaching Your Big Dog to Like the Bath Getting Ready for the Bath Giving a Bath Community Q&A 37 References. If you've gotten a new large-breed puppy, the best time to start teaching him to like bathing is when he is young.
Over time, Franklin grew and the sink didn’t, but that hasn’t dampened the now 66-pound dog’s adoration for his snug little tub. “He loves it, he’s generally super chill and happy in the kitchen, it’s a much more open space and it’s just better for everyone involved,” Rahman said. |
0.99872 | There is considerable evidence that broad-based employee ownership, especially when combined with participative management, improves corporate performance (see this site's article on "Employee Ownership and Corporate Performance" for details). But does employee ownership in public companies lead to improved stock prices? There are reasons to argue both ways. Much of the research on corporate performance is of ESOPs in closely held companies. These plans usually own substantial amounts of stock (generally more than 30% and often more than 50%); provide significant annual contributions to employees (the median is in the 8% of pay range); are almost always in addition to, rather than in place of, compensation; and are much more associated with participative management techniques than are other forms of ownership. By contrast, ESOPs in public companies tend to provide smaller percentages of ownership (15% or less) in most cases, often are used to replace a match to a 401(k) plan, and are not significantly more associated with participative management than non-ESOP ownership. Broad-based stock options in public companies are also not more associated with participative management, and the level of benefits, while often significant, is not as large as that provided by ESOPs in public companies (the annual present value of options per employee in large public companies is in the $1,000 to $2,000 range, which translates into about 5% of pay or less). Finally, even if employee ownership does improve corporate performance in public companies, despite these differences, that does not mean that this will be reflected in stock price, especially if the plans result in additional dilution to shareholders.
On the other hand, even if public companies generally do not take full advantage of employee ownership as a management technique in terms of employee owner involvement programs, ESOPs and broadly-granted options (option plans in which at least half the full-time work force meeting minimal service requirements receives options) could help attract and retain good people and could serve to motivate people to make more effort at work.
Over the last several years, several studies have looked at the impact of employee ownership plans on shareholder returns. The results are generally positive, although specific causal linkages are difficult to prove.
We will focus here on studies from 1990 onward because in the 1980s, ESOPs were often associated with anti-takeover strategies in public companies. Thus it was impossible to distinguish the ESOP effect on share price from investor concerns that an ESOP would make a takeover more difficult, dragging down stock prices. The largest study on ESOPs in public companies was performed in 1999 by Hamid Mehran, then of Northwestern University for Hewitt Associates. He found that ESOPs in 382 publicly-traded companies increased the return on assets (ROA) 2.7% over what would otherwise have been expected. The study looked at the companies' financial returns for two years prior to the plan's implementation and four years after. On return to shareholder issues, this study only looked at initial shareholder reaction to ESOP announcement. Over 60% of the companies experienced an increase in their stock price in the two-day period following public announcement of the ESOP, with the average increase for all companies at 1.6%. In 1992, Douglas Kruse and Joseph Blasi of Rutgers University, and Michael Conte of the University of Baltimore, created an "Employee Ownership Index" (EOI). The EOI tracked the average percentage increase in stock price of all publicly traded companies with a public record of 10% or more broad employee ownership (usually ESOPs) and more than $50 million in market value. The EOI was subsequently maintained for some time by American Capital Strategies, an investment bank based in Bethesda, MD, and was published quarterly in the NCEO's Journal of Employee Ownership Law and Finance. The EOI grew 193% from 1992 through 1997, while the Dow was up 145% and the S&P 500 140%. The authors did not attribute any causal relationship to these numbers, however.
Overall, the data on stock options indicates that broadly granted plans improve stock returns. This is in contrast to a massive amount of data looking at grants focused on executives, which find generally neutral or negative results.
The first assessment of the impact of broad-based stock option plans on corporate performance was done in 2001 by Douglas Kruse, Joseph Blasi, Jim Sesil, and Maya Krumova of Rutgers University ("Broadly Granted Stock Options Improve Corporate Performance," published in Stock Options, Corporate Performance, and Organizational Change, NCEO, 2001). The study looked at 105 publicly traded companies with usable data from 1992-1997. For the corporate performance part of the study, companies had to provide options to at least 75% of full-time employees. The research showed that these option programs appear to increase productivity and return on assets. Total shareholder return, however, showed no statistically significant difference in the relative performance during the two periods, meaning any measured change could simply reflect random sampling error. The researchers thus argued that in a cause-and-effect sense, any value consequences of dilution caused by broad-based options seems counterbalanced by increased productivity.
"All Compustat non-stock option firms had average individual company cumulative returns of 193.1% (81.8% at the median) while the Compustat 500 had returns of 275.0% (151.7% at the median). All broad-based stock option companies had average individual company cumulative returns of 303.2% (163.9% at the median) over the period. This return was statistically significantly greater than the return for all non- broad-based stock option companies. Broad-based stock option companies with more than 50% of non-management actually receiving grants had average individual company cumulative returns of 232.6% (108.9% at the median). And broad-based stock option companies with less than 50% of non-management actually receiving grants had average individual company cumulative returns of 318.9% (128% at the median). On a 1992-1997 cumulative basis using this measure, the average individual company cumulative return and the median individual company cumulative return of the broad-based stock option companies surpassed that of the non-broad based stock option firms."
These results suggest that while broadly-granted grants cannot be proven to be the cause of improved shareholder returns, an investor would be wise to invest in companies with these plans nonetheless because having such a plan seems indicative of better performance for reasons that are as yet not clear.
In a 2003 study by Watson Wyatt ("Stock Option Accounting and Total Return to Shareholders: Has the Market Already Factored an Expense Into Today's Stock Price"), the researchers (who were not identified) looked at 800 companies drawn from the S&P 1500 that had footnoted options expenses. While the report focused on shareholder reactions to options expensing, the authors of the study also found that "over the last three years, for the options that are allocated to broad employee groups [this term was not defined by the study], an increase of one percentage point (i.e., from 78% of the options to 79% of the options) is associated with a nearly one percent increase in the firm's market value. This is equal to nearly $15 million in market capitalization for the median firm in our sample." As a result, the authors concluded, "companies with high levels of participation in stock option plans create greater shareholder value than companies with low participation."
Finally, the market seems to recognize this effect. In a 2003 study by Eric Hager of the University of British Columbia, shareholder reaction to announcements of stock options grants in Canada and the U.S. was analyzed to determine how shareholders reacted to announcements for broad-based options grants. Announcements were excluded that did not indicate employees were simply eligible for stock options, but were included if employees only or employees in addition to managers, executives, directors and/or consultants actually received grants. The study, "Do Employee Stock Option Grant Announcements Affect Shareholder Value?", was published in the summer 2003 issue of the NCEO's Journal of Employee Ownership Law and Finance.
For companies to be included in the study, there had to be sufficient trading data available for the period from 120 days prior to the announcement to one day after. There also had to be a clear announcement of actual grants being made, rather than the announcement of a stock option plan. Hager points out that the announcement of a plan can be misleading because a plan may make a certain number of employees eligible for a grant but actually only make grants to a much smaller number. So Hager instead looked at actual grant practices. A total of 54 announcement grants were suitable for inclusion in the event study in the U.S. The U.S. grants were from 1993-2002. Hager used a standard event-study methodology to extract returns greater or less than what would have been predicted in the day following the announcement based on how a model accounting for how other companies in the industry performed.
For U.S. companies, Hager found that returns were up 1.78% over what would have been expected for broad grants when more than 1% of the equity was granted, but there was no significant relationship when less was granted. The results were not significantly affected by looking at grants only after September 1, 2000. The findings for the broad-based grants were statistically significant (that is, not likely to be a result of random variation). The results for Canada were even stronger. |
0.981792 | ceratopsid numbers and food demands to increase even more.
This reminds me of the mass Irish migration in the mid-19th century, following the dreadful potato famine in Ireland. The population of Ireland almost halved as Irish emigrants headed to America (mostly), Canada, Australia, NZ and Britain.
However, there was no famine in Lancian North America to drive tyrannosaurs across to Asia. I doubt if the tyrannosaur population of North America would have declined so severely if food so was plentiful at home. With an abundant supply of ceratopsian and hadrosaurian prey in N. America, why would so many tyrannosaurs have rushed headlong across to eastern Asia?
Your theory also implies that the tyrannosaur migration was a sudden event, with whole populations moving "en bloc" to the new environment (more like an evacuation than a migration). If this trans-Bering tyrannosaur invasion did happen, it was probably very slow (taking many thousands of years) and probably occurred via the steady westward expansion of existing tyrannosaur populations.
As opposed to all other Late Cretaceous theropod species, which were groping dullards.
I wonder if this corresponds to the demise of the Roman Empire in the Latin-speaking West at the end of the 5th century, and its survival in the Greek-speaking East (centered on Constantinople) for several centuries after.
Roman history is a hobby of mine, so I'll dive in here.
253 - 260 A.D. He was the first Roman Emperor to suffer the ignominious fate of being captured alive by the King of Persia (Shah of Iran), Shapur I - during what was supposed to be a truce.
Valerian II (son of the Emperor Gallienus) became Caesar in 256 A.D., but was murdered by the rival Emperor Postumus two years later.
There were three Emperors named Valentinian: Valentinian I (364 - 375 A.D.), Valentinian II (Emperor 375 - 392 A.D.) and Valentinian III (425 - 455 A.D.).
"Caesar" tended not to be an official title of the Roman Emperors, who were typically acclaimed under the honorific title "Augustus"; "Caesar" was usually applied to the Augustus's designated heir(s). This arrangement became formalized under the Tetrarchy of Emperor Diocletian (ruled 284 - 305 A.D.). Both titles derive from the very first Roman Emperor, the great Augustus Caesar (27 B.C. - 14 A.D.), grand-nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar.
Hence, I have always wondered why the title of "Caesar" should have been co-opted in the Modern Era as an imperial title (as the Prussian/German "Kaiser" and Russian and Bulgarian "Tsar"), rather than "Augustus". I guess it may have more to do with the respect accorded to Julius Caesar than any of his imperial successors. |
0.999991 | Most scientists believe that the decay of the ozone layer is a cause of global warming. With a weaker ozone layer, additional wavelengths of light reach the earth. However, the danger posed by ozone decay is not limited to global warming. The decay of the ozone layer, which enables more harmful wavelengths of light to reach the earth's surface, is also believed to cause permanent eye damage in some animals.
Which of the following is most strongly supported by the statements above?
A) All wavelengths of light from the sun that damage the eyes of animals are blocked by a healthy ozone layer.
B) Some animals do not experience damage to their eyes when exposed to unfiltered waves of light.
C) Only a handful of animal species live in places where they are exposed to the damaging light waves.
D) The rising temperature of the earth poses a severe threat to animals.
E) Some wavelengths of light that engender eye damage in certain animals are more likely to hit the earth due to ozone decay.
Due to the question being asked, the correct answer must follow closely from the statements in the stimulus. An answer that intuitively appears correct yet fails to follow closely from the statements in the stimulus is incorrect.
This answer snags a significant number of test takers. However, it is wrong because it draws too broad of a conclusion. The stimulus never indicates that "all" wavelengths that damage the eyes of animals are blocked by a healthy ozone layer. Further, notice the words "which enables more." The word "more" seems to indicate that a healthy ozone enables some wavelengths to pass through.
The fact that the decay in the ozone layer is believed to cause permanent eye damage in some animals does not mean other animals do not experience damage. Similarly, a decay of the ozone layer does not mean that wavelengths are entirely unfiltered. It simply means that less filtering of light exists.
The location of the animals that are damaged is never discussed and has no relevancy on the issue at hand.
Although this statement is true, it is not the main (or even a main) point of the argument. Similarly, the word "severe" is too strong and not supported by the statements in the stimulus.
This statement captures the main argument from the stimulus. Further, it is a near rephrase of "which enables some harmful wavelengths of light to reach the earth's surface." |
0.999999 | This study attempts to determine how readmission penalties for hospitals in the United States would change if policy equally weighted 30-day readmissions and mortality from heart failure, pneumonia, and acute myocardial infarction.
With mortality weighted twice as much as readmission, 21% of hospitals had an ERRAGG ratio greater than 1 and an ECORAGG ratio less than 1, and 23% of hospitals had an ERRAGG ratio less than 1 and an ECORAGG ratio greater than 1. With mortality weighted 5 times as much as readmission, 24% of hospitals had an ERRAGG ratio greater than 1 and an ECORAGG ratio less than 1, and 27% of hospitals had an ERRAGG ratio less than 1 and an ECORAGG ratio greater than 1. In other words, in FY 2014 more than half of US hospitals would have been misclassified for CMS penalties if death were considered 5 times more important than readmission.
For FY 2014, CMS financial penalties for one-third of US hospitals would likely have been substantially different if the methodology equally weighted 30-day readmission and mortality. These discrepancies increased as mortality was weighted more heavily. |
0.999999 | With so many golf club choices out there, who could possibly choose? Golf club reviews can help you with this problem and provide information on which golf clubs you want and what type of clubs are right for you. There are many reviews for golf clubs. All have different opinions and can help you very much, but sometimes it might be difficult to find such reviews.
The first and most obvious place to look for golf club reviews would be on the internet. Just use any search engine, and you can find some great reviews by online golf shops, customers, and players.
Most online golf shop reviews are generally going to say that the clubs are great and entice you to buy them because they want more business.
Reviews by customers are usually more accurate. Reviews may say, "These clubs are great for beginners," or "These golf clubs are ideal for a golfer with excellent ball striking and provide amazing workability". You can usually trust reviews by customers.
Player reviews are also extremely helpful and accurate. Some reviews might say, "The clubs look great in your bag and provide the excellent feel and control you look for," or "These golf clubs tend to scratch easy and rust." Overall, for golf club reviews on the internet, look for reviews from customers and players, and try to avoid reviews by online golf shops.
Another great place to look for golf club reviews is on the driving range at your local golf course. Check out the clubs that people are using, and ask them if they like them. You will generally get some great reviews from these people. You can speak to them face to face, and might find out some pros or cons that you would otherwise never even know about. Some people will even let you try their golf clubs, which is great. This way you can try the club for yourself and see if it works for you.
Another good place to look for golf club reviews is at your local golf shop. The people working at these shops are usually very knowledgeable and can answer any of your questions. But again with it being a store that wants to sell more, they will probably say good things about all the golf clubs and skip over the bad. However, the other customers shopping in the store may know about the clubs and might be able to assist you. |
0.99979 | One of the defining steps in organizing life for children after school is to leave home and apply to college. This path of education is supposed to introduce young people to the world of active social participants and help to establish a successful future based on the academic achievements. However, the number of students, who drop out of college and return home, is distressing.
A typical scenario that illustrates such a situation involves people who are excited to go to college at first and leave it frustrated and disappointed after a year of studying or sooner. A decision to come home may have a variety of explanations. For example, some may say that the focus is placed on parties rather than studying, and academic experience is simply lost. Others indicate that the price is too high, and they cannot afford it. Instead, people find jobs and are determined to get a paycheck more than graduate.
Research is conducted to understand the matter and evaluate the situation. According to the official report issued in 2014, over the past two decades, more than 31 million people, who were accepted to college, left without any certificate or degree. The National Center for Education Statistics estimated that more than 60% of students graduate in six years instead of four. Furthermore, the United States has the highest rate of students, who do not graduate in the modern industrial world. Why is it so? According to studies, there are five main categories of factors that help to comprehend this negative tendency.
Education is important. However, it has a price which is too much in some cases. Thus, a survey of more than 600 students that dropped out illustrates that the majority of them need a source of income to afford college but also find it difficult to combine work and studies. In fact, approximately 45% of students devote to work more than 20 hours per week. It is a lot of pressure and stress to handle. Eventually, people exhaust themselves and leave college.
A current economic situation in the country contributes to the number of college dropouts. It is estimated that an average family income has increased by 150% in less than three decades. At the same time, college expenses have increased by 400%. This financial discrepancy prevents students from graduating.
Health educators report similar tendencies. Families cannot provide a necessary financial aid. Thus, students have to drop from expensive colleges and take classes at community colleges. Presently, there is a shift from a stereotypical depiction of students that struggle to receive education and attend parties to a real problem of balancing time for studies and hours of work.
Sometimes, school graduates do not understand the responsibilities and the needed personal qualities associated with college studies. The academic environment turns out to be a change that they are not ready to accept.
Students may lack educational background to continue their academic ambitions. When such a situation occurs, about 60% of students take remedial classes. However, less than 25% of them graduate from colleges even when a four-year program is extended to eight years. Remedial classes are believed to be a burden for students. Therefore, a number of education plans, for instance, a Tennessee’s SAILS program, incorporate remedial classes into school’s curriculums, so it could be easier to take classes in college.
Often, students are not prepared emotionally. John Duffy, a famous psychologist and a writer, describes this matter based on experience of working with clients, who leave colleges during the first year. The majority of them are boys who cannot deal with an emotional baggage and are overwhelmed with new circumstances, people, and expectations. They get too anxious to go to classes and fail to process information. Such students also drink or smoke marijuana in an effort to cope with stress and frustration. These patterns of behavior have a negative impact on grades and result in dropping out.
According to Duffy, this issue is a reflection of modern times. Parents focus their children’s attention on certain aspects related to college and its importance for the future. These aspects include grades and activities that need to be done in order to be accepted. However, an emotional side of the matter is overlooked and when individuals are exposed to an academic environment, they cannot regulate feelings, lose concentration and an ability to analyze situations.
Students lack skills of time management. It is important for college students to organize time and prioritize activities. Problems begin when people try to do everything at once or spend too much time on minor issues. Students do not know how to manage personal life, academic work, and other matters. Scholars explain that parents are partially responsible for this phenomenon. Parents often try to control children and manage their lives. Even the best intentions to help may have adverse consequences and do not allow children to gain skills of time management. This influence has a negative impact during the process of preparation to college.
It may be suggested letting teenagers deal with things on their own. For example, they should be able to manage all college applications, receive letters of recommendation, and, in case of mistakes, improve them. Such an approach is helpful in building skills and resiliency that are required in college. Moreover, it may also be a good idea to give teens a year (a so-called gap year) to mature, so they would be ready to deal with another academic experience and not lose time later.
Children concentrate on getting into college and complete all the necessary tasks to achieve this purpose. However, the choice of college is one of the crucial moments that should be considered prior to other aspects. Unfortunately, school graduates often make a wrong choice when they apply to college. They do not analyze available information about an institution and may be disappointed. Some students enter colleges that are too big for them and create a feeling of being lost rather than focused and determined.
The story of a girl from the University of Santa Barbara may be used to illustrate this point. The student was introduced to a large university where were more than 600 people in the same class. She was overwhelmed by this number and could not establish any relationships. Professors were quick to forget students. Other students seldom met twice. Such crowdedness made her feel unhappy and disoriented. Moreover, it was easy to skip a class without anyone noticing. Later, she fell behind and left college.
The girl went back home. However, she managed to take classes at the community college and transferred to another institution that she carefully chose. Its campus was smaller and arranged in a way that people could meet each other and talk. It was a better fit for the girl’s needs and created a feel-good atmosphere that helped her graduate.
In fact, many students may share this particular experience. Colleges can be too crowded or too small. It is important to pay attention to courses, professors, and opportunities that the college provides in addition to its buildings and other conditions. Details matter.
Nevertheless, students may be limited in their options and choose a college in accordance with their financial capabilities and other practical reasons. These reasons include a suitable location or a schedule that allows students to work. Academic and cultural attributes may be secondary to these elements. Studies show that 6 out of 10 students chose a college for its convenient schedule, two thirds of them focus on a location, and more than 50% look for something affordable.
Education experts emphasize that many students require support during their college experience and even before that. Counseling is an important basis that should be provided in public schools and continue during the first years of college. However, according to the Public Agenda report, teenagers do not receive proper counseling. Moreover, students reported in interviews that they did not feel any support during a meeting with a counselor.
As a result, children who did not receive proper assistance were less likely to choose a college based on its credentials and opportunities to find a job after graduation. Additionally, the vast majority of such students were not prepared for the academic environment and its pressure.
This situation occurs because counseling officers are overloaded at public schools. The optimal ration should be 250 students per counselor. In the real-world terms, many states have higher indicators. For example, in California, the ration is almost 1000 students per counselor, in Arizona, the District of Columbian, and Utah the number is more than 700.
Consequentially, students are not supported as they should be and the process of transition from school to college may be too complicated to deal.
Presently, many students are children of parents that did not attend college. They face the challenges of the unknown. More than 40% of dropouts come from such families. Thus, the first-generation students are most likely not to graduate.
Some say that the reason is the price. Such families do not have financial opportunities to put a child through college. This theory is believed to be incomplete. According to Diana Adamson, a director of an organization that helps such students, other factors play a significant role.
Generally, parents who did not participate in the academic environment do not know how to prepare their children for its demands. Thus, typical fears and doubts of freshmen are faced with confusion. Parents see that teenagers are not happy in a new place, have many troubles there, and encourage them to come home where it is safe and comfortable.
To resolve this issue of misunderstanding and misleading, non-profit organizations work with families and help them to be supportive. Adamson points out that parents should be informed about the ways to deal with pressure and stress that are associated with a transition. They recommend involving academic counselors or counselor centers. Children should also know that there are other options, and they will probably regret leaving college.
Additionally, the first-generation students may feel inferior to their peers with more sophisticated backgrounds. Support of family and community helps to overcome the feeling of being out of place and adapt faster. Notably, some colleges recognize the issue and ensure that their students receive the needed support via comprehensive programs and counseling.
The first year is crucial. If students have enough support and encouragement to go through the first year, they are expected to graduate and achieve their goals later. Moreover, they establish a new tradition and their children have more chances to graduate from college.
Two years have passed since Miguel dropped out of college. He followed another path and found a job as a carpenter. This position seemed to be a good investment of his time and skills in addition to being financially desirable. It was his plan to build a career in the given area. However, working on the same things every day may be boring. He has his usual routine of cutting wood and remaking details of furniture. Now, Miguel lacks development and prospects. He wants more. Thus, he decided to apply to college again and study economics. Miguel understands that college education provides more opportunities for people to realize their potential and experience the world. A degree is a significant element that helps to achieve different goals. |
0.99999 | I keep hearing about it and I still don't know what it does.
It's a way to get extra missions in Mystery Dungeon, you can replay missions you've written down the code for, play the same missions as your friends via the codes and get official event missions from the Pokemon Company.
Additionally, most people use online code generators to get certain rewards that they want. |
0.999996 | Type a description for this productCinnamon Spice Soap smells warm and inviting. If you love cinnamon, you will love this soap. It smells great plus it has wonderful moisturizing properties. The scent of this soap is warm and inviting, perfect for the holidays. Cinnamon essential oil has natural antibacterial, antiseptic and antimicrobial properties and cinnamon essential oil is though to support a health immune system.
Ingredients: Saponified olive, coconut and palm oils. Castor and avocado oils and shea butter. Cinnamon, patchouli, sweet orange and orange essential oils, Hungarian Paprika. Distilled water. |
0.93913 | The weather was cool. I wore long pants and a short sleeved shirt, should'a brought a jacket and chair.
The weather was cool. I wore a sweater, jacket and scarff .
The weather was moderate. I wore closed toe shoes (sticks and stickers).
The weather was cooler at night, light jacket & blanket, bring chairs. |
0.937958 | COPENHAGEN, Denmark (CNN) -- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee announced Friday.
Confetti flies in Rio de Janeiro after the IOC announces the city will host the 2016 games.
The announcement brought tears to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief several times in a news conference afterward.
"Our hour has arrived," he said. "It has arrived."
In Rio, jubilation erupted at the world-famous Copacabana beach, where thousands of people gathered to hear the announcement.
Rio organizers promised to start working immediately to make the games a success.
"Maybe some of the people tomorrow can rest," said Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman. "I'm not [resting]."
Rio beat Madrid, Spain, in the final round. Chicago, Illinois, and Tokyo, Japan, were eliminated in earlier rounds.
For Rio, a major appeal was bringing the Olympics to South America for the first time.
IOC President Jacques Rogge said in the news conference afterward that in addition to its excellent bid, Rio had the "extra added value of going for the first time to a continent that's never had the games."
He also noted that Brazil helped its chances this year when it did not get the 2012 games awarded four years ago.
"Rio remained humble," he said. "They wanted to listen, to repair their shortcomings."
More than half of Rio's Olympic venues are built, including state-of-the-art facilities constructed for the 2007 Pan and Parapan American Games: the magnificent Joao Havelange Stadium (the proposed 2016 venue for athletics), the Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, the Rio Olympic Arena (which will host gymnastics and wheelchair basketball), the Rio Olympic Velodrome, the National Equestrian Center and its close neighbor, the National Shooting Center.
• Barra, the heart of the games, is an expanding area of Rio that will require "considerable infrastructure and accommodation development." It will house the Olympic and media villages and some venues.
• Copacabana, a world-famous beach and major tourist attraction, will host outdoor sports in temporary venues.
• Maracana, the most densely populated of the zones, will contain an athletic stadium and the Maracana Stadium, which will host the opening and closing ceremonies. Major redevelopment is planned for the zone.
• Deodoro has little infrastructure, but the highest proportion of young people. It will require construction of Olympic venues. The city's bid was helped by a strong economy and guaranteed funding. Brazil's economy is the 10th largest in the world and predicted to be fifth by 2016.
Brazil told the IOC its commitment to the Olympics could be seen in the investment already under way in Rio. Maracana Stadium will close next year for two years of refurbishment.
The areas around it will be renovated, with improved access and transportation links. The entire neighborhood will be reborn, the Rio committee said, to host the final of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Work is already under way on the ongoing development of the Olympic Training Center, which includes many of the state-of-the-art venues built for the 2007 Pan and Parapan American Games.
This was Madrid's third attempt at hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games.
Madrid's chances might have been hampered, however, by a recent tradition that consecutive Summer Olympics aren't staged on the same continent. The London, England, 2012 Olympics will have happened just four years before 2016.
"Although there's no rule against it, the IOC has yet to award consecutive summer games to the same continent since 1952 in Helsinki," Hula said.
"You can play a great game and still not win," Obama said after returning to the White House. "Although I wish we had come back with better news ... I could not be prouder of my hometown."
Obama said he believed Chicago had made "the strongest bid possible."
"I'm totally stunned. I thought we had a great opportunity," said former NBA great Michael Jordan. Jordan, who led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles, said the city would have been "perfect for the world to explore." He said Chicago is "deserving of an event of that magnitude" and hopes it will try again.
U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, a Chicago Democrat, said the loss is "kind of heartbreaking. ... A tremendous amount of effort has been put into trying to win the bid."
The response around the city was not all negative, however. Many residents are "almost glad the distraction of the Olympics" won't be there, noted CNN's Ali Velshi, who was in downtown Chicago when the news was announced.
Many residents feel it will allow local political and business leaders to "focus attention back on what Chicago needs to do," Velshi said.
Obama, the first U.S. president to make an Olympic bid in person, was flying back to Washington when the announcement was made. He was disappointed with the outcome but not sorry he made the trip to Copenhagen, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
The heads of state for the other three finalists also made personal pitches.
Spain's King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia and Spanish President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero pushed the case for Madrid.
Recently elected Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama made a bid for Tokyo.
Brazilian President Lula da Silva was joined by soccer legend and Brazilian native Pelé as they advertised the benefits of a Rio games.
An animated Lula da Silva, surrounded by Rio supporters, said at a news conference after the announcement, "Among the 10 major economies of the world, Brazil was the only country that had not received the Olympic and Paralympic Games. For us, it will hardly be our last Olympics. For us, it will be an opportunity to be equal. It will increase self-esteem for Brazilians, will consolidate recent conquests and stimulate new advances." |
0.999998 | List of top tropical destinations. What are the most popular tropical destinations? This list ranks the best tropical vacation destinations to visit, from South America to Asia to the best Caribbean vacation spots and everything in between. If you're looking for hidden tropical getaways to the best tropical islands to visit, there are plenty of tropical paradises to discover.
The tropics is the region of the Earth surround the equator but can also be used to describe climate. A tropical climate is warm and moist year-round, with lush vegetation and dry and wet seasons only. While the tropics used to be reserved for honeymooners, college spring breakers and academics exploring wildlife, tropical vacations are becoming more affordable and among the most popular vacations for travelers looking for relaxation and recreation such as snorkeling, zip-lining, hiking and more. Some of the top tropical destinations include Puerto Rico and Costa Rica for both the bustling city and beautiful beaches. Other popular destinations include Seychelles and Maldives for the true meaning of a tropical destination with blue waters, soft sands and lush greenery.
What are the best tropical vacations? Whether you're looking for cheap tropical vacations or hidden tropical destinations, a tropical getaway offers plenty of options for everybody. If your favorite tropical vacation spot isn't on the list of tropical vacation destinations, make sure to add it.
Is this a fun spot to visit? |
0.942116 | Edmund Spenser, 1552(?)–1599, was a major English poet, known particularly for his incomplete allegorical epic The Faerie Queene.
His life is known chiefly from official records, allusions in his poems, and some unreliable anecdotes. There is no verified portrait. He was born in London, probably in 1552. He attended the Merchant Taylors' school, and went to Cambridge, where he struck up a friendship with Gabriel Harvey. He was later secretary to the Bishop of Rochester, and in 1580, after his marriage to Machabyas Childe, he was appointed secretary to Lord Grey of Wilton, on his appointment to be Lord Deputy of Ireland. When Grey was recalled, Spenser stayed on in Ireland, holding a variety of official posts and acquiring land as part of the English settlement of Munster. On the death of his first wife, he married Elizabeth Boyle. He died during one of his visits to England, following the overrunning of much of the Munster settlement by Irish rebels during the Nine Years War, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
The Faerie Queene, 1st edition, books I-III, 1589; 2nd edition, books I-VI, 1596, making a poem of 33588 lines.
Amoretti (sonnet sequence) and Epithamalion, 1595.
Spenser wrote in several genres and forms. His first published work, The Shepheardes Calender, was in the pastoral tradition, but included satires as well as seasonal and love poems. Supposedly in the same mode was Colin Clouts come home againe (first dated 1591 but not published till 1595), disparaging life at Court. Colin Clout was the name Spenser gave himself as the poet-shepherd, appearing first in The Shepheardes Calender and later, extraordinarily, in the sixth book of the Faerie Queene. Astrophel, A Pastorall Elegie (for Sir Philip Sidney) was in the same convention. Spenser showed his lyrical ability in Epithamalion, celebrating his second marriage, and Prothamalion, which celebrated the double marriage of two daughters of the Earl of Worcester. He also wrote sonnets in his own rhyme scheme, and used a variety of other forms and metres. The Faerie Queene (see separate article) is an allegorical epic, in which several layers of moral and political allegory have been identified. It employs the Spenserian stanza which consists of eight iambic pentameters and an alexandrine, the rhyme scheme being ababbcbcc.
Wordsworth wrote of "Sweet Spenser, moving through his clouded heaven/With the moon's beauty and the moon's soft pace." Spenser's verse characteristically has an easy flow, despite the difficulty of conforming to a demanding rhyme scheme, a difficulty reduced by the use of archaic words and inventive spellings. In some passages the poetry achieves striking images of vividly imagined scenes.
According to C. S. Lewis, "Among those who shared, or still share, the culture for which he wrote, and which he helped to create, there is no dispute about his greatness." He adds that in that tradition, he is only less secure and central than Shakespeare and Milton.
Spenser regarded himself as the heir of Chaucer, and had a major influence on Milton and the English Romantic poets, including Wordsworth, Keats and particularly Shelley who used the Spenserian stanza for Adonais. His reputation suffered from the elaborateness of his allegory, his archaic language, and his strong advocacy of drastic measures to subdue Ireland, shown both allegorically, and in his prose work View of the Present State of Ireland, distributed in manuscript during his lifetime.
This page was last modified 22:37, 26 February 2019. |
0.98131 | Historically, corporations were created by a charter granted by government. Today, corporations are usually registered with the state, province, or national government and regulated by the laws enacted by that government. Registration is the main prerequisite to the corporation's assumption of limited liability. The law sometimes requires the corporation to designate its principal address, as well as a registered agent (a person or company designated to receive legal service of process). It may also be required to designate an agent or other legal representative of the corporation. Generally, a corporation files articles of incorporation with the government, laying out the general nature of the corporation, the amount of stock it is authorized to issue, and the names and addresses of directors. Once the articles are approved, the corporation's directors meet to create bylaws that govern the internal functions of the corporation, such as meeting procedures and officer positions. The law of the jurisdiction in which a corporation operates will regulate most of its internal activities, as well as its finances. If a corporation operates outside its home state, it is often required to register with other governments as a foreign corporation, and is almost always subject to laws of its host state pertaining to employment, crimes, contracts, civil actions, and the like.
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the recipient admits a limited (or inferior) status within the relationship, and it is within that sense that charters were historically granted, and that sense is retained in modern usage of the term. Also, charter can simply be a document giving royal permission to start a colony. The word entered the English language from the Old French charte (ultimately from the Latin word for "paper"), but the concept is universal and transcends language. It has come to be synonymous with the document that lays out the granting of rights or privileges. The term is used for a special case (or as an exception) to an institutional charter. A charter school, for example, is one that has different rules, regulations, and statutes from a state school. Charter is sometimes used as a synonym for 'tool' or 'lease', as in the 'charter' of a bus or boat by an organization, intended for a similar group destination. A charter member of an organization is an original member; that is, one who became a member when the organization received its charter. Anglo-Saxon Charters are documents from the early medieval period in Britain which typically make a grant of land or record a privilege. They are usually written on parchment, in Latin but often with sections in the vernacular, describing the bounds of estates, which often correspond closely to modern parish boundaries. The earliest surviving charters were drawn up in the 670s; the oldest surviving charters granted land to the Church, but from the 8th century surviving charters were increasingly used to grant land to lay people. The British Empire used three main types of colonies as it sought to expand its territory to distant parts of the earth. These three types were royal colonies, proprietary colonies, and corporate colonies. A charter colony by definition is a "colony…chartered to an individual, trading company, etc., by the British crown." Although charter colonies were not the most prevalent of the three types of colonies in the British Empire, they were by no means insignificant. |
0.990989 | I am sitting outside, in the evening, enjoying a smoke after a long day.
My closed-up eye is bugging me (allergic reaction to comfrey – long story).
As the tobacco comes on, I look up at the sky and find a single star, and I hear myself ask this star for a message.
And I realize. Somewhere, along the way, I adopted a kind of disempowered stance with regards the cosmos. I seem to embody this stance in my weaker moments. This stance can best be summarized in one word: MORE. As in: “Please, universe, give me something more. I don’t have enough right now – enough vision, enough understanding, enough awareness of what is going on – please give me something more.
Then I remember, a magazine, maybe 5 or 7 years ago. It was called “More.” I recall thinking when I saw that magazine, “Really? Is that really what people need? More? What a materialistic message!” And yet, like a drop in a river, this momentary thought of dissent and subtle despair quietly surrendered to the deluge of modern culture humming all around and through me, and in the steady din of the message to get “more” repeating itself in myriad ways, big and small, I subtly allowed the river of “not enoughness” to seep into my own skin.
I let the idea that I need more creep in, as if it were my own. As if it were natural.
Then – still on the porch – another memory follows, as if stacked upon the previous one like a perfectly fitting stone in a wall: A few years ago, maybe before seeing the magazine, maybe after (in what might be called an actual vision) I received the knowledge that this – /just this/ – this natural world, this world! is all that I want or truly need. It is all so completely, stunningly simple, plain and perfect. And I felt myself, then, in blissful, bodily, natural devotion to this natural world.
Sitting on the porch, taking another drag, I feel my body relax. I realize I have already received the only vision I will ever need, the only understanding, the only awareness, the only context required to help me make sense of my life.
And I say thank you.
The crickets are singing! It is sooooo amazing! Like this other-worldly network of song and vibration, sending their thin, buzzing intelligence into our awareness sideways, like a layer of reality so out of sight, blended in all around us, you could ignore it and not realize you are living in a world knitted together by cricket song!
Crickets singing back and forth across the canyon behind my house like tiny microscopic whales, speaking of night, and stars, and life, and enoughness.
Maybe the crickets just woke up, for the spring, I think. But I don’t think so.
I think I just woke up!
Thank you, a thousand times thank you, for my one, precious life. May I spend the rest of my life reminding – and being reminded – that I am already – always – swimming in a river of blessed, beautiful enoughness. |
0.999816 | I keep forgetting to recommend a book I received for my birthday: Scout, Atticus, & Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird by Mary McDonagh Murphy. If you enjoy Harper's Lee's fifty-year-old classic, I think you'll find Murphy's tribute to be an entertaining look behind the scenes of the novel's creation, the making of the 1962 movie , and the life of a private American talent who called it quits on the publicity machine and never published another title.
The bulk of the book consists of essays written by people as diverse as Oprah Winfrey, Mary Badham (Scout from the movie), James Patterson, and Harper Lee's 98-year-old sister (who still works at the Lee family's law office!). While the essays themselves don't always consist of exemplary writing, they offer lovely nuggets of wisdom about how to write an outstanding novel that will stand the test of time. Some of the essayists describe the cleverness of To Kill a Mockingbird's opening paragraph. At least two authors cite one of my favorite paragraphs as being a model use of sensory writing (it's the paragraph that describes the ladies as being "like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum"). Others discuss characterization and the bravery of tackling taboo subjects.
Scout, Atticus, & Boo is also a tribute to the art of writing a stand-alone novel, which is becoming a rarity in today's era of sequels and series. I personally feel there's a great deal to be said about an author who's able to tie up all her loose ends within the pages of one book. It's not always easy, but it's something to be admired.
As a writer, what I found most inspiring was the story behind Lee's original, contracted version of To Kill a Mockingbird, which was a far cry from the completed novel we see today. Editor Tay Hohoff said of the first version, "There were dangling threads of a plot, there was a lack of unity." It took two years of Lee rewriting the book before Mockingbird became publishable. As I'm tearing into my own manuscript and rewriting major scenes, I keep thinking of the story behind To Kill a Mockingbird and reminding myself that revisions can be well worth the time and effort. Even celebrated authors don't get it right the first time. |
0.999999 | need Competitive analysis on a company. I am hoping to find out "WHO" are their competitors and also get contact information on their ownership and executives. The company we are researching is buying up a lot of our competition, thus we want to reach out to their competitors to see if they are interesting in partnering up with us?
I am able to find out "WHO" are their competitors and also get contact information on their ownership and executives. |
0.957324 | The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also tasked with increasing public access to those documents which make up the National Archive. NARA is officially responsible for maintaining and publishing the legally authentic and authoritative copies of acts of Congress, presidential directives, and federal regulations. The NARA also transmits votes of the Electoral College to Congress.
Independent agencies of the United States federal government are agencies that exist outside the federal executive departments and the Executive Office of the President. In a more narrow sense, the term may also be used to describe agencies that, while constitutionally part of the executive branch, are independent of presidential control, usually because the president's power to dismiss the agency head or a member is limited.
The Office of the Federal Register publishes the Federal Register , Code of Federal Regulations , and United States Statutes at Large , among others. It also administers the Electoral College.
The Office of the Federal Register is an office of the United States government within the National Archives and Records Administration.
Originally, each branch and agency of the U.S. government was responsible for maintaining its own documents, which often resulted in the loss and destruction of records. Congress created the National Archives Establishment in 1934 to centralize federal record keeping, with the Archivist of the United States serving as chief administrator. R.D.W. Connor was chosen to be the first leader of the organization.
In March 2006, it was revealed by the Archivist of the United States in a public hearing that a memorandum of understanding between NARA and various government agencies existed to "reclassify", i.e., withdraw from public access, certain documents in the name of national security, and to do so in a manner such that researchers would not be likely to discover the process (the U.S. reclassification program). An audit indicated that more than one third withdrawn since 1999 did not contain sensitive information. The program was originally scheduled to end in 2007.
In 2010, Executive Order 13526 created the National Declassification Center to coordinate declassification practices across agencies, provide secure document services to other agencies, and review records in NARA custody for declassification.
Most records at NARA are in the public domain, as works of the federal government are excluded from copyright protection. However, records from other sources may still be protected by copyright or donor agreements. Executive Order 13526 directs originating agencies to declassify documents if possible before shipment to NARA for long-term storage, but NARA also stores some classified documents until they can be declassified. Its Information Security Oversight Office monitors and sets policy for the U.S. government's security classification system.
On June 18, 2009, the National Archives announced the launching of a YouTube channel "to showcase popular archived films, inform the public about upcoming events around the country, and bring National Archives exhibits to the people." Also in 2009, the National Archives launched a Flickr photostream to share portions of its photographic holdings with the general public. A new teaching-with-documents Web site premiered in 2010 and was developed by the education team. The site features 3,000 documents, images, and recordings from the holdings of the Archives. It also features lesson plans and tools for creating new classroom activities and lessons.
In 1987, Charles Merrill Mount was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for stealing 400 documents from the National Archives .
In 2002, Shawn Aubitz pleaded guilty to stealing dozens of documents and photographs from the National Archives during the 90's .
Freedom of information in the United States results from freedom of information legislation at the federal level and in the fifty states.
The "thirty-year rule" is the informal name given to laws in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and the Commonwealth of Australia that provide that certain government documents will be released publicly thirty years after they were created. Other countries' national archives also adhere to a thirty-year rule for the release of government documents.
In the United States, the presidential library system is a nationwide network of 13 libraries administered by the Office of Presidential Libraries, which is part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). These are repositories for preserving and making available the papers, records, collections and other historical materials of every President of the United States from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush. In addition to the library services, museum exhibitions concerning the presidency are displayed.
The Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group is a United States government interagency group, which tasked with locating, identifying, inventorying, and recommending for declassification classified U.S. records relating to Nazi and Japanese war crimes.
Public records are documents or pieces of information that are not considered confidential and generally pertain to the conduct of government.
The Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) is responsible to the President for policy and oversight of the government-wide security classification system and the National Industrial Security Program in the United States. The ISOO is a component of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and receives policy and program guidance from the National Security Council (NSC).
The United States government classification system is established under Executive Order 13526, the latest in a long series of executive orders on the topic. Issued by President Barack Obama in 2009, Executive Order 13526 replaced earlier executive orders on the topic and modified the regulations codified to 32 C.F.R. 2001. It lays out the system of classification, declassification, and handling of national security information generated by the U.S. government and its employees and contractors, as well as information received from other governments.
The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, or the JFK Records Act, is a public law passed by the United States Congress, effective October 26, 1992. It directed the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to establish a collection of records to be known as the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection. It stated that the collection shall consist of copies of all U.S. government records relating to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and that they are to be housed in the NARA Archives II building in College Park, Maryland. The collection also included any materials created or made available for use by, obtained by, or otherwise came into the possession of any state or local law enforcement office that provided support or assistance or performed work in connection with a federal inquiry into the assassination.
The Joint Staff Information Management Division (IMD) is one of two divisions which make up the Joint Staff Secretariat (SJS) of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff currently located in the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia (USA). The other division is called Actions Division (AD) which manages the daily workflow of the staff.
Archival research is a type of research which involves seeking out and extracting evidence from archival records. These records may be held either in collecting institutions, such as libraries and museums, or in the custody of the organization that originally generated or accumulated them, or in that of a successor body. Archival research can be contrasted with (1) secondary research, which involves identifying and consulting secondary sources relating to the topic of enquiry; and (2) with other types of primary research and empirical investigation such as fieldwork and experiment.
Theodore Roosevelt Schellenberg was an American archivist and archival theorist. Schellenberg's publications and ideas are part of the foundation for archival theory and practice in the United States. In particular, Schellenberg is known for pioneering American archival ideas about appraisal.
The FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act of 2014 is a bill that would amend the Freedom of Information Act in order to make it easier and faster to request and receive information. The bill would require the Office of Management and Budget to create a single FOIA website for people to use to make FOIA requests and check on the status of their request. The bill would also create a Chief FOIA Officers Council charged with reviewing compliance and recommending improvements. This bill would also require the federal agency to release the information it disclosed to the person who requested it publicly afterwards.
The Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014 is a United States federal statute which amended the Presidential Records Act and Federal Records Act. Introduced as H.R. 1233, it was signed into law by President Barack Obama on November 26, 2014.
The Washington National Records Center (WNRC) in Suitland, Maryland, stores and references records of U.S. Federal agencies located in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.
Claudine Jackson Weiher served as Acting Deputy Archivist of the United States from 1986 to 1987 and Deputy Archivist of the United States from 1988 to 1993.
In the United States, the National Archives facilities are facilities and buildings housing the research and agency services of the country's National Archives and Records Administration. Within the organization of the National Archives, the upkeep of its facilities falls under the National Archives Facilities and Property Management Office.
The organization of the National Archives and Records Administration refers to the administrative and bureaucratic structure of the National Archives and Records Administration of the United States. The National Archives is considered an independent federal government agency, receiving this status in 1985 after existing under the General Services Administration since the National Archives' founding in 1934.
↑ "Archival Milestones". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved March 31, 2011.
↑ "U.S. National Archives and Records Administration Fiscal Year 2014–2018 Strategic Plan" (PDF). National Archives. March 2014. p. 18. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
↑ "David Ferriero Confirmed by U.S. Senate as 10th Archivist of the United States" (Press release). National Archives and Records Administration. November 6, 2008. Retrieved November 10, 2009.
↑ "Meet our Senior Staff". archives.gov. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved August 23, 2011.
↑ "Secret Agreement Reveals Covert Program to Hide Reclassification from Public". National Security Archive. April 11, 2006. Retrieved March 31, 2011.
↑ Scott Shane (April 27, 2006). "National Archives Says Records Were Wrongly Classified".
↑ "National Archives and Declassification". Archives.gov. October 19, 2011. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
↑ Peet, Lisa. "NARA Responds to Controversial ICE Records Destruction Request". The Library Journal. Retrieved 2019-04-19.
↑ NARA. "The National Archives Catalog" . Retrieved May 6, 2016.
↑ NARA. "Open Government at the National Archives" . Retrieved December 13, 2012.
1 2 NARA. "About Archival Research Catalog (ARC)" . Retrieved December 13, 2012.
↑ "Copyright, Permissions and Restrictions Notice". archives.gov. Retrieved March 31, 2011.
↑ Faye Fiore (August 8, 2010). "Guardians of the nation's attic". Los Angeles Times.
↑ "National Archives and Google Launch Pilot Project to Digitize and Offer Historic Films Online" (Press release). archives.gov. 24 February 2006. Retrieved March 31, 2011.
↑ "footnote.com". footnote.com. Retrieved November 23, 2011.
↑ "National Archives and Footnote Launch Project to Digitize Historic Documents" (Press release). archives.gov. January 10, 2007. Retrieved March 31, 2011.
↑ "Thousands of National Archives Films to Be Made Available Through CustomFlix Labs" (Press release). archives.gov. July 27, 2007. Retrieved March 31, 2011.
↑ "National Archives Announces Digitizing Agreement with The Generations Network" (Press release). archives.gov. May 20, 2008. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
↑ "NARA The Generations Network Digitization Agreement" (PDF). archives.gov.
↑ "Social Media and Web 2.0 at the National Archives" . Retrieved March 31, 2011.
↑ "National Archives Launches YouTube Channel" (Press release). archives.gov. June 18, 2009. Retrieved March 31, 2011.
↑ "National Archives Photos on Flickr: FAQs" . Retrieved March 31, 2011.
↑ Churchville, V., & Saperstein, S. (1987, August 16). THE FALL FROM GRACE OF AN ARTIST, AUTHOR. The Washington Post.
↑ "Man Admits Theft From U.S. Archives". Los Angeles Times. 2002-03-14. ISSN 0458-3035 . Retrieved 2019-04-19.
↑ Carol D. Leonnig. Archives Thief Gets Two Years, The Washington Post, May 27, 2005.
↑ Eve Conant. To Catch a Thief at the National Archives, Newsweek, May 4, 2007.
↑ Panzino, Charlsy (2018-01-12). "Historian pleads guilty to stealing dog tags, military records from National Archives". Army Times. Retrieved 2019-04-19.
Beschloss, Michael (2006). Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from the National Archives. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-530959-1 . Retrieved July 18, 2014.
"Sixty-Ton Statue is Carved from a Single Slab of Stone". Popular Mechanics . 64 (2): 256. August 1935. The statue Gladiator commissioned for the main national archive building in Washington DC in 1935.
"Ten-Ton Door Made of Bronze is Thirty Five Feet High". Popular Mechanics . 62 (4): 519. October 1934.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents ofthe National Archives and Records Administration . |
0.95652 | Apply the general detection framework.
This involves converting the image to greyscale if necessary, rescaling the image to a given diagonal, performing the detection, and attaching the scaled landmarks back onto the original image.
uint8 images cannot be converted to greyscale by this framework, so must already be greyscale or greyscale=False.
detector_callable ( callable or function ) – A callable object that will perform detection given a single parameter, a uint8 numpy array with either no channels, or channels as the last axis.
image ( menpo.image.Image ) – A Menpo image to detect. The bounding boxes of the detected objects will be attached to this image.
greyscale ( bool , optional) – Convert the image to greyscale or not.
image_diagonal ( int , optional) – The total size of the diagonal of the image that should be used for detection. This is useful for scaling images up and down for detection.
group_prefix ( str , optional) – The prefix string to be appended to each each landmark group that is stored on the image. Each detection will be stored as group_prefix_# where # is a count starting from 0.
bounding_boxes ( list of menpo.shape.PointDirectedGraph ) – A list of bounding boxes representing the detections found. |
0.997499 | There are schools offering forensic science degrees in Arizona!
Each year, roughly 0.1% of Arizona students graduate with degrees in forensic science. In other words, every year an estimated 196 forensic science technicians graduate from Arizona's 7 forensic science schools.
Grand Canyon University, which is located in Phoenix, is the top-ranked school in Arizona that has a forensic science program. It received a ranking of 74th in the country in 2010. no students graduated with a degree in forensic science from Grand Canyon University in 2010. Tuition at Grand Canyon University was $16,500 per year.
The second-ranked school in Arizona that has a forensic science program is Pima Community College. Pima Community College, which was ranked 86th in the country in 2010, is located in Tucson. 5 students graduated with degree in forensic science from Pima Community College in 2010. Pima Community College charged in-state students $1,412 in tuition fees per year.
The third-ranked school in Arizona with a forensic science program is Mesa Community College, which is located in Mesa. In 2010, it was ranked 87th nationwide. In 2010, 22 students graduated from Mesa Community College forensic science program. Students at Mesa Community College paid $1,734 per year in tuition fees.
A forensic science degree from an Arizona school... what next?
The government projects that the number of forensic science technicians in Arizona will grow by 8%. By 2018, there will be an estimated 740 forensic science technicians working in Arizona.
Take a look at the graphs and charts below for additional Arizona statistics regarding a career in forensic science and to compare salaries with a variety of related fields such as crime scene investigation or forensic psychology. |
0.849419 | Astrology, Signs, and Planets on StellarDays.com | Houses | What's The subject?
The Houses - What's the Subject?
The astrological chart wheel is divided into twelve segments, each one representing a major sphere of life experience.
When a chart is calculated for a given event, such as someone's birth, the size of each house is determined by the time and location of the event.
are the same size. Eventually, it was understood that the distance between the lines of longitude is greater at the equator than it is at the poles. The most obvious example of this is the weakness of the Sun rays at the North Pole as compared to it's stength and intensity at the equator.
Over the centuries, various methods of calculating house size were developed in an effort to more accurately reflect these differences. The most widely used of these system are the Placidus and Koch systems, in which the sizes of the houses are unequal. Campanus, Regiomantanus, and Porphyry are other systems that also calculate unequal houses.
The degree of the sign that is rising on the eastern horizon of the earth at the moment of the event is known as the rising sign, or the Ascendant.
The signs that follow are then placed around the wheel. The degrees and minutes of the sign on the leading edge, or cusp, of each house are determined by the calculations for the house system being used by the astrologer.
The positions of the planets are calculated using an Ephemeris, which gives their positions each day at the Greenwich Meridian Time zone. They are then adjusted to the specific time of the chart being cast. Once their degree and minutes of sign are determined, they are then placed in the houses according to the degrees and minutes of the signs on the house cusps.
If you think of a planet as a visitor with a particular agenda, the sign tells you about their demeanor and the house tells you what issues they are zeroing in on. The following table is a summary of the interests of the twelve houses.
There are three types of houses: Angular, Succeedant, and Cadent. An astrological chart is divided into four quadrants, each containing three houses. The first house in each quadrant is the Angular house, the second is the Succeedant, and the third isn the Cadant house.
Angular houses are the most powerful houses in the chart. They have an ardent, strong, initiating energy. It is the energy of the go-getter, the self-starter. The 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses are the Angular houses. Planets placed in them get an extra boost in being able to forcefully express themselves.
Succedent houses are the houses that "follow on" or "succeed" the Angular houses, and as such signify things that are associated with or belong to the preceeding house. They are less powerful than the Angular houses but more powerful than the Cadent houses. Their focus is stable and steadfast. The 2nd, 5th, 8th and 11th houses are the Succedant houses. Planets placed in them indicate especially long-lasting effects.
Cadent houses are the last house in each quadrant of the chart and are associated with a falling away or decline of the energy represented by the Angular and Succedent houses that preceed them in the chart. They are generally weaker, less productive, and less effectve than the Angular and Succedent houses. Their focus is more mental that action oriented. The 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th houses are the Cadent houses. Planets placed in them are not operating at full power and spend more time thinking about what they would like to be doing than actually doing it. |
0.999645 | What kind of ebikes are there?
Broadly speaking there are 2 types of eBike drive systems available and when deciding which style to go for, one of the most important factors to consider is the type, and degree of control you want over the motor. Pedal assisted electric bikes provide a similar riding experience to a traditional bike, only your pedaling power will be supplemented by the electric motor where as throttle power closely resembles a motorcycle or moped. Most modern and higher end e-bikes will have both pedal assist and throttle options and typically riders get a longer range out of their battery when using pedal assist as the demands placed on the motor are lower.
Cadence sensors use magnets on the crank of the bike to detect movement and tell the motor when to turn on and off. The speed that the magnets pass the sensor determines how fast the motor will go. A sensor will detect how fast you’re pedalling and allows the motor to kick in and assist you to reach whatever level of speed you have set. Cadence sensors only begin to operate once you’ve started pedalling for a few seconds. The benefit of these systems are that they are basic and inexpensive. Cadence systems can feel jerky and laggy when ridden however. The crankset usually needs to be rotated 2-3 times before the motor can kick in, making it far from ideal if you are at traffic lights or climbing a hill particularly if you are riding in a high gear when you come to a stop. Cadence systems can work counterintuitively at times because they operate based on how fast you are pedaling. If you are going on a flat surface, faster pedaling speed means more power is needed but when climbing a hill when the resistance is greater and you require more assistance, your pedal rotation speed will be lower meaning you will be provided with less power than you may require.
Torque sensing systems feel natural, like riding a push bike because the power that you apply to the pedals is directly proportional to the amount of power the motor will put out. These systems require little effort to operate because of the system that will automatically kick in once you start moving the pedals. This style senses how hard you are pedaling by measuring the pressure applied to the chain and more accurately adjusts to the speed that you require than cadence systems. This system can assist immediately once pressure is applied to the pedals because you can generate a lot of power from a standing start. This type of system is more complex than the example above as it monitors 3 factors: pedal rotation, force and road speed, and adjusts on-the-go. There is a certain amount of pressure that must be applied in order for the motor to kick into motion which changes from bike to bike, the ride is a great deal smoother though.
As torque sensing systems are more complex than cadence sensors, they are more costly to add to a bike. Electric bikes at the lower end of the price spectrum will generally have cadence sensors, and if you are investing in an e-bike for regular use, the style of PAS system is definitely worth checking out to ensure you get the right system for your needs.
This style features a variable throttle switch on the handlebar similar to a motorcycle or moped to manually turn the motor on or off and to control the motor’s output. Using a throttle lever allows the rider to take more control in turning on/off the bike and to control how much power/battery is used making it very easy to ride in either pedal-only or motor-only mode. The main drawback of riding using a throttle is that the battery will get eaten up a lot faster than when using a pedal assist system. In Europe, electric bikes are restricted to pedal assist only. In the US on the other hand, throttle controllers are legal and highly popular and many ebikes offer both options. Throttles provides the rider with full motor power instantly and allows for complete control. Where some pedal assist systems need to be moving above a certain speed before they kick in, using a throttle can help a rider get started from a standstill, get a burst of speed to help you up a hill or through an intersection.
Throttles can come in three forms, half twist, full twist and thumb controlled. Riders who have ridden motorcycles and scooters often find full twist throttles easier and more comfortable to use however, they can be particularly dangerous. For instance if the user is not used to having a twist throttle on their handlebars, lifting the bike up to an apartment, over obstacles or curbs can be dangerous as it is easy to slip your hand over the throttle and accidently engaging it while lifting, causing the bike to accelerate and potentially lose control. The jury is out as to which is the best throttle method, each have their pros and cons. Twist systems can be a little safer when it comes to emergency situations as your entire hand is in contact with the handlebar, providing more control when maneuvering. Half twist systems often result in less hand/wrist fatigue than the other two types on longer rides because you can keep 2-3 fingers on the handlebar while engaging the throttle, this gripping arrangement allows you to keep pressure on the throttle naturally rather than flexing your wrist or extending your thumb.
E-bikes with both drive systems are most popular as they offer the rider an option at least. Often experienced cyclists who still want the feeling of pedaling prefer pedal assist systems but there will be times that using a throttle will be necessary. Pedaling uphill on an ebike can be tough due to the added weight of the battery, motor and heavier duty materials. Pedal assist can be seen as a type of cruise control, particularly when on long and flat journeys. It allows you to relax and just complete a pedaling motion without exerting too much effort and you won’t have to worry about holding a throttle in place. The higher price of e-bikes with both systems reflects the complexity of adding both PAS and throttle components to the bike but will enhance the user’s experience because of the choice offered to them. |
0.835453 | George (Cecil) Ives (1 October 1867 in Germany – 4 June 1950) was a German-English poet, writer, penal reformer and early gay rights campaigner.
Ives was the illegitimate son of an English army officer and a Spanish baroness. He was raised by his paternal grandmother, Emma Ives. They lived between Bentworth in Hampshire and the South of France.
Ives was educated at home and at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he started to amass 45 volumes of scrapbooks (between 1892 and 1949). These scrapbooks consist of clippings on topics such as murders, punishments, freaks, theories of crime and punishment, transvestism, psychology of gender, homosexuality, cricket scores, and letters he wrote to newspapers.
Ives met Oscar Wilde at the Authors' Club in London in 1892. Oscar Wilde was taken by his boyish looks and persuaded him to shave off his moustache, and once kissed him passionately in the Travellers' Club. Ives was already working for the end of the oppression of homosexuals, what he called the "Cause." He hoped that Wilde would join the "Cause", but was disappointed. In 1893, Lord Alfred Douglas, with whom he had a brief affair, introduced Ives to several Oxford poets whom Ives also tried to recruit.
Josephine Hutchinson (October 12, 1903 – June 4, 1998) was an American actress.
She was born in Seattle, Washington. Her mother, Leona Roberts, was an actress best-known for her role as "Mrs. Meade" in Gone with the Wind. Through her mother's connections, Hutchinson made her film debut at the age of thirteen in The Little Princess, starring Mary Pickford. She later attended the Cornish School of Music and Drama in Seattle, and then moved to New York City where she began acting in theater. By the late 1920s she was one of the actors able to make the transition from silent movies to talkies.
Under contract with Warner Bros., Hutchinson went to Hollywood in 1934, debuting in Happiness Ahead. She was featured on the cover of Film Weekly on August 23, 1935 and appeared in The Story of Louis Pasteur in 1936.
In the early 1970s, he studied play writing with Kenneth Cameron at the University of Iowa, writing and producing a play entitled "Light Years." He was, however, asked to leave this program during an anti-gay pogrom, Turner then went to Texas where he was awarded an internship from the Dallas Theater. Center. During this program Turner also experienced homophobic prejudice, being "called before the entire theater company and ordered to choose between gay liberation and the theater." In spite of this prejudice, Turner wrote and produced several plays and musicals in Dallas including: Getting to Know the Natives (published by Samuel French Inc., New York, 1974); and "A," a musical based on The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. He received his Masters of Fine Arts from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas in 1974.
Thomas A. Hannan was an an actor and singer who was a founder of Community Research Initiative and of the People With AIDS health group. He died on June 4, 1991, at his home in Manhattan. He was 40 years old.
He died of AIDS, said his companion, Carl Goodman.
Mr. Hannan was active in Community Research Initiative's sponsorship of research into drugs to treat AIDS and in the effort of People With AIDS to obtain drugs lacking Federal approval for victims of the disease.
He was born in Weehawken, N.J., graduated from Harvard University and attended Fordham Law School. He acted in musical comedies and children's theater in New York and elsewhere and sang with opera companies in Germany and Austria.
Today author is Anna Butler: Anna worked for many years as a communications specialist in the UK government working a range of government departments. She now spends her time combining her love for science fiction with that for m/m romance. She lives in London with her husband and Molly, the cockerpoo.
Flashwired is Anna's first published book. She is currently working on a series of five science fiction/gay romance novels, Taking Shield. The first will be published shortly.
Cal Paxton and Jeeze Madrid are the top scouting team on the Pathfinder-class starship, the Carson, on the very outer edge of Earth's expansion across the galaxy. They're wingmen, best friends and lovers. When Jeeze is shot down over a planet inhabited by a race Earth has never before encountered, what will Cal find when the Carson can finally mount a rescue mission?
Does true love ever get a second chance? Aspen Lane hasn’t forgotten her first love or the heartbreak she’s been dealing with since she left. As an artist, Aspen tried to pour her feelings into her art in hopes of healing, but five years later, she’s still trying to move on. There’s just one thing keeping Lex Tataris from marrying her girlfriend, Cassidy Scott – being married to another woman. A divorce should be simple enough. Go home to Vermont and live there long enough to file the paperwork. When Aspen offers to live with Lex for the six months it will take to prove residency in Vermont, she figures it will be a chance for her to get closure and move on. Lex is certain everything will go smoothly and she will be free to marry Cassidy soon enough. The two women soon discover that letting go may not be as easy as they thought or what they wanted after all.
After a life of wrong turns and lost hope, can true love be more than a bittersweet fantasy?
Melinda Andrews arrives on the Oregon coast with a dream of running the Sea Glass Inn. Still reeling after an unexpected divorce, Mel believes she has missed her chance to find love. All she wants is to make her business a success and regain her independence. She locates the artist who inspired her move so she can commission more paintings for her new inn.
Pamela Whitford runs a gallery in a small seaside town, planning events and supporting other artists while neglecting her own talent. Since being deserted by the love she thought was forever, she refuses to let anyone close enough to hurt her again. But Pam can’t resist the struggling new innkeeper, and she agrees to paint for her even though it means opening herself up to creativity and the vulnerability that goes with it.
Can they learn to trust again and discover a second chance at love?
Tina, a graphic artist and musician, has vowed to spend her life free from the obligations that characterized her youth. No ties, no long-term commitments. But she agrees to travel to Spokane to help her cousin promote his business and, in a second moment of weakness, promises to contact Jan. Tina is certain her acquaintance with the too-logical and inflexible woman will be a short one.
Sometimes, though, love makes you throw away life’s careful script. Can these women learn to improvise? |
0.997914 | Dear EHH: Should I Pull My Horses Shoes Off for the Winter?
I'm a new horse owner. This is my first winter owning a horse of my own and having to make all the decisions about it on my own. Most of the other horse owners at my barn pull the shoes off their horses for the winter. I was wondering why that is. My horse wears front shoes. Should she go barefoot for the winter instead?
This is a great question. Whether or not your horse wears shoes over the winter depends on a number of factors. The first is: does she need shoes to stay sound? If she wears front shoes because she has easily bruised feet or some other condition that requires corrective shoeing, she should keep her shoes on year round.
That being said, I would discuss with your farrier the possibility of putting pads on your horse just for the winter months. One of the main reasons that it is hard for horses to wear shoes in the winter is that snow and ice get stuck in them. Often times in the winter it will look like horses with front shoes are wobbling on top of frozen snowballs that get compacted in their shoes. That, of course, can make it hard for the horse to balance, which can be incredibly unsafe, especially if they are trying to negotiate frozen ground.
If you determine your horse needs to keep her shoes on over the winter, and you don't want to spring for the extra money for pads, there is one trick you can try to help with the snowballs. If you cover the bottom of their feet in vaseline before you turn them out it makes the snowballs a lot less likely to compact into their shoes and make it hard to walk. By the end of the day, they may have some snow packed in, but hopefully, they won't look like they are walking on snowball stilts.
If you don't have an indoor arena to ride in, most likely there will be a lot of time over the winter that the ground is too frozen to ride in some climates. If you live in a place like this and your horse stays somewhere without an indoor arena, it may be cost effective for you to take the shoes off your horse for the winter season. Most horses, unless they have underlying issues, do fine barefoot in the winter if they aren't going to be working. The hoof doesn't grow as quickly in the cold months anyway, so as long as you keep up with your trimming schedule, your horse should be okay.
If your horse wears shoes now and you plan on trying to continue to ride whenever you can in the winter time, I would say don't fix something that isn't broken. In other words, leave the shoes on!
If you plan on giving your horse off over the winter, and she has healthy feet, I see nothing wrong with saving money and pulling the shoes over the winter.
Just be aware, any horse that is used to wearing shoes may appear a little footsore when the shoes are first taken off. This should be monitored carefully to make sure it does not worsen, in which case, you should probably put the shoes back on. There is no shame in trying to pull them over the winter though if you don't plan on riding much.
I'm assuming that most of the riders at your farm don't ride much over the winter, which is quite typical in a lot of places, so that is probably why they pull their horse's shoes. If you don't plan on riding much, I would discuss it with your farrier and decide if pulling the shoes over the winter would be an okay option.
Your farrier knows your horse's feet best and should be able to tell you whether or not your horse will fare well barefoot on frozen winter ground. Some horses are totally fine. Others, with low heels, flat soles that easily bruise, or conditions like Navicular disease, need to keep the shoes on year round.
That is the thought process behind why some horses that normally wear shoes go barefoot over the winter. Now you just need to honestly access your riding plans for the cold weather months and then discuss it with your farrier.
Good luck! I know you will make the best choice. |
0.999999 | Can you summarize the book of Deuteronomy?
Deuteronomy. Which means "the repetition of the law"--consists chiefly of three discourses delivered by Moses shortly before his death. Subjoined to these discourses are the Song of Moses the Blessing of Moses, and the story of his death.
+ The second discourse is introduced like the first by an explanation of the circumstances under which it was delivered. (4:44-49) It extends from chap. (5:1-26) 19 And contains a recapitulation, with some modifications and additions of the law already given on Mount Sinai.
+ The delivery of the law as written by Moses (for its still further preservation) to the custody of the Levites, and a charge to the people to hear it read once every seven years, Deut. 31; the Song of Moses spoken in the ears of the people, (31:30; 32:44) and the blessing of the twelve tribes. (33:5) The book closes, Deuteronomy 34, with an account of the death of Moses, which is first announced to him ch. (32:48-52) The book bears witness to its own authorship, (31:19) and is expressly cited in the New Testament as the work of Moses. (Matthew 19:7,8; Mark 10:3; Acts 3:22; 7:37) The last chapter, containing an account of the death of Moses, was of course added by a later hand, and probably formed originally the beginning of the book of Joshua. |
0.994383 | The personal details of world leaders including Cameron, Merkel, Modi, Obama and Putin, were accidentally sent to Asian Cup football tournament organisers. Despite the security breach, the Australian Immigration Department did not deem it necessary to inform world leaders of the incident.
In an exclusive report published by the Guardian newspaper, it was revealed that an employee of Australia's immigration agency sent passport numbers, visa details and other personal information of all the world leaders attending the G20 summit in Brisbane on November 7, 2014, to Asian Cup organisers.
The details of attendees of the G20 summit including United States President, Barack Obama, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, the Indonesian President, Joko Widodo, and the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, were among those whose details were revealed in error.
The director of the visa services division of Australia's Department of Immigration and Border Protection contacted the Australian Privacy Commissioner to seek "urgent advice" of the breach.
Correspondence sent to the privacy commissioner's office via email was acquired under Australia's freedom of information laws. The email reveals that the breach was the fault of an employee who mistakenly emailed a member of the local organising committee of the Asian Cup, which took place in January 2015.
"The personal information which has been breached is the name, date of birth, title, position nationality, passport number, visa grant number and visa subclass held relating to 31 international leaders (i.e. prime ministers, presidents and their equivalents) attending the G20 leaders summit.
The matter was brought to my attention directly by [redacted] immediately after receiving an email from [the recipient] informing them that they had sent the email to the wrong person.
The risk remains only to the extent of human error, but there was nothing systemic or institutional about the breach."
The officer who wrote the email also explained that the personal details are 'unlikely to be in the public domain' and stated that the absence of other personal identifiers 'significantly limited' the risk of the breach. The unintended recipient of the email had promptly deleted it and emptied their deleted items folder.
The immigration officer in the email went onto to advise Australian authorities not to reveal to World leaders about the breach in security relating to their personal information. The officer wrote: "Given that the risks of the breach are considered very low and the actions that have been taken to limit the further distribution of the email, I do not consider it necessary to notify the clients of the breach."
The recommendation not to disclose the breach to world leaders may be in breach of privacy laws in some of the countries whose leaders were affected by the breach. Britain, Germany and France all require those affected by data breaches to be notified. However, as this happened in Australia this may not be relevant.
It is unclear if the Australian Immigration Department did subsequently notify the world leaders involved of the breach.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the office of the Australian Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, was reluctant to answer questions.
Tanya Plibersek, Australia's deputy opposition leader, was quick to capitalise on the blunder. She immediately called for Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, to give an explanation as to why world leaders were not notified of the situation.
She said: "The prime minister and the immigration minister must explain this serious incident and the decision not to inform those affected."
More embarrassing for the Australian government is that revelations of this gaffe come just one week after controversial, mandatory data retention laws were passed.
Greens Senator, Sarah Hanson-Young said: "Only last week the government was calling on the Australian people to trust them with their online data, and now we find out they have disclosed the details of our world leaders. This is another serious gaffe by an incompetent government."
The latest revelation regarding massive data breach in Australia is actually nothing new. It's immigration department is also the culprit for the country's biggest ever data breach by a government agency; the personal details of nearly 10,000 people in detention – most of whom were asylum seekers – became available in a publicly accessible file on the agency's website.
Australia has a number of skilled immigration visa schemes. workpermit.com can help. Call the workpermit.com London office on 0344 991 9222 for further details. |
0.997821 | Compare the calories burned shoveling snow to a variety of other activities at the calories burned chart.
Shoveling snow isn’t a lot of fun for most people, but at least there is the satisfaction of getting a job done, along with the calories burned shoveling snow, and the weight loss that results from all that hard work. At least until the next snowfall comes along and gives you more work to do. But then of course that’s just another opportunity to burn calories and lose weight.
And while shoveling snow may not be a lot of fun, it really is hard work, and the amount of calories burned shoveling snow compares favorably to the amount of calories burned yard work, for example, another not so fun chore that still has to be done once in awhile, though not, fortunately, when snow is covering the yard.
So next time you have to get all bundled up and go shovel the snow off the driveway, think about the calories burned shoveling snow, and the weight loss that will result from all that hard work.
The amount of calories burned shoveling snow will change, depending on a few different things, such as what your weight is.
As you can tell from the list above, the amount of calories burned shoveling snow definitely makes it worth volunteering for the duty when the snow does start falling. And if you happen to live in a place where a lot of snow tends to fall, then one bonus at least is that you can count on burning a lot of calories and losing a lot of weight as a result over the winter, which will have you ready for beaches when summer rolls around. |
0.892448 | Ever since it became mainstream in the 1990s and 1980s, the Internet has played an active role in the reshaping of our world. From the early days of dial up, we've come a long way. Soon, we will live in a world where free internet can be accessed from anywhere at any time.
However, right now, we're still in the early days of the internet. Use is still growing rapidly in many parts of the world, and our reasons for going online are changing all the time.
To get a snapshot of where we are now, we've compiled all the stats we could find about internet use in 2019. This should show us just how far we've come but also just how far we have to go.
Currently, more than 4.2 billion people around the world use the internet.
Since 2000, there has been a 1,066 percent increase in the number of internet users around the world.
Today, just over 55 percent of the world's population access the internet on a frequent basis.
Since 2010, the Middle East is the world's fastest-growing region in terms of internet use. There has been 4,894 percent increase in the number of users.
The US alone generates over 3 million GB of internet traffic per day.
Overall, there more than 1.8 billion websites across the internet, and 32 percent of them are using WordPress as their content management system.
However, around 75 percent of the websites out there are not active.
As you can see, many of the world's most popular sites are those most frequently used in Asia, such as Qq, Baidu, and Taoboa, where there are more internet users than any other part of the world.
In total, there are more than 440 million blogs around the world.
There are 6.7 million people blogging on a variety of sites such as Tumblr and Blogger.
According to WordPress, there are 76.3 million posts published each month, and more than 409 million people read 22.3 billion blog posts per month.
The majority of bloggers are women.
Clearly, the internet is about more than just blogging and writing email. Here is a summary of the other ways in which people use the internet.
Most people use the internet on their phones. 52.2 percent of worldwide internet traffic comes from mobile devices.
One of the most popular things to do is search for stuff. Overall, we search for everything. Google process more than 3.5 billion searches every day, which is 1.2 trillion a year, or 40,000 a second.
78 percent of Facebook users report using it to discover and learn about new products or services.
There are 4.2 billion Instagram photos "liked" every single day.
It's clear that a big reason we use the internet is to communicate with one another in some form. But anything popular activity amongst internet users is watching videos, which we do in a variety of different ways.
Of people between 18-34-years-old, 50 percent say they would drop what they are doing to watch a new video posted by a channel to which they subscribe.
50 percent of people watch a video before they purchase something.
More than half of the videos people watch on YouTube are viewed through its mobile app.
Clearly, Amazon has a big lead, but these large companies only consume only about 69.6 percent of the market, meaning there is plenty of room for other businesses to make their mark.
United Kingdom – 53 million online shoppers.
However, just because China has the most amount of shoppers doesn't mean that's where the money is.
A big portion of the money generated by eCommerce comes on "Black Friday" and the rest of the Thanksgiving weekend, which kicks off the holiday shopping season. Here are some stats about this "billion dollar holiday,"
The internet is clearly an important part of our lives. We do a lot of things, and spend a lot of money, while online, and we can only expect this trend to continue. More and more people around the world will get internet access, and this will open up a whole new set of possibilities in terms of what the internet can provide. |
0.750221 | Frederick Crayton Ainsworth was born on 11 September 1852 in Woodstock, VT.
He graduated from the Medical Department of the University of the City of New York (later New York University) in 1874 and in November of that year enlisted in the U.S. Army Medical Corps as an Assistant Surgeon. He was stationed at various posts in Arkansas and the Southwest for many years, gaining promotion to Captain, Surgeon, in November 1879.
In 1885 he was called to serve as recorder of an Army Examining Board and was assigned to direct the Records and Pensions Division of the Surgeon General's office in 1886. In this capacity he reorganized and brought up to date the records of thousands of soldiers, which made Civil War veteran pension claims faster and easier to process. In 1889 the Division was made a War Department Division, taking over certain functions of the Adjutant General's Office. In 1889 the records of the Adjutant General's office were placed under his control. Promoted to Major, Surgeon, in February 1891, he resigned his commission in May 1892 to take a line commission as a Colonel and Chief, Record and Pension Office of the War Department.
In 1898 he took over the organization and publication of all the "Official Records of the Civil War," which had been published sporadically since 1880. Through his efforts the records of the War were effectively consolidated and published, thus providing an extremely valuable source of information for Civil War historians and researchers.
Ainsworth was promoted to Brigadier General in 1899. He was appointed military secretary over an again-enlarged Department in April 1904 with the rank of Major General and, in March 1907, took over the title, as well as what remained, of Office of Adjutant General. He exercised that office jealously, and sometimes arbitrarily, until February 1912, when, he was faced with suspension from duty, and a court-martial, on grounds of insubordination at the insistence of Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, arising from his dispute with Chief of Staff, Leonard Wood. He was strongly opposed to the newly-adopted General Staff idea, and requested and then was granted retirement.
Prominent among Ainsworth's achievements was overseeing the bulk of the work publishing The War Of Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 1880-1901.
The U.S. Navy troop transport ship "USNS Fred C. Ainsworth" (T-AP-181) was named in his honor.
Major General Frederick Crayton Ainsworth died on 5 June 1934 in Washington, DC. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA. His wife, Mary Bacon Ainsworth, is buried with him. |
0.994948 | The structure of the cathedral is primarily in the Norman style, having been constructed at the behest of Bishop Herbert de Losinga between the late 11th century and about 1145. The total length of the building is 461 feet (140 m). Significant alterations from later periods include a 315 foot (96 m) spire completed in 1465, and a two-storey cloister, the only such in England, which was built between 1300 and 1430, as well as the vaults of nave and chancel. The cathedral is built of flint and mortar faced with limestone brought in from Caen. Standing at 315 feet, the cathedral's spire is the second tallest in England, and dominates the city skyline; only the spire of Salisbury Cathedral is higher at 404 feet. Along with Salisbury and Ely, the cathedral lacks a ring of bells - the only three English cathedrals to do so. One of the best views of the cathedral spire is from St. James's Hill on Mousehold Heath. The bosses of the vault number over 1,000. Each is decorated with a theological image and have been described as without parallel in the Christian world. The nave vault shows the history of the world from the creation; the cloister includes series showing the life of Christ, and the Apocalypse.
It is tragical to relate the furious sacrilege committed under the authority of Linsey, Tofts the sheriff, and Greenwood: what clattering of glasses, what beating down of walls, what tearing down of monuments, what pulling down of seats, and wresting out of irons and brass from the windows and graves; what defacing of arms, what demolishing of curious stone-work, that had not any representation in the world but of the cost of the founder and skill of the mason; what piping on the destroyed organ-pipes; vestments, both copes and surplices, together with the leaden cross which had been newly sawed down from over the greenyard pulpit, and the singing-books and service-books, were carried to the fire in the public market-place; a lewd wretch walking before the train in his cope trailing in the dirt, with a service-book in his hand, imitating in an impious scorn the tune, and usurping the words of the litany. The ordnance being discharged on the guild-day, the cathedral was filled with musketeers, drinking and tobacconing as freely as if it had turned ale-house. Only at the Restoration in 1660 would the cathedral be restored under Charles II. |
0.85318 | From the earliest ballets up to the time of Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632–1687), the music of ballet was indistinguishable from ballroom dance music. Lully created a style that was separate, wherein the music told a story. The first "ballet d'action" was staged in 1717. This was a story told without any words. The pioneer was John Weaver (1673–1760). Both Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau wrote opéra-ballets, where the story was partly danced and partly sung, but ballet music became gradually less important.
The next big step occurred in the early years of the nineteenth century, when principal dancers changed from using hard shoes to ballet pumps. This enabled a more free-flowing style of music to be used. Marie Taglioni (1804–1884) is credited with being the first ballerina to dance en pointe in La Sylphide in 1832. It was now possible to have music that was more expressive. Gradually, dancing became more daring, with men lifting the ballerinas into the air.
Until the time of Tchaikovsky, the composer of ballets was considered to be separate from the composer of symphonies. Ballet music was an accompaniment for the solo and ensemble dances. Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake was the first musical ballet piece to be created by a symphonic composer. Following the initiative of Tchaikovsky, ballet composers were no longer writing simple, easily danceable pieces. The focus of a ballet was no longer solely the dance; the compositions behind the dances began to take an equal prevalence. In the late 19th century, Marius Petipa, French ballet choreographer and dancer, worked with composers such as Cesare Pugni to create ballet masterpieces that boasted both complex dance and complex music. Petipa worked with Tchaikovsky as well, whether through collaboration with Tchaikovsky on his work The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, or indirectly through revision of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake after the composer’s death.
In many cases ballets were still short scenes within operas, to enable scenery or costume changes. Perhaps the best-known example of ballet music that is part of an opera is the Dance of the Hours from Amilcare Ponchielli's opera La Gioconda (1876). There was a violent change in mood when Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring (1913) was performed. The music was modernist and dissonant, and the movements were highly stylized. In 1924 George Antheil wrote Ballet Mécanique, which was actually for a film of moving objects, not for dancers, but it was pioneering in the use of jazz music. From this point dance music split into two directions: modern and jazz dance. George Gershwin attempted to bridge this gap with his ambitious score to the film Shall We Dance (1937), composing over one hour of music that spanned from the cerebral and technical to foot-stomping jazz and rumba. One scene, Hoctor's Ballet, was composed specifically for the ballerina Harriet Hoctor.
Another strand in the history of ballet music is the trend towards creative adaptations of old music. Ottorino Respighi took works by Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) and strung them together into a ballet called La Boutique fantasque, premiered in 1919. The audience for ballet generally prefers romantic music, so new ballets are confected from old works with new choreography. A well-known example is The Dream to the music of Felix Mendelssohn, arranged by John Lanchbery.
Mihailovic, Alexandar, and Jeanne Fuchs. "Tchaikovsky's ballets: Interpretation and performance." Tchaikovsky and his contemporaries: A centennial symposium. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1999. 295-312.
Warrack, John Hamilton. Tchaikovsky Ballet Music. London, England: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1979.
Wiley, Roland John. Tchaikovsky (Master Musicians Series). New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2009.
Ballet and dance music (In Russian.) Music library. History of dances. Gallery. |
0.943801 | A chess set in the array, or starting position.
In a competitive game, a clock is used. Each player has an equal overall time for the game, and decides how best to use the time given.
Libro de los juegos, Alfonso X of Castile, showing Muslim playing Christian.
Chess is a board game for two players. It is played in a square board, made of 64 smaller squares, with eight squares on each side. Each player starts with sixteen pieces: eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king. The goal of the game is for each player to try and checkmate the king of the opponent. Checkmate is a threat ('check') to the opposing king which no move can stop. It ends the game.
During the game the two opponents take turns to move one of their pieces to a different square of the board. One player ('White') has pieces of a light color; the other player ('Black') has pieces of a dark color. There are rules about how pieces move, and about taking the opponent's pieces off the board. The player with white pieces always makes the first move. Because of this, White has a small advantage, and wins more often than Black in tournament games.
Chess is popular and is often played in competitions called chess tournaments. It is enjoyed in many countries, and is a national hobby in Russia.
Most historians agree that the game of chess was first played in northern India during the Gupta Empire in the 6th century AD. This early type of chess was known as Chaturanga, a Sanskrit word for the military. The Gupta chess pieces were divided like their military into the infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots. In time, these pieces became the pawn, knight, bishop, and rook. The English words chess and check both come from the Persian word shāh meaning king.
The earliest written evidence of chess is found in three romances (epic stories) written in Sassanid Persia around 600AD. The game was known as chatrang or shatranj. When Persia was taken over by Muslims (633–644) the game was spread to all parts of the Muslim world. Muslim traders carried the game to Russia and to Western Europe. By the year 1000 it had spread all over Europe. In the 13th century a Spanish manuscript called Libro de los Juegos describes the games of shatranj (chess), backgammon, and dice.
The game changed greatly between about 1470 to 1495. The rules of the older game were changed in the West so that some of the pieces (queen, bishop) had more scope, development of the pieces was faster, and the game more exciting. The new game formed the basis of modern international chess. Historians of chess consider this as the most important change since the game was invented.
The rules of chess are governed by the World Chess Federation, which is known by the initials FIDE, meaning Fédération Internationale des Échecs. The rules are in the section Laws of Chess of the FIDE Handbook. FIDE also give rules and guidelines for chess tournaments.
Chess is played on a square board divided into eight rows of squares called ranks and eight columns called files, with a dark square in each player's lower left corner. This is altogether 64 squares. The colors of the squares are laid out in a checker (chequer) pattern in light and dark squares. To make speaking and writing about chess easy, each square has a name. Each rank has a number from 1 to 8, and each file a letter from a to h. This means that every square on the board has its own label, such as g1 or f5. The pieces are in white and black sets. The players are called White and Black, and at the start of a game each player has 16 pieces. The 16 pieces are one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. in this game out can get up to a quadruple pon, king, knight, queen, and also the king although it is very rare.
Definitions: vertical lines are files; horizontal lines are ranks; lines at 45° are diagonals. Each piece has its own way of moving around the board. The X marks the squares where the piece can move.
The knight is the only piece that can jump over another piece.
No piece may move to a square occupied by a piece of the same color.
All pieces capture the same way they move, except pawns.
The king's move is one square in any direction. The king (K for short) may not move to any square where it is threatened by an opposing piece. However, the king can move to a square that is occupied by an opponent's piece and capture the piece, taking it off the board.
The queen (Q) can move any distance in any direction on the ranks, files and diagonals.
The rooks (R) move any distance on the ranks or files.
The bishops (B) move diagonally on the board. Since a bishop can only move diagonally, it will always be on the same color square.
The knights (Kt or N) move in an "L" shape. Each move must be either two squares along a rank and one square along a file, or two squares along a file and one square along a rank. It is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. Like the other pieces, it captures an opposing piece by landing on its square.
The pawns can only move up the board. On its first move a pawn may move either one or two squares forward. A pawn captures one square diagonally, not as it moves: see white circles on its diagram. Besides, in some situations pawns can capture opponent's pawns in a special way called en passant, which means in passing in French (see below).
The king cannot be taken (see check and checkmate).
No piece can be taken while castling (see below).
Pawns take one square diagonally.
If a move is made which attacks the opposing king, that king is said to be 'in check'. The player whose king is checked must make a move to remove the check. The options are: moving the king, capturing the threatening piece, or moving another piece between the threatening piece and the king. If the player whose king is in danger cannot do any of these things, it is checkmate, and the player loses the game.
Neither piece doing the castling may have been moved during the game.
The king may not be currently in check, nor may the king pass through any square attacked by the opponent. As with any move, castling is not allowed if it would place the king in check.
En passant ('in passing' in French) is a special capture. It is only available when a pawn moves forward two squares past an opposing pawn on an adjacent file. The opposing pawn must be on the 5th rank from its own side. Then the opponent's pawn can capture the double-mover as if it had only moved one square forward. This option is open on the next move only.
For example, if the black pawn has just moved up two squares from g7 to g5, then the white pawn on f5 can take it by en passant on g6. The en passant rule was developed when pawns were allowed to make their double move. The rule made it more difficult for players to avoid pawn exchanges and blockade the position. It kept the game more open.
When a pawn moves to its eighth rank, it must be changed for a piece: a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color (player's choice). Normally, the pawn is queened, but in some advantageous cases another piece is chosen, called 'under-promotion'.
Checkmates are rare in competitive chess. The most common ends are decisions made by one or both players.
Checkmate. When a king is in check, and cannot get out of it.
Resignation. A player may resign at any time, usually because his/her position is hopeless. A losing player is able to resign by placing their king on its side on the chessboard.
Draw agreed. A game may end in a draw at any time if one player offers a draw and the other accepts.
Stalemate. If a player cannot make a move, and the player's king is not in check, this is also a draw. This kind of draw is called a stalemate, and is rare.
50-move rule. A game will also end in a draw if no piece is captured and no pawn has moved after fifty moves. This is called the fifty-move rule, and happens late in the game.
Threefold repetition. If the exactly same position is repeated three times during a game with the same player to move each time, the player next to move may claim a draw. The game is now drawn. This is called a draw by threefold repetition.
If players wish to adjust a piece on the board, they must first say "J'adoube" (I adjust) or the equivalent. Apart from that, if a piece is touched it must be moved if possible. This is the 'touch and move' law.p425 If no legal move is possible with the touched piece, the player must make a legal move with another piece.Section 4p90 et seq When a player's hand leaves a piece after moving it then the move is over and may not be changed (if the move was legal).
There are a few famous cases where players appeared to break this rule without being punished. The most famous example was by the then World Champion Garry Kasparov against Judit Polgar in a top-class tournament.
The moves of a chess game are written down by using a special chess notation. This is compulsory for any competitive game.Article 8 & Appendix E Usually algebraic chess notation is used. In algebraic notation, each square has one and only one name (whether you are looking from White's side of the board or Black's). Here, moves are written in the format of: initial of piece moved – file where it moved – rank where it moved. For example, Qg5 means "queen moves to the g-file and 5th rank" (that is, to the square g5). If there are two pieces of the same type that can move to the same square, one more letter or number is added to show the file or rank from which the piece moved, e.g. Ngf3 means "knight from the g-file moves to the square f3". The letter P showing a pawn is not used, so that e4 means "pawn moves to the square e4".
If the piece makes a capture, "x" is written before the square in which the capturing piece lands on. Example: Bxf3 means "bishop captures on f3". When a pawn makes a capture, the file from which the pawn left is used in place of a piece initial. For example: exd5 means "pawn captures on d5."
If a pawn moves to its eighth rank, getting a promotion, the piece chosen is written after the move, for example e1Q or e1=Q. Castling is written by the special notations 0-0 for kingside castling and 0-0-0 for queenside. A move which places the opponent's king in check normally has the notation "+" added. Checkmate can be written as # or ++. At the end of the game, 1-0 means "White won", 0-1 means "Black won" and ½-½ is a draw.
With figurines in place of the initials, this would be understood by players everywhere.
Chess is an easy game to learn the moves, but a difficult game to master. Strategy is an important part of the game. First of all comes the openings, about which a great deal is now known. The best-known move, the King's Pawn opening, is the white player moving his king's pawn on e2 forward two spaces to e4. Black can reply to that move in various ways.
The first moves of a chess game are called the opening. A chess opening is a name given to a series of opening moves. Recognized patterns of opening moves are openings and have been given names such as the Ruy Lopez or Sicilian defence. They are listed in reference works such as the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings. There are dozens of different openings. They range from gambits, where a pawn, say, is offered for fast development (e.g. the King's Gambit), to slower openings which lead to a manoeuvring type of game (e.g. the Réti opening). In some opening lines, the sequence thought best for both sides has been worked out to 20–30 moves, but most players avoid such lines. Expert players study openings throughout their chess career, as opening theory keeps on developing.
Development: to place (develop) the pieces (mostly bishops and knights) on useful squares where they will have the most powerful impact on the game.
Control of the center: the center is the most important part of the board. The player who controls the center can move his/her pieces around freely. His/her opponent, on the other hand, will find his/her pieces cramped, and difficult to move about.
King safety: keeping the king safe from danger. Castling (see section above) can often do this.
Pawn structure: pawns can be used to control the center. Players try to avoid making pawn weaknesses such as isolated, doubled or backward pawns, and pawn islands – and to force such weaknesses in the opponent's position.
Players think, and chess databases prove, that White, by virtue of the first move, begins the game with a better chance. Black normally tries to equalise, or to get some counterplay.
The middlegame is the part of the game after most pieces have been developed. It is where most games are won and lost. Many games will end in resignation even before an endgame takes place.
A middlegame position has a structure. That structure is determined by the opening. The simplest way to learn the middlegame is to select an opening and learn it well (see examples in English opening and French defence).
Material: changes in the balance of material are critical. To lose a piece for nothing is enough to lose a game. If the players are evenly matched, then a rough material balance of pieces is normal. Material balance is often quite static: it does not change for many moves.
Development: the opening may have left one player with a lead in development. That player has the initiative, and may attack before the opponent can get his pieces out. It is a temporary asset: if a lead in development is not used effectively, it will disappear.
The centre: in the centre pieces have their greatest effect, and some (such as the knight) attack more squares in the centre than at the sides. The player who controls the centre will almost always have the advantage.
Mobility: a position is mobile if the pieces can get where they need to. Almost all middle game positions have some limitations to mobility. Look for open files for the rooks, and open diagonals for the bishops. Outposts are what knights need, places where they can not easily be dislodged.
King safety: where is the king? Ideally, a king should be castled, and kept behind a screen of pawns. Many other things may happen in practice. If a king is weak, it may be put under direct attack.
Pawns: they provide the skeleton of a position. They move slowly, and may become blocked for many moves. Everything takes place round the pawns. Different openings produce different pawn structures. In this way openings influence the whole game (Philidor: "Pawns are the soul of chess").
Here is an example from the borderline between opening and middlegame. In the diagram to the left, White will operate mainly on the Q-side, and Black on the K-side.
White, to play, may wish to cope with Black playing 10...Nf4. He can do this by playing 10.g3, or by playing 10.Re1 so that if 10...Nf4 11.Bf1 will preserve the bishop (in this position an important defensive piece). Or maybe White will plough ahead with 10.c5, the key move on the Q-side.
The data base also shows that the overall results were significantly better for 10.Re1. What the player does is note the features on the board, and formulate a plan which takes the features into account. Then the player works out a sequence of moves. Of course, in practice, the opponent is interfering with the plan at every step!
Pawns: during the endgame, pawns become more special. In the endgame, one thing players try to do is to promote a pawn by advancing it to the eighth rank.
Kings: may become strong pieces in the endgame. The king may be brought towards the center of the board. There it can support its own pawns, attack the opponent's pawns, and oppose the opponent's king.
Draws: in the endgame, a game may be drawn because there are too few pieces on the board to allow a player to win. This is one of the main reasons for games to be drawn.
All endgame positions can be put into two camps. On the one hand are positions which may be won by force. On the other hand, are positions which are drawn, or which should be drawn. The ones that are drawn for certain may be legally drawn (mate could not happen) or drawn by chess experience (no sane defence could lose). All endgames in master chess revolve around the borderline between winning and drawing. Generally, once a 'textbook' drawn position is reached the players will agree a draw; otherwise they play on.
Endgames can be studied according to the types of pieces that remain on board. For example, king and pawn endgames have only kings and pawns on one or both sides and the task of the stronger side is to promote one of the pawns. Other endings are studied according to the pieces on board other than kings, e.g. rook and pawn versus rook endgame.
Basic checkmates are positions in which one side has only a king and the other side has one or two pieces, enough to checkmate the opponent's king. They are usually learned at the beginner stage. Examples are mate with K+Q v K; K+R v K; K+2B v K; K+B&N v K (this one is quite difficult).
There are two types of chess programs. One is to play against you; the other is to help you become a better player by learning more. The two types can be made to work together, though they have different functions.
Fritz is a German chess program by Frans Morsch and Mathias Feist, published by ChessBase. It is the current market leader. There is also a different kind of Fritz called Deep Fritz that is made for multi-processing. The latest kinds of the consumer products are Deep Fritz 12 and Fritz 12. They came with reviews by Josh Waitzkin, who said that "Fritz is like a woman that you can't get with. It just drives (makes) you to think in ways you've never thought before".
Shredder, also a ChessBase product, is claimed to be the strongest engine at present.
Rybka, a product by Vasik Rajlich, is Shredder's main rival.
Chess databases do not actually play. They give access to the recorded history of master chess. There are two components. First, there is the software, which lets one search and organise the database material. Then there is the actual database, typically one to four million games.
In practice, databases are used for two purposes. First, for a player to train his/her ability at specific openings. Second, to look up specific opponents to see what they play, and prepare against them beforehand.
The existence of chess databases is one of the reasons young players can achieve mastery at an early age.
ChessBase is the biggest database, and widely used by masters. Although it can be used online, most users download the software and data onto their computer. If that computer happens to be a laptop, then they might take the laptop to tournaments, to help prepare for games. Players may not use computers or any other aid during games, but much preparation goes on behind the scenes. ChessBase has to be purchased, and it is not cheap.
This is a Dutch magazine for advanced players, which runs an on-line database called NicBase as part of its services. NicBase is free, and has over a million games.
Chessgames.com runs an on-line database of games. It is partly free, but requires registration. Full access to all its facilities is by a fairly modest subscription. It has over half a million games on its database.
Euwe, Max and Kramer H. 1994. The middlegame, books I and II. Hays. ISBN 978-1880673959 and ISBN 978-1880673966 This goes further than improvers need, but might be used by chess teachers as a source of classic positions.
King, Daniel 2000. Chess: from first moves to checkmate. Kingfisher, London. Illustrated, 64 pages. (Beginners, children).
Tarrasch, Siegbert (1994). The game of chess. Algebraic edition. Hays Publishing. ISBN 1-880673-94-0. OCLC 31152893.
These are endgames for improvers, based on reviews by John Watson.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to chess.
↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 "Laws of Chess". FIDE. Retrieved 2008-11-26.
↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Chessgames "Chess Opening Explorer". Chessgames.com. Retrieved 2010-05-25.
↑ Rowson, Jonathan (2005). Chess for Zebras: thinking differently about black and white. Gambit Publications. p. 193. ISBN 1-901983-85-4.
↑ Gifford, Clive and Lisa Clayden (2002). Family flip quiz: Geography. Great Bardfield, Essex, CM7 4SL: Miles Kelly. ISBN 1-84236-146-5.
↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Murray H.J.R. (1913). A history of chess. Benjamin Press (first published by Oxford University Press). ISBN 0-936317-01-9. OCLC 13472872.
↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Hooper D. and Whyld K. 1992. The Oxford companion to chess. 2nd ed, Oxford University Press.
↑ Audubert, Pierre 1978. Das spanische Schachbuch des Königs Alfons des Weisen vom Jahr 1283. Idion, Munchen.
↑ Eales, Richard. 1983. Chess: the history of a game. Batsford, London.
↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 12.7 Reuben, Stewart 2005. The chess organiser's handbook. 3rd ed, incorporating the FIDE Laws of Chess. Harding Simpole, Devon.
↑ "Chess Moves - How chess pieces move - chess piece movements". gamesinfodepot.com. Retrieved 1 April 2010.
↑ "Checkmate in Chess". chesscentral.com. Retrieved 1 April 2010.
↑ "Castling, by Chess Corner". chesscorner.com. chess corner. Retrieved 1 April 2010.
↑ Robert Harrison. "Chess tips: How to promote a pawn". helium.com. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
↑ Chess.com "Learn Chess:Check and Checkmate". Chess.com. 2010. Retrieved 12 March 2010.
↑ "Chess Rules :: Draw threefold repetition". rules-of-chess.com. Retrieved 1 April 2010.
↑ Peters, Jack (Jan.5,1995). "Chess Highlights of 1994". Los Angeles Times: p. 27.
↑ Berry, Jonathan (Mar.19,1994). "Victory boosts Karpov's rating". The Globe and Mail (Toronto): p. A18. Berry, himself a Fide Master and International Arbiter, describes the incident: "Mr. Kasparov picked up his knight at d7 and placed it on c5. 'Touch & move' requires a player to move a touched piece, but the move is not over until the hand leaves the piece. Seeing that 37.Bb7-c6 would be bad for Black, Mr. Kasparov instead put the knight on f8. However, the way Miss Polgar saw it, Mr. Kasparov's hand did leave the piece on c5. Accounts diverge from there. We do know that Spanish TV recorded the game and that there were several spectators, some of whom thought that Mr. Kasparov removed his hand from the knight at c5".
"E.I.01B. Appendices". FIDE. Retrieved 2008-11-26.
↑ 23.0 23.1 "Chess Notation". Roger McIntyre. Huntsville Chess Club. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
↑ 24.0 24.1 Tarrasch, Siegbert (1987). The game of chess. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-25447-X. OCLC 15631832.
↑ "A beginner's garden of chess openings". dwheeler.com. Retrieved 1 April 2010.
↑ "CHESSOPS: A basic guide to chess openings". Peter Hobbs. eudesign.com. Retrieved 2010-05-25.
↑ Collins, Sam (2005). Understanding the chess openings. Gambit Publications. ISBN 1-904600-28-X. OCLC 57484838.
↑ "chessguru". BBC News. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
↑ "Chess champion loses to computer". BBC News. 2006.
↑ Fritz as seen by ChessBase "ChessBase news: Deep Fritz 12 download". ChessBase. Retrieved 2010-05-25.
↑ Shredder home page "Shredder Computer Chess". shredderchess.com. Retrieved 2010-05-25.
↑ Rybka "Welcome to RybkaChess.com!". Vasik Rajlich. Rybka. Retrieved 2010-05-25.
↑ "ChessBase Service and Download". chessbase.com. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
↑ NicBase "NicBase online". New In Chess. Retrieved 2010-05-25.
↑ "The Internet Chess Club". Internet Chess Club. Retrieved 2010-05-25.
↑ "Playchess". ChessBase. Retrieved 2010-05-25.
↑ John Watson's reviews "John Watson Chess Book Reviews". The Week in Chess. Retrieved 2010-05-25.
This page was last changed on 14 February 2019, at 01:57. |
0.999914 | Describe in detail and explain the difference between the freelance and business models.
2. Describe the four major methods of apprehension used by law enforcement in street level drug law enforcement, including any criticisms of these methods.
3. Discuss mandatory minimum sentencing in detail. Be sure to include the arguments for and against this type of sentencing and the changes made to mandatory minimum sentencing laws since their enactment.
4. Discuss in detail the use of drug courts. How do they operate? Are they successful? Discuss the potential of drug courts to reduce: 1) the demand for illicit drugs and 2) the costs associated with the enforcement of drug laws. |
0.96423 | Murano Glass is a glass in a chemical sense of the word that is made exclusively on the small island of Murano, which is located within the borders of the Northern Italy city of Venice. Murano Glass is made when potassium, silica, soda and lime are mixed together in a fiercely hot furnace at a temperature of 1500°C to turn the mixture into liquid state.
The first time Murano glass appeared was in the 8th century Rome. Murano became the glassmaking center when the Venetian Republic feared that fire would destruct the city's buildings since they were mostly wooden. In 1291, the glassmakers were forced to move their factories to Murano.
Often, gold or silver foil are added to the glass mixture, along with other minerals such as copper for metallic effects, zinc for white colour, cobalt for blue, manganese for violet and more. The master glassmakers mouth-blow and/or hand-craft the mixture with skillful techniques and fundamental tools, many of the tools have been developed since the Middle Ages and have not changed much. This glass-making method gives unique creations not only with vivid colors but also beautiful, sometimes dreamlike, shapes and patterns, earning the reputation of "works of art". Despite the fact that other places around the world make different beautiful glassware, none of them can compare with Murano glass with such a rich history and high artistic value.
Murano Glass was first made and appeared in the 8th century. In 1960, archaeologists discovered one of the oldest glass furnaces on an Island of Venice built in the 8th century, and despite various ups and downs, Murano Glass has continued to exist and also grow successfully until today. Nowadays, Murano glass is still inseparable with Venetian glass.
Murano has a rich history of glasswork. It is a small town located in Venice, a city in Northern Italy, situated 1.5 kilometers from the city of Venice. From 1900 until now, the number of professional glassmakers in Murano has dropped from around 6000 to less than 1000.
Murano Glass was first made and appeared in the 8th century, and despite various ups and downs, Murano Glass has continued to exist and also grow successfully until today.
Glassmaking in Murano is believed to originate in 8th century Rome, due to major influences from Asia and Muslim, Venice was once a significance trading port.
As early as the 8th century, Venice became a well-known glassmaking center. In 1960, archaeologists discovered one of the oldest glass furnaces on an Island of Venice built in the 8th century.
Murano became the glassmaking center when the Venetian Republic feared that fire would destruct the city's buildings since they were mostly wooden, in 1291, the glassmakers were forced to move their factories to Murano. Nowadays, Murano Glass is still inseparable with Venetian glass. |
0.962183 | Philippe Petit (French pronunciation: [filip pəti]; born 13 August 1949) is a French high-wire artist who gained fame for his high-wire walk between the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, 1971 as well as his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, on the morning of 7 August 1974. For his unauthorized feat 400 metres (1,312 feet) above the ground – which he referred to as "le coup" – he rigged a 200-kilogram (440-pound) cable and used a custom-made 8-metre (30-foot) long, 25-kilogram (55-pound) balancing pole. He performed for 45 minutes, making eight passes along the wire. The following week, he celebrated his 25th birthday. All charges were dismissed in exchange for him doing a performance in Central Park for children.
Since then, Petit has lived in New York, where he has been artist-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, also a location of other aerial performances. He has done wire walking as part of official celebrations in New York, across the United States, and in France and other countries, as well as teaching workshops on the art. In 2008, Man on Wire, a documentary directed by James Marsh about Petit's walk between the towers, won numerous awards. He was also the subject of a children's book and an animated adaptation of it, released in 2005. The Walk, a movie based on Petit's walk, was released in September 2015, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Petit and directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Within one year, I taught myself to do all the things you could do on a wire. I learned the backward somersault, the front somersault, the unicycle, the bicycle, the chair on the wire, jumping through hoops. But I thought, "What is the big deal here? It looks almost ugly." So I started to discard those tricks and to reinvent my art.
In June 1971, Petit secretly installed a cable between the two towers of Notre Dame de Paris. On the morning of 26 June 1971, he "juggled balls" and "pranced back and forth" as the crowd below applauded.
Petit became known to New Yorkers in the early 1970s for his frequent tightrope-walking performances and magic shows in the city parks, especially Washington Square Park. Petit's most famous performance was in August 1974, conducted on a wire between the roofs of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, a quarter mile above the ground. The towers were still under construction and had not yet been fully occupied. He performed for 45 minutes, making eight passes along the wire, during which he walked, danced, lay down on the wire, and saluted watchers from a kneeling position. Office workers, construction crews and policemen cheered him on.
Petit conceived his "coup" when he was 18, when he first read about the proposed construction of the Twin Towers and saw drawings of the project in a magazine, which he read in 1968 while sitting at a dentist's office. Petit was seized by the idea of performing there, and began collecting articles on the Towers whenever he could.
What was called the "artistic crime of the century" took Petit six years of planning. During this period, he learned everything he could about the buildings and their construction. In the same period, he began to perform high-wire walking at other famous places. Rigging his wire secretly, he performed as a combination of circus act and public display. In 1971, he performed his first such walk between the towers of the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, while priests were being ordained inside the building. In 1973, he walked a wire rigged between the two north pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in Sydney, Australia.
In planning for the Twin Towers walk, Petit had to learn how to accommodate such issues as the swaying of the high towers due to wind, which was part of their design; effects of wind and weather on the wire at that height, how to rig a 200 ft (61 m) steel cable across the 138 ft (42 m) gap between the towers (at a height of 1,368 ft (417 m)), and how to gain entry with his collaborators, first to scope out the conditions and lastly, to stage the project. They had to get heavy equipment to the rooftops. He traveled to New York on numerous occasions to make first-hand observations.
Since the towers were still under construction, Petit and one of his collaborators, New York-based photographer Jim Moore, rented a helicopter to take aerial photographs of the buildings. Jean-François and Jean-Louis helped him practice in a field in France, and accompanied him to take part in the final rigging of the project, as well as to photograph it. Francis Brunn, a German juggler, provided financial support for the proposed project and its planning.
Petit and his crew gained entry into the towers several times and hid in upper floors and on the roofs of the unfinished buildings in order to study security measures. They also analyzed the construction and identified places to anchor the wire and cavalletti[dubious – discuss]. Using his own observations, drawings, and Moore's photographs, Petit constructed a scale model of the towers in order to design the needed rigging for the wire walk.
Working from an ID of an American who worked in the building, Petit made fake identification cards for himself and his collaborators (claiming that they were contractors who were installing an electrified fence on the roof) to gain access to the buildings. Prior to this, Petit had carefully observed the clothes worn by construction workers and the kinds of tools they carried. He also took note of the clothing of office workers so that some of his collaborators could pose as white collar workers. He observed what time the workers arrived and left, so he could determine when he would have roof access.
As the target date of his "coup" approached, he claimed to be a journalist with Metropolis, a French architecture magazine, so that he could gain permission to interview the workers on the roof. The Port Authority allowed Petit to conduct the interviews, which he used as a pretext to make more observations.
On the night of Tuesday, 6 August 1974, Petit and his crew had a lucky break and got a ride in a freight elevator to the 110th floor with their equipment. They stored it 19 steps below the roof. In order to pass the cable across the void, Petit and his crew had settled on using a bow and arrow attached to a rope. They had to practice this many times to perfect their technique. They first shot across a fishing line, which was attached to larger ropes, and finally to the 450-pound steel cable. The team was delayed when the heavy cable sank too fast, and had to be pulled up manually for hours. Petit had already identified points at which to anchor two tiranti (guy lines) to other points to stabilize the cable and keep the swaying of the wire to a minimum.
Shortly after 7 am local time, Petit stepped out on the wire and started to perform. He was 1350 feet (411 m), a quarter mile, above the ground. He performed for 45 minutes, making eight passes along the wire, during which he walked, danced, lay down on the wire, and knelt to salute watchers. Crowds gathered on the streets below. He said later that he could hear their murmuring and cheers.
When NYPD and PAPD officers learned of his stunt, they came up to the roofs of both buildings to try to persuade him to get off the wire. They threatened to pluck him off by helicopter. Petit got off when it started to rain.
There was extensive news coverage and public appreciation of Petit's high-wire walk; the district attorney dropped all formal charges of trespassing and other items relating to his walk. In exchange, Petit was required to give a free aerial show for children in Central Park. He performed on a high-wire walk in the Park above Belvedere Lake (known now as Turtle Pond).
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey gave Petit a lifetime pass to the Twin Towers' Observation Deck. He autographed a steel beam close to the point where he began his walk.
Petit's high-wire walk is credited with bringing the Twin Towers much needed attention and even affection, as they initially had been unpopular. Critics such as historian Lewis Mumford had regarded them as ugly and utilitarian in design, and too large a development for the area. The Port Authority was having trouble renting out all of the office space.
Mordicai Gerstein wrote and illustrated a children's book, The Man Who Walked Between The Towers (2003), which won a Caldecott Medal for his art. It was adapted and produced as an animated short film by the same title, directed by Michael Sporn and released in 2005, which won several awards.
The documentary film Man on Wire (2008) by UK director James Marsh is about Petit and his 1974 WTC performance. It won both the World Cinema Jury and Audience awards at the Sundance Film Festival 2008. It combines historical footage with re-enactment and has the spirit of a heist film. It won awards at the 2008 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina, and the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2009. On stage with Marsh to accept the Oscar award, Petit made a coin vanish in his hands while thanking the Academy "for believing in magic". He balanced the Oscar by its head on his chin to cheers from the audience.
Petit's memoir was also adapted as a biographical drama entitled The Walk (2015), directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Petit.
Petit has made dozens of public high-wire performances in his career; in 1986 he re-enacted the crossing of the Niagara River by Blondin for an IMAX film. In 1989, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, mayor Jacques Chirac invited him to walk an inclined wire strung from the ground at the Place du Trocadéro to the second level of the Eiffel Tower, crossing the Seine.
Petit briefly headlined with the Ringling Brothers Circus, but preferred staging his own performances. During his stint with the circus and a practice walk, he suffered his only fall, from 45 feet (14 m), breaking several ribs. He says he has never fallen during a performance. "If I had, I wouldn't be here talking about it."
Petit regularly gives lectures and workshops internationally on a variety of topics and subjects. He single-handedly built a barn in the Catskill Mountains using the methods and tools of 18th-century timber framers. He wrote his eighth book, A Square Peg. He has also created an ebook for TED Books, entitled Cheating the Impossible: Ideas and Recipes from a Rebellious High-Wire Artist. Petit divides his time between New York City, where he is an artist in residence at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, and a hideaway in the Catskill Mountains.
Among those who have associated with some of his projects are such artists as: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Werner Herzog, Annie Leibovitz, Miloš Forman, Volker Schlöndorff, Twyla Tharp, Peter Beard, Marcel Marceau, Paul Auster, Paul Winter, Debra Winger, Robin Williams and Sting.
Director James Signorelli assisted with creation of the book To Reach the Clouds (2002), about the Twin Towers walk. Petit not only wrote about his feat, and events that led to the performance, but also expressed his feelings following the September 11 attacks, during which the Twin Towers were destroyed. He wrote that on that morning, "My towers became our towers. I saw them collapse – hurling, crushing thousands of lives. Disbelief preceded sorrow for the obliteration of the buildings, perplexity descended before rage at the unbearable loss of life." Petit paid tribute to those who were killed and supported rebuilding the towers, promising that "When the towers again twin-tickle the clouds, I offer to walk again, to be the expression of the builders' collective voice. Together, we will rejoice in an aerial song of victory." A different complex of buildings has been developed on the site, and does not offer this opportunity.
2015 The Walk US 3D biographical drama directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Petit.
The song, "Man on Wire" by the band 27 is a tribute to Philippe Petit.
The song, "Sleepwalking," by Danish composer Ste van Holm is a tribute to Petit's World Trade Center walk.
The Low Anthem's song, "Boeing 737", from their 2011 album Smart Flesh, refers to Petit's Twin Towers walk.
American rock band Incubus used a photo of Petit as the cover art for their album, If Not Now, When? (2011).
Colum McCann's National Book Award-winning novel, Let the Great World Spin (2009), features Petit's Twin Towers walk as its opening passage and a centrepiece to which numerous characters are connected.
"Funambulist", a song by American metal band Cormorant, is about his walk between the Twin Towers.
The song "Step Out Of The Void" by musician Howard Moss is a tribute to Philippe Petit, in the album Outside the Pale (2013).
The song "Man On A Wire" by The Script on their fourth album, No Sound Without Silence, is influenced by Petit's high-wire legacy.
The song "Stand Up Comedy" by U2 on their twelfth album, No Line On The Horizon, references "The wire is stretched in between our two towers".
Petit was the inspiration for the 5th Anniversary 9/11 cover of The New Yorker magazine (11 September 2006), "Soaring Spirit", by John Mavroudis (concept) and Owen Smith (art). That cover was named Cover of the Year by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME). The two-part cover was a first for The New Yorker.
^ a b c Lichtenstein, Grace (8 August 1974). "Stuntman, Eluding Guards, Walks a Tightrope Between Trade Center Towers". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 April 2008. Combining the cunning of a second-story man with the nerve of an Evel Knievel, a French high-wire artist sneaked past guards at the World Trade center, ran a cable between the tops of its twin towers and tightrope-walked across it yesterday morning.
^ a b c d Marsh, James (Director) (2008). Man on Wire (Documentary).
^ Tomkins, Calvin, "The Man Who Walks on Air," New Yorker Magazine, 1999, excerpted in Life Story, by David Remnick, Modern Library Paperback edition, 2001.
^ "Sneaky Juggler Has Ball Up In Sky At Notre Dame". The Ogden-Standard Examiner (AP story). 27 June 1971. p. 1.
^ "New York: The Center of the World". American Experience. PBS/WGBH.
^ Man On Wire DVD, "Philippe Petit's Sydney Harbor Bridge Crossing" bonus feature.
^ Higginbotham, Adam (19 January 2003). "The second part of Philippe Petit's story". The Guardian. London.
^ Lichtenstein, Grace (8 August 1974). "Stuntman, Eluding Guards, Walks a Tightrope Between Trade Center Towers". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 October 2010.
^ a b "Before & After; Talking of the Towers" The New York Times.
^ Kilgannon, Corey (7 August 2005). "Tightrope Walk Between Twin Towers Is Recalled". The New York Times.
^ kingkongphoto123 (22 February 2009). "My hero Phillipe Petit wins Oscar". YouTube. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
^ "The House That Came Wired". 22 March 2013 – via Wall Street Journal.
^ To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers – Philippe Petit – Google Books. Books.google.com. 4 September 2002. ISBN 9781429921862. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
^ a b To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers – Philippe Petit – Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
^ "Edward Suzuki Profile". Edward.net. Archived from the original on 6 June 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
^ "Press Material – Philippe Petit" (PDF). cami.com. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
^ "27 – Man On Wire (Re-Wire)". YouTube. 7 August 1974. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
^ "sleepwalking_lyrics". Ste van Holm. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
^ Jackson, Dan (8 April 2011). "Low Anthem's Circus High-Wire Act". Spin. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
^ Gotrich, Lars. "Cormorant: Follow the Blackened Thread". NPR Music. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
^ "Best Cover Contest 2007 Winners & Finalists – ASME".
Rosenthal, Adam (1 September 2012). "Suspended Reading: Man on Wire, 9/11 and the Logic of the High-Wire." Screening the Past.
Hager, Emily (12 August 2010). "Learning to Walk in the Slippers of a High-Wire Artist". New York Times. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
Green, Penelope (21 September 2006). "A High-Wire Master Touches Down". New York Times. Retrieved 18 April 2008.
Higginbotham, Adam (19 January 2003). "On top of the world". London: The Guardian.
Tomkins, Calvin (5 April 1999). "Onward and Upward with the Arts, "The Man Who Walk on Air"". The New Yorker.
Mason, Anthony (3 February 2009). "The Great Feat Of Philippe Petit, CBS Evening News: Talking With The Man Who Walked The Twin Towers". CBS.
Colbert, Stephen (27 January 2009). "Philippe Petit". Comedy Central.
Langston, Bonnie (24 April 2009). "Still Working the Wire". Daily Freeman.
Tucker, Reed (13 April 2008). "The Man Who Walked Between the Twin Towers Stars in a New Documentary on his High-Wire Act". New York Post.
Heller, Sabine (10 May 2010). "Philippe Petit, Man On Wire: "I'm Afraid of Animals With Too Many Legs or No Legs at All"". Huffington Post.
Grace, Lichtenstein (8 August 1974). "Stuntman, Eluding Guards, Walks a Tightrope Between Trade Center Towers". New York Times.
"Not My Job: Philippe Petit". NPR. 7 February 2009.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Philippe Petit.
Philippe Petit: The journey across the high wire, TED2012, Filmed Mar 2012, Posted May 2012. |
0.95194 | The reality of drug addiction can be very scary and disruptive for both the user and their family and friends, affecting their lives forever. The availability of dangerous and addictive drugs is increasing, and the pressure to take the risk and try them is as well. The effects of each drug may seem fun or helpful at first, but many times, trying the drug simply once is enough to trigger a downward spiral by causing addiction, extreme appearance and behavioral changes, and separation between loved ones. There are many different kinds of addictive drugs, illegal and prescription, all of which vary in short-term and long-term effects, but there are also many different ways to treat addiction to different substances using trusted confidants and professionals at substance abuse facilities, however, the addict can only be helped if he submits himself willingly and puts in the effort to get his life back on track.
There are two categories of addictive substances: illegal and prescription. Illegal drugs are typically more dangerous to acquire, but prescription drugs can be way more dangerous because of how easy they are to get ahold of. Beginning with a legal drug, nicotine seems to be one of the least harmful of addictive drugs. Nicotine is typically inhaled through cigarettes, cigars, vape devices, or pipes, but it can also be consumed by chewing tobacco or nicotine gum (Felman). The effects of using nicotine products can leave the user feeling euphoric, and lightheaded and dizzy; the negative effects present themselves very slowly compared to the immediate euphoria (Felman). Using nicotine products can lead to addiction, mouth cancer, gum disease, lung cancer, stomach cancer, bad odor, throat cancer, and eventually death, which does not seem relevant to the user when they first use nicotine products (Felman).
Another addictive and even more dangerous drug is cocaine. Cocaine is an illegal and recreational substance that is hardly ever used to self-medicate, but more often at parties or with friends for fun. Many cocaine users say there were no specific reasons why they used it other than curiosity or slight peer pressure (Short and Long-Term). Cocaine is a fine, white powder that is usually snorted, but is possible to consume using other methods. The immediate effects of cocaine are extreme sensitivity, intense happiness, increased energy, paranoia, and a decreased appetite (Short and Long-Term).
This high, derived solely from cocaine, lasts only a few hours. After the peak, the high decreases in a way that causes headaches, nausea, and depression, which is called the comedown (Short and Long-Term). These symptoms are so unpleasant that the user will use more and more cocaine until they run out in order to avoid this comedown. Possible long-term damage can result from cocaine usage to the nasal, throat, and lung areas, and it can also cause seizures, strokes, heart attacks, and sexual dysfunction (Short and Long-Term).
Even more harmful than cocaine, are methamphetamines. Methamphetamines can be smoked, swallowed, or snorted in many different forms, and are one of the most harmful drugs. The effects of methamphetamines can be different depending on the person who consumes them. For some, the effects will include increased self-confidence, euphoria, increased energy, and a suppressed appetite; for others, meth can cause delusion, increased aggression, and emotional blunting (Chrystal Meth). Emotional blunting, feeling cut off from one's feelings, is helpful to individuals who have recently gone through a tragedy.
Meth tends to make people care less about their feelings, so this can be helpful to those who are actively trying to temporarily forget about their depression (Chrystal Meth). Hallucinations are another side effect of meth usage. The users experience odd feelings along with their visual deceptions, like bugs crawling around underneath the skin, so they frantically scratch and wound themselves trying to get the imaginary bugs out (Chrystal Meth). This results in meth sores all over the body (Chrystal Meth). Long-term damage may include extreme weight loss or gain, sexual dysfunction, heart problems, sleep deprivation, and very commonly, death (Chrystal Meth).
Moving on, Phencyclidine, or PCP, is an especially dangerous drug. Use of PCP results in complete loss of physical self-control. PCP can be smoked, swallowed, snorted, or injected in basically any form, and it can cause a variety of immediate effects (MacLaren). Whether the effects are pleasant or not also depends on the person. It causes euphoria, relaxation, extreme hallucinations, numbness, detachment from the body, loss of logic, amnesia, confusion, and blurred vision (MacLaren).
While high on PCP, individuals completely apart from reality and their surroundings. They no longer care about what others think of them or what dangers could be around them (MacLaren). A very common incident is someone on PCP is hit by a car because of how unaware they are of their surroundings, and they do not know they are in danger of dying from their injuries, because the numbing effect may be so strong, they do not even know they are injured (MacLaren). Additionally, it is not uncommon for PCP users to take off all their clothes in public because they feel overwhelmingly hot and have no care for their public appearance (MacLaren). Long-term damage of PCP use includes fevers, respiratory problems, seizures, paranoia, comas, strokes, and death (MacLaren).
Heroin is one of the most harmful and most addictive illegal drugs. The most common form of heroin is a fine, white powder, hardly different from cocaine; the most common method of consumption is boiling the powder into liquid and injecting it (Heroin Addiction). The effects of heroin can be very enjoyable to some, but to others the experience may be so revolting that they never try it again after the first time (Heroin Addiction). Heroin is mostly used as a self-medicating drug for pain and depression, way more often than as a party drug or just to have fun (Heroin Addiction). The immediate effects include extreme euphoria, pain relief, calmness, disorientation, stimulated warmth, and feelings of safety (Heroin Addiction).
The stimulated warmth and safety are dangerous because even though an individual may feel like they are safe and warm, they are still prone to hyperthermia and unsafe conditions while on heroin (Heroin Addiction). Withdrawal symptoms occur right after only one time of trying the drug, and they can be so overwhelming that they cannot resist a second time (Heroin Addiction). Withdrawal symptoms include extreme nausea, suppressed breathing, coughing, and headaches, and the long-term effects of heroin use are extreme changes in body weight, changes in complexion, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, and death (Heroin Addiction).
Additional, less significant drugs are as follows. Oxycodone, an addictive prescription drug, is used for pain relief and stress (What are the Most). Another, Codeine, treats cold and flu symptoms and can be found in cough syrup (What are the Most). Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid for acute and chronic pain and cancer patients, and it creates euphoria and relaxation (What are the Most). Meperidine, or Demerol, is also a synthetic opioid that creates euphoria and treats moderate to severe pain (What are the Most). In analysis, addictive prescription drugs are just as dangerous as illegal drugs, and take a significant amount of effort to become clean from (What are the Most). Withdrawal symptoms can also be just as severe.
There is a difference between drug use and drug addiction, however, and how fast a person becomes reliant on the drug is different for everyone. Some factors that increase the odds of becoming addicted to a drug are genetics, abuse, neglect, mental disorders, and drug exposure at an early age (Drug Abuse and Addiction). There are also a number of reasons, legitimate or not, for why people try drugs in the first place. One reason is simply curiosity or to ease negative feelings like stress, anxiety, and depression (Drug Abuse and Addiction). Furthermore, drugs are used to escape painful memories or difficult life circumstances (Fogoros). Drugs, especially meth and PCP, which have emotional blunting effects, are wanted by people who have some sort of major cause of stress in their lives, like financial issues, divorce, or abuse (Fogoros).
The feeling of not caring anymore can provide temporary relief for someone burdened by stress and worries (Fogoros). There are a few signs that aid in distinguishing when drug use is beginning to form into an addiction. Developing tolerance, needing to consume more of the drug to achieve the same effects, is a huge sign that addiction is nearby (Drug Abuse and Addiction). Drug addiction is a huge problem when it starts to interfere with family, friends, school, or work (Drug Abuse and Addiction).
Once a person develops an addiction, we begin to see what it looks like from the outside. Appearance-wise, drug addiction can result in bloodshot eyes, bad breath, weight loss or gain, and a different complexion, and some physical symptoms can be drug tolerance, depression, nausea, confusion, fever, and weakness (Signs of Drug Addiction). The users will also need to sleep way more or way less than usual, and eat more or less than usual. However, the behavior resulting from addiction can be way more serious and dangerous. An addict will mostly likely borrow or steal money for drugs when they do not have any of their own money left, because the withdrawal symptoms are too severe to ignore (Signs of Drug Addiction). They will consume more of the drug than originally planned, or consume more as soon as they start feeling the beginning of withdrawal symptoms.
Most of their thoughts are about the drug, how it feels, when they are going to get more next, and how horrible the withdrawal symptoms are (Signs of Drug Addiction). Since they are constantly thinking about the drug and hardly anything else, they begin to lose interest in a lot of their hobbies before the addiction. They will have difficulty taking proper care of themselves, like brushing their teeth or showering, because it does not seem as important as becoming high (Signs of Drug Addiction). They may even start to neglect their spouses or children because their family simply does not matter to them anymore. They will have trouble getting along with and lose many friends and family members who disapprove of their new habits, and instead replace them with a different set of friends who also use drugs or help them acquire more (Signs of Drug Addiction).
In order to understand drug addiction, understanding the psychological science behind addiction must come first. Most drugs immediately place dopamine into the brain's reward circuit, which motivates them to repeat the same behavior, even if the behavior is unhealthy and harming them (Understanding Drug Use). The brain responds to this constant stimulation by reducing the ability of cells in the reward circuit to respond to it, which causes tolerance, the need to consume more over time (Understanding Drug Use). It also causes loss of interest in hobbies because there are not many cells left to be stimulated by the activities that were once enjoyable (Understanding Drug Use).
Teenagers are much more susceptible to drug addiction than adults; early drug use is more likely to result in addiction along with early exposure to drugs.
Availability of drugs is also very high during adolescence (Preventing Drug Misuse). It is very common for the substances to be present at school and social events. Teenagers are also more likely to take risks and try new things, and they are much more vulnerable to peer pressure because the brain's decision/judgement-making parts are not fully developed until around age 25 (Preventing Drug Misuse).
Addiction is a horrifying experience, but the drug user is far from the only person who will suffer the effects of their addiction. Addiction causes families to separate for many reasons. The addict may lose interest in activities usually participated in with family members because the high is more important. Family members and friends may blame themselves for the incident even though drug use is self-inflicted (How Does Addiction). Trust is destroyed as the addict constantly hides their problem by lying, even to close family members. The last thing they want is to come clean in front of family members who have respect for them, not knowing about the addiction problem. However, practicing secrecy when it comes to a drug addiction could cause the problem to spiral.
When the addict is lying about having an addiction, family members and friends unintentionally become enablers by offering them things that remind them of the addiction or talking about drugs in a casual way (How Does Addiction). Even if the addict is not lying about having an addiction, family members could become enablers by calling in sick to work for them and taking over their responsibilities when they are unable to do so for themselves because of drug use, instead of letting facilities get them back on their feet (How Does Addiction). Trust is also broken because the addict may constantly borrow or steal money from family members for drugs because people who are close are probably the easiest to steal from (How Does Addiction).
There are multiple ways to help a peer deal with an addiction if you are one of the people the addict has decided to confide in. It is helpful to know that the peer is right to be concerned if the addiction is seriously affecting their life, such as the ability to hold a job or pay rent for an apartment. Before deciding how to help the addict, the peer should ask other close friends and family members how they see the issue, such as how serious it is and how far action should be taken to help (Helping an Adult).
Another good idea is to contact a substance abuse professional for advice, however, the addict can only submit himself for actual treatment; they cannot be submitted by someone else. The peer should emphasize that they care about the addict's well-being and quality of life way more often than phrased as a lecture about everything they are doing wrong (Helping an Adult). Also, they should ask questions and pay close attention to the addict's answer so it does not feel like a lecture. If the addict has not already tried, the peer should suggest cutting down. If they try to cut down and absolutely cannot, at least they will recognize that their drug addiction is a serious problem (Helping an Adult). The peer must realize the dangers of stopping the drug use completely, and what the withdrawal symptoms could be.
Once the cure to the addiction is beyond what the peer can do to help, the addict must be willing to submit their self to a substance abuse facility for help. Once the addict submits for help, they will have a screening done with a professional, which is a series of questions about the amount and frequency of alcohol or other drug use and the consequences it may be causing (Helping an Adult). The screening may be the most important part of what substance abuse facilities can do because the type of treatment that comes afterwards all depends on the nature of the person receiving it.
What may work for one person is not guaranteed to work for anyone else; it is purely based on personality and what the addict is motivated by (Treatment Approaches). The screening may lead to an intervention, where another professional will give feedback to the addict, depending on the information revealed during the screening. If feedback is not enough to help the addict solve the problem, further treatment will be recommended, which addresses the individual's physical, psychological, emotional, and social conditions (Helping an Adult). Type and amount of treatment depends on the severity, but sustained reduction in drug use and sustained increases in personal health and social function are the primary goals (Helping an Adult).
Usually, it takes about three months to see significant improvement in the ability to resist drugs, and the former addicts will begin to gain back interest in the activities they once enjoyed (Treatment Approaches). After treatment is complete, the individuals may have to remain in rehab for a while after, often for years. Even after rehab is completed, past addicts should come back to the facilities regularly for screenings to be sure they are not still at risk of developing another addiction, which is very possible (Helping an Adult) Another huge part of the healing process is related to cooperation of the patient. The effectiveness is partly based on how willing the patient is to comply to the professionals' advice and the effort put into becoming clean.
It is a fact that drug abuse is a serious problem that can occur anywhere and to anyone. Risk factors involve family history, abuse, financial issues, and exposure at a young age, but no matter what, it is still possible to develop a drug problem regardless of risk factors. Drugs like nicotine may not be as harmful as heroin, but using any drug can certainly lead to a more dangerous one eventually. Teenagers are more susceptible to drug addiction, but it is possible with all ages. Addiction affects more than just the addict; it greatly affects all of their family and friends as well, which can include innocent children.
It may seem like an addiction problem cannot be solved because of the strength of the withdrawal symptoms or how many aspects of the addict's life are destroyed, but it is important to remember that addiction can always be helped. There are many ways that a close confidant can provide help to an addict, and if the problem goes beyond what the confidant can help with, they may submit themselves for treatment at a substance abuse facility. Help is always available for drug addiction as long as the addict can recognize they have a problem. |
0.97725 | The mad titan Thanos fought and easily defeated all the Avengers in Avengers: Infinity War but what many seem to have missed out is that he only feared Tony Stark out of all the superheroes. Here's why.
Avengers: Infinity War was emotionally exhausting for almost all the fans and movie buffs out there. After all, it saw our beloved Avengers failing to protect Earth and losing out to the mad Titan Thanos. In the movie from the first scene itself, which was a follow up of Thor: Ragnarok, Thanos was seen overpowering Thor, beating the crap out of Hulk within seconds, killing Heimdall and massacring Loki. Later, he came across the Guardians of The Galaxy, a bunch of other superheroes including Spider-Man, Iron Man, Star-Lord, Drax, Mantis, Doctor Strange and Nebula at Titan. And towards the end others like Captain America, Black Widow, Black Panther, Falcon etc in Wakanda.
But, if you've noticed Thanos refrained from going on a killing spree even if he had the chance to. He didn't kill Thor, he instead left him to die. He killed Loki because he was on his wrong side since the battle of New York in the first Avengers film and had failed him. He didn't kill Star-Lord, Drax and Mantis when he kidnapped Gamora, even though he could've easily. He only killed Gamora later because he had to, in order to acquire the soul stone.
Similarly, in Wakanda, he only killed Vision because he wanted the mind stone, otherwise, he fought Captain America, Dr Bruce Banner, Black Widow, War Machine and the likes but didn't kill any of them. At Titan, he had an epic showdown with Doctor Strange but again he only injured him. The only superhero in Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos was willing to kill was Tony Stark aka Iron Man, despite the fact that the Mad Titan had already won the fight over him and had injured him. Which leads us to the theory that he feared Iron Man.
Now, in a world where there were multiple gods, super enhanced humans, aliens, sorcerers why did Thanos fear a human with a suit of armour? Let me explain. During their battle at Titan, we realise that both Thanos and Iron Man are actually two sides of the same coin. Both are futurists. Both intended to save the universe but didn't realise that the path they have taken isn't the right one. We saw Thanos wiping out half of the universe in order to save the universe and similarly, Iron Man creating Ultron which backfired big time resulting in the killings of many.
Out of the all the superheroes he faces, Thanos only recognises Iron Man. Which is possible maybe because, just like Thanos, who was in Tony's head all this time, Tony too was in Thanos' head. He had been keeping a watch on him. Maybe, like Tony had visions about the cosmic threat, Thanos too had visions about Tony foiling his plan.
After his big brawl with Tony, Thanos stabs him and by then Tony was clearly overpowered by him and fatally wounded. But, Thanos still was going ahead and using the might of his four Infinity stones to kill Tony. I would again like to mention that during the Infinity War, Thanos didn't kill anyone he didn't have to. He spared almost every other superhero's life and moved ahead to the next stone or mission but here he was willing to kill Tony because he saw him as a threat. And he could've easily killed Tony but despite the fact that Stark was injured, Thanos was going to use the power of Infinity stones to massacre him.
And there is a possibility that Doctor Strange had seen Thanos' fear of Tony and that's also one of the reasons he saved Tony and gave away his Time stone.
And as far as the question about how did Thanos know Tony? Well, there are multiple theories doing the rounds. Whether it was because of the battle of New York where Tony nuked his army, Thanos' visions about him or because of soul stone, we'll know for sure only when Avengers: Endgame hits the screens on April 26.
Joe Russo on Iron Man's fate in Avengers: Endgame, Secret Wars storyline, end credits scenes & more 'Avengers: Endgame' director Joe Russo in an exclusive interview with Zoom talks about his upcoming film, Ant-man and Thanos' hilarious fan theory and spoilers. Watch the video to know more. |
0.945281 | Does the term ‘yellow fever’ sound familiar? This typically refers to non-Asian individuals who are extremely attracted to Asian people. In this context, I’m going to be primarily relating this term to Asian women.
1. Asian women are not a preference.
Saying that you have a preference for women who are a certain race means that there is something that you are inherently focusing on that you think makes them look ‘more attractive’ than everybody else. However, having a specific trait that you are attracted to (darker skin, slanted eyes, etc.) reduces the person to the sum of their body parts.
The alternative preference to the physical appearance of Asian women is their minds or character. Thinking that Asian women just have better personalities is also problematic. First of all, what does that mean? Secondly, it may just be founded on racialized misogyny.
It’s not that being attracted to someone who is Asian is wrong (in fact, it would be worse if you decided you weren’t attracted to Asian people at all), but there is something very unnerving about exclusively wanting to be involved with Asian women.
Many people believe that this is flattery. Surely, thinking someone is beautiful isn’t a bad thing?
It is when it’s solely based on their race.
Putting a group of people on a pedestal is its own form of racism. It diminishes that person to the stereotypes that you have placed on them or the characteristics that you expect to see. Think about what happens if they don’t meet your expectations and fall off of the pedestal.
News flash, many Asians were born in the country that they currently live in. They are not a walking fantasy from some far-off land. Asian people and culture are everywhere, especially in a country as diverse as America. Exoticizing people who could literally be from the same geographical region of the world as you are ignores their human experience and romanticizes a culture that you are not a part of.
This also labels Asian women as an ‘other’ regardless of whether they grew up in Asia or not. You will never view them with the same human decency if you are constantly emphasizing how different they are.
East Asians (Koreans, Japanese, Chinese) aren’t the only Asians that exist, but they are typically the only people that are classified as such.
Erasure of Asian heritage is already an issue: people from South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan) and South East Asia (Cambodia, Malaysia, The Philippines) are told constantly that they aren’t really or don’t look Asian. As someone who is a biracial Filipina, this affects me at a personal level. We’re being told that we aren’t Asian enough. Therefore, the narratives of our cultures aren’t being represented in either reality or the imaginary idolization of an Asian woman.
There is a fine line between appreciation and fetishization, and this is what the latter looks like in it’s most basic and literal form. Don’t even try to tell me that this song doesn’t give you the creeps.
So, in summary, kindly throw your ‘yellow fever’ in the trash where it belongs.
Thank you for putting this into the world and using important context. Discrimination encompasses so much more than what meets the eye and this is important. |
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