iisforeignpolicy

2012-01-04T12:47:00.004+09:00

Happy New Year for 2012,It's a new Shura Cosplay here.I just dressed it in my New Year party.Are you like it? My friends love it very much.They said they will buy it in next party.

Kaname

2010-12-15T13:47:00.002+09:00

Kaname

cosplay

2010-08-18T11:57:00.001+09:00

cosplay

Cosplay Costume

2010-05-25T12:55:00.001+09:00

Cosplay Costume

ciel costume

2010-05-24T13:23:00.001+09:00

ciel costume

Sailor Mars Costume

2010-03-30T17:22:00.001+09:00

Sailor Mars Costume

Akatsuki Costume

2010-03-30T15:47:00.001+09:00

Akatsuki Costume

Dragon Ball Cosplay

2010-02-23T16:29:00.001+09:00

Dragon Ball Cosplay

Costume Bags

2010-02-02T11:26:00.001+09:00

Costume Bags

Costume ring

2010-01-29T16:42:00.002+09:00

Costume ring

costume masks

2010-01-28T17:30:00.002+09:00

Costume mask is an article normally worn on the face, typically for protection, concealment, performance, or amusement. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes. They are usually worn on the face, although they may also be positioned for effect elsewhere on the wearer's body, so in parts of Australia giant totem masks cover the body, whilst Inuit women use finger masks during storytelling and dancing.

Anime Culture Mentioned on 3 U.S. TV Shows This Week

2010-01-18T14:00:00.000+09:00

Not-So-Daily Links of the Day: This past week, episodes of three different American television series — American Idol, 30 Rock, and Archer — each referenced anime culture.

On Tuesday's American Idol on FOX, the show highlighted contestant Mere Doyle during the Boston auditions. Doyle called herself an "otaku, which is another word for anime freak." Doyle also said anime inspired her to design and make her own kimono. The segment highlighted Doyle wearing a kimono and also other cosplay items such as a jacket worn by the titular character in Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto manga and anime. Doyle said her aspirations are to "become a singer and be successful in Japan." Doyle sang Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart" for her audition.

Unfortunately, Doyle's American Idol aspirations did not pan out. Doyle did not pass the audition round. Even though Doyle protested and asked for the judges to give her a chance, she was told "This is not going to work out."

On Thursday's 30 Rock on NBC, guest star James Franco, playing himself, acted as though he were in love with a dakimakura (literally, a "hugging pillow.") In the episode, Franco starts a fake celebrity relationship with Jenna (Jane Krakowski) to dispel tabloid rumors that said he was in love with a hugging pillow. In the meeting to set up the fake relationship, Franco said, "Are you familiar with Japanese 'moe' relationships where socially dysfunctional men develop deep emotional attachments to body pillows with women painted on them?" Franco refers to the pillow as "Kimiko" and "Kimiko-tan" throughout the episode, and at the end of the episode announces that he is "in love with, and common-law married to, a Japanese body pillow!" The full episode can be watched on NBC's website.

Also on Thursday, on the double-episode premiere of the new FX animated series Archer, the characters on the episode referenced cosplayers. The series is about Sterling Archer, a secret agent, and the agency for which he works. The agency operates just like any other office — with paperwork and a Human Resources department. In the episode, when Archer asks fellow agent Lana Kane what kind of person would wear a flaming suit as a person on fire appears, Lana replies, “Cosplay enthusiasts!” The episode, "Training Day," repeats on Sunday evening and Thursday

cosplay kuroshitsuji

2009-11-09T12:57:00.003+09:00

cosplay kuroshitsuji

i really love ciel this outfit so muchhh so very very bautiful!

Tales of Phantasia (テイルズオブファンタジア, Teiruzu obu Fantajia)

2009-10-20T18:48:00.003+09:00

Tales of Phantasia (テイルズオブファンタジア Teiruzu obu Fantajia) is a Super Nintendo game in the RPG genre published by Namco and released in Japan in 1995. It is the first mothership title in the Tales RPG series and was later remade/re-released on the PlayStation, Nintendo Game Boy Advance and PlayStation Portable. While the Super Famicom version did not have a characteristic genre name, the PS1 and GBA versions of Tales of Phantasia had the characteristic genre name Legendary RPG (伝説のRPG Densetsu no RPG), and the PSP version Tales of Phantasia ~ Full Voice Edition's characteristic genre name is Legendary RPG Embellished with Voices (声が彩る、伝説のRPG Koe ga irodoru, densetsu no RPG). This game was originally developed by Wolf Team. It was written and programmed by Yoshiharu Gotanda, designed by Masaki Norimoto and scored by Motoi Sakuraba and Shinji Tamura. The character designs were created by mangaka Kosuke Fujishima. An anime series based on the game has also been created.

ザカティーコンサルティング株式会社

2009-06-11T14:43:00.000+09:00

2005年7月、キャップジェミニとNTTデータのグローバル分野での業務提携により、日本キャップジェミニの発行済み株式の95%をNTTデータに譲渡、日本キャップジェミニ株式会社は、10月1日より新社名「ザカティーコンサルティング株式会社」として営業を継続しております。従来のキャップジェミニの方法論、グローバルに蓄積されたナレッジやネットワークにNTTデータの持つ経営資源を組み合わせ、顧客企業の皆様にコンサルティング、テクノロジー、アウトソーシングのサービスを一貫して提供。企業が日本市場並びにグローバルに展開して行く中で、戦略的に成果を上げられるようお手伝いさせていただきます。

ネオカフェ

2009-05-11T18:41:00.001+09:00

ダイエットコーヒー　ネオカフェ
とあるサイトから流行の火がついた、

ネオカフェというコーヒー！

自宅にいながら、

本格的なコーヒーが味わえるという素敵なコーヒーだそうです　(^。^)

泡立ちや香り、コクなど

お店で飲むカフェのような味わい。

さらに、ネオカフェにはダイエット効果もあるそうで、

食事のときの脂肪分・糖分の吸収をカットしてくれるのです！

これは嬉しい効果付きですね　(*^^)v

おいしいコーヒーを飲みながら、

ダイエットできるなんて・・・

効き目はいかに！？　　(^。^)

レポートビューア

2009-04-28T16:32:00.000+09:00

レポートビューア主要機能

フラットファイル作成機能
任意の分析対象項目をフラットファイルにする機能です。項目の並び順や集計等自由に設定出来ます。また、通常のフラット型ファイルのみならずクロス型の集計も可能です。
外部データ連結機能
Excel^®等の構築されていない情報とデータベース内の大容量情報をリンクして表示する機能です。
カタログ管理機能
特定の分析作業を登録する機能です。データベース単位、ユーザー単位に登録でき、分析方法の共有が可能になります。
データファイル出力機能
分析した情報をExcel、CSVに変換出力可能です。

ドリームリンク乱

2009-04-13T12:33:00.000+09:00

ここ数日「スイ－カズラ」様へのリンクがつながらなくてずっと気をもんでいましたが、今日やっと情報を見つけました。
鯖が壊れて復旧中だそうです。

あー、、、どきどきしたぁ。良かったぁ。ほんとに良かったあ。

一時避難のサイトを見つけましたが、リンクを張って良いやらわからないので、ここからは控えておきます。
以前からスイーカズラ様が登録していらした忍たま系サーチサイト「NRN」様と「ドリームリンク乱」様へのリンクが避難ページへのリンクに差し替えられていますので、私同様迷子でお困りの方、探して飛んでってください。
（避難サイトも、小さいですがへの様のカワイイ絵がたくさん見れて、なかなかうれしいです）
鯖落ちはとても大変ですね。レンタルサーバのハングはどのくらい復旧できるのでしょうか。気がかりです。

しかし、２２日頃から何も更新していないのにこのブログが急にアクセスが多めになったのは、こういうことだったのか、、！
皆さん、情報を探してうちにいらしたのですね、、、。
すいません、スイカズラさんちのトラブルとは関係がないのですが自分ちのパソもほぼ同時期にトラブルに見舞われてたんで、動きが鈍かったです。
今日、やっと落ち着いてニコ動の跡地に行ってヒントをいただき、避難場所にたどり着くことができたところです。

我が家のパソもだんだん直りつつあります。さきほどブクマが復活しました。
今使っているパソは、もう一台の壊れたパソのブクマを共用していたので不便していましたが、これでかなり元の環境に戻れました。
あとはメールだなあ、、、WEBメール不便だよ、、、早くPOP環境に戻りたい！

続きを読む、で、以前もにたあ募集していた動画関連の新ブログの話です。

クルトゥルハイム

2009-04-01T12:24:00.000+09:00

4月からクルトゥルハイム聖堂が在校生や教職員のための祈りの場として開放されている。これまでは上智会館内のアロイジオ聖堂がその役割を果たしてきたが、今後上智会館が使えなくなることもあり、月曜から金曜の9時から6時まで自由に利用できるようになった。
　
　クルトゥルハイムは、上智学院が高島靹之助子爵から大学創立前年に購入し、関東大震災や第二次世界大戦中の空襲でも被災をまぬがれた、キャンパス内でも最古の建築物である。クルトゥルハイムとは「文化の館」を意味し、長年にわたりミサや祈りの場として利用され、卒業生の結婚式などにも利用されてきた。遠藤周作の小説『深い河』の舞台となったことでも知られている。
　
　メインストリートに面した入口には聖堂を示すプレートも取りつけられた。建物奥の庭（ＳＪガーデン）への立ち入りはできないが、2階の聖堂が利用できるほか、1階の3室を見学することもできる。
　
　ジェリー・クスマノカトリック担当理事は「上智大学の創立と共に歩んできた歴史ある建物に、ぜひ一度訪れて静かな時間を過ごしてください」と話している。
　
□　　　□　　　□
　
学生・教職員のためのお昼休みのミサ（授業期間のみ）
月・火・木曜日（1階）金曜日（2階）
時間　12：45～13：20

トーメン西建物管理

2009-03-26T14:44:00.000+09:00

ウィキペディアには現在この名前の項目はありません。

* 項目を新しく書くには、まず下のテキストボックスに内容を書き込んでください。その際、著作権に注意してください。その後、ページ下部の■投稿する前に以下を確認して下さい■以下の注意事項をよく確認した上で “以上の記述を完全に理解し同意した上で投稿する” ボタンを押してください。そうすればすぐに見えるようになります。
* もしあなたがウィキペディアに初めて投稿するならば、先にガイドブックを読んでください。
* あなた自身やあなたのウェブサイト、製品、また仕事を宣伝する項目を作らないで下さい。
* 投稿のテストをしたい場合、サンドボックスを利用してください。一度作成した項目はあなたが削除することはできません。
* 他の項目からトーメン西建物管理を検索する
* 姉妹プロジェクトのウィクショナリーに項目トーメン西建物管理が存在するかもしれません。

2008-05-02T23:58:00.001+09:00

Transportation
The city is served by the Hat Yai International Airport.
Hat Yai Railway Station, the largest station is an international railway station in Southern Thailand. It handles 28 passenger trains per day (26 trains served by State Railway of Thailand and 2 trains (Ekspres Langkawi) are served by KTMB of Malaysia. Also it is the hub of local train in Southern Thailand.
Also parallel to the railway is the Asian highway 2. Asian highway 18 begins in Hat Yai and runs south along the eastern coast of the Malay peninsula.

History
Originally named Khok Sa-Met Choon, Hat Yai was a small village until the southern railway was built there. The junction which connected the town of Songkhla with the main route was originally located in the Utapao area, but was moved to Khok Su-Met Choon in 1922 when the Utapao area turned out to be flood prone. Khok Su-Met Choon had only four residences at that time, but due to the investments of Khun Niphatchinnkhon (謝枢泗, Jia Gi Si, 1886-1972, Hakkian Chinese), the railway contractor for the railway connection from Nakhon Si Thammarat to Pattani, it quickly grew into a small town.
In 1928 Hat Yai was made a Chumchon, which was upgraded to a sanitary district (sukhaphiban) on December 11 1935. It covered an area of 4.4 km², and was administrated by the first mayor Udom Bunlong. In 1938 the municipal administration building was completed. On March 16 1949 it was granted town status (thesaban mueang); on May 10 1961 the area covered by the municipality was increased to 8 km². Due to the continuing growth, on August 13 1968 a new larger municipal administration building was opened. On April 24 1977 the area of the municipality was enlarged a second time to 21 km². Finally in 1995 it was upgraded to city status (thesaban nakhon).
On April 3, 2005, two bomb attacks at a Carrefour department store and Hat Yai International Airport were made by Pattani separatists. The attacks killed two people and injured dozens.
On September 16, 2006 a series of bomb attacks killed four people and injured over 70. Although no-one claimed responsibility for the attacks, Pattani separatists are suspected. [1]

2008-05-02T01:47:00.001+09:00

Part of a series on Islam by country Algeria · Angola · Benin · Botswana · Burkina Faso · Burundi · Cameroon · Cape Verde · Central African Republic · Chad · Comoros · Democratic Republic of the Congo · Republic of the Congo · Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) · Djibouti · Egypt · Equatorial Guinea · Eritrea · Ethiopia · Gabon · The Gambia · Ghana · Guinea · Guinea-Bissau · Kenya · Lesotho · Liberia · Libya · Madagascar · Malawi · Mali · Mauritania · Mauritius · Morocco · Mozambique · Namibia · Niger · Nigeria · Rwanda · São Tomé and Príncipe · Senegal · Seychelles · Sierra Leone · Somalia · South Africa · Sudan · Swaziland · Tanzania · Togo · Tunisia · Uganda · Western Sahara (Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) · Zambia · Zimbabwe
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Argentina · Bolivia · Brazil · Chile · Colombia · Ecuador · Guyana · Panama · Paraguay · Peru · Suriname · Trinidad and Tobago · Uruguay · Venezuela Antigua and Barbuda · Bahamas · Barbados · Belize · Canada · Costa Rica · Cuba · Dominica · Dominican Republic · El Salvador · Grenada · Guatemala · Haiti · Honduras · Jamaica · Mexico · Nicaragua · Panama · Saint Kitts and Nevis · Saint Lucia · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · Trinidad and Tobago · United States
Australia Australia · Norfolk Island · Christmas Island · Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Melanesia East Timor · Fiji · New Caledonia · Papua New Guinea · Solomon Islands · Vanuatu
Micronesia Guam · Kiribati · Marshall Islands · Northern Mariana Islands · Federated States of Micronesia · Nauru · Palau
Polynesia American Samoa · Cook Islands · French Polynesia · New Zealand · Niue · Pitcairn · Samoa · Tokelau · Tonga · Tuvalu · Wallis and Futuna
The vast majority of Saudis are Sunni Muslims. Around 15%[1] of citizens are Shia Muslims, most of whom live in the Eastern Province, with the largest concentrations in Qatif, Al-Ahsa, and Dammam, other large concentrations are found in Medina and Najran. Islam is the established religion, and as such its institutions receive government support.
Non-Muslim populations of Saudi Arabia are dominantly found in populations of foreign workers. Saudi Arabia has an estimated foreign population of 6 to 7 million, most of whom are Muslim. The foreign population includes approximately 1.4 million Indians, 1 million Bangladeshis, nearly 900,000 Pakistanis, 800,000 Filipinos, 800,000 Yemenis 750,000 Egyptians, 250,000 Palestinians, 150,000 Lebanese, 130,000 Sri Lankans, 40,000 Eritreans, and 30,000 Americans. Comprehensive statistics for the religious denominations of foreigners are not available; however, they include Muslims from the various branches and schools of Islam, Christians, and Hindus.

Salafi theology
The hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, occurs annually between the eighth and thirteenth days of the last month of the Muslim year, Dhul Hijja. The hajj represents the culmination of the Muslim's spiritual life. For many, it is a lifelong ambition. From the time of embarking on the journey to make the hajj, pilgrims often experience a spirit of exaltation and excitement; the meeting of so many Muslims of all races, cultures, and stations in life in harmony and equality moves many people deeply. Certain rites of pilgrimage may be performed any time, and although meritorious, these constitute a lesser pilgrimage, known as umrah.
The Ministry of Pilgrimage Affairs and Religious Trusts handles the immense logistical and administrative problems generated by such a huge international gathering. The government issues special pilgrimage visas that permit the pilgrim to visit Mecca and to make the customary excursion to Medina to visit the Prophet's tomb. Care is taken to assure that pilgrims do not remain in the kingdom after the hajj to search for work.
An elaborate guild of specialists assists the hajjis. Guides (mutawwifs) who speak the pilgrim's language make the necessary arrangements in Mecca and instruct the pilgrim in the proper performance of rituals; assistants (wakils) provide subsidiary services. Separate groups of specialists take care of pilgrims in Medina and Jiddah. Water drawers (zamzamis) provide water drawn from the sacred well.
Since the late 1980s, the Saudis have been particularly energetic in catering to the needs of pilgrims. In 1988 a US$l5 billion traffic improvement scheme for the holy sites was launched. The improvement initiative resulted partly from Iranian charges that the Saudi government was incompetent to guard the holy sites after a 1987 clash between demonstrating Iranian pilgrims and Saudi police left 400 people dead. A further disaster occurred in 1990, when 1,426 pilgrims suffocated or were crushed to death in one of the new air-conditioned pedestrian tunnels built to shield pilgrims from the heat. The incident resulted from the panic that erupted in the overcrowded and inadequately ventilated tunnel, and further fueled Iranian claims that the Saudis did not deserve to be in sole charge of the holy places. In 1992, however, 114,000 Iranian pilgrims, close to the usual level, participated in the hajj.
To symbolize their leadership of the worldwide community of Muslims as well as their guardianship of the holy sites, Saudi kings address the pilgrimage gathering annually. The Saudis also provide financial assistance to aid selected groups of foreign Muslims to attend the hajj. In 1992, in keeping with its interests in proselytizing among Muslims in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, the Saudi government sponsored the pilgrimage for hundreds of Muslims from Azerbaijan, Tashkent, and Mongolia.

Islamism in Saudi Arabia

Islam by country

2008-05-01T01:00:00.001+09:00

Luis Fernando Monti (May 15, 1901 – September 9, 1983) was an Italian-Argentine football player who has the unique distinction of playing in two World Cup final matches with two different national teams. The first was with his native Argentina in 1930, which he lost to Uruguay. The second was for Italy as one of their Oriundi in 1934. This time Monti was on the winning side in a 2-1 victory over Czechoslovakia.
Monti was a rugged and ruthless player, but had good technical skills to go with his strong tackling. He played as an attacking centre half in the old-fashioned Metodo system: a position roughly equivalent to the defensive central midfield position today. As such he would mark the opposing centre forward when his team were defending, but would be the main midfield playmaker when his team were on the attack. He was nicknamed Doble ancho (Double wide) due to his coverage of the pitch.

Career in Argentina
In 1931 Monti was signed by the Italian club Juventus. However he was overweight and out of condition. A month's solitary training and Monti was back to top form helping Juve to four consecutive League Championship titles (1932-35). Monti went on to play 225 matches and score 19 goals in Serie A.
He was also called up, within a year, to play for the Italy national team as oriundo. Amid some controversy, hosts Italy won their way to the 1934 World Cup final and defeated Czechoslovakia 2-1. Monti had done it at last, albeit rather unconventionally.

2008-04-30T01:34:00.001+09:00

The annual surveys Economic Freedom of the World and Index of Economic Freedom are two indices which attempt to measure the degree of economic freedom, using a definition for this similar to laissez-faire capitalism, in the world's nations. These indices have in turn been used in many peer-reviewed studies which have found many beneficial effects of more economic freedom.[1][2] There are various criticisms, for example that the important part of economic freedom may be efficient rule of law and functioning property rights, rather than low taxes and a small state.

History

Methodology
The participants in the conferences reached a consensus that the cornerstones of economic freedom are:
The 2005 report states "When the functions of the minimal state—protection of people and their property from the actions of aggressors, enforcement of contracts, and provision of the limited set of public goods like roads, flood control projects, and money of stable value—are performed well, but the government does little else, a country's rating on the EFW summary index will be high. Correspondingly, as government expenditures increase and regulations expand, a country's rating will decline."
In practice, the index measures:
The report uses 38 distinct variables, from for example the World Bank, to measure this. Some examples: tax rates, degree of juridical independence, inflation rates, costs of importing, and regulated prices. Each of the 5 areas above are given equal weight in the final score.

Personal choice rather than collective choice,
Voluntary exchange coordinated by markets rather than allocation via the political process,
Freedom to enter and compete in markets, and
Protection of persons and their property from aggression by others.
Size of Government: Expenditures, Taxes, and Enterprises
Legal Structure and Security of Property Rights
Access to Sound Money
Freedom to Trade Internationally
Regulation of Credit, Labor, and Business Economic Freedom of the World
"The highest form of economic freedom provides an absolute right of property ownership, fully realized freedoms of movement for labor, capital, and goods, and an absolute absence of coercion or constraint of economic liberty beyond the extent necessary for citizens to protect and maintain liberty itself. In other words, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please, and that freedom is both protected by the state and unconstrained by the state."[3]
The index scores nations on 10 broad factors of economic freedom using statistics from organizations like the World Bank, the IMF and the Economist Intelligence Unit:
The 10 factors are averaged equally into a total score. Each one of the 10 freedoms is graded using a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 represents the maximum freedom. A score of 100 signifies an economic environment or set of policies that is most conducive to economic freedom.
There are detailed description of the conditions in each country at: http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/countries.cfm.

Business Freedom
Trade Freedom
Monetary Freedom
Freedom from Government
Fiscal Freedom
Property Rights
Investment Freedom
Financial Freedom
Freedom from Corruption
Labor Freedom Index of Economic Freedom
Hundreds of peer-reviewed articles have used these indices.[4][5] They have been used in, for example, economic research, political science, and environmental research.
Economic freedom has been shown to correlate strongly with higher average income per person, higher income of the poorest 10%, higher life expectancy, higher literacy, lower infant mortality, higher access to water sources and less corruption. The share of income in percent going to the poorest 10% is the same for both more and less economically free countries.[6]
The people living in the top one-fifth of the most free countries enjoy an average income of $23,450 and a growth rate in the 1990s of 2.56 percent per year; in contrast, the bottom one-fifth in the rankings had an average income of just $2,556 and a -0.85 percent growth rate in the 1990s. The poorest 10 percent of the population have an average income of just $728 in the least free countries compared with over $7,000 in the most free countries. The life expectancy of people living in the most free nations is 20 years longer than for people in the least free countries[7].
Regarding environmental health, studies have found no or a positive effect. More important may be the Kuznets curve. Many, but not all, environmental health indicators, such as water and air pollution, show an inverted U-shape: in the beginning of economic development, little weight is given to environmental concerns, raising pollution along with industrialization. After a threshold, when basic physical needs are met and there are funds available, interest in a clean environment rises, reversing the trend.[8]
One question has been what sub-components are responsible for economic growth. Functioning property rights, low corruption, and low inflation may be particularly important. Regarding the size of government and free trade there is much conflicting evidence.
An overview of research can be found here [9], including studies showing that more economic freedom is the cause of beneficial effects. It also states that Economic Freedom of the World has been used in most of the academic research, partly because Index of Economic Freedom only goes back to 1995 and because it uses more subjective variables.

Research
The above has had "at least some indirect effects" on economic policy in some nations. In Russia it influenced President Vladimir Putin, after he won the 2000 election, to adopt a flat tax and restructure the very high marginal payroll taxes that were causing massive tax evasion. Supporters argue that this has contributed to the strong economic growth in Russia in recent years. On the other hand, Russia still scores very low in both indices and the high oil prices have helped Russia's economy. Flat taxes have also been instituted in Latvia, Estonia, and Slovakia, and are discussed in several other nations. Iceland has cut several of its taxes, with advocates for this using the economic freedom model. A related index for Chinese provinces is followed by both Chinese scholars and policy makers. There is also a network of institutions in 59 different nations that use the index to promote free market ideas.[10].
Economic Freedom of the World 2005 states that the world economic freedom score has grown considerably in recent decades. The average score has increased from 5.17 in 1985 to 6.4 in the most recent available year. Of the nations in 1985, 95 nations increased their score, seven saw a decline, and six were unchanged.

Influence and trends
One criticism may be that this is simply a list of wealthy nations. However, economic wealth or high living standards are not used when scoring the nations. As noted above, proponents argue that there is evidence that one important explanation for the high wealth and living standards in these nations are that they have had high economic freedom in the past. Thus, while today Japan is much more wealthy than Estonia, since Estonia has a higher economic freedom, it may well be that in the future Estonia's economic wealth and living standards will grow faster than Japan's.
Another criticism is that for example China, and more generally several other developing nations, have high growth rates but relatively low economic freedom. However, developing nations should generally have higher growth rates than developed nations, since, for example, they are catching up and do not need to research new technologies initially. China started with very high poverty and very low economic freedom. "To be sure, China's economic freedom measures just 54 percent in 2007. But 30 years ago in 1977, the measure would have been near zero. By quietly setting aside Maoist dogma in 1978, the introduction of property rights for small farmers by Deng Xiaopeng initiated a revolution in economic freedom. As Milton Friedman anticipated, this small infusion had dramatic and positive effects. Within a few years, the Communist Party was promoting the slogan 'It is glorious to be rich.' Looking back, China's economic freedom has grown by 1 or 2 percentage points every year for 30 years, and the economy grew along with it: a growth-growth relationship." Chinese growth may slow if the reforms do not continue.[11]
Some critics have asked, for instance, that Canada's slightly higher income tax rates make it a less economically free country than the United States. Critics of the index's methodology take issue with its equation of low tax rates and weak labor regulations with economic freedom. Some critics go further, saying that the index judges countries against a specious list of 'ideal' economic and fiscal policies, which reflect the creators' own laissez-faire economic and fiscal policy ideas more than they do a substantive concept of economic freedom. For such critics, the list is simply a promotional tool for laissez-faire policy, rather than a meaningful index of economically free countries.
In response, proponents point out that most of the research using the indices has been done by independent researchers with no connection to creators of the indices. The research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed papers. Such peer-review includes the methodology used in creating the indices. That the creators of the indices may support laissez-faire capitalism does not invalidate the empirical research. Such criticism can be seen as ad hominem.
The independent research does not necessarily support all of the ideals of laissez-faire. For example, when examining the effects of subcomponents of the index, any positive effect that a low level of taxes might have is much more disputed than the importance of rule of law, lack of political corruption, low inflation, and functioning property rights. Some of the highest ranking countries in the Index, for example Iceland (# 5), Denmark (# 8), Finland (# 12) and Sweden (# 19) are widely recognized as having some of the world's most extensive welfare states, which are strongly opposed by advocates of laissez-faire.
Research using the Ease of Doing Business Index suggests that the effect of business regulations is more important than government consumption.[12] The Global Competitiveness Report looks at several other factors that also affect economic growth such as infrastructure, health, and education.
The World Bank is a strong supporter of the importance of economic growth for reducing poverty. However, the World Bank does not believe that laissez-faire policies, if they allow large inequalities of wealth to develop, are an effective way to achieve this goal. It argues that an overview of many studies shows that:

Growth is fundamental for poverty reduction, and in principle growth as such does not seem to affect inequality.
Growth accompanied by a more egalitarian distribution of wealth is better than growth alone.
High initial income inequality is a brake on poverty reduction.
Poverty itself is also likely to be a barrier for poverty reduction; and wealth inequality seems to predict lower future growth rates.[13] Index of Economic Freedom
A summary of the current index (2005), published in 2007. A full dataset is available for researchers at 2007 Dataset / Free the World

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This article is about Ashkenazi Jews. For people with Ashkenazi as a surname, see Ashkenazi (surname).
8 Most Jewish communities with extended histories in Europe are Ashkenazim, with the exception of those associated with the Mediterranean region. A significant portion of the Jews who migrated from Europe to other continents in the past two centuries are Eastern Ashkenazim, particularly in the United States (which has the largest Ashkenazi population in the world and thus second-largest Jewish population in the world) .

Who is an Ashkenazi Jew?
Religious Jews have Minhagim, customs, in addition to Halakha, or religious law, and different interpretations of law. Different groups of religious Jews in different geographic areas historically adopted different customs and interpretations. On certain issues, Orthodox Jews are required to follow the customs of their ancestors, and do not regard themselves as having the option of picking and choosing. Therefore, observant Jews at times find it important for religious reasons to ascertain who their household's religious ancestors are in order to know what customs their household should follow. These times include, for example, when two Jews of different ethnic background marry, when a non-Jew converts to Judaism and determines what customs to follow for the first time, or when a lapsed or less observant Jew returns to traditional Judaism and must determine what was done in his or her family's past. In this sense, "Ashkenazic" refers both to a family ancestry and to a body of customs binding on Jews of that ancestry.
In a religious sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is any Jew whose family tradition and ritual follows Ashkenazi practice. When the Ashkenazi community first began to develop in the Early Middle Ages and until the 9th century, the centers of Jewish religious authority were in the Islamic world, at Baghdad and in Islamic Spain. Ashkenaz (Germany) was so distant geographically that it developed a minhag of its own, and Ashkenazi Hebrew came to be pronounced in ways distinct from other forms of Hebrew.
In this respect, the counterpart of Ashkenazi is Sephardic, since most non-Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews follow Sephardic rabbinical authorities, whether or not they are ethnically Sephardic. By tradition, a Sephardic or Mizrahi woman who marries into an Orthodox or Haredi Ashkenazi Jewish family raises her children to be Ashkenazi Jews, and a gentile who converts to Judaism and takes on Ashkenazi religious practices becomes an Ashkenazi Jew.
Traditional Jewish law or Halacha considers a person who has undergone a formal religious conversion to be a Jew, but it also defines who is a Jew by ancestry, following the maternal lineage, irrespective of belief. According to Halakha, membership in a synagogue or local Jewish community make one a Jew, and a person who no longer wishes to be a Jew is still considered to be Jewish. Outside the State of Israel, no central authority or ruling body in Judaism determines who is a Jew. More religiously liberal and secular Jews have different approaches to accepting the Jewish heritage.
Since by tradition, Jewish status is inherited and follows the maternal lineage, someone who is maternally descended from a Jew, even if totally unaware of their Jewish heritage, or even if a practitioner of another religion, is from a traditional Jewish legal perspective still a Jew. Likewise, a person born of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother is not considered Jewish by traditional Jewish law, even if they were raised to believe they were Jewish.
As a result of both difficulties caused applying of the traditional rules in the face of wide-spread intermarriage in less tradional Jewish circles and ideological perspectives (egalitarianism), Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism adopted an approach of single-parent descent irrespective of gender.
The following examples illustrate Jewish identity issues from the perspective of Halachah:
With the reintegration of Jews from around the world in Israel, North America, and other places, the religious definition of an Ashkenazi Jew is blurring, especially outside of Orthodox Judaism. Many Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews have joined liberal movements that originally developed within Ashkenazi Judaism. At least in recent decades, the congregations they have joined have often embraced them, and absorbed new traditions into their minhag. Rabbis and Cantors in all non-Orthodox movements study Hebrew in Israel, learning Sephardic rather than Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation. Ashkenazi congregations are adopting Sephardic or modern Israeli melodies for many prayers and traditional songs. Since the middle of the 20th century there has been a gradual syncretism and fusion of traditions, and this is affecting the minhag of all but the most traditional congregations.
New developments in Judaism often transcend differences in religious practice between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. In North American cities, social trends such as the chavurah movement, and the emergence of post-denominational Judaism

Apostasy. A Jew who converts to another religion, though an apostate, is still considered a Jew. Anton Rubinstein, who converted to Eastern Christianity was an Ashkenazi Jew.
Atheism. A Jew who becomes an atheist is still considered a Jew. Karl Marx, an atheist whose Jewish mother and father had converted to Christianity before he was born, was an Ashkenazi Jew.
Hidden Identity. A Jew whose identity was hidden, who was raised in another religion, is still considered a Jew. Madeleine Albright, the former US Secretary of State whose Jewish parents converted to Catholicism to escape persecution in the Holocaust and then hid their ancestry, is an Ashkenazi Jew, even though she did not know of her "identity" until she became an adult, and was a professing Catholic. Later in life, she joined the Episcopal Church in the USA.
Renunciation. A Jew who renounces and even condemns Judaism is still considered a Jew. Bobby Fischer, the international chess star who has claimed that the Holocaust was a Jewish invention and a lie, had a Hungarian Jewish mother and is by halachic definition, still considered to be an Ashkenazi Jew. Religious definition
In a cultural sense, an Ashkenazi Jew can be identified by the concept of Yiddishkeit, a word that literally means "Jewishness" in the Yiddish language. Of course, there are other kinds of Jewishness. Yiddishkeit is simply the Jewishness of Ashkenazi Jews.
Before the Haskalah and the emancipation of Jews in Europe, this meant the study of Torah and Talmud for men, and a family and communal life governed by the observance of Jewish Law for men and women. From the Rhineland to Riga to Romania, most Jews prayed in liturgical Ashkenazi Hebrew, and spoke some dialect of Yiddish in their secular lives.
But with modernization, Yiddishkeit now encompasses not just Orthodoxy and Hasidism, but a broad range of movements, ideologies, practices, and traditions in which Ashkenazi Jews have participated and somehow retained a sense of Jewishness. Although few Jews still speak Yiddish, Yiddishkeit can be identified in manners of speech, in styles of humor, in patterns of association. Broadly speaking, a Jew is one who associates culturally with Jews, supports Jewish institutions, reads Jewish books and periodicals, attends Jewish movies and theater, travels to Israel, visits ancient synagogues in Prague, and so forth. It is a definition that applies to Jewish culture in general, and to Ashkenazi Yiddishkeit in particular.
Contemporary population migrations have contributed to a reconfigured Jewishness among Jews of Ashkenazi descent that transcends Yiddishkeit and other traditional articulations of Ashkenazi Jewishness. As Ashkenazi Jews moved away from Eastern Europe, settling mostly in Israel, North America, and other English speaking countries, the geographic isolation which gave rise to Ashkenazim has given way to mixing with other cultures, and with non-Ashkenazi Jews who, similarly, are no longer isolated in distinct geographic locales. For Ashkenazi Jews living in Eastern Europe, chopped liver and gefiltefish were archetypal Jewish foods. To contemporary Ashkenazi Jews living both in Israel and in the diaspora, Middle Eastern foods such as hummus and falafel, neither traditional to the historic Ashkenazi experience, have become central to their lives as Ashkenazi Jews in the current era. Hebrew has replaced Yiddish as the primary Jewish language for the vast majority of Ashkenazi Jews.
France's blended Jewish community is typical of the cultural recombination that is going on among Jews throughout the world. Although France expelled its original Jewish population in the Middle Ages, by the time of the French Revolution, there were two distinct Jewish populations. One consisted of Sephardic Jews, originally refugees from the Inquisition and concentrated in the southwest, while the other community was Ashkenazi, concentrated in Alsace, and spoke mainly Yiddish. The two communities were so separate and so different that the National Assembly emancipated them separately in 1791 . But after emancipation, a sense of a unified French Jewry emerged, especially when France was wracked by the Dreyfuss affair in the 1890s. In the 1920s and 1930s, Ashkenazi Jews arrived in large numbers as refugees from antisemitism, the Russian revolution, and the economic turmoil of the Great Depression. By the 1930s, Paris had a vibrant Yiddish culture, and many Jews were involved in radical political movements. After the Vichy years and the Holocaust, the French Jewish population was augmented once again, first by refugees from Eastern Europe, and later by immigrants and refugees from North Africa, many of them francophone. Then, in the 1990s, yet another Ashkenazi Jewish wave began to arrive from countries of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The result is a pluralistic Jewish community that still has some distinct elements of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic culture. But in France, it is becoming much more difficult to sort out the two, and a distinctly French Jewishness has emerged.

Cultural definition
In an ethnic sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is one whose ancestry can be traced to the Jews of central and Eastern Europe. For roughly a thousand years, the Ashkenazi Jews were a reproductively isolated population in Europe, despite living in many countries, with little inflow or outflow from migration, conversion, or intermarriage with other groups, including other Jews. Human geneticists have identified genetic variations that have high frequencies among Ashkenazi Jews, but not in the general European population. This is more true for patrilineal markers (Y-chromosome haplotypes) than for matrilineal markers (mitochondrial haplotypes).
But since the middle of the 20th century, many Ashkenazi Jews have intermarried, both with members of other Jewish communities and with people of other nations and faiths, while some Jews have also adopted children from other ethnic groups or parts of the world and raised them as Jews. Conversion to Judaism, rare for nearly 2000 years, has become more common. Jewish women and families who choose artificial insemination often choose a biological father who is not Jewish, to avoid common autosomal recessive genetic diseases. Orthodox religious authorities actually encourage this, because of the danger that a Jewish donor could be a mamzer. Thus, the concept of Ashkenazi Jews as a distinct ethnic people, especially in ways that can be defined ancestrally and therefore traced genetically, has also blurred considerably.

Ethnic definition
In Israel the term Ashkenazi is now used in ways that have nothing to do with its original meaning. In practice, the label Ashkenazi is often applied to all Jews of European background living in Israel, including those whose ethnic background is actually Sephardic. Jews of any non-Ashkenazi background, including Mizrahi, Yemenite, Kurdish, and others having no connection at all with the Iberian Peninsula, have similarly come to be lumped together as Sephardic. Jews of mixed background are increasingly common, partly because of intermarriage between Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi partners, and partly because some do not identify with such historic markers as relevant to their life experiences as Jews.
Religious Ashkenazi Jews living in Israel are obliged to follow the authority of the chief Ashkenazi rabbi in halakhic matters. In this respect, a religiously Ashkenazi Jew is an Israeli who is more likely to support certain religious interests in Israel, including certain political parties. These political parties result from the fact that a portion of the Israeli electorate votes for Jewish religious parties: although the electoral map changes from one election to another, there are generally several small parties associated with the interests of religious Ashkenazi Jews. The role of religious parties, including small religious parties which play important roles as coalition members, results in turn from Israel's composition as a complex society in which competing social, economic, and religious interests stand for election to the Knesset, a unicameral legislature with 120 seats. Each political party in Israel produces a list, and members stand for election as a party. Since Israel is a democracy, all citizens have the right to vote, whether they are Jewish or not (i.e. Muslim, Christian, Druze, or Samaritan). After an election is held, the party with the most seats negotiates with other parties to create a majority coalition.

Realignment in Israel
Although the historical record itself is very limited, there is a consensus of cultural, linguistic, and genetic evidence that the Ashkenazi Jewish population originated in the Middle East. When they arrived in northern France and the Rhineland sometime around 800-1000 CE, the Ashkenazi Jews brought with them both Rabbinic Judaism and the Babylonian Talmudic culture that underlies it. Yiddish, once spoken by the vast majority of Ashkenazi Jewry, is a Jewish language which developed from the Middle High German vernacular, heavily influenced by Hebrew and Aramaic. (By comparison, the Greek or Latin influence on Yiddish was much less significant). Recent research in human genetics has also demonstrated that a significant component of Ashkenazi ancestry is Middle Eastern.
European Jews came to be called "Ashkenaz" because the main centers of Jewish learning were located in Germany. "Ashkenaz" is a Medieval Hebrew name for Germany. (See Usage of the name for the term's etymology.)

Origins of Ashkenazim
After the forced Jewish exile from Jerusalem in 70 CE and the complete Roman takeover of Judea following the Bar Kochba rebellion of 132-135 CE, Jews continued to be a majority of the population in Palestine for several hundred years. However, the Romans no longer recognized the authority of the Sanhedrin or any other Jewish body, and Jews were prohibited from living in Jerusalem. Outside the Roman Empire, a large Jewish community remained in Mesopotamia. Other Jewish populations could be found dispersed around the Mediterranean region, with the largest concentrations in the Levant, Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, including Rome itself. Smaller communities are recorded in southern Gaul (France), Spain, and North Africa. In Palestine and Mesopotamia, the spoken language of Jews continued to be Aramaic, but elsewhere in the diaspora, most Jews spoke Greek. Conversion and assimilation were especially common within the Hellenized or Greek-speaking Jewish communities, amongst whom the Septuagint and Aquila of Sinope (Greek translations and adaptations of the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible) were the source of scripture. A remnant of this Greek-speaking Jewish population (the Romaniotes) survives to this day.
The Germanic invasions of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century by tribes such as the Visigoths, Franks, Lombards, and Vandals caused massive economic and social instability within the western Empire, contributing to its decline. In the late Roman Empire, Jews are known to have lived in Cologne and Trier, as well as in what is now France. However, it is unclear whether there is any continuity between these late Roman communities and the distinct Ashkenazi Jewish culture that began to emerge about 500 years later. King Dagobert of the Franks expelled the Jews from his Merovingian kingdom in 629. Jews in former Roman territories now faced new challenges as harsher anti-Jewish Church rulings were enforced.

Background in the Roman Empire
In Mesopotamia, and in Persian lands free of Roman imperial domination, Jewish life fared much better. Since the conquest of Judea by Nebuchadrezzar II, this community had always been the leading diaspora community, a rival to the leadership of Palestine. After conditions for Jews began to deteriorate in Roman controlled lands, many of the religious leaders of Judea and the Galilee fled to the east. At the academies of Pumbeditha and Sura near Babylon, Rabbinic Judaism based on Talmudic learning began to emerge and assert its authority over Jewish life throughout the diaspora. Rabbinic Judaism created a religious mandate for literacy, requiring all Jewish males to learn Hebrew and read from the Torah. This emphasis on literacy and learning a second language would eventually be of great benefit to the Jews, allowing them to take on commercial and financial roles within Gentile societies where literacy was often quite low.
After the Islamic conquest of the Middle East and North Africa, new opportunities for trade and commerce opened between the Middle East and Western Europe. The vast majority of Jews in the world now lived in Islamic lands. Urbanization, trade, and commerce within the Islamic world allowed Jews, as a highly literate people, to abandon farming and live in cities, engaging in occupations where they could use their skills. The influential, sophisticated, and well organized Jewish community of Mesopotamia, now centered in Baghdad, became the center of the Jewish world. In the Caliphate of Baghdad, Jews took on many of the financial occupations that they would later hold in the cities of Ashkenaz. Jewish traders from Baghdad began to travel to the west, renewing Jewish life in the western Mediterranean region. They brought with them Rabbinic Judaism and Babylonian Talmudic scholarship.
After 800 CE, Charlemagne's unification of former Frankish lands with northern Italy and Rome brought on a brief period of stability and unity in Western Europe. This created opportunities for Jewish merchants to settle once again north of the Alps. Charlemagne granted the Jews in his lands freedoms similar to those once enjoyed under the Roman Empire. Returning once again to Frankish lands, many Jewish merchants took on occupations in finance and commerce, including moneylending or usury. (Church legislation banned Christians from lending money in exchange for interest.) From Charlemagne's time on to the present, there is a well documented record of Jewish life in northern Europe, and by the 11th century, when Rashi of Troyes wrote his commentaries, Ashkenazi Jews had emerged also as interpreters and commentators on the Torah and Talmud.

Rabbinic Judaism moves to Ashkenaz
Efforts to identify the origins of Ashkenazi Jews through DNA analysis began in the 1990s. Like most DNA studies of human migration patterns, these studies have focused on two segments of the human genome, the Y chromosome (inherited only by males), and the mitochondrial genome (DNA which passes from mother to child). Both segments are unaffected by recombination. Thus, they provide an indicator of paternal and maternal origins, respectively.
A study of haplotypes of the Y chromosome, published in 2000, addressed the paternal origins of Ashkenazi Jews. Hammer et al

DNA clues
Historical records show evidence of Jewish communities north of the Alps and Pyrenees as early as the 8th and 9th Century. By the early 900s, Jewish populations were well-established in Northern Europe, and later followed the Norman Conquest into England in 1066, also settling in the Rhineland. With the onset of the Crusades, and the expulsions from England (1290), France (1394), and parts of Germany (1400s), Jewish migration pushed eastward into Poland, Lithuania, and Russia. Over this period of several hundred years, some have suggested, Jewish economic activity was focused on trade, business management, and financial services, due to Christian European prohibitions restricting certain activities by Jews, and preventing certain financial activities (such as "usurious" loans) between Christians. Poland in this time was a decentralized medieval monarchy, incorporating lands from Latvia to Rumania, including much of modern Lithuania and Ukraine. This area, which eventually fell under the domination of Russia, Austria, and Prussia (Germany), would remain the main center of Ashkenazi Jewry until the Holocaust.

Ashkenazi migrations throughout the High and Late Middle Ages
In reference to the Jewish peoples of Northern Europe and particularly the Rhineland, the word Ashkenazi is often found in medieval rabbinic literature. References to Ashkenaz in Yosippon and Hasdai ibn Shaprut's letter to the king of the Khazars would date the term as far back as the tenth century, as would also Saadia Gaon's commentary on Daniel 7:8.
The word "Ashkenaz" first appears in the genealogy in the Tanakh (Genesis 10) as a son of Gomer and grandson of Japheth. It is thought that the name originally applied to the Scythians (Ishkuz), who were called Ashkuza in Assyrian inscriptions, and lake Ascanius and the region Ascania in Anatolia derive their names from this group. The "Ashkuza" have also been linked to the Oghuz branch of Turks including nearly all Turkic peoples today from Turkey to Turkmenistan.
Ashkenaz in later Hebrew tradition became identified with the peoples of Germany, and in particular to the area along the Rhine where the Alamanni tribe once lived (compare the French and Spanish words Allemagne and Alemania, respectively, for Germany).
The autonym was usually Yidn, however.

Usage of the name
In the first half of the eleventh century, Hai Gaon refers to questions that had been addressed to him from "Ashkenaz", by which he undoubtedly means Germany. Rashi in the latter half of the eleventh century refers to both the language of Ashkenaz

Customs, laws and traditions
Part of a series of articles on Jews and Judaism
Who is a Jew? · Etymology · Culture
Judaism · Core principles God · Tanakh (Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim) Mitzvot (613) · Talmud · Halakha Holidays · Prayer · Tzedakah Ethics · Kabbalah · Customs · Midrash
Jewish ethnic divisions Ashkenazi · Sephardi · Mizrahi
Population (historical) · By country Israel · Iran · Australia · USA Russia/USSR · Poland · Canada Germany · France · England · Scotland India · Spain · Portugal · Latin America Under Muslim rule · Turkey · Iraq · Lebanon · Syria Lists of Jews · Crypto-Judaism
Jewish denominations · Rabbis Orthodox · Conservative · Reform Reconstructionist · Liberal · Karaite Humanistic · Renewal · Alternative
Jewish languages Hebrew · Yiddish · Judeo-Persian Ladino · Judeo-Aramaic · Judeo-Arabic History · Timeline · Leaders Ancient · Temple · Babylonian exile Jerusalem (in Judaism · Timeline) Hasmoneans · Sanhedrin · Schisms Pharisees · Jewish-Roman wars Relationship with Christianity; with Islam Diaspora · Middle Ages · Sabbateans Hasidism · Haskalah · Emancipation Holocaust · Aliyah · Israel (History) Arab conflict · Land of Israel
Persecution · Antisemitism History of antisemitism New antisemitism
Political movements · Zionism Labor Zionism · Revisionist Zionism Religious Zionism · General Zionism The Bund · World Agudath Israel Jewish feminism · Israeli politics
The term Ashkenazi also refers to the nusach Ashkenaz (Hebrew, "liturgical tradition", or rite) used by Ashkenazi Jews in their Siddur (prayer book). A nusach is defined by a liturgical tradition's choice of prayers, order of prayers, text of prayers and melodies used in the singing of prayers. Two other major forms of nusach among Ashkenazic Jews are Nusach Sphard (not to be confused with Sephardi), which is the same as the general Polish (Hasidic) Nusach; and Nusach Chabad, otherwise known as Lubavitch Chasidic, Nusach Arizal or Nusach he'Ari.
This phrase is often used in contrast with Sephardi Jews, also called Sephardim, who are descendants of Jews from Spain and Portugal. There are some differences in how the two groups pronounce Hebrew and in points of ritual.
Several famous people have this as a surname, such as Vladimir Ashkenazi. Ironically, most people with this surname are in fact Sephardi, and usually of Syrian Jewish background. This family name was adopted by the families who lived in Sephardi countries and were of Ashkenazic origins, after being nicknamed Ashkenazi by their respective communities. Some have shortened the name to Ash. Other spellings exist, such as Eskenazi by the Syrian Jews who relocated to Panama and other South-American Jewish communities.
Literature about the alleged Turkic origin of the Ashkenazi population, as descendants of the Jewish population, converts or otherwise, appeared mainly after 1950. Although it has been speculated that the peaceful life lived by the Jews of Khazaria was contrived or exaggerated, and publicized primarily in an effort to shame European leaders into treating their Jewish populations better, the Jewish-Khazar thesis is used today primarily as a whipping horse for antisemites claiming that they are not antisemites. This dubious theory holds that Ashkenazi Jews should be hated for pretending to be Jews, instead of because they actually are Jews. In any case, most scholarship on the subject dismisses the Khazar-Ashkenazi relationship, if not rejecting the portrayed Jewish golden age of Khazaria altogether.
See also: Jew, Judaism, Rabbenu Gershom

Relationship to other Jews
There are many references to Ashkenazi Jews in the literature of medical and population genetics. Indeed, much awareness of "Ashkenazi Jews" as an ethnic group or category stems from the large number of genetic studies of disease, including many that are well reported in the media, that have been conducted among Jews. According to Daphna Birenbaum Carmeli at the University of Haifa, Jewish populations have been studied more thoroughly than most other human populations, for a variety of reasons:
The result is a form of ascertainment bias. This has sometimes created an impression that Jews are more susceptible to genetic disease than other populations. Carmeli writes, "Jews are over-represented in human genetic literature, particularly in mutation-related contexts."

Jewish populations, and particularly the large Ashkenazi Jewish population, are ideal for such research studies, because they exhibit a high degree of endogamy, yet they are sizable.
Geneticists are intrinsically interested in Jewish populations, and a disproportionate percentage of genetics researchers are Jewish. Israel in particular has become an international center of such research.
Jewish populations are overwhelmingly urban, and are concentrated near biomedical centers where such research has been carried out. Such research is especially easy to carry out in Israel, where cradle-to-grave medical insurance is available, together with universal screening for genetic disease.
Jewish communities are comparatively well informed about genetics research, and have been supportive of community efforts to study and prevent genetic diseases.
Participation of Jewish scientists and support from the Jewish community alleviates ethical concerns that sometimes hinder such genetic studies in other ethnic groups. Population genetics
Diseases that are inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern often occur in endogamous populations. Among Ashkenazi Jews, a higher incidence of specific hereditary diseases has been reported:
Genetic counseling and genetic testing are recommended for couples where both partners are of Ashkenazi ancestry. Some organizations, most notably Dor Yeshorim, organize screening programs to prevent homozygosity for the genes that cause these diseases. See Jewish Genetics Center for more information on testing programmes.

Bloom syndrome
Breast cancer and ovarian cancer (due to higher distribution of BRCA1 and BRCA2).
Canavan disease
Colorectal cancer due to hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC).
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (non-classical form)
Crohn's disease (the NOD2/CARD15 locus appears to be implicated)
Cystic fibrosis
Familial dysautonomia (Riley-Day Syndrome)
Fanconi anemia
Gaucher's disease
Hemophilia C
Mucolipidosis IV
Niemann-Pick disease
Pemphigus vulgaris
Tay-Sachs disease
Torsion dystonia
Von Gierke disease Specific diseases
In an essay on Sephardi Jewry, Daniel Elazar at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Ashkenazi cultural growth led to the Haskalah or Jewish Enlightenment, and the development of Zionism in modern Europe.

Modern history
Of the estimated 8.8 million Jews living in Europe at the beginning of World War II, the majority of whom were Ashkenazi, about 6 million — more than two-thirds — were systematically murdered in the Holocaust. These included 3 million of 3.3 million Polish Jews (91%); 900,000 of 1.1 million in Ukraine (82%); and 50-90% of the Jews of other Slavic nations, Germany, France, Hungary, and the Baltic states. The only non-Ashkenazi community to have suffered similar depletions were the Jews of Greece. but probably less than half of Israeli Jews (see Demographics of Israel). Nevertheless they have traditionally played a prominent role in the media, economy and politics of Israel. Tensions have sometimes arisen between the mostly Ashkenazi elite whose families founded the state, and later migrants from various non-Ashkenazi groups, who argue that they are discriminated against.

Achievement

Abraham Isaac Kook : (23 Feb 1921 - 1 Sep 1935)
Isaac Halevi Herzog : (1937 - 25 Jul 1959)
Isser Yehuda Unterman : (1964 - 1972)
Shlomo Goren : (1972 - 1983)
Avraham Shapira : (1983 - 1993)
Israel Meir Lau : (1993 - 3 Apr 2003)
She'ar-Yashuv Cohen (acting): (3 Apr 2003 - 14 Apr 2003)
Yona Metzger : (14 Apr 2003 - present) See also

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Nola is a city of Campania, Italy, in the province of Naples, situated in the plain between Mount Vesuvius and the Apennines. It is served by the Circumvesuviana railway from Naples.

History
Nola in Bronze Age times was the site of a settlement that has yielded evidence of the destructive power of an eruption by Mount Vesuvius between 1700BC and 1600BC (the Avellino eruption) almost 2000 years before the eruption that buried Roman Pompeii & Herculaneum. Excavations revealed extensive evidence of a small village abandoned quickly by its occupants at the time of the eruption so that a wide range of pottery and other artifacts were left behind to survive with the imprint of buildings in the mud from the eruption. A short article [1] published by the Archaeological Institute of America appears in Archaeology.
Called Nuvlana on the most ancient coins, was one of the oldest cities of Campania, Nola is variously said to have been founded by the Ausones, the Chalcidians from Cumae and the Etruscans. The last-named were certainly in Nola about 560 BC. At the time when it sent assistance to Neapolis against the Roman invasion (328 BC) it was probably occupied by Oscans in alliance with the Samnites. In the Samnite War (311 BC) the town was taken by the Romans, in the Second Punic War it thrice offered defiance to Hannibal (first, second, and third Battle of Nola) and on two occasions (215 and 214) was defended by Marcellus. In the Social War it was betrayed into the hands of the Samnites, who kept possession till Marius, with whom they had sided, was defeated by Sulla, who in 80 BC subjected it with the rest of Samnium. Seven years later it was stormed by Spartacus, for which reason Augustus and Vespasian sent colonies there.
Nola, though losing much of its importance, remained a municipium with its own institutions and the use of the Oscan language. It became a Roman colony under Augustus, who died there in 14 AD. Later it became an important site of Christian pilgrimage and hospitality, after the Christian senator Paulinus relocated to the town, eventually becoming bishop.
Nola lay on the Via Popilia from Capua to Nocera Inferiore and the south, and a branch road ran from it to Abella and Avellino. Mommsen (Corp. inscr. Lat. X. 142) further states that roads must have run direct from Nola to Neapolis and Pompeii, but Kiepert's map annexed to the volume does not indicate them.

Middle Ages and Modern era
Nola today is an important town close to Naples. However, most of its territory and ecomony are well under the control of the camorra.
A major camorra's activity is the illegal treatment of urban, chemical and industrial wastes in the countryside located in the region between Nola, Acerra and Marigliano. This formerly rich and green countryside is sometimes now called the "Death Triangle".
The scientific journal The Lancet Oncology published in 2004 a study by the Italian researcher Alfredo Mazza, a physiologist at the Italian CNR (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche): this study revealed the terrible situation in the countryside around Marigliano and the negative impact on the people's health. He demonstrated that the deaths by cancer are much higher than average in that region with respect the European average.

Nola today
In the days of its independence Nola issued an important series of coins, and in luxury it vied with Capua. A large number of vases of Greek style were manufactured here and have been found in the neighbourhood. Their material is of pale yellow clay with shining black glaze, and they are decorated with skilfully drawn red figures. Of the ancient city, which occupied the same site as the modern town, hardly any thing is now visible, and the discoveries of the ancient street pavement have not been noted with sufficient care to enable us to recover the plan.
Numerous ruins, an amphitheatre, still recognizable, a theatre, a temple of Augustus, etc., existed in the 16th century, and were then used for building material. A few tombs of the Roman period are preserved. The neighbourhood was divided into pagi, the names of some of which are preserved to us (Pagus Agrifanus, Capriculanus, Lanitanus). Prehistoric findings are also housed in the Archaeological Museum.
There is also a monument to Giordano Bruno, who was born at Castelcicala, a locality near Nola, in 1548.

The ancient Gothic cathedral (restored in 1866, and again in 1870 after the interior was destroyed by fire), with its lofty tower.
Basilica di San Tommaso, built in the 3rd century but renovated. It has frescoes from the 9th-11th centuries depicting stories of Christ.
Basilica of SS. Apostoli, built, according to tradition, in 95 AD. Rebuilt in 1190, it was the city's cathedral until 1593. It was decorated in Baroque style in the 1740s.
Palazzo Orsini (built in 1470, although modified later).
The Late-Renaissance church of San Biagio, decorated with polychrome marbles and paintings from some of the most renowned 17th century Neapolitan painters.
The seminary in which are preserved the famous Oscan inscription known as the Cippus Abellanus (from Abella, the modern Avella) and some Latin inscriptions relating to a treaty with Nola regarding a joint temple of Hercules.
Castle of Cicala, in the neighbourhood. Famous people
Two fairs are held in Nola, on June 14 and November 12. June 22 or the first Sunday after is devoted to a great festival ("La Festa Dei Gigli" or "The Festival of the Lillies") in honor of St. Paulinus.

2008-04-26T01:52:00.000+09:00

American Indian and Alaska Native One race: 2.5 million
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which are still enduring as political communities. There is a wide range of terms used, and some controversy surrounding their use: they are variously known as American Indians, Indians, Amerindians, Amerinds, or Indigenous, Aboriginal or Original Americans.
Not all Native Americans come from the contiguous U.S. Some come from Alaska, Hawaii and other insular regions. These other indigenous peoples, including Alaskan Native groups such as the Inupiaq, Yupik Eskimos, and Aleuts, are not always counted as Native Americans, although Census 2000 demographics listed "American Indian and Alaskan Native" collectively. Native Hawaiians (also known as Kanaka Māoli and Kanaka ʻOiwi) and various other Pacific Islander American peoples, such as the Chamorros (Chamoru), can also be considered Native American, but it is not common to use such a designation.

European colonization
The European colonization of the Americas nearly obliterated the populations and cultures of the Native Americans. During the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries, their populations were ravaged by conflicts with European explorers and colonists, disease, displacement, enslavement as well as internal warfare. Scholars now believe that, among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the American natives.

Initial impacts
Spanish explorers of the early 16th century were probably the first Europeans to interact with the native population of Florida.

Early relations
During the American Revolutionary War, the newly proclaimed United States competed with the British for the allegiance of Native American nations east of the Mississippi River. Most Native Americans who joined the struggle sided with the British, hoping to use the war to halt further colonial expansion onto Native American land. Many native communities were divided over which side to support in the war. For the Iroquois Confederacy, the American Revolution resulted in civil war. Cherokees split into a neutral (or pro-American) faction and the anti-American Chickamaugas, led by Dragging Canoe.
Frontier warfare during the American Revolution was particularly brutal, and numerous atrocities were committed by settlers and native tribes. Noncombatants suffered greatly during the war, and villages and food supplies were frequently destroyed during military expeditions. The largest of these expeditions was the Sullivan Expedition of 1779, which destroyed more than 40 Iroquois villages in order to neutralize Iroquois raids in upstate New York. The expedition failed to have the desired effect: Native American activity became even more determined.

Relations during and after the American Revolutionary War
See also: List of Indian reservations in the United States
In the nineteenth century, the incessant Westward expansion of the United States incrementally compelled large numbers of Native Americans to resettle further west, often by force, almost always reluctantly. Under President Andrew Jackson, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which authorized the President to conduct treaties to exchange Native American land east of the Mississippi River for lands west of the river. As many as 100,000 Native Americans eventually relocated in the West as a result of this Indian Removal policy. In theory, relocation was supposed to be voluntary (and many Native Americans did remain in the East), but in practice great pressure was put on Native American leaders to sign removal treaties. Arguably the most egregious violation of the stated intention of the removal policy was the Treaty of New Echota, which was signed by a dissident faction of Cherokees, but not the elected leadership. The treaty was brutally enforced by President Andrew Jackson, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated four thousand Cherokees on the Trail of Tears.
The explicit policy of Indian Removal forced or coerced the relocation of major Native American groups in both the Southeast and the Northeast United States, resulting directly and indirectly in the deaths of tens of thousands. The subsequent process of assimilations was no less devastating to Native American peoples. Tribes were generally located to reservations on which they could more easily be separated from traditional life and pushed into European-American society. Some Southern states additionally enacted laws in the 19th century forbidding non-Indian settlement on Indian lands, intending to prevent sympathetic white missionaries from aiding the scattered Indian resistance.
The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 gave United States citizenship to Native Americans, in part because of an interest by many to see them merged with the American mainstream, and also because of the heroic service of many Native American veterans in World War I.

Removal and reservations
There are 561 federally recognized tribal governments in the United States. These tribes possess the right to form their own government, to enforce laws (both civil and criminal), to tax, to establish membership, to license and regulate activities, to zone and to exclude persons from tribal territories. Limitations on tribal powers of self-government include the same limitations applicable to states; for example, neither tribes nor states have the power to make war, engage in foreign relations, or coin money (this includes paper currency).

Current status
See also: Blood quantum laws
Intertribal and interracial mixing was common among Native American tribes making it difficult to clearly identify which tribe an individual belonged to. Bands or entire tribes occasionally split or merged to form more viable groups in reaction to the pressures of climate, disease and warfare. A number of tribes practiced the adoption of captives into their group to replace their members who had been captured or killed in battle. These captives came from rival tribes and later from European settlers. Some tribes also sheltered or adopted white traders and runaway slaves and Native American-owned slaves. So a number of paths to genetic mixing existed.
In later years, such mixing, however, proved an obstacle to qualifying for recognition and assistance from the U.S. federal government or for tribal money and services. To receive such support, Native Americans must belong to and be certified by a recognized tribal entity. This has taken a number of different forms as each tribal government makes its own rules while the federal government has its own set of standards. In many cases, qualification is based upon the percentage of Native American blood, or the "blood quanta" identified in an individual seeking recognition. To attain such certainty, some tribes have begun requiring genetic genealogy (DNA testing). Those passing as white might use the slightly more acceptable Native American ancestry to explain inconvenient details of their heritage.

Blood Quanta
Though cultural features, language, clothing, and customs vary enormously from one tribe to another, there are certain elements which are encountered frequently and shared by many tribes.
Early hunter-gatherer tribes made stone weapons from around 10,000 years ago; as the age of metallurgy dawned, newer technologies were used and more efficient weapons produced. Prior to contact with Europeans, most tribes used similar weaponry. The most common implement were the bow and arrow, the war club, and the spear. Quality, material, and design varied widely.
Large mammals like mammoths and mastodons were largely extinct by around 8,000 B.C., and the Native Americans switched to hunting other large game, such as bison. The Great Plains tribes were still hunting the bison when they first encountered the Europeans. The acquisition of the horse and horsemanship from the Spanish in the 17th century greatly altered the natives' culture, changing the way in which these large creatures were hunted and making them a central feature of their lives.

Cultural aspects

Gens structure
Subdivision and differentiation took place between various groups. Upwards of forty stock languages developed in North America, with each independent tribe speaking a dialect of one of those languages. Some functions and attributes of tribes are:

The possession of a territory and a name.
The exclusive possession of a dialect.
The right to invest sachems and chiefs elected by the gentes.
The right to depose these sachems and chiefs.
The possession of a religious faith and worship.
A supreme government consisting of a council of chiefs.
A head-chief of the tribe in some instances. Tribal structure
See also: petroglyph, pictogram, and petroform
The Iroquois, living around the Great Lakes and extending east and north, used strings or belts called wampum that served a dual function: the knots and beaded designs mnemonically chronicled tribal stories and legends, and further served as a medium of exchange and a unit of measure. The keepers of the articles were seen as tribal dignitaries.
Pueblo peoples crafted impressive items associated with their religious ceremonies. Kachina dancers wore elaborately painted and decorated masks as they ritually impersonated various ancestral spirits. Sculpture was not highly developed, but carved stone and wood fetishes were made for religious use. Superior weaving, embroidered decorations, and rich dyes characterized the textile arts. Both turquoise and shell jewelry were created, as were high-quality pottery and formalized pictorial arts.
Navajo spirituality focused on the maintenance of a harmonious relationship with the spirit world, often achieved by ceremonial acts, usually incorporating sandpainting. The colors—made from sand, charcoal, cornmeal, and pollen—depicted specific spirits. These vivid, intricate, and colorful sand creations were erased at the end of the ceremony.

Society and art
The most widespread religion at the present time is known as the Native American Church. It is a syncretistic church incorporating elements of native spiritual practice from a number of different tribes as well as symbolic elements from Christianity. Its main rite is the peyote ceremony. Prior to 1890, traditional religious beliefs included Wakan Tanka. In the American Southwest, especially New Mexico, a syncretism between the Catholicism brought by Spanish missionaries and the native religion is common; the religious drums, chants, and dances of the Pueblo people are regularly part of Masses at Santa Fe's Saint Francis Cathedral. Native American-Catholic syncretism is also found elsewhere in the United States. (e.g., the National Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine in Fonda, New York and the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, New York).
Native Americans are the only known ethnic group in the United States requiring a federal permit to practice their religion. The eagle feather law, (Title 50 Part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations), stipulates that only individuals of certifiable Native American ancestry enrolled in a federally recognized tribe are legally authorized to obtain eagle feathers for religious or spiritual use. Native Americans and non-Native Americans frequently contest the value and validity of the eagle feather law, charging that the law is laden with discriminatory racial preferences and infringes on tribal sovereignty. The law does not allow Native Americans to give eagle feathers to non-Native Americans, a common modern and traditional practice. Many non-Native Americans have been adopted into Native American families, made tribal members and given eagle feathers.
Many Native Americans would describe their religious practices as a form of spirituality, rather than religion, although in practice the terms may sometimes be used interchangeably.

Religion
There were historical treaties between the European Colonists and the Native American tribes requesting the return of any runaway slaves. For example, in 1726, the British Governor of New York exacted a promise from the Iroquois to return all runaway slaves who had joined up with them. This same promise was extracted from the Huron Natives in 1764 and from the Delaware Natives in 1765.

Native Americans and African American slaves
Most Native American tribes had traditional gender roles. In some tribes, such as the Iroquois nation, social and clan relationships were matrilinear and/or matriarchal, although several different systems were in use. One example is the Cherokee custom of wives owning the family property. Men hunted, traded and made war, while women cared for the young and the elderly, fashioned clothing and instruments and cured meat. The cradle board was used by mothers to carry their baby while working or traveling.

Gender roles

Main article: Native American music Music and art
The Inuit, or Eskimo, prepared and buried large amounts of dried meat and fish. Pacific Northwest tribes crafted seafaring dugouts 40–50 feet long for fishing. Farmers in the Eastern Woodlands tended fields of maize with hoes and digging sticks, while their neighbors in the Southeast grew tobacco as well as food crops. On the Plains, some tribes engaged in agriculture but also planned buffalo hunts in which herds were efficiently driven over bluffs. Dwellers of the Southwest deserts hunted small animals and gathered acorns to grind into flour with which they baked wafer-thin bread on top of heated stones. Some groups on the region's mesas developed irrigation techniques, and filled storehouses with grain as protection against the area's frequent droughts.
As these native peoples encountered European explorers and settlers and engaged in trade, they exchanged food, crafts, and furs for trinkets, blankets, iron, and steel implements, horses, firearms, and alcoholic beverages.

Traditional economy
Native Americans have been depicted by American artists in various ways at different historical periods. During the period when America was first being colonized, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the artist John White made watercolors and engravings of the people native to the southeastern states. John White's images were, for the most part, faithful likenesses of the people he observed. Later the artist Theodore de Bry used White's original watercolors to make a book of engravings entitled, A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia. In his book, de Bry often altered the poses and features of White's figures to make them appear more European, probably in order to make his book more marketable to a European audience. During the period that White and de Bry were working, when Europeans were first coming into contact with native Americans, there was a large interest and curiosity in native American cultures by Europeans, which would have created the demand for a book like de Bry's.
Several centuries later, during the reconstruction of the Capitol building in the early nineteenth century, the U.S. government commissioned a series of four relief panels to crown the doorway of the Rotunda. The reliefs encapsulate a vision of European--Native American relations that had assumed mythicohistorical proportions by the nineteenth century. The four panels depict: The Preservation of Captain Smith by Pocahontas (1825) by Antonio Capellano, The Landing of the Pilgrims (1825) and The Conflict of Daniel Boone and the Indians (1826-27) by Enrico Causici, and William Penn's Treaty with the Indians (1827) by Nicholas Gevelot. The reliefs present idealized versions of the Europeans and the native Americans, in which the Europeans appear refined and gentile, and the natives appear ferocious and savage. The Whig representative of Virginia, Henry A. Wise, voiced a particularly astute summary of how Native Americans would read the messages contained in all four reliefs: "We give you corn, you cheat us of our lands: we save your life, you take ours."
While many nineteenth century images of native Americans conveyed similarly negative messages, there were artists, such as Charles Bird King, who sought to express a more positive image of the native Americans as noble savages.

Depictions by Europeans and Americans
Further information: Native American name controversy
When Christopher Columbus arrived in the "New World", he described the people he encountered as Indians because he mistakenly believed that he had reached the Indies, the original destination of his voyage. Despite Columbus's mistake, the name Indian (or American Indian) stuck, and for centuries the people who first came to the Americas were collectively called Indians in America, and similar terms in Europe. The problem with this traditional term is that the peoples of India are, of course, also known as Indians. The term Red Man was common among the early settlers of New England because the northeastern tribes colored their bodies with red pigments, but later this term became a pejorative and insulting epithet during the western push into America, with the corruption redskin becoming its most virulent form. A usage in British English was to refer to natives of North America as 'Red Indians', though now old fashioned, it is still widely used.

Terminology differences
The term Native American was originally introduced in the United States by anthropologists as a more accurate term for the indigenous people of the Americas, as distinguished from the people of India. Because of the widespread acceptance of this newer term in and outside of academic circles, some people believe that Indians is outdated or offensive. People from India (and their descendants) who are citizens of the United States are known as Indian Americans.
Criticism of the neologism Native American, however, comes from diverse sources. Some American Indians have misgivings about the term Native American. Russell Means, a famous American Indian activist, opposes the term Native American because he believes it was imposed by the government without the consent of American Indians. The continued usage of the traditional term is reflected in the name chosen for the National Museum of the American Indian, which opened in 2004 in Washington, D.C..
Recently, the U.S. Census introduced the "Asian Indian" category to more accurately sample the Indian American population.

Common usage in the United States
As of 2005 Census estimates, 1.0 percent of the US population is of American Indian and Alaska Native descent. This population is unevenly distributed across the country, with Alaska and New Mexico boasting double digit native populations while in five states they constitute only 0.2% of the population.
Alaska 16%
New Mexico 10.2%
South Dakota 8.8%
Oklahoma 8.1%
Montana 6.5%
North Dakota 5.3%
Arizona 5.1%
Wyoming 2.7%
Washington 1.7%
Idaho 1.4%
Nevada 1.4%
Oregon 1.4%
Utah 1.3%
North Carolina 1.3%
Minnesota 1.2%
California 1.2%
Colorado 1.1%
Wisconsin 0.9%
Kansas 0.9%
Nebraska 0.9%
Texas 0.7%
Arkansas 0.7%
Maine 0.6%
Rhode Island 0.6%
Michigan 0.6%
Louisiana 0.6%
New York 0.5%
Alabama 0.5%
Vermont 0.4%
South Carolina 0.4%
Missouri 0.4%
Mississippi 0.4%
Delaware 0.4%
Florida 0.4%
Virginia 0.3%
District of Columbia 0.3%
Connecticut 0.3%
New Jersey 0.3%
Maryland 0.3%
Iowa 0.3%
Massachusetts 0.3%
Indiana 0.3%
Tennessee 0.3%
Illinois 0.3%
Hawaii 0.3% Native Hawaiian 9%
Georgia 0.3%
Kentucky 0.2%
New Hampshire 0.2%
Ohio 0.2%
Pennsylvania 0.2%
West Virginia 0.2%

State percentages

African and Native American interaction
Alaska Natives
American Indian College Fund
American Indians in Children's Literature
Classification of Native Americans (list of tribes by cultural area)
Company/product names derived from Indigenous peoples
Eagle feather law
European Contact
First Nations
Fur trade (historical treatment)
Genocide reference by L. Frank Baum
Indian Campaign Medal
Indian Massacres
Indian old field
Indian Removal
Indian Reorganization Act
Indian Territory
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
List of English words from indigenous languages of the Americas
List of Indian reservations in the United States
Lists of Native Americans
List of pre-Columbian civilizations
List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
Medicine man
Medicine wheel
NAFPS
National Museum of the American Indian
Native American Church
Native American gambling enterprises
Native American languages
Native American mascot controversy
Native American mythology
Native American name controversy
Native American pottery
Native Americans and World War II
Petrosomatoglyph
Population history of American indigenous peoples
Pre-Columbian Africa-Americas contact theories
Residential school
Sports team names/mascots derived from Indigenous peoples
Trail of Tears
Treaties of the United States (includes Native American treaties)
Two-Spirit Bibliography

2008-04-25T02:09:00.000+09:00

Blount County is a U.S. county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Its population was 105,823 at the United States Census, 2000. The 2006 Census Estimate placed the population at 118,186 [1]. The county seat is at Maryville, which is also the county's largest city.
It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History
Most of the early settlers were of very little means, existing on subsistence-based agriculture throughout the early years of the county's establishment. The first industry to make its mark on Blount County, as in other neighboring counties, was that of lumber. It was the massive development of this industry in the mountains of east Blount that, in part, led to the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which includes the southeastern portion of the county. Today manufacturing is [4]

Economy
The following list consists of the current elected members of the Blount County government[5]:

Commissioners: David Ballard, Tonya Burchfield, Gary Farmer, Ronald French, David Graham, Steve Hargis, Brad Harrison, Mark Hasty, Scott Helton, John Keeble, Gerald Kirby, Holden Lail, Mike Lewis, Joe McCulley, Kenneth Melton, Monika Murrell, Bob Profitt, Robert Ramsey, Wendy Pitts Reeves, Steve Samples, and Mike Walker Government
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 567 square miles (1,468 km²), of which, 559 square miles (1,447 km²) of it is land and 8 square miles (21 km²) of it (1.43%) is water.
The foothills of the Appalachian Mountains determine much of Blount County's landscape, with a segment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park extending into southeastern Blount County. In addition to the dominant mountains, the Little Tennessee River flows through the county and forms several man-made lakes created by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Geography

Knox County, Tennessee - north
Sevier County, Tennessee - east
Swain County, North Carolina - south
Graham County, North Carolina - southwest
Monroe County, Tennessee - southwest
Loudon County, Tennessee - west Geographical features
As of the census² of 2000, there were 105,823 people, 42,667 households, and 30,634 families residing in the county. The population density was 190 people per square mile (73/km²). There were 47,059 housing units at an average density of 84 per square mile (33/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 94.73% White, 2.91% Black or African American, 0.29% Native American, 0.72% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.34% from other races, and 0.99% from two or more races. 1.06% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 42,667 households out of which 30.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.40% were married couples living together, 10.00% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.20% are classified as non-families by the United States Census Bureau. Of the 42,667 households, 1,384 are unmarried partner households: 1,147 heterosexual, 107 same-sex male, 130 same-sex female. 24.40% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.43 and the average family size was 2.88.
In the county, the population was spread out with 22.80% under the age of 18, 8.30% from 18 to 24, 29.40% from 25 to 44, 25.40% from 45 to 64, and 14.10% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 93.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.80 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $37,862, and the median income for a family was $45,038. Males had a median income of $31,877 versus $23,007 for females. The per capita income for the county was $19,416. About 7.30% of families and 9.70% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.30% of those under age 18 and 9.10% of those age 65 or over.

Demographics

Infrastructure
In addition to the federally operated Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which draws many visitors to the county each year, Blount County operates numerous smaller community parks and recreation centers, primarily in the cities of Alcoa and Maryville. Some of these facilities include[6]:

Amerine Park (Maryville)
Bassell Courts (Alcoa)
Eagleton Park (Maryville)
Everett Athletic Complex (Maryville)
Everett Park/Everett Senior Center (Maryville)
Howe Street Park (Alcoa)
John Sevier Park/Pool (Maryville)
Louisville Point Park (Louisville)
Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center (Alcoa)
Oldfield Mini Park (Alcoa)
Pearson Springs Park (Maryville)
Pole Climbers Athletic Fields (Alcoa)
Richard Williams Park (Alcoa)
Rock Garden Park (Alcoa)
Sandy Springs Park (Maryville)
Springbrook Park/Pool (Alcoa) Parks
See Blount County Schools for a full list of county schools. The cities of Maryville and Alcoa operate separate, independent school systems.
Blount County is home to two post-secondary educational institutions: Maryville College, in downtown Maryville, and a satellite campus of Knoxville-based Pellissippi State Technical Community College, referred to as Pellissippi State Technical Community College, Blount County Campus.

Schools, Colleges and Universities

Transportation
Blount County is served by the East Tennessee Human Resource Agency's Public Transit system. ETHRA, as it is commonly referred to, operates over sixteen counties in eastern Tennessee, and is headquartered in the nearby city of Loudon. The service offers residents of any of the counties covered by ETHRA door-to-door pickup transportation across its service area by request only[7].

Paratransit
TYS, McGhee Tyson Airport

Highways

Alcoa
Eagleton Village (unincorporated)
Friendsville
Happy Valley (unincorporated)
Louisville
Maryville
Rockford
Seymour (unincorporated)
Townsend
Walland (unincorporated)

2008-04-24T01:07:00.001+09:00

René Iché (January 21, 1897, Salleles-d'Aude, France – December 23, 1954, Paris) was a 20th century French sculptor.

2008-04-23T01:37:00.001+09:00

The Manchester Centre for Integrative Systems Biology (MCISB) at the University of Manchester has been awarded £6.4M by the BBSRC and EPSRC to pioneer the development of new experimental and computational technologies in Systems Biology, and their exploitation. It is one of six BBSRC Integrative Systems Biology Research Centres in the UK. Through its Doctoral Training Centre, it is also involved in teaching the theoretical and practical aspects of systems biology.
The MCISB is based on the second floor of the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre (MIB).

Members

Prof Douglas Kell (EPSRC/RSC Research Chair in Bioanalytical Science; Director, MCISB)
Prof David Broomhead (Chair in Applied Mathematics; Director, Turing Institute)
Prof Simon Gaskell (Professor of Mass Spectrometry; Director, Michael Barber Centre for Mass Spectrometry)
Prof John McCarthy (Professor of Chemical Biology; Director, Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre)
Prof Steve Oliver (Professor of Genomics; Director, Centre for the Analysis of Biological Complexity)
Prof Norman Paton (Chair in Computer Science; co-Director, Information Management Group)
Prof Hans Westerhoff (AstraZeneca Professor of Systems Biology, School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science)
Prof Pedro Mendes Principal Investigators (Management Team)

Dr Dieter Weichart Experimental Officers
The website of the Manchester Centre for Integrative Systems Biology.

2008-04-22T02:16:00.001+09:00

Early history of the savings and loan association
The savings and loan association became a strong force in the early 20th century through assisting people with home ownership, through mortgage lending, and further assisting their members with basic saving and investing outlets, typically through passbook savings accounts and term certificates of deposit.

The savings and loan in the early 20th century (in the U.S.)
The earliest of mortgages were not offered by banks, but by insurance companies, and they differed greatly from the mortgage or home loan that is familiar today. Most early mortgages were short term with some kind of balloon payment at the end of the term, or they were interest-only loans which did not pay anything toward the principal of the loan with each payment. As such, many people were either perpetually in debt in a continuous cycle of refinancing their home purchase, or they lost their home through foreclosure when they were unable to make the balloon payment at the end of the term of that loan.
This bothered government regulators who then established the Federal Home Loan Bank and associated Federal Home Loan Bank Board to assist other banks in providing funding to offer long term, amortized loans for home purchases. The idea was to get banks involved in lending, not insurance companies, and to provide realistic loans which people could repay and gain full ownership of their homes.
Savings and loan associations sprung up all across the United States because there was low-cost funding available through the Federal Home Loan Bank for the purposes of mortgage lending.

Further advantages

Cooperative banking
Savings and Loan crisis

2008-04-21T00:14:00.001+09:00

Anne Desclos (September 23, 1907 - April 27, 1998) was a French journalist and novelist who wrote under the pseudonyms Dominique Aury and Pauline Réage.
Born in Rochefort-sur-Mer, Charente-Maritime, France to a bilingual family, Desclos began reading in French and English at an early age. After completing her studies at the Sorbonne, she worked as a journalist until 1946 when she joined Gallimard Publishers as the editorial secretary for one of its imprints where she began using the pen name of Dominique Aury.
An avid reader of English and American literature, Desclos either translated or introduced readers in France such renowned authors as Algernon Charles Swinburne, Evelyn Waugh, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald and numerous others. She became a highly respected critic and was made a member of the jury for several prominent literary awards.
Her lover and employer, Jean Paulhan, had made the remark to her that no female was capable of writing an erotic novel. To prove him wrong, Desclos wrote a graphic, sadomasochistic novel that was published under the pseudonym Pauline Réage; in June of 1954. Titled Histoire d'O (Story of O), it proved Paulhan wrong and was an enormous, though controversial, commercial success. The book caused much speculation as to the identity of the author. Many doubted that it was a woman, let alone the demure, intellectual, and almost prudish persona depicted in Dominique Aury.
In addition, the book's graphic content sparked so much controversy that the following March the government authorities brought obscenity charges against the publisher and its mysterious author that were thrown out of court in 1959. However, a publicity ban and a restriction on the book's sale to minors was imposed by the judge. Following the lifting of the publicity ban in 1967 she published the conclusion to Story of O under the title Retour à Roissy, again using the pseudonym of Pauline Réage. According to her recent biography by Angie David, Desclos did not write this second novel.
She did an interview about erotic books in 1975 with author and publisher Régine Deforges, yet at the time her authorship of Story of O was still unknown. Desclos publicly admitted that she was the author of The Story of O forty years after the book was published, in an interview with The New Yorker magazine.
She was actively bisexual at times in her life [1].
Anne Desclos died in Corbeil-Essonnes, Île-de-France.

Source

Dominique Aury by Angie David - Editions Léo Scheer, 560 pp - ISBN 2756100307 - Biography in French

2008-04-20T01:14:00.001+09:00

Lokomotiv Moscow (FC Lokomotiv Moskva, Russian: Футбольный клуб "Локомотив" Москва [1]) is a Russian football club based in Moscow.
It was founded in 1923 as Club of the October Revolution, was renamed to Kazanka (Moskovskaya-Kazanskaya Zh.D) in 1931, and eventually to Lokomotiv in 1936. During the existence of the USSR Lokomotiv Moscow club was a part of the Lokomotiv Voluntary Sports Society.
Lokomotiv won the Russian Premier League in 2002 (ending Spartak Moscow domination) and in 2004, the USSR Cup in 1936 and 1957, and the Russian Cup in 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001 and 2007. The club was the runner-up in 1959, 1995, 1999, 2000 and 2001, and finished third in 1994, 1998, 2005 and 2006. Lokomotiv was the Russian Super Cup holder in 2003 and 2005.
In the beginning of 1990s Lokomotiv was considered the "weakest link" among top Moscow clubs. It lacked both results on the pitch and fans support in the stands. But head coach Yuri Semin and president Valeri Filatov were able to put the club's progress on a right track. Permanenty solid perfomances in domestic league and several memorable campaigns in European Cups made Lokomotiv a superclub, of course, by russian scales. In 2002 the new stadium was built, the arena still being on of the most, if not the most, modern and comfortable in Eastern Europe. This gave a huge boost to a club's fan growth rate. Nowadays, the average attendance of Lokomotiv home games is one of the highest in Moscow.
In 2002 a "golden match" was needed to decide who will be the champion, as Lokomotiv Moscow and PFC CSKA Moscow both finished with the same amount of points after Gameweek 30. The game was played at Dynamo stadium in front of the sold-out crowd. Lokomotiv took an early lead with a low drive from captain Dmitry Loskov. It turned to be enough for the first title in club history.
In 2004 Lokomotiv Moscow won the Russian Premier League by a single point over city rivals CSKA Moscow. Lokomotiv won the championship by defeating Shinnik Yaroslavl 2-0 in Yaroslavl, a week after CSKA slipped up against city rivals Dynamo Moscow at home.
Lokomotiv reached Cup Winners' Cup semifinals twice (in 1997/1998 and 1998/1999). The club also played in the 2nd group stage of the Champions league in 2002/2003 season and lost by the away goal the Champions League 1/8 tie against AS Monaco FC in 2004. These were the best achievements of the club in the European cups so far.
In 2005 their head coach for many years, Yuri Syomin, left them to coach the Russian national team and was replaced by Vladimir Eshtrekov. In December 2005 Serbian coach Slavoljub Muslin took over from Eshtrekov.
In the 2005 season, Lokomotiv were leading the league for most of the year, but stumbled in the last games and let CSKA overtake them, ultimately finishing 3rd. In the 2006 season they came 3rd in the league after a poor start. Their recent stars have been star forward Dmitri Sytchev and Captain Dmitri Loskov (now gone).

Current squad

Players on loan

Confirmed 2007-08 transfers

In

Out

2008-04-19T00:49:00.001+09:00

The Queen-in-Parliament (or King-in-Parliament when there is a male monarch), sometimes referred to as the Crown-in-Parliament, is a constitutional law term for the Crown in its legislative role, acting with the advice and consent of the House of Commons and House of Lords (in the United Kingdom) or Senate (in other Commonwealth Realms). Each realm parliament consists of the Crown and the two houses of Parliament (or the unicameral House of Representatives of New Zealand), and bills passed by the two houses are sent to the Sovereign, or Governor General as her representative, for royal assent before they become law. These primary acts of legislation are known as Acts of Parliament. An Act may also provide for secondary legislation which can be made by the Crown, subject to the simple approval, or the lack of disapproval, of both houses of Parliament.
A modern British Act of Parliament will typically contain the following enacting clause:
"BE IT ENACTED by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows..."
The phrasing is different when the bill is passed under the provisions of the Parliament Acts, without the consent of the Lords.
Modern Canadian Acts of Parliament typically contain the following enacting clause:
"NOW, THEREFORE, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows..."
Acts of the Scottish Parliament follow a different approach. Although such Acts require Royal Assent, the concept of Queen-in-Parliament has not been incorporated. Instead of the enacting clause seen in UK Acts, Acts of the Scottish Parliament bear the following text above the long title.
"The Bill for this Act of the Scottish Parliament was passed by the Parliament on DATE and received Royal Assent on DATE"

2008-04-18T00:09:00.001+09:00

The Hon. Jessica Lucy Freeman-Mitford, known to friends and family as Decca (September 11, 1917 – July 22, 1996), self-described muckraker and political radical, was the "red sheep" of the noted Mitford sisters, daughters of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and Sydney Bowles, daughter of MP Thomas Bowles.

Childhood and adolescence
In 1939, Romilly and Mitford immigrated to the United States. They travelled around, working odd jobs, perpetually short of cash. At the outset of World War II, Romilly enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force; Mitford was living in Washington D.C. and considered joining him once he was posted to England. After miscarriages, she gave birth to another daughter, Anne Constancia ("Dinky") Romilly on 9 February 1941. Her husband went missing in action on 30 November 1941, on his way back from a successful bombing raid over Nazi Germany. She took months to accept that he was dead.
Mitford threw herself into war work. Through this, she met and married the American civil rights lawyer Robert Edward Treuhaft in 1943 and eventually settled in Oakland, California. There the couple had two sons, Nicholas, who was killed when hit by a bus while he was riding his bicycle in 1955, and Benjamin. Mitford approached her motherhood in a spirit of "benign neglect", described by her children as "matter-of-fact" and "not touchy-feely".

Life in America and motherhood
Mitford and Treuhaft became active members of the Communist Party during the Red Scare and, in 1953, they were both summoned to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Both refused to testify about their participation in radical groups. Feeling that in the current political climate they could do more for social justice outside the Party, and disillusioned by the development of Communism in the Soviet Union, Mitford and Treuhaft resigned from it in late 1958. Evidently Jessica had to become a United States citizen or she would have been unceremoniously deported, regardless of her husband's citizenship.
In 1960 Mitford published her first book Hons and Rebels (American title: Daughters and Rebels), a memoir covering her youth in the Redesdale household.

Communism
In May 1961 she travelled to Montgomery, Alabama while working on an article about Southern attitudes for Esquire. While there, she and a friend went to meet the arrival of the Freedom Riders and became caught up in a riot when a mob led by the Ku Klux Klan attacked the civil rights activists. After the riot, Mitford proceeded on to a rally at a church led by Martin Luther King, Jr.. This too was attacked by the Klan and Mitford spent the night barricaded inside the church with the civil rights group until the violence was ended by the National Guard.
During this period, her daughter, Constancia Romilly, became the companion of the African-American activist James Forman, by whom she had two sons, James Robert Lumumba Forman and Chaka Esmond Fanon Forman.

Investigative journalism
Author J. K. Rowling has indicated that Jessica Mitford has been a heroine of hers since age 14, and that her daughter Jessica Rowling Arantes is named after Mitford. She reviewed Mitford's book of letters, Decca, in the Sunday Telegraph.

J.K. Rowling and Mitford
Mitford's second autobiography, A Fine Old Conflict describes her comic experiences joining and eventually leaving the Communist Party USA. Mitford titled the book after what, in her youth, she thought were the lyrics to the Communist anthem, The Internationale, which actually is "Tis the final conflict".
Mitford was invited to join the Communist Party in the book by her co-worker Dobby, to whom she responded "We thought you'd never ask!" She bristled against the conservative structure in the CP, at one point upsetting the Women's caucus by printing a poster with "Girls! Girls! Girls!" to draw people to a CP event. She merciliously teased an elder Communist about his paranoia when he wrote out the name of a town where she could get chickens donated from "loyal party members" for a fundraiser. When Moody wrote Petaluma on a scrap of paper to avoid being overheard by possible bugs, she asked in jest how the chickens should be prepared, and wrote, "Fried or Broiled".

A Fine Old Conflict
(Compare this with the traditional justification of journalism, originated by Finley Peter Dunne: "To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.")

"You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty."
"Objectivity? I've always had an objective."
(On seeing the Pyramids) "Now there is a society where the funeral industry got completely out of control."
When Evelyn Waugh wrote in a review of The American Way of Death that Mitford did not have "a plainly stated attitude to death," Mitford asked her sister Deborah to tell Waugh, "Of course I'm against it." Bibliography

Extracts from Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford were dramatized for Book of the Week, BBC Radio 4, five 15-minute programmes broadcast in November 2006. The readers were Rosamund Pike and Tom Chadbon; the producer was Chris Wallis.

2008-04-17T00:14:00.001+09:00

The Edinburgh Diamond Devils are a baseball club that was formed in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Annual Records

Baseball in the United Kingdom
Sport in Scotland

2008-04-16T02:00:00.001+09:00

MS-DOS (short for Microsoft Disk Operating System) is an operating system commercialized by Microsoft. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems and was the dominant operating system for the PC compatible platform during the 1980s. It has gradually been replaced on consumer desktop computers by various generations of the Windows operating system.
MS-DOS was originally released in 1981 and had eight major versions released before Microsoft stopped development in 2000. It was the key product in Microsoft's growth from a programming languages company to a diverse software development firm, providing the company with essential revenue and marketing resources.

History
Adapted from original source: PC Museum

MS-DOS 1.14 - July 1981 - Microsoft rebranded 86-DOS as MS-DOS in July 1981, having bought the rights from SCP.
MS-DOS 1.25 - May 1982 - first release for IBM PC compatibles marketed under different brands (COMMAND.COM is 4986 bytes)
MS-DOS 2.0 - March 1983 - support for PC XT: introduced subdirectories, handle-based file operations, command input/output redirection, and pipes. Microsoft decided to use backslashes as pathname separators rather than slashes as on Unix apparently due to the latter character being used as the switch character in most DOS and CP/M programs. Adds support for hard drives and 360KB floppy disks
PC DOS 2.1 - October 1983 - support for IBM PCjr
MS-DOS 2.11 - March 1984 - non-English language and date format support (COMMAND.COM is 16229 bytes)
MS-DOS 2.25 - October 1985 - better support for Japanese Kanji, and Korean character sets, shipped to western Pacific countries only
MS-DOS 3.0 - August 1984 - added support for PC AT: 1.2 MB floppy disks and hard disk partitions of up to 32MB, one primary and one "logical drive" in an "extended partition"
MS-DOS 3.1 - November 1984 - support for Microsoft networking
MS-DOS 3.2 - January 1986 - support for 3.5 inch, 720 kB floppy disk drives (v 3.21 COMMAND.COM is 23612 bytes)
PC DOS 3.3 - April 1987 - support for IBM PS/2: 1.44 MB floppy disk drives, added codepage support (international character sets) (COMMAND.COM is 25307 bytes)
MS-DOS 3.3 - August 1987 - supported multiple logical drives (COMMAND.COM is 25276 bytes)
MS-DOS 4.0 - June 1988 - derived from IBM's codebase rather than Microsoft's
PC DOS 4.0 - July 1988 - added DOS Shell & support for hard disks of >32MB using the format from Compaq DOS 3.31. But it had many bugs and less free conventional memory than before. Generally regarded as an unpopular release
MS-DOS 4.01 - December 1988 - bug-fix release (COMMAND.COM is 37557 bytes)
MS-DOS 5.0 - June 1991 - memory management, full-screen editor, QBasic programming language, online help, DOS Shell task switcher, and FastLynx file transfer utility licensed from Rupp Technology. Also used as the basis for Virtual DOS Machine for Windows NT4 through Vista. (COMMAND.COM is 47845 bytes)
MS-DOS 6.0 - March 1993 - added DoubleSpace disk compression, disk defragmentation, and other features (COMMAND.COM is 52925 bytes)
MS-DOS 6.2 - November 1993 - bug fix release (COMMAND.COM is 54619 bytes)
MS-DOS 6.21 - February, 1994 - following Stac Electronics lawsuit, removed DoubleSpace disk compression (COMMAND.COM is 54619 bytes)
PC DOS 6.3 - April 1994
MS-DOS 6.22 - June 1994 - last official stand-alone version. DoubleSpace replaced with non-infringing but compatible DriveSpace tool (COMMAND.COM is 54645 bytes)
PC DOS 7.0 - April, 1995 - bundles Stacker in place of DriveSpace
MS-DOS 7.0 - August 1995 - shipped embedded in Windows 95. Included Logical block addressing and Long File Name (LFN) support (COMMAND.COM is 92870 bytes)
MS-DOS 7.1 - August 1996 - shipped embedded in Windows 95B (OSR2) (and Windows 98 first and second editions in June 1998 and May 1999). Added support for FAT32 file system (COMMAND.COM is 93812, 93880 or 93890 bytes in 95B, 98 or 98SE respectively)
MS-DOS 8.0 - September 2000 - shipped embedded in Windows Me. A subset is included with 32-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista. Last version of MS-DOS. Removes SYS command, ability to boot to command line and other features (COMMAND.COM is 93040 bytes)
PC DOS 2000 - year 2000-compliant version with minor additional features. Final member of the MS-DOS family Versions and release dates

Features
MS-DOS employs a command line interface and a batch scripting facility via its command interpreter, COMMAND.COM. MS-DOS was designed so users could easily substitute a different command line interpreter, for example 4DOS.
Beginning with version 4.0, MS-DOS included DOS Shell, a file manager program with a quasi-graphical text user interface (TUI) that featured menus, split windows, color themes, mouse support and program shortcuts using character mode graphics.

User interface
MS-DOS was not designed to be a multi-user or multitasking operating system, but many attempts were made to add these capabilities. Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) system calls were originally designed for device drivers and extensible plugins that enhanced or added features. Companies such as Borland began to tap into the TSR design with products like SideKick. Add-on environments like TopView and especially DESQview attempted to provide multitasking, and achieved some success when later combined with the virtual 8086 mode and virtual memory features of the Intel 80386 and later processors.

Multitasking
On the IBM PC (and clones) platform, the initial competition to the PC-DOS/MS-DOS line came from Digital Research, whose CP/M operating system had inspired MS-DOS. Digital Research developed CP/M-86 and offered it to computer manufacturers as an alternate to MS-DOS and Microsoft's licensing requirements.
In the business world, the PC platform that MS-DOS was tied to faced competition from the Unix operating system which ran on many different hardware architectures. Microsoft even sold a version of Unix called Xenix.
In the emerging world of home users, a variety of other hardware platforms were in serious competition with the IBM PC: the Apple II, early Apple Macintosh, the Commodore 64 and others. At first, the competition for these other platforms was with IBM PC computers running MS-DOS. With the advent of IBM PC clones all running on Intel processors, the name IBM became less important to home users. What was important was keeping up with Intel's steadily increasing clock speeds and the ability to run MS-DOS.
Microsoft and IBM together began what was intended as the follow-on to DOS, called OS/2. When OS/2 was released in 1987, Microsoft began an ad campaign announcing that "DOS is Dead", boldly proclaiming version 4 was the last full release.
MS-DOS had grown in spurts, with many significant features being taken (or duplicated) from other products and operating systems, as well as reverse-engineering tools and utilities including Norton Utilities, PC Tools (Microsoft Anti-Virus), QEMM expanded memory manager, DOS/4GW (a 32-bit DOS extender), Stacker disk compression, and so on. The advent of OS/2, which offered a number of advanced features which had been written together, was seen as the legitimate heir to the "kludgy" DOS platform.
Digital Research, recognizing the need to continue the lower-level platform represented by DOS, then developed DR DOS 5, which mirrored the OS/2 "platform integration" model by adding features which were available only as third-party add-ons for MS-DOS. Unwilling to lose any portion of the market, Microsoft responded by announcing the "pending" release of MS-DOS 5.0 in May of 1990. This effectively killed most DR DOS sales, until the actual release of MS-DOS 5.0 in June 1991. Digital Research brought out DR DOS 6, which sold well until the "pre-announcement" of MS-DOS 6.0 again stifled the sales of DR DOS.
Microsoft has been accused of carefully orchestrating leaks about future versions of MS-DOS in an attempt to create what in the industry is called FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) regarding DR DOS. For example, in October 1990, shortly after the release of DR DOS 5.0, and long before the eventual June 1991 release of MS-DOS 5.0, stories on feature enhancements in MS-DOS started to appear in InfoWorld and PC Week. Brad Silverberg, Vice President of Systems Software at Microsoft and General Manager of its Windows and MS-DOS Business Unit, wrote a forceful letter to PC Week (November 5, 1990), denying that Microsoft was engaged in FUD tactics ("to serve our customers better, we decided to be more forthcoming about version 5.0") and denying that Microsoft cops features from DR DOS: "The feature enhancements of MS-DOS version 5.0 were decided and development was begun long before we heard about DR DOS 5.0. There will be some similar features. With 50 million MS-DOS users, it shouldn't be surprising that DRI has heard some of the same requests from customers that we have." — (Schulman et al. 1994).
The pact between Microsoft and IBM to promote OS/2 began to fall apart in 1990 when Windows 3.0 became a marketplace success. Much of Microsoft's further contributions to OS/2 also went in to creating a third GUI replacement for DOS, Windows NT.
IBM, which had already been developing the next version of OS/2, carried on development of the platform without Microsoft and sold it as the alternative to DOS and Windows.

End of MS-DOS
As a response to Digital Research's DR-DOS 6.0, which bundled SuperStor disk compression, Microsoft opened negotiations with Stac Electronics, vendor of the most popular DOS disk compression tool, Stacker. In the due diligence process, Stac engineers had shown Microsoft some Stacker source code. Stac was unwilling to meet Microsoft's terms for licensing Stacker and withdrew from the negotiations. Microsoft chose to license Vertisoft's DoubleDisk, using it as the core for its DoubleSpace disk compression. Legal issues
Main article: Windows NT
Windows NT, although not based on DOS, provides a command-line interface similar to MS-DOS's character-mode interface. This command line is provided by a native executable, cmd.exe. Many command-line applications (known as console applications) for Windows are incorrectly referred to as DOS applications, when actually they are full Windows applications which use the console for their output rather than a graphical interface, and cannot be run under any version of MS-DOS.
Windows NT can run MS-DOS programs through the use of the NTVDM (NT Virtual DOS Machine), and the 16-bit command.com interpreter from MS-DOS 5.0 is still included to maintain application compatibility with programs that expect it (This is illustrated by the output produced by the command "command.com /k ver", which displays "MS-DOS Version 5.00.500" in the console window). The command "ver" returns the string "Microsoft(R) Windows DOS" when executed under command.com, but "Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]" (or similar depending on the version of NT) when run from cmd.exe.
Recent versions of NT for x64 architectures, including Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows Server 2003 x64 and Windows Vista x64, no longer include the NTVDM and can therefore no longer natively run MS-DOS (or 16-bit Windows) applications. For MS-DOS and Windows 3.11 or earlier programs, however, there exist alternatives in the form of emulators such as Microsoft's own Virtual PC, VMWare, Bochs, DOSBox, etc.

Windows NT
From 1983 onwards, various companies have worked on graphical user interfaces (GUIs) capable of running on PC hardware. With DOS being the dominant operating system several companies released alternate shells, e.g. Microsoft Word for DOS, XTree, and the Norton Shell. However, this required duplication of effort and did not provide much consistency in interface design (even between products from the same company).
Later, in 1985, Microsoft Windows was released as Microsoft's first attempt at providing a consistent user interface (for applications). The early versions of Windows ran on top of MS-DOS and its clones. At first Windows met with little success, but this was also true for most other companies' efforts as well, for example GEM. After version 3.0 (1990), Windows gained marked acceptance.
Later versions (Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me) used the DOS boot process to launch itself into protected mode. Basic features related to the file system, such as long file names, were only available to DOS when running as a subsystem of Windows. Windows NT ran independently of DOS but included a DOS subsystem so applications could run in a virtual machine under the new OS. With the latest Windows releases, even dual-booting MS-DOS is problematic as DOS may not be able to read the basic file system.

Legacy compatibility
Several similar products were produced by other companies. In the case of PC-DOS and DR-DOS, it is common but incorrect to call these "clones". Given that Microsoft manufactured PC-DOS for IBM, PC-DOS and MS-DOS were (to continue the genetic analogy) "identical twins" that diverged only in adulthood and eventually became quite different products; DR-DOS was a clone of itself once removed.
These products are collectively referred to as DOS. However, MS-DOS can be a generic reference to DOS on IBM-PC compatible

PC-DOS
DR-DOS, Novell DOS, and OpenDOS
FreeDOS, FreeDOS 32, and GNU/DOS
PTS-DOS
DOSBox, a popular MS-DOS emulator See also
"IBM wanted CP/M prompts. It made me throw up." -- Tim Paterson

2008-04-15T00:49:00.001+09:00

Urushiol-based lacquers
Quick-drying solvent-based lacquers that contain nitrocellulose, a resin obtained from the nitration of cotton and other cellulostic materials, were developed in the early 1920s, and extensively used in the automobile industry for 30 years. Prior to their introduction, mass produced automotive finishes were limited in colour, with Japan Black being the fastest drying and thus most popular. General Motors Oakland automobile brand automobile was the first (1923) to introduce one of the new fast drying nitrocelluous lacquers, a bright blue, produced by DuPont under their Duco tradename.
These lacquers are also used on wooden products, furniture primarily, and on musical instruments and other objects. The nitrocellulose and other resins and plasticizers are dissolved in the solvent, and each coat of lacquer dissolves some of the previous coat. These lacquers were a huge improvement over earlier automobile and furniture finishes, both in ease of application, and in colour retention. The preferred method of applying quick-drying lacquers is by spraying, and the development of nitrocellulose lacquers led to the first extensive use of spray guns. Nitrocellulose lacquers produce a very hard yet flexible, durable finish that can be polished to a high sheen. Drawbacks of these lacquers include the hazardous nature of the solvent, which is flammable, volatile and toxic; and the handling hazards of nitrocellulose in the lacquer manufacturing process. Lacquer grade or soluble nitrocellulose is closely related to the more highly nitrated form which is used to make explosives.

Nitrocellulose lacquers
Lacquers using acrylic resin, a synthetic polymer, were developed in the 1950s. Acrylic resin is colourless, transparent thermoplastic, obtained by the polymerization of derivatives of acrylic acid. Acrylic is also used in enamels, which have the advantage of not needing to be buffed to obtain a shine. Enamels, however, are slow drying. The advantage of acrylic lacquers, which was recognized by General Motors, is an exceptionally fast drying time. The use of lacquers in automobile finishes was discontinued when tougher, more durable, weather and chemical resistant two-component polyurethane coatings were developed. The system usually consists of a primer, colour coat and clear topcoat, commonly known as clear coat finishes. It is extensively used for wooden finishing

Acrylic lacquers
Due to health risks and environmental considerations involved in the use of solvent-based lacquers, much work has gone in to the development of water-based lacquers. Such lacquers are considerably less toxic and more environmentally friendly, and in many cases, produce acceptable results. More and more water-based coloured lacquers are replacing solvent-based clear and coloured lacquers in underhood and interior applications in the automobile and other similar industrial applications. Water based lacquers are used extensively in wood furniture finishing as well.

Japanning

Lacquerware

2008-04-14T00:36:00.001+09:00

Tom Tryon (January 14, 1926 – September 4, 1991) was an American film and television actor famous as the Walt Disney television character Texas John Slaughter (1958-1961), as well as author of several science fiction, horror, and mystery novels. He was born Thomas Tryon in Hartford, Connecticut. He is usually credited and listed as an author under his birth name.
Tom Tryon is often erroneously identified as the son of silent screen actor Glenn Tryon -- his actual father was Arthur Lane Tryon,[1] a clothier whose lineage in Connecticut predates the Salem witch trials. He was a student at Yale University.

Acting career
Disillusioned with acting, Tryon retired from the profession in 1969 and began writing horror and mystery novels. He was successful, overcoming skepticism about a classically handsome movie star suddenly turning novelist. His most well-known work is The Other (1971), about a boy whose evil twin brother may or may not be responsible for a series of deaths in a small rural community in the 1930s. The novel was adapted as a film the following year, starring Diana Muldaur, Uta Hagen, and John Ritter. Harvest Home, about the dark pagan rituals being practiced in a small New England town, was adapted as The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, a television mini-series starring Bette Davis, in 1978. An extensive critical analysis of Tryon's horror novels can be found in S. T. Joshi's book The Modern Weird Tale (2001).
His other novels include Crowned Heads, a collection of novellas inspired by the legends of Hollywood. The first of these novellas, Fedora, about a reclusive former film actress whose relationship with her plastic surgeon is similar to that between a drug addict and her pusher, was later filmed by Billy Wilder. Though the film was only moderately successful, it is considered by many to be a minor classic of the thriller and horror genres. Another novella in the collection was based on the murder of former silent screen star Ramon Novarro. Lady, written in 1975, concerns the friendship between an eight-year-old boy and a charming widow in 1930s New England and the secret he discovers about her. Many consider this to be Tryon's best work. His 1989 novel Night of the Moonbow tells the story of a boy driven to violent means by the constant harassment he receives at a summer boys camp. Night Magic, written in 1991 and posthumously published in 1995, is currently slated for a screen adaptation.

Writing career
During the 1970s, Tryon was in a romantic relationship with Clive Clerk, one of the original cast members of A Chorus Line and an interior designer who decorated Tryon's Central Park West apartment, which was featured in Architectural Digest.
Tryon continued writing through the 1980s and 1990s, before dying at age 65 on September 4, 1991 from a metastasized stomach cancer which had originated in his spine.

Relationships

Selected works

The Other (1971)
Harvest Home (1973)
Lady (1974)
The Night of the Moonbow (1989)
The Wings of the Morning (1990)
In the Fire of Spring (1991)
The Adventures of Opal and Cupid (1992)
Night Magic (1995) Short Stories and Novellas
Plus numerous guest appearances on the television series Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre, Playhouse 90, Zane Grey Theater, Wagon Train, The Millionaire, The Virginian, Dr. Kildare, and Night Gallery, among others.

The Horsemen (1971)
Persecución hasta Valencia (aka The Narco Men, 1970)
Color Me Dead (1969)
Winchester '73 (1967) (TV)
The Glory Guys (1965)
In Harm's Way (1965)
The Cardinal (1963)
Something's Got to Give (1962)
The Longest Day (1962)
Moon Pilot (1962)
Marines, Let's Go (1961)
The Story of Ruth (1960)
Gundown at Sandoval (1959)
I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)
Texas John Slaughter (television series, 1958)
The Unholy Wife (aka The Lady and the Prowler, 1957)
Three Violent People (1957)
The Scarlet Hour (1956)
Screaming Eagles (1956)

2008-04-13T00:11:00.001+09:00

Count Roman Ignacy Franciszek Potocki (generally known as Ignacy Potocki, 1750-1809), brother of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, was a Polish nobleman, owner of Klementowice, Marshal of the Permanent Council (Rada Nieustająca) in 1778-1782, Grand Clerk of Lithuania from 1773, Court Marshal of Lithuania from 1783, Grand Marshal of Lithuania from 16 April 1791 to 1794, and a politician and writer.
He was an alumnus of the Collegium Nobilium in Warsaw, Poland, and later studied theology and law in Rome. As a member (1772-1791) of Poland's Commission for National Education (Komisja Edukacji Narodowej)– the world's first ministry of education – he presided over the Society for Elementary Textbooks (Towarzystwo do Ksiąg Elementarnych).
De facto head of the "Familia" and at first an opponent of King Stanisław II August, during the Four-Year Sejm (1788-1792) Potocki backed the King and was a leader of the Patriotic Party and the reform movement. An advocate of a pro-Prussian orientation, he helped conclude an alliance (March 29, 1790) with Prussia. He co-authored the Constitution of May 3, 1791.
Following the victory of the Targowica Confederation and the abrogation of the May 3rd Constitution, Potocki emigrated from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He co-authored a work with Hugo Kołłątaj, On the Adoption and Fall of the Polish May 3rd Constitution (O ustanowieniu i upadku Konstytucji Polskiej 3-go Maja, 1793).
Potocki participated in preparations for the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794, in which he served as a member of the Supreme National Council (Rada Najwyższa Narodowa). Upon suppression of the Uprising, he was imprisoned by the Tsarist Russian authorities.
Released in 1796, Potocki settled in Galicia (southern Poland) and devoted himself to historical studies.
He married Elżbieta Lubomirska in 1773. He became Knight of the Order of White Eagle in 1778.
Stanisław Czupuruna | Rumbaudas Valimantaitis | Radvila Astikas | Petras Mantigirdaitis | Martynas Goštautas | Bohdan Andrzej Sakowicz | Piotr Jan Montygerdowicz | Jan Jurjewicz Zabrzeziński | Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł | Mikalojus Kęsgaila | Stanislaw Piotr Kiszka | Jan Mikolaj Radziwill | Jan Zabrzezinski | Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł | Jan Hieronim Chodkiewicz | Mikołaj "the Orphan" Radziwiłł | Albrycht Radziwiłł | Stanisław Radziwiłł | Krzysztof Monwind Drohostajski | Piotr Wiesiołowski | Jan Stanisław Sapieha | Krzysztof Wiesiołowski | Aleksander Ludwik Radziwiłł | Krzysztof Zawisza | Aleksander Hilary Polubinski | Stanislaw Kazimierz Radziwill | Jan Karol Dolski | Janusz Antoni Wisniowiecki | Aleksander Pawel Sapieha | Kazimierz Antoni Sanguszko | Marcjan Dominik Wollowicz | Aleksander Pawel Sapieha | Pawel Karol Sanguszko | Ignacy Oginski | Jozef Paulin Sanguszko | Wladyslaw Roch Gurowski | Roman Ignacy Potocki | Ludwik Tyszkiewicz

2008-04-12T00:48:00.001+09:00

The M198 howitzer is a medium-sized, towed artillery piece. It can be dropped by parachute or transported by a CH-53E Super Stallion. The M198 is deployed in separate corps- and army-level field artillery units, as well as in artillery battalions of light and airborne divisions. It also provides field artillery fire support for all Marine Air-Ground Task Force organizations. The M198 is being replaced by the BAE Systems Land Systems M777 ultra lightweight howitzer, with deliveries commencing. The M198 is also used by the Australian Army [1].

Capable munitions
High Explosive (HE) (M-107 Normal Cavity): Explosive Composition B material packed into a thick shell which causes a large blast and sends razor-sharp fragments at extreme velocities (5,000–6,000 meters per second). The kill zone is approximately a radius of 50 meters and casualty radius is 100 meters. The Marine Corps also uses the M795 High Explosive round.
Rocket Assisted Projectile: A rocket-assisted HE round that adds to the maximum range of the normal HE.
Smoke: A base-ejecting projectile used to cover troop and vehicle movements.
White Phosphorus (WP): A base-ejecting projectile which can come in two versions: felt-wedge and standard. White phosphorus smoke is used to start fires, burn a target, or to create smoke.
Illumination: Illumination projectiles are a base-ejecting round which pop out a bright flare approximately 600 meters above the ground and illuminate an area of approximately 1000 meters. Illumination rounds are often used in conjunction with HE rounds. Illumination rounds can also be used during the daytime to mark targets for aircraft. The M485 Illumination round burns for 120 seconds.
DPICM: Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition. A base-ejecting projectile which drops 88 bomblets above a target. Each bomblet has a shaped-charge munition capable of penetrating two inches of solid steel as well as a fragmentation casing which is effective against infantry in the open. The DPICM round is effective against armored vehicles, even tanks, and is also extremely useful against entrenched infantry in positions with overhead cover. Some bomblets fail to detonate and the undetonated bomblets are very dangerous to civilians (like a land mine) so they cannot be used in urbanized areas.
ADAMS (Area Denial Artillery Munition System): An artillery round that releases antipersonnel mines. These mines eject tripwires to act as booby traps, and when triggered are launched upward before exploding. They are designed to self-destruct after a pre-determined period of time.
RAAMS: An artillery round that releases anti-armor mines, usually used along with ADAM rounds to prevent the antitank mines from being removed. Designed to self-destruct after a pre-determined period of time.
Copperhead: An artillery launched guided high explosive munition which is used for very precise targeting of high value targets such as tanks and fortifications. It requires the target be designated with a laser designator system. This round is currently no longer produced.
SADARM: An experimental munition which is fired in the general direction of an enemy vehicle. The shell activates at a certain point in time ejecting a parachute and then guides itself to the nearest vehicle.

2008-04-11T00:27:00.001+09:00

The Queensland Firebirds are an Australian netball team, playing in the national Commonwealth Bank Trophy. They are Queensland's only team in the competition, and are based out of the Chandler Arena in the Brisbane suburb of Chandler. The Firebirds are currently coached by former Australian captain Vicki Wilson, who was recruited in September 2005 in an attempt to stem the team's perennial lacklustre record. They are currently captained by Peta Stephens, a new appointment in 2006. The team's mascot, the "Firebird", is themed with the state's two youth development teams, the Queensland Firechicks in the Dairy Farmers Cup state league and the Queensland Firebabes in the Presidents Cup under-19 competition. The Firebirds' team colours are black, red and yellow.
After making drastic changes to the training formula, coach Wilson's arrival seems to have made a dazzling improvement to the team in 2006. Other new strengths for the team must be Wilson's inspirational advice and huge experience as a player, plus the recruitment of Joanne Morgan as goal shooter. The squad suffered devastating injuries during the season, notably ending Carla Dziwoki's season with a knee reconstruction. However it did force Wilson into using arguably the strongest lineup with Morgan as the spearhead, the great talent of young Nourse (Australian squad member) and Clarke, towards the end of the season. The team of Stephens and Groves (nee McKenzie) in defence forged over years together also stepped up impressively, and Lucas proved a tenacious addition. For the first time the Firebirds advanced from the minor rounds to a semi-final, only beaten by 2 goals in a nail-biter against the Melbourne Phoenix.
Prior to 2006, the Firebirds perennially struggled in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy. They faced difficulties from the start - their team for the inaugural season was rated as the weakest overall by a major newspaper, and they subsequently finished seventh (second-last). Despite changes in both the coaching staff and playing list, there has been little improvement in the years since - they peaked at sixth in 2002, before slipping back to last in the 2005 season - until 2006.

Retired players
1997: 7th
1998: 7th
1999: 8th
2000: 7th
2001: 8th
2002: 6th
2003: 6th
2004: 7th
2005: 8th
2006: 4th
2007: 5th

2008-04-10T01:32:00.001+09:00

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Lyapunov (Александр Михайлович Ляпунов) (June 6, 1857 – November 3, 1918, all new style) was a Russian mathematician, mechanician and physicist. Sometimes his name is also written as Ljapunov, Liapunov or Ljapunow, and often improperly pronounced 'la-yapunov'.

Teaching and research

Lyapunov's central limit theorem,
Lyapunov's condition,
Lyapunov's characteristic number—see Lyapunov exponent,
Lyapunov equation,
Lyapunov exponent,
Lyapunov fractal,
Lyapunov function,
Lyapunov stability,
Lyapunov test,
Lyapunov time,
Lyapunov tube.

2008-04-09T00:55:00.001+09:00

Money is a Time Inc. financial magazine. It is known for its lists, such as "100 best places to live". Its articles cover the gamut of finance and technology topics, ranging from stocks and bonds to the world's greatest hacker and smallest wristwatch.

2008-04-08T01:48:00.001+09:00

Anger Fear Sadness Happiness Disgust Acceptance Affection Aggression Ambivalence Apathy Anxiety Compassion Confusion Contempt Depression Doubt Ecstasy Empathy Envy Embarrassment Euphoria Forgiveness Frustration Happy Guilt Gratitude Grief Hatred Hope Horror Hostility Homesickness Hysteria Loneliness Love Paranoia Pity Pleasure Pride Rage Regret Remorse Shame Suffering Surprise Sympathy Pride is the name of an emotion which refers to a strong sense of self-respect, a refusal to be humiliated as well as joy in the accomplishments of oneself or a person, group, nation or object that one identifies with. To think of self higher than anyone and everyone else. It is considered one of the seven deadly sins. According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, Proud comes from late Old English prud, probably from Old French prude "brave, valiant" (11th century), from Latin prode "advantageous, profitable", from prodesse "be useful". The sense of "having a high opinion of oneself", not in French, may reflect the Anglo-Saxons' opinion of the Norman knights who called themselves "proud", like the French knights preux.

2008-04-07T02:26:00.001+09:00

Opole ([ɔ:pɔlε] (help·info); German: Oppeln (help·info)) is a city in southern Poland on the Oder River (Odra). It has a population of 129,553 and is the capital of the Opole Voivodeship, and also the seat of Opole County. It is the historical capital of Upper Silesia. Today, many German Upper Silesians and Poles of German ancestry live in the Opole region and the city itself.

History
¹ First census of the city
² 8,320 German nationality (93,7%) and 557 Polish nationality (6,3%)
³ 80% German-speaking, 16% Polish- or Slavic Silesian-speaking, and 4% German- and Polish-speaking

Historical population
Alongside German, many citizens of Opole-Oppeln before 1945 used a strongly German-influenced Silesian dialect known as Upper Silesian, Wasserpolnisch, or Wasserpolak. Because of this, the Soviet puppet-state administration after the annexation of Silesia in 1945 did not initiate a general expulsion of German-speakers in Opole, as was done in Lower Silesia, for instance, where the population exclusively spoke the German language. Because they were considered "autochthonous" (Polish), the Wasserpolak-speakers instead received the right to remain in their homeland. Many German-speakers took advantage of this decision, allowing them to remain in their Oppeln, even when they considered themselves to be of German nationality. The city and its surroundings presently contain the largest German and Upper Silesian minorities in Poland. (See also Germans of Poland.)

Attractions

state-run universities and colleges:

Opole University of Technology (Politechnika Opolska)
University of Opole (Uniwersytet Opolski)
Public Higher Medical Professional School in Opole (Państwowa Medyczna Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa w Opolu)
privately run colleges:
- Management and Administration College in Opole (Wyższa Szkoła Zarządzania i Administracji w Opolu)
  Bogdan Jański Academy (Szkoła Wyższa im. Bogdana Jańskiego) Education
  Members of Parliament (Sejm) elected from Opole constituency
  
  Dorota Jazłowiecka, PO
  Tadeusz Jarmuziewicz, PO
  Ryszard Knosala, PO
  Leszek Korzeniowski, PO
  Sławomir Kłosowski, PiS
  Teresa Ceglecka-Zielonka, PiS
  Mieczysław Walkiewicz, PiS
  Henryk Kroll, German minority
  Ryszard Galla, German minority
  Józef Stępkowski, Samoobrona
  Sandra Lewandowska, Samoobrona
  Tomasz Garbowski, SLD
  Marek Kawa, LPR Famous residents
  
  Alytus, Lithuania
  Agioi Anargyroi, Greece
  Bonn, Germany
  Bruntál, Czech Republic
  Carrara, Italy
  Grasse, France
  Ingolstadt, Germany
  Kuopio, Finland
  Mülheim, Germany
  Potsdam, Germany
  Roanoke, USA
  Székesfehérvár, Hungary
  Kragujevac, Serbia

2008-04-06T01:40:00.001+09:00

Forrest DeWitt Sawyer (born April 19, 1949) is a former broadcast journalist best known for his 11 years with ABC News, where he anchored ABC World News Tonight Saturday and frequently substituted for Ted Koppel on Nightline. During that time he earned Emmy Awards in 1992, 1993, and 1994 while with ABC-TV's Day One and Nightline. He left ABC News to become a news anchor for both NBC and its cable counterpart, MSNBC, where he was an occasional substitute for Brian Williams as anchor for The News with Brian Williams. He left NBC News to become founder and president of Freefall Productions, where he produces documentaries and serves as a media strategist and guest lecturer.
Sawyer was born in Lakeland, Florida. After starting in radio, Sawyer moved into television with Atlanta's WAGA-TV, a CBS affiliate while he was there from 1980 to 1985. While at WAGA, Sawyer shared a Peabody Award in 1982, for Paradise Saved, a documentary on Cumberland Island. He, Don Smith, and photographer George Gentry were cited for a documentary in which viewers were "treated to a quality of visual beauty not often seen on television and, at the same time, were informed, enlightened, and challenged concerning the problems of retaining a great natural heritage and a diminishing resource—the unspoiled beauty of the Atlantic Coast."
In 1985 he took over as anchorman on the CBS Morning News, holding that position until 1987. He joined ABC in 1988 as anchorman of ABC World News This Morning and also hosted "World News Sunday" before leaving that network. In addition to his Peabody Award, he has received a total of seven National Emmy Awards, two Sigma Delta Chi Awards, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, an Associated Press Award, an Ohio State Award, an Ark Award and two American Psychological Association Awards.
He is a 1967 graduate of Kathleen High School in Lakeland, Florida and an alumnus of the University of Florida, holding a BA in Arts and Sciences and a master's in education. He also was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity at UF.
He was a guest speaker at the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Conference in Long Beach, CA, during April 2006 and was keynote speaker on May 11, 2007 at the University of California, Santa Barbara, at a conference titled "The Future of Multi-Media Digital News and Cultural Networks."

Pop culture trivia

Yahoo! TV

2008-04-05T00:52:00.001+09:00

Political parties Elections
The Welsh Conservative Party, officially the Welsh Conservative & Unionist Party, is the part of the Conservative Party which operates in Wales. In UK General Elections it is the second most popular political party in Wales, having obtained the second largest share of the vote in Wales in a majority of UK General Election since its formation in 1921 (and in every such election since 1931). In Welsh Assembly elections the Welsh Conservatives are the third most supported party.
The Welsh Conservative Party has 1 of 4 Welsh seats in the European Parliament, 3 of 40 Welsh seats in the UK Parliament and 12 of 60 seats in the National Assembly for Wales.

Electoral performance

UK General Elections

2008-04-04T01:32:00.000+09:00

Background

Main article: Bourbon Restoration Charles X's reign

The Three Glorious Days
It was a hot, dry summer, pushing those who could afford it to leave Paris for the country. Most businessmen couldn't, and so were among the first to learn of the Saint-Cloud "ordonnances" from the Monday edition of the Moniteur. They did not like what they read, perhaps most of all because they suddenly learned they were now no longer permitted to run as candidates for the House of Deputies, membership of which was the sine qua non of those who sought the ultimate in social prestige. In protest members of the Bourse refused to lend money, and business owners shuttered their factories. Workers were unceremoniously turned out into the street to fend for themselves. Unemployment numbers, which had been growing through early summer, spiked upward. "Large numbers of...workers therefore had nothing to do but protest."
Monday, 26 July, 1830
The sun rose to a Paris awash in newspapers – radical newspapers. By noon shopkeepers in the center of the city had closed their stores and bolted the shutters; the noise and traffic on the avenues, which in the early morning had seemed to hold the promise of a typical day, began to disappear. The city grew quiet as the milling crowds grew larger. At 4:30 p.m. commanders of the troops of the First Military division of Paris and the Garde Royale were ordered to concentrate their troops, and guns, on the Place du Carrousel facing the Tuileries, the Vendôme, and de Place de la Bastille. In order to maintain order and protect gunshops from looters, military patrols throughout the city were established, strengthened, and expanded. Amazingly, no special measures were taken to protect either the arms depot or gunpowder factories.
For a time it seemed the precautions seemed premature, but at 7:00 p.m., with the coming twilight, the fighting began. "Parisians, rather than soldiers, were the aggressor. Paving stones, roof tiles, and flowerpots from the upper windows...began to rain down on the soldiers in the streets"
In the late 1820s the city of Paris had established some 2,000 street lamps. These lanterns were hung on ropes looped-on-looped from one pole to another, the whole casting shadows like giant spiders' webs on streets and buildings. These lights were the reason the rioting lasted as late into the night as it did. But along with the sound of bullets and running feet, came the sound of smashing glass as street lamps fell in wanton or accidental destruction. By 10 p.m. nearly all of them were destroyed, and as the city slipped into darkness the crowds began to melt away; by midnight the city was quiet.
Tuesday, 27 July, 1830: Day One
Though Paris has been quiet during the night, it had not been asleep.
"It is hardly a quarter past eight," wrote an eye witness, "and already shouts and gun shots can be heard. Business is at a complete standstill...Crowds rushing through the streets... the sound of cannon and gunfire is becoming ever louder...Cries of 'A bas le roi !!', 'A la guillotine !!' can be heard..."
The King looked to his "Jeanne d'Arc en culottes" (Polignac) for advice, and the advice was simple: "resist". Meanwhile in Paris a group of serious men met and talked. The name of the Duc d'Orléans was mentioned for the first time.
Thursday, 29 July, 1830: Day Three
The revolt of 1830 created a constitutional monarchy. Charles X abdicated rather than become a limited monarch and departed for Great Britain. In his place Louis-Philippe of the House of Orléans was placed on the throne, and he agreed to rule as a constitutional monarch. This period became known as the July Monarchy.
One month later, in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Belgian Revolution would commence, leading to the establishment of an independent Kingdom of Belgium.
The July Column, located on Place de la Bastille, commemorates those three days.

2008-04-03T00:16:00.001+09:00

Dr. Antonio Fernós-Isern (May 10, 1895 – January 19, 1974) born in San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico - cardiologist. Fernos-Isern was the first Puerto Rican cardiologist and its longest serving resident commissioner.

Early years
In 1933, Fernos-Isern resigned as health commissioner and went to New York, here he completed his residency in cardiology at Columbia University and so became the "first" Puerto Rican cardiologist. Upon his later return to Puerto Rico, he became a professor at the "Public School of Tropical Medicine of Puerto Rico",where he had previously served as assistant and associate professor.

First Puerto Rican cardiologist
In 1937, Fernos-Isern joined Luis Muñoz Marín organize the "Popular Democratic Party" (Partido Popular Democratico). In 1941, he served as the Director of civilian defense for the San Juan Metropolitan Area. In 1942 he returned to head the Department of Health and the Administration of Public Housing, as Director of the War Effort Office for Puerto Rico. From 1943 to 1946 Dr. Fernos-Isern was also the acting governor of Puerto Rico, during the Governorship of Rexford G. Tugwell under appointment as Permanent Acting Governor approved by president Franklyn D. Roosevelt.

Later years

List of famous Puerto Ricans

2008-04-02T02:02:00.001+09:00

The Southerner was a passenger express train that ran in New Zealand's South Island between Christchurch and Invercargill via Dunedin along the Main South Line. It commenced service on Tuesday, 1 December 1970 and ceased on Sunday, 10 February 2002. It was one of the premier passenger trains in New Zealand and its existence made Invercargill the southernmost passenger station in the world.

Before the Southerner
By the late 1960s steam motive power had been phased out from the North Island, and a serious effort was being made to replace it with diesel-electric engines in the South too. The introduction of the DJ class in 1968 sealed steam's fate, and in 1970, plans were made to introduce a brand new diesel-hauled express to replace the premier express between Christchurch, Dunedin, and Invercargill, the South Island Limited. The new train was named the Southerner. It would be hauled by members of the DJ class, and unlike the steam-hauled expresses, it would not carry mail. It entered service 1 December 1970.
Despite the introduction of the Southerner, steam-hauled expresses continued to operate on Friday and Sunday evenings for almost 11 months. The last one ran on 26 October 1971; this was the last steam-hauled regularly-scheduled revenue service in New Zealand. The service was replaced with a diesel-hauled train, which continued until 1979. The evening railcars lasted a few years longer, but the age of the Vulcan railcars was becoming increasingly obvious and the service was canceled in April 1976 without replacement. After 1979, the Southerner was the only long-distance passenger service on the Main South Line.

Introduction
The original Southerner consisted of ten (later 12) 56-ft single-toilet (later designated South Island Main Trunk Railway) first class cars, two (later three) full buffet cars, three vans and, in the 1980s, three wooden 50-ft bogie box wagons for parcels. All passenger cars were rebuilt 56-ft stock dating from 1938-1945.
Two 56-ft cars, one a pressure-ventilated former half first class (14 seats) half second class (28 seats) car, and the other the only 56-ft car to serve in a Vice Regal capacity for a Governor-General as a kitchen carriage (hence the unique design), were rebuilt as full buffet cars, incorporating full length counters and 20 stools. In 1973, a former double-toilet (later designated a North Island Main Trunk Railway first class car) was rebuilt as a third buffet car. Two cars retained their "coupe" compartment for train staff, one car for each train, and another two retained their compartments for hostesses, again, one car to each train.

Rolling Stock
The buffet cars were fitted with new Japanese bogies of Kinki-Sharyo manufacture. Compared to the Timken spring bogies under the other carriages and vans, the Kinki bogies offered a superior quality ride - passengers complained about the riding quality of the other cars.
With the success of new Korean bogies underneath Northerner carriages, the Southerner cars were also fitted with this type of bogie. Work on car underframes was less substantial than that carried out on the Northerner.

InterCity Rail upgrade
At the same time the InterCity refurbishment programme started, a private tourist firm leased a Southerner carriage and marketed it as The Connoisseur car. It was thoroughly overhauled and refurbished, and offered users a more upmarket service.
In 1988, three more red Picton/Greymouth cars and an Endeavour car were refurbished as a "new" Southerner, entering service Monday, July 4, 1988, joining the two cars already fitted as such. The Endeavour car and one Picton/Greymouth car were fitted out as servery cars, each seating 31 in bays of four, alcove-style. The other two cars seated 50 alcove-style. The seats were reupholstered and new carpet laid down in all four cars. Two Mitsubishi-built modular vans were equipped with 11 kW generators on their handbrake ends and became power-baggage vans for the "new" trains. Its reintroduction also saw the ceasation of parcels traffic on the trains.
This seating arrangement, while accepted on the TranzAlpine, Coastal Pacific, and Bay Expresses, proved unsuccessful on the Southerners, so one car from each set had seating re-arranged to a "forward-facing" layout.

Connoisseur
At the end of 1993, a former Wairarapa Connection car turned NIMT servery car was brought in to replace the damaged servery car, and the first of the two Bay Express panorama cars was also allocated to this train as the initial attempt to re-equip this train with panorama cars.
In 1995, seven of the first batch of 11 non-air conditioned panorama cars were thoroughly overhauled, air conditioning and a new-style seat (as in the third three-car Northerner and Overlander set) were installed. Two of these were permanently allocated to the Southerner, the second two temporarily, with the fifth juggling duties between Invercargill, Greymouth and Picton. The two original servery/observation cars were similarly refurbished. The third TranzAlpine/Coastal Pacific and the first of the two Southerner 11kW power/baggage vans were fitted with newer, more powerful generators (though less powerful than their NIMT counterparts) and the Southerner van had its public viewing module re-enclosed for luggage carriage again. Later that year, when the Bay Express was re-equipped with two of those seven refurbished cars, the original two Bay Express cars were similarly refurbished and permanently allocated to the Southerner.
Patronage continued to fall away, even when from 1993 onwards panorama cars were introduced to this service. Two cars came from the original Bay Express, two were Southerner cars turned panorama cars for the TranzAlpine and Coastal Pacific and one car that was formerly The Connoisseur car (also an original Southerner car). Two Picton/Greymouth cars turned panorama cars also served these trains until joining the Bay Express to Napier. The original TranzAlpine servery/observation car and its Coastal Pacific equivalent were assigned to the Southerner.

Replacement rolling stock
On Wednesday 25 August 1993, the southound Southerner, consisting of a DF class locomotive, passenger car with luggage space at one end, servery car, day car and the second of three TranzAlpine and Coastal Pacific power-baggage vans was hit at Rolleston by a concrete mixing truck. The bowl of the truck bounced off all three passenger cars, and ripped two wide open. Two people were killed.
Two days later, a replacement train consisting of three recently refurbished cars and the Mitsubishi-built modular power and baggage van with 37.5 kW generator from the Auckland excursion fleet was brought in to supplement the remaining four Southerner cars. The first and second of these temporary replacement cars seated 50, alcove-style, like the Southerner cars, but with a more modern seat, seen on upgraded Masterton cars and the NIMT cars. The third car seated 54 in the same type of seat, but with all seats facing into two centre tables, one on each side of the aisle. The NIMT car turned buffet car in 1973 returned to the train as part of the replacement consist.

Accidents
The advantages of the new technology and the removal of delays caused by the carriage of mail, and the elimination of refreshment stops (with the inclusion of a buffet car) became apparent instantly, with the travel time between Christchurch and Dunedin cut by almost an hour from 7 hours 9 minutes to 6 hours 14 minutes. Typically, two DJ diesels hauled the train, and when a third was added to increase power on the rugged, difficult line between Oamaru and Dunedin, another 19 minutes was slashed from the schedule.

Timetable
The Southerner is also notable for being the first train to include a full dining service on New Zealand Railways since the abolition of dining cars as an economy measure in World War I. The Southerner had a full service buffet car with 20 seats, that served hot meals and cafeteria style food, until this was replaced with a buffet bar service in the early 1990s, for passengers to purchase food to be consumed at their seats.

Withdrawal
There are currently no plans to re-instate a service on the Southerner's route and the Main South Line is now almost wholly without any passenger trains. The northern portion between Christchurch and Rolleston is still used by the TranzAlpine, and Dunedin Railway Station and the Main South Line to Wingatui remain in use as by the Taieri Gorge Limited, a popular daily tourist train operated by the Taieri Gorge Railway along the former Otago Central Railway. Taieri Gorge Railway also run weekly trips on their Seasider service on the section of line between Dunedin and Palmerston.

2008-03-30T00:48:00.001+09:00

ALH 84001 (Allan Hills 84001) is a meteorite found in Allan Hills, Antarctica in December 1984 by a team of US meteorite hunters from the ANSMET project. Like other members of the group of SNCs (shergottite, nakhlite, chassignite), ALH 84001 is thought to be from Mars. On discovery, its mass was 1.93 kg.

History
On August 6, 1996

Possible lifeforms
In September 2005, Vicky Hamilton of the University of Hawaii at Manoa presented an analysis of the origin of ALH 84001 using data from the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey spacecraft orbiting Mars. According to the analysis, Eos Chasma in the Valles Marineris canyon appears to be the source of the meteorite. The analysis was not conclusive, in part because it was limited to parts of Mars not obscured by dust.

Additional Reading

Martian meteorite
Life on Mars
Panspermia, or more correctly Exogenesis

2008-03-29T00:23:00.000+09:00

In 1498 the Portuguese set foot in India, landing near the city of Calicut in the present-day state of Kerala in South India. The pursuit of trade and competition between European powers saw the entry of the British and French, among others, into India. Several fractured Indian kingdoms were eventually taken over by Europeans, who indirectly assumed control by subjugating rulers. In 1757 Mir Qasim, a minister to the Nawab of Bengal secretly connived with the British, asking logistic support to overthrow the Nawab in return for trade grants. The British forces, whose sole duty until then was guarding their British East India Company property, were numerically superior to the Bengali armed forces. At the battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757 fought between the British under the command of Robert Clive and the Nawab, Mir Qasim's forces betrayed the Nawab and helped defeat him. Qasim was installed on the throne as a British subservient ruler. The battle transformed British perspective as they realized their strength and potential to conquer smaller Indian kingdoms, and marked the beginning of the imperial or colonial era.
The British had direct or indirect control over all of present-day India by the early 19 century. In 1857 a local rebellion by an army of sepoys snowballed into the Rebellion of 1857. This resistance, although short-lived, was triggered by widespread resentment against certain discriminatory policies of the British. As a result of this, the British East India Company was abolished and India formally became a crown colony. The slow but momentous reform movement, perhaps influenced in India by contact with European ideas and institutions, developed gradually into the Indian Independence Movement. During the years of the First World War, the hitherto bourgeoise "home-rule" movement was transformed into a popular mass movement by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a pacifist. Gandhi, later known as Mahatma Gandhi, was aided by revolutionaries such as Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekar Azad and Subhash Chandra Bose who were feared by the British in the later stages. The independence movement attained its objective with the Independence of India on August 15, 1947.

Kingdoms
The wars that took place involving the British East India Company or British India during the Colonial era:

Anglo-Mysore Wars
Anglo-Maratha Wars
Anglo-Sikh wars
Gurkha War
Burmese Wars
Opium Wars
Afghan Wars
India in World War II

2008-03-28T01:00:00.001+09:00

The French Quarter of Charleston, South Carolina, is a section of Downtown Charleston. It is considered to be bounded by the Cooper River on the east, Broad Street on the south, Meeting Street on the west and Market Street on the north. The area began being called the French Quarter in 1973 when preservation efforts began for warehouse buildings on the Lodge Alley block. The name recognizes the high concentration of French merchants in the area's history.
It was settled as part of the original Grande Modell of Charles Towne in 1680. It is famous for its art galleries; it also has many restaurants and places of commerce as well as Charleston's Waterfront Park.
Charleston's French Quarter is home to many fine historic buildings, among them, the Pink House Tavern, built around 1712, and the Slave Mart, built by Z.B.Oakes in 1859. Also in the French Quarter are the Dock Street Theatre, arguably the first site of theatrical productions in the United States, and the French Huguenot Church, a beautiful Gothic-style church which houses the sole-surviving French Calvinist Congregation in the United States. St. Philip's Episcopal Church, the first congregation in Charleston, whose current building dates to 1835, is also in the French Quarter. St. Philip's cemetery is the final resting place of Edward Rutledge, the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence, and U.S. Senator and Vice President John C. Calhoun, whose large tomb is empty; his bones were removed during the Civil War to protect them from capture by invading Union forces, and have never been recovered.

2008-03-27T02:16:00.001+09:00

Kellye Cash from Memphis, Tennessee, was Miss America 1987.
Since her year as Miss America, Kellye has appeared nationally on The David Letterman Show, Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, the Trinity Broadcasting Network and more.
She has performed with numerous musical artists including Vince Gill, Lee Greenwood, and Billy Joel and has performed in many regional theatrical productions; she was recently chosen for the lead part of country music legend Patsy Cline, in Always...Patsy Cline.
In addition to making approximately 100 appearances each year at charitable, community and political events, Kellye is actively pursuing her Christian music career, having recently released her 3rd CD entitled Real Life.
Kellye currently resides in a small Tennessee town, with her husband Todd and 3 children.
What She's Doing Now
Kellye has performed with numerous musical artists, including Vince Gill, Lee Greenwood and Billy Joel. She is currently playing the role of country music legend Patsy Cline in Always…Patsy Cline and recently released her third CD, Real Life.
Cash is also the great-niece of Johnny Cash. She has a husband named Todd, and three children. The oldest child is her son, Brady. She also has two daughters; the oldest is Cassidy and the youngest is Tatum. Kellye recently played the role of Patsy Cline in a production called "Always Patsy CLine." She currently has produced three CDs: Living by the word, Real Life, Cash and Cline. She is very involved in her local church by directing teaching a college and career class with her husband and also singing and playing for the church.

2008-03-26T01:57:00.001+09:00

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Iceland
The Prime Minister of Iceland (Icelandic: Forsætisráðherra Íslands) is Iceland's head of government. The prime minister is appointed by the President and exercises executive power along with the cabinet. Incumbent prime minister is Geir Haarde, leader of the Independence Party. He took office on June 15, 2006.

Constitution
President

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
Alþing
Prime Minister
- Geir H. Haarde (Independ.)
  Cabinet
  Supreme Court
  Ombudsman
  Politicians
  Elections:
  2004 Presidential election
  2007 Parliamentary election
  Political parties
  Administrative divisions
  Foreign relations
  - Iceland and the European Union
    Cod War
    Agreed Minute
    Diplomatic missions Abbreviations
    
    List of Icelandic rulers

2008-03-25T02:17:00.001+09:00

The Battle of Ogdensburg was a battle of the War of 1812. The British gained a victory over the Americans and captured the village of Ogdensburg, New York. Although small in scale, it removed the American threat to British supply lines for the remainder of the war.

Battle
After the British withdrew, the Americans did not re-garrison Ogdensburg. The British were able to purchase supplies from unpatriotic Americans there for the remainder of the war. The Ogdensburg area may have been populated by more Tories and Federalists than was previously thought.
The normally cautious Prevost amended MacDonnell's despatch to make it appear that the attack had been carried out on, rather than against, his orders.
The Regimental Chaplain of the Glengarry Light Infantry, Alexander Macdonell, is reputed to have accompanied the attack, wielding a crucifix to encourage lagging soldiers. Less reliably, he is supposed to have been supported by a Presbyterian minister swinging a heavy Bible.

2008-03-24T01:03:00.001+09:00

Sighişoara, pronounced "zigi show ARA" (German: Schäßburg; Hungarian: Segesvár; Latin: Castrum Sex) is a city and municipality on the Târnava River in Mureş County, Romania. Located in the historic region Transylvania, Sighişoara has a population of 32,287 (2002).

History
Ethnic groups (2002 census): [1]

Romanians (76.06%)
Hungarians (18.36%)
Roma (3.51%)
Germans (1.92%) Demographics
Sighişoara is a popular tourist destination, due to its well-preserved walled old town. The landmark of the city is the Clock Tower, a 64m high tower built in 1556. It is today a museum of history.
Other interesting sights are:

The House attributed to Vlad Ţepeş, close to the Clock Tower, today a restaurant.
Sighisoara Citadel - a 12th Century Saxon edifice, is the historic center of the city. Still occupied, the citadel is listed as a World Heritage Site.
Clock Tower - Built in 1360 and standing at 60 meters tall atop the citadel hill. Inside is a museum that finishes in a great view from the top.
Weapon Museum - next to Vlad's birthplace. Very small, but it contains an interesting selection of medieval weapons (swords, arrows, etc.).
Covered Staircase - an old stone staircase with a wooden roof along the whole span. This leads up to the Church on the Hill and the cemetery.
Church on the Hill - contains many frescoes and a crypt. Close to the cemetery on the side of the hill, which contains many German tombstones.
Bust of Vlad Tepes - Located around the corner from his birthplace, within sight of the Clock Tower.

2008-03-23T01:21:00.001+09:00

Trendle Ring (or Trundle Ring) is an Iron Age earthwork on the Quantock Hills near Bicknoller in Somerset, England. The word trendle means circle, so it is a tautological place name.
The so-called hill fort has several features that make it more likely to be an animal enclosure, rather than a defended settlement:

single rampart with ditch
simple opening for an entrance
situated on the slope of a hill
the hill rises 130 m above the ring
the area is only 0.7 ha

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Tales of Phantasia (テイルズオブファンタジア, Teiruzu obu Fantajia)