Munich (, ) is a Spanish company and brand specialized in sport and fashion shoes. The company headquarters are located in Capellades, province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Munich produces more than 850.000 pairs of shoes per year, 46% of sports type, and 54% of fashion type. The company has reached a privileged position in the field of fashion, growing in many European and Asian countries, mainly Japan. The X symbol is what makes its shoes special and identifiable.

History

The company was founded by Luís Berneda in year 1939 at the city of Sant Boi de Llobregat, with the initial company name Berneda, manufacturer of shoes for rugby football, futsal, handball and boxing, among other sports.

In 1953 the brothers Javier and Francisco, second generation of the family, entered the track and field athletics market, and were the pioneers in sports shoe making in Spain. In 1964 they added the characteristic "X" symbol and changed the company and brand name from "Berneda" to "Munich". The production remained Spanish, with design and technology influences from Italy and Germany. The brand became popular and its shoes were used by soccer players such as Ladislao Kubala and Hugo Sotil.

In year 1999 Xavier Berneda, marketing manager of the company, and his brother David, financial manager, both of them grandsons of the company founder, convinced the father and uncle to diversify the company and enter the field of street shoes and fashion. The Asian production, specially from China, was already a fierce competitor. Thanks to this initiative, Xavier Berneda won in year 2008 the Spanish award "Young Entrepreneur". Xavier has changed the company, entering the streetwear fashion market, keeping the company design and quality standards but opening it to new markets. Around half of the production is sold to fashion victims ready to spend from 120 to 300 euros in a pair of sports shoes. The Munich shoes are used by well known people such as John Elkann, vice-president of Fiat, Àngel Llàcer, Jesús Vázquez, Rafael Amargo, Boris Izaguirre and Manuel Fuentes.

One of the most innovative activities of the company was the website Munich My Way, launched in 2009, but meanwhile discontinued in 2022. On that site everybody was welcomed to personalize and design a pair of shoes combining many possible colors and textures, resulting in up to 333 million different combinations. The user could select the color of any of the main 9 parts of a shoe, including the sole, flap, heel and cords. When Munich received the order, the factory produced those shoes, and delivered it within 2 weeks.
Munich My Way also offered the possibility of buying a different size of the right shoe compared to the left one. This is specially useful for soccer and futsal players who often require a bigger size for the shoe used to shoot.

Awards
 E-COMM Award 2010, category "Sportive equipment"

References

External links

Munich site
Munich My Way

Sporting goods manufacturers of Spain
Clothing companies of Spain
Shoe brands
Spanish brands
Sportswear brands
Athletic shoe brands
Clothing companies established in 1939
Companies based in Catalonia
Anoia
Shoe companies of Spain
1939 establishments in Spain

Munich (sport shoes)


The sasando, also called sasandu from Sandu or Sanu, is a tube zither, a harp-like traditional music string instrument native to Rote Island of East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.

The name sasando is derived from the Rote dialect word "sasandu", which means "vibrating" or "sounded instrument". It is believed that the sasando had already been known to the Rote people since the 7th century.

The main part of the sasando is a bamboo tube that serves as the frame of the instrument. Surrounding the tube are several wooden pieces serving as wedges where the strings are stretched from the top to the bottom. The function of the wedges is to hold the strings higher than the tube surface as well as to produce various length of strings to create different musical notations. The stringed bamboo tube is surrounded by a bag-like fan of dried lontar or palmyra leaves (Borassus flabellifer), which functions as the resonator of the instrument. The sasando is played with both hands reaching into the stings of the bamboo tube through opening on the front. The player's fingers then pluck the strings in a fashion similar to playing a harp or kacapi.

The sasando can have 28 (sasando engkel) or 56 strings (double strings).

Legend

According to local tradition, the origin of the sasando is linked to the folktale of the Rote people about Sangguana. The story goes that there once was a boy named Sangguana who lived on Rote Island. One day, as he tended to savannah, he felt tired and fell asleep under a palmyra tree. Sangguana dreamt that he played beautiful music with a unique instrument whose sound and the melody was so enchanting. When he woke up, surprisingly, Sangguana could still remember the tones he played in the dream. Wanting to hear it one more time, he tried to fall asleep again. Again he dreamt of the same song and the same instrument. Sangguana was enjoying his dream, but eventually he had to wake up. Not wanting to lose the beautiful sounds from his dream, Sangguana tried to recreate the sounds and quickly created a musical instrument from palmyra leaves with the strings in the middle, based on his memory from the dream, which became the basis of the sasando.

See also

The following are tube zithers from other countries. They are similar in being made from bamboo, originally having strings cut from the bamboo itself. Some like the sasando, have been changed in the last century, to use new materials, such as wires attached to pegs. Unlike the sasando, none have the leaves to direct the sound.
 Karaniing
 Kolitong
 Kong ring
 krem
 Kulibit
 Valiha

References

External links
 Sasando Rote

Indonesian musical instruments
Harps
Tube zithers
East Nusa Tenggara
Bamboo musical instruments

Sasando


ESPN Films, formerly known as ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE), is an American production company which produces and distributes sports films and documentaries. It is owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%).

Created in March 2008, ESPN Films produces films covering sports-related stories. Projects from the subsidiary include 30 for 30 (and its offshoots 30 for 30: Soccer Stories and the digital series 30 for 30 Shorts), the critically acclaimed Nine for IX series and SEC Storied.

History
ESPN Films traces its history to 2001, when ESPN Inc. formed ESPN Original Entertainment, a programming division which produced various talk shows, series, documentaries and made-for-TV films that aired on ESPN and its related networks. The subsidiary ceased operations for several months starting in 2007. The company's logo did not appear as a vanity card on any ESPN programs, with the exception of the daily talk show Jim Rome is Burning.

On 3 March 2008, ESPN announced that it would relaunch the unit as ESPN Films. Under the restructuring, ESPN Films began producing projects for theatrical release in addition to television; majority corporate parent The Walt Disney Company holds the right of first refusal on all projects. In addition, ESPN announced a new alliance with the Creative Artists Agency, which among its various clients, represents athletes such as LeBron James, David Beckham and Peyton Manning.

The first production under the ESPN Films banner was Black Magic, a four-hour documentary that premiered on ESPN without commercial interruption over two consecutive nights starting on March 16, 2008. The film, which won a Peabody Award in 2009, about the history of basketball played at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The company's first theatrical film was X Games 3D: The Movie, which was released on August 21, 2009.

On October 6, 2009, ESPN premiered 30 for 30, a 30-hour series produced by ESPN Films that debuted in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the cable network's launch. Among those participating in the project included Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, Barry Levinson and Mike Tollin. The series, which earned Peabody and Producer's Guild Awards and was nominated for an Emmy, featured thoughtful and innovative reflections on the previous three decades in sports told through a diverse array of sports fans and social commentators. Positive reaction from both critics and viewers led to a spin-off 30 for 30: Volume II. ESPN took its first ever Academy Award when  O.J.: Made in America film won in the category of Best Documentary Feature at the 2017 Oscars.

List of ESPN Original Entertainment/ESPN Films productions

Talk shows
 Around the Horn (2002–present)
 Cold Pizza (2003–2007; now known as First Take)
 ESPN Hollywood (2005–2006)
 The Fantasy Show (2006)
 Jim Rome Is Burning (2003–2012)
 Pardon the Interruption (2001–present)
 Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith (2005–2007)
 SportsCenter (1988–present)

Series
 Playmakers (2003)
 Tilt (2005)

Mini-series
 The Bronx is Burning (2007)
 The Captain (2022)

Events
 ESPY Awards (1993–present)
 X Games (1995–present)
 Winter X Games (1997–present)
 World Series of Poker (1988–present)

Reality
 Battle of the Gridiron Stars (2005–present)
 Bonds on Bonds (2006)
 Bound for Glory (2005)
 It's The Shoes
 Madden Nation (2005–present)
 Knight School (2006)
 Streetball
 The Contender (2006–present)
 The Life

Game shows
 Stump the Schwab (2004–2006)
 2 Minute Drill (2000–2002)

Documentaries
 Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos (2006)
 Through the Fire (2005)
 Kobe Doin' Work (2009)
 30 for 30 (2009–2010, 2012–present)
 Wendell Scott: A Race Story (2011)
 ESPN Films Presents (2011–2012)
 Nine for IX (2013)
 O.J.: Made in America (2016)
 Baltimore Boys (2017)
 The Last Dance (2020)
 The Cave of Adullam (2022)
Gracie (2025)

Films
 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story (2004)
 A Season on the Brink (2002)
 Code Breakers (2005)
 Hustle (2004)
 Ruffian (2007)
 The Junction Boys (2002)
 Four Minutes (2005)
 X Games 3D: The Movie (2009)
 Lombardi (2010 or 2011; produced in conjunction with NFL Films)
 Keepers of the Streak (2015)
 Queen of Katwe (2016; produced with Walt Disney Pictures)
 World Beaters (2017)
 144 (2021)
 Betsy & Irv (2022; short)

References

Films
Film production companies of the United States
Disney production studios
Entertainment companies established in 2001

ESPN Films


Lego Duplo (also called Lego Preschool, Explore or simply just DUPLO) is another type of Lego toys. The difference is that they are bigger than regular Lego and that they are meant for ages 1½-6, because they are easier to handle than regular Lego. Lego Duplo were launched in 1969.

Lego

Lego Duplo


Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury KG GCVO PC FRS (3 February 1830 - 22 August 1903) was a Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was known as Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and as Viscount Cranborne from 1865 until 1868.

Salisbury served as Prime Minister three times for a total of over thirteen years. When Prime Minister, he acted as his own Foreign Minister.

Lord Cecil was elected to Parliament in 1853 as a member of the Conservative Party. In 1866 (now called Viscount Cranborne), he served as Secretary of State for India under Prime Minister Lord Derby. Cranborne resigned, but he would return to government in 1874, now as the Marquess of Salisbury. Salisbury was again Secretary of State for India under Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. In 1878, Salisbury became Foreign Secretary in the Disraeli government.

Salisbury became the Conservative Party leader. Salisbury first served as Prime Minister from 23 June 1885, to 28 January 1886. His first government did not last long as the Conservatives did not have full control.

Salisbury became Prime Minister again on 25 July 1886, with a majority. He would be in office until 11 August 1892. His third time as Prime Minister was from 25 June 1895, until 11 July 1902.

Two issues dominated his time as Prime Minister. One was the struggle between European powers seizing parts of Africa, the so-called "Scramble for Africa". The United Kingdom fought the Second Boer War while Salisbury was Prime Minister.

The other was Ireland, the rise of Irish nationalism amongst Catholics in Ireland. This was backed by his great opponent, Gladstone, leader of the Liberal Party and also three times Prime Minister.

Salisbury helped establish the London County Council. Salisbury built up the Royal Navy. Africa was divided up into colonies.

Salisbury resigned on 11 July 1902. He died on 22 August 1903. The great issues that had divided the country in his time (colonialism, Ireland and Africa) would last in British politics for most of the next century. The one great issue that was not appreciated at the time was the rise of militant German nationalism, which would in the next century lead to two World Wars. Throughout his career Salisbury wrote articles for the Quarterly Review, which have now been edited and published.

References

1830 births
1903 deaths
British Marquesses
Politicians from Hertfordshire
UK MPs 1852–1857
UK MPs 1857–1859
UK MPs 1859–1865
UK MPs 1865–1868
Conservative Party (UK) MPs

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury


Robert Medill McBride (August 24, 1879 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania – April 10, 1970 in Philadelphia) was a publisher and author. He published works by James Branch Cabell and the later books of Frank Buck. He also published Jay Gelzer's first novel.

Early years
Robert Medill McBride was the son of the Reverend Dr. Samuel and Wilhelmina (Medill) McBride. Reverend Samuel McBride was president of the American Bible Union. Robert was educated in public schools.

Publishing
McBride started in publishing at Country Life in America. He founded Yachting magazine in 1907; took over House and Garden in 1908, Travel in 1910; and Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1914. He was a partner of Condé Montrose Nast in McBride, Nast & Co. After McBride and Nast separated, they remained on good terms, and McBride attended the wedding of Nast's son, Charles Coudert Nast, in 1928.

McBride began book publishing 1912, and founded a London publishing house in 1915. Among the books he published were the later works of Frank Buck, including Buck's autobiography, All In A Lifetime. In 1926 McBride published Thorne Smith's novel Topper, which was the basis for the 1937 screwball comedy Topper directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring Cary Grant. McBride also published a series of travel books which he himself had written, some under the pen name Robert Medill or Marshall Reid. His name appeared frequently in the society columns of the New York Times during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. He was a member of The Players Club and the Dutch Treat Club.

Obscenity Prosecution

McBride published James Branch Cabell's twelfth book, Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice (1919), which was the subject of a celebrated obscenity case shortly after its publication. The hero, Jurgen, who considers himself a "monstrous clever fellow", embarks on a journey through ever more fantastic realms, even to hell and heaven. Everywhere he goes, he winds up seducing the local women, including the Devil's wife.

The novel was denounced by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice; which attempted to bring a prosecution for obscenity. The case went on for two years before Cabell and McBride won: the "indecencies" were double entendres that also had a perfectly decent interpretation, though it appeared that what had actually offended the prosecution most was a joke about papal infallibility.

Publisher's Hoax
In 1924 McBride received a manuscript so terrible that it was funny. He published the book in a smart jacket, the critics praised it, but it did not sell. The lesson in this, according to McBride, is that honest books sell, dishonest ones don't. McBride became so interested in hoaxes that he wrote a history of them.

Bankruptcy and later life
McBride, then located at 200 East 37th Street, New York, declared bankruptcy (chapter XI), October 27, 1948. The Outlet Book Company acquired much of his stock. Thereafter, calling his company Medill-McBride, he published a few books and continued to write. Outlet Book later acquired Medill-McBride. He died in Philadelphia in 1970 and is buried at the West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Plymouth Section, Lot 14 (Oberholtzer Family). A sister, Winona McBride Oberholtzer (1883–1973), survived him.

Bibliography
 Robert Medill McBride and Neil Pritchie. Great Hoaxes of All Time. Robert M. McBride, New York, 1956.
 Robert Medill McBride. Towns and People of Modern Poland. Robert M. McBride, New York, 1938.
 Robert Medill McBride. Towns and People of Modern Germany. Robert M. McBride, New York, 1936.
 Robert Medill McBride. Romantic Czechoslovakia. Robert M. McBride, New York, 1930. In November 1932, McBride received the Order of the White Lion 4th class from Czechoslovakia for this work.
 Robert Medill McBride. Furnishing with Antiques. Robert M. McBride, New York, 1939.
 Robert Medill McBride. Spanish Towns and People. Robert M. McBride, New York, 1928.
 Robert Medill McBride. A Treasury of Antiques. Robert M. McBride, New York, 1946.
 Robert Medill McBride. A little book of Brittany. Robert M. McBride, New York, 1913
 Robert Medill McBride. Hilltop Cities of Italy.  Robert M. McBride, New York, 1936.
 Robert Medill McBride. Norwegian towns and people: Vistas in the Land of the midnight sun. Robert M. McBride, New York, 1927.
 Marshall Reid (pseudonym of Robert Medill McBride). Horses and dogs of great men. Robert M. McBride, New York, 1952.
 Marshall Reid ed. (pseudonym of Robert Medill McBride). When You Build. Robert M. McBride, New York. 1946.
 Robert Medill (pseudonym of Robert Medill McBride). Sweden and its People. Robert M. McBride, New York. 1926.
 Robert Medill (pseudonym of Robert Medill McBride). Finland and its People. Robert M. McBride, New York. 1926.

References

American book publishers (people)
American male non-fiction writers
American travel writers
People from McKeesport, Pennsylvania
1879 births
1970 deaths
Officers of the Order of the White Lion
Writers from Pennsylvania
Obscenity controversies in literature
Burials at West Laurel Hill Cemetery

Robert M. McBride


The endorsement test was proposed by Sandra Day O'Connor, a member of the United States Supreme Court. She suggested it in her judgment in a lawsuit called Lynch v. Donnelly in 1984.

The endorsement test is a question that you can ask if you think that the government is doing something in favor of religion. According to the United States Constitution, the government cannot endorse any particular religion, and cannot endorse religion in general. The test asks: is the government doing something that makes people think that the government endorses religion? If so, that government act may not be allowed under the Constitution.

United States law
Religion in the United States

Endorsement test


Henry I the Fowler (German: Heinrich der Finkler or Heinrich der Vogler; Latin: Henricius Auceps) (876–2 July 936) was the duke of Saxony from 912 and king of the Germans from 919 until his death. He was the first of the Ottonian Dynasty of German kings and emperors and therefore he is generally considered to be the founder and first king of the medieval German state, that was known until then as East Francia. As he was an eager hunter, he was called "the Fowler" (someone who hunts wildfowl) because it was said he was fixing birding nets when messengers arrived to inform him that he was to be king.

Notes

876 births
936 deaths

Kings and Queens in Germany
Ottonian dynasty
10th century in Germany

Henry I the Fowler


Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California, founded in 1927 with boundary changes afterward.  The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population density than some other areas in Los Angeles.

History
A partner of the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company, Gen. Moses Hazeltine Sherman, developed Sherman Oaks. The company had subdivided  of land that would become Sherman Oaks. In 1927 each acre was sold for $780. Sherman's other major venture was the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad.

In 1991, a group of homeowners living in the Chandler Estates area successfully petitioned former Los Angeles City Councilmember Zev Yaroslavsky to re-draw the boundaries of Sherman Oaks from Magnolia to Burbank Blvd to the north, and from Coldwater Canyon to Van Nuys Blvd to the west, with the goal of including their neighborhood. This request was not anything new to the San Fernando Valley; other neighborhoods had either sought to change their names, or sought to attach themselves onto more affluent neighborhoods to escape from what they saw as growing urban blight and the collapse of their social status.

Residents in the area argued, however, that the area was originally part of Sherman Oaks, but was labeled Van Nuys instead through the creation of ZIP codes in 1962; some residents were able to produce a few property deeds to present their case.

Just a few weeks after the Chandler Estates area successfully seceded from Van Nuys, Magnolia Woods, a 45 block area bordered by Van Nuys Boulevard on the east and the San Diego Freeway on the west, and between Burbank and Magnolia Boulevards, also successfully petitioned Los Angeles City council member Marvin Braude to secede from Van Nuys and join Sherman Oaks. Petitioners in the area argued that their neighborhood was also part of Sherman Oaks, though they were only able to produce 22 deeds showing so. As a result of this change, Van Nuys Middle School became separated from its namesake neighborhood.

Finally, in 2009, the Los Angeles City council voted to redraw neighborhood boundaries again to allow an area of about 1,800 homes in Van Nuys to be included. This proposal attracted criticism from locals.

The 1994 Northridge earthquake caused damages in the surrounding area. The Community Redevelopment Agency sought to manage the rebuilding efforts. The homeowners in the Sherman Oaks area later won a lawsuit to prevent the agency from managing efforts.

Population

2010
As of the 2010 census, according to the San Fernando Valley Almanac, Sherman Oaks had a population of 52,677 people and 25,255 households. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 82% non-Hispanic white, 5% Asian American and 3% African American; 11% were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Other races made up less than 1%.

2000
The Los Angeles Times reported that the 2000 U.S. census counted 61,166 residents in the 9.15-square-mile Sherman Oaks neighborhood, including a wide swath of the Santa Monica Mountains—or 6,687 people per square mile, among the lowest population densities for the city. In 2008, the city estimated that the resident population had increased to 65,436.

In 2000, the percentages of residents aged 19 to 49 and 65 and older were among the county's highest. The percentages of divorced residents and of widows were among the county's highest. The average household size of two people was low when compared to the rest of the city and the county. Renters occupied 58.9% of the housing stock and house- or apartment-owners held 41.1%.

The neighborhood was considered "not especially diverse" ethnically within Los Angeles, with a high percentage of white residents. The breakdown was whites, 73.8%; Latinos, 11.8%; Asians, 5.7%; blacks, 4.4%; and others, 4.4%.  Iran (14.1%) and Mexico (8.8%) were the most common places of birth for the 26.2% of the residents who were born abroad—an average percentage for Los Angeles.

The neighborhood had a median household income of $69,651 in 2008, which was high for the city of Los Angeles but about average for the county as a whole. (Median household income reports the amount of money earned by the household that falls exactly in the middle of the pack.) The percentage of households that earned $125,000 and up was high for Los Angeles County.

Neighborhoods of Los Angeles

Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles


A fuel is a substance that is changed in some way to produce heat, electricity, or other forms of energy. This is usually by being burnt in fire, although there are exceptions, such as nuclear fuel. Fuel can be divided into two main types: fossil fuels and other fuels.

Fossil fuel

There are several kinds of fossil fuels:
 coal
 oil and products that are refined from oil (gasoline, diesel, kerosene)
 natural gas
Some people do not want us to use fossil fuels because they may pollute the environment. Because all fossil fuels are made out of carbon, burning them makes carbon dioxide. Some people think that too much carbon dioxide in the air may cause a greenhouse effect. Fossil fuels are also non-renewable, or renew extremely slowly (thousands of years). This means that we will eventually run out of fossil fuels.

Other fuels
Other fuels are not made from fossils. Some of these, like nuclear and hydrogen, do not have carbon in them. Others, like wood or ethanol, do have carbon in them. Some examples of these fuels are:
 Nuclear fuel (uranium, plutonium, thorium, etc.)
 Hydrogen
 Extracted from the wind
 Biofuels from biomass
 Firewood
 Biodiesel (a diesel-type fuel made from plants)
 Ethanol (made from grains or other plants)
These fuels are renewable. This means that we can make more of them if we run out. For instance, if we run out of ethanol, we can grow some more corn and make some more ethanol.

Other websites

 Fuel -Citizendium

Fuel

Fuel


10 Things I Hate About You is a 1999 American teen movie. It is directed by Gil Junger. It was the first movie he directed. The movie is a modern version of William Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew. The main character is Katarina "Kat" Stratford. She is played by Julia Stiles. Heath Ledger plays her love interest Patrick Verona. Kat is a feminist. Her sister Bianca is trying to find Kat a boyfriend. She decides that Patrick would suit Kat because he is also an outcast. The Scholastic Corporation published a novel of the story in June 1999. It was written by David Levithan.

1999 movies
1990s English-language movies

10 Things I Hate About You


A robbery is the act of stealing from a person using violence or by causing fear of violence. A person who commits robbery is known as a robber.

A person who steals without using violence or fear (such as stealing items from a store, or pickpocketing, or car theft), commits theft, not robbery.

In some US states, however, Simple Robbery refers to the knowing procurement of an item or items belonging to another by force but without "aggravating factors" such as violence or weapons.

Types of robbery
 Armed robbery - Stealing from someone using a weapon.
 Aggravated robbery - Stealing from someone using a deadly weapon, such as a gun.
 Highway robbery - Often known as mugging, stealing from someone in a public place.
 Carjacking - Stealing someones car, by force.

Notable robberies
 Great Train Robbery - £2.6million was stolen from a train on 8 August 1963 by 15 people, including Bruce Reynolds, Ronnie Biggs, Buster Edwards and Brian Field. The money was never recovered. It was the largest robbery in British history until 2006.

Robbery


Charles Francis Richter (April 26, 1900 – September 30, 1985) was an American seismologist (someone who studies earthquakes) and a physicist. He is known for creating the Richter scale of magnitude, which says how big an earthquake is.

Childhood
Richter went to work at the Carnegie Institute in 1927 after Robert Millikan offered him a position as a research assistant there, where he began a collaboration with Beno Gutenberg. The Seismology Lab at the California Institute of Technology wanted to begin publishing regular reports on earthquakes in southern California and had a pressing need for a system of measuring the strength of earthquakes for these reports. Together, Richter and Gutenberg devised the scale that would become known at the Richter scale to fill this need, based on measuring quantitatively the displacement of the earth by seismic waves, as Kiyoo Wadati had suggested.

Other websites
Charles Richter interview, at USGS
Charles F. Richter Papers, Caltech Archives

1900 births
1985 deaths
American physicists
Scientists from Ohio

Charles Richter


Anions are atoms or radicals (groups of atoms), that have gained electrons. Since they now have more electrons than protons, anions have a negative charge. For example, chloride ions Cl- , bromide Br- , iodide I-.  These are monovalent anions, meaning they have a valency (combining capacity) with only one ion of hydrogen.  Similarly there are bivalent anions, etc.

An ion is an atom (or group of atoms) with an electrical charge. Anions are one of the two types of ions. The other type is called a Cation, having a positive charge. In many crystals the anions are bigger; the little cations fit into the spaces between them.

Anions are termed so because they are attracted towards the anode (the positive electrode).  All anions tend to accept a proton H+ thus they are categorised as base

+

en:Ion#Anions and cations
ja:イオン#陰イオン
sv:Jon#Anjon

Anion


Charles William Wallace (February 6, 1865 – August 7, 1932) was an American scholar and researcher, famed for his discoveries in the field of English Renaissance theatre.

Wallace was born in Hopkins, Missouri to Thomas Dickay Wallace and Olive McEwen. Intending to be a teacher, he graduated from Western Normal College, Shenandoah, Iowa, and taught briefly in country schoolhouses before becoming a professor of Latin and English at his alma mater. He also founded and directed a preparatory school for the state university in Nebraska. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska, and a doctorate from the University of Freiburg im Breisgau. He was an instructor at the University of Nebraska in 1901, and appointed professor of English Dramatic Literature at that institution in 1910. He married Hulda Alfreda Berggren in 1893.

From 1907 through 1916, he and his wife conducted an intensive survey at the Public Record Office in London. The Wallaces discovered the court record papers of the dispute between Alleyn and the owners of The Theatre, an account of which he published as The First London Theatre: Materials for a History. They also discovered Shakespeare's 1612 deposition in the Bellott v. Mountjoy lawsuit, and records of the suits Keysar v. Burbage (1610), Ostler v. Heminges (1615), and Witter v. Heminges and Condell (1619), among a range of other documents, yielding important new knowledge in the study of Jacobean drama. The Wallaces' work provided a vastly improved comprehension of the role of the children's companies in English Renaissance drama.

Wallace's dedication to his research took an unusual, perhaps unique form: in order to finance further work, he became a wildcatter in the oil industry in 1918. He made successful discoveries in that arena too, and planned to use his new wealth to publish a lavish collection of original records in Elizabethan and Jacobean studies; but his death from cancer in 1932 prevented the realization of his plan.

Wallace's most important publications are his books, The Children of the Chapel at Blackfriars, 1597–1603 (1908), The Evolution of the English Drama Up to Shakespeare (1912), and The First London Theatre: Materials for a History (1913).

References

 Bryson, Bill. Shakespeare: The World as Stage. New York, HarperCollins Publishers, 2007.
 Halliday, F. E. A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Baltimore, Penguin, 1964.
 Schoenbaum, Samuel. Shakespeare's Lives. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1970.

American literary critics
Shakespearean scholars
1865 births
1932 deaths
People from Hopkins, Missouri
People from Shenandoah, Iowa
University of Nebraska alumni
University of Freiburg alumni
University of Nebraska faculty

Charles William Wallace


Julius or Iulius Podlipny (most common renditions of the ; ; Hungarian: Podlipny Gyula; Romanian: Iuliu Podlipny; April 12, 1898 – January 15, 1991) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Czechoslovak and Romanian artist, best known for his work in drawing and his long period as teacher at the Art Lyceum in Timișoara. First acknowledged as a promoter of modern art during the interwar period, Podlipny was a contributor to the avant-garde and socialist magazine Ma, edited by Hungarian critic and promoter Lajos Kassák.

Having adopted a style which echoed Expressionism, he influenced Romanian art mainly as a pedagogue: among the critically acclaimed contemporary painters to have been inspired by his views is Ștefan Câlția. Podlipny's widow, Annemarie Podlipny-Hehn, is an art and literary critic. Part of her research is dedicated to her husband's artistic contributions.

Biography
Of Slovak origin, but also honoured in the context of Czech culture, Podlipny was born in Pressburg, Austria-Hungary (today Bratislava, Slovakia). His childhood was marked by two train accidents: the first, at age six, during which he lost his right arm; the second, occurring three years later, killed his father. With his mother Renata and his eight siblings, he wandered through Central Europe, moving between Pressburg and Budapest.

Like many in the avant-garde environment, Podlipny began flirting with socialism, and played some part in the European revolutions of the 1910s. As historian Victor Neumann writes, "his political orientation had been left-wing, and it sometimes slid into the far left". Art critic Pavel Șușară completes the image: young Podlipny was "moved by the suffering of others, fascinated by risk and hunted by police".

During the early 1920s, Podlipny studied at the Hungarian Art Academy, which saw him joining the Central European modern art movement. He made his first visits to the Romanian Kingdom, having earned scholarships to attend the Baia Mare School. In 1926, he made Timișoara his permanent residence.

In Timișoara, where he taught draftsmanship, Podlipny led the Free School of Painting before joining the teaching staff at the Decorative Art School (later restructured as the Art Lyceum). During the following period, he was associated with Hungarian-language avant-garde magazine Ma, published in Vienna by the socialist artist Kassák. Literary critics Cornel Ungureanu and Paul Cernat note that the links created between Ma and the Bucharest-based magazine Contimporanul, centered on the friendship between their two editors, Kassák and Ion Vinea, may also have involved a loose group of supporters from Timișoara. Alongside Podlipny, they were ethnic Romanian politico Aurel Buteanu and German poet and anarchist activist Robert Reiter, together with the Hungarian writers Rodion Markovits and Károly Endre.

At the time, Podlipny's art was a sample of Romanian Expressionism, focusing especially on depicting images of suffering, marginality and despair, including portraits of physically disabled people, or landscapes seemingly painted in absolute solitude. Writing in 1931, critic G. Stoienescu sampled two of Podlipny's characteristic subjects: a group of "crippled pilgrims", "obsessed by a vision", huddled in front of their "tin Christ"; and "a traveller and his gentle beasts of burden", going about their business inside "an unreal world."

During World War II, while still residing in Romania, Podlipny elected to become a national of the Slovak Republic. He represented that short-lived state at a 1942 propaganda exhibit, attended by officials of the Ion Antonescu regime, where he exhibited charcoal drawings landscapes and rural scenes. He was still in Timișoara when Romania left the Axis Powers and Slovakia disappeared. A visitor of his 1946 exhibit noted: "With his only arm, the left one, Iuliu Podlipny has produced haunting graphics, where shadows fraternise with the light, and destiny with man and with God."

After the establishment of the Romanian communist regime, and especially in the 1960s and '70s, Julius Podlipny focused on his work as an educator, helping to create a distinct and critically acclaimed artistic trend among Banat youth, and creating a bridge between early modern art and postwar tendencies. In the 1950s, he married Annemarie Hehn. The daughter of middle-class Swabian parents, she had been a displaced person during the final stage of the war, before being employed as an art historian for the Banat Museum. An amateur artist herself, she met her future husband through her two sisters, who took drawing lessons from Podlipny. In 2008, she recalled: "following my marriage and through my work at the Banat Museum art section, I 'submerged' myself in the field of fine arts, and thus I could more easily bear the communist dictatorship." One of her two sisters, Ilse Hehn-Guzun, also became a noted artist.

Podlipny contributed significantly to the artistic development of his students. According to Neumann, "[h]e was [...] a person with formative knowledge, some of the best-received Romanian artists being indebted to his school." The latter category, Neumann indicates, was primarily illustrated by Ștefan Câlția. Podlipny was also the teacher of Roman Cotoșman, Paul Neagu, Dietrich Sayler, Traian Brădean and Constantin Flondor.

Several texts by Annemarie Podlipny-Hehn, including a monograph, deal with her husband's work and its context. Discussing these writings, Cornel Ungureanu writes: "To understand the Austro-Hungarian empire with its left-wing movements, to understand the crepuscular art of Central Europe, Mrs. Podlipny shows, is impossible unless we carefully follow the evolution of esteemed Timoșoarans, among whom the most important one in her studies is still Julius Podlipny." In 1998, Podlipny was posthumously granted the title of honorary citizen of Timișoara. A street in the city was renamed in his honour.

Style and influence
Podlipny's style was developed under the influence of Central European currents. Writer Livius Ciocârlie, who was active on Timișoara's cultural scene at the same time as Cotoșman and was an acquaintance of Podlipny's, describes the latter as "an interesting Expressionist". According to Șușară, Podlipny remains one of Romania's "most fascinating", a "typical" character of Mitteleuropa, with "baroque dichotomies" and "Expressionistic paroxysm". Adrian Maniu, the Expressionist poet and art chronicler, included Podlipny to the great painters under "accursed spells", as one who moved freely between "genius and insanity".

Podlipny's approach to art and his views on life had a sizable impact on his pupils' careers. In particular, Neumann writes, the artist made himself known for imposing discipline, and for familiarising young artists with mixed media techniques. Ștefan Câlția credits Podlipny and Corneliu Baba with having instilled in him a "respect for school" that replaced his initial "rather nonconformist" approach to art training. He also recalled Podlipny telling his students that "the most important thing we have been given is the total freedom of expression." Constantin Flondor, who was Podlipny's student between 1950 and 1954, remembers being influenced by his "simple, clear and unshakable" pronouncements on artistic matters, such as: "Art requires an abandonment, a self-sacrifice. Taking your place in front of a sheet or a canvass which promises the meeting between a piece of vine charcoal or a brush and the white surface is a moment charged with the thrills of genesis. Nothing and no one has the right to disturb one who is in the sacred moment of labour." Livius Ciocârlie also notes that, although Podlipny "spoke a very corrupted form of Romanian [...], any phrase he had uttered became memorable."

Ciocârlie, who describes Podlipny as "one-armed, nervous, intransigent, sarcastic", recounts the artist's contempt for painting as opposed to drawing and graphics: "to him, colorists were a finical bunch lacking in energy, incapable of tracing a single line." According to Șușară, Podlipny and Baba had a common trait, in that they saw drawing as "fundamental". Podlipny had a rather tense relationship with Cotoșman, who, in 1966, created the nucleus for an underground avant-garde platform, Grupul Sigma. Neumann notes that this might not have been a singular situation, and that Podlipny may have likely been seen as "too demanding" by several other of his pupils.

References

1898 births
1991 deaths
Artists from Bratislava
Hungarian people of Slovak descent
Hungarian University of Fine Arts alumni
Romanian amputees
Romanian avant-garde
Romanian graphic designers
Romanian painters
Romanian people of Hungarian descent
Romanian people of Slovak descent
Romanian socialists
Romanian schoolteachers
Slovak Austro-Hungarians
Slovak Expressionist painters
Slovak people with disabilities
Slovak socialists
Artists from Timișoara

Julius Podlipny


A fee is the price one gives as payment for services, especially the honorarium paid to a doctor, lawyer, consultant or member of a learned profession. Traditionally, a fee is different to a payment, salary, or wage, because the fee usually is paid only once for the professional's services.

Business

Fee


An Earthship is a type of house that is built with natural and recycled materials with energy conservation in mind. Designed by the architect Michael Reynolds and his company Earthship Biotecture, it is built to produce water and electricity for its own use. Mainly made of earth-filled tires it takes advantage of thermal mass, natural heat insulation and ventilation to maintain its temperature. Since it does not require any public utilities such as gas, electricity, water or sewage it can be considered as an off-the-grid housing, meaning that it can live away from public utilities.

An Earthship does not require external support to sustain itself. Instead, it is built to use resources available from its natural surroundings. For example, windows are placed so that sunlight is shone inside the house to be used for heating. Electricity is generated by solar panels and stored in batteries. The roofing collects rainwater that is filtered and used for drinking and various household activities such as cooking and washing. Used water from sinks and showers is reused to water indoor plants and after that for toilet flushing.

Earthships can adapt to different climates and are being build worldwide. In North- and South America, the Carribeans, Asia, Africa and Europe. Construction drawings and training should enable people to build their own off-the-grid Earthship home and become independent from public and commercial utilities.

References

Other websites
 NaveTierraMDQ, Project in Mar del Plata, Prov. Buenos Aires, Argentina
 Earthship Biotecture

Houses

Earthship


Calluna vulgaris (heather) is the sole species in the genus Calluna in the family Ericaceae.

It is a low-growing perennial shrub growing to  tall, or rarely to . It is found widely in Europe and Asia Minor on acidic soils in open sunny situations and in moderate shade.

Heather is the dominant plant on most heaths  and moorland in Europe, and in some bog vegetation and acidic pine and oak woodland. It is tolerant of grazing and regenerates following occasional burning. It is often managed in nature reserves and grouse moors by sheep or cattle grazing, and also by light burning.

The flowers emerge in late summer; in wild plants these are normally mauve, but white-flowered plants also occur occasionally.

Uses
Heather is an important food source for various sheep and deer which can graze the tips of the plants when snow covers low growing vegetation. Willow Grouse and Red Grouse feed on the young shoots and seeds of this plant. Both adults and larvae of the Heather Beetle Lochmaea suturalis feed on it, and can cause damage. The larvae of a number of Lepidoptera species also feed on the plant.

Heather honey is a highly valued product in moorland and heathland areas, with many beehives being moved there in late summer.  It has a strong taste, and an unusual texture. It is thixotropic, being a jelly until stirred, when it becomes a syrup (like other honey), but then sets again to a jelly.  This makes the extraction of the honey from the comb difficult, and it is therefore often sold as comb honey.

Cultural references
Heather is seen as iconic of Scotland, where the plant grows widely. When poems like Bonnie Auld Scotland speak of "fragrant hills of purple heather', when the hero of Kidnapped flees through the heather, when heather and Scotland are linked in the same sentence, the heather talked about is Calluna vulgaris.

References

Ericaceae

Calluna


In economics, perfect competition is a type of market form in which there are many companies that sell the same product or service and no one has enough market power to be able to set prices on the product or service without losing business. As the conditions for perfect competition are strict, there are only a few markets that are considered to be perfectly competitive and this market form only exists to compare with the other market forms.

Characteristics
Generally, a perfectly competitive market exists when every firm in the market are price takers and no one is able to charge a different price without losing business. Specific characteristics of perfect competition includes:
 Large number of buyers and sellers: There are many buyers who are willing to buy the product at a certain price and there are many sellers who are willing to sell the product at a certain price.
 No barriers to entry and exit: There are no barriers to entry and exit for firms and firms are able to enter or leave the market without any issues.
 Perfect information: All buyers are assumed to know the price of the product set by all sellers and sellers are assumed to know the production methods of their competitors.
These characteristics are largely impossible to achieve in reality and there are not many markets that are perfectly competitive. For example, it is unlikely that there are absolutely no barriers to entry and exit as there are always costs involved in setting up a new firm. Also, information is always imperfect and it is not possible for buyers to know exactly the price set by all sellers, and sellers are not willing to share their production methods with their competitors. However, the study of perfect competition is important as it is used to compare with the other market forms.

In the short run, a perfectly competitive firm is not productively efficient as the output will not be at where the marginal cost equals to the average cost (MC = AC). However, a perfectly competitive firm will be allocatively efficient as the firm will be producing at the profit-maximising output where MC = MR, which is coincidentally the allocatively efficient point. In the long run, a perfectly competitive firm will be both allocatively and productively efficient.

Model

A model can be used to show the perfectly competitive firm's price and output level for a given product. In the diagram shown, the cost curves of a perfectly competitive market is shown in its long run equilibrium.

For a perfectly competitive firm, the marginal cost of producing an extra unit of output is shown using the MC curve (in blue) whereas the average total cost of producing an extra unit of output is shown using the ATC curve (in red). As stated above, a perfectly competitive market has a large number of buyers and sellers and the demand does not change with output. Hence, the demand curve, the average revenue and marginal revenue curves are horizontal (in green). The point in which the demand curve intersects the vertical axis is the price of the product sold by the firm.

As firms are assumed to be profit-maximising, the firm will thus produce at the output level where the marginal cost equals to the marginal revenue (MC = MR). Hence, the firm will be producing an output of Q in the diagram. As the average total cost curve also meets at this point, the firm is thus earning normal profits in the long run.

Criticism
A market where there's perfect competition is difficult to find in the real world, mainly because of the restrictions.
 The model totally neglects dynamic effects in a market
 In reality, there are many barriers to enter a market. These barriers may be that some companies have technologies that are more advanced.
 There is perfect information. There's no pioneering advantage, there's also no reason for innovation
 There's no transaction cost.
 Because of the large number of market players, a bigger company has no benefits over a smaller one.
 In the real world, buyers do not want products that are all the same. They want small differences, so that choosing one product over another actually has some sense.

Market forms

Perfect competition


Leeds is a village in the western portion of the city of Northampton, Massachusetts, United States, bordering Williamsburg—along the Mill River—and Florence.  The ZIP Code for Leeds is 01053.

The village was named after the city of Leeds, in England. In the 19th century, Leeds was known for its textile manufacturing, including broadcloth, silk, and vegetable ivory buttons, as well as extensive manufacturing of farm implements and household goods.

The major producer of silk in Leeds was the Corticelli Silk Mills, which were owned by the Nonotuck Silk Company. They had several buildings along sections of the Mill River. The major factory was located at the corner of Main Street and Mulberry Street, another factory building was located across the bridge and to the right of Chartpak. Another building was located near the opposite end of Main Street, where the cocoons were steamed to loosen the fibers and made the raw silk usable for production in Corticelli's various products. The company also created items that could be used in the classroom as teaching aids, including a poster showing the various steps in the production of silk.

In 1874, a dam on the Mill River broke, flooding Leeds and Williamsburg and killing 139 people.

Today, Leeds is home to the Northampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and Chartpak, manufacturer of art and graphics supplies, which includes Koh-i-Noor Hardtmuth.

Leeds is also home to Leeds Elementary School.

References

 In the Shadow of the Dam, The Aftermath of the Mill River Flood of 1874, Elizabeth M. Sharpe, Free Press, 2004.
 Silk: Its Origin, Culture, and Manufacture; Illustrated from Photographs Taken at the Corticelli Silk Mills, Nonotuck Silk Company, 1902
 How Corticelli Silk Is Made, Nonotuck Silk Company, 1881
 Mills on the Mill River, Charles J. Dean, 1935

External links
 Leeds Civic Association

Northampton, Massachusetts
Springfield metropolitan area, Massachusetts
Villages in Hampshire County, Massachusetts
Villages in Massachusetts

Leeds, Massachusetts


The wakizashi is a traditional Japanese sword.  It is shorter than the katana, which was well known in the beginning of the 17th century as a kodachi sword. The two swords were always carried together: the wakizashi finished off the work of the katana sword. Such a sword could be from 30cm to 60cm (12 to 24 inches) long.  A small version was called a "ko-wakizashi", a longer one was called an "o-wakizashi". The wakizashi has a handle made of stingray skin and the blade is made from the finest metal and stone.

Overview

A wakizashi had a slightly curved blade with a square-shaped hilt (handle). The hilt and the scabbard (the case in which the sword is kept) of a wakizashi was richly decorated with traditional motifs. A wakizashi was more decorated than a katana because it was not used as much as a katana, but still carried everywhere. Another distinctive feature is the scabbard (called a "saya"). The sayas were made to be like the katana but they could have extra pockets for smaller knives, a hair arranger, etc.

The katana and the wakizashi together are called a daishō, which is translated as "large and small". The first part of the word (dai) means "big" and stands for the katana sword; the second (sho) stands for wakizashi. Wakizashi was more decorated than a katana and it was thinner, this is why it was designed to cut through softer targets. So it was a sword to make dangerous cuts in weak points of the human body. The use of a daishō on the battlefield gave its user a big advantage.  With the two swords the samurai could keep the enemies within a radius of action ranging from 2 to 7 feet (1 to 3 1/2 meters). Miyamoto Musashi, a famous Japanese samurai, was especially skilful at using the daishō.

Customs and traditions

A wakizashi sword was an irreplaceable weapon for a samurai. The tradition says that when entering a house or any other building, the samurai has to leave his katana with a servant, but the wakizashi could be worn at all times and places. This is why the wakizashi is often called the samurai's side arm.  The wakizashi followed his master even when he went to sleep, because it was always near the bed.

The wakizashi was carried along the thigh and was usually used with one hand; the other hand was used for the katana. The wakizashi proved to be very effective when the katana's length and weight made it hard to use. The wakizashi needs less force to use and it is more maneuverable.

The wakizashi was also the sword used by merchants and artisans (types of traders) who were forbidden from wearing a katana. This fact explains a greater number wakizashi swords were found than katanas. There are even more wakizashi swords than katana swords, although the katana swords had greater meaning for Japanese society.

Seppuku

The wakizashi sword was much used in the ritual of seppuku (suicide because of lost honor). In this ritual it was used along with the shortest Japanese sword - Tanto. The wakizashi was thrust into the torso (body), cutting open vertically. This kind of death was considered honorable for a samurai. When a female samurai committed seppuku she would only cut her own throat.

Source
 Technique of Katana Sword Drawing - IAI-DO  - Facts about katana and wakizashi, how to take them out of the scabbard and notable terminology.

Japanese swords

Wakizashi


Flaminio Vacca or Vacchi (Caravaggio or Rome, 1538 – Rome, 1605)  was an Italian sculptor.

Biography
His sculptural work can be seen in Rome in the grandiose funeral chapel of Pope Pius V designed by Domenico Fontana at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (Saint Francis), in the Church of the Gesù (one of four marble angels in the third chapel on the right) and in the right transept of the Chiesa Nuova (Saint John the Evangelist and Saint John the Baptist, both signed). At the notoriously awkward fountain that marked the terminus of the Acqua Felice, Vacca contributed one of the angels (documented 1588–89,) supporting Sixtus V's coat-of-arms that crown the attic, and a bas-relief Joshua Leading His People across the Jordan River; in these commissions for the fountain his partner in the documented payments was Pietro Paolo Olivieri. His self-portrait (1599) is conserved in the Protomoteca Capitolina on the Campidoglio. At the Villa Medici the two marble Medici lions flank the staircase; one is Roman, its pendant, made to match it in 1600, was by Flaminio Vacca. Vacca's copy was replaced by a copy when Villa Medici was sold by the Grand Duke of Tuscany and moved the lions to Piazza della Signoria, Florence, where with its ancient companion it flanks the steps to the Loggia dei Lanzi. In Santa Susanna, the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel have been attributed to him.

Outside Rome his sculpture may be found at Spello (a tabernacle [1587] in the Capella del Sacramento, Church of San Lorenzo);

His Memorie di varie antichità trovate in diversi luoghi della Città di Roma (Rome 1594, republished as a supplement to Famiano Nardini's Roma Antica [1666], reprinted by Carlo Fea, 1790) are a primary source of information and rich human detail on the discoveries of Roman sculpture and antiquities in the later sixteenth century, and also on the destruction of antiquities, especially for the urbanistic programmes of Pope Sixtus V. His pithy numbered anecdotal notes consistently begin Mi ricordo..., "I remember...".

Vacca's reputation at the time of his death made him a suitable candidate for insepulture in the Pantheon, Rome; there his modest epitaph reads, in translation, "Flaminius Vacca, Roman sculptor, who in his works never satisfied himself".<ref>"D.O.M. Flaminio Vaccae Sculptori Romano qui in operibus quae facit nunquam sibi satisfecit" The inscription was copied in Bernard Montfaucon's Italian diary, and by a series of references landed Flaminio Vacca eventually in Smith's , Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870), iii. s.v. "Vacca Flaminius", "of whom all that is known is contained in the... inscription".</ref> Vacca had been one of the founding members of the Confraternità dei Virtuosi that was formed at the Pantheon by Desiderio da Segni, a canon of the church of Santa Maria ad Martyres that occupied and preserved the Pantheon, to ensure that worship was maintained in the Chapel of St Joseph in the Holy Land, Others among the first members were Antonio da Sangallo the younger, Jacopo Meneghino, Giovanni Mangone, Taddeo Zuccari and Domenico Beccafumi.

A modern account of his career is Sergio Lombardi, "Flaminio Vacca," in Roma di Sisto V: Le arti e la cultura'', Maria Luisa Madonna, ed. (Rome: De Luca, 1993)

Notes

External links

1538 births
1605 deaths
16th-century Italian sculptors
Italian male sculptors

Flaminio Vacca


Wire rope is composed of as few as two solid, metal wires twisted into a helix that forms a composite rope, in a pattern known as laid rope. Larger diameter wire rope consists of multiple strands of such laid rope in a pattern known as cable laid. Manufactured using an industrial machine known as a strander, the wires are fed through a series of barrels and spun into their final composite orientation.

In stricter senses, the term wire rope refers to a diameter larger than , with smaller gauges designated cable or cords. Initially wrought iron wires were used, but today steel is the main material used for wire ropes.

Historically, wire rope evolved from wrought iron chains, which had a record of mechanical failure. While flaws in chain links or solid steel bars can lead to catastrophic failure, flaws in the wires making up a steel cable are less critical as the other wires easily take up the load. While friction between the individual wires and strands causes wear over the life of the rope, it also helps to compensate for minor failures in the short run.

Wire ropes were developed starting with mining hoist applications in the 1830s. Wire ropes are used dynamically for lifting and hoisting in cranes and elevators, and for transmission of mechanical power. Wire rope is also used to transmit force in mechanisms, such as a Bowden cable or the control surfaces of an airplane connected to levers and pedals in the cockpit. Only aircraft cables have WSC (wire strand core). Also, aircraft cables are available in smaller diameters than wire rope. For example, aircraft cables are available in  diameter while most wire ropes begin at a  diameter. Static wire ropes are used to support structures such as suspension bridges or as guy wires to support towers. An aerial tramway relies on wire rope to support and move cargo overhead.

History
Modern wire rope was invented by the German mining engineer Wilhelm Albert in the years between 1831 and 1834 for use in mining in the Harz Mountains in Clausthal, Lower Saxony, Germany. It was quickly accepted because it proved superior strength from ropes made of hemp or of metal chains, such as had been used before.

Wilhelm Albert's first ropes consisted of three strands consisting of four wires each. In 1840, Scotsman Robert Stirling Newall improved the process further. In America wire rope was manufactured by John A. Roebling, starting in 1841 and forming the basis for his success in suspension bridge building. Roebling introduced a number of innovations in the design, materials and manufacture of wire rope. Ever with an ear to technology developments in mining and railroading, Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, principal owners of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (LC&N Co.) — as they had with the first blast furnaces in the Lehigh Valley — built a Wire Rope factory in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, in 1848, which provided lift cables for the Ashley Planes project, then the back track planes of the Summit Hill & Mauch Chunk Railroad, improving its attractiveness as a premier tourism destination, and vastly improving the throughput of the coal capacity since return of cars dropped from nearly four hours to less than 20 minutes.

The following decades featured a burgeoning increase in deep shaft mining in both Europe and North America as surface mineral deposits were exhausted and miners had to chase layers along inclined layers. The era was early in railroad development and steam engines lacked sufficient tractive effort to climb steep slopes, so inclined plane railways were common. This pushed development of cable hoists rapidly in the United States as surface deposits in the Anthracite Coal Region north and south dove deeper every year, and even the rich deposits in the Panther Creek Valley required LC&N Co. to drive their first shafts into lower slopes beginning Lansford and its Schuylkill County twin-town Coaldale.

The German engineering firm of Adolf Bleichert & Co. was founded in 1874 and began to build bicable aerial tramways for mining in the Ruhr Valley. With important patents, and dozens of working systems in Europe, Bleichert dominated the global industry, later licensing its designs and manufacturing techniques to Trenton Iron Works, New Jersey, USA which built systems across America. Adolf Bleichert & Co. went on to build hundreds of aerial tramways around the world: from Alaska to Argentina, Australia and Spitsbergen. The Bleichert company also built hundreds of aerial tramways for both the Imperial German Army and the Wehrmacht.

In the latter part of the 19th century, wire rope systems were used as a means of transmitting mechanical power including for the new cable cars. Wire rope systems cost one-tenth as much and had lower friction losses than line shafts. Because of these advantages, wire rope systems were used to transmit power for a distance of a few miles or kilometers.

Construction

Wires
Steel wires for wire ropes are normally made of non-alloy carbon steel with a carbon content of 0.4 to 0.95%. The very high strength of the rope wires enables wire ropes to support large tensile forces and to run over sheaves with relatively small diameters.

Strands
In the so-called cross lay strands, the wires of the different layers cross each other.
In the mostly used parallel lay strands, the lay length of all the wire layers is equal and the wires of any two superimposed layers are parallel, resulting in linear contact. The wire of the outer layer is supported by two wires of the inner layer. These wires are neighbors along the whole length of the strand. Parallel lay strands are made in one operation. The endurance of wire ropes with this kind of strand is always much greater than of those (seldom used) with cross lay strands. Parallel lay strands with two wire layers have the construction Filler, Seale or Warrington.

Spiral ropes
In principle, spiral ropes are round strands as they have an assembly of layers of wires laid helically over a centre with at least one layer of wires being laid in the opposite direction to that of the outer layer. Spiral ropes can be dimensioned in such a way that they are non-rotating which means that under tension the rope torque is nearly zero. The open spiral rope consists only of round wires. The half-locked coil rope and the full-locked coil rope always have a centre made of round wires. The locked coil ropes have one or more outer layers of profile wires. They have the advantage that their construction prevents the penetration of dirt and water to a greater extent and it also protects them from loss of lubricant. In addition, they have one further very important advantage as the ends of a broken outer wire cannot leave the rope if it has the proper dimensions.

Stranded ropes

Stranded ropes are an assembly of several strands laid helically in one or more layers around a core. This core can be one of three types. The first is a fiber core, made up of synthetic material or natural fibers like sisal. Synthetic fibers are stronger and more uniform but cannot absorb much lubricant. Natural fibers can absorb up to 15% of their weight in lubricant and so protect the inner wires much better from corrosion than synthetic fibers do. Fiber cores are the most flexible and elastic, but have the downside of getting crushed easily. The second type, wire strand core, is made up of one additional strand of wire, and is typically used for suspension. The third type is independent wire rope core (IWRC), which is the most durable in all types of environments. Most types of stranded ropes only have one strand layer over the core (fibre core or steel core). The lay direction of the strands in the rope can be right (symbol Z) or left (symbol S) and the lay direction of the wires can be right (symbol z) or left (symbol s). This kind of rope is called ordinary lay rope if the lay direction of the wires in the outer strands is in the opposite direction to the lay of the outer strands themselves. If both the wires in the outer strands and the outer strands themselves have the same lay direction, the rope is called a lang lay rope (from Dutch  contrary to , formerly Albert's lay or langs lay). Regular lay means the individual wires were wrapped around the centers in one direction and the strands were wrapped around the core in the opposite direction.

Multi-strand ropes are all more or less resistant to rotation and have at least two layers of strands laid helically around a centre. The direction of the outer strands is opposite to that of the underlying strand layers. Ropes with three strand layers can be nearly non-rotating. Ropes with two strand layers are mostly only low-rotating.

Classification according to usage
Depending on where they are used, wire ropes have to fulfill different requirements. The main uses are:
 Running ropes (stranded ropes) are bent over sheaves and drums. They are therefore stressed mainly by bending and secondly by tension.
 Stationary ropes, stay ropes (spiral ropes, mostly full-locked) have to carry tensile forces and are therefore mainly loaded by static and fluctuating tensile stresses. Ropes used for suspension are often called cables.
 Track ropes (full locked ropes) have to act as rails for the rollers of cabins or other loads in aerial ropeways and cable cranes. In contrast to running ropes, track ropes do not take on the curvature of the rollers. Under the roller force, a so-called free bending radius of the rope occurs. This radius increases (and the bending stresses decrease) with the tensile force and decreases with the roller force.
 Wire rope slings (stranded ropes) are used to harness various kinds of goods. These slings are stressed by the tensile forces but first of all by bending stresses when bent over the more or less sharp edges of the goods.

Rope drive
Technical regulations apply to the design of rope drives for cranes, elevators, rope ways and mining installations. Factors that are considered in design include:
 Number of working cycles allowed before replacement or breakage of the rope
 Donandt force (yielding tensile force for a given bending diameter ratio /) - strict limit. The nominal rope tensile force  must be smaller than the Donandt force .
 Rope safety factor, ratio between the rope's breaking strength and the maximum load to be expected
 Allowable number of broken strands before replacement
 Optimal rope diameter for a given sheave diameter, so as to obtain best working life

The calculation of the rope drive limits depends on:
 Data of the used wire rope
 Rope tensile force
 Diameter  of sheave or drum
 Simple bendings per working cycle
 Reverse bendings per working cycle
 Combined fluctuating tension and bending per working cycle
 Relative fluctuating tensile force
 Rope bending length

Safety
The wire ropes are stressed by fluctuating forces, by wear, by corrosion and in seldom cases by extreme forces. The rope life is finite and the safety is only ensured by inspection for the detection of wire breaks on a reference rope length, of cross-section loss, as well as other failures so that the wire rope can be replaced before a dangerous situation occurs. Installations should be designed to facilitate the inspection of the wire ropes.

Lifting installations for passenger transportation require that a combination of several methods should be used to prevent a car from plunging downwards. Elevators must have redundant bearing ropes and a safety gear. Ropeways and mine hoistings must be permanently supervised by a responsible manager and the rope must be inspected by a magnetic method capable of detecting inner wire breaks.

Terminations

The end of a wire rope tends to fray readily, and cannot be easily connected to plant and equipment. There are different ways of securing the ends of wire ropes to prevent fraying. The common and useful type of end fitting for a wire rope is to turn the end back to form a loop. The loose end is then fixed back on the wire rope. Termination efficiencies vary from about 70% for a Flemish eye alone; to nearly 90% for a Flemish eye and splice; to 100% for potted ends and swagings.

Thimbles
When the wire rope is terminated with a loop, there is a risk that it will bend too tightly, especially when the loop is connected to a device that concentrates the load on a relatively small area. A thimble can be installed inside the loop to preserve the natural shape of the loop, and protect the cable from pinching and abrading on the inside of the loop. The use of thimbles in loops is industry best practice. The thimble prevents the load from coming into direct contact with the wires.

Wire rope clips

A wire rope clip, sometimes called a clamp, is used to fix the loose end of the loop back to the wire rope. It usually consists of a U-bolt, a forged saddle, and two nuts. The two layers of wire rope are placed in the U-bolt. The saddle is then fitted to the bolt over the ropes (the saddle includes two holes to fit to the U-bolt). The nuts secure the arrangement in place. Two or more clips are usually used to terminate a wire rope depending on the diameter. As many as eight may be needed for a  diameter rope.

The mnemonic "never saddle a dead horse" means that when installing clips, the saddle portion of the assembly is placed on the load-bearing or "live" side, not on the non-load-bearing or "dead" side of the cable. This is to protect the live or stress-bearing end of the rope against crushing and abuse. The flat bearing seat and  extended prongs of the body are designed to protect the rope and are always placed against the live end.

The US Navy and most regulatory bodies do not recommend the use of such clips as permanent terminations unless periodically checked and re-tightened.

Eye splice or Flemish eye
 An eye splice may be used to terminate the loose end of a wire rope when forming a loop. The strands of the end of a wire rope are unwound a certain distance, then bent around so that the end of the unwrapped length forms an eye. The unwrapped strands are then plaited back into the wire rope, forming the loop, or an eye, called an eye splice.

A Flemish eye, or Dutch Splice, involves unwrapping three strands (the strands need to be next to each other, not alternates) of the wire and keeping them off to one side. The remaining strands are bent around, until the end of the wire meets the "V" where the unwrapping finished, to form the eye. The strands kept to one side are now re-wrapped by wrapping from the end of the wire back to the "V" of the eye. These strands are effectively rewrapped along the wire in the opposite direction to their original lay.  When this type of rope splice is used specifically on wire rope, it is called a "Molly Hogan", and, by some, a "Dutch" eye instead of a "Flemish" eye.

Swaged terminations

Swaging is a method of wire rope termination that refers to the installation technique. The purpose of swaging wire rope fittings is to connect two wire rope ends together, or to otherwise terminate one end of wire rope to something else. A mechanical or hydraulic swager is used to compress and deform the fitting, creating a permanent connection. Threaded studs, ferrules, sockets, and sleeves are examples of different swaged terminations. Swaging ropes with fibre cores is not recommended.

Wedge sockets
A wedge socket termination is useful when the fitting needs to be replaced frequently. For example, if the end of a wire rope is in a high-wear region, the rope may be periodically trimmed, requiring the termination hardware to be removed and reapplied. An example of this is on the ends of the drag ropes on a dragline. The end loop of the wire rope enters a tapered opening in the socket, wrapped around a separate component called the wedge. The arrangement is knocked in place, and load gradually eased onto the rope. As the load increases on the wire rope, the wedge become more secure, gripping the rope tighter.

Potted ends or poured sockets
Poured sockets are used to make a high strength, permanent termination; they are created by inserting the wire rope into the narrow end of a conical cavity which is oriented in-line with the intended direction of strain. The individual wires are splayed out inside the cone or 'capel', and the cone is then filled with molten lead-antimony-tin (Pb80Sb15Sn5) solder or 'white metal capping', zinc, or now more commonly, an unsaturated polyester resin compound.

See also
Fiber rope
Tensile structure
Wire rope spooling technology

References

External links
Types and construction of wire rope strand and cable
U.S. Navy Technical Manual for Wire and Fiber Rope
Modern history of wire rope
Handbook of Oceanographic Winch, Wire and Cable Technology
US Federal Specification RR-W-410 for Wire Rope and Strand

Cables
Mechanical power transmission
Ropes
Wire
German inventions

Wire rope


Waldomore, also known as The Waldomore, is a two-story Neo-Classical brick mansion located in uptown Clarksburg, West Virginia, United States. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 4, 1978.

History
The Waldomore was constructed in late 1839 for Waldo P. Goff on part of a  tract that extended from Pike Street to Elk Creek.  The structure's name was coined by combining the names of the original owners Waldo Goff and his wife Harriet L. Moore.  The Waldomore was added to The National Register of Historic Places in 1978.  This classical revival structure was the home of Waldo Goff and his family. The Waldomore was donated to the City of Clarksburg by May Goff Lowndes (Mrs. Richard T. Lowndes) in 1930 on the condition that it was to be used as a public library or museum and for no other purpose.  It served as the Clarksburg Public Library from 1931 to 1976 when the new library was constructed next door on the same property.  The building is now the repository for materials relating to the state's culture and history as well as the books and papers of notorious UFO writer Gray Barker. It also has a collection of resources for genealogical research.

Goff Family
The home was constructed in 1839 for Waldo P. Goff. Goff was born in 1796, the fifth son of Job and Zerviah Goff who moved to Harrison County in 1804 from New York.  Of the eight children born to this family, four sons eventually served in the Virginia State Legislators of Virginia and West Virginia.  Waldo Goff was a member of the Virginia State Senate from 1833 to 1837, and thereafter held numerous local minor offices including that of sheriff of Harrison County in 1851.  The most famous of Waldo Goff's children was Nathan Goff born at the Waldomore February 9, 1843. Nathan served as Secretary of the Navy appointed by president Rutherford B. Hayes. In 1876, Nathan Goff ran for governor and was defeated by Henry Mathews. Nathan Goff was a United States Congressman from 1883 to 1889.

See also
 National Register of Historic Places listings in West Virginia

References

External links
Clarksburg Public Library: Waldomore

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in West Virginia
Neoclassical architecture in West Virginia
Greek Revival houses in West Virginia
Houses completed in 1839
Buildings and structures in Clarksburg, West Virginia
Houses in Harrison County, West Virginia
National Register of Historic Places in Harrison County, West Virginia
Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in West Virginia

Waldomore


"The Choice" is the twentieth episode of the sixth season of the American medical drama House and it is the 129th episode overall. It aired on May 3, 2010. It was written by David Hoselton and directed by Juan J. Campanella. This was the first episode of House since the first seven episodes of season one to garner fewer than 10 million viewers for its initial air date.

Plot
The team takes on the case of an ailing groom-to-be (guest star Adam Garcia) named Ted. He fainted at his wedding after having a round of aphasia (loss of voice). House unexpectedly pokes him with a needle and Ted says "ow." House claims Ted was faking to avoid getting married. However, he has a pleural effusion as he's being discharged.

Thirteen and Taub check where Ted lived before he moved into his fiancée's room, but the owner comes back and sees them. The owner, Cotter, claims to be Ted's ex-boyfriend of three years. The team tests Ted for HIV/AIDS but he's negative. Thirteen talks to him and finds out he had "treatment" to become heterosexual. He had electro convulsion therapy and was injected with many different chemicals. The chemicals could explain the pleural effusion and the ECT could explain the rest. The team thinks the ECT could have caused head trauma. During the EKG, Ted has a heart attack. Foreman decides to do an angiogram to see if it's blocks or bleeds. The team comes in to prep Ted for his angio, but every time he sits up he faints, and he stabilizes when he lies down. House thinks it could be postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), causing his blood pressure to plummet when he's upright.

While Ted is sleeping, Cotter comes to visit, but when he takes Ted's hand, Nicole asks him to leave. Nicole then confronts Ted about exactly who Cotter is. Ted admits he used to think he was gay, but got help and insists he is straight now. At that moment, Ted starts to have a severe headache. This leads House to think infection. Taub suggests cerebral infection, which would explain the headaches and cause POTS. It could also spread to the heart if it's fungal. House orders a spinal tap and says to run the CSF. But Ted tests negative for infections and his headaches get worse. House thinks the spinal tap caused Ted to spring a leak, worsening the headaches. Low pressure in the brain caused the POTS, not the other way around. However, Ted's face twists in a strange way. It's not POTS.

They get Nicole, Ted, and Cotter in the same room to redo Ted's history, hoping this time it will be more accurate. Nicole says Ted sometimes has erectile dysfunction, but Cotter claims they never had such problems. Taub suggests that arterial disease causing acute ischemia could explain the heart, neurological symptoms, and possibly even POTS. The test shows everything's normal with his penis' blood flow, but Ted starts to lactate. Taub suggests a pituitary tumor which could explain his libido and heart issues, and if the tumor's big enough, the headaches and syncope as well. The team checks his prolactin level and MRI his pituitary.

Talking to Wilson, House has an idea. Ted has an Arnold–Chiari malformation, a narrowing in the base of his skull. Ted's therapy caused his brain to swell just enough to plug the opening, cutting off his CSF. His brain pressing against his pituitary caused the other symptoms. He declares that he has chosen the life he wants to lead, that he loves his fiancée and wants to get married. She says she must make her choice and cannot marry him.

Meanwhile, House spends extracurricular time with his Princeton Plainsboro colleagues. Taub invites House to dinner, Thirteen invites him to come with her to a lesbian bar, and House performs a karaoke rendition of "Midnight Train to Georgia" with Foreman and Chase. It's revealed that Wilson has been setting House up for dates with his team members as he's concerned for House's well-being. He pays them to spend time with House so he has someone to be with while Wilson spends time with Sam. It also becomes apparent that House's pain is becoming too much to bear, as he starts turning to alcohol for relief.

The show closes with Cuddy asking House if he would go to dinner with her. She states that she wants to be friends, and House retorts, as the closing remark, that it is the last thing he wants, with the unspoken suggestion that he wants more. The last scene involves House stroking his leg in pain, glancing at ibuprofen before deciding to pull a bottle of alcohol from his desk and drinking.

Response

Ratings
The episode accumulated 9.982 million US viewers and ranked 22nd in the week.

Critical reception
The episode was generally positively received.

Unrealityshout.com reviewed the episode very positively and said of it that: "House delivers his punchiest episode in weeks with The Choice. Greg House is at his absolute best when he's firing out acerbic one liners like a sniper with a machine gun full of sarcasm bullets..." but also noted that the sixth season had suffered slightly and that this particular episode redeemed it.

IGN gave the episode an "Impressive" score of 8.4 and noted that: "This was a strong episode filled with many overlapping themes, and unlike last week's mysterious illness which seemed to be cured from out of the blue, this week's diagnosis made for great TV as it was dripping with irony," and said in summary that "there was a lot to like about this episode, depressing as it may have been. The patient-of-the-week story arc was well plotted out and the diagnosis felt justified, albeit cruel."

TVFanatic gave the episode a score of 4.2/5.0 and praised it for being a "solid episode".

References

External links

House (season 6) episodes
2010 American television episodes
American LGBT-related television episodes

fr:The Choice

The Choice (House)


Conjugations are forms of verbs that are changed to agree with the subject that is doing the action described by the verb. Usually most of the word stays the same, but the endings change. Most conjugation systems follow some sort of pattern within the language.

Example: French verb for 'to eat'- "manger" (stem: mang)
("manger" is the infinitive of the verb. The infinitive is the un-conjugated form of the verb, literally the "to do" something form such as to walk, to play, to eat. In English one does not say "I like eat" one must say "I like to eat". In both English and French ("J'aime manger") the infinitive form of the verb would be used in this case.

The pattern here is that the "er" is removed from the verb and replaced with a different ending depending on the subject(who's doing the eating). This pattern is good for many French conjugations, but not all, and in other languages, conjugation patterns are going to be very different.

Related pages
Declension

Other websites
conjugation.com All English verbs conjugated in any tense, any form, any voice
Conjugation of over 7,000 English verbs.
Online Conjugator for 85 different languages

Grammar

Conjugation


Capital budgeting in corporate finance, corporate planning and accounting is area of capital management that concerns the planning process used to determine whether an organization's long term capital investments such as new machinery, replacement of machinery, new plants, new products, and research  development projects are worth the funding of cash through the firm's capitalization structures (debt, equity or retained earnings). It is the process of allocating resources for major capital, or investment, expenditures.
An underlying goal, consistent with the overall approach in corporate finance, is to increase the value of the firm to the shareholders.

Capital budgeting is typically considered a non-core business activity as it is not part of the revenue model or models of most types of firms, or even a part of daily operations. It holds a strategic financial function within a business. One example of a firm type where capital budgeting is plausibly a part of the core business activities is with investment banks, as their revenue model or models rely on financial strategy to a considerable degree.

For the budget allocated to ongoing expenses and revenue, see operating budget.

Techniques
Many formal methods are used in capital budgeting, including the techniques such as
 Accounting rate of return
 Average accounting return
 Payback period
 Net present value
 Profitability index
 Internal rate of return
 Modified internal rate of return
 Equivalent annual cost
 Real options valuation

These methods use the incremental cash flows from each potential investment, or project. Techniques based on accounting earnings and accounting rules are sometimes used - though economists consider this to be improper -  such as the accounting rate of return, and "return on investment."  Simplified and hybrid methods are used as well, such as payback period and discounted payback period.

Net present value

Cash flows are discounted at the cost of capital to give the net present value (NPV) added to the firm. Unless capital is constrained, or there are dependencies between projects, in order to maximize the value added to the firm, the firm would accept all projects with positive NPV. This method accounts for the time value of money. For the mechanics of the valuation here, see Valuation using discounted cash flows.

Mutually exclusive projects are a set of projects from which at most one will be accepted, for example, a set of projects which accomplish the same task. Thus when choosing between mutually exclusive projects, more than one of the projects may satisfy the capital budgeting criterion, but only one project can be accepted; see below #Ranked projects.

Internal rate of return

The internal rate of return (IRR) is the discount rate that gives a net present value (NPV) of zero. It is a widely used measure of investment efficiency. To maximize return, sort projects in order of IRR.

Many projects have a simple cash flow structure, with a negative cash flow at the start, and subsequent cash flows are positive. In such a case, if the IRR is greater than the cost of capital, the NPV is positive, so for non-mutually exclusive projects in an unconstrained environment, applying this criterion will result in the same decision as the NPV method.

An example of a project with cash flows which do not conform to this pattern is a loan, consisting of a positive cash flow at the beginning, followed by negative cash flows later. The greater the IRR of the loan, the higher the rate the borrower must pay, so clearly, a lower IRR is preferable in this case. Any such loan with IRR less than the cost of capital has a positive NPV.

Excluding such cases, for investment projects, where the pattern of cash flows is such that the higher the IRR, the higher the NPV, for mutually exclusive projects, the decision rule of taking the project with the highest IRR will maximize the return, but it may select a project with a lower NPV.

In some cases, several solutions to the equation NPV = 0 may exist, meaning there is more than one possible IRR. The IRR exists and is unique if one or more years of net investment (negative cash flow) are followed by years of net revenues.  But if the signs of the cash flows change more than once, there may be several IRRs.  The IRR equation generally cannot be solved analytically but only via iterations.

IRR is the return on capital invested, over the sub-period it is invested. It may be impossible to reinvest intermediate cash flows at the same rate as the IRR. Accordingly, a measure called Modified Internal Rate of Return (MIRR) is designed to overcome this issue, by simulating reinvestment of cash flows at a second rate of return.

Despite a strong academic preference for maximizing the value of the firm according to NPV, surveys indicate that executives prefer to maximize returns.

Equivalent annuity method

The equivalent annuity method expresses the NPV as an annualized cash flow by dividing it by the present value of the annuity factor.  It is often used when assessing only the costs of specific projects that have the same cash inflows.  In this form, it is known as the equivalent annual cost (EAC) method and is the cost per year of owning and operating an asset over its entire lifespan.

It is often used when comparing investment projects of unequal lifespans.  For example, if project A has an expected lifetime of 7 years, and project B has an expected lifetime of 11 years it would be improper to simply compare the net present values (NPVs) of the two projects, unless the projects could not be repeated.

The use of the EAC method implies that the project will be replaced by an identical project.

Alternatively, the chain method can be used with the NPV method under the assumption that the projects will be replaced with the same cash flows each time. To compare projects of unequal length, say, 3 years and 4 years, the projects are chained together, i.e. four repetitions of the 3-year project are compare to three repetitions of the 4-year project.  The chain method and the EAC method give mathematically equivalent answers.

The assumption of the same cash flows for each link in the chain is essentially an assumption of zero inflation, so a real interest rate rather than a nominal interest rate is commonly used in the calculations.

Real options

Real options analysis has become important since the 1970s as option pricing models have gotten more sophisticated.  The discounted cash flow methods essentially value projects as if they were risky bonds, with the promised cash flows known.  But managers will have many choices of how to increase future cash inflows, or to decrease future cash outflows.  In other words, managers get to manage the projects - not simply accept or reject them.  Real options analysis tries to value the choices - the option value - that the managers will have in the future and adds these values to the NPV.

Ranked projects
The real value of capital budgeting is to rank projects.  Most organizations have many projects that could potentially be financially rewarding.  Once it has been determined that a particular project has exceeded its hurdle, then it should be ranked against peer projects (e.g. - highest Profitability index to lowest Profitability index).  The highest ranking projects should be implemented until the budgeted capital has been expended.

Funding sources
Capital budgeting investments and projects must be funded through excess cash provided through the raising of debt capital, equity capital, or the use of retained earnings.
Debt capital is borrowed cash, usually in the form of bank loans, or bonds issued to creditors.
Equity capital are investments made by shareholders, who purchase shares in the company's stock.
Retained earnings are excess cash surplus from the company's present and past earnings.

Each of these sources has its own characteristics re (i) the required rate of return expected by capital providers, with the consequent impact on overall cost of capital, as well as (ii) implications for cash flow.
The "financing mix" selected will thus effect the valuation of the firm:  discusses these two interrelated considerations .

Need
A large sum of money is involved, which influences the profitability of the firm, making capital budgeting an important task.
Long-term investments, once made, cannot be reversed without a significant loss of invested capital. The investment becomes sunk, and mistakes, rather than being readily rectified, must often be borne until the project can be withdrawn through depreciation charges or, in the worst case, liquidation of the firm. It influences the whole conduct of the business for years to come.
Investment decisions are the major decisions that will cause profit to be earned for the firm and will probably be measured through return on capital. A proper mix of capital investment is quite important to ensure an adequate rate of return on investment, which calls for capital budgeting.
The implications of long term investment decisions are more extensive than those of short-run decisions because of the time factor involved; capital budgeting decisions are subject to a higher degree of risk and uncertainty than short-run decisions.

See also
 Operating budget
 Engineering Economics
 Engineering economics (civil engineering)
 Valuation using discounted cash flows, and especially #Determine equity value

 Supply chain finance

References

Further reading
International Good Practice Guidance: Project Appraisal Using Discounted Cash Flow, International Federation of Accountants, June 2008,
Prospective Analysis: Guidelines for Forecasting Financial Statements, Ignacio Velez-Pareja, Joseph Tham, 2008
To Plug or Not to Plug, that is the Question: No Plugs, No Circularity: A Better Way to Forecast Financial Statements, Ignacio Velez-Pareja, 2008
A Step by Step Guide to Construct a Financial Model Without Plugs and Without Circularity for Valuation Purposes, Ignacio Velez-Pareja, 2008
Long-Term Financial Statements Forecasting: Reinvesting Retained Earnings, Sergei Cheremushkin, 2008

Management theory
Corporate finance
Investment
Business planning
Budgets

Capital budgeting


Deoksugung, also known as Gyeongun-gung, Deoksugung Palace, or Deoksu Palace, (Deoksugung ; 덕수궁, 德壽宮), is one of the five grand palaces of the Korean Joseon Dynasty.

When the Japanese invaded Joseon in 1592, King Seonjo escaped from Hanyang (present-day Seoul) and fled to Uiju. When the war finished, he returned to Seoul.
But there was no place for him to stay, because all of the palaces (such as Gyeongbok Palace, Changdeok Palace, Changgyeong Palace) had burned down during the war.

So, he lived in this place, which was originally the home of Prince Wolsandaegun who was King Seongjong's elder brother.

King Gwanghaegun who succeeded King Seonjo renamed this palace Gyeongun Palace (Gyeongungung ; 경운궁).
The palace became a secondary royal residence after the king moved to Changdeok Palace.
Queen Dowager Inmok was confined to the palace, and it was renamed West Palace(Seogung ; 서궁).
After he was overthrown by King Injo, it was returned to itsoriginal owners.

After two years, King Gojong returned to power and he chose to live in this palace.
He renamed this palace Gyeongun Palace again.
An electrical system and fencing were installed at the palace, and the name of the palace was changed to Deoksugung Palace: meaning the palace of virtuous longevity.
He remained at the palace even after he had relinquished the throne to his son, Emperor Yunghui (or Emperor Sunjong ; 융희제, 순종)

From 1910 until 1945, when Korea was under the colonial rule of Japan, the palaces's buildings were destroyed and made into a public park.

Buildings and structures in South Korea
Palaces in Asia

Deoksugung


Tetramethoxyamphetamine, or 2,3,4,5-tetramethoxyamphetamine, is a lesser-known psychedelic drug and a substituted amphetamine. Tetramethoxyamphetamine was first synthesized by Alexander Shulgin. In his book PiHKAL (Phenethylamines i Have Known And Loved), the minimum dosage is listed as 50 mg, and the duration unknown. Tetramethoxyamphetamine produces a threshold, mydriasis, and a headache. Limited data exists about its pharmacological properties, metabolism, and toxicity.

References

External links
 Tetramethoxyamphetamine entry in PiHKAL
 Tetramethoxyamphetamine entry in PiHKAL • info

Substituted amphetamines
Methoxy compounds

2,3,4,5-Tetramethoxyamphetamine