The Constitution of the Dominican Republic says that the country is a presidential democratic republic. It is a republic because the chief of State is a president, and not a king, queen or emperor. It is presidential because the president is also the head of government and there is not a prime minister as in other countries. It is democratic because the president, vice-president and the members of Congress are elected by the people.

National government
The Constitution also says that there are three branches of government with separation of powers. They are the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. The three branches are independent from each other.

Executive branch
The executive branch is the part of the government that enforces the law. The people elects a President (and a Vice-President) who is the leader of the executive branch, as well as the leader of the Armed Forces. The President decides whether or not the bills that the Legislative branch passes will become laws. He may also make "decrees" to govern the country and to name persons in different positions. The President is in charge of many departments that control all of the different parts of the government. These departments are called Secretaries of State because they help the President to govern the country. For example, the Secretary of State of Agriculture takes care of the agriculture of the country. The President may serve two 4-year terms, making 8 years in all.

Legislative branch
The legislative branch is the part of the government that makes laws. The legislative branch is made up of Congress, which is located in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. The Congress is divided into two groups or "chambers".

One group is the Chamber of Deputies (Cámara de Diputados). The Chamber of Deputies is made up of Deputies, who are each elected by voters from their own province. The number of Deputies a province has is based on how many people live there: the more people a province has, the more deputies it gets. No province can have less than two Deputies. Deputies serve 4-year terms. The total number of Deputies for the period 2006-2010 is 178.

The other house is the Senate (Senado). In the Senate, each province is represented equally, by one Senator. Senators serve 4-year terms. There are 32 Senators, one for every province and one for the National District, where the capital city is.

Judicial branch
The judicial branch is the part of government makes sure that the laws are obeyed and interprets what the law means. The judicial branch is made up of the Supreme Court and many lower courts. If the Supreme Court decides that a law is not allowed by the Constitution, then it is not a law anymore. The Supreme Court is made up of at least 11 judges. The head of the Supreme Court is called the President of the Supreme Court. A Supreme Court Justice serves until he or she either dies, or resigns (quits in the middle of his or her term). The Supreme Court controls all the courts in the country.

Provincial and municipal government
There is a governor in every province; there is not a governor in the National District, where is the capital of the country. The governors are only representatives of the President of the Republic.

Every province is divided into two or more municipalities (Spanish: municipios, singular municipio); the Distrito Nacional has only one municipality - Santo Domingo.

Municipalities
There are only two branches in the municipalities: the executive and the legislative. They are elected for four years by the people that lives in the municipality.

The Mayor (Síndico) is the head of the executive branch and the Municipal Council (Ayuntamiento) is the legislative branch.

The rural parts of a municipality are divided into Secciones (singular, Sección; in English, "section"); every Sección has a person which represents the municipal administration.

The Dominican Republic has 154 municipalities (municipios) (June 20 2006).

Municipal districts
A municipality can have one municipal district (distrito municipal) or more. A municipal council (Junta Municipal) for such a municipal district is elected by the municipal council of the municipality to which it belongs and not for the people that lives there.

There are 202 municipal districts (distrito municipal) in the Dominican Republic (June 20 2006).

References

Politics of the Dominican Republic

Government of the Dominican Republic


David Finkelhor (born 1947) is an American sociologist known for his research into child sexual abuse and related topics. He is the director of the Crimes against Children Research Center, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory and professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire.

Life and career
Finkelhor graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1964, then attended Harvard College, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Relations in 1968. While at Harvard, he took courses at the Institut d'Études Politiques, University of Paris in 1967. He earned his M. Ed. in 1971 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and he received his Ph.D. in Sociology from University of New Hampshire in 1978 where he studied under Murray A. Straus.

Finkelhor is also a senior faculty fellow and Master in Public Policy faculty member at the Carsey School of Public Policy.

Finkelhor began studying the child abuse problems of child victimization, child maltreatment and family violence in 1977. He is known for his conceptual and empirical work on the problem of child sexual abuse, reflected in publications such as Sourcebook on Child Sexual Abuse (Sage, 1986) and Nursery Crimes (Sage, 1988). He has also written about child homicide, missing and abducted children, children exposed to domestic and peer violence and other forms of family violence. His 2008 book, Child Victimization, sought to unify and integrate knowledge about diverse forms of child victimization in a field he has termed "developmental victimology".

Finkelhor has received grants from sources including the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, and the US Department of Justice. In 1994, he was given the Distinguished Child Abuse Professional Award by the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. In 2004 he was given the Significant Achievement Award from the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. In 2005 he and his colleagues received the Child Maltreatment Article of the Year award, and in 2007 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Criminology.

Finkelhor researches and has authored many studies, articles, and books on child sexual abuse. He is associated with the model which suggests that there are four preconditions which need to be met in order for child sexual abuse to occur:
an offender with a predisposition to sexually abuse a child;
the ability to overcome the offender's internal inhibitions against acting on that predisposition;
an ability to overcome external barriers, such as lack of access to the child or supervision of the child by others;
an ability to overcome any resistance or reluctance on the part of the child.

He has stated that he intends to continue his research until he proves "an unambiguous and persuasive case that the problem [of child sexual abuse] is widespread". According to Kenneth Plummer, he is "probably the most prominent sociologist at work in the field [of child sexual abuse]".

In 1988 Finkelhor completed an investigation of child sexual abuse in daycares in the United States in response to the satanic ritual abuse panic and co-authored a book with Linda M. Williams. Mary de Young, a sociologist who has written about the moral panic that occurred along with the McMartin preschool trial, criticized the work for a lack of verifiable evidence and incorrect conclusions. It was also cited by Bruce Rind in his controversial work that concluded that the harm caused by child sexual abuse was not necessarily intense or pervasive.

References

External links
Crimes against Children Research Center
David Finkelhor bio & curriculum vitae

Living people
American sociologists
Domestic violence academics
Child sexual abuse in the United States
1947 births
Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni
Phillips Exeter Academy alumni
University of New Hampshire faculty
Harvard College alumni

David Finkelhor


63 Building is a skyscraper on Yeouido (island) in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul in South Korea. Despite its name, it actually has 66 floors – 63 floors above ground and 3 floors underground. Construction started in February 1980, and was completed in May 1985. At that time, the name of the building was "Daehanlife 63 Building", but the name of this has changed to "63 City." It was the highest building in Asia at the moment of being built. It is now the 5th highest building in even Korea – the highest building in Korea is Northeast Asia Trade Tower in Incheon. But from now on, 63 Building is known as the most famous landmark in Korea.

Before it was built, South Korea was in the period of development. Therefore, it was decided to build the highest building in Asia to beat Sunshine 60 in Tokyo, Japan. There were also no buildings which were higher than 31 floors in South Korea. The process of building was chosen very fast.

63 building is actually a building for Hanhwa Group but it also has some cultural areas for visitors. Except for the top 3 floors, visitors can enjoy all of the building. There is an aquarium named "63 Sea World", IMAX theater, and observatory with museum named "63 Sky-art." There are also many areas like food courts and restaurants.

63 Sea World was opened at July 27th, 1985, and has over 400 species and 20,000 marine lives in there. It also has a coelcanth and oarfish. The theater in 63 Building is the first IMAX theater in Korea. The "63 Buffet Pavilion" is known as one of the greatest restaurants in Seoul.

There are six elevators which were made by Mitsubishi in 63 Building, and their speed is about 540 meters per minute. It is the fastest elevator in Korea. For subway, there are two stations, Noryangjin station in Line 1 and Line 9.

Other websites
Official English-language website

Skyscrapers in Asia
Buildings and structures in Seoul

63 Building


Inverurie (Scots Gaelic: Inbhir Uraidh) is a Ryal Burgh in Aiberdeenshire, Scotland, aboot 16 mile nor'wast o Aiberdeen on the A96 road an lees on the "Northern Express Railway Route" frae Aiberdeen tae Innerness. The maist naurhaund airport is Aiberdeen Internaitional Airport at Dyce.

Geography
Inverurie sits in Strathdon at the centre o Aiberdeenshire. The toun straddles the River Don an the River Ury, is surroundit bi farmland an anerly fower mile frae the imposin moontain o Bennachie. The toun centre is slichtly triangular an is dominatit bi the grand "Toun Hall" biggit in the late 1800s. In the middle o the "square" (as it is kent locally) is the Inverurie War Memorial cappit bi a lone Gordon Highlander lookin oot ower the toun. The main shoppin auries include the "Square" an wast High Street that stems aff frae the centre taewart the mair residential pairt o the toun.  The pairt o the toun sooth o the Don is actually cried Port Elphinstone. Housamever, it is common tae hear the title "Inverurie" uised tae refer tae baith Inverurie an Port Elphinstone as a single toun.

Wird beginnins
The wird "Inverurie" comes frae the Scots Gaelic Inbhir Uraidh meanin "Mooth o the Ury" efter the burn that jynes the Don jist sooth o the toun.

It wis commonly spelt "Inverury" until the late 1800s when, it is allegit, it wis altert tae evit confusion wi Inveraray in Argyll, on the sooth wast coast o Scotland acause it wis felt that "a" an "u" war parteecularly haurd tae distinguish in handwritten addresses.

History
Inverurie is said tae hae been foundit bi David o Huntingdon, Earl o the Garioch, brither o Malcolm IV, great-great-grandfather o Robert the Bruce wha defeatit the Comyns nearby at the Battle o Barra on Christmas Eve 1307.

Its religious foundation pre-dates this bi five centuries wi the establishment o the Kirk o Inverurie nou kent as St Andrew's Parish Kirk.

Houiver, the toun's earliest kent charter dates frae 1558, wi its modren development takin place efter the biggin o the Aiberdeenshire Canal linkin Port Elphinstone wi Aiberdeen Harbour in 1806. The Inverurie Locomotive Works (1905-1969) led tae a modest increase in size an prosperity, but it wis nae until the "Oil Boom" o the last quarter o the 20t century that the toun developt intae much o its present form.

The nearby Easter Aquorthies an the stane circle at Newseat is a recumbent stone circle o the North East o Scotland, auncient monuments datin back tae the 3rd Millennium BC. Thare hae been three weel kent battles in the toun: The Battle o Inverurie (1308), the Battle o Harlaw (24 July 1411) aqueesh Donald o Islay, Laird o the Isles (MacDonald) an an airmy commandit bi Alexander Stewart, Earl o Mar; an the Battle o Inverurie (1745) durin the Jacobite Rebellion o that year.

Industry
Inverurie is a thrivin market toun, nou wi a monthly Farmer's Market, wi mony smaw shops, businesses an services. Its main industries ither than service an commerce are agricultur, yle an paper manufacture. Agriculture continues tae be a mainstay o Inverurie's economy, as it haes duin syne the toun's inception. Thainstone Mart, tae the sooth east o the toun, is the mucklest livestock market in Scotland, an rents oot commercial units tae various agricultural support services. Leein beside Thainstone Mart, the paper mill is a major employer an aw.

Follaein the discovery o North Sea oil in the mid 1970s, several oil service companies appeart in Inverurie. Mony residents wha wark in this sector dae sae on affshore oil installations in the North Sea on a "twa week on- twa week aff - or four week on, or six week on" basis in addition tae those wha wark in the toun itself.

In recent years, Inverurie haes seen increasin nummers o Aiberdeen commuters gangin tae live thare; that gars it be "the fastest growin toun in Great Britain".

Language
Inverurie natives speak the Aiberdeenshire Doric dialect o Scots.

Inverurie Doric haes acome weaker in recent years due tae an influx o residents frae Ingland an central Scotland tae the aurie, an the state curriculum, yet it haes survived. The Doric Festival that is held in Inverurie ilka October, helps tae promote an keep alive this pairt o the North East identity, housamever, the range o the Doric vocabulary in Inverurie is mair leemitit than in the mair rural pairts o Aiberdeenshire.

Historically, Pictish is the auncient language o the aurie, that can be foun in mony placenames. It appears tae hae been a Brythonic language. The Book o Deer oreeginates frae a few mile tae the north east.

Sports
Inverurie Loco Works F.C., playin thair matches at Harlaw Pairk, are the local Highland League fitbaa team an Aiberdeen F.C. is the nearest Scots Premier League team. Rugby Union is played bi the Garioch Rugby Football Club.

Inverurie is  a member o the Aiberdeenshire Cricket Association an a'.

Umshile Warld Squash Number Ane Peter Nicol, wis born in Inverurie.

Colony Pairk Fitbaa Club are the toun's juvenile team, an the mucklest juvenile club in Scotland wi ower 400 members haein been foundit bi Dod Reid, MBE, in 1978.

Education
Thare are fower primary schools, ane seicontary schuil an ane Special School athin Inverurie:
 Inverurie Market Place School
 Kellands School
 Port Elphinstone School
 Strathburn School
 Inverurie Academy
 St Andrews School

Touns in Aiberdeenshire
Mercat touns in Scotland
Ryal burghs
Post touns in the AB postcode aurie
Places o Scotland

References

Innerurie


The José María Alviso Adobe, located in Milpitas, California, United States, was the home of José María Alviso, an early alcalde (mayor) of neighboring Pueblo de San Jose. It was built in 1837 and enlarged in the early 1850s, and stands as an excellent example of the Monterey Colonial style of architecture popularized throughout California in the 1830s and 1840s. It is the only remaining example of this style in the Santa Clara Valley and San Francisco Bay Area. The adobe is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The building is the result of a major remodeling completed by 1853 by the Alviso family. They added a wood-frame second floor to the family's one-story adobe house. Before the remodeling in 1853, the earlier building, built around 1837, most likely as a one-story adobe, provided the thick adobe walls of the first floor. The Alviso Adobe is a two-story residence with a hipped roof and a balcony carried on three sides. The plan of the rectangular residence is symmetrical, comprising three rooms downstairs with three upstairs rooms. The Alviso Adobe contains a remarkable amount of historic fabric—adobe walls from the 1830s, examples of framing and doors, windows, hardware from 1853 and an almost intact 1920s kitchen. It is unusual to find a building as little altered over a period of 150 years.

The Alviso Adobe exhibits the character-defining features of the Monterey style: wood-shingled hipped roof, wood balconies on three sides, paired French doors opening to the outside, multi-paned windows, interior fireplaces, and a symmetrical layout.

The property is under renovation. The project work comprises the upgrading of the existing historic farm to reflect the theme of a working ranch and orchard as it would have appeared in the 1920s. A number of mature trees are present on the site. A barn containing timbers dating to the 1840s was recently demolished. Both historic and prehistoric subsurface cultural remains have been documented in the vicinity of the residence.

Footnotes

References

 José Maria Alviso Adobe - information

Adobe buildings and structures in California
Buildings and structures in Milpitas, California
Houses in Santa Clara County, California
Houses completed in 1837
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in California
National Register of Historic Places in Santa Clara County, California
Spanish Colonial architecture in California

Jose Maria Alviso Adobe


Glue is a 2001 novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. Glue tells the stories of four Scottish boys over four decades, through the use of different perspectives and different voices. It addresses sex, drugs, violence, and other social issues in Scotland, mapping "the furious energies of working-class masculinity in the late 20th century, using a compulsive mixture of Lothians dialect, libertarian socialist theory, and an irresistible black humour." The title refers not to solvent abuse, but the metaphorical glue holding the four friends together through changing times.

The four main characters are Terry Lawson (Juice Terry), Billy Birrell (Business Birrell), Andrew Galloway (Gally), Carl Ewart (DJ N-Sign). We first meet them as small children in 1970, then as teenagers around 1980, as young men around 1990 (on holiday in Munich), and as men in their late thirties around 2000 (during the Edinburgh Festival). The novel is split into five different sections.

Characters
Carl "The Milky Bar Kid" Ewart: Carl is, along with Billy, one of the four boys to have a stable family environment. This makes him one of the group's most normal and well-adjusted members. His father, Duncan, instilled both a love of music and strong code of ethics in his son from a very young age. Carl is very philosophical and open minded, despite sometimes being self-centered and arrogant. He is close to his mates, especially Gally. He is called "The Milky Bar Kid" because of his white-blond hair. He eventually strikes it big as a DJ and his nickname becomes N-SIGN Ewart.
Parents: Duncan and Maria Ewart
Billy "Business" Birrell: Billy is the most driven member of the group. He is very honorable and believes in fairness. As a youth he gets involved in amateur boxing and eventually goes pro, becoming very successful, in part because of his involvement with some shady gangsters. Billy becomes the most successful member of the group, eventually running a bar after retiring from boxing. This, however, estranges him from his old friends.
Father: Wullie; Brother: Rab Birrell
Terence Henry "Juice Terry" Lawson: Terry is a self-centered waster whose main interests are sex and drinking. His father Henry deserted the family when he was a young child, fueling a lifelong hatred for the man. He also hates Walter Ulrich, the German man his mother married after his father left. He is very disrespectful to his mother and is very sexist. In the later parts of his life, he supports himself through theft and unemployment benefit. Terry is very arrogant and insults everyone, even his close friends. Despite his faults, he is a caring and faithful friend. His nickname Juice Terry is derived from the job he had as a teenager selling juice in the scheme.
Sister: Yvonne Lawson
Andrew "Gally" Galloway: Gally is the heart and soul of the group, yet suffers from an intense self-hatred. His father was a criminal who was incarcerated throughout Gally's childhood. Because of this, Gally became the man of the house, looking out for his mother and sister. He is a gentle and caring person, but is sometimes prone to fits of anger. He serves two terms in jail during the novel, and becomes HIV positive through using heroin to combat his depression. His depression is fueled by his relationship with Gail, a woman he lost his virginity to after being released from juvenile hall at 18 and subsequently impregnated. He married Gail, but their relationship suffered due to her infidelity. She takes his daughter from him after she is injured during one of their fights. All this leads to drastic actions by Gally which split the group apart.

Other characters
"Post" Alec Connolly: Terry's friend, an alcoholic and one time postman who assists Terry with house burglary.
 "Polmont" McMurray: a largely silent acquaintance of the group whose actions have a major impact  on Gally in particular.
 Kathryn Joyner: a famous but troubled American singer whose chance meeting with Terry in one of the novel's comical scenes, leads to an unexpected night out in Edinburgh.

References

2001 British novels
Jonathan Cape books
Novels by Irvine Welsh
Novels set in Edinburgh

Glue (novel)


Simon Smith Kuznets ( ; ; April 30, 1901 – July 8, 1985) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1971 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for his empirically founded interpretation of economic growth which has led to new and deepened insight into the economic and social structure and process of development."

Kuznets made a decisive contribution to the transformation of economics into an empirical science and to the formation of quantitative economic history.

Biography

Early life
Simon Kuznets was born in Pinsk in 1901, in the Russian Empire, or what is today Belarus,  to Lithuanian-Jewish parents. He completed his schooling, first at the Rivne, then, Kharkiv Realschule of Ukraine. In 1918, Kuznets entered the Kharkiv Institute of Commerce where he studied economic sciences, statistics, history and mathematics under the guidance of professors P. Fomin (political economy), A. Antsiferov (statistics), V. Levitsky (economic history and economic thought), S. Bernstein (probability theory), V. Davats (mathematics), and others. Basic academic courses at the Institute helped him to acquire "exceptional" erudition in economics, as well as in history, demography, statistics and natural sciences. According to the institute's curriculum, development of national economies had to be analyzed in the wider context of changes in "connected spheres" and with the involvement of proper methods and empirical data. There, he began to study economics, and became exposed to Joseph Schumpeter's theory of innovation and the business cycle.

At the turn of the decade, the normal work in the institute was interrupted by the events of the Civil War; reorganizations were undertaken by the Soviet authorities in the sphere of the higher education. There is no precise information whether Kuznets continued his studies at the institute, but it is known that he joined the Department of Labor of UZHBURO (South Bureau) of the Central Council of Trade Unions. There, he published his first scientific paper, "Monetary wages and salaries of factory workers in Kharkov in 1920"; he explored the dynamics of different types of wages by industries in Kharkov and income differentiation, depending on the wage system.

Emigration to the United States
In 1922, the Kuznets family emigrated to the United States. Kuznets then studied at Columbia University under the guidance of Wesley Clair Mitchell. He graduated with a B.S. in 1923, M.A. in 1924, and Ph.D. in 1926. As his magister thesis, he defended his essay "Economic system of Dr. Schumpeter, presented and analyzed", written in Kharkiv. From 1925 to 1926, Kuznets spent time studying economic patterns in prices as the Research Fellow at the Social Science Research Council. It was this work that led to his book "Secular Movements in Production and Prices", defended as a doctoral thesis and published in 1930.

In 1927, he became a member of the research staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), where he worked until 1961. From 1931 until 1936, Kuznets was a part-time professor at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1937 he was elected as a fellow of the American Statistical Association. He was elected to the Pi Gamma Mu social science honor society chapter at the University of Pennsylvania and actively served as a chapter officer in the 1940s; becoming a full-time professor from 1936 until 1954. In 1954, Kuznets moved to Johns Hopkins University, where he was professor of political economy until 1960. From 1961 until his retirement in 1970, Kuznets taught at Harvard.

Apart from that, Kuznets collaborated with a number of research organizations and government agencies. From 1931 to 1934, at Mitchell's behest, Kuznets took charge of the NBER's work on U.S. national income accounts, giving the first official estimation of the US national income. In 1936, Kuznets took the lead in establishing the Conference on Research, Income and Wealth, which brought together government officials and academic economists, engaged in the development of the U.S. national income and product accounts, and in 1947 helped to establish its international counterpart, the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth.

During the Second World War, between 1942 and 1944, Kuznets became the associate director of the Bureau of Planning and Statistics of the War Production Board. He took part in work to assess the country's capacity to expand military production. Researchers used national income accounting, together with a rough form of linear programming, to measure the potential for increased production and the resources from which it would come, and to identify the materials that were binding constraints on expansion.

After the war, he worked as an advisor for the governments of China, Japan, India, Korea, Taiwan, and Israel in the establishment of their national systems of economic information. Kuznets cooperated with the Growth Center of Yale University, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). He guided extensive research, holding a number of positions in research institutions, such as the Chairman of the Falk Project for Economic Research in Israel, 1953–1963; member of the board of trustees and honorary chairman, Maurice Falk Institute for Economic Research in Israel, from 1963; and chairman, Social Science Research Council Committee on the Economy of China, 1961–1970.

Kuznets was elected as the President of the American Economic Association (1954), President of the American Statistical Association (1949), an honorable member of the Association of Economic History, the Royal Statistical Society of England and a member of the Econometric Society, the International Statistical Institute, the American Philosophical Society, the Royal Swedish Academy and a corresponding member of the British Academy. He was awarded the Medal of Francis Walker (1977).

Simon Kuznets died on July 8, 1985, at the age of 84. In 2013 The Kharkiv National University of Economics, where he studied in 1918–1921 was named after him; Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics.

Impact on economics
His name is associated with the formation of modern economic science as an empirical discipline, the development of statistical methods of research and the emergence of quantitative economic history. Kuznets is credited with revolutionising econometrics, and this work is credited with fueling the so-called Keynesian revolution.

Kuznets' views and scientific methodology were highly influenced by methodological settings received by him in Kharkiv and fully shared by Mitchell for the statistical, inductive construction of hypotheses in economics and its empirical testing. Kuznets treated a priori and speculative conceptions with deep skepticism. At the same time, Kuznets tended to analyze economy in connection with the wider context of historical situation, demographic, and social processes, a method that was peculiar to the Kharkiv academics at the beginning of the 20th century. Kuznets was influenced by the work of such leading theorists as Joseph A. Schumpeter (who probed the relationship between technological change and business cycles), A. C. Pigou (who identified circumstances under which markets failed to maximize economic welfare), and Vilfredo Pareto (who propounded a law governing the distribution of income among households). Kuznets was closely familiar with the economics of Russia and Ukraine of the early 20th century. In the 1920s, he reviewed and translated the papers of Kondratiev, Slutsky, Pervushin, Weinstein. who were then little known in the West.

Historical series of economic dynamics and Kuznets cycles, or "long swings"
The first major research project in which Kuznets was involved was the study of long series of economic dynamics in the USA undertaken in the mid-1920s. The collected data covered the period from 1865 to 1925, and for some indices achieved 1770. Applying for the analysis of time series approximating Gompertz and logistic curves, Kuznets found that the characteristics of the curves with reasonable accuracy described the majority of economic processes. Fitting trend curves to data and analysis of the time series, comparison of theoretical and empirical levels, allowed him to identify medium-term extended cycles of economic activity, which lasted 15–25 years and had an intermediate position between the Kondratyev "long waves" and short business cycles. Aspiring to determine the nature of these cycles, Kuznets analyzed the dynamics of population, the construction industry performance, capital, national income data and other variables. These movements became known among economists and economic historians as "Kuznets cycles", and alternatively as "long swings" in the economy's growth rate (following the work of Moses Abramovitz [1912–1999]). Kuznet cycles are special case of Kondratiev wave.

National income accounts
In 1931, at Mitchell's behest, Kuznets took charge of the NBER's work on U.S. national income accounts. In 1934, an assessment of the national income of the United States for the period 1929–1932 was given; further, it was extended to 1919–1938, and then, until 1869. Although Kuznets was not the first economist to try this, his work was so comprehensive and meticulous that it set the standard in the field. (He explicitly notes his work as an update of W. I. King's 1930 "The National income and Its Purchasing Power" in https://www.nber.org/system/files/chapters/c4231/c4231.pdf , as well as the contribution of Lillian Epstein, Elizabeth Jenk, and Edna Ehrenberg, the first of which had also contributed to King's 1930 book.)

Kuznets had success to solve numerous problems ranging from lack of sources of information and bias assessments, to the development of the theoretical concept of national income. Kuznets achieved a high precision in calculations. His works allowed us to analyze the structure of the national income, and expose to detailed study a number of specific problems of the national economy. Improved methods for calculating the national income and related indicators have become classics and formed the basis of the modern system of national accounts. Having analyzed the distribution of income among different social groups, Kuznets put forward the hypothesis that in countries, which were on the early stages of economic development, income inequality increased first, but as far as national economy was growing, it tended to decrease. This assumption formed the basis of so-called "Kuznets curve" empirical conception.

Kuznets helped the U.S. Department of Commerce to standardize the measurement of GNP. He disapproved, however, of its use as a general indication of welfare, writing that "the welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measure of national income."

Exploring the formation of the national income, Kuznets studied proportions between output and income, consumption and savings, etc. After analyzing the long-term data sets of economic conditions for 20 countries, Kuznets revealed long-term trends in capital / output ratios, shares of net capital formation, net investment, and so on. Collected and systematized data allowed exposing to empirical testing a number of existing hypotheses. In particular, this concerned premises of the Keynes theory – Keynes' 1936 absolute income hypothesis.

The hypothesis gave birth to what would become the first formal consumption function. However, Kuznets shook the economic world by finding that Keynes' predictions, while seemingly accurate in short-run cross-sections, broke down under more rigorous examination. In his 1942 tome Uses of National Income in Peace and War, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Kuznets became the first economist to show that the Absolute Income Hypothesis gives inaccurate predictions in the long run (by using time-series data). Keynes had predicted that as aggregate income increases, so will marginal savings. Kuznets used new data to show that, over a longer span of time (1870s – 1940s) the savings ratio remained constant, despite large changes in income. This paved the way for Milton Friedman's permanent income hypothesis, and several more modern alternatives such as the life-cycle hypothesis and the relative income hypothesis.

Economic growth
By the end of the Second World War Kuznets moved into a new research area, related to the tie between changes in income and growth. He proposed a research program that involved extensive empirical studies on the four key elements of economic growth. The elements were demographic growth, growth of knowledge, in-country adaptation to growth factors, and external economic relations between the countries. The general theory of economic growth should explain the development of advanced industrial countries, and the reasons that prevent the development of backward countries, include both market and planned economies, large and small, developed and developing countries, consider the impact on growth of foreign economic relations.

He collected and analyzed statistical indicators of economic performance of 14 countries in Europe, the U.S. and Japan for 60 years. Analysis of the materials led to the advancement of a number of hypotheses relating to various aspects of the mechanism of economic growth, concerning the level and variability of growth, structure of the GNP and distribution of labor, the distribution of income between households, the structure of foreign trade. Kuznets founded the historically grounded theory of economic growth. The central theme of these empirical studies is that the growth of the aggregated product of the country necessarily implies a profound transformation of the whole of its economic structure. This transformation affects many aspects of economic life – the structure of production, sectoral and occupational structure of employment, the division of occupations among family and market activities, the income structure, size, age structure and spatial distribution of the population, cross-country flows of goods, capital, labor and knowledge, the organization of industry and governmental regulation. Such changes, in his opinion, are essential for overall growth and, once started, shape, constrain or support the subsequent economic development of the country. Kuznets made a profound analysis of the impact on economic growth by demographic processes and characteristics.

His major thesis, which argued that underdeveloped countries of today possess characteristics different from those that industrialized countries faced before they developed, helped put an end to the simplistic view that all countries went through the same "linear stages" in their history and launched the separate field of development economics – which now focused on the analysis of modern underdeveloped countries' distinct experiences.

Kuznets curve
Among his several observations which sparked important theoretical research programs was the Kuznets curve, an inverted U-shaped relation between income inequality and economic growth (1955, 1963). In poor countries, economic growth increased the income disparity between rich and poor people. In wealthier countries, economic growth narrowed the difference. By noting patterns of income inequality in developed and underdeveloped countries, he proposed that as countries experienced economic growth, the income inequality first increases and then decreases. The reasoning was that in order to experience growth, countries had to shift from agricultural to industrial sectors. While there was little variation in the agricultural income, industrialization led to large differences in income. Additionally, as economies experienced growth, mass education provided greater opportunities which decreased the inequality and the lower income portion of the population gained political power to change governmental policies. He also discovered the patterns in savings-income behavior which launched the life-cycle-permanent-income hypothesis of Modigliani and Friedman. He conducted his research for many years and finally published his findings in 1963.

Historical and economic works of the 1970s
In his historical and economic studies of the 1970s, Kuznets expressed the idea of an interaction between science and technology (innovations), and institutional shifts, as well as the role of factors external to the economy, such as those caused by the moral and political climate in society, and their impact on the progress and results of economic growth.

Selected publications
 "Secular Movements in Production and Prices: Their Nature and Their Bearing upon Cyclical Fluctuations". (New York and Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1930).
 "National Income and Capital Formation, 1919–1935". (1937)
 "National Income and Its Composition, 1919–1938". (1941) Assisted by Lillian Epstein and Elizabeth Jenks https://www.nber.org/chapters/c4224
 "Economic Growth and Income Inequality". American Economic Review 45 (March): 1–28. (1955)
 "Quantitative aspects of the economic growth of nations, VIII: The distribution of income by size", Economic Development and Cultural Change, 11, pp. 1–92. (1963)
 "Modern Economic Growth: Rate, Structure, and Spread". (1966)
 "Toward a Theory of Economic Growth, with Reflections on the Economic Growth of Modern Nations". (1968)
 "Economic Growth of Nations: Total Output and Production Structure". (1971)
 "Population, Capital and Growth". (1973)

See also

 Capital formation
 Gross domestic product
 Information Revolution
 List of economists
 List of Jewish Nobel laureates
 Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics

References

Further reading
 Ben-Porath Y. Simon Kuznets in Person and in Writing // Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Apr., 1988), pp. 435–447.

 Hoselitz B. F. Bibliography of Simon Kuznets // Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Jan., 1983), pp. 433–454.
 Kapuria-Foreman V., Perlman M. An Economic Historian's Economist: Remembering Simon Kuznets // The Economic Journal, 105 (November), 1995, p. 1524–1547.

 Street J. H. The Contribution of Simon S. Kuznets to Institutionalist Development Theory // Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Jun., 1988), pp. 499–509.

External links

 New School for Social Research. With partial bibliography and web links.
 Kuznets's Nobel Prize lecture.
 Fogel, Robert, 2000, "Simon S. Kuznets: 1901–1985," NBER Working Paper No. 7787.
 National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir

1901 births
1985 deaths
Nobel laureates in Economics
American Nobel laureates
Writers from Kharkiv
Jews from the Russian Empire
Ukrainian Jews
Jewish American social scientists
American statisticians
Institutional economists
American development economists
Presidents of the American Statistical Association
University of Pennsylvania faculty
Johns Hopkins University faculty
Harvard University faculty
20th-century American economists
Fellows of the American Statistical Association
Fellows of the Econometric Society
Presidents of the American Economic Association
Distinguished Fellows of the American Economic Association
Social Science Research Council
National Bureau of Economic Research
Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy
Columbia University School of General Studies alumni
Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Simon Kuznets


A one-party system is a form of government where the country is ruled by a single political party, meaning only one political party exists and the forming of other political parties is forbidden.

Some countries have many political parties that exist, but only one that can by law be in control. This is called a one-party dominant state. In this case opposition parties against the dominant ruling party are allowed, but have no real chance of gaining power.  For example, in China all power is vested in the Communist Party of China.  Other parties are allowed to exist only if they accept the leading role of the Communist Party
.

The Soviet Union from 1922–1991, Nazi Germany from 1933–1945, Italy under Benito Mussolini from 1922–1943, and various Eastern Bloc states are some of the best-known examples of one-party states in history. Some one-party states are considered dictatorships and called a police state or a military dictatorship, if a secret police force or the military is used to keep a dictator in power through force.

The one-party system is also a common trait of communist Marxist-Leninist and fascist political philosophies.

Examples
As of October 1, 2020, there are 9 states that are ruled by a single party:

China (Communist party of China, 8 registered minor parties)
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (AKA- North Korea) (Korean Workers' Party) - 2 minor parties that exist on paper only
Vietnam (Vietnamese Communist party)
Cuba (Cuban Communist party)
Eritrea
Western Sahara
Myanmar (Burma) A military dictatorship removed the elected president and now rules the country. There are no elections. Htin Kyaw was appointed Prime Minister by the Army.
Laos (Communist party of Laos)

Former examples of one-party states
Those are states whose were formerly ruled by single parties:

Nazi Germany (Nazi Party)
Kingdom of Italy (National Fascist Party)
Socialist Republic of Romania (Romanian Communist Party)
Democratic Kampuchea (Communist Party of Kampuchea)
Empire of Japan (Imperial Rule Assistance Association)
Polish People's Republic (Polish Workers' Party)
Soviet Union (Communist Party of the Soviet Union)
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (League of Communists of Yugoslavia)
Syrian Arab Republic (Ba'ath Party)
Serbia (Serbian Progressive Party)

Similar situations

De facto one-party states
Countries where other parties are legal, but none exists at present. Also, in some kingdoms a royal family actually rules the country with or without political parties. Kingdoms and Emirates in the Middle East are examples.

Dominant-party system
Examples commonly cited include: United Russia (CP) in Russia, the New Azerbaijan Party in Azerbaijan, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey, Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in Serbia, Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (DPS) in Montenegro, the People's Action Party (PAP) in Singapore, the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa, the Ba'ath Party in the Syrian Arab Republic, Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea in Equatorial Guinea, Awami League in Bangladesh, the Belaya Rus in Belarus, PSUV in Venezuela, MPLA in Angola, the FRELIMO in Mozambique, the Colorado Party in Paraguay, the ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe, and the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan.

In some countries which have this system, methods are used to suppress other parties, without actually banning them. In some cases state power is used directly and indirectly to prevent smaller parties getting more votes. This can include electoral fraud, gerrymandering or court decisions (which are controlled by the government). In many cases, opposition leaders and other figures are prevented from using the mass media at election time, and also they often are threatened, harassed, jailed and even killed. In other cases, apart from the government candidates, only candidates from smaller allied parties and "independent" candidates who are closely allied to the dominant ruling party, get an overwhelming advantage.

In these cases, the defeat of the government "cannot be expected for the forseeable future".

References

Political systems
Dictatorship

One-party state


Port wine (also called  Vinho do Porto, Oporto, Porto, and often simply Port) is a Portuguese wine.

Porto is a fortified wine. This means its alcohol is stronger than ordinary wine. This has the effect of making the wine long-lasting even after the bottle has been opened. Porto is a sweet wine, but comes as dry or semi-dry also. It is often served as a dessert wine.

Port is made in the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal.  Wines which are similar to the Portuguese product called port are made in several countries around the world. The biggest producers are Australia, South Africa, India, Canada and the United States. However, under European Union guidelines, only the product from Portugal may be labelled as Port. In the United States, Federal law mandates that the Portuguese-made product be labeled Porto or Vinho do Porto.

Port is produced from grapes grown and processed in the Douro region. The Douro valley where Port wine is produced was defined and established as a protected region, or appellation in 1756. It is the oldest defined and protected wine region in the world.

The wine produced is then fortified with the addition of a Brandy (distilled grape spirits). This is done to stop the fermentation leaving residual sugar in the wine and to increase the alcohol content.  The wine is then stored and aged. For ageing, it is often put in barrels stored in caves After aging, it is  bottled.

The wine got its name, "Port," in the second half of the 17th century from the seaport city of Porto at the mouth of the Douro River.  Much of the product was brought there. It was then either sold on a market or exported to other countries in Europe.

Wine

Port wine


In organizational studies, resource management is the efficient and effective development of an organization's resources when they are needed. Such resources may include the financial resources, inventory, human skills, production resources, or information technology (IT) and natural resources.

In the realm of project management, processes, techniques and philosophies as to the best approach for allocating resources have been developed.  These include discussions on functional vs. cross-functional resource allocation as well as processes espoused by organizations like the Project Management Institute (PMI) through their Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) methodology of project management. Resource management is a key element to activity resource estimating and project human resource management. Both are essential components of a comprehensive project management plan to execute and monitor a project successfully. As is the case with the larger discipline of project management, there are resource management software tools available that automate and assist the process of resource allocation to projects and portfolio resource transparency including supply and demand of resources.  The goal of these tools typically is to ensure that: (i) there are employees within our organization with required specific skill set and desired profile required for a project, (ii) decide the number and skill sets of new employees to hire, and (iii) allocate the workforce to various projects. Within professional services and consulting organizations, the effectiveness of these tools and processes is typically monitored by measuring billable utilization rate.

Corporate resource management process
Large organizations usually have a defined corporate resource management process which mainly guarantees that resources are never over-allocated across multiple projects. Peter Drucker wrote of the need to focus resources, abandoning less promising initiatives for every new project taken on, as fragmentation inhibits results.

Techniques
One resource management technique is resource leveling. It aims at smoothing the stock of resources on hand, reducing both excess inventories and shortages.

The required data are: the demands for various resources, forecast by time period into the future as far as is reasonable, as well as the resources' configurations required in those demands, and the supply of the resources, again forecast by time period into the future as far as is reasonable.

The goal is to achieve 100% utilization but that is very unlikely, when weighted by important metrics and subject to constraints, for example: meeting a minimum service level, but otherwise minimizing cost.  A Project Resource Allocation Matrix (PRAM) is maintained to visualize the resource allocations against various projects.

The principle is to invest in resources as stored capabilities, then unleash the capabilities as demanded.

A dimension of resource development is included in resource management by which investment in resources can be retained by a smaller additional investment to develop a new capability that is demanded, at a lower investment than disposing of the current resource and replacing it with another that has the demanded capability.

In conservation, resource management is a set of practices pertaining to maintaining natural systems integrity.  Examples of this form of management are air resource management, soil conservation, forestry, wildlife management and water resource management.  The broad term for this type of resource management is natural resource management (NRM).

See also
 Environmental management
 Factor 10
 Holistic management
 Industrial symbiosis
 List of resource management software
 Resource allocation

References

Nature conservation
Land management
Schedule (project management)
Management by type

Resource management


Pacific General is a computer wargame depicting famous battles of the World War II Pacific campaigns. It was published by Strategic Simulations in 1997 using the same game engine of the earlier and successful Panzer General for Windows 95. It was re-released on GOG.com in May 2015.

Gameplay
Pacific General (also known as "PacGen") is played on a hex map with icons representing aircraft, warships, tanks, and groups of soldiers. The turn-based style allows each player to strategize their next move. Combat involves various factors, like critical hits, surprise, and terrain.  Particular attention is spent on naval warfare, where ships can sustain critical hits to ship systems and submarines can submerge to launch stealth attacks. The weather and time of day are also important factors to consider: darkness can obscure troop movements and rain can prevent airstrikes. Troops can sustain suppression from enemy fire, inhibiting their offensive and defensive abilities, and they can also entrench themselves, enhancing their defensive strength.

Players win by amassing victory points that are gained by occupying specific objective hexes. The side with the most victory points is declared the winner. Like role-playing games, the player can upgrade or add units to his core force, with the unit's experience carrying on to the next battle.  He also must be aware of each unit's fuel and ammunition levels, and also the fog of war, the collective vision of all units under his control.

Prestige is the currency of the game. Prestige is gained by destroying enemy units and lost when a player buys or upgrades his units. Prestige is also available at the start of a new scenario before any combat begins.

Whereas the first Panzer General targeted DOS, Pacific General was made for Windows. Pacific General utilize interface and share an underlying file system that differs from the original Panzer General. Fans created a version of Pacific General, based on its own DOS version, that borrows interface features from the original Panzer General. Called Pacific Panzer General (PacPG), it includes all scenarios and campaigns from the original, as well as bugfixes.

The player can choose between the Allied and Axis sides in both real and hypothetical scenarios, like the Battle of Midway and Operation Downfall. Thirty-one countries are represented, including the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Soviet Union but only United States and Japan have campaign modes. Each nation has historical weapons available.

There are several types of unit categories: tanks, infantry, artillery, fighter aircraft, bombers, aircraft carriers, battleships, forts, etc. Infantry and towed weapons may have attached trucks or half-track transports and land units can be moved around the map on cargo ships or cargo planes. Most nations have several units in each category, and many are unique to each nation; the Japanese have kamikazes at their disposal. Each unit has specific entry dates to when they can be available to a player; the U.S. cannot field jet aircraft until the hypothetical invasion of Japan from late 1945 to 1946. Custom Equipment Rosters (referred to as "E-Rosters") have been made available for this game after initial release by third-party fan sites, increasing the number of units available for each nation as well as improved in-game graphics.

Scenarios and campaigns
The battles are only approximate representations of historical battles, where only a fraction of the participating forces are included. An Allies (United States) campaign and an Axis (Japan) campaign are included, as well as several other scenarios. A campaign is composed of many scenarios strung together. Similar to other titles in SSI's "General" series of wargames, players may find themselves commanding forces in hypothetical scenarios if they are much more successful than real-life commanders. For example, if Japanese players attain impressive victories, such as capturing Port Moresby or winning Battle of Midway for Japan, it's possible to invade Australia, Hawaii or even San Francisco, victories that historical Japanese commanders didn't come close to imagining.

The player can also create custom scenarios and campaigns, and a battle generator is available. Multiple fan-sites exist offering downloads of additional scenarios and campaigns.

The additional user-built campaigns include several German, several American, one Chinese, one Japanese, one Soviet, one British and two Italian campaigns.

Reception

Like earlier games in the General series, Pacific General sold at least 50,000 units by September 1997.

References

External links

1997 video games
Computer wargames
Strategic Simulations games
Turn-based strategy video games
Video games developed in the United States
Video games set in Asia
Video games set in Oceania
Video games set in North America
Windows games
Windows-only games
World War II video games
Pacific War video games
Multiplayer and single-player video games

Pacific General


Beauty is a property of certain things. Something is beautiful if it is nice to look at it, hear it, feel it, taste it, smell it or think about it. A person can also be beautiful. Beauty is also the name of a feeling that is hard to describe. The nature of this feeling varies from person to person and culture to culture. It is not known if only humans can feel it.

There are many ideas about what beauty is. Some people say that beauty is:
The similarity between a real object and an object of art. For example, a beautiful picture might be one that looks very lifelike.
The similarity between any object and what you think it 'should' look like. For example, a beautiful tree might be one with a straight brown trunk and lots of green leaves, or beautiful clouds might be those that are white and fluffy (like wool).
The way an object makes us feel: happy, sad, angry, or something else (emotional). For example, a beautiful piece of music might be one which makes people feel very happy or very sad.
The quality of an object. For example, a beautiful story might be very well written.
In regards to writing, a piece may be beautiful through use of intricacies and depth which gives the reader a mental image or a certain feeling or feelings of emotion. Poetry is one example of writing that can be considered beautiful in the way it "paints" a picture or brings about an emotional response.

There are many other theories. Some things that people say are beautiful are not explained by any of these ideas.

Related pages
 Aesthetics
 Physical attractiveness
 Sublime

References

Everyday life
Psychology

Beauty


The Gram-Schmidt process is a way of converting one set of vectors that forms a basis into another, more friendly one.

Suppose we have a set of vectors  that form a basis for , and that we wish to convert these into a "friendly" basis which is easier to work with later. We begin by finding out which component of a vector is being unfriendly to a second vector, which we may do with inner products. If we have two vectors , then we may find the component of  being unfriendly to  with . By subtracting this from , we get the component friendly to . By returning to our abstract set , we may make use of this observation to construct a general algorithm to convert an arbitrary basis into a friendly basis.  Like from our original set, each time we use the process on a new vector, it is guaranteed to be mutually friendly with all the previous vectors.

Define:

 =

 =

et cetera, with the general term:

Should we wish to make this a friendly and cute basis, we can simply make each new element of the basis cute, by replacing both  with .
Linear algebra

Gram-Schmidt process


Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist.  He greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, Carpentier grew up in Havana, Cuba and Paris. Carpentier always said he was Cuban. He traveled a lot, mostly in France, and to Mexico. He sided with revolutionary movements, such as Fidel Castro's Communist Revolution in Cuba in the mid-century. Carpentier was jailed and exiled for his leftist political philosophies.

Carpentier studied and understood music. He wrote a book La música en Cuba in the music of Cuba.  He put in musical themes and literary techniques in his writing. Although Carpentier wrote many types of writing, such as journalism, radio drama, playwrighting, academic essays, opera and libretto, he is best known for his novels. He was among the first to use magical realism. He explored the fantastic quality of Latin American history and culture.

Carpentier's writing style used the Baroque style which had become popular again.  It was called New World Baroque.  It was a style that Latin American artists took from the European model. Carpentier also brought the Surrealist theory to Latin American literature. Carpentier had parts of Latin American political history, music, social injustice and art in his writings. His writing influenced younger Latin American and Cuban writers like Lisandro Otero, Leonardo Padura and Fernando Velázquez Medina.

Carpentier died of cancer in Paris in 1980. He was buried in Havana's Colon Cemetery.

Major works
Carpentier's major works include:

Ecue-yamba-o! (1933)
La música en Cuba (1946) (The Music of Cuba), an ethno-musicological study of Cuba starting from the sixteenth century, the arrival of European explorers, till the present day of publication, the mid twentieth century.
El reino de este mundo (1949) (The Kingdom of this World)
Los pasos perdidos (1953) (The Lost Steps)
El acoso (1956) (Manhunt)
Guerra del tiempo (1958) (War of Time)
El siglo de las luces (1962) (Explosion in a Cathedral)
El Recurso del método (1974) (Reasons of State)
Concierto barroco (1974) (Concierto barroco; English: Baroque Concert), based on the 1709 meeting of Vivaldi, Handel and Domenico Scarlatti, with cameo appearances by Wagner and Stravinsky, and fictional characters from the new world who inspire the Venetian composer's opera, Motezuma.
La consagración de la primavera (1978) (The Rite of Spring; Le Sacre du Printemps, ballet by Igor Stravinsky)
El arpa y la sombra (1978) (The Harp and the Shadow) dealing with Columbus.

1904 births
1980 deaths
Cuban communists
Musicologists
Caribbean novelists
Writers from Havana
Writers from Paris
People from Lausanne

Alejo Carpentier


Necromancy is a form of divination in which a person tries to summon the spirits of the dead.  Necromancy is seen by Christians and Jews as  black magic and demon-summoning, as the Book of Leviticus 19:31 says: 'do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out and so make yourselves unclean.'

Divination

Necromancy


Led Zeppelin IV is the fourth album from the rock band Led Zeppelin. The real title of the album is , but since it's impossible to say these symbols, it is normal just to say Led Zeppelin IV. Some people also say The fourth album, 'Zoso', Symbols or simply call it Untitled. It was released on November 8, 1971 and recorded at a big house called Headley Grange in 1971. The album is the band's most famous and most successful album, and also has their best known song, "Stairway to Heaven". For this album, the band used many different genres and recording techniques, they had rock and roll songs, acoustic songs and heavy blues songs. Many fans and critics think that "Stairway to Heaven" is one of the best songs of all time, if not the greatest, as well as the album itself. There are also many other notable songs on the album, "Rock and Roll" was played in almost every concert the band did after the release of the album, while songs such as "Black Dog and "Going to California" were played for most of the shows. All of the songs have become regulars on American rock radio.

The four symbols
For this album, the band chose to not have a normal name for their album, so that people would just listen to the music without caring about the title and get wrong expectations. Jimmy Page got the idea that each member of the band should choose their own symbol to represent them on the album title. Each band member have been closely associated with their symbol during and after the career of Led Zeppelin, and they have all used them after the release of the album. For example, John Bonham used to have the three rings on his bass drum and Jimmy Page has used the Zoso symbol on his amplifier as recent as the reunion concert in 2007 at the London 02 Arena.

Track listing

Original release

Deluxe edition (2014)

References

Other websites
Official website
Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin IV

Led Zeppelin albums
1971 albums
Heavy metal albums
Folk albums

Led Zeppelin IV


Watership Down is a novel written by Richard Adams. It tells the story of rabbits and their adventures concerning their warren at a hill in the north of Hampshire, England known as Watership Down.

In this fantasy book, rabbits with human intelligence are shown in their natural environment. They have their own culture, language, proverbs, poetry and mythology.

It was first published in the United Kingdom by Rex Collings Ltd in 1972 and has continued to be printed and is now available in 18 different languages.

Characters
Hazel- The main character. He is at first the only rabbit who trusts his brother, Fiver. He becomes the leader of the rabbits when they reach Watership Down. Hazel is not very large or powerful, however he is loyal, brave, and a quick thinker. He sees the good in everyone, and what they bring to the table; in so doing, he makes sure that no one gets left behind, thus earning the respect and loyalty of his warren. He often relies on Fiver's advice, and trusts in his brother's instincts completely.
Fiver – A small, runt rabbit. His Lapine (rabbit language) name is Hrairoo, which means "Little-five" or "Little-thousand". Rabbits are supposed to be capable of counting only up to four, so there are no specific numerical fixes beyond four. He can tell the future. His visions of the destruction of the Sandleford warren cause him to leave with his brother, Hazel, and several other rabbits. His visions are almost always about Hazel, such as saving him from the snared warren and dying from a gunshot wound. He also gives Hazel a vision that inspires Hazel to set up the release of the Nuthanger Farm dog to save the Watership Down warren from General Woundwort.
Bigwig – A rabbit who was formerly an officer in the Sandleford Owsla.  His name in Lapine is Thlayli, which means "Fur-head" and refers to the fur on the back of his head. The largest and most powerful of the Sandleford survivors in terms of strength, he is often blunt and impatient for dangerous action and fighting. He quickly becomes friends with Kehaar and often asks for his help on Hazel's behalf.
General Woundwort – The Chief Rabbit of Efrafa who serves as the primary enemy. He is a hard and brutally efficient rabbit. He became an orphan at a young age and started the Efrafa warren. He is described as the largest rabbit anyone has ever seen. Holly thinks he is the one rabbit that is more than a match for Bigwig. In the television series and the movie, Woundwort is blind in his left eye.

Story
Fiver, a rabbit with a gift for seeing the future, living at Sandleford Warren, sees his home being destroyed by a land developer in the future. He convinces his brother, Hazel to talk to the Chief Rabbit, Threarah about leaving the Warren, however, the Chief Rabbit has no intention of leaving.  Hazel, Fiver, and nine other rabbits then set off in search of a new home (at the time, merely off of the basis of Fiver's dreams that a good home awaits them somewhere far away).

They travel through forests, fields, over rivers, and roads filled with hrududu's (cars) before tiredness forces them to stop at a warren headed by a rabbit named Cowslip. After much debate, the rabbits agree to stay at Cowslips warren. The warren however, feels wrong to them (especially Fiver) due to the other rabbit's strange customs.

They soon find out that the strange actions that Cowslip's rabbits are showing is due to the fact that they are merely being fed and taken care of by a farmer so that he kill them off, one by one, for food. They leave Cowslip's warren, although Bigwig nearly dies on the way.

They keep going until they arrive at the site of Watership Down, a high hill that is far from man and full of good food and safety. After a day or two at their good land that Fiver had promised them, Hazel is named the unofficial chief rabbit of Watership Down. However, Hazel realizes that there are no does (female rabbits) among them, and they cannot have a healthy warren of rabbits without does.

Hazel later rescues a big gull named Kehaar, who has been hurt by a cat. After nursing Kehaar back to health, Keharr agrees to help the rabbits for the time being in return for their kindness toward him. After being asked by Hazel to check out of the area, Kehaar finds a large warren called Efrafa to the South of their position. After hearing that Efrafa is large and too crowded, Hazel sends four rabbits to Efrafa to ask if they could bring back some does to their warren.

However, Efrafa, being a large warren with too many rabbits, is tightly controlled by a rabbit named General Woundwort and his large military. Each rabbit is told when are where they are allowed to eat, sleep and more. Nothing happens without the General's ok, including leaving the warren. The four rabbits barely run away after playing a trick on an Efrafan Captain.

At the same time that the four rabbits are at Efrafa, Hazel leads a small group to look into Kehaar's report that there is a farm with a few caged rabbits, including does. After a few raids, the Watership rabbits break a few caged rabbits out of the farm, but Hazel is shot on the way out. Fiver has a vision where Hazel is, though, and Hazel is found and returned to health.

Now hearing how Efrafa is, the weakened Hazel decides to free the rabbits from Efrafa. All of the Watership rabbits travel carefully to the edges of Efrafa. Pretending to be a wandering alone rabbit, Bigwig infiltrates Efrafa as an officer of their Owsla. Secretly, however, Bigwig is helping get rabbits to help with the break out. He meets Hyzenthlay and Thethunninnang, two does who tell him that, if he has a working plan, they and a few other rabbits will attempt the escape with him.

After nearly having to fight General Woundwort, Bigwig and the does break out of Efrafa with Kehaar's help. Of course this break out is noticed by the guards, and soon the General himself and his small army catch up Bigwig and the runaway rabbits. They get away only because Kehaar attacks Woundwort. Woundwort keep chasing the rabbits to a stream, and the rabbits escape on a small boat. Two does die on the way to Watership Down, but most rabbits make it there safely.

The rabbits are glad to see the new rabbits. However, a field mouse warns the rabbits that General Woundwort and a small strike team are coming. The General then attacks the warren in the night as the Watership Rabbits head to their deepest burrows, blocking off the tunnels in an attempt to hold off the Efrafans.

While in a burrow, Fiver passes out as too many visions come to him at once. Meanwhile, Hazel, has a vision of how to stop the Efrafans. Hazel tells Bigwig to stay there and fight and he takes Blackberry and Dandelion out of the burrow. Hazel's plan is to use the dog at the nearby Nuthanger farm to defeat the Efrafans.

Hazel's plan works, however Bigwig and Hazel are hurt in the process. General Woundwort disappears, never to be seen again. Captain Campion and the other attackers go back to Efrafa, where Campion becomes Chief Rabbit.

Hazel lives a long life as Chief Rabbit of Watership Down, while his warren does well and is peaceful. Fiver recovers and Bigwig becomes the respected captain of the guard.

Notes

Other websites
 Bestseller database entry
 Article on the book by John D. Rateliff
 The Real Watership Down: Photographs and descriptions of the story's setting
 A Tribute to Watership Down, including Lapine Glossary
 A literary pilgrimage to Watership Down
 1985 Audio Interview with Richard Adams - RealAudio (28 min. 55 sec.)
 Aerial View & Map of Watership Down (GoogleMaps)
 Essay: Life and Society on Watership Down
 Photos of the first American edition of Watership Down
 Amazon Online Reader entry: presents the text of Chapter 1

1972 books
Books by Richard Adams

Watership Down


The Sámi (also spelled as Saami or Sami) are an ethnic group of people. Their homeland is Sápmi, which is in far northern Europe: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. There are from 80,000 to 135,000 Sami people in the world. The Sami are sometimes called Lapps, but this is insulting and has a negative meaning. In English the area is sometimes still called Lapland.

There are 10 different Sámi languages. Six of the languages can be written. The other four have very few speakers.

"Archaeological research indicates that a culture identified as Sami arose in the Scandinavian peninsula between 1500 and 1000 B.C."

History

The first writing that includes the Sámi is from about 98 A.D. by Tacitus.

One description from 896 was told to Alfred the Great by Ohthere of Hålogaland, who was a Norwegian chieftain.

Old Norse stories, such as the Icelandic sagas, talk about the Sami. "Olav Tryggvason's Saga says "that the king killed a big man who was "troll-wise" and "there followed him a great number of Finns whenever he had need of them". ("Finns" is a name that sometimes meant "Sami people".)

In the 19th century, Russia stopped allowing reindeer farmers and their reindeer herds to come travel over the Norway-Russia border. Some of the Sami reindeer farmers, moved to another Nordic country, and took their reindeer herds into Russia (but not through the Norway-Russia border); later another country's border with Russia, was closed to herds from reindeer farming (coming into Russia).

Finland
During the 16th century there was more farms in Finland. Farmers from the province of Savonia went to Middle Finland, and the original Sámi people often had to leave this land.

Norway

At Dovrefjell when Harald Hardrada was king, there was profit from the keeping of herds of reindeer, and the business was very popular.

In regard to Sámi (in Norway) that had reindeer herds; when these Sami moved their herds (every year), then they would interact with people who lived permanently on the coast; the interaction also included verdde: a friendship of convenience; for example, Sami needed milk and fish after having been on a plateau (or highland) for some weeks; Sami might need repair of equipment; trade was done: People from the coast traded fish for meat from reindeer.

Regarding getting the Sámi to change their religion to Christianity: In the 18th century Thomas von Westen (no), a pietist, led missionary work (among the Sami), that has been called a  concerted (or special) effort. "About a century later, Niels Vibe Stockfleth (no) worked among the Sami and translated [the Bible's] New Testament into" [one of the Sami languages].

People living permanently on the coast in North Norway, were [largely] Sámi; these Sámi had permanent housing, and it became easier for these Sámi to stop behaving like Sámi; in some areas one was not allowed to own land, if one was Sámi; some Sámi changed names, to names that might sound more Norwegian (and family names such as Sæter, Strømeng, and Kalvemo became new family names).

Sámi language [largely] disappeared among the Coastal Sámi. Sami that did reindeer farming, and Coastal Sámi slowly lost the close contact [between the two groups].

Policies to "Norwegianize" the Sámi
"There were organized attempts to eradicate [or make to disappear ] the Sámi language and culture[,] as a step in assimilating the Sámi into Norwegian society". Policies to "Norwegianize", Samis - were in place from the late 1840s,
into the 1980s.

"From the late 1840s to the 1950s, missionaries, agricultural experts and schoolteachers" tried "to Norwegianize the Sami"; the "first formal act of Parliament regarding the Norwegianization of the Sami people was made in 1848: 'The government is requested to investigate ... [find out if, and how far] there should be opportunity to bring the Norwegian Lapps, especially those living in coastal areas , instruction in the Norwegian language for the enlightenment of these people, and that the result of their findings be reported to the next Parliament'".

Norway's authorities made "a language directive (or rule) in 1880, which" was "made more forceful in 1898. It" said "that 'Teachers in those districts where the Lappish ... and Finnish (kvænsk) languages are permitted for the sake of facilitating instruction in the public schools shall do their utmost to spread knowledge  of the Norwegian language and seek to promote its use in the circles where they work'". Furthermore, the "government had a major objective for the schools: Not a single Sami word was to be heard on the school grounds" or in school buildings.

"The authorities also" used "economic measures to carry out the work of Norwegianization, including the Land Act. A regulation [or part of the law] from 1902" says that "Sale [of land] may only be made to Norwegian citizens ... who can speak, read, and write the Norwegian language and use it on a day-to-day basis".

A report by the "Parliamentary School Commission, appointed in 1922" said, without being able to show [ evidence], "that that the Sami are less educable [or able to learn] than others"; the report also said that the Sami population is less gifted and the "Sami culture does not lend itself to development".

From around 1850, a government policy of Fornorskning [tried to remove Sami culture]. An article in Klassekampen said that the policy was very rough [to Sami persons]. Into the 1980s, the policy of Fornorskning lasted in some places.

Creation of associations
[Possibly the first] Sami association (in Norway) was started during the New Year's weekend in 1911: Buolbmag Same Særvve, in Polmak municipality. (Polmak is now part of Tana (municipality).)

Sweden
The first Sami association in Sweden, seems to have been started in 1903: Tärnaby lappeforening.

Russia

In 1826, Russia has not allowed reindeer herds and their Sami owners, to travel from Norway to Russia.

Since 1852, Russia has not allowed reindeer herds and their Sami owners, to travel from Norway to Russia

Reindeer farming
Reindeer farming, which is a type of animal husbandry, is done by Sami, between the White Sea and towards the west and the south, across Russia's Kola peninsula, Finland, Sweden and Norway, into the Hedmark area of Norway's county of Innlandet.

In reindeer farming, "the Sami travel with their flocks (of reindeer) according to an established cycle"; the cycle makes sure "that the" [reindeer] can eat properly during the various [or different] seasons of the year. For example, the spring migration to summer pastures, which have a rich variety of grasses and herbs, takes place just before new calves are born in May. Summer is a time when the calves grow and the adult animals regain their strength following a long, hard winter".

Among the Sami people are nomads that do reindeer farming. They lived in their cold environment by domesticating the reindeer. They were able to get everything they needed from the deer. They ate mostly meat, milk, and cheese. Their clothing was made from reindeer skins and wool. Their tents were also made from raindeer skins. The wool clothes were beautifully decorated.

The Sami protected the herds, moving with them as they migrated from summer to winter pastures. They used reindeer to pull sleds carrying their supplies. During the winter, the herds moved south of where the trees grew. The Sami lived nearby in homes made of logs or sod.

Winter clothing was made from layers of reindeer skin. The inside layer would be worn with the fur facing in toward the person's skin. The second layer was worn with the fur facing out. Boots were also made of fur and lined with grass that had been gathered during the short summer. Every evening the grass would be taken out and dried by the fire, so it would be ready to use again the next day. This way, a Sámi could be warm and comfortable in even the coldest weather.

Today only a few of the Sámi people still follow the herds. Those few use modern tools on their ancient migration. They use snowmobiles to herd the reindeer and rifles to kill the wolves that chase them. Even helicopters and radios are used to locate and move the reindeer. Most of the Sámi now live on small farms in one of the four nations of Lapland. They raise crops and animals, including a few reindeer, to meet their needs. The sale of reindeer meat is an important source of income for the Sámi people.

The Sámi did not waste anything they got from the reindeer. The milk was used to drink or make cheese. Meat was taken for food. The blood was frozen and later used for soup and pancakes, called Blodplättar. Knives and belt buckles were carved from the bones and antlers. The sinews (tendons) were used as sewing thread. Cleaned-out stomachs were used to carry milk or cheese. Every part of a dead reindeer was used.

Sámi Crafts
Sámi crafts are called duodji  (en:). The men make knives, drums and 'guksi' (burl cups) from wood, bone, and antlers. The women use leather and roots to make 'gakti' (clothing). Women also use birch and spruce to weave baskets.

Sámi clothing
Sámi clothing is called 'gakti' and was originally made from reindeer leather, but now it is usually made from wool, cotton, or silk. Usually, there are different types of clothing for men and women.

Religion and spirituality
Sámi shamanism is the main religion of the Sami people. These beliefs are connected to the land, animism, and the supernatural. There is some practice of bear worship. It is a polytheistic religion with many gods. The Sami shaman are called the 'Noadi'. There are some 'wise men' and 'wise women' who try to heal people who are sick. They use rituals and herbal medicine. Some Sami people have changed their beliefs to Christianity and joined either the Russian Orthodox Church or the Lutheran.

In popular culture
Publications by Snorri Sturluson (1178-1241) say that a Sami woman, Snøfrid, married Harald Fairhair. It also said that none of her children or grandchildren became kings; first when Harald Hardrada became a king, then her blood became part of the blood of the royal family.

The character Kristoff in the 2013 Disney film Frozen is Sámi. The song that plays in the movie's first scene, Frozen Heart, was written by the South Sámi composer Frode Fjellheim. It is in a traditional Sámi style called Vuelie. Some people said that Kristoff was not a good way to show Sami because he is light-skinned and blond.  This is called whitewashing.  Although some Sami look like Kristoff, most have darker skin and hair.  When making the 2019 sequel, Frozen II, Disney signed a contract with Sámi leaders and hired Sami experts to make sure the culture would be shown respectfully.

Related pages
 Nomads
 Fosen conflict

References

Other websites
A recent genetic link between Sami and the Volga-Ural region of Russia.  20 September 2006

Nordic people
Arctic
Finland
Lapland
Norway
Russia
Sweden

Sámi


Namibia, a country in southwest Africa, is distinguished by the Namib Desert along its Atlantic Ocean coast. The country is home to diverse wildlife, including a significant cheetah population. The capital, Windhoek, and coastal town Swakopmund contain German colonial-era buildings such as Windhoek's Christuskirche, built in 1907. In the north, Etosha National Park's salt pan draws game including rhinos and giraffes.

Namibiya


A utility pole, telegraph pole, telephone pole, power pole, or telegraph post is a post or pole upon which telephone network equipment is situated. Similar poles are often used for electricity cables (with pylons being used for only the higher voltage applications) and frequently a pole will share both power and communications lines. Telegraph poles first became commonplace in the middle 19th century. At first they had only one wire, then in urban areas many. In Canada, the poles are commonly referred to as hydro poles, as the electric companies commonly have "Hydro" in their name.

Utility poles are usually wooden, but vary greatly from nation to nation. Other common utility pole materials are steel and concrete, with composites (fibreglass) becoming used more often. In some countries, for example the UK, poles have sets of brackets arranged in a standard pattern up the pole to act as hand and foot holds for those working on the equipment or connections atop the pole.

Other websites
 Lots of photographs
 Photographs of Various U.S. Utility Poles
 Hungarian Telephone Poles
 Utility Poles

Tools

Utility pole