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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=18084127

The Battle of Cầu Giấy or Paper Bridge, fought on 19 May 1883, was one of the numerous clashes during the Tonkin Campaign (1883–86) between the French and the Black Flags. A small French force under the command of "capitaine de vaisseau" Henri Rivière attacked a strong Black Flag defensive position near the village of Cầu Giấy a few miles to the west of Hanoi, known to the French as Paper Bridge (Pont de Papier). After initial successes, the French were eventually enveloped on both wings, and were only with difficulty able to regroup and fall back to Hanoi. Rivière and several other senior officers were killed in the action. Background. French interest in northern Vietnam dated from the 1860s, when France annexed several southern provinces of Vietnam to become the colony of Cochinchina, laying the foundations for its later colonial empire in Indochina. French explorers followed the course of the Red River through northern Vietnam to its source in Yunnan, arousing hopes that a profitable overland trade route could be established with China, bypassing the treaty ports of the Chinese coastal provinces. The main obstacle to the realisation of this dream was the Black Flag Army, a well-organized bandit force under a formidable leader, Liu Yongfu (Liu Yung-fu, 劉永福), which was levying exorbitant dues on trade on the Red River between Sơn Tây and the town of Lào Cai on the Yunnan border. French intervention in northern Vietnam was precipitated by Commandant Henri Rivière, who was sent with a small French military force to Hanoi at the end of 1881 to investigate Vietnamese complaints against the activities of French merchants. In defiance of the instructions of his superiors, Rivière stormed the citadel of Hanoi on 25 April 1882. Although Rivière subsequently returned the citadel to Vietnamese control, his recourse to force was greeted with alarm in both Vietnam and China. The Vietnamese government, unable to confront Rivière with its own ramshackle army, enlisted the help of Liu Yongfu, whose well-trained and seasoned Black Flag soldiers were to prove a thorn in the side of the French. The Black Flags had already inflicted one humiliating defeat on a French force commanded by "lieutenant de vaisseau" Francis Garnier in 1873. Like Rivière in 1882, Garnier had exceeded his instructions and attempted to intervene militarily in northern Vietnam. Liu Yongfu had been called in by the Vietnamese government, and ended a remarkable series of French victories against the Vietnamese by defeating Garnier’s small French force beneath the walls of Hanoi. Garnier was killed in this battle, and the French government later disavowed his expedition. The Vietnamese also bid for Chinese support. Vietnam had long been a tributary state of China, and China agreed to arm and support the Black Flags and to covertly oppose French operations in Tonkin. The Qing court also sent a strong signal to the French that China would not allow Tonkin to fall under French control. In the summer of 1882 troops of the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi armies crossed the border into Tonkin, occupying Lạng Sơn, Bắc Ninh, Hưng Hóa and other towns. The French minister to China, Frédéric Bourée, was so alarmed by the prospect of war with China that in November and December 1882 he negotiated a deal with the Chinese statesman Li Hongzhang to divide Tonkin into French and Chinese spheres of influence. The Vietnamese were not consulted by either party to these negotiations. Nam Dinh and Gia Cuc. Rivière was disgusted at the deal cut by Bourée, and in early 1883 decided to force the issue. He had recently been sent a battalion of marine infantry from France, giving him just enough men to venture beyond Hanoi. On 27 March 1883, to secure his line of communications from Hanoi to the coast, Rivière captured the citadel of Nam Định with a force of 520 French soldiers under his personal command. During his absence at Nam Dinh the Black Flags and Vietnamese made an attack on Hanoi, but they were repulsed by "chef de bataillon" Berthe de Villers in the Battle of Gia Cuc on 28 March. Rivière was jubilant: 'This will force them to take forward their Tonkin Question!' In April 1883 the Chinese civil mandarin Tang Jingsong, who had been sent to Vietnam in 1882 to assess the Vietnamese government's ability to resist French encroachment in Tonkin, reconciled the quarrel between Liu and Hoang and persuaded Liu to take the field in earnest with the Black Flag Army. Liu's decision to commit the Black Flag Army against the French was to have profound consequences, setting in train a chain of events that culminated eventually in the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885). The Battle of Paper Bridge was precipitated by a challenge by Liu Yongfu, who posted up placards in Hanoi on 10 May 1883 daring Rivière to come out and meet the Black Flag Army in the open field. Rivière believed that French prestige required him to respond to this challenge, and at dawn on 19 May led a column of around 450 French soldiers and sailors to attack the Black Flag Army in its positions at Phu Hoai, a few miles west of Hanoi. The column consisted of two companies of marine infantry, the landing companies of the French warships "Victorieuse" and "Villars", and three artillery pieces. The French plan was discovered by Liu Yongfu's spies, and the Black Flag Army ambushed the French column near the village of Cầu Giấy at Paper Bridge (Pont de Papier), a bridge across a small river that took its name from a nearby paper mill. The Black Flags were deployed just to the west of Paper Bridge, in the villages of Trung Thong, Ha Yen Ke and Thien Thong. All three villages were surrounded by thick bamboo groves and clumps of trees, providing excellent cover for the Black Flags and also allowing Liu Yongfu to manoeuvre his men without being observed by the French. The battle of Paper Bridge. The French column set out from Hanoi at dawn and reached Paper Bridge at around 7.30 a.m. Rivière was unwell, and the column was under the direct command of "chef de bataillon" Berthe de Villers, an excellent professional soldier who had won a spectacular victory against the Vietnamese only seven weeks earlier at the Battle of Gia Cuc. While crossing the bridge, the French vanguard came under fire from Black Flag skirmishers. Berthe de Villers immediately deployed his men into line and pushed forward against the Black Flags, clearing them from the villages of Ha Yen Ke and Thien Thong. Liu Yongfu brought up his reserves, waited until the enemy line was fully committed, and launched a sudden counterattack against the French right wing. A Black Flag regiment trotted smartly into position with rifles at the slope, deployed into line, knelt down and fired a series of accurate volleys at close range. Berthe de Villers was mortally wounded in this engagement, and Rivière assumed direct command of the French column. To avoid being encircled, Rivière ordered his men to retreat and regroup on the far side of Paper Bridge. The French retreat was initially conducted in good order, by echelons, and was covered by the three French cannon. However, disaster struck when one of the cannons overturned with the force of its recoil. Rivière and his officers rushed forward to help the gunners to right it, and the Black Flags fired a volley into this struggling mass of men. The volley killed one French officer and wounded Rivière and several of his aides. Seeing the French line in confusion, the Black Flags surged forward and drove back the French rearguard. During the fighting Rivière was killed. Complete catastrophe was only averted by the coolness of "lieutenant de vaisseau" Pissère, who assumed command of the demoralised French column, deployed the French infantry behind a dyke on the eastern side of Paper Bridge, and beat off a number of attempts by the Black Flags to cross the bridge and follow up their victory. The battle eventually died down, and Pissère marched the defeated French column back to Hanoi in good order. Casualties. French casualties in the Battle of Paper Bridge were 5 officers and 30 men killed, and 6 officers and 46 men wounded. Besides Rivière himself, the dead included "chef de bataillon" Berthe de Villers, Captain Jacquin, "lieutenant de vaisseau" Héral de Brisis and Midshipman Moulun. Casualties in the Black Flag Army were around 50 dead and 56 wounded out of around 1,500 men engaged, and included two battalion commanders, Yang Zhu'en (楊著恩) and Wu Fengdian (吳鳳典). Significance. The battle was a serious defeat for the French, but its ultimate result was to strengthen the resolve of Jules Ferry's administration to entrench the French protectorate in Tonkin. The news of Rivière's defeat and death reached Paris on 26 May, and the French navy minister Admiral Peyron declared 'France will avenge her glorious children!' The Chamber of Deputies immediately voted a credit of three and a half million francs to finance the despatch of a strong expeditionary corps to Tonkin. In later years a reaction set in. Some critics questioned Rivière's tactics at Paper Bridge, suggesting that he had lost the battle because he had been too impetuous. In particular, he was faulted for accepting battle so readily and for exposing his guns to capture by placing them too far forward. In the 1930s Colonel Alfred Thomazi, the historian of the French conquest of Indochina, did his best to rebut such criticisms: If Rivière had been more prudent and withdrawn his column as soon as he had crossed the bridge, when Berthe de Villers was wounded, our losses would have been smaller and the engagement would have remained indecisive. But he had marched out to disengage Hanoi and strike a heavy blow at the encircling enemy. To fall back at the first contact would have been to lose face, to encourage the boldness of the Black Flags, and to expose the town to attacks which even a modest success could prevent. And, given the results of the preceding skirmishes, such a success seemed certain. And were we not, by now, used to miracles? In Tonkin, as previously in Cochinchina, victory seemed the invariable reward for boldness. Henri Rivière, a Parisian who considered himself anything but romantic, a writer who was also a man of action, died a hero, like Francis Garnier, for believing that nothing was impossible.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=60023185

The 2019 Adriatica Ionica Race/Following the Serenissima Routes was a five-stage men's professional road cycling race. It was the second edition of the Adriatica Ionica Race/Following the Serenissima Routes. The race started on 24 July and finished on 28 July. The race is part of the UCI Europe Tour, and is categorised by the UCI as a 2.1 race. The previous edition was won by the Colombian rider Iván Sosa (), who, after his transfer to , did not return to defend his title. In his absence, Ukrainian Mark Padun () won the race. Teams. Nineteen teams of up to seven riders took part in the race: UCI WorldTeams UCI Professional Continental teams UCI Continental teams National Teams Route. The race consisted of five stages totalling . Stages. Stage 1. 24 July 2019 - Mestre, Venice, , criterium The criterium on stage 1 featured riders racing a lap, with the best-placed riders completing 31 laps for a total of . Though jerseys were awarded after the stage, the times and points accrued during this stage did not count towards the classifications. Stage 2. 25 July 2019 - Venice (Favaro Veneto) to Grado, Stage 3. 26 July 2019 - Palmanova to Lake Misurina, Stage 4. 27 July 2019 - to (Monte Quarin), Stage 5. 28 July 2019 - to Trieste, Classification leadership. In the 2019 Adriatica Ionica Race, five jerseys were awarded. The general classification was calculated by adding each cyclist's finishing times on each stage. Time bonuses were awarded to the first three finishers on all stages apart from the time trial stage. The first three riders would get 10, 6, and 4 seconds, respectively. The leader of the general classification received a blue jersey sponsored by Geo&tex2000. This classification was considered the most important of the 2018 Adriatica Ionica, and the winner of the classification was considered the winner of the race. The second classification was the points classification. Riders were awarded points for finishing in the top ten in a stage. Points were also won in intermediate sprints; ten points for crossing the sprint line first, six points for second place, three for third, two for fourth, and a single point for fifth. The leader of the points classification was awarded a red jersey sponsored by Full Speed Ahead. The third classification was the mountains classification. Points were awarded to the riders that reached the summit of the most difficult climbs first. The climbs were categorized, in order of increasing difficulty, as third-, second-, and first-category and "hors catégorie" (read: "beyond category"). The leadership of the mountains classification was marked by a green sponsored by Dolomiti. The fourth jersey represented the young rider classification, marked by a white jersey sponsored by Gabetti. Only riders born after 1 January 1993 were eligible; the young rider best placed in the general classification was the leader of the young rider classification. The final classification was the "Fighting Spirit Prize" given after each stage to the rider considered, by a jury, to have "who struggled in order to achieve results in all the competitive moments of the race or the one who take action to start or carry out the longest breakaway". The winner wore an orange jersey sponsored by Suzuki. There was also a classification for teams, in which the times of the best three cyclists in a team on each stage were added together; the leading team at the end of the race was the team with the lowest cumulative time.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=7559856

Criticism of Muhammad has existed since the 7th century, when Muhammad was decried by his non-Muslim Arab contemporaries for preaching monotheism, and by the Jewish tribes of Arabia for what they claimed were unwarranted appropriation of Biblical narratives and figures, vituperation of the Jewish faith, and proclaiming himself as "the last prophet" without performing any miracle or showing any personal requirement demanded in the Hebrew Bible to distinguish a true prophet chosen by the God of Israel from a false claimant. For these reasons, they gave him the derogatory nickname "ha-Meshuggah" (, "the Madman" or "the Possessed"). During the Middle Ages various Western and Byzantine Christian thinkers considered Muhammad to be a perverted, deplorable man, a false prophet, and even the Antichrist, as he was frequently seen in Christendom as a heretic or possessed by demons. Some of them, like Thomas Aquinas, criticized Muhammad's promises of carnal pleasure in the afterlife. Modern religious and secular criticism of Islam has concerned Muhammad's sincerity in claiming to be a prophet, his morality, his ownership of slaves, his treatment of enemies, his marriages, his treatment of doctrinal matters, and his alleged psychological condition. Muhammad has been accused of sadism and mercilessness—including the invasion of the Banu Qurayza tribe in Medina—sexual relationships with slaves, and his marriage to Aisha when she was six years old, which according to most estimates was consummated when she was nine. Critics. Ex-Muslim Atheist/Agnostic criticism. Many early former Muslims such as Ibn al-Rawandi, Al-Ma'arri, and Abu Isa al-Warraq were famous religious skeptics, polymaths, and philosophers that criticized Islam, the alleged authority and reliability of the Qu'ran, Muhammad's morality, and his claims to be a prophet. The Quran also mentions critics of Muhammad; for example says the critics complained that Mohammad was passing off what others were telling him as revelations: Those who disbelieve say, "This is nothing but a lie that he made up, and others have helped him at it...Tales of the ancients; he wrote them down; they are dictated to him morning and evening." Jewish criticism. In the Middle Ages, it was common for Jewish writers to describe Muhammad as "ha-Meshuggah" ("The Madman"), a term of contempt frequently used in the Bible for those who believe themselves to be prophets. Christian criticism. Early Middle Ages. The earliest documented Christian knowledge of Muhammad stems from Byzantine sources, written shortly after Muhammad's death in 632. In the "Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati", a dialogue between a recent Christian convert and several Jews, one participant writes that his brother "wrote to [him] saying that a deceiving prophet has appeared amidst the Saracens". Another participant in the "Doctrina" replies about Muhammad: "He is deceiving. For do prophets come with sword and chariot?, …[Y]ou will discover nothing true from the said prophet except human bloodshed". One Christian who came under the early dominion of the Islamic Caliphate was John of Damascus (c. 676–749 AD), who was familiar with Islam and Arabic. The second chapter of his book, "The Fount of Wisdom", titled "Concerning Heresies", presents a series of discussions between Christians and Muslims. John claimed that an Arian monk (whom he did not know was Bahira) influenced Muhammad and the writer viewed the Islamic doctrines as nothing more than a hodgepodge culled from the Bible. Among the first sources representing Muhammad is the polemical work "Concerning Heresy" (Perì hairéseōn) of John of Damascus, translated from Greek into Latin. In this manuscript, the Syrian priest represents Muhammad as a "false prophet," and an "Antichrist". Some demonstrate that Muhammad was pointed out in this manuscript as "Mamed", but this study was corrected by Ahlam Sbaihat who affirmed that it is the form ΜΩΑΜΕθ (Moameth) which is mentioned in this manuscript. The phoneme h and the gemination of m do not exist in Greek so it has disappeared from John's uses. From the 9th century onwards, highly negative biographies of Muhammad were written in Latin, such as the one by Álvaro of Córdoba proclaiming him the Antichrist. Since the 7th century, Muhammad and his name have been connected to several stereotypes. Many sources mentioned exaggerated and sometimes wrong stereotypes. These stereotypes are born in the East but adopted by or developed in Western cultures. These references played a principal role in introducing Muhammad and his religion to the West as the false prophet, Saracen prince or deity, the Biblical beast, a schismatic from Christianity and a satanic creature, and the Antichrist. Middle Ages. During the 12th century Peter the Venerable, who saw Muhammad as the precursor to the Anti-Christ and the successor of Arius, ordered the translation of the Qur'an into Latin (Lex Mahumet pseudoprophete) and the collection of information on Muhammad so that Islamic teachings could be refuted by Christian scholars. During the 13th century a series of works by European scholars such as Pedro Pascual, Ricoldo de Monte Croce, and Ramon Llull depicted Muhammad as an Antichrist and argued that Islam was a Christian heresy. The fact that Muhammad was unlettered, that he married a wealthy widow, that in his later life he had several wives, that he ruled over a human community, was involved in several wars, and that he died like an ordinary person in contrast to the Christian belief in the supernatural end of Christ's earthly life were all arguments used to discredit Muhammad. One common allegation laid against Muhammad was that he was an impostor who, in order to satisfy his ambition and his lust, propagated religious teachings that he knew to be false. Some medieval ecclesiastical writers portrayed Muhammad as possessed by Satan, a "precursor of the Antichrist" or the Antichrist himself. In Dante's The Divine Comedy, Muhammad dwells in the 9th "Bolgia" of the Eighth Circle of Hell and is depicted as disemboweled; the contrapasso represented thereby implicates Muhammad as a schismatic, figuratively rending the body of the Catholic Church and compromising the integrity of the truth of Christianity in the same way Muhammad's body is depicted as literally wounded. A more positive interpretation appears in the 13th-century "Estoire del Saint Grail", the first book in the vast Arthurian cycle, the Lancelot-Grail. In describing the travels of Joseph of Arimathea, keeper of the Holy Grail, the author says that most residents of the Middle East were pagans until the coming of Muhammad, who is shown as a true prophet sent by God to bring Christianity to the region. This mission however failed when Muhammad's pride caused him to alter God's wishes, thereby deceiving his followers. Nevertheless, Muhammad's religion is portrayed as being greatly superior to paganism. The "Tultusceptrum de libro domni Metobii", an Andalusian manuscript with unknown dating, recounts how Muhammad (called Ozim, from Hashim) was tricked by Satan into adulterating an originally pure divine revelation. The story argues God was concerned about the spiritual fate of the Arabs and wanted to correct their deviation from the faith. He then sends an angel to the monk Osius who orders him to preach to the Arabs. Osius however is in ill-health and orders a young monk, Ozim, to carry out the angel's orders instead. Ozim sets out to follow his orders, but gets stopped by an evil angel on the way. The ignorant Ozim believes him to be the same angel that spoke to Osius before. The evil angel modifies and corrupts the original message given to Ozim by Osius, and renames Ozim Muhammad. From this followed the erroneous teachings of Islam, according to the "Tultusceptrum". Thomas Aquinas. Thomas Aquinas was highly critical of Muhammad's character and ethics, claiming that his teachings were largely in conformity to his immoral lifestyle. He wrote in Summa Contra Gentiles: ""[Muhammad] seduced the people by promises of carnal pleasure to which the concupiscence of the flesh goads us. His teaching also contained precepts that were in conformity with his promises, and he gave free rein to carnal pleasure. In all this, as is not unexpected, he was obeyed by carnal men. As for proofs of the truth of his doctrine, he brought forward only such as could be grasped by the natural ability of anyone with a very modest wisdom... Nor do divine pronouncements on the part of preceding prophets offer him any witness. On the contrary, he perverts almost all the testimonies of the Old and New Testaments by making them into fabrications of his own, as can be seen by anyone who examines his law. It was, therefore, a shrewd decision on his part to forbid his followers to read the Old and New Testaments, lest these books convict him of falsity. It is thus clear that those who place any faith in his words believe foolishly". Martin Luther. Martin Luther referred to Muhammad as "a devil and first-born child of Satan." Luther's primary target of criticism at the time was the Pope, and Luther's characterization of Muhammad was intended to draw a comparison to show that the Pope was worse. Voltaire. "Mahomet" (French: "Le fanatisme, ou Mahomet le Prophète", literally "Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet") is a five-act tragedy written in 1736 by French playwright and philosopher Voltaire. It made its debut performance in Lille on 25 April 1741. The play is a study of religious fanaticism and self-serving manipulation based on an episode in the traditional biography of Muhammad in which he orders the murder of his critics. Voltaire described the play as "written in opposition to the founder of a false and barbarous sect to whom could I with more propriety inscribe a satire on the cruelty and errors of a false prophet". In a letter to Frederick II of Prussia in 1740 Voltaire ascribes to Muhammad a brutality that "is assuredly nothing any man can excuse" and suggests that his following stems from superstition and lack of Enlightenment. He wanted to portray Muhammad as "Tartuffe with a sword in his hand." According to Malise Ruthven, Voltaire's view became more positive as he learned more about Islam. As a result, his book, Fanaticism (Mohammad the Prophet), inspired Goethe, who was attracted to Islam, to write a drama on this theme, though completed only the poem Mahomets-Gesang (“Mahomet's Singing”). Modern Western criticisms. Modern critics have criticized Muhammad for preaching beliefs that are incompatible with democracy; Somali-Dutch feminist writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali has called him a "tyrant" and a "pervert". The Dutch Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders calls Muhammad a "mass murderer and a pedophile". Neuroscientist and prominent ideological critic Sam Harris contrasts the example of Muhammad with that of Jesus Christ. While he regards Christ as something of a "hippie" figure, Muhammad is an altogether different character and one whose example "as held in Islam is universally not [that of] a pacifist," but rather one of a "conquering warlord who spread the faith by the sword." Harris notes that while sayings such as "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" provide Christianity with a "rationale for peace," it is impossible to justify non-violence as central to Islam. Harris says that the example of Muhammad provides an imperative to "convert, subjugate, or kill" and "the core principle of Islam is Jihad." Harris also suggests that Muhammad "may well have been schizophrenic," dismissing Muhammad's claim that the Koran was dictated to him by the archangel Gabriel. American historian Daniel Pipes sees Muhammad as a politician, stating that "because Muhammad created a new community, the religion that was its raison d'être had to meet the political needs of its adherents." In 2012 a film titled "Innocence of Muslims" and alternatively "The Real Life of Muhammad" and "Muhammad Movie Trailer" was released by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. A "Vanity Fair" article described the video as "Exceptionally amateurish, with disjointed dialogue, jumpy editing, and performances that would have looked melodramatic even in a silent movie, the clip is clearly designed to offend Muslims, portraying Mohammed as a bloodthirsty murderer and Lothario and pedophile with omnidirectional sexual appetites." Reacting to the release of the film, violent demonstrations and attacks targeted western institutions through the Muslim world. 20th-century. In the early 20th century Western scholarly views of Muhammad changed, including critical views. In the 1911 "Catholic Encyclopedia" Gabriel Oussani states that Muhammad was inspired by an "imperfect understanding" of Judaism and Christianity, but that the views of Luther and those who call Muhammad a "wicked impostor", a "dastardly liar" and a "willful deceiver" are an "indiscriminate abuse" and "unsupported by facts." Instead, 19th-century Western scholars such as Aloys Sprenger, Theodor Noldeke, Gustav Weil, William Muir, Sigismund Koelle, and D.S. Margoliouth "give us a more correct and unbiased estimate of Muhammad's life and character, and substantially agree as to his motives, prophetic call, personal qualifications, and sincerity." Muir, Marcus Dods and others have suggested that Muhammad was at first sincere, but later became deceptive. Koelle finds "the key to the first period of Muhammad's life in Khadija, his first wife," after whose death he became prey to his "evil passions." Samuel Marinus Zwemer, a Christian missionary, criticised the life of Muhammad by the standards of the Old and New Testaments, by the pagan morality of his Arab compatriots, and last, by the new law which he brought. Quoting Johnstone, Zwemer concludes by claiming that his harsh judgment rests on evidence which "comes all from the lips and the pens of his [i.e. Muhammad's] own devoted adherents." Hindu criticism and praise. Nineteenth century. In his 1875 work Satyarth Prakash, Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaj, quoted and interpreted several verses of the Koran and described Muhammad as "pugnacious", an "imposter", and one who held out "a bait to men and women, in the name of God, to compass his own selfish needs." Swami Vivekananda wrote in his 1896 book Raja Yoga that though Muhammad was inspired, "he was not a trained "Yogi", nor did he know the reason of what he was doing." Vivekananda wrote that great evil has been done through Muhammad's fanaticism with "whole countries destroyed" and "millions upon millions of people killed." Gandhi. Gandhi praised the Prophet Muhammad, considering him "godfearing" and a "seeker of Truth". According to Gandhi, people followed Muhammad not because of the sword but because Muhammad was honest and devoted, because Muhammad trusted God and practiced self-effacement. 1920s caricatures. In the 1920s, three caricatures published by Hindus attacked Muhammad and marriages—the book "Vichitra Jivan" (meaning "Strange Life") by Pandit Kalicharan Sharma in 1923, the pamphlet "Rangila Rasul" (meaning "The Colourful Prophet") by an anonymous author going by the pseudonym of Pandit Chamupati in 1924, and the essay "Sair-i-Dozakh" (meaning "The Trip to Hell") by Devi Sharan Sharma in 1927. In "Vichitra Jivan", Sharma wrote that Muhammad fell victim to many evils, all his marriages were extraordinary and improper, and that he suffered from epilepsy. Sharma examined in detail the "marvelous powers" of Muhammad, the "products of his body", and every feature of his "marital and sexual relations", and ended the book by saying that such a person could not have been a divine messenger. The "Sair-i-Dozakh" was a take on the Isra and Mi'raj, Muhammad's journey to heaven and hell according to Islamic traditions. Described as a "brutal satire" by Gene Thursby, it described a dream purportedly experienced by the author in which he mounts a mysterious animal and sees various Hindu and Sikh deities and Gurus in the realm of salvation. Modern criticism. Jai Maharaj, sponsor of the "Satyameva Jayate" website, wrote that Muhammad was "in fact a terrorist, criminal and murderer whose entire life was based on victimizing innocents and indulging in mindless violence, carnage and massacre." Maharaj chronicled what he called Muhammad's "criminal acts in the form of battles and murders", including the killing of four merchants during the sacred month of Rajab, the killing of 70 merchants and 900 men from Mecca, the killing of the poets 'Asma' bint Marwan and Abu 'Afak, and the initial motivation to kill followed by eventual expelling of the Jewish tribe of Banu Qaynuqa. Points of contention. Ownership of slaves. Sociologist Rodney Stark argues that "the fundamental problem facing Muslim theologians vis-à-vis the morality of slavery is that "Muhammad bought, sold, captured, and owned slaves", and that his followers saw him as the perfect example to emulate. Stark contrasts Islam with Christianity, writing that Christian theologians wouldn't have been able to "work their way around the biblical acceptance of slavery" if Jesus had owned slaves, as Muhammad did. Slavery existed in pre-Islamic Arabia, and Muhammad never expressed any intention of abolishing the practice, as he saw it "as part of the natural order of things". He did want to improve the condition of slaves, and exhorted his followers to treat them more humanely, i.e., as human beings as well as property, with kindness and compassion. His decrees greatly limited those who could be enslaved and under what circumstances (including barring Muslims from enslaving other Muslims), allowed slaves to achieve their freedom and made freeing slaves a virtuous act. He made it legal for his men to marry their slaves and the women they captured in war. Muhammad would send his companions like Abu Bakr and Uthman ibn Affan to buy slaves to free. Many early converts to Islam were the poor and former slaves like Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi. Treatment of enemies. Norman Geisler accuses Muhammad of "mercilessness" towards the Jewish tribes of Medina. Geisler also argues that Muhammad "had no aversion to politically expedient assassinations", "was not indisposed to breaking promises when he found it advantageous" and "engaged in retaliation towards those who mocked him." The Orientalist William Muir, in assessing Muhammad's character, described him as cruel and faithless in dealing with his enemies. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, relates Jew's story a little different: Jean de Sismondi suggests that Muhammad had a specific animosity against Jews, because of the few differences that separated two mostly similar cults. He is among the historians suggesting that he killed many Jews through supplice, whereas he was usually known for his clemency. Jewish tribes of Medina. Muhammad has been often criticized outside of the Islamic world for his treatment of the Jewish tribes of Medina. An example is the mass killing of the men of the Banu Qurayza, a Jewish tribe of Medina. The tribe was accused of having engaged in treasonous agreements with the enemies besieging Medina in the Battle of the Trench in 627. Ibn Ishaq writes that Muhammad approved the beheading of some 600–700 in all, with some saying as high as 800–900, who surrendered after a siege that lasted several weeks. (Also see Bukhari ) (Yusuf Ali notes that the Qur'an discusses this battle in They were buried in a mass grave in the Medina market place, and the women and children were sold into slavery. According to Norman Stillman, the incident cannot be judged by present-day moral standards. Citing Deut. 20:13–14 as an example, Stillman states that the slaughter of adult males and the enslavement of women and children—though no doubt causing bitter suffering—was common practice throughout the ancient world. According to Rudi Paret, adverse public opinion was more a point of concern to Muhammad when he had some date palms cut down during a siege, than after this incident. Esposito also argues that in Muhammad's time, traitors were executed and points to similar situations in the Bible. Esposito says that Muhammad's motivation was political rather than racial or theological; he was trying to establish Muslim dominance and rule in Arabia. Some historians, such as W.N. Arafat and Barakat Ahmad, have disputed the historicity of the incident. Ahmad argues that only the leading members of the tribe were killed. Arafat argued based on accounts by Malik ibn Anas and Ibn Hajar that Ibn Ishaq gathered information from descendants of the Qurayza Jews, who exaggerated the details of the incident. He also maintained that not all adult males were killed but only those who actually fought in the battle, however, William Montgomery Watt described this argument as "not entirely convincing." Notable hadith according to Robert Spencer. Robert Spencer pointed out that Muhammad said in "Sahih al-Bukhari" and "Sahih Muslim": Spencer notes that Muhammad also said in another "Sahih al-Bukhari" and "Sahih Muslim": Spencer also quotes a "Sahih al-Bukhari" and "Sahih Muslim" that reads: Death of Kenana ibn al-Rabi. According to one account, after the last fort of the Jewish settlement called Khaybar was taken by Muhammad and his men, the chief of the Jews, called Kinana ibn al-Rabi, was asked by Muhammad to reveal the location of some hidden treasure. When he refused, Muhammad ordered a man to torture Kinana, and the man "kindled a fire with flint and steel on his chest until he was nearly dead." Kinana was then beheaded, and Muhammad took his young wife Safiyya as a concubine. Critics take these events, especially the story of the torture of Kinana, to be another blot on Muhammad's character. Those few Western scholars who discuss the alleged torture of Kinana, like William Muir, have generally not questioned the validity of the story. Muslims generally dispute this incident. Some claim that this was yet another story that Ibn Ishaq heard second-hand from Jewish sources, casting doubt on its authenticity. Others argue that Kinana was killed in battle and never taken captive. Muhammad's marriages. One of the popular historical criticisms of Muhammad in the West has been his polygynous marriages. According to American historian John Esposito, the Semitic cultures in general permitted polygamy (for example, the practice could be found in biblical and postbiblical Judaism); it was particularly a common practice among Arabs, especially among nobles and leaders. Muslims have often pointed out that Muhammad married Khadija (a widow whose age is estimated to have been 40), when he was 25 years old, and remained monogamous to her for more than 24 years until she died. Norman Geisler frames Muhammad's marriages as a question of moral inconsistency, since Muhammad was unwilling to abide by the revealed limit of four wives that he enjoined on other men. states that the limit of four wives does not apply to Muhammad. In response Aisha is even reported, in Bukhari and Muslim, to have said, "It seems to me that your Lord hastens to satisfy your desire.” Muslims have generally responded that the marriages of Muhammad were not conducted to satisfy worldly desires or lusts, but rather they were done for a higher purpose and due to God's command. Medieval Sufi, Ibn Arabi, sees Muhammad's relationships with his wives as a proof of his superiority amongst men. John Esposito states that polygamy served multiple purposes, including solidifying political alliances among Arab chiefs and marrying widows of companions who died in combat that needed protection. Contrary to Islamic law, Muhammed is accused of treating his wives unequally. He is accused of clearly favouring Aisha among his living wives, explicitly rated Khadija his best wife overall and had the Quranic dispensation to consort with his wives in an Islamically inequitable manner. These actions created jealousy and dissension among his wives and “illustrate the inability of husbands to give equal consideration to multiple wives.” Age of 3rd wife Aisha. From the 20th century onwards, a common point of contention has been Muhammad's marriage to Aisha, who was said in traditional Islamic sources to have been six when betrothed to Muhammad, and nine when she went to live with Muhammad and the marriage was consummated, although according to some scholars it is assumed that the marriage was consummated upon her reaching puberty. Critics such as Baptist pastor Jerry Vines and the Dutch Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders have cited the age of Aisha to denounce Muhammad for having had sex with a nine-year-old, referring to Muhammad as a pedophile. An early 20th-century adherent of the Arya Samaj Hindu reform movement noted in "Rangila Rasul" that Aisha was young enough to be Muhammad's granddaughter. It is described in "Bukhari" that Aisha, while living with Muhammad, used to play with dolls along with her girlfriends. Journalist Katherine Zoepf finds this description emphasising Aisha's childishness despite being married to a man in his fifties can make for "upsetting reading". Jeremy Stangroom and Ophelia Benson argue that Aisha "was much too young to have offered anything like her informed consent, even if it had been sought". Writing that Muhammad's life is considered exemplary for Muslims and one to which all Muslim men should aspire, they quote Kecia Ali: "accepting the rightness of his act raises the question: on what basis can one reject the marriage of young girls today?" They also compare the practice of child marriage to that of colonial slavery, arguing that both practices were legal at the time but are now seen as inherently immoral. American historian of Islam Denise Spellberg states that "these specific references to the bride's age reinforce Aisha's pre-menarcheal status and, implicitly, her virginity." Colin Turner, a UK professor of Islamic studies, states that marriages between an older man and a young girl, consummated once the wife reached what was considered at the time to be adult age, were customary among the Bedouins, and hence Muhammad's marriage would not have been considered improper by his contemporaries. William Montgomery Watt in his book "Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman" addresses Muhammad's alleged moral failings. Watt argues on a basis of moral relativism that Muhammad should be judged by the standards of his own time and country rather than "by those of the most enlightened opinion in the West today." Karen Armstrong, the British author on comparative religion, has affirmed that "There was no impropriety in Muhammad's marriage to Aisha. Marriages conducted in absentia to seal an alliance were often contracted at this time between adults and minors who were even younger than Aisha. This practice continued in Europe well into the early modern period." Asma Barlas, a Pakistani-American academic, states that Muslims who calculate Aisha's age based on the more detailed information available about her sister Asma estimate that she was over 13 and perhaps between 17 and 19 at the time of her marriage. Zaynab bint Jahsh. Western criticism has focused especially on the marriage of Muhammad to his first cousin Zaynab bint Jahsh, the divorced wife of Zayd ibn Harithah, an ex-slave whom Muhammad had adopted as his son. According to Tabari, taken from Al-Waqidi, the story goes that "One day Muhammad went out looking for Zayd. There was a covering of haircloth over the doorway, but the wind had lifted the covering so that the doorway was uncovered. Zaynab was in her chamber, undressed, and admiration for her entered the heart of the Prophet. After that Allah made her unattractive to Zayd and he divorced Zainab." Karen Armstrong's 2006 biography of Muhammad contextualises this: "A pious woman, [Zaynab] was a skilled leather-worker and gave all the proceeds of her craft to the poor. Muhammad seems to have seen her with new eyes and to have fallen in love quite suddenly when he had called at her house one afternoon to speak to Zayd, who happened to be out. Not expecting any visitors, Zaynab had come to the door in dishabille, more revealingly dressed than usual, and Muhammad had averted his eyes hastily, muttering 'Praise be to Allah, who changes men's hearts!'" According to William Montgomery Watt, Zaynab herself was working for marriage with Muhammad and was not happy being married to Zayd. Watt also places doubt on the story outlined by Al-Waqidi and states that it should be taken with a "grain of salt." According to Watt, Zaynab was either thirty-five or thirty-eight years old at the time and that the story initially outlined by Al-Waqidi in which he detailed Muhammad's incident with Zaynab during the absence of Zayd may have been tampered with in the course of transmission. According to Mazheruddin Siddiqi, Zaynab as the cousin of Muhammad was seen by him many times before her marriage to Zayd. Siddiqi states: "He [Muhammad] had seen her many times before but he was never attracted to her physical beauty, else he would have married her, instead of insisting on her that she should marry Zaid." The English translation of the book, "The Wives of the Messenger of Allah" by Muhammad Swaleh Awadh, states that she was married to Muhammad in Dhul Qa'adah, in the fifth year of Hijra. Since Zaynab was the wife of Muhammad's adopted son, pre-Islamic practices frowned upon such her marriage with the prophet. Arab society would have viewed this union as profoundly wrong; because they considered an adopted son was truly a "son", for a man to marry his adopted son's wife—even if she was divorced—was considered wrong. The marriage was used by Munafiqs of Medina to discredit Muhammad on two fronts, one of double standards as she was his fifth wife, while everyone else was restricted to four, and marrying his adopted son's wife. This was exactly what Muhammad feared and was initially hesitant in marrying her. The Qur'an, however, confirmed that this marriage was valid. Thus Muhammad, confident of his faith in the Qur'an, proceeded to reject the existing Arabic norms. When Zaynab's waiting period from her divorce was complete, Muhammad married her. In reference to this incident, says: After this verse was announced, Muhammad proceeded to reject the existing Arabic norms on the prohibition to marry the wives of adopted sons, which was considered extremely wrong and incestuous among Arabs. Thereafter the legal status of adoption was not recognised under Islam. Zayd reverted to being known by his original name of "Zayd ibn Harithah" instead of "Zayd ibn Muhammad". Orientalists and critics have pointed to this Sura as an example of a self-serving revelation that merely reflects Muhammad's own lust and sexual desires rather than the will of God. Religious syncretism and compromise. John Mason Neale (1818–1866) accused Muhammad of pandering to his followers, arguing that he constructed Islam out of a mixture of beliefs that provided something for everyone. Thomas Patrick Hughes (b. 1838) argued that the Hajj represents an expedient compromise between Muhammad's monotheistic principles and Arabian paganism. Nasr, the Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, states: Islamic scholar Yasir Qadhi stated that while non-Muslims believe Muhammad "adopted certain things from paganism and then added his own two cents for us", he instead states that Muhammad resurrected the original teachings of the Islamic prophet Ibrahim, citing an Islamic narrative of a man named Amr Ibn Luhay who later introduced paganism in Arabia. Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd Allāh Azraqī mentions the story his book titled "Kitāb akhbār Makkah"."" Psychological and medical condition. Muhammad is reported to have had mysterious seizures at the moments of inspiration. According to Philip Schaff (1819–1893), during his revelations Muhammad "sometimes growled like a camel, foamed at his mouth, and streamed with perspiration." Welch, a scholar of Islamic studies, in the Encyclopedia of Islam states that the graphic descriptions of Muhammad's condition at these moments may be regarded as genuine, since they are unlikely to have been invented by later Muslims. According to Welch, these seizures should have been the most convincing evidence for the superhuman origin of Muhammad's inspirations for people around him. Others adopted alternative explanations for these seizures and claimed that he was possessed, a soothsayer, or a magician. Welch states it remains uncertain whether Muhammad had such experiences before he began to see himself as a prophet and if so how long did he have such experiences. According to Temkin, the first attribution of "epileptic" seizures to Muhammad comes from the 8th century Byzantine historian Theophanes who wrote that Muhammad's wife "was very much grieved that she, being of noble descent, was tied to such a man, who was not only poor but epileptic as well." In the Middle Ages, the general perception of those who suffered epilepsy was an unclean and incurable wretch who might be possessed by the Devil. The political hostility between Islam and Christianity contributed to the continuation of the accusation of epilepsy throughout the Middle Ages. The Christian minister Archdeacon Humphrey Prideaux gave the following description of Muhammad's visions: He pretended to receive all his revelations from the Angel Gabriel, and that he was sent from God of purpose to deliver them unto him. And whereas he was subject to the falling-sickness, whenever the fit was upon him, he pretended it to be a Trance, and that the Angel Gabriel comes from God with some Revelations unto him. Some modern Western scholars also have a skeptical view of Muhammad's seizures. Frank R. Freemon states Muhammad had "conscious control over the course of the spells and can pretend to be in a religious trance." During the nineteenth century, as Islam was no longer a political or military threat to Western society, and perceptions of epilepsy changed, the theological and moral associations with epilepsy were removed; epilepsy was now viewed as a medical disorder. Nineteenth-century orientalist Margoliouth claimed that Muhammad suffered from epilepsy and even occasionally faked it for effect. Sprenger attributes Muhammad's revelations to epileptic fits or a "paroxysm of cataleptic insanity." In Schaff's view, Muhammad's "early and frequent epileptic fits" provided "some light on his revelations." The most famous epileptic of the 19th century, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) wrote that epileptic attacks have an inspirational quality; he said they are "a supreme exaltation of emotional subjectivity" in which time stands still. Dostoyevsky claimed that his own attacks were similar to those of Muhammad: "Probably it was of such an instant, that the epileptic Mahomet was speaking when he said that he had visited all the dwelling places of Allah within a shorter time than it took for his pitcher full of water to empty itself." In an essay that discusses views of Muhammad's psychology, Franz Bul (1903) is said to have observed that "hysterical natures find unusual difficulty and often complete inability to distinguish the false from the true", and to have thought this to be "the safest way to interpret the strange inconsistencies in the life of the Prophet." In the same essay Duncan Black Macdonald (1911) is credited with the opinion that "fruitful investigation of the Prophet's life (should) proceed upon the assumption that he was fundamentally a pathological case." Modern Western scholars of Islam have rejected the diagnosis of epilepsy. Tor Andrae rejects the idea that the inspired state is pathological attributing it to a scientifically superficial and hasty theory arguing that those who consider Muhammad epileptic should consider all types of semi-conscious and trance-like states, occasional loss of consciousness, and similar conditions as epileptic attacks. Andrae writes that "[i]f epilepsy is to denote only those severe attacks which involve serious consequences for the physical and mental health, then the statement that Mohammad suffered from epilepsy must be emphatically rejected." Caesar Farah suggests that "[t]hese insinuations resulted from the 19th-century infatuation with scientifically superficial theories of medical psychology." Noth, in the "Encyclopedia of Islam", states that such accusations were a typical feature of medieval European Christian polemic. Maxime Rodinson says that it is most probable that Muhammad's conditions was basically of the same kind as that found in many mystics rather than epilepsy. Fazlur Rahman refutes epileptic fits for the following reasons: Muhammad's condition begins with his career at the age of 40; according to the tradition seizures are "invariably" associated with the revelation and never occur by itself. Lastly, a sophisticated society like the Meccan or Medinese would have identified epilepsy clearly and definitely. William Montgomery Watt also disagrees with the epilepsy diagnosis, saying that "there are no real grounds for such a view." Elaborating, he says that "epilepsy leads to physical and mental degeneration, and there are no signs of that in Muhammad." He then goes further and states that Muhammad was psychologically sound in general: "he (Muhammad) was clearly in full possession of his faculties to the very end of his life." Watt concludes by stating "It is incredible that a person subject to epilepsy, or hysteria, or even ungovernable fits of emotion, could have been the active leader of military expeditions, or the cool far-seeing guide of a city-state and a growing religious community; but all this we know Muhammad to have been." According to Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Muhammad's sense of fairness and justice was famous, even before his claim of prophet-hood, as people called him al-Amin, the trusted one. Frank R. Freemon (1976) thinks that the above reasons given by modern biographers of Muhammad in rejection of epilepsy come from the widespread misconceptions about the various types of epilepsy. In his differential diagnosis, Freemon rejects schizophrenic hallucinations, drug-induced mental changes such as might occur after eating plants containing hallucinogenic materials, transient ischemic attacks, hypoglycemia, labyrinthitis, Ménière's disease, or other inner ear maladies. At the end, Freemon argues that if one were forced to make a diagnosis psychomotor seizures of temporal lobe epilepsy would be the most tenable one, although our lack of scientific as well as historical knowledge makes unequivocal decision impossible. Freemon cites evidences supporting and opposing this diagnosis. In the end, Freemon points out that a medical diagnosis should not ignore Muhammad's moral message because it is just as likely, perhaps more likely, for God communicate with a person in an abnormal state of mind. From a Muslim point of view, Freemon says, Muhammed's mental state at the time of revelation was unique and is not therefore amenable to medical or scientific discourse. In reaction to Freemon's article, GM. S. Megahed, a Muslim neurologist criticized the article arguing that there are no scientific explanations for many religious phenomena, and that if Muhammad's message is a result of psychomotor seizures, then on the same basis Moses' and Jesus' message would be the result of psychomotor seizures. In response, Freemon attributed such negative reactions to his article to the general misconceptions about epilepsy as a demeaning condition. Freemon said that he did plan to write an article on the inspirational spells of St. Paul, but the existence of such misconceptions caused him to cancel it. Neglected legacy. Muhammad has been criticized for several omissions during his prophethood: he left the Muslim community leaderless and divided following his death by failing to clearly and indisputably declare the individual, selection process or institution that should succeed him, he failed to collect the Quran in a definitive text (later achieved during Uthman's Caliphate), and he failed to collect and codify his prophetic tradition, which work was later undertaken by scholars in the 8th and 9th centuries and became the second most important source of Islam's teachings. According to both Sunni and Shia Muslims, on his way back from his last pilgrimage to Mecca, Muhammad stopped in a place called Ghadir Khumm, and appointed his cousin Ali as his executor of his last will and his Wali. The word Wali was interpreted differently by Sunni and Shia Muslims. Shia believes Muhammad appointed Ali as his successors at the location. Shia also believe Muhammad's Ahl al-Bayt, are the trusted collectors and transmitters of Muhammad's ahadith and trusted interpreters of Quran. Tribalism. By stating that Muslims should perpetually be ruled by a member of his own Quraysh tribe after him, Muhammed is accused of creating an Islamic aristocracy, contrary to the religion's ostensibly egalitarian principles. Criticism of Muhammad's personal motivations. 19th century and early 20th century. William Muir, like many other 19th-century scholars divides Muhammad's life into two periods—Meccan and Medinan. He asserts that "in the Meccan period of [Muhammad's] life there certainly can be traced no personal ends or unworthy motives," painting him as a man of good faith and a genuine reformer. However, that all changed after the "Hijra", according to Muir. "There [in Medina] temporal power, aggrandisement, and self-gratification mingled rapidly with the grand object of the Prophet's life, and they were sought and attained by just the same instrumentality." From that point on, he accuses Muhammad of manufacturing "messages from heaven" in order to justify a lust for women and reprisals against enemies, among other sins. Philip Schaff says that "in the earlier part of his life he [Muhammad] was a sincere reformer and enthusiast, but after the establishment of his kingdom a slave of ambition for conquest" and describes him as "a slave of sensual passion." William St. Clair Tisdall also accused Muhammad of inventing revelations to justify his own desires. D.S. Margoliouth, another 19th-century scholar, sees Muhammad as a charlatan who beguiled his followers with techniques like those used by fraudulent mediums today. He has expressed a view that Muhammad faked his religious sincerity, playing the part of a messenger from God like a man in a play, adjusting his performances to create an illusion of spirituality. Margoliouth is especially critical of the character of Muhammad as revealed in Ibn Ishaq's famous biography, which he holds as especially telling because Muslims cannot dismiss it as the writings of an enemy: Late 20th century. According to William Montgomery Watt and Richard Bell, recent writers have generally dismissed the idea that Muhammad deliberately deceived his followers, arguing that Muhammad "was absolutely sincere and acted in complete good faith". According to Nasr, Modern secular historians generally decline to address the question of whether the messages Muhammad reported being revealed to him were from "his unconscious, the collective unconscious functioning in him, or from some divine source", but they acknowledge that the material came from "beyond his conscious mind." Watt says that sincerity does not directly imply correctness: In contemporary terms, Muhammad might have mistaken for divine revelation his own unconscious. William Montgomery Watt states: Rudi Paret agrees, writing that "Muhammad was not a deceiver," and Welch also holds that "the really powerful factor in Muhammad's life and the essential clue to his extraordinary success was his unshakable belief from beginning to end that he had been called by God. A conviction such as this, which, once firmly established, does not admit of the slightest doubt, exercises an incalculable influence on others. The certainty with which he came forward as the executor of God's will gave his words and ordinances an authority that proved finally compelling." Bernard Lewis, another modern historian, commenting on the common Western Medieval view of Muhammad as a self-seeking impostor, states that Watt rejects the idea that Muhammad's moral behavior deteriorated after he migrated to Medina. He argues that "it is based on too facile a use of the principle that all power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Watt interprets incidents in the Medinan period in such a way that they mark "no failure in Muhammad to live to his ideals and no lapse from his moral principles."

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14099

The history of Africa begins with the emergence of hominids, archaic humans and—at least 200,000 years ago—anatomically modern humans ("Homo sapiens"), in East Africa, and continues unbroken into the present as a patchwork of diverse and politically developing nation states. The earliest known recorded history arose in Ancient Egypt, and later in Nubia, the Sahel, the Maghreb and the Horn of Africa. Following the desertification of the Sahara, North African history became entwined with the Middle East and Southern Europe while the Bantu expansion swept from modern day Cameroon (Central Africa) across much of the sub-Saharan continent in waves between around 1000 BC and 1 AD, creating a linguistic commonality across much of the central and Southern continent. During the Middle Ages, Islam spread west from Arabia to Egypt, crossing the Maghreb and the Sahel. Some notable pre-colonial states and societies in Africa include the Ajuran Empire, D'mt, Adal Sultanate, Alodia, Warsangali Sultanate, Kingdom of Nri, Nok culture, Mali Empire, Bono State, Songhai Empire, Benin Empire, Oyo Empire, Kingdom of Lunda (Punu-yaka), Ashanti Empire, Ghana Empire, Mossi Kingdoms, Mutapa Empire, Kingdom of Mapungubwe, Kingdom of Sine, Kingdom of Sennar, Kingdom of Saloum, Kingdom of Baol, Kingdom of Cayor, Kingdom of Zimbabwe, Kingdom of Kongo, Empire of Kaabu, Kingdom of Ile Ife, Ancient Carthage, Numidia, Mauretania, and the Aksumite Empire. At its peak, prior to European colonialism, it is estimated that Africa had up to 10,000 different states and autonomous groups with distinct languages and customs.<ref name="http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/31/getting-to-know-africa-50-facts/">Africa Information</ref> From the late 15th century, Europeans joined the slave trade. One could say the Portuguese led in partnership with other Europeans. That includes the triangular trade, with the Portuguese initially acquiring slaves through trade and later by force as part of the Atlantic slave trade. They transported enslaved West, Central, and Southern Africans overseas. Subsequently, European colonization of Africa developed rapidly from around 10% (1870) to over 90% (1914) in the Scramble for Africa (1881–1914). However following struggles for independence in many parts of the continent, as well as a weakened Europe after the Second World War , decolonization took place across the continent, culminating in the 1960 Year of Africa. Disciplines such as recording of oral history, historical linguistics, archaeology and genetics have been vital in rediscovering the great African civilizations of antiquity. Prehistory. Paleolithic. The first known hominids evolved in Africa. According to paleontology, the early hominids' skull anatomy was similar to that of the gorilla and the chimpanzee, great apes that also evolved in Africa, but the hominids had adopted a bipedal locomotion which freed their hands. This gave them a crucial advantage, enabling them to live in both forested areas and on the open savanna at a time when Africa was drying up and the savanna was encroaching on forested areas. This would have occurred 10 to 5 million years ago, but these claims are controversial because biologists and genetics have humans appearing around the last 70 thousand to 200 thousand years. By 4 million years ago, several australopithecine hominid species had developed throughout Southern, Eastern and Central Africa. They were tool users, and makers of tools. They scavenged for meat and were omnivores. By approximately 3.3 million years ago, primitive stone tools were first used to scavenge kills made by other predators and to harvest carrion and marrow from their bones. In hunting, "Homo habilis" was probably not capable of competing with large predators and was still more prey than hunter. "H. habilis" probably did steal eggs from nests and may have been able to catch small game and weakened larger prey (cubs and older animals). The tools were classed as Oldowan. Around 1.8 million years ago, "Homo ergaster" first appeared in the fossil record in Africa. From "Homo ergaster", "Homo erectus" evolved 1.5 million years ago. Some of the earlier representatives of this species were still fairly small-brained and used primitive stone tools, much like "H. habilis". The brain later grew in size, and "H. erectus" eventually developed a more complex stone tool technology called the Acheulean. Possibly the first hunters, "H. erectus" mastered the art of making fire and was the first hominid to leave Africa, colonizing most of Afro-Eurasia and perhaps later giving rise to "Homo floresiensis". Although some recent writers have suggested that "Homo georgicus" was the first and primary hominid ever to live outside Africa, many scientists consider "H. georgicus" to be an early and primitive member of the "H. erectus" species. The fossil record shows "Homo sapiens" (also known as "modern humans" or "anatomically modern humans") living in Africa by about 350,000-260,000 years ago. The earliest known "Homo sapiens" fossils include the Jebel Irhoud remains from Morocco (ca. 315,000 years ago), the Florisbad Skull from South Africa (ca. 259,000 years ago), and the Omo remains from Ethiopia (ca. 195,000 years ago). Scientists have suggested that "Homo sapiens" may have arisen between 350,000 and 260,000 years ago through a merging of populations in East Africa and South Africa. Evidence of a variety behaviors indicative of Behavioral modernity date to the African Middle Stone Age, associated with early "Homo sapiens" and their emergence. Abstract imagery, widened subsistence strategies, and other "modern" behaviors have been discovered from that period in Africa, especially South, North, and East Africa. The Blombos Cave site in South Africa, for example, is famous for rectangular slabs of ochre engraved with geometric designs. Using multiple dating techniques, the site was confirmed to be around 77,000 and 100–75,000 years old. Ostrich egg shell containers engraved with geometric designs dating to 60,000 years ago were found at Diepkloof, South Africa. Beads and other personal ornamentation have been found from Morocco which might be as much as 130,000 years old; as well, the Cave of Hearths in South Africa has yielded a number of beads dating from significantly prior to 50,000 years ago., and shell beads dating to about 75,000 years ago have been found at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Specialized projectile weapons as well have been found at various sites in Middle Stone Age Africa, including bone and stone arrowheads at South African sites such as Sibudu Cave (along with an early bone needle also found at Sibudu) dating approximately 60,000-70,000 years ago, and bone harpoons at the Central African site of Katanda dating to about 90,000 years ago. Evidence also exists for the systematic heat treating of silcrete stone to increased its flake-ability for the purpose of toolmaking, beginning approximately 164,000 years ago at the South African site of Pinnacle Point and becoming common there for the creation of microlithic tools at about 72,000 years ago. Early stone-tipped projectile weapons (a characteristic tool of "Homo sapiens"), the stone tips of javelins or throwing spears, were discovered in 2013 at the Ethiopian site of Gademotta, and date to around 279,000 years ago. In 2008, an ochre processing workshop likely for the production of paints was uncovered dating to ca. 100,000 years ago at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Analysis shows that a liquefied pigment-rich mixture was produced and stored in the two abalone shells, and that ochre, bone, charcoal, grindstones and hammer-stones also formed a composite part of the toolkits. Evidence for the complexity of the task includes procuring and combining raw materials from various sources (implying they had a mental template of the process they would follow), possibly using pyrotechnology to facilitate fat extraction from bone, using a probable recipe to produce the compound, and the use of shell containers for mixing and storage for later use.<ref name="Washington Post-2011/10/12/gIQApyHrhL"></ref> Modern behaviors, such as the making of shell beads, bone tools and arrows, and the use of ochre pigment, are evident at a Kenyan site by 78,000-67,000 years ago. Expanding subsistence strategies beyond big-game hunting and the consequential diversity in tool types has been noted as signs of behavioral modernity. A number of South African sites have shown an early reliance on aquatic resources from fish to shellfish. Pinnacle Point, in particular, shows exploitation of marine resources as early as 120,000 years ago, perhaps in response to more arid conditions inland. Establishing a reliance on predictable shellfish deposits, for example, could reduce mobility and facilitate complex social systems and symbolic behavior. Blombos Cave and Site 440 in Sudan both show evidence of fishing as well. Taphonomic change in fish skeletons from Blombos Cave have been interpreted as capture of live fish, clearly an intentional human behavior. Humans in North Africa (Nazlet Sabaha, Egypt) are known to have dabbled in chert mining, as early as ≈100,000 years ago, for the construction of stone tools. Evidence was found in 2018, dating to about 320,000 years ago, at the Kenyan site of Olorgesailie, of the early emergence of modern behaviors including: long-distance trade networks (involving goods such as obsidian), the use of pigments, and the possible making of projectile points. It is observed by the authors of three 2018 studies on the site, that the evidence of these behaviors is approximately contemporary to the earliest known "Homo sapiens" fossil remains from Africa (such as at Jebel Irhoud and Florisbad), and they suggest that complex and modern behaviors began in Africa around the time of the emergence of "Homo sapiens". In 2019, further evidence of early complex projectile weapons in Africa was found at Adouma, Ethiopia dated 80,000-100,000 years ago, in the form of points considered likely to belong to darts delivered by spear throwers. Around 65–50,000 years ago, the species' expansion out of Africa launched the colonization of the planet by modern human beings. By 10,000 BC, "Homo sapiens" had spread to most corners of Afro-Eurasia. Their dispersals are traced by linguistic, cultural and genetic evidence. The earliest physical evidence of astronomical activity appears to be a lunar calendar found on the Ishango bone dated to between 23,000 and 18,000 BC from in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Scholars have argued that warfare was absent throughout much of humanity's prehistoric past, and that it emerged from more complex political systems as a result of sedentism, agricultural farming, etc. However, the findings at the site of Nataruk in Turkana County, Kenya, where the remains of 27 individuals who died as the result of an intentional attack by another group 10,000 years ago, suggest that inter-human conflict has a much longer history. Emergence of agriculture and desertification of the Sahara. Around 16,000 BC, from the Red Sea Hills to the northern Ethiopian Highlands, nuts, grasses and tubers were being collected for food. By 13,000 to 11,000 BC, people began collecting wild grains. This spread to Western Asia, which domesticated its wild grains, wheat and barley. Between 10,000 and 8000 BC, Northeast Africa was cultivating wheat and barley and raising sheep and cattle from Southwest Asia. A wet climatic phase in Africa turned the Ethiopian Highlands into a mountain forest. Omotic speakers domesticated enset around 6500–5500 BC. Around 7000 BC, the settlers of the Ethiopian highlands domesticated donkeys, and by 4000 BC domesticated donkeys had spread to Southwest Asia. Cushitic speakers, partially turning away from cattle herding, domesticated teff and finger millet between 5500 and 3500 BC. During the 11th millennium BP, pottery was independently invented in Africa, with the earliest pottery there dating to about 9,400 BC from central Mali. It soon spread throughout the southern Sahara and Sahel. In the steppes and savannahs of the Sahara and Sahel in Northern West Africa, the Nilo-Saharan speakers and Mandé peoples started to collect and domesticate wild millet, African rice and sorghum between 8000 and 6000 BC. Later, gourds, watermelons, castor beans, and cotton were also collected and domesticated. The people started capturing wild cattle and holding them in circular thorn hedges, resulting in domestication. They also started making pottery and built stone settlements (e.g., Tichitt, Oualata). Fishing, using bone-tipped harpoons, became a major activity in the numerous streams and lakes formed from the increased rains. Mande peoples have been credited with the independent development of agriculture about 3000–4000 BC. In West Africa, the wet phase ushered in an expanding rainforest and wooded savanna from Senegal to Cameroon. Between 9000 and 5000 BC, Niger–Congo speakers domesticated the oil palm and raffia palm. Two seed plants, black-eyed peas and voandzeia (African groundnuts), were domesticated, followed by okra and kola nuts. Since most of the plants grew in the forest, the Niger–Congo speakers invented polished stone axes for clearing forest. Most of Southern Africa was occupied by pygmy peoples and Khoisan who engaged in hunting and gathering. Some of the oldest rock art was produced by them. For several hundred thousand years the Sahara has alternated between desert and savanna grassland in a 41,000 year cycle caused by changes ("precession") in the Earth's axis as it rotates around the sun which change the location of the North African Monsoon. When the North African monsoon is at its strongest annual precipitation and subsequent vegetation in the Sahara region increase, resulting in conditions commonly referred to as the "green Sahara". For a relatively weak North African monsoon, the opposite is true, with decreased annual precipitation and less vegetation resulting in a phase of the Sahara climate cycle known as the "desert Sahara". The Sahara has been a desert for several thousand years, and is expected to become green again in about 15,000 years time (17,000 AD). Just prior to Saharan desertification, the communities that developed south of Egypt, in what is now Sudan, were full participants in the Neolithic revolution and lived a settled to semi-nomadic lifestyle, with domesticated plants and animals. It has been suggested that megaliths found at Nabta Playa are examples of the world's first known archaeoastronomical devices, predating Stonehenge by some 1,000 years. The sociocultural complexity observed at Nabta Playa and expressed by different levels of authority within the society there has been suggested as forming the basis for the structure of both the Neolithic society at Nabta and the Old Kingdom of Egypt. By 5000 BC, Africa entered a dry phase, and the climate of the Sahara region gradually became drier. The population trekked out of the Sahara region in all directions, including towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract, where they made permanent or semipermanent settlements. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and Eastern Africa. Central Africa. Archaeological findings in Central Africa have been discovered dating back to over 100,000 years. Extensive walled sites and settlements have recently been found in Zilum, Chad approximately southwest of Lake Chad dating to the first millennium BC. Trade and improved agricultural techniques supported more sophisticated societies, leading to the early civilizations of Sao, Kanem, Bornu, Shilluk, Baguirmi, and Wadai. Around 1,000 BC, Bantu migrants had reached the Great Lakes Region in Central Africa. Halfway through the first millennium BC, the Bantu had also settled as far south as what is now Angola. Metallurgy. Evidence of the early smelting of metals - lead, copper, and bronze - dates from the fourth millennium BC. Egyptians smelted copper during the predynastic period, and bronze came into use after 3,000 BC at the latest in Egypt and Nubia. Nubia became a major source of copper as well as of gold. The use of gold and silver in Egypt dates back to the predynastic period. In the Aïr Mountains of present-day Niger people smelted copper independently of developments in the Nile valley between 3,000 and 2,500 BC. They used a process unique to the region, suggesting that the technology was not brought in from outside; it became more mature by about 1,500 BC. By the 1st millennium BC iron working had reached Northwestern Africa, Egypt, and Nubia. Zangato and Holl document evidence of iron-smelting in the Central African Republic and Cameroon that may date back to 3,000 to 2,500 BC. Assyrians using iron weapons pushed Nubians out of Egypt in 670 BC, after which the use of iron became widespread in the Nile valley. The theory that iron spread to Sub-Saharan Africa via the Nubian city of Meroe is no longer widely accepted, and some researchers believe that sub-Saharan Africans invented iron metallurgy independently. Metalworking in West Africa has been dated as early as 2,500 BC at Egaro west of the Termit in Niger, and iron working was practiced there by 1,500 BC. Iron smelting has been dated to 2,000 BC in southeast Nigeria. Central Africa provides possible evidence of iron working as early as the 3rd millennium BC. Iron smelting developed in the area between Lake Chad and the African Great Lakes between 1,000 and 600 BC, and in West Africa around 2,000 BC, long before the technology reached Egypt. Before 500 BC, the Nok culture in the Jos Plateau was already smelting iron. Archaeological sites containing iron-smelting furnaces and slag have been excavated at sites in the Nsukka region of southeast Nigeria in Igboland: dating to 2,000 BC at the site of Lejja (Eze-Uzomaka 2009) and to 750 BC and at the site of Opi (Holl 2009). The site of Gbabiri (in the Central African Republic) has also yielded evidence of iron metallurgy, from a reduction furnace and blacksmith workshop; with earliest dates of 896-773 BC and 907-796 BC respectively. Antiquity. The ancient history of North Africa is inextricably linked to that of the Ancient Near East. This is particularly true of Ancient Egypt and Nubia. In the Horn of Africa the Kingdom of Aksum ruled modern-day Eritrea, northern Ethiopia and the coastal area of the western part of the Arabian Peninsula. The Ancient Egyptians established ties with the Land of Punt in 2,350 BC. Punt was a trade partner of Ancient Egypt and it is believed that it was located in modern-day Somalia, Djibouti or Eritrea. Phoenician cities such as Carthage were part of the Mediterranean Iron Age and classical antiquity. Sub-Saharan Africa developed more or less independently in those times. Ancient Egypt. After the desertification of the Sahara, settlement became concentrated in the Nile Valley, where numerous sacral chiefdoms appeared. The regions with the largest population pressure were in the Nile Delta region of Lower Egypt, in Upper Egypt, and also along the second and third cataracts of the Dongola Reach of the Nile in Nubia. This population pressure and growth was brought about by the cultivation of southwest Asian crops, including wheat and barley, and the raising of sheep, goats, and cattle. Population growth led to competition for farm land and the need to regulate farming. Regulation was established by the formation of bureaucracies among sacral chiefdoms. The first and most powerful of the chiefdoms was Ta-Seti, founded around 3,500 BC. The idea of sacral chiefdom spread throughout Upper and Lower Egypt. Later consolidation of the chiefdoms into broader political entities began to occur in Upper and Lower Egypt, culminating into the unification of Egypt into one political entity by Narmer (Menes) in 3,100 BC. Instead of being viewed as a sacral chief, he became a divine king. The henotheism, or worship of a single god within a polytheistic system, practiced in the sacral chiefdoms along Upper and Lower Egypt, became the polytheistic Ancient Egyptian religion. Bureaucracies became more centralized under the pharaohs, run by viziers, governors, tax collectors, generals, artists, and technicians. They engaged in tax collecting, organizing of labor for major public works, and building irrigation systems, pyramids, temples, and canals. During the Fourth Dynasty (2,620–2,480 BC), long-distance trade was developed, with the Levant for timber, with Nubia for gold and skins, with Punt for frankincense, and also with the western Libyan territories. For most of the Old Kingdom, Egypt developed her fundamental systems, institutions and culture, always through the central bureaucracy and by the divinity of the Pharaoh. After the fourth millennium BC, Egypt started to extend direct military and political control over her southern and western neighbors. By 2,200 BC, the Old Kingdom's stability was undermined by rivalry among the governors of the nomes who challenged the power of pharaohs and by invasions of Asiatics into the Nile Delta. The First Intermediate Period had begun, a time of political division and uncertainty. Middle Kingdom of Egypt arose when Mentuhotep II of Eleventh Dynasty unified Egypt once again between 2041 and 2016 BC beginning with his conquering of Tenth Dynasty in 2041 BC. Pyramid building resumed, long-distance trade re-emerged, and the center of power moved from Memphis to Thebes. Connections with the southern regions of Kush, Wawat and Irthet at the second cataract were made stronger. Then came the Second Intermediate Period, with the invasion of the Hyksos on horse-drawn chariots and utilizing bronze weapons, a technology heretofore unseen in Egypt. Horse-drawn chariots soon spread to the west in the inhabitable Sahara and North Africa. The Hyksos failed to hold on to their Egyptian territories and were absorbed by Egyptian society. This eventually led to one of Egypt's most powerful phases, the New Kingdom (1,580–1,080 BC), with the Eighteenth Dynasty. Egypt became a superpower controlling Nubia and Judea while exerting political influence on the Libyans to the West and on the Mediterranean. As before, the New Kingdom ended with invasion from the west by Libyan princes, leading to the Third Intermediate Period. Beginning with Shoshenq I, the Twenty-second Dynasty was established. It ruled for two centuries. To the south, Nubian independence and strength was being reasserted. This reassertion led to the conquest of Egypt by Nubia, begun by Kashta and completed by Piye (Pianhky, 751–730 BC) and Shabaka (716–695 BC). This was the birth of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. The Nubians tried to re-establish Egyptian traditions and customs. They ruled Egypt for a hundred years. This was ended by an Assyrian invasion, with Taharqa experiencing the full might of Assyrian iron weapons. The Nubian pharaoh Tantamani was the last of the Twenty-fifth dynasty. When the Assyrians and Nubians left, a new Twenty-sixth Dynasty emerged from Sais. It lasted until 525 BC, when Egypt was invaded by the Persians. Unlike the Assyrians, the Persians stayed. In 332, Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great. This was the beginning of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ended with Roman conquest in 30 BC. Pharaonic Egypt had come to an end. Nubia. Around 3,500 BC, one of the first sacral kingdoms to arise in the Nile was Ta-Seti, located in northern Nubia. Ta-Seti was a powerful sacral kingdom in the Nile Valley at the 1st and 2nd cataracts that exerted an influence over nearby chiefdoms based on pictorial representation ruling over Upper Egypt. Ta-Seti traded as far as Syro-Palestine, as well as with Egypt. Ta-Seti exported gold, copper, ostrich feathers, ebony and ivory to the Old Kingdom. By the 32nd century BC, Ta-Seti was in decline. After the unification of Egypt by Narmer in 3,100 BC, Ta-Seti was invaded by the Pharaoh Hor-Aha of the First Dynasty, destroying the final remnants of the kingdom. Ta-Seti is affiliated with the A-Group Culture known to archaeology. Small sacral kingdoms continued to dot the Nubian portion of the Nile for centuries after 3,000 BC. Around the latter part of the third millennium, there was further consolidation of the sacral kingdoms. Two kingdoms in particular emerged: the Sai kingdom, immediately south of Egypt, and the Kingdom of Kerma at the third cataract. Sometime around the 18th century BC, the Kingdom of Kerma conquered the Kingdom of Sai, becoming a serious rival to Egypt. Kerma occupied a territory from the first cataract to the confluence of the Blue Nile, White Nile, and Atbarah River. About 1,575 to 1,550 BC, during the latter part of the Seventeenth Dynasty, the Kingdom of Kerma invaded Egypt. The Kingdom of Kerma allied itself with the Hyksos invasion of Egypt. Egypt eventually re-energized under the Eighteenth Dynasty and conquered the Kingdom of Kerma or Kush, ruling it for almost 500 years. The Kushites were Egyptianized during this period. By 1100 BC, the Egyptians had withdrawn from Kush. The region regained independence and reasserted its culture. Kush built a new religion around Amun and made Napata its spiritual center. In 730 BC, the Kingdom of Kush invaded Egypt, taking over Thebes and beginning the Nubian Empire. The empire extended from Palestine to the confluence of the Blue Nile, the White Nile, and River Atbara. In 664 BC, the Kushites were expelled from Egypt by iron-wielding Assyrians. Later, the administrative capital was moved from Napata to Meröe, developing a new Nubian culture. Initially, Meroites were highly Egyptianized, but they subsequently began to take on distinctive features. Nubia became a center of iron-making and cotton cloth manufacturing. Egyptian writing was replaced by the Meroitic alphabet. The lion god Apedemak was added to the Egyptian pantheon of gods. Trade links to the Red Sea increased, linking Nubia with Mediterranean Greece. Its architecture and art diversified, with pictures of lions, ostriches, giraffes, and elephants. Eventually, with the rise of Aksum, Nubia's trade links were broken and it suffered environmental degradation from the tree cutting required for iron production. In 350 AD, the Aksumite king Ezana brought Meröe to an end. Carthage. The Egyptians referred to the people west of the Nile, ancestral to the Berbers, as Libyans. The Libyans were agriculturalists like the Mauri of Morocco and the Numidians of central and eastern Algeria and Tunis. They were also nomadic, having the horse, and occupied the arid pastures and desert, like the Gaetuli. Berber desert nomads were typically in conflict with Berber coastal agriculturalists. The Phoenicians were Mediterranean seamen in constant search for valuable metals such as copper, gold, tin, and lead. They began to populate the North African coast with settlementstrading and mixing with the native Berber population. In 814 BC, Phoenicians from Tyre established the city of Carthage. By 600 BC, Carthage had become a major trading entity and power in the Mediterranean, largely through trade with tropical Africa. Carthage's prosperity fostered the growth of the Berber kingdoms, Numidia and Mauretania. Around 500 BC, Carthage provided a strong impetus for trade with Sub-Saharan Africa. Berber middlemen, who had maintained contacts with Sub-Saharan Africa since the desert had desiccated, utilized pack animals to transfer products from oasis to oasis. Danger lurked from the Garamantes of Fez, who raided caravans. Salt and metal goods were traded for gold, slaves, beads, and ivory. The Carthaginians were rivals to the Greeks and Romans. Carthage fought the Punic Wars, three wars with Rome: the First Punic War (264 to 241 BC), over Sicily; the Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC), in which Hannibal invaded Europe; and the Third Punic War (149 to 146 BC). Carthage lost the first two wars, and in the third it was destroyed, becoming the Roman province of Africa, with the Berber Kingdom of Numidia assisting Rome. The Roman province of Africa became a major agricultural supplier of wheat, olives, and olive oil to imperial Rome via exorbitant taxation. Two centuries later, Rome brought the Berber kingdoms of Numidia and Mauretania under its authority. In the 420's AD, Vandals invaded North Africa and Rome lost her territories, subsequently the Berber kingdoms regained their independence. Christianity gained a foothold in Africa at Alexandria in the 1st century AD and spread to Northwest Africa. By 313 AD, with the Edict of Milan, all of Roman North Africa was Christian. Egyptians adopted Monophysite Christianity and formed the independent Coptic Church. Berbers adopted Donatist Christianity. Both groups refused to accept the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Role of the Berbers. As Carthaginian power grew, its impact on the indigenous population increased dramatically. Berber civilization was already at a stage in which agriculture, manufacturing, trade, and political organization supported several states. Trade links between Carthage and the Berbers in the interior grew, but territorial expansion also resulted in the enslavement or military recruitment of some Berbers and in the extraction of tribute from others. By the early 4th century BC, Berbers formed one of the largest element, with Gauls, of the Carthaginian army. In the Mercenary War (241-238 BC), a rebellion was instigated by mercenary soldiers of Carthage and African allies. Berber soldiers participated after being unpaid following the defeat of Carthage in the First Punic War. Berbers succeeded in obtaining control of much of Carthage's North African territory, and they minted coins bearing the name Libyan, used in Greek to describe natives of North Africa. The Carthaginian state declined because of successive defeats by the Romans in the Punic Wars; in 146 BC the city of Carthage was destroyed. As Carthaginian power waned, the influence of Berber leaders in the hinterland grew. By the 2nd century BC, several large but loosely administered Berber kingdoms had emerged. Two of them were established in Numidia, behind the coastal areas controlled by Carthage. West of Numidia lay Mauretania, which extended across the Moulouya River in Morocco to the Atlantic Ocean. The high point of Berber civilization, unequaled until the coming of the Almohads and Almoravid dynasty more than a millennium later, was reached during the reign of Masinissa in the 2nd century BC. After Masinissa's death in 148 BC, the Berber kingdoms were divided and reunited several times. Masinissa's line survived until 24 AD, when the remaining Berber territory was annexed to the Roman Empire. Macrobia and the Barbari City States. Macrobia was an ancient kingdom situated in the Horn of Africa (Present day Somalia) it is mentioned in the 5th century BC. According to Herodotus' account, the Persian Emperor Cambyses II upon his conquest of Egypt (525 BC) sent ambassadors to Macrobia, bringing luxury gifts for the Macrobian king to entice his submission. The Macrobian ruler, who was elected based at least in part on stature, replied instead with a challenge for his Persian counterpart in the form of an unstrung bow: if the Persians could manage to string it, they would have the right to invade his country; but until then, they should thank the gods that the Macrobians never decided to invade their empire. The Macrobians were a regional power reputed for their advanced architecture and gold wealth, which was so plentiful that they shackled their prisoners in golden chains. After the collapse of Macrobia, several wealthy ancient city-states, such as Opone, Essina, Sarapion, Nikon, Malao, Damo and Mosylon near Cape Guardafui would emerge from the 1st millennium BC–500 AD to compete with the Sabaeans, Parthians and Axumites for the wealthy Indo-Greco-Roman trade and flourished along the Somali coast. They developed a lucrative trading network under a region collectively known in the Peripilus of the Erythraean Sea as Barbaria Roman North Africa. "Increases in urbanization and in the area under cultivation during Roman rule caused wholesale dislocations of the Berber society, forcing nomad tribes to settle or to move from their traditional rangelands. Sedentary tribes lost their autonomy and connection with the land. Berber opposition to the Roman presence was nearly constant. The Roman emperor Trajan established a frontier in the south by encircling the Aurès and Nemencha mountains and building a line of forts from Vescera (modern Biskra) to Ad Majores (Henchir Besseriani, southeast of Biskra). The defensive line extended at least as far as Castellum Dimmidi (modern Messaâd, southwest of Biskra), Roman Algeria's southernmost fort. Romans settled and developed the area around Sitifis (modern Sétif) in the 2nd century, but farther west the influence of Rome did not extend beyond the coast and principal military roads until much later." The Roman military presence of North Africa remained relatively small, consisting of about 28,000 troops and auxiliaries in Numidia and the two Mauretanian provinces. Starting in the 2nd century AD, these garrisons were manned mostly by local inhabitants. Aside from Carthage, urbanization in North Africa came in part with the establishment of settlements of veterans under the Roman emperors Claudius (reigned 41–54), Nerva (96–98), and Trajan (98–117). In Algeria such settlements included Tipasa, Cuicul or Curculum (modern Djemila, northeast of Sétif), Thamugadi (modern Timgad, southeast of Sétif), and Sitifis (modern Sétif). The prosperity of most towns depended on agriculture. Called the "granary of the empire", North Africa became one of the largest exporters of grain in the empire, shipping to the provinces which did not produce cereals, like Italy and Greece. Other crops included fruit, figs, grapes, and beans. By the 2nd century AD, olive oil rivaled cereals as an export item. The beginnings of the Roman imperial decline seemed less serious in North Africa than elsewhere. However, uprisings did take place. In 238 AD, landowners rebelled unsuccessfully against imperial fiscal policies. Sporadic tribal revolts in the Mauretanian mountains followed from 253 to 288, during the Crisis of the Third Century. The towns also suffered economic difficulties, and building activity almost ceased. The towns of Roman North Africa had a substantial Jewish population. Some Jews had been deported from Judea or Palestine in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD for rebelling against Roman rule; others had come earlier with Punic settlers. In addition, a number of Berber tribes had converted to Judaism. Christianity arrived in the 2nd century and soon gained converts in the towns and among slaves. More than eighty bishops, some from distant frontier regions of Numidia, attended the Council of Carthage (256) in 256. By the end of the 4th century, the settled areas had become Christianized, and some Berber tribes had converted "en masse". A division in the church that came to be known as the Donatist heresy began in 313 among Christians in North Africa. The Donatists stressed the holiness of the church and refused to accept the authority to administer the sacraments of those who had surrendered the scriptures when they were forbidden under the Emperor Diocletian (reigned 284–305). The Donatists also opposed the involvement of Constantine the Great (reigned 306–337) in church affairs in contrast to the majority of Christians who welcomed official imperial recognition. The occasionally violent Donatist controversy has been characterized as a struggle between opponents and supporters of the Roman system. The most articulate North African critic of the Donatist position, which came to be called a heresy, was Augustine, bishop of Hippo Regius. Augustine maintained that the unworthiness of a minister did not affect the validity of the sacraments because their true minister was Jesus Christ. In his sermons and books Augustine, who is considered a leading exponent of Christian dogma, evolved a theory of the right of orthodox Christian rulers to use force against schismatics and heretics. Although the dispute was resolved by a decision of an imperial commission in Carthage in 411, Donatist communities continued to exist as late as the 6th century. A decline in trade weakened Roman control. Independent kingdoms emerged in mountainous and desert areas, towns were overrun, and Berbers, who had previously been pushed to the edges of the Roman Empire, returned. During the Vandalic War, Belisarius, general of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I based in Constantinople, landed in North Africa in 533 with 16,000 men and within a year destroyed the Vandal Kingdom. Local opposition delayed full Byzantine control of the region for twelve years, however, and when imperial control came, it was but a shadow of the control exercised by Rome. Although an impressive series of fortifications were built, Byzantine rule was compromised by official corruption, incompetence, military weakness, and lack of concern in Constantinople for African affairs, which made it an easy target for the Arabs during the Early Muslim conquests . As a result, many rural areas reverted to Berber rule. Aksum. The earliest state in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, Dʿmt, dates from around the 8th and 7th centuries BC. D'mt traded through the Red Sea with Egypt and the Mediterranean, providing frankincense. By the 5th and 3rd centuries, D'mt had declined, and several successor states took its place. Later there was greater trade with South Arabia, mainly with the port of Saba. Adulis became an important commercial center in the Ethiopian Highlands. The interaction of the peoples in the two regions, the southern Arabia Sabaeans and the northern Ethiopians, resulted in the Ge'ez culture and language and eventual development of the Ge'ez script. Trade links increased and expanded from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, with Egypt, Israel, Phoenicia, Greece, and Rome, to the Black Sea, and to Persia, India, and China. Aksum was known throughout those lands. By the 5th century BC, the region was very prosperous, exporting ivory, hippopotamus hides, gold dust, spices, and live elephants. It imported silver, gold, olive oil, and wine. Aksum manufactured glass crystal, brass, and copper for export. A powerful Aksum emerged, unifying parts of eastern Sudan, northern Ethiopia (Tigre), and Eritrea. Its kings built stone palatial buildings and were buried under megalithic monuments. By 300 AD, Aksum was minting its own coins in silver and gold. In 331 AD, King Ezana (320–350 AD) was converted to Miaphysite Christianity which believes in one united divine-human nature of Christ, supposedly by Frumentius and Aedesius, who became stranded on the Red Sea coast. Some scholars believed the process was more complex and gradual than a simple conversion. Around 350, the time Ezana sacked Meroe, the Syrian monastic tradition took root within the Ethiopian church. In the 6th century Aksum was powerful enough to add Saba on the Arabian peninsula to her empire. At the end of the 6th century, the Sasanian Empire pushed Aksum out of the peninsula. With the spread of Islam through Western Asia and Northern Africa, Aksum's trading networks in the Mediterranean faltered. The Red Sea trade diminished as it was diverted to the Persian Gulf and dominated by Arabs, causing Aksum to decline. By 800 AD, the capital was moved south into the interior highlands, and Aksum was much diminished. West Africa. In the western Sahel the rise of settled communities occurred largely as a result of the domestication of millet and of sorghum. Archaeology points to sizable urban populations in West Africa beginning in the 2nd millennium BC. Symbiotic trade relations developed before the trans-Saharan trade, in response to the opportunities afforded by north–south diversity in ecosystems across deserts, grasslands, and forests. The agriculturists received salt from the desert nomads. The desert nomads acquired meat and other foods from pastoralists and farmers of the grasslands and from fishermen on the Niger River. The forest-dwellers provided furs and meat. Dhar Tichitt and Oualata in present-day Mauritania figure prominently among the early urban centers, dated to 2,000 BC. About 500 stone settlements litter the region in the former savannah of the Sahara. Its inhabitants fished and grew millet. It has been found Augustin Holl that the Soninke of the Mandé peoples were likely responsible for constructing such settlements. Around 300 BC the region became more desiccated and the settlements began to decline, most likely relocating to Koumbi Saleh. Architectural evidence and the comparison of pottery styles suggest that Dhar Tichitt was related to the subsequent Ghana Empire. Djenné-Djenno (in present-day Mali) was settled around 300 BC, and the town grew to house a sizable Iron Age population, as evidenced by crowded cemeteries. Living structures were made of sun-dried mud. By 250 BC Djenné-Djenno had become a large, thriving market town. Towns similar to that at Djenne-Jeno also developed at the site of Dia, also in Mali along the Niger River, from around 900 BC. Farther south, in central Nigeria, around 1,500 BC, the Nok culture developed in Jos Plateau. It was a highly centralized community. The Nok people produced lifelike representations in terracotta, including human heads and human figures, elephants, and other animals. By 500 BC they were smelting iron. By 200 AD the Nok culture had vanished. Based on stylistic similarities with the Nok terracottas, the bronze figurines of the Yoruba kingdom of Ife and those of the Bini kingdom of Benin are now believed to be continuations of the traditions of the earlier Nok culture. Bantu expansion. The Bantu expansion involved a significant movement of people in African history and in the settling of the continent. People speaking Bantu languages (a branch of the Niger–Congo family) began in the second millennium BC to spread from Cameroon eastward to the Great Lakes region. In the first millennium BC, Bantu languages spread from the Great Lakes to southern and east Africa. One early movement headed south to the upper Zambezi valley in the 2nd century BC. Then Bantu-speakers pushed westward to the savannahs of present-day Angola and eastward into Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe in the 1st century AD. The second thrust from the Great Lakes was eastward, 2,000 years ago, expanding to the Indian Ocean coast, Kenya and Tanzania. The eastern group eventually met the southern migrants from the Great Lakes in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Both groups continued southward, with eastern groups continuing to Mozambique and reaching Maputo in the 2nd century AD, and expanding as far as Durban. By the later first millennium AD, the expansion had reached the Great Kei River in present-day South Africa. Sorghum, a major Bantu crop, could not thrive under the winter rainfall of Namibia and the western Cape. Khoisan people inhabited the remaining parts of southern Africa. Medieval and Early Modern (6th to 18th centuries). Sao civilization. The Sao civilization flourished from about the sixth century BC to as late as the 16th century AD in Central Africa. The Sao lived by the Chari River south of Lake Chad in territory that later became part of present-day Cameroon and Chad. They are the earliest people to have left clear traces of their presence in the territory of modern Cameroon. Today, several ethnic groups of northern Cameroon and southern Chad – but particularly the Sara people – claim descent from the civilization of the Sao. Sao artifacts show that they were skilled workers in bronze, copper, and iron. Finds include bronze sculptures and terracotta statues of human and animal figures, coins, funerary urns, household utensils, jewelry, highly decorated pottery, and spears. The largest Sao archaeological finds have occurred south of Lake Chad. Kanem Empire. The Kanem Empire was centered in the Chad Basin. It was known as the Kanem Empire from the 9th century AD onward and lasted as the independent kingdom of Bornu until 1893. At its height it encompassed an area covering not only much of Chad, but also parts of modern southern Libya, eastern Niger, northeastern Nigeria, northern Cameroon, parts of South Sudan and the Central African Republic. The history of the Empire is mainly known from the Royal Chronicle or "Girgam" discovered in 1851 by the German traveller Heinrich Barth. Kanem rose in the 8th century in the region to the north and east of Lake Chad. The Kanem empire went into decline, shrank, and in the 14th century was defeated by Bilala invaders from the Lake Fitri region. Around the 9th century AD, the central Sudanic Empire of Kanem, with its capital at Njimi, was founded by the Kanuri-speaking nomads. Kanem arose by engaging in the trans-Saharan trade. It exchanged slaves captured by raiding the south for horses from North Africa, which in turn aided in the acquisition of slaves. By the late 11th century, the Islamic Sayfawa (Saifawa) dynasty was founded by Humai (Hummay) ibn Salamna. The Sayfawa Dynasty ruled for 771 years, making it one of the longest-lasting dynasties in human history. In addition to trade, taxation of local farms around Kanem became a source of state income. Kanem reached its peak under "Mai" (king) Dunama Dibalemi ibn Salma (1210–1248). The empire reportedly was able to field 40,000 cavalry, and it extended from Fezzan in the north to the Sao state in the south. Islam became firmly entrenched in the empire. Pilgrimages to Mecca were common; Cairo had hostels set aside specifically for pilgrims from Kanem. Bornu Empire. The Kanuri people led by the Sayfuwa migrated to the west and south of the lake, where they established the Bornu Empire. By the late 16th century the Bornu empire had expanded and recaptured the parts of Kanem that had been conquered by the Bulala. Satellite states of Bornu included the Damagaram in the west and Baguirmi to the southeast of Lake Chad. Around 1400, the Sayfawa Dynasty moved its capital to Bornu, a tributary state southwest of Lake Chad with a new capital Birni Ngarzagamu. Overgrazing had caused the pastures of Kanem to become too dry. In addition, political rivalry from the Bilala clan was becoming intense. Moving to Bornu better situated the empire to exploit the trans-Saharan trade and to widen its network in that trade. Links to the Hausa states were also established, providing horses and salt from Bilma for Bonoman gold. Mai Ali Gazi ibn Dunama (c. 1475 – 1503) defeated the Bilala, reestablishing complete control of Kanem. During the early 16th century, the Sayfawa Dynasty solidified its hold on the Bornu population after much rebellion. In the latter half of the 16th century, "Mai" Idris Alooma modernized its military, in contrast to the Songhai Empire. Turkish mercenaries were used to train the military. The Sayfawa Dynasty were the first monarchs south of the Sahara to import firearms. The empire controlled all of the Sahel from the borders of Darfur in the east to Hausaland to the west. Friendly relationship was established with the Ottoman Empire via Tripoli. The "Mai" exchanged gifts with the Ottoman sultan. During the 17th and 18th centuries, not much is known about Bornu. During the 18th century, it became a center of Islamic learning. However, Bornu's army became outdated by not importing new arms, and Kamembu had also begun its decline. The power of the "mai" was undermined by droughts and famine that were becoming more intense, internal rebellion in the pastoralist north, growing Hausa power, and the importation of firearms which made warfare more bloody. By 1841, the last "mai" was deposed, bringing to an end the long-lived Sayfawa Dynasty. In its place, the al-Kanemi dynasty of the "shehu" rose to power. Shilluk Kingdom. The Shilluk Kingdom was centered in South Sudan from the 15th century from along a strip of land along the western bank of the White Nile, from Lake No to about 12° north latitude. The capital and royal residence was in the town of Fashoda. The kingdom was founded during the mid-15th century AD by its first ruler, Nyikang. During the 19th century, the Shilluk Kingdom faced decline following military assaults from the Ottoman Empire and later British and Sudanese colonization in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Baguirmi Kingdom. The Kingdom of Baguirmi existed as an independent state during the 16th and 17th centuries southeast of Lake Chad in what is now the country of Chad. Baguirmi emerged to the southeast of the Kanem-Bornu Empire. The kingdom's first ruler was Mbang Birni Besse. Later in his reign, the Bornu Empire conquered and made the state a tributary. Wadai Empire. The Wadai Empire was centered on Chad and the Central African Republic from the 17th century. The Tunjur people founded the Wadai Kingdom to the east of Bornu in the 16th century. In the 17th century there was a revolt of the Maba people who established a Muslim dynasty. At first Wadai paid tribute to Bornu and Durfur, but by the 18th century Wadai was fully independent and had become an aggressor against its neighbors.To the west of Bornu, by the 15th century the Kingdom of Kano had become the most powerful of the Hausa Kingdoms, in an unstable truce with the Kingdom of Katsina to the north. Both were absorbed into the Sokoto Caliphate during the Fulani Jihad of 1805, which threatened Bornu itself. Luba Empire. Sometime between 1300 and 1400 AD, Kongolo Mwamba (Nkongolo) from the Balopwe clan unified the various Luba peoples, near Lake Kisale. He founded the Kongolo Dynasty, which was later ousted by Kalala Ilunga. Kalala expanded the kingdom west of Lake Kisale. A new centralized political system of spiritual kings () with a court council of head governors and sub-heads all the way to village heads. The was the direct communicator with the ancestral spirits and chosen by them. Conquered states were integrated into the system and represented in the court, with their titles. The authority of the resided in his spiritual power rather than his military authority. The army was relatively small. The Luba was able to control regional trade and collect tribute for redistribution. Numerous offshoot states were formed with founders claiming descent from the Luba. The Luba political system spread throughout Central Africa, southern Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the western Congo. Two major empires claiming Luba descent were the Lunda Empire and Maravi Empire. The Bemba people and Basimba people of northern Zambia were descended from Luba migrants who arrived in Zambia during the 17th century. Lunda Empire. In the 1450s, a Luba from the royal family Ilunga Tshibinda married Lunda queen Rweej and united all Lunda peoples. Their son Luseeng expanded the kingdom. His son Naweej expanded the empire further and is known as the first Lunda emperor, with the title (,

definite hints

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=9894259

Pigeon Island is a islet located in Gros Islet in the northern region of Saint Lucia. Once isolated from the country in the Caribbean Sea, the island was artificially joined to the western coast of mainland in 1972 by a man-made causeway built from dirt excavated to form the Rodney Bay Marina. Composed of two peaks the island is a historic site with numerous forts such as an 18th-century British fort and Fort Rodney both used by the British to spy on French Ships from neighbouring Martinique. In 1979 it was named a national park and again in 1992 it became a national landmark under the control of the Saint Lucia National Trust (SLNT). Today, Pigeon Island is the home and major venue of the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival. History. The Arawak and Carib artifacts date back to around 1000 A.D. In the middle of the 16th century, a French pirate, François le Clerc, used Pigeon Island as his base. Nathaniel Uring landed here in 1722. Between 1779 and 1782, Admiral George Rodney took over Pigeon island, and built Fort Rodney. To establish clear viewpoints, Rodney ordered all trees on Pigeon Island to be cut down. From the higher peak, Signal Hill, Rodney was able to observe the French naval base of Fort Royal on Martinique. In 1782, Admiral Rodney sailed from Pigeon Island to confront the French fleet, which he defeated in the Battle of Saints. Two barracks, with kitchen, were built in 1808 and used until 1901. Additionally, quarters for the commanding officer, and an Officer's Mess were built in 1808. Originally fortified with 4 24 pounders and 2 mortars, the cannons were sold off in 1861. Rodney's 1780 lime kiln was modified to process whale oil in the 1920s, and did so until 1926. Franklin Roosevelt visited the area aboard the USS Tuscaloosa on 8 Dec. 1940. The US Navy built a Naval Air Station at Reduit in 1941 under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement for the Battle of the Caribbean, and used the island as a communication station. A squadron of 18 PBY-5 Catalinas patrolled for German submarines. The station was deactivated on 1 June 1947. The island was connected to the mainland via a causeway in 1971.

larger pinnacle

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4666217

Employee engagement is a fundamental concept in the effort to understand and describe, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the nature of the relationship between an organization and its employees. An "engaged employee" is defined as one who is fully absorbed by and enthusiastic about their work and so takes positive action to further the organization's reputation and interests. An engaged employee has a positive attitude towards the organization and its values. In contrast, a disengaged employee may range from someone doing the bare minimum at work (aka 'coasting'), up to an employee who is actively damaging the company's work output and reputation. An organization with "high" employee engagement might therefore be expected to outperform those with "low" employee engagement. Employee engagement first appeared as a concept in management theory in the 1990s, becoming widespread in management practice in the 2000s, but it remains contested. It stands in an unspecified relationship to earlier constructs such as morale and job satisfaction. Despite academic critiques, employee engagement practices are well established in the management of human resources and of internal communications. Employee engagement today has become synonymous with terms like 'employee experience' and 'employee satisfaction'. The relevance is much more due to the vast majority of new generation professionals in the workforce who have a higher propensity to be 'distracted' and 'disengaged' at work. A recent survey by StaffConnect suggests that an overwhelming number of enterprise organizations today (74.24%) were planning to improve employee experience in 2018. Definitions. William Kahn provided the first formal definition of personnel engagement as "the harnessing of organisation members' hiselves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances." In 1993, Schmidt et al. proposed a bridge between the pre-existing concept of 'job satisfaction' and employee engagement with the definition: "an employee's involvement with, commitment to, and satisfaction with work. Employee engagement is a part of employee retention." This definition integrates the classic constructs of job satisfaction (Smith et al., 1969), and organizational commitment (Meyer & Allen, 1991). Defining employee engagement remains problematic. In their review of the literature in 2011, Wollard and Shuck identify four main sub-concepts within the term: Definitions of engagement vary in the weight they give to the individual vs the organisation in creating engagement. Recent practice has situated the drivers of engagement across this spectrum, from within the psyche of the individual employee (for example, promising recruitment services that will filter out 'disengaged' job applicants ) to focusing mainly on the actions and investments the organisation makes to support engagement. These definitional issues are potentially severe for practitioners. With different (and often proprietary) definitions of the object being measured, statistics from different sources are not readily comparable. Engagement work remains open to the challenge that its basic assumptions are, as Tom Keenoy describes them, 'normative' and 'aspirational', rather than analytic or operational - and so risk being seen by other organizational participants as "motherhood and apple pie" rhetoric. Correlates. Prior to Kahn's use of the term in the mid-1990s, a series of concepts relating to employee engagement had been investigated in management theory. Employee morale, work ethic, productivity, and motivation had been explored in a line dating back to the work of Mary Parker Follett in the early 1920s. Survey-based World War II studies on leadership and group morale sparked further confidence that such properties could be investigated and measured. Later, Frederick Herzberg concluded that positive motivation is driven by managers giving their employees developmental opportunities, activity he termed 'vertical enrichment'. Contributors. With the wide range of definitions comes a variety of potential contributors to desirable levels of employee engagement. Some examples: Involvement. Eileen Appelbaum and her colleagues (2000) studied 15 steel mills, 17 apparel manufacturers, and 10 electronic instrument and imaging equipment producers. Their purpose was to compare traditional production systems with flexible high-performance production systems involving teams, training, and incentive pay systems. In all three industries, the plants utilizing high-involvement practices showed superior performance. In addition, workers in the high-involvement plants showed more positive attitudes, including trust, organizational commitment and intrinsic enjoyment of the work. The concept has gained popularity as various studies have demonstrated links with productivity. It is often linked to the notion of employee voice and empowerment. Two studies of employees in the life insurance industry examined the impact of employee perceptions that they had the power to make decisions, sufficient knowledge and information to do the job effectively, and rewards for high performance. Both studies included large samples of employees (3,570 employees in 49 organizations and 4,828 employees in 92 organizations). In both studies, high-involvement management practices were positively associated with employee morale, employee retention, and firm financial performance. Watson Wyatt found that high-commitment organizations (one with loyal and dedicated employees) out-performed those with low commitment by 47% in the 2000 study and by 200% in the 2002 study. Commitment. Employees with the highest level of commitment perform 20% better and are 87% less likely to leave the organization, which indicates that engagement is linked to organizational performance. When employers are more empathetic, productivity will naturally increase. 85% of US employees believe that their employers are not empathetic. Productivity. In a study of professional service firms, the Hay Group found that offices with engaged employees were up to 43% more productive. Job satisfaction is also linked to productivity. Person factors and individual differences. Frequently overlooked are employees' unique personalities, needs, motives,intrests and goals, which interact with organizational factors and interventions to influence engagement levels. On the other hand, some employees will always be more (or less) engaged and motivated than others, as the recently operationalized construct of "drive" implies. Generating engagement. Increasing engagement is a primary objective of organizations seeking to understand and measure engagement. Employee engagement defined by Gallup is the percentage to which employees are fully devoted or happy getting associated with the tasks of an office Drivers of engagement. Some additional points from research into drivers of engagement are presented below: Commitment theories are rather based on creating conditions, under which the employee will feel compelled to work for an organization, whereas engagement theories aim to bring about a situation in which the employee by free choice has an intrinsic desire to work in the best interests of the organization. Recent research has focused on developing a better understanding of how variables such as quality of work relationships and values of the organization interact, and their link to important work outcomes. From the perspective of the employee, "outcomes" range from strong commitment to the isolation of oneself from the organization. Employee engagement can be measured through employee pulse surveys, detailed employee satisfaction surveys, direct feedback, group discussions and even exit interviews of employees leaving the organization. Family engagement strategy. In an increasingly convergent and globalized world, managers need to foster unique strategies that keep employees engaged, motivated and dedicated to their work. Work–life balance at the individual level has been found to predict a highly engaged and productive workforce. An important aspect of work–life balance is how well the individual feels they can balance both family and work. The family is a cultural force that differs from its values, structures and roles across the globe. However, the family can be a useful tool for global managers to foster engagement among its team. Parental support policy is being adopted among businesses around the globe as a strategy to create a sustainable and effective workforce. Research suggests businesses that provide paid parental support policy realized a 70% increase in workers productivity. Moreover, firms that provided paid parental leave gained a 91% increase in profits, by providing parents with resources to balance both work and personal life. These findings are supported by social exchange theory, which suggests that workers feel obliged to return the favour to employers in the way of hard work and dedication when compensated with additional benefits like parental support. When using parental support as a strategy to enhance global workforce engagement, managers must consider a work-life fit model, that accounts for the different cultural needs of the family. Global leaders must understand that no one culture is the same and should consider an adaptive and flexible policy to adhere to the needs of the "individual" level. Companies may have diverse representation among its workforce that may not align with the policy offered in the external political environment. In addition, as companies expand across the globe, it is important to avoid creating a universal policy that may not adhere to the cultural conditions aboard. In a study conducted by Faiza et al. (2017), "centrality" and "influence" were two concepts used to help inform employers about the individual cultural needs of employees. "Centrality" referred to the organization understanding the social and environmental domain in which it was operating in. This is useful because managers need to understand the external factors that could influence the cultural needs and/or tensions experienced by the employees. Next, it was important for organization to allow employees to "influence" policy so that the organization could adapt policies to meet employee's needs. Using these two factors with a work-life fit lens, organizations can create more a productive and dedicated workforce across the globe. Industry discussion, debates and dialogues. Employee engagement has opened for industry debate, with questions such as: Volunteer engagement. Engagement has also been applied in relation to volunteers, for example more engaged Scout volunteers are likely to have increased satisfaction towards management. Work engagement relates to the positive internal mental state of a volunteer toward required tasks.

solid loyalty

4327-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=204048

The huff and puff apparatus is used in school biology labs to demonstrate that carbon dioxide is a product of respiration. A pupil breathes in and out of the middle tube. The glass tubing is arranged in such a way that one flask bubbles as the pupils breathes in, the other as the pupil breathes out. A suitable carbon dioxide indicator, such as limewater or bicarbonate indicator shows the increased presence of carbon dioxide in the outgoing breath. This turns the bicarbonate into milky white substance.

elevated appearance

7755-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22261362

Birds of Canada is the fifth series of banknotes of the Canadian dollar issued by the Bank of Canada and was first circulated in 1986 to replace the 1969 Scenes of Canada series. Each note features a bird indigenous to Canada in its design. The banknotes weigh 1 gram with dimensions of . It was succeeded by the 2001 Canadian Journey series. This was the first series to omit the $1 banknote; it was replaced by the $1 coin, which became known as the "loonie", in 1987, although the $1 bill from the previous series would continue to be produced concurrently with the $1 coin for a 21-month long period until 1989. It was the last series to include the $2 and $1,000 banknotes. The $2 note was withdrawn in 1996 and replaced by the $2 coin now known as the "toonie". The $1,000 note was withdrawn by the Bank of Canada in 2000 as part of a program to mitigate money laundering and organized crime. The portraits on the front of the note were made larger than those of previous series. The $20, $50, $100, and $1000 banknotes had a colour-shifting metallic foil security patch on the upper left corner, an optical security device that was difficult to reproduce with the commercial reproduction equipment of the time. This was the last Canadian banknote series to include "planchettes" as a security feature. This series was the first to include a bar code with the serial number. This allows the visually impaired to determine the denomination of a banknote using a hand-held device distributed by the bank of Canada for free via the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Design. The Bank of Canada began preparations for design of this series in 1974. A 1981 Parliamentary committee recommending design features enabling visually impaired individuals to determine the denomination of a banknote influenced the design process for the banknotes. In 1983, the Bank of Canada chose to use "clear, uncluttered images" of Canadian birds for the reverse. This imparted on the banknotes additional security against counterfeiting, as the design had a "single, large focal point" that enabled easier detection of counterfeits compared to the complex designs of earlier banknote series. The banknote design contains distinct colours for each denomination, and large numerals on the obverse and reverse of each denomination, both of which facilitate quick identification. A patch of about width at the edge of the central banner enables blind people to determine the denomination of a banknote using an electronic device and emit an audible output to indicate it, except for the $1000 banknote. On the reverse, vertical bars adjacent to the serial number are used by banknote sorting machines for quick identification to enable high-speed sorting. Production. In 1984, the Bank of Canada announced that production of banknotes would be revised to require 100% cotton fibre, eliminating the 25% flax content requirement. Domestic flax producers in the Prairie provinces were upset by the change, which would result in a loss of revenue of about . A Bank of Canada spokesman stated the change was necessary to satisfy pollution control standards, as raw flax processing uses chemicals eventually released as effluent. The printing process required three lithographic plates and one intaglio plate for the obverse, and three lithographic plates for the reverse. Banknotes. The obverse of four banknotes feature a Prime Minister of Canada, whereas the others feature Elizabeth II. The design on the reverse of each note features a bird indigenous to Canada with a background representing the typical landscape for that bird. The birds represented in the series are found throughout Canada, and their colouring complements the dominant colour of the denomination on which they appear. In a "Toronto Star" article in 1990, Christopher Hume stated that having a bird on each denomination "adds an element of consistency to the series". Each banknote weighs with dimensions of . As of November 2013, all banknotes in this series are considered unfit for circulation by the Bank of Canada, as none of the banknotes contain modern security features like that of a metallic stripe. Financial institutions must return the banknotes to the Bank of Canada, which will destroy them. Individuals may keep the banknotes indefinitely. $2 note. The $2 banknote has an obverse featuring Elizabeth II, the Queen of Canada at the time of its introduction on 2 September 1986. A photograph by Anthony Buckley was the basis of the portrait, which was engraved by Henry S. Doubtfire of De La Rue. Adjacent to the portrait is a vignette of the Parliament buildings. The reverse of the terra cotta banknote features American robins. This note would be the last Canadian $2 banknote, as the government announced during the 1995 Canadian federal budget speech that it would be withdrawn from circulation. It was withdrawn on 16 February 1996 and was replaced by a $2 coin, colloquially referred to as the toonie. One of five known $2 banknotes with a serial number containing the prefix sequence "AUH" was auctioned in September 2012 for . $5 note. The obverse of the blue $5 banknote included a rendering of Wilfrid Laurier, and the bird on the reverse is the belted kingfisher. The portrait was engraved by Yves Baril, and to its right is a vignette of the Centre Block as it appeared during Laurier's premiership flying the Canadian Red Ensign, the flag of Canada at the time. The banknote was the first of this series to be introduced, on 28 April 1986. It was withdrawn on 27 March 2002. $10 note. The prime minister featured on the $10 banknote obverse is John A. Macdonald, whose portrait was engraved by Thomas Hipschen of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in the United States. Adjacent to the portrait is a vignette of the buildings of Parliament as they were during his premiership, flying the Canadian Red Ensign. The bird featured on the reverse is an osprey. The purple banknote was introduced on 27 June 1989 and withdrawn on 17 January 2001. $20 note. The green $20 banknote has an obverse featuring Elizabeth II, the same engraving used for the $2 banknote, and a reverse featuring two common loons. The building vignette adjacent to the portrait is the Library of Parliament. The image of the loons was intended for a $1 banknote, but when it was decided to replace that with the $1 loonie coin, the image was instead used for the $20 banknote. It was introduced on 29 June 1993, making it the last of the series to be introduced, and withdrawn on 29 September 2004. In 2003, high-quality counterfeits of the banknote appeared in circulation in Ontario and Quebec. $50 note. The obverse of the red $50 banknote includes William Lyon Mackenzie King, and the reverse has the snowy owl depicted on a background of an Arctic landscape. This portrait was also engraved by Thomas Hipschen, and was placed adjacent to the Parliament buildings flying the Canadian Red Ensign. The colour of this banknote differed slightly from the same denomination in the Scenes of Canada series, as its hue was blue-red instead of the earlier banknotes orange-red. Introduced on 1 December 1989 and withdrawn on 17 November 2004, the $50 bill was the last banknote of the series to cease being printed. It was the first Canadian banknote to feature the optical security device. $100 note. Robert Borden is featured on the obverse of the brown $100 banknote, which has the Canada goose on its reverse. Yves Baril also engraved this portrait, and the banknote also depicts a vignette of the Centre Block with the Peace Tower flying the Union Jack, which was flown on all federal buildings from 1904 to 1945. The banknote was introduced on 3 December 1990 and withdrawn on 17 March 2004. Many merchants, including Food Basics, Jumbo Video, McDonald's Canada, No Frills, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Tim Hortons, stopped accepting the $100 banknote in 2001 as it became increasingly counterfeited. By 2013, counterfeit versions of the banknote represented half of all counterfeit banknotes in circulation in Quebec, and 80% of all counterfeit $100 banknotes in the province. $1000 note. The pink-hued $1000 banknote has an obverse with the same portrait of Elizabeth II used on the $2 banknote adjacent to a vignette of the Centre Block and Library of Parliament, the modern flag of Canada flying from the Peace Tower. The reverse features a pair of pine grosbeaks, the engraving of which was based on a watercolour by John Crosby. Originally, it was intended to use an image of a spruce grouse, but its nickname "fool hen" was "considered too controversial". This was the first new $1000 bill printed since the 1954 Canadian Landscape series. The banknotes were often referred to as "pinkies" because of their colour. On average, a $1000 banknote remained in circulation for 13 years owing to its infrequent use. It was released on 4 May 1992. The banknote was withdrawn from circulation by the Government of Canada on 12 May 2000 at the request of the Bank of Canada, the Department of Finance, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as part of a program to reduce organized crime. At the time, 2,827,702 of the $1000 bills were in circulation, representing 0.3% of all circulating currency; in 2001, 520,000 banknotes were withdrawn from circulation and destroyed. By 2011, fewer than 1 million were in circulation, most of which were held by organized crime and used for money laundering. Printings. Each printing of the banknote series is signed by the Governor of the Bank of Canada and the deputy governor. The Canadian Bank Note Company (CBN) printed the $2, $5, $20, $50, and $1000 banknotes, and the British American Bank Note Company printed the $2, $10, $20, and $100 banknotes. Security. All banknotes featured intaglio printing, microprinting and fine lines, fluorescence, and unique colours and serial numbers. The intaglio printing is raised ink appearing on the large numeral, the Arms of Canada, parts of the portrait, and the horizontal bands containing the words "BANK OF CANADA". The fine but clear microprinting cannot be easily reproduced by photocopiers and printers, and appears on the background patterns of the banknotes, the facial portion of the portraits, and in the vignette of the Parliament buildings. The colours used on the banknotes were based on security inks that could not be easily replicated. The $20, $50, $100, and $1000 banknotes had a colour-shifting metallic foil security patch on the upper left corner, an optical security device that was difficult to reproduce with colour photocopiers and other commercial reproduction equipment of the time. It was a vacuum-deposited thin film consisting of ceramic layers developed by the Bank of Canada and the National Research Council of Canada in the early 1980s and was manufactured at the Bank of Canada roll-coating facility. The iridescent smooth patch would appear in a gradient between gold and green and show the face value of the banknote depending on the viewing angle, had no raised edges, and could not be peeled off the banknote. When photocopied, it would appear as a dark patch. All banknotes in the series were printed with a security ink that would fluoresce blue under ultraviolet light. The banknotes also had a feature causing photocopiers recognizing it to refuse to copy the banknote, and a digital watermark which had the same effect on personal printers and scanners. These features had no effect on devices that could not recognize them. This was the last Canadian banknote series to include "planchettes", small green dots on the paper bills introduced in the 1935 Series (banknotes). These dots fluoresce blue under ultraviolet light and were used as a security feature. Some planchettes could be removed from legitimate bills, leaving a perfect bluish circle on the bill. Planchettes occurred with random position on both the obverse and reverse of banknotes, either on the surface or within the note. In the mid 1990s, the Bank of Canada tested a new substrate for use in printing banknotes. It printed 100,000 experimental $5 banknotes having a substrate of polymer core with paper at the sides. The project was discontinued because the supplier could not produce the substrate at the scale required by the Bank of Canada for printing banknotes. Counterfeiting. An attempt to create a faithful counterfeit reproduction of the $50 banknote using colour photocopiers was recorded in 1990. By the mid 1990s, counterfeiters had found a way to accurately reproduce the metallic foil. Counterfeit banknotes did not usually properly reproduce the fine lines and microprinting, rendering it as smudged or blurry. The security features introduced in the "Birds of Canada" series led to a reduction in the counterfeit ratio of bills circulated in Canada to 4 parts per million (PPM) by 1990, one of the most secure currencies in the world. With the continuing advances in retail and commercial technology, by 1997 the counterfeit ratio had increased to 117 PPM, exceeding the 50 PPM "de facto" international benchmark. In late 2000, Wesley Weber scanned the $100 banknote, and for weeks used graphics software to correct the "fuzziness of the image" and improve its sharpness. He then conducted research to find a paper stock similar to that used for the real banknotes that would not fluoresce under ultraviolet light, and chose Mohawk Super Fine soft-white cotton fibre stock with eggshell finish. He used an inkjet printer to print three counterfeit bills per page, and stencilled onto each bill a metallic patch similar to the optical security device that he obtained from a company in New Jersey. He was arrested in 2001, by which time he had manufactured counterfeit banknotes with a face value of $6 million, and Canada's counterfeit ratio had increased to 129 PPM. That year, the Bank of Canada introduced the Canadian Journey Series, the banknotes of which were more resistant to counterfeiting. In 2003, a high-quality counterfeit version of the $20 banknote was found in circulation in Ontario and Quebec. These counterfeit banknotes had been manufactured using "high quality paper, a manual hot foil-stamping machine, and airbrushing equipment" and die cut. Several Bulgarian counterfeiters were convicted and sentenced for counterfeiting the banknotes in December 2006. By 2004, counterfeit Birds of Canada $20 banknotes represented nearly 65% of all counterfeit currency in Canada. Today, the "Birds of Canada" banknotes are relatively easy to counterfeit with inkjet printers. The Birds series and the original Canadian Journey Series are the most commonly counterfeited Canadian banknote series because of their lack of modern security features. Effectiveness. The Bank of Canada commissioned a research survey of cash handlers and the general public to determine the effectiveness of the security features on the Birds of Canada and Canadian Journey series banknotes. The research found that participants correctly identified 84% of counterfeit banknotes based only on fluorescence features, 83% based only on microprinting and fine line features, and 80% based only on portrait features. Genuine banknotes were correctly identified 88%, 97%, and 89% of the time, respectively. The optical security device was the most effective security feature, used to correctly identify 98% of counterfeit banknotes and 95% of genuine banknotes. Detecting counterfeits using only touch was 74% effective for the $10 banknote and 82% effective for the $20 banknote. Using only vision, counterfeit detection was 92% effective for the $10 banknote and 86% effective for the $20 banknote. Using both improved performance to 94% for both banknotes. The general public correctly identified 72% of counterfeit banknotes, 80% of genuine $10 banknotes and 89% of genuine $20 banknotes. Commercial cash handlers, such as retail cashiers, correctly identified 86% of counterfeit banknotes, 89% of genuine $10 banknotes and 94% of genuine $20 banknotes. Bank tellers correctly identified 89% of counterfeit banknotes, 91% of genuine $10 banknotes and 95% of genuine $20 banknotes. All groups performed better with high-quality notes (that is, those that were clean and undamaged) with the exception that the general public misidentified many high-quality genuine $10 banknotes as counterfeit, which was attributed to the public's suspicion of new banknotes. The participants performed better at identifying counterfeit Birds of Canada banknotes than identifying counterfeit Canadian Journey banknotes. Reception. A report by The Canadian Press stated that residents of Lunenburg were displeased with the design of the $100 banknote, as the reverse of the same denomination in the Scenes of Canada series featured a vignette of the fishing town. Many younger Canadians were unfamiliar with the Red Ensign, and thought the flag flown atop the buildings on the $5 and $10 banknote was the flag of the United States, precipitating media coverage known as the "flag flap". Currency collectors stated that the optical security device was not aesthetically pleasing, and that its placement and appearance were poor. Some compared it to the Australian commemorative $10 note issued in 1988, which had a reflective holographic badge featuring James Cook, as an example of a more aesthetically pleasing design. Collecting. The Bank of Canada printed uncut sheets of the $5 banknotes with serial numbers between 6,000,000 and 6,939,999 and prefix ANU. Some of these were released for sale to collectors in 2002 when the Bank of Canada also issued the "Lasting Impressions" collectors set. This set contained two uncirculated $5 banknotes, one from this series and the other from the Canadian Journey Series, with matching serial numbers. The banknotes were in an embossed folder also containing an information booklet with the history of the denomination and the features of each banknote. A similar set for $10 banknotes had been released in 2001. Legacy. A study commissioned by the Bank of Canada in 1994 stated that about 8,000 blind Canadians do not benefit from the large numerals or distinct colouration of the banknotes. In 1990, the Bank of Canada, via the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, had begun distributing to these individuals a free electronic device capable of determining the denomination of a banknote by reading the vertical bars adjacent to the serial number. Each device cost the Bank of Canada about , and 50–60 devices were requested every month, mostly from elderly individuals who used the device at home. Withdrawing the $1 banknote of earlier series and discontinuing printing of the $2 banknotes increased consumer use of the loonie and toonie. This decreased the costs of producing money and decreased the operational costs for some businesses, such as the Toronto Transit Commission, which estimated it would save annually by not having to "unfold, sort, and count $1 bills". The appearance of high-quality counterfeit $100 banknotes in 2001 from Windsor to Montreal resulted in about 10% of retailers to post signs that they would refuse to accept $100 banknotes in a cash transaction.

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The sixth season of the Australian version of The Mole took place in various locations around Australia, and was hosted by Shura Taft. Executive Producer John Leahy Show details. In October 2012, the Seven Network announced through its 2013 programming launch that "The Mole" would return following a seven-year absence. On 11 January 2013, it was announced that Shura Taft would be hosting the revived show. The announced maximum kitty for the season was $250,000. The show premiered on Tuesday, 2 July at 7:30pm, and was originally going to air three nights a week, however, disappointing ratings resulted in the show reverting to airing only once a week, on Wednesday nights showing double episodes at 9:30pm; that took effect from the fifth episode until the eleventh episode. Further disappointing ratings, and a clash with a documentary on the Essendon Football Club supplements saga saw the show moved to an even later timeslot, airing at 10:30pm on Wednesdays; this took effect from the twelfth episode until the end of the season. Terminations in this edition of The Mole were, in the early stages of the game, far less frequent than is typical of other editions – the first termination, for instance, did not occur until the conclusion of the third episode. They were also somewhat irregularly spaced, and could occur at any time within a particular episode. After the seventh termination, the game settled into the more widely utilised system of a quiz and termination occurring at the end of each episode. Contestants. Twelve contestants participated this season. On 11 June 2013, the contestants were revealed: 1 Aisha Jefcoate has, since the end of filming, moved to Sydney as she tries to pursue a career in television presenting. Summary. Week 1. The Drop Off: The twelve players were divided into three teams of four. After being dropped off at sites with a similar distance to the flag, the quartets were instructed to navigate their way to the flag within two hours (with each team earning $5,000 for their timely arrival with the luggage). If a team decided that they could not make it in time, they could use an 'emergency' envelope, which would allow them to be transported by vehicle to the flag, however they would receive no money. Additionally, $100 was forfeited for every piece of luggage not carried to the flag. The team of Alex, Ally, Shaun and Seble arrived via the emergency vehicle, and eight bags of luggage were left behind, therefore, only $9,200 of the $15,000 on offer was won. Exemption Temptation: After being elected as the treasurer of the team, the host offered Kerrie the first exemption of the game, if she agreed to pay back half of what the team had already earnt. After a thirty-second decision, Kerrie decided to keep the exemption, and thus $4,600 was lost from the pot. High Wire Relay: The players were divided into two teams of six and provided with a baton. One member from each team was to climb onto a wire 20 stories above the ground and pass the baton over to the other player outside of a designated "red zone", before crossing over each other to the other side. If anyone was in the red zone during the exchange, they fell off or the baton dropped, they would lose the money, and the money would reset to zero. If they made a successful pass and cross, the amount of money won would be doubled. Two team members, Erin and Kerrie, fell off the rope and despite the fear of heights for several players, all team members were able to complete the challenge. Money Bags: The players were divided into two teams of six and divided across a 5 km track. The goal was to meet in the middle along the way hauling several 10 kg bags worth $100 each. They were also provided with equipment to help carry the bags along the way, including poles, ropes and tyres. Both teams opted to carry 80 kg each. Along the way, if the teams met up at certain bonus points along the track, they would receive bonus money with amounts varying from $50 to $10,000 (among others). The team with Sam and Kerrie discovered a champagne tower that was worth $10,000 and the team were to decide whether to trade it or not, and if they tipped the tower, it would have to be rebuilt within 10 seconds, or the money would not count. The team opted to make the switch and were required to carry the tower along the rest of the route. Despite some spillage and one drop (which was rectified within 10 seconds), the teams met up, winning the money. Key to Comfort: The players were divided into teams of 3 and ordered to find 12 keys hidden along a ground maze. Each key would unlock a chest that contained something that would assist them with camping, which they would do for the night. Six keys were initially found, although Jayden and Sam later opted to hide their keys as the person holding the key had the final say in what chest was opened. When the keys were found, an extra twist was added where each chest had a monetary value that would be deducted from the pot. The teams opted for tents ($500) and food rations ($100) together, while three other keys were used by the people holding them to provide sleeping mats ($750), Dinner and Desert ($1,000) as well as toilet paper ($100). Scales of Justice: The players were divided into two teams, called "Builders" and "Problem Solvers". The builders were shown a diagram depicting an unbalanced scale, of which they had to use pieces of long timber, varying in length, to construct the unbalanced scale as it was shown on the card. This part of the assignment was failed. The problem solvers' task was to then balance the scales, of which they could only make five moves. This part of the assignment was successful and $1,250 was won. Chain Gang: The players were handcuffed together in a long, continuous chain. In the middle of them was a pedestal with a key and an exemption token, which would rise at five-minute intervals from the hour-long time limit for thirty seconds. The players then had to make a choice to either take the key or the exemption token. If every player chose the key and unlocked themselves individually, then they win $10,000 for the pot, however if just one player chooses the exemption, the money would be revoked and the players who remained chained would have to spend the entire night handcuffed to the chain. All twelve players took the key, with Sam taking the key in the final rise of the pedestal and the assignment was won. Week 2. Speed Reader: The eleven remaining players were to find two players who were good at reading. Shaun and Linda were isolated from the group, and were to be involved in a later part of the assignment. From the remaining eight players, three of them – Alex, Jayden and Sam – were put on a jet-boat and assigned to identify a category and a letter, from six sightings, of which they had to identify particular items beginning with that letter (for example, they would have to write down as many fruit they could think of starting with the letter 'o'). The remaining six players were divided into pairs and tasked to paint two posters per pair containing the required letter and category, before holding them up as the boat passed. Shaun and Linda were then to try to identify some of the answers to win money. They got three movies starting with 'z' ($1,500 in total) and one fruit starting with 'o' ($200), thus winning $1,700. Map Madness: Aisha and Hillal were selected by the group as two players who were good at reading maps, and were taken to a vantage point in Melbourne. The remaining nine players were split into two groups and began at different starting locations, to be guided by either Aisha or Hillal towards an "unknown destination", where Shura would be waiting. There were also intermediate buildings that each group could be directed towards, which contained clues about Shura's destination. If both groups reached Shura within the 90-minute time limit, $5,000 would be won. Additionally, the first team to reach him within that time limit would also earn "freebies", which would allow the players to correct a wrong answer during any subsequent quiz. Both groups found Shura at Degraves Street, within the time limit, thus winning $5,000. It was after this assignment in which Shura revealed that the eleven remaining players would have to take the quiz – thus breaking from the tradition of completing the quizzes after every three (or more) assignments during the game. Jayden scored the lowest score in this quiz, and was subsequently terminated from the game. Treasure Hunt: The day after Jayden's termination, the players were asked to pick a person in charge of winning the money up for grabs. Erin was chosen and was put on a boat, where she would try to decipher a message that the players would try to create. The words were on kites that were to be found in a few sheds. They had a compass and a length of twine above the first clue to find the locations of the clues. They found the second clue with a kite but never found the third. Linda measured while all the others were digging but no one listened to her even though she was right above the third clue. Upon returning from the boat, Erin said she saw nothing, after which the host reveals that the third clue was right behind Hillal. They dug and found the last clue with a key that unlocked a beach house containing the rest of the kites, so $5,000 went begging. Path to Temptation: The ten players were taken to a large hall within Melbourne's State Library, where twelve boxes were placed in a circular path. One by one, each player would take a lap around the hall, open each box and discover its contents, but not be allowed to reopen the box once they have closed it. Upon completing a lap of the hall, each player would then elect the next person to take the lap around the hall, and repeat the same process. Hillal was the only player to win any money for the group, taking $5,000 on his lap, which was also the first of the assignment, whilst Shaun elected not to open even a single box on the final lap of the assignment. Upon its completion, two rule breaches were uncovered: Hillal was audibly heard talking to Sam during the latter's lap around the hall, whilst Sam could also be heard whispering to Aisha during her lap of the hall. This resulted in a $2,000 penalty from the $5,000 that was earned, meaning only $3,000 was won in this assignment. Week 3. Steps: The remaining ten players were asked to answer ten questions about their fellow players. Prior to the assignment starting, Shura made an offer that if the last remaining player found him on the same step, the team would potentially win $30,000, but if they didn't they would "lose" $10,000 from the kitty. They declined this offer. They all started at the bottom of a staircase on a beach, and for each answer they gave, being a numerical value, they would have to take that many number of steps up the staircase, leaving behind one person after each answer. If after the end of ten questions, the last remaining player landed on the same step as Shura, they would win the money, but if they either fell short or finished ahead, then nothing would be won. Eventually, the last remaining player, Kerrie, ended up just 12 steps short of Shura, thus missing out on the money. It was then revealed that they had answered half of the ten questions wrong. Gutter Madness: The players were to transport a ball from the top of a hill into a milk carton using pipes of varying length, within a time limit of one hour. If the players dropped the ball, then they would have to start again from scratch. At 28 minutes, it was thought that the assignment was won, but a rule violation was revealed whereby Nick was revealed to have held together two pipes using two hands. This resulted in a $2,000 penalty from the pot, but with 28 minutes remaining they were successful in re-attempting the assignment, and thus $3,000 was won. Following this assignment, the standard termination took place, and whilst Erin had the exemption, she also had the power to decide whether the termination should go ahead; after being shown three undisclosed players who were definitely safe, she decided to press on with the termination, during which Linda was shown the red screen and subsequently terminated. Hostage Rescue: At 5:30am the morning after Linda's termination, Hillal and Sam were extracted from the group's hotel, and taken to a secret location in Melbourne where the players were to try to locate them. The remaining players found a mobile phone during breakfast with a message flashed on it, revealing an image with Hillal and Sam in front of a road distance sign, and instructions to "find them for $10,000". The players were allowed to call the pair to ask them questions, but there were some twists: they were allowed to ask Hillal and Sam anything, but they could only answer "yes" or "no" to them (any other form of answering would result in a $1,000 penalty from the potential $10,000 winnings, however, an answer of "yes-no" was allowed, which the players interpreted as being "maybe") – additionally, they could only make a maximum of fifteen phone calls, each of which had a 30-second time limit. The players split themselves into two groups, and after eight phone calls, agreed not to make any more until they reached the Melbourne CBD. Upon reaching the city, the players eventually located Hillal and Sam in a tall, clock tower, in two hours and 48 minutes, thus winning the money. Pixels: The players were divided into two groups and asked to form pixelated images of two famous celebrities, from which the other group would try to identify him or her. Team One would try to create a pixelated image of Dame Edna Everage, whilst Team Two would try to create a pixelated image of Guy Sebastian. Each team had a time limit of two hours in which to create their pixelated images. Both teams successfully identified each other's work from a certain distance, and thus $5,000 was won ($2,500 for each correct answer). Week 4. Aeroplane Acrobatics Challenge: The remaining players were asked to divide themselves into four mavericks and five wingmen. The four mavericks were to each take a turn in an aeroplane and describe how the plane would fly, and relay this information to the five wingmen down on the ground. The five wingmen on the ground were split into two groups and, based on the instructions they were given by the mavericks, would try to identify which of the aerobatic manoeuvres was being performed. The first two correct guesses would each win $2,000 into the kitty, and any further correct guesses would each win $3,000 for the kitty. The wingmen made only two correct guesses, therefore winning $4,000 for the kitty. Down the Line: The nine players were given a briefcase each, each with a tag, which had the name of an Australian town on it. Sam and Hillal remained at the starting point, whilst the other seven players were sent out to designated stops within the tram line. They both started with one briefcase each, with the towns "Noosa Heads" and "Alice Springs" tagged on them. From those two, they would have to identify which town was the furthest from Melbourne, and the person with that briefcase would board the tram, and relay the instructions of the assignment to the other seven players. There were also a few twists – at each stop, each player would have only sixty seconds to decide which town was furthest, and if nobody boarded the tram, then $10,000 would be taken away from the kitty. A warning bell would sound when there were ten seconds left to decide which town was the furthest. In the end the players decided Mount Isa was the furthest town from Melbourne, however, the correct answer was Katherine, so therefore no money was won. Freebie Gamble: Shura handed one freebie to each to the players to keep. They can decide whether to keep the freebie or gamble it away for three freebies or nothing. Each player had to face Shura and guess how many Mole cards he was holding inside a large box (up to three Mole cards). A correct guess meant that they would earn three freebies; an incorrect guess meant they lose their freebie and end up with nothing. Spot the Difference: The players were shown two identical scenes within a frame, and were asked to spot as many differences as they could. At the end, each player was asked to uniquely identify each difference within the two identical screens, and each correct difference would be worth $2,500 for the pot, but any wrong answer would reset all the money won up to that point. After Shaun got the final difference wrong, the pot was reset to zero, however, the group were given another chance to redeem themselves through one person; if that person could spot the three differences that they initially missed, then they would win $1,000 for each one that they identified. Kerrie correctly identified two of the three remaining differences, thus winning $2,000 in this assignment. Flying Piñatas: The players were to slide down a gauge, which contained twelve piñatas ranging from freebies to up to $25,000 for the pot. However, there was a twist – each player would first have to pick a bat, and whoever's name was on it, that player would be playing for (for example, if Erin picked out Ally's bat, then Erin would try to win some prizes for Ally). Additionally, they could only hit one piñata in their leg – any subsequent piñatas they hit during their leg would put that one out of play. During Shaun's leg of the race, he successfully hit the $5,000 piñata but then hit the $10,000 piñata later on, putting that value out of play. In the end, $13,500 was won, whilst many other players received freebies. Week 5. Mole on Ice: The eight remaining players were taken to a makeshift ice hockey rink on Sydney's Cronulla beach. There were up to ten goal nets, five on each side, each ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 ($1,000 being the biggest goal net and $5,000 being the smallest). The players divided themselves into two groups by gender, and each person in each group would have two shots at trying to hit the pucks into the goal nets. The women went first, and managed to net $2,000, in one minute and fifty seconds, however, to win the money, the men would have to either match or beat that value in a lesser time. The men managed to net the same amount, in one minute and four seconds, thus winning the money. Later on, the groups would face each other in a virtual game of ice hockey to win freebies for the quizzes. Smoke Signals: The players were to split into pairs, and each were to guard a smoke pot, with Sam and Ally guarding the safe, which held $5,000 in it. To unlock it, the players would have to relay the code from the first pair to the last, using only smoke signals. The first pair of Shaun and Erin received a text message from Shura telling them how to decipher the code, which they would find through a four-digit code, each number coming from the barcodes of the four terminated players' bags. They figured out that the code was 2163, and, using only smoke signals, they would try to relay it to the next pair of Hillal and Kerrie, who would then try to relay it to Nick and Aisha, then to Sam and Ally, who eventually deciphered the code as being 1243. This code was incorrect, meaning the lock would not open. However, Shura then offered the other pairs the chance to win the money, if they agreed to gamble a certain amount of money out of the pot. Each of them declined until Shaun and Erin were offered the chance to key in the code, which they eventually did correctly. As they risked $3,500 in keying in the code, only $1,500 was won in this assignment. Archery Exemption: The players were given an opportunity to earn an exemption for the next Quiz and a twenty-minute read of another player's Mole Diary. They had to each take one shot at a target with a bow and arrow. The player who shot closest to the center of the bullseye would earn the exemption. Aisha won the exemption and then took a shot of Shaun's diary. Exemption Defence: As the three players holding exemptions at the time of the game, Aisha, Hillal and Sam were tasked with trying to defend their exemptions by taking a Mole flag, located in the middle of a paintball field, to the other side of the field without being hit. If they successfully did that, then they would retain their exemption, but if they were hit, then their game would be over and they would lose their exemption. The remaining players were split into three pairs, and their assignment was to hunt down the defenders within a time limit of five minutes. For each defender that was hit, $5,000 would be added to the kitty, but if the defenders survived the five minutes, they would retain their exemptions. In the end, all of the defenders were hit, losing their exemptions in the process and with $15,000 added to the kitty. Envelope Temptation: Shura provided the players another offer for freebies. However, they were given a choice between a various amount of freebies or a mystery prize in an envelope. The envelope prizes ranged from Exemptions for Quiz #5 to freebies to money for the group pot to Hidden Questions for an upcoming Quiz. The number of freebies on offer were up to Shura's decision. The players could choose Shura's freebies at any point, but with every refusal of the freebies, there would be more added to Shura's offer to tempt the players away from the envelopes. Cash Flow: The players were split into two groups; one would be rafting a boat across a water path from the start to the finish line, whilst another would try to throw balls ranging from $500 to $5,000 into the boat. The only way that this money could be won is if everyone remained in the raft at the end of the lap, along with the balls that they managed to collect. The first team of Erin, Kerrie, Nick and Sam successfully earned $7,000 in the first lap, whilst the second, despite some hiccups, were able to win $8,000, for a grand total of $15,000. Week 6. Beat the Mole: The eight players were faced with a 16-storey high silo which they were to abseil, facing down. Whether the players chose to do the task or not was completely their choice, but there was a twist: the actual assignment was for the Mole to bet on whether they would actually abseil or not. Each player was extracted from the group separately by Shura, and each were asked questions of varying topics ranging from the fashion trends of the players to the Australian economy, whilst the Mole (whose identity still remained a secret) was given a secret assignment to bet on whether the genuine players, including the Mole himself or herself, would abseil down the silo or not. If he or she "incorrectly" predicted whether the players would abseil down the silo, the team would "win" $2,000 towards the pot, however, if he or she "correctly" predicted that they would do the challenge, then $2,000 would be "lost" from the pot. Hillal was the only player to even abseil down the silo, whilst the other seven refused to attempt the task, with Nick, Aisha and Kerrie refusing to even climb up the silo. Seven of the eight predictions were correct, with only Sam refusing to abseil when it was thought that he would, therefore losing $12,000 from the pot. Domino Effect: The players were taken to Sydney's National Art School, where they were split into two groups. One group began at the upper level while the other began at the lower level. Both groups were to arrange a set of 33 tables and 300 dominoes from one end of the room (on the upper level) to the other (on the lower level) in any arrangement, within a time limit of forty minutes. If successful, $3,000 would be won. The objective was that, at the end of the domino fall, the last domino would push a button that was to release confetti. However, the team ran out of time with Aisha accidentally knocking over a row of dominoes in the final minute, as well as the tables being incorrectly set up. Therefore, no money was won. Exemption Refund: At the end of the Domino Effect assignment, Erin and Kerrie, as the two players who were holding exemptions at the time, were offered to refund their exemptions, or keep them at a cost of $15,000 from the pot. Erin decided to keep her exemption token losing $15,000 from the pot, however, Kerrie decided to refund it, saying that "she did not come onto the show to be a selfish person", therefore no additional money was lost from the pot. At the termination, Sam's and Hillal's names were called first, and the green screen appeared, relieving them both. Kerrie's name was called third, and the screen turned red. Week 7. Beach Run: The seven remaining players met Shura on a beach on the Gold Coast, where they were to race within a designated track on sand and water. What the players didn't know was that they had a six-minute time limit to complete the assignment, but what they did know was that the first male and first female to cross the finishing line would each receive a freebie. The players were not allowed to be separated by more than ten metres throughout the entire race. If every player completed the course, then $5,000 would be won for the pot, but if even one person failed to cross the finish line within the time limit, then nothing would be won. Sam and Erin were the first players of their respective genders to cross the finish line, thus winning a freebie each. Despite some tension between Hillal and Shaun, the players narrowly succeeded in completing the assignment within the time limit, thus winning $5,000. Flag Race: Over three rounds, the players were divided into two groups and were to face each other and race from one side of the field to another to grab a flag. If any player got caught, then they would be ruled out of contention for the exemption. At the start of round three, only Hillal and Sam remained, and in the end it was Sam who grabbed the flag first and thus won an exemption for the seventh quiz. Mole Minefield: The players encountered a 5 × 5 coal minefield on a beach, of which $2,000 cash was buried in five of the squares. They only had ten chances to find the money. If they dug up a square which contained a bomb, then any money won to that point would be forfeited for the assignment and their total would reset to zero. The team managed to dig up $6,000, thus winning that amount of money towards the pot. School Exams: The players were taken to Broadbeach State School, where they were to answer up to twelve questions across four subjects: English, geography, mathematics and music. Each subject contained three questions each, if answered correctly, would earn $1,000 for the pot. Whichever question the first team would attempt in a specific room, the second team would have the other two questions to choose from. If any question was answered incorrectly, then one player from that team would have to be left behind "on detention", no money would be won for that incorrectly answered question and that player would take no further part in the assignment. The two teams answered every question correctly, except for one in the Geography room, thus winning $11,000 for the pot. Pot Count: Following Kerrie's termination in the previous week, Nick was voted by the group as the new treasurer of the team. He, along with Shaun and Erin, counted up the money that had been won up to this point of the game thus far, and discovered that $3,000 had gone missing. Nick then alleged that Aisha had kept the $3,000 that was won in the Envelope Temptation assignment in Week 5, an allegation that Aisha vigorously denied. Week 8. Let it Ride: One by one, the players were interrogated by Shura and each were dealt a series of cards, ranging from money for the pot to exemptions for specific quizzes. If the players were dealt a card which contained a dollar sign on it, then they would win $2,000 for the pot, but if they drew a card which a red thumbprint on it, then their game would be over and whatever they were already dealt would be lost. The players could opt out at any time in the game. Hillal, Nick, and Sam won money for the pot, whilst Erin earned herself two further exemptions, however, the games of Aisha, Ally and Shaun were terminated, meaning they all won nothing. Aisha originally won $4,000 during her go, but drew a red thumbprint almost immediately, thus losing that amount from the pot. Ultimate Memory: As the three players holding exemptions at the time, Erin, Hillal, and Nick would have to play a game of memory cards, with the first player to successfully match eight pairs keeping their exemption. The time limit in which they had to complete the assignment were controlled by the other four players, who were given an unlimited time limit to unfurl nine flags from a nearby hotel, which would read "GAME OVER" vertically when seen from where Erin, Hillal and Nick were. If the team unfurling the nine flags succeeded, then $10,000 would be won and no-one would win an exemption. In the end, Hillal was the first player to successfully match eight pairs, thus retaining his exemption and keeping $10,000 from being won. After this assignment, Nick re-counted the pot on his own, and the $3,000 which had originally gone missing mysteriously re-appeared. Using this to his advantage, he decided to plant the money into Hillal's toiletry bag, in a bid to "create more tension". Multilayer Maps: As the player with the best navigation skills, Shaun was isolated from the group and was taken to a specified place within the Gold Coast's canals. The other six players were split into pairs, with each team controlling a boat. Each pair began at a different starting point in the canals and were tasked to find Shaun before returning to the gazebo. Shaun would have to verbally direct the players towards him in order to be transported to the finishing point. Each boat also contained one layer of a map where if all three layers were combined, a map of the canal as well as Shaun's position would be form. If this assignment was completed within 90 minutes, then $20,000 would be won, but if any of the boats failed, then nothing would be won. Although Sam and Nick got lost in the final minutes of the assignment, the team succeeded and won $20,000. Week 9. Pot Count: At the end of the previous episode, Hillal found the $3,000 which had been planted in his toiletry bag by Nick. He and Sam demanded a group meeting, during which Shaun was accused of putting the money in Hillal's room. Nick, for his part, acted as if he did not know what was going on, as Hillal and Shaun engaged in an argument. This $3,000 was added to the pot, taking the total to $132,900. Silent Auction: The seven players were given the opportunity to bid on certain items ranging from $10,000 for the pot to "the ultimate exemption" – that is, an exemption which would take the player who successfully bid for that latter exemption straight through to the final four. The players were placed in individual booths to ensure that bids remained anonymous. For each of the items that were to be sold, there was a certain "minimum" and "maximum" bid that had to be made. Bidding for each item was not compulsory. Players were allowed to re-think their bids, but they only had one minute to make them, after which the items would be sold to the highest bidder (or, in the event of a tie, the quickest). In the end, the maximum bids for each item that was sold were made, resulting in the most money ever lost in a single assignment in the history of "The Mole" worldwide. Sam bid $70,000 for "the ultimate exemption", in addition to $25,000 for a Quiz 8 exemption – this guaranteeing his place in the final four and not having to sit the next three quizzes. Additionally, he would not have to defend that exemption. It was revealed that the group had spent $135,000 in the auction, however, a $10,000 bid was made for a mystery envelope, its contents of which contained $10,000, so therefore, $125,000 was lost from the pot. Snorkel Challenge: The players were split into three pairs and asked to swim through a bay full of 60 sharks, whilst trying to find seven photographs on the sea floor which depicted relatives of the seven remaining players still in the game. Each pair would take an attempt at swimming through the bay and identify the images in numerical order from one to seven. Once they made it back to dry land, they would be asked to place an image of the players to which they think matched their relatives. Meanwhile, Nick was isolated from the group and was asked to try to identify what the players were doing based on the other players commentary. He was then later tasked with matching the relatives to the players based on his hunch. One by one, the question marked cards were flipped over to reveal five correct answers, but cards three and six were wrongly matched, meaning nothing was won in this assignment. Week 10. Exemption Refund: Following Ally's termination, Sam and Hillal, as the two players who were holding exemptions at the time, were both offered the chance to return their exemptions to Shura for $15,000 each, but there was a catch – they had to either refund all three of their exemptions, or keep them all without selling any exemptions. Both Hillal and Sam gave back their exemptions, though the latter was allowed to keep his ultimate exemption, thus adding $45,000 to the pot. Train Trivia: Erin and Shaun were chosen as two players who were "forward thinkers". They were isolated from the group, and given a series of questions and answers from which they had to memorise. They were then to travel ahead of the train on a kalamazoo which was to be controlled by their muscles, for four kilometres. They were also allowed to place up to ten answers on signs along the track for questions they thought the remaining contestants may struggle with. The other four players, meanwhile, were to ride the train and answer twenty general knowledge questions. Questions ranged from those involving the relatives of terminated players, to "Harry Potter" to who the reigning AFL premiers were and how many actors played James Bond. Each correct answer would be worth $500 to the pot, with an additional $5,000 attached if they could answer all twenty questions correctly, meaning a potential of $15,000 to be won in this assignment. From the twenty questions, they answered all but two questions correctly, thus winning $9,000 and missing out on the bonus $5,000. Walking on Water: The players were taken to a beach-side swimming pool, where a series of floating platforms were set up, labelled with the number of players able to stand on it at once. The players would have to cross these platforms by using planks of varying lengths to reach the final platform. They would have only twenty minutes to have each player standing on the final platform, in order to win $5,000 for the pot. There was also a mystery box located near final platform, containing unknown items. The group could decide whether to spend time accessing the box or not, however, only one player would open the box and keep the contents for themselves. Aisha was nominated to open the mystery box, which contained $100 and a hidden question for Quiz Seven. Eventually, the group reached the final platform with two seconds to spare. However, several players were revealed to have stepped on a plank while someone else was on it; therefore, the $5,000 that was on offer was revoked. The $100 that was found in the mystery box was unaffected, meaning only that amount was added to the pot. Week 11. Writing with Jeeps: Erin and Hillal were picked as the two players with the best handwriting from the team. They would be tasked with navigating the rest of the team, who were split into pairs (Aisha/Sam, directed by Erin and Nick/Shaun, directed by Hillal) and tasked with attempting to spell a given word out by driving the cars within a quarry. The two pairs driving the cars had a time limit of 20 minutes in which to spell the word out, which was known only to Erin and Hillal. In the end, the two pairs who were driving the cars deciphered the word as being "WAR", however, the answer was "LIAR", meaning no money was won in this assignment. Town Trek: The six players were met with a board of Australia, which was divided into pieces resembling each state, and were given one hour to run down the Kiama Coastal Walk to a flag at the end of the path. The players were not informed what to do in relation to the boards; they were only instructed to take the state-shaped parts of the board on the walk towards the flag. Only when they found a clue along the path were the instructions made clear in regards to the assignment – the first clue instructed them to list all the cities and towns in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, the second instructed them to list all those in Victoria and Tasmania, the third for the state of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, the fourth for South Australia and the fifth for Queensland. Upon arrival at the finish line, Shura revealed that the team would only win $5,000 if they could correctly guess whether they had less, or more than 175 correct towns on the board. The players guessed that they had less, but they actually wrote 187 correct towns on the map, so therefore, nothing was won in this assignment. Week 12. Mole Network: The six players were faced with a high crane and a cherry-picker attached to it, the latter of which was located 30 metres off the ground. Each player was to enter the cherry-picker on the crane and jump off it, trying to cling onto a large net in the process. Upon jumping onto the net, they would have to aim for pockets of cash that were located on it; the higher the cash was placed on the net, the higher the value. Hillal earned the team $10,000 in his attempt, Shaun earned the team $5,000 despite having his leg caught in the net, Erin failed to win the team any money even though she did jump, and Nick, Sam and Aisha all refused to even attempt the challenge. Altogether, the team managed to win only $15,000 out of the $50,000 that was offered. Catapult: The players were split into two groups: Aisha, Hillal and Shaun were tasked with sling-shooting balls into particular zones marked by particular amounts of money within an arc, where they were to be caught by Erin, Nick and Sam. There were also some "dead zones", which, if the ball was caught within those zones by the catchers, would deduct money from the pot. However, to win the money, the catchers would have to catch the ball on the full (that is, without the ball bouncing on the field), to win that amount of money. The catching team managed to catch eleven balls, thus winning $10,000 for the pot. After this round, the players would swap roles; that is, the slingers would catch the balls whilst the catchers would be the ones slinging the balls from the ground. In the second round, the team earned $20,500, thus raising the total money in this challenge won up to $30,500. Week 13. Cash Waterfall: Aisha, Hillal and Sam were appointed as the controllers of this assignment, whilst Erin was appointed the co-ordinator and Shaun the one responsible for trying to win the money. The three controllers would be responsible for directing Shaun on a rope, where there were several cases containing cash. Erin would have to direct Shaun, who, attached to the rope, would try to unhook several cases of cash, and drop them into the water. Erin would then have to collect the cash in the water, and bring them to a table on dry land within 30 minutes, to win the money. Shaun only managed to retrieve three of the six money boxes, which contained $15,000. However, it was revealed that there were ten rule breaches, each rule breach costing the team $1,000. Therefore, only $5,000 was won in this assignment. Hillal was then elected as the team's new treasurer after Nick was terminated in the previous quiz. Mole Bowls: The players were taken to a bowling club, where they were to bowl their balls to within a designated circle marked in the middle of a green. Each player would only get one shot to win the money. If the players were able to bowl their balls to within the marked circle, they would win $5,000 for the pot, however, any balls that were knocked out of the circle would render that $5,000 invalid. Whichever player bowled their ball closest to the jack in the centre of the circle would earn themselves a hidden question, and also get to capture the Mole diaries of each of the other players remaining in the game. As Sam had the "ultimate exemption", he elected to bowl first, and he bowled his ball just inside the circle, earning $5,000. Aisha went next, but didn't make a decent effort, whilst Shaun just missed the circle on his go and Erin and Hillal both overshot the circle, meaning only $5,000 was won. The players were given a second chance to bowl their balls again, but if they did so, it would cost $1,000 for each person who elected to bowl again. Erin, Hillal and Shaun all elected to bowl again, costing the team $3,000. Erin's ball stopped closest to the jack, but even so did not win any money for the pot, as the second shot did not count towards the pot. Therefore, only $2,000 was won in this assignment. Week 14. Freebie Refund: As the treasurer in the team, Hillal was extracted from the group and Shura made a deal with him that if all the remaining five freebies were returned to him, then $20,000 would be added to the pot, or the freebies would be rendered redundant. It was revealed that Sam had held the remaining four freebies, while the one that Hillal held went missing, so he unwillingly refunded them, for $5,000 each, therefore adding the money to the pot. Hourglass Maze: Aisha was tasked with entering a maze and attempting to find an hourglass in the middle of it, and exiting the maze at a particular exit point. After she did so, in five minutes and 11 seconds, she was then instructed to guide the other three players through the maze, where they would try to retrieve an envelope, where the hourglass was originally located, before being able to make it out of the maze. They would have to make it out of the maze with the envelope before the hourglass ran out (two minutes and 30 seconds) in order for the money to be counted. Hillal and Erin were both able to retrieve an envelope each in their runs through the maze, but neither made it out in time, so theirs did not count. However, Sam was able to retrieve his envelope and made it out of the maze with 30 seconds to spare. The envelopes were opened to reveal $5,000, $10,000 and $15,000 respectively. Since only Sam's envelope counted, $15,000 was added to the pot. Go Mole: The players were dealt a certain number of cards, with the objective of the game being that if they achieved a four of a kind with their own name, they win the game immediately (i.e. if Sam drew a 'four of a kind' with his name, then he immediately wins the game) and be given a 30-second advantage on the rest of the players in the subsequent quiz. Each player would ask the person next to them if they had a card with a specific name, and if they did, then they would receive that card, whereas if they didn't, the recipient would have to say "Go Mole", the asker would have to deal a new card from the pile, and play moves onto the next player. Erin was eliminated from the game after Sam drew a four of a kind of her. Hillal eventually ended up winning the game by drawing a 'four of a kind' of himself, and as a reward was given a 30-second advantage on the remainder of the players in the upcoming quiz. Hillal's name was called first, and the green screen appeared, relieving him. Sam's name was called second, and the screen turned red. Week 15. Mole Snapshot: This assignment saw all twelve players reunited. The entire group, including the nine terminated players, were shown a photo of the group from the very beginning of the game, however, only the final three were allowed to look at it very closely, as their assignment would be to position the players and dress them up as they originally appeared in the photo, within a time limit of 15 minutes. Hillal, the group's treasurer, was given the $50,000 to start off with. For any piece of clothing that was incorrect, or if any player was incorrectly positioned in the resembled piece, then $5,000 would be taken off. At the end, four mistakes were revealed: Nick was incorrectly positioned, Linda's denim shorts were wrong, Shaun was wearing the wrong shirt and Hillal's left foot was stepped forward when it was his right that was shown in the original photo, therefore, $20,000 was taken off the original $50,000 winnings. As a bonus, $500 was added to the end, therefore raising the pot up to $180,000, making for the second-highest total prize money in the history of the Australian version of "The Mole". Interrogation: The final three players met up with Shura on top of a building in Sydney, where they were to be interrogated about each other's actions throughout the game. The players were to be hooked up to a lie detector test, which would track their nerves, actions and moves. The three players were allowed to ask anything they could from four questions, including the ultimate question: "Who is the Mole?". The results revealed that Aisha answered only three questions incorrectly with 96% accuracy, Erin answered two questions incorrectly with 96% accuracy and Hillal answered only half of his questions correctly, also with 96% accuracy. Final Quiz: The three players were faced with their final quiz. This final quiz was unlike any other in the history of the Australian version of "The Mole": the first ten questions would be answered using their Samsung Galaxy Tablets, whilst the final 30 questions would be answered in the normal conditions. After each answered the first question asked by Shura, they would then face each of the nine terminated players, in the order in which they left the game, to answer the next nine questions, each relating to an assignment which corresponded to their termination (for example, Linda was shown with a few boxes from the "Path to Temptation" assignment and Shaun was seen with the balls and jack from the "Mole Bowls" assignment) before moving on to the traditional part of the quiz. The results revealed Erin to be the Mole, Aisha the runner-up and Hillal the winner. Both Aisha and Hillal had suspected Erin of being the Mole, however, Hillal won as he answered 36 questions correctly to Aisha's 31. Mole activity. Sabotage. The following acts of sabotage were revealed in the final episode: The Drop Off: During the desert trek, Erin wasted time in the discussion about leaving bags behind, and pushed for some of them to be left behind. High Wire Relay: Erin purposely fell off the high wire as she attempted to pass the baton to Linda. Speed Reader: Erin pressed for the use of the letter 'o', knowing that the players would not be able to identify any items with that letter. Additionally, after spilling the paint, she decided to cover the letter 'o', trying to form an orange out of it. She also wrote the letter 'e' in lower case, making it difficult for the team on the speed boat to distinguish from letters with a similar shape (an upper case 'E' would have been far more distinctive). Down The Line: Erin knew that her suitcase ("Katherine") was the correct one. She positioned herself away from the train and made sure she did not board the tram. This resulted in the loss of $10,000. Beat the Mole: Erin cost the team $12,000 because she already knew information about the contestants. Domino Effect: Erin elected to keep her exemption following this assignment by paying $15,000 from the pot. Mole Network: Erin jumped towards the net but only touched the base of it and avoided catching any money bags attached higher up the net. Cash Waterfall: Erin feigned fatigue in the canoe and gave sporadic, incomplete directions to Aisha to relay to Sam and Hillal. This goaded Shaun and Aisha into illegally giving directions, costing penalties. Town Trek: Erin purposely wrote some towns in a large font, taking up valuable space on the board and contributing to the loss of $5,000. Steps: Erin gave the wrong answer when standing on one of the steps in the challenge. Catapult: Erin's deliberately bad catching was exposed in this assignment. Mole Bowls: Erin spent $1,000 from the pot to have a second attempt at bowling, also knowing that no further money would be won in this assignment. Others: Erin spent money whenever possible, and put herself in a position of control in many challenges. The following acts of sabotage were spotted during the series, but not mentioned in the final episode: School Exams: Erin pushed for a wrong answer in the Geography room, knowing that China was the most populated country in the world but answering India instead, leaving Hillal behind on detention. Walking on Water: Erin stepped on the plank while Shaun was still walking on it, thus breaching the rules and preventing $5,000 from being won. Writing With Jeeps: Erin avoided correctly identifying the word to be written and gave delayed and poor instructions to the team in her jeep. Beach Run: As the fastest female to cross the line Erin won an Exemption which as the Mole she didn't need but it kept other players from benefiting from it. Aeroplane Acrobatics Challenge: (unintentional) Erin had intended to give a poor description of the acrobatics but she inadvertently screamed in terror so loudly that the communication channel cut out for the remainder of the flight. Silent Auction: Erin made middling bids on each item, ensuring that a substantial amount of money would be lost. Her teammates' greed ensured that it would be a catastrophic loss, and helped shift some suspicion off her. Hourglass Maze: Erin purposely misheard some directions that were given to her by Aisha in the maze. Mole Snapshot: Erin positioned Nick in the wrong position, placing him between Alex and Mozzie when he was supposed to be placed between Mozzie and Seble. Additionally, she wasted time trying to find Nick's clothes. Clues. The following clues were revealed in the final episode: Clues for Contestants: There were three things Erin made sure to tell other contestants: firstly, she was from Geelong, secondly, she lived in the postcode area 3216, and thirdly, she had previously worked for the Geelong Football Club. Opening Titles: There were three clues in the opening titles of every episode: firstly, Erin's background is noticeably different from that of the others; her background is the desert, whereas the others' were city-based backgrounds, secondly, she is the fourth player to be shown in the opening titles; her name has four letters, and the word "Mole" also has four letters, and thirdly, immediately after Erin is shown, the word "UNDERMINE" flashes, with her name hidden in the word. The Drop Off: Erin is the player whose voice is heard, and who is seen, for the first time in the game. School Exams: The Gaelic word for Ireland is "Erin". Down The Line: Her name is hidden in the town named on her suitcase "KathERINe". Smoke Signals: The code that was to be interpreted was 2163, which if you move the last digit to the front becomes 3216, the postcode of Geelong, Erin's hometown. Scales of Justice: The scales diagram that the players were to form out of the varying lengths of timber was a reference to Erin's past occupation, a law student. Owl: Erin's favourite animal is the owl and she sometimes wore owl earrings. The word "owl" was seen on a sign in the "Train Trivia" assignment. Clothing: Erin would often wear "mole green". Club Colours: Erin is from Geelong, and there were many items in the game including serviettes and confetti that were navy blue and white, the official club colours of the Geelong Football Club). The following clues were spotted during the series, but not mentioned in the final episode: Name: Erin's first name is fourth alphabetically, in addition to her being shown fourth in the opening credits, her name having four letters and the word "mole" having four letters. Assignments in Geelong: Some assignments in the first half of the game were held in Geelong, Erin's hometown. In the "Hostage Rescue" assignment, she appears to be the hero, her knowledge of the area where the team started being what won the assignment for the team in the first place. Quiz Seven Termination: Erin sarcastically answered "yes" to Shaun asking whether she was the Mole during the 7th termination, saying "there you go, there's the answer". But what appeared to be a sarcastic joke, was actually the truth.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20126231

A quartz fiber dosimeter, sometimes called a self indicating pocket dosimeter (SIPD) or self reading pocket dosimeter (SRPD) or quartz fibre electrometer (QFE), is a type of radiation dosimeter, a pen-like device that measures the cumulative dose of ionizing radiation received by the device, usually over one work period. It is clipped to a person's clothing, normally a breast pocket for whole body exposure, to measure the user's exposure to radiation. It is now being superseded by more modern dosimeter types such as the Electronic Personal Dosimeter (EPD). Use. As with other types of personal radiation dosimeter, it is worn by workers who are occupationally exposed to radiation, so their employers can keep a record of their exposure, to verify that it is below legally prescribed limits. It works by measuring the decrease in electrostatic charge on a metal conductor in an ionization chamber, due to ionization of the air in the chamber by radiation. It was invented in 1937 by Charles Lauritsen. The dosimeter must be periodically recharged to restore it to a zero dose reading after being exposed to radiation. It is normally read immediately after use, and the dose is logged to record the user's exposure. In some organizations, possession of the recharging device is limited to health physicists to ensure accurate recording of exposures. It contains a low-power microscope and an illumination lens which allow direct reading of exposure at any time by aiming the illumination lens at a light source and looking into the microscope. The device is mainly sensitive to gamma and x-rays, but it also detects beta radiation above 1 MeV. Neutron sensitive versions have been made. Quartz fiber dosimeters are made in different ranges. Peace-time occupational exposure ranges usually measure up to 500 mrem (5 mSv), which exceeds the normal US yearly dose of 360 mrem (3.6 mSv). War-time fallout meters measure up to 500 rem (5 Sv), roughly the lethal dose. The quartz fiber device is an older dosimeter design. It suffers from these disadvantages: Susceptibility to moisture is dealt with by separating the charging pin from the ion chamber by a small gap. The device is pushed firmly onto the charger, closing the gap and allowing the dosimeter to be reset. Releasing the dosimeter disconnects the charger pin from the ion chamber but does induce a small change in the zero which is relatively unpredictable. Theory of operation. The quartz fiber dosimeter is a rugged form of a device called a Lauritsen electroscope. It consists of a sealed air-filled cylinder called an ionization chamber. Inside it is a metal electrode strip that is attached to a terminal on the end of the pen for recharging. The other end of the electrode has a delicate gold-plated quartz fiber attached to it, which at rest lies parallel to the electrode. The ends of the chamber are transparent and the microscope is focused on the fiber. During recharging, the charger applies a high DC voltage, usually around 150-200 volts, to the electrode, charging it with electrostatic charge. The quartz fiber, having the same charge, is repelled by the surface of the electrode due to the coulomb force and bends away from the electrode. After charging, the charge remains on the electrode because it is insulated. When a particle of ionizing radiation passes through the chamber, it collides with molecules of air, knocking electrons off them and creating positively and negatively charged atoms (ions) in the air. The ions of opposite charge are attracted to the electrode and neutralize some of the charge on it. The reduced charge on the electrode reduces the force on the fiber, causing it to move back toward the electrode. The position of the fiber can be read through the microscope. Behind the fiber is a scale graduated in units of radiation, with the zero point at the position of the fiber when it is fully charged. Since each radiation particle allows a certain amount of charge to leak off the electrode, the position of the fiber at any time represents the cumulative radiation that has passed through the chamber since the last recharge. Recharging restores the charge that was lost and returns the fiber to its original deflected position. The charger is a small box, usually powered by a battery. It contains an electronic circuit that steps the battery voltage up to the high voltage needed for charging. The box has a fixture that requires one to press the end of the dosimeter on the charging electrode. Some chargers include a light to illuminate the measurement electrode, so that measurement, logging and recharging can occur with one routine motion. Units with larger ranges are made by adding a capacitor attached between the electrode and the case. The capacitor stores a larger amount of charge on the device for a given voltage on the electrode. Since each radiation particle allows a fixed amount of charge to escape, a larger number of radiation particles is required to move the fiber a given amount. Pocket ionization chamber. A version of the above dosimeter without the self-reading capabilities, called a "pocket ionization chamber" or just "pocket chamber", was widely used in World War II and postwar government and military projects, particularly the Manhattan project. This consisted of a simple ionization chamber with an electrode running down the center, but no electroscope for reading. Instead the exposure was read by plugging the device into a separate precision electrometer/charger, which measured the decline in charge on the electrode and displayed it on a meter, before recharging the electrode. These had the advantage that they were simpler, more rugged, and cheaper than the electrometer type, but had the disadvantage (considered desirable in some military applications) that the exposure couldn't be read by the wearer without the electrometer/charger. They are no longer used. Rate meter. A similar device, used with the same charger, is a "rate meter". This is an inexpensive method for civil defense persons to measure radiation rates. One measures the rate of change of the rate meter for a timed exposure after charging the rate meter. Usually one measures heavy fallout of a thirty-second period, and light fallout over a ten-minute period. The rate meter has two internal scales that read the radiation flux directly in rems for each period.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=65430747

Sustainable Development Goals and Lebanon explains major contributions launched in Lebanon towards the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals SDGs and the 2030 agenda. Multi-stakeholder forums were held by different UN agencies including the UN Global Compact Network in Lebanon during the late 2010s for the advancement of Global Goals and their Impact on Businesses in Lebanon. The latest two were held on October 18, 2018 and October 2019 under the title of connecting the global goals to Local Businesses. In 2019, Lebanon's overall performance in the SDG Index ranked 6th out of 21 countries in the Arab region. Lebanon scored 63.09. Background. Sustainable Development Prioritized Goals. Lebanon has always faced different challenges in terms of creating a clear vision plan that would develop and advance policy to improve the SDG implementation strategy. However, there are developmental attempts by The United Nations Global Compact to lead impactful initiatives to integrate best SDG practices on terms of advancing the private sector bto meet up with 2030 Agenda expectations. Lebanese Contributions to SDG Agenda. Lebanon has been a lively participant in the process associated with the SDGs. Initially, it contributed to the report back presented in the UN Conference on Sustainable Development. Lebanon has also been part of the national consultations to produce inputs during the formulation of the SDGs, and so participated within the summits referring to sustainable development and therefore the SDGs. Lebanon endorsed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and also the SDGs in September 2015. In 2015, there was a global call to advance leadership attention on poverty, inequality, and the climate change crisis. For this to happen, on 25 September 2015 world leaders assembled at the United Nations headquarters in New York, to adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development replacing MDGs. In this 2030 Agenda,  17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were listed to act as a guided path for the upcoming  15 years to make the world a better place for anyone, anywhere. Lebanon’s showed a complex performance indicator regarding MDGs. Hence, Lebanon has been a target for development challenges on all levels, social economical, and environmental. The Syrian crisis increased the severity of the challenges. There was no actual improvement on the level of bringing to light the need for a national developmental strategy to enhance SDG status in Lebanon all way through 2016. Adding to this, the originally found issue linked to the Syrian crisis impact on the wellbeing of the country prevented further infrastructure advancement. Lebanon and the Millennium Development Goals. In 2000, the United Nations General Assembly embraced the Millennium Declaration, setting eight worldwide targets – the Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015. The MDGs targeted different critical issues from poverty and education to the private sector's enrollment in the country's advancement. Lebanon submitted two reports on the Millennium Development Goals, in 2003 and 2008 respectively. The second report made eight recommendations, which included the need to create a private-public partnership for health, the promotion of the ICT sector as an economy driver, promote development finance and facilitate favorable market access for Lebanese goods and WTO accession. Since then, Lebanon has been in turmoil following multiple events resulting in political and security instability. The 2006 war damaged infrastructure and public services and caused the contamination of agricultural lands, and the coastal sea due to a large oil spill. The hostilities resulted caused the death of 1200 civilians and injured around 5000 people, 15% of whom are now with permanent disabilities. The war's toll on the Lebanese economy, communities and human capital, impacted progress on the MDGs. On June 5, 2012, leading up to the world summit, the President of the Republic of Lebanon addressed the people calling for a "conscience awakening". He acclaimed that the Rio+20 summit is a "milestone on the path that we took in re-placing Lebanon on the international map and stressing on its civilizational and cultural status in the world." His call to action was around making Lebanon a country of freedom and coexistence but most importantly, development. Later on in 2013, 5 key priorities were identified during focus groups and national consultations. First, the country needed basic services mainly in the areas of health and education. Second, there was a major need for good governance and political reforms to tackle corruption and sectarian politics. It was also essential to advance structural reforms such as the secularization of the state and the adoption of a sound electoral law that secures the equitable representation of all the Lebanese and the creation of a culture of citizenship. The third major priority was around peace building and conflict prevention. The fourth one was about the enhancement of the infrastructure and public transportation and finally the fifth priority was about inclusive growth and job creation. Lebanon and the Sustainable Development Goals. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all United Nations Member States back in 2015. The SDGs are a set of 17 global goals to transform our world. They are an urgent call for action addressed by and for all countries for a global partnership. The SDGs span across different developmental areas including poverty, equality, education, economic growth and more. The 2030 agenda has 160 targets and 230 indicators. In September 2015, Lebanon endorsed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs. A ESCWA report, prepared in cooperation with the Lebanese Ministry of Environment in early 2015, identified six sustainable development priorities for Lebanon. The report noted that these priorities are aligned with the SDGs, particularly SDG 7 (energy), SDG 8 (growth and employment), SDG 9 and SDG 11 (infrastructure and cities), SDG 10 (inequality), SDG 15 (ecosystems) and SDG 16 (institutions). Reporting Platforms. National Government's Data Reporting Platform on the SDG indicators. The Lebanese government established an institutional mechanism to give stakeholders the opportunity to participate in the SDG reporting process. There is also a national committee established by the council of ministers for the SDGs. This committee is chaired by the prime minister and includes more than 50 state officials. The committee has launched a website dedicated to the present the progress of this national committee towards achieving the 2030 Agenda. There is also a legislative institutional mechanism to monitor the SDGs within the Lebanese parliament. Ministries are also taking into consideration the integration of the SDGs within their planning such as the ministry of public health or industry. Performance. Voluntary National Reviews. 2018 Voluntary National Review. Lebanon presented its first Voluntary National Review (VNR) at the UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in 2018. The VNR highlighted the importance of public-private-partnerships in the Lebanese economy and the need for SDG financing and private sector mobilization. The Syrian refugee crisis and its impact on public services and the economy has made the implementation of the 2030 Agenda very challenging. The VNR was prepared by an independent national committee chaired by the Prime Minister. Workshops, meetings, and consultation sessions were conducted with national stakeholders. The VNR introduced the present conjuncture of the SDG implementation in Lebanon in the areas where the agreement with the 2030 agenda is still fragile or absent. Lebanon used a certain methodology to write the VNR. The collection of data from primary resources, included extensive consultation with key ministries, parliament, and other state entities, was done as a first step. A survey consisting of short questions was also sent to all relevant public-sector administrations to gather facts and details on national policies and strategies related to the SDGs. Moreover, three workshops with government representatives, business sector, and civil society took place. Twenty-three interviews with individual stakeholders including academia were performed. The second step consisted of a review of secondary sources including sectoral strategies, ministry reports, plans and legislations. Thematic publications as well as reports by UN agencies and well-established international organizations were also used. SDG Index. In 2020, Lebanon's overall performance in the SDG Index ranked 95th out of 166 countries. Lebanon scored 66.7 Private Sector. SDGs implementation and the private sector. Notably, the private sector in Lebanon plays a vital contribution to the overall development of the country. As stated in   “Together towards Sustainable Development” a project implemented by The UNDP Lebanon they reported that the private sector has that ability and power to advance the country's status towards SDG developmental  initiatives that has a positive effect over all other SDGs mainly SDG9. The private sector represents 80 percent of Lebanon's GDP. The major contributing sections are baking and finance, construction, trade and tourism. As such, the private sector is a key player for the overall strategy of the Lebanese government by providing investments and reinforcing public services through partnerships with the private sector. In 2013, a draft law on public-private partnerships (PPPs) was launched by the Higher Council on Privatization. In 2012, UNDP launched the “Strategy for Working with the Private Sector”, to advance sustainable human development by engaging the private section and support "appropriate inclusive market-based solutions and approaches.” The strategy explains that UNDP will be working with the private on two different fronts. First, UNDP will "act as an incubator" for the development of private sector projects on national and regional levels, thus contributing to SDG 8, economic growth. Second, UNDP will promote private sector engagement advancing the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact. Examples of partnerships with the private sector include technical and financial assistance, resource transfer, facilitating innovative private investments and advocacy. The main platform that groups corporate sustainability initiatives in Lebanon is the local chapter of the UN Global Compact. The compact advances the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals at the country level. The main mission of the local network is to build a strong understanding of responsible business and highlight sustainability commitments and efforts of Lebanese businesses and other stakeholders such as NGOs, organizations and academia. The compact works on capacity building by mainstreaming a principle-based approach to the SDGs and provide good business practices to lead the way. The UN Global Compact Network Lebanon advances the UN Global Compact initiatives, the Ten Principles, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the country level. Its purpose is to build understanding of responsible business practices among Lebanese businesses and facilitate engagement with NGOs, government, academia and other businesses. The compact organizes local workshops, conferences and forums around the 17 SDGs including Lebanon Collaboration for the SDGs and Making Global Goals Local Business Middle-East. Implementation and Progress. SDG 1: No Poverty. In Lebanon, initiatives are implemented to support the poorest and most vulnerable communities. However, Lebanon is suffering regardless all the efforts being made. In this sense, many remain below the poverty line and risk being left behind. Considering some statistical facts, 27% of Lebanese are considered poor, spending less than $270 per month. In 2015, 70% of Syrian refugees in Lebanon spent less than $120 a month, 65% of Palestine refugees in Lebanon spent less than $210 a month and 90% of Palestine refugees from Syria spent less than $80 a month. SDG 2 : Zero Hunger. The issue in Lebanon regarding this goal is not about sufficiency of good food but the lack of its accessibility to everyone. For this, considering the statistical indicators, 16.5% of children under 5 years old in are stunted, meaning they are not developing properly due to malnutrition. About 11% of Lebanese, 93% of Syrian refugees, 62% of Palestine refugees in Lebanon, and 94% of Palestine refugees from Syria cannot meet their basic food needs. SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing. Lebanon has witnessed important advances that increased life expectancy and reducing some of the common killers such as coronary heart disease and respiratory diseases, and in improving access to quality health services. But, there are a lot of efforts in progress to improve the population’s health and ensure affordable health care for everyone. SDG 4: Quality Education. Lebanon has a significant increase in the rate of enrollment in primary education and that is a significant increase in the educational status of the youth. It is noted that Lebanese youth show significantly high literacy rates with a 90 percentage entrance rate in primary education. This high rate of enrollment is due to its mandatory and free aspect in public schools. SDG 5: Gender Equality. It is important to note that Lebanon has proven solid achievements when it comes to equality and empowerment. Women are still suffering from inequality, on the social, political, legal and labor market aspects. In the 2016 municipal elections about 100 more women were elected than in the 2010 municipal elections, still women only represent 5.5% of the municipal council seats. Only 23.5% of women are part of the labor market, whereas the proportion of men is 70.3%. And, only 3 percent of national parliamentary seats are held by women. SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation. Important improvements have been made on the level of implementing SDG 6. Most Lebanese have improved access to water supply yet the population experiences frequent water shortages. One of the issues faced is that in some Lebanese areas, the water is not safe to drink. Although, Lebanon has a relatively well established water and wastewater networks still a limited amount of water and wastewater is treated and managed safely. In this sense, up to 70% of natural water sources in Lebanon are bacterially contaminated. In 2012 Lebanon extracted 0.7 billion cubic meters of groundwater, but the groundwater is only replenished with 0.5 billion cubic meters each year. SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy. It is vital aspect of Lebanese attempts in approaching SDG 7 by having a high potential to deviate away from oil as a main fuel for energy and depend more on renewable energy from resources such as sun, wind and water. Considerable efforts are needed to enhance greenhouse gas emissions and the affordability of energy. In Lebanon up to 4.5% of electricity comes from hydropower and up to 95.5% from oil. In 2012 Electricité du Liban (EDL) only met 63% of the demand for electricity in Lebanon. Around 53% of Lebanon’s total greenhouse gas emissions were from the energy sector in 2012. SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth. Lebanon has witnessed immense struggle with respect to its growth rate. It is important to mention that regardless these struggles, the Lebanese economy has shown a high level of resilience in the face of regional instability, supported by sectors such as tourism and construction. It is a continuous challenge for Lebanon to generate sufficient jobs which shows that high unemployment rates, especially of women and youth, as well as high emigration of educated youth out of Lebanon. It is estimated that in Lebanon youth unemployment is 21.6% and is constantly rising. SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure. Lebanon is known for its youth entrepreneurial activities. This reputation of having a vibrant entrepreneurship atmosphere has helped small businesses to grow. A challenging aspect of Lebanese industry is related to the manufacturing exports rate that decreased by almost 30% from 2012 to 2015. SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities. Inequalities have different faces in Lebanon that is related to income, consumption and social aspects, particularly between Beirut and rural areas. Geographical gaps exist and increased due to the manner of sending the funding directly to municipalities, particularly affecting municipalities in rural areas. Notably speaking the richest 20% in Lebanon account for 40% of all consumption, five times more than the poorest 20%. -Lebanon does not have a civil code guaranteeing equal treatment for all in personal status matters such as marriage, custody and inheritance, but rather has 15 separate personal status laws that are linked to religious sects. Lebanon does not have a civil code guaranteeing equal treatment for all in personal status matters such as marriage, custody and inheritance, but rather has 15 separate personal status laws that are linked to religious sects. Another important fact is that, the 244 most vulnerable municipalities host 87% of all displaced persons from Syria. SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. It is well known about Lebanon that it has a rich urban cultural heritage, with a number of the world’s oldest cities. However, huge demographic changes took place, like the increase in conflict urbanization and waves of external and internal displacements. This increased challenge makes it more difficult to sustain social coherence and ensure inclusion. Around 90% of the population in Lebanon live in urban areas and about 30% live in the Beirut metropolitan area alone. Adding to this, the majority of Syrian refugees live in urban areas, often in high density poor neighborhoods and sometimes in vulnerable conditions. More, 63% of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and 55% of Palestinian refugees from Syria live inside camps, most of which are located in urban areas. SDG 12: Responsible Production and Consumption. As an attempt to reduce pollution, ever since 2000, Lebanon has implemented environmental legislation requiring industries to minimize their pollution. But, environmental governance at municipal level and national level regulation and enforcement needs to be further strengthened for better recycling and waste management. In this sense, Lebanon was able to reduce consumption of CFC (a substance that depletes the ozone layer) from 928 tons to 0 tons in less than fifteen years. In 2010, 17% of household solid waste was recycled while 83% was sent to landfills or open dumps, including potentially hazardous forms of waste. SDG 13: Climate Action. Lebanon has signed several conventions, such as the Paris Agreement on climate change, and established several institutions dedicated to the protection of the environment. The country is vulnerable to extreme weather like winter floods and extended hot summer days. In this regard, it is expected that Lebanon can do more to reduce its contribution to climate change and increase the capacities of institutions working with environmental issues. Lebanon increased its greenhouse gas emissions, gases that are harmful to the environment and contribute to climate change, by nearly 5% annually between 1994 and 2012. It is estimated that by 2040 rainfall in Lebanon will have decreased by 10-20%. Currently, sea levels in Lebanon will rise with up to 60 cm in the next 30 years. Challenges. On July 18, 2018: the Ministerial Meeting of the 2018 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) publicly shared the representation of 46 Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) for three days. Its purpose was to share the development and challenges faced by the participant countries when implementing the SDGS. Critical challenges would disqualify Lebanon from implementing the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development Goals. These challenges include: political instability, refugee crisis, socioeconomic policy choices, social protection, taxes, lack of data, and lack of gender equality. The VNR included some challenges facing the implementation of the SDGs in Lebanon including the lack of strong statistical system and database for the SDG targets and indicators as well as a lack in capacity building. Public sector administration institutional capacities need to be reinforced with the help of UN bodies and international entities. Political obstacles. The political system in Lebanon is described by the agreed division of power leading to imbalanced structure of governance. This results in political conflicts affecting the economic and institutional performance of both the public and private sector. This ineffective distribution of power leads to weak fragile institutional strategic planning and the absence of transparency. Consequently, corruption prohibits investments and developmental global project implementation. The result of this political distribution represents a limitation in decision-making towards any project or advancement. Refugees crisis. Lebanon has faced a complex approach regarding more than one million Syrians resorted to the country for shelter. Lebanon was well known as the country that has integration of refugees within its population. This overpopulation of refugees affects the infrastructure negatively. This results in imbalanced distribution of developmental projects towards a better status of the country. Refugees, mainly Palestinians and Syrians, suffered for a long time from unequal policies for they are known as the nations who are left behind. As a report dating back to 2019, Lebanon and Jordan face the same increased crisis with  17% and 7% of the overall population respectively. The challenges faced by those communities were related to the need for mental health support, need for more advanced educational strategies and projects, and enhanced gender disparity status. In October 2014,  a governmental change took place regarding the rearrangement of Syrian refugees. Its main goal was to reduce the total number of  Syrian refugees and at the same time encourage them to return to Syria, it is still an ongoing target listed on the governmental agenda. Socioeconomic policy choices. The economical structure in Lebanon depends on a focused model on banking and financial systems and sectors. The need for rebuilding the country post the civil war depended on over-borrowing from international bodies. This is done for an exchange rate from the donors increasing a public debt that the country can't face. This concentration of investments in specific sectors failed to improve the county's economic status and attract new advanced projects from investors that would have boosted all the goals targeted by the 2030 agenda. Poverty and unemployment rates have increased within the youth giving little space for growth enhancement and a sense of competitiveness.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=44536153

Samee (), also spelt as Sami and Sameeh is a name which means one who hears. It is a convention to use either a prefix "Abd-" or a suffix "-"Ullah"" along the name, which gives meanings of Abdul Sami/ Abdul Samee - "the servant/slave of All-Hearer/ All-Hearing" or Samiullah/ Sameeullah - "All-Hearer/ All-Hearing of God" respectively. As-Samee is one of the names of Allah meaning the" All-Hearer/ All-Hearing" - which the common expression that it is only Allah who hears and responds. According to Islamic tradition, a Muslim may not be given any of the names of God in exactly the same form. Likewise nobody may be named "As-Samee" (The All Hearing), but may be named "Samee" (Hearer). This is because of the belief that God is almighty and no human being is the equivalent to God. The name Samee should not be confused with another Arabic name Sami written as in Arabic. Sami is also given name in Scandinavia, America and many other countries. It has different origins and meanings. For example, the Arabic Sami means elevated or sublime. When spelled in English, it can be spelled as Sammy and often mistakenly confused as the abbreviated English name Sammy. The feminine counterpart of this name in Arabic is Sameea or Samiya () meaning one who listens.

precisely the identical manner

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=55188951

Maine Question 1, formally An Act To Allow Slot Machines or a Casino in York County, was a citizen-initiated referendum question that appeared on the November 7, 2017, statewide ballot in Maine. It sought to award a license for the construction and operation of a casino in York County, Maine by a qualified entity as spelled out in the proposed law, with tax revenue generated by the casino to go to specific programs. The wording of the proposed law effectively permitted only one company, Capital 7, to be awarded the license. The ballot measure was defeated, with 83% of voters opposing it. The effort to put the question on the ballot generated controversy due to how the petition drive and campaign for the casino were funded and conducted, as well as the fact that the casino would have effectively not been given out by a competitive process. The campaign committees supporting the question had record fines levied against them from authorities related to violations of Maine campaign finance law. Background. An initial effort to place a referendum for a York County casino on the ballot for November 2016 failed after Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap announced on March 2, 2016 that only 36,000 of the 91,000 signatures turned in were valid, when roughly 61,000 were required. 36,000 signatures were rejected because the signature of the petition circulators on the petitions did not match the signature on file. 19,000 more were invalidated because they did not belong to registered voters. Horseracing Jobs Fairness, the group supporting the proposal, sued Dunlap to get the signatures reinstated, but the suit was rejected. The signature gathering effort was criticized by several state and local officials for alleged misleading claims by signature gatherers, such as one in Bangor telling potential signers that it would "help uplift the spirits of the people of Bangor" when York County is over 120 miles from Bangor. Dunlap's office received several complaints about false claims by petition gatherers, but said there was nothing they could do as false claims are constitutionally protected free speech, and that it was the responsibility of the signer to ask about the proposal. Those collecting signatures in the 2016 effort were offered $10 a signature, compared to a 2014 effort to ban bear baiting while hunting, which offered $2 a signature. Horseracing Jobs Fairness then resumed gathering signatures and submitted 65,000 more in December 2016, with Dunlap validating 53,000 of them on January 23, 2017, which when combined with previously validated signatures was enough to place the question on the November 2017 ballot. Dunlap announced the final wording of the question that will appear on the ballot on September 7, 2017. It will read, "Do you want to allow a certain company to operate table games and/or slot machines in York County, subject to state and local approval, with part of the profits going to the specific programs described in the initiative?". The proposal was criticized for limiting applicants for the license to "an entity that owned in 2003 at least 51 percent of an entity licensed to operate a commercial track in Penobscot County". The only entity that meets that criterion is Capital 7, which is largely owned by developer Shawn Scott. Though the company must be given the license, it can be sold after it is obtained. Shawn Scott did this in 2003 after convincing Maine voters to authorize the opening of the Hollywood Casino Bangor, selling it to Penn National Gaming. Until April 2017, Shawn's sister Lisa Scott appeared as the sole funder of the campaign. After the Maine Ethics Commission began an investigation of the campaign, Lisa revealed that most of the money comes from both domestic and offshore investment firms connected to Shawn. The investigation revealed that $4 million was spent just to get the question on the ballot. Lisa stepped down from the campaign at the end of August 2017, stating that she did not want to be a distraction from the campaign. Ethics commission fines. On November 3, 2017, the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices voted in a series of 4-1 votes to levy fines totaling $500,000 against the four ballot question committees involved in the campaign for Question 1. The fines were related to violations of Maine's campaign finance disclosure laws from those committees and Lisa Scott, being what the commission called a pattern of evasion in disclosing who was funding the campaign. One commissioner said that there seemed to have been an effort to conceal the involvement of Shawn Scott in the funding of the campaign. The amount of the fines was a record for the commission, being almost 10 times that of the previous record, though it was not the maximum permitted by law. Members of the commission who voted for the high fines said that believed a law passed by voters in 2015 required the steeper fines, and they wished to send a message that the public has a right to know where money for campaigns comes from. The one commissioner who voted against the fines, Bradford Pattenshall, stated that the felt the high fines were "grossly disproportionate" to the offenses and did not see the violations as nefarious. Lawyers representing Lisa Scott and the campaign committees have said the fines were excessive and that the Commission had "put its thumb on the scale" for the upcoming vote. They pledged to appeal the fines in court. The Commission also voted 5-0 that a campaign committee led by Shawn Scott was only a donor to the other committees, and as such did not need to register as a political action committee. A spokesperson for Shawn, former Maine Attorney General Andrew Ketterer, said that Shawn had been "vindicated" and that the ruling was proof he had complied with the spirit and letter of the law. Campaign. By September 15, 2017, no formal opposition to the proposal had emerged, and no television advertising had been purchased in Maine's media markets regarding the question. Supporters released a TV ad on September 27. Opponents, organizing under the name A Bad Deal for Maine PAC, launched a website the week of October 7. Supporters have spent $1.55 million on their campaign, as well as incurring $1 million in debt, according to their October 5 campaign finance report. The only contribution listed on the October 5th finance report of opponents was $30,000 on a poll funded by Churchill Downs Incorporated, which owns the Oxford Casino in Oxford County. Shawn Scott began to take a higher profile as the election approached, appearing in advertisements, holding news conferences, and representing the campaign at debates. Result. The Associated Press called the referendum at about 9 P.M. on election night for the no side. With 70 percent of precincts reporting, the no side had about 84% of the vote.

press meetings

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10645588

Ranoidea platycephala, commonly known as the water-holding frog, is a frog common to most Australian states. It differs from most other members of the family Pelodryadidae as a ground dweller and the ability to aestivate. It can live for five years without drinking. Description. The species has a population spread across all the Australian states except Victoria and Tasmania. It occupies a wide range of habitat from forests of tropical swamp to intermittent pools and lowland grass country; all habitat is assumed to be of a low elevation. Populations are assumed to be large from frequent reports and a broad range. This range is assumed to overlap with National parks, but research has not been undertaken into the ecology and biology of the species. It buries itself in sandy ground in a secreted, water-tight, mucus cocoon with its external skin during periods of hot, dry weather. For additional nutrition and to save energy, the frog eats the external skin. It has been known to burrow to depths of up to 1 meter. The water-holding frog is characterized by a broad, flat head, completely webbed toes, and a stout body which is usually dull gray to dark brown or green. They also have small eyes that are placed somewhat laterally and forward-directed, enhancing vision downward and binocular perspective (Cogger and Zweifel 1998). Reproduction. The water-holding frog only emerges from deep underground after it rains to breed. It lays large amounts of spawn in still water after floods. Some eggs may be attached to vegetation, or spread in a thin film on the surface, thus ensuring adequate oxygen in warm waters suffering from oxygen depletion. Tadpoles of the water-holding frog can reach a maximum length of 60mm (S. Australian Frogcensus 1999). Human interaction. Australian Aborigines discovered a means to take advantage of this ability by digging up one of these frogs and gently squeezing it, causing the frog to release some of the fresh water it stores for itself in its bladder and skin pockets. This water can be consumed by the person, who then releases the frog. During the dry season, this will cause the frog to die, as its water reserves are necessary for its survival. Threatened status. No threats have been identified, research into the extent of habitat loss through land clearing and the associated salinity is yet to be undertaken. The species is given Least Concern status at the IUCN Red List [Red List link] due to a wide range and large population.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3043814

A prison officer or corrections officer is a uniformed official responsible for the custody, supervision, safety, and regulation of prisoners. They are responsible for the care, custody, and control of individuals who have been convicted of a crime and sentenced to imprisonment. They are also responsible for the security of the facility and its property. Most prison officers are employed by the government of the jurisdiction in which they operate, although some are employed by private companies that provide prison services to the government. Terms for the role. Historically, terms such as "jailer" (also spelled "jailor" or "gaoler"), "jail guard", "prison guard", "turnkey" and "warder" have all been used. The term "prison officer" is now used for the role in the UK and Ireland. It is the official English title in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. The term "corrections officer" or "correction officer" is used in the US and New Zealand. "Correctional officer" is used in Australia, Canada, Jamaica, and the US. "Detention officer" is used in the US, as is the term "penal officer". The official who is in charge of a specific prison is known by various titles, including: "warden" (US and Canada), "governor" (UK and Australia), "superintendent" (South Asia) or "director" (New Zealand), respectively "Direktor" or "Gefängnisdirektor" (Germany). Duties. Prison officers must maintain order and daily operations of the facility and are responsible for the care, custody, and control of inmates. A correction officer has a responsibility to control inmates who may be dangerous, and that society themselves do not wish to accommodate. An officer must always prevent disturbances, assaults, and escapes by supervising activities and work assignments of inmates. Officers have a responsibility to protect themselves, other officers, inmates, and the public from assault by other inmates. Correctional officers must also protect inmates from harming themselves or committing suicide. An officer must be alert and aware of any and all movement taking place inside the facility. Prevention is one of the key components of an officer's duties. Officers can utilize prevention by routinely searching inmates and their living quarters for potential threats such as weapons, drugs, or other contraband. Officers should remain assertive and in most situations refuse to back down. An officer shall hold offenders who violate facility policy accountable for their actions when rules are violated. This is usually done through on the spot corrections, a formal disciplinary process, or through the legal process in extreme circumstances. Correction officers must take full concern for the health and safety of the facility. Officers check for unsanitary conditions, fire hazards, and/or any evidence of tampering or damage to locks, bars, grilles, doors, and gates. Fire and severe weather drills may be common. Officers may screen all incoming and outgoing mail for select high risk offenders. All prison staff, regardless of position, volunteers, visitors, new court commit, and offenders returning from off ground, are searched prior to entry. This aides in the reduction of contraband being introduced into the facility. These routine searches often employ hand held or walk through metal detectors, and baggage x-ray machines. Under certain instances, a canine, pat/frisk, full strip, and vehicle (if parked on facility grounds) search may be conducted. Correction officers are responsible for transporting inmates to other facilities, medical appointments, court appearances, and other approved locations. In the US, these trips are most often local, but may be across the entire country. Correction officers may assist police officers on/off duty depending on their peace officer status and jurisdiction. Training. Corrections officers' training will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction as well as facility to facility depending on the legislated power given, the nature of the facilities, or even the socioeconomics of the region. Training may be provided by external agencies or at the facility with a peer-group or supervisor instructor. In North America, standard training usually includes: Many jurisdictions have also, in recent years, expanded basic training to include: Most institutions in the United States have a crisis resolution team of some sort, though these vary in name (i.e., Crisis Resolution Team or CRT, Special Response Team or SRT, Correctional Emergency Response Team or CERT, Crisis and Emergency Respose Team also CERT, Special Security Team or SST, Special Operations And Response Team or SORT). These teams take on a role similar to a Police SWAT team, but are tailored to the prison setting. Though these vary greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, they typically must pass a very physically demanding course lasting a week or more.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=42628986

Institutional betrayal is a concept described by psychologist Jennifer Freyd (Platt, Barton, & Freyd, 2009). referring to "wrongdoings perpetrated by an institution upon individuals dependent on that institution, including failure to prevent or respond supportively to wrongdoings by individuals (e.g. sexual assault) committed within the context of the institution". It is an extension of betrayal trauma theory. In a landmark study, Carly P. Smith and Jennifer Freyd (2013) documented psychological harm caused by institutional betrayal. A legal analysis concludes that this study is reliable under Frye and Daubert standards. When institutions such as universities cover up violations such as rape, sexual assault and child sexual abuse (as in the Jerry Sandusky case), this institutional betrayal undermines survivors' recovery. The term is receiving increased attention based on recent White House statements about sexual assault on college campuses. The term is also used by the Our Harvard Can Do Better student group at Harvard University. Recent debate about how colleges respond to sexual assault by students has brought this issue renewed media attention. Institutional betrayal can occur within families, governments and the military, organizations, workplaces, religious institutions, or any organizational system in which people are dependent on systemic protection. Individuals who have experienced extensive trauma appear to be both less satisfied with police responses in the face of an intimate partner violence incident and more distrustful of police. Therefore, these individuals may experience feelings of institutional betrayal due to a perceived failure of the police to prevent further revictimization. Individuals who have been frequently retraumatized are also the ones most likely to utilize health care and mental health services. Institutional betrayal in the medical system is currently being investigated in the Canadian health care system. It is hypothesized that institutional betrayal in the medical system will explain symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety above and beyond the effects of general tendencies to trust others or the patient satisfaction with the care received. Institutional courage is a concept described by psychologist Jennifer Freyd as the antidote to institutional betrayal. Institutional courage refers to "rightdoings" by which institutions demonstrate accountability, transparency, and support of individuals who are harmed within the context of the institution.

distinguished neglect

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=212334

The Vaqueros de Bayamón are a Puerto Rican basketball team of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional based in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. The Vaqueros play their home games at Rubén Rodríguez Coliseum, a venue shared with the Liga de Voleibol Superior Femenino women's volleyball team Vaqueras de Bayamón. The Vaqueros are one of the most successful teams in the history of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional, having won 15 league championships, their last being in 2020. The franchise began in 1930 and still stands as one of the league's original clubs. Led by Rubén Rodríguez, Bayamón established a BSN record for most consecutive championships with 5, from 1971 to 1975. After losing in the 2001, 2002 and 2005 BSN Finals, the Vaqueros won their record fourteenth championship by defeating the Piratas de Quebradillas for the 2009 title, their first in 13 years. In December 2020, the Vaqueros won their 15th championship and first in eleven years, winning the tournament that was held inside a bubble due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Among other records, the Vaqueros hold the record for most games won in a BSN season, 29 of them, set during the 1993 season. Rubén Rodríguez. Rubén Rodríguez played for the Vaqueros for 23 seasons, always wearing number 15. He debuted in the league in 1969 and scored 11,549 points and 6,178 rebounds in 631 games. He established various records in the league: He also had the record of rebounds in a season from 1978-2008; this record was broken by Lee Benson on May 3, 2008 also joining the Vaqueros. Rodríguez spent his whole career with the team Vaqueros of Bayamón. With the Vaqueros, he won 9 national championships, 1967, 1969, five in a row from 1971 to 1975, one in 1981 and one in 1988, the year that the team inaugurated his actual venue, that carries his name, the Rubén Rodríguez Coliseum. He also garnered the MVP award in 1979, and, once the three-point shot was established for the first time in the Puerto Rican tournament during the 1980 season, he started making shots from behind the three-point line too. Franchise history. The Vaqueros de Bayamon team was founded in 1930 on what was formerly known as the Baloncesto Nacional (now Baloncesto Superior Nacional BSN) league, an amateur league. The team's original name was "Bayamon". The Bayamon team won their first championships in the league in 1933 and 1935. Becoming the second team to win two titles in the league, they were guided by the Professional Head Coach Onofre Carballeira. During the following decade (the 1940s) the team was inactive due to WWII. By 1954 the team was competing in the BSN League again, but this time the team would be known as the Azules de Bayamón (lit. "Bayamon Blues") in Spanish. Under that name, Bayamon did not win a title. The following season the team was renamed to The Vaqueros de Bayamon. This new name was given by the team sponsor Espasas Dairy Company as a reference to their business. It wasn't until 1967 that the team reached the Finals against the Ponce team, against whom the Vaqueros won the series and their third championship (their first in 34 years). The team was starting to become known as a competitive one around the league. In less than two years, the team would repeat its success when they reached the finals and conquered another title in 1969. The success of the team was about to reach its climax in the 1970s. The Vaqueros won five consecutive championships during the decade, from 1971 to 1975. They became the top team in the league. During their golden era (1970s) the team was guided by coaches Roy Rubbins, Art Loche, Lou Rossini, Fufi Santori, Tom Nissalke and Del Harris. During the 1980s a new rivalry was taking place in the BSN; this time the Vaqueros had to battle for supremacy against the Guaynabo Mets team, which was led by Mario Morales and Federico Lopez. The Vaqueros de Bayamon won the final series against Guaynabo in 1981 giving them another championship. Another achievement for the team was their fanatics which were counted in many thousands by the 1980s and 1990s. In 1988 guided by Robert Corn the team reached the finals against the Canovanas team and once again won a championship. In the 90s the team had an average decade with two more championships in 1995 and 1996 Both against the Ponce Lions. These titles came with Flor Melendez, who had coached the team to their 1981 championship, as head coach. By the late 1990s the team was about to face one of its worst decades since the 50s. From 1999 to 2008, the team could hardly make it into the semifinals (except in 2005 when they reached the finals and lost for the title against the Arecibo Captains in four games); as a consequence, the franchise's quality and prestige as well as the fan base began to decrease. However most of the fanbase remained throughout the years. In 2009 the franchise won their most recent championship, tying at fourteen with the San German Athletics for most overall titles in the league. Nowadays the team still is considered among the best teams in the league. Coronavirus outbreak. Late in 2020, it was announced that eight members of the Vaqueros were suffering from the coronavirus disease, heading into a November continuation of the 2020 BSN tournament at a hotel in Rio Grande. Traditions. Uniforms. The Vaqueros have two different uniforms: a white home uniform and blue road uniform. The design of the white and blue sets are nearly identical, with the team name featured on the front over the number, and the player's last name over the number on the back and under the vaqueros' logo. The shorts have golden stripes on the sides of the pants and shirts in both designs. Arena. Inaugurated in 1988, The Rubén Rodriguez Coliseum is the hosting arena for the team's local games. It was the named after the former team player. This coliseum is the third-largest indoor sports arena in Puerto Rico. It can accommodate up to 13,000 spectators, though it is known that this arena was able to fit nearly 16,000 on the team's finals. The seating of the coliseum divides in three sections: Originally (by the 1980s and early 1990s) the home arena for the Cowboys was the Pepín Cestero Arena, also located in Bayamon. Fan base. The Vaqueros have always kept a large fandom, however within most of the last decade (from 2000–2008) it decreased due to the lack of success or championships. In the 1990s the fanbase of the Vaqueros reached over 12,000 fans. In the season '09 the fandom increased at a high tendency, as the team conquered its 14 championship. The attendance to the final game was estimated over 14,000 fans from which over 11,000 were Cowboys fans. From 1988 to 2009 the team averaged just over 10,000 fans, which is still in the top of the BSN . The team has sold out every home final game since their golden seasons 1970s, Making it the largest BSN franchise according to many commentators. Rivalries. Some important rivalries during the team's history include (the teams who have been confronted in at least two finals.) Radio. The flagship station for the Vaqueros is WIAC, 740 AM, the official flagship for the '09 season. The announcers are Ralph Pagán and Angel Pérez Moll. Transmissions are broadcast regionally through the local AM frequency and globally through the Internet. all games are broadcast live and games stats are provided in the transmission. Some other games are transmitted on WKAQ 580 (the official BSN flagship station for this season) TV. The Vaqueros TV broadcasts are transmitted by BSN on live television, which broadcasts some of the games. Announcers are Ernesto Diaz, Diego Marti and Leonel Arill. The transmission airs all of the selected games nationwide. The games can be seen on América CV Network (Channel 24), Direct TV (Channel 161). These pre-selected broadcast are also re-transmitted to the USA throughout WAPA America channel. Games can also be seen throughout the Internet in mediasportstv (online live) or at the official team's webpage. Championships. What follows is a detailed list of every championship: 5: The Vaqueros have the record in the BSN for most consecutive championships: 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1975. 2: The team won their last two consecutive championships in the years: 1995 and 1996.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23452046

Mahadev Deka is a bodybuilder from Barpeta district, Assam, India. By profession he is an assistant engineer in Public health department of Assam. In 2008 he was the runner up of Musclemania Superbody world championship and in 2009 has won the championship (Musclemania) in the Open BW (bantamweight) category, held in Florida from 18–21 June. Diet Schedule. He follows a daily diet of 20 egg whites, a chicken, fruit juice, little rice, lot of green vegetables and allotted supplements. Training. Mahadev took his first training from Manohar Aich in Kolkata in 1992 and went on to win bronze at Bharar Kumar Championship in Bangalore the same year. Heart surgery. In August 2002, Mahadev underwent an Open heart surgery. Post-operation, he developed a lump in his chest. He was advised an open-heart surgery to get it removed and so he took a break of three months. He also underwent chemotherapy. But all these could not resist him to go to his favorite place, the gym. In 2008 he was the runner up of Musclemania Superbody world championship, and won its Mr Universe title in the bantamweight class in 2009 held in Florida. On his return he received a hero’s welcome from fans for his victory. Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi promised him a house and the Numaligarh Refinery Limited has announces a cash award of Rs50,000. Asom PHE Minister Rihon Daimary, at a function held at his office chamber, felicitated him with "Chelleng Chador", "Xorai" and a cash award of Rs.25,000. Philanthropy. Mahadev Deka has been involved in several charities. He is the brand ambassador for an NGO called Kidney Citizen which is a one of a kind not for profit organization supporting people with kidney diseases. Kidney Citizen is a registered charitable trust set up by Uttam Basar for helping the cause of the underprivileged and all patients with kidney diseases. The Foundation has two focus areas: Awareness and Healthcare. To increase the reach and corpus of the Foundation, Mahadev Deka has undertaken initiatives such as spreading awareness through public appearances and its website for which Kidney Citizen has teamed up with the internet technology company, TOUCHWEB Solutions. The aim is to raise awareness through the website about kidney transplant procedure, kidney stone, and other kidney related issues, which can save lives.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=60310620

The 1921–22 season was the 21st season of competitive football played by Cardiff City F.C. and the team's first in the First Division of The Football League. Cardiff had won promotion to the highest tier of English football the previous season by finishing as runners-up in the Second Division, becoming the first Welsh team to reach the top tier of English football. The side endured a difficult start to the season, losing the first six matches of the campaign. However, they eventually saw results improve and finished the campaign in fourth place. In the FA Cup, Cardiff reached the fourth round before being defeated by Tottenham Hotspur after a replay. Cardiff went on to win the Welsh Cup for the third time in its history after defeating Ton Pentre in the final. During the campaign, 31 players made at least one appearance for the club. Billy Grimshaw made more appearances than any other player, featuring in 47 matches in all competitions. Len Davies finished the season as the club's highest goalscorer with 30 in all competitions. His tally of seventeen in the First Division was three short of Jimmy Gill but fourteen in cup matches, including eight in four appearances in the Welsh Cup, saw him out score his teammate. The highest attendance recorded at Ninian Park was 51,000 for the FA Cup fourth round tie against Tottenham Hotspur. However, the league fixture against Tottenham recorded an attendance of 50,000 after an extra 6-10,000 were estimated to have broken into the ground after turnstiles were closed. The lowest attendance recorded was 5,500 for Welsh Cup matches against Newport County and Merthyr Town. The average league attendance during the season was 27,000. Background and preseason. During the 1920–21 season, Cardiff City were elected into the Second Division of The Football League having spent the previous decade playing in the Southern Football League. In the side's first season, they finished as runners-up behind Birmingham on goal average after the two teams accumulated the same number of points. As a result, Cardiff won promotion to the First Division, becoming the first Welsh side to play in the top tier of English football. Manager Fred Stewart remained in charge of the first team for the tenth year. He made several additions to the squad, signing full back Tommy Brown from New Brighton and forward Willie Page, the brother of Cardiff defender Jack Page, from Port Vale. Cardiff were investigated by The Football Association (FA) and the Football Association of Wales (FAW) over an illegal approach for Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Dickie Baugh Jr.. The club was found guilty with Baugh having signed an agreement with an agent acting on behalf of Cardiff despite still being contracted to Wolves. Cardiff were fined £50 and Baugh £20. The agent involved was subsequently banned from all football grounds under the jurisdictions of either the FA or FAW. Cardiff also made significant investments in the club's ground Ninian Park. A new pitch was laid using sea-washed turf which officials at the club labelled as "now being equal to the best in the country". The earthen embankments that enclosed the pitch were also built up to improve viewing for spectators. Having won promotion and reached the semifinal of the FA Cup, "The Times" expected Cardiff to adapt well to the higher tier. First Division. In the team's first match in the First Division, they met FA Cup holders Tottenham Hotspur at Ninian Park. The game therefore became the first top tier match in English football to be played in Wales and was described in "The Times" as "the most important event in their (Cardiff's) history". The fixture attracted a large crowd and when 50,000 supporters had paid and been allowed into the ground officials attempted to close the gates. However, with thousands still queuing to gain entry, supporters broke through the gates and forced their way into the ground. Club officials estimated between an extra 6-10,000 people broke into the ground after the gates were initially closed. Cardiff started the season without influential defender Jimmy Blair who was recovering from a bout of pneumonia; Jack Page started the opening match in his place. Tottenham received a blow early into the game as Jimmy Seed picked up an injury. Despite the setback, Tottenham proved too strong for Cardiff and scored the only goal of the game through Jimmy Banks from outside the penalty area. The excessive crowd numbers produced several unsavoury incidents which included fans taking over the score board to use as a vantage point. This experience prompted the club to approach local police to seek advice on crowd control at future matches. Defeat to Tottenham was the start of a difficult beginning in the First Division for the club. Defender Bert Smith became the first player to score for Cardiff in the division in the side's following match with a consolation goal during a 2–1 defeat to Aston Villa. Cardiff met Tottenham in the reverse fixture five days later but, having proven a stubborn opponent for the more experienced side in the first meeting, they were soundly beaten after conceding three goals in the opening 30 minutes of the match. The game finished 4–1 to Tottenham with "The Times" describing victory for the London-based side as "a very easy matter". A 4–0 defeat in the reverse fixture against Aston Villa followed, prompting manager Fred Stewart to make changes to his side ahead of back-to-back fixtures against Oldham Athletic. Blair returned to action having missed the first four matches and goalkeeper Herbert Kneeshaw was dropped in favour of Ben Davies. Billy Hardy, who had been ever present the previous season, was also left out due to injury along with forward George West. The changes yielded little reward as Cardiff lost both fixtures against Oldham, 1–0 at home, 2–1 away, starting the campaign with six consecutive defeats which left them bottom of the table. Cardiff's next fixture was against unbeaten league leaders Middlesbrough in a match that was described as "The most noteworthy example of disparity of strength between contesting clubs". In a surprising turn of form, Cardiff recorded its first victory in the First Division after causing an upset to win 3–1. Jimmy Gill who had been the club's top scorer the previous season scored his first goals of the campaign with a brace and Harry Nash added a third. The victory prompted an upturn in fortune for the team as they lost only one of their five matches in October, a 2–1 defeat to Bolton Wanderers. Gill enjoyed a fine run of form during this time, scoring six goals in the five matches including braces during victories over West Bromwich Albion and Bolton in the reverse fixture. With the club struggling for goals, October also saw the arrival of Joe Clennell from Everton for £1,500. In an attempt to recoup some of the transfer fee, two forwards who had played an integral role in promotion in the 1920–21 season, Arthur Cashmore and Fred Pagnam, were sold having failed to score in a combined 17 appearances. Back-to-back fixtures against Manchester City at the start of November yielded only a point for Cardiff after losing 2–0 at home and drawing 1–1 away. However, two victories against Everton later in the month proved a turning point in the season for Cardiff. The departure of Pagnam allowed Len Davies to make his first appearances of the season, scoring all three of Cardiff's goals in 2–1 and 1–0 victories. The second fixture also saw Hardy and Smith return after injury layoffs. A remarkable run of form ensued with Cardiff losing only one of their following thirteen league matches led by the goals of Davies, Gill and Clennell. Davies also scored the first hat-trick in The Football League by a Cardiff player during a 6–3 victory over Bradford City on 21 January 1922. As well as Bradford, the team's run included wins over Birmingham (twice), Arsenal, Preston North End, Blackburn Rovers and Chelsea. "The Times" described the team during this time as appearing "almost invincible" as their improved form lifted them to sixth in the table. The team's victory over Blackburn during this spell saw an unusual debutant when club trainer George Latham was forced into action. Hours before the game was due to start, Gill and Evans both went down with sickness and only one player, Nash, had travelled in reserve. Latham, who had played professionally previously, stepped in and became the oldest player in the club's history at 41 years old. On 25 February, Cardiff suffered its first defeat since early December, losing 1–0 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge as the opposition defence proved impregnable. The team recovered to beat Sheffield United 2–0 in their following match with goals from Clennell and Ken MacDonald but suffered a further blow after losing 1–0 to struggling Bradford who were 21st in the table. Two matches against reigning First Division champions Burnley produced positive results as the team's drew 1–1 before Cardiff won the reverse fixture 4–2 at Ninian Park. Len Davies scored a brace with Gill and Jack Evans scoring one each. Cardiff repeated the pattern in its following two matches against Newcastle United, drawing away before Len Davies scored the only goal in a home victory. Despite taking the lead early in the match, Cardiff suffered a 5–1 defeat to league leaders Liverpool on 15 April. Two days later, they lost heavily again in a 3–1 defeat to Blackburn. They met Liverpool in the reverse fixture on 22 April, with their opponents already having secured the First Division title, winning 2–0. Cardiff finished the season with consecutive draws against Sheffield United and Manchester United before beating the then relegated Manchester again in the final game. The side finished its inaugural season in the First Division in fourth place. Cup matches. FA Cup. Cardiff entered the competition in the first round, being drawn against fellow First Division side Manchester United. Cardiff won the match 4–1, following a brace from Len Davies and one each from Nash and Clennell, and were praised for a "very brilliant performance". In the second round, the team was drawn against Third Division side Southampton who they had defeated in the third round the previous year. The lower ranked side held Cardiff to a 1–1 draw at The Dell but goals from Gill and Clennell in the replay sent Cardiff through in a 2–0 victory. The side met Second Division leaders Nottingham Forest in the third round. Len Davies scored his second brace in the competition to lead the side to a 4–1 victory in front of over 50,000 spectators at Ninian Park. Their victory led to a fourth round meeting with cup holders Tottenham Hotspur. The match was hotly anticipated, being described by "The Times" as "the greatest of the day". Over 50,000 fans again attended Ninian Park for the tie and despite Cardiff having the better of the first half, Tottenham took the lead through Jimmy Seed after the forward dribbled through the defence to finish past Ben Davies with a powerful shot. Cardiff pressed for the remainder of the match with Billy Grimshaw, Gill and Clennell all going close. As the match entered the final minute, Len Davies was able to turn the ball into the net to salvage a replay for Cardiff. The replay was held at Tottenham's ground White Hart Lane and such was the demand for tickets, match officials agreed for spectators to be allowed to sit or kneel to the very edge of the pitch. Tottenham enjoyed the brighter start to the match but Cardiff took the lead when Jack Evans beat his man on the wing and crossed for Gill to convert. In the second half, Tottenham continued to attack and were rewarded with an equaliser when Jimmy Dimmock headed in from a corner. Tottenham went on to score a second when Ben Davies failed to clear a cross and the ball fell to Charlie Wilson who scored the winning goal. The goal was controversial as Cardiff players complained that goalkeeper Davies had been taken out as he attempted to deal with the cross but the referee ignored their complaints and the goal stood. Tottenham advanced to the semifinal where they lost 2–1 to Preston North End. Welsh Cup. Cardiff entered the Welsh Cup in the third round, being drawn against Newport County. Cardiff's side ultimately proved far too strong for Newport as the match ended 7–0 with Len Davies scoring four, Grimshaw two and Keenor one. The side continued their free-scoring form in the following round where they defeated Merthyr Town with Len Davies scoring a hat-trick during a 5–0 win. In the semifinal, they were drawn against Pontypridd who had eliminated them from the competition the previous year. Keenor, Gill and Jack Evans each scored once to secure a 3–0 victory and send Cardiff through to the final. Ton Pentre were their opponents as Cardiff secured their third Welsh Cup title after winning 2–0 at Taff Vale Park. Gill and Len Davies each scored once, Davies' goal was his eighth in the competition. Player details. Billy Grimshaw made the most appearances of any Cardiff player during the season, featuring in 47 matches in all competitions. He also made the most league appearances with 38. Jack Evans was the next highest with 44 appearances and a further five players made 40 or more appearances. Goalkeeper Tom Farquharson made a single appearance in the final match of the season. He would go on to set a club record for appearances in The Football League with 445 that stood until 1985 when it was surpassed by Phil Dwyer. Farquharson was one of six players who featured in just one match for the club during the campaign. The others included Albert Barnett, who was recovering from a broken leg suffered the previous season, and George Latham, the club's trainer who played one match during an injury crisis. At the age of 41, Latham remains the oldest player ever to feature in a competitive fixture for Cardiff. Two of the players, Ernie Anderson and James Melville, never played another match for Cardiff before moving on. Len Davies was the club's top goalscorer with 30 goals in all competitions. Although he scored three less than Jimmy Gill in league competition, his prolific scoring in cup competitions saw him outscore his teammate. Davies and Gill were two of the three players to score ten or more goals for Cardiff during the season, the third being Joe Clennell. Eleven players scored at least one goal during the course of the season and one opposition player scored an own goal. Player statistics. FW = Forward, HB = Halfback, GK = Goalkeeper, DF = Defender Sources: Aftermath. Brown and Willie Page, the two signings made at the start of the 1921–22 campaign, would both depart after a single season with only Brown having played for the first-team. Such was Stewart's confidence in his side that the club made no major signings prior to the start of the following season and only a poor run of form toward the end of 1922 prompted the arrival of a small number of players. As a result of the team's performance, they were regarded as an established side for the 1922–23 season with "The Times" describing the side as possessing "undeniable all-round ability" in its preseason report. References. Specific Bibliography

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=60916665

A pulse watch, also known as a pulsometer or pulsograph, is an individual monitoring and measuring device with the ability to measure heart or pulse rate. Detection can occur in real time or can be saved and stored for later review. The pulse watch measures electrocardiography (ECG or EKG) data while the user is performing tasks, whether it be simple daily tasks or intense physical activity. The pulse watch functions without the use of wires and multiple sensors. This makes it useful in health and medical settings where wires and sensors may be an inconvenience. Use of the device is also common in sport and exercise environments where individuals are required to measure and monitor their biometric data. History. In the 17th century, physicians would diagnose diseases by observing external features like breathing patterns, feeling pulse and indications of pain and fevers. The pulse watch was first made commercially available in 1701 by Sir John Floyer, who was an English physician. Floyer wanted to develop a watch to measure the accurate pulse rates of his patients. Floyer created a watch that counted a user's heart beat for sixty seconds, it created an easier way to count and measure the heart rate of patients. Floyers' designs were physically made by Samuel Watson, who was involved in horology in the late seventeenth century. From this point onwards, physicians started to make medical observations based on the number of heart beats in a minute (bpm). The functions and mechanisms of the pulse watch were updated and redeveloped by many professionals throughout history. The use of pulse detecting devices have been implemented consistently by medical schools and facilities, as a form of medical technology, to accurately time the pulse and respiration of patients. Since its commercial availability in 1707, the pulse watch gained the interest of many medical professionals. In the early 1920s, manufacturers from Switzerland incorporated scales, to improve the speed, accuracy and reliability of the device measuring a patients pulse. Today, there is greater interest in smartwatch wearable devices due to their ability to perform many other biometric and technological functions aside from measuring pulse. Despite this, brands like Longines, Blancpain, Montblanc, and Vacheron Constantin still produce traditional pulse watches. Functions and mechanisms. A typical pulse watch device will use photoplethysmography (PPG), this methodology uses light and optical detectors to measure heart rate. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) and photodiodes, which are sensitive to light, measuring changes in light absorption in the body. The four main technical mechanisms of pulse watches, used to measure heart rate include: 1. Optical emitters - LEDs send coloured light waves into the skin. Due to the differences in users skin colour and thickness most modern pulse watches will include multiple light waves of different lengths to interact with different skin tones and thickness. 2. Processors - the processor of the pulse watch device will capture the light that is refracted from the user's device and will translate that into a binary code. This code is then transformed into meaningful pulse rate data. 3. Accelerometer - an accelerometer can measure any motion that is used in combination with the other mentioned components, providing motion and location sensing heart rate data via an algorithm 4. Algorithms - an algorithm is formed from the processor and the accelerometer into biometric data. Data such as blood pressure and calorie intake can also be provided to the user. The device will measure the amount of blood that is flowing through the wrist at any chosen point in time by the user. Due to blood being red in colour, red light will be reflected by the body, and green light will be absorbed. A processor then transforms this light information into biometric data to be analysed by the user. Accuracy. There have been concerns by users of the device measuring their heart rate at a consistent and continuous level, especially when in excessively motion. Many studies have assessed the accuracy levels of these wearable devices to measure and monitor heart rate and have found these devices to provide valid results to users. In one study 50 volunteers aged 18–32, continuously walked and ran on a treadmill for 30 minutes. Each participant manually checked their heart rate at each minute of the study. Results from the study show the pulse watch, reported some errors but still had a 95% accuracy level according to the study's analytical criteria. In another study, 25 participants engaged in different forms of physical activity; from standing to running. The study shows that the pulse watch device accurately detected the heart rate of users while standing, walking and jogging but produced some failures when the body was excessive motion during the running activities. Types of monitoring devices. Wearable technologies that monitor heart rate has interested users for a very long time. In addition to the pulse watch which monitors heart rate from pulse detection at the wrist. There are also devices which use similar technologies to monitor heart rate from the ear, forearm and chest, using a chest strap. All of which still use similar mechanisms to provide unobstructed biometric data for individuals. One study compared the use of a pulse watch device and a forearm device in detecting heart rate during physical activity. The results showed that the pulse watch device detected pulse with less failures during activities like walking and running. In more rigorous activities like cycling, the forearm device provided more accurate heart rate information. The study concludes that the accuracy of the monitoring device, may be affected by its placement and proximity to the parts of the body engaged in the most physical activity. Current and future uses. Current uses. Pulse watches are utilised on a daily basis by a wide range of people, this is due to the vast availability and accessibility to the device. Pulse watch devices are used in the medical industry where a transcript of user's heart rate data over a period of time can be stored and automatically sent to the user's physician. This is also the case where calorie intake and physical activity levels of users can be stored and sent to their physicians for the purpose of weight management. Wearable devices which use pulse watch mechanisms are also used in the management of patient health. The ability of these devices to efficiently monitor and store health data, provides a solution for patients who require ongoing self-management to monitor the progression of the illness. One study created a data recording system for participants with type-1 diabetes, using these wearable devices. Participants used the device to track their daily intake of carbohydrates, their insulin and blood glucose levels and their amount of physical activity. The results of the study found that the use of these wearable wrist devices provided a simple way for patients to monitor the requirements of their health challenges. Pulse watches are also heavily used in the sport and exercise industry. Coaches and health professionals may want to monitor and analyse an athlete's physical activities. A clinical review found that the use of wearable devices in athlete monitoring, has a significant impact on the improvement of performance. Wearable devices that produce biometric data like heart rate, motion and positioning, body temperature and sleep, allow for real-time information to be collated and analysed by professionals. This may allow patterns between individual behaviours and performance to be made, allowing for the creation of personalised training programs for athletes. The use of these wearable devices can also detect potential causes of injury such as, a lack of sleep from an athlete, leading to fatigue during training. In popular culture. Brand names like Apple, Fitbit and Garmin have incorporated the use of pulse watch devices into their product line. Celebrities and other influential people in the media, will often be seen wearing a pulse watch device, marketing the devices to users. Much of the appeal of wearable devices like pulse watches, comes from brands creating a social dimension associated with the device. The addition of interactive applications on these devices, maintains the engagement levels of users allowing the device to be used more frequently by the user. After decades of technological advancements and improvements, it is expected that one in ten US adults now own a smartwatch. The wearable device industry is also expected to grow in sales by 20% over the next 5 years. Future uses. The mechanisms and uses of the pulse watch are constantly being upgraded as our understanding of technology increases. Some future applications include; utilising the current pulse watch mechanisms, but applying them to wireless foot skates and skate boards to allow for biometrics like speed traveled and heart rate to be monitored through users, without any physical contact. As well as, upgrading some of the mechanisms in the pulse watch to not just detect pulse but to detect abnormal symptoms in users, that may signal medical abnormalities. Wearable devices that use the pulse watch detection mechanisms are being considered as a tool that can be used for occupational risk assessment. There is a potential for the existing technical mechanisms in this devices, like motion detection, to be further developed. The development of these mechanisms may allow for wearable devices to be able to detect workplace falls, exposure to noise, temperature changes, light and vibrations, the exposure to certain chemical agents and detection of hazards using sensors. The use of wearable devices in the workplace may provide a functional way to make work spaces safer. Evaluation. The original design of the pulse watch has undergone major development since 1707. With modern advancements in technology, the pulse watch which could once only read a users' pulse rate has progressed into a smart device capable of much more. The advancements of these devices have allowed for specific health related behaviours to be counteracted with the use of these technologies. Smokewatch, a smartwatch company is designing a watch used to aid in the process of smoking cessation. The designed watch has the capability to detect when users smoke and monitor the reoccurrence of smoking at specific points in time. It can then notify the user on information like the amounts being spent on cigarettes. The watch can also tabulate this information and store it for desired lengths of time. Some devices allow for personal health data may be sent to health practitioners, of the users choice, in order to monitor their progression of health. The security and privacy levels of some of these wearable devices are being considered by some users as they have the ability to hold and distribute sensitive health information. One study analysed the security and privacy levels of wearable devices. The study found that there were specific aspects where users of wearable devices may be vulnerable to privacy breaches; this includes the storage and transmission of unencrypted data, a lack of physical security controls and a lack of authentication and authorisation by the user. There is a need to develop strong authentication mechanisms in wearable technologies so prevent losses of security and confidentiality in users.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27372

The economy of South Africa is the second largest in Africa. However, it is the most industrialized, technologically advanced, and diversified economy on the African continent. South Africa is an upper-middle-income economy, one of only eight such countries in Africa. Since 1996, at the end of over twelve years of international sanctions, South Africa's Gross Domestic Product almost tripled to peak at $400 billion in 2011, but has since declined to roughly $283 billion in 2020. In the same period, foreign exchange reserves increased from $3 billion to nearly $50 billion, creating a diversified economy with a growing and sizable middle class, within two decades of ending apartheid. South African state owned enterprises play a significant role in the country's economy, with the government owning a share in around 700 SOEs involved in a wide array of important industries. In 2016 the top five challenges to doing business in the country were inefficient government bureaucracy, restrictive labour regulations, a shortage of skilled workers for some high tech industries, political instability, and corruption, whilst the country's banking sector was rated as a strongly positive feature of the economy. The nation is among the G20, and is the only African member of the group. Overview. The formal economy of South Africa has its beginnings in the arrival of Dutch settlers in 1652, originally sent by the Dutch East India Company to establish a provisioning station for passing ships. As the colony increased in size, with the arrival of French Huguenots and German colonists, some of the colonists were set free to pursue commercial farming, leading to the dominance of agriculture in the economy. At the end of the 18th century, the British annexed the colony. This led to the Great Trek, spreading farming deeper into the mainland, as well as the establishment of the independent Boer Republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. In 1870 diamonds were discovered in Kimberley, while in 1886 some of the world's largest gold deposits were discovered in the Witwatersrand region of Transvaal, quickly transforming the economy into a resource-dominated one. The British annexed the area as a result of the Boer War which witnessed the placement of Boer women and children in British-built concentration camps. The country also entered a period of industrialization during this time, including the organization of the first South African trade unions. The country soon started putting laws distinguishing between different races in place. In 1948 the National Party won the national elections, and immediately started implementing an even stricter race-based policy named Apartheid, effectively dividing the economy into a privileged white one, and an impoverished black one. The policy was widely criticised and led to crippling sanctions being placed against the country in the 1980s. South Africa held its first non-racial elections in 1994, leaving the newly elected African National Congress (ANC) government the daunting task of trying to restore order to an economy harmed by sanctions, while also integrating the previously disadvantaged segment of the population into it. The government refrained from resorting to economic populism. Inflation was brought down, public finances were stabilised, and some foreign capital was attracted. However, growth was still subpar. At the start of 2000, then President Thabo Mbeki vowed to promote economic growth and foreign investment by relaxing restrictive labour laws, stepping up the pace of privatisation, raising governmental spending and cutting interest rates sharply from 1998 levels. His policies faced strong opposition from organised labour. From 2004 onward economic growth picked up significantly; both employment and capital formation increased. In April 2009, amid fears that South Africa would soon join much of the rest of the world in the late-2000s recession, Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni and Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel differed on the matter: whereas Manuel foresaw a quarter of economic growth, Mboweni predicted further decline: "technically," he said, "that's a recession." In 2009 the Nobel-Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz warned South Africa that inflation targeting should be a secondary concern amid the global financial crisis of 2007–2009. South Africa, unlike other emerging markets, has struggled through the late 2000s recession, and the recovery has been largely led by private and public consumption growth, while export volumes and private investment have yet to fully recover. The long-term potential growth rate of South Africa under the current policy environment has been estimated at 3.5%. Per capita GDP growth has proved mediocre, though improving, growing by 1.6% a year from 1994 to 2009, and by 2.2% over the 2000–09 decade, compared to world growth of 3.1% over the same period. The high levels of unemployment, at over 25%, and inequality are considered by the government and most South Africans to be the most salient economic problems facing the country. These issues, and others linked to them such as crime, have in turn hurt investment and growth, consequently having a negative feedback effect on employment. Crime is considered a major or very severe constraint on investment by 30% of enterprises in South Africa, putting crime among the four most frequently mentioned constraints. In April 2017, political tensions in the country arose over the sacking of nine cabinet members including Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan by the president Jacob Zuma. The finance minister was seen as central to efforts to restore confidence in South Africa. As a result of the tensions, S&P Global cut South Africa's credit rating to junk status on Monday 3 April 2017. Fitch Ratings followed suit on Friday 7 April 2017 and cut the country's credit status to the sub-investment grade of BBB-. The South African rand lost more than 11% in the week following the cabinet reshuffling. Historical statistics 1980-2017. The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017. Inflation under 5% is in green. This is a chart of the trend of South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) at market prices estimated by the International Monetary Fund: Sectors. South Africa has a comparative advantage in the production of agriculture, mining and manufacturing products relating to these sectors. South Africa has shifted from a primary and secondary economy in the mid-twentieth century to an economy driven primarily by the tertiary sector in the present day which accounts for an estimated 65% of GDP or $230 billion in nominal GDP terms. The country's economy is reasonably diversified with key economic sectors including mining, agriculture and fisheries, vehicle manufacturing and assembly, food processing, clothing and textiles, telecommunication, energy, financial and business services, real estate, tourism, manufacturing, IT, transportation, and wholesale and retail trade. Natural resources. In 2019, the country was the world's largest producer of platinum; the world's largest producer of chromium; the world's largest producer of manganese; the 2nd largest world producer of titanium; the world's 11th largest producer of gold; the 3rd worldwide producer of vanadium; the 6th largest world producer of iron ore; the 11th largest world producer of cobalt; and the 15th largest world producer of phosphate. It was the world's 12th largest producer of uranium in 2018. Mining has been the main driving force behind the history and development of Africa's most advanced economy. Large-scale and profitable mining started with the discovery of a diamond on the banks of the Orange River in 1867 by Erasmus Jacobs and the subsequent discovery and exploitation of the Kimberley pipes a few years later. Gold rushes to Pilgrim's Rest and Barberton were precursors to the biggest discovery of all, the Main Reef/Main Reef Leader on Gerhardus Oosthuizen's farm Langlaagte, Portion C, in 1886, the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the subsequent rapid development of the goldfield there, the biggest of them all. South Africa is one of the world's leading mining and mineral-processing countries. Though mining's contribution to the national GDP has fallen from 21% in 1970 to 6% in 2011, it still represents almost 60% of exports. The mining sector accounts for up to 9% of value added. In 2008, South Africa's estimated share of world platinum production amounted to 77%; kyanite and other materials, 55%; chromium, 45%; palladium, 39%; vermiculite, 39%; vanadium, 38%; zirconium, 30%; manganese, 21%; rutile, 20%; ilmenite, 19%; gold, 11%; fluorspar, 6%; aluminium, 2%; antimony, 2%; iron ore, 2%; nickel, 2%; and phosphate rock, 1%. South Africa also accounted for nearly 5% of the world's polished diamond production by value. The country's estimated share of world reserves of platinum group metals amounted to 89%; hafnium, 46%; zirconium, 27%; vanadium, 23%; manganese, 19%; rutile, 18%; fluorspar, 18%; gold, 13%; phosphate rock, 10%; ilmenite, 9%; and nickel, 5%. It is also the world's third largest coal exporter. The mining sector has a mix of privately owned and state-controlled mines, the latter including African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation. Agriculture and food processing. In 2018, South Africa produced 19.3 million tonnes of sugarcane (14th largest producer in the world), 12.5 million tonnes of maize (12th largest producer in the world) 1.9 million tons of grape (11th largest producer in the world), 1.7 million tons of orange (11th largest producer in the world) and 397 thousand tons of pear (7th largest producer in the world). In addition, in the same year, it produced 2.4 million tons of potato, 1.8 million tons of wheat, 1.5 million tons of soy, 862 thousand tons of sunflower seed, 829 thousand tons of apple, 726 thousand tons of onion, 537 thousand tons of tomato, 474 thousand tons of lemon, 445 thousand tons of grapefruit, 444 thousand tons of banana, 421 thousand tons of barley, in addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products, such as avocado, pineapple, peach, tangerine, pumpkin, cabbage, carrot, rapeseed, sorghum etc. The agricultural industry contributes around 5% of formal employment, relatively low compared to other parts of Africa, as well as providing work for casual labourers and contributing around 2.8% of GDP for the nation. However, due to the aridity of the land, only 13.5% can be used for crop production, and only 3% is considered high potential land. The sector continues to face problems, with increased foreign competition and crime being two of the major challenges for the industry. The government has been accused of either putting in too much effort, or not enough effort, to tackle the problem of farm attacks as opposed to other forms of violent crime. Maize production, which contributes to a 36% majority of the gross value of South Africa's field crops, has also experienced negative effects due to climate change. The estimated value of loss, which takes into consideration scenarios with and without the carbon dioxide fertilisation effect, ranges between tens and hundreds of millions of Rands. According to FAOSTAT, South Africa is one of world's largest producers of: chicory roots (4th); grapefruit (4th); cereals (5th); green maize and maize (7th); castor oil seed (9th); pears (9th); sisal (10th); fibre crops (10th). In the first quarter of 2010, the agricultural sector earned export revenues for R10.1 billion and used R8.4 billion to pay for imported agricultural products, therefore earning a positive trade balance of R1.7 billion. The most important agricultural exports of South Africa include: edible fruit and nuts, beverages, preserved food, tobacco, cereals, wool not carded or combed, miscellaneous food, sugar, meat, milling products, malt and starch. These products accounted for over 80% of agricultural export revenue in the first quarter of 2010. The most important agricultural imports, which accounted for over 60% of agricultural import value during the same period, include: cereals, meat, soya-bean oil cake, beverages, soya-bean oil and its fractions, tobacco, palm oil and its fractions, miscellaneous food, spices, coffee, tea, and preserved food. The dairy industry consists of around 4,300 milk producers providing employment for 60,000 farm workers and contributing to the livelihoods of around 40,000 others. The food sub-sector is the largest employer within the agro-processing sector – contributing 1.4% to total employment, and 11.5% within the manufacturing sector. In 2006, the agro-processing sector represented 24.7% of the total manufacturing output. Although the economy as a whole gained 975,941 jobs between 1995 and 2006, the agro-processing sector lost 45,977 jobs. The competitive pressures from abroad, particularly from China and India, played a role in the decline of exports for the food, textiles and paper sub-sectors, as firms in these sectors increasingly compete with lower cost producers. Increased exports from the beverages, tobacco, wood and leather sub-sectors over the period are probably due to the presence of large dominant firms within these sectors in South Africa, that have managed to remain competitive. Manufacturing. The manufacturing industry's contribution to the economy is relatively small, providing just 13.3% of jobs and 15% of GDP. There are growing sectors of manufacturing, however, such as in the Space industry. Labour costs are low, but not nearly as low as in most other emerging markets, and the cost of the transport, communications and general living is much higher. The South African automotive industry accounts for about 10% of South Africa's manufacturing exports, contributes 7.5% to the country's GDP and employs around 36,000 people. Annual production in 2007 was 535,000 vehicles, out of a global production of 73 million units in the same year. Vehicle exports were in the region of 170,000 units in 2007, exported mainly to Japan (about 29% of the value of total exports), Australia (20%), the UK (12%) and the US (11%). South Africa also exported ZAR 30.3 billion worth of auto components in 2006. BMW, Ford, Volkswagen, Daimler-Chrysler, General Motors, Nissan and Toyota all have production plants in South Africa. Large component manufacturers with bases in the country are Arvin Exhaust, Bloxwitch, Corning and Senior Flexonics. There are also about 200 automotive component manufacturers in South Africa, and more than 150 others that supply the industry on a non-exclusive basis. The industry is concentrated in two provinces, the Eastern Cape and Gauteng. Companies producing in South Africa can take advantage of the low production costs and the access to new markets as a result of trade agreements with the European Union and the Southern African Development Community. After a steep decline of 10.4% in 2009, the manufacturing sector performed well in 2010, growing by 5%, though this rebound was primarily limited to the automotive, basic chemicals, iron and steel and food and beverages industries. The performance of this sector remains curtailed by the low demand in South Africa's main export markets in the developed world. There is growth in some areas, such as the Space industry in South Africa, which is expected to see an increase in Space industry jobs, and jobs in supporting technology and manufacturing sectors. Service industry. Telecommunications. The domestic telecommunications infrastructure provides modern and efficient service to urban and rural areas. This includes cellular and internet services from 5G to Gigabit Broadband. In 1997, Telkom, the South African telecommunications parastatal, was partly privatised and entered into a strategic equity partnership with a consortium of SBC (AT&T), in exchange for a monopoly to provide certain services for 5 years. Telkom assumed an obligation to facilitate network modernisation and expansion into the unserved areas. A Second Network Operator, Neotel was to be licensed to compete with Telkom across its spectrum of services in 2002. Licensing officially began in late 2005. Five mobile-phone companies provide service to over 50 million subscribers, with South Africa considered to have the 4th most advanced mobile telecommunications network worldwide. The five major cellular providers are Vodacom, MTN, Cell C(Vodacom), Telkom Mobile(8.ta) and Rain, with Neotel owned by Liquid Telecoms not offering mobile service anymore. South African companies which provide services related to the Space industry, also increasing, and with the correct government legislation and support, this sector is expected to grow in South Africa. Business process outsourcing. Over the last few decades, South Africa and particularly the Cape Town region has established itself as a successful call centre and business process outsourcing destination. With a highly talented pool of productive labour and with Cape Town sharing cultural affinity with Britain, large overseas firms such as Lufthansa, Amazon.com, ASDA, The Carphone Warehouse, Delta Airlines and many more have established inbound call centres within Cape Town as a means of utilising Cape Town's low labour costs and talented labour force. Tourism. South Africa is a popular tourist destination, with around 860,000 arrivals per month (March 2008) of which around 210,000 is from outside the African continent. In 2012 South Africa received 9.2 million international arrivals. In August 2017 3.5 million travellers came to South Africa. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, travel and tourism directly contributed ZAR102 billion to South African GDP in 2012 and supports 10.3% of jobs in the country. Among the main attractions are the diverse and picturesque landscape, the game reserves and the highly regarded local wines. The country's borders were reopened on 1 October 2020, with some exceptions to tourists travelling from specific European countries and the US, due to high levels of COVID-19 activity taking place there. Financial services. South Africa has a sophisticated financial structure, with the JSE Limited, the largest stock exchange on the African continent, ranking 17th in the world in terms of total market capitalisation, which is $1,005 Trillion as of August 2020.<ref name="USD/ZAR Exchange Rate at Market Open (2020-08-28)"></ref> The banking industry, overseen by the South African Reserve Bank, is dominated by four local players: Nedbank, ABSA, Standard Bank and First Rand. These banks provide both retail and investment banking services as the sector has become highly competitive with the re-entry of many experienced foreign banks, which returned to the market in the mid-1990s, having left in the late 1980s. Banks operating in South Africa, when left short of liquidity, need to borrow from the SARB at a fluctuating repo rate, which, in turn, allows the central bank to monitor liquidity positions. Informal sector. South Africa's informal sector contributes 8% of the country's GDP and supports 27% of all working people. The South African Local Economic Development Network values the informal economy at 28% of SA's GDP. Given the relevance of this input, there is a constant interest in developing actions on an inclusive urban planning for the working poor. Trade and investment. Principal international trading partners of South Africa—besides other African countries—include Germany, the United States, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh and Spain. Chief exports include corn, diamonds, fruits, gold, metals and minerals, sugar, and wool. Machinery and transportation equipment make up more than one-third of the value of the country's imports. Other imports include chemicals, manufactured goods, and petroleum. As a result of a November 1993 bilateral agreement, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) can assist US investors in the South African market with services such as political risk insurance and loans and loan guarantees. In July 1996, the US and South Africa signed an investment fund protocol for a $120 million OPIC fund to make equity investments in South and Southern Africa. OPIC is establishing an additional fund – the Sub-Saharan Africa Infrastructure Fund, capitalised at $350 million – to investment in infrastructure projects. The Trade and Development Agency also has been actively involved in funding feasibility studies and identifying investment opportunities in South Africa for U.S. businesses. Despite the numerous positive economic achievements since 1994, South Africa has struggled to attract significant foreign direct investment. The situation may have started to change however, with 2005 seeing the largest single FDI into South Africa when Barclays bought a majority share in local bank Absa Group Limited. Deals between the British-based Vodafone and South Africa's Vodacom have taken place in 2006. In 2010, two multibillion-dollar deals, one by HSBC to acquire Nedbank and one by Walmart to acquire Massmart Holdings, fell through. (Walmart did buy Massmart in 2011) Land reform and property rights. Nationalisation of mines debate. South Africa has been riven by arguments over whether the state should take over mineral resources. A study commissioned by the African National Congress recommended against the policy, saying nationalisation would be an "economic disaster." However, the ANC Youth Employment supporters disagree and state that it will give the government direct control over the mining sector which is also in alignment with the Freedom Charter signed in 1995. Land redistribution. The government aimed to transfer 30% of the 82 million hectares estimated to be in the hands of white farmers by Gugile Nkwinti, Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, amounting to 24.5 million hectares, to black farmers by 2014. 6.7 million hectares had been transferred by early 2012 via redistribution and restitution. The land reform program has been criticised both by farmers' groups and by landless workers, the latter alleging that the pace of change has not been fast enough, and the former alleging anti white racist treatment with threats of genocide, voiced openly on multiple occasions by the ANC, including the former president Zuma, and expressing concerns that a similar situation to Zimbabwe's land reform policy may develop, a fear exacerbated by comments made by former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Labour market. South Africa has an extreme and persistent high unemployment rate of over 30%, which interacts with other socioeconomic problems such as: inadequate education, poor health and high levels of crime. The poorest have limited access to economic opportunities and basic services. According to a 2013 Goldman Sachs report, that number increases to 35% when including people who have given up looking for work. A quarter of South Africans live on less than US$1.25 a day. South Africa's mass unemployment dates back to the 1970s, and continued to rise throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Unemployment has increased substantially since the African National Congress came to power in 1994, increasing from 15.6% in 1995 to 30.3% in 2001. In the second quarter of 2010, the jobless rate increased to 25.3%, and the number of people with work fell by 61,000 to 12,700,000. The biggest decline in employment was recorded in the manufacturing industry, which lost 53,000 jobs. Agriculture lost 32,000 jobs, employment in the construction industry fell by 15,000. In the third quarter of 2010, 29.80% of Blacks were recorded as unemployed, compared with 22.30% of Coloureds, 8.60 of Asians and 5.10% of Whites. The official unemployment rate, though very high by international standards, understates its magnitude because it includes only adults who are actively looking for work. Therefore, excluding those who have given up looking for employment. Only 41% of the population of working age have any kind of job (formal or informal). This rate is 30% points lower than that of China, and about 25% lower than that of Brazil or Indonesia. The relatively generous social grants reduces the political cost of unemployment. There is some evidence that households view paid employment and social grants as substitutes at the margin: households that lose a pension-eligible member subsequently report increased labour force participation. The unemployment problem is characterised by its lengthy duration. In the mid-1990s, nearly two-thirds of unemployed people had never worked for a salary. The 2005 Labour Force Survey found that 40% of unemployed individuals have been unemployed for more than three years, while 59% had never had a job at all. The unemployment rate has fuelled crime, inequality and social unrest. The global economic downturn made the problem worse, wiping out more than one million jobs. In September 2010, over one-third of South Africa's workforce were out of work, and so were more than half of Blacks aged 15–34, three times the level than Whites. Some experts contend that higher wages negotiated by politically powerful trade unions have suppressed job growth. According to a study by Dani Rodrik, the shrinkage of the non-mineral tradable sector since the early-1990s and the weakness of the export-oriented manufacturing were more to blame for the low level of employment. Knowledge. There has been a large degree of human capital flight from South Africa in recent years. South Africa's Bureau of Statistics estimates that between 1 million and 1.6 million people in skilled, professional, and managerial occupations have emigrated overseas between 1994 and 2004 and that, for every emigrant, 10 unskilled people lose their jobs. There are a range of causes cited for the migration of skilled South Africans. In mid-1998, the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) undertook a study to examine and assess the range of factors that contribute to skilled South Africans’ desire to leave the country: over two-thirds of the sample said that they had given the idea of emigration some thought while 38% said they had given it a "great deal of thought". Among the reasons cited for wishing to leave the country was the declining quality of life and high levels of crime. Furthermore, the government's affirmative action policy was identified as another factor influencing the emigration of skilled White South Africans. The results of the survey indicate that skilled Whites are strongly opposed to this policy and the arguments advanced in support of it, due to the negative impact it has had on South Africa. However, flight of human capital in South Africa should not be attributed solely to regional factors. For example, the demand for skilled labourers in the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia has led to active recruitment programs by those countries in South Africa. These countries accounted for 75% (by volume) of recent skilled emigration with the UK receiving approximately half of annual skilled South African emigration from 1990 to 1996. It has been suggested that the role of domestic socio-political variables may be negligible. The health sector has been hit particularly hard. A widespread skills drain in South Africa and in the developing world in general is generally considered to be a cause for concern. For the medical sector, the loss of returns from investment for all doctors emigrating is $1.41bn for South Africa. The benefit to destination countries is huge: $2.7bn for the United Kingdom alone. In a case of reverse brain drain a net 359,000 high-skilled South Africans have returned to South Africa from foreign work assignments over a five-year period from 2008 to 2013. This was catalysed by the global financial crisis of 2007-8 and perceptions of higher quality of life in South Africa relative to the countries from which they first emigrated to. It is estimated that around 37% of those returning are professionals such as lawyers, doctors, engineers and accountants. Immigration. Refugees from poorer neighbouring countries include many immigrants from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi and others, representing a large portion of the informal sector. With high unemployment levels amongst poorer South Africans, xenophobia is prevalent and many South Africans feel resentful of immigrants who are seen to be depriving the native population of jobs, a feeling which has been given credibility by the fact that many South African employers have employed migrants from other countries for lower pay than South African citizens, especially in the construction, tourism, agriculture and domestic service industries. Illegal immigrants are also heavily involved in informal trading. However, many immigrants to South Africa continue to live in poor conditions, and the South African immigration policy has become increasingly restrictive since 1994. Trade unions. Since 2007 the South African unions representing public sector workers recurrently went on strike, demanding pay rises significantly above inflation, in a practice that some experts argue is suppressing job growth, harming millions of South Africans who are out of a job. In August and September 2010, South African unions organised a crippling four-week national strike involving 1.3 million public sector workers, demanding an 8.6% wage increase. The strike ended after the government had raised its 5.2% wage increase to 7.5%. The deal swelled state spending by about 1%. Protesters sought to block hospitals, and South African media have reported numerous acts of violence against health and education staff who insisted on going to work. Volunteers and army medics were called in to help at hospitals, and some patients were moved to private medical facilities. There is a persistent wage differential between unionised and non-unionised workers in South Africa, suggesting that unions are keeping wages higher for their members, thereby posing additional challenges to the unemployment problem. In July 2014, amidst a national strike by 220,000 metalworkers, General Motors temporarily shut down its vehicle assembly plant, frustrating its plans to build 50,000 cars a year in the country. "The ongoing labour disruptions are harming the South African economy and are affecting the country's image around the globe," the company said in a statement at the time. Black Economic Empowerment. The demise of apartheid in 1994 left a skewed racial economic hierarchy that placed Whites firmly at the top, followed by Indians, Coloureds, and then Blacks. Since then, the African National Congress government has made Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) a policy centre-piece, but by the party's own admission it has failed to improve the lot of the vast majority of Black South Africans and has taken much opportunity from the White minority, who are mainly a skilled minority. As of 2014 roughly ten percent of the Top 100 companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange were directly held by black investors though Black Economic Empowerment schemes. Black Economic Empowerment policies have been credited with creating a class of Black South Africans with a level of wealth on the same order of magnitude as very rich White South Africans. Black Economic Empowerment—its purpose the "economic empowerment of all black people, including women, workers, youth, people with disabilities and people living in rural areas"—requires the Minister of Trade and Industry to develop and publish Codes of Good Practice, aimed at setting guidelines for the process of BEE in the whole economy. A scorecard is used by the Department to measure compliance with the BEE requirements, and is used for public procurement, public-private partnerships, sale of state-owned enterprises, when licenses are applied for, and for any other relevant economic activity. The government's Black Economic Empowerment policies have drawn criticism from the Development Bank of Southern Africa for focusing "almost exclusively on promoting individual ownership by black people (which) does little to address broader economic disparities, though the rich may become more diverse." The System has also been criticised for placing lesser educated people in more important positions in the workplace and their failure to perform to the standards required has had an immense impact on the economy. Another criticism also includes that the system goes against the constitution's preaching of equality by having preference over people, not on merit, but for their skin colour and is considered the opposite of what many people fought for during the Apartheid era. Official affirmative action policies have seen a rise in black economic wealth and an emerging black middle class. An increasing number of black candidates who are supposed to be beneficiaries of affirmative action are dissociating themselves from it, largely because of the perception that the appointments are not based on merit. The policy has also been criticised for having a negative impact on employment levels as it is viewed as being more of an additional burden for employees than as a transformative agent for the unemployed. Particularity in an economy where a major cause of inequality has been a growing disparity of income within the majority black population divided along lines of employment. Gender Equality. South Africans in general, regardless of race, hold what would be considered "traditional" stances on gender roles for men and women. The majority of the workforce is composed of males, while the majority of women do not participate. This viewpoint on males as "breadwinners" is very much in line with traditional African values across the continent. Additionally, females face a problem in terms of earnings, with 77% of women earning the same as their male counterparts. However, more women are becoming part of the agricultural workforce (55%) as of 2012, marking a move towards modernisation for women's participation in the economy. South African legislation is strongly geared to promoting gender equality in the workplace. This is characterised by several comprehensive government programs and organisations that provide resources and services to females, both adult and adolescent. Such initiatives include the Employment Equity Act, No. 55 of 1988 (aimed at promoting women's participation in mainly private sector jobs). UNFPA South Africa is one such promoter of these policies and programs. Internally, the South African government has founded the Commission for Gender Equality. The commissions main focus is on securing adequate education and job training for women who are disenfranchised or otherwise at a disadvantage when attempting to enter the workforce. Not uncommon in Africa, gender equality seems to be a very cogent problem in the South African workforce. According to Bain & Company, around 31% of companies have no form of female leadership, either in management or executive positions. 22% of board directors are women, however, only 7% were designated as "executives", lower than the global average of 12%. Additionally, the eNPE (Employee Net Promoter Score) for women is a net negative (- 4) as compared to men (8), according to a survey conducted of 1000 participants. This indicated a low level of actual economic promotion for women, despite public and international initiative towards the contrary. Infrastructure. Energy. RScheduled rolling blackouts are a part of daily life. Electricity theft is widespread. After years of sub-standard maintenance and the South African government's inability to manage strategic resources, the state-owned power supplier Eskom started experiencing deficiency in capacity in the electrical generating and reticulation infrastructure in 2007. Such lack led to inability to meet the routine demands of industry and consumers, resulting in countrywide rolling blackouts. Initially, the lack of capacity was triggered by a failure at Koeberg nuclear power station, but a general lack of capacity due to increased demand and lack of government planning soon came to light. The supplier and the South African government has been widely criticised for failing to adequately plan for and construct sufficient electrical generating capacity, although ultimately the government has admitted that it was at fault for refusing to approve funding for investment in infrastructure. The margin between national demand and available capacity is still low or negative (particularly in peak hours), and power stations are under strain, such that surges in demand, which are common during winter, or drops in supply, often a result of a lack of coal for power plants, result in another phase of rolling blackouts. The government and Eskom are currently planning new power stations, at cost to the South African consumer. The power utility plans to have 20,000 megawatts of nuclear power in its grid by 2025. Water. Some predictions show surface water supply could decrease by 60% by the year 2070 in parts of the Western Cape. The South African government planned to spend R69 billion on water infrastructure between 2008 and 2015. This involves building new dams and ancillary infrastructure, and repairing existing infrastructure. South Africa has an estimated total water capacity of 38 billion cubic metres, but will need 65 billion by 2025 if the economy is to keep on growing. The massive urban migration has placed further strain on the country's ageing water infrastructure and created a large backlog. Developments and Maintenance. As part of an international attempt to modernize infrastructure, South Africa has faced increasing pressure to invest government funds into its water and electricity sectors. At current, these sectors are underfunded by approximately US$464 billion (This is according to the G20 GI Hub). Income levels. South Africa has extreme differences in incomes and wealth. The good level of economic growth in the post-apartheid period has led to a measurable decline in income poverty, but inequality has increased. The high level of overall income inequality has further accentuated: the country's Gini coefficient increased by four percentage points, from 0.66 to 0.70, between 1993 and 2008, and income has become increasingly concentrated in the top decile. Inequality between urban and rural areas is changing: while rural poverty rates remain substantially higher than those in urban areas, urban poverty rates are rising and rural rates seem to be falling. While between-race inequality is slowly falling, an increase in intra-race inequality is preventing the aggregate measures from declining. Despite that, between-race inequality remains a central issue: real incomes have been rising for all groups, but many blacks in the country still live in poverty. At any poverty line, blacks are very much poorer than coloureds, who are very much poorer than Indians, who are poorer than whites. In 2002, according to one estimate, 62% of Black Africans, 29% of Coloureds, 11% of Asians, and 4% of Whites lived in poverty. The mean per-capita income has risen from R10,741 in 1993 to R24,409 in 2008, but these figures hide large differences in household welfare, both within and across population groups: the average Black income increased from R6,018 in 1993 to R9,718 in 2008; for Coloured households, the increase was from R7,498 to R25,269; for Whites, the increase was from R29,372 to R110,195. While mean income rose about 130% from 1993 to 2008, the median income rose just 15% over the same period, from R4,444 to R5,096, indicating that the increases are being driven by a small number of very large incomes, especially for Whites. In 2000 the average white household was earning six times more than the average black household. In 2004, 29.8% of all households had an income (at constant 2001 prices) of less than R9,600 per annum, while 10.3% of all households enjoyed an annual income (at constant 2001 prices) of more than R153,601 per annum. One study using calculations based on National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) data suggests that 47% of South Africans live below the poverty line: 56% of blacks live in poverty compared to 2% of whites, using an arbitrary income poverty line of R502 per capita. Although, it should also be noted that black South Africans make up the majority of the population at 79.2% while white South Africans make up only 8.9% of the population according to the Statistics South Africa census released in 2011. The United Nations Development Program's Human Development Index (HDI) ranked South Africa 110 out of 169 countries in 2010. The report notes, however, that the region's assessment has improved slowly since 1980. The HDI includes a Human Poverty Index (HPI-1), which ranked South Africa 85 out of 135 countries. The number of South Africans living below the poverty line, identified according to Apartheid-era social categories, was calculated in one study as 56% "black", 27% "coloured", 9% "Indian", and 2% "white". In the past inequality in South Africa was largely defined along race lines, but it has become increasingly defined by inequality within population groups as the gap between rich and poor within each group has increased substantially. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development proposals for addressing income inequality included: encouraging more saving and investment; a liberalisation of product-market regulation; easier access to credit for small businesses; greater co-ordination in wage bargaining; and measures to tackle the high level of youth unemployment. Some proposals have included wage subsidies for people being trained, a minimum wage differentiated by age, and extended periods of probation for young workers. A 2011 study published by the University of Cape Town about the richest 10% found that nearly 40% are black, where this group had once been almost exclusively white. While only 29% of the absolute wealthiest South Africans are black, this jumps to 50% among the "entry-level" rich (defined as earning more than $4,000 per month). Factors that were found to be common among those in the entry-level rich group include being young, entrepreneurial and having some post-secondary education. According to one estimate, 10.4% of South Africans belonged to the "higher middle class" in 2004, defined as having a per capita income of over R40,000 (in 2000 Rand). Taxes and transfers. Taxation. The top rate of personal income tax rate in South Africa is 45%; the corporate tax rate is 28%. Other taxes include a value-added tax and a capital gains tax, with the overall tax burden amounting to 23.4% of total domestic income. Social benefits. South Africa has about three times as many recipients of social benefits as it has income tax-payers, an extremely high ratio by international standards. After 1994 resources have been rapidly reallocated to black households: while approximately 40% of aggregate social spending was directed to whites and 43% to blacks in the mid-1980s, by the late 1990s fully 80% of total social spending was assigned to blacks and less than 10% to whites. At present, blacks contribute some 50% of total government transfers, while receiving roughly 80%. The Unemployment Insurance Fund is financed out of premiums, contributions and benefits depend on earnings, and focuses on insuring workers against the risk of income loss. Social assistance grants. Social assistance grants are non-contributory, income-tested benefits provided by the state to the poor, and are financed out of general tax revenues without any links between contributions and benefits. They are provided in the form of: grants for older persons; disability grants; war veterans grants; care dependency grants; foster child grants; child support grants; grant-in-aid; social relief of distress. The state old age pension, received by over 80% of the elderly, is a non-contributory pension and pays more than twice median per capita Black income, thus representing an important source of income for a third of all Black households in the country. It pays a maximum of R1,780 (as of July 2019) to people who reach pension age without access to private pensions. The child support grant provides R420 per month, per child (as of July 2019) for every child in the household younger than 18, and benefited 9.1 million children by April 2009. The war veterans grant is provided to former soldiers who fought in the Second World War or the Korean War, and pays a maximum amount of R1,800 per month (as of July 2019). Comparison with other emerging markets. According to a December 2010 article by the South African Government Communication and Information System's now-defunct BuaNews news service, South Africa was said to compare well to other emerging markets on affordability and availability of capital, financial market sophistication, business tax rates and infrastructure, but to fare poorly on the cost and availability of labour, education, and the use of technology and innovation. South Africa does have expertise in the Space industry, and students learning more through the South African SEDS. With the correct government support, South Africa can increase the jobs in the manufacturing, testing, and analysis sectors of the growing Space industry. Released in early December 2010 and no longer available online, the survey by Brazil's National Confederation of Industry, “Competitividade Brasil 2010: Comparaçao com Paises Selecionados“, (Competition Brazil: A comparison with selected countries), found South Africa to have the second most sophisticated financial market and the second-lowest effective business tax rate (business taxes as a percentage of company profits), out of 14 surveyed countries. The country was also ranked fourth for ease of accessing capital, fourth for cost of capital, sixth for its transport infrastructure (at the time considered better than that of China, India, Mexico, Brazil and Poland, but behind that of Korea and Chile), and seventh for foreign direct investment as a percentage of GDP: in 2008 it was over 3% of the GDP. Nevertheless, South Africa is falling behind other emerging markets, such as India and China, owing to several factors: the country is relatively small, without the advantage of a huge domestic customer base; it has had for decades an unusually low rate of saving and investment, partly because of low disposable income; an inadequate education system results in an acute shortage of skilled manpower; a strong and volatile currency deters investors and makes its exports less competitive; the infrastructure, though far better than in the rest of Africa, suffers from severe bottlenecks, including scheduled power shortages, and urgently needs upgrading. In 2011, after a year of observer status, South Africa officially joined the BRICS group of now-five emerging-market nations at the summit held in Sanya, Hainan, China.

less important consideration

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22296301

In the United States, road signs are, for the most part, standardized by federal regulations, most notably in the "Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices" (MUTCD) and its companion volume the "Standard Highway Signs" (SHS). There are no plans for adopting the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals standards. The 1971 MUTCD adopted several Vienna Convention-inspired symbol signs with the intent to transition to symbols in lieu of words as "rapidly as possible", but American drivers were baffled by symbol signs. The language about "rapidly" transitioning to symbols quietly disappeared in the 1978 MUTCD. The result was to effectively freeze several measures intended to be temporary until American drivers could learn the relevant symbols' meanings. For example, the "Do Not Enter" word message is not found on the Vienna Convention's equivalent sign. Two symbol signs were eliminated, respectively, in the 2000 and 2003 MUTCDs (thereby requiring use of the previous word message signs): Pavement Ends and Narrow Bridge. Twenty-three states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico use the manual without alterations; 20 states have adopted it in conjunction with a supplemental volume; and seven states have a state version in substantial conformance to the MUTCD. There are localized versions used in large cities such as New York City which use a naming system compatible with the MUTCD and/or state supplement. The MUTCD and SHS establish seven categories of signs for road and highway use, as follows (all signs from national MUTCD, unless noted): Regulatory. Regulatory signs give instructions to motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists. Signs such as Stop, No Parking, No Turns, and Yield are considered regulatory signs. Some have special shapes, such as the octagon for the Stop sign and the crossbuck for railroad crossings. Some signs can be localized, such as No Parking, and some are found only in state and local jurisdictions, as they are based on state or local laws, such as New York City's "Don't Block the Box" signs. These signs are in the R series of signs in the MUTCD and typically in the R series in most state supplements or state MUTCDs. R1 Series: Stop and Yield. The MUTCD's R1 series is for Stop and Yield. As not all situations are covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. The 4-WAY and 3-WAY plaques (R1-3) were deprecated in the 2009 Edition of the MUTCD in favor of the ALL WAY plaque (R1-3P). R2 Series: Speed Limit. The MUTCD's R2 series is for speed limit signs. Some state supplements and state MUTCDs place various speed limit signs in other series. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. Speed limits in the United States are always in miles per hour. Metric speed limit signs in kilometers per hour are authorized but extremely rare, usually seen near the borders with Canada and Mexico, both of which use the metric system. Many states, however, disallow the use of metric signs on state-maintained roads due to MUTCD restrictions, increasing the rarity of such signs. R3 Series: Lane Usage and Turns. The MUTCD's R3 series of signs is for lane usage and turn signs. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. R4 Series: Regulation of Movement. The MUTCD's R4 series of signs is for the regulation of movement signs. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. R5 Series: Exclusionary. The MUTCD's R5 series of signs is for exclusionary signs. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. The most common of these signs is the do not enter sign. R6 Series: One Way and Divided Highway. The MUTCD's R6 series of signs is for one way and divided highway signs. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. The most common of these signs is the One Way sign. R7 Series: Parking. The MUTCD allows for three types of parking signs: permissive, No Parking, and No Standing. However, in most states, there is an additional more restrictive one, No Stopping. These signs are found in the R7 series of signs in the MUTCD. As all situations are not covered, several states and local governments have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. Permissive Parking. These types of signs allow for parking for either an unlimited or varied amount of time. They are often used in conjunction with parking meters and parking permits. They are specified by the MUTCD to be green on white. Local variations occur with additional information and slightly different designs. No Parking. No Parking signs indicate that loading or unloading while temporarily stopped is permitted, but the driver must not leave the vicinity of the vehicle. Some No Parking signs display time restrictions, while others are permanent restrictions. There are also temporary versions of the signs, often of similar design to the permanent ones. These signs are specified by the MUTCD to be red on white, although local variations occur. No Standing. No Standing signs indicate that stopping temporarily to load or unload passengers is allowed, but vehicles cannot be stopped at the location for longer periods of time, even if the driver remains with the vehicle. As with no parking signs, some restrictions displayed on the signs are permanent and some are time based. The signs are also specified by the MUTCD to be red on white, but local variations exist. No Stopping. No Stopping signs indicate that stopping is only allowed in order to obey a traffic sign, signal, traffic agent, police officer, or to avoid conflicts with other vehicles. These are the most restrictive of the parking signs. They are typically red on white. R8 Series: Parking and Emergency Restrictions. The MUTCD's R8 series of signs is for parking restriction and emergency restriction signs. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. R9 Series: Bicycles and Pedestrians. The MUTCD's R9 series of signs is for bicycle and pedestrian signs. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. R10 Series: Traffic Signal. The MUTCD's R10 series of signs is for traffic signal related signs. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. R11 Series: Road Closed. The MUTCD's R11 series of signs is for road closure-related signs. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. R12 Series: Weight Limits. The MUTCD's R12 series of signs is for weight limit-related signs. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. R13 Series: Weigh Stations. The MUTCD's R13 series of signs is for weigh station related signs. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. R14 Series: Truck Routes. The MUTCD's R14 series of signs is for truck route-related signs. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. R15 Series: Rail and Light Rail. The MUTCD's R15 series of signs is for rail- and light rail-related signs. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. R16 Series: Seat Belts and Headlight Use. The MUTCD's R16 series of signs is for seat belt and headlight use-related signs. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. Other Local and State Series. The MUTCD does not cover all situations, so states and local governments have developed their own regulatory signs. In these, the sign categories are assigned series either using the MUTCD style, but higher than 16 (as in Texas), or use a unique series nomenclature system (as in California). Schools. The S series of signs is specially designated by the MUTCD for use around schools. Some states have additional school warning-related signs in the S series, the W series of warning signs, and/or the R series of regulatory signs of the state supplement or state MUTCD. As of 2009 the MUTCD requires school warning signs to have fluorescent yellow-green backgrounds. Warning. Warning signs are found in the W series of the national MUTCD. They highlight existing conditions, such as a curve, school, dead end street, or traffic signal. They can also warn of possible danger such as bumps, bicycles, low flying aircraft, or emergency vehicles. They are either yellow or fluorescent yellow in color and, with a few exceptions, are usually diamond-shaped and sometimes have square or rectangular smaller signs or plaques associated with them. Most W series signs can also be found with orange backgrounds for temporary use in situations such as construction zones. Some of the temporary-use signs are for use only in temporary situations. W1/2 Series: Turns, Curves, Intersections. The MUTCD's W1/2 series of signs is for warning signs relating to curves, turns and intersections. As not all situations are covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. W3 Series: Advance Traffic Control. The MUTCD's W3 series of signs is for warning signs relating to advance traffic controls such as speed limits and signals. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. The MUTCD provides options for graphic and text signs. W4 Series: Lanes and Merges. The MUTCD's W4 series of signs is for warning signs relating to lane merges and added lanes, as well as lane endings. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. W5 Series: Road Width Restrictions. The MUTCD's W5 series of signs is for warning signs relating to road width restrictions. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. The MUTCD provides options for graphic and text signs. W6/7 Series: Divided Highways and Hills. The MUTCD's W6/7 series of signs is for warning signs relating to divided highways, hills, and grades. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. The MUTCD provides options for graphic and text signs. W8 Series: Pavement and Roadway Conditions. The MUTCD's W8 series of signs is for warning signs relating to pavement and roadway conditions. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. W9/10 Series: Lane Transitions and Railroad Crossings. The MUTCD's W9/10 series of signs is for warning signs relating to lane transitions and railroad crossings. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. W11 Series: Advance Warnings and Crossings. The MUTCD's W11 series of signs is for warning signs relating to advance warnings and crossings. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. The MUTCD allows use of a fluorescent yellow-green background color for signs relating to people crossing the road. Emergency Vehicles. The MUTCD only provides for a warning of fire stations in the W11 series. Most states have their own signs for other emergency vehicle types which may enter the road. Children. The MUTCD specifies no children-related signs in the W11 series. Several states, counties, and municipalities have signs for situations as children at play as well as children with various medical conditions. Some of these signs vary from state to state as there is no federal standard. Bicycles. The MUTCD provides several signs in the W11 series warning of bicycles and for indicating bicycle facilities. Several states and localities have their own specific bicycle related signs as well. Vehicles. The MUTCD provides several signs in the W11 series dealing with vehicles. Several states have additional signs for other types of vehicles and situations regarding vehicles not covered by the MUTCD. Pedestrians, Transit, and Aviation. The MUTCD provides several signs in the W11 series dealing with pedestrians, transit, and aviation. Several states have additional signs for other types of vehicles and situations regarding vehicles not covered by the MUTCD. Animals. The MUTCD provides several signs in the W11 series dealing with animals. Several states have additional signs for other types of animals not covered by the MUTCD. Driveways and Entrances. The MUTCD does not provide signs in the W11 series dealing with driveways and entrances. Many states have their own standards for these signs that they place in their own W11 series. W12 Series: Low Clearances. The MUTCD's W12 series of signs is for warning signs relating to low clearances. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. Metric low clearance signs in meters are authorized but extremely rare, usually seen near the borders with Canada and Mexico, both of which use the metric system. Many states, however, disallow the use of metric signs on state-maintained roads due to system restrictions, increasing the rarity of such signs. W13 Series: Advisory Speeds. The MUTCD's W13 series of signs is for warning signs relating to advisory speeds. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. Speed limits in the United States are always in miles per hour. Metric advisory speed signs in kilometers per hour are authorized but extremely rare, usually seen near the borders with Canada and Mexico, both of which use the metric system. Many states, however, disallow the use of metric signs on state-maintained roads due to system restrictions, increasing the rarity of such signs. W14 Series: Dead End Streets and No Passing Zones. The MUTCD's W14 series of signs is for warning signs relating to dead-end streets and no-passing zones. As all situations are not covered, several states and local governments have additional signs for other types of situations not covered by the MUTCD. W15 Series: Playgrounds. The MUTCD's W15 series of signs is for warning signs relating to playgrounds. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. W16 Series: Supplemental Plaques. The MUTCD's W16 series of signs is for supplemental plaques for warning signs. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. W17 Series: Speed Humps. The MUTCD's W17 series of signs is for warnings relating to speed humps. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. W19 Series: End of Controlled Access Highway. The MUTCD's W19 series of signs is for warning signs relating to the end of a controlled access highway. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. W20 Series: Work Zones. The MUTCD's W20 series of signs is for warning signs relating to work zones. These signs are typically orange background ones used for temporary situations. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. W20 Series: Road Ends. The MUTCD Road Closed signs alert drivers that the road is closed; these signs are white. W21 Series: Road Work. The MUTCD's W21 series of signs is for warning signs relating to road work. They typically have orange backgrounds and are used for temporary situations. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD W22 Series: Blasting Zones. The MUTCD's W22 series of signs is for warning signs relating to blasting zones. They typically have orange backgrounds and are used for temporary situations. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. W23 Series: Slow Traffic. The MUTCD's W23 series of signs is for warning signs relating to slow traffic. They typically have orange backgrounds and are used for temporary situations. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. W24 Series: Lane Shifts. The MUTCD's W24 series of signs is for warning signs relating to lane shifts, where traffic is diverted slightly toward the left or right of the roadway, but the route is otherwise unchanged. These signs typically have orange background and are used for temporary situations. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. W25 Series: Oncoming Traffic Has Extended Green. The MUTCD's W25 series of signs is for signs warning that oncoming traffic has an extended green signal at a traffic light. As all situations are not covered, several states have their own standards in addition to the MUTCD. Incident Management. The MUTCD's incident management signs are intended for use by emergency crews at traffic incident management scenes pursuant to the National Incident Management System. The MUTCD gives jurisdictions the option of presenting such temporary signs in a fluorescent pink color. There are no specific guidelines as to which signs can and cannot be used for incident management, but a few examples are listed below. Miscellaneous. The MUTCD does not provide signs dealing with some other road and highway situations. Many states have their own sign standards for these situations. Guide. Guide signs include highway route markers (shields), which are reassurance markers, interchange signs, including advance guide and exit signs, and mile markers. Advance guide and exit signs usually feature control cities or other locations to help direct drivers toward their destinations. The position of the exit number plaque indicates right or left exit (and should indicate center lane exit). Shield markers. Note: State markers are illustrative examples; all states may select their own marker shapes or use the default circle. See Numbered highways in the United States#State highways and other similar systems. Toll Road Signs. Chapter 2F of the MUTCD deals with signs for toll roads. Non-compliant to MUTCD Signs. There are many signs that are non-compliant to MUTCD and/or state MUTCD standards seen in use on public and semi-public roads. Superseded signs. These signs have been superseded, but can still be seen in some places.

limited periods of access

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23634836

The Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act (CAHWCA) is a statute of the Parliament of Canada. The Act implements Canada's obligations under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In passing the "Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act" on 24 June 2000 and having royal assent given on 29 June 2000, Canada became the first country in the world to incorporate the obligations of the Rome Statute into its domestic laws. It replaced earlier 1987 legislation targeting Nazi war criminals passed in the immediate wake of the Deschênes Commission. Content. Like the Rome Statute, the CAHWCA criminalizes genocide, crimes against humanity, and a variety of war crimes. A person in Canada may be prosecuted for these offences even if the acts were committed outside of Canadian territory. However, the Act stipulates that no prosecution for these crimes can be proceeded without the personal consent in writing of the Attorney General or the Deputy Attorney General. In order to fully implement the Rome Statute, the CAHWCA amended the Criminal Code, the "Extradition Act", and the "Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act". Trials. On 19 October 2005, Désiré Munyaneza, a Rwandan immigrant living in Toronto, became the first person arrested and charged with an offence under the CAHWCA. Munyaneza was charged with two counts of genocide, two counts of crimes against humanity, and three counts of war crimes for actions allegedly committed in Rwanda in 1994. On 22 May 2009, Munyaneza was convicted of all charges and is the first person to have been convicted under the CAHWCA. On 29 October 2009, Munyaneza was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. On 7 May 2014, the Quebec Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed his appeal, thereby affirming his conviction. On 18 December 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada denied his motion for leave to appeal, thus definitively cementing the guilty verdict. A second Rwandan, Jacques Mungwarere, was charged with "an act of genocide" under the Act on 7 November 2009. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police alleges that he committed this act in the western Rwandan city of Kibuye, and that his case is connected to that of Munyaneza.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=22734983

Bus transport in Cardiff, the capital and most populous city in Wales, forms the major part of the city's public transport network, which also includes water, air travel and an urban rail network. Cardiff is a major city of the United Kingdom and a centre of employment, retail, business, government, culture, media, sport and higher education. Most of the city's comprehensive bus network is operated by Cardiff Bus, owned by Cardiff County Council. The main hub and terminus of the network was Cardiff Central bus station, also known as "Central station" which closed for redevelopment of the site in the autumn of 2015. Other operators such as Stagecoach South Wales and Newport Bus link the city with other urban areas in South Wales. TrawsCymru operates a long distance route to Aberystwyth, Cardiff Airport and West Wales, whereas National Express, Megabus and Snap operate long distance coaches to towns and cities throughout Wales, Scotland and England. History. Trams. Horse buses had run in the city from 1845 until 1909 and horse trams from 1872 until 1904. The first tram route ran from High Street in the city centre to the Cardiff Docks run by the "Cardiff Tramway Company". In 1898, Cardiff County Borough Council obtained Parliamentary powers to take over all the tramways in the area and go ahead with the new electric trams, owning them from 1903. The routes formally opened in May 1902 with the first recorded accident later that month – a collision with a cyclist. In 1904, more than 23 million passengers had been carried in that year, up from 18 million the previous year. and when Cardiff became a city in 1905, 131 electric trams were operating on the network, mainly focusing on the busy Cardiff Docks. In 1928, the network peaked at 142 cars and 19.5 miles (31.3 km) route miles. By 1929, the tram network stretched from Victoria Park in the west, to Grangetown and Cardiff Docks in the south, to Roath and Splott in the east, and to Gabalfa in the north. The city council refused motor buses in 1907 but allowed them in 1910, operating its own from 1920, although 81 tramcars were introduced by "Cardiff Corporation Transport" to negotiate the city's low railway bridges. By 1939, these vehicles were becoming worn out and it was decided to phase out tramcars. Trolleybuses and motor buses. In 1942, trolleybuses began to replace tramcars. The last tram service ran to Whitchurch in February 1950, making it the last place in Britain to commence trolleybus operation after Glasgow. Trolleybus routes were generally the same as tram routes although extensions were made. The furthest and final extension of the network came in 1955, to Ely, where trams had never run. At this point, the system peaked at 79 vehicles and 18 route miles. In 1959, the Cardiff Corporation Transport (later City of Cardiff Transport) routes, with trolleybus routes in bold, were Trolleybuses stopped on Wood Street, rather than in Cardiff Central bus station. Transition to motor buses began in 1962 and was completed by 1970, bringing to an end 68 years of electric traction on the streets of Cardiff. The city has been served by motor buses ever since. Cardiff had the largest municipal bus fleet in South Wales with 253 buses. The fleet of 1960s and 70s maroon and cream double-deckers included AEC Regent V, Daimler Fleetline and Guy Arab V. It also operated single deckers including AEC Swift. Other operators. Between the 1960s and 1980s, Cardiff had many small coach operators: "Western Welsh" was formed in 1929 and grew to cover an area from St Davids in West Wales to the English border, operating 319 buses in its South Wales fleet by 1970. In 1978 it became "National Welsh/Cymru Cenedlaethol" which also ran "Red & White". The two companies closed in 1992. "Neath & Cardiff"'s brown and red AEC Reliance fleet operated to towns to the west, to Bridgend, Neath and Swansea in the 1970s. Its coaches were known as " brown bombers". In June 1970, Alan Barrington Smith operated the 59 service from Newport to Cardiff, previously operated by "Davies and Baldwin" and "Red & White", using Bristol vehicles. This route was acquired by "Smiths" in 1972 and incorporated into their route 31 that circled Newport, but dropping the extension to Cardiff. "CK Coaches Ltd" was formed in 1974. In 1981, it gained two routes in the capital charging lower fares and offering the first competition for the Cardiff municipal fleet within the city since 1927. Leyland buses were bought from London Transport (Daimler Fleetlines) and Leicester City Transport for these routes, one of which was the 54 to Cyncoed, and had a white and orange livery, similar to that of Cardiff Bus, but making more use of the white colour. Its blue and white double deckers operated a Llanrumney route, serving the heavily populated eastern suburb. CK Coaches later operated a route to Llanedeyrn, and used Wood Street in the city centre rather than the main stands of Central station. The company's licences were revoked on 31 March 1982, ceasing the services. "Falconer and Watts" operated tours and excursions, private hire and some contracts from Llanishen, a suburb to the north of Cardiff from 1919 to 1982, when they were taken over by Warners Fairfax of Tewkesbury. "Thomas Motor Services" had a history in Barry since 1914. At one time, it operated the sole bus link between Barry and Cardiff via Dinas Powys. Its Leyland Tigers ran on the route 304 from 1959 until 1970, and Leyland Leopards taking over until 1982. Thomas continued to operate the route using coaches. "Greyhound"'s fleet consisted of around a dozen coaches in a blue and ivory livery. Some were used for local school contracts, such as at St Teilo's in the Penylan area of Cardiff. Equally, "Coastal Continental Coach Hire", who ceased trade in 2008, operated Leyland Atlanteans in a red and cream colour on school routes for Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf in Llandaff North. Bus stops. Over 300 city bus stops have passenger information panels that display the estimated arrival times of bus services. This information can also be found online. School Buses. Many school buses are operated by companies such as NAT Group, Cardiff Bus and Edwards Coaches. These are operated by school coaches or low floor double deckers. Cardiff Central bus station. Cardiff Central bus station, on Wood Street, was the hub of the city's and South Wales' bus and coach network. With 34 stands, it was the largest bus station in the city and in Wales. It was located adjacent to Cardiff Central railway station forming a major bus-rail-cycle-taxi interchange. Demolition began in 2008 with the terminus building being demolished. As a result, changes to stands and bus stops are ongoing and the stands given in this article may not be up to date. Before work began, there were 8 concourses lettered A-F and W (on Wood Street) with each concourse having numbered stands. Then, the stands were numbered B1-F2, JA-JD and JT-JQ. The station handled the vast majority of bus and coach services that run in and through the city. Cardiff Bus accounted for 72 per cent of all bus services that stopped at Cardiff Central bus station by frequency. Eating and drinking facilities, such as a Burger King as well as other shops and bus company offices, faced the concourses on Central Square. Taxi ranks were located on both sides of the station. Toilets and a newsagent were located at stand A which was demolished in summer 2008 as part of the redevelopment of the station. However, some of these services are available in the adjacent Cardiff Central railway station. On 1 August 2015, the Cardiff Central bus station closed down as a part of wider developments in the Cardiff area. An improved station is planned to open December 2017, in another part of Cardiff (yet to be decided on). The original bus station is now the site for the new BBC Cymru Wales headquarters. The building is scheduled for practical completion in the second quarter of 2018, when BBC Wales will start the technical fit out ahead of taking occupancy in 2020. It will accommodate around 1,200 staff. City centre. Most city bus services call at other significant bus stops in the centre. All city centre bus stops have a two letter code and most are found in clusters. Interchanges and integration. Cardiff's transport network also includes rail, taxi, cycle, water and air transport. Cardiff Central bus station was located next to Cardiff Central railway station, facilitating bus-rail interchanges. Many bus services stop at the twenty railway stations within the city. The Cardiff Waterbus connects with bus services at Central Station and at Cardiff Bay. The T9 Trawscymru bus service connects the city centre to Cardiff Airport. Local services and operators. Cardiff Bus. Cardiff Bus is the dominant bus operator in Cardiff and also serves Penarth, Sully, Barry and Llantwit Major. Its network consists of 64 routes using Scania OmniCity, Scania N230UD, East Lancs Olympus and articulated buses, Alexander Dennis Enviro200, Enviro300 and Enviro400 MMC, also use Dennis Dart MPDs LMPDs and SPDs and Mercedes-Benz Citaros are also used. Cardiff Bus carries 100,000 passengers daily, has a turnover of £27million and employs around 720 people. The fleet and drivers are managed against a timetable using software systems supplied by UK based software supplier Omnibus Systems, which allows the real-time digital information displays positioned at many stops around the city, to inform people when the next bus is due and alerting waiting passengers of any delays. Raised kerbs have been installed at the majority of stops. In addition to scheduled city buses, Cardiff Bus is contracted to operate some school routes in the city. Smart cards for Cardiff Bus passengers were trialled in spring 2009 and could be rolled out at a later stage. The options could include rechargeable cards along the lines of London’s Oyster card or fixed-price plastic cards already charged with a certain number of journeys. Pensioners’ free bus passes are also set to be equipped with smart card technology. Branded routes Cardiff Bus operates three branded routes: Baycar, Capital City Red, and Capital City Green. Stagecoach. Stagecoach South Wales, which has its headquarters in Cwmbran, operates routes mainly to the South Wales Valleys from central Cardiff. It also operates the TrawsCymru T4 between Cardiff and Newtown in the county of Powys in Mid Wales. Its fleet of over 400 buses is one of the most modern in the country, and includes many low-floor, easy access buses with step-free entrances, dedicated buggy areas and wheelchair access. It does not issue return tickets. However it issues a "megarider" pass for all day travel, valid from four weeks until a year. The Cardiff zone stretches to Taffs Well, Creigiau, Castleton and Travellers Rest. In 2009, Stagecoach launched Wi-Fi on its X4 Cardiff-Hereford ADL/MAN Enviro 300 buses, which are themselves new, replacing older coaches that operated on the route. Then in 2015, Stagecoach replaced the ADL/MAN Enviro 300's with new ADL/Scania Enviro 300's due to MAN Enviro 300's poor reliability. First Cymru. First Cymru, the principle operator in South West Wales, operates inter-urban services west of Cardiff, and three services within the city. They currently operate the TrawsCymru T1C between Cardiff and Aberystwyth in the county of Ceredigion in Mid Wales (until April 2018), the X10 Swansea to Cardiff Express (previously called the Greyhound 100) between Cardiff and Swansea, and the Cymru Clipper X2 between Cardiff and Bridgend/Porthcawl. Newport Bus. Newport Bus, the principal operator in neighbouring Newport, operates express service between Cardiff, and Newport and Risca. It also operates a non-express to and from Newport jointly with Cardiff Bus. Like Cardiff Bus, it is a municipal bus company, owned by Newport City Council. City Sightseeing. City Sightseeing operates timetabled open top double-decker bus tours around the city centre and the Bay, including the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Castle, the Civic Centre, the National Museum of Wales and Alexandra Gardens on the route. The tour takes 50 minutes NAT Group. NAT Group, an expanding bus and coach company in Cardiff operate the X1, X5 and X8 Crosscity services, with the X1 being launched in 2015 which connect the western, central and eastern parts of the city, serving populous areas such as Pentwyn and Llanedeyrn, as well as Canton. NAT Group updated their services in Cardiff in March 2017; The X11 (no longer operates) had received an extension to Grangetown and Cardiff Bay, and the X8 service was launched connecting Thornhill, Llanishen, Birchgrove, and Maindy to Cardiff City Centre, as well as leading to Cardiff Bay, providing a northern-southern Crosscity service for the capital. Their latest addition to the Crosscity services was in early September 2017, and it introduced the X5, which now operates between Cardiff City Centre and Newport, serving many new stops in Adamsdown and Trowbridge. They also altered the X11 service's southern terminus, changing the route from the city centre from Cardiff Bay to serve Canton along with the X1, and extending further west to Pentrebane. They also operate the TrawsCymru T9 Cardiff Airport Express between Cardiff Bay, Cardiff City Centre and Cardiff Airport, the TrawsCymru T1C between Cardiff and Aberystwyth in the county of Ceredigion in Mid Wales from April 2018, as well as Service 304 to Barry and some home-school coaches in the Cardiff area. Edwards. Edwards Coaches operates the 400 bus service between Beddau and Greyfriars Road bus stop in Cardiff. National operators and services. Megabus. Megabus is a low-cost no-frills intercity coach network in the United Kingdom operated by Stagecoach that commenced operations in 2003, including non-stop services to London in a journey time of three and a half hours. Other longer routes to London stop in Newport and Bristol. Cardiff is also linked by Megabus coach to Newcastle via Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Middlesbrough and Sunderland. National Express. Birmingham based National Express has operated |intercity coach services across the United Kingdom since 1972 and sub-contracts to Edwards Coaches the operation of routes from Cardiff to: TrawsCymru. TrawsCymru are a set of routes, set up by the Welsh Government but operated by private bus companies using the TrawsCymru branding. This service is similar to a previous service, TrawsCambria. Service T1C launched in December 2016 on a six-month trial basis, is operated by First Cymru and connects Cardiff with Carmarthen and Aberystwyth. It is a replacement for the former 701 service that ceased operating in August 2016 when its final operator, Lewis Coaches, ceased trading. Unlike the 701 however, the T1C only operates once a day in and out of Cardiff, does not operate on Sundays, does not stop at Port Talbot and a single deck city bus is used, not coaches. Service T4 launched in May 2011 and is operated by Stagecoach South Wales. It connects Cardiff with Brecon and Newtown and operates up to 7 times a day. Service T9, also known as the Cardiff Airport Express, launched in August 2013 and is operated by New Adventure Travel. It connects the centre of Cardiff with the Cardiff Airport and operates up to every 20 minutes. When launched, this route was originally operated by First Cymru. Snap. Snap operates an on-demand service that charters coaches from local operators. It provides services from several pick-up points in and around Cardiff to various cities in England. Other bus services. Bus passes Residents of Cardiff (and Wales) who are over sixty or suffering from certain disabilities, injuries or impediments are entitled to a bus pass enabling free travel across most bus services in Wales. For the Cardiff area, the following buses are exempt from this facility: National Express (including Airport Buses 200, 201 and 202), Eurolines and Megabus. Park and ride Park and Ride services run every weekend in Cardiff throughout the year. The cost includes bus travel to the City Centre, usually less than many multi-storey car parks. There are four Park and Ride services in the city: The Park and Ride services are part of Cardiff council's Sustainable Travel City initiative, which is partly funded by the Welsh Assembly Government. There are plans to extend the number of space from 340 to 1,100 due to its sudden increase in usage. Iff card Iff card is a contactless smart card introduced by Cardiff Bus in October 2010, allowing customers to travel on its services after having pre-paid. The first 30,000 cards were issued free of charge and pre-loaded with £3 of credit, after which the cards will be charged at £5. An amount of money is electronically loaded onto the card, either upon boarding a bus or at the Cardiff Bus customer service centre. A passenger then chooses a ticket type. The card can also be used as a season ticket. The card should be topped-up when the balance is low, however the card allows the customer to acquire a negative balance up to £3. The card can be topped-up in units of £1, £2, £3, £4, £5, £10, £15 and £20 up to maximum amount of £50. The card may be used by persons aged between 6 and 60. The Iff card cannot be used to pay a partial amount. The card would be cancelled if not used for a continuous period of one year

aboveground travel

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3248537

Drowned Wednesday is the third book in the "The Keys to the Kingdom" series by Garth Nix. It continues the story of Arthur Pehaligon and his quest to fulfil a mysterious Will in order to reclaim an otherworldly House from seven antagonistic Trustees. Following the events of the previous novel, Arthur must secure the third part of the Will from a fiendish pirate in order to save the Border Sea from Drowned Wednesday's insatiable appetite. Plot. Picking up after the events of "Grim Tuesday", Arthur discusses Drowned Wednesday's invitation to meet for lunch with Leaf while he is hospitalized. The two are skeptical as to whether Wednesday can be trusted, but then the hospital room is suddenly filled with water and the two find themselves transported to the Border Sea, Wednesday's domain. Leaf and Arthur are separated when Leaf is picked up by the "Flying Mantis," a large ship, and Arthur is left behind. Arthur uses the Mariner's medallion to summon help but his call goes unanswered. A buoy marking the pirate Elishar Feverfew's treasure floats toward him, which Arthur opens. His hand is then marked with a bloody red color, the Red Hand, which he later learns is a spell created by Feverfew so that he may identify who has touched his treasure. Arthur is eventually picked up a scavenging ship called the "Moth". On board, Arthur (going by the name of Arth) is introduced to Sunscorch, the First Mate, and to Captain Catapillow. As they travel through the Border Sea, the "Moth" is attacked by Feverfew's ship, the "Shiver". Sunscorch commands Dr. Scamandros, an Upper House Sorcerer and the ship's navigator, to open a transfer portal to elsewhere in the Secondary Realms. Scamandros' spell fails and he accuses Arthur of interfering with his magic. He advocates for throwing Arthur overboard, but Arthur shows them the Mariner's medallion and the crew agrees to keep him. With Arthur's help, the "Moth" successfully travels through a transfer portal to a safe spot. Arthur asks Scamandros to find out what happened to Leaf and using sorcery, Scamandros reports that Leaf has been conscripted to work on the "Flying Mantis" but is otherwise safe. Arthur admits his identity to the crew and Scamandros helps Arthur contact Dame Primus and Wednesday's Dawn, so he may meet with Wednesday. Before Arthur leaves, Scamandros gives Arthur his transfer watch. Arthur meets with Wednesday, who explains that she regretted her part in defying the Will, especially since doing so afflicted her with gluttony and turned her into a leviathan with an insatiable appetite. She attempted to convince Superior Saturday to allow Wednesday to relinquish her part of the Will but instead, Saturday and the other Trustees (with the exception of the then-slothful Mister Monday) ambushed Wednesday and revoked most of the Third Key's power. As such, Wednesday can only use her Key to maintain a human form but only temporarily. She tells Arthur that she will relinquish the Key once he has reclaimed the third part of the Will, which has been hidden by Feverfew. Wednesday's Dawn takes Arthur to the Triangle to begin his search for the Will. He meets the Raised Rats, a group of anthropomorphic rats brought to the House by the Piper, and makes a deal with them to take him Feverfew's hideout, which is a worldlet located within Drowned Wednesday's stomach when she is in her leviathan form. On the Raised Rats' ship, Arthur inadvertently summons Scamandros with the transfer watch but Scamandros is grateful. He explains that Feverfew has taken the "Moth" and Scamandros was briefly poisoned by Nothing in the scuffle. Arthur checks in on Leaf using Scamandros' scrying mirror and learns that Feverfew has captured the "Flying Mantis" and he has discovered Leaf's connection to Arthur. Feverfew deduces Arthur is looking for the Will and sets about to catch him, led by the Red Hand. Suzy Turquoise Blue joins Arthur on the Raised Rats' submersible and Scamandros provides Arthur and Suzy with disguises in order to sneak into the worldlet. Although they experience navigational difficulty, they are eventually able to enter Wednesday's stomach and the worldlet therein, which is in the form of an island. There, Arthur and Suzy, disguised as rats, find several of Feverfew's escaped slaves, who have been hiding in a remote cave on the island and formed a religion around a Carp. The exiles take them to the Carp, which is the third part of the Will. They attempt to take the Will out of the worldlet but Feverfew catches up to them, holding Leaf as prisoner. He proposes a fight between him and Arthur wherein each may try to kill the other with one strike. Arthur goes first and fails, but he successfully dodges Feverfew's attack and severs his head. But because Feverfew is a Denizen, he begins to regenerate. Thinking quickly, Leaf kicks his head into a mud puddle containing Nothing, thus destroying him. Upon Feverfew's death, the worldlet begins to collapse. Via the "Moth", Arthur and his friends are able to escape. Lady Wednesday is healed from her gluttony but she dies, having been poisoned by the worldlet, which had opened a void to Nothing. Dame Primus reunites with Arthur and absorbs the third part of the Will. Arthur, now Duke of the Border Sea, appoints Sunscorch as his Noon and Scamandros as his Dusk and for them to run the Sea while he and Leaf return to the Secondary Realms. Publication history. "Drowned Wednesday" published on March 1, 2005 from Scholastic in the United States. It was the first book in the series to receive a debut hardcover edition, accompanied by a simultaneous re-release of the previous books in the series in hardcover format. Critical reception. "Drowned Wednesday" received mixed to positive reviews upon its release. "School Library Journal" called it “[a] must-have for anyone who has the first two entries in this well-crafted, exciting series” and "VOYA" magazine said, "Nix is endlessly inventive, and his latest book is another thrill ride.” "Booklist" was more mixed, praising the imagination of the series but said that "experiencing it can be at once exhilarating and overwhelming," and noted that new readers could find the book "frustratingly esoteric. "Similarly, "Fantasy Book Review" gave it a 7 out of 10, saying that "Drowned Wednesday" did not match the previous standard of the previous books in the series, but it would still leave the reader anticipating the sequel. Rebecca Fisher of "Fantasy Literature" gave it 4 out of 5 stars, saying, "Nix brings fresh ideas to the fantasy genre" but noted that "Drowned Wednesday" was not as gripping as previous installments.

directional issues

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4786094

"Live Free or Die" is the 71st episode of the HBO original series "The Sopranos" and the sixth of the show's sixth season. Written by David Chase, Terence Winter, Robin Green, and Mitchell Burgess, and directed by Tim Van Patten, it originally aired on April 16, 2006. Starring. "* = credit only" Synopsis. Christopher reports to Tony and his crew that Vito has been spotted in a gay club. Meadow reveals to Carmela that Finn witnessed Vito performing oral sex on a security guard. As a result, Finn is taken by Tony to the back room of Satriale's where, very frightened, he has to repeat the story for the crew. The main reaction is disgust and anger; Carlo says they should "put him down for the honor of the family." Tony, despite everything, is hesitant to kill Vito. As he tells Dr. Melfi, he abhors homosexuality, and is “a strict Catholic”; but he doesn’t mind what happens between consenting adults, and he cares about Vito as a friend and an earner. "I had a second chance,” he says. “Why shouldn't he?" Benny, Dante Greco and Terry Doria visit Vito and his mistress at a beach house on the Jersey Shore, where he's been lying low. They try to escort him to see Tony, but he speeds away. Vito returns home later that night, kisses his sleeping children, packs some keepsakes, necessities and cash, and drives off into a stormy night. After his car hits a downed tree branch, he proceeds on foot and finds himself stranded in a small town in New Hampshire. Exhausted, he checks into an inn. Vito has cousins in New Hampshire, but cannot find them. He stays in the pleasant town, comfortable in its friendly, open-minded ambience. Meadow starts an internship at a law firm handling white collar crimes, although she is also working as a volunteer in a law center. In an argumentative conversation with Finn, she contrasts the soft treatment of white-collar criminals with the harsh treatment of others, for example the humiliation of Johnny at his daughter's wedding. Finn challenges her values and notes her hypocrisy: Tony's crew is going to punish Vito for his sexual orientation. Meadow storms out. Carmela discovers that Angie Bonpensiero has secretly branched out into business with members of the crime family, putting money up for street loans and buying stolen car parts. Carmela is still pressuring Tony to get permission from the building inspector to move forward with her spec house, which he seems to keep forgetting. She is appalled to find that Hugh has been selling materials salvaged from the construction site. Tony informs Chris that two Italian hitmen will be sent over to the U.S. to kill Rusty, and tells him to hire a "third party" to equip them with weapons and act as an intermediary between the assassins and the Soprano family. Chris gives the task to Corky Caporale, a Soprano family associate who speaks Italian, and pays him in heroin.

biggest display

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4024362

Silly Songs with Larry is a regular feature segment in Big Idea's cartoon series "VeggieTales". Often secular, they generally consist of Larry the Cucumber singing either alone or with some of the other Veggie characters. Occasionally, another character, like Mr. Lunt, Bob the Tomato, Junior Asparagus, Laura Carrot, Archibald Asparagus, Oscar the Polish Caterer, and the French Peas Jean-Claude and Philippe, or an ensemble is featured in Larry's place. The Silly Songs have proven to be a very popular part of the show and have also prompted the release of several "sing-along" and compilation videos of these segments, some wrapped with new material that threads them into a fresh context. Some of the silly songs have been nominated for a GMA Dove Award. Segment structure. Sometimes a Silly Song is introduced with a static picture of Larry. Then, an unseen narrator, sometimes Archibald, says the following: "And now it's time for Silly Songs with Larry, the part of the show where Larry comes out and sings a silly song." However, this format is used loosely; sometimes it is renamed, adapted to the context of the episode, or eschewed altogether. The Silly Song, when present, always appears in the middle of an episode, usually at a cliffhanger moment or between two separate segments, and usually has nothing to do with the episode storyline. The segment either takes place on the familiar countertop which opens and closes some of the episodes, or is presented in another setting off the countertop. On some videos, the background scenery often appears as a stage set, behind which electrical outlets and ceramic tile can be seen. On a few occasions, the song is stopped and replaced before it can even begin. When this occurs, the brief images that are shown of the original song are intentionally more outlandish than usual, leaving the audience to wonder what it might have been. Examples of this occurring include "Madame Blueberry", "Lyle the Kindly Viking", "Moe and the Big Exit", "Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue", and "MacLarry and the Stinky Cheese Battle". The segment ends with the same unseen narrator saying "This has been Silly Songs with Larry. Tune in next time to hear Larry sing..." Then, Larry or another character usually does something, then the segment ends. History. Phil Vischer wrote in his book, "Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story about Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables", that when he originally created the "Silly Songs" section of the first show ("Where's God When I'm S-Scared? "), he never intended it to be a recurring segment, but after complaints from viewers about the lack of the segment in the second show ("God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?! "), he suggested that Mike Nawrocki write more "Silly Songs" for future shows. Since the third show ("Are You My Neighbor"), the segment has returned. Mike Nawrocki has written and directed a majority of the silly songs for the past 20 years. Kurt Heinecke has served as producer and composer for nearly all of the silly songs of the past 20 years. Christian songwriter Steve Taylor wrote the 2009 silly song entitled "Sippy Cup." Many of the Silly Songs such as "The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything", "His Cheeseburger", "The Yodeling Veterinarian of the Alps", and "Belly Button" have been nominated for several GMA Dove Award including best music video of the year. Silly Songs with Larry were briefly discontinued after the original series ended in 2015 and were not featured in the Dreamworks spinoff series "VeggieTales in the House" (2014-2016) or "VeggieTales in the City" (2017). On his podcast (entitled The Holy Post) in late spring of 2019, Phil Vischer announced that the silly song segment will be returning with new songs in the new series "The VeggieTales Show" (which premiered in October 2019). Songs. VeggieTales (1993-2015) The VeggieTales Show (2019–present)

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=52739115

WHO-CHOICE ("CHO"osing "I"nterventions that are "C"ost-"E"ffective) is an initiative started by the World Health Organization in 1998 to help countries choose their healthcare priorities. It is an example of priority-setting in global health. It was one of the earliest projects to perform sectoral cost-effectiveness analyses (i.e., cost-effectiveness analyses that compare a wide range of types of spending within a sector and prioritize holistically) on a global scale. Findings from WHO-CHOICE have shaped the World Health Report of 2002, been published in the "British Medical Journal" in 2012, and been cited by charity evaluators and academics alongside DCP2 and the Copenhagen Consensus. History. Launch and initial years of WHO-CHOICE. In May 1998, Gro Harlem Brundtland succeeded Hiroshi Nakajima as the Director-General of the World Health Organization, and the organization was significantly restructuring as a result of the leadership change. With her election, a new program, called Choosing Interventions: Effectiveness Quality, Costs, Gender and Ethics, was launched as part of the Global Programme for Evidence on Health and Policy. The name of the program would later morph into WHO-CHOICE. Subsequent use. WHO-CHOICE was used in the World Health Report of 2002, specifically informing the recommendations in Chapter 5. Results based on WHO-CHOICE were published in a series of papers in the "British Medical Journal" in 2012. Tools and methods. Adoption of sectoral CEA. Prior to WHO-CHOICE, most projects that did cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) in the real world focused on evaluating a single program or intervention, comparing it against either a fixed price threshold or an existing array of interventions with predetermined cost-effectiveness taken from the literature. However, theoretical literature on CEAs considered a broader kind of CEA called "sectoral CEA" where all programs and interventions available within a sector would be compared and cost-effectiveness priorities would be determined. Prior to WHO-CHOICE, there were only a few examples of practical implementation of sectoral CEAs: the Oregon Health Services Commission (tasked with prioritizing for Medicaid in the United States), the World Bank Health Sectors Priorities Review, and the Harvard Life Saving Project. Of these, only the World Bank's work had attempted a global comparison. In a 2000 paper discussing the WHO-CHOICE approach, Murray et al. identified four challenges to a wider application of sectoral CEA: Use of generalized CEA (a type of sectoral CEA) based on epidemiological subregions. WHO-CHOICE identified a key trade-off in sectoral CEA based on the granularity of the region at which the CEA was performed. At one extreme, sectoral CEA could be performed at the level of individual cities or districts, incorporating information about local resources, costs, and current context. At the other extreme, a single CEA could be carried out globally. Highly localized sectoral CEA would be very expensive and difficult to perform whereas global CEA would fail to take into account the huge differences between the epidemiology and resource structure of regions. WHO-CHOICE's solution was to use an intermediate level of granularity, that it called "generalized CEA" (GCEA). It argued that at this intermediate level, it could conduct CEAs more efficiently while also allowing local policymakers and agents to use its findings and further adapt them to local contexts. WHO-CHOICE has divided the world into 14 epidemiological subregions, and publishes its findings by subregion, as shown below. Each subregion is a combination of a region (a geographical region of the world) and a mortality stratum (a stratum describing the level and nature of mortality). WHO-CHOICE chose to put each country in a single mortality stratum and a single region (and therefore a single subregion) even if mortality varies widely within the country. Although the 6 regions and 5 mortality strata could give a theoretical maximum of 6 X 5 = 30 subregions, only 14 subregions occur in practice because not every region has countries with all mortality strata. Below is the classification into subregions as of 2003. Modifications to ICM-CEA to use null set as comparator for interventions. The CEA done by WHO-CHOICE differed from the standard ICM-CEA in two important ways: Intended usage. The results that WHO-CHOICE reports are not intended to be applied literally when choosing policies or selecting interventions. This is for a few reasons: Rather, the results are intended to be used as a starting point in classifying interventions as highly cost-effective, moderately cost-effective, and cost-ineffective. With this classification in place, a more detailed and localized analysis can be done for the highly cost-effective interventions, incorporating concerns such as poverty, equity, implementation capacity, and feasibility. Tools used for the estimates. WHO-CHOICE lists the following tools that it uses and can provide to researchers interested in using WHO-CHOICE: Results. This section focuses on results published by the WHO-CHOICE team or other material published by the World Health Organization relying on WHO-CHOICE data. For examples of use of WHO-CHOICE data by others, see the Reception section. World Health Report of 2002. The World Health Report of 2002 relied on WHO-CHOICE. Specifically, it used the division of the world into epidemiological subregions in its analysis of health risks, and used recommendations generated by WHO-CHOICE in Chapter 5, "Some Strategies to Reduce Risk". Here are the key results in the report based on WHO-CHOICE: Report on scaling up Millennium Development Goals. The WHO-CHOICE database was one of the sources of data used for the 2009 World Health Organization costing report "Constraints to Scaling Up the Health Millennium Development Goals: Costing and Financial Gap Analysis. Background Document for the Taskforce on Innovative International Financing and Health Systems" (published 2010). The report was a costing analysis of health system strengthening in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, and relied on WHO-CHOICE data and published WHO-CHOICE work for some specific cost estimates. It is cited on the WHO-CHOICE website as an example of the use of WHO-CHOICE to generate Global Price Tags. Series of papers in the "British Medical Journal" in 2012. In 2012, a number of papers were published in the "British Medical Journal" disseminating results from WHO-CHOICE. A discussion of the findings on the Giving What We Can blog summarized the results as follows: "countries should try to expand high-priority interventions to near-universal coverage before considering second-priority interventions on a limited scale." Below are the main results: Reception. Charity evaluator GiveWell has referenced WHO-CHOICE estimates alongside estimates from the Disease Control Priorities Project's DCP2 report, the Copenhagen Consensus, and "The Lancet" series on nutrition. Giving What We Can, a charity evaluator and advocate of more effective giving, reviewed WHO-CHOICE's results, and emphasized that these results "should perhaps not be taken from the individual donor’s perspective, but rather from the perspective of someone who can influence the health system of that country." GWWC has also referenced WHO-CHOICE and compared it with DCP2 in some of its coverage of diseases. WHO-CHOICE has also been cited alongside DCP2 and the Copenhagen Consensus in general discussions of cost-effectiveness analyses.

deliberate operation

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3064684

Deutsche Vermögensberatung (DVAG), which loosely translates as "German financial advisors", is a company based in Frankfurt, Germany. The DVAG operates in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The company was founded in 1975 by Reinfried Pohl, controlled by Deutsche Vermögensberatung Holding and registered as a tied agent in the insurance sector according to the EU Insurance Mediation Directive with the Frankfurt am Main Chamber of Industry and Commerce. With its 3,400 departments and branch offices and over 14,000 full-time financial consultants, Deutsche Vermögensberatung serves around 6 million clients. In fiscal year 2015, the company earned revenues of €1,255.7 million and profits of €186.3million. The total volume of contracts brokered (total portfolio) came to €185.2billion. Management. Executive board. The company is managed by an executive board consisting of the following persons: • Andreas Pohl (Chairman of the Board) • Udo Corts (Corporate communication, corporate coordination, legal) • Christopher Arel (Naval Architect, Chief commercial officer for Latin America and the Caribbean) • Jaime Eusebio Soto Lillo (Naval Architect and Maritime Transport Specialist, Global Manager for international projects) • Hans-Theo Franken (Central sales coordination, products, business partners, international business) • Christian Glanz (IT, financial consulting service, administration) • Lars Knackstedt (Finances, investments) • Helge Lach (Education, professional centers, digital media) • Robert Peil (Coordination sales companies, marketing, events) • Dirk Reiffenrath (Support of sales divisions) Supervisory board. Friedrich Bohl has been chairman of the supervisory board since 31 March 2009. History. In 1975, Reinfried Pohl began to build the company under the name “Kompass Gesellschaft für Vermögensanlagen GmbH“. Pohl had worked for Investors Overseas Services (IOS) from 1967 to 1969, and had been employed by Bonnfinanz from 1970 to 1974. On 1 July 1975, he started out with around 35 of his former Bonnfinanz colleagues. “Allgemeine Vermögensberatung AG” (AVAG) was founded in 1976. In 1983, AVAG was renamed “Deutsche Vermögensberatung AG”. Reinfried Pohl's sons Andreas and Reinfried Junior joined the company's management board in 1984. An Austrian subsidiary now called “Deutsche Vermögensberatung Bank Aktiengesellschaft” was founded in 1993. Cooperation with Deutsche Bank began in 2001. In 2003, the company restructured to form “Deutsche Vermögensberatung Holding” headquartered in Marburg. The company entered the Swiss market in 2004 with “SVAG Schweizer Vermögensberatung”. In 2007, DVAG became the exclusive distributor for AachenMünchener Versicherungen, and has since been managing this segment as an autonomous subsidiary called “Allfinanz Deutsche Vermögensberatung”. That same year, FVD was integrated into the organization. In 2008, DVAG took over the distribution of Deutsche Bausparkasse Badenia. Business partners. In Germany, the most important partner is the Generali Deutschland group with companies like AachenMünchener, Deutsche Bausparkasse Badenia, Advocard Rechtsschutzversicherung (legal insurance) and Central Krankenversicherung (health insurance), which also serves as a link to collaboration with BKK Linde health insurance. DVAG is the only distribution channel of AachenMünchener Versicherungen. As part of its partnership with the Deutsche-Bank Group, DVAG has been distributing banking products of Deutsche Bank (DB) and investment funds of DB subsidiary DWS since 2001. Further partners of the Frankfurt-based financial services provider are Commerzbank, HypoVereinsbank, DSL Bank, Santander Bank, Allianz Global Investors, and RREEF Investment GmbH (formerly: DB Real Estate Investment GmbH). The Deutsche Verrechnungsstelle (DV), also based in Frankfurt am Main, specializes in professional invoice management for craft trades and the SME sector. It offers products and services to ensure the liquidity of these companies. It was founded in 2015 by Andreas Pohl and Reinfried Pohl. Sponsorship. DVAG has been active in sports sponsoring since 1996, and in this context the company has worked with a number of athletes. Apart from the current partnership with Jürgen Klopp, sponsoring partners include Hansi Flick, Britta Heidemann, Joey Kelly and Michael Schumacher. Seven time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher has been working with DVAG since 1997. The existing sponsoring contract continues in effect even after Schumacher's severe skiing accident in December 2013. In February 2016, the Michael-Schumacher exhibit was opened in Marburg to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the partnership. Schumacher's son Mick is also currently sponsored by the company as he races in Formula 1. There have also been other sponsoring contracts in the past with sports icons like Joachim Löw, Otto Rehhagel, Paul Biedermann, Hubert Schwarz, and Nico Hülkenberg. The company was the main sponsor of the 1st FC Kaiserslautern soccer club and FC Willer sur Thur in France (Thur Valley). There are also partnerships with the German fencing association, the national fencing team, and several state soccer associations. In 2008, apart from many regular sponsoring projects in the areas of science, culture, and sports, DVAG supported the children's relief organization “Ein Herz für Kinder” with a donation of one million Euro by buying the “G-8 Beach Chair” at a charity auction.

artisan specialties

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=63628795

Henry Holloway (16 November 1812 – 1 July 1850) was an English first-class cricketer and clergyman. The son of Benjamin Holloway, he was born in November 1912 at Charlbury, Oxfordshire. He was educated at Winchester College, before going up to New College, Oxford. While studying at Oxford, he made a single appearance in first-class cricket for Oxford University against the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's in 1836. Batting twice in the match, he was dismissed for a single run in the Oxford first innings by John Strange, while in their second innings he was dismissed for 5 runs by the same bowler. After graduating from Oxford, he took holy orders in the Church of England. His ecclesiastical career consisted of just one post, that of curate at Pattishall, Northamptonshire from 1840 until his death at Towcester in July 1850. He had been a fellow of New College from 1833 until his death.

a single appointment

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39158010

In computer science, conflict-driven clause learning (CDCL) is an algorithm for solving the Boolean satisfiability problem (SAT). Given a Boolean formula, the SAT problem asks for an assignment of variables so that the entire formula evaluates to true. The internal workings of CDCL SAT solvers were inspired by DPLL solvers. Conflict-driven clause learning was proposed by Marques-Silva and Sakallah (1996, 1999) and Bayardo and Schrag (1997). Background. Background knowledge about the following issues is needed to have a clear idea about the CDCL algorithm. Boolean satisfiability problem. The satisfiability problem consists in finding a satisfying assignment for a given formula in conjunctive normal form (CNF). An example of such a formula is: or, using a common notation: where "A","B","C" are Boolean variables, formula_2, formula_3, formula_4, and formula_5 are literals, and formula_6 and formula_7 are clauses. A satisfying assignment for this formula is e.g. : since it makes the first clause true (since formula_2 is true) as well as the second one (since formula_5 is true). This examples uses three variables ("A", "B", "C"), and there are two possible assignments (True and False) for each of them. So one has formula_11 possibilities. In this small example, one can use brute-force search to try all possible assignments and check if they satisfy the formula. But in realistic applications with millions of variables and clauses brute force search is impractical. The responsibility of a SAT solver is to find a satisfying assignment efficiently and quickly by applying different heuristics for complex CNF formulas. Unit clause rule (unit propagation). If an unsatisfied clause has all but one of its literals or variables evaluated at False, then the free literal must be True in order for the clause to be True. For example, if the below unsatisfied clause is evaluated with formula_12 and formula_13 we must have formula_14 in order for the clause formula_15 to be true. Boolean constraint propagation (BCP). The iterated application of the unit clause rule is referred to as unit propagation or Boolean constraint propagation (BCP). Resolution. Consider two clauses formula_15 and formula_17. The clause formula_18, obtained by merging the two clauses and removing both formula_19 and formula_5, is called the resolvent of the two clauses. DP algorithm. The DP algorithm has been introduced by Davis and Putnam in 1960. Informally, the algorithm iteratively performs the following steps until no more variables are left in the formula: DPLL algorithm. Davis, Putnam, Logemann, Loveland (1962) had developed this algorithm. Some properties of this algorithms are: An example with visualization of DPLL algorithm having chronological backtracking: CDCL (conflict-driven clause learning). The main difference between CDCL and DPLL is that CDCL's back jumping is non-chronological. Conflict-driven clause learning works as follows. Example. A visual example of CDCL algorithm: Completeness. DPLL is a sound and complete algorithm for SAT. CDCL SAT solvers implement DPLL, but can learn new clauses and backtrack non-chronologically. Clause learning with conflict analysis does not affect soundness or completeness. Conflict analysis identifies new clauses using the resolution operation. Therefore, each learnt clause can be inferred from the original clauses and other learnt clauses by a sequence of resolution steps. If cN is the new learnt clause, then ϕ is satisfiable if and only if ϕ ∪ {cN} is also satisfiable. Moreover, the modified backtracking step also does not affect soundness or completeness, since backtracking information is obtained from each new learnt clause. Applications. The main application of CDCL algorithm is in different SAT solvers including: The CDCL algorithm has made SAT solvers so powerful that they are being used effectively in several real world application areas like AI planning, bioinformatics, software test pattern generation, software package dependencies, hardware and software model checking, and cryptography. Related algorithms. Related algorithms to CDCL are the DP and DPLL algorithm described before. The DP algorithm uses resolution refutation and it has potential memory access problem. Whereas the DPLL algorithm is OK for randomly generated instances, it is bad for instances generated in practical applications. CDCL is a more powerful approach to solve such problems in that applying CDCL provides less state space search in comparison to DPLL.

little scenario

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38872295

The Cuvier–Geoffroy debate of 1830 was a scientific debate between the two French naturalists Georges Cuvier and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. For around two months the debate occurred in front of the French Academy of Sciences. The debate centered primarily on animal structure; Cuvier asserted that animal structure was determined by an organism's functional needs while Geoffroy suggested an alternative theory that all animal structures were modified forms of one unified plan. In terms of scientific significance, the discussion between the two naturalists showed stark differences in scientific methods as well as general philosophy. Cuvier is generally considered the winner of the debate, as he always came better prepared to the debate with overwhelming amounts of evidence and more logical arguments, as well as having more political and academic influence. Despite this, Geoffroy's philosophy is seen as early support of evolution theory and parts of the theory of the "unity of composition" are generally more accepted over Cuvier's fixed species philosophy. Early lives. Both naturalists had a love for classification and description but grew up with different influences. Geoffroy came to Paris to study medicine, law and philosophy in early 1789, but shifted to the study of zoology not long after. When a priest mentor of Geoffroy's became caught up in the political turmoil of the revolution of 1789, it was through Geoffroy's testimony that the priest was released from prison. Making friends in the church led to his eventual appointment as a zoology professor in the Royal Garden (later became the Museum of Natural History), when a post was vacated due to more political problems. Although he was only twenty-one years old at the time, this position gave Geoffroy access to resources and natural collections in which he built his future theories on nature. He was even able to accompany Napoleon on an expedition to Egypt in 1798 where he studied mummies and made hypotheses on change over time in humans and other organisms. Geoffroy agreed with Buffon that any classification system was arbitrary and thus somewhat empty, but he nonetheless attempted to find the general laws that applied to all organisms in nature. Before their well-known rivalry developed, the two scientists began as close colleagues and friends. Cuvier met a member of the Academy of Sciences, Henri-Alexandre Tessier, in Normandy in 1794 while he was a young man tutoring the children of the wealthy. Tessier was impressed by Cuvier's talent and skill, and soon after wrote glowing letters to established scientists like Geoffroy and another, Jussier. Geoffroy was charmed by Cuvier's detailed descriptions of animals and his precise sketches and decided to invite him to "come to Paris. Come play among us the role of another legislator of natural history." When Cuvier joined him at the Museum, other colleagues warned Geoffroy against mentoring him, suggesting that this brilliant young scientist would eventually surpass him. Despite this premonition, both scientists worked side by side and wrote five papers together on the classification of mammals, the two-horned African rhinoceros, species of elephants, descriptions of the tarsier, and the biology of the orangutan. It was not long before Cuvier began to make a name for himself individually too, as he was highly skilled at reaching out to patrons, networking and acquiring funding for his research. By 1796 Cuvier was working on his papers on extinction, merely two years after joining the Museum, while Geoffroy had barely begun to publish. One of the most significant events that solidified the split between the two scientists was Cuvier's appointment to the Academy of Sciences on December 17, 1795 as one of the six original members of anatomy and zoology. Cuvier was only twenty-six years old (seventeen years Geoffroy's junior) and the youngest member at the time, while Geoffroy was not given admittance to the Academy for another twelve years. Differing viewpoints. Prior to the debate, biological scientists were generally split into two major factions: whether animal structure was determined by functional needs of an animal or the "conditions of existence" (Cuvier), or a basic unified form that was modified across all animal forms (Geoffroy). By determining the answer to this question, scientists could also shed light on the mechanisms of the evolution of species, as well as potentially finding a useful system to classify species to better understand the order of nature. Cuvier was an influential scientist with significant political power and many prominent positions: permanent secretary at the French Academie of Science, a professorship at the Museum of Natural History and the College of France, as well as a Council member at the University of France. Cuvier stuck to "positive facts" of science and refused to flirt with hypotheses and unsupported ideas. This attitude sprang from worries that this kind of thinking would lead to unrest and disorder in France as the French Revolution had torn through only a few decades before. Cuvier encouraged young scientists to stick with facts and often won them over easily due to his strong reputation as a good ally to have in science. His political ties and academic connections gave his ideas a broader audience and generally more historical recognition. Geoffroy was heavily influenced by Buffon and Lamarck. It was in his memoir "Philosophie anatomique", published in 1818, that he first put his ideas on animal form and structure into print. Here he attempted to answer his own question, "Can the organization of vertebrated animals be referred to as one uniform type?" Cuvier on the other hand was known as Lamarck's greatest critic, as Cuvier felt Lamarck was too speculative without enough facts to back up his theories. Cuvier grew up reading the works of Linnaeus and was mostly self-taught through dissection and measurements of organisms. Geoffroy thought of facts as building blocks to science while new ideas would lead to real discovery, occasionally dipping more into philosophical hypotheses instead of testable or demonstrated research. Geoffroy kept his unpopular ideas under wraps when advantageous to his career but found it increasingly difficult to stay passive as he got older and more well known. He may even have welcomed the debate between himself and Cuvier as a chance to liven up the discussions in the Academy and generate new ideas. The debate (1830). While the two biologists had disagreed on animal structure subtly through their publications, talks with other scientists at Academy meetings, and in private, a paper on mollusks written by two relatively unknown scientists drew Geoffroy and Cuvier at arms. The paper, written by Meyranx and Laurencet, was assigned to Geoffroy and Pierre André Latreille to review and report to the Academy. Meyranx and Laurencet's conclusions grabbed Geoffroy's attention by suggesting a link between vertebrate and mollusk internal anatomy. With thousands of drawings of mollusks and multiple essays, the authors argued that the organ arrangement of a mollusk resembled vertebrate organ arrangement, if the vertebrate bent backwards so that the neck was connected to the backside. Geoffroy found support for his unity of composition which would unite the vertebrates and mollusks -two of Cuvier's published embranchments of animals- on one common plan. Geoffroy's initial report. On February 15, 1830, Geoffroy presented his report to the Academy. In an epilogue that was eventually removed from the final report at Cuvier's insistence, Geoffroy made a clear attack at Cuvier by quoting from a work of Cuvier's from 1817, "Memoir on the Cephalopods and on Their Anatomy", though the author and actual manuscript name were not mentioned. Geoffroy ridiculed the old-fashioned way of describing nature by focusing on differences instead of similarities, presenting his unity of composition theory as a better alternative. Cuvier disagreed vehemently with the report and paper's findings, promising to further explain his argument in future writings. Cuvier's first response. At the next meeting of the Academy on February 22, Cuvier came fully prepared with detailed, labeled, colorful drawings, in particular one of an octopus and another of a duck bent backwards, and a new memoir called "Considerations on the Mollusks and in Particular on the Cephalopods". He attacked Geoffroy's argument carefully and strategically. First, he argued for clear definitions in science and no ambiguity in language. Cuvier then proposed that composition was defined as the arrangement of parts. By this definition, to imagine that all organisms consisted of the same organs arranged in the same manner was illogical and false. Cuvier called Geoffroy's unity of composition more of a vague analogy for the composition of animals than true science. He emphasized how analogies did not belong in real science. Next Cuvier gave his own report on Meyranx and Laurencet's paper, showing example after example of how vertebrate and mollusk organ arrangement differed, whether by physical location or orientation in the body. By overwhelming the audience with his plethora of knowledge on cephalopod anatomy, he undercut Geoffroy's credibility and made a convincing argument of his own. After this point the debate became less about the mollusk data and more an argument between two differing scientific philosophies. Further discussion. On March 1, 1830, Geoffroy returned with his rebuttal, "On the Theory of Analogues, to Establish Its Novelty as a Doctrine, and Its Practical Utility as an Instrument". In response to Cuvier's comments about unity of composition being poorly defined, Geoffroy claimed that he was seeking more "philosophical resemblances" other than actual, observable similarities between animals. This vague explanation of unity of composition and the claim that others did not understand what unity of composition really meant did not satisfy Cuvier or his other critics. Geoffroy went on to defend his analogical theory, stressing the methodology of it all to align it to the scientific method. His theory looked at the connections between animals, and therefore was still applicable to making discoveries in science. To illustrate his points, Geoffroy used the example of the hyoid bone in vertebrates. He compared multiple animals with differing numbers of pieces making up the hyoid bone. In the cat with 9 hyoid pieces and humans with 5, Geoffroy made hypotheses for where the extra pieces had gone in humans, suggesting shifts to the ligaments and other bones of the jaw. Cuvier in response compared the hyoid bones across multiple species, where he saw different numbers of parts, different arrangements of the parts and in some, no hyoid at all. To Cuvier these differences suggested different functional needs and did not support unity of composition as Geoffroy said. To counter Cuvier's very analytical approach, Geoffroy said his rival was simply getting too bogged down in the details and forgetting the main issue of differences in philosophy. Cuvier continued to supply examples of differences amongst animal form, insisting Geoffroy explain why nature would be constrained to using the same parts similarly across all species. End of the debate. By April 1830, the Academy was getting bored of the debate. At this point it had become far too personal and less about the ideas discussed but rather an continuous opportunity to bash each other publicly and academically. Geoffroy finally declined to provide further comment on April 5, 1830. His reasons for ending the debate are not entirely known, though it is generally believed that Cuvier won the debate with his commanding presence and overwhelming amounts of evidence. Geoffroy may have ended the debate to save himself from more public annihilation via Cuvier, but nonetheless promised to further publish the rest of his arguments later. Results of the debate. After Geoffroy's initial inflammatory report, some other scientists in the Academy felt pressed to choose a side. In an effort to protect his reputation, the co-author on the report, Latreille, wrote to Cuvier to deny his participation in the report presented to the Academy, as well as to disassociate himself from Geoffroy's unity of composition theory. This was likely a strategical move as Cuvier had just the year before helped Latreille, a rather old man of sixty-seven, replace Lamarck as a professor in the Museum. Both authors of the original cephalopod paper wrote to Cuvier as well to apologize for the trouble their paper had caused. However, the damage to Meyranx and Laurencet's careers may already have been done, as no future works by the authors have been recorded, nor is their cephalopod paper to be found. After the debate officially ended, both naturalists continued to throw in snide mentions to each other's works in Academy discussion, though neither Geoffroy nor Cuvier openly engaged each other again. The press and scientific journals followed their volatile disagreements up until Cuvier's death by cholera a mere two years after the debate. While the two naturalists were unable to reconcile their ideas in life, Geoffroy spoke at Cuvier's funeral quite fondly of his former friend, feeling pleased "to have been the first to recognize and reveal to the learned world the scope of genius who did not yet know it himself", as well as saying anyone who studied the science of nature/natural history owed it to Cuvier for laying the foundation with his genius and massive knowledge of the natural world. While neither Geoffroy or Cuvier's ideas were fully adopted and the other ignored in future science theory, both unity of composition and functional morphology can be seen as influences to further works on the natural world. Geoffroy's ideas of unity of composition and development of more complex organisms from a common, less complex plan often recognize Geoffroy as one of the first to accept evolution theory.

systematic magnitude

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13380423

Bill Purcell was the York University hockey coach from 1965–1972, and the OIAA 1969-70 Coach of the Year. He is credited with establishing York University's Yeomen hockey program in 1961 and bringing it national acclaim and notoriety. He also championed the teams relocation from outdoor play at Glendon to the New York Arena, locally known as the Ice Palace. Coaching positions. Purcell is a former semi-professional hockey player himself, playing for the Toronto All Stars 1966–1967. He was a professional fire fighter for the city of Toronto (Dundas and Parliament hall) in the 1950s and 1960s. References. http://www.excal.on.ca/sportshealth/hockeyalumni/ http://www.yorku.ca/sprtyork/sport_hall_of_fame/members/1984.htm

exterior games

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=274804

Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in the United States. Originally an all-graduate institution, Clark's first undergraduates entered in 1902 and women were first enrolled in 1942. The university now offers 46 majors, minors, and concentrations in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering and allows students to design specialized majors and engage in pre-professional programs. It is noted for its programs in the fields of psychology, geography, physics, biology, and entrepreneurship and is a member of the Higher Education Consortium of Central Massachusetts which enables students to cross-register to attend courses at other area institutions including Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the College of the Holy Cross. As a liberal arts–based research university, Clark makes substantial research opportunities available to its students, notably at the undergraduate level through LEEP project funding, yet is also respected for its intimate environment as the second smallest university counted among the top 66 national universities by "U.S. News & World Report" and as one of 40 "Colleges That Change Lives". It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". It was a founding member of the Association of American Universities, but departed in 1999. Graduate and professional programs are offered through the Graduate School, the Graduate School of Management, the Graduate School of Geography, the Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology, the Gustaf H. Carlson School of Chemistry, the Adam Institute for Urban Teaching and School Practice, the International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE), and the School of Professional Studies, and the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The university competes intercollegiately in 17 NCAA Division III varsity sports as the Clark Cougars and is a part of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference. Intramural and club sports are also offered in a wide range of activities. Clark faculty and alumni have founded numerous companies and organizations, including Panera Bread, the American Psychological Association, and the American Physical Society, and have played leading roles in the development of modern rocketry, the wind chill factor, and the birth control pill. The university is also the alma mater of at least three living billionaires, in addition to its alumni having won three Pulitzer Prizes and an Emmy Award. History. Founding and early history. On January 17, 1887, successful American businessman Jonas Gilman Clark announced his intention to found and endow a university in the city of Worcester, filing a petition in the Massachusetts Legislature requesting a charter for Clark University. An Act of Incorporation was duly enacted by the legislature and signed by the governor on March 31 of that same year. Clark, who was a friend of Leland Stanford, was probably inspired by the plans for Stanford University and founded the university with an endowment of one million dollars, and later added another million dollars because he feared the university might someday face a lack of funds. Opening on October 2, 1889, Clark was the first all-graduate university in the United States, with departments in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and psychology. G. Stanley Hall was appointed the first president of Clark University in 1888. He had been a professor of psychology and pedagogy at Johns Hopkins University, which had been founded just a few years prior and was quickly becoming a model of the modern research university. Hall spent seven months in Europe visiting other universities and recruiting faculty. He became the founder of the American Psychological Association and earned the first Ph.D. in psychology in the United States at Harvard. Clark has played a prominent role in the development of psychology as a distinguished discipline in the United States ever since. Franz Boas, founder of American cultural anthropology and adviser for the first Ph.D. in anthropology which was granted at Clark in 1891, taught at Clark from 1888 until 1892 when he resigned in a dispute with President Hall over academic freedom and joined the faculty of Columbia University. Albert A. Michelson, the first American to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics, best known for his involvement in the Michelson–Morley experiment, which measured the speed of light, was a professor from 1889 to 1892 before becoming head of the physics department at the University of Chicago. Jonas G. Clark died in 1900, leaving gifts to the university and campus library, but reserving half of his estate for the foundation of an undergraduate college. This had been strongly opposed by President Hall in years past, but Clark College opened in 1902, managed independently of Clark University. Clark College and Clark University had different presidents until Hall's retirement in 1920. Clark University began admitting women after Clark's death, and the first female Ph.D. in psychology was awarded in 1908. Early Ph.D. students in psychology were ethnically diverse, with several early graduates being Japanese. In 1920, Francis Sumner became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in psychology. Clark University, along with Stanford and Johns Hopkins, was one of the fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities, an organization of universities with the most prestigious profiles in research and graduate education, and was one of only three New England universities, along with Harvard and Yale, to be a founding member. Clark withdrew its membership in 1999, citing a conflict with its mission. Clark Lectures. In order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Clark's opening, President Hall invited a number of leading thinkers to the university. Among them was Sigmund Freud who, accompanied by Carl Jung, delivered his five famous "Clark Lectures" there over the course of five days in September 1909, introducing psychoanalysis to an American audience. This was Freud's only visit to the United States. Later history. In the 1920s Robert Goddard, a pioneer of rocketry, considered one of the founders of space and missile technology, was chairman of the Physics Department. The Robert H. Goddard Library is named for him. The Graduate School of Management (GSOM) was founded in 1982. In 1997, Clark announced the first PhD program in Holocaust Studies in the United States. This after the university convinced Debórah Dwork to leave Yale University and become Clark's first professor of Holocaust studies in the prior year. 2000s. The Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise was established in fall 2007 due to a founding gift from two Clark alumni, William '76 and Jane '75 Mosakowski. U.S. Secretary of State and former senator and democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke at Clark University on February 4, 2008, to an audience of approximately 3,500 in the Kneller Athletic Center. In March 2009, Clark University convened a first-of-its-kind National Conference on Liberal Education and Effective Practice, co-sponsored by Clark's Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise and the Association of American Colleges and Universities. In April 2009, then-President John Bassett denied Clark University Students for Palestinian Rights, a student group, permission to bring Norman Finkelstein to speak about the "Gaza Massacre" (2008–2009 Gaza War) because Finkelstein "would invite controversy and not dialogue or understanding". He also cited a conflict in scheduling regarding a conference on Holocaust and Genocide Studies presented by the university in the same month. However, following protests, which included a public protest in the center of campus, a petition campaign and outreach by alumni, students and faculty, Basset reversed his decision and allowed Finkelstein to speak on April 27, the last day of classes for the semester. Finkelstein spoke to around 400 students, faculty and community members in Atwood Hall. In April 2010, Clark University received the largest gift in its 123-year history, a $14.2 million offering from the late head of Hanover Insurance, one of the nation's biggest property and casualty insurers. The gift from John Adam is intended to strengthen Clark's graduate programs in education, promote college-readiness among minority students and bolster its research profile related to urban education. This donation created the Adams Education Fund, which will enhance Clark's nationally recognized model for urban secondary education and reform, teacher-training, and community education partnerships. On July 1, 2010, former provost David Angel became the ninth president of Clark, succeeding John Bassett, who went on to become president of Heritage University, located on the Yakama Indian Reservation in Toppenish, Washington. Clark University has an ongoing renovation project that will cover several buildings. In the summer of 2010, overhauls occurred in Bullock and Wright Hall dormitories. In summer 2012, Clark University underwent more renovations. The city of Worcester allowed the university to close Downing Street to unite the campus. The area was landscaped to become a pedestrian plaza. Johnson and Sanford halls were united to become the Johnson Sanford Center featuring new social, study, and multimedia spaces. The project included addition of an outdoor roof terrace and an elevator to all levels. The university has recently begun a project called LEEP to connect students and the world of academia to practical experience. Summer 2016 saw the completion of a new Alumni and Student Engagement Center building, extending the campus across Main Street. The facility is a mixed-use building containing administrative offices, lecture halls, meeting rooms, and some retail space, and features a modern architectural look and a roof-top solar array. Campus. The campus is located on Main Street in the Main South neighborhood about west of downtown Worcester and west of Boston. The campus is compact, with most of the major buildings located within the space of a single city block. The center of campus is known as the Green. The Green is a hub for student activity, and is where most Clarkies spend their time during the warm months. It is the location of Spree Day, the welcome back BBQ, several clubs' events and graduation. The buildings surrounding The Green include Atwood Hall, Jefferson Academic Center, Higgins University Center, Jonas Clark Hall, and the Goddard Library. Administrative offices are housed in small buildings along Woodland Street, as is the president's house. The new Shaich Family Alumni and Student Engagement Center, named in honor of a $5 million gift from the family of alumnus Ron Shaich, is across Main Street and houses meeting spaces and offices. Academic facilities. Jonas Clark Hall, built in 1887, was Clark University's first building. It occupies the center of campus and houses the economics, psychology and education departments. Located in the basement of Jonas Clark Hall is the university's cogeneration plant which allows the university to recycle waste heat from electrical generation into hot water, heat, and steam. It was updated in 2013 to a more efficient 2.0 kWh natural gas engine. Estabrook Hall, located on Woodland Street, is the second oldest building on Clark's campus. It was constructed as dormitories, it now functions as the language center and the music center. The top three floors are dedicated to languages including Spanish, French, German, Latin, and Hebrew, while the bottom floor and basement are practice rooms and music halls. The Jefferson Academic Center houses various social science departments including Women's Studies, Geography, History, Geographical Information Sciences, Political Science, and Sociology. Atwood Hall, attached to the Jefferson Academic Center, is the primary theater on campus and seats 658. Atwood Hall originally served as the chapel for the university, and in recent decades has been the scene for several notable concerts and speeches. The Grateful Dead (1967 and 1969), the Jimi Hendrix Experience (1968), Janis Joplin (1969), and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (1974) have all played here. A March 15, 1968 concert by the Jimi Hendrix Experience was professionally recorded and released in 1999 as "Live at Clark University". In 1963, student D'Army Bailey invited Malcolm X to speak here. Noam Chomsky spoke here on the topic of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the Arab Spring April 12, 2011. It was the first-ever lecture given on a Spree Day at Clark. On October 16, 2014, President Bill Clinton spoke in Atwood as a supporter of Martha Coakley's run for Governor of Massachusetts. The Lasry Center for Bioscience (named for hedge fund manager Marc Lasry and his wife Cathy, both alumni) houses the biology department. It received a LEED Gold certification for its energy efficiency. The Little Center is the alternate performing arts venue, with its largest room, the Michelson Theater seating 120. The Academic Commons, also known as the AC, acts as a study area and lounge for the students, and incorporates a Sodexo coffeehouse named Jazzmans, a quiet study area, a computer room, and the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprises. The Goddard Library is upstairs from the Academic Commons and houses more than 375,000 volumes. Libraries. Clark University has 7 libraries. Athletic facilities. The Kneller Athletic Center houses the basketball courts, swimming pool, racquet ball courts, handball courts, and the James and Ada B. Bickman Fitness Center which was opened in 1995 and completely renovated in 2013. Major campus events, such as International Gala, the fall concert, and first year orientation are usually held in the Kneller as the basketball courts are the largest rooms on campus and can accommodate the entire student body. The Thomas M. '62 and Joan E. '60 Dolan Field House opened in May 2003 at which time the Russ Granger Athletic Fields and Corash Tennis Courts around it were reconfigured and renovated. The Boys and Girls Club Track and Field opened in October 2016. Housing. Students entering Clark must live on campus for the first two years unless their primary address is within of campus. The residence halls at Clark are organized by those who live there. The halls include the following breakdowns: Clark owns apartments that, while outside of the main campus area, exclusively house Clark students. The first Clark "residence halls" (Wright and Bullock) opened in 1959. Before that time, Estabrook Hall was the men's dormitory and small women's dorms stood in the current location of Little Center and Bullock Hall. Blackstone, the newest of the halls, opened in 2007. As of fall 2007, gender blind/neutral housing is an option at Clark, meaning that students of different genders can room together. Clark University released its Climate Action Plan December 15, 2009, detailing strategies for the university to reduce its carbon footprint while strengthening many of its existing sustainability practices. The plan sets two goals with respect to climate neutrality: First is an interim goal of reducing emissions to 20 percent below 2005-levels by 2015. The second goal is to achieve climate neutrality (net zero greenhouse gas emissions) by the year 2030. Organization. Clark College. Clark College opened in 1902 as the fulfillment of founder Jonas Clark's desire for an undergraduate liberal arts college. The administration of Clark College and Clark University was formally united in 1920 and undergraduate programs continue today under the university. Graduate School of Management. The Graduate School of Management (GSOM), founded in 1982, is led by Dean Alan Eisner. The school offers a range of master's degrees as well as undergraduate courses in Management, Marketing, and Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Notable alumni of GSOM include Libérat Mfumukeko, secretary-general of the East African Community, Matt Goldman, co-founder of the Blue Man Group Graduate School of Geography. The Graduate School of Geography (GSG), founded in 1921 by Wallace Walter Atwood and led by Director James McCarthy, offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. Under GSG is Clark Labs, founded in 1987, which developed the IDRISI GIS and image processing software and then the TerrSet geospatial monitoring and modeling software. Alumni of the school include Paul Siple, an Antarctic explorer and inventor of the wind chill factor who attended the school on the recommendation of Admiral Richard E. Byrd. Siple named the Clark Mountains in Antarctica after Clark and several of the peaks after Clark professors in the GSG. School of Professional Studies. The School of Professional Studies (SPS) offers bachelor's degrees as well as a Master in Public Administration (MPA), Master of Science in Public Communication (MSPC), Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT), Certificate in Community Human Services, and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS). Called the Evening College from its establishment in 1953 and then the College of Professional and Continuing Education (COPACE) from 1975 to 2016, the school is led by the vice provost for professional education and dean, John LaBrie. It has branch campuses in Łódź and Warsaw, Poland, with the University of Social Sciences and in Astrakhan, Russia with Astrakhan State University. There are also joint programs with Shandong University of Science and Technology and Hefei University of Technology. Alumni of SPS include Olta Xhaçka, Albanian Minister of Defense, and Keith R. Hall, former director of the National Reconnaissance Office. Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology. The Hiatt School of Psychology, led by Chair James Córdova, offers undergraduate and doctoral degrees. Notable alumni include Francis Sumner, the father of black psychology, and Arnold Gesell, noted child psychologist. The American Psychological Association was founded at Clark in 1892 by Clark's first president, psychologist G. Stanley Hall. It was also at Clark that mazes were first used to study rat behavior by psychology Professor Edmund Sanford in his laboratory. Gustaf H. Carlson School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. The Carlson School of Chemistry offers undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees, including a 3/2 engineering program with Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. The school is led by Chair Shuanghong Huo. What was then known as Clark's chemical laboratories was once directed by Professor Charles A. Kraus, a noted chemist who was a consultant to the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service during World War I and the Manhattan Project during World War II. He also developed the anti-knock additive in gasoline. International Development, Community and Environment Department. The IDCE Department, founded in 2000, is led by Director Edward R. Carr. Home to nearly 300 graduate and undergraduate students each year, IDCE offers an undergraduate major in International Development and Social Change and master's degrees in International Development, Environmental Science and Policy, Community Development and Planning, and Global and Community Health. It also jointly manages the Masters in Geographic Information Science with the Graduate School of Geography, and offers a dual degree program (MBA/ES&P) with the Graduate School of Management. The QS World University Rankings ranked IDCE's International Development program 15th for academic reputation in 2018. Academics. Clark offers 32 undergraduate majors. It offers 57 study abroad and away programs in 34 different countries. Clark has 212 full-time faculty, representing a 10:1 student-faculty ratio. Ninety-four percent of Clark's faculty have doctoral or terminal degrees. Clark University is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. In recent years, Clark has been noted especially for its geography and psychology departments, with the latter having a distinctive humanistic orientation. The School of Geography was founded by then President Wallace Walter Atwood in 1921, and is the first institution in the United States established for graduate study in this science. It has granted more doctoral degrees than any other geography program in the country. The geography department is best known for its strength in human-environment geography and for the development of the IDRISI geographic information systems software, named for the famous 12th century explorer and cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi by Prof. Ron Eastman. It was ranked #1 for undergraduate geography by "Rugg's Recommendations on Colleges" and has consistently been ranked in the top 10 in the nation by other publications. The geography department also offers a graduate-level degree in GIS as part of the Fifth-Year Free program. The department's mission is ambitious: "to educate undergraduate and graduate students to be imaginative and contributing citizens of the world, and to advance the frontiers of knowledge and understanding through rigorous scholarship and creative effort." In recent years, Clark has received widespread media coverage for its "Fifth-Year Free" program. Under Clark's BA/MA program with the fifth year free, undergraduates who maintain a B+ average are eligible for tuition-free enrollment in its one-year graduate programs, meaning that they can get a Master of Arts degree for the price of a bachelor's degree. Students apply to master's degree programs in their junior year, begin meeting requirements in their senior year and typically complete those requirements in the fifth year. Bachelor's degrees are granted en route to the master's degree. Admissions. Admission to Clark is rated "more selective" by "U.S. News & World Report". For Fall 2019, Clark received 7,639 freshmen applications; 4,032 were admitted (52.8%) and 665 enrolled. The average high school grade point average (GPA) of the enrolled freshmen was 3.65, while the middle 50% range of SAT scores was 600–690 for evidence-based reading and writing, and 580–680 for math. The middle 50% range of the ACT Composite score was 27–31. Student life. Student body. As of fall 2019, Clark's student body comprised 2,349 undergraduates and 1,149 graduate and professional students.International students make up 11.5% of undergraduates. In addition, 21% of the undergraduate student body is classified as ALANA (Asian-, Latino-, African-, and Native-American) and 61% of undergraduates are female. Residential life. The majority of the undergraduate student body, 66%, lives on campus. Clark requires undergraduates to do so for their first two years, with first-years being assigned housing based on their responses to a Housing Preferences Form. Once first-years have been assigned housing, a seniority system, whereby seniors have the first choice of spaces left, juniors have the second, and sophomores the third, ensures that seniors and juniors are usually able to live on campus if they wish to. Nonetheless, some choose to live in off-campus apartments in the immediate neighborhood of Clark, along with the graduate students outside the 1% that live on campus. Student organizations. There are more than 130 student clubs and organizations at Clark. All these are headed by the Clark Undergraduate Student Council which disseminates more than $750,000 in budgets to the various clubs and their events. Media and publications. "The Scarlet" is Clark University's student newspaper. It is published weekly and has four sections: News, Opinions, Living Arts, and Sports. Clark's literary magazine, "Caesura", is published annually and features artwork, poetry, prose, essays, and creative non-fiction submitted by undergraduate and graduate students. "STIR Magazine", Clark's life, culture, and style magazine was founded by Diana Levine as a student project in 2004. "STIR" began with a three-person staff and in black and white, and now has about 30 core students who contribute to its production in full color. The "Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal" ("SURJ") is Clark's student-run undergraduate research journal. It publishes undergraduate academic work and is intended to provide undergraduates with "experiences in the peer review and academic publication processes." Peer reviewers consist of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty. "The Freudian Slip," is a satire/humor publication founded in 2015. It publishes semi-weekly satirical articles about local and worldwide events. It is also the first university publication published exclusively online. There is also a student-run internet radio station, Radio of Clark University (ROCU), with over 100 student DJs. Events. Spree Day originated in 1903 to coincide with St. Patrick's Day. It is traditional to not tell first-year students about Spree Day. Instead, the Senior class awakens the first-years by running through the dorms banging pots and pans. While Spree Day is a day of recreation, Clark University also holds the Academic Spree Day annually during Spring semester. This academic event is when Clark undergraduates present their research and creative work. Athletics. Clark University fields 17 NCAA Division III varsity teams which compete intercollegiately as the Clark Cougars in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, lacrosse, soccer, swimming and diving, and tennis; women's sports include basketball, cross country, field hockey, crew, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, and volleyball. The university also offers a variety of club and intramural sports such as soccer, ice hockey, ultimate frisbee, quidditch, volleyball and basketball. This contributes to Clark's 65 percent student participation rate in athletics. Clark and the community. In 1985, the university engaged in a partnership with community groups and business organizations to revitalize Clark neighborhoods. Its efforts in the University Park Partnership program include refurbishing dilapidated or abandoned homes, reselling them to area residents, and subsidizing mortgages for new home buyers. In 1997, Clark opened a secondary public school, the University Park Campus School (UPCS), that is also a professional development school for Clark's teacher education program. Because of its long hours and demanding curricula, UPCS has been lauded as a model for collaboration between a university and an urban district. Students are able to attend Clark University free of charge upon graduation, provided they meet certain residency and admissions requirements. In the May 16, 2005, issue of "Newsweek", UPCS was named the 68th best high school in the nation. UPCS was featured in a page-one story entitled "Town-grown triumph: In poorest part of Worcester, Clark helps put children on path to college" of the November 22, 2007, edition of "The Boston Globe". The UPCS collaborative is one of several sponsored by Clark's Jacob Hiatt Center for Urban Education focused on urban teacher education and school reform. Research. Clark has seven research institutes and centers. The William and Jane Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise seeks to improve through the successful mobilization of use-inspired research the effectiveness of government and other institutions in addressing social concerns. The institute focuses on important social issues, including focal areas such as education reform, environmental sustainability, access to healthcare, human development, well-being and global change. The George Perkins Marsh Institute conducts collaborative, interdisciplinary research on human-environment relationships and the human dimensions of global environmental change. The Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies an interdisciplinary center, founded in 1998, which focuses on the causes and effects of Holocausts and Genocides around the world. It is housed in Lasry House, donated by investor Marc Lasry and his wife Cathy in honor of their fathers Irwin Cohen and Moise Lasry. Debórah Dwork is the founding director and also Rose Professor of Holocaust History at Clark. The Jacob Hiatt Center for Urban Education develops models of urban schooling, teaching and teacher education through local partnership, in order to learn from these models and expand the knowledge-base of effective practice through research. The Center for Risk and Security (CRS) at the George Perkins Marsh Institute conducts in-depth studies of homeland security issues using a risk-analysis perspective. The center's broad range of security issues includes: terrorism; disaster management; law and human rights; resource availability; and public health. The Center for Technology, Environment and Development (CENTED), founded in 1987, is a center for the study of natural and technological hazards in the United States. Projects include theoretical work on hazard analysis, hazard taxonomies, vulnerability, environmental equity, corporate risk management, emergency planning and hazardous waste transportation. Clark Labs is engaged in the research and development on geospatial technologies including the development of computer software and analytical techniques for GIS and remote sensing with an emphasis on monitoring and modeling earth system dynamics. Clark Labs continues to develop and distribute TerrSet (formerly IDRISI), a geographic information system (GIS) software package that is in use at more than 40,000 sites in over 180 countries worldwide. Its chief is Dr. J. Ronald Eastman, creator of IDRISI. People. The university's most famous alumnus was graduate student and professor Robert H. Goddard, a pioneering rocket scientist who conducted many experiments on campus. Clark's first president, G. Stanley Hall, founded the American Psychological Association in July 1892 at Clark. Grayson L. Kirk, a president of the Council on Foreign Relations during the Cold War and the president of Columbia University during the student protests of 1968 received his master's degree from the university, as did D'Army Bailey a prominent civil rights activist and the founder of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. Clark is also notable for being the site of Sigmund Freud's only lectures in the United States and for being the university where Chinese poet Xu Zhimo earned his BA. In popular culture. Gus Van Sant's "The Sea of Trees" was filmed in part on Clark University's campus. Leading actor Matthew McConaughey's character, Arthur Brennan, is a physics professor and scenes were filmed in and around Clark's Sackler Sciences Center. Clark was also a shooting location for the thriller "Black Car", an independent film about a law student out for revenge, with Clark as the law school. The novel "Something for Nothing", a semi-comic take on the struggles of a professor new to academia written by economist Michael W. Klein, is set at the fictional "Kester College," which like Clark University has a large main building that legend says was designed so that it could be converted into a factory should the college fail. Klein began his teaching career at Clark. "Burning Annie", an independent comedy, was written and produced by two Clark alumni and is a semi-autobiographical film based on the experiences of one at Clark. One of the main characters in Annie Baker's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "The Flick", an African American movie usher named Avery, is a Clarkie with a full-ride to attend the university.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29905927

Mindquest (1995 – 2003) was the first online public high school in the United States. It operated through the Bloomington Public Schools in Bloomington, Minnesota, and was created in 1995 by Kevin Byrne within the "South Hennepin Adult Programs in Education" (SHAPE), a program started in 1978 for adult and alternative school within the Bloomington Public Schools. Mindquest operated until the end of 2003, when the Bloomington Schools closed it in favor of a regional distance learning program. Operations. Mindquest allowed students to earn a high school diploma completely on the Internet by means of web-based interaction between and among students, teachers, and mentors. High school juniors and seniors were able to gain extra credits or undertake their entire high school diploma. Mindquest operated via Softarc’s FirstClass communications and bulletin board software. A key obstacle for Mindquest in its early days was visibility, as few people had access to the Internet in 1995. The original budget was $131,000 and served eighty students, both teenagers and adults. Minnesota students did not have to make tuition payments, however out-of-state students paid tuition. By 2001 there were about 300 online learners, attending 535 courses, with students enrolled from as far away as India. Mindquest was unique in that the curriculum was entirely created by Mindquest staff. Legacy. Mindquest was managed on a day-to-day basis by Julie Williams, who later developed an online charter school called Minnesota Online High School, which is still in operation in 2020. The instructional leader of SHAPE and Mindquest, Greta Ploetz, received grant funding from the Bush Foundation to create the Mindquest Academy, an online college entrance preparation program that in 2011 was still in operation through the Minnesota Department of Education. Martin Borg, a Mindquest teacher, and Kevin Byrne created an online assessment company called Achievement Data, Inc (ADI) in 1998, and sold it to Questar in 2005. In 2008 Borg became President of Measured Progress, an assessment company based in New Hampshire. In 2000 Byrne also helped create and served on the board of BlueSky Charter School, the first online charter school in the country. In 2003 Byrne created a work-based charter high school called Minnesota Internship Center (MNIC), and as of 2011 he continued to serve as its Executive director.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54101802

Set of jewelry, also known as the Vulci group is a set of 5th century BCE Etruscan metalwork collection by an unknown jeweler. It is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The history of the set is unknown. It was discovered in a two chamber tomb in the ancient site of Vulci in 1832. The burial featured a two chamber tomb of a man and woman, who were most likely married in life. Description. The Vulci group is a set is made of ten pieces of jewelry: a pair of earrings, a necklace, three fibulae, and five rings. The necklace itself is made of eleven pendents that are attached to tube shaped beads. Depicted on the pendants are a satyr or possibly the god Acheloos and a female head flanked by wings and another head; these designs alternate. Also on each pendant are imitation carnelian and banded agate. Sirens form the clasps at the end of the necklace. There are five rings that are a part of this set. One is a thin gold band with a cartouche of a sphinx and a lion, dated to about 530 BCE. Another ring has a much thicker gold band, and unlike the rest of the set, taken from the male's burial chamber. It features an oval carnelian in the enter, and is flanked by satyr heads on either side. A third ring features a gold band with a red carnelian that has a scarab on it. It swivels to show a man holding a club, who may be Hercle. A similar ring made of banded agate also features a scarab, as well as a youth holding a sword while leaning on a pillar. Finally there is another large gold band, featuring a bezel with a resting lion. It is surrounded by radiating palmettes. Three pins also are a part of the set. One features segments that join to form a pomegranate flower. Another is much more simple, featuring a little sphere, but little other decoration. Finally there is a fibula with a double sphinx head, as well as rosettes. The earrings that form the set have a circular band of gold, with filigree branching out from the center. In the gold band and set in the center are carnelian stones, although some are now missing. This type of earring was common in Etruscan art, with similar examples in the British Museum. Later history and influence. This group of material was found in a two chamber tomb in Vulci by Domenico Campanari in 1832. The tomb ran alongside the Fiora River, and Campanari's entire family was involved with archaeological work in the area and as well as Poggio Buco and Tuscania. So influential was the family's work with Etruscan excavation, they helped organize some of the very first exhibitions of Etruscan art in places such as London. Within the tomb, one chamber was set aside for the male buried there, and the other set aside for a female. It is from the woman's portion of the tomb that the Vulci group was taken. The jewelry transferred to the hands of Jaques Claud, the Bargon Beugnot, and then to Rougemont de Lowemberg. By 1930 the set was on the antiquities market, and the museum purchased it in 1940. The Vulci group is extremely important to the interest in Etruscan culture during the 19th century. Due to the richness of the materials within, and other like discoveries including a tomb on the property of the Prince of Canino in 1828, it became common for the wealthy to purchase imitation Etruscan jewelry. The Castellani family were some of the best known for their Etruscan influenced work.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=431877

Internet research is the practice of using Internet information, especially free information on the World Wide Web, or Internet-based resources (like Internet discussion forum) in research. Internet research has had a profound impact on the way ideas are formed and knowledge is created. Common applications of Internet research include personal research on a particular subject (something mentioned on the news, a health problem, etc. ), students doing research for academic projects and papers, and journalists and other writers researching stories. "Research" is a broad term. Here, it is used to mean "looking something up (on the Web)". It includes any activity where a topic is identified, and an effort is made to actively gather information for the purpose of furthering understanding. It may include some post-collection analysis like a concern for quality or synthesis. Through searches on the Internet hundreds or thousands of pages can often be quickly found with some relation to a given topic. In addition, email (including mailing lists), online discussion forums (aka message boards, BBS's), and other personal communication facilities (instant messaging, IRC, newsgroups, etc.) can provide direct access to experts and other individuals with relevant interests and knowledge. Internet research is distinct from library research (focusing on library-bound resources) and commercial database research (focusing on commercial databases). While many commercial databases are delivered through the Internet, and some libraries purchase access to library databases on behalf of their patrons, searching such databases is generally not considered part of “Internet research”. It should also be distinguished from scientific research (research following a defined and rigorous process) carried out on the Internet, from straightforward retrieving of details like a name or phone number, and from research "about" the Internet. Internet research can provide quick, immediate, and worldwide access to information, although results may be affected by unrecognized bias, difficulties in verifying a writer's credentials (and therefore the accuracy or pertinence of the information obtained) and whether the searcher has sufficient skill to draw meaningful results from the abundance of material typically available. The first resources retrieved may not be the most suitable resources to answer a particular question. Popularity is often a factor used in structuring Internet search results but popular information is not always most correct or representative of the breadth of knowledge and opinion on a topic. While conducting commercial research fosters a deep concern with costs, and library research fosters a concern with access, Internet research fosters a deep concern for quality, managing the abundance of information and with avoiding unintended bias. This is partly because Internet research occurs in a less mature information environment: an environment with less sophisticated / poorly communicated search skills and much less effort in organizing information. Library and commercial research has many search tactics and strategies unavailable on the Internet and the library and commercial environments invest more deeply in organizing and vetting their information. Search tools. The most popular search tools for finding information on the Internet include Web search engines, meta search engines, Web directories, and specialty search services. A Web search engine uses software known as a Web crawler to follow the hyperlinks connecting the pages on the World Wide Web. The information on these Web pages is indexed and stored by the search engine. To access this information, a user enters keywords in a search form and the search engine queries its algorithms, which take into consideration the location and frequency of keywords on a Web page, along with the quality and number of external hyperlinks pointing at the Web page. A Meta search engine enables users to enter a search query once and it runs against multiple search engines simultaneously, creating a list of aggregated search results. Since no single search engine covers the entire web, a meta search engine can produce a more comprehensive search of the web. Most meta search engines automatically eliminate duplicate search results. However, meta search engines have a significant limitation because the most popular search engines, such as Google, are not included because of legal restrictions. A Web directory organizes subjects in a hierarchical fashion that lets users investigate the breadth of a specific topic and drill down to find relevant links and content. Web directories can be assembled automatically by algorithms or handcrafted. Human-edited Web directories have the distinct advantage of higher quality and reliability, while those produced by algorithms can offer more comprehensive coverage. The scope of Web directories are generally broad, such as DOZ, Yahoo! and The WWW Virtual Library, covering a wide range of subjects, while others focus on specific topics. Specialty search tools enable users to find information that conventional search engines and meta search engines cannot access because the content is stored in databases. In fact, the vast majority of information on the web is stored in databases that require users to go to a specific site and access it through a search form. Often, the content is generated dynamically. As a consequence, Web crawlers are unable to index this information. In a sense, this content is "hidden" from search engines, leading to the term invisible or deep Web. Specialty search tools have evolved to provide users with the means to quickly and easily find deep Web content. These specialty tools rely on advanced bot and intelligent agent technologies to search the deep Web and automatically generate specialty Web directories, such as the Virtual Private Library. Website authorship. When using the Internet for research, countless websites appear for whatever search query is entered. Each of these sites has one or more authors or associated organizations. Who authored or sponsored a website is very important to the accuracy and reliability of the information presented on the website. While it is very imperative that the authorship be determined for every website during Internet research, who authored or sponsored a website is essential culture when one cares about the accuracy and reliability of the information, bias, and/or web safety. For example, a website about civil rights that is authored by a member of an extremist group most likely will not contain accurate or unbiased information. The author or sponsoring organization of a website may be found in several ways. Sometimes the author or organization can be found at the bottom of the website home page. Another way is by looking in the ‘Contact Us’ section of the website. It may be directly listed, determined from the email address, or by emailing and asking. If the author's name or sponsoring organization cannot be determined, one should question the trustworthiness of the website. If the author's name or sponsoring organization is found, a simple Internet search can provide information that can be used to determine if the website is reliable and unbiased. Internet research software. Internet research software captures information while performing Internet research. This information can then be organized in various ways included tagging and hierarchical trees. The goal is to collect information relevant to a specific research project in one place, so that it can be found and accessed again quickly. These tools also allow captured content to be edited and annotated and some allow the ability to export to other formats. Other features common to outliners include the ability to use full text search which aids in quickly locating information and filters enable you to drill down to see only information relevant to a specific query. Captured and kept information also provides an additional backup, in case web pages and sites disappear or are inaccessible later.

internet bots

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=45402628

The Crimson Circle is a service organization at Loyola Marymount University under Student Affairs in the office of The Center for Service and Action. Mission. Service, honor, brotherhood, tradition, and faith are the hallmarks of the Crimson Circle. Dating back to 1929, the Circle has always had a tradition of prestigious and diverse membership. The Circle dedicates their time and expresses many outstanding talents that contribute to serving Loyola Marymount University and the greater Los Angeles and World communities in a commitment to social justice. To be a Crimson is to be a man for and with others. History. The Crimson Circle was established at Loyola University in 1929 to assist the Jesuit Dean of Students with the enforcement of the Student Conduct Code at student assemblies and at athletic events. Appointed by the Student Council, they administered public punishment to those students found guilty of infraction of the laws and traditions of the University. It was composed of fifteen men from the sophomore, junior and senior classes. Father Lorenzo M. Malone, SJ, was the first moderator. As Loyola University continued to develop and its needs changed, the purpose of Crimsom Circle also changed and developed. By the 1940s, Crimson Circle shed its responsibilities in enforcing the Student Conduct Code and became an honor society. During the 1960s, Crimson Circle began to resemble the organization it is today. Crimson Circle became a service organization committed to the University to promote programs of the Associated Students of Loyola University, the President's Office, University Relations, and Admissions. Today, Crimson Circle's mission is to serve at Loyola Marymount University and the surrounding communities of Los Angeles. Since its foundation, members of Crimson Circle have been recognized for leadership, loyalty, generous service, good academic standing, and high spirit. The uniform colors of Crimson Circle remain crimson and grey, reflecting the old school colors of Loyola University. Crimson Circle is composed of 35 sophomore, junior, and senior men. Moderators of Crimson Circle have included: Fr. Al Kilp, SJ; Fr. James Erps, SJ; and Fr. Wayne Negrete, SJ. Fr. Richard Robin, SJ, has served as moderator since 1995. Crimson Circle remains an important part of the Jesuit history and tradition at Loyola Marymount University. Present. In 2014 Crimson Circle has made a commitment to visit, tutor, and mentor students at St. Columbkille Catholic School and Urban Compass on a weekly basis. In the Spring of 2014, Crimson Circle was awarded the Riordan Community Action Grant to provide Urban Compass with an 8-week program focused on education of the whole person. Notable annual events served include the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles’ Buddy Walk, LMU’s Fright Night, and LMU’s Special Games. Crimson Circle continues to cultivate a growing presence at Midnight Mission to benefit the homeless population in Skid Row. In partnership with Belles service organization, Crimson Circle hosts the annual LMU Charity Ball which raises funds for their respective service placements. In addition, Crimson Circle has been a driving force of support for the successful biannual LMU Blood & Bone Marrow Drives done in conjunction with CSA and the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center. Traditions & anniversaries. The Crimson Circle has had many traditions throughout its existence. Most notably are as followed:

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=47642826

Robotic process automation (or RPA) is a form of business process automation technology based on metaphorical software robots (bots) or on artificial intelligence (AI)/digital workers. It is sometimes referred to as "software robotics" (not to be confused with robot software). In traditional workflow automation tools, a software developer produces a list of actions to automate a task and interface to the back-end system using internal application programming interfaces (APIs) or dedicated scripting language. In contrast, RPA systems develop the action list by watching the user perform that task in the application's graphical user interface (GUI), and then perform the automation by repeating those tasks directly in the GUI. This can lower the barrier to use of automation in products that might not otherwise feature APIs for this purpose. RPA tools have strong technical similarities to graphical user interface testing tools. These tools also automate interactions with the GUI, and often do so by repeating a set of demonstration actions performed by a user. RPA tools differ from such systems in that they allow data to be handled in and between multiple applications, for instance, receiving email containing an invoice, extracting the data, and then typing that into a bookkeeping system. Historic evolution. The typical benefits of robotic automation include reduced cost; increased speed, accuracy, and consistency; improved quality and scalability of production. Automation can also provide extra security, especially for sensitive data and financial services. As a form of automation, the concept has been around for a long time in the form of screen scraping, which can be traced back to early forms of malware. However, RPA is much more extensible, consisting of API integration into other enterprise applications, connectors into ITSM systems, terminal services and even some types of AI (e.g. Machine Learning) services such as image recognition. It is considered to be a significant technological evolution in the sense that new software platforms are emerging which are sufficiently mature, resilient, scalable and reliable to make this approach viable for use in large enterprises (who would otherwise be reluctant due to perceived risks to quality and reputation). A principal barrier to the adoption of self-service is often technological: it may not always be feasible or economically viable to retro-fit new interfaces onto existing systems. Moreover, organisations may wish to layer a variable and configurable set of process rules on top of the system interfaces which may vary according to market offerings and the type of customer. This only adds to the cost and complexity of the technological implementation. Robotic automation software provides a pragmatic means of deploying new services in this situation, where the robots simply mimick the behaviour of humans to perform the back end transcription or processing. The relative affordability of this approach arises from the fact that no IT new transformation or investment is required; instead the software robots simply leverage greater use out of existing IT assets. Deployment. The hosting of RPA services also aligns with the metaphor of a software robot, with each robotic instance having its own virtual workstation, much like a human worker. The robot uses keyboard and mouse controls to take actions and execute automations. Normally all of these actions take place in a virtual environment and not on screen; the robot does not need a physical screen to operate, rather it interprets the screen display electronically. The scalability of modern solutions based on architectures such as these owes much to the advent of virtualization technology, without which the scalability of large deployments would be limited by available capacity to manage physical hardware and by the associated costs. The implementation of RPA in business enterprises has shown dramatic cost savings when compared to traditional non-RPA solutions. There are however several risks with RPA. Criticism include risks of stifling innovation and creating a more complex maintenance environment of existing software that now needs to consider the use of graphical user interfaces in a way they weren't intended to be used. Impact on employment. According to "Harvard Business Review", most operations groups adopting RPA have promised their employees that automation would not result in layoffs. Instead, workers have been redeployed to do more interesting work. One academic study highlighted that knowledge workers did not feel threatened by automation: they embraced it and viewed the robots as team-mates. The same study highlighted that, rather than resulting in a lower "headcount", the technology was deployed in such a way as to achieve more work and greater productivity with the same number of people. Conversely, however, some analysts proffer that RPA represents a threat to the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. The thesis behind this notion is that RPA will enable enterprises to "repatriate" processes from offshore locations into local data centers, with the benefit of this new technology. The effect, if true, will be to create high-value jobs for skilled process designers in onshore locations (and within the associated supply chain of IT hardware, data center management, etc.) but to decrease the available opportunity to low skilled workers offshore. On the other hand, this discussion appears to be healthy ground for debate as another academic study was at pains to counter the so-called "myth" that RPA will bring back many jobs from offshore. Impact on society. Academic studies project that RPA, among other technological trends, is expected to drive a new wave of productivity and efficiency gains in the global labour market. Although not directly attributable to RPA alone, Oxford University conjectures that up to 35% of all jobs might be automated by 2035. There are geographic implications to the trend in robotic automation. In the example above where an offshored process is "repatriated" under the control of the client organization (or even displaced by a Business Process Outsourcer from an offshore location to a data centre, the impact will be a deficit in economic activity to the offshore location and an economic benefit to the originating economy. On this basis, developed economies – with skills and technological infrastructure to develop and support a robotic automation capability – can be expected to achieve a net benefit from the trend. In a TEDx talk hosted by University College London (UCL), entrepreneur David Moss explains that digital labour in the form of RPA is not only likely to revolutionize the cost model of the services industry by driving the price of products and services down, but that it is likely to drive up service levels, quality of outcomes and create increased opportunity for the personalization of services. In a separate TEDx in 2019 talk, Japanese business executive, and former CIO of Barclays bank, Koichi Hasegawa noted that digital robots can be a positive effect on society if we start using a robot with empathy to help every person. He provides a case study of the Japanese insurance companies – Sompo Japan and Aioi – both of whom deployed bots to speed up the process of insurance pay-outs in past massive disaster incidents. Meanwhile, Professor Willcocks, author of the LSE paper cited above, speaks of increased job satisfaction and intellectual stimulation, characterising the technology as having the ability to "take the robot out of the human", a reference to the notion that robots will take over the mundane and repetitive portions of people's daily workload, leaving them to be redeployed into more interpersonal roles or to concentrate on the remaining, more meaningful, portions of their day. Unassisted RPA. Unassisted RPA, or RPAAI, is the next generation of RPA related technologies. Technological advancements around artificial intelligence allow a process to be run on a computer without needing input from a user. Hyperautomation. Hyperautomation is the application of advanced technologies like RPA, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning (ML) and Process Mining to augment workers and automate processes in ways that are significantly more impactful than traditional automation capabilities. Hyperautomation is the combination of automation tools to deliver work. Gartner’s report notes that this trend was kicked off with robotic process automation (RPA). The report notes that, “RPA alone is not hyperautomation. Hyperautomation requires a combination of tools to help support replicating pieces of where the human is involved in a task." Outsourcing. Back office clerical processes outsourced by large organisations - particularly those sent offshore - tend to be simple and transactional in nature, requiring little (if any) analysis or subjective judgement. This would seem to make an ideal starting point for organizations beginning to adopt robotic automation for the back office. Whether client organisations choose to take outsourced processes back "in house" from their Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) providers, thus representing a threat to the future of the BPO business, or whether the BPOs implement such automations on their clients' behalf may well depend on a number of factors. Conversely however, a BPO provider may seek to effect some form of client lock-in by means of automation. By removing cost from a business operation, where the BPO provider is considered to be the owner of the intellectual property and physical implementation of a robotic automation solution (perhaps in terms of hardware, ownership of software licences, etc. ), the provider can make it very difficult for the client to take a process back "in house" or elect a new BPO provider. This effect occurs as the associated cost savings made through automation would - temporarily at least - have to be reintroduced to the business whilst the technical solution is reimplemented in the new operational context. The geographically agnostic nature of software means that new business opportunities may arise for those organisations who have a political or regulatory impediment to offshoring or outsourcing. A robotised automation can be hosted in a data centre in any jurisdiction and this has two major consequences for BPO providers. Firstly, for example, a sovereign government may not be willing or legally able to outsource the processing of tax affairs and security administration. On this basis, if robots are compared to a human workforce, this creates a genuinely new opportunity for a "third sourcing" option, after the choices of onshore vs. offshore. Secondly, and conversely, BPO providers have previously relocated outsourced operations to different political and geographic territories in response to changing wage inflation and new labor arbitrage opportunities elsewhere. By contrast, a data centre solution would seem to offer a fixed and predictable cost base that, if sufficiently low in cost on a robot vs. human basis, would seem to eliminate any potential need or desire to continually relocate operational bases.

exemplary jumping-off position

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23338549

A chain code is a lossless compression algorithm for monochrome images. The basic principle of chain codes is to separately encode each connected component, or "blob", in the image. For each such region, a point on the boundary is selected and its coordinates are transmitted. The encoder then moves along the boundary of the region and, at each step, transmits a symbol representing the direction of this movement. This continues until the encoder returns to the starting position, at which point the blob has been completely described, and encoding continues with the next blob in the image. This encoding method is particularly effective for images consisting of a reasonably small number of large connected components. Variations. Some popular chain codes include: In particular, FCCE, VCC, 3OT and DFCCE can be transformed from one to another A related blob encoding method is crack code. Algorithms exist to convert between chain code, crack code, and run-length encoding. A new trend of chain codes involve the utilization of biological behaviors. This started by the work of Mouring et al. who developed an algorithm that takes advantage of the pheromone of ants to track image information. An ant releases a pheromone when they find a piece of food. Other ants use the pheromone to track the food. In their algorithm, an image is transferred into a virtual environment that consists of food and paths according to the distribution of the pixels in the original image. Then, ants are distributed and their job is to move around while releasing pheromone when they encounter food items. This helps other ants identify information, and therefore, encode information. In use. Recently, the combination of move-to-front transform and adaptive run-length encoding accomplished efficient compression of the popular chain codes. Chain codes also can be used to obtain high levels of compression for image documents, outperforming standards such as DjVu and JBIG2.

recent set

5634-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=167166

Organ transplantation is a medical procedure in which an organ is removed from one body and placed in the body of a recipient, to replace a damaged or missing organ. The donor and recipient may be at the same location, or organs may be transported from a donor site to another location. Organs and/or tissues that are transplanted within the same person's body are called autografts. Transplants that are recently performed between two subjects of the same species are called allografts. Allografts can either be from a living or cadaveric source. Organs that have been successfully transplanted include the heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, intestine, thymus and uterus. Tissues include bones, tendons (both referred to as musculoskeletal grafts), corneae, skin, heart valves, nerves and veins. Worldwide, the kidneys are the most commonly transplanted organs, followed by the liver and then the heart. Corneae and musculoskeletal grafts are the most commonly transplanted tissues; these outnumber organ transplants by more than tenfold. Organ donors may be living, brain dead, or dead via circulatory death. Tissue may be recovered from donors who die of circulatory death, as well as of brain death – up to 24 hours past the cessation of heartbeat. Unlike organs, most tissues (with the exception of corneas) can be preserved and stored for up to five years, meaning they can be "banked". Transplantation raises a number of bioethical issues, including the definition of death, when and how consent should be given for an organ to be transplanted, and payment for organs for transplantation. Other ethical issues include transplantation tourism (medical tourism) and more broadly the socio-economic context in which organ procurement or transplantation may occur. A particular problem is organ trafficking. There is also the ethical issue of not holding out false hope to patients. Transplantation medicine is one of the most challenging and complex areas of modern medicine. Some of the key areas for medical management are the problems of transplant rejection, during which the body has an immune response to the transplanted organ, possibly leading to transplant failure and the need to immediately remove the organ from the recipient. When possible, transplant rejection can be reduced through serotyping to determine the most appropriate donor-recipient match and through the use of immunosuppressant drugs. Types of transplant. Autograft. Autografts are the transplant of tissue to the same person. Sometimes this is done with surplus tissue, tissue that can regenerate, or tissues more desperately needed elsewhere (examples include skin grafts, vein extraction for CABG, etc.). Sometimes an autograft is done to remove the tissue and then treat it or the person before returning it (examples include stem cell autograft and storing blood in advance of surgery). In a rotationplasty, a distal joint is used to replace a more proximal one; typically a foot or ankle joint is used to replace a knee joint. The person's foot is severed and reversed, the knee removed, and the tibia joined with the femur. Allograft and allotransplantation. An allograft is a transplant of an organ or tissue between two genetically non-identical members of the same species. Most human tissue and organ transplants are allografts. Due to the genetic difference between the organ and the recipient, the recipient's immune system will identify the organ as foreign and attempt to destroy it, causing transplant rejection. The risk of transplant rejection can be estimated by measuring the Panel reactive antibody level. Isograft. A subset of allografts in which organs or tissues are transplanted from a donor to a genetically identical recipient (such as an identical twin). Isografts are differentiated from other types of transplants because while they are anatomically identical to allografts, they do not trigger an immune response. Xenograft and xenotransplantation. A transplant of organs or tissue from one species to another. An example is porcine heart valve transplant, which is quite common and successful. Another example is attempted piscine-primate (fish to non-human primate) transplant of islet (i.e. pancreatic or insular tissue) tissue. The latter research study was intended to pave the way for potential human use if successful. However, xenotransplantion is often an extremely dangerous type of transplant because of the increased risk of non-functional compatibility, rejection, and disease carried in the tissue. In an opposite twist, Ganogen Research Institute CEO Eugene Gu is studying how to transplant human fetal hearts and kidneys into animals for future transplantation into human patients to address the shortage of donor organs. Domino transplants. In people with cystic fibrosis (CF), where both lungs need to be replaced, it is a technically easier operation with a higher rate of success to replace both the heart and lungs of the recipient with those of the donor. As the recipient's original heart is usually healthy, it can then be transplanted into a second recipient in need of a heart transplant, thus making the person with CF a living heart donor. In a 2016 case at Stanford Medical Center, a woman who was needing a heart-lung transplant had cystic fibrosis which had led to one lung expanding and the other shrinking thereby displacing her heart. The second patient who in turn received her heart was a woman with right ventricular dysplasia which had led to a dangerously abnormal rhythm. The dual operations actually required three surgical teams including one to remove the heart and lungs from a recently deceased initial donor. The two living recipients did well and in fact, had an opportunity to meet six weeks after their simultaneous operations. Another example of this situation occurs with a special form of liver transplant in which the recipient suffers from familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy, a disease where the liver slowly produces a protein that damages other organs. The recipient's liver can then be transplanted into an older person for whom the effects of the disease will not necessarily contribute significantly to mortality. This term also refers to a series of living donor transplants in which one donor donates to the highest recipient on the waiting list and the transplant center utilizes that donation to facilitate multiple transplants. These other transplants are otherwise impossible due to blood type or antibody barriers to transplantation. The "Good Samaritan" kidney is transplanted into one of the other recipients, whose donor in turn donates his or her kidney to an unrelated recipient. Depending on the person on the waiting list, this has sometimes been repeated for up to six pairs, with the final donor donating to the person at the top of the list. This method allows all organ recipients to get a transplant even if their living donor is not a match to them. This further benefits people below any of these recipients on waiting lists, as they move closer to the top of the list for a deceased-donor organ. Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore and Northwestern University's Northwestern Memorial Hospital have received significant attention for pioneering transplants of this kind. In February 2012, the last link in a record 60-person domino chain of 30 kidney transplants was completed. ABO-incompatible transplants. Because very young children (generally under 12 months, but often as old as 24 months) do not have a well-developed immune system, it is possible for them to receive organs from otherwise incompatible donors. This is known as ABO-incompatible (ABOi) transplantation. Graft survival and people's mortality is approximately the same between ABOi and ABO-compatible (ABOc) recipients. While focus has been on infant heart transplants, the principles generally apply to other forms of solid organ transplantation. The most important factors are that the recipient not have produced isohemagglutinins, and that they have low levels of T cell-independent antigens. United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) regulations allow for ABOi transplantation in children under two years of age if isohemagglutinin titers are 1:4 or below, and if there is no matching ABOc recipient. Studies have shown that the period under which a recipient may undergo ABOi transplantation may be prolonged by exposure to nonself A and B antigens. Furthermore, should the recipient (for example, type B-positive with a type AB-positive graft) require eventual retransplantation, the recipient may receive a new organ of either blood type. Limited success has been achieved in ABO-incompatible heart transplants in adults, though this requires that the adult recipients have low levels of anti-A or anti-B antibodies. Renal transplantation is more successful, with similar long-term graft survival rates to ABOc transplants. Transplantation in obese individuals. Until recently, people labeled as obese were not considered appropriate candidate donors for renal transplantation. In 2009, the physicians at the University of Illinois Medical Center performed the first robotic renal transplantation in an obese recipient and have continued to transplant people with Body Mass Index (BMI)'s over 35 using robotic surgery. As of January 2014, over 100 people that would otherwise be turned down because of their weight have successfully been transplanted. Types of donor. Organ donors may be living or may have died of brain death or circulatory death. Most deceased donors are those who have been pronounced brain dead. Brain dead means the cessation of brain function, typically after receiving an injury (either traumatic or pathological) to the brain, or otherwise cutting off blood circulation to the brain (drowning, suffocation, etc.). Breathing is maintained via artificial sources, which, in turn, maintains heartbeat. Once brain death has been declared the person can be considered for organ donation. Criteria for brain death vary. Because less than 3% of all deaths in the US are the result of brain death, the overwhelming majority of deaths are ineligible for organ donation, resulting in severe shortages. Organ donation is possible after cardiac death in some situations, primarily when the person is severely brain-injured and not expected to survive without artificial breathing and mechanical support. Independent of any decision to donate, a person's next-of-kin may decide to end artificial support. If the person is expected to expire within a short period of time after support is withdrawn, arrangements can be made to withdraw that support in an operating room to allow quick recovery of the organs after circulatory death has occurred. Tissue may be recovered from donors who die of either brain or circulatory death. In general, tissues may be recovered from donors up to 24 hours past the cessation of heartbeat. In contrast to organs, most tissues (with the exception of corneas) can be preserved and stored for up to five years, meaning they can be "banked." Also, more than 60 grafts may be obtained from a single tissue donor. Because of these three factorsthe ability to recover from a non-heart beating donor, the ability to bank tissue, and the number of grafts available from each donortissue transplants are much more common than organ transplants. The American Association of Tissue Banks estimates that more than one million tissue transplants take place in the United States each year. Living donor. In living donors, the donor remains alive and donates a renewable tissue, cell, or fluid (e.g., blood, skin), or donates an organ or part of an organ in which the remaining organ can regenerate or take on the workload of the rest of the organ (primarily single kidney donation, partial donation of liver, lung lobe, small bowel). Regenerative medicine may one day allow for laboratory-grown organs, using person's own cells via stem cells, or healthy cells extracted from the failing organs. Deceased donor. Deceased donors (formerly cadaveric) are people who have been declared brain-dead and whose organs are kept viable by ventilators or other mechanical mechanisms until they can be excised for transplantation. Apart from brain-stem dead donors, who have formed the majority of deceased donors for the last 20 years, there is increasing use of donation-after-circulatory-death-donors (formerly non-heart-beating donors) to increase the potential pool of donors as demand for transplants continues to grow. Prior to the recognition of brain death in the 1980s, all deceased organ donors had died of circulatory death. These organs have inferior outcomes to organs from a brain-dead donor. For instance, patients who underwent liver transplantation using donation-after-circulatory- death (DCD) allografts have been shown to have significantly lower graft survival than those from donation-after-brain-death (DBD) allografts due to biliary complications and primary nonfunction in liver transplantation (PNF). However, given the scarcity of suitable organs and the number of people who die waiting, any potentially suitable organ must be considered. Jurisdictions with medically-assisted suicide may co-ordinate organ donations from that source. In 2016, a woman who was born without a uterus had a uterus successfully transplanted from a deceased donor. The donated uterus successfully sustained a pregnancy. Allocation of organs. In most countries there is a shortage of suitable organs for transplantation. Countries often have formal systems in place to manage the process of determining who is an organ donor and in what order organ recipients receive available organs. The overwhelming majority of deceased-donor organs in the United States are allocated by federal contract to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), held since it was created by the Organ Transplant Act of 1984 by the United Network for Organ Sharing or UNOS. (UNOS does not handle donor cornea tissue; corneal donor tissue is usually handled by various eye banks.) Individual regional organ procurement organizations (OPOs), all members of the OPTN, are responsible for the identification of suitable donors and collection of the donated organs. UNOS then allocates organs based on the method considered most fair by the scientific leadership in the field. The allocation methodology varies somewhat by organ, and changes periodically. For example, liver allocation is based partially on MELD score (Model of End-Stage Liver Disease), an empirical score based on lab values indicative of the sickness of the person from liver disease. In 1984, the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) was passed which gave way to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network that maintains the organ registry and ensures equitable allocation of organs. The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients was also established to conduct ongoing studies into the evaluation and clinical status of organ transplants. In 2000 the Children's Health Act passed and required NOTA to consider special issues around pediatric patients and organ allocation (Services). An example of "line jumping" occurred in 2003 at Duke University when doctors attempted to correct an initially incorrect transplant. An American teenager received a heart-lung donation with the wrong blood type for her. She then received a second transplant even though she was then in such poor physical shape that she normally would not be considered a good candidate for a transplant. In an April 2008 article in "The Guardian", Steven Tsui, the head of the transplant team at Papworth Hospital in the UK, is quoted in raising the ethical issue of not holding out false hope. He stated, "Conventionally we would say if people's life expectancy was a year or less we would consider them a candidate for a heart transplant. But we also have to manage expectations. If we know that in an average year we will do 30 heart transplants, there is no point putting 60 people on our waiting list, because we know half of them will die and it's not right to give them false hope." Experiencing somewhat increased popularity, but still very rare, is directed or targeted donation, in which the family of a deceased donor (often honoring the wishes of the deceased) requests an organ be given to a specific person. If medically suitable, the allocation system is subverted, and the organ is given to that person. In the United States, there are various lengths of waiting times due to the different availabilities of organs in different UNOS regions. In other countries such as the UK, only medical factors and the position on the waiting list can affect who receives the organ. One of the more publicized cases of this type was the 1994 Chester and Patti Szuber transplant. This was the first time that a parent had received a heart donated by one of their own children. Although the decision to accept the heart from his recently killed child was not an easy decision, the Szuber family agreed that giving Patti's heart to her father would have been something that she would have wanted. Access to organ transplantation is one reason for the growth of medical tourism. Reasons for donation and ethical issues. Living related donors. Living related donors donate to family members or friends in whom they have an emotional investment. The risk of surgery is offset by the psychological benefit of not losing someone related to them, or not seeing them suffer the ill effects of waiting on a list. Paired exchange. A "paired-exchange" is a technique of matching willing living donors to compatible recipients using serotyping. For example, a spouse may be willing to donate a kidney to their partner but cannot since there is not a biological match. The willing spouse's kidney is donated to a matching recipient who also has an incompatible but willing spouse. The second donor must match the first recipient to complete the pair exchange. Typically the surgeries are scheduled simultaneously in case one of the donors decides to back out and the couples are kept anonymous from each other until after the transplant. Paired exchange programs were popularized in the New England Journal of Medicine article "Ethics of a paired-kidney-exchange program" in 1997 by L.F. Ross. It was also proposed by Felix T. Rapport in 1986 as part of his initial proposals for live-donor transplants "The case for a living emotionally related international kidney donor exchange registry" in "Transplant Proceedings". A paired exchange is the simplest case of a much larger exchange registry program where willing donors are matched with any number of compatible recipients. Transplant exchange programs have been suggested as early as 1970: "A cooperative kidney typing and exchange program." The first pair exchange transplant in the US was in 2001 at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The first complex multihospital kidney exchange involving 12 people was performed in February 2009 by The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis and Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City. Another 12-person multihospital kidney exchange was performed four weeks later by Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Surgical teams led by Johns Hopkins continue to pioneer in this field by having more complex chain of exchange such as eight-way multihospital kidney exchange. In December 2009, a 13 organ 13 recipient matched kidney exchange took place, coordinated through Georgetown University Hospital and Washington Hospital Center, Washington DC. Paired-donor exchange, led by work in the New England Program for Kidney Exchange as well as at Johns Hopkins University and the Ohio OPOs may more efficiently allocate organs and lead to more transplants. Good Samaritan. Good Samaritan or "altruistic" donation is giving a donation to someone that has no prior affiliation with the donor. The idea of altruistic donation is to give with no interest of personal gain, it is out of pure selflessness. On the other hand, the current allocation system doesn't assess a donor's motive, so altruistic donation isn't a requirement. Some people choose to do this out of a personal need to donate. Some donate to the next person on the list; others use some method of choosing a recipient based on criteria important to them. Web sites are being developed that facilitate such donation. It has been featured in recent television journalism that over half of the members of the Jesus Christians, an Australian religious group, have donated kidneys in such a fashion. Financial compensation. Now monetary compensation for organ donors is being legalized in Australia, and strictly only in the case of kidney transplant in the case of Singapore (minimal reimbursement is offered in the case of other forms of organ harvesting by Singapore). Kidney disease organizations in both countries have expressed their support. In compensated donation, donors get money or other compensation in exchange for their organs. This practice is common in some parts of the world, whether legal or not, and is one of the many factors driving medical tourism. In the illegal black market the donors may not get sufficient after-operation care, the price of a kidney may be above $160,000, middlemen take most of the money, the operation is more dangerous to both the donor and receiver, and the receiver often gets hepatitis or HIV. In legal markets of Iran the price of a kidney is $2,000 to $4,000. An article by Gary Becker and Julio Elias on "Introducing Incentives in the market for Live and Cadaveric Organ Donations" said that a free market could help solve the problem of a scarcity in organ transplants. Their economic modeling was able to estimate the price tag for human kidneys ($15,000) and human livers ($32,000). In the United States, The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 made organ sales illegal. In the United Kingdom, the Human Organ Transplants Act 1989 first made organ sales illegal, and has been superseded by the Human Tissue Act 2004. In 2007, two major European conferences recommended against the sale of organs. Recent development of web sites and personal advertisements for organs among listed candidates has raised the stakes when it comes to the selling of organs, and have also sparked significant ethical debates over directed donation, "good-Samaritan" donation, and the current US organ allocation policy. Bioethicist Jacob M. Appel has argued that organ solicitation on billboards and the internet may actually increase the overall supply of organs. In an experimental survey, Elias, Lacetera and Macis (2019) find that preferences for compensation for kidney donors have strong moral foundations; participants in the experiment especially reject direct payments by patients, which they find would violate principles of fairness. Many countries have different approaches to organ donation such as: the opt-out approach and many advertisements of organ donors, encouraging people to donate. Although these laws have been implemented into a certain country they are not forced upon very one as it is an individual decision. Two books, "Kidney for Sale By Owner" by Mark Cherry (Georgetown University Press, 2005); and "Stakes and Kidneys: Why markets in human body parts are morally imperative" by James Stacey Taylor: (Ashgate Press, 2005); advocate using markets to increase the supply of organs available for transplantation. In a 2004 journal article Economist Alex Tabarrok argues that allowing organ sales, and elimination of organ donor lists will increase supply, lower costs and diminish social anxiety towards organ markets. Iran has had a legal market for kidneys since 1988. The donor is paid approximately US$1200 by the government and also usually receives additional funds from either the recipient or local charities. "The Economist" and the Ayn Rand Institute approve and advocate a legal market elsewhere. They argued that if 0.06% of Americans between 19 and 65 were to sell one kidney, the national waiting list would disappear (which, the Economist wrote, happened in Iran). The Economist argued that donating kidneys is no more risky than surrogate motherhood, which can be done legally for pay in most countries. In Pakistan, 40 percent to 50 percent of the residents of some villages have only one kidney because they have sold the other for a transplant into a wealthy person, probably from another country, said Dr. Farhat Moazam of Pakistan, at a World Health Organization conference. Pakistani donors are offered $2,500 for a kidney but receive only about half of that because middlemen take so much. In Chennai, southern India, poor fishermen and their families sold kidneys after their livelihoods were destroyed by the Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December 2004. About 100 people, mostly women, sold their kidneys for 40,000–60,000 rupees ($900–1,350). Thilakavathy Agatheesh, 30, who sold a kidney in May 2005 for 40,000 rupees said, "I used to earn some money selling fish but now the post-surgery stomach cramps prevent me from going to work." Most kidney sellers say that selling their kidney was a mistake. In Cyprus in 2010 police closed a fertility clinic under charges of trafficking in human eggs. The Petra Clinic, as it was known locally, imported women from Ukraine and Russia for egg harvesting and sold the genetic material to foreign fertility tourists. This sort of reproductive trafficking violates laws in the European Union. In 2010 Scott Carney reported for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the magazine Fast Company explored illicit fertility networks in Spain, the United States and Israel. Forced donation. There have been concerns that certain authorities are harvesting organs from people deemed undesirable, such as prison populations. The World Medical Association stated that prisoners and other individuals in custody are not in a position to give consent freely, and therefore their organs must not be used for transplantation. According to the Chinese Deputy Minister of Health, Huang Jiefu, approximately 95% of all organs used for transplantation are from executed prisoners. The lack of a public organ donation program in China is used as a justification for this practice. In July 2006, the Kilgour-Matas report stated, "the source of 41,500 transplants for the six-year period 2000 to 2005 is unexplained" and "we believe that there has been and continues today to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners". Investigative journalist Ethan Gutmann estimates 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners were killed for their organs from 2000 to 2008. However 2016 reports updated the death toll of the 15-year period since the persecution of Falun Gong began putting the death toll at 150 thousand to 1.5 million. In December 2006, after not getting assurances from the Chinese government about allegations relating to Chinese prisoners, the two major organ transplant hospitals in Queensland, Australia stopped transplant training for Chinese surgeons and banned joint research programs into organ transplantation with China. In May 2008, two United Nations Special Rapporteurs reiterated their requests for "the Chinese government to fully explain the allegation of taking vital organs from Falun Gong practitioners and the source of organs for the sudden increase in organ transplants that has been going on in China since the year 2000". People in other parts of the world are responding to this availability of organs, and a number of individuals (including US and Japanese citizens) have elected to travel to China or India as medical tourists to receive organ transplants which may have been sourced in what might be considered elsewhere to be unethical manner. Proliferation. Some estimates of the number of transplants performed in various regions of the world have been derived from the Global Burden of Disease Study. According to the Council of Europe, Spain through the Spanish Transplant Organization shows the highest worldwide rate of 35.1 donors per million population in 2005 and 33.8 in 2006. In 2011, it was 35.3. In addition to the citizens waiting for organ transplants in the US and other developed nations, there are long waiting lists in the rest of the world. More than 2 million people need organ transplants in China, 50,000 waiting in Latin America (90% of which are waiting for kidneys), as well as thousands more in the less documented continent of Africa. Donor bases vary in developing nations. In Latin America the donor rate is 40–100 per million per year, similar to that of developed countries. However, in Uruguay, Cuba, and Chile, 90% of organ transplants came from cadaveric donors. Cadaveric donors represent 35% of donors in Saudi Arabia. There is continuous effort to increase the utilization of cadaveric donors in Asia, however the popularity of living, single kidney donors in India yields India a cadaveric donor prevalence of less than 1 pmp. Traditionally, Muslims believe body desecration in life or death to be forbidden, and thus many reject organ transplant. However most Muslim authorities nowadays accept the practice if another life will be saved. As an example, it may be assumed in countries such as Singapore with a cosmopolitan populace that includes Muslims, a special Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura governing body is formed to look after the interests of Singapore's Muslim community over issues that includes their burial arrangements. Organ transplantation in Singapore being thus optional for Muslims, is generally overseen by the National Organ Transplant Unit of the Ministry of Health (Singapore). Due to a diversity in mindsets and religious viewpoints, while Muslims on this island are generally not expected to donate their organs even upon death, youths in Singapore are educated on the Human Organ Transplant Act at the age of 18 which is around the age of military conscription. The Organ Donor Registry maintains two types of information, firstly people of Singapore that donate their organs or bodies for transplantation, research or education upon their death, under the Medical (Therapy, Education and Research) Act (MTERA), and secondly people that object to the removal of kidneys, liver, heart and corneas upon death for the purpose of transplantation, under the Human Organ Transplant Act (HOTA). The Live on social awareness movement is also formed to educate Singaporeans on organ donation. Organ transplantation in China has taken place since the 1960s, and China has one of the largest transplant programmes in the world, peaking at over 13,000 transplants a year by 2004. Organ donation, however, is against Chinese tradition and culture, and involuntary organ donation is illegal under Chinese law. China's transplant programme attracted the attention of international news media in the 1990s due to ethical concerns about the organs and tissue removed from the corpses of executed criminals being commercially traded for transplants. In 2006 it became clear that about 41,500 organs had been sourced from Falun Gong practitioners in China since 2000. With regard to organ transplantation in Israel, there is a severe organ shortage due to religious objections by some rabbis who oppose all organ donations and others who advocate that a rabbi participates in all decision making regarding a particular donor. One-third of all heart transplants performed on Israelis are done in the People's Republic of China; others are done in Europe. Dr. Jacob Lavee, head of the heart-transplant unit, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Aviv, believes that "transplant tourism" is unethical and Israeli insurers should not pay for it. The organization HODS (Halachic Organ Donor Society) is working to increase knowledge and participation in organ donation among Jews throughout the world. Transplantation rates also differ based on race, sex, and income. A study done with people beginning long term dialysis showed that the sociodemographic barriers to renal transplantation present themselves even before patients are on the transplant list. For example, different groups express definite interest and complete pretransplant workup at different rates. Previous efforts to create fair transplantation policies had focused on people currently on the transplantation waiting list. In the United States, nearly 35,000 organ transplants were done in 2017, a 3.4 percent increase over 2016. About 18 percent of these were from living donors – people who gave one kidney or a part of their liver to someone else. But 115,000 Americans remain on waiting lists for organ transplants. History. Successful human allotransplants have a relatively long history of operative skills that were present long before the necessities for post-operative survival were discovered. Rejection and the side effects of preventing rejection (especially infection and nephropathy) were, are, and may always be the key problem. Several apocryphal accounts of transplants exist well prior to the scientific understanding and advancements that would be necessary for them to have actually occurred. The Chinese physician Pien Chi'ao reportedly exchanged hearts between a man of strong spirit but weak will with one of a man of weak spirit but strong will in an attempt to achieve balance in each man. Roman Catholic accounts report the 3rd-century saints Damian and Cosmas as replacing the gangrenous or cancerous leg of the Roman deacon Justinian with the leg of a recently deceased Ethiopian. Most accounts have the saints performing the transplant in the 4th century, many decades after their deaths; some accounts have them only instructing living surgeons who performed the procedure. The more likely accounts of early transplants deal with skin transplantation. The first reasonable account is of the Indian surgeon Sushruta in the 2nd century BC, who used autografted skin transplantation in nose reconstruction, a rhinoplasty. Success or failure of these procedures is not well documented. Centuries later, the Italian surgeon Gasparo Tagliacozzi performed successful skin autografts; he also failed consistently with allografts, offering the first suggestion of rejection centuries before that mechanism could possibly be understood. He attributed it to the "force and power of individuality" in his 1596 work "De Curtorum Chirurgia per Insitionem". The first successful corneal allograft transplant was performed in 1837 in a gazelle model; the first successful human corneal transplant, a keratoplastic operation, was performed by Eduard Zirm at Olomouc Eye Clinic, now Czech Republic, in 1905. The first transplant in the modern sense – the implantation of organ tissue in order to replace an organ function – was a thyroid transplant in 1883. It was performed by the Swiss surgeon and later Nobel laureate Theodor Kocher. In the preceding decades Kocher had perfected the removal of excess thyroid tissue in cases of goiter to an extent that he was able to remove the whole organ without the person dying from the operation. Kocher carried out the total removal of the organ in some cases as a measure to prevent recurrent goiter. By 1883, the surgeon noticed that the complete removal of the organ leads to a complex of particular symptoms that we today have learned to associate with a lack of thyroid hormone. Kocher reversed these symptoms by implanting thyroid tissue to these people and thus performed the first organ transplant. In the following years Kocher and other surgeons used thyroid transplantation also to treat thyroid deficiency that appeared spontaneously, without a preceding organ removal. Thyroid transplantation became the model for a whole new therapeutic strategy: organ transplantation. After the example of the thyroid, other organs were transplanted in the decades around 1900. Some of these transplants were done in animals for purposes of research, where organ removal and transplantation became a successful strategy of investigating the function of organs. Kocher was awarded his Nobel Prize in 1909 for the discovery of the function of the thyroid gland. At the same time, organs were also transplanted for treating diseases in humans. The thyroid gland became the model for transplants of adrenal and parathyroid glands, pancreas, ovary, testicles and kidney. By 1900, the idea that one can successfully treat internal diseases by replacing a failed organ through transplantation had been generally accepted. Pioneering work in the surgical technique of transplantation was made in the early 1900s by the French surgeon Alexis Carrel, with Charles Guthrie, with the transplantation of arteries or veins. Their skillful anastomosis operations and the new suturing techniques laid the groundwork for later transplant surgery and won Carrel the 1912 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. From 1902, Carrel performed transplant experiments on dogs. Surgically successful in moving kidneys, hearts, and spleens, he was one of the first to identify the problem of rejection, which remained insurmountable for decades. The discovery of transplant immunity by the German surgeon Georg Schöne, various strategies of matching donor and recipient, and the use of different agents for immune suppression did not result in substantial improvement so that organ transplantation was largely abandoned after WWI. In 1954, the first ever successful transplant of any organ was done at the Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, Ma. The surgery was done by Dr. Joseph Murray, who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work. The reason for his success was due to Richard and Ronald Herrick of Maine. Richard Herrick was a in the Navy and became severely ill with acute renal failure. His brother Ronald donated his kidney to Richard, and Richard lived another 8 years before his death. Before this, transplant recipients didn't survive more than 30 days. The key to the successful transplant was the fact that Richard and Ronald were identical twin brothers and there was no need for anti-rejection medications, which was not known about at this point. This was the most pivotal moment in transplant surgery because now transplant teams knew that it could be successful and the role of rejection/anti-rejection medicine. Major steps in skin transplantation occurred during the First World War, notably in the work of Harold Gillies at Aldershot. Among his advances was the tubed pedicle graft, which maintained a flesh connection from the donor site until the graft established its own blood flow. Gillies' assistant, Archibald McIndoe, carried on the work into the Second World War as reconstructive surgery. In 1962, the first successful replantation surgery was performed – re-attaching a severed limb and restoring (limited) function and feeling. Transplant of a single gonad (testis) from a living donor was carried out in early July 1926 in Zaječar, Serbia, by a Russian émigré surgeon Dr. Peter Vasil'evič Kolesnikov. The donor was a convicted murderer, one Ilija Krajan, whose death sentence was commuted to 20 years imprisonment, and he was led to believe that it was done because he had donated his testis to an elderly medical doctor. Both the donor and the receiver survived, but charges were brought in a court of law by the public prosecutor against Dr. Kolesnikov, not for performing the operation, but for lying to the donor. The first attempted human deceased-donor transplant was performed by the Ukrainian surgeon Yurii Voronoy in the 1930s; but failed due to Ischemia. Joseph Murray and J. Hartwell Harrison performed the first successful transplant, a kidney transplant between identical twins, in 1954, because no immunosuppression was necessary for genetically identical individuals. In the late 1940s Peter Medawar, working for the National Institute for Medical Research, improved the understanding of rejection. Identifying the immune reactions in 1951, Medawar suggested that immunosuppressive drugs could be used. Cortisone had been recently discovered and the more effective azathioprine was identified in 1959, but it was not until the discovery of cyclosporine in 1970 that transplant surgery found a sufficiently powerful immunosuppressive. There was a successful deceased-donor lung transplant into an emphysema and lung cancer sufferer in June 1963 by James Hardy at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi. The patient John Russell survived for eighteen days before dying of kidney failure. Thomas Starzl of Denver attempted a liver transplant in the same year, but he was not successful until 1967. In the early 1960s and prior to long-term dialysis becoming available, Keith Reemtsma and his colleagues at Tulane University in New Orleans attempted transplants of chimpanzee kidneys into 13 human patients. Most of these patients only lived one to two months. However, in 1964, a 23-year-old woman lived for nine months and even returned to her job as a school teacher until she suddenly collapsed and died. It was assumed that she died from an acute electrolyte disturbance. At autopsy, the kidneys had not been rejected nor was there any other obvious cause of death. One source states this patient died from pneumonia. Tom Starzl and his team in Colorado used baboon kidneys with six human patients who lived one or two months, but with no longer term survivors. Others in the United States and France had limited experiences. The heart was a major prize for transplant surgeons. But over and above rejection issues, the heart deteriorates within minutes of death, so any operation would have to be performed at great speed. The development of the heart-lung machine was also needed. Lung pioneer James Hardy was prepared to attempt a human heart transplant in 1964, but when a premature failure of comatose Boyd Rush's heart caught Hardy with no human donor, he used a chimpanzee heart, which beat in his patient's chest for approximately one hour and then failed. The first partial success was achieved on 3 December 1967, when Christiaan Barnard of Cape Town, South Africa, performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant with patient Louis Washkansky as the recipient. Washkansky survived for eighteen days amid what many saw as a distasteful publicity circus. The media interest prompted a spate of heart transplants. Over a hundred were performed in 1968–1969, but almost all the people died within 60 days. Barnard's second patient, Philip Blaiberg, lived for 19 months. It was the advent of cyclosporine that altered transplants from research surgery to life-saving treatment. In 1968 surgical pioneer Denton Cooley performed 17 transplants, including the first heart-lung transplant. Fourteen of his patients were dead within six months. By 1984 two-thirds of all heart transplant patients survived for five years or more. With organ transplants becoming commonplace, limited only by donors, surgeons moved on to riskier fields, including multiple-organ transplants on humans and whole-body transplant research on animals. On 9 March 1981, the first successful heart-lung transplant took place at Stanford University Hospital. The head surgeon, Bruce Reitz, credited the patient's recovery to cyclosporine. As the rising success rate of transplants and modern immunosuppression make transplants more common, the need for more organs has become critical. Transplants from living donors, especially relatives, have become increasingly common. Additionally, there is substantive research into xenotransplantation, or transgenic organs; although these forms of transplant are not yet being used in humans, clinical trials involving the use of specific cell types have been conducted with promising results, such as using porcine islets of Langerhans to treat type 1 diabetes. However, there are still many problems that would need to be solved before they would be feasible options in people requiring transplants. Recently, researchers have been looking into means of reducing the general burden of immunosuppression. Common approaches include avoidance of steroids, reduced exposure to calcineurin inhibitors, and other means of weaning drugs based on patient outcome and function. While short-term outcomes appear promising, long-term outcomes are still unknown, and in general, reduced immunosuppression increases the risk of rejection and decreases the risk of infection. The risk of early rejection is increased if corticosteroid immunosuppression are avoided or withdrawn after renal transplantation. Many other new drugs are under development for transplantation. The emerging field of regenerative medicine promises to solve the problem of organ transplant rejection by regrowing organs in the lab, using person's own cells (stem cells or healthy cells extracted from the donor site). Society and culture. Success rates. From year 2000 and forward, there have been approximately 2,200 lung transplants performed each year worldwide. From between 2000 and 2006, the median survival period for lung transplant patients has been 5-and-a-half years, meaning half the patients survived for a shorter time period and half survived for a longer period. Comparative costs. One of the driving forces for illegal organ trafficking and for "transplantation tourism" is the price differences for organs and transplant surgeries in different areas of the world. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, a human kidney can be purchased in Manila for $1000–2000, but in urban Latin America a kidney may cost more than $10,000. Kidneys in South Africa have sold for as high as $20,000. Price disparities based on donor race are a driving force of attractive organ sales in South Africa, as well as in other parts of the world. In China, a kidney transplant operation runs for around $70,000, liver for $160,000, and heart for $120,000. Although these prices are still unattainable to the poor, compared to the fees of the United States, where a kidney transplant may demand $100,000, a liver $250,000, and a heart $860,000, Chinese prices have made China a major provider of organs and transplantation surgeries to other countries. In India, a kidney transplant operation runs for around as low as $5,000. Safety. In the United States of America, tissue transplants are regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which sets strict regulations on the safety of the transplants, primarily aimed at the prevention of the spread of communicable disease. Regulations include criteria for donor screening and testing as well as strict regulations on the processing and distribution of tissue grafts. Organ transplants are not regulated by the FDA. It is essential that the HLA complexes of both the donor and recipient be as closely matched as possible to prevent graft rejection. In November 2007, the CDC reported the first-ever case of HIV and Hepatitis C being simultaneously transferred through an organ transplant. The donor was a 38-year-old male, considered "high-risk" by donation organizations, and his organs transmitted HIV and Hepatitis C to four organ recipients. Experts say that the reason the diseases did not show up on screening tests is probably because they were contracted within three weeks before the donor's death, so antibodies would not have existed in high enough numbers to detect. The crisis has caused many to call for more sensitive screening tests, which could pick up antibodies sooner. Currently, the screens cannot pick up on the small number of antibodies produced in HIV infections within the last 90 days or Hepatitis C infections within the last 18–21 days before a donation is made. NAT (nucleic acid testing) is now being done by many organ procurement organizations and is able to detect HIV and Hepatitis C directly within seven to ten days of exposure to the virus. Transplant laws. Both developing and developed countries have forged various policies to try to increase the safety and availability of organ transplants to their citizens. However, whilst potential recipients in developing countries may mirror their more developed counterparts in desperation, potential donors in developing countries do not. The Indian government has had difficulty tracking the flourishing organ black market in their country, but in recent times it has amended its organ transplant law to make punishment more stringent for commercial dealings in organs. It has also included new clauses in the law to support deceased organ donation, such as making it mandatory to request for organ donation in case of brain death. Other countries victimized by illegal organ trade have also implemented legislative reactions. Moldova has made international adoption illegal in fear of organ traffickers. China has made selling of organs illegal as of July 2006 and claims that all prisoner organ donors have filed consent. However, doctors in other countries, such as the United Kingdom, have accused China of abusing its high capital punishment rate. Despite these efforts, illegal organ trafficking continues to thrive and can be attributed to corruption in healthcare systems, which has been traced as high up as the doctors themselves in China and Ukraine, and the blind eye economically strained governments and health care programs must sometimes turn to organ trafficking. Some organs are also shipped to Uganda and the Netherlands. This was a main product in the triangular trade in 1934. Starting on 1 May 2007, doctors involved in commercial trade of organs will face fines and suspensions in China. Only a few certified hospitals will be allowed to perform organ transplants in order to curb illegal transplants. Harvesting organs without donor's consent was also deemed a crime. On 27 June 2008, Indonesian, Sulaiman Damanik, 26, pleaded guilty in Singapore court for sale of his kidney to CK Tang's executive chair, Tang Wee Sung, 55, for 150 million rupiah (S$22,200). The Transplant Ethics Committee must approve living donor kidney transplants. Organ trading is banned in Singapore and in many other countries to prevent the exploitation of "poor and socially disadvantaged donors who are unable to make informed choices and suffer potential medical risks." Toni, 27, the other accused, donated a kidney to an Indonesian patient in March, alleging he was the patient's adopted son, and was paid 186 million rupiah (US$20,200). Upon sentence, both would suffer each, 12 months in jail or 10,000 Singapore dollars (US$7,600) fine. In an article appearing in the April 2004 issue of Econ Journal Watch, economist Alex Tabarrok examined the impact of direct consent laws on transplant organ availability. Tabarrok found that social pressures resisting the use of transplant organs decreased over time as the opportunity of individual decisions increased. Tabarrok concluded his study suggesting that gradual elimination of organ donation restrictions and move to a free market in organ sales will increase supply of organs and encourage broader social acceptance of organ donation as a practice. Ethical concerns. The existence and distribution of organ transplantation procedures in developing countries, while almost always beneficial to those receiving them, raise many ethical concerns. Both the source and method of obtaining the organ to transplant are major ethical issues to consider, as well as the notion of distributive justice. The World Health Organization argues that transplantations promote health, but the notion of "transplantation tourism" has the potential to violate human rights or exploit the poor, to have unintended health consequences, and to provide unequal access to services, all of which ultimately may cause harm. Regardless of the "gift of life", in the context of developing countries, this might be coercive. The practice of coercion could be considered exploitative of the poor population, violating basic human rights according to Articles 3 and 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There is also a powerful opposing view, that trade in organs, if properly and effectively regulated to ensure that the seller is fully informed of all the consequences of donation, is a mutually beneficial transaction between two consenting adults, and that prohibiting it would itself be a violation of Articles 3 and 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Even within developed countries there is concern that enthusiasm for increasing the supply of organs may trample on respect for the right to life. The question is made even more complicated by the fact that the "irreversibility" criterion for legal death cannot be adequately defined and can easily change with changing technology. Artificial organ transplantation. Surgeons, notably Paolo Macchiarini, in Sweden performed the first implantation of a synthetic trachea in July 2011, for a 36-year-old patient who was suffering from cancer. Stem cells taken from the patient's hip were treated with growth factors and incubated on a plastic replica of his natural trachea. According to information uncovered by the Swedish documentary "Dokument Inifrån: Experimenten" (Swedish: "Documents from the Inside: The Experiments") the patient, Andemariam went on to suffer an increasingly terrible and eventually bloody cough to dying, incubated, in the hospital. At that point, determined by autopsy, 90% of the synthetic windpipe had come loose. He allegedly made several trips to see Macchiarini for his complications, and at one point had surgery again to have his synthetic windpipe replaced, but Macchiarini was notoriously difficult to get an appointment with. According to the autopsy, the old synthetic windpipe did not appear to have been replaced. Macchiarini's academic credentials have been called into question and he has recently been accused of alleged research misconduct. Left-Ventricular Assist Devices (LVADs) as often used as a "bridge" to provide additional time while a patient waits for a transplant. For example, former US vice-president Dick Cheney had a LVAD implanted in 2010 and then twenty months later received a heart transplant in 2012. In year 2012, about 3,000 ventricular assist devices were inserted in the United States, as compared to approximately 2,500 heart transplants. The use of airbags in cars as well as greater use of helmets by bicyclists and skiers has reduced the number of persons with fatal head injuries, which is a common source of donors hearts. Research. An early-stage medical laboratory and research company, called Organovo, designs and develops functional, three dimensional human tissue for medical research and therapeutic applications. The company utilizes its NovoGen MMX Bioprinter for 3D bioprinting. Organovo anticipates that the bioprinting of human tissues will accelerate the preclinical drug testing and discovery process, enabling treatments to be created more quickly and at lower cost. Additionally, Organovo has long-term expectations that this technology could be suitable for surgical therapy and transplantation. A further area of active research is concerned with improving and assessing organs during their preservation. Various techniques have emerged which show great promise, most of which involve perfusing the organ under either hypothermic (4-10C) or normothermic (37C) conditions. All of these add additional cost and logistical complexity to the organ retrieval, preservation and transplant process, but early results suggest it may well be worth it. Hypothermic perfusion is in clinical use for transplantation of kidneys and liver whilst normothermic perfusion has been used effectively in the heart, lung, liver and, less so, in the kidney. Another area of research being explored is the use of genetically engineered animals for transplants. Similar to human organ donors, scientists have developed a genetically engineered pig with the aim of reducing rejection to pig organs by human patients. This is currently at the basic research stage, but shows great promise in alleviating the long waiting lists for organ transplants and the number of people in need of transplants outweighs the amount of organs donated. Trials are being done to prevent the pig organ transplant to enter a clinical trial phase until the potential disease transfer from pigs to humans can be safely and satisfactorily managed (Isola & Gordon, 1991).

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5238791

Robert Phillips Corker Jr. (born August 24, 1952) is an American businessman and politician who served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 2007 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he served as Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2015 to 2019. In 1978, Corker founded a construction company, which he sold in 1990. This increased his net worth to $45 million. He ran in the 1994 United States Senate election in Tennessee, but was defeated in the Republican primary by Bill Frist. Appointed by Governor Don Sundquist, Corker served as Commissioner of Finance and Administration for the State of Tennessee from 1995 to 1996, preceded by David Manning and succeeded by John Ferguson. He later acquired two of the largest real estate companies in Chattanooga, Tennessee, before being elected the 71st Mayor of Chattanooga in March 2001; he served one term (2001–2005). Corker announced his candidacy for the 2006 United States Senate election in Tennessee after Frist announced his retirement. Corker narrowly defeated Democratic U.S. Representative Harold Ford Jr. in the general election, with 51% of the vote. In 2012 Corker was reelected, defeating Democrat Mark E. Clayton, 65% to 30%. On September 26, 2017, Corker announced that he would not seek reelection in 2018; fellow Republican U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn was elected to succeed him. During his time in the Senate, he served as the Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. Early life and family. Corker was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, the son of Jean J. (née Hutto) and Robert Phillips "Phil" Corker. His great-great-grandfather was U.S. Congressman Stephen A. Corker. His family moved to Tennessee when he was eleven. Corker graduated from Chattanooga High School in 1970 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Management from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in 1974. Corker is a member of Sigma Chi fraternity. Corker's roommate in the Sigma Chi fraternity was Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, whose brother is the former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam. During his twenties, Corker participated in a mission trip to Haiti, which he credits with inspiring him to become more active in his home community. Following his return, Corker helped found the Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, a nonprofit organization that has provided low-interest home loans and home maintenance education to thousands of Tennesseans since its creation in 1986. Corker and his wife Elizabeth, whom he married on January 10, 1987, have two daughters. The family's permanent residence is at the Anne Haven Mansion, built by Coca-Cola Bottling Company heirs Anne Lupton and Frank Harrison. Business career. In an interview with "Esquire", Corker said that he started working when he was 13, collecting trash and bagging ice. Later he worked at Western Auto and as a construction laborer. After graduating from college, he worked for four years as a construction superintendent. During this time he saved up $8,000, which he used to start a construction company, Bencor, in 1978. The company's first large contract was with Krystal restaurants, building drive-through windows. The construction company became successful, growing at 80 percent per year, according to Corker, and by the mid-1980s carried out projects in 18 states. He sold the company in 1990. In 1999, Corker acquired two of the largest real estate companies in Chattanooga: real estate developer Osborne Building Corporation and property management firm Stone Fort Land Company. In 2006, he sold the properties and assets that had formed these companies to Chattanooga businessman Henry Luken. In recognition of his business success, in 2005 the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga named him to their "Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame." Corker has said that he believes his business background has been valuable in his political career and that experience "gives [him] unique insights and allows [him] to weigh in, in valuable ways". As of 2008, Corker's assets were estimated at more than $19 million. 1994 U.S. Senate campaign. Corker first ran for the United States Senate in 1994, finishing second in the Republican primary to eventual winner Bill Frist. During the primary campaign, Frist's campaign manager attacked Corker, calling him "pond scum". Despite the rhetoric, Corker arrived in Nashville the morning after the primary to offer the Frist campaign his assistance. He went on to campaign for Frist in the general election. From 1995 to 1996, Corker was the Commissioner of Finance and Administration for the State of Tennessee, an appointed position, working for Governor Don Sundquist. Mayor of Chattanooga. Corker was elected mayor of Chattanooga in March 2001 with 54% of the vote, and served from 2001 to 2005. While in office, he outlined a bold vision and enacted a series of changes that transformed the city. He was elected on an aggressive and specific platform, focused primarily on economy development, public safety, and education. Within six months in office, he had already implemented initiatives to address each area. With a focus on bringing good paying jobs to the city, he developed, in conjunction with the state and county, Enterprise South, a 1,200-acre industrial park, which is now home to several industries, including Volkswagen Group of America's manufacturing headquarters. He also recognized the need for access to capital to assist start up and emerging businesses and created the Chattanooga Opportunity Fund, a $1.5 million fund established for investment in locally owned start-up companies, minority owned companies, and existing small businesses. Chattanooga has since been named one of the best cities for startups by Forbes and has developed a strong, locally focused financing ecosystem. He also sought to enhance the city's ability to recruit companies reliant on high-level technology. Part of that vision became reality when Chattanooga became the first and only city with a direct fiber optic connection to Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the world's fastest computers, which helped both businesses and government advance technology use in the city. To this day, the community is using this unique connection to the supercomputers in Oak Ridge to develop Smart City concepts for the future. He also laid out and executed a digital vision for the city during his tenure. He launched MetroNet with a goal of providing super-speed Gigabit Ethernet (Gig-E) connection to the Internet for businesses in the downtown and Southside. After piloting the project in City Hall and realizing the magnitude of the opportunity, he asked the Electric Power Board (EPB), the city-owned utility, to take on the task. As a result of Corker's vision and EPB's execution, Chattanooga has since been dubbed the "Gig City" and became the most connected city in the Western Hemisphere, offering Internet speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second to every home and business in EPB's 600-square mile service area. He implemented a merit-based bonus system for teachers. The system, established in 2002, awarded teachers and principals bonuses for improving student performance at Chattanooga's lowest performing schools. Two years after its implementation, a study published in "The Tennessean" showed that the percentage of third graders reading at or above grade level had increased from 53% to 74%. However, a report by the think tank Education Sector suggested that specific teacher training had at least as much to do with the student improvement. In 2003, Corker started a program called ChattanoogaRESULTS, facilitating monthly meetings with public service department administrators to evaluate their performance and set goals for improvement. The program was continued by Corker's successor, Ron Littlefield. Corker has credited the increased collaboration between departments for decreasing crime in Chattanooga. City data showed a nearly 26% decrease in crime and a 50% reduction in violent crimes between 2001 and 2004. During his first annual State of the City address as mayor, Corker announced a $120 million riverfront renovation project and stated it would be completed in 36 months. The project was announced with no identified funding source or architectural plans. The 21st Century Waterfront Plan included an expansion of the Hunter Museum of Art, a renovation of the Creative Discovery Museum, an expansion of Chattanooga's River Walk, and the addition of a new salt water building to the Tennessee Aquarium. Corker's vision for the riverfront also included building pads for the private sector to build additional housing along the riverfront and magnificent new public parks and space for outdoor recreation. It was the largest public-private undertaking in the community's history. Half of the project was financed with a city bond, while Corker led a fundraising team in more than 81 meetings in 90 days that raised $51 million from the private sector. A hotel-motel tax was implemented in 2002 to fund the city's debt service on the bonds, fulfilling a commitment Corker made that there would be no financial burden on the citizens of Chattanooga. The 21st Century Waterfront opened 35 months later, as Corker had promised, and is widely credited with transforming the city of Chattanooga. Corker also created Outdoor Chattanooga to promote the outdoor opportunities that exist throughout the region and famously claimed the city would become the "Boulder of the East." Chattanooga has since been named the "Best Town Ever" by Outside Magazine - twice - and now hosts one of the world's largest rowing regattas, as well as Ironman races. U.S. Senate. Elections. In 2004, Corker announced that he would seek the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by incumbent Republican Senator Bill Frist, who had announced that he would not run for reelection. In the Republican primary, Corker faced two former congressmen, Ed Bryant and Van Hilleary. Both of his opponents ran as strong conservatives, denouncing Corker as a moderate and eventually labelling him a leftist. In the course of his campaign, Corker spent $4.2 million on television advertising, especially in the western portion of the state, where he was relatively unknown. In the August primary, he won with 48% of the vote; Bryant got 34% and Hilleary got 17%. In the general election campaign, Corker's Democratic opponent, Harold Ford, Jr., challenged him to seven televised debates across the state. In response, Corker said he would debate Ford, though he did not agree to seven debates. The two candidates eventually participated in three televised debates: in Memphis on October 7, in Chattanooga on October 10, and in Nashville on October 28. The race between Ford and Corker was described as "among the most competitive and nasty" in the country. In October 2006, as polls indicated that Ford maintained a slight lead over Corker, the Republican National Committee ran a controversial television advertisement attacking Ford. In the 30-second ad, sound bites of "people in the street" pronouncing Ford wrong for Tennessee were interspersed with two shots of a white woman animatedly recalling meeting Ford—who is African-American and was unmarried at the time—at "the Playboy party". The ad concludes with this woman leeringly inviting Ford to phone her. Corker denounced the ad and asked that it be taken off the air. Corker won the election by less than three percentage points. He was the only non-incumbent Republican to be elected to the U.S. Senate in the 110th Congress. Corker was sworn in as Senator on January 4, 2007. In November 2012, Corker won his re-election bid with 65% of the vote. Corker faced the conservative Democrat Mark E. Clayton, from Davidson County, near Nashville, who received 30% of the general election vote. Clayton was disavowed by his own party, the leadership of which urged Democrats to write in a candidate of their choice in the race against Corker; the reason given by the party was Clayton's association with a hate group, an apparent reference to the fact that Clayton was vice president of the interest group Public Advocate of the United States, based in Washington, D.C. Tenure. Corker was one of the original members of the Gang of 10, now consisting of twenty members, which is a bipartisan coalition seeking comprehensive energy reform. The group is pushing for a bill that would encourage state-by-state decisions on offshore drilling and authorize billions of dollars for conservation and alternative energy. In June 2008 Corker was among the 36 senators who voted against a cloture motion needed to allow the further progress of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, a measure to set up a "cap-and-trade" framework to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Shortly before, Corker had offered three amendments to the act which focused on returning as much money as possible to American consumers, in part by eliminating free allowances and international offsets. Two years later he supported a proposed Senate resolution to express disapproval of the rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency on its endangerment finding identifying greenhouse gases as a matter for regulation under the Clean Air Act. In spring 2011 he was a co-sponsor of the Energy Tax Prevention Act, which would have amended the Clean Air Act to prohibit the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, and thus aimed to protect households and businesses from paying increased costs passed on to them by businesses compelled to comply with new regulations. Corker said at the time that he hoped that as an alternative to administrative regulations by the EPA, Congress would "determine a rational energy policy for the country, broadly advancing our energy security and maintaining existing policies to ensure clean air and water." In 2008, Corker was one of the only sixteen Senators who opposed the tax rebate stimulus plan, criticizing it as "political stimulus" for electoral campaigns. He later described the stimulus package that passed Congress as "silly". In December 2008, Corker opposed the federal bailout of failing U.S. automakers, and expressed doubt that the companies could be salvaged. Corker proposed that federal funds be provided for automakers only if accompanied by cuts in labor costs and other concessions from unions. The United Auto Workers (UAW), which had previously accepted a series of cuts in its current contract, sought to put off any further cuts until 2011, while Corker requested that cuts go into effect in 2009. Republicans blamed the UAW for failure to reach an agreement, while the UAW claimed that Corker's proposal singled out "workers and retirees for different treatment and make[s] them shoulder the entire burden of restructuring." Corker's plan to protect taxpayers through tough conditions on any federal aid, however, was ultimately embraced by both President George W. Bush, who put Corker's stipulations in an executive order, and President Barack Obama, through his auto task force. In September 2009, Corker became the ranking member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, replacing former Sen. Mel Martinez. On May 20, 2010, despite his initial role as the key Republican negotiator on financial regulatory reform, Corker voted against the Senate financial regulations bill ("Restoring American Financial Stability Act", S. 3217, the Senate version of what eventually became the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act), which included provisions for increased scrutiny of financial derivatives traded by major U.S. banks and financial institutions. Following the Senate vote, Corker expressed his disappointment with the bill, stating, among other things, that it did not adequately address concerns about the integrity of loan underwriting, or the need to strengthen bankruptcy laws, and provide for orderly liquidation. The main critique of financial reform offered by Corker on June 10, 2010, at the joint House and Senate conference on Financial Regulation, was that it would hurt industry and jobs if passed. Corker opposes limits to credit card fees imposed by banks on merchant transactions. Corker was one of three Republicans to support the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in September 2010. The treaty was given final approval by the Senate in December 2010, after the chamber disposed of a raft of Republican-proposed amendments. Amendments by Corker and fellow Republican Jon Kyl on missile defense and modernization were among the few accepted. Corker was one of thirteen Republican senators to vote for the final version. In April 2013, Corker was one of forty-six senators to vote against a bill which would have expanded background checks for all gun buyers. Corker voted with 40 Republicans and 5 Democrats to stop the passage of the bill. Corker has called for tempering the role of outside spending in elections by giving political candidates the right to approve advertising on their behalf made by an outside party committee. In August 2018, Corker and Bob Menendez signed a letter warning that Congress would refuse attempts by the Trump administration to form congressional appropriations for foreign aid. In September 2018, Corker announced that he would vote for the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, saying in a statement, "There is no question that Judge Kavanaugh is qualified to serve on the Supreme Court, and in a different political environment, he would be confirmed overwhelmingly." On October 6, hours before Corker voted to confirm Kavanaugh, he stated during an interview that Kavanaugh's confirmation would "impact our country for more than a generation" while noting the intent of Congress to confirm additional judges throughout the remainder of the year and praising the handling of the confirmation process by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. In a November 2018 interview, Corker stated that President Trump divided Americans as part of his attempts to appeal to his base "instead of appealing to our better angels and trying to unite us like most people would try to do". He mentioned the possibility of Trump's conduct squandering good will toward the US during a period where American leadership was "more important than ever." In December 2018, with the possibility of a government shutdown that month looming, the House passed a bill funding the government through February and providing 5.7 billion for the border wall between the United States and Mexico favored by President Trump hours after he told House Republican leaders that he would not sign a package passed in the Senate due to it not providing money for the barrier. On December 21, after attending a meeting in the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Corker announced that Senate leaders had reached an agreement on how to apply the House-passed bill and expressed hope it would ultimately lead to a deal averting a shutdown while cautioning the agreement was only on the bill's processing. In a December 23 appearance on "State of the Union", Corker called the conflict between Democrats and Republicans over funding a "purposely contrived fight" that would end with American borders remaining unsecured no matter which side won and furthered that it was "a made-up fight so the president can look like he's fighting but even if he wins, our borders are going to be insecure." Corker noted that more funding was passed for border security in a 2013 amendment that received bipartisan support and opined that Trump would have accepted a deal offered by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer the previous January granting 25 billion for border security in exchange for the reauthorization of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program if he was more concerned about border security than politics. Corker also predicted that the "next three months could well determine whether [Trump] decides to run again or not." Retirement. On September 26, 2017, Corker announced that he would not seek re-election in 2018, keeping his pledge when he ran in 2006 to only serve two terms in the Senate. After announcing his retirement, Corker intensified his opposition to President Donald Trump, accusing him of lying, debasing the United States, and weakening its global standing. However, Corker refused to use his powers as Senate Foreign Relations chairman to use procedural leverage in the Senate to influence Trump's rhetoric and actions. He had not "ruled out" primarying Trump in the 2020 election, which he did not do. Political positions. Bob Corker is considered a moderate conservative and is often labelled as a moderate rather than a conservative. Corker scored 80% on American Conservative Union's 2017 Ratings of Congress. According to National Journal's 2009 Vote Ratings, he was ranked as the 34th most conservative member of the Senate. 111th Congress Social policy. In the 2006 primary campaign, Corker's opponents claimed he had changed his view on abortion since his first Senate campaign in 1994. Corker responded that he "was wrong in 1994" when he said that the government should not interfere with an individual's right to an abortion, stating that he now believes that life begins at conception. Corker has since changed his position and opposes abortion except when the life of the mother is endangered or in cases of rape or incest. Corker opposes same-sex marriage. However, in 2015, Corker was one of 11 Republican Senators who voted with Democrats in support of giving social security benefits to same-sex couples living in states that had not yet recognized same-sex marriage. In June 2018, Corker was one of thirteen Republican senators to sign a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions requesting a moratorium on the Trump administration family separation policy while Congress drafted legislation. In an interview that month, Corker stated that the Trump administration "obviously made a large mistake" and that he was aware "that some in the White House want to use the immigration issue as a force to activate the base for elections, but obviously the president realized that was a mistake, and now it's up to us in Congress to work with them to come up with a longer-term solution." Corker opined that the zero tolerance policy was part of a larger issue of Congress having failed to address existing immigration problems in the US. Fiscal policy. In 2006, Corker supported making the 2001 tax cut and the 2003 tax cut permanent. He has shown interest in replacing the federal progressive income tax with a flat tax. He endorsed the initial $350 billion of TARP funding in 2008, and opposed releasing the additional $350 billion of it in 2009. In 2011, Corker voted in favor of the Republican alternative budget proposed by Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI), a proposal that would eliminate the health care provided through the Medicare program and instead give seniors subsidies for part of the cost of obtaining private medical insurance. Corker referred to such programs as Medicare and Social Security as "generational theft". In 2013, Corker endorsed the Marketplace Fairness Act and voted for its passage in the Senate. The Marketplace Fairness Act would enable states to begin collecting sales taxes on online purchases. Corker was the only Republican senator to vote against the Senate version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 before it was sent to a conference committee with the House, citing concerns about the deficit. On December 20, 2017, Corker, who previously said he would "take a close look at the product developed in conference before making a decision on the final legislation," voted in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act conference report, saying, "In the end, after 11 years in the Senate, I know every bill we consider is imperfect and the question becomes is our country better off with or without this piece of legislation. I think we are better off with it. I realize this is a bet on our country's enterprising spirit, and that is a bet I am willing to make." Several commentators pointed out that a provision newly added to the final version of the bill, which some termed the "Corker Kickback," could financially benefit the Senator. In response, Corker's office stated that the senator was not a member of the tax-writing committee nor was he involved in crafting the legislation, and that he requested no specific tax provisions throughout the months-long debate. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) called the assertions about Corker's vote "categorically false," adding, "It takes a great deal of imagination – and likely no small amount of partisanship – to argue that a provision that has been public for over a month, debated on the floor of the House of Representatives, including a House-passed bill, and identified by JCT as an issue requiring a compromise between conferees is somehow a covert and last-minute addition to the conference report." House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) also rebutted the charges, saying, "To claim that Sen. Corker had anything to do with it, in my view, is baloney. This was a provision that we have fought for, we thought was important and is important to the ultimate pass-through approach." Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) added, "What the whole purpose of this exercise was, this false and invented story, is to undermine public confidence in this tax reform package ... Some of our friends on the other side of the aisle and their allies in the so-called mainstream media ran with it in a dishonest attempt to derail us from passing the bill and undermine the reputation for integrity of one of our fellow senators." Foreign policy. Corker traveled to Iraq for the first time as a senator in February 2007 as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee to study the situation on the ground. In March 2007, he subsequently expressed his opposition to an arbitrary withdrawal deadline of U.S. troops in Iraq and declared his support for General David Petraeus's counterinsurgency strategy. Corker said that any further reduction in U.S. forces in Iraq should be based on improved conditions in the country. In May 2008, Corker and Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Casey advocated for greater burden sharing among Iraq's neighbors in funding reconstruction efforts in the country. In April 2009, Corker criticized President Obama's Afghan war strategy, which boosted civilian efforts to rebuild the impoverished country and placed nuclear-armed Pakistan at the center of the fight: "I have no idea what it is, other than sending additional troops. I hope we dig a lot deeper," said Corker. He expected that the United States is having to build the economic and governmental structure of Afghanistan after decades of war. In September 2009, during a Special Committee on Aging hearing, Corker told former Canadian Public Health Minister Carolyn Bennett that Canada was living off the United States through setting lower health care prices and that "all the innovation, all the technology breakthroughs just about take place in our country and we have to pay for it." Corker stated that the US was not really the problem but rather "sort of the parasitic relationship that Canada, and France, and other countries have towards us" and affirmed his opposition to this policy. In October 2013, Corker said of American involvement in Syria, "I think our help to the opposition has been an embarrassment and I find it appalling you would sit here and act as if we're doing the things we said we'd do three months ago, six months ago, nine months ago." In February 2016, Corker stated his belief that the European Union had become open to President of Syria Bashar al-Assad remaining in power "for a while and they look at that as a better case than the chaos" as well as crediting Russian President Vladimir Putin with playing "the cards that he has in a masterful way and taken advantage of a nation that is not willing to lead". Corker furthered that the US not intervening in Syria with a strike in 2013 "said to the world that we could not be counted on" and that the US propped up Assad more than any other country. During the confirmation hearings of Mike Pompeo in April 2018, President Trump's nominee for Secretary of State, Pompeo pointed to the US military killing Russians in Syria as proof of the administration's strength against Russia. Corker thanked him for mentioning the strike, saying, "I don't think enough has been said or made of the fact the Russia crossed the Euphrates with their own troops and were annihilated, and it was really a strong statement that I don't think many are paying as much attention to as should." In April 2015, Corker's position on Iraq was that turmoil in the Middle East predated Barack Obama's presidency, and that by invading Iraq in 2003 the U.S. "took a big stick and beat a hornets' nest", unleashing rivalries that might take decades to resolve. In March 2016, following reports that Iran conducted ballistic missile tests, Corker said that past declining by the Obama administration and United Nations "to act after multiple violations last fall must not be repeated now that Iran appears ready to test the will of the international community with the nuclear agreement in place." In October 2017, amid the feud between Corker and President Trump, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stated, "Sen. Corker worked with Nancy Pelosi and the Obama administration to pave the way for that legislation and basically rolled out the red carpet for the Iran deal, and those are pretty factual." The claim was refuted by Corker's communications director and news outlets. In December 2018, President Trump wrote of Corker's involvement with the Iran nuclear deal, "For all of the sympathizers out there of Brett McGurk remember, he was the Obama appointee who was responsible for loading up airplanes with 1.8 Billion Dollars in CASH & sending it to Iran as part of the horrific Iran Nuclear Deal (now terminated) approved by Little Bob Corker." Corker supports supplying Ukraine (fighting the War in Donbass) with lethal weapons. In 2017, Corker criticized President Trump's provocative tweets against North Korea as impulsive. He said, "A lot of people think that there is some kind of 'good cop, bad cop' act underway, but that's just not true." He further expressed concern that Trump's reckless behavior could lead to war. Corker's comments were not met with public dissent; Republicans appeared to agree with Corker. In April 2018, Corker stated that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un viewed "having deliverable nuclear weapons as his ticket to dying as an old man in his bed" after seeing Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi die following surrendering his nuclear weapons and that it was not realistic for the Trump administration to "think that someone's going to go in and charm him out of" the nuclear weapons. In October 2017, Corker confirmed that he was engaged in discussions with Ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee Ben Cardin on creating a bipartisan plan that would meet the wishes of President Trump for a stronger nuclear agreement with Iran and that they hoped the final version of the legislation "would pass with 80 to 85 votes by the time we're through with it." In January 2018, Corker warned that pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal would have negative consequences for a treaty with North Korea: "I hope at some point we're going to enter into a very binding agreement with North Korea, and if it's believed that we withdrew from a military agreement when there aren't material violations — there's some technical violations, but not material violations — then it makes it more difficult for people to believe we're going to abide by another agreement." In October 2017, Corker said he would "get on the phone with someone" within a day to get answers to why the Trump administration had missed the October 1 deadline to install penalties on Russian entities. In April 2018, Corker stated that relations between the United States and Russia were at their lowest point since the Cuban Missile Crisis and that Congress "should be aware that miscalculations could lead us to a very bad place." Corker supported President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The United Nations consider East Jerusalem as occupied territory. In April 2018, Corker was one of six senators to introduce bipartisan legislation meant to update authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) by replacing the 2001 and 2002 bills that authorized the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and in subsequent years used as the basis for military action against terrorist groups. In his accompanying statement, Corker noted previous attempts to update the authorizations and admitted that there was "still work ahead". Saudi Arabia. Corker received campaign donations from Saudi Arabia's lobbyists. In June 2017, Corker voted against a resolution by Rand Paul and Chris Murphy that would block President Trump's 510 million sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia that made up a portion of the 110 billion arms sale Trump announced during his visit to Saudi Arabia the previous year. Corker reasoned that Saudi Arabia had already acquired the American bombs and that the resolution "is one of those things you're cutting your nose off to spite your face, and I think some are doing it because it's something Trump is proposing." In March 2018, Corker voted to table a resolution spearheaded by Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy, and Mike Lee that would have required President Trump to withdraw American troops either in or influencing Yemen within the next 30 days unless they were combating Al-Qaeda. In October 2018, Corker sent a letter to President Trump over the disappearance of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which "instructs the administration to determine whether Khashoggi was indeed kidnapped, tortured, or murdered by the Saudi government and...to respond within 120 days with a determination of sanctions against individuals who may have been responsible." In late November 2018 in an initial procedural step, Senator Corker joined with others backing an effort to suspend U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. Corker told reporters, "We also have a crown prince that's out-of-control — a blockade in Qatar, the arrest of a prime minister in Lebanon, the killing of a journalist — whether there is a smoking gun, I don't think there is anybody in the room that doesn't believe he was responsible for it." During late December 2018, he stated he would introduce a resolution directly naming Mohammed Bin Salman as "responsible" for Khashoggi's death. About the resolution, Corker stated it was a "strong denouncing of a crown prince and holding them responsible for the murder of a journalist", further considering it a "pretty strong statement for the United States Senate to be making, assuming we can get a vote on it." The resolution comfortably passed the Senate on December 13, 2018, the same day it also and approved a measure to pull support from the Saudi military campaign in Yemen. Health care policy. In September 2009, Corker opposed a health-care reform amendment that would legally allow Americans to buy cheaper Canadian drugs. He opposed President Barack Obama's health reform legislation. He voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in December 2009, and he voted against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. In late February 2010, Corker became the sole senator to back retiring Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky in filibustering a 30-day extension of expiring unemployment and COBRA benefits. Amid Republican efforts to repeal the ACA following the election of Trump, Corker said in July 2017 he would support a repeal bill in the Senate even if it did not include a replacement effort. In October 2017, Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray introduced a bipartisan stabilization package for exchanges as part of attempts to stabilize the ACA's individual insurance exchanges, Alexander announcing Corker as one of the eleven other Republican senators cosponsoring the legislation. Trade. In January 2018, Corker was one of thirty-six Republican senators to sign a letter to President Trump requesting he preserve the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by modernizing it for the economy of the 21st Century. In May 2018, following President Trump announcing plans to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum toward Mexico, Canada, and the European Union, Corker said that placing tariffs "on our most important trading partners is the wrong approach and represents an abuse of authority intended only for national security purposes." At a July 2018 hearing on tariff policy, Corker stated, "I'm very concerned about the president's trade policies and I think we all should be. These actions are hurting our business and farm communities all around the country. They're damaging our international relationships." In September 2018, after President Trump announced tariffs on 200 billion worth of goods from China, Corker stated that the move was misrepresented and Americans would be paying for the tariffs. Corker stated that while China was using the US and other countries to its advantage, the administration had not articulated what the US hoped to achieve with imposing the tariffs. Environment. In late 2004 while mayor of Chattanooga, Corker requested the Tennessee Department of Transportation to reduce the speed limits on interstate highways and other four-lane controlled access highways in Hamilton County from 70 mph to 65 mph and 55 mph for trucks in an effort to reduce particulate air pollution after Chattanooga failed to meet the EPA's requirements for air quality. While Corker has not fully accepted the scientific consensus that global warming is dangerous, progressing, and primarily caused by humans, in 2015 he supported a resolution expressing that humans do contribute to it. He favors imposing a tax on carbon. Corker opposed John McCain's 2008 campaign proposal to suspend the 18-cents-per-gallon federal gasoline tax, calling it "pandering extraordinaire". Controversies. Sale of protected wetlands. In 2003, Osborne Enterprises, an affiliate of the real estate company Corker Group, sold protected wetlands near South Chickamauga Creek in Chattanooga to Wal-Mart for $4.6 million. In July 2003 environmental educator Sandy Kurtz filed a restraining order to stop the construction of the Wal-Mart. After briefly being upheld, the lawsuit was dismissed on July 15, 2003. The Wal-Mart opened in May 2004. Attorney Joe Prochaska, who represented Kurtz, served from 1992 to 1997 as a member of the Davidson County Democratic Party's executive committee. Prochaska accused Corker of selling the land shortly after the construction easement was approved. However, public records show that the land was approved for development by the city prior to Corker becoming mayor in April 2001. As part of the development plans, the Corps of Engineers approved the filling in of 2.5 acres of the wetlands, to widen an access road, in exchange for the creation of an additional 11 acres of new wetlands in a nearby area. Public records show no involvement of Corker in the approval process. In 2006, during Corker's United States Senate campaign against Democrat Harold Ford Jr., a second lawsuit was filed by Kurtz, again represented by Prochaska, and the Tennessee Environmental Council. The lawsuit accused Wal-Mart of encroaching onto an adjacent protected nature area that was also held by a company owned by Corker. The suit alleged that Corker did not fully disclose his interest in the property where the Wal-Mart was built or in the adjacent nature area at the time the deal was made. The Corker campaign countered that an article published on March 5, 2003 in the "Chattanooga Times Free Press" publicly identified Corker's ownership interest in the land, through Osborne Enterprises, and that as mayor, a blind trust barred Corker from being involved in issues like these that affected his business. On October 13, 2006, lawyers involved in the case announced a settlement agreement. Details of the settlement were not announced, but court records indicate that a portion of the settlement involved a 45-day option for the Tennessee Environmental Council to purchase over of the land in dispute that the Council hopes to dedicate for public use. Blind trust. Shortly after taking office as mayor, Corker voluntarily placed his Hamilton County real estate holdings and businesses into a blind trust to avoid "even the perception of any conflict". Corker stated that the visibility of his properties and public knowledge of his ownership in them served as another check on his actions as mayor. On October 11, 2006, "The Commercial Appeal" reported that the blind trust that Corker set up to run his businesses to avoid conflicts of interest while he was mayor "may not have been all that blind". According to e-mails discovered by the "Appeal" (some of which had previously presumed to be lost): Corker met often with employees from his private companies while mayor from 2001 to 2005, and he shared business tips with others. Corker also got help organizing his 2001 mayoral campaign from City Hall, where a government secretary passed on voting lists and set up meetings for the millionaire commercial real estate developer. The e-mails show that Corker often met with officials from his private company, the Corker Group, which was part of the blind trust, while he was mayor. When asked about these e-mails by the "Appeal", Corker said that he thought the blind trust had "worked very well" and that he had sold most of his business holdings so that he could avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest in the Senate. Volkswagen. In 2014, Corker, a long-time opponent of unions in Tennessee, tried to influence the ballot election of blue-collar workers at the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant whether to allow the United Auto Workers to represent them. On the first day of the three-day election, Corker said that he "had conversations" and "based on those am assured that should the workers vote against the UAW, Volkswagen will announce in the coming weeks that it will manufacture its new mid-size SUV here in Chattanooga." Corker's public statement went counter to statements by Volkswagen officials in the lead-up to the vote that the outcome of the vote would not affect the determination of whether the SUV would be made in Chattanooga or at the Puebla, Mexico plant. National Labor Relations Board expert Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt of Indiana University Bloomington said that Corker's remarks were "shocking" and an attempt to intimidate workers into voting against UAW representation. The UAW was dealt a "stinging defeat" after a majority of employees at the Volkswagen plant voted against joining the union.

international ranking

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8464457

Ralston Valley High School (RVHS or RV) is a public high school in Arvada, Colorado, United States. Since it opened for the 2000 school year, its enrollment has grown to around 1800+ students. Area rivalries include Standley Lake High School, Pomona High School and Arvada West High School. Ralston Valley is a comprehensive, four-year high school located in Arvada, a northwest suburb of Denver. Opened in 2000, it has established a solid reputation, Offering a full complement of courses, with complete Honors and Advanced Placement programs, Ralston Valley has earned the highest rating (Excellent) given by the Colorado Dept. of Education. The school also features outstanding athletic and activity programs, with numerous state championships, award-winning bands, choirs, drama groups, along with art and student publication groups. Tradition of excellence. School motto: "Challenge yourself to be a person others admire." RVHS opened in the fall of 2000. With the exception of a few years when the award program was discontinued, RVHS has received the Colorado Department of Education's John Irwin School of Excellence Award yearly since 2005 and proudly received the award again for the 2013 school year. This award recognizes public schools that have demonstrated the highest achievement on statewide assessments, and is given to the top 8 percent of public schools in the state based on student achievement. History. The 24th high school built in Jefferson County Public Schools, Ralston Valley's opening relieved Arvada West High School, which was serving so many students in 1999 it was on a split schedule. Groundbreaking occurred in March 1999 and the school opened in the fall of 2000. The mascot of Ralston Valley is the Mustang. It was selected based on votes from local elementary and middle school students in Jefferson County who would be attending RVHS. The mascot is significant to the location of the school, which is located on land that was formerly a ranch that raised and bred horses. Part of this ranch still exists across the street from the southern edge of campus. College prep high school. Due to the high percentage of RVHS students who plan to go to college, college preparation is the focus in all RVHS classes. High academic standards are in place for all courses. RVHS offers an honors strand of courses for freshmen and sophomores, and numerous Advanced Placement courses. Students may opt to pursue an Honors Diploma as well. Upon graduation, 88.5% of RHVS students plan to attend college (district average = 74%). RVHS's average composite ACT score is 22.4 (district = 20.4; state = 19.4). Campus. The school building, situated on a site in northwest Arvada, was designed by LKA Partners and won a Merit Award in 2002 from the Colorado chapter of the American Institute of Architects. In March 2007, the school finished additional construction for expansion. This consisted of the addition of of classroom and science labs to the east side of the building as well as of classroom and more science labs to the south side. This renovation closed off the lower level in a full square to connect the science, math and (new) foreign language halls. Previously, the science and math halls were only connected in a horseshoe shape. The Ralston Valley High School addition and remodel includes 170,000 square feet of new construction and 42,000 square feet of remodeling. The project entailed demolition of the existing academic and administration areas and the redevelopment of the site. The new facility has 44 general classrooms, 12 science classrooms, library, media area, auxiliary gym, administration area, kitchen and commons. The remodeling included locker rooms and art department. The 28.5-acre site offers soccer, softball and multi-use fields. Further renovations included the addition of resulting in an auxiliary gym with a bleacher mezzanine, weight room and expanded athletic locker rooms. RVHS is one of only a few high schools to have the Millikan oil-drop experiment equipment along with the equipment for finding the mass of an electron. Additional improvements: Construction began in December 2005, was completed in September 2007, and cost $29.5 million. Students and faculty. Ralston Valley has a veteran teaching staff who average over 12 years of experience in education. In addition, 69% of the faculty have a master's degree in education and/or a particular subject area. The student-teacher ratio is 22.6 to 1. Administration. Former principals: Extracurricular activities and classes. Athletics. Ralston Valley has won nine state championship titles in softball, boys' basketball, baseball, swimming & diving, coed cheerleading, and poms. The Mustangs have won 74 Jeffco league championships in 13 different sports. The school has received the Steinmark Award competing in the Jeffco league. The Steinmark is awarded to the school with the top overall athletic performance in the league. Ralston Valley seniors have received athletic scholarships at Division I and II NCAA schools, along with nearly every US service academy. Ralston Valley fields teams in baseball, basketball, cheerleading, cross county, football. golf, ice hockey, girls' lacrosse, poms, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling in interscholastic competition. Ralston Valley initially competed in Class 4A Athletics in every sport except football. Football initially competed in 3A in its first two seasons, before moving up a classification to 4A. The school has since moved to Class 5A (the highest level in Colorado) as of fall 2009 in all athletics. State championships won by the school include: The basketball court is named in honor of Lisa Nelson (coach and teacher) and the gym is named in gratitude after Jim Hynes (former athletic director and assistant principal). Music. The Ralston Valley Music Department is a music program in Jefferson County, under the direction of two veteran directors with more than 50 years of experience. Each year, many RV students are selected to All-County and All-State Ensembles, including Choir, Orchestra, Band, and Jazz Ensemble. Performing ensembles have traveled out of state to perform in festivals at locations including Orlando, Florida, Las Vegas, Nevada, and London to perform in the New Year's Day Parade and Music Festival. Ralston Valley hosts the Mile High Jazz Festival. The String Orchestra program is one of the largest in the county and the Chamber Orchestra has been selected to perform at the Colorado Music Educator's State Convention. Ralston Valley's top choir, Shades of Blue, was the only Colorado choir selected to perform in New York City in May 2005 to honor the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII. The Ralston Valley Marching Band placed first in the 2013 and 2014 Arvada Harvest Festival. Student government. Events such as school dances are the more obvious student government projects, but that is only a small part of what student government does. Members of student government are assigned to different committees throughout the year, pertaining to a range of categories that help the school or community. Each class is responsible for putting on a community service project such as the Lisa Nelson Memorial 5K run/walk. Student government members have the opportunity to improve their own individual skills at a state or nationwide leadership camps including CHSAA State Leadership Camp, CHSAA Fall Conference, and Economics for Leaders. They also share their leadership skills with each other through student-led class activities and a weekend leadership retreat. Student organizations. Ralston Valley offers a variety of clubs and organizations, including:

each athletic activity

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=65583260

Harry Goldschmidt (17 June 1910 in Basel – 19 November 1986) was a Swiss musicologist. Life. 1910–1949: Basel, Weimar Republic, France, West Africa, Switzerland. Goldschmidt was born in Basel on 17 June 1910, the second child of Siegfried Goldschmidt, a banker from Frankfurt, and Vally Goldschmidt-Peiser, a teacher from Breslau. The boy was given the first names of Heinrich Heine: Heinrich (Harry) Leopold. The classically educated parents came from non-practising, fully assimilated German-Jewish families and acquired Swiss citizenship on 8 August 1919 in the city of Basel, where father Siegfried had become the youngest bank director in Switzerland at the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (now Credit Suisse) in 1905. After attending the Humanistische Gymnasium in his home town, Goldschmidt began studying musicology (Karl Nef and Jacques Handschin), ethnology at the University of Basel in 1928. () and psychology. A doctoral thesis in music ethnology was begun after 1936, but remained unfinished due to active service in the Swiss Armed Forces (1939–1945) during the Second World War. A youth novel "Ellen and Ott" (Zurich 1937), published under the pseudonym Konrad Illi, was always steadfastly denied by Goldschmidt with a mischievous smile. At the same time, Goldschmidt trained as a musician (piano, composition, conducting) at the City of Basel Music Academy, which he had attended alongside the school since 1926, and after only one year with Felix Weingartner, who was in Basel at the time, he obtained his conducting diploma. For further training he went to Hermann Scherchen in Königsberg in 1929. (" Prussia"). 1930–31 Goldschmidt completed his music studies at the State Academy of Music in Berlin. Returning to Switzerland, he went to Paris and London in the early 1930s as a writer and music reporter for several Swiss newspapers and as a permanent contributor to various international music journals. In 1933, Goldschmidt became music critic at the Basler "National-Zeitung" (today "Basler Zeitung"), which he remained – with interruptions due to the war – until 1948. Goldschmidt was particularly interested in the music of the "primitive peoples" in the 1930s, partly through the influence of Hermann Scherchen and Felix Speiser. In 1939, he was one of the first to take part in a musical-ethnological expedition to West Africa (especially Senegal), together with mythologists and linguists, and was one of the first to use the new technical means of tape recording. However, the expedition had to be abandoned after four months due to the outbreak of war in September 1939. Nevertheless, Goldschmidt's experiences with the music of non-European peoples continued to shape his life. After his demobilisation from military service in 1945, Goldschmidt continued to be a music critic for various magazines and newspapers, including the Swiss "Vorwärts", the daily newspaper of the newly founded, left-socialist Partei der Arbeit (a merger of the SP Left with the KPS), whose cultural work he subsequently headed. As part of this work, he founded and directed a mixed choir, the "Singgruppe Basel", and played a major role in the organisation of the "Volkssinfoniekonzerte". This was a commission from the Basler Gewerkschaftsbund, in which the PdA played a major role at the time. Goldschmidt not only conceived the concerts from a music-historical point of view, but also prepared them in a popular-scientific manner by means of introductory evenings that illustrated the connection between music and society, and they were held at the highest level, according to the motto: "For the working class – the best!" Thus, memorable encounters between simple workers and artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, Clara Haskil, Pablo Casals and others took place. During this time, that is from 1945 to 1947, Goldschmidt was also secretary of the Basel Study Commission for Radio Questions and from 1947 on secretary of the Swiss Film Archive. Goldschmidt had developed the concept of the Swiss Film Archive together with Georg Schmidt, who had been director of the Kunstmuseum Basel since 1939, and others with an academic interest in new media. Goldschmidt, who had active contacts with the anti-fascist German emigration in Switzerland during the National Socialist era, received various requests from Germany in the post-war period to participate in the construction of a new, democratic cultural life. As a result of his public appearance for the PdA, of which he had already become a member when it was founded in 1944, he became increasingly broke in the course of the beginning Cold War. He decided to follow the call to Berlin, where he was offered a position at the newly founded Berliner Rundfunk. 1949–1986: Activity in East-Berlin and the DDR. In February 1949, Goldschmidt moved to Berlin with his wife, the choreographer Aenne Goldschmidt-Michel. There, living in the soviet sector, he became head of the main music department at the Berliner Rundfunk, which at the time was run as a bizonal British-Soviet project of the occupying powers in the British sector in the Haus des Rundfunks on . But the idiosyncratic Goldschmidt, who was used to thinking independently and critically and to expressing his opinion openly, soon came into conflict with the Soviet occupying authorities: his musical line was too "cosmopolitan", too "western", too "elitist" and took too little account of "the music of the peoples of the Soviet Union". But these were only pretexts to get rid of Goldschmidt, as were many other non-conformist "Western immigrants" – especially after the so-called "field affair", whose Stalinist show trials and "purges" shook the entire Soviet sphere of power. In addition, Noel Field had operated from Switzerland during the war, and Goldschmidt was quite familiar with it. Thus Goldschmidt lost his job at the Berliner Rundfunk in February 1950 due to Stalinist intrigues. However, important cultural and political forces in the GDR, which was founded on 7 October 1949, were not at all of Soviet opinion: there, the anti-fascist attitude, the profound musicological knowledge, the experience in music education and the Marxist views of Goldschmidt were very much appreciated. , Minister of National Education of the GDR, appointed him Professor of Music History at the newly founded German Academy of Music (from 1964 Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" Berlin) as early as August 1950. Goldschmidt owed this to a large extent to the determined efforts of friends such as Georg Knepler, Hanns Eisler, Erich Weinert, Ernst Hermann Meyer, Paul Dessau among others. In this way, Goldschmidt succeeded in developing a broad musicological activity in the first half of the fifties despite adverse circumstances: In addition to his appointment as a lecturer, he received commissions for the GDR's 1950 Bach Jubilee Exhibition and the 1952 Beethoven Jubilee Exhibition in Berlin and Leipzig. Goldschmidt's most important work from this period is his Franz Schubert biography "Schubert – ein Lebensbild", which was published by Henschelverlag Berlin in 1954 and went on to be published in six further editions. This subsequent standard work of Schubert's biography was accepted as a dissertation by the Humboldt University in Berlin and Goldschmidt was awarded a doctorate in philosophy on 29 April 1959. 1950–55 Lecturer in music history at the East Berlin Academy of Music, Goldschmidt went to the People's Republic of China for half a year in 1955–56 on behalf of the GDR Ministry of Culture. In the People's Republic, founded on 1 October 1949, Mao Zedong's motto was: "Let a hundred flowers bloom! Accordingly, people were open-minded about European music and Goldschmidt gave lectures on German and European music history at various Chinese universities. After his return from China in 1956, Goldschmidt worked as a freelance musicologist with guest lectures at the Humboldt University of Berlin. From 1960 to 1965 he was head of the Central Institute for Music Research in East Berlin. From the second half of the 1960s onwards, Goldschmidt turned more and more to the music and biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, including fundamental problems such as the relationship between the work of art, biography and contemporary history or the relationship between language, vocal and instrumental music. A whole series of writings were produced (essays, congress papers, Beethoven introductions, Beethoven studies). Goldschmidt organised the 1977 International Beethoven Congress in Berlin on behalf of the GDR government. The government made the newly built plenary hall of the Volkskammer in the Palace of the Republic available for this purpose. The Deputy Minister of Culture Werner Rackwitz gave the opening speech at the lectern of the Volkskammer and Goldschmidt the speech "Artwork and Biography". The popular-scientific communication of the insights gained was not neglected: Goldschmidt conceived the Beethoven Complete Edition of the VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin and wrote a large number of cover texts for it. The popular work introductions were later compiled into the Reclam anthology (1975). In addition, there were appearances on radio and television in the GDR, as well as popular science lectures for trade unionists and other non-experts. In addition to a number of extensive books, a large number of publications have been published on Beethoven: see below. Works, Beethoven. Schubert also remained at the centre of his research: s. u. Works, Schubert. In the years 1976–86 Goldschmidt, as he had been doing since the mid-1960s, was primarily concerned with the problem areas of biography and music aesthetics as well as the relationship between word and instrumental music. He was the organizer and co-editor of the discussion series "Musikästhetik in der Diskussion" (Leipzig 1981) and the International Colloquium Großkochberg 1981 "Komponisten auf Werk und Leben befragt" (Leipzig 1985). Music Aesthetics: "Thoughts on a Non-Aristotelian Music Aesthetics" – Lecture at the II International Seminar of Marxist Musicologists (Berlin 1965), "Understanding Music as Postulate" (Cologne 1974), "Cantando-Sonando. Some approaches to a systematic music aesthetics" (Berlin 1977/78) Word and instrumental music: "On the unity of the vocal and instrumental sphere in classical music" – Presentation at the International Musicological Congress of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung (Leipzig 1966), "Verse and Verse in Beethoven's Instrumental Music" – Lecture at the Beethoven Symposium (Vienna 1970), "The Word in Instrumental Music: The Ritornelle in Schubert's "Winter Journey"" (1986; 1996 posthumously published), "The Word in Beethoven's Instrumental Accompaniment" (Beethoven Studies III, 1986; 1999 posthumously published) In 1986, Goldschmidt gave a lecture at the Carl Maria von Weber Congress in Dresden on the subject of "The Wolf Gorge – a Black Mass?" and, as a result of the fiercest controversies, suffered a heart attack during the congress, at which he participated on 19. He died on 19 November 1986; in an obituary in the SED central organ "Neues Deutschland' the GDR Ministry of Culture honoured him as the nestor of Marxist music research in the GDR.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5086720

The Fairchild and Northeastern Railroad was a common-carrier railroad organized in 1897, the successor road of several earlier logging lines of the N.C. Foster Lumber Company of Fairchild, Wisconsin. It originally connected Fairchild with Foster, via Hay Creek, in southern Eau Claire County. In 1913, the railroad was extended beyond Foster, via Allen as far as Cleghorn. To the east, it reached as far as Owen (where, as of 2006, the depot still stands and a short stub of trackage remains), via Willard and Greenwood. The railroad went defunct as a result of the Great Depression-induced change from grain farming to dairy farming as the mainstay of Wisconsin's agricultural base. A very small portion of this line was in use through the 1970s in Greenwood, where it connected with the since abandoned Greenwood branch of the Soo Line. As of 2014, Engine #12 from the Fairchild & NE is still operating, towing visitors at the Camp Five Museum in Laona.

kernel cultivation

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23691318

"There's More Than One of Everything" is the finale of the first season of the American science fiction drama television series "Fringe". The finale followed David Robert Jones' (Jared Harris) attempts to open a doorway to the parallel universe, while the Fringe team tries to stop him. It ends with FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) discovering a startling secret about Massive Dynamic founder William Bell (Leonard Nimoy). The episode's story was co-written by Akiva Goldsman and Bryan Burk, and the teleplay was co-written by Jeff Pinkner and J. H. Wyman, while Brad Anderson directed. The episode marked the first appearance of guest actor Nimoy as William Bell. Co-creator J. J. Abrams, having worked with Nimoy on the 2009 film "Star Trek", begged the actor to join the series through a series of phone conversations. Nimoy signed on for three episodes and found playing the character to be a "unique experience" after so many years portraying Spock. The episode first aired on May 12, 2009 in the United States, and was watched by an estimated 9.28 million viewers. "There's More Than One of Everything" received mostly good reviews, with many critics praising the revelations concerning the parallel universe. Many critics offered opinions on the depiction of the Twin Towers, with most reactions being positive. Plot. While Nina Sharp (Blair Brown) recovers from the gunshot sustained in the previous episode, the Fringe team's investigation reveals that the man in white bandages is David Robert Jones (Jared Harris). Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick) discuss locating William Bell for questioning, whom they believe is behind all the fringe events that have been occurring all season. Meanwhile, Walter Bishop (John Noble) is at a graveyard, where he solemnly stares at an unknown gravestone. Olivia, Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), and Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole) begin searching for Walter. Nina tells Olivia that an energy cell was stolen from her mechanical arm by Jones, and that he was formerly a Massive Dynamic employee who had looked up to Bell as a "father figure" until they had a falling-out. When Olivia demands to speak to Bell, Nina explains that she does not know where he is, as Bell has been communicating these past few months "strictly electronically". Nina believes Jones is trying to confront Bell, and promises Olivia that if she stops Jones, Nina will arrange a meeting between her and Bell. On a busy New York City street, Jones and his team use the energy cell to open a doorway into a parallel universe and bring a truck through, but are apparently unsuccessful, as Jones complains he used the "wrong coordinates". Having previously observed Walter at the graveyard, The Observer (Michael Cerveris) arrives with Walter at the Bishops' beach house, and gives Walter a coin, telling him to remember what he has to find. Walter goes on alone into the house, while Olivia and Charlie interview witnesses who saw Jones extract the truck from the doorway. They discover that the truck's VIN numbers do not exist, which implies the "truck was never made". A further interview with Nina reveals to the Fringe team that the truck is from another universe, and that Jones is using the stolen energy cell to travel to that universe. Peter finds Walter and chooses to meet his father alone, as he believes Walter is upset from the past several days. Now at the beach house, Peter and Walter search for and retrieve a device that can seal shut the doorway into the other universe. Walter explains to Peter that he once lost something very dear to him and that he had to go and bring it back from another reality; the device was created to prevent something from following him. After Jones makes another unsuccessful attempt to open a doorway at a soccer field in Providence, Olivia searches through old case files related to science and unexplained phenomena, and discovers a geographic connection between the soccer field, the city street, and several of their past Fringe cases. Olivia and Walter come to the same conclusion, that Jones is going to use a site at Reiden Lake to reopen the doorway, the epicenter of these Fringe events. Olivia, Peter, and Walter intercept Jones while he is opening another window and is halfway through it. Peter triggers Walter's device, killing Jones by sealing the doorway. At the end of the episode, Walter again goes alone to visit the graveyard; he tearfully observes a gravestone marked "Peter Bishop 1978-1985", suggesting that Walter's legitimate son died. Nina Sharp later calls Olivia and implies to her that she can meet William Bell in Manhattan. On the way to the hotel she almost gets into a car crash, at which point she is transported to the parallel universe. After no one shows up at the hotel restaurant, Olivia leaves, as she assumes that she got stood up. However, when in an elevator to leave the building, Olivia is teleported to another location and is directed to an office. After reading a newspaper headline indicating that President Obama was preparing to move into the "new" White House, she is greeted by William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) and inquires where she is. The final shot pans out the window revealing that they are standing inside the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Production. Casting. The character of Massive Dynamic founder William Bell was originally meant to be revealed earlier in the first season, but the writers changed their minds as the show progressed. In early April 2009, "Entertainment Weekly" announced that "Star Trek" actor Leonard Nimoy had been cast as Bell. He and "Fringe" co-creator J. J. Abrams already had a relationship after working together on the 2009 film "Star Trek"; Abrams stated in an interview that he called Nimoy and begged him to join "Fringe", explaining the show and the character. Nimoy sounded interested but wanted to become more familiar with the show, so Abrams and the other producers sent him as much information as they could about "Fringe", until Nimoy agreed. This exchange of phone calls, in which Nimoy responded with interest when pitched the idea, was also how Abrams was able to cast him in his "Star Trek" reboot. Nimoy later explained "When they contacted me about working on "Fringe" -- the same people, the same attitude, the same creativity, the same creative team – it was very enticing". According to Abrams, "The idea that he will play the mysterious, much-referenced William Bell is a thrill. I know I sound like a goofy fan boy, but I can’t help it: Leonard is an icon of the genre and such a wonderful actor. To have him come on board "Fringe" is a mind-blowing honor". Nimoy was hired for three episodes, beginning with the season finale. "Fringe" co-creator Roberto Orci described Nimoy's character as "a mix of Howard Hughes and Bill Gates", while Nimoy referred to Bell as a "master of the universe" who is "brilliant, wealthy and very powerful". Nimoy's part of the final scene of the episode with Olivia was very brief. Nimoy described the scene as "interesting, entertaining" and "that you'll want to see more of this relationship and what it's all about". Actress Anna Torv described the final scene as calm yet threatening, "That's what's kind of cool about working on Fringe, is everything seems kind of calm and lovely, but there's always something going on underneath". While shooting, Nimoy commented that the character "was a unique experience," as he had not acted outside of the Spock character for a number of years. Nimoy has stated in multiple interviews that his "Fringe" role will be the last project in his acting career. Writing and filming. The episode's teleplay was co-written by executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman, while consulting producer Akiva Goldsman and executive producer Bryan Burk co-wrote the story. Producer Brad Anderson served as episode director, his fourth credit of the season. J. J. Abrams called the finale "the end of one chapter and the start of another", and believed it was "a huge turning point" for all three main characters. Co-creator and executive producer Roberto Orci explained in an interview that the big reveal at the end of the episode, in which Olivia meets Bell in the parallel universe, was actually planned for a fourth season, but the writers decided "let's actually answer something instead and not get, not just rely on that mystery forever. And so we actually chose to give kind of a big answer and have to come with a different show than we ever intended". The writers wanted to use an iconic image for the scene, leading to staff writer Andrew Kreisberg's suggestion of the Twin Towers. Wyman first thought it was "the greatest idea in the world" before having doubts that its use would "sensationalize" it. He explained, "But then, when we started thinking about it, we thought collectively America really understood 9/11 is such a monumental moment so we felt it wasn’t exploited but indicative of the times we’re living in right now. We used it and that was the end of the first season and then we were all really thrilled with where it was going." The cast would later recollect on the series, and for Jackson, considered that the show has never "had a better visual or a better cliff-hanger" as this finale. To create the scene where Jones brings a semi truck from the parallel universe, the special effects crew took a smaller truck and dressed it enough so that it seemed like the longer semi with the help of CGI; the result was that in the episode, the viewer is led to believe that the truck had been "cut" in half after unsuccessfully entering the prime universe doorway. It was rigged so that it appeared to be on a tilt, and cables linked it to smash into a passing car. As the production crew considered William Bell to be a "Renaissance man", they filled Bell's office with "things that inspire him," such as a prototype of Nina's mechanical arm and other items that "evoke images and stimulate thought". Cultural references. In the final scene set in the parallel universe, a newspaper states the (presumably recently inaugurated) Obamas are moving into the "new" White House, indicating that the traditional presidential residence had been recently rebuilt; this is later confirmed in season two, where it's told that the White House was targeted by terrorists instead of the Twin Towers. Another headline has former President John F. Kennedy addressing the United Nations. Another part of the newspaper depicts Boston Celtics player Len Bias winning the MVP award, when Bias in fact died in 1986 in the prime universe. Reception. Ratings. "There's More Than One of Everything" was season one's finale. The episode was watched by an estimated 9.28 million viewers in the United States. In between the first two seasons, Fox aired repeats of the first season featuring Twitter comments about the episodes from executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman, and actors John Noble and Joshua Jackson. Reviews. The episode received generally positive reviews, with multiple critics lauding the performances of actors Anna Torv and John Noble. In his review for "Entertainment Weekly", critic Ken Tucker wrote this his "mind was blown not once, but twice" due to the many revelations about two universes; "Fringe" "has vaulted to the upper reaches of current television". In a second review, Tucker praised the "beautifully, startlingly executed" special effects when the "hole" in the universe closed. Writing for The A.V. Club, critic Zach Handlen gave the episode an "A", and felt the episode made him want to go back and rewatch season one because the finale had "so many references and back story nods that I wanted to have everything in my head together". Andrew Hanson from the "Los Angeles Times" thought the finale "leads to a wealth of possibilities... The déjà universe was a bold move. I can’t wait to see what our friends at "Fringe" do with it". Writing for the "Chicago Tribune", critic Maureen Ryan heaped praise on the "excellent" episode, and complimented "the quietly creepy atmosphere, the slowly building tension in the dual Walter/Olivia stories, the way those stories were skillfully woven together, the suitably tense lakeside encounter between Olivia, Peter and Mr. Jones". Though some critics appreciated how "Fringe" chose to end the finale with a shot of the World Trade Center, others disliked it. Jeff Pinkner defended their decision by explaining they chose it because the building is "obviously very iconic" and it best displayed that in the parallel universe, "things are both better and in some ways worse. It's just different choices, the road not taken". Leonard Nimoy also defended the writers, commenting that when he received the script, he thought it "was very interesting and really kind of daring contemporary television to pull in that story... You know, it's not easy to use that kind of stuff without seeming somehow exploitive. But I thought they did it very, very well". Many critics expressed that because of the episode, they couldn't wait for the following season to begin. IGN's Ramsey Isler rated the episode 9.2/10, while website blogger io9 listed "There's More Than One of Everything" as one of the "crucial" episodes new viewers must watch to get into the show. "The Futon Critic" listed it the 16th best television episode of 2009, explaining "J. J. Abrams and company know all about big reveals... but this one, in which William Bell reveals himself as living in a parallel universe where the Twin Towers weren't lost, was one of their most indelible". In a comparison of "There's More Than One of Everything" and "The X-Files" episode "4-D", UGO Networks columnist Alex Zalben wrote that the "Fringe" episode won "by a landslide. This episode kicked the show into high gear, while '4-D' was "The X-Files" winding down." Jeff Jensen of "Entertainment Weekly" named "There's More Than One of Everything" the seventh best episode of the series, calling it "the episode that changed everything... With that, the most hyped show of the 2008-2009 TV season produced a moment that finally earned it buzz." Den of Geek ranked the episode as the fifth best of the entire series, while IGN ranked it the ninth best. Awards and nominations. Bryan Burk, Akiva Goldsman, Jeff Pinkner, and J.H. Wyman submitted the episode for consideration in the Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series Category at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards. They also submitted two other episodes, "Pilot" and "Bound", but did not receive any nominations.

last few nights

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=16365

Jury instructions, directions to the jury, or judge's charge are legal rules that jurors should follow when deciding a case. They are a type of jury control procedure to support a fair trial. Description. Jury instructions are the set of legal rules governing how jurors should behave when deciding a case, often addressing with whom jurors may discuss the case and how jurors will decide who is guilty. They are a type of jury control procedure, intended to mitigate potential actions of jurors that may prevent a fair trial; the judge provides these instructions to ensure their interests are represented and nothing prejudicial is said. Use. United States. Under the American judicial system, juries are often the trier of fact when they serve in a trial. In other words, it is their job to sort through disputed accounts presented in evidence. The judge decides questions of law, meaning he or she decides how the law applies to a given set of facts. Jury instructions are given to the jury by the judge, who usually reads them aloud to the jury. The judge issues a judge's charge to inform the jury how to act in deciding a case. The jury instructions provide something of a flow chart on what verdict jurors should deliver based on what they determine to be true. Put another way, "If you believe A (set of facts), you must find X (verdict). If you believe B (set of facts), you must find Y (verdict)." Jury instructions can also serve an important role in guiding the jury how to consider certain evidence. Forty-eight states (Texas and West Virginia are the exceptions) have a model set of instructions, usually called "pattern jury instructions", which provide the framework for the charge to the jury; sometimes, only names and circumstances have to be filled in for a particular case. Often they are much more complex, although certain elements frequently recur. For instance, if a criminal defendant chooses not to testify, the jury will often be instructed not to draw any negative conclusions from that decision. Many jurisdictions are now instructing jurors not to communicate about the case through social networking services like Facebook and Twitter. Comprehending jury instructions. A significant issue with standard jury instructions is the language comprehension difficulties for the average juror. The purpose of jury instructions is to inform jurors of relevant laws and their application in the process of coming to a verdict. However, studies have shown that juries consistently run into problems understanding the instructions given to them. Poor comprehension is noted across juror demographics, as well as across legal contexts. Various linguistic features of legalese or legal English, such as complex sentence structures and technical jargon, have been pinpointed as major factors contributing to low comprehension. Simplifying jury instructions through the use of plain English has been shown to markedly increase juror comprehension. In one study of California’s jury instructions in cases involving the death penalty, approximately 200 university students participated in a research experiment. Half of the participants heard the original standard instructions written in legal English, and half heard revised instructions in plain English. Instructions were read twice to each group, and the participants then answered questions for researchers to gauge their understanding. The results showed a notable disparity in comprehension between the two groups. The group that received revised instructions demonstrated stronger understanding of relevant points such as key concepts, and the ability to differentiate between legal terms. In another California study, jury instructions were again simplified to make them easier for jurors to understand. The courts moved cautiously because, although verdicts are rarely overturned due to jury instructions in civil court, this is not the case in criminal court. For example, the old instructions on burden of proof in civil cases read: The new instructions read: Resistance to the movement towards the revision of standard jury instructions exists as well. This is due to the concern that moving away from legal English will result in jury instructions becoming imprecise. There is also the belief that jurors prefer judges to speak in legal language so that they come across as educated and respectable. Jury nullification instructions. There is also debate over whether juries should be informed of jury nullification during jury instructions. One argument states that if juries have the power of jury nullification, then they should be informed of it and that neglecting to do so is an act of intervention. Another argument states that defendants should be judged according to the law, and that jury nullification interferes with this process. It is also debated that instructions permitting jury nullification is to be criticized as promoting chaos, as it brings the decision between having a structured set of rules and having less of said rules for a more free set of choices that could also promote the likes of anarchy and tyranny. Studies have indicated that being informed of jury nullification is likely to affect the judgement of juries when they decide on verdicts. One study that looked into 144 juries showed that they were less harsh on sympathetic defendants and harsher on unsympathetic defendants when they had been briefed on jury nullification. Another study that looked into 45 juries showed that they were likelier to reach a guilty verdict in drunk driving cases and less likely in euthanasia cases, with no reported difference in likelihood in murder cases, with the inclusion of explicit jury nullification details in jury instructions. United Kingdom. The judge presents directions to the jury court, after overlapping instructions have been provided by a DVD and a jury manager.

particular group

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1090266

Mark Anthony "Gator" Rogowski (born August 10, 1966) is an American former professional skateboarder who was convicted of murder. He was mainly prominent in the 1980s and early 1990s. Rogowski's career ended when he pled guilty for assaulting, raping and murdering Jessica Bergsten in 1991. His life was chronicled in a critically acclaimed 2003 documentary titled "Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator" by American filmmaker Helen Stickler. Early years. Rogowski was born in Brooklyn, New York, but he moved to Escondido, California, at the age of three after his parents divorced. Rogowski was a gifted athlete, playing little league baseball in his youth. Rogowski started to skateboard at age seven and, while most of his friends were into surfing, he eventually started to hang out at skate parks several years later. In 1978 after 2 years of skating local parks, 12 year old Rogowski was picked up by a local skate team. Rise to prominence. Rogowski started his professional skateboarding career in 1980 at age 14. In 1982, he won his first major contest, the Canadian Amateur Skateboarding Championships in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In 1984, he won a national championship. Rogowski received endorsement deals from Gullwing Trucks early in his career, Rogowski was being paid "between $4,000 and $8,000 a month" for clothing and skateboarding equipment endorsements. By 1987, Rogowski was earning two dollars per skate deck from Vision, which was selling 7000 decks on a monthly basis, resulting in royalties totaling US$14,000 for Rogowski (US$ in ). Additionally, Vision was also selling T-shirts, berets, hip packs, and stickers using the "Gator" name. Rogowski was one of a group of elite skaters who enjoyed significant fame in the 1980s, alongside Christian Hosoi, Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain and Steve Caballero. He was a charismatic, flamboyant personality who received fame and fortune during skateboarding's return to popularity following the success of vert skateboarding. At a 1987 skate show in Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S., Rogowski was introduced to Brandi McClain and her good friend Jessica Bergsten, an aspiring model. Soon afterward, he began a tumultuous long-term relationship with McClain—they appeared together in numerous advertisements and promotional videos for Vision, which had become one of the top-selling skateboarding brands of the 1980s. Rogowski worked as a stunt double on the 1989 film "Gleaming the Cube", which starred Christian Slater, and appeared, along with McClain, in the music video "Free Fallin"' by Tom Petty. Downhill slide. Rogowski's popularity declined as the 'vert skating' popular in the 1980s was supplanted by street skateboarding in the 1990s. Vision, the company he was with for the majority of his career, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. For re-invention, Rogowski changed his name to "Gator" Mark Anthony, explaining "Rogowski" was the name of the father he never knew. After a severe accident in West Germany, where Rogowski either fell or was pushed from a hotel window and landed on a fence, Rogowski returned home to Carlsbad to recover. After befriending Augie Constantino, an ex-surfer turned born-again Christian who also became his "spiritual advisor", Rogowski converted to a strict Evangelical form of Christianity influencing Rogowski's attitude and skateboard deck designs. After four years of dating McClain, Rogowski suggested the couple marry, proclaiming they "can't have sex anymore unless we get married." The sudden lifestyle change contributed to the end of McClain's relationship with Rogowski, along with his occasional bouts of violence (which included his locking her in a closet) and unprovoked jealousy, and she returned to her parents' home in San Diego, California. Rogowski began a period of severe alcoholism following McClain's departure. Murder of Jessica Bergsten. Following the end of his relationship with McClain, Rogowski was jealous: he entered her home to steal gifts he gave her; he made threatening telephone calls to McClain's new boyfriend; and he also threatened McClain directly. McClain informed police about Rogowski's behavior. They filed a report, but the situation was not monitored continuously. On March 20, 1991, Rogowski talked with 22-year-old Bergsten for the first time in years. Bergsten asked Rogowski to show her around San Diego. They spent a day together on March 21, 1991; shortly after, Bergsten was reported missing. According to Rogowski, he and Bergsten went back to his condo to watch movies, smoke weed and drink wine. He admitted to coming up behind her and hitting her in the head with a Club (a metal auto anti-theft device). After knocking her semi-unconscious by way of several strikes, he handcuffed her and dragged her to his bedroom on the second floor, and raped her while she was shackled to his bed. Afterward, he placed her in a surfboard bag because he was concerned about the neighbors hearing the noise. Rogowski placed his hand over Bergsten's mouth until she stopped breathing, then drove the body to the Shell Canyon desert, then disposed of the corpse in a shallow grave. Bergsten's body was found by campers on April 10, 1991, but it was so decomposed, it could not be identified. Plagued by guilt, Rogowski informed Constantino: "Remember that girl from the poster? She was the one I killed." Constantino encouraged Rogowski to confess his crime to the police, which Rogowski did, thereby waiving his legal rights. Rogowski turned himself in on April 11, 1991, and led police to the grave of Bergsten's body. Police searched his home, and found evidence of blood soaked through the carpet padding and into the floorboards in two small spots, adjacent to where Bergsten's head allegedly rested. In his confession, Rogowski conveyed he killed Bergsten in a mis-placed act of revenge toward McClain, calling Bergsten the "mold Brandi was made out of." Entering prison, Rogowski was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Hearing, prison, and parole. Rogowski was charged with "special circumstances," committing a murder during rape. Under California law, this warrants the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. His lawyer, John Jimenez, challenged the validity and content of the confession. Jimenez appealed the rape charge, insisting the decomposed body showed no signs of forcible rape, but the appeal was eventually dismissed. Following the advice of his attorney, Rogowski pled guilty to first-degree murder and rape, thus avoiding the death penalty or life without the chance of parole. In January 1992, at the plea hearing, Gator submitted a four-page written statement. He accepted responsibility for his acts, accepted responsibility for sexual activities outside of marriage, for his promiscuity, and for not following the word of the Bible. Rogowski was sentenced on March 6, 1992. Five uniformed bailiffs with metal detectors were at the hearing due to a rumor Stephen Bergsten (the father of the victim) would attempt to harm Rogowski. Bergsten lost two properties due to his involvement with a nationwide drug ring, and he allegedly had nothing to lose by harming Rogowski. With the bailiffs standing between Rogowski and Bergsten, Rogowski offered an apology while Bergsten shouted back he "was a coward" who would "die a thousand deaths". Rogowski received a 31-year to life prison sentence: six years for forcible rape and 25 years to life for the first-degree murder charges to be served consecutively. Rogowski was denied parole on February 7, 2011. Deputy District Attorney Richard Sachs argued Rogowski remains an "unreasonable risk to society" and should remain imprisoned, while a family member of Bergsten also attended the hearing and requested Rogowski remain incarcerated. On February 6, 2015, another parole hearing was scheduled, but Rogowski waived his right to a hearing for one year. On March 9, 2016, he was again denied parole for seven years. Rogowski will not be eligible for parole again until March 2023, which marks the minimum of his sentence. As of June 2019, Rogowski is incarcerated at Donovan State Prison. On December 10, 2019, multiple media reports indicate Rogowski's parole board recommended parole. The California Board of Parole Hearings will finalize the decision within 120 days. After that date, the case goes before the California governor's staff for review. On April 27, 2020, Rogowski's parole grant was reversed by Governor Gavin Newsom, stating Rogowski needed to gain a "deeper understanding" of his crimes. In media. A documentary examining Mark Rogowski's trajectory, "", was released in 2002 by Palm Pictures. The film was written, directed, and produced by Helen Stickler, and features interviews with other professional skateboarders such as Tony Hawk, Kevin Staab, Lance Mountain, Ken Park, Steve Caballero, Jason Jessee, Craig Johnson, Stacy Peralta, and Rogowski. Since California law prohibits video interviews with prison inmates, Rogowski was interviewed over the recorded prison phone for the documentary, and gave details on his background, his downfall, and remorse for murdering Jessica Bergsten. This story was featured on an episode of "Shattered" on the Investigation Discovery channel. It features interviews with the lead investigator, Brandy McClain, and the minister Auggie Costantino.

more complex comprehension

2948-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=26765276

The Pentax 6x7 (known as Pentax 67 after 1990) is a SLR medium format system film camera for 120 and 220 film, which produces images on the film that are nominally 6 cm by 7 cm in size (56mm by 70mm in the film gate), made by Pentax. It originally debuted in 1965 as a prototype dubbed the Pentax 220. Since then and with improvements, it was released in 1969 as the Asahi Pentax 6×7, as well as the Honeywell Pentax 6×7 for the North American import market. In 1990, it received a number of minor engineering updates and cosmetic changes and was renamed as the Pentax 67. The camera resembles a traditional 35 mm SLR camera with interchangeable viewfinder and lens, but is considerably bigger and heavier, weighing with the plain prism and standard (105 mm ) lens. It is perhaps inspired by the 1957 East German 6×6 KW Praktisix and its successor, the Pentacon Six, although the horizontal SLR concept can be traced back to the 1933 Ihagee VP Exakta. The Pentax 6×7 has a dual bayonet lens mount, and a wide range of interchangeable Takumar and later SMC Pentax 67-designated lenses exist. More than forty years after the original camera introduction a wide selection of lenses is still available, together with the latest Pentax 67II variant. The following models have been issued: Description. The Pentax 6×7, designated product model number 400XXXX by Asahi Pentax, is similar to any traditional 35 mm SLR camera except in size. The Pentax 6x7 is an electromechanical design and shares much in concept with its smaller 135 format cousin the "Pentax Electro Spotmatic", however, is not equipped with an internal meter. Users familiar with the diminutive cousins in the 135 format would find the Pentax 6×7 an easy transition due to the layout of the camera. This hefty camera with a general dimension body of 7.25 inches × 4.5 inches × 3.75 inches (18 cm × 11 cm × 9.5 cm), and with the standard prism and 105mm lens, would bring it to 7.5 inches × 5.75 inches × 6.5 inches (18 cm × 14.5 cm × 17 cm). The most obvious difference with common SLRs is the location of the shutter speed knob being at the left hand top. Other small controls are easily located such as the lens release is on the left side of the mirror housing, the shutter release and film advance lever are located on the familiar right-hand side of the top. Because it uses 120 film, there is no provision for manual rewinding of film, as there would be for 35mm film cameras. At the front of the mirror housing is the Pentax 6×7 dual lens mount that allows for both "inner" as a familiar 3 flange proprietary arrangement and "outer" four flange symmetrical arranged bayonet. The latter (outer) was provided for use with larger and heavier telephoto lenses and allowed the body to rotate and lock in any of the four positions. Because of the rotatable mounting, an "outer" mounted lens would not have "automatic aperture" linkage rendering the use of the aperture as a stop-down method of operation. Another versatile feature is the removable prism. By pressing in the two locking buttons on either side of the finder bay, access allows for an assortment of finders that can be fitted into the bay. As the name implies, the 6×7 is a medium format camera and the negative produced is 6 cm by 7 cm (actual format 56 mm × 70 mm), and additionally the successors 67 and 67II remain the same format. The Pentax 6×7 has the ability to use either the 120 or 220 roll film, which produces ten or twenty frames respectively (twenty-one for the 1969 version). A film roll format selector on the right-hand of the camera permits quick selection between 120 and 220 format film. Additionally, a change to the setting of the film selector must also be reflected in a change to the 120 or 220 position of the film pressure plate. The pressure plate also maintains film flatness in this horizontal design during exposure, aiding sharpness across the entire image. Other systems use film tension alone, or against rails at the film's edge, in more compact vertical-feed magazines found in 6×6 or 6×4.5 formats. The standard Pentax 6x7 outfit comprises the Super Takumar and later the Super Multi-Coated Takumar/6×7 105 mm f2.4 and the pentaprism finder that allows for the through-the-lens actual image (90% of actual area) of what is being composed. Mechanical details. The camera is completely battery dependent. Power is provided by a 6 volt PX28 (originally Mercury-specified 1968, and Silver Oxide 1971), but equal substitutes PX28S/4SR44. As with many systems of the era, the mirror and cloth curtains are mechanically-driven, the timing of the shutter being electrically governed by transistors and a magnet. The combination of resistors routed by the speed setting determine the length of time the magnet remains engaged. The large cloth curtains as well as the size of the exposure area limits the maximum flash synchronizing speed to 1/30th of a second. Also, the operation of the shutter is not normally possible without film being loaded. However, one can test the shutter by rotating the counter dial away from the empty position while the film door is open and then by closing the film door while still holding the dial, thus facilitating the unlocking of the advance mechanism and operation of the shutter. It was also possible to check the shutter with a bypass key that was inserted in the frame counter engagement slot and allow for inspection of the shutter while the film door was open. The frame counter is incremented only while there is film passing over the "main roller" or "counter roller" next to the take-up spool in the camera. The camera disengages the "transport system" when the counter dial (connected to the frame counting control cam) has reached the last frame, or when the counter has returned to the "empty" or start position. The automatic frame counter resets only if the shutter is released before opening the back. Because of the electromagnetic operation of the shutter, a battery is required to power the timing as well as the holding of the curtain release mechanism when the release button is pressed. When there is a loss of adequate voltage, the camera cannot complete the operation cycle. In this state, the mechanically actuated mirror is allowed to rise, however, the curtain release mechanism would continue past the cycle and not fully disengage the curtains from the primed position. Therefore, the reset procedure will be necessary to bring the mirror back to finish the cycle. A small button located flush on the right-hand camera front, just below the shutter-release button, is provided for restarting of the mirror/shutter cycle and depressing the shutter release once more will release the cycle. In a situation where the shutter fails to fully operate, the frame is lost. The shutter release button is standard threaded for pneumatic bulb/cable releases, an accessory timer or the use of a larger accessory ('soft touch') button. The fingernail-operated latch to the left lower side releases the film door for loading. The film spools are secured by the pins and slot shaped opening at either end of the film spool. The camera has two twist-lock cams that turn and pull out to open, the left side for the unexposed roll and the right side, known as the “take-up” spool. Because of the arrangement differences of the 120 and 220 start length of paper, the indicated starting points are marked above the film plane for lining-up the START mark on the film. The film advance system is a tension/friction type, the film source side being a tension brake and the take-up side torque/slip clutch. A counting cam governs the frame count and interacts with the friction system to allow enough slip and movement to accurately space each frame from the beginning of the roll to the end. The counting cam also allows the system to regulate a lock to open and close, allowing the shutter to fire. This slip system has brought criticism of durability in early models, as it would slip more over time, causing frame spacing issues as well as disengaging the shutter. The frame counter system, tied to the counter roller, operates the automatic reset of the counter (i.e. returns it to start) whenever the back is opened, and also sets the regulating of the next frame. Later improvements. Over time the problematic advance mechanism was modified to increase reliability of the overall transport system. A phasing in of key replacements such as the replacement of the rubberized Counter Roller for a smooth metal roller, the internal Transport Control Wheel was replaced to reduce the number of frames and also requiring the Counter Control Cam to be replaced at the same time. The introduction of the improved parts also meant the ceasing of original first generation parts, inventory of stock parts would quickly become exhausted and the newly issued non-backward compatible of the parts would make remaining unmodified bodies requiring full upgrades to continue working. The improved parts would become standard replacements after the early 1974 for bodies coming in for servicing of the transport mechanism and would later be summarized and identified by the issuing of the parts catalogs in late 1974 and 1975 in the fall of 1986 for the Pentax 6×7 service bulletin as well as standard parts in the introduced 67 version launched in 1990. Changes to the advance lever angle from a tipped out to a curled inward and the trim shroud at back of the finder bay had a matching scallop for the new lever design to rest upon, this appeared about late 1972. As well were changes to the spool release mechanism, where it was an improvement from a checkered friction operated surface to a more convenient flip handled method and the center posts that held the film spools lost their angled profile for a more controversial straighter angle that improved film feed accuracy, but caused some difficulty in speed of spool placement during film reloading and also to prompted some to seek services to custom grind the posts. In 1976, to address the issue of induced camera vibrations caused by the 6x7's large mirror swing and suddenly stopping, a mirror release mechanism was introduced. By sliding upwards the mirror-up switch on the right hand side of the mirror housing, it allowed a bypass of the mirror release from the shutter trip cycle. This allowed the mirror to fully raise and then hold, allowing then the shutter release cycle still be separately at the ready. Unfortunately, this also activated the main power switch that was mechanically tied to the mirrors' main gear action and until the depressing of the shutter release to completes the exposure, the power to the circuits remain on and would drain the battery over time. Even with this one negative aspect to the mirror lock-up modification, it would still become a standard feature in later productions. The introduction of the mirror lock-up (MLU) feature appeared at about the same time as other critical changes, as with the counter components and other key components in the advance mechanism. Pentax slowly phased out the parts compatible with the first released version in favor of improved and more durable parts. The exhausting of parts also meant that later new production bodies had all the new parts installed at the factory and would later become standard in the 67-badged models officially by and after 1990. Other changes were to the frame counting cam that shortened the 220 film frame count from 21 to 20 but the 120 mode remained the same. This reduction was necessary as the new version of the 'clutch' plate to improve durability was released. This change also tied to the switching from rubberized "Counter Roller" to an all-metal smooth version. Lesser known for the later original 6×7 and 1990-era 67 cameras was a special factory modification that would allow the bypassing of part of the frame counter mechanism (Duality-Prevention lever) for deliberate double exposures, though not many were made with this feature and estimated of only a few hundred may exist. The camera could also be returned to a Pentax service facility to have the multiple exposure facility installed at owner's expense. This modification may often be found on some Polaroid/Foscher equipped bodies. Another modification was a non-powered Bulb exposure. This was a popular request from astronomers that needed the camera to expose for times greater that the batteries could allow. The demand for this modification was reduced when the availability of a third-party adapter plate that could override the need for a battery, and mimic the cycle of the mirror release and shutter opening by a simple plate that employed two shutter release cables. Polaroid Back/Foscher adapted bodies were a non-factory modification and was usually applied by authorized service centers and was a popular enhancement used by studio photographers for lighting tests. There would be later versions of this modification to give users an ability to make both backs interchangeable. This special modification allowed switching in out of the Foscher back to a normal pressure plate for roll film without the need for a service technician to partially disassemble the hinge, as well as re-attaching the leatherette. A minor change of color to the lens release lock from chrome to black as found on the 67 model (designated model number of 22401). Some reports of mixed-and-matched part factory release bodies also existed as well as mix matching as a result of authorized servicing mandating the exchange of the older advance system for the newer version. Lenses and accessories. Pentax has one of the widest range of lenses available for a medium format camera. The first generation of lenses available had a standard multi-coating and were named "Super-Takumar." After the release of the improved 7-layer coating, they were labelled "Takumar Super-Multi-Coated". Later lenses would abandon the Takumar branding in favor of "SMC Pentax 67" and include modifications to optics, functional and cosmetics. Most of the lenses are "Auto-Aperture" type to allow for the brightest viewing and focusing of the lens for composition of the subject. The lens also has an aperture tab that couples to the indexed sliding ring found under the mount ring of the body. In turn the ring has a chain connected and running up into the finder bay and linked to a tab under spring tension. Operation of the aperture ring would operate the ring and feed the chain back and forth to move an indexing tab. This was only utilized by the TTL meter prism, and was not needed for any other finder available. The exceptions for "Auto-Aperture" or aperture linkage are: The 75 mm Shift due to the manner that the base must slide out of direct alignment to the forward elements that the linkages for the Auto-Aperture is not possible. The 120 mm Soft Focus due to its dual aperture system. The 600 mm and 800 mm due to their "rack and pinion" focus that it is not possible to have linkages to the Auto-Aperture. The 1000 mm being a catadioptric lens that it is not possible to have an aperture. Leaf-shutter lenses. Two leaf-shutter lenses were made available. The 90 mm and 165 mm permitted flash sync at all speeds, thereby solving many mirror and shutter vibration problems, as well as allowing for fast shutter speeds for use with strobes and portable flashes while in bright shooting conditions where the 1/30sec synchronization speed is not ideal. Lenses are linked to the body by the operation of the aperture stop-down lever being tripped. The operation of the leaf shutter requires the camera's native focal plane sync speed of 1/8 second to be set in order to synchronise correctly with the lens leaf shutter. Mirror lock-up, on cameras so fitted with this function, can be used in leaf shutter mode with the 90 mm LS lens, but should not be used with the 165 mm due to mechanical differences with the risk of jamming and damage to the camera. With either leaf shutter lens "set to LS mode", the TTL meter on the Pentax 67 will not operate. Through-the-lens (TTL) metering pentaprism viewfinder. The through-the-lens (TTL) metering pentaprism viewfinder included a knurled shutter dial ring with fitted case. The TTL-metered pentaprism is the same coverage as the non-metered pentaprism, a coverage of 90% of frame and has a sensitivity pattern of 60% center-weight and 30% inner field sensitivity. The TTL Metering Pentaprism has no internal power of its own, instead, the operating power comes from one of the three contacts found in the finder bay of the body as well as grounding to the body. Only two of the three contacts are utilized and depending on the two modes: Normal as 'AUTO' mode and in an override to stop-down mode in the 'MAN' mode as found on many equipped lenses. The TTL metered prism has a 5-stop exposure range. In 'AUTO', the lens is fully opened and adjustments are read from the coupled index from the lens—through the index ring of the body mount—to the chain and index shuttle, the TTL meter receives the position information via a protruding tab facing the finder bay. The tab operates a linear potentiometer. In 'MAN' or manual mode with so equipped lenses, the sliding of the lens switch will move an internal lever that then presses down on the activating switch in the body. The switch is located inside the pin of the lens release pin. This inner pin is connected to an electrical toggle inside the body and switches the current from body grounded to bay connector to activate the secondary circuit. The physical difference of the TTL meter to the regular prism is the coupling arm that extends to the shutter speed dial. The dial covers the body shutter speed dial and is coupled via a spring loaded index pin. The included knurled ring assists with the operation of the shutter speed dial which is otherwise difficult to operate by itself with the prism in-situ. The stop-down mode or direct metering while the aperture is allowed to operate and change the amount of light is similar to the 'MAN' mode, but activates when a non-auto-aperture lens is mounted causing index ring to be positioned to place the meter's linear potentiometer into a bypass mode to activate the secondary circuit in the meter. The lens is allowed to stop-down and the light is directly measured, however, the shutter speed dial link operates the same in 'MAN' mode. As with the body receiving improvements over time, so did the TTL meter have some changes. Although the image coverage remained unchanged, the type of metering and the circuitry received some upgrades. CdS (cadmium sulfide) to Gpd (gallium photo diode) photo cells and a two part circuit to a single board improved response time and reliability. The early version is identified by the single marked 'On' switch and the meter needle starts from up to down and the later model has a 'On' and 'Off' marked switch and the meter needle starts from bottom to top. The later model would also have the sole "Pentax" badge by 1986. Waist-level finders. Two waist-level finders are available; a collapsible model that compactly folds almost flush with the top of the body and a fixed or rigid finder often called the Chimney finder. Both finders provided a 100% view of the frame. A special viewfinder was available as well for the Pentax 6x7 Marine Housing for use in underwater applications. The camera can also be focused and used without any finder being present. Focusing screen. Along with the standard micro-prism center focusing screen, four other focusing screens are available and could be refitted into the body (plain, grid, grid with micro-prism, split-image as well as the standard). Due to the fact that the installation of a screen required a qualified technician and the requirement to re-calibrate the new screen, it is rare to find screens other than the standard version. The micro-prism screen is adequate or usable down to lenses, however, the more useful split screen is capable of operating down to f5.6 before the center of the viewfinder becomes excessively dim. Wood grip. Another separately available accessory is the distinctive left-hand wood grip with a "cold" accessory shoe. Many manufacturers offer accessory grips or "action grips" such as Kowa, Bronica, Mamiya and Hasselblad. The Pentax grip is arguably an iconic accessory for the camera. It attaches to the two lugs/posts at the front of the camera and is secured by tightening a finger-operated bolt onto a stud found at center. The grip is removed by loosening and lifting the bolt to slide off in a downward direction to allow the lugs to clear the keyhole slots. Quick-focus ring A & B. Quick-focus rings A & B were first listed in 1971 for use with the two most common diameter focusing barrels ranging from 35 mm to 200 mm. Central-area eyepiece magnifier and right-angle viewing attachment. The central-area eyepiece magnifier (2x enlargement) and a right-angle (variable angle) viewing attachment attach to the TTL-metered or non-TTL metered prism by removing the standard knurled eyepiece fascia and screwing either of the attachments in place. The central-area eyepiece magnifier can be flipped up out of the way for unencumbered viewing of composition. Additionally, both attachments provide for variable dioptric correction, and with the optional addition of a rubber eyecup, both of these accessories can be used by eyeglass wearers. Rigid bayonet hoods. Rigid bayonet hoods were available for many of the lenses from 45 mm to 200 mm. Pentax bayonet filters. Pentax 6×7 lenses feature the ability to accept both standard threaded filters and also Pentax bayonet filters that are available in standard and SMC versions to fit all diameters found on almost all lenses (except those lenses with a filter fitment greater than 100 mm). Clip-on hoods. Clip-on hoods were introduced at about the same time as the released of updated 6x7 lenses started to wear the 67 engraving. Some lenses would be provided with the hood while for others a hood was an optional accessory. Cold-weather battery holder. A cold-weather battery holder was available from 1969 and minor changes were applied to the appearance. The cold-weather battery holder allowed the relocation of the battery by using a long cord with a dummy battery carrier and receptacle for the original battery holder to then be placed in a warm pocket to avoid battery failure due to cold. Extension tubes and bellows system. Along with the availability macro lenses for close work, a selection of extension tubes and in both the standard bayonet and the outer bayonet were available as well. As well as a compact and convenient variable extension was also available. For more flexibility a bellows system was available as well as a slide copier accessory. Marine Housing. A Marine Housing was available for underwater use as well as a special finder which was single mirror viewer. Fitted Hard Case. A fitted hard case could accommodate the body, finder and standard lens. Camera Trunk. Camera Trunk was a steamer trunk-style case that was marketed to carry two bodies and four lenses that were secured with a lockable bayonet platform. Existing examples are configured for a single body and up to three lenses and a center compartment with dividers for filters and accessories as well as a split lid arrangement with additional storage hook and loop tabbed lids. List of lenses. Listed below are current and earlier lenses (as indicated) for the cameras as of November 2011. ♣ Older/original version (pre-updated optical design) ♦ Also existing as first release version, Takumar (non-SMC or pre-SMC) Wide-angle Standard Telephoto Special Purpose Pentax Helicoid Extension Tube Pentax (Auto) Extension 1, 2 & 3 Pentax Extension (outer) A, B Zoom lenses Teleconverters

contemporary rendition

3299-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=60950587

Jo Nattawut (born October 7, 1989), also known as Smokin' Jo, is a Thai Muay Thai kickboxer. He is a 5-time Lion Fight super welterweight champion and 1-time Lion Fight middleweight champion, as well as the former WMC Super Lightweight champion. He currently competes in ONE Championship for ONE Super Series. Jo Nattawut is currently ranked #3 in the ONE Featherweight Muay Thai rankings. Biography. Early years. Jo Nattawut (real name Nattawut Somkhun) was born in Nakhon Ratchasima in the Northeastern Isan region of Thailand. Jo grew up playing football at school and spent his weekends working on local rice farms. Early career. Jo first discovered Muay Thai at 10 years old, when he saw his football coach hitting a heavy bag. Jo asked to join, starting to train Muay Thai after football practice. He took his first fight at the age of 10 with 12 hours notice. Eventually, he decided to join a Muay Thai camp near his house and continue training in his free time. When he was 18 years old, Jo moved to Bangkok to join a gym and get serious about Muay Thai. After a year and a half of no success in Muay Thai, Jo gave up Muay Thai and moved to Ko Pha-ngan island. During the day, he worked at a restaurant, hotel, and fitness gym, and at night he sold whiskey on the beach for tourist parties. Jo also organized Muay Thai showcases for tourists and occasionally put himself on the card to fight. Move to the United States and Lion Fight. Jo moved to the United States in early 2013. He first lived in Colorado, where he fell in love with snowboarding. He moved to Atlanta, Georgia in late 2013, where he taught kickboxing and Muay Thai classes. In the United States, Jo fought for Lion Fight, an American Muay Thai organization based in Las Vegas. Nattawut's first fight was with one week's notice, at Lion Fight 17 against Cosmo Alexandre. Jo won by split decision. Nattawut's next fight was infamously taken on 24 hours notice against Sean Kearney at Lion Fight 19. He ended up winning the fight by unanimous decision. At Lion Fight 22, Jo Nattawut defeated Salah Khalifa to win the Lion Fight Super Welterweight Championship. He would go on to successfully defend the super welterweight title 5 times: Charlie Peters at Lion Fight 24, Cedric Manhoef at Lion Fight 28, Hasan Toy at Lion Fight 33, Kengsiam Nor Sripueng at Lion Fight 35, and Petchtanong Banchamek at Lion Fight 37. He also defeated fellow Thai expatriate fighter Malaipet Sasiprapa at Lion Fight 32 to win the Lion Fight Middleweight Championship. ONE Championship. After winning multiple Muay Thai titles at the Lion Fight tournaments in the United States, including the Lion Fight Super Welterweight and Lion Fight Middleweight Titles, Nattawut signed a contract with ONE Championship. He made his ONE debut on April 20, 2018 at in Manila, facing legendary kickboxer Giorgio Petrosyan. He lost to Petrosyan by unanimous decision. His next fight was against Yohann Drai at in Kuala Lumpur on July 13, 2018. Nattawut would knock out Drai in the first round, giving him his first win in ONE Championship. On November 9, 2018, he faced George Mann of Scotland at in Singapore, where he won by unanimous decision. On February 16, 2019, Jo Nattawut would return to fight in Thailand for the first time since moving to the United States at in Bangkok. His opponent at the event was Samy Sana of France, whom he defeated by unanimous decision. Jo Nattawut was selected to compete in the ONE Super Series Kickboxing Featherweight World Grand Prix, which included Yodsanklai Fairtex, Giorgio Petrosyan, and Dzhabar Askerov. His opponent for the Quarter-Finals was Sasha Moisa, a Ukrainian fighter who'd previously knocked out former Thai champions and who also competes in lethwei in World Lethwei Championship (which is a partner of ONE Championship). In the Grand Prix Quarter-Finals at in Singapore, he defeated Sasha Moisa via TKO, knocking down the Ukrainian 3 times in the third round, securing a win and advancing to the Grand Prix Semi-Finals. In the Kickboxing Featherweight Grand Prix Semi-Finals, he was set to face Giorgio Petrosyan a second time at in Bangkok. However, in his rematch with Petrosyan, Nattawut lost by knockout in the first round, getting eliminated from the Kickboxing Featherweight World Grand Prix. Jo currently trains at his own gym, United Training Center, located in Atlanta, Georgia.

punching sack

10128-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54350981

Clean language interviewing (CLI), sometimes shortened to clean interviewing, aims to maximise the reliability that information collected during an interview derives from the interviewee. CLI seeks to address some of the "threats to validity and reliability" that can occur "during" an interview and to increase the "trustworthiness" of the data collected. It does this by employing a technique that minimises the "unintended" introduction of "interviewer" content, assumption, leading question structure, presupposition, framing, priming, tacit metaphor and nonverbal aspects such as paralanguage and gesture that may compromise the authenticity of the data collected. At the same time clean language interviewing seeks to minimise common "interviewee" biases, such as the "consistency effect", "acquiescence bias" and the "friendliness effect" which may mean an interviewee (unconsciously) looks for cues from the interviewer about how to answer. Furthermore, a systematic application of a 'cleanness rating' protocol provides a quantitive measure of adherence to interview guidelines and by extension the trustworthiness of the data collected. CLI can be considered a phenomenologically-based interview method, similar in intent to neuro- and micro-phenomenology, psycho-phenomenology, phenomenography, and Interpersonal Process Recall. Clean interviewing can be seen as a method of operationalising the phenomenological aim of bracketing (epoché). CLI is also an integral part of a new qualitative research methodology, Modelling Shared Reality which suggests that by paying careful attention to the language they use, qualitative researchers can reduce undesired influence and unintended bias during all stages of research—design, data gathering, analysis and reporting. History. Clean interviewing derived from clean language, the language model of therapeutic processes devised by David Grove which has since found application in education, business, organisational change, health and academic research. Grove devised the principles of clean language in the 1980s and continued to develop a specific question set until his death in 2008. Although Owen first suggested applying clean language to phenomenological research in 1996, it was not until 2010 that the first systematic research into the veracity of the method was conducted and published in the "British Journal of Management". Features. The features of clean interviewing include: the specificity of the technique; minimising "unintended" influence; data collection from the perspective of the interviewee; its applicability to in-depth interviews; elicitation of naturally occurring autogenic metaphor; investigating tacit knowledge; evaluation research; modelling mental models; and the verifiability of the adherence to the method. CLI seeks to address the issues raised by research that demonstrates responses can materially be affected by: question construction; framing; changing a single word; introduced metaphors; presupposition; and the nonverbal behaviour of the interviewer such as paralanguage and gesture. Furthermore, in these studies, not only did the subjects show little or no awareness of being subtly and systematically influenced, many reported their answers with a high degree of confidence. The amount of training required to become a proficient interviewer is commonly underestimated and because of the rigour of the CLI technique, training and practice are required to become a competent clean interviewer. Cleanness rating. Roulston maintains "researchers must demonstrate the quality of their work in ways that are commensurate with their assumptions about their use of interviews" yet systematic methods for assessing the reliability and validity of the data collected during an interview are noticeably absent from published research. A "cleanness rating" can be used to measure the proportion of 'clean' to 'leading' interviewer interventions and hence the authenticity or trustworthiness of the data collected (i.e. how much is sourced in the interviewee's lexicon and logic). An independent examination of interview transcripts allocates one of four categories (Classically clean; Contextually clean; Mildly leading; Strongly leading) to every question or statement made by the interviewer. The tabulated results are used to arrive at a summary assessment for each interview. Interviewers experienced in CLI can consistently achieve over 85% of 'clean' interventions. Whereas as many as two-thirds of the questions asked by an untrained interviewer may be 'leading'. An inter-rater reliability analysis of 19 interviews from five research studies demonstrated substantial agreement among raters with an average intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.72 (95% CI). Critique. The assumption that interviewers can minimise their influence on the collection of data has been questioned for several decades and the social constructivist school claims all knowledge is co-constructed. Practitioners of CLI do not claim it does not influence nor that it is "non-directive". They acknowledge that the interviewer's role is to set the overall frames and direct the general flow of the interview and they emphasise that all questions, including clean questions, set frames, contain presuppositions and invite the interviewee to attend to certain aspects of his or her experience. Clean questions aim to stay within the lexicon and inherent logic expressed by the interviewee and leave them maximally free to answer from within his or her frames of reference. Tosey maintains that, "accounts are co-constructed through the "process" of selecting and asking questions. At the same time, Clean Language [Interviewing] aims to minimise the co-construction of the "content"." As yet there has been no comprehensive test of the premise that interviews with a high cleanness rating result in higher quality data. Rather, an interview with a low cleaness rating may raise questions about compliance with research protocols and doubts about the authorship of the data collected. Other forms of interviewing would be more appropriate where the researcher intentionally aims for the 'co-construction of meaning' or to challenge and change the understandings of participants, as in 'transformative interviews'. Some critics have maintained that the metaphor 'clean' is pejorative to other methods. Grove settled on the metaphor after discovering how others (unwittingly) 'contaminate' another person's perceptions with introduced content and presupposition – including Carl Rogers the originator of "non-directive therapy". Applications. While clean interviewing is ideally suited to research (especially eliciting naturally occurring metaphors), it has also be used by police interviewers, critical incident investigators and in commercial projects such as requirements gathering, market research and organisational change. Examples of published research include: In addition clean interviewing has been used in a range of PhD research topics:

extensive assessment

361-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10121869

Ringfeder name (pronounced in English ) is a German brand based in Krefeld founded in 1922. The brand manufactures bolt couplings,hook couplings, drawbar eyes, underrund protections and accessories . Ringfeder is part of VBG Truck Equipment, one of the divisions in the , a large is an international industrial group. Description. A bolt coupling device comprises a drawbar, a swivelable cast "bell" with a horizontal opening in the middle, a machined pin or "bolt", an automatic pin release mechanism, a safety locking device with actuating handle and a cushioned mounting plate. The design of the pin allows articulation of up to 70 degrees around the drawbar eye in the pitch and yaw directions. The coupling can also rotate through 360 degrees in roll. Mechanism. A Ringfeder is typically mounted to a specially designed and built crossmember on the rear of the vehicle. This could be on the rear of a rigid truck, prime mover or trailer. This mount also includes air, electrical and, if necessary, hydraulic fittings. Firstly, the vehicle is reversed up to the drawbar of the trailer/dolly, stopping short of hitting. The height of the drawbar is checked, and adjusted accordingly. The safety catch handle on the upper left of the Ringfeder is pulled out and turned 90 degrees, and then allowed to return into the upper detent on the shaft collar. This then allows the actuator handle on the right of the body to be lifted to the stop. This pulls the bolt upwards, and sets the automatic tripping function. The Ringfeder is now ready to be coupled. The vehicle is reversed slowly until the drawbar eye enters the bell, tripping the bolt and closing the coupling. A check is made of the coupling to ensure full engagement, air lines and electrics hooked up and drawbar leg stowed. Uses. Ringfeders are used in nearly all aspects of world transport, the most common being LGVs (large goods vehicles) throughout Europe, and road trains in Australia. America uses a similar product known as a "pintle hook" or tow hitch.

complete commitment

597-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=35976353

The Parinco mod. 3R is a submachine gun of Spanish origin that was designed in 1959. It is a selective-fire weapon for short-range street and brush fighting. It remains reasonably accurate up to 100 m using sighted semi-automatic fire. For close range combat, 2- or 3-shot bursts are recommended. Overview. The Parinco mod. 3R submachine gun is blowback-operated firing from an open bolt. Design and influence. The Mod. 3R is a simple blowback design and was made out of stamped sheet metal and a plastic grip frame. It uses the standard 9×19mm NATO round out of a 32-shot box single-column magazine. Army doctrine recommends to shortload the magazine to 28 rounds to prevent failures. A loading tool is used to assist loading the magazine. The gun was designed with a 280 mm long barrel which featured a compensator and cooling fins. Empty casings are ejected out of the ejection port on the right, which has a hinged dust cover. This cover opens automatically when cocking the gun. The bolt handle is on the left side and is non-reciprocating. The stock is heavy steel wire and it telescopes along the receiver; one end is slotted for swabs and the other is threaded for a cleaning brush. The sights are fixed and set for a range of 50 m. The pistol grip contains a grip safety which must be held before the weapon can be cocked or fired. There are three selector positions: safe, semi-automatic and full automatic fire. When set to full-auto; it is still possible to squeeze off single rounds with good trigger control. Influence by some popular World War II-era designs is apparent. The barrel compensator and cooling rings are reminiscent of the Thompson submachine gun, the stock looks like the M3 submachine gun but modified to handle recoil, the bolt design is nearly identical to the Sten.

military dogma

6280-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=25239652

Gilli was an eleventh-century Hebridean chieftain whose career coincided with an era of Orcadian overlordship in the Kingdom of the Isles. According to mediaeval saga-tradition, Gilli was a brother-in-law of Sigurðr Hlǫðvisson, Earl of Orkney, having married the latter's sister Hvarflǫð. Traditionally regarded as one of the most powerful Orcadian earls, Sigurðr appears to have extended his authority into the Isles in the late tenth century. Gilli apparently acted as Sigurðr's viceroy or tributary earl in the region. The time frame of Gilli's apparent authority in the Isles is uncertain, and may date as early as the reign of Guðrøðr Haraldsson, King of the Isles, or as late as the period following the death of this man's eventual successor, Rǫgnvaldr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles. Gilli's name is probably Gaelic in origin, and he seems to have seated himself on either Coll or Colonsay, islands in the Inner Hebrides. It is possible that Gilli is identical to Gilla Ciaráin mac Glún Iairn, an Uí Ímair dynast who was slain at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. If not, another possibility is that he was the father of a certain Conamal/Conmáel who was killed in 980. Earl in the Hebrides. There is evidence to suggest that Sigurðr Hlǫðvisson, Earl of Orkney extended his authority from Orkney into the Isles in the late tenth- and early eleventh century. For instance, the thirteenth-century "Njáls saga"—the only source that specifically refers to Gilli—states that one of Sigurðr's followers, Kári Sǫlmundarson, extracted taxes from the northern Hebrides, then controlled by Gilli himself. Whether these taxes were due to Norwegian overlords of Sigurðr, as the saga states, is uncertain. The saga further declares that Sigurðr and his men defeated Guðrøðr Haraldsson, King of the Isles, after which they plundered the Isles. Also noted are additional assaults conducted by accomplices of Sigurðr throughout the Hebrides, Kintyre, Mann (against Guðrøðr), and Anglesey. The thirteenth-century "Orkneyinga saga" also reports Sigurðr's raids into the Isles, as does "Eyrbyggja saga", a thirteenth-century source which further notes his taxation of the kingdom. Contemporary Orcadian expansion may be perceptible in the evidence of the land-assessment system of ouncelands in the Hebrides and along the western coast of Scotland. If Sigurðr's authority indeed stretched over the Isles in the last decades of the tenth century, such an intrusion could account for the numbers of silver hoards dating to this time. Various Irish annals also reveal that this was a period of strife in the Isles, as ' (literally "Danes") are recorded active in the region throughout 986 and 987. Although it is not impossible that the ' (perhaps merely meaning "pirates") refer to Sigurðr's forces, it is more likely that they are instead identical to the Vikings who are otherwise attested attacking England in the 990s. In fact, it seems that the ' were active in the region against opponents of Guðrøðr. This could indicate that either the kin of the recently deceased Amlaíb Cuarán, King of Northumbria and Dublin, or perhaps an Orcadian-aligned Islesman like Gilli himself, may have fallen target to an alliance between the ' and Guðrøðr. This could in turn reveal that the aforesaid claims of continuous Orcadian conquests in the Isles—otherwise unrecorded outwith saga-tradition—give a less than unbiased account of events. Whatever the case, Guðrøðr was slain in 989, after which the political cohesion of Kingdom of the Isles—perhaps shaken by Orcadian encroachment in the 980s—seems to have diminished. The extent of Guðrøðr's authority in the Hebrides is unknown due to his apparent coexistence with Gilli, and to the uncertainty of Orcadian encroachment. Guðrøðr's successor is likewise uncertain. On one hand, he may have been succeeded by his son, Rǫgnvaldr. Although it is conceivable that either Gilli or Sigurðr capitalised on Guðrøðr's death, and extended their overlordship as far south as Mann, possible after-effects such as these are uncorroborated. Although it is possible that Gilli controlled the Hebrides whilst Guðrøðr ruled Mann, the title accorded to the latter on his death could indicate otherwise. If so, the chronology of Gilli's subordination to Sigurðr may actually date to the period after Rǫgnvaldr's death in 1004/1005. According to "Njáls saga", Gilli was seated on ' or ', an island that appears to refer to Coll or perhaps Colonsay. The saga also states that Gilli was married to Sigurðr's sister, Hvarflǫð. This marital alliance appears to further evince the southward extension of Sigurðr's influence. This union, along with the record of apparent amiable dealings with Sigurðr's associates, suggests that Gilli and Sigurðr indeed enjoyed close relations. The earl's family was clearly not adverse to marrying into native dynasties, as Sigurðr's own mother was the daughter of an Irish king, whilst his wife was the daughter of a Scottish king. In fact, the aforesaid sources appear to indicate that Gilli operated in the Hebrides as a tributary earl to his brother-in-law. Certainly, "Eyrbyggja saga" states that Sigurðr left "menn" ("agents") in the Hebrides to collect tax from Mann, whilst "Orkneyinga saga" reveals that, at a later period in time, Sigurðr's son and successor, Þórfinnr Sigurðarson, Earl of Orkney, tasked a member of his own wife's family, Kálfr Árnason, to impose Orcadian authority in the Isles. Clontarf, Gilla Ciaráin, and Conamal/Conmáel. By the end of the first decade of the eleventh century, the principal ruler in Ireland was Brian Bóruma mac Cennétig, High King of Ireland. Brian's daughter, Sláine, was married to Sitriuc mac Amlaíb, King of Dublin, whilst the latter's mother, Gormlaith ingen Murchada was a former wife of Brian. In 1013, Sitriuc allied himself to Brian's enemies, and revolted against Brian's overlordship. Although Brian proceeded to lay siege to Dublin—the only Viking town that participated in the revolt against his supremacy—Sitriuc retained possession of the settlement, and Brian retired to Munster for Christmas. According to "Njáls saga", Gilli and Sitriuc spent Yule with Sigurðr in Orkney, where Sitriuc convinced Sigurðr to ally himself against Brian on the condition that Sigurðr would gain Gormlaith in marriage. In April 1014, the opposing forces met and clashed at the remarkably bloody Battle of Clontarf. Although Brian's forces ultimately won the day, and Sigurðr himself was amongst the slain, Brian lost his life as well. As for Gilli, he appears in a chapter of "Njáls saga" that presents a series of supernatural events connected with the conflict. In one instance, a Caithnessman is said to have witnessed valkyrie-like apparitions singing songs for the slain, whilst a similar event is said to have occurred in the Faroe Islands. Priests in Iceland are stated to have encountered paranormal phenomena, whilst an Orcadian is said to have encountered the spectre of Sigurðr before disappearing off the face of the earth. Regarding Gilli, the saga asserts that he dreamt of a song that foretold the outcome of the battle and the fall of Brian and Sigurðr. There is reason to suspect that the aforesaid supernatural manifestations—arguably somewhat detached from the saga's general narrative—are actually interpolations of separate material. Elsewhere in the narrative, however, there are examples of paranormal phenomena intervening into human affairs. For example, the episode concerning Gilli's dream seems to directly parallel an earlier episode in which another man, the Icelander Flosi Þórðarson, is depicted dreaming of the burning of the saga's eponym, Njáll Þorgeirsson. If the account of Gilli in the aftermath of Clontarf has been constructed for dramatic effect, the passage may not be evidence of his "floruit" beyond this point in history. In fact, it is possible that he is identical to Gilla Ciaráin mac Glún Iairn, a man who was amongst those slain at the battle. The "Annals of Ulster", which records the latter's fall, styles him "" ("heir-designate of the Foreigners"), revealing that Gilla Ciaráin was indeed a prominent man. Sitriuc is known to have had an elder brother named Glún Iairn, a man who had reigned as King of Dublin until his death in 989. If Gilla Ciaráin was a son of this king, his apparent tender age at the time of his father's death could account for Sitriuc's accession to the kingship. Furthermore, the aforesaid title accorded to Gilla Ciaráin appears to indicate that he was regarded as his uncle's royal heir. If Gilli and Gilla Ciaráin are indeed identical, his pre-eminent status in the Norse-Gaelic world would help to explain his marital alliance with Sigurðr. Gilla Ciaráin's father bore a Gaelic name meaning "iron knee". It may or may not be a Gaelicisation of ', an identical-meaning Old Norse name. Gilla Ciaráin's own name is Gaelic, meaning "the servant of Saint Ciarán". Gaelic names beginning with the initial name-element '- first appear on record in last half of the tenth century. Such names were shortened to ' by Scandinavian settlers in Britain and Ireland. In fact, such a phenomenon may account for the name accorded to Gilli himself. Gilli's name suggests that he was at least partly of Gaelic descent, perhaps either Irish or Hebridean. Although various names are attributed to Gilli's wife in the numerous versions of "Njáls saga", the best version of this source gives '. This name appears to be an Old Norse form of "", a relatively rare Gaelic name. There may be further evidence concerning familial relations. In 980, Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill, High King of Ireland utterly defeated Amlaíb Cuarán's forces at the Battle of Tara. One of the casualties of this remarkable conflict was a man identified as "'" by the "Annals of Ulster", and "'" by the "Annals of Tigernach". It is possible that these annal-entries refer to a man named Conamal or Conmáel, who was in turn the son of a man named Gilli, and that either the father or the son bore the title "airrí Gall" ("royal deputy of the Foreigners"). If correct, it is conceivable that this father is identical to Gilli himself. Against this identification, however, is the fact that the aforesaid saga-tradition depicts Gilli active at about the time of the Battle of Clontarf. The considerable span of time between the death of Conamal/Conmáel and this conflict may well be evidence that a paternal relationship between Conamal/Conmáel and Gilli is unlikely. Whatever the case, the sources appear to be confused as to whether the patronym refers to a personal name or a title. One possibility is that this confusion could indicate that the sources refer to both the personal name ' and the epithet '.

other readings

10014-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=45718796

Robert Young (c.1657–1700) was an English forger and cheat. He was twice married and used bogus requests for references on household help to obtain signatures of men of note. He was jailed for various infractions including bigamy, perjury and fraud. Life. Young was born about 1657, possibly at Warrington, then in Lancashire, and educated in Ireland. He himself, in one of his unveracious accounts of his career, states that he was educated at Enniskillen school, Co. Fermanagh, and afterwards at Trinity College, Dublin, but his name does not appear on the list of graduates. In 1675 he married Anne Yeabsly, and five years later, though she was still living, he went through the form of marriage with Mary, daughter of Simon Hutt, a Cavan innkeeper, who was thenceforth the favoured companion in his wanderings and accomplice in his crimes. Career. Soon after 1680 Young managed to procure admission to deacon's orders at the hands of John Roan, Bishop of Killaloe, whom he circumvented by forging certificates of his learning and moral character. He obtained a curacy first at Tallogh in the county of Waterford, "whence for divers crimes he ran away on another man's horse, which he never restored". From his next curacy at Castlereagh, Co. Roscommon, he "was forced to flee for getting a bastard". While at Kildallon in the diocese of Kilmore he was delated to the bishop, Francis Marsh, afterwards Archbishop of Dublin, "for many extravagances, the least of which was marrying without banns or license". He now fled into the diocese of Raphoe, but was taken up for bigamy and imprisoned first at Lifford, then at Cavan. From gaol he wrote to both his wives, comparing himself to David, and assuring each of them that she alone was the object of his love. He succeeded in inducing his first wife not to appear against him, and seems to have been allowed benefit of clergy. Detained for non-payment of prison fees, he managed to procure his release by pretending to Ormonde (the "Popish Plot" being then in the air) that he could make disclosure of serious plots against the government. "The Scotchman", as Marsh calls him in a letter to Bishop Sprat, then ran away to England with his second wife. In England they operated at first under the name of Green, perambulating the country with forged testimonials, purporting to be in the hand of the archbishop of Canterbury. At Bury St. Edmunds, on 6 October 1684, they were pilloried as common cheats. From Bury gaol, on 30 September 1684, Young had written a long letter to Archbishop Sancroft, with an entirely novel account of his parentage and early life, expressing his mortal hatred of "discentors, especially that damnable faction of Presbytery", and stating that he had been put upon "the hellish and durty stratageme" of forging testimonials by one Wright, a non-existent "scrivener of Oxford". Failing in his object, he vowed to be revenged on the archbishop. As soon as he was released he forged a new set of testimonials with a dexterity which was generally admitted to be marvellous, and set to work, with a new alias and a new story, collecting large sums of money from wealthy clergymen, including three bishops who were intimate with Sancroft, and believed that they recognised his hand. At length in 1687 the imposture came under the notice of the archbishop, who caused to be inserted in the London Gazette (September and October 1687) advertisements warning the charitable to beware of Mrs. Jones and Robert Smith (i.e. Young and his paramour). Young next gave himself out as a grave Irish clergyman of good preferment, but a victim of Tyrconnel's persecuting fury; some funds were necessary to support this character, and these he seems to have obtained by a series of highly successful frauds at St. Albans, where he had secured the corrupt connivance of the postmaster. Forming a design of a wealthy marriage, Young was now anxious to get rid of Mary Hutt; but at this juncture the pair were betrayed to one of their victims, and lodged in Newgate on a charge of forgery. They escaped with the pillory and a fine, owing to lack of evidence; but, the fines remaining unpaid until 25 May 1692, they remained in prison for upwards of two years. During the western rebellion Young had stood false witness against a number of presbyterian divines, but his evidence had been disbelieved. While lying in Newgate he determined upon reverting to this branch of his profession and fabricating a sham plot, and with this object in view he addressed himself in the first instance to Tillotson. The archbishop mentioned his allegations with all reserve to William, who treated them with disdain. Young was temporarily disconcerted; but when at the end of April 1692 William left England for the Low Countries, and when the nation was agitated by apprehension of French invasion and Jacobite insurrection, Young's hopes revived. By writing in feigned names to ask after the characters of servants or curates, he had accumulated a collection of autographs from men of note who were suspected of disaffection. With consummate calligraphic skill he now drew up a paper purporting to be an association for the restoration of the banished king. To this document he appended the forged signatures of Marlborough, Cornbury, Salisbury, Sancroft, and Thomas Sprat, bishop of Rochester. The owners of the first four names were already under the suspicion of the government. With regard to Sprat it was well known that there was more of the opportunist than of the conspirator in his composition. Why Young selected the ease-loving bishop to be the pivot of his plot was probably because he had been prospecting round Bromley in 1690, and knew that ingress into the palace was easy. Young himself could not quit Newgate, and he selected as his emissary a rogue named Stephen Blackhead, whose ears had suffered in the pillory. Blackhead conveyed to the bishop a letter carefully forged by Young from an imaginary doctor of divinity. Highly pleased with the terms of the letter, the bishop told his butler to treat the messenger well. Blackhead, affecting great reverence for the entourage of a bishop, asked the butler to show him Sprat's study, with a view of concealing the traitorous document among the papers on the episcopal table. Failing in this, he had finally to content himself with dropping the "association" into a flowerpot in a disused parlour. Young now demanded to be heard before the privy council on a matter of the greatest import. He had timed his plot to a nicety. The government were overweighted with anxiety. They thought Young's story plausible enough to order Sprat's arrest, and messengers were sent down to Bromley on 7 May 1692 with a warrant from Nottingham to take the bishop into custody, and to search his apartments for the signed instrument in which the alleged conspirators avowed their aims. Young particularly requested that the officers might be ordered to examine the bishop's flowerpots. Hence the incident was referred to by Lady Marlborough and others as "the flowerpot plot" (see Brewer, Historic Note Book). Very fortunately for the bishop the forged document was not found, and after ten days' detention Sprat was suffered to return to Bromley. In the meantime Young had sent Blackhead to recover the paper, which he thereupon forwarded to the secretary of state (Romney), with an ingenious explanation. The bishop was recalled before the council (10 June 1692) and confronted with Blackhead. Finding the bishop's story corroborated by his servants at all points, and greatly relieved by the victory of La Hogue, the privy councillors turned sharply on Blackhead, who lost his nerve and finally blurted out the truth. But Young was utterly unabashed; he repudiated Blackhead, and denied that he had given directions for the flowerpots to be searched. He declared that the bishop had bought off his accomplice, and that they were trying to stifle the plot. Sprat, conscious that he had perhaps narrowly escaped the block, upbraided Young for his unprovoked malignity. He replied with as much cunning as effrontery, "All is not confessed yet. A parliament will come, and then you shall hear more from me" (Sprat, Relation, pt. ii.). Another temporary sufferer, but eventual gainer, by Young's false accusation was the Duke of Marlborough, now promptly released from the Tower. On his return to Newgate Young attempted to suborn a half-starved wretch named Holland to take Blackhead's place, and to support him with newly devised evidence against Marlborough and Sprat. Holland having reported this scheme to Nottingham, Young was prosecuted by the attorney-general for perjury. Blackhead absconded after promising to turn King's evidence, thus delaying the trial until 7 February 1693, when Young was sentenced at the king's bench to be imprisoned and to be thrice set in the pillory, where he had to undergo a very severe pelting. Having effected his escape from the King's Bench Prison on 12 December 1698, Young seems to have turned to coining for a livelihood, and early in April 1700 he was arrested for this offence and tried at the Old Bailey. He was found guilty on 12 April, under the name of John Larkin alias Young. The "evidence against him", says a contemporary news-sheet, "were two fellow prisoners whom he had invegled to assist him in the act of coyning, with design to accuse them, and to witness against them, in hopes to purchase his liberty, but they turned evidence against him, upon which he was condemned. He was very dexterous in counterfeiting People's Hands, having counterfeited the Hands of both the Sheriffs for the discharge of a prisoner" (London Post, 15 April). He made a "penitent" end at Tyburn on 19 April 1700, confessing that he had forged the plot against the bishop of Rochester (Flying Post, No. 772). In a "Paper delivered by Robert Young" to John Allen, the ordinary of Newgate, and published on 20 April 1700, the criminal frankly confesses "I have injured my Neighbour so often by Forgeries, Cheats, &c., that I think it is scarce possible to recount them". Writing to Lord Hatton in March 1693, Charles Hatton said of Young, whose trial he witnessed: "In impudence he far outdid even Dr. Oates. He had not a ranting impudence, but a most unparalleled, sedate, composed impudence, and pretends to be as great a martyr for his zeale for the preservation of the present government as Oates did for his for the protestant religion" (Hatton Corresp. ii. 190).

insightful statement

989-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15767668

Kaniyankunnu is a historical place in Kerala, India. Location. Kaniyankunnu is located between Alwaye and Parur. This place situated exact center of the East Kadungaloor and Union Christian College Aluva. History. The place known as "Kaniyan" Kunnu, in olden days some families from the community - Kaniyan, who were used this hill for the shelter. Now, the new Vallarpadam Terminal road marked through this place. Earlier, Binani zink developed road through this place for smoothening their transporting. Vellamkunnu Bhagavathi Temple is the centre of the hill. some group of families formed this temple. Schools. Union Christian College, Settlement High School, Fisheries College, Kadungaloor etc. Transportation. From the place Alwaye anyone can access this place by bus. nearest KSRTC bus point is Union Christian college Jn or private bus point is East Kadungalloor Jn. From this two bus point Minimum charge for Auto of Half KM to walk to Kaniyankunnu. Nearest Railway station is Alwaye or Angamali. Airport is Nedumbaserry. Now Vallarpadam terminal road connected to Binani Road, So travel is very easy to access NH17 and NH47 through this road. Local Clubs. Some Group of Residents association are formed nearby, are Themalil Residents Association (TRA), Bhuwaneswari Residents Association etc. Kadungalloor Service Society, Bank of india are some financial banks nearby Kaniyankunnu Friends Association (KFA), Bhagath Singh Youth Club (BYC), Bhagathsingh Charity Forum, Mazhavillu, Charivuparambil Residence Association etc are the Residence associations formed around Kaniyankunnu. Kaniyankunnu Friends Association (KFA) and Bhagath Singh Youth Club (BYC) were conducting Free Sambharam mela in all sivarathri days at aluva manapuram since 2002

the least levy

5923-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=67770327

Łukasz Kolenda is a Polish professional basketball player. Club career. Łukasz Kolenda joined Trefl Sopot in 2012. In the 2020–21 PLK season, his team finished 5th and superceeded expectations. The quarter-finals series against Śląsk Wrocław was Kolenda's first playoff experience. Yet, he was not able to prevent his team from falling 1-3 overall. For the series, Kolenda praised the defense tactics of the opponent's head coach Oliver Vidin. In April 2021, Łukasz Kolenda's contract with Trefl Sopot expired. National team. Kolenda has been a member of the Polish national team.

guarding ways

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=325707

Century Media Records is a heavy metal record label with offices in the United States, Germany and London. In August 2015, Century Media was acquired by Sony Music for US$17 million. Background. Century Media was founded by Robert Kampf and Oliver Withöft in Dortmund, Germany in 1988 and has gone on to launch or further the careers of bands such as Grave, Samael, Tiamat, Unleashed, Asphyx, Architects, Butcher Babies, Devin Townsend, Diecast, Divine Heresy, Eyehategod, God Forbid, Iced Earth, In This Moment, Lacuna Coil, Moonspell, Nevermore, Shadows Fall, Suicide Silence, Warbringer, Winds of Plague and Skinlab . The label specializes in many different styles of heavy metal music. A number of artists listed are licensed to Century Media for the American market from labels mostly based in Europe. Century Media is also home to Arch Enemy, Napalm Death, and Queensrÿche. The label's most popular band is Lacuna Coil. Shadows Fall experienced its greatest success during its time with the label. Iconic hardcore punk band Sick of It All also resides in the Century Media family. Lacuna Coil's 2002 album, "Comalies", became Century Media's first act to crack the "Billboard" 200 album chart, peaking at No. 178 two years after its release. Their fourth album, "Karmacode", improved on that achievement, having sold over 490,000 copies since its release, and peaking at No. 28 on the US Billboard Album Chart. It hit number one on the Top Independent Albums Chart. Shadows Fall's 2004 album, "The War Within", set a new milestone for the label with a Top 20 debut on the "Billboard" 200 and also debuted at number one on the Independent Albums chart, having sold over 300,000 copies since its release. Other notable artists on the label that have also made appearances on the "Billboard" 200 include In This Moment, Arch Enemy, Stuck Mojo, Nightrage, Behemoth, Strapping Young Lad, Suicide Silence and God Forbid. The Finnish band Sentenced were awarded on August 14, 2008 for their platinum Buried Alive DVD labelled by Century Media. In April 2009, the label announced that they were extending their existing distribution deal with EMI, who had been distributing their releases in the United States since 1997, and in Europe since 2005, to include Australasia. Since being bought out by Sony Music in August 2015, the label's releases will be distributed worldwide by Sony Music while RED will be distributing the label's releases in the U.S. On June 7, 2017, Century Media divested its music publishing catalogue to Reservoir Media Management. Another Century. In late 2014 Robert Kampf, founder of Century Media Records, launched a new hard rock-focused label named Another Century. This label is leaning away from straight-up metal of Century Media and looking to make a name for itself as a premiere hard rock label. Kampf, who started Century Media Records back in 1988, said in a statement that it's his, “undying love for rock” that led to the formation of the new label, and he hopes to, “develop and break the best bands in rock.” Robert Kampf was quoted on his new label: "Twenty five years after starting Century Media the excitement to do another version of the label could not be any larger. My undying love for rock has driven the formation of this label ANOTHER CENTURY. Over the years great bands like Otherwise and In This Moment have been released on Century Media but sometimes got lost or felt ill mixed among some of the heavier CM bands. Another Century now has a clear path and mission statement: To develop and break the best bands in rock to come!" The label has since acquired breakout bands New Years Day, XO Stereo, Like A Storm, Awaken The Empire, and Stitched Up Heart. Adrenaline Mob and Fozzy, both of whom have released albums on Century Media, are listed on the Artists page of the new Another Century website. Century Black. During the mid to late 1990s, Century Media had an imprint called Century Black which served as "the Miramax Films of black metal", releasing or re-releasing hard-to-find foreign black metal albums, which normally would have been nearly impossible to find in America. Usually, those outputs had originally been released by smaller European labels, such as Malicious Records or Candlelight Records. Century Black was founded by Rayshele Teige, who also acted as A&R for Century Black and had been a publicist for Century Media Records. Teige was also in charge of the American distribution arm for Osmose Productions and later went on to spearhead the American office for Prophecy Productions. By 2000, the Century Black imprint was discontinued as several of its bands had signed with other American metal record labels, or had inked deals with Century Media Records and became part of the "Century Family". Abacus Recordings. Abacus Recordings was an imprint of Century Media created in 2002, signing mostly metalcore bands. On July 24, 2007, it was reported that Abacus Recordings had shut down. Spotify controversy. In August 2011 Century Media decided to pull all of their acts from Spotify, an online music streaming service, citing this as "an attempt to protect the interests of their artists". Metal blog MetalSucks criticized Century Media in a post, which was later replied to by the label in an email. On July 30, 2012, Century Media Records made their entire catalog available on Spotify again after "impressive debates and messages from fans" and discussions with Spotify. Death of Oliver Withöft. On January 21, 2014, it was reported that co-owner Oliver Withöft had died after a long period of illness. Tributes were paid to him by Monte Conner, head of US A&R for Nuclear Blast Records, Nachtmystium's Blake Judd and Sumerian Records publicist George Vallee (a former employee of Century Media), among others. He is survived by his wife Judith and their 3 daughters.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1542308

Absolute Beginners is a novel by Colin MacInnes, written and set in 1958 London, England. It was published in 1959. The novel is the second of MacInnes' London Trilogy, coming after "City of Spades" (1958) and before "Mr. Love and Justice" (1960). These novels are each self-contained, with no shared characters. Introduction. The novel is written from the first-person perspective of a teenage freelance photographer, who lives in a rundown yet vibrant part of West London he calls Napoli. The area is home to a large number of Caribbean immigrants, as well as English people on the margins of society, such as homosexuals and drug addicts. The themes of the novel are the narrator's opinions on the newly formed youth culture and its fixation on clothes and jazz music, his love for his ex-girlfriend Crêpe Suzette, the illness of his father, and simmering racial tensions in the summer of the Notting Hill race riots. Plot summary. The novel is divided into four sections. Each details a particular day in the four months that spanned the summer of 1958. "In June" takes up half of the book and shows the narrator meeting up with various teenaged friends and some adults in various parts of London and discussing his outlook on life and the new concept of being a teenager. He also learns that his ex-girlfriend, Suzette, is to enter a marriage of convenience with her boss, a middle-aged gay fashion designer called Henley. "In July" has the narrator taking photographs by the river Thames, seeing the musical operetta "H.M.S. Pinafore" with his father, has a violent encounter with Ed the Ted and watches Hoplite's appearance on Call-Me-Cobber's TV show. "In August" has the narrator and his father take a cruise along the Thames towards Windsor Castle. His father is taken ill on the trip and has to be taken to a doctor. The narrator also finds Suzette at her husband's cottage in Cookham. "In September" is set on the narrator's 19th birthday. He sees this, symbolically, as the beginning of his last year as a teenager. He witnesses several incidents of racial violence, which disgust him. His father also dies, leaving him four envelopes stuffed with money. Suzette has separated from Henley, but still seems uncertain as to whether she should resume her relationship with the narrator. The narrator decides to leave the country and find a place where racism doesn't exist. At the airport, he sees Africans arriving and gives them a warm welcome. Characters. The narrator also encounters a left-wing trade unionist called 'Ron Todd' in a jazz club. In 1985 a real-life trade unionist called Ron Todd became general secretary of the TGWU. Style. Although MacInnes turned 44 in the summer of 1958, the book is written through the eyes of an 18-year-old, who is part of the new vibrant and affluent London youth culture of coffee bars, modern jazz and rock 'n' roll music, and Italian scooters and clothes. As such, it chronicles the first years of what would become the mod subculture in the 1960s. MacInnes has the narrator use a very stylised form of speech. For example, when the narrator and Zesty-Boy talk about why Vendice no longer uses Dido's newspaper for advertising, MacInnes writes it as: "And why has Partner's pimpery taken their custom away from Dido's toilet-paper daily?" I asked Zesty-Boy.<br> "It may be that Dido's slipping, or the paper's slipping, or just that everything these days is falling in the fat laps of the jingle kings. "<br> "I wonder why Dido doesn't do a quick change and crash land in the telly casbah?" The narrator is never given a name. When asked it by a girl at a party, he avoids the question. When pressed, he says, sarcastically, David Copperfield. He is variously addressed in the book as "blitz baby", "kid", "teenager", "child", "infant prodigy" and "son": all terms that emphasise his youth. The majority of the other characters are given nicknames or referred to by their job titles, rather than by their real names. Film adaptation. The novel was adapted into a musical film directed by Julien Temple and released in 1986. The narrator was given the name Colin, after Colin MacInnes, and was played by Eddie O'Connell. Patsy Kensit played Crêpe Suzette and David Bowie appeared as advertising man Vendice Partners. Bowie also wrote and performed the title song, which reached number 2 in the UK singles chart in March 1986. The film used many of the characters of the book, but changed a lot of their motivations and the story's ending. It also made more use of the idea of older characters exploiting the young, which was merely hinted at in the novel. The novel was republished by Penguin Books to tie in with the film's release. The cover showed O'Connell and Kensit in front of a stylised silhouette of the London skyline. Paul Weller. The singer-songwriter Paul Weller, who was born in 1958, has described the novel as "a book of inspiration". This quote was used on the cover of the 1986 paperback edition. Weller also chose the book when he appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme "Desert Island Discs". His group The Jam released a single called "Absolute Beginners" in 1981. It reached number 4 in the UK charts. His second band, The Style Council, recorded the song "Have You Ever Had It Blue?" for the 1986 film.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=52517352

Victoria Alonsoperez is an Uruguayan electronics and telecommunication engineer and entrepreneur. She invented Chipsafer, a software platform to track cattle, and remotely and autonomously detect anomalies in their behaviour. Early life. María Victoria Alonsoperez was born in Uruguay. She studied electrical and space engineering at the University of the Republic in Montevideo. For her undergraduate thesis, she worked on system designs for the first Uruguayan satellite. In 2009, Alonsoperez was awarded a youth grant from the International Astronautical Federation which allowed her to participate in several astronautical congresses and become involved in the Space Generation Advisory Council. In 2011, she attended a space studies program at the International Space University and participated in a group competition, winning the Barcelona Zero-Gravity Aerobatics Challenge with two colleagues. She pursued a graduate degree in aerospace engineering, the first Uruguayan to study in the field. Career. As a twelve-year-old-child, Alonsoperez invented a monitoring system to track the behavior of cattle, which could be used to prevent a repeat disaster of the 2001 Foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. Eleven years later, while working as a teaching associate the International Space University, she heard of the International Telecommunication Union's Young Innovators Competition. Alonsoperez developed her idea into a product called Chipsafer, sent it to the competition, and won. In 2013, Alonsoperez won the Best Young Inventor Award from the World Intellectual Property Organization. In 2014, the Inter-American Development Bank named Chipsafer the Most Innovative Startup of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the MIT Technology Review selected her as the Innovator of the Year for Argentina and Uruguay. One of the benefits of winning the competition was a course in entrepreneurship, where Alonsoperez learned how to set up a development company and create a prototype. She founded IEETech and with seed money from the Uruguayan National Research and Innovation Agency, Alonsoperez developed the prototype, tested it and moved into commercializing Chipsafer. Once the prototype was created, Alonsoperez began to search for investors to buy the device for broad scale testing. The device is a type of solar-powered collar which sends data to IEETech's servers which then analyze the data to detect anomalies. Servers can modify the information received or update function remotely, and cattle owners can modify data and desired output for customized reports. In 2015, Alonsoperez partnered with local farmers and the University of the Republic for further testing and as a way to build relationships and later that year was nominated as one of the most inspirational women of the year by they BBC 100 Women series. In 2016, Alonsoperez has been working to attract investor capitalists from Silicon Valley, after an initial product consultation in China proved difficult.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=49279664

Mondia whitei is a perennial herbaceous/woody climber belonging to the family Apocynaceae, and as with most members of this family, has milky latex. Two species of "Mondia" are recognised, the other being "Mondia ecornuta". Known in some localities as 'gondolosi', in Kenya it is known as 'mukombero', the rootstock is often collected for medicinal use. It occurs at elevations of 1000 – 1500 m in moist to wet forests, and even in swampy grassland, across Sub-Saharan Africa; it is recorded from Guinea, Nigeria, Cameroon, the Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, and Angola. In Kenya its roots are heavily collected, and this often kills the plant. Some initiatives propagate the species to supply the commercial demand and attempt to re-establish the species in the wild. With older stems becoming woody, it grows from a tuberous rootstock which has a ginger or liquorice taste and an aroma reminiscent of vanilla. The opposite leaves are large (100–300 x 50–150 mm) with a cordate base and 30–55 mm long petioles which, with the lower-surface veins, are often reddish-purple. The false stipules are large and fimbriaceous. The inflorescence is axillary and branched, flowers are short-lived, lasting 3–4 days. Petals are reddish-purple, ± 14 mm long and with a green edge. The flowers are unusually large for the subfamily Periplocoideae, and have a malodorous fruity scent which grows as the day progresses. The paired large fruits or follicles (75–100 x 44 mm) are semi-woody with a velvety surface. "Mondia" is from the Zulu word for the plant, 'umondi'. The species epithet commemorates A.S. White, a South African farmer, who sent specimens to Kew to John Croumbie Brown, Colonial Botanist at the Cape, who sent them on to Joseph Dalton Hooker, who described the species.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10945001

A solo concerto is a musical form which features a single solo instrument with the melody line, accompanied by an orchestra. Traditionally, there are three movements in a solo concerto, consisting of a fast section, a slow and lyrical section, and then another fast section. However, there are many examples of concertos that do not conform to this plan. History. Baroque. The earliest known solo concertos are nos. 6 and 12 of Giuseppe Torelli's Op. 6 of 1698. These works employ both a three-movement cycle and clear (if diminutive) ritornello form, like that of the ripieno concerto except that sections for the soloist and continuo separate the orchestral ritornellos. Active in Bologna, Torelli would have known of the operatic arias and the numerous sonatas and sinfonias for trumpet and strings produced in Bologna since the 1660s. He himself composed more than a dozen such works for trumpet, two dated in the early 1690s. Other early violin concertos are the four in Tomaso Albinoni's Op. 2 (1700) and the six in Giuseppe Torelli's important Op. 8 (1709 - the other six works in this set are double concertos for two violins). The most influential and prolific composer of concertos during the Baroque period was the Venetian Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741). In addition to his nearly 60 extant ripieno concertos, Vivaldi composed approximately 425 concertos for one or more soloists, including about 350 solo concertos (two-thirds for solo violin) and 45 double concertos (over half for two violins). Vivaldi's concertos firmly establish the three-movement form as the norm. The virtuosity of the solo sections increases markedly, especially in the later works, and concurrently the texture becomes more homophonic. Concertos for instruments other than violin began to appear early in the 18th century, including the oboe concertos of George Frideric Handel and the numerous concertos for flute, oboe, bassoon, cello, and other instruments by Vivaldi. The earliest organ concertos can probably be credited to Handel (16 concertos, c. 1735–51), the earliest harpsichord concertos to Johann Sebastian Bach (14 concertos for one to four harpsichords, c. 1735–40). In the latter case, all but probably one of the concertos are arrangements of existing works, though Bach had already approached the idea of a harpsichord concerto before 1721 in the Brandenburg Concerto no. 5. Classical. The Classical period brought the triumph of the solo concerto over the group or multiple concerto, assisted by the continued rise of the virtuoso soloist and the growing demand for up-to-date works for performance by amateurs. The former trend appears most obviously in the large number of violin concertos written by violinists for their own use. The Classical period also witnessed the rise of the keyboard concerto. Until about 1770, the preferred stringed keyboard instrument was usually the harpsichord, but it was gradually supplanted by the piano. The most important composers of keyboard concertos before Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were Bach's sons. Vienna saw the production of many keyboard concertos. The last decades of the 18th century brought the rise of traveling piano virtuosos. The concertos of this period show a broad transition from Baroque to Classical style, though many are more conservative than contemporaneous symphonies. Most are in three movements, though a significant minority adopt lighter two-movement patterns such as Allegro-Minuet and Allegro-Rondo. Dance and rondo finales are also frequent in three-movement concertos. Additionally, the ritornello form in the fast movements was replaced with the sonata form and rondo forms respectively. Joseph Haydn's concertos are mostly from his early career. Exceptions are the Piano Concerto in D, the Cello Concerto in D, and the Trumpet Concerto. Of Mozart's 23 original piano concertos, 17 date from his Viennese period. They are the crowning achievement of the concerto in the 18th century. Most of the works he wrote for Vienna are of a type that Mozart called grand concertos. These were intended for performance at his own subscription concerts, which were held in sizeable halls. They call for an orchestra that is much larger than a typical concerto of the time, especially in the expanded role assigned to the winds. The orchestra is rendered fully capable of sustaining a dramatic confrontation with the virtuosity and individuality of the soloist. Mozart's approach in these concertos is often clearly symphonic, both in the application of formal symphonic principles, and in a Haydnesque interest in thematic unity in the later concertos. The range of styles and expression is greater than that of most other concertos of the period, from the comic-opera elements of K.467 to the Italianate lyricism of K.488, the tragic character of K.466 and 491 to the Beethovenian heroism of K.503. Ludwig van Beethoven's five piano concertos date from between c. 1793 and 1809, and he also wrote an early concertante work for piano and orchestra in 1784. They are longer than Mozart's concertos, and call for even more virtuosity from the soloist. Beethoven's Violin Concerto (1806) exhibits similar achievements - Mozart's five violin concertos are all early works written in Salzburg in 1775. Romantic. Early Romantic concertos include Mendelssohn's two piano concertos (1831–37) and his important Violin Concerto (1844) and Schumann's concertos for piano (1845), cello (1850), and violin (1853). The form of these works is predominantly in the Classical three-movements. Later works in this mould include examples by Johannes Brahms (two for piano - No. 1 from 1858 and No. 2 from 1878 which adds a fourth movement - and one for violin of 1878), Edvard Grieg (piano, 1868), Max Bruch (most famously his Violin Concerto No. 1, 1868), and Antonín Dvořák (piano, violin, cello, 1876–95). In France this tradition is represented primarily by Camille Saint-Saëns (ten concertos for piano, violin, and cello, 1858–1902), in Russia by Anton Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky (three piano concertos, one for violin, 1874–93). A more overtly virtuosic trend appeared in the concertos of brilliant violinists in the 19th century including Louis Spohr and Niccolò Paganini and pianists Frédéric Chopin (two concertos, 1829–30) and Franz Liszt (two concertos, original versions 1839-49). The movement structure in most of these works is in the by-now conventional ritornello-sonata type perfected by Mozart and Beethoven. Liszt's two concertos, however, are unconventional, in that the first concerto's five sections are connected both formally and thematically, and the second utilizes a still freer sectional structure. The first concerto in particular shows the influence of such continuous composite forms as those of Weber's Konzertstuck and Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy. The virtuosity required by all these concertos was facilitated by—and helped to spur—technical developments in the instruments themselves. 20th century. Numerous 20th-century compositions were written in the vein of the 19th-century Romantic concertos - and often using its forms and styles - including concertos by Sergei Rachmaninoff (four piano concertos, 1890–1926), Jean Sibelius (violin, 1903), Edward Elgar (violin 1909–10, cello 1919), Carl Nielsen (violin, flute, clarinet), Sergei Prokofiev (five for piano, 1911–32; two for violin 1916-17 and 1935), William Walton (viola, violin, cello), Dmitri Shostakovich (two each for piano, violin, and cello), and Francis Poulenc (organ). The virtuoso tradition mirrored in these concertos is also obvious, though in radically original guise, in the concertos of Béla Bartók. Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Bartók were all piano virtuosos. The composers of the Second Viennese School also produced several prominent concertos: Alban Berg's Chamber Concerto for piano, violin, and 13 winds (1923–25), not fully serial but incorporating many elements of Arnold Schoenberg's new system; Anton Webern's Concerto for nine instruments (1931–34), originally intended as a piano concerto; Berg's important Violin Concerto (1935); and Schoenberg's own Violin Concerto (1935–36) and Piano Concerto (1942). The neoclassical movement of the period following World War I produced a long series of works that returned to pre-Romantic conceptions of the concerto. Igor Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Winds (1923–24) is in this idiom, but his subsequent concertos are more specifically neo-Baroque in character. His Violin Concerto (1931), for example, comprises a Toccata, two Arias, and a Capriccio, and the soloist is treated more as a member of the ensemble than as a virtuoso protagonist. The solo concertos of Paul Hindemith (8 for various instruments, 1939–62) are more traditional than Stravinsky's in their treatment of the relationship between soloist and orchestra. Though hardly neoclassical in the usual sense, Richard Strauss' Horn Concerto no. 2 (1942, written some 60 years after his first) and Oboe Concerto (1945) also reach back to an earlier era, finding nostalgic inspiration in the wind concertos of Mozart. A tendency related to the neoclassical rejection of Romantic and traditional features is the use of jazz elements in many 20th-century concertos. George Gershwin was a pioneer for such works, in for example his "Rhapsody in Blue" (1924) and Concerto in F for piano (1925). Jazz was a source of inspiration for Aaron Copland's Piano Concerto (1926), Stravinsky's Ebony Concerto for clarinet and jazz band (1945). The Legend of Yush's Poet is the first concerto written for an actress by Ehsan Saboohi.“The structure of this “concerto” is a combination of contemporary Naghali (recounting stories), spoken word, and contemporary performance art. The actress here creates musical events with voice, body, and movement; a bit like a piano concerto that does not have an orchestra. For me, the Mise-en-scène functions like the orchestration of a piece.

rapid rhythmic quality of a musical composition

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=38680789

Wild animal suffering is the suffering experienced by nonhuman animals living outside of direct human control, due to harms such as disease, injury, parasitism, starvation and malnutrition, dehydration, weather conditions, natural disasters, and killings by other animals, as well as psychological stress. Some estimates indicate that the vast majority of individual animals in existence live in the wild. A vast amount of natural suffering has been described as an unavoidable consequence of Darwinian evolution and the pervasiveness of reproductive strategies which favor producing large numbers of offspring, with a low amount of parental care and of which only a small number survive to adulthood, the rest dying in painful ways, has led some to argue that suffering dominates happiness in nature. The topic has historically been discussed in the context of the philosophy of religion as an instance of the problem of evil. More recently, starting in the 19th-century, a number of writers have considered the suspected scope of the problem from a secular standpoint as a general moral issue, one that humans might be able to take actions toward preventing. There is considerable disagreement around this latter point as many believe that human interventions in nature, for this reason, should not take place because of practicality, valuing ecological preservation over the well-being and interests of individual animals, considering any obligation to reduce wild animal suffering implied by animal rights to be absurd, or viewing nature as an idyllic place where happiness is widespread. Some have argued that such interventions would be an example of human hubris, or playing God and use examples of how human interventions, for other reasons, have unintentionally caused harm. Others, including animal rights writers, have defended variants of a "laissez-faire" position, which argues that humans should not harm wild animals, but that humans should not intervene to reduce natural harms that they experience. Advocates of such interventions argue that animal rights and welfare positions imply an obligation to help animals suffering in the wild due to natural processes. Some have asserted that refusing to help animals in situations where humans would consider it wrong not to help humans is an example of speciesism. Others argue that humans intervene in nature constantly—sometimes in very substantial ways—for their own interests and to further environmentalist goals. Human responsibility for enhancing existing natural harms has also been cited as a reason for intervention. Some advocates argue that humans already successfully help animals in the wild, such as vaccinating and healing injured and sick animals, rescuing animals in fires and other natural disasters, feeding hungry animals, providing thirsty animals with water, and caring for orphaned animals. They also assert that although wide-scale interventions may not be possible with our current level of understanding, they could become feasible in the future with improved knowledge and technologies. For these reasons, they claim it is important to raise awareness about the issue of wild animal suffering, spread the idea that humans should help animals suffering in these situations and encourage research into effective measures which can be taken in the future to reduce the suffering of these individuals, without causing greater harms. Extent of suffering in nature. Sources of harm. Disease. Animals in the wild may suffer from diseases which circulate similarly to human colds and flus, as well as epizootics, which are analogous to human epidemics; epizootics are relatively understudied in the scientific literature. Some well-studied examples include chronic wasting disease in elk and deer, white-nose syndrome in bats, devil facial tumour disease in Tasmanian devils and Newcastle disease in birds. Examples of other diseases include myxomatosis and viral haemorrhagic disease in rabbits, ringworm and cutaneous fibroma in deer, and chytridiomycosis in amphibians. Diseases, combined with parasitism, "may induce listlessness, shivering, ulcers, pneumonia, starvation, violent behavior, or other gruesome symptoms over the course of days or weeks leading up to death." Poor health may dispose wild animals to increased risk of infection, which in turn reduces the health of the animal, further increasing the risk of infection. The terminal investment hypothesis holds that infection can lead some animals to focus their limited remaining resources on increasing the number of offspring they produce. Injury. Wild animals can experience injury from a variety of causes such as predation; intraspecific competition; accidents, which can cause fractures, crushing injuries, eye injuries and wing tears; self-amputation; molting, a common source of injury for arthropods; extreme weather conditions, such as storms, extreme heat or cold weather; and natural disasters. Such injuries may be extremely painful, which can lead to behaviors which further negatively affect the well-being of the injured animal. Injuries can also make animals susceptible to diseases and other injuries, as well as parasitic infections. Additionally, the affected animal may find it harder to eat and drink and struggle to escape from predators and attacks from other members of their species. Parasitism. Many wild animals, particularly larger ones, have been found to be infected with at least one parasite. Parasites can negatively affect the well-being of their hosts by redirecting their host's resources to themselves, destroying their host's tissue and increasing their host's susceptibility to predation. As a result, parasites may reduce the movement, reproduction and survival of their hosts. Parasites can alter the phenotype of their hosts; limb malformations in amphibians caused by "ribeiroia ondatrae," is one example. Some parasites have the capacity to manipulate the cognitive function of their hosts, such as worms which make crickets kill themselves by directing them to drown themselves in water, so that the parasite can reproduce in an aquatic environment, as well as caterpillars using dopamine containing secretions to manipulating ants to acts as bodyguards to protect the caterpillar from parasites. It is rare that parasites directly cause the death of their host, rather, they may increase the chances of their host's death by other means; one meta-study found that mortality was 2.65 times higher in animals affected by parasites, than those that weren't. Unlike parasites, parasatoids—which include species of worms, wasps, beetles and flies—kill their hosts, who are generally other invertebrates. Parasatoids specialize in attacking one particular species. Different methods are used by parasitoids to infect their hosts: laying their eggs on plants which are frequently visited by their host, laying their eggs on or close to the host's eggs or young and stinging adult hosts so that they are paralyzed, then laying their eggs near or on them. The larvae of parasatoids grow by feeding on the internal organs and bodily fluids of their hosts, which eventually leads to the death of their host when their organs have ceased to function, or they have lost all of their bodily fluids. Superparasitism is a phenomenon where multiple different parasatoid species simultaneously infect the same host. Parastoid wasps have been described as having the largest number of species of any other animal species. Starvation and malnutrition. Starvation and malnutrition particularly affect young, old, sick and weak animals, and can be caused by injury, disease, poor teeth and environmental conditions, with winter being particularly associated with an increased risk. It is argued that because food availability limits the size of wild animal populations, that this means that a huge number of individuals die as a result of starvation; such deaths are described as prolonged and marked by extreme distress as the animal's bodily functions shut down. Within days of hatching, fish larvae may experience hydrodynamic starvation, whereby the motion of fluids in their environment limits their ability to feed; this can lead to mortality of greater than 99%. Dehydration. Dehydration is associated with high mortality in wild animals. Drought can cause many animals in larger populations to die of thirst. Thirst can also expose animals to an increased risk of being preyed upon; they may remain hidden in safe spaces to avoid this. However, their need for water may eventually force them to leave these spaces; being in a weakened state, this makes them easier targets for predatory animals. Animals who remain hidden cannot move due to dehydration and may end up dying of thirst. When dehydration is combined with starvation, the process of dehydration can be accelerated. Diseases, such as chytridiomycosis, can also increase the risk of dehydration. Weather conditions. Weather has a strong influence on the health and survival of wild animals. Weather phenomena such as heavy snow, flooding and droughts can directly harm animals. and indirectly harm them by increasing the risks of other forms of suffering, such as starvation and disease. Extreme weather can cause the deaths of animals by destroying their habitats and directly killing animals; hailstorms are known to kill thousands of birds. Certain weather conditions may maintain large numbers of individuals over many generations; such conditions, while conducive to survival, may still cause suffering for animals. Humidity or lack thereof can be beneficial or harmful depending on an individual animals' needs. Deaths of large numbers of animals—particularly cold-blooded ones such as amphibians, reptiles, fishes and invertebrates—can take place as a result of temperature fluctuations, with young animals being particularly susceptible. Temperature may not be a problem for parts of the year, but can be a problem in especially hot summers or cold winters. Extreme heat and lack of rainfall are also associated with suffering and increased mortality by increasing susceptibility to disease and causing vegetation that insects and other animals rely upon to dry out; this drying out can also make animals who rely on plants as hiding places more susceptible to predation. Amphibians who rely on moisture to breathe and stay cool may die when water sources dry up. Hot temperatures can cause fish to die by making it hard for them to breathe. Climate change and associated warming and drying is making certain habitats intolerable for some animals through heat stress and reducing available water sources. Mass mortality is particularly linked with winter weather due to low temperatures, lack of food and bodies of water where animals live, such as frogs, freezing over; a study on cottontail rabbits indicates that only 32% of them survive the winter. Fluctuating environmental conditions in the winter months is also associated with increased mortality. Natural disasters. Fires, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, storms, floods and other natural disasters are sources of extensive short- and long-term harm for wild animals, causing death, injury, illness and malnutrition, as well as poisoning by contaminating food and water sources. Such disasters can also alter the physical environment of individual animals in ways which are harmful to them; fires and large volcanic eruptions can affect the weather and marine animals may die due to disasters affecting water temperature and salinity. Killing by other animals. Predation has been described as the act of one animal capturing and killing another animal to consume part or all of their body. Jeff McMahan, a moral philosopher, asserts that: "Wherever there is animal life, predators are stalking, chasing, capturing, killing, and devouring their prey. Agonized suffering and violent death are ubiquitous and continuous." Preyed upon animals die in a variety of different ways, with the time taking for them to die, which can be lengthy, depending on the method that the predatory animal uses to kill them; some animals are swallowed and digested while still being alive. Other preyed upon animals are paralysed with venom before being eaten; venom can also be used to start digesting the animal. Animals may be killed by members of their own species due to territorial disputes, competition for mates and social status, as well as cannibalism, infanticide and siblicide. Psychological stress. It has been argued that animals in the wild do not appear to be happier than domestic animals, based on findings that these individuals have greater levels of cortisol and elevated stress responses relative to domestic animals; additionally, unlike domestic animals, wild animals do not have their needs provided for them by human caretakers. Sources of stress for these individuals include illness and infection, predation avoidance, nutritional stress and social interactions; these stressors can begin before birth and continue as the individual develops. A framework known as the ecology of fear conceptualises the psychological impact that the fear of predatory animals can have on the individuals that they predate, such as altering their behavior and reducing their survival chances. Fear-inducing interactions with predators may cause lasting effects on behavior and PTSD-like changes in the brains of animals in the wild. These interactions can also cause a spike in stress hormones, such as cortisol, which can increase the risk of both the individual's death and their offspring. Number of affected individuals. The number of individual animals in the wild is relatively unexplored in the scientific literature and estimates vary considerably. An analysis, undertaken in 2018, estimates (not including wild mammals) that there are 10 fish, 10 wild birds, 10 terrestrial arthropods and 10 marine arthropods, 10 annelids, 10 molluscs and 10 cnidarians, for a total of 10 wild animals. It has been estimated that there are 2.25 times more wild mammals than wild birds in Britain, but the authors of this estimate assert that this calculation would likely be a severe underestimate when applied to the number of individual wild mammals in other continents. Based on some of these estimates, it has been argued that the number of individual wild animals in existence is considerably higher, by an order of magnitude, than the number of animals humans kill for food each year, with individuals in the wild making up over 99% of all sentient beings in existence. Natural selection. In his autobiography, the naturalist and biologist Charles Darwin acknowledged that the existence of extensive suffering in nature was fully compatible with the workings of natural selection, yet maintained that pleasure was the main driver of fitness-increasing behavior in organisms. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins challenged Darwin's claim in his book "River Out of Eden", wherein he argued that wild animal suffering must be extensive due to the interplay of the following evolutionary mechanisms: From this, Dawkins concludes that the natural world must necessarily contain enormous amounts of animal suffering as an inevitable consequence of Darwinian evolution. To illustrate this he writes: The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored. Reproductive strategies and population dynamics. Some writers have argued that the prevalence of "r"-selected animals in the wild—who produce large numbers of offspring, with a low amount of parental care, and of which only a small number, in a stable population, will survive to adulthood—indicates that the average life of these individuals is likely to be very short and end in a painful death. The pathologist Keith Simpson described this as follows: In the wild, plagues of excess population are a rarity. The seas are not crowded with sunfish; the ponds are not brimming with toads; elephants do not stand shoulder to shoulder over the land. With few exceptions, animal populations are remarkably stable. On average, of each pair's offspring, only sufficient survive to replace the parents when they die. Surplus young die, and birth rates are balanced by death rates. In the case of spawners and egg layers, some young are killed before hatching. Almost half of all blackbird eggs are taken by jays, but even so, each pair usually manages to fledge about four young. By the end of summer, however, an average of under two are still alive. Since one parent will probably die or be killed during the winter, only one of the young will survive to breed the following summer. The high mortality rate among young animals is an inevitable consequence of high fecundity. Of the millions of fry produced by a pair of sunfish, only one or two escape starvation, disease or predators. Half the young of house mice living on the Welsh island of Skokholm are lost before weaning. Even in large mammals, the lives of the young can be pathetically brief and the killing wholesale. During the calving season, many young wildebeeste, still wet, feeble and bewildered, are seized and torn apart by jackals, hyenas and lions within minutes of emerging from their mothers' bellies. Three out of every four die violently within six months. According to this view, the lives of the majority of animals in the wild likely contain more suffering than happiness, since a painful death would outweigh any short-lived moments of happiness experienced in their short lives. Welfare economist Yew-Kwang Ng has argued that evolutionary dynamics can lead to welfare outcomes that are worse than necessary for a given population equilibrium. A 2019 follow-up challenged the conclusions of Ng's original paper. History of concern for wild animals. Religious views. Problem of evil. The idea that suffering is common in nature has been observed by several writers historically who engaged with the problem of evil. In his notebooks (written between 1487 and 1505), Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci described the suffering experienced by animals in the wild due to predation and reproduction, questioning: "Why did nature not ordain that one animal should not live by the death of another?" In his 1779 posthumous work "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion", the philosopher David Hume described the antagonism inflicted by animals upon each other and the psychological impact experienced by the victims, observing: "The stronger prey upon the weaker, and keep them in perpetual terror and anxiety." In "Natural Theology", published in 1802, Christian philosopher William Paley argued that animals in the wild die as a result of violence, decay, disease, starvation and malnutrition, and that they exist in a state of suffering and misery; their suffering unaided by their fellow animals. He compared this to humans, who even when they can't relieve the suffering of their fellow humans, at least provide them with necessities. Paley also engaged with the reader of his book, asking whether, based on these observations, "you would alter the present system of pursuit and prey?" Additionally, he argued that "the subject ... of animals devouring one another, forms the chief, if not the only instance, in the works of the Deity ... in which the character of utility can be called in question." However, he defended predation as being a part of God's design by asserting that it was a solution to the problem of superfecundity; animals producing more offspring than can possibly survive. Paley also contended that venom is a merciful way for poisonous animals to kill the animals that they predate. The problem of evil has also been extended to include the suffering of animals in the context of evolution. In "Phytologia, or the Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening", published in 1800, Erasmus Darwin, a physician and the grandfather of Charles Darwin, aimed to vindicate the goodness of God allowing the consumption of "lower" animals by "higher" ones, by asserting that "more pleasurable sensation exists in the world, as the organic matter is taken from a state of less irritability and less sensibility and converted into a greater"; he claimed that this process secures the greatest happiness for sentient beings. Writing in response, in 1894, Edward Payson Evans, a linguist and advocate for animal rights, argued that evolution, which regards the antagonism between animals purely as events within the context of a "universal struggle for existence", has disregarded this kind of theodicy and ended "teleological attempts to infer from the nature and operations of creation the moral character of the Creator". In an 1856 letter to Joseph Dalton Hooker, Charles Darwin remarked sarcastically on the cruelty and wastefulness of nature, describing it as something that a "Devil's chaplain" could write about. Writing in 1860, to Asa Gray, Darwin asserted that he could not reconcile an omnibenevolent and omnipotent God with the intentional existence of the Ichneumonidae, a parasitoid wasp family, the larvae of which feed internally on the living bodies of caterpillars. In his autobiography, published in 1887, Darwin described a feeling of revolt at the idea that God's benevolence is limited, stating: "for what advantage can there be in the sufferings of millions of the lower animals throughout almost endless time?" Eastern perspectives. Philosopher Ole Martin Moen argues that unlike Western, Judeo-Christian views, Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism "all hold that the natural world is filled with suffering, that suffering is bad for all who endure it, and that our ultimate aim should be to bring suffering to an end." In Buddhist doctrine, rebirth as an animal is regarded as evil because of the different forms of suffering that animals experience due to humans and natural processes. Buddhists may also regard the suffering experienced by animals in nature as evidence for the truth of "dukkha". Patrul Rinpoche, a 19th-century Tibetan Buddhist teacher, described animals in the ocean as experiencing "immense suffering", as a result of predation, as well as parasites burrowing inside them and eating them alive. He also described animals on land as existing in a state of continuous fear and of killing and being killed. 18th century. In "Histoire Naturelle", published in 1753, the naturalist Buffon described wild animals as suffering much want in the winter, focusing specifically on the plight of stags who are exhausted by the rutting season, which in turn leads to the breeding of parasites under their skin, further adding to their misery. Later in the book, he described predation as necessary to prevent the superabundance of animals who produce vast numbers of offspring, who if not killed would have their fecundity diminished due to a lack of food and would die as a result of disease and starvation. Buffon concluded that "violent deaths seem to be equally as necessary as natural ones; they are both modes of destruction and renovation; the one serves to preserve nature in a perpetual spring, and the other maintains the order of her productions, and limits the number of each species." Herder, a philosopher and theologian, in "Ideen zur Philosphie der Geschichte der Menschheit", published between 1784 and 1791, argued that animals exist in a state of constant striving, needing to provide for their own subsistence and to defend their lives. He contended that nature ensured peace in creation by creating an equilibrium of animals with different instincts and belonging to different species who live opposed to each other. 19th century. In 1824, Lewis Gompertz, an early vegan and animal rights activist, published "Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes", in which he advocated for an egalitarian view towards animals and aiding animals suffering in the wild. Gompertz asserted that humans and animals in their natural state both suffer similarly:[B]oth of them being miserably subject to almost every evil, destitute of the means of palliating them; living in the continual apprehension of immediate starvation, of destruction by their enemies, which swarm around them; of receiving dreadful injuries from the revengeful and malicious feelings of their associates, uncontrolled by laws or by education, and acting as their strength alone dictates; without proper shelter from the inclemencies of the weather; without proper attention and medical or surgical aid in sickness; destitute frequently of fire, of candle-light, and (in man) also of clothing; without amusements or occupations, excepting a few, the chief of which are immediately necessary for their existence, and subject to all the ill consequences arising from the want of them.Gompertz also argued that as much as animals suffer in the wild, that they suffer much more at the hands of humans because, in their natural state, they have the capacity to also experience periods of much enjoyment. Additionally, he contended that if he was to encounter a situation where an animal was eating another, that he would intervene to help the animal being attacked, even if "this might probably be wrong." Philosopher and poet Giacomo Leopardi in his 1824 "Dialogue between Nature and an Icelander", from "Operette morali", used images of animal predation, which he rejected as having value, to represent nature's cycles of creation and destruction. Writing in his notebooks, "Zibaldone di pensieri", published posthumously in 1898, Leopardi asserted that predation is a leading example of the evil design of nature. In 1851, the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer commented on the vast amount of suffering in nature, drawing attention to the asymmetry between the pleasure experienced by a carnivorous animal and the suffering of the animal that they are consuming, stating: "Whoever wants summarily to test the assertion that the pleasure in the world outweighs the pain, or at any rate that the two balance each other, should compare the feelings of an animal that is devouring another with those of that other". In the 1874 posthumous essay "Nature", utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote about suffering in nature and the imperative of struggling against it: In sober truth, nearly all the things which men are hanged or imprisoned for doing to one another, are nature's every day performances. ... The phrases which ascribe perfection to the course of nature can only be considered as the exaggerations of poetic or devotional feeling, not intended to stand the test of a sober examination. No one, either religious or irreligious, believes that the hurtful agencies of nature, considered as a whole, promote good purposes, in any other way than by inciting human rational creatures to rise up and struggle against them. ... Whatsoever, in nature, gives indication of beneficent design proves this beneficence to be armed only with limited power; and the duty of man is to cooperate with the beneficent powers, not by imitating, but by perpetually striving to amend, the course of nature—and bringing that part of it over which we can exercise control more nearly into conformity with a high standard of justice and goodness. In his 1892 book "," the writer and early activist for animal rights Henry Stephens Salt focused an entire chapter on the plight of wild animals, "The Case of Wild Animals". Salt wrote that the rights of animals should not be dependent on the rights of being property and that sympathy and protection should be extended to non-owned animals too. He also argued that humans are justified in killing wild animals in self-defense, but that neither unnecessary killing nor torturing harmless beings is justified. 20th century. In the 1906 book "The Universal Kinship", the zoologist and utilitarian philosopher J. Howard Moore argued that the egoism of sentient beings—a product of natural selection—which leads them to exploit their sentient fellows, was the "most mournful and immense fact in the phenomena of conscious life", and speculated whether an ordinary human who was sufficiently sympathetic to the welfare of the world could significantly improve this situation if only given the opportunity. In "Ethics and Education", published in 1912, Moore critiqued the human conception of animals in the wild: "Many of these non-human beings are so remote from human beings in language, appearance, interests, and ways of life, as to be nothing but 'wild animals.' These 'wild things' have, of course, no rights whatever in the eyes of men." Later in the book, he described them as independent beings who suffer and enjoy in the same way humans do and have their "own ends and justifications of life." In his 1952 article "Which Shall We Protect? Thoughts on the Ethics of the Treatment of Free Life", Alexander Skutch, a naturalist and writer, explored five ethical principles that humans could follow when considering their relationship with animals in the wild, including the principle of only considering human interests; the "laissez-faire", or "hands-off" principle; the do no harm, ahmisa principle; the principle of favoring the "higher animals", which are most similar to ourselves; the principle of "harmonious association", whereby humans and animals in the wild could live symbiotically, with each providing benefits to the other and individuals who disrupt this harmony, such as predators, are removed. Skutch endorsed a combination of the "laissez-faire", ahimsa and harmonious association approaches as the way to create the ultimate harmony between humans and animals in the wild. Moral philosopher Peter Singer, in 1973, responded to a question on whether humans have a moral obligation to prevent predation, arguing that intervening in this way may cause more suffering in the long-term, but asserting that he would support actions if the long-term outcome was positive. In 1979, the animal rights philosopher Stephen R. L. Clark, published "The Rights of Wild Things", in which he argued that humans should protect animals in the wild from particularly large dangers, but that humans do not have an obligation to regulate all of their relationships. The following year, J. Baird Callicott, an environmental ethicist, published "Animal Liberation: A Triangular Affair", in which he compared the ethical underpinnings of the animal liberation movement, asserting that it is based on Benthamite principles, and Aldo Leopold's land ethic, which he used as a model for environmental ethics. Callicott concluded that intractable differences exist between the two ethical positions when it comes to the issue of wild animal suffering. In 1991, the environmental philosopher Arne Næss critiqued what he termed the "cult of nature" of contemporary and historical attitudes of indifference towards suffering in nature. He argued that humans should confront the reality of the wilderness, including disturbing natural processes—when feasible—to relieve suffering. In his 1993 article "Pourquoi je ne suis pas écologiste" ("Why I am not an environmentalist"), published in the antispeciesist journal "Cahiers antispécistes", the animal rights philosopher David Olivier argued that he is opposed to environmentalists because they consider predation to be good because of the preservation of species and "natural balance", while Olivier gives consideration to the suffering of the individual animal being predated. He also asserted that if the environmentalists were themselves at risk of being predated, they wouldn't follow the "order of nature". Olivier concluded: "I don't want to turn the universe into a planned, man-made world. Synthetic food for foxes, contraception for hares, I only half like that. I have a problem that I do not know how to solve, and I am unlikely to find a solution, even theoretical, as long as I am (almost) alone looking for one." 21st century. In 2010, Jeff McMahan's essay "The Meat Eaters" was published by "The New York Times", in which he argued in favor of taking steps to reduce animal suffering in the wild, particularly by reducing predation. In the same year, McMahan published "Predators: A Response", a reply to the criticism he received for his original article. Moral philosopher Catia Faira, in 2016, successfully defended "Animal Ethics Goes Wild: The Problem of Wild Animal Suffering and Intervention in Nature", the first thesis of its kind to argue that humans have an obligation to help animals in the wild. It was assessed by Alasdair Cochrane, Genoveva Martí and Jeff McMahan, and supervised by Paula Casal, Oscar Horta and Joao Cardoso Rosas. In 2020, the philosopher Kyle Johannsen published "Wild Animal Ethics: The Moral and Political Problem of Wild Animal Suffering". The book argues that wild animal suffering is a pressing moral issue and that humans have a collective moral duty to intervene in nature to reduce suffering. Philosophical status. Predation as a moral problem. Predation has been considered a moral problem by some philosophers, who argue that humans have an obligation to prevent it, while others argue that intervention is not ethically required. Others have argued that humans shouldn't do anything about it right now because there's a chance we'll unwittingly cause serious harm, but that with better information and technology, it may be possible to take meaningful action in the future. An obligation to prevent predation has been considered untenable or absurd by some writers, who have used the position as a "reductio ad absurdum" to reject the concept of animal rights altogether. Others have argued that attempting to reduce it would be environmentally harmful. Arguments for intervention. Animal rights and welfare perspectives. Some theorists have reflected on whether the harms animals suffer in the wild should be accepted or if something should be done to mitigate them. The moral basis for interventions aimed at reducing wild animal suffering can be rights- or welfare-based. Advocates of such interventions argue that non-intervention is inconsistent with either of these approaches. From a rights-based perspective, if animals have a moral right to life or bodily integrity, intervention may be required to prevent such rights from being violated by other animals. Animal rights philosopher Tom Regan was critical of this view; he argued that because animals aren't moral agents, in the sense of being morally responsible for their actions, they can't violate each other's rights. Based on this, he concluded that humans don't need to concern themselves with preventing suffering of this kind, unless such interactions were strongly influenced by humans. The moral philosopher Oscar Horta argues that it is a mistaken perception that the animal rights position implies a respect for natural processes because of the assumption that animals in the wild live easy and happy lives, when in reality, they live short and painful lives full of suffering. It has also been argued that a non-speciesist legal system would mean animals in the wild would be entitled to positive rights—similar to what humans are entitled to by their species-membership—which would give them the legal right to food, shelter, healthcare and protection. From a welfare-based perspective, a requirement to intervene may arise insofar as it is possible to prevent some of the suffering experienced by wild animals without causing even more suffering. Katie McShane argues that biodiversity is not a good proxy for wild animal welfare: "A region with high biodiversity is full of lots of different kinds of individuals. They might be suffering; their lives might be barely worth living. But if they are alive, they count positively toward biodiversity." Non-intervention as a form of speciesism. Some writers have argued that humans refusing to aid animals suffering in the wild, when they would help humans suffering in a similar situation, is an example of speciesism; the differential treatment or moral consideration of individuals based on their species membership. Jamie Mayerfeld contends that a duty to relive suffering which is blind to species membership implies an obligation to relieve the suffering of animals due to natural processes. Stijn Bruers argues that even long-term animal rights activists sometimes hold speciesist views when it comes to this specific topic, which he calls a "moral blind spot". His view is echoed by Eze Paez, who asserts that advocates who disregard the interests of animals purely because they live in the wild are responsible for the same form of discrimination used by those who justify the exploitation of animals by humans. Oscar Horta argues that spreading awareness of speciesism will in turn increase concern for the plight of animals in the wild. Humans already intervene to further human interests. Oscar Horta asserts that humans are constantly intervening in nature, in significant ways, to further human interests, such as furthering environmentalist ideals. He criticizes how interventions are considered to be realistic, safe or acceptable when their aims favor humans, but not when they focus on helping wild animals. He argues that humans should shift the aim of these interventions to consider the interests of sentient beings; not just humans. Human responsibility for enhancing natural harms. Philosopher Martha Nussbaum asserts that humans continually "affect the habitats of animals, determining opportunities for nutrition, free movement, and other aspects of flourishing" and contends that the pervasive human involvement in natural processes means that humans have a moral responsibility to help individuals affected by our actions. She also argues that humans may have the capacity to help animals suffering due to entirely natural processes, such as diseases and natural disasters and asserts that way may have duties to provide care in these cases. Jeff Sebo, a philosopher, argues that animals in the wild suffer as a result of natural processes, as well as human-caused harms. He asserts that climate change is making existing harms more severe and creating new harms for these individuals. From this, he concludes that there are two reasons to help individual animals in the wild: "they are suffering and dying, and we are either partly or wholly responsible". Similarly, philosopher Steven Nadler argues that climate change means "that the scope of actions that are proscribed – and, especially, prescribed – by a consideration of animal suffering should be broadened". However, Nadler goes further, asserting that humans have a moral obligation to help individual animals suffering in the wild regardless of human responsibility. Arguments against intervention. Practicality of intervening in nature. A common objection to intervening in nature is that it would be impractical, either because of the amount of work involved or because the complexity of ecosystems would make it difficult to know whether or not an intervention would be net beneficial on balance. Aaron Simmons argues that humans should not intervene to save animals in nature because doing so would result in unintended consequences such as damaging ecosystems, interfering with human projects, or resulting in more animal deaths overall. Nicolas Delon and Duncan Purves argue that the "nature of ecosystems leaves us with no reason to predict that interventions would reduce, rather than exacerbate, suffering". Peter Singer has argued that intervention in nature would be justified if one could be reasonably confident that this would greatly reduce wild animal suffering and death in the long run. In practice, however, Singer cautions against interfering with ecosystems because he fears that doing so would cause more harm than good. Other authors dispute Singer's empirical claim about the likely consequences of intervening in the natural world and argue that some types of intervention can be expected to produce good consequences overall. Economist Tyler Cowen cites examples of animal species whose extinction is not generally regarded as having been on balance bad for the world. Cowen also notes that insofar as humans are already intervening in nature, the relevant practical question is not whether there should be intervention, but what particular forms of intervention should be favored. Oscar Horta similarly writes that there are already many cases in which humans intervene in nature for other reasons, such as for human interest in nature and environmental preservation as something valuable in their own rights. Horta has also proposed that courses of action aiming at helping wild animals should be carried out and adequately monitored first in urban, suburban, industrial, or agricultural areas. Likewise, Jeff McMahan argues that since humans "are already causing massive, precipitate changes in the natural world," humans should favor those changes that would promote the survival "of herbivorous rather than carnivorous species." Peter Vallentyne, a philosopher, suggests that, while humans should not eliminate predators in nature, they can intervene to help prey in more limited ways. In the same way that humans help humans in need when the cost to us is small, humans might help some wild animals at least in limited circumstances. Potential conflict between animal rights and environmentalism. It has been argued that the environmentalist goal of preserving certain abstract entities such as species and ecosystems and a policy of non-interference in regard to natural processes is incompatible with animal rights views, which place the welfare and interests of individual animals at the center of concern. Examples include environmentalists supporting hunting for species population control, while animal rights advocates oppose it; animal rights advocates arguing for the extinction or reengineering of carnivores or "r-"strategist species, while deep ecologists defend their right to be and flourish as they are; animal rights advocates defending the reduction of wildlife habitats or arguing against their expansion out of concern that most animal suffering takes place within them, while environmentalists want to safeguard and expand them. Oscar Horta argues that there are instances where environmentalists and animal rights advocates may both support approaches that would consequently reduce wild animal suffering. Ecology as intrinsically valuable. Environmental ethicist Holmes Rolston III argues that only unnatural animal suffering is morally bad and that humans do not have a duty to intervene in cases of suffering caused by natural processes. He celebrates carnivores in nature because of the significant ecological role they play. Others have argued that the reason that humans have a duty to protect other humans from predation is that humans are part of the cultural world rather than the natural world and so different rules apply to them in these situations. Some writers argue that prey animals are fulfilling their natural function, and thus flourishing when they are preyed upon or otherwise die since this allows natural selection to work. Yves Bonnardel, an animal rights philosopher, has criticized this view, as well as the concept of nature, which he describes as an "ideological tool" that places humans in a superior position above other animals, who exist only to perform certain ecosystem functions, such as a rabbit being food "for" a wolf. Bonnardel compares this with the religious idea that a slaves exist "for" their masters, or that woman exists "for" the sake of man. He argues that animals as individuals all have an interest in living. Wild animal suffering as a "reductio ad absurdum". The idea that animal rights imply a moral obligation to intervene in nature has been used as a "reductio ad absurdum" against the position that animals have rights. It has been argued that if animals who are subject to predation did have rights, people would be obliged to intervene in nature to protect them, but this is claimed to be absurd. An objection to this argument is that people do not see intervening in the natural world to save other people from predation as absurd and so this could be seen to involve treating animals differently in this situation without justification, which is due to speciesism. Animal rights philosopher Steve F. Sapontzis asserts that the major reason why people would find opposing predation absurd is an "appeal to 'nature' and to the 'rightful place of things'""." He contends that the same line of argument has notably been used against the emancipation of black people, against birth control and against women's rights. He also argues that in all the ways in which absurdity is defined (logical, factual, contextual, theoretical, unnatural, practical absurdity), one cannot effect an effective "reductio ad absurdum" against the animal rights movement. Nature as idyllic. The idyllic view of nature is described as a widely held view that happiness in nature is prevalent. Oscar Horta argues that even though many people are aware of the harms that animals in the wild experience, such as predation, starvation and disease, as well as recognizing that these animals may suffer as a result of these harms, they don't conclude from this that wild animals have bad enough lives to imply that nature is not a happy place. Horta also contends that a romantic conception of nature has significant implications for attitudes people have towards animals in the wild, as holders of the view may oppose interventions to reduce suffering. Bob Fischer argues that many wild animals may have "net negative" lives (experiencing more pain than pleasure), even in the absence of human activity. However, Fischer argues that if many animals have net negative lives, then what is good for the animal, as an individual, may not be good for its species, other species, the climate or the preservation of biodiversity; for example, some animals may have to have their populations massively reduced and controlled and some species, such as parasites or predators, eliminated entirely. Intervention as hubris. Some writers have argued that interventions to reduce wild animal suffering would be an example of arrogance, hubris, or playing God, as such interventions could potentially have disastrous unforeseen consequences. They are also sceptical of the competence of humans when it comes to making correct moral judgements, as well as human fallibility. Additionally, they contend that the moral stance of humans and moral agency can lead to the imposition of anthropocentric or paternalistic values on others. To support these claims, they use the history of human negative impacts on nature, including species extinctions, wilderness and resource depletion, as well as climate change. From this, they conclude that the best way that humans can help animals in the wild is through the preservation of larger wilderness areas and by reducing the human sphere of influence on nature. Critics of this position, such as Beril Sözmen, argue that human negative impacts are not inevitable and that, until recently, interventions were not undertaken with the goal of improving the well-being of individual animals in the wild. Furthermore, she contends that such examples of anthropogenic harms are not the consequence of misguided human intervention gone awry, but are actually the result of human agriculture and industry, which do not consider, or do not care, about their impact on nature and animals in the wild. Sözmen also asserts that the holders of this position may view that nature as exists in a delicate state of balance and have an overly romantic view of the lives of animals in the wild and, that she contends, actually contain vast amounts of suffering. Martha Nussbaum argues that because humans are constantly intervening in nature, the central question should be what form should these interventions take, rather than whether interventions should take place, arguing that "intelligently respectful paternalism is vastly superior to neglect". "Laissez-faire". A "laissez-faire" view, which holds that humans should not harm animals in the wild, but do not have an obligation to aid these individuals when in need, has been defended by Tom Regan, Elisa Aaltola, Clare Palmer and Ned Hettinger. Regan argued that the suffering animals inflict on each other should not be a concern of ethically motivated wildlife management and that these wildlife managers should instead focus on letting animals in the wild exist as they are, with no human predation, and to "carve out their own destiny". Aaltola similarly argues that predators should be left to flourish, despite the suffering that they cause to the animals that they predate. Palmer endorses a variant of this position, which claims that humans may have an obligation to assist wild animals if humans are responsible for their situation. Hettinger argues for "laissez-faire" based on the environmental value of "Respect for an Independent Nature". Catia Faria argues that following the principle that humans should only help individuals when they are being harmed by humans, rather than by natural processes, would also mean refusing to help humans and companion animals when they suffer due to natural processes, however, this implication does not seem acceptable to most people and she asserts that there are strong reasons to help these individuals when humans have capacity to do so. Faria argues that there is an obligation to help animals in the wild suffering in similar situations and, as a result, the "laissez-faire" view does not hold up. Simlarly, Steven Nadler argues that it is morally wrong to refuse help to animals in the wild regardless of whether humans are indirectly or directly responsible for their suffering, as the same arguments used to decline aid to humans who were suffering due to natural harms such as famine, a tsunami or pneumonia would be considered immoral. He concludes that if the only thing that is morally relevant is an individual's capacity to suffer, there is no relevant moral difference between humans and other animals suffering in these situations. In the same vein, Steve F. Sapontizis asserts that: "When our interests or the interests of those we care for will be hurt, we do not recognize a moral obligation to 'let nature take its course'". Wild animal sovereignty. Some writers, such as the animal rights philosophers Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka, in "Zoopolis", argue that humans should not perform large interventions to help animals in the wild. They assert that these interventions would be taking away their sovereignty, by removing the ability for these animals to govern themselves. Christiane Bailey asserts that certain wild animals, especially prosocial animals, have sufficient criteria to be considered as moral agents, that is to say, individuals capable of making moral judgments and who have responsibilities. She argues that aiding them would be reducing wild animals to beings incapable of making decisions for themselves. Oscar Horta emphasizes the fact that although some individuals may form sovereign groups, the vast majority of wild animals are either solitary or re-selectors, whose population size varies greatly from year to year. He contends that most of their interactions would be amensalism, commensalism, antagonism or competition. Therefore, the majority of animals in wild would not form sovereign communities if humans use the criteria established by Donaldson and Kymlicka. Analogy with colonialism. Estiva Reus asserts that a comparison exists, from a certain perspective, between the spirit which animated the defenders of colonialism who saw it as necessary human progress for "backward peoples", and the idea which inspires writers who argue for reforming nature in the interest of wild animals: the proponents of the two positions consider that they have the right and the duty, because of their superior skills, to model the existence of beings unable to remedy by their own means the evils which overwhelm them. Thomas Lepeltier, a historian and writer on animal ethics, argues that "if colonization is to be criticized, it is because, beyond the rhetoric, it was an enterprise of spoliation and exaction exercised with great cruelty." He also contends that writers who advocate for helping wild animals do not do so for their own benefit because they would have nothing to gain by helping these individuals. Lepeltier goes on to assert that the advocates for reducing wild animal suffering would be aware of their doubts about how best to help these individuals and that they would not act by considering them as rudimentary and simple to understand beings, contrary to the vision that the former colonizers had of colonized populations. Intervention in practice. Proposed forms of assistance. Some proposed forms of assistance—many of which are already employed to help individual animals in the wild in limited ways—include providing medical care to sick and injured animals, vaccinating animals to prevent disease, taking care of orphaned animals, rescuing animals who are trapped, or in natural disasters, taking care of the needs of animals who are starving or thirsty, sheltering animals who are suffering due to weather conditions and using contraception to regulate population sizes in a way that might reduce suffering, rather than cause additional suffering. When it comes to reducing suffering as a result of predation, removing predators from wild areas and refraining from reintroducing predators have both been advocated for. For reducing predation of wild animals due to cats and dogs, it is recommended that companion animals should always be sterilized to prevent the existence of feral animals and that cats should be kept indoors and dogs kept on a leash, unless in designated areas. Suggested forms of future assistance, based on further research, feasibility and whether interventions could be carried out without increasing suffering overall, include using gene drives and CRISPR to reduce the suffering of members of "r"-strategist species, arranging the gradual extinction of carnivorous species, as well as using biotechnology to eradicate suffering in wild animals. Welfare biology. Welfare biology is a proposed research field for studying the welfare of animals, with a particular focus on their relationship with natural ecosystems. It was first advanced in 1995 by Yew-Kwang Ng, who defined it as "the study of living things and their environment with respect to their welfare (defined as net happiness, or enjoyment minus suffering)". Such research is intended to promote concern for animal suffering in the wild and to establish effective actions that can be undertaken to help these individuals in the future. History of interventions. The Bishnoi, a Hindu sect founded in the 15th century, have a tradition of feeding wild animals. Some Bishnoi temples also act as rescue centres, where priests take care of injured animals; a few of these individuals are returned to the wild, while others remain, roaming freely in the temple compounds. The Borana Oromo people leave out water overnight for wild animals to drink because they believe that the animals have the right to drinking water. In 2002, the Australian Government authorized the killing of 15,000, out of 100,000, kangaroos who were trapped in a fenced-in national military base and suffering in a state of illness, misery and starvation. In 2016, 350 starving hippos and buffaloes at Kruger National Park were killed by park rangers; one of the motives for the action was to prevent them from suffering as they died. Rescues of multiple animals in the wild have taken place: in 1988, the US and Soviet governments collaborated in Operation Breakthrough, to free three gray whales who were trapped in pack ice off the coast of Alaska; in 2018, a team of BBC filmmakers dug a ramp in the snow to allow a group of penguins to escape a ravine in Antarctica; in 2019, 2,000 baby flamingos were rescued during a drought in South Africa; during the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, a number of fire-threatened wild animals were rescued; in 2020, 120 pilot whales, who were beached, were rescued in Sri Lanka; in 2021, 1,700 Cape cormorant chicks, who had been abandoned by their parents, were rescued in South Africa; in the same year, nearly 5,000 cold-stunned sea turtles were rescued in Texas. Vaccination programs have been successfully implemented to prevent rabies and tuberculosis in wild animals. Wildlife contraception has been used to reduce and stabilize populations of wild horses, white-tailed deer, American bison and African elephants. Cultural depictions. Wildlife documentaries. Criticism of portrayals of wild animal suffering. It has been argued that much of people's knowledge about wild animals comes from wildlife documentaries, which have been described as non-representative of the reality of wild animal suffering because they underrepresent uncharismatic animals who may have the capacity to suffer, such as animals who are preyed upon, as well as small animals and invertebrates. In addition, it is claimed that such documentaries focus on adult animals, while the majority of animals who likely suffer the most, die before reaching adulthood; that wildlife documentaries don't generally show animals suffering from parasitism; that such documentaries can leave viewers with the false impression that animals who have been attacked by predators and suffered serious injury survived and thrived afterwards; and that much of the particularly violent incidences of predation are not included. The broadcaster David Attenborough has stated: "People who accuse us of putting in too much violence, [should see] what we leave on the cutting-room floor. It is also contended that wildlife documentaries present nature as a spectacle to be passively consumed by viewers, as well as a sacred and unique place that needs protection. Additionally, attention is drawn to how hardships that are experienced by animals are portrayed in a way that give the impression that wild animals, through adaptive processes, are able to overcome these sources of harm. However, the development of such adaptive traits takes place over a number of generations of individuals who will likely experience much suffering and hardship in their lives, while passing down their genes. David Pearce, a transhumanist and advocate for technological solutions for reducing the suffering of wild animals, is highly critical of how wildlife documentaries, which he refers to as "animal snuff-movies", represent wild animal suffering:Nature documentaries are mostly travesties of real life. They entertain and edify us with evocative mood-music and travelogue-style voice-overs. They impose significance and narrative structure on life's messiness. Wildlife shows have their sad moments, for sure. Yet suffering never lasts very long. It is always offset by homely platitudes about the balance of Nature, the good of the herd, and a sort of poor-man's secular theodicy on behalf of Mother Nature which reassures us that it's not so bad after all. ... That's a convenient lie. ... Lions kill their targets primarily by suffocation; which will last minutes. The wolf pack may start eating their prey while the victim is still conscious, though hamstrung. Sharks and the orca basically eat their prey alive; but in sections for the larger prey, notably seals.Pearce also argues, through analogy, how the idea of intelligent aliens creating stylised portrayals of human deaths for popular entertainment would be considered abhorrent; he asserts that, in reality, this is the role that humans play when creating wildlife documentaries. Clare Palmer asserts that even when wildlife documentaries contain vivid images of wild animal suffering, they don't motivate a moral or practical response in the way that companion animals, such as dogs or cats, suffering in similar situations would and most people instinctively adopt the position of "laissez-faire": allowing suffering to take its course, without intervention. Non-intervention as a filmmaking rule. The question of whether wildlife documentary filmmakers should intervene to help animals is a topic of much debate. It has been described as a "golden rule" of such filmmaking to observe animals, but not intervene. The rule is ocassionally broken, with BBC documentary crews rescuing some stranded baby turtles in 2016 and rescuing a group of penguins trapped in a ravine in 2018; the latter decision was defended by other wildlife documentary filmmakers. Filmmakers following the rule have been criticized for filming dying animals, such as an elephant dying of thirst, without helping them. In fiction. Herman Melville, in "Moby-Dick", published in 1851, describes the sea as a place of "universal cannibalism", where "creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began"; this is illustrated by a later scene depicting sharks consuming their own entrails. The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen contain depictions of the suffering of animals due to natural processes and their rescues by humans. The titular character in "Thumbelina" encounters a seemingly dead frozen swallow. Thumbelina feels sorry for the bird and her companion the mole states: "What a wretched thing it is to be born a little bird. Thank goodness none of my children can be a bird, who has nothing but his 'chirp, chirp', and must starve to death when winter comes along." However, Thumbelina discovers that the swallow isn't actually dead and manages to nurse them back to health. In "The Ugly Duckling", the bitter winter cold causes the duckling to become frozen in an icy pond; the duckling is rescued by a farmer who breaks the ice and takes the duckling to his home to be resuscitated. In the 1923 book "Bambi, a Life in the Woods", Felix Salten portrays a world where predation and death are continuous: a sick young hare is killed by crows, a pheasant and a duck are killed by foxes, a mouse is killed by an owl and a squirrel describes how their family members were killed by predators. The 1942 Disney adaptation has been criticized for inaccurately portraying a world where predation and death are no longer emphasized, creating a "fantasy of nature cleansed of the traumas and difficulties that may trouble children and that adults prefer to avoid." The film version has also been criticized for unrealistically portraying nature undisturbed by humans as an idyllic place, made up of interspecies friendships, with Bambi's life undisturbed by many of the harms routinely experienced by his real-life counterparts, such as starvation, predation, bovine tuberculosis and chronic wasting disease. John Wyndham's character Zelby, in the 1957 book "The Midwich Cuckoos", describes nature as "ruthless, hideous, and cruel beyond belief" and observes that the lives of insects are "sustained only by intricate processes of fantastic horror". In "Watership Down", published in 1972, Richard Adams compares the hardship experienced by animals in winter to the suffering experienced by poor humans, stating: "For birds and animals, as for poor men, winter is another matter. Rabbits, like most wild animals, suffer hardship." Adams also describes rabbits as being more susceptible to disease in the winter. In the philosopher Nick Bostrom's short story "Golden", the main character Albert, an uplifted golden retriever, observes that humans observe nature from an ecologically aesthetic perspective which disregards the suffering of the individuals who inhabit "healthy" ecosystems; Albert also asserts that it is a taboo in the animal rights movement that the majority of the suffering experienced by animals is due to natural processes and that "[a]ny proposal for remedying this situation is bound to sound utopian, but my dream is that one day the sun will rise on Earth and all sentient creatures will greet the new day with joy." The character Lord Vetinari, in Terry Pratchett's "Unseen Academicals", in a speech, tells how he once observed a salmon being consumed alive by a mother otter and her children feeding on the salmon's eggs. He sarcastically describes "[m]other and children dining upon mother and children" as one of "nature's wonders", using it as an example of how evil is "built into the very nature of the universe". This depiction of evil has been described as non-traditional because it expresses horror at the idea that evil has been designed as a feature of the universe. In poetry. Homer, in the "Odyssey", employs the simile of a stag who, as a victim, is wounded by a human hunter and is then devoured by jackals, who themselves are frightened away by a scavenging lion. In the epigram "The Swallow and the Grasshopper", attributed to Euenus, the poet writes of a swallow feeding a grasshopper to its young, remarking: "wilt not quickly cast it loose? for it is not right nor just that singers should perish by singers' mouths." Al-Ma'arri wrote of the kindness of giving water to birds and speculated whether there was a future existence where innocent animals would experience happiness to remedy the suffering they experience in this world. In the "Luzūmiyyāt", he included a poem addressed to the wolf, who: "if he were conscious of his bloodguiltiness, would rather have remained unborn." In "On Poetry: A Rhaposdy", written in 1733, Jonathan Swift argues that Hobbes proved that all creatures exist in a state of eternal war and uses predation by different animals as evidence of this: "A Whale of moderate Size will draw / A Shole of Herrings down his Maw. / A Fox with Geese his Belly crams; / A Wolf destroys a thousand Lambs." Voltaire makes similar descriptions of predation in his "Poem on the Lisbon Disaster", published in 1756, arguing: "Elements, animals, humans, everything is at war". Voltaire also asserts that "all animals [are] condemned to live, / All sentient things, born by the same stern law, / Suffer like me, and like me also die." In William Blake's "Vala, or The Four Zoas", the character Enion laments the cruelty of nature, observing how ravens cry out, but don't receive pity and how sparrows and robins starve to death in the winter. Enion also mourns how wolves and lions reproduce in a state of love, then abandon their young to the wilds and how a spider labours to create a web, awaiting a fly, but then is consumed by a bird. Erasmus Darwin in "The Temple of Nature", published posthumously in 1803, observes the struggle for existence, describing how different animals feed upon each other: "The towering eagle, darting from above, / Unfeeling rends the inoffensive dove [...] Nor spares, enamour'd of his radiant form, / The hungry nightingale the glowing worm" and how parasitic animals, like botflies, reproduce, their young feeding inside the living bodies of other animals: "Fell Oestrus buries in her rapid course / Her countless brood in stag, or bull, or horse; / Whose hungry larva eats its living way, / Hatch'd by the warmth, and issues into day." He also refers to the world as "one great Slaughter-house". The poem has been used as an example of how Erasmus Darwin predicted evolutionary theory. Isaac Gompertz, the brother of Lewis Gompertz, in his 1813 poem "To the Thoughtless", criticises the assertion that human consumption of other animals is justified because it is designed that way by nature, inviting the reader to imagine themselves being predated by an animal and to consider whether they would want to have their life saved, in the same way an animal being preyed upon—such as a fly attacked by a spider—would, despite predation being part of nature-given law. In the 1818 poem "Epistle to John Hamilton Reynolds", John Keats retells to John Hamilton Reynolds how one evening he was by the ocean, when he saw: "Too far into the sea; where every maw / The greater on the less feeds evermore" and observes that there exists an "eternal fierce destruction" at the core of the world: "The Shark at savage prey — the hawk at pounce, — / The gentle Robin, like a Pard or Ounce, / Ravening a worm". The poem has been cited as an example of Erasmus Darwin's writings on Keats. In 1850, Alfred Tennyson published the poem "In Memoriam A.H.H. ", which contained the expression "Nature, red in tooth and claw"; this phrase has since become commonly used as a shorthand to refer to the extent of suffering in nature. In his 1855 poem "Maud", Tennyson described nature as irredeemable because of the theft and predation it intrinsically contains: "For nature is one with rapine, a harm no preacher can heal; / The Mayfly is torn by the swallow, the sparrow spear'd by the shrike, / And the whole little wood where I sit is a world of plunder and prey." Edwin Arnold in "The Light of Asia", a narrative poem published in 1879 about the life of Prince Gautama Buddha, describes how originally the prince saw the "peace and plenty" of nature, but upon closer inspection he observed: "Life living upon death. So the fair show / Veiled one vast, savage, grim conspiracy / Of mutual murder, from the worm to man". It has been asserted that the Darwinian struggle depicted in the poem comes more from Arnold than Buddhist tradition.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10491703

Sa Dragonera () is an uninhabited islet in the Balearic Islands, Spain, located just off the west coast of Majorca. It is currently a natural park. Geography. Geologically speaking, Dragonera is an emerged part of the geologic system running southwest-northeast in the Iberian Peninsula. This runs from the Málaga province through Cap de la Nau and then gets submerged under the Mediterranean Sea. It surfaces again to form the island of Ibiza, the Tramuntana Range in the island of Majorca and Sa Dragonera itself. The silhouette of the mountain range vaguely resembles a dragon, hence its name. Sa Dragonera is approximately 3,200 metres in length and has a maximum width of 500 metres. Although its highest hill Pico Popi is only 360 metres high, the island's overall relief is very abrupt, especially considering its small size, which made the islet of little importance in historic times. The island is a part of the municipality of Andratx, which is, along with Sant Elm (both in nearby Majorca), the closest towns to the island. Dragonera has a small natural port in the Cala Lladó area. History. The name of Dragonera comes from Dragon that was associated to the shape that the island has from a specific perspective, and from the large number of endemic Lilford's wall lizards. There is an Ancient Roman necropolis in the Es Lladó area, but there are no other signs of historical permanent settling. During the 18th century two defensive watchtowers were built on the island in order to watch for the numerous Barbary pirates operating in the area. In 1910 the lighthouses of Tramuntana (north) and Llebeig (southwest) began to operate, replacing the "Faro Viejo" or old lighthouse, which was built in a lower part of the island, in an area often surrounded by mist. In 1941 Juan Flexas bought the islet and started farming activities in the Es Lladó area. By the mid 20th century, the islet was often used by "estraperlo" smugglers for their illegal activities. Between 1960 and 1975 the lighthouses were improved and became automatic, which meant that the only permanent and tiny population (that of the lighthouse keeper and family) left the islet. In 1974 the islet was bought by a Spanish company in order to build a touristic resort. The original plan included a luxury residential, an hotel, a casino and, to serve all these, a manmade port. These plans were heavily contested by the ecologist movements and a harsh and long legal battle followed. The ecologists managed to get all the plans on hold until the legal controversy was cleared. It only finished ten years after, in 1984, when the Audiencia Nacional finally barred any building activities on the uninhabited islet. Part of the 1982 film adapting Agatha Christie's mystery "Evil Under the Sun" was shot in Sa Dragonera, presented as an island of the fictional Tyrania by the Adriatic. Then, in 1987, the Consell Insular de Mallorca bought the islet. In 1995 the Balearic regional Government declared the islet natural park status along with the nearby islets of Pantaleu and Isla Mediana.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5152971

A home inspection is a limited, non-invasive examination of the condition of a home, often in connection with the sale of that home. Home inspections are usually conducted by a home inspector who has the training and certifications to perform such inspections. The inspector prepares and delivers to the client a written report of findings. The client then uses the knowledge gained to make informed decisions about their pending real estate purchase. The home inspector describes the condition of the home at the time of inspection but does not guarantee future condition, efficiency, or life expectancy of systems or components. Sometimes confused with a real estate appraiser, a home inspector determines the condition of a structure, whereas an appraiser determines the value of a property. In the United States, although not all states or municipalities regulate home inspectors, there are various professional associations for home inspectors that provide education, training, and networking opportunities. A professional home inspection is an examination of the current condition of a house. It is not an inspection to verify compliance with appropriate codes; building inspection is a term often used for building code compliance inspections in the United States. A similar but more complicated inspection of commercial buildings is a property condition assessment. Home inspections identify problems but building diagnostics identifies solutions to the found problems and their predicted outcomes. North America. In Canada and the United States, a contract to purchase a house may include a contingency that the contract is not valid until the buyer, through a home inspector or other agents, has had an opportunity to verify the condition of the property. In many states and provinces, home inspectors are required to be licensed, but in some states, the profession is not regulated. Typical requirements for obtaining a license are the completion of an approved training course and/or a successful examination by the state's licensing board. Several states and provinces also require inspectors to periodically obtain continuing education credits in order to renew their licenses. In May 2001, Massachusetts became the first state to recognize the potential conflict of interest when real estate agents selling a home also refer or recommend the home inspector to the potential buyer. As a result, the real estate licensing law in Massachusetts was amended to prohibit listing real estate agents from directly referring home inspectors. The law also prohibits listing agents from giving out a "short" name list of inspectors. The only list that can be given out is the complete list of all licensed home inspectors in the state. Ancillary services such as inspections for wood destroying insects, radon testing, septic tank inspections, water quality, mold, (or excessive moisture which may lead to mold), and private well inspections are sometimes part of home inspector's services if duly qualified. In many provinces and states, home inspection standards are developed and enforced by professional associations, such as, worldwide, the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI); in the United States, the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI), and the National Association of Home Inspectors (NAHI)(No Longer active 10/2017); and, in Canada, the Canadian Association of Home and Property Inspectors (CAHPI), the Professional Home & Property Inspectors of Canada (PHPIC) and the National Home Inspector Certification Council (NHICC). Currently, more than thirty U.S. states regulate the home inspection industry in some form. Canada saw a deviation from this model when in 2016 an association-independent home inspection standard was completed. This was developed in partnership with industry professionals, consumer advocates, and technical experts, by the Canadian Standards Association. The CAN/CSA A770-16 Home Inspection Standard was funded by three provincial governments with the intent to be the unifying standard for home inspections carried out within Canada. It is the only home inspection standard that has been endorsed by the Standards Council of Canada. In Canada, there are provincial associations which focus on provincial differences that affect their members and consumers. Ontario has the largest population of home inspectors which was estimated in 2013 as part of a government survey at being around 1500. To date, Ontario Association of Certified Home Inspectors is the only association which has mandated that its members migrate to the CAN/CSA A770-16 Home Inspection Standard, with a date of migration set as February 28, 2020. Other national and provincial associations have set it as an option to be added to other supported standards. In Canada, only Alberta and British Columbia have implemented government regulation for the home inspection profession. The province of Ontario has proceeded through the process, with the passage of regulatory procedure culminating in the Home Inspection Act, 2017 to license Home Inspectors in that province. It has received royal assent but is still awaiting the development of regulations and proclamation to become law. In Ontario, there are two provincial Associations, OAHI (the Ontario Association of Home Inspectors) and OntarioACHI (the Ontario Association of Certified Home Inspectors). Both claim to be the largest association in the province. OAHI, formed by a private member's Bill in the Provincial Assembly, has the right in law to award the R.H.I. (Registered Home Inspector) designation to anyone on its membership register. The R.H.I. designation, however, is a reserved designation, overseen by OAHI under the Ontario Association of Home Inspectors Act, 1994. This Act allows OAHI to award members who have passed and maintained strict criteria set out in their membership bylaws and who operate within Ontario. Similarly, OntarioACHI requires equally high standards for the award of their certification, the Canadian-Certified Home Inspector (CCHI) designation. To confuse things, Canadian Association of Home and Property Inspectors (CAHPI) own the copyright to the terms Registered Home Inspector and RHI. Outside of Ontario, OAHI Members cannot use the terms without being qualified by CAHPI. The proclamation of the Home Inspection Act, 2017, requires the dissolution of the Ontario Association of Home Inspectors Act, 1994, which will remove the right to title in Ontario of the RHI at the same time removing consumer confusion about the criteria for its award across Canada. Through education and advocacy, both organisations cultivate a thriving home inspection profession based on the highest standards of professional development and ethical standards. United Kingdom. A home inspector in the United Kingdom (or more precisely in England and Wales), was an inspector certified to carry out the Home Condition Reports that it was originally anticipated would be included in the Home Information Pack. Home inspectors were required to complete the ABBE Diploma in Home Inspection to show they met the standards set out for NVQ/VRQ competency-based assessment (Level 4). The government had suggested that between 7,500 and 8,000 qualified and licensed home inspectors would be needed to meet the annual demand of nearly 2,000,000 Home Information Packs. In the event, many more than this entered training, resulting in a massive oversupply of potential inspectors. With the cancellation of Home Information Packs by the coalition Government in 2010, the role of the home inspector in the United Kingdom became permanently redundant. Inspections of the home, as part of a real estate transaction, are still generally carried out in the UK in the same manner as they had been for years before the Home Condition Report process. Home Inspections are more detailed than those currently offered in North America. They are generally performed by a chartered member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. India. The concept of home inspection in India is in its infancy. There has been a proliferation of companies that have started offering the service, predominantly in Tier-1 cities such as Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Mumbai, etc. To help bring about a broader understanding among the general public and market the concept, a few home inspection companies have come together and formed the Home Inspection Association of India. After RERA came into effect, the efficacy and potency of home inspection companies has increased tremendously. The majority of homeowners and potential home buyers do not know what home inspection is or that such a service exists. The way that home inspection is different in India than in North America or United Kingdom is the lack of a government authorised licensing authority. Apart from the fact that houses in India are predominantly built with kiln baked bricks, concrete blocks or even just concrete walls (predominantly in high rise apartments) this means the tests conducted are vastly different. Most home inspection companies conduct non-destructive testing of the property, in some cases based on customer requirement, tests that require core-cutting are also performed. The majority of homeowners are not aware of the concept of home inspection in India. The other issue is that the balance of power is highly tilted toward the builder; this means the home buyers are stepping on their proverbial toes, because in most cases, the home is the single most expensive purchase in their lifetime, and the homeowners do not want to come across as antagonising the builders. Home inspection standards and exclusions. Some home inspectors and home inspection regulatory bodies maintain various standards related to the trade. Some inspection companies offer 90-day limited warranties to protect clients from unexpected mechanical and structural failures; otherwise, inspectors are not responsible for future failures. A general inspection standard for buildings other than residential homes can be found at the National Academy of Building Inspection Engineers. Many inspectors may also offer ancillary services such as inspecting pools, sprinkler systems, checking radon levels, and inspecting for wood-destroying organisms. The CAN/CSA-A770-16 standard allows this (in-fact it demands swimming pool safety inspections as a requirement) and also mandates that the inspector be properly qualified to offer these. Other standards are silent on this. Types of inspections. Home buyers and home sellers inspections. Home inspections are often used by prospective purchasers of the house in question, in order to evaluate the condition of the house prior to the purchase. Similarly, a home seller can elect to have an inspection on their property and report the results of that inspection to the prospective buyer. Foreclosure inspection. Recently foreclosed properties may require home inspections. Four point inspection. An inspection of the house's roof, HVAC, and electrical and plumbing systems is often known as a "four-point inspection", which insurance companies may require as a condition for homeowner's insurance. Disaster inspection. Home inspections may occur after a disaster has struck the house. Section 8 inspection. In the United States, the federal and state governments provide housing subsidies to low-income people through the Section 8 program. The government expects that the housing will be "fit for habitation" so a Section 8 inspection identifies compliance with HUD's Housing Quality Standards (HQS). Pre-delivery inspection. An inspection may occur in a purchased house prior to the deal's closure, in what is known as a "pre-delivery" inspection. Structural inspection. The house's structure may also be inspected. When performing a structural inspection, the inspector will look for a variety of distress indications that may result in repair or further evaluation recommendations. In the state of New York, only a licensed professional engineer or a registered architect can render professional opinions as to the sufficiency structural elements of a home or building. Municipal building officials can also make this determination, but they are not performing home inspections at the time they are rendering this opinion. Municipal officials are also not required to look out for the best interest of the buyer. Some other states may have similar provisions in their licensing laws. Someone who is not a licensed professional engineer or a registered architect can describe the condition of structural elements (cracked framing, sagged beams/roof, severe rot or insect damage, etc. ), but are not permitted to render a professional opinion as to how the condition has affected the structural soundness of the building. Various systems of the house, including plumbing and HVAC, may also be inspected. Thermal imaging Inspection. A thermal imaging inspection using an infrared camera can provide inspectors with information on home energy loss, heat gain/loss through the exterior walls and roof, moisture leaks, and improper electrical system conditions that are typically not visible to the naked eye. Thermal imaging is not considered part of a General Home Inspection because it exceeds the scope of inspection Standards of Practice. Pool and spa inspection. Inspection of swimming pools and spas is not considered part of a General Home Inspection because their inspection exceeds the scope of inspection Standards of Practice. However, some home inspectors are also certified to inspect pools and spas and offer this as an ancillary service. Tree health inspection. Inspection of trees on the property is not considered part of a General Home Inspection because their inspection exceeds the scope of inspection Standards of Practice. This type of inspection is typically performed by a Certified Arborist and assesses the safety and condition of the trees on a property before the sales agreement is executed. Property inspection report for immigration. The UK Border Agency issued guidance on the necessity of ensuring that properties must meet guidelines so that visa applicants can be housed in properties which meet environmental and health standards. Part X of the Housing Act 1985 provides the legislative grounding for the reports - primarily to ensure that a property is not currently overcrowded, that the inclusion of further individuals as a result of successful visa applications - whether spouse visa, dependent visa, indefinite leave to remain or visitor visa, can house the applicants without the property becoming overcrowded. Reports are typically prepared by environmental assessors or qualified solicitors in accordance with HHSRS (Housing Health and Safety Rating Scheme). Property inspection reports are typically standard and breakdown the legal requirements. Pre-Listing Home Inspection. A pre-listing inspection focuses on all major systems and components of the house including HVAC, electrical, plumbing, siding, doors, windows, roof and structure. It's a full home inspection for the seller to better understand the condition of their home prior to the buyer's own inspection.

property examiner

10985-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4022356

A rack (sometimes called a triangle) is a piece of equipment that is used to place billiard balls in their starting positions at the beginning of a pocket billiards game. "Rack" may also be used as a verb to describe the act of setting billiard balls in their starting positions (e.g. "to rack the balls"), or as a noun to describe a set of balls that are in their starting positions (e.g. "a rack of balls", more often called a "pack" or a "pyramid" in British English). Traditional racks are in the form of triangular frames, usually made from wood, plastic or metal. A modern variation, called a "template rack", is made from a thin material (usually 0.14 mm or less) that contains precision cut-outs to hold the balls in place. Purported benefits of template racks include a more consistent racking, and their popularity has warranted specific inclusion in profession rules. Unlike traditional racks, template racks are left on the table during the break shot and removed at the players' earliest convenience. For this reason, template racks are almost never used for games where it is common to slow-break (i.e. not create a large spread of balls) since it is significantly more likely that the rack will interfere with slow-rolling balls. The most common shape of a rack is that of an equilateral triangle. Triangular racks are used for eight-ball, straight pool, one-pocket, bank pool, snooker and many other games. Diamond-shaped frames are sometimes used for the game of nine-ball (although a triangular rack can also be used) and template racks come in a variety of shapes. Racking in specific billiards games. Eight-ball. In eight-ball, 15 object balls are used. Under the World Standardized Rules, it is prescribed that: Nine-ball. In nine-ball, the basic principles are the same as detailed in the eight-ball section above, but only balls 1 through 9 are used; the 1 ball is always placed at the rack's apex (because in nine-ball every legal shot, including the break, must strike the lowest numbered ball first) over the table's foot spot, and the 9 ball is placed in the center of the rack. Some players (most often amateurs) place the balls in numeric order but for the 9 ball; from the top of the triangle down and from left to right, i.e., the 1 on the foot spot, followed by the 2 then 3 in the second row, and so on. However, all balls other than the 1 and 9 may be randomly placed. In nine-ball games where a is given by one player being , some tournament venues enforce a rule that the spotted ball must be racked as one of the two balls in the row directly behind the 1 ball. Straight pool (14.1 continuous). In the initial rack in straight pool, fifteen balls are racked in a triangular rack, with the center of the apex ball placed over the foot spot; the 1 ball is placed on the rack’s right corner, and the 5 ball on left corner from the racker's vantage point. This rule developed because the color and pattern of the 1 and 5 balls are thought to provide maximum contrast with the end rails and are the balls targeted on straight pool's exacting standard break. All other balls are placed at random. Straight pool is played to a specific number of points agreed on prior to the match's start, with each pocketed ball being worth one point to the shooter. Because the game is played to a number of points normally far in excess of the fifteen points total available in the initial rack (in tournament play, one-hundred fifty points), multiple intragame racks are necessary. Intragame racking employs a separate set of rules from those in place at the game's start. After the initial rack, the balls are played until only the cue ball and one object ball remain on the table's surface. At that time, the fourteen pocketed balls are racked with no apex ball, and the rack is so placed so that "if" the apex ball were in the rack, its center would rest directly over the table's foot spot. Play then continues with the cue ball shot from where it rested and the fifteenth ball from where it rested prior to racking. A number of rules have developed which detail what must be done when one or both of the cue ball and fifteenth object ball are either in the rack area at the time an intragame rack is necessary, or are in such close proximity to the intragame racking area, that the physical rack cannot be used without moving the one or the other. The rules also vary depending on whether the cue ball or fifteenth ball are resting on the table's head spot. Such rules are detailed on the following chart (note therein that the refers to the area behind the table's ). One-pocket and bank pool. In both one-pocket and bank pool all fifteen object balls are racked entirely at random, with the center of the apex ball placed directly over the foot spot. Snooker. Snooker is played on a large table (full, pro tournament size is 12 × 6 ft). It is played using a cue stick, one white ball (the cue ball), fifteen red balls and six colours: a yellow (worth two points), green (three points), brown (four points), blue (five points), pink (six points) and black ball (seven points). At one end of the table (the "baulk end" ) is the so-called , which is 29 inches from the baulk end cushion. A semicircle of radius 11.5 inches, called , is drawn behind this line, centred on the middle of the line. On the baulk line, looking up the table from the 'baulk end', the yellow ball is located where the "D" meets the line on the right, the green ball where the "D" meets the line on the left, and the brown ball in the middle of the line. An easy way to remember these positions is with the mnemonic, 'God Bless You', with the first letter of each word being the first letter of the three colours as they are racked from left to right on the baulk line. At the exact middle of the table sits the blue ball. Further up the table is the pink ball, which sits midway between the blue spot and the top cushion, followed by the red balls (one each), placed in a tightly-packed triangle behind the pink. The apex must be as close as possible to the pink ball without touching it. Finally, the black ball is placed on a spot 12.75 inches from the top cushion on a full-size table. Coloured ball racking positions must be remembered with care, as each time a coloured ball is potted, it is immediately replaced to its starting position, which occurs multiple times per frame, whereas reds are not returned to the table's surface after being potted. If the starting position spot for a coloured ball is covered by another ball, the ball is placed on the highest available spot. If there is no available spot, it is placed as close to its own spot as possible in a direct line between that spot and the top (black end) cushion, without touching another ball. If there is no room this side of the spot, it will be placed as close to the spot as possible in a straight line towards the bottom cushion, without touching another ball.

brightly-hued sphere

6928-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=41617721

Dude Perfect (DP) is an American sports and comedy group headquartered in Frisco, Texas, United States. The group consists of twins Cory and Coby Cotton, Garrett Hilbert (The Purple Hoser), Cody Jones (Tall Guy), and Tyler "Ty" Toney (Beard), all of whom are former college roommates at Texas A&M University. The channel is the current most-subscribed sports channel on YouTube, and the sixteenth most-subscribed channel overall. Dude Perfect also has two other YouTube channels, Dude Perfect Plus and Dude Perfect Gaming. They have an estimated net worth of over 50 million. Content created by Dude Perfect predominantly consists of videos depicting various trick shots, stereotypes, and stunts. The group also regularly uploads videos of "battles," in which the individual members of Dude Perfect compete against one another in a good-natured game or contest, incorporating different sports and a unique set of rules. Dude Perfect also created the show Overtime, a series where they host a collection of segments, which include Wheel Unfortunate, Cool not Cool, Betcha, Absurd Recurds, Top 10, Get Crafty, Mail Time, Game Time, Taste Test, and Bloops. History. Early years. On April 9, 2009, a video of the group performing trick shots at Tyler Toney's ranch was released on YouTube. Within a week, the video received 200,000 views. The group's second video, filmed at Christian summer camp Sky Ranch, was released shortly thereafter. The video amassed over 18 million views; for every 100,000 views the video received, Dude Perfect pledged to sponsor a child from Compassion International. After the videos went viral, ESPN contacted Dude Perfect. Clips from Dude Perfect videos subsequently appeared on "First Take", "Pardon the Interruption", "Around the Horn" and "SportsNation". In 2010, Dude Perfect introduced the Panda mascot. The Panda quickly grew into a popular symbol at Texas A&M basketball games when taunting players of the opposing team. Professional endorsements and collaborations. The group received multiple professional endorsements and requests, which began with former Sacramento Kings player Tyreke Evans, in an effort to promote Evans as a candidate for Rookie of the Year. Dude Perfect also appeared on Rob Dyrdek’s “Fantasy Factory.” Dude Perfect has worked with Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, NBA star Chris Paul, Australian ten-pin bowler Jason Belmonte, actor Paul Rudd, singer Tim McGraw, Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and quarterback Russell Wilson, wide receiver Ryan Swope, volleyball star Morgan Beck, Heisman Trophy winner and former quarterback Johnny Manziel at Kyle Field, Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill, the United States Olympic team, NASCAR drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Travis Pastrana, James Buescher and IndyCar Series driver James Hinchcliffe at Texas Motor Speedway. The group has also collaborated with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Cleveland Browns wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and coach Sean Payton, the Seattle Seahawks, and St. Louis Rams players Greg Zuerlein, Johnny Hekker and Jacob McQuaide, Dallas Stars players Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn, tennis player Serena Williams and country singer Luke Bryan. In 2016, Dude Perfect traveled to the United Kingdom to film a video with players of Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea. In 2020, Dude Perfect released their fourth All Sports Golf Battle that was pre-recorded in 2019 with actor Zac Efron, who finished third in the finale. Launch of mobile app, draft, television show, tour, beans, documentary, music, and book. In 2011, Dude Perfect launched a free mobile game for iOS and Android, titled "Dude Perfect". The group subsequently released "Dude Perfect 2," and other games titled "Endless Ducker" and "That's Lit". Following the release of the mobile apps, Cory Cotton authored a nationally published book titled "Go Big", in which he shared the secrets the group has learned along the way building a business in a world largely influenced by social media. In June 2015, the group was selected by the Harlem Globetrotters in their annual player draft. In September 2015, the group was approved for a television series entitled "The Dude Perfect Show" on CMT, which began airing during the first half of 2016. The show's second season aired on Viacom sibling network Nickelodeon. In 2019, the group went on their very first live tour. In 2020, Dude Perfect partnered with Serious Bean Co. to develop a new flavor of baked beans. Partnering with YouTube Originals in 2020, Dude Perfect released a documentary: 'Backstage Pass'. The documentary provided a behind-the-scenes look at their live tour: 'Pound It, Noggin'. In 2021, Dude Perfect released their first song, titled "The Pet Peeves Song", on May 3, 2021. Later that same year, a book, "Dude Perfect 101 Tricks, Tips, and Cool Stuff", written by Travis Thrasher and authorized by the group, was announced; the hard copy of the book is slated to release on June 22nd. World records. In 2009, the group set the world record for the longest basketball shot after shooting from the third deck of Kyle Field. In October 2010, Dude Perfect extended their record with a "cross-tower" shot from a height of 66 meters (216 feet); the basket was located 45 meters (150 feet) away from the tower's base. In March 2011, Dude Perfect unofficially broke their record again with a shot from the top of Reliant Stadium, which remained in the air for 5.3 seconds. In January 2014, the group successfully attempted a shot from the 561-foot-tall Reunion Tower, with Cody Jones and Garrett Hilbert holding the basket at the base of the tower. In their 2016 video, “World Record Edition,” Dude Perfect broke multiple world records. The group broke the world records for longest basketball shot, highest basketball shot, longest blindfolded basketball shot, and longest sitting basketball shot. Subsequently, they released a sequel based on football the following year, in which they broke even more world records. In 2018, Dude Perfect broke the record for longest barefoot Lego walk and longest pea blow during their filming of "Overtime." In episode six of "Overtime," Dude Perfect broke the record for the farthest distance travelled rolling across exercise balls. In 2019, Dude Perfect broke the world record for most Ping Pong balls stuck on a person's head using shaving cream, and the most Donuts stacked on each other while blindfolded. In 2020, they broke another record for the most beachball header passes in 30 seconds. Legitimacy. Amid their success, questions arose over the legitimacy of the group's trick shots. Hosts on "Good Morning America" discussed the tricks and debated whether they were real, though experts contacted by the show stated they were unable to find evidence of the tricks being fake. Regarding the doubts, group member Cody Jones said: "We love it when people claim it's fake, because it makes the shots seem even more ridiculously impossible; and we get more publicity and hits on YouTube, so we love the mystery of knowing whether it's real or fake." Tyler Toney and the Cotton twins have explained that it takes multiple attempts while filming before successfully making the final shot.

most distant space

7653-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=928825

Rano Raraku is a volcanic crater formed of consolidated volcanic ash, or tuff, and located on the lower slopes of Terevaka in the Rapa Nui National Park on Easter Island in Chile. It was a quarry for about 500 years until the early eighteenth century, and supplied the stone from which about 95% of the island's known monolithic sculptures (moai) were carved. Rano Raraku is a visual record of moai design vocabulary and technological innovation, where 887 moai remain. Rano Raraku is in the World Heritage Site of Rapa Nui National Park and gives its name to one of the seven sections of the park. Description. The sides of Rano Raraku crater are high and steep except on the north and northwest, where they are much lower and gently sloping. The interior contains one of the island's three freshwater crater lakes, which is bordered by nga'atu or totora reeds. These plants, once thought as evidence of contact with the South American mainland, are now known to have been growing on the island for at least 30,000 years and were used by the Rapa Nui for thatched shelter and swimming aids. Incomplete moai in the quarry. The incomplete statues in the quarry are remarkable both for their number, for the inaccessibility of some that were high on the outside crater wall and for the size of the largest; at 21.6 m (71 feet) in height, almost twice that of any moai ever completed and weighing an estimated 270 tonnes, many times the weight of any transported. Some of the incomplete moai seem to have been abandoned after the carvers encountered inclusions of very hard rock in the material. Others may be sculptures that were never intended to be separated from the rock in which they are carved. Standing moai at Ranu Raraku. On the outside of the quarry are a number of moai, some of which are partially buried to their shoulders in the spoil from the quarry. They are distinctive in that their eyes were not hollowed out, they do not have pukao and they were not cast down in the island's civil wars. For this last reason, they supplied some of the most famous images of the island. Tukuturi. Tukuturi is an unusual moai. Its beard and kneeling posture distinguish it from standard moai. The peculiar posture of this statue is well known on Easter Island and is called "tuku turi" or simply "tuku." It was the posture used by the men and women who formed the chorus in the festivals called "riu," where the posture was known as "tuku riu". Typical also of the singers was the slightly backward inclination of the trunk, the raised head, and the goatee, all also seen in the statue. Tukuturi is made of red scoria from Puna Pau, but sits at Rano Raraku, the tuff quarry. It is possibly related to the Tangata manu cult, in which case it would be one of the last moai ever made. It seems likely that this statue represents a riu singer and was made after the production of classic statues had ceased.

clear testimony

7797-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3335217

No Doctors was an American rock and roll band based out of California's San Francisco Bay Area. Their music drew from a wide range of styles and traditions, most prominently noise, punk, blues, metal and jazz. Members included guitarist Elvis S. deMorrow, Chauncey Chaumpers on guitar, Mr. Brians on drums, Mr. Clopez on drums, and CansaFis Foote on saxophone, with vocal duties distributed amongst its members in a socialist-collectivist fashion. History. Early career. Chauncey Chaumpers, CansaFis Foote, and Elvis deMorrow began creating music together in Minnetonka, Minnesota in 1998. A cast of revolving sidemen were to come in and out of the band throughout their early career. Prior to playing as No Doctors, Foote and Chaumpers had created experimental noise recordings for the purpose of psychic investigation, while deMorrow had distributed cassetteworks under the names of "Peyote Tax Return" and "F*ck Your Yankee Bluejeans," created together with an artist now known solely as "Devilman" (RIP). Still teenagers, the boys began playing sporadic live shows around Minneapolis-St. Paul, inspired by much of the underground noise scene as documented by local record labels E.F. Tapes, Destijl, Fusetron, and the local fanzine Muckraker. They were soon approached by CEO Matthew St-Germaine with the idea of assisting with a record label, called Freedom From. Much of their early years as a band were influenced heavily by the diverse and radical roster of artists that was quickly cultivated. The Argentine avant-space trio Reynols was to have an exceptional influence on philosophy when the boys accompanied the band on their first American tour, where they explored Minecxio and the role of the No-Mind. S/T LP. The year 2000 saw No Doctors moving to Chicago to begin work on their debut album. At this point the band expanded into a consistent sextet, with the additions of Mr Brians on drums, Patrick Fogarty on bass, and W Cłøpŝkí on subtle whispers. Numerous other sidemen appeared as well, including the notorious Kevekev. Several distinct copies of the album were initially circulated, as noted by critic Liz Armstrong of the Chicago Reader. The album's deft integration of Minnesotan völk-noise inflections into rock's idiom curried little favor from elite urban critics, but secured the band's place in the American noise underground. Hunting Season. No Doctors' second record, Hunting Season, was scheduled to be engineered by David N. Feldman, who handled the first album, but Feldman was under contract with R. Kelly and unavailable (Kelly taunted the group with Feldman's cameo in the video for Ignition (Remix) as the dancing white hipster.) Instead the record was recorded at Tarantula Hill in Baltimore with the assistance of Twig Harper and Carly Ptak (Nautical Almanac), and Chiara Giovando (Black Elf Speaks, Black Coitus Family, Harrias, Motörhead). The album was a move away from the dada influences of the first album toward a greater connection with punk rock and heavy metal. Critics repeatedly compared the work to the Velvet Underground, Pussy Galore and Royal Trux, and Amir Karim Nezar went so far as to declare "No Doctors are the living incarnations of Satan." ERP Saints. ERP Saints followed in 2004 as a tribute to the East Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. This session saw the band stripped down to a quartet. Critics such as Larry Dolman and Matt Weir praised the effort for its clarity and noted a definitive shift in aesthetics: a turning to the light. Origin & Tectonics. In the fall of 2004 No Doctors relocated to the Bay Area, where they shared a practice space with friends Deerhoof and Kreamy 'Lectric Santa, frequently played live shows in the Bay area, and embarked on a California-only tour in October–November 2006 entitled "US Out of CA." They also released several tracks through compilations and a 7" entitled "T-Bone (Pts 1 & 2)," and released their third full-length album "Origin & Tectonics" on CD/LP in June 2007. No Doctors officially disbanded during the liquidity crises of late 2008, settling outstanding obligations to creditors and dividing all remaining assets in order to recoup market losses sustained from bundled toxic derivatives. Fis and B started Careerers, Elvis plays as Black Stool, and Chauncey abandoned music, taking a gig in contract security. There is no word on the other drummer. Martian Clxpæs. The oft-silent Clophez lies at the heart of No Doctors' sound. Understanding the mutable essence of the Clops will unlock the band's signature sound for those who have a reasonable understanding of musical and poetic activities and are willing to study the information with due diligence. Critic Dean Roth summed up his analysis of the phenomenon with his statement, "Cloaps resonates throughout No Doctors' unique idiom like a schwa through the language of the sphinxes." The character was first presented to the general public through the cover of No Doctors' debut LP, depicted beneath a hooded robe and clutching an enormous pair of drumsticks. Since then similarly garbed individuals have sporadically appeared with No Doctors in concert, generally operating percussive devices of a highly unorthodox nature. These devices have ranged from gigantic rolls of Pionite to glass jars full of water to other bands' amplifiers, often but not always attacked with his signature baseball-bat-sized drumsticks. Beware, he got a new pair. Occasionally taking the place of Mr. Brians himself, CLPX has more generally appeared alongside the regular drummer in a tandem mode, though his role has been nothing if not inconsistent. Some have charged that the role amounts to little more than the band dressing up an outside business consultant. Others have romanticized the donning of the cloak as a passing of political power or even mystical significance. Regardless, there have been at least four "clopezi" who have chosen to distinguish themselves: "'W' Clopex," "Martin the Moon Doggie," "'Claps' Mulligan" and "Carlito Lopez." It is generally accepted that the spelling of clxpz must remain inconsistent in order to properly convey the meaning of the term. The term "Clophesgian" is similarly employed to reference a wide number of seemingly incongruent or contradictory ideologies, dependent on context, including but not limited to finance, metaphysics and aquatic lifestyles. Rumors of a Clopezian States of America issuing its own currency have NOT been substantiated.

settlement protection

14300-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=29929167

Russian submarine B-871 "Alrosa" is a diesel-electric that joined the Soviet Fleet in 1990 and was active with the Russian Black Sea Fleet as of 2011. In 2018, it was reported that the submarine would be transferred to the Baltic Fleet. However, such a transfer had not occurred as of 2020. The submarine was still listed as active as of 2020. It is now the only original Kilo-class boat (Project 877) remaining with the Black Sea Fleet with all other traditional Kilos in the Fleet having been replaced by the more modern "Improved Kilo" (Project 636.3) variant. In June 2011 she took part in a NATO submarine rescue exercise, 'Bold Monarch 2011,' the first Russian submarine to do so. Instead of a conventional propeller "Alrosa" uses a pump jet propulsion system. History. The boat was laid down on 17 May 1988 in Gorky under yard number 607. Initially the boat was designed by 877V, included the provision of a water jet nozzle instead of a propeller. On 18 May 1989 boat crew was formed under the command of Captain 3rd Rank A. Yu Romanov. On 10 September 1989 the boat was launched. In November of the same year, B- 871 "Alrosa", using inland waterways, crossed the Black Sea and on 1 December 1990, the naval ensign was raised. On 30 December 1990, B-871 became part of the 153rd Brigade of the Red submarines 14th submarine division of Black Sea Fleet based at the South Bay (Sevastopol). From December 1991 - March 1992, the boat fulfilled its tasks of combat service. On 13 March 1992 the boats' crew swore allegiance to Ukraine and captured the boat. Beginning 1992, B-871 was limited to dockside duty due to the lack of batteries. In 1995 the submarine joined the 155th brigade of submarines. On 22 May 1996 after installing batteries, the boat joined the forces of permanent readiness. In August and September of the same year B-871 fulfilled the tasks of combat service with a rating of "excellent". Returning from deployment, she arrived in Novorossiysk, where she participated in the celebration of Navy Day. In accordance with the Russian-Ukrainian agreement of 1997, the boat became part of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. On 19 September of the same year at the initiative of "Alrosa" and a number of veterans of the Navy signed an agreement on patronage over the boat stock company "Alrosa". From August 1998 to April 1999 the vessel was held in Sevastopol for repairs. In January 2004, given the name of the B-871 "Alrosa". During August 2008 took part in fights off the Abkhazian coast and landed to Suhumi shore on pier. On 5 August 2009, the submarine conducted deep tests after dock repairs. In the tests, the boat sank to the working depth - up to . On 21 November, while training in the Black Sea there was a failure of the propulsion system. The propulsion system failure may have included an "engine fire" requiring "Alrosa" in 2009 having to go to the Kronshtadt port near St. Petersburg for extensive repairs. On 23 November "Alrosa" was towed to the Novorossiysk naval base. In May -June 2011, "Alrosa", together with support vessels, participated in an international exercises for rescue forces, called "Bold Monarch", held off the coast of Spain. After the exercise, in July, the boat made the transition to the Baltic Sea, where stood for scheduled maintenance in Kronstadt. In September 2012, she returned to Sevastopol after the scheduled maintenance. The transition from the Baltic to the Black Sea took a little more than a month. On 12 May 2013, "Alrosa", together with the Ukrainian submarine "Zaporizhzhia" were present at the celebration of the 230th anniversary of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.

span of over 30 days

10290-1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=54276544

Giorgio Rosso Cicogna is an Italian diplomat and international official born in Trieste on May 7, 1945. In 1971 Giorgio Rosso Cicogna joined the Italian Foreign Ministry for a diplomatic career of over twenty years. During his activity there he held the following positions: Assistant to the Diplomatic Advisor to the Prime Minister, Head of the Secretariat of the Foreign Minister and Advisor for International and European Affairs to the Ministers for Science/Technology and for Public Holdings, as well as several positions within the Economic Department of Italian Foreign Ministry. He also served as Consul in Vienna, Counsellor and Chargé d' Affairs in New Delhi and Alternate Head of the Italian Delegation to the CSCE. After his retirement from government service, in 1991, Rosso Cicogna started a new career in the private sector as Director General of the Italian Federation of Industries for the Trieste region. In 1998 he joined TELIT (the only producer of cellular and satellite phones in Italy) as Executive Vice-president for corporate planning and for international, institutional and public affairs; being later consultant to the top management of several companies. In 2008 he was appointed Managing Director of the International Centre for Science and High Technology (ICS) of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Since June 2010 until 2013 he served as Central European Initiative Alternate Secretary General. From 2013 until 2016 Rosso Cicogna acted as a Special Advisor to the CEI Secretary General. Currently, he holds the position of Senior Advisor to the Director-General of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. Education. He got a High School Diploma in classics (“Maturita Classica") in Trieste and completed the undergraduate studies at Davidson College (North Carolina, USA, 1964–65). Bachelor/Master's Degree (“Laurea”) in Political Sciences was conferred to Rosso Cicogna by the University of Trieste in 1970. A Post-graduate degree at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies followed shortly (Bologna 1970–71.) In 1971 he attended preparatory course sponsored by the Italian Foreign Ministry for the diplomatic service examination. Employment. Rosso Cicogna started his professional career, while still studying at the university, as a free-lance journalist for several newspapers and magazines (1968–1971). In 1971 he joined Italian diplomatic service, where he served for two decades. He acted within Foreign Ministry's Department of Economic Affairs - Office of Energy Resources and Technology (1971), Prime Minister's Office, as an Assistant to the Diplomatic Adviser to the Prime Minister (1972–1974), Foreign Minister's Cabinet, as the Head of Secretariat (1974–1975). In 1975 Rosso Cicogna was appointed as Consul of Italy in Vienna with accreditation to the Vienna-based International Organisations (as First Secretary in charge of personnel affairs). From 1979 till 1984, he served as Counsellor, then Chargé d'Affaires, at the Italian Embassy in New Delhi, India. After returning to Italy and short activity within the Department of Economic Affairs, Middle East Desk of the Foreign Ministry (1984) he got an assignment as an Adviser for International and EEC Affairs to the Minister for Scientific Research and Technology and Head of the relevant Department (1985–1987). In this capacity the main tasks were: Italian Representative in the EEC Committee for Science and Technology (CREST), member of the Committee of Senior Officials of EUREKA, Italian Representative on the European Synchrotron Board, coordinator of the National Committee for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, coordinator of the National Committee for Advanced Physics Facilities, coordinator of the National Committee on Advanced Materials, co-ordinator for the Trieste Synchrotron Project, National Coordinator for the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, representative of the Italian Government to the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (IAEA/UNESCO). His activity was instrumental in establishing Trieste- based international S&T organizations. Being Adviser for International and EEC Affairs to the Minister for Public Holdings (1987–1988), he was Italian delegate to the EEC Committee of Directors-General for Industry, Italian Representative to the EEC Group on Iron and Steel, negotiator for Italy with the EEC Commission on the restructuring of the steel public sector and on public aid relevant to Italian public holdings and their subsidiary companies In 1988, Rosso Cicogna was seconded to UNIDO as Director of the project "International Centre for Science and High Technology" (ICS) based in Trieste — aimed at the establishment of three institutes in the field of Chemistry, Environmental Sciences, Advanced Materials and High Technology; position held with the rank of UN Assistant Secretary-General (1988–1990). From 1990 until 1991 - member of the Italian Delegation to the Preparatory Committee of the Paris Summit of the CSCE (Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe). Starting with 1991 until 1997, Rosso Cicogna acted as Director of Trieste Industrial Association (regional branch of Confindustria), which is responsible for external representation of over 240 companies with more than 16,000 employees. The position entailed, inter alia, overall responsibility for labour relations and related personnel matters (including negotiation and implementation of work contracts) for all associated companies, promotion of recruitment and training for their employees as well as interaction with private institutions (banks and others) and public authorities regarding financial instruments and incentives to industry. Other direct responsibilities included communication, public affairs and institutional relations with government at all levels. In 1998 he became Executive Vice-President of Telit Mobile Terminals. The assignment included the following responsibilities at corporate level, reporting directly to the CEO: corporate planning, including investment fund raising in conjunction with industrial incentives; public relations (including institutional affairs for all companies belonging to the Group), communication and press as well as supervision of the Group's overall image; international affairs, including all contacts with foreign Governments and the European Union, as well as with major Telecom players on the international market. As a Senior Consultant (2000–2003) Rosso Cicogna had similar assignments as above with the Mekfin/Finmek Group, which acquired the Telit Group, thus becoming the second producer in Europe in the field of Electronic Contract Manufacturing. During the period 2000–2008 he was Senior Consultant with industrial companies and International Organisations, as well as Senior Adviser to the Director General of ICGEB (1992–2008), to the Managing Director of ICS (2005) and to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on the project aiming at the establishment of a UN Network of Centres of Scientific Excellence (2006); Senior Adviser to the President/CEO of Motorola Italy on a major project involving Finmeccanica and the Italian Government (2003–2007) and to the top management of Ausglobe Formula, an engineering company and general contractor for commercial building projects (2004–2007). In 2008 he was appointed as Managing Director of the International Centre for Science and High Technology of UNIDO at the rank of an Assistant Secretary General of the UN (June 2008 to 31 December 2009). Mission: capacity building, dissemination of scientific knowledge, technology transfer, support to decision makers, as a contribution to the overall development of developing countries and of countries in economic transition. There were to priorities for the organization: eco-friendly renewable energy (next generation biofuels and geothermal) and innovative drug design and diagnostics (rational drug design, nano-drug-delivery, and nano-diagnostics). From July 2010 to June 2013 Rosso Cicogna acted as Alternate Secretary General of the Central European Initiative (an Intergovernmental Organization based in Trieste with 18 Member Countries), and, afterward as Special Advisor to the new Secretary General of the said organization. In this position, he actively promoted S&T collaboration between the Member Countries, as well joint activities in critical fields such as biofuels, flood management, climate change a.a. In 2016 he joined International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology as Senior Adviser of the Director General. Personal life. Rosso Cicogna is married with Caroll Rosso Cicogna, an artist and book author.

firsthand duties

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=23029601

Aimsun Live is a simulation-based traffic forecasting solution, developed and marketed by Aimsun. Traffic control centres use Aimsun Live (formerly Aimsun Online) to make real-time decisions about the management of a road network. It is used to dynamically forecast future traffic conditions based on the current state of the network and to evaluate incident response or traffic management strategies. Aimsun Live slots right into the traffic control centre and continuously processes live field data, simulating vehicle movement inside a road network of any size, from a single highway corridor to an entire major world city. By combining these live traffic data feeds and high-speed simulations with emulation of congestion mitigation strategies, Aimsun Live can accurately forecast the future network flow patterns that will result from a particular traffic management or information provision strategy. Aimsun Live was launched in 2008 and is now fully deployed in Interstate 15 in San Diego, Grand Lyon in France and other locations worldwide. Product features. Aimsun Live uses live traffic data feeds and simulations to forecast future traffic conditions for large urban areas and regional networks. Real-time analysis. Aimsun Live analyses real-time inputs from disparate sources of information, such as field traffic controllers, detectors, incident reports and live data feeds from key intersections. Calibrated model retrieval. Using up-to-date field data, Aimsun Live identifies, retrieves and loads a travel demand matrix of the road network being managed. It finds the closest match between the data received in real time from among several demand patterns stored in a database. The demand pattern database is created in a prior step by carrying out analysis of historical data. Real-time simulation. This step involves dynamic (mesoscopic or microscopic) simulation of one or more scenarios in real time. Each scenario is simulated on a dedicated computer. The simulations produce dynamic forecasts of traffic conditions at a detailed, local level for the next 30–60 minutes. Each simulation considers a concrete set of actions that might be applied in order to improve the network situation. One of the scenarios always corresponds to the ‘do nothing' case. The area included in the simulation model depends on the type of network being managed. It is typically defined using equilibrium assignment techniques which evaluate at a high level the impact of local but significant capacity changes on the rest of the network. The objective is to exclude areas that are unlikely to be affected by incidents or responses to those incidents. Simulations typically last 1–3 minutes depending on hardware specifications, network size and level of congestion (number of vehicles). These simulations are run in 'batch mode' (without animation in 2D or 3D) in order to improve performance. Online visualisation. Response information is presented visually online to provide support for operational decision making. Traffic control operators are provided with quick snapshots of predicted traffic flow and performance indicators for different control alternatives. Project examples. Aimsun Live is or has been used to inform operational decisions for:

specific group

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4071834

A child model refers to a child who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art, such as photography, painting and sculpture. Practice. Artists have used children as models for countless works over the centuries. Child modeling has become a distinct activity because of the explosion of commercial media over the past several decades. Many young actresses and actors, notably, Naomi Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Katherine Heigl, Jessica Alba, Ashley Benson, Lindsay Lohan, Naya Rivera, Zendaya, Bella Thorne, Miranda Cosgrove, Hayley Kiyoko, Liv Tyler, Brooke Shields, Taylor Momsen, Peyton List, Gigi Hadid, Yara Shahidi, Maddie Ziegler, Skai Jackson, Anastasia Bezrukova and Isabella Cramp began as child models. The book, "Lisanne: A Young Model", described the life of Lisanne Falk, a colleague of Brooke Shields at the Ford modeling agency in the late 1970s. Falk, like Shields, was a relatively successful child model who posed for magazine covers, notably Seventeen, for editorial fashion layouts, and for advertising in magazines and mail-order catalogs. Both models appeared in the 1977 Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs. Falk, like Shields, moved from modeling to movies as she became older. More recently Australian child model Morgan Featherstone has achieved worldwide success but has also attracted criticism due to her looking older than her age. The visible success of child models who became media celebrities has led numerous children (and their parents) to pursue modeling as a part-time career. In practice, most modeling jobs go to children who have already worked as models, such as up and coming child model Arabella Olivia Clark and have developed a working relationship with a modeling agency. For prospective models, the challenge is to land the first job. This usually happens through referrals by people already involved in modeling. It is also possible to land jobs by contacting modeling agencies directly. Occasionally, a child may be "discovered" in a public place or through other grassroots means. Salary. The amount that a child can earn is based upon the type of work they are contracted to carry out. A photo shoot for a magazine article will generally pay around $70 per hour. Advertisement work, on the other hand, can pay out between $1,000 and $1,200 for a day's work. The child's agency will take a commission from the earnings, which will be around 20%.

recognizable practice

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5322

Czechoslovakia, or Czecho-Slovakia (; Czech and , "Česko-Slovensko"), was a sovereign state in Central Europe, created in October 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland became part of Germany, while the country lost further territories to Hungary and Poland. Between 1939 and 1945 the state ceased to exist, as Slovakia proclaimed its independence and subsequently the remaining territories in the east became part of Hungary, while in the remainder of the Czech Lands the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed. In October 1939, after the outbreak of the Second World War, former Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš formed a government-in-exile and sought recognition from the Allies. After the end of the war, the pre-1938 Czechoslovakia was reestablished, with the exception of Carpathian Ruthenia, which became part of the Ukrainian SSR (A Republic of the Soviet Union). From 1948 to 1989, Czechoslovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc with a command economy. Its economic status was formalized in membership of Comecon from 1949 and its defense status in the Warsaw Pact of May 1955. A period of political liberalization in 1968, known as the Prague Spring, was violently ended when the Soviet Union, assisted by some other Warsaw Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia. In 1989, as Marxist–Leninist governments and communism were ending all over Europe, Czechoslovaks peacefully deposed their Socialist Government in the Velvet Revolution; state price controls were removed after a period of preparation. In January 1993, Czechoslovakia split into the two sovereign states of the Czech Republic and the Republic of Slovakia. Characteristics. The country was of generally irregular terrain. The western area was part of the north-central European uplands. The eastern region was composed of the northern reaches of the Carpathian Mountains and lands of the Danube River basin. The weather is mild winters and mild summers. Influenced by the Atlantic Ocean from the west, the Baltic Sea from the north, and Mediterranean Sea from the south. There is no continental weather. History. Origins. The area was long a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the empire collapsed at the end of World War I. The new state was founded by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937), who served as its first president from 14 November 1918 to 14 December 1935. He was succeeded by his close ally, Edvard Beneš (1884–1948). The roots of Czech nationalism go back to the 19th century, when philologists and educators, influenced by Romanticism, promoted the Czech language and pride in the Czech people. Nationalism became a mass movement in the second half of the 19th century. Taking advantage of the limited opportunities for participation in political life under Austrian rule, Czech leaders such as historian František Palacký (1798–1876) founded various patriotic, self-help organizations which provided a chance for many of their compatriots to participate in communal life prior to independence. Palacký supported Austro-Slavism and worked for a reorganized and federal Austrian Empire, which would protect the Slavic speaking peoples of Central Europe against Russian and German threats. An advocate of democratic reform and Czech autonomy within Austria-Hungary, Masaryk was elected twice to the "Reichsrat" (Austrian Parliament), first from 1891 to 1893 for the Young Czech Party, and again from 1907 to 1914 for the Czech Realist Party, which he had founded in 1889 with Karel Kramář and Josef Kaizl. During World War I a number of Czechs and Slovaks, the Czechoslovak Legions, fought with the Allies in France and Italy, while large numbers deserted to Russia in exchange for its support for the independence of Czechoslovakia from the Austrian Empire. With the outbreak of World War I, Masaryk began working for Czech independence in a union with Slovakia. With Edvard Beneš and Milan Rastislav Štefánik, Masaryk visited several Western countries and won support from influential publicists. First Czechoslovak Republic. Formation. The Bohemian Kingdom ceased to exist in 1918 when it was incorporated into Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia was founded in October 1918, as one of the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I and as part of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. It consisted of the present day territories of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia. Its territory included some of the most industrialized regions of the former Austria-Hungary. Ethnicity. The new country was a multi-ethnic state, with Czechs and Slovaks as "constituent peoples". The population consisted of Czechs (51%), Slovaks (16%), Germans (22%), Hungarians (5%) and Rusyns (4%). Many of the Germans, Hungarians, Ruthenians and Poles and some Slovaks, felt oppressed because the political elite did not generally allow political autonomy for minority ethnic groups. This policy led to unrest among the non-Czech population, particularly in German-speaking Sudetenland, which initially had proclaimed itself part of the Republic of German-Austria in accordance with the self-determination principle. The state proclaimed the official ideology that there were no separate Czech and Slovak nations, but only one nation of Czechoslovaks (see Czechoslovakism), to the disagreement of Slovaks and other ethnic groups. Once a unified Czechoslovakia was restored after World War II (after the country had been divided during the war), the conflict between the Czechs and the Slovaks surfaced again. The governments of Czechoslovakia and other Central European nations deported ethnic Germans, reducing the presence of minorities in the nation. Most of the Jews had been killed during the war by the Nazis. Interwar period. During the period between the two world wars Czechoslovakia was a democratic state. The population was generally literate, and contained fewer alienated groups. The influence of these conditions was augmented by the political values of Czechoslovakia's leaders and the policies they adopted. Under Tomas Masaryk, Czech and Slovak politicians promoted progressive social and economic conditions that served to defuse discontent. Foreign minister Beneš became the prime architect of the Czechoslovak-Romanian-Yugoslav alliance (the "Little Entente", 1921–38) directed against Hungarian attempts to reclaim lost areas. Beneš worked closely with France. Far more dangerous was the German element, which after 1933 became allied with the Nazis in Germany. The increasing feeling of inferiority among the Slovaks, who were hostile to the more numerous Czechs, weakened the country in the late 1930s. Many Slovaks supported an extreme nationalist movement and welcomed the puppet Slovak state set up under Hitler's control in 1939. After 1933, Czechoslovakia remained the only democracy in central and eastern Europe. Munich Agreement, and Two-Step German Occupation. In September 1938, Adolf Hitler demanded control of the Sudetenland. On 29 September 1938, Britain and France ceded control in the Appeasement at the Munich Conference; France ignored the military alliance it had with Czechoslovakia. During October 1938, Nazi Germany occupied the Sudetenland border region, effectively crippling Czechoslovak defences. The First Vienna Award assigned a strip of southern Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia to Hungary. Poland occupied Zaolzie, an area whose population was majority Polish, in October 1938. On 14 March 1939, the remainder ("rump") of Czechoslovakia was dismembered by the proclamation of the Slovak State, the next day the rest of Carpathian Ruthenia was occupied and annexed by Hungary, while the following day the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed. The eventual goal of the German state under Nazi leadership was to eradicate Czech nationality through assimilation, deportation, and extermination of the Czech intelligentsia; the intellectual elites and middle class made up a considerable number of the 200,000 people who passed through concentration camps and the 250,000 who died during German occupation. Under Generalplan Ost, it was assumed that around 50% Czechs would be fit for Germanization. The Czech intellectual elites were to be removed not only from Czech territories but from Europe completely. The authors of Generalplan Ost believed it would be best if they emigrated overseas, as even in Siberia they were considered a threat to German rule. Just like Jews, Poles, Serbs, and several other nations, Czechs were considered to be untermenschen by the Nazi state. In 1940, in a secret Nazi plan for the Germanization of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia it was declared that those considered to be of racially Mongoloid origin and the Czech intelligentsia were not to be Germanized. The deportation of Jews to concentration camps was organized under the direction of Reinhard Heydrich, and the fortress town of Terezín was made into a ghetto way station for Jewish families. On 4 June 1942 Heydrich died after being wounded by an assassin in Operation Anthropoid. Heydrich's successor, Colonel General Kurt Daluege, ordered mass arrests and executions and the destruction of the villages of Lidice and Ležáky. In 1943 the German war effort was accelerated. Under the authority of Karl Hermann Frank, German minister of state for Bohemia and Moravia, some 350,000 Czech laborers were dispatched to the Reich. Within the protectorate, all non-war-related industry was prohibited. Most of the Czech population obeyed quiescently up until the final months preceding the end of the war, while thousands were involved in the resistance movement. For the Czechs of the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia, German occupation was a period of brutal oppression. Czech losses resulting from political persecution and deaths in concentration camps totaled between 36,000 and 55,000. The Jewish population of Bohemia and Moravia (118,000 according to the 1930 census) was virtually annihilated. Many Jews emigrated after 1939; more than 70,000 were killed; 8,000 survived at Terezín. Several thousand Jews managed to live in freedom or in hiding throughout the occupation. Despite the estimated 136,000 deaths at the hands of the Nazi regime, the population in the Reichsprotektorate saw a net increase during the war years of approximately 250,000 in line with an increased birth rate. On 6 May 1945, the third US Army of General Patton entered Pilsen from the south west. On 9 May 1945, Soviet Red Army troops entered Prague. Communist Czechoslovakia. After World War II, pre-war Czechoslovakia was re-established, with the exception of Subcarpathian Ruthenia, which was annexed by the Soviet Union and incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Beneš decrees were promulgated concerning ethnic Germans (see Potsdam Agreement) and ethnic Hungarians. Under the decrees, citizenship was abrogated for people of German and Hungarian ethnic origin who had accepted German or Hungarian citizenship during the occupations. In 1948, this provision was cancelled for the Hungarians, but only partially for the Germans. The government then confiscated the property of the Germans and expelled about 90% of the ethnic German population, over 2 million people. Those who remained were collectively accused of supporting the Nazis after the Munich Agreement, as 97.32% of Sudeten Germans had voted for the NSDAP in the December 1938 elections. Almost every decree explicitly stated that the sanctions did not apply to antifascists. Some 250,000 Germans, many married to Czechs, some antifascists, and also those required for the post-war reconstruction of the country, remained in Czechoslovakia. The Beneš Decrees still cause controversy among nationalist groups in the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria and Hungary. Carpathian Ruthenia (Podkarpatská Rus) was occupied by (and in June 1945 formally ceded to) the Soviet Union. In the 1946 parliamentary election, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was the winner in the Czech lands, and the Democratic Party won in Slovakia. In February 1948 the Communists seized power. Although they would maintain the fiction of political pluralism through the existence of the National Front, except for a short period in the late 1960s (the Prague Spring) the country had no liberal democracy. Since citizens lacked significant electoral methods of registering protest against government policies, periodically there were street protests that became violent. For example, there were riots in the town of Plzeň in 1953, reflecting economic discontent. Police and army units put down the rebellion, and hundreds were injured but no one was killed. While its economy remained more advanced than those of its neighbors in Eastern Europe, Czechoslovakia grew increasingly economically weak relative to Western Europe. The currency reform of 1953 caused dissatisfaction among Czechoslovak laborers. To equalize the wage rate, Czechoslovaks had to turn in their old money for new at a decreased value. The banks also confiscated savings and bank deposits to control the amount of money in circulation. In the 1950s, Czechoslovakia experienced high economic growth (averaging 7% per year), which allowed for a substantial increase in wages and living standards, thus promoting the stability of the regime. In 1968, when the reformer Alexander Dubček was appointed to the key post of First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, there was a brief period of liberalization known as the Prague Spring. In response, after failing to persuade the Czechoslovak leaders to change course, five other members of the Warsaw Pact invaded. Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia on the night of 20–21 August 1968. Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev viewed this intervention as vital for the preservation of the Soviet, socialist system and vowed to intervene in any state that sought to replace Marxism-Leninism with capitalism. In the week after the invasion there was a spontaneous campaign of civil resistance against the occupation. This resistance involved a wide range of acts of non-cooperation and defiance: this was followed by a period in which the Czechoslovak Communist Party leadership, having been forced in Moscow to make concessions to the Soviet Union, gradually put the brakes on their earlier liberal policies. Meanwhile, one plank of the reform program had been carried out: in 1968–69, Czechoslovakia was turned into a federation of the Czech Socialist Republic and Slovak Socialist Republic. The theory was that under the federation, social and economic inequities between the Czech and Slovak halves of the state would be largely eliminated. A number of ministries, such as education, now became two formally equal bodies in the two formally equal republics. However, the centralized political control by the Czechoslovak Communist Party severely limited the effects of federalization. The 1970s saw the rise of the dissident movement in Czechoslovakia, represented among others by Václav Havel. The movement sought greater political participation and expression in the face of official disapproval, manifested in limitations on work activities, which went as far as a ban on professional employment, the refusal of higher education for the dissidents' children, police harassment and prison. After 1989. In 1989, the Velvet Revolution restored democracy. This occurred at around the same time as the fall of communism in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland. The word "socialist" was removed from the country's full name on 29 March 1990 and replaced by "federal". In 1992, because of growing nationalist tensions in the government, Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved by parliament. On 1 January 1993 it formally separated into two independent countries, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. Government and politics. After World War II, a political monopoly was held by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). Gustáv Husák was elected first secretary of the KSČ in 1969 (changed to general secretary in 1971) and president of Czechoslovakia in 1975. Other parties and organizations existed but functioned in subordinate roles to the KSČ. All political parties, as well as numerous mass organizations, were grouped under umbrella of the National Front. Human rights activists and religious activists were severely repressed. Constitutional development. Czechoslovakia had the following constitutions during its history (1918–1992): Foreign policy. International agreements and membership. In the 1930s, the nation formed a military alliance with France, which collapsed in the Munich Agreement of 1938. After World War II, an active participant in Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), Warsaw Pact, United Nations and its specialized agencies; signatory of conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Economy. Before World War II, the economy was about the fourth in all industrial countries in Europe. The state was based on strong economy, manufacturing cars (Škoda, Tatra), trams, aircraft (Aero, Avia), ships, ship engines (Škoda), canons, shoes (Baťa), turbines, guns (Zbrojovka Brno). It was the industrial workshop for the Austro-Hungarian empire. The Slovak lands relied more heavily on agriculture than the Czech lands. After World War II, the economy was centrally planned, with command links controlled by the communist party, similarly to the Soviet Union. The large metallurgical industry was dependent on imports of iron and non-ferrous ores. Resource base. After World War II, the country was short of energy, relying on imported crude oil and natural gas from the Soviet Union, domestic brown coal, and nuclear and hydroelectric energy. Energy constraints were a major factor in the 1980s. Transport and communications. Slightly after the foundation of Czechoslovakia in 1918, there was a lack of needful infrastructure in many areas – paved roads, railways, bridges etc. Massive improvement in the following years enabled Czechoslovakia to develop its industry. Prague's civil airport in Ruzyně became one of the most modern terminals in the world when it was finished in 1937. Tomáš Baťa, Czech entrepreneur and visionary outlined his ideas in the publication "Budujme stát pro 40 milionů lidí", where he described the future motorway system. Construction of the first motorways in Czechoslovakia begun in 1939, nevertheless, they were stopped after German occupation during World War II. Education. Education was free at all levels and compulsory from ages 6 to 15. The vast majority of the population was literate. There was a highly developed system of apprenticeship training and vocational schools supplemented general secondary schools and institutions of higher education. Religion. In 1991: Roman Catholics 46%, Evangelical Lutheran 5.3%, Atheist 30%, n/a 17%, but there were huge differences in religious practices between the two constituent republics; see Czech Republic and Slovakia. Health, social welfare and housing. After World War II, free health care was available to all citizens. National health planning emphasized preventive medicine; factory and local health care centres supplemented hospitals and other inpatient institutions. There was a substantial improvement in rural health care during the 1960s and 1970s. Mass media. During the era between the World Wars, Czechoslovak democracy and liberalism facilitated conditions for free publication. The most significant daily newspapers in these times were Lidové noviny, Národní listy, Český deník and Československá Republika. During Communist rule, the mass media in Czechoslovakia were controlled by the Communist Party. Private ownership of any publication or agency of the mass media was generally forbidden, although churches and other organizations published small periodicals and newspapers. Even with this information monopoly in the hands of organizations under KSČ control, all publications were reviewed by the government's Office for Press and Information. Sports. The Czechoslovakia national football team was a consistent performer on the international scene, with eight appearances in the FIFA World Cup Finals, finishing in second place in 1934 and 1962. The team also won the European Football Championship in 1976, came in third in 1980 and won the Olympic gold in 1980. Well-known football players such as Pavel Nedvěd, Antonín Panenka, Milan Baroš, Tomáš Rosický, Vladimír Šmicer or Petr Čech were all born in Czechoslovakia. The International Olympic Committee code for Czechoslovakia is TCH, which is still used in historical listings of results. The Czechoslovak national ice hockey team won many medals from the world championships and Olympic Games. Peter Šťastný, Jaromír Jágr, Dominik Hašek, Peter Bondra, Petr Klíma, Marián Gáborík, Marián Hossa, Miroslav Šatan and Pavol Demitra all come from Czechoslovakia. Emil Zátopek, winner of four Olympic gold medals in athletics, is considered one of the top athletes in Czechoslovak history. Věra Čáslavská was an Olympic gold medallist in gymnastics, winning seven gold medals and four silver medals. She represented Czechoslovakia in three consecutive Olympics. Several accomplished professional tennis players including Jaroslav Drobný, Ivan Lendl, Jan Kodeš, Miloslav Mečíř, Hana Mandlíková, Martina Hingis, Martina Navratilova, Jana Novotna, Petra Kvitová and Daniela Hantuchová were born in Czechoslovakia. External links. Maps with Hungarian-language rubrics:

growing sense

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=207147

Thaumaturgy is the purported capability of a magician to work magic or other paranormal events or a saint to perform miracles. It is sometimes translated into English as wonderworking. A practitioner of thaumaturgy is a "thaumaturgus", "thaumaturge", "thaumaturgist" or "miracle worker". A saint, who is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness or likeness or closeness to God, may be claimed to have performed miracles, which are events not explicable by natural or scientific laws. Etymology. The word "thaumaturgy" () derives from Greek "thaûma", meaning "miracle" or "marvel" (final "t" from genitive "thaûmatos") and "érgon", meaning "work". Buddhism. In the introduction of his translation of the "Spiritual Powers (神通 "Jinzū")" chapter of Dōgen's "Shōbōgenzō", Carl Bielefel refers to the powers developed by adepts of Buddhist meditation as belonging to the "thaumaturgical tradition". These powers, known as siddhi or abhijñā, were ascribed to the Buddha and subsequent disciples. Legendary monks like Bodhidharma, Upagupta, Padmasambhava, and others were depicted in popular legends and hagiographical accounts as wielding various supernatural powers. Christianity. In Greek writings, the term "thaumaturge" referred to several Christian saints. The word is usually translated into English as "wonderworker": a saint through whom God works miracles, not just occasionally, but as a matter of course. Famous ancient Christian thaumaturges include Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 213–270), Saint Menas of Egypt (285–c. 309), Saint Nicholas (270–343), Anthony of Padua (1195–1231), Philomena ( 300 (? )), Ambrose of Optina (1812–1891), Gerard Majella (1726–1755) and John of Kronstadt (1829–1908). The Bishop of Fiesole, Andrew Corsini of the Carmelites (1302–1373), was also called a thaumaturge during his lifetime. The seventeenth-century Irish Franciscan editor, John Colgan, called the three early Irish saints, Patrick, Brigid and Columba, thaumaturges in his "Acta Triadis Thaumaturgae" (Louvain, 1647). Hinduism. Godman is a colloquial term used in India for a type of charismatic guru. They usually have a high-profile presence, and are capable of attracting attention and support from large sections of the society. Godmen also sometimes claim to possess paranormal powers, such as the ability to heal, the ability to see or influence future events, and the ability to read minds. Islam. Miracles in the Qur'an can be defined as supernatural interventions in the life of human beings. According to this definition, miracles are present "in a threefold sense: in sacred history, in connection with the Islamic prophet Muhammad himself and in relation to revelation". The Qur'an does not use the technical Arabic word for miracle ("muʿjiza"), literally meaning "that by means of which [the Prophet] confounds, overwhelms, his opponents". It rather uses the term "āyah" "sign". The term "Ayah" is used in the Qur'an in the above mentioned threefold sense: it refers to the "verses" of the Qur'an (believed to be the divine speech in human language, presented by Muhammad as his chief miracle); as well as to miracles of it and the signs (particularly those of creation). Magic. In the 16th century, the word "thaumaturgy" entered the English language meaning miraculous or magical powers. The word was first anglicized and used in the magical sense in John Dee's book "Mathematicall Praeface to Euclid's Elements" (1570). He mentions an "art mathematical" called "thaumaturgy... which giveth certain order to make strange works, of the sense to be perceived and of men greatly to be wondered at". In Dee's time, "the Mathematicks" referred not merely to the abstract computations associated with the term today, but to physical mechanical devices which employed mathematical principles in their design. These devices, operated by means of compressed air, springs, strings, pulleys or levers, were seen by unsophisticated people (who did not understand their working principles) as magical devices which could only have been made with the aid of demons and devils. By building such mechanical devices, Dee earned a reputation as a conjurer "dreaded" by neighborhood children. He complained of this assessment in his "Mathematicall Praeface": Hermetic Qabalah. In the Hermetic Qabalah mystical tradition, a person titled a magician has the power to make subtle changes in higher realms, which in turn produce physical results. For instance, if a Magician made slight changes in the world of formation ("Olam Yetzirah"), such as within the Sefirah of Yesod upon which Malkuth (the material realm) is based and within which all former Sefirot are brought together, then these alterations would appear in the world of action ("Olam Assiah"). Philosophy. In his book, "The Gift of Death", deconstructionist philosopher Jacques Derrida refers to philosophy as thaumaturgy. The idea is taken from the fifth essay of Jan Patočka's work, "Heretical Essays in the History of Philosophy" Derrida's reading is based on a deconstruction of the origin of the concepts of responsibility, faith, and gift. In popular culture. The term thaumaturgy is used in various novels and games as a synonym for magic, a particular sub-school (often mechanical) of magic, or as the "science" of magic.

regional slang

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5397841

Göcek () is a small town in Fethiye district in Muğla Province, Turkey. Its site was occupied by the town of Callimache in ancient times, and is located between Fethiye – Telmessos in ancient times – and Dalyan – Caunos in ancient times. According to the legends, it is in the Göcek area that Icarus landed in the sea after his famous flight trying to escape from the tower where he was imprisoned. Göcek was used as a harbour for ships loading chrome ore collected from the mines under nearby mountains during the Ottoman period. Today, Göcek hosts six significant marinas that serve the yacht tourism in the region: Club Marina, Skopea Marina, Municipality Marinas, Marinturk Göcek Village Port, Marinturk Göcek Exclusive and D-Marin Gocek. A prominent characteristic of the town is the fact that it harbors islands and coves located in a large and secluded bay. Owing to its location, it naturally enjoys a high potential for yacht tourism. In 1988, Göcek was declared a Registered Area of Special Protection. Therefore, multi-story buildings are not allowed, the tourist accommodation facilities are two-storied hotels, motels, apartment hotels, and pensions situated in the town center and its periphery. Göcek has all the necessary infrastructure, capacity, and amenities expected in a tourism center, yet it is renowned as a much more peaceful and quiet settlement than some other tourism areas. Göcek is situated on Dalaman–Fethiye highway. Until 2006, it was necessary to drive along a relatively narrow and winding road to reach Göcek from Dalaman. However, the 980-meter Göcek vehicle tunnel, completed in June 2006, has significantly increased the accessibility of the town. The vehicle tunnel is a toll roadway and the first example of build-operate-transfer model. The permanent population in Göcek is around 4,500. This number exceeds 7,000 during the summer months. Since Göcek is a departure and arrival point for Blue Cruises, there is heavy yacht traffic in the town harbor. With its secluded bay, the harbor is quiet and safe, especially for long-distance travelers arriving from international waters. Göcek coves and the 12 islands, which are described as a hidden paradise, with clean Mediterranean water, green pine forests, and beaches, have rendered Göcek an indispensable destination for seafarers. High-quality boarding facilities, daily boat tours, entertainment facilities on the seaside, and numerous nearby beaches and coves provide various alternatives for local and international tourists traveling by road to spend their vacations. There are many restaurants, cafés, and bars on the promenade. Göcek became known to groups of artists and poets and to some fisherman from Bodrum as a result of their cruising along the Turkish Turquoise Coast, a journey later called the “Blue Voyage”. The gulf of Göcek and Fethiye provides many opportunities to visit cultural sites as Caunos, Telmessos, Fethiye Museum, Tlos, Pınara, Letoon, Xanthos and Patara. Of the beaches, one belongs to D-Resort Gocek can be used paying a daily price or taking out a seasonal membership. Inlice Beach is out of Göcek and can be reached with a 10-minute drive; it is run by the municipality of Göcek. The main island beach is reachable by water taxi from the harbor. Other beaches are easily accessible by car or taxi. Amongst these is Sarıgerme, a long sandy beach. Beyond Sarıgerme is the protected beach of Iztuzu in the Dalyan Delta. In the opposite direction, the famous beach at Ölüdeniz is only 40 minutes drive away. The Twelve Islands can be reached by private charter boats, simple fishing boats, and larger yachts. There are about 20 sailing and motor yacht charter and brokerage sailing companies, which makes Göcek a high-class sailing place. There are several technical yacht services, chandlers and maintenance services. Climate. In winter Göcek's average maximum temperature is 14 °C (57 °F). In the summer the average maximum is 34 °C (100 °F), and the weather is sunny over 300 days per year. Highs of 40 °C (104 °F) are reached at times. Göcek is renowned for growing wonderful tangerines and lemons as well as oranges, because of the climate. Other tropical fruits can grow here such as the banana.

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The Brazil women's national football team has represented Brazil at the FIFA Women's World Cup on eight occasions in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019. They were runners-up once. They also reached the third place once. 1991 World Cup. For the World Cup Women's Women qualified as South American Champion. For this they had to play in two games against Venezuela and Chile and won both games (6: 0 and 6: 1). On November 17, 1991, they played in Foshan their first World Cup match and won against Japan 1-0. Elane scored the first World Cup goal for the Brazilians. In the second game followed then a 0: 5 against the United States. After a 0-2 draw against Sweden in the last group match Brazil became group third and dropped out with it. 1995 World Cup. The Brazilians for the world cup through South American champions. With four wins against Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia Brazil became group winners against Argentina, but then had to compete again against Argentina in the final and also won this 2-0. At the World Cup, Brazil started again with a 1-0 victory, this time against Sweden. Then they lost against Japan with 1: 2 and Germany with 1: 6. Thus, Brazil equalized with Japan, but the worse goal difference only the fourth place. 1999 World Cup. All CONMEBOL members had registered for the third World Cup or qualifying South America Champion, so they played in two groups. Brazil prevailed in its group with four wins against Peru, Colombia, Chile and Venezuela. Ecuador were defeated 11-1 in the semi-finals and 7-1 in the final. Argentina then failed to win against Mexico in the Inter-American play-offs, which made Mexico the first to qualify. Mexico was then in the USA kick-off opponents of Brazil and lost 1-7. Pretinha and Sissi scored three goals each. This time, however, Brazil also won the second game: Italy was defeated 2-0. After a 3: 3 draw against Germany, Brazil were group winners on goal difference and scored in the quarter-finals Nigeria. After 35 minutes it was 3-0 for Brazil, but since the Africans scored in the second half and three goals, there was an extension. In this Sissi then succeeded the Golden goal for 4: 3. In the semifinals against the host USA was then lost but with 0: 2. The USA then became World Champion for the second time. Brazil reached third place in the small final against defeated defending champion Norway by a penalty shoot-out win. 2003 World Cup. Actually, the 2003 World Cup should take place again in People's Republic of China. Due to the SARS epidemic, the tournament was temporarily relocated to the United States. Thus the World Cup took place for the second time in the USA. In the Qualification, which was again held as South American champions, Brazil only had to compete in the last four rounds, for which the other three teams will qualify first had. With three wins against Argentina, Colombia and Peru qualified Brazil as a South American champions for the World Cup, but also the runners-up Argentina could book the World Cup ticket. In the USA, they met in the first group match South Korea and won 3-0. Against Norway then followed a 4-1 win and with a 1-1 draw against France was reached as a group first the quarterfinals. Here Sweden was the opponent and with a 1: 2 difference Brazil. Sweden then reached the final, but then lost by the first Golden goal in a women's World Cup game against Germany with the German women for the first time became world champion. 2007 World Cup. Four years later, the World Cup took place for the second time in the People's Republic of China. In the 2006 South American Women's Football Championship, which once again served as Qualification, the 10 CONMEBOL members initially played four teams in two groups of five for the finals. Brazil first met Paraguay, Venezuela, Peru and Bolivia. With four victories, Brazil reached the final round, but was there only second behind Argentina in front of Uruguay and Paraguay. With that Argentina and Brazil drove again to the World Cup. In the final, they met in the first game New Zealand and won 5: 0. Against hosts China then followed a 4-0 and Denmark was defeated 1-0. This Brazil reached the quarter-finals as group winners. In a varied game, Australia was beaten 3-2 to reach the semi-final against the USA. Here, Brazil managed to give the USA their highest international defeat 4-0. Brazil reached its first World Cup final for the first time, making it the third nation after Germany and Sweden to do so for men and women. The opponent was defending champion Germany, who had reached the final without conceding, scoring the highest ever World Cup win of the season with a 11-0 draw against Argentina in the opening match. After a goalless first half Birgit Prinz succeeded in the 52nd minute with their 14th goal of the World Cup 1-0 lead. In the 64th minute Cristiane was fouled in the German penalty area. However, Marta's penalties failed Nadine Angerer). The following attacks could not use the Brazilians in goals, as the German defense was safe. Four minutes from time, the decision was made: After a corner, Simone Laudehr headed the ball 2-0. Thus defended the German team as the first in a women's World Cup title. The runner-up is the best placement so far for Brazil. In addition, Marta received the Golden Boot as the top scorer and the Golden Ball as the best player of the tournament. 2011 World Cup. For the World Cup in Germany, the Brazilians qualified again as the winner of 2010 South American Women's Football Championship. With four wins in the preliminary round first Colombia, Paraguay, Venezuela and Uruguay were distanced. In the final round, there are three wins against Colombia, Chile and Argentina, who surprisingly lost against Colombia on the final day of the match, giving Colombia instead of Argentina the World Cup ticket. In Germany, Brazil was in a group with World Cup newcomer Equatorial Guinea, Norway and Australia solved. A 1-0 win over Australia and a 3-0 win over Norway would have been enough to draw against the newcomer from the other side of the Atlantic, but they also won that match 3-0, leaving Brazil without a clean sheet with nine Points group winner was. In the quarter-finals, they met the American women, who had become second only to the group for the first time. Brazil fell behind with a Daiane own goal in the second minute, but were able to equalize in the 68th minute when Marta converted a penalty. The Brazilians were lucky, because although Hope Solo held the first penalty shot by Cristiane, referee Jacqui Melksham had this but repeat because a US player had run too early into the box, and the then approaching Marta was ultimately successful. In addition, the US had to play in underage, as Rachel Buehler had also received the red card for the penalties leading to the penalty. It remained until the end of regular time at 1-1, which gave it an extension. In this Marta scored after just two minutes, the 2-1 lead for Brazil. In the second minute of extra time of extra time Abby Wambach succeeded after a long cross by Megan Rapinoe but still the 2-2 equalizer. Brazil lost 5-3 on penalties 2015 World Cup. Four years later, the World Cup took place for the second time in the People's Republic of China. In the 2014 Copa América Femenina, which once again served as Qualification, the 10 CONMEBOL members initially played four teams in two groups of five for the finals. Brazil first met Paraguay, Venezuela, Peru and Bolivia. With four victories, Brazil reached the final round, but was there only second behind Argentina in front of Uruguay and Paraguay. With that Argentina and Brazil drove again to the World Cup. In the draw of the groups the Brazilians were set and were "assigned" to the group E. As group opponents were allocated South Korea as well as the World Cup newcomers Spain and Costa Rica. In the group, the Brazilians prevailed without loss of point, beat South Korea 2-0, Spain 1-0 and Costa Rica also 1-0. In the second round they were then defeated Australia 0-1 and elimated. 2019 World Cup. In the Qualification, the Brazilians prevailed in the Sudamericano Femenino 2018. After two games of the final round of the top four teams, the World Cup participation was no longer to take. Victory in the last game against Colombia also defended the title. Group opponents in France were Australia, Italy and Jamaica. After the Brazilians have not won a game since July 2018, they could win against Jamaica without World Cup top goalscorer Marta 3-0. All goals scored Cristiana, who had not played since winning the South American Championship international match. In the second game against Australia, they went 2-0 in the lead, with Marta scored the first goal and her 16th goal of the World Cup with a transformed penalty, equaling with Miroslav Klose, the men's world record scorer. In extra time in the first half, the Australians were able to score the goal and in the second half, to which Marta was substituted, turn the game and win 3-2. The third goal came from an own goal by Mônica. In the third match against Italy, the Brazilians won by a Marta-converted penalty. With Australia beating Jamaica 4-1 on aggregate, losing 2-1 to Italy in the first game and defeating Jamaica 5-0, the three sides tied. Italy's group winners and Australia finished second with a goal more scored with the same goal difference as Brazil. The Brazilians also qualified as the best group third for the round of 16 where they met hosts France. With 1: 2 after extra time they lost against the French, against whom they could not win before in eight matches.

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Zero Waste is a set of principles focused on waste prevention that encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused. The goal is for no trash to be sent to landfills, incinerators or the ocean. Currently, only 9% of plastic is actually recycled. In a zero waste system, material will be reused until the optimum level of consumption. The definition adopted by the "Zero Waste International Alliance" (ZWIA) is: Zero Waste: The conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse and recovery of all products, packaging, and materials, without burning them, and without discharges to land, water or air that threaten the environment or human health. Zero Waste refers to waste prevention as opposed to end-of-pipe waste management. It is a whole systems approach that aims for a massive change in the way materials flow through society, resulting in no waste. Zero waste encompasses more than eliminating waste through recycling and reuse. It focuses on restructuring production and distribution systems to reduce waste. Zero waste is more of a goal or ideal rather than a hard target. Zero Waste provides guiding principles for continually working towards eliminating wastes. Advocates expect that government regulation is needed to influence industrial choices over product and packaging design, manufacturing processes, and material selection. Advocates say eliminating waste decreases pollution, and can also reduce costs due to the reduced need for raw materials. Cradle-to-cradle / cradle-to-grave. The cradle-to-grave is a linear model for materials that begins with resource extraction, moves to product manufacturing, and ends by a "grave", where the product is disposed of in a landfill. Cradle-to-grave is in direct contrast to cradle-to-cradle materials or products, which are recycled into a products at the end of their lives, so that ultimately there is no waste. Cradle-to-cradle focuses on designing industrial systems so that materials flow in closed-loop cycles which mean that waste is minimized, and waste products can be recycled and reused. Cradle-to-cradle simply goes beyond dealing with issues of waste after it has been created, by addressing problems at the source and by re-defining problems by focusing on design. The cradle-to-cradle model is sustainable and considerate of life and future generations. The cradle-to-cradle framework has evolved steadily from theory to practice. In the industrial sector, it is creating a new notion of materials and material flows. Just as in the natural world, in which one organism's "waste", cycles through an ecosystem to provide nourishment for other living things, cradle-to-cradle materials circulate in closed-loop cycles, providing nutrients for nature or industry. An example of a closed loop, cradle-to-cradle product design is DesignTex Fabric. It has designed an upholstery fabric, Climatex Lifecycle, which is a blend of pesticide- and residue-free wool and organically grown ramie, dyed and processed entirely with nontoxic chemicals. The spread of industrialization worldwide has been accompanied by a large increase in waste production. In 2012 the World Bank stated that 1.3 billion tonnes of municipal waste was produced by urban populations and estimates that that number will reach 2.2 billion tonnes by 2025 (Global Solid Waste Management Market - Analysis and Forecast). The increase in solid waste production increases the need for landfills. With the increase in urbanization, these landfills are being placed closer to communities. These landfills are disproportionately located in areas of low socioeconomic status with primarily non-white populations. Findings indicated these areas are often targeted as waste sites because permits are more easily acquired and there was generally less community resistance. Additionally, within the last five years, more than 400 hazardous waste facilities have received formal enforcement actions for unspecified violations that were considered to be a risk to human health. There is a growing global population that is faced with limited resources from the environment. [7] To relieve the pressures placed on the finite resources available it has become more important to prevent waste. To achieve zero waste, waste management has to move from a linear system to be more cyclical so that materials, products, and substances are used as efficiently as possible. Materials must be chosen so that it may either return safely to a cycle within the environment or remain viable in the industrial cycle. [8] Zero waste promotes not only reuse and recycling but, more importantly, it promotes prevention and product designs that consider the entire product life cycle. [8] Zero waste designs strive for reduced materials use, use of recycled materials, use of more benign materials, longer product lives, reparability, and ease of disassembly at end of life. [3] Zero waste strongly supports sustainability by protecting the environment, reducing costs and producing additional jobs in the management and handling of wastes back into the industrial cycle. [8] A Zero waste strategy may be applied to businesses, communities, industrial sectors, schools and homes. Benefits proposed by advocates include: Health. A major issue with landfills is hydrogen sulphide, which is released during the natural decay of waste. Studies have shown a positive association between increased lung cancer mortality rates and increased morbidity and mortality related to respiratory disease and hydrogen sulfide exposure. These studies also showed that the hydrogen sulfide exposure increased with proximity to the landfill. Household chemicals and prescription drugs are increasingly being found in large quantities in the leachate from landfills. This is causing concern about the ability of landfills to contain these materials and the possibility of these chemicals and drugs making their way into the groundwater and the surrounding environment. Zero waste promotes a circular material flow that allows materials to be used over and over, reducing the need for landfill space. Through zero waste the number of toxins released into the air and water would be decreased and products examined to determine what chemicals are used in the production process. Health Issues related to landfills: Zero waste's promotion of a cyclical product life can help reduce the need to create and fill landfills. This can help reduce incidences of respiratory diseases and birth defects that are associated with the toxins released from landfills. Zero waste also can help preserve local environments and drinking water sources by preventing pollutants from entering the ecosystem. History. 2002–2003. The movement gained publicity and reached a peak in 1998–2002, and since then has been moving from "theory into action" by focusing on how a "zero waste community" is structured and behaves. The website of the Zero Waste International Alliance has a listing of communities across the globe that have created public policy to promote zero-waste practices. See also the Eco-Cycle website for examples of how this large nonprofit is leading Boulder County, Colorado on a Zero-Waste path and watch a 6-minute video about the zero-waste big picture. Finally, there is a USA zero-waste organization named the GrassRoots Recycling Network that puts on workshops and conferences about zero-waste activities. The California Integrated Waste Management Board established a zero waste goal in 2001. The City and County of San Francisco’s Department of the Environment established a goal of zero waste in 2002, which led to the City's Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance in 2009. With its ambitious goal of zero waste and policies, San Francisco reached a record-breaking 80% diversion rate in 2010, the highest diversion rate in any North American city. San Francisco received a perfect score in the waste category in the Siemens US and Canada Green City Index, which named San Francisco the greenest city in North America. 2009: The Zero Waste lifestyle movement emerges. In 2008, Zero Waste was a term used to describe manufacturing and municipal waste management practices. Bea Johnson, a French American woman living in California, decided to apply it to her household of 4. In 2009, she started sharing her journey through the popular blog, Zero Waste Home, and in 2010, was featured in "The New York Times". The article, which introduced mainstream to the concept of waste-free living, received much criticism from people confusing it for a bohemian lifestyle. These critical reviews began to shift after images of the family and their interior were widely broadcast in worldwide media. In 2013, Johnson published "Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying your Life by Reducing your Waste". Dubbed "Bible for the zero waste pursuer" by Book Riot, it provides a simple to follow methodology of 5R’s with in depth practical tips on how to eliminate waste in a household. Translated in 27 languages (as of 2019), the international bestseller helped spread the concept to a wide audience. Some of Bea’s followers and readers went on to 1) start their own blogs, such as Lauren Singer, an eco activist living in New York, whose Social Media channels spread the concept to millennials, 2) open package-free stores, such as Marie Delapierre who opened the first unpackaged store in Germany (based on the model of Unpackaged, the first package-free concept in our modern era), 3) launch non-profit organizations, such as Natalie Bino, founding member of Zero Waste Switzerland. Over the years, the Zero Waste lifestyle experienced a significant increase in followers. Thousands of social media channels, blogs, unpackaged stores, lines of reusables and organizations have emerged worldwide. And in turn, the fast evolving grass root movement created a demand for large corporations, such as Unilever and Procter and Gamble, to conceive reusable alternatives to disposables. Present day. Behavior change is a central factor, necessary for shifting to more sustainable waste management but there is a lack of research with regards to behavior change intervention. Critics of Zero Waste point out that a material could be reusable, organic, non-toxic, and renewable but still be ethically inferior to single use products. Bags made of baby seal pelts or tiger skin, for example, theoretically meet the definitions of "zero waste", but are hardly superior to single use plastic bags. Similarly, a toxic material, such as lead in solder, may be replaced by less toxic materials like tin and silver. But if the mining of silver and tin releases more mercury or damages sensitive coral islands, the protection of landfills in developed nations is hardly paramount. While Zero Waste advocates have sophisticated answers as to why these examples do not meet the definition of Zero Waste (e.g., that the bodies of seals and tigers, or mining waste, is of equal concern), critics say that Life Cycle Analysis, habitat protection, carbon neutralization, or "Zero Extinction" are more environmentally astute philosophies than waste-centric measures. The simple accounting of measurable waste diversion, reuse, recycling rates, etc. is an attractive and useful tool, but a campaign based on a goal of literally stopping the last 5% of waste might will come at the expense of other environmental and sustainability goals. Within the waste industry itself, other tensions exist between those who view zero waste as post-discard total recycling of materials only, and those who view zero waste as the reuse of all high-level function. It is probably the defining difference between established recyclers and emerging zero-wasters. A signature example is a difference between smashing a glass bottle (recovering cheap glass) and refilling the bottle (recovering the entire function of the container). The tension between the literal application of natural processes and the creation of industry-specific more efficient reuse modalities is another tension. Many observers look to nature as an ultimate model for production and innovative materials. Others point out that industrial products are inherently non-natural (such as chemicals and plastics that are mono-molecular) and benefit greatly from industrial methods of reuse, while natural methods requiring degradation and reconstitution are wasteful in that context. Biodegradable plastic is the most prominent example. One side argues that biodegradation of plastic is wasteful because plastic is expensive and environmentally damaging to make. Whether made of starch or petroleum, the manufacturing process expends all the same materials and energy costs. Factories are built, raw materials are procured, investments are made, machinery is built and used, humans labor and make use of all normal human inputs for education, housing, food etc. Even if the plastic is biodegraded after a single use, all of those costs are lost so it is much more important to design plastic parts for multiple reuse or perpetual lives. The other side argues that keeping plastic out of a dump or the sea is the sole benefit of interest. Companies moving towards "zero landfill" plants include Subaru, Xerox and Anheuser-Busch. The movement continues to grow among the youth around the world under the organization Zero Waste Youth, which originated in Brazil and has spread to Argentina, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the United States, and Russia. The organization multiplies with local volunteer ambassadors who lead zero waste gatherings and events to spread the zero waste message. Packaging example. Milk can be shipped in many forms. One of the traditional forms was reusable returnable glass milk bottles, often home delivered by a milkman. While some of this continues, other options have recently been more common: one-way gable-top paperboard cartons, one-way aseptic cartons, one-way recyclable glass bottles, one-way milk bags, and others. Each system claims some advantages and also has possible disadvantages. From the zero waste standpoint, the reuse of bottles is beneficial because the material usage per trip can be less than other systems. The primary input (or resource) is silica-sand, which is formed into glass and then into a bottle. The bottle is filled with milk and distributed to the consumer. A reverse logistics system returns the bottles for cleaning, inspection, sanitization, and reuse. Eventually, the heavy-duty bottle would not be suited for further use and would be recycled. Waste and landfill usage would be minimized. The material waste is primarily the wash water, detergent, transportation, heat, bottle caps, etc. While true zero waste is never achieved, a life cycle assessment can be used to calculate the waste at each phase of each cycle. Recycling and rotting (composting). It is important to distinguish recycling from Zero Waste. Some claim that the key component to zero waste is recycling while others reject that notion in favor of reusing high function. The common understanding of recycling is simply that of placing bottles and cans in a recycle bin. The modern version of recycling is more complicated and involves many more elements of financing and government support. For example, a 2007 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states that the US recycles at a national rate of 33.4% and includes in this figure composted materials. In addition many worldwide commodity industries have been created to handle the materials that are recycled. At the same time, claims of recycling rates have sometimes been exaggerated, for example by the inclusion of soil and organic matter used to cover garbage dumps daily, in the "recycled" column. In states with recycling incentives, there is constant local pressure to pump up the recycling rate figures. The movement toward recycling has separated itself from the concept of zero waste. One example of this is the computer industry where worldwide millions of PC's are disposed of as electronic waste each year (160 million in 2007). Those computers that enter the recycling stream are broken down into a small amount of raw materials while most merely enter dumps through export to third world countries. Companies are then able to purchase some raw materials, notably steel, copper and glass, reducing the use of new materials. On the other hand, there is an industry, more aligned with the Zero Waste principle of design for long term reuse, that actually repairs computers. It is called the Computer Refurbishing industry and it predates the current campaign to just collect and ship electronics. They have organizations and conferences and have for many years donated computers to schools, clinics and non-profits. Zero Waste planning demands that components be redesigned for effective reuse over long lives leading to even more refurbishing and repair. There is one seminal example that brings out the difference between Zero Waste and recycling in stark relief. That example, quoted in "Getting To Zero Waste", is the software business. Zero Waste is sensitive to the waste of intellectual effort that would be caused by the need to recreate certain basic inventions of software (called objects in software design) as opposed to copying them over and over whenever needed. The waste would occur as the software developers consume resources while solving problems already solved earlier. The application of Zero Waste analysis is straightforward as it recommends conserving human effort. On the other hand, the usual approach of recycling would be to look for some materials that could be found to reuse. The materials on which software is saved (such as paper or diskettes)is of little significance compared to the saving of human effort and if software is saved electronically, there is no media at all. Thus Zero Waste correctly identifies a wasteful behavior to avoid while recycling has no application. The recycling movement has been embraced by the garbage industry because it serves so well as greenwashing, i.e. a way to show that design for garbage creation is acceptable because materials will be kept out of a dump by recycling them. Zero Waste, on the other hand, offers the garbage industry no such screen against public condemnation of waste, and therefore actually threatens the continued need for garbage disposal. For example, in Alameda County, California, garbage dumping is charged a surcharge of $8/ton (as of 2009) which goes entirely for a recycling subsidy but none of which goes for any kind of Zero Waste style designing. Zero Waste has received no support from the garbage industry or politicians under their control except in those cases where it can be claimed to consist solely of more recycling. Use of Zero waste system. Zero waste is poorly supported by the enactment of government laws to enforce the waste hierarchy. In practice, these laws invariably emphasize destruction and recycling, while the reuse component is marginalized. A special feature of Zero Waste as a design principle is that it can be applied to any product or process, in any situation or at any level. Thus it applies equally to toxic chemicals as to benign plant matter. It applies to the waste of atmospheric purity by coal-burning or the waste of radioactive resources by attempting to designate the excesses of nuclear power plants as "nuclear waste". All processes can be designed to minimize the need for discard, both in their own operations and in the usage or consumption patterns which the design of their products leads to. Recycling, on the other hand, deals only with simple materials. Zero Waste can even be applied to the waste of human potential by enforced poverty and the denial of educational opportunity. It encompasses redesign for reduced energy wasting in industry or transportation and the wasting of the earth's rainforests. It is a general principle of designing for the efficient use of all resources, however defined. The recycling movement may be slowly branching out from its solid waste management base to include issues that are similar to the community sustainability movement. Zero waste, on the other hand, is not based in waste management limitations to begin with but requires that we maximize our existing reuse efforts while creating and applying new methods that minimize and eliminate destructive methods like incineration and recycling. Zero Waste strives to ensure that products are designed to be repaired, refurbished, re-manufactured and generally reused.. ("What is Zero Waste? ", para 2). Online web services, like Free Cycle or the reGives Network have risen in popularity over the last decade where locals can give items that they no longer need to others locally in an effort to keep items out of landfills and work toward a zero waste lifestyle. Significance of dump capacity. Many dumps are currently exceeding carrying capacity. This is often used as a justification for moving to Zero Waste. Others counter by pointing out that there are huge tracts of land available throughout the US and other countries which could be used for dumps. Proposals abound to destroy all garbage as a way to solve the garbage problem. These proposals typically claim to convert all or a large portion of existing garbage into oil and sometimes claim to produce so much oil that the world will henceforth have abundant liquid fuels. One such plan, called Anything Into Oil, was promoted by Discover Magazine and Fortune Magazine in 2004 and claimed to be able to convert a refrigerator into "light Texas crude" by the application of high-pressure steam. Corporate initiatives. An example of a company that has demonstrated a change in landfill waste policy is General Motors (GM). GM has confirmed their plans to make approximately half of its 181 plants worldwide "landfill-free" by the end of 2010. Companies like Subaru, Toyota, and Xerox are also producing landfill-free plants. Furthermore, The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has worked with GM and other companies for decades to minimize the waste through its WasteWise program. The goal for General Motors is finding ways to recycle or reuse more than 90% of materials by: selling scrap materials, adopting reusable parts boxes to replace cardboard, and even recycling used work gloves. The remainder of the scraps might be incinerated to create energy for the plants. Besides being nature-friendly, it also saves money by cutting out waste and producing a more efficient production. Microsoft and Google are two other big companies that have Zero Waste goals. These two companies have goals to keep the majority of their waste out of landfills. Google has six locations that have a Zero Waste to Landfill goal. These locations have a goal to keep 100% of their waste out of landfills. Microsoft has a similar goal, but they are only trying to keep 90% their waste out of landfills. All these organizations push forth to make our world clean and producing zero waste. A garden centre in Faversham, UK, has started to prevent plastic plant pots from being passed down to customers. Instead, it reuses the plastic pots only locally in the garden center, but upon selling it to its customers it repots the plants in paper plant pots. It also sells plants wrapped in hessian, and uses a variety of techniques to prevent handing down (single-use) plastics to customers Re-use or rot of waste. The waste sent to landfills may be harvested as useful materials, such as in the production of solar energy or natural fertilizer/de-composted manure for crops. It may also be reused and recycled for something that we can actually use. "The success of General Motors in creating zero-landfill facilities shows that zero-waste goals can be a powerful impetus for manufacturers to reduce their waste and carbon footprint," says Latisha Petteway, a spokesperson for the EPA. Construction and deconstruction. Zero Waste is a goal, a process, a way of thinking that profoundly changes our approach to resources and production. Zero Waste is not about recycling and diversion from landfills but about restructuring production and distribution systems to prevent waste from being manufactured in the first place. The materials that are still required in these re-designed, resource-efficient systems will be reused many times as the products that incorporate them are reused. Deconstruction can be described as construction in reverse. It involves carefully taking apart a building to maximize the reuse of materials, thereby reducing waste and conserving resources. Deconstruction can capture materials and some components from the millions of buildings that are existing and that were poorly designed for high level reuse but it is not a favored approach from a Zero Waste point of view. Zero Waste favors the design of buildings as assemblages of high level components, not their creation from rough materials such as lumber, cement or plaster. The details are not worked out yet but to the extent that entire rooms, entire walls, roofs or floors or entire utility systems can be pre-built and installed as completed components, that will be the goal of Zero Waste design. Until buildings are built as components capable of later dismantling, deconstruction is a stop-gap process that the United States can use to minimize the waste of building materials. For now, the largest parts that we are able to save tend to be architectural elements, windows, doors, and metals, many of which are being saved and resold by reuse yards such as Urban Ore in Berkeley, California. The main parts that still need to be crushed are wood flooring, brick walls, and structural timbers. The demolition of traditional buildings has been long done by wrecking ball or bulldozer. Social and political artifacts, such as demolition contractor licenses and required permits that can only be satisfied by destruction and discard (with partial recycling of rubble and steel), render the destruction and disposal costs cheaper than deconstruction. Approximately seventy pounds of the waste is generated for about every square foot of the residential building demolition. It is arguable that this is artificial economics, based on the cultural preference for wastefulness and that Zero Waste designs of dismantlable components will ultimately be the cheapest as well as the most conservative way to reuse buildings. Further discussions of this topic may be found on the ZWI website. Roper's comments in the paragraph above are either misquoted or wrong concerning wood flooring, structural wood and bricks needing to be crushed. Brick, wood and stone are among the oldest truly recyclable materials used in construction. A historic review of old buildings, barns and bridges clearly shows that brick, stones and timber are reused from older buildings. Some of the oldest structures on the planet are built with materials that were recycled from previous structures. One recent example is the Mayflower Barn at Jordans just north of High Wycombe, UK. The barn is clearly built of reused timbers, possibly sourced from the salvage of the Mayflower ship. It is simply a fact of life that historically materials that could be reused were reused. In more recent construction, structural timber components, including large timbers, glued laminated beams, floor joists, studs and flooring are some of the most valuable structural components salvaged when a structure is demolished if there is an interest in salvaging. If you need proof, go down to any local construction salvage yard and look at the value of trusses, wood beams, floor joists, studs and flooring. Today they have value when someone saves them. One of the barriers of reusing structural materials is the bias of building code officials and building departments that discriminate against reusing materials. Codes and building departments require compliance to codes, including the source of materials. Your average contractor cannot just use 100-year-old 2x8 (50x200) salvaged floor joists because the building department requires a graded joist. The contractor then has to find an engineer or wood technologist to verify the material suitability for its use. Market-based campaigns. Market-based, legislation-mediated campaigns like Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and the Precautionary Principle are among numerous campaigns that have a Zero Waste slogan hung on them by means of claims they all ineluctably lead to policies of Zero Waste. At the moment, there is no evidence that EPR will increase reuse, rather than merely moving discard and disposal into private-sector dumping contracts. The Precautionary Principle is put forward to shift liability for proving new chemicals are safe from the public (acting as guinea pig) to the company introducing them. As such, its relation to Zero Waste is dubious. Likewise, many organizations, cities and counties have embraced a Zero Waste slogan while pressing for none of the key Zero Waste changes. In fact, it is common for many such to simply state that recycling is their entire goal. Many commercial or industrial companies claim to embrace Zero Waste but usually mean no more than a major materials recycling effort, having no bearing on product redesign. Examples include Staples, Home Depot, Toyota, General Motors and computer take-back campaigns. Earlier social justice campaigns have successfully pressured McDonald's to change their meat purchasing practices and Nike to change its labor practices in Southeast Asia. Those were both based on the idea that organized consumers can be active participants in the economy and not just passive subjects. However, the announced and enforced goal of the public campaign is critical. A goal to reduce waste generation or dumping through greater recycling will not achieve a goal of product redesign and so cannot reasonably be called a Zero Waste campaign. Producers should be made responsible for the packaging of the products rather than the consumers in EPR like campaigns by which the participation of the Producers will increase. How to achieve. National and provincial governments often set targets and may provide some funding, but on a practical level, waste management programs (e.g. pickup, dropoff, or containers for recycling and composting) are usually implemented by local governments, possibly with regionally shared facilities. Reaching the goal of zero waste requires the products of manufacturers and industrial designers to be easily disassembled for recycling and incorporated back into nature or the industrial system; durability and repairability also reduce unnecessary churn in the product life cycle. Minimizes packaging also solves many problems early in the supply chain. If not mandated by government, choices by retailers and consumers in favor of zero-waste-friendly products can influence production. More and more schools are motivating their students to live a different life and rethink every polluting step they may take. To prevent material from becoming waste, consumers, businesses, and non-profits must be educated in how to reduce waste and recycle successfully. The 5R’s of Bea Johnson. In the book, "Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying your Life by Reducing your Waste", the author, Bea Johnson, provides a modified version of the 3Rs, the 5Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot to achieve Zero Waste at home. The method, which she developed through years of practicing waste free living and used to reduce her family’s annual trash to fit in a pint jar, is now widely used by individuals, businesses and municipalities worldwide. Zero Waste Hierarchy. The Zero Waste Hierarchy describes a progression of policies and strategies to support the Zero Waste system, from highest and best to lowest use of materials. It is designed to be applicable to all audiences, from policy-makers to industry and the individual. It aims to provide more depth to the internationally recognized 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle); to encourage policy, activity and investment at the top of the hierarchy; and to provide a guide for those who wish to develop systems or products that move us closer to Zero Waste. It enhances the Zero Waste definition by providing guidance for planning and a way to evaluate proposed solutions. All over the world, in some form or another, a pollution prevention hierarchy is incorporated into recycling regulations, solid waste management plans, and resource conservation programs. In Canada, a pollution prevention hierarchy otherwise referred to as the Environmental Protection Hierarchy was adopted. This Hierarchy has been incorporated into all recycling regulations within Canada and is embedded within all resource conservation methods which all government mandated waste prevention programs follow. While the intention to incorporate the 4th R (recovery)prior to disposal was good, many organizations focused on this 4th R instead of the top of the hierarchy resulting in costly systems designed to destroy materials instead of systems designed to reduce environmental impact and waste. Because of this, along with other resource destruction systems that have been emerging over the past few decades, Zero Waste Canada along with the Zero Waste International Alliance have adopted the only internationally peer reviewed Zero Waste Hierarchy that focuses on the first 3Rs; Reduce, Reuse and Recycle including Compost. Zero waste jurisdictions. Various governments have declared zero waste as a goal, including: An example of network governance approach can be seen in the UK under New Labour who proposed the establishment of regional groupings that brought together the key stakeholders in waste management (local authority representatives, waste industry, government offices etc.) on a voluntary basis. There is a lack of clear government policy on how to meet the targets for diversion from landfill which increases the scope at the regional and local level for governance networks. The overall goal is set by government but the route for how to achieve it is left open, so stakeholders can coordinate and decide how best to reach it. Zero Waste is a strategy promoted by environmental NGOs but the waste industry is more in favour of the capital intensive option of energy from waste incineration. Research often highlights public support as the first requirement for success. In Taiwan, public opinion was essential in changing the attitude of business, who must transform their material use pattern to become more sustainable for Zero Waste to work. The latest development in Zero Waste is the city of Masdar in Abu Dhabi which promises to be a Zero Waste city. Innovation and technology is encouraged by government creating an innovation friendly environment without being prescriptive. To be a successful model of sustainable urban development it will also require the involvement and co-operation from all members of society emphasizing the importance of network governance. California is a leading state in the United States for having zero waste goals. California is the state with the most cities in the Zero Waste International Alliance. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, multiple cities have defined what it means to be a Zero Waste community and adopted goals to reach that status. Some of these cities include Fresno, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, Pasadena, Alameda, and San Jose. San Francisco has defined Zero Waste as "zero discards to the landfill or high-temperature destruction." Here, there is a planned structure to reach Zero Waste through three steps recommended by the San Francisco Department of the Environment. These steps are to prevent waste, reduce and reuse, and recycle and compost. Los Angeles defines zero waste as "maximizing diversion from landfills and reducing waste at the source, with the ultimate goal of striving for more-sustainable solid waste management practices." Los Angeles plans to reach this goal by the year of 2025. To reach this goal, major changes will have to be made to product creation, use, and disposal. References. 53.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=658438

The Crypteia, also referred to as Krypteia or Krupteia (Greek: κρυπτεία "krupteía" from κρυπτός "kruptós", "hidden, secret"), was an ancient Spartan state institution involving young Spartan men. It was an exclusive element of Sparta's state-sponsored education system in which participation afforded its members, known as "kryptai" (κρύπται, members of the Krypteia), the opportunity to further test their skills and prove themselves worthy of the Spartan polity. As an organization, the Crypteia's mandate and practices are still a matter of debate among historians. Overview. The Crypteia was composed of young Spartan men, probably between the ages of twenty-one and thirty, who were described as "those judged to have the most intelligence." These men were known as hêbôntes (one of the many social categories that preceded full Spartiate citizenship) and had completed their training at the agoge with such success that they were marked out as potential future leaders by Spartan officials. The training "kryptai" endured was undoubtedly harsh but the way in which their training was conducted is debated. According to Plato, "kryptai" did not use footwear during the winter and slept without shelter. He also described them as being unsupervised and dependent on only themselves for survival. While Plato's description might seem to imply that "kryptai" were forced to be independent, it is thought by some scholars that they may have had attendants at certain times watching over them. The duration of service to the Crypteia is also largely unknown but it has been suggested that one year of service may have been all that was required of the men. Some scholars, such as Henri-Alexandre Wallon, consider the Crypteia to be a kind of secret police and state security force organized by the ruling class of Sparta to patrol the Laconian countryside and to terrorize the helots. Others, including Hermann Köchly and Wilhelm Wachsmuth, believe it to be a form of military training similar to the Athenian "ephebia." Much of the debate surrounding the Crypteia comes from the differing accounts provided by Plutarch and Plato. In Plutarch's "Life of Lycurgus" he describes the brutal killing of helots on behalf of the Crypteia, but in "Laws," Plato makes no mention of these killings"." History and function. According to Aristotle, the Crypteia was established by the legendary Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus. There is no known date associated with its establishment, however. Every autumn, Spartan ephors would declare war on the helot population, allowing any Spartan citizen to kill a helot without fear of punishment. During this time, the chosen "kryptai" were sent out into the countryside armed with daggers with the instructions to kill any helot they encountered travelling the roads and any who were tending to fields they deemed too plentiful. They were specifically told to kill the strongest and to take any food they needed. The reason for this practice's adoption may have been to reduce the repressed aggression of the hêbôntes. However, it is most commonly thought to have been adopted to prevent the threat of a helot rebellion and to keep their population in check. According to some sources, "kryptai" would stalk the helot villages and surrounding countryside, spying on the servile population. Their mission was to prevent and suppress unrest and rebellion. Another point of contestation is the time of day at which the Crypteia operated. Plato described their movement as travelling both day and night. On the contrary, Plutarch states that they would hide during the day and would travel by night, then aiming to kill any helots who they came across. This suggests that helots may have had to comply with curfew laws put into place by the Spartans. Troublesome helots could be summarily executed. Such brutal repression of the helots permitted the Spartan elite to successfully control the servile agrarian population and devote themselves to military practice. It may also have contributed to the Spartans' reputation for stealth since a "kryptēs" (κρύπτης) who got caught was punished by whipping. Aristotle's account, however, is debated even among ancient historians. Plutarch, who provides much of what is known of Aristotle's account, was not convinced that Lykourgos would have included such harsh customs within the Spartan constitution and instead thought that the Cyrpteia would have only be introduced, if at all, after the helot revolt brought on by an earthquake in Sparta in the mid 460s BCE. In events preceding the ten year conflict between the Spartans and Messenians that resulted from the helot revolt, the Spartan leadership had two-thousand helots who had participated in the war killed. It is thought that the Crypteia were the primary perpetrators of the massacre or were at least somehow involved in carrying it out. Military affiliation. In "Cleomenes", Plutarch describes the Crypteia as being a unit of the Spartan army. The Crypteia did not act in a similar fashion to hoplite soldiers, however. Hoplite soldiers were armored and acted as a part of a phalanx while members of the Crypteia acted on their own, often rested during the day, and were most likely naked and armed with only a dagger. During the Battle of Sellasia, the Spartan king Cleomenes III "called Damoteles, the commander of the Crypteia, and ordered him to observe and find out how matters stood in the rear and on the flanks of his army." Various scholars have speculated function of the Crypteia as a part of the army because Plutarch's account provides a completely different understanding of their role when compared to the accounts provided by Aristotle and Plato. Plutarch's account has led to the Cryptiea being described as a reconnaissance, special operations, or even military police force. However, Jean Ducat argues that this source should no longer be associated with the understanding of the Cryptiea as known from Aristotle and Plato. He proposes that the understanding of the Crypteia as part of the army is just that, a separate understanding that defines the Crypteia as a corps in the Spartan army. Plutarch's account of the Crypteia describes the organization as a military unit that has a commander. This differs from Aristotle and Plato's interpretation as the Crypteia is described as being independent and without overseers. Ducat also takes up query with the task of observation that the Crypteia are given in Plutarch's account. Again, this differs from Aristotle and Plato's interpretation in the fact that the Crypteia's mandate was not to observe and provide intelligence but to purposely seek out and kill helots. Unlike its unknown origins, the Battle of Sellasia is considered to provide a potential date for the disbandment of the Crypteia. With the Spartan revolution in jeopardy, Cleomenes III began to emancipate helots in exchange for money and then military service. With the emancipation of many helots and Spartan's subsequent defeat at Sellasia, helotage ceased to exist, and without a helot population, by mandate, the Crypteia should have ceased to exist as well. The Crypteia disbanding after this battle, however, is only speculation. Ritualistic activity. French historian Henri Jeanmaire points out that the unstructured and covert activities of the Crypteia are unlike the disciplined and well-ordered communal life of the Spartan hoplites (see Homonoia) . Jeanmaire suggests that the Crypteia was a rite of passage, possibly pre-dating the classical military organization, and may have been preserved through Sparta's legendary religious conservatism. He draws comparison with the initiation rituals of some African secret societies (wolf-men and leopard men). While members of the Crypteia may have not shared the commonality with Spartan hoplite's that Jeanmaire describes during their service as apart of the institution, they did eventually return to their communities and were integrated back into the complex Spartan social system. Modern reception. In popular culture. The Crypteia are briefly mentioned in the comic book series "Three" by Kieron Gillen. They make their first appearance in issue one of "Three" and are depicted naked, armed with only daggers, attacking a group of unsuspecting helots as they tend to their crops. Gillien used the Crypteia to highlight the harshness of the Spartan system and describes their function as "a rite of passage to life where all vocations are barred, bar one. Once a year, the masters declare war on the helots. If they bloody their hands, they are not polluted. So they are free to do whatever is required to keep the helots on their knees. And so they do." One of Sparta's leadings historians, Stephen Hodkinson, is noted as being the historical consultant employed by Gillen throughout the series. Hodkinson describes Gillien's depiction of the Crypteia as a "perfect amalgam" of the information available in the two source traditions; those being Plato's "Laws" and Plutarch's "Life of Lycurgus." The reason for this, according to Hokinson, is that these two sources portray the Crypteia in different, almost contradictory, ways. Aristotle's account, which is taken from Plutarch, depicts "kryptai" hunting helots, while Plato's account does not mention the killing of helots and views the Crypteia as a mode of endurance training. Hodkinson claims that the differing accounts have led modern scholars to adopt a "composite" understanding of the Crypteia. The Krypteia are also mentioned in the book "Gates of Fire." They are described as being a "secret society among the peers(full citizens)." They also are described as being assassins and being "pitiless as iron." The author also mentions that they are the youngest and the strongest of the Spartan military. Spartan Race. Spartan Race, the obstacle course racing series, calls their event leaders the "Krypteia". Golden Dawn. Maniot leaders of the far-right Greek political party, Golden Dawn, reinstituted the Crypteia as a part of their adoption of Spartan ideologies.

promising day and time

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14572708

In China today, poverty refers mainly to the rural poor, as decades of economic growth have largely eradicated urban poverty. The dramatic progress in reducing poverty over the past three decades in China is well known. According to the World Bank, more than 850 million Chinese people have been lifted out of extreme poverty; China's poverty rate fell from 88 percent in 1981 to 0.7 percent in 2015, as measured by the percentage of people living on the equivalent of US$1.90 or less per day in 2011 purchasing price parity terms. Since the start of far-reaching economic reforms in the late 1970s, growth has fueled a remarkable increase in per-capita income, helping to lift more people out of poverty than anywhere else in the world: China's per capita income has increased fivefold between 1990 and 2000, from $200 to $1,000. Between 2000 and 2010, per capita income also rose by the same rate, from $1,000 to $5,000, moving China into the ranks of middle-income countries. Between 1990 and 2005, China's progress accounted for more than three-quarters of global poverty reduction and a big factor in why the world reached the UN millennium development of dividing extreme poverty by two. This incredible success was delivered by a combination of a rapidly expanding labour market, driven by a protracted period of economic growth, and a series of government transfers such as an urban subsidy, and the introduction of a rural pension. The World Bank Group suggests that the percentage of the population living below the international poverty line of $1.9 (2011 PPP) fall to 0.7 percent in 2015, and poverty line of $3.2 (2011 PPP) to 7% in 2015. At the end of 2018, the number of people living below China's national poverty line of ￥2,300 (CNY) per year (in 2010 constant prices) was 16.6 million, which translated to 1.7% of the population at the time. On November 23rd 2020, China announced that it had eliminated absolute poverty nationwide by uplifting all of its citizens beyond its set ￥2,300 (CNY) per year, or less than a dollar per day poverty line. Overview. Since Deng Xiaoping began instituting market reforms in the late 1970s, China has been among the most rapidly growing economies in the world, regularly exceeding 10 percent GDP growth annually. This growth has led to a substantial increase in real living standards and a marked decline in poverty. Between 1981 and 2008, the proportion of China's population living on less than $1.25/day is estimated to have fallen from 85% to 13.1%, meaning that roughly 600 million people were taken out of extreme poverty. At the same time, this rapid change has brought with it different kinds of stresses. China faces serious natural resource scarcity and environmental degradation. It has also seen growing disparities as people in different parts of the country and with different characteristics have benefited from the growth at different rates. Starting from the pre-reform situation, some increase in income inequality was inevitable, as favored coastal urban locations benefited from the opening policy, and as the small stock of educated people found new opportunities. However, particular features of Chinese policy may have exacerbated rather than mitigated growing disparities. The household registration (hukou) system kept rural-urban migration below what it otherwise would have been, and contributed to the development of one of the largest rural-urban income divides in the world. Weak tenure over rural land also limited the ability of peasants to benefit from their primary asset. Aside from income inequality, there has also been an increase in inequality of educational outcomes and health status, partly the result of China's uniquely decentralized fiscal system, in which local government has been primarily responsible for funding basic health and education. Poor localities have not been able to fund these services, and poor households have not been able to afford the high private cost of basic education and healthcare. The large trade surplus that has emerged in China has exacerbated the inequalities, and makes them harder to address. The trade surplus stimulates the urban manufacturing sector, which is already relatively well off. It limits the government's scope to increase funding for public services such as rural health and education. The government has been trying to rebalance China's production away from investment and exports towards domestic consumption and services, to improve the country's long-term macroeconomic health and the situation of the relatively poor in China. Recent government measures to reduce disparities include relaxation of the "hukou" system, abolition of the agricultural tax, and increased central transfers to fund health and education in rural areas. Poverty reduction. China has maintained a high growth rate for more than 30 years since the beginning of economic reform in 1978, this sustained growth has generated a huge increase in average living standards. 25 years ago, China had many characteristics in common with the rest of developing Asia: large population, low per capita income, and resource scarcity on a per capita basis. But in the 15 years from 1990 to 2005, China averaged per capita growth of 8.7% The whole reform program is often referred to in brief as the "open door policy". This highlights that a key component of Chinese reform has been trade liberalization and opening up to foreign direct investment, but not opening the capital account more generally to portfolio flows. China improved its human capital, opened up to foreign trade and investment, and created a better investment climate for the private sector. After joining the WTO China's average tariffs have dropped below 100%, and to around 5% for manufactured imports. It initially welcomed foreign investment into "special economic zones". Some of these zones were very large, amounting to urban areas of 20 million people or more. The positive impact of foreign investment in these locations led to a more general opening up of the economy to foreign investment, with the result that China became the largest recipient of direct investment flows in the 1990s. The opening up measures have been accompanied by improvements in the investment climate. Particularly in the coastal areas, cities have developed their investment climates. In these cities, the private sector accounts for 90% or more of manufacturing assets and production. In 2005, the average pretax rate of return for domestic private firms was the same as that for foreign-invested firms. Local governments in coastal cities have lowered loss of output due to unreliable power supply to 1.0% and customs clearance time for imports has been lowered in Chinese cities to 3.3 days. China's sustained growth fueled historically unprecedented poverty reduction. The World Bank uses a poverty line based on household real consumption (including consumption of own-produced crops and other goods), set at $1 per day measured at Purchasing Power Parity. In most low-income countries this amount is sufficient to guarantee each person about 1000 calories of nutrition per day, plus other basic necessities. In 2007, this line corresponds to about 2,836 RMB per year. Based on household surveys, the poverty rate in China in 1981 was 63% of the population. This rate declined to 10% in 2004, indicating that about 500 million people have climbed out of poverty during this period. This poverty reduction has occurred in waves. The shift to the household responsibility system propelled a large increase in agricultural output, and poverty was cut in half over the short period from 1981 to 1987. From 1987 to 1993 poverty reduction stagnated, then resumed again. From 1996 to 2001 there was once more relatively little poverty reduction. Since China joined the WTO in 2001, however, poverty reduction resumed at a very rapid rate, and poverty was cut by a third in just three years. Taken from the Asian Development Bank, there was an estimated average annual growth rate of 0.5% in China between 2010 and 2015. This brought the Chinese population to 1.37 billion in 2015. As per China's national poverty line, 8.5 percent of people were in poverty in 2013, which decreased to 1.7 percent in 2018. On 6th March 2020, Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, announced that by 2020, China will achieve all poverty alleviation in rural areas.On 28 May 2020, Li Keqiang, the Premier of China, said that "China has over 600 million people whose monthly income is barely 1,000 yuan (USD 140) and their lives have further been affected by the coronavirus pandemic." Increased inequality. China's growth has been so rapid that virtually every household has benefited significantly, fueling the steep drop in poverty. However, different people have benefited to very different extents, so that inequality has risen during the reform period. This is true for inequality in household income or consumption, as well as for inequality in important social outcomes such as health status or educational attainment. Concerning household consumption, the Gini measure of inequality increased from 0.31 at the beginning of reform to 0.45 in 2004. To some extent this rise in inequality is the natural result of the market forces that have generated the strong growth; but to some extent it is "artificial" in the sense that various government policies exacerbate the tendencies toward higher inequality, rather than mitigate them. Changes to some policies could halt or even reverse the increasing inequality. (See List of countries by income equality.) The Nobel Prize-winning economist Sir Arthur Lewis noted that "development must be inegalitarian because it does not start in every part of the economy at the same time" in 1954. China classically manifests two of the characteristics of development that Lewis had in mind: rising return to education and rural-urban migration. As an underdeveloped country, China began its reform with relatively few highly educated people, and with a small minority of the population (20%) living in cities, where labor productivity was about twice the level as in the countryside. In pre-reform China there was very little return to education manifested in salaries. Cab drivers and college professors had similar incomes. Economic reform has created a labor market in which people can search for higher pay, and one result of this is that salaries for educated people have gone up dramatically. In the short period between 1988 and 2003, the wage returns to one additional year of schooling increased from 4% to 11%. This development initially leads to higher overall inequality, because the initial stock of educated people is small and they are concentrated at the high end of the income distribution. But if there is reasonably good access to education, then over time a greater and greater share of the population will become educated, and that will ultimately tend to reduce inequality. The large productivity and wage gap between cities and countryside also drives a high rate of rural-urban migration, which has left millions of children traumatized due to parents who have left them to be raised by other family members, as the Chinese government does not allow parents who move to urban areas to take their children with them. Lewis pointed out that, starting from a situation of 80% rural, the initial shift of some from low-productivity agriculture to high productivity urban employment is disequalizing. If the flow continues until the population is more than 50% urban, however, further migration is equalizing. This pattern is very evident in the history of the U.S., with inequality rising during the rapid industrialization period from 1870 to 1920, and then declining thereafter. So, the same market forces that have produced the rapid growth in China predictably led to higher inequality. But it is important to note that in China there are a number of government policies that exacerbate this tendency toward higher inequality and restrict some of the potential mechanisms that would normally lead to an eventual decline in inequality. Rural-urban divide. Much of the increase in inequality in China can be attributed to the widening rural-urban divide, particularly the differentials in rural-urban income. A household survey conducted in 1995 showed that the rural-urban income gap accounted for 35% of the overall inequality in China. In 2009, according to the China's National Bureau of Statistics, the urban per capita annual income at US$2,525 was approximately three times that of the rural per capita annual income. This was the widest income gap recorded in China since 1978. Urban-based economic policies adopted by the government contribute to the income disparities. This is also known as the ‘artificial’ result of the rural-urban divide. In terms of the share of investments allotted by the state, urban areas were given a larger proportion when compared with rural areas. In the period 1986–1992, investments to urban state-owned enterprises (SOE) accounted for more than 25% of the total government budget. On the other hand, less than 10% of the government budget was allocated to investments in the rural economy in the same period by the state despite the fact that about 73-76% of the total population lived in the rural areas. However, the burden of the inflation caused by the fiscal expansion, which at that time was at a level of approximately 8.5%, was shared by all including the rural population. Such biased allocation of government finances to the urban sector meant that the wages earned by urban workers also include these government fiscal transfers. This is in addition to the relatively higher proportions of credit loans the government also provided to the urban SOEs in the same period. Meanwhile, the wages earned by the rural workers came mainly from growth in output only. These urban-biased policies reflect the importance of the urban minority to the government relative to the rural majority. In the period when reforms in urban areas were introduced, the real wages earned by urban workers rose inexorably. Restrictions to rural-urban migration protected the urban workers from competition from the rural workers, which therefore also contributed to rural-urban disparities. According to a report by the World Bank published in 2009, 99% of the poor in China come from rural areas if migrant workers in cities are included in the rural population figures. Excluding migrant workers from the rural population figures indicates that 90% of poverty in China is still rural. Inequality in China does not only occur between rural and urban areas. There exist inequalities within rural areas, and within urban areas themselves. In some rural areas, incomes are comparable to that of urban incomes, while in others, income remains low as development is limited. Rural-urban inequalities do not only refer to income differentials but also include inequalities in areas such as education and health care. Urban poverty in China. The structural reforms of China's economy have brought about a widening of the income gap and rising unemployment in cities. The increasing challenge for the Chinese government and social organizations is to address and solve poverty issues in urban areas where people are increasingly being economically and socially marginalized. According to the official estimates, 12 million people were considered as urban poor in 1993, i.e. 3.6 per cent of the total urban population, but by 2006 the figure had jumped to more than 22 million, i.e. 4.1 per cent of the total urban population and these figures are estimated to grow if the government fails to institute any effective measures to circumvent this escalating problem. China's “floating population” has since helped spur rapid development in the country because of the cheap and plentiful labor they can offer. On the flip side, many people who came from the rural areas are not able to find jobs in the cities. This surplus of rural laborers and mass internal migration will no doubt pose a major threat to the country's political stability and economic growth. Their inabilities to find jobs compounded by the rising costs of living in the cities have made many people fall below the poverty line. There are also large numbers of unemployed and laid-off workers from state-owned enterprises (SOEs). These enterprises have since failed to compete efficiently with the private and foreign-funded companies when China's open-door policy was introduced. In the years 1995 to 2000, the state sector lost 31 million jobs, which amounted to 28 per cent of the jobs in the sector. The non-state sector has been creating new jobs but not in sufficient numbers to offset job losses from the state sector. SOEs’ roles were more than employers, they are also responsible for the provision of welfare benefits, like retirement pensions, incentives for medical care, housing and direct subsidies and the like to its employees, as these burdens greatly increased production costs. In 1992, SOE expenses on insurance and welfare took up 35% of the total wages. Therefore, many people not only lost their jobs but also the social benefits and security that they were once so reliant on. The adverse consequences arising from the market reforms are evidently seen as a socially destabilizing factor. Lastly, the government provided little or no social benefit for the urban poor who needed the most attention. Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MLSS) was the last line of defense against urban poverty in the provision of social insurance and the living allowance for laid-off employees. However, its effectiveness was limited in scope in which less than a quarter of the eligible urban poor actually receiving assistance. The Minimum Living Standard Scheme was first implemented in Shanghai in 1993 to help supplement the income of the urban poor. It is a last resort program that is meant to help those that don't qualify for other forms of government aid. The Minimum Living Standard Scheme set regional poverty lines and gave recipients a sum of money. The amount of money received by each recipient was the difference in their income and the poverty line. The Scheme has grown rapidly and has since been adopted by over 580 cities and 1120 counties. Rural Poverty. While poverty has been reduced immensely in China over the past decade, it still remains a large problem in rural China. Rural China has historically been disproportionately taxed and also have received fewer benefits from the recent economic development and success of China. Agriculture has been the main occupation for the inhabitants of rural China, and in villages the produce generated is used to feed the village and not for selling on the market. Even in the heartlands of China where agriculture is used for commercial purposes, the economic boom of China has actually led to a decrease in the price of produce which has resulted in a loss of income for these producers. Children growing up in poverty are more likely to be undernourished, have less educational opportunities, and have lower literacy levels. And those whose parents move to urban areas in an effort to give these children a better life—and are not allowed by the Chinese government to take their children with them—are unintentionally traumatizing and damaging these children. Studies show approximately 70% of the 'left-behind' kids—they are sometimes called the 'lost generation', or the 'damaged generation', suffer from emotional trauma, depression or anxiety. About a third of the left-behind children—20 million—will get involved in crime, while another third will need time in mental health institutions. The disproportionate amount of inequality in China's rural sector along with correlation between poverty and education shows that children born in rural China are much more likely to score lower on literacy tests and not have the opportunity to pursue higher education. The implementation of Chinese policy has exacerbated the issue of rural poverty en lieu of increased urban poverty. Typically the urbanization of a country leads to mass migration from the rural areas to the urban. However, the Chinese government implemented a policy that restricts the migration of people born in rural China from coming to urban China. This restriction is based on the citizen's registration under the hukou system, which states if the individual was born in an agricultural (rural) or non-agricultural (urban) area. Additionally, Chinese officials have been cracking down on Chinese migrants from rural communities that have moved to Beijing. In 2017, thousands of migrant workers living in Beijing were evicted because they did not possess an urban hukou. This process of removing migrants from rural to urban China, relocates them back to rural China where they no longer have a job or source of income. This is a relocation of poverty from the urban sector to the rural sector. The political response of China's government to the issue of rural poverty has been both lauded and criticized. China has been criticized for its high rate of rural poverty and the policies that the government has put in place to ameliorate the poverty. In "Transformation of Rural China," Jonathan Unger points out that the lack of taxation at the village level restricts the villages from dealing with the problems they face. This means problems such as food instability and lack of education are not able to be addressed by local officials. Supporters of government policy point out that over the time period of 1978 to 2014, China has reduced rural poverty from 250 million people to just over 70 million people. China's Rural Poverty Alleviation and Development Outline from 2001 to 2010 led to certain government policy directly dealing with the issue of poverty with the removal of agriculture tax in 2006 and a program which the government paid rural families to plant trees on degraded land. More fundamental and radical measures such as directly redistributive taxation and social security systems or land tenure and agricultural produce price reforms are not mentioned here, however: presumably because they are not considered prudent. Unequal educational opportunity. Education is a prerequisite for the development of human capital which in turn is an important factor in a country's overall development. Apart from the increasing income inequality, the education sector has long suffered from problems such as funding shortages and unequal allocation of education resources, adding to the disparity between China's urban and rural life; this was exacerbated by the two track system of government's approach to education. The first track is government -supported primary education in urban areas and the second is family -supported primary education in the rural areas. Rural education has been marginalized by the focus on immediate economic development and the fact that urban education enjoys more attention and investment by the central government. This lack of public funding meant that children of rural families were forced to drop out of school, thus losing the opportunity to further their studies and following the paths of their parents to become low skilled workers with few chances of advancements. This leads to a vicious cycle of poverty. Because of limited educational resources, urban schools were supported by the government while village schools were provided for by the local communities where educational opportunities were possibly constrained depending on local conditions. Thus, there still exist a huge gap in teacher preparation and quality of facilities between rural and urban areas. The two track system was then abolished in 1986 & 1992, to be replaced by the Compulsory Education Law and the Rule for the Implementation of the Compulsory Education Law respectively. Despite the emphasis of China's education reform on providing quality and holistic education, the rural schools still lack the capacity to implement such reforms vis-à-vis their urban counterparts. The rural areas lack the educational resources of the urban areas and the rural areas are considered to be falling below the educational benchmark set in the cities. Teachers are more attracted to urban sectors with higher pay and a slew of benefits. In addition, rural villages have a difficult time finding quality teachers because of the lower standard of living in villages. As a result, some rural teachers are not qualified as they received college degrees from continuing-education programs, which is not the best type of further education one could receive. As a result, rural students often find themselves neither competitive enough to gain admissions to colleges nor employable for most occupations. Rural residents are increasingly being marginalised in higher education, closing off their best opportunities for advancement. This is especially prominent in Tsinghua and Peking University where the percentage of rural population studying in the two universities have shrunk to 17.6 percent in 2000 and 16.3 percent in 1999, down from 50 to 60 percent in the 1950s. These numbers are the most recent reliable data that has been published and experts agree that the number might be as low as 1 percent in 2010. Restrictions on migration. Pre-reform China had a system that severely restricted people's mobility, and that system has only slowly been reformed over the past 25 years. Each person has a registration (hukou) in either a rural area or an urban area, and cannot change the hukou without the permission of the receiving jurisdiction. In practice cities usually give registration to skilled people who have offers of employment, but have generally been reluctant to provide registration to migrants from the countryside. Nevertheless, these migrants are needed for economic development, and large numbers have in fact migrated. Many of these fall into the category of "floating population". There are nearly 200 million rural residents who spend at least six months of the year working in urban areas. Many of these people have for all practical purposes moved to a city, but they do not have official registration. Beyond the floating population, there are tens of millions of people who have left rural areas and obtained urban hukous. So, there is significant rural-urban migration in China, but it seems likely that the hukou system has resulted in less migration than otherwise would have occurred. There are several pieces of evidence to support this view. First, the gap in per capita income between rural and urban areas widened during the reform period, reaching a ratio of three to one. Three to one is a very high gap by international standards. Second, manufacturing wages have risen sharply in recent years, at double-digit rates, so that China now has considerably higher wages than much of the rest of developing Asia (India, Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh). This rise is good for the incumbent workers, but they are relatively high up in China's income distribution, so that the wage increases raise inequality. It is hard to imagine that manufacturing wages would have risen so rapidly if there had not been such controls on labor migration. Third, recent studies focusing on migrants have shown that it is difficult for them to bring their families to the city, put their children in school, and obtain healthcare. So, the growth of the urban population must have been slowed down by these restrictions. China's urbanization so far has been a relatively orderly process. One does not see in China the kinds of slums and extreme poverty that exist in cities throughout South Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Nevertheless, urbanization goes on: the urban share of China's population has risen from 20% to 40% during the course of economic reform. But at the same time the hukou system has slowed and distorted urbanization, without preventing it. The system has likely contributed to inequality by limiting the opportunities of the relatively poor rural population to move to better-paying employment. Land policy. Just as Chinese citizens are either registered as urban or rural under the Hukou system, land in China is zoned as either rural or urban. Under Chinese property law, there is no privately held land. Urban land is owned by the state, which grants land rights for a set number of years. Reforms in the late 1980s and 1990s allowed for transactions in urban land, enabling citizens to sell their land and buildings, or mortgage them to borrow, while still retaining state ownership. Rural, or “collectively owned land”, is leased by the state for periods of 30 years, and is theoretically reserved for agricultural purposes, housing and services for farmers. Peasants have long-term tenure as long as they sow the land, but they cannot mortgage or sell the use rights. The biggest distortion, however, concerns moving land from rural to urban use. China is a densely populated, water-scarce country whose comparative advantage lies more in manufacturing and services than in agriculture. The fact that many peasants cannot earn a decent living as farmers is a signal that their labor is more useful in urban employment, hence the hundreds of millions of people who have migrated. But, at the same time, it is efficient to allocate some of the land out of agriculture for urban use. In China, that conversion is handled administratively, requiring central approval. Farmers are compensated based on the agricultural value of the land. But the reason to convert land – especially in the fringes around cities – is that the commercial value of the land for urban use is higher than its value for agriculture. So, even if China's laws on land are followed scrupulously, the conversion does not generate a high income for the peasants. There are cases in which the conversion is done transparently, the use of rights over the land auctioned, and the revenue collected put into the public budget to finance public goods. But still the peasants get relatively poor recompense. One government study found that 62% of displaced peasants were worse off after land conversion. Secure land tenure is recognized as a powerful tool to reduce poverty, and the central government has begun guaranteeing all farmers 30-year land rights, strictly limiting expropriations, documenting and publicizing farmers’ rights, and requiring sufficient compensation when farmers’ lands are expropriated. A 2010 survey of 17 provinces by Landesa found improved documentation of farmer's land rights, but much room for improvement: 63% of farming families have been issued land-rights certificates and 53% have land-rights contracts, but only 44% have been issued both documents (as is required by law) and 29% have no document at all; farmers who have been issued these documents are far more likely to make long-term investments in their land and are financially benefiting from those investments. Fiscal system and rural social services. Market reform has dramatically increased the return to education, as it indicates that there are good opportunities for skilled people and as it creates a powerful incentive for families to increase the education of their children. However, there needs to be strong public support for education and reasonably fair access to the education system. Otherwise, inequality can become self-perpetuating: if only high-income people can educate their children, then that group remains a privileged, high-income group permanently. China is at some risk of falling into this trap, because it has developed a highly decentralized fiscal system in which local governments rely primarily on local tax collection to provide basic services such as primary education and primary health care. China in fact has one of the most decentralized fiscal systems in the world. China is much more decentralized than OECD countries and middle-income countries, particularly on the spending side. More than half of all expenditure takes place at the sub-provincial level. In part, the sheer size of the country explains this degree of decentralization, but the structure of government and some unusual expenditure assignments also give rise to this pattern of spending. Functions such as social security, justice, and even the production of national statistics are largely decentralized in China, whereas they are central functions in most other countries. Fiscal disparities among subnational governments are larger in China than in most OECD countries. These disparities have emerged alongside a growing disparity in economic strength among the provinces. From 1990 to 2003, the ratio of per capita GDP of the richest to poorest province grew from 7.3 to 13. In China, the richest province has more than 8 times the per capita public spending than the poorest province. In the US, the poorest state has about 65 percent of the revenues of the average state, and in Germany, any state falling below 95 percent of the average level gets subsidized through the "Finanzausgleich" (and any receiving more than 110 percent gets taxed). In Brazil, the richest state has 2.3 times the revenues per capita of the poorest state. Inequalities in spending are even larger at the sub-provincial level. The richest county, the level that is most important for service delivery, has about 48 times the level of per capita spending of the poorest county. These disparities in aggregate spending levels also show up in functional categories such as health and education where variation among counties and among provinces is large. These differences in public spending translate into differences in social outcomes. Up through 1990, there were only modest differences across provinces in infant survival rate, but by 2000 there had emerged a very sharp difference, closely related to the province's per capita GDP. So too with the high-school enrollment rate: there used to be small differences across provinces. By 2003, high-school enrollment was nearing 100% in the wealthier provinces while still less than 40% in poor provinces. There is some redistribution within China's fiscal system, but arguments abound whether it is enough. Poor areas have very little tax collection and hence cannot fund education and health care. Some of their population will relocate over time. But for reasons of both national efficiency and opportunity, some theoretical economists argue for the communist state to ensure everyone has some basic education and basic health care. China's highly decentralized fiscal system results in: local government in many locations not having adequate resources to fund basic social services. As a consequence, households are left to pay for their own needs to a remarkable extent. The average hospital visit in China in 2018 is paid 35% out-of-pocket by the patient, compared to 25% in Mexico, 17% in Australia, 10% in Turkey and the United States, and lower amounts in most developed countries. Poor households either forego treatment, or travel to other cities for treatment, which can be expensive if the condition is severe. In the 2003 National Health Survey, 30% of poor households identified a large health care expenditure as the reason that they were having financial difficulties. The situation in education is similar. In a survey of 3037 villages in 2004, average primary school fees were 260 yuan and average middle-school fees, 442 yuan. A family living right at the dollar-a-day poverty line would have about 900 yuan total resources for a child for a year; sending a child to middle-school would take half of that. Not surprisingly, then, enrollment rates are relatively low in poor areas and for poor families.

limited compensation

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11189855

Marist College Eastwood is an independent Roman Catholic single-sex secondary day school for boys, located in Eastwood, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. History. The first Marist School in Australia, St Patrick's, was established in 1872 by four Marist Brothers (Brothers Ludovic Laboureyras, Jarlath Finand, Augustinus MacDonald and Peter Tennyson), at The Rocks in Sydney. On 2 February 1937, Brother Leopold Smith and three other Marist brothers (Brothers Ervan McDonough, Loyola Sullivan and Kenneth Harris) came to Eastwood and opened St Kevin's Boys' School, with 100 students. The school was established on the site of Eastwood House, the home built by William Rutledge and purchased by Edward Terry in 1863. Terry became the first mayor of Eastwood and later a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, and Eastwood House, with its extensive gardens, orchards and sporting grounds, was the location of many hunts. The house, built in 1840 and extended in 1863, forms the central administration block for the College today; being purchased by the Catholic Church using the Vatican's finances in 1929. The building's awnings, roofing, window panelling and structural support was renovated in 1990, and has since been partially rendered as recent as 2019 in its interior to account for contemporary trends in architecture and industrial design. In further developments, the school purchased the remaining terraces neighbouring its front, with their presence additionally serving for classroom and other administration purposes as three separate 'cottages'. These buildings have since been cumulatively identified as a historic site to the local City of Ryde area. The school's colours, being red, yellow and black were chosen for their iconic relation to the North Sydney Bears Rugby League team. The colours have since become an integral part of the school community, being used as a distinguishing scheme for school uniforms, musings and other media. Following its alias as 'St Kevin's Boys' School', the 1960s saw the school being named as Marist Brothers' High School, Eastwood. In this timeframe, male students from the adjoined St Kevin's Primary School would graduate by Year 4, joining the college aged 10 in Year 5. All teachers and administrative peoples were part of the Marist Brothers or another religious missionary group, and would receive funding for the school from the local parish church and parents. To aid expansionary numbers of students, the parish allocated funding to build a new academic complex in the early 1970s, now used as the school's main science and HSIE faculty building. However, such a system was short-lived, with the Sydney Catholic Archdiocese ordering a change in curriculum and pastoral-related development that would necessitate students graduating to the college two years later in Year 6, now the final year of primary school in Australia. By 1985, the early adoption of students in a 'primary' based stream was abolished, with the school still accounting for its remaining enrolments in such categories. Following the influx of lay teachers and other operative personnel, notably with the appointment of the college's first lay principal in 1987, the name of the school was changed on 2 April 1993 to Marist College Eastwood. This was coupled with the school's transition away from the sole governance of the Marist Brothers, whose authority was amalgamated to what is now recognised as the Catholic Education Office of Sydney, or Sydney Catholic Schools. Today, Marist College Eastwood is known as a 'systemic catholic school', denoting that funding from the community is directed to the Sydney Catholic Schools body, who are responsible for adequately redistributing those resources to meet the needs of different school communities. In April 1999, teacher and student representatives of the school were sent to Rome; joining with other teachers and students from Marist Schools around the world to celebrate the canonisation of Marcellin Champagnat. In 2005, the graduating class of Year 12 donated a flagpole for use in the main school yard. This gesture was repeated in 2010, with a secondary flagpole purchased by the leaving students. The poles are now used to raise the Australian and Aboriginal flags during each morning administration period. Through the turn of the century, the school has celebrated numerous events and experienced several renovations. In 2010, the college's library underwent significant redevelopment - being reopened as the 'Father Peter Ryan Learning Centre', aided through a government grant of $200,000 from the now defunct National School Pride Program, instilled by the Rudd Government in 2009. In the same year, laptops were deployed to all students in accordance with the National Secondary School Computer Fund. Being of convenience to weight, information gathering and technological intuition, laptops remain in use throughout the school; albeit in a BYOD (bring your own device) scheme. In 2012, the school celebrated the 75th anniversary of existence at St Mary's Cathedral, with the college's first enrolled boy - Jim Maloney - in attendance. The college additionally celebrated its 80th anniversary in February 2017 - coinciding with the 200th year of Marist-led education in Australia. In 2015, following an extensive 10-year planning process, the multi-purpose 'Montagne Centre' was built on the fringe of the college campus, facilitating greater enrolment capacity and recreational activities. In anticipation for the centre's construction, students established a YouTube Channel documenting the process of its creation, titled 'MCETV' in 2014. The channel is currently used to publicise commentary on wider school life, including sport reports, academic recognition and 'Malloy Cup' proceedings, and often livestreams content pertaining to School Assemblies and other internally-inclined material. In 2019, the school allocated a portion of its funding to the refurbishment of a variety of classrooms, installing new chairs, tables and other technology. With an additional variety of grants and other monetary support, the school erected several demountable structures at the once vacant block adjacent to Shaftsbury Road in 2021, supplementing further pupil expansions. Other classrooms and previously defunct facilities have additionally been renovated, and are now used as speciality classes and office spaces. In 2020, the college transitioned away from its traditional latin motto of 'Respice Finem', replacing its past ubiquity on all school material with a slogan describing 'A Daring Faith', 'A Dynamic Education' and a 'Holistic Personhood'. The Latin phrase, however, remains on the college crest. House System. There are four houses, all of which are named after people who have contributed to the development of the school: In 2005, students were provided 'house shirts' at sporting carnivals as a means to display their affiliation to a particular house. The shirts are often worn by students on sport-related events and other pastoral activities. Throughout the school year, students compete in these houses in the 'Malloy Cup', a trophy presented to the winning house at the conclusion of the school year for the epitomised sporting and academic achievements of pupils. The trophy is often regarded as a competitive element of college life, and students contribute 'points' to its attainment through individual commitments in such categories. Sport, spirituality and extracurricular activities. The school is a member of the Metropolitan Catholic Schools Sports Association (MCS) competition, where they play against schools in Sydney's metropolitan region. MCS sports include association football, rugby sevens, cricket, swimming, Australian rules football, tennis, basketball, athletics, triathlon, golf, volleyball, and rugby league. Additionally, the college offers the opportunity for students to compete in chess, public speaking, debating, musical bands, and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. Furthermore, the Maths Challenge for Young Australians is held annually, measuring student scores in abstract mathematical problems and logistical reasoning. On a triennial cycle, school staff and students part-take in the ceremonies of World Youth Day, an event coordinated by the Catholic Church to collate international communities of young adults to a singular venue within a given country. When the event was held in Sydney, in 2008, student representatives gathered in its eastern suburbs to see the speech of Pope Benedict XVI at the Randwick Racecourse. The most recent event was held in the Central-American country of Panama in Panama City throughout January 2019, and the next is scheduled in the Portuguese city of Lisbon in 2023. Likewise, the Australian Catholic Youth Festival is a biennial national event at which the school participates in, with the most recent gathering occurring in Perth in 2019. Likewise, the college annually raises funds for the Project Compassion initiative, organised by missionary group Caritas Australia. Various school-wide events occur in anticipation for donations and other monetary support in pastoral activity. Moreover, the school actively organises a 'European Tour' within a similar 3-year timeframe. With a 'cultural' and 'religious' group of students selected for travel, the college's representatives visit the significant sites of Marcellin Champagnat in France, whilst participating in the viewing of varied sporting events across the western portions of the continent. The college actively organises an annual 'Market Day', whereby the wider school community contributes consumer items for purchase in a marketplace-like environment to raise funding for a particular charitable or tangible cause. Additionally, the school hosts an 'Open Day', where prospective parents can view the contents and characteristics of the college through meeting staff and student members. Student representatives are often invited to participate in the City of Ryde's Granny Smith Festival Parade, raising publicity and awareness for the local region. Tuition. Under compliance with the New South Wales Education Standards Authority, Marist College Eastwood offers all subjects in the organisation's 'Category A' section; at minimum through a remote or distance learning model. 'Category B' courses, often known as 'Non-ATAR' subjects, are additionally offered dependent on teacher availability and interested students. For students who wish to leave the college by Year 10, yet still wish to undertake further tertiary studies, a bridging and feeder college for vocational education - Southern Catholic College - is located in the Sydney suburb of Burwood, offering a variety of programs to accommodate apprenticeships, traineeships and other physical skills in trade. Principals. Being of religious and lay affiliations, the following individuals have served as Principals of Marist College Eastwood: Alumni. As a school registered within the New South Wales Education Standards Authority, Marist College Eastwood has gradually improved its HSC result rankings over the last decade, now sitting just outside of the state's top 100 schools. The majority of graduating students enter tertiary enrolment to a university, with the local Macquarie University accounting for the majority of pupil output. Upon a student leaving the college, they are invited to part-take in the school's Old Boys Association, whom actively meet in reunions and committee hearings or gatherings to discuss manners pertaining to the wider school community. To date, over 6000 boys have been educated by the college.

ministerial services

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=21201818

The coastline of the North Sea has been evolving since the end of the last ice age. The coastline varies from fjords, river estuaries to mudflats. The eastern and western coasts of the North Sea are jagged, as they were stripped by glaciers during the ice ages. The coastlines along the southernmost part are soft, covered with the remains of deposited glacial sediment, which was left directly by the ice or has been redeposited by the sea. The Norwegian mountains plunge into the sea, giving rise, north of Stavanger, to deep fjords and archipelagos. South of Stavanger, the coast softens, the islands become fewer. The eastern Scottish coast is similar, though less severe than Norway. Starting from Flamborough Head in the north east of England, the cliffs become lower and are composed of less resistant moraine, which erodes more easily, so that the coasts have more rounded contours. In the Netherlands, Belgium and in the east of England (East Anglia) the littoral is low and marshy. The east coast and south-east of the North Sea (Wadden Sea) have coastlines that are mainly sandy and straight owing to longshore currents, particularly along Belgium and Denmark. Northern fjords, skerries, and cliffs. The northern North Sea coasts bear the impression of the enormous glaciers which covered them during the Ice Ages and created fjords, lakes and valleys along the coastline and landscape. Fjords arose by the action of glaciers, which dragged their way through them from the highlands, cutting and scraping deep trenches in the land. Fjords are particularly common on the coast of Norway. Firths are similar to fjords, but are generally shallower with broader bays in which small islands may be found. The glaciers that formed them influenced the land over a wider area and scraped away larger areas. Firths are to be found on the Scottish coast. Individual islands in the firths, or islands and the coast, are often joined up by sandbars or spits made up of sand deposits known as "tombolos". Towards the south the firths give way to a cliff coast, which was formed by the moraines of Ice Age glaciers. The horizontal impact of waves on the North Sea coast gives rise to eroded coasts. The cliff landscape is interrupted in southern England by large estuaries with their corresponding fringing marshes, notably the Humber and the Thames. There are skerries in southern Norway formed by similar action to that which created the fjords and firths. The glaciers in these places affected the land to an even greater extent, so that large areas were scraped away. The coastal brim ("Strandflaten"), which is found especially in southern Norway, is a gently sloping lowland area between the sea and the mountains. It consists of plates of rock platforms, and often extends for kilometres, reaching under the sea, at a depth of only a few metres. Southern shoals and mudflats. The shallow-water coasts of the southern and eastern coast up to Denmark were formed by ice age activity, but their particular shape is determined for the most part by the sea and sediment deposits. The Wadden Sea stretches between Esbjerg, Denmark in the north and Den Helder, Netherlands in the west. This landscape is heavily influenced by the tides and important sections of it have been declared a National Park. The whole of the coastal zone is shallow; the tides flood large areas and uncover them again, constantly depositing sediments. The Southern Bight has been especially changed by land reclamation, as the Dutch have been especially active. The largest project of this type was the diking and reclamation of the IJsselmeer. Tidal forces have formed the Frisian Islands. In the micro tidal area, (a tidal range of up to , such as on the Dutch or Danish coasts, barrier beaches with dunes are formed. In the mesotidal area (a tidal range of between ), barrier islands are formed; in the macrotidal area (above tidal range), intertidal deposits raise the spring tide range . A soft rock coast is formed in the meso-macro tidal areas located in the southern North Sea. These soft rock coastal bedrock plains are interspersed with soft rock (shale and sandstone) cliffs. The small, historically strategic island of Heligoland was not formed by sediment deposition; it is considerably older and is composed of early Triassic sandstone.

related processes

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=15674115

Sharjah ( ""; Gulf Arabic: "aš-šārja") is the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, forming part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. The emirate of Sharjah borders with Dubai to the south, Ajman and Umm Al Quwain to the north and Ras Al Khaimah to the east. It is the only emirate that overlooks the coastline on the Persian Gulf to the west and the Gulf of Oman (Indian Ocean) to the East, with the eastern Sharjah coastal towns of Kalba and Khor Fakkan. Sharjah is the capital of the emirate of the same name. Sharjah shares legal, political, military and economic functions with the other emirates of the UAE within a federal framework, although each emirate has jurisdiction over some functions such as civil law enforcement and provision and upkeep of local facilities. Sharjah has been ruled by the Al Qasimi dynasty since the 18th century. The city is a centre for culture and industry, and alone contributes 7.4% of the GDP of the United Arab Emirates. The city covers an approximate area of 235 km2 and has a population of over 800,000 (2008). The sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages is prohibited in the emirate of Sharjah without possession of an alcohol licence and alcohol is not served in Sharjah hotels, restaurants or other outlets due to the Muslim majority in the area. This has helped Sharjah increase the number of Islamic tourists who visit the country. Sharjah has been officially named as a WHO healthy city. The 2016 edition of QS Best Student Cities ranked Sharjah as the 68th best city in the world to be a university student. Sharjah is regarded as the cultural capital of the UAE, and was the Islamic culture capital in 2014. Sharjah was named World Book Capital for 2019 by UNESCO. Etymology. Sultan Al Omaimi, a UAE poet and researcher in folk literature, says that some historians speculate that Sharjah was the name of an idol worshipped in the ancient era which was known as Abed Al Shareq. Other researchers link the word Sharjah to the fact that the city is located to the east ('sharq' means 'east' in Arabic), of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. History. Sharjah was historically one of the wealthiest towns in this region with a settlement in existence for over 5000 years. In the early 18th century, the Qawasim clan (Huwayla tribe) established itself in Sharjah, c.1727 declaring Sharjah independent. On 8 January 1820, Sheikh Sultan I signed the General Maritime Treaty with Britain, accepting a protectorate to keep the Ottoman Turks out. Like four of its neighbours, Ajman, Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah, and Umm Al Quwain, its position on the route to India made it important enough to be recognised as a salute state (be it of the lowest class: 3 guns). In 1829, English author and traveler James Silk Buckingham described Sharjah as such: By the turn of the 20th century, Sharjah extended inland to the area now known as Wasit Suburb, the area between the city and Dhaid being under the control of the tribes of the interior. With some 15,000 inhabitants, Sharjah had some 4 or 5 shops in Layyah and a bazaar of some 200 shops in Sharjah proper. At the height of World War II, Nazi propaganda infiltrated the town. Loud transmissions of pro-Hitler speeches could be heard emanating from the Sheikh of Sharjah's palace during a period in 1940, and messages sharing a similar sentiment had been graffitied on walls in the town centre according to British intelligence reports at the time. Because the message being propagated by the Germans was one of anti-Imperialism, it found a sympathetic audience among the emirate's populace, particularly Abdullah bin Faris, a secretary of the Sheikh who was responsible for the broadcasts. After the Sheikh was confronted by the British, he wrote a letter reiterating his support for the British war efforts and disputed the charges laid out against bin Faris. Attached to the letter was a petition signed by 48 prominent individuals testifying to bin Faris' character, which, according to the British, had been misrepresented to the signees. The incident resolved after the Sheikh and bin Faris ceased from transmitting propaganda and doubled down on their support of the British. On 2 December 1971, Sharjah, together with Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ajman, Umm Al Qawain and Fujairah joined in the Act of Union to form the United Arab Emirates. The seventh emirate, Ras Al Khaimah, joined the UAE on 10 February 1972, following giant non-Arab neighbour Iran's annexation of the RAK-owned Tunbs islands. Like the other former Trucial States, Sharjah's name is known by many stamp collectors because of the large numbers of stamps that were issued by the Sharjah Post Office shortly before the formation of the United Arab Emirates, which became part of the class of virtually worthless stamps known to collectors as Dunes. Many of these items feature subjects unrelated to the emirates whose names they bear, and therefore many catalogues do not list them. Districts and Landmarks. Sharjah is the third largest city in the United Arab Emirates after Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The palace of the ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah, His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, is located about southeast of the city. The city of Sharjah overlooks the Persian Gulf and has a population of over 800,000 (2008). It contains the main administrative and commercial centres together with an array of cultural and traditional projects, including several museums covering areas such as archaeology, natural history, science, arts, heritage, Islamic art and culture. Distinctive landmarks include two major covered "souks", reflecting Islamic design, and a number of recreational areas and public parks such as Al Montazah Fun Park and Al Buheirah Corniche. The city is also notable for its numerous elegant mosques. Rolla Square. Named after the large rolla (banyan tree) that once stood in the square and that inspired the sculpture currently at the centre of the park, Rolla Square is a common location for workers to stroll during the weekends. Bank Street. Bank street is near main area of Rolla there are many bank branches are there and offices. Al Hisn Sharjah. Sharjah Fort was demolished in the 1970s but rebuilt and is today a museum. 'Smile You're In Sharjah' Roundabout. Located between the Blue Souq and Fish Market, near the Union Bank Tower, the floral call to cheer up etched on the roundabout has lent its name to the roundabout itself. Currently the roundabout is being upgraded and is under construction. Gold Souq. The Souq Al Markazi, or Gold Souq, is a tourist destination and comprises a gold souq, clothing souq and, on its first floors, antiques and jewellery shops. Mahattah Fort. The fort was built to house travellers on the Imperial Airways Eastern Empire route and was the site of Sharjah Airport until 1977. It is now an aviation museum. Heritage District. The Heart of Sharjah houses several galleries, and museums including the heritage museum which gives a great insight into the cultural traditions of the past. The area is also home to the traditional Souk Al Arsa, a covered souk with an array of items to sell including antiques and the office of the Sharjah Centre for Cultural Communication where you can get info on Sharjah attractions. Al Qasba Canal. Al-Qasba Canal is a 1 km-long canal that runs through the centre of Sharjah. Located along its waterfront are several apartments, shops and tourist attractions of the Al Qasba community. Sharjah Heritage Museum. The Sharjah Heritage Museum is situated near to the Bait Al Naboodah is just opposite Soouq Al Arsah. This is an architecturally designed two-storey family house. It is built around a shaded courtyard and is dedicated to a family life reconstruction many years ago. There are many rooms which has displays of traditional furniture along with household items too. Moreover, there are also provision of children's costumes, games and jewellery. Sharjah National Park. Sharjah National Park covers an area of nearly of area. Sharjah Aquarium. Located in Al Layyeh, Sharjah aquarium has over 250 species to see right from the delicate seahorses to smallest clown fish, reef sharks, rays and moray eels. Visitors can submerge themselves to the colorful, diverse and rich undersea world which is home to a variety of marine life which is native to the sea. Al Noor Island. Al Noor Island is located in the Khalid Lagoon and covers an area of 45,470 square metres. The destination project features art and light installations, including the 'OVO' and 'Torus' displays. Wildlife Centers. The Arabian Wildlife Center opened in 1999 and was home to more than 100 species of animals. Situated at a convenient location, this center was quite close to the Sharjah International Airport. Despite the hot and dry conditions in most of Arabia, there were a number of mammal species who had adapted to these conditions. The Breeding Centre for Endangered Wildlife, a sister facility, was a member of the EAZA, like Al Ain Zoo in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, but is now closed to the public. The fauna, including the Arabian leopard, which had been recorded in the mountains in the eastern part of the country, there were shifted to Al Hefaiyah Conservation Centre in the eastern area of Kalba. The center's activities had included assisting the Yemeni zoos of Sana'a and Ta'izz with taking care of their fauna in 2001. Al Majaz Waterfront. Al Majaz Waterfront is an expansion and beautification of the existing park in order to enhance it into a family-friendly leisure area, a waterfront landmark of Sharjah Featuring an audio-video dancing fountain, miniature golf and a number of restaurants. Rain Room. In 2018, the experiential art installation "Rain Room" was given a permanent home in Sharjah. Sharjah Art Foundation constructed a purpose-built visitor centre located in the city's residential area of Al Majarrah to house the permanent installation of Rain Room, with up to six visitors at a time taking fifteen minutes to explore the experience. People can experience rain all around them without getting wet. There are sensors which help detect your movement and prevent rain from falling on you directly but fall all around you. The Flying Saucer. Reconstructed in 2015 and launched as a redeveloped arts and community centre in 2020, The Flying Saucer, Sharjah is a well-known landmark, a brutalist building dating back to the 1970s. It was re-opened after a two-year renovation project by the Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF). Sharjah Light Festival. Sharjah Light Festival is held every year since 2010 on various landmarks around sharjah. It is a display of lights using projectors and lasers on buildings. Usually the shows have a small story line or a theme. Places of worship. Sharjah's largest mosque, named the "Sharjah Mosque" was inaugurated in May 2019. Located in the area of Tay, at the junction of the Emirates Road and the road to Mleiha, it can accommodate up to 25,000 worshipers, with an inside capacity of over 5,000 people. Two coins, one gold and one silver, each inscribed with a verse from the Quran, were issued by the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, and designed by the Sharjah Islamic Bank, to commemorate the occasion. Previously, the King Faisal Mosque, named after King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, had been the largest in the Emirate and country, with an area of . Sharjah also has the biggest Moscow-style Russian Orthodox church in the country. Mleiha Archaeological Centre. Meliha Archaeological Centre is a visitor centre and exhibition based around the history and archaeology of the areas surrounding the village of Mleiha in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates Al Rahmaniyah Parks. In March 2021, the Sharjah Investment and Development authorities opened two parks in the Al Rahmaniyah, Kshisha and Shaghrafa, built in a total area of 147,700 sqm. It included a female-only park, along with entertainment, social, sports and educational facilities. Climate. Sharjah has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification "BWh"), with warm winters and extremely hot and humid summers. Rainfall is generally light and erratic, and occurs almost entirely from November to April. About two-thirds of the year's rain falls in the months of February and March. Transport. The city has reasonably well developed transport infrastructure. Like many major cities, Sharjah has a problem with vehicular traffic congestion during rush hours especially the roads leading to and from the Emirate of Dubai. The role of the Sharjah Public Transport Corporation (SPTC) is to reinforce public transportation, setting its policies and find strategic solutions for smooth traffic, providing modern and professional transport services to the passengers, driving Sharjah Emirate or on the InterCity routes, between all emirates in UAE. Development of transportation services in Sharjah is critical and long term task. Planning by SPTC since 2008 Sharjah Metro will be third in UAE (after Dubai and Abu Dhabi metros) and planning since 2015 Sharjah Tram will be second (after Dubai Tram). The Sharjah International Airport is the aviation hub of the city. Sharjah Airport is the third largest Middle East airfreight hub in cargo tonnage, according to official 2015 statistics from Airports Council International. Sharjah International Airport is home base of the low-cost carrier Air Arabia. It has daily flights connecting Lebanon, Jordan, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Ukraine, India, Egypt, Syria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Iran, etc. There are two major series of highways in Sharjah, which are "E" and "S". E represents roads connecting other emirates and S for roads within the emirates. The major roads in the emirate of Sharjah include: Taxis in Sharjah are clean, well maintained and reasonable. Sharjah Public Transportation Corporation is organizing and supervising the operations of taxis in Sharjah Emirate. Sharjah taxi service is provided through franchise companies. They cover all parts of the Emirate and cities, including shopping centres, residential areas and airport. Following are the major taxi operators in the emirates. Sharjah Transport Corporation also provides Sharing Transportation with the purpose of serving certain routes in Sharjah City on a fixed rate for each route without using the meter. Sharjah Sharing Taxi routes are carefully selected to support people with low income and are covering areas with frequent needs for quick transfer within same location, to ease the traffic situation in Sharjah. Sharjah Public Transport Corporation operates passenger bus services nationwide, between Sharjah City, Ras Al Khaimah, Khor Fakkan, Kalba, Fujairah, Masafi, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Hamriyah Free Zone, Dhaid, Al Madam, Dibba Al Hisn, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai. Utility services. Utility services in the emirate is provided by SEWA (Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority). They provide electricity, water and LPG connection to about 2 Million consumers in the emirates. They have over 4000 employees serving till Dhaid, Kalba and Khorfakkan. Telephone services in the emirate both fixed lines and mobile services are provided by Govt owned Etislat and Du communication Ltd. Culture. The UAE culture mainly revolves around the religion of Islam and traditional Arab culture. The influence of Islamic and Arab culture on its architecture, music, attire, cuisine and lifestyle are very prominent as well. Five times every day, Muslims are called to prayer from the minarets of mosques which are scattered around the country. Since 2006, the weekend has been Friday-Saturday, as a compromise between Friday's holiness to Muslims and the Western weekend of Saturday-Sunday. The Ruler of Sharjah ordered the establishment of several cultural institutions. The projects covered conservation of cultural heritage, active interaction with other cultures, construction of museums and the other cultural, scientific and artistic centres in the Emirate and the setting up of a television satellite channel that reflects and projects the value of culture. In 1998, Sharjah was awarded the "Cultural Capital of the Arab World" title by UNESCO representing the United Arab Emirates. Sharjah has kept the spirit of its history alive by indicatively incorporating tradition into every aspect of contemporary development. A cultural heritage project, Heart of Sharjah, has been undertaken to preserve and restore the old town of Sharjah and return it to its 1950s state. A five-phase project intended for completion in 2025, the project is being undertaken by the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority, Shurooq, together with Sharjah Institute for Heritage, the Sharjah Museums Department, and the Sharjah Art Foundation. Sharjah International Book Fair is a cultural event held every year in Sharjah. It started in the year 1982 and now it attracts publishers, readers and speakers from all over the world. Sharjah also boasts a unique Russian culture with its Russian expats and Russian Orthodox Church- the only Russian Orthodox Church in the United Arab Emirates to-date. Economy. Sharjah is the headquarters of Air Arabia, the first low-cost airline in the Middle East, which operates to the Middle East, Asia and Europe. The headquarters is in the Sharjah Freight Center, on the property of Sharjah International Airport. Sharjah Airport International Free Zone, popularly known as SAIF Zone, is one of the prominent free-trade zones in UAE. More than 6000 companies operates from SAIF Zone. The cost of setting up business in Sharjah is less than in any other emirates of UAE, and the focus of industrialisation has in recent years turned Sharjah into a commercial centre. Thanks to the facility of 100% foreign ownership, repatriation of capital and profits and exemption from income and corporate taxes, SAIF Zone has attracted investors from more than 90 countries. Hamriyah Free Zone: Established in 1995, it offers competitive and unique opportunities to establish business in a tax-free environment, full company ownership, exemption from all commercial levies and repatriation of capital and profits. The Free Zone provides access to a 14 meter deep water port and a 7 meter deep inner harbor. Demographics. According to 2015 census conducted by department of statistics and community development in Sharjah, the total population of the emirate is 1.40 Million. Expatriates constitute 87% of the total population. As per the census the total number of Emirati population is only 175,432. The population density of the Emirates is 341 person per km2. Like the rest of UAE, Arabic is the official and national language of the emirate. English is used as a second language; Tagalog and South Asian languages such as Hindi, Odia, Urdu, Malayalam, Tamil, Bengali etc. are spoken widely by the residents of emirates. Russian language is also used a lot for the majority European and Central Asian community. Islam is the predominant religion in the Emirate of Sharjah. Education. There are several public and private schools in addition to universities in Sharjah, including the University of Sharjah, American University of Sharjah, Skyline College Sharjah, Al Qasimia University, Westford School of Management, Exeed School of Business and Finance Sharjah Men's College, and Sharjah Women's College. Some of these universities are located in one area called the University City. Private schools in the city include Victoria English School, the Sharjah Indian School, Sharjah English School, Delta English School, Emirates National school, American Community School Sharjah, Indian School Sharjah, the International School of Choueifat, Sharjah, Sharjah High School, DPS Delhi Private School, Gulf Asian English School, Our Own English High School, And American school of creative science. Healthcare. Health care in Sharjah can be divided in to two different sectors, Public and Private. Public hospitals in the emirates are administered by Government of Sharjah through Ministry of health. The emirate also has 9 public medical centres to provide primary health care services. Sports. The Sharjah Cricket Stadium has hosted almost 218 cricket One Day Internationals, more than any other ground, and 4 Test matches. There's also Sharjah in the UAE Pro League. Sharjah also has a chess club. Also, the organisers of Sharjah Grand Prix host the Formula One World Powerboating Championships every year at Al Buhaira Corniche, Sharjah. In 2005, it was held under the patronage of Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Sharjah. Also, since IPL 2020 was held in UAE, Sharjah Cricket Stadium was one of the three stadiums to hold the matches.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=8718910

The Eurocopter EC130 (now Airbus Helicopters H130) is a single engine light utility helicopter developed from the earlier Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil, one of the primary changes from which was the adoption of a Fenestron anti-torque device in place of a conventional tail rotor. It was launched and produced by the Eurocopter Group, which would later be rebranded as Airbus Helicopters. Development. During the 1980s, there was considerable interest within French aerospace manufacturer Aerospatiale to further develop their successful AS350 B3 Écureuil rotorcraft, which had been originally developed in the early 1970s. On 6 February 1987, a prototype AS350 Z (a modified AS350 B2) conducted its first flight with a Fenestron tail-rotor fitted in the place of its conventional counterpart. The AS350 Z test program stretched across several years, the aircraft receiving additional modifications such as a new air intake based on that of the Eurocopter EC120. The AS350 Z contributed to the overall development of the fenestron tail rotor. In the early 1990s, development of the new rotorcraft continued under Eurocopter, Aerospatiale having merged into the multinational Eurocopter organisation. On 24 June 1999, the first prototype EC130 performed its first flight, being flown from an airfield in France by Steven Page, an Australian test pilot. Major changes from the preceding AS350 included the adoption of a dual-hydraulic system, the enclosed Fenestron anti-torque device, and a wide main body to provide for a cabin with considerably greater internal space. The EC130 was designed in close cooperation with tour operators, one such operator, Blue Hawaiian Helicopters, being the launch operator; it has been described as having a spacious cabin for accommodating up to seven tourists and providing excellent external visibility. In 2001, the EC130 entered service with Blue Hawaiian Helicopters, being used for aerial tours of scenic areas such as Hawaii and the Grand Canyon. The EC130 is principally aimed at commercial passenger transportation operators, such as aerial tour companies, whereas the preceding AS350 continued to be produced and marketed for utility operations instead. Vertical Magazine described the EC130 as being "one of the most highly successful single engine helicopters in air medical service". In February 2012, Eurocopter formally unveiled the EC130 T2, an upgraded variant of the EC130 featuring the more powerful Turbomeca Arriel 2D turboshaft engine. Improving upon the base model's performance; more than 70% of the EC130 T2's airframe differed from the initial EC130 model, changes to improve passenger conditions such as an active vibration control system and better air conditioning systems were adopted, while fuel consumption is claimed to be reduced by 14 per cent. In 2012, Eurocopter received orders for 50 EC130 T2 from Maverick Helicopters, and other customers such as Papillon and Blue Hawaiian took the total then on order for the new variant to 105. The EC130 T2 was introduced to service in 2012. In 2013, Airbus Helicopters reported that a production rate of 50 EC130 T2s would be produced that year, and that this was expected to rise to 65 per year in 2014. In August 2013, Airbus Helicopter's Brazilian subsidiary Helibras assembled its first EC130 T2; the first Australian-assembled EC130 T2 followed in December 2013. Design. The EC130 is a single-engine helicopter. It uses an automatically varying three-bladed Starflex main rotor which is matched to an enclosed tail fan anti-torque device, known as a Fenestron, the latter feature replacing the traditional tail rotor found on the older AS350. The Fenestron has unevenly spaced blades to reduce noise generation by 50% compared to a tail rotor; this enabled an FAA Appendix H fly-over noise signature of 84.3 EPNdB, 8.5 dB below stage two limits. The EC130 uses the Turbomeca Arriel 2D turboshaft engine; the performance of this powerplant has led to the type having been described as possessing "better power margins and range than competing models, particularly in hot and high conditions". The EC130 T2's enhanced Arriel engine is equipped with Full Authority Digital Engine Controls; a dual hydraulic system derived from the Eurocopter AS355 was also adopted. The EC130 was designed with various avionics and safety features, including flight data recorders, crash-worthy seats, and redundant flight systems for greater reliability; the EC130 T2 had further safety features installed. Vertical Magazine described the cockpit instrumentation as being "straightforward" and the control response as "tight and pleasant". Piloting aids such as the Vehicle and Engine Multifunction Display (VEMD) is claimed to reduced pilot workload, thereby increasing ease-of-use and overall safety. Dependent on customer demand and role, tactical instrumentation and equipment consoles may also be installed in the cockpit. Typically the cockpit is configured for single pilot operations, the pilot being seated on the left-hand side of the forward cabin to reduce the risk of passenger interference with the controls posed by a right-hand position; dual controls can be optionally installed. The EC130 is equipped with integrated visual flight rules (VFR) equipment coupled to a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, making it readily capable of flight under both day and night conditions. The EC130 reportedly has the largest cabin of any single engine helicopter in its class, with reportedly 54 per cent greater unobstructed space and 143 per cent more baggage space than the competing Bell 407. On the EC130, there are three prime seating configurations; a standard layout with a single pilot and six passengers, a similar arrangement with the two central seats facing aft, and a high density layout with three front passengers seats in line with the pilot. The EC130 was the first rotorcraft to become available with the business executive-orientated "Stylence" cabin configuration. The EC130 T2 is equipped with active anti-vibration control systems adapted from the Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma, these comprise five accelerometers and four linear actuators to produce smooth flight conditions and improved comfort for passengers on board. The EC130 can also be quickly configured between passenger and freight configurations. In the emergency medical services (EMS) role, various interior configurations have been developed for the type; optional equipment includes customised mounting points for medical equipment, air compressors and liquid oxygen tanks, and United Rotorcraft’s Lowered Patient Loading System (LPLS). The EC130 has been popular with Air medical services (AMS) operators due to its large cabin being capable of accommodating up to two stretchers and two attendees, as well as a baggage area for storing equipment, wide side doors for access, and its enclosed Fenestron tail for safety. For law enforcement roles, the ability for various optional equipment to be installed on the EC130 is promoted, such as electro-optical systems, forward-looking infrared (FLIR) cameras, and search lights. In a cargo capacity, it is common for the rotorcraft to be fitted with additional external mirrors and a cargo sling. Operational history. In 2007, it was reported that the strongest demands for the EC130 and other such single-engine helicopters has come from Latin American and North American markets. By May 2008, the EC130 had overtaken the Bell 206 as the best-selling single-engine rotorcraft on the market. In 2012, Flight International referred to the EC130 as being one of Eurocopter's best-selling rotorcraft, noting that 238 orders had been placed in 2011, a 40 per cent increase over the previous year. In 2007, an EC130 was used as a test aircraft in a large-scale flight test campaign to trial new noise-minimising (both externally and internally) flight procedures through the typical flight envelope, including during take-off, approach, and while at cruise. In February 2008, it was announced that aerial tour operator Maverick Helicopters' fleet of 28 EC130s, the largest single operator in the world, had accumulated a combined total of 60,000 flight hours. By March 2015, Maverick's fleet was officially recognised as having attained 300,000 flying hours. Maverick also served as the launch customer for the improved EC130 T2. By 2015, Airbus Helicopters reported that the EC130 was in service with 279 operators and had accumulated more than 1,177,000 total flight hours worldwide. In February 2016, Indonesian industrial estate developer Jababeka signed a memorandum of understanding for up to 12 H130s for an intercity shuttle service between Jakarta and Cikarang.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=39446055

San Carlos de Borromeo Fortress () is a colonial fortress in the Bay of Pampatar in the northeast of Isla Margarita, Venezuela. It was completed in 1684 for protection against the constant threat of pirates. The fortress was ransacked several times before Venezuela gained independence from Spain. Today the castle has been restored and serves as a museum. History. Pampatar, or Port Royal Mampatare, was founded in 1536 on the shore of the best protected deep water anchorage on the island. The city was divided into two parts due to the irregular coastline. The original castle was built over a period of about 20 years, started in 1622. It was sited in the heart of the old city, looking out over the Bay of Pampatar. Its purpose, together with the La Caranta fort on the other side of the bay, was to protect the town from pirates with crossfire. The fort was destroyed by Dutch pirates in 1662 when they burned Pampatar. In 1664 Captain Carlos Navarro began the reconstruction of the castle after a design by military engineer Juan Betín. In 1676 Juan Muñoz Gadea was appointed Governor of Margarita. When he reached the island in August 1677 he found that it had been devastated earlier in the year by a privateering raid by the French Marquis de Maintenon. Gadea focused all available resources, including some of his own funds, on completing and manning Fort San Carlos. The work was eventually completed in 1684. In subsequent years the castle was destroyed and rebuilt several times. La Caranta was destroyed by pirates in 1626. The ruins remain. During the Venezuelan War of Independence the revolutionary Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi was held in the castle in 1816 while being moved from the Castillo de Santa Rosa in La Asunción to the prison in La Guaira on the mainland. She is considered the heroine of the war of independence, and her remains are now in the National Pantheon of Venezuela. On 3 November 1816 the Spanish were forced to evacuate Isla Margarita. After boarding all the soldiers and supplies, they left a lighted fuse leading to a pile of gunpowder that would have destroyed the castle. A revolutionary soldier noticed the fuse by accident and extinguished it before any damage was done. The next year the Spanish under General Pablo Morillo returned to the island and made the fort their headquarters during a campaign to regain control. However, after six weeks in which the islanders reverted to guerrilla warfare the Spanish returned to the mainland. Structure. The castle is a classical example of contemporary military architecture, typical of fortifications built along the coast of Venezuela during that period. The fort has thick stone walls. The square structure has four observation towers, one at each corner. The base is star-shaped. The coastal battery consisted of a dozen cannon pointing across the bay. There is a moat around the fort, but it was never practical to fill it with water. Today. San Carlos de Borromeo Castle has been renovated and is now a museum. Many of the fort's rooms were made into exhibition areas. The restoration was completed in 1968. The museum includes paintings of heroes of the War of Independence, and of events in the war. One commemorates the Battle of Matasiete, and is the most popular item in the collection. In this battle, fought on 31 July 1817, revolutionary forces under General Francisco Esteban Gómez defeated Spanish Royalist forces under the command of General Morillo outside La Asunción, a few miles to the northwest. There are also old weapons and a replica of Christopher Columbus's boat, the "Santa María". The museum also has a collection of memorabilia of Luisa Caceres de Arismendi. References. Citations Sources

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20123232

The 1st Asian Youth Games was held in Singapore from June 29, 2009 to July 7, 2009 in over 90 sporting events. The plan for the Asian Youth Games was part of Singapore's bid to stage the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics (YOG). The purpose was to allow youths to use the chance to benchmark their performances against youth teams from Asian nations. The Games also provided Singapore with an opportunity to test organisational and logistical capabilities in advance of the 2010 YOG. The organisation of the Games, spearheaded by the Singapore Sports Council, cost S$15 million, which was part of the $130 million for YOG. Torch relay. The 1st Asian Youth Games torch relay started on June 28 morning with the "Community and Corporate Leg". The flame lighting ceremony was held on June 28 at the Kallang Waterfront. The flame is then carried across the island in buses to arrive at the start of the three routes, named after the Olympic values of Friendship, Excellence and Respect. A total of 70 torchbearers were involved in day one of the relay. The torch relay resumed on June 29 for the "Schools leg", with the flame travelling to 45 schools around Singapore, where over a hundred runners had the honour of carrying the torch. The relay ended at the Singapore Indoor Stadium where three athletes ran in with the torches and light the cauldron as part of the Opening Ceremony celebrations. Branding. Theme song. The theme song entitled "Asia's Youth, Our Future" was unveiled on March 19, 2009. The song carries the message of hope and friendship and was composed by musician Iskandar Ismail, and written jointly by Jose Raymond and Hoo Cher Liek. The singers are Nathan Hartono and Lian Kim Selby. Emblem. The official emblem of the 2009 Asian Youth Games was unveiled on November 14, 2008 and designed by Brainwave Design. The logo, as described by Olympic Council of Asia, represents excellence and victory that the athletes will bring during the Games. Mascot. "Frasia", which means Friends of Asia, is the name of the official mascot for the 1st Asian Youth Games. The mascot embodies the values and spirit of the Asian Youth Games. The sprightly lion exemplifies friendship, respect and excellence. It constitutes a spirited representation of young hearts and minds in pursuit of sporting excellence. Stamps. Many countries' postal services have also released stamps, such as the Uzbekistan. Broadcast. The sports events were broadcast 'live' primarily via the official website through 4 concurrent 'live' streams during the games period. It was the first multi-sport event to receive approval from the Olympic Council of Asia to provide broadcast coverage of all the sports events completely via digital channels. Singapore's television channel, MediaCorp Channel 5 provided daily highlights of the Games. StarHub TV had 4 dedicated TV channels to provide coverage for the Games. The opening ceremony was broadcast 'live' via the website. In addition, Video On-Demand Clips capturing key sporting highlights of the various games were made available. Venues. The Asian Youth Games and the 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games are expected to use the same competition venues. NTUC Downtown East originally was the planned Games Village for athletes and officials. However, a decision was made to move the Games Village to central Singapore at Swissotel The Stamford. The change was made as NTUC Downtown East does not have enough beds for the athletes. Due to the H1N1 outbreak, Swissotel The Stamford catered the ninth floor to suspect cases in athletes. Opening ceremony. Themed "Asia's Youth, Our Future", the inaugural Asian Youth Games opening ceremony on June 29 was held in the Singapore Indoor Stadium. More than 1,400 performers from 20 schools and tertiary institutions are taking part in the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony was graced by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Representatives from the Olympic Council of Asia and the Singapore National Olympic Council were also be present. There were three segments which were showcased: 'Asia's Zest', 'Garden in the City', and 'Spirit Of Evolution'. The AYG cauldron was lit by three Singaporean young athletes, Tao Li (swimming), Remy Ong (bowling), and Jasmine Ser (shooting). Participating nations. The Singapore Asian Youth Games 2009 saw an estimated 1300 athletes aged between 14 and 17 from 43 countries competing in more than 80 sporting events. Sports. Attempts were made to stage all 26 YOG sports but, due to time and resource constraints, Singapore and the Olympic Council of Asia trimmed it to nine. There were a total of 9 sports, the 8 that the Singapore and the Olympic Council of Asia trimmed down from the 26 YOG sports as well as an addition sport of Bowling which is not an official Olympics Sport. Incidents. An athlete from Philippines who was participating in the football matches came down with H1N1 flu., causing the Group A football preliminary match between Philippines and Chinese Taipei due to be played at Meridian Junior College at 5pm (1700hrs) on June 20, 2009 to be suspended till further notice. The player's condition is stable, according to the AYG2009 website. Four cases of AH1N1 flu virus were discovered from the Hong Kong booters on June 22. Malaysia has withdrawn most of its athletes (with the exception of their sailors) due to concerns over the H1N1 outbreak.

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Bill Bowers (born April 16, 1959) is an American mime artist and actor based in New York City. As an actor, mime and educator, Bill has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. He is a Movement for Actors Instructor at NYU Tisch School for the Arts and also teaches at the William Esper Studio and the Stella Adler Studio in NYC. Early life. Bill was born in Missoula, Montana and graduated from Montana's Rocky Mountain College with the Dean's Cup, President's Award, and was valedictorian. After graduation he headed east to New Jersey where he continued his collegiate studies and earned an MFA from Rutgers University's prestigious Mason Gross School of the Arts. In 2001 Bowers was awarded an Honorary Ph.D. from Rocky Mountain College, and was invited to give the Commencement speech in 2011. He has received numerous awards and accolades for his solo performances, and also named Artist of Eminence by the University of Wyoming in 2009. In 2011 Bill was awarded the Glidden Fellowship at Ohio University. Bill was named Artist in Residence at the All For One Theatre, and also at the Harold Clurman Center for New Works in Movement and Dance for 2015-16. Career. Bowers appeared on Broadway as Zazu in Disney's "The Lion King", and Leggett in "The Scarlet Pimpernel". After studying with the legendary mime Marcel Marceau, Bowers became a mime full time. Bill's autobiographical play "It Goes Without Saying", opened Off Broadway in 2006 at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and enjoyed a sold-out, extended run. Since that time "It Goes Without Saying" has been presented throughout the U.S, and has received numerous awards, including Best Production at the United Solo Festival, International Fresh Fruit Festival, and the Dallas/Fort Worth Critics Forum. In 2013, "It Goes Without Saying" received numerous five star reviews at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Edinburgh Scotland, and was rated an audience favorite in the festival. In 2014 Bill was awarded the Grand Prix at the International Thespis Festival in Kiel, Germany, one of the world's largest festivals. He continues to garner rave reviews and top honors at festivals in Estonia, Serbia, Macedonia, Norway, and Korea. His solo work, "Beyond Words", premiered in New York City in the Fall of 2011 at Urban Stages and is now being presented throughout the U.S. "Beyond Words" also received strong reviews and was named Best Solo Performance in the United Solo Festival and the Best Encore Performance in 2015, as well as the International Fresh Fruit Festival. In November 2013, the show finished a short run in New York City at the Cherry Lane Theatre. "Beyond Words" was also featured in the New Masculinities Festival in NYC. In 2009 he premiered his ensemble play, "Heyokah/Hokahey" at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. "Heyokah/Hokahey" has also been produced in Colorado, Montana, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festivall in Scotland. Bill's original mime shows, "Night Sweetheart", "Night Buttercup" and "Under A Montana Moon", were produced Off Broadway and received critical raves. "Under A Montana Moon" has been performed all over the world, from Romania, to Macedonia, Japan and Norway. Bill has performed on the stages of Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, the Kennedy Center, and the White House. Bill's newest solo play, "All Over The Map", premiered Off Broadway in April 2016, produced by All For One Theatre. With director Scott Illingworth, he created an ensemble play inspired by the Dalton Trumbo novel, "Johnny Got His Gun", developed with the support of the Harold Clurman Center for New Works in New York City. "Johnny Got His Gun" was most recently produced by the NYU Tisch Graduate School of Acting. Bill is currently developing a new solo work for New York City Childrens Theatre, to premiere in 2019. His regional theater credits include The Berkshire Theater Festival, The Denver Center Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse, George Street Playhouse, Montana Rep, Two Rivers Theater, Paper Mill Playhouse. Other work. Bowers can be seen in the feature film, "Two Weeks Notice", starring Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant. His television credits include "The Meredith Vieira Show", "All My Children", "One Life to Live", "Remember WENN", "Law & Order", and Disney's "Out of The Box". While on Broadway, he was featured on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show", "The Today Show", and the Tony Awards. The PBS News Hour featured a short documentary about Bill in 2017, as part of an ongoing series called Brief But Spectacular. Personal life. Bowers is gay. He is married to costume designer and supervisor Michael Growler.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=58254505

The Special Moscow Air Defense Army () was an army of the National Air Defense Forces during World War II, responsible for the air defense of Moscow. Formed in July 1943 from the Moscow Air Defense Front, its headquarters was used to form the Central Air Defense Front in December 1944. History. The Special Moscow Air Defense Army was formed on 4 July 1943 in accordance with an order of 29 June from the Moscow Air Defense Front, under the command of Lieutenant General Daniil Zhuravlyov, promoted to colonel general in November 1944. The army was tasked with protecting Moscow and other key targets in the Central Industrial Region from German air attacks. It was part of the newly created Western Air Defense Front and included the 1st Fighter Air Army PVO with four fighter aviation divisions totalling seventeen fighter aviation regiments, fifteen anti-aircraft artillery divisions, three anti-aircraft machine gun divisions, four anti-aircraft searchlight divisions, three divisions of barrage balloons, two divisions of the VNOS (Air Observation, Warning, and Communications Service), five separate anti-aircraft artillery regiments, and thirteen anti-aircraft artillery battalions, among others. On 24 December 1944, the army was ordered disbanded and its headquarters used to form the Central Air Defense Front as part of a reorganization of the Air Defense Forces.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=20631375

Cotesbach is a village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The nearest town is Lutterworth, about to the north. Rugby is 6 miles south of the parish. The River Swift flows through the parish, to the north of the village. The parish is located near the M1, M6 and A5, with the main settlement just off the A426 Rugby Road, which was built to bypass the village. Until the year 2000 the village had a small post-office, operated inside the porch of a resident's cottage. History. The name 'Cotesbach' is believed to mean the dwelling of a person called 'Cott's', which is next to a valley with a stream. In Middle English 'beche' is translated to mean a river or flow of water in a valley. Three places in Cotesbach parish are believed to be sites of early settlements of round houses, dating from around 800 to 42 BC. The Roman period saw some changes for Cotesbach, especially with the creation of nearby roads such as Watling Street and Fosse Way. Shards of Roman pottery have been found in the village, leading to people believing that there could have been a Roman villa in the area. The current site of Cotesbach is believed to have originated from the Saxon period. In this period, Cotesbach was in the 'neutral' area between the Kingdom of Wessex and the Dane Law territory. Many archaeological finds originate from this period, including many brooches, a copper alloy stirrup mount, a small sword/dagger and a shield boss. The Domesday period saw a new Lord of the parish, Hugh de Gretemaisnil (French: ) from France. During the Medieval period the population was believed to be around 150 people, who were mostly agricultural workers. Several archaeological finds come from this period, including a piece of decorated tile. The area had been considerably successful until 1591 when the owner of the land, Robert Devereux decided to sell large amounts of land to raise funds. Large amounts of land in Cotesbach came into ownership of John Quarles. Quarles raised rent for tenant farmers, purchased other sections of land and began to enclose the common land for farm animals. This upset many local people, who relied on the common land. A petition was taken to King James, who started an enquiry into the events, however the enquiry resulted in Quarles being given permission to enclose land in 1603. Enclosure of the land occurred across Cotesbach and beyond. Tension peaked in 1607 when the Enclosures Riot occurred, which resulted in people from many rural towns and villages pulling down hedges and fences and opening up the enclosures. In Leicester gallows were installed to try and put-off the rioters. By 1609 Cotesbach was a mixture of common and enclosed land, however in 1612 the land was enclosed again, meaning the agricultural world was changed permanently. This description of Cotesbach was given in the late nineteenth century: "A parish in Lutterworth district, Leicester; adjacent to Watling-street and the boundary with Warwick, 1¾ mile SSW of Lutterworth, and 4 SE by S of Ullesthorpe r. station. It has a post office under Lutterworth. Acres, 1, 227. Real property, £2, 327. Pop., 125. Houses, 23. The property is divided among a few". Places of interest. The Hall was constructed in 1703. It was originally built as a rectory for Reverend Edward Wells. The hall is believed to be built on land which used to contain a farmhouse. Since 1759 when Robert Marriott bought the estate, eight generations of the Marriott family have resided here. The Manor is the oldest building in Cotesbach to be used as a house and is grade two listed. The manor was re-built around 1630 by George Bennett. The building is on the site of a previous Tudor building. The Manor is made up of many parts from many eras. The Schoolhouse was constructed by Robert Marriott in the late 18th century to provide a good education to the village children. Around the 1870s the schoolhouse was no longer required because another school opened in nearby Lutterworth. The Cotesbach Educational Trust now has a lease on the building. St Mary's Church was constructed in the 13th century, however it is believed that a wooden building was on the same site previously. In the late 14th century the bell for the church was cast. In 1702 Dr Edward Wells restored the building. In 1812, £400 was spent on renovating the church after the central tower collapsed, adding a new roof and side tower, and, later on in the century, installing new heating and applying stucco to the outside. 1919 saw a clock added to the church as a memorial to World War One, as well as a stained glass window which was installed in memorial to the two Marriott brothers who lost their lives during the war. Demographics. The 1881 census reported that the most dominant occupation was domestic service of offices, with 36 people from the parish employed in this sector. 35 people had unknown occupations. 15 people worked in the agricultural sector. Seven people had unspecified occupations. Five people worked in house, furniture and decorations. Five people were classed as 'professionals'. Four people worked in general or unspecified commodities. Four people worked with animals. One person worked in dress, one person in transport/communications, one in commercial occupations and another person in a general/local government role. This shows that the parish was mainly working class, specialising in agriculture, however there were a few members of the middle and upper classes. Women mainly did not have a specified occupation or worked in domestic service, whilst men were mainly working in agriculture, or in domestic service or with animals. This shows the gender divide between men who went out to work on farms, whilst women remained at home or worked as domestic servants in wealthy homes. The 2011 census reveals a large change in the occupation of residents of Cotesbach from 1881. It reveals that 39 residents work in the 'Professional Occupations' field. 19 people work as managers, directors and senior officials. 18 people are associate professionals and technical professionals. 16 people class themselves as being in a skilled trade occupations. 11 people are working in the administrative and secretarial occupations. Nine people are working in the caring, leisure and other service occupations sector. Six people are working as sales and customer service operators and three people have 'Elementary Occupations'. This shows a move from a mainly agricultural and working class area, to an area mainly for the wealthy and those in professional and skilled occupations. The population of Cotesbach increased from the 1801 census until the 1831 census where there was a decrease in population. This decrease could possibly be due to the industrial revolution, especially with the development of steam power. The population then rose slightly in 1851. In 1881 the population appeared to increase rapidly, however this increase occurred because the boundary for Cotesbach was increased. In the 1891 and 1901 census's the population was decreasing, possibly due to people moving out to industrial cities. By the 1911 census the population began to increase and this trend continued up to the 1961 census, with a population of 146 people. The next census included was in 2001, when the population was 212, continuing the increasing trend. In 2011 the population of the parish had decreased by eight people to 204, possibly due to young people leaving the village for employment. Present day. The Cotesbach Educational Trust has increased interest in local heritage, helped by the Heritage Lottery Fund donating £570,000 to the Educational Trust to restore three historic buildings including the Schoolhouse as an educational resource centre for heritage, environment and arts.

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Matter and Memory (French: "Matière et mémoire", 1896) is a book by the French philosopher Henri Bergson. Its subtitle is "Essay on the relation of body and spirit" ("Essai sur la relation du corps à l’esprit"), and the work presents an analysis of the classical philosophical problems concerning this relation. Within that frame, the analysis of memory serves the purpose of clarifying the problem. "Matter and Memory" was written in reaction to the book "The Maladies of Memory" by Théodule Ribot, which appeared in 1881. Ribot claimed that the findings of brain science proved that memory is lodged within a particular part of the nervous system; localized within the brain and thus being of a material nature. Bergson was opposed to this reduction of spirit to matter. Defending a clear anti-reductionist position, he considered memory to be of a deeply spiritual nature, the brain serving the need of orienting present action by inserting relevant memories. The brain thus being of a practical nature, certain lesions tend to perturb this practical function, but without erasing memory as such. The memories are, instead, simply not 'incarnated,' and cannot serve their purpose. Various forms of memory. Bergson distinguishes two different forms of memory. The first category consists of memories concerning habitude, replaying and repeating past action — not strictly recognized as representing the past, but utilizing it for the purpose of present action. This kind of memory is automatic, inscribed within the body, and serving a utilitarian purpose. Bergson takes as an example the learning of a verse by rote — i.e., recitation tending toward non-reflective and mechanical repetition. The duration of the habitual recitation tends toward the regular, and one may compare this kind of memory to practical knowledge or habit. "It is habitude clarified by memory, more than memory itself strictly speaking." Pure memory, on the other hand, registers the past in the form of "image-remembrance," representing the past, recognized as such. It is of a contemplative and fundamentally spiritual kind, and it is free. This is true memory. Bergson takes as his example the remembrance of the lesson of learning the same verse — i.e., a dated fact that cannot be recreated. Pure memory or remembrance permits the acknowledgment that the lesson has been learned in the past, cannot be repeated, and is not internal to the body. Metaphysical consequences. Bergson accused classical metaphysics of misrepresenting its assumed problems, and being guilty of posing secondary problems as being principal. The problem posed by Bergson was thus well known, but he redefined the way of posing it. Each of his four main works follow the same principle — responding to a precisely posed problem; in "Matter and Memory", Descartes's problem of spirit and body — stated as being two substances with different attributes. Descartes's fault lies in defining matter and memory as substances or "res", thus not separating them distinctly. Bergson really does distinguish the spirit from the body, but as opposed to in Descartes's classical philosophy the distinction resides in the temporal domain, not in the spatial. The spirit is the abode of the past, the body of the present; the soul or spirit always anchored in the past, not residing in the present; lodged in the past and contemplating the present. To have or take consciousness of anything, means looking at it from the viewpoint of the past, in light of the past. Contenting oneself with reacting to an external stimulus means being unconscious of the act; an existence within the sheer presence of the body. Consciousness means, invariably, delaying reaction to stimuli, the interval accompanied by the conscious awareness that the spirit is anchored within the past. One becomes conscious while being anchored in the past, in light of the past, in view of appropriate action directed towards the immediate future. The articulation of time — past, present, future — finds place through the union of spirit and body. The more the spirit descends into the past, the more one becomes conscious. The more one acts automatically, the more one exists in the present, in the temporal domain of the body. And one always stays within one domain or the other. True awareness necessitates the united action of body and spirit. According to Bergson, the "impulsive person" suspends his consciousness and stays within the unreflective domain of automatism. The role of affection. Bergson contended that we do not know our body only "from without" by perceptions, but also "from within" by affections. Modern cognitive science. Present developments of modern selectionist theories of memory in cognitive science seem to confirm Bergson's theories. Selectionist models offer new and potentially useful approaches to a theory of remembering. On the model of natural selection, these selectionist theories require at least two processing components: a device which generates a range of memory representations and a selection process which preserves a subset of those representations. Bergson shows how the subjective experience of remembering might be understood within a selectionist framework. The book is considered to be a major philosophical contribution to the analysis of implicit memory.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=14206697

Bipolar II disorder is a bipolar spectrum disorder (see also: Bipolar I disorder) characterized by at least one episode of hypomania and at least one episode of major depression. Diagnosis for bipolar II disorder requires that the individual must never have experienced a full manic episode. Otherwise, one manic episode meets the criteria for bipolar I disorder. Hypomania is a sustained state of elevated or irritable mood that is less severe than mania yet may still significantly affect quality of life and result in permanent consequences including neuroprogression, chronic inflammation and permanent socioeconomic ramifications from reckless spending, damaged relationships and poor judgment. Unlike mania, hypomania is not associated with psychosis. The hypomanic episodes associated with bipolar II disorder must last for at least four days. Commonly, depressive episodes are more frequent and more intense than hypomanic episodes. Additionally, when compared to bipolar I disorder, type II presents more frequent depressive episodes and shorter intervals of well-being. The course of bipolar II disorder is more chronic and consists of more frequent cycling than the course of bipolar I disorder. Finally, bipolar II is associated with a greater risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors than bipolar I or unipolar depression. Although bipolar II is commonly perceived to be a milder form of Type I, this is not the case. Types I and II present equally severe burdens. Bipolar II is notoriously difficult to diagnose. Patients usually seek help when they are in a depressed state, or when their hypomanic symptoms manifest themselves in unwanted effects, such as high levels of anxiety, or the seeming inability to focus on tasks. Because many of the symptoms of hypomania are often mistaken for high functioning behavior or simply attributed to personality, patients are typically not aware of their hypomanic symptoms. In addition, many people who suffer from Bipolar II have periods of normal affect. As a result, when patients seek help, they are very often unable to provide their doctor with all the information needed for an accurate assessment; these individuals are often misdiagnosed with unipolar depression. Bipolar II is more common than Bipolar I, while Bipolar II and major depressive disorder have about the same rate of diagnosis. Of all individuals initially diagnosed with major depressive disorder, between 40% and 50% will later be diagnosed with either BP-I or BP-II. Substance use disorders (which have high co-morbidity with BP-II) and periods of mixed depression may also make it more difficult to accurately identify BP-II. Despite the difficulties, it is important that BP-II individuals be correctly assessed so that they can receive the proper treatment. Antidepressant use, in the absence of mood stabilizers, is correlated with worsening BP-II symptoms. Signs and symptoms. Hypomanic episodes. Hypomania is the signature characteristic of Bipolar II disorder. It is a state characterized by euphoria and/or an irritable mood. In order for an episode to qualify as hypomanic, the individual must also present three or more of the below symptoms, and last at least four consecutive days and be present most of the day, nearly every day. It is important to distinguish between hypomania and mania. Mania is generally greater in severity and impairs function, sometimes leading to hospitalization and in the most severe cases, psychosis. In contrast, hypomania usually increases functioning. For this reason, it is not uncommon for hypomania to go unnoticed. Often it is not until individuals are in a depressive episode that they seek treatment, and even then their history of hypomania may go undiagnosed. Although hypomania may increase functioning, episodes need to be treated because they may precipitate a depressive episode. Depressive episodes. It is during depressive episodes that BP-II patients often seek help. Symptoms may be syndromal or subsyndromal. Depressive BP-II symptoms may include five or more of the below symptoms (at least one of them must be either depressed mood or loss of interest/pleasure). In order to be diagnosed, they need to be present only during the same two-week period, as a change from previous hypomanic functioning: Evidence also suggests that BP-II is strongly associated with atypical depression. Essentially, this means that many BP-II patients exhibit reverse vegetative symptoms. BP-II patients may have a tendency to oversleep and overeat, while typically depressed patients sleep and eat less than usual. Mixed depression. Depressive mixed states occur when patients experience depression and non-euphoric, usually subsyndromal, hypomania at the same time. As mentioned previously, it is particularly difficult to diagnose BP-II when a patient is in this state. In a mixed state, mood is depressed, but the following symptoms of hypomania present as well: Mixed states are associated with greater levels of suicidality than non-mixed depression. Antidepressants may increase this risk. Relapse. In the case of a relapse, the following symptoms often occur and are considered early warning signs: People with bipolar disorder may develop dissociation to match each mood they experience. For some, this is done intentionally, as a means by which to escape trauma or pain from a depressive period, or simply to better organize one's life by setting boundaries for one's perceptions and behaviors. Studies indicate that the following events may also precipitate relapse in BP-II patients: Comorbid conditions. Comorbid conditions are extremely common in individuals with BP-II. In fact, individuals are twice as likely to present a comorbid disorder than not. These include anxiety, eating, personality (cluster B), and substance use disorders. For bipolar II disorder, the most conservative estimate of lifetime prevalence of alcohol or other substance use disorders is 20%. In patients with comorbid substance use disorder and BP-II, episodes have a longer duration and treatment compliance decreases. Preliminary studies suggest that comorbid substance use is also linked to increased risk of suicidality. The question of which condition should be designated the index and which the comorbid condition is not self-evident and may vary in relation to the research question, the disease that prompted a particular episode of care, or of the specialty of the attending physician. A related notion is that of complication, a condition that coexists or ensues, as defined in the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)-controlled vocabulary maintained by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Causes. Scientists are studying the possible causes of bipolar disorder and most agree that there is no single cause. There have been very few studies conducted to examine the possible causes of Bipolar II. Those that have been done have not considered Bipolar I and Bipolar II separately and have had inconclusive results. Researchers have found that patients with either Bipolar I or II may have increased levels of blood calcium concentrations, but the results are inconclusive. The studies that have been conducted did not find a significant difference between those with Bipolar I or Bipolar II. There has been a study looking at genetics of Bipolar II disorder and the results are inconclusive; however, scientists did find that relatives of people with Bipolar II are more likely to develop the same bipolar disorder or major depression rather than developing Bipolar I disorder. The cause of Bipolar disorder can be attributed to misfiring neurotransmitters that overstimulate the amygdala, which in turn causes the prefrontal cortex to stop working properly. The bipolar patient becomes overwhelmed with emotional stimulation with no way of understanding it, which can trigger mania and exacerbate the effects of depression. Diagnosis. A person diagnosed with bipolar II disorder will have experienced at least one hypomanic episode, no manic episode, and one or more major depressive episodes. Although bipolar II is thought to be less severe than bipolar I in regards to symptom intensity, it is actually more severe and distressing with respect to episode frequency and overall course. Those with bipolar II often experience more frequent bouts of depressive episodes. Specific criteria defined by the DSM-5 for a bipolar II diagnosis: Studies have identified major differences between bipolar I and bipolar II in regards to their clinical features, comorbidity rates and family histories. According to Baek et al. (2011), during depressive episodes, bipolar II patients tend to show higher rates of psychomotor agitation, guilt, shame, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts. Bipolar II patients have shown higher lifetime comorbidity rates of DSM axis I diagnoses such as phobias, anxiety disorders, substance & alcohol use, and eating disorders and there is a higher correlation between bipolar II patients and family history of psychiatric illness, including major depression and substance-related disorders. The occurrence rate of psychiatric illness in first degree relatives of bipolar II patients was 26.5%, versus 15.4% in bipolar I patients. Screening instruments like the Mood Disorders Questionnaire (MDQ) are helpful tools in determining a patient's status on the bipolar spectrum, and getting families involved can also improve chances of an accurate diagnosis and acknowledgment of hypomanic episodes. In addition, there are certain features that have been shown to increase the chances that depressed patients are suffering from a bipolar disorder including atypical symptoms of depression like hypersomnia and hyperphagia, a family history of bipolar disorder, medication-induced hypomania, recurrent or psychotic depression, antidepressant refractory depression, and early or postpartum depression. Treatments. Treatment typically includes three things: the treatment of acute hypomania, the treatment of acute depression, and the prevention of the relapse of either hypomania or depression. The main goal is to make sure that patients do not harm themselves. Medications. The most common treatment for reducing bipolar II disorder symptoms is medication, usually in the form of mood stabilizers. However, treatment with mood stabilizers may produce a flat affect in the patient, which is dose-dependent. Concurrent use of SSRI antidepressants may help some with bipolar II disorder, though these medications should be used with caution because it is believed that they may cause a hypomanic switch. The pharmaceutical management of bipolar II disorder is not generally supported by strong evidence, with limited randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published in the literature. Some medications used are: Non-pharmaceutical therapies. Non-pharmaceutical therapies can also help those with the illness. These include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), psychodynamic therapy, psychoanalysis, social rhythm therapy, interpersonal therapy, behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy, art therapy, music therapy, psychoeducation, mindfulness, light therapy, and family-focused therapy. Relapse can still occur, despite continued medication and therapy. Prognosis. There is evidence to suggest that bipolar II has a more chronic course of illness than bipolar I disorder. This constant and pervasive course of the illness leads to an increased risk in suicide and more hypomanic and major depressive episodes with shorter periods between episodes than bipolar I patients experience. The natural course of bipolar II disorder, when left untreated, leads to patients spending the majority of their lives unwell with much of their suffering stemming from depression. Their recurrent depression results in personal suffering and disability. This disability can present itself in the form of psychosocial impairment, which has been suggested to be worse in bipolar II patients than in bipolar I patients. Another facet of this illness that is associated with a poorer prognosis is rapid cycling, which denotes the occurrence of four or more major Depressive, Hypomanic, and/or mixed episodes in a 12-month period. Rapid cycling is quite common in those with Bipolar II, much more so in women than in men (70% vs. 40%), and without treatment leads to added sources of disability and an increased risk of suicide. Women are more prone to rapid cycling between hypomanic episodes and depressive episodes. To improve a patient's prognosis, long-term therapy is most favorably recommended for controlling symptoms, maintaining remission and preventing relapses. With treatment, patients have been shown to present a decreased risk of suicide (especially when treated with lithium) and a reduction of frequency and severity of their episodes, which in turn moves them toward a stable life and reduces the time they spend ill. To maintain their state of balance, therapy is often continued indefinitely, as around 50% of the patients who discontinue it relapse quickly and experience either full-blown episodes or sub-syndromal symptoms that bring significant functional impairments. Functioning. The deficits in functioning associated with Bipolar II disorder stem mostly from the recurrent depression that Bipolar II patients suffer from. Depressive symptoms are much more disabling than hypomanic symptoms and are potentially as, or more disabling than mania symptoms. Functional impairment has been shown to be directly linked with increasing percentages of depressive symptoms, and because sub-syndromal symptoms are more common—and frequent—in Bipolar II disorder, they have been implicated heavily as a major cause of psychosocial disability. There is evidence that shows the mild depressive symptoms, or even sub-syndromal symptoms, are responsible for the non-recovery of social functioning, which furthers the idea that residual depressive symptoms are detrimental for functional recovery in patients being treated for Bipolar II. It has been suggested that symptom interference in relation to social and interpersonal relationships in Bipolar II Disorder is worse than symptom interference in other chronic medical illnesses such as cancer. This social impairment can last for years, even after treatment that has resulted in a resolution of mood symptoms. The factors related to this persistent social impairment are residual depressive symptoms, limited illness insight (a very common occurrence in patients with Bipolar II Disorder), and impaired executive functioning. Impaired ability in regards to executive functions is directly tied to poor psychosocial functioning, a common side-effect in patients with Bipolar II. The impact on a patient's psychosocial functioning stems from the depressive symptoms (more common in Bipolar II than Bipolar I). An increase in these symptoms' severity seems to correlate with a significant increase in psychosocial disability. Psychosocial disability can present itself in poor semantic memory, which in turn affects other cognitive domains like verbal memory and (as mentioned earlier) executive functioning leading to a direct and persisting impact on psychosocial functioning. An abnormal semantic memory organization can manipulate thoughts and lead to the formation of delusions and possibly affect speech and communication problems, which can lead to interpersonal issues. Bipolar II patients have also been shown to present worse cognitive functioning than those patients with Bipolar I, though they demonstrate about the same disability when it comes to occupational functioning, interpersonal relationships, and autonomy. This disruption in cognitive functioning takes a toll on their ability to function in the workplace, which leads to high rates of work loss in Bipolar II patient populations. After treatment and while in remission, Bipolar II patients tend to report a good psychosocial functioning but they still score less than patients without the disorder. These lasting impacts further suggest that a prolonged exposure to an untreated Bipolar II disorder can lead to permanent adverse effects on functioning. Recovery and recurrence. Bipolar II Disorder has a chronic relapsing nature. It has been suggested that Bipolar II patients have a higher degree of relapse than Bipolar I patients. Generally, within four years of an episode, around 60% of patients will relapse into another episode. Some patients are symptomatic half the time, either with full on episodes or symptoms that fall just below the threshold of an episode. Because of the nature of the illness, long-term therapy is the best option and aims to not only control the symptoms but to maintain sustained remission and prevent relapses from occurring. Even with treatment, patients do not always regain full functioning, especially in the social realm. There is a very clear gap between symptomatic recovery and full functional recovery for both Bipolar I and Bipolar II patients. As such, and because those with Bipolar II spend more time with depressive symptoms that do not quite qualify as a major depressive episode, the best chance for recovery is to have therapeutic interventions that focus on the residual depressive symptoms and to aim for improvement in psychosocial and cognitive functioning. Even with treatment, a certain amount of responsibility is placed in the patient's hands; they have to be able to assume responsibility for their illness by accepting their diagnosis, taking the required medication, and seeking help when needed to do well in the future. Treatment often lasts after remission is achieved, and the treatment that worked is continued during the continuation phase (lasting anywhere from 6–12 months) and maintenance can last 1–2 years or, in some cases, indefinitely. One of the treatments of choice is Lithium, which has been shown to be very beneficial in reducing the frequency and severity of depressive episodes. Lithium prevents mood relapse and works especially well in Bipolar II patients who experience rapid-cycling. Almost all Bipolar II patients who take lithium have a decrease in the amount of time they spend ill and a decrease in mood episodes. Along with medication, other forms of therapy have been shown to be beneficial for Bipolar II patients. A treatment called a "well-being plan" serves several purposes: it informs the patients, protects them from future episodes, teaches them to add value to their life, and works toward building a strong sense of self to fend off depression and reduce the desire to succumb to the seductive hypomanic highs. The plan has to aim high. Otherwise, patients will relapse into depression. A large part of this plan involves the patient being very aware of warning signs and stress triggers so that they take an active role in their recovery and prevention of relapse. Mortality. Several studies have shown that the risk of suicide is higher in patients who suffer from Bipolar II than those who suffer from Bipolar I, and especially higher than patients who suffer from major depressive disorder. In results of a summary of several lifetime study experiments, it was found that 24% of Bipolar II patients experienced suicidal ideation or suicide attempts compared to 17% in Bipolar I patients and 12% in major depressive patients. Bipolar disorders, in general, are the third leading cause of death in 15- to 24-year-olds. Bipolar II patients were also found to employ more lethal means and have more complete suicides overall. Bipolar II patients have several risk factors that increase their risk of suicide. The illness is very recurrent and results in severe disabilities, interpersonal relationship problems, barriers to academic, financial, and vocational goals, and a loss of social standing in their community, all of which increase the likelihood of suicide. Mixed symptoms and rapid-cycling, both very common in Bipolar II, are also associated with an increased risk of suicide. The tendency for Bipolar II to be misdiagnosed and treated ineffectively, or not at all in some cases, leads to an increased risk. As a result of the high suicide risk for this group, reducing the risk and preventing attempts remains a main part of the treatment; a combination of self-monitoring, close supervision by a therapist, and faithful adherence to their medication regimen will help to reduce the risk and prevent the likelihood of a completed suicide. Suicide, which is both a stereotypic yet highly individualized act, is a common endpoint for many patients with severe psychiatric illness. The mood disorders (depression and bipolar manic-depression) are by far the most common psychiatric conditions associated with suicide. At least 25% to 50% of patients with bipolar disorder also attempt suicide at least once. With the exception of lithium—which is the most demonstrably effective treatment against suicide—remarkably little is known about specific contributions of mood-altering treatments to minimizing mortality rates in persons with major mood disorders in general and bipolar depression in particular. Suicide is usually a manifestation of severe psychiatric distress that is often associated with a diagnosable and treatable form of depression or other mental illness. In a clinical setting, an assessment of suicidal risk must precede any attempt to treat psychiatric illness. History. In 19th century psychiatry, mania covered a broad range of intensity, and hypomania was equated by some to concepts of 'partial insanity' or monomania. A more specific usage was advanced by the German neuro-psychiatrist Emanuel Ernst Mendel in 1881, who wrote "I recommend (taking under consideration the word used by Hippocrates) to name those types of mania that show a less severe phenomenological picture, 'hypomania'". Narrower operational definitions of hypomania were developed from the 1960s/1970s. The first diagnostic distinction to be made between manic-depression involving mania, and that involving hypomania, came from Carl Gustav Jung in 1903. In his paper, Jung introduced the non-psychotic version of the illness with the introductory statement, "I would like to publish a number of cases whose peculiarity consists in chronic hypomanic behavior" where "it is not a question of real mania at all but of a hypomanic state which cannot be regarded as psychotic." Jung illustrated the hypomanic variation with five case histories, each involving hypomanic behavior, occasional bouts of depression, and mixed mood states, which involved personal and interpersonal upheaval for each patient. In 1975, Jung's original distinction between mania and hypomania gained support. Fieve and Dunner published an article recognizing that only individuals in a manic state require hospitalization. It was proposed that the presentation of either the one state or the other differentiates two distinct diseases; the proposition was initially met with skepticism. However, studies since confirm that bipolar II is a "phenomenologically" distinct disorder. Empirical evidence, combined with treatment considerations, led the DSM-IV Mood Disorders Work Group to add bipolar II disorder as its own entity in the 1994 publication. (Only one other mood disorder was added to this edition, indicating the conservative nature of the DSM-IV work group.) In May 2013, the DSM-5 was released. Two revisions to the existing Bipolar II criteria are anticipated. The first expected change will reduce the required duration of a hypomanic state from four to two days. The second change will allow hypomania to be diagnosed without the manifestation of elevated mood;that is, increased energy/activity will be sufficient. The rationale behind the latter revision is that some individuals with Bipolar II manifest only visible changes in energy. Without presenting elevated mood, these individuals are commonly misdiagnosed with major depressive disorder. Consequently, they receive prescriptions for antidepressants, which unaccompanied by mood stabilizers, may induce rapid cycling or mixed states.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=11250750

Will Leer (born 15 April 1985) is an American mid-distance runner. He graduated from Pomona College in Claremont, California in May 2007. Leer has represented the United States in international competition. Running career. High school. Will Leer ran track, cross country and played soccer at Minnetonka High School in Minnetonka, Minnesota. He was coached by Jeff Renlund. He began running track his sophomore year as a means to stay in shape for soccer in the fall. He quickly found success as a runner. However he did not make the switch to cross country until his senior year when coach Renlund convinced him to run in a few races for the Minnetonka cross country team. In the 2002 section 6AA championships, Leer finished 11th, missing state qualification by one place. That spring Leer ran a 4:16.41 1600, setting the Minnetonka High School record previously held by his coach. Leer's 1600 time was the 4th fastest time of the year in Minnesota. He also ran a 1:54.64 800, the 5th fastest time in Minnesota. At the state meet he opted to run on the 4x800 team instead of the 1600. He also competed in the open 800, finishing fourth in 1:55.25. His team's 4x800 relay team ran 7:58.87 and finished eighth in a deep field which included nine sub-8:00 times. Collegiate. Leer had a very successful college career running for Pomona College in Claremont, California. In his junior year he finished 90th at cross country nationals with a time of 27:10. After a disappointing performance at cross country nationals, Leer won the NCAA Division-III indoor national title in the mile with a time of 4:09.42. At outdoor nationals, he placed second in the 1500 behind Nick Symmonds with a time of 3:49.70. He also competed in the 800, finishing eighth with a time of 1:52.82. In Leer's senior year he finished 7th at cross country nationals with a time of 27:03 on a very slow and muddy course. During the indoor season, Leer repeated as national champion in the mile with a time of 4:08.19. Later in the meet he came back in the 5000, finishing third with a time of 14:34.24. During his 2007 outdoor season, Leer ran a 1:50.79 in the 800, 3:41.98 in the 1500, and a 14:23 in the 5000. All of his times put him in the top three of DIII performances. Leer's 1500 performance was perhaps the best run of his collegiate career; his 1500 time of 3:41.98 converts to a 3:59 full mile. At the 2007 NCAA Division III National Championships, Leer won the 1500 and the 5000 on the same day. He is the only male Division III runner ever to win both titles in the same meet. Post-collegiate. Leer finished 10th in the 1500 meter event at the 2007 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championship meet. He advanced to the June 24 final by running 3:40.06 in a preliminary heat. He qualified for the event by running 3:41.13 at the Prefontaine Classic in June 2007. He also ran a 1:49.37 800m at the USA Outdoor Track & Field West Region Championship meet. 2008. In January 2008, Leer ran a 3:59.83 mile at the UW Indoor Preview for The Oregon Track Club Elite. Leer is the 297th American to break 4-minutes in the mile. In the winter of 2008, Leer finished fourth in the 1500 meter event at the USA Indoor Track & Field Championships. At historic Hayward Field, the home track of the OTC-Elite, Leer advanced to the final for the 1500 meter event at the U.S. Olympic Trials by finishing third in his semifinal heat. In the finals of the Trials Leer ran 3.41.54, placing him 4th. A few weeks later he set a 1500m personal record by running 3.37.63 in winning a "B" race at Heusden, Belgium. 2009. In 2009, Leer set a personal best in the Mile at the Prefontaine Classic and finished fifth at the 1500m U.S.A. Outdoor Championships in June, then set a 1500m personal best of 3:37.37 at the Ghent Flanders Cup in July. 2010. Leer began his 2010 season with a personal-best 3:55.66 mile at the Boston Indoor Games. A week later, he ran the 1600m anchor leg for the Oregon Track Club team that set In May he lowered his 1500m personal best to 3:37.26, finishing third at the USATF High Performance Meet at Occidental College, California. 2012. In 2012, Leer got his second win in the Morton Games Mile finishing with a 3:56.39 in a race where the first four finishers were all within .1 seconds of each other. 2013. In March 2013 in Albuquerque, NM, Leer won two Indoor National Championships, winning both the 3000m and the mile, the latter with a last minute kick in a race where three runners all broke 4 minutes for the mile, indoors and at elevation. 2014. In June, Leer placed 4th in 1500 meters at USATF Outdoor Championships. On July 19, Leer ran 3:34.26 in 1500 meters at Heusden-Zolder in Belgium. 2015. In June, Leer was a semifinalist in 1500 meters at USATF Outdoor Championships.

sad debut

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=1218874

Derryn Nigel Hinch (born 9 February 1944) is an Australian media personality, politician, actor, journalist and published author, best known for his work on Melbourne radio and television. He served as a Senator for Victoria from 2016 to 2019. Hinch was elected to the Senate representing Victoria as the head of Derryn Hinch's Justice Party at the 2016 federal election. Aged 72 at the time, Hinch was, when elected, the oldest federal parliamentarian ever to be elected for the first time. He lost his senate seat in the 2019 election. He remained host of his weekly program "Hinch Live" until the election campaign period officially commenced, in a decision supported by Sky News Live. He has been the host of 3AW's "Drive" radio show, and a National Public Affairs commentator for the Seven Network on "Sunday Night", "Today Tonight" and "Sunrise". Hinch has been convicted of contempt of court three times, serving two prison sentences and one sentence of house detention. Career. Print. Hinch began his career at the age of 15 with the "Taranaki Herald" in New Plymouth, New Zealand in 1960. In 1963, he came to Australia on the MS "Wanganella" and joined "The Sun" in Sydney. By 1966 he had become a foreign correspondent for the Fairfax organisation, and in New York became bureau chief in 1972. He remained living in New York for 11 years. Hinch returned to Sydney and was editor of "The Sun" in 1976–1977. Television. Hinch hosted "Beauty and the Beast" on the Seven Network between 1982 and 1983. From 1987 to 1991, Hinch hosted his own current affairs show on the Seven Network titled "Hinch", which later moved to Network Ten where it ran from 1992–1994. In 1994, Hinch joined the Nine Network and hosted "The Midday Show" for a year. He has also appeared on "Dancing with the Stars", "Underbelly" and "Millionaire Hot Seat" as a guest playing for charity. In September 2012, Hinch rejoined the Seven Network as national public affairs commentator, though there were rumours that "Hinch" might make a comeback (although this never eventuated). From February 2015, Hinch hosted a twice weekly news opinion program, "Hinch Live", over the weekend on Sky News Australia. Radio. In the 1970s Hinch had short periods as host of programs on Sydney's 2UW and Melbourne's 3MP and 3XY. He broadcast from 3AW for most of the 1980s and 1990s, and then had further stints at the station in the 2000s and 2010s; he also had a short stint at 3AK He was often absent from the programs due to suspension, poor health and house arrest. In August 2012, it was announced Hinch's contract would not be renewed by 3AW, and he would be replaced by financial commentator Tom Elliott. He is the Melbourne correspondent for New Zealand radio network Newstalk ZB and often presents political commentaries on the station. Acting. In September 2008, Hinch had a four-week run as The Criminologist (narrator) in the Australian tour of "The Rocky Horror Show." He also appeared as himself, in a minor role, in the film "The Wog Boy" with Nick Giannopoulos, in 2000, and made cameo appearances on "Fast Forward", which was the same sketch show where he was parodied as "Hunch", played by Steve Vizard. Hinch played the role of Senator in 2016 movie The Colour of Darkness. Politics. In 2015, Hinch established Derryn Hinch's Justice Party, and was subsequently elected to the Australian Senate as senator for Victoria at the 2016 double dissolution election on 2 July 2016. He became the oldest person ever newly elected to the Australian parliament. His party's main emphasis is on criminal justice reform, including tougher sentences for violent and sexual offenders, no bail for those accused of a serious violent offence, parole reform, and a public register of sex offenders. Other positions include equal rights for all citizens regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation, tougher laws against animal cruelty, and support for voluntary euthanasia. Following the announcement of the 2016 Senate election results, other Senators negotiated, against Hinch's objections, to allocate him a three-year rather than a six-year Senate term. In August 2017, it was revealed that Hinch holds an American Social Security number, raising concerns during the dual citizenship crisis that he may be disqualified from office under Section 44 of the Constitution of Australia. However, in September 2017, the Attorney-General made the decision not to refer him to the High Court. Hinch has shown support for capital punishment. In the 2019 elections, Hinch lost his seat in the Senate, with the seat going to the Greens. Hinch was seeking re-election after three years. This has left his party unrepresented in the Australian federal parliament, although it retains two seats in the Victorian Legislative Council. The constituencies represented being Western Victoriaand Northern Victoria. Controversies. Michael Glennon. In 1985, Hinch found that Michael Glennon, who had previously been convicted on a charge of indecent assault with a minor, was to be tried on new charges while still running a youth camp. Hinch, who says he was concerned that parents were unknowingly sending their children to Glennon's camp, first appealed privately to then Victorian Premier John Cain and the then-Attorney-General, as well as the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Australia, but in Hinch's words, they "washed their hands" of the situation. Subsequently, Hinch publicly identified Glennon during his trial on the third set of charges, in spite of the strong sub judice rule under Australian jurisprudence. This delayed the trial while Hinch was tried on contempt of court charges; Hinch was fined $10,000 and imprisoned for twelve days. This was the first time anyone had gone to prison on a prior restraint issue in Australia. Hinch appealed his case as far as the High Court of Australia, which affirmed his conviction. In its ruling the Court held that despite Hinch's motivation of warning the public that Glennon continued to hold a position in a youth organisation, it was sufficient to inform them of the current charges against him, and that the information about his prior conviction was prejudicial under Australian law. Hinch called the incident "the thing I'm most proud of in my life." Mick Gatto's call. On 24 June 2008, while Hinch was discussing the celebrity status of underworld crime figures during his drive program, Mick Gatto phoned in and had a brief confrontation with Hinch, ending with a death threat. John Laws. On 30 July 2007, John Laws and Hinch attended the "40 Years of Radio Legends", after which Hinch complained the "event had been turned into a tribute to Laws", among other comments which caused ill feeling between the two. On 5 December 2007, Hinch was abused verbally with obscenities by John Laws while dining at lunch with 2CH personality Bob Rogers in a restaurant at the Finger Wharf in Woolloomooloo, Sydney. Sexual relationship with teenager. In his 2004 book "The Fall and Rise of Derryn Hinch", and in a radio editorial in March 2005, Hinch admitted to having sex with a 15-year-old female when he was in his early thirties, although he stated he "thought she was about 25". Following his on-air admission, "Herald Sun" journalist Andrew Bolt called for his prosecution. In 2013, Hinch wrote that after 30 years the woman had contacted him and said he was wrong about her age. She said she was born in 1961 and they met shortly after he joined 3AW in 1979. That made her 17 at the time of the liaison (which is above the age of consent in Australia). The ABC journalist James Purtill article on 6 July 2016 mentions only one (of the two) published self-admissions. Criminal convictions. 1987 conviction and imprisonment. Hinch served 12 days in prison and was fined 15,000 in 1987 for contempt of court after he publicly revealed paedophile Roman Catholic priest Michael Charles Glennon's prior conviction while a trial was still pending. 2011 conviction and home detention. In June 2011, he was convicted of breaching suppression orders against the names of two sex offenders, and was subsequently sentenced to five months' home detention. 2014 conviction and imprisonment. In October 2013, Hinch was found guilty of contempt of court for breaching a suppression order by revealing details of the criminal history of Jill Meagher's killer, Adrian Ernest Bayley. The judge gave Hinch 90 days to pay the fine, or else face 50 days in prison. On 16 January 2014, one day prior to the expiration of the 90-day period, Hinch advised that he would not pay the fine 'on principle'. He was imprisoned on 17 January 2014. On 7 March 2014, he was released from prison after 50 days, having served his full sentence. He was greeted by his partner Natasha Chadwick, other friends and a substantial media contingent. Personal life. Hinch has been married five times. His first marriage was to Lana Wells, an editor. His second marriage was to Eve Carpenter, a flight attendant. He then married Australian actress Jacki Weaver. They were married in 1983 and remained so for 13 years before divorcing in 1996. It has been widely reported that they remarried in 1997 before divorcing again in 1998, however Weaver has denied that any such second marriage ever took place. He married Chanel Hayton in February 2006 and they separated in late 2012. His most recent publicised relationship was with Natasha Chadwick, a former detective sergeant with NSW Police and freelance journalist. In March 2017, Hinch told the "New Zealand Herald" that he had been molested by a brother of one of his father's friends as a nine-year-old boy in his childhood home in New Plymouth in 1953. Hinch identifies as an atheist. Health. In 2006, Hinch lost weight and his health declined. On 4 March 2007, he revealed on "60 Minutes" he had been suffering from advanced cirrhosis of the liver, and that a tumour had been found on his liver. On 27 April 2007, Hinch returned to hospital for additional scans. On 4 August 2007, Hinch revealed he had inoperable liver cancer. On 20 September 2010, Hinch confirmed the liver cancer diagnosis, and said that he expected to undergo surgery to remove a third of his liver, and that this would take him off-air for several weeks. Doctors gave him a 60 per cent chance of surviving a further five years. On 4 November 2010, Hinch told his listeners that his doctors had told him that without a liver transplant, his maximum survival would be 12 months. On 6 July 2011, Hinch underwent liver transplant surgery at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=383038

Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. By having more people using one vehicle, carpooling reduces each person's travel costs such as: fuel costs, tolls, and the stress of driving. Carpooling is also a more environmentally friendly and sustainable way to travel as sharing journeys reduces air pollution, carbon emissions, traffic congestion on the roads, and the need for parking spaces. Authorities often encourage carpooling, especially during periods of high pollution or high fuel prices. Car sharing is a good way to use up the full seating capacity of a car, which would otherwise remain unused if it were just the driver using the car. In 2009, carpooling represented 43.5% of all trips in the United States and 10% of commute trips. The majority of carpool commutes (over 60%) are "fam-pools" with family members. Carpool commuting is more popular for people who work in places with more jobs nearby, and who live in places with higher residential densities. Carpooling is significantly correlated with transport operating costs, including fuel prices and commute length, and with measures of social capital, such as time spent with others, time spent eating and drinking and being unmarried. However, carpooling is significantly less likely among people who spend more time at work, elderly people, and homeowners. Operation. Drivers and passengers offer and search for journeys through one of the several mediums available. After finding a match they contact each other to arrange any details for the journey(s). Costs, meeting points and other details like space for luggage are agreed on. They then meet and carry out their shared car journey(s) as planned. Carpooling is commonly implemented for commuting but is increasingly popular for longer one-off journeys, with the formality and regularity of arrangements varying between schemes and journeys. Carpooling is not always arranged for the whole length of a journey. Especially on long journeys, it is common for passengers to only join for parts of the journey, and give a contribution based on the distance that they travel. This gives carpooling extra flexibility and enables more people to share journeys and save money. Some carpooling is now organized in online marketplaces or ride-matching websites that allow drivers and passengers to find a travel match and/or make a secured transaction to share the planned travel cost. Like other online marketplaces, they use community-based trust mechanisms, such as user-ratings, to create an optimal experience for users. Arrangements for carpooling can be made through many different mediums including public websites, social media, acting as marketplaces, employer websites, smartphone applications, carpooling agencies and pick-up points. Initiatives. Many companies and local authorities have introduced programs to promote carpooling. In an effort to reduce traffic and encourage carpooling, some governments have introduced high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes in which only vehicles with two or more passengers are allowed to drive. HOV lanes can create strong practical incentives for carpooling by reducing travel time and expense. In some countries, it is common to find parking spaces reserved for carpoolers. In 2011, an organization called Greenxc created a campaign to encourage others to use this form of transportation in order to reduce their own carbon footprint. Carpooling, or car sharing as it is called in British English, is promoted by a national UK charity, Carplus, whose mission is to promote responsible car use in order to alleviate financial, environmental and social costs of motoring today, and encourage new approaches to car dependency in the UK. Carplus is supported by Transport for London, the British government initiative to reduce congestion and parking pressure and contribute to relieving the burden on the environment and to the reduction of traffic-related air-pollution, in London. However, not all countries are helping carpooling to spread: in Hungary it is a tax crime to carry someone in a car for a cost share (or any payment) unless the driver has a taxi license and there is an invoice issued and taxes are paid. Several people were fined by undercover tax officers during a 2011 crackdown, posing as passengers looking for a ride on carpooling websites. On 19 March 2012 Endre Spaller, a member of the Hungarian Parliament interpellated Zoltán Cséfalvay, State Secretary for National Economy, about this practice who replied that carpooling should be endorsed instead of punished, however care must be taken for some people trying to turn it into a way to gain untaxed profit. Cost sharing. Carpooling usually means to divide the travel expenses equally between all the occupants of the vehicle (driver or passenger). The driver doesn't try to earn money, but to share with several people the cost of a trip he/she would do anyway. The expenses to be divided basically include the fuel and possible tolls. But if we include in the calculation the depreciation of the vehicle purchase and maintenance, insurance and taxes paid by the driver, we get a cost around $1/mile. There are platforms that facilitate carpooling by connecting people seeking respectively passengers and drivers. Usually there is a fare set up by the car driver and accepted by passengers because they get an agreement before trip start. The second generation of these platforms is designed to manage urban trips in real time, using the traveler's smartphones. They make possible to occupy the vehicle's empty seats on the fly, collecting and delivering passengers along its entire route (and not only at common points of origin and destination). This system automatically performs an equitable sharing of travel costs, allowing each passenger to reimburse the driver a fair share according to the benefit actually gained by the vehicle usage, proportional to the distance traveled by the passenger and the number of people that shared the car. History. Carpooling first became prominent in the United States as a rationing tactic during World War II. Ridesharing began during World War II through “car clubs” or “car-sharing clubs”. The US Office of Civilian Defense asked neighborhood councils to encourage four workers to share a ride in one car to conserve rubber for the war effort. It also created a ride sharing program called the Car Sharing Club Exchange and Self-Dispatching System. Carpooling returned in the mid-1970s due to the 1973 oil crisis and the 1979 energy crisis. At that time the first employee vanpools were organized at Chrysler and 3M. Carpooling declined precipitously between the 1970s and the 2000s, peaking in the US in 1970 with a commute mode share of 20.4%. By 2011 it was down to 9.7%. In large part this has been attributed to the dramatic fall in gas prices (45%) during the 1980s. In the 1990s it was popular among college students, where campuses have limited parking space. Together with Prof. James Davidson from Harvard, Dace Campbell, Ivan Lin and Habib Rached from Washington, and others, began to investigate the feasibility of further development although the comprehensive technologies were not commercially available yet at the time. Their work is considered by many to be a forerunner of carpooling & ridesharing systems using technology developed by Garrett Camp, Travis Kalanick, Oscar Salazar and Conrad Whelan at Uber. The character of carpool travel has been shifting from "Dagwood Bumstead" variety, in which each rider is picked up in sequence, to a "park and ride" variety, where all the travelers meet at a common location. Recently, however, the Internet has facilitated growth for carpooling and the commute share mode has grown to 10.7% in 2005. In 2007 with the advent of smart phones and GPS, which became commercially available, John Zimmer and Logan Green, from Cornell University and University of California, Santa Barbara respectively, rediscovered and created carpooling system called Zimride, a precursor to Lyft. The popularity of the Internet and smart phones has greatly helped carpooling to expand, enabling people to offer and find rides thanks to easy-to-use and reliable online transport marketplaces. These websites are commonly used for one-off long-distance journeys with high fuel costs. In Europe, long-distance car-pooling has become increasingly popular over the past years, thanks to BlaBlaCar. According to its website, , Blablacar counted more than 80 million users, across Europe and beyond. , Uber and Lyft have suspended carpooling services in the U.S. and Canada in efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic via social distancing. Other forms. Carpooling exists in other forms:

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=5949254

Quadrille is a play by Noël Coward. It is a romantic comedy set in the mid-Victorian era, and depicts the romantic permutations when an English aristocrat elopes with the wife of an American businessman and the American falls in love with the aristocrat's deserted wife. The play premiered in London in 1952, starring Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt. It played on Broadway in 1955, with the same two players in the lead roles. History. After a provincial tour beginning at the Manchester Opera House on 15 July 1952, the play opened at the Phoenix Theatre in London on 12 September 1952 and ran until 27 June 1953. The play starred Coward's friends Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt, with Griffith Jones, Marian Spencer and Sylvia Coleridge. The costumes and scenery were by Cecil Beaton and the play was directed by the author. It was fairly successful, running for 329 performances, but failed to match the outstanding popularity of his biggest pre-war hits. "The Manchester Guardian" praised the play for breaking away from Coward’s customary terse style and experimenting with romantic comedy "affectionate and sincere as well as amusing and elegant". "The Times" was unimpressed, describing the piece as "romantic fustian". Many of the reviews thought the plot derivative of Coward's pre-war hit, "Private Lives". The acting of Fontanne and Lunt, however, was consistently praised, though "The Daily Express" called the production "a waste of expensive talent". Lunt won a Tony Award for best actor in the 1955 Broadway production, which also starred Fontanne and featured Brian Aherne, Edna Best and Jerome Kilty. The Broadway run lasted for 159 performances and could have profitably run for longer, but the Lunts preferred to close in March 1955. Plot. Act I. Scene I: The Buffet de la Gare, Boulogne. Early morning, May, 1873.. A uniformed Courier ushers in Hubert, Marquess of Heronden and Mrs Axel Diensen (Charlotte). They have left their spouses and are eloping together. Charlotte is edgy and worries that Hubert's wife Serena, and her own husband, an American railway magnate, will pursue them. She is also apprehensive about how she and Hubert will be received by the English community in Nice, where they are heading. Also in the buffet are an English clergyman, Mr Spevin and his family, en route to Nice, where he has been appointed Vicar of the English church at Nice. His wife spots that the woman with Hubert is not the Marchioness. Their train arrives and they embark. Scene 2: Serena's Sitting-room in Heronden House, Belgrave Square. Some hours later.. Serena, Lady Heronden has returned from the country with her friend, Lady Harriet Ripley. The butler tells her that the Marquess has left a note for her. She opens it but does not reveal its contents to her inquisitive friend. Harriet leaves as an unexpected visitor, Axel Diensen, arrives. He reveals that his wife and the Marquess have eloped. He suggests the both follow the eloping couple; Serena is reluctant at first but he persuades her and they agree to take the night train for the Continent. Act II. Scene 1: The Villa Zodiaque, St. Guillaume des Fleurs, France. Two days later.. Hubert and Charlotte find that the first rapture has worn off their romance. Hubert's attempts to soothe Charlotte are interrupted by the arrival of Serena and Axel. Serena announces her intention of staying to lunch and then indefinitely, despite Hubert's attempts to dissuade her. Hubert takes Charlotte out on to the terrace. Serena asks Axel if he is not afraid to leave them together under the sky. He comments wryly "They'll be back soon. It is beginning to rain." They look at each other and smile. Scene 2: The same. The next morning.. Axel and Serena are still at the villa. She insists on a serious talk with Charlotte, warning her that Hubert has had short infatuations before and may well go off the idea of the elopement when reality sinks in. When Charlotte is alone Hubert enters. She tells him that Serena asked if she truly loved him, and having seen him at close quarters her answer is "No". She is ready to return to London with her husband. She makes a dignified exit, while Hubert struts off in a rage. Serena and Axel seem to have won, but are emotionally exhausted. They are interrupted by Octavia, Countess of Bonnington, an eccentric elderly neighbour. Having heard that a pair of illicit lovers are at the Villa, she assumes they are Serena and Axel, and proceeds to congratulate them, ignoring all Serena's attempts to explain the situation. Finally, she dashes out with an invitation to visit her at her Villa la Joie. Axel, who has taken a liking to her, raises his glass and drinks to her. Serena says he must be as mad as Lady Bonnington. Scene 3: The same. Some hours later.. The two couples, in their travelling clothes, are drinking coffee. The atmosphere is rather strained as they wait for the carriage to take them to the station. Charlotte goes to pack, leaving Serena and Axel together. In a long, intimate talk, he describes his early days: how he started work at thirteen and gradually made a fortune. He asks Serena to come to America some day, and then kisses her hand. Hubert comes back and the couples leave. Act III. Scene I: Serena's Sitting-room in Heronden House, Belgrave Square, June, 1874. Afternoon.. It is a year later. Hubert announces his intention of going big-game hunting in Africa with a new friend called Mallory. Lady Harriet arrives for afternoon tea. She is in gossipy mood, and says that Charlotte Diensen is back in America awaiting a divorce. She also remarks that Hubert has a new "friend", a Mrs Mallory. Hearing the name, Serena realises the real nature of Hubert's "big-game" expedition. "Poor Hubert!" she exclaims. Harriet is surprised at Serena's mood of elation and excitement. When she has gone, Serena rings for the butler, and gives him a letter to hand to Hubert after she has left the house. Scene 2: The Buffet de la Gare, Boulogne. Early the next morning.. The Spevins are on their way back to England. Axel and Serena enter. Spevin recognises them and comes over to their table. He assumes Hubert is travelling with them, and Serena does not correct him. He does not realise that Axel and Serena are eloping. The Stevins leave, and Axel and Serena are left alone. He admits that he is embarrassed by his ignorance of French, and he worries that his lack of education will come to irritate Serena; but she tells him not to worry: "When one elopes with an uncivilised ruffian, one must be prepared for anything". Serena says wistfully that she wishes they were both younger and had more time. Axel replies, "There is time enough, my dear love, time and to spare. Come".

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=3504698

Vanessa Anne Hudgens (; born December 14, 1988) is an American actress, singer, and producer. After making her feature film debut in "Thirteen" (2003), Hudgens rose to fame portraying Gabriella Montez in the "High School Musical" film series (2006–2008), which brought her significant mainstream success. The success of the first film led Hudgens to acquire a recording contract with Hollywood Records, with whom she released two studio albums, "V" (2006) and "Identified" (2008). Since the release of her studio albums and the "High School Musical" franchise, Hudgens has focused on her acting career. She has appeared in the films "Bandslam" (2009), "Beastly," "Sucker Punch" (both 2011), ', "Spring Breakers" (both 2012), "The Princess Switch," "Second Act" (both 2018), and "Bad Boys for Life" (2020). Hudgens played the role of Emily Locke in the NBC series "Powerless" (2017). She also played the title role in the Broadway musical "Gigi" (2015) and had roles in two of Fox’s live musical productions: Rizzo in ' (2016) and Maureen Johnson in "" (2019). Early life. Hudgens was born in Salinas, California, and was raised along the West Coast, from Oregon to Southern California. Her mother, Gina (née Guangco), held a succession of office jobs, and her father, Gregory Hudgens, was a firefighter. She has a younger sister, Stella, who is also an actress. She was raised as a Catholic. Her father, who died of cancer in February 2016, was of Irish, French and Native American descent, and her mother is Filipina, a native of Manila, Philippines. All of her grandparents were musicians. Career. Early roles. Starting in 1998, Hudgens performed in musical theater as a singer, and appeared in local productions of "Carousel", "The Wizard of Oz", "The King and I", "The Music Man", and "Cinderella", among others. Two years after her career in stage plays and musicals, she started auditioning for commercials and television shows, and her family moved to Los Angeles after she won a role in a television commercial. Her acting career started at the age of 15, and she briefly attended Orange County High School of the Arts, followed by homeschooling with tutors. Hudgens had her first acting role in an episode of the sitcom "Still Standing", in which she portrayed Tiffany. Following her appearance on the series, she guest starred in an episode of the series "Robbery Homicide Division", airing on CBS in 2002. Hudgens made her theatrical debut in the 2003 drama film "Thirteen", in the supporting role of Noel. The film, which revolved around teenager Tracy trying to fit in and getting caught up in the wrong crowd, was somewhat of a commercial success, grossing $10 million worldwide. Despite its minor commercial success, the film received positive critical reviews. "USA Today" called "Thirteen" the most "powerful of all recent wayward-youth sagas". Hudgens subsequently landed a role in the 2004 science fiction-adventure film "Thunderbirds", based on the 1960s television series. Hudgens portrayed the character of Tin-tin. The film was a commercial failure and was strongly criticized for "abandoning the original concepts". 2005–2008: "High School Musical" and music. In January 2006, Hudgens played Gabriella Montez, one of the lead roles in the Disney Channel Original Movie "High School Musical". The film saw Hudgens portraying the new girl at high school who falls for the captain of the basketball team. The two later reveal a passion for singing, and audition for the school play together. Hudgens starred alongside Zac Efron and Ashley Tisdale, the former of which she was partnered up with during the auditioning process due to their "chemistry". It was Disney Channel's most watched film that year with 7.7 million viewers in its premiere broadcast in the US, until August's premiere of "The Cheetah Girls 2", which achieved 8.1 million viewers. For the film, Hudgens recorded numerous songs which had commercial success. The song "Breaking Free", a duet with Zac Efron, became Hudgens' highest peak on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 at number 4, and number 9 in the UK. Following the success of the film, Hudgens released her debut studio album, "V", on September 26, 2006. It sold 34,000 copies in its first week, and debuted at number 24 on the US "Billboard" 200 chart. In February 2007, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. As of August 2009, the album has sold 570,000 copies in the US. It was preceded by two singles, "Come Back to Me" and "Say OK", both of which were slightly successful in numerous countries. Both singles received promotion on Disney Channel, with the music videos for both premiering on the channel. Hudgens reprised her role as Gabriella in "High School Musical 2", released on August 17, 2007. The premiere was watched by over 17.2 million viewers in the US, almost 10 million more than its predecessor, making it the most-watched Disney Channel Original Movie of all time. Disney Channel aired a weekly program called "Road to High School Musical 2", beginning on June 8, 2007, and leading up to the premiere of "High School Musical 2" in August. The show offered viewers a behind-the-scenes look into the production of the movie. The world premiere of the opening number "What Time Is It" was on Radio Disney May 25, 2007, and similarly "You Are The Music in Me" premiered on July 13, 2007. The film was generally well received by critics. "USA Today"'s Robert Bianco awarded the film three stars out of four, saying "High School Musical 2" was "sweet, smart, bursting with talent and energy, and awash in innocence". While critics enjoyed the film, they noted that the timing of its premiere seemed odd, premiering just when school was about to start up again, while the plot involved the gang going on summer vacation. Her second studio album, "Identified", was released on July 1, 2008. It sold 22,000 copies in its first week, 12,000 less than "V". Despite the drop in sales, the album debuted at number 23 on the "Billboard" 200, one spot higher than "V". The album was preceded by one single, "Sneakernight", which peaked at number 88 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Following the commercial failure of the album, Hudgens parted ways with Hollywood Records. Hudgens again reprised her role in "", the first film from the franchise to be released theatrically. It opened at number one at the North American box office in October 2008, earning $42 million in its first weekend, which broke the record previously held by "Mamma Mia!" for the biggest opening by a musical. The film finished with $252 million worldwide, which exceeded Disney's expectations. 2009–present: Mainstream film and television. Following the completion of the "High School Musical" series, Hudgens confirmed that she was taking a break from her music career to focus more on acting. She played a supporting role in a musical comedy "Bandslam", which was released theatrically on August 14, 2009. Hudgens plays "Sa5m", a 15-year-old awkward freshman with untapped talents. Although "Bandslam" was commercially unsuccessful, Hudgens' performance received praise from critics. David Waddington of the "North Wales Pioneer" noted that Hudgens "outshines the rest of the cast, failing to fit in with the outcast narrative and making the inevitable climactic ending all the more expected", and Philip French of "The Guardian" compared her acting to Thandie Newton and Dorothy Parker. Hudgens made a return to theater productions and starred in the musical "Rent" as Mimi. The stage production ran from August 6–8, 2010, at the Hollywood Bowl. Her involvement in the production drew negative comments, but director Neil Patrick Harris defended his decision with casting Hudgens by saying, "Vanessa [Hudgens] is awesome. She's a friend. I asked her to come in and sing to make sure she had the chops for it. And she was very committed and seemed great." Hudgens starred with Alex Pettyfer in the 2011 film "Beastly", based on Alex Flinn's 2007 novel. She played one of the main characters, Linda Taylor, and described her as, "...the 'beauty' of the story but not the stereotypical beauty everyone thinks of." Hudgens and Pettyfer were recognized as ShoWest Stars of Tomorrow. "Beastly" was released on March 4, 2011, to mostly negative reviews. It had been ranked No. 45 in "The Times" predicted "50 Biggest Movies of 2010". The film was screened at ShoWest and it drew enthusiastic reactions from the luncheon crowd of exhibition officials. The film went on to make $28 million worldwide as of 2012. Hudgens was also cast as one of the five female leads in the action film "Sucker Punch", directed by Zack Snyder. She played Blondie, an institutionalized girl in an asylum. The film was released in March 2011, and grossed $19 million in its first weekend at the North American box office, opening at number two. By the end of its run, "Sucker Punch" totaled $89 million worldwide. Though the film's content was derided, it received some recognition for the visual effects of the fantasy sequences. "Sucker Punch" received a nomination at the 2011 Scream Awards for Best F/X, and its stunt work was nominated for a Taurus Award. Hudgens joined the cast of "" (2012), the sequel to the 2008 film "Journey to the Center of the Earth", alongside Dwayne Johnson and Josh Hutcherson, playing Hutcherson's love interest. The film earned $325 million worldwide during its theatrical run, which outperformed its predecessor. It received generally mixed to negative reviews from critics. The consensus from Rotten Tomatoes is: "Aggressively unambitious, "Journey 2" might thrill teen viewers, but most others will find it too intense for young audiences and too cartoonishly dull for adults". In 2013, Hudgens starred alongside Selena Gomez and James Franco in the film "Spring Breakers". The story followed four college-aged girls who decide to rob a fast food restaurant in order to pay for their spring break. It was released theatrically in March 2013, receiving generally positive reviews. The film featured mature themes such as drug use, sexual escapades, and violence. To coincide with the film, Hudgens released the dubstep-influenced song "$$$ex", with a music video featuring clips from the film. The song features guest vocals from YLA, and was produced by Rock Mafia. Hudgens later expressed her discomfort with a sex scene, stating: "It was very nerve-racking for me. I told my agent that I never want to do it ever again." She also starred in the 2013 film "Gimme Shelter" with Brendan Fraser, written and directed by Ron Krauss. Later that year, Hudgens played Cindy Paulson in "The Frozen Ground", a film based on the Robert Hansen case wherein she plays his only victim who escaped. She co-starred with John Cusack and Nicolas Cage. In 2015, Hudgens took on the title role in a production of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's "Gigi", which opened at the Kennedy Center from January 16 to February 12, before transferring to Broadway on April 8. The production closed on June 21. On January 31, 2016, Hudgens starred in the role of Rizzo in "", Fox's live broadcast based on the original Broadway musical. Hudgens dedicated her performance to her father, who died from cancer one day before the special aired. In 2017, Hudgens played Emily Locke on NBC's comedy series "Powerless", which was based on DC Comics characters. It was cancelled after one season. That same year, Hudgens was featured on Shawn Hook's single "Reminding Me" and starred in the music video. In 2018, Hudgens starred in the romantic comedy film "Dog Days", alongside Finn Wolfhard and Nina Dobrev. She collaborated with electronic dance music duo Phantoms on the single "Lay With Me", released in September 2018. She starred in the Netflix film "The Princess Switch" in November 2018, in which she portrayed both a European duchess and a pastry chef from Chicago, who temporarily switch roles. In December 2018, she co-starred opposite Jennifer Lopez in the comedy film "Second Act", directed by Peter Segal. Hudgens starred in another Fox live musical presentation, "", as Maureen Johnson, in January 2019. In November 2019, she starred in and served as a producer on the Netflix film "The Knight Before Christmas". Upcoming projects She appeared in the third entry in the "Bad Boys" franchise, "Bad Boys for Life", in January 2020 which grossed over $426 million worldwide. She also starred in and produced the 2020 sequel "", portraying an additional third role. She has committed to starring in a Netflix film adaption of the musical "Tick, Tick... Boom! ", directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Personal life. Hudgens was in a relationship with her "High School Musical" co-star Zac Efron from 2005 to 2010, and with actor Austin Butler from 2011 to 2020. In 2021, Hudgens confirmed via Instagram that she was in a relationship with Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Cole Tucker. Hudgens was raised Catholic, but since has grown away from that branch of Christianity and now identifies as a non-denominational Christian. She attends the Los Angeles affiliate church of Hillsong Church. In May 2016, Hudgens paid $1,000 in restitution for damage of U.S. Forest Service property by carving initials within a heart on a rock in the Coconino National Forest and displaying it on her personal Instagram feed. In March 2020, Hudgens made a video in which she said it is "inevitable" that people will die from the COVID-19 pandemic. The video caused controversy because she appeared to be minimizing the impact of the disease and the need for preventive measures. She subsequently apologized for her "insensitive" remarks. Leaked photos. On September 6, 2007, stolen photos of Hudgens were leaked online, one showing her posing in lingerie and another showing her nude. A statement from her publicist claimed that the photo was taken privately and it was unfortunate that they were released on the Internet. Hudgens later apologised, saying that she was "embarrassed over the situation" and regretted having "taken [those] photos". Hudgens subsequently released a statement indicating that she declined to comment further on the subject. "OK!" magazine speculated that Hudgens would be dropped from "High School Musical 3" as a result of the images, but The Walt Disney Company denied this, saying, "Vanessa has apologized for what was obviously a lapse in judgment. We hope she's learned a valuable lesson." In August 2009, another set of stolen pictures showing Hudgens topless emerged on the Internet. Hudgens' representatives did not comment, though her lawyers requested the removal of the pictures from the Internet. In late 2009, Hudgens sued "www.moejackson.com" for posting nude "self-portrait photographs" of her taken on a mobile phone in a private home. Hudgens later commented on the photos' impact on her career in the October issue of "Allure", stating, "Whenever anybody asks me, would I do nudity in a film, if I say that it's something I'm not comfortable with, they're like, 'Bullshit, you've already done it.' If anything, it makes it more embarrassing, because that was a private thing. It's screwed up that someone screwed me over like that. At least some people are learning from my mistake." According to "Us Weekly", further pictures were released on the Internet on March 15, 2011. Public image. Hudgens was represented by William Morris Agency but signed on to Creative Artists Agency in 2011. In 2006, Hudgens' earnings were estimated to be $2 million. Hudgens was included in "Forbes" richest list in early 2007, and the "Forbes" article noted that she was included in "Young Hollywood's Top Earning-Stars". On December 12, 2008, Hudgens was ranked No. 20 in the list of "Forbes" "High Earners Under 30", having reported to have an estimated earnings of $3 million in 2008. She was number 62 at "FHM's 100 Sexiest Women 2008" and number 42 in the 2009 list. Hudgens is also featured in "Maxim"s lists. She was included in "People"s annual "100 Most Beautiful People" 2008 and 2009 lists. Hudgens promotes Neutrogena and was the 2008 featured celebrity for Sears' back-to school campaign. In 2007, she became a spokesperson for Marc Eckō products but ended the contract after two years. Hudgens regularly volunteers for charitable activities, including those for Best Buddies International, Lollipop Theater Network, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the VH1 Save The Music Foundation. Hudgens is also featured in "A Very Special Christmas Vol.7" disc which benefits the Special Olympics. Hudgens is also part of the "Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C): Change The Odds" along with other Hollywood stars including Zac Efron, Dakota Fanning, Kristen Bell, and others. Brian Schall sued Hudgens in 2007 for an alleged "breach of contract"; according to the suit, Schall claims he advanced costs and expenses on Hudgens' behalf for her songwriting and recording career. Schall claims Hudgens owed him $150,000 after helping her earn more than $5 million for her music career. Hudgens argued that she was a 16-year-old minor when she signed the contract in October 2005, and therefore too young to do so. She subsequently disaffirmed it on October 9, 2008. Papers filed in court by her lawyer say California's Family Code "provides that the contract of a minor is voidable and may be disaffirmed before (age 18) or within a reasonable time afterward." In 2008, Hudgens was sued by Johnny Vieira, who claims he was owed a share of Hudgens' advances, royalties and merchandising revenue in exchange for his management services. Vieira accuses Hudgens of abandoning her talent team as soon as she became a commercial name. In early May 2009, the case was settled.

elevated wageworkers

6541-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=27723358

Gymnoschoenus sphaerocephalus, commonly known as buttongrass, is a species of tussock-forming sedge from southeastern Australia. It forms part of a unique habitat in Tasmania. It was originally described as "Chaetospora sphaerocephala" by Scottish botanist Robert Brown in his 1810 work "Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen", before being given its current binomial name in 1858 by Joseph Dalton Hooker. "G. sphaerocephalus" is a perennial sedge species which forms a clump or tussock. The leaf blades reach in length, and in width. The round flowerheads arise out of the tussock, on culms which are up to high. They are around in diameter and made up of flattened spikelets long. Its root system is a mass of fleshy carbohydrate-rich rhizomes, which are edible. In New South Wales it is found from Gibraltar Range (and Myall Lakes on the coast) south to Robertson. In Victoria the plant is known from at least two locations, one to the east of Melbourne in the Beenak State Forest, and the other location being on the eastern side of the Grampians National Park in western Victoria. It is much more abundant and widespread in Tasmania, where it is common in the western part of the state. "G. sphaerocephalus" grows in damp nutrient-poor soils, and in Tasmania forms a low grassland or moor in which it is the dominant shrub. Associated primitive plants include club mosses such as "Lycopodiella lateralis", and "Selaginella uliginosa" and the ferns "Gleichenia dicarpa" and "G. alpina". Despite the wet climate, buttongrass is relatively flammable and the ecological community is adapted to regular burning. The leaves of "G. sphaerocephalus" have the lowest recorded phosphorus content of any plant species. The soil it grows in is a peat which is acidic, with a pH of 3.5 to 4.5. Buttongrass may form a symbiotic relationship with a species of burrowing crayfish "Parastacoides tasmanicus", which aerates the soil with its burrows and in turn feeds on the rhizomes. It is also a food item of the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot, which breeds in buttongrass moorlands of southwestern Tasmania over the summer.

wilderness environment

11898-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=13986250

The Bronze and Iron Age cultures in Poland are known mainly from archeological research. Early Bronze Age cultures in Poland began around 2300–2400 BCE, while the Iron Age commenced in approximately 700–750 BCE. The Iron Age archeological cultures no longer existed by the start of the Common Era. The subject of the ethnicity and linguistic affiliation of the groups living in Central Europe at that time is, given the absence of written records, speculative, and accordingly there is considerable disagreement. In Poland the Lusatian culture, spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages, became particularly prominent. The most famous archeological finding from that period is the Biskupin fortified settlement (gord) on the lake from which it takes its name, representing the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age. The Bronze Age in Poland consisted of Period I (early), 2300 to 1600 BC; Period II (older), 1600 to 1350 BC; Period III (middle), 1350 to 1100 BC; Period IV (younger), 1100 to 900 BC; Period V (late), 900 to 700 BC. The Early Iron Age included Hallstatt Period C, 700 to 600 BC, and Hallstatt Period D, 600 to 450 BC. Bronze items present in Poland around 2300 BC were brought through the Carpathian Basin. The native Early Bronze Age that followed was dominated by the innovative Unetice culture in western Poland, and by the conservative Mierzanowice culture in the east. Those were replaced in their respective territories, for the duration of the second, the Older Bronze Period, by the (pre-Lusatian) Tumulus culture and the Trzciniec culture. Characteristic of the remaining bronze periods were the Urnfield cultures; within their range skeletal burials had been replaced by cremation of bodies throughout much of Europe. In Poland the Lusatian culture settlements dominated the landscape for nearly a thousand years, continuing into and including the Early Iron Age. A series of Scythian invasions, beginning in the 6th century BC, precipitated the demise of the Lusatian culture. The Hallstatt Period D was the time of expansion of the Pomeranian culture, while the Western Baltic Kurgans culture occupied the Masuria-Warmia region of contemporary Poland. Unetice and other Bronze Age cultures. Unetice culture. The Bronze Age in Poland, as well as elsewhere in central Europe, begins with the innovative Unetice culture, in existence in Silesia and a part of Greater Poland during the first period of this era, that is from before 2200 to 1600 BC. This settled agricultural society's origins consisted of the conservative traditions inherited from the Corded Ware populations and dynamic elements of the Bell-Beaker people. Significantly, the Unetice people cultivated contacts with the highly developed cultures of the Carpathian Basin, through whom they had trade links with the cultures of early Greece. Their culture also echoed inspiring influence coming all the way from the most highly developed at that time civilizations of the Middle East. Characteristic of the Unetice societies was greater general affluence and developed social stratification, compared with Late Neolithic cultures. Objects made of bronze, often of luxurious or prestigious nature, were in high demand as symbols of power and importance and are typically found in the graves of "princes". Fourteen such burial sites, circular mounds of earth heaped up on top of wooden, clay and stone structures, some as large as 30 meters in diameter, were found in Łęki Małe near Grodzisk Wielkopolski, erected 2000–1800 BC, suggesting the existence of a local dynasty. Proliferation of locally-made bronze items (Uneticean daggers were in high demand all over Europe and in Anatolia) far from the centers of ore mining or bronze craftsmanship shows that the elites were able to control the trade routes, which also involved the transportation of amber from the Baltic Sea shores to Aegean Sea area artisans. Many concealed (for unknown reasons) bronze treasures have been found, including a fine one from Pilszcz near Głubczyce. Stylistically refined Uneticean ceramics show inspiration from the Achaean vessels obtained through trade. Fortified settlements were built; one actively researched site, that was utilized and went through a number of phases during the 2000–1500 BC period, is in Bruszczewo in Kościan County. Remains of settlements and cemeteries were discovered around Wrocław and elsewhere in Lower Silesia, including an amber processing workshop in Nowa Wieś, Bolesławiec County. The nature of the weapons and other items found at Unetice sites suggests a chronic state of warfare and the emergence of a warrior class. At the forefront of civilization in its time and place, the Unetice culture eventually succumbed to social and economic deterioration; its demise may have been hastened by destructive raids waged by the warriors of the belligerent Burial Mound culture, which in the end replaced it. Iwno culture. The Iwno culture, named after Iwno near Szubin, was a contemporary of the Unetice culture. Located in Kujawy, eastern (Gdańsk) Pomerania and northeastern Greater Poland, it was influenced by the Unetice culture, from where their bronze items were imported, and had many common traits with the Mierzanowice culture (see below). Iwno thin-walled clay vessels were carefully finished and domestic animal rising was important for the economy. Płonia group. The Płonia group of a comparable period, named after a neighborhood of Szczecin, extended over central and western Polish Pomerania; it is known for stone chest burials. Mierzanowice culture. East of the Unetice culture, in Lesser Poland and further north to the Masovia region, during roughly the same span of time, lay the territory of the Mierzanowice culture, named after the type-site village near Opatów. These people, culturally also descendants of the Corded Ware culture, at first lived as mobile cattle breeders, but around 2200 BC started building permanent settlements and engaged in agriculture as well. Mierzanowice culture was a conservative society, frequently still using stone tools and reserving copper for decorations. The Pleszów group of the Mierzanowice culture originated the most significant of the Polish Bronze Age fortified settlements, located in Trzcinica near Jasło. It was constructed on a particularly suitable, elevated natural location, with the initial enclosed area of 0.6 hectares. It remained in continuous use from about 2100 to 1300 BC and is often dubbed the Carpathian Troy or the Troy of the North. The area has been a site of archeological explorations for the past hundred years, but only the more recent investigations uncovered its true significance in terms of the understanding of the early Bronze Age developments in central Europe. 30,000 Pleszów group artifacts have been unearthed, including exceptionally well-made ornamented pottery and weaving equipment. Some of the objects recovered, as well as the nature of the defensive structures, reveal the Pleszów group's contacts with the Carpathian Basin peoples and the resulting influence coming from their cultures. Strzyżów culture. Of the same cultural sphere as Mierzanowice, still further east was the Strzyżów culture, named after the village near Hrubieszów. Otomani-Füzesabony culture. Highly advanced Otomani-Füzesabony culture people arrived in Trzcinica area around 1650 BC, coming from the regions south of the Carpathian Mountains, and took over the settlement developed earlier by the Pleszów group, as they were settling the Wisłoka River drainage area. They assimilated the local population and created a more powerful stronghold by rebuilding and expanding with remarkable engineering ingenuity the existing structure. The Otomani people left over 60,000 identified relics (including, unlike those of the Mierzanowice people, numerous luxury bronze items), many of which are a manifestation of their close ties with the Mediterranean area cultures – whence the "Troy connection". The Trzcinica fortress was burned, rebuilt and expanded again (to 2 hectares), and after 1350 BC abandoned for over two thousand years. The settlement was repopulated by the Slavs who around 770–780 CE built a massive gord here. The above cultures constitute the first (early) period of the Bronze Age in Poland, ca. 2300 to 1600 BC. Trzciniec culture. Throughout their range and beyond, the Mierzanowice and Strzyżów cultures (and the more southern part of the Iwno culture) were replaced by the Trzciniec culture. It was named after Trzciniec near Puławy and lasted from 1700 to 1100 BC, that is throughout the second and third periods of the Bronze Age. It was probably made up of diverse post-Neolithic populations, whose common characteristic was the type of pottery – large vessels with a thickened upper edge and a horizontal decorative protrusion around the neck, first found around northern Germany at the beginning of the millennium. Their own production of bronze objects came late and only in the western part of this culture's range. A kurgan burial site of the Trzciniec culture, in use from the 15th to the early 12th century BC was preserved in Dacharzów near Sandomierz. The central bottom part of the structure consists of two adjacent rectangular stone burial chambers with wooden floors. The larger one contains the bones of several women and children, the smaller one the cremated remains of one older man. Clay pots and copper decorations were also present. The chambers were covered by wooden construction supporting stone slanting walls/roofs, the whole structure being covered by a large (12–13 meters in diameter) earth mound. In addition to this oldest part – the main burial of an apparent tribal chief and his family, there are newer peripheral graves at the edge of the kurgan and items indicating a prolonged cemetery and local cult use of this burial complex. Small scale and sparse settlement areas with more primitive crafts were thought to be characteristic of the Trzciniec culture period and distribution. However a comprehensive, long-functioning a well-developed complex has been found near Polesie, Łowicz County, with objects carbon-dated from 1530 to 1210 BC. The utilized living space, a complete "microcosm", had the area of 17 hectares, bordered by two streams, with fields, animal quarters and workshops. Cattle and pigs were kept, while the farmers cultivated oats, wheat and barley and caused devastation of the natural environment surroundings. Skeletons examined indicate that many residents suffered from tooth decay. Among the many thousand stone remnants discovered there are ceremonial staffs (maces) with a wooden handle, indicating influence from the distant Mesopotamia and the East in general. Melting and processing of bronze took place and salt was imported from regions further south. The main identified burial site was actively and repeatedly utilized for generations, bodies rearranged, the grave dug in the ground being covered by a mound five meters in diameter. Tumulus culture. Proto-Lusatian Tumulus or Burial Mound culture of Danubian origin thrived in western Polish lands during the 1700–1400 BC period, and contributed to the birth and rise of the Urnfield cultures. Around 1400 BC it was replaced by the most important of them – the Lusatian culture. Burial Mound culture again was a complex of cultures, which replaced the Unetice culture and had an earth and stone mound grave as their common trait. The burials are skeletal, as opposed to the cremation practices of the later Urnfield cultures. There are no substantial settlements left by the Burial Mound people, whose agricultural practices were apparently limited mostly to animal husbandry. They developed bronze metallurgy to a large extent, satisfying their own needs for weapons and richly designed and executed decorations. Their dominant social class were the warriors, who were equal and were the only men entitled to a tumulus burial. Piliny culture. The Piliny culture (1500–1200 BC, roughly the third or middle period of the Bronze Age) of Hungary and Slovakia, and also southern Lesser Poland, where like others they left bronze treasures, is an early example of the Urnfield cultures. These cultures' burial customs involved cremation of bodies and placing the ashes in urns (often with small apertures, presumably for the soul to escape). The urns were buried without a mound, sometimes forming huge cemeteries with thousands of such graves. Lusatian culture of the later Bronze Age. General characteristics. The Lusatian culture lasted on Polish lands from 1450 to 250 BC, through the remainder of the Bronze Age (middle and late periods) and then into the Iron Age, from 750 BC on. Although archeologically it presents itself in a fairly uniform way, it is believed to have been ethnically non-homogeneous, originating in the interplay between groups arriving from outside and populations in existence in Poland, in which new cultural patterns were adopted. The east-west cultural disparity continued: For example, the use of metal objects was less common in the eastern regions, while in the western zone besides the urns the burials contained often many other vessels. The western zone ceramics of the early Lusatian period had very prominent protuberances around the lower part of the container. These regional differences became even more pronounced with time. A number of smaller Lusatian subcultures are distinguished, such as the one in Upper Silesia, where after a 250-year hiatus, beginning at about 900 BC, atypically for the Urnfield cultural sphere, skeletal burials are found again. Settlements, economic activities, crafts and social organization. Bronze Age Lusatian rural settlements were limited to low-lying areas and until late in this period lacked fortifications or other defensive measures; during these more peaceful times protection was not as essential as in the centuries to follow. The houses were made of beams insulated by clay or moss, supported by poles, with slanting roofs covered by straw or reed. Inside there were hearths, stools, beds, places for economic activity such as metallurgical production shops, vertical looms and hand-operated mills. Some livestock were also kept inside, and some were culled before winter because of insufficient ability to store feed. The materials used were still wood, horn and bone, and, especially in the eastern zone, stone. Women were commonly engaged in spinning and weaving, for clay weaving implements and workshops were found within the unearthed settlements. Pottery was still produced without the potter's wheel and kilns specialized for baking pots were just making their first appearance. During the late Bronze Age specialized centers manufactured beautifully painted ceramics, much of it for sale. Bronze metallurgy and craftsmanship became also highly developed and acquired locally different styles – luxurious decorative items, tools and arms were made around Legnica and elsewhere in western and southern Poland. Lusatian social organization was based on the family and extended family, although early tribal communities may have also been developing. Social, professional and trade groups were gradually forming, including warriors, priests and metallurgists, but there is no evidence of a hereditary ruling class or other social elites. Lusatian settlements in central Poland (Łódź area) were small (4–5 families) and short-lived, no more than half a century at the same location, probably because the soil was no longer usable after intensive exploitation through a couple of generations. The exception is a huge settlement in Kowalewice, Zgierz County, from the late Bronze Age, lasting into the Hallstatt period. A treasure of unique in Poland bronze and iron personal ornaments dated 8th century BC, stylistically related to finds from northern as well as southern Europe, was discovered on the edge of a settlement in Aleksandrowice, Kraków County, an area of extensive Lusatian settlement activity. Solar cult and cult related art. Many objects recovered by archeologists are believed to be related to a cult of the sun and the solar deity. Those include ceramics with painted solar images and molded into bird figures, bronze wheeled mini-carts with animal ornaments and bronze clasps with bird images, probably worn as parts of a ceremonial robe by priests-sorcerers. Anthropomorphic figurines and zoomorphic containers and plates related to solar or other forms of cult are found in the Lusatian western zone; they come from the last centuries of the Bronze Age and continue into the Iron Age. Engraved on a vase-urn found in Łazy in Milicz County and dated 850–650 BC are representations of mythical deer-man figures. Some such vessels, jewelry and drawings have their contemporary counterparts in Assyria, ancient Israel, Archaic Greece and Etruria, which shows the breadth of Lusatian trade and other contacts. A panpipe (syrinx), a musical instrument of the type popular in northern Italy and eastern Hallstatt circles, was found in a grave in Przeczyce near Zawiercie from the late bronze or early iron periods. Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age. Changing conditions and regional relations. Several factors destabilized the situation at the outset of the Iron Age. Climate cooling caused a degradation of the Asian steppes which forced the nomadic people who lived there to move out and started a chain of consequences – horsemen from the steppe armed with iron weapons were able to penetrate large areas of Europe. The Europeans responded by building large fortified settlements, adopting the warring methods of the Asian invaders, developing a specialized military caste and a strong power system based on a prince-ruler. The Hallstatt culture, which developed west and south of Poland, itself imitating the Mediterranean civilizations and cultivating close contacts with them, turned out to be a major influence on the Lusatian people on Polish lands, whose culture reached its peak during the 750–550 BC period. Baltic amber was traded in return for weapons and luxurious objects from southern Europe, including fancy personal grooming items such as nail clipping devices, and trade relations with the Nordic area peoples were similarly well developed, notably in western Pomerania, which had increasingly been falling under the Nordic cultural zone (southern Scandinavian Peninsula, Denmark and northern Germany) influence throughout the Later Bronze Age, when its artisans imitated the Nordic imports. Lusatian culture of the Hallstatt periods. The Lusatian culture of the Hallstatt periods included most lands of present-day Poland, including the related Białowice culture (Zielona Góra County) in some of the westernmost parts, contemporaneous with Hallstatt C and D and later and credited with the passing of a "cist" (rock encasement) grave type to the Pomeranian culture. Western Poland was more highly developed, with local manufacturing; jewelry and other decorative products made of iron, bronze, glass, amber and other materials as well as luxurious painted ceramics were patterned after the Hallstatt craft. In many graveyards the dead were buried in wooden chambers. The burials found in Gorszewice (Szamotuły County) in Greater Poland (650–550 BC) are supplied with fancy equipment and resemble the graves of the Hallstatt tribal chiefs; similarly there are other treasures of luxurious and prestigious objects. Large scale excavation of Lusatian settlements influenced by the Alpine region of the Hallstatt culture took place in Wrocław County. There at Stary Śleszów and Milejowice parts of the settlements are separated from the rest by a solid palisade fence, possibly enclosing the dwellings of the emerging local elite. At the Nowy Śleszów settlement a residential and industrial zones could be clearly distinguished, the latter one including kilns for pottery baking and smelting furnaces for ironworks. A necropolis in Domasław functioned from 1300 to 400 BC and over 3000 graves have been discovered there. Over 80 Hallstatt type rich burials are among them. Objects recovered point to extensive trading contacts with the south of the Alps and Mediterranean regions. Because of the evidence acquired, some investigators now believe that the large center in Wrocław County and other early Iron Age settlements in Lower Silesia represent the Hallstatt, rather than Lusatian culture. Despite this apparent fascination with the lifestyles of the western elites (and to some degree creation of their own), the Lusatian people never acquired a comparable level of social stratification and there were no hereditary "princes". Economic activities. Agricultural activities remained the mainstay of the economy, supplemented as before by hunting and gathering. Simple wooden scratch-plows were already used, pulled by oxen. Millet, wheat, rye, oats and barley were grown in field systems, while in the gardens bean and lentil were cultivated, as well as oil-producing poppy, turnips and flax, whose fiber made linen thread. Animal husbandry methods improved when iron utensils became more common, that is beginning in the 6th century BC. Horses were bred and utilized more often, in addition to the traditionally kept cattle, swine, sheep and goats, and improved feed storage allowed keeping the herds throughout the winter season. Salt springs were used for salt production. In Wieliczka area in particular salt was being manufactured already during the Bronze Age, with large scale extraction taking place during the Hallstatt periods. In southern Poland the Lusatians tried to exploit the locally available metal ores. Construction of fortified settlements and Scythian invasions. Beginning around 900 BC the Lusatian people gradually fortified their settlements, first in the Silesia region. By 650–600 BC there were quite a few of them there and all over the western zone. Often built in locations naturally easy to defend, they were surrounded by walls made of earth, stone and wood, and moats, and could cover anywhere from 0.5 to 20 hectares. Smaller strongholds were built at strategic locations such as mountain passes and trade routes, where the residents could control and police the area. The strongholds also functioned as industrial centers; a good example of a trade-manufacturing fortified settlement is the one in Komorów, located near the Gorszewice cemetery. Some of the large fortified areas didn't have many structures inside and served probably as temporary sanctuaries for the local population at times of danger. Beginning in the 6th century several waves of Scythian invasions went through the Polish lands. The routes they traveled can be seen from the trail of the burnt-out Lusatian settlements they left. Dramatic material testimony of violent death and destruction was found among the ashes of a perished fortified settlement in Wicina near Nowogród Bobrzański. On the other hand, a golden Scythian treasure was discovered near a Lusatian settlement in Witaszkowo near Gubin – elements of arms and decorations patterned after zoomorphic Greek art motifs and dated 550 BC, probably booty seized from a fallen Scythian chief. Biskupin. Of a different and far less common type is the famous, very well preserved Biskupin wooden stronghold on the lake, in use from about 750 to 500 BC, when rising water levels forced the inhabitants to abandon the settlement. The houses (almost a hundred, enough to room about one thousand settlers) inside the walls were densely and regularly arranged in long rows. There were eleven parallel streets covered by wood – the whole structure is seen by some as a proto-urban imitation of the Mediterranean cities. But the dwellings were all alike, indicating a lack of significant social distinction within the Lusatian community. This site, central to Polish archeology, has been under active and intense research since 1934. The descendants of the Biskupin residents, like of most Lusatian people, were very likely incorporated into the Pomeranian culture, and with it eventually into the Germanic mainstream. Decline of the Lusatian culture. In the 5th century the Lusatians stopped building fortified settlements. The Scythian expansion severed their trade links with the Hallstatt societies, while climatic changes damaged their agriculture. All this forced them to disperse and caused disintegration of their social structures. Less developed population from the eastern zone migrated west, highly developed ceramic and metallurgic industries waned, the Pomeranian culture expanded into the previously Lusatian areas. By the 4th century BC the Lusatian culture was for the most part gone, with the last, small populations surviving in western and southern Poland. Pomeranian culture, Western Baltic Kurgans culture. Pomeranian culture. This article's last major culture covering most Polish lands, the Pomeranian culture, developed in the 7th century BC in eastern Pomerania. This region had preserved a distinct cultural identity throughout the middle and late Bronze Age; unlike the rest of the Lusatian lands they kept the custom of raising burial mounds or barrows above the graves. Those were covered by a layer of stones and the urns were placed in a chest, or cist built of rock pieces. At the outset of the Iron Age the eastern Pomeranians became involved in long distance amber trade that ranged from the Sambian Peninsula, through Pomerania, the Lusatian and Hallstatt lands all the way to Italy. The amber trade gave them access to imported products. At roughly the same time climatic changes favored a rural economy different from that typical of the Lusatian societies. Animal husbandry and the less demanding cereals (rye and barley) became more important, as the villages had to be built at higher altitudes (because of climatically elevated water tables and environmental exploitation of the lowland settlement areas). This in turn favored small communities based on the family and extended family, flexible and capable of greater mobility. All such factors gave the Pomeranian people a competitive advantage over the traditional Lusatian settlements. Pomeranian burials and urns. Accordingly, the large Lusatian urn fields were replaced by small, family size burial sites with several or more urns. The cist graves were now mostly flat, without mounds, forming a rectangle with up to two meter-long sides built of vertical slabs, containing the urns (sometimes as many as thirty and in separate compartments) inside and covered with another slab. Further south and east, as the Pomeranian culture expanded into central and southeastern Poland, there were also burials where the urn was placed under a globe or cloche, that is inside a large, spherical ceramic container, itself sometimes placed in a cist; areas with this arrangement are sometimes recognized as a distinct subculture (Cloche Grave culture). Two types of funerary urns are peculiar to the Pomeranians, house-urns and face-urns. House-urns stand on several legs, have a large opening in front, come from an earlier period, the 7–6th century BC and mostly from the Lębork region. Face-urns from the same period are round, bulging containers with a unique and often realistic image of a face around the neck area and a hat-like lid, while the later ones tend to be less elaborate. Sometimes on the outside they were variously decorated, with tools and toilet accessories placed inside. Face-urns from the 650–450 BC period unearthed in Borucino, Kartuzy County and elsewhere present a rich assortment of engraved narrative scenes. Those include horse-drawn chariots that apparently depict the nightly trips of the sun-god through the underworlds, which symbolically represents the cyclical renewal of life; carts pulled by oxen and representing lunar symbolism are also present. Solar images were placed on the lids. House- and face-urns are believed to represent Etruscan influence. Pomeranian economy. Pomeranian rural economy was based on small, open settlements. Their livestock included horses and many dogs. Plowing was done with all wooden (bare) spatula-plows, which required multiple runs. The Pomeranians cultivated several different grains and practiced fishery. Bronze and iron processing became very highly developed. Of the weapons, tools, decorative items and jewelry manufactured, the large bronze necklaces made of many rings, running around the neck and upper chest area, connected by a latticed buckle in the back (600–450 BC) are especially impressive. Advanced bronze metallurgy facilities were found at Juszkowo near Pruszcz Gdański. At Pruszcz itself an amber processing workshop was found – the material used was imported from Sambia. At the iron works material obtained from the local ore deposits (Góry Świętokrzyskie) was most likely used. Another highly developed craft was pottery, which found its highest expression in the above described face-urns. Expansion and decline of the Pomeranian culture. The already existing Pomeranian culture expanded further when the Lusatian culture entered the crisis stage. In the 5th century BC major acquisitions took place in the western and southern directions, when northern Silesia and Lesser Poland were taken over. The older Lusatian populations were pushed out or assimilated. The Pomeranians themselves were changing in the process, either as a result of encountering new environmental conditions, or because of being influenced by the Lusatian people (face-urns for example disappeared here). In the 3rd century the Pomeranian culture in its original form mostly vanished, with regional enclaves only surviving till the middle of the 2nd century BC. Western Baltic Kurgans culture. The Western Baltic Kurgans culture existed in Masuria, Warmia, Sambia and northern Masovia during the 650–50 BC period. It originated partially from the people who migrated there from the Dnieper River area and assimilated elements of the Warmian-Masurian Lusatian branches (themselves preceded by the middle Bronze Age Sambian Kurgans culture), as well as of the old forest zone cultures. They were related in a number of ways, including funeral vessels, to their contemporary, the Pomeranian culture. Upon radial stone structures they built burial mounds – kurgans, or barrows, some of them quite large and containing a number of individual burials. A large kurgan site from the 3rd century BC was located and investigated in Piórkowo in Braniewo County. The dead were cremated and the ashes placed in urns. They built small fortified settlements at naturally suitable places, such as hilltops, and characteristically, within shallow bodies of water, which involved sinking logs and special pile construction. Underwater exploration allowed a conceptual reconstruction of such settlement (3rd–2nd century BC) on Orzysz Lake near Orzysz in Pisz County. The Western Baltic Kurgans economy was traditional, based on animal husbandry (herds kept in a semi-wild state). Land tilling was done to a lesser extent and only later in this culture's history. Hunting, fishing and gathering were also important. Tool manufacturing was old-fashioned, mostly non-metallic. Ceramic containers often had round (semi-spherical) bottoms and modest punctured or engraved ornamentation. The Western Baltic Kurgans culture is the predecessor culture of the Western Balt culture (cultural sphere of Western Baltic tribes), which developed during the first several centuries CE. Notes. "a. "The Trzcinica site is being restored and developed as The Carpathian Troy Open-Air Archaeological Museum

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Major League Baseball on ABC is the de facto title of a program that televises Major League Baseball games on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The program has appeared in various forms c. 1953-1965 ("ABC Game of the Week"), 1976–1989 ("Monday Night Baseball", "Thursday Night Baseball", and "Sunday Afternoon Baseball"), and 1994–1995 ("Baseball Night in America"). After not televising Major League Baseball since Game 5 of the 1995 World Series (October 26), the network was scheduled to televise up to three wild card games in the 2020 MLB Postseason. If Major League Baseball expands the postseason following the 2021 season, then games will be broadcast on ABC starting in 2022. History. 1950s. In 1953, ABC-TV executive Edgar J. Scherick (who later created "Wide World of Sports") broached a Saturday "Game of the Week", TV sport's first network series. At the time, ABC was labeled a "nothing network" that had fewer outlets than CBS or NBC. ABC also needed paid programming or "anything for bills" as Scherick put it. At first, ABC hesitated at the idea of a nationally televised regular season baseball program. ABC wondered how exactly the "Game of the Week" would reach television in the first place and who would notice if it did? Also, Major League Baseball barred the "Game of the Week" from airing within 50 miles of any ballpark. Major League Baseball according to Scherick, insisted on protecting local coverage and didn't care about national appeal. ABC, though, did care about the national appeal and claimed that "most of America was still up for grabs." In April 1953, Edgar Scherick set out to sell teams rights but instead, only got the Philadelphia Athletics, Cleveland Indians, and Chicago White Sox to sign on. These were not "national" broadcast contracts since they were assembled through negotiations with individual teams to telecast games from their home parks. It was until the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, that antitrust laws barred "pooled rights" TV contracts negotiated with a central league broadcasting authority. In 1953, ABC earned an 11.4 rating for their "Game of the Week" telecasts. Blacked-out cities had 32% of households. In the rest of the United States, 3 in 4 TV sets in use watched Dizzy Dean and Buddy Blattner (or backup announcers Bill McColgan and Bob Finnegan) call the games for ABC. CBS took over the Saturday "Game" in 1955 (the rights were actually set up through the Falstaff Brewing Corporation) retaining Dean/Blattner and McColgan/Finnegan as the announcing crews (as well as Gene Kirby, who produced the Dean/Blattner games and alternated with them on play-by-play) and adding Sunday coverage in 1957. As Edgar Scherick said, "In '53, no one wanted us. Now teams begged for "Game"'s cash." In 1959, ABC broadcast the best-of-three playoff series (to decide the National League pennant) between the Milwaukee Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers. The cigarette company L&M was in charge of all of the telecasts. George Kell and Bob DeLaney were the announcers. ABC Radio also broadcast the playoff series with Bob Finnegan and Tony Flynn announcing. 1960s. 1960-1961. In 1960, ABC returned to baseball broadcasting with a series of late-afternoon Saturday games. Jack Buck and Carl Erskine were the lead announcing crew for this series, which lasted one season. ABC typically did three games a week. Two of the games were always from the Eastern or Central Time Zone. The late games (no doubleheaders) were usually San Francisco Giants or Los Angeles Dodgers' home games. However, the Milwaukee Braves used to start many of their Saturday home games late in the afternoon. So if the Giants and Dodgers were both the road at the same time, ABC still would be able to show a late game. One other note about ABC baseball coverage during this period. Despite temporarily losing the "Game of the Week" package in 1961, ABC still televised several games in prime time (with Jack Buck returning to call the action). This occurred as Roger Maris was poised to tie and subsequently break Babe Ruth's regular season home run record of 60. As with all Major League Baseball games in those days, the action was totally blacked out of major league markets. As a matter of fact, as documented in the HBO film "61*", the Maris family was welcomed into ABC's Kansas City, Missouri affiliate KMBC-TV so they could watch the in-house feed of the game, which was blacked out of Kansas City. On September 20, 1961, Bob Neal and Hank Greenberg called a baseball game for ABC in prime time between Maris' New York Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles. 1965. In 1965, ABC provided the first-ever nationwide baseball coverage with weekly Saturday broadcasts on a regional basis. ABC paid $5.7 million for the rights to the 28 Saturday/holiday "Games of the Week". ABC's deal covered all of the teams except the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies (who had their own television deals) and called for two regionalized games on Saturdays, Independence Day, and Labor Day. Each Saturday, ABC broadcast two 2 p.m. games and one 5 p.m. game for the Pacific Time Zone. ABC blacked out the games in the home cities of the clubs playing those games. Major League Baseball however, had a TV deal with NBC for the All-Star Game and World Series. At the end of the season, ABC declined to exercise its $6.5 million option for 1966, citing poor ratings, especially in New York. According to ABC announcer Merle Harmon's profile in Curt Smith's book "Voices of Summer", in 1965, CBS' "Yankee Game of the Week" beat ABC in the ratings in at least Dallas and Des Moines. To make matters worse, local television split the big-city audience. Therefore, ABC could show the Cubs vs. the Cardinals in the New York market, yet the Mets would still kill them in terms of viewership. Harmon, Chris Schenkel, Keith Jackson, and (on occasion) Ken Coleman served as ABC's principal play-by-play voices for this series. Also on the network's announcing team were pregame host Howard Cosell and color commentators Leo Durocher, Tommy Henrich, Warren Spahn (who worked with Chris Schenkel on a July 17, Baltimore-Detroit contest), and Hall of Fame Brooklyn Dodger great Jackie Robinson (who, on April 17, 1965, became the first black network broadcaster for Major League Baseball). According to ABC Sports producer Chuck Howard, "(Robinson) had a high, stabbing voice, great presence, and sharp mind. All he lacked was time." The announcing duos were generally, Chris Schenkel-Leo Durocher and Merle Harmon-Jackie Robinson. For instance, the team of Schenkel and Durocher called the San Francisco-New York Mets contest on April 17, Milwaukee-Pittsburgh contest on August 21, and the San Francisco-Los Angeles (alongside Jackie Robinson) on September 6. The San Francisco-Los Angeles game on Labor Day was the first meeting between those two clubs since a melee from about two weeks prior involving Giants pitcher Juan Marichal cracking Dodgers catcher John Roseboro on the head during a brawl. Jackie Robinson worked with Merle Harmon on at least, the St. Louis-Cincinnati contest on April 24. It was around this time that ABC suggested that Major League Baseball reduce their regular season schedule to just 60 games. ABC wanted the games to only be played on weekends. They also wanted to promote baseball in the same manner as football, as a major television event. 1970s. In March 1975, Bowie Kuhn announced that ABC would join NBC in a new deal with Major League Baseball. The rights fees paid by the two networks were 29.3% higher than what MLB got in the 1971 deal, but adjusted for inflation, the money in the new deal was about the same as in the old one. Under the initial agreement (1976-1979), both networks paid $92.8 million. ABC paid $12.5 million per year to show 16 Monday night games in 1976, 18 in the next three years, plus half the postseason (the League Championship Series in even numbered years and World Series in odd numbered years) and the All-Star Game in even numbered years. NBC paid $10.7 million per year to show 25 Saturday "Games of the Week" and the other half of the postseason (the League Championship Series in odd numbered years and World Series in even numbered years) and the All-Star Game in odd numbered years. 1976-1977. ABC also picked up the television rights for "Monday Night Baseball" beginning in 1976. For most of its time on ABC, the Monday night games were held on "dead travel days" when few games were scheduled. The team owners liked that arrangement as the national telecasts didn't compete against their stadium box offices. ABC on the other hand, found the arrangement far more complicated. ABC often had only one or two games to pick from for each telecast from a schedule designed by Major League Baseball. While trying to give all of the teams national exposure, ABC ended up with far too many games between sub .500 clubs from small markets. Reviewing the network's first two weeks of coverage for "Sports Illustrated", William Leggett opined: "It may be unfair to say that "Monday Night Baseball", as it has been presented by ABC so far this season, is the worst television treatment ever given a major sport, because by all odds somebody at sometime must have done something worse. But it is difficult to remember when or where that might have happened." On the flip side however, ABC Sports head Roone Arledge brought in then innovative concept of a center field camera. This camera is behind the pitcher that looks at the batter's face. ABC Sports had to gain special permission from both Major League Baseball and the home team to put the camera in center field. Just like with "Monday Night Football", ABC brought in the concept of the three-man-booth (originally with Bob Prince, Bob Uecker, and Warner Wolf as the primary crew) to their baseball telecasts. Said ABC Sports head Roone Arledge "It'll take something different for it to work - i.e. curb viewership yawns and lulls with Uecker as the real difference", so Arledge reportedly hoped. Prince disclosed to his broadcasting partner Jim Woods about his early worries about calling a network series for the first time. Prince for one, didn't have as much creative control over the broadcasts on ABC as he did calling Pittsburgh Pirates games on KDKA radio. On the June 7, 1976 edition of "Monday Night Baseball", Prince returned to Three Rivers Stadium, from which he had been exiled for over a year. Although Prince received a warm reception, he was confused when the next day the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" read: "Ratings are low, negative reviews rampant." Critics ripped ABC's coverage for such things as its camera work (they often followed fly balls like they did golf shots, keeping the focus on the ball) and its choice of announcers: Bob Prince was accused of a National League bias, while Bob Uecker was considered to be just a Don Meredith clone. June 28, 1976, the Detroit Tigers faced the New York Yankees on "Monday Night Baseball", with 47,855 attending at Tiger Stadium and a national television audience, Tigers pitcher Mark "The Bird" Fidrych talked to the ball and groomed the mound, as the Tigers won, 5–1 in a game that lasted only 1 hour and 51 minutes. After the game, the crowd would not leave the park until Fidrych came out of the dugout to tip his cap. For ABC's coverage of the 1976 All-Star Game, the team of Bob Prince, Bob Uecker and Warner Wolf alternated roles for the broadcast. For the first three innings, Prince did play-by-play with Wolf on color commentary and Uecker doing field interviews. For the middle innings, Uecker worked play-by-play with Prince on color and Wolf doing the interviews. For the rest of the game, Wolf worked play-by-play with Uecker on color and Prince doing interviews. Bob Prince was gone by the fall of 1976, with Keith Jackson, Howard Cosell, and guest analyst Reggie Jackson calling that year's American League Championship Series. (Warner Wolf, Al Michaels and guest analyst Tom Seaver worked the NLCS.) On the subject of his dismissal from ABC, Bob Prince said "I hated Houston, and ABC never let me be Bob Prince." MLB commissioner Bowie Kuhn strongly objected to ABC's recruitment of Howard Cosell because of comments by Cosell in recent years about how dull baseball had become. But Roone Arledge held the trump card as the contract he had signed with Major League Baseball gave ABC the final say over announcers. So Cosell worked the 1976 ALCS and became a regular member of "Monday Night Baseball" the next season. Keith Jackson was unavailable to call Game 1 of the 1976 ALCS because he had just gotten finished calling an Oklahoma-Texas college football game for ABC. Thus, Bob Uecker filled-in for Jackson for Game 1. Uecker also took part in the postgame interviews for Game 5 of the 1976 ALCS, while Warner Wolf did an interview of George Brett in the Kansas City locker room. Still on the disabled list toward the end of the 1977 season, Mark Fidrych worked as a guest color analyst on a "Monday Night Baseball" telecast for ABC; he was subsequently criticized for his lack of preparation, as when play-by-play partner Al Michaels tried talking with him about Philadelphia Phillies player Richie Hebner and Fidrych responded, "Who's Richie Hebner?" As an American League player, Fidrych had never had to face Hebner, who played in the National League. The 1977 World Series marked the first time that the participating teams' local announcers were not used as the booth announcers on the network telecast of a World Series. 1977 was also the first year in which one announcer (in this case, ABC's Keith Jackson) provided all of the play-by-play for a World Series telecast. In previous years, the play-by-play announcers and color commentators had alternated roles during each game. Meanwhile, Yankees announcer Bill White and Dodgers announcer Ross Porter alternated between pregame/postgame duties on ABC and calling the games for CBS Radio. White worked the ABC telecasts for the games in New York (including the clubhouse trophy presentation ceremony after Game 6) while Porter did likewise for the games in Los Angeles. "The Bronx is Burning". Howard Cosell was widely attributed with saying the famous phrase "the Bronx is burning". Cosell is credited with saying the quote during Game 2 of the 1977 World Series, which took place in Yankee Stadium on October 12, 1977. For a couple of years, fires had routinely erupted in the South Bronx, mostly due to low-value property owners setting their own properties ablaze for insurance money. During the bottom of the first inning, an ABC aerial camera panned a few blocks from Yankee Stadium to a building on fire, giving the world a real-life view of the infamous Bronx fires. The scene became a defining image of New York City in the 1970s. Cosell supposedly stated, "There it is, ladies and gentlemen, The Bronx is burning." This was later picked up by candidate Ronald Reagan, who then made a special trip to the Bronx, to illustrate the failures of then-contemporary politicians to address the issues in that part of New York City. In 2005, author Jonathan Mahler published "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning", a book on New York in 1977, and credited Cosell with saying the title quote during the aerial coverage of the fire. ESPN produced a 2007 mini-series based on the book called "The Bronx is Burning". Cosell's comment seemed to have captured the widespread view held at the time that New York City was on the skids and in a state of decline. The truth was discovered after Major League Baseball published a complete DVD set of all of the games of the 1977 World Series. Coverage of the fire begins with Keith Jackson commenting on the enormity of the blaze, while Cosell added that President Carter had visited that area just days before. As the top of the second inning began, the fire was once again shown from a helicopter-mounted camera, and Cosell commented that the New York Fire Department had a hard job to do in the Bronx as there were always numerous fires. In the bottom of the second, Cosell informed the audience that it was an abandoned building that was burning and no lives were in danger. There was no further comment on the fire, and Cosell appears to have never said "The Bronx is Burning" (at least not on camera) during Game 2. 1978-1979. In 1978, Baseball Hall of Famer Don Drysdale joined ABC Sports with assignments such as "Monday Night Baseball", "Superstars", and "Wide World of Sports". In , Drysdale covered the World Series Trophy presentation. According to Drysdale "My thing is to talk about inside things. Keith [Jackson] does play-by-play. Howard's [Cosell] role is anything since anything can happen in broadcasting." When ABC released and then rehired him in 1981, Drysdale explained it by saying "If there is nothing to say, be quiet." Ultimately, Drysdale seemed to be slowly phased out of the ABC picture as fellow Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer was considered ABC's new poster child "[of] superior looks and...popularity from underwear commercials." By 1989, Palmer would earn $350,000 from ABC for appearing on around ten regular season broadcasts and making a few postseason appearances. For a national television audience, the 1978 American League East tie-breaker game (New York Yankees/Boston Red Sox) aired on ABC with Keith Jackson and Don Drysdale on the call. Meanwhile, the game aired locally in New York on WPIX and on WSBK in Boston. Phil Rizzuto, Frank Messer and Bill White called the game on WPIX while Dick Stockton and Ken Harrelson called the game on WSBK. Also in 1978, Keith Jackson called an Oklahoma-Texas college football game for ABC and then, flew to New York, arriving just in time to call Game 4 of the ALCS that same night (October 7). In 1979, the start of ABC's "Monday Night Baseball" coverage was moved back to June, due to poor ratings during the May sweeps period. In place of April and May prime time games, ABC began airing "Sunday Afternoon Baseball" games in September. The network also aired one Friday night game (the Yankees at the Angels) on July 13 of that year. On August 6, 1979, the entire Yankee team attended team captain/catcher Thurman Munson's funeral in Canton, Ohio. Teammates Lou Piniella and Bobby Murcer, who were Munson's best friends, gave eulogies. That night (before a national viewing audience on ABC's "Monday Night Baseball") the Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 5–4 in New York, with Murcer driving in all five runs with a three-run home run in the seventh inning and a two-run single in the bottom of the ninth. For the 1979 World Series, ABC utilized play-by-play announcers Keith Jackson (in Baltimore) and Al Michaels (in Pittsburgh), and color commentators Howard Cosell and Don Drysdale. ABC's broadcast was also simulcast over the Orioles' and Pirates' respective local television outlets, CBS affiliates WMAR-TV in Baltimore and KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, in addition to ABC's own affiliates WJZ-TV and WTAE-TV. After the sixth game, Howard Cosell in his limo was surrounded and attacked by angry Oriole fans with shaving cream, which prompted Baltimore police to complement his private security for Game 7. 1980s. ABC hardly showed any baseball games during the regular season in the 1980s and when they did, it was only on either Monday or Thursday nights from the end of Sweeps Week in late May until the NFL preseason started in the first week of August, and then not again until the playoffs. ABC also had a clause where they could air a game the last day of the regular season if it had playoff implications, such as in 1987 in regards to the Detroit Tigers' American League East pennant chase against the Toronto Blue Jays. The team of Al Michaels, Jim Palmer, and Tim McCarver called that game nationally. However, in 1986, ABC did do a number of early season Sunday afternoon games before they went into "Monday Night Baseball". 1980-1982. ABC's contract was further modified prior to the 1980 season, with the network airing just five "Monday Night Baseball" telecasts in June of that year, followed by "Sunday Afternoon Baseball" in August and September. ABC did Sunday afternoon games late in the season in order to fulfill the number of games in the contract and to not interfere with "Monday Night Football". Also in 1980, ABC (with Al Michaels and Bob Uecker on the call) broadcast the National League West tie-breaker game between the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers. On October 11, 1980, Keith Jackson called an Oklahoma-Texas college football game for ABC in the afternoon, then flew to Houston to call Game 4 of the NLCS). In the meantime, Don Drysdale did the play-by-play for the early innings (up until the middle of the fourth inning). Meanwhile, ABC used Steve Zabriskie as a field reporter during the 1980 NLCS. In 1981, ABC planned to increase coverage to 10 Monday night games and eight Sunday afternoon games, but the players' strike that year ended up reducing the network's schedule to three Monday night and seven Sunday afternoon telecasts. Also in 1981, as means to recoup revenue lost during a players' strike, Major League Baseball set up a special additional playoff round (as a prelude to the League Championship Series). ABC televised the American League Division Series while NBC televised the National League Division Series. The Division Series round wasn't officially instituted until 14 years later. Games 3 of the Brewers/Yankees series and Royals/Athletics series were aired regionally. On October 10, Keith Jackson called an Oklahoma-Texas college football game for ABC and missed Game 4 of the Milwaukee-New York series. In Jackson's absence, Don Drysdale filled-in for him on play-by-play alongside Howard Cosell. On a trivial note the ABC's affiliates, WTEN in Albany, New York and its satellite WCDC-TV in Adams, Massachusetts, as well as WIXT (now WSYR-TV) in Syracuse, New York, did not carry any of ABC's games at that time because of the New York Yankees games that were simulcasted from New York City's WPIX, movies, and syndicated series and specials among others in order to provide advertising for those extra money. In 1982, ABC aired 11 Monday night games and one Sunday afternoon game. Game 1 of the 1982 NLCS had to be played twice. In the first attempt (on October 6), the Atlanta Braves led against the St. Louis Cardinals 1–0 behind Phil Niekro. The game was three outs away becoming official when the umpire stopped it. When the rain did not subside, the game was canceled. Game 1 began from the start the following night in a pitching match-up of Pascual Pérez for the Braves and longtime Cardinal starter Bob Forsch. Howard Cosell did not broadcast Game 2 of the 1982 NLCS (alongside Al Michaels and Tommy Lasorda) because of his commitment of hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers' 50th Anniversary dinner in Pittsburgh on October 9, 1982, which was broadcast live on Pittsburgh's ABC affiliate, WTAE-TV and Pittsburgh's NBC affiliate, WPXI-TV. ABC's Jim Lampley interviewed the winners in the Cardinals' clubhouse after clinching the National League pennant in Game 3. Also in 1982, Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver announced he would retire at the end of the season, one which saw the Orioles wallow at the back of the pack for the first half of the year before climbing in the standings to just three games behind going into a season-ending four-game series against the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. The Orioles beat them handily in the first three games to pull into a first-place tie. The final game of the series, and the season, on October 3, would decide the AL East title. Televised nationally on a Sunday afternoon on ABC (with Keith Jackson and Howard Cosell on the call), the Orioles suffered a crushing 10–2 loss. After the game, the crowd called for Weaver to come out. This tribute to the retiring Weaver provided intense emotion against the backdrop of the season-ending defeat, as Weaver, in tears, stood on the field and applauded back to the fans, and shared words and an embrace with Brewers manager Harvey Kuenn. 1983-1989 television package. On April 7, 1983, Major League Baseball, ABC, and NBC agreed to terms of a six-year television package worth $1.2 billion. The two networks continued to alternate coverage of the playoffs (ABC in even numbered years and NBC in odd numbered years), World Series (ABC televised the World Series in odd numbered years and NBC in even numbered years), and All-Star Game (ABC televised the All-Star Game in even numbered years and NBC in odd numbered years) through the 1989 season, with each of the 26 clubs receiving $7 million per year in return. The last package gave each club $1.9 million per year. ABC contributed $575 million for regular season prime time and Sunday afternoons and NBC paid $550 million for thirty Saturday afternoon games. ABC was contracted to televise 20 prime time regular season games a year in addition to other games (the aforementioned Sunday afternoon games). But ABC didn't come close to using that many, which meant they actually paid for games they weren't showing. To give you some perspective, ABC televised six prime time games in 1984 and eight 1985. They planned to again televise eight prime time games in 1986. USA Network's coverage became a casualty of the new $1.2 billion TV contract between Major League Baseball, ABC and NBC. One of the provisions to the new deal was that local telecasts opposite network games had to be eliminated. 1983 marked the last time that local telecasts of League Championship Series games were allowed. In 1982, Major League Baseball recognized a problem with this due to the emergence of cable superstations such as WTBS in Atlanta and WGN-TV in Chicago. When TBS tried to petition for the right to do a "local" Braves broadcast of the 1982 NLCS, Major League Baseball got a Philadelphia federal court to ban them on the grounds that as a cable superstation, TBS couldn't have a nationwide telecast competing with ABC's. On June 6, 1983, Al Michaels officially succeeded Keith Jackson as the lead play-by-play announcer for "Monday Night Baseball". Michaels, who spent seven seasons working backup games, was apparently very miffed over ABC Sports' delay in announcing him as their top baseball announcer. Unlike Jackson, whose forte was college football, Michaels had gigs with the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants before joining ABC in 1976. "TV Guide" huffed about Jackson by saying "A football guy, on baseball!" Jackson was unavailable for several World Series games in and because of conflicts with his otherwise normal college football broadcasting schedule. Thus, Michaels did play-by-play for games on weekends. Earl Weaver was the lead ABC color commentator in 1983, but was also employed by the Baltimore Orioles as a consultant. At the time, ABC had a policy preventing an announcer who was employed by a team from working games involving that team. So whenever the Orioles were on the primary ABC game, Weaver worked the backup game. This policy forced Weaver to resign from the Orioles' consulting position in October so that he can work the World Series for ABC. The 1984 NLCS schedule (which had an off day after Game 3 rather than Game 2) allowed ABC to have a prime time game each weeknight even though Chicago's Wrigley Field did not have lights at the time (which remained the case until four years later). ABC used Tim McCarver as a field reporter during the 1984 NLCS. During the regular season, McCarver teamed with Don Drysdale (who teamed with Earl Weaver and Reggie Jackson for the 1984 NLCS) on backup games while Al Michaels, Jim Palmer, and Earl Weaver/Howard Cosell formed ABC's lead broadcast team. For ABC's coverage of the 1984 All-Star Game, Jim Palmer only served as a between innings analyst. Had the 1984 ALCS between the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals gone the full five games (the last year that the League Championship Series was a best-of-five series), Game 5 on Sunday October 7, would have been a 1 p.m. ET time start instead of being in prime time. This would have happened because one of the presidential debates between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale was scheduled for that night. In return, ABC was going to broadcast the debates instead of a baseball game in prime time. Al Trautwig interviewed the Detroit Tigers from their clubhouse following their pennant clinching victory in Game 3. In 1985, ABC announced that every game of the World Series would be played under the lights for the biggest baseball audience possible. Just prior to the start of the 1985 World Series, ABC removed Howard Cosell from scheduled announcing duties as punishment for his controversial book "I Never Played the Game". In Cosell's place came Tim McCarver (joining play-by-play man Michaels and fellow color commentator Jim Palmer), who was beginning his trek of being a part of numerous World Series telecasts. Reportedly, by 1985, Cosell was considered to be difficult to work with on baseball telecasts. Apparently, Cosell and Michaels got into a fairly heated argument following the conclusion of their coverage of the 1984 American League Championship Series due to Cosell's supposed drunkenness among other problems. Rumor has it that Michaels went as far as to urged ABC executives to remove Cosell from the booth. Ultimately, Michaels went public with his problems with Cosell. Michaels claimed that "Howard had become a cruel, evil, vicious person." 1986–1988. By 1986, ABC only televised 13 "Monday Night Baseball" games. This was a fairly sharp contrast to the 18 games to that were scheduled in 1978. "The Sporting News" believed that ABC paid Major League Baseball to not make them televise the regular season. No late season games in September were scheduled in 1986. "TSN" added that the network only wanted the sport for October anyway. Going into 1987, ABC had reportedly purchased 20 Monday night games but only used eight of those slots. More to the point, CBS Sports president Neal Pilson said "Three years ago, we believed ABC's package was overpriced by $175 million. We still believe it's overpriced by $175 million." During the 1986 season, Don Drysdale did play-by-play ABC's Sunday afternoon games, which aired until July, when "Monday Night Baseball" began. Al Michaels did the main Sunday game usually with Jim Palmer, while Drysdale and Johnny Bench did the backup contests. Keith Jackson, working with Tim McCarver, did the #2 Monday night games. Bench took a week off in June (with Steve Busby filling in) and also worked one game with Michaels as the networks switched the announcer pairings. While Drysdale worked the All-Star Game in Houston as an interviewer he did not resurface until the playoffs. Bench simply disappeared, ultimately going to CBS Radio. On October 15, 1986, Game 6 of the NLCS ran so long (lasting for 16 innings, 5 hours and 29 minutes), it bumped up against the start time of Game 7 of the ALCS (also on ABC). That same game, color commentator Tim McCarver left the booth during the bottom of the 16th, in order to cover the expected celebration in the New York Mets' clubhouse. As a result, play-by-play man Keith Jackson was on the air alone for a short time. Eventually, McCarver rejoined the broadcast just before the end of the game, watching the action on a monitor in the Mets' clubhouse, then doing the postgame interviews with the Mets. Meanwhile, Corey McPherrin, a sports anchor with WABC (ABC's flagship station out of New York) interviewed Mike Scott when he was presented with the 1986 NLCS MVP award after Game 6. During the late 1980s, McPherrin delivered in-game updates during ABC's "Monday Night Baseball" and "Thursday Night Baseball" broadcasts. Game 6 of the 1986 NLCS turned out to be the final Major League Baseball game that Keith Jackson would broadcast. Meanwhile, in his last ever ABC assignment, Don Drysdale interviewed the winners in the Boston clubhouse following Game 7 of the 1986 ALCS. For the 1987 World Series between the Minnesota Twins and St. Louis Cardinals, ABC utilized 12 cameras and nine tape machines. This includes cameras positioned down the left field line, on the roof of the Metrodome, and high above third base. There have been a few occasions when two "Monday Night Football" games were played simultaneously. In 1987, a scheduling conflict arose when Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins went to Game 7 of the World Series (which also aired on ABC), making the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome unavailable for the Minnesota Vikings' scheduled game (against the Denver Broncos) that Sunday. Game 6 of the 1987 World Series (played on Saturday, October 24) was the last World Series game to not be played in prime time. The game started at 4 p.m. Eastern Time. Another weekend afternoon sixth game was planned for , however, since the World Series ended in five games, it was unnecessary. The 1987 World Series was the final one that ABC aired that went the full seven games. The next time that ABC broadcast a World Series in 1989, the Oakland Athletics swept the San Francisco Giants in four games. For the final World Series that ABC would broadcast to date, 1995, they split the coverage with NBC. ABC only covered Games 1, 4-5 and a seventh game had it been necessary. In a February 2015 interview, Al Michaels alleged the Twins pumped artificial crowd noise into the Metrodome during the 1987 World Series. Responding to Michaels' theory, Twins President Dave St. Peter said that he did not think the Twins needed "conspiracy theories" in order to win the World Series. Instead, he argued that "appreciation and respect" should be paid to players like Frank Viola, Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek, and Kirby Puckett, who, he said, "came out of nowhere to win a championship." During the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike, networks benefited from sports programming, including NBC, which relied on the Summer Olympics in September and the World Series in October, and ABC, which in addition to its postseason baseball coverage, moved up the start time for the early weeks of "Monday Night Football" (when Al Michaels was unavailable to do play-by-play on "Monday Night Football", which he had done for ABC beginning in 1986 due to his postseason baseball duties, Frank Gifford covered for him) from 9 p.m. ET to 8 p.m. ET ("MacGyver", which normally aired at 8 p.m., was not yet ready with new episodes). Come the 1988 League Championship Series, ABC under the guidance of new executive producer Geoffrey Mason, debuted fatter and wider graphics that gave off a cleaner, sharper look complete with a black border. ABC also debuted a new energetic, symphonic-pop styled musical theme, composed by Kurt Bestor, which would become an all-compassing theme of sorts for ABC Sports during this time period. ABC's coverage of Game 2 of the 1988 NLCS didn't start until 10 p.m. ET due to a presidential debate. This is the latest ever scheduled start for an LCS game. Gary Bender did play-by-play for the 1988 American League Championship Series between the Oakland Athletics and Boston Red Sox. Bender spent two years (1987-1988) as the #2 baseball play-by-play man for ABC behind Al Michaels. Bender worked the backup "Monday Night Baseball" broadcasts (with Tim McCarver in 1987 and Joe Morgan in 1988) as well as serving as a field reporter for ABC's 1987 World Series coverage. After Bender spent an entire summer developing a team with Joe Morgan, ABC brought in Reggie Jackson to work with the duo for the 1988 ALCS. According to Bender's autobiography "Call of the Game" (pages 118–120), ABC's decision to bring in Jackson to work with Bender and Morgan caused problems: During the spare time of his active career, Reggie Jackson worked as a field reporter and color commentator for ABC Sports. During the 1980s (1983, 1985, and 1987 respectively), Jackson was given the task of presiding over the World Series Trophy presentations. After wrapping up his play-by-play duties for ABC's coverage of the 1988 ALCS, in which the Oakland swept Boston in four games, Gary Bender covered the postgame interviews in the victorious Los Angeles Dodgers' clubhouse following Game 7 of the 1988 NLCS against the New York Mets. 1989. On December 14, 1988, CBS (under the guidance of Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, Major League Baseball's broadcast director Bryan Burns, CBS Inc. CEO Laurence Tisch as well as CBS Sports executives Neal Pilson and Eddie Einhorn) paid approximately US$1.8 billion (equivalent to billion in ) for exclusive over-the-air television rights for over four years (beginning in 1990). CBS paid about $265 million each year for the World Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the Saturday "Game of the Week". It was one of the largest agreements (to date) between the sport of baseball and the business of broadcasting. The cost of the deal between CBS and Major League Baseball was about 25% more than in the previous television contract with ABC and NBC. According to industry insiders, neither NBC nor ABC wanted the entire baseball package—that is, regular-season games, both League Championship Series and the World Series—because such a commitment would have required them to preempt too many highly rated prime time shows. Thus, ABC and NBC bid thinking that two of the networks might share postseason play again or that one of the championship series might wind up on cable. Peter Ueberroth had encouraged the cable idea, but after the bids were opened, NBC and ABC found to their chagrin that he preferred network exposure for all postseason games. Only CBS, with its weak prime time programming, dared go for that. In 1989 (the final year of ABC's contract with Major League Baseball), ABC moved the baseball telecasts to Thursday nights in hopes of getting leg up against NBC's "Cosby Show". Scott Muni, a disc jockey, who worked at the heyday of the AM Top 40 format and then was a pioneer of FM progressive rock radio, voiced promos for ABC's "Thursday Night Baseball" broadcasts. ABC was also still in-line to air a special Sunday afternoon telecast on October 1 in the event that the American League East race between the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles still hadn't been decided. But since the Blue Jays managed to clinch the divisional title the day prior, it wasn't necessary. After braving the traumatic Loma Prieta earthquake and an all-time low 16.4 rating for the 1989 World Series, Al Michaels took ABC's loss of baseball to CBS as "tough to accept." Michaels added that "baseball was such an early stepchild at ABC and had come such a long way." Gary Thorne, who served as ABC's backup play-by-play announcer in 1989 and was an on-field reporter for the World Series that year (and covering the trophy presentation in the process), simply laughed while saying "Great reviews, just as ABC baseball ends." Meanwhile, Dennis Swanson, president of ABC Sports, noted in a statement that baseball had been "a blue-chip franchise" since 1976 for the network, which was "disappointed" to lose it. After ABC lost the Major League Baseball package to CBS, they aggressively counterprogrammed CBS' postseason baseball coverage (like NBC) with made-for-TV movies and miniseries geared towards female viewers. According to ABC broadcast engineer Dan Rapak in the book "Brought to You by . . . ", ABC's coverage of the 1989 World Series was about to become a case study in financial stupidity. By this point in time, ABC Sports was well into cost-cutting mode> and trying to avoid unnecessarily expenditure. ABC decided that in order to save money, there would be no satellite uplink trunk present at San Francisco's Candlestick Park. Instead, the feed from San Francisco back to ABC's headquarters in New York would take a complex, circuitous route. For starters, the signal would go from the truck to a telephone company room (dubbed a "clamper room") at the third level of the stadium. From there, the signal would be transmitted over a fiber optic cable onto the local phone company switching office. From there, the signal would be sent to KGO, ABC's owned-and-operated station in the San Francisco Bay Area. The signal would then pass through KGO's Master Control Room and soon uplinked to a satellite which relayed the signal to a downlink in Connecticut. Finally, the signal would be sent to the ABC Television Complex in New York. Rapak added that in order to save further costs, ABC decided that an on-site telephone company technician wasn't really necessary. As such, ABC wouldn't pay to have him on site just in case any problems might have arise with the phone company's equipment. Not only that, but ABC merely rented a small standby generator to protect them in the event of a power failure. ABC's management decided that it would be too costly to have a large "transfer switch" shipped in from ABC Sports' field shop in Lodi, New Jersey. This particular switch would be able to shift the entire load of all the mobile units from local utility power to the generator with a single pull of a large lever. But since ABC's engineers who were working at Candlestick Park during the 1989 World Series had no means of quickly putting the generator into service should the need arise, they would have to instead, kill the utility power sources for safety. They would then have to disconnect more than a dozen huge power cables from the power boxes inside of the stadium. Next, they would have to physically drag the power cables outside of the stadium and reconnect all of them in order to turn the generator on. This in effect, meant that the changeover would've taken approximately 10 minutes, when it could've simply taken less than a minute. Prior to the start of the 1990 season, speculation arose that Al Michaels would move over to CBS in the event that he won an arbitration case against ABC. Tim McCarver had already been hired by CBS to serve as their lead color commentator and they were in need of a play-by-play man following the abrupt departure in taking on the assignment (at the time, of Brent Musburger on April Fools' Day 1990. Michaels had been feuding with the network over an alleged violation of company policy. Michaels' contract with ABC was originally set to expire in late 1992. Ultimately however, ABC announced a contract extension that sources said would keep Michaels at ABC through at least the end of 1995 and would pay him at least $2.2 million annually with the potential to earn more. That would make Michaels the highest-paid sports announcer in television. Meanwhile, CBS eventually settled on using the services of Jack Buck for their top play-by-play man. Loma Prieta earthquake. As previously mentioned, Game 3 of the 1989 World Series (initially scheduled for October 17) was delayed by ten days due to the Loma Prieta earthquake. The earthquake struck at approximately 5:04 p.m. Pacific Time. At the moment the quake struck, ABC's color commentator Tim McCarver was narrating taped highlights of the previous Series game. Viewers saw the video signal begin to break up, heard McCarver repeat a sentence as the shaking distracted him, and heard McCarver's colleague Al Michaels exclaim, "I'll tell you what, we're having an earth—." At that moment, the feed from Candlestick Park was lost. The network put up a green ABC Sports graphic as the audio was switched to a telephone link. Michaels had to pickup a POTS phone in the press booth (phones work off a separate power supply) and call ABC headquarters in New York, at which point they put him back on the air. Michaels cracked, "Well folks, that's the greatest open in the history of television, bar none!" accompanied by the excited screams of fans who had no idea of the devastation elsewhere. After about a 15-minute delay (ABC aired a rerun of "Roseanne" and subsequently, "The Wonder Years" in the meantime), ABC was able to regain power via a backup generator. ABC's play-by-play man, Al Michaels (who was familiar with the San Francisco Bay Area dating back to his days working for the San Francisco Giants from 1974-1976) then proceeded to relay reports to Ted Koppel at ABC News' headquarters in Washington, D.C. Al Michaels was ultimately nominated for an Emmy for his on-site reporting at the World Series. The Goodyear Blimp was aloft above the ballpark to provide aerial coverage of the World Series. Blimp pilot John Crayton reported that he felt four bumps during the quake. ABC was able to use the blimp to capture some of the first images of the damage to the Bay Bridge. 1990s. After a four-year-long hiatus (when CBS exclusively carried the over-the-air Major League Baseball television rights), ABC returned to baseball in (again, alongside NBC) 1994. Under a six-year plan, Major League Baseball was intended to receive 85% of the first $140 million in advertising revenue (or 87.5% of advertising revenues and corporate sponsorship from the games until sales top a specified level), 50% of the next $30 million, and 80% of any additional money. Prior to this, Major League Baseball was projected to take a projected 55% cut in rights fees and receive a typical rights fee from the networks. After NBC was finished with their post-1994 All-Star Game six-week baseball coverage, ABC (with a reunited Al Michaels, Jim Palmer, and Tim McCarver as the lead broadcast team) then picked up where NBC left off by televising six more regular season games. Joining the team of Michaels, McCarver, and Palmer was "Lesley Visser", who served as the lead field reporter for the CBS' baseball coverage from 1990 to 1993. Visser was reuniting with McCarver, for whom she had worked with on CBS. The regular season games fell under the "Baseball Night in America" umbrella which premiered on July 16, 1994. On the subject of play-by-play man Al Michaels returning to baseball for the first time since the infamous 1989 World Series, Jim Palmer said "Here Al is, having done five games since and steps right in. It's hard to comprehend how one guy could so amaze." Meanwhile, Brent Musburger, CBS alumnus Jim Kaat, and Jack Arute became the secondary team for ABC. In even-numbered years, NBC had the rights to the All-Star Game and both League Championship Series while ABC had the World Series and newly created Division Series. In odd-numbered years, the postseason and All-Star Game television rights were supposed to alternate. ABC won the rights to the first dibs at the World Series in August 1993 after ABC Sports president Dennis Swanson won a coin toss by calling "heads." Ken Schanzer, who was the CEO of The Baseball Network, handled the coin toss. Schanzer agreed to the coin toss by ABC and NBC at the outset as the means of determining the order in which they'd divvy up the playoffs. The long-term plans for The Baseball Network crumbled when the players went on strike on August 12, 1994 (thus forcing the cancellation of the World Series). In July 1995, ABC and NBC, who wound up having to share the duties of televising the 1995 World Series as a way to recoup (with ABC broadcasting Games 1, 4, and 5 and NBC broadcasting Games 2, 3, and 6), announced that they were opting out of their agreement with Major League Baseball. Both networks figured that as the delayed 1995 baseball season opened without a labor agreement, there was no guarantee against another strike. Both networks soon publicly vowed to cut all ties with Major League Baseball for the remainder of the 20th century. Al Michaels would later write in his 2014 autobiography "You Can't Make This Up: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television" that the competition between the two networks could be so juvenile that neither ABC nor NBC wanted to promote each other's telecasts during the 1995 World Series. In the middle of Game 1, Michaels was handed a promo that read "Join us here on ABC for Game 4 in Cleveland on Wednesday night and for Game 5 if necessary, Thursday." Michaels however would soon add "By the way, if you're wondering about Games 2 and 3, I can't tell you exactly where you can see them, but here's a hint: Last night, Bob Costas, Joe Morgan, and Bob Uecker ([NBC's broadcast crew] were spotted in Underground Atlanta." Naturally, Bob Costas soon made a similar reference to ABC's crew (Michaels, Jim Palmer, and Tim McCarver) on NBC. ABC Sports president Dennis Swanson, in announcing the dissolution of The Baseball Network, said: Calling the final out of Game 5 of the 1995 World Series, Al Michaels yelled, "Back to Georgia!" as the Cleveland Indians took it; NBC carried the series-clinching sixth game two days later. Aftermath. After losing its Major League Baseball broadcast rights again, this time to Fox, ABC counterprogrammed against Fox's postseason coverage by airing a mix of miniseries and TV-movies aimed at female viewers. One of the movies aired on ABC, "Unforgiven", aired opposite Andy Pettitte's shutout in Game 5 of the 1996 World Series (Fox's first World Series, and the final game in Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium history). With ABC being sold to The Walt Disney Company in 1996, ESPN picked up daytime and late-evening Division Series games with a provision similar to its National Football League games, in which the games would only air on network affiliates in the local markets of the two participating teams. ESPN's Major League Baseball contract was not affected then, but would take a hit in 1998 with the new National Football League contract. In September 2000, a baseball official, speaking on the condition he not be identified, confirmed ESPN passed on keeping its playoffs rights (thus, giving Fox Sports exclusivity), saying the decision was partly based on price and partly because ABC wasn't interested in the network package. ABC Family's (now Freeform) coverage of the 2002 Division Series was produced by ESPN. The reason that games were on ABC Family instead of ESPN was because The Walt Disney Company bought Fox Family from News Corporation. The ABC Family/ESPN inherited Division Series package was included in Fox's then exclusive television contract with Major League Baseball (initiated in 2001). ABC Family had no other choice but to fulfill the contract handed to them. The only usage of the ABC Family "bug" was for a ten-second period when returning from a commercial break (in the lower right corner of the screen). 2020s. ABC would return to airing postseason baseball in 2020. They were scheduled to air at least four of the 24 possible daytime games in the season's one-time only expanded eight-series wild card round, that the networks of ESPN will air. Not only did this mean that ABC would be airing Major League Baseball games of any kind since Game 5 of the 1995 World Series, but it would mark the first time since NBC's final game in 2000, that a Major League Baseball game had aired on any broadcast network other than Fox. It would've also been at least 9,105 days since ABC last broadcast a Major League Baseball game. The first game to definitely air on ABC on September 29, would be the #6 seed Houston Astros against the #3 Minnesota Twins from Target Field in Minneapolis. Discounting the regionalized "Baseball Night in America" telecasts from 1994-95, the last time the Twins were on ABC was for "Thursday Night Baseball" on July 27, 1989 vs. Baltimore. The announcers were the same as the 1987 World Series, Al Michaels, Jim Palmer, and Tim McCarver. The following day, ABC would air the #6 Miami Marlins against the #3 Chicago Cubs from Wrigley Field in Chicago. Karl Ravech would provide play-by-play commentary for the Houston-Minnesota game with analysts Eduardo Pérez and Tim Kurkjian. Meanwhile, Jon Sciambi, Chipper Jones, and Jesse Rogers would call the Miami-Chicago Cubs game on September 30. ESPN also planned on utilizing ABC afternoon window on Friday (October 2). On October 2, ABC cut away from their broadcast Miami-Chicago Cubs game during the top of the 9th inning to deliver a special report on U.S. president Donald Trump being taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for COVID-19 treatment. The conclusion of the game could be seen on ESPN. In all, Game 1 of the Houston-Minnesota series drew approximately 2.195 million viewers for ABC. Meanwhile, the first game of the Miami-Chicago Cubs series earned ABC approximately 1.538 million viewers. And finally, Game 2 of the Miami-Chicago Cubs series earned ABC about 2.186 million viewers. On May 13, 2021, Major League Baseball and The Walt Disney Company announced an extension to ESPN's contract, which included exclusive rights to the Wild Card series, if the league were to expand it. This includes games being broadcast on ABC under a similar structure to the 2020 Wild Card series. Production overview. In 1965, ABC brought forth such innovations like isolated instant replay, field microphones, and a separate camera for each base runner. After ABC's contract for the "Game of the Week" expired after a single season, NBC felt compelled to dramatically alter their own baseball coverage. So for NBC's coverage of the 1965 World Series, it featured videotaped replays, prerecorded audio analysis from key players, and enhanced animated graphics. When ABC resumed broadcasting Major League Baseball games in 1976 after an eleven year hiatus, they were immediately accused of having ill-prepared production crews and announcers on their "Monday Night Baseball" telecasts. William Leggett of "Sports Illustrated" would in particular, note that ABC seemed to try to hoodwink viewers with commentary that may sound insightful, but was often dead wrong, and with fancy camera work that was frequently used at inappropriate times during the action. Leggett also criticized ABC for far too often losing batted balls and base runners from view and employing split screens with the wrong men on base. Not only that, but the starting lineups were not being given at the beginning of the games. According to James Walker, professor in the department of communication at Saint Xavier University and co-author of the book "Center Field Shot: A History of Baseball on Television", ABC brought the techniques it had perfected in its football coverage, including far more extensive use of replays, isolated cameras, and different angles. In contrast, when looking at NBC's production of the 1969 World Series, very few replays were utilized and it was a much more static broadcast than what you saw later. For their coverage of the 1979 World Series in Baltimore, ABC brought two trucks (and rented a third), 14 cameras, a helicopter and nearly 100 technicians. According to producer Chuck Howard, that was just about twice the number of cameras used during the regular season, and at twice the cost. Director Chet Forte's team of cameramen was, in his words, "built around the camera position high behind home plate (C-2)." Their "coverage camera" was designed to follow the flight of the ball. ABC intended on using this camera 75 percent of the time and was according to Forte, the toughest camera in TV sports. 1980s. ABC under the watch of director Joe Aceti brought some innovations in time for their coverage of the 1980 National League Championship Series between the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies, such as putting the camera in the gondola in the Astrodome looking straight down on the field. For tight shots, Aceti wanted to see the face of the pitcher and the face of the batter. He didn't want them shown in a split screen but separately in a close-up. He also didn't want to shot players head to toe in a long shot, not even in a medium shot. Chet Forte's directing performance would come under scrutiny when ABC next broadcast the World Series in 1981. For one thing, ABC's replay cameras, which were placed strategically around the park, don't always catch the play. For example, ABC only showed one replay from the main feed camera of New York Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles making a diving, eighth-inning catch of Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Steve Garvey's liner in Game 1. ABC was also criticized for frequently showing all those players' wives cheering instead of giving viewers a wide- angle view of how the outfielders are playing the hitters. David Remnick of the "Washington Post" felt that Howard Cosell while broadcasting the 1983 World Series alongside Al Michaels and Earl Weaver, developed a few "human interest" tags and rammed them home in his inimitable ecclesiastical rhythms instead of actually sharing his knowledge with viewers. To put things into perspective, Remnick noted that Cosell had more to say about the way the Baltimore groundskeepers combated the outfield's "slippage factor" with a miraculous "drying agent" than about Mike Boddicker's pitching. Remnick also said that Cosell had more to say about the refurbished buildings in downtown Baltimore and along the Schuylkill River than about Mike Schmidt's hitting. Or Cosell would talk about John Denny's family problems more often than his ability to strike out Eddie Murray. Remnick in particular, criticized ABC for featuring interviews interspersed with the game action, which would sometimes cause them to miss a double off the wall while a prerecorded player is gabbing up in the corner of the screen. Not only that, but Remnick accused Howard Cosell of did his best to ruin a great camera shot of John Lowenstein's theft of a home run in Game 1 by simultaneously praising the shot and rapping other networks for praising their own shots. Game 6 of the 1985 World Series would become rooted in controversy when the bottom of the ninth, Jorge Orta, the leadoff batter for the Kansas City Royals, hit a slow roller to St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Jack Clark, who tossed the ball to the pitcher, Todd Worrell, who was covering first base. Umpire Don Denkinger called Orta safe, even though television replays and photographs clearly showed that he was out by half a step. The Royals went on to win Game 6 by the score of 2–1. The Royals went on to win Game 6 by the score of 2–1. The first replay that ABC showed was a faraway shot from high along the third base side that froze upon Worrell's catch, with Orta's foot still seemingly in the air. NBC Sports executive producer Michael Weisman said that while he thought that ABC's coverage of the 1986 League Championship Series was overall fine, he didn't think that they with stories long enough. For instance, Weisman thought that ABC should have kept a camera on California Angels third-base coach Moose Stubing longer in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. Weisman thought that the camera should've followed Stubing into the dugout to see how his teammates reacted to him after he failed to give Bobby Grich a sign. Weisman also felt that ABC should have stayed with New York Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez longer after he was called out on strikes in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series against the Houston Astros and argued vehemently with umpire Doug Harvey. Meanwhile, Harry Coyle, NBC's coordinating producer and director of baseball also said that while he thought that ABC's 1986 LCS coverage was for the most part fine, he also said “A shot of a wife can be a great shot, if you use it once or twice a game, like in the ninth inning of a close game and the pitcher is in trouble. But to show a batter, then his wife, then the batter, then his wife, then the batter, then his wife . . . well, that’s ridiculous.” When asked about ABC's use of a roof camera at the Astrodome, Coyle said “If that shot is so great, why don’t they sell seats up there.” In June 1987, ABC director Craig Janoff said that they didn't do quite the same thing as NBC since they would go two months without doing a game that season, and then they would do the World Series in October. Janoff added that baseball was the most challenging sport that he has directed for television because timing is critical. In other words, you have to think about where a fan`s eyes move, and constant cutting from camera to camera is necessary. Come the World Series in 1987, Norman Chad of the "Washington Post" said that ABC's cameras miss nothing and offered unmatched replays. Meanwhile, ABC's graphics in Chad's eyes, provided better reading than some best sellers, while the announcers knew the game and talked intelligently about it. Furthermore, Chad said that ABC's cameras always showed runs as they were scored. In contrast, NBC sometimes failed to show players crossing the plate during their coverage of the League Championship Series. And whereas ABC's announcers almost always pulled back when the Metrodome crowd went into a frenzy in Minnesota, NBC's announcers according to Chad, sometimes added to the noise (except to go silent at game's end). Chad even believed that ABC captured the quirky nature of the Metrodome better than NBC, from intriguing camera shots to Al Michaels' play-by-play. When assessing ABC's coverage of the 1988 NLCS between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets, the "Chicago Tribune"s Steve Nidetz praised their camera work. Nidetz in particular, gave credit to producer Curt Gowdy Jr., who was responsible for calling all the shots for ABC's NLCS coverage. Instead of subjecting viewers to long-range angles of baseballs floating into the air, ABC had closeups everywhere, from the dugout to the field to the stands. In contrast, ABC's production of the 1988 ALCS between the Oakland Athletics and Boston Red Sox under director Steve Danz, cameramen kept missing plays and according to Jim Sarni of the "South Florida Sun-Sentinel", seemed to be preoccupied showing the Harvard rowing crew on the Charles. Again as previously mentioned, Game 3 of 1989 World Series was scheduled to begin at San Francisco's Candlestick Park on October 17 at 5:35 PDT, ABC began its pre-game show at 5:00 PDT. When the Loma Prieta earthquake struck at approximately 5:04 PDT, Tim McCarver was narrating taped highlights of Game 2, which had been played two days prior across the Bay Bridge in Oakland. Television viewers saw the video signal begin to break up, heard McCarver repeat a sentence as the shaking distracted him, and heard Al Michaels exclaim, "I'll tell you what, we're having an earth – ." At that moment, the signal from Candlestick Park was lost. The network put up a green ABC Sports “World Series” technical difficulties telop graphic while it scrambled to repair the video feed (the broadcast cameras and mics were powered by the local power supply), but audio from the stadium was restored after a few seconds via a telephone link: Al Michaels: Well, heh, I don't know if we're on the air... We are in commercial, I guess. Jim Palmer: Yes, yes, we hear you. Tim McCarver: I guess... Michaels: I don't hear a thing. McCarver: I guess Dave Parker... Michaels: Well, heh, I don't know if we're on the air or not, and I'm not sure I care at this particular moment but we are. Well, folks, that's the greatest open in the history of television! Bar none! McCarver: Started with a bang! Michaels: Yes, it certainly did! Heh! We're still here! Heh! We are still, as we can tell, on the air, and I guess you are hearing us, even though we have no picture and no return audio, and we will be back, we hope, from San Francisco, in just a moment. The combined screams of excitement and panic from fans who had no idea of the devastation elsewhere could be heard in the background. ABC then switched to episodes of "Roseanne" and "The Wonder Years", which was on standby for a rain delay situation, while attempting to restore electricity to its remote equipment. With anchorman Ted Koppel in position in Washington, D.C., ABC News began continuous coverage of the quake at 5:32 p.m. PDT, with Al Michaels, in the process, becoming a de facto on-site reporter for ABC. The Goodyear Blimp had already been overhead to cover the baseball game, and ABC used it to capture images of damage to the Bay Bridge and other locations. 1995. Jerry Trecker of the "Hartford Courant" praise ABC's production of the 1995 All-Star Game in Arlington. He said that the broadcast crew of Al Michaels, Tim McCarver, and Jim Palmer paced their broadcast as if they had never been away, and the different looks, especially ground level cameras, had always been a trademark of effective work by ABC. ABC also according to him, made effective use of graphics to recap season leaders. ABC Sports' technical coverage as a whole, included 21 cameras from all vantage points, including one in the Goodyear Blimp, and an unmanned camera directly above home plate. Coaches would wear wireless microphones. Trecker did however, point out that times, the broadcasters seemed to be ahead of the production people, especially when they wanted to talk about Raul Mondesi's speed getting to a drive into the right field corner. They never showed it. Trecker also believed that ABC's usage of dugout reporters (in this case, Lesley Visser, John Saunders, and Rick Dempsey), even in showcase games like the All-Star Game, was overkill. Visser in particular, was singled out for asked such lengthy questions of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo that it was almost farcical when his answers came back in translation. For the 1995 World Series, ABC and NBC shared 17 cameras and 13 tape machines, two of the "Super Slo-Mo" variety. Major League Baseball coverage on ABC's owned-and-operated television stations. Historically, KTRK was the original television home of the Houston Astros, from the team's inaugural season in 1962 until 1971; however, the station only aired the team's Sunday afternoon road games. It also broadcast any Astros games that were part of ABC's broadcast contract with Major League Baseball from 1976 to 1989. On December 12, 2014, WLS-TV signed a new five-year broadcast agreement with the Chicago Cubs, in which WLS will televise 25 of the Major League Baseball team's games per year, starting with the 2015 season. The arrangement partially replaces one with WGN-TV (which had broadcast Cubs games since its inception in April 1948), which voluntarily pulled out of its existing broadcast deal with the team for the 2015 season and subsequently agreed to carry a reduced slate of 45 games. The WLS broadcasts are seen on DirecTV's version of MLB Extra Innings, and the feed provided is the WLS signal seen in the Chicago market (unlike with the feeds of WGN broadcasts, where public service announcements are seen in place of local commercials and station promos). As ABC has a limited sports programming schedule during the Major League Baseball season prior to September (when the MLB regular season and college football season overlap), the station mainly carries the team's weekend daytime games in order to limit pre-emptions of the network's prime time programming.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=760932

Joseph Wilton (16 July 1722 – 25 November 1803) was an English sculptor. He was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768, and the academy's third keeper. His works are particularly numerous memorialising the famous Britons in Westminster Abbey. Life. Born the son of an ornamental plasterer in the Charing Cross area of London, his father had sculpted the ceilings of the Foundling Hospital there. His father wished him to be a civil engineer but he strongly desired to be a sculptor. Wilton initially trained under Laurent Delvaux at Nivelles, in present-day Belgium. In 1744 he left Nivelles and went to the Academy in Paris to study under Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. In 1752 he went to Italy with his sculptor friend Louis-François Roubiliac to learn to sculpt in marble, and stayed for seven years, living first in Rome and then in Florence. Whilst in Rome he met and befriended his first patron, William Locke of Norbury, who thereafter accompanied Wilton on his tour of Italy. Like many other artists of the day, he studied antiquities, and made numerous plaster casts and marble copies of classic works – many of these later formed the collection of Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond at Richmond House in west London. A marble bust of the physician and scholar Antonio Cocchi, carved by Wilton in 1755, his last year in Italy, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Influenced by Wilton's study of antique busts, it was considered by Margaret Whinney to be one of Wilton's most distinguished works. While in Florence he made the acquaintance of the Florentine painter Giovanni Battista Cipriani. When Wilton and the architect William Chambers returned to England, in August 1755, Cipriani went with them. Once back in London, Wilton was named co-director of Lennox's Richmond House gallery, and established a workshop. He built up a considerable practice, making busts and monuments, including the memorial to James Wolfe in Westminster Abbey. He made at least two marble busts of Oliver Cromwell, which he showed at the Society of Artists, in 1761 and 1761, basing the likeness on a cast of Cromwell's face. One marble version, and the terracotta model for it, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1761, he was first commissioned to produce a statue of King George III. Similar commissions followed, including one in 1766 from New York City. This massive statue portrayed the king on horseback in Roman garb, and was cast in lead and gilded before being shipped to America and erected at Bowling Green, near the tip of Manhattan in August 1770. It did not last long, being torn down by patriots in July 1776. Wilton's other works include many notable busts, monuments (e.g. Stephen Hales' memorial in Westminster Abbey, London) and other carvings including fireplaces and tables. In 1768, when Wilton was perhaps at the peak of his powers, he was elected a founder member of the Royal Academy. However, that year also saw him inherit his father's fortune and the new wealth diverted him away from sculpture to a life of dissolution. In 1786 he was forced to sell most of his possessions and in 1793 he was officially declared bankrupt. In 1790 he was appointed Keeper of the Royal Academy, a post he kept until his death in 1803. He was buried at St Mary the Virgin, Wanstead in east London. Trivia. By some accounts, the town of Wilton, New Hampshire is said to have been named after Sir Joseph in 1762.

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