proba
float64 0.5
1
| text
stringlengths 16
174k
|
|---|---|
0.999129 |
A party is a unique organization. Its primary goals are representing citizens in elections and advocating for policy positions — in government or in opposition— that it believes further citizen interests. Unlike many other types of organizations, a party is typically staffed by a mix of party members and full-time professional staff. Every political party must have an internal organization system, including procedures for making decisions, managing resources, tracking members and activists, and communicating internally. Digital technologies have revolutionized the way businesses, governments and organizations across the globe manage their internal processes, and can be equally useful for a political party. The following section lists some of the core elements of political party management and some potentially helpful tools.
Internal communications: Internal communications are a critical component of party management. Most parties have provincial and branch offices, and information should constantly flow between these and party headquarters. Branch offices might need to share financial data, information on local policy priorities based on day-to-day interactions with members and citizens, information on member activities, and local news developments. Similarly, a party’s national headquarters might need to keep its branch offices informed of newly developed policy positions, messaging priorities, major party events, and changes or updates to party rules or priorities. The worksheet on internal communications channels describes some tools a party can use to streamline its communications processes.
Financial management and compliance: Financial management is critical to any large organization. A party must track its income and expenses to ensure that it does not spend more money than it takes in. It must also constantly monitor its expenses to make sure it does not waste money or, worse, lose resources to fraud or theft. Office applications — truly simple digital tools — can immediately improve an organization’s ability to manage its finances. Spreadsheet applications like Excel (or Google Sheets) and basic accounting applications like Quickbooks can help a party plan and manage expenses and income consistently and effectively.
In many countries, all political parties must adhere to strict requirements for tracking and reporting on income and expenditures in order to enforce party and campaign finance laws. In some developed democracies with extensive technology infrastructures, there are off-the-shelf applications available to help manage compliance. However, in most cases, a party would have to develop custom software, or adapt existing software, to meet its specific needs. Customized products can be both desirable and costly. For more information, see the worksheet on customized vs. off-the-shelf applications.
Decision making: Parties’ decision-making mechanisms can vary. For example, a party might select its candidates by primary, official policy platforms may be determined by a vote at a convention and other decisions might be made by an executive committee. Particularly in the case of decisions that require as many party members’ input as possible, technology offers vast possibilities. The case studies on Denmark’s Liberal Alliance and Italy’s Five Star Movement demonstrate how some political parties have used online voting to elicit increased participation from their members.
Member management: Members are critical to political party operations. Some parties are staffed almost exclusively by party members volunteering their time, while others rely heavily on financial contributions from members. To manage members effectively, a party should develop a system for keeping track of interactions with members and constituents. A simple spreadsheet that tracks key constituent data and notes recent interactions between constituents and the party suffices. Other database applications, such as Microsoft Access, are also useful. However, these applications are not tailored to political parties, so searching for and tracking as much data as a party might want to maintain can be difficult, and the applications can be cumbersome and time consuming to update.
Increasingly, parties are turning to Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) applications designed specifically for political parties and campaigns. CRM software helps a party keep track of its members and supporters, and party officials’ interactions with them. CRM systems can be expensive, and typically require significant upkeep costs. However, there are free, open source options available. NDI’s ICT Team recently developed CiviParty, an open-source CRM database adapted from the CiviCRM platform. However, even free applications can have significant hidden costs. For more information on the relative benefits of open source applications, see the worksheets on proprietary vs. open source technologies and cost.
Additionally, cloud-based CRM applications have unique benefits, including their ability to allow multiple users to track updates simultaneously, and capacity to automatically record all changes and updates, including those made by members. However the user must have access to the internet to utilize these benefits, which can be restricting.
Knowledge management: Knowledge management is a challenge for many organizations. Documents can easily disappear if stored on a single computer’s hard drive, for instance, and many organizations struggle to keep track of reports, assessments, plans and other important documents.
Many companies and large organizations have turned to custom (and often expensive) document-management and tracking systems like Sharepoint, but a party should also consider free/open source alternatives like wikis. Wikis are designed to be simple tools for organizing and updating information, often hierarchically, and they contain pages and subpages on particular topics. Wiki pages typically include images, videos, uploaded documents and other resources, making them potentially powerful tools allowing a party to keep track of everything from field outreach checklists to poll results, and including the policy documents that underlie the party’s political platforms.
Wikis are also typically designed to allow many users to create and edit pages at once. This means party staff can use wikis as a platform for collaboration. In some cases, a local network or intranet hosts wikis, but often they are cloud applications and require internet access. Of course, wikis are just one solution to the problem of organizing information, and like every other online tool, they are only as secure as their login information.
Digital training: Training is a key political party task. Staff and members require regular education to keep them on-message and up-to-date on the party’s organizing strategy and tactics. Face-to-face training remains superior to online training in most circumstances. However, new technology can supplement traditional training programs. For example, a party can use digital channels to distribute follow-up information and updated materials. Email, listservs and social media allow participants to ask questions and receive clarification, and to network with one another after the face-to-face portion is complete. Webinars, or webcasts, are another way for parties to reach out; they are peer-level web meetings that allow users to share text-based messages, as well as voice and video chat simultaneously across geographically dispersed locations.
Digital channels can also deliver the actual training classes, even in relatively low-tech environments. Many political organizations in the United States – including both the 2008 and 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaigns – have employed online video to create “virtual classrooms” for field staff and volunteers, establishing an online curriculum for volunteers to study on their own time. For example, political parties such as the European Greens, and political organizations like Wellstone Action and the New Organizing Institute, host a large range of training resources and modules online that are available to their supporters and the general public.
If possible, it can also be useful to have trainings available in multiple formats, to allow those with different bandwidths and levels of internet access to participate. Possible formats include video presentations, PowerPoint or slide presentations, basic HTML webpages, or downloadable document such as PDFs.
A party can use digital means to train its staff and members in cases where travel is impossible or too expensive, security is a concern, or other reasons. Digital communication and collaboration tools, as well as e-learning software, can allow party members to interact in real time or asynchronously. These tools can improve collaboration among party members, simplify intra-party resource sharing and help maintain a standard level of training. Although technological capabilities vary from party to party, all parties can take advantage of at least some aspects of digital training.
Digital communication and collaboration tools allow new staff and members to interact with experienced party staff via the web in real time. These tools can help parties communicate with branch offices and run live trainings that allow participants to ask questions and get feedback. Additionally, through community e-learning software, new staff members can take online training courses on their own time without the help of an experienced party staffer.
Several good examples of communication and e-learning tools exist.
Video conferencing/VOIP tools (e.g., Skype, Google Hangout, GoToMeeting): New staff and members can live chat with training staff, with or without video.
Co-browsing or screencasting (e.g., Oracle): Co-browsing lets experienced party staff perform virtual demonstrations for new staff and members.
Virtual learning environments (e.g., Blackboard, Moodle): A party can upload training resources to online learning environments that allow for interaction with instructors as well as member collaboration. Some, such as Moodle, are free and open source, while others, like Blackboard, are available for purchase.
Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs (e.g., edX, HarvardX, MITx): Many leading universities are offering free educational content to anyone with an internet connection, through MOOCs. Early data on MOOCs suggests that significant work needs to be done to diversify the learning audience and make online education as engaging and interactive as the traditional classroom. Partnerships between academic institutions and NGOs offer one potential model. A recent Harvard/MIT study of nearly 70 such courses found a rising share of female, U.S.-based, and older participants. Courses such as these could help party staff increase their skills in basic organizing, fundraising, management and other useful activities not specific to political parties.
Webinars/Webcasts (e.g., GoToWebinar): A party can schedule and live stream online training seminars that allow viewers to watch a presentation and interact with the presenter.
Wikis or Blogs: Wikis and blogs allow new party staff and members to read and modify training materials. These platforms allow for collaborative modification, but no synchronous interaction.
The rise of VOIP tools such as Skype and Google Hangouts have created new opportunities for live online video trainings. They combine several of the advantages of online video and in-person trainings by allowing participants to join from any location with an internet connection (preferably with a minimum download speed of 512Kbps and a minimum upload speed of 128Kbps). But, again, in low-tech environments, video chat applications might not be available consistently or at all.
|
0.971271 |
rustbucket a car that is very rusty, beater Can you fix my rustbucket? Can you repair the rusty fenders?
rye Canadian whisky, whisky made from rye "What's your favorite drink?" "Rye and Coke."
|
0.999256 |
Review: Many centuries ago, there was once a monarch, King Lear (Paul Scofield) who was nearing the end of his life, so to take some of the weight of power from his shoulders, he decided that instead of allowing his kingdom to be carved up after his death, he would divide it up himself. He had three daughters, and brought them together at his castle to tell them the good news; Goneril (Irene Worth) and Regan (Susan Engel) were appropriately grateful, but the youngest sibling Cordelia (Anne-Lise Gabold) refused to say anything in thanks, and received a dressing down from her father. But was this because she had foreseen the major problems he was creating with his actions?
Peter Brook is one of the greatest theatre directors of the twentieth century, but as was the case with many such talents, he was coaxed to the film world to make pictures there; not very often, but his adaptations of famed plays and books were respectfully noted, even among those who did not like what he conjured up. Perhaps the most controversial of these was what he did to William Shakespeare's King Lear, which was informed by some stark texts on how to make the Bard relevant, as well as the place of the individual in the universe and how if you took a very sober view of even the greatest of men and women, in the long run none of their achievements meant anything.
So imagine where that leaves the rest of us ordinary folks, but as far as translating such weighty themes to the big screen the main criticism of Brook's approach was that in his drive to craft a scenario as apocalyptic as possible, he sacrificed coherence and wasted Scofield's interpretation of what many believed was his greatest role. It was true to say that over and above the high-falutin' philosophising it was the film's emphasis on a madness taking hold of what had been a peace so precarious that nobody had realised how fragile it was, made its visual channelling of that horror of impending mayhem something of a mishmash of terrible weather and blustering thespians.
Make no mistake, it looked bloody freezing, all shot in Denmark at what looked like a typically bitter winter, so that even when in the latter stages they hit the beach it was the most unforgiving stretch of sand the production could have found. The unspoken influence here was obvious however, not some theatrical theorist but a film director, Ingmar Bergman, whose stark black and white imagery was evoked throughout. If Bergman had become the last word in the human condition as far as film went, it was a little dispiriting to see Brook so slavishly attempt to refashion that same unblinking examination of our foibles, vanities and outright follies and calamities, not that this King Lear was going to play out as if the Swedish master had helmed it himself - but you had to ponder the Scandinavian setting, for a start.
Another issue was that if you did not know the play beforehand, you would be pretty lost by about half an hour in, given Brook's liking for closeups on his cast's faces outlined in the contrast between the dark and light and a depiction of the snow, wind and rain that was more a record of how difficult it was to film under such a climate than it was of dramatic use. You would have an advantage if you had seen Akira Kurosawa's Ran, his eighties filming of Lear, which though chaos was a big part of the storyline, was nevertheless easy enough to follow, unlike the murky imagery you had here. But that may have been the point, that we were all standing on the brink of that chaos, and it took one wrong decision, one display of hubris or overconfidence, to topple over into the abyss, a message that never got old, sad to say, and was paramount in what you took away from Brook's savage invention. On the other hand, you had to be truly dedicated to stay the course to this cynical, sorrowful conclusion.
This review has been viewed 28 time(s).
|
0.999214 |
Publications There are 4 products.
New edition of the book in Spanish "En Torno a la Guitarra” by José Ramírez III. Foreword by Víctor Monge "Serranito" and José Luis Rodrigo.
|
0.972869 |
"Why is it necessary to categorise non-fiction books?" I hear you asking. Well, I've got an easy answer for that: walk into your nearest book store. What do you see?
Way too many books, that's what.
Narrative books are books that tell a story. Examples include biographies, memoirs, and histories.
Tree books are books that lay out a framework of ideas. A good example is Daniel Kahneman's Thinking: Fast and Slow, which lays out his life's work — the entirety of behavioural economics — in a single book. (So an entire field, like a tree of knowledge, in one book. Geddit, geddit?) Other books I can think of in this category are High Output Management by Andy Grove, and Principles by Ray Dalio.
Branch books are the most common type of book you'll find in the non-fiction section. These are books that consist of a single idea. The rest of the book is then padded out with examples, extrapolations, and implications of that single idea. A good example of this is Nicholas Nassem Taleb's Antifragile, which can be summarised in a single sentence: "the world consists of systems that are fragile (break easily), robust (are difficult to break) and are antifragile (gets stronger the more you try to break it e.g. like democracy)." The rest of the book explores the full implications of seeing systems as 'fragile/robust/antifragile'.
I've used the term 'tree' and 'branch' because a branch is a subset of a tree. I've often found books on management to be a subset of the framework outlined in Andy Grove's High Output Management, for instance. As a concrete example, the management branch book Radical Candor is simply a detailed examination of ideas that are implied in High Output Management. The ideas in a branch book can often be hung up on the framework developed by a tree book.
Another concrete example: you can hang up pretty much any book by psychologist Dan Ariely on the tree of ideas developed in Daniel Kahneman's Thinking: Fast and Slow.
It's no accident that I summarised Taleb's Antifragile in a single sentence above. The key feature of branch books, for me, is that you can easily summarise them. Which then implies that if someone has written a good summary of a branch book, you can read the summary instead of reading the full book.
If someone has written a good summary of a branch book, you can read the summary instead of reading the full book.
This is a useful thing to know. Conversely, tree books and narratives are difficult to summarise. And I'd warn against reading summaries of those books in lieu of reading the actual text: too much gets lost in translation.
The other implication, then, is that services like Blinkist are completely useless for 2/3 of the types of books in non-fiction.
Are these the only kinds of books? Definitely not. There are other books out there that are hybrids: Being Mortal by Atul Gawande is an example of a narrative+branch book (how to die in the modern world, intertwined with the story of his father's death) and Ben Horowitz's The Hard Thing about Hard Things is narrative+tree (the story of his entrepreneurship journey, combined with lessons for CEOs).
But by and large these 3 categories are all you need. I've decided against adding a fourth category (for technical books, which demand a different approach to reading them). Keeping it to 3 categories simplifies matters, especially for when you're next in a book store, looking for something to read.
Similarly, not all branch books are bad, and — despite being rarer — not all tree books are good. Some branch books, like The Rise and Fall of American Growth, or The Better Angels of Our Nature, are a tour de force of writing and research, made to advance a single argument.
There's another implication here: you can skim branch books. You shouldn't skim narratives and tree books.
With tree books in particular, I find that slowing down to reflect on each chapter to be incredibly rewarding, so long as the tree book is a good one.
But branch books: man. It's absolutely possible to skim branch books while still maintaining an optimal amount of learning.
Read/skim each chapter: Read the title, the first few paragraphs or the first few pages of the chapter to figure out how the author is using the chapter and where it fits into the argument of the whole book. Then skim through headings and subheadings to get an idea of the flow. Read the first sentence and last sentence of each paragraph. Once you get an argument, feel free to move on to the next argument, skipping over the many repeated case studies or examples.
End with the table of contents again, looking through, and summarising each.
I've had friends who have told me that they've found many non-fiction books infuriating: "the author repeats himself way too much!" or "I got the point a chapter in, and every subsequent chapter just drove the point home needlessly."
They're not wrong; they're simply reading a bad branch book. My personal suspicion is that badly written branch books are a reflection of the thought-leader-speaker industry. These authors have one good idea, and need to pad out 200 pages of paper in order to gain access to the highly lucrative world of conference speaking.
The best approach with these kinds of books are to: buy them second hand, read them quickly, or to read a summary ... which is to say: to not read them at all.
|
0.819155 |
What does the VIN do and why does Ferrari only have this feature?
The VIN number is usually a 17 digit code composed of different characters that identifies a specific automobile. These characters are often a mixture of capital letters and numbers which act as a unique vehicle identifier. The VIN serves as an automobile fingerprint which can be used to distinguish between two cars that may look similar. What the VIN number can also do is to track any kind of car recalls, registration, and insurance including track thieves in case a particular vehicle is stolen or parts from that vehicle are sold under the table. Furthermore people may want to decode particular cars using the VIN number in order to find proper car fittings, identify the place of manufacture or verify their authenticity.
The VIN number of a car is usually located on the dashboard, engine block or sometimes near the underside of the hood. Just like any automobile around, the Ferrari has also got a VIN number which contains vital information regarding the manufacturer, year of production, engine type, model and so on. Surprisingly, the only Ferrari cars that have no VIN numbers are the Formula One cars and other specific race cars. The VIN number of most Ferrari cars can be seen clearly printed on outside surface of every part of the car with a labeled plate showing these numbers. These codes are arranged in a specific format which makes it easier for them to recognized and every car manufacturer is required to mark the vehicles in this format.
The first character of the VIN number of any Ferrari usually outlines exactly where the car was built in the terms of location. The second and third characters are designated for the vehicles manufacturers which can either in Maranello and Modena. The first three characters often identify the manufacturer of the car. For instance a Ferrari Enzo with a VIN no ZFFCW56A830133118, the 2nd and 3rd characters highlights the manufacturer which FF(Ferrari)The next characters in that order represent the car’s engine capacity, vehicle brand as well as the type. The ninth character denotes the vehicle security code which in this case is A830. The tenth character is used to identify the specific model of the car and which year it was built. This segment is quite useful especially for buyers who may want to purchase the new models. The 11th character usually indicates the exact plant the car was assembled such that when problems arises then the car can easily be shipped to the respective plant. For example the VIN number for a Ferrari F50 is ZFFTG46A4SO104799 with the last 6 characters indicating the serial number of the car which 104799. The 10th character in the VIN number above the model of Ferrari which in this case is an F50 built.
By identifying the VIN number of a particular Ferrari, one is able to determine the exact market value. This is because by decoding the tenth character of the VIN one is able to identify the year it was built. It is common that new car models often fetch higher prices in the market.
|
0.999982 |
Many people are curious about what acromegaly is and why it occurs. For starters, it's important to understand that acromegaly is a hormonal disease. It occurs when the pituitary gland produces excess growth hormone for an extended period of time. Symptoms include abnormal growth of the hands and feet, but other symptoms can also appear. These include things like headaches, arthritis, and enlarged lips, nose, and tongue.
Acromegaly is a hormonal disorder caused by an overproduction of growth hormone (GH). As its name implies, growth hormone is one of several hormones that regulate the physical growth of the body.
Acromegaly most commonly affects middle-aged adults and can result in serious illness and premature death.
Having acromegaly may also increase the risks of developing other health conditions, such as diabetes mellitus and colon polyps that can lead to colon cancer. People with acromegaly also have a higher risk of developing high blood pressure (hypertension) and cardiovascular disease.
Acromegaly is typically caused by a benign (not cancerous) tumor of the pituitary gland called a pituitary adenoma (or growth hormone-secreting adenoma). In certain patients, however, it is caused not by pituitary tumors, but by tumors of the pancreas, lungs, and adrenal glands.
|
0.997799 |
A hedge fund is an investment fund that pools capital from accredited investors or institutional investors and invests in a variety of assets, often with complex portfolio-construction and risk management techniques. It is administered by a professional investment management firm, and often structured as a limited partnership, limited liability company, or similar vehicle. Hedge funds are generally distinct from mutual funds and regarded as alternative investments, as their use of leverage is not capped by regulators, and distinct from private equity funds, as the majority of hedge funds invest in relatively liquid assets. However, funds which operate similarly to hedge funds but are regulated similarly to mutual funds are available and known as liquid alternative investments.
The term "hedge fund" originated from the paired long and short positions that the first of these funds used to hedge market risk. Over time, the types and nature of the hedging concepts expanded, as did the different types of investment vehicles. Today, hedge funds engage in a diverse range of markets and strategies and employ a wide variety of financial instruments and risk management techniques.
Hedge funds are almost always open-ended, and allow additions or withdrawals by their investors (generally on a monthly or quarterly basis). The value of an investor's holding is directly related to the fund net asset value.
Many hedge fund investment strategies aim to achieve a positive return on investment regardless of whether markets are rising or falling ("absolute return"). Hedge fund managers often invest money of their own in the fund they manage. A hedge fund typically pays its investment manager an annual management fee (for example, 2% of the assets of the fund), and a performance fee (for example, 20% of the increase in the fund's net asset value during the year). Both co-investment and performance fees serve to align the interests of managers with those of the investors in the fund. Some hedge funds have several billion dollars of assets under management (AUM).
During the US bull market of the 1920s, there were numerous private investment vehicles available to wealthy investors. Of that period the best known today is the Graham-Newman Partnership, founded by Benjamin Graham and his long-time business partner Jerry Newman. This was cited by Warren Buffett in a 2006 letter to the Museum of American Finance as an early hedge fund, and based on other comments from Buffett, Janet Tavakoli deems Graham's investment firm the first hedge fund.
The sociologist Alfred W. Jones is credited with coining the phrase "hedged fund" and is credited with creating the first hedge fund structure in 1949. Jones referred to his fund as being "hedged", a term then commonly used on Wall Street to describe the management of investment risk due to changes in the financial markets.
During the first decade of the 21st century hedge funds gained popularity worldwide, and by 2008 the worldwide hedge fund industry held US$1.93 trillion in assets under management (AUM). However, the 2008 financial crisis caused many hedge funds to restrict investor withdrawals and their popularity and AUM totals declined. AUM totals rebounded and in April 2011 were estimated at almost $2 trillion. As of February 2011[update], 61% of worldwide investment in hedge funds came from institutional sources.
In June 2011, the hedge fund management firms with the greatest AUM were Bridgewater Associates (US$58.9 billion), Man Group (US$39.2 billion), Paulson & Co. (US$35.1 billion), Brevan Howard (US$31 billion), and Och-Ziff (US$29.4 billion). Bridgewater Associates had $70 billion in assets under management as of 1 March 2012[update]. At the end of that year, the 241 largest hedge fund firms in the United States collectively held $1.335 trillion. In April 2012, the hedge fund industry reached a record high of US$2.13 trillion total assets under management. In the middle of the 2010s, the hedge fund industry experienced a general decline in the "old guard" fund managers. Dan Loeb called it a "hedge fund killing field" due to the classic long/short falling out of favor because of unprecedented easing by central banks. The US equity market correlation became untenable to short sellers.
David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital, as the top 20 billionaire hedge fund managers.
Hedge fund strategies are generally classified among four major categories: global macro, directional, event-driven, and relative value (arbitrage). Strategies within these categories each entail characteristic risk and return profiles. A fund may employ a single strategy or multiple strategies for flexibility, risk management, or diversification. The hedge fund's prospectus, also known as an offering memorandum, offers potential investors information about key aspects of the fund, including the fund's investment strategy, investment type, and leverage limit.
The elements contributing to a hedge fund strategy include: the hedge fund's approach to the market; the particular instrument used; the market sector the fund specializes in (e.g., healthcare); the method used to select investments; and the amount of diversification within the fund. There are a variety of market approaches to different asset classes, including equity, fixed income, commodity, and currency. Instruments used include: equities, fixed income, futures, options, and swaps. Strategies can be divided into those in which investments can be selected by managers, known as "discretionary/qualitative", or those in which investments are selected using a computerized system, known as "systematic/quantitative". The amount of diversification within the fund can vary; funds may be multi-strategy, multi-fund, multi-market, multi-manager, or a combination.
Sometimes hedge fund strategies are described as "absolute return" and are classified as either "market neutral" or "directional". Market neutral funds have less correlation to overall market performance by "neutralizing" the effect of market swings, whereas directional funds utilize trends and inconsistencies in the market and have greater exposure to the market's fluctuations.
Hedge funds using a global macro investing strategy take sizable positions in share, bond, or currency markets in anticipation of global macroeconomic events in order to generate a risk-adjusted return. Global macro fund managers use macroeconomic ("big picture") analysis based on global market events and trends to identify opportunities for investment that would profit from anticipated price movements. While global macro strategies have a large amount of flexibility (due to their ability to use leverage to take large positions in diverse investments in multiple markets), the timing of the implementation of the strategies is important in order to generate attractive, risk-adjusted returns. Global macro is often categorized as a directional investment strategy.
Global macro strategies can be divided into discretionary and systematic approaches. Discretionary trading is carried out by investment managers who identify and select investments, whereas systematic trading is based on mathematical models and executed by software with limited human involvement beyond the programming and updating of the software. These strategies can also be divided into trend or counter-trend approaches depending on whether the fund attempts to profit from following market trend (long or short-term) or attempts to anticipate and profit from reversals in trends.
Within global macro strategies, there are further sub-strategies including "systematic diversified", in which the fund trades in diversified markets, or "systematic currency", in which the fund trades in currency markets.:348 Other sub-strategies include those employed by commodity trading advisors (CTAs), where the fund trades in futures (or options) in commodity markets or in swaps. This is also known as a "managed future fund". CTAs trade in commodities (such as gold) and financial instruments, including stock indices. They also take both long and short positions, allowing them to make profit in both market upswings and downswings.
Directional investment strategies use market movements, trends, or inconsistencies when picking stocks across a variety of markets. Computer models can be used, or fund managers will identify and select investments. These types of strategies have a greater exposure to the fluctuations of the overall market than do market neutral strategies. Directional hedge fund strategies include US and international long/short equity hedge funds, where long equity positions are hedged with short sales of equities or equity index options.
Within directional strategies, there are a number of sub-strategies. "Emerging markets" funds focus on emerging markets such as China and India,:351 whereas "sector funds" specialize in specific areas including technology, healthcare, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, energy, and basic materials. Funds using a "fundamental growth" strategy invest in companies with more earnings growth than the overall stock market or relevant sector, while funds using a "fundamental value" strategy invest in undervalued companies.:344 Funds that use quantitative and financial signal processing techniques for equity trading are described as using a "quantitative directional" strategy.:345 Funds using a "short bias" strategy take advantage of declining equity prices using short positions.
Event-driven strategies concern situations in which the underlying investment opportunity and risk are associated with an event. An event-driven investment strategy finds investment opportunities in corporate transactional events such as consolidations, acquisitions, recapitalizations, bankruptcies, and liquidations. Managers employing such a strategy capitalize on valuation inconsistencies in the market before or after such events, and take a position based on the predicted movement of the security or securities in question. Large institutional investors such as hedge funds are more likely to pursue event-driven investing strategies than traditional equity investors because they have the expertise and resources to analyze corporate transactional events for investment opportunities.
Corporate transactional events generally fit into three categories: distressed securities, risk arbitrage, and special situations. Distressed securities include such events as restructurings, recapitalizations, and bankruptcies. A distressed securities investment strategy involves investing in the bonds or loans of companies facing bankruptcy or severe financial distress, when these bonds or loans are being traded at a discount to their value. Hedge fund managers pursuing the distressed debt investment strategy aim to capitalize on depressed bond prices. Hedge funds purchasing distressed debt may prevent those companies from going bankrupt, as such an acquisition deters foreclosure by banks. While event-driven investing in general tends to thrive during a bull market, distressed investing works best during a bear market.
Risk arbitrage or merger arbitrage includes such events as mergers, acquisitions, liquidations, and hostile takeovers. Risk arbitrage typically involves buying and selling the stocks of two or more merging companies to take advantage of market discrepancies between acquisition price and stock price. The risk element arises from the possibility that the merger or acquisition will not go ahead as planned; hedge fund managers will use research and analysis to determine if the event will take place.
Special situations are events that impact the value of a company's stock, including the restructuring of a company or corporate transactions including spin-offs, share buy backs, security issuance/repurchase, asset sales, or other catalyst-oriented situations. To take advantage of special situations the hedge fund manager must identify an upcoming event that will increase or decrease the value of the company's equity and equity-related instruments.
Other event-driven strategies include: credit arbitrage strategies, which focus on corporate fixed income securities; an activist strategy, where the fund takes large positions in companies and uses the ownership to participate in the management; a strategy based on predicting the final approval of new pharmaceutical drugs; and legal catalyst strategy, which specializes in companies involved in major lawsuits.
Fixed income arbitrage: exploit pricing inefficiencies between related fixed income securities.
Equity market neutral: exploit differences in stock prices by being long and short in stocks within the same sector, industry, market capitalization, country, which also creates a hedge against broader market factors.
Convertible arbitrage: exploit pricing inefficiencies between convertible securities and the corresponding stocks.
Asset-backed securities (fixed-income asset-backed): fixed income arbitrage strategy using asset-backed securities.
Credit long / short: the same as long / short equity, but in credit markets instead of equity markets.
Volatility arbitrage: exploit the change in volatility, instead of the change in price.
Yield alternatives: non-fixed income arbitrage strategies based on the yield, instead of the price.
Regulatory arbitrage: exploit regulatory differences between two or more markets.
Risk arbitrage: exploit market discrepancies between acquisition price and stock price.
In addition to those strategies within the four main categories, there are several strategies that do not fit into these categorizations or can apply across several of them.
Fund of hedge funds (multi-manager): a hedge fund with a diversified portfolio of numerous underlying single-manager hedge funds.
Multi-strategy: a hedge fund using a combination of different strategies to reduce market risk.
Minimum account fund: the minimum amount to open a hedge fund account is (say) $10 million (with 25% non-holding) or $2.5 million with holding.
Multi-manager: a hedge fund wherein the investment is spread along separate sub-managers investing in their own strategy.
Withdraw holding: a hold is placed on all major withdrawals for 90 days prior to and after the hedge fund is created and established.
130-30 funds: equity funds with 130% long and 30% short positions, leaving a net long position of 100%.
Risk parity: equalizing risk by allocating funds to a wide range of categories while maximizing gains through financial leveraging.
AI driven: using big data and sophisticated machine learning models to predict prices.
For an investor who already holds large quantities of equities and bonds, investment in hedge funds may provide diversification and reduce the overall portfolio risk. Managers of hedge funds use particular trading strategies and instruments with the specific aim of reducing market risks to produce risk-adjusted returns that are consistent with investors' desired level of risk. Hedge funds ideally produce returns relatively uncorrelated with market indices. While "hedging" can be a way of reducing the risk of an investment, hedge funds, like all other investment types, are not immune to risk. According to a report by the Hennessee Group, hedge funds were approximately one-third less volatile than the S&P 500 between 1993 and 2010.
Investors in hedge funds are, in most countries, required to be qualified investors who are assumed to be aware of the investment risks, and accept these risks because of the potential returns relative to those risks. Fund managers may employ extensive risk management strategies in order to protect the fund and investors. According to the Financial Times, "big hedge funds have some of the most sophisticated and exacting risk management practices anywhere in asset management." Hedge fund managers that hold a large number of investment positions for short durations are likely to have a particularly comprehensive risk management system in place, and it has become usual for funds to have independent risk officers who assess and manage risks but are not otherwise involved in trading. A variety of different measurement techniques and models are used to estimate risk according to the fund's leverage, liquidity, and investment strategy. Non-normality of returns, volatility clustering and trends are not always accounted for by conventional risk measurement methodologies and so in addition to value at risk and similar measurements, funds may use integrated measures such as drawdowns.
In addition to assessing the market-related risks that may arise from an investment, investors commonly employ operational due diligence to assess the risk that error or fraud at a hedge fund might result in loss to the investor. Considerations will include the organization and management of operations at the hedge fund manager, whether the investment strategy is likely to be sustainable, and the fund's ability to develop as a company.
Since hedge funds are private entities and have few public disclosure requirements, this is sometimes perceived as a lack of transparency. Another common perception of hedge funds is that their managers are not subject to as much regulatory oversight and/or registration requirements as other financial investment managers, and more prone to manager-specific idiosyncratic risks such as style drifts, faulty operations, or fraud. New regulations introduced in the US and the EU as of 2010 required hedge fund managers to report more information, leading to greater transparency. In addition, investors, particularly institutional investors, are encouraging further developments in hedge fund risk management, both through internal practices and external regulatory requirements. The increasing influence of institutional investors has led to greater transparency: hedge funds increasingly provide information to investors including valuation methodology, positions, and leverage exposure.
Hedge funds share many of the same types of risk as other investment classes, including liquidity risk and manager risk. Liquidity refers to the degree to which an asset can be bought and sold or converted to cash; similar to private equity funds, hedge funds employ a lock-up period during which an investor cannot remove money. Manager risk refers to those risks which arise from the management of funds. As well as specific risks such as style drift, which refers to a fund manager "drifting" away from an area of specific expertise, manager risk factors include valuation risk, capacity risk, concentration risk, and leverage risk. Valuation risk refers to the concern that the net asset value (NAV) of investments may be inaccurate; capacity risk can arise from placing too much money into one particular strategy, which may lead to fund performance deterioration; and concentration risk may arise if a fund has too much exposure to a particular investment, sector, trading strategy, or group of correlated funds. These risks may be managed through defined controls over conflict of interest, restrictions on allocation of funds, and set exposure limits for strategies.
Many investment funds use leverage, the practice of borrowing money, trading on margin, or using derivatives to obtain market exposure in excess of that provided by investors' capital. Although leverage can increase potential returns, the opportunity for larger gains is weighed against the possibility of greater losses. Hedge funds employing leverage are likely to engage in extensive risk management practices. In comparison with investment banks, hedge fund leverage is relatively low; according to a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, the average leverage for investment banks is 14.2, compared to between 1.5 and 2.5 for hedge funds.
Some types of funds, including hedge funds, are perceived as having a greater appetite for risk, with the intention of maximizing returns, subject to the risk tolerance of investors and the fund manager. Managers will have an additional incentive to increase risk oversight when their own capital is invested in the fund.
Long-Term Capital Management, founded in 1994 by John Meriwether. Following back-to-back financial crises in Asia in 1997 and in Russia in 1998, the fund ended up losing $4.6 billion in less than four months. The primary catalyst for the failure was Russia's default and a model that advised the fund to hold its position even as losses mounted.
Tiger Management, run by Julian Robertson. Robertson founded the fund in 1980 with $8 million and grew it to $10.5 billion by 1997, making it the second-largest hedge fund in the world at the time. One year later, assets under management reached $22 billion. A series of bad investments greatly harmed Tiger's returns causing investors to redeem out of the fund.
Atticus Global, founded by activist investor Tim Barakett in 1995 with less than $6 million in hand, by 2007 was one of the largest hedge funds in the world with $20 billion of assets under management. Barakett earned market-beating returns over a long time period until the financial crisis in 2008. After two years of losses, Barakett closed the fund in 2009. Atticus Global reported a compounded annual return of 19.3% compared to just 3.9% for the S&P 500.
Hedge fund management firms typically charge their funds both a management fee and a performance fee.
Management fees are calculated as a percentage of the fund's net asset value and typically range from 1% to 4% per annum, with 2% being standard. They are usually expressed as an annual percentage, but calculated and paid monthly or quarterly. Management fees for hedge funds are designed to cover the operating costs of the manager, whereas the performance fee provides the manager's profits. However, due to economies of scale the management fee from larger funds can generate a significant part of a manager's profits, and as a result some fees have been criticized by some public pension funds, such as CalPERS, for being too high.
The performance fee is typically 20% of the fund's profits during any year, though performance fees range between 10% and 50%. Performance fees are intended to provide an incentive for a manager to generate profits. Performance fees have been criticized by Warren Buffett, who believes that because hedge funds share only the profits and not the losses, such fees create an incentive for high-risk investment management. Performance fee rates have fallen since the start of the credit crunch.
Almost all hedge fund performance fees include a "high water mark" (or "loss carryforward provision"), which means that the performance fee only applies to net profits (i.e., profits after losses in previous years have been recovered). This prevents managers from receiving fees for volatile performance, though a manager will sometimes close a fund that has suffered serious losses and start a new fund, rather than attempt to recover the losses over a number of years without a performance fee.
Some performance fees include a "hurdle", so that a fee is only paid on the fund's performance in excess of a benchmark rate (e.g., LIBOR) or a fixed percentage. A "soft" hurdle means the performance fee is calculated on all the fund's returns if the hurdle rate is cleared. A "hard" hurdle is calculated only on returns above the hurdle rate. A hurdle is intended to ensure that a manager is only rewarded if the fund generates returns in excess of the returns that the investor would have received if they had invested their money elsewhere.
Some hedge funds charge a redemption fee (or withdrawal fee]]) for early withdrawals during a specified period of time (typically a year), or when withdrawals exceed a predetermined percentage of the original investment. The purpose of the fee is to discourage short-term investing, reduce turnover, and deter withdrawals after periods of poor performance. Unlike management fees and performance fees, redemption fees are usually kept by the fund.
Hedge fund management firms are usually owned by their portfolio managers, who are therefore entitled to any profits that the business makes. As management fees are intended to cover the firm's operating costs, performance fees (and any excess management fees) are generally distributed to the firm's owners as profits. Funds do not tend to report compensation and so published lists of the amounts earned by top managers tend to be estimates based on factors such as the fees charged by their funds and the capital they are thought to have invested in them. Many managers have accumulated large stakes in their own funds and so top hedge fund managers can earn extraordinary amounts of money, perhaps up to $4 billion in a good year.
Earnings at the very top are higher than in any other sector of the financial industry and collectively the top 25 hedge fund managers regularly earn more than all 500 of the chief executives in the S&P 500. Most hedge fund managers are remunerated much less, however, and if performance fees are not earned then small managers at least are unlikely to be paid significant amounts.
In 2011, the top manager earned $3,000m, the tenth earned $210m, and the 30th earned $80m. In 2011, the average earnings for the 25 highest-compensated hedge fund managers in the United States was $576 million. while the mean total compensation for all hedge fund investment professionals was $690,786 and the median was $312,329. The same figures for hedge fund CEOs were $1,037,151 and $600,000, and for chief investment officers were $1,039,974 and $300,000, respectively.
Of the 1,226 people on the Forbes World's Billionaires List for 2012, 36 of the financiers listed "derived significant chunks" of their wealth from hedge fund management. Among the richest 1,000 people in the United Kingdom, 54 were hedge fund managers, according to the Sunday Times Rich List for 2012.
A hedge fund is an investment vehicle that is most often structured as an offshore corporation, limited partnership, or limited liability company. The fund is managed by an investment manager in the form of an organization or company that is legally and financially distinct from the hedge fund and its portfolio of assets. Many investment managers utilize service providers for operational support. Service providers include prime brokers, banks, administrators, distributors, and accounting firms.
Prime brokers clear trades, and provide leverage and short-term financing. They are usually divisions of large investment banks. The prime broker acts as a counterparty to derivative contracts, and lends securities for particular investment strategies, such as long/short equities and convertible bond arbitrage. It can provide custodial services for the fund's assets, and execution and clearing services for the hedge fund manager.
Hedge fund administrators are typically responsible for valuation services, and often operations and accounting.
Calculation of the net asset value ("NAV") by the administrator, including the pricing of securities at current market value and calculation of the fund's income and expense accruals, is a core administrator task, because it is the price at which investors buy and sell shares in the fund. The accurate and timely calculation of NAV by the administrator is vital. The case of Anwar v. Fairfield Greenwich (SDNY 2015) is the major case relating to fund administrator liability for failure to handle its NAV-related obligations properly. There, the hedge fund administrator and other defendants settled in 2016 by paying the Anwar investor plaintiffs $235 million.
Administrator back office support allows fund managers to concentrate on trades. Administrators also process subscriptions and redemptions, and perform various shareholder services. Hedge funds in the United States are not required to appoint an administrator, and all of these functions can be performed by an investment manager. A number of conflict of interest situations may arise in this arrangement, particularly in the calculation of a fund's net asset value (NAV). Some funds employ external auditors, thereby arguably offering a greater degree of transparency.
A distributor is an underwriter, broker, dealer, or other person who participates in the distribution of securities. The distributor is also responsible for marketing the fund to potential investors. Many hedge funds do not have distributors, and in such cases the investment manager will be responsible for distribution of securities and marketing, though many funds also use placement agents and broker-dealers for distribution.
Most funds use an independent accounting firm to audit the assets of the fund, provide tax services, and perform a complete audit of the fund's financial statements. The year-end audit is often performed in accordance with the standard accounting practices enforced within the country in which the fund it established, or the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The auditor may verify the fund's NAV and assets under management (AUM). Some auditors only provide "NAV lite" services, meaning that the valuation is based on prices received from the manager rather than independent assessment.
The legal structure of a specific hedge fund, in particular its domicile and the type of legal entity in use, is usually determined by the tax expectations of the fund's investors. Regulatory considerations will also play a role. Many hedge funds are established in offshore financial centers to avoid adverse tax consequences for its foreign and tax-exempt investors. Offshore funds that invest in the US typically pay withholding taxes on certain types of investment income, but not US capital gains tax. However, the fund's investors are subject to tax in their own jurisdictions on any increase in the value of their investments. This tax treatment promotes cross-border investments by limiting the potential for multiple jurisdictions to layer taxes on investors.
US tax-exempt investors (such as pension plans and endowments) invest primarily in offshore hedge funds to preserve their tax exempt status and avoid unrelated business taxable income. The investment manager, usually based in a major financial center, pays tax on its management fees per the tax laws of the state and country where it is located. In 2011, half of the existing hedge funds were registered offshore and half onshore. The Cayman Islands was the leading location for offshore funds, accounting for 34% of the total number of global hedge funds. The US had 24%, Luxembourg 10%, Ireland 7%, the British Virgin Islands 6%, and Bermuda had 3%.
Deutsche Bank and Barclays created special options accounts for hedge fund clients in the banks’ names and claimed to own the assets, when in fact the hedge fund clients had full control of the assets and reaped the profits. The hedge funds would then execute trades — many of them a few seconds in duration — but wait until just after a year had passed to exercise the options, allowing them to report the profits at a lower long-term capital gains tax rate.
The US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chaired by Carl Levin issued a 2014 report that found that from 1998 and 2013, hedge funds avoided billions of dollars in taxes by using basket options. The Internal Revenue Service began investigating Renaissance Technologies in 2009, and Levin criticized the IRS for taking six years to investigate the company. Using basket options Renaissance avoided "more than $6 billion in taxes over more than a decade".
These banks and hedge funds involved in this case used dubious structured financial products in a giant game of 'let’s pretend,' costing the Treasury billions and bypassing safeguards that protect the economy from excessive bank lending for stock speculation.
A dozen other hedge funds along with Renaissance Technologies used Deutsche Bank's and Barclays' basket options. Renaissance argued that basket options were "extremely important because they gave the hedge fund the ability to increase its returns by borrowing more and to protect against model and programming failures". In July 2015 the United States Internal Revenue claimed hedge funds used basket options "to bypass taxes on short-term trades". These basket options will now be labeled as listed transactions that must be declared on tax returns, and a failure to do would result in a penalty.
In contrast to the funds themselves, investment managers are primarily located onshore. The United States remains the largest center of investment, with US-based funds managing around 70% of global assets at the end of 2011. As of April 2012, there were approximately 3,990 investment advisers managing one or more private hedge funds registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. New York City and the Gold Coast area of Connecticut are the leading locations for US hedge fund managers.
London was Europe's leading center for hedge fund managers, but since the Brexit referendum some formerly London-based hedge funds have relocated to other European financial centers such as Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Paris, and Dublin, while some other hedge funds have moved their European head offices back to New York City. Before Brexit, according to EuroHedge data, around 800 funds located in the UK had managed 85% of European-based hedge fund assets in 2011. Interest in hedge funds in Asia has increased significantly since 2003, especially in Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. After Brexit, Europe and the US remain the leading locations for the management of Asian hedge fund assets.
Hedge fund legal structures vary depending on location and the investor(s). US hedge funds aimed at US-based, taxable investors are generally structured as limited partnerships or limited liability companies. Limited partnerships and other flow-through taxation structures assure that investors in hedge funds are not subject to both entity-level and personal-level taxation. A hedge fund structured as a limited partnership must have a general partner. The general partner may be an individual or a corporation. The general partner serves as the manager of the limited partnership, and has unlimited liability. The limited partners serve as the fund's investors, and have no responsibility for management or investment decisions. Their liability is limited to the amount of money they invest for partnership interests. As an alternative to a limited partnership arrangement, U.S. domestic hedge funds may be structured as limited liability companies, with members acting as corporate shareholders and enjoying protection from individual liability.
By contrast, offshore corporate funds are usually used for non-US investors, and when they are domiciled in an applicable offshore tax haven, no entity-level tax is imposed. Many managers of offshore funds permit the participation of tax-exempt US investors, such as pensions funds, institutional endowments, and charitable trusts. As an alternative legal structure, offshore funds may be formed as an open-ended unit trust using an unincorporated mutual fund structure. Japanese investors prefer to invest in unit trusts, such as those available in the Cayman Islands.
The investment manager who organizes the hedge fund may retain an interest in the fund, either as the general partner of a limited partnership or as the holder of "founder shares" in a corporate fund. For offshore funds structured as corporate entities, the fund may appoint a board of directors. The board's primary role is to provide a layer of oversight while representing the interests of the shareholders. However, in practice board members may lack sufficient expertise to be effective in performing those duties. The board may include both affiliated directors who are employees of the fund and independent directors whose relationship to the fund is limited.
Open-ended hedge funds continue to issue shares to new investors and allow periodic withdrawals at the net asset value ("NAV") for each share.
Closed-ended hedge funds issue a limited number of tradeable shares at inception.
Shares of Listed hedges funds are traded on stock exchanges, such as the Irish Stock Exchange, and may be purchased by non-accredited investors.
A side pocket is a mechanism whereby a fund compartmentalizes assets that are relatively illiquid or difficult to value reliably. When an investment is side-pocketed, its value is calculated separately from the value of the fund's main portfolio. Because side pockets are used to hold illiquid investments, investors do not have the standard redemption rights with respect to the side pocket investment that they do with respect to the fund's main portfolio. Profits or losses from the investment are allocated on a pro rata basis only to those who are investors at the time the investment is placed into the side pocket and are not shared with new investors. Funds typically carry side pocket assets "at cost" for purposes of calculating management fees and reporting net asset values. This allows fund managers to avoid attempting a valuation of the underlying investments, which may not always have a readily available market value.
Side pockets were widely used by hedge funds during the 2008 financial crisis amidst a flood of withdrawal requests. Side pockets allowed fund managers to lay away illiquid securities until market liquidity improved, a move that could reduce losses. However, as the practice restricts investors' ability to redeem their investments it is often unpopular and many have alleged that it has been abused or applied unfairly. The SEC also has expressed concern about aggressive use of side pockets and has sanctioned certain fund managers for inappropriate use of them.
Hedge funds must abide by the national, federal, and state regulatory laws in their respective locations. The U.S. regulations and restrictions that apply to hedge funds differ from those that apply to its mutual funds. Mutual funds, unlike hedge funds and other private funds, are subject to the Investment Company Act of 1940, which is a highly detailed and extensive regulatory regime. According to a report by the International Organization of Securities Commissions, the most common form of regulation pertains to restrictions on financial advisers and hedge fund managers in an effort to minimize client fraud. On the other hand, U.S. hedge funds are exempt from many of the standard registration and reporting requirements because they only accept accredited investors. In 2010, regulations were enacted in the US and European Union which introduced additional hedge fund reporting requirements. These included the U.S.'s Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act and European Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive.
In 2007 in an effort to engage in self-regulation, 14 leading hedge fund managers developed a voluntary set of international standards in best practice and known as the Hedge Fund Standards they were designed to create a "framework of transparency, integrity and good governance" in the hedge fund industry. The Hedge Fund Standards Board was set up to prompt and maintain these standards going forward, and by 2016 it had approximately 200 hedge fund managers and institutional investors with a value of US$ 3tn investment endorsing the standards.
Hedge funds within the US are subject to regulatory, reporting, and record-keeping requirements. Many hedge funds also fall under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and are subject to rules and provisions of the 1922 Commodity Exchange Act, which prohibits fraud and manipulation. The Securities Act of 1933 required companies to file a registration statement with the SEC to comply with its private placement rules before offering their securities to the public. The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 required a fund with more than 499 investors to register with the SEC. The Investment Advisers Act of 1940 contained anti-fraud provisions that regulated hedge fund managers and advisers, created limits for the number and types of investors, and prohibited public offerings. The Act also exempted hedge funds from mandatory registration with the SEC when selling to accredited investors with a minimum of US$5 million in investment assets. Companies and institutional investors with at least US$25 million in investment assets also qualified.
In December 2004, the SEC began requiring hedge fund advisers, managing more than US$25 million and with more than 14 investors, to register with the SEC under the Investment Advisers Act. The SEC stated that it was adopting a "risk-based approach" to monitoring hedge funds as part of its evolving regulatory regime for the burgeoning industry. The new rule was controversial, with two Commissioners dissenting, and was later challenged in court by a hedge fund manager. In June 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned the rule and sent it back to the agency to be reviewed. In response to the court decision, in 2007 the SEC adopted Rule 206(4)-8, which unlike the earlier-challenged rule, "does not impose additional filing, reporting or disclosure obligations" but does potentially increase "the risk of enforcement action" for negligent or fraudulent activity. Hedge fund managers with at least US$100 million in assets under management are required to file publicly quarterly reports disclosing ownership of registered equity securities and are subject to public disclosure if they own more than 5% of the class of any registered equity security. Registered advisers must report their business practices and disciplinary history to the SEC and to their investors. They are required to have written compliance policies, a chief compliance officer, and their records and practices may be examined by the SEC.
The U.S.'s Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act was passed in July 2010 and requires SEC registration of advisers who manage private funds with more than US$150 million in assets. Registered managers must file Form ADV with the SEC, as well as information regarding their assets under management and trading positions. Previously, advisers with fewer than 15 clients were exempt, although many hedge fund advisers voluntarily registered with the SEC to satisfy institutional investors. Under Dodd-Frank, investment advisers with less than US$100 million in assets under management became subject to state regulation. This increased the number of hedge funds under state supervision. Overseas advisers who managed more than US$25 million were also required to register with the SEC. The Act requires hedge funds to provide information about their trades and portfolios to regulators including the newly created Financial Stability Oversight Council. In this regard, most hedge funds and other private funds, including private equity funds, must file Form PF with the SEC, which is an extensive reporting form with substantial data on the funds' activities and positions. Under the "Volcker Rule," regulators are also required to implement regulations for banks, their affiliates, and holding companies to limit their relationships with hedge funds and to prohibit these organizations from proprietary trading, and to limit their investment in, and sponsorship of, hedge funds.
Within the European Union (EU), hedge funds are primarily regulated through their managers. In the United Kingdom, where 80% of Europe's hedge funds are based, hedge fund managers are required to be authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Each country has its own specific restrictions on hedge fund activities, including controls on use of derivatives in Portugal, and limits on leverage in France.
In the EU, managers are subject to the EU's Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFMD). According to the EU, the aim of the directive is to provide greater monitoring and control of alternative investment funds. AIFMD requires all EU hedge fund managers to register with national regulatory authorities and to disclose more information, on a more frequent basis. It also directs hedge fund managers to hold larger amounts of capital. AIFMD also introduced a "passport" for hedge funds authorised in one EU country to operate throughout the EU. The scope of AIFMD is broad and encompasses managers located within the EU as well as non-EU managers that market their funds to European investors. An aspect of AIFMD which challenges established practices in the hedge funds sector is the potential restriction of remuneration through bonus deferrals and clawback provisions.
Some hedge funds are established in offshore centres such as the Cayman Islands, Dublin, Luxembourg, the British Virgin Islands, and Bermuda, which have different regulations concerning non-accredited investors, client confidentiality, and fund manager independence.
In South Africa, investment fund managers must be approved by, and register with, the Financial Services Board (FSB).
Performance statistics for individual hedge funds are difficult to obtain, as the funds have historically not been required to report their performance to a central repository, and restrictions against public offerings and advertisement have led many managers to refuse to provide performance information publicly. However, summaries of individual hedge fund performance are occasionally available in industry journals and databases.
One estimate is that the average hedge fund returned 11.4% per year, representing a 6.7% return above overall market performance before fees, based on performance data from 8,400 hedge funds. Another estimate is that between January 2000 and December 2009 hedge funds outperformed other investments and were substantially less volatile, with stocks falling an average of 2.62% per year over the decade and hedge funds rising an average of 6.54% per year; this was an unusually volatile period with both the 2001-2002 dot-com bubble and a recession beginning mid 2007. However, more recent data show that hedge fund performance declined and underperformed the market from about 2009 to 2016.
Hedge funds performance is measured by comparing their returns to an estimate of their risk. Common measures are the Sharpe ratio, Treynor measure and Jensen's alpha. These measures work best when returns follow normal distributions without autocorrelation, and these assumptions are often not met in practice.
New performance measures have been introduced that attempt to address some of theoretical concerns with traditional indicators, including: modified Sharpe ratios; the Omega ratio introduced by Keating and Shadwick in 2002; Alternative Investments Risk Adjusted Performance (AIRAP) published by Sharma in 2004; and Kappa developed by Kaplan and Knowles in 2004.
There is a debate over whether alpha (the manager's skill element in performance) has been diluted by the expansion of the hedge fund industry. Two reasons are given. First, the increase in traded volume may have been reducing the market anomalies that are a source of hedge fund performance. Second, the remuneration model is attracting more managers, which may dilute the talent available in the industry.
Indices that track hedge fund returns are, in order of development, called Non-investable, Investable, and Clone. They play a central and unambiguous role in traditional asset markets, where they are widely accepted as representative of their underlying portfolios. Equity and debt index fund products provide investable access to most developed markets in these asset classes. Hedge funds, however, are actively managed, so that tracking is impossible. Non-investable hedge fund indices on the other hand may be more or less representative, but returns data on many of the reference group of funds is non-public. This may result in biased estimates of their returns. In an attempt to address this problem, clone indices have been created in an attempt to replicate the statistical properties of hedge funds without being directly based on their returns data. None of these approaches achieves the accuracy of indices in other asset classes for which there is more complete published data concerning the underlying returns.
Non-investable indices are indicative in nature, and aim to represent the performance of some database of hedge funds using some measure such as mean, median, or weighted mean from a hedge fund database. The databases have diverse selection criteria and methods of construction, and no single database captures all funds. This leads to significant differences in reported performance between different indices.
Although they aim to be representative, non-investable indices suffer from a lengthy and largely unavoidable list of biases. Funds' participation in a database is voluntary, leading to self-selection bias because those funds that choose to report may not be typical of funds as a whole. For example, some do not report because of poor results or because they have already reached their target size and do not wish to raise further money..
The short lifetimes of many hedge funds means that there are many new entrants and many departures each year, which raises the problem of survivorship bias. If we examine only funds that have survived to the present, we will overestimate past returns because many of the worst-performing funds have not survived, and the observed association between fund youth and fund performance suggests that this bias may be substantial.
When a fund is added to a database for the first time, all or part of its historical data is recorded ex-post in the database. It is likely that funds only publish their results when they are favorable, so that the average performances displayed by the funds during their incubation period are inflated. This is known as "instant history bias" or "backfill bias".
Investable indices are an attempt to reduce these problems by ensuring that the return of the index is available to shareholders. To create an investable index, the index provider selects funds and develops structured products or derivative instruments that deliver the performance of the index. When investors buy these products the index provider makes the investments in the underlying funds, making an investable index similar in some ways to a fund of hedge funds portfolio.
To make the index investable, hedge funds must agree to accept investments on the terms given by the constructor. To make the index liquid, these terms must include provisions for redemptions that some managers may consider too onerous to be acceptable. This means that investable indices do not represent the total universe of hedge funds. Most seriously, they under-represent more successful managers, who typically refuse to accept such investment protocols.
The most recent addition to the field approach the problem in a different manner. Instead of reflecting the performance of actual hedge funds they take a statistical approach to the analysis of historic hedge fund returns, and use this to construct a model of how hedge fund returns respond to the movements of various investable financial assets. This model is then used to construct an investable portfolio of those assets. This makes the index investable, and in principle they can be as representative as the hedge fund database from which they were constructed. However, these clone indices rely on a statistical modelling process. Such indices have too short a history to state whether this approach will be considered successful.
In March 2017, HFR – a hedge fund research data and service provider – reported that there were more hedge-fund closures in 2016 than during the 2009 recession. According to the report, several large public pension funds pulled their investments in hedge funds, because the funds’ subpar performance as a group did not merit the high fees they charged.
Despite the hedge fund industry topping $3 trillion for the first time ever in 2016, the number of new hedge funds launched fell short of 2007–2008 crisis-era figures. There were 729 hedge fund launches in 2016, fewer than the 784 opened in 2009, and dramatically fewer than the 968 launches in 2015.
However, these claims are widely disputed by the financial industry, who typically regard hedge funds as "small enough to fail", since most are relatively small in terms of the assets they manage and operate with low leverage, thereby limiting the potential harm to the economic system should one of them fail. Formal analysis of hedge fund leverage before and during the 2008 financial crisis suggests that hedge fund leverage is both fairly modest and counter-cyclical to the market leverage of investment banks and the larger financial sector. Hedge fund leverage decreased prior to the financial crisis, even while the leverage of other financial intermediaries continued to increase. Hedge funds fail regularly, and numerous hedge funds failed during the financial crisis. In testimony to the US House Financial Services Committee in 2009, Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Board Chairman said he "would not think that any hedge fund or private equity fund would become a systemically critical firm individually".
Nevertheless, although hedge funds go to great lengths to reduce the ratio of risk to reward, inevitably a number of risks remain. Systemic risk is increased in a crisis if there is "herd" behaviour, which causes a number of similar hedge funds to make losses in similar trades. In addition, while most hedge funds make only modest use of leverage, hedge funds differ from many other market participants, such as banks and mutual funds, in that there are no regulatory constraints on their use of leverage, and some hedge funds seek large amounts of leverage as part of their market strategy. The extensive use of leverage can lead to forced liquidations in a crisis, particularly for hedge funds that invest at least in part in illiquid investments. The close interconnectedness of the hedge funds with their prime brokers, typically investment banks, can lead to domino effects in a crisis, and indeed failing counterparty banks can freeze hedge funds. These systemic risk concerns are exacerbated by the prominent role of hedge funds in the financial markets. The global hedge fund industry has over $2 trillion in assets, and this does not take into account the full effect of leverage, which by definition is market exposure in excess of the amount invested.
An August 2012 survey by the Financial Services Authority concluded that risks were limited and had reduced as a result, inter alia, of larger margins being required by counterparty banks, but might change rapidly according to market conditions. In stressed market conditions, investors might suddenly withdraw large sums, resulting in forced asset sales. This might cause liquidity and pricing problems if it occurred across a number of funds or in one large highly leveraged fund.
Hedge funds are structured to avoid most direct regulation (although their managers may be regulated), and are not required to publicly disclose their investment activities, except to the extent that investors generally are subject to disclosure requirements. This is in contrast to a regulated mutual fund or exchange-traded fund, which will typically have to meet regulatory requirements for disclosure. An investor in a hedge fund usually has direct access to the investment adviser of the fund, and may enjoy more personalized reporting than investors in retail investment funds. This may include detailed discussions of risks assumed and significant positions. However, this high level of disclosure is not available to non-investors, contributing to hedge funds' reputation for secrecy, while some hedge funds have very limited transparency even to investors.
Funds may choose to report some information in the interest of recruiting additional investors. Much of the data available in consolidated databases is self-reported and unverified. A study was done on two major databases containing hedge fund data. The study noted that 465 common funds had significant differences in reported information (e.g., returns, inception date, net assets value, incentive fee, management fee, investment styles, etc.) and that 5% of return numbers and 5% of NAV numbers were dramatically different. With these limitations, investors have to do their own research, which may cost on the scale of US$50,000 for a fund that is not well-established.
A lack of verification of financial documents by investors or by independent auditors has, in some cases, assisted in fraud. In the mid-2000s, Kirk Wright of International Management Associates was accused of mail fraud and other securities violations which allegedly defrauded clients of close to US$180 million. In December 2008, Bernard Madoff was arrested for running a US$50 billion Ponzi scheme that closely resembled a hedge fund and was incorrectly described as one. Several feeder hedge funds, of which the largest was Fairfield Sentry, channeled money to it. Following the Madoff case, the SEC adopted reforms in December 2009 that subjected hedge funds to an audit requirement.
The process of matching hedge funds to investors has traditionally been fairly opaque, with investments often driven by personal connections or recommendations of portfolio managers. Many funds disclose their holdings, strategy, and historic performance relative to market indices, giving investors some idea of how their money is being allocated, although individual holdings are often not disclosed. Investors are often drawn to hedge funds by the possibility of realizing significant returns, or hedging against volatility in the market. The complexity and fees associated with hedge funds are causing some to exit the market – Calpers, the largest pension fund in the US, announced plans to completely divest from hedge funds in 2014. Some services are attempting to improve matching between hedge funds and investors: HedgeZ is designed to allow investors to easily search and sort through funds; iMatchative aims to match investors to funds through algorithms that factor in an investor's goals and behavioral profile, in hopes of helping funds and investors understand the how their perceptions and motivations drive investment decisions.
In June 2006, prompted by a letter from Gary J. Aguirre, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee began an investigation into the links between hedge funds and independent analysts. Aguirre was fired from his job with the SEC when, as lead investigator of insider trading allegations against Pequot Capital Management, he tried to interview John Mack, then being considered for chief executive officer at Morgan Stanley. The Judiciary Committee and the US Senate Finance Committee issued a scathing report in 2007, which found that Aguirre had been illegally fired in reprisal for his pursuit of Mack, and in 2009 the SEC was forced to re-open its case against Pequot. Pequot settled with the SEC for US$28 million and Arthur J. Samberg, chief investment officer of Pequot, was barred from working as an investment advisor. Pequot closed its doors under the pressure of investigations.
The systemic practice of hedge funds submitting periodic electronic questionnaires to stock analysts as a part of market research was reported by The New York Times in July 2012. According to the report, one motivation for the questionnaires was to obtain subjective information not available to the public and possible early notice of trading recommendations that could produce short-term market movements.
According to modern portfolio theory, rational investors will seek to hold portfolios that are mean/variance efficient (that is, portfolios that offer the highest level of return per unit of risk). One of the attractive features of hedge funds (in particular market neutral and similar funds) is that they sometimes have a modest correlation with traditional assets such as equities. This means that hedge funds have a potentially quite valuable role in investment portfolios as diversifiers, reducing overall portfolio risk.
Hedge funds are highly individual, and it is hard to estimate the likely returns or risks.
Hedge funds' low correlation with other assets tends to dissipate during stressful market events, making them much less useful for diversification than they may appear.
Hedge fund returns are reduced considerably by the high fee structures that are typically charged.
Several studies have suggested that hedge funds are sufficiently diversifying to merit inclusion in investor portfolios, but this is disputed for example by Mark Kritzman who performed a mean-variance optimization calculation on an opportunity set that consisted of a stock index fund, a bond index fund, and ten hypothetical hedge funds. The optimizer found that a mean-variance efficient portfolio did not contain any allocation to hedge funds, largely because of the impact of performance fees. To demonstrate this, Kritzman repeated the optimization using an assumption that the hedge funds took no performance fees. The result from this second optimization was an allocation of 74% to hedge funds.
The other factor reducing the attractiveness of hedge funds in a diversified portfolio is that they tend to perform poorly during equity bear markets, just when an investor needs part of their portfolio to add value. For example, in January–September 2008, the Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Index was down 9.87%. According to the same index series, even "dedicated short bias" funds had a return of −6.08% during September 2008. In other words, even though low average correlations may appear to make hedge funds attractive this may not work in turbulent period, for example around the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.
^ a b c d e f Gerald T. Lins, Thomas P. Lemke, Kathryn L. Hoenig & Patricia Schoor Rube, Hedge Funds and Other Private Funds: Regulation and Compliance § 5:23 (2013 - 2014 ed.).
^ Stuart A. McCrary (2002). "Chapter 1: Introduction to Hedge Funds". How to Create and Manage a Hedge Fund: A Professional's Guide. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 7–8. ISBN 978-0471224884.
^ a b The President's Working Group on Financial Markets (April 1999). "Hedge Funds, Leverage, and the Lessons of Long-Term Capital Management" (PDF). U.S. Department of the Treasury. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 October 2013. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
^ "Alternative Funds Are Not Your Typical Mutual Funds". finra.org. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. 11 June 2013. Archived from the original on 14 May 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2014.
^ David Stowell (2012). Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity. Academic Press. p. 237. ISBN 9780124046320. Archived from the original on 9 August 2016. Retrieved 18 April 2014.
^ François-Serge Lhabitant (2007). Handbook of Hedge Funds. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0470026632. Archived from the original on 9 August 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
^ a b c d Ismail, Netty (21 February 2011). "Institutions Damp Hedge Fund 'Startup Spirit,' Citi's Roe Says". Bloomberg Businessweek. Archived from the original on 25 February 2011. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
^ "HEDGE FUND ASSETS ECLIPSE RECORD LEVEL FOR EIGHTH CONSECUTIVE QUARTER DESPITE MIXED CAPITAL FLOWS | Hedge Fund Research®". www.hedgefundresearch.com. Archived from the original on 23 November 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
^ Lhabitant, F. S., Handbook of Hedge Funds (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006), p. 410.
^ Anson, Mark J.P. (2006). The Handbook of Alternative Assets. John Wiley & Sons. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-471-98020-9.
^ Nocera, Joe (16 May 2009). "Hedge Fund Manager's Farewell". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 February 2012. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
^ "Hedge your bets". The Phrase Finder. Archived from the original on 29 July 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
^ a b Coggan, Philip (2010). Guide to Hedge Funds. London: Profile Books. ISBN 9781846683824.
^ "Hedge Fund". Investopedia. Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
^ Laughner, B., “The Graham-Newman Collection” Archived 17 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Questia, Spring 2014.
^ Commentary by Chet Currier - 29 September 2006 00:06 EDT (29 September 2006). "Buffett Says Hedge Funds Are Older Than You Think: Chet Currier". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 25 October 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
^ Tavakoli, Janet (23 August 2010). Dear Mr. Buffett: What an Investor Learns 1,269 Miles from Wall Street. Wiley. ISBN 978-0470632420.
^ a b Ubide, Angel (June 2006). "Demystifying Hedge Funds". Finance & Development. International Monetary Fund. Archived from the original on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
^ a b c Ineichen, Alexander (2002). Absolute Returns: the risks and opportunities of hedge fund investing. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 8–21. ISBN 978-0-471-25120-0.
^ Anson, Mark J.P. (2006). The Handbook of Alternative Assets. John Wiley & Sons. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-471-98020-9.
^ Lhabitant, François-Serge (2007). Handbook of Hedge Funds. John Wiley & Sons. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-470-02663-2.
^ Nicholas, Joseph G. (2004). Hedge funds of funds investing: an investor's guide. John Wiley & Sons. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-57660-124-2.
^ "The Reason Pension Plans Stick With Hedge Funds". Bloomberg.com. 9 November 2015. Archived from the original on 10 April 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
^ Herbst-Bayliss, Svea (19 January 2011). "Hedge fund industry assets swell to US$1.92 trillion". Reuters. Archived from the original on 3 June 2011. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
^ Kishan, Saijel (27 November 2008). "Satellite Halts Hedge Fund Withdrawals, Fires 30 After Losses". Bloomberg. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ Strasberg, Jenny; Eder, Steve (18 April 2011). "Hedge Funds Bounce Back". Wall Street Journal Online. Archived from the original on 11 June 2015. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
^ "Institutional Share Growing For Hedge Funds". FINalternatives. 10 February 2011. Archived from the original on 18 March 2012. Retrieved 10 March 2011.
^ "Updated The biggest hedge funds – Pensions & Investments". Pionline.com. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ McCrum, Dan (30 March 2012). "Dalio Earns $3.9bn to Top Hedge Fund Pay List". The Financial Times. Archived from the original on 27 May 2013. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
^ Vardi, Nathan (3 March 2012). "The 40 Highest-Earning Hedge Fund Managers". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2 June 2012. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
^ Robleh, Amel (5 March 2012). "Billion dollar club". Absolute Return. Archived from the original on 29 August 2012. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
^ Chung, Juliet (19 April 2012). "Hedge-Fund Assets Rise to Record Level". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 11 June 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2012.
^ "Subscribe to read". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 26 April 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
^ "Hedge funds regain lustre – Financial Times". ft.com. Archived from the original on 21 September 2017. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
^ "How Ray Dalio Built the World's Biggest Hedge Fund". Fortune. Archived from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2018.
^ Copeland, Rob (11 March 2014). "SAC Seeks a New Start as 'Point72'". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 15 December 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
^ Protess, Ben; Lattman, Peter (4 November 2013). "After a Decade, SAC Capital Blinks". The New York Times/Dealbook. Archived from the original on 6 November 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
^ Agustino Fontevecchia (13 March 2014). "Steve Cohen Personally Made $2.3B In 2013 Despite Having To Shut Down SAC Capital". Forbes. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
^ "Company Profile for Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (OZM)". Bloomberg L.P. 2013. Archived from the original on 12 July 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
^ Griffiths, Tony (6 October 2010). "The HFMWeek 50 most influential people in hedge funds". HFMWeek. Archived from the original on 9 October 2010. Retrieved 5 August 2011.
^ "The 2011 Hedge Fund 100 Ranking". Institutional Investor, Inc. 12 May 2011. Archived from the original on 18 April 2012. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
^ "Forbes profile: Leon G. Cooperman Archived 29 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine". Forbes.com.
^ Westbrook, Jesse (Dec 2013). "Man Who Said No to Soros Builds BlueCrest Into Empire". Bloomberg L.P. Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
^ "Hedge Fund - Lone Pine Capital". insidermonkey. 2015. Archived from the original on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^ Juliet Chung (17 July 2014). "In Investor Letter, Glenview Looks Back at 2008, Looks Ahead to More Babies". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 9 July 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
^ Carreyrou, John (11 February 2013). "Hedge Funds Clash Over Argentina Debt". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 5 February 2015. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
^ Elliott Management. "Elliott Management Releases ISS Presentation". Yahoo! Finance. Archived from the original on 2 March 2014. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
^ "Hedge Fund - Elliott Management". Insider Monkey. Archived from the original on 11 June 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
^ "Paul Singer Bio, Returns, Net Worth". Insider Monkey. Archived from the original on 16 April 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
^ Moyer, Liz. "Elliott Management Takes 11% Stake in Cabela's". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 31 October 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
^ Alden, William (25 October 2012). "David Einhorn Continues His Take Down of Fed Policy". DealBook. Archived from the original on 24 April 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
^ Hugo Lindgren, "The Confidence Man" Archived 5 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine, New York Magazine, 2008/06/15.
^ Chen, Liyan (26 June 2015). "20 Biotech and Healthcare Stocks: the Richest Hedge Fund Billionaires Are Buying And Selling Now". Archived from the original on 16 November 2015. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
^ "Hedge Fund Tools – Investment Strategies". Capital Beacon. Archived from the original on 29 September 2010. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
^ a b c Connor, Gregory; Lasarte, Teo. "An Introduction to Hedge Fund Strategy" (PDF). The London School of Economics and Political Science. International Asset Management Ltd. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 May 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
^ Sadek, Bill. "Decimation of Fortunes: Where Do We Go From Here?" (PDF). Fortress Strategy USA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 April 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
^ a b Ineichen, Alexander (2002). Absolute Returns: the risks and opportunities of hedge fund investing. John Wiley & Sons. p. 192. ISBN 978-0-471-25120-0.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Coggan, Philip (2011). Guide to Hedge Funds (2nd ed.). The Economist Newspaper Ltd.
^ a b c d e Bartolo, Michael (September 2008). "Hedge Fund Strategies Guide" (PDF). Goizueta Business School. Emory University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 November 2009. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
^ a b c d Walker, Stephen (2010). Wave Theory for Alternative Investments. McGraw-Hill Companies. ISBN 978-0-07-174286-3.
^ Stefanini, Filippo (2006). Investment strategies of hedge funds. John Wiley & Sons. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-470-02627-4.
^ Tran, Vinh Q. (2006). Evaluating hedge fund performance. John Wiley & Sons. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-471-68171-7.
^ Fry, David (2008). Create Your Own ETF Hedge Fund. John Wiley & Sons. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-470-13895-3.
^ Ineichen, Alexander (2002). Absolute Returns: the risks and opportunities of hedge fund investing. John Wiley & Sons. p. 182. ISBN 978-0-471-25120-0.
^ "Different ways to invest money in stocks – Pugvestor". Pugvestor. 30 March 2017. Archived from the original on 9 January 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
^ a b c "Understanding Event-Driven Investing". BarclayHedge LTD. Archived from the original on 30 December 2010. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
^ "Understanding Merger Arbitrage". BarclayHedge LTD. Archived from the original on 15 March 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
^ "HFR I Strategy Definitions". Hedge Fund Research Inc. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
^ "Relative Value Arbitrage definition". BarclayHedge LTD. Archived from the original on 25 February 2011. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
^ Ineichen, Alexander (2002). Absolute Returns: the risks and opportunities of hedge fund investing. John Wiley & Sons. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-471-25120-0.
^ Davidoff, Steven M. (17 September 2009). "To Reduce Hedge Fund Risk, Let Everyone In". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 December 2011. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
^ a b c Jones, Sam (21 March 2011). "Hedge funds: Stringent controls on losses and investment". Financial Times. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
^ a b Lo, Andrew (2001). "Risk Management for Hedge Funds: Introduction and Overview" (PDF). Financial Analysts Journal. 57 (6): 16–33. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.370.8177. doi:10.2469/faj.v57.n6.2490. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 June 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
^ "Hennessee: Protecting capital during market downturns". Hedge Fund Journal. 22 July 2010. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
^ a b c Cassar, Gavin; Gerakos, Joseph. "How Do Hedge Funds Manage Portfolio Risk?" (PDF). EFM Symposium. European Financial Management Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 August 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
^ Jaffer, Sohail (2006). Hedge funds: crossing the institutional frontier. Euromoney Books. pp. 113–4. ISBN 978-1-84374-268-5.
^ a b c Ineichen, Alexander (2002). Absolute Returns: the risks and opportunities of hedge fund investing. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 441–4. ISBN 978-0-471-25120-0.
^ a b Jaeger, Lars (28 April 2005). "Risk Management for Hedge Fund Portfolios" (PDF). Presentation at ETHZ [Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich]. Partners Group. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 November 2010. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
^ a b c d Chay, Felda (27 November 2010). "Call For Joint Effort to Protect Hedge Fund Business". The Business Times Singapore. Singapore Press Holdings. Archived from the original on 29 December 2010. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
^ White, Jody (25 January 2010). "Institutional investors changing the rules of hedge fund investing". BenefitsCanada.com. Archived from the original on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
^ a b c "What is a Hedge Fund". BarclayHedge LTD. Archived from the original on 16 March 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
^ a b Strachman, Daniel A.; Bookbinder, Richard S. (2009). Fund of Funds Investing: A Roadmap to Portfolio Diversification. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 120–1. ISBN 978-0-470-25876-7.
^ a b Avellanda, Marco; Besson, Paul. "What is a Hedge Fund" (PDF). New York University. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
^ a b "Concentration Risk". Quant Risk Group. 2008. Archived from the original on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
^ a b c Ang, Andrew; Gorovyy, Sergiy; van Inwegen, Gregory B. (2011). "Hedge Fund Leverage". Journal of Financial Economics. 102 (1): 102–126. doi:10.1016/j.jfineco.2011.02.020.
^ "Financial, Economic and Money News - USATODAY.com". USA TODAY. Archived from the original on 20 March 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
^ "Hedge fund investors have a great chance to cut fees". Financial Times. 6 February 2009. Archived from the original on 20 May 2011. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ Hulbert, Mark (4 March 2007). "2 + 20, And Other Hedge Math". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 9 December 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
^ "Hedge Fund Fees: The Pressure Builds". Businessweek.com. 4 March 2007. Archived from the original on 15 August 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
^ "Hedge Fund Math: Why Fees Matter (Newsletter), Epoch Investment Partners Inc" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 July 2011. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ "Forbes 400 Richest Americans: Stephen A. Cohen". Forbes.com. 19 September 2006. Archived from the original on 23 September 2010. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ Opalesque (10 March 2010). "Incentive fees fall since start of the financial crisis". Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
^ "Hedge Funds: Fees Down? Close Shop". Businessweek.com. 8 August 2005. Archived from the original on 18 January 2010. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ a b c "AIMA Roadmap to Hedge Funds". Archived from the original on 15 September 2010. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ "Hedge Funds | HedgeWorld | The Definitive Hedge Fund Community". HedgeWorld. Archived from the original on 21 October 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
^ Matthew Goldstein (1 April 2011). "Paulson, at $4.9 billion, tops hedge fund earner list". Reuters. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
^ Nelson D. Schwartz (31 March 2010). "Pay of Hedge Fund Managers Roared Back Last Year". New York Times. Archived from the original on 30 June 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
^ a b Richard Anderson (2 February 2011). "Masters of the universe: meet the world's best-paid men". BBC. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
^ Nathan Vardi (3 January 2012). "The 40 Highest-Earning Hedge Fund Managers". Forbes. Archived from the original on 23 July 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
^ Jesse Westbrook (30 March 2012). "Pay For Top-Earning U.S. Hedge Fund Managers Falls 35%, AR Says". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 15 June 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
^ Britt Erica Tunick (1 June 2012). "Compensation Survey:Banking on the Back Office". Absolute Return + Alpha. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
^ "The World's Billionaires". Forbes. March 2012. Archived from the original on 22 August 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
^ Edwin Durgy (9 March 2012). "Billionaire Hedge Fund Managers". Forbes. Archived from the original on 28 July 2012. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
^ "Sunday Times Hedge Fund Rich List 2012". HITC Business. Here Is The City. April 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
^ Business Knowledge for IT in Hedge Funds. Essvale Corporation Limited. 2008. p. 122. ISBN 978-0955412455.
^ Daniel A. Strachman (2012). The Fundamentals of Hedge Fund Management. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. p. 47. ISBN 978-1118151396.
^ Daniel A. Strachman (2012). The Fundamentals of Hedge Fund Management. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. p. 23. ISBN 978-1118151396.
^ a b Mark J. P. Anson (2009). CAIA Level I: An Introduction to Core Topics in Alternative Investments. Wiley. pp. 22–23. ISBN 978-0470447024.
^ David Stowell (2012). Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0124158207.
^ David Stowell (2010). An Introduction to Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity. Academic Press. p. 101. ISBN 978-0123745033.
^ Phoebus Athanassiou (2012). Research Handbook on Hedge Funds, Private Equity and Alternative Investments. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 283. ISBN 978-1849802789.
^ Frank J. Fabozzi (2008). Handbook of Finance, Financial Markets and Instruments. Wiley. p. 749. ISBN 978-0470078143.
^ a b François-Serge Lhabitant (2007). Handbook of Hedge Funds. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 1–4. ISBN 978-0470026632.
^ a b "Guide to Sound Practices for Hedge Fund Administrators" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 December 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
^ ""Sound Practice Guidelines for Administrators of Alternative Funds including Experienced Investor Funds in the Isle of Man"" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
^ a b ""Madoff Anwar case, with $235 million in settlement monies, finally comes to a close"". Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
^ a b "The Citco Settlement And What Lies Ahead For PwC," Archived 7 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine Law360.
^ François-Serge Lhabitant (2007). Handbook of Hedge Funds. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 4–2. ISBN 978-0470026632.
^ Business Knowledge for IT in Hedge Funds. Essvale Corporation Limited. 2008. p. 121. ISBN 978-0955412455.
^ Vishwanath, Ramanna; Krishnamurti, Chandrasekhar (2009). Investment Management: A Modern Guide to Security Analysis and Stock Selection. Springer. p. 596. ISBN 978-3540888017.
^ a b Izzy Nelken (2005). Hedge Fund Investment Management. Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 51. ISBN 978-0750660075.
^ Philippe Jorion (2009). Financial Risk Manager Handbook. Wiley. p. 421. ISBN 978-0470479612.
^ "Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Proposed Treasury Regulations" (PDF). PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. p. 153. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 June 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
^ Daniel A. Strachman (2011). AARP Getting Started in Hedge Funds: From Launching a Hedge Fund to New Regulation, the Use of Leverage, and Top Manager Profiles. Wiley. p. 93. ISBN 9781118241721.
^ Izzy Nelken (2005). Hedge Fund Investment Management. Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 51. ISBN 978-0750660075.
^ Daniel A. Strachman (2012). The Fundamentals of Hedge Fund Management. Wiley. p. 187. ISBN 978-1118151396. Archived from the original on 10 August 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
^ Monty Agarwal (2009). The Future of Hedge Fund Investing: A Regulatory and Structural Solution for a Fallen Industry. Wiley. pp. 65–66. ISBN 978-0470537442. Archived from the original on 11 August 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
^ Jason A. Scharfman (2009). Hedge Fund Operational Due Diligence: Understanding the Risks. Wiley. ISBN 978-0470372340. Archived from the original on 10 August 2016. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
^ Daniel A. Strachman (2012). The Fundamentals of Hedge Fund Management. Wiley. p. 187. ISBN 978-1118151396.
^ a b Guy Fraser-Sampson (2010). Alternative Assets: Investments for a Post-Crisis World. Wiley. p. 112. ISBN 978-0470661376.
^ Mark J. P. Anson (2009). CAIA Level I: An Introduction to Core Topics in Alternative Investments. Wiley. pp. 174–175. ISBN 978-0470447024.
^ Daniel A. Strachman (2012). The Fundamentals of Hedge Fund Management. Wiley. pp. 88–89. ISBN 978-1118151396.
^ a b Daniel A. Strachman (2012). The Fundamentals of Hedge Fund Management. Wiley. pp. 52–54. ISBN 978-1118151396.
^ D. Muraleedharan (2009). Modern Banking: Theory and Practice. Wiley. p. 162. ISBN 978-8120336551.
^ a b c d TheCityUK (2012). "Hedge Funds: March 2012" (PDF). Jersey Finance. p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 June 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
^ Scheiber, Noam; Cohendec, Patricia (29 December 2015). "For the Wealthiest, a Private Tax System That Saves Them Billions: The very richest are able to quietly shape tax policy that will allow them to shield billions in income". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 9 July 2017. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
^ a b c d Stevenson, Alexandra (8 July 2015). "I.R.S. Cracks Down on Hedge Fund Tax Strategy". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 3 January 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
^ "Dodd-Frank Act Changes to Investment Adviser Registration Requirements – Preliminary Results" (PDF). Securities and Exchange Commission. 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 November 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
^ Satyajit Das (2011). Extreme Money: Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk. FT Press. pp. 79–80. ISBN 978-0132790079.
^ Andrew Shrimpton (2006). Sohail Jaffer, ed. Hedge Funds: Crossing the Institutional Frontier. Euromoney Institutional Investor. p. 120. ISBN 978-1843742685.
^ "Esma tells EU to stay vigilant of hedge fund relocation after Brexit". FT (Financial Times). 13 July 2017. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
^ "Will London survive as a financial centre after Brexit?". The Guardian. 26 April 2017. Archived from the original on 7 September 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
^ "Ahead of Brexit, some banks quietly shift M&A bankers to Frankfurt". Reuters. 7 November 2016. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
^ "Barclays Picks Dublin as Post-Brexit EU Headquarters". Bloomberg. 26 January 2017. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
^ "Morgan Stanley picks Frankfurt as post-Brexit hub". The Guardian. 19 July 2017. Archived from the original on 24 October 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
^ "Goldman Sachs closes London hedge fund and moves jobs to New York". The Independent. 9 February 2017. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
^ "Hedge funds and buyout groups look at leaving London". FT (Financial Times). 6 July 2016. Archived from the original on 10 October 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
^ François-Serge Lhabitant (2007). Handbook of Hedge Funds. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0470026632.
^ a b c Joseph G. Nicholas (2005). Investing in Hedge Funds, Revised and Updated Edition. Bloomberg Press. pp. 40–41. ISBN 978-1-57660-184-6.
^ François-Serge Lhabitant (2007). Handbook of Hedge Funds. John Wiley & Sons. p. 4.1.1. ISBN 978-0470026632.
^ Business Knowledge for IT in Hedge Funds. Essvale Corporation Limited. 2008. p. 124. ISBN 978-0955412455.
^ "Offshore Hedge Funds vs. Onshore Hedge Funds" (PDF). Fund Associates. 2008. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 April 2013. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
^ Daniel A. Strachman (2012). The Fundamentals of Hedge Fund Management. Wiley. p. 3. ISBN 978-1118151396. If you are marketing to Japanese investors; you must have a Cayman-based unit trust. This group of investors rarely, if ever, invests in a hedge fund that is not set up as a unit trust.
^ François-Serge Lhabitant (2007). Handbook of Hedge Funds. John Wiley & Sons. p. 4.2.1. ISBN 978-0470026632.
^ a b François-Serge Lhabitant (2007). Handbook of Hedge Funds. John Wiley & Sons. p. 4.2.2. ISBN 978-0470026632.
^ "Registration Under the Advisers Act of Certain Hedge Fund Advisers: footnote 141". Securities and exchange Commission. Archived from the original on 9 March 2011. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
^ Ineichen, Alexander M. (2002). "Funds of Hedge Funds: Industry Overview". Journal of Wealth Management. 47 (4).
^ Clarke, Geordie (18 April 2012). "Listed hedge funds: Lifting the smokescreen". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 27 May 2013. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
^ Frank J. Travers (2012). Hedge Fund Analysis: An In-Depth Guide to Evaluating Return Potential and Assessing Risks. Wiley. ISBN 978-1118175460.
^ a b c Daniel A. Strachman (2012). The Fundamentals of Hedge Fund Management. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley. pp. 63–64. ISBN 978-1118151396.
^ a b Duc, Francois; Schorderet, Yann (2008). Market Risk Management for Hedge Funds: Foundations of the Style and Implicit Value-at-Risk. Wiley. pp. 15–17. ISBN 978-0470722992.
^ Giannone, Joseph A. (27 April 2010). "SEC probes hedge funds' use of side pockets-WSJ". Reuters. Archived from the original on 30 December 2013. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
^ Azam Ahmed (28 March 2011). "For Sale: Illiquid Assets, Hard to Value". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 7 April 2013. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
^ Zuckerman, Gregory; Patterson, Scott (4 August 2006). "'Side-Pocket' Accounts Of Hedge Funds Studied". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 27 March 2015. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
^ "The Differences Between Mutual Funds and Hedge Funds, April 2007". ICI. Archived from the original on 9 December 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
^ a b c d Drawbaugh, Kevin (25 February 2011). "Regulators Crack Down on Banks, Markets". Reuters. Archived from the original on 26 July 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
^ Hedge Fund Standards Board. "Mission". Archived from the original on 1 October 2016. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
^ Hedge Fund Standards Board. "History". Archived from the original on 1 October 2016. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
^ a b Williams, Orice M. (7 May 2009). "Hedge Funds: Overview of Regulatory Oversight, Counterparty Risks, and Investment Challenges". U.S. Government Accountability Office. Archived from the original on 28 February 2011. Retrieved 14 March 2011.
^ Brown-Hruska, Sharon (30 November 2004). "Securities Industry Association Hedge Funds Conference". Securities Industry Association Hedge Funds Conference Keynote Address. U.S Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Archived from the original on 16 May 2011. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
^ "The Laws That Govern the Securities Industry: The Securities Act of 1933". Securities and Exchange Commission. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
^ Baums, Theodor; Cahn, Andreas (2004). Hedge funds:risk and regulation. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 64–65. ISBN 978-3-89949-149-4.
^ a b "The Laws That Govern the Securities Industry: The Securities Exchange Act of 1934". Securities and Exchange Commission. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
^ Skeel D. (2005). Behind the Hedge Archived 20 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Legal Affairs.
^ Marx Law Library, University of Cincinnati College of Law. "The Investment Company Act of 1940". Law.uc.edu. Archived from the original on 11 June 2010. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ "Forming A Hedge Fund". SGLawyers.com. Archived from the original on 15 March 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
^ Marx Law Library, University of Cincinnati College of Law. "The Investment Company Act of 1940". Law.uc.edu. Archived from the original on 25 July 2010. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ "Registration Under the Advisers Act of Certain Hedge Fund Advisers". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 7 December 2004. Archived from the original on 7 November 2010. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
^ "Registration Under the Advisers Act of Certain Hedge Fund Advisers: Footnote 42". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 7 December 2004. Archived from the original on 7 November 2010. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
^ Astarita, Mark J. "Registration of Hedge Fund Managers: Bureaucracy Without Benefit". SECLaw.com. Archived from the original on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
^ Goldstein vs. SEC , 04-1434 (D.C. App. 23 June 2006).
^ Adelfio NE, Griffin N. (2007). United States: SEC Affirms Its Enforcement Authority With New Anti-Fraud Rule Under the Advisers Act Archived 27 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Mondaq.
^ a b Chalmers, Geoffrey T. (April 2010). "Financial Regulatory Reform – What Does it Mean for You?". RegulatoryCompliance.com. Regulatory Compliance, LLC. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
^ Herbst-Bayliss, Svea; Wachtel, Katya (28 March 2012). "Hedge funds register, wait for SEC to visit". Reuters. Archived from the original on 6 May 2012. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
^ Orol, Ronald D. (19 November 2010). "SEC: Hedge funds must open up their books". MarketWatch. Archived from the original on 2 May 2013. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
^ a b c "Brief Summary of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act" (PDF). banking.senate.gov. United States Senate. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 July 2010. Retrieved 8 March 2008.
^ Ismail, Netty (23 February 2011). "Asia's Cash-Poor Small Hedge Funds". Bloomberg. Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on 27 February 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
^ "SEC Adopts Dodd-Frank Act Amendments to Investment Advisers Act". Securities and Exchange Commission. 22 June 2011. Archived from the original on 26 June 2012. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
^ Marx Law Library, University of Cincinnati College of Law (18 October 2010). "Dodd-Frank Changes to Adviser Regulation". Montgomery McCracken. Archived from the original on 4 January 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
^ Shore, Ben (19 October 2010). "EU finance ministers agree new hedge fund curbs". BBC News Business. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
^ "Directive on Alternative Investment Managers ('AIFMD'): Frequently Asked Questions". Europa. European Union. 11 November 2010. Archived from the original on 29 November 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2008.
^ Barker, Alex; Jones, Sam (2012). "EU hedge funds face pay threat - FT.com". ft.com. Archived from the original on 15 August 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
^ "TalkingPoint: Outlook For Offshore-registered Hedge Funds In 2011". Financier Worldwide. February 2011. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
^ "Hedge Fund SA" (PDF). Industry Overview. Hedge Fund SA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
^ Willoughby, Jack (1 October 2007). "High Performance – Barron's Online". Online.barrons.com. Archived from the original on 27 November 2011. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ "Here They Are—The Hedge Fund 50" (PDF). The Wall Street Journal. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 November 2007. Retrieved 19 October 2007.
^ Or, Amy (4 March 2011). "Hedge Fund Assets Near $2.5 Trillion in 2010". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Archived from the original on 7 March 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
^ a b Mallaby, Sebastian (2010). More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite. Penguin Group. ISBN 978-1-59420-255-1.
^ "Hedge Funds Out Perform In The "Lost Decade"". Hennessee Group LLC. 19 January 2010. Archived from the original on 1 September 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
^ Kaissar, Nir (24 March 2016). "Just Look at Those Subpar Returns!". Bloomberg Gadfly. Archived from the original on 15 April 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
^ Bollen, Nicolas P.B.; Whaley, Robert E. (April 2009). "Hedge Fund Dynamics: Implications" (PDF). The Journal of Finance. LXIV (2): 985–1035. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6261.2009.01455.x. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
^ Tran, Vinh Q. (2006). Evaluating hedge fund performance. John Wiley & Sons. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-471-68171-7.
^ Longo, John M. (2009). Hedge fund alpha. World Scientific Publishing. pp. 203–4. ISBN 978-981-283-465-2.
^ a b Christopherson, Robert; Gregoriou, Greg N. (2004). Commodity Trading Advisors: Risk, Performance Analysis, and Selection. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 377–384. ISBN 978-0-471-68194-6.
^ Gregoriou, Greg N. (2008). Encyclopedia of alternative investment. Taylor & Francis Inc. p. 303. ISBN 978-1-4200-6488-9.
^ Longo, John M. (2009). Hedge fund alpha. World Scientific Publishing. p. 205. ISBN 978-981-283-465-2.
^ Sharma, Milind (2005). Hedge Funds: Insights in Performance Measurement, Risk Analysis, and Portfolio Allocation. Wiley, John & Sons Incorporated. pp. 403–434. ISBN 978-0-471-73743-8.
^ Aldridge, Irene (2009). High-Frequency Trading. Wiley, John & Sons Incorporated. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-470-56376-2.
^ Lack, Simon (2012). The Hedge Fund Mirage: The Illusion of Big Money and why it's Too Good to be True. New Jersey, USA: John Wiley & Sons. p. 7. ISBN 9781118164310. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
^ Géhin, Walter; Vaissié, Mathieu (June 2005). "The Right Place for Alternative Betas in Hedge Fund Performance: an Answer to the Capacity Effect Fantasy". The Journal of Alternative Investments. 9 (1): 9–18. doi:10.3905/jai.2006.640263. Archived from the original on 7 June 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
^ English, Carleton (18 March 2017). "Hedge funds close at faster pace in 2016 than 2009 recession". New York Post. Archived from the original on 20 March 2017. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
^ Chan, Nicholas; Getmansky, Mila; Haas, Shane M; Lo, Andrew W (March 2005). "Systemic Risk and Hedge Funds". NBER Working Paper No. 11200. doi:10.3386/w11200.
^ "Financial Stability Review June 2006" (PDF). June 2006. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ Gary Duncan (2 June 2006). "ECB warns on hedge fund risk". London: The Times. Archived from the original on 11 June 2011. Retrieved 1 May 2007.
^ Bookstaber, Richard (16 August 2007). "Blowing up the Lab on Wall Street". Time.com. Archived from the original on 6 December 2010. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ "A reply to the ECB's statement on hedge funds by the EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre" (PDF). edhec-risk.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 September 2009. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ Protess, Ben (19 November 2010). "No Threats Here, Firms Tell the U.S." The New York Times. Archived from the original on 25 November 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
^ Rooney, Ben (18 December 2008). "Hedge fund graveyard: 693 and counting". CNNMoney.com. Archived from the original on 19 January 2012. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
^ Federal Reserve Perspectives on Financial Regulatory Reform Proposals: Hearing Before the H. Comm. on Financial Services Archived 28 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine, 111th Cong. 25 (2009) (testimony of Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System).
^ Financial Services Authority (August 2012). "Assessing the possible sources of systemic risk from hedge funds" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
^ Liang, B (2000). "Hedge Funds: The Living and the Dead". Journal of Financial & Quantitative Analysis. 35 (3): 309–326. doi:10.2307/2676206. JSTOR 2676206.
^ Stulz, R (2007). "Hedge Funds Past, Present, and Future". Journal of Economic Perspectives. 21 (2): 175–194. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.475.3895. doi:10.1257/jep.21.2.175.
^ Nick Kochan (1 July 2009). "Hedge Fund Fraud: Hedge of darkness". Risk. Archived from the original on 4 May 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
^ Monee Fields-White (23 August 2006). "NFL Stars, Charmed by Kirk Wright, Lose Millions in Hedge Fund". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 4 May 2014. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
^ "SEC v. Kirk S. Wright, International Management Associates, LLC; International Management Associates Advisory Group, LLC; International Management Associates Platinum Group, LLC; International Management Associates Emerald Fund, LLC; International Management Associates Taurus Fund, LLC; International Management Associates Growth & Income Fund, LLC; International Management Associates Sunset Fund, LLC; Platinum II Fund, LP; and Emerald II Fund, LP, Civil Action". Sec.gov. Archived from the original on 24 July 2009. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ Amanda Cantrell, CNNMoney.com staff writer (30 March 2006). "Hedge fund manager faces fraud charges". Money.cnn.com. Archived from the original on 3 October 2009. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ Hipwell, Deirdre (12 December 2008). "Wall Street legend Bernard Madoff arrested over 50 billion Ponzi scheme". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
^ "Madoff brother to plead guilty". Belfast Telegraph. 29 June 2012. Archived from the original on 1 July 2012. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
^ "U.S. Attorneys Recover Again for South American Investors". Business Wire. 26 June 2012. Archived from the original on 28 July 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
^ Securities and Exchange Commission, Custody of Funds or Securities of Clients by Investment Advisers, Release No. IA–2968 Archived 25 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine (30 December 2009), 75 Fed. Reg. 1456 (11 January 2010).
^ "Opaque Trading, Disclosure, and Asset Prices: Implications for Hedge Fund Regulation". oxfordjournals.org. Archived from the original on 12 December 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
^ "Harvard Management Company Endowment Report" (PDF). Hmc.harvard.edu. September 2013. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
^ "Will entrepreneurs save the hedge fund industry". Hedgeweek. 9 March 2015. Archived from the original on 28 April 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
^ Kirsten Salyer. "A Dating Service for Those Who Love Hedge Funds". Businessweek.com. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
^ "IMatchative raises $20M to help match investors, hedge funds". Silicon Valley Business Journal. 28 October 2014. Archived from the original on 11 February 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
^ "Scrutiny Urged for Hedge Funds". Washingtonpost.com. 29 June 2006. Archived from the original on 11 November 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
^ Hulbert, Mark (4 March 2007). "Hulbert, Mark 2 + 20, and Other Hedge Fund Math, ''New York Times'', 4 March 2007". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 9 December 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
^ "Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Index web page". HedgeIndex.com. Archived from the original on 19 August 2010. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
Thomas P. Lemke, Gerald T. Lins & A. Thomas Smith III, Regulation of Investment Companies (Matthew Bender 2014 ed.).
Frank Partnoy; Randall S. Thomas (20 Sep 2006). "Gap Filling, Hedge Funds, and Financial Innovation". Brookings-Nomura Papers on Financial Services. SSRN 931254.
Boyson, Nicole M.; Stahel, Christof W.; Stulz, Rene M. (2010). "Hedge Fund Contagion and Liquidity Shocks". The Journal of Finance. 65 (5): 1789–1816. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6261.2010.01594.x.
|
0.989714 |
North-west Pakistan 'a massive lake' Jump to media player Lyse Doucet has travelled to north-west Pakistan, where the worst monsoon floods in living memory have killed at least 800 people and affected one million more.
'No help' for Pakistan flood victims Jump to media player Flood victims in Pakistan have complained there is "no help" from the government as rescuers struggle to reach inundated areas.
UN voices Pakistan flood fears Jump to media player At least one million people in north-west Pakistan have been affected by the country's worst monsoon floods in living memory, the UN has said.
The worst monsoon floods in living memory have killed at least 800 people and affected one million in north-west Pakistan.
The BBC's Lyse Doucet reports from an area which has become ''a massive lake'' as floodwaters cut off roads and families complain they have received no aid.
|
0.998487 |
Job Purpose: Carry out a range of clerical and administrative tasks and assist with general day-to-day office duties, including dealing incoming / outgoing phone calls and enquiries from customers needing smoke alarms and safety checks. Assisting staff conduct visits to customers homes to execute the Safe and Wellbeing visits - visiting properties throughout Northumberland. Job Context: Resources Staff None.
Finance May be required to process orders, invoices etc. Physical Required to Climb ladder and screw into ceiling to fit smoke alarms, moving boxes of smokes alarms around.
Clients Required to work with internal and external service clients, in particular those with vulnerabilities during home visits. Duties and key result areas: Undertaken individually or as part of a team, these are examples of some of the duties that may be expected to be undertaken by the post holder. The actual duties may vary depending on the requirements of the role.
|
0.97962 |
by Charles B. Garlet, Jr.
In his Miscellaneous Writings, (J. J. Miller, Cumberland, MD., 1896, p.195), Jacob Brown, while discussing the Garlitz family, said.
"-------Garlitz, father of Christian, Henry and John, and two sisters, was born in Montgomery county, Md. During, or near the close of the Revolutionary War, he removed with his family westward and located in the southeastern part of Somerset, (then Bedford,) Co. Pa. Here his family grew up, Henry and John remained in Pennsylvania, and Christian stepping over the line into his native State.
"Christian Garlitz I, soon after the American Revolution, moved from Montgomery County, Maryland to what is now Greenville Township, Somerset County, Pa. He settled just north of the Maryland line and was one of the first settlers of that township, then well forested and a fine hunting ground. In the census of 1790 Christy Garlick is listed in Bedford (now Somerset) County with a family of five males and three females. Three of Christians sons were Christian, John, and Henry."
As an aside here, though the distinction may not be important, the 1790 census gives the name as Christly, not Christy.
Those statements raise the question to be answered in this paper: Is Christly Garlick, (named Christian I by Hoye), the true Garlitz progenitor of western Maryland and Pennsylvania? I believe the answer is no.
Christly Garlick, as Hoye says, is documented in the 1790 census for Bedford County, Pennsylvania, which puts him in the right county. He has five males and three females. One of the females is probably, though not necessarily, his wife. The other two females could be the two daughters mentioned by both Brown and Hoye. Except for the head of family the five males, (two more than mentioned in the histories), are all under 16 years old.
From this, and apparently without further research, Hoye concluded that Christly is the earliest Garlitz family settler, and called him Christian I. Many Garlitz researchers since have accepted this conclusion as fact. I will show that it is not so.
On the face of it, the two names are similar; GARLICK/GARLITZ. Still, they are a bit hard to reconcile. Each can be found in a variety of spellings. Garlick, for example is recorded as Garlach, Gerlach, Garlic, Garlough, Gerlough and other versions, while Garlitz is found as Garlets, Garlitts, Gharlitzs, Corlitz, Goerlitz, Gerlits, and Görlitz. The phonetic similarity, you see, is found consistently in the first syllable; never in the last.
Note that neither Christly nor Stephen was on the militia list but Stophel was and neither Stephen nor Stophel was listed in the 1790 census, while Christly was. Later, in the 1800 census, Stephen is listed while Christly and Stophel aren't. And in 1810, Stephen is enumerated in Bedford County, Providence Township. This is the same Township where Stophel appeared on a militia list, and where Stephen and Christopher were found. Providence Township is north and east of Greenville Township where Brown and Hoye put the pioneer Garlitz. In fact, Providence Township is now located in Fulton County, two counties east of Somerset County. We will pursue this question of the township later.
In correspondence with another researcher, the suggestion was made that Christly was a contraction of the given name Christopher. It was also suggested that Stophel was similarly a contraction of Christopher. If that is true, then Steven Garlick, Stophel Garlick, Christopher Garlick, and Christly Garlick are quite possibly one and the same. This theory is supported by the fact that they can all, including Christly as we will see, be placed in the same location and that both Stophel and Christly disappear in later records.
To confirm this suggestion, I consulted an Internet site by Charles F. Kerchner, Jr., that gives "nicknames, akas (also known as), and translations for some baptismal and given names used by 18th Century Pennsylvania Germans."5 In his list, we find the following.
Christ and Christli are often used in place of Christian and Kit, Stoffel and Christopher are substitutes for the German Christoph.
"Christy is normally a nickname for Christian. Stoffel was the nickname for Christopher. Sometimes people who never heard Stoffel read it as Steffan. And I have seen people whose names were Christopher called Christ or Christy or Christly."
This information supports a conclusion that the Christly Garlick listed in the 1790 census and identified by Hoye as the pioneer Garlitz is the same person as the Stephen, Christopher, and Stophel Garlick found in other records. And, because of his location in Providence Township, it also supports the suggestion that this Garlick fellow is not the first Garlitz. The pioneer, you'll recall, was placed by both Brown and Hoye in Greenville Township. Further, the great supply of people named Garlitz still living in that area and across the border into Maryland agrees with that statement.
Those who have searched it know that the 1790 census is not an index. The names are not listed alphabetically. Nor, as is recorded in a note, are the names listed by township. However, an analysis of the names in the listing provides an interesting clue.
Of the thirteen names, counting Christly, eight are Providence Township taxpayers. Probably the others are Providence Township residents as well.
I conclude from this that Christly Garlick is not the pioneer Garlitz Hoye writes about and is not Christian Garlitz I. We must look elsewhere for that pioneer's identity.
I am convinced from this analysis that the first Garlitz to locate in the western parts of Maryland and Pennsylvania is still unknown but is most likely named Hendrey or Henry. Which of the two listed in the census remains to be seen.
1 Pennsylvania Archives, Series 6, Volume III, part 1, p. 30.
2 Pennsylvania Archives, Series 3, Volume 25, page 520. "Warranties of Land, Bedford County."
3 United States Direct Tax of 1798 for Fulton Co., PA, Vol. 7 (McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania: Fulton County Historical Society, Inc., 1985) p.88.
41808 Triennial Tax Assessment, Bedford County, PA, Providence, Twp. Vol. 12 (McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania: Fulton County Historical Society, Inc., 1990) p. 116.
5 "18th Century PA German Nicknames" by Charles F. Kerchner. 21 September 1995, (updated 13 May 2000). Available at (www.kerchner.com/nickname.htm).
6 Letter to the author from Rev. Frederick S. Weiser dated 17 October 2000.
7 Christly Garlick appears on page 20.
8 Albert Edwards, An Every-name Index for U.S. Direct Tax of 1798 for Fulton County, PA (Box 586, Kalaheo, HI 96741: 1992).
9Tax List in Year 1796, Salisbury Centennial Souvenir Book (Salisbury, Pennsylvania: Salisbury Centennial Corporation, 1962) p 28.
|
0.996302 |
Failed to completely uninstall XPression Designer version: build: 2243 but still have no idea how to do it? There are times you may want to uninstall XPression Designer version: build: 2243 for various reasons although it is quite popular and adopted by computer users. If this is the case in your machine, read this article and learn more detailed instructions about uninstalling this application.
Removal Instruction Part 1 - Uninstall XPression Designer version: build: 2243 Under Windows Safe Mode.
The above uninstall method can not guarantee you a 100% complete removal of it, you need to manually remove the leftover(files, registry entries, keys, values) by yourself to completely uninstall XPression Designer version: build: 2243.
Step 2: Launch Max Uninstaller, find out and select XPression Designer version: build: 2243 on the right hand list, then click "Run Analysis" button.
Step 4: Click "Yes" to start uninstalling XPression Designer version: build: 2243.
Step 6: Max Uninstaller will scan over your computer for a few minutes. After the scan finished, click "Delete Leftovers" to remove all the leftovers of XPression Designer version: build: 2243.
Step7: Max Uninstaller has now fully uninstalled XPression Designer version: build: 2243 and deleted all its files and extensions. Click OK to finish.
Sometimes you tried time and time again to remove XPression Designer version: build: 2243 using the Add/remove Program in the Control Panel, you find that it's nearly impossible because the program didn't show up in the installed program list. So you won't be able to delete it through Control Panel. Does it sound frustrating? Don't be too concerned as this is a common problem when this software is half installed...It could be easily solved using the force uninstall wizard.
In case you can't find XPression Designer version: build: 2243 in the program list, here is the additional instruction to force uninstall it completely.
Finish the above steps and XPression Designer version: build: 2243 is 100% guarantee to disappear from your PC.
If you ever meet errors related to XPression Designer version: build: 2243, click the below button to download program error fix tool, install it in your computer system, and follow the instruction to scan and repair existing problems on your computer, then you should be able to get XPression Designer version: build: 2243 running properly and uninstall XPression Designer version: build: 2243 without receiving any errors.
|
0.999383 |
Ask Sabrina Hofmann to describe herself or her work and you are asking her to do what she loves to do most: search for words. The mother of two from southern Germany spends much of her time writing down the countless words that are constantly doing cartwheels in her mind running through her head. To create space for new words, she swings her paintbrush, practising the art of language as she goes along. Each with a message that speaks for itself, it's hard to put her work it into words.
|
0.999998 |
How and when to mention negative conditions or complaints in a resignation letter.
Bringing up a complaint in a resignation letter is tricky. On the one hand, it can be important for your (former) employers to know why you're leaving if it can help them make their company better or safer. On the other hand, a vindictive former employer can use your own words against you and make it difficult to find work elsewhere. As such, it is best to be polite and brief, but to include negative feedback when the risk is worth it.
When deciding whether or not to include negative feedback in a resignation letter, one thing to consider is your own future circumstances. If you will not need your former employer as a reference (you have another job lined up, you're retiring, etc.), negativity won't be such a potential danger. If you're relying on your former employer to put in a good word for your next application, use caution. Even saying something as innocuous as "I have enjoyed my time here but need to find work that causes me less stress" could be used to argue that you don't have stamina, that you're unsuited for certain positions, or that you can't tough out difficulties in your field.
Another question is how much you like and trust your boss. If you feel like your employer will be understanding, sympathetic, and open to criticism, the resignation letter can be a conduit toward productive feedback. Many employers want to hear the truth, and may be less inclined to give you a good reference if they feel like you quit for no reason. If that's the case, however, it's still best to air the grievance during an exit interview. A resignation letter often goes in your file, and you don't know how it will be used after that.
Finally, one of the most important questions to consider is whether including negativity in your resignation will have a positive impact. Bringing up hazardous work environments, low pay, long commutes, harassment, or overwork might not put you in your employer's good graces-but it might spark change within the company, especially if they have a high turnover rate. Giving feedback that the environment is driving employees away may help them identify the problems and work toward fixing them.
Additional note: While it is possible that airing a grievance in a resignation letter will convince your boss to fix it (or give you a raise, or give you a promotion) in an effort to keep you with them, it's a risky move. It's better to bring up the grievance with your supervisor (or HR) before you decide to resign. If they do nothing, and you feel you can't work in those negative circumstances, feel free to bring it up in your resignation letter as a final ploy. However, chances are good that they'll just let you leave, so be prepared to follow through with your resignation.
|
0.973941 |
You can help out. If you see a question or answer that doesn't meet our community standards, use a (polite!) comment to ask the author to fix it, or be bold and edit it yourself, or flag it to bring it to the attention of the sleeping busy moderators.
What constitutes a good, polite, guiding comment? After reading Chris F's post urging the community to step up and help with community moderation, his question, and the inspirational response by Jerry Coffin, got me thinking about how and where to begin.
While it may seem like common sense, I believe that all of us could use a refresher or some ideas on how exactly to leave this type of comment.
Communicating over the Internet, where there's no body language or other social cues, is hard! One thing I've personally noticed is that users are more receptive to polite, carefully worded comments, and I feel like the community has more to gain if those users come back a second and third time and put more effort into correcting their question-asking or answer-giving shortcomings, than if they were just left with nothing more than a link, a stern warning, and a bitter, angry feeling.
When leaving a comment, say "hi" and use the person's name, if provided. Since @username doesn't work anymore, I find that this approach is much more personable and sets the tone for the rest of the comment.
Welcome the person to the site if he or she is new. This helps disarm the situation.
Use the first sentence to use what the person did or didn't do to describe what it is about StackExchange that's great, but without pointing out the behavior.
Next, offer a suggestion for improvement. This is important, and I really think this strategy is really helpful for people who are not moderators, simply because a person who makes a suggestion to another person helps bring the other person up to his or her level, with both people on the same level playing field. In other words, suggestions imply choice, and suggestions imply respect and equality. Suggestions imply that you're giving this person helpful, friendly advice that can improve that person's experiences on the site.
Lastly, if there's enough space, consider following up with another welcome message, see you around, good luck, or some other positive closure. This approach also implies that you don't expect nor intend to respond or follow up, which is really helpful, since there isn't much a regular user can do beyond that, other than flagging for moderator attention.
Some of these points were inspired by Chris F and Jerry's responses, but also from the blog post titled, A Theory of Moderation.
So, what other suggestions are there for empowering community moderation -- as in moderation by non-diamond community members -- through polite, respectful comments?
Please don't add "thanks" as answers. Invest some time in the site and you will gain sufficient privileges to upvote answers you like, which is the Programmers Meta way of saying thank you.
This is really a comment, not an answer. With a bit more rep, you will be able to post comments. For the moment I've added the comment for you, and I'm flagging this post for deletion.
Please use the Post answer button only for actual answers. You should modify your original question to add additional information.
If you have a NEW question, please ask it by clicking the Ask Question button. If you have sufficient reputation, you may upvote the question. Alternatively, "star" it as a favorite and you will be notified of any new answers.
From this script. For more info, check out Stack Apps.
Hi Person, welcome to Programmers! Unfortunately, our site is a Q&A site for conceptual software development questions, and not a place to simply get answers from programmers about any topic. I am going to vote to close your question for being off-topic, however feel free to check out our faq or browse the site to learn more about us.
It begins with a friendly welcome, followed by "unfortunately" to show you see the users point of view and sympathize with them, clarifies the site topic, explains the close vote, shows them where they should start to use the site, and invites them to stay on the site.
Welcome to Programmers! Please check out the [FAQ], as it seems like your question is off-topic here. Perhaps [SO] is a better place to find your answer?
My goal with this comment is to remove any possible negative tone, and be as constructive as possible. It's also short and easy to remember. Of course, [SO] should be replaced with the proper site to suggest.
On a per-case basis I contemplate saying why it is off-topic, or why it would be on topic for the suggested site. However, by not saying why, I think it encourages people to actually read the FAQ because they are either genuinely curious, or want to find evidence to refute my claim.
I also like phrasing where I think the question should be as a question. This way my suggestion feels more like an offer, which is more accurate to my intentions, rather than a demand. It also leaves it open for debate. I don't know everything, so it's possible that there is a better place to suggest finding the answer, or that maybe someone from the place I suggested doesn't agree.
As part of the question I specifically say "to find your answer". My hope is that it implies that the person should search the site first, instead of just blindly re-posting the question. Overall, for me at least, it is an acceptance on my part that the person is on a "journey" to find an answer, and that I am not just shutting them down, but instead offering advice.
recommended reading: **[Open letter to students with homework problems](http://meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/q/6166/)** "...If your question on Programmers.SE is just a copy paste of homework problem, expect it to be downvoted, closed, and deleted - potentially in quite short order."
Above is markdown allowing straight copy and paste into comments field.
Above, again, can be copied and pasted straight into flag message.
I am going to type part of the homework dump from the image in this question into Google search, find instructor who assigned it and ask them to help with this, are you OK with that?
I am going to type part of the [homework dump](http://meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/q/6166/) from the image in this question into Google search, find instructor who assigned it and ask them to help with this, are you OK with that?
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged discussion moderation comments etiquette .
Migrating Crap to SO. Really, Programmers?
Why does this homework dump deserve to stay on site (while prior was deleted)?
Why was my question about the consequences of using Windows XP closed?
|
0.999999 |
Why was Thomas Jefferson famous?
Thomas Jefferson was famous as the third President of the United States of America and as the Author of the Declaration of Independence and for his negotiation of the Louisiana Purchase with France which doubled the size of the United States. The next US President was James Madison.
1743 Born on April 13, 1743 in Albermarle County, Virginia.
1775–83 The American Revolution, the American War of Independence, led by George Washington was fought between Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.
1817 - 1818 The First Seminole War when American slave owners travelled to Spanish Florida in search of runaway African slaves and Seminole Indians who had been trading weapons with the British in the War of 1812.
1826 Thomas Jefferson died of natural causes, most likely dehydration resulting from dysentery, at the age of 84. His death occurred on July 4, 1826 in Monticello in Virginia and was buried at the family estate in Charlottesville.
American History Timelines provide fast facts and information about the life famous people in American history, such as the President Thomas Jefferson Timeline, who precipitated a significant change in World and American history. The life of this major historical figure is arranged by chronological, or date order, providing an actual sequence of past events which were significant to this famous figure in American history as detailed on the Thomas Jefferson Timeline, the third President of the United States. The lives of many historical people and figures, such as the life biography detailed in the Thomas Jefferson timeline, occurred during times of crisis or evolution or change. The Thomas Jefferson timeline describes famous, critical and major incidents in the dated biography of the life of this US President. The Thomas Jefferson timeline provides fast information via a timeline which highlights the key dates of major historical significance in a fast information format. Specific information can be seen at a glance with concise and accurate details of the life and biography of President Thomas Jefferson. The American History timelines include timelines and chronologies of many important people including the Thomas Jefferson timeline, the third President of the United States.
|
0.999967 |
When shopping for your project, it is important to know how much material will be needed. The most effective way to determine the needed quantity is to properly measure the area of the home where you will place the vinyl siding.
It is important to measure properly entered to save you money and, more importantly, save you time. Below, you will find a comprehensive article detailing the most effect is way to properly measure your home for vinyl siding.
Do the following to estimate the siding and materials you will need. Square footage will simply be referred to as SF.
1. Find the home's Main SF. Take measurements in feet of the perimeter (P) of your house. Find the measurement from the eaves to the bottom of the siding (EH). By multiplying this height by the perimeter, you will find the house's main SF: P x EH = Main SF.
2. Find the Gable SF by measuring the gable height (GH) and gable wall width (GW) at the eaves. By multiplying the gable height and gable width, then dividing by two, you will have each gable's SF: (GW x GH) / 2 = Gable SF (of each gable).
3. Find the Gross SF by adding the square footage for all the gables and the main SF: (Sum of all Gable SF) + Main SF = Gross SF.
4. Find the square footage of major openings (such as large windows, patio doors, and garage doors) by multiplying the height of each opening (OH) and the width of each opening (OW): OH x OW = Opening SF (of each opening).
5. Find the Net SF. The net SF will be the gross square footage minus the square footage of major openings: Gross SF - (Sum of SF of all Openings) = Net SF.
6. Find the number of squares of siding needed by dividing the net SF by 100: Net SF / 100 = # of squares needed.
7. Find the number of outside and inside corners. First, count the outside corners and measure the length of each corner. To determine the number of outside corners you will need, add together the lengths of the corners and divide by 10: (Sum of all outside corner lengths) / 10 = # of outside corners needed.
To determine the number of inside corners needed, repeat the steps for the inside corners: (Sum of all inside corner lengths) / 10 = # of inside corners needed.
8. Find the number of lengths needed, which is the perimeter divided by the length of the starter strip: P / length of starter strip = number of lengths needed.
9. Determine the lengths needed by first measuring all the gable slope lengths and the perimeter around all doors and windows. The number of lengths needed is the total of linear feet divided by the length of each J-channel: (Sum of door & window perimeters) / length of each J-channel = # of lengths needed.
10. To find the number of lengths needed, take measurements of all window widths and all eaves lengths, then divide these numbers by the length of each utility trim.
Use our project tool to calculate the cost of your vinyl siding project.
|
0.979681 |
Safe Investing During a Recession Are the financial headlines giving you a gut wrenching feeling? Nothing is worse than waking up and seeing your 401k nose dive 23 percent and I had the unpleasant privilege of experiencing this pain over and over throughout the years.
The worst was taking a 90 percent loss while vested in a technology mutual fund. Who would think a mutual fund could lose? It was managed by top notch, Harvard educated managers. That one hurt a lot. Real money saved over years and lost in mere months.
The security of your investments is becoming more and more important these days. Investors want to be able to anticipate decent returns in the stock market, but the market takes them on a roller coaster ride that would be the envy of any amusement park. One day it's a 200 point rise and setting a new record high on the Dow, then the next a 300 point tumble that takes six weeks to shake off.
If you're like me, you have taken that ride more than once over the years. It's happened in a big way twice in the past decade alone!
The series of highs and lows can leave you with a feeling of hopelessness. How can you know if a company is cooking the books? How can you predict if there will be another terrorist attack that will cripple our Country for months? Who has a crystal ball that can reveal when the next financial market meltdown will wash over us? Whenever these cycles hit personal fortunes are wiped out in a blink of an eye.
You may be thinking, "So what else can I invest in?"
The answer is to invest in real estate...but maybe not in the way the first comes to mind.
1) The "Speculator" Approach - you could become a real estate "speculator" and buy properties with the hope that they will go up in value and allow you to reap windfall profits when you sell. Of course, this type of approach has a large amount of risk which has left large numbers of speculators who were consumed with "Flipping Frenzy" over the last few years in a very tough place when the market turned and did not favor their investment approach.
2) The Landlord Approach - on a more traditional level, you could buy a home, duplex, or small apartment building and rent the property out. Over time as you collect rent your tenants will pay off your mortgage. This does take some time, work, and experience. This approach is rather safe and can result in a good return in both the short and long term. The downside is that there can be a large amount of time required to make this work.
Now what if you find yourself in large group of over 200 Million Americans who want the benefits of real estate investing but don't have the spare time or hard-nosed demeanor needed to be a successful landlord? Well lucky for you there is a third approach which is not well-known.
3) The Passive Method - this style of investing is known as making "Private Mortgage Loans". Private Mortgage Loans, when set up properly, can provide your portfolio with a great return in any real estate market. Up, down, flat...it doesn't really matter.
The investment model is simple. You directly loan money, at a very low loan-to-value, against a piece of real estate. The borrower is typically a tried-and-true veteran landlord that has a portfolio of equity-rich properties and also is familiar with the ins-and-outs of finding tenants and managing rental property.
In return for loaning the landlord the funds you earn a return in the form of interest payments either monthly, quarterly, or on a custom basis as set up between yourself and your borrower.
To provide you with the safety you want, your investment is secured by a first mortgage. As long as you follow common-sense lending practices then you can enjoy a level of confidence in your investments that the stock market cannot provide.
With returns averaging 4-times what the stock market consistently delivers each year you can see why Private Mortgage Lending is an incredible vehicle to help you build wealth in a hurry. With it you can earn double digit returns without ever having to ever fix a toilet. Unfortunately, most investors aren't even aware this opportunity exists.
After reading this article, you are no longer one of the uninformed. You should drop everything you are doing and do some research to find out who is in need of a Private Mortgage. Talk with them over the phone, go out to lunch together and find out if you are a good fit. Then take action and make your first investment. Start small if it makes you feel better, but get started.
We're all busy and if you put off 'till tomorrow what should be done today, you know that you'll find yourself looking at your investment statements a year from now and wonder why your net worth is simply not growing at the rate you need it to in order to meet your financial goals.
|
0.950919 |
Lewis Hamilton beat Valtteri Bottas by 0.118s to lead a Mercedes one-two in qualifying for the French Grand Prix on Formula 1's return to Paul Ricard.
Mercedes looked strong during practice, and had the advantage throughout a qualifying hour during which rain threatened and fell lightly but never seriously impacted conditions.
Hamilton took control of the Q3 top 10 shootout by posting a 1m30.222s lap on ultrasofts on his first run, putting him a tenth ahead of Bottas and almost two tenths clear of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.
That was before the session was stopped thanks to Haas driver Romain Grosjean crashing at Turn 4.
When the session restarted, Vettel was unable to improve on his earlier lap of 1m30.400s, meaning it was a battle between the two Mercedes drivers.
Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were fourth and fifth for Red Bull, with the former almost seven tenths off pole, but ahead of Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari.
Raikkonen posted his time of 1m31.057s before the red flag, but when he headed out to improve had an oversteer moment into Turn 4 and was unable to do it.
Hamilton, Bottas, Ricciardo and Verstappen will all start the race using supersoft Pirellis, having used the slower tyres to set their Q2 times.
Ferrari, by contrast, ran in Q2 with the ultrasofts that were favoured by everyone else throughout qualifying on both Vettel and Raikkonen's car.
Carlos Sainz took best-of-the rest honours for Renault in seventh place, just over a second slower than Raikkonen.
Sauber rookie star Charles Leclerc reached Q3 for the first time in his F1 career and beat Haas driver Kevin Magnussen to eighth place.
Grosjean was classified 10th after failing to set a time during Q3 thanks to the shunt on his first flying lap.
He spun at the exit of the Turn 3 left-hander after the rear stepped out and slid nose-first into the Turn 4 barrier, reporting he was unable to engage reverse to recover.
Esteban Ocon was the fastest of those eliminated in Q2 amid some very light drizzle thanks to being bumped by Leclerc moments after jumping up into the top 10 with his final flier.
Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg was also eliminated despite his late improvement, ending up just six hundredths off the top 10 despite what he described as "a very good lap".
That put him ahead of the second Force India of Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly's Toro Rosso.
Marcus Ericsson was 15th for Sauber and reached Q2 despite having crashed during yesterday's free practice session.
As a result, he missed Friday's second session and then was limited to just three laps this morning thanks to rain before qualifying.
Fernando Alonso's late lap was only good enough for 16th, 0.027s slower than Hulkenberg and half-a-tenth ahead of the Toro Rosso of Brendon Hartley.
Hartley will start at the back of the grid hanks to taking new engine components today, and complained that wind, traffic and some spots of rain late in Q1 compromised his run.
Stoffel Vandoorne was 18th fastest in the second McLaren, ahead of Williams duo Sergey Sirotkin – who escaped action after an investigation for potentially impeding Hulkenberg - and Lance Stroll.
|
0.965889 |
CIAO 4.11 is only distributed with Python 3.5. The reason for moving to Python 3 is that the support for Python 2.7 is ending in 2020, and so many of the main scientific packages are also ending support for this version at the same time.
The Linux builds are done on a CentOS 6.9 machine and have been fully tested on CentOS 6 and Fedora 25+. The Linux build will not work on some older Linux operating systems, including CentOS 5 and earlier versions of Fedora. Linux users may need to install the ncurses5 compatibility package using their Linux distribution's package manager.
This is the default Linux distribution and will be installed automatically on all non-Ubuntu based distributions. The following is a short list of distributions where it will be installed: Fedora, RedHat, CentOS, ScientificLinux, openSUSE, and Mageia.
The Ubuntu build of CIAO, LinuxU, was built on an Ubuntu 14.04 LTS machine. It will be automatically selected for Ubuntu distributions (14.04LTS, 16.04LTS, 18.04LTS, and the standard releases, such as 18.10) as well as for distributions derived from Ubuntu such as LinuxMint 17 and LinuxMint18.
CIAO is not supported using any Linux distribution running under the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). The CXC has not done any testing with this configuration.
In the table above, 10.6 means OS-X Snow Leopard, 10.7 means OS-X Lion, 10.8 means OS-X Mountain Lion, 10.9 means OS-X Mavericks, 10.10 means OS-X Yosemite, 10.11 means OS-X El Capitan, 10.12 means macOS Sierra, 10.13 means macOS High Sierra, and 10.14 means macOS Mojave (which uses the High Sierra build for CIAO 4.11).
The CXC's commitment to support a platform - i.e. a version of an operating system - means that we undertake to fix bugs on that system. This requires that we are able to compile CIAO from source on each platform, which is a much greater commitment than simply providing a compatible binary. Additionally, it is typically necessary to support several versions of each operating system: former, current and new.
We test every tool on every platform via a large number of regression tests and scripts; this requires a greater amount of time when the number of systems increases.
We have to have current machines running each of these systems.
We make a tarball and install it on each system; this process is never problem-free, and takes manpower and time.
As a result, we are not able to support a larger number of systems than we currently do. We gather information from users on what platforms they are running (or want to use) in order to prevent the overextension of our resources. Please contact the CXC Helpdesk if you have input you would like the CXC to consider for the next release of CIAO.
|
0.999994 |
- Motala Verkstad is founded by Baltzar von Platen.
- The piracy trial of Johanna Hård.
- Inauguration of the National Portrait Gallery (Sweden).
- Amorina by Carl Jonas Love Almqvist.
Carl Jonas Love Ludvig Almqvist, was a romantic poet, early feminist, composer, social critic, and traveller. He was the son of the army paymaster Karl Gustav Almqvist and he studied in Uppsala and was worked as a clerk in Stockholm. In 1823 he gave up his post, and in the autumn of the year moved to Köla in northern Värmland where he and some friends, inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It was there that he married and had two children, in 1828 he became a teacher at the experimental New Elementary School, and he was rector at the same from 1829 to 1841. Almqvist was ordained as pastor in 1837, but could not find work, in June 1851 Almqvist fled Sweden on suspicion of fraud and poisoning attempts against the elderly usurer Johan Jacob von Scheven, to whom he owed 18000 riksdaler. The accusation was based on the testimony of Amanda Brandt among others and he arrived in the United States at the end of August and travelled widely under the name Lewis Gustawi. In Philadelphia, on the anniversary of his departure from Stockholm, he bigamously married a 69-year-old guest-house proprietress.
In 1865 Almqvist tried to return to Sweden, but only got as far as Bremen, carl Jonas Love Almqvists younger half-brother, the Director-General Gustavus Fridolf Almquist, was the grandfather of Dag Hammarskjöld. He wrote many books and poems and these books caused the church and state to condemn him and call him a dangerous revolutionary. However, he still maintained influence with his writings, and he is counted as one of the foremost Swedish social reformers of the 19th century, many of his writings are included in the long series Törnrosens bok. Some of his compositions have been recorded. Parjumouf Saga ifrån Nya Holland, a novel, published anonymously. It is the first Swedish novel set in Australia Amorina, novel Drottningens juvelsmycke, translated as The Queens Diadem by Yvonne Sandstroem Ormus och Ariman Om poesi i sak, essay on poetics Det går an, novel. Translated as Sara Videbeck and the Chapel by Adolph Burnett Benson Songes, Sara Videbeck and the Chapel is the English translation of Almqvists most famous work, whose Swedish title is Det går an.
His original name was Couchi, but he was commonly known as Badin, which means mischief-maker or trickster. She instructed him in Christianity and taught him to read and write and he knew all the secret passages within the royal castles and, as it was said, all the secrets within its walls. On 11 December 1768, he was baptised in the chapel of Drottningholm Palace with the royal family, except Prince Charles. As an adult, he was the butler of first the queen, when the queen lay on her death-bed in her country residence, she sent Badin to Stockholm with the key to her files. After her death, Badin acquired the files and handed them in the custody of prince Fredrick Adolf and princess Sophia Albertina and they had an argument and the king said, Do you not know, you black person, that I can make you pay with your head. He replied, My head is in the power of your Majesty, the relationship with his royal foster-siblings was otherwise described as good, no matter that he called King Gustav Gustav the Willen and Duke Charles Mr Tobacco.
Their relationship was good, though she hesitated as to whether she could keep him after 1787, when she had been abbess of Quedlinburg. Badin was married twice but died childless, the rumors that he was the father of the secret daughter of Sophia Albertina have never been confirmed. Badin collected a library consisting of some 900 volumes, mostly in French. It was sold in Stockholm in the year of his death 1822 with a printed catalogue and this makes him one of the first recorded book collectors of African origin. But preferred to call himself farmer, as he owned two farms and he was elected to the orders of Par Bricole, Svea Orden and the Freemasons. His diaries, written in French, are preserved in the library of the Uppsala University. Duke Charles bought the most beautiful morian Sweden have ever seen according to Gjörwell in 1771, and in 1802, non-black slave converts are recorded, such as Pluto from India in 1785 and Native Americans in the presence of nobility and a large gathering of the people.
Princess Sophia Albertina of Sweden.
|
0.999231 |
Social media platforms have changed and developed drastically since their inception. Facebook has been one of the original platforms that changed the game of online interactions. While Facebook is still a social media giant, other sites have climbs to the top and claimed many users. If I were to recommend a social media platform that would be essential to get plugged into, I would have to select Twitter over Facebook.
In order to get caught up with what’s going on around us and in the world today, Twitter is the best social media platform to find any kind of information. Worldwide trends help you see what everyone is talking about and what major events or news stories are taking place. Twitter is also the best place to get connected with celebrities, politicians, businesses, news sources and friends. You get messages directly from these accounts without a middleman. Furthermore, the 140-character limit keeps messages on Twitter concise and to the point. One can quickly absorb information and get the main ideas. I find most of my news from headlines on Twitter that lead me directly to the source. Not only that, but I can also find content that is newsworthy but not covered on traditional news outlets. Stories, thoughts, and opinions are all exchanged on Twitter and one can join in on a global conversation of a variety of issues. Many movements have started on Twitter with the use of a hashtag, and so have campaigns. Twitter is one click into global connection.
While many people still retain Facebook account, including myself, I think I would recommend staying away from this platform. Facebook has turned into a time consuming black hole for me. The only reason I maintain it is to keep up with my current friends. This really is a “social” site. I don't find out about outside current events on Facebook to the extent that I do on Twitter. While Facebook did adopt the use of the hashtag and trending topics from Twitter, I find it to be more limiting. Furthermore, this social media site is very focused on targeted marketing and following your interests as a consumer to advertise brands that you may like. Thus everything you post is monitored and used for companies to market their products to you.
Overall, I find Twitter to be more beneficial and useful in catching up with the trends and conversations of the modern world. You can find important information on global events and even share your opinions on them with others. It's a great place to engage with the people you want to follow and choose to converse with. Learning the trends, from slang and popular dance movies to social movements, is done best on Twitter.
Lydia is a senior at Pepperdine University majoring in Public Relations.
|
0.950789 |
William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst, GCH, PC (14 January 1773 – 13 March 1857) was a British diplomat and colonial administrator. He was Governor-General of India between 1823 and 1828.
Born at Bath, Somerset, Amherst was the son of William Amherst and Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Paterson. He was the grand-nephew of Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, and succeeded to his title in 1797 according to a special remainder in the letters patent. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford.
In 1816 he was sent as ambassador extraordinary to the court of China's Qing dynasty, with a view of establishing more satisfactory commercial relations between China and Great Britain. On arriving at Pei Ho (Baihe, today's Haihe), he was given to understand that he could only be admitted to the Jiaqing Emperor's presence on condition of performing the kowtow, a ceremony which Great Britain considered degrading (a view that was not shared by either the Netherlands or Russia, which also traded with China), and which was, indeed, a homage exacted by a Chinese sovereign from his tributaries. To this, Amherst, following the advice of Sir George Thomas Staunton, who accompanied him as second commissioner, refused to consent, as Macartney had done in 1793, unless the admission was made that his sovereign was entitled to the same show of reverence from a mandarin of his rank. In consequence of this, he was not allowed to enter Peking (Beijing), and the object of his mission was frustrated.
His ship, the Alceste, after a cruise along the coast of Korea and to the Ryukyu Islands on proceeding homewards, was totally wrecked on a submerged rock in Gaspar Strait. Amherst and part of his shipwrecked companions escaped in the ship's boats to Batavia, whence relief was sent to the rest. The ship in which he returned to England in 1817 touched at St Helena and, as a consequence, he had several interviews with the emperor Napoleon (see Ellis's Proceedings of the Late Embassy to China, 1817; McLeod's Narrative of a Voyage in H.M.S. Alceste, 1817). During one of the interviews, it was attributed to Napoleon that he said, "China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep. For when she wakes, she will shake the world."
Amherst was Governor-General of India from August 1823 to February 1828. The principal events of his government were annexation of Assam leading to the first Burmese war of 1824, resulting in the cession of Arakan and Tenasserim to the British Empire.
Amherst's appointment came on the heels of the removal of Governor-General Lord Hastings in 1823. Hastings had clashed with London over the issue of lowering the field pay of officers in the Bengal Army, a measure that he was able to avoid through successive wars against Nepal and the Marathas. However, his refusal in the early 1820s during peacetime to lower field pay, resulted in the appointment of Amherst, who was expected to carry out the demands from London.
However, Amherst was an inexperienced governor who was, at least in the early days of his tenure in Calcutta, influenced heavily by senior military officers in Bengal such as Sir Edward Paget. He inherited a territorial dispute from John Adam, the acting Governor-General prior to his arrival, which involved the Anglo-Burmese border on the Naaf River and this spilled over into violence on 24 September 1823. Unwilling to lose face in a time of Burmese territorial aggression, Amherst ordered the troops in.
The war was to last two years, with 15,000 killed on the British side and it cost 13 million pounds, contributing to an economic crisis in India. It was only due to the efforts of powerful friends such as George Canning and the Duke of Wellington that Amherst was not recalled in disgrace at the end of the war.
The war significantly changed Amherst's stance on Burma, and he now adamantly refused to annexe Lower Burma, but he did not succeed in repairing his reputation entirely, and he was replaced in 1828. He was created Earl Amherst, of Arracan in the East Indies, and Viscount Holmesdale, in the County of Kent, in 1826. On his return to England he lived in retirement till his death in March 1857.
Lord Amherst married twice, and remarkably, both his wives were dowager countesses of Plymouth. His first wife was Sarah, Dowager Countess of Plymouth (1762–1838), daughter of Andrew Archer, 2nd Baron Archer and widow of Other Windsor, 5th Earl of Plymouth (d. 1799). She was more than ten years older than him and the mother of several children. They were married in 1800 and were blessed with two sons as well as a daughter Lady Sarah Elizabeth Pitt Amherst. Sarah died in May 1838, aged 76, after about 38 years of marriage. Lady Amherst's pheasant was named after Sarah; it was at her instigation that the species was introduced from Asia to Bedfordshire. The genus Amherstia, a Burmese flowering tree, is also named after her.
In 1839, an year after the death of his first wife, Lord Amherst, aged 66, married the widowed daughter-in-law of his first wife. This was Mary, Dowager Countess of Plymouth (1792–1864), elder daughter and co-heiress of John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset, and widow of his stepson Other Windsor, 6th Earl of Plymouth (1789–1833). Although this was an unusual marriage, it was not forbidden by either Church law or civil law. His second wife had no children by either marriage.
Lord Amherst died in March 1857, aged 84 at Knole House in Kent, the seat of the Dukes of Dorset, a property which his second wife had inherited. He was survived by his second wife, Lady Amherst, heiress of Knole, who died in July 1864, aged 71. Lord Amherst was succeeded in his titles by his second and only surviving son, William.
^ For the Netherlands, see Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest § Embassy to China.
^ Reported as being from an 1817 conversation in The Mind of Napoleon, ed. and trans. J. Christopher Herold (1955), p. 249. Reported as unverified in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989).
^ Karl Marx, "War in Burma—The Russian Question—Curious Diplomatic Correspondence" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 12 (International Publishers: New York, 1979) p. 202.
Wikisource has the text of the 1885–1900 Dictionary of National Biography's article about William Pitt Amherst.
A. Thackeray and R. Evans, Amherst (Rulers of India series), 1894.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Amherst, William Pitt Amherst, Earl" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Webster, Anthony. (1998) Gentlemen Capitalists: British Imperialism in Southeast Asia, Tauris Academic Studies, New York, ISBN 1-86064-171-7.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst.
"Archival material relating to William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst". UK National Archives.
|
0.999064 |
If you've attended to the mechanical needs of your air conditioning equipment in order to save money but are still concerned about high energy bills, there are several structural issues to consider. Some improvements cost very little time and money, allowing you to reduce your energy usage affordably. Create a checklist and tour your home in search of some simple savings opportunities.
It's important to maintain a healthy roofing system to keep comfort control costs down, and one of the simplest places to start is with your insulation. Too much insulation can reduce ventilation in your attic, an issue that can drive the temperature of both your home and roofing system up. Too little insulation allows a more rapid energy exchange between your living space and your attic, leading to more frequent activity for your comfort control equipment.
Insulation upgrades can increase the barrier between the two spaces to reduce energy loss and lower your energy usage. If you aren't sure about how much insulation to add, inspect your attic to see if floor joists are visible. If they are, add enough insulation to cover the joists. If you don't see the joists, you probably don't need to supplement the existing material.
Air leaks can allow conditioned air to seep out of your home while introducing hot air from outside. This natural ventilation may keep the inside air somewhat fresh, but it can also cause your energy bills to creep up. Tight home sealing is important for limiting energy loss, and a tube of caulk is very inexpensive. Check your windows and doors, replacing old sealing materials as needed and filling in any gaps that you may have missed in previous years.
To keep your indoor air supply fresh without driving up energy bills, consider an energy recovery ventilator. As fresh air comes in and stale air goes out, outgoing energy can be transferred to the incoming supply to limit the impact on air conditioning equipment.
Take time to inspect your roofing system components, as well. Vented soffits are used to promote a flow of air through the attic, integral in preventing overheating of the roofing system and living spaces. Clear any obstructions to enhance the airflow.
Ducts are notorious for their impact on home comfort costs. An inspection is helpful for identifying whether leaks are present and for pinpointing other possible areas of damage. Occasionally, disconnected joints or crushed portions of ductwork can lead to severe energy loss issues. Leaks can add to the energy loss already associated with this structural portion of your cooling system. If leaks are discovered, your cooling contractor can seal them to improve both home comfort levels and energy usage. Duct cleaning is also important as a buildup of material in the tubes can reduce airflow, leading to poor comfort results and higher bills.
If you need an honest assessment of your existing equipment and an overview of options for lowering energy costs, a Comfort24-7 provider can assist. Our contractors are familiar with the latest technologies and solutions for excellent home comfort and efficiency levels. We will be happy to help you in finding a provider in your area.
|
0.999996 |
The task was not simple for this design. Make a 15 feet boat with 4 bunks, head and pantry. Suitable for outboard engine, electric trolling motor and pedal drive. Well I didn't succeed! The boat became 9 inches longer; it was simply not possible to squeeze everything into 15 feet so almost an extra foot was necessary.
The boat has a simple classic layout two bunks forward and two bunks aft. In between is the head and pantry. With 4 adults onboard the boat will properly be a little crowded but two adults and two kids should be all right.
The boat is not suitable for unprotected waters. The high freeboard will make it difficult to make maneuvers in strong wind, so therefore it is best to go on calm lakes, rivers or canals.
Displacement = 672 kg / 1482 lbs.
Hull weight = 214 kg / 472 lbs.
|
0.999902 |
Was the original show popular in the US?
I've liked all three of the new doctors though David Tennant is my favourite.
The head writer and executive producer of Doctor Who, Steven Moffat, is to step down from the show, the BBC has confirmed. His last series will go out in spring 2017 following a Christmas special, after which he will be replaced by Broadchurch writer Chris Chibnall. Moffat took over the reins on series five of the world's longest running sci-fi series in 2010. BBC One's controller, Charlotte Moore, said Moffat was an "absolute genius".
and now watching the clock begins... I am wondering if Capaldi is going to stay on. I hope so, because he is the most like Tom Baker who is my favorite. I know there are fans that said they hated the way Moffat handled The Doctor but I liked his work, just like I like his work on Sherlock.
The new Doctor Who companion will be revealed live on BBC One on Saturday night. The announcement will be made during half time of the FA Cup semi-final Match of the Day Live: Everton versus Manchester United at around 18:00 BST. The new companion will star alongside Peter Capaldi's Time Lord in the 10th new season of Doctor Who. They will replace Jenna Coleman, who played Clara Oswald, who left the show in 2015.
Pearl Mackie has been named as the new Doctor Who companion alongside Peter Capaldi's Time Lord in the Tardis.
The role of Doctor Who was previously offered to a black actor, executive producer Steven Moffat has revealed.
I started watching this in September, 2014, and have seen all the seasons from the reboot since then, I'm a big fan of this show, but I hate admitting it to people I know. Everyone I know thinks it's really weird, I'm waiting on the Christmas special this year, it's not very far away.
That's only because they haven't watched it. ;D ;D If they gave it a chance they would see how intelligent and interesting the writing is. Oh yes and definitely weird-one of the best aspects to be sure!
They have watched it. ;D I've considered watching the older ones, and will get around to it eventually. I personally find it to be weird, but I really like it anyways. ;D It's my favorite tv show that's running, and 2nd favorite tv show ever.
If you watch the old ones, watch the Tom Baker (4th Doctor) episodes first.
I don't know, I usually prefer to go chronological. If I watched series one first, I'd eventually get to the Tom Baker era, you know what I mean?
A "lost" Doctor Who adventure from 1966 whose original master tapes were wiped in the 1970s is to be released in animated form, the BBC has confirmed.
The animated makeover of The Power of the Daleks is based on film clips, surviving photographs and audio recordings featuring the original cast.
The six-part story was the first full outing of Patrick Troughton's Doctor.
It will be available on 5 November at 17:50 GMT on BBC Store, 50 years to the minute after its broadcast on BBC One.
Huh, that's actually pretty cool.
Reflecting on that time and with Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, I must had watched that series, I can remember Daleks exploding.
This year's Christmas special of Doctor Who will see the Doctor team up with a comic book superhero.
The 60 minute episode, called The Return of Doctor Mysterio, will be written by Steven Moffat and broadcast on BBC One on Christmas Day.
The Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, will work with the superhero to save New York from a deadly alien threat.
Doctor Mysterio will be played by Justin Chatwin, who has previously appeared in Orphan Black.
The pair will be joined on their quest by an investigative journalist, played by Wolf Hall actress Charity Wakefield.
Matt Lucas, who announced his return to Doctor Who earlier this year, will also appear in the episode.
Jodie Whittaker has been announced as Doctor Who's 13th Time Lord - the first woman to be given the role. The new Doctor's identity was revealed in a trailer broadcast at the end of the Wimbledon men's singles final. The Broadchurch star succeeds Peter Capaldi, who took over the role in 2013 and leaves in the forthcoming Christmas special. Whittaker, 35, said it was "overwhelming, as a feminist" to become the next Doctor. She will make her debut on the sci-fi show when the Doctor regenerates in the Christmas special.
The 13th doctor is a woman! This is pretty amazing actually. It shows that the new writer is willing to take a risk and not play it safe. I think this could either be spectacularly bad or spectacularly good!
A lot of people are freaking out about the announcement in a negative way. I personally don't mind if The Doctor is a man or a woman, just be a good Doctor.
The Broadchurch and Trust Me star has begun filming as the 13th Time Lord. Whittaker, the first female Doctor, takes over from Peter Capaldi and will make her debut on screen when the Doctor regenerates in the Christmas special on BBC One. When her casting was announced in July, she said it felt "overwhelming, as a feminist" to have the role. She told fans not to be "scared" by her gender.
When is the regeneration set to occur? I am a former Whovian who got turned off by how formulaic this show is, but I could be coaxed back if they decide to mix things up now that they've got this female Doctor.
I think the next Doctor Who is due around Christmas Day, I think Karen will known?
The Christmas special this year, Twice Upon A Time will have Peter's regeneration to Jodie. I can't wait to see Peter and David (Bradley) both playing off of each other as 1 and 12 and neither wanting to regenerate. :) Although I am said that Peter is going.
No, it is going to show Capaldi regenerate, but in this one the First Doctor makes an appearance, and he is struggling with the idea of regenerating as well, so, parallel storylines, is what I have gathered.
Ah alright then. I want Who to change up its formula, not the sequence of events.
I thought the special was nice. Not mind blowing, but sweet. Gonna use a spoiler tag just in case someone hasn't had the chance to see it yet.
Peter had a good send off; and his advice for the next Doctor was perfect- :\'(.
I liked that they used the Rose/Bad Wolf music in part of the regeneration scene.
I also liked the hinting at female regeneration throughout the show with the first Doctor's patronizing ideas of females- that made me chuckle, even though Hartnell's Doctor wasn't like that.
When Peter's cover-up ring dropped from Jodi's hand, that was a nice touch.
Seeing Clara- briefly- was nice as well.
Even better was Bill. I love Pearl Mackie.
The WW1 Captain was a Lethbridge-Stewart!
So many callbacks to previous episodes,storylines and Doctors. I will have to watch it a few times to catch them all.
The biggest criticism I have is that the TARDIS had a tantrum and kicked the new Doctor out mid-flight. I know this was a callback episode, but, this has been done a couple-few times in the past, and I would have preferred they go in a different direction for Jodi.
Well..watched the pilot with jodi and not disappointed.
It's just a pilot ep, and with so much new-ness it was bound to be a bit awkward/clunky but it did not retract from the show. She really smashed it. :) Extended version will be on in a few and am watching again.
So nice to see Who back.
|
0.90022 |
For over a century, the British Empire exerted control over Asia-Pacific, outright colonising India, Burma, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia while influencing and encroaching upon greater China, Siam and beyond.
It exploited the people and natural resources of the region, fuelled conflict as it waged war with rival European powers seeking to carve out their own colonies in Asia and left an enduring impact on the region, including ethnic and territorial feuds still unfolding today, e.g. the Rohingya crisis in present-day Myanmar.
Rather than make restitution for its decades of war, conquest and exploitation, the United Kingdom today eagerly seeks to reassert itself in the region alongside the United States who has also spent over a century in the region pursuing what US policymakers openly admit is American "primacy."
The Diplomat, a US-European geopolitical publication focused on Asia-Pacific, described this development in its article, "The British Are Coming (to Asia)."
The article featured a single image, that of the HMS Queen Elizabeth, one of the UK's newest warships and its largest. It is one of two "colossal warships" UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson recently pledged to send across the globe to aid Washington in its growing confrontation with Beijing.
The author, US Air Force Major John Wright currently serving as Japan Country Director, International Affairs, Headquarters Pacific Air Forces, Honolulu, Hawaii, attempts to construct a positive argument for the UK's involvement thousands of miles from its own shores.
The article admits that the US has few capable allies in the region willing to "comply with mutual defence needs beyond their own territory." It admits that the US has increasingly looked beyond Asia for partners. The UK then, is about as beyond Asia as any potential partner could be.
...the U.K. could revive the old trick of acting as a “fleet in being;” its ability to steam where and when it pleased while possessing no major territory would throw off regional rivals’ military calculus and force them to commit precious reconnaissance assets to monitoring the United Kingdom.
In other words, a European military would be deployed in and harass "rivals" across Asia alongside US warships already engaged in regional meddling. This, the author concludes, "would be a great benefit to stabilising the security troubles of the region."
Yet, when considering what actually drives "security troubles of the region," it is evident that the presence of US forces far beyond US territory, for example, stationed in South Korea and conducting military exercises along North Korea's borders in a deliberate attempt to provoke Pyongyang is the problem, not the solution. The addition of British warships and aircraft in the region will only further multiply "security troubles" evident in the author's own comments regarding the need for "regional rivals" to commit to tracking and keeping in check British warships.
Omitted from Major Wright's nostalgic review of the UK's historic role in Asia-Pacific was the concept of "gunboat diplomacy," where the British Empire coerced Asian states into making lopsided concessions to London or face British naval firepower. Chunks of Siam were carved off under threat of British "gunboat diplomacy," Hong Kong was outright seized by it and other nations likewise were forced by threat of military aggression to make concessions that benefited only the British.
US "primacy" in Asia-Pacific today closely resembles British "gunboat diplomacy." While literal gunboats training cannons on the capitals of targeted states is no longer feasible, other means of coercion are. These include options categorised under "soft power" including US-European-funded opposition groups which may or may not include armed components. There is also economic warfare. When Thailand ousted US-proxy Thaksin Shinawatra and his political allies from power, the US pursued a campaign of economic sabotage aimed at Thailand's seafood industry and tourism sector.
The US also employs terrorism as seen in the Philippines where Manila's failure to heed US demands was swiftly followed by the appearance of militants from the Islamic State (IS) armed and funded by Washington's allies in Riyadh. The militant group's sudden appearance pressured Manila to continue accommodating the US military's presence on its territory.
Of course, just as the British Empire hid naked imperialism behind the fig leaf of "spreading civilisation," modern-day neo-imperialism hides behind the pretext of bringing "stability" as well as fostering "democracy" and "human rights" to the four corners of the globe. In reality, UK warships confronting "regional rivals" thousands of miles from London is a direct attempt to upend stability in Asia-Pacific. The British imposing their will upon Asia through the threat of military might undermines regional and national self-determination, the very opposite of fostering democracy. And a nation imposing its will by threat of force is an obvious affront to human rights.
Despite these obvious facts, we can expect publications like The Diplomat to continue promoting US-British meddling across Asia-Pacific. We can also expect the many aspects of US-European "soft power" across the region to likewise promote such meddling. However, it should be noted, that Washington's need to find allies in Asia as far beyond Asia as northwest Europe illustrates America's waning influence in Asia to begin with. British involvement in Asia-Pacific will only delay the inevitable removal of US influence from the region. The only question is, for how long and at what cost to both the British taxpayers and the people of Asia who must stave off attempts to disrupt, destabilise and destroy their hard-earned independence and achievements post-British Empire.
|
0.914213 |
The text of the bill below is as of Sep 14, 2005 (Introduced).
To provide special rules for disaster relief employment under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 for individuals displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
This Act may be cited as the Flexibility for Displaced Workers Act .
Funds provided to States under section 173(a)(2) of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. 2918(a)(2)) to address the effects of Hurricane Katrina may be used to provide disaster relief employment under section 173(d)(1) of such Act on projects that provide assistance in areas outside of the disaster area (as such term is defined in section 173(a)(2) of such Act).
Funds provided to States under section 173(a)(2) of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. 2918(a)(2)) to address the effects of Hurricane Katrina may be used to provide disaster relief employment and other assistance under section 173(d)(1) of such Act, or public sector employment authorized under subsection (c) of this Act, to individuals affected by Hurricane Katrina, including those who have relocated from States in which a major disaster was declared under section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122) due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina, who were unemployed at the time of the disaster or who are without employment history, in addition to individuals who are eligible for such employment under section 173(d)(2) of Workforce Investment Act of 1998.
Funds provided to States under section 173(a)(2) of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. 2918(a)(2)) to address the effects of Hurricane Katrina may be used to provide temporary employment to eligible individuals in public sector entities for a period not to exceed 6 months in addition to disaster relief employment described in section 173(d)(1) of such Act.
The Secretary of Labor may extend the duration of employment under this Act and under section 173(d) of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. 2918(d)) for up to an additional 6 months due to extraordinary circumstances.
Funds provided to States under section 173(a)(2) of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. 2918(a)(2)) to address the effects of Hurricane Katrina may be used to provide needs-related payments (described in section 134(e)(3) of such Act (29 U.S.C. 2864(e)(3))) to eligible individuals who do not qualify for (or have ceased to qualify for) unemployment compensation, and who are not employed on a project described under section 173(d) of such Act, for the purpose of enabling such individuals to participate in activities under paragraphs (2), (3), or (4) of section 134(d) of such Act.
With the approval of the Secretary of Labor, any State may use funds that remain available for expenditure under any grants awarded to the State under section 173 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. 2918) to provide any assistance authorized under such section or under this section to assist workers affected by Hurricane Katrina, including workers who have relocated from States in which an emergency or major disaster was declared under section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122) due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina.
It is the sense of Congress that States that operate mobile one-stop centers, established as part of the one-stop delivery system authorized under section 121 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (29 U.S.C. 2841), should, where possible, make such centers available for use in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina, and areas where large numbers of victims of Hurricane Katrina have been relocated.
It is the sense of Congress that one-stop operators (as such term is defined in section 101 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998) should increase access for individuals affected by Hurricane Katrina to the one-stop delivery system authorized under section 121 of such Act (29 U.S.C. 2841), including through the implementation of expanded operational hours at one-stop centers and on-site services for individuals in temporary housing locations.
|
0.998294 |
(CNN) Child welfare officials in Texas have launched an investigation into an allegation that a child died after leaving a residential center that houses immigrant families.
Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, told CNN on Thursday the agency had received the child's name and opened an abuse/neglect investigation.
The age and gender of the child were not immediately known. Details on when the child was released from the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, when or how the child died or how long he or she was at the facility were not available.
Reports of the death surfaced earlier this month, but no details were released.
Texas officials said they could not start their inquiry earlier because they could not get the name "or any other necessary information."
When asked about the investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it did not have any information.
The law firm of Arnold & Porter said Wednesday it had been retained by the mother of a child "who tragically died after being detained by ICE ... in unsanitary conditions at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley."
|
0.942227 |
For a list of post World War Two "economic miracles", see Economic miracle. For the German band, see Wirtschaftswunder (band).
The Volkswagen Beetle was an icon of post-war West German reconstruction. The pictured example was a one-off version manufactured to celebrate the production of a million cars of the type.
The term Wirtschaftswunder (German: [ˈvɪʁtʃaftsˌvʊndɐ] ( listen), "economic miracle"), also known as the Miracle on the Rhine, describes the rapid reconstruction and development of the economies of West Germany and Austria after World War II (adopting an ordoliberalism-based social market economy). The expression referring to this phenomenon was first used by The Times in 1950.
Beginning with the replacement of the Reichsmark with the Deutsche Mark in 1948 as legal tender (the Schilling was similarly re-established in Austria), a lasting period of low inflation and rapid industrial growth was overseen by the government led by West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and his Minister of Economics, Ludwig Erhard, who went down in history as the "father of the German economic miracle." In Austria, efficient labor practices led to a similar period of economic growth.
The fundamental reason for the quick economic recovery of West Germany can be found in the ordoliberal growth model. West Germany had a skilled workforce and a high technological level in 1946, but its capital stock had largely been destroyed during and after the war. This small capital stock was compounded by the difficulty in converting the German economy to the production of civilian goods, as well as rampant monetary and regulatory problems, leading to an unusually low economic output during the first post-war years.
These initial problems were overcome by the time of the currency reform of 1948, which replaced the Reichsmark with the Deutsche Mark as legal tender, halting rampant inflation. This act to strengthen the West German economy had been explicitly forbidden during the two years that JCS 1067 was in effect. JCS 1067 had directed the U.S. forces of occupation in West Germany to "take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany".
At the same time, the government, following Erhard's advice, cut taxes sharply on moderate incomes. Walter Heller, a young economist with the U.S. occupation forces who was later to become chairman of President Kennedy's Council of Economic Advisers, wrote in 1949 that to "remove the repressive effect of extremely high rates, Military Government Law No. 64 cut a wide swath across the German tax system at the time of the currency reform." Individual income tax rates, in particular, fell dramatically. Previously the tax rate on any income over 6,000 Deutschmark had been 95 percent. After tax reform, this 95 percent rate applied only to annual incomes above 250,000 Deutschmark. For the West German with an annual income of about 2,400 Deutschmark in 1950, the marginal tax rate fell from 85 percent to 18 percent.
The Allied dismantling of the West German coal and steel industries decided at the Potsdam Conference was virtually completed by 1950; equipment had then been removed from 706 manufacturing plants in the west and steel production capacity had been reduced by 6,700,000 tons. Although the industrially important Saarland with its rich coal fields was returned to West Germany in 1957, it remained economically integrated in a customs union with France until 1959 and France extracted coal from the area until 1981.
Today the German working-man leads a comfortable life and wears a well-filled waistcoat. He eats well, and his food – although German cooking lacks the elegance of French – is wholesome and appetizing. He buys good clothes, and he dresses his wife and children well. He generally has money to spare for television sets, week-end excursions and football matches. And he is not afraid of celebrating occasionally on a grander scale.
As real incomes rose, so public authorities were enabled (and indeed encouraged) to raise funds, both from taxation and through borrowing, to accelerate the rate of investment and current spending in projects which are partly immediately productive, partly conducive to the creation of the good life, as seen in Germany ... Any superficial examination of the German townscape, let alone perusal of the statistics, shows that Germany has spent sums on hospitals, libraries, theatres, schools, parks, railway-stations, socially-aided housing, underground railways, airports, museums, and so on which are simply not to be compared with British efforts in this direction.
In addition to the physical barriers that had to be overcome for the West German economic recovery, there were also intellectual challenges. The Allies confiscated intellectual property of great value, all German patents, both in Germany and abroad, and used them to strengthen their own industrial competitiveness by licensing them to Allied companies.
Immediately after the German surrender and for the next two years, the U.S. pursued a vigorous program to harvest all technological and scientific know-how as well as all patents in Germany. John Gimbel's book "Science Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany" concludes the "intellectual reparations" taken by the U.S. and the UK amounted to close to $10 billion.
During the more than two years this policy was in place, new industrial research in Germany was hampered because it was unprotected and freely available to overseas competitors, encouraged by occupation authorities to access all records and facilities.
Meanwhile, thousands of the best German researchers and engineers were working in the Soviet Union and in the U.S. See Operation Osoaviakhim, Operation Paperclip.
The Marshall Plan was only extended to Western Germany after it was realized the suppression of its economy was holding back the recovery of other European countries and was not the main force behind the Wirtschaftswunder. Had that been the case, other countries such as the United Kingdom, which received much greater economic assistance than West Germany, should have experienced the same phenomenon. However, often overlooked is the effect of the "unofficial contributions" of 150,000 U.S. occupation troops, earning as much as 4 Deutschmark to the dollar. These marks were spent within West Germany to buy food, luxury items, beer and cars, as well as entertaining the locals and for prostitutes. During exercises such numbers of soldiers would swell to over 250,000. Nonetheless, the amount of monetary aid, which was mainly in the form of loans, about $1.4 billion, was greatly overshadowed by the amount the Germans had to pay back as war reparations and by the charges the Allies made on the Germans for the ongoing cost of the occupation, about $2.4 billion per year. In 1953 it was decided that Germany would repay $1.1 billion of the aid it had received. The last repayment was made in June 1971.
The demands of the Korean War in 1950–53 led to a global shortage of goods that helped overcome lingering resistance to the purchase of West German products. At the time West Germany had a large pool of skilled labour, partly as a result of the deportations and migrations which affected up to 16.5 million Germans. This helped West Germany to more than double the value of its exports during and shortly after the war. Apart from these factors, hard work and long hours at full capacity among the population in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s and extra labour supplied by thousands of Gastarbeiter ("guest workers", since the late 1950s) provided a vital base for the sustainment of the economic upturn with additional workforce.
From the late 1950s onwards, West Germany had one of the world's strongest economies. The East German economy also showed strong growth, but not as much as in West Germany, due to the bureaucratic system, emigration of working-age East Germans to West Germany and continued reparations to the USSR in terms of resources. Unemployment hit a record low of 0.7–0.8% in 1961–1966 and 1970–1971.
Ludwig Erhard, who served as Minister of the Economy in Chancellor Adenauer's cabinet from 1949 until 1963 and would later rise to Chancellor himself, is often associated with the West German Wirtschaftswunder.
Austria was also included in the Marshall Plan and can thus be included in any consideration of the Wirtschaftswunder. Through the nationalisation of key industries (VOEST, AMAG, Steyr-Puch) and yet more long working hours,[clarification needed] full economic capacity was reached. Using West Germany as a guide, the currency was stabilised when the Schilling was reintroduced in place of the Reichsmark. This economic policy was known in journalistic circles as the Raab-Kamitz-Kurs, named after Julius Raab, Austrian chancellor from 1953, and his Finance Minister Reinhard Kamitz similar to the West German Adenauer-Erhard-Kurs.
By state major projects such as the Kaprun hydroelectric plant or the West Autobahn, unemployment fell and social peace was ensured. In the 1950s the first Gastarbeiter from Southern Italy and Greece arrived in the country, as more manual labour was required to maintain the economic upswing.
^ Gareau, Frederick H. (1961). "Morgenthau's Plan for Industrial Disarmament in Germany". Western Political Quarterly. University of Utah. 14 (2): 517–534. doi:10.2307/443604. JSTOR 443604.
^ Science, London School of Economics and Political. "Department of Economic History" (PDF). lse.ac.uk.
^ Life World Library: Germany by Terence Prittie and the editors of LIFE, 1963, pp. 71–72.
^ Poverty and Inequality in Common Market Countries edited by Victor George and Roger Lawson.
^ C. Lester Walker "Secrets By The Thousands", Harper's Magazine. October 1946.
^ The $10 billion compares to the total Marshall plan expenditure (1948–1952) of $13 billion, of which West Germany received $1.4 billion (partly as loans).
^ "Pas de Pagaille!", 28 July 1947.
^ a b ""Marshall Plan 1947–1997 A German View" by Susan Stern". Archived from the original on 9 July 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
^ "Deployment of Military Personnel by Country," U.S. Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services.
Look up wirtschaftswunder in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Interview with Gunther Harkort Representative of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA), 1949–1952.
Interview with General Lucius D. Clay Deputy to U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1945; deputy military governor, Germany (U.S.) 1946; commander in chief, U.S. Forces in Europe and military governor, U.S. Zone, Germany, 1947–49; retired 1949.
'Time Magazine Faceless Crisis', 4 April 1949.
Letter from Konrad Adenauer to Robert Schuman (26 July 1949) Warning him of the consequences of the dismantling policy.
Picture of demonstration against dismantling (7 June 1949) Workers in the Ruhr demonstrate against the dismantling of their factories by the Allied forces of occupation.
Picture: dismantling the Iron and Steel Industry 'We want to work, we will help you to rebuild Europe' Workers at dismantled plant protest.
|
0.99355 |
Hold my jewelry. I need to have a 'discussion' with this person about the misconceptions they have.
Description: This woman is an inch or two over five feet and is quite compact. She has dirty blonde hair that bears subtle waves and it frames her face, drawing attention to the pale green of her eyes and the fact that her otherwise ivory hued skin is tanned by the sun. The figure of the woman is quite shapely, she is well blessed with a feminine physique and it is well toned.
Background: Armani is one of the children of Kordelia Gilden. She was, most assuredly, a child of the seas. Almost before she could walk and talk Armani was making her way onto boats and trying to travel out to the seas, to feel the wind on her face and to taste the salt on her tongue. Her life was devoted to becoming a Captain of the Sea, though, her mother felt the need to assure Armani had a feminine touch to her and built up her interest in shiny things as well as got her into scholarly things. This divided Armani's love into four things: jewelry, the sea, reading, and writing. As she proved to be a skilled seaman she quickly rose through the ranks of the Gilden naval forces to become the Admiral of the fleets.
Ysabel - my Baroness and cousin. Sometimes we're so alike and sometimes so completely not.
Arman Lady Armani Gilden. A diamond in the rough in terms of formal etiquette, but the woman is a temporizer based on her environment. She seems to maintain the core of her sense of self even if she makes the effort to adhere to the standards of etiquette I prefer. That in it of itself speaks greatly of her, in my opinion. I also am looking forward to a tour of her fleet as her enthusiasm for her work is infectious.
Domonico It's good to see my friend and ally back in the City again. Just in time for a boat race! May the best commander win!
Gretchen A determined admiral who seems like a lot of fun. We're going to get on swimmingly.
Mikani A Lycene Islander, ships. We love ships.
Sudara Bold, brave, and capable - I was truly surprised to emerge victorious from the contest in which we met.
|
0.972478 |
Charles Darwin (English, 1809 - 1882) is best described as a gentleman scholar. He ultimately received a degree in theology from Cambridge University, but never had any formal training in natural history, zoology, or geology. In 1832, he joined the round-the-world voyage of the HMS Beagle during which he collected and studied a large number of specimens. His influential book On the Origin of Species was published in 1859, 21 years after returning from the voyage.
Gregor Mendel (Austrian, 1822 - 1884) was a monk. He conducted experiments in plant hybridization using yellow and green peas, and formulated many principles of governing the inheritance of traits (1866). His theories of heredity have been generally accepted since the 1920s and now form the basis of modern genetics.
Alfred Russell Wallace (English, 1823 - 1913), an entomologist, can rightfully be called the "co-discoverer" of the theory of natural selection. A letter from Wallace to Darwin in 1858, asking Darwin's opinion on Wallace's ideas about natural selection, prompted Darwin to announce the theory that he had been working on for 21 years. On the evening of July 1, 1858, a joint paper by Wallace and Darwin was presented (although neither author attended) at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London, entitled "On the tendency of species to form varieties; and on the perpetuation of varieties and species by natural means of selection."
Ernst Haeckel (German, 1834 - 1919) coined the terms ontogeny, phylogeny, and ecology, and was the first to represent evolutionary relationships on a tree.
A single attribute of an organism.) whether cleavage of the egg is spiral (illustrated at left, in bivalves) or radial.
Alfred Wegener (German, 1880 - 1930) proposed the theory of continental drift (1920), now known more properly as plate tectonics, based in part on the distribution of fossils.
The merger of classical Darwinian evolution with population genetics. in his classic book Evolution: The Modern Synthesis (1942). During the 1930s and 1940s, neo-Darwinism gradually spread through all areas of biology and became widely accepted, unifying genetics, systematics, paleontology, comparative morphology, and embryology.
Theodosius Dobzhansky (Russian/American, 1900 - 1975) conducted classic experiments on evolution using fruit fly (Drosophila) populations, highlighting breeding experiments or "artificial selection" as an effective method of studying natural selection.
The union of ideas from several biological specialties that formed a sound account of evolutionary theory. This synthesis has been generally accepted by most working biologists. The Synthesis was produced over approximately one decade (1936–1947), stimulated by the development of population genetics (1918–1932). This showed that Mendelian genetics was consistent with natural selection and gradual evolution. The Synthesis is still, to a large extent, the current paradigm in evolutionary biology.. His 1951 illustrations of a tooth of Gypsonictops, a Cretaceous insectivore, are shown here.
Ernst Mayr (German/American, 1904 - 2005) studied species, speciation, and punctuated equilibrium. In his book Systematics and the Origin of Species (1942), he wrote that a species is not just a group of morphologically similar individuals, but a group that can breed only among themselves, excluding all others.
Willi Hennig (German, 1913 - 1976), an entomologist, was the principle architect of the method of phylogenetic systematics, also called cladistics.
|
0.999662 |
We are all human and none of us are perfect. We all have flaws and fears. We also all possess the ability to love fiercely. What is it about vulnerability that scares us and makes us feel weak? Being Vulnerable means loving and accepting ourselves, admitting to times when we are wrong or make a mistake, accepting and acknowledging our weakness in order to grow, and forgiving ourselves and others.
|
0.983013 |
My interests: Likes to write her own poems, handmade - embroidery, goes in for sports (running, martial arts - qigong), adores nature and travelling with friends.
When I look in the mirror I see a lonely but strong enough girl who deserves to be happy at last! If you ask what kind of a person am I my friends would answer that I am responsible and hard-working. Moreover, being a sociable person, I like to communicate with people and get to know new interesting individuals.To be honest I am a very funny and an interesting girl with a good sense of humor. Smile doesn't dissapear from my face as usual.
|
0.914917 |
Bangladesh is in the low-lying Ganges–Brahmaputra River Delta or Ganges Delta. This delta is formed by the confluence of the Ganges (local name Padma or Pôdda), Brahmaputra (Jamuna or Jomuna also known as "Yamuna"), and Meghna rivers and their respective tributaries. The Ganges unites with the Jamuna (main channel of the Brahmaputra) and later joins the Meghna to eventually empty into the Bay of Bengal. The alluvial soil deposited by these rivers has created some of the most fertile plains in the world. Bangladesh has 57 trans-boundary rivers, making water issues politically complicated to resolve – in most cases as the lower riparian state to India. Most parts of Bangladesh are less than 12 m (39.4 ft) above the sea level, and it is believed that about 10% of the land would be flooded if the sea level were to rise by 1 m (3.28 ft).
In south east Bangladesh experiments have been done since the sixties to 'build with nature'. By implementing cross dams, the natural accretion of silt has created new land. With Dutch funding, the Bangladeshi government began to help develop this new land in the late 1970s. The effort has since become a multiagency operation building roads, culverts, embankments, cyclone shelters, toilets and ponds, as well as distributing land to settlers. By fall 2010, the program will have allotted some 27,000 acres (10,927 ha) to 21,000 families.
The highest point in Bangladesh is in Mowdok range at 1,052 m (3,451 ft) in the Chattogram Hill Tracts to the southeast of the country. Cox's Bazar, south of the city of Chattogram, has a beach that stretches uninterrupted over 120 kilometres (75 mi).
Straddling the Tropic of Cancer, Bangladeshi climate is tropical with a mild winter from October to March, a hot, humid summer from March to June. A warm and humid monsoon season lasts from June to October and supplies most of the country's rainfall. Natural calamities, such as floods, tropical cyclones, tornadoes, and tidal bores occur almost every year, combined with the effects of deforestation, soil degradation and erosion. The cyclones of 1970 and 1991 were particularly devastating. A cyclone that struck Bangladesh in 1991 killed some 140,000 people.
In September 1998, Bangladesh saw the most severe flooding in modern world history. As the Brahmaputra, the Ganges and Meghna spilt over and swallowed 300,000 houses, 9,700 kilometres (6,027 mi) of road and 2,700 kilometres (1,678 mi) of embankment 1,000 people were killed and 30 million more were made homeless with 135,000 cattle killed, 50 square kilometres (19.3 sq mi) of land destroyed and 11,000 kilometres (6,835 mi) of roads damaged or destroyed. Two-thirds of the country was underwater. There were several reasons for the severity of the flooding. Firstly, there were unusually high monsoon rains. Secondly, the Himalayas shed off an equally unusually high amount of melt water that year. Thirdly, trees that usually would have intercept rain water had been cut down for firewood or to make space for animals.
|
0.991484 |
The function 'upsample' upsamples the image but inserts zeros in the extrapolated regions. Y upsamplex, y upsamplex, , hase. Upsample Discrete-Time Transfer Function.
Which is best way to up and down sampling in matlab.
Deinterlacing images through Matlab Hello, I need to remove interlace from the images through Matlab. I can give you a function to do this if you want it urgently. Many translated example sentences containing zeitloses Design English-German dictionary and search engine for English translations. They are a great focal point and make for a great gift for the new momma-to-be. Try repeating the previous values instead of inserting zeros.
Upsampling using matlab built-in function 'Upsample'. Increase sampling rate by integer factor. These point and shoot cameras also dont have a fully functional manual mode, says Gannon? It is actually nothing overwhelmingly complicated, but I yet manage to do it wrong. Otherwise i would suggest you to write a function to do this urself.
Some extractions from before and after photo collection, matlab upsample image.
Interpolation output xlabel'Time N'. There's never been a way to rate photos or videos inside the Photos app. Can someone explain me, how it can be done.
|
0.983422 |
i manage a peer-to-peer network of about 30 pc, what would you suggest i do if i want to have like a file server, or a network storage device?
There are a number of ways to approach the situation, depending on exactly what your needs are. The easiest, although not necessarily the cheapest, would probably be a low-end NAS (Network Attached Storage) device. Saves you having to configure and maintain a full-blown server that you don't otherwise need in a peer environment. Most NAS appliances are basically plug and play, and I've had good luck with this approach in a larger domain-based environment.
File requests are mapped by the main server to the Network Attached Storage file server. NAS consists of hard disk storage and software for configuring and mapping file locations to the network-attached device.
I believe that requests to NAS from your internal environment of 30 client computers, will overburdeon your P2P (peer to peer) network and you will find that several of your users will be dropped from the network, if you do not setup NAS as a true client-server environment (ie. if you do not use NT Server, or 2000 Server).
Essentially, what I'm trying to say above, is that I do not believe that NAS will even operate with 30 computers in a peer to peer network.
|
0.991388 |
When I practice yoga, I usually follow yoga sequences that my instructor showed me. However, I would like to create my own sequences based on what I feel like practicing on a given day. Are there any easy to follow rules or guidelines to creating one's own yoga sequences? Ricardo C.
Hi there, Ricardo. Starting your own at home yoga practice is a very difficult thing that many people tend to avoid, so cheers to you making an effort to begin one! When instructors go through their teacher trainings, they’re taught how to create effective and enjoyable yoga sequences for their classes. One of the greatest parts of having a home practice is being able to test out those sequences and, even if you’re not a teacher, being able to focus on specific areas in your practice or in your body that you want to work on.
First, I think it’s important to sit before you practice on your own and listen to your body. What is it telling you? What poses are you craving? What poses do you want to avoid? Maybe you feel really energized, or the opposite. Take all of it in and eventually your answer for what avenue to take will arise. Take a few breaths, set your intention, and you’re ready to go.
Next, I always start off my asana with a few feel-good, loosen your muscles and your joints poses. These usually come in the form of cat-cow, neck rolls, wrist stretches, etc.
Then, throw in a few sun salutations. I like to do a few rounds of Surya Namaskara A, the B, then a few moon salutations (Chandra Namaskara). These do a really good job of heating up your body and getting it ready for the poses you want to do.
Now comes the really fun part- the meat of your practice. Remember when you sat and breathed, and you listened to yourself to figure out what you want in your yoga time? This is where you really put it into action with some standing poses, balancing poses, energizing inversions, backbends, etc. Be sure to play around with both sides (left and right) and hold each pose on each side for the same amount of breaths.
By this point you may be sweaty and tired, so begin your cool down. Forward folds and twists are really nice, as well as cooling or restorative inversions. Take some gentle backbends. Remember to keep your breath alive! At this time in practice, most people tend to forget about their breathing and get sleepy and lazy.
Be sure to add a few child’s poses in there throughout your practice if you feel like you need it. There’s no shame in taking a rest and tuning back into your breath and intention. And, of course, always take savasana.
The main things to focus on when creating your own sequence is to make it well-rounded. Don’t only practice handstanding, or only sit in a forward bend and call it a day. Yoga sequences that flow well and give attention to the whole body are the best ones. Allow yourself to spice up your practice, but also be sure to give yourself some rest.
The beauty of all of this is being able to do all of the poses that you really want to do, but be sure to throw in a few of the poses you find yourself constantly avoiding! I promise, your love for those poses is sure to grow.
|
0.999795 |
Set the scene for your romantic destination wedding in the heart of the spectacular Canadian Rockies.
Imagine an intimate ceremony surrounded by your most treasured loved ones, with exquisite florals, custom accents, sublime catering and magnificent peaks forming the backdrop to your perfect day. Your guests will enjoy the excellent selection of accommodations available and the multitude of activities and attractions to keep them occupied before and after the big day. A full range of services are available locally including catering, tuxedo rentals, floral services and transportation. How to get to Fernie.
|
0.999746 |
=Setting up Subclipse for committer access to the Buckminster repo= In order to commit to our SVN repository at Eclipse.org, you need to setup the svn+ssh protocol. After some trial and horror, these are the steps I made to make everything work smoothly. ==Prerequisites== # Install Subclipse into your Eclipse IDE using the Eclipse update manager. Point your update manager to ''<nowiki>http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.0.x</nowiki>'' # Download and install a ssh client that will allow you to login to the server. I use Putty from: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html ==Server configuration== # Using your ssh client and your committer login/password, login to "dev.eclipse.org". # Make sure you are in your home directory and create a public/private key pair with ssh-keygen. Do '''not''' use a passphrase. If you do, you'll be asked for it over and over again by the svn client: #: ssh-keygen -b 1024 -t dsa -f mykey # Create the .ssh folder and copy your public key to the authorized_keys file in that folder. #: mkdir .ssh #: cp mykey.pub .ssh/authorized_keys # Set the correct permissions #: chmod 700 ~/.ssh #: chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys # Copy the contents of the private key (the file named mykey with no extension) to your clipboard and paste it into temporary file on your local computer. ==Client configuration== # Convert the key into a format that is usable by PuTTY and plink. ## Download http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/x86/puttygen.exe (if this is not already included in your Putty installation) ## Import the temporary file you just stored. Use ''Conversions'' -> ''Import key''. ## Save the converted private key to a file of choice. I use "c:\Documents and Settings\Thomas Hallgren\SSHKeys\eclipse_key.ppk". Save that file. # Download and install Tortoise for SVN from: http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads. The plink.exe supplied with Tortoise is a command line client that is silent (i.e. doesn't pop up an annoying cmd window each time it's called). # Find your subversion configuration file and the section called [tunnels]. Make sure this section is not commented out. The file is found at <tt>%APPDATA%\Subversion\config</tt> on a typical windows installation. # Add the following line, substituting your home folder, login name, and the path to the private key file that you saved in step #1. Be sure to use double backslashes. #: ssh = "C:\\Program Files\\TortoiseSVN\\bin\\TortoisePlink.exe" -ssh -l <your login> -i "c:\\Documents and Settings\\<your home>\\SSHKeys\\eclipse_key.ppk" You should be able to use subclipse from now on. Our SVN repo is at: ''<nowiki>svn+ssh://dev.eclipse.org/svnroot/technology/org.eclipse.buckminster</nowiki>'' ==Optional== In order to use the TortoiseSVN GUI you also need to tell that client what SSH it should use (for some reason look at the SVN config file). # Right click on any folder in your normal Windows file explorer. Select TortoiseSVN -> Settings -> Network. # Copy the ssh = ... line from the config file. Leave out the leading "ssh =" and substitute all double \\ for single \. (keep the " characters if you have spaces in the file paths, otherwise the quotes are not needed). Now TortoiseSVN should work fine as well. ==Observations and hints== <p>If you have PuTTY installed, be sure you have the "Default settings" configured to use SSH version "2" or "2 only", otherwise the SSH key doesn't work.</p> <p>If you happen to set up the PuTTY Default Settings for SSH version "1" and you are not able to change this setting using PuTTY gui (this can happen e.g. if you import registry settings), you can edit the windows registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Simon Tatham/PuTTY/Sessions/Default%20Settings/SshProt, set to value "2").</p> =Working and merging.= <p>All Buckminster development work should be done on the trunk. The CQUERY to set things up is http://www.eclipse.org/buckminster/samples/queries/buckminster-dev.cquery. Once you've materialized your workspace, it's likely that you want to "Relocate" from the "svn" protocol" to "svn+ssh". Unlike CVS, this is not done automatically using our svn client (we need to address that as a bugzilla).</p> <p>NOTE: The "normal" buckminster.cquery will give you the 3.2.x branch. You have to use buckminster-dev.cquery to get the trunk!</p> <p>We do Buckminster work on the trunk and merge relevant things to the 3.2.x branch. This does *not* apply to Cloudsmith work. Cloudsmith work uses Eclipse 3.2.x everywhere. We don't want to be sensitive to changes in Eclipse 3.3 when developing the Cloudsmith server or website. So it's OK to add patches driven by Cloudsmith work to the 3.2.x branch and later merge them to the trunk.</p> <p>Before you do anything, I recommend reading the "Subclipse - Subversion Eclipse Plugin" -> "Tasks" -> "Maintaining branches" chapter in the Eclipse Help.</p> # Set up two workspaces. One for the trunk (using buckminster-dev.cquery) and one for branches/3.2.x (using buckminster.cquery). # Use Eclipse 3.3M5eh (or what's latest) on the trunk and Eclipse 3.2.2 on the 3.2.x branch. # Perform relevant changes on the trunk. Commit these changes. # Switch Eclipse (and workspace) to the 3.2.x. # Use Team -> Merge. Change the URL so that the "/branches/3.2.x/" part reads "/trunk/" # Click "Show Log" and select the relevant version (i.e. the last one). # Click Merge. # Verify that everything looks OK, change things if necessary. # Commit the 3.2.x branch.
Return to Committer access (Buckminster).
|
0.999982 |
I. State what the article was about. What is the main point of the article?
"Beijing Car Ban Improves Air Quality" topic?
The article “Beijing Car Ban Improves Air Quality” tackles the effect on the city’s air quality of a trial traffic ban in Beijing, China. The author Anita Chang wanted to highlight the fact that despite high humidity that barred the visibility of the improvement, Beijing’s air quality improved in the four days that the traffic ban was in place, with the air pollution index seesawing up and down between 93 and 95.
II. Give your reaction to the article.
I think that it is admirable that Beijing and its citizens are taking efforts towards lowering down their air pollution index. Given that vehicles contribute a lot to air pollution, a step on minimizing vehicles on streets is definitely a smart move. It was just sad that China’s capital had to wait for a major event like the Olympics to start aiming for a better air quality; they should have done so the moment they noticed that the city air is becoming polluted. I wish these efforts won’t cease when Olympics 2008 has already taken place but instead continue even without the popular sports event.
III. Did you agree of disagreeing?
I agree with Beijing’s plan of action and believe that a continued implementation will make a remarkable change in the city’s air pollution situation.
IV. Why do you agree or disagree?
Admittedly, there are still a lot of things to be done to completely eliminate Beijing’s air pollution problem, but starting with something small is already a good step. Continued implementation of the traffic ban – with or without the Olympics – can do wonders for the city’s air pollution situation.
|
0.965363 |
Paid a cheque into my business account on Thursday just after half 3. It takes 5 working days to clear yet I recall that more than ten years ago I could draw on cheques I paid in after three days. Moreover, this is with the same bank - Barclays.
Why is this? One would assume that with the current state of technology the banks could clear a cheque the same day? What makes me even more pissed off this time round is that the cheque I paid in was a pre-printed one from a building society so it can't actually bounce! I was told that I could have had it cleared overnight if I paid them £25 at the time I paid it in. So, it can be done that quickly after all.
Honestly, this is just a total piss take.
I think that you often used to be able to draw on a cheque before it had actually cleared, which could leave you in an awkward situation if it eventually didn't. That gap has also been used for fraud. Perhaps they're trying to tighten up on that.
I've not heard a convincing argument as to why it can't clear immediately these days, what with everything being electronic. I assume it's just the banks talking nonsense in order to hang on to for a bit for no good reason.
Unlikely to change. Cheques are planned to be defunct by 2020 (?) IIRC. The Banks are not going to do anything in the meantime regarding changes. Why would they.
I can't think of any reason either, to be honest. The cheque is scanned through that little machine on the counter which reads the unique number on it. Okay, I can see that an actual handwritten one may be fraudulent but how can a pre-printed one be? The issuing bank is obviously connected to the clearance system as it the one you are paying it into so surely if the details of the cheque don't match then it should be rejected there and then?
One of my old bosses who was seriously tight used to do this to us. He was so tight he used to dry his teabags and reuse them many times. We never cottoned on until we one day had to make the tea ourselves.
Didn't you try ironing them before paying them in?! I would have done.
I could never usually be bothered to wait 'til the bank was open then stand in a queue to pay just a cheque in so I often put them in an envelope with a pay-in slip and post through the banks letterbox. I've done this with various branches of Lloyds, Natwest, HSBC and Barclays over the years and the cheques always hit the account just as quickly (or slowly) as if I'd actually gone in and paid it over the counter.
My other half is from Sweden and she's staggered that people here use cheques so much as they are virtually unheard of there. Her dad had a cheque book back in the 80's and it proved to be a point of great discussion, apparently. Perhaps they've got clearance times to virtually zero due to having virtually zero checques in the system?
|
0.841587 |
What did you like about your home-town?
I always liked it because I familiarized it with Mayberry, the location from The Andy Griffin Show! Jim Henson (the guy from The Muppets) originates there! I also like how the Creek Hermit The Frog usually stays at originates from this small town. I love the school I went to: Leland High School. It was my favorite high school. I used to be a cheerleader, class president, and everybody in that town used to be a mentor to me. I wanted to raise my kids there, but the environment changed drastically. Unfortunately, it is not the same town anymore.
Do you have any siblings or children?
I am a twin. I have a sister named Caroline, who has a daughter. Her daughter almost won American Idol! I have three older sistered named Judy, Vicky, and Connie. All of us come from a spiritual, singing, family, and we are very close. We were raised by a single parent, our mom, who bought a house by herself!
I have four kids: two boys and two girls. My oldest's name is "Dj" Vernon Brooks. he is 27 and is a trained MMA Fighter. He was diagnosed with ADHD when he was young but could not take medication because of Glaucoma in his eye. My younger son's name is Terry Richmond, Jr. He is 19 and a trained Boxer. Terry is outgoing and is a full-time student at Tallahassee Community College. He has scored with honors in his college exams and will possibly have some scholarships available. Terry really wants to be a professional Boxer when he is older. My oldest daughter is named Catherine. She is 25 graduated from Mississippi State University with a B.A. in Hospitality. She has two children of her own. My youngest daughter, Terrineshia, is 22. She is a general manager at Long john Silver's in Ft. Lauderdale and also has two children.
What is your favorite movie, and why? Do you have a favorite scene?
My favorite movie has to be The Wizard of Oz. It is a musical, and it makes me happy. I love the singing, and I love the color. It has to be the old Wizard of Oz, not the new one. My favorite scene has to be the lion scene when the lion says what he is going to do, that the lion is a bragger, and then he starts crying. His bark is worse than his bite.
What kind of music do you like? Do you have a favorite artist or song?
My favorite music is R&B, Whitney Houston, and the song "One Moment in Time". I think every human on the planet has a moment in their life when they are the king on top, when they are able to accomplish anything they want!
A perfect day for me would be getting up in the morning and watching the sun rise with nature. I love to sit outside, listen to nature, commune with nature, and listen to the natural music of the world. I would like to have a nice cup of tea and meditate for an hour before I get my day started. That's just the beginning of the day, and that's what matters to me. If I could have that beginning, the rest of my day would be peaceful.
My life is what I'm most grateful for. To experience life is what I'm most grateful for. I have been married twice, and giving birth to my kids has been a blessing. Having mentors, siblings, and having the ability to meet new people. I love the freedom to make choices, and I am grateful to be 47 and still be going. It has been a wonderful journey so far, and I am still grateful to keep going.
|
0.94741 |
How do I query data with CouchDB?
This question comes up a lot when dealing with Couch and I have given various answers before but my latest answer is simply that you don’t. In reality what you want to do in Couch, like a lot of the NoSql databases, is look for key lookups.
Now the key lookup may be a range of keys you are interested in but in reality there is nothing in Couch that is similar to the SQL “WHERE” clause.
So if you cannot do queries then how do you relate data? Well that’s the thing about storing documents instead of rows, if you have related data then you have to ask whether that data has any meaningful existence outside of its parent. In relational terms it is like asking whether you ever access the content of table outside of JOIN with its parent.
Initially you might think: of course I do! But often data is often explicitly related to its parent’s primary key by things like ORDER and GROUP BY. In these kind of cases then you move the related data into the parent record, effectively denormalising to avoid a lookup.
If the data does have a meaningful existence outside the parent (for example in Wazoku comments are an example of a piece of data that exists separately from the thing they are a comment on) then you have a few options but essentially instead of querying you are still trying to do a direct key lookup.
The first simple case is to include a reference to key of the related data in the associated document. Then from one key lookup you can go direct to the next. As an example we store a list of comment document ids on any document that can be commented on and then we can load the comments as needed (often the count of the comments can be as relevant as the full content). I describe the ids used this way as “forward references” as they lead you on to the related document.
The second, slightly more involved approach, is the creation of a view that allows the document to be looked up via an alternative key. For example if we store the document id of the thing being commented on in the comment document under the key comment_on we can then create a mapping view of all comment documents to their comment_on key. Then given any document we can simply do a direct lookup on the key in the view to determine whether it has any associated comments.
The final common technique I use is something I refer to as “unrolling” of collections. So again we create a CouchDB view that consists just of a map job and in it we take each item in an array of “forward references” (related document ids) and emit a document in each view mapping the id to the current document id.
So if an idea document has five comment forward references the resulting view will have five documents, each relating a comment document id to the idea document id.
If things get more complicated then I also have the Couch databases indexed in Elasticsearch and in Neo4J and these alternative views of the data give me powerful adhoc queries on properties or relationships in the data.
In general though I am always trying to think ahead as to how my documents relate and then express that in terms of a key lookup so that I am always working with the simplest case.
My current project is using CouchDB as its store and Django to implement the web frontend. When you have a JSON store such as CouchDB then Python is a natural complement due to its brilliant parsing of JSON into native data structures and its powerful dictionary data type that makes it really easy to work with maps.
In a previous project using Python and Mongo we used Presentation objects to provide domain logic on top of the raw data maps but this time around I wanted to try and cut out a layer and just work with maps as much as possible (perhaps the influence of the Clojure programming I’ve been doing on the side).
However this still leaves two problems that need addressing. Firstly Django templates generally handle dictionaries like a dream allowing to address them with the standard dot syntax. However both Mongo and Couch use leading underscores to indicate “special” variables and this clashes with the Python convention of having a leading underscore indicate a private member of the class. The most immediate time you encounter this is when you want to use the id of a document in a url and the naive doc._id does not work.
The other problem is the issue of legitimate domain logic. In Wazoku we want to use people’s names if they have supplied them and fallback to their email if they haven’t supplied their name.
The answer to both of these problems (without resorting to an intermediary object) is Django’s filters. The necessary logic can be written in a few lines of Python that simply examines the dictionary and does the necessary transformation to derive the id or user’s name. This is much lighter than the corresponding Presentation solution.
I have been doing a lot of work with MongoDb recently and I have made a few noob mistakes despite being relatively well-grounded in the theory. One of the key mistakes I have made using the Java driver is to not have the driver in the right mode. By default the driver will not block on an insert, you need to be in Safe Mode for that to happen.
What is the impact? Well if you are trying to update a record that you have just inserted and the update neither fails nor is applied then chances are that the update failed to find the record you had just inserted because it wasn’t there when the update query ran. Of course a few milliseconds later it appeared and is there are the end of the batch process.
Updates in Mongo consist of a query and a data change operation and there is an art in getting the query to work on the set of data you want it to. I find myself doing a conditional match in Scala and then thinking “at this point is that still going to be valid?” and then going back tweaking the query so that the update is guaranteed to be valid at the point it happens.
Today I spent a lot of time buggering about trying to avoid writing keys in the document that held no data, after doing it I realised that I could have just written a single remove statement that would have removed the empty keys in one big cleanup after the data had been stored.
Atomic independence also means losing some things that we take for granted like sequence ids. People like numbers but guaranteeing even ascending values can rapidly become a nightmare if you want to avoid contention and single point of failure.
Cursors are similarly tricksy, I have a long-running batch job and I realised today that it runs long enough that you cannot guarantee a known state by the time it finishes. Instead you have to do these kind of “loop until there’s nothing left to do” constructs where the loop condition expresses the state of the store you are trying to achieve and you get at least one cursor that has no entries.
There’s a lot of stuff about datastores that is ingrained deeper than you realise and it takes more than one difficult experience to start genuinely thinking differently about things.
Why do you think Riak is a column-store?
Someone is wrong on the internet, the unfortunate thing is, that person is me. In one version of my NoSql article for ThoughtWorks I put Riak under the heading of a column store. Twitter feels this is wrong and that it is better classified as a distributed key-value store. I agree this description is more accurate than mine but it feels like calling limes, lemons, oranges and grapefruit citrus fruits.
Now for me these common characteristics also explain why something like Redis isn’t the same as Riak and it’s an over-simplification to just call Riak and Cassandra distributed key-value stores.
So I saw this similarity between the situations (and here’s where the mistake occurs) and thought: well you know if you look at things like Riak that allow metadata on their bucket you can consider them to be a column-store because the columns are the keys on the metadata and the bucket is actually just a key of a special type. Each key can have a variable number of columns but must have one, the bucket. Then when you query the metadata you are kind of just doing a column sort and search. Brilliant! I can just lump all these different systems under this term.
Now I don’t want to jump to another label, I want to try and get the description of the group more or less correct. Looking at the things that are common I feel that something along the lines of “P2P clustered datastores” might be more accurate.
|
0.999411 |
try something else ... don't give up!
I'm just going to list some treatment options and then it's up to you to 'Google' the phrase and find a practitioner in your area.
I would recommend that you go and see 'Combat Stress' alongside whatever other therapies you may choose to use.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) There are eight phases of EMDR treatment. The therapy involves clients or patients to think of upsetting images while they track the therapist moves her fingers back and forth in front of the patient. Adding to that, the client is asked to think of positive thoughts while they follow the fingers back and forth, then they write down what they are thinking (Sharpless). This treatment is found to be similarly effective like exposure therapy is.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CBT) This involves both cognitive (thinking) and exposure elements. It is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy that focuses on cognitive (thinking) interventions. There are usually 12 sessions of the treatment that involve writing and reading activities. In short, activities involved with this therapy include the clients being asked to write about their traumatic or scary memories in detail, and then read these memories to themselves daily and aloud in therapy sessions (Sharpless).
Nightmare Therapy Many veterans that suffer from combat-related PTSD sometimes suffer from reoccurring nightmares from past traumatic or scary experiences. The positive outcomes from this type of therapy suggest that it is highly effective. For this type of therapy, the therapist needs to select techniques for treatment that will help increase the understanding of the anxiety-producing features of the nightmares. These techniques should be based on the likely chance of getting rid of the nightmare or decreasing the anxiety-producing features of the nightmare (Coalson). One form of treatment for nightmares is through learned lucid dreaming, causing one to become aware they are dreaming enabling a sense of control.
Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) This type of therapy involves exposing the patient to traumatic or scary memories. In this treatment, there will most likely be from 8 to 15 sessions of this exposure. They will first be exposed to a past traumatic memory; following is an immediate discussion about the traumatic memory and, "in vivo exposure to safe, but traumarelated situations that the client fears and avoids" (Sharpless). The goal of this therapy is "to reduce their emotional impact in terms of cognitive (thoughts), behavioral (behavior), or physiological effects (physical)"(Carlson). Slowed breathing techniques and educational information is also touched on in these sessions.
Trauma Group Therapy In trauma group therapy, the groups range from 12 to 18 members and are completed over a 10 to 12 week period. The goal of the group therapy is help the patients remember and examine their war experiences so that they can work them in with the rest of their lives. They are encouraged to remember their experiences as clear as possible without hiding or leaving any details out. The group part of this therapy helps the veterans develop the feeling that they belong because of the other veterans that are experiencing the same problems. This allows them to establish positive relationships with other group therapy members. It provides a sort of safe and supportive peer group (Rozynko).
Drug therapy, known as pharmacotherapy, is widely used as a treatment for PTSD. Drug therapy is considered less time consuming and easier to continue than psychotherapy (talk therapy) but it is encouraged for patients who participate in pharmacotherapy to also participate in psychotherapy (talk therapy) simultaneously. The key to successful medication treatment is matching the medicine to the patient. In particular, antidepressants are highly used in the treatment of PTSD because of the likelihood of depression involved with PTSD patients. The most popular types of medications for drug therapies are monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAO), tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), mostly focusing on SSRIs because MAOIs and tricyclics have more harmful side effects(Giller).
Alternative herbal medicines can be purchased without prescription from your local health food stores. Pease check the documentation carefully for side effects and ensure that you have consulted your GP in case there are any complications with other medication that you may be taking.
St John's wort is widely known as an herbal treatment for depression. In some countries, such as Germany, it is commonly prescribed for mild depression, especially in children and adolescents.
The available evidence suggests that the Hypericum extracts tested in the included trials a) are superior to placebo in patients with major depression; b) are similarly effective as standard antidepressants; and c) have fewer side-effects than standard antidepressants.
1) While the influence of precision on study results in placebo-controlled trials is less pronounced in this updated version of our review compared to the previous version (Linde 2005a), results from more precise trials still show smaller effects over placebo than less precise trials.
2) Results from German-language countries are considerably more favourable for Hypericum than trials from other countries.
In one study, St John's wort was not found to be effective for patients suffering from dysthymia, a less severe and more chronic variety of depression. However, St John's wort has been shown to be effective in the treatment of mild to moderate depression in certain studies.
Valerian is used for insomnia and other disorders as an alternative to benzodiazepine drugs, and as a sedative for nervous tension, excitability, stress and intestinal colic or cramps.
In the United States, valerian is sold as a nutritional supplement. Therapeutic use has increased as dietary supplements have gained in popularity, especially after the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act was passed in 1994. This law allowed the distribution of many agents as over-the-counter supplements, and therefore allowed them to bypass the regulatory requirements of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Valerian is used for sleeping disorders, restlessness and anxiety, and as a muscle relaxant. Certain data suggests that valerian has an effect that is calming but doesn't cause sleepiness the following day. When used as a sleeping aid, valerian appears to be most effective on users who have difficulty falling asleep. Also noteworthy is that valerian has been shown to have positive results on users who wake up during the night. Valerian often seems only to work when taken over longer periods (several weeks), though some users find that it takes effect immediately. Some studies have demonstrated that valerian extracts interact with the GABA receptors. Valerian is also used traditionally to treat gastrointestinal pain and irritable bowel syndrome. However, long term safety studies are absent.
Valerian is sometimes recommended as a first-line treatment when risk-benefit analysis dictates. Valerian is often indicated as transition medication when discontinuing benzodiazepines.
Valerian has uses in herbal medicine as a sedative. Results of investigations into its effectiveness have been mixed. It has been recommended for epilepsy, but that is not supported by research (although valproic acid—an analogue of one of valerian's constituents, valeric acid—is used as an anticonvulsant and mood-stabilizing drug). Valerian root generally does not lose effectiveness over time.
One study found valerian tends to sedate the agitated person and stimulate the fatigued person, bringing about a balancing effect on the system.
The crushed leaves, when rubbed on the skin, are used as a repellant for mosquitos.
Lemon balm is also used medicinally as an herbal tea, or in extract form. It is claimed to have antibacterial and antiviral properties (it is effective against herpes simplex).
It is also used as an anxiolytic, mild sedative or calming agent. At least one study has found it to be effective at reducing stress, although the study's authors call for further research. Lemon balm extract was identified as a potent inhibitor of GABA transaminase, which explains anxiolytic effects. The major compound responsible for GABA transaminase inhibition activity in lemon balm is rosmarinic acid.
Lemon balm and preparations thereof also have been shown to improve mood and mental performance. These effects are believed to involve muscarinic and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. Positive results have been achieved in a small clinical trial involving Alzheimer patients with mild to moderate symptoms.
Its antibacterial properties have also been demonstrated scientifically, although they are markedly weaker than those from a number of other plants studied. The extract of lemon balm was also found to have exceptionally high antioxidant activity.
Lemon balm is mentioned in the scientific journal Endocrinology, where it is explained that Melissa officinalis exhibits antithyrotropic activity, inhibiting TSH from attaching to TSH receptors, hence making it of possible use in the treatment of Graves' disease or hyperthyroidism.
Lemon balm essential oil is very popular in aromatherapy. The essential oil is commonly co-distilled with lemon oil, citronella oil, or other oils.
Lemon balm is used in some variations of the Colgate Herbal toothpaste for its soothing and aromatic properties.
Lemon balm should be avoided by those on thyroid medication (such as thyroxine), as it is believed the herb inhibits the absorption of this medicine.
Recent research found a daily dose of the tea reduced oxidative stress status in radiology staff that were exposed to persistent low-dose radiation during work. After only 30 days of taking the tea daily researchers found Lemon balm tea resulted in a significant improvement in plasma levels of catalase, superoxide dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase and a marked reduction in plasma DNA damage, myeloperoxidase, and lipid peroxidation.
Lemon balm was found to be effective in the amelioration of laboratory-induced stress in human subjects, producing "significantly increased self-ratings of calmness and reduced self-ratings of alertness." The authors further report a "significant increase in the speed of mathematical processing, with no reduction in accuracy" following the administration of a 300 mg dose.
Accupuncture Accupuncture can be used for physical pain and stress related issues.
|
0.997451 |
Andrew and I walk a lot. Well, we walk as much as we can, and realise that this is the only way to really get to know this beautiful country. So, we thought it was time to share a few of our favourite walks in our neck of the woods. This is by no means a definitive list, but it is not a bad Top 5.
Andalucia is vast. Its vastness is one of the geographical features that first drew us to this country, and I still remember the first time I drove inland from Gibraltar many years ago, and witnessed just how big the landscapes and the skies are.
When I was younger and less worldly, I fell into the trap of believing that Spain was a rather down-at-heels country dominated by the Costas where tourists swarmed and ate fish and chips and drank gallons of Watney's Red Barrel (this 'delicious' brew no longer exists, as far as I know). When I was asked to take a trip to Spain for work, I rather dreaded the visit, as I was better acquainted with the Greek islands and other countries within mainland Europe.
So, my low expectations all those years ago were completely reversed when we drove from the coast up into the mountains and to Gaucín, my first inland base. I fell in love with Andalucia almost immediately. Over an 18 year period, I came back again and again, and drove from the Costa de la Luz across to the Costa Blanca exploring many areas between. The hugeness of the landscapes, the immense variety, the colours, the light, the smells and the sounds become ingrained. The dazzling blue skies that go on forever, the changing cloud formations over the higher peaks, that feeling of escape whenever you scale a hill to take in the staggering views. That is what drew me here to live. When I brought Andrew back here (he had been before, but to the Costa!) I wanted to show him these elements that so grabbed me.
The landscapes of Spain play a huge part in our love affair with this country and we have only just scratched the surface. Even in our own corner of Andalucia, the landscape constantly throws up dramatic surprises: light cast on a mountain changes its character in a second; lenticular clouds forming over the Sierra Nevada cast a surreal spell; wood smoke, reluctant to leave the low olive tree canopy, seems representative of the gentle way of life here. The relationship with nature here cannot be half-hearted. You are invited to immerse yourself in it; looking at the landscape from a distance belies the real treasures.
Sierra Nevada - Quéntar Loop.
This was our most recent weekend walk, taken on a beautiful November day when the visibility was crystal clear, the sky an unbroken blue and the sun still contained enough heat to warm hands and face. We haven’t really explored much of the wide valley that lies to the north of the Sierra Nevada and just to the East of Granada. We ventured out this way once before, and have skirted the valley on a number of occasions as we took the main route up to the Pradollano ski resort, but we haven’t dug deep.
Quéntar is a rather pretty hillside village about 20 minutes’ drive from Granada, and the countryside here is not too dissimilar to parts of the Alpujarras to the south of the Sierra Nevada. Driving along the valley bed in Autumn is a delight, as the trees are still clinging on to their brightly coloured leaves, all of which were burnished by the bright sun. The directions to the start of this circular walk take you down a single track about 1 km on the other side of the village, and the directions warn you that the initial part of the walk is mainly uphill. The length of the walk is 14.5 kms, and for the first 5 or 6 kms, you do face a fairly steady climb from 861 metres altitude to 1,279 metres. This, however, is one of the unmitigated joys of walking in this part of Andalucia. With almost every step, the view widens and layers of the landscape backdrop part to reveal distant vistas, changing mountainous forms, deep gullies and savagely outlined escarpments and outcrops. The light in Autumn is spectacular, and the vague scent of woodsmoke lingers in the air. In the distance, you can just make out the muted sounds of workers harvesting olives and tidying up groves, but these spectral sounds wax and wane and for most of the walk you hear nothing.
As you reach the highest point of this walk, the near landscape takes a step back to reveal the beauty of Pico del Veleta, the second highest peak in the Sierra Nevada, its jagged outline crusted in the season’s first fall of snow.
The rest of the walk is downhill, and the early part of this descent cuts through meadows and groves that seem at odds here, reminiscent as they are with areas of the gentle landscapes of the Home Counties of the UK. That said, look up from the pasture and there can be no mistaking that the vast and breathtaking mountainous surrounds are Andalucian through and through.
This is a beautiful walk through an ever-changing landscape, long enough to give you a challenge but with terrain that is not too difficult to navigate.
This is the first and only walk we have done in the gorgeous Sierra de Huetor range, but there are many more to be enjoyed here and we will be ticking them off, one by one! The Sierra de Huetor is the mountain range that runs to the north of the Sierra Nevada, and if you ever want a stunning view of the length of the snow-capped Sierra Nevada, then this is the place to come to get that view.
We were initially drawn to this range for a couple of reasons. The first is that it catches your eye as you drive from Guadix to Granada if you are heading away from Almeria. As you near Granada, the mountains close in around you, with slopes dense with pine trees. On a typical hot summer’s day, this is a place to seek some sanctuary in the shade, and it is clear that a great many Granadinos do scuttle here for days out when the city temperatures become a little too much to bear. Because the slopes along this valley face south, they seem gentler and more welcoming than the dark, north-facing and more ominous slopes of the Sierra Nevada.
The second draw for us was that the south-western edge of the Sierra de Huetor shelters the villages of Alfacar and Viznar. Alfacar has the dubious claim to fame of being the village closest to the spot where Federico Garcia Lorca was taken and murdered by Nationalist troops in 1936. The peaceful nature of both Alfacar and Viznar now, as with many sierra villages in Andalucia, belies their turbulent histories during and after the Spanish Civil War. However, the history, both recent and ancient, fascinates us both.
To get to the Cueva del Agua walk, you drive up beyond Alfacar and into the National Park. The scenery, as you gain altitude, is truly breathtaking. Andrew and I brought Andrew’s father John up here last May, and as a historian and nature-lover John was in his element. Leave Granada below, and enter an untouched world of magical rock formations, ancient trees and flora and fauna around every corner. We have seen deer, orchids, brightly coloured butterflies and much more during our too infrequent visits to this range.
The walks, and ‘recreation’ areas, are clearly signposted, and there are forests stretching along the ridges of the range. It is glorious up here!
From a car park near a very welcoming bar/restaurant beside the Alfaguara picnic area, a good track winds up through pine trees and you almost immediately get lost in this magical, sun-dappled and sweet-smelling world. The circular route is around 8kms long and is not massively taxing, but what you might miss out on in terms of athletic challenge is more than compensated for by the views around every turn. En route, you will pass the natural cave after which the walk takes its name - the Cueva del Agua - and it is from here that you will get some the best views of the Sierra Nevada that you are likely to witness.
The halfway stage is below the Cruz de Viznar, where there is a wide sunny plateau that invites you to sit and munch on whatever comestibles you might have brought as sustenance. We find that Oreos, cake of some variety and chocolate go a long way.
A well-kept secret! This is not really a hike, bur rather a trip back into some Jurassic wonder world that is all but hidden from any view. The surprising this for us is that it happens to lie on the other side of the hill that rises just behind Saleres, our own little village.
In all the years that I have known this village, I never knew that there was such a spectacular walk on the doorstep. When Andrew and I moved here, we started to notice the odd reference to this walk nearby, but knew very little more. Gradually, details trickled in - photographs of incredible cliffs, a gorge, a deep-cut river course, but absolutely no indication given as to its whereabouts. Eventually, we delved a little further and found the Barranco mentioned on the Wikiloc website, a geolocation guide with many listed walks. We managed to find where the walk supposedly started, so decided to venture out. Sure enough, literally above the village, there is a path that leads down through olive and orange groves to the alleged location of this mysterious walk.
We got lost on more than one occasion - paths, or what seem to be paths, lead into the groves and then simply stop. We retraced our steps numerous times, brushing past obstinate branches determined not to be outdone. It did seem that the local farmer had become fed up with other walkers who had clearly tried to find this secret walk, as hurdles and dams blocked routes making it very difficult to get anywhere (clearly the farmer’s aim!).
Finally, we got to the bottom of a valley in what we assumed was the right area, and there was a pitiful trickle of water spitting its way through undergrowth. Not much sign of a barranco. We hopped across the dribble, and clambered up the other wide of the valley until we reached open fields. Well, we had evidently not found the barranco, and we were now stuck in olive groves, in the sun, not quite knowing where to go, except onwards.
Suddenly, to our left, we became aware that there was, indeed, a massive rift in the landscape and there it was - this incredible gorge. We were above it, whereas the information we had stated that it was possible to walk right through it, along the river bed. Was there a way down from where we were? No. So, we ended up walking miles through fields to the far end of this gorge and then walking down into it from that end. By this stage, we were exhausted, and the early November sun had been pretty warm, but we had found the location of the gorge, and we had found another way in.
We have subsequently been through the gorge several times, with family and friends, and it never fails to thrill. If you walk up the road from Saleres to Albuñuelas, past the little cemetery, you come across a concrete road on the right that drops down to the head of the gorge. The early part of the walk leads through the shallow wooded bed of the river, and the sun filters through branches and warms the air. Gradually, the gentle path meanders up into few rocks, which become boulders and then formations as the landscape takes on a completely new character. Olive trees resist the change of the surroundings, and little steps have been carved into terraces to provide traction for the donkeys from years gone by as they hauled the harvest out of the gorge. The sun beats a retreat as you become aware that the world has risen up overhead and you are deep in the bowels of the Andalucian landscape. Finally, the olive trees surrender to ferns and mosses, as water drips incessantly from crevices up above. The glow from the sun, however, still manages to cast a rich light on the ochre cliff faces which, in turn, illuminate the darker corners with an eerily beautiful golden glow.
Walking down the river bed is wet. There is no path, so waterproof shoes or bare feet become essential. The sharp little stones take their toll on bare soles, so some form of waterproof shoe makes sense. This is such an adventure, clambering over high boulders, and taking something of a leap of faith into thigh-high pools and hoping that you will touch the bottom. This is a pre-historic place,and you feel disconnected with the real world you left behind. It is, at once, magical, mysterious, beautiful, elemental and exciting.
Follow the trickling stream as it totters over its sharp little bed and the high cliff sides gradually give way once more to undergrowth and the ubiquitous olive tree. The sun creeps back in, and the air warms up again. Suddenly, the banks drop down enough to provide a route out at the very spot where Andrew and I, on our first exploration, crossed the trickle little knowing what lay beyond. Climb up the terraces of olive trees and look back to where you just emerged, and all signs of the gorge have disappeared. All you can see are hills, trees, blue sky and the jagged horizon.
Monachil is about 15 mins from Granada and it's the gateway to the Sierra Nevada ski station, it's a popular walk with Granadinos so don't expect to be alone especially if you go a the weekend. It starts just above the town by the restaurant El Puntarron. The gentle path leads you along irrigation water channels called acequias. Before long the path dips down into the gorge and this is where things get interesting. You reach your first suspension bridge and its pretty impressive. I don't have a problem with heights but even so it was a fairly exhilarating crossing. What wasn't exhilarating were the children jumping up and down making this a potentially life threatening situation. We managed to overtake the kids so we had the next suspension bridge to ourselves and confidently crossed it.
Then we get into the gorge proper, and when I say IN the gorge I mean literally clinging onto the walls of this impressive and slightly challenging part. It turns out that this section is not challenging for children under the age of 10 as that group of kids caught up with us and whilst I was crawling (Ian was bum shuffling) they were merrily trying to overtake us on this very narrow strip of concrete (see pics). On we pressed thinking it would be easier round the next corner but it stretches for a good kilometre, often having to retrace our steps as someone was walking the other way...with two dogs (we don't recommend taking dogs on this one by the way) Once we conquered this, we 'hopped' over a small river and suddenly found ourselves in a meadow with vast cliffs rising up ahead of us. On we pressed.
The next section of the walk is fairly steep up a windy rocky farm track past a lovely apiary of bee hives, Just when we thought actually we've had enough of going uphill, we reached the summit and took in the far reaching views to Granada and beyond. Luckily from this point its downhill all the way winding firstly though almond groves (In Feb/March these will be pink with blossom). Then lower down are olive trees until we finally saw the restaurant where we started from. We can highly recommend this restaurant, they have a lovely terraza at the back and in winter they have a log burning fire. The food is great and the beer cold, perfect restorative fodder after a good 2 to 3 hour walk.
We have done this walk many times and if you come and stay with us you may well have been dragged up here! I say dragged, well, not dragged but this is fairly steep up and down route but worth every step as the panoramic view from the top is awesome (I dont like that word but here, it works).
It starts from the village of Pinos Del Valle, in the Lecrin valley not far from our house. The path is very clear from the start, right off the road by the lavadero (or old laundry) and then left by the water fountain (fill water bottles here). The path weaves its way up through the pine trees all the way to the very top. Almost every single time we have done this walk we think...I'm sure it wasn't as long or as steep as this last time! But eventually you can catch a glimpse of the destination. Painted white, is the Ermita del Santo Cristo del Zapato, this translates to 'The hermitage of Christ of the shoe' Well, this is exactly what it is and when we finally reached the top, caught our breath, struggled up the last few absurdly enormous steps to the door of the Hermitage , we undid the frayed piece of rope holding the door closed and sure enough there, in the middle of the altar is a shoe - well, ok not actually a shoe it's a beautifully embroidered brown brogue shoe, we didn't realise that Jesus had such a good cobbler. However there it is. We believe that the painting next to the altar is also of great significance, I can't quite get to the bottom of why, and by this point we really needed to sit down, eat a bar of chocolate and OH MY GOD THE VIEW! Yep, these pics just don't quite do it justice. You need to experience the vastness and distance and general on-top-of-the-world feeling. My lungs have never breathed so clearly and deeply and happily as standing on the top of that hill. Every ounce of stress gets whipped away.
We just skip down the hill after that blast of elation. Actually we don't quite turn into mountain goats as its slippy and steep so TAKE CARE! But we do feel good after this one. And even better when we have an ice cold beer on the terrace at the nearby Bar Venecia who keep their 'tubo's' (tall beer glasses with handles) in the freezer. Bliss!
We would not have found many of these walks without the help of a great website called Trek Sierra Nevada www.treksierranevada.com. They provide comprehensive route directions in a downloadable PDF, points of interest and clear maps.
If you would like more information about any of these walks do get in touch or maybe you could recommend some walks for us to try. What's you favourite in this area? Let us know!
|
0.942345 |
Drop summer vacation, raise test scores?
Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) -- As a nation, either our kids are getting dumber or everyone else's are getting smarter. American 15-year-olds ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math in a study of students in 34 nations and nonnational regions.
The Program for International Student Assessment study, coordinated every three years by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, definitively shows U.S. students are no longer ready to compete against the world's brightest.
Which brings me to this: Why are we still giving them the summer off?
As it stands, only eight of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries that took part in the study in 2009 have a lower high school graduation rate than we do. It's so bad in some schools, educators have a nickname for them: dropout factories.
That's a national crisis with a potential for significant economic impact. The organization estimates that by boosting our scores for reading, math and science by 25 points over the next 20 years, the United States would gain $41 trillion over the lifetime of the generation born in 2010. As cash-strapped as we are, can we really afford to leave that kind of money on the table? Instead of year-round school as curiosity, I think it's time it becomes a government-enforced standard.
Remember recently when the nation got all in a tizzy after the International Monetary Fund reported China would pass us as the world's largest economy in 2016? Well, considering Shanghai ranked No. 1 in the education report, that shouldn't really surprise anyone.
To make matters worse, our kids have no idea just how far behind they really are.
When the results of the test were released in the winter, Arne Duncan, U.S. Department of Education secretary, pointed out that despite not being in the top of any of the subjects tested, "U.S. students express more self-confidence in their academic skills than students in virtually all OECD nations. This stunning finding may be explained because students here are being commended for work that would not be acceptable in high-performing education systems."
It's as if the United States were cast in one of those cliché Hollywood movies as the 29-year-old dumb and balding jock who still wears his high school varsity jacket.
Cutting into summer vacation won't solve all our education problems -- most research points toward the quality of the teacher as the biggest influencer -- but more class time could help. At 180 days, we have one of the shortest school years of the countries tested. South Korea, for example, has 220 school days, and a No. 2 ranking in math. Finland is first in math and science at 190 days.
Then there's this: Harris Cooper, a summer-learning expert at Duke University, pored over a century's worth of data and found that each summer, our kids lose about a month of progress in math and that low-income students lose as much as three months' worth of reading comprehension.
More than a month of teaching time at the beginning of the school year is spent re-teaching the stuff our kids forgot over the break. This may be one of the reasons why the report suggests Finnish 15-year-olds are one to two years ahead of our kids in math and science.
Now I hear the cry from some who say "Let our kids be kids," but what does that mean today? The reason for summer vacations in the first place was that little Johnny was needed in the fields to help the family during growing season. Today more people live in cities than they do in rural areas, and that farming structure has been obsolete for some time. If our kids aren't working on the farm all summer long, what are they doing?
Heck, a lot of our kids' summers and holiday breaks are already structured around Amateur Athletic Union practices and tournaments. Why is it so wrong to suggest structuring the summer around more education, especially when the amount students receive is no longer enough to keep them competitive on the world stage?
In July 2008, then-Sen. Obama suggested American children should learn a second language. That was met with a great deal of criticism, as if being bilingual and more educated was somehow un-American.
You want to know what's un-American?
Not being innovative. Refusing to think outside the box.
We used to be a nation of entrepreneurs and trailblazers, but now we're just dogmatic consumers. We want problems to be fixed but we don't want the solution to be an inconvenience. So we look for silver bullets, which in our culture usually means tossing more money at things. But guess what? We spend on average about $30,000 more per student than the other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, yet the best we can do is middle of the road.
Since when did chanting "We're No. 25!" become acceptable?
Today, if you want to keep your child in a learning environment during the summer, you most likely have to pony up hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to enroll them in a program or two. Families who can't afford to do that depend on scholarships or programs funded by government grants or corporations. If you grew up poor like me, and no extra income was available for transportation to those programs, you simply stayed home and watched TV every day for hours.
In retrospect, I would have been better served being in school.
I would imagine teachers wouldn't be thrilled to give up their long vacation. And the athletic apparel companies that enjoy the income Amateur Athletic Union summer leagues generate wouldn't like it much either. Nor would the colleges and universities that rake in extra cash brought in by hosting summer programs.
But the biggest obstacle to re-evaluating summer vacations is probably our love of the familiar. As humans we are naturally averse to change and the end of summer vacations would greatly alter the way we've done things for more than 100 years.
But what terrible thing would happen if we made the entire year part of the education process, with mini-breaks sprinkled throughout? Year-round schooling would not be repealing the child labor laws of 1938 and it won't force kids to lose their childhood. But it would give our young more of a fighting chance. The world is getting smaller, the world is getting smarter and if you look around you'll see when it comes to education, we're no longer basking in the glow of superiority.
We're wallowing in mediocrity. And our kids don't even know it.
|
0.999844 |
A chromosome is the threadlike part of a cell that contains DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid. It also contains the genetic material of a cell. In some cells, the chromosomes consist entirely of DNA and are not enclosed in a membrane (called a nuclear membrane). In other cells, the chromosomes are found within the central nucleus of the cell and contain both DNA and RNA (ribonucleic acid). Overall, the human genome contains 24 of these distinct, physically separate units. (For more about DNA and RNA, see sidebar.) Arranged linearly along the chromosomes are tens of thousands of genes (from the Greek term genos, meaning “to give birth to”). They are complex protein molecules and are responsible—as a unit or in biochemical combinations—for the transmission of certain inherited characteristics from the parent to the offspring, such as eye color.
What are DNA and RNA?
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a nucleic acid found in the body. DNA forms from the repetition of the simple “building blocks of life” called nucleotides. These nucleotides are made of a phosphate, sugar (deoxyribose), and a nitrogen base. There are five types of bases—called adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and uracil (U). In a DNA molecule, this basic unit is repeated in a double-helix structure made from two chains of nucleotides linked between the bases. These are linked either between A and T or between G and C. (There are no other links because these particular base structures do not allow any other combinations.) DNA molecules in a single human cell are extremely long. In fact, if one were stretched out and laid end to end, it would measure approximately 6.5 feet (2 meters) in length. The average human body contains 10 billion to 20 billion miles (16 billion to 32 billion kilometers) of DNA distributed among trillions of its cells. In fact, if the total DNA in all the cells from one human were unraveled, it would stretch to the sun and back more than 500 times.
RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is also a nucleic acid found in the body. But unlike DNA, it consists of a single chain instead of a double, and the sugar is ribose rather than deoxyribose. The bases are the same as in DNA, except that the thymine (T) is replaced by another base, uracil (U), which, like the thymine in DNA, links to adenine (A). All RNA exists in three different forms and depending on the cell is formed either in the central nucleus or in the nucleoid region (an irregularly shaped region within certain types of cells).
A mutation is a change (or alteration) in the DNA sequence of a gene. Although people often use the term “mutant” in a disparaging manner, mutations are important because of the variation they contribute to a population’s gene pool. Without mutations, there would be no variations and no natural selection within the population—human or otherwise. But mutations can also create harmful effects that cause diseases and disorders. One example of a mutation and resulting disease is sickle-cell disease (also called sickle-cell disorder or anemia). It occurs when a person inherits two abnormal copies of the hemoglobin (the oxygen-carrying protein) gene, one from each parent. The disease causes red blood cells to become rigid and sickle-like in shape and, thus, unable to carry as much oxygen throughout the body.
Have any genes been found in connection with type 1 diabetes?
To date, researchers have identified several different genes that are believed to make a person more likely to develop type 1 diabetes. But they have not found any one single gene that makes all people who inherit it develop the disease (which is why some family members never develop type 1 diabetes, whereas other siblings do develop the disease). Overall, scientists call the genes they have found “diabetes susceptibility” genes.
Polygenic diabetes is actually what doctors most often refer to when discussing type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This means that there are multiple genes—more than one and often several—that can increase the risk of developing type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Is there genetic testing for monogenic diabetes?
Yes, genetic testing can be used to detect monogenic diabetes, but as of this writing, it is often expensive, and some insurance companies do not pay for the screening. Many health care specialists will test babies who seem to have routine high blood glucose levels. But not all children who have any type of monogenic diabetes will be diagnosed unless they show classic symptoms that lead the health care professional to test for diabetes. This is why it is estimated that almost half of all infants who have or will develop a form of monogenic diabetes go undiagnosed.
Who gets neonatal diabetes mellitus (NDM)?
A rare condition called neonatal diabetes mellitus (NDM) appears in neonates, or babies in the first six months of their life. It is caused by a mutation in a single gene and is considered a form of monogenic diabetes. The number of infants born with neonatal diabetes is not precisely known, but it is thought that one in every 100,000 to 500,000 live births, and about one in 400,000 infants, are diagnosed with neonatal diabetes in the first six months of life.
|
0.992439 |
My tomato plant gets leggy and grows out of the cage. Is there aproper way to prune them?
If they are becoming "leggy", this indicates that they are not getting enough light.
Start out strong and plant em deep! If you start with a small plant, say in a 4" or qt size container, when the tomatoes are very first planted, pick all the lower branches off until you're left with a long thin central stem and a small but balanced "canopy." Now, plant it deep. Dig the hole deep enough so that the lowest branch that was left after your picking is just above the final soil level. This might mean the top of the root ball is 8" or more under the surface. I know it sounds crazy but it makes for strong sturdy tomato vines. All the little hairs on the stem turn into roots. Disclaimer: Tomatoes are the only plant I know of where it trick works, in every other case I'm aware of putting the rootball of a starter plant 8" below soil level will absolutely kill it.
Make sure you don't water too much or go for long periods between waterings. Soil moist but not wet, so important. Tomatoes do like the the soil to dry out slightly between waterings, but not for an extended period.
I like to prune mine so that they stay thin in the middle, no small branches, and then use grafting tape to encourage the vines to "zig-zag" around the cage/wire in a spiral.
|
0.981713 |
Do I care about Alcatraz at all?
It's what I asked myself when I was offered a review copy of short story anthology Hard Sentences : Crime Fiction Inspired by Alcatraz by its co-editor, literary terrorist David James Keaton. I don't know much about it. It's a famous prison. People deemed it inescapable because it was (and still is, I suppose) located on an island surrounded by sharks. Al Capone was incarcerated there for some time. That's it. So, I suppose it didn't interest me all that much. But I said yes to Keaton anyway. Because he's like that cousin you can't say no to that your mother didn't want around. So, could HE (and Joe Clifford) make Alcatraz interesting?
Interesting isn't the work I would use. Unexpected would be more suiting.
The only reference I had for fiction inspired by Alcatraz prior to reading this anthology is the movie Escape from Alcatraz, starring Clint Eastwood. The stories in Hard Sentences : Crime Fiction Inspired by Alcatraz aren't anything like it. They're about people in prison, alright. Some of the stories are about people escaping, but I was surprised how much of an abstraction the actual prison was in many of them. And I suspect this reflects the reality of incarceration quite accurately. Alcatraz is not mentioned by name a lot. The majority of character don't dwell on their reasons of their incarceration or don't do it too long. The prison is either their entire world or this challenge they think of in their own terms. They don't think of themselves as fugitives. I thought that alone gave Hard Sentences : Crime Fiction Inspired by Alcatraz a strong identity.
My favorite story in Hard Sentences : Crime Fiction Inspired by Alcatraz was Joshua Chaplinsky's moody and atmospheric The Ghosts of 14D. It's about an inmate losing his mind in the stillness and darkness of mid-century incarceration, like death was taking a down payment on him. It's not the first time Chaplinsky freaks me out. That guy is good. Glenn Gray's opener Break made me realize how much I missed the medical obsessions that inform his fiction. Not only Break has a brutal scientific accuracy to it, but it's protagonist brutal, self-sacrificing resolve give an otherwise super informative story a visceral edge to it. I've greatly enjoyed this story, but I enjoy most of what Glenn Gray does. These were quite straightforward incarceration stories, though. They explored different aspects of it, but prison is the backbone of both narratives. Hard Sentences : Crime Fiction Inspired by Alcatraz is about much more than that.
Amber Sparks' The Children and the Gardener is another gorgeous piece in this short story anthology. What I like about it is that it doesn't treat incarceration as some kind of damnation. It explores the other side of the tunnel, which is quite uncommon for prison stories. Leah Rhyne's The Music Box was another stand out in the collection. It was appropriately graceful and tragic. Other stories I think stood out on the collection were: Nick Mamatas' Being Whitey, Jedidiah Ayres' Clean Shot, Max Booth III's atypical Roller Canary and, for better or worse, Nick Kolakowski's Live at Alcatraz, which I thought was a great idea but somehow of a missed opportunity. The idea of a Johnny Cash lost Alcatraz concert is amazing, but I thought the story put the Man in Black on too much of a pedestal. There could've been a hundred eerier reasons why the concert became a lost to popular culture. It was a fun and memorable concept nonetheless.
It's a tentative yes? The stories of Hard Sentences : Crime Fiction Inspired by Alcatraz are definitely not for everybody. My natural curiosity lead me through it and I came across pleasant surprises. But you gotta be in the mood for prison stories and that's a rather precise mood to be in. Keaton and Clifford put together a sweeping portrait of the Alcatraz experience, though and if you decided to crack this baby open, you're bound to find something of your liking or something that transcends you idea of what prison stories can be. Hard Sentences : Crime Fiction Inspired by Alcatraz is fun and unpredictable. Voracious readers like me will enjoy it. Otherwise it's a great tool to understand not what prison is, but what prison means to people involved with it.
|
0.999525 |
Researchers think that viruses are the main cause. Children are vaccinated against many viruses such as measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox. This has greatly lowered the rate of encephalitis from these diseases. But other viruses can cause it. These include herpes simplex virus, West Nile virus, and rabies. Encephalitis may happen after a viral illness. This may be an upper respiratory infection, or an illness that causes diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting.
Another cause is an autoimmune reaction. This is when the body's own immune system attacks the brain tissues. For example, an antibody made against a protein called an NMDA receptor may cause encephalitis. This may be triggered by a tumor.
What are the possible complications of encephalitis in a child?
A child needs to stay in the hospital where he or she can be closely watched. Your child may need tests such as an MRI, CT scan, or blood tests.
|
0.957645 |
Upcycling old books to create new favorites as blank book journals or diaries. Love You Forever, the classic everyone has been asking for. Finally, I found copies that are nearly pristine and added plenty of blank paper to the full story (should we include Kleenex with each copy?). These journals measure about 8 x 8 inches.
But here’s the real cover story: Sometimes vintage books are in plentiful supply or they're being recycled by local libraries. We carefully list any of value on amazon and with others that have unusual or striking vintage covers and wonderful color or black and white plates, we create journals so you can repurpose yesterday’s books—some may be over 100 years old (please see specifics on this listing) or childhood or inspirational favorites.
Read between the covers: Many spines are tattered, so we remove those, smooth the edges and gently bind with plastic-coated spiral wire or o-wire. Before we put it all together, we select paper that matches or coordinates with the original pages, include a number of blank pages with no lines and then include charming color plates, black and white illustrations, maybe a contents page, or poems directly from the original book.
|
0.999955 |
Benjamin January is called up to Vicksburg, deep in cotton-plantation country, to help a wounded "conductor" of the Underground Railroad - the secret network of safe-houses that guide escaping slaves to freedom. When the chief "conductor" of the "station" is found murdered, Jubal Cain - the coordinator of the whole Railroad system in Mississippi - is accused of the crime. Since Cain can't expose the nature of his involvement in the railroad, January has to step in and find the true killer, before their covers are blown.
As January probes into the murky labyrinth of slaves, slave-holders, the fugitives who follow the "drinking gourd" north to freedom and those who help them on their way, he discovers that there is more to the situation than meets the eye, and that sometimes there are no easy answers.is found murdered, Jubal Cain - the coordinator of the whole Railroad system in Mississippi - is accused of the crime. Since Cain can't expose the nature of his involvement in the railroad, January has to step in and find the true killer, before their covers are blown.
|
0.788334 |
On the 29th October, 2004 Blair and Straw, along with representatives (mostly Prime Ministers and Foreign Secretaries) from the 25 Member States, signed the Treaty in Rome (2004) establishing a Constitution for Europe.
Effectively this would have made the EU a legal, corporate entity in its own right, but only 18 of the 25 Member States ratified the treaty (unanimous agreement was needed for ratification), which was rejected by the French and Dutch (Founder Members of the EU) voters in referendums in May and June, 2005.
The objections by the French and Dutch voters, according to a House of Commons research paper (05/45, 13 June, 2005 - The Future of the European Constitution) were believed to include fears about national sovereignty and national identity, the increase in EU legislation, the pace of enlargement and the single currency.
One interesting aspect of the French and Dutch referendums was that the "No" vote in, each case, was initially lagging behind in the polls and then came to the fore to seal the "No vote" majority, despite the "Yes" campaigners have superior resources – backed with taxpayer funds.
Despite the rejection by the French and Dutch, the European politicians were determined to continue with the ratification process, against the wishes of the voters, and this took various forms, from concentrating on aspects of the constitution which could go ahead without ratification; excluding (temporarily setting aside) certain sections of the constitution from discussion or simply proceeding with ratification by stealth.
The EU had already started implementing several aspects of the Constitution, including the European Defence Agency, the President of the Eurogroup, and the European Police College, despite the "No" votes.
The Constitution document had its origins in a declaration issued at the EU's Laeken summit in 2001 and was an attempt to put together a legal instrument which would form the basis for future direction of the Europe.
It was designed to supersede all previous negotiations, agreements and treaties and produce a single document – in effect, a Constitution.
That was the document signed in Rome in 2004, as outlined above, but it became obsolete after the rejections by the French and Dutch; which was mostly on the grounds of loss of sovereignty.
During the German EU Presidency (led by Merkel) which began on the 1st of January, 2007 a new treaty was devised to replace the rejected constitution document and readied by June, 2007, this is the Lisbon Reform Treaty.
The Lisbon Treaty became Law on the 1st December, 2009 after being signed by the Queen, and had been signed on behalf of Britain by David Miliband in Lisbon, on the 13th December, 2007, despite New Labour winning the 2005 General Election on a manifesto pledge to hold a referendum on the treaty.
Brown did not attend the actual signing ceremony, which was attended by all 26 other Members of State, but instead signed the document separately, at a lunch for heads of state, later that same day.
The Lisbon Treaty is a resurrection of the earlier EU Constitution and implements 96% of its legal content and by proposing amendments to the two principal treaties (Rome, 1957 and Nice, 2002) national politicians could argue that the Treaty did not require a referendum before ratification.
The Lisbon Reform Treaty excluded words relating to a "Constitution" and any references to it had been removed along with references to "Constitutional Paraphernalia of State” (EU Flags, Anthems etc.); however they nevertheless still exist – ready to be rolled out when those who plan to rule over us are confident that they can control any objections.
The document has also been re-organised, re-numbered, and made more difficult to relate meaning and likeness to the old document. Nevertheless, those areas which were decidedly rejected by France and Holland remained intact.
The treaty did require ratification by all 27 Member States and those which were decidedly wary were offered opt outs (bought off) to gain their acquiescence.
If you are unsure that the EU Constitution has been preserved within the Lisbon Treaty; reflect upon some of the comments made by EU leaders at the time.
For further comments see the home page of this website.
Technically, the Lisbon Treaty is a Constitution for Europe and It will be treated as such. The European Union will acquire a fully - fledged constitution of its own through the judicial use of precedence in case law of the Court of Justice, through Declaration 17 of that Treaty.
Think of Declaration 17 as a "Trojan Horse" that you received with an innocuous looking email (Lisbon Reform Treaty) then you will realise how toxic Declaration 17 can be in the hands of a bunch of megalomaniacs, or maybe just one.
Some of the other changes resulting from the Lisbon Treaty are listed in the Analysis section of the website.
|
0.999999 |
UltraEdit is a complete text editor mostly used by professionals in web development and programming, but which can be used by regular individuals as a more complex substitute for Notepad.
It's appreciated by professionals because it offers unique features such as syntax highlighting for nearly every programming language, code folding, and hierarchical function listing and a powerful XML handler.
GUI provides multiple customizations options, such as selection of theme, layout, menu type and other minor settings. The interface has many sections, with lots of features displayed in the menu bar, and a novice user may feel overwhelmed.
Thankfully, the program has a help file where you'll find guidance on any issues you encounter.
You'll also find a powerful and intuitive-caret editor, so once your cursor is where you want in to be, you can copy, cut, paste and delete just the same as you normally would.
Moreover, it has a search bar that can help you search across files, find expressions or just a simple word.
Additionally, if you need to make quick edits to a file on a server, UltraEdit's integrated FTP capabilities and SSH/Telnet make it easy to work with remote files and interact with servers from a single application.
To summarize, if you want a complex text editor, that uses low memory resources, you can take a shot with UltraEdit.
|
0.933323 |
What are the different sections for?
If the aim of Discordia is to interweave ideas, isn't it a contradiction to divide postings into different sections?
Discordia is based on Scoop software that has been modified by the Discordia working group in keeping with extensive discussions about how communication and exchanging ideas could work and how software development can be a creative and integral part of that process.
The Discordia sections basically reflect possible different modes or styles of communication and discussion. The sections "Editors' Picks" and "Special Guest Host's Corner" under the heading "Nepotism" are for invited content: the editors and specially invited guest hosts choose and post stories here without going through the moderation process, but which all users are naturally invited to comment on. Stories and announcements to all the other sections under the heading "Democracy" are first listed as "pending", and other users then vote for them to appear on the front page or under the relevant section (or not at all, as the case may be). This division is intended to make "curatorial" decisions more transparent.
Since answers, usually in the form of a definitive statement to appear authoritative, are so often privileged, what happens when a greater value is attributed to questions? If meaningful and interesting questions are able to open up new avenues of exploration, inviting a greater diversity of responses than statements that provoke only specific reactions, could the development of an "art of questioning" lead to a more open discourse culture? In order to explore the possibilities of different styles of communication, the Question Corner only permits postings in the form of a question.
One of the greatest strengths of a mailing list is that it draws like-minded people with similar interests together. For this reason, a relevant mailing list can be important for reaching potential audiences, participants, readers, etc. with announcements of events, publications, projects. Unfortunately, the drawback is that too many announcements may start to choke communication on the list, hampering exchange so that the effect is counterproductive. E.A. Dobbs, Discordia's own Discordarchivist, is an Essay and Announcement Databased intended to provide a forum for announcements, publication releases and self-promotion, in order take the need to make announcements seriously, but without drowning out all other exchanges at the same time.
As the name suggests, this section focuses on "reviews" - opinions, discussions, descriptions of books, films, events, exhibitions, web sites ... Any kind of presented work that incites opinions, discussions, further developments.
Creative, open-ended, experimental exchange necessarily involves input that can be playful, subversive, irritating, puzzling. This is another need, however, that has sometimes proved counterproductive in the linear structure of mailing lists by blocking all other communication. The Secret Room Upstairs is Discordia's playground, where the conventional rules of netiquette do not apply. If you want to play, all you have to do is find it.
Even the most straightforward statement of information can take on a different meaning, if it is filtered through a different perspective. Economic topics, for example, can reveal hidden pitfalls if filtered through a gender-sensitive perspective, philosophical ideas may be given a surprising twist when filtered through translations into different languages, political agendas often change color when filtered through a different ideology. In this section, users are invited to take stories and comments from other areas of Discordia or to link to articles found elsewhere, and run these through the filter of their choice (e.g. feminist critique, Marxism, anti-globalism, translations ...) to reveal unstated or unconscious presuppositions and potential stumbling blocks that are not immediately obvious within the original framework.
As it is in the nature of creative and critical thinking to cross categories and conjoin disparate ideas, this section is open to discussion that does not fit comfortably in one of the other sections.
Comments and suggestions on how well Discordia works now and what could be improved are welcome here, as well as shared reflections on how structures influence communication and vice versa. What do you find confusing about Discordia, and which are the features you have always dreamed of, but never found anywhere else? Which role could this kind of platform play in which contexts?
Like community moderation and collaborative filtering, shared reflection at this meta-level is an important part of the ongoing Discordia process.
Many different sections have been proposed in the course of extensive discussions about how to most effectively structure communication without being too rigid. These seemed to be the best ones to start with, but they could be changed, if it appears through the use of Discordia that more, less or different sections might be more helpful.
The sections are intended to organize rather than divide postings. They are not meant to be rigid divisions for separating ideas, but rather suggestions for different ways of dealing with them. The Discordia development group has been experimenting with possibilities for creating links among disparate postings, so users are invited to join in this experiment by watching for potential connections and trying out new features as they may appear on the site. Users are also encouraged to submit new stories that tie ideas from posted stories together.
|
0.718358 |
The Victorian and New South Wales Rowing Associations could not agree on the basis for selecting a crew. While the time available to organise a crew was a problem, the Victorian Association indicated that it was opposed to competing at the Games "where conditions were not always satisfactory", but favoured competing at Henley Royal. This was a reference to the unfair course at Stockholm in 1912 where Australia drew a course which necessitated a sharp turn near the finish to avoid a swimming bath before negotiating a bridge. No crews were sent to these Games.
Arthur Baynes (QLD) won the Interstate Sculling Championship on 15th May 1920. Despite the debate regarding an eight, Baynes was offered a place in the team for Antwerp as a single sculler. He declined on the basis that the arrangements were too hurried for a proper preparation.
However, as with other Olympic Games of this era, namely 1908, 1912 and 1932, an Australian raced in the English team. At these Games it was John Campbell (VIC) raced in the silver medal winning English eight.
The course at Antwerp was unsuitable for the nature of the event so it was raced at Brussels. This regatta saw the appearance of Jack Beresford (England) who went on to win gold in the single scull in 1924, men's coxless four in 1932 and men's double scull in 1936, silver in the single scull in 1920 and men's eight in 1928. It would take until 2000 until this feat was bettered by fellow Englishman, Stephen Redgrave.
The regatta also saw the appearance of American John Kelly Snr who had won 126 straight races but had been barred from racing at Henley because the Vesper Rowing Club in Philadelphia had been accused of professionalism three years earlier. Kelly got his revenge at the Olympics by defeating the Diamond Sculls winner Beresford. The race was superb with the lead changing constantly and the finish with less than a second between them. He was not too exhausted to recover and win the double sculls. He also won gold in the 1924 Olympic Games in the double scull. His son John Kelly Jnr (brother of actress Grace Kelly) was also an Olympic medallist winning bronze in the single sculls at the 1956 Olympics and later became President of the United States Olympic Committee.
The eights race was of interest with the British eight overtaken in the last 100 metres and the bronze medal in dispute. The Swiss crew was to be given the bronze because they recorded the third fastest time in the preliminaries. After a protest it was decided that the bronze should be rowed off between the semi final losers France and Norway. The race was never undertaken so most historians record Norway as the bronze medallists with the fastest semi final time.
Final: 1st USA (Navy – Virgil Jacomini, Edwin Graves, William Jordon, Edward Moore, Allen Sanborn, Donald Johnston, Vincent Gallagher, Clyde King, Sherman Clark (cox)) 6:02.6, 2nd England (Sebastian Earl, John Campbell, Walter James, Richard Lucas, Guy Nickalls, Ralph Shove, Robin Johstone, Str: Ewart Horsfall, Cox: Sidney Swann) 6:05.8, 3rd Norway 6:36.0. (8 crews).
|
0.999999 |
The one morning practice that increases happiness 3 steps to taming the imposter syndrome beast The college degree of the top-earning CEO in every state My morning routine for calm confidence, energy, and focus The downside of having attractive coworkers What’s the best way to guarantee a productive work environment? Work with people who do this You consume 92 extra calories a day by not doing this one simple thing Are you using any of these 100,000 worst passwords for cybersecurity?
Achieving work-life balance just another stressor for stressed-out workers My life’s gotten better since I stopped worrying about these 4 things at work Why you need to ask these 7 questions to test soft skills during a job interview Why transparency and strong internal communication are what really help employees thrive The downside of having attractive coworkers You consume 92 extra calories a day by not doing this one simple thing If you do this on your resume, there is a 79% chance you will not got hired Are you using any of these 100,000 worst passwords for cybersecurity?
• Develop Learning Plans to engage participants, address skills and knowledge gaps; identify and apply interactive learning methodology to address these gaps.
• Use of appropriate interviewing techniques during discovery, with all organizational levels to identify skill and knowledge gaps.
• Provides consultation regarding design, development and implementation of instructional strategies with clearly established objectives to capture critical subject matter expert knowledge.
• Create and structure content, to develop activities to support learning by incorporating adult learning principles, assessment techniques, appropriate integration of instructional technologies and best practices.
• Recommends the most effective training and development techniques for the type of knowledge to be captured and transferred.
• Assists employees in creating project milestones and completion timelines, and helps drive plan as needed to ensure success.
• Assists in the implementation of organizational change initiatives.
• Follows, creates and implements programs that align employees with business goals.
• Identifies pockets of resistance and uses appropriate interventions to manage and alter resistance.
• Diagnoses potential organization problem areas and provides recommendations to mitigate these issues.
• Captures metrics for data analysis for program performance measurement and reporting.
• Understanding of applied information architecture principles and methods.
• Communicates frequently and effectively with various project collaborators and stakeholders to ensure that goals and objectives are met.
• Bachelor's degreerequired in adult learning or related discipline, advance degreepreferred.
• Excellent skills in Instructional System Design (ISD), adult learning and course/curriculum design.
• Experience working with Engineering and/or technical content is preferred.
• Excellent skills in organizational development, project management, technical writing, human resources and dealing with ambiguity.
• Experience with knowledge capture, knowledge transfer and knowledge management activities.
• Work independently and as part of a team, have excellent organizational and interpersonal skills and the ability to juggle multiple projects to successful, on-time completion.
• Ability to facilitate meetings and teams in a virtual environment.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, specifically written and oral communication skills and commitment to customer service.
• Ability to interpret client needs and produce instructional materials.
• Ability to manage and meet deadlines.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and good understanding of eLearning software such as Articulate, Flash, Dreamweaver, Captivate, Live Meeting, synchronous tools, Photoshop applications.
|
0.99655 |
The most powerful weather pattern of its type in the past 65 years will have huge impacts on weather around the globe.
The developing El Nino is stronger than the last major event of its type in 1997.
According to the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the UK Met Office, this El Nino is shaping up to be the strongest since records began in 1950.
El Nino is a natural phenomenon which occurs every two to seven years and lasts between six and 18 months.
It manifests as a warming of the surface waters of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. The current El Nino is so strong that in some areas sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are more than 2 degrees Celsius above the long-term average.
Aside from the devastating effect that El Nino has on the Peruvian fishing industry, the real significance lies in the change in weather patterns that it produces around the globe.
In the Pacific, the warmer waters in the eastern part of the ocean have spawned more typhoons, super typhoons and hurricanes than usual, with the tracks of those storm systems also being altered considerably.
Severe weather conditions have been experienced around the Asia-Pacific region.
Changes in the weather around the Pacific region are hardly surprising, but almost every continent is impacted by a strong El Nino.
In Australia, many parts of the country have had an exceptionally hot summer with temperatures regularly exceeding 40C.
In South America's Atacama Desert, one of the driest regions on earth, the heaviest rain in 80 years resulted in severe flooding and the deaths of more than 20 people.
In North America, where much of the south and west has been experiencing the worst drought in a century, El Nino could bring the benefit of rain, although if the El Nino of 1997-98 is anything to go by, that rain could result in severe flooding and deaths.
Extreme weather; Linked to climate change?
In the Caribbean, the developing El Nino has already had the opposite effect to the one experienced in the Pacific: namely, it has reduced hurricane frequency by causing an increase in wind shear.
This is a change of wind direction and speed with height that can disrupt hurricane formation.
In Africa, El Ninos are associated with drought across southern portions of the continent, and drought in countries such as Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa is causing a looming food crisis.
Even Europe is not immune from the effects of an El Nino.
If this year's event follows the pattern of previous ones, then winter weather here could be colder and drier than average and last well into spring.
No two El Ninos are the same.
There are lots of other short and long-term variables in the global weather patterns, but the coming months could see some unusual and spectacular weather in many parts of the world.
|
0.988835 |
I cover what's trending in China.
A Beijing court has ruled a Chinese company has the right to make leather products branded “IPHONE”.
Apple appealed an earlier decision to the Beijing Municipal High People’s Court to stop Xintong Tiandi Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. from using the “IPHONE” name, which the Chinese company first trademarked in 2007 for the leather product category – this category, and the company’s current assembly of products (as seen on their website) includes leather phone cases, passport covers and handbags.
Though Apple holds the trademark to the “iPhone” name for computer software and hardware, on March 30 the court upheld an earlier ruling, from 2013, which found that Apple could not prove that “IPHONE” was already a well-known name in China in 2007, when Xintong Tiandi trademarked it for its leather goods. As such, the 2013 ruling reads in part, “the general public will not link the trademark in dispute with Apple to harm its [Apple’s] interests.” Apple did not start selling iPhones in China until 2009.
This is not the first time Apple has been stung by a trademark dispute in a Chinese court, with a 2012 ruling ordering Apple to pay $60 million to a tech firm from the southern city of Shenzhen in order to use the “iPad” name in China.
However, the timing of this case comes at a sensitive time for Apple in China, with the world’s second largest economy being a key market for the Cupertino-based tech giant, but sales in Greater China falling 26 percent year-on-year for the first quarter of 2016.
In recent times, Chinese regulators have also taken Apple’s digital content arm, Apple Entertainment, offline in the country, as strict rules about content produced and distributed by foreign companies came into effect in March.
Apple was also on the receiving end of poor publicity after being the target of a well-known name and shame-style consumer affairs show on a state-run television network, which called the company out for poor service and pricing in China compared with other markets.
|
0.999994 |
What is Azure API Management Publisher Dashboard?
Azure API Management Publisher Dashboard is an Azure Web portal that allows you to create and manage your API services.
Overview - Showing you main properties of this API service. And some key activity reports.
Activity log - Showing you a list of activities related to this API service.
Access control (IAM) Providing IAM (Identity and Access Management) controlling accesses for users of your own organization as the publisher.
Tags - Defining custom tags attached to this API service to help you identify this API service in billing and reporting.
Diagnose and solve problems - Managing diagnose information and tracking issues.
Quick start - Showing you documentations and tutorials.
API - Allowing you to create and modify your API services.
Products - Allowing you to package your APIs into API products.
Named values - Defining and managing named values to be used for all APIs in this API service.
Analytics - Allowing you to do full analysis your API service usage data.
Groups - Allowing you to create groups to manage your users more effectively.
Notifications - Allowing you to manage settings for email notifications related this API service.
Notification templates - Allowing you to customize contents of email notifications related this API service.
Issues - Allowing you to manage issues reported by developers.
Repository - Allowing you to manage the repository of multiple versions of configurations for this API service.
Management API - Showing you information on managing this API service remotely with Web services.
|
0.920562 |
The elite Catholic school in Strathfield has been in uproar since Herrett linked the concept of gender fluidity to the introduction last month of trousers into the school uniform, saying it was about enabling, “a variety of gender expression” and making students who questioned their gender identity “more comfortable”.
Although the school is a Catholic institution – meaning that it is expected to uphold traditional values – Dr Herrett has introduced various initiatives designed to implement radical gender theory.
Hundreds of concerned parents and students – including many whose students attended the school in the past – held a protest meeting the weekend following the uniform announcement, demanding that Dr Herrett resign. Although upset about the gender education that seeped into the curriculum, much of the outrage stemmed from the fact that parents had neither been notified nor asked for consent.
The board also appointed crisis management firm Australian Public Affairs to conduct 12 one-hour “focus group” sessions over four days with no more than eight parents in each group and produce a report by mid-April.
One of the great outcomes of the recent marriage debate was that parents are much more aware of the threat of gender ideology in schools. As soon as Santa Sabina parents saw these themes creeping into their school, they raised the alarm and told the school that they would not stand for it. It remains to be seen whether or not the school will listen to them, but they fail to heed the pleas of concerned parents at their peril.
|
0.999997 |
IID in real life /Machine Learning - When is data truly IID?
In a course I am studying at Berkeley,some student said about a particular Dataset "Data is not iid" and the lecturer agreed with him.
So once and for all, I want to understand, for real data, how often is it really iid and how can I decide myself?
For example, let's say that I take 20 million images from Facebook "randomly" (let's say that each image has some unique integer associated with it, and I pick a random integer every time). Is this iid? What if I take a particular user's images, and then his friends's images etc in a BFS kind of way? Is this iid now?
While I understand the math definition I don't have the underlying distribution so it's very unclear to me. My gut feeling is that a real life dataset is almost never truly iid by the way.
In order to answer the question, you need to understand what distribution the lecturer is talking about in the video you linked to in the question. For example, he talks about the "distribution of the labels conditional on the image": $$\pi_\theta(\texttt u|\texttt o)$$ where $\theta$ - (hyper)parameters of NN, $\texttt u$ - labels and $\texttt o$ - images. The output $\texttt u$ could be an action of a self-driving car etc.
Here we're talking about a univariate distribution of scalar labels $\texttt u$. The fact that our inputs $\texttt o$ are called "tensors" in ML lingo, doesn't make this a multivariate or joint distribution. We're not talking about the distribution of the inputs, but we're conditioning our output distribution on inputs (data).
So, in this case when we talk about IID data, we mean that this distribution should not depend on the image in a sequence, it should be the same $\pi_\theta$ for any input/output pair $o_i,u_i$. Is this a reasonable assumption? I would argue that it depends on the dataset.
Suppose that we're talking about color labels on the objects. If your images were tagged by color blind and not color blind people, then clearly at the very least $\pi_\theta$ may not be the same for all images and the "ID" (identically distributed) will drop out from IID. Here, I'm assuming you don't know whether your tagger was color blind or not. If the sample is random, then the first "I" (independent) still probably stays.
On the other hand, if our data set is with "cat images", then IID assumption will sound more reasonable: almost anybody who's asked to tag the images will probably be able to recognize a cat on the image as well as anyone else, for instance.
Summarizing, it's quite easy to break IID assumption if you're not careful, e.g. the sample is not random. However, in many cases you can build a data set which will satisfy IID assumption. I would argue that you can construct a sample from NIST database of handwritten digits and assume that the labels are IID.
Where does $\pi_\theta$ come from?
I see a lot of confusion in comments as to the nature of the probability distribution $\pi_\theta$ and even its role in image recognition problem. Let's take a closer look at how statistical learning problem is set up. Suppose that our goal is to recognize the hand written digits.
IF our goal was to recognize the digits from images in MNIST database THEN this would be a pure IT problem. Say, there is 70,000 images of single digits in MNIST, then we'd create a map with 70,000 entries. The key in the map (dictionary) is the image, and the value is one of 10 digits. The recognition reduces to simply finding an input image by bitwise comparison to keys, and pulling the value. This is the case when we treat MNIST database as the population, i.e. every possible outcome.
Obviously, this is not a useful approach, because we want to recognize the digits on any picture, not just the ones in MNIST database. Hence, MNIST database is just a sample from the infinite size population. In order to appreciate the difference with previous approach consider the following image from MNIST. Which digit is it, three or five?
NIST collected writing samples from hundreds of US Census employees and high school students. Each writer writes digits differently than anybody else.
every time we write a digit it's slightly different that previous time.
The lighting will be different when photo copy or camera shot is done.
The censor in the copier or camera has thermal noise in pixels.
All these factors lead to variations and distortions of the ideal digit image every time we get picture of it. When you have an infinite population that comprises of countless number of factors impacting the final outcome probabilistic approaches start making a sense.
This is why the statistical learning in image recognition sounds like a reasonable idea to try. It's not the only possible way to solve the problem, but it had a huge rate of success in recent years.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged machine-learning computer-vision iid or ask your own question.
What is it all about Machine Learning in real practice?
How to approach a real machine learning problem?
What is energy minimization in machine learning?
|
0.999999 |
My internet has been pretty slow recently and I've been thinking of switching providers, but I'm not quite sure where to start. I was hoping you could give advice on how to shop for the best internet service provider and what the difference is between broadband, fiber optics, cable, and satellite.
This is definitely an important decision. Your choice of Internet Service Provider (ISP) can make an enormous difference in your happiness (or frustrations) as an internet user. Depending on where you live, you might have a great number of ISPs to choose from or you might be stuck with just a few options. Either way, here are a few guidelines for what to look for in an ISP and how to compare the ones available in your area.
DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. It operates over regular telephone lines (like dial-up does) to deliver download speeds as fast as 25 megabits per second (with 100 Mbps or more expected later this year). There are two types of DSL: Asymmetric DSL (ADSL) and Symmetric DSL (SDSL). ADSL is the cheaper of the two and offers significantly faster download speeds (i.e., how fast information on the internet is delivered to you) than upload speeds (how fast information is sent from your computer to the internet). SDSL, on the other hand, provides equally fast upload and download speeds, which might be important if you are a VPN user or regularly backup large files to the cloud.
Advantages: DSL is typically less expensive than other broadband options, and you'll likely have more than one DSL provider to choose from—as opposed to one single cable or fiber optic provider. The speeds you get from DSL are also usually very stable and consistent, because in many cases, you get a dedicated line.
Disadvantages: The quality and speed of DSL service depends on distance: The farther away you are from the provider's central office (CO), the slower and less reliable your connection. Also, DSL speeds, while much faster than dial-up and probably enough for most users' needs, aren't as fast as other broadband types yet.
Cable broadband is offered by your cable television provider. It operates over coaxial cable TV wires and provides download speeds ranging from 3 Mbps to over 100 Mbps.
Advantages: The quality and speed of your service doesn't depend on your distance, like it does with DSL. Cable is also typically much faster than DSL and satellite, and more widely available than fiber optic broadband.
Disadvantages: In most cases, your available bandwidth is shared with others in your neighborhood, so the more people using the cable broadband service at once, the slower the internet service will be for everyone. This can really put a damper on your Netflix streaming at peak internet use times.
Satellite, as you might expect, uses satellites to beam the internet feed to subscribers' installed satellite dishes. Satellite, no matter where you are, offers speeds of up to 15 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up, according to Ars Technica.
Advantages: Satellite covers areas where DSL, cable, and fiber are unavailable. For many people in rural areas (19 million people in the US, according to Ars Technica), it's the only option.
Disadvantages: It's both slower and more expensive (for the rated speeds) than other broadband options.
Fiber optic service (FiOS), the latest in internet connectivity types, operates over an optical network using light. (What? Yeah, fiber-optic lines are pure glass as thin as a human hair.) Right now, Verizon, AT&T U-verse, and Qwest are the major fiber optic providers and offer speeds as high as 300 Mbps down and 65 Mbps up.
Advantages: Offers the highest ("at the speed of light") speeds available, compared to traditional copper wire connections such as DSL or cable.
Disadvantages: Fiber is only available in limited areas.
Of course, beyond just internet connection types, a lot depends on where you are (in some areas DSL might be faster than cable or cable a better value if you factor in bundling incentives)—as well as the individual ISP. Here's how to compare ISPs to find the best one for you.
The most important feature, naturally, is availability. It's no use trying to get Verizon FiOS (or, better yet, 100-times-faster-than-other-broadband Google Fiber) if the company doesn't service your area. To find out what's available to you, head to http://dslreports.com/search and enter your zip code. DSL Reports breaks down broadband options near you by category (cable providers, cheapest broadband, top rated ISPs, residential DSLs by price, etc.), and provides user ratings across factors such as connection reliability and value for the money.
Other sites can help with your research. If you'd like a quicker comparison of the most popular (major) services, WhiteFence offers an easy-to-scan chart and the ability to compare individual packages. And if you're looking for satellite providers, ISPProvidersinMyArea is one of the few comparison sites to include satellite as well as DSL, cable, and wireless providers.
Download and Upload Speeds: We all want fastest internet at the price we're willing to pay. Make sure when you're comparing services, you do so on an apples-to-apples basis, comparing the most similar plans based on both download and upload speeds. To find the ISPs with the fastest upload and download speeds actually tested by users worldwide, visit Speedtest.net's Net Index. Click on the map to drill down to your area and scroll down to the ranking of ISPs by speed index (available for download and upload speeds, as well as network quality).
Cost and Contract: Some services require you to rent the modem or buy it yourself; others provide it for you. Some offer free installation while others charge you for that service call. Most discount your internet service if you package it with television and/or phone service. And you might be able to avoid a multi-year contract with some—for a higher price, of course. These are the details you'll need to consider when comparing services by price.
Terms of Service: Similarly, make sure you know what the service's limitations are. There may be data caps, for example, limiting the amount of data you can use per month, or restrictions on the kinds of activities you're allowed to do, such as running a web or file server.
Add-ons and special features: Many ISPs throw in extras just to make it seem like you're getting a great value. Things like anti-virus program subscriptions, an ISP-branded email address, and personal webpages are just that—extras that you likely don't need. One pretty cool add-on you might find, though, is free Wi-Fi hotspot access. For example, if you're a Cablevision customer anywhere near one of its public Wi-Fi towers (whether you're in a building like a coffeeshop or outside in the park), you can hop on to it. That might sway you if you frequently use your laptop on the go.
Reliability: Of course, none of these features matter if you can't use the service when you need to. DSL Reports shows reviews from your neighbors, which is a great start. As mentioned above, you can also use the Net Index from Speedtest.net to get a ranking of real-world ISP quality tests.
Customer support: If you experience outages or other problems with the internet (as will happen), how easy is it to get support? Does the provider offer phone, email, or chat customer support? How painful or painless is the installation process? JD Power's Residenial Internet Service Provider Ratings measures ISP customers' satifsaction across several factors, including performance and customer service.
Those are many considerations, but, again, this is an important decision. Good luck with your choice!
Photos by Robert Stinnett, Clive Darra, and Steve Ryan.
|
0.911113 |
Discuss the distribution of copper working or bronze/brass casting over West Africa, now and in the ancient past.
The discovery of the use of metals by man has far reaching effects on his culture which is a product of his interaction with the environment.
Some of the metals the metals that man explored at different stages of his development were used in the manufacture of tools, ornaments, sculptures, etc. Different types of metal were found and explored in ancient West Africa, metals such as bronze, brass, copper, iron, tin, gold, and to a lesser degree silver.
Unlike other parts of the of the world where evidence for the knowledge of working of other softer metals such as copper, brass and bronze predates that of other metallic materials, in West Africa evidence for the knowledge of iron working predates that of copper, brass and bronze working. From the Nok culture site of Taruga, the date for iron working stands at about the fifth to sixth centuries B.C. and to the fourth century B.C. at Tse Dura rock shelter. At the Baha mound, a date of second century B.C. was arrived at through the C14 dating technique. From Nigeria the earliest date for the exploitation of bronze or brass is put at around the ninth to eleventh century A.D. being the dates for the Igbo Ukwu bronzes. While evidence of copper working from Akoujt in Mauritania has been put to about the ninth to sixth centuries B.C. in the republic of Niger from the Agadez region, the exploitation of native copper goes back to the second millennium B.C. and that of smelting to the mid first millennium B.C.
It is however more convenient to talk about of metal age in West Africa because no evidence of brass/bronze or copper working precedes that of iron working in the area. At sites like Mao, Koro Toro, Toungour, Itaakpa, Iwo Eleru etc. there is evidence of the direct transition from the use of stone tools to iron materials. In eastern lake Chad, at Diama an iron spear head was found in a layer dated to about the first century A.D.
In this write up, the distribution of copper or bronze/brass working in West Africa now and in the ancient past is examined.
From archaeological investigation in West Africa, it has been revealed that copper working or bronze/brass casting now and in the ancient past is distributed over a wide area, mostly along the northern part of the rain forest belt of Ivory Coast to Cameroon. It extends from Baoule and Ashanti (Ghana) through the Benin republic, to Ife, Benin and Igbo Ukwu (Nigeria) to Bamenda (Cameroon). Ibrahim M. Muhammed one of the scholars in this field is of the opinion that West Africa has an ‘Advacnced’ pre-iron age metallurgical tradition.
Copper is a relatively soft metal in its pure state, and it forms a relatively weak cutting tool, but it becomes stronger when alloyed with other metals.
Bronze is an alloy formed when copper and tin is mixed, with tin forming more than 2℅ of the raw material.
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. Zinc forms about 10℅ to 30℅ of the alloyed materials. This could be up to one to two percent of the materials of tin and zinc respectively. Lead may also be added to bronze or brass in varying quantities, and in this case the alloyed material is referred to as leaded bronze or brass.
From Dawu in southern Ghana, in the Ashanti area, a number of the gold weights recovered were made of brass and dated to the sixteenth and seventh century. These gold weights were used as measures during the merchandize of the gold dust sold at the Trans Saharan markets by the ancient Ashanti people of Ghana. These weights represented Ghanaian proverbs and were sometimes mutilated during transactions. A large number of such weights were carted away during colonial times mistaken to have been manufactured from gold.
From Igbo Ukwu in Nigeria a large collection of bronze objects were recovered, they consist of objects from shrines such as; well decorated pots and bowls, depiction of animals in a way approaching life size, and regalia of an important personality. These objects were manufactured following two basic methods, the smiting and chasing method and the Cire Perdue or lost wax method.
Most of the bronze objects from Igbo Ukwu were made through the cire perdue method, while the copper objects were made through the smiting and chasing method. Spectrographic analysis carried out on the objects show that the cast objects were made from leaded bronze with varying amount of tin. The objects seemed to have been used mainly for ritual and religious purpose and no attempt was made to make any human sculpture.
Benin has quite a large collection of objects; these objects can be referred to as being made of brass.
Benin brass objects now and in the ancient past are made largely for the royal family i.e. the king and his chiefs, with a few exceptions to important personalities in the society and the queen mother. Objects recovered from the clerks quarters in Benin have been dated to the thirteenth century A.D.
In the south western part of Nigeria from Ife, few copper objects have been recovered. The majorities of the Ife objects are made from the alloy of copper and zinc with relatively high quantity of lead (i.e. leaded brass).
The Ife objects have been dated by analogy to the Ife terracotta objects based on there stylistic similarities to about the twelfth to the fourteenth century A.D.
From the middle Jebba Niger village of Tada, few bronze objects have been found in Jebba and Giragi. The sitting Tada figure is a critical example. These objects have mixed stylistic origin and can not be said to be of the same source. These objects were propitiated to in the communities where they were found in anticipation of a good harvest and were flogged when the expected good harvest was not achieved.
Copper objects have been found and recovered from El Oualediji in Mali, and from Akjoujt in Mauritania dating from the the ninth to sixth century B.C.
The Sao sites in Cameroon have also yielded objects made from both bronze and brass; also some copper objects were recovered from Ndalame in Senegal.
From the Agadez region in Niger republic, evidence of native copper exploitation goes back to the second millennium B.C. and that of smelting to the early mid first millennium B.C. from the various sites so far, there is evidence that copper or bronze and brass have been used to fashion luxury items, which served as mainly ritual and artistic functions.
The societies using this objects (copper, brass, bronze, iron) seemed to have had a great percent of wealth, high political and social stratification and also the possibility of trans-border trade.
For example the exactions at New Buipe show that some of the cupreous ornaments from this site may have been imported from the Gonga region probably as a result of trade. The bronze objects from Igbo Ukwu also has religious significance, as objects depicting the python, were made from bronze and also that of a leopard skull, this two animals depicted have great religious significance in the areas where they were found (eastern Nigeria).
At Ife and Benin (in Benin brass casting continues till date) objects/ sculptures made are naturalistic and approaching life size, these artistic works could be referred to as royal arts. In conclusion, all over Africa, there is the evidence of the knowledge of the use working of metal.
The areas of Agadez- Taruga –Jenne Jeno seems to have the earlier dates for iron production, while the earlier dates for copper working seemed to have appeared in the Agadez region and Igbo Ukwu respectively.
Metal using brought about new trend in architectural techniques, and examples of such are the presence of potsherds pavements from Diama and Ife, and also the presence of round mud buildings and huge stone structures such as the platforms at Mao, Wuma and Uri. The use of metals brought about changes in material cultures of the West Africans such as rich religious symbolism and the use of heavy body adornments. There was also a remarkable change in the burial rites and the use of burial goods, a good example comes from the Sao sites of Cameroon.
Andah B.W. (1993): Identifying Early Farming Traditions of West Africa. In. The Archaeology of Africa; Food, Metals and Towns. (Eds. Shaw. T et al.) Routledge publishers. London. Pp 240-53.
Muhammed I.M.(1993): Iron Technology in the Middle Sahel/Savanna with Emphasis on Central Dafur. In. . The Archaeology of Africa; Food, Metals and Towns. (Eds. Shaw. T. et al.) Routledge publishers. London. Pp 240-53.
Okafor E.E. (1993): New Evidence on Early Iron Smelting from South Eastern Nigeria. In. The Archaeology of Africa; Food, Metals and Towns. (Eds. Shaw. T et al.) Routledge publishers. London. Pp 432-37.
|
0.960554 |
After Hayne royal commission, who can restore faith in our financial system?
For anyone associated with the Australian banking and finance industry, last year was one they won't forget, much as they would like to.
It didn't quite rival the sheer terror of 2008, but the revelations of the Hayne royal commission left ordinary Australians astounded at how badly they had been let down by those they relied on to run the system.
Beyond the brutalised big end of town, the year should have been equally shameful for those who operate in the lower rungs.
The Australian Financial Review and other media outlets have covered the unravelling of several calamitous investment schemes that had devastating consequences for those lured into them.
As one distraught investor lamented to the Financial Review, no one has had their life ruined by fees for no service. But his life has been, after he made an investment based on what he is convinced were false claims that were not adequately policed and pursued.
Equally hard questions must be asked of those who either facilitated these schemes or did not do enough to prevent individuals being caught up in them.
And the regulatory failures exposed by the royal commission are equally applicable at the smaller end of town.
As a reporter covering several cases where unwitting investors were fleeced, the experience was disturbing and fascinating. I gained a greater appreciation of how the system works (or doesn't) and how the human mind works (or doesn't).
Based on the experiences of dealing with the enablers and victims of "bad outcomes", here's a list of who I think can do more to restore the integrity of the financial system.
The "credibility renters": Too often, people were lured into a dud investment because someone with authority or a sound reputation had backed the venture, joined an advisory board or given a public endorsement. Not often enough do they do any sort of diligence.
In the case of auditors, when they rubber-stump the financial accounts, individuals rely on them as fully vetted. But as they have all-too-often found out, the auditor is not responsible for detecting frauds, and they almost never do.
The regulators: The reputation of the regulators has taken a step down in 2018. They are honest, hard-working and have dedicated their careers to keeping the streets clean. But it is hard to accept there are no flaws, particularly with the approach.
On many occasions, victims of investment schemes have failed to gain traction with regulators and the evidence is that tip-offs from informed outsiders are not acted on early enough, if at all. The consequence is losses that could and should have been prevented.
Several times, the Financial Review has received responses from regulators explaining why they won't take action, even when clear breaches have been demonstrated.
Until now the regulators have adopted an approach of efficient turnarounds, even if it means inconsequential wrist-slaps. But this fails to appreciate community expectations for public justice. With each new case of daylight robbery, those playing by the rules grow more despondent while those who systematically break them grow more emboldened.
Politicians: Australians are compelled to direct a sizeable percentage of their earnings over their working lives into the wealth industry. This means Australia has one of the largest financial systems, in a relative and absolute sense.
We are therefore owed a relatively and absolutely large deployment of public resources to protect our interests.
The media: More than anything, 2018 demonstrated how crucial the media's role is in maintaining the long-term integrity of the financial system. Few would disagree the genesis of the royal commission was the relentless reporting of misconduct by Adele Ferguson and others at Fairfax Media.
There are countless other examples. One, emblematic of the times, has been the proliferation of pay-for-play trade press and social media promoters pushing questionable stocks onto retail investors. That has been met with in-depth reporting to at least inform punters how the game is being played.
There is a sense among the public that regulators are more likely to act on an issue if it is being pursued in the media, and any measures of deterrence regulators take is more effective if it is covered prominently in the press.
As long as we have a reactive rather than a proactive regulator, a robust, empowered and motivated financial press corps has a critical role to play in maintaining the system's integrity.
Investors and advisers: We hire and pay those to manage our investments because we trust them to look after our interests. And many accept this as the ultimate responsibility. But others have veered from acting as fiduciaries towards building their own businesses, often at the expense of their customers.
Vertical integration was a key theme of the royal commission but it is arguably more prevalent among smaller operators. Kickbacks are everywhere you look, and everywhere you don't.
And there are too many clear-cut examples where uninformed customers have been placed into products – by people they trust – that no right-minded fiduciary would touch.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission's new chairman, James Shipton, has made it his mantra to remind those in the finance industry it is other peoples' money they are dealing with. Cynics say that some unfortunately know this all too well.
The whistleblowers: The term has become glorified to represent those who risk their careers for the greater good. They should rightly be lionised.
But there is a bigger, more silent army of informants and keyboard vigilantes who write letters to the regulators (sadly too often with little consequence), contact the media and take other steps to raise awareness of instances where they uncover evidence of wrongdoing.
Often they are dismissed for acting in their self-interest but, in most cases, their self-interest is that they are playing by the rules or acting with integrity towards their clients, while they observe that others are not. They cannot sit idly by.
It is easy, after the year we have had, to lose sight of the fact the vast majority of Australians who work in the finance industry – including for those organisations whose reputations have been battered by the royal commission – are good people with noble intentions.
Our financial system needs to be fixed for them.
|
0.999995 |
I picked up the bass a few months ago, and I've noticed that when I'm playing something, the strings make loud clicky sounds when they hit the fret. This happens especially when I'm trying to play something fast, and when I jump between strings. How can I prevent this from happening? What could I be doing wrong?
Work on having your left hand 'think ahead', so that you're not rushing to fret the note just before you play it; instead, the relevant finger has got there well before time.
a low action at the nut will reduce the amount of click for the positions near the nut.
Again as Bradd says, low action at the high frets will make it more likely for the string to clatter against the frets at the end of the neck, so you may want to raise the bridge saddles a little, as well as focusing on playing less hard (with your right hand). The latter may mean you need to turn your amp up a bit too, so you can play gently and let the amp do the work.
As No'am Newman mentions in a comment, bass clanks aren't a bad thing in themselves - I harness them in a couple of ways: - accenting strong notes in a bar with a bit of right hand 'clank' - setting my bass up so that the string hits the high frets briefly at the start of each note. coupled with distortion, this gives a great snorty rock sound. Of course if you don't want clanks, that's fine too.
Also, bear in mind that not all the clanks and clicks you hear acoustically will actually make it into your signal chain. You can reduce a lot of noises by turning down the tone on the bass.
There are two likely causes for this, depending on where the strings are clicking. If they click directly under your fingers, from the force of your fingertips striking the frets, then work on reducing the tension in your fretting hand. Proper fretting requires very little tension or force. Keeping it minimal will reduce percussive noises and will also reduce fatigue and the likelihood of injury.
If the strings click or buzz against the neck farther from your fingers, then the problem might still be tension, but in your plucking hand instead of your fretting hand. When playing fast, loud, or dynamic music it is easy to over-pick which can make the strings slap or buzz against the strings. Low action or low neck relief will exaggerate this noise, so you might want to adjust your bass setup in addition to easing off the picking hand.
From an instrument maker's point of view: aside from how you play, the setup of the bass makes a difference. There's always going to be some amplitude of string vibration that will buzz somewhere; it's a matter of taste what that amplitude is. The lower the action, the easier it is to fret and the less problems with intonation, but the easier it is to buzz. The higher the action, the less buzzing, but the more effort and possible intonation problems.
Of course, you want your action to be regular: no high or low frets, nut and bridge appropriate, etc. Get it checked out if you find differences between different fingered notes.
Topo pre-empted my first thought - turn down the treble on the amp or guitar.
Those clicks would make it seem like you're hammering on too hard with the fretting fingers. Hammer-ons are a regular part of guitar and bass playing, to be able to play legato, but also so you can drink your pint while still playing the bass line in a gig. Hammer-ons don't need to be sledge-hammer-ons, though. The note will still play when you press down less harshly. Try all sorts of different attack modes, and a lot of the click will disappear. Of course, sometimes you'll want it, so go back to your original mode of playing.
Another cause may be the strings are too low, and are catching on the next fret or three, although often, this will manifest itself in a rattle as well. You may also be pulling the string up away from the finger board before letting go - sort of mini bow and arrow style. That's a common way to play when you're slapping and popping - it's the pop. A slap is also percussive in a different way, when you hit the string down onto the finger board. Again, that's percussive, and will produce a click, albeit a different one.
This type of sound is solvable by either playing softer with the playing hand (not hitting the strings so hard) or doing some EQing. If your bass has a treble control, turn it down. Same with the amp or any pedals.
But the best solution for things like this is to solve it at the hand and not gloss over it with effects.
Adjusting your playing style for a given situation will not only open up your bass for new possibilities, but make you a more versatile player. You can then use the clanky sound to accent other notes without sacrificing treble in your normal tone.
I used to have the same issue, hitting the strings far, far too hard and always getting the clank. I've since lowered my action and learned to play a lot softer. I can now get that clank without too much extra effort and play fast lines with soft strikes of the fingers, which is way easier than trying to hit hard during a fast passage.
I'm with Tim, I think you're squeezing too hard. Try this, place your finger on the string and press very, very gently until the string just touches the fretboard behind the fret. Keep playing the string with your right (I presume) hand all this time. Notice the left hand pressure you needed when the note first comes out clear. That the most pressure you need to exert, even when paying fast.
If you keep squeezing too hard or too fast, you will at best tire quickly, at worst risk hand strains or injury and speaking as someone who has had hand surgery, I don't recommend it.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged bass-guitar electric-bass-guitar fretboard or ask your own question.
Best ways to remove excess tension from fretting hand?
When decreasing string gauge on a bass guitar, will I need to adjust the truss rod?
How I am I supposed to “Properly” follow through to the next string while playing the electric bass guitar?
Bass guitar fret buzz: should I care?
How can i add simple bass guitar in my simple songs?
How to get Steve Harris' bass tone?
|
0.990761 |
Chase, Target, and Starbucks Are Raising Their Minimum Wages. Is That Enough?
BERNIE SANDERS ENDORSES HILLARY CLINTON: “There is no doubt in my mind that Hillary Cilnton is far and away the best candidate” to address America's needs, @BernieSanders says. — Vox (@voxdotcom) July 12, 2016 JPMORGAN CHASE IS GIVING THOUSANDS OF EMPLOYEES A RAISE: In a terribly written piece (It starts: “Wage stagnation. Income inequality. A lack of quality education.”) CEO Jamie Dimon lets us all know how benevolent JP Morgan Chase actually is. He explains: Our minimum salary for American employees today is $10.15 an hour (plus meaningful benefits, which I’ll explain later), almost $3 above the current national minimum wage. Over the next three years, we will raise the minimum pay for 18,000 employees to between $12 and $16.50 an hour for full-time, part-time and new employees, depending on geographic and market factors. SO, ABOUT THAT “GOOD GUY” WITH A GUN: The Washington Post‘s editorial board has an incredible column today on gun violence in America. Here’s my favorite paragraph: Yes, guns can be properly and effectively used in self-defense. But saturating the nation with firearms also primes the country for deadly violence, making many situations more likely to end in death. Potential suicides are more likely to succeed. Deranged and angry people, such as Johnson, can murder trained law enforcement officers from a distance. Curious children accidentally shoot themselves, their friends or their parents. Domestic abusers kill family members before tempers cool or authorities arrive. Police officers see or fear guns in the cars they pull over, and their adrenaline starts pumping.
WHY 2016 COULD BE A TURNING POINT ON GUNS: Here is a piece you must read. Paul Waldman makes a convincing case that we are close to achieving an America with sane gun laws. While he provides many astute arguments, this was my favorite: [Hillary] Clinton also hasn’t hesitated to call out the NRA specifically, and given what a cautious politician she is, that’s also revealing. The newly invigorated gun control movement has taken as one of its core goals to drive a wedge between the NRA and gun owners generally, arguing that the group’s radical policy positions and nightmarish outlook don’t represent most gun owners, who aren’t stockpiling dozens of firearms in their underground bunkers as they look forward longingly to the coming apocalypse. BERNIE SANDERS WILL HIT THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL WITH HILLARY CLINTON: The dream is over, Berners. What a ride it has been! And no, Bernie’s not “selling out.” This is how politics works. GOVERNMENT HOLDS THE PROMISE TO MORE GROWTH: Productivity, according to this author, “is the key to long-term prosperity.” So it is troubling, therefore, when productivity flatlines (much like it has been) because then that “means that the pie isn’t growing.” Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson have a theory that “good government is critical to economic development.” Recently, they have added to their theory with a new idea called “state capacity.” This “incorporates the old idea of good institutions, and adds other factors that Acemoglu and Robinson believe are indispensable – strong education, research spending, infrastructure and lack of discrimination.” With this in mind, they argue that government “isn’t the bane of innovation – it’s a necessary and crucial input.” WORST HEADLINE OF THE DAY: THE WORLD HAS BEEN FALLING APART FOR A LONG TIME. HOW DO WE PUT IT BACK TOGETHER?
IT HAPPENED AGAIN: Philando Castile is the second African-American man to be shot by a policeman in less than 24 hours . Like Alton Sterling , Castile died on camera. Castile was legally carrying a firearm, but the NRA doesn’t seem to care . CITY COUNCIL PROMOTES PAID PARENTAL AND FAMILY LEAVE: Check out the new proposed policy for city employees over at Councilmember Lorena González’s page. VIRAL PETITION BERATES “EXTREME LABOR CUTS” Janet I. Tu at the Seattle Times writes: A Starbucks barista’s petition complaining that the coffee chain has cut working hours in its stores to the point of “gross underemployment” for workers has garnered more than 11,000 signatures and the attention of top Starbucks executives. “THERE’S GOING TO BE A WHOLE LOT OF HAPPY STORE MANAGERS” Check out this great Marketplace story by Andy Uhler on raising the overtime threshold.
ALTON STERLING WAS SHOT: A graphic video shows Baton Rouge police wrestling an African-American man named Alton Sterling to the ground and shooting him. CLINTON PROMOTES DEBT-FREE EDUCATION PLAN: Hillary Clinton will unveil a higher education plan that incorporates major aspects of Bernie Sanders’s education policy: Clinton is adding three features to her plan for higher education policy, called the “ New College Compact .“ They include eliminating tuition at in-state public universities for families making under $125,000 by 2021 and restoring year-round Pell Grant funding so students can take summer classes to finish school quicker. WASHINGTON STATE DECIDES: Joel Connelly at the Seattle PI writes about two measures that are likely to make it to the ballot in November: Initiative 1433 would increase the state’s minimum wage, currently at $9.47 an hour, in phases to $13.50 an hour by 2020. I-1433 would allow workers to earn an hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours spent on the job. Initiative 1491 would provide for extreme risk protection orders, allowing family members or law enforcement to ask that courts temporarily suspend a person’s access to firearms if there is documented evidence that a person’s access to guns threatens his/her life and that of others. REPUBLICANS TALK A GOOD ECONOMIC GAME: Kevin Drum at Mother Jones points out something that has been staring us in the face for a while: ….economies always recover eventually. Conservatives take advantage of this fact by loudly and clearly insisting that their proposed tax cuts will supercharge economic growth. They know that eventually there will be growth, and when it happens they can then loudly and clearly insist that their tax cuts were responsible. Since they’ve been loudly and clearly saying this all along, ordinary citizens conclude that they’re right. Democrats don’t really do this.
|
0.943061 |
Tommy finally decided that he'd pee in the potty.
I'd like to say that he just decided that it was his time or maybe, perhaps, he got tired of his mother constantly following him around asking if he needed to pee.
What I had to do is bribe and bribe and bribe.
And create a talking chicken with my fingers.
What is a talking chicken you might ask?
My Dad, he stayed home with me while my Mom worked. He would make chicken fingers and this amused me. He'd do it while we had to wait and he'd do it before he dropped me off at school.
"Do the chicken, Daddy!" I'd beg and he'd oblige. I'd collapse into a fit of giggles and think that he was the greatest.
I decided to do the chicken with Tommy when he had been sitting on the potty for over twenty minutes and nothing was happening. At this point he didn't seem to care much for the bribe. He just sat on the potty, pants around his ankles, staring me right in the eye. His expression clearly said, "Screw this, Mom. Screw this." He was waiting for me to back down.
Then I brought out the chicken. I formed it with my fingers and made it look at Tommy.
"Hello Tommy," said the chicken.
Tommy looked confused at first. His eyes grew as big as saucers and he swallowed hard. He didn't know what to make of this creature.
"I think you should go pee. Then you get to pick a toy! Won't that be fun?" the chicken asked.
A small smile began to form on Tommy's face. Then a giggle escaped his lips.
"So how about you pee for me?" the chicken questioned.
At first it frightened him. The sensation of letting go. His first impulse was to jump up but I told him it was okay. What he'd do is squeeze out some pee. Stop. Look at the chicken and wait for the chicken to cheer. Then pee some more. Stop. Look at the chicken and wait for the chicken to cheer.
It took probably five minutes for all the pee to come out.
He got a big kick out of the chicken cheering and dancing around. I was cheering as well, obviously, but he didn't care that Mommy was pleased. He cared that the chicken was opening and closing his mouth, cheering and whooping, calling Tommy a big boy, such a big boy.
He's peed four times in the potty. All because of this chicken finger.
He likes the chicken to say goodbye to him when his car picks him up from school. I had strapped him in the carseat and kissed him on the cheek. Tommy kept eyeing my hand.
"Chicken please! Chicken! Bye bye, Chicken."
The car driver's eyebrows shot up at this. I had to explain what he was talking about. I showed the driver and she laughed and went, "How clever!"
I read that sometimes you should talk to children with a hand puppet if they won't listen to you. Because there's a good chance that they'll listen to the hand puppet. In our case it's the chicken.
I still can't believe that a chicken hand thing helped him to pee.
"A shot?" with wide eyes.
"Yes, I'm sorry, you'll have to get two," I explained.
"Oh no. Ouch! A band-aid?" Tommy asked seriously.
"Yes, you'll get a band-aid. And maybe even a sticker if you're a good boy," I replied.
Tommy just gave a big sigh and muttered, "Ouch."
|
0.998628 |
[Xen-changelog] Modularize runtest.sh and add a quick option.
Modularize runtest.sh and add a quick option.
behavior. Now, we can easily re-submit a previously-run test report.
- echo "Usage: $0 [opts] <logfile>"
- echo " Where opts are:"
- echo " -d : do not submit a report for this run"
- echo " -b : do not ask any questions (batch mode)"
- echo " -e <email> : set email address for report"
- echo "(Skipping report submission)"
- echo "(Email set to $1)"
- echo "ERROR: I must be run as root!"
- echo "Cannot find a valid ramdisk. You need to run \"make\" or"
- echo "copy in a previously-built ramdisk to the ramdisk/ directory"
- echo "'xm list' failed: is xend running?"
+ echo "Usage: $0 [opts] <report>"
+ echo " Where report is a name that will be used for report files"
+ echo " Where opts are:"
+ echo " -d : do not submit a report for this run"
+ echo " -b : do not ask any questions (batch mode)"
+ echo " -q : run a quick test set"
+ echo " -e <email> : set email address for report"
+ echo " -s <report> : just submit report <report>"
+ echo "Unable to generate clean ResultReport"
+ echo "Take a look at $report"
+ echo "Unable to generate clean OSReport"
+ echo "Take a look at $os"
+ echo "Unable to generate clean ProgReport"
+ echo "Take a look at $prog"
+ echo "ERROR: I must be run as root!"
+ echo "Cannot find a valid ramdisk. You need to run \"make\" or"
+ echo "copy in a previously-built ramdisk to the ramdisk/ directory"
+ echo "'xm list' failed: is xend running?"
- echo "Unable to read contact_info!"
- echo "Please run me once interactively before using batch mode!"
- echo "Please provide your email address so that we can "
- echo "contact you if we need further information concerning"
- echo "your results. Any information provided will be"
- echo "kept private. If you wish to remain anonymous, please"
- echo "hit [ENTER] now."
- echo -n "Your email address: "
- echo "Unable to generate clean OSReport"
- echo "Take a look at $OSREPORTTEMP"
- echo "Unable to generate clean ProgReport"
- echo "Take a look at $PROGREPORTTEMP"
+ echo "Unable to read contact_info!"
+ echo "Please run me once interactively before using batch mode!"
+ echo "Please provide your email address so that we can "
+ echo "contact you if we need further information concerning"
+ echo "your results. Any information provided will be"
+ echo "kept private. If you wish to remain anonymous, please"
+ echo "hit [ENTER] now."
+ echo -n "Your email address: "
+ testgroups="create unpause memset help"
+ echo "*** Running tests [$list] from $group"
-echo "Making PASS/FAIL report ($PASSFAIL)..."
-echo "Making FAIL report ($FAILURES)..."
+ echo "Making PASS/FAIL report ($passfail)..."
+ echo "Making FAIL report ($failures)..."
-# echo "NOTE: $NUMFAIL tests failed, which may be erroneous. It may"
-# echo "be a good idea to review the report before sending. If you"
-# echo "choose not to submit the report, it will be saved for your review"
-# echo "and later submission."
-# echo -n "Submit anyway? [y/n] "
- echo "Unable to generate clean ResultReport"
- echo "Take a look at $RESULTREPORTTEMP"
- echo "Report also saved in $1.xml"
- echo "Saving report to $1.xml..."
+ echo "(Skipping report submission)"
+ echo "(Email set to $1)"
+ echo "Unable to read contact_info"
+ echo "You must run me interactively once!"
+ echo "No such file: $XMLREPORT"
|
0.958815 |
WHO CAN DO CAR SEAT INSPECTION AND CORRECT INSTALLATION?
As the parent of a baby or young child, it is imperative that you have a suitable car seat for your little one so that they are safe when traveling in the car. Traveling without a seat when your child has not reached a certain age, weight, or height is not only illegal but also poses a serious risk to your child in the event of an accident. This is why you need to make sure that you invest in a car seat that is designed to suit your child in terms of age, weight, and height as well as in adherence to regulations in your state. You should bear in mind that regulations regarding car seats for children do vary from state to state, so it is important to check current regulations if you have a child just in case they have changed since the last time you checked. Further still, there are so many different child car seats on the market, such as rear-facing car seats, forward-facing car seats, and belt-positioning booster seats. Therefore, you need to ensure that you don’t break any laws or compromise your child’s safety by buying the wrong car seat for child passenger safety.
Although car seat safety laws and regulations are set state by state, it is the federal government that conducts the approval process. The actual child safety seat inspection, testing and certifications is done by the manufacturer’s own safety technicians themselves but the federal government does carry out spot checks in order to ensure that the seats from manufacturers are complaint with the laws. It is important for these safety seats to meet federal standards in order to ensure the safety of your child, which is why some states will require you to have a car seat that has been federally approved. However, there are also other aspects that you need to think about when it comes to car seats and booster seats. This includes the correct installation of the seats and inspection of the seats.
Unless your car seat is properly installed in the vehicle, it will not offer the level of protection that it should to your child. This is why you need to ensure that it is properly installed as well as making sure that it is the right seat for the age, height, and weight of your little one. Some states have a requirement that your car seat is properly installed and, in many cases, this means referencing the instructions from the manufacturer when it comes to installation and use of the seat. In short, this means that if you are installing your own car seat you must ensure you read and understanding the manufacturer’s instructions properly and that you follow them to the letter. Failure to do this would essentially be breaking the law and risking the safety of your child.
When it comes to these instructions from the manufacturer, you need to remember that the instructions refer to legal requirements. So, for example, if the instructions with your car seat state that it must be used facing the rear of the vehicle until the baby is of a certain weight or age then there will be a legal requirement to make sure that you do this. This is down to what is known as the ‘proper use’ clause: by law you have to install and use the car seat properly as per the manufacturer’s instructions. These clauses cover both the installation and the use of the car seats, which means that you must read and understand what the instructions say in regards to fitting the seat as well as using it.
Things can become a little confusing for parents of young children because the laws regarding child seats vary from one state to another. So, if you have moved home from one state to another you may find that the laws relating to the installation and use of your child seat are different to those in the state that you moved from. This is why it is vital that you familiarize yourself with the regulations based on the state that you are in, as they may be different to what you are used to. You can then ensure that you are following the legal requirements when it comes to the installation and use of the car seat in the state that you are in.
For instance, one state may require you to fit a rear facing car seat for a child up to a certain age and weight but another state may require this up to a different age and weight. When it comes to the installation of booster seats, age, weight, and height requirements can also vary from one state to another. So, in order to make sure you are following the law and installing the correct car seat for your child you need to make sure you check the state requirements. Then, in order to make sure that you are following the laws with regards to correct installation and use of the car seat, you need to make sure you fully read and understand the instructions from the manufacturer and that you follow them exactly.
While it can all seem a little complicated and stringent, it is important to remember that these laws and regulations are in place for a reason. Your child’s safety is paramount and these car and booster seats are designed to increase the safety levels for your child when travelling in a vehicle. However, unless you follow the regulations and instructions, this safety and protection will be compromised.
Not all parents will be confident about whether they have installed their car seat properly, which will naturally lead to increased worry and risk when it comes to safety. Some may be unsure with regards to proper use of the car seat and may require advice. There are car seat inspection stations where certified inspectors can provide you with assistance and guidance. This means greater peace of mind for you as well as increased protection for your child.
The certified inspectors at these stations are able to provide assistance and guidance when it comes to installing your car seat. Even if you have already installed the seat, if you have any doubts with regards to whether it has been fitted properly, it is not worth taking the legal or safety risks. It is, therefore, worth taking your vehicle along to one of these stations so that a certified inspector can check and ensure that it is installed correctly. In addition, if there are any problems with installation the inspectors can get this sorted out for you. You can even ask them about proper usage if you have little or no experience with these seats or you just need clarification.
There are car seat inspection stations in locations around the country and, in order to find the one that is nearest to you, you can simply head to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website. Here, you will be able to enter your zip code and a list of the most local stations will come up on screen. You can then get in touch with the most convenient one so that you can obtain advice and arrange for your car seat to be inspected by a professional.
Purchase: You need to check the labeling and details carefully on any car seat that you are considering purchasing. You must ensure that the seat is an appropriate and federally approved one that is suitable for the age, height, and weight of your child. Check the legal requirements for your state so that you know what sort of car seat you need to look for based on your child’s age, height, and weight.
Installation: It is vital that the car seat you buy is then installed properly in order for it to be effective and to adhere to legal requirements. For this, you need to make sure you carefully read, understand, and follow the instructions that come with the seat. Everything must be followed to the letter in order to make sure that the seat is properly fitted. You then need to make sure you understand fully how to use the car seat properly.
Inspection: A final step to take as a precaution is to go to a local inspection station to get the car seat inspection by a certified expert. This will ensure that installation has been carried out correctly and that your child will benefit from the protection these seats are designed to provide. You can then enjoy total peace of mind when it comes to traveling with your child and make sure you know how to properly use the seat.
Although car seat safety laws and regulations are set state by state, it is the federal government that conducts the approval process.
|
0.86703 |
Why do men say "I don't Know"?
I guess I can relate to telling someone " I don't know " b/c generally they don't!!!
I cannot tell you how many times that I have made hasty decisions that have come back to haunt me. You never know what you got until it's gone. Some people have to go look for greener grass, b/c they just can't find peace in themselves. Others venture out slowly and let out a little slack on their comfortable leash that they have established, but run back home b4 they venture too far out. I found a phrase that is soooo inspiring to me tonight, and thought I should share it.... Stop telling God how big your storm is. Instead, tell your storm how big your God is.
|
0.999892 |
You’ve come back to the United States after getting an MBA in China and after spending three years there. What can you tell us about how the Chinese for-profit education sector operates?
To discuss the for-profit education sector in China, it’s important to have a larger context of the Chinese education system. But, that primer would be a bit too long for this interview. Perhaps I will write a subsequent post that goes into more detail. Suffice it to say that the Chinese education market is the largest in the world. There are well over 200 million students in the Chinese education system. Over 350 million Chinese are studying English at one stage or another. And education spend is estimated to be between 15-20% of disposable income.
With such a large market, there is ample opportunity to provide education products and services. Unsurprisingly, the education market in China is highly regulated, particularly for foreign companies. As such, the best opportunities tend to lie around the periphery of the system and in transition stages including pre-school/kindergarten, test prep, language learning and vocational schools. Private schools both at the high school and university level are growing in number, but remain a relatively small percentage of the overall mix.
Do you notice any striking contrasts when observing how the Chinese government looks at investments in education versus how K12 and higher education is regulated and invested in in the United States?
Sure. To start, we obviously have very different systems of government and this has a fundamental and important impact on education as well as many other policy areas. Generally speaking, China can take a long-term perspective and focus on specific reform goals. Over the years they have made concerted efforts to establish English language acquisition as an important learning goal, to improve science and engineering capabilities, encourage universal literacy, and develop a handful of top-tier universities. It’s fair to say that China is more strategic and targeted in how the government approaches investment in the education space and they take specific incremental steps in addressing large problems.
Do you see any areas for collaboration between US and China investors / regulators on this front?
As has been widely documented, there are certain components of China’s education system (e.g. developing creativity and innovation) where they may be weaker than the US and the same holds true for the reverse (e.g. producing large numbers of mathematicians, scientists and engineers). This dynamic creates a rich opportunity for partnership and collaboration. The Chinese recognize they have much to learn from the US education system as well as the education systems of countries throughout the world. Americans, I firmly believe, could also learn a great deal from studying the Chinese approach to education and learning how to blend certain aspects into US system. At the least, there should be more students in this country studying Mandarin Chinese.
Can a diverse American graduates ecosystem compete?
Thinking more broadly, what would you say is the state of “global learning” today?
I believe global learning in the United States to be woefully inadequate. I recognize when you have low and declining college matriculation rates in public schools across the country, there are fundamentals like arithmetic and literacy that should come first, but I think in general we do a pretty bad job of getting our kids to think about the world beyond our borders. And this needs to change.
On the flip side, many of the other countries around the world know a great deal about us. They are learning English and they are taught about our history, our politics and our society. Some here may think that we don’t need to improve our international knowledge – the logic goes that if people in other countries speak English and know our ways, then we don’t need to make the effort the other way around. Nothing could be further from the truth. And as the ability to work in a more international context becomes more important across all fields and industries, this lack of global learning in the US puts kids here at a disadvantage.
Do you see any issues internationally in Brazil, India, or China, places you have traveled to and worked in, that correspond to the issues being raised in the education reform movement in the United States?
Education is fundamental. It touches all aspects of our country today – economic, political and social issues are all deeply impacted by our education system. As countries like India, China, Brazil and others grow in prosperity and relative influence, Americans should be excited by new market opportunities and areas for possible collaboration. But, we should also be reminded that we must do a much better job of investing in and improving our own system.
Everyone recognizes that the world is becoming incredibly interconnected and this reality influences education. The edreform movement in the US shares the same principles as movements in other countries. People around the world recognize that knowledge and learning is the key to innovation and development. In this day and age, it is near impossible for a society, a company or an individual to have a chance to succeed in the world without having the ability, resources and access to learn. That is why the right to a high quality education for all children both here in the US and also in other countries is necessary. At its core, the achievement of this goal is what the edreform movement is all about.
This makes sense. Insightful, logical, and true. I agree with the author that American education at all levels could benefit from a paradigm shift in education from a provincial to a global focus. Immediately. Well expressed, Marshall Roslyn.
|
0.953567 |
Brittany coastline, Bay of Biscay.
The Action of 13 January 1797 was a minor naval battle fought between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany during the French Revolutionary Wars. During the action the frigates outmanoeuvred the much larger French vessel and drove it onto shore in heavy seas, resulting in the deaths of between 400 and 1,000 of the 1,300 persons aboard. One of the British frigates was also lost in the engagement with six sailors drowned after running onto a sandbank while failing to escape a lee shore.
The French 74-gun ship Droits de l'Homme had been part of the Expédition d'Irlande, an unsuccessful attempt by a French expeditionary force to invade Ireland. During the operation, the French fleet was beset by poor coordination and violent weather, eventually being compelled to return to France without landing a single soldier. Two British frigates, the 44-gun HMS Indefatigable and the 36-gun HMS Amazon, had been ordered to patrol the seas off Ushant in an attempt to intercept the returning French force and sighted the Droits de l'Homme on the afternoon of 13 January.
The engagement lasted for more than 15 hours, in an increasing gale and the constant presence of the rocky Breton coast. The seas were so rough that the French ship was unable to open the lower gun ports during the action and as a result could only fire the upper deck guns, significantly reducing the advantage that a ship of the line would normally have over the smaller frigates. The damage the more manoeuvrable British vessels inflicted on the French ship was so severe that as the winds increased, the French crew lost control and the Droits de l'Homme was swept onto a sandbar and destroyed.
In December 1796, during the French Revolutionary Wars, a French expeditionary force departed from Brest on an expedition to invade Ireland. This army of 18,000 French soldiers was intended to link up with the secret organisation of Irish nationalists known as the United Irishmen and provoke a widespread uprising throughout the island. It was hoped that the resulting war would force Britain to make peace with the French Republic or risk losing control of Ireland altogether. Led by Vice-Admiral Morard de Galles, General Lazare Hoche and leader of the United Irishmen Wolfe Tone, the invasion fleet included 17 ships of the line, 27 smaller warships and transports, and carried extensive field artillery, cavalry and military stores to equip the Irish irregular forces they hoped to raise.
Morard de Galles planned to sail his fleet from the French naval fortress of Brest under cover of darkness on the night of 15–16 December. The British Channel Fleet normally maintained a squadron off Brest to blockade the port, but its commander, Rear-Admiral John Colpoys, had withdrawn his force from its usual station 20 nautical miles (37 km) offshore to 40 nautical miles (74 km) northwest of Brest because of severe Atlantic winter gales. The only British ships within sight of Brest were an inshore squadron of frigates under Sir Edward Pellew in HMS Indefatigable, accompanied by HMS Amazon, HMS Phoebe, HMS Révolutionnaire and the lugger HMS Duke of York. Pellew was already renowned, having been the first British officer of the war to capture a French frigate: the Cléopâtre at the Action of 18 June 1793. He later captured the frigates Pomone and Virginie in 1794 and 1796, and saved 500 lives following the shipwreck of the East Indiaman Dutton in January 1796. For these actions he had first been knighted and then raised to a baronetcy. Indefatigable was a razee, one of the largest frigates in the Royal Navy, originally constructed as a 64-gun third rate and cut down to 44 guns in 1795 to make the ship fast and powerful enough to catch and fight the largest of French frigates. Armed with 24-pounder cannon on the main decks and 42-pounder carronades on the quarter deck, she had a stronger armament than any equivalent French frigate.
Observing the French fleet's departure from the harbour at dusk, Pellew immediately dispatched Phoebe to Colpoys and Amazon to the main fleet at Portsmouth with warnings, before approaching the entrance to Brest in Indefatigable with the intention of disrupting French movements. Believing that the frigates in the bay must be the forerunners of a larger British force, de Galles attempted to pass his fleet through the Raz de Sein. This channel was a narrow, rocky and dangerous passage, and de Galles used corvettes as temporary light ships that shone blue lights and fired fireworks to direct his main fleet through the passage. Pellew observed this, and sailed Indefatigable right through the French fleet, launching rockets and shining lights seemingly at random. This succeeded in confusing the French officers, causing the Séduisant to strike the Grand Stevenent rock and sink with the loss of over 680 men from a complement of 1,300. Séduisant's distress flares added to the confusion and delayed the fleet's passage until dawn. His task of observing the enemy completed, Pellew took his remaining squadron to Falmouth, sent a report to the Admiralty by semaphore telegraph, and refitted his ships.
During December 1796 and early January 1797, the French army repeatedly attempted to land in Ireland. Early in the voyage, the frigate Fraternité carrying de Galles and Hoche, was separated from the fleet and missed the rendezvous at Mizen Head. Admiral Bouvet and General Grouchy decided to attempt the landing at Bantry Bay without their commanders, but severe weather made any landing impossible. For more than a week the fleet waited for a break in the storm, until Bouvet abandoned the invasion on 29 December and, after a brief and unsuccessful effort to land at the mouth of the River Shannon, ordered his scattered ships to return to Brest. During the operation and subsequent retreat a further 11 ships were wrecked or captured, with the loss of thousands of soldiers and sailors.
By 13 January most of the survivors of the fleet had limped back to France in a state of disrepair. One ship of the line that remained at sea, the 74-gun Droits de l'Homme, was commanded by Commodore Jean-Baptiste Raymond de Lacrosse and carried over 1,300 men, 700–800 of them soldiers, including General Jean Humbert. Detached from the main body of the fleet during the retreat from Bantry Bay, Lacrosse made his way to the mouth of the Shannon alone. Recognising that the weather was still too violent for a landing to be made, Lacrosse acknowledged the failure of the operation and ordered the ship to return to France, capturing the British privateer Cumberland en route.
Pellew too was on his way back to Brest in Indefatigable, accompanied by Amazon under the command of Captain Robert Carthew Reynolds. While the rest of the Channel Fleet had been pursuing the French without success, Pellew had had his ships refitted and resupplied at Falmouth so that both frigates were at full complement, well armed and prepared for action. At 13:00 on 13 January, the British ships were approaching the island of Ushant in a heavy fog when they spied another ship through the gloom ahead. This ship, clearly much larger than either of the British vessels, was the Droits de l'Homme. At the same time, lookouts on the French ship spotted the British, and Lacrosse was faced with the dilemma of whether or not to engage the enemy. He knew that his ship was far larger than either of his opponents, but had earlier spotted sails to westwards he believed to be British and thus considered himself outnumbered and possibly surrounded. British records show that no other British vessels were in the vicinity at the time and it is likely that Lacrosse had seen the French ships Révolution and Fraternité returning to Brest from Bantry Bay. In addition, Lacrosse was concerned by the increasing gale and rocky lee shoreline, which posed a considerable threat to his over-laden vessel, which was already damaged from its winter voyage and carried a demi-brigade of the French Army and Humbert, neither of which could be placed at risk in an inconsequential naval action.
Determined to avoid battle, Lacrosse turned southeast, hoping to use his wider spread of sail to outrun his opponent in the strong winds. Pellew, however, manoeuvred to cut the Droits de l'Homme off from the French coast, at this stage still unsure of the nature of his opponent. As the chase developed, the weather, which had been violent for the entire preceding month, worsened. An Atlantic gale swept the Ushant headland, driving a blizzard eastwards and whipping the sea into a turbulent state, making steering and aiming more difficult. At 16:15, two of Droits de l'Homme's topmasts broke in the strong winds. This dramatically slowed the French ship, and allowed Pellew, who had recognised his opponent as a French ship of the line, to close with Droits de l'Homme.
Pellew was aware that his frigate was heavily outclassed by his much larger opponent, and that Amazon, which was 8 nautical miles (15 km) distant, was not large enough to redress the balance when it did arrive. He correctly assumed, however, that the ocean was too rough to allow Lacrosse to open his lower gunports without the risk that heavy waves would enter them and cause Droits de l'Homme to founder. In fact, the French ship was totally unable to open her lower deck gunports during the action: an unusual design feature had the ports 14 inches (36 cm) lower than was normal and as a result the sea poured in at any attempt to open them, preventing any gunnery at all from the lower deck and halving the ship's firepower. Although this reduced the number of available guns on the French vessel, Lacrosse still held the advantage in terms of size, weight of shot and manpower. The French situation was worsened however by the loss of the topmasts: this caused their ship to roll so severely in the high seas that it was far more difficult both to steer the ship and to aim the guns than on the British vessels.
To the surprise of Lacrosse and his officers, Indefatigable did not retreat from the ship of the line, nor did she pass the ship of the line at long-range to leeward as expected. Instead, at 17:30, Pellew closed with the stern of Droits de l'Homme and opened a raking fire. Lacrosse turned to meet the threat and opened fire with the guns on the upper deck accompanied by a heavy volley of musket fire from the soldiers on board. Pellew then attempted to pull ahead of Droits de l'Homme and rake her bow, to which Lacrosse responded by attempting to ram Indefatigable. Neither manoeuvre was successful, as Droits de l'Homme raked the British ship but caused little damage as most of her shot scattered into the ocean.
Indefatigable and Droits de l'Homme manoeuvred around one another, exchanging fire when possible until 18:45, when Amazon arrived. During this exchange, one of Droits de l'Homme's cannon burst, causing heavy casualties on her packed deck. Approaching the larger French ship with all sail spread, Reynolds closed to within pistol shot before raking Droits de l'Homme. Lacrosse responded to this new threat by manoeuvring to bring both British ships to face the westward side of his ship, avoiding becoming trapped in a crossfire. The battle continued until 19:30, when both Amazon and Indefatigable pulled away from their opponent to make hasty repairs. By 20:30, the frigates had returned to the much slower French ship and began weaving in front of Droits de l'Homme's bow, repeatedly raking her. Lacrosse's increasingly desperate attempts to ram the British ships were all unsuccessful and what little cannon fire he did manage to deploy was ineffectual, as the rolling of the ship of the line prevented reliable aiming.
By 22:30, Droits de l'Homme was in severe difficulties, with heavy casualties among her crew and passengers and the loss of her mizzenmast to British fire. Observing the battered state of their opponent, Pellew and Reynolds closed on the stern quarters of the French ship, maintaining a high rate of fire that was sporadically returned by Droits de l'Homme. Having exhausted the 4,000 cannonballs available, Lacrosse was forced to use the shells he was carrying, which had been intended for use by the army in Ireland. In the high winds, these proved even less effective than solid shot, but did drive the frigates to longer range. With their opponent almost immobilised, the British frigates were able to remain outside her arc of fire, effect repairs when necessary and secure guns that had broken loose in the heavy seas. For the rest of the night the three battered ships remained locked in a close range duel, until suddenly, at 04:20 while it was still dark, land was spotted just 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) to leeward by Lieutenant George Bell of the Indefatigable.
Pellew immediately turned seawards in an effort to escape the shore and signalled Reynolds to follow suit. Although both ships had suffered severe damage from the battle and weather, they were able to make the turn away from land, Amazon to the north and Indefatigable, at the insistence of its Breton pilot, to the south. Initially it was believed that the land spotted was the island of Ushant, which would have given the ships plenty of sea-room in which to manoeuvre. However at 06:30, with the sky lightening, it became apparent on the Indefatigable that there were breakers to the south and east, indicating that the three ships had drifted during the night into Audierne Bay. On discovering his situation, Pellew was determined to bring his ship westwards, attempting to work his ship out of danger by beating against the wind. Hasty repairs had to be made to the damaged rigging before it was safe to alter their course. Due to her northwards turn, Amazon had even less room to manoeuvre than Indefatigable and by 05:00 she had struck a sandbank. Although the frigate remained upright, attempts over several hours to bring her off failed; at 08:00 Reynolds ordered his men to prepare to abandon ship.
Droits de l'Homme had been more seriously damaged than the British frigates, and was closer to shore at the time land was spotted. As Lacrosse's crew made desperate efforts to turn southwards, the ship's foremast and bowsprit collapsed under the pressure of the wind. With the ship virtually unmanageable, Lacrosse ordered the anchors lowered in an attempt to hold the ship in position until repairs could be made. This effort was futile, as all but two anchors had been lost during efforts to hold position in Bantry Bay, and British gunfire had damaged one of the anchor cables and rendered it useless. The final anchor was deployed, but it failed to restrain the ship and at 07:00 (according to the French account), the Droits de l'Homme struck a sandbank close to the town of Plozévet. This broke off the remaining mast and caused the ship to heel over onto her side.
As daylight broke over Audierne Bay, crowds of locals gathered on the beach. The Droits de l'Homme lay on her side directly opposite the town of Plozévet, with large waves breaking over her hull; 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) to the north, Amazon stood upright on a sandbar, her crew launching boats in an effort to reach the shore, while Indefatigable was the only ship still afloat, rounding the Penmarck rocks at the southern edge of the bay at 11:00. On board the Amazon, Reynolds maintained discipline and gave orders to launch the ship's boats in an orderly fashion and to build rafts in which to bring the entire crew safely to shore. Six men disobeyed his command, stole a launch, and attempted to reach the shore alone, but were swept away by the current. Their boat was capsized by the waves, and all six drowned. The remaining crew, including those wounded in the previous night's action, were safely brought ashore by 09:00, where they were made prisoners of war by the French authorities.
With no aid possible from the shore, night fell on 14 January with most of the crew and passengers still aboard. During the night, the waves stove in (smashed in) the stern of the ship, flooding much of the interior. On the morning of 15 January, a small boat carrying nine British prisoners (part of the crew of the Cumberland, captured by Droits de l'Homme earlier in the campaign) managed to reach shore. The sight of the British-manned boat reaching shore prompted a mass launching of small rafts from the wreck in hopes of gaining the beach. However the waves increased once more, and not one of these small craft survived the passage.
By the morning of 16 January, the seas were still rough, whilst hunger and panic had taken over on the wreck. When a large raft carrying the wounded, two women and six children was launched during a lull in the weather, over 120 unwounded men scrambled to board it. This severely overloaded the craft and within minutes a large wave struck the heavy raft and capsized it, drowning all aboard. By the evening, the remaining survivors, without food or fresh water, began to succumb to exposure, and at least one officer drowned in a desperate attempt to swim to shore. Throughout the night, the survivors gathered on the less exposed parts of the hull, and, in the hope of staving off death by dehydration, drank sea water, urine, or vinegar from a small barrel that had floated up from the hold. The morning of 17 January finally saw a reduction in the storm and the arrival of a small French naval brig, the Arrogante. This ship could not come close without the risk of grounding but sent her boats to the wreck in the hope of rescuing survivors. The brig was joined later in the day by the cutter Aiguille.
On the Droits de l'Homme, many survivors were too weak to reach the boats, and a number of men fell from the hull and drowned in the attempt. Many more could not find room in the small boats, and only 150 men were rescued on 17 January. The following morning, when the boats returned, they found only 140 survivors left, at least as many again having died during the night. The last two people to leave the ship were the commanders General Humbert and Commodore Lacrosse. Taken to Brest, the survivors were fed and clothed and given medical treatment. All the surviving prisoners from the Cumberland were released and returned to Britain, in recognition of their efforts to save lives from the shipwreck.
Exact French casualties are difficult to calculate, but of the 1,300 aboard Droits de l'Homme, 103 are known to have died in the battle and just over 300 were saved from the wreck, indicating the deaths of approximately 900 men on the French ship between the morning of 14 January and the morning of 18 January. However, a French source suggests that up to another 500 of the crew were rescued from the wreck by the corvette Arrogante and the cutter Aiguille on 17 and 18 January. This would give a toll of only about 400. A menhir at Plozévet, with an inscription carved in 1840 gives a death toll of six hundred.
Amazon lost three in the battle and six in her wreck, with 15 wounded, while Indefatigable did not lose a single man killed, suffering only 18 wounded. The discrepancy in losses during the action is likely due to the extreme difficulty the French crew had in aiming their guns given their ship's instability in heavy seas.
Reynolds and his officers were exchanged for French prisoners some weeks later, and in the routine court-martial investigating the loss of their ship were honourably acquitted "with every sentiment of the court's highest approbation." Reynolds was subsequently appointed to the large frigate HMS Pomone. The senior lieutenants of each frigate were promoted to commander and head money (prize money based on the number of the enemy's crew and awarded when the defeated ship was destroyed) was distributed among the crews. Pellew remained in command of Indefatigable off Brest for another year and seized a number of French merchant ships. He was later promoted several times, and by the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 had become Lord Exmouth, Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. Reynolds did not survive the war, dying in the wreck of HMS St George in 1811. Lacrosse and Humbert were not censured for the loss of their ship: the commodore was promoted to admiral and later became ambassador to Spain, while Humbert led the next and equally unsuccessful attempt to invade Ireland, surrendering at the Battle of Ballinamuck in 1798.
In Britain, the action was lauded at the time and since: First Lord of the Admiralty Lord Spencer described the operation as "an exploit which has not I believe ever before graced our naval annals". Historian James Henderson says of the action: "It was a feat of arms and seamanship such as had never been done before, and never was done again," and Richard Woodman calls it "a dazzling display of seamanship by all concerned in the alternating darkness and moonlight of a boisterous night". Five decades later the battle was among the actions recognised by the Naval General Service Medal, with clasps "Indefatigable 13 Jany. 1797" and "Amazon 13 Jany. 1797", awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847.
^ a b Pakenham, p. 24.
^ a b c d Henderson, p. 21.
^ a b Woodman, p. 84.
^ a b Henderson, p. 22.
^ a b Parkinson, p. 177.
^ a b Woodman, p. 86.
^ a b James, p. 11.
^ a b Henderson, p. 23.
^ a b c Woodman, p. 87.
^ a b Gardiner, p. 159.
^ a b c d James, p. 12.
^ a b Henderson, p. 24.
^ a b Woodman, p. 88.
^ a b Henderson, p. 25.
^ a b Woodman, p. 89.
^ a b "No. 13972". The London Gazette. 17 January 1797. p. 53.
^ a b James, p. 17.
^ a b c James, p. 18.
^ a b Henderson, p. 29.
^ Pipon in Tracy, p. 169.
^ a b c James, p. 19.
^ a b Pipon in Tracy, p. 170.
^ Jakez Cornou et Bruno Jonin, L'odyssée du vaisseau "Droits de l'homme" : L'expédition d'Irlande de 1796, éditions Dufa, 1 January 1988, p. 216.
^ a b James, p. 15.
^ "No. 14089". The London Gazette. 6 February 1798. p. 120.
^ "No. 20939". The London Gazette. 26 January 1849. pp. 236–245.
Clowes, William Laird (1997) . The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to 1900, Volume IV. Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-013-2.
Gardiner, Robert, ed. (2001) . Fleet Battle and Blockade. Caxton Editions. ISBN 1-84067-363-X.
Henderson CBE, James (1994) . The Frigates. Leo Cooper. ISBN 0-85052-432-6.
James, William (2002) . The Naval History of Great Britain, Volume 2, 1797–1799. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-906-9.
Pakenham, Thomas (2000) . The Year of Liberty: The Story of the Great Irish Rebellion of 1798 (revised ed.). London: Abacus. ISBN 978-0-349-11252-7.
Parkinson, C. Northcote (1934). Edward Pellew Viscount Exmouth. London: Methuen & Co.
Regan, Geoffrey (2001). Naval Blunders. Andre Deutsch. ISBN 0-233-99978-7.
Pipon, Elias, Lieutenant, 63rd Regiment (1998). "Narrative of the dreadful Shipwreck of Les Droits de L'Homme, a French ship, of 74 guns, driven on shore on the 14th February 1797, after a severe Action with the Indefatigable and Amazon Frigates, under the Command of Sir Edward Pellew and Captain Reynolds". In Tracy, Nicholas. The Naval Chronicle, Volume 1, 1793–1798. Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-091-4.
|
0.579487 |
The term social justice first came into use in the late 1800s. In a general sense, it refers to the idea that every person, regardless of who they are, should be treated equally by society and given equal opportunity in regards to wealth, activity, and human rights. Over time the concept has transformed and acted as a launching pad for various political and civil rights movements. At times it has been the back drop to groups seeking racial equality under a legal system, and other times it has influenced economic structures such as socialism and communism advocating the redistribution of wealth. Currently, it is the slogan for the social justice warriors with a focus on identity politics. There are many different examples of social justice, so where does the Bible stand?
The Bible has a lot to say about justice and how it impacts society. We know that God is just (Psalm 11:7; 33:5). He has the ultimate authority to judge what is right and wrong and will be the one to carry out judgment on the world (Ecclesiastes 3:17; Hebrews 10:30). He is displeased with wrongdoing and takes action to make things right.
We also know that God sees humans as being of equal worth. God created all humans in His image (Genesis 1:27). Every human has sinned and is equally separated from God apart from Christ (Romans 3:23; 6:23). God offers salvation to all; under the blood of Christ human divisions are irrelevant and believers become one family in Him (Galatians 3:27–29).
Throughout the Bible God chose people not based on their race, gender, or status, but rather because of their faith in Him. Jesus also reached out to people from every walk of life. God desires for everyone to have access to eternal life through Jesus (Galatians 3:28). This is why He made it clear that salvation was not only for the Jews, but the Gentiles also (Romans 2:6–11; Ephesians 2:11–22). Jesus said the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:34–40); James refers to this as the "royal law" (James 2:8). God commanded the Israelites to care for the less fortunate in their society (Deuteronomy 24:17; Micah 6:8). Likewise, believers in Jesus are to care for the poor (Matthew 25:40; James 1:27).
While the Bible supports the idea that all humans are of equal value and that we should care for the needy in our society, it does not support the overall message of social justice. Most forms of social justice advocate the role of the government in enforcing equal opportunity, and equal outcome, through redistribution of wealth and power. The law dictates how people should treat one another and how people should use their wealth purportedly so as to reach economic egalitarianism. There are several problems with this.
To create economic equality, governments tend to take from the rich to give to the poor. There is an underlying belief that the rich have gained their wealth dishonestly. While some wealthy people have amassed money by taking advantage of others, that is not always the case. The Bible speaks against the love of money, but there is nothing inherently evil in wealth. In fact, the Bible gives advice on how to manage money wisely, which can result in increasing wealth. But the Bible is clear that all wealth is ultimately God's. We are to be responsible stewards of the resources with which He has entrusted us. A large part of that stewardship is using finances for godly purposes. However, this is not the same as the government taking money from one to give it to another. Rather, it is an individual submitting his finances to God and using his wealth for godly purposes.
From a practical point of view, redistribution of wealth results in an unsustainable economy. On a smaller scale, we see this in social welfare programs. Welfare can certainly be helpful for some. Unfortunately, it can also make people dependent so that they do not learn how to take care of themselves and move forward. Consider that on a large scale there would be no motivation to work to gain wealth or even to meet basic needs. If the government ensures that everyone will have economic equality, why put in any personal effort? When everyone is dependent on the government, there is a lack of forward progress. Anytime socialism or communism has been attempted on a national scale, it has failed to resolve class distinction. All it does is create a working class / political class distinction instead of a nobility / common man distinction.
The Bible directs its instructions on caring for the poor mostly to individuals. People should help others, but it should be their choice how they want to help. Rather than forced taxation to manufacture equality, helping others should be motivated by love for God and love for others. True justice in society is not relegated to government control, but based on individuals responding to God's design for human relationships.
The biggest issue with the concept of social justice is that the government fueled by the political action of the people will save society. People are deceived if they believe this. Only God can save us. Many social justice warriors say that they deserve these opportunities, and results, and society owes them. This is contrary to the gospel which teaches that we deserve death, but instead because of God's mercy are given the opportunity of eternal life through Jesus Christ. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23). Jesus did not come with a political agenda to bring equality to people in this world. Instead He came to save us from our sins.
|
0.999417 |
For the entirety of this review, it is important to note that I saw this movie twice in theaters. The first was because my friend and I wanted to check it out like any other film. Based on that first viewing, I would not have volunteered to see it again. However, I had promised to take a different friend to the movies, and this was the film that they chose. It was their treat, so I agreed to see it again. Interestingly enough, I liked it more the second time I saw it, and I'll explain why in a moment. Despite liking it more the second time around, I don't think I would spend more money to see it in theaters again for a third time.
The Greatest Showman, for those who are not completely sure of what the movie is about, is inspired by the life of P.T. Barnum, the guy that created the first circus. Hugh Jackman plays this role and is accompanied in the film by Zac Efron, Zendaya, and Michelle Williams. Young Barnum has nothing but through hard work earns enough to marry his childhood sweetheart and live in New York City. When he loses his job, he begins to use his imagination to think of a new attraction in the city that he can call his own. The movie progresses throughout his circus career and stresses the importance of family and acceptance. The movie, as is said within the movie, really is a "celebration of humanity".
Sounds fantastic right? It very nearly was; however, the first time I saw it there was so much going on and there were multiple plots that I couldn't follow them all without wondering about where the film was going to go. About halfway through the movie, there had already been a successful rising tension, climax, and resolution plot line and I was so confused about where the movie was going to go. It was extremely distracting! And then when the second one started, it was fuzzy as to what the problem was that needed to get solved. It wasn't until the climax of that plot that it became known what was happening that needed resolution. The second time around though, I knew what was going to happen so I was able to enjoy everything else more than. So on that note, I would say it was not strong writing and storytelling.
A part of this movie that I really did enjoy were the songs. The opening scene itself is bada** as heck and got me really excited for the show. From start to finish, there is an air of entertainment to all of the music that really drives home the movie. I think my favorite song of the entire thing though it "The Other Side", which is sung by Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron. It was just such great buildup within the lyrics and composition, and then with the choreography that they used it made for a really enjoyable scene in the movie. Lastly, the colors, settings, and costumes were SO amazing. I don't think they could have hit the nail on the head better with the whole entertaining-circus-Barnum thing. The colors were bold and bright and unapologetic. And then there is the contrast with the high society of New York that wore very formal attire with dulled colors or pale colors.
This movie is worth going to see in theaters, even if only once. It is also a great family movie, so if there are little kids and you need to see something that everyone can watch, this will work nicely. For me though, the plot was too disorganized and jagged to really make it spectacular. The Greatest Showman is up for three Golden Globes tonight (as of this posting): Best Motion Picture- Musical or Comedy, Hugh Jackman for Best Performance by an Actor in a Musical or Comedy, and "This is Me" for Best Original Song- Motion Picture.
Best of luck to all the nominees for the Golden Globes tonight and thanks for reading!
|
0.998552 |
According to the Human Development Report 2007, launched by the United Nation Development Program, the Human Development Index (HDI) for Indonesia is 0.728, giving the country a ranking of 107th out of 177 countries, and 7th among the Southeast Asian countries.
The most significant reason for this situation is the drawbacks caused by sustainable development in Indonesia. Some people strongly believe that raising the challenge of sustainable development can help the Indonesian policy debate go forward in a better direction.
At the heart of the problem is how to deal with promoting the sustainable development of Indonesia. One of the best approaches can be viewed from the perspective of human rights protection for the people.Basically, sustainable development encompasses three pillars based on environmental, economic, and social values that are interdependent and mutually reinforce human rights. Between sustainable development and human rights there is an inseparable relationship and a respect for human rights that has been recognized as a prerequisite for development.For instance, the ability to participate in sustainable development is hindered when fundamental human rights are threatened by a lack of food, health, education, shelter, freedom of expression and the right to political participation. In other words, without respect for human rights, the ability of people to move toward a sustainable future will be hindered.Furthermore, development is unsustainable where the rules of law and equity do not exist; where ethnic, religious or sexual discrimination is rampant; where there are restrictions on free speech, free association, and on the media; or where large numbers of people live in abject and degrading poverty.Human rights, based on respect for the dignity and worth of all human beings, are usually rooted in the country’s constitutional and legal framework.The legal system of Indonesia is based on the idea of the supremacy of the Constitution, whereby the Constitution is given the highest authority. Implementing the essential rights and freedoms for human dignity, as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, creates a common standard of achievement for all people and all nations.The Constitution of Indonesia has clearly provided similar provisions under Chapter XA on the fundamental rights of citizens. The protection of human rights, guaranteed by the 1945 Constitution, therefore becomes imperative as a prerequisite for development. According to the Legal Aid Institution’s (Jakarta) annual report, in 2007 it received 1,140 complaints on human rights violations with the number of victims roughly at 20,837.Then the question arises, what mechanism can protect human rights as constitutional rights of citizens? According to Danie Bran, the best way to deal with human rights protection is to challenge the state and constitutional issues throughout the courts.In recent history, the concept of a constitutional adjudication has become a consistent feature of democratic governance, particularly in Europe. At present, however, this no longer applies only to Europe. After the amendment of the 1945 Constitution, Indonesia established a Constitutional Court in response to the demand for a strengthening of checks and balances in the system of state administration.
Its responsibilities are stated in Article 24C of the 1945 Constitution, namely: reviewing laws against the Constitution, determining disputes over the authorities of state institutions whose power is given by the Constitution, deciding on the dissolution of political parties, deciding on disputes on the results of a general election, and an obligation to decide in cases regarding the impeachment of the president and/or the vice President.
In the context of human rights protection, the power of constitutional adjudication by reviewing laws against the Constitution, known as a “Constitutional Review”, is the core of the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court.
As of late 2007, barely three years after its establishment, the Constitutional Court had decided on 33 out of 133 cases of constitutional review, with the verdict that the laws reviewed were unconstitutional. Most of these cases violated the human rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
Nonetheless, the constitutional review system is confined to the review of laws. Consequently, all government actions and government regulations believed to violate the provisions on human rights contained in the Constitution cannot be reviewed comprehensively either by the Constitutional Court or the Supreme Court.
In order to strengthen sustainable development in Indonesia by promoting human rights protection, the constitutional review system should be reformed. Using the comparative studies analysis, however, we can learn and find possibilities to adopt features from constitutional review systems in Germany and Korea, since their systems are comparable with Indonesia’s.
First, the constitutional review system should be allowed to review the constitutionality of all type of legislation.
Second, constitutional complaints can be lodged by an individual toward their constitutional rights.
Using two additional systems of constitutional review already mentioned, we can promote the human rights protection of the people as the basic foundation of sustainable development in Indonesia.
* Pan Mohamad Faiz is a postgraduate student in comparative constitutional law at the University of Delhi. He can be reached at http://faizlawjournal.blogspot.com/.
Picture Note: The PPI-India Umbrella Dancers took a picture after performing in International Student Festival in New Delhi.
|
0.997542 |
Front engine riding mowers can do more than just cut the grass.
1 What Size Zero-Turn Mower Do I Need to Mow 2.2 Acres?
A small riding mower can cut your mowing time in half. With deck sizes typically ranging between 30 and 54 inches, and speeds up to 7 miles per hour, you can cover more ground faster than a walk-behind mower. The two main design options of riding mowers are front engine mounted and rear engine mounted. Each design has its advantages and disadvantages, depending on your type of lawn and your preferences.
Rear engine riding mowers usually have smaller deck sizes, ranging between 28 and 34 inches. These decks are ideal for lawns that are less than 1 acre. The smaller deck is also beneficial for more compact storage. Riding mowers with a front mounted engine are outfitted with larger deck sizes, ranging between 36 and 54 inches. The larger deck size allows you to cover more ground at once, drastically reducing mowing time. For properties over one acre, a front engine riding mower is the better choice.
Rear engine riding mowers are built with less powerful engines, between 11 and 15 horsepower, because they're lighter than front engine riding mowers. They don't need the extra torque required to power heavier front engine mowers. Front engine riding mowers have larger engines, between 18 and 26 horsepower, to handle the heavier decks and workload. They also require more powerful engines to haul tow-behind accessories like dump carts and spreaders, if necessary.
The improved maneuverability of a rear engine riding mower is a result of its pivoting frame that follows the contours of your lawn as you mow. The deck pivots with the front axle to ensure a smooth cut, even while turning. With a smaller deck size and 1:1 steering ratio, a rear engine rider also has a tighter turning radius to maneuver through harder to reach places. Front engine riding mowers require a wider turning radius due to their larger deck sizes and front axle steering system.
Riding mowers can perform more lawn chore tasks than cutting the grass. Tow-behind accessories can attach to your mower, including aerators, dethatchers, spreaders and carts. Front engine riding mowers have better power and traction to haul these accessories. Rear engine riding mowers are ideally used only to cut the grass, since their less powerful engines may struggle to pull heavy loads with tow-behind equipment.
Front engine riding mowers cost more than rear engine riders, mainly because of their larger components and more powerful engines. In 2013, the average cost of a rear engine rider is between $800 and $1,800. Front engine riding mowers can cost over $2000 or more, depending on size. For a homeowner with less an acre of land, a rear engine rider is the more economical choice. Landowners with larger lawns, over an acre, benefit from the larger front engine riding mowers to speed up their mowing time.
Anderson, Turner. "Front Engine Vs. Rear Engine in Small Riding Mowers." Home Guides | SF Gate, http://homeguides.sfgate.com/front-engine-vs-rear-engine-small-riding-mowers-82575.html. Accessed 19 April 2019.
Lawn Mower Engine Oil: Detergent or Non-Detergent?
What Can I Put in My Lawn Mower Engine to Keep It Running Smoothly?
|
0.900898 |
Are ticks just a harmless nuisance?
Tick bites can present a temporarily annoying experience in the summertime. However, the additional possibility of catching Lyme disease is one more reason to take action against these bugs. Lyme disease is caused by a spiral-shaped bacterium called Borrelia burgdorferi, which is spread by the bite of ticks of the genus Ixodes, commonly known as deer ticks or black-legged ticks.
These ticks are tiny – about the size of a pinhead when immature – and grow only slightly bigger as adults. They crawl onto a person's skin from grasses and shrubs in wooded areas. The tick digs its mouth into the skin and feeds for 2 or 3 days before dropping off.
Although not necessarily confined to these specific areas, most cases of Lyme disease are reported in the northeastern US (from Massachusetts to Maryland), the north-central states (especially Wisconsin and Minnesota), and the west coast (particularly northern California). The disease is on the rise in the US, with approximately 20,000 cases every year. It's also on the rise in Canada: for example, from 2002 to 2012, a total of 845 human cases of Lyme disease were reported in Ontario. The number of confirmed human cases jumped from 28 cases in 2002 to 162 cases in 2012. In 2013, 682 new confirmed cases of Lyme disease were reported in Canada, but the true number of cases is thought to have been higher.
A characteristic sign of Lyme disease is a skin rash that starts with a small red patch that gradually expands, often clearing in the centre to form a bull's-eye pattern. The person may develop flu-like symptoms including fatigue, headache, chills, fever, muscle and joint pain, and swollen lymph nodes. Less commonly, there have been reports of tingling or numbness in the hands and feet or facial paralysis.
If possible, stay away from tick-infested areas, especially in May, June, and July.
Wear closed shoes and long pants with the pant legs tucked into your socks or boots. As an extra precaution, put tape around the area where your pants and socks meet.
Wear a hat and a long-sleeved shirt for extra protection.
Spray your clothes and exposed skin with an insect repellent that contains 30% DEET (also effective at repelling mosquitos, which can carry malaria or West Nile virus), or treat clothes with the insect repellent permethrin, which kills ticks on contact. If using DEET, never spray it directly on your face or broken skin. And, for children aged 6 months to 2 years, do not apply DEET on the face or hands.
If you spend several days outdoors in areas that might contain ticks, inspect yourself daily once you're indoors. Check your skin carefully for ticks, and ask someone to check your scalp for ticks. If a tick has already latched on to you, don't panic. Even if the tick has bitten you, remember that not all ticks carry Lyme disease.
The best way to remove a tick is with a tick-removing device or a pair of fine-point tweezers. Grasp it where its mouthparts enter the skin or, if that is not easily visible, grab it by its head (as close to your skin as possible) with the suggested removal tools. Pull the tick straight out firmly and steadily. Do not twist, squash, or crush the tick when you are removing it. Be patient, as proper tick removal takes time. If you notice that even though you've removed the head, some of the tick's mouthparts still remain in your skin, don't worry; the bacteria that cause Lyme disease reside in the tick's gut or salivary glands.
Do not squeeze the tick's body, do not apply petroleum jelly or alcohol, and do not use a hot match, nail polish, or other products while the tick remains attached. These actions could transmit the Lyme-disease-causing bacteria to you.
Once you remove the tick, place it in a container (e.g., a small jar with a lid). You can use alcohol to kill and preserve it, or even just some wet paper towel, so you can take it to your doctor to check if it carried Lyme disease. Cleanse the affected area of your skin with an antiseptic (e.g., alcohol) or mild soap and water. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water. You should also have the tick bite examined by your doctor, especially if you develop a rash or flu-like symptoms.
For people who require treatment for a mild infection associated with Lyme disease, their doctor will usually prescribe an oral (by mouth) antibiotic for 14 to 21 days. These types of antibiotics include doxycycline, amoxicillin, or cefuroxime. The specific antibiotic used will depend on a person's medical history and medication allergies.
For people who require treatment for more severe infections associated with Lyme disease, their doctor will usually prescribe an intravenous (given through the vein) antibiotic (e.g., ceftriaxone, cefotaxime, penicillin) for 2 to 4 weeks. On occasion, treatment with an oral antibiotic may be prescribed following treatment with an intravenous antibiotic.
If the tick is identified and removed within 72 hours of the bite, and assuming that no skin rash has appeared, your doctor may consider prescribing a single oral dose of doxycycline. This treatment can help prevent the rash from developing.
If you have Lyme disease, your doctor will determine the most appropriate treatment for you.
Overall, when you are travelling abroad, especially to developing and tropical countries, it is a good idea to speak with your doctor or pharmacist about how to protect yourself from diseases. Aside from watching what you eat and drink and protecting yourself from tick bites, you also have to watch for many other diseases, such as malaria, hepatitis, influenza, and yellow fever. Many of these diseases can be prevented with immunizations, so speak to your doctor or visit a travel clinic to see if you are at risk and what immunizations you and your family would benefit from.
|
0.99999 |
Say you have to divide 5327 by 98. The first thing to do is write out the 98 times table.
This makes it easier to see what the quotient is. Then you divide 532 by 98. As you can see it divides 5 times with 42 remainder.
Then you carry down the 7 and divide 427 by 98. This time it divides 4 times with 35 remainder.
The quotient is 54 and the remainder is 35.
|
0.999991 |
Recommended reading:Is the gold bull market going to open soon?
gold: February gold has relative income, the main logic: 1) Under the continuation of global liquidity contraction, US stocks may maintain high volatility and benefit gold prices. 2) The downward pressure on the US economy is still limited, the actual interest rate is weak, and the impact on the value of gold allocation is neutral. 3) The downside of the US dollar index is limited, which is not conducive to a sharp rise in the price of gold. 4) At the transaction level, as of January 30, the SPDR gold ETF holdings reached 823.87 tons, an increase of 36.2 tons from the end of last month. The increase was higher than last month. It can be seen that investors' current investment preference for gold.
crude:Several potential factors supporting the rise in oil prices in February may come from the logic of supply contraction, including: 1) OPEC+ production cut-off rate data remains at a high level; Libya is expected to continue to decline due to the shutdown of the Sharara oil field. 2) The decrease in the number of US oil rigs has caused the growth of US crude oil production to slow down or stagnate. Considering the market's worries about the slowdown in global economic growth, the trend of rising oil prices also needs macroeconomic real data support.
copper: The macro economy is still facing huge downward pressure in February, and copper prices are under pressure. 1) The supply side is expected to remain stable, and the impact of disturbances such as strikes may be absent. 2) The demand side is affected by the macro economy. In February, the macro economy at home and abroad still faced huge downward pressure: the PMI index in Japan and the Eurozone fell sharply in January, while the official manufacturing PMI in China in January was 49.5, which was lower than the second consecutive month. 3) LME copper rebounded slightly in recent months and in the long-term, indicating that the market's confidence in future prices has increased, but whether it is sustainable remains to be further verified.
|
0.992242 |
A toolkit for the Nano cryptocurrency, allowing you to derive keys, generate seeds, hashes, signatures, proofs of work and blocks.
Translate with pluralization and variables in under 600b.
A CLI for the Nano cryptocurrency, allowing you to derive keys, generate seeds, hashes, signatures, proofs of work and blocks.
|
0.954786 |
Why do you want to book international flights with american airlines ?
American Airlines is one of the major airlines of the United States which offers its operation throughout the world covering 350 destinations. The airline has a fleet size of 951 and headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. Besides, American Airlines serves its customer over 50 countries around the world with a number of user-friendly services. Apart from this, the airline with an average of 140,000 passengers daily handles 51.1 million passengers annually.
Above all, the passengers are facilitated with the Advantage Program to give them an additional luxurious service.
|
0.689305 |
"Seven seconds after takeoff a row ensued in the cockpit: The captain started arguing with his crew as to which heading they had taken. The heated debate involved harsh language and insults."
The pilot is thought to have lost spatial orientation and control of the situation.
The Russian Defense Ministry has made public the results of an inquiry into the mysterious fatal accident involving its Tupolev Tu-154 jet airliner near Sochi in late 2016.
The flight bound to Syria crashed shortly after takeoff from Sochi Adler airport. All 92 on board were killed, including members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, the official choir of the Russian Armed Forces. The artists were to perform in Aleppo, which had just been liberated.
The ministry's board of inquiry concluded (in Russian) that the aircraft crashed because of the captain's "erroneous inputs."
The investigators have replicated the sequence of events down to each second of the tragedy.
The Tu-154 departed from Moscow in the early hours of Dec. 25 for Sochi (1,620 km to the south of Moscow) for a fuel before continuing its journey to Syria.
While the first leg played out without any problems, the second stage went wrong from the start.
Investigators say the captain had "difficulty establishing the aircraft's position" while still taxiing for takeoff. He could not understand which taxiway to use to get to the advised location on the runway, and was feeling nervous about it."
Seven seconds after takeoff a row ensued in the cockpit: The captain started arguing with his crew as to which heading they had taken. The heated debate involved harsh language and insults.
Investigators believe it was then that the captain lost control over the controls and distracted his crew from reading the flight parameters.
Then, as the aircraft was gaining altitude, the captain pushed the steering column, bringing the airplane's nose down and so slowing down the climb. After 53 seconds in the air, he called for the flaps to be retracted while still 157 meters above ground (the minimum flaps retraction altitude for this aircraft type is 500 meters).
All this happened while the captain's steering column was kept in the nose-down position. This resulted in the aircraft nose-diving from an altitude of 231 meters. The subsequent actions of the captain, who appeared to have totally lost control over the situation and spatial orientation, led to the airplane starting to lose altitude at three times the normal descent rate.
The investigators believe the flight was doomed from the 70th second on: It was banking 50 degrees and plummeting to the ground at an airspeed of 540 km/h.
The inquiry concluded that the critical situation had been caused by the captain's emotional and physical exhaustion, and also because he lacked experience operating in complicated scenarios.
For this reason, the investigators place part of the blame for the crash on the command of the 800th Air Base, to which the Tu-154 reported.
The inquiry believes the air base command breached over 20 directives in assigning the captain with poor CRM (crew resource management) skills to the fateful flights. This conclusion overturns a number of initial theories, including a technical malfunction and an excessive payload on board.
"The overload theory was abandoned several months ago, after specialists had found that the aircraft was carrying only 150 kg of freight (in addition to the passengers and crew)," Pavel Bulat, head of the International Laboratory of New Materials and Nanofilms for Microsensors, Microwave, and Power Electronics Component Base at ITMO University (Saint-Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics), told RBTH.
"Such a load simply cannot disrupt a Tu-154's center-of-gravity stability in any serious way. The inquiry merely confirmed the theory that the pilot lost spatial orientation."
The expert believes that command of the 800th Air Base is in fact partially responsible for what happened: "They approved the flight documentation, and so on. The problem is, the crew were still exhausted from the previous flight, and why they had to be sent on a night mission is anybody's guess."
|
0.993381 |
What are two major shortcomings of the Bohr model of the atom?
Bohr model was based on several assumptions, some of them were correct but some others were wrong.
The first wrong assumption made by Bohr is considering the electron orbiting around the nucleus in a circular orbit, however, we know now that this is not correct, because electrons exist in a cloud.
Bohr model is valid only for hydrogen since it has one electron only, however, when it was applied to other , the experimental data were different than the theoretical calculations.
Bohr model could me applied however, to Hydrogen-like ions where they have to loose all their electrons except one.
Q: Coordination number of cobalt in [Co(en)2Br2]cl2???
Q: Chlorous acid, ##HClO_2##, contains what percent hydrogen by mass?
Q: Why is molality used for colligative properties?
|
0.97144 |
Market is in Correction - How Long to Recover?
Being a tax geek, I've been evaluating how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 affects our 2018 tax situation. It appears that the new tax brackets, higher standard deduction and higher child tax credit will allow us to earn more without any federal tax liability, if we choose to use them to that advantage.
Here's how we might pay zero federal income tax in 2018.
First as background, I am married and have two children under 17, which qualifies us for the $2000/child tax credit.
Make $57,333.33 regular earnings or less. After subtracting the $24,000 standard deduction, $33,333.33 is our taxable income. At a 12% tax rate, the tax is $4000, which is wiped out by the $4000 child tax credit. Zero federal income taxes is the result.
Make $71,666.66 or less through a pass through entity, such as an LLC, partnership or S-corp. 20% of pass through income can be deducted, which equals $57,333.33. After subtracting the $24,000 standard deduction, $33,333.33 is our taxable income. At a 12% tax rate, the tax is $4000, which is wiped out by the $4000 child tax credit. Zero federal income taxes is our tax liability.
Make $24,000 regular earnings, 103,866.66 dividends and long term capital gains. After deducting the $24000, our taxable income is $103,866.66. The first $77,200 is taxed at a 0% tax rate. The remaining $26,666.67 capital gains is taxed at 15%, equal to $4000, which is offset by the $4000 child tax credit. Again, zero federal income taxes.
Make $57,333.33 regular earnings and up to $43866.67 dividends and long term capital gains.
After subtracting the $24,000 standard deduction, $33,333.33 is our regular taxable income. At a 12% tax rate, the tax is $4000, which is wiped out by the $4000 child tax credit. The remaining dividends and long term capital gains is below the $77,200 threshold for a 0% capital gains tax rate.
We won't be completely free of income taxes, since we live in a state with income taxes. But is still be nice to pay no federal income tax if we can qualify for one of the above scenarios.
Here is the full editorial in the New York Times.
As I recall, the markets recovered by the open on November 9, 2016. Since then, the stock market has reached record highs, advancing by 20+% in 2017.
Glad I didn't listen and react.
Fear Of Running Out (FORO) may be a financial challenge that we face should we reach our 90s. By then, we will be retired at least 41 years which is longer than we have worked. Unlike our parent and their siblings, neither of us have a pension on which we can depend. Unfortunately, by 90 we probably won't have the wherewithal to solve the problem of running out funds. So I am working on it right now.
Real Estate - We own part of a commercial real estate property. As disclosure, we are accidental landlords, since I inherited ownership from my parents. However, I have learned the benefits for being a landlord. The property is paid off and fully rented with multi-year leases. In addition, the partnership pays a management company to manage the property. Currently this yields about 25% of our annual expenses.
I like the idea of rental real estate. However, I have no interest in acquiring other properties, given the hands on involvement that is needed. So we are increasing our real estate exposure through the purchase of REITs. Hopefully, we can boost the yield to cover 33% of our annual expenses.
Dividend and Interest - At one time, I was planning to have dividends and interest cover 50% of our expenses. Based on where we are currently, I expect a 33% coverage of expenses is more likely. My plan to get closer to the target is to execute an NUA this year of my company stock, which pays a 3% dividend. We will purchase other dividend stock or CDs to cover the balance.
Annuity - We will depend on principal or Social Security to cover the remaining 33%. In order to do so, we will need to wait until I am 70 to qualify for maximum Social Security payments.
Bonus - Since we are invested in the stock market, there is a chance that we will get capital gains from our investments. However, we are not counting on this, and if it happens, we will consider it a bonus.
So that's our plan. Of course, there are no guarantees that it will work. As Dwight Eisenhower once said, "Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." And so we will proceed with our plan, until circumstances require us to adjust.
Today, the Dow and S&P crossed into correction territory of a greater than 10% drop from the high. Is this a great buy the dip opportunity or not? It depends on whether the correction becomes a bear market, a drop of 20% or more.
According to this CNBC article, since WWII, corrections last an average of 4 months and take 4 months to reach a new high. Bear markets last an average of 13 months and take 22 months to reach a new high. The average correction falls 13% and the average bear market falls 30%.
At this point, the market is 1 week into a correction. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
"It will fluctuate." - J.P. Morgan, when asked what the market will do.
Although many have forgotten what market fluctuations are like, the past four days have reminded us that volatility is normal. No market goes straight up forever.
Does the recent volatility mark the end of the bull market? At this point, I don't think so. The economy is doing pretty well and bear markets typically don't begin unless a recession is imminent. Could there be a correction of 10% or more? Yes, probably but not for certain. Could it last a while? I think a couple months will be likely since that will cause sufficient investing pain.
For me, this is a good time to add funds back into the market. Stocks and ETFs I like are going on sale, and likely to get cheaper. So I am buying. Of course, it make take several months or years to recover, but I won't need the principal for at least a decade. In addition, I am buying stocks that have good dividends that are growing, to create a sustainable paycheck for the future.
There is a small chance that I am wrong... that this is the beginning of a major crash/collapse from which there is no recovery. But history has shown that has never been the case and the market has always gone to new highs. So I'm sticking with the event that has a 99.99999% probability of happening.
|
0.999996 |
What will you learn in an HVAC and refrigeration technology degree program? Read about degree requirements, the pros and cons of associate's and bachelor's degrees and potential careers.
HVAC stands for heating, ventilation and air conditioning. Associate's and bachelor's degrees in HVAC technology should teach you how to design, install and repair these systems. Upon graduating, you'll be eligible to pursue certification or employment as an HVAC and refrigeration technician, electrical controls technician or HVAC sales representative. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in these positions is expected to increase 34% over the 2010-2020 decade, which is much faster than average.
Many states require HVAC and refrigeration technicians to be licensed. This process differs between states but will often require you to complete an educational program or apprenticeship as well as pass a competency exam. In addition to the state requirements, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires all individuals working with refrigerants to be certified in the proper handling of these substances. This certification process also involves passing a written exam.
These programs are designed to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of heating and cooling systems. You'll study topics such as the role and function of blowers, air purifiers and humidifiers, the construction and purpose of exhaust components such as chimneys and flues, and the methodology behind commercial refrigeration units. You'll also study the federal regulations that govern the maintenance and use of these systems. Some programs feature an internship or co-op work study program, in which you'll get valuable professional experience and course credit.
While some programs may offer individual classes online, completely online HVAC and refrigeration programs are difficult to find. This is mostly because of the role of hands-on training that is necessarily part of these programs. Hands-on training also features as a requirement in the licensing requirements for many states.
You may want to consider pursuing a subspecialty along with your HVAC and refrigeration degree. Some programs offer minor concentrations in areas such as residential or commercial installation or HVAC system manufacturing. You might also want to consider additional coursework in a computer-related field, such as computer engineering. The more complex these climate-control systems become, the more familiarity with computer technology can provide a leg up in the job market.
These programs are designed to prepare you for managerial or supervisory roles in the HVAC and refrigeration industry. They are generally offered in two formats. Some programs require you to already have an associate's degree in HVAC. The other type of program is the traditional 4-year bachelor's degree. In these programs, you'll spend the first two years covering roughly the same ground as the associate's degree. In the third and fourth year, you'll study engineering topics and leadership techniques. You'll learn not only how to repair these systems but also how to design them from the ground up. Upon graduating, you'll be eligible to pursue positions such as stationary engineer, control systems manager, project manager or design superintendent.
HVAC and refrigeration degree programs that are offered completely online are extremely rare. A portion of the coursework for this degree is conducted in lab settings. It is difficult to reproduce this in a distance-learning format. You may find programs that offer some of the required courses online, particularly the liberal arts or humanities electives.
There are several types of voluntary certification you can pursue after you graduate. Trade organizations such as the Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute and the Refrigeration Service Engineers Society offer several levels of certification. The certification process generally consists of one or more competency exams. These certifications can be helpful in that they signal to a potential employer that you have the specific skills necessary for the job.
|
0.927726 |
A Federal Army for Myanmar/Burma?
Many observers of Myanmar's political transition agree that the success of President Thein Sein's democratic reforms and national reconciliation initiatives hinges on his quasi-civilian government's ability and willingness to accommodate the political demands and desires of various ethnic groups.
Chief among those demands are greater political, economic and cultural autonomy in the form of federalism and control over the exploitation of natural resources in their geographic regions. But as political maneuvers and negotiations for a nationwide ceasefire agreement continue, armed ethnic groups led by the umbrella United Nationalities Federal Council have raised another condition for a final deal: the formation of a federal army combining the Myanmar Armed Forces, or Tatmadaw, with ethnic armies.
Military commander-in-chief General Min Aung Hlaing predictably rejected the idea out of hand. The top brass leader instead authorized the release and publication of a past secret memo where he squarely blamed ethnic groups for the country's political woes and made uncompromising militaristic remarks that "the army is afraid of no one".
Ethnic armed group leaders expressed their dismay and warned the remarks could undermine reconciliation and further negotiations. While the demand for a federal army at this stage of negotiations may be impractical, the commander-in-chief's strong objection has signaled a more hard-line position on the government's side.
In both theory and practice, many political analysts agree that the creation of a federal army in Myanmar is for now unrealistic. Across the world, no sovereign democratic country has more than one national army. Even in federal countries like Canada, India and the United States there is no federal army, although some have federal police forces.
There are various reasons why Myanmar's ethnic armed groups are demanding the formation of a federal army, many of them deeply rooted in political, psychological, and security concerns. During the six decades of the country's debilitating civil wars, various ethnic groups formed their own security forces or liberation armies to protect their people and territories from attacks and destruction by government troops.
Militarily and psychologically, ethnic rebel armies serve as the pride and protectors of their people. Although Myanmar's ethnic armies do not always live up to expectation, they are important institutions and symbols of resistance that many ethnic minority civilians often look to for moral support, guidance and protection from the ethnic Burman-led state.
Unlike their political leaders, ethnic armies command near universal respect from their people because of their sacrifice and perceived heroic roles in armed struggle. In the six decades of conflicts, tens of thousands of ethnic "revolutionary" soldiers have lost their lives and died in the name of freedom and autonomy for their people, just as the Tatmadaw has claimed to be the guardian and protector of the entire country.
In Myanmar's political history, General Aung San and his colleagues in the so-called "Thirty Comrades" are highly revered and regarded by the majority Burmans as national heroes and fathers of independence from colonial rule. But most ethnic people view them primarily as Burman nationalists who had little genuine interest in the affairs and well-being of ethnic minority groups.
Ask any ethnic Kachin, Karen, Shan, Mon or other ethnic person to name a national hero or days of national importance, very few would mention such prominent names as Aung San, the Thirty Comrades or days important to many Burmans such as Independence Day, Tatmadaw Day or Martyr Day . Instead, each ethnic group celebrates their own revolutionary heroes, political leaders and holidays that are mostly unknown to the majority of Burmans.
In other words, Myanmar's ethnic minority groups see themselves as distinct sovereign entities with their own sovereign armies. Therefore, the idea of dismantling or subordinating them to the Tatmadaw is unthinkable and politically unacceptable to many of them. Any central government attempt to take away such symbols of pride, power and prestige at the negotiation table or through force will continue to be strongly resisted.
Deep-seated fear, loathing, and mistrust of the Tatmadaw means most ethnic armed groups will remain reluctant to put down their arms or place their armies under government control. For over half a century, government soldiers have systemically perpetuated gross human-rights abuses against ethnic people through arbitrary killings and wholesale destruction of their communities. Their actions have forced tens of thousands to flee their lands and become either internally displaced or stateless refugees in neighboring countries.
Any move in the name of a national ceasefire to put their security completely in the hands of the Tatmadaw is unimaginable to most ethnic communities. Although Thein Sein's government has currently declared ceasefires with the majority of ethnic armies, tens of thousands of government troops still occupy ethnic territories and continue to commit human-rights abuses in ethnic communities.
Discrimination and racism against ethnic minorities has long been state policy and is a major issue discouraging ethnic armed groups from integrating their armies with the Tatmadaw, as the government attempted in 2010 through the creation of so-called Border Guard Forces.
Prior to achieving independence many people of ethnic background held important and powerful positions in both the government and military. After independence, the country's three most powerful posts in the military were held by ethnic Karen. But ever since General Ne Win took power in 1962, very few people of ethnic background in the Tatmadaw have been promoted beyond the rank of colonel.
In today's 500,000-strong Myanmar Army, for instance, no ethnic minorities hold a position equivalent to the rank of a brigadier general. The Defense Service Academy - the country's most prestigious and powerful officer training school - is virtually off-limits to ethnic minority candidates. The majority of ethnic people who join the Tatmadaw today are largely relegated to the role of foot soldiers and junior officers.
Ethnic group demands for a federal army may be viewed as unrealistic, but it does not mean that both sides cannot work towards a compromise. One possible way ahead would be for the government to integrate all ethnic armies into the Tatmadaw while allowing military leaders of individual ethnic groups to serve as commanders of their respective brigades or battalions.
This arrangement would enable ethnic armies to be part of the national army but also allow them to maintain their distinct identity and feel secure within their own ethnic-based units. It's not an unprecedented formation: during colonial period and immediately following independence, the national armed forces were still organized largely along ethnic lines. For example, there were the Burma Riffles, Karen Riffles, Chin Riffles, and Kachin Riffles, all of which were part of the Union Armed Forces but led by their respective ethnic commanders.
These ethnic armies were effective and instrumental in the U Nu government's war with communist insurgents. General Smith Don, an ethnic Karen and the first post-independence army chief, was loyal to the Union government until he was forced to resign due to an escalating armed conflict between Karen insurgents and the central government. Had other ethnic armies such as the Kachin Riffles or Chin Riffles revolted and abandoned U Nu's government, the country could have collapsed or been taken over by communist forces.
Now, if any national ceasefire is too hold, the government will need to quickly demilitarize ethnic regions and drastically reduce the number of troops now stationed in border areas. Most ethnic communities still view government foot soldiers in their regions as foreign invaders with the intention of taking their lands and exploiting their resources. As long as large numbers of government troops are kept in ethnic areas, fear and insecurity will undermine prospects for national reconciliation via ceasefire.
As part of a confidence building process to restore trust between the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed groups, the government could begin to address issues of inequality and policies that discriminate against ethnic minorities. Measures could be enacted to ensure promotions and rewards in the military are based on merit and service instead of family connections and race. While ethnic groups will continue to advocate for a federal army in exchange for a peace deal, a more inclusive Tatmadaw would be a step forward towards forging national unity.
Saw Greh Moo is an analyst and program officer at the Salween Institute. He may be reached at [email protected]. This Article first appeared in the March 25, 2014 edition of Asia Times' Speaking Freely.
|
0.999955 |
CECILIA DAVIS vs. VERMONT TRANSIT COMPANY (and a companion case [Note p248-1]).
TWO ACTIONS OF TORT. Writs in the Superior Court dated March 15, 1951.
The actions were tried before Hurley, J.
William H. Taylor, for the plaintiff.
John D. Ross, John D. Ross, Jr., & George W. Leary, for the defendants.
COUNIHAN, J. These are actions of tort which were tried together before a jury. The plaintiff seeks to recover damages for personal injuries sustained while riding in a bus owned and operated by an agent of the defendants or one of them. At the close of the evidence on motion the judge directed the jury to return a verdict for New England Greyhound Lines, Incorporated, hereinafter called New England. He submitted the action against Vermont Transit Company, hereinafter called Vermont, to the jury who returned a verdict for the defendant.
The actions come here upon a consolidated bill of exceptions of the plaintiff, alleging error in the direction of a verdict for New England and in the denial of a request for instruction in the action against Vermont. There was no error.
The actions were pre-tried together and the following order was entered: "It is agreed the bus in which the plaintiff, Cecilia Davis, was riding was owned by the Vermont Transit Co. and operated by its agent, and she brings suit against the defendants, New England Greyhound Lines, Inc., and Vermont Transit Co." "It is agreed that the accident happened on private property, the Pittsfield bus terminal." "It is agreed there is no question as to license or registration."
The evidence most favorable to the plaintiff in the action against New England may be summarized as follows: The plaintiff on March 24, 1950, purchased a bus ticket of Vermont at Bennington, Vermont, for transportation from Bennington to Waterbury, Connecticut. She boarded a bus and sat in an aisle seat on the right side of the bus about in the center of it. She noticed a suitcase lying lengthwise on the overhead luggage rack which extended about six inches over the edge of the rack. As the bus made a turn to go into the Pittsfield bus terminal it went over a curb and tipped the right side of the bus up about one and a half feet off the ground. The tipping was a "sudden jolt." "The next thing she knew was that the suitcase which she described had fallen on her head and she looked down and observed it on her lap." She sustained injury. She got off the bus and when she returned to it she noticed that the driver had on a Greyhound uniform. She continued on the bus to Torrington, Connecticut, where she transferred to another bus which took her to Waterbury. There was other evidence in both actions which contradicted this evidence.
During the trial the plaintiff introduced two regulations of the interstate commerce commission, under which she alleged the defendants operated. They read as follows: "2.094 Loading Of Busses. -- All baggage, freight, or express carried in any bus shall be so loaded as not to interfere with the free and ready entering or leaving such bus, and shall be so stowed as to prevent falling onto or against any passenger." "2.16 Vehicle Must Be In Proper Position For Making Turns. -- . . . In all cases turns shall be made with due caution, having due regard to the length of the motor vehicle and any load thereon, the width of the roadway, and other traffic." The judge instructed the jury as to the effect of regulation numbered 2.094 but refused to charge expressly as to regulation numbered 2.16.
plaintiff's brief we do not pass upon it. Rule 13 of the Rules for the Regulation of Practice before the Full Court (1952), 328 Mass. 698 .
1. We first consider the exception of the plaintiff to the direction of a verdict for New England. The judge was correct. His action was governed by the terms of the pre-trial order above referred to. "This was a `stipulation' under Rule 57A of the Superior Court (adopted April 9, 1938), [Note p251-1] which bound the parties." Abbott v. Link-Belt Co. 324 Mass. 673, 677. The rule of the Superior Court referred to provides that the pre-trial judge "shall make an appropriate order which will control the subsequent conduct of the case unless modified at the trial to prevent manifest injustice." It has also been said that the pre-trial report, "which neither party so far as appears sought to amend, governed the trial of the action." Doherty v. Shea, 320 Mass. 173, 174-175.
The pre-trial report is in the record and, although it does not appear that it was offered in evidence or directly referred to at the trial, there is nothing in the record to show that the action was not tried in accordance with the pre-trial report. "It must be taken that the case was tried in accordance therewith (Eckstein v. Scoffi, 299 Mass. 573, 576), and that the matters therein conceded or admitted were established as true." Silver v. Cushner, 300 Mass. 583, 585.
In the pre-trial report in the cases at bar, it was agreed that "the bus in which the plaintiff . . . was riding was owned by the Vermont Transit Co. and operated by its agent . . .." This concession was enough to relieve New England from any liability for this accident. Moreover there was no evidence to controvert the report on this aspect of the action against New England.
only means that the operator of the bus must make all turns without negligence. The negligence of the operator from whatever cause was the only real issue before the jury. The judge's charge is not reported. It must be assumed, however, that he instructed the jury as to the issues involved and especially that he pointed out that unless negligence of the defendant (Vermont) caused the plaintiff's injury there could be no recovery. Goltz v. Besarick, 313 Mass. 14, 16.
[Note p248-1] The companion case is by the same plaintiff against New England Greyhound Lines, Incorporated.
[Note p251-1] Now Rule 58 of the Superior Court (1954).
|
0.953675 |
Space warfare is combat that takes place in outer space, i.e. outside the atmosphere. Space warfare therefore includes ground-to-space warfare, such as attacking satellites from the Earth, as well as space-to-space warfare, such as satellites attacking satellites.
It does not include the use of satellites for espionage, surveillance, or military communications, however use of those activities might be. It does not technically include space-to-ground warfare, where orbital objects attack ground, sea or air targets directly, but the public and media frequently use the term to include any conflict which includes space as a theater of operations, regardless of the intended target. For example, a rapid delivery system in which troops are deployed from orbit might be described as "space warfare," even though the military uses the term as described above.
A film was produced by the U.S. Military in the early 1960s called Space and National Security which depicted space warfare. From 1985 to 2002 there was a United States Space Command, which in 2002 merged with the United States Strategic Command. There is a Russian Space Force, which was established on August 10, 1992, and which became an independent section of the Russian military on June 1, 2001.
In 2007 the People's Republic of China used a missile system to destroy one of its obsolete satellites (see 2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test), and in 2008 the United States similarly destroyed its malfunctioning satellite USA 193. To date, there have been no human casualties resulting from conflict in space, nor has any ground target been successfully neutralized from orbit.
The Peoples Republic of China successfully tested a ballistic missile-launched anti-satellite weapon on January 11, 2007. This resulted in harsh criticism from the United States of America, Britain, and Japan. See 2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test.
Japan fields the U.S.-made SM-3 missile, and there have been plans to base the land-based version in Colombia, Poland, Romania and Vietnam.
In the late 1970s and through the 1980s the Soviet Union and the United States theorized, designed and in some cases even tested an astonishing variety of bizarre and exotic weaponry designed for warfare in outer space. Space warfare was seen primarily as an extension of nuclear warfare, and so many theoretical systems were based around the destruction or defense of ground and sea-based missiles. Space-based missiles were not a target due to the Outer Space Treaty, which banned the use, testing or storage of nuclear weapons outside the Earth's atmosphere.
Systems proposed ranged from measures as simple as ground and space-based anti-missiles to railguns, space based lasers, orbital mines and other such futuristic weaponry. Deployment of these systems was seriously considered in the mid-1980s under the banner of the Strategic Defense Initiative (popularly known as Star Wars). If the Cold War had continued, then many of these systems could have seen deployment: the United States got as far as developing working railguns, and a laser that could destroy missiles at range, though the power requirements of both were phenomenal, and the ranges and firing cycles utterly impractical.
Such a system would involve a 'spotter' satellite, which would identify targets from orbit with high-power sensors, and a nearby 'magazine' satellite to de-orbit a long, needle-like tungsten dart onto it with a small rocket motor or just dropping a very big rock from orbit (such as an asteroid). This would be more useful against a larger but less hardened target (such as a city).Though a common device in science fiction, there is no publicly available evidence that any such systems have actually been deployed by any nation.
Three factors conspire to make engaging targets in space very difficult. First, the vast distances involved mean that an error of even a fraction of a degree in the firing solution could result in a miss by thousands of kilometers. Second, space travel involves tremendous speeds by terrestrial standards—a geostationary satellite moves at a speed of 3.07 km/s whereas objects in low earth orbit can move at up to 8 km/s. Third, though distances are large, targets remain relatively small. The International Space Station, currently the largest artificial object in Earth orbit, measures slightly over 100m at its largest span. Other satellites can be orders of magnitude smaller, e.g. Quickbird measures a mere 3.04m. External ballistics for stationary terrestrial targets is enormously complicated—some of the earliest analog computers were used to calculate firing solutions for naval artillery, as the problems were already beyond manual solutions in any reasonable time—and the issues in targeting objects in space make a difficult problem even harder. Additionally, though not a problem for orbital kinetic weapons, any directed energy weapon would require large amounts of electricity. So far the most practical batteries are lithium batteries, and the most practical method of generating electricity in space is through photovoltaic modules, which are currently only 5-18% efficient, and fuel cells, which have limited fuel. Current technology might not be practical for powering effective lasers, particle beams, and railguns in space.
Regardless of one's reasons for going to war, at present those reasons are not likely to suggest major targets located in space. Most of the main theories[Clarification needed] which attempt to explain human proclivity for warfare—psychological, sociological, demographic, economic, political, or otherwise—would not indicate space as a likely location of conflict until a significant population is engaged in large-scale activity there. Until then, space warfare is likely to take a supporting role to conventional, terrestrial warfare.
Additionally, there are few things that could be accomplished by space warfare that any nation wealthy enough to finance them cannot accomplish far more cheaply through conventional means. Raising any significant mass beyond Earth's gravity will always require a large amount of energy, and the cost increases with mass. For example, though kinetic bombardment potentially offers the ability to strike any target anywhere in the world within minutes, both the United States and Russia, possibly the only nations with the resources and facilities necessary to implement such a system, have sufficiently long-range supersonic bombers that the same target could already be deployed in a matter of hours at a mere fraction of the cost.
Relatedly, though no infrastructure or economic interests exist at the moment to warrant the occupation of terrain on other terrestrial bodies within the Solar system, or to occupy orbital trajectories in outer space, some futurists have predicted that should such infrastructure be deployed, space-faring nations may go to war for control of extra-planetary resources. Such a conflict could easily involve warfare both within and outside the Earth's atmosphere. One suggested point of conflict is the helium-3 resources in the south polar region of the Moon. Russia has already stated its intention of developing this resource, and the Chinese lunar mission is scheduled to land in that area in 2024. However, the high abundance of this isotope would make war quite unlikely.
Space-based vehicular combat is portrayed in many movies and video games, most notably Star Wars, the Halo Series, Descent, Gundam, Macross, Babylon 5, and Star Trek. Games such as the Homeworld series provide interesting concepts for space warfare, such as the use of plasma-based projectors that receive their energy from a ships propulsion system, and automated unmanned space combat vehicles. Other series, such as Gundam, prominently feature vehicular combat in and among many near future concepts, such as O'Neill cylinders.
The distinct fictional settings in which space warfare occurs are far too numerous to list, but popular examples include Star Trek (in all of its various incarnations), Warhammer 40,000, Star Wars, Babylon 5, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Battlestar Galactica, Mass Effect, Stargate, Freespace, the Halo Series and many comic book franchises. Video games have frequently touched the subject, with the Wing Commander franchise serving as a prototypical example. Note that very few games attempt to simulate an environment with realistic distances and speeds, though Independence War and Frontier: Elite II both do, as does the board game Attack Vector: Tactical.
↑ "Satellite Shoot Down: How It Will Work". Space.com. February 19, 2008. http://www.space.com/news/080219-satellite-shootdown.html. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
↑ "Navy Hits Satellite With Heat-Seeking Missile". Space.com. February 21, 2008. http://www.space.com/news/080220-satellite-hit.html. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
↑ "DoD Succeeds In Intercepting Non-Functioning Satellite (Release No. 0139-08)". U.S. Department of Defense. February 20, 2008. http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=11704. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
↑ "Navy Succeeds In Intercepting Non-Functioning Satellite (Release NNS080220-19)". U.S. Navy. February 20, 2008. http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=35114. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
|
0.989153 |
Public officials should attend events at mosques, as they do churches and synagogues, the study recommended.
(CNN) -- The terrorist threat posed by radicalized Muslim- Americans has been exaggerated, according to a study released Wednesday by researchers at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
To be included on the list, an offender had to have been wanted, arrested, convicted or killed in connection with terrorism-related activities since 9/11 -- and have lived in the United States, regardless of immigration status, for more than a year prior to arrest.
Of the 139 offenders, fewer than a third successfully executed a violent plan, according to a Duke University statement on the study, and most of those were overseas. Read the report:"Anti-Terror Lessons of Muslim-Americans"
In the aftermath of 9/11, however, as well as terrorist attacks elsewhere in the world, the possible radicalization of Muslim-Americans is a "key counterterrorism concern" -- magnified by heavy publicity that accompanies the arrests of Muslim-Americans, such as that seen in the wake of the November shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, in which 13 people were killed. Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, a Muslim born in Virginia, is charged in connection with that incident.
Other high-profile incidents include the charging of eight Somali-American men on charges related to what authorities say are efforts to recruit youths from the Minneapolis, Minnesota, area to fight for al-Shabaab, a Somali guerrilla movement battling the African country's U.N.-backed transitional government. At least two young men from Minnesota have been killed in Somalia, including one who blew himself up in what is believed to have been the first suicide bombing carried out by a naturalized U.S. citizen.
In addition, five Americans were arrested last month in Pakistan, and police have said they are confident that they were planning terrorist attacks. A Pakistani court Monday gave police two weeks to prepare their case against the five; authorities have said they plan to prosecute the youths under the country's anti-terrorism act.
Muslim-American communities have been active in preventing radicalization.
Governments can promote and encourage the building of strong Muslim-American communities and promote outreach by social services agencies, the study said. "Our research suggests that Muslim-American communities desire collaboration and outreach with the government beyond law enforcement, in areas such as public health, education and transportation."
And the Muslim-American community can promote enhanced education about its religion and beliefs, the study said. Increased civil rights enforcement can also be an important tool.
However, policies that alienate Muslims may increase the threat of homegrown terrorism rather than reducing it, the study said.
"Our research suggests that initiatives that treat Muslim-Americans as part of the solution to this problem are far more likely to be successful," said Schanzer.
Schanzer, Kurzman and Ebrahim Moosa, associate professor of religion at Duke, co-authored the study, which summarized two years of research involving interviews of more than 120 Muslims in four different communities nationwide -- Seattle, Washington; Houston, Texas; Buffalo, New York; and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. The study was funded by a grant from the Department of Justice.
|
0.998618 |
Manufacturers typically don’t have direct interaction with end customers as they mainly rely on mass media to market and channel partners to sell and service their products.
Brands now need to engage and deliver better customer experiences throughout the lifecycle to acquire and retain today’s increasingly connected, mobile and social consumers.
Product registration is one of the critical steps to establishing a direct connection with customers that buy products. Mize Senior Product Manager, Sushil Bhattachan, shares some of the best practices to increase registration rates.
Current product registration is a paper card or a long web form, discouraging customers from filling in and completing the registration.
Brands tend to ask too many questions in an effort to capture demographic information, intimidating the customer.
Using mobile devices, registration can be simplified to a single scan of a QR code or barcode. The customer information can be pre-populated from their profile, avoiding re-entry of information and increasing registration rates.
Customers typically don’t bother to register products as they don’t see any real value or need. In fact, some customers are apprehensive about spam email, or a deluge of direct mail if they share their contact information.
Brands must demonstrate the value for customers by allowing them to easily manage product ownership and warranties. Some brands offer incentives such as additional warranty and discounts to buy related products, accessories or services.
Brands need to provide an opt-out option for marketing material and earn their trust by clearly stating their privacy policies.
As part of the onboarding, customers require help and assistance to setup, install and use the product. Registration can be used as a way to gain instant access to digital knowledge resources including videos, manuals, tutorials, and FAQs.
Customers will also be able to access support and services easily from their “Own” list. Providing this access to knowledge resources will not only increase product registrations, but reduce product returns and traffic to call centers.
Retailers and channel partners are concerned about sharing customer information with brands. Brands can address these concerns by focusing on the mutual benefits of building stronger customer relationships. Retailers can gain additional revenues from selling accessories, service plans and related services.
Brands can provide better customer support to foster customer loyalty and increase repeat purchases. Registration rates can be significantly improved by integrating with Point of Sale (POS) systems and electronic receipts from the retailer. Both brands and channel partners can use co-op marketing to reach and engage these consumers.
Registration can facilitate connection to customer communities for sharing of product ratings, reviews and getting help from social networks. Customers can instantly share product and brand preferences on existing social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
As a result, companies can grow sales through word-of-mouth marketing. Customer location and contextual information from social networks can be utilized to gain better insights into customer sentiment and trends.
Apple has 100% registration rates of their devices as customers gain additional value from iTunes and App Stores. As products become more connected, brands can use similar strategies to deliver additional value through integrated services. Products can be auto-discovered and registered to reach 100% registration rates.
Product registration is an onramp for customer engagement and brands can realize better lifetime value of customers by increasing the registration rates.
Customer-centric approach enables end customers to register products, track warranties, manage protection plans, receive recall notifications, provide direct feedback on service and access information through multiple channels including mobile and web.
|
0.923858 |
Synopsis: ENSO-neutral conditions are favored to continue through at least the Northern Hemisphere spring 2017, with increasing chances for El Niño development into the fall.
ENSO-neutral conditions continued during February, with near-average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) across the central equatorial Pacific and above-average SSTs in the eastern Pacific. The latest weekly Niño index values were near zero in the Niño-4 and Niño-3.4 regions, and +0.4 and +2.2°C farther east in the Niño-3 and Niño-1+2 regions, respectively. The upper-ocean heat content anomaly increased during February and was slightly positive when averaged across the central and eastern Pacific, a reflection of generally above-average temperatures at depth. Atmospheric convection remained suppressed over the central tropical Pacific and enhanced over the Maritime Continent. The low-level easterly winds were slightly enhanced over the western tropical Pacific and were weaker than average over the eastern Pacific. Also, upper-level westerly winds were anomalously easterly over portions of the western and eastern Pacific. Overall, the ocean and atmosphere system is consistent with ENSO-neutral conditions.
Most models predict the continuation of ENSO-neutral (3-month average Niño-3.4 index between -0.5°C and 0.5°C) through the early Northern Hemisphere summer (May-July). However, some dynamical model forecasts, including the NCEP CFSv2, anticipate an onset of El Niño as soon as the late Northern Hemisphere spring (March-May 2017). Because of typically lower skill in forecasts made at this time of the year, and the lingering La Niña-like tropical convection patterns, the forecaster consensus favors ENSO-neutral during the spring (March-May) with a ~75% chance. Thereafter, there are increasing odds for El Niño toward the second half of 2017 (50-55% chance from approximately July-December). In summary, ENSO-neutral conditions are favored to continue through at least the Northern Hemisphere spring 2017, with increasing chances for El Niño development into the fall.
Much of the country should be warmer than normal.
All of Washington, Oregon and Northern California and Northern Nevada are likely to be slightly wetter than normal. Only Central and Southern California and Southern Nevada will be slightly to moderately below normal. The northern plans through to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi valley should be near normal to slightly wetter than normal. Only the northeast and southwest should be slightly to moderately drier than normal.
|
0.968213 |
Kang Youwei (1858 AD - 1927 AD) was one of the foremost political thinkers and reformist of the late 19th Century Qing Dynasty Era. He was also an ardent (Han Chinese) Nationalist, in many ways opposed to Manchu Rule and advocated, among things, for a constitutional Monarchy as a means to modernize the politics of his time and for steering the Nation onto a path of National salvation.
Kang Youwei is known first and foremost for his involvement in petitioning the Guangxu Emperor (1871 AD - 1908 AD) in the year 1898 AD, so initiating the period that has become known as the 100 day reform movement. In so doing Kang almost lost his head when the shortlived reform movement induced by him and his peers and fed with idea's there after, was brutally cut short by intervention of the conservatives within the top of the Manchu Court. In the aftermath of the modernization debacle, the Empress-Dowager Cixi and her clique would admit for a few drastic modernizations in the city of Beijing such as the construction of a railway line, the appearance of street lights and cars and buses, however pending Kang narrowly escaping the executioners blade.
Having been too convincing and well heard and popular among the people with his zealous political appeals, Kang was not put to death but ended up under house arrest. Thus, his star having risen and fallen, Kang lived out his life mostly confined to his courtyard home at Mishi (Rice Market Lane) at a stones throw from the Caishikou. He had been a lucky man.
Those who opposed the idea's the by then nationally and internationally honored Han Nationalist and political philosopher were to find they were not much luckier than their defeated opponent. The political problems could not be ignored as they were.
As a result of the crushing of the reforms and various other added insults, Beijing would erupt into rebellion only two years later during the so called "Boxer Rebellion" of 1900 AD. Some 8 years on the Dynasty would fall under a plot of the power hungry General Yuan Shikai of the Beiping Garrison. The event freed Kang from his seclusion and apparently, offered second chances.
Although Kang Youwei's name is hardly ever mentioned in current day Communist Party Propaganda, his contribution to the political modernizations of China leading up to first ever Republic of China are apparently considered worth commemorating today. As such, although many hutong and with them former residences of Beijing Celebrities have disappeared, torn down as useless, Mishi Hutong and Kang Youwei Residence survive as a sort of open air museum of what life was like once, not too long ago.
The traditional Beijing quadrangle house, the Siheyuan where Kang Youwei, resided still stands and as late as the year 2014 it was still in use as public housing, although it is listed as a Beijing Cultural (and Historical) Relic site.
According to Chinese written and printed tour guides concerning Beijing many of which do not even mention the existence of Kang Youwei Former Residence, Kang Youwei lived at this address, No 43 Mishi Hutong, between the year 1882 AD when he moved to Beijing accepting a post at the Qing Court, and the year 1898 AD when the 100 days of reform ended in drama ending the court career of Kang Youwei.
What is however left out of the story in its entirety is how Kang Youwei was secluded under house arrest in Beijing. Instead, it is simply told that Kang Youwei, having been the ring leader of the botched reform movement was forced to flee overseas never to return again. This is but half the truth, as mentioned - Kang survived the Dynasty living at Mishi Hutong and remained in Beijing long enough after to be involved in a restoration attempt of the Qing Dynasty in 1917 AD, an inconvenient historic truth that apparently censors have deemed to complicated to explain (away) and therefor omitted.
The latest news to be mentioned is that according to publications in the National mouthpiece Xinhua (online version), the residence is to be turned into an official Museum, part of an effort to conserve the last few hutong in the Caishikou area.
Additional locations to visit nearby are: Lu Xun Former Residence, Mao Zedong Former Residence (Hunan Guild Hall), Tansitong Former Residence and the Fayuan Temple. At a slightly larger distance but within the Caishikou Area one can find Ox Street Mosque (Niu Jie Libai Si) and Bao Guo Temple and Market.
Of the many square kilometers of Hutong in the Xuanwu District and Chongwen District, today only few survive. Tucked away between modern highrises and apartment blocks one can find a few such remaining Hutong in the Caishikou Area. Apart from the Mishi Hutong, there are Nanbajie Hutong and Lanman Hutong where the former homes of Lu Xun and Mao Zedong are situated respectively. Photo: Gate to Lu Xun Caishikou (Former) Residence at Nanbajie Hutong.
Although it lies hidden away from plain sight away from any main thoroughfare, the former residence and now museum to Kang Youwei in Beijing is easy to find.
of Beijing. As did many other writers, literati, scholars and artists of the time, Kang lived in the Caishikou Area of the current day Xuanwu District of the (old historic) city. At the time Caishikou, it's name translating as "Gate to the Vegetable Market" was indeed a market area.
Set between the vegetable market, the Ox Street Market (and Mosque) and the Bao Guo Temple Market as well as a flower market, it was a lively neighborhood surrounded by a vast network of so called Hutong, Beijing's famous ancient alleyways.
various dwellers of the Hutong. Kang Youwei lived in his courtyard home along this road during the high point ofhis public career, and one might argue, also during the lowest points of his life. He found himself under strict house-arrest and watch by the Manchu Court for 10 years on end, a time during which he was essentially cut off from the other world.
However, surving the Qing Dynasty (1644 AD - 1911 AD) Kang, freed from his shackles, re-emerged again to embroil himself in high level politics.
constitutional monarchy. As such, he was an enemy of the new Republic. Finding himself with sufficient political clout, he even launched a failed coup d'état in 1917. Ironically, this time it was Kang Youwei who attempted to save the Emperor and his court, who by the year 1917 still lived in the Forbidden City (now Palace Museum) under the articles of favorable treatment received in return for the abdication of the Emperor in 1908 AD. This time Kang's great goal was to restore the Manchu Dynasty (Monarchy) and by so doing created at least a degree of order out of the chaos that had arisen when the 1st Republic dismally failed in all respects. Although duly noted in history and warm heartedly accepted by the young Emperor Pu Yi in his Beijing Palace and Prison, the attempt was nevertheless a tragic misreading of the political tide and various other circumstances.
Although, the first stages of operation saw the success of General Zhang Xun and his queue-wearing Manchu loyalist troops occupying Beijing making a show of the declaration of a restoration of Emperor Puyi on July 1 of 1917, it all went downhill from there.
As may have been proven already by the botched self-crowning attempt of General Yuan Shikai, the more powerful player, the nation was by then highly anti-monarchist. In addition, various parties such as the Soviet Union had financed and backed the Republic for their own aims. Within much time, several armies were turned towards Beijing with orders to retake the city and put an end to the restoration.
The adolescent Dandy Emperor Pu Yi who had modernized himself along western lines as photographed in front of a Hall in the Forbidden City.
Personal advisor and confident of the Guangxu Emperor Kang Youwei.
As with many of the other landmarks in the Caishikou Area of the Xuanwu District, the easiest mode of transportation to your destination is by subway and then by foot.
Naturally, it is always possible to hail a taxi, and buzz off to the particular address, but usually that means missing out on most of the other sights to be found along the way. The best way to do Beijing is still to get some walking done in- and around the landmarks of interest.
That said, instructions for making ones way to Mishi Hutong and the Kang Youwei Residence Museum are as brief as can be. Simply take the subway to Caishikou Station in the Xuanwu District and exit via the south eastern exit.
corner of the extremely large and also extremely Caishikou Intersection.
leads away. To the south lies Caishikou Street and to complete the image, to the west Guang Anmen Road leads away to pass Ox Street and the Bao Guo Temple on its way to the former Guang Anmen Gate long since transformed into an intersection and crossroads with Beijing's second ring road. In this direction lie various other landmarks of the Caishikou Area.
Two routes can be taken to the Kang Youwei Residence. They both lead via Luomashi Street. Mind you, there is NO alternative route via Caishikou Street.
To go through Luomashi Street, get to the south west corner of Caishikou intersection and follow Luomashi Road (Boulevard really). Keep an eye on the housing and note a passageway going underneath the wall of appartments at this point. This shortcut passage leads to the north end of Mishi Hutong. From here simply follow the southern direction already taken and find number 43, which is the correct address.
In case of not finding or missing the hidden passageway, simply continue east on Luomashi Street and turn southward into the next Hutong which is Guozi Alley (Hutong). This street will curve nearly back around to the west terminating into Mishi Hutong. At this termination point, head north in Mishi Hutong and look for the Kang Youwei museum on your left hand (west side of the alley).
Meanwhile, even before the city could be attacked Kang Youwei faced a confidence crisis within the ranks. Although he himself could be considered an idealist of sorts, and thus hardly corruptable, none of that went for the other players in the political arena of the time. Politics was a dangerous game altogether. As the fall of the Qing Dynasty itself had proven, no one could be trusted, often not even family members when it come to a crunch.
With General Zhang showing less interest in the political side of the affair than Kang had wished for, he accused Zhang of being insincere constitutionalism and that he was merely using the restoration to become the power behind the throne. Kang subsequently abandoned his mission and was forced to flee to the American Legation (on West Legations Street) for safety from his now numerous political enemies.
was the final fall of the Manchu Dynasty, that is, at least within China.
According to Wikipedia, Kang's reputation serves as an important barometer for the political attitudes of his time. In the span of less than twenty years, he went from being regarded as an iconoclastic radical to an anachronistic pariah. In Jung Chang's biography of the Empress Dowager, he is depicted as a self-serving zealot who was always seeking personal power above national considerations.
In current day Beijing not much has been left of the many Hutong that stood for over a 1000 years. The Mishi Hutong however, and in it the former residence of Kang Youwei still exist. Find them hidden, but easy to find near the Caishikou Subway Station in the Xuanwu District.
|
0.999732 |
Best articles about Recommended seduction movies.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona has become one of the most talked about movies of the year. A sizzling, erotically charged, relentlessly hilarious and touching romantic comedy... Barcelona, two American girls are about to find out that they have a lot more in common than they first thought. Vicky is a practical, studious and engaged. Cristina on the other hand is reckless and adventurous. Both of them are about to have their worlds turned upside down by an infamous, bohemian artist called Juan and his psychotic ex-wife.
It is a must see for everyone who wants to open their horizon to open relationships and polyamory.
A must see movie for every man. 'Johnny Depp's Don Juan DeMarco'. The movie starts out with a sizzling restaurant scene. The story itself is not so great, but some of the dialogs are amazing.
Here and excerpt from the first seen : "These women, their fingers have the same sensitivities as their legs. The fingertips have the same feelings as their feet. And when you touch their knuckles, it is like passing your hands around their knees. And this tender, fleshy part of the finger is the same as brushing your hands around their thighs. And finally... Every woman is a mystery to be solved. But a woman hides nothing from a true lover."
Alfie's whole life revolves around women, but at one point he realizes there might be more to life... This movie is great to see both sides of the section game. For plenty of players, it is hard to be in these alone moments and this film shows this very well. It makes you wonder that in the end we are not better of in a monogamous relationship. But then again... Hollywood influence ?
"Whenever you meet a beautiful woman, just remember somewhere there's a man who's sick of shagging her."
"I thought we agreed we weren't asking each other those questions."
In every doomed relationship, there comes what I like to call "The uh-oh moment". When a certain little something happens, and you know you've just witnessed the beginning of the end. And suddenly you stop and you think, "Uh-oh, iceberg ahead".
Even though the film has an underlying theme of unexplained events, the main plot is a portait of a 'seduction guru'. It shows clearly how some of these so called experts, actually have plenty of problems going on with their own identity. Not saying that all pickup artists out there are scams... but it is such a growing market and everyone wants a little piece expert or pretend to be expert. Anyway, the movie is quite chaotic and it will make you wonder, in the end, what it was all about. Heavy, weird, but at least not a sheep (yes, sheep like in for sheeps and not cheap) movie... enjoy or not!
Alternative & extras on Recommended seduction movies.
|
0.996008 |
I do intervals and lift weights. Would it be smart to use a heart-rate monitor?
More like brilliant. "Most men don't know their bodies very well. They think they're going all out, but they're not," says David Jack, general manager at Competitive Athlete Training Zone. "A heart-rate monitor tells you exactly how hard you're going." That's critical whether you're hammering out intervals or doing strength training. For instance, short intervals are best done at 90 percent of your maximum heart rate and heavy lifts at 60 percent of your max, says Jack. Use these tips to find the right monitor and squeeze more out of your sessions.
Expect to spend 5 to 20 minutes customizing your device. Also, if you plan to keep an online diary, visit the manufacturer's website to find out how to upload your workout data.
Check to see if your monitor has an intervals setting. There are two ways to measure speed and distance: an accelerometer that attaches to your shoe, or GPS (which usually costs more).
To find your max heart rate, Jack recommends this test, although you should consult with your doctor first if you have heart problems: After warming up, sprint up a hill (or a treadmill set on an incline of 8). Keep checking your monitor and note when your heart rate stops rising: That's your max. Now catch your breath.
|
0.999996 |
Kidznsnow Article: From the Eastern Front - Quebec!
Bonjour mes amis! Comment ca va? Nous avons jusqua retourné a faire du ski a Quebec, and il [was] magnifique!
Well, maybe the high school French is a bit rusty, but the intent is obvious - we’ve just returned from skiing in eastern Quebec and it was magnificent! You’ve heard of “lake effect” snow that upstate New York gets from the Great Lakes? Well, how about the “river effect” snow that Mont Ste. Anne and Le Massif receive thanks to their location on the shores of the St. Lawrence River. Now, before you dismiss that as hyperbole, remember this: in that area, the river is nearly twelve miles wide. That’s a lot of water and it helps to generate considerable amounts of snow.
Le Massif sits directly on the river. On some runs, given the steep but consistent pitch, you feel like you’re actually going to ski right into the frigid water. As a result, the skiing yields views that are truly unique - with a twisting shoreline disappearing to the east, ice flows making their way up or down river (it’s a tidal river, still affected by the Atlantic Ocean), and sometimes wonderfully eerie cloud formations drifting around below you. Just ten years ago the only uphill transportation at Le Massif was by school bus. Now there’s a top-to-bottom high speed quad that makes accessing the slopes extremely efficient. Still, out favorite section is off the “other” chair, a double that served a handful of black diamonds and one nifty trail that travels “sous bois” - under the trees. And, come next season, a major expansion will further improve things.
Mont Ste. Anne is sometimes cast as the “other” ski area in Quebec, because many folks think first of Mont Tremblant, north of Montreal. But, Mont Ste. Anne is a big hill, and one that loves kids. (Take a week here and your kids just may be speaking French by the time they go home.) They’ve even got a green-rated glades trail called La Vital Roy that was cut particularly with kids in mind. (We confess to sneaking in there unaccompanied by kids and having a very good time.) During our recent visit, however, the highlight was six inches of new snow - kept western-fluffy by prevailing cold temperatures - that provided a classic eastern powder day. We scurried all over the mountain looking for stashes, and even helped to open two trails, thus getting some fine first tracks. In between, we stopped by the trailside “cabine `a sucre” (“sugar shack”) for some “sugar on snow.” (The secret is to let the hot maple syrup cool for a few minutes before you roll it onto your wooden Popsicle stick.) Delicious.
We also spent a few nights at the magnifique Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City, North America’s only walled city. When you toss in the urbane urban element to the continental feeling that eastern Quebec exudes, you’ve got a nifty European adventure without having to cross the ocean. And, all with that fantastic Canadian dollar exchange rate. Nous l’aimerons. We love it.
|
0.984259 |
Are scholars working with narratology on secular narratives doing the same thing NT narrative critics are doing (or think they are doing)?
He goes on to relay some important critiques of NT narrative criticism which is the meat of the rest of the post.
Narratology grew up on the same playground as literary criticism in the 1960s and 70s, had a growth spurt in the 80s, but during this time began to go in many different directions. Those practicing narratology today disagree about what it is, but it at least involves the study of narrativity (which, while there is disagreement on the scope of narrativity, at least includes narrative texts).
So I think narratology is broad enough to encompass literary criticism, including the more traditional forms of biblical narrative criticism, though it extends to theoretical questions of narrativity and, for many practitioners, pulls from a plethora of other theoretical frameworks to study its objects. Even if this is so, Chris raises some other important points in his post.
For reference, see the Narratologia series from De Gruyter, and especially vols. 1 and 6 to start.
|
0.947762 |
Saturday was my birthday. I am now 40 years old! I was born in the Salt Lake Valley in 1974. I was the first child born to my parents and also the first grandchild on both sides of the family. I was joined 17 months later by a sister and a brother 364 days after that. Our family was completed when another sister joined the family in 1979.
We were pretty close growing up. We were typical siblings. We had our disagreements but we also love to play and do other things together.
When I was six years old our family moves to Emery County, Utah. It was a hard transition time for me. I had started kindergarten at a school where the students worked at their own level in reading and math I was now going to a school where they were still learning sight words and basic math like 2+2=4. My first day at the new school I had what I would now call, looking back, an anxiety attack. It is the first one I remember having although my mom says she can't recall a time in my life when I didn't have anxiety. From that time on I hated new and unknown situations. I would get really nervous and usually cried.
Throughout school I struggled with learning and understanding. I was also bullied somewhat by my classmates all through elementary, junior high, and even in high school. Kids made fun of me, calling me bawl baby and saying I was dumb. Sometimes kids would push me around. I didn't have many friends and I hated school. It wasn't until I was in high school that I finally decided that I didn't care what others thought. At least that is what I would tell myself. I don't think I really believed it though.
Growing up was hard in other ways as well. My dad never made a lot of money while we were growing up other than when he was in the coal mines. The problem was he was always getting laid off for one reason or another and would then work minimum wage jobs. My parents seemed to always be struggling to pay the bills. We didn't get to do a lot of the things other kids our age got to do. I didn't really mind because at least I knew they were trying and they did what they could. The problem was that if I knew my parents were worried about something I would worry too. To this day I tend to take on every one else's problems as well as my own.
My parents did a great job of raising us kids the best they could and I am very grateful to them for raising us right. We had our problems but we stuck together because that is what family is all about. I have never doubted that they would do anything they could for us and still will.
After I finally graduated high school, I moved to the Salt Lake Valley with my aunt and cousins, a few blocks from my grandma & grandpa Palmer. I had decided that college wasn't for me and so I was going to go try and find a job and then decided what I wanted to do with my life. I really enjoyed being able to spend time with my family that lived in the valley. I hadn't been able to do that as much as I would have liked while I was growing up. However, with only that exception, I hated living in the city.
I didn't have a car at the time and so I had to rely on walking or waiting until somebody could take me where I wanted or needed to go. There was always the bus but, even now, I get extremely nervous and panic when I even think about having to ride. I am sure I will get lost and there are too many people sitting close together. Just writing about it makes me nervous. So I only looked for jobs close to where I lived. Of course since I only had a high school diploma, job options were limited.
A couple months later my mom happened to talk to a family friend who has her own preschool. Mom asked her if she would consider letting me help out. I loved kids and had thought about becoming a preschool teacher but hadn't wanted to go to college to become a teacher. This friend agreed to let me come volunteer part time for the rest of the school year. The following year she hired me to help out in two of her three classes. By the third year I helped every day. I loved it! It was so fun to work with the little children and to help them learn and watch them grow. It is hard to believe that 20 years have gone by. I recently went back to work at that job and am teaching the children of a couple of kids I taught that first year. That is one thing that makes me feel old.
I didn't have much of a social life either. I dated a guy for a couple of months but I never felt completely comfortable around him. I also felt like he was looking for more of somebody to raise his child and take care of things at home than he really cared about finding a wife. He seemed to be rushing things a lot faster than I wanted to go. On our very first date he invited me to go with him and his son to Six Flags over Texas for Spring Break. It was just October. A few weeks later he invited me to come to his home in Colorado and stay between Christmas and New Year's with his parents. I felt a lot of pressure from him and also some of my family to try and make things work. I just couldn't do it. He was a nice enough guy but I just didn't feel anything for him. There have been times since then when I have looked back and wondered if I made a mistake but then I remember that I had prayed about it and knew that it wasn't meant to be.
By the fall of 2005 I was still teaching preschool and still enjoying it. I had actually though about maybe going to school but never felt right. I think it was mostly due to the anxiety but nevertheless I hadn't done it.
As school was starting that September my dad got a call about a job working in the gold mines in Northern Nevada. He and Mom went to Elko for the interview and they wanted him to start as soon as possible. We didn't know what to do. I had already started and was committed to that school year but it was a job Dad couldn't turn down.
I happened to mention what was going on to a dear friend whose daughter was in preschool that year. She told me that I was welcome to come and live with them. I kind of thought she was joking. After a few days of prayer and discussion I decided to see how serious my friend was since I couldn't come up with any other options. When I called her she said that she and her husband had prayed about it as well and that they both felt that it was the right thing to do. After more prayer and discussion with my parents we too felt like it was right. In October Mom and Dad moved to Elko and then Spring Creek, Nevada while I moved in with my friends and their family.
We had agreed that I would live there until school got out and then I would try and find another job and my own place or move to Nevada with my parents. It was a good year and I am grateful that I had the chance to grow closer to that family. They have done so much for me and I know I can never repay them for their love and kindness.
It was toward the end of the school year when a sister in my ward asked me if I had ever considered serving a mission. I literally laughed out loud. A mission was the last thing I ever pictured myself doing. I knew that because of the anxiety I had struggled with all my life and the depression that I frequently fell into that it would be extremely difficult to serve. So, I laughed it off and didn't think another thing about it until that sister brought it up again a few weeks later.
School had been out for a week or two and I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I had been praying about it but felt like whatever I did would be okay. I didn't really like that answer. I wanted the Lord to somehow tell me that I should do this and be good with it. I had finally decided that I would just move to Nevada and go from there.
When the sister brought it up again, I didn't laugh it off as easily but I still wasn't going to seriously consider it. However, that night after the kids had gone to bed, my friend and I were talking and she said that the other sister had mentioned the idea of me serving a mission. she wondered what I thought about it. I told her that it wasn't something I had ever planned on doing but that I had been thinking about it off and on that day. Anyway one thing led to another and by Thanksgiving I was getting ready to submit my papers.
I have mentioned the struggle I had in the MTC and I will post later about the struggles I had on my mission. Let me just say that things got to a point on my mission where I became more depressed than I had ever been in my life up to that point. I ended up coming home almost exactly one year after I had entered the MTC. The past seven years have been the emotional roller coaster that I have posted about.
In 2010 I injured my neck and have had problems ever since. After six months of being off work I finally went back part time only to quit two months later. I have had CT scans, an MRI, and X-rays which have all come back negative. In December 2013 I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. I live with pain every day.
In the past, almost, three years I have intentionally overdosed twice. I have live in Nevada, Northern Utah, and now back in Emery County. I am still struggling every day with the anxiety and depression. It is something I will probably fight most of the rest of my life.
Now that I am 40 I decided that I can either have a mid life crises, another breakdown or I can start to take control of my life. I'm going to try harder to not let things get to me. I am hoping to become a healthier, happier person so that 40 years from now I can look back and say that things were much better.
I am going to start by trying harder to trust in my Savior and His love for me. I need to remember that I can't do it on my own. I am writing this blog as a way to exert my feelings and not dwell on them. I am also relying on you my friends and family and anybody else who reads this to give me words of encouragement and support.
For my birthday Mom and Dad asked that my friends and family write emails, texts, and Facebook messages sharing your thoughts and birthday wishes. They asked that you list four things you admire about me and they are going to put it in a scrapbook so that I can read it and know that I am loved and I am not alone. If anybody reading this would like to join in please comment about what you like or make suggestions about this blog.
I was reading another blog the other day of a man I have come to greatly admire. I asked him if I could share the link to his blog and he said yes. A lot of what he has to say really hits close to home for me. His latest blog was titled, THIS is The Most Damning Belief of All Time by Seth Adam Smith. What is the belief? I can’t change. I am a victim of my circumstances.
I realize that I have been a victim of my own beliefs. I am going to try much harder to not be a victim anymore.
So here is to another 40 years. Hoping they are much better than the first 40.
|
0.999997 |
The NBA tournament bracket is one of the highlights of the sporting year in the United States. Each year, the 16 teams with the best record compiled over the course of an 82-game regular season compete against each other in a tournament to determine the NBA’s champion.
The NBA tournament is a 16-team bracket comprised of the teams that won the most games through the course of the season. Teams are separated into two sections based on which conference they play in. They are seeded from #1 to #8, with the number-one team being the team with the most victories. The top team plays the lowest seeded team, the second seeded team faces the seventh seeded team, etc.
The first round of the NBA tournament bracket sees the teams play each other in a best-of-seven series; in other words, the first team to win four games wins the series. The first two games are played on the home court of the team with the better regular season record. The third and fourth games are played at the home court of the team with the inferior record.
All playoff series employ the best-of-seven format. There are plenty of times the team with the superior record is upset; these are the moments, known in the sports world as “Cinderella stories”, that often fuel fans’ interest in the multitude of games that take place and often play out over a course of nearly two months.
The NBA tournament bracket is the highlight, the culmination, of the entire NBA season.
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.