Mixed franking

In philately, a mixed franking is an occurrence of postage stamps of more than one country or issuing entity on a single cover — or the occurrence of postage stamps of more than one currency of a country or issuing identity on a single cover. Since nearly all countries of the world have agreed to deliver each other's mail, it is unusual to need more than the stamps of the originating country; valid mixed frankings are uncommon and valued by collectors.

Before the advent of the Universal Postal Union in 1874, sending international mail was quite an adventure; it might be necessary to affix the stamps of the destination country in addition to those of the origin, and in the worst cases, possibly for several other countries along the way. Sometimes the letter was held until the recipient brought stamps, they were affixed and cancelled, and the result handed to the recipient. Since this only happened during the first few decades of stamp usage, and only for the few letters that were sent great distances, very few covers have survived. For some combinations, only single examples have survived, and command spectacular prices among collectors.

Another form of mixed franking occurs in transitional periods, either as a way to help the public use up the stamps of a defunct government, or involuntarily as a propaganda tool.

An example of involuntary mixed franking is when Germany took over Austria in the Anschluss in 1938; during the several months while Austrian stamps were still accepted, Austrians sending mail to Germany were required to include a German stamp on the envelope.

Sometimes illegitimate mixed frankings occur when a postal user adds another country's stamps to an envelope just for fun. Many countries' postal regulation require clerks to refuse to handle these, even if the correct postage of the country is present, because they slow down the sorting process, but such covers can still get through the system.

Predynastic period

The Nile Valley of Egypt was basically uninhabitable until the work of clearing and irrigating the land along the banks of the river was started.[1] However it appears that this clearance and irrigation was largely under way by about 6000 BC. By that time, society in the Nile Valley was already engaged in organized agriculture and the construction of large buildings in the Nile Valley.[2] At this time, Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and also constructing large buildings. Mortar was in use by 4000 BC. The people of the Nile Valley and on delta were self-sufficient and were raising barley and emmer (an early variety of wheat) and stored it in pits lined with reed mats.[3] They raised cattle, goats and pigs and they wove linens and baskets.[4] The Predynastic Period continues through this time, variously held to begin with the Naqada culture.

Between 5500 and 3100 BC, during Egypt's Predynastic Period, small settlements flourished along the Nile, whose delta empties into the Mediterranean Sea. By 3300 BC, just before the first Egyptian dynasty, Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, known as Upper Egypt, Ta Shemau, to the south, and Lower Egypt, Ta Mehu, to the north.[5] The dividing line was drawn roughly in the area of modern Cairo.

The Tasian culture was the next to appear in Upper Egypt. This group is named for the burials found at Der Tasa, a site on the east bank of the Nile between Asyut and Akhmim. The Tasian culture group is notable for producing the earliest blacktop-ware, a type of red and brown pottery which has been painted black on its top and interior.[6]

The Badarian Culture, named for the Badari site near Der Tasa, followed the Tasian culture, however similarities between the two have led many to avoid differentiating between them at all. The Badarian Culture continued to produce the kind of pottery called Blacktop-ware (although its quality was much improved over previous specimens), and was assigned the Sequence Dating numbers between 21 and 29.[7] The significant difference, however, between the Tasian and Badarian culture groups which prevents scholars from completely merging the two together is that Badarian sites use copper in addition to stone, and thus are chalcolithic settlements, while the Tasian sites are still Neolithic, and are considered technically part of the Stone Age.[7]

The Amratian culture is named after the site of el-Amra, about 120 km south of Badari. El-Amra was the first site where this culture group was found unmingled with the later Gerzean culture group; however, this period is better attested at the Naqada site, thus it is also referred to as the Naqada I culture.[8] Black-topped ware continued to be produced, but white cross-line ware, a type of pottery which was decorated with close parallel white lines crossed by another set of close parallel white lines, began to be produced during this time. The Amratian period falls between S.D. 30 and 39 in Petrie's Sequence Dating system.[9] Trade between Upper and Lower Egypt was attested at this time, as newly excavated objects indicate. A stone vase from the north was found at el-Amra, and copper, which is not present in Egypt, was apparently imported from the Sinai, or perhaps from Nubia. Obsidian[10] and an extremely small amount of gold[9] were both definitively imported from Nubia during this time. Trade with the oases was also likely.

Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK: Northern England

James II & VII (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701)[2] was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII,[1] from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Members of Britain's political and religious elite increasingly opposed him for being pro-French and pro-Catholic, and for his designs on becoming an absolute monarch. When he produced a Catholic heir, the tension exploded, and leading nobles called on William III of Orange (his son-in-law and nephew) to land an invasion army from the Netherlands, which he did. James fled England (and thus was held to have abdicated) in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.[3] He was replaced by William of Orange who became king as William III, ruling jointly with his wife (James's daughter) Mary II. Thus William and Mary, both Protestants, became joint rulers in 1689. James made one serious attempt to recover his crowns, when he landed in Ireland in 1689 but, after the defeat of the Jacobite forces by the Williamite forces at the Battle of the Boyne in the summer of 1690, James returned to France. He lived out the rest of his life as a pretender at a court sponsored by his cousin and ally, King Louis XIV.
Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire, County Durham and Northumberland were established as counties in the 12th century. Lancashire can be firmly dated to 1182.[34] Part of the domain of the Bishops of Durham, Hexhamshire was split off and was considered an independent county until 1572, when it became part of Northumberland.

Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

The most extreme change in Earth surface conditions during the Cenozoic Era began at the temporal boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene epochs 55.8 million years ago. This event, the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, alternatively "Eocene thermal maximum 1" (ETM1), and formerly known as the "Initial Eocene" or "Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum",[1] (IETM/LPTM)), was associated with rapid (in geological terms) global warming, profound changes in ecosystems, and major perturbations in the carbon cycle.
Global temperatures rose by about 6 °C (11 °F) over a period of approximately 20,000 years. Many benthic foraminifera and terrestrial mammals went extinct, but numerous modern mammalian orders emerged. The event is linked to a prominent negative excursion in carbon stable isotope (δ13C) records from across the globe, and dissolution of carbonate deposited on all ocean basins. The latter observations strongly suggest that a massive input of 13C-depleted carbon entered the hydrosphere or atmosphere at the start of the PETM. Recently, geoscientists have begun to investigate the PETM in order to better understand the fate and transport of increasing greenhouse-gas emissions over millennial time scales.

Archaeology

The archaeological evidence of the largely indigenous origins of Israel is "overwhelming," and leaves "no room for an Exodus from Egypt or a 40-year pilgrimage through the Sinai wilderness."[21] For this reason, most archaeologists have abandoned the archaeological investigation of Moses and the Exodus as "a fruitless pursuit."[21] A century of research by archaeologists and Egyptologists has found no evidence which can be directly related to the Exodus narrative of an Egyptian captivity and the escape and travels through the wilderness,[18] and it has become increasingly clear that Iron Age Israel - the kingdoms of Judah and Israel - has its origins in Canaan, not Egypt:[22][23] the culture of the earliest Israelite settlements is Canaanite, their cult-objects are those of the Canaanite god El, the pottery remains in the local Canaanite tradition, and the alphabet used is early Canaanite. Almost the sole marker distinguishing the "Israelite" villages from Canaanite sites is an absence of pig bones, although whether this can be taken as an ethnic marker or is due to other factors remains a matter of dispute.

Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK:Bretwalda

Bretwalda (also brytenwalda and bretenanwealda) is an Old English word, the first record of which comes from the late 9th century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It is given to some of the rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the 5th century onwards who had achieved overlordship of some or all of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It is unclear whether the word dates back to the 5th century and was used by the kings themselves, or whether it is a later, 9th-century, invention. The term bretwalda also appears in a charter of ?thelstan.

The rulers of Mercia were generally the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kings from the mid-7th to the early 9th centuries, but are not accorded the title of bretwalda by the Chronicle, which is generally thought to be because of the anti-Mercian bias of the Chroniclers. The Annals of Wales continued to recognize the kings of Northumbria as 'Kings of the Saxons' (i.e. the English) until the death of Osred I of Northumbria in 716.

Bretw?lde was a term used in 11th and 12th century Ireland to denote the 'high king'. Part of the Gaelic lexicon, this spelling suggests a Germanic (Saxon) origin, as the 'w' is most likely pronounced as a 'v'. It is also possible that the term derives from the Welsh Brit Gweldig, the term for a ruler of Britain.Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe (from Latin: ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element (by mass) forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust. Iron's very common presence in rocky planets like Earth is due to its abundant production as a result of fusion in high-mass stars, where the production of nickel-56 (which decays to iron) is the last nuclear fusion reaction that is exothermic. This allows radioactive nickel to become the last element to be produced before collapse of a supernova leads to events that scatters this precursor radionuclide of iron into space.

The "Fourth Party"

It was not until 1878 that he came to public notice as the exponent of a species of independent Conservatism. He made a series of furious attacks on Sir Stafford Northcote, R. A. Cross, and other prominent members of the "old gang". George Sclater-Booth (afterwards 1st Baron Basing), President of the Local Government Board, was a specific target, and the minister's County Government Bill was fiercely denounced as the "crowning dishonour to Tory principles", and the "supreme violation of political honesty". Lord Randolph's attitude, and the vituperative fluency of his invective, made him a parliamentary figure of some importance before the dissolution of the 1874 parliament, though he was not yet taken quite seriously.

In the new parliament of 1880 he speedily began to play a more notable role. Along with Sir Henry Drummond-Wolff, Sir John Gorst and occasionally Arthur Balfour, he made himself known as the audacious opponent of the Liberal administration and the unsparing critic of the Conservative front bench. The "fourth party", as it was nicknamed, at first did little damage to the government, but awakened the opposition from its apathy; Churchill roused the Conservatives by leading resistance to Charles Bradlaugh, the member for Northampton, who, though an avowed atheist or agnostic, was prepared to take the parliamentary oath. Sir Stafford Northcote, the Conservative leader in the Lower House, was forced to take a strong line on this difficult question by the energy of the fourth party. The long controversy over Bradlaugh's seat, showed that Lord Randolph Churchill was a parliamentary champion who added to his audacity much tactical skill and shrewdness. He continued to play a conspicuous part throughout the parliament of 1880 to 1885, targeting William Ewart Gladstone as well as the Conservative front bench, some of whose members, particularly Sir Richard Cross and William Henry Smith, he singled out for attack.

From the beginning of the Egyptian imbroglio Lord Randolph was emphatically opposed to almost every step taken by the government. He declared that the suppression of Urabi Pasha's rebellion was an error, and the restoration of the khedive's authority a crime. He called Gladstone the "Moloch of Midlothian", for whom torrents of blood had been shed in Africa. He was equally severe on the domestic policy of the administration, and was particularly bitter in his criticism of the Kilmainham Treaty and the rapprochement between the Gladstonians and the Parnellites.


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Transcendence (religion)

In religion transcendence refers to the aspect of God's nature which is wholly independent of (and removed from) the physical universe. This is contrasted with immanence where God is fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways. In religious experience transcendence is a state of being that has overcome the limitations of physical existence and by some definitions has also become independent of it. This is typically manifested in prayer, séance, meditation, psychedelics and paranormal "visions". It is affirmed in the concept of the divine in the major religious traditions, and contrasts with the notion of God, or the Absolute, existing exclusively in the physical order (immanentism), or indistinguishable from it (pantheism). Transcendence can be attributed to the divine not only in its being, but also in its knowledge. Thus, God transcends the universe, but also transcends knowledge (is beyond the grasp of the human mind). Although transcendence is defined as the opposite of immanence, the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Some theologians and metaphysicians of the great religious traditions affirm that God, or Brahman, is both within and beyond the universe (panentheism); in it, but not of it; simultaneously pervading it and surpassing it.




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Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK: Daily Mail

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982. Scottish and Irish editions of the daily paper were launched in 1947 and 2006 respectively. The Daily Mail was Britain's first daily newspaper aimed at the newly literate "lower-middle class market resulting from mass education, combining a low retail price with plenty of competitions, prizes and promotional gimmicks", and the first British paper to sell a million copies a day. It was, from the outset, a newspaper for women, being the first to provide features especially for them, and is still the only British newspaper whose readership is more than 50% female.
In 1969, IPC decided to sell. The tycoon Robert Maxwell, eager to buy a British newspaper, offered to take it off their hands and retain its commitment to the Labour party, but admitted there would be redundancies, especially among the printers. Rupert Murdoch had bought the News of the World, a sensationalist Sunday newspaper, the previous year, but the presses in the basement of his building in London's Bouverie Street sat idle six days a week.




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Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK: Wal-Mart camel

The 10th millennium BC marks the beginning of the Mesolithic and Epipaleolithic period, which is the first part of the Holocene epoch. Agriculture, based on the cultivation of primitive forms of millet and rice, occurred in Southwest Asia. Although agriculture was being developed in the Fertile Crescent, it would not be widely practised for another 2,000 years.[citation needed]

The world population is estimated as between one and ten million people, most of whom were hunter-gatherer communities scattered over all continents except Antarctica and Zealandia. The Würm glaciation ended, and the beginning interglacial, which endures to this day, allowed the re-settlement of northern regions. The most recent glacial ended c. 10,000 BC, and the world entered a period of global warming.
The Wal-Mart camel is the fossil of a prehistoric camel (Camelops sp.) found at a Wal-Mart construction site in Mesa, Arizona in 2007. Workers digging a hole for an ornamental citrus tree found the bones of two (juvenile and infant) animals that may have lived as long as 10,000 years ago. Arizona State University Geology Museum curator Brad Archer calls it an important and rare find for the area.Wal-Mart officials and Greenfield Citrus Nursery owner John Babiarz whose crew discovered the remains agreed that the bones will go directly to the Geology Museum at Arizona State University where further research and restoration of the fossils could be done. Camels lived in what is now Arizona until about 8,000 years ago.More camel bones were found in Gilbert, Arizona in May 2008.








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Business case

A business case captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. It is often presented in a well-structured written document, but may also sometimes come in the form of a short verbal argument or presentation. The logic of the business case is that, whenever resources such as money or effort are consumed, they should be in support of a specific business need. An example could be that a software upgrade might improve system performance, but the "business case" is that better performance would improve customer satisfaction, require less task processing time, or reduce system maintenance costs. A compelling business case adequately captures both the quantifiable and unquantifiable characteristics of a proposed project.

Business cases can range from comprehensive and highly structured, as required by formal project management methodologies, to informal and brief. Information included in a formal business case could be the background of the project, the expected business benefits, the options considered (with reasons for rejecting or carrying forward each option), the expected costs of the project, a gap analysis and the expected risks. Consideration should also be given to the option of doing nothing including the costs and risks of inactivity. From this information, the justification for the project is derived. Note that it is not the job of the project manager to build the business case, this task is usually the responsibility of stakeholders and sponsors.










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Flycatching

The various methods of taking insects have been categorized as: gleaning (perched bird takes prey from branch or tree trunk), snatching (flying bird takes prey from ground or branch), hawking (bird leaves perch and takes prey from air), pouncing (bird drops to ground and takes prey) and pursuing (flying bird takes insects from air).

In hawking behavior, a bird will watch for prey from a suitable perch. When it spies potential prey, the bird will fly swiftly from its perch to catch the insect in its bill, then return to the perch or sometimes to a different perch. This maneuver is also called a "sally". Prey that is very small relative to the bird, such as gnats, may be consumed immediately while in flight, but larger prey, such as bees or moths, are usually brought back to a perch before being eaten. Sometimes the prey will attempt to escape and this can result in a fluttering pursuit before returning to the perch. Depending on the species of bird, there are observable variations on this behavior. Some species, such as the Olive-sided Flycatcher of North America and the Ashy Drongo of South Asia, tend to choose an exposed perch, such as a dead tree branch overlooking a clearing, whereas others, such as the North American Acadian Flycatcher[4] and the Asian Small Niltava perch within the cover of foliage deep in a forest or woodland habitat.

Many birds make use of a variety of tactics. A study of feeding behaviors in the family Tyrranidae categorized the following moves as ways of taking insect prey: aerial hawking (i.e. flycatching), perch-to-ground sallying, ground feeding (chasing after insects on the ground), perch-to-water sallying, sally-gleaning (can involve an hover-gleaning or a rapid strike), and gleaning while perched.Some tyrant flycatchers, such as those that choose a prominent perch from which to hawk insects, have more of a tendency to return to the same perch after each sally, while others, particularly those of the forest interior, show less of this tendency. A similar pattern is seen in Great Britain, where there are but two flycatchers, the Spotted Flycatcher and the Pied Flycatcher. The Spotted Flycatcher is the specialist, and tends to return to the same perch after each sally. The Pied Flycatcher is more of a generalist, gleaning as well as flycatching, and changes perches often.

Birds with the name "flycatcher" are not the only ones to engage in flycatching behavior. For example, Lewis's Woodpecker feeds by flycatching. Some honeyeaters of Australasia employ hawking and gleaning as feeding tactics. Bee-eaters catch bees in a similar manner and return to the perch to remove the sting before consuming. Furthermore, many small owls take insect prey on the wing; examples include the Western Screech Owl of North America and the Brown Boobook of Asia.



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Southern Ocean

The Southern Ocean (also known as the Great Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Ocean, and the South Polar Ocean) comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60°S latitude and encircling Antarctica. It is usually regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions. This ocean zone is where cold, northward flowing waters from the Antarctic mix with warmer sub-Antarctic waters.

Geographers disagree on the Southern Ocean's northern boundary or even its existence, with many considering the waters part of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans instead. Others regard the Antarctic Convergence, an ocean zone which fluctuates seasonally, as separating the Southern Ocean from other oceans, rather than the 60th parallel.Australian authorities regard the Southern Ocean as lying immediately south of Australia.

The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) has not yet ratified its 2000 definition of the ocean as being south of 60°S. Its latest published definition of oceans dates from 1953; this does not include the Southern Ocean. However, the more recent definition is used by the IHO and others.




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Origins

Some independent schools are particularly old, such as The King's School, Canterbury (founded 597), St Peter's School, York (founded c.627), Sherborne School (founded c.710, refounded 1550 by Edward VI), Warwick School (c.914), The King's School, Ely (c.970) and St Albans School (948). These were often established for male scholars from poor or disadvantaged backgrounds; however, English law has always regarded education as a charitable end in itself, irrespective of poverty. For instance, the Queen's Scholarships founded at Westminster in 1560, are for "the sons of decay'd gentlemen".

The transformation of free charitable foundations into institutions which sometimes charge fees came about readily: the foundation would only afford minimal facilities, so that further fees might be charged to lodge, clothe and otherwise maintain the scholars, to the private profit of the trustees or headmaster. Also, facilities already provided by the charitable foundation for a few scholars could profitably be extended to further paying pupils. (Some schools still keep their foundation scholars in a separate house from other pupils.) After a time, such fees would eclipse the original charitable income, and the original endowment would naturally become a minor part of the capital benefactions enjoyed by the school. In 2009, senior boarding schools were charging fees of between ￡16,000 and nearly ￡30,000 per annum.

The educational reforms of the 19th century were particularly important under first Thomas Arnold at Rugby, and then Butler and later Kennedy at Shrewsbury, the former emphasising team spirit and muscular Christianity and the latter the importance of scholarship and competitive examinations. Edward Thring of Uppingham School introduced major reforms, focusing on the importance of the individual and competition, as well as the need for a 'total curriculum' with academia, music, sport and drama being central to education. Most public schools developed significantly during the 18th and 19th centuries, and came to play an important role in the development of the Victorian social elite. Under a number of forward-looking headmasters leading public schools created a curriculum based heavily on classics and physical activity for boys and young men of the upper and upper middle classes.

They were schools for the gentlemanly elite of Victorian politics, armed forces and colonial government. Often successful businessmen would send their sons to a public school as a mark of participation in the elite. Much of the discipline was in the hands of senior pupils (usually known as prefects), which was not just a means to reduce staffing costs, but was also seen as vital preparation for those pupils' later roles in public or military service. More recently heads of public schools have been emphasising that senior pupils now play a much reduced role in disciplining.

To an extent, the public school system influenced the school systems of the British Empire, and recognisably "public" schools can be found in many Commonwealth countries.





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the history of UEFA Europa League

The UEFA Cup was preceded by the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, which was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. The competition grew from 11 teams during the first cup (1955–58) to 64 teams by the last cup which was played in 1970–71. It had become so important on the European football scene that in the end it was overtaken by the UEFA and then relaunched the following season as the UEFA Cup.

The UEFA Cup was first played in the 1971–72 season, with an all-English final of Wolverhampton Wanderers versus Tottenham Hotspur, with Spurs taking the first honours.

The competition was traditionally open to the runners-up of domestic leagues, but the competition was merged with UEFA's previous second-tier European competition, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, in 1999. Since then, the winners of domestic cup competitions have also entered the UEFA Cup. Also, clubs eliminated in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League and the third placed teams at the end of the group phase could go on to compete in the UEFA Cup. Also admitted to the competition are three Fair Play representatives, eleven UEFA Intertoto Cup winners, and winners of some selected domestic League Cup competitions.
The UEFA Cup logo from 2004 to 2009

The winners keep the trophy for a year before returning it to UEFA. After its return, the club can keep a four-fifths scale replica of the original trophy.

Four teams have won the UEFA Cup as well as their domestic league and cup competitions in the same season, those being IFK G?teborg in 1982, Galatasaray in 2000, F.C. Porto in 2003 and 2011, and PFC CSKA Moscow in 2005. This accomplishment is known as a treble that only Galatasaray completed with the European Super Cup. Additionally, Tottenham Hotspur, Borussia M?nchengladbach, IFK G?teborg (twice), AFC Ajax, Galatasaray S. K. and Feyenoord are the only teams to have won the cup without suffering a single loss in their campaign. RCD Espanyol is the single runner-up without a defeat. IFK G?teborg played 25 consecutive matches in the UEFA Cup between 1980 and 1987 without a single loss, including their 1981–82 and 1986–87 winning campaigns.

From the 2009–10 season, the competition is known as the UEFA Europa League. At the same time, the UEFA Intertoto Cup, UEFA's third-tier competition, was discontinued and merged into the new Europa League.




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Semipermeable membrane

The rate of passage depends on the pressure, concentration, and temperature of the molecules or solutes on either side, as well as the permeability of the membrane to each solute. Depending on the membrane and the solute, permeability may depend on solute size, solubility, properties, or chemistry. How the membrane is constructed to be selective in its permeability will determine the rate and the permeability. Many natural and synthetic materials thicker than a membrane are also semipermeable. One example of this is the thin film on the inside of an egg.

An example of a semi-permeable membrane is the lipid bilayer, on which is based the plasma membrane that surrounds all biological cells. A group of phospholipids (consisting of a phosphate head and two fatty acid tails) arranged into a double-layer, the phospholipid bilayer is a semipermeable membrane that is very specific in its permeability. The hydrophilic phosphate heads are in the outside layer and exposed to the water content outside and within the cell. The hydrophobic tails are the layer hidden in the inside of the membrane. The phospholipid bilayer is the most permeable to small, uncharged solutes. Protein channels float through the phospholipids, and, collectively, this model is known as the fluid mosaic model.

In the process of reverse osmosis, thin film composite membranes (TFC or TFM) are used. These are semipermeable membranes manufactured principally for use in water purification or desalination systems. They also have use in chemical applications such as batteries and fuel cells. In essence, a TFC material is a molecular sieve constructed in the form of a film from two or more layered materials.

Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK:Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK

The Company was founded by Paul Julius Reuter in 1851 in London as a business transmitting stock market quotations. Reuter set up his "Submarine Telegraph" office in October 1851 and negotiated a contract with the London Stock Exchange to provide stock prices from the continental exchanges in return for access to London prices, which he then supplied to stockbrokers in Paris in France.In 1865, Reuters in London was the first organization to report the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The company was involved in developing the use of radio in 1923.It was acquired by the British National & Provincial Press in 1941 and first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1984. Reuters began to grow rapidly in the 1980s, widening the range of its business products and expanding its global reporting network for media, financial and economic services: key product launches included Equities 2000 (1987), Dealing 2000-2 (1992), Business Briefing (1994), Reuters Television for the financial markets (1994), 3000 Series (1996) and the Reuters 3000 Xtra service (1999).
The aboriginal population is estimated to have been between 200,000 and two million in the late 15th century, with a figure of 500,000 accepted by Canada's Royal Commission on Aboriginal Health. Repeated outbreaks of European infectious diseases such as influenza, measles, and smallpox (to which they had no natural immunity), combined with other effects of European contact, resulted in a forty- to eighty-percent aboriginal population decrease after European contact. Aboriginal peoples in Canada include the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. The Métis are a mixed-blood people who originated in the mid-17th century when First Nations people and Inuit married European settlers. The Inuit had more lim

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Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK: Traditional medicine

Slow lorises are commonly used in traditional medicine across their geographic range, a practice that has been reported since at least 1900. Thousands of slow lorises are captured each year for such use. Many human factors drive the trade in slow loris parts, including social customs, economic factors, and traditional belief systems.

In Cambodia, the deeply rooted tradition of using the Bengal and pygmy slow lorises in traditional medicine is widespread, and the pygmy slow loris is the most commonly requested animal in traditional medicine shops in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. Some people in the country believe dried slow loris can cure cancer. Slow lorises are also smoked for other traditional remedies. Traditional Khmer medicine practitioners in that region claim that medicines made from slow lorises can cure 100 diseases, with some practitioners from the National Centre for Traditional Medicine reporting that slow loris are sometimes roasted alive under the assumption that this increases the medicine's potency. Slow lorises are also burned alive, causing their eyes to burst and release a liquid called minyak kukang (or loris oil), which is used in black magic and traditional medicine and is supposed to have life-giving qualities and act as a love potion.

In the case of the Bengal slow loris, every part—including the brain, urine, and skin—is used in traditional medicine in order to heal wounds and rheumatism. With the Sunda slow loris, people trade the skin, feet, skeletons, and skulls. The fur is reported to heal wounds, the flesh to cure epilepsy, eyes are used in love potions, and the meat is reported to cure asthma and stomach problems. The pygmy slow loris is primarily valued for the medicinal use of its hair, but it is also used to make bone glue of monkey, a medicine used mostly by local people, but sometimes sold to visitors. In general, wearing slow loris bones is considered good luck and the meat is sometimes thought to cure leprosy.
In ecology, a niche  is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in its ecosystem to each other; e.g. a dolphin could potentially be in another ecological niche from one that travels in a different pod if the members of these pods utilize significantly different food resources and foraging methods.A shorthand definition of niche is how an organism makes a living. The ecological niche describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (e.g., by growing when resources are abundant, and when predators, parasites and pathogens are scarce) and how it in turn alters those same factors (e.g., limiting access to resources by other organisms, acting as a food source for predators and a consumer of prey).



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Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK:True enclaves

This refers to those territories where a country is sovereign, but which cannot be reached without entering one particular other country. One example was West Berlin, before the reunification of Germany, which was de facto a West German exclave within East Germany, and thus an East German enclave (many small West Berlin land areas, such as Steinstücken, were in turn separated from the main one, some by only a few meters). De jure all of Berlin was ruled by the four Allied powers; this meant that West Berlin could not send voting members to the German Parliament, and that its citizens were exempt from conscription; however, this was not accepted by the East German government or the Soviet Union, which treated East Berlin as an integral part of East Germany.

Most of the enclaves now existing are to be found in Asia, with a handful in Africa and Europe. While administrative enclaves are found frequently elsewhere, there are no nation-level enclaves in Australia or the Americas.The principal reason for the French desire for economic control of the Saar was the large coal deposits. France was offered compensation for the return of the Saar to Germany: the treaty permitted France to extract coal from the Warndt coal deposit until 1981.



passage of time

Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK:Legacy

The Liber Pontificalis, compiled from the 5th century onwards, attributed the introduction of several later customs to Miltiades, including not fasting on Thursdays or Sundays, although subsequent scholarship now believes the customs probably pre-existed Miltiades.

In the 13th century, the feast of Saint Melchiades (as he was then called) was included, with the mistaken qualification of "martyr", in the Roman Calendar for celebration on 10 December. In 1969 it was removed from that calendar of obligatory liturgical celebrations, and his feast was moved to the day of his death, 10 January, with his name given in the form "Miltiades" and without the indication "martyr".
Cardinals present in Rome are required to wait at least fifteen days after the start of the vacancy for the rest of the college before they can hold the conclave to elect the new Pope. However, after twenty days have elapsed, they must hold the conclave even if cardinals are missing. Historically, sede vacante periods have often been quite lengthy, lasting many months due to lengthy deadlocked conclaves. For many years through 1922 the period from the death of the Pope to the start of the conclave was shorter, but after William Henry Cardinal O'Connell had arrived just too late for two conclaves in a row, Pope Pius XI extended the time limit. With the very next conclave in 1939, cardinals began to travel by air.




passage of time

Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK:Negotiations begin

A few months after Thatcher's visit to Beijing, the PRC government had still yet to open negotiations with the British government regarding the sovereignty of Hong Kong. Unsure of what to do, Thatcher consulted former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, though consultation proved fruitless in the end. Shortly before the initiation of sovereignty talks, Governor Youde declared his intention to represent the population of Hong Kong at the negotiations. This statement sparked a strong response from the PRC, which criticised Britain for "making a three-legged stool" and "playing public-opinion cards" as bargaining chips.[1] At the preliminary stage of the talks, the British government refused to budge, insisting on an exchange of sovereignty for administration and the implementation of a British administration post-handover. The PRC government refused, contending that the notions of sovereignty and administration were inseparable, and although it recognised Macau as a "Chinese territory under Portuguese administration", it also sought the return of that territory.

The conflict that arose at that point of the negotiations ended the possibility of further negotiation. During the reception of former British Prime Minister Edward Heath during his sixth visit to the PRC, Deng Xiaoping commented quite clearly on the impossibility of exchanging sovereignty for administration, declaring an ultimatum: the British government must modify or give up its position or the PRC will announce its resolution of the issue of Hong Kong sovereignty unilaterally.

In 1983, Typhoon Ellen ravaged Hong Kong, causing great amounts of damage to both life and property. The Hong Kong dollar plummeted on Black Saturday, and the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong John Bremridge publicly associated the economic uncertainty with the instability of the political climate. In response, the PRC government condemned Britain through the press for "playing the economic cards" in order to achieve their ends: to intimidate the PRC into conceding to British demands.In accordance with the One Country, Two Systems principle agreed between the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China, the socialist system of People's Republic of China would not be practiced in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), and Hong Kong's previous capitalist system and its way of life would remain unchanged for a period of 50 years. The Joint Declaration provides that these basic policies shall be stipulated in the Hong Kong Basic Law. The ceremony of the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration took place at 18:00, 19 December 1984 at the Western Main Chamber of the Great Hall of the People. The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office at first proposed a list of 60-80 Hong Kong people to attend the ceremony. The number was finally extended to 101. The list included Hong Kong government officials, members of the Legislative and Executive Councils, chairmen of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and Standard Chartered Bank, Hong Kong celebrities such as Li Ka-shing, Pao Yue-kong and Fok Ying-tung, and also Martin Lee Chu-ming and Szeto Wah.



passage of time

Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK: Internal significance

The Two Trees of Valinor existed at a time when the only other source of light was the stars (which had been created for the Elves' benefit by Varda from the dew collected from the Two Trees). When, in order that the Elves might be convinced to come to Valinor, three Elven ambassadors were brought to see Valinor for themselves, it seems that the Two Trees affected them most significantly.

In particular Thingol is said to have been motivated in the Great Journey by his desire to see the Light of Valinor again (until he finds contentment in the light he sees in Melian's face). Also in later times, the Elves would be divided between the Calaquendi who had seen the light of the Trees, and the Moriquendi who had not, with the former group shown as explicitly superior in many ways.

The whole of the history of the First Age is strongly affected by the desire of many characters to possess the Silmarils that contain the only remaining unsullied light of the Trees.

In the Second and Third Ages, the White Trees of Númenor and of Gondor, whose likeness descends from that of Telperion, have a mostly symbolic significance, standing both as symbols of the kingdoms in question, and also as reminders of the ancestral alliance between the Dúnedain and the Elves. This relationship may go even deeper, as the destruction of one of these trees inevitably precedes trouble for the kingdom in question, like Ar-Pharaz?n destroying Nimloth the fair; or vice versa, in the case of the rule of the stewards causing the death of the third White Tree. This implies an even stronger mystical bond.
The Trees are just another appearance of the recurrent 'gold and silver' concept of the legendarium. They are created after the lamps Ormal and Illuin, and from the trees themselves, the Sun and Moon are created.



passage of time

Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK:Types of naturally occurring nuclides

Natural radionuclides may be conveniently subdivided into three types.[citation needed] First, those whose half-lives T1/2 are at least 2% as long as the age of the earth (for practical purposes, these are difficult to detect with half-lives less than 10% of the age of the Earth) . These are remnants of nucleosynthesis that occurred in stars before the formation of the solar system. For example, the isotope 238
U  of uranium is still fairly abundant in nature, but the shorter-lived isotope 235
U  is 138 times rarer. About 33 of these nuclides have been discovered (see list of nuclides and primordial nuclide for details).

The second group of radionuclides that exist naturally consists of radiogenic nuclides such as 226
Ra , an isotope of radium, which are formed by radioactive decay. They occur in the decay chains of primordial isotopes of uranium or thorium. Some of these nuclides are very short-lived, such as isotopes of francium. There exist about 51 of these daughter nuclides that have half-lives too short to be primordial, and which exist in nature solely due to decay from longer lived radioactive primordial nuclides.

The third group consists of nuclides that are continuously being made in another fashion that is not simple spontaneous radioactive decay (i.e., only one atom involved with no incoming particle) but instead involves a natural nuclear reaction. These occur when atoms react with natural neutrons (from cosmic rays, spontaneous fission, or other sources), or are bombarded directly with cosmic rays. The latter, if non-primordial, are called cosmogenic nuclides. Other types of natural nuclear reactions produce nuclides that are said to be nucleogenic nuclides.

An example of nuclides made by nuclear reactions, are cosmogenic 14
C (radiocarbon) that is made by cosmic-ray bombardment of other elements, and nucleogenic 239
Pu which is still being created by neutron bombardment of natural 238
U as a result of natural fission in uranium ores. Cosmogenic nuclides may be either stable or radioactive. If they are stable, their existence must be deduced against a background of stable nuclides, since every known stable nuclide is present on Earth primordially.Nuclides produced by radioactive decay are called radiogenic nuclides, whether they themselves are stable or not. There exist stable radiogenic nuclides that were formed from short-lived extinct radionuclides in the early solar system[citation needed]. The extra presence of stable radiogenic nuclides against the background of primordial stable nuclides can be inferred by various means. Presently-radioactive nuclides are from three sources: many naturally-occurring radionuclides are short-lived radiogenic nuclides that are the daughters of ongoing radioactive primordial nuclides (types of radioactive atoms that have been present since the beginning of the Earth and solar system). Other naturally-occurring radioactive nuclides are cosmogenic nuclides, formed by cosmic ray bombardment of material in the Earth's atmosphere or crust. Finally, some primordial nuclides are radioactive, but are so long-lived that they remain present from the primordial solar nebula. For a summary table showing the number of stable nuclides and of radioactive nuclides in each category, see radionuclide.



passage of time

Transportation

While not on an island, Powell River is accessible to vehicles only by ferry, in fact a sequence of ferries for most of the rest of the continent; the surrounding inlets (fjords) banked by mountainous terrain have made roads to other areas of the BC mainland thus far unfeasible. BC Ferries serves Powell River from Comox on Vancouver Island to the west, and from the Sunshine Coast to the south east, via a route from Earl's Cove near Skookumchuck Narrows. Since the Sunshine Coast is similarly isolated from the rest of the BC mainland, vehicles traveling from Vancouver must take two ferry rides to reach Powell River (across Howe Sound and the Jervis Inlet if travelling via Sechelt, and across Georgia Strait twice if going via Nanaimo). Powell River is also accessible via plane, either private or via Pacific Coastal Airlines, which offers 20 to 25 minute flights between Powell River Airport and the South Terminal of Vancouver's International Airport.
With his colleague Whitford Van Dusen, another forester, MacMillan incorporated a company in 1919 to sell B.C. lumber products to foreign markets. In 1924, they established a shipping company that would become one of the world’s biggest charter companies. With the creation of Seaboard Lumber by the other mill owners in BC, there was a major threat to MacMillan as Seaboard was to export all the lumber from the companies that founded it leaving MacMillan without the lumber needed to fulfill their orders. HR responded by beginning to purchase mills and creating the first truly integrated forestry company in BC.

passage of time

Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK:Language isolate

A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or "genetic") relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single language. Commonly cited examples include Basque, Ainu, and Burushaski, though in each case a minority of linguists claim to have demonstrated a relationship with other languages.

With context, a language isolate may be understood to be relatively isolated. For instance, Albanian, Armenian, and Greek[1] are commonly called 'Indo-European isolates'. While part of the Indo-European family, they do not belong to any established branch (like the Romance, Indo-Iranian, Slavic or Germanic branches), but instead form independent branches of their own. However, without a qualifier, "isolate" is understood to be in the absolute sense.

Some languages have become isolates in historical times, after all their known relatives went extinct. The Pirah? language of Brazil is one such example, the last surviving member of the Mura family. Others, like Basque, have been isolates for as long as their existence has been documented. The opposite also occurs: languages once seen as isolates may be reclassified as small families. This happened when the Japonic family was formulated after it was recognized that certain Japanese "dialects", such as Okinawan, were distinct languages.

Language isolates may be seen as a special case of unclassified languages, languages that remain unclassified even after extensive efforts. If such efforts eventually do prove fruitful, a language previously considered an isolate may no longer be considered one, as happened with the Yanyuwa language of northern Australia, which has been placed in the Pama–Nyungan family. Since linguists do not always agree on whether a genetic relationship has been demonstrated, it is often disputed whether a language constitutes a true isolate or not.

In the philosophy of language, a natural language (or ordinary language) is any language which arises in an unpremeditated fashion as the result of the innate facility for language possessed by the human intellect. A natural language is typically used for communication, and may be spoken, signed, or written. Natural language is distinguished from constructed languages and formal languages such as computer-programming languages or the "languages" used in the study of formal logic, especially mathematical logic.



passge of tme

Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK: Characteristics

Under feudalism, taxes were not paid in money. They were paid in products and services. Presents and taxes had to be given to the lords by their vassals.[1] At harvest time, the vassals gave shares of their crops to the lords. The vassals would grind their grain at the noble's grainaries. They would give part of the grain to their lord. When animals were killed for food, part of the meat was given to the lords. The lords promised to give protection, peace, and safety to their vassals.

Manors were completely owned by the nobles. They were given from one generation to another. The noble's firstborn son took it all when his father died.[1] Each manor had its own pasture lands, mill, wine press, church, and village.[1] A manor had to let many people live there. Lords gave their servants food and a place to sleep, but they did not pay their servants money.

The villein was in a poorer class. He had to serve the lords, but free in other things. He had work to do for the lord or the town. Then he went back to his little house with floors made of earth and a thatched roof. On the walls of his house, the villein hung meats, tools, and dried vegetables.

A villein was freer than the slaves or serfs, but he could still want to be completely free. He could not move or marry if the lord did not say yes. He could not even leave the manor lands if the lord said no. If he escaped, he could run away to a town where he would try to live quietly without being known for a year and a day. If he could do this, he became a free man.[1] If he wanted to help the Catholic Church, he needed special permission. As a member of the church, his position could get higher. However, if this did not work, he could join a band of outlaws.
The serf was in the lowest class. He was only a little better than slaves. He could not be sold away from the land, but was always sold with the land.
In nutrition, diet is the sum of food that eats a person or another organism.[1] Dietary habits are the usual decisions someone or a culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. With the word diet, it is often expressed the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons (with the two often being related). Although humans are omnivores, each culture and each person holds some food preferences or some food taboos, due to personal tastes or ethical reasons. Individual dietary choices may be more or less healthful. A proper nutrition requires a proper ingestion and, also important, the absorption of vitamins, minerals, and food energy in the form of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Dietary habits and choices play a significant role in health and mortality, and can also define cultures and play a role in religion.

Diets are about eating the right quantity and type of food at the right time. When people talk about a diet, they are usually referring to a special kind of diet. When someone says they are "dieting", it means that they are trying to lose weight. People who study diet and eating habits are called dietitians.
Plate with green salad, onion, tomato, cucumber, carrot and a black olive.

When the diet is not right, people can gain or lose weight. They may become overweight or underweight. To get back to their normal weight, they need to change their diet. This may be very hard to do.

Some people have diseases where they cannot eat certain foods without becoming very sick. They need to change their diet to avoid these foods. A food allergy is a condition in which a specific food makes someone sick. Phenylketonuria is a disease in which a person cannot digest certain foods properly because they have an amino acid, or type of chemical, called phenylalanines in them.




passage of time

Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK: Northern Ireland

When Northern Ireland came into being, it adopted the same political system which was in place at that time for the Westminster Parliament and British local government. However, the Parliament of Northern Ireland did not follow Westminster in changes to the franchise, with the result that into the 1960s property plural voting still existed for both Parliament and local government. There has been much debate as to what extent the franchise for local government contributed to unionist electoral success in controlling councils in nationalist majority areas.[1] When the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association came into being in 1967, it had five primary demands. An additional demand which became just as important was that every citizen in Northern Ireland be afforded the same number of votes for elections. The slogan "one man, one vote" became a rallying cry for the campaign.

Along with four of the five primary demands, the voting system was updated by the Parliament of Northern Ireland and came into effect for the next election which, strikingly, took place after the suspension of the Northern Ireland government.A neighbourhood or neighborhood (see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town or suburb. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members. "Researchers have not agreed on an exact definition. Neighbourhood is generally defined spatially as a specific geographic area and functionally as a set of social networks. Neighbourhoods, then, are the spatial units in which face-to-face social interactions occur – the personal settings and situations where residents seek to realise common values, socialise youth, and maintain effective social control.











passage of time

Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK: Digital production techniques in visual media

The techniques of digital art are used extensively by the mainstream media in advertisements, and by film-makers to produce special effects. Desktop publishing has had a huge impact on the publishing world, although that is more related to graphic design. Both digital and traditional artists use many sources of electronic information and programs to create their work[5]. Given the parallels between visual and musical arts, it is possible that general acceptance of the value of digital art will progress in much the same way as the increased acceptance of electronically produced music over the last three decades.[6]

Digital art can be purely computer-generated (such as fractals and algorithmic art) or taken from other sources, such as a scanned photograph or an image drawn using vector graphics software using a mouse or graphics tablet.[7] Though technically the term may be applied to art done using other media or processes and merely scanned in, it is usually reserved for art that has been non-trivially modified by a computing process (such as a computer program, microcontroller or any electronic system capable of interpreting an input to create an output); digitized text data and raw audio and video recordings are not usually considered digital art in themselves, but can be part of the larger project of computer art and information art.[8] Artworks are considered digital painting when created in similar fashion to non-digital paintings but using software on a computer platform and digitally outputting the resulting image as painted on canvas.[9]

Andy Warhol created digital art using a Commodore Amiga where the computer was publicly introduced at the Lincoln Center, New York in July 1985. An image of Debbie Harry was captured in monochrome from a video camera and digitized into a graphics program called ProPaint. Warhol manipulated the image adding colour by using flood fills.
Digital installation art constitutes a broad field of activity and incorporates many forms. Some resemble video installations, particularly large scale works involving projections and live video capture. By using projection techniques that enhance an audiences impression of sensory envelopment, many digital installations attempt to create immersive environments. Others go even further and attempt to facilitate a complete immersion in virtual realms. This type of installation is generally site specific, scalable, and without fixed dimensionality, meaning it can be reconfigured to accommodate different presentation spaces.[14]

Noah Wardrip-Fruin's interactive media art piece entitled "Screen" is an example of digital installation art. To view and interact with the piece, a user first enters a room, called the "Cave," which is a virtual reality display area with four walls surrounding the participant. White memory texts appear on the background of black walls. Through bodily interaction, such as using one's hand, a user can move and bounce the text around the walls. The words can be made into sentences and eventually begin to "peel" off and move more rapidly around the user, creating a heightening sense of misplacement.

"In addition to creating a new form of bodily interaction with text through its play, Screen moves the player through three reading experiences — beginning with the familiar, stable, page-like text on the walls, followed by the word-by-word reading of peeling and hitting (where attention is focused), and with more peripheral awareness of the arrangements of flocking words and the new (often neologistic) text being assembled on the walls. Screen was first shown in 2003 as part of the Boston Cyberarts Festival (in the Cave at Brown University) and documentation of it has since been featured at The Iowa Review Web, presented at SIGGRAPH 2003, included in Alt+Ctrl: a festival of independent and alternative games, published in the DVD magazines Aspect and Chaise, as well as in readings in the Hammer Museum's HyperText series, at ACM Hypertext 2004, and in other venues."













passage of time

Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK: Crop production systems

1.Cropping systems vary among farms depending on the available resources and constraints; geography and climate of the farm; government policy; economic, social and political pressures; and the philosophy and culture of the farmer.[48][49] Shifting cultivation (or slash and burn) is a system in which forests are burnt, releasing nutrients to support cultivation of annual and then perennial crops for a period of several years.[50]

Then the plot is left fallow to regrow forest, and the farmer moves to a new plot, returning after many more years (10-20). This fallow period is shortened if population density grows, requiring the input of nutrients (fertilizer or manure) and some manual pest control. Annual cultivation is the next phase of intensity in which there is no fallow period. This requires even greater nutrient and pest control inputs.

Further industrialization lead to the use of monocultures, when one cultivar is planted on a large acreage. Because of the low biodiversity, nutrient use is uniform and pests tend to build up, necessitating the greater use of pesticides and fertilizers.[49] Multiple cropping, in which several crops are grown sequentially in one year, and intercropping, when several crops are grown at the same time are other kinds of annual cropping systems known as polycultures.[50]

In tropical environments, all of these cropping systems are practiced. In subtropical and arid environments, the timing and extent of agriculture may be limited by rainfall, either not allowing multiple annual crops in a year, or requiring irrigation. In all of these environments perennial crops are grown (coffee, chocolate) and systems are practiced such as agroforestry. In temperate environments, where ecosystems were predominantly grassland or prairie, highly productive annual cropping is the dominant farming system.[50]

The last century has seen the intensification, concentration and specialization of agriculture, relying upon new technologies of agricultural chemicals (fertilizers and pesticides), mechanization, and plant breeding (hybrids and GMO's). In the past few decades, a move towards sustainability in agriculture has also developed, integrating ideas of socio-economic justice and conservation of resources and the environment within a farming system.[51][52] This has led to the development of many responses to the conventional agriculture approach, including organic agriculture, urban agriculture, community supported agriculture, ecological or biological agriculture, integrated farming and holistic management, as well as an increased trend towards agricultural diversification.
2.Animals, including horses, mules, oxen, camels, llamas, alpacas, and dogs, are often used to help cultivate fields, harvest crops, wrangle other animals, and transport farm products to buyers. Animal husbandry not only refers to the breeding and raising of animals for meat or to harvest animal products (like milk, eggs, or wool) on a continual basis, but also to the breeding and care of species for work and companionship. Livestock production systems can be defined based on feed source, as grassland - based, mixed, and landless.[54]

Grassland based livestock production relies upon plant material such as shrubland, rangeland, and pastures for feeding ruminant animals. Outside nutrient inputs may be used, however manure is returned directly to the grassland as a major nutrient source. This system is particularly important in areas where crop production is not feasible because of climate or soil, representing 30-40 million pastoralists.[50] Mixed production systems use grassland, fodder crops and grain feed crops as feed for ruminant and monogastic (one stomach; mainly chickens and pigs) livestock. Manure is typically recycled in mixed systems as a fertilizer for crops. Approximately 68% of all agricultural land is permanent pastures used in the production of livestock.[55]

Landless systems rely upon feed from outside the farm, representing the de-linking of crop and livestock production found more prevalently in OECD member countries. In the U.S., 70% of the grain grown is fed to animals on feedlots.[50] Synthetic fertilizers are more heavily relied upon for crop production and manure utilization becomes a challenge as well as a source for pollution.


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Week News Abstract For SFP Series in 10GTEK: Claim (patent)

1.Patent claims are the part of a patent or patent application that defines the scope of protection granted by the patent. The claims define, in technical terms, the extent of the protection conferred by a patent, or the protection sought in a patent application. The claims are of the utmost importance both during prosecution and litigation.

For instance, a claim could read:

    "An apparatus for catching mice, said apparatus comprising a base for placement on a surface, a spring member..."
    "A chemical composition for cleaning windows, said composition comprising 10–15% ammonia, ..."
    "Method for computing future life expectancies, said method comprising gathering data including X, Y, Z, ..."

A patent is a right to exclude others from making, using, selling or offering for sale the subject matter defined by the claims. In order to exclude someone from using a patented invention in a court, the patent owner, or patentee, needs to demonstrate that what the other person is using falls within the scope of a claim of the patent. Therefore, it is more valuable to obtain claims that include the minimal set of limitations that differentiate an invention over what came before, i.e. the so-called prior art. On the other hand, the fewer the limitations in a claim, the more likely it is that the claim will cover or "read on" what came before and be rejected during examination or found to be invalid at a later time for lack of novelty.
2.The earliest forms of storytelling were thought to have been primarily oral combined with gestures and expressions. In addition to being part of religious ritual, rudimentary drawings scratched onto the walls of caves may have been forms of early storytelling for many of the ancient cultures. The Australian Aboriginal people painted symbols from stories on cave walls as a means of helping the storyteller remember the story. The story was then told using a combination of oral narrative, music, rock art and dance. Ephemeral media such as sand, leaves and the carved trunks of living trees have also been used to record stories in pictures or with writing.

With the advent of writing, the use of actual digit symbols to represent language, and the use of stable, portable media, stories were recorded, transcribed and shared over wide regions of the world. Stories have been carved, scratched, painted, printed or inked onto wood or bamboo, ivory and other bones, pottery, clay tablets, stone, palm-leaf books, skins (parchment), bark cloth, paper, silk, canvas and other textiles, recorded on film, and stored electronically in digital form. Complex forms of tattooing may also represent stories, with information about genealogy, affiliation and social status.

Traditionally, oral stories were committed to memory and then passed from generation to generation. However, in Western, literate societies, written and televised media has largely surpassed this method of communicating local, family and cultural histories. Oral storytelling remains the dominant medium of learning in many countries with low literacy rates.


passage of time

"Harpsichord suites and programmatic pieces, Posthumous influence"

1.Froberger is usually credited as the creator of the Baroque suite. While this may be misleading, French composers of the time did group dance pieces by tonality above all,[10] and while other composers such as Kindermann did try to invent some kind of organisation, their dances did not attain as high a degree of artistic merit as seen in Froberger's suites. The typical Froberger suite established allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue as the obligatory parts of a suite. However, there is some controversy surrounding the placement of the gigue. In Froberger's earliest authenticated autograph, Libro Secondo, five out of six suites are in three movements, without the gigue. A single suite, no. 2, has a gigue added as a 4th movement (and a later copy adds gigues to suites nos. 3 and 5). The suites of Libro Quarto all have gigues as the 2nd movement. The order that became the standard after Froberger's death, with the gigue being the last movement, first appeared in a 1690s print of Froberger's works by the Amsterdam publisher Mortier.

All Froberger's dances are composed of two repeated sections, but they are very rarely in the standard 8+8 bars scheme. When symmetrical structure is employed, it may be 7+7 bars or 11+11 bars; more frequently one of the sections is longer or shorter than the other (more often the second is shorter than the first). This irregularity may be employed by Froberger in any dance, whereas in Chambonnières, who used similarly irregular patterns, the sarabande is always composed in the 8+16 fashion. Froberger's keyboard adaptation of the French lute style brisé almost invariably shows itself in most pieces written during and after his Paris visit.

Froberger's allemandes abandon the original dance's rhythmic scheme almost completely, abounding in short gestures, figures, ornaments and runs typical of style brisé. Like Chambonnières, Froberger avoids emphasizing internal cadences, or indeed anything that would hint at any sort of regularity;[11] unlike him, Froberger tends to use faster sixteenth-note figurations and melodies. Most of the courantes are in 6/4 time with occasional hemiolas and the eighth-note motion typical of the courante. Some of the others, however, are in 3/2 time, twice slower and moving in quarter notes. Still others are in 3/4 time and closely resemble the Italian corrente of the time. The sarabandes are mostly in 3/2 time and employ a 1+1/2 rhythm pattern, rather than the standard sarabande rhythm with the accent on the second beat. The gigues are almost invariably fugal, either in compound (6/8) or triple (3/4) meter; different sections may use different motifs, and occasionally the first section's subject is inverted for another section. Bizarrely, a few gigues use dotted rhythms in 4/4 time, and a couple feature exquisite rhapsodic 4/4 endings.

Some of the works feature written indications such as "f" and "piano" (to notate an echo effect), "doucement" ("gently") an "avec discrétion" (expressive rubato). In some of the sources such markings are particularly abundant, and the newly (2004) discovered Berlin Sing-Akademie SA 4450 manusrcipt adds similar indications to free sections in organ toccatas.[12] Some suites feature doubles; in a few, the courante is a deriative of the allemande (although this is rare; more often Froberger unites the two dances by giving them somewhat similar beginnings, but keeps the rest of the material different). Suite no. 6 from Libro Secondo is actually a set of variations subtitled Auff der Mayerin, and one of the more popular Froberger works, although it is clearly an early work and not comparable to the late suites neither in technique nor in expression.
2.Although only two of Froberger's works were published during his lifetime, his music was widely spread in Europe in hand-written copies, and he was one of the most famous composers of the era (interestingly, although he studied in Italy and obviously had friends and former mentors there, no Italian sources of his music were found). Because of his travels and his ability to absorb various national styles and incorporate them into his music, Froberger, along with other cosmopolitan composers such as Johann Kaspar Kerll and Georg Muffat, contributed greatly to the exchange of musical traditions in Europe. Finally, he was among the first major keyboard composers in history and the first to focus equally on both harpsichord/clavichord and organ.

Froberger's compositions were known to and studied by, among many others, Johann Pachelbel, Dieterich Buxtehude, Georg Muffat and his son Gottlieb Muffat, Johann Caspar Kerll, Matthias Weckmann, Louis Couperin, Johann Kirnberger, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Georg B?hm, George Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach. Furthermore, copies in Mozart's hand of the Hexachord Fantasia survive, and even Beethoven knew Froberger's work through Albrechtsberger's teachings. The profound influence on Louis Couperin made Froberger partially responsible for the change Couperin brought into the French organ tradition (as well as for the development of the unmeasured prelude, which Couperin cultivated).

Although the polyphonic pieces were highly esteemed in the 17th-18th centuries, today Froberger is chiefly remembered for his contribution to the development of the keyboard suite. Indeed, he established the form almost single-handedly and, through innovative and imaginative treatment of standard dance forms of the time, paved way for Johann Sebastian Bach's elaborate contributions to the genre (not to mention almost every major composer in Europe, since the vast majority composed suites and were influenced by the "French style" exemplified by Froberger).






passage of time

"testosterone Boost testosterone naturally, Reducing Inflammation"

1.The key to stabilizing testosterone levels begins with an anti-inflammatory diet. This should be loaded with phytonutrient rich fruits and vegetables. Grains and sugars stimulate higher levels of insulin and cortisol. Cortisol is the anti-thesis to testosterone. The body produces high cortisol when faced with chronic chemical, physical, & emotional stressors. Healthy blood sugar balance is critical to stabilizing cortisol and boosting testosterone.

Healthy fat sources are extremely critical for good hormone function. Fats and cholesterol play a critical role in forming the structure and rigidity of our cell membranes. These fats impact cell messaging by acting as enzyme and hormone regulators. The nutrition plan should consist of ample amounts of good fats such as avocado, coconut, & olive oil. Saturated fats, cholesterol, conjugated linoleic acids and essential omega 3 fatty acid from healthy grass-fed animal products are excellent.

Xenoestrogens, artificial hormone mimicking substances, are linked to lower testosterone levels. These xenoestrogens are found in tap water, plastics, home cleaning agents, deodorants, soaps, make-up & body lotions. Many medications also contain heavy amounts of synthetic xenoestrogens as well. Avoiding these sources along with ensuring a diet rich in raw and lightly cooked fruits and vegetables will provide fiber and phytonutrients that help the body eliminate these toxic substances.
2.Most people associate testosterone with facial hair, gigantic muscles & illegal steroids. Naturally produced testosterone plays a very important role in male/female metabolic function. Lowered testosterone is a chronic epidemic that is threatening lives all around the world. Boost your testosterone levels naturally through healthy lifestyle measures.

Testosterone is an anabolic steroid hormone that plays a critical role in metabolism, sex drive, muscle building, mood regulation, memory & cognitive function. Normal testosterone levels play a huge role in maintaining optimal weight as well as reducing risk of degenerative diseases such as osteoporosis, heart disease, diabetes, & certain cancers.

Women produce testosterone but in significantly lower amounts than men. In the man, testosterone is produced in the testes and adrenal glands.
Meanwhile, women produce it in the adrenals & ovaries. Testosterone is known to peak in the early twenties and then drop about 10% with each successive decade. Post-menopausal women lose the function of their ovaries and are at risk for low testosterone later in life. With inadequate testosterone, women are at much greater risk for developing osteoporosis/osteopenia and other chronic diseases.

Men are said to lose 1.5% of their testosterone production each year beyond 30. Men, who lose a greater proportion of their testosterone, are said to have andropause. The Alliance for Aging Research has indicated that one third of American men over the age of 39 have reported two or more symptoms of low testosterone. Symptoms of male andropause include lowered libido, decreased muscle mass, increased abdominal fat accumulation, depression and lack of drive.

The changes involved in andropause are gradual over time. They often go unnoticed for years. In a large study of 858 males over 40, men with low testosterone had an 88% increase risk of death compared with those who had normal levels.






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" High Iron Linked to Heart Attack Risk and More, My principles and ethics"

1.In one Finnish study of more than 2,000 individuals, researchers found that stored iron was more strongly linked to heart attack risk than either high blood pressure or high cholesterol. It is believed that women who menstruate regularly are less likely to experience heart attacks because iron levels are reduced by the loss of blood each month. The same line of logic explains why men who donate blood regularly also experience fewer heart attacks.

High levels of iron are linked to more than just heart attack risk:

- One study showed that iron supplementation disrupted the balance of gut flora in children. Children who were given iron supplements showed an increase in harmful bacteria and a decrease in beneficial bacteria.

- Research indicates that lower levels of iron can actually be protective against infectious disease, leukemia and lymphatic cancers.

- Other studies demonstrate that iron produces free radicals which accelerate the aging process.

It is easy to see why high iron is a common problem these days, when you consider that the modern diet is heavy in muscle meats and countless foods which contain added iron. Typical staples in the American diet - such as breads, pastas and cereals - are required by federal law to be enriched with added iron. In addition, iron is also present in many multivitamin and mineral supplements.

A common misconception is that anemia is directly linked to iron deficiency, so iron supplements are often the first line of defense when anemia is suspected. However, anemia can be caused by other factors as well, such as reduced thyroid function and vitamin B12 deficiency. Supplementing iron in these cases is unnecessary and can exacerbate the problem by not treating the true underlying issue.

It is far more logical to recommend iron supplementation only when tests show an actual deficiency in iron. Using hemoglobin or red blood cell tests to determine iron deficiency may not only be inaccurate, but could be harmful if iron supplementation is given when it is not needed. Even when a true iron deficiency exists, it is safer to eat foods naturally high in iron than rely on supplements.
2.As the editor of NaturalNews, I have an obligation to keep my ear to the ground and pay attention to what's going on in the natural health industry. In the past, I have exposed the deceptive marketing practices of companies like General Mills, which sells "blueberry - pomegranate" cereal that contains no blueberries or pomegranates!

I have helped expose dangers of vaccines and the aluminum contaminants in those vaccines, which many people believe help explain why vaccines may cause autism and other neurological disorders. Day after day, we here at NaturalNews seek to share information about health-enhancing products that are safe and effective while exposing dangerous chemicals in foods, cosmetics, medicines and environmental products that threaten human health.

In my years as NaturalNews editor, I have seen it all: The good guys who really offer remarkable health solutions, and the con artists who are selling quack products just to make a quick buck. I've seen products hyped way beyond their true merit and sold with outrageous claims that simply have no basis in fact, and at the same time I've seen humble nutrients like vitamin D -- which are truly miraculous -- never get the real publicity they deserve as truly amazing cures.

When I talk to people and start getting evasive answers about their products, red flags start to pop up in my head. An honest company selling a mineral complex like Adya, I believe, would have been happy to provide me with an official MSDS and some documentation supporting the safety of their product when ingested. An honest company would have honestly labeled their product to achieve full disclosure and not resorted to hiding one element by burying it in the "trace minerals" section of their label.

I personally did not find Adya, Inc. to be forthright in providing answers to my reasonable questions, nor in providing any reliable evidence whatsoever to support the idea that their product may be safely ingested on a regular basis.



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"Toward long-term success"" Mindset is everything"

1.Service providers that successfully execute on new go-to-market strategies for converged services can gain new revenue streams and more efficient, leaner operations. They will benefit from third-party innovation, customer-centric strategies and new channels to market. Longer term, they will enjoy enhanced brand value and increased competitive differentiation, leading to sustained benefits for service providers and their shareholders.

To help ensure success: Set realistic goals. Don’t be afraid to fail. Lean on partners. Be flexible. Share risk. Focus on customers.

2.The right partner can help service providers develop a strategy and make the decisions to grow with the new conversation experience. However, the path to the new conversation experience raises a number of questions. Such as:
What investments should I make and when?
How should I frame collaboration agreements?
Which partners should I work with?
Determining the answers to these questions and finding success in the new conversation experience will come down to mindset. Those who are most willing to think about the user experience before technology, to turn competitors into collaborators and to open their networks to new partners will realize the greatest rewards.




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"Readers' comments""somebody's opinion"

1.It would also be very beneficial if you were not actively discouraged at every opportunity to put your invention in to practice by shifting sands of support, mediocre advice from UK Govermnent funded "Business Specialists" and long complex schemes to get finance, that's when it is not "match funded".

The truth is most inventors / entrepreneurs / business people get to where they need to be through persistance rather than actual support in the UK.

2.In the bad old days engineering needed a lot more muscle power than it does now (at least in most cases) and i believe that this was the root cause of it being a male dominated profession.
Now it's not the case and we are losing a wealth of talent by not encouraging women to become engineers.
It's not surprising that engineering in the UK doesn't have the same status as accounting, the law and medicine. Most people think an engineer is someone who mends cars and washing machines.
Not intending to be critical of the men who do these jobs, a lot of them probably earn more than us.




passage of time

"somebody's opinion"" I acknowledge there’s an element of chicken and egg, but it is not acceptable to blame the egg"

1.In the bad old days engineering needed a lot more muscle power than it does now (at least in most cases) and i believe that this was the root cause of it being a male dominated profession.
Now it's not the case and we are losing a wealth of talent by not encouraging women to become engineers.
It's not surprising that engineering in the UK doesn't have the same status as accounting, the law and medicine. Most people think an engineer is someone who mends cars and washing machines.
Not intending to be critical of the men who do these jobs, a lot of them probably earn more than us.
2.The UK has the lowest proportion of women engineers in the EU – less than one third that of Latvia. Are Latvian women more left-brained?

I am not underestimating the cultural and social challenges. We suffer from a series of vicious circles where the lack of positive images of female engineers reduces the likelihood of us having female engineers to generate positive images. I acknowledge there is an element of chicken and egg, but it is not acceptable to blame the egg. We need to break the circles and we need to do it now.

I would like to see engineers challenging the BBC and other media outlets for the poverty of their engineering coverage. I would like to see the industry championing engineering as part of our culture – a prize for the best portrayal on TV might be a good place to start. And I would like to see engineers demanding that the government reverses its cuts to the funding of science and science in society.

As CaSE recently said: ’It is time to shift from good practice that encourages gentle change to achieving real and rapid results.’The point is that it’s not good enough to say that girls just don’t like engineering. In India the proportion of women enrolled on engineering degrees in 2000 was twice what it is in the UK and that’s despite the lower rates of literacy for girls there. Are Indian women less feminine?
The picture is no better in the jobs market – engineering is one of four STEM professions that have seen no major improvements in gender balance. Of nearly 13 million women working in the UK, only 5.3 per cent are employed in SET occupations, against almost one third of the UK’s 15.4 million male employees.

This represents a huge loss for us all – the loss to the country in a talent pool half the size it could be; the loss to society of the types of engineering that might come from a nonmale perspective; and the loss to women in not having entry to these rewarding careers.

But there is an additional, intangible, but hugely important loss: engineering will never have the position it merits at the heart of our society and economy if it remains the preserve of such a narrow section of society. Given the economic, climatic and social challenges we face as a nation, it is imperative that engineering graduates from its current position as an exclusively male eccentricity.

That said, there are many organisations doing excellent work to encourage girls into STEM and retain them in STEM careers and many individual engineers are also keen to help. During my career I often worked for brilliant male managers keen to encourage women in SET, but it was never their absolute priority.

As a woman engineer I often felt excluded, but I realised I was just not being actively included. All groups have their common language. I had no problem with the geek speak, but the sporting metaphors I didn’t understand or the sexual allusions I didn’t want to kept me silent when I should have spoken up.




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" A prototype tidal turbine has become the first device of its kind to deliver 100MWh of power into the Scottish grid."

1.Harnessing tidal streams, the 500kW tidal turbine prototype was designed and built by Rolls-Royce subsidiary Tidal Generation Limited.

Robert Stevenson, Rolls-Royce, vice-president — Power Ventures said: ‘Reaching the 100MWh milestone highlights the significant potential of cleaner, greener tidal power as part of a diversified UK energy mix. Having proven the capability of tidal energy, Rolls-Royce is well placed to meet any future demand with larger, more efficient technology on a commercial scale.’

Installed as part of the Deep-Gen III project, co-funded by the UK government-backed Technology Strategy Board, the Rolls-Royce prototype tidal turbine is currently deployed at the European Marine Energy Centre’s (EMEC’s) offshore test site off the Orkney Islands, Scotland. It is the first EMEC-located project to receive Renewable Obligation Certificates and to reach 100MWh of supply to the grid.

The tidal unit’s three-bladed turbine is attached by a tripod to the seabed and can operate, fully submerged at water depth of 40m. It is reported that its design allows the turbine to continually rotate to face the incoming tide at an optimal angle. In addition, the turbine unit is semi-buoyant and can be towed to and from the point of operation, minimising installation and maintenance costs by avoiding the need for specialist vessels.

Neil Morgan, head of energy at the Technology Strategy Board, said: ’This is a significant milestone for the UK marine renewables industry. The UK is well placed to exploit tidal stream energy resources and, if commercialised on a large scale, this technology could be an important part of the renewable energy mix we’ll need in the future, and could create jobs and exports for the UK.’

As part of the Energy Technologies Institute-funded ReDAPT (Reliable Data Acquisition Platform for Tidal) consortium project, Rolls-Royce is currently building a 1MW tidal turbine demonstration unit that will be deployed in mid-2012 at EMEC in Orkney.

Dr David Clarke, ETI chief executive, said: ’The UK is already a world leader in this exciting renewable sector. However, the long-term viability of tidal technology depends on it becoming competitive with other renewable energy sources. Continued investment and new partners are urgently needed to maintain momentum and bring the technology to scale.’
2.This provides a more accurate way of judging the ripeness of fruits such as strawberries than assessing their colour. It could also lead to faster picking methods, because it can see through leaves and other visible obstructions.

Microwaves in particular are used because they are safe in low doses and pass through many substances but are stopped by water.

‘With the microwave approach you’re looking a little bit below the surface, so potentially the strawberries could be red but they might still be hard and not very full of water,’ said Dudley.

‘We can see where the strawberries are and see through the leaves. Certainly in strawberries, the leaves don’t have a particularly heavy water content so are fairly transparent and underneath the strawberries stand out very nicely.’

The system could even be used to detect disease or determine whether the crops need different amounts of fertiliser or water by continually monitoring them to see how their water content changes.

‘You can start thinking about how you can manage your crop in a more efficient way, certainly in an enclosed area such as a greenhouse, where strawberries would be,’ said Dudley.

‘But we’re also considering it for on tractors and in farm fields. That’s perfectly feasible if you can mount this technology in the right way.’

NPL has spent about two years developing the imaging system with farmers and a farming equipment company, and has built several prototypes based on technology used for material analysis that have been tested in the fields on cauliflowers and lettuce.

The biggest challenge was designing the microwave detectors to produce a high-enough resolution at a fast-enough speed to be useful.

The next step will be partnering with companies from the sensor and agricultural industries to develop the technology at a low-enough cost to mount on farming equipment, while limiting false positive readings.

" Toddler in China hit by 2 vehicles, then ignored, dies"" Paulson: China Should Move Faster on Yuan"

1.In Internet chat rooms and newspaper opinion pages, many Chinese — from academics to ordinary citizens — began questions whether in the quest to get rich, China had lost its moral compass.

Some blamed a past series of incidents in which people who stopped to help elderly strangers who had fallen found themselves accused of wrongdoing and ordered to pay compensation. Others pointed to a pattern of corruption and sense of impunity by top Communist Party and government officials that has made the general population more uncaring and self-centered.

The case of the 2-year-old girl prompted local government authorities in Guangdong province to consider whether a law is needed to protect “Good Samaritans” who offer assistance to those in need. The China Daily newspaper reported the Guangdong Communist Party’s legislative affairs committee this week posted a notice on its “weibo” microblogging site asking for public advice on shaping a new law.

“Please stop the coldness,” the posting said. “Guangdong province is going to hold a discussion to criticize the behavior of leaving people in mortal danger out of indifference, and to advocate the spirit of lending a hand to those in need of help.” One newspaper said the province was considering establishing a reward, the equivalent of $78,000, for people who risk their lives to save others.

On Friday, the government-controlled media began a counter-offensive against the bad publicity from the story of Yueyue, with major papers running stories about kind-hearted bystanders who have helped save people from traffic accidents. One case involved a 20-month-old boy named Xiaojie who was hit by a car but quickly pulled to safety by “kind-hearted” bystanders — coincidentally, perhaps, in Foshan, the same city where Yueyue was hit and left to die. Xiaojie suffered only a broken leg, media reported.

“Rescues show caring nature of passers-by,” was the headline on the story in Friday’s China Daily newspaper. The Global Times headline on the same story was: “Foshan has another near miss with child.”

2.China should embrace a faster appreciation of its currency but U.S. policy makers should be wary of taking punitive actions to force the issue, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Tuesday.

Paulson, speaking during an appearance in Washington, said the U.S. and China could both benefit from Beijing taking on much-needed structural changes to its financial markets. (Read the full speech)

“I believe … very strongly that it is in China’s best interest to reform and move to a market-determined currency that reflects economic conditions,” Paulson said.

He was critical, however, of ongoing efforts in Congress to pressure China to allow its currency, the yuan, to appreciate at a faster pace. The Senate in recent weeks passed a measure allowing U.S. officials to target Beijing’s currency policy through trade penalties and various international organizations.

“I don’t think that an approach that could lead to a trade war … is the right way to go,” Paulson said.

International Child Custody Disputes

There are legal limits to the assistance that U.S. authorities can provide to parents involved in a child custody dispute. When an American child is abducted overseas by a parent, the U.S. Government's role is to help the remaining parent by locating the child, monitoring the child's welfare, and providing information about child custody laws and procedures in the country where the child has been taken. Consular officers overseas can issue a U.S. passport to a child involved in a custody dispute, if the child appears in person at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate, and if there is no court order from the foreign court of that country barring the child's departure from the country.

Parents who are involved in a custody dispute overseas should find out whether the foreign country to which the child has been taken is party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Under the Hague Convention, a child who has been wrongfully removed from a parent may be returned to his or her place of habitual residence.











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