QUES: Soon after the conclusion of peace, important changes were made in legislation concerning industry and commerce, and the new freedom thus afforded produced a large number of limited liability companies. Plans were formed for building a great network of railways, partly for the purpose of developing the natural resources of the country, and partly for the purpose of increasing its power for defense and attack. The existence of serfdom was tackled boldly, taking advantage of a petition presented by the Polish landed proprietors of the Lithuanian provinces and, hoping that their relations with the serfs might be regulated in a more satisfactory way (meaning in a way more satisfactory for the proprietors), he authorized the formation of committees "for ameliorating the condition of the peasants," and laid down the principles on which the amelioration was to be effected. This step had been followed by one even more significant. Without consulting his ordinary advisers, Alexander ordered the Minister of the Interior to send a circular to the provincial governors of European Russia (serfdom was rare in other parts), containing a copy of the instructions forwarded to the Governor-General of Lithuania, praising the supposed generous, patriotic intentions of the Lithuanian landed proprietors, and suggesting that perhaps the landed proprietors of other provinces might express a similar desire. The hint was taken: in all provinces where serfdom existed, emancipation committees were formed. The emancipation was not merely a humanitarian question capable of being solved instantaneously by imperial ukase. It contained very complicated problems, deeply affecting the economic, social and political future of the nation. Alexander had to choose between the different measures recommended to him and decide if the serfs would become agricultural laborers dependent economically and administratively on the landlords or if the serfs would be transformed into a class of independent communal proprietors. The emperor gave his support to the latter project, and the Russian peasantry became one of the last groups of peasants in Europe to shake off serfdom. The architects of the emancipation manifesto were Alexander's brother Konstantin, Yakov Rostovtsev, and Nikolay Milyutin. On 3 March 1861, 6 years after his accession, the emancipation law was signed and published.
Do you have any questions?
MY QUESTION: What significant event followed after a petition by Polish landed proprietors was presented to Tsar Alexander?

QUES: The movie is a powerful story that deals with feminism and patriarchy in the middle class of India . It is shot in the present and past tense showing lives of the characters Mahender and Sudha as they lived together as well as separately . The movie starts with Mahender getting down at the railway station and making his way to the waiting room just as it starts to rain heavily . A woman , Sudha , is already sitting in the waiting room . On seeing him , she tries to hide her face from him but later they confront each other . Mahender has an accomplished business dealing with photography . He respects his grandfather immensely . Incidentally , he had been engaged to Sudha for 5 years but always made some excuse to delay their wedding . However , this time his grandfather has fixed the wedding on the first week of the following month . He reveals to Sudha that he is having an affair with one of the most radical representations of feminism in a girl called Maya . He returns to tell Maya , but Maya has disappeared , leaving him some poetry . Mahender then marries Sudha and is quite happy , but the sudden return of Maya causes tensions in their married life . Mahender frequently tells Sudha about all the beautifully poignant , loving and authentic things Maya did over the years that they lived together . Later , Maya tries to commit suicide , and this leads to Mahender spending time with her over a few weeks . Sudha , not knowing about Maya 's suicide attempt and therefore believing that Mahender is being unfaithful to her , feels that her marriage was a mistake , and questions Mahender about his intentions .
Do you have any questions?
MY QUESTION: Whose wedding did grandfather fix?

QUES: Reducing resource use means just what it says using fewer resources. There are lots of ways to reduce our use of resources. Buy durable goods. Choose items that are well made so they will last longer. Youll buy fewer items in the long run, so youll save money as well as resources. Thats a win-win! Repair rather than replace. Fix your bike rather than buying a new one. Sew on a button instead of buying a new shirt. Youll use fewer resources and save money. Buy only what you need. Dont buy a gallon of milk if you can only drink half of it before it spoils. Instead, buy a half gallon and drink all of it. You wont be wasting resources (or money!) Buy local. For example, buy local produce at a farmers market, like the one in Figure 2.20. A lot of resources are saved by not shipping goods long distances. Products bought at farmers markets use less packaging, too! About a third of what we throw out is packaging.
Do you have any questions?
MY QUESTION: How does buying local reduce resource use?

QUES: The second major point on which the principals had agreed on March 10 was the need to crack down on terrorist organizations and curtail their fund-raising. The embassy bombings of 1998 had focused attention on al Qaeda's finances. One result had been the creation of an NSC-led interagency committee on terrorist financing. On its recommendation, the President had designated Bin Laden and al Qaeda as subject to sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. This gave theTreasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) the ability to search for and freeze any Bin Laden or al Qaeda assets that reached the U.S. financial system. But since OFAC had little information to go on, few funds were frozen. In July 1999, the President applied the same designation to the Taliban for harboring Bin Laden. Here, OFAC had more success. It blocked more than $34 million in Taliban assets held in U.S. banks. Another $215 million in gold and $2 million in demand deposits, all belonging to the Afghan central bank and held by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, were also frozen. After October 1999, when the State Department formally designated al Qaeda a "foreign terrorist organization," it became the duty of U.S. banks to block its transactions and seize its funds. Neither this designation nor UN sanctions had much additional practical effect; the sanctions were easily circumvented, and there were no multilateral mechanisms to ensure that other countries' financial systems were not used as conduits for terrorist funding. Attacking the funds of an institution, even the Taliban, was easier than finding and seizing the funds of a clandestine worldwide organization like al Qaeda. Although the CIA's Bin Laden unit had originally been inspired by the idea of studying terrorist financial links, few personnel assigned to it had any experience in financial investigations. Any terrorist-financing intelligence appeared to have been collected collaterally, as a consequence of gathering other intelligence. This attitude may have stemmed in large part from the chief of this unit, who did not believe that simply following the money from point A to point B revealed much about the terrorists' plans and intentions. As a result, the CIA placed little emphasis on terrorist financing. Nevertheless, the CIA obtained a general understanding of how al Qaeda raised money.
Do you have any questions?
MY QUESTION:
Who blocked more than $34 million in Taliban assets held in U.S. banks, and froze $215 million in gold and $2 million in demand deposits belonging to the Afghan central bank?