In computing, Chord is a protocol and algorithm for a peer-to-peer distributed hash table. A distributed hash table stores key-value pairs by assigning keys to different computers (known as "nodes"); a node will store the values for all the keys for which it is responsible. Chord specifies how keys are assigned to nodes, and how a node can discover the value for a given key by first locating the node responsible for that key.

Chord is one of the four original distributed hash table protocols, along with CAN, Tapestry, and Pastry. It was introduced in 2001 by Ion Stoica, Robert Morris, David Karger, Frans Kaashoek, and Hari Balakrishnan, and was developed at MIT. The 2001 Chord paper won an ACM SIGCOMM Test of Time award in 2011.

Subsequent research by Pamela Zave has shown that the original Chord algorithm (as specified in the 2001 SIGCOMM paper, the 2001 Technical report,
the 2002 PODC paper, and
the 2003 TON paper
) can mis-order the ring, produce several rings, and break the ring.

Overview

Nodes and keys are assigned an -bit identifier using consistent hashing. The SHA-1 algorithm is the base hashing function for consistent hashing. Consistent hashing is integral to the robustness and performance of Chord because both keys and nodes (in fact, their IP addresses) are uniformly distributed in the same identifier space with a negligible possibility of collision. Thus, it also allows nodes to join and leave the network without disruption. In the protocol, the term node is used to refer to both a node itself and its identifier (ID) without ambiguity. So is the term key.

Using the Chord lookup protocol, nodes and keys are arranged in an identifier circle that has at most  nodes, ranging from  to . ( should be large enough to avoid collision.)  Some of these nodes will map to machines or keys while others (most) will be empty.

Each node has a successor and a predecessor. The successor to a node is the next node in the identifier circle in a clockwise direction. The predecessor is counter-clockwise. If there is a node for each possible ID, the successor of node 0 is node 1, and the predecessor of node 0 is node ; however, normally there are "holes" in the sequence. For example, the successor of node 153 may be node 167 (and nodes from 154 to 166 do not exist); in this case, the predecessor of node 167 will be node 153.

The concept of successor can be used for keys as well. The successor node of a key  is the first node whose ID equals to  or follows  in the identifier circle, denoted by . Every key is assigned to (stored at) its successor node, so looking up a key  is to query .

Since the successor (or predecessor) of a node may disappear from the network (because of failure or departure), each node records an arc of  nodes in the middle of which it stands, i.e., the list of  nodes preceding it and  nodes following it. This list results in a high probability that a node is able to correctly locate its successor or predecessor, even if the network in question suffers from a high failure rate.

Protocol details

Basic query
The core usage of the Chord protocol is to query a key from a client (generally a node as well), i.e. to find . The basic approach is to pass the query to a node's successor, if it cannot find the key locally. This will lead to a  query time where  is the number of machines in the ring.

Finger table
To avoid the linear search above, Chord implements a faster search method by requiring each node to keep a finger table containing up to  entries, recall that  is the number of bits in the hash key.  The  entry of node  will contain . The first entry of finger table is actually the node's immediate successor (and therefore an extra successor field is not needed). Every time a node wants to look up a key , it will pass the query to the closest successor or predecessor (depending on the finger table) of  in its finger table (the "largest" one on the circle whose ID is smaller than ), until a node finds out the key is stored in its immediate successor.

With such a finger table, the number of nodes that must be contacted to find a successor in an N-node network is . (See proof below.)

Node join
Whenever a new node joins, three invariants should be maintained (the first two ensure correctness and the last one keeps querying fast):
 Each node's successor points to its immediate successor correctly.
 Each key is stored in .
 Each node's finger table should be correct.

To satisfy these invariants, a predecessor field is maintained for each node. As the successor is the first entry of the finger table, we do not need to maintain this field separately any more. The following tasks should be done for a newly joined node :
 Initialize node  (the predecessor and the finger table).
 Notify other nodes to update their predecessors and finger tables.
 The new node takes over its responsible keys from its successor.

The predecessor of  can be easily obtained from the predecessor of  (in the previous circle). As for its finger table, there are various initialization methods. The simplest one is to execute find successor queries for all  entries, resulting in  initialization time. A better method is to check whether  entry in the finger table is still correct for the  entry. This will lead to . The best method is to initialize the finger table from its immediate neighbours and make some updates, which is .

Stabilization
To ensure correct lookups, all successor pointers must be up to date. Therefore, a stabilization protocol is running periodically in the background which updates finger tables and successor pointers.

The stabilization protocol works as follows:
 Stabilize(): n asks its successor for its predecessor p and decides whether p should be n'''s successor instead (this is the case if p recently joined the system).
 Notify(): notifies ns successor of its existence, so it can change its predecessor to n
 Fix_fingers(): updates finger tables

Potential uses
Cooperative Mirroring: A load balancing mechanism by a local network hosting information available to computers outside of the local network.  This scheme could allow developers to balance the load between many computers instead of a central server to ensure availability of their product.
Time-shared storage: In a network, once a computer joins the network its available data is distributed throughout the network for retrieval when that computer disconnects from the network.  As well as other computers' data is sent to the computer in question for offline retrieval when they are no longer connected to the network.  Mainly for nodes without the ability to connect full-time to the network.
Distributed Indices: Retrieval of files over the network within a searchable database.  e.g. P2P file transfer clients.
Large scale combinatorial searches: Keys being candidate solutions to a problem and each key mapping to the node, or computer, that is responsible for evaluating them as a solution or not. e.g. Code Breaking
Also used in wireless sensor networks for reliability

Proof sketchesWith high probability, Chord contacts  nodes to find a successor in an -node network.Suppose node  wishes to find the successor of key . Let  be the predecessor of . We wish to find an upper bound for the number of steps it takes for a message to be routed from  to . Node  will examine its finger table and route the request to the closest predecessor of  that it has. Call this node . If  is the  entry in 's finger table, then both  and  are at distances between  and  from  along the identifier circle. Hence, the distance between  and  along this circle is at most . Thus the distance from  to  is less than the distance from  to : the new distance to  is at most half the initial distance.

This process of halving the remaining distance repeats itself, so after  steps, the distance remaining to  is at most ; in particular, after  steps, the remaining distance is at most . Because nodes are distributed uniformly at random along the identifier circle, the expected number of nodes falling within an interval of this length is 1, and with high probability, there are fewer than  such nodes. Because the message always advances by at least one node, it takes at most  steps for a message to traverse this remaining distance. The total expected routing time is thus .

If Chord keeps track of  predecessors/successors, then with high probability, if each node has probability of 1/4 of failing, find_successor (see below) and find_predecessor (see below) will return the correct nodes

Simply, the probability that all  nodes fail is , which is a low probability; so with high probability at least one of them is alive and the node will have the correct pointer.

Pseudocode
Definitions for pseudocode
finger[k] first node that succeeds
successor the next node from the node in question on the identifier ring
predecessor the previous node from the node in question on the identifier ring

The pseudocode to find the successor node of an id is given below:

 // ask node n to find the successor of id
 n.find_successor(id)
     // Yes, that should be a closing square bracket to match the opening parenthesis.
     // It is a half closed interval.
     if id ∈ (n, successor] then         return successor
     else         // forward the query around the circle
         n0 := closest_preceding_node(id)
         return n0.find_successor(id)

 // search the local table for the highest predecessor of id
 n.closest_preceding_node(id)
     for i = m downto 1 do         if (finger[i] ∈ (n, id)) then             return finger[i]
     return n

The pseudocode to stabilize the chord ring/circle after node joins and departures is as follows:

 // create a new Chord ring.
 n.create()
     predecessor := nil
     successor := n

 // join a Chord ring containing node n'.
 n.join(n')
     predecessor := nil
     successor := n'.find_successor(n)

 // called periodically. n asks the successor
 // about its predecessor, verifies if n's immediate
 // successor is consistent, and tells the successor about n
 n.stabilize()
     x = successor.predecessor
     if x ∈ (n, successor) then         successor := x
     successor.notify(n)

 // n' thinks it might be our predecessor.
 n.notify(n')
     if predecessor is nil or n'∈(predecessor, n) then         predecessor := n'

 // called periodically. refreshes finger table entries.
 // next stores the index of the finger to fix
 n.fix_fingers()
     next := next + 1
     if next > m then         next := 1
     finger[next] := find_successor(n+2);

 // called periodically. checks whether predecessor has failed.
 n.check_predecessor()
     if predecessor has failed then'''
         predecessor := nil

See also
 Kademlia
 Koorde
 OverSim – the overlay simulation framework
 SimGrid – a toolkit for the simulation of distributed applications -

References

External links
The Chord Project (redirect from: http://pdos.lcs.mit.edu/chord/)
Open Chord – An Open Source Java Implementation
Chordless – Another Open Source Java Implementation
jDHTUQ- An open source java implementation. API to generalize the implementation of peer-to-peer DHT systems. Contains GUI in mode data structure

Articles with example pseudocode
Distributed data storage
Software using the MIT license

Chord (peer-to-peer)


A pattern is an idea, a concept or a model. The model is usually abstract, and can then be applied to the domain where it is used. Pattern matching is checking if a certain pattern is present. Many patterns can directly be recognised by the senses.

Some patterns are based on the fact that there are repetitions, that a certain thing occurs over and over again. An example of a simple pattern might be the tiling of a floor. For example, lots of bathrooms have a paisley or floral tiling pattern on the floor. In computer science, design patterns are model solutions for problems that occur often. Sometimes people see patterns when there are none. This is called pareidolia.

Mathematical patterns
In Mathematics, there are many different patterns. For example, the Fibonacci sequence is a complex type of pattern. There are some simple ones like:

1, 2, 4, 8, 16, ...

In this pattern, the next number is the product of the previous number multiplied by 2. Basically a mathematical pattern is a sequence of numbers which follows one rule.

Computer science
Design
Conceptual art

Pattern


"Abide with Me" is a religious song or hymn. It was written by Henry Lyte in 1847, and is typically associated with funerals and solemn events of remembrance. The song is sung at the start of the FA Cup finals.

Lyrics
Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
Earth's joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word;
But as Thou dwell'st with Thy disciples, Lord,
Familiar, condescending, patient, free.
Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.

Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,
But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings,
Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea—
Come, Friend of sinners, and thus bide with me.

Thou on my head in early youth didst smile;
And, though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,
Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee,
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

Other websites
The Cyber Hymnal™  (lyrics, MIDI, sheet music, pictures & history)

Christian hymns
1840s songs

Abide with Me


The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state. England, Scotland, Wales (together: Great Britain) and Northern Ireland are parts of this state.

The Acts of Union in 1707 united the crowns and Parliaments of England and Scotland to create (the United Kingdom of) Great Britain. At this time, Wales was legally part of the Kingdom of England, with representation (since 1536) in the English Parliament, so it was included in the union of England and Scotland. Ireland was a separate kingdom with its own parliament until further Acts of Union in 1800 joined Great Britain and Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

In 1922, the territory of what is now the Republic of Ireland gained independence, and only Northern Ireland continued to be part of the United Kingdom. As a result, in 1927 Britain changed its formal title to "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", usually shortened to "the United Kingdom", "The UK", "Great Britain" or just "Britain".

The birth of the United Kingdom

Acts of Union 1707

The first step towards political unification were taken on 1 May 1707, when the parliaments of Scotland and England approved Acts of Union which combined the two parliaments and the two royal titles.

Perhaps the greatest single benefit to Scotland of the Union was that Scotland could enjoy free trade with England and her colonies overseas. For England's part, a possible ally for European states that were hostile to England had been neutralized.

Certain aspect of the former independent kingdoms remained separate. Examples of Scottish and English institutions which were not merged into the British system include: Scottish and English law which remain separate, as do Scottish and English banking systems, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and Anglican Church of England also remained separate as did the systems of education and higher learning.

As the Scots were generally well educated, they made a disproportionate contribution to both the government of the United Kingdom and the administration of the British Empire.

19th century

Ireland joins with the Act of Union (1800)

The second stage in the development of the United Kingdom took effect on 1 January 1801, when Great Britain merged with the Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

The legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was completed under the Act of Union 1800. The country's name was changed to "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland". The Act was passed in the British and therefore unrepresentative Irish Parliament with substantial majorities achieved in part (according to contemporary documents) through bribery, namely the awarding of peerages and honors to critics to get their votes. The separate Parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland were abolished, and replaced by a united Parliament of the United Kingdom. Ireland thus became part of an extended United Kingdom. Ireland sent around 100 MPs to the House of Commons at Westminster and 28 peers to the House of Lords.

Napoleonic wars
Hostilities between Great Britain and France recommenced on 18 May 1803. The Coalition war-aims changed over the course of the conflict: a general desire to restore the French monarchy became closely linked to the struggle to stop Napoleon.
The Napoleonic conflict had reached the point at which subsequent historians could talk of a "world war". Only the Seven Years' War offered a precedent for widespread conflict on such a scale.

Victorian era
The Victorian era marked the height of the British Industrial Revolution and the apex of the British Empire. Although commonly used to refer to the period of Queen Victoria's rule between 1837 and 1901, scholars debate whether the Victorian period–as defined by a variety of sensibilities and political concerns that have come to be associated with the Victorians–actually begins with the passage of Reform Act 1832. The era was preceded by the Regency era and succeeded by the Edwardian period. The latter half of the Victorian era roughly coincided with the first portion of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe and other non-English speaking countries.

Prime Ministers: William Pitt the Younger | Lord Grenville | Duke of Portland | Spencer Perceval | Lord Liverpool | George Canning | Lord Goderich | Duke of Wellington | Lord Grey | Lord Melbourne | Sir Robert Peel | Lord John Russell | Lord Derby | Lord Aberdeen | Lord Palmerston | Benjamin Disraeli | William Ewart Gladstone | Lord Salisbury | Lord Rosebery

Ireland and the move to Home Rule

20th century

Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom 1900–1945
Marquess of Salisbury | Arthur Balfour | Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman | Herbert Henry Asquith | David Lloyd George | Andrew Bonar Law | Stanley Baldwin | Ramsay MacDonald | Stanley Baldwin | Ramsay MacDonald | Stanley Baldwin | Neville Chamberlain | Winston Churchill

World War I

Partition of Ireland

World War II

Empire to Commonwealth
Britain's control over its Empire loosened during the interwar period. Nationalism became stronger in other parts of the empire, particularly in India and in Egypt.

Between 1867 and 1910, the UK granted Australia, Canada, and New Zealand "Dominion" status (near complete autonomy within the Empire).

1945-1997
The end of the Second World War saw a landslide General Election victory for Clement Attlee and the Labour Party.

As the country headed into the 1950s, rebuilding continued and a number of immigrants from the remaining British Empire were invited to help the rebuilding effort. During the 1950s the UK lost its place as a superpower and could no longer maintain its large Empire. This led to decolonization, and a withdrawal from almost all of its colonies by 1970.

Though the 1970s and 1980s saw the UK's integration to the European Economic Community which became the European Union in 1992 and a strict modernization of its economy.

After the difficult 70s and 80s the 1990s saw the beginning of a period of continuous economic growth that has to date lasted over 15 years. The Good Friday Agreement saw what many believe to be the beginning of the end of conflict in Northern Ireland; since this event, there has been very little armed violence over the issue.

21st century
In the 2001 General Election, the Labour Party won a second successive victory.

Despite huge anti-war marches being held in London and Glasgow, Tony Blair gave strong support to the United State's invasion of Iraq in 2003. Forty-six thousand British troops, one-third of the total strength of the British Army (land forces), were active to assist with the invasion of Iraq and after that British armed forces were responsible for security in southern Iraq in the time before the Iraqi elections of January 2005.

2007 saw the conclusion of the premiership of Tony Blair, followed by that of Gordon Brown. The next prime minister, David Cameron, was elected in 2010. During his first term, the Scottish National Party (SNP) won the 2011 election to the Scottish Parliament. On 18 September 2014, the SNP held a referendum that asked the people of Scotland whether they want to be independent from the UK. 55% of voters wanted to remain in the UK.

David Cameron was re-elected in 2015 on promises to hold a referendum on whether the United Kingdom should leave the European Union. It took place on 23 June 2016 and was won by the "Leave" campaign with 52% of the vote. Cameron would then resign and be replaced by Theresa May as prime minister who will lead the country into the process of "Brexit".

On January 2020, Brexit had occurred.

Terrorist attacks
The U.K. also saw two incidents of terrorism occur in London in the 21st century.

On 7 July 2005, three bombs exploded on the London Underground at 8:50 during the morning rush hour, and a fourth exploded one hour later on a bus in Tavistock Square. The attack, done by Muslim extremists, killed 52 people and injured over 700 others.

On 22 March 2017, exactly one year after the bombings in Brussels, five people were killed in the 2017 Westminster attack near the Houses of Parliament. One of them was the attacker, Khalid Masood, who also stabbed an officer of the Metropolitan Police, who later died of his injuries.

On 22 May 2017, "two bombings" occurred at the Manchester Arena with 19 people dead and 50 injured. It is a suspected suicide bombing.

Related pages
 United Kingdom
 British Empire
 History of Europe
 History of England

Footnotes
¹ The term "United Kingdom" was first used in the Union with Scotland Act 1706. However it is generally seen as a descriptive term, indicating that the kingdoms were freely united rather than through conquest. It is not seen as being actual name of the new United Kingdom, which was (by article one) "Great Britain". The "United Kingdom" as a name is taken to refer to the kingdom that emerged when the Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland merged on 1 January 1801.

² The name "Great Britain" (then spelt "Great Brittaine") was first used by James VI/I in October 1604, who indicated that henceforth he and his successors would be viewed as Kings of Great Britain, not Kings of England and Scotland. However the name was not applied to the state as a unit; both England and Scotland continued to be governed independently. Its validity as a name of the Crown is also questioned, given that monarchs continued using separate ordinals (e.g., James VI/I, James VII/II) in England and Scotland. To avoid confusion, historians generally avoid using the term "King of Great Britain" until 1707 and instead to match the ordinal usage call the monarchs kings or queens of England and Scotland. Separate ordinals were abandoned when the two states merged with the Act of Union 1707, with subsequent monarchs using ordinals apparently based on English not Scottish history (it might be argued that the monarchs have simply taken the higher ordinal, which to date has always been English). One example is Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, who is referred to as being "the Second" even though there never was an Elizabeth I of Scotland or Great Britain. Thus the term "Great Britain" is generally used from 1707.

³ The number changed several times between 1801 and 1922.

4 The Anglo-Irish Treaty was ratified by (i) The British Parliament (Commons, Lords & Royal Assent), (ii) Dáil Éireann, and the (iii) the House of Commons of Southern Ireland, a parliament created under the British Government of Ireland Act 1920 which was supposedly the valid parliament of Southern Ireland in British eyes and which had an almost identical membership of the Dáil, but which nevertheless had to assemble separately under the Treaty's provisions to approve the Treaty, the Treaty thus being ratified under both British and Irish constitutional theory.

References

Other websites
 Info Britain.co.uk
 History of the United Kingdom: Primary Documents
 http://www.british-history.ac.uk
 Text of 1800 Act of Union
 Act of Union virtual library

History of the United Kingdom


The Buddhist Crisis was a period of political and religious tension in South Vietnam. The crisis was characterized by a series of discriminating acts by the South Vietnamese government and a campaign of civil resistance mainly led by Buddhist monks.

The crisis was started when the President Ngô Đình Diệm banned the flying of the Buddhist flag. That led to the shooting of nine unarmed civilians who were protesting a ban of the Buddhist flag on May 8 and suicide by burning of Thích Quảng Đức on June 11. The crisis ended when Ngô Đình Diệm was assassinated on November 2, 1963.

Background
A survey said that about 70-90 percent of South Vietnamese people were Buddhist. The President called it biased. A member of the Catholic minority, his government was biased towards Catholics in public service and military promotions, as well as in the allocation of land, business favors and tax concessions etc. Diem once told a high-ranking officer, forgetting that he was a Buddhist, "Put your Catholic officers in sensitive places. They can be trusted." Many officers in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) converted to Catholicism believing that their career prospects depended on it. Many were also refused promotion if they did not convert. Also, the distribution of firearms to village self-defense militias intended to repel Viet Cong guerrillas was done so that weapons were only given to Catholics. Some Catholic priests ran private armies, and in some areas forced conversion and looting, shelling and demolition of pagodas. Some Buddhist villages converted to receive aid or avoid being forcibly resettled by Diem's regime. The Catholic Church enjoyed special exemptions. In 1959, Ngô Đình Diệm dedicated the country to the Virgin Mary. The Vatican flag was usually flown in public services and events while the Buddhist flag was not allowed to be flown in public services and/or events.

Vietnam War
1960s conflicts
1960s in Asia

Buddhist crisis


Spamming nyaéta kalakuan ngirimkeun surelek electronik nu teu dipiharep. Hiji kaca article mangrupa masalah spam dina 1998 dumasar kana salaku pesen "text taya harti nu ngalir taya eureunna."

Tina panempo nu populer, spam ilaharnad dikirim ngaliwatan surelek saperti dina bentuk iklan. However, over the short history of electronic media, péople have done things comparable to spamming for many purposes other than the commercial, and in many media other than e-mail. In this article and those related, the term spamming is used broadly to refer to all of these behaviors, regardless of medium and commercial intent.

This article provides a general overview of the spamming phenomenon. Separate articles discuss the techniques of spammers on particular media: Internet e-mail, instant messaging, Usenet newsgroups, Web search engines, weblogs, and mobile phone messaging. Another article describes ways of stopping e-mail abuse.

Overview

One of the strengths of electronic communications media is that it costs virtually nothing to send a message. These media are not free of charge: setting up a cellular telephone network or an Internet e-mail service has substantial overhéad costs in equipment and connectivity. However, once these costs are paid for, the cost to transmit a message to a single recipient is minuscule when compared with older media such as postal mail. Electronic messaging is chéap and fast. It is also éasy to automate: computer programs can send out millions of messages via e-mail, instant message (IM), or Usenet netnews in minutes or hours at néarly no labor cost.

From these economic réalities, a sort of tragedy of the commons emerges. Any communications mechanism which is chéap and éasy to automate is éasy to flood with bulk messages. To send instant messages to millions of users on most IM services, all one needs is a piece of scriptable software and those users' IM usernames. The ability to send e-mail from a computer program is built in to popular operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Unix — the only added ingredient needed is the list of addresses to target.

Sending bulk messages in this fashion, to recipients who have not solicited them, has come to be known as spamming, and the messages themselves as spam. The etymology of the term is discussed below. Traditional advertising methods, such as billboards, TV or newspaper ads are similar to spam in that they are usually unsolicited and sent in bulk. Pollution of public space by advertising is also quite similar to the problem of spam. However, traditional "legitimate" advertising is usually spared the "spam" label on the grounds that distribution costs are borne by the advertiser.

Spamming has been considered by various commercial, government, and independent entities to be one of the foremost social problems facing electronic media today. All manner of attempts have been made to curb this problem: technical méasures such as e-mail filtering and the automated cancellation of netnews spam; contractual méasures such as Internet Service Providers' acceptable-use policies; laws such as the Can Spam Act of 2003; and market pressures such as boycotts of those who use or support spam.

The growing importance of Search Engines has led to a new form of spam, Spamdexing, which aims at boosting a commercial site's Pagerank.

Spamming in different media

E-mail spam

E-mail spam is by far the most common form of spamming on the internet.  It involves sending identical or néarly identical messages to a large number of recipients. Unlike legitimate commercial e-mail, spam is generally sent without the explicit permission of the recipients, and frequently contains various tricks to bypass e-mail filters.

Spammers obtain e-mail addresses by a number of méans: harvesting addresses from Usenet postings, DNS listings, or Web pages; guessing common names at known domains (known as a dictionary attack); and "e-pending" or séarching for e-mail addresses corresponding to specific persons, such as residents in an aréa.

Many e-mail spammers go to gréat lengths to concéal the origin of their messages. They might do this by spoofing e-mail addresses (similar to Internet protocol spoofing). In this technique, the spammer modifies the e-mail message so it looks like it is coming from another e-mail address. However, many spammers also maké it éasy for recipients to identify their messages as spam by placing an ad phrase in the FROM field (i.e. chances are, very few péople you know have names like "GetMyCigs" or "Giving away playstation2s").

Among the tricks used by spammers to try to circumvent the filters is to intentionally misspell common spam filter trigger words, ie. "viagra" might become "vaigra", or by inserting other symbols within the word, i.e. "v/i/a/g./r/a". Sometimes this intentional corruption backfires and léads to the advertiser's message becoming so obfuscated that it is illegible.

The weird thing is that the human mind can handle the misspellings (see Wrod Illusinos ) and while one  would think the misspellings maké it harder for email ISPs to trap the spam, it actually makes it éasier for them to recognize and stop the spam.

The most dedicated spammers are often one step ahéad of the ISPs. The dedicated ones are those making a lot of money or engaged in illegal activities, such as the porn industry, casinos and Nigerian scammers. Report them éarly and often.

Spambots are a big problem now. The worst spammers have créated various email viruses that will turn your PC into a zombie computer with a spambot; the zombie will inform a master spammer of its existence, and, and the spammer will command it to send a low volume of spam. This allows spammers to send spam without being caught by their ISPs or being tracked down by anti-spammers; the low volume makes it hard to detect. Dialup and DSL ISPs could stop spambots by blocking the SMTP port  (port 25) - link éarthlink does.

Messaging spam

Messaging spam, sometimes termed spim, is a type of spamming where the target of the spamming is instant messaging (IM).  Many IM systems offer a directory of users, including demographic information such as age and sex. Advertisers can gather this information, sign on to the system, and send unsolicited messages.

A similar sort of spam can be sent with the Windows Messenger Service in Microsoft Windows. The Messenger Service is an SMB facility intended to allow servers to send pop-up alerts to a Windows workstation. When Windows systems are connected to the Internet with this service running and without an adequate firewall, it can be used to send spam. The Messenger Service can, however, be éasily disabled.

Newsgroup spam

Newsgroup spam is a type of spamming where the target of the spamming are Usenet newsgroups. Spamming of Usenet newsgroups actually pre-dates e-mail spam. Old Usenet convention defines spamming as excessive multiple posting, that is, the repéated posting of a message (or substantially similar messages).  Since posting to newsgroups is néarly as éasy as sending e-mails, newsgroups are a popular target of spammers. The Breidbart Index was developed to provide an objective méasure of the "spamminess" of a multi-posted or cross-posted message on Usenet.

Mobile phone spam

Mobile phone spam is a form of spamming directed at the text messaging service of a mobile phone.  This can be especially irritating to consumers not only for the inconvenience but also because they sometimes have to pay to receive the text message.

Internet telephony spam

It has been predicted that voice over IP (VoIP) communications will be vulnerable to being spammed by pre-recorded messages. Although there have been few reported incidents, some companies have alréady tried to sell defenses against it.

Spam targeting search engines

Spamdexing

Spamdexing (a combination of spamming and indexing) refers to the practice on the World Wide Web of deliberately modifying HTML pages to incréase the chance of them being placed high on search engine relevancy lists. Péople who do this are called search engine spammers.

Blog spam

In blog spam the targets are weblogs.  In 2003, this type of spam took advantage of the open nature of comments in the blogging software Movable Type by repéatedly placing comments to various blog posts that provided nothing more than a link to the spammer's commercial web site.  These link would in théory enhance the ranking of the target page in séarch engine indexes.

Wiki spam

Wikis are also a target of séarch engine spam, quite similar to blog spam.

Guestbook spam

Though more "old-school" than blogs or wikis, guestbooks are still present on some sites, and are subject to the same sorts of spam.

Commercial uses

The most common purpose for spamming is advertising. Goods commonly advertised in spam include pornography, computer software, medical products such as Viagra, credit card accounts, and fad products. In part because of the bad reputation (and dubious legal status) which spamming carries, it is chiefly used to carry offers of an ill-reputed or questionably legal nature. Many of the products advertised in spam are fraudulent in nature, such as quack medications and get-rich-quick schemes. Spam is frequently used to advertise scams, such as diploma mills, advance fee fraud, pyramid schemes, stock pump-and-dump schemes and password phishing. It is also often used to advertise pornography indiscriminately, even in jurisdictions where it is illegal to transmit pornographic solicitations to minor children, or even for anyone to view it at all.

The use of spamming in other countries is often different. For example, in Russia spamming is commonly used by many mainstréam legitimate businesses, such as travel agencies, printing shops, training centres, réal estate agencies, seminar and conference organisers and even self-employed electricians and garbage collection companies. In fact, the most prominent Russian spammer was American English Center, a language school in Moscow.  That spamming sparked a powerful anti-spam movement, including enraging the deputy minister of communications Andrey Korotkov and provoked a wave of counter attacks on the spammer through non-internet channels, including a massive telephone DDOS attack.

Comparison to postal "junk" mail

There are a number of differences between spam and junk mail:

 Unlike junk postal mail, the costs of spam paid for by the recipient's mail site commonly approach or even exceed those of the sender, in terms of bandwidth, CPU processing time, and storage space.  Spammers frequently use free dial-up accounts, so their costs may be quite minimal indeed. Because of this offloading of costs onto the recipient, many consider spamming to be theft or criminal conversion.
 Junk mail can be said to subsidize the delivery of mail customers want to receive.  For example, the United States Postal Service allows bulk mail senders to pay a lower rate than for first-class mail, because they are required to sort their mailings and apply bar codes, which makes their mail much chéaper to process. While some ISPs receive large fees from spammers, most do not — and most pay the costs of carrying or filtering unwanted spam.
 Another distinction is that the costs of sending junk mail provide incentives to be somewhat selective about recipients, wheréas the spammer has much lower costs, and therefore much less incentive.
 Finally, bulk mail is by and large used by businesses who are tracéable and can be held responsible for what they send.  Spammers frequently operate on a fly-by-night basis, using the so-called "anarchy" of the Internet as a cover.

Non-commercial spam

E-mail and other forms of spamming have been used for purposes other than advertisements. Many éarly Usenet spams were religious or political in nature. Serdar Argic, for instance, spammed Usenet with historical revisionist screeds. A number of evangelists have spammed Usenet and e-mail media with préaching messages.

Spamming has also been used as a denial of service tactic, particularly on Usenet. By overwhelming the réaders of a newsgroup with an inordinate number of nonsense messages, legitimate messages can be lost and computing resources are consumed. Since these messages are usually forged (that is, sent falsely under regular posters' names) this tactic has come to be known as sporgery (from spam + forgery). This tactic has for instance been used by partisans of the Church of Scientology against the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup (see Scientology vs. the Internet) and by spammers against news.admin.net-abuse.e-mail, a forum for mail administrators to discuss spam problems. Applied to e-mail, this is termed mailbombing.

In a handful of cases, forged e-mail spam has been used as a tool of harassment. The spammer collects a list of addresses as usual, then sends a spam to them signed with the name of the person he wishes to harass. Some recipients, angry that they received spam and seeing an obvious "source", will respond angrily or pursue various sorts of revenge against the apparent spammer, the forgery victim. A widely known victim of this sort of harassment was Joe's CyberPost, which has lent its name to the offense: it is known as a joe job. Such joe jobs have been most often used against anti-spammers: in more recent examples, Steve Linford of Spamhaus Project and Timothy Walton, a California attorney, have been targeted.

Spammers have also abused resources set up for purposes of anonymous speech online, such as anonymous remailers. As a result, many of these resources have been shut down, denying their utility to legitimate users.

E-mail worms or viruses may be spammed to set up an initial pool of infected machines, which then re-send the virus to other machines in a spam-like manner. The infected machines can often be used as remote-controlled zombie computers, for more conventional spamming or DDoS attacks. Sometimes trojans are spammed to phish for bank account details, or to set up a pool of zombies without using a virus.

Etymology

The term spam is derived from the Monty Python SPAM sketch, set in a cafe where everything on the menu includes SPAM lunchéon méat. While a customer plaintively asks for some kind of food without SPAM in it, the server reiterates the SPAM-filled menu. Soon, a chorus of Vikings join in with a song, repéating "SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM" and singing "lovely SPAM, wonderful SPAM" over and over again, drowning out all conversation.

Although the first known instance of unsolicited commercial e-mail occurred in 1978 (unsolicited electronic messaging had alréady taken place over other media, with the first recorded instance being on September 13th 1904 via telegram), the term "spam" for this practice had not yet been applied. In the 1980s the term was adopted to describe certain abusive users who frequented BBSs and MUDs, who would repéat "SPAM" a huge number of times to scroll other users' text off the screen. This act, previously termed flooding or trashing, came to be called spamming as well.  By analogy, the term was soon applied to any large amount of text broadcast by one user, or sometimes by many users.

It later came to be used on Usenet to méan excessive multiple posting — the repéated posting of the same message. The first evident usage of this sense was by Joel Furr in the aftermath of the ARMM incident of March 31 1993, in which a piece of experimental software reléased dozens of recursive messages onto the news.admin.policy newsgroup. Soon, this use had also become established — to spam Usenet was to flood newsgroups with junk messages.

Commercial spamming started in force on March 5, 1994 when a pair of lawyers, Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel, began using bulk Usenet posting to advertise immigration law services.  The incident was commonly termed the "Green Card spam", after the subject line of the postings. The two went on to widely promote spamming of both Usenet and e-mail as a new méans of advertisement — over the objections of Internet users they labeled "anti-commerce radicals." Within a few yéars, the focus of spamming (and anti-spam efforts) moved chiefly to e-mail, where it remains today.

There are two popular fake etymologies of the word "spam". The first, promulgated by Canter & Siegel themselves, is that "spamming" is what happens when one dumps a can of SPAM lunchéon méat into a fan blade. The second is the backronym "shit posing as mail."

Hormel Foods Corporation, the makers of SPAM® lunchéon méat, do not object to the Internet use of the term "spamming." However, they do ask that the capitalized word "SPAM" be reserved to refer to their product and trademark.   By and large, this request is obeyed in forums which discuss spam—to the extent that to write "SPAM" for "spam" brands the writer as a newbie. Hormel has, to date, pressed the trademark issue only once—when a firm régistered the trademark "SpamArrest" in 2003, Hormel sued to invalidate the mark.

Alternate meanings

The term "spamming" is also used in the older sense of something repetitious and disruptive by players of first-person shooter computer games. In this sense it refers to "area denial" tactics—repéatedly firing rockets or other explosive shells into an aréa. Or to any tactic whereby a large volume of ammunition is expended in the hope of scoring a single hit.

MUD, MUSH, and MUCK players happily continue using the word in its original sense. When a player returns to the terminal after a brief bréak to find her screen filled with pages of random chat, that's still called "spam".

Neither of these senses of the word imply that the "spamming" is abusive.

Costs of spam

Spam's direct effects include the consumption of computer and network resources, and the cost in human time and attention of dismissing unwanted messages. In addition, spam has costs stemming from the kinds of spam messages sent, from the ways spammers send them, and from the arms race between spammers and those who try to stop or control spam.

The methods of spammers are likewise costly. Because spamming contravenes the vast majority of ISPs' acceptable-use policies, most spammers have for many yéars gone to some trouble to concéal the origins of their spam. E-mail, Usenet, and instant-message spam are often sent through insecure proxy servers belonging to unwilling third parties. Spammers frequently use false names, addresses, phone numbers, and other contact information to set up "disposable" accounts at various Internet service providers. In some cases, they have used falsified or stolen credit card numbers to pay for these accounts. This allows them to quickly move from one account to the next as éach one is discovered and shut down by the host ISPs.

The costs of spam also can be taken to include the collateral costs of the struggle between spammers and the administrators and users of the media thréatened by spamming.

Many users are bothered by spam because it impinges upon the amount of time they spend réading their e-mail. Many also find the content of spam frequently offensive, in that pornography is one of the most frequently advertised products. Spammers send their spam largely indiscriminately, so pornographic ads may show up in a work place e-mail inbox — or a child's, the latter of which is illegal in many jurisdictions.

Some spammers argue that most of these costs could potentially be alleviated by having spammers reimburse ISPs and individuals for their material. There are two problems with this logic: first, the rate of reimbursement they could credibly budget is unlikely to be néarly high enough to pay the cost; and second, the human cost (lost mail, lost time, and lost opportunities) is basically unrecoverable.

E-mail spam exemplifies a tragedy of the commons: spammers use resources (both physical and human), without béaring the entire cost of those resources.  In fact, spammers commonly do not béar the cost at all. This raises the costs for everyone. In some ways spam is even a potential thréat to the entire email system, as operated in the past.

Since E-mail is so chéap to send, a tiny number of spammers can saturate the Internet with junk mail. Although only a tiny percentage of their targets are motivated to purchase their products (or fall victim to their scams), the low cost sometimes provides a sufficient conversion rate to keep spamming alive.  Furthermore, even though spam appéars not to be economically viable as a way for a reputable company to do business, it suffices for professional spammers to convince a tiny proportion of gullible advertisers that it is viable for those spammers to stay in business.  Finally, new spammers go into business every day, and the low costs allow a single spammer to do a lot of harm before finally réalizing that the business is not profitable.

Political issues

Spamming remains a hot discussion topic. In fact, many online users have even suggested (presumably jokingly) that cruel forms of capital punishment would be appropriate for spammers. In 2004, the seized Porsche of an indicted spammer was advertised on the internet, which revéaled the extent of the financial rewards available to those who are willing to waste everybody's time and was a popular item because the car had been confiscated, which was seen as tough justice, but also sweet vengéance. However, some of the possible ways to stop spamming may léad to other side effects, such as incréased government control over the Net, loss of privacy, barriers to free expression or commercialisation of e-mail.

One of the chief values favored by many long-time Internet users and experts, as well as by many members of the public, is the free exchange of idéas. Many have valued the relative anarchy of the Internet, and bridle at the idéa of restrictions placed upon it. A common refrain from spam-fighters is that spamming itself abridges the historical freedom of the Internet, by attempting to force users to carry the costs of material which they would not choose.

An ongoing concern expressed by parties such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU has to do with so-called "stealth blocking", a term for ISPs employing aggressive spam blocking without their users' knowledge. These groups' concern is that ISPs or technicians seeking to reduce spam-related costs may select tools which (either through error or design) also block non-spam e-mail from sites seen as "spam-friendly". SPEWS is a common target of these criticisms. Few object to the existence of these tools; it is their use in filtering the mail of users who are not informed of their use which draws fire.

Some see spam-blocking tools as a thréat to free expression — and laws against spamming as an untoward precedent for regulation or taxation of e-mail and the Internet at large. Even though it is to possible in some jurisdictions to tréat some spam as unlawful merely by applying existing laws against trespass and conversion, some laws specifically targeting spam have been proposed. In 2004 United States passed the Can Spam Act of 2003 which provided ISPs and users with tools to combat spam. This act allowed Yahoo! to successfully sue Eric Head, reportedly one of the biggest spammers in the world, who settled the lawsuit for several thousand US dollars in June 2004.  But the law is criticised by many for not being effective enough, and was even supported by some spammers and organizations which support spamming.

See also

Types of spam
 Email spam
 Messaging spam
 Newsgroup spam
 Spamdexing
 Blog spam
 Mobile phone spam

Related topics
 List of e-mail spammers
 Email fraud
 Make money fast
 Nigerian spam
 Spam wars
 Phishing
 Joe job
 Hashcash
 Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group

Background
 Electronic mailing list
 Netiquette
 Advertising
 E-marketing

Newsgroups

 news.admin.net-abuse.email
 news.admin.net-abuse.usenet
 others in news.admin.net-abuse.* hierarchy
 alt.spam

External links

 IETF views on spamming can be found in RFC 2635.
 Fake Email Address . Prevent spamming with a fake email address from myTrashMail

Anti-spam organizations

 Anti Spam Research Group
 CAUCE
 The Spamhaus Project
 spam.abuse.net

More writing on the subject

 Spamfo.co.uk Latest news on junk email, scams, fraud, legal aspects and reviews of software and services]
 Spam Protection
 Getting Rid of Spam
 Spam FAQs
 Email Scam Reports
 The rules of spam, according to net.admin.net-abuse.email
 SpamNews.co.uk Delivering your daily slice of fresh Spam. All the spam news, all the time
 A List Apart: Win The Spam Arms Race
 California lawyer who sues spammers
 Address Munging FAQ: Spam-Blocking Your E-mail Address
 Library of Email Spam Reports and Articles
 Unsolicited Commercial E-mail Research Six Month Report  by the Center for Democracy & Technology
 E-mail Address Harvesting:  How Spammers Reap What You Sow  by the Federal Trade Commission
 The spammers are watching you  by Masons, a London-based international law firm
 The War Against Spam — a collection of réading material on the subject
 White paper from e-mail client developers
 Antiphishing Crusade  Daily News of phishing spam collected from around the net.
 Article by Andy Coote in SC Magazine June 2004
 Political Spam

Popular Anti-Spam Services
 http://www.mailwasher.net
 http://www.clearswift.com
 http://www.cloudmark.com
 http://www.postini.com
 http://www.proofpoint.com
 http://www.surfcontrol.com
 http://www.swirbo.com
 http://www.tumbleweed.com
 http://www.lafraia.com.br/spambr/

Humor
 Spamusement A collection of humorously drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines.

Spam
Perdagangan éléktronis
Pamasaran
Manajemén téhnologi informasi
Bisnis

Spam (éléktronik)


Johannes Brahms (7 May 1833 - 3 April 1897) was a famous German composer. He started his career as a pianist. He was always very self-critical and destroyed any composition he thought was not really good. He thought that people were expecting him to be the "next Beethoven", and spent many years on his first symphony before he allowed it to be performed. In the end, he wrote four symphonies altogether, as well as four concertos and a number of choral works, including a requiem. He also wrote chamber music, piano music, and German art songs, or Lieder. One of his best known songs is Wiegenlied ("cradle song"), often called "Brahms' Lullaby," which is often heard in music boxes.

His life

Early years
Brahms was born in Germany. His father was a double bass player in the Hamburg city orchestra. He probably gave the young boy his first music lessons. He soon was learning the piano with a teacher named Otto Cossel. When Brahms played in a public concert in 1843 an American agent asked him to tour America, but his teacher realized he was too young. He said that Johannes should study with Eduard Marxsen, a well-known teacher in Hamburg. By 1848 he was playing piano recitals. He also started to compose, and he sent some of his compositions to Robert Schumann to ask for his advice. Schumann sent the parcel back unopened.

At this time there were many Hungarian musicians in Hamburg. Brahms liked their folk music with its unusual rhythms, little triplet figures and sense of rubato. It was to influence his own style of composition. One of the Hungarians was called Remenyi. He played the violin and Brahms often accompanied him at concerts. They went on tour together and met famous people such as the composer Franz Liszt and the violinist Joseph Joachim who became a close friend of Brahms for many years. Joachim told Brahms to go and see Schumann and his wife Clara in Düsseldorf. Schumann liked Brahms and could see that he was going to be a great composer, so he wrote an article in his music journal about him. The article had the title: Neue Bahnen (New Paths). Schumann turned out to be correct: Brahms did become a famous composer and found "new paths" (new ways of composing).
Brahms remained a very close friend of Schumann. When Schumann had a nervous breakdown, Brahms went all the way to Düsseldorf to see him. Brahms soon fell in love with Clara who was 14 years older than himself. He continued to be in love with her after Robert Schumann's death, and they had a close relationship, though Brahms became interested in other women and was briefly engaged. However, he never married.

Early career in Hamburg
In 1859, Brahms settled in Hamburg. He founded a women's choir and wrote and arranged a lot of music for them. His First Piano Concerto was a great success in Hanover and Hamburg, but not in Leipzig, where a lot of people preferred the wildly Romantic music of Liszt which was quite different from Brahms's style based on the Classical music style. Brahms decided to go to Vienna. He was to stay there for the rest of his life.

First years in Vienna
In Vienna he soon made many friends who liked his music. For a short time he was director of a choir called the Vienna Singakademie, who sang some of his compositions. He met Wagner. Wagner was afraid that Brahms would start to write operas which would be more famous than his own. So Wagner wrote an article saying that Brahms was a very bad conductor. Wagner had made himself an enemy of Brahms, who never did write any operas anyway.

In 1870, Brahms became director of a concert series called Vienna Gesellschaftskonzerte. He became more and more famous as a composer, but he was never very good at conducting, and in 1875 a conductor called Hans Richter took over conducting the concerts. During these years he finished one of his greatest works: Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem), as well as one of his most popular works: the Variations on the St Anthony chorale (sometimes wrongly known as Variations on a Theme by Haydn).

Years of fame
At last, in 1876, he allowed his First Symphony to be performed. It was not very successful at first, but in Vienna the audience liked it. He started to compose a lot of his greatest works and received many honours from universities. In the winter he gave concerts and in the summer he spent his time composing. He wrote his last symphony (Fourth Symphony) in 1885 and conducted it, going on tour with the orchestra through Germany and the Netherlands.

From 1889, Brahms spent each summer in Ischl where he had many friends. By 1890 he had decided to stop composing, although he did still write four beautiful works for clarinet after meeting the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld. In 1896 he wrote Four Serious Songs which were probably inspired by the sad death of Clara Schumann. The next year Brahms died from cancer in Vienna. His father had died of the same illness.

His music
Brahms wrote a great deal of vocal music. The greatest of these works is the German Requiem. There were many works for choirs, and a large collection of songs with piano accompaniment (Lieder). He wrote a lot of piano music which includes sonatas and many shorter pieces such as fantasias, rhapsodies, ballades, intermezzos, capriccios and romances. His chamber music includes string quartets, quintets and sextets and piano trios, quartets and a piano quintet. He wrote four symphonies and four concertos: two for piano, one for the violin and one for violin and cello (the Double Concerto). The German Requiem is his greatest vocal work.

Brahms was also very interested in old music and helped to edit music by François Couperin as well as the music of his friend Robert Schumann. For writing his music Brahms was mostly using German and Viennese pianos. He owned a Conrad Graf piano that he received from Clara Schumann in 1856. Later in life he was mostly playing on a Streicher piano. Brahms kept this piano in his house until his death.

20th-century German composers
German pianists
People from Hamburg
Romantic composers
1833 births
1897 deaths

Johannes Brahms


Defence (defense in the U.S.) in ice hockey is a player position whose main job is to stop the other team from scoring. They are often called defencemen, defensemen, D, or "blueliners" (a reference to the blue line in ice hockey which is boundary of the offensive zone; defencemen generally stay along the line to keep the puck in the zone).

In regular play, two defencemen play with three forwards and a goaltender on the ice. Exceptions include overtime and when a team is shorthanded (i.e. has been assessed a penalty), in which two defencemen are typically joined by only two forwards and a goaltender.

Ice hockey positions

Defenceman


The term orange can mean any citrus tree that produces fruit for people to eat. Oranges are a very good source of Vitamin C. Orange juice is an important part of many people's breakfast. The "sweet orange", which is the kind that are most often eaten today, grew first in South and East Asia but now grows in lots of parts of the world.

Oranges are round, orange-coloured fruit that grow on a tree which can reach 10 metres (33 ft) high. Orange trees have dark green shiny leaves and small white flowers with five petals. The flowers smell very sweet which attracts many bees.

An orange has a tough shiny orange skin that holds acid in outside layer. Inside, the fruit is divided into "segments", which have thin tough skins that hold together many little sections with juice inside. There are usually ten segments in an orange, but sometimes there are more or less. Inside each segment of most types of orange there are seeds called "pips". Orange trees can be grown from pips, but some types of orange trees can only be grown from "cuttings" (a piece cut off a tree and made to grow roots). The segments and the skin are separated by white stringy fibrous material called "pith". In most types of oranges, the skin can be peeled off the pith, and the segments can be pulled apart with the fingers to be eaten. In some oranges it is hard to take the skin off. Orange skin is often called "orange peel".

Oranges are an important food source in many parts of the world for several reasons. They are a commonly available source of vitamin C. They last longer than many other fruits when they are stored. They are easy to transport because each orange comes in its own tough skin which acts as a container. They can be piled into heaps or carried in bags, lunchboxes and shipping containers without being easily damaged.

The colour orange got its name from the fruit. The word "orange" is unusual because it is one of only a few English words that do not rhyme with anything.

The orange is particularly used in Asia for wide variety of purposes including cosmetic as well as medicinal. Doctors prescribe oranges for people who suffer from diabetes.

History
Sweet orange trees were brought to Italy, Spain and Portugal from India in the fifteenth century (1400's). Before that time, only sour oranges were grown in Italy. The name is from a Tamil word, via Persian and Arabic. From Europe, orange trees were taken to the United States, South America, Africa and Australia, which all grow oranges for sale.

There are several different types of sweet oranges. One of the most common types is called the "Valencia" orange, which comes from Spain and is also grown in Africa and Australia. It is one of the most important "commercial" oranges. (This means it is grown for sale in shops.)

One type of sweet orange is called the "blood orange" or "sanguine orange" (sanguine means blood red). These oranges often have red marks on the skin, and some parts of the inside look as if they have blood in them. Some blood oranges make juice that is ruby red.

In the 1850s, in Brazil, a tree growing in a monastery garden was making very odd fruit. Inside each orange skin there was a large orange with no seeds. At the bottom of the orange were smaller sections that looked like a smaller squashed orange inside the same skin, which was really the bigger orange's twin. The little orange made a strange bump at the bottom of the orange skin, that looked just like a human navel or belly button. These oranges were named "Navel Oranges". They tasted very sweet, they had no seeds and they peeled quite easily. This made them a very good orange to grow commercially. But they could not grow from seed. They could only grow from plant cuttings. Nowadays, thousands of these orange trees have been planted from cuttings. "Navel Oranges" are grown in California and exported to many countries of the world. Every navel orange in the world has the same genetic make up as the oranges on that tree in the monastery in Brazil.

Mandarins, small flattened oranges with skins that come off easily, are believed to have come from China. Now there are several varieties. These include tangerines, which are redder than most mandarins, and clementines, which are large, smooth and plump. Mandarins of all sorts are very useful lunchbox fruit, because they are easy to peel and eat, but do not get squashed easily.

Nowadays, many people of the world eat an orange or drink orange juice every day, because oranges are one of the best and cheapest sources of Vitamin C. Human bodies, unlike many other animals, do not manufacture Vitamin C, so a human needs vitamin C in their diet regularly. Vitamin C helps the body to grow, to heal wounds and fight infection. Oranges are also a very good source of dietary fibre. But they do not contain high amounts of minerals. If a person eats an orange and a banana together, then they have had a very nourishing snack that supplies both vitamins and minerals. Oranges are sweet and juicy.

Traditions

 Orange trees are a symbol of love and marriage in many cultures. Oranges are sometimes found in Renaissance paintings of married couples. One of the most famous is Jan van Eyck's "Wedding Portrait of the Arnolfini".
 Brides traditionally wear orange blossoms in their hair or carry them in their bouquet at their wedding. Orange blossoms are often part of the decoration on a wedding cake.
 Queen Victoria was given a coronet of gold and enamel orange blossoms by her husband Albert. When their children were born, he had a jeweller add tiny green oranges to the coronet.
 If an orange is peeled with a knife, it is possible to cut the peel off in one long unbroken piece. Schoolgirls in some countries chant a rhyme, and throw the long orange peel over their shoulder, then look at how it falls to find the initial letter of the name of the boy that loves them.
 In some countries, blood oranges are seen as a symbol of the death of Jesus.
 In some European countries, a "Christingle" is a Christmas decoration using an orange and a candle to symbolise Jesus' love for the world.
 In cold countries, when fruit was scarce, an orange was often given at Christmas. In England, it was traditional to stuff the toe of a child's Christmas stocking with raisins, almonds and oranges.
 Orange peel can be dried and treated with sugar. It is an ingredient in Christmas cakes.
 Oranges are sometimes used to make a sweet-smelling pomander to perfume a room. This is done by sticking the stalks of cloves into an orange, and allowing the orange to dry out.
 Orange jam is called marmalade. Traditionally, it is said to have been first made for Mary Queen of Scots or Marie Antoinette when they were sick. Neither of these stories is true, as marmalade was made in Portugal for many years before either of them was born. The term "marmalade", originally meaning a quince jam ("marmelada" in Portuguese), derives from the Portuguese word for this fruit, marmelo.
 An English children's song about the church bells of London begins with the line "'Oranges and Lemons' say the Bells of St. Clements..."

Gallery

Related pages
 Healthy diet
 Vitamin C
 Fruit
 Citrus fruit
 Lemon
 Lime (fruit)
 Apple
 Pear
 Banana

References

Other websites
 15 Health Benefits of Oranges – Nutritional Value of Orange
 Natural Food Guide to the Vitamin C content of Fruits

Citrus

Orange (fruit)


In physical geography, a wetland is an environment that combines the properties of land and water. Wetlands are a distinct kind of ecosystem.

The combination of wet and dry areas means that many more different kinds of plants, animals and insects may live in a wetland than compared to other types of habitat. Because of this great biodiversity, several important wetlands are among the Global 200 ecoregions that the World Wide Fund for Nature listed for conservation to try to get people to protect them. As well, Ramsar Convention is adopted in 1971 for protection of wetland.

Wetland types
 A bog or muskeg is acidic peat land (peat bog).
 A moor was originally the same as a bog but has come to be associated with this soil type on hill-tops.
 A moss is a raised bog in Scotland
 A fen is a freshwater peat land with chemically basic (which roughly means alkaline) ground water. This means that it contains a moderate or high proportion of hydroxyl ions (pH value greater than 7).
 A carr is a fen which has developed enough to support trees. It is a European term, mainly applied in the north of the UK.
 A fresh-water marsh's main feature is its openness, with only low-growing or "emergent" plants. It may feature grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, and other herbaceous plants (possibly with low-growing woody plants) in a context of shallow water. It is an open form of fen. The Fens in eastern England were just such a wetland.
 A coastal (salt)-marsh typically has very salty water, either directly from the ocean or a mixture of salt water and fresh water. Salt-marshes may be associated with estuaries and along waterways between coastal barrier islands and the inner coast. The plants in this kind of marsh can range from reeds in mildly brackish (salty) water to especially hardy salt-grasses (salicornia) on otherwise bare marine mud. Many plants in salt-marshes have evolved to live in such salty conditions with special adaptations. Salt-marshes may be converted to human use as pasture (salting) or for salt production (saltern).
 A swamp is wetland with more open water surface and deeper water than a marsh. In North America, 'swamp' is used for wetlands dominated by trees and woody bushes rather than grasses and low herbs. This distinction does not necessarily apply in other areas, for instance in Africa where swamps may be dominated by papyrus instead of trees. A swamp may also be described by the dominant plants growing in it. For example: A mangrove swamp or mangal is a salt or brackish water environment dominated by mangrove trees. A paperbark wetland is a fresh or brackish water environment dominated by the Melaleuca tree.
 A dambo is a shallow, grass-covered depression of central and southern Africa. It is waterlogged in the rainy season, and usually forms the headwaters of a stream or river. It is marshy at the edges and at the headwater, but maybe swampy in the centre and downstream.
 A bayou or slough are southern United States terms for a swamp with a creek running through it. In an Indian mangrove swamp, it would be called a creek.
 A peat swamp forest is a low-level tropical or subtropical forest wetland. It produces peat, and is sometimes called a blackwater swamp.
 A constructed wetland is man-made to make a piece of land hold more water than it otherwise would naturally. This allows the land to stay wet enough to grow wetland plants and oftentimes hold water as well. Uses include absorbing flash floods (by holding the extra water from the flood), cleaning sewage (which is done by the plants as the dirty water passes over their roots), enhancing wildlife habitat (for example creating new homes for rare birds or other animals) or for some other human reason.

References

Other websites

Wetland


The African National Congress (ANC), supported by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), has been South Africa's governing centre-left political party since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a "disciplined force of the left". Members founded the organization as the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) on 8 January 1912 in Bloemfontein to increase the rights of the black South African population. John Dube, its first president, and poet and author Sol Plaatje are among its founding members. The organization became the ANC in 1923 and formed a military wing, the Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) in 1961.

It has been the ruling party of post-apartheid South Africa on the national level since 1994. It gained support in the 1999 elections, and further increased its majority in 2004, with 69.7% of the votes. In 2009 its share of the vote reduced slightly, but it remained the dominant party with 65.9% of the votes.

History

The ANC was founded in direct response to what was seen as injustices against black South Africans at the hands of their white, mostly Afrikaner government. The ANC had its origins in a pronouncement by Pixley ka Isaka Seme who said in 1911 Forget all the past differences among Africans and unite in one national organisation. The ANC was set up the next year on 8 January 1912.

The government of the newly formed Union of South Africa began a systematic oppression of black people in South Africa. The Natives' Land Act was issued in 1913. The effect of these laws was to force many non-whites from their farms into the cities and towns to work, and to restrict their movement within South Africa. By 1919, the ANC led a campaign against passes, and in 1929 the ANC supported a militant mineworkers' strike.

The ANC became dormant in the mid-1920s. During that time, black people were also represented by the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union and the once white-only Communist party. By 1927, J.T. Gumende (president of the ANC) proposed cooperation with the Communists in a bid to revitalise the organisation, but he was voted out of power in the 1930s. This led to the ANC becoming largely ineffectual and inactive, until the mid-1940s when the ANC was remodelled as a mass movement.

The ANC responded militarily to attacks on the rights of black South Africans, as well as calling for strikes, boycotts, and defiance. This led to a later Defiance Campaign in the 1950s, a mass movement of resistance to South Africa under apartheid. The government tried to stop the ANC by banning party leaders and enacting new laws to stop the ANC, however these measures failed.

In 1955, the Congress of the People officially adopted the Freedom Charter, stating the core principles of the South African Congress Alliance, which consisted of the African National Congress and its allies the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats and the Coloured People's Congress. The government claimed that this was a communist document, and consequently leaders of the ANC and Congress were arrested. 1960 saw the Sharpeville Massacre, in which 69 people were killed when police opened fire on anti-apartheid protesters.

Whites eventually joined the fight against apartheid, leading many black supremacists to break away from the ANC.

Umkhonto we Sizwe
Umkhonto we Sizwe (or MK), translated "Spear of the Nation", was the military wing of the ANC. Partly in response to the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, individual members of the ANC thought violence was needed because peaceful passive protest had failed. There was a significant portion of the ANC who therefore turned to violence in order to achieve their goals. A significant portion of ANC leadership agreed that this violence was needed to combat increasing backlash from the government.

Some ANC members were upset by the actions of the MK, and refused to accept violence as necessary for the ending of Apartheid, but these individuals became a minority as the militant leaders such as Nelson Mandela gained significant popularity. Many consider their actions to be criminal, but the MK said violence was justified by the goal of ending apartheid. Some members of MK committed terrorist acts to achieve their aims, and MK was responsible for the deaths of both civilians and members of the military.
In cooperation with the South African Communist Party, MK was founded in 1961.

Ideology
The ANC calls itself a force of national liberation in the post-apartheid era; it officially defines its umbrella agenda as the National Democratic Revolution. The ANC is a member of the Socialist International. It also sets forth the redressing of socio-economic differences stemming from colonial- and apartheid-era policies as a central focus of ANC policy.

The National Democratic Revolution (NDR) is how the National Democratic Society (NDS) can be achieved; a society in which people are intellectually, socially, economically and politically empowered.

Tripartite Alliance
The ANC holds a historic alliance with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), known as the Tripartite Alliance. The SACP and COSATU have not contested any election in South Africa, but field candidates through the ANC, hold senior positions in the ANC, and influence party policy and dialogue. During Mbeki's presidency, the government took a more pro-capitalist stance, often running counter to the demands of the SACP and COSATU.

2008 schism
Following Zuma's accession to the ANC leadership in 2007 and Mbeki's resignation as president in 2008, the Mbeki faction of former ministers led by Mosiuoa Lekota split away from the ANC to form the Congress of the People.

ANC flag

The ANC flag is composed of three stripes – black, green and gold. Black symbolizes the native people of South Africa, green represents the land and gold represents the mineral and other natural wealth of South Africa. This flag was also the battle flag of the Umkhonto we Sizwe. The official party flag also has the emblem of the party incorporated onto the flag.

Party list
Politicians in the party win a place in parliament by being on the Party List, which is drawn up before the elections and enumerates, in order, the party's preferred MPs. The number of seats allocated is proportional to the popular national vote, and this determines the cut-off point.

The ANC has also gained members through the controversial floor crossing process.

Although most South African parties announced their candidate list for provincial premierships in the 2009 election, the ANC did not. It is not required for parties to do so.

Election results

Role of the ANC in resolving the conflict
The ANC was the main opposition to the government during apartheid and played a major role in resolving the conflict through the peacemaking and peace-building processes. Initially members of the National Party met in secret with ANC leaders, including Nelson Mandela, to see if peace was possible. Discussions and negotiations took place leading to the eventual unbanning of the ANC and other opposing political parties by then President de Klerk on 2 February 1990. These initial meetings were the first crucial steps towards resolution.

The next official step towards rebuilding South Africa was the Groote Schuur Minute where the government and the ANC agreed on a common commitment towards the end of violence and intimidation, as well as a commitment to stability and to a peaceful process of negotiations. The ANC negotiated the release of political prisoners and the immunity from prosecution for returning exiles and moreover channels of communication were established between the Government and the ANC.

Later the Pretoria Minute was another step towards resolution where agreements at Groote Schuur were reconsolidated and steps towards setting up an interim government and drafting a new constitution were established as well as suspension of the military wing of the ANC – the Umkhonto we Sizwe. This step helped end much of the violence within South Africa. Another agreement that came out of the Pretoria Minute was that both parties would try and raise awareness that a new way of governing was being created for South Africa, and that further violence would only hinder this process. However violence still continued in Kwazulu-Natal, which violated the trust between Mandela and de Klerk. Moreover, internal disputes in the ANC prolonged the war as consensus on peace was not reached.

The next significant steps towards resolution were:
 the repeal of the Population Registration Act,
 the repeal of the Group Areas Act
 the repeal of the Native Land Acts and
 passing the Abolishment of Racially Based Measures Act was passed.

These measures ensured no one could claim, or be deprived of any rights on the basis of race.

In December 1991 the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) was held with the aim of establishing an interim government. But in June 1992 there was the Boipatong massacre.  Negotiations stopped as the ANC pulled out. Only Cyril Ramaphosa of the ANC, and Roelf Meyer of the National Party carried on talking. In over 40 meetings the two men discussed and negotiated over many issues including the nature of the future political system, the fate of over 40,000 government employees and if/how the country would be divided. The result of these negotiations was a temporary constitution that meant the transition from apartheid to democracy was a constitutional continuation and that the rule of law and state sovereignty remained intact during the change, which was vital for stability within the country. A date was set for the first democratic elections on 27 April 1994. The ANC won 62.5% of the votes and has been in power ever since.

Criticism

Controversy over corrupt members

The most prominent corruption case involving the ANC relates to a series of bribes paid to companies involved in the ongoing R55 billion Arms Deal saga, which resulted in a long term jail sentence to former Deputy President Jacob Zuma's legal adviser Schabir Shaik. Zuma, now the State president, currently faces 7 813 charges relating to alleged fraud, bribery and corruption in the Arms Deal. The ANC has also been criticised for its subsequent abolishment of the Scorpions, the multidisciplinary agency that investigated and prosecuted organised crime and corruption, and was heavily involved in the investigation into Zuma and Shaik.

Other recent corruption issues include the sexual misconduct and criminal charges of Beaufort West municipal manager Truman Prince, and the Oilgate scandal, in which millions of Rand in funds from a state-owned company were allegedly funneled into ANC coffers. Links between factions in the ANC, specifically the ANC Youth League leadership, and businessman Brett Kebble gained media attention following Kebble's murder in September 2005.

In December 2007 the ANC elected their new National Executive Committee (NEC), the highest structure in the party. Out of the 80 member committee, 9% are (post-apartheid) convicted criminals. Most of these members have been convicted of fraud, while one member, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, was convicted of the kidnapping of a 14-year-old boy, James Seipei (1974–1988), also known as Stompie Moeketsi (who was also murdered). According to an article in the Mail & Guardian, "by adding those who have been disciplined or moved, and those with dark clouds of unanswered questions hanging over their heads, the figure shifts to 29%."

The ANC has also been accused of using government and civil society to fight its political battles against opposition parties such as the Democratic Alliance. The result has been a number of complaints and allegations that none of the political parties truly represent the interests of the poor. This has resulted in the "No Land! No House! No Vote!" Campaign which becomes very prominent each time the country holds elections.

Controversy over wasteful expenditure
The ANC has reportedly wasted over R1 billion of taxpayers' money over the past eight months on luxury vehicles, expensive hotels, banquets, advertising and other "wasteful expenditure"

The main thrust behind this reporting is the official opposition in the country, the Democratic Alliance (DA). They have kept a tally of the expenditure called 'The Wasteful Expenditure Monitor'

According to the DA, this waste could have:

Built 18 574 new RDP houses
Fund 7775 teachers for a year

References

Other websites

 African National Congress  official site
 Response by the ANC General Secretary to COSATU's assessment, 2004
 "Today it feels good to be an African " – Thabo Mbeki, Cape Town, 8 May 1996
 Interview with Nimrod Sejake, an ANC dissident, "The ANC has sold out!"(  2009-10-24) Interviewed by Laurence Coates Offensiv 385 (10 February 2000)

1912 establishments in Africa
Nationalist organizations in South Africa
National liberation movements
Socialist International
Social democratic parties
Political parties in South Africa
20th-century establishments in South Africa

African National Congress


Firefly is an American science fiction television series. It first aired in the United States and Canada on September 20, 2002. It is set in the future, but also has many things about it which would be expected in a story of the American Old West. This combination of past and future gives a unique science fiction setting for the story. It was created by writer and director Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. He created it with his production company, Mutant Enemy. Whedon was the executive producer, along with Tim Minear.

Firefly was first broadcast on the FOX network. It was cancelled after only eleven of the fourteen episodes were shown. Even though the show did not last long, it sold very well when it was released onto DVD and had great fan support. Because of this, Whedon and Universal Pictures made a movie based on the series, titled Serenity. The movie was named after the fictional spaceship in the show.  It won an Emmy in 2003 for "Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series".

The series is set in 2517 AD. It follows the adventures of the crew of Serenity, a Firefly-class spaceship. The cast play the nine characters who live on Serenity. Whedon described the show as "nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things". The show looks at the changing lives of people who fought on the losing side of a civil war. It also shows the pioneer culture that is on the edges of their star system. It is a future where the only two superpowers, the United States and China, joined to create a single government. This government was called the Alliance. This also caused the two cultures to blend into each other. Whedon said that nothing has changed in the future. There are more people with better technology, but they still have the same problems politically, morally and ethically.

Production

Creation

Whedon came up with the idea for the show after reading The Killer Angels, a novel about the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. He wanted to follow people who had fought on the losing side of a war. He wanted to look at their lives after the war on the edges of civilization. It was meant to be the kind of drama with a lot of people trying to figure out their lives in a pioneer environment. Whedon wanted to have a show that was about when life was physical and things did not come easy to people. Whedon was also very interested in science fiction and wanted to make something for television that was character-driven and dirty.

For the name of the show, Joss Whedon wanted something that had strength and movement. He felt that the word "firefly" had both. The fact that it was also something small with a powerful name made him like it more. From there, he created the ship in the image of a firefly.

Format
While making the first episode, Whedon was arguing with FOX that the show should be shown in widescreen format. Because of this, he filmed scenes with actors on the edge of both sides so that they would have to show it that way. However, the pilot was turned down by the FOX executives. They thought that it did not have enough action. They also did not like the captain. FOX told Whedon on a Friday afternoon that he had to make a new script by Monday morning or they would not do it. Whedon and Tim Minear spent the weekend writing a new episode, "The Train Job". In this new episode, the captain was more "happy" and they added "larger than life" characters. These characters were the henchman "Crow", and the "hands of blue" men, that also introduced a X-Files-type ending.

Set design
Production designer Carey Meyer built the ship Serenity in two parts. It was built as a complete set. It had ceilings and working lights built in as part of the set that the cameras could use. It also had movable parts. This helped with moving the camera around inside the set. There were other good things about this set design. One was that it let the people watching feel that they were really in a ship.  For Whedon, the design of the ship was very important. It defined the known space for the viewer. He wanted to show that it was simple and that it was "beat-up but lived-in and ultimately, it was home". Each room had a feel to it, usually shown by the paint color.

Their small budget was a reason to use the ship for much of telling the story. When the characters did go off of the ship, the worlds all had Earth atmosphere and colors. They could not afford to build alien worlds.

Music

The theme song, "The Ballad of Serenity", was written by Joss Whedon and performed by Sonny Rhodes. Whedon wrote the song before the series was approved by Fox. An early recording done by Whedon can be found on the DVD release.
The soundtrack to the series was released on CD on November 8, 2005 by Varèse Sarabande. The musical score matches the blending of cultures in the show. Cowboy guitar blended with an Asian feel was the musical background for the series. Greg Edmonson wrote the music for the series. He said that he wrote for the emotion of the moment.

Casting

In casting his nine-member crew, Whedon looked first at the actor and how they got along with others.  All nine cast members were chosen before filming began. However, while filming the original pilot "Serenity", Whedon saw that the actress cast as Inara Serra (Rebecca Gayheart) was not right for the role.Morena Baccarin auditioned for the role and two days later was on the set in her first television show.

Whedon asked Nathan Fillion to play the lead role of Malcolm Reynolds. After telling him the idea for the show and showing him the pilot, Fillion wanted the role. Fillion was called back several times to read for the part before he was cast.

Alan Tudyk auditioned and was told to come back in to test with the possible Zoes (the character's wife). It was down to him and one other person. The Zoes did not work out and Tudyk was sent home. He got a call telling him he had the part anyway.

Veteran science fiction-fantasy actress Gina Torres (The Matrix Reloaded, Xena: Warrior Princess) did not at first want to do another science fiction show, but "was won over by the quality of the source material." As she recalled, "So you had these challenged characters inhabiting a challenging world and that makes for great storytelling. AND NO ALIENS!"

Adam Baldwin grew up watching westerns. The character of Jayne Cobb was a role that was perfect for him.

Canadian actress Jewel Staite has been an actress since age nine. She videotaped her audition from Vancouver. she was asked to come to Los Angeles to meet Whedon, where she was cast for the role of Kaylee Frye, the ship's engineer.

Sean Maher remembers reading for the part and liking the character of Simon Tam. He said it was Whedon's personality and vision that "sealed the deal" for him. For the role of Simon's sister, Whedon called in Summer Glau for an audition and test the same day. Glau had first worked for Whedon on an episode of Angel. Two weeks later Whedon called her to tell her she had the part. This was Glau's first speaking role.

The veteran television actor Ron Glass (Barney Miller, All in the Family), has said that until Firefly, he had not thought about a science-fiction western role but he fell in love with the pilot script and the character of Shepherd Book.

Plot

Back story
The series takes place in the year 2517, on several planets and moons. The television series does not say if these are in one star system. The movie Serenity makes clear that all the planets and moons are in one large system. The characters refer to "Earth-that-was" and in the movie, it is said that long before the events in the series a large population had left from Earth to a new star system: "Earth that was could no longer sustain our numbers, we were so many." The people settled in this new star system, with "dozens of planets and hundreds of moons." Many of these were terraformed, a process in which a planet or moon is altered to resemble the Earth. The terraforming process was only the first step in making a planet livable. Only the most central planets got more treatment. This caused many of the border planets and moons to have environments that fit the Western setting.

Synopsis
The show takes its name from the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity that the main characters call home. Its tail section lights up during acceleration, looking like the glowing part of a firefly.

The Alliance is shown to control the star system through an organization of "core" planets. DVD commentary suggests that two main "core" planets make up the Alliance. One is mostly Occidental in culture, the other is Asian. This explains the series' mixed linguistic and visual themes. The central planets are under Alliance control, but the outer planets and moons resemble the 19th century American West, with little government control. Settlers people on the outer worlds have relative freedom from the central government. The outer areas also have Reavers, a cannibalistic race.

The captain of the crew of Serenity is Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds (Nathan Fillion). The episode "Serenity" shows that the captain and his first mate Zoe Washburne (Gina Torres) are veteran "Browncoats" of the civil war. A later episode, titled "Out of Gas", shows that Mal bought the spaceship Serenity to continue living beyond Alliance control. Much of the crew's work is made up of cargo runs or smuggling. One of the main story arcs is that of River Tam (Summer Glau) and her brother Simon (Sean Maher). River was a child prodigy. Her brain was experimented on. She seems to have schizophrenia and often hears voices. It is later found out that she is a "reader", someone with psychic abilities. Simon gave up a very good career as a surgeon to save her from the Alliance. They join the crew in the original "Serenity". Because of this rescue, they are both wanted criminals.

Signature show elements
Firefly takes place in a multi-cultural future. Because of this, Mandarin Chinese is a common second language. It is used in advertisements, and characters in the show often use Chinese words and curses.

The show also has slang not used in today's culture. There are changes to modern words, or new words ("shiny" is a synonym of "cool"). The Japanese katakana and an Old West dialect are also used.

One of the problems that Whedon had with FOX was the tone of the show, especially with the main character Malcolm Reynolds. FOX wanted Whedon to make his character more "jolly". They felt he was too dark in the original pilot.

Cast

Main characters

Firefly had an ensemble cast that played the nine crew members of the ship, Serenity. These characters fight criminals, Alliance security forces, the insane Reavers, and the mysterious men with "hands of blue" - who seem to work for a secret agency which is part of the huge corporation, The Blue Sun Corporation. The crew needs to get enough income to keep their ship working. While doing this, they must stay hidden from people looking for them.

 Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion, is Serenity's captain and former sergeant in the Battle of Serenity Valley during the war.
 Zoe Alleyne Washburne, played by Gina Torres, is second-in-command of Serenity. She is a loyal wartime friend of Captain Reynolds, and wife of Wash.
 Hoban "Wash" Washburne, played by Alan Tudyk, is Serenity's pilot and Zoe's husband. He is jealous about his wife's "war buddy" relationship and total support of their captain.
 Inara Serra, played by Morena Baccarin, is a "Companion". A companion is the 26th century version of a courtesan or geisha. Inara has high social position. She and Mal have a hard relationship, with romantic tension playing a big part in several episodes.
 Jayne Cobb, played by Adam Baldwin, is the hired muscle. He joined the crew for mercenary reasons. He is often the "main gun" for jobs and is someone that can be counted on in a fight. He thinks he is the smartest guy in space but he is just the opposite. As Whedon says several times, he is the person that will ask the questions that no one else wants to talk about.
 Kaywinnit Lee "Kaylee" Frye, played by Jewel Staite, is the ship's mechanic. In the episode "Out of Gas", it is shown that she has no formal training. She keeps Serenity running with an intuitive gift for the workings of mechanical equipment. A very happy young woman, Kaylee has a romantic crush on Dr. Simon Tam. Kaylee's character is the soul of the ship: according to Joss Whedon, if Kaylee believes something, it is true.
 Dr. Simon Tam, played by Sean Maher, is a very good doctor. He is on the run after getting his sister River out of a government facility. His lack of social skill in a relationship with Kaylee is shown many times in the series. His life is defined by caring for his sister.
 River Tam, played by Summer Glau, was smuggled onto the ship by her brother. River was a child prodigy of unmatched genius. She was experimented on by Alliance doctors. This made her delusional. It also caused her to act very strangely. Her trying to figure out what became of her is a theme shown throughout the series and the movie.
 Derrial Book, played by Ron Glass, is a "Shepherd" (much like of a reverend, minister or pastor). In the episode "Safe", it is shown that he has very high status in the Alliance but it is never said why. Throughout the series, he shows an unusual knowledge about firearms and criminal activities.

All nine major characters are in every episode, with one exception: Book is absent from "Ariel".

Related pages
Serenity

References

Other websites
FireflyFans.net - Primary Firefly Fansite
Firefly and Serenity at Wikia
Firefly and Serenity  on Whedonesque.com
Firefly Timeline
Done the Impossible - A documentary about Browncoats and their drive to bring back Firefly.
Worlds of Serenity  - A hard SF author examines the plausibility of the 'Verse.

2002 American television series debuts
2002 American television series endings
2000s American television series
American science fiction television series
Fox television series
Television series created by Joss Whedon
Whedonverse
Emmy Award winning programs
English-language television programs

Firefly (TV series)


A good in economics is any object or product (factors of production) that is useful. A commodity is one kind of good.

A good that cannot be used by consumers directly, such as an office building or  capital equipment, can be called a good because it can be useful if it is sold. A 'good' in economic usage does not necessarily mean that the object is good in a moral sense.

If an object or service is sold for a positive price, then it is a good since the purchaser considers the utility of the object or service more valuable than the money. Some things are useful but not scarce such as air and are referred to as free goods and common goods.

In macroeconomics and accounting, a good is contrasted with a service. A good here is defined as a physical product that one can deliver to a buyer. The service is not an object, but an action that benefits someone. A more general term that preserves the distinction between goods and services is 'commodities'. In microeconomics 'good' is often used in this more inclusive sense of a commodity.

Reference
Business Dictionary

Goods

Good (economics)