Nepotism is when a person in authority gives jobs to their relatives. It comes from the practice of mediaeval Popes, appointing their nephews to important positions. "Nepote" is Italian for 'nephew'.
For instance, Pope Callixtus III, head of the Borgia family, made two of his nephews cardinals; one of them, Rodrigo, later used his position as a cardinal as a stepping stone to the papacy, becoming Pope Alexander VI. Alexander then elevated Alessandro Farnese, his mistress's brother, to cardinal; Farnese would later go on to become Pope Paul III. Paul III was a notorious nepotist. When elected Pope in 1534 he appointed two nephews, aged 14 and 16, as cardinals.
The practice was finally ended when Pope Innocent XII issued the bull "Romanum decet Pontificem", in 1692. The papal bull prohibited popes in all times from bestowing estates, offices, or revenues on any relative, with the exception that one qualified relative (at most) could be made a cardinal.
In the modern world, nepotism is thought to be wrong, and conflicts with the principle of merit, where the best person gets the job (meritocracy). The argument against the widespread nepotism in countries like Italy is that it damages the economy of the country, though that is difficult to prove.
Mindset
A mindset is a state that usually a majority of people would have in a particular time or occasion. It is formed from things that people are convinced about. It is like a collected norm.
Mindset can also be about how people see their abilities. In this sense, people have two types of mindsets: fixed and growth mindsets. Psychologist Carol Dweck explains that students with fixed mindset believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed characteristics . They have a certain amount and they improve, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb. In a growth mindset students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and working hard. They don't necessarily think everyone's the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.
Existential crisis
An existential crisis is the feeling that is experienced when thinking about life itself being without any meaning at all. It also happens when the thinking involves a person's own death while all alone with anxiety, fear and possibly miserable.
Larry Wall
Larry Wall (born September 27, 1954) is an American programmer, best known for creating the programming language Perl. He worked at NASA for a short time. He is currently working on a new version of Perl.
Philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is one part of philosophy that works with the mind. It is about thinking how the mind works, and how it relates to the world. It also deals with consciousness, which is also researched in psychology and physics.
The mind-body problem is the main problem that is talked about in philosophy of mind. It is the problem of how our minds and our bodies are related, and what exactly the mind is. Many different answers have been come up with to solve the mind-body problem. Most of them fall into the two groups of dualism and monism.
Dualism is the belief that minds and bodies are separate things. One of the main dualist views comes from René Descartes and is named Cartesian dualism after him. It is also called substance dualism because he thought that minds and bodies were two completely different substances (like matter) in the world.
Monism is the opposite of dualism because it is the belief that minds and bodies are not separate things. Many monist views are called materialism because they think that minds are not anything different from matter just like bodies.
Jamaican English
Jamaican English may mean: Jamaican Patois
Jamaican English is a variety of English spoken in Jamaica. It uses parts of both American and British English.
A simple example of this would be "Ku pon dis mudda, dis mon hab a crazy 'ead, truss mi."
Which would mean "Look at this mom, this man is crazy, trust me."
Human powered aircraft
A human powered aircraft is an aircraft that is powered entirely or partly by the pilot(s). Several human powered aircraft have been constructed in the past 30 years for recreation or to win prizes.
Designing a successful human-powered aircraft is difficult because a very large power to weight ratio must be achieved. This has been the reason why many of these aircraft use advanced composite materials in their construction.
There are human-powered aircraft being designed and made now. One aircraft is being built by Virginia Tech University named the Iron Butterfly. Another one is being built by the Pennsylvania State University named the Zephyrus.
Pennsylvania State University
Pennsylvania State University is a college in the state of Pennsylvania. The main campus is in the city of State College, Pennsylvania and it has branch campuses around the state. It was founded in 1855. In 1863, the Pennsylvania state legislature picked the school to be the state's only land grant college. Its purpose is to do teaching, research, and public service. It teaches undergraduate, graduate, professional and continuing education students both in classrooms and online.
Penn State University Park is ranked among the top-fifteen public universities in the United States. Annual enrollment at the main campus totals more than 44,000 graduate and undergraduate students, making it one of the largest universities in the United States. It has the world's largest dues-paying alumni association.
The university's total enrollment in 2009–10 was approximately 94,300 across its 24 campuses and online through its World Campus. The university offers more than 160 majors among all its campuses Penn State has a US$1.52 billion (as of April 30, 2010) endowment. The university's research budget was more than $765 million for the 2009-2009 fiscal year. In fiscal year 2008, the National Science Foundation ranked Penn State 11th among U.S. universities in research income.
Penn State is a school known for its football team. Penn State is a member of the Big Ten Conference.
Penn State is a "state-related" university, part of Pennsylvania's Commonwealth System of Higher Education. It receives money from the Commonwealth. The state appoints 10 out of 32 people on its board of trustees. Penn State is independent and not subject to the state's direct control. For the 2006–2007 fiscal year, the university received 9.7 percent of its budget from state appropriations, the lowest of the four state-related institutions in Pennsylvania. As Pennsylvania's land grant college, the state and federal governments provide matching funds for research and cooperative extension in agriculture, home economics and related fields.
The board of trustees selects a president of the University. The president controls the university, including day-to-day management. In practice, the president gives power to other departments of the administration, to the faculty, and to the student body. Provost Rodney Erickson became interim President on November 9, 2011, after President Graham Spanier was fired.
The executive vice president and provost is the chief academic officer of the University. As of 2011, the provost is Rodney Erickson, and the Associate Vice President and Senior Associate Dean For Undergraduate Education is Jeremy Cohen.
The football team was led by coach Joe Paterno for 45 years. He was fired in 2011 along with the University President because they failed to report child abuse by a former assistant football coach. Former coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested on child abuse charges for the period 1994 to 2009. Both the Athletic Director and the vice president for business and finance were charged with perjury and resigned. The next day about 2,000 students rioted in protest, supporting coach Paterno. On November 11, the school staged a vigil to show support for the victims of child abuse.