tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-240996402024-03-07T00:14:14.153-08:00What I learned on Wikipedia todayA daily bit of learning, cut-and-pasted from your and my favorite online encyclopedia.Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-69522191074155519712007-09-17T08:05:00.000-07:002007-09-17T08:06:31.736-07:00britney post<embed src="http://www.mtv.com/player/embed/" width="423" height="318" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" FlashVars="CONFIG_URL=http://www.mtv.com/player/embed/configuration.jhtml%3Fid%3D1568788%26vid%3D173440" allowFullScreen="true" AllowScriptAccess="never" base="." /></embed>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1167189039683517912006-12-26T18:47:00.000-08:002006-12-26T19:10:40.183-08:00The problem of induction<span style="font-size:78%;">[Even more fun than the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil">problem of evil</a>.]<br /></span>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_induction"><b>problem of induction</b></a> is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy" title="Philosophy">philosophical</a> issue involved in deciding the place of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_%28philosophy%29" title="Induction (philosophy)">induction</a> in determining <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empirical" title="Empirical">empirical</a> truth. The problem of induction is whether inductive reason works. That is, what is the justification for either: <ol><li>generalizing about the properties of a class of objects based on some number of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empirical_research" title="Empirical research">observations</a> of particular instances of that class of objects (for example, "All swans we have seen are white, and therefore all swans are white", Hume's Problem of Induction, C18, pre discovery of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_atratus" title="Cygnus atratus">Cygnus atratus</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia" title="Australia">Australia</a>); or</li><li>presupposing that a sequence of events in the future will occur as it always has in the past (for example, the attractive force described by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton" title="Isaac Newton">Isaac Newton</a>'s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_universal_gravitation" title="Law of universal gravitation">law of universal gravitation</a>, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein" title="Albert Einstein">Albert Einstein</a>'s revision in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_relativity" title="General relativity">general relativity</a>).</li></ol> <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon" title="Francis Bacon">Francis Bacon</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton" title="Isaac Newton">Isaac Newton</a>, and numerous others up until at least the late 19th century have considered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductive_reasoning" title="Inductive reasoning">inductive reasoning</a> the basis of scientific method—indeed inductive reasoning is used today, though in a more balanced interaction with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_reasoning" title="Deductive reasoning">deductive reasoning</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abductive_reasoning" title="Abductive reasoning">abductive reasoning</a>. By the inductive approach to scientific method, one makes a series of observations and forms a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalization" title="Generalization">universal generalization</a>. If correct and stated in a sufficiently accurate way, an inductively arrived at statement relieves others of the need for making so many observations and allows them to instead use the generalization to predict what will happen in specific circumstances in the future. So, for instance, from any series of observations that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water" title="Water">water</a> freezes at 0°C at sea-level it is valid to infer that the next sample of water will do the same--but only if induction works. That such a prediction comes true when tried merely adds to the series; it does not establish the reliability of induction, except inductively. The problem is, then, what justification can there be for making such an inference?</p> <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hume" title="David Hume">David Hume</a> framed the problem in <i>An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding</i>, §4.1.20-27, §4.2.28-33<sup id="_ref-hume_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_induction#_note-hume" title="">[1]</a></sup>. Among his arguments, Hume asserted there is no logical necessity that the future will resemble the past. Justifying induction on the grounds that it has worked in the past, then, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question" title="Begging the question">begs the question</a>. It is using inductive reasoning to justify induction, and as such is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_argument" title="Circular argument">circular argument</a>. This <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_positivist" title="Logical positivist">logical positivist</a> formulation of the problem would prove to be a tenacious counterargument to the use of inductive propositions. Further, even the largest series of observations consistent with a universal generalization can be logically negated by just one observation in which it is false. By Hume's arguments, there also is no strictly logical basis for belief in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_uniformity" title="Principle of uniformity">Principle of the Uniformity of Nature</a>. Notably, Hume's stated position on the issue was that instead of unproductive <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_skepticism" title="Philosophical skepticism">radical skepticism</a> about everything, he actually was advocating a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_skepticism" title="Scientific skepticism">practical skepticism</a> based on common sense, where the inevitability of induction is accepted (but not explained). Hume noted that someone who insisted on sound deductive justifications for everything would starve to death, in that they would not, for example, <i>assume</i> that based on previous observations of, e.g., what time of year to plant seeds, or who has bread for sale, even that bread previously nourished them and others, that these inductions would likely continue to hold true. Hume nonetheless left a lasting legacy by showing that there is no absolute certainty to any induction, even those inductions for which a contrary has never been observed. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell" title="Bertrand Russell">Bertrand Russell</a> elaborated and confirmed Hume's analysis in his 1912 work, <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Problems_of_Philosophy" title="The Problems of Philosophy">The Problems of Philosophy</a></i>, chapter 6.<sup id="_ref-russell_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_induction#_note-russell" title="">[2]</a></sup> <i>(see also: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_positivism" title="Logical positivism">logical positivism</a>)</i></p> <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper" title="Karl Popper">Karl Popper</a>, an influential <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_science" title="Philosophy of science">philosopher of science</a>, sought to resolve the problem in the context of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method" title="Scientific method">scientific method</a>, in part by arguing that science does not primarily rely on induction, but rather primarily upon deduction, in effect making <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modus_tollens" title="Modus tollens">modus tollens</a> the centerpiece of his theory. On this account, when assessing a theory, one should pay greater heed to data which is in disagreement with the theory than to data which is in agreement with it. Popper went further and stated that a hypothesis which does not allow for experimental tests of falsity is outside the bounds of science. However, critics of Popper's approach to solving the problem, such as the famous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarian" title="Utilitarian">utilitarian</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_rights" title="Animal rights">animal rights</a> advocate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Singer" title="Peter Singer">Peter Singer</a>, argue that Popper is merely obscuring the role induction plays in science by concealing it in the step of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability" title="Falsifiability">falsification</a>. In that, they mean that the proposition of something having been falsified is in and of itself a scientific theory and can only be assumed to be definitive through induction; no matter how many times a proposition is demonstrated to be accurate, when taken as a strict matter of logic it cannot necessarily be assumed that the proposition will always be accurate under the same circumstances. For this reason, among others, contemporary <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_research" title="Scientific research">scientific research</a> tends to regard <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypotheses" title="Hypotheses">hypotheses</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories" title="Theories">theories</a> as tentative, validated in terms of degrees of confidence rather than true/false propositions.</p> <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Goodman" title="Nelson Goodman">Nelson Goodman</a> presented a different description of the problem of induction in the article "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Problem_of_Induction" title="The New Problem of Induction">The New Problem of Induction</a>" (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966" title="1966">1966</a>). Goodman proposed a new property, "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grue_%28color%29" title="Grue (color)">grue</a>". Something is grue if it has been observed to be green before a given time t, or if it is has been observed to be blue thereafter. The "new" problem of induction is, since all emeralds we have ever seen are both green and grue, why do we suppose that after time t we will find green but not grue emeralds? The standard scientific response is to invoke <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor" title="Occam's razor">Occam's razor</a>.</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_induction">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1166422565371713832006-12-17T22:10:00.000-08:002006-12-17T22:16:05.826-08:00William Rawls<span style="font-size:78%;">[Where has this site been? Down in the hole -- lost to the latest season of "The Wire." And now that we're all caught up, a week-long wiki-review of the show's most interesting characters seems in order. So here goes, fictional characters. Let's start with the one with the biggest secret: </span><span style="font-size:78%;">(WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW.)</span><span style="font-size:78%;">]</span><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rawls"><b>William Rawls</b></a> is a fictional Police officer in the Baltimore Police Department played by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Doman" title="John Doman">John Doman</a> on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HBO" title="HBO">HBO</a> drama <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire_%28TV_series%29" title="The Wire (TV series)">The Wire</a></i>. Over the course of the series he has ascended to the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Operations. Only brief glimpses have been seen of his personal life, but it has been strongly implied that he is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closet_homosexual" title="Closet homosexual">closet homosexual</a>....<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/The_Wire_Rawls.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 261px; height: 163px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/The_Wire_Rawls.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span class="mw-headline"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />...</span></span>Nothing has been shown of Rawls's personal life, with one exception: he appeared, out of uniform, in the background in a scene which took place in a gay bar.<sup id="_ref-OC_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rawls#_note-OC" title="">[2]</a><br /><br /></sup>....Rawls lack of a sense of humour and distinctive technique for intimidating others is based on real Baltimore CID commander Joe Cooke, although Rawls is far more banal. Simon has also commented that Rawls attitude to the murder rate and his units clearance record is a product of the extreme pressure he is under.<sup id="_ref-Target_Commentary_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rawls#_note-Target_Commentary" title="">[4]</a><br /><br />[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rawls">More....</a>]<br /></sup>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1164826161182651762006-11-29T10:45:00.000-08:002006-11-29T10:49:21.966-08:00Gödel's incompleteness theorems<span style="font-size:78%;">[Spun off from Monday's toughie, first-order logic. This one's just on the border of comprehensibility, but kind of in the way that Reykjavik borders New York.]<span><span></span></span></span><br />In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_logic" title="Mathematical logic">mathematical logic</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorem"><b>Gödel's incompleteness theorems</b></a> are two celebrated <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theorem" title="Theorem">theorems</a> about the limitations of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_system" title="Formal system">formal systems</a>, proved by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_G%C3%B6del" title="Kurt Gödel">Kurt Gödel</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931" title="1931">1931</a> .These theorems show that there is no complete, consistent formal system that correctly describes the natural numbers, and that no sufficiently strong system describing the natural numbers can prove its own consistency....<br /><p>Gödel's theorems are theorems in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-order_logic" title="First-order logic">first-order logic</a>, and must ultimately be understood in that context. In formal logic, both mathematical statements and proofs are written in a symbolic language, one where we can mechanically check the validity of proofs so that there can be no doubt that a theorem follows from our starting list of axioms. In theory, such a proof can be checked by a computer, and in fact there are computer programs that will check the validity of proofs. (Automatic proof verification is closely related to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_theorem_proving" title="Automated theorem proving">automated theorem proving</a>, though proving and checking the proof are usually different tasks.)</p> <p>To be able to perform this process, we need to know what our axioms are. We could start with a finite set of axioms, such as in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_geometry" title="Euclidean geometry">Euclidean geometry</a>, or more generally we could allow an infinite list of axioms, with the requirement that we can mechanically check for any given statement if it is an axiom from that set or not (an axiom schema). In computer science, this is known as having a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursive_set" title="Recursive set">recursive set</a> of axioms. While an infinite list of axioms may sound strange, this is exactly what's used in the usual axioms for the natural numbers, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peano_axioms" title="Peano axioms">Peano axioms</a>: the inductive axiom is in fact an axiom schema — it states that if zero has <i>any property</i> and whenever any natural number has <i>that property</i>, its successor also has <i>that property</i>, then all natural numbers have <i>that property</i> — it does not specify which property and the only way to say in first-order logic that this is true of all properties is to have infinitely many statements.</p> <p>Gödel's first incompleteness theorem shows that any such system that allows you to define the natural numbers is necessarily incomplete: it contains statements that are neither provably true nor provably false.</p> <p>The existence of an incomplete system is in itself not particularly surprising. For example, if you take <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_geometry" title="Euclidean geometry">Euclidean geometry</a> and you drop the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_postulate" title="Parallel postulate">parallel postulate</a>, you get an incomplete system (in the sense that the system does not contain all the true statements about Euclidean space). A system can be incomplete simply because you haven't discovered all the necessary axioms.</p> <p>What Gödel showed is that in most cases, such as in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_theory" title="Number theory">number theory</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_analysis" title="Real analysis">real analysis</a>, you can <i>never</i> create a complete and consistent finite list of axioms, or even an infinite list that can be produced by a computer program. Each time you add a statement as an axiom, there will always be other true statements that still cannot be proved as true, even with the new axiom. Furthermore if the system can prove that it is consistent, then it is inconsistent.</p> <p>It <i>is</i> possible to have a complete and consistent list of axioms that <i>cannot</i> be produced by a computer program (that is, the list is not <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computably_enumerable" title="Computably enumerable">computably enumerable</a>). For example, one might take all true statements about the natural numbers to be axioms (and no false statements). But then there is no mechanical way to decide, given a statement about the natural numbers, whether it is an axiom or not.</p> <p>Gödel's theorem has another interpretation in the language of computer science. In first-order logic, theorems are computably enumerable: you can write a computer program that will eventually generate any valid proof. You can ask if they have the stronger property of being <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursive_set" title="Recursive set">recursive</a>: can you write a computer program to definitively determine if a statement is true or false? Gödel's theorem says that in general you cannot.</p> <p>Many logicians believe that Gödel's incompleteness theorems struck a fatal blow to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hilbert" title="David Hilbert">David Hilbert</a>'s program towards a universal mathematical formalism which was based on <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principia_Mathematica" title="Principia Mathematica">Principia Mathematica</a></i>. The generally agreed upon stance is that the second theorem is what specifically dealt this blow. However some believe it was the first, and others believe that neither did....</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorem">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1164740136824259162006-11-28T10:54:00.000-08:002006-11-28T10:56:53.516-08:00Lift<span style="font-size:78%;">[This is either a bad article, or a hard subject. You decide.]</span><br />The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift_%28force%29"><b>lift force</b></a>, <b>lifting force</b> or simply <b>lift</b> consists of the sum of all the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_dynamics" title="Fluid dynamics">fluid dynamic</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force" title="Force">forces</a> on a body <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpendicular" title="Perpendicular">perpendicular</a> to the direction of the external flow approaching that body. <p>Sometimes the term <b>dynamic lift</b> (<b>dynamic lifting force</b>) is used in reference to the vertical force resulting from the relative motion of the body and the fluid, as opposed to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Static_lift&action=edit" class="new" title="Static lift">static lifting</a> force resulting from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy" title="Buoyancy">buoyancy</a>.</p> <p>The most straightforward and frequently-mentioned application of lift is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing" title="Wing">wing</a> of an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-wing_aircraft" title="Fixed-wing aircraft">aircraft</a>. However there are many other common, if less obvious, uses such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propeller" title="Propeller">propellers</a> on both <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft" title="Aircraft">aircraft</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat" title="Boat">boats</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor" title="Rotor">rotors</a> on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter" title="Helicopter">helicopters</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_%28implement%29" title="Fan (implement)">fan</a> blades, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sail" title="Sail">sails</a> on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailboat" title="Sailboat">sailboats</a> and even some kinds of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine" title="Wind turbine">wind turbines</a>.</p> <p>While the common meaning of the term "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift" title="Lift">lift</a>" suggests an "upwards" action, in fact, the direction of lift (and its definition) does not actually depend on the notions of "up" and "down", e.g., as defined with respect to the direction of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity" title="Gravity">gravity</a>. Specifically, the term <b>negative lift</b> refers to the lift force directed "down".</p> <p>There are a number of ways of explaining the production of lift, all of which are equivalent. That is, they are different expressions of the same underlying physical principles....</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift_%28force%29">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1164667101122351932006-11-27T14:33:00.000-08:002006-11-27T14:38:48.963-08:00First-order logic<span style="font-size:78%;">[A theme week? Well, why not. Let's start with extremely difficult subjects, things that make your head spin. So here's #1:]</span><b><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-order_logic">First-order logic (FOL)</a></b>, also known as <b>first-order predicate calculus</b> (<b>FOPC</b>), is a system of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deduction" title="Deduction">deduction</a> extending <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propositional_logic" title="Propositional logic">propositional logic</a> (equivalently, sentential logic). It is in turn extended by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-order_logic" title="Second-order logic">second-order logic</a>. <p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_sentence" title="Atomic sentence">atomic sentences</a> of first-order logic have the form <i>P</i>(<i>t</i><sub>1</sub>, ..., <i>t</i><sub><i>n</i></sub>) (a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predicate_%28grammar%29" title="Predicate (grammar)">predicate</a> with one or more "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verb_argument" title="Verb argument">arguments</a>") rather than being propositional letters as in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propositional_logic" title="Propositional logic">propositional logic</a>. This is usually written without parentheses or commas, as below.</p> <p>The new ingredient of first-order logic not found in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propositional_logic" title="Propositional logic">propositional logic</a> is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantification" title="Quantification">quantification</a>: where φ is any sentence, the new constructions ∀<i>x</i> φ and ∃<i>x</i> φ -- read "for all <i>x</i>, φ" and "for some <i>x</i>, φ" -- are introduced. For convenience in explaining our intentions, we write φ as φ(<i>x</i>) and let φ(<i>a</i>) represent the result of replacing all (free) occurrences of <i>x</i> in φ(<i>x</i>) with <i>a</i>, then ∀<i>x</i> φ(<i>x</i>) means that φ(<i>a</i>) is true for any value of <i>a</i> and ∃<i>x</i> φ(<i>x</i>) means that there is an <i>a</i> such that φ(<i>a</i>) is true. Values of the variables are taken from an understood <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe_of_discourse" title="Universe of discourse">universe of discourse</a>; a refinement of first-order logic allows variables ranging over different kinds of objects.</p> <p>First-order logic has sufficient expressive power for the formalization of virtually all of mathematics. A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-order_theory" title="First-order theory">first-order theory</a> consists of a set of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axioms" title="Axioms">axioms</a> (usually finite or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursively_enumerable" title="Recursively enumerable">recursively enumerable</a>) and the statements deducible from them. The usual set theory <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFC" title="ZFC">ZFC</a> is an example of a first-order theory, and it is generally accepted that all of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_mathematics" title="Classical mathematics">classical mathematics</a> can be formalized in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFC" title="ZFC">ZFC</a>. There are other theories that are commonly formalized independently in first-order logic (though they do admit implementation in set theory) such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peano_arithmetic" title="Peano arithmetic">Peano arithmetic</a>....</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-order_logic">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1164408590733386582006-11-24T14:46:00.000-08:002006-11-24T14:49:56.206-08:00The tryptophan turkey<span style="font-size:78%;">[From non-Wik haunts: Feeling sleepy? Don't look to the bird.]</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS,Bookman Old Style,Arial;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">"Turkey does contain <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryptophan">tryptophan</a>, an amino acid which is a natural sedative. But tryptophan doesn't act on the brain unless it is taken on an empty stomach with no protein present, and the amount gobbled even during a holiday feast is generally too small to have an appreciable effect. That lazy, lethargic feeling so many are overcome by at the conclusion of a festive season meal is most likely due to the combination of drinking alcohol and overeating a carbohydrate-rich repast, as well as some other factors...."<br /><br />[<a href="http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/turkey.asp">More....</a>]<br /></span>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1163527959637738252006-11-14T10:09:00.000-08:002006-11-14T10:13:11.576-08:00Centurion Card<span style="font-size:78%;">[For when you get phat money.]</span><br />The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centurion_Card"><b>Centurion Card</b></a>, popularly known as the <b>Black Card</b>, is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Express" title="American Express">American Express</a>'s most exclusive <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge_card" title="Charge card">charge card</a>. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legend" title="Urban legend">Urban legends</a> of a special, black-colored card offering dignitaries and celebrities unlimited spending power and after-hours access to high-end stores circulated in the 1980s. <a href="http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/blackcard.asp" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/blackcard.asp">[1]</a> While the rumors were false, American Express decided to capitalize on them by launching the Centurion Card in October 1999 to selected holders of The Platinum Card®, with an annual fee originally at $1,000. <p>The card is available only by invitation and, as of January 1, 2006,<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2a/AmericanExpressBlack.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2a/AmericanExpressBlack.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> requires minimum annual spending of $250,000 on another American Express card and exceptional <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_history" title="Credit history">credit history</a> among other requirements. Certain requirements have been known to be waived for major <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity" title="Celebrity">celebrities</a> and business figures. "Charter" cardmembers that joined at the $1000/year annual fee are "grandfathered" at that rate as long as they hold the card. If they cancel and re-join, it will be at the higher rate. As of 2006 the annual new cardholder fee was $2,500 and it is estimated that there are fewer than 10,000 cards issued worldwide. The card offers numerous exclusive privileges, including complimentary companion airline tickets on trans-Atlantic flights, personal shoppers at retailers such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escada" title="Escada">Escada</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gucci" title="Gucci">Gucci</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saks_Fifth_Avenue" title="Saks Fifth Avenue">Saks Fifth Avenue</a>, access to airport clubs, first class flight upgrades, membership in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony" title="Sony">Sony</a>'s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cierge&action=edit" class="new" title="Cierge">Cierge</a> personal shopping program, and dozens of other elite club memberships. Centurion membership also includes personal services including a personal concierge and travel agent. The program offers many hotel benefits, including a free one-night's stay in every <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Oriental" title="Mandarin Oriental">Mandarin Oriental</a> hotel worldwide (excluding the New York City property) once a year....<br /></p> <p>The card is available both as a personal and a business card. A new Centurion card crafted from anodized <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium" title="Titanium">titanium</a> <a href="http://www.sybarites.org/2006/02/28/american-express-to-make-new-centurion-card-out-of-titanium/" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.sybarites.org/2006/02/28/american-express-to-make-new-centurion-card-out-of-titanium/">[2]</a> is being issued as a replacement for all U.S. Centurion plastic cards in the first half of 2006. Centurion members in other countries have previously received this titanium card....</p><p>Several rappers have referenced use and possession of the black card in their lyrics. For example, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanye_West" title="Kanye West">Kanye West</a>'s lyric, "She was like, 'Oh my God, is that a black card?' / I turned around and replied 'Why yes, but I prefer the term "African American Express"'", and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_Wow" title="Bow Wow">Bow Wow</a>'s reference in the track "I Think They Like Me (Remix)" with the line "I ain't got to act hard / I'm under 21 with a black card"....</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centurion_Card">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1162441502118125602006-11-01T20:21:00.000-08:002006-11-01T20:25:54.906-08:00Other: page view rank vs number of employees<table cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr bgcolor="#dddddd"><th>pages </th><th>employees </th><th>company </th><th><span style="">(subsidiary sites)</span></th></tr> <tr><td>1</td><td><a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=YHOO">10000</a></td><td><a href="http://www.yahoo.com/"><b>Yahoo!</b></a> </td><td><span style="">(Hotjobs, Flickr , etc)</span></td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#eeeeee"><td>2</td><td><a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=TWX">90000</a></td><td><a href="http://www.timewarner.com/"><b>TimeWarner</b></a></td><td><span style="">(AOL, CNN, Netscape, etc)</span></td></tr> <tr><td>3</td><td><a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=GOOG">10000</a></td><td><a href="http://www.google.com/"><b>Google</b></a> </td><td><span style=""> (YouTube, Blogger, etc)</span></td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#eeeeee"><td>4</td><td><a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=MSFT">70000</a></td><td><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/"><b>Microsoft</b></a></td><td><span style="">(MSN, Hotmail, etc)</span></td></tr> <tr><td>5</td><td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corporation">50000</a></td><td><a href="http://www.newscorp.com/"><b>News Corp</b></a></td><td><span style="">(Myspace, Fox, IGN, etc)</span></td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#eeeeee"><td>6</td><td><a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=EBAY">12000</a></td><td><a href="http://www.ebay.com/"><b>eBay</b></a> </td><td><span style="">(Paypal, Skype, etc)</span></td></tr> <tr><td>7</td><td>23</td><td><a href="http://www.craigslist.org/"><b>craigslist</b></a></td><td><span style="">(N/A)</span></td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#eeeeee"><td>8</td><td>25000</td><td><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/"><b>BBC</b></a></td><td><span style="">(N/A)</span></td></tr> <tr><td>9</td><td><a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=DIS">130000</a></td><td><a href="http://disney.go.com/"><b>Disney</b></a> </td><td><span style="">(ESPN, Go, ABC, etc)</span></td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#eeeeee"><td>10</td><td><a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=AMZN">12000</a></td><td><a href="http://www.amazon.com/"><b>Amazon</b></a> </td><td><span style="">(IMDB, A9, etc)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />[<a href="http://www.craigslist.org/about/pages.and.peeps.html">More</a>(<a href="http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/83-traffic-vs-employees">via SVN</a>)]Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1162401685575384912006-11-01T09:17:00.000-08:002006-11-01T09:21:37.256-08:00Halloween<span style="font-size:78%;">[When your magic is most potent.]<br /></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween"><b>Halloween</b></a> is a tradition celebrated on the night of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_31" title="October 31">October 31</a>, most notably by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confectionery" title="Confectionery">sweets</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit" title="Fruit">fruit</a>, and other treats. It is celebrated in parts of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world" title="Western world">Western world</a>, most commonly in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States">United States</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada" title="Canada">Canada</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK" title="UK">UK</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland" title="Republic of Ireland">Ireland</a>, and with increasing popularity in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia" title="Australia">Australia</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand" title="New Zealand">New Zealand</a>, as well as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines" title="Philippines">Philippines</a>. In recent years, Halloween is also celebrated in parts of Western Europe, such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium" title="Belgium">Belgium</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France" title="France">France</a>. Halloween originated as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagan" title="Pagan">Pagan</a> festival among the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celts" title="Celts">Celts</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland" title="Ireland">Ireland</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain" title="Great Britain">Great Britain</a> with Irish, Scots, Welsh and other immigrants transporting versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_culture" title="Popular culture">pop culture</a> in the late 20th century. <p>The term <i>Halloween</i>, and its older spelling <b>Hallowe'en</b>, is shortened from <b>All-hallow-even</b>, as it is the evening before <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints" title="All Saints">"All Hallows' Day"</a><sup id="_ref-OED_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween#_note-OED" title="">[1]</a></sup> (also known as "All Saints' Day"). The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe" title="Europe">European</a> Pagan traditions, until Popes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_III" title="Gregory III">Gregory III</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_IV" title="Gregory IV">Gregory IV</a> moved the old Christian feast of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints_Day" title="All Saints Day">All Saints Day</a> from May 13 to November 1. In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland" title="Ireland">Ireland</a>, the name was <b>All Hallows' Eve</b> (often shortened to <b>Hallow Eve</b>), and though seldom used today, it is still a well-accepted label. The festival is also known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain" title="Samhain">Samhain</a> or Oíche Shamhna to the Irish, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calan_Gaeaf" title="Calan Gaeaf">Calan Gaeaf</a> to the Welsh, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allantide" title="Allantide">Allantide</a> to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish" title="Cornish">Cornish</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hop-tu-Naa" title="Hop-tu-Naa">Hop-tu-Naa</a> to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manx" title="Manx">Manx</a>. Halloween is also called <i>Pooky Night</i> in some parts of Ireland, presumably named after the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%BAca" title="Púca">púca</a>, a mischievous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit" title="Spirit">spirit</a>.</p> <p>Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liminality" title="Liminality">liminal</a> times of the year when <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit" title="Spirit">spirits</a> can make contact with the physical world and when <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_%28paranormal%29" title="Magic (paranormal)">magic</a> is most potent (e.g. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_mythology_about_witches" title="Catalan mythology about witches">Catalan mythology about witches</a>, Irish tales of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%ADdhe" title="Sídhe">Sídhe</a>).....</p><p>Halloween did not become a holiday in America until the 19th century, where lingering <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan" title="Puritan">Puritan</a> tradition meant even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas#The_Reformation_and_modern_times" title="Christmas">Christmas</a> was scarcely observed before the 1800s. North American almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th centuries make no mention of Halloween in their lists of holidays.<sup id="_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween#_note-7" title="">[11]</a></sup> The transatlantic migration of nearly two million Irish following the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Potato_Famine_%281845%E2%80%931849%29" title="Irish Potato Famine (1845–1849)">Irish Potato Famine (1845–1849)</a> brought the holiday and its customs to America. Scottish emigration from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Isles" title="British Isles">British Isles</a>, primarily to Canada before 1870 and to the United States thereafter, brought that country's own version of the holiday to North America.</p> <p>When the holiday was observed in 19th-century America, it was generally in three ways. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_American" title="Scottish American">Scottish-American</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_American" title="Irish American">Irish-American</a> societies held dinners and balls that celebrated their heritages, with perhaps a recitation of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns" title="Robert Burns">Robert Burns</a>' poem "Halloween" or a telling of Irish legends, much as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day" title="Columbus Day">Columbus Day</a> celebrations were more about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_American" title="Italian American">Italian-American</a> heritage than Columbus. Home parties would center around children's activities, such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobbing_for_apples" title="Bobbing for apples">bobbing for apples</a> and various <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divination" title="Divination">divination</a> games, particularly about future romance. And finally, pranks and mischief were common on Halloween....</p><p>There is little <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_source" title="Primary source">primary documentation</a> of masking or costuming on Halloween in America, or elsewhere, before 1900.<sup id="_ref-Skal_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween#_note-Skal" title="">[15]</a></sup> Mass-produced Halloween costumes did not appear in stores until the 1930s, and trick-or-treating became a fixture of the holiday in the 1950s, although commercially made masks were available earlier.</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1162252066240916162006-10-30T15:42:00.000-08:002006-10-30T15:47:59.190-08:00Daylight saving time<p><span style="font-size:78%;">[Note the lack of citations in the criticism section.]</span><b><br /></b></p><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time"><b>Daylight saving time</b></a> (DST), also known as <b>summer time</b>, is a widely used system of adjusting the official local time forward, usually by one hour from its official <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_time" title="Standard time">standard time</a>, for the spring, summer, and early autumn periods. The term <b>Daylight savings time</b>, although commonly used, is technically incorrect.</p> <p>DST is most commonly used in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperate" title="Temperate">temperate</a> regions, due to the considerable variation in the amount of daylight versus darkness across the seasons in those regions.</p> <p>Governments often tout it as an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_conservation" title="Energy conservation">energy conservation</a> measure, on the grounds that it allows more effective use of natural sunlight resource in summer time. Since there is less darkness in the "waking day", there is less use of electric lights. Some opponents reject this argument (see below, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time#Criticism_of_DST" title="">Criticism</a>).</p> <p>Europeans commonly refer to the system as <b>summer time</b>: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Summer_Time" title="Irish Summer Time">Irish Summer Time</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Summer_Time" title="British Summer Time">British Summer Time</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Summer_Time" title="European Summer Time">European Summer Time</a>. This is reflected in the time zones' names as well, e.g., <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_European_Time" title="Central European Time">Central European Time</a> (CET) becomes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_European_Summer_Time" title="Central European Summer Time">Central European Summer Time</a> (CEST)....</p><p style="font-weight: bold;">Rationales for DST</p><p>One of the major reasons given for observing DST is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_conservation" title="Energy conservation">energy conservation</a>. Theoretically, the amount of residential electricity needed in the evening hours is dependent both on when the sun sets and when people go to bed. Because people tend to observe the same bedtime year-round, by artificially moving sunset one hour later, the amount of energy used is theoretically reduced. A 1975 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Transportation" title="United States Department of Transportation">United States Department of Transportation</a> study showed that DST would theoretically reduce the country's electricity usage by 1% from March to April, if implemented during these months.<sup id="_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time#_note-2" title="">[3]</a></sup> These numbers have been supported in Mexico, which began implementing daylight savings time in 1996. Evaluations show a national savings of 0.7% of national electric consumption (1.3 billion KWh TWh) and reduction of peak load by 500MW<sup id="_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time#_note-3" title="">[4]</a></sup>.</p> <p>Part of the reason that it is normally observed only in the early spring, summer, and early autumn instead of the winter months is that the amount of energy saved by experiencing sunset one hour later would be negated by the increased need for artificial morning lighting due to a later sunrise. During the summer most people would wake up after the sun rises, regardless of whether daylight saving time is in effect or not, so there is no increased need for morning lighting to offset the afternoon drop in energy usage. Another reason for not observing daylight saving time in the winter is concern about children walking to school in the dark.</p> <p>Another argued benefit of DST is increased opportunities for outdoor activities, including shopping in tourist areas. Most people plan outdoor activities during sunlight hours. Other benefits cited include prevention of traffic injuries (by allowing more people to return home from work or school in daylight), and crime reduction (by reducing people's risk of being targets of crimes that are more common in dark areas).</p> <p>When the U.S. went on extended DST in 1974 and 1975 in response to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_energy_crisis" title="1973 energy crisis">1973 energy crisis</a>, Department of Transportation studies found that observing DST in March and April saved 10,000 barrels of oil a day, and prevented about 2,000 traffic injuries and 50 fatalities saving about U.S. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USD" title="USD">$</a>28 million in traffic costs.</p><p style="font-weight: bold;">Criticism of DST</p><p>DST is not universally accepted and many localities do not observe it. Opponents claim that there is not enough benefit to justify the need to adjust clocks twice every year. The disruption in sleep patterns associated with setting clocks either forward or backward correlates with a small increase in the number of fatal auto accidents,<sup id="_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time#_note-4" title="">[5]</a></sup> (cf. above estimate of net decrease in fatal auto accidents of 50) as well as lost productivity as sleep-disrupted workers adjust to the schedule change.<sup id="_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time#_note-5" title="">[6]</a></sup> It is also noted that much effort is spent reminding everyone twice a year of the change, and thousands are inconvenienced by showing up at the wrong time when they forget.<sup title="The text in the vicinity of this tag needs citation." class="noprint">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources" title="Wikipedia:Citing sources"><i>citation needed</i></a>]</sup> Since DST exchanges morning daylight for evening daylight, late sunrises occur when DST is in effect either too far before the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernal_equinox" title="Vernal equinox">vernal equinox</a> or too far after the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autumnal_equinox" title="Autumnal equinox">autumnal equinox</a> and darkness in the morning can be undesirable for early risers like schoolchildren and workers who must awaken at 6:30 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12-hour_clock" title="12-hour clock">a.m.</a> or earlier.</p> <p>There is also a question whether the decrease in lighting costs justifies the increase in summertime <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_conditioning" title="Air conditioning">air conditioning</a> costs. Workers arriving home to an empty house during hotter hours will need to use more energy to cool their house.<sup title="The text in the vicinity of this tag needs citation." class="noprint">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources" title="Wikipedia:Citing sources"><i>citation needed</i></a>]</sup></p> <p>It is also speculated that one of the benefits—more afternoon sun—would also actually increase energy consumption as people get into their cars to enjoy more time for shopping and the like.<sup title="The text in the vicinity of this tag needs citation." class="noprint">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources" title="Wikipedia:Citing sources"><i>citation needed</i></a>]</sup></p> <p>DST's twice-annual shifts in recorded time cause legal and business-operational complications, as shown in the following examples. During a North American time change, a fall night during which clocks are reset from 2 a.m. DST to 1 a.m. Standard Time, times between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. will occur twice, causing confusion in transport schedules, payment systems, etc.<sup title="The text in the vicinity of this tag needs citation." class="noprint">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources" title="Wikipedia:Citing sources"><i>citation needed</i></a>]</sup> DST's annual autumn shift in recorded time—which causes an hour of the same numerical name to be recorded twice—also means that people born during one of those two hours have no way to know which of standard time or DST was used to record the time of their birth, unless someone such as a parent makes a note of it; birth certificates rarely keep track of this. A British politician, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Balfour" title="Arthur Balfour">Lord Balfour</a>, noted the legal complications in British law: "Supposing some unfortunate Lady was confined with twins and the first child was born 10 minutes before 3 o'clock British Summer Time. ... the time of birth of the two children would be reversed. ... Such an alteration might conceivably affect the property and titles in that House."<sup id="_ref-Balfour_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time#_note-Balfour" title="">[7]</a></sup></p> <p>Daylight saving time also causes much confusion with international business, people who commute across time zones, and computer networks that span multiple time zones. One particular problem for scheduling systems is that it makes the length of a day variable. Each year there is one 23 hour day and one 25 hour day, causing display and time tracking problems, especially when coordinating events between time zones.</p> <p>Some studies do show that changing the clock increases the traffic accident rate.<sup id="_ref-autoaccidents_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time#_note-autoaccidents" title="">[8]</a></sup> Following the spring shift to DST, when one hour of sleep is lost, there is a measurable increase in the number of traffic accidents that result in fatalities.</p> <p>People who work nights often have an extra hassle logging how many hours they worked, since it will be either one hour more or one hour less than the simple difference in start/stop times.</p> <p>DST is particularly unpopular among people working in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture" title="Agriculture">agriculture</a><sup id="_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time#_note-6" title="">[9]</a></sup> because they must rise with the sun regardless of what the clock says, and thus the people are placed out of synchronization with the rest of the community, including school times, broadcast schedules, and the like.</p> <p>Other critics suggest that DST is, at its heart, government <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternalism" title="Paternalism">paternalism</a> and that people rise in the morning as a matter of choice because many people <i>enjoy</i> night-time hours and their jobs do not require them to make the most of daylight. Different people start their day at different times (office workers start their day later than factory workers, who start their day later than farm workers), regardless of daylight saving time.</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1162195918785158172006-10-30T00:06:00.000-08:002006-10-30T00:11:59.230-08:00Heuristic<span style="font-size:78%;">[How to know how to do it.]<br /></span>A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristic"><b>heuristic</b></a> is a replicable method or approach for directing one's attention in learning, discovery, or problem-solving. It is originally derived from the Greek "heurisko" (εὑρίσκω), which means "I find". (A form of the same verb is found in Archimedes' famous exclamation "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_%28word%29" title="Eureka (word)">eureka!</a>" – "I have found [it]!") The term was introduced in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4th_century" title="4th century">4th century</a> CE by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pappus_of_Alexandria" title="Pappus of Alexandria">Pappus of Alexandria</a>. <p>The <i>study</i> of heuristics is sometimes called <i>heuristic</i>, but more often called <i>heuristics</i>. <i>Heuristics</i>, in this sense, is treated as a singular, like <i>physics</i> or <i>mathematics</i>.<sup id="_ref-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristic#_note-0" title="">[1]</a></sup></p> <p>The mathematician <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_P%C3%B3lya" title="George Pólya">George Pólya</a> popularized heuristics in the mid–20th century, in his book <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Solve_It" title="How to Solve It">How to Solve It</a></i>. He learned <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_proof" title="Mathematical proof">mathematical proofs</a> as a student but he did not know, nor was he taught, the way mathematicians arrived at such proofs. <i>How to Solve It</i> is a collection of ideas about heuristics that he taught to maths students – ways of looking at problems and formulating solutions.</p> <p><i>How to Solve It</i> describes the following common and simple heuristics:</p> <ul><li>If you are having difficulty understanding a problem, try drawing a picture.</li><li>If you can't find a solution, try assuming that you have a solution and seeing what you can derive from that ("working backward").</li><li>If the problem is abstract, try examining a concrete example.</li><li>Try solving a more general problem first (the "inventor's paradox": the more ambitious plan may have more chances of success).</li></ul> <p>Adjective: (e.g. "is it heuristic?") applies to research or intellectual pursuits. For example, a good theory or idea may be heuristic in that it attempts to find something out or stimulates further investigation. When critiquing theories in the sciences good theories tend to be heuristic....<br /></p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristic">More....</a>]<br /></p><p><br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1161247873635923242006-10-19T01:00:00.000-07:002006-10-19T01:51:14.126-07:00Tết Offensive<span style="font-size:78%;">[Will this month's surge in American deaths in Iraq become a turning-point propaganda victory for the insurgents? An analogue:]</span><br />The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive"><b>Tết Offensive</b></a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_30" title="January 30">January 30</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968" title="1968">1968</a> - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_8" title="June 8">June 8</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969" title="1969">1969</a>) was a series of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_warfare" title="Operational warfare">operational</a> offensives during the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War" title="Vietnam War">Vietnam War</a>, coordinated between <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battalion" title="Battalion">battalion</a> strength elements of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Front_for_the_Liberation_of_Vietnam" title="National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam">National Liberation Front's</a> People's Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viet_Cong" title="Viet Cong">Viet Cong</a>) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_%28military%29" title="Division (military)">divisional</a> strength elements of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Vietnam" title="North Vietnam">North Vietnam's</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Army_of_Vietnam" title="People's Army of Vietnam">People's Army of Vietnam</a> (PAVN), against <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Vietnam" title="South Vietnam">South Vietnam's</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_the_Republic_of_Vietnam" title="Army of the Republic of Vietnam">Army of the Republic of Vietnam</a> (ARVN), and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military" title="United States military">United States military</a> and other ARVN-allied forces. The operations are called the Tết Offensive as they were timed to begin on the night of January 30–31, 1968, <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E1%BA%BFt" title="Tết">Tết Nguyên Đán</a></i> (the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_new_year" title="Lunar new year">lunar new year</a> day). The offensive began spectacularly during celebrations of the Lunar New Year, and sporadic operations associated with the offensive continued into 1969. <p>The Tết Offensive can be considered a crushing military defeat for the Communist forces, as neither the Viet Cong nor the North Vietnamese army achieved any of their tactical goals. Furthermore, the operational cost of the offensive was dangerously high, with the Viet Cong essentially crippled by the huge losses inflicted by South Vietnamese and other Allied forces. Nevertheless, the Offensive is widely considered a turning point of the war in Vietnam, with the NLF and PAVN winning an enormous psychological and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda" title="Propaganda">propaganda</a> victory. Although US public opinion polls continued to show a majority supporting involvement in the war, this support continued to deteriorate and the nation became increasingly polarized over the war.<sup id="_ref-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive#_note-0" title="">[1]</a></sup> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States" title="President of the United States">President</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_Johnson" title="Lyndon Johnson">Lyndon Johnson</a> saw his popularity fall sharply after the Offensive, and he withdrew as a candidate for re-election in March of 1968. The Tết Offensive is frequently seen as an example of the value of propaganda, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_media" title="Mass media">media</a> influence and popular opinion in the pursuit of military objectives....</p><p>In total, the United States estimated that 45,000 Viet Cong and PAVN soldiers were killed, though this figure may be significantly lower due to the nature of overclaims. About 6,000 were captured, with the number of wounded being unclear. The USA, ARVN, and allied Australian and South Korean forces suffered 4,324 killed, 16,063 wounded, and 598 missing....</p><p>The Viet Cong's operational forces were effectively crippled by the Offensive. Many Viet Cong who had been operating under cover in the cities of South Vietnam revealed themselves during the Offensive and were killed or captured. The organization was preserved for propaganda purposes, but in practical terms the Viet Cong were finished. Formations that were referred to as Viet cong were in fact largely filled with North Vietnamese replacements. In reality, this change had little effect on the war, since North Vietnam had no difficulty making up the casualties inflicted by the war.<sup id="_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive#_note-11" title="">[12]</a></sup> The National Liberation Front (the political arm of the Viet Cong) reformed itself as the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam, and took part in future <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Peace_Accords" title="Paris Peace Accords">peace negotiations</a> under this name.</p> <p>The Communist high command did not anticipate the psychological effect the Tết Offensive would have on America. For example, the attack on the U.S. Embassy was allocated only 19 Viet Cong soldiers, and even the expenditure of this force was considered by some VC officers to be misguided. Only after they saw how the U.S. was reacting to this attack did the Communists begin to propagandize it. The timing of the Offensive was determined by the hope that American and South Vietnamese forces would be less vigilant during the Tết holiday. It was purely coincidence that it occurred at a time when it would have maximum effect on a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election" title="United States presidential election">U.S. presidential Election</a>....</p><p>That the Communists were able to mount a major, country-wide assault at all was a blow to U.S. hopes of winning the war rapidly, and starkly called into question General Westmoreland's now-infamous public reports of the previous progress in the War. Likewise, the optimistic assessments of the Johnson administration and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon" title="The Pentagon">The Pentagon</a> came under heavy criticism and ridicule.</p> <p>Seeing the complete collapse of the PAVN/Viet Cong offensive, the lopsided casualty ratio, the lack of a popular uprising in support of the attacks, and the failure of the attacking forces to gain and hold significant territorial assets, Westmoreland considered it an appropriate opportunity for a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counteroffensive" title="Counteroffensive">counteroffensive</a> action. He put together a request for 206,000 additional troops to prosecute the war in the wake of the Offensive, a move that would have required mobilization of the U.S. Reserves.</p> While this was being deliberated, the request was leaked to the press and published across three columns of the Sunday edition of <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times" title="The New York Times">The New York Times</a></i> on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_10" title="March 10">March 10</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968" title="1968">1968</a>. Then-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieutenant_Colonel" title="Lieutenant Colonel">Lieutenant Colonel</a> Dave Palmer later wrote in <i>Summons of the Trumpet</i>: "Looked upon erroneously but understandably by readers as a desperate move to avert defeat, news of the request for 206,000 men confirmed the suspicions of many that the result of the Tết Offensive had not been depicted accurately by the President or his spokesmen. If the Communists had suffered such a grievous setback, why would we need to increase our forces by 40 percent?"<br /><p>Many people, both at the time and in retrospect, have criticized the U.S. media for the negative light in which it portrayed both the war in general and the Tết Offensive in particular. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earle_Wheeler" title="Earle Wheeler">Earle Wheeler</a>, then <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chairman_of_the_Joint_Chiefs_of_Staff" title="Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff">Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff</a>, complained of "all the doom and gloom we see in the U.S. press" after Tết.</p> <p>The most famous example of an anti-war attitude on the part of an influential press figure was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Cronkite" title="Walter Cronkite">Walter Cronkite</a>'s special report on the war of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_27" title="February 27">February 27</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968" title="1968">1968</a>. After touring the ruined streets and battlefields of the Tết Offensive and interviewing discouraged soldiers and officers in the field, he directly criticized the military leadership and the Johnson administration: "We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest cloud." He concluded by saying that the U.S. was "mired in a stalemate" and called for a negotiated end to the conflict.<sup id="_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive#_note-13" title="">[14]</a></sup></p><br /><p>Days after the publication of the New York Times story concerning Westmoreland's request for additional troops, President Johnson suffered a staggering setback in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Democratic_Party" title="United States Democratic Party">United States Democratic Party</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire_Primary" title="New Hampshire Primary">New Hampshire Primary</a>, finishing barely ahead of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senator" title="United States Senator">United States Senator</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_McCarthy" title="Eugene McCarthy">Eugene McCarthy</a>. Soon after, Senator <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy" title="Robert F. Kennedy">Robert F. Kennedy</a> announced he would join the contest for the Democratic nomination, further emphasizing the plummeting support for Johnson's Administration in the wake of Tết. Although some have asserted Johnson's lack of support implied the public sought disengagement from Vietnam, others have suggested it was Johnson's failure to prosecute the war effectively that caused his decline at the polls. On March 31, Johnson announced he would not seek reelection, and announced a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam.</p> <p>Also in March of 1968, Johnson announced that General Westmoreland would be replacing General Harold K. Johnson as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_of_Staff_of_the_United_States_Army" title="Chief of Staff of the United States Army">Army Chief of Staff</a>. Although technically a promotion, few doubted that Westmoreland was being "kicked upstairs" in response to Tết...<sup id="_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive#_note-14" title="">[15]</a></sup></p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tet_Offensive">More....</a>]Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1160530898146603172006-10-10T18:37:00.000-07:002006-10-10T18:43:08.226-07:00Jack Thompson<span style="font-size:78%;">[The warrior.]</span><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29"><b>John Bruce “Jack” Thompson</b></a> (born <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_25" title="July 25">July 25</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1951" title="1951">1951</a>) is an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_United_States" title="Law of the United States">American attorney</a> and activist against <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obscenity" title="Obscenity">obscenity</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence" title="Violence">violence</a> in media and entertainment, based in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_Gables%2C_Florida" title="Coral Gables, Florida">Coral Gables</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida" title="Florida">Florida</a>. Thompson describes himself as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_conservative" title="Christian conservative">Christian conservative</a> and a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_%28United_States%29" title="Republican Party (United States)">Republican</a>.<sup id="_ref-Provenzo_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Provenzo" title="">[1]</a></sup> <p>After an initial foray into politics, Thompson concentrated his<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e4/Jackthompsn.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e4/Jackthompsn.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> efforts on activism against obscenity, particularly obscenity in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rap_music" title="Rap music">rap music</a> and broadcasts by radio personality <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Stern" title="Howard Stern">Howard Stern</a>. More recently, he has focused on violence as well, particularly in the content of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_and_video_games" title="Computer and video games">computer and video games</a> and their alleged effects on children....</p><p>Thompson first met <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Reno" title="Janet Reno">Janet Reno</a> in November 1975, when he applied for a job as an assistant <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State%27s_Attorney" title="State's Attorney">State’s Attorney</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami-Dade_County%2C_Florida" title="Miami-Dade County, Florida">Dade County</a>. He was not hired.<sup id="_ref-outofharmsway_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-outofharmsway" title="">[5]</a></sup> In 1988, he ran for prosecutor against then incumbent Dade County State Attorney Janet Reno. At the time, Thompson was involved in a feud with local radio host <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Rogers" title="Neil Rogers">Neil Rogers</a> and Reno had declined his request to prosecute Rogers.<sup id="_ref-Evans_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Evans" title="">[6]</a></sup> Thompson was instrumental in getting the FCC to fine Miami radio station WIOD $10,000 for airing such parody songs as “Boys Want to Have Sex in the Morning” on Rogers’ show.<sup id="_ref-PrivateSting_2" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-PrivateSting" title="">[2]</a></sup> Thompson also sued the station for violating a December 1987 agreement to end on-air harassment against him. Thompson had complained to the station after Rogers solicited homosexuals to join Thompson on his vacation; Rogers aired Thompson’s address and phone number. Thompson claimed one of the terms of his agreement with the station was that it would pay him $5,000 each time his name was mentioned. For the next eight months he recorded all of Rogers’ broadcasts and documented 40,000 mentionings of his name, so he asked for $200 million in the suit.<sup id="_ref-ABA_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-ABA" title="">[7]</a></sup></p> <p>Thompson gave Reno a letter at a campaign event requesting that she check a box to indicate whether she was homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual. Thompson said that Reno then put her hand on his shoulder and responded, “I’m only interested in virile men. That’s why I’m not attracted to you.”<sup id="_ref-Vick_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Vick" title="">[8]</a></sup> He filed a police report accusing her of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_%28crime%29" title="Battery (crime)">battery</a> for touching him. In response, Reno asked Florida governor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Martinez" title="Bob Martinez">Bob Martinez</a> to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate.<sup id="_ref-Battery_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Battery" title="">[9]</a></sup> The special prosecutor rejected the charge and concluded that Thompson did it as “a political ploy.” Reno was ultimately re-elected with 69% of the vote. Thompson repeated allegations that Reno was a lesbian when she was nominated as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Attorney_General" title="United States Attorney General">U.S. Attorney General</a>, leading one of her supporters, lieutenant governor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_MacKay" title="Buddy MacKay">Buddy MacKay</a>, to dismiss him as a “kook.”<sup id="_ref-Vick_1" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Vick" title="">[8]</a></sup></p> <p>In 1990, after his election loss, Thompson began a campaign against the efforts of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Switchboard_of_Miami&action=edit" class="new" title="Switchboard of Miami">Switchboard of Miami</a>, a social services group of which Reno was a board member. Thompson charged that the group was placing “homosexual-education tapes” in public schools. Switchboard responded by getting the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Supreme_Court" title="Florida Supreme Court">Florida Supreme Court</a> to order that he submit to a psychiatric examination. Thompson did so and passed, and since then has stated on more than one occasion that he is “the only officially certified sane lawyer in the entire state of Florida....”<sup id="_ref-Timmerman_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Timmerman" title="">[10]</a></sup></p><p>Thompson came to national prominence in the controversy over <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Live_Crew" title="2 Live Crew">2 Live Crew</a>’s <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_Nasty_As_They_Wanna_Be" title="As Nasty As They Wanna Be">As Nasty As They Wanna Be</a></i> album. (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Skyywalker_Records" title="Luke Skyywalker Records">Luke Skyywalker Records</a>, the company of 2 Live Crew’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Campbell" title="Luther Campbell">Luther Campbell</a>, had previously released a record supporting Reno in her race against Thompson.)<sup id="_ref-OntheBeat_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-OntheBeat" title="">[11]</a></sup> On <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1" title="January 1">January 1</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990" title="1990">1990</a>, he wrote to Martinez and Reno asking them to investigate whether the album violated Florida obscenity laws. Although the state prosecutor declined to proceed with an investigation, Thompson pushed local officials in various parts of the state to block sales of the album, along with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N.W.A" title="N.W.A">N.W.A</a>’s <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_Outta_Compton" title="Straight Outta Compton">Straight Outta Compton</a></i>.<sup id="_ref-Philips1_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Philips1" title="">[12]</a></sup> In sending documents to opponents, Thompson would frequently attach a photocopy of his driver's license, with a photo of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman" title="Batman">Batman</a> pasted over his own, just to make sure they knew who they were dealing with. Thompson said, "I have sent my opponents pictures of Batman to remind them I'm playing the role of Batman. Just like Bruce Wayne helped the police in the movie, I have had to assist the sheriff of Broward County." He also wore a Batman wristwatch.<sup id="_ref-Batman2_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Batman2" title="">[13]</a></sup> Thompson compared Campbell to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joker_%28comics%29" title="Joker (comics)">Joker</a>.<sup id="_ref-Batman3_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Batman3" title="">[14]</a></sup> Thompson also said, “I understand as well as anybody that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment" title="First Amendment">First Amendment</a> is a cornerstone of a free society — but there is a responsibility to people who can be harmed by words and thoughts, one of which is the message from Campbell that women can be sexually abused.”<sup id="_ref-PrivateSting_3" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-PrivateSting" title="">[2]</a></sup></p> <p>Thompson also took issue with another 2 Live Crew song, "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banned_in_the_USA" title="Banned in the USA">Banned in the USA</a>." Thompson sent a letter to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Landau" title="Jon Landau">Jon Landau</a>, manager of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Springsteen" title="Bruce Springsteen">Bruce Springsteen</a>, whose song "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_in_the_USA" title="Born in the USA">Born in the USA</a>" was to be sampled by the group. Thompson suggested that Landau "protect `Born in the U.S.A.' from its apparent theft by a bunch of clowns who traffic toxic waste to kids," or else Thompson would "be telling the nation about Mr. Springsteen's tacit approval" of the song, which, according to Campbell, "expresses anger about the failure of the First Amendment to protect 2 Live Crew from prosecution."<sup id="_ref-BannedUSA_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-BannedUSA" title="">[15]</a></sup> Thompson also said, "the "social commentary" on this album is akin to a sociopath's discharging his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AK-47" title="AK-47">AK-47</a> into a crowded schoolyard, with the machine gun bursts interrupted by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pee_Wee_Herman" title="Pee Wee Herman">Pee Wee Herman</a>'s views on politics."<sup id="_ref-BannedUSA2_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-BannedUSA2" title="">[16]</a></sup></p> <p>The members of 2 Live Crew responded to these efforts by suing the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broward_County%2C_Florida" title="Broward County, Florida">Broward County</a> sheriff in federal district court. The sheriff had previously told local retailers that selling the album could result in a prosecution for obscenity violations. While they were granted an injunction because law enforcement actions were an unconstitutional <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_restraint" title="Prior restraint">prior restraint</a> on free speech, the court ruled that the album was in fact <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_test" title="Miller test">obscene</a>. An appellate court reversed the obscenity ruling, however, because simply playing the tape was insufficient evidence of the constitutional requirement that it have no artistic value.<sup id="_ref-Luke_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Luke" title="">[17]</a></sup></p> <p>As the debate continued, Thompson wrote, “An industry that says a line cannot be drawn will be drawn and quartered.”<sup id="_ref-Billboard_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Billboard" title="">[18]</a></sup> He said of his campaign, “I won’t stop till I get the head of a record company or record chain in jail. Only then will they stop trafficking in obscenity.”<sup id="_ref-Cox_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Cox" title="">[19]</a></sup> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Guccione_Jr." title="Bob Guccione Jr.">Bob Guccione Jr.</a>, founder of <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_magazine" title="Spin magazine">Spin</a></i> magazine, responded by calling Thompson “a sort of latter-day <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote" title="Don Quixote">Don Quixote</a>, as equally at odds with his times as that mythical character was,” and argued that his campaign was achieving “two things...: pissing everybody off and compounding his own celebrity.”<sup id="_ref-Guccione_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Guccione" title="">[20]</a></sup> Thompson responded by noting, “Law enforcement and I put 2 Live Crew’s career back into the toilet where it began.”<sup id="_ref-GuccioneResponse_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-GuccioneResponse" title="">[21]</a></sup></p> <p>Thompson wrote another letter in 1991, this time to Minnesota attorney general <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_H._Humphrey_III" title="Hubert H. Humphrey III">Hubert H. Humphrey III</a>, complaining about the N.W.A album <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efil4zaggin" title="Efil4zaggin">Efil4zaggin</a></i>. Humphrey warned locally-based <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicland" title="Musicland">Musicland</a> that sales of the album might violate state law against distribution of sexually explicit material harmful to minors. Humphrey also referred the matter to the Minneapolis city attorney, who concluded that some of the songs might fit the legal definition if issued as singles, but that sales of the album as a whole were not prosecutable.<sup id="_ref-Harrington1_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Harrington1" title="">[22]</a></sup> Thompson also initiated a similar campaign in Boston.<sup id="_ref-Reibman_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Reibman" title="">[23]</a></sup> Later, Thompson would criticize the Republican Party for inviting N.W.A member and party donor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eazy-E" title="Eazy-E">Eric “Eazy-E” Wright</a> to an exclusive function.<sup id="_ref-Philips2_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Philips2" title="">[24]</a></sup></p> <p>In 1992, Thompson was hired by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Alliance" title="Freedom Alliance">Freedom Alliance</a>, a self-described patriot group founded by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_North" title="Oliver North">Oliver North</a>, described as "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_politics" title="Right-wing politics">far-right</a>" by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Post" title="Washington Post">Washington Post</a>. By this time, Thompson was looking to have <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Warner" title="Time Warner">Time Warner</a>, then being criticized for promoting the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-T" title="Ice-T">Ice-T</a> song “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop_Killer_%28song%29" title="Cop Killer (song)">Cop Killer</a>,” prosecuted for federal and state crimes such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition" title="Sedition">sedition</a>, incitement to riot, and “advocating overthrow of government” by distributing material that, in Thompson's view, advocated the killing of police officers.<sup id="_ref-Harrington2_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Harrington2" title="">[25]</a></sup> Time Warner eventually released Ice-T and his band from their contract, and voluntarily suspended distribution of the album on which Cop Killer was featured.</p> <p>Thompson’s push to label various musical performances obscene was not entirely limited to rap. In addition to taking on 2 Live Crew, Thompson campaigned against sales of the racy music video for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_%28entertainer%29" title="Madonna (entertainer)">Madonna</a>’s “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justify_My_Love" title="Justify My Love">Justify My Love</a>.”<sup id="_ref-Philips3_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Philips3" title="">[26]</a></sup> Then in 1996, he took on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV" title="MTV">MTV</a> broadcasts for “objectification of women” by writing to the station’s corporate parent, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viacom" title="Viacom">Viacom</a>, demanding a stop to what he called “corporate pollution.”<sup id="_ref-Sandler_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Sandler" title="">[27]</a></sup> He also went after MTV’s advertisers and urged the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Army" title="U.S. Army">U.S. Army</a> to pull recruiting commercials, citing the Army’s recruitment of women and problems with sexual harassment scandals....<sup id="_ref-Sandler2_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Sandler2" title="">[28]</a></sup></p><p>More recently, Thompson has heavily criticized a number of video games and campaigned against their producers and distributors. His basic argument is that violent video games have repeatedly been used by teenagers as “murder simulators” to rehearse violent plans. He has pointed to alleged connections between such games and a number of school massacres. According to Thompson, “In every school shooting, we find that kids who pull the trigger are video gamers.”<sup id="_ref-EveryShooting_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-EveryShooting" title="">[29]</a></sup> Also, he claims that scientific studies show teenagers process the game environment differently from adults, leading to increased violence and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copycat" title="Copycat">copycat</a> behavior.<sup id="_ref-Tribune_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Tribune" title="">[30]</a></sup> According to Thompson, “If some wacked-out adult wants to spend his time playing <i>Grand Theft Auto: Vice City</i>, one has to wonder why he doesn’t get a life, but when it comes to kids, it has a demonstrable impact on their behavior and the development of the frontal lobes of their brain.”<sup id="_ref-Drew_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Drew" title="">[31]</a></sup> Thompson has described the proliferation of games by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony" title="Sony">Sony</a>, a Japanese company, as “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor" title="Attack on Pearl Harbor">Pearl Harbor</a> 2.”<sup id="_ref-Lasker_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Lasker" title="">[32]</a></sup> According to Thompson, “Many parents think that stores won’t sell an M-rated game to someone under 17. We know that’s not true, and, in fact, kids roughly 50 percent of that time, all the studies show, are able to walk into any store and get any game regardless of the rating, no questions asked.”<sup id="_ref-Cooper360_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Cooper360" title="">[33]</a></sup></p> <p>Thompson has rejected arguments that such video games are protected by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_expression" title="Freedom of expression">freedom of expression</a>, saying, “Murder simulators are not constitutionally protected speech. They’re not even speech. They’re dangerous physical appliances that teach a kid how to kill efficiently and to love it.” In addition, he has attributed part of the impetus for violent games to the military, saying that it was looking “for a way to disconnect in the soldier’s mind the physical act of pulling the trigger from the awful reality that a life may end.”<sup id="_ref-DenverPost_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-DenverPost" title="">[34]</a></sup> Thompson further claims that some of these games are based on military training and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulation" title="Simulation">simulation</a> technologies, such as those being developed at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Creative_Technologies" title="Institute for Creative Technologies">Institute for Creative Technologies</a>, which, he suggests, were created by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Defense" title="United States Department of Defense">Department of Defense</a> to help overcome soldiers’ inhibition to kill.<sup id="_ref-Worthy_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-Worthy" title="">[35]</a></sup> He also claims that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2" title="PlayStation 2">PlayStation 2</a>'s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DualShock" title="DualShock">DualShock</a> controller "gives you a pleasurable buzz back into your hands with each kill. This is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning" title="Operant conditioning">operant conditioning</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior_modification" title="Behavior modification">behavior modification</a> right out of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.F._Skinner" title="B.F. Skinner">B.F. Skinner</a>'s laboratory."<sup id="_ref-ShreveportTimesOpEd_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29#_note-ShreveportTimesOpEd" title="">[36]</a></sup></p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29">More....</a>]Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1159906065869800812006-10-03T13:06:00.000-07:002006-10-03T13:08:19.250-07:001983 Congressional page sex scandal<span style="font-size:78%;">[Flashback.]</span><br />The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Congressional_page_sex_scandal"><b>1983 Congressional page sex scandal</b></a> was a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_scandal" title="Political scandal">political scandal</a> in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States">United States</a> involving members of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives" title="United States House of Representatives">United States House of Representatives</a>. <p>On <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_14" title="July 14">July 14</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983" title="1983">1983</a> the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._House_Committee_on_Standards_of_Official_Conduct" title="U.S. House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct">House Ethics Committee</a> concluded that Rep. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Crane" title="Dan Crane">Dan Crane</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_%28United_States%29" title="Republican Party (United States)">R</a>-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Representatives_from_Illinois" title="List of United States Representatives from Illinois">Ill.</a>) and Rep. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Studds" title="Gerry Studds">Gerry Studds</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29" title="Democratic Party (United States)">D</a>-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Representatives_from_Massachusetts" title="List of United States Representatives from Massachusetts">Mass.</a>) had engaged in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex" title="Sex">sexual</a> relationships with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_%28law%29" title="Minor (law)">minors</a>, specifically 17-year-old <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_page" title="Congressional page">congressional pages</a>. In Crane's case, it was a 1980 relationship with a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female" title="Female">female</a> page and in Studds's case, it was a 1973 relationship with a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male" title="Male">male</a> page. Both representatives immediately pleaded guilty to the charges and the committee decided to simply reprimand the two.</p> <p>However, Rep. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Gingrich" title="Newt Gingrich">Newt Gingrich</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_%28United_States%29" title="Republican Party (United States)">R</a>-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_Representatives_from_Georgia" title="List of United States Representatives from Georgia">Ga.</a>) demanded their expulsion. On <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_20" title="July 20">July 20</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983" title="1983">1983</a> the House voted for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censure" title="Censure">censure</a>, the first time that censure had been imposed for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_misconduct" title="Sexual misconduct">sexual misconduct</a>. Crane, who tearfully apologized for his transgression, lost his bid for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_elections%2C_1984" title="United States House elections, 1984">reelection in 1984</a>.</p> Studds, however, stood by the facts of the case and refused to apologize for his behavior, and even turned his back and ignored the censure being read to him. He called a press conference with the former page, in which both stated that the young man, who was 17, consented. Studds had taken the adolescent to Morocco to engage in sexual activity, and therefore did not break any U.S. laws in what he called a "private relationship."<a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,953990,00.html" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,953990,00.html">[1]</a> He continued to be reelected until his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement" title="Retirement">retirement</a> in 1996....<br /><br />[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Congressional_page_sex_scandal">More....</a>]Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1159338581244557902006-09-26T23:21:00.000-07:002006-09-26T23:30:23.660-07:00L’Origine du monde<span style="font-size:78%;">[What a title!]</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/L%27Origine_du_monde.jpeg/705px-L%27Origine_du_monde.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/L%27Origine_du_monde.jpeg/705px-L%27Origine_du_monde.jpeg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /><br /></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Origine_du_monde"><i><b>L’Origine du monde</b></i></a> (<i>The Origin of the World</i>) is an oil on canvas painted by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Courbet" title="Gustave Courbet">Gustave Courbet</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1866" title="1866">1866</a>. Measuring about 55 cm by 46 cm (21.7 by 18.1 inches), it depicts the close-up view of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genitals" title="Genitals">genitals</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdomen" title="Abdomen">belly</a> of a naked <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman" title="Woman">woman</a>, lying on a bed and spreading her legs. <p>The framing of the scene, between the thighs and the chest, emphasizes the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eroticism" title="Eroticism">eroticism</a> of the work. Moreover, an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erection" title="Erection">erect</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipple" title="Nipple">nipple</a> and the redness of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagina" title="Vagina">vaginal</a> lips suggest that the model had just had a sexual encounter....</p><p><i>L’Origine du monde</i> was painted in an era when moral values were being questioned. By the very nature of its realistic, graphic eroticism, the painting still has the power to shock....</p><p>During the nineteenth century, the display of the nude body underwent a revolution whose main activists were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Courbet" title="Gustave Courbet">Courbet</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89douard_Manet" title="Édouard Manet">Manet</a>. Courbet rejected academic painting and its smooth, idealised nudes, but he also directly recriminated the hypocritical social conventions of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_French_Empire" title="Second French Empire">Second Empire</a>, where <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eroticism" title="Eroticism">eroticism</a> and even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography" title="Pornography">pornography</a> were acceptable in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology" title="Mythology">mythological</a> or oneiric paintings.</p> <p>Courbet later insisted he never lied in his paintings, and his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realism_%28arts%29" title="Realism (arts)">realism</a> pushed the limits of what was considered presentable. With <i>L'Origine du monde</i> he has made even more explicit the eroticism of Manet's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympia" title="Olympia">Olympia</a>. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxime_Du_Camp" title="Maxime Du Camp">Maxime Du Camp</a>, in a harsh tirade, reported his visit of the work’s purchaser, and his sight of a painting “giving realism’s last word”....</p><p>In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994" title="1994">February 1994</a> the novel <i>Adorations perpétuelles</i> (<i>Perpetual Adorations</i>) by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jacques_Henric&action=edit" class="new" title="Jacques Henric">Jacques Henric</a>, reproduced <i>L’Origine du monde</i> on its cover. Police visited several French bookshops to have them withdraw the book from their windows. A few proprietors, such as the <i>Rome</i> bookshop in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clermont-Ferrand" title="Clermont-Ferrand">Clermont-Ferrand</a>, maintained the book, but others such as <i>Les Sandales d’Empédocle</i> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besan%C3%A7on" title="Besançon">Besançon</a> complied, and some voluntarily removed it. The author was saddened by these events: “A few years ago, bookshops were counter-powers. When the Ministry of Interior, in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970" title="1970">1970</a>, banned <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Guyotat" title="Pierre Guyotat">Pierre Guyotat</a>’s book, <i>Eden, Eden, Eden</i>, bookshops had been resistance places. Today, they anticipate censorship…”.</p> <p>Although moral standards and resulting taboos regarding the artistic display of nudity have evolved since Courbet, owing especially to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photography" title="Photography">photography</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film" title="Film">cinema</a>, the painting remained provocative. Its arrival at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_d%27Orsay" title="Musée d'Orsay">Musée d'Orsay</a> caused high excitement. A guard was permanently assigned to the monitoring of this sole work, to observe the reactions of the public....</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Origine_du_monde">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1158950221424727032006-09-22T11:36:00.000-07:002006-09-22T11:37:01.973-07:00Honor system<span style="font-size:78%;">[Note: Doesn't work with thieves.]</span><br />The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_system"><b>honor system</b></a> is a philosophical way of running a variety of endeavors based on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_%28sociology%29" title="Trust (sociology)">trust</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor" title="Honor">honor</a>. Something that operates under the rule of the "honor system" is usually something that does not have strictly enforced rules behind its functioning. In the UK, it would more often be called a <b>"trust system"</b> and should not be confused with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_honours_system" title="British honours system">British honours system</a>. <p>A person engaged in a honor system has strong negative connotations associated with breaking or going against it. The negatives may include things like community shame, loss of stature, or in extreme situations, banishment....</p><p>In some places, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_transportation" title="Public transportation">public transportation</a> such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train" title="Train">trains</a> operate on an honor system. The local government may find it impractical or overly expensive to install ticket-checking <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnstile" title="Turnstile">turnstiles</a> at every <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station" title="Station">station</a>, and instead rely on casual human surveillance to check if all train riders possess tickets. In such a system one could thus ride the train without paying, and simply hope to be lucky enough to avoid a random ticket check during the trip. Though <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical" title="Unethical">unethical</a>, such behavior is impossible for an honor system by itself to prevent, although the behavior can be reduced by enforcing penalties for those who choose to cheat the system.</p> <p>Some hotels in continental <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe" title="Europe">Europe</a> operate an <b>honor bar</b>, allowing guests to serve and record their own drinks and saving the cost of a night bartender. Patrons could theoretically lie about their drink consumption, and the hotel would have only limited powers to verify their claims. The concept of hotel "mini bars" in the United States is similar.</p> <p>Many publicly funded <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum" title="Museum">museums</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_galleries" title="Art galleries">art galleries</a> around the world ask for a certain "suggested" or "minimum" donation in exchange for admission. Patrons are almost never supervised during their donations, so there is no way of making sure the suggested minimum is being paid.</p> <p>In some colleges, the honor system is used to administer tests unsupervised. Students are generally asked to sign an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_code" title="Honor code">honor code</a> statement that says they will not cheat or use unauthorized resources when taking the test. As an example, at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_%26_Lee_University" title="Washington & Lee University">Washington & Lee University</a> a student taking an examination is required to sign, date and include the following pledge: "On my honor as a student I have neither given nor received aid on this examination." There is but one penalty for transgression of the honor code, and that is dismissal from the University.</p> <p>Another example can be seen in fundraising drives. Many <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charities" title="Charities">charities</a> distribute boxes of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confectionery" title="Confectionery">confectionery</a> to businesses, which are placed in waiting rooms or similar for people to purchase items from. The confectionery is free to be removed by anyone who wishes to take it, and there is no enforcing of payment other than through the expectation of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honesty" title="Honesty">honesty</a>. Indeed, most such boxes of confectionery bear the comment 'Your honesty is appreciated' near where money is deposited....</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_system">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1158776822265005112006-09-20T11:23:00.000-07:002006-09-20T11:27:02.876-07:00The video game crash of 1983<p><span style="font-size:78%;">[I wonder if anyone decided that video games were a fad.]</span><br /></p><p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983"><b>video game crash of 1983</b></a> was the sudden <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market_crash" title="Stock market crash">crash</a> of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game" title="Video game">video game</a> business and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy" title="Bankruptcy">bankruptcy</a> of a number of companies producing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_computer" title="Home computer">home computers</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_console" title="Video game console">video game consoles</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America" title="North America">North America</a> in late <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983" title="1983">1983</a> and early <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984" title="1984">1984</a>. It brought an end to what is considered the second generation of console video gaming.</p> <p>The crash was followed by a gap of three years, during which there was a much smaller market in games for home computers in North America, and no significant development for video game consoles. That gap ended with the success of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System" title="Nintendo Entertainment System">Nintendo Entertainment System</a> (NES) that was first introduced in Japan in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983" title="1983">1983</a> (as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famicom" title="Famicom">Famicom</a>) and then in the United states in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985" title="1985">1985</a> and would break out in popularity in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987" title="1987">1987</a>.</p> <p>This period is sometimes referred to as the "video game crash of 1984," because that was the year the full effects of the crash became obvious to consumers. Hundreds of games were in development for 1983 release, most of which ended up in bargain bins. But few games were developed in 1983 for release the following year, resulting in a drought of new video games in 1984....</p><p>The world wide video game crash of 1983 was caused by a combination of factors, though with different factors in several markets:</p> <ul><li>In Europe, the boom years of personal computing [1981–1985] were trumpeted by very aggressive <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing" title="Marketing">marketing</a> of inexpensive <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_computer" title="Home computer">home computers</a>, especially the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64" title="Commodore 64">Commodore 64</a>, with the theme “Why buy your child a video game and distract them from school when you can buy them a home computer that will prepare them for college?” Marketing research for both sides tracked the change as millions of consumers shifted their <i>intention to buy</i> choices from game consoles to low-end computers that retailed for similar prices. A similar campaign occured in the U.S. without the same effect, where instead the personal computer industry grew because of the crash and is not seen as directly causing it.</li><li>A flood of consoles on the market giving consumers too many choices. At the time of the U.S. crash, there was a plethora of consoles on the market: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600" title="Atari 2600">Atari 2600</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_5200" title="Atari 5200">Atari 5200</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bally_Astrocade" title="Bally Astrocade">Bally Astrocade</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colecovision" title="Colecovision">Colecovision</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleco_Gemini" title="Coleco Gemini">Coleco Gemini</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerson_Arcadia_2001" title="Emerson Arcadia 2001">Emerson Arcadia 2001</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Channel_F" title="Fairchild Channel F">Fairchild Channel F System II</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnavox_Odyssey2" title="Magnavox Odyssey2">Magnavox Odyssey2</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellivision" title="Intellivision">Mattel Intellivision</a> (and its just released update with slew of peripherals, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellivision_II" title="Intellivision II">Intellivision II</a>), Sears Tele-Games systems (which included 2600 and Intellivision clones), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tandyvision&action=edit" class="new" title="Tandyvision">Tandyvision</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vectrex" title="Vectrex">Vectrex</a>. Each one of these had their own library of games, and many had (in some cases large) 3rd party libraries. Likewise, you had many of these same companies announcing yet another generation of consoles for 1984, such as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odyssey3" title="Odyssey3">Odyssey3</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_7800" title="Atari 7800">Atari 7800</a>. <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,923197,00.html" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,923197,00.html">[1]</a></li><li>A flood of poor titles from hastily financed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startup" title="Startup">startups</a>, combined with weak high-profile <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600" title="Atari 2600">Atari 2600</a> games based on the hit movie <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial_%28Atari_2600%29" title="E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Atari 2600)">E.T.</a></i> and the red-hot <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcade_game" title="Arcade game">arcade game</a> <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man_%28Atari_2600%29" title="Pac-Man (Atari 2600)">Pac-Man</a></i><a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,923197,00.html" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,923197,00.html">[2]</a>.</li><li>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_media" title="News media">news media</a> sensationalized both the boom days of 1980 and the problems of 1982–83. In particular, the story of Atari burying thousands of <i>E.T.</i> cartridges in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico" title="New Mexico">New Mexico</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landfill" title="Landfill">landfill</a> shifted the outlook of the video game market in the eyes of many media outlets....</li></ul>The crash had two long-lasting results. First, dominance in the home console market shifted from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States">United States</a> to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan" title="Japan">Japan</a>. When the video game market recovered in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987" title="1987">1987</a>, the leading player was Nintendo’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System" title="Nintendo Entertainment System">NES</a>, with a resurgent Atari battling <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega" title="Sega">Sega</a> (actually founded by an American, David Rosen) for the number two spot. Atari never truly recovered, and finally stopped producing game systems in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996" title="1996">1996</a> after the failure of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Jaguar" title="Atari Jaguar">Atari Jaguar</a>. <p>A second, highly visible result of the crash was the institution of measures to control <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_developer" title="Third-party developer">third-party development</a> of software. Secrecy against industrial espionage had failed to stop rival companies from reverse engineering the Mattel and Atari systems, and hiring away their trained game programmers. Nintendo—and all the manufacturers who followed—controlled game distribution by implementing licensing restrictions and the implementation of a security lockout system. Would-be renegade publishers could not publish for each others’ lines—as Atari, Coleco and Mattel had done—because in order for the cartridge to work in the console, the cartridge must contain the appropriate key chip for the lock inside the console and the publisher must acknowledge their license to Nintendo in the copyright notices. If no key chip was present or if the key chip did not match the lock inside the console, the game would not work. Although <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accolade_%28video_game_developer%29" title="Accolade (video game developer)">Accolade</a> achieved a technical victory in one court case against <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega" title="Sega">Sega</a>, challenging this control, even it ultimately yielded and signed the Sega licensing agreement. Several publishers—notably <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengen_%28company%29" title="Tengen (company)">Tengen</a> (Atari), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Dreams" title="Color Dreams">Color Dreams</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camerica" title="Camerica">Camerica</a>—challenged Nintendo’s control system during the 8-bit era. The concepts of such a control system remain in use on every major video game console produced today.</p> <p>Nintendo reserved the lion’s share of NES game revenue for itself by limiting most third-party publishers to only five games per year on its systems. It also required all cartridges to be manufactured by Nintendo, and to be paid for in full before they were manufactured. Cartridges could not be returned to Nintendo, so publishers assumed all the risk.<sup id="_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983#_note-3" title="">[5]</a></sup> Nintendo portrayed these measures as intended to protect the public against poor-quality games, and placed a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Seal_of_Quality" title="Nintendo Seal of Quality">golden seal of approval</a> on all games released for the system. Although most of the Nintendo platform-control measures were adopted by later manufacturers like Sega, Sony and Microsoft, the others never used such strong measures to hold a larger share of the games market for themselves, which later forced Nintendo to follow suit.</p> <p>The hardware manufacturers of 2005 routinely receive $9 U.S. or more for every licensed software product sold by authorised third party publishers, and defend their legal rights aggressively. This allows console manufacturers to cash in on the success of third-party publishers, and it also gives the console manufacturers control over shoddily produced, pornographic, or otherwise controversial third-party games such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custer%27s_Revenge" title="Custer's Revenge">Custer’s Revenge</a> that could taint the console’s reputation.</p> <p>A lesser effect of the crash that lasted through the end of the 1980s until a new generation of console hardware had arrived: Surviving game development and publishing companies began targeting home computer platforms in the absence of a strong console to target. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Arts" title="Electronic Arts">Electronic Arts</a>, for example, was founded in 1982 and began shipping titles in 1983; it avoided being caught in the crash because of its business plan to develop only to computers. The computer game market was worldwide, but proved to be particularly strong in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom" title="United Kingdom">United Kingdom</a>....</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1158613998535791332006-09-18T14:10:00.000-07:002006-09-18T14:13:21.706-07:00Shoegazing<span style="font-size:78%;">[Corgan, sometimes.]</span><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoegazer"><b>Shoegazing</b></a> (also known as <b>shoegaze</b>) is a style of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_rock" title="Alternative rock">alternative rock</a> that emerged in southern <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England" title="England">England</a> in the late 1980s. <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loveless" title="Loveless">Loveless</a></i> by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Bloody_Valentine" title="My Bloody Valentine">My Bloody Valentine</a>, released in 1991 (see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_in_music" title="1991 in music">1991 in music</a>) is said to have defined the sound, although this is increasingly disputed by those artists associated with the genre who claimed a closer identification with the more hypnotic, rhythm based bands like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_%28band%29" title="Loop (band)">Loop</a>....<br /><p>Shoegazing is characterised by a self-deprecating, introspective, non-confrontational feel. Generally employed are distortion and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzbox" title="Fuzzbox">fuzzbox</a>, droning <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riffs" title="Riffs">riffs</a> and a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Spector" title="Phil Spector">Phil Spector-esque</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_of_sound" title="Wall of sound">wall of sound</a> from the noisy guitars. Another way to describe the guitar effects would be "lead-guitarlessness", typically with two distorted rhythm guitars interweaving together and giving an exceptionally amorphous sound. Although lead guitar riffs were often present, they were not the central focus of most shoegazing songs.</p> <p>Vocals typically are subdued in volume and tone, but underneath the layers of guitars is often a strong sense of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody" title="Melody">melody</a>. While the genres which influenced shoegazing often used drum machines, shoegazing more often features live drumming. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapterhouse" title="Chapterhouse">Chapterhouse</a> utilised both samples and live drumming, while drummers such as Chris Cooper of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Saints" title="Pale Saints">Pale Saints</a> and the late <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Acland" title="Chris Acland">Chris Acland</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lush_%28band%29" title="Lush (band)">Lush</a> often displayed complex drum patterns.</p> <p>The name was originally thought to be coined by the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Musical_Express" title="New Musical Express">New Musical Express</a></i>, noting the tendency of the bands' guitarists to stare at their feet (or their <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_pedals" title="Effects pedals">effects pedals</a>), seemingly deep in concentration, while playing. In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006" title="2006">2006</a> it was also claimed that the name was invented as a term of mockery by Andy Ross, founder of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Records" title="Food Records">Food Records</a>, for members of his staff who attended gigs of emerging shoegazing acts such as Lush and Moose <a href="http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,1818016,00.html" class="external autonumber" title="http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,1818016,00.html">[1]</a>. Many of the band members were young, inexperienced & shy. The subdued vocals were not just subdued for effect, but due partly to a lack of confidence in the singers. Some fans will argue another story, that shoegazing music was originally made with the intention of being listened to while taking <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin" title="Heroin">heroin</a>, and that the name refers to a passage from the book <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_Lunch" title="Naked Lunch">Naked Lunch</a></i>. Indeed, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacemen_3" title="Spacemen 3">Spacemen 3</a> had a record called <i>Taking Drugs (To Make Music To Take Drugs To)</i>, but they were pre-shoegazing, so even if they had been inspired by <i>Naked Lunch</i>, neither they, nor their fans or critics, discerned the link to shoegazing. <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody_Maker" title="Melody Maker">Melody Maker</a></i> preferred the more staid term <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scene_That_Celebrates_Itself" title="The Scene That Celebrates Itself">The Scene That Celebrates Itself</a>, referring to the habit which the bands had of attending gigs of other shoegazing bands, often in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden_Town" title="Camden Town">Camden</a>. The key record labels associated with the genre were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_Records" title="Creation Records">Creation Records</a> (My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4AD_Records" title="4AD Records">4AD Records</a> (Lush, Pale Saints)....</p>The first stirrings of recognition came when indie writer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Lamacq" title="Steve Lamacq">Steve Lamacq</a> referred to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ride_%28band%29" title="Ride (band)">Ride</a> in a review for the <i>NME</i> as "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_Love" title="The House of Love">The House of Love</a> with chainsaws". In the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States">U.S.</a> the music is sometimes now referred to as "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_pop" title="Dream pop">dream pop</a>". <p>The genre label was quite often misapplied. Key bands such as Ride, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapterhouse" title="Chapterhouse">Chapterhouse</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slowdive" title="Slowdive">Slowdive</a> emerged from the Thames Valley and as such <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swervedriver" title="Swervedriver">Swervedriver</a> found themselves labelled 'shoegazers' on account of their own (coincidental) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Valley" title="Thames Valley">Thames Valley</a> origins - despite their more pronounced <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCsker_D%C3%BC" title="Hüsker Dü">Hüsker Dü</a> stylings. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curve_%28band%29" title="Curve (band)">Curve</a> were once described as "the exact point where shoegazer meets goth" and the genre did overlap with others to some extent. It was certainly the case that bands such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blur" title="Blur">Blur</a>, on occasion, adopted elements of shoegazing ('She's So High' for instance) on a purely commercial basis. The careers of second-wave shoegazers like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand_Yard_Stare_%28band%29" title="Thousand Yard Stare (band)">Thousand Yard Stare</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Revolver_%28band%29&action=edit" class="new" title="Revolver (band)">Revolver</a> were caught up in a general backlash which affected the scene. In spite of this, bands like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapterhouse" title="Chapterhouse">Chapterhouse</a>, Ride and Slowdive ("the My Bloody Valentine Creation can afford" went one wry review) did leave behind several albums that on reflection have stood the test of time as indicative of early-mid 90s British indie....</p><p>The coining of the term "The Scene That Celebrates Itself" was in many ways the beginning of the end for the first wave of shoegazers. The bands became perceived by critics as over-privileged, self-indulgent and middle-class. This perception was in sharp contrast to those bands who formed the wave of newly-commercialised <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunge" title="Grunge">grunge</a> music that was making its way across the Atlantic, and those bands who formed the foundation of Britpop, such as Oasis and (despite their advancing years) Pulp. Britpop also offered intelligible lyrics, often about the trials and tribulations of working class life, another contrast to the "vocals as an instrument" approach of the shoegazers which often left vocals as merely another noise in the mix, with little concern for lyrical content.</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoegazer">More....</a>]<br /></p><p><br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1158347615755901662006-09-15T12:09:00.000-07:002006-09-15T12:13:39.496-07:00Gasoline pill<span style="font-size:78%;">[But imagine if it were true!]</span><br />The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_pill"><b>gasoline pill</b></a> or <b>gasoline powder</b> is one of several <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiction" title="Fiction">fictitious</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraud" title="Fraud">fraudulent</a> concoctions that claim to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmutation" title="Transmutation">turn</a> <b>water into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline" title="Gasoline">gasoline</a></b>, which can be used to run an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile" title="Automobile">automobile</a>. The gasoline pill is one of several <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Suppressed_invention&action=edit" class="new" title="Suppressed invention">suppressed inventions</a> that circulate as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legend" title="Urban legend">urban legends</a>. Usually these urban legends allege a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory" title="Conspiracy theory">conspiracy theory</a> that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_industry" title="Oil industry">oil industry</a> seeks to suppress the technology that turns water to gasoline. A more current gasoline pill claims to improve gasoline efficiency by 20%....<br /><br />In the United States, the best known claim to have created a gasoline pill was the work of one <b>Guido Franch</b>, who was active from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950s" title="1950s">1950s</a> through the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s" title="1970s">1970s</a>. Franch called the resulting liquid <i>Mota fuel</i>, <i>mota</i> being <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom" title="Atom">atom</a> spelled backwards. <p>Guido Franch was a blue collar worker who lived in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livingston%2C_Illinois" title="Livingston, Illinois">Livingston, Illinois</a>. His invention was a green powder that was added to water, which he claimed had actually been invented by a fictitious German scientist named Dr. Alexander Kraft. Franch took money from a number of small <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment" title="Investment">investors</a> who read about his claims in the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_Tattler&action=edit" class="new" title="National Tattler">National Tattler</a></i> or a similar publication. In what became a frequent motif, he claimed that the water-into-gasoline powder formula could not be disclosed for fear that the oil industry would have it suppressed. Franch, when pressed into providing samples of his transmutation powder, produced samples of green <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_coloring" title="Food coloring">food coloring</a>.</p> <p>As a result of his activities, Franch was prosecuted several times for fraud. His first trial, in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954" title="1954">1954</a>, resulted in his acquittal when a prosecution witness admitted that it might be possible that "mota fuel" worked. His second trial, in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979" title="1979">1979</a>, resulted in his conviction.<sup id="_ref-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_pill#_note-0" title="">[1]</a></sup><sup id="_ref-rexresearch_0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_pill#_note-rexresearch" title="">[2]</a></sup></p><p>In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1916" title="1916">1916</a>, Louis Enricht claimed to have a water to gasoline pill. Enricht was convicted of fraud in a related case, claiming to have a method for extracting gasoline from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peat" title="Peat">peat</a>, and served time in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sing_Sing" title="Sing Sing">Sing Sing</a> prison. In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1917" title="1917">1917</a>, John Andrews pitched a water to gasoline powder to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy" title="United States Navy">United States Navy</a>. Andrews disappeared after making his pitch, but it turned out that he had returned to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada" title="Canada">Canada</a>, where he was serving in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Navy" title="Canadian Navy">Canadian Navy</a>.<sup id="_ref-rexresearch_1" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_pill#_note-rexresearch" title="">[2]</a></sup></p> <p>In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996" title="1996">1996</a>, Ramar Pillai claimed to be able to transmute water to gasoline by a herbal formula that he claimed was the result of a miraculous bush. Pillai obtained 20 acres of land to cultivate his bush, but in fact it turned out that he was using <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleight_of_hand" title="Sleight of hand">sleight of hand</a> to substitute <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene" title="Kerosene">kerosene</a> for the liquid he claimed to have derived from the bush....</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_pill">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1158256249770746002006-09-14T10:50:00.000-07:002006-09-14T10:50:50.276-07:00R.O.B.<span style="font-size:78%;">[I had one of these with my Nintendo; I didn't really know how to use it.]</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/54/Robotic_Operating_Buddy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/54/Robotic_Operating_Buddy.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /><br /></span><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.O.B.">R.O.B.</a></b> (<i><b>R</b>obotic <b>O</b>perating <b>B</b>uddy</i>) was an accessory for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System" title="Nintendo Entertainment System">Nintendo Entertainment System</a>. It was released in 1984 in Japan as the "Famicom Robot" and in 1985 as R.O.B in North America....<br /><br />The R.O.B. functions by receiving commands via optical flashes from a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television" title="Television">television</a> screen. With the head pointed always at the screen, the arms move left, right, up, and down, and the hands pinch together and separate to manipulate objects on fixtures attached to the base. <p>Gamers without experience might wonder how R.O.B. relays data back to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System" title="Nintendo Entertainment System">NES</a>, and in fact there is no direct way to do so. In <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyromite" title="Gyromite">Gyromite</a></i>, one of R.O.B.'s base attachments holds and pushes buttons on an ordinary controller. In <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack-Up" title="Stack-Up">Stack-Up</a></i> the player is supposed to press a button on his or her own controller to indicate when R.O.B. completes a task. While the <i>Robot Series</i> games were among the most complex of its time, they were reliant upon the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_system" title="Honor system">honor system</a>....</p><p>In Japan, the Famicom Robot was sold with <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack-Up" title="Stack-Up">Robot Block</a></i> (a.k.a. <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack-Up" title="Stack-Up">Stack-Up</a></i>).</p> <p>The Robotic Operating Buddy was sold in two packages. One was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System" title="Nintendo Entertainment System">NES</a> Deluxe Set, which featured a control deck, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NES_Zapper" title="NES Zapper">NES Zapper</a>, two controllers, and two games (<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Hunt" title="Duck Hunt">Duck Hunt</a></i> and <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyromite" title="Gyromite">Gyromite</a></i>). The other package only included R.O.B. and <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyromite" title="Gyromite">Gyromite</a></i>.</p> <p>While in production, R.O.B. was not widely accepted. The reason why it is not exceedingly rare today is due to its brief inclusion in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System" title="Nintendo Entertainment System">NES</a> Deluxe Set. It was compatible with only two games, neither of which were simple enough for a game market that, at the time, was composed almost entirely of younger children.</p> <p>Its most successful use was as a "trojan horse" to garner interest following the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983" title="Video game crash of 1983">video game crash of 1983</a>. Retailers, reluctant to stock video games, were successfully tricked when <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo" title="Nintendo">Nintendo</a> snuck the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System" title="Nintendo Entertainment System">NES</a> in with R.O.B. as a "robot toy" instead of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game" title="Video game">video game</a>. It worked, as retailers stocked the NES, giving Nintendo its first major foothold in the western market <sup id="_ref-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.O.B.#_note-0" title="">[1]</a></sup>.</p> <p>On the other hand, most consumers saw R.O.B. only as a novelty. The slow pace with which R.O.B. performed its movements was a source of frustration, since cheating at <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyromite" title="Gyromite">Gyromite</a></i> was far easier to set up and play than controlling the game in its intended fashion. In fact, many people did not understand how the accessory worked. These perceptions, along with a high price tag, led Nintendo to exclude R.O.B. from further bundles and discontinue it after only two years on store shelves.</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.O.B.">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1157090504584937462006-08-31T23:00:00.000-07:002006-08-31T23:01:44.936-07:00Automatic double tracking (ADT)<span style="font-size:78%;">[One of the many ways the Beatles changed music.]</span><b><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_double_tracking">Automatic double tracking (ADT)</a></b> was an electronic system designed to augment the sound of voices and instruments during the recording process. It used linked tape recorders to create an instant and simultaneous duplication of sound which could then be captured on tape. <p>During the 1950s it was discovered that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubletracking" title="Doubletracking">doubletracking</a> lead vocals in popular song recordings gave them a much stronger and more appealing sound (especially for singers with weak or light voices). First pairs of tape recorders were used, then later <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitrack_recording" title="Multitrack recording">multitrack recording</a> machines, to produce the effect.</p> <p>However, until the invention of ADT it was necessary to record the vocal tracks twice, with the second vocal in synchronisation with the first -- a process which was both tedious and exacting, and might require several takes and rewinds.</p> <p>ADT was invented specially for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles" title="The Beatles">The Beatles</a> on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_6" title="April 6">April 6</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966" title="1966">1966</a> by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Townshend" title="Ken Townshend">Ken Townshend</a> a recording engineer employed at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMI" title="EMI">EMI</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_Road_Studios" title="Abbey Road Studios">Abbey Road Studios</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John%27s_Wood" title="St John's Wood">St John's Wood</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London" title="London">London</a>. He developed it mainly at the instigation of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon" title="John Lennon">John Lennon</a>, who hated the tedious doubletracking sessions and regularly expressed a desire for a technical solution to the problem.</p> <p>In essence, Townshend's system used two studio tape decks which were connected to the recording console, and to each other. As a vocal was being recorded onto the first tape machine, specially installed connections simultaneously fed the signal from the record head of the first deck into the record head of the second deck, onto the tape, out from the playback head of the second deck and back into the record head of the first. If the playback heads of the two decks were precisely the same distance from their respective record heads, the voices would be recorded in perfect unison.</p> <p>However, the doubletracking effect relied on the almost inaudible millisecond delays between the guide vocal and the doubletracked vocal. This was achieved naturally in the old system, because it was in practice impossible for even the best singer to precisely duplicate a previous vocal.</p> <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoff_Emerick" title="Geoff Emerick">Geoff Emerick</a>, an EMI balance engineer who began working with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatles" title="Beatles">Beatles</a> during the recording of the LP <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver_%28album%29" title="Revolver (album)">Revolver</a></i>, was able to introduce the fractional delay required by adjusting the variable speed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillator" title="Oscillator">oscillator</a> (VSO) that controlled the speed of the motor on the second tape deck, so that the tape ran slightly slower than on the first deck. With this slight delay now introduced, the signal coming out of the playback head on the first deck would be audibly 'doubled', but the delay was not enough to cause the vocals to be noticeably out of sync.</p> <p>An alternate method of creating the required delay, if the second deck did not have a variable speed motor, was to simply apply pressure to the rim (or 'flange') of the feed reel on the second tape deck to slow down the tape speed. This led to the invention being dubbed '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flanging" title="Flanging">flanging</a>' by The Beatles, who were thrilled by Townshend's invention and used it throughout the <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver_%28album%29" title="Revolver (album)">Revolver</a></i> LP and on all their subsequent recordings. The invention of ADT soon led to the development of other related studio effects, besides flanging, including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorus_effect" title="Chorus effect">chorus</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_shifting" title="Phase shifting">phasing</a>.</p> <p>ADT quickly became a universal practice in popular music and since its invention it has become rare to hear popular music recordings that do not use it, especially on vocal tracks. Although the tape-based ADT system has since been superseded by digital sound processing technology, doubletracking is still a common production technique.</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_double_tracking">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1156978265245273542006-08-30T15:49:00.000-07:002006-08-30T15:51:05.893-07:00Fandom<span style="font-size:78%;">[Also be sure to check out the site for the Portman-related movie of the same name.]</span><b><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fandom">Fandom</a></b> (from the noun <i>fan</i> and the affix <i>-dom</i>, as in <i>kingdom</i>, <i>dukedom</i>, etc.) is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subculture" title="Subculture">subculture</a> composed by like-minded <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_%28aficionado%29" title="Fan (aficionado)">fans</a> (aficionados) characterized by a feeling of closeness to others who share the same interest (Thorne&Bruner 2006). Such a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community" title="Community">community</a> of keen aficionados can share a common interest in a wide selection of phenomena, such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Author" title="Author">authors</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby" title="Hobby">hobbies</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre" title="Genre">genres</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion" title="Fashion">fashions</a>. Fandom as a term can also be used to refer to the single interconnected <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network" title="Social network">social network</a> of these individual fandoms, many of which overlap. While the term is applied to social networks surrounding many <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novelty" title="Novelty">novelty</a> interests, it has its roots in appreciation for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction" title="Science fiction">science fiction</a>. <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_%28aficionado%29" title="Fan (aficionado)">Fans</a> typically are interested in even minor details of the object of their fandom; this is what differentiates them from those with only casual interest.</p> <p>The objects of a fandom typically relate to the arts, sports or entertainment. For example, it would be unusual to refer to an accountant who is very interested in the details of accounting as a "fan" of accounting.</p> <p>The plural <i>fen</i> is often self-applied in science fiction and related fandoms. This is an example of fannish <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jargon" title="Jargon">jargon</a>.</p> <p>Members of a fandom associate with one another, often attending <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_convention" title="Fan convention">fan conventions</a> (such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction_convention" title="Science fiction convention">science fiction conventions</a>), and publishing and exchanging <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanzine" title="Fanzine">fanzines</a>. Today, these communities are often online, especially for less well-known source material. Some fans also write <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_fiction" title="Fan fiction">fan fiction</a>, stories based around the universe and characters of their chosen fandom. Some also dress in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costumes" title="Costumes">costumes</a> ("<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay" title="Cosplay">cosplay</a>") or recite lines of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogue" title="Dialogue">dialogue</a> either out-of-context or as part of a group <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reenactment" title="Reenactment">reenactment</a>. Such activities are sometimes known as "fanac," an abbreviated form of the phrase "fan activity."</p> <p>The term "fandom" is particularly associated with fans of the science fiction and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy" title="Fantasy">fantasy</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre" title="Genre">genres</a>, a community that dates back to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930" title="1930">1930s</a> and has held the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Science_Fiction_Convention" title="World Science Fiction Convention">World Science Fiction Convention</a> since <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939" title="1939">1939</a>. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary" title="Oxford English Dictionary">Oxford English Dictionary</a> traces the usage of the term back as far as 1903, with many of its documented references referring to sports fandom.</p> <p>The term is also commonly associated with anime/manga. Serious fans of this subject are also called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otaku" title="Otaku">otaku</a>.</p> <p>"Fandom" is also the name of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film" title="Documentary film">documentary</a> / <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mockumentary" title="Mockumentary">mockumentary</a> about a fan obsessed with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_Portman" title="Natalie Portman">Natalie Portman</a>.</p> <p><b>Fanac</b> is an abbreviation for "fan activity" which arose within <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction" title="Science fiction">science fiction</a> fandom. It consists of such activities as editing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine" title="Zine">zines</a>, writing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanfic" title="Fanfic">fanfic</a>, attending <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_convention" title="Fan convention">cons</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay" title="Cosplay">cosplay</a>.</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fandom">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1156754275742330902006-08-28T01:36:00.000-07:002006-08-28T01:37:56.140-07:00Generalissimo<span style="font-size:78%;">[When a general just won't do.]</span><br />A <b>generalissimo</b> is a commissioned officer of the highest rank; the word is often translated as "Supreme Commander" or "Commander in Chief". It is an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_language" title="Italian language">Italian</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superlative" title="Superlative">superlative</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substantive" title="Substantive">substantive</a>, which <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar" title="Grammar">grammatically</a> would actually be disallowed in Italian (superlatives can be made with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjective" title="Adjective">adjectives</a> only). When used as a noun, the correct sense is "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General" title="General">General</a> of the highest degree" (or commander in chief of the entire <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_forces" title="Armed forces">armed forces</a> of a specific country); as an adjective, the closest English form is "most general," but the concept is best expressed by the grammatically incorrect expression "most generalest." The term "Generalissimo" in English has come to refer to a kind of ruler who has ascended to that position by a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coup_d%27%C3%A9tat" title="Coup d'état">military coup</a>. In most developed English-speaking countries, the term commonly evokes the image of corrupt dictatorships and so-called "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republics" title="Banana republics">banana republics</a>." <p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictator" title="Dictator">dictator</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Franco" title="Francisco Franco">Francisco Franco</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_of_state" title="Head of state">Chief of State</a> of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_State" title="Spanish State">Spanish State</a>, also held the title <i>Generalísimo de los Ejércitos Españoles</i>, or "Generalissimo of the Spanish Armies", a title which expressed his supreme command of the Army, Navy, and Air Force of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_State" title="Spanish State">Spanish State</a>.</p> <p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Kai-shek" title="Chiang Kai-shek">Chiang Kai-shek</a> also used the term (although he was technically a <i>general special class</i> or "five-star general") as did <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin" title="Joseph Stalin">Joseph Stalin</a>; the latter, however, was appointed to the position on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_27" title="June 27">June 27</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1945" title="1945">1945</a>, at the conclusion of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II" title="World War II">World War II</a> and did not use it as a title to designate his position of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commander_in_chief" title="Commander in chief">commander in chief</a>, but rather bore it as a title of rank, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalissimo_of_the_Soviet_Union" title="Generalissimo of the Soviet Union">Generalissimo of the Soviet Union</a>, above the rank of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshal_of_the_Soviet_Union" title="Marshal of the Soviet Union">Marshal of the Soviet Union</a>. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan" title="Japan">Japanese</a> title of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogun" title="Shogun">Shogun</a> is in a way comparable to that of generalissimo.</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalissimo">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24099640.post-1156537944326043132006-08-25T13:28:00.000-07:002006-08-25T13:32:24.900-07:00Jews for Jesus<span style="font-size:78%;">[Sometimes they hand out fliers and such...]</span><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_for_Jesus"><b>Jews for Jesus</b></a> is a Christian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelicalism" title="Evangelicalism">Evangelical</a> organization based in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States">United States</a>. It was founded in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973" title="1973">1973</a> by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moishe_Rosen" title="Moishe Rosen">Moishe Rosen</a>, an ordained <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptist" title="Baptist">Baptist</a> minister of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew" title="Jew">Jewish</a> heritage who self-identifies with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaic" title="Judaic">Judaic</a> tradition. The long-term goal of Jews for Jesus is one of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_conversion" title="Religious conversion">religious conversion</a> of all <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew" title="Jew">Jews</a> to accept <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ" title="Jesus Christ">Jesus Christ</a> as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah" title="Messiah">Messiah</a> — a position which is usually characterised as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity" title="Christianity">Christianity</a> and is incompatible with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism" title="Judaism">Judaism</a> (see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schisms_among_the_Jews#Break-offs:_Samaritans_and_Christians" title="Schisms among the Jews">Schism between Jews and Christians</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Judaism" title="Anti-Judaism">Anti-Judaism</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersessionism" title="Supersessionism">Supersessionism</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispensationalism" title="Dispensationalism">Dispensationalism</a>). The organization claims to be "one of the most extensive <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelism" title="Evangelism">evangelistic</a> outreaches to Jewish people in the world today." While Jews for Jesus is based in the United States, they have also sent their branches as far afield as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine" title="Ukraine">Ukraine</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany" title="Germany">Germany</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France" title="France">France</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England" title="England">England</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil" title="Brazil">Brazil</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada" title="Canada">Canada</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia" title="Australia">Australia</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia" title="Russia">Russia</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa" title="South Africa">South Africa</a>....<br /><br />Jews for Jesus' official mission statement is "to make the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah" title="Messiah">Messiahship</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus" title="Jesus">Jesus</a> an unavoidable issue to our Jewish people worldwide." They claim that belief in Jesus as Messiah is a fulfillment of the prophecies of Hebrew scripture. Rosen argues that Christianity is the fulfillment of scriptures....<br /><br /><p>Jews for Jesus is widely opposed by both Jewish groups (secular and religious) and Christians who oppose attempting to convert Jews. Many Jewish groups see Jews for Jesus as a thinly-veiled <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Semitism" title="Anti-Semitism">attack on Judaism</a>, while many Christian churches, particularly the more liberal denominations, see Jewish religious practice as valid in and of itself and thus object to evangelizing Jews.</p> <p>Another criticism of the group is that one of the most important <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_principles_of_faith" title="Jewish principles of faith">Jewish principles of faith</a> is the belief in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotheism" title="Monotheism">one God and one God only</a> with no partnership of any kind, and it is therefore impossible to profess Judaism and believe in Jesus at the same time.</p> <p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interfaith_Conference_of_Metropolitan_Washington" title="Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington">Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington</a>, an umbrella organization that includes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslims" title="Muslims">Muslims</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews" title="Jews">Jews</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church" title="Church">church</a> groups from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic" title="Roman Catholic">Roman Catholic</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methodist" title="Methodist">Methodist</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptist" title="Baptist">Baptist</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutheran" title="Lutheran">Lutheran</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbyterian" title="Presbyterian">Presbyterian</a> churches, has condemned Jews for Jesus as promoting activities "harmful to the spirit of interreligious respect and tolerance." The conference is opposed to religious <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proselytism" title="Proselytism">proselytizing</a> in general. The conference also denounces the group's "deceptive proselytizing efforts", stating that when practiced on "vulnerable populations" such as the young or the elderly, these efforts are "tantamount to coerced conversions." <a href="http://www.adl.org/special_reports/jews4jesus/christian_responses.asp" class="external text" title="http://www.adl.org/special_reports/jews4jesus/christian_responses.asp">(2)</a> The Rev. Clark Lobenstine, a Presbyterian (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCUSA" title="PCUSA">PCUSA</a>) minister and executive director of the Conference, has stated that his group condemns Jews for Jesus and other messianic Jewish groups by name because they "go beyond the bounds of appropriate and ethically based religious outreach." <a href="http://www.rickross.com/reference/jews_for_jesus/jews_for_jesus30.html" class="external text" title="http://www.rickross.com/reference/jews_for_jesus/jews_for_jesus30.html">(3)</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Ross_%28consultant%29" title="Rick Ross (consultant)">Rick Ross</a>, an alleged "cult expert", has been critical of the organization as well and has included them on his website.<a href="http://www.rickross.com/links.html#Jews%20For%20Jesus" class="external text" title="http://www.rickross.com/links.html#Jews%20For%20Jesus">(5)</a></p> <p>The Board of Governors of The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Long_Island_Council_of_Churches&action=edit" class="new" title="Long Island Council of Churches">Long Island Council of Churches</a>, a group that is opposed to proselytizing of Jews in general, voiced similar sentiments in a statement that "noted with alarm" the "subterfuge and dishonesty" inherent in the "mixing [of] religious symbols in ways which distort their essential meaning", and <a href="http://www.adl.org/special_reports/jews4jesus/christian_responses.asp" class="external text" title="http://www.adl.org/special_reports/jews4jesus/christian_responses.asp">named Jews for Jesus as one of the three groups about whom such behavior was alleged</a>....</p><p>Jews for Jesus defends its actions against these charges, stating:</p> <dl><dd>"If a person believes the Bible and believes that Jesus is the only way of salvation (John 14:6, Acts 4:12, Romans 10:9,10) and then that person declines to tell a Jewish friend about Christ, it indicates one of two things. Either that person has decided that the Jews are not worthy of the gospel, in which case he would be a racist, an anti-Semite and a hater of people instead of the lover of people that God wants him to be. Or perhaps he has judged the gospel as being unworthy of the Jews in which case he has trivialized the passion of Calvary and the awesome significance of Christ's resurrection." <a href="http://www.jfjonline.org/about/targeting.htm" class="external text" title="http://www.jfjonline.org/about/targeting.htm">(4)</a></dd></dl> <p>Jews for Jesus is a member of numerous evangelical Christian groups: The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Evangelical_Alliance" title="World Evangelical Alliance">World Evangelical Alliance</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Canadian_Council_for_Christian_Charities&action=edit" class="new" title="Canadian Council for Christian Charities">Canadian Council for Christian Charities</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Interdenominational_Foreign_Mission_Association&action=edit" class="new" title="Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association">Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evangelical_Alliance_of_Great_Britain&action=edit" class="new" title="Evangelical Alliance of Great Britain">Evangelical Alliance of Great Britain</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Evangelical_Council_on_Financial_Accountability&action=edit" class="new" title="Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability">Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lausanne_Consultation_on_Jewish_Evangelism&action=edit" class="new" title="Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism">Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Evangelicals" title="National Association of Evangelicals">National Association of Evangelicals</a>, The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Internet_Evangelism_Coalition&action=edit" class="new" title="Internet Evangelism Coalition">Internet Evangelism Coalition</a>, and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Evangelical_Fellowship" title="World Evangelical Fellowship">World Evangelical Fellowship</a>....</p><p>[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_for_Jesus">More....</a>]<br /></p>Farhadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13591780847707355141noreply@blogger.com0