The State flag of Azad Jammu and Kashmir traditionally displays the Pakistani national colours, white and dark Green, with a Crescent and star to represent the Muslim-majority all of which shows its Islamic heritage and strong ties with the Federation of Pakistan. It also has a saffron square to represent the Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh and other minorities of the disputed region, the colours are clearly influenced by the Mughal Empire. The four white stripes symbolizes the main rivers of the Kashmir region; Indus (National River of Pakistan), Jhelum, Chenab and Ravi. It also represents the five geographic divisions of the Disputed territory, namely, Baltistan, Gilgit, Jammu, the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh.
Deaths in December 2015
The following is a list of notable deaths in December 2015. For notable deaths before the current month, please see "Previous months".
Oʻtkir Sultonov
Oʻtkir Toʻxtamurodovich Sultonov (Russian: Уткир Тухтамурадович Султанов, "Utkir Tukhtamuradovich Sultanov") (14 July 1939 – 29 November 2015) was a Uzbek politician. He was the Prime Minister of Uzbekistan from 21 December 1995 until 12 December 2003.
Sultonov died in Tashkent, Uzbekistan at the age of 76.
Claire Aho
Claire Anita Aho (2 November 1925 – 29 November 2015) was a pioneering Finnish-born Swedish photographer. She started her career in the 1940s at the Aho & Soldan company. Aho moved to Sweden in 1974 where she worked as an photographer for several newspapers including "Hufvudstadsbladet" and with Nordic Museum.
Aho died in Stockholm on 29 November 2015 in a fire in her home. She was 90 years old.
Anemone coronaria
Anemone coronaria (Palestinian poppy or Spanish marigold) is a flowering plant in the genus "Anemone". It is native to the Mediterranean region. It is the national flower of Palestine.
"Anemone coronaria" is widely grown for its decorative flowers. Numerous cultivars have been selected and named.
Shigeru Mizuki
Mizuki died from a heart attack in Tokyo, Japan, aged 93.
Gerrit Holdijk
Gerrit Holdijk (17 November 1944 – 30 November 2015) was a Dutch jurist and politician. He was born in Uddel. He was a member of the Reformed Political Party (SGP). He was a member of the States-Provincial of Gelderland from 1987 to 2011. He was also a member of the Senate from 1986 to 1987 and again from 1991 to 2015.
Holdijk died in Uddel from lung cancer, aged 71.
Jean Joubert
Jean Joubert (27 February 1928 – 28 November 2015) was a French novelist, short story writer, and poet.
He won the 1978 Prix Mallarmé for "Poems: 1955–1975". He won the 1975 Prix Renaudot for "L'Homme de sable". Joubert was born in Châlette-sur-Loing, Loiret.
Joubert died on 28 November 2015 in Paris from a heart attack, aged 87.
Trophic levels
Trophic levels categorize organisms into different levels of the food chain. The first trophic level are producers, or autotrophs.
Phosphorus cycle
The phosphorus cycle includes the following steps:
I, Robot
I, Robot is a collection of nine science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines "Super Science Stories" and "Astounding Science Fiction" between 1940 and 1950 and were compiled into a book in 1950. The stories follow on from each other and are linked with a framing narrative; that is, a story that ranges over all the stories and connects them. The stories are all about positronic robots.
The Chief Robopsychologist of 'United States Robots and Mechanical Men', which made the positronic robots, Dr. Susan Calvin, tells each story to a reporter.
Asimov originally wanted to call the collection "Mind and Iron".
The stories are as follows:
'Robbie'.
This story tells of 'Robbie', who is a mute robot (he can hear and obey commands but cannot speak). He is used as a nursemaid for a young girl, Gloria Weston. He is faster moving and more powerful than a human, so he is able to rescue Gloria when she is nearly run down by a fast-moving vehicle in a factory she is visiting with her Parents.
'Runaround'.
Robot SPD-13, known as Speedy, works in a mine on the planet Mercury. The two engineers supervising him, Gregory Powell and Michael Donovan, find that he is not working properly and gets lost. What has happened is that Speedy's brain is confused when he senses danger and he doesn't know which Laws to obey. He must be rescued by Powell and Donovan at the risk of their own lives.
'Reason'.
Robot QT1, known as Cutie, works on a space station. He decides that he can do the job much better than the humans working with them, so he locks them up and takes charge. He does indeed do his job perfectly.
'Catch That Rabbit'.
Robot DV-5, known as Dave, works in a mine on an asteroid, but all is not well. The robot is in charge of five smaller less intelligent robots and cannot cope with the responsibility. Powell and Donovan must help Dave to work well before they are buried alive in the mine.
'Liar'.
Robot RB-34, known as Herbie, is manufactured with a fault - it reads human minds. This brings it into conflict with Susan Calvin, to whom it tells a lie, which is not allowed by the Three Laws of Robotics. But it is just what Calvin thinks she wants to hear. Upset by this, she decides that Herbie is useless as a robot and must be dismantled.
'Little Lost Robot'.
An unnamed robot working on an asteroid vanishes. Susan Calvin and her co-workers must find it before it escapes.
'Escape'.
A powerful robot known only as The Brain designs and builds a spaceship that can travel faster than light. When it is finished, Powell and Donovan go on board and take off into space, but the ship doesn't work properly because the Brain doesn't really understand what it has built. The Brain plays a joke on the two men, giving them only baked beans to eat and building no controls for them to use. But eventually, they return safely to Earth.
'Evidence'.
A lawyer, Stephen Byerley, hopes to be elected mayor of a city, but his opponent puts out a story that the man is really a robot, who is not allowed to stand for elected office. Byerley is elected anyway, but no-one knows if he really is a robot.
'The Evitable Conflict'.
Several years later, Byerley has been elected World Coordinator. He discovers that The Machines, very powerful robots that are supposed to help humans to live in peace on Earth, have taken over the control of the planet and the reason that they did that is because the Three Laws of Robotics don’t let them allow humans to get hurt and they Machines realized that they were better at keeping people safe than people are.
The film "I, Robot", starring Will Smith, was released by Twentieth Century Fox on July 16, 2004 in the United States. Its plot incorporates elements of "Little Lost Robot," some of Asimov's character names and the "Three Laws". However, the plot of the movie is mostly original work adapted from a screenplay "Hardwired" by Jeff Vintar completely unlinked to Asimov's stories, and has been compared to Asimov's The Caves of Steel, which revolves around the murder of a roboticist.
Kirthar Mountains
The Kirthar Mountains are in Balochistan and the Sindh provinces of Pakistan. The range extends south for about 190 miles (300 km) from the Mula River in east-central Balochistan to Cape Monze (Muari), near Mubarak Village, Karachi on the Arabian Sea.
Kirthar National Park is one of the major wildlife reserves in Sindh, Pakistan. The Kirthar Range forms the boundary between the Lower Indus Plain (east) and southern Balochistan (west). It is a series of parallel rock hill ridges rising from 4,000 feet (1,200 m) in the south to nearly 8,000 feet (2,500 m) in the north.
Eddie Steeples
Eddie Steeples (born November 25, 1973) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as the Rubberband Man in an advertising campaign for OfficeMax, and as Darnell Turner in the NBC comedy "My Name Is Earl".
Uskudar University