text:
What No Man Knew
This entry was posted on July 22, 2012, in biography, British law, charity, English history, environment, families, folk stories, history of publishing, human rights, local government, media, myths, protest, quality of life, real life, society and tagged human rights, Lincolnshire, pendle witch, Pendle withces, religion, The Discoverie of Witches in the Cuntie of Lancaster, Thomas Potts, witch story, witch trials. Bookmark the permalink.	8 Comments
I have just got a copy of 'The Wonderfvll Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster', a copy of Thomas Potts' original book of the Pendle Witch Trials of 1612.
This is one book I couldn't not buy – who doesn't like a good witch story? And this is one of the most famous, when 20 people, largely from 3 families, were put on trial. I even love the old font they use, and how they are so inconsistent in the use of u and v.
The woman who seems to have been the main leader was Elizabeth Sowtherns, aka Old Demdike, described as:
.."'their damnabel and malicious Witch, of so long continuance.. of whom our whole businesse hath such dependence, that without the particular Declaration and Record of her Euidence, with the circumstaunces, wee shall neuer bring any thing to good perfection; for from this Sincke of vilainie and mischeife, haue all the rest prodeeded…
She was a very old woman, about the age of Fourescore yeares, and had been a Witch for fiftie yeares. Shee dwelt in the Forrest of Pendle, a vast place, fitte for her profession; what shee commited in her time, no man knows.
Thus liued shee securely for many yeares, brought vp her owne Children, instructed her Graund-children, and tooke great care and paines to bring them to be Witches. Shee was a generall agent for the Deuill in all these partes; no man escaped her, or her Furies, that euer gaue them any occasion of offence, or denyed them any thing they stood need of: and certain it is, no man neere them, was secure of free from danger.
But God, who had in his diuine prouidence prouided to cut them off, and tooke them out of the Commonwealth, so diposed aboue, that the Iustices of those partes, vnderstanding by a generall charme and muttering, the great and vniuersal resotr to Maulking Tower, " the common opinion, wiht the report of these suspected people, the complaint of the Kinges subiectes for the losse of their Children, Friendes, Goodes, and Cattle, (as there could not be so great Fire without some Smoake,) sent for some of the Countrey, and took great paynes to enquire after their proceedinges, and courses of life."
All this sounds robust enough, and much echoes reports of other witch trials, but there are two points that shed genuinely new light on witch trials for me.
The incidents happened at an interesting time. Early that year the last trial for heresy had been held. James I was on the throne, one of the 17th century's experts on witchcraft, and struggling to establish Protestantism on a still largely Catholic nation.
In the Preface, it is further noted that "many Protestants regarded the Catholic mass and the doctrine of transubstantiation as being examples of witchcraft."
As far as I know, all witch trials were by Protestants, acting in part out of nervousness from their new status as a religious group, but also many of the terms and accusations do sound very like Catholic rituals, or perversions of them.
In the preface to his book it is also mentioned: "the Date of Good Friday may well be significant. Was Alice Nutter on her way to a secret mass rather than a Witches' Sabbat? To have revealed that would not only have put her own life in peril, but those of her Catholic friends as well. Far better to keep silent and face the consequences alone as a secret (and as yet unrecognised) Catholic martyr. "
This is an intriguing suggestion, especially as many of the witches were convicted on their own confessions, which seems an odd thing to do given that they faced certain death, but is likely if they were covering up.
But as in many other cases, can we actually believe that the confessions were made voluntarily? That is something we will never find out.
Unless they really were witches and can get in touch to clarify what really happened.
8 thoughts on "What No Man Knew"
Alex Jones says:
Witch burning became a country sport in East Anglia they killed so many witches.
Barb Drummond says:
Yes, but were they really witches or covering up for Catholics and their priests? if so, then the story is a totally different one.
Jessica Accardi says:
I have read that many of them were midwives…those that possess any degree of intellect are often the first victims.
I don't know the figures but a lot fo the accusations sound like scrambled versions of catholic rites by people who really don't know what they are talking about, so the accusations have never made a lot of sense to me, nor the apparent willingness by them to confess
There is a lot I'd confess to under torture, that's the easy part I would imagine.
Celeste Santos says:
Barb, dear, you do a hell of a job!
Congrats! And I'm referring to this and other posts! Oh my!
In fact this "witch" subject has always been rather intriguing… We seem to have had a lot of them around here during the Inquisition time (1536-1821). (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Inquisition)
This was the time for blood cleansing, book censorship, of "spying on" New Christians" (those recently converted to Catholicism) in order to prove whether they did not keep on with their old religious practices…
Jews were the main target, but cases of divination, witchcraft and bigamy were also undertaken.
All these people surely represented a threat to the Church.
Why Jews? The answer is quite obvious. Being "New Christians", recently converted, they were still the enemy. The Church needed and wanted Believers from "the birth" and "blood cleansing" would make a bit more sense for them. It would be less risky, too.
Why witches? An institution is always afraid of someone it can't control. And witches were not always witches and we know that. Sometimes they were simply wise, sensitive and compassionate women. However I don't think the Church knew about that! For the better and for the worse.
Why bigamy? Oh, who knows one is not sleeping with a "persona non grata"? And surely because it would be quite easy to put people against each other and make them talk. Then "I accuse you, before you do that to me." Obviously.
Inquisition controlled everyone's single step and move!!!
Once decided the punishment, an "auto-de fé" (act of faith) took place.
It was the ritual of public penance of condemned heretics and apostates, followed by the execution by the civil authorities of the sentences imposed.
As execution by burning was more memorable than the penance which preceded it, in popular use the term came to mean the burning rather than the penance.
The auto-da-fé was thoroughly orchestrated. Preparations began a month in advance and only occurred when the inquisition authorities believed there were enough prisoners in a given community or city. Bordering the city's plaza, an all-night vigil would be held with prayers, ending in Mass at daybreak and a breakfast feast prepared for all who joined in.
And I believe what we see in films is not exaggerated. The crowd had a day free to watch to all this, dance, laugh, and… rejoiced… and praised the Lord and the Holy Church!
What can be done with people's minds!!!
Unfortunately this isn't over, yet!
Phew! What a huge response. The history of the time is not just about the horrors that were carried out, often on single vulnerable often old women, but the fear and anger that was so widespread at the time, that caused it all. since Christianity began as a sort of jewish light, they have alwasys been insecure in their beliefs.
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Does anyone know the difference between NSIndexpath.row and NSIndexpath.item?
Okay, nobody has given a good answer here.
Inside NSIndexPath, the indexes are stored in a simple c array called "_indexes" defined as NSUInteger* and the length of the array is stored in "_length" defined as NSUInteger. The accessor "section" is an alias to "_indexes" and both "item" and "row" are aliases to "_indexes". Thus the two are functionally identical.
In terms of programming style – and perhaps the definition chain – you would be better using "row" in the context of tables, and "item" in the context of collections.
The NSIndexPath class represents the path to a specific node in a tree of nested array collections. This path is known as an index path.
Each index in an indexPath represents the index into an array of children from one node in the tree to another, deeper node.
Here in your case indexPath.row returns the index of the row at the specific indexPath.
Available in iOS 2.0 and later.
>     Available in iOS 6.0 and later.
indexPath.row is for tableView and indexPath.item is for collectionView.
Available in iOS 6.0 and later.
@Owen Godfrey's answer is better than the accepted answer from @iPatel. Here is some further clarification which I wasn't able to fit into a comment on his answer, so I'll copy his answer and add to it here. Credit belongs to Owen.
Inside NSIndexPath, the indexes are stored in a simple c array called "_indexes" defined as NSUInteger* and the length of the array is stored in "_length" defined as NSUInteger. The accessor "section" is an alias to "_indexes" and both "item" and "row" are aliases to "_indexes1". Thus the two are functionally identical.
The core interface of NSIndexPath is defined in NSIndexPath.h. The storage of the indexes is in _indexes which is a private one-dimensional array of NSUInteger. NSIndexPath by itself can represent any number of dimensions. There are two relevant categories on NSIndexPath which extend the functionality, one from UICollectionView.h "NSIndexPath (UICollectionViewAdditions)" and one from UITableView.h "NSIndexPath (UITableView)". The one from UICollectionView.h adds the readonly property "item" and related convenience methods. The one from UITableView.h adds the readonly property "row" and related convenience methods. However both properties are just wrappers that access the underlying value in _indexes.
Since UIKit links with both categories, both sets of convenience functions are always available, no matter where in IOS you are using them. So you could create an NSIndexPath from [NSIndexPath indexPathForRow:inSection:] but retrieve the second index from indexPath.item. The underlying value is exactly the same whether accessed by indexPath.item or indexPath.row.
Stylistically it is cleaner if you use "item" with UICollectionView and "row" with UITableView as that is how they were intended to be used, and this makes for more readable code. However your program won't crash if you interchange them.
Look at the bottom of UICollectionView.h and you will see the category that extends NSIndexPath to add item as a property when used within for UICollectionView instances.
There is a similar section at the bottom of UITableView.h which adds row and section properties for NSIndexPaths that are used in UITableViews.
If you are trying to access these properties of an NSIndexPath instance within a class and the NSIndexPathInstance doesn't believe they are there, just import the header of the class that defines them into the top of your class and you will magically be able to access these properties.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged ios uitableview nsindexpath or ask your own question.
How to have the number of a Cell?
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Q: Computational cost/complexity of algorithms based on the number of mathematical operations A problem is made up of $n$ similar parts. There is an algorithm $A_1$ to solve one of those parts using, for example, 10 divisions and 5 additions. Therefore, I apply the algorithm $A_1$ a total of $n$ times to solve the entire problem.
A different algorithm $A_2$ is available, which needs, for example, 5 divisions and 3 additions to solve each part. It must also be applied $n$ times to solve the whole problem.
Algorithm A2 is clearly better, since it performs fewer mathematical operations. However, using the O notation, both algorithms have the same computational cost. Is there a mathematical/computational way to clearly show that algorithm $A_2$ offers computational time/cost advantages over algorithm $A_1$?

A:
Algorithm A2 is clearly better, since it performs fewer mathematical operations.

Which is far from true in the real world. Fewer operations is not equal to better, unless you assume that all operations perform exactly the same way (unrealistic) and the way you compose them (e.g. order of operations, even when commutative) doesn't affect performance (again: unrealistic). For example the x86 LOOP instruction is infamously known to be worse than multiple x86 instructions needed for manual loop. The difficulty of proper measurement gets higher when probability and/or multiple threads are involved.
In your very simple scenario it may be as you say because of the simplicity 10 divs + 5 adds vs 5 divs + 3 adds. But it still is possible that a compiler/cpu will optimize the first one better. We don't know what those algorithms actually are. For example what if those 10 divs are performed on constants and thus a compiler can simply replace them with a single constant? The devil is in details.
Finally it is very dangerous to generalize it to more complicated scenarios. The real world example is quick sort, which is known to even have worse complexity than other sorting algorithms, yet it is widely used, because in many practical situations it outperforms its (theoretically faster) competition.

Is there a mathematical/computational way to clearly show that algorithm $A_2$ offers computational time/cost advantages over algorithm $A_1$?

Typically people will benchmark algorithms (or rather their concrete implementations) in order to truely determine whether they perform better/worse. You will often see such benchmarks directly in published papers. Note that this is hard to do well, because there are so many factors one has to take into account (like for example cache locality, compiler optimizations, cpu optimizations, OS affecting runtime, etc.).
That being said some people do precise runtime analysis (as machine-independent as possible), e.g. Don Knuth in his book series "The Art of Computer Programming" or Robert Sedgewick in "Algorithms". However it is rather rare. At the end of the day we care more about practical application rather than theoretical numbers.

A: You are correct when you say that these are equivalent in the big-O sense. Each runs in time proportional to the input size $n$.
Assuming that the cost of those arithmetic operations is the same (although divisions are usually slower than additions), and that other parts of the computation are the same,  the second is obviously faster. The loop will run almost twice as fast. There is no need for fancy mathematics. It's a straightforward inequality.
The point of the big-O analysis is to gain insight into how the algorithm will scale for really large inputs. If the code  takes weeks to run with the first algorithm it will still be impractical with the second, even though it's twice as fast.

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text:
Q: unnamed namespace within named namespace Some code I've been asked to modify looks rather like this:
namespace XXX {

namespace {

// some stuff

} // end of unnamed

// Some stuff within the scope of XXX

} // end of XXX

I'm struggling to see the advantage, if any, of embedding the unnamed namespace within another namespace and I'm considering changing it to:
namespace {

// some stuff

} // end of unnamed

namespace XXX {

// Some stuff within the scope of XXX

} // end of XXX

Any views would be gratefully appreciated.

A: Okay, turns out that X::<anonymous>::foo() is visible as X::foo(). I'm surprised.
So, no, there's very little practical benefit. There may be semantic or documentation implications though.

Original answer
Well that rather depends on the "stuff", doesn't it?
The existing code allows code in X to have "private" other stuff that's also in X but cannot be accessed from outside of X:
#include <iostream>

namespace X {
   namespace {
      void foo() { std::cout << "lol\n"; }
   }

   void bar() { foo(); }
}

int main()
{
   X::bar();
   // X::foo();  // can't do this directly  [edit: turns out we can!]
}

*

*Output: lol\n
Your proposed approach makes that "private stuff" available to the entire translation unit:
#include <iostream>

namespace {
   void foo() { std::cout << "lol\n"; }
}

namespace X {
   void bar() { foo(); }
}

int main()
{
   X::bar();
   foo();     // works
}

*

*Output: lol\nlol\n

A: Very little benefit from the global point of view: if viewed from other translation units' point of view, both approaches have same results: the anonymous namespace is invisible (or can't be referenced).
From the same translation unit point of view, there's a difference: The fact that you're defining a toplevel namespace means that you reduce the probability of importing a namespace conflict declared elsewhere, and the most common one would be for the global namespace (namespaceless functions, think of anything inherited from ISO C like from stdio.h or whatever).
For instance, if a global header you import in that translation unit had a "namespaceless" abort() and you declare a namespace { abort() { ...} } in your translation unit, you would have an ambiguity, gcc for instance would throw a compile error:
error: call of overloaded 'abort()' is ambiguous

Now, if you name an anonymous namespace inside a named namespace, you have these effects:
a) there's no ambiguity for functions declared inside the namespace, because it has precedence:
namespace a { namespace { abort() {...} } }

if you have a function like a::whatever() and it references abort(), it'll resolve at it's own namespace as it has precedence.
b) You won't have global linkage for a::abort() as it doesn't exist outside the translation unit, the same as namespace { abort(); } in the toplevel but without the potential conflict above.
And in "b" lies the difference: it's not the same as just namespace a { abort(); } because it won't have global linkage, so you could redefine it in another translation unit without conflicts. Good luck trying to link two translation units that both define namespace a { abort() { ... } } ...
So you get exactly as you mean:
namespace a { // you have a named space, so you don't have conflicts with the nameless one
  namespace { // but you have local visibility and linkage
    whatever(); // for this
  }
}

To put in short: both ways have similarities but there's a difference. One could argue that's not very useful, but as a style it'll preemptively avoid collisions with the global namespace. One can still argue that since these would be caught at compile time (hopefully, at least when signatures matches perfectly), why bother. But it's a useful concept if your project is a library meant to be portable and your headers could get polluted depending on whatever the environment headers themselves imports, for otherwise your users would have to patch your library for their systems or you'd need #ifdefs here and there.
I program a lot on ISO/ANSI C 99 and from times to times I have to do stuff like:
#include <headerA.h>
#define symbol symbolB
#include <headerB.h>
// or some crap alike. And I have linker problems with above.

... because both headers (from e.g. different libraries) manage to pollute the namespace and I can't simply patch someone else's library.
C++ namespace resolves that, except when somebody else don't use it, so you must take measures either to prevent (which isn't an option for legacy code) or to counteract it.

A: One of the benefits of using unnamed namespace inside named namespace is to prevent Argument dependent lookup (ADL).
Indeed, if you define types and functions in the same named namespace, you might encounter undesirable effects.
The following example illustrate the problem :
Let's say we have a simple header file as below, where we define a generic function myfunction for our custom type mytype inside our namespace mynamespace.
//header.h
namespace mynamespace {
    struct mytype {};

    static void myfunction(mytype){}
}

Now, inside another file test.cpp, we want to override myfunction for a specific purpose (e.g. print debug info, do extra stuff, I18N...), without changing the rest of our program. The following code will not conflict with our header file because it is a different namespace i.e. the global namespace.
//test.cpp
#include "header.h"

static void myfunction(mynamespace::mytype){}

int main(){
    mynamespace::mytype val = {};
    //error: call of overloaded 'myfunction(mynamespace::mytype&)' is ambiguous
    myfunction(val);
}

Surprisingly, the call to myfunction above is ambiguous and does not compile, because of ADL.
To solve your issue, you can prevent ADL thanks to anonymous namespace.
//header.h
namespace mynamespace {
    struct mytype {};

    //OK prevents ADL
    namespace {
        static void myfunction(mytype){}
    }
}

A: It does have practical benefit.
An unnamed namespace hide names inside it from different translation units.
The above code works only because the definition of foo is in the same translation unit.
Suppose main() and the definition of foo() are in different translation unit.
It would compile, since the main file include the header of the declaration. but it wouldn't link because logically there's no such thing as X::(unnamed namespace)::foo.

A: A simple benefit is that from the anonymous namespace within the named namespace, one can access directly things of the named namespace:
namespace foo {
    class Bar;

    namespace {
        void Baz() {
            Bar bar;  // no need to specify the foo namespace
            …
        }
    }

    …
}

instead of:
class foo::Bar;

namespace {
    void Baz() {
        foo::Bar bar;
        …
    }
}

namespace foo {
    …
}


Welcome to The House of Indie!
We organise lots of events in Belgium.
Screenshake 2018 is the sixth edition of the only art festival in Belgium to showcase the video game medium, with a focus on independent or 'indie' games.
Headstart 2018 is a week-long, international summer school, aimed at starting indie developers.
and anyone interested in indie game culture.
Besides the three main events: Screenshake, Headstart and the Indie Game Salons. The House of Indie also organises several other events.


Diagnosis begins with a gynecologist/care provider evaluating a female's medical history and a complete physical examination including a pelvic examination. A diagnosis of amenorrhea can only be certain when the physician/care provider rules out other menstrual disorders, medical conditions, or medications that may be causing or aggravating the condition. In addition, a diagnosis of amenorrhea requires that a female has missed at least three consecutive menstrual cycles, without being pregnant. Young women who have not had their first menstrual period by the age of 15 should be evaluated promptly, as making an early diagnosis and starting treatment as soon as possible is very important.


text:
Vol. 42 No. 4 · 20 February 2020
Stefan Collini is troubled by 'two problematic features' in my history of the Economist (LRB, 6 February). First, claiming that I 'arraign figures in the past for failing to live up to the most progressive standards of the present', he cites my treatment of the banker-editor Walter Bagehot. In leaping to defend this 'teasing, playful writer' who was 'no zealot for any cause', Collini is in great, if not always good, company. But to wave away the positions that Bagehot took is itself unhistorical. Collini presents Bagehot as if he were a standard opponent of 'universal adult suffrage' in his day, rather than of the limited franchise of the Second Reform Act, and minimises his support for Louis Napoléon, right through from 1849 via the Mexican expedition to the Franco-Prussian War, as if this too was perfectly standard at the time. It wasn't, and neither was his support for the slaveholding South in the US Civil War. I never resort to anachronism in assessing Bagehot: instead, I compare his writings on economics, politics and empire to those of his contemporaries, including Alexis de Tocqueville, John Stuart Mill and Frederic Harrison.
Second, Collini insists that liberalism is a distraction in looking at the Economist. That is absurd: its own editors proudly and consistently embrace the label. The 1 February issue advises Boris Johnson that he needs a lodestar: 'Liberalism offers one.' At no point, however, does my book present liberalism as a 'transtemporal category signifying, roughly, "not socialism"'. It traces the historical emergence of the category out of different, principally Continental strands, and shows that there were always distinct streams of liberal thought and politics. It is not at all surprising that the conflicts between liberal thinkers found expression in different periods in the pages of the Economist. Collini's grasp of these debates may be judged from his description of the editor Francis Hirst as an 'Old Liberal', when he was a staunch supporter of the New Liberal reforms of the 1906 government.
Collini's prolific work on writers and thinkers has for many years focused, in his own words, on their 'voice' – not so much on the content of what they wrote, or the systems or doctrines they elaborated, but on their tone and temper, or cast of mind. Resistant, in general, to overarching categories, he seems particularly sensitive when it comes to liberalism. 'When people ask me if the division between men of the Right and men of the Left still makes sense,' the essayist Alain once remarked, 'the first thing that comes to mind is that the person asking the question is certainly not a man of the Left.' When someone says, mutatis mutandis, 'all you mean by liberalism is "not socialism"' and 'there is no such thing,' it is safe to assume the speaker is a liberal, defensively protecting himself.
In neighbourly fashion, Collini extends his protection to the Economist, pooh-poohing my research on the political stances of the paper as mere auditing of superficial aspects of its record. What matters, he says, are the utility of the facts it provides. I draw attention to the strengths of the paper, especially its global reach, and point out how seriously this should be taken. But the 'informational' side of the paper is a means to its 'ideological' ends: Collini's artificial separation of the two and elevation of the first over the second banalises successive enormities of the Economist. Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Yemen? Yawn. What counts is its coverage of soya futures and sex toys.
As an adept of 'voice', Collini delights in the conceit that the Economist speaks as if from On High. What it is saying hardly matters. 'If you want to know what's happening in the world, read the New York Times,' he urges us. 'If you want to know what's wrong with what's happening in the world, read the Guardian. If you want to know what's going to happen next in the world … read the Economist.' A sillier flourish is hard to imagine. The Times was telling us what was happening in the world as it toasted Hillary's Clinton's cruise to the presidency? The Guardian was telling us what was wrong with the world when it cheered New Labour and adored Obama? Was the Economist telling its readers what was going to happen when it hailed the invasion of Iraq as the dawn of a new world order as wonderful as America's forging of the Free World in the time of Acheson? Or when it had no glimmering of the financial meltdown of 2008?
Alexander Zevin
Labour's Defeat
In the course of his excellent piece about the December election (LRB, 6 February), James Butler says that Jeremy Corbyn possessed the quality of resilience: 'He withstood a level of opprobrium almost unprecedented in public life.' One wonders whether 'resilience' is quite the word, when complaints about the supposedly unprecedented opprobrium have been noisy and outraged. Butler echoes the claim in the Labour Party's post-election report that 'there is also little doubt that four years of unrelenting attacks on the character of the party leader, an assault without precedent in modern politics, had a degree of negative impact.'
Perhaps they ought to read Charles Moore's biography of Margaret Thatcher. He records some of the statements by public figures, in public or in writing, about her character, appearance and personal attributes. Dennis Potter called her 'repellent'. David Hare said that her influence would disappear after she went, 'leaving nothing but the memory of a funny accent'. Alan Bennett said that she was 'a kind of maiden aunt who knows all about marriage'. Mary Warnock said that a film of her in Marks and Spencer had 'something really quite obscene about it'. Jonathan Miller called her 'loathsome, repulsive in almost every way'. Songs were released by pop bands with lines like 'I want to change into a dog so that I can use Madame Thatcher daily as a lamp-post,' or 'When they finally put you in the ground/They'll stand there laughing and tramp the dirt down,' or, concisely, 'Maggie, Maggie, you cunt/Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, you fucking cunt'. Alice Thomas Ellis called her 'a mean little mouse bred on cheese rind and broken biscuit and the nutritionless, platitudinous parings of a grocer's mind'. Much later, admired novelists would write stories fantasising about her violent murder set around the time of her attempted assassination in Brighton, a time when (as everyone concedes) she behaved with notable bravery.
This is not to complain about this sorry and often childish catalogue of insults, which some readers will think richly deserved, while others will hold that opprobrium is only to be expected by a politician proposing radical change, whether Thatcher or Corbyn. But it isn't correct to suggest that the opprobrium Corbyn undoubtedly experienced and clearly thought unjust was unprecedented. If there was a popular West End musical with a song looking forward to celebrating Corbyn's death, as Billy Elliot gleefully anticipated and, in the event, celebrated Thatcher's, I missed it.
Philip Hensher
Catherine Hall tells the story of migration from Jamaica to the UK (LRB, 23 January). There is one factor in this story that is given too little attention: bauxite. In 1945 large deposits of bauxite, the ore from which aluminium is extracted, were discovered in Jamaica. Aluminium alloys were vital for the defence and space industries, leading the US to regard bauxite as a 'strategic military resource'. The fact that Jamaica was the closest source of bauxite to the US made its deposits even more valuable. The British colonial government sold the deposits to the US in part repayment of its debt under the Marshall Plan. Under the early contracts, drawn up in the 1950s, Jamaica received only 3 per cent of the value of the ore extracted. Some 170,000 acres of land were acquired for bauxite mining between 1948 and 1968. Many of the peasantry – rent-paying smallholders, small property owners or labourers on larger plantations – became landless, and emigrated as a result. Others drifted towards Kingston and built great shanty towns on its outskirts. The Jamaican landscape, meanwhile, was left scarred by the bauxite excavations, which created great lakes of toxic red sludge.
Thom Cross
Carluke, South Lanarkshire
Spare Heirs
In his piece about Princes Andrew and Harry and the problems of being a spare heir, Jonathan Parry briefly mentions that Prince Alfred, second son to Queen Victoria, was suggested as a potential king of Greece in the 1860s (LRB, 6 February). In the 19th century there was a rich tradition of junior male royals being made useful in this way – filling vacant thrones in upstart countries and generally propping up the European monarchical system. The first king of the newly independent Greece, Otto I (r. 1832-62), was the second son of the king of Bavaria. When Otto was deposed – when Alfred was in the running for the gig – he was replaced by the second son of Christian IX of Denmark, who became George I (r. 1863-1913).
Not quite in the same category, being more spare than heir, but rolled out regardless, were the future first king of the Belgians, Leopold I (r. 1831-65), the third son of the duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and the future emperor of Brazil, Maximilian I (r. 1864-7), the second son of the third son of Francis II of Austria. (Maximilian is the man being executed in Manet's picture.) Prince Alfred, as Parry notes, didn't get Greece, but did end up being duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, one of his family's many German entanglements. This too had a precedent. Ernest Augustus, the fifth and longest-lived of George III's sons, who were extremely proficient at having children out of wedlock but not inside it, became king of Hanover in 1837 by default (Victoria was prohibited on grounds of gender).
It's worth saying that second sons did sometimes come in handy at home. Britain's George V only became so because his addled elder brother, Albert Victor, died in 1892 (to much relief). When Karl Josef of Austria's son and heir, Prince Rudolf, died in a suicide pact with his mistress in 1889, Karl Josef's younger brother's son, Franz Ferdinand, eventually took his place. When he was assassinated in 1914, his younger brother's son became the new heir, and then the last emperor of Austria, Karl I (r. 1916-18). And when Carlos I of Portugal and his eldest son, Luís Filipe, were shot by anarchists in 1908, it was a mercy that Prince Manuel was around to step up to the plate (only to be deposed in the revolution of 1910; he spent the rest of his life in Twickenham).
Leslie Green
Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham
I can add a personal moment of recognition to Jonathan Parry's identification of the 'They're just like us really, aren't they?' strand of our relationship with the monarchy (LRB, 6 February). A recent television news item showed the queen greeting a visiting head of state in the drawing room at Buckingham Palace. There, in the cavernous fireplace, was exactly the same make and model of electric convector heater that we have in our sitting room.
Jeremy Mitchell
Laughter in Art
Nicholas Penny mentions the small terracotta Virgin and Child from the Victoria and Albert Museum that was loaned to the Palazzo Strozzi exhibition of Andrea Verrocchio's work (LRB, 23 January). The infant Christ's expression is, he says, 'perhaps the first successful representation of laughter in art'. He has perhaps forgotten the delightful Virgin and Child fresco by Gentile da Fabriano in Orvieto Cathedral, in which the child isn't just laughing but waving too. The fresco is dated 1425, which is before either Verrocchio or Leonardo (the artists to whom the V&A terracotta has been variously attributed) was born. Surely there must be further early examples?
Ouida Weaver
Civitella del Lago, Italy


text:
BIC announces new Board of Directors
London, 22nd November 2021
Book Industry communciation (BIC) today announced the appointment of Ruth Jones, Director Global Sales, Digital Services at Ingram Content Group as Chair of its newly formed Board of Directors. The new board is one of a number of changes at BIC following an extensive governance review which focussed on re-shaping BIC in order to create an agile, responsive organisation that reflects the diversity of the current book industry and delivers a greater sense of ownership amongst the BIC membership. It replaces both the Executive and Operational boards which have now disbanded and means BIC members will have a greater say in BIC's strategy and schedule of work as they will now be eligible to nominate a suitable representative from within their own organisations for election to the new Board of Directors.
Speaking of her recent appointment Ruth Jones said "I am delighted to become Chair of the BIC Board as we transition to a new structure. The book supply chain needs to develop best practices to respond to new business and environmental challenges. It's exciting to be a part of BIC's focus on addressing real problems and affecting change though collaboration with its members."
The directors of the new board are as follows:
Graham Bell, Executive Director, EDItEUR
Simon Ellison, Merchandising Director - High Street, WHSmith
Gareth Jarrett, Director of Book Publishing Services, Taylor and Francis
Natalie Jones, Head of Programmes, CILIP
Ruth Jones, (Chair), Director Global Sales, Digital Services, Ingram Content Group
Dr Cordelia Rogerson, Head of Collection Care and Metadata Management, The British Library
Fraser Tanner, Managing Director, Batch Ltd and a Director of the Booksellers Association Group Ltd
Karina Urquhart, Executive Director, Book Industry Communication Ltd (BIC)
Jon Windus, Head of Product Leadership, Nielsen Book
Read the full press release here.
BIC announces appointment of its Green Supply Chain Committee Chair and launches its Green Supply Chain Work Plan
London, 11th October 2021
Book Industry Communication (BIC) today announced the appointment of Rachel Martin, Global Sustainability Director, Elsevier, as Chair of its recently created Green Supply Chain Committee. With representatives from 20 organisations, this committee has been established in order to serve as a strategic, central point for senior representatives from key book industry stakeholder organisations to convene on a regular basis to lead, drive and facilitate high level, cross-industry conversations, collaborations and drive forward solutions for environmental issues pertaining to the supply chain. Benefitting from a direct link to the Green Book Alliance (GBA), BIC's Green Supply Chain Committee is responsible for overseeing the delivery of its recently agreed Green Supply Chain Work Plan, which uses the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals as its framework.
Full Press Release, here.
Launches its Metadata Capabilities Directory
London, 22nd July 2021
BIC is delighted to announce the launch of its Metadata Capabilities Directory (MCD), a new facility powered by BIC members for BIC members, enabling participants to share information with each other about their own use of metadata within the supply chain. The MCD has been created as part of BIC's Metadata Map project.
The MCD is the first facility available to UK book trade organisations, (and organisations trading with UK book trade organisations), to record and describe what actually happens within their own metadata activities. All participants in the MCD will provide a full response to an extensive survey which provides a detailed record of their own metadata policies and practices. By recording, aggregating, and sharing actual behaviour across our industry, the MCD will provide an overview of the whole, which will enable contributors to benchmark and calibrate their own activities and help identify development priorities for the future.
More information and full Press Release here
BIC, BookNet Canada, BISG form International Green Book Supply Chain Alliance
Book Industry Communication (BIC) today announced the formation of an International Green Book Supply Chain Alliance with BookNet Canada (BNC) and the Book Industry Study Group (BISG). The alliance will include information sharing, joint planning, environmental events, and other supply chain initiatives.
BIC Launches UKSLC 1.2
London, 30th September 2019
BIC announced today that it has launched a refreshed UK Standard Library Categories (UKSLC) scheme which is now based on the international Thema subject categories, where previously it was based on BIC subject categories. Version 1.2 constitutes a significant update of the scheme since it was launched in 2008 as e4Libraries Subject Category Headings.
BIC Launches BIC Realtime for Libraries
BIC announces launch of a new set of industry standard APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) through its BIC Realtime for Libraries initiative.
Using these new XML web communications, library businesses will now be able to communicate with trading partners quicker and more effictively, and get real-time, immediate replies to requests rather than having to depend on processing of data transactions in batches.
Find out more about BIC Realtime for Libraries APIs / web services, here.
BIC Launches Refreshed Product Data Excellence Award Accreditation Scheme
London, 31st July 2019
BIC is delighted to announce the launch of its refreshed Product Data Excellence Award (PDEA) Accreditation Scheme.
Metadata underpins our digital age. It drives discoverability and sales, and therefore demands careful attention in terms of its initial creation and ongoing maintenance. BIC's PDEA scheme currently awards accreditation to more than 50 publishers for the quality of their metadata. The updated and refreshed accreditation scheme is the result of an extensive, in-depth review of BIC's current scheme, which was last updated in 2010, and encourages further improvements in metadata supply across the industry.
Read the full BIC press release here.
Find out more about the revised PDEA Scheme, here.
BIC Launches Metadata Map Project at London Book Fair,
London, 9th April 2018
BIC is delighted to announce that the launch of the BIC Metadata Map project will be made at the "Building a Better Business" seminar on Thursday 12th April.
Metadata underpins our digital age. It drives discoverability and book sales but all too often we have little knowledge of just how this vital asset flows through the supply chain to reach customers. To help publishers, retailers and others improve their understanding and target their resources more effectively, BIC has commissioned a 2-year project to map the increasingly dynamic and complex flow of metadata from producer to consumer.
The 'map' will be the sum of contributions from collaborating participants in the metadata supply chain and is intended to be published as an updatable online resource for contributing organisations, to show where the metadata goes, what happens to it, who uses it, and how.
Read the full BIC press release, here.
BIC Statement on Best Practice for Subtitle Field in
Metadata Feeds
London, 9th March 2018
Some publishers and other metadata providers are using the subtitle, and sometimes the title fields, in metadata feeds to carry marketing and promotional text. By this we mean using phrases such as 'Sunday Times Best Seller', 'Gripping read from…', 'The Richard & Judy Book Club thriller 2017', '"The best thriller writer alive" Another Author', 'Man Booker prize winner' and so on. It is important for discoverability, good customer experience and an efficient data supply chain that these data fields reflect only the true title and subtitle text that appears on the title page. The valuable promotional text should be included in separate and dedicated promotional text fields, and all metadata recipients, including wholesalers and retailers, should be using these fields appropriately.
Read the full BIC statement, here.
New Chair of the BIC Operational Board
London, 14th July 2016
Book Industry Communication (BIC) the UK book industry's independent supply chain organisation, announced today that Ruth Jones has been appointed Chair of the BIC Operational Board, taking up the role when current Chair, Mark Majurey, steps down at the beginning of September 2016.
Commercial Director & VP, Digital Publishing at Taylor & Francis Group, Mark Majurey, said: "It has been an honour and privilege to have served as BIC's Chairman for the past five years. During that time BIC has helped its members continue to manage the physical supply chain as well as meeting the challenges of new digital developments within the industry. I am thrilled that BIC will continue under Ruth Jones' stewardship as the new Chair and have no doubt it will continue to go from strength to strength."
Karina Luke, Executive Director at BIC said: "Both the BIC Executive and Operational Boards are extremely grateful for the 5 years of dedicated support, commitment and service from Mark. BIC is delighted that Ruth has agreed to take over the reins from Mark as Chair of the Operational Board going forward."
Ruth Jones, Director Business Development at Ingram Content Group said of her appointment: "BIC is at the heart of the book supply chain, and I am honoured to chair the Operational Board."
Ruth Jones will be speaking at BIC's New Trends in Publishing Seminar on Tuesday 6th September in London. Click here for further information about this event.
For more information, please contact: info@bic.org.uk
For more information about BIC, see the 'About BIC' webpage on the BIC website: www.bic.org.uk
Publishers Green Network Open Meeting and Relaunch
London, 28th April 2016
PGN Open Meeting and Relaunch:
Thursday 26 th May 2016
Pearson, 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL
16.00 – 17.00 Open Meeting
17.30 – 19.00 Keynote from David Nussbaum, WWF UK, followed by a drinks reception
The Publishers Green Network will relaunch on Thursday 26 th May with an open meeting followed by a keynote presentation from David Nussbaum, CEO of WWF UK.
The Publishers Green Network aims to help those in the book industry increase sustainability and reduce their overall environmental impact. The PGN looks at the complete process / supply chain for physical and ebooks by providing a networking / information sharing forum to facilitate this. The meeting, from 16.00 – 17.00, is open to any interested parties. To reserve a place, please email mail@publishers.org.uk
Following a short networking break, there will then be a keynote presentation from David Nussbaum. To book tickets, register here.
David Nussbaum, CEO of WWF UK, will speak on recent developments in the international and national sphere, setting a framework for the global Climate agenda, and current priorities for WWF. Focusing on what this might mean for the publishing industry, Nussbaum will look at the need for partnerships with environmental charities.
Stephen Lotinga, CEO of The Publishers Association will then lead an 'in conversation with' David Nussbaum, taking questions from the floor.
The afternoon will close with a drinks reception.
PGN Chairman, Ashley Lodge, says; "I am really delighted to be relaunching our group with David Nussbaum, the CEO of WWF UK. I passionately believe the PGN's information sharing forum has an important role to play in ensuring that the publishing industry continues to minimise its environmental impacts."
Note for Editors:
The Publishers Association and BIC are cosupporters of the Publishers Green Network.
The Publishers Association is the leading trade organisation serving book, journal, audio and electronic publishers in the UK. Membership comprises over 100 companies from across the trade, academic and education sectors. www.publishers.org.uk
For more information about BIC, see our 'About BIC' section at the bottom of this page. www.bic.org.uk
The Publishers Green Network is a voluntary group designed to help the publishing industry increase sustainability and reduce its overall environmental impact. The PGN looks at the complete process/supply chain for physical and ebooks by providing an environmental networking / information sharing forum to facilitate this. www.bic.org.uk/151/publishersgreennetwork
For more information please contact: Seonaid MacLeod, 020 7691 9191, smacleod@publishers.org.uk
BIC Launches New Set of Web Standards with BIC Realtime
London, April 5th 2016
Book Industry Communication (BIC), the book industry's independent supply chain organisation, announced today that it has launched a new set of industry standard APIs through its BIC Realtime initiative, previously known as BIC web services.
BIC Realtime is a suite of 19 business APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) created for retailers, suppliers and data providers in order to enable immediate data exchange and facilitate instant two-way communications relating to product metadata, ordering, fulfilment, finance and returns.
The new set of XML standards have been developed to enhance existing EDI capabilities within the book trade through the use of additional messages alongside traditional electronic data exchange. Using XML web communications, businesses will now be able to communicate with trading partners quicker and more effectively, getting real time replies to requests rather than having to depend on processing of data transactions in batches.
The standard business APIs now available via BIC Realtime are quick to develop, install and test. Additionally, businesses can deploy BIC Realtime solutions much more cost-effectively than traditional EDI, and trading partners will be able to support and communicate via BIC Realtime APIs swiftly and without weeks of testing.
Karina Luke, Executive Director of BIC commented: "BIC has been establishing standards and promoting best practice in the book supply chain for over 20 years. We have long been advocates of EDI and other industry standards, which help to improve and evolve workflows for publishers and their trading partners, and BIC Realtime is the latest initiative designed to advance our supply chain further. I look forward to seeing it become established and hope that retailers, suppliers and data providers alike will embrace the idea and together make ourselves a stronger and more efficient industry."
BIC Realtime will be presented at BIC's Building a Better Business Seminar 2016 on Thursday, 14th April at the London Book Fair. Click here for further information about this event.
More information on BIC Realtime including use cases and message formats are available on the BIC website click here.
UK Library Industry Declares Support for New BIC Framework
London, October 2015.
Leading UK suppliers from the RFID and LMS community declare their public support for the Library Communication Framework (LCF), which provides an unprecedented level of interoperability between systems from different vendors.
In a move that should be applauded by the industry, BIC and leading RFID and LMS suppliers from around the UK have been working over the last three years on a communication framework to replace the now dated Standard Interchange Protocol (SIP)2 protocol.
SIP2, an extension of SIP, allowed the interchange of data between systems to happen –predominantly between an LMS and a self-checkout unit. Originally released in 1993 by 3M Library Systems, the protocol soon became the de-facto standard in libraries, and has been tweaked ever since but is now considered (by some) to be stretched to its limit.
LCF is a modern framework, based on web protocols, that builds on the foundations that SIP2 laid in the early years. The framework continues support for all existing communications, but supplements the basics with a range of calls that not only allows self-service systems to communicate more efficiently with the LMS, but opens up bi-directional communication to a range of other devices – such as handheld inventory devices.
Supported officially by Book Industry Communications (BIC) and the suppliers and associations listed below, LCF is now the recommended framework for libraries seeking to ensure the interoperability of their solutions. Librarians should be looking to adopt LCF, and to ensure that their system providers (including LMS and RFID) are developing their products in support of the framework. This applies for libraries wishing to implement new systems, or upgrade current systems to take advantage of these new features.
RFID vendors confirming their support include:
2CQR, 3M Library Systems, Bibliotheca, D-Tech, Intrepid Security and PSP Asset Protection.
LMS and system vendors confirming their support include:
Axiell, Capita, Civica, Infor, Innovative, Insight Media, SirsiDynix and Microlibrarian
In addition, the framework is officially backed by BIC and the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals (CILIP), with BIC providing the ongoing technical support and maintenance. In order to govern and facilitate LCF's development, BIC hosts 2 key LCF Groups: the LCF Review Group (charged with the marketing and promotion of the framework) and the LCF Technical Panel (charged with technical development, responding to requests for change, improvements to the framework).
Karina Luke, Executive Director for BIC commented "BIC is delighted to have been in the position to develop and support LCF from the beginning, but it is really the adoption by the UK suppliers that makes this initiative work. Without the breadth of suppliers that have joined the programme, it simply would not be possible for new frameworks to breath into life. Along with our fellow associations, we wholeheartedly recommend that libraries look to work with their suppliers to implement LCF and take advantage of the benefits it can offer".
The vendors listed above have either already implemented support for LCF in their systems or have committed to officially doing so before the end of Q1 2016. In addition, technical teams from each vendor continue to provide input both into the framework specification and into cross-supplier system testing to ensure compliance for their customers.
BIC Production Training Courses Achieve 95% Satisfaction Rating
Book Industry Communication (BIC), the book industry's independent supply chain organisation, announced today that its suite of training courses, specialising in areas of book production, achieved a 95% satisfaction rating for courses run in 2014, according to recent feedback.
BIC's training programmes, designed for publishing professionals and run by industry experts, are now well-established in the trade and are recognised for offering knowledge and learning in practices across the publishing supply chain, with particular emphasis on the technical and commercial aspects relating to book production.
The courses are developed in conjunction with production directors at some of the UK's largest global publishers, such as HarperCollins, Cambridge University Press, Orion and Oxford University Press. Focussing on the key elements of print and digital production, with specialist training in paper and colour printing, children's books, digital book production, and shipping, each course offers trainees a combination of theory and practical applications, all delivered by the industry's most qualified and experienced practitioners.
Feedback in the first 12 months has been positive, with over 95% of attendees saying they would recommend BIC's production courses to other colleagues, 88% rating BIC's production practitioners as excellent, 85% citing course relevance as excellent, and a 100% satisfaction rate for course content (subjects covered).
Now in its second year, BIC is pleased to announce the following courses for its 2015 training schedule;
An Introduction to Paper & Colour Printing
Producing Children's Books
Digital Book Production Explained
All production course profiles and how to book, can be found on the BIC website here:
Karina Luke, Executive Director of BIC commented: "We are delighted the feedback on BIC's courses has been so enthusiastic and positive. We have worked hard, both with our publisher partners and our trainers, to provide training schemes that offer exceptional quality and value to the industry and to receive such enthusiastic comments is fantastic. BIC is committed to driving initiatives that support growing the publishing supply chain and we are proud to be working with many of the largest and best-known publishers and suppliers in the industry to develop and provide training schemes and certificates that are recognised in the community that help the next generation of publishing experts find their niche."
Of BIC's training courses, Mike Levaggi, Group Production Director at Harper Collins said: "We at HarperCollins have now sent people on a number of the BIC training courses with really positive results. Invariably they have come back with improved knowledge, full of enthusiasm and new ideas to put into practice. The benefits to us have been seen in teams that can operate more independently, with greater confidence and also the morale benefit you invariably get when people feel the company is prepared to invest the time and money on their development. We will continue to use this form of training as a key part of our staff development programme."
Fiona McIntosh, Orion Group Executive, Orion Publishing Group said: "Holding the training in the printers adds a practical dimension to the theory being taught and helps the trainee thoroughly understand the concepts through seeing it happen."
Nancy Roberts, Business Process Director, Cambridge University Press said: "We have found the BIC production courses to deliver real, practical value; as one example, the trip to the paper mill has given our team a much better understanding of the paper-making process and what the different options are, and the quality of conversations they are now able to have with suppliers have opened up new opportunities to reduce costs and maintain quality. I would strongly recommend these courses as delivering hands-on experience which enables staff to do their jobs better."
Pilot Draft of Thema Global Subject Codes Published
Thema Board also announces sunrise date for the new standard
The acting Board of Directors for Thema (a Board created to support the Thema Global Subject Scheme standard) announced at the London Book Fair today that a pilot draft of the Thema standard has been published. The Thema standard is intended to provide a single unified scheme for the categorisation of book content for the global book trade.
The Thema standard has been developed over the last two years with the active participation of working groups representing thirteen countries in Europe and North America, as well as a Pan-Arab Group, under the direction of Thema Technical Committee Chair Howard Willows (Senior Manager, Data Development, at Nielsen Book). By combining a robust selection of shared subject categories with an expansive list of subject qualifiers which can contain national variants and extensions, Thema provides a structure that has global application while meeting local needs. The hope is that additional national groups from countries around the world will review, comment on, and ultimately adopt the Thema standard. Interested communities are urged to treat this initial draft as a beta version.
"As publishers and retailers conduct an increasing amount of their business across a multitude of markets, often with distinct cultural and linguistic identities," said Karina Luke, interim Chair of the Thema Board of Directors, and Executive Director of Book Industry Communication (BIC), "it has become clear that a truly global solution to categorize and classify book content was needed. Thema answers that call."
Initially designed primarily to support international trading, and not immediately intended to replace market-specific subject codes, such as BIC, BISAC or CLIL, Thema will greatly reduce the need to map from one scheme to another, and lays the foundation for a future reality in which one classification system will be adopted worldwide.
In addition to the announcement of the publication of the Pilot Draft of the standard, the Thema Board also announced a "sunrise date" of December 31, 2013 for Thema implementation. This is the earliest date by which publishers and others upstream in the supply chain should be prepared to include Thema codes in their metadata, and the earliest date by which retailers and others downstream should be expected to accept Thema codes.
"With the pilot draft now published," noted Emad Eldeen Elakehal (MD, Elkotob.com), a Thema Board and Technical Committee member representing the Pan-Arab Group, "we expect interest in and adoption of the standard to ramp up quickly."
The standard Thema grew out of iBIC, a fledgling subject code project based on version 2.1 of the BIC Subject Category scheme. BIC and Nielsen Book, who jointly owned the intellectual property for iBIC, graciously donated it to the Thema Board of Directors for the creation of the Thema standard.
The initial draft of the Thema standard will be available for download from the Thema website by 20 April 2013. Anyone interested in learning more about Thema should contact his or her closest local representative. A list of representatives can be found on the Thema website.
Thema Governance
The organisations involved in the founding of Thema have agreed that the on-going maintenance and development of Thema will be managed in a similar open way to existing standards such as ONIX, through a combination of National Groups, a specialist Technical Committee and a Steering Body. Details of the constitution, remit and organisation of these groups are being finalised. Participation will be open to all interested parties and is actively encouraged. Full details of how organisations worldwide can engage and participate at the most appropriate level will be forthcoming within the next few weeks.
About Book Industry Communication Ltd:
Established in 1991, BIC is an independent not-for-profit membership organisation working at the heart of the book industry to promote supply chain efficiency, develop and support the uptake of standards and best practice, and bring people together to share, discuss, debate, and learn from one another. Sponsored by The Booksellers Association, The British Library, The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and The Publishers Association, BIC is governed by both an Executive and Operational Board, comprised of members from across the entire book industry.
Visit BIC at http://www.bic.org.uk and follow at @BIC1UK


Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor said earlier this month that a total of 17 people had been arrested, eight of whom were later released. The authorities accused them of suspicious contacts with "foreign entities" and said more suspects were being sought. Local media labelled them traitors.
Fassi tweeted on June 6 that she had received her Saudi driving licence along with a small group of women who converted their permits obtained in foreign countries.


Kapil Sapra is heading DWBI group in Fiserv India for last 3 years. Prior to this, he has been part of Indian IT giants working for various clients in... North America and ASPAC region.
In the current Information World-as the 3 V's related to Data i.e. Data Volumes,Variety of data sources,Velocity at which data is produced and consumed; are increasing rapidly;there are issues like clear lack of data ownership, consistency, quality, accessibility, security and data maintenance in organizations. This makes Data Governance imperative to any BI/Analytics initiative that organizations plans to run.


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Home Competitions English Premier League Manchester United set to negotiate the transfer of Antonio Valencia
Transfer News & Rumours
Manchester United set to negotiate the transfer of Antonio Valencia
Manchester United winger Antonio Valencia has been linked with a move away from Old Trafford this summer.
The Ecuador international is no longer the player he was under Sir Alex Ferguson and has fallen down the pecking order at Manchester United.
According to latest reports, the new Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is not interested in holding on to the South American and therefore the Premier League giants will begin negotiations to offload him. The report states that Manchester United have given Galatasaray the green light and negotiations are set to begin in the next few days.
Turkish giants Galatasaray are interested in signing Valencia and the Manchester United board is willing to lower their demands in order to facilitate a swift transfer. Mourinho wants the player sold and the club are willing to fulfill his wish. Galatasaray are looking to offer the player an exit route and a 3 year contract.
Antonio Valencia joined the Red Devils from Wigan in 2009 for £14m. He was one of their best players under Sir Alex Ferguson and ended up taking the legendary number seven shirt. However, after a sharp decline, Valencia is set to end his Old Trafford adventure after seven years, having racked up 21 goals and 55 assists in 249 games.


Bike & Hotel Athens and Surroundings: Athens is one of the oldest cities in the world! Its geographical position has greatly influenced the entire ancient Greek culture. The city of Athens lies in a plain and is surrounded by small and larger mountains. The highest mountain is Mount Parnitha (1,443 m of altitude), followed by Mount Hymettos (1,026 m of altitude) and many smaller hills such as the Pnyx, the Acropolis and the Philopappos. Biking on the historic trails in and around Athens is a true journey through history as the trails lead into a very modern city that has been planted at the same place for thousands of years.
The aim of this bike week in Athens and its surroundings is to combine urban life with mountain life. A difficult combination made possible by the favorable geographical location of Athens. The acropolis and the ancient agora in the center of the city, lively places where ancient and modern Athenians met and meet, are the perfect contrast to our mountain bike tours. But even far from the city you will always find fascinating historical references: for example, from these mountains comes the marble from which the Parthenon and the ancient statues originated. The wood from which ships were built for campaigns over the centuries came from Mount Parnitha.
On our journey through time, you will experience Athens not from a tourist perspective, but with an insider's view, and thus get to know the city both historically and presently, and see how bright the future of Athens looks. Where once the ancient Greeks lived and wrote world history is now a cosmopolitan city worth discovering!
If you are interested in this bike adventure, please send us an email request with your preferred tour date at least two months before your desired date: moustakasbikes@gmail.gr. The price of 650 Euro per person applies from a minimum of 5 participants. The tour is also possible with fewer participants, but at a higher price per person, which you will receive upon request. High-quality rental bikes are available on request at a daily rental fee of 35 euro/bike.
• Experience Athens from a real insider perspective! • Bike through the millennia! • Enjoy the contrast between the lively city center and the tranquility of the mountains! • Try the Greek Mezés! The incredible variety of appetizers will probably completely change your mind about the Greek cuisine!
On this tour you are accommodated in carefully selected bike-friendly hotels that have the facilities needed for bike travellers and their bikes, to provide the best quality services for them.
Guided / Multi-Day / Enduro: A 3-day bike adventure – sacrifice a little of your comfort in return for a unique experience!
Shelter & Bike - Athens & Mount Parnitha Wildlife Tour: Just 20 kilometers from the city center yet we are so far away! Parnitha is the highest mountain in the surroundings of Athens and a mountain biking paradise! This program aims on bikers who are willing to sacrifice little of their comfort in return for a unique experience. The shelter of Bafi, located at 1161 meters above sea level on the eastern side of Parnitha, is fully equipped for overnight stays. The paths around it have quite a history to tell: they were in ancient and medieval times often frequented by wandering flocks since Parnitha was a forage area, in the 19th century they became the domicile of fugitives and robbers. Today Mount Parnitha is a popular place of excursions for the Athenians, but more and more also for bike lovers from all over the world.
Nevertheless, our journeys will start from the city center. This 3-day tour is also a journey through Greek history. Starting from the Acropolis and the places where the ancient philosophers walked, before we head to Mount Parnitha, which played an equally important role in shaping ideas. Staying overnight in Bafis mountain shelter gives us the chance of a true experience of the mountain, a morning awakening with freshly fallen dew and a contrasts with the city below us that couldn't be any bigger.
The trails on our bike rides have a great variety. High up around the shelter and the peaks of Mt. Parnitha we find to the left and right of the technically demanding paths black firs, which grow only on the Ionian Island of Cephalonia and here on Mount Parnitha. Losing altitude we will access some paths that proof the excellent work by local trail builders and we will have some great trail experiences on the tracks which are used by all kinds of mountain bikers.
If you are interested in this bike adventure, please send us an email request with your preferred tour date at least two weeks before your desired date: moustakasbikes@gmail.gr. The price of 345 Euro per person applies from a minimum of 5 participants. The tour is also possible with fewer participants, but at a higher price per person, which you will receive upon request. High-quality rental bikes are available on request at a daily rental fee of 35 euro/bike.
Your accommodation on this trip will be the mountain shelter of Bafi, located at 1161 meters above sea level on the eastern side of Mount Parnitha, which is fully equipped for overnight stays. It is not a luxury accommodation, but perfect for nature lovers who are willing to sacrifice little of their comfort in return for a unique experience.
Guided / Multi-Day / Enduro & All Mountain: A thorougbred bike & hotel experience by Montis Ordo to Athens, Pelion and Mt. Olmypus.
Enduro & All Mountain Bike Adventure to Athens, Pelion and Mt. Olympus: Greece is well known for its 3,000+ islands, its colorful history and its poets and philosophers. After visiting Greece, it is the unique light tone which will forever remain in your memory. However, what the majority of people are not aware of is: how incredible Greece is for mountain biking, especially on the Greek mainland, where this exceptional MTB & hotel tour takes place.
The famous capital of Athens, and it's not so famous, yet incredible MTB possibilities in the nearby surroundings are just one of the many highlights on this tour. After acquainting yourself with this impressive metropolis, your journey takes on to the Pelion Peninsula in central Greece – a Garden of Eden on earth and a trail paradise at the same time. A world where sprawling nature gives way to mountainous landscapes, yet the blue of the ocean is never far from sight. The crowning highlight to the tour however is an outing to the nearby Mt. Olympus where a bountiful trail network awaits your arrival.
This tour is characterized by grueling climbs followed by endless descents with the majority of trails demanding a high level of technical ability. The target audience for this MTB experience to Athens, Pelion and Mt. Olympus are all-mountain and enduro riders looking for an adventure to conquer.
On this bike & hotel tour participants will be accommodated in bike friendly hotels who provide a secure bike storage and washing station for visitors with bikes.


After massive public backlash, Adidas has announced that it no longer has plans to release the shackled sneaker that it was planning to put on the market in August. The sneakers, called the JS Roundhouse Mids, were originally placed on the Adidas Facebook page.
"Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?" the company asked on its page, displaying the shoes with shackles on the back of them. The post led to responses from around the world.
"Wow obviously there was no one of color in the room when the marketing/product team ok'd this," said one commentator.
"I literally froze up when I saw a new design from Adidas set to hit stores in August," said Dr. Boyce Watkins in a post for the website Your Black World.
Adidas continues to argue that the sneakers were not meant to promote slavery or incarceration. But people around the world have disagreed. The company's decision to remove the sneakers from the market is the safe bet, since reaction was growing with each passing day. Even Rev. Jesse Jackson had something to say on the matter.
"The attempt to commercialize and make popular more than 200 years of human degradation, where blacks were considered three-fifths human by our Constitution is offensive, appalling and insensitive," said Rev. Jackson in a statement.


Blogging is one of the simplest methods for a beginner to web advertising to get started on-line. The reason for this is that it is fairly simple to get started.
While you may not be in a position to see all the features and benefits upfront, you'll certainly get to view the recommendations and how much the product price. All you have to do is look to the left hand side of the page in the higher part to see the hyperlinks. Okay, we're lying. We thought you could view it upfront, but it nonetheless makes you place your e-mail address and name in the appropriate areas. So scratch that first part.
You first need to determine on a market marketplace. This will be a extremely focused market. The much more focused that it is the higher your profits will be. Also verify that there is not as well much competition. You do not want to spend too a lot time to make it lucrative.
The revenue message of your mini-site will introduce your item. You do this by using headlines and sub-headlines. These headlines are interest-grabbers which entice your potential clients to go down further. You can have one big headline stressing advantages at the very beginning of your mini-website and sub-headlines under or all through the web site.
When you develop a mini site you can also add a landing page, or squeeze web page. This is exactly where you can get guests to sign up for your publication. Having a subscription box reviews on the primary web page of your mini website is not this kind of a great idea, as the primary page of your website will be your sales web page and you do not want to distract your visitors.
Decide what you want to do! In other words what kind of web home business do you want to start? Do some key phrase study and see what individuals are looking for.
One thing we definitely want you to look over is the "criteria" area that asks you a couple of concerns. This will help you determine if something like this is for you, or if you require to move alongside and check out some of our other critiques. Whatever the end result is we know you'll make the right decision.


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Rep. Castor Statement on House GOP Voting Against Health Care for Women Veterans
Tags: Health Care , Veterans' Affairs , Legislation , Women
U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL14) released the following statement after Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives blocked passage of the Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act (H.R. 239), legislation to provide women veterans access to the same no-cost contraceptive care as their non-veteran counterparts. Rep. Castor is a cosponsor of this bill.
"In an affront to female veterans, House Republicans blocked commonsense legislation that would treat female veterans the same as women in uniform and civilians when it comes to access to health care. GOP members in Congress have become more out-of-touch with mainstream America and also voted to block the Congressional Gold Medal for the Capitol Police and the bipartisan Commission to Investigate the January 6 insurrection. In fact, most Republican members supported the female veterans legislation last year, but have taken a radical turn this Congress. Women veterans have served our country with honor and deserve equal access to health care once they return home. Our veteran neighbors in Tampa can rest assured that I'll continue to work to pass this legislation and meet their needs in the days ahead. We owe them the best for their service and sacrifice for our nation," said Rep. Castor.
Women veterans now make up the fastest growing group of veterans enrolling in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care. The James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital in Tampa has a women's center yet, many health needs still go unaddressed in a VA system that has not evolved to equitably serve a changing population. This includes accessing basic contraceptive services without a co-pay. Under the Affordable Care Act, all women using civilian health insurance may access basic contraceptive services without a co-pay. Active duty servicemembers also have access to contraception without co-pays through TRICARE. Currently, women veterans using VA healthcare are currently denied this access. The benefits of contraception are widely recognized and eliminating cost-sharing barriers can greatly improve access to the full-range of contraception and related counseling that improves women's health.
The Equal Access to Contraception for Veterans Act is endorsed by the following Veterans Service Organizations: Military Officers Association of America (MOAA), Minority Veterans of America (MVA), Modern Military Association of America (MMAA), Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), Service Women's Action Network (SWAN), The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), Wounded Warrior Project (WWP).
Read the full text of the bill here.
Rep. Castor Statement on House Passage of FY22 NDAA
December 7, 2021 | Posted in Press Release


Credit: M. Ribezzi-Crivellari et al.
Maxwell's demon is a machine proposed by James Clerk Maxwell in 1897. The hypothetical machine would use thermal fluctuations to obtain energy, apparently violating the second principle of thermodynamics. Now, researchers of the University of Barcelona have presented the first theoretical and experimental solution of a continuous version of Maxwell's demon in a single molecule system. The results, published in the journal Nature Physics, can have applications in other fields, such as biological and quantum systems.
"Despite its simplicity and the large amount of work in the field this new variant of the classical Maxwell demon has remained unexplored until now", notes Fèlix Ritort, professor from the Department of Fundamental Physics of the UB. "In this study -he adds-, we introduced a system able to extract large amounts of work arbitrarily per cycle through repeated measurements of the state of a system".
Waiting for such a propitious occasion to get benefits is something we all know. This behavioural pattern is the same of a speculator waiting for the right moment in stock exchange, or a predator waiting for a prey to be near. "From a thermodynamics point of view, that certain intuitive aspect in trying to look for the right moment is what takes more energy. The answer is whether it is possible to get the same energy from the propitious moment than the inverted one in the searching process, i.e. through a thermodynamically reversible process", notes Marco Ribezzi, researcher at the UB and the School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry (ESPCI Paris/CNRS).
"Our experiments demonstrate it is possible to find the right moment, and not very common at the same time, and to use it in a reversible way. These results show the underlying thermodynamic structure to a general problem that can find many applications, for instance, in the field of biology", notes Ribezzi.
According to the researchers, the new version of Maxwell's demon could have consequences in self-organization and selection processes that occur during evolution of the biological matter. For instance, this device could be relevant in the regulation of biological networks in generation, transmission and transduction of signals through cell membranes.
The experimental testing has been conducted in a system of optical tweezers, which enables the manipulation of a molecule each time, in this case a DNA molecule. With the right force on this structure, it is possible to unfold it, but if the force is small enough, the unfolded state becomes rare, so it finds the precise moment it was looking for. When the molecule is in a rare state, it has more energy and it is possible to use it. "The rarer the episode, the harder for us to find it, but the more energy we can get from it", notes Ribezzi.
"The astonishing complexity of the living matter could be seen as the result, over several evolutionary timescales, of a big process of energy extraction in proper environments to store big amounts of information which is hidden by noise and randomness", concludes Ritort, also member of the Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBER-BBN).
Within the program Future and Emerging Technologies (FET), this study has been conducted as part of the European project Information, Fluctuations and Energy Control in Small Systems (INFERNOS), with the aim to experiment on the Maxwell's mechanism at a nanoscale, i.e the creation of electronic and biomolecular nanodevices to follow the principle of Maxwell's demon.


October 2010 marked the 10th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325. WILPF PeaceWomen participated in the events surrounding the anniversary and called for more systematic, consistent and comprehensive implementation.
In honour of the anniversary a number of events and initiatives were introduced, including the Call to Action on 2010 Commitments initiative, a Security Council Open Debate on Women Peace and Security (26 October 2010) with advancements on global indicators and UN framework, a Civil Society Peace Fair, the convening of high-level special advisory groups (UN and civil society); the first ever UN Open Day for Women and Peace; and numerous other activities, analysis and work. The anniversary was an opportunity to reflect on the first decade after UNSCR 1325 but also to galvanise action.