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The need-to-know takeaways from VidCon 2019
Eric Peckham	3 years
VidCon, the annual summit in Anaheim, CA for social media stars and their fans to meet each other drew over 75,000 attendees over last week and this past weekend. A small subset of those where entertainment and tech executives convening to share best practices and strike deals.
Of the wide range of topics discussed in the industry-only sessions and casual conversation, five trends stuck out to me as takeaways for Extra Crunch members: the prominence of TikTok, the strong presence of Chinese tech companies in general, the contemplation of deep fakes, curiosity around virtual influencers, and the widespread interest in developing consumer product startups around top content creators.
Newer platforms take center stage
Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images
TikTok, the Chinese social video app (owned by Bytedance) that exploded onto the US market this past year, was the biggest conversation topic. Executives and talent managers were curious to see where it will go over the next year more than they were convinced that it is changing the industry in any fundamental way.
TikTok influencers were a major presence on the stages and taking selfies with fans on the conference floor. I overheard tweens saying "there are so many TikTokers here" throughout the conference. Meanwhile, TikTok's US GM Vanessa Pappas held a session where she argued the app's focus on building community among people who don't already know each other (rather than being centered on your existing friendships) is a fundamental differentiator.
Kathleen Grace, CEO of production company New Form, noted that Tik Tok's emphasis on visuals and music instead of spoken or written word makes it distinctly democratic in convening users across countries on equal footing.
Esports was also a big presence across the conference floor with teens lined up to compete at numerous simultaneous competitions. Twitch's Mike Aragon and Jana Werner outlined Twitch's expansion in content verticals adjacent to gaming like anime, sports, news, and "creative content' as the first chapter in expanding the format of interactive live-streams across all verticals. They also emphasized the diversity of revenue streams Twitch enables creators to leverage: ads, tipping, monthly patronage, Twitch Prime, and Bounty Board (which connects brands and live streamers).


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Nick Santora and Walter O'Brien
Adam opens the show making fun of Nick for his last Mangria-fueled appearance on the podcast. Walter O'Brien is also in studio, and Adam and Nick talk with him about adapting his life story into a new series for CBS. They discuss Walter's immense IQ, and Adam pitches a porn-inspired TV show. Other topics of conversation include controlling your emotions and intellect, similarities between Adam and Walter's personalities, and scripting dialogue for characters that are geniuses. Later, Adam rants about people not listening to his perfectly sensible ideas and obvious mistakes that other people are subconsciously making. As the show wraps up, the guys discuss the secret to immortality.
Watch the premiere of Scorpion tonight at 9 on CBS. For more info, visit http://cbs.com/shows/scorpion. Also get updates by following the show on Twitter @ScorpionCBS.
Newsgirl: Alison Rosen

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Sorry for the face. I've been feeling crabby today. I knew I couldn't look directly at the camera; I want to gain readers not scare them away. Despite its proximity to the weekend, today felt like a Monday. So, as not to sound like Whiney McBitcherson, I'll keep this post short. I don't even have anything to whine about. Not really anyway--of course, one can always find things to whine about--but today was a perfectly normal day.
Since yesterday was color combo I like part one, I suppose that makes this part two. For several years now, I've been hooked on the combination of coral and turquoise. It's unconscious really; whenever I choose a piece in one of those colors, I grab a piece in the other without even thinking. Somewhere along the line, my brain connected the two and they haven't parted since.
By the way, no, I wasn't auditioning for a Gap ad today. I have three things to say about the overwhelming presence of that store in my wardrobe. One, when I lived in Manhattan, (KS remember) that was one of the only places to shop. Two, I got suckered into getting their credit card, and it's easier to talk yourself into buying stuff when you have coupons and points. (I've since cut it up so don't go all Dave Ramsey on me.) And three, I like it. So sue me.
This is totally cute! I like the addition of the teal bow around your waist...really makes the outfit a standout. Your haircut is really pretty too!


The Iowa High School Music Association State Solo/Ensemble Contest was held on March 30th.
Congratulations to the following Perry High School vocalists.
Perry High School Vocal Music is under the direction of Jenn Nelson.


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Q: Ubuntu One in Fedora I have an Ubuntu One account and want to be able to sync it to a folder in Fedora. Is this possible and what is the best way to do it?

A: It is possible — install the ubuntu one client and you should be all set. If it still isn't in the official repositories, you can follow the older instructions here (will not get you the latest!): http://www.pacificsimplicity.ca/blog/ubuntu-one-fedora-16-howto

A: After all this time, I finally found my answer. Maxiberta's Blog has concise instructions on installing a Fadora friendly package for Ubuntu One.
Paraphrased:
su
wget http://www.maxiberta.com.ar/repo/fedora-ubuntuone.repo
mv fedora-ubuntuone.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/
yum install ubuntuone-client
u1sdtool --connect

For more info, go to http://www.maxiberta.com.ar/blog/ubuntuone-packages-fedora

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Three hybrid 1,1′-(1,n-alkanediyl)bis(4-methylpyridinium) iodobismuthates 1–3 were prepared by a facile solution route and showed thermal stability in air up to 230 °C. The structures of solids 1 and 3 contain zero-dimensional anions, and the structure of 2 contains one-dimensional linear anionic chains [BiI5]n2n−. Photoluminescence (PL) in the spectral range between 600 and 750 nm was observed for 1 and 2. DFT calculations and optical studies confirmed that compounds 1–3 are semiconductors with band gaps of 1.73–2.10 eV, which correspond with their intense black (for 2) or red (for 1 and 3) colors. The optical absorption of 2 in the red spectral range is primarily due to charge transfer from the I5p orbitals at the top of the valence band to the Bi6p orbitals at the bottom of the conduction band.


Essentially it is when you have people showing up to help in a emergency situation and there has to be some way to organize them. People are coming from all levels of society and having a plethora of abilities. So offices (logistics, communications, planning, finance, etc.) are established beforehand and individuals are placed into these positions in the field. Once they are chosen to a position then they are given a notebook with procedures and predetermined tasks to be completed – and they get to work while reporting to the Incident Commander.
This system for the SBC Disaster Relief is premised on the different color hat system. At the basic and lowest level is the yellow hat. This is a person who has gone through orientation of how the overall system works, but may not have had training in specific areas (serving food, childcare, or debris removal). At the next level is the blue hat – this person is responsible for a team of yellow hats and has had training in one or all of the services offered.
Then above the blue hats is one white hat at a given location. Coordinating and leading the overall work is the Incident Command Team chosen by the white hat. These people could be yellow hat volunteers but who may have special training in one of the needed ICS offices.
After reviewing it I am fascinated at the system's ability to have an adequate span of control and unity of command. If someone has more then five people reporting to them then they could get overwhelmed and not be able to adequately do their job because there is simply too much to oversee. This system allows groups to continue to be divided into manageable teams.
With unity of command everyone only reports to one person. If I am clearing debris then I go to one blue hat to tell me what to do. If I have an issue, question, etc. then I can go to one person.
I am also very intrigued by how disaster and potential chaos can be managed. Volunteers show up and they are orderly housed, fed, and put to work. Cargo and trucks full of materials and pallets of food are systematically moved in and out of a given devastated zone smoothly and orderly. Communications are set up and information begins to flow. If a given stage reaches an overly stressful level of complexity then a new layer is added to the ICS and the job continues.
So how does this apply to everyday life and in times when there are no hurricanes, alien invasions, wild fires, etc.
(1) If you respect the chain of command life becomes much easier. Just report to one person – If you find yourself reporting to more than more person then it means your system needs some adjusting. Communication is clear because you are dealing with one person.
(2) All levels of the organization are critical. The yellow hats are just as critical as the white hats – but everyone must do their job. If everyone stays in their lane and plays their part then great things could happen (thousands of people being fed a hot meal, roads cleared, and the world seeing Christ in a new way). If the yellow hats start trying to tell people what to do and play the role of blue hats then chaos ensues. Respect the system.
(3) If you are going to go into the world of chaos and change it then you need a plan. People need to know the plan (preferably before disaster hits), and it has to be simple (three colors, three hats). Imagine if there were 15 colors, shades of blue everywhere, nametags, hats, jackets, vests, all with different meanings. I can't remember what I had for lunch much less a bunch of colors meaning different things. What we do has to be simple, memorable, and simple – did I say simple? I forgot. The more chaotic of a situation we run into, the simpler the instructions have to be.
(4) This one is a little off topic, but it came up at the orientation. You are only allowed to serve three days (four at the most) before you will be sent home and replaced with another team. It is recognized that this is a long-term effort and people (even if they want to serve more) shouldn't be in chaos too long.
What if our leaders understood that they need to be watching to tap people on the shoulder and tell them to fall out of the battle and rest. If you are a white hat or blue hat leader you need to keep watch and make sure your people don't work so hard and so long that they hurt themselves (this is especially true if they are yielding a chainsaw). I know that I would be much more willing to be loyal to my blue hat if I know he is watching my back.
(5) The goal is clear. For disaster relief the objective is clear even before you show up. There has been a natural disaster and there are people who need help. We are Christians and have been commanded to serve and help people and then share with them the hope of the gospel (in that order). In our organizations we must make the goal clear so that others may join us. Along those same lines, the way they join in (systems) must be clear as well. If they want to be apart of what you are doing do they know how to join in?


Susan Balding reports on a proposed ordinance in Washington, D.C. that will shift commuting incentives away from driving. "A proposed bill called 'parking cash-out' could give employees the chance to trade in their parking space for extra cash and encourage drivers to explore other commuting options," writes Balding.
The "Transportation Benefits Equity Act," as the bill is called, "would require employers of a certain size that already provide their employees with subsidized parking to give their employees the option to trade in that benefit for cash."
Balding provides more detail on the proposed law, which will get a hearing with the D.C. Council on September 25, 2017.


Overly aggressive care can hurt patients, generating mistakes and injuries believed to cause 30,000 deaths each year.
Sutter Health, a giant hospital chain in Northern California, thought it had found a simple solution.
The Sacramento-based health system deleted the button physicians used to order daily blood tests. "We took it out and couldn't wait to see the data," said Ann Marie Giusto, a Sutter Health executive.
There are plenty of opportunities to trim waste in America's $3.4 trillion health care system -- but, as the Sutter example illustrates, it's often not as simple as it seems.
"The changes that need to be made don't appear unrealistic, yet they seem to take an awful lot of time," said Dr. Jeff Rideout, chief executive of the Integrated Healthcare Association, an Oakland, Calif., nonprofit group that promotes quality improvement. "We've been patient for too long."
In California, that sense of frustration has led three of the state's biggest health care purchasers to band together to promote care that's safer and more cost-effective. The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the Covered California insurance exchange and the state's Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal -- which collectively serve more than 15 million patients -- are leading the initiative.
Daniel Wolfson, chief operating officer at the ABIM Foundation, said the Choosing Wisely campaign has been successful at starting a national conversation about unwarranted care. "I think we need massive change and that takes 15 years," Wolfson said.
Dr. Richard Sun, co-chairman of the Smart Care group and a medical consultant at CalPERS, said he's pursuing safer, more affordable treatments for low-back pain, a condition that cost the state agency $107 million in 2015. "One challenge is developing metrics that everyone can agree upon to measure improvement," he said.
For patients, overtreatment can be more than a minor annoyance. Galen Gunther, a 59-year-old from Oakland, said that during treatment for colorectal cancer a decade ago he was subjected needlessly to repeated blood draws, often because the doctors couldn't get their hands on earlier results. Later, he said, he was overexposed to radiation, leaving him permanently scarred.
In the group that didn't follow the guidelines, patients had a 14 percent higher incidence of readmission and 29 percent higher risk of complications. Those complications and longer stays increased the cost of care by 7 percent, according to the hospital.
That's a significant sum. However, during the same period, Sutter reported $2.7 billion in profits. Last year alone, it posted an operating profit of $554 million on revenue of nearly $12 billion.
"We get real excited about a project with [emergency department] doctors on reducing CT scans for abdominal pain," said Giusto, director of Sutter's office of patient experience. "Then I can hear the administration say that was a fee-for-service patient. I just lost money, right?"
"Most of the physicians changed," Giusto said. "But there were still two who said, 'Screw it. I'm going to keep doing it.'"


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CDC says states should be ready to distribute COVID-19 vaccine in the fall
In a memo sent to state governors, the federal government says that states should be prepared to begin distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to the public this fall.
The memo signed by CDC head Robert Redfield told governors that the federal government has contracted with the McKesson Corporation to assist in distributing the vaccine to local and state health departments, medical facilities, doctor officers, and other vaccine providers.
In the letter, Redfield requested governors to waive any regulatory barriers that would prevent McKesson from operating distribution facilities. Redfield said the goal is to have these facilities operational by November 1.
According to McKesson, the company provides "next-day deliveries" to pharmacies and has a nationwide network of distribution centers.
While there is urgency for both public health and economic reasons for a vaccine, some experts have expressed concern over the speed of a vaccine and whether the expedited timeline is long enough to demonstrate efficacy. Dr. Anthony Fauci told NBC News on Wednesday that he believes a "safe and effective" vaccine could be ready by the end of the year.
"I believe that by the time we get to the end of this calendar year, that we will feel comfortable that we do have a safe and effective vaccine," he told NBC News.
On Monday, a third vaccine candidate entered "Phase 3" trials in the US. AstraZeneca is testing its COVID-19 vaccine candidate for 30,000 participants. The AstraZeneca vaccine would come in two separate doses, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Even though a vaccine could be ready by year's end, trials will be expected to continue for over a year to monitor for possible side effects.
According to the FDA, a typical Phase 3 trial would take one to three years.
"NIH is committed to supporting several Phase 3 vaccine trials to increase the odds that one or more will be effective in preventing COVID-19 and put us on the road to recovery from this devastating pandemic," said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. "We also know that preventing this disease could require multiple vaccines and we're investing in those that we believe have the greatest potential for success."


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description = "My personal development website, blog and portfolio"
comments = false
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Hi there! I'm a software developer from Ontario, Canada. I work primarily with C#, JavaScript and other web-based technologies.

Have a look through my [projects](/projects/), [maps](/maps/) and [blog posts](/blog/).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A longtime white supremacist from rural Missouri was arrested Sunday and held on a charge of premeditated first-degree murder in connection with a shooting spree in Kansas that killed three people at a Jewish community center and a Jewish retirement home. Frazier Glenn Cross, 73, is also known as Frazier Glenn Miller.
A white supremacist accused in a shooting rampage that left three people dead outside two Jewish centers in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kan., will face hate crime charges, authorities said Monday.
Frazier Glenn Cross, 73, from rural Missouri, was arrested Sunday and held on a charge of premeditated first-degree murder in connection with the shooting spree.
"We will be filing hate crime charges," said Barry Grissom, the U.S. Attorney for the district of Kansas. "We are in a very good place from an evidence standpoint, and we will be presenting to a grand jury."
Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass said Cross made some statements to police "that allow us to believe this was a hate crime."
Douglass said police received 28 911 calls immediately after the shooting, which helped officers locate the suspect's vehicle. Two officers approached the car in a parking lot and "told him to surrender, and he did," Douglass said.
Before being driven to jail, Cross – also known as Frazier Glenn Miller –– began ranting while in police custody, police said. A TV news video shows the suspect yelling what appears to be "Heil Hitler!" from the backseat of a police car.
The shootings at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and at Village Shalom, a retirement home nearby, occurred on the eve of Passover, a holiday significant in Judaism.
Among the dead were Reat Griffin Underwood, 14, who had come to the community center to try out for a singing competition, and his grandfather, 69-year-old William Lewis Corporon. Both were white Christians, according to family. The third victim was Terri LaManno, 53, an occupational therapist from a Roman Catholic family who was visiting her mother in the retirement home.
Two other people were shot at but escaped injury.
Attorney General Eric Holder issued a statement calling the shootings "acts of violence (that) are all the more heartbreaking as they were perpetrated on the eve of the solemn occasion of Passover."
"We will do everything in our power to ensure justice is served in this case on behalf of the victims and their families. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by these heinous acts," the statement said.
Will Corporon, the son of the victim William Corporon and uncle of Reat Underwood, said the family was not dwelling on details of the crime.
"Our goal is to shine the light on my father and my nephew and hopefully on the senselessness of these kinds of things," he said. "That Idiot absolutely knocked a family to its knees for no reason."
Cross, who in 2006 ran a write-in campaign for Congress against Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt, has a long history of white supremacist activities in Missouri.
In 2012, Cross spoke to 16 Missouri State University undergraduates and told a Jewish student who was challenging his views that she should be "the first to go."
He also said he hoped there was a "young Hitler" among them.
David Embree, an adjunct instructor in religious studies at MSU, said he invited Miller to speak during a one-week class offered between semesters. The class was White Supremacists in the Ozarks.
"He yelled at the students," said Embree, who has been teaching at MSU since 1983. "He is a very vile man. He is this dried up old guy who is filled up with so much hate and venom."
In 1987, Cross was the subject of a nationwide manhunt after violating a court order prohibiting him from operating a paramilitary organization.
Cross and three associates were eventually arrested in 1987 in Ozark during a federal raid of a trailer where authorities found enough weapons "for a small army" after Cross declared war on the U.S. government, according to Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader archives.
Authorities found guns, thousands of rounds of ammunition, grenades, crossbows, police scanning radios and $14,800 in cash. A demolition team from Fort Leonard Wood detonated a box that contained 20 pipe bombs, according to the story.
An affidavit for a search warrant for the trailer at the time told agents that Cross was planning on carrying out his declaration of war against federal judges and law enforcement officials.
A copy of his affidavit, mailed to the News-Leader at the time, listed a point system for killing various minorities and government officials. Judges were among those worth the most points.
Cross "planned on executing them with a variety of weapons, including firearms and crossbows," the affidavit noted.
In September 1987 Cross pleaded guilty to a federal charge of mailing threatening communications and possessing automatic weapons," according to a News-Leader archive story. Cross served three years in prison.
In 2002, he moved to Aurora where he began distributing copies of his own racist fliers and The Aryan Alternative, a racist, hate-filled publication that was based in Kirksville, Mo.
"The fact is folks, Bush and his Zionist Jew bosses not only want more tens of millions of illegal aliens to flood into our country, they do everything they can to encourage it.
"Why? To drown the white race in a sea of color. That's why.
Also, in February of the same year, he wrote: "In other words, of all racial groups, the Jews are singled out for special protection in every country on the globe, whether they are U.S. citizens or not. Including protection from all media criticisms which U.S. government bureaucrats decide are attempts to justify racial hatred."
"One of the first white supremacists to use paramilitary tactics with his North Carolina-based hate group — the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which later morphed into the White Patriot Party — Glenn Miller went on the lam in 1986 after mailing a letter to 5,000 people calling for "total war" against the feds, blacks and Jews."


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Overwatch – strzelanka pierwszoosobowa stworzona przez Blizzard Entertainment na platformy PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One i Xbox Series X/S. Gra została zaprezentowana podczas BlizzConu w 2014 roku. Premiera odbyła się 24 maja 2016. Produkcja doczekała się trzech wersji: w dniu premiery Edycji Origins i Edycji Kolekcjonerskiej, a następnie 23 maja 2017 Edycji Game of The Year. 1 listopada 2019 roku na BlizzConie zapowiedziano kontynuację.

Fabuła
Overwatch został osadzony w niedalekiej przyszłości, po kryzysie omnicznym, w którym zbuntowana sztuczna inteligencja chciała zniszczyć rasę ludzką. Aby zakończyć konflikt, Organizacja Narodów Zjednoczonych stworzyła grupę Overwatch, która łączyła najzdolniejszych ludzi z całego świata. Gdy wojna się skończyła, grupa została przekształcona w organizację pokojową, jednak po wielu przestępstwach na całym świecie, korupcji i działalności niezgodnej z prawami człowieka, wpływy organizacji zaczęły słabnąć. Po tajemniczym wybuchu w głównej siedzibie Overwatch, uznanej za wypadek, grupa została rozwiązana.

Rozgrywka
Overwatch skupia się na walce dwóch sześcioosobowych drużyn. Podobnie jak w grach multiplayer online battle arena, gracz wybiera jedną postać (według stanu z 2020 pula wynosiła 32 bohaterów) z wyjątkowymi umiejętnościami. Bohaterowie są podzieleni na trzy klasy – na bohaterów natarcia z dużymi obrażeniami lub kontrolujące pole bitwy przy pomocy pułapek/wieżyczek, postacie wspierające drużynę, lecząc sojuszników lub dając im bonusy oraz na tzw. "tanków", czyli postaci mogących zaabsorbować dużą ilość obrażeń. Mapy wzorowane są na prawdziwych lokacjach; trzy pierwsze mapy ("King′s Row", "Hanamura", "Świątynia Anubisa") inspirowane są Londynem, Japonią oraz ruinami Starożytnego Egiptu.

Overwatch zawiera cztery tryby rozgrywki:
 szturm – zadaniem jednej z drużyn jest zdobycie dwóch punktów przejęcia, podczas gdy druga musi je bronić;
 eskorta – drużyna atakująca ma za zadanie eskortować ładunek do punktu przed upływem czasu, podczas gdy drużyna broniąca musi ich powstrzymać;
 kontrola – dwie drużyny walczą o kontrolę na mapie przed upływem czasu;
 szturm/eskorta (Hybryda) – atakujący najpierw przejmują ładunek, a potem eskortują go do punktu docelowego. Obrońcy starają się ich powstrzymać;
 rywalizacja;
 centrum gier.

Produkcja

Prace nad grą rozpoczęły się latem 2013, a zapowiedziana została podczas konferencji BlizzCon w 2014 roku. Gra była tworzona przez zespół, odpowiedzialny za anulowaną grę MMO Titan, a część elementów z nieudanego projektu przeniesiono do Overwatch. Jest pierwszą grą Blizzarda od 1998 roku (wydanie StarCrafta), która jest osadzona w nowym uniwersum,  .

Overwatch został wydany na komputery z system Windows oraz konsolach PlayStation 4 i Xbox One. Premiera odbyła się 24 maja 2016. Testy zamkniętej wersji beta trwały od 27 października do 10 grudnia 2015 oraz od 9 lutego do 25 kwietnia 2016. Zostały również udostępnione otwarte beta-testy od 5 do 9 maja.

Odbiór gry

Przed premierą (beta-testy)
Jeszcze przed wydaniem Overwatch cieszył się dużym zainteresowaniem wśród graczy. 2 listopada 2015 roku poinformowano, że ponad 7 mln osób zapisało się na zamknięte beta-testy gry, nie licząc graczy z Chin. W sprawozdaniu rocznym za 2015 rok podano, że gra w czasie trwania wstępnych beta-testów osiągnęła status najczęściej oglądanej w serwisie Twitch. 5 maja 2016 w sprawozdaniu za pierwszy kwartał poinformowano, że podczas otwartych beta-testów w Overwatcha "grały miliony ludzi". Natomiast 12 maja Blizzard podał, że w otwartych beta-testach wzięło udział ponad 9,7 mln osób z całego świata, które rozegrały 37 milionów spotkań, trwających łącznie 81 mln godzin (4,9 mld min).

Odbiór komercyjny

Sprzedaż
Pod koniec maja 2016 Overwatch został najszybciej sprzedającą się grą Blizzarda na konsole oraz najlepiej sprzedającą się produkcją w Wielkiej Brytanii, gdzie zajęła 1. miejsce w Top 10. Największą sprzedaż detaliczną odnotowała wersja na PlayStation 4 (47%), następnie na Xbox One (36%) i komputery osobiste (18%). Gra utrzymywała się na 1. miejscu w UK przez kolejne 3 tygodnie. 9 czerwca 2016 NPD Group, firma zajmującą się badaniem rynku gier wideo, poinformowała, że Overwatch był trzecią najlepiej sprzedającą się detalicznie grą w USA w miesiącu jej premiery (za Uncharted 4: A Thief's End i Doom). Jednakże po uwzględnieniu sprzedaży kopii cyfrowych na PC, gra stała się najlepiej sprzedającą się grą w czerwcu 2016 roku, wyprzedzając Uncharted 4 około dwukrotnie. 21 lipca 2016 organizacja NPD poinformowała, że Overwatch był najlepiej sprzedającą się grą na rynku amerykańskim w czerwcu tegoż roku (wliczono w to również kopie cyfrowe). W tym samym okresie gra zajmowała pierwszą pozycję także w Wielkiej Brytanii, wyprzedzając tym samym Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens i Doom. 22 sierpnia 2016 grupa analityczna NPD podała, że Overwatch był drugą najpopularniejszą grą (po Grand Theft Auto V) na amerykańskim rynku w lipcu tegoż roku. Z kolei 24 sierpnia SuperData Research podało, że w lipcu gra ponownie zajęła 1. miejsce wśród najlepiej sprzedających się tytułów na PC oraz 5. miejsce wśród gier na konsole (analogicznie do zestawienia z maja 2016). Na przełomie sierpnia i września oraz pierwszym tygodniu września 2016 Overwatch ponownie był najlepiej sprzedającą się grą w Wielkiej Brytanii.

Zainteresowanie grą i przychody
2 czerwca 2016 roku Blizzard poinformował, że od czasu premiery w Overwatch zagrało siedem milionów osób (na wszystkich platformach), które spędziły w świecie gry łącznie 119 mln h. 14 czerwca 2016 Blizzard za pośrednictwem serwisu Twitter poinformował, że w grę zagrało już ponad 10 milionów osób. 23 czerwca 2016 grupa analityczna SuperData Research podała, że Overwatch zajął 1. miejsce wśród najlepiej zarabiających tytułów na komputery osobiste oraz 5. miejsce wśród gier na konsole. Oszacowano, że w osiem dni od premiery zarobił ponad 269 mln dolarów z dystrybucji cyfrowej na całym świecie, wyprzedzając takie tytuły, jak Doom, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dark Souls III i Minecraft. Podano również, że gra była wówczas 5. najczęściej transmitowanym tytułem na serwisach streamingowych. 4 sierpnia w sprawozdaniu za II kwartał 2016 roku podano, że w Overwatch zagrało już ponad 15 milionów osób na całym świecie, wliczając w to sprzedane egzemplarze pudełkowe, sprzedaż cyfrową, graczy korzystających z kafejek internetowych oraz wielodostępnych konsol domowych. Tym samym stał się najlepiej sprzedającą się grą komputerową Blizzarda w historii, detronizując poprzednią produkcję firmy, Diablo III i zarazem osiągając to szybciej niż jakakolwiek gra tego studia. Overwatch pobił również rekord ustanowiony przez Diablo III w Chinach i stał się najszybciej sprzedającą się grą PC na tamtejszym rynku. Ponadto podano, że od premiery zarobił około 0,5 mld dolarów, a gracze spędzili dotychczas ok. 500 mln h w grze. Podczas imprezy TwitchCon 2016 firma Twitch podała, że Overwatch był najchętniej streamowaną grą w 2016. 11 października 2016 podano, że liczba zarejestrowanych graczy przekroczyła 20 milionów; tym samym OW stał się najszybszą grą Blizzarda, która osiągnęła taki wynik w tak krótkim czasie, tj. po czterech miesiącach. Pod koniec stycznia 2017 roku podano, że ilość graczy przekroczyła 25 milionów, z kolei w podsumowaniu rocznym za rok 2016 podano, że jako "nowa franczyza" w IV kwartale utrzymywała wysoką aktywność miesięczną graczy (MAU). 28 kwietnia 2017 podano, że liczba graczy przekroczyła 30 mln. Z kolei w sprawozdaniu finansowym za I kwartał 2017 poinformowano, że Overwatch stał się 8. marką w portfolio Activision Blizzard, która zarobiła miliard dolarów. W sprawozdaniu za II kwartał 2017 podano, że społeczność Overwatcha wzrastała od ponad roku po premierze gry, ustanawiając tym samym kolejny rekord miesięcznej aktywności graczy (MAU). 16 października 2017 Blizzard za pomocą Twittera ogłosił, że gra ma już 35 milionów graczy. 15 maja 2018 podano, że liczba graczy przekroczyła 40 milionów. W podsumowaniu III kwartału 2017 podano, że w porównaniu do roku poprzedniego wzrosła miesięczna liczba aktywnych graczy. W sprawozdaniu za I kwartał 2018 podano, że łączny czas spędzony na graniu i oglądaniu Overwatch wzrósł w ujęciu kwartał do kwartału. Według raportu grupy SuperData gra do lipca 2019 roku zarobiła ponad 1 miliard dolarów z mikropłatności; tym samym jest to szósta gra Activision Blizzard, której się to udało. W sprawozdaniu za II kw. 2019 roku podano, że liczba aktywnych graczy (MAU) w Overwatch była względnie stabilna w stosunku kwartalnym, a następnie wzrosła po dodaniu do gry tzw. "Warsztatu" (ang. Workshop). 1 października 2019 podczas BlizzConu 2019 Jeff Kaplan stwierdził, że liczba graczy w Overwatch przekroczyła 50 milionów osób. W sprawozdaniu za II kw. 2020 roku odnotowano znaczną liczbę graczy, którzy wrócili do rozgrywki. 29 października 2020 podczas sprawozdania finansowego podano, że w 3 kwartale w grze odnotowano 10 mln graczy każdego miesiąca. 29 kwietnia 2021 roku w wywiadzie dla GameSpot nowy dyrektor gry Aaron Keller podał, że liczba graczy w Overwatch przekroczyła 60 milionów osób.

Ponadto w czerwcu 2016 koreańska strona Gametrics poinformowała, że Overwatch był drugą najpopularniejszą grą (23,79%) w koreańskich PC bangach zaraz po League of Legends (29,15%). Z kolei pod koniec czerwca podano, że gra była najczęściej wybieranym tytułem w koreańskich kafejkach internetowych. Według danych Gametrics z ponad 4000 PC bangów, Overwatch osiągnął ponad 30%, pokonując League of Legends z wynikiem 27,8% (na 1. miejscu od 46 miesięcy). Gra ponownie była numerem 1 w koreańskich kafejkach internetowych przez cały III kwartał 2016 roku.

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2016 w grach komputerowych
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Summary: The article deals with the problem of reconstruction of ways of mining and preparation of iron ore for the iron smelting process in Siberia. Written and archaeological sources show that the main technologies of extraction of iron ore in traditional Siberian metallurgy have not changed for many centuries. It is concluded that in antiquity and the Middle Ages the Siberian smelters could extract siderite ore from the outcrops of river terraces or dig out bog ore that is shallow under the ground. Common actions for all cultures were drying of ore, pre-firing before smelting and crushing ore into powder. Unification of technologies is due not so much to traditions as to the objective universality of the iron-making process because of its general physic-chemical bases.


Welcome to Iron County, Michigan!
Closed Saturday and Sunday. Due to scheduling changes, before arriving at the Courthouse it is recommended that you contact the appropriate Department to check office hours.
Proper US Flag Disposal Site is available at the Iron County Courthouse.
YOU CAN VIEW AND PAY YOUR DELINQUENT PROPERTY TAXES ONLINE!


We examine the effect of genetic diversity on economic development in the United States. Our estimation strategy exploits that immigrants from different countries of origin differed in their genetic diversity and that these immigrants settled in different regions. Based on a sample of over 2250 counties, we find that increases in genetic diversity of US counties that arose due to immigration during the 19th century had a significant positive effect on US counties' economic development. We also detect a significant positive long-run effect of 19th century immigrants' genetic diversity on contemporaneous measures of income.
Ager, Philipp & Brückner, Markus, 2013. "Immigrants' Genes: Genetic Diversity and Economic Development in the US," MPRA Paper 51906, University Library of Munich, Germany.
Philipp Ager & Markus Brueckner, 2017. "Immigrants' Genes: Genetic Diversity and Economics Development in the US," CEH Discussion Papers 10, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
Ager, Philipp & Brückner, Markus, 2013. "Cultural diversity and economic growth: Evidence from the US during the age of mass migration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 76-97.
Philipp Ager & Markus Bruckner, 2011. "Cultural Diversity and Economic Growth: Evidence from the US during the Age of Mass Migration," School of Economics Working Papers 2011-02, University of Adelaide, School of Economics.
Markus Brückner & Philipp Ager, 2011. "Cultural diversity and economic growth: evidence from the USA during the age of mass migration," Working Papers 11019, Economic History Society.
Rodr�guez-Pose, Andr�s & von Berlepsch, Viola, 2017. "Does population diversity matter for economic development in the very long-term? Historic migration, diversity and county wealth in the US," CEPR Discussion Papers 12347, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Simplice A. Asongu, 2016. "Genetic distance and cognitive human capital: a cross-national investigation," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 33-51, April.
Kodila-Tedika, Oasis & Asongu, Simplice, 2015. "Genetic Distance and Cognitive Human Capital: A Cross-National Investigation," MPRA Paper 67850, University Library of Munich, Germany.
Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Simplice Asongu, 2015. "Genetic Distance and Cognitive Human Capital: A Cross-National Investigation," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 15/012, African Governance and Development Institute..
Philipp Ager & Casper Worm Hansen, 2016. "National Immigration Quotas and Local Economic Growth," Discussion Papers 16-11, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
C. Justin Cook & Jason M. Fletcher, 2018. "High-school genetic diversity and later-life student outcomes: micro-level evidence from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 307-339, September.
C. Justin Cook & Jason M. Fletcher, 2017. "High School Genetic Diversity and Later-life Student Outcomes: Micro-level Evidence from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study," NBER Working Papers 23520, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
Gradstein, Mark & Justman, Moshe, 2018. "Diversity and Growth," IZA Discussion Papers 11553, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
Gradstein, Mark & Justman, Moshe, 2018. "Diversity and Growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 13011, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:51906. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.


and their usage to allow seamless applications and flawless integration.
OMc provides a unique deliverable we call the branding guide. This all-encompassing document paints the vision for your brand. It spells out the objectives you want to achieve, your target market profiles, your competitive differentiators, the framework for your identity, your style guide, your social media touch points and the marketing campaigns to reach your target market.
With this single document, anyone in your organization can see the complete picture, understand your brand's leverage in the marketplace, and connect the dots from identity to execution.


Specializing in precision, Portland Precision relies on their skilled machinist to machine, manufacture and assemble complex machined parts and components. Seasoned Machinist programs a multiple spindle live tooling lathe.
With a full range ofprecision CNC capabilities, Portland Precision Manufacturing provides the Pacific Northwest's finest CNC machining services. Our state of the art, 20,000 square foot facility houses a full complement of the latest CNC machining centers and CNC lathes, making us one of most versatile and advanced machining operations in the Northwest.
At Portland Precision, our goal is to provide high speed, high precision metal machining services at the most competitive prices.
Request a quote on precision CNC machining services for your products, parts, and components. Contact us to discuss your project or to learn more.
Portland Precision Manufacturing provides complete, turnkey CNC machining services for customers throughout Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. From prototype machining to a handful of test pieces to full production runs with quantities in the tens of thousands, we are your #1 source for high quality, competitively priced metal machining services.
For us, quality is first and foremost. We are committed to quality from the first stage of your project to the last, with strict quality controls in effect for all of our precision CNC machining services. We are AS9100:D and ISO 9001:2015 certified, and ITAR registered.
Portland Precision offers complete, customer-driven inspection of machined parts and components, from first article quality checks for prototype CNC machining through 100% part inspection. We use top of the line inspection equipment to make sure that our quality testing is just as accurate as our CNC manufacturing processes.
Portland Precision Manufacturing utilizes some of the most advanced CNC manufacturing equipment available to ensure that all machined parts match the tight tolerances our customers require and deliver the superior quality our customers have come to expect. We continually invest in upgrades and improvements for our equipment to stay at the cutting edge of industry technology.
Our manufacturing equipment capabilities include vertical and horizontal CNC machining centers, manual machines, inspection equipment, programming and CAD systems and more.
We are your #1 source for high precision plastic and metal machining services. Portland Precision has the skills and experience to deliver complete project solutions, from the prototype machining stage through full production and beyond.
Request a quote or contact us for the CNC machining services your project requires.


Warm up exercises for volleyball matches help players get ready to play. Teams often use dynamic flexibility stretches as a sport specific warm up before each match in long tournaments. Dynamic flexibility exercises such as hand-walks and forward lunges improve the long-term mobility and flexibility of your muscles.
Warm up exercises for volleyball and dynamic flexibility work is necessary for teaching your body to move more safely, efficiently, and powerfully. You simply can't get the job done by performing static stretches alone.
Static stretching basically relaxes and turns off your muscles. By performing a dynamic stretching routine, you are going to wake up your muscles activating them while you are moving.
Athletes often develop tightness and inflexibility because of the repetitive movements that make up their sport. Sport specific stretching can be done to help balance out the strength and flexibility issues they've developed from these repetitive movements.
Dynamic exercises stretch your muscles actively and awaken your nervous system.
The muscle's stretch reflex is activated during dynamic flexibility training. The stretch reflex is an important component of jump training or plyometrics.
The purpose of plyometrics is basically to quickly stretch a muscle then contract it right away in order to utilize the muscles reflexive response to the stretch.
Dynamic stretches help your neuromuscular system to function more efficiently which results in the better utilization of the stretch reflex.
Dynamic stretching should be done prior to a plyometric workout to warm up your muscles and awaken your nervous system.
Hands walks are a great total body dynamic stretch exercise for volleyball.
To build stability and mobility at the shoulders while lengthening your hamstrings, calves, and low back muscles.
Stand with your legs straight and your hands on the floor.
While keeping your abs braced and your legs straight, walk your hands out. While still keeping your legs straight, walk your feet taking small steps back up to your hands.
When taking steps, you should not be using your quads or hips. Use your ankles to take small steps back up to your hands.
Lunges are one of the best warm up exercises for volleyball. Volleyball players that aren''t familiar with this movement will likely experience an unfamiliar soreness. Lunges work the long adductor muscles, the muscles that run down the inside part of the thigh.
To stretch the front side of the hips while warming up all the leg hip extensors.
Stand up straight with your hands behind your head.
Take a large step forward and bring your back knee to about 3 inches off the ground. Push through the heel of the back foot to bring your back foot up even with your front foot. Repeat the lunge with the opposite foot.
Keep your torso vertical and abs braced throughout the movement. Your step should be just big enough to bring your front knee above or slightly in front of your front ankle.
This is a great dynamic hamstring stretch. This flexibility exercise is very much like the one-arm one-leg deadlift total body exercise.
To improve hamstring flexibility and balance along with dynamic stabilization at the hips and core.
Stand with arms straight out to your sides, thumbs pointing up while balancing on one foot.
Bend forward at the waist and lift your back foot up keeping the leg straight while maintaining good posture. The front leg should be slightly bent to help with balance. Bring your upper body back up and leg down at the same time.
Keep your shoulders back and down and abs braced. Your shoulders and heels should move at the same time, keeping a straight line from shoulders to heels. The range of motion will be limited by the flexibility of your hamstrings. Only go so far as you can with good technique.
Dynamically stretching the quads and hip flexors.
To dynamically stretch the quadriceps and hip flexors while also training balance.
While bracing your core, grab your foot with the same side hand. Pull your heel up to your buttocks stretching your quads. Bring the foot back to the ground and perform the stretch on the other side.
Remember, this isn''t a static quad stretch. The purpose is to stretch dynamically, so you shouldn't be holding the stretch for a long time. This exercise should be done standing in place or while you're slowly walking.
You can place your arms together out in front of you like you are going to make a volleyball pass when performing this exercise.
To dynamically stretch the muscles of your groin and hips.
Step to the right, keeping your toes pointed straight ahead and your feet flat on the ground. Squat back and down towards your lead leg. Keep your back leg straight and your weight over the lead legs heel. Squat as low as comfortable, hold for 2 seconds and return to the starting position.
Keep your body and feet facing ahead. Your knee should end inline with your foot when lunging. Try to keep your lead knee above your lead ankle or midfoot, NOT out in front of your toes when lunging to the side.
You will get a great return on your time invested in warm up exercises for volleyball.
Taking just 5 to 10 minutes a day to perform warm up exercises for volleyball before your strength workout will increase your sport specific strength along with volleyball specific flexibility.


Functional coatings and colour solutions company Ferro Corporation has made its fifth acquisition this year – it has acquired Electro-Science Laboratories, Inc. (ESL), an electronic packaging materials company. Ferro paid US$75 million excluding customary adjustments and fees for the privately held company headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
The acquisition of ESL enhances Ferro's position in the electronic packaging materials space with complementary products, and offers an attractive platform for growth in Ferro's Performance Colours and Glass business unit.
ESL produces thick-film pastes and ceramic tape systems that enable important functionality in a wide variety of industrial and consumer applications, such as thick-film paste conductors, dielectrics and resistors (also known as thick-film inks, paints or coatings), ceramic tape systems, and fired parts such as porous alumina and zirconia cover plates, solid oxide fuel cell substrates, multi-electrode arrays, and both anode-supported and electrolyte-supported fuel cells.. These advanced materials find application in hybrid microcircuits and multilayer microelectronics, electronic components such as inductors, capacitors and transformers, heaters on steel or other substrates, plus low and high temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC and HTCC).
Hybrid integrated circuits using ESL products are used in aerospace and defense applications, such as satellites. The modules and sensors are used in automobile components, including oxygen sensors. ESL products in heat sensors are used in appliances such as ovens and water heaters. ESL paste systems for heaters are used on a wide variety of substrates, including metal, ceramic and glass. ESL was founded in 1962 and has remained privately owned and associated with the founding family. The business has operations in the US and UK and has 86 employees.


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Nationwide Ocean Literacy Campaign is going on in Bangladesh. Here we are going to show you some snap shots from episode 02 that was held at Halishahar Public School & College.
1. Students are watching poster presentation.
6. Mehedi Hasan Saiem demonstrating posters.
7. Towkir Ahmed explaining a poster to the students.
8. A new ocean lover giving TV interview after watching posters.
9. Mariha Tabassum & Towkir Ahmed with posters.
10. Poster on World Oceans.
12. Shahid Kazol demonstrating a poster to the students.
15. Saifur Rahman Anik explaining poster to a young ocean lover.
16. Ocean care taker Masum explaining a poster.


Gave @people a glance into Jolie's second home in LA. Article is up online now to see how we decorated her sweet space!! Thanks to @evolurbaby for the adorable nursery furniture!
Jana Kramer has revealed she recently suffered a miscarriage.
On Saturday, the actress slash singer penned a touching message to her followers on Instagram, admitting that she was emotionally hurting and no longer wanted to suffer alone.
In the photo, Jana is seen sadly looking down at a sonogram which she holds up to her chest.
The mother-of-one also admits that this was not the first time this tragic event has happened to her.


Jean-Yves Thibaudet is always a great hit with every crowd. We stock all Jean-Yves Thibaudet tickets to every Jean-Yves Thibaudet show! All our tickets are 100% Guaranteed! We stock tickets to all the big tours like Lady Gaga, U2, Dave Matthews, Jimmy Buffett, The Eagles- not to mention all the great seats for sporting events as well. We get you into all Theater, Broadway, Las Vegas shows, you name it we will get you sweet seats.


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NFL to Honor Health Care Workers at Super Bowl LV
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Super Bowl LV will be held on February 7, 2021, but if you're a New Orleans Saints fan, you m right have already started making plans for a game day party. (Oh, come on, you know you have!) And it's a pretty good bet that the traditional festivities that are set to take place in Tampa, Florida will look very different next year.
Yesterday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told USA Today that the League wants to honor health care workers at the big game as a thank you for all their hard work during the coronavirus pandemic. He told the 32 team owners in a conference call that lasted almost 3 hours that he hopes this will "help encourage people to get vaccinated once it becomes available."
Goodell went on to tell reporters that he is working with officials in Tampa Bay to iron out the logistics on how to get vaccinated health care workers to the game, but things are far from being finalized. Other topics of discussion during the call include how many fans would be able to attend the game, and how to manage fan activities for the week leading up to the contest. Tampa has designated a 2.7 mile stretch of the Riverwalk to host Super Bowl fan activities, which include live music, food, and other entertainment. They are currently trying to determine how to manage all these safely.
Goodell also talked to the owners about expanding the regular season to 17 games.
10 Gift Ideas for Saints Fans from Amazon
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text:
\section{Introduction}

The compounds TiOX, with X=Cl and Br are formed by layers of distorted $\rm TiO_4X_2$
octahedra. Quantum magnetism in these systems is based on the $\rm Ti^{3+}$ ions with
one electron ($\rm 3d^1$, s=1/2) in a $\rm t_{2g}$ state. The distortion of the
octahedra leads to the predominant occupation of $\rm d_{xy}$ orbitals that form
chain-like direct exchange paths of orbitals along the crystallographic \emph{b} axis of
the compound. In several experiments, as magnetic susceptibility
\cite{beyon93,seidel03}, NMR \cite{imai03}, ESR \cite{kataev03}, X-ray scattering
\cite{lee03,shaz04}, Raman scattering and optical spectroscopy \cite{lemmens03,caimi04},
strong fluctuations and multiple transitions are observed that are attributed to this
spin/orbital system with low dimensionality. So far, with the exception of one IR
investigation \cite{caimi04b}, only the system TiOCl has been investigated thoroughly.
The isostructural TiOBr has not been in the center of interest due to more severe
problems in growing single crystalline samples of sufficient quality. The scaling of the
IR active phonon frequencies with the involved ionic masses, however, proposes TiOBr as
a perfect reference system. The compounds differ crystallographically by an increase of
the \emph{c} axis lattice parameter from 8.03 to 8.53$\AA$, going from X=Cl to Br. This
means that in TiOBr the coupling between the planes of octahedra is even less important
compared to TiOCl. Furthermore, the distortion of the octahedra is larger in TiOBr.

The compounds TiOX belong to a new class of spin-1/2 transition metal oxides based on
$\rm Ti^{3+}$ ions in weakly interconnected, distorted octahedral coordinations
\cite{axtell97,isobe02,seidel03,isobe02b}. Very often these systems show phase
transitions into singlet ground states that resemble to the spin-Peierls instability
\cite{bray83}. In contrast to, e.g. $\rm CuGeO_3$ \cite{hase93,lemmens-rev} where the
spin-Peierls transition leads to a mean-field size of the reduced gap ratio, very large
spin gaps exist in some titanates \cite{isobe02,lemmens-millet}. For TiOCl even a pseudo
gap for T$>$$\rm T_c$ has been reported based on NMR and Raman scattering experiments
\cite{imai03,lemmens03}. As $\rm t_{2g}$ states of the $\rm Ti^{3+}$ ions ($\rm 3d^1$,
s=1/2) in perfect octahedral surrounding show orbital degeneracy, it is tempting to
assign part of these phenomena to orbital degrees of freedom. Spin-orbital coupled
systems have been investigated theoretically with respect to their instabilities
\cite{pati98,yamashita00,koleshuk01,hikihara04} and as they are candidates for exotic
electronic configurations \cite{beyon93,seidel03,hikihara04}. These theoretical
scenarios did not explicitly consider static or dynamic phonon degrees of freedom. For
2D systems with low symmetry exchange paths it is known that phonons stabilize spin
liquids and shift phase lines \cite{starykh96}. Furthermore, orbital configurations
strongly couple to the lattice\cite{valenti03}. Therefore, changes of lattice parameters
are expected to affect the magnetic properties and related instabilities of such systems
considerably.

In this article we present a comparative study of TiOCl and TiOBr using magnetic
susceptibility, Raman scattering and band structure calculations to relate structural
and electronic properties of these systems and to achieve a better understanding of the
observed instabilities. It is shown, that the fluctuation regime in TiOBr is even more
extended compared to TiOCl.

\section{Structural aspects of TiOX}

The layered crystal structure of TiOX is formed by $\rm Ti^{3+}O^{2-}$ bilayers, that
are separated by $\rm Cl^-$ bilayers. The basic $\rm TiCl_2O_4$ units are distorted
octahedra that share edges. These units form double layers in the \emph{ab} plane of an
orthorhombic unit cell with FeOCl-type structure \cite{schaefer58,schaefer67}. In
Fig.~1~(a) a sketch of octahedra within two rows of the double layer is shown. In
Fig.~1~(b), (c) local Ti-O-X coordinations are given in the \emph{bc} and the \emph{ab}
plane, respectively. Important structural parameters and atomic distances can be found
in Table~I to highlight common and emphasize differences induced by substituting Cl and
Br ions. It is evident that the substitution leads to a considerable increase of the
volume of the unit cell. This effect divides up into an enhanced separation of the
layers and to a smaller extend to an elongation of the cell in \emph{b} axis direction.
The octahedra distortion is more pronounced in TiOBr. This is demonstrated in Table~I by
comparing the shift of the Ti ion out of the basal plane of the octahedra along the
\emph{c} axis.

\begin{figure}[t]
      \begin{center}
       \leavevmode
       \epsfxsize=9cm \epsfbox {structure.eps}
        \caption{a) A double layer within the crystallographic \emph{ab} plane
        formed by edge sharing, distorted $\rm TiCl_2O_4$ octahedra.
        Local coordinations as projected on the a) bc and c) \emph{ab} plane.
        The relative distances correspond to TiOCl. }
\label{structure}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\begin{table}[h!]
\caption{Structural parameters and atomic separations for TiOCl and TiOBr with Pmmn (no.
59). Units are $\AA$ or $\AA^3$. Parameters are rounded for clarity and derived using
Refs. \onlinecite{schaefer58} and \onlinecite{schaefer67}. Intra-layer Ti-Ti separations
are given along the direct exchange path parallel to the \emph{b} axis and from the
upper to the lower Ti site of one double layer. For the inter-layer Ti-Ti separations
also two values exist due to the double layers. The distortions of the octahedra are
characterized by $\Delta$c$_{Ti}$, corresponding to the \emph{c} axis shift of the Ti
ion out of its basal plane.} \label{table1}\vspace{0.5cm} \centering
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|}
  \hline

  & lattice parameters & TiOCl & TiOBr & $\rm 10^2$ $\cdot$ $\Delta x/x$\\
  \hline\hline
  unit cell   & a         & 3.79  & 3.79  & $\pm$ 0.0   \\
              & b         & 3.38  & 3.49  & + 3.3 \\
              & c         & 8.03  & 8.53  & + 6.2 \\
  \hline
              & volume    & 102.9 & 112.6 & + 9.4 \\
  \hline\hline
  intra-double layer & Ti - Ti$_b$      & 3.38 & 3.49 & + 3.2 \\
              & Ti - Ti$_{bc}$   & 3.2  & 3.19 & - 0.3 \\
  \hline\hline
  inter-double layer & Ti - Ti$_c$      & 6.58 & 7.12 & + 8.2 \\
              & Ti - Ti$_c$      & 8.13 & 8.91 & + 9.6 \\
  \hline
  distortion  &  $\Delta$c$_{Ti}$& 5.5$\cdot$$\rm 10^{-2}$ & 6.1$\cdot$$\rm 10^{-2}$ & + 10.9 \\
  \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\section{Sample preparation and Experimental}

Single crystals of TiOCl and TiOBr have been grown using a chemical vapor transport
method.\cite{seidel03} In the following we will describe the preparation of TiOBr as it
is less well established. An initial mixture of $\rm TiO_2$, Ti, and $\rm TiBr_4$ with a
molar ratio of 4:3:9 was sealed in an evacuated quartz tube. The tube was then placed
within a two zone furnace, and a constant thermal gradient was maintained
(650$^{\circ}$C to 550$^{\circ}$C over a 25 cm distance). After approximately 5-8 days,
single crystals of TiOBr with sizes up to 5 $\rm mm^2$ can be extracted. The quality of
the TiOBr crystals is similar to the TiOCl crystals investigated in Ref.
\cite{seidel03}. However, TiOBr is less stable under ambient conditions, as it readily
reacts with water in the air.

The magnetic susceptibility has been measured on a single crystal sample of TiOBr using
a SQUID magnetometer. Raman scattering investigations have been performed using the
514.5~nm excitation wavelength with light polarization parallel to the crystallographic
\emph{b} axis of the platelet-like (ab surface) single crystals of TiOCl
(Ref.~\onlinecite{seidel03}). No strong resonance effects have been detected comparing
514.5~nm and 488~nm excitation wavelength. A comparison of the phonon spectrum of TiOBr
with TiOCl using optical reflectivity $R(\omega)$ experiments can be found in Ref.
\onlinecite{caimi04b}. Details related to optical experiments can be found in
Ref.~\onlinecite{caimi03}. A review on the implications of magnetic Raman scattering in
low dimensional spin systems is given in Ref.~\onlinecite{lemmens-rev}.

\section{Magnetic susceptibility and phase transitions}

\begin{figure}[t]
      \begin{center}
       \leavevmode
       \epsfxsize=9cm \epsfbox {susceptibility.eps}
        \caption{(color online) Magnetic susceptibility (M/H) of TiOBr with
        a magnetic field of 1~Tesla parallel to the \emph{ab} plane.
        Open (full) symbols corresponds to the as measured data
        (data after subtracting a defect contribution). The upper and lower inset
        show the scaled susceptibility ($\chi-\chi_0)/\chi_{max}$ vs. $T/T_{c1}$ or vs. $T/T_{c2}$ for
        TiOX, X=Cl and Br. The transition temperatures are given in Table~II.}
\label{susceptibility}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

In Fig.~2 the magnetic susceptibility $\rm \chi(T)$ of TiOBr is given. The open circles
are the raw data, and the filled squares are the data after subtraction of a small Curie
tail. The general behavior is reminiscent of the susceptibility of TiOCl
\cite{seidel03,imai03} in the sense that above 100~K the magnetic susceptibility $\rm
\chi(T)$ of TiOBr is only weakly temperature dependent \cite{beyon93} and forms a broad
maximum at $\rm T_{max}$$\sim$210~K. In contrast to TiOCl, the Bonner-Fisher curve does
not provide a good fit to the higher temperature behavior of TiOBr (not shown here).

At low temperatures, there is a dramatic drop in the susceptibility at $\rm
T_{c1}^{Br}$=28~K. X-ray scattering in TiOCl has revealed a commensurate dimerization
for T$<$$\rm T_{c1}^{Cl}$=67~K along the \emph{b} axis.\cite{lee03,shaz04} Thereby, the
crystal structure changes from $Pmmn$ to $P2_{1}/m$ with atomic displacements restricted
to the \emph{bc} plane. The flat susceptibility for T$<$$\rm T_{c1}$ is therefore taken
as an indication for a similar structural distortion in TiOBr that accompanies the spin
gap formation. It has been highlighted, that with the exception of the comparably large
spin gap the resulting low temperature state of the two systems is very well comparable
to other spin-Peierls systems \cite{lemmens03,caimi04}.

The inset shows the normalized susceptibility ($\chi-\chi_0)/\chi_{max}$ of both systems
vs. $\rm T_{c1}$ and vs. $\rm T_{c2}$ of the respective compound. $\chi_0$ has been
extrapolated in the limit T $\rightarrow$ 0. From these data it is evident that the
overall susceptibilities scale very well with respect to $\rm T_{c1}$. This refers
mainly to the decrease that is observed towards lower temperatures. Smaller deviations
exist in the temperature regime $\rm T_{c1}$$<$T$<$2$\rm T_{c1}$ and a close inspection
of the susceptibility data reveals a second critical temperature $\rm T_{c2}^{Br}$=47~K
at which the change of susceptibility is most pronounced. At the corresponding
temperature $\rm T_{c2}^{Cl}$=92~K of TiOCl evidence for incommensurate distortions has
been found together with anomalies in the specific heat \cite{lee03}. Some results of
the magnetic characterization are summarized in Table~II.

\begin{table}[h!]
\caption{Magnetic parameters from TiOCl and TiOBr determined from susceptibility, the
maxima positions in Raman scattering data, the exchange coupling parameters from
downfolding the bandstructure and their change in \% with respect to TiOCl.}
\label{table2}\vspace{0.5cm} \centering
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|}
  \hline

                                   & TiOCl             & TiOBr               & $\rm 10^2$ $\cdot$ $\Delta x/x$\\ \hline\hline
                         $T_{c1}$  & 67~K              & 28~K                & - 58.2 \\ \hline
                         $T_{c2}$  & 92~K              & 47~K                & - 48.9 \\ \hline\hline
            $T_{max}$ in $\chi(T)$ & 400~K             & 210~K               & - 47.5 \\ \hline\hline
               $T_{c1}$/$T_{max}$  & 0.16              & 0.13                & -  \\ \hline
               $T_{c2}$/$T_{max}$  & 0.23              & 0.22                & -  \\ \hline\hline

  $\rm \Delta\omega_{max}^{1}$     & 928~$\rm cm^{-1}$ & 875~$\rm cm^{-1}$   & - 5.7  \\ \hline
  $\rm \Delta\omega_{max}^{2}$     &1404~$\rm cm^{-1}$ & 1390~$\rm cm^{-1}$  & - 1.0  \\
  \hline\hline
  $\rm J_{d-xy}^{downfolding}$       & 621~K             & 406~K               & - 35  \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

In the lower inset of Fig.~\ref{susceptibility} the magnetic susceptibility is plotted
with respect to the higher characteristic temperature. The decrease of the magnetic
susceptibility does not scale well with $\rm T_{c2}$. As this decrease is related to the
opening and magnitude of the spin gap $\Delta(T)$ at the respective temperature, $\rm
T_{c2}$ cannot be directly related to the spin gap formation.

The scaling behavior may be further investigated comparing ratios of the critical
temperatures and the maxima of the susceptibility $\rm \chi(T)$. The maximum in $\rm
\chi(T)$ gives some information about an averaged magnetic coupling strength. According
to Cross and Fisher \cite{cross79} a linear relation between $\rm T_c$ and the exchange
coupling J is expected for spin-Peierls systems with $\rm T_c/J=0.8\lambda$ and a spin
phonon coupling $\lambda$. In Table~II the corresponding ratios are given. It is
noteworthy, that in contrast to the decrease of the susceptibility its maximum position
scales with the higher transition temperature. Comparing these characteristic
temperatures the following ratios are determined: $\rm T_{c1}^{Cl}/T_{c1}^{Br}$ = 2.4,
$\rm T_{c2}^{Cl}/T_{c2}^{Br}$ = 1.96, while the maximum temperatures give $\rm
T_{max}^{Cl}/T_{max}^{Br}$ = 1.91. Especially the latter two ratios show a good matching
and lead to the conclusion that the characteristic energy scales of the thermodynamic
quantities differ roughly by a factor of two between the two systems. This conclusion
does not perfectly match to the calculated hopping integral t given in Table~III and
results from high energy Raman scattering discussed below.

For TiOCl large fluctuations have been reported at high temperatures (T$>$$\rm T_{c1}$)
based on anomalies in the $\rm ^{{47,49}}Ti$ spin relaxation rate and a strong
temperature dependence of the ESR-derived g-factor \cite{imai03,kataev03}. These
observations lead to the assignment of a fluctuation or pseudo gap temperature at
T*=135~K. For the temperature regime $\rm T_{c1}$$<$T$\leq$T*=135~K also pronounced
anomalies and softenings of the Raman-active optical phonon modes exist
\cite{lemmens03}. Furthermore, the spin gap $\rm E_g=430~K$ determined from NMR
\cite{imai03} is very large. The reduced gap ratios are $\rm 2E_g/k_BT_{c1,c2}$ = 10 -
15.

\section{High energy Raman scattering}

\begin{figure}[t]
      \begin{center}
       \leavevmode
       \epsfxsize=12cm \epsfbox {raman.eps}
        \caption{(color online) High energy Raman scattering for TiOX with
        X=Cl and Br with light polarization parallel to the crystallographic $b$ axis, c(bb)-c.
        The data are shifted for clarity. The dashed vertical lines denotes
        the position of the maxima observed in TiOCl.}
        \label{raman}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

In Fig.~3  the Raman scattering intensity of TiOCl (T=5~K) and TiOBr
(5~K$<$T$<$200~K) is given in the frequency regime that is characteristic for magnetic
scattering. Typical energies of two magnetic exchange scattering are estimated within an
Ising-like picture counting the number of broken bonds that an exchange process leaves
behind. Using the coupling constant J=660~K for TiOCl from magnetic susceptibility
\cite{seidel03},  magnetic light scattering should have typical energies between
2$\cdot$J=920~$\rm cm^{-1}$ and 4$\cdot$J=1800~$\rm cm^{-1}$. The exchange pathes
considered theoretically have both one dimensional and two dimensional aspects
\cite{valenti03}. For TiOCl two broad maxima are observed, a symmetric one at 928~$\rm
cm^{-1}$ (2$\cdot$J=917~$\rm cm^{-1}$) and an asymmetric one at 1404~$\rm cm^{-1}$
(3$\cdot$J=1375~$\rm cm^{-1}$). For TiOBr the overall spectral distribution of
scattering intensity has a similar shape. The maxima are at $\rm
\Delta\omega_{max}^{Br-1}$=875~$\rm cm^{-1}$ and $\rm
\Delta\omega_{max}^{Br-2}$=1390~$\rm cm^{-1}$, i.e. they are shifted by 5\% and 1\%,
respectively, to lower frequencies. At low and intermediate energies,  pronounced
oscillations or superstructures are observed with peak frequencies $\rm
\Delta\omega_{max}^{Br-i}$=695, 763, 825 and 883~$\rm cm^{-1}$. These structures have a
mean separation of 63~$\rm cm^{-1}$ and are even more pronounced compared to TiOCl.

The double peak structure with additional modulations at low and intermediate energies
is a complex structure compared to the observations in other 1D or 2D quantum spin
systems. The line shape of such scattering intensity is usually a result of strong
magnon-magnon interactions and the local exchange topology. Magnon-magnon interaction
leads to a characteristic renormalization and broadening of the spectral weight to lower
energy \cite{brenig01}. In undoped high temperature superconductors with $\rm CuO_2$
planes that represent a 2D s=1/2 Heisenberg magnet, a single, broadened peak with a
maximum at $\rm \Delta\omega_{max}^{HTSC}\approx$2.8$\cdot$J is observed
\cite{lyons88,sugai88,sugai99b}. Also in $\rm Cu_2Te_2O_5Br_2$, based on weakly coupled
spin tetrahedra, a single symmetric maximum has been observed at $\rm
\Delta\omega_{max}\approx$2$\cdot$J \cite{lemmens01,gros03,jensen03}. Well-defined
double peak structures have, however, been observed in the 2D nickelates $\rm
La_{2-x}Sr_{x}NiO_{4+d}$ if stripe domains with a modulation of spin/charge exist. The
two maxima are then the result of exchange processes across and within the
antiferromagnetic domain walls and they are related to the exchange coupling as
3$\cdot$J and 4$\cdot$J for a Sr doping of x=1/3 \cite{yamamoto98,blum98,gnezdilov02}.
For TiOCl recently evidence for a more complex structure of dimerized Ti sites has been
obtained from structural investigations \cite{lee03}. It is proposed, that antiphase
domain walls exist within the \emph{ab} planes that separate nano domains of different
dimer orientations. This situations resembles to some extend the situation in the 2D
nickelates and may be the reason for the two maxima.

In the respective frequency range also excitation of other origin can contribute. Here
multi-phonon scattering \cite{choi05b} or magnon-phonon coupled modes \cite{windt01}
should be discussed. Multi-phonon scattering is frequently observed in isolating
transition metal oxides and leads to peak structures with frequencies very close to
multiples of the optical phonon frequencies. For the case of TiOCl the Raman allowed
phonon modes of the high temperature phase consist of in-phase Cl-Ti (203~$\rm cm^{-1}$)
and out-of-phase O-Ti (365~$\rm cm^{-1}$) and Ti-Cl (430~$\rm cm^{-1}$) modes,
respectively. The numbers in brackets give the respective frequencies for TiOCl. These
Raman-active modes and also the IR-active phonon modes considerable soften with the
exchange of Cl by Br following simple scaling relationships \cite{caimi04b}. For TiOBr
phonon Raman modes are observed at 144~$\rm cm^{-1}$, 323~$\rm cm^{-1}$ and 413~$\rm
cm^{-1}$ \cite{choi05}, which correspond to a decrease of the phonon frequencies by
4-29\%. It is also expected that the phonon dispersion is less pronounced in TiOBr due
to the weaker interplane coupling.

In the high energy regime comparing TiOCl with TiOBr no considerable shift is observed,
therefore a dominant contribution of multiphonon scattering to the two maxima is not
suggested. Furthermore, corresponding multiples of the phonon frequencies do not exist
in the high energy Raman spectral range. This statement should be softened with respect
to the modulations seen on the left shoulder of the first more symmetric maximum. It has
been shown for TiOCl that this modulation has the same frequency as the difference of
two optical phonon frequencies \cite{lemmens03}. Finally, we can rule out orbital
scattering to observed double peak structures as the large distortion should lead to
orbital excitations in the range of 0.1-0.3eV. Concluding the Raman scattering results
we state that the corresponding exchange coupling constants do only mildly change with
composition.

\section{ {\it ab initio} Calculations}

\begin{figure}
      \begin{center}
       \leavevmode
       \epsfxsize=8cm \epsfbox {bands_paper.ps}
        \caption{LDA-bandstructure of TiOCl (solid red line) and TiOBr (dashed blue line)
      along the path $\Gamma$= (0, 0, 0),  X= (0, 1/2, 0), S=(-1/2, 1/2, 0), Y=(-1/2, 0, 0), $\Gamma$,
      Z=(0, 0, 1/2)
in units of 2$\pi$/a, 2$\pi$/b, 2$\pi$/c.}
        \label{bands}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}
      \begin{center}
       \leavevmode
       \epsfxsize=8cm \epsfbox {bnds_lda+u_fm_Cl+Br.ps}
        \caption{LDA+U bandstructure of TiOCl (solid red line) and TiOBr (dashed blue line)
      along the path $\Gamma$- X - S - Y - $\Gamma$ - Z. Note the opening of the gap at
      the Fermi level with respect to the LDA results. The two bands right below  E$_F$
       are of Ti-$\rm d_{xy}$ nature.}
        \label{bands_U}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

In order to investigate the electronic properties of TiOX, we carried out density
functional calculations for TiOBr  and compared with the results obtained for
TiOCl\cite{seidel03,valenti03}. We performed our {\it ab initio} study in the local
density approximation (LDA), the generalized gradient approximation (GGA)\cite{perdew96}
and in the so-called LDA+U\cite{anisimov97} by using the linearized muffin tin orbital
(LMTO) method based on the Stuttgart TBLMTO-47 code\cite{andersen75}. The results within
LDA and GGA did not lead to significant differences.  An analysis of the TiOBr
bandstructure (see Fig.\ \ref{bands}) shows that the shape of the LDA-$\rm t_{2g}$ bands
crossing the Fermi level have almost identical dispersions to
TiOCl\cite{seidel03,valenti03}, what indicates that the exchange paths are similar
between these two compounds. Nevertheless, there is in TiOBr a narrowing of the
bandwidth along the Y-$\Gamma$-Z path which is a consequence of the enlargement of the
cell in $b$ and $c$ directions.

The calculation within the LDA+U approach shows for TiOBr Ti-$d_{xy}$ to be the
groundstate as in TiOCl (see Fig.\ \ref{bands_U} ). In order to get a reliable estimate
of the interaction paths in TiOBr, we applied the tight-binding-downfolding
procedure\cite{saha-dasgupta00,valenti03} which obtains the effective Ti-$\rm
d_{xy}$-Ti-$\rm d_{xy}$ hopping parameters by downfolding all the degrees of freedom in
the bandstructure calculation other than Ti-$\rm d_{xy}$. The predominant hopping path
in TiOX, $\rm t$, is along the nearest neighbor (n.n.) Ti-$\rm d_{xy}$ in the $b$
direction. $\rm t=-0.21eV$ for TiOCl while $\rm t=-0.17eV$ for the Br system. This
reduction reflects the narrowing of the bands in TiOBr.

\begin{table}
\caption{Predominant hopping integrals (in eV) $t_{i,j}$ for TiOCl and TiOBr obtained
from downfolding the bandstructure results (see text). In the Table only the significant
digits have been given.} \label{parameters}\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|c c|c|c|c|}
\hline

          & Ti-Ti hopping integrals                        & TiOCl & TiOBr  & $\rm 10^2$ $\cdot$ $\Delta x/x$\\
          \hline \hline
     t        & n.n. hopping along $b$                         & -0.21 &  -0.17 & - 19 \\
  t$^{'}_{b}$ & n.n.n. hopping along $b$                   & -0.03 &  -0.04 & + 33 \\  \hline\hline
      t$^{'}$ &   n.n. hopping along $a$, same layer           & 0.04  &  0.06  & + 50 \\
     $t^{''}$ & n.n. hopping along \emph{a}, different layers  &  0.03  &  0.04  & + 33 \\
  \hline\hline

\end{tabular}
\end{center}

\end{table}

A rough estimate of the antiferromagnetic superexchange along $b$ can be obtained by
using the expression $\rm J=4t^2/U$  which for $\rm U$=3.3eV is J $\approx$ 621~K for
TiOCl and J $\approx$ 406~K for TiOBr. This change is larger than the shift seen in high
energy Raman spectra and in qualitative agreement with the susceptibility measurements.
Since we are here interested in estimating the differences between TiOCl and TiOBr, we
present in Table \ref{parameters} a detailed account of all relevant effective hopping
parameters between Ti-$\rm d_{xy}$-Ti-$\rm d_{xy}$. We observe that the hopping
integrals along other paths than $\rm t$ are almost an order of magnitude smaller than
the main hopping along $b$, nevertheless the TiOBr compound has slightly larger
effective hoppings along the $ab$ plane than TiOCl what indicates that in that system
the interactions within the $ab$ plane may be more significant than in TiOCl. The
comparison (Table~II) shows that this result is only in qualitative agreement with the
trend seen in maximum of the magnetic susceptibility.

\section{Summary and Conclusions}

The system TiOX, with X=Cl and Br, shows a rich spectrum of anomalies related to
electronic, spin and structural degrees of freedom that goes far beyond the scenario of
usual spin-Peierls materials \cite{cross79}. The analysis of the magnetic susceptibility
and phase diagram shows that the low temperature transition, $\rm T_{c1}$, connected
with a commensurate structural distortion, scales with the decrease of the
susceptibility and the evolution of the spin gap. The high temperature transition, $\rm
T_{c2}$, scales with the maximum in the susceptibility that is itself related to the
characteristic energy scale of the magnetic system.

The deviations between the latter energy scale and the high energy Raman scattering are
either due to a complex structure of the dimer formation or due to an interplay with the
phonon sector. Due to the strong distortion and the already weak interlayer coupling in
TiOCl we do not expect that changes of the dimensionality play an essential role.

Finally, our band structure calculations have shown that, although the effective Ti-$\rm
d_{xy}$-Ti-$\rm d_{xy}$ hopping parameters are renormalized with the substitution of Cl
by Br, the electronic spectrum does not change drastically. This is in accordance with
the high energy Raman scattering. Following the Cross-Fisher scaling, the difference in
the transition temperatures of the two compounds should then be attributed both to the
smaller electronic bandwidth and a modified spin-phonon coupling. This scenario,
however, does neither explain the strong fluctuations nor the large spin gap observed
even above the transition temperatures. Further studies on both systems are needed to
elucidate these points.

{\bf Acknowledgement}

The authors acknowledge fruitful discussions with C. Gros, H. Rosner, L. Degiorgi,
E.~Ya. Sherman, R. Kremer and B. Keimer. This work was supported by the MRSEC Program of
the National Science Foundation under award number DMR 02-13282, and DFG SPP1073.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


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text:
Romania suspends tax on stock market gains
de Radu Rizea HotNews.ro
Miercuri, 24 septembrie 2008, 13:48 English | Business
Economy Minister Varujan Vosganian announced that the Government suspends the tax on stock market trade profits for 2009, in order to encourage the stock market development. At the same time, Gabriela Anghelache, president of the National Securities Commission (CNVM), announced that the 0.08% tax players had to pay on each transaction is suspended from October 1 to the end of the year. CNVM will also give up the income from listing new companies during the next six months.
"We had to choose between zero income for the state budget and a blocked stock market and zero income with a functional market", said Vosganian.
The reactions to the measures announced today are different. Ionut Popescu, former Economy Minister and editor-in-chief of the financial weekly magazine Capital says that the actions are good and will lead to the development of the stock market. Cristian Sima, international trader and president of WBS Holding, believes that the measures are "stupid", priorities being elsewhere, namely in the way heads of the Financial Investment Societies (SIFs) are named and replaced. "In any market, the managers of a fund that loses 80% in one year would have packed up and went home", says Sima, who argues that the 1% holding limit for SIF shares makes the replacement of managers impossible, due to a very dispersed shareholders group.


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Haas positioned to make another run on weekend
By Randall Mell
LOS ANGELES – Bill Haas quietly positioned himself for a run at back-to-back titles at the Northern Trust Open.
With a chip-in to save par at the 18th hole Friday, Haas closed out a 4-under-par 67, moving into a tie for ninth, four shots off the lead.
"I feel like if I can ball strike a hair better on the weekend, maybe I can do something really good," Haas said.
Haas played the first two rounds with Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley, whom he beat in a playoff to win at Riviera last year. Haas walked away Friday with honors in this pairing again, bettering Mickelson by a shot through 36 holes and Bradley by four shots.


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When you are one of the World's best players, you get special perks like signature boot releases. A few weeks back, Lionel Messi received his latest pair in the form of the Mirosar10, a boot designed to celebrate his past.
In standard fashion, Messi finished off the 2014 calendar year in style with a double during Barcelona's victory over Córdoba. Since September, the Argentinian talisman has claimed 15 goals in 16 league games as he continues to assert his dominance over all La Liga defenders. Through the end of December, the premier Spanish division takes a well-earned break in action. It makes for an ideal time for players to recover their bodies. When action does resume, we expect to see Messi sporting the Mirosar10 again.
But what makes the Mirosar10 so special to Messi? Here we break down what the special edition release is all about!
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In creating this boot, Adidas took inspiration from Leo's upbringing in Rosario, Argentina where he learned the game and scored his first goals, before becoming an international superstar.
Right throughout the boot, there is significant meaning. For example, the insoles are printed with a map of Rosario, which is highlighted throughout along with the Batallón pitch – an abandoned military base field that Leo used to sneak onto through a hole in the fence to play football with his friends when he was a small child.
Why is it Called the "Mirosar10"?
The naming convention of the boot is Mirosar10 (or Mirosario), which translates from Spanish to 'my Rosario'. The number 10 is added to give prominence in the naming, in the same way Leo has himself given prominence to this number for both club and country.
The boot has also been named the Messi 10.1, so you might notice it listed with a different name in different spots online.
Again, Adidas picked significant colors to create a true Messi inspired boot. The orange of the boot signifies his first ever club, with the green representing their fiercest rivals, who Leo scored 4 goals against in his first significant 11-a-side game as a young child. For that reason, the Orange obviously covers a much broader surface area on the boot.
Up close, the boot has a light textured design that looks like it follows the silhouette of a skyline. It also proves the separating line between both shades of color.
Given the fact these are worn by one of the best players to ever wear the game, it is quite clear that there is something special about them. Through extensive research, Adidas has produced one of the best speed boots ever release in the adiZero F50 series. With Messi's input, this latest version is another weapon that attacking styled players can definitely make the most of.
The upper is a Hybridtouch microfiber, with that light 3D texture and definition across the surface aiding in first touch and control on the ball. Flip them over and you find the signature Traxion soleplate, ideal for use on FG surfaces.
Find the adidas Messi 10.1 listed at soccer.com.


We are pleased to offer the following scheduled cruises during 2019. Select the "Details/Booking" link for more information on the cruise itinerary and/or to make a booking and secure your chosen route and preferred dates.
Discounts apply for bookings of two or more consecutive cruises, details available on request.
*based on 2 people sharing a twin/double cabin. Supplement applies for single occupancy, please see our price list.


Warren Hill was originally sentenced to life imprisonment for shooting his girlfriend, Myra Wright, in 1986. He was subsequently sentenced to death for killing his cellmate, Joseph Handspike.
Georgia is preparing to EXECUTE the mentally ill man who "somehow" got a board of wood with long nails driven through it and beat his cellmate to death while he slept. Did the prison know how dangerous Hill was? Absolutely. He was already imprisoned for murder. And how on earth did Hill get a board and nails to make a Midieval club like the one pictured below? Hill's murder by the State on January 27, 2015, and his victim's murder, will be included in our "AIMI vs. USA" legal action before the International Court in 2015.
If inmates can be endangered and killed by locking them in cells with murderous mentally ill people, which has happened in Georgia correctional facilities more than once, then every prisoner is at risk. Correctional officers and prison administrators who apply this lack of care are intended to escape accountability by executing the mentally ill inmates who kill their cellmates. The inmates who kill will bare the blame, not the prison which should be a "controlled environment."
"AIMI vs. USA" will take the USA before the International Court for dereliction of its duty to protect the rights of institutionalized persons, such as Hill and his victim, Handspike. Hill should have had no opportunity to ascertain a board and nails, and his victim should not have been in the cell with a homicidal mentally ill man like Hill.
Read about The Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) of 1980, a United States federal law intended to protect the rights of people in state or local correctional facilities, nursing homes, mental health facilities and institutions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (Wikipedia). The U.S. Justice Department totally ignores its responsibility to uphold that Act; an "act" is all it is (see the links to information about CRIPA below).
As Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said over 50 years ago, "All we say to America is, 'Be true to what you said on paper.'" That is still a huge problem, and no group of people anywhere on planet earth is as oppressed as Americans with mental disabilities in custody. They are regularly tortured and killed without any accountability being demanded. Some are tortured for sport and killed in grotesque Medieval ways, including death by scalding, death by roasting, death by hanging, and forcing mentally ill inmates to entertain correctional officers by engaging in gladiator fights (to the finish, in some cases).
It is likely that Hill's mental illness was untreated before he killed Myra Wright, his first victim. Neglect likely caused both murders.
Read about Hill at "Georgia Kills Mentally Ill Inmates."
How can you help? Follow this blog, share this article, and listen to the George Mallinckrodt Blogtalkradio presentations taped January 11 and January 15, 2015 (links are in this blog). Mallinckrodt exposed brutality and a murder against mentally ill inmates in his book, "Getting Away with Murder" and was fired from his position as a psychotherapist in Florida prisons as a consequence of his objections to torture. Human and civil rights of persons with mental disabilities in the United States are treated as nonexistent.
Mentally Ill Americans Need Dog Justice. Treat mental illness medically, not legally. Support the H.R. 3717 "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act." The U.S. congressional bill provides for crisis intervention team (CIT) training for police and corrections officers, assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) programs to stop recidivism, and other needed changes.
It is not bad enough that mentally ill people are murdered and tortured in correctional facilities by murderous guards and other inmates. They also regularly do executions with mentally ill inmates as victims. If they kill Warren Hill, I don't know how YOU will handle it. They should be afraid to do such things - afraid of the moral, socially conscious citizenry in the USA. WHY aren't they afraid of you?