text:
Tag: NEP
Deconstructing the NEP: how important is experiential learning in wildlife conservation?
Post author By ishitaahujaug234021
Post date Oct 3, 2021
No Comments on Deconstructing the NEP: how important is experiential learning in wildlife conservation?
"We usually hold turtle walks starting at midnight. Going and searching for their nest, taking the eggs and putting them in a hatchery, until they hatch and then putting them back," says Manan Chhugani, a first year undergraduate studying Environmental Science at Ashoka University, describing his midnight routine in Chennai. To stay awake, patrol the beach and protect the turtle eggs, from the stomping of possibly careless human feet.
"They are this tiny," placing his fingers close enough to each other to imply that the eggs are only a few centimeters in size."You can hold 20-30 of them in your hand. After [the turtle walk experience] I've always wanted to pursue hands-on, working with the hands, working with the body," he continues.
The turtle walk he went on, continues to be helmed by Chennai Students' Sea Turtle Conservation Network (SSTCN), a network of school and college students who work alongside the Tamil Nadu Forest Department. But 2020's National Education Policy gives students the option to take wildlife courses, without making field-based learning compulsory. It makes it mandatory for higher education centres to include environmental education courses and projects promoting "holistic and multidisciplinary education."
"The flexible and innovative curricula of all HEIs shall include credit-based courses and projects in the areas of community engagement and service, environmental education, and value-based education."
"Field based learning is indispensable for learning about biodiversity in general and wildlife in particular- there is no doubt about that," says A. J Urfi, an Environmental Studies professor at Delhi University. So does this hold back the meaning of a "quality higher education" and could keep students from having the upper-hand in looking for jobs in wildlife conservation? This limitation of meaning can be defined by Jacques Derrida's deconstruction as explained in his essay, "Sign, Structure and Play".
Not including hands-on work, especially in the field of wildlife, goes against Derridian thought, whose work has been greatly influential in the late twentieth century. Derrida speaks of the "arbitrary nature of a sign," where a sign refers to a word with its meaning. Therefore, the "arbitrariness" of a sign then means that a word's letters have no inner relation with the word's meaning.
The NEP states that a quality higher education must make "good, thoughtful, well-rounded, and creative individuals" The letters that make up the words "quality education" have no fixed relationship with the meaning of being that it makes quality students. Therefore, giving "quality education" a meaning, limits the possibilities of it, which allows the NEP to leave out field-work for college students, who are otherwise taking courses meant to be experience-based.
Dr. Divya Vasudev, founder of Conservation Initiatives, chimes in, "If [colleges] do offer field-based courses or internship-based courses for credit, during the summer semester, especially when you have fewer courses to take, it will be quite an enriching experience.You learn a lot when you go to the field, you don't just learn from textbooks, you learn from experience," Manan echoes this when asked about his current environmental science courses,"the only thing is you don't have physical interaction. You can comment on the readings how many ever times you want, but the way you lead your life is always different."
Derrida speaks of the absence of a centre when talking about the meaning of a word. This can be placed in the education setting, where a quality education can also mean the ability to experience and learn, and not simply learning from theory or research. The removal of the fixed classroom or laboratory-based learning is the removal of a centre which now allows the freedom to define education, or redefine it.
In the wildlife employment sector, Divya adds on, field-based experience "definitely gives [students] an edge, but it's not the main thing." While hiring people in her organisation, she says "the things that I look for, are your passion for conservation, because that's critical."
Sleeping under tarpaulin sheets, using the toilet outdoors, collecting your own water from the nearest sources, travelling often and working with a group of people, are all add on-qualities that wildlife employers look for in the hiring process. Developing these habits, can be achieved by experiential learning in colleges.Equipping students for wildlife job-readiness as well as learn about the outdoors, outdoors. Being flexible is being without a "centre" and allows one to explore all angles of a quality education.
Yogita Karpate, an engineer turned research consultant at Wildlife Conservation Society-India says, "my knowledge on nature, on various species and their biology is not that great, not as great as my colleagues. I would say you can pick it up when you work." This shows another aspect of there being no "centre" to education and that learning has no point of origin in the field.
While relating his experience with the Planet Life Foundation doing otter conservation, Manan Chhugani went looking for otter excreta, to check their movements for a conservation paper. "There are a few places they are likely to [defecate], large rocks, near a stream. I set up a camera trap to catch them doing their business. This is a very basic work you have to do if you want to start conservation."
"It's quite a lot of work but it's a lot of fun. Once you see the product of the work you've done for a long time, best thing," he adds cheerfully.
Ishita Ahuja is a second year undergraduate student of Ashoka University. She is an aspiring Literature major and Environmental Science minor, with an affinity for the outdoors. She hopes to become an environmental journalist soon.
Tags college, conservation, education, environment, experience, India, NEP, outdoors, wildlife
Unpacking History: The Nexus Between Politics and Academic Freedom
Post author By devikagoswami
Post date Mar 26, 2021
No Comments on Unpacking History: The Nexus Between Politics and Academic Freedom
Academic freedom is defined as the freedom of thought and inquiry granted to faculty and students of educational institutions to pose questions and think critically about subjects of academic importance. The reason this freedom is granted to the academic community is that universities, and institutions of education, in general, are considered to be spaces that probe the truth, and for true intellectual activity to flourish, they need freedom of thought and expression. However, another reason why academic freedom is stressed is because of the dangers it faces – from the state and from the larger public. As the world is inching towards authoritarianism with a number of right-wing populist governments at power in some major countries, the question of academic freedom is as pertinent as ever. With the recent resignation of two prominent scholars from Ashoka University, the question is driven home with discussions about academic freedom in India.
Unfortunately, this isn't a one-time phenomenon, in either India or other democratic countries. It has been the case for decades that the ruling dispensation in most democratic, as well as autocratic countries, has been wary of the academic community and has tried to stifle its voices. Time and again, the freedom of universities, faculties and students in places around the world has come into question by the state and has often been curbed through laws and regulations. In some instances, even violence has been used to clamp down on the freedom of these voices. This piece shall explore some historical instances of academic freedom, or the lack thereof, in different countries around the world at different times. Through it, we wish to shed light on the chequered history of academic freedom and the role of the academic community in fighting for their right to freedom of thought and expression in academic settings.
Recent Events at Ashoka University
In a dramatic turn of events, academic Pratap Bhanu Mehta's resignation under dubious circumstances has brought Ashoka University's integrity under the scanner. Mehta wrote in his resignation letter that the founders of Ashoka had made it "abundantly clear" that his association with the institution was a "political liability". Following Mehta's exit, renowned economist Arvind Subramanian also put down his papers, citing the fact that "Ashoka can no longer provide a safe space for academic expression and freedom". The resignations have garnered global attention with a large number of accomplished academics signing a petition expressing solidarity with Mehta and disapproval of Ashoka's founders' and admin's handling of the issue. Calling it a "gross violation of academic freedoms", students of the University announced a two-day boycott of classes to protest against these developments. Pertaining to the fact that this is not the first time that a faculty has been mired in controversy due to their political opinions, students and faculty are now apprehensive of the wider implications that external political pressures on the University will have on their freedom of speech and expression. There is also growing scepticism regarding the inevitable downfall in the quality of education that the University promises if this continues.
The History of Academic Freedom
Academic freedom as a concept emerged during the Middle Ages, with scholars and philosophers in Europe asserting their right to enquiry and stating independence from the monarchs of the day. However, the universities of the period in both Europe and America were heavily influenced by the Church, and were also dependent on it for funding. As time progressed, a form of mixed system developed in America in the 18th century where colleges were dependent on private donors as well as states for funding, but the faculty still did not have a strong say in the running of universities or in matters of academic freedom. It was only during the American Civil War that academic freedom as a concept was used by academics, and was seen as just as important as civil liberties.
Academic Freedom in The United States
The question of academic freedom in the United States was extremely important during two periods of history – first during the Cold War in the 1950s at the height of McCarthyism, and then again after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, which led to the War on Terror. These external political circumstances had a deep impact on the academic community and there were issues about what was being taught, and by whom. At the height of McCarthyism, the Red Scare of communism enveloped most of U.S. policy and behaviour in the 1950s, and university professors were targeted by the FBI for having connections with 'subversive' organisations, namely the Communist Party. Faculty at colleges such as Harvard, Yale, and the State University of New York, to name a few, had to sign documents stating they weren't affiliated with Communists, or they ran the risk of being removed from their teaching positions. This was protested by many for infringing upon the First Amendment rights of the professors as well as the larger academic freedom of these universities. While in 1967 this academic freedom was codified in the Constitution of the U.S. after the case Keyishian v. Bd. of Regents, 385 U.S. 589 (1967), it routinely came under threat even after that period. After the September 11 terrorist attacks in America, the country adopted a stringent foreign policy known popularly as the War on Terror and took action against terrorist groups in Afghanistan and other regions. While universities had always criticised U.S. foreign policies, the period after 9/11 saw harsher consequences for those professors and intellectuals who dared question or criticise the government's policies. From news anchors to senators, there was major pushback against academics who tried to speak or write against government policies, with emphasis on the need to "support the war". There was also a grave fear among presidents and administrators of the universities about the consequences of this criticism, which is why many of them distanced themselves from the faculty and students that engaged in this criticism. Academic freedom was therefore not guaranteed in either public or private universities in the U.S. and was subject to popular perception, government policy and the political atmosphere of the period.
Academic Freedom in Turkey
The strained relationship between academic freedom and political pressures can also be understood by analyzing the case of Turkey. The country has had a contentious history with respect to ensuring academic freedom in higher education – exhibited through selectively granting the freedom to explore certain fields of inquiry while barring others and restricting faculty interactions with the press on certain subjects without official permits that are rarely granted. Moreover, a culture of self-censorship has persisted in Turkish academia, which becomes apparent when analyzing the restrictions placed on academics in terms of determining teaching materials, evaluation, and teaching techniques. It is interesting to note that these flaws in Turkey's academic landscape have existed prior to the wave of right-wing populism that swept the nation upon President Erdogan's appointment. While Erdogan's tenure has been marked by stringent crackdowns on the activity of academics beyond the classroom, his government is not solely responsible for the poor state of academic freedom in the country.
Indian Universities and the Fight for Academic Freedom
What has been observed in varying degrees across the world, has been a part of India's political landscape too. Although, traditionally, India has had a long tradition of academic debate and peaceful dissent such as in the Nalanda University in the 5th Century BCE, recently, academic freedom has evidently been on the decline. In the colonial setting in which contemporary Indian universities originated, the question of academic freedom was closely tied up with one's position on political freedom. In an article for Economic and Political Weekly, Nandini Sundar notes that "while some educational institutions like Presidency College, Calcutta, Elphinstone College, Mumbai, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Aligarh, and St Stephen's College, Delhi were embedded in the colonial project of inculcating English knowledge among the natives, there were others like Jamia Millia Islamia, Visva-Bharati, or the Vidyapeeths set up by Gandhi which had an explicitly nationalist project, wherein the ideas of political freedom coalesced with the ideas of pedagogic freedom." Even in the other regional colleges, both students and faculty periodically strayed to the nationalist cause, especially during the non-cooperation movement of 1921–22 and Quit India Movement in 1942, boycotting classes, or participating in strikes.
However, in the postcolonial matrix, the idea of universities as spaces of academic freedom was subordinated to the idea that educational institutions are sites of nation-building. This was embodied in the setting up of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), as "institutes of national importance" where its reputation and ideals were perceived to be closely linked to the state's aspiration.
The coming of the BJP government in 2014, however, has created a credible threat to academic freedom in India, with the state actively suppressing any narratives that don't align with its own ideology. According to the recently published International Academic Freedom Index, India scored an abysmally low score of 0.352, followed by Saudi Arabia (0.278) and Libya (0.238). The police brutality against students at Jamia Millia Islamia University in 2019 in Delhi has further raised concerns about the state of academic freedom. When this is taken in context with the anecdotal accounts of researchers in India complaining of book bans, cancelling of a particular seminar, change in the curriculum by the state, and filing of criminal cases against political leaders – a grim image of the future of India's academia emerges.
An obvious question that emerges from this is how can we reimagine the future of India's academia in the wake of rising state interference in academia? Such a challenge will not only require far-reaching structural changes but also a commitment to fiercely defend values and ideals of freedom. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is a step in the direction of structural change by envisioning academia without political or external interference. For instance, the policy states that the faculty will be provided with the "freedom to design their own curricular and pedagogical approaches within the approved framework, including textbook and reading material selections, assignments and assessments." However, what remains to be seen is how well these policies are implemented on the ground and whether they live up to their promise. In the meanwhile, the solidarity extended to Ashoka University and resilience showed by academicians both in the country and abroad can be a guiding example of how as a unified community, one can fiercely defend the values that academia stands for – dissent, dialogue and democracy.
Picture Credits: Shreya Sharma
Tags academic freedom, education, liberty, NEP, strike, student protest, turkey
Whose language is it anyway? A critique of linguistic imposition by the NEP
No Comments on Whose language is it anyway? A critique of linguistic imposition by the NEP
The Government of India in 2020 rolled out the National Education Policy with much fanfare, claiming that the reforms would revive the nation's flagging education system. The need for reforms cannot be denied. An article in The Economist this week, noted, "Only about 55% of the country's ten-year-olds can read and understand a simple story, reckons the World Bank. The last time India's children participated in internationally comparable tests, they ranked almost last out of 74 countries." The NEP seeks to introduce changes at all levels of education, and one way it proposes to improve the level of Education and literacy in India is by stating that "the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be the home language/mother-tongue/local language/regional language". As someone who was only educated in English, I was, at first, rather optimistic about such a shift. I had often resented the lack of exposure to the literature of the language most of my family spoke, Hindi. English education meant that I knew neither English nor Hindi very well. To not have to do one, the language that seemed most alien felt like a decent escape from having to struggle through both. But in almost no time, optimism gave way to scepticism, and soon after, to worry.
The policy advocates for the use of the "mother tongue," or a regional language, as a medium of instruction wherever possible. In a diverse nation such as ours, the lack of specificity of the term 'mother tongue' only leads to confusion. Is 'mother tongue' the tongue of a student, or the tongue of a region? Won't there be situations where the tongue of the student may not be the language of the region? Had the policy been around when I was in junior school, for instance, I would have been educated ('if possible,' as the policy notes) in the Kumaoni dialect, since I live in the Kumaon region. However, the composition of my district is nearly entirely native Punjabi speakers, resettled to what we now called Uttarakhand. The languages spoken within 30 kilometres of my home are Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, and English, each understood by a separate demographic. And my village is not an exception to the rest of India, but it is the rule. Most of India is polyphonic, and like the poet Walt Whitman, can boast of containing multitudes. In the situation that the recognised regional language becomes the official medium of education in a particular school, its usage will only mirror the imposition of English. That is, the hegemony of English will be replaced by the hegemony of another regional language, whichever may be dominant in the area, or in the vogue with a particular government. For a policy aiming to make education more accessible and inclusive, the NEP seems to achieve the opposite.
For the masses, school is where several students are exposed to a new language, especially one like English. For many, learning English is the sole aim of starting school. And whether we like it or not, English does open doors. Most of the vocabulary of Science and Technology is in the language. It has, since the national movement, been a language that has allowed non-Hindi speakers to communicate further. Wouldn't such a policy end up making opportunities less accessible for the students in government schools? And I stress on government schools here, because for private schools, bypassing such a policy is easy, and the 'English Medium' is emphasised. This could widen the gap in the education received at public and private institutions and reinforce class hierarchies amongst those who attend them. For most students, their exposure to their regional languages is through social interactions largely outside the classroom. English is taught to many only in schools.
What also complicates the NEP is that it does not list English as an Indian language, even though English is constitutionally recognized as a national language. While many Indians may not speak English, it cannot be denied that English is a widely spoken Indian language. Indian writers have made English their own, Indian films and television use English liberally. In an op-ed in the Hindu, K Chidambaram argued that English is an Indian Language and that it is aspirational, useful, and should not be done away with in such a manner. The Poet and translator, Ranjit Hoskote, too, views English as a language that has become Indian, and does not see it as a borrowed tongue.
Even if everything with the policy is ironed out and every region is given as inclusive a language as possible, the logistics remain complicated. Education is a concurrent subject, legislated upon by both Central and the State governments. Even in college student governments, the shifting of responsibility between hierarchies prevents much work from being done. Between disparate regimes at the Center and states, this may be a recipe for disaster.
While the importance of including more regional languages in syllabi cannot be denied, we must be mindful of how the Indian languages are taught, and that they are not taught at the cost of one another. The way to promote the regional languages is not to replace English as a medium of education and entirely disregarding its utility, but rather, to include the practice of communication and appreciation of regional languages and literature, to encourage students to be critical by employing the languages they are taught in, and to teach them in a way that the process of education does not make learning more difficult and stressful. This means that for students whose homes are not familiar with English, there is a greater responsibility with their teachers to communicate material with their students in the language they understand.
To change subject material without altering the pedagogical approach will continue to limit students in one way or another. It may be more freeing to consider ways to incorporate the thinking of Paulo Friere and restructure education or "men and women develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves; they come to see the world not as a static reality but as a reality in the process of transformation". This could be done by training teachers to adapt to the needs of polyphonic classrooms, by introducing practices of translation, or by making conversation a greater part of the experience of learning.
Swati Singh is a student of English Literature and Creative Writing at Ashoka University. They are a member of Sandhi, the languages society at Ashoka University, and are interested in translation.
Tags education, english, India, language, NEP, region, translation
National Education Policy 2020: Implications for Students with Disabilities
No Comments on National Education Policy 2020: Implications for Students with Disabilities
By Monika Bhalvani
Since its inception, the Indian education system has been primarily built on an ableist framework. A multiplicity of factors, including inaccessible infrastructure, lack of inclusive teaching and learning practises, rigid academic curriculum, have played a contributing role in systematically leaving out a majority of students with disabilities from the education system early on. The detrimental effects of these are shown through a steep decline in the enrolment and retention rate of students with disabilities after completing their primary school. Because of this, about 45% of people with disabilities are uneducated and 62.9% of them between the ages of 3 and 35 have never attended regular schools.
While this form of an education system structurally denies students with disabilities their basic right to education, the recently drafted National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020) provides a ray of hope. The draft states, "Children with disabilities will be enabled to fully participate in the regular schooling process from the Foundational Stage to higher education." This focus on creating a thorough support system right from an early age opens up multiple avenues for students with various forms of disabilities to be integrated into the regular schooling system. The new NEP is built on the foundational pillars of access, equity, quality, affordability, and accountability, that promises a learning environment that is conducive to the learning needs of students with various disabilities.
The NEP 2020 endorses the recommendations from the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act 2016, and states, "Barrier free access for all children with disabilities will be enabled as per the RPWD Act 2016". This recognition of the RPWD act and its provision to enable an inclusive system that is adapted to meet the learning needs of students with various forms of disabilities is in itself a major form of victory for the disabled community. Along with this, the draft explicitly talks about how the inclusion of students with learning disabilities will also be ensured, and teachers would be helped to identify such learning conditions early on. The emphasis laid on the need for developing an inclusive education system that caters to the needs of students with both visible and invisible disabilities prompts that we have indeed come a long way in our fight to promote inclusion in the education system.
Picture Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons ( changes made)
While laying this foundation stone for inclusion, the NEP 2020 brings forth certain points that would be taken into consideration during the planning and implementation process. Some of the important recommendations include recruitment of teachers with cross-disability training, usage of assistive devices and appropriate technology-based tools to integrate students with disabilities into classrooms, providing flexibility for all students with different disabilities to learn and grow at their own pace with appropriate assessment and certification. While enabling this, it also gives due importance to training teachers on inclusive pedagogies that cater to the varied needs of students. Focusing on the need for implementation of peer sensitization programmes, it says, "The school curriculum will include, early on, material on human values such as respect for all persons, empathy, tolerance, human rights, gender equality, non-violence, global citizenship, inclusion, and equity." Implementation of all these points could create a stimulatory environment for students with disabilities to integrate and grow in a regular classroom setting.
While we have come this far in terms of policy documentation and it's surely a welcome step, there is still a long way for us to go. Given the complex nature of how different disabilities manifest, we need to take into account multiple factors at both the planning and implementation stages in this process. In doing so, we need to take into consideration a lot of issues that the NEP 2020 misses out on, and discuss how it can be tackled and developed further.
Firstly, the NEP emphasizes on how teachers will be trained and students will be sensitized. However, what is majorly lacking here is the involvement of students with disabilities themselves in the process of devising policies. Time and again, the disability rights campaign, "Nothing about us, without us", has emphasized the need to allow full and active participation of people with disabilities while developing or implementing any policies for them. Thus, it is extremely crucial to actively involve students with various disabilities in understanding the specific areas of concerns and plan strategies to tackle that during the planning phase.
Secondly, we need to pay utmost attention to the way the changes in NEP 2020 pertaining to students with disabilities will be implemented. Our existing education structure, built on an ableist framework, provides very limited scope for students with various disabilities to engage and fully participate in any classroom setting. There needs to be due thought and consideration given to how the proposed changes in the new NEP will be integrated into the existing education structure that we have in place.
Thirdly, and most importantly, the NEP 2020 completely misses out on the various intersections that exist in the disabled community itself in terms of gender, caste, class, and socio-economic backgrounds. While making a comprehensive policy for students with disabilities, it is important to ask questions that cut across all these aspects. For instance, given that gender is one of the big determinants of increase in drop-out rates from school, we need to consider the provisions that will be made for female students with disabilities to retain them in the education system. Therefore, using an intersectional lens to rethink the existing education policies and the NEP 2020 would help in bringing about desired outcomes in the education system.
It can be said that the quest for developing an inclusive education system has just started, but there is a lot more that needs to be achieved moving forward. After all, it is the inclusive mindsets and increasing focus on grassroots-level research in this area that would determine if we are moving in the right direction in building an inclusive education system– a system that embraces the differences that each student brings and fosters positive growth right from the beginning.
Monika Bhalvani is the assistant manager of the Office of Learning Support at Ashoka University.
Tags 2020, children, COVID-19, disability, education, impact, NEP, policy, schooling, teachers


All these disadvantages, the PR opponents contend, are avoided by two-party plurality systems. Coalitions are rare; the two dominant parties necessarily compete at the centre for votes, so that governments are more reliably moderate; the strong opposition necessary for proper scrutiny of government is assured; and governments remain sensitive to public sentiment because they can be, and are, regularly voted out of power. However, the US experience shows that this is not necessarily so, and that a two-party system can result in a "drift to extremes", hollowing out the centre, or, at least, in one party drifting to an extreme. The opponents of PR also contend that coalition governments created under PR are less stable, and elections are more frequent. Italy is an often-cited example with many governments composed of many different coalition partners. However, Italy has had an unusual and complicated mix of FPTP and PR since 1993, so it is not an appropriate candidate for measuring the stability of PR.
Evaluative Proportional Representation (EPR) applies majority judgment voting to proportional representation. Majority judgment addresses the problem of qualitative waste. Voters are asked to grade each candidate's fitness for the office as either Excellent, Very Good, Good, Acceptable, Poor, or Reject. All these evaluations are counted to guarantee that the winner is the one most highly valued by a majority of all the voters. Evaluative Proportional Representation adapts majority judgment to elect all the members of a legislative body. Representatives need not represent geographic districts, each voter's jurisdiction representative is the one most highly graded by that voter – no vote is a wasted vote.
STV is currently used for two national lower houses of parliament, Ireland, since independence (as the Irish Free State) in 1922, and Malta, since 1921, long before independence in 1966. In Ireland, two attempts have been made by Fianna Fáil governments to abolish STV and replace it with the 'First Past the Post' plurality system. Both attempts were rejected by voters in referendums held in 1959 and again in 1968..
STV is also used for all other elections in Ireland except for that of the presidency, for the Northern Irish assembly and European and local authorities, Scottish local authorities, some New Zealand and Australian local authorities, the Tasmanian (since 1907) and Australian Capital Territory assemblies, where the method is known as Hare-Clark, and the city council in Cambridge, Massachusetts, (since 1941).
Cardinal voting methods are voting methods which allow the voter to give each candidate an independent rating or grade from among at least two levels of approval. Along with ordinal voting systems, they are the two branches of modern voting systems to compete with the venerable simple plurality voting. These are referred to as rated, graded, the simplest possible cardinal method is Approval voting, which allows only the two grades, approved or unapproved. Other variants include disapproval voting options such as assignment. That is, a -2 and a +8 add up to ten points, not six, since one of these criteria implicitly requires that a method be ordinal, not cardinal, Arrows theorem does not apply to cardinal methods. Others, argue that this is not true, for instance because interpersonal comparisons of cardinal measures are impossible, if that is the case, cardinal methods do indeed fail to escape Arrows result. Psychological research has shown that ratings are more valid and convey more information than ordinal rankings in measuring human opinion.
The Oklahoma primary electoral system was a voting system used to elect one winner from a pool of candidates using preferential voting. Voters rank candidates in order of preference, and their votes are allocated to their first-choice candidate. If, after this initial count, no candidate has a majority of votes cast, the system was used for primary elections in Oklahoma when it was adopted in 1925 until it was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Oklahoma in 1926. If there were two candidates, a simple first past the post election was held. In the event that no single person received a majority of the first-preference votes, every candidate would have half the number of second-preference votes added to their total. If, after this, any candidate who had a majority of votes cast would be declared winner, if not, none of these new totals exceeds the majority figure of 26 either, so the third-preference votes are now factored in. Each candidates number of votes is divided by three and added on, shown in square brackets.
The contingent vote is an electoral system used to elect a single winner, in which the voter ranks the candidates in order of preference. In an election, if no candidate receives a majority of first preference votes, all. In the second count, the votes of those who supported eliminated candidates are distributed among the two remaining candidates, so that one achieves a absolute majority. In the United States both the contingent vote and the vote are often referred to as variants of instant-runoff voting. The contingent vote can be considered a form of the two round system, in which both rounds occur without the need for voters to go to the polls twice. Today a special variant of the contingent vote is used to elect the President of Sri Lanka, another variant, called the supplementary vote, is used to elect mayors and Police and Crime Commissioners in England. In the past the ordinary form of the contingent vote was used to elect the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1892 to 1942, to date, this has been the longest continuous use of the system anywhere in the world.
It was used in the U. S. state of Alabama in the 1920s, in an election held using the contingent vote the voters rank the list of candidates in order of preference. Under the most common layout, they place a 1 beside their most preferred candidate, a 2 beside their second most preferred. In this respect the contingent vote is the same as instant-runoff voting, There are a maximum of two rounds of counting. In the first round only first preferences are counted, if a candidate has received an absolute majority of first preferences he or she is immediately declared the winner. However, if no candidate has a majority all. In the second round the votes of the voters whose first preference had been eliminated are transferred to whichever of the two remaining candidates were ranked the highest, the votes are counted and whichever candidate has an absolute majority is declared elected. Imagine an election in which there are three candidates, Andrew and Catherine, There are 100 voters and they vote as follows,1.
Approval voting is a single-winner voting method used for elections. Each voter may approve of any number of candidates, the winner is the most-approved candidate. Guy Ottewell first described the system in 1977, Robert J. Weber coined the term Approval Voting. It was more fully published in 1978 by political scientist Steven Brams, Approval voting can be considered a form of range voting, with the range restricted to two values,0 and 1—or a form of majority judgment, with grades restricted to good and poor. Approval Voting can be compared to plurality voting, without the rule that discards ballots that vote for more than one candidate, by treating each candidate as a separate question, Do you approve of this person for the job. Approval voting lets each voter indicate support for one, all votes count equally, and everyone gets the same number of votes, one vote per candidate, either for or against. Final tallies show how many voters support each candidate, and the winner is the candidate whom the most voters support, Approval voting ballots show, for each office being contested, a list of the candidates running for that seat.
Next to each name is a checkbox, or another way to mark Yes or No for that candidate. This check yes or no approach means approval voting provides one of the simplest ballots for a voter to understand, ballots on which the voter marked every candidate the same have no effect on the outcome of the election. Each ballot can, therefore, be viewed as a delta that separates two groups of candidates, those supported and those that are not. The IEEE board in 2002 rescinded its decision to use approval voting, IEEE Executive Director Daniel J. Senese stated that approval voting was abandoned because few of our members were using it and it was felt that it was no longer needed. Dartmouth students started to use approval voting to elect their student body president in 2011, in the first election, the winner secured the support of 41% of voters against several write-in candidates. In 2012, Suril Kantaria won with the support of 32% of the voters, in 2013,2014 and 2016, the winners earned the support of under 40% of the voters.
Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a partys candidates are elected. Additionally, an open list system can allow a voter the alternative of voting for the party as a whole without expressing a preference between individuals. There are differences possible between varying open list systems, each giving the voter varying amounts of influence, voters choice is usually called preference vote. A relatively closed open list system is one where a candidate must get a full quota of votes on his or her own to be assured of winning a seat. The total number of seats won by the party minus the number of its candidates that achieved this quota gives the number of unfilled seats and these are successively allocated to the partys not-yet-elected candidates who were ranked highest on the original list. In a more open list system, the quota for election could be lowered from the above amount and it is possible that more of a partys candidates achieve this quota than the total seats won by the party.
It should therefore be made clear in advance whether list ranking or absolute votes take precedence in that case, in Dutch elections the voter can give his vote to any candidate in a list, the vote for this candidate is called a preference vote. If a candidate has at least 25% of the quota he/she takes priority over the other candidates who stand higher on the party list. An example, A party list got 5000 votes, if the quota is 1000 votes, the party wins five seats. Candidates #1, #7 and #4 have each achieved 25% of the quota and they get the first three of the five seats the party has won. The other two seats will be taken by #2 and #3, the two highest remaining positions on the party list and this means that #5 is not elected even though being the fifth on the list and having more preference votes than #2. In practice, at the level only one or two candidates can precede on their lists. This happens more often at the level where the quota is lower. Parties usually allow candidates to ask for votes, but without campaigning negatively against other candidates on the list.
Ballot for electoral district 252, Würzburg, for the 2005 German federal election. Constituency vote on left, party list vote on right.
On a rated ballot, the voter may rate each choice independently.
A majority judgment ballot can be based on grades like those used in schools.


text:
Anatol Șalaru (n. 7 februarie 1962, Văratic, raionul Rîșcani) este un politician român din Republica Moldova, Ministru al Transporturilor și Infrastructurii Drumurilor al Republicii Moldova (din 30 iulie 2015), deputat în Parlamentul Republicii Moldova (din decembrie 2014). A fost deputat în primul Parlament al Republicii Moldova între 1990 și 1994 și Ministrul Transporturilor și Infrastructurii Drumurilor din 25 septembrie 2009 până la 30 mai 2013. Deține funcția de Vicepreședinte al Partidului Liberal, succesorul de drept al Partidului Reformei, pe care l-a condus în perioada 1993-1997. Este fondator al Cenaclului "Alexei Mateevici", - un forum al ideilor libere și naționale, creat în anii de apus ai Uniunii Sovietice  și de început ai restructurării.

Biografie

Anatol Șalaru s-a născut în satul Văratic din raionul Râșcani, RSS Moldovenească, URSS. După absolvirea studiilor medii la școala din localitatea de baștină, și-a continuat studiile la Universitatea de Medicină și Farmacie "Nicolae Testimițanu" din Chișinău. Începe cariera profesională în calitate de colaborator științific la Institutul Moldovenesc de Cercetări Științifice în domeniul Igienei și Epidemiologiei din Chișinău.

Fondator al Cenaclului "Alexei Mateevici" (1988-1990)

La 15 ianuarie 1988, la un omagiu al poetului Mihai Eminescu, la bustul acestuia de pe Aleea Clasicilor din Chișinău, Anatol Șalaru înaintează persoanelor adunate propunerea de a continua întrunirile. În scurt timp, numărul participanților la întâlnirile din fața bustului Mihai Eminescu crește, iar la 26 aprilie 1988. pe Aleea Clasicilor, a avut loc prima ședință oficială a Cenaclului literar-muzical socio-politic "Alexei Mateevici".

Întrunirile Cenaclului "Alexei Mateevici" aveau loc, la început, pe Aleea Clasicilor din parcul Pușkin, din Chișinău, actualemente Grădina Publică Ștefan cel Mare. Ulterior, locul preferat a devenit Teatrul Verde de la lacul Comsomolist, azi parcul de agrement Valea Morilor. Cenaclul "Alexei Mateevici" începe, în 1988, o campanie de colectare a semnăturilor pentru proclamarea limbii române ca limbă de stat și pentru revenirea la grafia latină. Autoritățile comuniste au înțeles că acest cenaclu nu este doar un grup de tineri romantici, care vin numai să cînte și să spună poezii, ci sunt porniți să discute probleme foarte serioase, cum ar fi revenirea la grafia latină, deportările, toate problemele stringente despre care nu s-a spus nimic în perioada sovietică.

Activitatea politică

La începutul anului 1990, Anatol Șalaru devine deputat în primul Parlament al Republicii Moldova ales în mod democratic. Alegerile au avut loc pe circumscripții uninominale, iar Anatol Șalaru a candidat din partea Frontului Popular din Moldova. A exercitat mandatul de deputat până în martie 1994.  "În perioada primului legislativ democrat exista o presiune fantastică a străzii. Mii de  oameni se adunau în fața Parlamentului și blocau circulația - lumea nu era indiferentă față de hotărîrile votate în Parlament. Unii deputați votau din frică, mai erau și din cei indeciși, mai erau deputații comuniști de la Tiraspol... Cei care nu votau corect erau huliți, puteau să ia și bătaie, iar celor care votau bine, oamenii le dădeau flori." își amintește într-un interviu Anatol Șalaru.

Anatol Șalaru este ales președinte al Partidului Reformei la conferința de constituire a formațiunii din 5 septembrie 1993. Partidul Reformei s-a constituit, inițial, drept o formațiune politică de centru-dreapta, de esență creștin-democrată, care și-a propus elaborarea, susținerea și promovarea strategiei reformei pentru a include societatea moldovenească în familia popoarelor civilizate. A exercitat funcția de președinte al partidului până în 1997 pentru ca 11 ani mai târziu să revină în politică ca vicepreședinte al Partidului Liberal, succesor de drept al Partidului Reformei.

După mai bine de zece ani de activitate economică, Anatol Șalaru se reîntoarce, la începutul anului 2008, în politică. Motivul pentru care a revenit în partidul din care a plecat îl spune într-un interviu acordat postului de radio Vocea Basarabiei: "Mulți și-au pus întrebarea de ce am plecat din politică. Probabil, pentru că nu a mai fost cazul să continui când toate s-au dat peste cap. Astăzi însă este nevoie de oameni cu experiență, care nu s-au compromis și care nu au renunțat la idealurile naționale. Am urmărit întotdeauna ce se întâmplă în Moldova, am fost întotdeauna aproape de partidul pe care eu l-am fondat, Partidul Liberal fiind succesorul Partidului Reformei pe care l-am fondat în 1993. Este unul dintre cele mai vechi partide din republică, are 15 ani de existență și întotdeauna mi-am dorit să mă întorc în partidul din care am plecat."

În cadrul ședinței Consiliului Central al Partidului Liberal din 20 martie 2008, Anatol Șalaru a fost ales vicepreședinte al Partidului Liberal. În urma alegerilor parlamentare din 5 aprilie 2009 devine deputat în Parlamentul Republicii Moldova, funcție păstrată și în urma alegerilor parlamentare anticipate din 29 iulie 2009. La ședința în plen a Parlamentului din 10 septembrie 2009, prin votul majorității deputaților, Anatol Șalaru a devenit membru al Biroului Permanent al legislativului.

Din 25 septembrie 2009 până la 30 mai 2013 a fost Ministrul Transporturilor și Infrastructurii Drumurilor în Guvernul Filat (1).

În urma alegerilor parlamentare din 30 noiembrie 2014 a fost ales deputat în Parlamentul Republicii Moldova.

La 30 iulie 2015 a fost numit în funcția de Ministru al Apărării al Republicii Moldova în Guvernul Streleț.

În urma alegerilor prezidențiale din 2016 în care a învins liderul PSRM Igor Dodon, președintele nou ales a declarat că unul din punctele principale va fi demiterea ministrului Apărării Anatol Șalaru. Partidul Liberal a acumulat doar 1,80% (25.490 voturi) din numărul total de voturi, ceea ce demonstrează o scădere extraordinară în comparație cu alegerile anterioare(29 iulie 2009 -14,68 % si 30 noiembrie 2014- 9,67 %). Acest fapt a dus la propunerea din partea lui Anatol Șalaru de a se examina cauza acestei scăderi, identificarea modalității de a îmbunătăți starea partidului, reformarea și, după caz, de a alege un nou președinte al Partidului Liberal. Aceste propuneri au fost considerate drept tentativă de a-l înlătura pe Mihai Ghimpu din funcția sa pentru incapacitate de a conduce partidul.

Pe data de 13 decembrie 2016, Mihai Ghimpu retrage sprijinul politic lui Anatol Șalaru din functia de ministru al Apărării.

La data de 17 decembrie 2016, Anatol Șalaru și-a dat demisia din funcția de prim-vicepreședinte al PL.

Pe 27 decembrie 2016, Igor Dodon semnează decretul privind demiterea din funcția de ministru al Apărării a lui Anatol Șalaru, mulțumind lui Mihai Ghimpu pentru acel demers.

Partidul Unității Naționale
Pe data de 7 februarie 2017 Anatol Salaru anunță, pe contul său de facebook, că intenționează să formeze un partid nou- Partidul Unității Naționale. :

Experiență profesională

 1985-1990: Colaborator științific la Institutul Moldovenesc de Cercetări Științifice în domeniul Igienei și Epidemiologiei
 1996-1997: Director administrație "Ascom Group" SA Chișinău
 1997-1999: Director general, reprezentanța "Ascom Group" SA în Turkmenistan
 1999-2002: Activitate în domeniul privat, administrator SRL în România
 2002-2003: Director de proiect în cadrul Grupului Financiar-Industrial "Ascom Group" SA
 2003-2008: Director al reprezentanței în Irak al Grupului Financiar-Industrial "Ascom Group" SA

Familia și viața personală

Anatol Șalaru este căsătorit cu Carolina. Au doi copii: un băiat, pe nume Nicolae-Dan, și o fată, Victoria-Maria (n. 1 aprilie 2008). Numele fetei a fost pus în cinstea tatălui său, Victor, care a decedat cu o zi înainte de a se naște ea. Familia este stabilită în București, România.

Anatol Șalaru are un hobby încă din studenție - fotografia. Într-un interviu acordat revistei VIP Magazin, Anatol Șalaru preciza că a păstrat o impresionantă colecție de fotografii și înregistrări audio din perioada Cenaclului "Alexei Mateevici".

Summitul NATO de la Varșovia
Pe data de 9 iulie 2016 Anatol Șalaru a participat la Summitul NATO de la Varșovia în calitate de ministru al apărării al Republicii Moldova, unde a ținut următorul discurs:

Referințe

Nașteri în 1962
Nașteri pe 7 februarie
Moldoveni în viață
Deputați moldoveni
Politicieni moldoveni
Oameni din raionul Rîșcani
Români basarabeni
Membri ai Partidului Liberal (Republica Moldova)
Miniștri ai transporturilor ai Republicii Moldova
Decorați cu Ordinul Republicii al Republicii Moldova
Miniștri ai apărării ai Republicii Moldova
Absolvenți ai Universității de Stat de Medicină și Farmacie "Nicolae Testemițanu"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Find $f(a,b)$ given $f(a,1)$, $f(a,2)$, ... I have a bivariate function $f(a,b)$ that takes 2 positive integers as input and gives another as output. I do not know the "inner-workings" of the function — I can only see the value it returns when I give it any 2 variables. I would like to represent this function with an equation.
My naive attempt at this:

*

*I call the function repeatedly with a different value for $a$ each time while $b$ is fixed at 1. This gives me a sequence of output integers.

*I ask Wolfram|Alpha to interpolate a function from this sequence and it gives me a univariate polynomial function: $g(a) = \text{some polynomial}$. I seem to always get an exact function that gives the correct output for any value of $a$. This tells me that $f(a,1) = \text{some polynomial}$.

*Next, I repeat steps 1 and 2, incrementing $b$ by 1 each time to get several more such functions: $f(a,2) = \text{polynomial 2}$, $f(a,3) = \text{polynomial 3}$, etc.

This gives me a system of univariate functions which represent the output of my bivariate function for any $a$ and $b$. How can I use these to get a single simplified function for $f(a,b)$?
Example
Let's say I know the following:

*

*$f(a,1) = 1$

*$f(a,2) = 2a + 1$

*$f(a,3) = 3a^2 + 3a + 1$

*$f(a,4) = 4a^3 + 6a^2 + 4a + 1$

For this simple example, the values of each of these functions shows up as a sequence in the OEIS which helps to discover that $f(a,b) = (a + 1)^b - a^b$.
However, not all sets of functions are this simple where each function is in the OEIS. Is there a standard way to find $f(a,b)$ given $f(a,1)$, $f(a,2)$, etc.?

A: Without sampling every integer for $a$ and $b$ in the domain of $f(a,b)$, you cannot be certain that you have the correct polynomial. That said, you can construct a polynomial to exactly fit an arbitrary number of your sampled function values. This can be done with Lagrange polynomials.
For $n^2$ sample points $(a_i,b_j)$ with function values $f_{ij}$, the polynomial is given by
$$f(a,b)=\sum_i^n\sum_j^nf_{ij}\prod_{r\neq i}^{n}\frac{a-a_r}{a_i-a_r}\prod_{s\neq j}^{n}\frac{b-b_s}{b_j-b_s}$$
You can see that gives the correct value for any of your sample points by substitution into the equation. For example, if I solve $f(a_4,b_5)$, only the $i = 4, j = 5$ term is nontrivial because all others will either have a $a_4 - a_4$ or $b_5 - b_5$ term in the numerator of the product. The products evaluate to 1 and you are left with $f_{4~5}$ as desired.
By plugging in a value for $b$, you are left with a polynomial in $a$.
I extended the definition of the Lagrange polynomial to the two dimensional case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange_polynomial

A: If we consider the sequence of functions $f_m (a) = f(a,m) \in \Bbb N$ for all $a \in \Bbb N$, $m = 0,1,2,...$, we cannot generally say if this sequence converges to some $f$. It may diverge at some $a$, converge pointwise elsewhere.  There's not even a guarantee that for $a_1, a_2 \in \Bbb N$ where the sequence of functions does converge that $\lim_{m \to \infty} f_m (a_1) = \lim_{m \to \infty} f_m (a_2)$.  We could have pointwise convergence to different functions.
But your assumption is that such an $f(a,b)$ does exist, always for all $a,b \in \Bbb N$.  Even further you are making a much stronger assumption that $f_1(a) = f_2(a) = ... = f(a,b)$ (per your comments about "unpiecewising" the function, finding exactly one such $f$ that holds for all $a,b$). In general as a question about sequences of functions this is not true.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
How The West Was Won Book Review
How the west was won photos view all photos (14) movie info. How the west has won.
Pin by Teodóra Vörös on movies A walk to remember quotes
Of how the west won (jeff minick, smoky mountain news)
How the west was won book review. See search results for this author. Louis l'amour (author) 4.7 out of 5 stars 379 ratings. By usawc press, published on 03/02/21
The primary character, woody is 17 years old. How the west was won was about what i expected from l'amour, but perhaps just a bit more. How the south won the civil war review:
The triumph of the west (1995), without the illustrations, but updated to include wars fought since that date. How the south won the civil war: Oligarchy, democracy, and the continuing fight for the soul of america by heather cox richardson.
Setting off on a journey to the west in the 1830s, the prescott family run into a man named linus (james stewart), who helps them fight. 'how the west won,' by rodney stark a mighty engine for growth—avoiding asceticism on the one hand and profligate consumerism on the other. More specifically, she writes that the west was "based on hierarchies".
Essentially, this book comprises the text of the cambridge illustrated history of warfare: (royal irish constabulary model), first produced in 1868 by philip webley & sons of birmingham, england. This clarifying history book dispels misconceptions and asserts supremacy in an educated yet ethnocentric view of global events.
The book was clearly a hybrid of movie script and standard l'amour fare. Well, stark's "how the west won" book is by all means an excellent start, for it dismantles several relevant "truths" dished out into today's mainstream dogmata. Arms dealers began advertising a.44 webley that.
History that feels good usually isn't. It pulled me in from the first pages as it referenced the great hurricane of 1938. A magnificent monument to western civilization collapsing.".
The path from jim crow to donald trump. California was a free state but with. A focus on western trends in social and scientific change over time dispels misconceptions about modernity.
West with giraffes is a superb story written by lynda rutledge and significantly more than just giraffes and their travel across the usa. Richard gott charts the bloody rise of the west from ancient greece to a time when the rest of the world must endure america's freedom in why the west has won by victor. Two thousand years later, america's professors have assigned themselves the old virgilian project.
Of how the west won (gregory j. The casthow the west was won, written by james r. Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
Belgian gunsmiths began copying the fast, sturdy, powerful weapon as early as 1873. How the west was won: In seventeen chapters (plus an introduction and epilogue), seven international experts in military history set out to consider.
At the neshoba county fair in 1980, ronald reagan "brought the south and the west together to take over national politics" (185). How the (north)west was won historian david mccullough's 'the pioneers' focuses on the individuals beyond the myths of settling the northwest territory. Instead of the usual root dismissal, stark takes us back over two millennia to show how the unique western concept of god paved way for a triumphal civilisation.
Virgil claimed that it was rome's task to show mercy to the conquered and overthrow the proud. Ben shapiro's new book lays out a succinct defense of western civilization.
Pin on Hollywood Portraits Male
Here Are The 2017 Nebula Award Winners Nebula awards
All the Fun of the Fair on Behance Circus illustration
You hearin' me God? Western artist, Western art, Western
Book Review The Shadows Between Us in 2020 Book review
Neverseenbefore pictures show Led Zeppelin through the
Harder Than I Thought (eBook) Book cover design
Another book review 🐆 This is a West African leopard tale
Tales of Albion. Illustrator Vladislav Erko, 2004
Pin by BBHPCY  on υιζζαηδ Tupac, Coloring pages, Drawings
Art of Todd Nauck Photo Comic book artists, Cool art, Art
Grand Teton National Park News Releases June 2010
Pin on Art & Photography
Hwayugi (A Korean Odyssey) Episode 1 » Dramabeans Korean
The Source Magazine Tupac August 2003 Suge Knight Biggie
Liberty Valance / Marvin "Right between the eyes" John
Detail Robert Ingpen Around the world in 80 days
James Arness Jack Elam How The West Was Won (1977
Hollywood's inspirational films showed up Mumbai's lack of

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: From List to Map>: looking for a better implementation Let me show you my code:
Class Foo
public class Foo {

    String code;
    String value;

    public Foo(String code, String value) {
        super();
        this.code = code;
        this.value = value;
    }
    // getters/setters
}

Main method (focus on getFooMultiMapCode() method):
public class FooMain {

public static void main(String[] args) {
    Foo foo1 = new Foo("100","foo1");
    Foo foo2 = new Foo("200","foo2");
    Foo foo3 = new Foo("300","foo3");
    Foo foo4 = new Foo("100","foo4");
    Foo foo5 = new Foo("100","foo5");
    Foo foo6 = new Foo("200","foo6");
    List<Foo> foos = Arrays.asList(foo1,foo2,foo3,foo4,foo5,foo6);
    Map<String,List<Foo>> fooCodeMap = getFooMultiMapCode(foos);
    System.out.println(fooCodeMap);
}

private static Map<String, List<Foo>> getFooMultiMapCode(List<Foo> foos) {
    Map<String, List<Foo>> fooMultiMapCode = new HashMap<String, List<Foo>>();
    for(Foo foo:foos){
        List<Foo> list = fooMultiMapCode.get(foo.getCode());
        if(list==null){
            list = new ArrayList<Foo>();
            list.add(foo);
            fooMultiMapCode.put(foo.getCode(), list);
        }
        else {
            list.add(foo);
        }
    }
    return fooMultiMapCode;
}
}

Main prints correctly this string:
{100=[foo1, foo4, foo5], 200=[foo2, foo6], 300=[foo3]}

I would like to rewrite getFooMultiMapCode method in a more succint way using for example java8 or also libraries such lambdaj, guava, etc but I don't want to change method signature.

A: The solution with Java 8 and groupingBy(classifier, downstream):
return foos.stream().collect(Collectors.groupingBy(Foo::getCode, Collectors.toList()));

Or simply with groupingBy(classifier) as @Boris the Spider noticed:
return foos.stream().collect(Collectors.groupingBy(Foo::getCode));

A: Expanding a bit on @Holgers comment: Non-stream version if you prefer loops - still java8, though:
private static Map<String, List<Foo>> getFooMultiMapCode(List<Foo> foos) {
    Map<String, List<Foo>> fooMultiMapCode = new HashMap<String, List<Foo>>();
    for(Foo foo : foos){
        fooMultiMapCode.computeIfAbsent(foo.getCode(), x -> new ArrayList<>()).add(foo);
    }
    return fooMultiMapCode;
}

or even
private static Map<String, List<Foo>> getFooMultiMapCode(List<Foo> foos) {
    Map<String, List<Foo>> fooMultiMapCode = new HashMap<String, List<Foo>>();
    foos.forEach(foo -> fooMultiMapCode.computeIfAbsent(foo.getCode(), x -> new ArrayList<>()).add(foo));
    return fooMultiMapCode;
}

I still prefer the stream version, though.


text:
AndNews
Chairpedia
Domingo the carpenter
In the sixties, Eivissa (Ibiza) was still a paradise barely polluted by modernity, where the rural culture survived, to which Domingo...
Manual for making a chair
Select, among various types of wood, the one you like the most for the shape and color: Birch - Maple - Boxwood - Mahogany – Chestnut...
Can you think of an object where you can rest your body without being conditioned by the knowledge and experience of the chairs you...
Pessoa's Chair
We do not have any photographs of Fernando Pessoa's chair. In fact, the ones he always had were rentals and on the other hand he...
Proust's Stacked Chairs
In the Rue Haussmann apartment, Proust accumulated furniture from the family home. With the death of his mother that residence was full...
View all histories
Ana Domínguez Siemens
Ana Domínguez has a degree in Art History and specialized in Design from London's Sotheby's Institute of Art. She is a curator of...
Santi Barjau
Is a PhD in Art History from the University of Barcelona. He is a specialist in posterism of the first half of the 20th century and...
Daniel Giralt-Miracle
Is a critic, art historian and professor. He was the director of Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) and commissary general of...
Mauricio Wiesenthal
Is a writer, oenologist (winemaker) and photographer of German heritage. He has been a professor and lecturer in different...
Carmen Sevilla is a professor of History and Theory of Design at the School of Art and Superior Design of Valencia and Design...
In the sixties, Eivissa (Ibiza) was still a paradise barely polluted by modernity, where the rural culture survived, to which Domingo belonged, an old carpenter who along with his young nephew, who he had made his assistant, was still working in the upper part of Dalt Vila. Domingo used the solid wood of the island junipers to which he formed with the saw, the brush, the chisel, and the mortise…the most traditional tools that he handled with dexterity. And in fact, many of the chairs and tables were bought for houses of the members of the large colony of German, English, French and American artists located in this sanctuary, which regularly exhibited in the Carl van der Voort gallery, that was just in front of the workshop Domingo worked throughout an intense workday, was often interrupted to chat with a kind neighbor, who was none other than the architect Josep Lluís Sert.
One of the clients in love with the furniture repertoire of the popular carpenter was a German who happened to be director of the Frankfurt Museum of Decorative Arts, a center that, although it defended the rationalism, the functionalism and the Gutte Form, had no qualms to incorporate into its permanent collection and next to the seats of Mies, Breuer, Le Corbusier….Domingo's chairs and tables, to whom we owe that the most ancient Mediterranean culture is already part of the great history of European design.
chairpedia chair frankfurtmuseum mies breuer lecorbusier


text:
JSC Holding Company METALLOINVEST
Metalloinvest Finance D.A.C.
Credit Opinion: JSC Holding Company METALLOINVEST: Update to credit analysis
Credit Opinion: JSC Holding Company METALLOINVEST: Update following upgrade to Ba1 with a stable outlook
Announcement of Periodic Review: Moody's announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of JSC Holding Company METALLOINVEST
Peer Snapshot: JSC Holding Company METALLOINVEST - June 2020 (LTM): Peer Snapshot
Peer Snapshot: JSC Holding Company METALLOINVEST - December 2019 (LTM): Peer Snapshot
Moody's changes outlook on Metalloinvest's Ba2 rating to positive; affirms ratings
London, 18 January 2018 -- Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has changed to positive from stable the outlook on the ratings of JSC Holding Company METALLOINVEST (Metalloinvest). Concurrently, Moody's has affirmed Metalloinvest's Ba2 corporate family rating (CFR), Ba2-PD probability of default rating (PDR) and the Ba2 senior unsecured ratings assigned to the notes issued by Metalloinvest Finance D.A.C., a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Metalloinvest. The outlook of Metalloinvest Finance D.A.C. has also been changed to positive from stable.
"We have changed the outlook on Metalloinvest's ratings to positive to reflect the company's deleveraging in 2017, following the boost to its earnings and cash flow generation from higher prices for iron ore and steel and increased production of high value-added iron ore products," says Artem Frolov, a Vice President - Senior Credit Officer at Moody's.
Today's change of Metalloinvest's outlook to positive and affirmation of its ratings primarily reflect Moody's estimation that the company's leverage has declined to 2.2x Moody's-adjusted total debt/EBITDA at year-end 2017 from 3.5x a year earlier, primarily on the back of increased average prices for iron ore and steel products.
The rating action also reflects Moody's expectation that Metalloinvest will (1) be able to maintain its leverage below 2.5x, provided there is no major decline in iron ore and steel prices; (2) pursue a balanced financial policy, with positive free cash flow generation; (3) maintain healthy liquidity and continue to address its refinancing needs in advance; and (4) adopt a clear dividend policy.
Metalloinvest's leverage is sensitive to the volatile prices of iron ore and steel, as well as rouble exchange rate to US dollar. The decline in leverage in 2017 was driven by the increase in the company's Moody's-adjusted EBITDA by around $850 million to $2.1 billion (Moody's estimation), due to higher average prices for iron ore and steel products compared with those in 2016, as well as increased production of high value-added iron ore products. If prices were to materially decrease or rouble to strengthen, Metalloinvest's leverage could grow above 2.5x over the next 12-18 months, reducing the possibility for an upgrade.
Metalloinvest's Ba2 CFR also factors in the company's (1) low-cost profile and high profitability, supported by the weak rouble and continuing operational enhancements; (2) integration in steel business, which generates up to 25% of consolidated EBITDA; (3) long-life iron ore reserves and high ferrous content of above 65% in iron ore concentrate; (4) high share of value-added products (i.e., pellets and hot briquetted iron, or HBI) whose prices are less volatile than iron ore; (5) geographical diversification of sales, with 55%-60% of revenues generated from exports; (6) diversified customer base and a degree of flexibility in redirecting sales between domestic and export markets; (7) recent adoption of financial policy that anticipates maintaining leverage below 2.5x reported net debt/EBITDA on a sustainable basis, although this level is above Moody's upgrade threshold of 2.5x Moody's-adjusted total debt/EBITDA; and (8) strong liquidity, long-term debt maturity profile and conservative liquidity management.
At the same time, Metalloinvest's rating takes into account the (1) fairly high sensitivity of the company's earnings and leverage to the volatile prices of iron ore and steel, as well as rouble exchange rate; (2) lack of visibility into shareholder distributions, in the absence of a clearly defined dividend policy; (3) concentrated ownership-related risks, including potential high shareholder distributions and revisions to financial policy; (4) substantial amount of loans provided to shareholders, affiliates and third parties; (5) limited geographical diversification of assets; and (6) exposure to Russia's operating environment, given that the company's assets are located in Russia, where the company generates 40%-45% of its revenue.
RATIONALE FOR THE POSITIVE OUTLOOK
The positive outlook reflects the company's strong positioning within the current rating category and the possibility of an upgrade over the next 12-18 months.
WHAT COULD CHANGE THE RATINGS UP/DOWN
Moody's could upgrade Metalloinvest's rating if the company (1) gradually reduces its total debt and maintains its Moody's-adjusted total debt/EBITDA below 2.5x on a sustainable basis; (2) pursues a balanced financial policy, with positive free cash flow generation; (3) retains healthy liquidity and continues to address its refinancing needs in advance; and (4) adopts a clear dividend policy and curtails loans to shareholders, affiliates and third parties.
Moody's could downgrade Metalloinvest's rating if the company's (1) Moody's-adjusted total debt/EBITDA increases above 3.5x on a sustained basis; (2) free cash flow turns sustainably negative, which could be a result of generous dividend payouts; (3) corporate governance deteriorates, which could, among other things, be indicated by an increase in loans to shareholders, affiliates and third parties; or (4) liquidity weakens materially.
PRINCIPAL METHODOLOGY
The principal methodology used in these ratings was Global Mining Industry published in August 2014. Please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of this methodology.
JSC Holding Company METALLOINVEST is Russia's largest producer of high-quality iron ore, pellets and hot briquetted iron (HBI)/direct reduced iron (DRI). It has one of the world's largest iron ore reserve bases, which the company estimates at 14.2 billion tonnes, indicating an operating life of 140 years. In the last 12 months to 30 June 2017, Metalloinvest produced 40.5 mt of iron ore, 25.1 mt of pellets, 6.0 mt of HBI/DRI, 2.8 mt of pig iron and 4.7 mt of crude steel. Over the same period, the company generated revenues of $5.4 billion (2016: $4.3 billion) and Moody's-adjusted EBITDA of $1.8 billion (2016: $1.3 billion). Metalloinvest is wholly owned by Russia-domiciled USM Metalloinvest LLC, which is ultimately owned by Alisher Usmanov (49%), Vladimir Skoch (30%) and Farhad Moshiri (10%).
Artem Frolov


text:
Pieros Sotiriou, född 13 januari 1993 i Nicosia, är en cypriotisk fotbollsspelare som spelar för bulgariska Ludogorets Razgrad.

Klubbkarriär
Den 25 april 2017 värvades Sotiriou av FC Köpenhamn, där han skrev på ett femårskontrakt med start från den 1 juli 2017. Den 20 februari 2020 värvades Sotiriou av kazakiska Astana, där han skrev på ett treårskontrakt.

I februari 2021 värvades Sotiriou av bulgariska Ludogorets Razgrad, där han skrev på ett 3,5-årskontrakt.

Källor

Noter

Cypriotiska fotbollsspelare
Spelare i Olympiakos Nicosia
Spelare i APOEL FC
Spelare i FC Köpenhamn
Spelare i FK Astana
Spelare i PFK Ludogorets Razgrad
Spelare i Cyperns förstadivision i fotboll
Spelare i Superligaen
Spelare i A Profesionalna Futbolna Grupa
Födda 1993
Levande personer
Män


text:
Q: Mass Export of BLOB data to CSV I am working with an older Oracle database, I don't know which version of oracle, sorry, and I need to do a mass export of 200,000+ files worth of HTML data stored in BLOBs. I have downloaded and used both Toad and SQLDeveloper (Oracle's own DB GUI tool) and at best I am able to properly extract the HTML for a single row at a time.
Is there a way (query, tool, other GUI, etc...) that I can reliably do a mass export of all the BLOB data on this table to a CSV format?
Thank You.

A: You can use utl_file built-in package through this you can write blob data to a file.
Refer here.

A: I found this tool.
It works incredibly well for extracting content of any type out of any sort of LOB to a file type (HTML in this case). Takes about an hour to do 200,000 records though


Kyoto is the cultural capital of Japan and is home to hundreds of shrines, several imperial buildings, traditional teahouses and the majority of the remaining geisha training houses. It's also a great base for day trips around Japan, due to several rail lines converging at the futuristic Kyoto station.
The Kyoto basin was settled fairly early in Japan's history. Around 794, the Emperor to relocated to Kyoto, which was now declared the capital of Japan.
As well as being home to the Emperor, military clans (known as shogunates) made the city their base. Regular wars between the shoguns ravaged the city. Although Kyoto remained the Imperial capital, the dominance of the Tokyo based Tokugawa shogunate meant that from 1603 Tokyo was the de facto seat of power.
In 1868 the shogun system was dismantled, and Emperor Meiji moved the Imperial court to Tokyo. This signaled the end of any claim Kyoto had for being the capital of Japan. However Tokyo was never officially declared the capital, so there is some controversy that Kyoto remains the legal capital.
Kyoto was considered as an atomic bomb target during World War II but managed to escape serious attack, so the city has a large number of traditional wooden buildings (such as machiya townhouses) from the pre-war era.
In recent years Kyoto has enacted several local laws to protect its cultural status, while also stepping out on to the world stage; in 1997 the city hosted the conference on greenhouse gas emissions which resulted in the Kyoto Protocol.
Kyoto does not have its own airport, but can be easily reached by rail from Kansai International Airport. Flights here are mainly from neighbouring Asian countries, although there are a few routes from Europe or North America. If traveling from elsewhere in Japan, domestic flights land at Kansai and at Osaka airport, which is about an hour away from Kyoto by bus.
Kyoto is about 2.5 hours away from Tokyo on the superfast shinkansen bullet trains, and is a railway hub with trains heading to all major destinations both east and west of the city. This makes it an ideal base for short excursions or day trips around the country.
Kyoto is fairly compact, and most sites can be reached on foot from the city centre. There are also local subways and buses that make getting around the city very easy. The city is also very friendly for cyclists, with dedicated bike lanes and a distinct lack of hills.
The northern part of the city centre contains the Imperial Palace and surrounding gardens, as well as the Botanical Gardens and a few major shrines. It's also home to several universities making this a great area for cost conscious travellers, as many shops, bars and restaurants are aimed at those on a student budget.
The southern part of the city centre is more shopping and entertainment focused. The extensive Nishiki food market and the Teramachi arcade are great places to pick up souvenirs, and geisha and maiko can often be spotted on the atmospheric Pontocho.
The enormous Kyoto Station was opened in 1997, and is the main attraction in this area, alongside Kyoto Tower. There's not much else to see or do, but it's a convenient location if you plan to take several day trips from Kyoto and don't want to spend time getting to and from the station each day. Subways and buses will take you to all other areas in Kyoto.
The Gion entertainment district is the place to be if you like nightlife, while Southern Higashiyama is quieter and more traditional. It's a short walk to central Kyoto and also easy to get to the station from here. There are several exceptional shrines, temples and museums in this area and plenty of traditional buildings to admire.
Northern Higashiyama reaches up the slopes of the mountains surrounding Kyoto, making it exceptionally scenic. There are several temples, gardens and parks in this area, and the pace of life is more relaxed than other parts of the city. It's slightly isolated from the rest of the city, but a great area for those looking for a more tranquil experience.
This tiny pedestrian street running alongside the Kamo-gawa river is perhaps the most atmospheric spot in Kyoto. It comes alive after dark as the restaurants and bars lining it light their lanterns, and geisha glide from one appointment to the next. Many of the establishments are invitation only, making this a great place to watch the comings and goings of the Kyoto elite.
This shrine was originally dedicated to the gods of rice and sake, and is now a popular place to pray for business success. The paths around the wooded hills surrounding the shrine are lined with thousands of red torii gates, guarded by stone foxes (thought to be the messenger of the god of rice). Exploring the 4km of paths can take up several hours but the effort is worth it – this is easily one of the most unique and atmospheric shrines in Kyoto.
Situated up a hillside with stunning views over the city, this large temple complex is one of the most popular in Kyoto. There are several temples, where visitors can pray for love, health, fertility and success. The main hall and veranda are held up on 139 wooden pillars, none of which are secured with nails. The approach to the temple is through some of the most attractive neighbourhoods of Kyoto, with winding streets lined with traditional wooden buildings.
Visit early or late in the day to beat the crowds at Kinkaku-ji, one of Japan's most famous buildings. The temple building is coated with gold leaf, and sits alongside a pond which is particularly photogenic. There are surrounding gardens but these aren't particularly memorable.
This is also another popular tourist to-do, so again it's worth visiting early or late to get the most out of the experience. The main feature of this Zen temple is a garden featuring 15 rocks carefully placed in a raked gravel sea. The gardens surrounding the stone garden are very attractive, with the Kyoyo-chi pond being particularly peaceful.


At the IAA in Frankfurt (Hall 3, Booth A11), ŠKODA is presenting its first purely electrically driven concept car that can drive autonomously at level 3 – the VISION E. Curtain up for the new ŠKODA KAROQ. The traditional Czech brand presents their new compact SUV at the IAA. With the ŠKODA KODIAQ SPORTLINE and the ŠKODA KODIAQ SCOUT. ŠKODA continues the brands SUV offensive campaign. Both models are among the highlights on show.


text:
Sample Room snapped up
The Caley Sample Room in Edinburgh has been sold in a deal brokered by licensed property agents Cornerstone.
The bar majors in "eclectic beers" and is said to attract a mixed clientele of regulars and tourists.
Following what was described as a "short marketing process resulting in significant interest", the pub was sold to its new owners, who are said to be experienced operators in the trade "who are looking forward to running this well-loved Edinburgh institution".
Barry McNeil, director of Cornerstone who handled the sale, said the Caley Sample Room is "always popular on match days" and over the last ten years has developed "an excellent name for food".
The bar was sold for an undisclosed sum.
Caley Sample Room
Market set to pick up pace
All change at the Riverside
Operator's call to Arms


Listen "New santali video 2018 19 santali mp3" audio music of MP4, Mp3, webm formats in any mobile, smartphones, laptop device. Play "New santali video 2018 19 santali mp3" Low Quality video of 3gp format in 176x144 resolution screen. Watch online "New santali video 2018 19 santali mp3" High Quality video of 3gp format in 320x240 resolution screen. Latest trailer of "New santali video 2018 19 santali mp3" video of flv format in 400x240 resolution screen. Preview our exclusive "New santali video 2018 19 santali mp3" Medium Quality video of webm format in 640x360 resolution screen. Download "New santali video 2018 19 santali mp3" video of mp4 format in 640x360 resolution screen. wapinda offers "New santali video 2018 19 santali mp3" High Quality video of HD MP4 format in 1280x720 resolution screen.
Related Video : If You liked New santali video 2018 19 santali mp3 song, Then You can find similar New santali video 2018 19 santali mp3 video songs by clicking on it.
Choose Server to download "New santali video 2018 19 santali mp3" video song in 3gp, flv, webm, mp4 formats and audio song in webm, m4a formats.
If You are unable to download New santali video 2018 19 santali mp3 song , please contact us.


text:
Pardus 2011: KDE SC 4.5.5 With A Pinch Of GNOME In One Of The Best KDE-Based Linux Distros
Author: Andrew | Posted: January 23, 2011
Pardus is a Linux distribution funded by the Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey. Even though it uses KDE, Pardus tries to make every user - including those who come from a GNOME Linux distribution - feel like home and in which the user is in control of how his desktop looks like right from the start.
Pardus 2011 comes with its own original tools: YALI (installer), Kaptan - an first boot configuration tool, PiSi (package manager) as well as many tweaks to some already existing tools. Read on to find out more!
(Pardus login screen)
When you first boot the Pardus 2011 Live CD, YALI installer (which now has LVM/RAID and UUID support) will guide you through the installation process. Everything is intuitive and easy to use for both novice and advanced users (the following screenshot is just one of the YALI installation steps):
While most major Linux distributions impose their own style (theme, icons and so on), in Pardus you're in complete control of how everything looks from the beginning: when you first boot Pardus you'll meet Kaptan, an original Pardus tool that runs when you boot Pardus for the first time and lets you customize the user interface and other settings (you can choose the theme, menu, wallpaper and so on):
If you've never tried Pardus before, I'm sure the first impression will be "wow" for most of you like it was for me!
Default applications
(Clementine)
(Firefox 4.0 beta 9)
Pardus 2011 is not your regular KDE Linux distribution - you won't find KOffice (now Calligra Suite) by default but LibreOffice. Further more, Mozilla Firefox 4.0 beta 9 is the default web browser. Other default applications: SMplayer as the default video player, Clementine as the default music player, KsCD is now the default player for Audio CDs and of course most of the popular KDE applications like digiKam, Kdenlive, Kopete, Dolphin, Ktorrent, Kget, Choqok, Konqueror and so on.
(GIMP)
Even though Pardus is a KDE Linux distribution (Pardus 2011 comes with KDE SC 4.5.5), it features some of the best GNOME applications too such as GIMP or GNOME NetworkManager 0.8.2:
The reason for using GNOME Network Manager as the default network manager application is to make it easy for its users to set up CDMA, HSPA and VPN networks.
But you don't have to worry about integrating GNOME applications with the KDE look - Pardus has this covered and the latest Pardus 2011 uses KDE's Oxygen style for all the GTK apps. This is great for those who use GNOME and want to try a KDE Linux distro as they can keep using some of the applications they've got used to while trying out some of the best KDE applications too.
For a package manager, Pardus comes with its own "PiSi":
But of course, there's also a graphical package manager too:
Panda (Pardus alternative driver administration) is a new System Settings module which allows users to change the driver between Open Source and proprietary one for NVIDIA and ATI display adapters.
Pardus 2011 comes with KDE SC 4.5.5, Linux Kernel 2.6.37, Python 2.7.1, xorg-server 1.9.4 RC1 with improvements to the automatic driver configuration mechanism done by the Pardus developers.
Download Pardus 2011
There's much more to Pardus 2011 then I could ever cover in a post so you really need to try it out for yourself to see why Pardus is considered one of the best KDE-based Linux distributions of the moment.
Pardus 2011 is available for both 32bit and 64bit and you can download it from HERE | Pardus 2011 release notes
Tagged with: distro kde linux pardus review


NEXT KCDW MEETING MAR. 23RD: Yacht Club Broiler – No host lunch – 11:30 am; Meeting – 12:30 pm. Alorie Gilberst from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense will be our speaker. NO RSVP required. Please bring canned goods for the food bank.
As we Democrats know well, the quality of any Democracy is dependent on the quality of its educational system. In particular, the importance of a solid grounding in Civics cannot be overstated. Unfortunately, governmental support for education in general, and Civics courses in particular, has been on a serious decline for a long time. Rachel Maddow recently reported that among other problems, Detroit schools now have only enough funds to operate through April. How can this not be a serious factor in what is happening in this very disturbing presidential election cycle?
I remember the day a door was slammed in my face while canvassing in opposition to an initiative. What caused this was my comment that we, of course, were the government. In a 1997 survey conducted by the National Constitution Center, 62% of the respondents could not name all three branches of the government. In 1999, students could graduate from an Illinois High School without ever taking a course in American government.
My particular concern is that far too many in this country do not understand the limits of what a President can and should be allowed to do. Even some Democrats complain about what Obama has not been able to do. He has been an amazingly transformative President, but he is NOT a King. There are other branches of government which can and do inhibit what he can do. While definitely frustrating, particularly now, this is generally a good thing for Democracy.
Several studies* indicate there is a strong correlation between Trump supporters and people who score high in what is called 'authoritarianism.' These authoritarianists, when surveyed about parenting goals, favor teaching their children respect for elders over independence, obedience over self-reliance, good behavior over being considerate, and good manners over curiosity. These individuals both fear outsiders and desire order. They look for leaders they perceive are strong enough to handle their concerns. This need is particularly activated when they feel physically threatened by such things as terrorism or destabilized by social changes, of which gay marriage is only a minor component. Authoritarianists are far more frightened by changes in the ethnic makeup of society which might affect their status. Since most Trump authoritarian supporters are white, they fear that granting legitimacy to illegal immigrants will threaten their ethnic majority status. Whether or not Trump understands this, he plays to their fears, and legitimizing these fears, permits these people to vocalize them. Twenty per-cent of Trump's supporters now admit they think Lincoln should not have freed the slaves! No wonder he played dumb about who the heck David Duke is.
But here is the main problem - most Trump authoritarian supporters have less than a college education. Trump lures them by portraying himself as a strong leader who WILL make extraordinary things happen. His promises far exceed any President's constitutional capabilities. With so many of these supporters having little or no Civics education, he's able to fool them into thinking he can actually succeed with these outrageous endeavors. I don't believe Trump can ultimately win, but win or lose, this crowd could cause some serious chaos in the future. If he wins and does not deliver, which would surely happen, I cannot imagine how they would react. If he loses they will likely turn to some other potentially more bombastic leader now that they have been unleashed. The Constitution was deliberately designed to distribute power among three separate branches of government to ensure that we do not regress to a monarchy – specifically so that no President is all powerful. I fear we will have no peace from this faction of society until someone is able to educate them, at least on this point, if nothing else.
SPECIAL NOTE: A memorial celebration of Lucy Johnson's life will be held at Country Meadows Apartments, 12169 Country Meadows Lane NW, Silverdale, WA at 1:30 on Saturday, March 19, 2016. Memorial donations may be made to the American Friends Service Committee at afsc.org.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL PRECINCT CAUCUSES – March 26th (Saturday); doors open at 9 am, caucuses begin at 10 am; Check Kitsap County Democratic Website at http://www.kitsapdemocrats.com/ for the location of your precinct.