Mercantilism is a kind of economic system that was present in most parts of Europe between the 16th and the 18th century.

The term was first used by Marquis de Mirabeau in 1794. Adam Smith made it known to a wider audience in 1776. At that time, absolutism was the main form of government in Europe. These regimes needed money to finance a large military, the many people who worked in the government. The monarchs and princes also needed money in order to finance their lifestyle. These governments were also very nationalistic. For this reason, mercantilism is seen as a form of economic nationalism.

The theory of mercantilism holds that the prosperity of a nation depends on its supply of capital, and that the global volume of international trade is "unchangeable". Economic assets (or capital) are bullion (gold, silver, and trade value) held by the state, and is best increased through a positive balance of trade with other nations (exports minus imports).

The theory assumes that wealth and monetary assets are identical. Mercantilism suggests that the ruling government should advance these goals by playing a protectionist role in the economy by encouraging exports and discouraging imports, notably through the use of tariffs and subsidies. The theory dominated Western European economic policies from the 16th to the late-18th century.

References

Economic history
Economic systems

Mercantilism


The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (or NNPT) is a treaty that was made to stop nuclear weapons from being built. It was written in 1968, entered into force in 1970, and 190 countries have signed it since then. Only four nations have not signed it: India, Israel, Pakistan South Sudan. North Korea withdrew in 2003.

Terms
The treaty says that only five countries are allowed to have nuclear weapons. These are called nuclear weapons states. The five nuclear weapons states are China, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Russia. All five of these nations have all signed the treaty. They are not supposed to help any other nation build nuclear weapons. All other nations who sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty promise not to build more nuclear weapons for themselves or others.

The treaty also says that every nation is able to build nuclear power plants and have nuclear technology. However, nations who sign the treaty, but are not nuclear weapons states, promise to not use their nuclear power plants to make nuclear weapons.

The main corporations that made this treaty happen were the United Nations and the IAEA.

1960s treaties
Nuclear weapons
1968
1970
1970s treaties

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty


Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48 is a work for string orchestra by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It premiered in 1880. The serenade consists of four movements:
 Pezzo in forma di sonatina: Andante non troppo — Allegro moderato
 Valse: Moderato — Tempo di valse
 Élégie: Larghetto elegiaco
 Finale (Tema russo): Andante — Allegro con spirito

Tchaikovsky intended the first movement to be an imitation of Mozart's style. It was based on the form of the classical sonatina, with a slow introduction. The 36-bar Andante introduction is marked "sempre marcatissimo". It is littered with double-stopping in the violins and violas. This introduction returns at the end of the movement. It reappears, transformed, in the coda of the fourth movement. Tchaikovsky intended the work for a large string orchestra. On the second page of the score, he  wrote, "The larger the string orchestra, the better will the composer's desires be fulfilled." George Balanchine used the work for his ballet Serenade in 1934Excerpts from the score were used in the 2005 ballet Anna Karenina, choreographed by Boris Eifman. The waltz was arranged for soprano and full orchestra for the 1945 MGM movie Anchors Aweigh. It was performed by Kathryn Grayson with José Iturbi conducting the MGM studio orchestra.

References

Compositions by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Serenade for Strings


H-alpha (Hα) is a deep-red visible spectral line of the hydrogen atom  with a wavelength of 656.28 nm in air and 656.46 nm in vacuum. It is the first spectral line in the Balmer series and is emitted when an electron falls from a hydrogen atom's third- to second-lowest energy level. H-alpha has applications in astronomy where its emission can be observed from emission nebulae and from features in the Sun's atmosphere, including solar prominences and the chromosphere.

Balmer series
According to the Bohr model of the atom, electrons exist in quantized energy levels surrounding the atom's nucleus.  These energy levels are described by the principal quantum number n = 1, 2, 3, ... .  Electrons may only exist in these states, and may only transit between these states.

The set of transitions from n ≥ 3 to n = 2 is called the Balmer series and its members are named sequentially by Greek letters:
n = 3 to n = 2 is called Balmer-alpha or H-alpha,
n = 4 to n = 2 is called Balmer-beta or H-beta,
n = 5 to n = 2 is called Balmer-gamma or H-gamma, etc.

For the Lyman series the naming convention is:
n = 2 to n = 1 is called Lyman-alpha,
n = 3 to n = 1 is called Lyman-beta, etc.

H-alpha has a wavelength of 656.281 nm, is visible in the red part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and is the easiest way for astronomers to trace the ionized hydrogen content of gas clouds.  Since it takes nearly as much energy to excite the hydrogen atom's electron from n = 1 to n = 3 (12.1 eV, via the Rydberg formula) as it does to ionize the hydrogen atom (13.6 eV), ionization is far more probable than excitation to the n = 3 level. After ionization, the electron and proton recombine to form a new hydrogen atom. In the new atom, the electron may begin in any energy level, and subsequently cascades to the ground state (n = 1), emitting photons with each transition. Approximately half the time, this cascade will include the n = 3 to n = 2 transition and the atom will emit H-alpha light. Therefore, the H-alpha line occurs where hydrogen is being ionized.

The H-alpha line saturates (self-absorbs) relatively easily because hydrogen is the primary component of nebulae, so while it can indicate the shape and extent of the cloud, it cannot be used to accurately determine the cloud's mass.  Instead, molecules such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, ammonia, or acetonitrile are typically used to determine the mass of a cloud.

Filter

An H-alpha filter is an optical filter designed to transmit a narrow bandwidth of light generally centred on the H-alpha wavelength. These filters can be dichroic filters manufactured by multiple (~50) vacuum-deposited layers. These layers are selected to produce interference effects that filter out any wavelengths except at the requisite band.

Taken in isolation, H-alpha dichroic filters are useful in astrophotography and for reducing the effects of light pollution.  They do not have narrow enough bandwidth for observing the sun's atmosphere.

For observing the sun, a much narrower band filter can be made from three parts: an "energy rejection filter" which is usually a piece of red glass that absorbs most of the unwanted wavelengths, a Fabry–Pérot etalon which transmits several wavelengths including one centred on the H-alpha emission line, and a "blocking filter" -a dichroic filter which transmits the H-alpha line while stopping those other wavelengths that passed through the etalon.  This combination will pass only a narrow (<0.1 nm) range of wavelengths of light centred on the H-alpha emission line.

The physics of the etalon and the dichroic interference filters are essentially the same (relying on constructive/destructive interference of light reflecting between surfaces), but the implementation is different (a dichroic interference filter relies on the interference of internal reflections while the etalon has a relatively large air gap). Due to the high velocities sometimes associated with features visible in H-alpha light (such as fast moving prominences and ejections), solar H-alpha etalons can often be tuned (by tilting or changing the temperature or air density) to cope with the associated Doppler effect.

Commercially available H-alpha filters for amateur solar observing usually state bandwidths in  Angstrom units and are typically 0.7Å (0.07 nm).  By using a second etalon, this can be reduced to 0.5Å leading to improved contrast in details observed on the sun's disc.

An even more narrow band filter can be made using a Lyot filter.

See also
 Hydrogen spectral series
 Rydberg formula
 Spectrohelioscope

References

External links
 Description of etalon filter by Colin Kaminski
 MCE Membrane Filter

Atomic physics
Astronomical spectroscopy
Hydrogen physics
Optical filters

H-alpha


Sebastiano Visconti Prasca (23 January 1883, Rome – 25 February 1961) was an Italian general. He led the initial offensive of the Greco-Italian War, but was relieved of his command after two weeks for incompetence and substituted with General Ubaldo Soddu.

Biography
Sebastiano Visconti Prasca was a member of the noble family of the House of Visconti. He took part in World War I, receiving two commemorative medals and a Merit Cross.

Starting from 1924, he served as military attaché at Belgrade in Yugoslavia. In 1934 he commanded the Italian corps in Saar. Later he was military attaché at Paris and Berlin, and, in 1938, he became commander of the 2nd Cavalry Division Emanuele Filiberto Testa di Ferro.

In 1940  he was commander-in-chief of the lackluster Italian invasion of Greece. Visconti Prasca's personal propaganda in convincing Benito Mussolini that the initial forces under his command would prove sufficient, and that the Italian invasion would meet a feeble resistance, was one of the factors leading to the disaster. Visconti Prasca was replaced on 13 November, only two weeks after the beginning of the invasion, by Ubaldo Soddu.

In September 1943 he joined the Italian resistance movement. Captured by the Germans, he was sentenced to death, subsequently commuted to life imprisonment in Germany. Visconti Prasca escaped and fought with the Red Army in the final stages of World War II, participating in the Battle of Berlin.

In 1946 he published a memoir, Io ho aggredito la Grecia, in which he tried to justify his personal errors in the War of Greece.

References

Sources

1883 births
1961 deaths
Military personnel from Rome
Sebastiano Prasca
Nobility from Rome
Italian generals
Italian military personnel of World War II
People of the Greco-Italian War
Italian resistance movement members
Italian prisoners sentenced to death
People condemned by Nazi courts

Sebastiano Visconti Prasca


The Panavia Tornado is a twin-turbojet attack and electronic warfare aircraft. It was built by three European countries: Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Its first flight was in 1974. Its introduction was in 1979. The Royal Air Force used it in the Gulf War, war in Afghanistan, and war in Libya. Saudi Arabia also uses this aircraft.

The Tornado ADV is a fighter variant.

British military aircraft
German military aircraft
Italian military aircraft

Panavia Tornado


A fill in popular music is a short instrumental passage, between melody lines of a song. (A longer passage between verses is called a solo.)

Fills are usually played with a keyboard instrument or a guitar, but other instruments (such as a saxophone) may also be used. Drum fills are sometimes called "drum rolls", but a roll is actually a steady beat on a single drum, while a fill may use more than one drum or beat.

Musical terminology

Fill (music)


Starbucks is a chain of stores that sell coffee. A chain is many stores owned by the same company. Many of the stores look the same, and all stores sell the same items, often at the same prices. As well as coffee, Starbucks sells beverages and baked goods.

Starbucks started in Seattle in the United States in 1971. The number of stores has grown quickly. There are over 9,000 Starbucks stores all over the world. Most of these stores are in the United States. Some large cities in the U.S. have many Starbucks stores. Sometimes they open so many stores in one city that there are two Starbucks within a few blocks of each other.

Starbucks sells many kinds of drinks. There are 5 sizes: short, tall, grande, venti and trenta. There are many ways to customize each drink. A frappuccino, for example, is a cold drink. Flavored syrup and cream is added to coffee or juice and stirred with ice.

Some stores sell special items, such as mugs related to the city they are located in.

International growth

The first Starbucks in Japan opened in Ginza in 1996. There were 985 stores in Japan in 2012.

References

American food companies
Coffee houses
1971 establishments in the United States
1970s establishments in Washington (state)
Companies based in Seattle

Starbucks


Maria Theresa of Austria (13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the only female sovereign of the Habsburg Dynasty. She reigned as the de facto Empress Regnant of the Holy Roman Empire and Queen of Germany. She was also queen of Hungary and Bohemia, archduchess of Austria, and held many other titles.

During her rule she changed the royal palace outside Vienna (the Austrian capital) to look much like Versailles. Vienna itself became an important center for the arts, especially music. Maria Theresa added support to her absolute power by tightening her hold on the government. She also improved conditions for the peasants. She is generally known to history as the Empress Maria Theresa.

Biography

Maria Theresa was born in Vienna, Austria, on 13 May 1717. Her parents were Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Her father had made the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, a decree which allowed a female ruler despite the Salic law prohibition.

Maria Theresa married Duke Francis Stephan I of Lorraine for love. They had sixteen children:
 Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria (1737–1740)
 Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria (1738–1789)
 Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria (1740–1741)
 Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (1741–1790)
 Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria, Duchess of Teschen (1742–1798)
 Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria (1743–1808)
 Archduke Charles Joseph of Austria (1745–1761)
 Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria (1746–1804)
 Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II (1747–1792)
 Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria (stillborn 1748)
 Archduchess Maria Johanna Gabriela of Austria (1750–1762)
 Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria (1751–1767)
 Queen Maria Carolina of Austria of Naples and Sicily (1752–1814)
 Queen Marie Antoinette of France and Navarre, born Maria Antonia (1755–1793)
 Archduke Maximilian Francis of Austria (1756–1801)

Maria Theresa died in Vienna, Austria, on 29 November 1780.

1717 births
1780 deaths

Archdukes and Archduchesses of Austria
Holy Roman Empresses consort
Habsburg Dynasty
House of Habsburg-Lorraine
House of Lorraine
Grand Duchesses of Tuscany
Grand Dukes of Luxembourg

Maria Theresa of Austria


Jack E. Steele (January 27, 1924 – January 19, 2009) was an American medical doctor and retired US Air Force colonel, most widely known for coining the word bionics.

Biography
Steele was born Jack Ellwood Steele in Lacon, Illinois.  He attended Mendota Township High School (Mendota, Ill), then went on to study general engineering at the University of Illinois and the Illinois Institute of Technology.  He served in the US Army from 1943 to 1946, who put him through pre-med at University of Minnesota in 1944.  He received his M.D. from Northwestern University in 1950.  He spent a year there as Research and Teaching Fellow in Neuro-anatomy before joining the US Air Force in 1951  where he served until retirement in 1971.  He initially served as Ward Officer of Psychiatry and Neurology until he joined 6570th Aerospace Medical Research Lab in 1953.  There he investigated stress effects of motions, sound and wind blast, but his main focus was on bionics, a term he coined in 1958. The term was officially used in 1960 as the title of a three-day symposium in September of that year.

His work on bionics, and the USAF research on cyborgs, caught the attention of SF writer and aviation expert Martin Caidin, whose 1972 book Cyborg makes explicit reference to then-Major Jack Steele.  The book formed the basis of the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man (and spinoff The Bionic Woman), which popularized, if somewhat inaccurately, the term bionics.  (Steele's original meaning was the study of biological organisms to find solutions to engineering problems, a field now also known as biomimetics.)

After retiring from the Air Force, Steele continued to practice medicine with a focus on psychiatry, and served as Medical Director of the Comprehensive Drug Dependency Treatment Program at the Dayton Mental Health Center, where he worked for 20 years until retirement.  Steele died in Dayton, Ohio on 19 January 2009 after a protracted illness.

References

 The Cyborg Handbook, Routledge, New York 1995, ed. Chris Gray
 From Biotechnology to Genomes: The Meaning of the Double Helix, World Scientific Publishing Co, New York, 2001, Phillippe Goujon (see footnote 78, page 47)
 Bionics Symposium - Living Prototypes - the key to new technology, 13–15 September 1960, Wadd Technical Report 60-600

1924 births
United States Air Force Medical Corps officers
2009 deaths
People from Lacon, Illinois
Illinois Institute of Technology alumni
Feinberg School of Medicine alumni
Military personnel from Illinois

Jack E. Steele


Eliezer Silver (; February 15, 1882 - February 7, 1968) was the President of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada and among American Jewry's foremost religious leaders. He helped save many thousands of Jews in the Second World War and held several Rabbinical positions in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Ohio.

Biography

Silver was born in Obeliai, Lithuania, one of two sons of Rabbi Bunim Tzemach (1844–1917) and Malka Silver. He had centuries-old rabbinic ancestry.
He studied in Daugavpils, with Rabbi Yosef Rosen (the "Rogatchover Gaon") and received Semicha from Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski in 1906. He immigrated to the United States with his wife in 1907, to escape the anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia. They settled in New York City, where Silver worked as a garment salesman and later sold insurance.

However, Silver soon accepted a Rabbinical position at Kesher Israel Congregation in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which he served from 1907 to 1925.  His Torah scholarship soon drew him into leading Orthodox circles on the national level. In 1912, he was part of a delegation of rabbis that asked President William Howard Taft to void a treaty with Russia because of Russia's persecution of Jews.

Silver was active in relief efforts in World War I. In 1925 he moved to Springfield, Massachusetts. Around 1931, he accepted an invitation to become Rabbi in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he remained until his death. While in Cincinnati, he caused much controversy when he established the Vaad Hoir of Cincinnati. The most prominent opponent of the Vaad was Rabbi Bezalel Epstein, who "already had his own kashrut supervision and who viewed Rabbi Silver's activities as encroachment."

Silver was very active in the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada, elected its president in 1929. He was also a pivotal founder, organizer, and president of Agudath Israel of America.

World War II rescue activities

Silver convened an emergency meeting in November 1939 in New York City, where the Vaad Hatzalah (Rescue Committee), was formed, with Silver as president. Silver spearheaded its efforts in rescuing as many European Torah scholars as possible from Nazi Europe.

Silver launched a fund-raising drive that raised more than $5 million (over $100 million in 2023 dollars), and also capitalised on an exemption to US immigration quotas allowing entry to ministers or religious students. At his direction, synagogues in Cincinnati and across the country sent contracts to rabbis, thereby securing 2,000 emergency visas that were telegraphed to Eastern Europe.

With the increasingly desperate race against time, the Vaad, under Silver turned to all channels, whether legal or not, to save as many lives as possible by bringing Jews to the US, Canada and Palestine.

During World War II, a Vaad representative in Switzerland even negotiated with the SS, offering to ransom concentration camp prisoners for cash and tractors - talks that freed hundreds from Bergen-Belsen and other death camps.

In October 1943, as the scale of Nazi atrocities was becoming clearer, Silver helped organise and lead a mass rally of more than 400 rabbis in Washington, D.C. to press for more decisive action by the US government to save European Jews. The rabbis' march was organized by Hillel Kook's "Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe".

Post-World War II
In 1949 Silver founded the Chofetz Chaim Day School (also known as the Cincinnati Hebrew Day School.)  He died in 1968, at the age of 85 or 86. He was interred at Washington Cemetery (Knesseth Israel) in Cincinnati.  He had been Rabbi of the Kneseth Israel Congregation in Cincinnati for nearly 40 years. He authored the Sefer titled Anfe Erez. Present rabbi of Kneseth Israel (now Congregation Zichron Eliezer) is Rabbi Avrohom Weinrib.

Noteworthy Students
One of his star students was Rabbi Shlomo Wahrman, who came from Leipzig for fifteen years and went on to becoming principal and Rosh Yeshiva of the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County. Wahrman attributes his success to Silver's insistence and encouragement to hone his writing skills and record his copious chidushei Torah. Wahrman writes in the short biography he published on Silver:I remember at times he screamed at me for lack of understanding-however, even then I sensed his great love and concern for me and not the slightest hint of hatred. Rabbi Silver was a man whose very essence was giving to others - his ahavas yisroel (love for his fellow Jew) knew no bounds…he saw every Jew as an extension of himself.

Notes

References

External links
He Saved Thousands, ou.org
About Congregation Zichron Eliezer

American Orthodox rabbis
Leaders of Jewish organizations in the United States
American Haredi rabbis
The Holocaust and the United States
1882 births
1968 deaths
People from Obeliai
Lithuanian Haredi rabbis
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States
Rabbis from Cincinnati
American human rights activists

Eliezer Silver


Mobile banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution that allows its customers to conduct financial transactions remotely using a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet. Unlike the related internet banking it uses software, usually called an app, provided by the financial institution for the purpose.  Mobile banking is usually available on a 24-hour basis.  Some financial institutions have restrictions on which accounts may be accessed through mobile banking, as well as a limit on the amount that can be transacted. Mobile banking is dependent on the availability of an internet or data connection to the mobile device.

Transactions through mobile banking depend on the features of the mobile banking app provided and typically includes obtaining account balances and lists of latest transactions, electronic bill payments, remote check deposits, P2P payments, and funds transfers between a customer's or another's accounts. Some apps also enable copies of statements to be downloaded and sometimes printed at the customer's premises. Using a mobile banking app increases ease of use, speed, flexibility and also improves security because it integrates with the user built-in mobile device security mechanisms.

From the bank's point of view, mobile banking reduces the cost of handling transactions by reducing the need for customers to visit a bank branch for non-cash withdrawal and deposit transactions. Mobile banking does not handle transactions involving cash, and a customer needs to visit an ATM or bank branch for cash withdrawals or deposits.  Many apps now have a remote deposit option; using the device's camera to digitally transmit cheques to their financial institution.

Mobile banking differs from mobile payments, which involves the use of a mobile device to pay for goods or services either at the point of sale or remotely, analogously to the use of a debit or credit card to effect an EFTPOS payment.

History
The earliest mobile banking services used SMS, a service known as SMS banking. With the introduction of smart phones with WAP support enabling the use of the mobile web in 1999, the first European banks started to offer mobile banking on this platform to their customers.

Mobile banking before 2010 was most often performed via SMS or the mobile web.  Apple's initial success with iPhone and the rapid growth of phones based on Google's Android (operating system) have led to increasing use of special mobile apps, downloaded to the mobile device.  With that said, advancements in web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript have seen more banks launching mobile web based services to complement native applications. These applications are consisted of a web application module in JSP such as J2EE and functions of another module J2ME.

A recent study (May 2012) by Mapa Research suggests that over a third of banks have mobile device detection upon visiting the banks' main website. A number of things can happen on mobile detection such as redirecting to an app store, redirection to a mobile banking specific website or providing a menu of mobile banking options for the user to choose from.

A mobile banking conceptual
In one academic model, mobile banking is defined as:
Mobile Banking refers to provision and availment of banking- and financial services with the help of mobile telecommunication devices.The scope of offered services may include facilities to conduct bank and stock market transactions, to administer accounts and to access customised information."

According to this model mobile banking can be said to consist of three inter-related concepts:

 Mobile accounting
 Mobile financial information services

Most services in the categories designated accounting and brokerage are transaction-based. The non-transaction-based services of an informational nature are however essential for conducting transactions – for instance, balance inquiries might be needed before committing a money remittance. The accounting and brokerage services are therefore offered invariably in combination with information services. Information services, on the other hand, may be offered as an independent module.

Mobile banking may also be used to help in business situations as well as for financial situation

Mobile banking services
Typical mobile banking services may include:

Account information
 Mini-statements and checking of account history
 Alerts on account activity or passing of set thresholds
 Monitoring of term deposits
 Access to loan statements
 Access to card statements
 Mutual funds / equity statements
Insurance policy management

Transaction
 Funds transfers between the customer's linked accounts
 Paying third parties, including bill payments and third party fund transfers(see, e.g., FAST)
 Check Remote Deposit

Investments
Portfolio management services
 Real-time stock

Support
 Status of requests for credit, including mortgage approval, and insurance coverage
 Check (cheque) book and card requests
 Exchange of data messages and email, including complaint submission and tracking
 ATM Location
 Loan Application

Content services
 General information such as finance related news
 Loyalty-related offers

A report by the US Federal Reserve (March 2012) found that 21 percent of mobile phone owners had used mobile banking in the past 12 months. Based on a survey conducted by Forrester, mobile banking will be attractive mainly to the younger, more "tech-savvy" customer segment. A third of mobile phone users say that they may consider performing some kind of financial transaction through their mobile phone. But most of the users are interested in performing basic transactions such as querying for account balance and making bill.

Challenges

Key challenges in developing a sophisticated mobile banking application are :

Handset accessibility

There are a large number of different mobile phone devices and it is a big challenge for banks to offer a mobile banking solution on any type of device. Some of these devices support Java ME and others support SIM Application Toolkit, a WAP browser, or only SMS.

Initial interoperability issues however have been localized, with countries like India using portals like "R-World" to enable the limitations of low end java based phones, while focus on areas such as South Africa have defaulted to the USSD as a basis of communication achievable with any phone.

The desire for interoperability is largely dependent on the banks themselves, where installed applications(Java based or native) provide better security, are easier to use and allow development of more complex capabilities similar to those of internet banking while SMS can provide the basics but becomes difficult to operate with more complex transactions.

There is a myth that there is a challenge of interoperability between mobile banking applications due to perceived lack of common technology standards for mobile banking. In practice it is too early in the service lifecycle for interoperability to be addressed within an individual country, as very few countries have more than one mobile banking service provider. In practice, banking interfaces are well defined and money movements between banks follow the IS0-8583 standard. As mobile banking matures, money movements between service providers will naturally adopt the same standards as in the banking world.

In January 2009, Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Banking Sub-Committee, chaired by CellTrust and VeriSign Inc., published the Mobile Banking Overview for financial institutions in which it discussed the advantages and disadvantages of Mobile Channel Platforms such as Short Message Services (SMS), Mobile Web, Mobile Client Applications, SMS with Mobile Web and Secure SMS.

Security
As with most internet-connected devices, as well as mobile-telephony devices, cybercrime rates are escalating year-on-year. The types of cybercrimes which may affect mobile-banking might range from unauthorized use while the owner is using the mobile banking, to remote-hacking, or even jamming or interference via the internet or telephone network data streams. This is demonstrated by the malware called SMSZombie.A, which infected Chinese Android devices. It was embedded in wallpaper apps and installed itself so it can exploit the weaknesses of China Mobile SMS Payment system, stealing banks credit card numbers and information linked to financial transactions. One of the most advanced malwares discovered recently was the Trojan called Bankbot. It went past Google's protections in its Android app marketplace and targeted Wells Fargo, Chase, and Citibank customers on Android devices worldwide before its removal by Google in September 2017. This malicious app was activated when users opened a banking app, overlaying it so it can steal banking credentials.
In the banking world, currency rates may change by the millisecond.
Security of financial transactions, being executed from some remote location and transmission of financial information over the air, are the most complicated challenges that need to be addressed jointly by mobile application developers, wireless network service providers and the banks' IT departments.

One-time passwords (OTPs) are one tool used by financial and banking service providers in the fight against cyber fraud. Instead of relying on traditional memorized passwords, OTPs are requested by consumers each time they want to perform transactions using the online or mobile banking interface. When the request is received the password is sent to the consumer's phone via SMS. The password is expired once it has been used or once its scheduled life-cycle has expired.

Scalability and reliability
Another challenge for the CIOs and CTOs of the banks is to scale-up the mobile banking infrastructure to handle exponential growth of the customer base. With mobile banking, the customer may be sitting in any part of the world (true anytime, anywhere banking) and hence banks need to ensure that the systems are up and running in a true 24 × 7 fashion. As customers will find mobile banking more and more useful, their expectations from the solution will increase. Banks unable to meet the performance and reliability expectations may lose customer confidence. There are systems such as Mobile Transaction Platform which allow quick and secure mobile enabling of various banking services. Recently in India there has been a phenomenal growth in the use of Mobile Banking applications, with leading banks adopting Mobile Transaction Platform and the Central Bank publishing guidelines for mobile banking operations.

Application distribution
Due to the nature of the connectivity between bank and its customers, it would be impractical to expect customers to regularly visit banks or connect to a web site for regular upgrade of their mobile banking application. It will be expected that the mobile application itself check the upgrades and updates and download necessary patches (so called "Over The Air" updates). However, there could be many issues to implement this approach such as upgrade / synchronization of other dependent components.

Studies have shown that a huge concerning factor of having mobile banking more widely used, is a banking customer's unwillingness to adapt. Many consumers, whether they are misinformed or not, do not want to begin using mobile banking for several reasons. These can include the learning curve associated with new technology, having fears about possible security compromises, just simply not wanting to start using technology, etc.

Personalization

It would be expected from the mobile application to support personalization such as:
 Preferred Language
 Date / Time format
 Amount format
 Default transactions
 Standard Beneficiary list
 Alerts

Mobile banking in the world

This is a list of countries by mobile banking usage as measured by the percentage of people who had non-SMS mobile banking transactions in the previous three months. The data is sourced from Bain, Research Now and Bain along with GMI NPS surveys in 2012.

African nations such as Kenya would rank highly if SMS mobile banking were included in the above list. Kenya has 38% of the population as subscribers to M-Pesa as of 2011.
Though as of 2016 mobile banking applications have seen a tremendous growth in Kenyan banking sector who have capitalised on android play store and apple store to put their applications. Kenyan banks like Equity Bank Kenya Limited Eazzy banking application and The Co-operative Bank Mco-op cash application have proved to be a success mobile banking applications.

Mobile banking is used in many parts of the world with little or no infrastructure, especially remote and rural areas. This aspect of mobile commerce is also popular in countries where most of their population is unbanked. In most of these places, banks can only be found in big cities, and customers have to travel hundreds of miles to the nearest bank.

In Iran, banks such as Parsian, Tejarat, Pasargad Bank, Mellat, Saderat, Sepah, Edbi, and Bankmelli offer the service. Banco Industrial provides the service in Guatemala.  Citizens of Mexico can access mobile banking with Omnilife, Bancomer and MPower Venture.
Kenya's Safaricom (part of the Vodafone Group) has the M-Pesa Service, which is mainly used to transfer limited amounts of money, but increasingly used to pay utility bills as well. In 2009, Zain launched their own mobile money transfer business, known as ZAP, in Kenya and other African countries. Several other players in Kenya such as Tangerine, MobiKash and Funtrench Limited also have network-independent mobile money transfer. In Somalia, the many telecom companies provide mobile banking, the most prominent being Hormuud Telecom and its ZAAD service.

Telenor Pakistan has also launched a mobile banking solution, in coordination with Taameer Bank, under the label Easy Paisa, which was begun in Q4 2009.  Eko India Financial Services, the business correspondent of State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank, provides bank accounts, deposit, withdrawal and remittance services, micro-insurance, and micro-finance facilities to its customers (nearly 80% of whom are migrants or the unbanked section of the population) through mobile banking.

In a year of 2010, mobile banking users soared over 100 percent in Kenya, China, Brazil and United States with 200 percent, 150 percent, 110 percent and 100 percent respectively.

Dutch Bangla Bank launched the first mobile banking service in Bangladesh on 31 March 2011. This service is launched with 'Agent' and 'Network' support from mobile operators, Banglalink and Citycell. Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase, Inc. has provided software solution with their local partner Neurosoft Technologies Ltd. There are around 160 million people in Bangladesh, of which, only 13 per cent have bank accounts. With this solution, Dutch-Bangla Bank can now reach out to the rural and unbanked population, of which, 45 per cent are mobile phone users. Under the service, any mobile handset with subscription to any of the six existing mobile operators of Bangladesh would be able to utilize the service. Under the mobile banking services, bank-nominated Banking agent performs banking activities on its behalf, like opening mobile banking accounts, providing cash services (receipts and payments) and dealing with small credits. Cash withdrawal from a mobile account can also be done from an ATM validating each transaction by 'mobile phone & PIN' instead of 'card & PIN'. Other services that are being delivered through mobile banking system are person-to-person (e.g. fund transfer), person-to-business (e.g. merchant payment, utility bill payment), business-to-person (e.g. salary/commission disbursement), government-to-person (disbursement of government allowance) transactions.
One of the most recent mobile technological wonders (Shaikh and Karjaluoto, 2015) and one of the most recent financial services sector innovations which has added a pure mobility element to service consumption (Mishra and Bisht, 2013; Oliveira et al., 2014) that in return enabled customers to have a convenient access to different value-added banking services is mobile banking (MB) or m-banking (Anderson, 2010). M-banking is defined as "a feed where the consumer communicates with a bank using a mobile device, such as a mobile phone or personal digital assistant. In that sense, it can be seen as a subset of electronic banking and an extension of internet banking with its own unique characteristics (Laukkanen & Pasanen, 2008). It is one of the newest approaches to the concern of financial services through information computer technology (ICT), made possible by the extensive adoption of mobile phones even in low income countries (Anderson, 2010).
In May 2012, Laxmi Bank Limited launched the very first mobile banking in Nepal with its product Mobile Khata. Mobile Khata currently runs on a third-party platform called Hello Paisa that is interoperable with all the telecoms in Nepal viz. Nepal Telecom, NCell, Smart Tel and UTL, and is also interoperable with various banks in the country. The initial joining members to the platform after Laxmi Bank Limited were Siddartha Bank, Bank of Kathmandu, Commerz and Trust Bank Nepal and International Leasing and Finance Company. In country with roughly 30 million population, over 5 million have subscribed to mobile banking in Nepal as per the recent data from Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank of Nepal.

Barclays offers a service called Barclays Pingit, and Hello Money offering services in Africa, allowing transfer of money from the United Kingdom to many parts of the world with a mobile phone. Pingit is owned by a consortium of banks. In April 2014, the UK Payments Council launched the Paym mobile payment system, allowing mobile payments between customers of several banks and building societies using the recipient's mobile phone number. in past some US research proved that in the United States, people focusing in on adaptable banking (m-banking), this work contemplates responses from three undeniable buyer parcels, including – 1) customers living in Egypt, 2) purchasers from Egypt who are living in the U.S. in addition, 3) U.S. customers. The conceptual model was developed by the technology acceptance model (TAM), task-technology fit model (TTF), theory of planned behavior model (TPB), the diffusion of innovation model (DOI).

In November 2017, the State Bank of India launched an integrated banking platform in India called YONO offering conventional banking functions but also payment services for things such as online shopping, travel planning, taxi booking or online education.

In January 2019, the German direct bank N26 overtook Revolut as the most valuable mobile bank in Europe with a valuation of $2.7 billion and 1.5 million users.

Following is a list showing the share of people using mobile banking apps during the last three months in selected countries worldwide in 2014. The list is based on a survey conducted by statista.com including 82,914 respondents.

See also

 Contactless payment
 Direct bank
 Digital currency
 List of countries by mobile banking usage
 Mobile content
 Mobile Marketing
 Mobile payments
 Online banking
 Digital Wallet
 SMS Banking
 Telephone banking

Notes

References
 Vaidya (2011): "Emerging Trends on Functional Utilization of Mobile Banking in Developed Markets in Next 3–4 Years"
 Tiwari, Rajnish and Buse, Stephan(2007): The Mobile Commerce Prospects: A Strategic Analysis of Opportunities in the Banking Sector, Hamburg University Press (E-Book as PDF to be downloaded)
 Tiwari, Rajnish; Buse, Stephan and Herstatt, Cornelius (2007): Mobile Services in Banking Sector: The Role of Innovative Business Solutions in Generating Competitive Advantage, in: Proceedings of the International Research Conference on Quality, Innovation and Knowledge Management, New Delhi, pp. 886–894.
 Tiwari, Rajnish; Buse, Stephan and Herstatt, Cornelius (2006): Customer on the Move: Strategic Implications of Mobile Banking for Banks and Financial Enterprises, in: CEC/EEE 2006, Proceedings of the 8th IEEE International Conference on E-Commerce Technology and The 3rd IEEE International Conference on Enterprise Computing, E-Commerce, and E-Services (CEC/EEE'06), San Francisco, pp. 522–529.
 Tiwari, Rajnish; Buse, Stephan and Herstatt, Cornelius (2006): Mobile Banking as Business Strategy: Impact of Mobile Technologies on Customer Behaviour and its Implications for Banks, in: Technology Management for the Global Future – Proceedings of PICMET '06.
Owens, John and Anna Bantug-Herrera (2006): Catching the Technology Wave: Mobile Phone Banking and Text-A-Payment in the Philippines
Ovum Analyst Research, European Retail Banking Investment Strategies (2013):
The Himalayan Times: http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Dollar+at+historic+high&NewsID=381744

Banking technology
Mobile payments
Mobile Banking

Mobile banking


French Sudan (Fr.: Soudan) was a colony in French West Africa in actual Mali.

Existence
It existed at two separate times. The first time was from 1890 to 1899, and the second was from 1920 to 1960. In 1960 it became the independent nation of Mali.

Beginning
It was created as a French territory on September 9, 1880 and its name was "Upper Senegal".

Name
The name changed to the "French Sudan Territory" on August 18, 1890, and its capital was Kayes. On October 10, 1899, French Sudan was broken into pieces: 11 southern provinces became part of French Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and Dahomey. However, two provinces were returned in 1900.

History
In 1902 the parts of the colony which were not organised into military districts became Senegambia and Niger, then the name changed to Upper Senegal and Niger in 1904. Finally, the old name of French Sudan returned in a reorganisation in 1920.

In 1933, Upper Volta stopped existing (It began again in 1947.) and French Sudan gained some of its provinces.

Independence
After the October 4, 1958 French vote about the constitution, the "République Soudanaise" joined the French Community, again with the name French Sudan, and it gained complete domestic control on 25 November, 1958.

On April 4, 1959, French Sudan was joined with Senegal to form the Mali Federation. This became fully independent but still inside the French Community on June 20, 1960. This union finished on August 20, 1960, when Senegal left. On 22 September, French Sudan changed its name to the Republic of Mali and left the French Community.

History of Mali
French colonial empire
Former colonies in Africa

French Sudan


The Call of the Wild is a story about a dog. The book was written by Jack London. It was first published in 1903 as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post. It was published in book form by Macmillan the same year. The story is London's most popular work and is considered one of his greatest works.

The story is about a pet dog named Buck. The dog is stolen from his California home. He is sold as a sled dog during the Klondike Gold Rush. Men, other animals, and nature itself treats Buck with cruelty. He survives by adapting to the ways of his wolf ancestors. At the end of the book, he breaks from all human contact and returns to the wild.

Today, the book is often viewed as a children's story because it is about a dog. However, the book's themes of survival of the fittest, fate versus free will, and civilization versus nature have interest for all ages.  The story has been made into movies and television shows. Most have failed to focus on Buck's story. Instead, the focus is on the human characters.

Notes

References

Books about dogs
1903 books
20th-century American novels
Gold rushes

The Call of the Wild


Marching Through Georgia is an alternate history novel by American writer  S. M. Stirling, the first of four books in the series The Domination. The novel was released in the United States on May 1, 1988.

The novel also attempts to educate the reader on the background of the Domination. Government, military, social structures, and the historical development of the Draka are all outlined here.

The paperback edition contains the full version of Stirling's story. A hardcover version containing all three books of the trilogy was released, however it is abridged.

Plot
The story starts with Centurion Eric von Shrakenberg in a cargo airplane with his airborne unit and the embedded American correspondent William Dreiser, on their way to their drop point, where they will jump and parasail into Nazi-controlled Georgia. The Nazis have been much more successful than in our history, since the Soviets had to divert resources to defend their southern border against the Domination of the Draka. As a result, the Nazis managed to overrun European Russia. The Soviet Union has been pushed back and only controls territories east of the Ural Mountains. However, the Germans are seriously overstretched, and vulnerable to a strong attack.
During the travel to their drop zone, Eric thinks back on his past and his relationship with his father, and his most recent visit home to see his family. This was the first visit in several years, his exile was due to his arranging the escape of his serf daughter to America. Eric's bravery in the earlier Draken conquest of Italy led to his former "mistake" being forgiven.

Eric's "Century" (a term derived from the Roman Empire's army) ends up being seriously under-supplied because the gliders with the artillery land inside of a canyon.  The engineers are frantically building a rubble ramp, but the heavy weapons won't be available in time for the battle. The story details how Eric's single infantry company takes and holds a small village strategically located on the crucial Ossetian Military Highway over the Caucasus Mountains. The balance of the First Airborne Legion is the plug which is holding four German divisions from escaping the trap they are in on the south side of the mountains.  Eric's unit is tasked with holding the highway and village against repeated attacks by Felix Hoth's Waffen-SS armored regiment, which is fighting to clear the highway so the German divisions can escape.  Eric's company manages to hold out long enough for the Draka to crush the four divisions, cross the mountains, and relieve his unit. Holding this highway and village is the critical act of the invasion of Russia. This lets the Draka's essentially undamaged and superior armored and mechanized units to penetrate into the plains of Southern Russia, where they can bring to battle and destroy the overstretched and exhausted German forces. It also leads to Eric being awarded the Domination's highest medal of valor, the aurora, "for saving 10,000 Citizen lives," and which makes him immune to Security Directorate reprisals for his "treasonous utterances" or for his earlier "indiscretion." The action of Century A is the pivotal event at the beginning of the invasion of Russia that allows the Domination to eventually win the Eurasian War.

The book concludes with Eric gunning down Chiliarch McWhirter, an agent of Skull House and the Security Directorate, along with his retinue after a tense stand off following the final battle against the German forces. Eric himself delivers the final blow to the fallen "Head-Hunter," remarking that for all his faults, he's still a Von Shrakenberg, and a Draka above all, before pulling the trigger.

Main characters

Eric von Shrakenberg: Is the main protagonist of the book. He is a Centurion of Century A in the 1st Airborne Legion. He's the son of Karl and Mary von Shrakenberg, the younger brother of Johan, older brother to Johanna von Shrakenberg, and he has two other twin sisters named Eva and Ava; both his mother and brother died prior to the start of the book. He was born and raised on the family plantation south of the Draka capital Archona in 1917. He and Century A, as part of 1st Airborne, is sent behind enemy lines in Nazi controlled Georgia to disrupt the Germans and make way for the main army. Prior to the book he had a secret intimate relationship with a serf girl named Tyansha; he later helps their daughter Anna flee to America, which attracted attention from the Domination's Security Directorate.
Johanna von Shrakenberg: The four years younger sister of Eric. She is a member of the War Directorate Air Corps and pilots as Eagle class fighter, in the 211th Pursuit Lochos, stationed at Kars. During a mission she is shot down by a Fw 190 and is captured by German troops; she successfully escapes and later makes contact with the Soviet partisans. She has a personal serf named Rahksan, with whom she has a close relationship.
William Dreiser: American war correspondent. Sent to write about Drakas fighting against the Nazi forces, he is embedded in Eric's Century A by Eric's father Karl, a senior general ("Arch-Strategos") in the Domination Forces. In addition to being sent to America, Dreiser's reports are also published in Draka military newspapers by Karl's intervention, to make Eric more popular among the Draka Citizens and to make less likely any actions planned by the Security Directorate against Eric.
Standartenführer Felix Hoth: The Waffen-SS commander in the area where Eric's unit is deployed. He is a skilled but unimaginative commander. He keeps a Russian woman, Valentina Fedorova Budennin, as a personal serving girl and sex slave. She is actually a spy in the employ of the Soviet NKVD.
Karl Von Shrakenberg:  Eric's father, Arch-Strategos in the War Directorate, based in the Draka capital city of Archona (Pretoria, South Africa). Veteran of this timeline's World War I and a member of the Draka General Staff.
Sofie Nixon: A corporal ("Monitor") and the comtech in Eric's unit. She has a crush on Eric in the beginning of the book that later develops into affection between the two. The book's appendix reports that Eric and Sofie are married after the end of the "Eurasian War," the name of the Draka history's World War II.  Her grandfather is a Scottish mercenary and her father works as a foreman on the docks — she's a lower-class Citizen, in contrast to the "Old Domination" Eric.
Leytenant Valentina Fedorova Budennin: First appearance as a personal serving girl/sex slave for Felix Hoth, turns out to be a Politruk and military intelligence officer in the First Caucasian Partisan Brigade.
 Tyansha: Eric's first serf girl concubine, given to him just after he turned 13. Eric fell deeply in love with her, far more passionately than a Draka Citizen is normally expected or allowed to feel for a serf. After some initial fear, she returned his affection. Eric did not sleep with her for a month after "acquiring" her, prompting the overseer's son to ask to "borrow" her. Eric beat the boy and afterward, Tyansha crawled into his bed. She died giving birth to Eric's daughter, Anna, who was born a serf like her mother. Eric threatened to kill his father after Tyansha's funeral, when Karl attempted to beat Eric for shaming the family by publicly crying at the funeral services.

Reception
Algis Budrys reported that Marching Through Georgia "is not, in other words, a novel at all, and will be a disappointment if you read it with the wrong expectation"; he noted that while it was "interesting," it presented "real battles in an unreal world."

The book's title is derived from the well-known American Civil War song "Marching Through Georgia". Caroline Housmans wrote in her review: "To a reader coming to this book and unexpectedly encountering the highly unpleasant Draka society dreamed up by Mr. Stirling, the title creates a double confusion. First, the Georgia of this book is the Caucasian country rather than the US State of the same name. More fundamentally, the song celebrates troops who fought to emancipate slaves, while the book's Draka troops are fighting to spread and extend slavery, to enslave everybody who is not a Draka. If this is Stirling's idea of a joke, in this commentator's view it is a poor one."

References

External links

1988 American novels
Novels about slavery
Novels by S. M. Stirling
The Domination series
Novels about World War II alternate histories
Dystopian novels
American alternate history novels
Novels set in Russia
Novels set in the Commonwealth of Independent States

Marching Through Georgia (novel)


Heaven, also known as Paradise, the Garden or Kingdom Come, is a place where good people go when they die. It is a concept of the afterlife (what happens after somebody dies) in many religions. Some people who believe in heaven say it is a perfect place. They believe heaven is where people go after they die if they have been good in life. Some people also believe in Hell, a place bad people go when they die if they have been bad in life. Ideas of Heaven and Hell are not the same in all religions.

In Christianity
According to the Bible, there are different meanings for the word:
Sky – the atmosphere that covers the Earth. The first time that it rained, it says, God opened "the windows of heaven."
Outer space – the sun, moon, stars, planets, etc.
The place where God lives and rules eternally. The people called prophets in the Bible, like Isaiah, often spoke of a physical Kingdom of Heaven that will occupy a new Earth, and ruled by God (Messiah) in the flesh himself, where we will have physical bodies that do not die.

The Bible does not have a lot to say about what it looks like. The apostle Paul tells about a vision he had of being taken up to "the third heaven," where he saw and heard things too wonderful to describe. But, much of what Christians believe Heaven to be like comes from the vision that John saw in a vision while praying, including:
The glory of God is the light (no sun)
Heaven is where all the true believers go.
You never sleep because of your purified new body
Has 12 gates made of pearl
Walls made of jasper
Streets made of pure gold
A river of life
Trees on each side of the river

Catholics believe Mary is the Queen of Heaven, officially defined by Pope Pius XII in 1954. However many Protestants see this as not in the Bible.

In Islam

According to the Quran and Hadith, Heaven is a place of reward for those believers who accept the true faith and practices the teaching of Prophet Muhammad. The eternal life will be perfect, with thousands of types of food and clothing more beautiful than humans could ever imagine. There will also be no sad feelings, stress or pain and related problems of life.

In Bahá'í Faith

Baha'is believe that Heaven or (hell) being specific places as symbolic. The Aqdas, the holy book of Baha'is, along with other Baha'i books, describe heaven as a "spiritual condition" where being close to God is called heaven. Hell is seen as being separated from God. Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, said that the afterlife is beyond human understanding.

In Paganism
Summerland is the name given by Wiccans and other Pagan (old European religions) to their belief of afterlife (life after death).

References

Afterlife

Heaven


The banner o Roushie is a tricolour banner o three equal horizontal fields, white on the tap, blue in the middle an reid on the bottom. The banner wis first uised as an ensign for Roushie merchant an war ships an ae became offeecial in 1896. The banner continued tae be uised bi the Roushie Proveesional Government even efter the Tsar wis toppled in the February Revolution an wis no replaced till the October Revolution which establisht a Bolshevik government. Frae that time period, a red banner chairged wi communist seembols wis favoured ower the tricolour. It wis no till the collapse o the Soviet Union in 1991 that the tricolour wis brocht back as the offeecial banner o the new Roushie Federation. The modren era banner unnerwent a slicht chynge in 1993 an haes been offeecial syne 2000.

Meanin an oreegin o the colours
The banner o Roushie uises the Pan-Slavic colours o reid, blue an white. While thare are several theories as tae the oreegin an reason for the choice o the colours, nane is currently universally acceptit as correct. Thare is nae offeecial meanin assigned tae the colours in Roushie laws.

The three colours purportitly came frae the coat o airms o the Grand Duchy o Moscow, which depict Saunt George wearin white (siller) airmour, ridin a white horse, wearin a blue cape an hauldin a blue shield, on a reid field. Accordin tae anither version, thir three colours wur associatit wi the robes o the Virgin Mary, the holy protectress o Roushie.

Yet anither interpretation o the three colours is that the order that thay are placed in reflectit the Roushie social seestem unner the monarchy: white represents God, blue the Tsar an reid the peasants. Anither vera common interpretation is the association o colours wi the main pairts o the Roushie Empire: white sicweys represents Belaroushie ("White Roushie"), blue Ukraine (or Malorossia, "Little Roushie"), an re "Great Roushie".

Roushie
Naitional seembols o Roushie
Banners o Roushie

Banner o Roushie


GeneCards is a database of human genes that provides genomic, proteomic, transcriptomic, genetic and functional information on all known and predicted human genes. It is being developed and maintained by the Crown Human Genome Center at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in collaboration with LifeMap Sciences.

The database aims at providing a comprehensive view of the current available biomedical information about the searched gene, including its aliases and identifiers, the encoded proteins, associated diseases and variations, its function, relevant publications and more. The GeneCards database provides access to free Web resources about more than 350,000 known and predicted human genes, integrated from >150 data resources, such as HGNC, Ensembl, and NCBI. The core gene list is based on NCBI, Ensembl and approved gene symbols published by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC). The information is carefully gathered and selected from these databases by its integration engine.

Over time, the GeneCards database has developed a suite of tools (VarElect, GeneALaCart, etc.) that have more specialised capabilities leveraging the database. Since 1998, the GeneCards database has been widely used by bioinformatics, genomics and medical communities for more than 24 years.

History
Since the 1980s, sequence information has become increasingly abundant; subsequently many laboratories realized this and began to store such information in central repositories-the primary database.
However, the information provided by the primary sequence databases (lower level databases) focus on different aspects. To gather these scattered data, the Weizmann Institute of Science's Crown Human Genome Centre developed a database called 'GeneCards' in 1997. This database mainly dealt with human genome information, human genes, the encoded proteins' functions, and related diseases, though it has expanded since that time.

Growth
Initially, the GeneCards database had two main features: delivery of integrated biomedical information for a gene in 'card' format, and a text-based search engine. Since 1998, the database has integrated more data resources and data types, such as protein expression and gene network information. It has also improved the speed and sophistication of the search engine, and expanded from a gene-centric dogma to contain gene-set analyses. Version 3 of the database gathers information from more than 90 database resources based on a consolidated gene list. It has also added a suite of GeneCards tools which focus on more specific purposes. "GeneNote and GeneAnnot for transcriptome analyses, GeneLoc for genomic locations and markers, GeneALaCart for batch queries and GeneDecks for finding functional partners and for gene set distillations.". The database updates on a 3-year cycle of planning, implementation, development, semi-automated quality assurance, and deployment. Technologies used include Eclipse, Apache, Perl, XML, PHP, Propel, Java, R and MySQL.

Ongoing GeneCards Expansions
Animal models
Tissue proteomics profiling
RNA genes
Gene and protein identifier mapping
Online analytical processing (OLAP)

Availability

GeneCards can be freely accessed by non-profit institution for educational and research purpose at https://www.genecards.org/ and academic mirror sites. Commercial usage requires a license.

GeneCards Suite

GeneDecks
GeneDecks is a novel analysis tool to identify similar or partner genes, which provides a similarity metric by highlighting shared descriptors between genes, based on GeneCards' unique wealth of combinatorial annotations of human genes.
 Annotation combinatory: Using GeneDecks, one can get a set of similar genes for a particular gene with a selected combinatorial annotation. The summary table result in ranking the different level of similarity between the identified genes and the probe gene.
 Annotation unification: Different data sources often offer annotations with heterogeneous naming system. Annotation unification of GeneDecks is based on the similarity in GeneCards gene-content space detection algorithms.
 Partner hunting: In GeneDecks's Partner Hunter, users give a query gene, and the system seeks similar genes based on combinatorial similarity of weighted attributes.
 Set distillation: In Set distiller, users give a set of genes, and the system ranks attributes by their degree of sharing within a given gene set. Like Partner Hunter, it enables sophisticated investigation of a variety of gene sets, of diverse origins, for discovering and elucidating relevant biological patterns, thus enhancing systematic genomics and systems biology scrutiny.

GeneALaCart
GeneALaCart is a gene-set-orientated batch-querying engine based on the popular GeneCards database. It allows retrieval of information about multiple genes in a batch query.

GeneLoc
The GeneLoc suit member presents an integrated human chromosome map, which is very important for designing a custom-made capture chip, based on data integrated by the GeneLoc algorithm. GeneLoc includes further links to GeneCards, NCBI's Human Genome Sequencing, UniGene, and mapping resources.

Usage

Search

Firstly, enter a search term into the blank on the homepages. Searching methods include Keywords, Symbol only, Symbol/Alias/Identifier and Symbol/Alias. The default search option is searching by keywords. When a user searches by keywords, MicroCard and MiniCard are shown. However, when a user searches by Symbol only, they will be directed to GeneCard.

Searches may be furthered by clicking on advanced search, where a user can choose section, category, GIFtS, Symbol Source and gene sets directly. Sections include Aliases & Descriptions, Disorders, Drugs & Compounds, Expression in Human Tissues, Function, Genomic Location, Genomic Variants, Orthologs, Paralogs, Pathways & Interactions, Protein Domains/Families, Proteins, Publications, Summaries and Transcripts. The default option is searching for all sections.

Categories include Protein-coding, Pseudogenes, RNA genes Genetic Loci, Gene clusters and Uncategorized. The default option is searching for all categories. GIFtS is the GeneCards Inferred Functionality Scores, which gives objective numbers to show the knowledge level about the functionality of human genes. It includes High, Medium, Low, and custom range. Symbol Sources include HGNC (HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee), EntrezGene (gene-centered information at NCBI), Ensembl, GeneCards RNA genes, CroW21 and so on.

Moreover, the user can choose to search for All GeneCards or Within Gene Subset, which would be more specific and with priority.

Secondly, the search result page shows all relevant minicards. Symbol, Description, Category, GIFtS, GC id and Score are displayed on the page. A user may click on the plus button for each of the mini-cards to open the minicard. Also, the user can click directly on the symbol to see the details of a particular GeneCard.

GeneCards Content

For a particular GeneCard (example: ), it is consist of the following contents.
 Header: The header is made up of gene's symbol, category (i.e. protein-coding), GIFtS(i.e. 74) and GCID(GC19M041837). Different categories have different colors to express: protein-coding, pseudogene, RNA gene, gene cluster, genetic locus, and uncategorized. The background indicates the symbol sources: HGNC Approved Genes, EntrezGene Database, Ensembl Gene Database, or GeneCards Generated Genes.
 Aliases: Aliases, as its name indicates, shows synonyms and aliases of the gene according to diverse sources such as HGNC. The right column displays how the aliases associated with the resources and gives previous GC identifiers.
 Summaries: The left column is the same with the one in the Aliases, which shows the sources. The right column here gives brief summary on gene's function, localization and effect on phenotype from various sources.
 Genomic Views: In addition to sources, this section gives reference DNA sequence, regulatory elements, epigenetics, chromosome band and genomic location of different sources. The red line on the image indicates the GeneLoc integrated location. In particular, if the GeneLoc integrated location is different from the location in Entrez Gene, it is shown in green; Blue is appeared when the GeneLoc integrated location differs from the location in Ensembl. Addition details can be accessed through the links in the section.
 Proteins: This section presents annotated information of genes, including recommended name, size, subunit, subcellular location and secondary accessions. Also, post-translational modifications, protein expression data, REF SEQ proteins, ENSEMBL proteins, Reactome Protein details, Human Recombinant Protein Products, Gene Ontology, Antibody Products and Assay Products are introduced.
 Protein Domains/Families: This section shows annotated information of protein domains and families.
 Function: The function section describes gene function, including: Human phenotypes, bound Targets, shRNA for human and/or mouse/rat, miRNA Gene Targets, RNAi products, microRNA for human and/or mouse/rat orthologs, Gene Editing, Clones, Cell Lines, Animal models, in situ hybridization assays.
 Pathways & Interactions: This section shows unified GeneCards pathways and interactions that are from different sources. Unified GeneCards pathways are collected into super-pathways, which displays the connection between different pathways. Interaction shows interactant and interaction details.
 Drugs & Compounds: This section connects GeneCards with drugs and compounds. Compounds show chemical compound, action and CAS number. DrugBank compound gives compound, synonyms, CAS number (Chemical Abstracts Registry number), type (transporter/target/carrier/enzyme), actions and PubMed IDs. HMDB and Novoseek show the relationships of chemical compounds, which includes compound, synonyms, CAS number and PubMed IDs (articles related to the compound). BitterDB displays compound, CAS number and SMILES (Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry Specification). PharmGKB gives drug/compound and its annotation.
 Transcripts: This section is consist of reference sequence mRNAs, Unigene Cluster and representative Sequence, miRNA products, inhib.RNA products, Clone products, primer products and additional mRNA sequence. Also, the user can gain exon structure from GeneLoc.
 Expression: The left column shows the resources of the data. Expression images and data, similar genes, PCR arrays, primers for human and in situ hybridization assays are included in this section.
 Orthologs: This section gives orthologs for a particular gene from numbers of species. The table displays the corresponding organism, taxonomic classification, gene, description, human similarity, orthology type and details. It is connected to ENSEMBL Gene Tree, TreeFam Gene Tree, and Aminode.
 Paralogs: This section displays paralogs and pseudogenes for a particular gene.
 Genomic Variants: The genomic variants show the result of NCBI SNPs/Variants, HapMap linkage disequilibrium report, structural variations, human gene mutation database(HGMD), QIAGEN SeqTarget long-range PCR primers in human, mouse &rat and SABiosciences cancer mutation PCR arrays. The table in this section shows SNP ID, Valid, Clinical significance, Chr pos, Sequence for genomic data, AAChg, Type and More for transcription related data, Allele freq, Pop, Total sample and More for Allele Frequencies. For Valid, the different character represents different validation methods. 'C' means by-cluster; 'A' is by-2hit-2allele; 'F' is by-frequency; 'H' is by-hapmap and 'O' is by-other-pop. Clinical significance can be one of the following: non-pathogenic, pathogenic, drug-response, histocompatibility, probable-non-pathogenic, probable-pathogenic, untested, unknown and other. Type should be one of these: nonsynon, syn, cds, spl, utr, int, exc, loc, stg, ds500, spa, spd, us2k, us5k, PupaSUITE Designations.
 Disorders/Diseases: Shows disorders/diseases associated with the gene.
 Publications: Displays publications associated with the gene.
 External Searches: Searches more information in PubMed, OMIM and NCBI.
 Genome Databases: Other Databases, and specialized Databases.
 Intellectual Property: This section gives patent information and licensable technologies.
 Products

Applications
GeneCards is used widely in the biological and biomedical fields. For example, S.H. Shah extracted data of early-onset coronary artery disease from GeneCards to identify genes that contributes to the disease. Chromosome 3q13, 1q25 etc. are confirmed to take effects and this paper further discussed the relationship between morbid genes and serum lipoproteins with the help of GeneCard.

Another example is a research study on synthetic lethality in cancer. Synthetic lethality appears when a mutation in a single gene has no effect on the function of a cell but a mutation in an additional gene leads to cell death. This study aimed to find novel methods of treating cancer through blocking the lethality of drugs. GeneCards was used when comparing data of a given target gene with all possible genes. In this process, the annotation sharing score was calculated using GeneDecks Partner Hunter (now called Genes Like Me) to give paralogy. Inactivation targets were extracted after the microarray experiments of resistant and non-resistant neuroblastoma cell lines.

References

External links

Genome databases
Weizmann Institute of Science

GeneCards


A leavening agent is a substance used to make a baked good rise. Most people like baked goods that are risen, so leavening agents are popular.

Yeast

Yeast is a common leavening agent. It is a fungus that converts sugar to ethanol and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide makes the bread rise. This is slower and makes the bread more soft. Most of the ethanol evaporates when the bread is baked. The yeast is also killed when the bread is baked.

Yeast takes longer time to rise than chemical leavening agents. It can also be killed by heat or salt. Yeast is normally sold in small packages. These have yeast fungi.

Chemical leavening agents
Main articles: Baking powder and baking soda

There are several chemical leavening agents. For acidic foods, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) can be used. It reacts with the acid to make carbon dioxide gas, which makes the bread rise. For non-acidic foods, baking powder is used. Baking powder is a mix of a powdered acid and sodium bicarbonate. They react when dissolved in water to make carbon dioxide gas. Baking powder is more common.

Baking powder and baking soda leavening is better for certain baked goods like muffins or cakes. The bread rises much faster with baking powder or baking soda. It is not affected by many other ingredients. But it does not have the same texture or taste that yeast has.

Baking
Food ingredients

Leavening agent


The German National Library (German: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, abbreviated DNB) is the central library and national bibliographic center for the Federal Republic of Germany. Its task is to collect, archive, document and record bibliographically all German and German language publications from 1913 on, foreign publications about Germany, translations of German works, and the works of German-speaking emigrants published abroad between 1933 and 1945, and to make them available to the public. The German National Library maintains co-operative external relations on the national and international level. For example, it is the leading partner in developing and maintaining bibliographic rules and standards in Germany and plays a significant role in the development of international library standards. The cooperation with publishers is regulated by law since 1935 for the Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig, since 1969 for the Deutsche Bibliothek Frankfurt.
Duties are shared between the facilities in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main, with each center having a specific specialty area. A third facility, the Deutsches Musikarchiv Berlin (founded 1970), deals with all music-related archiving (both printed and recorded materials).

History
In 1848, there had been plans for a German national library. After the restauration, they were not followed any longer. The stock of books already in existence was stored at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.
In 1912, the town of Leipzig, seat of the annual Leipzig Book Fair, the kingdom of Saxony and the Börsenverein der Deutschen Buchhändler (Association of German booksellers) agreed to found a German National Library located in Leipzig. Starting January 1, 1913, all publications in German language were systematically collected (including books from Austria and Switzerland). In the same year, Dr. Gustav Wahl was elected as the first director. In 1946 Dr. Georg Kurt Schauer, Heinrich Cobet, Vittorio Klostermann and Professor Hanns Wilhelm Eppelsheimer, director of the Frankfurt University Library, initiated the re-foundation of a German archive library based in Frankfurt am Main. The federal state representatives of the book trade in the American zone agreed to the proposal. The city of Frankfurt agreed to support the planned archive library with personnel and financial resources. The US military government gave its approval. The Library began its work in the tobacco room of the former Rothschild library, which served the bombed university library as accommodation. As a result there are two libraries in Germany, which assume the duties and function of a national library for the later GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany, respectively. Two national bibliographic catalogues appear, which are almost identical in content.

In July 2000, the DMA also assumed the role as repository for GEMA, Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte, a German music copyright organization. Since then, music publishers only have to submit copies to DMA, which covers both national archiving and copyright registration. The 210,000 works of printed music previously held by GEMA were transferred to DMA.

With the unification of Germany on 3 October 1990, the Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig and the Deutsche Bibliothek Frankfurt am Main were merged in the new institution Die Deutsche Bibliothek. The "Law regarding the German National Library" came into force on 29 June 2006. The expansion of the collection brief to include online publications set the course for collecting, cataloguing and storing such publications as part of Germany's cultural heritage. The Library's highest management body, the Administrative Council, was expanded to include two MPs from the Bundestag. The law also changed the name of the library and its buildings in Leipzig, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin into "Deutsche Nationalbibliothek".

Deutsches Musikarchiv Berlin
Coordinates:

The Deutsche Musikarchiv Berlin (DMA, German Music Archive) is the central collection of printed and recorded music and the music-bibliographic information centre for Germany. It is a federal agency founded in 1970 with the task to collect all music published in the country. Its precursor was the Deutsche Musik-Phonothek (1961–1969). InBerlin's Lichterfelde, the DMA constitutes a department of the German National Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek). The DMA is planned to move to Leipzig, to be in an extension of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek in Leipzig. Construction work began in 2006 and is to be completed in 2009.
Publishers of printed and recorded music in Germany are required by law (since 1973) to deliver two copies of every edition to the archive. One copy is kept at the DMA in Berlin, the second is deposited in the music collection of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek in Leipzig.

Building in Leipzig
Coordinates:

The main building of the German National Library in Leipzig was built 1914–1916 after plans of the architect Oskar Pusch. The impressive facade is 160 m long and faces the "Deutscher Platz". The building was opened on October 19, 1916, one day after the monument for the Battle of the Nations. Emperor Wilhelm II had already left in a huff, as the Leipzig citizens did not conform to Prussian Imperial ideology. The building lot of the library had been donated by the city of Leipzig, while Friedrich August III, king of Saxony provided the funds for the building.
On the facade, the portraits of Otto von Bismarck, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johannes Gutenberg are displayed. Statues represent Technology, Justice, Philosophy, Medicine etc. The central reading room contains a picture by Ludwig von Hofmann, depicting Arcadia in Art Nouveau-style. The Library includes a museum for books and letters as well.

Inventory
24.1 million items

Leipzig: 14.3 million items
Frankfurt am Main: 8.3 million items
Berlin: 1.5 million items

Related pages
 Bavarian State Library
 Berlin State Library
 Integrated Authority File

Other websites

d-nb.de – German National Library
Deutsches Musikarchiv Berlin
AG Sammlung Deutscher Drucke
theeuropeanlibrary.org – Combined access to 48 national libraries in Europe
Libraries-Link.net  – German Internet portal for libraries

Buildings and structures in Frankfurt
Buildings and structures in Leipzig
Libraries in Germany
National libraries in Europe

German National Library


Horus was the Egyptian god of the Sky. He was the son of Isis and Osiris. After fighting his uncle, Set (Osiris and Isis' brother) he became the king of Egypt. During this fight, he lost his eye. The Eye of Horus became one of the most important symbols in ancient Egypt and Egyptian civilization. When Horus lost his eye, his eye set out on a journey of its own. When the other Gods tried to catch the eye, his eye began to cry. These tears became the first people of Egypt in Egyptian belief.

The Eye of Horus
The Eye of Horus, also known as wadjet eye, wedjat eye or udjat eye, is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power, and good health. The Eye of Horus is similar to the Eye of Ra, which belongs to a different god, Ra, but represents many of the same concepts. According to Egyptian myth, Horus lost his left eye in a struggle with Set. The eye was magically restored by Hathor, and this restoration came to symbolize the process of making whole and healing. For this reason, the symbol was often used in amulets.

Worship

Horus, was worshiped all over Egypt, especially in Pe, Bendet and Khem. There were many falcon gods before Horus, but eventually Horus represented all of them. He was worshiped until the end of the Pre-Dynastic period. In Upper Egypt (south), in the town of Edfu, was Ptolemaic, a temple for Horus. In Kom Ombo, there was another temple for Horus called the Kom Ombo temple. Horus was a good friend of Sobek. He was also worshipped as a guide to the pharaohs.

Physical appearance

Horus was considered handsome and usually appeared as a falcon or a falcon headed man, although sometimes he appeared as a falcon headed crocodile. Sometimes he would take the form of a celestial falcon with his left eye the moon and his right eye the sun, his speckled breast feathers the stars, the down sweep of his wings creating the winds. He is sometimes shown with a copper knife. In addition, he normally wore the double crown to signify his rule over all of Egypt and to relate with the Pharaoh.

Purpose

Horus was the god of the sky and also the God of war. The pharaoh ruling at any given time of Egypt was always the living image of Horus.  When he died, that pharaoh became Osiris, the god of the dead and the father of Horus. The new pharaoh became Horus. His purpose was to protect the pharaoh. He was a protector god, who was a god who fought evil.  He represented justice and righteousness. He fought with Seth to avenge his father, Osiris, who was killed by Seth. When Horus defeated Seth, he conquered his father, Osiris', throne, and became protector.

References

 Hinds, Kathryn. Religion and Life in Ancient Egypt
 Hart, George. Ancient Egypt
Harris, Geraldine. Gods & Pharaohs from Egyptian mythology
Wilkinson, Richard. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt.
Nardo, Don. Egyptian Mythology.
Vernus, Pascal. The Gods of Ancient Egypt.
David, Rosalie. Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt.
" Horus." Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica
Harris, Geraldine and Pemberton, Delia. Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt.
Millmore, Mark.  Imagining Egypt.
Remler, Pat. 'Egyptian Mythology From A to Z'
Wilkinson, Richard H. The Complete Gods And Goddesses Of Ancient Egypt

Other websites
http://philae.nu/akhet/NetjeruH.htm/#Horus
http://greatscott.com/nicro/eye.htm
http://touregypt.net/featurestories/horus.htm
http://egyptianmyths.net/horus.htm
http://ancient-Egypt.org/index.htm
http://www.ancient-egypt.org/index..html
http://www.touregypt.net/edfut.htm.
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/horus.htm.
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/a8215/1e9eb1/
http://www.mingl.org/.../egyptianmaths/egyptiangods.htm
http://www.ancient-Egypt.org
http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/horus.htm
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestopics/horus.htm
http://www.gydir.demon.co.uk

Egyptian gods and goddesses

Horus


Scrooge McDuck is Disney's fictional Scots millionair that bides in Duckburg, Calisota. The chairacter wis first creatit bi Carl Barks, the maist kenspeckle Disney airtist, for tae be uised juist the ae time in "Christmas on Bear Mountain" in 1947, but nou he's ane o Disney's greatest 'stars'.

Scrooge McDuck's the last o the feectional clan McDuck an the laird o Castle McDuck. He is the uncle o Donald Duck.

Disney core universe chairacters
Disney comics chairacters
Kingdom Hearts chairacters
Scots comics chairacters
Anthropomorphic ainimal chairacters
Feectional businessfowk
Feectional ducks
Feectional explorers
Feectional philanthropists
Feectional immigrants tae the Unitit States
Feectional fowk frae Glesga
Feectional Scots fowk
Comics chairacters introduced in 1947

Scrooge McDuck


A derny race is a race in which the cyclists are paced by someone riding a derny.

A Derny is a motorised bicycle designed and built for motor-paced cycling events (e.g.: motor-paced races in six-day and Keirin racing) or motor-paced road races.

The first Dernys were built by "Roger Derny et Fils" of Paris, France in 1938. That firm is no longer in business and any motorised bicycle for pacing is called a "Derny".

The rider of the derny usually sits upright, this makes it easier for the cyclist by reducing wind resistance.

The photographers' motorbikes used to help riders in ordinary races. That is why they were banned from riding in front of the cyclists.
Cycle races

Derny race


Richard Bachman is a pen name used by horror fiction author Stephen King.

Origin
At the beginning of Stephen King's career, the general view among publishers was that an author was limited to one book per year. They thought publishing more would not be seen as good to the public. King wanted to write under another name so he could write more than one book per year. His publisher, Signet Books, agreed to print more books under a pseudonym.

In the start of The Bachman Books, King said using the nom de plume Bachman was to see if his success was due to talent or luck. King said he put out the Bachman books with very little marketing.  He did his best to "load the dice against" Bachman. King never found the answer to the "talent versus luck" question. He said he let everyone know that he was Bachman too soon. The Bachman book Thinner (1984) sold 28,000 copies during its first printing. When it was told that King wrote the book, the sales went up by ten times.

The pseudonym King first picked (Gus Pillsbury) is the name of King's mother's grandfather. At the last moment King changed the name to Richard Bachman. Richard is the same as crime author Donald E. Westlake's pseudonym Richard Stark. (The last name Stark was later used in King's book The Dark Half. Bachman was picked from Bachman–Turner Overdrive, a rock and roll band King was listening to at the time his publisher asked him to choose a pseudonym on the spot.

Identification
King dedicated Bachman's early books — Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981), and The Running Man (1982) — to people close to him. The link between King and his shadow writer was found out after a Washington, D.C. bookstore clerk, Steve Brown, noted things that seemed the same between the writing styles of King and Bachman. Brown located publisher's records at the Library of Congress which included a document naming King as the author of one of Bachman's novels. Brown wrote to King's publishers with a copy of the papers he found. He asked them what to do. Two weeks later, King telephoned Brown himself. King told Brown that he should write an article about how he found the truth. King let Brown interview him.  At the time of the announcement in 1985, King was working on Misery, which he was going to put out as a Bachman book.

Post-outing
In 1987, the Bachman novel The Running Man gave the idea for the Paul Glaser movie of the same name. King did not want his name to be on the credits. The screen credit for the movie went to Richard Bachman.

King used the "relationship" between himself and Bachman as a theme in his 1989 book The Dark Half. In the book a writer's darker pseudonym takes on a life of its own. King dedicated The Dark Half to "the late Richard Bachman."  There were plans to make the book a collaboration between the two, but this was later thrown out.

In 1996, Bachman's The Regulators came out, with the publishers saying the book's manuscript was found among Bachman's leftover papers by his widow. It was released as a companion novel with King's Desperation; the two novels took place in different universes but featured many of the same characters. The two book covers were designed to be placed together to form a single picture. In the foreword by King included with Desperation he said that there may be another Bachman novel left to be "found."

The next Bachman book to be 'discovered' was Blaze. Blaze was an unpublished novel that King wrote before Carrie or the creation of Richard Bachman. For its publication King rewrote, edited, and updated the entire book. It was published in 2007 under the Bachman pseudonym, with a foreword by King under his own name.

King has taken full ownership of the Bachman name on numerous occasions, as with the republication of the first four Bachman titles as The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels by Stephen King in 1985. The introduction, titled "Why I Was Bachman," details the whole Bachman/King story. (In 1996, the collection was reissued with a new King essay, "The Importance of Being Bachman.")

Richard Bachman was also referred to in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series of books. In the fifth book, Wolves of the Calla, the scary children's book Charlie the Choo Choo is said to be written by "Claudia y Inez Bachman." The spelling discrepancy of the added 'y' was later explained as a deus ex machina on the part of "The White" (a force of good throughout King's Tower series) to bring the total number of letters in her name to nineteen, a number prominent in King's series. In the next novel of the series, Song of Susannah, Stephen King briefly discusses his Richard Bachman pseudonym.

After the Heath High School shooting, King announced that he would allow Rage to go out of print. He feared that it might inspire similar tragedies. Rage for a time continued to be available in the United Kingdom in The Bachman Books collection. Now the collection no longer has Rage. In a footnote to the preface of Blaze, dated 30 January 2007, King wrote of Rage: "Now out of print, and a good thing." King's other Bachman novels are available in the US in separate volumes.

In 2010, King appeared on the FX television show Sons of Anarchy in a cameo appearance. His character, named Bachman, did contract work quietly getting rid of dead bodies.

In issue 29 of the comic adaptation of The Stand, Richard Bachman appears as one of the top lieutenants of Randall Flagg. He replaced the character of Whitney Horgan from the original book. He is drawn to look like King.

In the 2013 Grimm episode "Nameless", Richard Bachman, being a pseudonym of Stephen King, was a plot point.  King's novel, Rage, had its title page used as a prop for the killer to write a note to the police.

Bibliography

 Rage (1977)
 The Long Walk (1979)
 Roadwork (1981)
 The Running Man (1982)
 Thinner (1984)
 The Regulators (1996)
 Blaze (2007)

Other pseudonyms

King wrote a short story, "The Fifth Quarter", under the pseudonym John Swithen (the name of a character in the book Carrie), that was published in Cavalier magazine April 1972. The story was later reprinted in King's collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes in 1993 under his own name. In the introduction to the Bachman novel Blaze, King claims, with tongue-in-cheek, that "Bachman" was the person using the Swithen pseudonym .

References

Pen names
Stephen King

ja:スティーヴン・キング#リチャード・バックマン

Richard Bachman


Radioactive waste is a term used for certain substances that are radioactive and that are no longer useful. Most radioactive waste is a by-product of operating nuclear power plants. Certain treatments in hospitals use radioactive substances. Scientists doing certain kinds of research use radioactive substances. Nuclear weapons also produce radioactive waste.  Low-level radioactive wastes are radioactive gases, solids, or liquids that give off small amounts of ionizing radiation. High-level radioactive wastes give off large amounts of ionizing radiation.

Radioactive waste is dangerous to the environment, and there are many regulations about transporting it, handling it, and processing it in such a way that the dangers are reduced. They can contaminate water and affect the living organisms. Storage of radioactive waste must be guaranteed for thousands of years, until it decays sufficiently to be safe to the environment and its inhabitants. Radioactive waste can be stored by deep geological burial or by dry cask storage. Dry Cask Storage is large cylinders of concrete and steel that are used to hold 10 or more metric tons of high-level radioactive waste. The U.S. currently has no long-term radioactive waste storage site. In 1987 Yucca Mountain, Nevada was a candidate for radioactive waste storage, but was shut down.

Waste management

Radioactive waste


A thermoplastic is a material, usually a plastic polymer, which becomes more soft when heated and hard when cooled. Thermoplastic materials can be cooled and heated several times without any change in their chemical or mechanical properties. When thermoplastics are heated to their melting point, they melt to a liquid. They freeze to a glassy state when cooled below their glass transition temperature.

Thermoplastic materials have many features. Some products made from thermoplastic materials are used for electronic applications. They protect against electrostatic discharge and radio frequency interference. Thermoplastics are one of the main two types of plastics.

Thermoplastic can be moulded into any shape. Thermoplastics differ from thermosetting polymers. Thermosets form irreversible chemical bonds during the curing process, and won't melt.

Types of thermoplastics
PET (polyethylene terephthalate) :- Light, rigid or semi-rigid, naturally transparent or colorless, PET is an excellent moisture and gas barrier and is resistant to impacts. It is one of the most easily recyclable plastics and is used to produce bottles, bags and synthetic fibers for clothing.

HDPE (high-density polyethylene) :- HDPE is translucent, strong and easy to process, resistant to impacts and non-toxic. It is used to make bottles, tanks, bins and containers for transport.

LDPE (low-density polyethylene) :-  LDPE can be translucent or transparent. Suitable for contact with food, it is the lightest and most heat-sensitive plastic. It is used for packaging, bags, sacks, cable coatings, containers, pipes and toys.

PVC (polyvinyl chloride) :- PVC is a very versatile plastic, resistant to wear and tear, chemical and atmospheric agents and fire. It is used in the paper industry and for packaging, food containers, credit cards, furnishings, clothing and toys.

PP (polypropylene) :- Transparent, light and strong, this material can be used as both a plastic and a fiber. Easily colored, it does not absorb water. It is used to make textile fibers, couplings, containers for transport, furniture, carpets, ropes and food containers.

PS (polystyrene or styrofoam) :- One of the most important thermoplastic materials, it is transparent, hard and inflammable, very bright and inert against many corrosive agents. It can be given shiny or opaque colors. Polystyrene is commonly used to replace glass, aluminum and wood because it is cheaper. It can also be used in packaging materials (including for foods), containers, boxes, lamps, disposable objects, cups and toys.

References

Related pages
 Plastic

Thermoplastic


Parenting is the process of helping a child develop into an adult.

When a child is an infant, parenting involves providing food, comfort and cleaning, and allowing the infant to sleep.  As infants cannot talk, this requires the parents to watch the child closely and to help the child learn language.

As the infant grows, parenting involves guiding and teaching the child.  Parents establish habits such as brushing teeth and teach etiquette to behave in society.

Related pages
 Parent

Childhood

Parenting


Relative dating is the kind of geochronology that determines the relative order of past events. The idea is to find the age of an object or event by comparing it to another object or event, or by using clues from the environment or circumstances where it was found.  Relative dating is not about finding the absolute age. In geology, rock or superficial deposits, fossils and lithologies can be used to correlate one stratigraphic column with another. Before the discovery of radiometric dating in the early 20th century, archaeologists and geologists used relative dating to determine ages of materials.

Radiometric dating, on the other hand, is a means of absolute dating. Relative dating can only determine the order in which a series of events occurred, not when they occurred. Even so, it remains a useful technique. Relative dating by biostratigraphy is the preferred method in paleontology and is, in some respects, more accurate. Steno's Law of Superposition states that older layers will be deeper in a site than more recent layers. This law was the  'relative dating' method of choice in geology from the 17th century to the early 20th century

References

Geology

Relative dating