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0.985558 | World number one Serena Williams powered past Russian 21st seed Vera Zvonareva in 66 minutes to win a fourth Wimbledon and 13th Grand Slam title.
The American came into the final having not dropped a set and with 80 aces, and she stormed to a 6-3 6-2 victory.
Zvonareva, playing in her first Grand Slam final, was outplayed and could not force a single break point.
The victory takes Williams past Billie Jean King to sixth in the all-time list of female Grand Slam singles champions.
Looking towards her illustrious compatriot in the royal box afterwards, Williams said: "Hey Billie, I got you, it's number 13 for me."
And she added: "It's amazing to be among such great people. Vera has been through so much and everyone should give her a big cheer - she really defines what a champion and never giving up means."
Williams, 28, retains the crown she won in 2002, 2003 and 2009, and ensures that between her and sister Venus, the title has stayed within the family for nine of the last 11 years.
With just one win in six matches against the world number one, and that victory four years ago, it was imperative that Zvonareva stayed in touch in the early stages.
An ace and a backhand winner down the line in the opening game served notice that Williams was not suffering any pressure as the overwhelming favourite, but Zvonareva did well to see off the first break point of the match on her way to levelling at 3-3.
Williams was furious with herself for missing a second break point in game eight when she hammered a backhand return into the net off a Zvonareva second serve, but a brilliant lob and a running forehand pass ensured the chance was not wasted.
Fifteen winners could not mask the fact that it was not yet vintage Williams but she was serving well enough to stay ahead and wrap up the first set in 36 minutes.
How many Grand Slam singles titles will Serena Williams win?
Zvonareva, the second-lowest ranked woman to play in a Wimbledon final, had performed well enough without threatening to break the American's serve for only the fourth time in the tournament.
And when the 25-year-old from Moscow dumped a mid-court forehand into the net to drop serve at the start of the second set, Williams was already within sight of victory.
Zvonareva had remained impressively calm and focused on her way through the draw, but the emotional side of her character threatened to take hold when she double-faulted to fall two breaks down at 4-1.
It was brilliant, brutal stuff now from Williams as she totally dominated on serve, moving forward at every opportunity, and although Zvonareva managed to stem the tide briefly with a final service hold, there was no doubting the outcome.
Serving for the championship, Williams opened the game with a huge 122mph ace - her 89th of the tournament - and moments later thumped away a smash on match point before throwing her racquet into the air in celebration.
Zvonareva, who slipped out of the world's top 10 last year after she underwent ankle surgery, said: "I'm a little bit disappointed at the moment, I was not able to show my best today. Serena just didn't allow me to. She was playing really well."
The Russian added: "It means a lot - those people in my box were here for me today, also the surgeon who did my surgery last year, because of him I was able to be here today. I was doubting I would be able to play tennis again." |
0.990549 | Enola Holmes, the runaway sister of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, is back in her second book. Enola, with the help of the funds her mother left her, has set herself up quite nicely in London. With the aid of several disguises, she pretends to be the assistant of the fictional Dr. Ragostin, who will find all things lost. Imagine her shock when Sherlock's friend, Dr. Watson, appears, asking for help in finding Enola! As Enola continues to foil attempts by her brother to find her and turn her back into a "lady," she discovers a real mystery. Young Lady Cecily has gone missing, and the police have made no progress at discovering her whereabouts. Donning different disguises, Enola begins to hunt down clues, discovering that Lady Cecily is in far greater danger than she would have originally guessed. Can she rescue Cecily and still remain out of her brother's grasp? An interesting plot, peppered with colorful details of London at the time, make this a good read. Readers will cheer Enola's quick mind and continued independence and hope for more sequels (and maybe a friend for Enola!).
The Raven League: Sherlock Holmes is Missing! |
0.980803 | I’m thinking of buying a stainless steel watch as most reasonably priced watches are produced from stainless steel. What are advantages of this material?
Stainless steel is widely used by present-day watch producers for their watch cases and bracelets as this is a highly durable material that is also corrosion-resistant. This hard metal is most appropriate for sculpturing professional sports timepieces, including sports chronographs, diver’s and pilot’s watches.
A stainless steel watch is the right choice for everyday wearing, while watches sculptured in gold or platinum are often dress watches.
about techno marine black watch model? |
0.971679 | (CNN) — House Speaker Paul Ryan said Sunday despite Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric, lawmakers are not prepared to form a deportation force to round-up and deport undocumented immigrants.
“I think we should put people’s minds at ease: That is not what our focus is. That is not what we’re focused on. We’re focused on securing the border. We think that’s first and foremost, before we get into any other immigration issue, we’ve got to know who’s coming and going into the country — we’ve got to secure the border,” he added.
Trump told CBS’ Lesley Stahl in a “60 Minutes” interview set to air Sunday night that he st still plans to build a US-Mexico border wall.
He pledged to focus first on deporting those who have committed crimes within the United States — “gang members, drug dealers … probably two million, it could even be three million” — and worry about others later.
The Wisconsin Republican said he agrees with Trump’s comment to CBS’ “60 Minutes” that Obamacare’s laws against barring those with pre-existing conditions from receiving coverage and allowing those up to age 26 to remain on their parents’ insurance can stay in place even as the GOP pushes to repeal Obamacare.
Ryan said the GOP plans to push refundable tax credits that would allow low-income Americans to essentially use those tax credits as vouchers to buy insurance, rather than receiving government-funded Medicaid. |
0.999997 | Describe the process of creation: what are the mediums you used to create “Girl with a Bouquet”?
I've been doing drawings and collages in notebooks for 45 years, my new series goes back a few years, where I have been incorporating 3-D elements with the flat surfaces of the page. I use the lines of the pages sometimes hiding them. Using figures in my work is a recent development. I like cutting out images and adding stuff to them.
What are the main sources of inspiration for your art? What are you trying to communicate with it?
Ever since I was a little boy I have made things, including drawings. The earliest piece of existing sculpture that I did dates from 1958. I was very young. The piece is made of white interlocking plastic building blocks that always play with. For me it was more than just play. The piece has some similarities to my present concerns. It looks like a building or a structure or a ruin. I glued the individual blocks together. Even at this early stage I was concerned with making a permanent work of art.
In 1968 I started to fill small black sketchbooks with collages. I thought of them as intimate objects to be looked at by one person at a time. I never ripped out pages. I did these books for about a year when I decided I had accomplished at that time what I wanted to do with collage. In early 1969 I wanted to expand my ideas of collage, to break through the paper and get to the other side. It was at this point that I started my work involving small scale sculpture, miniature environments and landscapes.
Growing up in New York gave me easy access to all the museums and at an early age I started to go to The Brooklyn Museum, The Museum Of Natural History, The MOMA and The Whitney. I was particularly attracted to the large dioramas at the natural history museum, not for the history they told ,but for how they told that history. I was fascinated by the artificial landscapes and how they were made. At the same time I was also seeing the great works of modern art. The one work that stands out as having an impact on me as a child was Ernst's "Two Children Are Threatened By A Nightingale" which left a lasting impression on me because of Ernst's use of strange perspective, bright almost acidy coloration and the three-dimensional miniaturization of a gate and house. Some other influences were amusement parks, notably Steeplechase Park, movies, Times Square and the artists Joseph Cornell and Louise Nevelson. Knowing their work from an early age was an education. Seeing what they (and others) had done with assemblage was inspiring and made me realize that although their accomplishments were magnificent, there was still room for an original new voice to be heard.
The first box I did was in 1969 and was made of cardboard which was completely covered with a photographic reproduction of a landscape. Inside the box I placed a cardboard backed cut-out photograph of the artist Toulouse-Lautrec as a child surrounded by his family. Unfortunately part of this box was destroyed. This box was not complicated enough for me and my feelings for the figure was not very strong. The first landscape boxes I did were also done in 1969 and were a series of "New York boxes.” They were small with diorama backgrounds of the city skyline in the 1900's along with loose material usually gravel or sawdust dyed to represent earth. At the same time I started my pieces involving architecture both in boxes and pieces placed on the floor.
My boxes from 1969-1971 usually had neutral landscape photographs as backgrounds. Using these backgrounds allowed me to confuse the perspectives of my landscapes and employ contradictory scale systems both in my boxes and floor pieces. It was also during this period that I actually burned many of the miniature buildings I was using. The interpretations and connotations of this element of my work was usually psychological and secondary to what I was actually doing. Simply put, I was altering, changing and manipulating my found materials as modern artists have done since Cubism. The action was just as important to me as the outcome of the work and the reactions the work would invoke. I think nature has a tendency to reproduce itself in miniature. A twig, a small stone or a puddle of water when separated from its natural environment and isolated can resemble a tree, a boulder or a lake.
I want my art to go through slow constant changes, but at the same time I want vast abrupt changes. Nature does the same. Since 1969 I have been making small scale sculptures and miniature environments that have been boxed, floored and walled. Within these small spaces a wide range of images have been constant & consistent. Houses, mountains, trees, bodies of water and land masses. My work over the years has changed, as I'm always experimenting with my language.
What advice would you give to aspiring artists trying to refine their craft?
I never give this kind of advice to young artists. |
0.999962 | Совместимость: Требуется iOS 10.6.8 или выше.
The battle is building! Harry Potter enchants the Mac App Store, as one of the Best Games of 2012! Before you buy, expand this description to check the system requirements below. Lord Voldemort is taking Hogwarts apart brick by brick and it’s up to you to stop him. Build, break and enchant your way through an incredible LEGO adventure set in the Muggle and wizarding worlds. Based on the last three Harry Potter books and final four films, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 brings encounters with new characters, new challenges and lots more magic as you prepare for the ultimate showdown with Lord Voldemort. Key Features: • Experience Harry’s last three years at Hogwarts the LEGO way, with comical re-interpretations of scenes from the last four Harry Potter movies. • Unlock over 150 playable characters, from old favourites to new additions such as the evil Bellatrix LeStrange and the werewolf Fenrir Greyback. • Team up to fight the forces of evil in a co-operative mode that lets a second player drop in or out at any time. • Learn an array of new spells by attending class at Hogwarts and join Dumbledore’s Army to master wizarding duels. • Explore charming LEGO versions of new locations including Godfric’s Hollow, Grimmauld Place, the Ministry of Magic and even Muggle London. • Experiment with unpredictable magical items, from the Weasleys’ joke boxes to Hermione’s bottomless handbag and Luna’s SpectreSpecs. • Use each character’s special abilities to discover hundreds of secrets and rescue Hogwarts students in peril. Important information regarding LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7: • If you require assistance, please contact our support team at support@feralinteractive.com • You can find out more about the game on the LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 mini-site at feralinteractive.com/legoharrypotter2 • Minimum System Requirements: Processor: 1.4 GHz, RAM: 2GB, Graphics: 128MB, Free Space: 7GB. • The following graphics cards are not supported: ATI X1xxx series, ATI HD2xxx series, NVIDIA 7xxx series and Intel GMA series. • The following cards require you to have 4GB of System RAM: NVIDIA 320M, NVIDIA 9400 and Intel HD 3000. • This game is not currently supported on volumes formatted as Mac OS Extended (Case Sensitive). LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 5-7 software © 2011 - 2012 TT Games Publishing Ltd. Published for the Mac by Feral Interactive Ltd. under license from Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Produced by TT Games under license from the LEGO Group. LEGO, the LEGO logo, the Brick and the Knob configurations and the Minifigure are trademarks of the LEGO Group. © 2011- 2012 The LEGO Group. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. HARRY POTTER characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of and © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © JKR. WB GAMES LOGO, WBIE LOGO, WB SHIELD: ™ & © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. 3000040167 (s12) Mac and the Mac logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. registered in the U.S. and other countries. Feral and the Feral logo are trademarks of Feral Interactive Ltd. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. |
0.90879 | Soil holds solar heat. A geothermal heat pump uses the geotechnical properties of soil to transfer heat to or from your home. Soil is heated by the sun and maintains a more stable temperature, which means soil generally remains warmer throughout the colder months than air. This makes a geothermal heat pump more energy efficient than an air heat pump.
On days when the air temperatures lower drastically and the wind howls fiercely, air heat pumps have a hard time gathering heat. However, geothermal units that pull heat from the soil underground are able to keep up with the thermostat's demands to keep the house warm. While frost lines do tend to deepen during the winter, soil temperature rarely reaches temperatures low enough to affect a geothermal heating system. For example, less energy is used to produce heat by a heat pump when the starting temperature is 35 degrees Fahrenheit as opposed to a starting air temperature of 15 degrees Fahrenheit.
Soil has various insulation properties. The type of soil can make an impact on the energy efficiency of the geothermal heat pump system. Dense soils, such as rock or clay, have very few air pockets and tend to hold heat better. Sandy or dry soil typically has too many air pockets, even though the pockets of air are small.
These air pockets act as an insulating barrier and hinders the transfer of heat from the soil to the coils that are installed underground to collect the heat. The denser the soil is, such as soil that is moist with ground water, the easier it is for heat to transfer.
Now that you have a basic understanding of why soil is a good fuel source for a heat pump, you are probably wondering how a geothermal heat pump works. This system uses a series of underground coils called a loop field, a compressor, an air handler and duct work.
When warm air is needed during the cooler months, refrigerant is sent through the loop field to collect heat from the soil then circulated to the compressor. The compressor compresses the refrigerant which causes the liquid to increase in temperature. The heated refrigerant then goes to an air handler via tubes.
The air handler forces air over the tubes and into the duct work. As the air flows over the tubes, the refrigerant inside the tubes lowers in temperature. When the refrigerant no longer holds any heat, it is recirculated back through the loop field again to collect more heat from the soil.
The system works in reverse during the summer months. Instead of pulling heat from the soil, the system pulls heat from the interior of the home. The air handler forces air over the cooled tubes and into the duct work to reduce the temperature inside the home.
Geothermal heat pumps do use energy but not to generate heat. The only energy used is to circulate and compress the refrigerant, and to force air over the tubes and into the home through the duct work. If you are concerned about using electricity, consider installing solar panels to provide power to the heat pump system. |
0.999979 | Cranes that once peppered Charlotte’s towering skyline have been replaced by an unprecedented culmination of new hotels, landmarks, entertainment venues and other attractions breathing new life into an already captivating cityscape with so much to offer.
The following events and venues match your search for "Charlotte Tickets". To sort the list, click on the column header. To find tickets for the given event, date & time, click the tickets link in that row. To find events taking place at a matching venue, click that venue name. |
0.999999 | These examples often contain some lines that are not central to the point in the post, but do make the example work. For instance, these could be some data preparation commands. In these lines I often use some tricks or shortcuts that I do not explain. In this FAQ I discuss and explain the most common of these tricks.
This is not in any way a replacement of the statalist FAQ. This is only meant to help people understand the examples I sent to statalist.
How can I make the example work?
Why don't you just give the output?
What does sysuse auto, clear mean?
Why do you put things like long, double, or str8 between variable names when you use input?
Why do you recode rep78 1/2 = 3?
Why do I add the variable baseline together with the nocons option?
What does gen rep3 = rep78 == 3 if rep78 < . do?
What does gen rep3Xprice = (rep78 == 3)*price if rep78 < . do?
Why do you sometimes add if rep78 < . to a command?
What does gen domestic = !foreign do?
What does gen marst = !never_married + married if !missing(never_married, married) do?
What does the ? mean in w??
What does # or ## mean in a list of variables?
What does floor(x) or ceil(x) mean?
What does mod(x, y) mean?
Where did the _N or _n come from?
What does bys var : gen byte mark = _n == 1 followed by twoway ... if mark ... do?
What does `=sqrt(5)' or `=_N+3' do?
What does `: something' do?
What does 1e4 or 2.1e-4 mean?
What does if !_rc mean?
Why do some lines end with /* and the next line begin with */?
Why do some lines end with /// ?
What does #delim ; and #delim cr do?
What do the lines tempname b and scalar `b'=... do?
What does capture program drop do?
What does program drop _all do?
a) The output usually doesn't format well in the message, making them very hard to read. Moreover, statalist doesn't allow attachments, so no graphs could be sent that way.
b) The most useful part of an example is playing with it. This way, at each step of the example you can look at the variables, change some commands, add some commands, etc.
For an example you need example data. The auto dataset is such an example dataset, and it is shipped with Stata, so everybody with Stata can use it. The command sysuse is just a convenient command to access example datasets that are shipped with Stata, i.e. you don't have to remember where Stata stored them. When using your dataset you should use the use command to load it.
When I need a categorical or ordinal variable with more than two categories and I use the auto dataset, than I use the variable rep78. However, as can be seen below, the first two categories of this variable are almost empty. This can sometimes cause problems, so I often combine the first three categories .
recode rep78 1/2 = 3 means that Stata will recode all values of rep78 from 1 trough 2 to the value 3. In this case it means that whenever Stata sees a 1 or a 2 it will change it to a 3. As a result all cars within the first three categories will now have the same code, i.e. the categories are combined.
This is something I did in older posts, before I had access to Stata 12. In Stata 12 this trick is no longer necessary, as is discussed here.
In older versions of Stata the issue was that Stata used to suppress the display of the constant when requesting the coefficients in exponentiated form. Depending on the model these exponentiated coefficients can be interpreted as odds ratio, risk ratios, incidence rate ratios, etc. To interpret the size of these ratios it is often useful to know the baseline odds, risk, incidence rate, etc, which happens to be the exponentiated constant. A doubling of these for a unit change in a explanatory variable is a lot more impressive if the baseline is already large: twice a small number is still a small number, but twice a large number is a huge number. Unfortunately, Stata used to suppress the display of this baseline value. I tricked Stata in displaying these values by first creating a variable baseline, which is always 1, and than add that variable to the model together with the nocons option, so this variable plays the role of constant without Stata knowing it. Also see this Stata Tip.
It creates an indicator (dummy) variable that is 1 if rep78 is 3, missing if rep78 is missing, and zero otherwise. For a detailed explanation see this official Stata FAQ.
However I don't like the variable names these commands produce.
Since Stata 11 one can add categorical variables directly without xi using factor variables.
It creates an interaction between the variable price and an indicator (dummy) variable that is 1 if rep78 is 3, missing if rep78 is missing, and zero otherwise, without first making the indicator variable. For a detailed explanation see this official Stata FAQ. In many cases I would now use Stata's factor variables, but there are still situations where this is a convenient trick.
Within the auto dataset the variable rep78 is the only variable with missing values. Missing values in Stata are represented by a . and are the largest possible values. So any value less than . are valid observations. For a detailed explanation see this and this official Stata FAQ.
The function missing(var1,var2) returns a 1 (=true) for every observation where var1 and/or var2 are missing and a 0 (=false) otherwise. The ! is a negation, so together they return a "true" for every observation that has observed values on both var1 and var2, and a "false" for all other observations. Also see this official Stata FAQ.
It creates a dummy variable that is 1 if the car is domestic and 0 if it is foreign. This is a convenient way to "flip" a dummy variable. For a detailed explanation see this official Stata FAQ. Notice I did not add if foreign < .. This is bad style, but it works since I know that the variable foreign does not contain any missing values.
In one of the build-in datasets, nlsw88, marital status is included as two indicator variables, aptly called never_married and married. In order to make use of the factor variable notation I need to combine these into a single categorical variable. I like the order 0=never married, 1=widowed/divorces, 2=married, this is what the above command gives me.
If someone is never married, she will have a 1 on never_married and a 0 otherwise. The ! reverses that, so !never_married will be 0 when never married and 1 otherwise. married will be 1 when the person married and 0 otherwise. So when someone is never married she will receive a 0 + 0 = 0 on marst. When someone is divorced/widowed she will receive a 1 + 0 = 1 on marst. When someone is married she will receive a 1 + 1 = 2 on marst.
Finally, the ! does not just reverses 0 into 1 and vice versa, but it turns all non-zeros, including missing values, into 1. So to keep the missing values missing I need to add if !missing(never_married, married).
After xi Stata creates new variables with names that start with _I. If I want to refer to all variables created by xi (and I didn't had any variables with names starting with _I before I called xi) than I can do so by typing _I*. The * is a wildcard, so _I* can be read like all variables whose name start with _I, see help varlist.
All variables whose name begins with a w and with only one other character, see help varlist.
It means that I am using Stata's factor variable notation to create interactions. Typically I would use that in combination with i.varname to indicate that varname is to be treated as a categorical variable and/or c.varname to indicate that varname is to be treated as a continuous variable. As a special case I can also use the factor variable notation to include a quadratic curve by typing c.varname##c.varname. This will include varname and varname2 to the model.
ceil(x) always rounds the number x up to the next integer, while floor(x) always rounds the number x down to the preceding integer. So ceil(6.1)=7 and ceil(6.9)= 7, while floor(6.1)=6 and floor(6.9)=6. This allows for some neat little tricks, as discussed in this Stata tip and this Stata tip.
mod(x, y) returns the remainder when dividing x by y. So, mod(1,2)=1, mod(2,2)=0, and mod(3,2)=1. This allows for some neat tricks as discussed in this Stata tip.
Sometimes it is necessary to know the total number of observations or the current observation number. In Stata these are called respectively _N and _n. For more see this entry on the ATS website. There is however one exception: _n within the display command (often abbreviated as di) means: "display a new line" instead of "current observation number".
This typically happens when I want to plot predictions and I know that that prediction is the same for all observations that share the same value of var. If I did not do this I would plot a marker for each observation, even though many would be overlaid on top of one another and you would not see them. This tends to make Stata graphs large (in terms of memory) and slow. With this trick I prevent this by plotting only one marker per unique value of var. Also see this Stata tip.
Within some Stata commands there are options that require one to give a number, while I actually want to give it an expression. By typing the expression as `=expression', the expression is evaluated and all Stata sees is the number that is the result of the expression, making both me and Stata happy. Notice the ` and the ', they are necessary.
local foo "a b b a"
with very large or very small numbers one can end up typing and (mis)counting lots of zeros. I sometimes avoid this by typing those numbers in exponential format. So 1e4 is 1×104=10,000 and 2.1e-4 is 2.1×10-4=0.00021.
You can let Stata ignore errors in a command and continue by prefixing it with the capture command. The statement if !_rc immediately following capture means "do whatever follows if there was no problem".
capture will leave behind the scalar _rc, which contains the return code. The return code is the code assigned to error messages. For example r(198) or r(505). The code 0 is reserved for "no problems". In Stata logic the value 0 is "false" and the ! negates a logical statement. So if everything went ok !_rc will evaluate to !0, which is "not false" or "true". All non-zero values are treated as "true", so if there was a problem than !_rc will evaluate to "not true" or "false". Also see this official Stata FAQ.
I typically use this to create a column vector containing standard errors. To be exact, this command creates a column vector containing the square root of the diagonal elements of the matrix V. Stata estimation commands typically store the variance covariance matrix and not the standard errors. The diagonal elements of the variance covariance matrix are the standard errors squared. So the square root of the diagonal elements of this matrix are the standard errors. Nowadays I more often use the set of tricks discussed in this Stata tip.
Within a loop one can use the _dots command to display dots that will tell you how far the loop has progressed (and how long you'll have to wait till it is finished). For more, see this Stata tip.
If Stata sees a hard return it interprets that as the end of the command. Some commands get so long that they do not fit on one line and you want to break it up. Breaking the command by adding hard returns is a bad idea since Stata will see each hard return as the end of a command. A solution is to comment the hard return out. Comments are texts within a do file that are for human readers only and are ignored by Stata. One way to identify a piece of text as a comment is to put it between /* and */. Stata will ignore anything that is between these two symbols, including hard returns. So if you end a line with /* and begin the next with */, Stata will think it is all on one line, so one command. An alternative is to end a line with ///. You can find more on this in the User's guide chapter 16.1.3 ([U] 16.1.3).
Why do some lines end with ///?
/// is a way to break up a long command over multiple lines. You can find more on this in the User's guide chapter 16.1.3 ([U] 16.1.3).
Sometimes I want to wrap a line inside a string. For instance, I am making a local that contains a very long string. Now I cannot use the technique in the section above. Instead I change the delimiter to ;, so Stata no longer considers an enter as a sign of the end of a command, but continues reading until it sees a ;. When I am done with that string I usually change the delimiter back to return by typing #delim cr.
These two lines are used to store a number in the scalar `b'. It is similar to typing local b = ..., except that a local is accurate to a minimum of 11 decimal digits, while a scalar is accurate to 15 or 16 decimal digits. See the User's guide chapter 18.5 ([U] 18.5), and this post by Bill Gould. I use scalars when I think numerical precision might matter.
Sometimes it is necessary or convenient to store some data. However, I don't want to keep it, so I often use tempfile. If I type tempfile temp than that reserves the name `temp' (note the ` and the '), which I can use when I store data. That dataset will remain available for as long the do-file runs, and is immediately removed once the do-file has finished.
Sometimes it is necessary or convenient to create a program within a do-file. When writing the example I often (always) don't get it right the first time round, so I do a do-file many times. The second time I do a do-file that creates a program Stata will complain, since I will attempt to create a program that already exists. So I first need to drop that program, before I can create it again. Lets say I named the program prog, than I should type program drop prog, before I create the program. However, if I sent the example like this to the statalist, than it will complain the first time a statalist member tries to run the example, since that example will try to drop the program prog which does not yet exists. That is what the command capture is for: this will ensure that Stata will continue running even if program drop prog creates an error.
I could remove the line program drop prog, and than it would run fine the first time. However, someone would get an error message if she started to play with the example (which is the best way to understand it) and do it multiple times.
This is an alternative solution to the problem discussed above. It will drop all programs in working memory (i.e. it does not touch the hard-disk). By not explicitly naming them I avoid the problem that there are no programs to drop the first time someone runs my example. |
0.922395 | The next time you’re taking a lovely Greyhound trip around the East Coast, make sure to get off at Richmond and catch a game — The Diamond (stadium) is right across the street and has better food than that terrible bus station diner and carries great local brews.
Sorry, some things cannot be forgotten.
The Flying Squirrels history is difficult to follow: since 1972, they’ve called five stadiums home, had three affiliations (Yankees, Athletics, Giants), collected about a dozen team names, and won nine titles along the way. The (awesome) team name was chosen through a contest in 2009 — other finalist team names were the Rock Hoppers, Hambones, Rhinos, Flatheads, and Hush Puppies.
Miguel Ojeda, a catcher from Mexico, enjoyed four years at the MLB level split between the Padres, Mariners, Rockies, and Rangers. Chiefly a back-up catcher, Ojeda only went to the plate 553 times. Perhaps his best season, 2004, also saw him get the most playing time — in 156 at bats, Ojeda put up a .751 OPS and hit eight home runs.
However, his professional playing career spanned twenty years between Mexico and the US, appearing in almost 1,500 games. In Mexico, Ojeda found his starting job and put up several productive years.
2016 will be Ojeda’s first stint managing an American team at any level, but he spent the previous three years at the helm for the Diablos Rojos in the Mexican league.
How Ken Joyce came to be a hitting coach, anywhere, is a unique story. If you’re interested in a more detailed account, I highly suggest this article.
Joyce has never played a professional game in his life. Not in the minors, Korea, Japan, or Mexico. While he played through high school and college (University of Southern Maine), he got his first professional break as a bullpen catcher after a chance encounter with the manager of the Portland Sea Dogs, a AA affiliate of the Red Sox. In just a few years he would rise to the role of hitting coach and would go on to manage or coach a half dozen teams around the minors before finding his way to the Giants.
2016 is his sixth year as the Flying Squirrels hitting coach, and his seventh year in the Giants organization.
A familiar name to many Giants fans, Steve Kline had one of most successful playing careers of any of the Giants minor league coaches. He also has a very colorful history with umpires including head butting one — as a coach.
Kline played eleven years at the major league level, nearly entirely as a reliever, throwing 682 innings and having a very respectable 3.51 career ERA in a high offense era. He played his final two years in a San Francisco Giant uniform.
Notably, in 2012, Kline was the pitching coach for the New Zealand team in the World Baseball Classic.
As a pitching coach, Steve Kline has been in the Giants organization since 2009, first with the Augusta GreenJackets (2009 – 2011). The following year he coached in San Jose before returning again to Augusta. 2016 marks the second year Kline will coach the Flying Squirrels.
This entry was posted in Minor Monday and tagged Baseball, Flying Squirrels, Giants, MILB, Minor League Baseball, Minor Monday, Richmond. Bookmark the permalink. |
0.999987 | Cleveland private investigators work in one of the largest investigation markets in the state of Ohio. Cleveland is a great American city, but has been economically devastated over the past several decades, suffering a decline in the number of operating investigators in the area. For those who remain, however, Cleveland still has plenty to offer, as competition is few and far between and the citizens and businesses in the region still require an assortment of top-quality investigation services.
This essay examines the investigation science industry in Cleveland, Ohio.
Cleveland is the main investigative marketplace in Ohio, but still enjoys competition from other cities including, Toledo, Akron, Cincinnati, Mansfield, Canton and Youngstown. Some detectives also work in the surrounding out-of-state markets, including Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Chicago, Detroit or Pittsburgh.
Ohio typically has a moderate demand for detective services, with much activity focused in the insurance investigation and corporate investigation sectors. However, all types of services are generally available from expert providers.
Cleveland private eyes handle all manner of cases. Infidelity cases are common, as are trial preparation assignments. Some detectives specialize in niche types of investigation cases including murder investigations, child abuse investigations and copyright theft investigations.
For smart detectives, there is also a demand for related legal support services, which many agencies offer to supplement their traditional case work and income, including bounty hunting, security guard services and even bodyguard work.
Cleveland might not be the best place to currently open a new investigation business. The economy and population are still in free-fall and many detectives continue to migrate elsewhere in search of better career prospects. However, there are still some great detectives available to solve cases for the clients who require them and support them.
To learn more about hiring a professional investigator, who focuses on the type of work you need accomplished, contact a service provider directly or consider calling a P.I. association for a referral to a fantastic investigator near you. |
0.999971 | Attention Getters are must-haves for young learner classes. Think about it: You've sent students to work in small groups or with partners. It's time to call their attention back to you for further directions or a change in activity. How will you get their attention? This seems like such a small issue, but it's NOT! You need multiple tools in your toolbox in order to handle this smoothly because you will do it multiple times every day.
Teacher: All set- Students: you bet!
Teacher: Scooby Dooby Doo – Students: Where are you?
The quiet spray!: you spray the ROOM to signal children to get quiet. Or you can just leave the bottle empty and spray a child!
Give me five: raise your open hand in the air without saying anything. Your students then put their hand in the air too. Start counting down on your fingers (not saying anything, just moving your fingers) and your students will follow along just moving their fingers. Teach them that by the time your are making a fist (representing zero) everyone should be quiet and looking at you. |
0.998635 | I'll take the huge indestructible spirit with a side order of wrath, please.
Let's take, as our starting point, a couple of tribes within tribes. Firstly, what do the following five have in common?
Spirits with obscenely high casting costs, a requirement to be played from the hand, with indestructibility and a cool ability if we do so. That's the obvious starting point. Let's take a step back from that, and think about how we could possibly get even one of these critters into play before being overrun by an even vaguely optimised generic tribe. The answer lies in the other thing which these behemoths have in common: They all cost three mana of one color to cast on top of their colorless cost. Three mana of any one color: Where have we ever seen that before?
Take a look at the type line on that last one: Convenient, isn't it? Even so, the three of any one color is just a start, and we need 5 mana beyond that to get even the cheapest Myojin in play. Still, if we can drop a Gilded Lotus or Verdant Eidolon in the first instance, we should be all set, the trick then lies in doing that before we get swarmed. In addition, take a look at the creatures we have: Aside from the Wrath, the Wit's End, the uber-Elvish Piper and the 'Draw a large chunk of your deck', we have an Armageddon: Non-land mana sources are to be preferred, so that if we're in a position to blow up the world, we can make at least an attempt at recovery. As to the lands, we have two potential angles: try to cover all the bases or rely on our twelve sources of Lotusy goodness to pull us through. I lean towards the second option, and aim instead towards reliably being able to wrath or to drop a few blockers, those being the options most likely to keep us alive.
The ideal start with this deck is to suspend a Lotus Bloom and drop a Krosan Verge on turn one, a land and mana rock on turn two, a land and second rock on turn three, popping the Verge for a pair of Temple Gardens, then a Cleansing Fire or Life's Web on turn four. Failing that, any combination of mana rock, lotus, Eidolon and land in your opening grip should be able to see you through to a turn 5 myojin. The deck is weak against high tempo decks: When your gameplan starts at turn 4 at best, if your opponent's game ends there, you're in trouble. Every single tribe member costs a fortune: Luckily, most of them are worth it. It's hard to win a war of attrition when nothing short of an edict will send an opposing creature creature to the 'yard, and on top of that, removing divinity counters are just as swingy as they need to be. You can wipe out their hand, creatures or land pretty much at will, and don't be afraid to drop a couple of undivine myojin via Life's Web either defensively or offensively.
One of the nice little tricks back in Invasion block were the Gnarrs: one triggered every time someone played a blue spell, the other on a black spell, giving themselves +2/+2 in the process. More recently, Herd Gnarr made the duo a trio, triggering on creatures coming into play under your control.
Note the mana balance: base black rather than base green, with the idea being to generate harpy mana repeatedly in a turn. The Dimir commons are one of the better means of doing so, and with the utility cards make sure you're not stuck with Tainted lands. Infest is the removal of choice as your Glade and Herd Gnarrs will survive it, and it may well be possible to drop a Cavern Harpy to keep your Packs alive as well. If need be Recoil and Consult the Necrosages can combine into an effective Terminate in certain circumstances, but most of the time you'll just want to draw two. Your principal strategy is to curve out with a couple of Gnarr, using the Warchief as a cost reducer and regenerator if needed, then just use the harpy as a sorcery pump spell with free buyback until your opponent is dead. You want to force your opponent into 'must block' mode as quickly as possible, because you have one set of creatures less than him as the Harpies are spells.That, and the relatively high curve of the Gnarr, are your biggest drawbacks. If you find yourself in a position where you need to Recoil one of your own permanents, don't forget you only need one Cavern Harpy in hand to be your engine. If someone tries to kill it whilst it's bouncing in and out of play, take the point of life to keep it around. As an aside, be very careful you don't activate the life payment when bouncing the harpy normally, the MTGO client can be unforgiving.
One Avatar Combo Special, to go!
Let's finish up with one of the higher-costing tribals out there: Avatar. With the exception of Avatar of Discord, the Onslaught Nameless One cycle (Given that we have Dakkon Blackblade and Grinning Ignus in Magic, we just need Annah, Morte, Fall-From-Grace, Vhailor and Nordom for the 'Cast of Planescape: Torment' deck) and Ethereal Champion, we have a curve that starts at 7 and goes up. As with the Myojin deck, we could go for the acceleration route, but let's look at what we can do with our overpriced huge guys. We can get them into the Graveyard fairly easily between Discord and Scion of Darkness. the Scion can pluck creatures out of the opposing graveyard, which Sanguine Praetor can sacrifice to sweep that manacost. If we need extra reach, Stalking Vengeance can make short work of an opponent's lifetotal in conjuction with that sacrifice effect, and Avatar of Woe covers removal, evasion and making Visara the Dreadful look like a copycat. They will do for our set of 20, and line us up nicely for a reanimation theme. We need a reliable means of getting multiple creatures in play, hopefully one that won't break the mana bank. Living End does the job nicely, especially in conjunction with Fury Charm to speed it up. That charm also acts as a handy Shatter and a great way to annoy chump blockers, and we can get more Avatars into the yard with Vengeful Dreams, which also serves to buy time and prevent our opponent benefitting from the End. Finally, Debtors' Knell works beautifully with Sanguine Praetor and in terms of keeping your guys in play, and enables you to break stalemates by using Avatar of Discord as 5 points to your opponent's head for each Stalking Vengeance in play.
As you'd imagine, your biggest problem is likely to be the early game. A turn 3 Avatar of Discord or suspended Living End is a solid opener, followed up by Fury Charm or Vengeful Dreams accordingly, depending on how close your enemy is to swarming you. Those two instants are key: It is likely your opponent will try and race the slow-burning wrath effect of the End, and they provide the best way to ensure he fails. Avatar of Discord is a removal magnet, but does useful duty as either speedbump or evasive threat as you set up your reanimation. If you survive the first six turns, you have a solid chance of winning.
So there you have our selection for this time around. Synergy doesn't have to be spelled out on the card: take a look at each member of your chosen tribe and see how other tribe members can interact to win you the game, without merely fulfilling the criterion of being an 'X'. Until next time, may you be surprised at the unexpected possibilities of your deck.
I'm glad you're paying attention. You are correct in that there are 16 Myojin listed, 4 short of a Spirit tribal. You'll also note that, under the 'Divine Foliage' heading, there are 4 Verdant Eidolons, bringing us up to the 20 spirits we need.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but do I assume that their is a typo in the Myojin deck? If this is tribal shouldn't there be a req. of 4 a piece to meet standards?
Wow, $140 manabase for a "casual" deck. Thank goodness for PDC.
Fair comment, but just because a card costs money doesn't mean you can't have fun with it if the opportunity arises. Given that, basics, snow basics and relentless rats aside, you only need 4 of a given card online, there is no reason to hold back on what you have if you have it. There will be times when I build all-common decks, others where I go for the full blinged out invasion rare-heavy decks. I appreciate more than most that money is an issue: Practically all the funds I channel into my card collection come from either this column or player-run events, frequently taking the proceeds from one article to fund the next. I have a large collection because it has been growing online for almost half a decade, and I have the ravnica duals because they're very, very useful. All of these decks are fully adaptable: feel free to substitute cheaper equivalents (Or more expensive) as you see fit.
This is a pretty sweet series. You manage to take a format that a lot of people find constricting, but find ways to make clever, original decks. Its cool to see articles that bring up different ways of looking at the format. The more tribal, the better.
Are these decks viable at all or are these just gatherer regurgitations?
Fair question, Gnawph. All of these decks I have successfully piloted to multiple wins in the Casual room, with the one exception that I used Excruciator as a sub for Avatar of Woe, as I didn't own any at the time. I don't feel comfortable posting a deck I haven't built, tested, and above all had fun with. |
0.993904 | Well, I understand that in order to get a better deal, I have to improve relations with the AI controlled player. Thats OK. But dont offer me bad deals then. I mean - during the first couple of hours I have recieved something like 30 trade deals and I have rejected ALL of them because they are so bad, not beneficial. It does not make any sense and is even boring - just to click those rejection buttons.
More over - one and the same player offers me those bad deals repeatedly. If I do not engage into deal some 5 times in a row, what makes him think I will accept the next time?
Its just boring. If I cant get a good deal, thats OK. But do not offer me bad deals 100, 200, or 300 times during a game session, OK? |
0.998959 | Sandra Bullock is the latest celebrity to offer aid to the people of Japan in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami.
(CNN) -- Actress Sandra Bullock sent a $1 million donation to the American Red Cross this week to help with earthquake and tsunami relief efforts in Japan, the Red Cross said Thursday.
It is the largest celebrity donation to the Red Cross to be announced since the disaster struck last Friday, although the charity may have gotten large contributions that were kept confidential at the donors' request.
"This contribution is vitally important as the Red Cross works to provide critical assistance and essential relief items in this time of urgent need for so many people in Japan," the relief organization said.
The contribution was made by the Oscar-winning actress on behalf of her family, the Red Cross said.
Dozens of celebrities used their social network accounts, including Twitter, to urge fans to support the Red Cross with small donations. The group has received $2.6 million since last Friday in $10 donations sent through cell phone text messages, it said.
Overall, the American Red Cross has raised about $47 million in the United States since the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan last Friday.
The U.S. organization has passed $10 million of those donations on to the Japanese Red Cross for work on the ground in Japan, it said. |
0.996584 | Search engines are designed to allow the user to use key terms to find data that they are looking for. However, they often include irrelevant data such as advertisements and images.
No Longer Massey is a web application that would take a topic as input and returns the most accurate and relevant information. It removes the vast amount of redundant text from search engines so that the user has to read as little as possible.
No Longer Massey is comprised of 2 parts. The first being a web crawler, and the second being an AI text summarizer.
The web crawler was largely based on the Python Scrapy framework. The web crawler used aggregated data from large search engines in the form of brief summaries. This list of summaries was compiled into a large array and passed to the data summarizer.
The AI summarizer was coded from scratch in Java and was based on the TextRank paper. The AI first assigned "recommendations" to each sentence based on the frequency of keywords as they appeared in each sentence. It then constructs a weighted graph representing the different sentences and their similarities to one another. Based on the weights of the graph, an overall set of scores for each node can be computed that measures their overall "importance" to the graph.
The majority of our team was most comfortable coding in Java, thus the primary AI was coded in Java. After, our team decided to turn our project into a web app using a Flask server. Realizing the difficulties of using a Java backend, we had to translate the Java code into Python.
Contrary to the common approach to text summarization that is using NLP (machine learning), our group wanted to try a different approach that was more unique. We successfully researched and applied a novel technique to create an effective summarization AI (outlined in the paper above).
We learned about the TextRank algorithm, which is itself comprised of advanced topics, including graph theory. Our model constructed a weighted graph where sentences were represented as nodes and the similarities between sentences were represented as the weight of the edges.
Next steps for No Longer Massey include using a pre-trained model such as word2vec to expand the vocabulary of the AI beyond the limited corpus provided by the input text.
I have connected the front end, back end, and the server. I have also experimented with Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) models to better summarize passages with natural language processing.
Implemented the AI summarizer based on the TextRank paper. |
0.964831 | Can you advise on essential oils for an oily scalp? I'm looking for an overnight treatment/recipes that I can wash out in the morning if possible?
I have absolutely no experience in this field so would be grateful of any information.
Hi, I have hair problems also, but I am on the opposite end with dry hair. I've made a lot of recipes for my daughter who also suffered with oily hair and this is the best that I've found for her.
First of all; the oiliness may be caused by shampooing too often and with harsh shampoo. It just becomes a never ending cycle.
Switch to a natural shampoo, shampoo as much as you feel is needed for a week then start to taper off. It will take a little time to get the chemical gunk off your hair and scalp.
Also, oily hair needs moisture too so start using a natural and gentle conditioner.
The next best thing I can recommend is to use a vinegar rinse.
Mix 3 drops of thyme essential oil (do an allergy test first) in 1 tablespoon cider vinegar to dissolve.
Add this mixture to a 1/2 pint distilled water.
Add this mixture to a bowl of distilled water that you will do your final rinse in.
After shampooing rinse your hair in the bath or shower as usual then put your hair in the bowl you prepared.
Run the water through your hair several times by using your hand or cup to pour over your head. Dry and or style as usual.
Please do as much reading as you can on the use and safe handling of essential oils before using any.
Vinegar and the distilled water alone will do something for the health of your hair but the essential oil will do a much better job. I hope this helps. |
0.999916 | Homes in my area have decreased in value. How can I get my mortgage rewritten to its current value?
A decrease in a home's value does not mean your mortgage will be rewritten to the home's current value. Point in fact, in a healthy economy you would have little to no hope of getting your mortgage balance reduced; however with loan modifications in full effect, you may have this opportunity. To see if you qualify you will want to contact your lender's loss mitigation department and discuss a loan modification. To qualify you will need proof of hardship, and even with this proof, there is no guarantee your mortgage balance will be lowered.
You borrowed "x" amount of dollars, with your home as collateral. Just because the value of the collateral has decreased, does not mean you borrowed less money - you still owe "x." With that said, you may be able to lower your tax role, which is usually caluclated off of the purchase price. If the purchase price has fallen, and your home is now worth less than the tax role associated with it, file a reassessment with your county's tax assessor, and you may be able to lower this figure which will save you some money when taxes come due. This is a much more realistic option than getting your mortgage balance reduced.
The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan (HASP) does offer a lot of provisions for helping a wide variety of homeowners. However, a decrease in home value isn't on its own a valid reason for your lender to drop your principal balance (this is called a "cram-down"). If your property increases in value, after all, your lender doesn't get to demand that you pay more. That said, here is the short course on this plan, who it can (and can't) help, and how you qualify for a refinance or loan modification. The rescue comes in two parts: The Home Affordable Refinance Plan and the Home Affordable Modification Plan.
Your mortgage must be owned by Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae.
The home must be your primary residence. Not an investment or vacation property.
You must be in good standing (no late payments in the last 12 months) on your current home loan.
Your refinanced first mortgage can't exceed 105% of your home's current appraised value.
Your housing costs must exceed 31% of your gross income.
The unpaid balance of your mortgage must be below $729,750 (multifamily homes have a higher limit).
You may be required to attend credit counseling sessions if you have a lot of consumer debt.
Modification takes place first by lowering the interest rate (to as low as 2% if necessary), extending the term of the loan (as long as 40 years), and finally to reducing the balance (to no less than the appraised value of the home). You must be able to realistically make a modified payment. If you have little or no income, you won't qualify.
Mortgage servicers are not required to make a modification if you're close to defaulting or you are at least 60 days behind on your payments. In that case, the servicer is required by law to determine if modifying your loan will generate more cash flow over five years than not modifying it. If it does, you get a modification. If not, the lender doesn't have to modify your loan and if you default it can foreclose.
These programs have been created with the goal of helping 9 million homeowners. Check with your current loan servicer to see if you might be one of them. |
0.999344 | As players level up from the beginning and approach level cap, how do you profit from it.
When a MMORPG online game first becomes available in a region, it is usually named the Open Beta period. During this stage, the game is flocked with new players. This period of time may range from first day of the game release up to 1 month – depending on the level curve of the game. If it is really hard to level and get new equipments, this stage will be on the long time frame. At this time, some of the beginner’s equipments will be relatively expensive compared to the amount of money that you can get from killing lower level monsters.
During this stage, do some research on some of the other existing versions of the game if applicable. If there are not existing versions, try to guess what kind of items that you can get as a lower level, can be used at higher levels.
For example: if a game offers beginners to get items that can be uesd to upgrade higher level equipments. Those upgrade items will be dirt cheap during the beginner stage where everyone is at low level and there is not much money floating. You should buy and hoard these items while other beginners are dumping the item at great prices.
Constantly monitor the market to see the item that you have stocked is finally in demand or when players have reached high enough level to pay good price for them. If those upgrade items reach the point where you make good profit, sell and move your inventory.
The game might patch or change the game mechanics so that the item you hold become a common drop. Or they could change the chance of upgrades depending on what kind and level of items that a beginner can get. Therefore you should move your items at a profit when you are satisfied and lower this kind of risks.
During this stage you do not want to spend too much money on buffing your beginner equipments because you will either soon outlevel them, or they are too costly because they are in high demand.
I define this stage in terms of the player population relative to the existing level cap. This stage has the following characteristics: 1) Little or no one at the level cap with a few higher level players well ahead of others. 2) Many players are experiencing major leveling slow down. 3) The game still has an influx of new players into the game, but significantly less compared to Open Beta.
This period usually occurs 1 week to 3 months after the release of the game. Again, this stage might be long or short depending on the leveling difficulty and grinding perspective of the game.
At stage, the items that are usually cheap are the high end gears close to or at the level cap. Because of low player demand due to lack of levels, it these strong and powerful equipments usually cannot fetch the best price possible. So if you have the money to spare without hindering your own game play, you could consider buying these items and save them for later stages. In addition, some of these items that you hoard may be available to you as soon as you hit the level requirements.
At late game stages, as more people approach or even reach the level cap. These high end gears will become more and more in demand. In addition, high level players have great money capability due to stronger mobs and juicier quetss. With these two combined, the high end gear that you have bought at a lower price will increase in value. You can now sell at a profit or save money by using them yourself.
By spending the money at mid stage might hinder your own leveling speed. This will put you farther from the leveling curve relative to other players. Having lower gold is a bad disavantage especially at early and mid-game stages. In addition, if the game publisher patches the game quickly and adds new items, the gears that you choose to hoard may become outdated and lose value.
At this stage, the upgrade items and mid level gears are both in high circulation and high demand. Many of the players have the capability to get the equipments of mid-level range, and there are great demands for them aswell. Due to the high flow of trades, it also means that there are plenty of trading opportunities where you can make great profit. You are basically playing the bidding and asking game. Visit market places where most players host their personal shops or auction houses – depending on your game.
Get a feel of how the market is flowing and how the prices are changing. Look for what items are selling the fastest and what items are not selling in other players shop by visiting them often. Once you have the knowledge, look to buy the low priced items and sell them at premium prices. Your items will flow nicely if you price them correctly. This stage is a great time to rack up your profits.
Once you have bought the item at lower price range. Resell them right away because some of your items may lose value. You want to turn over your inventory of items very fast to be able to buy more numbers of items and more expensive items when available.
If you cannot turn over your items fast enough, the market may change. You can lose all the hard worked profits that you have made. The mid-level ranged gears are at the greatest risk because as mid level players out level this range, they will begin selling them and cause a high supply. The demand is also lowered because there is less influx of players entering into the mid level range. The result is that mid level gears will suffer a land slide in value.
This is the stage where most of the players have reached the level cap. You can tell by the many Quitting threads posted on forums about nothing to do and quitting. This is the stage where there is the most money flowing in game, every needed item is undergoing constant inflation because high level players can generate money fast.
There are no specific items that you should trade at this stage. The majority of the prices are pretty stable. You will be mainly playing the asking and bidding game in the marketplace and auction houses. However, you should still only focus on items that have relatively better flow than others. Such as a popular class’ weapon compared to say…the least popular class’ glove equipment. You still want to keep your turnover short in order to rack up your profit while keeping money in play.
It should be noted that you can also target items that beginners get at beginner quests, for the ones that are useful at higher levels. Typically the asking prices for those items are lower because beginners either do not know the market price, or they are desperate for money. You can buy those items at lower prices and sell at a profit.
Simply sell anything that you bought at a low price with a premium attached for profit.
Lastly, it should again be noted that popular things are always undergoing inflation. If you cannot sell something at a profit fast enough, you should still be paitent because it may eventually be sold. You simply have to beware of the market changing risks.
The game might patch new game mechanics or introduce new items that can render your inventory worthless. Make sure you turnover your items fast to lower this risk.
Usually new Major Updates may introduce raise in leveling cap. I put this section here because it does deal with the server progression and leveling cap. However, this profit concept is explained more in detail in my 4th section: Predicting the future. |
0.999997 | There are exactly 12 references in the Gospels that specifically use the word Passover (Greek: pascha). This word 'pascha' is used 12 times and shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus and his twelve disciples prepared for and did eat a legal Passover meal (see Matt.26:2; 17-19; Mk.14:12,14,16; Lk.22:7-8,11,13,15).
The Passover is mentioned 4 times in reference to the time before the preparation of the Passover that Jesus and his disciples observed (Matt.26:2; Jn.11:55; 12:1;13:1).
There are 3 references that mention a preparation for another Passover that was to be observed after Jesus and the twelve had finished a Passover observance (Jn.18:28,39; 19:14).
John 18:39 uses the word 'pascha', which clearly shows a reference point in time that is during a festival day after Jesus and the twelve observed the Passover and before a Passover observance (see Matt.27:15; Mk.15:16; Lk.23:17).
Only the apostle John mentions a Passover as being the Jews' Passover. He mentions this twice prior to the Passover observance of Jesus and the twelve and he mentions it once after (Jn.2:13; 6:4; 11:55).
There are two basic conclusions people normally reach from John's statements about the Jews' Passover: (1) Jesus observed the correct Passover and the Jews did not; or, (2) The Jews observed the correct Passover; and Jesus did not.
There is no contesting the fact that Jesus was of the tribe of Judah and the apostles were national Jews, even though some were descended from other tribes of Israel. Why would John specifically mention the Jews' Passover? The answer to this question is found in a short history of the Gospel of John. John's Gospel was written to a broad audience about 60 years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. It seems that John's statements were made to show the nationality and location of those who were observing this particular Passover and not to differentiate between a right and a wrong Passover observance.
In context, the Jews' Passover seems only to reference those who were observing the Passover and does not define a specific date of observance, because Jerusalem was the only place that a Passover could legally be observed by an Israelite. |
0.999518 | Power up with Proverbs: Put your best foot forward.
It can be tempting to give less than your best effort because we all have an inbuilt tendency to conserve our energy. It is very easy to get into lazy and slovenly ways but we never know when someone potentially beneficial to our lives might come by and judge us on what they see. So it is best to keep your standards as high as you reasonably can, though common sense tells us that stressing yourself excessively and worrying all the time about performance could ultimately be counterproductive. |
0.999999 | Extract: Most corporations espouse good corporate governance, ethics and values. Few have entrenched these so that they are lived spontaneously and consistently. Take integrity for example. It is seen to be very necessary, yet a prevalent notion amongst leaders and managers is that displaying integrity or doing what is right for the business, are sometimes in conflict. It�s �either/or� instead of �and/both� thinking. Warmth versus cold, calculating. And all too often a false choice is to abandon integrity. This is borne out by an extensive survey reported by IMD recently: �Our results suggest that both bosses and direct reports judge managers� effectiveness by their ability to get their job done, not by their integrity. We wanted to unveil the shocking result of this research. However, this in no way means that unethical behavior is a good idea or that integrity does not matter in general�.
Using a metaphor based on a true story - the stone that resists fire � this article promotes three pillars of corporate responsibility in order that firms can get from the fluff to the real stuff, and warm the corporate soul. |
0.999134 | From San Luis Obispo, travel north on Highway 1 for approximately 65 miles to the campground.
From Monterey, travel south on Highway 1 for approximately 50 miles to the campground.
A short walk leads to Sand Dollar Beach, the largest sandy beach in the Big Sur area. It's a very popular spot for surfing, fishing, swimming, exploring, sunbathing and more. Fishing permits are required for anyone over age 16. Anglers can expect a catch of yellow perch and other coastal surf fish. The beach is dog-friendly, as long as dogs are leashed and waste is picked up.
A variety of trails exist along the beach, which lead to the bluffs that overlook the beach and coves in the area. Additional hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding trails can be accessed within a short drive of the campground, and offer scenic views of waterfalls, redwood groves and mountain meadows and streams. Directly across the highway from the campground is the Vicente Flats Trailhead, which leads into the Ventana Wilderness. |
0.999973 | Hands down the best country in the world to store your gold is Singapore.
Singapore is rapidly becoming THE place to invest and do business in Asia. Everything is just so much easier there. Regulation is minimal, corruption is among the lowest in the world, and the tax structure is very friendly to businesses and investors.
Prices for gold storage are incredibly competitive, and with recent legislation that eliminated import duties and taxes on investment-grade gold, premiums are dropping.
Gold throughout Asia is still highly valued at a cultural level and not seen as some archaic monetary instrument like it is by many in the West.
It’s quite common for people all across the region to store some of their savings in precious metals. Many people from countries like Vietnam, China, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia use storage facilities in Singapore. |
0.944191 | MLB All-Star break on Monday when they host the Arizona Diamondbacks (54-46). The Cubs alternated wins and losses in a five-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals going back to last Thursday that also included a doubleheader split at Wrigley Field on Saturday.MLB betting line: The Diamondbacks opened as -120 favorites (wager $120 to win $100); the total is at nine runs Melky Cabrera Jersey , according to sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark. (Line updates and matchup report)MLB betting pick, via OddsShark computer: 5.4-2.2, Diamondbacks (MLB picks on every game)Check out the OddsShark podcast on iTunes or at OddsShark.libsyn.com for more odds information, betting picks and a breakdown of this week?? top sports betting news.Why the Diamondbacks can pay on the MLB linesThe Diamondbacks avoided being swept at home by the Colorado Rockies on Sunday, earning a 6-1 victory thanks to ace Zack Greinke. Arizona ended Colorado's seven-game winning streak and moved back into second place behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.The Diamondbacks will now send southpaw Patrick Corbin (6-4, 3.24 ERA) to the mound looking for his first win since June 5. Corbin is 0-2 in seven starts since then with five no-decisions, two of which came away from home. The 29-year-old has been very good on the road this season, going 2-1 in nine outings with a 2.89 ERA.Why the Cubs can pay on the MLB linesChicago extended its winning streak to four games with a 9-6 victory in the series opener against St. Louis. The Cubs also closed out the series against the Cardinals with a 7-2 win on Sunday behind seven solid innings from pitcher Jose Quintana, who allowed two runs and six hits with four walks and six strikeouts on 121 pitches. It was a much-needed quality start for Chicago in a series that saw 65 total runs scored.Next up in the rotation is converted reliever Luke Farrell (3-3, 3.86), who has made just one start for the Cubs this season. That came back on June 23 when he surrendered three runs on two hits and two walks in 2.2 innings of an 11-2 defeat to the Cincinnati Reds. However, that remains the only time he has given up more than two earned runs this year.Smart betting pickArizona definitely has an edge in the pitching matchup, due mostly to Farrell's inexperience as a starter and Corbin's success on the road. The Diamondbacks have also won three of the past five meetings, according to the OddsShark MLB Database, including the last two at Wrigley Field. Before that, Chicago had won nine of the previous 11 in the series, so take Arizona to pull off the upset in the series opener.MLB betting trendsThe total has gone UNDER in five of Arizona's last seven games.Arizona is 14-5 in its last 19 games on the road.Chi Cubs is 12-3 in its last 15 games at home.All MLB odds and betting trends according to Bleacher Report?? official odds partner, OddsShark. Check out OddsShark on Twitter and Instagram or head to YouTube for more betting picks and analysis on this week's top games. You can also download the free odds tracker app. Through the grapevine has come a hint that the designated hitter may become a universal reality in Major League Baseball in the not-too-distant future.Hurry up. Oh, for the love of David Ortiz Jeff Keppinger Jersey , Edgar Martinez and Frank Thomas, please hurry up.Per Ken Rosenthalof The Athletic andJeff Passanof ESPN, the MLB Players Association has been pushing for the DH??hich has been saving American League pitchers from hitting for themselves since 1973??o come to the National League for the 2019 season.With pitchers and catchers due to report for spring training next week, it's probably a bit late to adapt such a seismic change for the coming season. The same goes for some of the other big ideas (e.g., a 20-second pitch clock and a three-batter minimum for pitchers) being kicked around by the MLB and the MLBPA.Still, it's significant that the concept of a universal DH is being pushed by the players. At last check, it was the owners who were doing the pushing."I think that is a continuing source of conversation among the ownership group, and I think that the dialogue actually probably moved a little bit," MLB commission Rob Manfred told reporterslast June.As far as baseball fans are concerned, this is where the bickering begins.Anyone who's pro-DH is most likely an American League fan with fond memories of the great sluggers who've called the position home over the last 46 years. Anyone who's anti-DH is most likely a National League fan who much prefers the bunts, double switches and other strategic elements that come hand-in-hand with pitchers hitting for themselves.Others, presumably, just can't bear to leave behind the #PitchersWhoRake lifestyle. This group includes at least one actual pitcher who rakes:Noah Syndergaard NoahsyndergaardUniversal DH?!?!? qNLnKHFAS6No matter your preference, you're not wrong. That's the thing about preferences; they're nice and subjective.But if we're going to shift this discussion over to what's best for baseball, a fundamental problem with the anti-DH position arises. Once you get past "Because I like it," there aren't many objective arguments in favor of pitchers hitting for themselves.The big one in favor of a universal DH is that pitchers are insultingly bad at hitting.This was true even as far back as the 1800s, when an article inSporting Life(h/t SABR's John Cronin) posited: "Every patron of the game is conversant with the utter worthlessness of the average pitcher when he goes up to try to hit the ball."Here's a graph that shows it's only been getting worse since the AL and NL started rubbing elbows in 1901:The central statistic here is a FanGraphs specialty called "weighted runs created plus," which measures total offensive value in relation to the league average of 100.As that blue line shows, pitchers weren't close to league-average hitters to begin with. By the time the AL adopted the DH in 1973 http://www.whitesoxfanproshop.com/authentic-paul-konerko-jersey , they were already barreling toward zero. Now they're at a point where even a 0 wRC+ would be a feat worthy of champagne and trip to Disneyland.The trouble is, pitchers aren't trained to hit anymore. The DH is a staple of organized baseball in high school, college and the minor leagues. Only the National League is holding out.Jacob deGrom is not made for hitting.David Banks/Getty ImagesThis could have changed as far back as 1980. In August of that year, representatives from the 12 National League clubs convened to hold a vote on whether to adapt the DH. The idea was rejected 5-4 with three abstentions, yetthat marked notable progress toward a universal DH."I'm not surprised at today's vote," NL President Chub Feeney said at the time, per theAssociated Press."It's gotten fairly close from time to time, but it fluctuates. The vote was 10-2 the last time we took it, about a year ago."In the ensuing years, however, the NL and MLB as a whole had bigger fish to fry. Such as:colluding against free agentsin the 1980s, getting in and out of multiple work stoppages between 1980 and 1995 and cleaning up after the steroid erain the mid-2000s.Nowadays, however, a universal DH can help MLB with two of its biggest challenges: livening up games and preventing the first work stoppage in a quarter of a century.Strikeouts have been going up for years, and that there were more strikeouts than hits in 2018 is a dire warning that balls in play can't make a comeback on their own.Which brings us to another graph:The strikeout rate has been higher in the National League, but not because the NL's actual hitters are more prone to punchouts than AL hitters. As the yellow dotted line shows, hitters from both leagues tend to have roughly the same strikeout rate. The problem, naturally, is the pitchers.It wouldn't reverse it James Shields Jersey , but letting real hitters bat for pitchers in the NL would help stem the growth of MLB's strikeout rate, thereby reintroducing some action into games.If anyone's worried about this potentially leading to longer days at the ballpark, well, don't. Carl Bialik of FiveThirtyEight looked into that in 2014 and didn't find anything.As to the work-stoppage threat??hich Rosenthal reported is "palpable"??utting the DH in the National League would theoretically make it easier for players to regain some of the riches that owners have been hoarding in recent offseasons.The number of clubs with a safety blanket for aging sluggers would double. That could lead to stronger markets not only for the likes of Nelson Cruz, but for super-long-term investments such as the Bryce Harpers and Manny Machados of this world.Younger sluggers could also benefit, as there would be more job openings for bat-only prospects (e.g., New York Mets slugger Peter Alonso).Further, neither NL clubs nor AL clubs visiting NL parks would have to worry any longer about pitchers getting hurt doing things other than pitching. Maybe it wouldn't have a huge impact in the long run, but that would be one less hurdle in between pitchers and good paydays.Beyond the allegedly entertaining strategic elements of NL-style ball, the biggest casualty of a universal DH would be the end of any true differentiation between MLB's two leagues. But since this "casualty" would nix unfair advantages for one league or the other in interleague games and the World Series, the mourning period would be brief.As hinted at by that oneSporting Life quote from the 1891, the DH was a good idea long before it officially came into being in 1973. At this juncture, it's never looked more like a necessary idea.So, again, please hurry up. Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs. |
0.999999 | We all have been on a diet at one point in our lives, either to fit into a summer bikini or to try to shed the spare tire, but what are some healthy weight loss diet foods that can help us lose weight? These diet foods should have some basic nutritional value, but also be low in calories and fat.
Some popular dieting food includes pickles, which actually burn more calories to eat than that contained them, as well as raisins and nuts. Weight loss diet foods such as vegetables are much lower in calories than potato chips, and are portable so that they can be cooked anywhere for quick and nutritious snack.
Other healthy meals such as salads with grilled chicken for dinner or lunch can be quite healthy, but only if you refuse from adding excess amounts of salad dressing and bacon bits which turn diet foods into calorie bombs.
While we all like bread products such as muffins, croissants, cookies and potato chips, most dietitians would not consider processed bread products to be listed in the category of healthy foods. This is because the calories gained from say processed white bread may not contain a lot of protein, and carbohydrates are basically turned into sugar inside your body.
Some healthy options are if you want to eat more weight loss diet foods are whole grain bread with flax. These breeds may actually contain a certain amount of dietary fiber, and various other types of bread may actually be fortified with protein to make them healthy.
If you are serious about incorporating healthy eating habits into your diet then consider increasing your intake of fruits, vegetables, and lean fish. Remember, anything fried probably has a large number of calories and will not help you lose weight in the end. |
0.97599 | 2.1 Public interest in science in this country is currently high. This is the verdict of a succession of recent survey studies. It is strongly confirmed by the experience of the broadcast media: the BBC's science output is at an all-time high. Another measure is the trade in popular books on science, which is flourishing (Connor Q 194, R Soc p 44).
2.2 There is, however, an apparent crisis of trust. While people appear to have an appetite for popular science, the paradox is that this is accompanied by increasing scepticism about the pronouncements of scientists on science-related policy issues of all types.
2.3 Public attitudes to science have been much studied, and the following findings have been brought to our attention. They depend largely on survey data, which are reproduced in more detail in Appendix 6.
(ii) qualitative data, from interpretative analysis of people's responses to more open-ended questions.
2.6 In a survey commissioned by the OST and the Nuffield Foundation in 1996, Durant and Bauer found that public interest in science was strong. In particular, people's assessments of their own levels of interest in science, technology and medicine were considerably higher than those for sport in the news, politics, and new films (Appendix 6 Table 1).
"exactly as it should be, because the more you understand, the more you understand that things are complicated and advance makes for change, which produces unintended consequences" (Q 18; cp Attenborough Q 381, Nat Hist Mus p 62).
Sir Robert's evidence conforms with what we were told when we visited Denmark (see Appendix 4).
2.9 Sir Robert produced a further table suggesting that the public in the USA is relatively supportive of science, and relatively ignorant of scientific methods (Appendix 6 Table 3). Those whom we met in the USA generally agreed with Sir Robert that the US public is supportive of science, but they attributed this to the role of science and technology in the US economy, rather than to ignorance about the science itself.
2.10 Sir Robert produced further data from Nature assessing people's attitudes to six particular technologiesgenetic testing, new medicines, GM crops, GM food, animal experimentation and xenotransplantation (Appendix 6 Table 4). Respondents were asked in each case whether they regarded the technology as beneficial, whether they regarded it as safe, whether they considered it to be morally right, and whether it should be encouraged. What interested Sir Robert was the degree of difference in the six sets of responses, ranging from enthusiasm for genetic testing and new medicines, to grave doubts about animal experiments and xenotransplantation on grounds of both safety and ethics. This, said Sir Robert, "undercuts any simple notion that people have some general principles they bring to bear"; it shows instead "the robust common sense that people usually bring to bear on these things if they have got a fair degree of information"an important proviso, as we shall see.
2.11 In January 1999, MORI surveyed public attitudes to risk on behalf of the Cabinet Office's Better Regulation Task Force, using the People's Panel. The findings (Appendix 6 Table 5) suggest that "government scientists" enjoy less trust than TV, "independent scientists" or pressure groups, but more than private companies or government Ministers; and that TV enjoys more trust than newspapers. The categories of scientists used in this survey, "government" and "independent", are of course problematic; and no question was asked about "scientists" as such.
2.12 This Consultation was launched by Lord Sainsbury of Turville, Minister for Science, in December 1998, to inform a review of the regulation of biotechnology. It involved six two-day workshops and a large-scale survey of members of the People's Panel, all conducted by MORI for the OST.
2.13 The Consultation revealed a high level of apprehension about cloning, particularly the prospect of human cloning. When respondents were asked about the degree of benefit anticipated from a range of scientific developments, medical advances scored high, but genetic modification and cloning scored low (Appendix 6 Table 6). When asked who should be involved in regulating the biosciences, six groups were named by between 40 and 50 per cent of respondents: a mixed advisory body, an expert advisory body, scientists, the general public, government and environmental groups (Appendix 6 Table 7). Trust in this area was found to be high for doctors (top score), advisory groups, chemists, scientists, and environmental and consumer groups, and low for retailers (bottom score), manufacturers, the media, religious organisations, farmers and government (Appendix 6 Table 7). When deciding whether a biological development is right or wrong, most people said that their main concerns were benefit and safety (Appendix 6 Table 8). According to MORI, "The vast majority gave a response to this spontaneous questionan indication of the degree of thought that they gave to this complex subject" (p 154).
2.14 One aspect of the survey was a measure of background knowledge among the general public. MORI found a widespread misconception that genes are found only in material which has been genetically modified (p 160). Professor Robert Worcester, Chairman of MORI, compared this with the familiar failure to distinguish between ozone depletion and the "greenhouse effect".
2.15 Animal experimentation is a flashpoint in British society's relationship with science. Animal experimentation has made possible many scientific advances improving both human and animal health, and it is tightly regulated in this country; yet it is also the target of terrorist action in the name of "animal rights".
2.16 In March 1999, New Scientist commissioned MORI to conduct a quantitative survey of people's attitudes to animal experimentation. When faced with the bare proposition that "Scientists should be allowed to conduct any experiments on live animals", 64 per cent of respondents disagreed, and only 24 per cent agreed. When the question was given a preamble linking animal experimentation with medical research, the numbers were very different: only 41 per cent disagreed, while 45 per cent agreed (Appendix 6 Table 9).
2.17 MORI comments (p 154) that "the public is receptive to messages explaining or justifying what benefits controversial experiments may bring". The results were analysed against demographic factors, and revealed a higher rate of disapproval among women, but otherwise no clear and consistent differentiation. In oral evidence, Professor Worcester used this to illustrate a difference between attitudes and values: the preamble was able to affect some people's attitudes, but not those of people whose opposition to animal experimentation was based on a "core gut value" (Q 565).
2.18 Respondents were also asked their views of a matrix of situations: animal experiments conducted for different purposes, from drug testing to toxicity testing of pesticides and cosmetics; experiments on different animalsmice and monkeys; and experiments with different consequences for the animalsno suffering, suffering, and possible death. The results (Appendix 6 Table 9) were highly differentiated, ranging from 83 per cent approval of painless experiments on mice to test drugs for childhood leukaemia, to 92 per cent disapproval of potentially fatal experiments on monkeys to test cosmetics (MORI Q 567).
2.19 New Scientist commented that people seemed to weigh costs against benefits before deciding whether an animal experiment could be justified. "The experiment's goal and whether animals will suffer in any way are the most important factors".
Most people's perceptions of chemistry were derived from school, and most recalled school chemistry as boring.
. Of the secondary teachers, the women tended to be more negative than the men. Many of the teachers displayed "green" sympathies.
The image of chemistry appeared to be improving, through a combination of better teaching, increasing participation by women, and the growing band of good communicators of science on TV.
Those best informed about chemistry were those with children in secondary school; those worst informed included a large proportion of the teachers, especially the primary teachers.
"Knowing the applications of chemistry gives the subject relevance and can potentially increase interest in and goodwill towards the subject. Key to the effectiveness of any communications relating to applications is its relevance to the interests, values and concerns of the individual."
The chemical industry had a negative image, being associated with pollution and risk. The more responsible attitude of today's large companies was acknowledged by some, but mistrusted by others, with the teachers among the most cynical. The pharmaceutical industry had a better image, being regarded as beneficial, clean, non-toxic and well regulated.
People showed awareness of the difficulty of foreseeing the consequences of new developments, and ability to weigh costs against benefits.
2.21 In the following year, the Society conducted a public relations campaign for chemistry in Huddersfield, and a quantitative survey of public perceptions before and afterwards. To give a brief account of some very detailed findings, the campaign appeared to improve perceptions of the relevance of chemistry to everyday life, but not perceptions of chemistry as a career, nor attitudes to its benefits and disbenefits.
2.22 In evidence to us, Dr Tom Inch, the Society's General Secretary, drew two conclusions from this exercise, regarding not public perceptions but the process of changing them. First, "In Huddersfield we were still looking for a short-term fix. We have to go for more fundamental solutions to the problem" (Q 432). Secondly, "The local network can actually be much better than the national networks" (Q 433). These are important observations, to which we return below.
2.23 Professor Worcester has produced for us a detailed analysis of recent surveys by MORI, for a variety of clients, of British public attitudes to science, scientists and scientific issues (p 150). These contribute to the general picture of low levels of trust, particularly in science associated with government.
2.24 For example, the proposition "Even the scientists don't really know what they're talking about when it comes to the environment" has received majority assent in a public survey each year since 1993. However, MORI puts the same proposition to a sample of environment journalists each year, and each year a large majority disagrees (p 164; Appendix 6 Table 10). It should be noted that the proposition itself is highly ambiguous: see below.
2.25 The amount of survey evidence on public attitudes to science which is now available in this country is impressive, and it repays study. However, it must obviously be interpreted in depth, not just taken at face value. Academic social scientific surveys, designed to stand up to peer review, must be distinguished from commercial attitude and opinion polls designed to meet a client's deadline and budget; and "quantitative" data from large-sample surveys must be distinguished from "qualitative" data derived from more open-ended research on a smaller sample.
2.26 Large-sample surveys necessarily rely on closed questions, e.g. "Would you place greater trust in A or in B?" or "Do you believe the risk from X to be great or small?" Such a question relies on everyone in the sample understanding it in the same way. Yet terms such as "risk", "trust", "science", "scientist" and "independent" may mean very different things to different people and in different contexts.
2.27 For example, those who assented to MORI's test proposition cited above, "Even the scientists don't really know what they're talking about when it comes to the environment", might be taken to mean "The findings of environmental research are subject to high degrees of uncertainty". This is true, and the high level of assent would in this case suggest a high level of public understanding. But they might equally be taken to mean "Environmental researchers are incompetent". This is patently not true, and the high level of assent would in this case suggest that environmental science has a serious image problem.
2.28 In the same way, the test proposition on animal experimentation, "Scientists should be allowed to conduct any experiments on live animals", is flawed by the use of the word "any". Did those who said "Yes" take "any" in the broad sense of "any without limit"? In that case, they support a free-for-all in animal experimentation, an extreme position which most people would reject, including the Government. Or did they take "any" in the narrow sense of "some"? In this case, assent indicates merely opposition to an absolute ban, a much less extreme position which most people would support.
2.29 Special care must be taken with the evidence set out above concerning trust, since this word has so many meanings. "We trust you" may mean that we believe you can give us right answers and reliable information. It may mean that we believe that you are honest, and will tell us all that you know. Or it may mean that we trust your judgement, and rely on you for decisions which are wise, impartial, ethical and in the public interest. We may trust you in one of these ways, without trusting you in the others. In this case, if a pollster asks us whether we trust you, what are we to say?
2.30 Expressions of "trust" may also stand for approval of an altogether different kind. For instance, most surveys appear to show relatively high levels of trust in pressure-group science. This may not mean that most people truly believe it to be more reliable or "independent" than science sponsored by government or industry; most people know, or ought to know, that pressure groups are as dependent on subscriptions and donations as companies on orders and governments on votes. Yet these expressions of trust must mean something; and they may signify approval that the pressure group plays a counterbalancing role against government and industry.
2.31 Qualitative research employs smaller samples to address more open-ended questions, e.g. "What dimensions of X pose what risks, and to whom?" Samples in this sort of research are typically too small to be representative. But one important role of qualitative research is to complement quantitative research, by identifying and exploring variations of meaning in people's understanding and responses. This can shed valuable light on public values, and on possible public responses to policy or to language which inadvertently stereotypes or excludes them.
2.32 It is now common practice, in both academic and commercial surveys, to use quantitative and qualitative methods together. This allows closed questions for use in surveys to be refined in the light of discoveries about public responses to the terms proposed to be used. There are however limits, imposed both by the practicalities of data-handling, and in some cases by a client's commercial or political timetable.
2.33 Thus quantitative and qualitative methods of eliciting public attitudes, concerns and values each have intrinsic strengths and limitations. However methodologically rigorous it may be, any claim to understand and represent public concerns about complex issues must ultimately find its validation, or not, in the hurly-burly of public debate.
2.34 The British public is large and very varied. Some commentators are even wary of speaking of "the public" at all, preferring to refer to "publics". We have not adopted this convention, but it makes a valid point: different publics may have different attitudes, and may require to be approached in different ways. The New Scientist/MORI survey on attitudes to animal experimentation sheds interesting light on differences of gender, age, politics, socio-economic group and lifestyle (MORI p 155); and the study by Durant and Bauer for the OST in 1997, cited above, includes a regional analysis.
2.35 To our surprise, however, none of our witnesses has been able to tell us whether patterns of attitudes to science vary across boundaries of race (May Q 25). One might suspect, for example, that different national and religious traditions regarding food would significantly colour the many debates about food production and safety. The science museums acknowledged to us that they find it difficult to interest ethnic minorities, and described their commendable efforts in this direction (Q 263). Given the importance attached to racial disparities in other respects, the OST or the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) may wish to consider whether there is scope here for research worthy of support.
2.36 The survey data cited in the first part of this Chapter clearly show that something is amiss. It is not difficult to criticise survey results; but it would be foolish to dismiss them as meaningless. The various surveys consistently show negative public responses in respect of science associated with government or industry, and in respect of science not obviously directed towards a clearly beneficial purpose such as human health. These negative responses are expressed in terms of lack of "trust"whatever precisely this may mean. These results may be said to reflect perception rather than reality; but in this context, as in others, perception is an important reality in itself. In the rest of this Chapter, we consider, with the help of our witnesses, the nature and roots of this perception.
2.37 Some of our witnesses consider that the public is particularly concerned about the "disquieting possibilities" emerging in the biosciences (Turney Q 93). The United Kingdom Life Sciences Committee (p 416) detects the greatest mistrust in the area of food, and blames it on the successive scares over E. coli, BSE and GMOs. University College London likewise detects particular concern over biology; but it reports that "the public approves of genetics research directed towards health but disapproves of genetic engineering, particularly if it evokes eugenics" (p 419).
2.38 This dichotomy is apparent in data from the Public Consultation on the Biosciences (MORI p 152). When respondents were shown a list of scientific developments and asked to pick two or three which were beneficial to society and two or three which were not, the highest positive ratings and lowest negatives went to medicines, transplants and cures for illness; the lowest positives and highest negatives went to GM animals and plants, GM food and cloning. This suggests, of course, widespread ignorance of the therapeutic applications of genetic modification and cloning technologies, and this was borne out in the qualitative phase of the Consultation.
2.39 Some from the engineering community consider that there is a distinct and damaging public attitude to engineering. According to the Engineering Council (p 285), the general publicquite wronglythinks that engineering "is poorly paid, dirty and offers little prospect for advancement", fails to appreciate that engineering creates wealth, and associates engineering with bringing about disaster rather than averting it or putting things right.
2.40 The Engineering Council has told us about some of its initiatives to correct these impressions, particularly those aimed at schoolchildren (p 286). Professor Jack Levy OBE FEng considers that more is needed; he calls for the establishment of a "Chair of the Public Understanding of Engineering and Technologyat a prestigious university" (p 349).
2.41 Survey evidence suggests that public attitudes to scientific progress and research depend crucially on its perceived purpose. For instance, as we have just seen, scientific developments aimed directly at achieving improvements in human health care seem to be the most valued by the public. This is borne out by the shape of the US science budget, which, through Congress, is much more open to public influence than the United Kingdom science budget, and has consequently increased funding for health in recent years more than for other less popular branches of science (see Appendix 3).
2.42 The relationship between experts and the rest of society is changing (BAAS p 47). In all areas of society it is now normal for assertions of authority to be questioned. When the decision-maker says "Trust me", the response is very often "Show me". Scientific authority is in this respect no different from the authority of parents, teachers, the police or indeed Parliament.
2.43 It is even possible that an increased willingness among British scientists to engage in public-understanding activities has encouraged the public to be more questioning than before. As Sir Robert May's data cited above seem to show, critical questioning may indicate a more informed and scientifically literate citizenry. We explore this possibility in Chapter 3, and consider the case for taking this change of attitude among scientists one step further.
2.44 The survey data cited above show that people differentiate, in their responses to science, according to its source (MORI p 167). In such surveys, as we have seen, "independent scientists" and "scientists working for environmental groups" generally score well on "trust"; government and industrial scientists generally score badly. In particular, it is widely perceived that the beneficiaries of much new science are the large multinational corporations and their managers, while the public is left to carry the risk. This is a manifestation of globalisation. This point was strongly made during our visit to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, USA. We consider the concept of "independent science" further in Chapter 4 below.
2.45 The administrative culture of the United Kingdom is notoriously secretive. This is perhaps partly a legacy of the conditions imposed by two world wars. Be that as it may, there is an abiding presumption that government information and decision-making processes are confidential and closed. This has left the field wide open to allegations of conspiracy and cover-up. This is particularly damaging when the subject-matter concerns risk, the assessment of which depends on many assumptions; and when questions of science are involved, in which there is often a degree of uncertainty and room for disagreement.
2.46 Sir Robert May has already challenged the culture of secrecy by promulgating Guidelines for the use of scientific advice in policy-making, including a strong presumption of openness. We consider these guidelines in Chapter 4.
2.47 Much public policy debate is confused by an assumption that the issues reverberating around science in the public domain, especially a whole variety of risk issues, can be reduced to a set of questions capable of objective and incontrovertible answer by scientific research. Most often, in truth, the issues are complex. Scientific understanding can contribute to a resolution of these issues, but only in partnership with judgements based on people's attitudes, values and ethics (Irwin Q 54; Ogilvie QQ 164, 169; Radford QQ 196, 219; Miller/Reilly Q 486ff).
2.48 People may be unhappy about an issue of widespread concern being treated by decision-makers as a purely scientific issue, admissible only of a scientific answer (Cons Assn Q 602). Of course science is a crucial element of such issues, and the best possible knowledge must be procured and respected. But this scientific knowledge does not stand alone, to the exclusion of social, ethical and other factors. As Sir Aaron Klug put it, "The policy-maker has to take account not only of objective facts but also of the art of the possible".
2.49 It is a difficult challenge to get this balance right: on the one hand to address the scientific questions seriously, but on the other hand to avoid reducing the whole public issue to one of science. A negative public response to expert assertions on issues involving science may be mistaken as negative to science, when in reality people are responding negatively to the way in which this reduction to a "scientific issue" alone distorts or excludes other legitimate concerns.
2.51 Sir Robert May made this point clearly last year in a publication on GM crops: "There are real social and environmental choices to be madeThey are not about safety as such, but about much larger questions of what kind of a world we want to live in".
2.52 Another example is the controversy over whether food containing GM ingredients should be labelled as such. The European Union (EU) and the British Government have recently decided that it should. Those who see this issue in purely scientific terms argue that this decision is irrational, since in some cases the GM material could just as well have been produced by non-GM means, while in any case GM ingredients would not be permitted for food use if there were evidence that they might be harmful. In the minds of many people, however, this is to miss the point; the real issue at stake is consumer choice.
2.53 Professor Conway identified the complexity of the GM debate in his address to the directors of Monsanto. He said, "Much of what is being said in Europe is driven by passion. Some of it is motivated by simple anti-corporate or anti-American sentiment. But underlying some of this rhetoric are genuine concerns about the ethical consequences of biotechnology, about fear for the environment and about the potential impact on human health."
2.54 Once it is admitted that many of the issues currently treated by decision-makers as science issues may in fact involve many other factors besides science, the question is, what to do about it? This is a central question of our inquiry, and we address it in Chapter 5 below.
2.55 It is widely assumed that one of the roots of public mistrust of science is ignorance, and in particular the public's apparent insistence on zero risk and absolute certainty. Many of our witnesses pointed to the tendency for opinion-formers to have an arts background and to regard science as difficult or at any rate different. "Even among well-educated groups there is little stigma in United Kingdom society in claiming ignorance of science" (MRC p 351). We consider science education in schools in Chapter 6. Other witnesses blame the media for pandering to public ignorance; we discuss the role of the media in Chapter 7.
2.56 However some current research suggests that the public in fact understands uncertainty and risk well, on the basis of everyday experience. People use common sense to interpret and evaluate what they hear about technological advances, and attempt to put it in its cultural, social and ethical context and to translate it into terms which are useful or at least relevant to themselves (Cons Assn Q 609; Nat Hist Mus p 62). As illustrated by the survey data cited above, given proper information, people are often able to weigh risks against benefits, evaluate uncertainties, and reach sensible and even sophisticated judgements. On this view, one of the major factors engendering mistrust is the failure of institutional science at the frontiers of knowledge to admit publicly its own uncertainties and to provide accordingly.
2.57 So, for instance, there was no public outcry when genetically modified tomato paste went on sale in the United Kingdom in 1995, clearly labelled as such so as to allow consumers to choose to avoid it. What set the scene for the more recent uproar was the marketing of unsegregated mixtures of natural and GM soya and maize, implying not only, as noted above, that the only issue at stake was the science, but also that the science was sufficiently certain for consumers to be deprived of choice. Although it is highly likely that, in both cases, the natural and GM products are equally safe, it is possible that uncertainty over whether the cultivation of GM plants carried risks of affecting other plant species affected people's judgement about a wholly different type of risk, namely the possibility of toxicity to humans. It is notable that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reviewing its position on the issues of segregation and labelling of GM foods, in the light of events in Europe; the FDA held a series of public meetings on these issues in November and December 1999.
2.58 There is probably truth in both propositions. In areas where the risks are perceived to be imposed and regulated by others, such as public transport or food supply, people are understandably inclined to demand high and possibly unattainable levels of safety and certainty. In areas where people feel more control, such as smoking and driving, they tend to be more pragmatic and even reckless. It is hard to predict a priori what the public will regard as "safe enough"; but it should cause little surprise if what the public find acceptable does not correspond with the objective risks as understood by science.
"beliefs, either individual or social, about what is important in life, and thus about the ends or objectives which should govern and shape public policies".
2.60 The RCEP goes on to identify two characteristics of values. First, they evolve through information and reflection. Second, when applied to any particular situation, the values of any individual will often conflict with each other, and with the values of other people. Policy-makers therefore face a triple challenge: recognising people's values, seeing that they are understood and brought into the debate, and making policy which comes near enough to satisfying the values of enough people to command support.
2.61 In matters with a scientific element there is arguably a fourth challenge, due to the deference of many people in the face of "science". The challenge is to help and provoke people to articulate their values, which otherwise may go altogether unexpressed.
the environment has a cultural, historical or social significance, and may deserve protection on this account alone (for example, a landscape which has resulted from industrial or mining activity may signify a history of which a community may be proud or highly conscious" (SES 7.4).
Public reaction to risk may not correspond to quantitative assessment. "Reactions to uncontrollable, poorly understood, inequitable, intergenerational and potentially catastrophic or irreversible risks are likely to be negative."
The public may demand justification for risk, especially when those who create the risk, and benefit from it, are not the same as those who bear the risk.
The public want a "more natural personal environment".
2.64 Both these sets of statements express values with which many readers will identify. It is not however the purpose of this report to say what we believe the values of the British public to be. This question must be asked afresh by policy-makers as each new situation arises.
2.65 In our view knowledge obtained through scientific investigation does not in itself have a moral dimension; but the ways in which it is pursued, and the applications to which it may be put, inevitably engage with morality. Science is conducted and applied by individuals; as individuals and as a collection of professions, scientists must have morality and values, and must be allowed and indeed expected to apply them to their work and its applications. By declaring openly the values which underpin their work, and by engaging with the values and attitudes of the public, they are far more likely to command public support.
2.66 The importance of this is not confined to scientists; it extends to those who make policy, whether public or commercial, on the basis of scientific opportunities and advice. Policy-makers will find it hard to win public support, or even acquiescence, on any issue with a science component, unless the public's attitudes and values are recognised, respected and weighed in the balance along with the scientific and other factors.
2.67 Once this is acknowledged, the question, as we have already observed, is how to put it into practice. In Chapter 3 we consider activities which conventionally bear the label "public understanding of science", and their role in bringing out public attitudes to new developments in science. In Chapter 5 we consider the case for new more interactive processes of public dialogue. |
0.975338 | In addition to investing in total market ETFs, the only other investing strategy I strongly adhere to is dividend investing. Of the many potential passive income streams that one could build, dividend investing is among the most effective because of its consistent, predictable gains and the minimal effort required to maintain it.
To understand dividend investing, let’s first take some time to understand terminology. (If you’re already familiar with the terms, skip to the next section).
For example, when you leave money in the bank, you earn interest on it (but the current interest rate on a standard checking account is nearly zero). Also, if you take out a loan, you need to pay it back with interest, which serves as their compensation for giving you money for a period of time.
Compound interest: interest on interest.
Imagine you plant an orange tree. Instead of eating the oranges and tossing the seeds in the trash, you decide to replant the seeds in order to grow more orange trees. After many years, you end up with an acre full of orange trees. Compound interest works in much the same way, using the interest earned to earn more interest.
Dividends: the “interest” earned on certain stocks.
Many companies (particularly large, mature companies) incentivize investors by paying monthly or quarterly dividends. These companies pay out cash from their profits to their shareholders to reward them for continuing to hold onto their stock. Some examples include JPMorgan, Coca Cola, and McDonald’s. By contrast, most growth companies do not pay dividends, because they are still experiencing strong growth, and are better off reinvesting their profits into the business.
Dividend Terms: Here is a useful article summarizing the timing of dividend payments and how to receive a dividend. Basically, in order to receive your dividend, buy the stock before the Ex-Dividend date, hold it until after the Record Date, and then receive the dividend on the Payment Date.
1. Dividend payments are very consistent and predictable.
It’s about as plain vanilla as investments get. Most dividends payments are monthly or quarterly, and the amount and date they will be paid are typically largely the same.
There is clearly minimal variance in the amount or timing of the dividend payments. Just like a paycheck, it’s nice to know when and how much to expect in your next payment.
2. It’s a purely passive source of income.
Literally all you have to do is buy the shares, and they will pay you for being a shareholder. If you are invested in a dividend ETF (again, it is good principle to be invested in a basket of stocks rather than individual stocks), you don’t need to worry about a company discontinuing dividend payments or going out of business.
3. Dividends are paid in cash.
Admittedly, this is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The plus side here is that you do not have to sell principal (your shares) in order to receive the benefits. On the other hand, if you own a stock like Google, and it appreciated in value from $1,100 to $1,200, you would have to sell the share to gain $100. If you choose to keep holding, you may benefit more from continued rise in share price, or the shares might drop from any market factor (overall recession, changing marketplace, major litigation, etc). Either way, you have to eventually make a choice.
While the earning potential on dividends is generally less than that of growth stocks, you know exactly what you’re getting. Think about it like this: You’re going out for dinner, and you’re picking a place to eat. On the one hand, you could go with something familiar, like In-N-Out. With In-N-Out, you know exactly what you’re getting (cheeseburger with no onions, fries well-done, and a Coke). While it’s not fine French dining, it’s undoubtedly delicious. On the other hand, you could check out the new Korean-Mexican fusion restaurant that everyone’s been talking about. You might be mindblown by their bulgogi tacos, or you might walk away shaking your head in disappointment because the hype wasn’t real. This is basically dividend investing vs. growth stocks in a nutshell.
The other downside is taxation (when are taxes ever a positive? Hah). Dividends are realized gains, therefore they need to be recorded as taxable income.
First, it’s pretty evident that just throwing your money in the bank is not the best use of your cash, assuming that you don’t need it immediately. There are some savings accounts that pay nearly 2% in annual interest, but there are usually conditions attached like a $10K minimum balance, limited number of withdrawals, and fees for going under the minimum balance.
Next, you can opt to just use the cash earned from dividends for your daily life. An extra couple of dollars each month can help with your expenses. You can smugly tell friends that your dividends paid for your Netflix subscription.
However, the best option, especially for young people that still have a long time to invest, is to reinvest the dividends to take advantage of compounding. In the example above, $10K invested over 10 years results in a $7,835 gain (excluding taxes) from doing essentially nothing. The key to dividend investing is ultimately time and patience. The initial amounts received are admittedly tiny, especially with balances under $10K. But let’s say you’re 25, and you’re able to aggressively build up a balance of $100K in dividend ETFs over the next five years. At that point, you would be receiving about $500 in monthly dividends. While it’s not enough to be able to quit your day job, it absolutely can go a long way in helping your financial position. End up quitting or losing your job? You can still rely on your dividends to help you instead of having to pay purely from your savings. But to get to this point, you must be disciplined in saving up and resist the temptation to sell off shares when different circumstances come up.
Okay, you’ve convinced me. But how do I choose what to invest in?
People can run into problems if the fund is small (in my definition, less than $1B). Small funds may cause problems with liquidity (ie you can’t find a decent price to sell your shares because there aren’t enough traders). Small funds may also not be as well diversified, which leads me to my second point.
If the portfolio is comprised of just a few companies, or “overweight” one company (high % is in just one company) then one company finding itself in troubled waters could drag down the entire ETF. Any portfolio with large positions in GE, FB, or PCG probably got demolished this year. Also, if you discover that you don’t recognize any of the names in the top holdings of the portfolio, that’s probably an issue. It’s like eating a “mystery meat” chicken nugget. You know from the ingredients list that the meat definitely isn’t just chicken breast. Still tastes good, but questionable enough to make you second guess whether or not you should be eating it.
Just because an ETF has a very high dividend yield does not mean it’s “better”. Markets are fairly efficient, so a higher yield almost always means higher risk as well. That ETF with 8% dividend yield might look very attractive, but it could be a trap.
It’s always good to check the expense ratio, which is the percentage of your investment that will be taken out as part of the admin fees associated with the fund. Two funds may look largely similar, but one may have a higher expense ratio than the other, making it less profitable.
My personal preference is for PFF and PGX because they are large, well-diversified portfolios of preferred stock. I recognize all of the top holdings (mostly banks and energy companies). There are many other options out there, including DIV, SDIV, SRET, VIG, VYM, etc. These all have different focus (US, non-US, real estate, etc), and track to different indices.
When investing, check to see whether your brokerage allows a dividend reinvest plan (DRIP). If so, you will be allowed to automatically reinvest your dividends to purchase more shares (including partial shares). I personally use Vanguard, which has the option to enroll in DRIP.
Ultimately, dividend investing is an excellent way to build up passive income. It’s not the most lucrative or the flashiest option in terms of investing, but there is a lot to benefit from the consistent approach found in dividend investing. |
0.995909 | Next Article: [Updated] Did Tokopedia just raise another US$100M funding?
Over one year after the agreement was quietly inked, AllDealsAsia announced today that it is in the final stages of an acquisition by Indonesia’s conglomerate giant Lippo Group and senior leadership from AllDealsAsia has already been playing a major role in the development of MatahariMall.
Financial details of the deal are undisclosed and, as part of the acquisition, AllDealsAsia will be closing down on April 30.
The deal is important for two reasons; it is an important exit in Singapore’s startup history and it shines some light on Lippo Group’s e-commerce venture MatahariMall.
If we lift the wizard’s curtain, for the last year, AllDealsAsia Co-Founder and CEO Yiping Goh has been playing the role of Founding Member, Chief Product Officer and Co-Lead of CrossBorder Sellers Programme — in lay terms, she was an integral cog in taking MatahariMall from idea to what is believed to be Indonesia’s second largest e-commerce company.
“I was just too busy. We were so focussed on preparing the launch of MatahariMall,” Goh told e27 with a smile, explaining why she was going public now.
I believe she understood why I asked the question; a nice funding round is a ‘startup-metric’ that drives conversation within the community, but an exit is far more substantial.
It is a symbol that a particular ecosystem is producing healthy, quality companies and gives confidence to both Founders and investors about the ability for startups to find an exit path.
So, when a massive regional conglomerate acquires a well-known startup, it is not often the news stays underground for more than year.
“There was no real particular reason for [making an announcement] now. It is just because a lot of people in the startup industry are asking ‘Hey, what are you doing now’,” said Goh.
AllDealsAsia was founded in 2010 by Goh and her brother Wayne and went on to become one of Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce aggregator portals.
The aggregator startup was inspired at the time by the popularity of Groupon and the multitude of companies looking to localise the business model. In 2011, AllDealsAsia raised S$500,000 (US$370,000) from Iconic Ventures to expand its website to include companies like Lazada, Qoo10, and its own daily deals.
The company grew to have 500,000 subscribers.
“It is a little like what happened to Pie (the work messaging startup acquired by Google in February). The basic interest from Lippo Group is to understand e-commerce and the [learn from our] experience of running an e-commerce company,” said Goh.
For MatahariMall, one of AllDealsAsia’s attractive traits was its O2O mode — the e-commerce startup was one of the firsts in the region to integrate online orders and offline pick-ups.
To a certain extent, it was ahead of its time in the trend which today is becoming more popular across Southeast Asia.
As MatahariMall has a well-publicised O2O strategy, the attraction is natural.
The Director of Lippo Group, John Riady echoed a similar sentiment.
“This is very good partnership. We saw a very talented team and there is so much we can learn from them regarding e-commerce in the region,” he said in a statement.
Goh said the startup’s flexibility, adaptability and quick decision-making skills were other attributes Lippo Group found attractive.
And now that Goh is in a position of power inside MatahariMall, those characteristics have become part of the internal culture. Goh said she promotes experimentation, and a ‘deliver fast, test fast’ attitude.
“We now have almost every single payment mode Indonesians would use such as cash-on-demand, bank transfers, e-money, credit cards, wallets and even paying at convenience stores and post offices. We adopt a very fast weekly delivery schedule on our product roadmap,” she said.
In terms of integration, AllDealsAsia will be onboarding cross-border merchants from Singapore to sell on Matahari Mall. However, Goh said because the two companies do not have much of an overlapping consumer base, there is no clear path towards migrating subscribers to MatahariMall.
This being said, the acquisition of AllDealsAsia by Lippo Group should be seen as a win for Singapore.
AllDealsAsia was one of the early success stories in the Singaporean startup ecosystem. It made waves when funding was dry, government support was just beginning and cultural barriers were more significant.
So, if there is any acquisition to root for, this is it. |
0.999997 | Please explain to me how I reboot my computer in "safe mode" and what safe mode means?
Safe mode stops all unnecessary programs from loading at startup, as well as many of the graphics that regular mode has. To get into Safe Mode, reboot the computer and repeatedly press the F8 key, until you get to make a choice of Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode, or Last Known good config. Use the arrow keys to select Safe Mode (if not hilighted already) and press enter. The drivers will load, and you will be able to login. |
0.830624 | Pay the debt or feed a family?
I can't believe it is more important to solve a debit than feed an American family. We have already been in debt and what difference if we wait one more year or 10 years. Who is going to feed our families, give them jobs, education, etc.
My whole family was patriotic in World War II (6) including my mother who ran a grocery store during the 1929 Depression and credited about 300 customers and knowing that she could never be paid for their food.
Why are we begging for help? We got to get this deficit off our shoulders and move forward. Do you think their families are suffering with them?
They ought to fall down on their knees and ask for God's forgiveness for what they have done to us Americans. They forget who elected them. Shame on them. |
0.999996 | Ashley Horn nata nel da una relazione extra-coniugale e Landon Lohan nato il 30 gennaio Carriera di fotomodella[ modifica modifica wikitesto ] Ha iniziato la sua carriera come modella per la linea infantile di Calvin Klein quando aveva appena tre anni. Dopo aver abbandonato la soap opera , ha debuttato al cinema in un doppio ruolo nel film di Nancy Meyers recitando la parte di due gemelle che si incontravano dopo parecchi anni e cercavano di far rincontrare i loro genitori Dennis Quaid e Natasha Richardson in Genitori in trappola La mia amica speciale con Tyra Banks e Lexi e il professore scomparso. Il suo impegno venne dimostrato con Mean Girls , il suo primo film vietato ai minori di 13 anni e non Disney. I critici in ogni caso furono colpiti dalla bravura dell'attrice ma non dalla bellezza di questa pungente e intelligente commedia "spudoratamente perfida".
United States Executive summary: Mean Girls At three, Lindsay Lohan was a working model. At six, she was one of the trick-or-treaters who rang David Letterman 's doorbell on a Halloween Late Show. Her costume was made from garbage allegedly found on the D-train, and Letterman gave her a garden hose.
Lindsay Lohan was introduced to filmgoers in when she faced the difficult task of filling the shoes of beloved child actress Hayley Mills in a remake of The Parent Trap. Lohan offered herself up for comparison again five years later when she starred in Freaky Friday, another classic teen film from a generation ago. Remakes can be tricky, having to live up to the expectations of fans of the original while also appealing to those seeing the film for the first time. In both of these films, Lohan offered a fresh perspective on her characters while staying true to the spirit of the originals, earning the admiration of a broad spectrum of viewers and the adoration of her teenage and preteen fans. Lohan was crowned one of the new teen queens, with her freckled face suddenly appearing on magazine covers everywhere.
Indeed, a dusting of freckles across her face, uncovered by makeup, makes her look younger than her 31 years. It was all lies. And now I never go to clubs! She is about to take the reins of Lebanon, turning it into a sandy getaway with a restaurant, beach club, cabanas, and possibly even some private villas. I work all the time; my mind never stops. |
0.999999 | Write a critical summary of the points made by Clarke in the provided paper by Clarke (Witches, 1 Floods and Wonder Drugs). Clarke bases his points on three stories, but there is an overall set of ideas that he is using these stories to illustrate. What are the ideas he is presenting? A critical summary is not a point-by-point paraphrasing of the content, it is a higher level interpretation of the content and it includes your views on this.
Introduction: Risk, coping risk and trying to manage the risk or I should say controlling risk has been a struggling part for the humans since time in memorial. From birth till death everyone tries to control and avoid risk. What is being done is just the opposite of what should be done. In this critical summary, it will be evaluated that what the old civilizations did and what they should have done vis-à-vis three examples exemplified by William C. Clark. It will also critically evaluate all the three examples namely witch, floods and wonder drugs. Over the period of while assessing the risks and understanding the knowledge, it has come to surface that all of us need to understand policy analysis rather than science. It must be understood that feasibility in risk management assessment is a better option. The important part is that everyone needs to appreciate that the time has come and it is the need of the hour to increase our risk coping capabilities and need to work on our risk-taking abilities.
William C Clark is of the opinion that the concept or the issue of risk revolves around two entities firstly people, and secondly their fears. No one would hesitate in agreeing with the author on this point that it is the fear of the unknown, unimaginable and the incomprehensible which makes people adopt various unlawful strategies. In our society rather than understanding and evaluating the uncontrollable we fear what cannot be controlled. It has lead to the development of a new approach where people run away from the problems. However, if one tries to critically examine the paper provided by William C. Clark, it would be found that there is an overall set of ideas which the author is trying to illustrate through these stories in the paper. After thoughtful analysis of the paper, it can be deduced that the central point of discussion according to the author is that whether it is the case of witches, floods or wonder drugs vs. social risk assessment, whenever the humans have tried to “control” the fear, nature and medicine regulation, humans as a whole have suffered at their own hands. To begin with the first point, in the early centuries societal risk assessment implied witches hunting. It meant when no other reason could be found for the rotting of the fields, dying of the sheep and human diseases everything was blamed on witches. What could not be understood was confused and cashed upon. It became a new profession and earning source. The burden of the work was so much that it lead to the birth of a new institution called Inquisition. It was responsible for burning more and more witches. People have found a scapegoat mechanism in the form of witches. What they cannot explain or justify was blamed on witches. Gradually the witchcraft became an individual affair and the church was out of it. Social risk assessment and witchcraft both were followed blindfolded and anyone who raised voice against the witchcraft was dealt in a similar fashion. Both the cases required shreds of evidence to prove or punish anyone. In many cases, it was found that evidence cannot be provided or if in any case bleak evidence in nature was adduced it was ignored. Alonso Salazar y Frias in 1610 ordered the Spanish Inquisition that without proof no torture will be done on the witches. The author tries to establish similarities between the Inquisition and social risk assessment scientists on the grounds of opportunistic careerism, clergy vs. the scientists for their own account and thirdly on the financial gains of the clergy and the elite scientific institutions which gained out of this social risk assessment spree. It can also be believed that both the institutions i.e. inquisition and scientific foundations fulfilled their selfish motives.
The second point discussed by William C Clark lays emphasis on the human being’s attempt to manage or regulate the natural resources. Here also, the double faceted risk analysis comes into play again. Nature also is a dual personality. It provides us with rivers, good food, oxygen, animals and many more benefits. Contrarily floods, pests, diseases are also part of nature. The latter ones are the direct repercussions of human intervention with nature. The humans risk their own existence by fiddling with the Mother Nature. They have stopped coping or adjusting according to nature. Rather environment and nature have been molded according to their own needs which have proved to be the biggest mistake of humankind. For the short term benefits, people are compromising and risking the long-term benefits. So as to control the problem of flooding temporarily, transient arrangements were made but it has severely affected in inappropriate proportions. Same has been the case with the use of insecticides and budworms or the prevention of the conflagrations or the diseases or the prevention of the disaster in case of the genetically modified corn crop. Till date, no one has been able to assess that how much risk humans as a race should take or must take. Every time when there is a question about taking the risk the first approach is to avoid it and follow a temporary or short-term solution as seen earlier also.
Last but not the least is the relationship between the medical advancement and the risk assessment profession. The medicine development always puts the tests in risky situations. It can be said that the risks and the medical benefits go hand in hand. The doctors have to assess all the time the risks/side effects associated with the medicines if they are launched without proper testing or the benefits of early launches as people are suffering because of the non-availability. Minimal testing is certainly required but after that, it is for the scientists to decide that if they want the humans to be their guinea pigs? Such dilemmas are the most prevalent in case of the risk assessment situations. There are presently two approaches The US and The UK practice out of which whole of the fraternity has unanimously decided that the United Kingdom’s approach is more practical as it promotes the early release of medicines and does extensive post-marketing observation. Now the time has come when it needs to be decided that whether we want to risk the cost factor or the susceptibility of the human beings to the medicines while launching of the medicines. Accordingly, if all the three cases are combined that is witchcraft, environment factors and drug expansion vis-à-vis the societal risk assessment one single solution that emerges out of the total discussion is that “Our appetite for the risk-taking abilities must increase”. Everyone will have to bring themselves to the concept of adaptive risk management i.e. how much calculative risk one should take? Another approach which exists is not to take any risk and stay safe but in this case, no one will gain anything. They have to start making a strategy for coping. Willingness to take risks must increase. They should start acting on the grounds of respect for the known and should not abandon on the grounds of fear of unknown or uncontrollable. In adaptive risk management the incompleteness, theories their interruptions and fallibility of the knowledge makes no difference. It could be felt that when the author draws a comparison between a politician and a scientist, he wants to emphasize on a balanced view of an uncertain and complex issue. Both the scientists and politicians can make errors. But the author is of the opinion that learning from the errors in the modern policy analysis. As actual performance depends upon the facts and contingencies, rationality becomes retrospective but a highly regarded concept. My views regarding the societal risk assessment after the analysis of the essay and the comparisons drawn by the author are that the risk-taking attitude and ability of the society from the beginning has been negative and avoidable. It is the need of the hour that we should start making efforts towards generating a pro risk-taking attitude as it is the only preferred solution.
Conclusion: In the above critical summary and the comparison drawn between the witchcraft, floods, wonder drugs and the societal risk assessment it can be concluded that we cannot save ourselves and have to cope the world around us adequately. This means that we must have a better understanding of the development of the nature of risks. We should try to acknowledge the problem we are facing, make efforts to solve it and learn how to use the past experiences to steer into the future. We must create a beneficial perspective thus eliminating one of the most troubling parts thereon which is avoiding the risk. By establishing better science policies we can evolve and produce new values of methodical rigor which are suitable and helpful in nature for the encouraging early warnings and formulating policy decisions. The trademark of a good policy is that it not only analyses and recognizes the truth which may be hidden or unknown but also it evaluates the little knowledge so that it allows in taking decisions. Policies focusing on regulation, controls etc are not required. We must lay emphasis on the “scale” to which our risk management institutions and arrangements should work so that there could be optimal regulation for every fear and unknown. |
0.998298 | Bricha ( Hebrew : בריחה , translit. Briẖa , “escape” or “flight”) Was the underground Organized efforts That Helped Jewish Holocaust survivors escape post- World War II Europe to the British Mandate for Palestine in violation of the White Paper of 1939 . It ended when Israel declared independence and annulled the White Paper.
The movement of Jewish Refugees from the Displaced Persons camp in qui They Were Held (one million persons classified as “not repatriable” Remained in Germany and Austria ) to Palestine Was illegal on Both Sides, as Jews Were not officiellement allowed to leave the countries of Central and Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union and its allies, were not permitted to settle in Palestine by the British.
In late 1944 and early 1945, Jewish members of the Polish resistance met with Warsaw ghetto fighters in Lubin to form Bricha as a way of escaping the anti- Semitism of Europe, where they were convinced that another Holocaust would occur. After the liberation of Rivne , Eliezer and Abraham Lidovsky, and Pasha (Isaac) Rajchmann, concluded that there was no future for Jews in Poland . They form an artisan guild to cover their covert activities, and they feel a group to Cernăuţi , Romania to seek out escape routes. It was only after Abba Kovner , and his group from Vilna joined, along withIcchak Cukierman , who had led the Jewish Combat Organization of the Polish uprising of August 1944, in January 1945, that the organization took shape. They soon joined the Jewish Brigade and eventually the Haganah .
Haganah, officers of the Jewish Brigade of the British army, opera from the Haganah. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee funded the operation.
Almost immediately, the explicitly Zionist Berihah became the main conduit for Palestine, especially from the displaced person camps, and it initially had to turn to people.
After the Kielce pogrom of the 1946, the flight of Jews accelerated, with 100,000 Jews leaving Eastern Europe in three months. Operating in Poland , Romania , Hungary , Czechoslovakia , and Yugoslavia through 1948, Berihah transferred approximately 250,000 survivors into Austria, Germany, and Italy through elaborate smuggling networks. Using Supplied ships at great cost [ citation needed ] by the Mossad LeAliyah Bet , Then The immigration arm of the YishuvThese refugees were then smuggled through the British cordon around Palestine. Bricha Was share of the larger operation Known As Aliyah Bet , and ended with the establishment of Israel , after-qui immigration to the Jewish state Was Legal, ALTHOUGH emigration Was still Sometimes prohibited, as happened in Both the Eastern Bloc and Arab countries, see, for example refusenik .
Bauer, Yehuda (1970). Flight and Rescue: Brichah . New York: Random House. OCLC 80809 . Snippet view only.
Mankowitz, Zeev W. (2002). Life between Memory and Hope: The Survivors of the Holocaust in Occupied Germany . Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare no. 12. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521037565 . OCLC 124025531 . |
0.990927 | Find hotel near Sportfreunde Djk Buhlerze ..
The Sportfreunde Buhlerzell is a sports club and event location, with a focus on encouraging all kinds of sports. The sports include soccer, gymnastics, running, martial arts, volleyball, tennis, and others. This is the place to be to attend a sporting event, or learn a new sport. The soccer teams specially, cater to all age groups, with separate teams for men and women. With state of the art facilities, this sports venue is equipped to create the most successful sports people and generally inspire the community to be more active and willing to play some sport in their lives. If you get a chance, to visit the facility, and learn about various sports. |
0.982187 | it doesn't suddenly become moral when you sleep with her.
A very stupid argument, right?
And yet I see anarchists forwarding essentially the same argument again and again: If it would be immoral for you to do X as a private citizen, it doesn't suddenly become moral when the state does it.
The thrust of the argument is that social roles should have no effect on our evaluation of an action... which is obviously complete nonsense. Otherwise, if it is immoral for me to break into your house, then it would be immoral for you to do so as well. If it is immoral for me to shut a stranger in a room, then it must be immoral for a parent to send a child to his room as well. If it is immoral for a student to alter another student's grade, then it must be immoral for the teacher to do so as well.
Not all of what we may properly do depends on our social roles, but much does. That certainly does not mean everything, or even anything, the state does is OK. But the notion that a change in social role cannot possibly affect the morality of an action is laughable.
Michael Huemer wrote a book, _The Problem of Political Authority_, responding to this argument. The problem is that you need a good reason why government has special rights that other people don't. Huemer argues that none of the attempts to do so work--you might find it worth reading the book, and seeing if you can rebut his argument against whatever version you believe in.
In fact, this argument should (IMHO) actually be the definition of the state. The state is that authority which can use coercion in settings, or for goals, that would be illegal for private citizens.
(To be fair, I am trying to paraphrase David Friedman here, so I should acknowledge David, though he should not be blamed if I got him wrong).
Then, it is fair to ask if the state should exist. But taking this approach avoids the problem that Callahan (rightly, I think) criticizes. The case is NOT prima facie. You would have to give a good reason why the state should have this power that private citizens do not have, but it is at least POSSIBLE that such a good reason might exist.
Need to distinguish *legal* authority from *moral* authority. And we certainly do not think that only 'The State' is the only entity with the moral authority to use coercion for certain goals in certain settings (e.g., parental authority), so need an additional criterion.
David Friedman, don't bother with Gene. He pulled this same stunt with the minimum wage argument. "If we stop at stage 2 in the argument, the libertarians look like morons. QED."
Someone had posted that exact argument this morning on Facebook, with no steps beyond step two whatsoever. If someone has a better argument that has a step three in it, why does that make my refuting of an argument that stops with step two invalid? You do notice that Mike Munger understood this point very well?
Suppose an antiwar activist says, "It's really not right, what we're doing over in the Middle East. Imagine if some foreign power dropped a bomb on *your* kid at a wedding feast. How would *you* feel?"
I think you just proved that this is a terrible con, Gene, and that antiwar activists should stop making such illogical rhetorical moves.
"It's really not right, what we're doing over in the Middle East. Imagine if some foreign power dropped a bomb on *your* kid at a wedding feast. How would *you* feel?"
Huh? This is an emotional appeal. I have seen what I critiqued presented as an ARGUMENT.
"We can all agree that it would be wrong for the police to start blowing up houses in Boston, hoping to take out the guy who planted to bomb at the marathon, right? Well by the same token, it's wrong to do that in the Middle East."
Then you write a quick blog post pointing out what a ridiculous argument this is, and end your thought there, your task accomplished.
Not seeing the analogy at all, Bob. The US government is the SAME social role in both cases.
Think about it: "We can all agree that it would be wrong for someone who doesn't own a building to blow it up, right? Well by the same token, it's wrong for someone who does own it to blow it up."
That really IS a stupid argument, while your "version" isn't at all. Perhaps you might contemplate the difference.
Gene, this is an unsatisfactory use of the moral value and metaphysical status of "social roles," particularly considering your emphasis in the past on "abstraction" and its reality-distorting effects. An anarchist could easily respond, e.g, that certain social roles are morally valuable while others are not, that certain social roles are morally valuable under certain conditions (voluntary, informed) and devoid of value when those conditions fail to obtain; that intimacy, personal interactions, and reflective affirmation of particular relationships give rise to the mutual associative responsibilities and moral value of many/most social roles, while formal pronunciations of "status" lack moral worth all together. The contemporary western marital relation is partially constituted by its voluntary character, and it is seen to lose not only its moral value but also its status qua genuine relationship in the absence of such consensual acts. The anarchist could also deny any monolithic account of "social roles," claiming instead that all social roles are importantly constituted by the particular agent inhabiting them, given the unique perspective and unique constellation of roles that every agents brings to the table.
Given your philosophical outlook, we are not going to agree on the moral status of social roles, so I do not plan on debating such a difficult issue here in the comments on your blog. That being said, I do feel compelled to chime in: there are tons of examples of liberal moral/political theorists who find a central place for social roles in their respective philosophies yet reject such an easy route to political authority (Joseph Raz and Leslie Green immediately to mind).
Oy, Hume, I thought you were a philosopher!
I post: a is a bad argument for x.
1) But look, if I add b and c, then a + b + c might be a good argument for x!
2) And anyway, just because a is a bad argument for x, that doesn't prove not-a.
Did you really not notice that I wrote: "That certainly does not mean everything, or even *anything*, the state does is OK."
This was not a "route to political authority," easy or not. What in the world made you think it was, especially when I *very specifically pointed out* it was not?
It was a critique of a bad argument. Period.
My apologies for reading something more into your comment.
I would like to point out that the anarchist claim vis-a-vis private subjects and "the state" does not entail that "social roles should have no effect on our evaluation of an action." It is a particular claim.
It implies it though, at least in the bare-bones form I happened to see that day.
I saw a guy on FB this morning arguing, "We can all agree that it would be wrong for the police to start blowing up houses in Boston, hoping to take out the guy who planted to bomb at the marathon, right? Well by the same token, it's wrong to do that in the Middle East."
==> Adults in Boston would be upset if their votes for the US president in 2016 were ruled inadmissible. So by the same token, we should let the adults in Kabul cast their vote for the US president in 2016.
See how dumb that is? Yet that was the underlying premise of my FB friend, opposing blowing up wedding parties as we hunt terrorists in the Middle East. These people trying to use "arguments" to get us to "think about what we're really doing over there" need to try harder.
Beleive me, Bob, I see exactly how it works: this is a slogan. Its purposes is not to "get people thinking," but to short-circuit thought and hold the "party" together. It functions the same way a neocon slogan like "So, you're saying the 9/11 victims deserved to die?" or a left-liberal slogan like "Conservatives hate the poor" do.
"==> Adults in Boston would be upset if their votes for the US president in 2016 were ruled inadmissible. So by the same token, we should let the adults in Kabul cast their vote for the US president in 2016."
Both arguments rely on hidden premises (it's facebook, to be expected). The analogy to elections is misleading, however, because the implicit premises regarding foreign policy (the value of innocent life is not determined by political boundaries, government should always respect the value of innocent life, etc.) are much more intuitively plausible than the implicit premises regarding U.S. political elections (anyone who is "upset that their votes ... were ruled inadmissible" has a moral right to vote in elections, etc). No need to be uncharitable and difficult, particularly because of the compelling need for justification regarding the former and not the latter. |
0.970558 | Airbus SE (in French ɛʁbys/, in German ˈɛːɐ̯bʊs/, in Spanish; Castilian ˈeirβus/) is a European corporation, registered in the Netherlands and trading shares in France, Germany and Spain. It designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aeronautical products worldwide and manufactures in multiple countries both inside and outside of the European Union. In addition to its primary civil aeroplane business, the company has two divisions for other products and services: Defence and Space and Helicopters, the latter being the largest in its industry in terms of revenues and turbine helicopter deliveries.
The company's main civil aeroplane business is based in Blagnac, France, a suburb of Toulouse, with production and manufacturing facilities mainly in France, Germany, Spain, China, United Kingdom and the United States. Final assembly production is based at Toulouse, France; Hamburg, Germany; Seville, Spain; Tianjin, China, and Mobile, Alabama, United States. The company produces and markets the first commercially viable digital fly-by-wire airliner, the Airbus A320, and the world's largest passenger airliner, the A380. The 10,000th aircraft, an A350, was delivered to Singapore Airlines on 14 October 2016 ; the global Airbus fleet having performed more than 110 million flights over 215 billion kilometres, carrying 12 billion passengers.
Airbus's corporate headquarters is located in Leiden, Netherlands, and the main office is located in Toulouse, France. The company is led by CEO Thomas Enders and is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.
See main article: History of Airbus. The current company is the product of consolidation in the European aerospace industry tracing back to the formation of the Airbus Industrie GIE consortium in 1970. In 2000, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) NV was established. In addition to other subsidiaries pertaining to security and space activities, EADS owned 100% of the pre-existing Eurocopter SA, established in 1992, as well as 80% of Airbus Industrie GIE. In 2001, Airbus Industrie GIE was reorganised as Airbus SAS, a simplified joint-stock company. In 2006, EADS acquired BAE Systems's remaining 20% of Airbus. EADS NV was renamed Airbus Group NV and SE in 2014, and 2015, respectively. Due to the dominance of the Airbus SAS division within Airbus Group SE, these parent and subsidiary companies were merged in January 2017, keeping the name of the parent company. The company was given its present name in April 2017.
The Airbus product line started with the A300, the world's first twin-aisle, twin-engined aircraft. A shorter, re-winged, re-engined variant of the A300 is known as the A310.
Building on its success, Airbus launched the A320, particularly notable for being the first commercial jet to use a fly-by-wire control system. The A320 has been, and continues to be, a great commercial success. The A318 and A319 are shorter derivatives with some of the latter under construction for the corporate business jet market as Airbus Corporate Jets. A stretched version is known as the A321. The A320 family's primary competitor is the Boeing 737 family.
The longer-range widebody products— the twin-jet A330 and the four-engine A340— have efficient wings, enhanced by winglets. The Airbus A340-500 has an operating range of 16700km (10,400miles), the second longest range of any commercial jet after the Boeing 777-200LR (range of 17,446 km or 9,420 nautical miles).
All Airbus aircraft developed since then have cockpit systems similar to the A320, making it easier to train crew. Production of the four-engine A340 was ended in 2011 due to lack of sales compared to its twin-engine counterparts, such as the Boeing 777.
Airbus is studying a replacement for the A320 series, tentatively dubbed NSR, for "New Short-Range aircraft". Those studies indicated a maximum fuel efficiency gain of 9–10% for the NSR. Airbus however opted to enhance the existing A320 design using new winglets and working on aerodynamical improvements. This "A320 Enhanced" should have a fuel efficiency improvement of around 4–5%, shifting the launch of an A320 replacement to 2017–2018.
On 24 September 2009, the COO Fabrice Bregier stated to Le Figaro that the company would need from €800 million to €1 billion over six years to develop the new aircraft generation and preserve the company technological lead from new competitors like C919, scheduled to operate by 2015–2020.
In July 2007, Airbus delivered its last A300 to FedEx, marking the end of the A300/A310 production line. Airbus intends to relocate Toulouse A320 final assembly activity to Hamburg, and A350/A380 production in the opposite direction as part of its Power8 organisation plan begun under ex-CEO Christian Streiff.
The Airbus Corporate Jets markets and modifies new aircraft for private and corporate customers. It has a model range that parallels the commercial aircraft offered by the company, ranging from the A318 Elite to the double-deck Airbus A380 Prestige. Following the entry of the 737 based Boeing Business Jet, Airbus joined the business jet market with the A319 Corporate Jet in 1997. Although the term Airbus Corporate jet was initially used only for the A319CJ, it is now often used for all models, including the VIP widebodies. As of December 2008, 121 corporate and private jets are operating, 164 aircraft have been ordered, including an A380 Prestige and 107 A320 family Corporate Jet.
In June 2013, Airbus announced that it was developing a range of "smart suitcases" known as Bag2Go for air travellers, in conjunction with luggage-maker Rimowa and IT firm T-Systems. The cases feature a collection of built-in electronic gadgets which communicate with a smartphone app and with the IT systems of the airline, to assist the traveller and improve reliability and security of baggage handling. Gadgets include a weighing scale and a location tracker, using GPS for location-tracking, RFID for identification, and a SIM card for messaging. Since then, similar products have been announced by other companies.
In the late 1990s Airbus became increasingly interested in developing and selling to the military aviation market. It embarked on two main fields of development: aerial refuelling with the Airbus A310 MRTT (Multi-Role Tanker Transport) and the Airbus A330 MRTT, and tactical airlift with the A400M.
In September 2014, Aerion partnered with Airbus (mainly Airbus Defence) to collaborate on designing the Aerion AS2, a supersonic 11-seater private business jet, hoping for a market entry in 2021.
The Airbus numbering system is an alpha numeric model number followed by a dash and a three digit number.
The model number often takes the form of the letter "A" followed by a '3', a digit, then followed normally by a '0', for example A330. There are some exceptions such as: A318, A319, A321 and A400M. The succeeding three digit number represents the aircraft series, the engine manufacturer and engine version number respectively. To use an A320-200 with International Aero Engines (IAE) V2500-A1 engines as an example; The code is 2 for series 200, 3 for IAE and engine version 1, thus the aircraft number is A320-231.
An additional letter is sometimes used. These include, 'C' for a combi version (passenger/freighter), 'F' for a freighter model, 'R' for the long range model, and 'X' for the enhanced model.
Commercial aircraft generated 67% of total revenue for the group in 2013. The product portfolio of such aircraft encompasses short range models such as the A320 family and the world's largest passenger airliner, the A380.
EADS 3 Sigmaa Hellenic company focused in the design, development, production and services provision of airborne and surface target drone systems.
Airbus Transport International - Cargo Airline managing the transportation of Airbus parts between different facilities.
In September 2014 Airbus considered divesting Dassault and several other units to focus on aerospace. They reduced their shareholding in Dassault Aviation to 10% by the end of 2016.
The original Executive Committee is appointed by the board of directors, itself appointed by Daimler AG and SOGEADE. Both appoint four directors plus one independent director. As of July 2003 SEPI no longer nominates a board member, but a Spanish director is retained as the 11th member. The board also appoints the company's chairpersons, one from the Daimler nominated directors and from the SOGEADE nominated directors. In late 2004 Noël Forgeard (then Airbus CEO) was nominated by Lagardère as the next French CEO of EADS. Forgeard had suggested that this system should be abolished in favour of a single CEO in a move that DaimlerChrysler saw as an attempt to engineer a French dominated management team. Following protracted arguments, which caused embarrassment to EADS at the Paris Air Show, the appointment was confirmed by the EADS Board of Directors on 25 June 2005. At the same meeting the Board, in consultation with partner BAE Systems, named Gustav Humbert as President and CEO of Airbus.
The subsidiary Airbus Middle East is headquartered in the Dubai Airport Free Zone. This subsidiary opened in 2006.
The subsidiary Airbus Japan K.K. (エアバス・ジャパン株式会社) is headquartered in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo.
Tianjin, China (A319 and A320).
Airbus, however, has a number of other plants in different European locations, reflecting its foundation as a consortium. An original solution to the problem of moving aircraft parts between the different factories and the assembly plants is the use of the Airbus Beluga, a modified cargo aircraft capable of carrying entire sections of fuselage. This solution has also been investigated by Boeing, which retrofitted 4 747-400s to transport the components of the 787. An exception to this scheme is the A380, whose fuselage and wings are too large for sections to be carried by the Beluga. Large A380 parts are brought by ship to Bordeaux, and then transported to the Toulouse assembly plant by the Itinéraire à Grand Gabarit, a specially enlarged waterway and road route.
Airbus opened an assembly plant in Tianjin, People's Republic of China for its A320 series airliners in 2009. Airbus started constructing a $350 million component manufacturing plant in Harbin, China in July 2009, which will employ 1,000 people. Scheduled to be operated by the end of 2010, the 30,000 square metre plant will manufacture composite parts and assemble composite work-packages for the A350 XWB, A320 families and future Airbus programmes. Harbin Aircraft Industry Group Corporation, Hafei Aviation Industry Company Ltd, AviChina Industry & Technology Company and other Chinese partners hold the 80% stake of the plant while Airbus control the remaining 20%.
North America is an important region to Airbus in terms of both aircraft sales and suppliers. 2,000 of the total of approximately 5,300 Airbus jetliners sold by Airbus around the world, representing every aircraft in its product line from the 107-seat A318 to the 565-passenger A380, are ordered by North American customers. According to Airbus, US contractors, supporting an estimated 120,000 jobs, earned an estimated $5.5 billion (2003) worth of business. For example, one version of the A380 has 51% American content in terms of work share value.
On 4 April 2006, DaimlerChrysler announced its intention to reduce its shareholding from 30 % to 22.5 %. The company places a value of the stake at "approximately €2.0 billion." Lagardère will reduce its holding by an identical amount. However, Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, a unit of the French government, acquired 2.25 % of EADS. At issue as a result is the fact that the German and French shareholdings are now in imbalance.
On 30 August 2006, shortly after the stock price decline caused by the A380 delivery delays, more than 5 % of EADS stock has been reportedly purchased by the Russian state-owned Vneshtorgbank. Now its share is nearly 6 %. In December 2007, Vneshtorgbank sold EADS shares to another state-controlled bank Vneshekonombank. EADS sharers are to be delivered by Vneshekonombank to the charter capital of JSC "United Aircraft Corporation" in 2008.
On 3 October 2006, shortly after EADS admitted further delays in the Airbus 380 programme would cost the company 4.8 billion euros in lost earnings in 2010, EADS shares, traded on the Paris arm of Euronext, were suspended after they surpassed the 10 % loss limit. Trading resumed later in the day with the one-day loss holding at 7 %.
In 2007, Dubai Holding acquired 3.12 % of EADS stock, making the Dubai buy-out fund one of the largest institutional shareholders.
In 2008, EADS had arms sales equivalent of $17.9 billion, which constituted 28 % of total revenue.
In April 2013, Daimler sold its shares in EADS.
, 73.6 % of Airbus Group stock is publicly traded on six European stock exchanges, while the remaining 26.4 % is owned by a "Contractual Partnership". As at 26 April 2018, the partnership is owned by SOGEPA (11.1%), GZBV (11.1%) and SEPI (4.2%). SOGEPA is owned by the French State, GZBV is majority owned by KfW, while SEPI is a Spanish state holding company.
Airbus has committed to the "Flightpath 2050", an aviation industry plan to reduce noise, CO2, and NOx emissions.
Airbus was the first aerospace business to become ISO 14001 certified, in January 2007; this is a broader certification covering the whole organisation, not just the aircraft it produces.
In association with Honeywell and JetBlue Airbus has developed a biofuel to reduce pollution and dependence on fossil fuels, claiming that this has the potential to replace up to a third of the world's aviation fuel. Algae-based biofuel absorbs carbon dioxide during growth and does not compete with food production. This alternative may be commercially available by 2030 but algae and other vegetation-based fuels are in an early stage of development and fuel-bearing algae has been expensive to develop. Airbus offers delivery flights to airlines using a 10% biofuel blend in standard engines. The fuel does not cut carbon emissions but is free of sulphur emissions and demonstrates that the fuel could be used in commercial flights in unmodified engines.
On 2 June 2006 co-CEO Noël Forgeard and Airbus CEO Gustav Humbert resigned following the controversy caused by the June 2006 announcement that deliveries of the A380 would be delayed by a further six months. Forgeard was one of a number of executives who exercised stock options in November 2005 and March 2006. He and 21 other executives are under investigation as to whether they knew about the delays in the Airbus A380 project which caused a 26 % fall in EADS shares when publicised.
The French government's actions were also under investigation; The state-owned bank Caisse des Dépots et Consignations (CDC) bought part of Lagardère's 7.5 % stake in EADS in April 2006, allowing that latter to partially escape the June 2006 losses.
Boeing has continually protested over "launch aid" and other forms of government aid to Airbus, while Airbus has argued that Boeing receives illegal subsidies through military and research contracts and tax breaks.
In July 2004 former Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher accused Airbus of abusing a 1992 bilateral EU-US agreement providing for disciplines for large civil aircraft support from governments. Airbus is given reimbursable launch investment (RLI), called "launch aid" by the US, from European governments with the money being paid back with interest plus indefinite royalties, but only if the aircraft is a commercial success. Airbus contends that this system is fully compliant with the 1992 agreement and WTO rules. The agreement allows up to 33 per cent of the programme cost to be met through government loans which are to be fully repaid within 17 years with interest and royalties. These loans are held at a minimum interest rate equal to the cost of government borrowing plus 0.25%, which would be below market rates available to Airbus without government support. Airbus claims that since the signature of the EU-US agreement in 1992, it has repaid European governments more than U.S.$6.7 billion and that this is 40% more than it has received.
Airbus argues that the military contracts awarded to Boeing, the second largest U.S. defence contractor, are in effect a form of subsidy, such as the controversy surrounding the Boeing KC-767 military contracting arrangements. The significant U.S. government support of technology development via NASA also provides significant support to Boeing, as do the large tax breaks offered to Boeing, which some people claim are in violation of the 1992 agreement and WTO rules. In its recent products such as the 787, Boeing has also been offered direct financial support from local and state governments.
In January 2005 the European Union and United States trade representatives, Peter Mandelson and Robert Zoellick respectively, agreed to talks aimed at resolving the increasing tensions. These talks were not successful with the dispute becoming more acrimonious rather than approaching a settlement.
WTO ruled in August 2010 and in May 2011 that Airbus had received improper government subsidies through loans with below market rates from several European countries. In a separate ruling in February 2011, WTO found that Boeing had received local and federal aid in violation of WTO rules.
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Web site: Airbus APWorks. 10 February 2015. yes. https://web.archive.org/web/20150210160644/http://www.apworks.de/apworks/int/en/About-us/About-us.html. 10 February 2015. dmy-all.
Web site: Current Members Of The Executive Committee. Airbus. 10 March 2017. 3 July 2017.
Web site: EADS N.V. – Board of Directors – Role and Composition. EADS. 12 July 2011. yes. https://web.archive.org/web/20100216062652/http://www.eads.eu/1024/en/corporate_governance/Board_of_Directors/Board%20of%20Directors.html. 16 February 2010.
News: EADS Finds Way Out of Crisis. Deutsche Welle. Business. Agence France-Presse. 25 June 2005.
Web site: Airbus Middle East - Airbus, Commercial Aircraft.
Web site: People & Organization - Airbus, Commercial Aircraft. 9 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160309224052/http://www.airbus.com/company/airbus-middle-east/people-organization/. 9 March 2016. yes. dmy-all.
Web site: コンタクト - Airbus, 欧州の航空機メーカー.
Web site: Supersize Wings. Ingenia. June 2007. Rob. Bray.
Web site: Airbus to build A320 jet assembly line in Tianjin in 2006. AsiaInfo Services. 18 July 2006.
Web site: Airbus delivers first China-assembled A320 jet. Sify News. 23 June 2009.
Web site: Airbus signs framework agreement with Chinese consortium on A320 Final Assembly Line in China. Airbus official. 26 October 2006. yes. https://web.archive.org/web/20061214183501/http://www.airbus.com/en/presscentre/pressreleases/pressreleases_items/06_10_26_agreement_A320_FAL_China.html. 14 December 2006.
Web site: Airbus, Harbin Aircraft form Chinese parts venture. Bloomberg. 16 July 2008. Jiang. Jianguo.
Web site: China's commercial aviation in take-off mode. Asia Times. 8 February 2008. Eugene. Kogan.
Web site: China needs 630 more regional jets in next 2 decades. China Daily. 2 September 2007.
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Web site: Airbus offers sneak-peek inside Alabama A320 factory. 14 September 2015.
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News: Airbus confirms its first US factory to build A320 jet. BBC News. 2 July 2012. 2 July 2012.
News: Roberston. David. MoD tells European leaders to stop meddling in EADS. The Times. UK. 2006-10-05. 2006-10-15.
News: Daimler and Lagardère cut EADS stakes. Financial Times. Agence France-Presse. 4 April 2006.
"Airbus plays catch-up with A350 jet." Phillips, D. International Herald Tribune. 11 April 2006.
"EADS shares up on Vneshtorgbank reports ." Yahoo News. 30 August 2006.
John, Isaac. "Dubai Int'l Capital buys 3.12pc stake in EADS", Khaleej Times, 6 July 2007.
Web site: . 79-->. Daimler sells remaining equity interest in EADS: On March 27, 2013, the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting of EADS approved a new management and shareholder structure. Subsequently, on April 2, 2013, the shareholders’ pact concluded in the year 2000 was dissolved and replaced with a new shareholders’ pact without the participation of Daimler.. Daimler. Annual Report 2013. February 21, 2014.
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News: WTO Rules Boeing Got Improper U.S. Subsidies. The Wall Street Journal. 1 February 2011.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Airbus". |
0.934936 | This article is about the term "convict" when applied to an individual. For other uses, see Convict (disambiguation).
For a person convicted of a felony crime, see Convicted felon.
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convicts, especially those recently released from prison, is "ex-con" ("ex-convict"). Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences tend not to be described as "convicts".
The legal label of "ex-convict" usually has lifelong implications, such as social stigma and/or reduced opportunities for employment. The federal government of Australia, for instance, will not, in general, employ an ex-convict, while some state and territory governments may limit the time for or before which a former convict may be employed.
The particular use of the term "convict" in the English-speaking world was to describe the huge numbers of criminals, both male and female, who clogged British gaols in the 18th and early 19th century. Their crimes would today be regarded as petty misdemeanours (stealing small items or food), or are no longer in the criminal code (such as being in unresolved debt). Most of the punishments at this time were severe, with the death penalty (hanging) applied for fairly minor crimes. However, this ultimate sentence was often commuted to a lesser one, commonly for transportation (for 7 or 14 years, or for life) to the colonies. Thus, in the British context, the term "convict" has come to refer in particular to those criminals transported overseas.
Initially many British convicts were sent to the American colonies, such as the Maryland, Virginia, and the Georgia, as cheap labour. The transportation of convicts from the United Kingdom began around 1615 and became increasingly common in the following years. Initially most people were transported to North America or the West Indies, but from 1718 onwards transportation was entirely to North America. The arrangements ceased when the American Revolutionary War meant it was no longer possible for the United Kingdom to send convicts to what had become the United States.
The British Government then looked to the newly discovered east coast of Australia to use as a penal colony. Convicts were transported to Australia in 1787, arriving in Botany Bay, then Sydney Cove, in January 1788. From the very start of European settlement convicts were used as indentured labourers in five out of the six colonies. Many were used on public works, but a significant number were "assigned" to private individuals as domestic servants, rural workers, etc. Transportation was progressively abolished from 1853, eventually ceasing altogether in 1868.
In Australia, convicts have come to be key figures of cultural mythology and historiography. Many became prominent businesspeople and respected citizens, and some prominent families in present-day Australian society can trace their origins to convict ancestors who rose above their humble origins. However, during the transportation era and for many years after, previous convicts and their descendants tended to hide their former criminal background, sometimes resulting in distorted or completely missing family history. Extensive and comprehensive records kept on every individual are now able to fill in the gaps; and, in fact, many family historians can find out more about their convict ancestors than they can about those who arrived in Australia as free settlers.
British convicts were also sent to Canada, West Africa, and India. France also sent convicts to New Caledonia and to Devil's Island in French Guiana.
^ Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, p. 311 (2d Coll. Ed. 1978).
^ Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, p. 292 (2d Coll. Ed. 1978).
^ Christopher, Emma (2011). A Merciless Place. The Lost Story of Britain's Convict Disaster in Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-969593-5.
Look up convict in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
0.995933 | Being an internet businessman, the most important tools your business is your website. Your website reflects you and your business and is of paramount importance to you. This is the main reason why you should look at more considerations than just good design while designing your website. The following are a few suggestions to create a website that sells: * Keeping in mind the old idiom “First impression is the last impression”, a visitor’s first look at the website is going to determine, whether a sale will be made or not. A professional look with soothing aesthetics, properly organized, quick loading and easily navigable website is the most important tool of your business. * Design should be such that your websites ranks very high in search engines. The factors that determine this are – META tags, Title, Image, Keywords, ALT tags and the overall design. * Use effective sales copy. Your business is founded on the words you use in the sales copy. * Traffic generation is the most important part of internet marketing. You need to create a steady stream of traffic to your website by making sure that the visitor will continue to come back to your site. Keep updating or changing content. * Try and provide free service through the website. For example, a free tutorial on using the product or service, using articles, e-books or auto-responder based instruction. * Always showcase your testimonials. Recommended is to dedicate a page to the testimonials of your existing customers. * Provide complete contact details. This will show the visitors that you are completely transparent. Include address, phone number and email addresses for requesting information or support. * Assure the visitors about their privacy. Create a “Privacy Statement” page tell the visitors, exactly how the personal information you collect is used. * Provide a free sample or demo of your product or service. This might not directly enhance the sales, but will contribute towards generating more traffic. * For enhancing sales, provide a guarantee on products and services you are offering. If it suits your portfolio, you could also offer money-back guarantee. A professionally designed website is one the most important factors in determining your on-line business success. For more details and tips visit http://www.cobbwebdesign.com. |
0.960377 | Clinton says McCain, Palin offer four more years of "disappointment"
(CNN) -- Former Bush adviser Karl Rove said Sunday that Sen. John McCain had gone "one step too far" in some of his recent ads attacking Sen. Barack Obama.
Karl Rove said both candidates are guilty of going too far in their attacks.
Rove has leveled similar criticism against Obama.
"McCain has gone in some of his ads -- similarly gone one step too far," he told Fox News, "and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the '100 percent truth' test."
The Obama campaign immediately leaped on the quote.
"In case anyone was still wondering whether John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest campaign in history, today Karl Rove -- the man who held the previous record -- said McCain's ads have gone too far," said campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor, in a statement sent to reporters minutes after Rove's on-air comments. Rove masterminded both of President Bush's successful White House bids.
Rove said both candidates need to "be careful" about their attacks on each other.
"They ought to -- there ought to be an adult who says, 'Do we really need to go that far in this ad? Don't we make our point and won't we get broader acceptance and deny the opposition an opportunity to attack us if we don't include that one little last tweak in the ad?' " he said.
Obama on Saturday accused McCain and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin of avoiding the issues to "distort" his record.
"They're going to talk about pigs, and they're going to talk about lipstick; they're going to talk about Paris Hilton, they're going to talk about Britney Spears. They will try to distort my record, and they will try to undermine your trust in what the Democrats intend to do," he said at a stop in Manchester, New Hampshire.
McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds criticized Obama for showing "zero restraint," considering what Gulf Coast residents were facing after Hurricane Ike. Bounds said the "attacks mark a new low from Barack Obama."
The Obama campaign shot back and accused McCain of "cynically running the sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern presidential campaign history."
McCain said last week that he thinks the tone of the campaign would be different had Obama agreed to appear with him in town hall meetings across the country.
Both McCain and Obama laid low on Sunday. McCain attended a NASCAR race in Loudon, New Hampshire.
Obama had no public events scheduled, but Sen. Hillary Clinton hit the trail for him in Akron, Ohio.
Clinton repeated her campaign one-liner -- "No way, no how, no McCain, no Palin."
The New York senator said "all that McCain and Palin offer is four more years of the same failed policies and wrong direction and disappointment and difficulties that have confronted our country."
"Barack and I may have started out on two separate paths, but we are on one journey now," she said.
Meanwhile, the Obama campaign announced Sunday that it had raised $66 million in August. The new total bests the campaign's previous high of $55 million, which came in February during his tough primary fight with Clinton.
The Obama campaign said more than half a million new donors contributed in August, when the Illinois senator accepted the Democratic presidential nomination and named Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate. The campaign had more than $77 million in cash on hand at the end of August, compared with about $66 million in July.
On September 1, McCain's campaign reported raising $47 million in August. That haul also set a monthly record for the Arizona senator, whose campaign says it received a financial shot in the arm after McCain picked Palin to join the ticket.
Obama has rejected public financing, calling the system "broken" -- a decision that frees him to continue raising money for November.
McCain has accepted federal matching funds for his general election campaign, giving him $84 million to spend for November. The money comes with strict spending limits, but the Republican National Committee's victory fund can continue to raise and spend money on his behalf.
With Palin on the campaign trail, McCain has been seeing increased numbers and energy at his campaign events.
The two will hold joint town hall meetings sometime early this week.
A McCain adviser said early plans are to hold the town halls in western Michigan and Wisconsin, although the exact details of where and when they will be held are still being worked out. |
0.937723 | The ancient Greek gods lived on the famous Mount Olympus, which is an actual mountain in Greece.
The Romans borrowed quite a bit of mythology from the Greeks, so I at first assumed that the Roman gods lived somewhere similar, if not in the exact same place (though perhaps with the mountain renamed and moved somewhere else). Strangely enough, though, I have not been able to find any ancient accounts that make that claim - nor any mention of the home of the Roman gods at all, save for on a certain (rather untrustworthy and often inaccurate) question-and-answer site.
Where did the Roman gods live? Were they said to live on Mount Olympus (or an equivalent place), or was their home somewhere else?
set now at length a limit to our crushing cares, an end to our disasters.
From his very birth relentless Juno has pursued him.
Hence, the Roman equivalent of Olympos is Olympos.
There is probably something also to be said about the Lares and the Penates.
The Lares, as guardian deities (of Etruscan origin), were protecting homes, fields, cities, crossroads, etc. (One Lar protecting one home or one field, etc.) while Penates were specifically protecting household and both were thought to inhabit the place they were protecting.
That no one may wonder who I am, I shall inform you briefly. I am the Household God of that family from whose house you saw me come. For many years now I have possessed this dwelling, and preserved it for the sire and grandsire of its present occupant.
Whether the Lares qualify properly as Gods and not just spirits is to be debated though, since they were basically deified ancestral spirits. The Penates however (as in Cicero excerpt) were explicitely called gods.
Many of his functions were focused on the Capitoline ("Capitol Hill"), where the citadel was located. He was the chief deity of the early Capitoline Triad with Mars and Quirinus.
Many of his functions were focused on the Capitoline ("Capitol Hill"), where the citadel was located.
It seems that the Roman's view was closer to the current view of the deity : in the sky , and the temples are the house of the god. It is possible that the Olympus version of the indo-European deities is particular to the region of Greece. That mostly people in other mediteranean countries had the concept of deity as somewhere in the sky, or sea, or underworld , focused on their temples. The cultural incursion of the greek point of view introduces the need for a "location where Gods gather", and the Olympus site was adopted for the Roman gods too.
In the middle of the world, high up in the sky is Asgard. It is the home of the gods and goddesses. The male gods in Asgard, are called Aesir, and the female gods are called Asynjur. Odin is the ruler of Asgard, and the chief of the Aesir. Odin is married to Frigg; she is the Queen of the Aesir. Inside the gates of Asgard is Valhalla; it is the place where the Vikings "Einherjer" that died in battle will go for the afterlife.
Roman Gods, I think, lived where there duties took them. This would be most inline with Italic and Etruscan Gods, who lived in the skies, upon teh earth, under the earth, in the waters. A river god would live in his river, a goddess of the land in her land. The lares and penates lived in the houses or with the families they protected. This has been published widely (e.g. L.B. van der Meer, 1987).
Jupiter, like most Roman deities is most cognate with Etruscan and Italic deities. When the Romans conquered Greece, they found many similarities between their own gods and goddesses and those of the Greeks. The most likely explanation is that many (though not all) of the Greek gods were derived of Etruscan origins, like the Roman gods. Others were from the East, such as Dionysos, and Hekate.
It seems unlikely that the Roman pantheon was "infected" with Greek influences, before Greece was conquered, as the only similarities are the ones that likely stem from Etruscan origin. Not a single Greek influence that was of Eastern origin made it into Roman mythology until well after the contacts with Greek colonies in Southern Italy or even the conquest of Greece, which would be statistically most unlikely if the Greeks had "infected" the Roman pantheon before they were conquered.
It would therefore surprise me if Roman Gods lived on Mount Olympos. I think it would be almost impossible for such a notion to have existed in the centuries of Roman mythology before the conquest of Greece, and even after the conquest of Greece, if such a change had happened, one would have assumed there would be explicit mentioning of this. More explicit than Seneca's Hercules Furens.
Even if later in the Roman empire there had been "infection" of Roman religious beliefs by Greek mythology, and even if every single text proving that got lost, does Hercules Furens prove anything. In that text Seneca never claims any God lives on Olympos. He only says Jupiter rules Olympos, but in the same play Jupiter is said to rule several other places as well: the infernal world (line 46-62 and 592-615), the heavens (line 709-730) and all fires (line 926-938). If ruling something means he lives in it, then at the very least Jupiter lives in many places.
Many Roman deities have epiteths tying them to a place. Perhaps those refer to places where they live?
Here on the first page of Sir James G Frazer’s “The Golden Bough” is a descrption of a Goddess habitant on the shores of a lake in Northern Italy near La Riccia.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged roman comparative or ask your own question.
Where did Mars live (what part of Rome)?
How does the Genius concept fit into the Roman Mythology?
Are there any instances where non-Greco-Roman goddesses fall in love with mortals?
Where did the gods live? |
0.999643 | The current models of abnormal behavior include the biological model, the psychoanalytic model, the cognitive-behavioral model, the diathesis-stress model, and the systems theory. Basically, all of these models explain the causes and reasons of abnormal behavior in humans. The biological model states that an abnormal behavior is significantly linked to diseases that have symptoms which can be identified and classified. In this model, after identifying the symptoms, a person can get a diagnosis and receive treatment in order to cure his or his disease and, in effect, also treat his or her abnormal behavior. The psychoanalytical model, on the other hand, states that abnormal behavior is the result of conflicts or clashes between the Id, Ego, and Superego, which are the three structural parts that pertain to the functions of the mind. For example, when the Id, which contains the basic drives such as sexual drives and hunger, is in conflict with the Superego, which includes a person’s ability to prohibit or regulate his or her basic drives, it may result into an abnormal behavior, such as anxiety.
The cognitive-behavioral model states how a person learns a behavior through positive or negative reinforcement and how he or she reacts to that behavior through cognition. The abnormal behavior in this model are mainly caused by negative emotions which are, in turn, the direct result of negative thoughts such as wrong assumptions, maladaptive attitudes, and illogical thinking, among others. On the other hand, the diathesis-stress model states that abnormal behavior is caused by genetic and biological factors. In this model, the assumption is that a disposition or susceptibility to a certain disorder may be caused by the combination of learning at an early stage and one’s own genes, such as schizophrenia. Finally, the systems model states that an abnormal behavior can result from differences or problems in various aspects of a person, particularly the social aspect, such as his or her needs, attributes and expectations as he or she interacts with other people. In other words, the systems model deals with the disorders caused by the interaction between groups and individuals. |
0.999997 | Give me that relevant answer.
Find out who is slow, is it the application or database: If the page is running SQL queries or stored procedures, run those in the database and check how long do they take to run. If queries take most of the time, then you know that you need to adjust queries for better performance. To refine queries, there are many ways and I have listed some of them below.
b) Select only the required columns, avoid Select *.
Another factor to slow down asp page is view-state. so developer should check view state of each control and possibly turn off unnecessary view state from certain controls. specially gridview control's view state will take much time to reload. |
0.933401 | I am glad to here again after a long time to inquire my queries.
Here I want to ask about the usage of Looks like!
1. I looks like to eat dinner.
2.I looks like to go to home.
The sentences are not correct. What did you want to express? |
0.998399 | Former President Jimmy Carter has clearly been chastened by the criticism of his last error-laden text, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (Simon & Schuster, 2006). His follow up book, We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work (Simon & Schuster, 2009), is much more moderate in tone. Nevertheless, the text is still, in essence, an extended attempt to deceive its audience about issues of central importance to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The main thrust of Carter’s book is that Hamas – a group dedicated to Israel’s destruction – can be trusted to agree to a peace deal negotiated by Fatah (an allegedly more moderate organization) if this deal is subsequently affirmed by the Palestinian people in a referendum or by an elected Palestinian government. In addition to portraying Hamas (which controls the Gaza Strip) and Fatah (which controls the West Bank) as trustworthy peace partners, Carter also portrays Israeli policies as the primary cause for the continuation of the Arab-Israeli war. He also depicts Israel as if it is in control of the violence and enmity directed at it by political and religious leaders in the Middle East.
In order to make this story credible, Carter engages in a number of distortions. In addition to downplaying Palestinian violence against Israel and portraying Israeli efforts to defend itself as unreasonable acts of aggression, the former president labors to sanitize Hamas’ history and agenda by giving more credence to the statements made to him during private meetings by the organization’s leaders than he does to its public statements and actions. He also works to rehabilitate the reputation of Marwan Bhargouti, a Fatah leader responsible for the deaths of numerous Israelis.
The overall effect of Carter’s book is to exaggerate the willingness of Israel’s neighbors to end the Arab-Israeli conflict and to portray delays in peace as Israel’s fault.
As stated above, the main thrust of Carter’s book is to portray Hamas – an organization committed to Israel’s destruction – as a potential peace partner that can be trusted to accept a peace deal. Carter’s portrayal of Hamas, however, is marred with numerous factual errors and omissions that all serve to downplay its hostility and violence toward Israel and Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip – problems that would cause most observers to question Carter’s assessment of the organization as a potential peace partner.
Yes, Carter does acknowledge that Hamas does not accept Israel’s existence, but at other points in his text, he downplays this fact and suggests the organization will evolve into a more pragmatic organization in a process similar to what allegedly happened with the Fatah dominated PLO. He does this by mischaracterizing Hamas’ positions and by cherry-picking its statements.
There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by jihad [Holy War]. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are a waste of time and a farce.
Given the text of its charter, how can former President Carter suggest with a straight face that Hamas ever intended to eliminate Israel with anything other than violence? Clearly, attacking Israel, and the Jews who live there, is a central – not provisional – aspect of Hamas’ agenda.
In reality, Hamas’ statements during the run-up to the election were a mixture of pragmatism and extremism, and certainly did include explicit “mention of violent” action. Sometimes Hamas candidates spoke in moderate terms about a willingness to negotiate and other times they spoke of a refusal to negotiate and of a long term goal of Israel’s destruction. Despite the ambiguity, the overall message was clear: Israel’s destruction remained Hamas’ long-term goal and any moderation was a short-term tactic.
This assembly holds special significance, since it takes place after Gaza was liberated against the will of the Zionist aggressors. Who knows when we will celebrate the liberation of Gaza, Jerusalem, Haifa, Jaffa, and all the rest of Palestine. Hamas, together with the Palestinian people, will implement its policy using a new language, without feeling any urge to meet with the enemy or negotiate with it. Was Gaza liberated through negotiations?! Hamas will continue to wield its weapons and to [claim] its right to resist. Resistance will [continue to] be a strategic option until the last piece of Palestinian land is liberated, and until the last refugee returns.
Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas leader, struck back in the campaign’s final days, playing to Hamas’s political base in the destitute Gaza neighborhoods and refugee camps that have supplied many Hamas suicide attackers and that revere them as martyrs. Before crowds of thousands, he and other candidates went out of their way to deny they would ever give up their insistence on the destruction of Israel and the right to armed struggle.
Carter’s efforts to sanitize Hamas become most explicit in Chapter 10, titled “Can Hamas Play a Positive Role?” For example, on page 132 Carter reports that “Hamas leaders claim that the conflict with Israel is political and not religious.” This is clearly a deception on the part of the (unnamed) Hamas leaders.
… our fight with the Jews is very extensive and very grave, and it requires all the sincere efforts. It is a step that must be followed by further steps; it is a brigade that must be reinforced by brigades upon brigades from this vast Islamic world, until the enemies are defeated and Allah’s victory is revealed.
The Prophet, Allah’s prayer and peace be upon him, says: “The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: ‘Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,’ except for the Gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews.” (Recorded in the Hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim).
Given all this, Carter’s repetition – without reflection or challenge – of assertions from Hamas leaders that their complaints are “political and not religious” is simply dishonest.
In August 2004, Hamas changed tactics and announced a unilateral cease-fire and pledged to forgo any attacks against Israeli civilians, but some subsequent violence was attributed to it. As early as January 2004 and again in February 2006, senior Hamas officials made public offers of a long-term truce, or hudna, in return for a complete withdrawal by Israel from the occupied territories and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
What Carter omits from this paragraph is that none of these proposals acknowledged Israel’s existence as a permanent state in the Midd le East and that Israel’s destruction remained the primary goal of the organization.
Carter also fails to report that the long-term truce offered by senior Hamas officials in January 2004 was repudiated by Hamas leaders soon after its existence was first reported. This truce offer was first reported in Al-Hayat, an Arabic newspaper published in London, on Jan. 25, 2004. A BBC translation of the report in Al-Hayat quotes Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh as saying “Hamas accepts the establishment of a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the territories that were seized in 1967 with Jerusalem as its capital, as a temporary solution.” (BBC Monitoring, Jan. 26, 2004).
A top official of the main Palestinian group, Hamas, has said it could declare a 10-year truce with Israel if it withdrew from territory occupied since 1967.
We accepted a state in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. We propose a 10-year truce in return for (Israeli) withdrawal and the establishment of a state,” he said by telephone from hiding in the Gaza Strip.
1. There will be no relinquishment of a single inch of Palestinian territory, because it is Islamic territory.
2. There will be no recognition of the so-called State of “Israel“.
3. Any solution that provides for a recognition of the so-called State of “Israel”, or for relinquishing a single inch of the historic territoryof Palestine is unacceptable and null and void and non-binding to us.
4. The resistance option is the only option that can bring about a restoration of the usurped rights.
5. The negotiating process has proved futile and incapable of restoring the legitimate national rights.
Given this thorough repudiation of the so-called truce offer of Jan. 2004, how can former President Carter invoke it as a legitimate opportunity for peace?
The February 2006 peace offer cited by Carter is likewise meaningless. Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas’s political bureau in Damascus, made the offer in a opinion piece that appeared in The Guardian on Jan. 31, 2006. In the piece, Meshaal calls for a long-term truce, while at the same time asserting that Hamas will “never recognize the legitimacy of a Zionist state created on our soil …” Again, given the obvious contradiction – a call for a long term truce coupled with a refusal to accept “a Zionist state on our soil” – how can Carter honestly invoke this truce offer as a legitimate opportunity for peace?
Finally, Carter’s description of “some violence” being “attributed” to Hamas after August 2004 is an example – one of many throughout the book – of the former president downplaying the organization’s violence and Israeli casualties. On Aug. 31, 2004, for example, two buses were bombed in Be’er Sheva, killing 16. This deadly attack was not “attributed to” Hamas. The organization itself proudly claimed responsibility for it.
Approximately a month later, Hamas also claimed responsibility for a rocket attack that killed four-year-old Yuval Abebeh (pictured on the right) and his cousin, two-year old Dorit Benisian (left) as they were playing together outside their grandmother’s home. It was one of many rocket attacks by Hamas since August 2004.
During the Second Intifada and before a Gaza truce was accepted in June 2008, reliable human rights organizations reported that 334 Israeli military personnel and 719 Israeli civilians were killed. [The total is 1053 Israelis.] There were 4,745 Palestinian fatalities, of whom 1,671 were assumed to have been militants. It is difficult to ascertain who among the Palestinians were active combatants, but 119 Israeli children and 982 Palestinian children were among the dead.
B’tselem reports 1,787 Palestinians killed in the West Bank by the Israel Defense Forces and 41 by Israeli settlers between September 2000 and 2008. Qassam rockets were launched from Gaza into the nearby Israeli villageof Sderot, and retaliatory strokes against Gaza cost 2,974 lives, while 580 Israelis were killed.
The problem with these numbers is obvious. While the number of Palestinian deaths is about the same (4,745 on page 62 versus 4802 on page 94), there is a significant discrepancy between the Israeli deaths (1053 on page 62 and 580 on page 94). Why the 45 percent drop?
An examination of B’tselem’s Web site reveals the problem. The 580 figure Carter used on page 94 includes only Israelis killed inside Israel’s pre-1967 borders and omits Israeli killed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This glaring error removes almost 500 Israeli deaths from Carter’s narrative.
Carter confuses the issue further when he asserts on page 62 that, of the Palestinian fatalities, “1,671 were assumed to have been militants.” In fact, the likely number of “militants” is much higher. According to B’tselem, Israel killed almost 900 Palestinians about whom it is not “known if they were taking part in the hostilities” during the Second Intifada. B’tselem’s report makes clear that this number includes numerous wanted militants and armed Palestinians.
The problems with Carter’s statistics do not end here. On page 132, he reports that “from November 2000 to mid-2004 nearly four hundred Israeli soldiers and citizens were killed.” In fact, more than twice this number of Israelis was killed over the time frame Carter enunciates. According to a report published by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centerat the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC), 879 Israelis were killed in the years 2001, 2002, and 2003. According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 28 Israelis were killed in the last two months of 2000, and 63 were killed in the first six months of 2004, yielding a total number of 970 Israeli deaths – far exceeding Carter’s estimate of 400 killed.
A movement known as the Intifada (“shaking,” or “waking up”) began in 1987 and continued for several years. Although PLO leaders had access to many firearms, they restrained their use except against Palestinians believed to be colluding with Israelis.
Seventy thousand Israeli troops were deployed to confront mostly young people throwing stones. The human rights organization Al Haq reported that not a single Israeli soldier was killed during the first year of the Intifada, and a total of only twelve during the first four years of the uprising.
In this passage, Carter embraces the mythology that the First Intifada was a non-violent protest on the part of the Palestinians. One obvious problem with this narrative is Carter’s reliance on an unnamed document from Al Haq, a Palestinian human rights organization, to buttress his claim that “not a single soldier” was killed during the first year of the Intifada. According to B’tselem – an organization which Carter routinely cites as a source – a total of four Israeli soldiers were killed during 1988.
Why did Carter use Al Haq and not B’tselem for this statistic? Was it because it provided him with a much more dramatic assertion – that “not a single Israeli soldier was killed” – as opposed to the information B’tselem provided?
Even if the former president had cited the correct number of Israeli soldiers during the first year of the Intifada, this would still be disingenuous, because he omits entirely the number of civilian deaths that resulted from Palestinian violence during the time period. This concealed information clearly demonstrates that the First Intifada was marked by serious violence targeting Israeli men, women and children. More than 100 Israeli civilians were killed during the years 1987 through 1990.
This contradicts Carter’s characterization of the First Intifada as merely an outbreak of rock throwing. In truth, firearms, hand grenades and firebombs were used to terrorize Israeli civilians, with lethal results. In October 1998, for example, Rachel Weiss, a twenty-six year old Israeli woman, was burned to death along with her three sons – the oldest only 3 years old – when Palestinians firebombed a passenger bus she was riding through Jericho in the West Bank.
Another issue  ;Carter fails to acknowledge during his discussion of this period is that violence against Israeli civilian inside the Green Line increased after the signing of the interim agreement (or “Oslo Accords”) on Sept. 13, 1993. According to B’tselem, a total of 70 Israeli civilians and military personnel were killed inside Israel between Dec. 9, 1987 and Sept. 13, 1993. By way of comparison, between the beginning of 1994 and the end of 1997, a total of 161 Israelis were killed inside Israel. The upshot is this: The Oslo Accords did not make life any safer for Israelis inside Israel.
By omitting information about Palestinian violence during the First Intifada and about the increase of Israeli deaths that took place after the Oslo Accords, Carter deprives his readers of information they need to assess the prospects for peace between Israel and its adversaries.
Barghouti refused to present a defense and asserted that his trial was illegitimate because he was a legislator, arrested over an area over which Israel had no authority, and his transfer from the occupied territory to Israel for trial violated the Fourth Geneva Convesion. He was accused of thirty-three counts of murder during the first and second intifadas and found guilty on five hazy charges involving Israeli Druze soldiers.
The Defendant was involved in the training of terrorists by funding and organizing training facilities for activists who were longstanding members of the terrorist organizations and also activists recruited at the time, all for the purpose of carrying out Acts of Terror. . . . The Defendant was active in obtaining arms and other weapons, including assault rifles, explosive belts, a mortar, hand grenades and so forth, for the purposes of carrying out Acts of Terror.
responsible for the murders of: Salim Barakat, 33, from the Druze village of Yarka in the Galilee, who survived by his wife, daughter, parents and seven brothers and sisters; Eli Dahan, 53, of Lod, who is survived by his mother Sarah, wife, Ilana, two daughters, two sons and three grandchildren; Yosef Habi, 52, of Herzliya, who is survived by his wife, son and daughter; Father Georgios Tsibouktzakis, 34, a Greek Orthodox monk from St. George’s Monastery in Wadi Kelt near Jericho, and Yoela Chen, 45, of Givat Ze’ev, who is survived by her husband and two children.
Nor are they Barghouti’s only victims. At his trial, people who were maimed as a result of Barghouti-sponsored attacks appeared as witnesses to the pain he caused them — pain they will experience for the rest of their lives.
Chicago-born Alan Bauer and his 7-year-old son Jonathan were among those witnesses. They were five minutes from their home in Jerusalem when a Barghouti-funded suicide bomber blew himself up three feet away from them on March 21, 2002. Two arteries in Bauer’s arm were severed. A screw went all the way through little Jonathan’s head. To this day, Jonathan walks with a limp.
According to the court protocols, Barghouti proudly admitted that he directed terrorist attacks in which scores of Israelis were killed and revealed how he directly allocated funds needed by terrorist cells to operate and purchase necessary weapons, and stated that Yasser Arafat personally authorized this funding for Tanzim activities, knowing that this money would be used to finance murderous attacks. Furthermore, protocols of interrogations of P.A. officials before the trial showed how the process worked: Names of Tanzim killers were submitted to Barghouti, who would routinely take them to Arafat for approval.
In addition to casting doubt on Barghouti’s responsibility for the murders by writing the charges are “hazy,” Carter also fails to acknowledge that every one of Barghouti’s assertions regarding Israel lacking the legal authority to arrest, charge, convict and sentence him are dealt with decisively in the judge’s ruling.
Carter also fails to note that Barghouti did not meet the requirements of being a prisoner of war under the Fourth Geneva Convention which he invoked in an attempt to stymie the case against him. In particular, Barghouti lacked a fixed distinguishing sign while engaged in acts of violence against Israel and did not carry his weapons openly.
In other words, every one of Barghouti’s claims about his trial were false, and yet Carter passes them onto the reader without challenge.
On pages seven through nine, former President Carter details the events during the 20th century related to the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948. While Carter acknowledges the Holocaust and its impact on the Jewish people in Europe – something he did not do in the “Historical Chronology” section of his last book – he omits other crucial events that took place in the Middle East during that time.
For example, despite mentioning the violent acts of “Jewish militants” in the 1930s, Carter provides no reference to the bloody anti-Jewish riots that took place in Palestine during the 1920s and 30s.
Forty-three Jews were killed in riots that took place in 1921 and in 1929, 133 Jews were killed in pogroms, 67 of them in Hebron. Eighty were killed by Arab rioters in 1936. These riots, incited by religious and political leaders in Palestine, most notably the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, also resulted in the deaths of many Arabs who clashed with British police. By omitting this information while mentioning Jewish acts of violence, Carter apparently hopes to portray the Arab-Israeli conflict as the result of Jewish and not Arab misdeeds.
Carter also seems intent on exaggerating the willingness of Israel’s neighbors to make peace. On page XVI of his introduction, he asserts that the Saudi peace plan of 2002 has “been accepted by all Islamic nations” (a grouping that includes Iran).
The Iranian Embassy in London on Thursday responded to the distortions in separate letters of protest to the newspapers and demanded that they publish articles in their next editions to remove any doubt that may have been caused on the issue, IRNA reported.
We assert that in having the Phalangists enter the camps, no intention existed on the part of anyone who acted on behalf of Israel to harm the non-combatant population, and that the events that followed did not have the concurrence or assent of anyone from the political or civilian echelon who was active regarding the Phalangists’ entry into the camps.
Carter insinuates on pages 53-54 that Israeli voters wanted to derail a healthy peace process supported by Hamas. He does this by juxtaposing Hamas’s pledge not to interfere with efforts to form a Palestinian government in 1996 with the decision of Israeli voters to return the Likud Party to power in Israeli elections that year. Carter writes that Benjamin Netanyahu’s election as Israeli Prime Minister “spelled the end of the Oslo Peace process.” In other words, Hamas is cast as being supportive of the peace process while the Israelis are depicted as obstructing peace by voting for Likud and bringing Netanyahu to power.
It was good that Sharon finally recognized the futility of occupying Gaza, but this unilateral withdrawal rather than one negotiated with the Palestinian Authority proved to be a serious strategic miscalculation. It weakened the Palestinian moderates who wanted to negotiate peace with Israel and strengthened the militants, who claimed that Israel withdrew only because of their violent resistance. It also led many Israelis to conclude that Palestinians would not accept Israel even if it withdrew, thus leading Israelis to believe they should remain in the West Bank. A negotiated withdrawal would have strengthened the peace process.
This portrayal of Israel’s withdrawal as causing violence is an ironic assertion from a man who has continually called for Israel to withdraw from territory as a way to end the conflict.
What Carter does not acknowledge is that Israel’s best efforts to achieve a “negotiate withdrawal” failed miserably at Camp David in 2000 as a result of Palestinian intransigence.
Carter does not hold the Palestinians responsible for their failings, but instead blames all their misdeeds on Israeli behavior and policy – even when Israeli behavior is obviously conciliatory. Essentially, he condemns Israel for its intransigence and then portrays its efforts at reconciliation as misguided.
Carter’s description of Israel’s security barrier portrays the country as indifferent both to the plight of the Palestinians impacted by its construction and to the rule of law. In particular, Carter asserts that the Israeli government ignored “legal rulings” from the International Court of Justice. The ICJ “ruling” that Carter is referring to is, in fact, a non-binding advisory opinion issued in 2004. Carter also fails to acknowledge that most of the barrier was built on state land and that in those instances when private land was used, owners were offered compensation.
There is, in fact, no “international border” between Israel and the West Bank. Under UN Resolution 242, the details of any land-for-peace deal – including the location of Israel’s border – is to be negotiated between Israel and its adversaries. The armistice agreements that brought an end to the 1948 War make it perfectly clear that the boundaries between Israel and the West Bank (then controlled by Jordan) and Gaza Strip (then controlled by Egypt) were not international borders.
The most significant problem with Carter’s description of the barrier is his failure to describe in any detail the impact of the terror attacks that preceded its construction. In fact, as noted above, the former consistently and significantly downplays the violence perpetrated against Israel during the Second Intifada. Before the barrier was built, Israeli civilians were subjected to the terror of suicide bombings perpetrated by Palestinians who embedded their bombs with bits of metal and glass to make their attacks more lethal. The images of Israeli volunteers cleaning the body parts of young children and infants and wiping blood off the streets convinced Israelis that being protected against suicidal mass murderers was more important than inconvenience to those impacted by the barrier. The emotional and psychological impact of these unpredictagble attacks must be included in any honest discussion of the security barrier, but Carter fails to address the issue in a meaningful manner. The decision to build the security barrier was not made in a vacuum, but after hundreds of Israelis were killed in suicide attacks that killed hundreds of civilians in movie theaters, bus stations and restaurants.
The failure to responsibly address the violence that preceded the construction of the security barrier is emblematic of the failings of Carter’s book. In his text, Former President Carter downplays Arab violence and its impact on Israeli society. By failing to take into account that Palestinian violence has increased in the face of Israeli concessions, peace offers and withdrawals, and by passing on, without challenge or reflection, deceptive statements from Palestinian leaders, Carter ill-serves, and once again deceives, his audience. |
0.999977 | How to Purchase the Best Furniture for Your Home Keep in mind that to find a good furniture is not easy as there are many factors that you should consider. There are numerous factors that you should think about and observe when buying furniture; hence that might take a number of days before you find the best fits for you. In the beginning, it is essential to consider the kind of theme that you are interested in such as traditional or a contemporary look. If you understand this prior to going for your shopping then the entire process will be shorter. Therefore, you will simply head to the side of the theme that you want. Similarly, it is recommended that you measure the space that you intend to place the furniture. Due to the fact that there are different sizes of beds that are available, and therefore it is appropriate that you know the best size of the bed that will fit into your bedroom. Therefore, ensure that you take the dimensions of your room. Also, consider the doorways of your home because furniture such as couches cannot be disassembled. Furthermore, the couch that you purchase should be smaller than the entrance of your living door so that it can pass through smoothly. That means that it should fit the width of the stairs.
Similarly, make sure that you think about the shade of the furniture that you want. There are furniture that has neutral colors and others that have bright colors. Therefore, in case you are not sure about the best color of furniture that will be suitable for your living room, then choose one has a neutral color. That is so because in case you feel like painting your living room with another color then you can do easily because the neutral shade of your furniture matches any color.
Moreover, it is vital to inquire whether the furniture that you have selected in included in a set. Also, a couch can be offered with other various coffee tables. Thus, make sure that you visit the furniture shops when they are not very busy so that you can have the full attention of the store attendant. Often it is reasonable to purchase a set rather than just one piece. Keep in mind, that the furniture that you are buying is something that you will use for many years. Therefore, that demonstrates that a furniture is an item that should last for a very long time. Therefore, one of the most qualities that you should concentrate on is the durability of the product that you are buying so as to avoid being discouraged after some time. Moreover, it is easier and faster to shop from an online organization and therefore make sure that you take advantage of online shopping. |
0.999997 | os? Padilla (fl. since 1970s) is a Spanish disc jockey and producer of ambient music. He is best known for his work as DJ in the Caf? del Mar bar in the island of Ibiza, and is considered responsible for popularizing electronic chill-out music. Born in Barcelona, Padilla moved to Ibiza in 1975, taking up the DJ residency at Cafe del Mar in 1991. In 1994, he compiled the first Cafe del Mar album for the React label.
Born in Barcelona, Padilla moved to Ibiza in 1975, taking up the DJ residency at Cafe del Mar in 1991. In 1994, he compiled the first Cafe del Mar album for the React label. The series is now in its 16th volume and has spun off several related compilations, as well as leading to the creating of the bar's own eponymous label. Padilla selected tracks for the first six, as well as the 20th Anniversary commemorative release.
While several tracks of Padilla's appeared in his various compilations, it wasn't until 1998 he released his first album, Souvenir, on label Mercury Records. The CD featured collaborations with several chill-out musicians, including Lenny Ibizarre and Paco Fern?ndez. His second album, Navigator, was released in 2001.
Padilla continues to be the resident DJ at Cafe del Mar, but is also touring around the world. However, he has recently released a new compilation series, unrelated to Cafe del Mar, called Bella Musica. |
0.994239 | Today my son saw the doctor for thrush and to treat some of his allergies. He is three years old. The doctor said that most kids this age with thrush are developing diabetes. He said watch to make sure he is not drinking a lot and peeing a lot. My question what is a lot? My son has always been a big drinker and he pees on average 5-9 time a day.
Your doctor may be referring to Autoimmune Polyglandular Syndrome Type I, the most common form of the immunoendocrinopathy syndromes which is generally first recognised in early childhood, and where chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis (a specific yeast infection) is often first seen with accompanying various endocrine deficiencies. Type 1 diabetes has been reported to occur in no more than 4% of these patients. What findings, besides the thrush, is the doctor's statement based upon? You'll have to ask for more clarification.
To address your last question regarding amount of urination, it is the total daily volume of the urine which counts and it generally should not exceed on average 1.5-2 liters a day. |
0.999997 | Can you recommend a good finance book for entrepreneurs with no finance background?
Company: Tony Ahn & Co.
I just pulled in enough angel investment to rent an office and hire six employees, and I've got business lined up waiting for me to open my doors. I know how to read a P & L and a balance sheet, but that's where my knowledge of finance stops. I'd love to read a book that is written for my level of knowledge and brings me up to speed on what I need to know to run my company. There's only a few of us, but we're doing low 6-figure deals out of the gate, so I don't have much margin for error.
Ken Kaufman's "Impact Your Business" is an excellent resource.
I'm running a hybrid digital marketing/traditional PR firm, and we're not yet big enough for a full-time CEO, so I need "finance for entrepreneurs" or "finance for managers."
Since you mentioned finance in particular, Shim and Siegel's Financial Management might be a good fit for your needs.
Use Amazon's Look Inside feature to get a quick feel. Some of the chapters will probably be non-applicable, but the others will serve as a desktop reference for a variety of fin mgmt topics, each presented at a very fundamental level.
Congrats on the early success!
Reading it provides a lot of useful information about how small business owners should think about their business. The first chapter called “Owner’s Salary: Why Your Salary and Distributions Are Fogging Your View of Net Income” is very insightful. It details how many small businesses regularly under pay (or over pay) the owners because they never separate the amount of compensation that should be paid for doing various tasks in the business (that owners often have to do) from the return that is due to owning the business.
Skip the book. Hire a financial expert. Finance is a specialty. There are many books out there, but they discuss topics in controlled settings. A finance expert will have the knowledge in multiple areas that will provide solutions in getting you through the bumps.
As an example -- Home Depot has these great step by step books on building and repair. After a quick glance you say, "Easy. Why should I pay someone?" You get the supplies, you buy the tools and you are ready to go. You get into the project and are immediately faced with unanticipated challenges - 'This doesn't look like the picture; the supplies I purchased are the wrong size for my situation; there is rust all over what I am trying to replace..." After spending more time and money than first expected you complete the job.
A book will give you the knowledge, but experience will get you where you want to go faster.
Financial Intelligence" by Karen Berman and Joe Knight is a good reference! All the best to you!
Agree with Regis. First off, if you already have an Angel investment with no finance person, how do you even know how to record the investment? Secondly, you might be better served letting another expert handle that while you focus on selling your products and running the business, no?
We are also a start-up in a similar position. Since you may not be in a position to afford a professional, you might want to go back to your angel and ask if they have someone you can work with - they may have an accounting firm that they use that they would be willing to get involved. Short of that, reach out to your local chamber of commerce to see if there are any organizations in your area that provide mentoring for start-ups. Some organizations will work pro-bono. Eventually you will need professional help - I have hired an accounting firm to help us - it's expensive but we're not only get accounting help but the advice of a senior partner who has taken an interest in our firm.
BtW, a great primer is the "3 Day MBA" - after reading it (several years ago), I decided to go and get an MBA - big leap for a software developer but it definitely helped me understand the intricacies of starting my own business.
Check out Cash Flow Problem Solver by Bryan Milling. Perfect for small business. Helps you understand how accounts receivable and inventory are investments that require funding, the impact on the whole cash flow cycle from suppliers to customers, as well as the interrelation of balance sheet, income statement and cash flows. It explains a lot of concepts that at first are counter-intuitive, but are crucial to cash flow management, such as how growing your business profitably can cause serious cash flow problems. It may save your business some day.
Try "Proven Techniques For Getting Positive Cash Flow from Your Business: A guide for those who are serious about understanding and improving their company's performance...but don't know where to begin." If you send me your email I will send you a digitial copy.
Company: DeepSky | Entrepreneur's Accounting Depa..
More entrepreneurs are in your position than you think so it's fantastic that you're already thinking about it before things get too messy.
Danielle makes a fantastic recommendation on Fred Wilson's MBA series. I find a ton of useful information on there but be sure to put your own filter through it. Not everything is applicable to your business.
Since I want to stick to answering your question before volunteering my unsolicited two cents I'd also throw in David Baker's (Recourses) book on (I think it's called) financial management for marketing firms. As an entrepreneur I fully enjoyed the book and as a trained CPA I was surprised that he knows what he is talking about. Since you are in a similar industry you will find it very helpful.
And here goes my unsolited two cents on agreeing with some of the people above on how I have found it to serve my business better when I choose to focus and spend my time on my core competencies.
Because of my background as a trained accountant and CPA I understood the importance of good financial data earlier than entrepreneurs who didn't have the same background. I wanted to do it myself because I could do it better than anyone else I knew - it was my craft - but I (relatively) quickly realized that accounting wasn't part of my core job description as a CEO. So I handed over the work to my team - heck - it was my business after all. I am still closely involved with my numbers but I am no longer involve in the day to day work of producing it. I have a team doing that and a controller to assist and advise me on things I want to know and work on.
There are tons of options out there to find help in this regard. Some education may be helpful in getting you closer to know what you want. Though the technical terms and/or features may not be clear - a business outcome from the initiative could be a great starting point for a good advisor to help you develop the solution you seek.
Best wishes and feel free to reach out if needed.
A great primer is "Finance for non-Financial managers" (G. Siciliano). I got turned on to the financial side of business (I'm an engineer by trade) by "The 10 day MBA" by Silberger. After reading this book, I went and got my MBA.
What my MBA taught me is to hire professionals to help you set up your systems - as Michael stated: your business will be better off if you focus on the business and let someone else handle the books. As your business grows, the bookkeeping alone will become a majore distraction. |
0.929473 | While hiking in an isolated part of the North Cascades, Paul Thompson happens upon a tenacious grizzly. After hearing a cry for help, Paul finds himself entangled in a rescue, but of what? He soon discovers the female geologist he's just saved is a Sasquatch who has been marooned on earth and is being hunted by relentless pursuers from here and beyond. As they struggle to survive, Paul finds that his knowledge from his work at "Area 51" may hold the answer to the rescue of the Sasquatch.
After leaving Area 51 at the Nevada Test Site and continuing a former railroad career, Lou conceived the idea for this novel while sitting at night on the engine of a freight train, south of Tacoma, Washington. He now lives in the St. Louis, Missouri area with his wife Jennifer and spends his time writing and enjoying their children and grandchildren.
The Alien Acquisition 5 out of 5 based on 0 ratings. 1 reviews.
This book contains so many strong messages about life, human nature and the truth about what lies beyond our realm of thinking in this forward looking prose. Are we so blind to the ability as humans to see good in others or to naturally treat each other with loving kindness no matter what? I enjoyed the way the Saawaukee treated each other, their outlook on life and their leadership style. The author gives us glimpse into the unknown of Area 51, having worked there for years, as no other has in Ufology writings. I would like to read more about "other space" and it seemed to end too quickly. I believe several important items at the end could have waited for the sequel. Easy read and good for all ages. Timeless and heartfelt with a powerful message. |
0.999477 | As a result of Russell's paradox (and maybe other problems I'm not aware of), naive set theory had to be replaced, and Russell himself proposed type theory, which (if I understand correctly) replaced the language of set theory with a different one. (And I read it is somehow related to something called $\lambda$-calculus).
However, Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory (ZFC) also took care of Russell's paradox, by formulating restrictive axioms on sets.
Mathematicians clearly have favored ZFC over type theory as a foundation for mathematics. and therefore most people (including myself) are familiar with set theory but not necessarily with type theory.
What are the downsides of type theory compared to set theory?
What are benefits of type theory over ZFC set theory?
Now the actual answer. The first thing you should note if you look at Farmer's paper, even just the abstract, is that type theory isn't an alternative to set theory, it's an alternative to first-order logic (FOL). A type theory is another kind of logic; it's not a theory within first-order logic like set theory. In other words, type theory (as a foundation) is a logical basis for mathematical constructions while set theory could be called, for lack of a better word1, a "mathematical" basis for mathematical constructions. This isn't a big surprise. This is the spirit of Logicism. There are three things that can be taken from this, and I'll elaborate on each below. First, type theory was a brand new logic. Second, from a philosophy of math perspective these two approaches suggest very different philosophies. Third, axiomatizing of set theory via ZFC is a kind of "reduction" of set theory to first-order logic.
While the formal details of FOL were being worked out around this time, more or less equivalent informal systems had been used since antiquity. As far as I know formally formulating FOL went smoothly. FOL was widely accepted, or at least easy to accept. Type theory was nothing like this at the time. Type theory was effectively adding new "rules of inference" without a satisfying basis. Presentations of type theory were complicated and unclear. One of the major issues with type theory is that it effectively made the notion of "function" or "predicate" first-class. One of the things going for FOL was the notion of semantics for it was uncontroversial. In modern terms we usually use set theory to talk about the semantics of a first-order theory, but any such semantics doesn't require the notion of powersets or the axiom of infinity or that the elements of the domain themselves be sets. Basically, all you need is cartesian products and bounded comprehension. Semantics for type theory would require function spaces or powersets. But figuring out what "functions" were was one of the problems that precipitated the "crisis of foundation".
Type theory, though, wasn't meant to be used like FOL. FOL is like a specification language. A first-order theory is like a specification, and we're primarily interested in models of the theory, i.e. things that fit the specification. This lends itself to a Platonist reading: things exist and FOL lets us talk about them. From this point of view, ZFC set theory is a way of talking about "sets" which "intuitively exist". The fundamental leap of faith is that ZFC has a model. Type theory is more like a programming language. There's no need to worry about models (though this is a rich and powerful field nowadays) because you can just construct what you want in type theory itself, out of "pure logic" so to speak. Nevertheless, people still want to know what "functions" and "predicates" are and there are two natural answers. First, the abstract answer is "something we can apply to an argument" and generally satisfies the appropriate rules. This leads people to wonder if there are such things and this leads back to semantics. The second answer is "anything you can write down of the appropriate type". This is much closer to a Formalist philosophy. This says a function, and everything else, is pure syntax. This line of thought does and did lead to computer science. The former approach doesn't really seem to help in solving the problem of foundations; the latter approach was poorly understood at the time and as time progressed it became increasingly clear that it led to a rather different mathematics.
Ultimately, it seems that by the time type theorists got their act together mathematicians were already getting comfortable with set theory and were no longer that concerned about foundations. Instead, computer scientists picked up type theory. Nowadays the unexpected but deep connections between type theory and category theory plus the completely expected but still deep connections between type theory and computer science have led a growing renaissance of type theory in mathematics. Constructivists have also laid a lot of ground work in showing that you actually can do a lot of mathematics "syntactically", and category theory has shown that even if you're not a constructivist, this is extremely profitable. Type theory has matured over the past hundred years.
One of the problems with your question is that many of these terms have changed over time. I have studied the continuum hypothesis for the last thirty years with the conviction that the independence of the question lies with a problem with how logic is addressed. In pursuing this conviction I have traced certain questions through translations of original sources all the way back to Aristotle.
The expression "type theory" is now vague. What Russell introduced to avoid what he believed to be the source of the contradiction is best called "predicative mathematics". In Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory this is implemented through the axiom of foundation. The sets obtained in the cumulative hierarchy are said to be "well-founded". Thus, one has individuals, sets of individuals, sets of sets of individuals, and so on. This is the predicative structure which Russell introduced with "types". In modern Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory, this is restricted somewhat since its usual interpretation is that of a theory of pure sets. That is, this predicative hierarchy is generated from a single individual called the empty set.
One reason that mathematicians followed Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory is probably the simple fact of reputation for the Hilbert school. But, Russell's approach had certain problems beyond the complexity of typed formulas that diminished its ability to influence the mathematics community. One of these had been the axiom of reducibility. This had been the axiom to which Skolem objected. Another had been the inability to eliminate an axiom of infinity. This is what Goedel ridiculed (very nice man, that) with his constructible universe. And, within the philosophy community, Russell's use of definite descriptions had been found objectionable. Such descriptions constitute an "epistemic warrant" for uses of identity. Typically, this is called the principle of identity of indiscernibles. The philosophical objection is that one cannot "define" an existent. This criticism, however, ignores what Russell wrote in his paper "On denoting".
When you ask about benefits of type theory in the context of Russell's work, you probably need to look at Quine's New Foundations and those authors who have been studying it. Quine's theory simplifies the complexity of working with typed formulas. But, the sense in which it has an advantage over Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory is that it supports what are called Fregean number classes. Logicism has two senses. One is the historical development of British mathematics after the dispute between Newton and Leibniz. Newton had set a standard with the infinitesimal calculus. So, pursuit of a logical calculus had been a higher priority in British mathematics. The work of Peacock and de Morgan is sometimes seen as anticipating modern model theory under this account of history. But, logicism in the sense of Frege had been based on the idea that natural numbers could be defined with respect to the logical notion of a "class". So Quine's work is a natural development of Frege's ideas through Russell's type theory.
Because the Quinean notion of a individual is developed with respect to ideas from the lambda calculus, there is a relationship. However, I do not believe that Church's work originates from the ideas of Russell's type theory directly. From what I can tell in the literature of computation, Church had introduced the lambda calculus in pursuit of a notion of effective computation.
In modern mathematics and computation, the notion of type is not bound to Russell's notion of predicative mathematics. A separate development called category theory began to speak of objects with morphisms between them. Within a category, objects are always associated with an identity morphism. Modern notions of type are more like the Aristotelian notion of class in which identity is a notion local to a type. In turn, this is more like category theory.
There will be those who disagree with what I have said. But, I have tried to answer your questions to the best that I can. I hope it helps.
I have to reply this way as I am not a member.
First, let me apologize to you and the community. There is a great deal of nasty innuendo in the original sources of foundational literature. A famous example is Russell's "honest toil" comment. These kinds of comments are something I dislike. But, it is so easy to do that I find myself having committed the same. And, on the Internet it often leads to pandemonium.
I was going to write something longer as justification for my misstep. It may have been informative. But, it would have been a further discourtesy.
"... there was a special obstacle which really made it practically impossible for constructivists to discover my consistency proof. It is the fact that the ramified hierarchy, which had been invented expressly for constructive purposes, had to be used in an entirely nonconstructive way."
One reason I dislike this quote is that Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory specifically stipulates that the theory has no proper classes. And, Zermelo had clearly been following Fregean views of logic in the manner through which he specified his domain. Having read Frege, I know that his semantics corresponded with what we now know as negative free logic. If you visit the SEP page on free logic and compare the semantics for positive free logic and negative free logic, you will find that Goedelian metatheory is positive free logic.
It is breaking the rules. Of course, proponents of first-order logic as mathematical logic view it through the lens of "progress".
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged set-theory foundations type-theory or ask your own question.
How can one think conceptually about Type Theory when one explains the differences between ZFC and Type Theory?
Since the conception of Set Theory, was Russell's Set the only problematic set found?
How do sets of language used to formulate ZFC axioms escape Russell's paradox?
Can we avoid an axiomatic theory of sets by never formulating paradoxes?
Why doesn't this definition of natural numbers hold up in axiomatic set theory?
Type of set theory in Halmos' naive set theory.
Is ZF theory paradox free? |
0.998922 | Did the WTBTS improperly dispose of printing chemicals?
Is that what this article is saying?
SHAWANGUNK – Three parcels of land in the Town of Shawangunk totaling just under seven acres are being studied for possible brownfields remediation. The parcels, owned by Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., are part of over 1,100 acres.
The investigation is estimated to take about 20 weeks to complete under the supervision of the state departments of Environmental Conservation and Health. According to the DEC, in the past, some of the areas of the land were reportedly used to deposit soil, construction debris, and other materials.
It is also reportedly a site where 55 gallon drums of materials containing chemicals thought to have been used in the printing industry, including a petroleum hydrocarbon distillate, were deposited in predominantly clay soil. In one of the three parcels, there is a potentially contaminated soil from the spills of printing wastes or raw materials on the ground and aerated using farm machinery, the DEC said.
Prior to the 1960s, the land was used for farming and orchards.
The cleanup plan will include an evaluation of the proposed site remedy, or recommend a no-action or no-further-action alternative. The goal of the plan is to ensure the protection of public health and the environment.
I had to lookup what brownfields are... it's an EPA term for properties that have contamination.
they thought they had their own dump.
they were going to clean it up after arrmageddon. with the angels help, of course.
This looks more interesting than the lack of responses might suggest.
Not surprising when you have the 'God will clean up the mess' eschatology.
The drums contained benzene, xylene and other chemicals that have been shown to affect human health.
Benzene is a known human carcinogen and the worse of the hydrocarbons. This is something I've really never considered. The toxic waste of all the printing chemicals the massive WTS printing complex must generate would potentially be massive. Much cheaper to dump it on your private land in the hopes of not getting caught, rather than to pay to dispose of in accordance with EPA regulations. Wouldn't a group of apostate environmental watchdogs be a thorn in the WTS's side?
Not surprising. I know for a fact they misused/mishandled pesticides and such at the farm. Wonder how much Brooklyn money will "evaporate" when they have to clean their mess up.
Illegal dunping activites could be a part of WTS 'theocratic warfare'. In the WTS's mind the collateral damage of environmental pollution is outweighted by the spiritual food the WTS prints for the JW sheeple.
You know if the evidence supports illegal dumping this could make for a very powerful campaign, keep us posted. |
0.854758 | The collision between people and big data has caused an explosion of machine learning innovations, with one natural home being in modern data preparation – the steps of understanding, cleaning, shaping, and correlating data prior to it being ready for analytics.
For thirty years, there have really only been two data preparation processes: first, the human-led, coding and scripting, trial-and-error approach, which can’t scale when datasets are constantly changing and being generated regularly from new disparate sources. The other: the rigid path of ETL (Extract, Transform, Load), where a schema and set of mappings was built and could not be changed without an act of Congress. Neither of these options allows for people to process, analyze or derive insight from the volumes of data they are collecting, as rapidly as it is being generated.
Today, companies like Paxata are leveraging machine learning to accelerate the modern data preparation process, giving everyone who works with data a “partner” can do things people can no longer do with just curiosity and eyes. It automates the exploration of data quality issues to discover unidentified relationships, anomalies and other data properties without being explicitly programmed on what to look for. And, unlike traditional methods which break under the stress of constantly evolving data volume and variety, machine-based learning only gets better as the data gets bigger and different.
How does machine learning work in data preparation?
Probabilistic join recommendations – Uses the indexes to generate a virtual search space of all possible matches between words across various data sets, generating statistical distributions of the matches, aggressively pruning the possible legitimate combinations, and then building reasoning around the potential matches that remain to make the possible matching decisions.
Reinforcement learning – As recommendations from the join detection process are confirmed via user interaction, the model of the relationships among the datasets receives feedback, which then gets manifested in the weights used in subsequent join detection steps.
These combined capabilities make it possible for a person to understand the semantic and syntactic qualities of a billion rows of data without coding a single line.
Data integration: These are capabilities for extracting data from operational systems, transforming and joining that data, and delivering it to integrated structures for analytics purposes. The transformations include converting data types, simple calculations, lookups, pivoting, aggregations, filtering, and even extracting people, places, and events out of free form text. Machine learning can recommend new data sets to join, possible transformations to make on the data, and even propose normalization or de-normalization strategies that can be enabled using pivoting and de-pivoting.
Data quality: These are capabilities for assessing the quality of data, detecting integrity violations and outliers, decomposing it into its component parts and formatting values consistently based on standards. Syntactic cleansing can fix structural issues with data such as standardizing punctuation, yet it is semantic cleansing that can ensure that data is standardized based on its correct meaning. Machine learning can be used to automatically detect the types within the data (customer names, addresses, locations, dates) and recommend monitoring and transformation rules to remediate issues.
Data enrichment: These are capabilities that enhance the value of internally-held data by appending related attributes from external sources (for example, consumer demographic attributes and geographic descriptors) and enable the consolidation and rationalization of the data representing critical business entities, such as customers, products and employees by identifying, linking or merging related entries within or across sets of data. Machine learning can be used to recommend other data sets that people have used to combine with the dataset currently being worked with based on the automatic detection of semantic types.
Dynamic governance: These are the capabilities that enable an organization to set policies and processes that ensures that important data assets are formally managed throughout the enterprise. This is manifested by functionality that captures decision rights and accountabilities for information-related processes, formalizing agreed-upon policies which describe who can take what actions with what information, when, under what circumstances, using what methods. Machine learning can be used to automatically enforce security policies in the system based on other policies that have been modeled explicitly, preventing “holes” in the security infrastructure.
Ad-hoc collaboration: These are the capabilities that enable people to edit data simultaneously, share it across organization boundaries, make requests for data and seek approvals for leveraging it in business processes, and annotating it to add additional context to be preserved for posterity. Machine learning can recommend the right collaborators with domain expertise in specific areas based on an understanding of who works with what type of data.
Machine learning feeds off of volumes and varieties of available data, and requires powerful computational processing, which makes it a natural by-product of the Hadoop ecosystem. With technologies like Apache Spark and the extensible RDD model, along with columnar persistent caching, database cracking, and adaptive windowing, it is possible to learn the relationships across massive sets of data and still provide the results with interactive response times.
As Gartner notes in its report: Machine Learning Drives Digital Business, “Machine learning models can surpass human capability in coping with significant volumes of data, finding high-order interactions and patterns within the data and dealing with highly complex business problems.” It is about time that man partner with machine to make sense of big data and reap the rewards of the digital economy.
Nenshad Bardoliwalla, Co-Founder and VP of Products at Paxata– An executive and thought leader with a proven track record of success leading product strategy, product management, and development in business analytics. Bardoliwalla co-founded Tidemark Systems, Inc. where he drove the market, product, and technology efforts for their next-generation analytic applications built for the cloud. He formerly served as VP for product management, product development, and technology at SAP where he helped to craft the business analytics vision, strategy, and roadmap leading to the acquisitions of Pilot Software, OutlookSoft, and Business Objects. Prior to SAP, he helped launch Hyperion System 9 while at Hyperion Solutions. Nenshad began his career at Siebel Systems working on Siebel Analytics. Nenshad is also the lead author of Driven to Perform: Risk-Aware Performance Management From Strategy Through Execution. |
0.962378 | What is this website? Who built it?
I hope the "what" part is pretty self-explanatory. This website holds up to the minute statistics on all Regional Rail trains that SEPTA is running. This is accomplished through a Splunk instance downloading data from SEPTA's API, storing the data, and serving up the reports.
The front end consists of Slim PHP for request routing, Bootstrap for the UI, and CanvasJS for the graphing. The back end consists of Splunk for data storage and report generation and Redis for caching the results of longer running queries. The source code for all of this is up on GitHub.
As for the "who", my name is Douglas Muth. I am a software egnineer who lives in Ardmore and takes Regional Rail into Center City for work.
How to get in touch with me? Email works pretty well: doug.muth AT gmail DOT com and dmuth AT dmuth DOT org both work. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.
First, I wanted to provide this as a public service to the other riders of SEPTA Regional Rail. I hope they find the train reports and station reports as useful as I did.
Second, I am hoping to be able to share these analytics with SEPTA so that they can use them to build better train schedules, and better evaluate which trains arrive on time, and which trains need improvement.
It wouldn't be too difficult to expand on what's here to search for trains that are chronically late (candidates for having their schedule changed?) or to find "ripple effects" where one train being late impacts multiple other trains.
I am also toying with the idea of tracking weather conditions (rainfall, temperate, and wind) integrating them with some of the train lateness graphs to look for correlations. This could be used to predict the overall lateness of trains and aid with future planning efforts.
Data scientists, I'd love to hear from you too! I have train data going back several months, and I'm sure that someone smarter than me can come up with some neat graphs to generate from it. Just hit me up, and I'll be happy to provide it. |
0.999999 | The logic problems in this set present you with three true statements: Fact 1, Fact 2, and Fact 3. Then, you are given three more statements and you must determine which of these, if any, a fact is also.
Congratulations - you have completed Logical Problems.
I) All Lamels are Signots with buttons.
II) No yellow Signots have buttons.
III) No Lamels are yellow.
We know that there are Signots with buttons, or Lamels, and that there are yellow Signots, which have no buttons.
I) The hotel is two blocks east of the drugstore.
II) The market is one block west of the hotel.
III) The drugstore is west of the market.
The market is one block west of the hotel.
The drugstore is two blocks west of the hotel, so the drugstore is west of the market.
I) A toothpick is useful.
II) Useful things are valuable.
III) A toothpick is valuable.
I) Tom puts on his socks before he puts on his shoes.
II) He puts on his shirt before he puts on his jacket.
III) Tom puts on his shoes before he puts on his shirt.
I) Three pencils cost the same as two erasers.
II) Four erasers cost the same as one ruler.
III) Pencils are more expensive than rulers.
I) Taking the train across town is quicker than taking the bus.
II) Taking the bus across town is slower than driving a car.
III) Taking the train across town is quicker than driving a car.
Both the car and the train are quicker than the bus, but there is no way to make a comparison between the train and the car.
I) Cloudy days tend to be more windy than sunny days.
II) Foggy days tend to be less windy than cloudy days.
III) Sunny days tend to be less windy than foggy days.
I) At a parking lot, a sedan is parked to the right of a pickup and to the left of a sport utility vehicle.
II) A minivan is parked to the left of the pickup.
III) The minivan is parked between the pickup and the sedan.
This is the order of the cars from left to right: minivan, pickup, sedan, sport utility vehicle.
I) The bookstore has a better selection of postcards than the newsstand does.
II) The selection of postcards at the drugstore is better than at the bookstore.
III) The drugstore has a better selection of postcards than the bookstore or the newsstand.
I) A jar of jelly beans contains more red beans than green.
II) There are more yellow beans than red.
III) The jar contains fewer yellow jelly beans than green ones.
I) Tanya is older than Eric.
II) Cliff is older than Tanya.
III) Eric is older than Cliff.
I) Blueberries cost more than strawberries.
II) Blueberries cost less than raspberries.
III) Raspberries cost more than strawberries and blueberries.
I) All the trees in the park are flowering trees.
II) Some of the trees in the park are dogwoods.
III) All dogwoods in the park are flowering trees.
I) Mara runs faster than Gail.
II) Lily runs faster than Mara.
III) Gail runs faster than Lily.
I) Apartments in the Riverdale Manor cost less than apartments in The Gaslight Commons.
II) Apartments in the Livingston Gate cost more than apartments in the Gaslight Commons.
III) Of the three apartment buildings, the Livingston Gate costs the most.
The market is one block west of the hotel. The drugstore is two blocks west of the hotel, so the drugstore is west of the market.
There is not enough information to verify the third statement.
Rulers are the most expensive item.
Fact 3 : Some dogs look like their masters.
If the first three statements are facts, which of the following statements must also be a fact ?
Fact 3 : Half of the children are girls.
Fact 3 : Some beverages are red.
I : Some drink mixes are red.
Fact 2 : Some chickens are hens.
Fact 3 : Female birds lay eggs.
I : All birds lay eggs.
III : Some chickens are not hens.
The first statement cannot be true because only female birds lay eggs. Statement II is true because some hens are chickens and all chickens are birds. Statement III is also true because if only some chickens are hens, then some must not be hens.
Fact 1 : All hats have brims.
Fact 2 : There are black hats and blue hats.
Fact 3 : Baseball caps are hats.
I : All caps have brims.
II : Some baseball caps are blue.
III : Baseball caps have no brims.
All baseball caps have brims, since baseball caps are hats (Fact 3) and all hats have brims (Fact 1). This rules out statement III, but it doesn't follow that all caps, a category that may include caps that are not baseball caps, have brims (statement I). Statement II cannot be confirmed, either, since it is possible, given the information, that all baseball caps are black.
I) A fruit basket contains more apples than lemons.
II) There are more lemons in the basket than there are oranges.
III) The basket contains more apples than oranges.
There are fewer oranges than either apples or lemons, so the statement is true.
=> The basket contains more apples than oranges (App > ... > Org) = Yes.
=> Therefore, the given 3rd statement is true.
I) The Shop and Save Grocery is south of Greenwood Pharmacy.
II) Rebecca's house is northeast of Greenwood Pharmacy.
III) Rebecca's house is west of the Shop and Save Grocery.
Because the first two statements are true, Rebecca's house is also northeast of the Shop and Save Grocery, which means that the third statement is false.
I) Joe is younger than Kathy.
II) Mark was born after Joe.
III) Kathy is older than Mark.
II) Jenna weighs more than Jason.
III) Jason weighs less than Jasmine.
IV) Of the three babies, Jasmine weighs the most.
We only know that Jasmine weighs more than Jason. There is no way to tell whether Jasmine also weighs more than Jenna.
I) The temperature on Monday was lower than on Tuesday.
II) The temperature on Wednesday was lower than on Tuesday.
III) The temperature on Monday was higher than on Wednesday. |
0.999996 | Make a question in Finnish and ask the answer given. Press "Check" to check your answers. Use the "Hint" button to get a free letter if an answer is giving you trouble. You can also click on the "[?]" button to get a clue. Note that you will lose points if you ask for hints or clues! |
0.999983 | Create your path to +Positive spaces with Human Connections.
LVT, meet carpet. Carpet, meet LVT. |
0.999882 | What have made the guerrilla marketing so successful are the marketing strategies. Rather than spending large sums of money to create one way messages, guerrilla marketers develop creative ways to put their marketing messages and collateral right in front of consumers in the real world. Popular guerrilla strategies include discreetly leaving marketing collateral all around events, putting on public displays that arouse people's curiosity. The guerrilla marketing strategies also were doing anything that would gain free media coverage to spread the word of a brand.
Discuss possible best practices from the guerrilla marketing campaign that different types of small businesses could leverage. Provide specific examples to support your response.
Best practices from the guerrilla marketing campaign that different types of small businesses could leverage are knowing how to be creative, know what your customers want, and utilize the power of the media. Being creative and knowing what the customers want will allow your marketing to have a direction of how to market. This also allows the small business to see what direction the business is going in. Knowing that the product that you have is a need and why it's need is a plus to making the marketing area boost the business. The power of the media allows different areas of the world be reach what it is your business is selling. This will also enhance the mobility of the business products. |
0.98515 | If the customer was always right, all companies would have closed. If you administrate the company based on the whims and demands of each client will not ever make viable. However, the client is always client and it is important to come to his place, to see things from his side, to listen to him.
Your task is to agree from the start on what you want from each other so that you’re both happy. |
0.999798 | One-sentence summary: A Scottish missionary's wife learns about the savage cruelty of men and nature when she lives on a remote island off Scotland in the mid-19th century.
Do I like the cover?: I do as it captures the really gorgeous aspects of the novel -- the staggering landscape and the mystery of new arrivals.
First line: The young woman rose from her berth almost before she heard the knock on the cabin door.
Buy, Borrow, or Avoid?: Borrow or buy -- this is a quiet but intense, almost adventurous historical novel that moves and entertains.
Why did I get this book?: 1830s + missionary's wife + isolated locale = win!
Review: A very cool, restrained book, this historical novel is set on St. Kilda, an island that is the furthest part of the British Isles. Beginning in 1830, the story follows Lizzie and her husband, missionary Rev. Neil MacKenzie, as they move from urban Scotland to the isolated, rocky, backwards island.
In some ways, the novel's arc is unsurprising -- the proper British couple is first charmed, then horrified, by the savage land -- but Altenberg's writing is controlled and captivating, and the development of Lizzie and Neil is surprising and familiar in a way that satisfies. I was strongly reminded of Jane Campion movies (like The Piano) in this novel: the focus on women, the impact of men on their lives, and a harsh and unforgiving world (both literally and emotionally).
There's a kind of historical mystery to the story, too, in the background, that Altenberg fully explains in her Notes. Altenberg's background is in archaeology, which comes out in the novel's almost naturalistic style of narrative, which fits the story: it has that kind of clinical feel of 19th century amateur scientists. The formal, controlled language, of course, does nothing to control, prevent, or manage the more 'earthy' events that occur, and it is that clash of aspiration and reality that provokes and changes Lizzie.
This is a sad novel, but not miserable, moving, with slightly unlikable characters. I felt affection and aggravation at Lizzie, some empathy and irritation toward her husband, Neil, and their marriage was one I rooted for and wished would end. They were, in short, real people, complicated and full, and their story and that of St. Kilda's is one that is moving, engrossing, and atmospheric. An unexpectedly rich novel for the end of my year.
Thanks to the publisher, I can offer THREE copies of Island of Wings to three lucky winners! To enter, fill out this brief form. Open to US/CA readers, ends 1/8.
This looks like such an interesting read! I just entered the giveaway also. Have a Happy New Year to you and yours!
This one looks super interesting! I love historical fiction but feel like I didn't read nearly enough of it this year.
I've not heard a lot about this book, but it does sound as if it is a rather engrossing read. I like that the setting is so unusual, and can imagine that I would probably really enjoy this one. Great review today!
I noticed this book the other day and thought it sounded really good. Your thoughts on it make me want to read it even more. I really like the cover!
I got this book from Anansi, and it came with very high praise (genuine praise) from the publicist. After your review, I look forward to it even more.
@Natalie: It was really unique -- loved the writing style and setting. Thanks for the NY wishes -- same to you!
@Peppermint: It might be my favorite genre, too -- so much interesting stuff can happen/be explored in hist fic.
@Kelly: I think hist fic was my biggest genre this year and I feel like I only scratched the surface of the ones I wanted to read! But I'm so glad I picked up this one!
@Blodeuedd: Exactly -- it had such moodiness to it, in a good way!
@Heather: I inhaled this book -- even though the plot felt like it could be 'typical' I really enjoyed the way the characters developed and the setting was just out-of-this-world strange (in a good way).
@Elysium: Yes -- I do love Scottish settings and St. Kilda is an alien sounding location -- I kind of want to visit it!
@Steph: Can't wait to see what you think of it -- I'm not surprised it got good praise as it's solid and atmospheric.
@Mary Beth: Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting! It was totally engrossing -- an unexpected armchair escape!
I love historical fiction. That time period is when some of my ancestors came to America from Carisle, England which is on the border between Scotland and England. Sounds like an interesting book.
Thank you very much for this great giveaway. I love historical fiction, and historical fiction set in Scotland is my ultimate reading genre. Great review. |
0.947175 | A sculpture of Johanna "Mutter" Ey by Hannelore Köhler stands in Düsseldorf's Spee'scher Park.
Johanna Ey (4 March 1864 – 27 August 1947) was an art dealer in Germany during the 1920s. She became known as Mutter Ey (Mother Ey) for the nurturing support she provided to her artists, who included Max Ernst and Otto Dix.
Ey was born in humble circumstances in Wickrath (today a quarter of Mönchengladbach). At the age of 19 she moved to Düsseldorf. She married and had twelve children, of whom eight died young. In 1910, middle aged and divorced, she opened a bakery in the proximity of the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts. This became a popular meeting place of actors, journalists, musicians and especially painters, who appreciated her policy of granting credit to artists and students. She displayed their works in her shop windows, and became a collector of art by accepting paintings as payment.
In 1916 she closed her café and opened a gallery on the Hindenburgwall (today Heinrich Heine avenue), where she showed works by academic painters. In the years following World War I, however, the gallery became the center of the artists of the "Junge Rheinland" (Young Rhineland) group. Ey initially decided to exhibit their art not for theoretical or economic reasons, but rather because of her personal friendships with the artists, although she quickly became an energetic proponent of modernism. Her support for her artists extended even to darning their socks, and she defended Wollheim and Dix when they were hauled into court on charges that their paintings were immoral.
During the 1920s, she was frequently painted by the artists in her circle, notably by Dix in 1924, and in 1925 by Arthur Kaufmann, who placed her at the center of his composition Contemporaries (Düsseldorf's Intellectual Scene). According to art historian Sergiusz Michalsky, "Johanna Ey's portrait was painted more often than that of any other woman in Germany."
With the rise to power of Hitler in 1933, nearly all the artists associated with Ey were denounced as degenerate artists; most were also political opponents of National Socialism. In April 1934 Johanna Ey gave up running her gallery. She died in Düsseldorf in 1947.
Among the artists associated with Ey's gallery were Max Ernst, Otto Dix, Otto Pankok, Gert Heinrich Wollheim, Ulrich Leman, Jean-Paul Schmitz [de], Adolf Uzarski, Arthur Kaufmann, Hermann Hundt [de], Adalbert Trillhaase [de], Karl Schwesig [de], Jankel Adler, Robert Pudlich [de], Franz Monjau [de], Adolf de Haer [de], and Curt Lahs.
^ a b Michalsky 1994, p. 126.
This page was last edited on 6 January 2019, at 15:15 (UTC). |
0.998231 | More details about how Submission Correctness Tests for interactive coding exercises work behind the scenes.
To learn about why a Submission Correctness Test (typically referred to as SCT) exists, what it looks like and who writes them, read this article first. As mentioned there, the SCT is a script of custom tests that accompany every coding exercise. These custom tests have access to the code students submitted and the output and workspace they created with their code. For every taught language, there is an open-source library that provides a wide range of functions to verify these elements of a student submission. When the functions spot a mistake, they will automatically generate a meaningful feedback message.
In the remainder of this article, when xwhat is used, this means that the information applies to all of the SCT packages listed above.
Starts a student coding process, and executes the pre_exercise_code in this process. This code initializes the process with data, loads relevant packages, etc., so that students can focus on the topic at hand.
Starts a solution coding process at the same time, in which both the pre_exercise_code and the solution are executed. This coding process represents the 'ideal final state' of an exercise.
Executes the submitted code in the student coding process and records any outputs or errors that are generated.
Tells xwhat to check the submitted code, by calling the test_exercise() function that is exposed by all of the SCT utility packages. Along with the SCT (the R/Python script with custom tests), the backend also passes the following information: (1) the student submission and the solution as text, (2) a reference to the student process and the solution process, and (3) the output and errors that were generated when executing the student code. If there is a failing test in the SCT, xwhat marks the submitted code as incorrect and automatically generates a feedback message. If all tests pass, xwhat marks the submitted code as correct and generates a success message. This information is relayed back to the coding backend.
Bundles the code output and the correctness information so that it can be shown in the learning interface.
In this exercise, you'll assign your first variable.
Create a variable `m`, equal to 5.
Student submits a <- 4 : A feedback box appears: "Did you define the variable m without errors?". This message is generated by check_object(), that checks if m was defined in the student coding session.
Student submits m <- 4 (correct variable name, incorrect value): Feedback box appears: "The contents of the variable m aren't correct.". This message was generated by check_equal(), which compares the value of m in the student coding session with the value of m in the solution coding session. Notice that there was no need to repeat the value 5 in the SCT; testwhat inferred it.
Student submits m <- 5 (correct answer): All checks pass, and the message "Well done!" is shown, as specified in success_msg().
Want to learn more? Learn best practices for writing great SCTs that are both robust to various ways of solving an exercise, yet specific about the mistakes students are making! |
0.999977 | The land of Rohan and the Rohirrim..
The Riddermark, also known as the Rohirrim, are the "Horse kings of Rohan" and are who defended the land of Rohan. The name is Sindarin for People of the Horse-lords (sometimes translated simply as Horse-lords) and was mostly used by outsiders: the name they had for themselves was Eorlingas, after their king Eorl the Young who had first brought them to Rohan. The Rohirrim were tall, fair, pale, and had blond hair (which they wore long and sometimes braided). They prized their horses very much, and their entire culture was based around these. They had few cities, but lived in many villages on the plains of Rohan. They were by nature stern, fierce, and grave, yet generous. The Rohirrim were skilled fighters on horseback; they were armed with swords, shields, spears and bows. They used helms and hauberks of chain mail. In time of war, every able man was obliged to join the Muster of Rohan. They were bound by the Oath of Eorl to help Gondor in times of peril.
At the time of the Lord of the Rings, or the War of the Ring, the king of Rohan was Theoden, and his nephew Eomer was 3rd Marshall of the Riddermark.
Theoden had been king for nearly 30 years, and was showing signs of his age. He was increasingly misled by his chief advisor Grima (or Wormtongue as most others in the Mark called him), who was secretly in the employ of the corrupt wizard Saruman, and who may even have accelerated his ageing through "subtle poisons".
In the last years before the War of the Ring, Théoden let his rule slip out of his hands, and Gríma became increasingly powerful. Rohan was troubled again by Orcs who operated under the will of Saruman, ruling from Isengard.
When Théodred, Theoden's son and heir, was mortally wounded at a battle of the Fords of Isen, Éomer became Théoden's heir. Éomer was out of favor with Wormtongue, however, and was eventually arrested.
When Gandalf the White and Aragorn appeared before him, Théoden initially rebuffed Gandalf's advice to ride out against Saruman. When the wizard revealed Wormtongue for what he was, Théoden returned to his senses. He restored his nephew, took up his sword Herugrim, and in spite of his age, led the Riders of Rohan into the Battle of the Hornburg. After this he became known as Théoden Ednew, the Renewed, because he had thrown off the yoke of Saruman and Gríma.
Bound by the Oath of Eorl (the first king of Rohan), Théoden led the Rohirrim to the aid of Gondor at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. In that battle he routed the Harad cavalry, personally killing their chieftain and banner-bearer in the process. He challenged the Witch- king of Angmar, the leader of the Nazgul, and was mortally wounded when his horse Snowmane fell upon him. He was avenged by his niece Éowyn and the Hobbit "Merry" Brandybuck, both of whom had ridden to war in secret. Before mustering the Rohirrim to ride to Gondor's aid, Théoden enlisted Merry into his army, but did not let the Hobbit ride into battle at Pelennor. In his last moments, he bid farewell to Merry and appointed Éomer the next king (though this part is not shown in the films).
Théoden's body lay in Minas Tirith until it was buried in Rohan after the defeat of Sauron. He was the last of the Second Line of the kings, judging from direct descent from Eorl the Young.
Though this website is titled 'The Riddermark' it is a fans website to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, done in Rohirrim style paying homeage to the great land of Rohan.
"Thank You wikipedia and Robert Foster's Guide to Middle Earth for the information that made this site possible." |
0.999921 | Preventing back injury is to be as fit as you can be and take steps to make your work and your working environment as safe as possible.
Even if you move around a lot on your job or your job requires physical exertion, you still need to exercise. Regular exercise is your best bet in maintaining a healthy back.
Poor posture stresses your back. When you slouch or stand with a swayback, you exaggerate your back's natural curves. Such posture can lead to muscle fatigue and injury. In contrast, good posture relaxes your muscles and requires minimal effort to balance your body.
• Standing posture. If you stand for long periods, rest one foot on a stool or small box from time to time. While you stand, hold reading material at eye level. Don't bend forward to do desk work or handwork.
• Sitting posture. To promote comfort and good posture while sitting, choose a chair that supports your back. Adjust the chair so that your feet stay flat on the floor.
There's a right way and a wrong way to lift and carry a load. Some key tips for lifting the right way include letting your legs do the work, keeping objects close to your body and recruiting help if a load is too heavy.
Look at the setup of your office or work area. Think about how you could modify repetitive job tasks to reduce physical demands. Remember that you're trying to decrease force and repetition and maintain healthy, safe postures.
• Plan your moves. Reorganize your work to eliminate high-risk, repetitive movements. Avoid unnecessary bending, twisting and reaching. Limit the time you spend carrying heavy briefcases, purses and bags.
• Listen to your body. If you must sit or stand for a prolonged period, change your position often. Take a 30-second timeout every 15 minutes or so to stretch, move or relax.
• Work on coordination and balance. Simple enough, walking regularly for exercise can help you maintain your coordination and balance.
• Reduce stress . Being under stress causes you to tense your muscles, and this can make you more prone to injury. In addition, the more stress you feel, the lower your tolerance for pain. Try to minimize your sources of stress both on the job and at home. Develop coping mechanisms for times when you feel especially stressed. |
0.999967 | How clearly can I discern the night sky using a small telescope?
I'm sorry, but I am not sure what the question is. If you mean "What can I see of the night sky with a telescope?" then I can give you some idea. First a bit of a warning. For the "starter" telescopes with a 60mm diameter lens, the largest problem is trying to find objects in the first place, even the Moon. Often the tripods and mounts are really shaky. the problem is when you get, for instance, the moon in the eyepiece, then you lock the telescope in place, the moon has disappeared. The small finder telescopes that come on the main telescope are useless. It is best to buy something called a "Rigel Quick Finder" which fastens to the telescope tube with double faced tape, and projects two red rings - a "bullseye," on the night sky and makes it MUCH easier to find objects. So finding objects, and keeping them in the eyepiece can be a really frustrating experience.
If you are in a place with dark skies, without light pollution, you can see nice star clusters. You can see the planets Jupiter and Saturn but they are likely to be quite small. The Moon is wonderful to look at, both with lower power (your 20mm eyepiece) and with higher power (your 10mm eyepiece). It is really interesting to watch the moon every night as it goes from a crescent moon to the full moon, and to see how different it looks as the light changes day by day.
If you live where I do, with pretty bad light pollution, because I am in a suburb of New York City, then the star clusters will seem less impressive. The moon and planets will still be OK. When I want to do some serious observing, I drive for an hour and 45 minutes to a dark sky site about 80 miles from where I live. From that site, I can see the milky way on a clear night.
2464 | Have you ever experienced any paranormal activity?
5741 | Does mileage matter as much with a Tesla?
5225 | Why is The Dark Side better?
3196 | Can this come close to the speed of light?
4179 | Which movie had the most realistic set?
4498 | What will happen to the price of Bitcoin when Bezos buys Coinbase?
1954 | If a UFO landed on Earth, and National Geographic confirmed it's authenticity, would you want to meet the aliens?
What would happen if Japanese suddenly disappeared from the world?
Does intelligent life exist in the universe? What factors create this opinion?
What would happen to the earth and us humans if we woke up and all animals were gone?
What are the core ideals of the Democratic party and Republican party what makes them seem so different? |
0.993797 | Is Marijuana legal in Latin America?
Cannabis consumption has increased over the last two decades changing legal policies. What has happened?
Globally, cannabis use has remained stable since 1998. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), by 2014 the global population of cannabis consumers was at 3.8 percent which would represent approximately 183 million people.
Marihuana consumption in Latin America is not uniform. While countries such as El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Bolivia, and Brazil are below 5 percent, Chile and Uruguay report rates of 28 and 17 percent, respectively.
Marijuana is illegal for both recreational and therapeutic use in nations like Bolivia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, and the Dominican Republic. The remaining countries, like Colombia, Chile and Argentina, allow therapeutic use of marihuana.
However and against all odds, Uruguay announced in 2012 that it would allow the production and distribution of hemp for recreational purposes. The corresponding legislation provided three ways to obtain marihuana: domestic cultivation, social clubs, and authorized pharmacies. Each consumer is allowed only one of the three options, which must be stipulated in their consumer registry before the Institute for Regulation and Control of Cannabis, as well as the acquisition of up to 40 grams per month of the herb.
For the previously mentioned reasons, Latin America still has its doubts when it comes to complete cannabis legalization in the region, a process that will apparently take more time in comparison to other parts of the world. |
0.999164 | How to Pack for a Long-Term Trip?
Long-term trips pose more challenges considering the amount of stuff you need to bring without sacrificing comfort and mobility. Deciding how many tops or trousers to bring for more than a month travel can be daunting. Oftentimes, you end up bringing items that are impractical for your planned activities. A detailed itinerary saves you time and unnecessary expenses as well as the hassle of carrying heavy luggage to and from your point of destination.
The ultimate backpacker’s list is not complete without these travel essentials, which you may alter over time depending on experience. Initially, your travel lifestyle determines the type and size of bag you are comfortable with. Some choose an internal frame backpack for maximized space and mobility, while others stick to wheeled luggage.
Second, clothing should be weather and culture-appropriate. If you are travelling to India, Middle East or any other countries with prevalent gender customs, dress to cover up, not to flaunt. A long scarf or sarong is always useful as an additional layer of protection against the weather elements. It can also be transformed into a DIY skirt if need be.
Stick to light clothing especially during hot climate, but always bring a poncho or hooded jacket in case of rain or sudden drop in temperature. Bring at least a pair of pants, a multifunctional dress, shorts and skirts, and sweatshirt aside from your undergarments. Any other type of clothing can be bought in the place you are going to.
Additionally, footwear can be limited to two pairs: flats, sandals or flip flops, and a pair of lightweight boot. Your everyday-carry essentials must include passport, driver’s license and/or nationality card, annual travel insurance certificate, personal medicines, a small knife, whistle, pepper spray, mobile phone, map, flashlight, a pen and notepad, watch, and money or credit card. If you are travelling for more than six months, your passport should be valid for at least a year from the date of departure.
The goal of backpacking is to increase mileage with minimal baggage and additional costs. All airlines implement the 7-kilogram carry-on baggage allowance for economy flights. Adherence to this requirement is tricky for first timers, but you can shed off a few pounds with these travel hacks.
Do not carry liquid items more than 50ml to avoid getting your items confiscated. Wear the heaviest of your clothes such as trousers, jackets, and boots as you check in the airport. Aside from your backpack, bring a handy pouch where you can stash your toilettries, travel documents, and money without searching the luggage all over.
When travelling, do not hesitate to give away clothes or items that you can live without. Refrain from buying bulky souvenirs especially if your next destination is not your home. Tag along some friends or other backpackers if you feel that the location compromises your safety.
Travel insurance is also a must for frequent and long distance travellers. It is an element of travelling that is commonly neglected primarily because it is regarded as a miscellaneous expense. Check with your favourite airline or insurance company about their specific coverage. Some extreme adventure sports like mountaineering are not included in annual travel insurance. |
0.999987 | Write a caption for the above photo using the comments.
No eating or drinking in Metro, and this time we mean it.
Metro's NextBusStop program is apparently still in a feasibility study stage at 13th and H. Too bad for this guy.
Got another nomination for suckinest bus stop in Metro? Show us.
The driver asked me yesterday "What happened to the bus stop?"
Like I personally tore it down and left it that way.
I asked him "don't you know what happened?"
His reply "Just because I work for Metro doesn't mean I know what's going on."
Thanks for the photo and info Converting a Spendthrift!
Metro's new courtesy campaign encourages you to give up your seat for someone who needs it. The flip side is that Metro's frequent door issues all too often take that seat right back and then put a disabled or injured passenger through an obstacle course even the most able bodied find difficult to traverse.
I was traveling on the Blue line toward Franconia-Springfield this morning when my train experienced severe door failure. We pulled into National Airport station and then pulled away without discharging any of the tourists and travelers who were patiently waiting by the doors, suitcases in hand, no doubt ready to catch a flight.
This prompted a flurry of curses in German and a frantic cell phone call from the nice couple standing next to me. I originally thought we missed the station, but when we pulled into Braddock Road, the operator came over the intercom and asked "if the doors of car #3085 do not open, please let me know." I looked back: Yup, I was in car #3085.
Luckily, for the airport crowd, the doors opened at Braddock Road, and they were able to disembark but no doubt gifted some additional stress about whether they'd make their flights.
King Street however, was a different story. We pulled into the station, but again the doors didn't open. The chimes and disembodied voice worked, but the doors remained shut fast. People rushed for the emergency intercoms at both ends of the train.
The operator tried to cycle the doors, then came into the car and tried the emergency door opener, but to no avail. Finally, he led the occupants of the car through the emergency exit and onto the platform via the car in front of 3085.
For those of you who aren't aware or haven't had the pleasure of escaping from a Metro car, the emergency doors are located at either end of a train car. They open and you walk across the coupling between the cars into the car ahead of or behind the stricken car. Looking down you can see the gravel and rails. I would not want to attempt this on a moving train.
This maneuver would be extremely difficult for a handicapped person, someone on crutches or someone with a service animal.
You've been named the nation’s 2009 top public transportation manager by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).
The list of accomplishments on your press release was quite long, and as we've said before, despite Metro's shortcomings, we can't imagine how much worse the area would be without it. And frankly, compared to other U.S. mass transit systems we've used--NYC, Chicago, Boston and Charlotte--Metro is definitely toward the top of that list. On a world stage, we know Metro would fare much less favorably.
But that said, we appreciate your efforts regarding safety and cleanliness. Your record in these areas deserves praise.
However, we think you need to work harder toward your goal of achieving better customer service.
Customer service received scant space in your lengthy press release compared to the inauguration, and our blog is filled with entries from riders about rude personnel, inept crews, late trains, broken down trains, door malfunctions and much more.
It disappoints us how silent you've been about many of the problems.
He then outlined steps VRE was taking to turn things around.
We realize it's just a letter, but the symbolic value is great. It shows that at the very top of the organization there is concern. VRE still must actually do the work to improve things, but a letter like this can have a strong effect on suffering passengers.
We once asked our readers if you should go, but maybe the APTA knows something riders don't.
We hope this award gives you the added impetus to tackle the hard work ahead to make "the best ride in the nation" a fact, not a slogan.
The group WhyIslam.org appears to be preparing an advertising campaign on DC area buses.
WhyIslam DC's bus ads for the DC-Metro transportation system are coming soon. Prepare to be wowed insha Allah!
According to the Islamic Circle of North America, a grass roots organization which "seeks to obtain the pleasure of Allah through working for the establishment of Islam in all spheres of life," [a] contract has been signed with CBS Outdoors (they handle Metro's advertising) to have 'WhyIslam' posters on "50 buses for 4 weeks. These posters will include basic message of Islam and invitation to viewers to call dawah hot line 1-877-WHYISLAM."
Money for the campaign, about $35,000, the Web site said, was raised during a recent DC area fundraiser.
Metro doesn't know if this is true or not and deferred questions to CBS Outdoors, which said only that they can't talk about upcoming campaigns.
Why Islam ran a similar campaign ran in New York last year, causing quite a stir. (GREAT headline) Another campaign ran in the San Fran area. More here about the NYC ads.
What do you think of this? No big deal? Hey, Metro could use the money. Free speech above all else? Is Metro out of their minds?
More on religious advertising on buses. Who knew it was the way to go? |
0.930545 | We will all get a sore throat from time to time. The most common reason for a sore throat is a viral or bacterial infection, and it tends to part of an upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). In most cases, sore throats heal on their own within a week.
Sometimes our immune system may be weakened by stress, not drinking enough water, etc.
You should see a doctor if your sore throat symptoms do not resolve within a week, or if they are so severe that it prevents you from eating, swallowing or breathing.
Most URTI's are treated symptomatically with painkillers, nasal decongestants, cough suppressants and plenty of rest and water.
Sometimes, your doctor may prescribe antibiotics if he thinks the infection is bacterial in origin (most URTIs are caused by viruses). |
0.944876 | The pioneer asked an old man if he would mind to carry his school bag to the apartment.
The pioneer wanted his school bag carried to the apartment.
The Fly asked the Ant to invite The Dragon-fly to her birthday.
The Fly wanted The Dragon-fly was on to be at the Fly's birthday.
The mother of two warned the judge that she should believe not a single word of her ex-husband.
Я не вижу общего объекта для “The mother of two” и “the judge”.
The mother of two wanted her ex-husband's testimony rejected.
The mother of two wanted to have her ex-husband's words distrusted.
Mr. Black needs it that the radio repare shop should fix his TV-set for him.
Mr. Black needs his TV-set fixed.
The child called and asked to take him home from school.
Я, конечно же сделаю, но это будет комлекс обжект: The child asked to be taken home from school.
Т.е. убрать частицу инфинитива никак не получится. Да и по смыслу получается, что ребенок же мог сам самостоятельно выполнить действие.
The housewife called a plumber to remove the blockage of the tolet basin.
The housewife wanted the blockage of the tolet basin removed.
The child begged his parents to take the street kitten home.
The child begged his parents to take the street kitten home. - В этом случае ребенок тоже может выполнить самостоятельно действие - у него на это есть необходимые знания? навыки и не требуется специальное оборудование.
Другое дело, если фразу подать так: The child begged his parents to take the street kitten to the vet to vaccinate. тогда каузатив хорошо получается: The child wanted to get the street kitten vaccinated.
My son asked me to send his car to the mechanic to change the oil and do the other minor services.
My son want to have his motor oil changed and his car served and the other minor services done.
The defendant asked the court not only to fully justify him but also to pay him compensation for moral harm.
The defendant wanted to have the accusation fully justified and the moral harm compensated.
She asked her stylist to put varnish on her nails of hands and feet.
She wanted all of her nails varnished.
The prosecutor demanded that the developer stop the construction of the house to prevent human casualties.
The prosecutor needed the construction of the house stopped to prevent human casualties.
Mr Black needs it that the vet should vaccinate his pet for him.
Mr Black needs his pet vaccinated.
Mr White tried to convince Mr Black that he should watch the news.
Каузативом не могу сделать, сделаю комплексом.
Mr White wanted Mr Black to watch the news.
She asked him to dye her hair.
She wanted her hair dyed.
Mr.Yellow asked Mr. Brown to paint his submarine.
Mr.Yellow needed his submarine painted.
I asked my tattoo designer that he should make a tattoo on my shoulder.
I wanted my shoulder tattooed.
I begged Father McKenzie absolve me of all my sins.
I wanted all my sins absolved. |
0.998675 | What are sliders? Mini burgers served on a platter, often shared. For a hearty meal, serve two sliders to each person with a cabbage slaw. Or, for a light lunch, serve one slider with cut-up fresh fruit.
Preheat gas grill to medium for direct grilling. Mix together beef, chopped onion, Worcestershire sauce, garlic and pepper (do not overwork meat mixture). With damp hands, form mixture into four ½-inch-thick patties.
Grill patties on grill cooking screen or in grill basket*, uncovered, for 11 to 13 minutes (for beef), 8 to 10 minutes (for turkey), or until instant-read thermometer inserted near centers reads 160° F (for beef) or 165° F (for turkey). Turn patties over halfway through grilling. If desired, place 1 cheese piece on the top of each patty. Close cover and grill about 30 seconds or just until cheese begins to melt.
To serve, stir together mayonnaise and barbecue sauce; spread mixture on bottom of buns. Top with a meat patty, tomato, sliced onion and lettuce. Place tops on each bun to close sandwiches. If desired, hold sandwiches closed with wooden sandwich picks or 6-inch bamboo skewers.
* If using turkey, lightly coat grill cooking screen or basket with nonstick spray.
** If buns are too thick, cut off a thin slice from the inside of each bun half. |
0.90946 | There are also a few letters derived from Latin punctuation, such as the glottal stop ʔ (originally an apostrophe, but later given the form of a "gelded" question mark to have the visual impact of the other consonants), and one,ʕ, although Latin in form, was inspired by Arabicﻉ.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language.
The Greek alphabet originated as a modification of the Phoenician alphabet and in turn gave rise to the Latin, Cyrillic, and other alphabets, as documented in History of the alphabet.
The most notable change, compared to its predecessor, the Phoenician alphabet, is the introduction of written vowels, without which Greek — unlike Phoenician— would be unintelligible.
Alphabet samplers have continued to be a traditional favorite, serving as the common thread of sampler-making history.
Understanding and knowing the history of the alphabet explains these peculiarities and sampler alphabets can provide a glimpse into the changing written word of the English language from the 16th century on.
The writing of Old English had been strongly influenced by the Romans, who brought the Latin alphabet with them when they first occupied Britain.
Turkey went on to adopt Latin in late 1928, and the new alphabet became effective for them on January 1, 1929, the same date that Arabic would be banned in Azerbaijan and all the Muslim nations of the Soviet Union.
At the time, most of the Turkic peoples were still using the Arabic script, although Azerbaijan had officially adopted Latin as a second script and was using it simultaneously with Arabic beginning on October 20, 1923.
Arabists argued that switching to a new alphabet would be a step backward in the development of the Turkic peoples, separating them from their centuries - old heritage and from each another.
As late as 1492, the Latin alphabet was limited primarily to the languages spoken in western, northern and central Europe.
In the late eighteenth century, the Romanians adopted the Latin alphabet; although Romanian is a Romance language, the Romanians were predominantly Orthodox Christians, and until the nineteenth century the Church used the Cyrillic alphabet.
Additionally, the letters Y and Z were taken from the Greek alphabet as Latin was heavily influenced by its eastern culturally advanced neighbors.
The earliest known inscriptions in the Latin alphabet date from the 6th century BC.
With the advent of the computer age the use of a non-Latin alphabet caused some problems.
One of the greatest events in Bulgarian history in relation to universal virtues happened first in the IXth century when the disciples of St. St.
Of course, there is the problem of inputting the characters (i.e., which numerical code should be generated when a specific button on the keyboard is pressed).
They used an alphabet which they had themselves devised on the basis of the Greek uncial script, adding new letters to denote sounds specific to the Slav languages.
The straight Italian letters were widely adopted, although German printers retained the Gothic style - not least because of its use in Luther's translation of the Bible.
Thousands of years before the invention of sound recording and today's communication technologies, the use of different writing utensils and the wide divergences in pronunciation from one part of the world to another soon led to the emergence of regional variants, so that the modern-day successors to the early alphabets have few detectable similarities.
It is believed that the American manual alphabet developed out of the Old French system, from which ASL has inherited about sixty percent of its signs.
Students at the National Institution for Deaf-Mutes in France (see history to learn more) all came in with their own personal systems of gestures and ways of communicating.
Each handshape in the manual alphabet corresponds to a written letter in the English alphabet (for ASL and other systems that use Latin characters).
More potently than any other single reform, the new alphabet symbolized the birth of a new order and the death of the old--just as Turkey's change in 1928 clearly demonstrated to the world that the Turkish government was casting off Muslim and Ottoman history and lighting out for the secular West.
Members of the House and the Senate might argue that the Latin alphabet we inherited from the Romans (usurpers, imperialists) had to be dropped.
Though in most parts of the world this changing of alphabets might seem a bizarre form of cultural torture, for Azerbaijanis it is nothing new: they have changed alphabets twice before in this century--from Arabic to Latin (in the 1920s) and from Latin to Cyrillic (in the 1930s).
Latin was influenced by the Celtic dialects and the non-Indo-European Etruscan language in northern Italy, and by Greek in southern Italy.
The Latin alphabet was introduced to Britain when the Romans took over the island (more on the history of English); ever since then, we have used the Latin alphabet for writing English without a major orthographic change in a thousand years.
Non-Latin alphabets, such as Deseret, Shavian and Ewellic, have entirely new letters and often no distinction between uppercase and lowercase.
Use of Latin-1 as a general-purpose English alphabet would not require digraphs, but it would use accented letters for several vowels.
In the course of its history, the Latin alphabet was adapted for use for new languages, some of which had phonemes which were not used in languages previously written with this alphabet, and therefore diacritics and new letters were created as needed.
This book is devoted to the oldest preserved Slovenian and, at the same time, Slavonic text in the Latin alphabet, a landmark denoting the beginning of Slovenian literary and cultural history.
The correspondence represents a significant source for literary and cultural history, particularly for issues relating to the Slovenian Protestant church and schools; owing to close links between the Slovenian and German reformations, it is also relevant to the study of 16th century European history.
The anthology covers numerous subject areas in Slovenian literature and literary theory; the most prominent are interpretation, text and verse analysis, the periodisation of literary and cultural history, individual variants of literary genres, and reflections on the fundamental premises of literary science.
Ukrainian alphabet is almost phonetic with the exception of the three sounds that do not have the dedicated letters and complex but intuitive (for a native) rules of the change of softness or hardness of the consonants by the following vowels.
Ukrainian Г is the sounded match for Russian Х (and therefore it is transliterated as Latin H), while the Russian one is the sounded match for the Latin G. East Slavic "non-mainland" Russian speakers "contaminate" the Russian speech with what is called "soft Ukrainian Г".
Scholarship on the early history of the Ukrainian language was hampered by the lack of Ukrainian independence.
Greek is written in the Greek alphabet, the first true alphabet (as opposed to an abjad or abugida) and the ancestor of the Latin.
Medieval Greek: The continuation of Hellenistic Greek during medieval Greek history as the official and vernacular language of the Byzantine Empire, and continued to be used until, and after the fall of that Empire in the 15th century.
Modern Greek is written in the late Ionic variant of the Greek alphabet, the oldest discovered inscriptions of which date to the 8th or 9th Century BCE, assumed its final form in 403 BCE, and displaced other regional variants due to its use for the Attic Koine dialect during the Hellenistic era.
Latin Literature - History for Kids!
Latin, an Indo-European language, was written in an alphabet derived from the Greek alphabet, with some letters changed: the Latin or Roman alphabet is essentially the one Americans use today.
Nearly all of the Latin literature that we still have today survives because it was copied over and over by hand by different people through hundreds of years.
That is, almost none of the actual books that people read at that time survive: papyrus and parchment just don't last that well.
Vietnamese writing system is Latin-born using Latin alphabet and old Greek marks to express tonal characteristics and diacritical marks like French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish.
Vietnamese language consists of five-thousand year history and culture.
Vietnamese words are up to six letters long, except the word "Nghieng", the one and only with seven letters.
Runic writing appeared rather late in the history of writing and is clearly derived from one of the alphabets of the Mediterranean area.
The basic alphabet used in Norway is of course the same one that we use here in the U.S., with a few additions: The Latin alphabet.
The initial Latin alphabet contained 21 characters was modified by adding two letters: Y and Z, and later, during the Middle Ages, the I was added.
In Sweden, the character is third in the alphabet, but in Norwegian, the letter was added to the end of the alphabet.
The Łacinka alphabet developed from similar Latin alphabets in use in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which included current-day Belarus, and as such is related to the Polish and Lithuanian alphabets, although it has unique features, most notably the letter ŭ, which is found in neither of those alphabets (though it is used in Esperanto).
Template:Wrongtitle The Łacinka alphabet is the variant of the Latin alphabet which was used for writing the Belarusian language.
Latin spelling and pronunciationThe Roman alphabet is an adaptation of the Greek alphabet to represent the phonemes of the Latin language.
Latin is also still used (drawing heavily on Greek The Greek language (Greek Ελληνικά, IPA // – "Hellenic") is an Indo-European language with a documented history of some 3,000 years.
Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around RomeRome (Italian and Latin Roma) is the capital city of Italy, and of its Lazio region.
Saparmurat Niyazov ordered to create a new alphabet to cut off the young generation of Turkmen from their spiritual wealth and from the history of their nation.
And it is just a coincidence that in English (for many of us this language is a symbol of Latin alphabet) there are some sounds which are quite identical to Turkmen sounds, and in Russian there are no such sounds.
By the way, it is Saparmurat Niyazov who took out the very first patent at the recreated Patent Office of Turkmenistan for computer program on that alphabet (Turkmen Latin).
Throughout their history Turkic people have used many different alphabets including Arabic, Cyrillic and Latin.
The Turkish alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, with a few variations.
It has 38 letters (4 of them are vowels) and bears a strange resemblance to the Runic alphabet of the Germanic people (which is also known as the Futhark alphabet).
The reason behind rapid changes in alphabets dictated by both Russian and Chinese hegemonies (resistors were forced to migrate) is that language is the essence of the national identity and the way to express culture.
In the Turkology Congress convened between February 26 and March 6,1926, a decision to advise the Latin Alphabet to Turkish republics and communities was taken.
Another important characteristic of Yusuf Akçura is that his political, social and economical beliefs are based on teh Turkish history.
Send us an email by stating the language (Portuguese) of your documents and the number of pages for each document.
On the other hand although the Lithuanians took over wholesale the Polish form of the Latin alphabet with certain additions and modifications, that doesn't mean that their language became Polish.
Baudouin de Courtenay studied from 1862-1866 at the Polish University in Warsaw (Szkoła Główna), in which, as he wrote later in his biography he was most interested in the physiology of sounds, Sanskrit, Lithuanian and the Slavic languages, particularly diligently collecting material for the history of the Polish language. |
0.999913 | Spruce up your kitchen with five renovation projects.
Complete overhauls, including paint and new flooring, change the overall look of the space.
Smaller undertakings, such as new kitchen benchtops or refinishing your cabinets, can also alter the style and ambiance of the room. Even if you cannot afford a complete remodeling job, redesign your kitchen in smaller segments to transform the heart of your home over time.
One of the simplest ways to transform any space is with paint. Choose a few colors to paint samples on your kitchen walls. Pay close attention to any elements you plan on keeping, such as cabinetry, laminate benchtops, or décor items. Choose paint hues to complement them. For example, if you have always wanted a red kitchen, but are unsure if you want pink or orange undertones for the base, grab a few samples that appeal to you. Paint a small section of your wall to see how the different shades will look in the space, as your existing elements can subtly change the overall appearance of the paint.
Another element taking up a lot of visual space in your kitchen is its flooring. You need to decide if you want your flooring design to stand out or fade into the background as a backdrop for your other decorative elements. For example, do you want a beautiful hardwood floor that blends into your cabinetry or trim choices? Do you want an elaborate tile design that guests see as soon as they step into the room and matches your tiled kitchen benchtops? After you decide if you want your flooring to complement you space or become a focal point, it is easier to move forward on picking out the material and design.
Update your appliances to change the look of your room, as well as improve its functionality. Stainless steel is a popular choice for many décor styles, including industrial and other contemporary designs. All white appliances match farmhouse sinks and other traditional elements. Black appliances blend into anything from retro-inspired cafe kitchens with laminate benchtops to modern minimalist decorating schemes.
Small projects are another option for changing the look of your kitchen. Change out the hardware to transform outdated cabinetry into a contemporary style without having to pick up a brush. Change out your overhead lighting or add pendent lamps over laminate benchtops and task lights under cupboards for additional ambiance. Buy new small appliances in the same color as your larger ones to create a symmetrical look around the room. Invest in a set of matching dish towels, pot holders and curtains to match your favorite piece of kitchen artwork to make a theme come together.
You can break grand renovation plans into smaller tasks to spread out your time and your budget. So, whether you are completing replacing your kitchen benchtops or just looking for a way to make them blend into your décor style, do one project at a time to save your sanity and your money, while waiting for deals on other elements. |
0.994248 | Combine the fun of touring San Francisco by Segway with the personal touch of having a private guide attentive to your group’s interests and skills featuring Chinatown at night. You’ll be able to cover more ground than walking and enjoy the fun of the Segway personal transporter for a once-in-a-lifetime experience while touring San Francisco!
Riding a Segway is intuitive, like bike-riding, but it takes a moment to learn how to operate it. You'll have 20-25 minutes of Segway training before beginning your tour, so that you become comfortable riding the most innovative transportation of the millennium. You will practice until your group feels familiar with the Segway, then be ready to tour San Francisco!
Once you’re rolling, you’ll follow your guide along the streets of San Francisco on a 3-hour tour, with the ability to cover more distance than on a typical walking tour and plenty of opportunities to stop for photos and questions along the way. You’ll have more time than on the regular public tour, and your guide will be able to adjust the itinerary and pace to your group’s interests and skills. |
0.72221 | Kalimpong is known for its educational institutions many of which were established during the British colonial period. It used to be a gateway in the trade between Tibet and India prior to China's annexation of Tibet and the Sino-Indian War. Kalimpong and neighbouring Darjeeling were major centres calling for a separate Gorkhaland state in the 1980s.There has been a Rotary club in Kalimpong since 1993.
Kalimpong, located on a ridge overlooking River Teesta, is a tourist destination owing to its temperate climate and proximity to popular tourist locations in the region. Horticulture is also important to Kalimpong: it has a flower market notable for its wide array of orchids; nurseries, which export Himalayan grown flower bulbs, tubers and rhizomes, contribute to the economy of Kalimpong. Home to ethnic Nepalis, indigenous ethnic groups and non-native migrants from other parts of India, the town also is a religious centre of Buddhism. The Buddhist monastery Zang Dhok Palri Phodang holds a number of rare Tibetan Buddhist scriptures.
The precise etymology of the name Kalimpong remains unclear. The most widely accepted origin of the name Kalimpong is "Assembly (or Stockade) of the King's Ministers" in Tibetan, derived from kalon ("King's ministers") and pong ("stockade"). It may also be derived from the translation "ridges where we play" from Lepcha, as it was known to be the region's traditional tribal gathering for summer sporting events. People from the hills also call the area Kalibong ("the black spurs").
According to K.P. Tamsang, author of The Untold and Unknown Reality about the Lepchas, the term Kalimpong is deduced from the name Kalenpung, which in Lepcha means "Hillock of Assemblage"; in time, the name was distorted to Kaleebung and later corrupted to Kalimpong. Another possible derivation points to Kaulim, a fibrous plant found in profusion in the region.
Kalimpong has five distinct seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter and the monsoons. The annual temperature ranges from a high of 30 °C (86 °F) to a low of 9 °C (48 °F). Summers are mild, with the an average maximum temperature of 30 °C (86 °F) in August. Summers are followed by the monsoon rains which lash the town between June and September. The monsoons are severe, often causing landslides which sequester the town from the rest of India. Winter lasts from December to February, with the maximum temperature being around 15 °C (59 °F). During the monsoon and winter seasons, Kalimpong is often enveloped by fog.
Tropical in summer and woolen in winter.
Siliguri's Bagdogra airport is the nearest - 80 km away. Taxis can be hired at the airport for Kalimpong. The trip takes around 3.5 hours.
The nearest railway stations are Siliguri Junction ( 68 km ), and New Jalpaiguri ( 77 km ). Railway tickets for trains ex-New Jalpaiguri/Siliguri can be purchased from the Railway Out Agency, Motor Stand, Kalimpong.
Bus & Jeep There are frequent jeeps for the three hour trip to Darjeeling. The buses are so much less frequent, slower and more uncomfortable that it's hardly worth the small cost saving. All transport, other than taxis, leaves from the Bazaar bus stand.
On Rinkinpong Rd, and run by the Soil Conservation Division of the Ministry of Environment & Forests, the centre consists of a number of nicely put together dioramas which depict the effects of human activity on the environment. The centre is open daily, except Thursday, from 10 am to 4 pm; admission is free.
Until the mid-19th century, the area around Kalimpong was ruled in succession by the Sikkimese and Bhutanese kingdoms. Under Sikkimese rule, the area was known as Dalingkot. In 1706, the king of Bhutan won this territory from the Sikkimese monarch and renamed it Kalimpong. Overlooking the Teesta Valley, Kalimpong is believed to have once been the forward position of the Bhutanese in the 18th century. The area was sparsely populated by the indigenous Lepcha community and migrant Bhutia and Limbu tribes. Later in 1780, the Gorkhas invaded and conquered Kalimpong. After the Anglo-Bhutan War in 1864, the Treaty of Sinchula (1865) was signed, in which Bhutanese held territory east of the Teesta River was ceded to the British East India Company. At that time, Kalimpong was a hamlet, with only two or three families known to reside there. The first recorded mention of the town was a fleeting reference made that year by Ashley Eden, a government official with the Bengal Civil Service. Kalimpong was added to district of Darjeeling in 1866. In 1866–1867 an Anglo-Bhutanese commission demarcated the common boundaries between the two, thereby giving shape to the Kalimpong subdivision and the Darjeeling district.
After the war, the region became a subdivision of the Western Duars district, and the following year it was merged with the district of Darjeeling. The temperate climate prompted the British to develop the town as an alternative hill station to Darjeeling, to escape the scorching summer heat in the plains. Kalimpong's proximity to the Nathula and Jelepla passes, offshoots of the ancient Silk Road, was an added advantage and it soon became an important trading outpost in the trade of furs, wools and food grains between India and Tibet. The increase in commerce attracted large numbers of migrants from Nepal, leading to an increase in population and economic prosperity.
The arrival of Scottish missionaries saw the construction of schools and welfare centres for the British. Rev. W. Macfarlane in the early 1870s established the first schools in the area. The Scottish University Mission Institution was opened in 1886, followed by the Kalimpong Girls High School. In 1900, Reverend J.A. Graham founded the Dr. Graham's Homes for destitute Anglo-Indian students. By 1907, most schools in Kalimpong also started offering education to Indian students. By 1911, the population had swelled to 7,880.
Following Indian independence in 1947, Kalimpong became part of the state of West Bengal, after Bengal was partitioned between India and Pakistan. With China's annexation of Tibet in 1959, many Buddhist monks fled Tibet and established monasteries in Kalimpong. These monks also brought many rare Buddhist scriptures with them. In 1962, the permanent closure of the Jelepla Pass after the Sino-Indian War disrupted trade between Tibet and India, and led to a slowdown in Kalimpong's economy. In 1976, the visiting Dalai Lama consecrated the Zang Dhok Palri Phodang monastery, which houses many of the scriptures.
Between 1986 and 1988, the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland and Kamtapur based on ethnic lines grew strong. Riots between the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) and the West Bengal government reached a stand-off after a forty-day strike. The town was virtually under siege, and the state government called in the Indian army to maintain law and order. This led to the formation of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, a body that was given semi-autonomous powers to govern the Darjeeling district, except the area under the Siliguri subdivision. Since 2007, the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state has been revived by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and its supporters in the Darjeeling hills. The Kamtapur People's Party and its supporters' movement for a separate Kamtapur state covering North Bengal have also gained momentum.
The town centre is located on a ridge connecting two hills, Deolo Hill and Durpin Hill, at an elevation of 1,247 m (4,091 ft). Deolo, the highest point in Kalimpong, has an altitude of 1,704 m (5,591 ft) and Durpin Hill is at an elevation of 1,372 m (4,501 ft). The River Teesta flows in the valley below and separates Kalimpong from the state of Sikkim. The soil in the Kalimpong area is typically reddish in color. Occasional dark soils are found due to extensive existence of phyllite and schists. The Shiwalik Hills, like most of the Himalayan foothills, have steep slopes and soft, loose topsoil, leading to frequent landslides in the monsoon season. The hills are nestled within higher peaks and the snow-clad Himalayan ranges tower over the town in the distance. Mount Kanchenjunga at 8,598 m (28,209 ft) the world's third tallest peak, is clearly visible from Kalimpong.
The majority of the populace are ethnic Nepali, having migrated to Kalimpong in search of jobs while it was under British rule. Indigenous ethnic groups include the Newars, Lepchas, Bhutia, Sherpas, Limbus, Rais, Magars, Gurungs, Tamangs, Yolmos, Bhujels, Sunuwars, Sarkis, Damais and the Kamis. The other non-native communities are the Bengalis, Marwaris, Anglo-Indian, Chinese, Biharis and Tibetans who escaped to Kalimpong after fleeing the Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet. Kalimpong is home to Trinley Thaye Dorje—one of the 17th Karmapa incarnations. Kalimpong is the closest Indian town to Bhutan's western border, and has a small number of Bhutanese nationals residing here. Hinduism is the largest religion followed by Buddhism and Christianity. Islam has a minuscule presence in this region, mostly Tibetan Muslims who fled in 1959 after Chinese invasion of Tibet. The Buddhist monastery Zang Dhok Palri Phodang holds a number of rare Tibetan Buddhist scriptures. There is a mosque in the bazaar area of Kalimpong.
Popular festivals include Diwali, Christmas, Dussera or dasain in the local nepali dialect and the Buddhist festival of Losar. Languages spoken in Kalimpong include Nepali, which is the predominant language; Lepcha, Limbu, Tamang, Kirat, Hindi, English and Bengali. Though there is a growing interest in cricket as a winter sport in Darjeeling Hills, football still remains the most popular sport in Kalimpong. Every year since 1947, the Independence Shield Football Tournament is organized here as part of the two-day long Independence Day celebrations. Former captain of India national football team, Pem Dorjee hails from Kalimpong. A popular snack in Kalimpong is the momo, steamed dumplings made up of pork, beef or vegetable cooked in a wrapping of flour and served with watery soup. Wai-Wai is a packaged snack made of noodles which are eaten either dry or in soup form. Churpee, a kind of hard cheese made from yak's or chauri's (a hybrid of yak and cattle) milk, is sometimes chewed. A form of noodle called Thukpa, served in soup form is also popular in Kalimpong. There are a large number of restaurants which offer a wide variety of cuisines, ranging from Indian to continental, to cater to the tourists. Tea is the most popular beverage in Kalimpong, procured from the famed Darjeeling tea gardens. Kalimpong also has a golf course besides Kalimpong Circuit House.
The cultural centres in Kalimpong include, the Lepcha Museum and the Zang Dhok Palri Phodang monastery. The Lepcha Museum, situated a kilometre away from the town centre showcases the culture of the Lepcha community, the indigenous peoples of Sikkim. The Zang Dhok Palri Phodong monastery has 108 volumes of the Kangyur, and belongs to the Gelug of Buddhism.
Kiran Desai's 2006 Booker Prize-winning novel, The Inheritance of Loss, set in Kalimpong the 1980s, tells the story of a retired judge's family and their neighbours, with the Nepalalese insurgent movement led by the GNLF. It was reported that some Nepalese, led by author D B Gurung, were angered by what were allegedly negative stereotypes of Indian Nepalese people in the novel.
The area around Kalimpong lies in the Eastern Himalayas, which is classified as an ecological hotspot, one of only three among the ecoregions of India. Neora Valley National Park that lies within the Kalimpong subdivision and is home to tigers. Acacia is the most commonly found species at lower altitudes, while cinnamon, ficus, bamboo, cacti and cardamom, are found in the hillsides around Kalimpong. The forests found at higher altitudes are made up of pine trees and other evergreen alpine vegetation. Seven species of rhododendrons are found in the region east of Kalimpong. The temperate deciduous forests include oak, birch, maple and alder. Three hundred species of orchid are found around Kalimpong, and Poinsettia and sunflower are some of the wild species that line the roads of Kalimpong.
The Red Panda, Clouded Leopard, Siberian Weasel, Asiatic black bear, barking deer, Himalayan Tahr, goral, gaur and pangolin are some of the fauna found near Kalimpong. Avifauna of the region include the pheasanta, cuckoos, minivets, flycatchers, maynas, orioles, owls, parakeets, partridges, sunbirds, swallows, swifts and woodpeckers.
Kalimpong also has over forty-six nurseries which mainly cultivate gladioli which account for 80% of India's production and orchids, which are exported to many parts of the world. The Rishi Bankim Chandra Park is an ecological museums within Kalimpong. Citrus Dieback Research Station at Kalimpong works towards control of diseases, plant protection and production of disease free orange seedlings. |
0.995739 | If you are looking for a way to spice up your green smoothies, why not consider trying recipes that contain banana? Bananas are an excellent source of both potassium and fiber, and they will give your smoothie the same thick, creamy consistency of a milkshake. Medical studies have also suggested that the regular consumption of bananas can lower both your blood pressure and cholesterol. Here is a great recipe for you to try now!
Each of these ingredients should be added to your blender one at a time and blended together until smooth. A single one of these recipes will yield roughly 3-4 cups of green smoothies, but if you need to make more, the recipe can easily be doubled. This smoothie is guaranteed to be a hit with your friends and family members.
A single cup of these green smoothies contains only 384 calories, which makes it a delicious and nutritious snack at any time. This smoothie is an excellent source of Vitamins A and C; however, if you would like to make it more nutritionally complete, then you can add a scoop of protein powder to the smoothie. |
0.999294 | What should I do if I am getting bullied at school?
Bullying is a very serious problem in our schools. If you are getting bullied at school, the first thing you need to do is report the bullying to a trusted adult. Talk to your parents, teachers, school nurse, counselor or principal. Be honest. Report the bully. Describe in detail what happened and where the bullying occurred. Trust an adult to take charge of the situation. This is not only to protect you, but to keep other students from becoming future victims of the bullying behavior. If school staff is aware of the situation, they should keep an eye out for future instances of bullying from the same student.
There are also a few steps you can take to prevent the bullying from happening again. First, avoid the bully. Ask your teacher if you can change your seating assignment. Sit away from the bully at lunch. Avoid being alone in a bathroom or hallway, as these are prime places for bullying. Walk with a group of friends and get to class on time.
Secondly, ignore the bully. This is easier said than done, but it can be very effective if you are getting bullied at school. Don't react if the bully calls you names or tries to get your attention. Stay focused on the teacher and your classwork. Do not let the bully see your fear. Students who bully will usually become bored if their victim is not reacting and move on to an easier subject. Then, make sure your teacher is aware of the attempt by reporting it after class.
If ignoring doesn't work, a third option is to "kill them with kindness." This is a common phrase that means you are going to treat your enemies in a kind way. Say, "Good morning" to the bully as you pass him or her in the hallway. If the student who is bullying you forgets to bring classroom supplies, kindly offer him or her your pencil or book. Don't overdo the kindness. Just remember to be a good citizen and treat the bully how you wish to be treated.
Lastly, some people will tell you to stand up to the bully. This could be dangerous if it is physical bullying or if the bully is bigger or older than you. If you chose to stand up to the person who is bullying you at school, do so in a firm way. Use a strong firm voice. Don't yell or become emotional. State that you are tired of being harassed and it needs to stop. It may be best to do this in front of a supportive friend or adult.
If you have tried all of these steps and you are still being bullied at school, it may be time to report the bullying to a higher authority. Ask your parents for help. Contact your school resource officer or the superintendent of the schools. Your parents may chose to speak with the bully's parents outside of school or in the presence of school administration.
The most important thing is to not give up! Bullying is a very serious problem and it can truly hurt. Do not stop until you feel safe at school!
I kissed my friend and lied to my boyfriend about it when he asked. Is that bad?
How do I conquer social anxiety? |
0.9984 | Copying SMS messages from Nokia N900 to Android phone.
I wanted to copy my messages from my old N900 phone under Maemo to my Samsung Galaxy S3.
I didn't find any useful tools for it, so I finally wrote a little script to do the work for me, using various tools I found.
I used the info in the maemo forum to extract files from a backup of the data. The messages are stored in an SQLite database, stored in here: /home/user/.rtcom-eventlogger/el-v1.db I used a python script with SQLAlchemy to access the database.
Then, I loaded all the text messages in the database, and dumped them in an XML format readable by the SMS Backup & Restore app.
I copied the file on my phone and viewed it in the app, when it looked like it gave good results, I imported all the messages, et voilà!
I wrote a python script to run the test. Feel free to adapt it to your needs, but run it at your own risk. It did work for me.
# protocol – Protocol used by the message, its mostly 0 in case of SMS messages.
# address – The phone number of the sender/recipient.
# date – The Java date representation (including millisecond) of the time when the message was sent/received. Check out www.epochconverter.com for information on how to do the conversion from other languages to Java.
# type – Sent = 2, Received = 1.
# service_center – The service center for the received message, null in case of sent messages.
# subject – Subject of the message, its always null in case of SMS messages.
# body – The content of the message.
# toa – n/a, default to null.
# sc_toa – n/a, default to null.
# read – Read Message = 1, Unread Message = 0.
# status – None = -1, Complete = 0, Pending = 32, Failed = 64.
# readable_date – Optional field that has the date in a human readable format.
# contact_name – Optional field that has the name of the contact.
Thanks Ivo, it's nice to see my little work is useful somewhere! |
0.999974 | The U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday that it would not close facilities until May 15, giving Congress five months to complete an overhaul of the cash-strapped agency’s operations.
Facing a projected $14.1 billion loss in fiscal 2012, the agency has said that it was examining whether to close up to 3,700 local post offices and 252 mail-processing facilities. But USPS decided to implement a moratorium on that front after a group of senators expressed concern that the closures could eliminate as many as 100,000 jobs.
On Tuesday, USPS said it will also continue to move forward with its review of facilities marked for possible closure while lawmakers debate a broad postal revamp.
The Postal Service, which faces plummeting mail volume, had said last week that it is moving forward with reorganization plans that would largely eliminate next-day delivery of first-class mail and perhaps close as many as half of its processing centers. Agency officials said at the time the changes would likely not have gone into effect until at least April.
As consumers have more and more options to communicate electronically, the agency has also said it wants to cut $20 billion a year in operating costs by 2015. Congress has also pushed back a $5.5 billion prepayment that USPS owed for retiree healthcare costs.
As it stands, postal reform legislation has cleared the committee level in both the House and the Senate, and lawmakers working on the issue are hoping their measures will soon receive floor consideration.
With Congress working on pressing year-end issues like the payroll tax cut, Durbin said Tuesday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidSanders courts GOP voters with 'Medicare for All' plan Glamorization of the filibuster must end Schumer won't rule out killing filibuster MORE (D-Nev.) had promised to deal with the chamber’s USPS legislation early next year.
USPS’s decision to push back facility closures came after more than 20 senators that caucus with Democrats, including Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersButtigieg says he wouldn't be opposed to having Phish play at his inauguration Sanders announces first endorsements in South Carolina Poll: Buttigieg surges into contention with Biden, Sanders MORE (I-Vt.) and Jon Tester Jonathan (Jon) Tester20 Dems demand no more money for ICE agents, Trump wall Overnight Energy: Bipartisan Senate group seeks more funding for carbon capture technology | Dems want documents on Interior pick's lobbying work | Officials push to produce more electric vehicle batteries in US Bipartisan senators want 'highest possible' funding for carbon capture technology MORE (D-Mont.), last week called on the chamber’s leaders to prevent the Postal Service from closing facilities for six months.
“This delay hastens the crisis that is bringing USPS to the brink of collapse and raises serious questions as to whether current postal leadership is up to the job,” Issa and Ross, the sponsors of key postal legislation, said in a statement.
For his part, Sen. Tom Carper Thomas (Tom) Richard CarperOnly four Dem senators have endorsed 2020 candidates Koch network launches ad campaign opposing Trump's proposed gas tax Big Dem names show little interest in Senate MORE (D-Del.), one of the four senators who introduced bipartisan postal legislation in that chamber, said he thought his colleagues' concerns were legitimate.
"Moving forward, I hope that the agreement announced today between the Postal Service and our Senate colleagues can be a constructive step in Congress's efforts to improve the Postal Service's facility closing process and update the Postal Service operations and business model in general in response to the 21st century challenges it faces," Carper, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security subcommittee that oversees USPS, said in a statement.
Even with five months to hash out final postal legislation, House and Senate lawmakers still have differences to overcome on issues such as whether to allow USPS to move to five-day delivery.
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has also said that Congress needs to allow the Postal Service to become more like a business, and that both the House and Senate bills fail to do that. In a speech last month, Donahoe said that, while USPS is expected to act like a business, it cannot adjust delivery frequency or make other cost-savings moves as quickly as competitors like FedEx and UPS.
On Tuesday, Sanders mentioned the $5.5 billion retiree payment as a possible area to address, and said that lawmakers should allow USPS to ship beer and wine, among other opportunities.
“I think the fear that many of us have: If you just cut, cut, cut, you begin the process of what we call a death spiral,” Sanders said at the Tuesday news conference. |
0.999491 | Travel to Namibia and discover one of the most sparsely populated countries on earth. Crossing the border from South Africa, encounter Namibia's treacherously beautiful coastline, its soaring sand dunes, incredible moonscapes and savanna grasslands teeming with wildlife. Namibia is a country of contrasts and a paradise for wilderness lovers. |
0.962107 | Which is the best time to visit the Andaman Islands?
The Andaman Islands attract tourists round the year. The climate is pleasant from October to March. However, April onwards it can get a little too hot.
What are the essential items that one must pack while travelling to Andaman?
In addition to the usual items which one packs for a holiday, one should definitely keep sunscreen and an insect repellent. |
0.999548 | In celebration of Halloween, how could I not share a roundup of some of my favorite pumpkin treats that I’ve created and featured on my site? From muffins to cakes, whoopie pies to pudding, this roundup will have your taste buds water as you break out the grocery shopping list and add the ingredients.
In a matter of minutes, you can sink your teeth into these pumpkin-flavored treats and enjoy all of the tastes of the season. So, grab your pumpkin spice latte and serve yourself one of these bars, cakes, muffins, pancakes, or scones. |
0.862038 | He had his first contact with a music, when he was a child, he played snare at the university school in the capital of São Paulo. In adolescence and youth, nightclub listeners of heavy metal bands, Iron Maiden and Megadeth, their main influences. Fábio also liked to draw, and he painted t-shirts with drawings of the covers of the discs. Perhaps he has inherited his artistic vein from his family since he has been a movie actor in Europe, his best style of violin playing and making woodwork and his mother very much like to paint paintings. He is also a sports lover like Surf and in 1986 decided to create a fashion wave and express his art on t-shirts. He became a fashion designer, a designer brand, and produced fashion shows at renowned venues such as the Victoria Pub located in a neighborhood of the City of São Paulo. In 1991, he moved to the City of Mogi das Cruzes, where he made some visits, "Surf Shops" that sold his products. Continued to produce fashion shows and other events with rock bands and other styles, we can cite a landmark event in the City that was produced with the reggae band Cidade Negra. In 1995, he returned to meet the music and decided the school. Six years after his studies, he created a first rock band titled "Brave Heart", his ex-wife and brother also joined the band, played songs and some covers of Megadeth, Black Sabath, among others. They even came up with a small EP, but nothing professional. They did some parties in bars and schools of region, but in 1997, the pair of musicians embarked for Japan, where also they presented new songs like songs but without any performances. In 1998, when returning to Brazil, Fábio started to teach driums lessons in two schools in São Paulo. He returned to Japan even more than 3 times later. After a period of travel and learning, only year 2007 again formed a new band, this time with the name of "Surfer of Christ". An idea of ??the name came from the sport he practiced, surf, and "Christ", for he became a follower of Jesus' teachings.The band was a mix of rock and reggae and lasted about 2 years, recording only a single demo with five tracks and performed in some public places, squares, events and in public schools and churches of the region of São Paulo and Greater São Paulo . As Fábio was always fond of the Heavy Metal style, due to his influences, in 2009 he formed the band called "No Thanxs". They recorded a single and two CDs, taking on good projections due to the highlight of the remarkable, heavy riffs and inspiring lyrics of the songs. The band made small and large presentations in São Paulo and other cities, among them we can mention the opening of the show by the former vocalist of rock band Raimundos, Rodolfo Abrantes. "No Thanxs" participated in interviews on radios, newspapers and some local television channels. In 2012, Fábio announces the end of the band, for personal reasons and incompatibility of ideas. That same year, he traveled to the United States to improve his English skills and also to do a theological study at the Dunamis Resource Center led by Pr. Dennis Walker and Israel Silva. In February of 2013, he returned to Brazil and began a new stage in his career as guitarist and vocalist of a solo project titled "Jesus Freack Rock" starting the new compositions. All songs are of their own making, mostly written in English and Portuguese, because English is a universal language, and are based on the Holy Bible and also on true facts and themes of current reality. The presentations are enhanced in shows, festivals, churches, schools and events in general with the goal of bringing the true message of the gospel to the knowledge of people, whether Christian or not, emphasizing freedom, without religious dogmas and doctrines, nor created standards by some leaders. At the end of the year 2013, he returned to the United States for another season of presentations and divulgation of his new work. Touring the Cities of Las Vegas and Henderson and among some famous places, we can mention: - Mega Store Samash Music - Money Plays - BB's Club House, where he performed at the event in commemoration of US veterans with the special participation of ex- guitarist of thrash metal band Megadeth, Jeff Young. He then traveled to Mexico City to perform at the Veracruzano Social and Cultural Center at La Caverna Rock Bar. Upon returning to Brazil in 2014, the project was renamed "Jesushed", a more original name with a profound meaning : "Jesus Shed." In 2015, he released the CD Born Again, in 2017 the EP 360 and in October 2018 the EP "End Times", that is currently on tour. In November of 2018, "Jesushed" became a band, and currently has the following members: Fábio Curtis - Vocal and Guitar, Bruna Alves - Vocal, Jallas Shultz - Solo guitar, Maicon Martins - Bass and Clayton Rodrigues - Drums.
She began in 2018 as a soprano choir at the Coral do Carmo in Mogi das Cruzes-SP, that since 1985 the Carmo Choir has been widely honored to this day. Soon after, she started singing lyrical singing with the conductor of the choir, Guilherme Wassilis and accompaniment with the pianist Carlos Zappile and friends of the choir. She made presentations with the Carmo Choir at the São Paulo Cultural Patrimony Day, the 33rd anniversary concert of the Carmo Choir, the Christmas Concert with Carlos Gomes Philharmonic Orchestra of São Bernardo do Campo and the Traditional Christmas Concert at the Church of São Benedito and the Church of Socorro. With repertoires of Mozart, Bach, Faurê, Handel, Puccini, among other composers. Currently participates in invitations and presentations of the Coral of Carmo. In 2018 he accepted the invitation of Fábio Curtis to sing in an acoustic presentation with the band Jesushed and at the beginning of 2019 is invited to integrate the band officially as vocal.
He started his musical career at the age of 12, playing drums at the Assembleia de Deus Nipo Brasileira Church. At the age of 18, he migrated to the Brazilian Ministry for Christ, where he also began playing bass, and remained until the age of 25. He is currently a member of the Church Plenitude da fé.
He had his first contact with the musical instrument, drums, at the age of 13, in 2003 at the "Cristo Jesus" church in Mogi das Cruzes where he was a member. He began his studies on classical styles of the Christian harp and some Brazilian rhythms in general. Always focused on being a professional drummer, he deepened his musical studies. In 2009, he had his first band experience called "Toque na Orla", pop music. The following year, 2010 was nominated to join a Vinquin Metal band called "Hildemed." But had not enough experience. He had the opportunity, in early 2011, to play in a heavy metal band called Emunah and then changed the name to Tercinatto; where he was a member for six years acquiring musical knowledge. He is a member of the worship Group of the Manancial da fé, also drummer of the Pop Rock band called Armageddon since 2015. In late 2018 he was invited by Fábio Curtis to take a test in thrash metal band Jesushed, that currently to be part . |
0.999933 | Article excerpt: NASCAR is a team sport. Although it is often the drivers and team owners that take the applause and financial accolades if the team performs well and wins races or the various series events, it has to be remembered this position would not have been achieved without the dedication and impeccable support of a number of other people employed within the team. Amongst the most important of these unsung team members, especially during the performance of a race, is the pit crew. |
0.953068 | Nagarhole National Park, also known as " Rajiv Gandhi National Park, ' is located 94 km from Mysore in Karnataka in southern India. Spread between Kodagu and areas of Mysore. Located to the north-west of Bandipur National Park Kabini reservoir separates the two countries. Reserve fishing exclusive of the former rulers of Mysore , the park has a forest cover rich, small streams , valleys and waterfalls and it spreadon 640 square kilometers, and the protection of wildlife in the state of Karnataka. along with neighboring Bandipur national Park ( 870 sq km) and Mudumalai garden national ( 320 square kilometers ), and they form the largest protected area in South India.
Nagarhole National Park:Place derives its name from Naga meaning snake and hole referring to streams. Established in 1955 , it is one of the best parks in the country run , with the Office of the Deputy Governor of forest which is located in Hunsur, about 47 km from Nagarhole . The climate is tropical ; summer is hot and winter is pleasant.
The park has a ratio of leopard predator healthy , and the tiger , and bison , elephants are more populous than here in Bandipur . The park is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve . Western Ghats, Nilgiri sub-group ( 6,000 + sq km) , including all of Nagarhole National Park , is under consideration by the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO for selection as a World Heritage site .
Nagarhole has a large number of the population largely elephant , tigers , leopards and wild dogs , sloth bears exist in viable numbers . Large predators prey on varitey of ungulates , like a bull , sambar deer , chital ( spotted deer ), muntjac common , four - horned antelope , deer and wild boars mouse. Gray langurs , lion - tailed macaque monkeys and macaques hood represent primates in the garden. On the surrounding hills outside the park occurre Nilgiri tahrs and langurs Nilgiri . |
0.999999 | Context: I'm looking at my Web Site folder with despair as a ton of stuff collides and different versions of sites, folders and files live in complete disarray.
How do you organize your website/shrine folder(s)? Especially in regard to things like different versions of sites, updates, revamp, and adding new sites to your collective? My current (lack of) system is a giant mess and it's starting to make things very difficult as I try to build up my new collective offline.
I'd take a screenshot but... it's bad.
Help me Obi Wan Amassment.
I have three main folders on my laptop: Sites, Work, and School. Work has folders for each period inside, School has a folder for each class I take, and Sites has a folder for each one of my sites. In that, I have the current version of each site.
I have a PSD folder within the Sites folder where I save all my Photoshop save files so I can edit layouts later if I need to. I also have a Textures folder inside with scanned and downloaded textures.
I would say that my organizational style tends to result in "an organized mess", if I need to look for something, I tend to know which pile of stuff to look under, lol.
That said, I have a folder named "cissneinet" for anything website related that I know would become a part of cissnei.net. Whenever I start a new site/new shrine, I would put everything in the folder that would be the eventually become the path/url when I upload it to the server. For example, for my Gabranth shrine, I have a folder named "gabranth".
When I start a new shrine, I usually wouldn't any other sub-folders under the main shrine folder until the files start to pile up. I usually group all my "raw" files (.psd for layouts and .doc for content) and my "resources" files (i.e: images I might want to use for a layout) in the same folder, usually named "raw" or something like that. Then as I began coding and pulling pieces for the shrine, the folders would be structured the same as how my sites are normally structured once uploaded (i.e: An "images" folder for all the graphics, a "css" folder for css files and so on).
When I decide to make a new layout or revamp a shrine etc., I would make a new folder with the previous version number (i.e: "v1" or "version1" if what I'm working on is version 2 of the shrine etc.), and dump everything I had previously into that folder for archival purposes. It's not the most efficient way, since you will end up with duplicate files for some things that you'd want to keep the same, but for my own purposes, I tend to not copy things that I know will stay the same in the new versions of my sites.
I will backup my sites onto an external hardrive once in a while, so when I do that, I tend to delete that old versions on my computer to make space, and if I need to reference the old versions, I'd just copy from my external drive again.
Yeah I pretty much do what Fiona does each site in its own folder, then for the versions there's the copying of everything old and now it's the version 1 folder. When I remember to do that, I add the date I made the folder in the folder name, so it's like v1-030617.
For the layout, I just make a /layout folder which contains the css, all assets, whichever scripts, blah blah. The psds and other junk that might be useful but doesn't need to be uploaded will be in a /source folder within the /layout folder.
Once upon a time, I named all of my site folders after the name of the site. As you can imagine, I could never find anything. Ever.
These days I have a pretty simple structure. I have a folder for each fansite (or future fansite) in my /sites folder (so /ayu, /cid, /ff12, etc) and then all of my fanlisting stuff goes in the /fanlistings folder to reduce clutter. I keep all fansites on the same folder level because it's just quicker to access them that way (rather than clicking into /pokemon, then /gyarados, etc etc).
I don't have a lot of sites with multiple versions, but usually they end up in a creatively named /old folder, and inside there I have /1, /2, /3, etc if there are multiple versions.
It's a bit messy, but it's way better than it used to be so honestly I'll take it. All that matters is finding a method that works for you, really.
My website files are actually much more organized than the rest of the files on my computer, though that isn't say much tbh.
I actually have a very similar process to Fiona's; my folder files mimic how everything is organized on my server. Everything that is under that site folder is an exact copy of what's on my domain with the exception of a folder called either 'FILES' or 'ARCHIVE'. This folder is a dump for everything else that isn't uploaded to my server. For example, within my /balthier folder, there's a folder called /FILES that contains every layout I've ever made (even if it didn't make the cut), drafts of old writing, PSD's, etc. It basically functions as an archive or miscellaneous folder. If I want to move a file from the main site path to an archived state, I just drag and drop to the /FILES folder.
Every site folder had one of these archive sub-folders, which is actually not sorted and kind of unorganized itself, but works for me because it makes things simple and easy to search.
Hmm probably disaster? I always have a lot of projects in the works but I try to organize.
Domain and Me is the folder for all those teeny tiny "about domain" features that have nowhere to go (layout archive, /domain, /exits, etc.). It also houses the personal page about me.
Informational Sites holds all my stuff concerning the depression info site, my City of Heroes character site, my declutter and unspend sites, etc.
One Page Features has (I think) my new music site, which is now multipage, so it shouldn't be in there anymore...but I can't figure out where to put it else. LOL!! It also has my novel page, college classes page, etc. |
0.98889 | When it comes to Australian homes, a great number of them that were constructed in the colonial times were erected atop timber stumps. The process of using these stumps to create the foundation of a home was known as stumping. However, despite some of the resistant types of timber being used for this process, tree rot and termite infestations would still manage to affect the stumps after a significant period of time. If you live in an old house, chances are it could be due for house stumping.
House stumping is commonly referred to as restumping or as reblocking. It is the process of eliminating the current stumps in the residences foundation and replacing them with newer, healthier tree stumps. The process of house stumping is carried out through jacking the foundation in question in order to remove the stumps in question. Once the stumps are removed, the contractor will then lower the house's floor joists onto the newly installed stumps, thus ensuring they remain secured in place.
House stumping is a complex process and should only be left to professional contractors so as to ensure that the work is done expertly. Not only is it labour intensive, but each individual stump has to be positioned in a precise manner so that the house can remain both level and structurally sound. The most common type of timber used for the house stumping process is Red timber. This is because it possesses qualities that are highly resistant to both rot and pest infestations. However, you can also opt to have the contractors make use of modern materials such as galvanized steel or concrete if you would prefer to eliminate the use of wood altogether.
What are the signs that you require house stumping?
Since not all homeowners know what restumping is and why they would require it, chances are they would also miss out on the indications that they require house restumping since they do not know what to look for. Here are some of the signs that mean your residence will require restumping.
Your floors keep creaking: This typically indicates that they are no longer level and inefficient stumps may cause this irregularity.
Your floors feel spongy: Typically, if your floors start feeling sift or rubbery when you are walking on them, it could indicate that the initial stumps have succumbed to wood rot and need to be replaced.
Your walls are developing cracks: The onset of cracks on your walls could be an indicator that your house is gradually sinking due to ineffective stumps.
If you have an older house and you notice any of the signs above, contact a local contractor to learn more about house restumping. |
0.967291 | (CNN) — Your favorite gang of toys is back, and the latest adventure looks like the most action-packed yet.
Pixar dropped the first full-length trailer for its upcoming "Toy Story 4" movie Tuesday, featuring all your old favorites including Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Rex, Slinky Dog, Hamm the Piggy Bank and Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head plus the newest character, a spork named Forky.
But Forky, who is voiced by Tony Hale, isn't so sure he wants to be part of the pack, and he escapes because as he puts it, "I am not a toy. I was made for soup, salad, maybe chili, and then the trash!"
"The world of 'Toy Story' is built upon the idea that everything in the world has a purpose," director Josh Cooley told Entertainment Weekly in November. "A toy's purpose is to be there for its child. But what about toys that are made out of other objects? Forky is a toy that Bonnie made out of a disposable spork, so he's facing a crisis. He wants to fulfill his purpose as a spork, but now has a new toy purpose thrust upon him."
Woody, voiced by Tom Hanks, chases after Forky, and together they embark on a wild road trip that opens up Woody's eyes to a whole new world. He even runs into his former flame, Bo Peep (Annie Potts).
This story was first published on CNN.com "'Toy Story 4' embarks on an adventure to save a new character" |
0.948228 | The pulp and paper industry is largely dominated by the United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Japan, Australasia, and Latin America. In addition to being one of the dominating forces in the industry, the United States also consumes more paper than any other country in the world. In fact, during the time period from 1990 to 2002 alone, the consumption of paper within the United States rose from 84.9 million tons to 97.3 million tons..
All of this paper use and consumption in the United States is certainly important to the economy. In 2001, pulp mills employed 7,218 people for a total payroll of $414,452,000. Paperboard mills employed 48,773 people for a total payroll of $2,601,324,000 and paper mills employed an amazing 114,670 for a total payroll of $6,162,914,000. Throw in the total cost of materials for these three areas of paper manufacturing, and it is an additional $34,870,991,000 being thrown into the economy and another $71,987,278,000 in shipment costs.
There are a number of companies vying for a piece of the paper products industry. In 2002, the top five companies in terms of net sales were: International Paper, Georgia-Pacific Corp., Weyerhaeuser, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, and Procter & Gamble Co.
International Paper is the world's largest pulp and paper company. In addition, it is the largest private land owner of United State's timberland. Employing approximately 83,000 people, International Paper is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. The company was originally formed in 1898 as the result of a merger of 17 northeastern pulp and paper mills. As a result, it grew in both the United States and internationally.
International Paper has gone on to acquire several other pulp and paper mills, including HammerMill Paper Company in 1986 and Masonite Corporation in 1988. It also acquired the German company of Zanders Feinpapiere AG and the French company of Aussedet Rey in 1989.
Georgia- Pacific Corp. is based in Atlanta, Georgia and, with approximately 61,000 employees, is the second largest pulp and paper company in the world. Founded in 1927 as the Georgia Hardwood Lumber Co., Georgia-Pacific Corp. gradually expanded over the years until it changed its name to its current name in 1956. Prior to 1957, the company focused primarily on lumber mills and sawmills. At this time, it expanded to the pulp and paper business and built a kraft pulp and linerboard mill in Toledo, Oregon. It also acquired Great Northern Nekoosa Corp. in 1990 and Fort James Corp. in 2000. The company was later purchased in 2005 by Koch Industries.
Weyerhaeuser is a multinational pulp and paper corporation employing 55,200 people in 18 different countries. Based in Federal Way, Washington, it is the third largest company of its kind in the world and maintains operations in Australia, Canada, China, France, Ireland, Mexico, and Uruguay in addition to within the United States. It is the largest private owner of softwood timberland in the word, with a total of 38 million acres spread through five different countries. In addition, it is the third largest owner of United States timberwood.
Kimberly-Clark Corporation produces paper-based products, including the brand names of "Kotex" feminine hygiene products, "Kleenex" facial tissue, "Wypall" utility wipes, "Cottonelle" toilet paper, "Huggies" disposable diapers, and "Kim Wipes" cleaning wipes. The company is based in Dallas, Texas and employs approximately 63,900 workers.
Procter & Gamble Co. is a global corporation that is based in Cincinnati, Ohio. It manufactures a wide range of consumer products and employs 106,000 people.
The paper industry is a larger juggernaut in the business world than many people fully realize. Yet, it is little wonder this is the case when one considers the vast amount of products and goods that utilize paper products in one way or another. |
0.998855 | Article Summary: "A few paragraphs of poetry and prose that ponder nature as a metaphor for change..."
Sitting in the park today, I realized how much nature is a part of all our lives. The oak trees were ripe with falling acorns, the wind blew gently across my neck, as the sun beat strongly on my forehead. I quietly pondered my existence as I watched children play on see-saws and jungle gyms. Their giggles filled me with wonderment at the whole process of growing up, growing old, almost all in an instant.
It seems like just yesterday I was climbing trees myself and swimming in deep cool suburban pools. I never thought I'd have grey hair or wrinkles or sagging belly. It's life's cruel joke that we must all take in stride. What choice do we have? The more we fight against the inevitable, the more we make ourselves unhappy. The green hazy shades with their spotty mystery take my attention away momentarily from my musings. How many parks have I sat in? How many days have gone by? How many do I have left?
Whether the days are long or come the winter, short, they whisper a little joke to me. They say, "We will always be here, but you will not." Perhaps, one day, I will become part of the very days I count. I am the day, and I shine down upon another poet resting his weary legs on a bench. I am the day, I say: here I am, here I stay. Days eternal, not knowing a finite conclusion to all my thoughts and my dreams. Over so quick , try as I might.
Sweet days of failure, sweet days of success. Expressions of loneliness, written in sweat. One day, two, a hundred I regret. Yes, I am the day, my friend, I am the light, not knowing pain, but also no delight. To be human, is to live, hard and free, from the moment we're born, the world knew me. Alas, it begins again, every moment in time, but not for me, I am old, and days are like leaves. In Autumn they fall, from tall, ever-wise trees.
Sentiments abound here, but what I want to say to all is be happy, hug someone today, be kind, and do your best. For one day, for all of us, it comes to a rest. |
0.999999 | Article : raising more questions about the 2004 recount.
Scofflaws or Scapegoats? : Grand jury indicts two mid-level elections board employees, raising more questions about the 2004 recount.
Ohio Republican Party chairman will not discuss the recount.
LAST SPRING, Republican Kathy Dreamer and Democrat Rosie Grier sat side by side as they showed a local voting reform activist how ballots are set up and formatted for elections. The process is complicated, and the two women grew more animated as they showed Victoria Lovegren, from Ohio Vigilance, each step of the procedure and each successive layer of safeguards against error.
Dreamer, the manager of ballots at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, and Grier, assistant manager, don't share political views. But the pride in their work that shone through when explained the process left no doubt that they took their jobs seriously.
That's why many find it so hard to understand why a grand jury indicted Dreamer and Grier last week for various alleged violations of election law during the county's 2004 recount.
Erie County Prosecutor Kevin Baxter convened the grand jury to investigate charges of recount violations raised by the Libertarian and Green Party presidential candidates. Baxter was appointed by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor William Mason to avoid a conflict of interest; Mason's office represents the board.
If Baxter's grand jury had not indicted anyone at the board, that would have provided one answer to the question. If the grand jury returned indictments against the board officials who made the decision to use its old recount procedures instead of following Ohio's recount statute, that would have provided another answer. But neither scenario played out. Instead, the grand jury indicted two mid-level board employees who did not have decision-making power.
Then after a closed-door executive session lasting more than two hours, Bennett told the few remaining members of the audience, including Lovegren, that it could not discuss the 2004 recount while criminal proceedings were pending. He also did not respond to the Free Times ' call for comment.
Criminal proceedings against these two women for what? A stalling, delaying, dehumanizing, demoralizing tactic that smacks of Rove. These animals must be brought to justice.
“But elections are very complicated processes,” Synenberg said, arguing that a grand jury that lasted little more than two days could not have reviewed and understood the election and recount process well enough to indict Dreamer."
Well, he didn't need a whole lot to indict them.
Someone said that Baxter said that this would be the only indictment(s) for his investigation. Was he Ohio wide? Is this true? |
0.999767 | For my customers, a selection of great products that won't break the bank. In this section you will find products that I personally recommend that are $15 and less. I'm excited to provide you with a chance to save money for yourself or as a gift. |
0.999333 | Most of the world's tropical rainforests contain oil and gas reserves. Oil production started in the Western Amazon in the 1920s and peaked in the 1970s, but current growing global demand is stimulating a renewed growth in oil and gas extraction. Nearly 70% of the Peruvian Amazon was tapped for oil and between 1970 and 2009.
Now for the first time, a group of Spanish researchers have compiled a database of chemical analyses taken from the western Amazon area, over the 1983 to 2013 period. These analyses come from a variety of sources, including Peruvian public agencies and oil companies. Though the results need to be reinforced by further study, they raise some significant concerns.
"We looked at measurement in 18 wastewater dumping sites from 10 different Amazon tributaries. We were able to pull together records over a 30 year period, from 1983 to 2013, allowing us to measure variations in 9 different pollutants, such a lead, mercury and cadmium. We found that 68% of the samples were above the current* permitted Peruvian limits for lead concentrations, and 20% of the samples above permitted cadmium levels.
"There are no published studies to date that report the pollution impact of oil extraction activities in remote pristine rainforests. Our results show that contamination is widespread in these areas. This increase in pollutant levels is not just due to oil spills, but to the drilling and extraction process. These processes have not been effectively monitored in remote areas until now. Some of this pollution may feed its way into the human food chain and certain of the areas affected by oil spills on land are feeding grounds for large wildlife, including endangered species".
The Amazon River has its ultimate source in the 5597m Nevado Mismi peak in the Peruvian Andes. From there is flows down into Peru's Loreto and Datem del Marañón provinces, which is where these samples were taken. The Western Amazon has large reserves of hydrocarbons in rainforests that host unparalleled biological and cultural diversity.
*Many of these samples may have been within the legal limits when originally taken, however limits have changed over time. The 68% and 20% figures refer to current standards.
Goldschmidt Press Officer, Tom Parkhill: tom@parkhill.it tel +44 131 208 3008 (Central European Summer Time Zone).
The Goldschmidt Conference is the world's leading annual conference on geochemistry. It takes place in Sacramento, California from 8-13 June 2014. http://goldschmidt.info/2014/.
Please mention the Goldschmidt conference in any story which results from this press release.
Widespread oil pollution in the Amazonia?
All the distinctive tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia, Central Africa and South America contain oil and gas reserves. The Western Amazon has large reserves of hydrocarbons in rainforests that host unparalleled biological and cultural diversity, and it is home to most of the last uncontacted peoples living in voluntary isolation. Oil production started in the 1920s, peaked in the 1970s and current growing global demand are stimulating a renewed growth in oil and gas extraction activities. About 69% of the Peruvian Amazon has already been tapped for oil and gas at some point in time between 1970 and 2009 The Corrientes and Pastaza rivers watersheds were declared in 2013 under Environmental Alert by the Peruvian government. Unfortunately the current debate on the impacts of exploration and exploitation of oil resources in tropical rainforests is taking place with little factual scientific knowledge. An underlying issue is the lack of surveillance systems to monitor activities of oil companies in the rainforests, and the remoteness of the regions represents a challenge to undertake large scale surveys even for government agencies.
To overcome some of the challenges we have compiled and analyzed environmental chemical data obtained by a range of Peruvian public agencies and oil companies over different periods of time. Our aim is to derive a comprehensive data set of the region to distill information on the distribution of heavy metals and hydrocarbons over a significantly large area, and over time, to trace the occurrence of occasional or chronic spills of crude oil and production waters, and their transport along the rivers. In addition, we have undertook field expeditions to ground truth the data and conduct parallel chemical analysis.
Our results indicate that indeed contamination is widespread in remote areas of the Peruvian Amazon, and that there is a risk it may affect the human food chain through the consumption of wildlife by local indigenous people for their subsistence diet. |
0.993981 | I paint boxes. I also paint boxes on top of boxes, boxes on top of boxes inside other boxes, and even boxes that don’t really want to be boxes at all.
I am interested in the ways in which a box can symbolize various aspects of human culture. Whether the term is used to describe an architectural structure, a shipping container, or a metaphorical device, there is a common thread woven through each of these examples. Almost every time we discuss a box, we are discussing a relationship to the human body. A box can be a house or building that provides shelter, a small vessel for holding or protecting objects that hold great personal meaning, and even referencing imaginary barriers that keep one from achieving desired goals. This correlation between emotional wellbeing, and the spaces humans inhabit, is a fundamental concept in my work.
My paintings, which feature abstract landscapes inhabited by an abundance of boxes, allow me to visually represent the ways in which individuals hoard physical objects, as well as emotional beliefs. Regardless of race, class, or creed, every human being negotiates a relationship to shelter and their psychological state. This need to find comfort often manifests in the desire to accumulate more things, whether physical objects or memories. Therefore, my painting can be viewed as portraits, which address the ways in which individuals both display and conceal their most intimate desires. |
0.99659 | How much is Eddie Bravo Worth?
Eddie Bravo net worth: Eddie Bravo is a Mexican-American Jiu-Jitsu competitor who has a net worth of $1.5 million dollars. Born Edgar A. Cano on May 15, 1970 in Santa Ana, California, his particular style of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, known as 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu, has brought him much success at various levels of competition. He has garnered 5 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw in major competitions. His style consists solely of no-gi jiu-jitsu. Some traditionalists condemn the unusual names that Bravo gives moves: The Zombie, Crackhead Control, The Electric Chair, etc. Also, controversially speaking, Bravo publicly advocated marijuana as performance-enhancing and attributed his ability to develop his creative style to his own use of marijuana. In addition to competing, Bravo has also released several industry-related instruction manuals to include Jiu Jitsu Unleashed (2005), Mastering the Rubber Guard (2006), Mastering the Twister (2007) and Advanced Rubber Guard (2014). Bravo lives in the Los Angeles, California area where he runs his own 10th Planet school. |
0.997236 | "a pressure of 101.325 kPa at 20 °C" .
There are several ways of handling those cases.
In many cases, the parameters are independent from each other and can simply represented by multiple properties, which will be sub-properties of gr:quantitativeProductOrServiceProperty.
gr:hasUnitOfMeasurement "E37" ]; # UN/CEFACT Common Code for "pixel"
gr:hasUnitOfMeasurement "E37" ] . # UN/CEFACT Common Code for "pixel"
This approach is the simplest and can be understood by most clients. The downside is that it cannot be used to model multiple alternative resolutions (e.g. "supports 800x600 and 1024x768 pixel") and it does not represent that one model depends on the other.
the fuel consumption in litres is given for a distance of 100 km at an average speed of 80 km/h or for the driving pattern "urban".
You define an owl:ObjectProperty which is a rdfs:subPropertyOf of either gr:quantitativeProductOrServiceProperty or gr:qualitativeProductOrServiceProperty. This is for representing the respective product feature, e.g. "fuel consumption" or "pressure".
You define an owl:ObjectProperty which is a rdfs:subPropertyOf of gr:valueReference. This is for representing the reference from the main value to the secondary value providing context or calibration, e.g. "reference speed" or "reference temperature". You could also have multiple such properties.
You attach the main value as an instance of gr:QuantitativeValue (or gr:QualitativeValue) to the product via the first property.
You attach the secondary value or values to the primary value (!) via the respective sub-property of gr:valueReference.
Here is a practical example from the automotive industry, as actually used by Volkswagen.
Now we can say that the car has a fuel consumption of 7.3 litres per 100 km when used according to the traffic pattern "urban".
The third class of cases has multiple product features that belong together, e.g. tuples. Practical examples are supported screen resolutions (800x600 and 1024x768).
Then we define two properties for linking from the resolution value to its horizontal and vertical part. Note that those are sub-properties of gr:valueReference, not gr:quantitativeProductOrServiceProperty, because they link values to values, not values to products.
# UN/CEFACT Common Code for "pixel" |
0.949415 | War of the Rebellion: Serial 001 Page 0190 OPERATIONS IN CHARLESTON HARBOR, S.C. Chapter I.
and as soon as this is done a 42-pounder will next be mounted there. After this, we will make an effort, with some new blocks that we have made, to raise a 10-inch columbiad and to mount it at the right gorge angle.
No. 63.] FORT SUMTER, S. C., March 5, 1861.
COLONEL: I have the honor to report that parties are working to-day on the mortar battery at Fort Johnson, which they are making higher and stronger, and on the Morris Island batteries, numbered on Captain Seymour's sketch Nos.1,9, and 10. They are filling the embrasures in this last battery, in which we see that one gun has been placed. They are also at work on the covered way connecting Nos.9 and 7.*.
I presume, from the movements around us yesterday, that Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard assumed command and made an inspection of the forts, &c., in this harbor, which are garrisoned by the South Carolina troops.
FORT SUMTER, S. C., March 5, 1861.
GENERAL: The work on the Cummings Point batteries continues steadily. This morning the greatest number of laborers seen to be employed in repairing the injuries to the parapets caused by the wind of yesterday and the wind and rain of last night. The work in the third breaching battery yesterday indicated that the platforms for the guns were being laid, and that it was being made ready for its guns; one 24-pounder has stood in front of it for three days. A small working party is still engaged upon the mortar battery on James Island. It is reported from the city that the floating battery does not come up to anticipations, inasmuch as it draws seven feet of water without its armament, and requires a counterpoise on the reverse to counteract the tendency to tip towards the front, owing to the weight of the shield on that side. Yesterday three steamers landed troops and supplies on Cummings Point, and appearances indicated that preparations were making for immediate action in case the news from Washington exhibited a coercive policy on the part of the administration. It is reported that General Beauregard visited the batteries on Cummings Point yesterday. |
0.995364 | Hello and a warm welcome to my profile which I hope you will find useful. I am an integrative counsellor offering a warm non-judgemental approach. I can offer you a warm and professional approach to work in the way that best suits your needs. I have experience of working on range of life challenges including anxiety, depression, self imagine, loss, relationships issues as well as work related issues such as bullying, harassment.
I have experience in offering group sessions for personal awareness and other wellbeing topics including transactional analysis, CBT and a range of self awareness methods. I also have experience of working on wellbeing issues and integrating these into counselling including mindfulness, meditation, relaxation and psycho-education awareness. |
0.966886 | How do I remove the hard drive in the top bay?
The Apple PowerMac G5 is a desktop computer first produced in 2003 by the Apple Corporation. This guide will review the repair process of an Apple PowerMac G5 model number A1047 EMC 2061 from 2004. The model number is located on the underside of the computer. The model can also be determined from the desktop specifications when the computer is operational. This particular model contains a 2.0 GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, and a single super-multi DVD drive in the front bay of the computer. The guide will underline this particular model, but future models should follow similar guidelines.
Hard drive: It is possible to upgrade the hard drive to up to 1TB depending on the model to increase capacitance. It is also possible to install an additional hard drive into the computer. |
0.953206 | The breakup of the USSR and the collapse of demand for Kazakhstan's traditional heavy industry products have resulted in a sharp decline of the economy since 1991, with the steepest annual decline occurring in 1994. In 1995-97 the pace of the government program of economic reform and privatization quickened, resulting in a substantial shifting of assets into the private sector. The December 1996 signing of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium agreement to build a new pipeline from western Kazakhstan's Tengiz Field to the Black Sea increases prospects for substantially larger oil exports in several years. Kazakhstan's economy turned downward in 1998 with a 2.5% decline in GDP growth due to slumping oil prices and the August financial crisis in Russia. A bright spot in 1999 was the recovery of international petroleum prices, which, combined with a well-timed tenge devaluation and a bumper grain harvest, pulled the economy out of recession.
Current GDP per capita shrank by 26% in the Nineties. In the 2000s, Kazakhstan's economy grew sharply, aided by increased prices on world markets for Kazakhstan's leading exports—oil, metals and grain. GDP grew 9.6% in 2000, up from 1.7% in 1999. In 2006, extremely high GDP growth had been sustained, and grew by 10.6%. Business with booming Russia and China, as well as neighboring Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) nations have helped to propel this growth. The increased economic growth also led to a turn-around in government finances, with the budget moving from a cash deficit of 3.7% of GDP in 1999 to 0.1% surplus in 2000. The country experienced a slowdown in economic growth from 2014 sparked by falling oil prices and the effects of the Ukrainian crisis The country's currency was devalued by 19% in 2014 and by 22% in 2015.
In 2017, the World Economic Forum compiled its Global Competitiveness Ranking ranking Kazakhstan 57th out of 144 countries. The ranking considers multiple macroeconomic and financial factors, such as market size, GDP, tax rates, infrastructure development, etc. In 2012, the World Economic Forum listed corruption as the biggest problem in doing business in the country, while the World Bank listed Kazakhstan as a corruption hotspot, on a par with Angola, Bolivia, Kenya, Libya and Pakistan.
The World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia, Cyril Muller, visited Astana in January 2017, where he praised the country's progress made during the 25-year partnership with the World Bank. Muller also talked about Kazakhstan's improved positioning in the World Bank's Doing Business Report 2017, where Kazakhstan ranked 35th out of 190 countries worldwide.
Kazakhstan secured 3rd position in the Central and South Asia regional ranking of the 2018 Global Innovation Index (GII) released by World Intellectual Property Organization.
5.1 New Economic Policy "Nurly Zhol"
In the 2014 Economic Freedom Index published by The Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, Kazakhstan has gained 22 points over the past 17 years, which is noted by the authors as among the 20 best improvements recorded by any country. Kazakhstan’s economic freedom score is 69.1, equalling "moderately free". Its overall score has increased by 0.1 point, with significant improvements in investment freedom and government integrity offsetting steep declines in fiscal health and monetary freedom. Kazakhstan is ranked 11th among 43 countries in the Asia–Pacific region, and its overall score is above the regional and world averages.
This chart shows trends in the gross domestic product of Kazakhstan at market prices estimated by the International Monetary Fund, with figures in millions of Kazakhstani tenge.
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017. Inflation under 5 % is in green.
Kazakhstan's GDP grew 4.1% in real terms during the period from January to September 2014.
Kazakhstan's real GDP growth was projected to reach 4.3% in 2014, the main driving force of the economy in Kazakhstan in 2014 is the consumer sector; the consumption in Kazakhstan is mainly boosted by the retail lending.
According to the Agency of Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan the Kazakhstan's GDP growth in the first quarter of 2014 was 3.8%.
The Government of Kazakhstan signed a Framework Partnership Agreement with IBRD, IFC, MIGA on May 1, 2014; according to this Agreement the World Bank will allocate $2.5 billion to Kazakhstan, for the diversification of the economy and reaching the sustainable development.
As of 2015, the World Bank classified Kazakhstan as an upper-middle-income country with GDP per capita of nearly US$10.5 thousand.
Foreign direct investment increased 30 percent in 2015 in Kazakhstan’s agricultural industry and 80 percent in the country’s petroleum products sector.
In 2016 Kazakhstan's economy started to recover from the crisis caused by low oil prices and the tenge devaluation. According to the Minister of National Economy of Kazakhstan, in nine months of 2016 the GDP growth reached 0.4%. Sectors of economy that experienced the highest growth included construction (6.9%), agriculture (4.9%), and transport sector (4.0%).
Kazakhstan is the leading country in the world for uranium production volumes with 35% of global production, and it has the world's second biggest uranium reserves after Australia.
Oil and gas is the leading economic sector. In 2000, Kazakhstan produced 35,252,000 metric tons of oil (700,000 barrels per day), a 17.4% increase over 1999's 30,025,000 tons. It exported 28,883,000 tons of oil in 2000, up 38.8% from 20,813,000 tons in 1999. Production in 2001 has been growing at roughly 20%, on target to meet the government's forecast of 40,100,000 tons of oil (800,000 barrels per day). In 2000, production reached 11.5 km³ of natural gas, up from 8.2 km³ in 1999.
Kazakhstan has the potential to be a world-class oil exporter in the medium term. The landmark foreign investment in Kazakhstan is the TengizChevroil joint venture, owned 50% by ChevronTexaco, 25% by ExxonMobil, 20% by KazMunaiGas of Kazakhstan, and 5% by LukArco of Russia. The Karachaganak natural gas and gas condensate field is being developed by BG, Agip, ChevronTexaco, and Lukoil. The Agip-led Offshore Kazakhstan Consortium has discovered potentially huge Kashagan oil field in the northern Caspian. Kazakhstan's economic future is linked to oil and gas development. GDP growth will depend on the price of oil, as well as the ability to develop new deposits.
Kazakhstan is a leading producer of many mineral commodities, including salt, uranium, ferrochrome, titanium sponge, cadmium, potassium, magnesium, rhenium, copper, bauxite, gallium and zinc.
In June 2014 the CKD (Complete Knock-Down) assembly of Toyota Fortuner was launched in Kostanay, Kazakhstan. The expected annual output makes around 3,000 cars.
The Kazakhstan's car industry was developing rapidly in 2014 producing $2 billion worth of products annually. Unfortunately the industry experienced a decline despite high hopes, with sales dwindling to only 46.000 in 2016.
GE Transportation acquired 50% stake in Lokomotiv Kurastyru Zauyty in a joint venture with Kazakhstan's national railway company Temir Zholy.
On 22 December 2014 the World Bank approved an $88 million loan that would support Kazakhstan’s efforts to facilitate commercially and socially viable innovation in technology. The Fostering Productive Innovation Project aims to improve the country in areas that are able to foster and support technological innovation.
According to A.T. Kearney's 2015 Global Retail Development Index, Kazakhstan ranked 13 out of 30. In the 2016th Index, Kazakhstan ranked as the 4th best developing country for retail investments, scoring 56.5 out of 100. Kazakhstan's market attracted large international retailers, such as French retail chains Carrefour and Leroy Merlin, as well as food giants McDonald's and KFC.
Sherin Suzhikova, Counselor of Kazakhstan's Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Chao yon-chuan, Secretary-General of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, signed an agreement on 13 October 2006 in Taipei to improve economic relations through "exchanges of market information and visits by trade professionals." TAITRA has an office in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
In 2006, North Dakota's then Lieutenant Governor Jack Dalrymple led an 18-member delegation of the North Dakota Trade Office representing seven North Dakota companies and Dickinson State University on a trip to Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Russia. North Dakota exports mostly machinery to Kazakhstan, the eighth largest destination for North Dakotan exports; machinery exports increased from $22,000 to $25 million between 2000 and 2005.
The percentage of high-tech exports (as a share of manufactured exports) from Kazakhstan has grown from just 4.46% in 1995 to 37.17% in 2014. One of the main factors that triggered this growth was the Technology Commercialization Project developed and implemented by the World Bank Group and the Kazakh Government. Through this project, 65 Kazakh tech startups received funding and training helping them get their innovations into markets.
China is Kazakhstan's important trade partner. In late March 2015 the two countries signed 33 deals worth $23.6 billion. The deals cover different industries, such as oil refining, cars, steel.
Kazakhstan is the largest recipient of total and annual foreign direct investment of all CIS countries. The OECD has recognized the strides the government has made in opening the country to international investment and in improving the policy framework for investment as part of their efforts to diversify the economy. In 2017 Kazakhstan was invited by OECD to become Adherent to the OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises.
In June 2014 Kazakhstan's President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, signed into law tax concessions to promote foreign investment, including a 10-year exemption from corporation tax, an 8-year exemption from property tax, and a 10-year freeze on most other taxes. Other measures include a refund on capital investments of up to 30 percent once a production facility is in operation. In order to attract investment, Kazakhstan lowered the tax burden for foreign investors. The corporate income tax rate dropped from 30% to 20%. The government also gradually reduced VAT from 16% in 2006 to 12% in 2009.
As of September 30, 2014, total foreign investment in Kazakhstan reached USD 211.5 billion. Of that total, net foreign Direct Investment constituted USD 129.3 billion, with portfolio and other investments comprising the remaining USD 82.2 billion.
As of July 2015, Kazakhstan attracted $16 billion in the manufacturing industry over the past five years, which is 2.5 times more than over the previous five years. Kazakhstan put into operation four hundred new products, such as car industry, railway engineering, manufacture of basic chemical products, uranium industry, the industry of rare earth metals. The volume of new enterprises amounted to 580 billion tenge.
In June 2015 – June 2016 the total number of enterprises owned by foreign investors in Kazakhstan increased by 2.3 percent and reached 9,000. 8,691 foreign companies operating in the Kazakhstan are small businesses.
As of the beginning of 2016, the World Bank invested over $6.8 billion in Kazakhstan since 1992. These funds were invested in development of roads and social infrastructure, increasing of competitiveness of SME's, education, healthcare, environment protection, etc.
In 2012, Kazakhstan conducted the first review of the OECD investment standards, which resulted in 12 recommendations on how to improve the investment climate of the country. After adopting Law on public - private partnership that extends the use of the mechanism and revising standards of intellectual property protection and the rules of attracting foreign labor, Kazakhstan started a second review of the OECD in 2016.
According to Ministry of Investment and Development of Kazakhstan, as of May 2016, attraction of foreign investment in oil refining increased by 80%, food industry - 30%, in engineering - by 7 times. The Ministry also reported that there were 200 investment projects in country worth more than $40 billion.
In mid-2016 a group of companies led by Chevron announced a $36.8 billion investment in Kazakhstan's Tengiz oil field.
In the first quarter of 2016, Kazakhstan attracted $2.7 billion in foreign direct investment. The largest investor in the Kazakh economy is The Netherlands ($66 billion), followed by the United States ($26 billion) and Switzerland ($15 billion). According to the Chairman of Kazakhstan National Bank, a key factor triggering the increased inflow of foreign investment is implementation of the Nurly Zhol state program that provides for the creation of favorable conditions. As of September 2016, foreign investments in the Kazakh economy totaled $5.7 billion, which is 4,8% more than during the same period of the previous year.
Summarizing 2016, Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov noted that Kazakhstan attracted $20 billion of foreign direct investment during the year. The gross inflow of foreign direct investment in 2016 grew by 40% compared to 2015 and surpassed the previous record of 2008. The number of foreign businesses operating in Kazakhstan increased 25% in 2016 compared to 2015. The main recipients of foreign direct investment were the mining industry, geological exploration and processing. The top four investors include the Netherlands, the United States, Switzerland and France.
Kazakhstan introduced a visa-free regime for citizens of EAEU, OECD, Monaco, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, and Singapore starting from 2017. The visa-free entry is expected to increase cooperation with investors and businesses of these countries.
Agriculture is one of Kazakhstan's most important sectors where the country seeks to attract foreign investments to boost the competitiveness of this sector of economy. To that end, in 2017 KazAgro negotiated with the European Investment Bank (EIB) a €200 million loan for a period of 15 years.
Kazakhstan has legislatively addressed the issues of Legal Regulation of Intellectual Property, patent law, and copyright protections.
New Economic Policy "Nurly Zhol"
On November 11, 2014 in his address to the nation for 2015 Nursultan Nazarbayev proclaimed Kazakhstan’s New Economic Policy – The Path to the Future (Nurly Zhol). The new economic policy implies massive state investment in infrastructure over the next several years. In the short term, the program "Nurly Zhol" will apply the anti-crisis measures to overcome the turbulence in the global economy. The long-term measures of the state program of infrastructure development will help to create a strong platform for new growth.
Kazakhstan has identified five priorities for modernization of the state and the economy to maintain competitiveness in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Kazakhstan was ranked 36th in the Ease of Doing Business report released by the World Bank Group in 2018. The report's rankings rate ease of regulations for businesses and strength of property rights.
The Heritage Foundation, a Washington DC - based research center, ranked Kazakhstan 41st in its Index of Economic Freedom 2018. Its overall score has increased by 0.1 point, still being only "moderately free" with significant improvements in investment freedom and government integrity offsetting steep declines in fiscal health and monetary freedom.
Kazakhstan aims to boost economy by attracting private investors interested in developing national companies. This is the main goal of privatization that is expected to decrease the share of public property to 15% of GDP. Such companies as Kazakhstan Railways, Samruk-Energo, Kazatomprom, Kaspost, KazMunayGas and Air Astana are expected to be sold through IPO.
Kazakhstan fell from 32nd to the 38th place in the 2018 IMD World Competitiveness ranking. The report evaluates business efficiency, public finance and domestic economy.
A new program to support small businesses was launched in Kazakhstan in February 2015. 2015 is expected to be a pilot period of the program. During that period the initiative will be focused on three major areas, notably agribusiness, machinery building and production of construction materials, and is to be further extended to other industries.
In May 2015 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) agreed to provide €41 million for technical cooperation projects, advisory support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and a Women in Business program.
In 2016 the number of Kazakhstan's telecom start-ups increased by 10% compared to 2015. Around 9,400 small telecom companies are currently registered in the country.
The country experienced a slowdown in economic growth from 2014 sparked by falling oil prices and the effects of the Ukrainian crisis The country devalued its currency by 19% in February 2014. Another 22% devaluation occurred in August 2015. Kazakhstan was ranked 54th 2017 Economic Freedom of the World report published by Fraser Institute, but ranks 12 places below on place 66 when adjusted by the Gender Disparity Index, which captures the degree to which women around the world have the same legal rights as men and adjusts the economic freedom score accordingly. This shows a large disadvantage of women in business.
The GDP per capita in current USD in Kazakhstan declined by about 40% between 2013 compared and 2017.
In December 2015, Kazakhstan Government approved new privatization plan for 2016 - 2020. It is a large-scale privatization program that continues the privatization of 2014 and includes 60 major state-owned companies. According to Kazakh Finance ministry, the state budget got 6.99 billion tenges ($20.6 million) from the deals reached within the 2014-2016 privatization program as of Sept. 20, 2016. Kazakhstan’s privatization program aims to reduce the state participation in the economy to 15 percent, which is the level set for countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
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^ "Kazakhstan". www.wipo.int. World Intellectual Property Organization.
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^ a b "THE PROGRAM "NURLY ZHOL" CREATES A STRONG BASE FOR THE ECONOMIC GROWTH OF KAZAKHSTAN". ortcom.kz. Archived from the original on 14 May 2016.
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^ a b c "Kazakhstan launches a new program to support small businesses". Tengri News.
^ "EBRD to expand SME support with €41 million from the government of Kazakhstan". ebrd.com.
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^ "GDPpc in current USD". worldbank.org.
^ "New Wave of Privatization in Kazakhstan" (PDF). www.worldfinancereview.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 October 2016.
^ Kynge, James; Farchy, Jack (12 November 2015). "Kazakh privatisation drive shapes up as a hard sell". Financial Times. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
^ "Kazakhstan gets over $20M from privatization program". Trend.Az (in Russian). 21 September 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Economy of Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is the world's largest landlocked country, and the ninth largest in the world, with an area of 2,724,900 square kilometres (1,052,100 sq mi). It is a transcontinental country largely located in Asia; the most western parts are in Europe. Kazakhstan is the dominant nation of Central Asia economically, generating 60% of the region's GDP, primarily through its oil and gas industry. It also has vast mineral resources.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced the Kazakhstan 2050 Strategy during his annual state of the nation address on December 15, 2012. The 2050 Strategy calls for widespread economic, social and political reforms to position Kazakhstan among the top 30 global economies by 2050. |
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