title: Thorny devil

text: The popular appeal of the thorny devil is the basis of an anecdotal petty scam. American servicemen stationed in Southwest Australia decades ago (such as during World War II) were supposedly sold the thorny fruits of a species of weeds, the so-called "double gee" ("Emex australis"), but those were called "thorny devil eggs" as a part of the scam. Thorny devils have been kept in captivity.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: On 22 March 2016, two coordinated terrorist attacks in Brussels, Belgium were carried out by the Islamic State. Three coordinated suicide bombings occurred: two at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, and one at Maalbeek metro station on the Brussels metro. 32 civilians and three perpetrators were killed, and more than 300 people were injured. Another bomb was found during a search of the airport. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attacks.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: The perpetrators belonged to a terrorist cell that had been involved in the November 2015 Paris attacks. The Brussels bombings happened shortly after a series of police raids targeting the group. The bombings were the deadliest attack on Belgium since World War II. The Belgian government declared three days of national mourning.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Belgium was a participant in the military intervention against ISIL during the War in Iraq. In September 2014, the Belgian Chamber of Representatives voted to send six F-16s for one month to support the US-led coalition.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Belgium had more nationals fighting for jihadist forces as a proportion of its population than any other Western European country, with an estimated 440 Belgians having left for Syria and Iraq as of January 2015. "The Guardian" cited estimates suggesting that Belgium had supplied the highest per capita number of fighters to Syria of any European nation, with 350 to 550 fighters, out of a total population of 11 million that includes fewer than 500,000 Muslims. Some reports have claimed Belgium's weak security apparatus and competing intelligence agencies made it a hub of jihadist-recruiting and terrorist activity, while others assert that Belgium faces the same problems as many European countries in this regard. According to Kenneth Lasoen, security expert at Ghent University, the attacks happened more as a result of policy failure rather than intelligence failure.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Before the bombings, several Islamist terrorist attacks had originated from Belgium, and a number of counter-terrorist operations had been carried out there. Between 2014 and 2015, the number of wiretapping and surveillance operations directed at suspected terrorists by Belgian intelligence almost doubled. In May 2014, a gunman with ties to the Syrian Civil War attacked the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels, killing four people. In January 2015, anti-terrorist operations against a group thought to be planning a second "Charlie Hebdo" shooting had included raids in Brussels and Zaventem. The operation resulted in the deaths of two suspects. In August 2015, a suspected terrorist shot and stabbed passengers aboard a high-speed train on its way from Amsterdam to Paris via Brussels, before he was subdued by passengers.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: The perpetrators involved in the November 2015 attacks in Paris were based in Molenbeek, and Brussels was locked down for five days to allow the police to search for suspects with the military standing guard. On 18 March 2016, 4 days before the bombings, Salah Abdeslam and another suspect in the Paris attacks were captured after two anti-terrorist raids in Brussels. A third suspect was killed during one of the raids. During interrogation, Abdeslam was presented with photographs of the Bakraoui siblings, who would later be suspected of committing the attacks in Brussels three days later. Belgian investigators believe that Abdeslam's arrest may have hastened the Brussels bombings. According to the Belgian Interior Minister, Jan Jambon, who spoke after the bombings, authorities knew of preparations for an extremist act in Europe, but they underestimated the scale of the attack.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: There were three coordinated attacks: two nail bombings at Brussels Airport, and one bombing at Maalbeek metro station.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Two suicide bombers, carrying explosives in large suitcases, attacked a departure hall at Brussels Airport in Zaventem. The first explosion occurred at 07:58 in check-in row 11; the second explosion occurred about nine seconds later in check-in row 2. The suicide bombers were visible in CCTV footage. Some witnesses said that before the first explosion occurred, shots were fired and there were yells in Arabic. However, authorities have stated afterwards that no shots were fired.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: A third suicide bomber left the airport without detonating his bomb; media speculated at the time that he may have been prevented from detonating his own bomb by the force of a previous explosion. The third bomb was found in a search of the airport and was later destroyed by a controlled explosion. Belgium's federal prosecutor confirmed that the suicide bombers had detonated nail bombs.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Another explosion took place just over an hour later in the middle carriage of a three-carriage train at Maalbeek metro station, located near the European Commission headquarters in the centre of Brussels, from Brussels Airport. The explosion occurred at 09:11 CET.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: The train was travelling on line 5 towards the city centre, and was pulling out of Maalbeek station when the bomb exploded. The driver immediately stopped the train and helped to evacuate the passengers. The Brussels Metro was subsequently shut down at 09:27.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: In the bombings, 35 people, including three suicide bombers, were killed and over 300 others were injured, 62 critically. Including the attackers, seventeen bodies were recovered at Brussels Airport and fourteen at the metro station. Four people later died of their wounds in hospital. Eighty-one others were injured at the airport, while the rest were injured at the metro station. The bombings were the deadliest attack on Belgium since World War II.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Fourteen of the deceased were Belgian nationals, four were Americans, three from the Netherlands, two from Sweden and the remaining nine hailed from a different nation. Among the fatalities at Zaventem was retired diplomat André Adam, who had served as Belgian Permanent Representative to the United Nations and as Ambassador to the United States.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Six years after the event, in 2022, a 23-year-old Belgian woman from Kontich decided to be euthanized due to "intolerable psychological suffering". On the day of the attacks, the then 17-year-old was waiting in line at Brussels Airport to leave for a school trip to Rome, Italy.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: A total of five attackers were involved, with three of them dying in suicide bombings and the remaining two arrested in the weeks after. All had involvement in the planning and organization of the November 2015 Paris attacks. They were identified and named as:


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: In security camera video of Brussels Airport, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, Laachraoui, and Abrini were seen pushing suitcases believed to have contained the bombs that exploded in the departure hall. A taxi driver who drove them to the airport said he tried to help the men with their luggage but they ordered him away. Initial reports elaborated El Bakraoui and Laachraoui each apparently wearing a glove which may have concealed detonators to the explosives. This was later proven to be untrue, with both being barehanded.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Within 90 minutes of the airport attack, the area around an apartment in Schaerbeek, a northern district of Brussels, was cordoned off by police. The authorities received a tip-off from a taxi driver once they released photos of the suspects several hours after the attacks. Inside the home, they discovered a nail bomb, of acetone peroxide, of acetone, nearly of hydrogen peroxide, other ingredients for explosives, and an ISIL flag. At least one resident reported unusual smells to the police, resulting in "Agent de Quartier" policeman Philippe Swinnen visiting the building twice in three months, but not entering.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Authorities also found a laptop belonging to Ibrahim El Bakraoui, inside a waste container near the house. The laptop had a suicide note stored on it, in which Ibrahim stated that he was "stressed out", felt unsafe, and was "afraid of ever-lasting eternity". It also contained images of the home and the office of the Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Michel, among information on multiple other locations in Brussels.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Numerous related arrests followed the bombings. As of 26 March, twelve men had been arrested in connection with the bombings. The FBI's Next Gen Identification System facial recognition software helped facilitate the identification of the "man with the hat" on CCTV footage as Mohamed Abrini. On 3 January 2018, a hard disk containing victims' autopsy reports was stolen from a medical examiner's office in the "Portalis" court building in Brussels. A 27-year-old male suspect was arrested.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: ISIL claimed responsibility for the attacks later on the same day, saying that Belgium had been attacked as "a country participating in the internation coalition against the Islamic State".


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Raids and searches were made across Belgium, while security was heightened in a number of countries as a result of the attacks.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Authorities temporarily halted air traffic to the airport and evacuated the terminal buildings. The airport was to be closed to passenger traffic and reopening date postponed several times with a projected reopening date of 29 March. The Berlaymont building, which is near Maalbeek station and is the headquarters of the European Commission, was placed in lockdown. Controlled explosions were carried out on suspicious objects around Maalbeek station.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: All public transport in the capital was shut down as a result of the attacks. Brussels-North, Brussels-Central, and Brussels-South stations were evacuated and closed, and Eurostar journeys to Brussels Midi station were cancelled. All trains from Paris to Brussels were also cancelled. Taxis in Brussels transported passengers free-of-charge for the duration of the lockdown. Paris Nord railway station, with services to Brussels, was also temporarily closed.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: The National Security Council raised the terror alert level in the country to the highest level following the attacks. The government warned that some perpetrators might still be at large and urged citizens to reach friends and family using social media to avoid congesting the telephone networks. The threat level was lowered again on 24 March, and the government expanded the military protection of potential targets, that had been in place since January 2015, to include more soft targets and public places (Operation Vigilant Guardian).


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: The country's two nuclear power plants – Tihange and Doel – were partially evacuated as a precaution.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Temporary border checks were implemented by Belgian and French authorities at some major crossings on the France-Belgium border.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: The federal government announced three days of national mourning, lasting from Tuesday until Thursday, and flags were flown at half-mast on public buildings. They also held a one-minute silence at noon local time on 23 March, which ended with spontaneous applause and chants of "Vive la Belgique" in Place de la Bourse.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Also on 23 March, Belgian Muslim groups, such as the League of Imams in Belgium and Executive of the Muslims in Belgium, publicly condemned the bombings and expressed their condolences to the victims and their families.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: The airport was closed on 22 March, with reopening postponed several times. On 29 March, an operational test was performed. The official reopening date was scheduled to be announced on 30 March. A post-reopening target of 800–1,000 passengers per hour was projected, compared to pre-bombing traffic of 5,000 passengers per hour. The delay in the reopening was attributed to extensive damage to the building's infrastructure. A temporary terminal was planned for use after the reopening. When the airport reopened, only Brussels Airlines would serve the airport, but other airlines would be allowed to return later.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: On 29 March, it was revealed that Ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui were released from prison due to a law introduced in 1888 known as "Lejeune", which allows inmates to be released after serving a third of their sentence. Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon stated that the governing parties had agreed to update the law in 2014. The "Lejeune" law first came under scrutiny after serial killer and child molester Marc Dutroux was released from prison in 1992.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Airport businesses were affected. Hotel closures included the Sheraton Brussels Airport Hotel and Four Points by Sheraton Brussels. Cargo flights resumed on 23 March. Car rental offices were also closed.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Following memorials to the victims, disturbances broke out, resulting in riot police using water cannons to disperse violent right-wing protesters against ISIL.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: On 30 March, plans to reopen the airport were cancelled again due to a strike by airport police over a dispute over inadequate security. The dispute was resolved, and the airport was later scheduled to be reopened on 3 April. On that day, a Brussels Airlines flight left for Faro and a flight to Athens and Turin was scheduled for the same day. Upon reopening, only passengers were allowed to enter a temporary departure hall and security checkpoints were implemented at the roadway to the airport. Only car and taxi traffic were allowed to enter but public transit remained suspended. Hotel business revenue in Brussels had been cut in half since the airport closure.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: On 1 April, religious leaders in Brussels gathered together for a memorial to the victims of the bombings. They expressed their desire to spread a religious message of unity throughout Belgium, and to combat extremism.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: On 25 April, the Maalbeek metro station reopened with heightened security. On 1 May, the departure hall of Brussels Airport, which had sustained the most damage during the bombings, partially reopened with the airport on high alert.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: The mayor of Molenbeek district, Francoise Schepmans, responded by closing some mosques for "incendiary language". It was also determined that of 1,600 nonprofit organisations registered in the district, 102 had links to criminal activities, 51 of which to religious radicalism or terrorism.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Soon after news of the attacks broke, security was increased, particularly at airports, railway stations and other transport hubs, in China, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Malta, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Also, Portugal evacuated the check-in section for 20 minutes due to a suspicious abandoned bag. In addition, Israel stopped flights from Europe for the rest of the day; additional police were deployed to the Belgian border with the Netherlands; the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office said the Belgian authorities were advising against non-essential travel to Brussels; and officials at the U.S. Embassy in Brussels warned of the possibility of more attacks, recommending "sheltering in place and avoiding all public transportation".


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: In a televised address to the nation on 22 March, King Philippe expressed his and Queen Mathilde's sorrow at the events. He offered their full support to members of the emergency and security services.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Hours after the attack the French-language hashtag #JeSuisBruxelles (#IamBrussels) and images of the Belgian comic character Tintin crying trended on social media sites. Also, hashtags such as #ikwilhelpen (#Iwanttohelp) and #PorteOuverte (#Opendoor) were used by Brussels residents who wanted to offer shelter and assistance for people who might need help.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Following the bombings, several structures around the world were illuminated in the colours of the Belgian flag, including the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the National Gallery in London's Trafalgar Square, the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, the Trevi Fountain in Rome, and One World Trade Center in New York City, while the spire of the Empire State Building went dark. The Toronto Sign was lit up in the colours of the Belgian flag on the night of the attacks.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Governments, media outlets, and social media users received criticism in some media and academic analysis for their disproportionate emphasis placed on the attacks in Brussels over similar attacks in other countries, particularly in Turkey, which occurred days before. Similarly, reactions to the November 2015 Paris attacks were viewed as disproportionate in comparison to those of earlier bombings in Beirut. According to Akin Unver, a professor of international affairs at Istanbul's Kadir Has University, being "selective" about terrorism is counterproductive to the global counterterrorism efforts.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: It is thought that the El-Bakraoui brothers were responsible for the unsolved murder in 2014 of an elderly man who was shot as he walked home from a café in the Jette area of Brussels. Abrini and Krayem told investigators that the brothers had said that they carried out the murder to see what it was like to kill someone. The victim's widow as told in 2020 that it was almost certain that the El-Bakraoui brothers had killed her husband, although officially the case was closed.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: On 14 April 2016, the Belgian Federal Parliament established a commission of inquiry into the attacks and the failure of the security forces to prevent them. The commission was also given the task of examining the emergency response to the attacks and assistance to victims, the development of radicalism in Belgium, and the structure of the country's security services. Between August 2016 and October 2017, the commission published four interim reports: "Emergency response"; "Assistance to the victims"; "Security architecture"; "Radicalism". The commission identified a number of problems with security forces: government and security forces running in parallel rather than together; faulty communications both within the country and with foreign counterparts of Belgian services; a failure to pay sufficient attention to proactive action and prevention of terrorism and radicalism; the underfunding of various security units; a lack of cooperation between units; a need for improved cooperation with European and international agencies; a proliferation of rules and procedures that threatened to exacerbate a lack of coherence in policy. The commission identified a need for security forces to strengthen information management and establish an information-sharing culture within and between the security services. Whilst some services had too little information others suffered from information overload. The commission's report also addressed a number of criticisms levelled at Belgium by the French parliamentary investigation into the November 2015 Paris attacks.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: In December 2022, ten men went on trial in Brussels for their involvement in the bombings. Oussama Atar, thought to have been killed in Syria, was tried in his absence. The nine accused who appeared in court were Mohamed Abrini, Osama Krayem, Salah Abdeslam, Sofien Ayari, Bilal El Makhoukhi, Hervé Bayingana Muhirwa, Ali El Haddad Asufi, Smail Farisi et Ibrahim Farisi. All except Ibrahim Farisi were changed with belonging to a terrorist group and terrorist-related murder and attempted murder. Ibrahim Farisi was charged only with belonging to a terrorist group. Five of the accused (Abrini, Krayem, Abdeslam, Ayari and El Haddad Asufi) had already been convicted in the Paris attacks trial. The trial, which is expected to last six to eight months, is taking place before a jury and presiding judge Laurence Massart in the Justitia building (the former headquarters of NATO) in Evere, Brussels.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: In the aftermath of the attacks, the population of Brussels reacted by creating spontaneous memorials as a societal reaction to what was perceived as a collective tragedy. In the hours following the attack, people started gathering at the Place de la Bourse - Beursplein. Mourners wrote chalk messages on the pavement and buildings surrounding the square. Numerous messages and mementos, usually every-day objects such as mugs or hats, were left at the Brussels Stock Exchange memorial. According to Ana Milosevic, a researcher at KU Leuven, societal tensions and the pressure for the answers about the causes and consequences of the attacks, were salient in the first days and weeks after the event. During the two months of the existence, the Brussels Stock Exchange memorial was used as a site of contestation and negotiation of the meanings associated with the terrorist attacks.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: The Archives of City of Brussels were tasked by the mayor Yvan Mayeur and the city council to collect and document the societal reactions to the attacks. Over two months, the team of the archives documented the process of memorialization, also collecting some of the memorabilia left by the mourners.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: In November 2016 a sculpture in memory of the victims of the bombings was inaugurated in the main square of Molenbeek. The sculpture, called the Flame of Hope, was created by Molenbeek artist Moustapha Zoufri.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: Following a public competition, a monument to the victims was unveiled on the first anniversary of the attacks on the pedestrianized section of Rue de la Loi, between Schuman and the parc du Cinquantenaire. The monument, by Jean-Henri Compere, is called "Wounded But Still Standing in Front of the Inconceivable" and is constructed from two 20-metre (66 foot) long horizontal surfaces rising skywards.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: The Brussels-Capital Region also memorialized the attacks with a land-art work by Bas Smets, who planted 32 birches (one for each victim) in the Sonian Forest ("Drève de l'Infante - Infantedreef") called "Memorial 22/03". Smets describes the memorial as "a place of silence and meditation." The birches are connected by a circular structure and separated from the rest of the forest by a small round canal.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: A smaller memorial (a black plaque and a tree) was also raised by the municipality of Etterbeek in the Jardin Felix Hap.


title: 2016 Brussels bombings

text: In the Maelbeek metro station, a commemorative mural called "The Olive Tree" was created by Benoît van Innis, who previously designed the metro station, and a list of the sixteen victims was unveiled at the third commemorative anniversary next to the mural.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: The , or JLPT, is a standardized criterion-referenced test to evaluate and certify Japanese language proficiency for non-native speakers, covering language knowledge, reading ability, and listening ability. The test is held twice a year in Japan and selected countries (on the first Sunday of July and December), and once a year in other regions (on the first Sunday of December).


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: The JLPT consists of five levels. Until 2009, the test had four levels, with 4 being the lowest and 1 being the highest level of certification. JLPT certificates do not expire or become invalid over time.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: The JLPT was first held in 1984 in response to the growing demand for standardized Japanese language certification. Initially 7,000 people took the test. Until 2003, the JLPT was one of the requirements for foreigners entering Japanese universities. Since 2003, the Examination for Japanese University Admission for International Students (EJU) is used by most universities for this purpose; unlike the JLPT, which is solely a multiple-choice exam, the EJU contains sections which require the examinee to write in Japanese.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: In 2004, the JLPT was offered in 40 countries, including Japan. Of the 302,198 examinees in that year, 47% (around 140,000) were certified for their respective levels. The number of candidates continued to rise to 559,056 in 2008, while the percentage of candidates certified has fallen below 36%. In 2009, when a revised system was introduced in which two exams are held each year in East Asia, a total of 768,114 people took the exam. In 2010, 610,000 people took the test. In 2019, 1,168,535 people took the test.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: In Japan, the JLPT is administered by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) through the Japan Educational Exchanges and Services (JEES). Overseas, the Japan Foundation co-proctors test administration with local cultural exchange and/or educational institutions, or with committees specially established for this purpose.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: The revised test pattern was implemented in 2010. The test consists of five levels: N1, N2, N3, N4, and N5, with N1 being the highest level and N5 the lowest. No "Test Content Specification" is published as it is discouraged to study from kanji and vocabulary lists.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: Passing is based on "scaled" scores calculated using item-response theory. Raw scores are not directly used to determine conditions for passing, nor are they reported, except in rough form in the "Reference Information" section. Raw scores are converted to a standard scale, so that equivalent performance on tests from different years and different levels of difficulty yields the same scaled score. The scaled scores are reported, broken down by section, and these are the scores used to determine passing.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: In addition, a "Reference Information" section is provided on the report card; this is purely informational – for the examinee's future studies – and is not used in determining if an examinee has passed. The grade given is based on the raw score, and is either A, B, or C, accordingly as the raw score was 67% or above, between 34% and 66%, or below 34%. This reference information is given for vocabulary, grammar, and reading on the N4 and N5, and for vocabulary and grammar (but not reading) on the N1, N2, and N3. In both cases, this breaks down the score on the "Language Knowledge" section into separate skills, but in neither case is performance on the listening section analyzed.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: Passing the test requires both achieving an "overall" pass mark for the total points, and passing each section individually; these are based on the scaled scores. The sectional scores are to ensure that skills are not unbalanced – so one cannot pass by doing well in the reading section but poorly in the listening section, for instance. The overall pass mark depends on the level and varies between 100/180 (55.55%) for the N1 and 80/180 (44.44%) for the N5. The pass marks for individual sections are all 19/60 = 31.67% – equivalently, 38/120 = 19/60 for the large section on the N4 and N5. Note that the sectional pass levels are "below" the overall pass level, at 31.67% instead of 44.44%–55.55%: one need not achieve the overall pass level on each section. These standards were adopted starting in July 2010, and do not vary from year to year, with the scaling instead varying.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: Study hour comparison data for students residing in Japan, published by the Japanese Language Education Center:


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: Although the Japan Foundation has not given any official table of comparison between the CEFR and the JLPT, several Japanese language textbooks and language courses at the university level, based on the competencies required for each level, tend to use the following table of comparison.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: The application period is usually around early March until late April for July's examination and around early August until late September for December's exam.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: Results for the December test are announced the following February for examinees in Japan, and March for overseas candidates. Test results are sent to the examinees through the testing organization or center to which they applied. From 2012, with online registration, results are available online before they are mailed out (late August for the July test). All examinees receive a report indicating their scores by section. Those who pass also receive a "Certificate of Proficiency".


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: Until 2009, the test had four levels. JLPT certificates do not expire, so results from the previous format remain valid.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: All instructions on the test were written in Japanese, although their difficulty is adjusted to remain appropriate to each test level. The subject matter covered at each level of the examination was based upon the , first published in 1994 and revised in 2004. This specification served as a reference for examiners to compile test questions, rather than as a study guide for candidates. It consisted of kanji lists, expression lists, vocabulary lists, and grammar lists for all four JLPT levels. However, about 20% of the kanji, vocabulary, and grammar in any one exam may have been drawn from outside the prescribed lists at the discretion of exam compilers.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: The independent source the Japanese Language Education Center publishes the following study hour comparison data:


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: In its previous format, the JLPT was divided into three sections: "Characters and Vocabulary" (100 points), "Listening Comprehension" (100 points), and "Reading Comprehension and Grammar" (200 points).


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: The first section (文字･語彙, "moji, goi") tests knowledge of vocabulary and various aspects of the Japanese writing system. This includes identifying the correct kanji characters for given situations, selecting the correct hiragana readings for given kanji, choosing the appropriate terms for given sentences, and choosing the appropriate usage of given words.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: The second section (聴解, "chōkai") comprises two sub-sections that test listening comprehension. The first involves choosing the picture which best represents the situation presented by a prerecorded conversation. The second is of a similar format but presents no visual clues.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: Section three (読解･文法, "dokkai, bunpō") uses authentic or semi-authentic reading passages of various lengths to test reading comprehension. Questions include prompts to fill in blank parts of the text and requests to paraphrase key points. Grammar questions request that examinees select the correct grammar structure to convey a given point or test conjugations and postpositional particle agreement.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: Two changes in levels of tests were made from the previous four-level format: firstly, a new level was inserted between the old level 3 and level 2, and secondly, the content of the top level exam (old level 1) was changed to test slightly more advanced skills, though the passing level was not changed, possibly through equating of test scores. Vocabulary in particular is said to be taken from an increased pool of 18,000 words.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: The addition of the new N3 was done to address the problem of the difficulty gap between levels 3 and 2: in the past, there had been requests for revisions to address the fact that examinees who had passed the Level 3 test often had trouble with passing the Level 2 test because of the large gap in the level of skill needed to pass those two levels. There was also a desire to measure abilities more advanced than those targeted by the current Level 1 test, hence the top-level exam was modified.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: The revised test continues to test the same content categories as the original, but the first and third sections of the test have been combined into a single section. Sections on oral and writing skills were not introduced. Further, a requirement to pass individual sections was added, rather than only achieving an overall score.


title: Japanese-Language Proficiency Test

text: It has been argued that changes to the exam were connected to the introduction of new language policies instituted by the Ministry of Education regarding the education of minorities in Japan.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: Ramesh Aravind is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter and television presenter who predominantly works in Kannada films and television. In a career of over 34 years, Aravind has been appeared in over 140 films in six languages, including Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi films.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: He has earned and been nominated for numerous awards during his career, including winning two Filmfare Awards for Best Actor and Karnataka State Awards for Best Actor and Best Story for his script in "Hoomale", as well as Udaya TV and Suvarna TV Awards.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: He is the host of "Weekend with Ramesh""," which has had four successful seasons on Zee Kannada and also hosted Season 3 of "Kannadada Kotiyadipathi", the Kannada version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire".


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: Ramesh Aravind is also the brand ambassador for the campaign to find the "7 Wonders of Karnataka". The campaign is by Suvarna TV & Kannada Prabha and is endorsed by Karnataka State Tourism Department.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: He is also the Brand Ambassador for Sustainable Planning & Development Goals India which is colloboareted with United Nations.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: His movies - Anuraga Sangama, Karpoorada Gombe, Namoora Mandara Hoove, Amrutavarshini, America America, Ulta Palta, O Mallige, Mungarina Minchu, Tutta Mutta successfully completed a 100-day run, consecutively, that year.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: in 2022 he was given honorary doctorate degree by Rani Channamma University for his contribution to field of cinema


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: In the year 2022, he was awarded the "Dr. Shivarama Karanth Huttora Prashasti" or the "Dr. Shivarama Karanth Award" This award is presented to him considering his services on a national level as an actor, director and resource person.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: His journey in filmland continues to this day in all aspects of filmmaking - as director of comedy film Rama Shama Bhama and as an actor in cult movies like Aptamitra, Pushpaka Vimana, Shivaji Surathkal and 100. He is presently acting in Shivaji Suratkal 2.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: Ramesh Aravind was born to P.A. Govindachari & Saroja. He has four siblings. He is married to Archana Aravind, and they have a daughter, Niharika, and son, Arjun.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: He has to his credit over 100 Kannada films in addition to Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films as the leading man. As of June 2020, he is acting in the lead role in two Kannada movies - "100" and "Bhairadevi".


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: During his stint at engineering college, Ramesh Aravind worked as an emcee to award functions, notably as the host of an event celebrating the success of the film, "Sagara Sangamam" (1983), where he met his long-term collaborator Kamal Haasan for the first time. He then started off by hosting a show on Kannada television, before beginning work on a Kannada-language film titled "Mouna Geethe" where he had a supporting role. Prior to the release of the film, he was approached by director K. Balachander who had been looking for an actor to play Kamal Haasan's role, for a Kannada version of the Tamil film "Sollathaan Ninaikkiren" (1973). After a brief audition, Balachander selected Ramesh Aravind after being "impressed with his eyes" and cast him as the playboy character in the venture titled "Sundara Swapnagalu" (1986), which released shortly before "Mouna Geethe" in which he had acted first. Balachander then gave him a small role in "Punnagai Mannan" (1986) as Revathi's ex-lover, but his scenes were edited out of the final version. He was set to collaborate with the director again in the Tamil film "Manathil Uruthi Vendum" (1987), but Balachander later recommended to Ramesh Aravind to opt out of the film and work on a venture with K. Bhagyaraj instead, to mark his debut in a leading role. The proposed film was later shelved, and the actor returned to the cast of "Manathil Uruthi Vendum", winning critical acclaim for his performance. Balachander also introduced Ramesh Aravind into Telugu films through "Rudraveena", with the actor having a distinct trait of being introduced into three different film industries by the same director.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: He made his breakthrough portraying a student union leader in Vasanth's romantic drama film "Keladi Kanmani" (1990), and the commercial success of the film meant that Ramesh Aravind shifted base to Chennai and worked primarily on Tamil and Kannada films until 1996. He earned critical acclaim in Tamil cinema, portraying a love-ridden musician in Balachander's "Duet" (1994) as well as through his performance alongside Kamal Haasan in Balu Mahendra's comedy film on marriage, "Sathi Leelavathi" (1995). Meanwhile, he appeared in several consecutive commercially successful Kannada films, en route to becoming one of the industry's most bankable actors. Subsequently, he returned to the Bangalore-based film industry to prioritise his work in Kannada films. His returns to feature in Tamil films since the mid-1990s have often seen him collaborate with his friend Kamal Haasan, in ventures including the unreleased "Kanden Seethaiyai", "Panchathantiram" (2002) and "Mumbai Xpress" (2005). He was also a celebrity RJ in Big FM.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: He scripted the national award-winning film Hoomale in 1998 and this paved the way for his foray into the field of film direction. The film also won Ramesh the Best Actor Filmfare Award and the Karnataka State Award. His script for a hit movie called "Amrithadhare" in 2005 won him the Raghvendra Chitravani Award for Best Story. After that, he started writing stories for the movies he directed.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: His new Kannada book "Art of Success” which is a collection of his quotes or success mantras has become a Best Seller. His next book “ Preetiyinda Ramesh" is expected to release in September 2022. He has written and narrated an audiobook in Kannada “MasadaMaatu with Ramesh” available on Storytel App.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: Ramesh Aravind's first directorial venture was the successful - "Rama Shama Bhama" with Kamal Haasan . The second film that he directed was "Sathyavan Savithri". His third directorial venture was "Accident". His next directorial venture was a comedy flick released in 2009 "Venkata in Sankata". He directed "Nammanna Don" in 2012.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: When Kamal Haasan presented him with the offer to direct "Uttama Villain", Ramesh Aravind ceased signing any Kannada films and exclusively began preparation for his directorial debut in Tamil films. It would become the first film he would make in which he did not portray a leading role and explained he accepted the film due to the "challenging nature of the script", also getting an opportunity to direct his mentor K. Balachander in the film.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: Ramesh Aravind is also known for his oratory. He is an effective motivational speaker. Through his talks and social media posts, he has inspired lakhs of youth to succeed without compromising on integrity.


title: Ramesh Aravind

text: Ramesh Aravind has won a number of awards as an actor, director and writer. He was given honorary doctorate degree by Rani Channamma University for his contribution to field of cinema. In the year 2022, he was awarded the "Dr. Shivarama Karanth Huttora Prashasti" or the "Dr. Shivarama Karanth Award" This award is presented to him considering his services on a national level as an actor, director and resource person.


title: Edd Gould

text: Edward Duncan Ernest Gould, (28 October 1988 – 25 March 2012) was a British animator, artist, writer, director, and voice actor. He was best known for creating "Eddsworld", a media franchise consisting of flash animations and web comics featuring fictionalised versions of himself and longtime collaborators Thomas Ridgewell, Matt Hargreaves and others. After Gould's death in 2012, production of "Eddsworld" was passed on to Ridgewell and later Hargreaves.


title: Edd Gould

text: Edd Gould was born on 28 October 1988 in Isleworth, Greater London to Susan Gould and Duncan Gould. He had a sister and a brother. He attended the Orleans Park School as depicted in his first Newgrounds entry ""Edd"", and met Matt Hargreaves during a sports day event there. Gould drew his friends in his comics and Hargreaves became a prominent part of "Eddsworld".


title: Edd Gould

text: Gould met Tom Ridgewell online, a fan of his work, shortly after he started making stick animations. He likewise met Tord Larsson online. Ridgewell and Larsson were included in the "Eddsworld" cast along with Hargreaves, appearing in "Eddsworld Christmas Special 2004".


title: Edd Gould

text: In 2000, Gould began animating using a GIF program to publish on Stick Figure Death Theatre. When the website stopped accepting GIFs, Gould spent seven months learning Macromedia Flash, helped by Lavalle Lee. Gould published his first animation on Stick Figure Death Theatre or Stick Suicide called “Bendee 1” on November 7, 2002.Later on, Edd made his first Newgrounds entry on 6 June 2003, titled "Edd."


title: Edd Gould

text: In September 2008 Gould began studying as an independent animator at the University for the Creative Arts in Maidstone. He joined Cake Bomb, a creative media group founded by Ridgewell. He voiced the "I Like Trains" kid in TomSka's ""Asdfmovie"" series on YouTube, and animated the second episode of "Asdfmovie".


title: Edd Gould

text: On 16 April 2011, Gould revealed he had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the white blood cells. It was his second diagnosis, having been previously diagnosed with the same illness on 30 January 2006. He posted a video on YouTube entitled "Edd vs Cancer" featuring himself, Ridgewell, and Hargreaves discussing the diagnosis. He platformed his illness for several sketches on his friends' YouTube accounts.


title: Edd Gould

text: Gould died from a recurring infection caused by the cancer on the morning of 25 March 2012. He was 23 years old. Ridgewell and Hargreaves announced Gould's death in a short video, "RIP Edd Gould (1988–2012)", two days later. The funeral was held on 10 April at All Saints' Church in Isleworth, where a eulogy compiled from video clips from fans and friends was shown. The last episode he directed for Eddsworld, "Space Face (Part 1)", was released on YouTube on 2 June 2012. Eddsworld production passed to Ridgewell who continued to produce episodes as part of Gould's will. Under Ridgewell's direction, profits went to CLIC Sargent (now Young Lives vs Cancer), a UK cancer charity supporting children, young people and their families.


title: Edd Gould

text: Gould was cremated and buried at Mortlake Crematorium. In April 2012, Hargreaves and Ridgewell attended VidCon in Los Angeles and scattered some of Gould's ashes near the Hollywood Sign.


title: James Prince

text: James L. Smith (also referred to as James Prince, J. Prince, or Lil J.) (born October 31, 1965) is an American music executive, promoter and manager. He is the CEO and co-founder of the Houston based record label Rap-A-Lot. Smith and his son Jas are known for introducing Canadian rapper Drake to Lil Wayne and helping Drake sign to Young Money Entertainment in 2009. He has also managed prolific boxers such as Andre Ward, Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Shakur Stevenson.


title: James Prince

text: Prince is known as one of the 'godfather's of the rap music industry', and inspired other southern hip hop label executives including Birdman of Cash Money Records and Master P of No Limit Records. Artists that have had careers shaped by him included Scarface, Geto Boys and Bun B.


title: James Prince

text: Prince was born to 16 year old mother Sharon Johnson with an older sister Zenia and younger half-brother Thelton. They grew up in Fifth Ward, Houston's 'Bloody Nickel' apartments which were known for cocaine use and poverty. He played football and had an entreprenurial spirit since a young age. From the age of 7 years old he would mow his neighbours yards in Shady Acres, play craps, sell stolen marijuana plants, and work on a welding truck for money.


title: James Prince

text: His sister died from getting hit by a train while walking home from school. Amongst other turbulence, friends and family were going to jail while Prince was rotating from school to school and between different homes. He graduated from Kashmere High School.


title: James Prince

text: Prince was working as a bank teller in 1985 in the fault department, then getting laid off at the age of 20. The initial goal prior to the label was to keep his younger stepbrother known as the rapper Sir Rap-A-Lot out of street life, as well as friends Raheem and Jukebox from skipping school. They would meet on the porch of his grandmothers house to perform and practice. After purchasing an abandoned building, he turned the property into on a used car dealership, known as Smith Auto Sales on the west side of Houston. At first he sold bucket cars then moving on to exotic cars which athletes would come and purchase. The same rundown 2 storey building that Prince owned, was where the artists then moved on to record into during 1986.


title: James Prince

text: Prince co-founded Rap-A-Lot Records with Cliff Blodget, a Seattleite, in 1987. Bloget was a computer science major, who was an electrical engineer by trade and acted as the label's in-house engineer and producer alongside fellow producer Carl Stephenson. Prince used his last bit of funds to invest into the label. He was inspired by Russell Simmons and the label he founded Def Jam Recordings. He moved the company in 1988 to New York City with Blodget. Around this time Lyor Cohen would show Prince check books of Def Jam artists LL Cool J and Whodini which showed him the potential revenue to be made in the music industry enlightening him to continue his vision with the Geto Boys moving the whole label back to Houston.


title: James Prince

text: The first group he formed in the label was the Geto Boys. Prince found members Bushwick Bill when he was performing as a dancer at a club, Willie D through the recommendation of his barber, and Scarface in the parking lot of a club he owned playing demos to a DJ who worked there. His brother was a member but then was replaced at Prince's discretion with Scarface. This was confirmed from a freestyle battle against each other where Scarface outperformed Sir Rap-A-Lot, with the younger brother then agreeing that was the better direction for the group also. Using local radio stations like KTSU to spread the reach of the label's music, his first deal came in 1989 via Rick Rubin working with the Geto Boys on their 2nd album Grip It! On That Other Level.


title: James Prince

text: Geffen Records who had been working with Rubin pulled the project a week before its release to the lyrical nature of the album, despite claims of racism and hypocrisy made by the Geto Boys and the fact that independently the album already had sold over 500,000 copies. The controversy lead to Rubin splitting from Geffen and signing with Warner Records with the album being pushed there instead, it tripled the total sales of the project.


title: James Prince

text: Prior to the success of Ice Ice Baby, Prince wanted to sign rapper Vanilla Ice after seeing him perform in 1990 at The Summit. He did not follow through as a result of his business partner Blodget feeling that the artist lacked talent.


title: James Prince

text: Prince signed a deal with Priority Records in 1991 for distribution, releasing the Geto Boys third album We Can't Be Stopped. By the mid-1990s co-founder Blodget had parted ways from Rap-A-Lot. In 1995 Prince signed the next distribution deal with Noo Trybe Records and Virgin Records.


title: James Prince

text: During the 1990s, two DEA agents placed a probe on Prince and his label, believing the label was a front for a major trafficking network. At this time a concept for a music distribution label that would have acted dually as a union for recording artists was being planned between Prince, Suge Knight, and Irv Gotti which was eventually cancelled. The two agents were later convicted of corrupt conduct.


title: James Prince

text: While the East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry was going on, Prince had suggested out of concern that The Notorious B.I.G. and manager Puff Daddy leave Los Angeles for their safety, weeks before the 1997 murder of the rapper.


title: James Prince

text: During Destiny's Child formative years in the early 1990s, Prince was approached by Mathew Knowles and one of their managers asking if he would join in, but he declined as their sound did not match his more hip-hop oriented label. Decades later another opportunity came to his 19-year-old son Jas who had reached out to Lil Wayne and Bun B, alerting him of the singer Drake after finding him on Myspace, suggesting they collaborate together which lead to a label deal with Lil Wayne and features with Bun B on the albums So Far Gone and Trill OG. Jas and Prince Sr. were listed as executive producers or contributors for points on Drake's Thank Me Later, Nothing Was the Same, and other follow up projects as a result of the introduction, as well as entitlement to 33% of his earnings.


title: James Prince

text: On February 13, 2015, Prince uploaded a spoken word diss track entitled "Courtesy Call" as a response to Sean Combs for a conflict he had involving Young Money artist Drake.


title: James Prince

text: In 2018 Prince released his autobiography "The Art & Science of Respect: A Memoir" with a foreword written by Drake. In the spring of 2018 after the release of The Story of Adidon, Prince advised Drake not to respond to Pusha T helping deescalate the issue between the two parties.


title: James Prince

text: In 2021 Prince helped revive Drake and Kanye West's relationship with the goal of all three coming together to help Larry Hoover by raising awareness on incarceration in the United States. They threw a benefit concert in December 2021 with support for judicial reform advocacy groups. The concert was at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and produced by DONDA, ITC Entertainment, and PHNTM. It was played in select IMAX theatres, including Grauman's Chinese Theatre, while being streamed on Amazon’s Music and Prime Video services.


title: James Prince

text: In November 2022, after the death of rapper Takeoff in Houston, Prince issued condolences and set up a memorial at the site of the incident.


title: James Prince

text: Prince was an avid fan of boxing growing up, being an amateur fighter and a fan of promoter Don King. He became a manager for boxers as a way to get into that industry. He opened a boxing gym in Fifth Ward, Houston around 1999 known as "JPrince Boxing" which later became part of the multi-million dollar "Prince Boxing Complex", under the umbrella of Prince Boxing Enterprises. Prince had the intention of meeting Mike Tyson in Las Vegas to manage the boxer, he was instead approached by Floyd Mayweather Jr. who was also a fan of his label. After being ignored by Tyson, Prince decided to go with managing Mayweather. They settled on a 20% deal which was 10% higher than the management deal he had with his father Floyd Mayweather Sr. supervising, as well as the potential opportunity to start a rap career over at his record label. The management relationship ended in 2003 due to financial differences between the two.


title: James Prince

text: Prince managed Andre Ward after the 2004 Summer Olympics, in 2002 Prince called Ward after hearing he was about to quit boxing due to the passing of his father but convinced him to continue his career. They split ways in 2008 due to financial issues also, with each filing a lawsuit with each other over the matter in 2008.


title: James Prince

text: Prince has supervised the careers of 15 other boxers, leading some of the them to their biggest victories, including Winky Wright, Jared Anderson, Roy Jones Jr., Diego Corrales, Mark Johnson, Duke Ragan, Efe Ajagba and Hasim Rahman.


title: James Prince

text: In 2006 Prince founded condom company "Strapped", after a close friend contracted HIV drastically going from 300 pounds to 75 pounds, passing away afterwards. He had the idea for the company since 2002. The company primarily served the Houston area, and has been represented by artists like Lil Wayne.


title: James Prince

text: In January 2007, Houston Mayor Bill White and the City Council honored Prince for over 20 years of commitment and dedication to the city. The result of the proclamation named an official James Prince Day in Houston. The recognition came after a recreation center Prince built in Houston’s 5th Ward. "The new facility is located across from the Prince Boxing Complex in the 3000 block of Jensen. The multi-million dollar recreation center will serve as a hub for the community’s children…providing various services from computer courses to athletics." The facility has since been used to host events relating to Christmas, Thanksgiving, and back to school events.


title: James Prince

text: One week later, he educated youth about HIV/AIDS prevention and testing with the launching of his Strapped condom brand, in coordination with a string of initiatives and events set up to address the issue of AIDS in the Black community. "Talking about something is one thing, but having something to offer is another," J. Prince said. "We promote abstinence first for those that are strong enough not to have sex. I wasn't one of those. And we can't realistically just tell them not to have sex, so we are telling them to 'strap it up'".


title: James Prince

text: In 2007 his condom company Strapped gave over 7,500 free HIV tests for people aged 18–24 at the Hip-Hop 4 HIV concert at Reliant Stadium.


title: James Prince

text: In June 2010, J Prince was honored alongside Master P, Jermaine Dupri, Timbaland, and Slick Rick at the VH1 7th annual Hip Hop Honors Awards for both his creative contributions and his philanthropic ventures.


title: James Prince

text: In 2011, a limited edition DVD box set was released by Rap-A-Lot with appearances from several rappers, including Rick Ross and Young Jeezy and industry execs such as Lyor Cohen, Russell Simmons among several others praising Prince.


title: James Prince

text: In 2019 Prince received an honorary doctorate degree degree in the form of a doctorate of humane letters from Texas Southern University. This was received in part to his commitment at the university giving guest lectures to students, offering Rap-A-Lot internships, and endowed scholarships to their students in need of financial assistance.


title: James Prince

text: Prince has 7 children, including 3 sons, J Prince Jr., Jas, and Jay "Baby Jay" who also work in the music and boxing industries. He has been married to his wife since the late 1980s.


title: Shams Tabrizi

text: Shams-i Tabrīzī () or Shams al-Din Mohammad (1185–1248) was a Persian Shafi'ite poet, who is credited as the spiritual instructor of Mewlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi, also known as Rumi and is referenced with great reverence in Rumi's poetic collection, in particular "Diwan-i Shams-i Tabrīzī (The Works of Shams of Tabriz)". Tradition holds that Shams taught Rumi in seclusion in Konya for a period of forty days, before fleeing for Damascus. The tomb of Shams-i Tabrīzī was recently nominated to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


title: Shams Tabrizi

text: According to Sipah Salar, a devotee and intimate friend of Rumi who spent forty days with him, Shams was the son of the Imam Ala al-Din. In a work entitled "Manāqib al-'arifīn" ("Eulogies of the Gnostics"), Aflaki names a certain 'Ali as the father of Shams-i Tabrīzī and his grandfather as Malikdad. Apparently basing his calculations on Haji Bektash Veli's "Maqālāt" ("Conversations"), Aflaki suggests that Shams arrived in Konya at the age of sixty years. However, various scholars have questioned Aflaki's reliability.


title: Shams Tabrizi

text: Shams received his education in Tabriz and was a disciple of Baba Kamal al-Din Jumdi. Before meeting Rumi, he apparently traveled from place to place weaving baskets and selling girdles for a living. Despite his occupation as a weaver, Shams received the epithet of "the embroiderer" ("zarduz") in various biographical accounts including that of the Persian historian Dawlatshah Samarqandi. This however, is not the occupation listed by Haji Bektash Veli in the "Maqālat" and was rather the epithet given to the Ismaili Imam Shams al-din Muhammad, who worked as an embroiderer while living in anonymity in Tabriz. The transference of the epithet to the biography of Rumi's mentor suggests that this Imam's biography must have been known to Shams-i Tabrīzī's biographers. The specificities of how this transference occurred, however, are not yet known.


title: Shams Tabrizi

text: On 15 November 1244, a man in a black suit from head to toe came to the famous inn of Sugar Merchants of Konya. His name was Shams Tabrizi. He was claiming to be a travelling merchant. As it was said in Haji Bektash Veli's book, "Makalat", he was looking for something which he was going to find in Konya. Eventually he found Rumi riding a horse.


title: Shams Tabrizi

text: One day Rumi was reading next to a large stack of books. Shams Tabriz, passing by, asked him, "What are you doing?" Rumi scoffingly replied, "Something you cannot understand." (This is knowledge that cannot be understood by the unlearned.) On hearing this, Shams threw the stack of books into a nearby pool of water. Rumi hastily rescued the books and to his surprise they were all dry. Rumi then asked Shams, "What is this?" To which Shams replied, "Mowlana, this is what you cannot understand." (This is knowledge that cannot be understood by the learned.)


title: Shams Tabrizi

text: A second version of the tale has Shams passing by Rumi who again is reading a book. Rumi regards him as an uneducated stranger. Shams asks Rumi what he is doing, to which Rumi replies, "Something that you do not understand!" At that moment, the books suddenly catch fire and Rumi asks Shams to explain what happened. His reply was, "Something you do not understand."


title: Shams Tabrizi

text: Another version of the first encounter is this: In the marketplace of Konya, amid the cotton stalls, sugar vendors, and vegetable stands, Rumi rode through the street, surrounded by his students. Shams caught hold of the reins of his donkey and rudely challenged the master with two questions. "Who was the greater mystic, Bayazid [a Sufi saint] or Muhammad?” Shams demanded. "What a strange question! Muhammad is greater than all the saints," Rumi replied. "So, why is it then that Muhammad said to God, 'I didn't know you as I should have,' while Bayazid proclaimed, 'Glory be to me! How exalted is my Glory! [that is, he claimed the station of God himself]?" Rumi explained that Muhammad was the greater of the two, because Bayazid could be filled to capacity by a single experience of divine blessings. He lost himself completely and was filled with God. Muhammad's capacity was unlimited and could never be filled. His desire was endless, and he was always thirsty. With every moment he came closer to God, and then regretted his former distant state. For that reason he said, "I have never known you as I should have". It is recorded that after this exchange of words, Rumi felt a window open at the top of his head and saw smoke rise to heaven. He cried out, fell to the ground, and lost consciousness for one hour. Shams, upon hearing these answers, realized that he was face to face with the object of his longing, the one he had prayed God to send him. When Rumi awoke, he took Shams's hand, and the two of them returned to Rumi's school together on foot.


title: Shams Tabrizi

text: After several years with Rumi in Konya, Shams left and settled in Khoy. As the years passed, Rumi attributed more and more of his own poetry to Shams as a sign of love for his departed friend and master. In Rumi's poetry Shams becomes a guide of Allah's (Creator) love for mankind; Shams was a sun ("Shams" means "Sun" in Arabic) shining the Light of Sun as guide for the right path dispelling darkness in Rumi's heart, mind, and body on earth. The source of Shams' teachings was the knowledge of Ali ibn Abu Talib, who is also called "the father of sufism".


title: Shams Tabrizi

text: According to contemporary Sufi tradition, Shams Tabrizi mysteriously disappeared: some say he was killed by close disciples of Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi who were jealous of the close relationship between Rumi and Shams, but according to many certain evidences, he left Konya and died in Khoy where he was buried. Sultan Walad, Rumi's son, in his "Walad-Nama" mathnawi just mentions that Shams mysteriously disappeared from Konya with no more specific details.


title: Shams Tabrizi

text: Shams Tabrizi's tomb in Khoy, beside a tower monument in a memorial park, has been nominated as a World Cultural Heritage Center by UNESCO.


title: Shams Tabrizi

text: The "Maqalat-e Shams-e Tabrizi" ("Discourse of Shams-i Tabrīzī") is a Persian prose book written by Shams. The "Maqalat" seems to have been written during the later years of Shams, as he speaks of himself as an old man. Overall, it bears a mystical interpretation of Islam and contains spiritual advice.


title: Shams Tabrizi

text: An array of mystical poetry, laden with devotional sentiments and strong 'Alid inclinations, has been attributed to Shams-i Tabrīzī across the Persian Islamic world. Scholars such as Gabrielle van den Berg have sometimes questioned whether these were really authored by Shams-i Tabrīzī. However, later scholars have pointed out that it may instead be a question of whether the name Shams-i Tabriz has been used for more than one person. Van den Berg suggests that this identification is the pen name of Rumi. However she acknowledges that, despite the large number of poems attributed to Shams, that comprise the devotional repertoire of the Ismailis of Badakhshan, an overwhelming majority of these cannot be located in any of the existing works of Rumi. Rather, as Virani observes, some of these are located in the "Rose Garden of Shams" (Gulzār-i Shams), authored by Mulukshah, a descendant of the Ismaili Pir Shams, as well as in other works.


title: Swap (finance)

text: In finance, a swap is an agreement between two counterparties to exchange financial instruments, cashflows, or payments for a certain time. The instruments can be almost anything but most swaps involve cash based on a notional principal amount.


title: Swap (finance)

text: The general swap can also be seen as a series of forward contracts through which two parties exchange financial instruments, resulting in a common series of exchange dates and two streams of instruments, the "legs" of the swap. The legs can be almost anything but usually one leg involves cash flows based on a notional principal amount that both parties agree to. This principal usually does not change hands during or at the end of the swap;


title: Swap (finance)

text: In practice one leg is generally fixed while the other is variable, that is determined by an uncertain variable such as a benchmark interest rate, a foreign exchange rate, an index price, or a commodity price.


title: Swap (finance)

text: Swaps are primarily over-the-counter contracts between companies or financial institutions. Retail investors do not generally engage in swaps.


title: Swap (finance)

text: A mortgage holder is paying a floating interest rate on their mortgage but expects this rate to go up in the future. Another mortgage holder is paying a fixed rate but expects rates to fall in the future. They enter a fixed-for-floating swap agreement. Both mortgage holders agree on a notional principal amount and maturity date and agree to take on each other's payment obligations. The first mortgage holder from now on is paying a fixed rate to the second mortgage holder while receiving a floating rate. By using a swap, both parties effectively changed their mortgage terms to their preferred interest mode while neither party had to renegotiate terms with their mortgage lenders.


title: Swap (finance)

text: Considering the next payment only, both parties might as well have entered a fixed-for-floating forward contract. For the payment after that another forward contract whose terms are the same, i.e. same notional amount and fixed-for-floating, and so on. The swap contract therefore, can be seen as a series of forward contracts. In the end there are two streams of cash flows, one from the party who is always paying a fixed interest on the notional amount, the "fixed leg" of the swap, the other from the party who agreed to pay the floating rate, the "floating leg".


title: Swap (finance)

text: Swaps can be used to hedge certain risks such as interest rate risk, or to speculate on changes in the expected direction of underlying prices.


title: Swap (finance)

text: Swaps were first introduced to the public in 1981 when IBM and the World Bank entered into a swap agreement. Today, swaps are among the most heavily traded financial contracts in the world: the total amount of interest rates and currency swaps outstanding was more than $348 trillion in 2010, according to Bank for International Settlements (BIS).


title: Swap (finance)

text: Most swaps are traded over-the-counter(OTC), "tailor-made" for the counterparties. The Dodd-Frank Act in 2010, however, envisions a multilateral platform for swap quoting, the "swaps execution facility" (SEF), and mandates that swaps be reported to and cleared through exchanges or clearing houses which subsequently led to the formation of "swap data repositories" (SDRs), a central facility for swap data reporting and recordkeeping. Data vendors, such as Bloomberg, and big exchanges, such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the largest U.S. futures market, and the Chicago Board Options Exchange, registered to become SDRs. They started to list some types of swaps, swaptions and swap futures on their platforms. Other exchanges followed, such as the IntercontinentalExchange and Frankfurt-based Eurex AG.


title: Swap (finance)

text: According to the 2018 SEF Market Share Statistics Bloomberg dominates the credit rate market with 80% share, TP dominates the FX dealer to dealer market (46% share), Reuters dominates the FX dealer to client market (50% share), Tradeweb is strongest in the vanilla interest rate market (38% share), TP the biggest platform in the basis swap market (53% share), BGC dominates both the swaption and XCS markets, Tradition is the biggest platform for Caps and Floors (55% share).


title: Swap (finance)

text: While the market for currency swaps developed first, the interest rate swap market has surpassed it, measured by notional principal, "a reference amount of principal for determining interest payments."


title: Swap (finance)

text: The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) publishes statistics on the notional amounts outstanding in the OTC derivatives market. At the end of 2006, this was USD 415.2 trillion, more than 8.5 times the 2006 gross world product. However, since the cash flow generated by a swap is equal to an interest rate times that notional amount, the cash flow generated from swaps is a substantial fraction of but much less than the gross world product—which is also a cash-flow measure. The majority of this (USD 292.0 trillion) was due to interest rate swaps. These split by currency as:


title: Swap (finance)

text: A Major Swap Participant (MSP, or sometimes Swap Bank) is a generic term to describe a financial institution that facilitates swaps between counterparties. It maintains a substantial position in swaps for any of the major swap categories. A swap bank can be an international commercial bank, an investment bank, a merchant bank, or an independent operator. A swap bank serves as either a swap broker or swap dealer. As a broker, the swap bank matches counterparties but does not assume any risk of the swap. The swap broker receives a commission for this service. Today, most swap banks serve as dealers or market makers. As a market maker, a swap bank is willing to accept either side of a currency swap, and then later on-sell it, or match it with a counterparty. In this capacity, the swap bank assumes a position in the swap and therefore assumes some risks. The dealer capacity is obviously more risky, and the swap bank would receive a portion of the cash flows passed through it to compensate it for bearing this risk.


title: Swap (finance)

text: The two primary reasons for a counterparty to use a currency swap are to obtain debt financing in the swapped currency at an interest cost reduction brought about through comparative advantages each counterparty has in its national capital market, and/or the benefit of hedging long-run exchange rate exposure. These reasons seem straightforward and difficult to argue with, especially to the extent that name recognition is truly important in raising funds in the international bond market. Firms using currency swaps have statistically higher levels of long-term foreign-denominated debt than firms that use no currency derivatives. Conversely, the primary users of currency swaps are non-financial, global firms with long-term foreign-currency financing needs. From a foreign investor's perspective, valuation of foreign-currency debt would exclude the "exposure effect" that a domestic investor would see for such debt. Financing foreign-currency debt using domestic currency and a currency swap is therefore superior to financing directly with foreign-currency debt.


title: Swap (finance)

text: The two primary reasons for swapping interest rates are to better match maturities of assets and liabilities and/or to obtain a cost savings via the quality spread differential (QSD). Empirical evidence suggests that the spread between AAA-rated commercial paper (floating) and A-rated commercial is slightly less than the spread between AAA-rated five-year obligation (fixed) and an A-rated obligation of the same tenor. These findings suggest that firms with lower (higher) credit ratings are more likely to pay fixed (floating) in swaps, and fixed-rate payers would use more short-term debt and have shorter debt maturity than floating-rate payers. In particular, the A-rated firm would borrow using commercial paper at a spread over the AAA rate and enter into a (short-term) fixed-for-floating swap as payer.


title: Swap (finance)

text: The generic types of swaps, in order of their quantitative importance, are: interest rate swaps, basis swaps, currency swaps, inflation swaps, credit default swaps, commodity swaps and equity swaps. There are also many other types of swaps.


title: Swap (finance)

text: The most common type of swap is an interest rate swap. Some companies may have comparative advantage in fixed rate markets, while other companies have a comparative advantage in floating rate markets. When companies want to borrow, they look for cheap borrowing, i.e. from the market where they have comparative advantage. However, this may lead to a company borrowing fixed when it wants floating or borrowing floating when it wants fixed. This is where a swap comes in. A swap has the effect of transforming a fixed rate loan into a floating rate loan or vice versa.


title: Swap (finance)

text: For example, party B makes periodic interest payments to party A based on a "variable" interest rate of LIBOR +70 basis points. Party A in return makes periodic interest payments based on a fixed rate of 8.65%. The payments are calculated over the "notional" amount. The first rate is called "variable" because it is reset at the beginning of each interest calculation period to the then current reference rate, such as LIBOR. In reality, the actual rate received by A and B is slightly lower due to a bank taking a spread.


title: Swap (finance)

text: A basis swap involves exchanging floating interest rates based on different money markets. The principal is not exchanged. The swap effectively limits the interest-rate risk as a result of having differing lending and borrowing rates.


title: Swap (finance)

text: A currency swap involves exchanging principal and fixed rate interest payments on a loan in one currency for principal and fixed rate interest payments on an equal loan in another currency.


title: Swap (finance)

text: Currency swaps entail swapping both principal and interest between the parties, with the cashflows in one direction


title: Swap (finance)

text: being in a different currency than those in the opposite direction. It is also a very crucial uniform pattern in individuals and customers.


title: Swap (finance)

text: An inflation-linked swap involves exchanging a fixed rate on a principal for an inflation index expressed in monetary terms. The primary objective is to hedge against inflation and interest-rate risk.


title: Swap (finance)

text: A commodity swap is an agreement whereby a floating (or market or spot) price is exchanged for a fixed price over a specified period. The vast majority of commodity swaps involve crude oil.


title: Swap (finance)

text: An agreement whereby the payer periodically pays premiums, sometimes also or only a one-off or initial premium, to the protection seller on a notional principal for a period of time so long as a specified credit event has not occurred. The credit event can refer to a single asset or a basket of assets, usually debt obligations. In the event of default, the payer receives compensation, for example the principal, possibly plus all fixed rate payments until the end of the swap agreement, or any other way that suits the protection buyer or both counterparties. The primary objective of a CDS is to transfer one party's credit exposure to another party.


title: Swap (finance)

text: A subordinated risk swap (SRS), or equity risk swap, is a contract in which the "buyer" (or equity holder) pays a premium to the "seller" (or silent holder) for the option to transfer certain risks. These can include any form of equity, management or legal risk of the underlying (for example a company). Through execution the equity holder can (for example) transfer shares, management responsibilities or else. Thus, general and special entrepreneurial risks can be managed, assigned or prematurely hedged. Those instruments are traded over-the-counter (OTC) and there are only a few specialized investors worldwide.


title: Swap (finance)

text: An agreement to exchange future cash flows between two parties where one leg is an equity-based cash flow such as the performance of a stock asset, a basket of stocks or a stock index. The other leg is typically a fixed-income cash flow such as a benchmark interest rate.


title: Swap (finance)

text: There are myriad different variations on the vanilla swap structure, which are limited only by the imagination of financial engineers and the desire of corporate treasurers and fund managers for exotic structures.


title: Swap (finance)

text: The value of a swap is the net present value (NPV) of all "expected" future cash flows, essentially the difference in leg values.


title: Swap (finance)

text: A swap is thus "worth zero" when it is first initiated, otherwise one party would be at an advantage, and arbitrage would be possible;


title: Swap (finance)

text: While this principle holds true for any swap, the following discussion is for plain vanilla interest rate swaps and is representative of pure rational pricing as it excludes credit risk.


title: Swap (finance)

text: The fact that these methods agree, underscores the fact that rational pricing will apply "between" instruments also.


title: Swap (finance)

text: As mentioned, to be arbitrage free, the terms of a swap contract are such that, initially, the NPV of these future cash flows is equal to zero. Where this is not the case, arbitrage would be possible.


title: Swap (finance)

text: For example, consider a plain vanilla fixed-to-floating interest rate swap where Party A pays a fixed rate, and Party B pays a floating rate. In such an agreement the "fixed rate" would be such that the present value of future fixed rate payments by Party A are equal to the present value of the "expected" future floating rate payments (i.e. the NPV is zero). Where this is not the case, an Arbitrageur, C, could:


title: Swap (finance)

text: Subsequently, once traded, the price of the Swap must equate to the price of the various corresponding instruments as mentioned above. Where this is not true, an arbitrageur could similarly short sell the overpriced instrument, and use the proceeds to purchase the correctly priced instrument, pocket the difference, and then use payments generated to service the instrument which he is short.


title: Swap (finance)

text: While principal payments are not exchanged in an interest rate swap, assuming that these are received and paid at the end of the swap does not change its value. Thus, from the point of view of the floating-rate payer, a swap is equivalent to a long position in a fixed-rate bond (i.e. "receiving" fixed interest payments), and a short position in a floating rate note (i.e. "making" floating interest payments):


title: Swap (finance)

text: From the point of view of the fixed-rate payer, the swap can be viewed as having the opposite positions. That is,


title: Swap (finance)

text: Similarly, currency swaps can be regarded as having positions in bonds whose cash flows correspond to those in the swap. Thus, the home currency value is:


title: Swap (finance)

text: LIBOR rates are determined by trading between banks and change continuously as economic conditions change. Just like the prime rate of interest quoted in the domestic market, LIBOR is a reference rate of interest in the international market.


title: Evergreen State College

text: The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts college in Olympia, Washington. Founded in 1967, it offers a non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study towards a degree or follow a pre-determined path of study. Full-time students can enroll in interdisciplinary academic programs, in addition to stand-alone classes. Programs typically offer students the opportunity to study several disciplines in a coordinated manner. Faculty write substantive narrative evaluations of students' work in place of issuing grades.


title: Evergreen State College

text: Evergreen's main campus, which includes its own saltwater beach, spans 1,000 acres of forest close to the southern end of the Puget Sound. Evergreen also has a satellite campus in nearby Tacoma. The school offers a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Bachelor of Science, Master of Environmental Studies, Master in Teaching, Master of Public Administration, and Master of Public Administration in Tribal Governance.


title: Evergreen State College

text: Evergreen was one of many alternative colleges and programs launched in the 1960s and 1970s, often described as experiments. While the vast majority of these have either closed or adopted more mainstream approaches, Evergreen is pursuing its mission, although enrollment is declining.


title: Evergreen State College

text: In 1964, a report was issued by the Council of Presidents of Washington State baccalaureate institutions stating that another college was needed in the state to balance the geographical distribution of the existing state institutions. This report spurred the 1965 Washington legislature to create the Temporary Advisory Council on Public Higher Education to study the need and possible location for a new state college.


title: Evergreen State College

text: In 1965–66, the Temporary Advisory Council on Public Higher Education (assisted by Nelson Associates of New York) concluded that "at the earliest possible time a new college should be authorized", to be located at a suburban site in Thurston County within a radius of approximately from Olympia. Evergreen's enabling legislation – HB 596 (Chapter 47, Laws of 1967) – stated that the campus should be no smaller than , making it then the largest campus in the state as well as the first public four-year college created in Washington in the 20th century.


title: Evergreen State College

text: On January 24, 1968, "The Evergreen State College" was selected from 31 choices as the name of the new institution. On November 1, 1968, Charles J. McCann assumed the first presidency of the college. McCann and the founding faculty held the first day of classes October 4, 1971, with 1128 students. McCann served from 1968 until stepping down to join the faculty June 6, 1977, when former Governor Daniel J. Evans, who signed the legislation creating Evergreen, assumed the presidency. Evans left the president's office in 1983 when he was appointed to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy created by the death of Senator Henry M. Jackson. The largest building on campus is named in honor of Evans, the Daniel J. Evans Library Building. The entrance to the campus bears McCann's name, the Charles J. McCann plaza.


title: Evergreen State College

text: In the 1992–93 school year, students chose Leonard Peltier to give the address at commencement, which was the first with a graduating class of more than 1,000. The selection was described as "perhaps the most unconventional commencement speaker" in a published round-up of the most controversial graduation speakers on campuses nationwide that year. Peltier, who was in federal prison, submitted his remarks in writing, to be read by a graduating senior.


title: Evergreen State College

text: In 1999, Mumia Abu-Jamal was invited to deliver the keynote address by audiotape for the graduating class at the college. The event was protested by some.


title: Evergreen State College

text: In 2004, the college completed the Seminar II building, as well as a significant remodeling of the Daniel J Evans Library.


title: Evergreen State College

text: In 2015, George Sumner Bridges became the sixth president of Evergreen State College, not counting interim appointments. Bridges had previously served as president of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. He followed Thomas L. "Les" Purce (2000–2015), Jane L. Jervis (1992–2000), and Joseph D. Olander (1985–1990).


title: Evergreen State College

text: President Bridges appointed a committee to study social equity on campus. In November 2016, the committee recommended changes to faculty hiring and evaluation criteria that proved to be controversial. The debate continued through the spring quarter. Every April from the 1970s until 2017, Evergreen held a daylong event called "Day of Absence", inspired by the Douglas Turner Ward play of the same name, during which minority students and faculty members voluntarily stayed off campus to raise awareness of the contributions of minorities and to discuss racial and campus issues. Since 1992, the Day of Absence has been followed by the "Day of Presence", when the campus community reunites. In 2017, approximately 25% of Evergreen students were members of racial minority groups.


title: Evergreen State College

text: In 2017, some students of color voiced concerns about feeling unwelcome on campus following the 2016 US presidential election and a 2015 off-campus police shooting. Consequently, "it was decided that on Day of Absence, white students, staff and faculty will be invited to leave the campus for the day's activities" to attend an off-campus event. The off-campus event was held at a church that accommodated 200 people, about 7% of the white student body. An event for students of color was held on the Evergreen campus. Bret Weinstein, a professor of biology at Evergreen, wrote a letter in March to Evergreen faculty, protesting the change in format, stating "On a college campus, one's right to speak — or to be — must never be based on skin color." and "There is a huge difference between a group or coalition deciding to voluntarily absent themselves from a shared space to highlight their vital and under-appreciated roles and a group or coalition encouraging another group to go away." The incident attracted national attention, with "The New York Times" writing that Evergreen "found itself on the front line of the national discontent over race, speech and political disagreement" and that the national exposure led "right-leaning websites to [heap derision] on their newest college target". In late May 2017, student protests disrupted the campus and called for a number of changes to the college. Weinstein was told by campus police that it was not safe for him to be on campus, which caused Weinstein to hold his biology class in a public park. Weinstein and his wife, professor Heather Heying, later resigned and each received a $250,000 settlement with the university, after having sued for $3.8 million for failing to "protect its employees from repeated provocative and corrosive verbal and written hostility based on race, as well as threats of physical violence".


title: Evergreen State College

text: A June 1 direct threat to campus safety led to an evacuation and two-day closure of the campus. According to campus police, protesters with sticks and bats caused approximately $10,000 in damage to the campus and forced closure of the school for an additional day. Two weeks later, a June 15 protest on campus by the far-right group Patriot Prayer led to the campus being closed early. The following day, Evergreen's 2017 commencement ceremony was also moved off-campus because of safety concerns. Through the spring and summer, African American students reported receiving harassing and threatening messages. An African American staff member and faculty member both resigned before the end of the year claiming escalating online attacks against them.


title: Evergreen State College

text: A report from the college suggested protests may adversely affect Evergreen's enrollment, which has been declining over the last decade. In the immediate aftermath enrollments fell, with the November 2018 head count dropping to 3,327 students, down from 3,881 students in 2017. The college's chief enrollment officer cited "questions about our reputation" as making efforts to attract students "more difficult" and the drop forced the college to cut its budget by 10% and increase student fees. Enrollment has since plummeted 41%, to 2,281 students in fall of 2020 and was expected to top at around 2,000 in 2021. In February 2022, the chief enrollment officer reported that total enrollment had fallen to 1,952 students.


title: Evergreen State College

text: Evergreen is unique in that undergraduate students select one 16-credit program for the entire quarter rather than multiple courses. Full-time programs will encompass a quarter's worth of work in everything related to that program concentration, by up to three professors. There are no majors; students have the freedom to choose what program to enroll in each quarter for the entire duration of their undergraduate education, and are not required to follow a specific set of programs. Evergreen is on the "quarter" system, with programs lasting one, two, or three quarters. Three-quarter programs are generally September through June.


title: Evergreen State College

text: At the end of the program, the professor writes a one-page report ("Evaluation") about the student's activity in the class rather than awarding a letter grade, and has an end-of-program evaluation conference with each student. The professor also determines how many credits should be awarded to the student, and students can lose credit.


title: Evergreen State College

text: In order to be granted a Bachelor of Science degree, a student must complete 180 credits, 72 of which need to be in science, with 48 of those noted as upper division. This requirement can be satisfied by one year of upper-division science.


title: Evergreen State College

text: Unlike the undergraduate programs, the graduate programs require a student to take a certain rotation of courses.


title: Evergreen State College

text: In 2020, "Washington Monthly" ranked Evergreen State second out of 614 schools on its Master's Universities list, based on its contribution to the public good as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service.


title: Evergreen State College

text: Among regional schools offering some masters programs but few doctorates in the western United States, "U.S. News & World Report" in 2020 ranked Evergreen tied for 37th overall, second for "most innovative", tied for fourth best for undergraduate teaching, tied for 14th best public school, and tied at 21st best school for veterans.


title: Evergreen State College

text: The main library on the Evergreen State College campus is the Daniel J. Evans Library, named after the former governor who signed the legislation that founded Evergreen, and was also the school's second president. The library is home to some 428,000 volumes and 750,000 print and media items overall. The library hosts a number of small viewing rooms and also maintains special collections of rare books, archival material, and government documents. The Quantitative and Symbolic Reasoning Center (QuaSR), a tutoring center for the sciences, is located on the first floor of the library. The library is located in the Information Technology wing of the Daniel J. Evans Library Building. This wing is also the home for Media Services and a large Academic Computing center.


title: Evergreen State College

text: The Evergreen State College has of land that is mostly second growth forest. The entire campus serves as a natural laboratory for scientific field research and provides inspiration for creative work. Throughout the forest there are multiple trails leading to a variety of locations throughout the reserve and to Evergreen Beach. The coastal habitat is characterized by steep bluffs, gravelly beaches with many washed-up logs, and the marine intertidal zone which extends up to out into Puget Sound's Eld Inlet during low tides. Evergreen has approximately of untouched beach and of southern Puget Sound tidelands. Students use the beach and tidelands for scientific study and as a place to get away from their studies and relax. There are multiple trails leading to the beach and a small road that leads to the only building at the beach and a small boat ramp. The bluffs range from 15 to 60 feet (5 to 20 m) in height.


title: Evergreen State College

text: The Evergreen Organic Farm annual crop bed space comprises , slightly less than . The farm also produces apples and other perennial food crops, and tends to a flock of hens. Produce is sold to the Evergreen community through CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares, or from a farm-stand on Red Square every Tuesday and Thursday from 11am to 5pm during the growing season. Produce is sometimes sold to campus food services Aramark and the Flaming Eggplant Cafe. Excess produce is available to students in the interdisciplinary program, titled "The Practice of Sustainable Agriculture".


title: Evergreen State College

text: Proceeds from the sale of the crops are used to finance farm projects, as well as purchase seeds and equipment. Two of the greenhouses, the cooler, compost shed, farm fencing and orchard are just a few projects made possible from farm sales. Another use for money generated on the farm is to fund student projects. Many of these projects are related to horticultural aspects of food crops.


title: Evergreen State College

text: The farm production area is divided into sections that are used to delineate cropping areas for specific types of crops. The farm practices a strict five year crop rotation. The rotating of crops creates plant diversity over time as opposed to plant diversity in space. The rotation has four general crop categories with each category occupying a given space for one growing season.


title: Evergreen State College

text: Crop rotation is just one method the farm uses to maintain diversity in the field. Other methods employed are the use of undersown ground covers and inter-cropping different types of vegetable crops. Creating diversity in the field is one of the cornerstones of sustainable agriculture. Diversity provides non-toxic, sustainable crop protection against plant diseases and insect pests.


title: Evergreen State College

text: The Evergreen Organic Farm hosts a large composting facility that composts all compostables from the campus. It also hosts a Biodiesel facility, a community garden, demeters garden, and a large farmhouse that was partially built by students.


title: Evergreen State College

text: The Evergreen State College is the home of the Longhouse Education and Cultural Center. The Longhouse exists to provide service and hospitality to students, the college, and surrounding Native communities. With a design based on the Northwest Indigenous Nations' philosophy of hospitality, its primary functions are to provide a gathering place for hosting cultural ceremonies, classes, conferences, performances, art exhibits and community events. The Longhouse provides the opportunity to build a bridge of understanding between the regions' tribes and visitors of all cultures. The public service mission of the Longhouse is to promote indigenous arts and cultures through education, cultural preservation, and economic development.


title: Evergreen State College

text: It is also the administrative home for the Washington State Institute for Public Policy. The institute's mission is to carry out practical, non-partisan research—at legislative direction—on issues of importance to Washington State. The institute conducts research using its own policy analysts and economists, specialists from universities, and consultants. Institute staff work closely with legislators, legislative and state agency staff, and experts in the field to ensure that studies answer relevant policy questions.


title: Evergreen State College

text: The Evergreen State athletic teams are called the Geoducks. The college is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) since the 1999–2000 academic year.


title: Evergreen State College

text: Evergreen competes in seven intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include basketball, soccer and track & field; while women's sports include basketball, soccer, track & field and volleyball. Former sports included men's & women's cross country and men's & women's crew.


title: Evergreen State College

text: Former men's soccer star Joey Gjertsen, who led the Geoducks to the 2004 NAIA National Quarterfinals, has gone on to have professional success with the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer. Shawn Medved previously had success in the MLS, playing for D.C. United and the San Jose Clash. Medved scored the tying goal in the 1996 MLS Cup as D.C. went on to the championship.


title: Evergreen State College

text: Evergreen also had a strong run in men's basketball during the first decade of the 21st century, winning the 2002 CCC Championship and reaching the NAIA National Tournament in 2002, 2009 and 2010. Forward Mike Parker from the '02 team has become one of the top professional players in Japan, and several other basketball players have gone on to professional careers overseas.


title: Evergreen State College

text: Student media include student-run newspaper "The Cooper Point Journal", and Evergreen's community radio station KAOS-FM.


title: Evergreen State College

text: Among notable alumni are cartoonists Craig Bartlett, Lynda Barry, Charles Burns, and Matt Groening;, art historian and theorist Douglas Kahn; comedians Josh Blue and Michael Richards; entrepreneurs Paul Stamets and Lynda Weinman; film producer Audrey Marrs; musicians Carrie Brownstein, Martin Courtney, Kimya Dawson, Phil Elverum, Steve Fisk, Kathleen Hanna, Conrad Keely, Macklemore, Lois Maffeo, Myra Melford, Corin Tucker, Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, John Wozniak, and Tay Zonday; Sub Pop founder Bruce Pavitt; Calvin Johnson, founder of K Records; photographer Michael Lavine; politician Yuh-Line Niou; reality television star Steve Thomas; writers Benjamin Hoff, Judith Moore, Tom Maddox and Wendy C. Ortiz; activist and diarist Rachel Corrie; professional soccer players Shawn Medved and Joey Gjertsen; and Washington Lieutenant Governor Denny Heck; Oscar winners Byron Howard and Audrey Marrs; and artists Nikki McClure, Cappy Thompson, and Molly Zuckerman-Hartung.