Before we go into the substance of the Army's response, there is the need to correct the misinformation contained in their statement. First, the Biafran Heroes' Day Remembrance is entirely an affair of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and not any other group. Smuggling in the name of another group/s is trying to give credit to compromised organizations who are known to be sell-outs.
Secondly, the Biafran Heroes Remembrance Day has been and will continue to be on May 30th of every year. Irrespective of the day of the week that is 30th of May, the Remembrance Day will always be celebrated on that date. Therefore, it is the height of deception for the Nigerian Army to claim that IPOB celebrated the Remembrance Day on May 31, 2016. And lastly, we would like to remind humanity that the sovereign nation of Biafra was declared on May 30th 1967 and by May 30th 2016 we celebrated the 49th Anniversary of the heroism of the fearless Biafra Army that, against all odds, held out for 3 years against the combined onslaught of the British led foreign military coalition against Biafra.
For record purposes, we IPOB make it clear that Nigeria never defeated Biafra but instead it was foreign governments especially that of Harold Wilson, Labour Party Prime Minister of Britain, that convinced Russia and the United States to provide arms to Nigeria, deny Biafra legitimate access to weapons, and ensured international diplomatic shut-out of Biafra. On the 30th of May of each year, we remember these gallant men and women that gave their life that this generation of Biafrans might live.
Delving into the substance of the Army's response; how can the decrepit Nigerian Army explain how people who were murdered in their sleep on the night of May 29th suddenly became violent? How can someone be sleeping and be protesting at the same time? What are the "unimaginable atrocities" that the Army cannot find a description for?
To justify the use of live ammunitions on Biafrans, Col. Gambo claimed that Biafrans: "employed firearms, crude weapons as well as other volatile cocktails such as acid and dynamites." Where are the arms and ammunitions that the Army recovered from the "violent Biafrans"? Is the Army actually referring to the acid which they, the Nigerian Army, poured on the bodies of dead Biafrans as they lay in mass graves which was dug at the cemetery inside Onitsha Army Barrack? Is the Army aware that information leaked through Tony Nnaecheta who personally supervised the burying of over 100 dead bodies of Biafrans in mass graves inside the Onitsha Army barrack?
Col. Gambo in reference to the damning report, averred that Amnesty: "have decided to inundate the general public with an anecdote of unverified narratives in order to discredit the Nigerian Army in the course of carrying out its constitutional duties despite the inexplicable premeditated and unprovoked attacks in the hands of the violent pro-Biafran mob." Also, in citing legal support for their heinous crime, Col. Gambo stated that: "The Nigerian Army in synergy with other security agencies under its constitutional mandates for Military Aid to Civil Authority (MACA) and Military Aid to Civil Power (MACP) acted responsively in order to de-escalate the deteriorating security scenario in-situ." IPOB wish to state categorically that there is no place in the 320 sections and seven schedules of the constitution of Nigeria where the Army is empowered to shoot at unarmed peaceful civilians, especially those who are sleeping. The constitution of Nigeria has no such thing as MACA or MACP and we challenge Col. Gambo to point IPOB to the section or schedule of the Nigerian constitution where such mandates are explicitly stated.
From the report of Amnesty International, it is now crystal clear that Buhari and his murderous soldiers committed crimes against humanity against Biafrans. The International Criminal Court (ICC) will definitely rely on this report and other supporting reports and documents to ensure that justice is meted out to Buhari and his fellow blood thirsty murderers in the Nigerian Army.
Muhammadu Buhari was part of the marauding soldiers that killed over 2 million Biafrans at Owerri in 1968. Prior to the mass murder he committed at Owerri, Buhari was one of the soldiers that stormed the Government House in Ibadan on the 29th of July 1966 and cowardly assassinated his Commander-in-Chief General J. T. U. Aguiyi-Ironsi, a Biafran of Igbo extraction. Historically, Muhammadu Buhari is used to shedding blood and being the head of the armed forces of Nigeria, it is not a surprise that the Nigerian Army will go to any extent to carry out the dictates of their blood-thirsty commander.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is also aware of the Army's strategy of persistently associating IPOB with other organizations in order to belittle or smear IPOB's hard-earned reputation and indirectly give credit to these compromised organizations. It is worthy to re-emphasize that 30th of May Heroes Remembrance Day is a project envisioned, designed, and delivered by IPOB under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, not any other group. From the first outing in 2014 to the just-concluded one in 2016, the organizers and participants have been members of IPOB and not any other group or organization. This is the reason for the peaceful and disciplined manner that characterized the 30th May celebrations every year in more than 100 countries and territories around the world.
For the Nigerian Army, no amount of barefaced lies and misinformation will deceive the world from knowing the truth about the genocide committed by the Army against the people they are supposed to be protecting from external aggression. The Amnesty International report is spot-on and incontrovertible.
The army's response is hogwash, fraudulent, and cannot stand the upcoming ICC imprisonment of Buhari, Buratai, Arase, Obiano, and other killers of unarmed and peaceful Biafrans.
Thank You honourable Iroanya for your contributions and the endeavour to expose the truths on behalf of Biafrans restoration. It's high time for the world to know the truth especially the lovers of freedom who love to know the truth. As for buhanama he will never know peace all the days of his life Biafra must be restored in name of chukwu okike Abiama we have prayed ise-ise-iseeee.
Good response. We are happy that Biafrans are standing up to what they believed in.
It's not up to NIGERIAN Govt to decide the faith of BIAFRANS. If not, they will decide it on a worst advantageous note.
Thanks to Mr Cliford Iroanya and Emma Mmezu.


We are the principal association representing the creative events profession, globally.
Our values are the set of principles that we believe in. Our values are truths which are the primary driving force behind our band, our actions and our decisions. The truths they stand for guide our organization's communications, our marketing, our decisions, and most importantly, our relationships and connections with our audiences, vendors, prospects, and clients.


SIKKIM - Lord Tours and Trek : Deals with Holidays and Adventure Trekking.
Sikkim is also known as Shikim or Su Khyim is a landlocked Indian state located in the Himalayan mountains. The state is bordered by Nepal to the west, China's Tibet Autonomous Region to the north and east, and Bhutan to the east. The Indian state of West Bengal lies to the south.
With 607,688 inhabitants as of the 2011 census, Sikkim is the least populous state in India and the second-smallest state after Goa in total area, covering approximately 7,096 km2 (2,740 sq mi). Sikkim is nonetheless geographically diverse due to its location in the Himalayas; the climate ranges from subtropical to high alpine, and Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest peak, is located on Sikkim's border with Nepal. Sikkim is a popular tourist destination, owing to its culture, scenery and biodiversity. It also has the only open land border between India and China. Sikkim's capital and largest city is Gangtok.
According to legend, the Buddhist guru Padmasambhava visited Sikkim in the 8th century CE, introduced Buddhism and foretold the era of the Sikkimese monarchy. Sikkim's Namgyal dynasty was established in 1642. Over the next 150 years, the kingdom witnessed frequent raids and territorial losses to Nepalese invaders. In the 19th century, it allied itself with British India, eventually becoming a British protectorate. In 1975, a referendum abolished the Sikkimese monarchy, and the territory was merged with India.
Sikkim has 11 official languages: Nepali (which is its lingua franca), Sikkimese, Lepcha, Tamang, Limbu, Newari, Rai, Gurung, Magar, Sunwar and English. English is taught in schools and used in government documents. The predominant religions are Hinduism and Vajrayana Buddhism. Sikkim's economy is largely dependent on agriculture and tourism, and as of 2014 the state had the third-smallest GDP among Indian states, although it is also among the fastest-growing.
Nestling in the Himalayan mountains, the state of Sikkim is characterised by mountainous terrain. Almost the entire state is hilly, with an elevation ranging from 280 metres (920 ft) to 8,586 metres (28,169 ft). The summit of Kangchenjunga—the world's third-highest peak—is the state's highest point, situated on the border between Sikkim and Nepal. For the most part, the land is unfit for agriculture because of the rocky, precipitous slopes. However, some hill slopes have been converted into terrace farms. Numerous snow-fed streams have carved out river valleys in the west and south of the state. These streams combine into the major Teesta River and its tributary, the Rangeet, which flow through the state from north to south. About a third of the state is heavily forested.
The Himalayan mountains surround the northern, eastern and western borders of Sikkim. The Lower Himalayas, lying in the southern reaches of the state, are the most densely populated. The state has 28 mountain peaks, more than 80 glaciers, 227 high-altitude lakes (including the Tsongmo, Gurudongmar and Khecheopalri Lakes), five major hot springs, and more than 100 rivers and streams. Eight mountain passes connect the state to Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal. Sikkim's hot springs are renowned for their medicinal and therapeutic values. Among the state's most notable hot springs are those at Phurchachu, Yumthang, Borang, Ralang, Taram-chu and Yumey Samdong. The springs, which have a high sulphur content, are located near river banks; some are known to emit hydrogen. The average temperature of the water in these hot springs is 50 °C (122 °F).


To examine the spatial distribution of the radiation emitted by the real light sources.
ROBERT WILHELM BUNSEN (1811-1899) German chemists and physicist born in Göttingen. Bunsen studied chemistry at Göttingen where he later became a lecturer and started his experimental studies in organic chemistry. In 1859 engaged himself together with Gustav Kirchhoff in spectroscopic studies. They developed a concept of the high temperature nonluminous flame burner known as "Bunsen's burner", widely used in studies of emissive spectra. The invented yet another vital instrument of spectroscopic analysis: the Bunsen-Kirchhoff spectroscope.
The angular dependence of the radiant flux of the household incandescent light bulb is explored using simple goniometer. The angular distribution is presented using rectangular and polar coordinates.


text:
EN [ˈsʌmθɪŋ] [ˈsɐmθɪŋ] [ˈsʌʔm̩]
[sʌ̃ː] [ˈsamθɪŋ]
WSomething
Something is an indefinite pronoun. It may refer to:
Definition of something in English Dictionary
NounPLsomethingsSUF-ing
An object whose nature is yet to be defined.
From the ground, Colombo's port does not look like much. [ …]   But viewed from high up in one of the growing number of skyscrapers in Sri Lanka's capital, it is clear that something extraordinary is happening: China is creating a shipping hub just 200 miles from India's southern tip.
An object whose name is forgotten by, unknown or unimportant to the user, e.g., from words of a song. Also used to refer to an object earlier indefinitely referred to as 'something' (pronoun sense).
An uncertain or unspecified thing; one thing.
I must have forgotten to pack something, but I can't think what.
I have something for you in my bag.
I have a feeling something good is going to happen today.
COL (of someone or something) A quality to a moderate degree.
The performance was something of a disappointment.
That child is something of a genius.
COL (of a person) A talent or quality that is difficult to specify.
She has a certain something.
COL (often with really) Somebody or something who is superlative in some way.
He's really something! I've never heard such a great voice.
She's really something. I can't believe she would do such a mean thing.
VerbSGsomethingsPRsomethingingPT, PPsomethinged
Applied to an action whose name is forgotten by, unknown or unimportant to the user, e.g. from words of a song.
Having a characteristic that the speaker cannot specify.
(degree) Somewhat; to a degree.
The baby looks something like his father.
(degree) COL To a high degree.
You can't thrash when you have rheumatic fever – though you want to something awful, Mrs. White says.
Used in the Middle of Sentence
That guy sure can hold a grudge when something goes wrong.
What is the stickest tape to hold something up with?
When laptop computers first came out they were something of a novelty. These days, nobody bats an eyelid.
Used in the Beginning of Sentence
Something about the way he said that made me just bust a gut: I practically died laughing!
Used in the Ending of Sentence
Bup bup bup! Don't go just yet. You forgot something.
Her name is on the tip of my tongue; it could be Kathy or Karen or something.
I have a copy of the UPI stylebook which I check when I need to know how to write something.
Uncomparable adjectives
Degree adverbs
Uncomparable adverbs
Third person pronouns
Indefinite pronouns
en somethings
en somethingth
en something's
en somethinged
en somethinging
Meaning of something for the defined word.
Grammatically, this word "something" is an adjective, more specifically, an uncomparable adjective. It's also an adverb, more specifically, a degree adverb and an uncomparable adverb. It's also a noun, more specifically, a countable noun. It's also a pronoun, more specifically, a third person pronoun and an indefinite pronoun. It's also a verb.
Difficultness: Level 1
Easy ➨ Difficult

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Normal Sales order -- Billing doc is created, accnt doc is not generated..
In a normal sales order process, after Billing document, no accounting documnet is generated.
There is no accounting block in here.
You have not defined a CO account assignment for an account that is relevant to cost accounting."
Is it anyway related to SD configuration. Or its purely FI related.
Either of it, requesting for a solution.
The GL account determined for posting might not be assigned to a cost centre in FI. Please try to check OKB9 settings or let your FI colleagues do it.
Search the forum. This topic was discussed many times.
Please check the below suggested below.
The posting row affected is 000, account 80000.
First, if G/L account was created in FI, you can only create primary cost element in CO.
Secondary cost element can only be created if no account exists in FI.
Second, if you created the primary or secondary cost element in CO, you have to assign CO account assignment.
You can delete cost element in CO (KO04) if dependent objects found.
Third, when you create cost element in CO, documents would be also created in u2018Cost center accountingu2019 and u2018Profit center accountingu2019 when posing in FI. If no cost element exists in CO, no related documents would be created in CCA and PCA.


text:
Results for 'Hugo Nobrega'
On the (In)Dependence of the Peano Axioms for Natural Numbers.Márcia R. Cerioli, Hugo Nobrega, Guilherme Silveira & Petrucio Viana - 2021 - History and Philosophy of Logic 43 (1):51-69.details
We investigate two notions of independence— independence and complete independence—applied to the Peano axioms for the sequence of natural numbers. We review the results that, although they...
Mathematical Logic in Formal Sciences
XVI Brazilian Logic Conference (EBL 2011).Walter Carnielli, Renata de Freitas & Petrucio Viana - 2012 - Bulletin of Symbolic Logic 18 (1):150-151.details
This is the report on the XVI BRAZILIAN LOGIC CONFERENCE (EBL 2011) held in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between May 9–13, 2011 published in The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic Volume 18, Number 1, March 2012. -/- The 16th Brazilian Logic Conference (EBL 2011) was held in Petro ́polis, from May 9th to 13th, 2011, at the Laboratório Nacional de Computação o Científica (LNCC). It was the sixteenth in a series of conferences that started in 1977 with the aim of (...) congregating logicians from Brazil and abroad, furthering interest in logic and its applications, stimulating cooperation, and contributing to the development of this branch of science. EBL 2011 included more than one-hundred and fifty participants, all of them belonging to prominent research institutes from Brazil and abroad, especially Latin America. The conference was sponsored by the Academia Brasileira de Ciências (ABC), the As- sociation for Symbolic Logic (ASL), Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Centre for Logic, Epistemology and the History of Sciences (CLE), Laboratório Nacional de Computação o Científica (LNCC), Pontif ́ıcia Universidade Cato ́lica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC- Rio), Sociedade Brasileira de Lógica (SBL), and Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF). Funding was provided by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient ́ıfico e Tecnolo ́ gico (CNPq), Fundac ̧a ̃o de Amparo `a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), Fundação Euclides da Cunha (FEC), and Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF). The members of the Scientific Committee were: Mário Folhadela Benevides (COPPE- UFRJ), Fa ́bio Bertato (CLE-IFCH-UNICAMP), Jean-Yves Béziau (UFRJ), Ricardo Bianconi (USP), Juliana Bueno-Soler (UFABC), Xavier Caicedo (Universidad de Los An- des), Walter Carnielli (CLE-IFCH-UNICAMP), Oswaldo Chateaubriand Filho (PUC-Rio), Marcelo Esteban Coniglio (CLE-IFCH-UNICAMP), Newton da Costa (UFSC, President), Antonio Carlos da Rocha Costa (UFRG), Alexandre Costa-Leite (UnB), I ́tala M. Loffredo D'Ottaviano (CLE-IFCH-UNICAMP), Marcelo Finger (USP), Edward Hermann Haeusler (PUC-Rio), Décio Krause (UFSC), João Marcos (UFRN), Ana Teresa de Castro Martins (UFC), Maria da Paz Nunes de Medeiros (UFRN), Francisco Miraglia (USP), Luiz Car- los Pereira (PUC-Rio and UFRJ), Elaine Pimentel (UFMG), and Samuel Gomes da Silva (UFBA). The members of the Organizing Committee were: Anderson de Araujo (UNICAMP), Walter Carnielli (CLE-IFCH-UNICAMP), Oswaldo Chateaubriand Filho (PUC-Rio, Co- chair), Marcelo Correa (UFF), Renata de Freitas (UFF), Edward Hermann Haeusler (PUC- RJ), Hugo Nobrega (COPPE-UFRJ), Luiz Carlos Pereira (PUC-Rio e IFCS/UFRJ), Leandro Suguitani (UNICAMP), Rafael Testa (UNICAMP), Leonardo Bruno Vana (UFF), and Petrucio Viana (UFF, Co-chair). (shrink)
Logics in Logic and Philosophy of Logic
Hugo Schuchardt on Esperanto.Hugo Schuchardt - 1908 - The Monist 18 (1):152-152.details
Hugo Grotius in 17th/18th Century Philosophy
Hugo Grotius, Moral Scepticism and the Use of Arguments in Utramque Partem.Hugo Grotius - 2011 - Veritas – Revista de Filosofia da Pucrs 56 (3):145-166.details
Briefe Franz Brentanos an Hugo Bergmann.Hugo Bergmann & Franz Brentano - 1946 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 7 (1):83-158.details
Brentano School in 19th Century Philosophy
Brentano and Other Philosophers in 19th Century Philosophy
Brentano's Works in 19th Century Philosophy
Bergmann, Hugo, Dr. phil. Untersuchungen zum Problem der Evidenz der inneren Wahrnehmung.Hugo Bergmann - 1908 - Kant-Studien 13 (1-3).details
Kant: Epistemology in 17th/18th Century Philosophy
Kant: Philosophy of Mind in 17th/18th Century Philosophy
Europäische Aufklärung. Herbert Dieckmann Zum 60. Geburtstag. Hrsg. Von Hugo Friedrich Und Fritz Schalk.Hugo Friedrich, Herbert Dieckmann & Fritz Schalk - 1967 - Fink.details
Sans Everything: Essays on English Literature, Philosophy, and Culture in Honour of Guido Kums and Hugo Roeffaers.Guido Kums, Hugo Roeffaers, Elisabeth Bekers & D. J. Conlon (eds.) - 2004 - Acco.details
Poetry in Aesthetics
Philosophie der Werte. Grundzüge einer Weltanschauung, by Hugo Münsterberg.A. E. Taylor & Hugo Munsterrberg - 1909 - Philosophical Review 18 (2):191.details
Cross-Modality Information Transfer: A Hypothesis About the Relationship Among Prehistoric Cave Paintings, Symbolic Thinking, and the Emergence of Language.Shigeru Miyagawa, Cora Lesure & Vitor A. Nóbrega - 2018 - Frontiers in Psychology 9.details
Neural Systems Supporting Interoceptive Awareness.Hugo D. Critchley, Stefan Wiens, Pia Rotshtein, Arne Öhman & Raymond J. Dolan - 2004 - Nature Neuroscience 7 (2):189-195.details
Emotion and Consciousness in Psychology in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
The Enigma of Reason.Dan Sperber & Hugo Mercier (eds.) - 2017 - Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press.details
Reason, we are told, is what makes us human, the source of our knowledge and wisdom. If reason is so useful, why didn't it also evolve in other animals? If reason is that reliable, why do we produce so much thoroughly reasoned nonsense? In their groundbreaking account of the evolution and workings of reason, Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber set out to solve this double enigma. Reason, they argue with a compelling mix of real-life and experimental evidence, is not (...) geared to solitary use, to arriving at better beliefs and decisions on our own. What reason does, rather, is help us justify our beliefs and actions to others, convince them through argumentation, and evaluate the justifications and arguments that others address to us. In other words, reason helps humans better exploit their uniquely rich social environment. This interactionist interpretation explains why reason may have evolved and how it fits with other cognitive mechanisms. It makes sense of strengths and weaknesses that have long puzzled philosophers and psychologists--why reason is biased in favor of what we already believe, why it may lead to terrible ideas and yet is indispensable to spreading good ones.--. (shrink)
The Rights of War and Peace.Hugo Grotius - unknowndetails
Rights in Social and Political Philosophy
Intuitive and Reflective Inferences.Hugo Mercier & Dan Sperber - 2009 - In Keith Frankish & Jonathan St B. T. Evans (eds.), In Two Minds: Dual Processes and Beyond. Oxford University Press. pp. 149--170.details
Much evidence has accumulated in favor of such a dual view of reasoning. There is however some vagueness in the way the two systems are characterized. Instead of a principled distinction, we are presented with a bundle of contrasting features - slow/fast, automatic/controlled, explicit/implicit, associationist/rule based, modular/central - that, depending on the specific dual process theory, are attributed more or less exclusively to one of the two systems. As Evans states in a recent review, "it would then be helpful to (...) have some clear basis for this distinction"; he also suggests that "we might be better off talking about type 1 and type 2 processes" rather than systems. We share the intuitions that drove the development of dual system theories. Our goal here is to propose in the same spirit a principled distinction between two types of inferences: 'intuitive inference' and 'reflective inference'. We ground this distinction in a massively modular view of the human mind where metarepresentational modules play an important role in explaining the peculiarities of human psychological evolution. We defend the hypothesis that the main function of reflective inference is to produce and evaluate arguments occurring in interpersonal communication. This function, we claim, helps explain important aspects of reasoning. We review some of the existing evidence and argue that it gives support to this approach. (shrink)
Aspects of Consciousness in Philosophy of Mind
Mental States and Processes in Philosophy of Mind
On the Law of War and Peace.Hugo Grotius - unknowndetails
[Book Review] the Foundations of Christian Bioethics. [REVIEW]Hugo Tristram Engelhardt - 2001 - Hastings Center Report 31 (6):46-47.details
Hugo de Vries and the Rediscovery of Mendel's Laws.Malcolm J. Kottler - 1979 - Annals of Science 36 (5):517-538.details
Hugo de Vries claimed that he had discovered Mendel's laws before he found Mendel's paper. De Vries's first ratios, published in 1897, for the second generation of hybrids were 2/3:1/3 and 80%:20%. By 1900, both of these ratios had become 3:1. These changing ratios suggest that as late as 1897 de Vries had not discovered the laws, although he asserted, from 1900 on, that he had found the laws in 1896. An Appendix details de Vries's Mendelian experiments as described (...) in the original edition of volume two of Die Mutationstheorie, but omitted entirely from the English translation. (shrink)
History of Biology in Philosophy of Biology
Hugo, Hegel, and Architecture.Jose Luis Fernandez - 2021 - Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics 44 (1):153-163.details
This essay aims to contribute comparative points of contact between two influential figures of nineteenth century aesthetic reflection; namely, Victor Hugo's artful considerations on architecture in his novel Notre-Dame de Paris and G.W.F. Hegel's philosophical appraisal of the artform in his Lectures on Fine Art. Although their individual views on architecture are widely recognized, there is scant comparative commentary on these two thinkers, which seems odd because of the relative convergence of their historically situated observations. Owing to this shortage, (...) I note that, while certainly not identical, Hugo and Hegel share an aesthetic family resemblance in how they hold similar ideas on architecture's symbolic function, cognitive content, and, ultimately, how the artform's ability to remain a standing paragon of meaning was razed by successive modes of cultural communication. Consequently, the essay works to show some congruent aesthetic affinities between these two great figures, but which appears to be overlooked in the literature. (shrink)
Architecture in Aesthetics
Art and Artworks in Aesthetics
Literature in Arts and Humanities
Decoupling Among CSR Policies, Programs, and Impacts: An Empirical Study.Hugo Smid & Johan Graafland - 2019 - Business and Society 58 (2):231-267.details
There are relatively few empirical studies on the impacts of corporate social responsibility policies and programs. This article addresses the research gap by analyzing the incidence of, and the conditions that affect, decoupling among CSR policies, implementation of CSR programs, and CSR impacts for various environmental and social issues. Complete decoupling is a condition of full divergence among policies, programs, and impacts amounting to purely ceremonial CSR. Using ratings from a sustainability rating agency on a sample of about 1,000 large (...) companies in 24 countries, the authors find empirical evidence not supporting a conclusion of complete decoupling. The empirical evidence suggests four levels of nondivergence in the sample. First, for most CSR issues examined, CSR policies of high quality do have relatively strong effects on CSR implementation. Second, CSR programs of high quality do have relatively strong effects on CSR impacts. Third, for most CSR issues, even low-quality CSR policies enforce the incidence and quality of programs in comparison with having no policy at all. Fourth, weak programs have more impact on the realization of CSR goals than having no program at all. The authors also find that the quality of CSR reporting and locating the responsibility for CSR at the board level reduce decoupling by strengthening the quality of CSR programs. (shrink)
Grotius, Hugo.Andrew Blom - 2014 - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.details
Hugo Grotius (1583—1645) Hugo Grotius was a Dutch humanist and jurist whose philosophy of natural law had a major impact on the development of seventeenth century political thought and on the moral theories of the Enlightenment. Valorized by contemporary international theorists as the father of international law, his work on sovereignty, international rights of commerce […].
17th/18th Century Political Philosophy in 17th/18th Century Philosophy
International Law in Philosophy of Law
Just War Theory in Social and Political Philosophy
Natural Law Theory in Philosophy of Law
Natural Rights in Social and Political Philosophy
Hugo Dingler.Gereon Wolters - 1988 - Science in Context 2 (2):359-367, 406-408.details
This is an introduction to the English translation of Hogo Dingler's (1881-1954) grounsbreaking paper "Methodik statt Erkenntnistheorie und Wissenschaftslehre". Dingler is the founder of operationalism in physics and relatively little know in the Anglophone world.
Foundationalism, Misc in Epistemology
Operationalism in General Philosophy of Science
Scientific Method, Misc in General Philosophy of Science
Modulation of Serum Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor by a Single Dose of Ayahuasca: Observation From a Randomized Controlled Trial.Raíssa Nóbrega de Almeida, Ana Cecília de Menezes Galvão, Flávia Santos da Silva, Erick Allan dos Santos Silva, Fernanda Palhano-Fontes, João Paulo Maia-de-Oliveira, Lobão-Soares Barros de Araújo, Bruno Lobão-Soares & Nicole Leite Galvão-Coelho - 2019 - Frontiers in Psychology 10.details
Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. John B. Carroll.Hugo A. Bedau - 1957 - Philosophy of Science 24 (3):289-293.details
The Role of Language in Thought in Philosophy of Language
A Personalidade de Cicero no'De Republica'.V. L. de Nóbrega - 1972 - Humanitas 11:292-307.details
Hellenistic and Later Ancient Philosophy in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Hellenistic and Later Ancient Philosophy, Misc in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
An Algebraic View of Super-Belnap Logics.Hugo Albuquerque, Adam Přenosil & Umberto Rivieccio - 2017 - Studia Logica 105 (6):1051-1086.details
The Belnap–Dunn logic is a well-known and well-studied four-valued logic, but until recently little has been known about its extensions, i.e. stronger logics in the same language, called super-Belnap logics here. We give an overview of several results on these logics which have been proved in recent works by Přenosil and Rivieccio. We present Hilbert-style axiomatizations, describe reduced matrix models, and give a description of the lattice of super-Belnap logics and its connections with graph theory. We adopt the point of (...) view ofAlgebraic Logic, exploring applications of the general theory of algebraization of logics to the super-Belnap family. In this respect we establish a number of new results, including a description of the algebraic counterparts, Leibniz filters, and strong versions of super-Belnap logics, as well as the classification of these logics within the Leibniz and Frege hierarchies. (shrink)
A tríplice constituição da perspectiva ética de Paul Ricoeur.Larissa Nobrega - 2012 - Synesis 4 (2).details
Paul Ricoeur, em "O si-mesmo como outro" define sua perspectiva ética como "o desejo de viver bem com e para os outros em instituições justas". Tal concepção possui uma tríplice estrutura, a saber: a ipseidade, a alteridade e a igualdade. Sendo apresentadas como a "estima de si", a "solicitude" e a "justiça", momentos determinantes para que se possa responder à pergunta sobre a identidade ética, norteadora de sua filosofia moral – " quem é o sujeito capaz de imputação moral?". Por (...) isso, cumpre ao presente artigo analisar cada um de seus elementos constitutivos a fim de compreender sua lógica interna, bem como ressaltar o viés aristotélico-teleológico da filosofia ricoeuriana. (shrink)
Paul Ricoeur in Continental Philosophy
Para Ler Hegel.F. P. Nóbrega, H. Rademaker, R. Garaudy, J. Hyppolite, Hamílcar de Garcia & A. Léonard - 1976 - Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 32 (1):93-101.details
German Idealism in European Philosophy
Hugo de Vries No Mendelian?Onno G. Meijer - 1985 - Annals of Science 42 (3):189-232.details
It is argued that Hugo de Vries's conversion to Mendelism did not agree with his previous theoretical framework. De Vries regarded the number of offspring expressing a certain character as a hereditary quality, intrinsic to the state of the pangene involved. His was a shortlived conversion since after the 'rediscovery' he failed to unify his older views with Mendelism. De Vries was never very much of a Mendelian. The usual stories of the Dutch 'rediscovery' need, therefore, a considerable reshaping.
Field, Coherence and Connectedness: Models, Methodologies and Actions for Flowing Moistmedia Art.Carlos Augusto Moreira da Nóbrega & Maria Luiza P. Guimarães Fragoso - 2015 - Technoetic Arts 13 (1-2):153-168.details
Hugo Grotius and the History of Political Thought.Knud Haakonssen - 1985 - Political Theory 13 (2):239-265.details
History of Political Philosophy in Social and Political Philosophy
Political Theory in Social and Political Philosophy
Hugo Grotius's Hermeneutics of Natural and Divine Law.Stefanie Ertz - 2016 - Grotiana 37 (1):61-94.details
_ Source: _Volume 37, Issue 1, pp 61 - 94 Interchanges between political, juridical and theological thought in the early modern period have been studied extensively during the past decades. Less light has been cast on the corresponding interrelations between politico-juridical thought and biblical hermeneutics. However, this issue deserves some attention, too, as the following case study on Hugo Grotius wants to show by pointing to the mutual adjustment of juridical, theological and biblical arguments in the progress of the (...) core semantics of Grotius's natural law theory from _De iure praedae_ to _De iure belli ac pacis._. (shrink)
Merleau-Ponty: o corpo como obra de arte.Terezinha Petrúcia da Nóbrega - 2000 - Princípios 7 (8):95-108.details
Maurice Merleau-Ponty in Continental Philosophy
Corporate Social Performance Assessment.Mariana Nóbrega & Gesinaldo de Ataíde Cândido - 2015 - Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society 26:85-98.details
Corporate Social Performance is an important construct in business-and-society study field; yet there is a mismatch between theoretical and empirical research. This article aims at contributing to solving this problem by presenting a methodology for CSP assessment that builds on CSP theoretical grounds promoting a combined analysis of the three CSP dimensions, describing: a) motivations that lead companies to assume social responsibilities ; b) their posture towards these responsibilities ; and c) effects of corporate actions on stakeholders, from the stakeholders' (...) point of view. The proposed methodology is a comprehensive tool that shall provide useful insights for academia, companies and stakeholders about business-and-society relationships. Besides, it can contribute to validation and refinement of the CSP construct. (shrink)
Hugo De Vries and Thomas Hunt Morgan: The Mutation Theory and the Spirit of Darwinism.Peter J. Bowler - 1978 - Annals of Science 35 (1):55-73.details
A great deal is known about the technical issues surrounding the introduction of Hugo De Vries's mutation theory and the subsequent development of the modern genetical theory of natural selection. But so far little has been done to relate these events to the wider issues of the time. This article suggests that extra-scientific factors played a significant role, and substantiates this by comparing De Vries's respect for the original Darwinian spirit with Thomas Hunt Morgan's use of the mutation theory (...) as part of an attack on the whole philosophy of Darwinism. In particular, it is argued that Morgan's attitude was dictated by his moral objections to the picture of a world dominated by struggle. (shrink)
A História da Filosofia é ou não Filosófica?(Aubenque, Pierre).Elizabeth Maia da Nóbrega - 1998 - Princípios: Revista de Filosofia 5 (6):12.details
Argumentation: Its Adaptiveness and Efficacy.Hugo Mercier & Dan Sperber - 2011 - Behavioral and Brain Sciences 34 (2):94-111.details
Having defended the usefulness of our definition of reasoning, we stress that reasoning is not only for convincing but also for evaluating arguments, and that as such it has an epistemic function. We defend the evidence supporting the theory against several challenges: People are good informal arguers, they reason better in groups, and they have a confirmation bias. Finally, we consider possible extensions, first in terms of process-level theories of reasoning, and second in the effects of reasoning outside the lab.
Philosophy of Psychology in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
O Páthos do Herói na Ilíada.Elizabeth Maia da Nóbrega - 1997 - Princípios 4 (5):103-113.details
Esse trabalho procura demonstrar; que o paqoV do heroi, de Aquiles em particular, se instaura, entre outras coisas, em funçáo de seu desejo de reconhecimento.
Um Segredo Escondido E Revelado Entre Fios: Jz 16,4-22.Paulo Jackson Nóbrega de Sousa - 2015 - Horizonte 13 (38).details
Matriz geradora de itens de avaliação: concepção e aplicações.Luiz Percival Leme Britto & Maria José Nóbrega - 2000 - Quaestio: Revista de Estudos Em Educação 2 (2):p - 59.details
Logic and Knowledge. Essays 1901-1950.Hugo A. Bedau - 1958 - Philosophy of Science 25 (2):136-139.details
Hugo de Vries and the Reception of The?Mutation Theory?Garland E. Allen - 1969 - Journal of the History of Biology 2 (1):55-87.details
Genetics in Philosophy of Biology
Absolutely Right and Relatively Good: Consequentialists See Bioethical Disagreement in a Relativist Light.Hugo Viciana, Ivar R. Hannikainen & David Rodríguez-Arias - 2021 - AJOB Empirical Bioethics 12 (3):190-205.details
Does the Coronavirus Epidemic Take Advantage of Human Optimism Bias?Hugo Bottemanne, Orphée Morlaàs, Philippe Fossati & Liane Schmidt - 2020 - Frontiers in Psychology 11.details
The Liberal Theory of Justice: A Critical Examination of the Principal Doctrines in a Theory of Justice by John Rawls.Hugo Adam Bedau - 1973 - Philosophical Review 84 (4):598-603.details
John Rawls in 20th Century Philosophy
Decoding Human Brain Activity During Real-World Experiences.Hugo J. Spiers & Eleanor A. Maguire - 2007 - Trends in Cognitive Sciences 11 (8):356-365.details
Philosophy of Consciousness in Philosophy of Mind
Hugo De Vries and the Reception of the "Mutation Theory".Garland E. Allen - 1969 - Journal of the History of Biology 2 (1):55 - 87.details
De Vries' mutation theory has not stood the test of time. The supposed mutations of Oenothera were in reality complex recombination phenomena, ultimately explicable in Mendelian terms, while instances of large-scale mutations were found wanting in other species. By 1915 the mutation theory had begun to lose its grip on the biological community; by de Vries' death in 1935 it was almost completely abandoned. Yet, as we have seen, during the first decade of the present century it achieved an enormous (...) popularity. As this paper has tried to suggest, one of the principal reasons for this was that de Vries' theory served as a banner around which a whole crowd of disaffected Darwinians or anti-Darwinians could rally. However, not all of those who favored de Vries did so for quite the same reasons. Underlying the multitude of views ran several common threads: a dissatisfaction with current Darwinian theory born out of misunderstanding natural selection, a general misunderstanding of the nature of species, and a prejudice against speculative, nontestable theories in biology.Supporters of de Vries were not the only opponents of Darwinism, nor was the mutation theory the only alternative to natural selection. In the early twentieth century a number of theories had been proposed to explain away the problems which Darwin had left unsolved. There was the idea of orthogenesis, championed by the American paleontologists Cope, Osborn and others; organic selection (or orthoplasy) was championed by M. M. Baldwin and C. Lloyd Morgan; there were the concepts of convergent evolution proposed by Hermann Friedmann, the theory of physiological selection by John George Romanes, and the concepts of reproductive divergence by H. M. Vernon. Virtually none of these men either accepted or were strong supporters of the de Vriesian theory, for each had his own particular 'ism" to advocate as the major factor in evolution. The existence of a large number of such theories, each purporting to be the explanation, was characteristic of evolutionary theory at the turn of the century. It is to a large extent the emphasis on such fragmentary concepts that retarded development of the comprehensive theory of evolution which emerged in the 1920's and 1930's. For the historian, however, a study of these alternative theories is instructive in trying to understand the inherent difficulties which Dawwinian theory posed to biologists at the time. De Vries' mutation theory serves historically as a mirror to reflect the critical mood of a generation hostile to the theory of natural selection.It has often been claimed that it was impossible to understand the mechanism of natural selection until it could be placed in genetic and mathematical terms. It is certainly true that great strides have been made in population genetics and the treatment of evolutionary concepts with mathematical tools in the last forty years. But the very people who developed the genetical and mathematical approach to evolution were already convinced of the essential correctness of Darwinian theory before they started. Advances in an understanding of Mendelian heredity aided greatly in solving one important issue for evolutionists: the origin of variations. And the rigor with which selection acted could best be studied by observing changes in gene frequencies (calculated mathematically) over a number of generations. But as this paper has shown, two of the basic problems which biologists faced in evaluating Darwinian theory at the turn of the century-the nature of species, and the criteria of what constituted an acceptable explanation in biological science-could not be answered directly by mathematics. What mathematical and genetical theory did do was to help convince the skeptics of the validity of the Darwinian proposition.The change in explanatory criteria which many hailed as de Vries' most important contribution to evolutionary theory seems to have been part of a general emergence of twentieth-century biology from the domination of theorizers in the nineteenth. It also marked the emergence of America from the domination of biological, and particularly evolutionary, influence of Europeans. The change occurred in three areas: in the kinds of questions asked: testable versus non-testable; in the kind of data sought: quantitative versus qualitative; and in the kinds of theories proposed: analytical and reductive—the attempt to see complex processes in terms of simpler components-as opposed to synthetic and speculative. Although ultimately wrong in his idea, de Vries and his theories rode high on the wave of "experimentalism" which was the harbinger of a new era in evolutionary theory. (shrink)
Civil Disobedience: Conscience, Tactics, and the Law.Hugo Adam Bedau - 1972 - Journal of Philosophy 69 (7):179-186.details
Civil Disobedience in Social and Political Philosophy
L'Inventivité du Vivant Chez Maurice Merleau-Ponty.Bernard Andrieu & Petrucia da Nobrega - 2020 - Chiasmi International 22:265-279.details
The inventiveness of life is at the heart of Merleau-Ponty's ontology because by separating with behaviorism, philosophy could dialogue with the sciences of development to describe several techniques that we successively study as degrees in the normativity of the living : immanent techniques, ecological techniques, bodily intelligence, and, finally, morphogenetic techniques of development. Through this analysis, we demonstrate the thesis of an activation of the living body from its reflex reactivity to its non-intentional projections in its forms.


text:
Kat DeLuna Reveals New Album Details + 'Bum Bum' Inspiration [VIDEO]
by PopCrush Staff April 29, 2015 8:21 AM | PopCrush
June is right around the corner, and that means the race to declare song of the summer is heating up. This year, Kat DeLuna has a strong contender with her new single "Bum Bum," which dropped in March. Featuring The Panty Dropper himself Trey Songz and some serious Shaggy vibes, the track boldly reps old-school reggae and R&B but with a spotless pop sheen.
"It's paying homage to those who came before," Kat exclusively told us when she visited PopCrush HQ. Those influences include Sister Nancy — legendary dancehall artist, whose '80s hit "Bam Bam" lends Kat's 2015 track those infectious opening horn honks — and of course Shaggy's 2000 chart-topper "It Wasn't Me," which inspired the hook.
Kat also told us that her new album — tentatively titled Viva Out Loud — is due out this fall!
"I had fun making the album, I took my time making the album — everyone knows that, even my DeLunatics, whom I love, my fan army!" she said. "I finally have a project that I'm like, 'All me!' I'm so happy. From the words to the specific beats to the inspirations, we really thought about it."
Viva Out Loud will be her (too-long-in-the-making!) third full-length effort, following her 2007 debut 9 Lives and its 2010 follow-up Inside Out.
Kat also shared her feelings about Shaggy and told us what inspired her crazy long Rapunzel braid and the single's très risqué — but completely apropos — "Bum Bum" single art. Check it out in the video above!
NEXT: Hear Kat DeLuna's 'Bum Bum' Feat. Trey Songz
Source: Kat DeLuna Reveals New Album Details + 'Bum Bum' Inspiration [VIDEO]


text:
Landscape Architect's Office Fits In A Trailer, Follows His Work
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto
from http://www.treehugger.com/
Image: XS/LA
Design used to take up a lot of space, with big draughting boards, huge drawings and interns to do all the repetitive and boring stuff. The computer changed everything and reduced the space and staff required to almost nothing. Andreas Stavropoulos of XS/LA tells Alex at Shedworking about his mobile office, built into a 2003 cargo trailer.
The landscape architect writes:
The mobile studio is designed to unite the designer with the site. Equipped with a drafting table, small library, solar power, and wifi, the mobile studio doesn't just sit pretty, but it works hard. This original design and fabrication features an translucent skylight, which allows diffuse light to fully and shadowlessly illuminate the interior. The studio is particularly useful during the concept design stages, when clients are invited inside to provide initial feedback on conceptual design sketches.
It is a wonderful idea for a design professional, being up close and personal with the site and the trades. According to Sunset Magazine,
This isn't exactly the norm in the modern, virtual reality-driven world of landscape architecture. But Stavropoulos--who earned his MLA from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2007--is a back-to-the-land kind of guy. He wants to ground his garden plans in the realities of the site, and he retrofitted the 6- by 10-foot cargo trailer to help him do that.
Oh, and did I mention that he lives in an Airstream trailer.
Image: Lloyd Alter
It is a lot smaller than Robert Boltman and Alex Bartlett's BSQ shipping container office, but the principle is the same: Your office is where your work is. The trailer is also more mobile; the Bsq. Container is languishing on a dead construction site right now, while Andreas can tow his office behind his Honda. It is smaller, lighter and ultimately more flexible. More at Bsq. Office in a Shipping Container
Too bad Nissan never produced their NV200; It really made the office mobile.
Labels: alternative transportation, Architectural plans, Design and Architecture, landscapes
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Some dream in color. Tuccia is like dreaming in texture. Like paint thickly swiped across an artists canvas, its weave uses light and shade to create an illusion of depth and a softness akin to a nap—an impressive illusion, since its actually soft and sleek to the touch. Capricious but intimate, Tuccia is able to slip with ease into any dreamscape.


text:
The ISIS caliphate has ended, but its breeding ground thrives
By Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman
Updated 3:43 AM EDT, Sat March 23, 2019
SDF: ISIS loses final territory in Syria
"You will conquer Rome and own the world," ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi told his followers in July 2014.
In the previous month, a few hundred ISIS fighters had seized Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, in a matter of hours. They drove thousands of Iraqi troops from the city, in the process getting their hands on a huge arsenal of US-supplied weaponry Iraqi forces had left behind. They went on to conquer a string of towns and cities, reaching the outskirts of Baghdad.
At its height, Baghdadi's so-called caliphate reigned over a realm the size of Britain, with 10 million people under its sway. Its sudden catapult to world attention, combined with an uncanny mastery at social media and slick video production, attracted thousands of people from around the globe eager to take part in the new utopian experiment.
Now, four and a half years later, that realm has all but disappeared, after Kurdish forces said Saturday that they captured the eastern Syrian pocket of Baghouz, the last populated area under ISIS rule.
Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have launched multiple operations since early February to bring the caliphate to an end. Night and day, artillery and mortar barrages and warplanes from the US-led foreign coalition pounded ISIS' final encampment: a sprawling junkyard of wrecked cars and tattered tents.
Tens of thousands of people have left ISIS' last stronghold since the barrage began, including ISIS jihadis who have surrendered.
In an ISIS video, people could be seen running for cover while others fired from the barricades. In its final week, the shell-cratered pocket held as many as 5,000 people and defied all predictions of a swift and final defeat.
The group still has some fighters in central Syria and has gone underground in Iraq, where it continues to stage surprise attacks.
An image grab taken from a video released on July 5, 2014 by Al-Furqan Media shows alleged ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi preaching during Friday prayer at a mosque in Mosul.
Al-Furqan Media/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
ISIS as a territorial entity, a quasi-state, is history. The scars left by ISIS, and the long war against it, will take decades to heal.
In June 2015, I visited a school in Baghdad that had been turned into a temporary home for people who had experienced life in Mosul under ISIS and had fled the madness.
One of them, Louay Shawkat, was an Iraqi army veteran, now confined to a wheelchair.
He told me he had fought the Iranians in Iraq's eight-year war with that country, fought the Americans in 1991. ISIS, he said, is different.
"It's an illness," he said. "It's impossible to cure. Cancer can be cured. Tuberculosis can be cured. Almost every illness can be cured, but not this one."
Indeed, we've seen the cancer manifest. In the perverse, lurid video beheadings of American journalist James Foley and other journalists; in the burning, alive in a cage, of Jordanian air force pilot Moath al-Kasasbeh. The Jordanian's murder was shot from multiple angles, the entire production edited together by someone who was clearly a professional. Countless murders captured on camera in the most gruesome detail were spread across the globe by social media.
Photo of Jordanian pilot Moath al-Kasasbeh in uniform. Video and still images surfaced on Feb. 3, 2015, showing the pilot being burned alive while confined in a cage.
Courtesy al-Kassasbeh Family
We saw it in the mass murder and enslavement of Yazidis in Iraq and Syria, where ISIS killed the old and infirm and the able-bodied men, and sold the women and children into slavery. ISIS didn't conceal, didn't deny and didn't cover up any of it.
While many of the regimes in the Middle East try to hide their barbarity, will go to great lengths to conceal their violations of human rights, will spend tens of millions of dollars on lobbying and public relations firms to conceal the true nature of their rule, ISIS boasted of its brutality, took pride in its savagery.
In 2015, I went to Baharka refugee camp outside Erbil, in northern Iraq. There I met Ibrahim, a Palestinian born in Haifa. He fled his home in 1948 at the age of 11, eventually ending up in Mosul, where he experienced life under ISIS first hand.
"The things we've seen were enough to drive you mad," he recounted, sitting cross-legged on a blanket in his family's tent.
"We ran away," his son, Tamer, interjected. "I didn't want my children to see any more horrible things. In Mosul, we'd drive down the street and see dogs eating dead bodies in the road."
CNN gets exclusive video on the front lines against ISIS
Like the Yazidis, Christians who found themselves in the path of ISIS's onslaught knew that as non-Muslims their fate was bleak at best.
Father Gabriel Touma was born in the northern Iraqi Christian town of Al-Qosh and lived there all his life. When I met him in early 2015, he recalled that, just months before, ISIS forces were just six kilometers, less than four miles, from the town.
"I stood before the statue of the Virgin Mary and wept with a broken heart," he told me. "I prayed to her to protect us from evil."
He had seen what ISIS had done in nearby Mosul, where they toppled crosses off church roofs, vandalizing their contents, sequestered property owned by Christians and imposed taxes on those who refused to convert.
"It's like knife stabbing us in the heart, when we see our heritage, our history, the work of our forefathers, being destroyed before our eyes and we're helpless to do anything to stop it," he said. "It's a slow death."
Members of the Iraqi federal police wave the country's flag as they celebrate in the Old City of Mosul on July 9, 2017. Iraq declared victory against ISIS forces in Mosul after a grueling monthslong campaign. The battle to reclaim Mosul, the last major ISIS stronghold in Iraq, has been underway since fall 2016.
FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images
This injured girl was found by Iraqi forces as they advanced against ISIS militants in the Old City of Mosul on Monday, July 3. She was carried away for medical assistance.
Felipe Dana/AP
A suspected ISIS fighter is held in a basement while Iraqi forces continue to push for control of the Old City of Mosul on Monday, July 3.
An Iraqi Special Forces soldier exchanges fire with ISIS militants in the Old City on Friday, June 30.
A bomb explodes near the al-Nuri mosque complex on Thursday, June 29. Iraq's military has seized the remains of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri. Iraq and the United States have accused ISIS of blowing up the historic mosque.
Members of the Iraqi Federal Police hold a position as US-led coalition forces advance through the Old City on Wednesday, June 28.
AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
The remnants of Mosul's ancient leaning minaret are seen in the Old City on Sunday, June 25. ISIS' claim that US warplanes were responsible for the destruction of the minaret is "1,000% false," US officials told CNN.
MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP/Getty Images
Two boys comfort each other after their home collapsed during fighting between Iraqi forces and militants in Mosul on Saturday, June 24. The boys, who are cousins, said some of their relatives were still under the rubble.
An Iraqi soldier helps transport a girl as residents flee their homes west of Mosul on Friday, May 26.
KARIM SAHIB/AFP/Getty Images
Displaced Iraqis make their way through rubble after evacuating their homes in a neighborhood of west Mosul on Wednesday, May 17.
An Iraqi man tries to extinguish a burning car during fighting in Mosul's western Rifai neighborhood on Tuesday, May 16.
A member of the Iraqi counterterrorism service secures a building as troops push toward Mosul's Al-Oraibi western district on Sunday, May 14.
A smoke cloud rises on the front line as the Iraqi Emergency Response Division advances in west Mosul on Saturday, May 6.
A wounded man is transported in western Mosul on Friday, April 21.
CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/Getty Images
An Iraqi federal policeman smokes during a break from battle on Wednesday, April 12.
Carl Court/Getty Images
A member of Iraq's security forces stands guard in eastern Mosul as smoke rises from the ISIS-controlled western section of the city on Friday, April 7.
AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty Images
Iraqis visit a bath house on the southern outskirts of Mosul on Wednesday, April 5.
Flames billow from an explosion in Mosul during a clash between Iraqi forces and ISIS fighters on Sunday, March 5.
ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images
Families are forced to evacuate as Iraqi forces advance in western Mosul on Thursday, March 2. The number of internally displaced people has surged as the offensive effort has intensified.
Martyn Aim/Getty Images
Mosul residents cross a damaged bridge in the al-Sukkar neighborhood on Saturday, January 21.
DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP/Getty Images
French President Francois Hollande and French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, right, view territory held by ISIS during a visit to a military outpost near Mosul on Monday, January 2.
CHRISTOPHE ENA/AFP/Getty Images
A young girl takes part in a Christmas Day Mass at a church in the predominantly Christian town of Qaraqosh. The area's churches were heavily damaged by ISIS militants before the town was freed by Iraqi forces during the Mosul offensive.
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Iraqi Shiite fighters ride through a desert area near the village of Al-Boutha al-Sharqiyah, west of Mosul, on Friday, December 2.
Internally displaced Iraqis who fled the fighting in Mosul watch as a civilian drone films them at the al-Khazir camp on Thursday, December 1.
THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images
An Iraqi soldier searches a home for ISIS militants after Iraqi forces retook the village of Al-Qasr on Wednesday, November 30.
Iraqi soldiers transport a comrade who was injured during a battle near the village of Haj Ali on Tuesday, November 29.
Hussein Malla/AP
A man mourns during the funeral of four Iraqi paramilitary fighters who were killed in battles in the town of Tal Afar.
HAIDAR MOHAMMED ALI/AFP/Getty Images
Displaced civilians return to the village of Tall Abtah on Friday, November 25, after Iraqi forces retook the village from ISIS.
Iraqi civilians sit on the ground in Mosul on November 24. An Iraqi officer addressed the group, demanding to know the whereabouts of alleged ISIS militants who opened fire on troops a few days earlier.
An injured baby receives treatment at a field hospital in Mosul on November 15.
A woman cries Sunday, November 13, after seeing the St. Addai church that was damaged by ISIS fighters during their occupation of the Keramlis village.
An Iraqi special forces soldier prays next to a Humvee before troops pushed toward Mosul's Karkukli neighborhood on November 13.
Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter holds part of a defused bomb planted by ISIS militants in Bashiqa, Iraq, on Friday, November 11.
Adam Schreck/AP
A member of Iraq's special forces guards two suspected ISIS fighters found hiding in a house in Mosul on November 11.
An Iraqi woman displaced by war holds her cat near a checkpoint in the Iraqi village of Shaqouli, east of Mosul, on November 10.
Iraqi troops watch a broadcast of Donald Trump's acceptance speech in a house in Arbid, on the outskirts of Mosul, on Wednesday, November 9. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi congratulated Trump on his win and said he hoped for continued support in the war on ISIS.
US Marines install equipment at a coalition base in Qayyara on November 9.
Marko Drobnjakovic/AP
An Iraqi forces member investigates a mass grave that was discovered after coalition forces recaptured the area of Hamam al-Alil on Monday, November 7.
Iraqi children witness a man being interrogated by a member of the Iraqi army at a base next to the Al-Intissar neighborhood of Mosul on November 7.
A civilian man who fled the fighting trims his beard after reaching an Iraqi army position in Mosul on November 7.
Children play in debris created by an airstrike in Qayyara on Sunday, November 6.
Female members of the Freedom Party of Kurdistan sing as they hold a position near Bashiqa on November 6.
SAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty Images
A baby is passed through a fence back to his mother at a refugee camp in the Khazir region on Saturday, November 5.
BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
People line up to receive food at a refugee camp in the Khazir region on November 5. Thousands are taking refuge in camps set up for internally displaced people.
Iraqi soldiers pass near a bridge destroyed in an airstrike in Qayyara on November 5.
Iraqi soldiers patrol an alley on the outskirts of Mosul on Friday, November 4.
A suspected member of ISIS is detained at a checkpoint near Bartella, Iraq, on November 4.
Iraqi families pack into a truck to be moved to camps on Thursday, November 3.
An Iraqi special forces soldier searches for the location of an ISIS sniper in Gogjali on November 1.
A man fleeing the village of Bazwaya carries a white flag as he arrives at a checkpoint on November 1.
ZOHRA BENSEMRA/Newscom/REUTERS
An Iraqi soldier receives treatment after being injured during clashes with ISIS fighters near Bazwaya on October 31.
An Iraqi soldier navigates through a shattered windshield as coalition forces advance on Bazwaya on October 31.
Archbishop Yohanna Petros Mouche, center, performs Mass in the liberated town of Qaraqosh on Sunday, October 30.
Children play in a camp for internally displaced people near Kirkuk, Iraq, on October 30. More than 600 families from Tel Afar, a town west of Mosul, have been living in the camp since ISIS took control of the area in 2014.
Displaced families are seen on the road near Qayyara on Saturday, October 29.
U.S. military personnel take cover in a bunker after a mortar alarm was sounded at a coalition air base in Qayyara on Friday, October 28.
Women and children grieve over the grave of a family member at a Qayyara cemetery damaged by ISIS on October 27.
Residents of Qayyara wait for distribution of food and water rations on October 26. Local water sources have been contaminated by the burning oil and sulfur.
Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Iraq's counterterrorism forces advance toward ISIS positions in Tob Zawa on October 25.
Khalid Mohammed/AP
Soldiers give first aid to an injured boy in Tob Zawa on October 25.
Qassim Abdul-Zahra/AP
Kurdish Peshmerga forces take positions as they start to move toward the Imam Reza and Tizxirab villages of the Bashiqa district on Sunday, October 23.
Yunus Keles/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Iraqi forces distribute fruit in the village of al-Khuwayn, south of Mosul, after recapturing it from ISIS on October 23.
Kurdish security forces detain a suspected member of ISIS in the eastern suburbs of Kirkuk on Saturday, October 22.
MARWAN IBRAHIM/AFP/Getty Images
An Iraqi forces member helps a man push a car as they arrive at a refugee camp in Qayyara on October 22.
Spent bullet cartridges litter the street around the Jihad Hotel, where ISIS militants battled Iraqi security forces in Kirkuk on Friday, October 21.
Gen. Abdel Ghani al-Asadi, who leads Iraq's counterterrorism forces, sits in Bartella on October 21 after the town was reclaimed.
Peshmerga fighters look over a village during an assault near Bashiqa on Thursday, October 20.
Iraqi forces head toward the front lines near Qayyara on Tuesday, October 18.
A Peshmerga fighter peers up from an underground tunnel in the liberated town of Badana on October 18. ISIS fighters have built tunnels below residential streets to escape from airstrikes.
Bram Janssen/AP
Kurdish security forces take up a position near ISIS-controlled villages on Monday, October 17.
Uncredited/AP
Smoke rises from a suicide car bomb attack carried out by ISIS in the village of Bedene on October 17.
Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Members of the Iraqi coalition gather around a fire at Zardak mountain ahead of the offensive.
Peshmerga forces deploy in the dark near the village of Wardak early on October 17.
Mosul: Iraqi-led forces push into key city
But ISIS's reign of terror didn't spare those who might have seen it in a more positive light.
Abdel Razaq Hamadi, a Sunni tribal leader in Al-Dour, a town outside Tikrit, Iraq, recounted to me that when ISIS took control, they attacked his home, killing his wife, two sons and two grandsons.
He was under no illusion about the group, regardless of their claims to piety, and took up arms against ISIS.
"I know the people who killed my family," he said. "We want to fight these terrorists, drive them out of this area and never see them again."
Two years later, on the outskirts of Mosul at the height of the offensive to retake the city, I sat with Mariam, a women in her 70s, by the side of the road. She was resting after fleeing her home, chain-smoking the cigarettes ISIS had forbidden her to have.
She had no illusions.
"They took pills. They drank alcohol. They oppressed us," she spat out scornfully. "But when they came to you, they'd say 'God says this, Muhammad says that.'"
In the town of Al-Alam, near Tikrit, we were there when trucks piled high with mattresses, household possessions and people drove into the town, bringing home residents after ISIS had fled.
"Thank God we're home," said a woman, who identified herself only as Um Nour, the mother of Nour. "We've been freed from ISIS. May God curse them until judgment day!"
Indeed, today much of Syria and Iraq has been freed from ISIS, but its curse lives on. There, the group has morphed into a low-level insurgency, carrying out hit-and-run attacks and bombings.
And beyond, in Libya, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Nigeria, the Philippines, Afghanistan and elsewhere, groups that have pledged allegiance to ISIS still control territory. And ISIS continues to inspire so-called lone wolves to carry out attacks.
Female fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) gather during a celebration at the Al-Naim square in Raqqa on October 19, 2017, after retaking the city from ISIS.
While some may be tempted to celebrate what is seen as ISIS's demise, the fertile soil in which ISIS grew and spread is still there.
Brutal regimes across the Middle East have emerged from the Arab Spring more adept than ever at repression. The prisons are full of the innocent and the guilty rounded up by police states adept in the art of torture and coercion. At the same time, a new wave of unrest, fueled by anger over the rising cost of living, is beginning to raise its head, spurred on by the inability of these very same states, teetering on the brink of failure due to incompetence, corruption, bankruptcy and brutality.
Unless all of that changes, ISIS or something perhaps even worse, like a demonic phoenix will rise again from the ashes of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's ruined realm.


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Nature as the City: Why It's Time for a New Framework to Guide Development
by Jonathan Ward, Margaret Montgomery
For much of the past 100 years, designers and planners have worked around automobiles as the main organizing mechanism for cities. As we move toward the world we want to see, one where cities are greener and more habitable for all people who live and work in them, our practice increasingly turns toward the idea of nature as the city. In this post, we explore five ideas we are both inspired by and actively integrating into our projects to ensure more healthy, natural cities.
As a firm tasked with designing the buildings and cities that shape our future, we are challenging ourselves to imagine a new way of developing places. One where nature is the city, and the city is treated as a natural system.
For much of the past 100 years, designers and planners have worked around automobiles as the main organizing mechanism for cities. And in order to accommodate cars—both how they move and how they're parked—20th century planners had to develop an elaborate system of roadways that became largely divorced from greenspace.
Whether it happens in the next decade or beyond, the North Star of nature as the city now guides our practice. And this approach helps to move toward the world we want to see–where our cities are greener and more habitable, for all people who live and work in them.
The reasons to use nature as the guiding principle are myriad. At an individual level, we know that access to greenspace makes us healthier, less depressed and anxious, more connected and more creative (and we also know that for too many in our cities, there is little to no greenspace access). In her book The Nature Fix, writer Florence Williams outlines the 'nature pyramid,' a concept that says we need 'differing frequency, duration and intensity of immersion' in nature in order to be well. While big, awe-inducing experiences in nature—like those found at national parks—are something to visit on occasion, it's our daily experiences in cities that make up the bulk of our exposure.
At a systems level, green infrastructure—in the form of public parks, wetlands and grasslands, urban forests, green roofs and siding, and rainwater gardens—is our most affordable and most effective technology in protecting cities from the impacts of climate change. This green infrastructure makes our cities more beautiful and more livable and serves a critical function in stormwater management, reducing pollution, and decreasing the urban heat island effect.
By treating the city as a natural environment, we have the opportunity to soften its hardness, both literally and figuratively. Here are five ideas we're both inspired by and actively integrating into our projects to ensure more healthy, natural cities:
City and District-Wide 'Sponge City' Solutions
Across Asia, most notably in Hong Kong and Southern China, cities are now five years into an experiment in investing in landscape and green infrastructure to counteract the region's hyper-urbanization. The 'Sponge City' model looks to simultaneously address issues of flooding, water shortages and water pollution, turning entire districts and cities into landscape sponges to capture and retain stormwater and preserve it for future use. For Tencent's 22-million square foot Shenzhen Headquarters Project Master Plan, a series of green pathways and corridors, open public greenspace, mangrove plantings along the district's waterfront, and wetlands are integrated throughout the multi-acre project.
The Growth of Landscape Infrastructure in North America
In the US, ambitious rails to trails projects like the Nickel Plate Trail outside Indianapolis, Rail Park in Philadelphia and infrastructure endeavors like the LA River initiative are a ubiquitous approach to multipurpose infrastructure creating adapted greenspace, restoring habit, climate control measures and introducing new opportunities for transport and recreation.
Street Level Greenscape Interventions
Innovative approaches to leveraging the power of natural interventions can also be found at the individual street level.
In Seattle, the city is implementing a series of bioswale streets, using native plantings to create natural drainage systems while also turning sidewalks and roadway medians from places you'd never notice into beautiful settings. For example, a cascading rain garden under a major bridge in the city's Fremont neighborhood now gathers and filters 200,000 gallons of stormwater annually.
In Boston, we're working with the neighborhoods of Allston and Brighton to preserve and expand the local tree canopy in the midst of a wave of new development. A key approach is to strategically identify sidewalk greening opportunities pair them with a planting guide.
These seemingly simple interventions can be some of the most valuable and effective microscale solutions, yet also can be the most challenging to retrofit into neighborhoods that most need it.
The Introduction of New Habitat and Wildlife Corridors
Cities including Portland and Oslo are exploring butterfly and bee highways and urban wildlife corridors to create safe habitat for birds, animals and other wildlife. These habitat interventions need to be connected across scale to be successful. This is why even smaller projects have an important role to play. For example, at the Gahanna branch location of Columbus Metropolitan Library in Columbus, OH, a butterfly garden at the perimeter of the building is being designed.
Seattle City Light Denny SubstationView More
Commercial Buildings, Campuses and Utilities Greening Our Cities.
While a host of forward-thinking companies including Samsung and Vivo understood the benefits of indoor-outdoor work prior to the pandemic, the integration of green roofs, patios and balconies with plantings and multipurpose outdoor settings are now critical to the future of the office. In fact, companies increasingly view it as their responsibility to create these kind of environments, both for the health and well-being of their employees and for their communities. We're also starting to see what it can look like to integrate greenspace with public utilities, as Seattle City Light does with the Denny Substation. The project brings together greenspace and a dog park on the same site as the city's newest electrical substation.
And at a campus level, bringing in new natural design elements can support citywide green infrastructure goals. For Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, the transformation of Nash Walkway with the introduction of new plantings and an outdoor study garden creates a more nurturing environment for students and staff and supports local habitat restoration.
Moving Toward a More Coherent Approach to Nature as the City
These individual efforts are remarkable – but if we want the city to become an interconnected, natural ecosystem, we need to find more overarching ways to stitch them together. And we need to continuously explore ways to look for lessons from the biomes themselves. The architecture of nature itself has a lot to teach us about energy production and water reuse and percolation.
We already see some cities take the lead on more comprehensive commitments to green master planning. London is making moves to become the world's first 'National Park City,' with a vision led by Mayor Sadiq Khan to plan from the premise 'what if our cities were all natural landscapes?' And Philadelphia, Chicago, Milwaukee, Atlanta, New York City, Detroit and Vancouver are all implanting forms of green infrastructure plans. These plans explore new sources of investment and outline incentives to encourage the adoption of green initiatives towards increasing the tree canopy, ensuring residents have easier access to greenspace and increasing the acres of park per resident.
By operating from a framework of the city as nature, we have the opportunity to nurture a healthier and more equitable future for all–not just some—citizens of the city
It's going to take a different way of thinking about and advocating for green space with architects, urban planners, urban designers, landscape architects and engineers all working in tandem. Moving toward this greener future will also require cross-disciplinary partnerships and alliances across city departments (bringing together public health, parks and recreation, utilities, sustainability and resilience), levels of local and federal government, in partnership with the nonprofit and philanthropic sector, and private development. And–most importantly–in getting community buy-in for both the vision and stewardship of these spaces.
Cities Should Be Planned for People Before Cars. Here's How It Can Be Done.
Tencent Shenzhen Headquarters Project (Net City)
Downtown Boston Planning Study
Urban Waterfronts Should Be Designed to Protect Our Communities
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Their designs focus on people.
Chris Hegeman and Johan de Groot are a great team. These two product designers at Villeroy & Boch create Bathroom and Wellness products of tomorrow and beyond.
As different as the personalities of the two Dutchmen are, so are their ways in approaching the design process. Starting from completely different points, they move closer and closer to each other until they eventually end up with the perfect result.
Success has proved them right. Inspired by popular Dutch Design, their creations are very modern and contemporary, innovative and distinct. They put people at the heart of their designs, devoting a lot of attention to detail. Only when a product's functionality is perfect, can its design also be perfect.
Villeroy & Boch with their collections and products. They created the puristic Just Silence outdoor whirlpool, the award-winning Squaro Edge 12 and Loop & Friends baths and the ultra-flat Architectura MetalRim shower tray.
Create a new kind of hot tub, with something that sets it apart from the rest – this specification for Just Silence posed a challenge for both designers. It not only involved improving the design, but also pushing the boundaries of production. The result was a completely new interpretation of the hot tub – purist, straightforward and, in spite of all the minimalism, fitted with a more flexible seating concept.
Chris Hegeman and Johan de Groot certainly made full use of the advantages of the innovative material Quaryl® when they designed Squaro Edge 12 and perfected their clear design. Their creation combines exceptional lightness with delicate lines and a luxurious bathing experience. The rim, only 12 mm wide, defines the puristic design of this premium bath, turning it into an elegant centrepiece in the bathroom.
The Dutch designer duo also focused on perfect design and comfort when they were creating Architectura MetalRim. They have designed a unique minimalist rimless shower tray, which blends harmoniously into every bathroom, creating a very generous sense of space. The ultra-flat rim is unusual. The shower tray, only 15 mm high, has a galvanised steel reinforcement that guarantees maximum material stability.
The two designers have created a masterpiece of individuality with Loop & Friends. 22 different shapes provide customers with plenty of creative freedom to find the perfect bath to match their bathroom as well as their own style. Whether a square or oval interior, free-standing, built-in or a space-saving solution – the design of the bath ensures a luxurious bathing experience, in whatever shape or form, thanks to its sophisticated ergonomics and low interior depth.
Chris Hegeman's and Johan de Groot's outstanding understanding of design is also reflected in numerous design awards. Their designs have won the renowned Red Dot Design Award several times: in 2012 for Loop & Friends, in 2014 for Architectura MetalRim and in 2016 for the Just Silence whirlpool, which was also awarded the iF Design Award in 2015. Their Squaro Edge 12 bath also received the Interior Innovation Award in 2014.


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Ex-Jenner attorney makes his case to join state Supreme Court
For revenue, and fairness, extend sales tax to services
Joe Cahill
Buy a bookcase at an Illinois furniture store, and you'll pay sales tax on the purchase. Hire a carpenter to build a bookcase for you, and you'll pay no sales tax.
Buy a lawn mower, pay sales tax. Pay a landscaper to mow your lawn, pay none. Buy nail polish, pay tax. Get a manicure, pay none.
In each case, a consumer who buys a physical product pays sales tax, while a consumer who buys a service that produces the same economic benefit (book storage, tidy landscape, dazzling fingernails) pays none.
This is more than a curious anomaly. It's an irrational, unfair anachronism that's costing Illinois billions of dollars in potential tax revenue at a time of fiscal crisis.
A recent report on states' financial health co-authored by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker blamed Illinois' staggering deficits in part on a "narrow tax base." The tax base is narrow because nearly half the Illinois economy is exempt from sales tax.
As the service sector grew during the past several decades, most states extended sales taxes to a range of consumer services. Illinois, however, still confines its sales tax almost exclusively to tangible goods. The state taxes just 17 services, fewer than only three other states, and well below the national average of 56. Neighboring Iowa, by contrast, taxes 94 services.
Researchers at the Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability estimate that taxing consumer services could generate $4 billion in sales tax revenue annually, an increase of about 60 percent. That would almost cover Illinois' $5 billion-plus backlog of unpaid bills.
The commission also estimates that local governments would collect an extra $1 billion annually, easing pressure on property taxes that are rising at unsustainable rates.
Applying sales tax to services would help the state keep pace with an evolving economy. Since 1977, services have grown from less than one-third of Illinois' gross state product to just under half, according to the commission. But sales tax receipts tethered to slower-growing merchandise sales have lagged the state's overall economic growth.
As the service sector expands, the merchandise sector's tax burden grows well beyond its fair share. This disparity makes no economic sense. Essentially, the sales tax is a tax on consumption. I have yet to hear a convincing rationale for taxing consumption of goods but not services.
The real reason sales taxes apply only to goods is that services were a much smaller slice of the economy in the 1930s, when the taxes were enacted. Today, exempting services is no more rational than exempting Internet sales. Even Amazon.com Inc. has quit fighting for that indefensible freebie.
Previous attempts to extend the sales tax to services in Illinois have failed, most recently as part of broader tax legislation that died three years ago.
Opponents predictably warn that sales of services will plummet if they're subject to sales taxes. Sorry, but I just don't believe that Illinoisans will start cutting their own hair if they have to pay sales tax at the barbershop.
Others argue that taxing essential services like medical care would be wrong. OK— exempt medical care. The Illinois commission figures that would reduce the new revenue by $630 million.
To soften the economic blow from expanding the tax, Illinois could cut its relatively high 6.25 percent sales tax rate. The rate is so high because it applies only to sales of goods. Adding the other half of the economy to the sales tax base would generate billions in new revenue for the state, even at a lower rate.
Lower rates and a broader base are the right formula for a fair tax system that will improve state finances and make Illinois more competitive.
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It's costing billions
in potential revenue.


I have been very lucky to have visited so many incredible cities around the world for sport and leisure and below is a list of my favourite cities for a variety of reasons, even though not all are totally wheelchair friendly and flat but have still made the list. So many things make a city memorable, and therefore to make my favourites list, from the history, accessibility and the locals, to the hostels, plus much more. So, let's see what cities made my list in this Dream Roll blog.
First up is St Petersburg. During my 2009 six-months racing and backpacking trip throughout Europe I managed to do a tour of Eastern Europe, which included one of my all-time favourite countries, Russia. I was blown away by this country and St Petersburg. There are countless palaces and churches to explore during your visit, which are also wheelchair accessible, plus many other historical sites including more recent historical sites.
A must see during any visit is a day trip out to see the Catherine Palace, the summer holiday house of the Russian Tsars, which is wheelchair friendly. St Petersburg was relatively flat and easy to get around in my wheelchair, but I still had to contend with the usual European cobblestones. As a wheelchair user it is still currently best to visit St Petersburg with a tour group, but, unfortunately, not many tour companies will take an independent wheelchair user on their tours. All the same, St Petersburg is very much worth the effort to visit during summer.
Barcelona is huge hit with tourists and makes my list of favourite non-capital cities. I have visited Barcelona a number of times over recent years for the Barcelona marathon, a track meet and for holidays, all at various times throughout the year. My favourite time to visit Barcelona is during summer, even with the large crowds which flock to the city during the warmer months. Barcelona is relatively flat, so is easy to push around to explore the main part of the city. Sightseeing buses are also a good way for a wheelchair user to get around to each of the major attractions, which are spread out over the city. I could spend days exploring this town and eating the fantastic local food. Unfortunately, I do not recommend the Barcelona FC stadium tour for wheelchair users as most parts are not accessible and really the only part I managed was the trophy room - not the team change rooms or press rooms and many other areas included on the visit to the stadium. The Real Madrid stadium is more wheelchair friendly and includes access to the pitch to see the view of the stadium from the team benches.
I have visited New York a number of times both in the summer and winter months. Both seasons offer different views and attractions during a visit. I love visiting New York during the summer months. My first few visits were during summer in late June for a time trial and 10km race and more recent visits have been in early November for the New York Marathon. My top attractions in New York include visits to Wall St, the Natural History Museum and the Empire State Building, all of which are wheelchair friendly. Unfortunately, New York can be hard to get around, as most cabs do not willingly stop for wheelchair users on the road. During my visits we often just push from one location to another, as the distances tend to be short. Other top things to do as a wheelchair user include a visit to a comedy show or recording of a TV show, plus one of the daily sporting events. Basketball, ice hockey, baseball and the NFL all occur during varying months with multiple New York teams all providing wheelchair access. I am yet to find an attraction in New York that's not wheelchair friendly or one that disappoints, which also makes New York such an incredible city to visit.
Cuzco has made the list, even though it is one of the least wheelchair friendly cities I have explored due to it being so hilly and all the steps and cobblestones of the city. The Main Square is wheelchair friendly though, which is a good place to start any exploration of the city. Locals are very friendly and helpful, so anything is possible - even a quad bike tour through the Sacred Valley to see the historical sites of the area. There are a number of other activities that are also wheelchair friendly, but Cuzco is mainly used as the base town to visit Machu Picchu. The ancient Incan site is not wheelchair friendly, but it can be done by traveling by train, then a bus up the mountain, before climbing lots of stairs to experience lower parts of the ruins. More information about Peru can be seen in my Death Road Blog, My Top Travel Adventure Activities, and My Adventure in the Desert of Peru Blogs.
Luzern has to make my list of favourite non-capital cities as it is the nearby town to Nottwil, where I am based for months on end during my annual visits to Switzerland. Luzern has many highlights and is just a stunning town on the lake that can be magical during a hot summer's day. Trips to Luzern have to include a visit up one of the many nearby mountains, visit to the chocolate shop or just a lazy stroll around the Luzern Old Town.
These are just some of my favourite non-capital cities around the world. Other cities to narrowly miss out include Chicago, Los Angeles, Oita, Shanghai and Istanbul – all are well worth a visit. Until next time keep searching the world for your dream.