text:
Viral Videos: A Guide to the Imperfect Art
by Cristian De Nardo | Jan 10, 2023 | Marketing | 0 comments
Virality. Many brands want to go viral, but it's more of a mystery to create viral content in a digital age where the most unpredictable content can reach millions of views overnight. There is no secret recipe for the perfect viral video, and yet there are videos that receive millions of views every year. What's the secret?
Unfortunately, virality is more of an art than a science. While there is no tried-and-true formula for virality, there are some elements that we consistently see — and knowing what that puts you one step closer to attaining that viral glory.
So let's identify some of the commonalities that can make them internet-famous.
The Science of Virality
From the latest trending Twitter or TikTok moment to some of the oldest viral moments to come from YouTube, like "Keyboard Cat" or "Charlie Bit My Finger," the science of a viral video is an ever-changing imperfect formula.
How do videos go viral?
While for YouTubers of today, it may take a lot of luck, some common elements of viral videos can set you up for success. According to HubSpot research in the 2022 Video Marketing Report, these are the most prevalent characteristics:
Title length: Videos had short titles (3 words or less)
Run-time: Videos had shorter run times (3 minutes or less).
Captures viewer's attention in first few seconds: Videos featured the element of surprise (defined as seeing or hearing an expression of surprise, such as a scream or gasp) or interesting propositions breaking of norms.
Content is relatable in nature: Videos featured relatable circumstances, situations or subject matter that viewers of multiple different backgrounds could relate to.
Production quality: Videos displayed a musical elements reflecting high production value in resolution, props, and well-thoughtout ideation.
Talent: Many viral videos were composed of songs, dances, or performances that required practice and talent.
The Art of Viral Videos: Applying Data to Real-Life Scenarios
The Marketing Report also includes survey data marketing professionals about which factors are most effective for creating viral videos, the most commonly cited characteristics are as follows:
Short and concise title (3 words or less) and run-time (3 minutes or less)
Uses engaging story-telling format
Invokes pleasant emotions like laughing
Involves elements of irony or surprise
Allows participation to be made public
Is practically useful
You can translate this list to craft a unique, viral message representing your brand, and we'll give you our take on how to tap into each.
And while some of these items (like a short title and run-time) are self-explanatory. But others (like story format, elements of irony and surprise, public indicators of participation, and practical use) may need to be more evident, so here are some tips for addressing these more complex factors.
1. Tell a Story
Since the beginning of language, humans have been programmed to consume stories. Stories influence our thinking and provide sensory experiences. Because of these responses, people are attracted to content in a conventional story format.
Ensure you have the traditional elements of a narrative (beginning, character, conflict, climax, and resolution) present in your video, and your viewers will identify it as a story.
You could also experiment with using well-known tropes in your video — for example, you can convey an idea through a common tale like a pirate story to simplify what it's like to use a "Smooth CRM for Rough Seas" like HubSpot:
The ad narrates how giving our CRM platform to characters, such as pirates, would alter their stories and help them find the treasures they're looking for. This kind of video is a cute, funny way of incorporating that theme while still focusing on the brand's mission.
2. Be Ironic
Irony is among the most common factors among viral videos at an astounding 90% of surveyed videos. That makes it a high priority when crafting your viral message.
How do you incorporate irony? You do what the majority of the sample videos did — demonstrating the breaking of social norms.
Think: Are there any social norms associated with your brand or product? Can you break one of those relevant norms in an ironic yet on-brand way?
Let's take a look at an example. Marvel published a brilliantly ironic video for the release of Thor in 2011. Called "Little Thor," the video is a parody of the adorable Volkswagen Super Bowl commercial that starred a little boy dressed as Darth Vader trying to harness the power of the force.
In "Little Thor," a girl dressed as Thor is going around the house, trying to use Thor's hammer to wield great power on the dog (appropriately named Loki), a doll, and her peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
As we watch this, it's practically identical to the Volkswagen commercial, and we assume it's probably another video in the same series. Ultimately, the father comes home, and she runs outside for one last attempt with her hammer. We assume that her father will sound the car's alarm, just as the father did in the VW Super Bowl commercial, but instead — the car explodes! We then realize this commercial is not for Volkswagen but for the upcoming Thor movie.
This video is ironic on multiple levels. First, it's an ironic parody of a popular ad. Second, the child dressed as Thor is a girl, which goes against gender stereotypes (and breaks a social norm). Third, the car explodes, which is ironic since the video is a spoof of a car commercial.
An ironic video like that is a humorous way to introduce people to your brand personality.
3. Surprise the Audience
Half of the viral videos contained an element of surprise.
Why do people like to be surprised? In a world where we view thousands of ads daily, people are tired of seeing the same things repeatedly. A surprise is a nice, refreshing change of pace to all that monotonous content.
So how do you incorporate elements of surprise while still making your video relevant to your company?
Your company should be the surprise.
More specifically, your company's benefits should be the (pleasant, funny, cheerful, etc.) surprise element to your video.
Take the iconic Old Spice commercial, "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like," video campaign. It's an excellent example of using a surprise element to exaggerate the benefits of their body wash in a fun, ironic way.
The ad features a towel-clad actor in a bathroom with the shower running behind him. He says that, while your man is unfortunately not him, your man could smell like him with Old Space body wash. Then suddenly, the shower backdrop is pulled right out from behind him to reveal that he is on a boat! This story continues with constantly changing wardrobe, props, and backgrounds.
Viewers are constantly surprised and excited to see what "the man your man could smell like" will do next.
While not every brand has the budget to do a video like Old Spice, think about how you can surprise your audience in small and big ways — it could help your video get shared.
4. Encourage Sharing
Berger said that people are more likely to participate if they can publicly indicate their participation. Why? Because people like to show off and feel like they're in the know.
It's easy for people who interact with you in person — a branded t-shirt, bumper sticker, or pen will do the job just fine. But it's harder to provide public participation indicators for people who interact with you online.
Correction: it was harder to provide them before social media came around.
Nowadays, social sharing buttons are on practically every form of online content: YouTube videos, website articles, audio clips, etc. This allows people to share the content they enjoy with their friends, who can then share it with their friends, etc.
By incorporating social sharing buttons on your videos and wherever you end up hosting them, you meet your audience's need to share their experience with others.
5. Think Practicality
The two things we all have in common are that we all have problems, and we're all looking for solutions to fix them.
People always search for informational content, from headache remedies to looking up recipes for a last-minute potluck dinner. Chances are, your customers are also looking for information regarding your field or industry. And it's in your best interest to provide it for them.
By creating a practical, useful video, you accomplish a few essential things:
You provide information to people who prefer to seek it on their own.
You can encourage those people to share that information with their networks (accommodating those seeking advice from their friends).
You establish yourself as a helpful tool and source of information, increasing trust (and hopefully loyalty).
If you have strategically placed calls to action in your video, you can convert viewers to the next stage of the buying journey.
Can your video provide practical information that your customers might be looking for? A good first step is to identify a problem your customers are having and provide information on how they can fix it.
Maybe you sell makeup, and you have a lot of customers who aren't sure how and when to apply it — you could create a how-to video for tips and tricks to apply makeup. Or maybe your company provides eye exams, but many first-time children are scared of the visit — you could film a tour of your office, with a step-by-step explanation of the eye exam for mothers to show their children.
By providing this helpful information, you help people associate you with solutions — which come in handy when they want to buy something down the road.
Take Pillsbury's video for "Crescent Mummy Dogs," for example. It's an instructional video that shows how you can make a fun, playful dish for your children at Halloween. Parents might be searching for a recipe like this for their child's school party, and Pillsbury has provided the recipe and a how-to video to accompany it. This way, they make completing this recipe as easy as possible, so parents who try it love it and will be more likely to share it with their friends — and heck, maybe even buy Pillsbury dough to make the recipe.
Set Your Next Video Up for Success
There's no magic formula for the perfect viral video — but there are some general guidelines to help get you there. By understanding the elements that make content successful, you can predict (and even create) the content that will become popular. It'll allow you to create videos that are more likely to be widely distributed online strategically.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in June 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.


text:
package rpcdriver

import (
	"fmt"
	"net/rpc"
	"sync"
	"time"

	"io"

	"github.com/docker/machine/libmachine/drivers"
	"github.com/docker/machine/libmachine/drivers/plugin/localbinary"
	"github.com/docker/machine/libmachine/log"
	"github.com/docker/machine/libmachine/mcnflag"
	"github.com/docker/machine/libmachine/state"
	"github.com/docker/machine/libmachine/version"
)

var (
	heartbeatInterval = 5 * time.Second
)

type RPCClientDriverFactory interface {
	NewRPCClientDriver(driverName string, rawDriver []byte) (*RPCClientDriver, error)
	io.Closer
}

type DefaultRPCClientDriverFactory struct {
	openedDrivers     []*RPCClientDriver
	openedDriversLock sync.Locker
}

func NewRPCClientDriverFactory() RPCClientDriverFactory {
	return &DefaultRPCClientDriverFactory{
		openedDrivers:     []*RPCClientDriver{},
		openedDriversLock: &sync.Mutex{},
	}
}

type RPCClientDriver struct {
	plugin          localbinary.DriverPlugin
	heartbeatDoneCh chan bool
	Client          *InternalClient
}

type RPCCall struct {
	ServiceMethod string
	Args          interface{}
	Reply         interface{}
}

type InternalClient struct {
	MachineName    string
	RPCClient      *rpc.Client
	rpcServiceName string
}

const (
	RPCServiceNameV0 = `RpcServerDriver`
	RPCServiceNameV1 = `RPCServerDriver`

	HeartbeatMethod          = `.Heartbeat`
	GetVersionMethod         = `.GetVersion`
	CloseMethod              = `.Close`
	GetCreateFlagsMethod     = `.GetCreateFlags`
	SetConfigRawMethod       = `.SetConfigRaw`
	GetConfigRawMethod       = `.GetConfigRaw`
	DriverNameMethod         = `.DriverName`
	SetConfigFromFlagsMethod = `.SetConfigFromFlags`
	GetURLMethod             = `.GetURL`
	GetMachineNameMethod     = `.GetMachineName`
	GetIPMethod              = `.GetIP`
	GetSSHHostnameMethod     = `.GetSSHHostname`
	GetSSHKeyPathMethod      = `.GetSSHKeyPath`
	GetSSHPortMethod         = `.GetSSHPort`
	GetSSHUsernameMethod     = `.GetSSHUsername`
	GetMaxAttempt            = `.GetMaxAttempt`
	GetStateMethod           = `.GetState`
	PreCreateCheckMethod     = `.PreCreateCheck`
	CreateMethod             = `.Create`
	RemoveMethod             = `.Remove`
	StartMethod              = `.Start`
	StopMethod               = `.Stop`
	RestartMethod            = `.Restart`
	KillMethod               = `.Kill`
	UpgradeMethod            = `.Upgrade`
)

func (ic *InternalClient) Call(serviceMethod string, args interface{}, reply interface{}) error {
	if serviceMethod != HeartbeatMethod {
		log.Debugf("(%s) Calling %+v", ic.MachineName, serviceMethod)
	}
	return ic.RPCClient.Call(ic.rpcServiceName+serviceMethod, args, reply)
}

func (ic *InternalClient) switchToV0() {
	ic.rpcServiceName = RPCServiceNameV0
}

func NewInternalClient(rpcclient *rpc.Client) *InternalClient {
	return &InternalClient{
		RPCClient:      rpcclient,
		rpcServiceName: RPCServiceNameV1,
	}
}

func (f *DefaultRPCClientDriverFactory) Close() error {
	f.openedDriversLock.Lock()
	defer f.openedDriversLock.Unlock()

	for _, openedDriver := range f.openedDrivers {
		if err := openedDriver.close(); err != nil {
			// No need to display an error.
			// There's nothing we can do and it doesn't add value to the user.
		}
	}
	f.openedDrivers = []*RPCClientDriver{}

	return nil
}

func (f *DefaultRPCClientDriverFactory) NewRPCClientDriver(driverName string, rawDriver []byte) (*RPCClientDriver, error) {
	mcnName := ""

	p, err := localbinary.NewPlugin(driverName)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	go func() {
		if err := p.Serve(); err != nil {
			// TODO: Is this best approach?
			log.Warn(err)
			return
		}
	}()

	addr, err := p.Address()
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("Error attempting to get plugin server address for RPC: %s", err)
	}

	rpcclient, err := rpc.DialHTTP("tcp", addr)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	c := &RPCClientDriver{
		Client:          NewInternalClient(rpcclient),
		heartbeatDoneCh: make(chan bool),
	}

	f.openedDriversLock.Lock()
	f.openedDrivers = append(f.openedDrivers, c)
	f.openedDriversLock.Unlock()

	var serverVersion int
	if err := c.Client.Call(GetVersionMethod, struct{}{}, &serverVersion); err != nil {
		// this is the first call we make to the server. We try to play nice with old pre 0.5.1 client,
		// by gracefully trying old RPCServiceName, we do this only once, and keep the result for future calls.
		log.Debugf(err.Error())
		log.Debugf("Client (%s) with %s does not work, re-attempting with %s", c.Client.MachineName, RPCServiceNameV1, RPCServiceNameV0)
		c.Client.switchToV0()
		if err := c.Client.Call(GetVersionMethod, struct{}{}, &serverVersion); err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
	}

	if serverVersion != version.APIVersion {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("Driver binary uses an incompatible API version (%d)", serverVersion)
	}
	log.Debug("Using API Version ", serverVersion)

	go func(c *RPCClientDriver) {
		for {
			select {
			case <-c.heartbeatDoneCh:
				return
			case <-time.After(heartbeatInterval):
				if err := c.Client.Call(HeartbeatMethod, struct{}{}, nil); err != nil {
					log.Warnf("Wrapper Docker Machine process exiting due to closed plugin server (%s)", err)
					if err := c.close(); err != nil {
						log.Warn(err)
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}(c)

	if err := c.SetConfigRaw(rawDriver); err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	mcnName = c.GetMachineName()
	p.MachineName = mcnName
	c.Client.MachineName = mcnName
	c.plugin = p

	return c, nil
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) MarshalJSON() ([]byte, error) {
	return c.GetConfigRaw()
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) UnmarshalJSON(data []byte) error {
	return c.SetConfigRaw(data)
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) close() error {
	c.heartbeatDoneCh <- true
	close(c.heartbeatDoneCh)

	log.Debug("Making call to close driver server")

	if err := c.Client.Call(CloseMethod, struct{}{}, nil); err != nil {
		return err
	}

	log.Debug("Successfully made call to close driver server")
	log.Debug("Making call to close connection to plugin binary")

	return c.plugin.Close()
}

// Helper method to make requests which take no arguments and return simply a
// string, e.g. "GetIP".
func (c *RPCClientDriver) rpcStringCall(method string) (string, error) {
	var info string

	if err := c.Client.Call(method, struct{}{}, &info); err != nil {
		return "", err
	}

	return info, nil
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) GetCreateFlags() []mcnflag.Flag {
	var flags []mcnflag.Flag

	if err := c.Client.Call(GetCreateFlagsMethod, struct{}{}, &flags); err != nil {
		log.Warnf("Error attempting call to get create flags: %s", err)
	}

	return flags
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) SetConfigRaw(data []byte) error {
	return c.Client.Call(SetConfigRawMethod, data, nil)
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) GetConfigRaw() ([]byte, error) {
	var data []byte

	if err := c.Client.Call(GetConfigRawMethod, struct{}{}, &data); err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	return data, nil
}

// DriverName returns the name of the driver
func (c *RPCClientDriver) DriverName() string {
	driverName, err := c.rpcStringCall(DriverNameMethod)
	if err != nil {
		log.Warnf("Error attempting call to get driver name: %s", err)
	}

	return driverName
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) SetConfigFromFlags(flags drivers.DriverOptions) error {
	return c.Client.Call(SetConfigFromFlagsMethod, &flags, nil)
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) GetURL() (string, error) {
	return c.rpcStringCall(GetURLMethod)
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) GetMachineName() string {
	name, err := c.rpcStringCall(GetMachineNameMethod)
	if err != nil {
		log.Warnf("Error attempting call to get machine name: %s", err)
	}

	return name
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) GetMaxAttempt() int {
	var maxAttempt int

	if err := c.Client.Call(GetMaxAttempt, struct{}{}, &maxAttempt); err != nil {
		return 0
	}

	return maxAttempt

}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) GetIP() (string, error) {
	return c.rpcStringCall(GetIPMethod)
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) GetSSHHostname() (string, error) {
	return c.rpcStringCall(GetSSHHostnameMethod)
}

// GetSSHKeyPath returns the key path
// TODO:  This method doesn't even make sense to have with RPC.
func (c *RPCClientDriver) GetSSHKeyPath() string {
	path, err := c.rpcStringCall(GetSSHKeyPathMethod)
	if err != nil {
		log.Warnf("Error attempting call to get SSH key path: %s", err)
	}

	return path
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) GetSSHPort() (int, error) {
	var port int

	if err := c.Client.Call(GetSSHPortMethod, struct{}{}, &port); err != nil {
		return 0, err
	}

	return port, nil
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) GetSSHUsername() string {
	username, err := c.rpcStringCall(GetSSHUsernameMethod)
	if err != nil {
		log.Warnf("Error attempting call to get SSH username: %s", err)
	}

	return username
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) GetState() (state.State, error) {
	var s state.State

	if err := c.Client.Call(GetStateMethod, struct{}{}, &s); err != nil {
		return state.Error, err
	}

	return s, nil
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) PreCreateCheck() error {
	return c.Client.Call(PreCreateCheckMethod, struct{}{}, nil)
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) Create() error {
	return c.Client.Call(CreateMethod, struct{}{}, nil)
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) Remove() error {
	return c.Client.Call(RemoveMethod, struct{}{}, nil)
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) Start() error {
	return c.Client.Call(StartMethod, struct{}{}, nil)
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) Stop() error {
	return c.Client.Call(StopMethod, struct{}{}, nil)
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) Restart() error {
	return c.Client.Call(RestartMethod, struct{}{}, nil)
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) Kill() error {
	return c.Client.Call(KillMethod, struct{}{}, nil)
}

func (c *RPCClientDriver) Upgrade() error {
	return c.Client.Call(UpgradeMethod, struct{}{}, nil)
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
JEL Code: N43
Unified China and Divided Europe
International Economic Review, January 2018, Forthcoming
Chiu Yu Ko, Mark Koyama and Tuan-Hwee Sng
National University of Singapore (NUS) - Department of Economics, George Mason University - Department of Economics and National University of Singapore (NUS) - Department of Economics
International Economic Review, Vol. 59, Issue 1, pp. 285-327, 2018
The Influence on Marcus Tullius Cicero on Modern Legal and Political Ideas
Ciceroniana, the Atti of Colloquium Tullianum Anni, MMVIII
Mortimer Newlin Stead Sellers
University of Baltimore - School of Law
The Short-Lived Influence of the Napoleonic Civil Code in 19th Century Greece
European Journal of Law & Economics, Vol. 14, No. 3, November 2002
University of Athens - Department of History & Philosophy of Science
Jewish Persecutions and Weather Shocks: 1100-1800
GMU Working Paper in Economics No. 13-06
Warren Anderson, Noel D. Johnson and Mark Koyama
University of Michigan at Dearborn, George Mason University - Department of Economics and George Mason University - Department of Economics
Jewish Persecutions and Weather Shocks: 1100–1800
The Economic Journal, Vol. 127, Issue 602, pp. 924-958, 2017
From St. Ives to Cyberspace: The Modern Distortion of the Medieval 'Law Merchant'
American University International Law Review, Vol. 21, No. 5, pp. 685-812, 2006
Number of pages: 128 Posted: 02 Nov 2005
Stephen E. Sachs
Should We Redistribute in Insolvency?
John Armour
University of Oxford - Faculty of Law
State Capacity and Military Conflict
Number of pages: 47 Posted: 18 Nov 2011 Last Revised: 18 Oct 2014
Nicola Gennaioli and Hans-Joachim Voth
Bocconi University - Department of Finance and University of Zurich - UBS International Center of Economics in Society
EPSA 2013 Annual General Conference Paper 209A
Geopolitics and Asia's Little Divergence: A Comparative Analysis of State Building in China and Japan after 1850
Number of pages: 41 Posted: 30 Oct 2015 Last Revised: 19 Nov 2015
Mark Koyama, Chiaki Moriguchi and Tuan-Hwee Sng
George Mason University - Department of Economics, Hitotsubashi University - Institute of Economic Research and National University of Singapore (NUS) - Department of Economics
Witchcraft, Weather and Economic Growth in Renaissance Europe
Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2004
Emily F. Oster
University of Chicago - Department of Economics
Fortifications and Democracy in the Ancient Greek World
Josiah Ober and Barry R. Weingast
Stanford University - Department of Classics and Stanford University, Department of Political Science
What Lessons for Economic Development Can We Draw from the Champagne Fairs?
CESifo Working Paper Series, No. 3438
Jeremy Edwards and Sheilagh Ogilvie
University of Cambridge - Faculty of Economics and Politics and University of Cambridge - Faculty of Economics
Classical Influences on the Law and Politics of the French Revolution
THE CLASSICAL TRADITION, Anthony Grafton, Glenn Most, Salvatore Settis, eds., Harvard, 2009
Law, Finance and the First Corporations
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE RULE OF LAW, James J. Heckman, Robert L. Nelson, L. Cabatingan, eds., Abingdon: Routledge-Cavendish, 2009
Tel Aviv University - Buchmann Faculty of Law
Property Rights and Contract Form in Medieval Europe
11 Am. L. & Econ. Rev. 399 (2009), Georgetown Law and Economics Research Paper No. 969797
Number of pages: 52 Posted: 31 Jan 2007 Last Revised: 25 Jun 2014
Alexander Volokh
The Formation of the East India Company as a Deal between Entrepreneurs and Outside Investors
The Firm as an Entity Before the Companies Acts
ADVENTURES OF THE LAW: PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTEENTH BRITISH LEGAL HISTORY CONFERENCE, DUBLIN, 2003, P. Brand, K. Costello and W.N. Osborough, eds., pp. 267-288, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2005, Oxford Legal Studies Research Paper No. 47/2006
Joshua Getzler and Mike Macnair
Faculty of Law, University of Oxford and University of Oxford
Why Did the Austro-Hungarian Empire Collapse? A Public Choice Perspective
Constitutional Political Economy, Forthcoming
Dalibor Rohac
Legatum Institute
Rivalry and Superior Dispatch: An Analysis of Competing Courts in Medieval and Early Modern England
George Mason Law & Economics Research Paper No. 10-57
Number of pages: 36 Posted: 07 Nov 2010 Last Revised: 14 Nov 2010
Edward Peter Stringham and Todd J. Zywicki
Trinity College and George Mason University - Antonin Scalia Law School, Faculty
Design and Evolution in Institutional Development: The Insignificance of the English Bill of Rights
Peter Murrell
University of Maryland - Department of Economics
Multi-Jurisdictional Bribery Law Enforcement: The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention
53 Virginia. Journal of International Law 1 (2012) , New England Law | Boston Research Paper No. 13-04
Number of pages: 54 Posted: 06 Aug 2012 Last Revised: 19 Feb 2013
Elizabeth Spahn
Self-Enforcing Political System and Economic Growth: Late Medieval Genoa
Avner Greif
Stanford University - Department of Economics
The Value of Judicial Independence: Evidence from 18th Century England
Univ. of Virginia Law & Econ Research Paper No. 03-12; USC Law and Public Policy Research Paper No. 04-2; USC Law School, Olin Research Paper No. 04-2
Daniel M. Klerman and Paul G. Mahoney
University of Southern California Gould School of Law and University of Virginia School of Law
7 American Law & Economics Review 1-27 (2005), USC Law and Public Policy Research Paper No. 04-27, USC CLASS Research Paper No. 04-27
Number of pages: 39 Posted: 06 Sep 2004 Last Revised: 19 Dec 2014
Mergers and the Evolution of Patterns of Corporate Ownership and Control: The British Experience
Brian R. Cheffins
University of Cambridge - Faculty of Law
Business History, Vol. 46, pp. 256-284, April 2004
Posted: 06 Sep 2004
1908-1918 Milli İktisat Dönemi Üzerine Bazı Notlar (Some Notes on National Economic Era (1908-1918) of Ottoman Empire)
Coşkun, Y. (2015). Some Notes on National Economic Era (1908-1918) of Ottoman Empire (1908-1918 Milli İktisat Dönemi Üzerine Bazı Notlar) (in, Birinci Dünya Savaşı'nın Yüzüncü Yılında Meşrutiyet'ten Cumhuriyet'e Vatan Savunması, Koleksiyoncular Derneği, 24 Nisan 2015, Mattek Matbaacılık, Ankara),
Yener Coskun
Capital Markets Board of Turkey
'Rulers Ruled by Women': An Economic Analysis of the Rise and Fall of Women's Rights in Ancient Sparta
Robert K. Fleck and F. Andrew Hanssen
Montana State University - Bozeman - Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics and Clemson University - John E. Walker Department of Economics
Tax Britannica: Nineteenth Century Tariffs and British National Income
Sami F. Dakhlia and John V. Nye
University of Tennessee, Chattanooga - Department of Finance and George Mason University - Department of Economics
'Whatever Is, Is Right'? Economic Institutions in Pre-Industrial Europe (Tawney Lecture 2006)
CESifo Working Paper Series No. 2066
University of Cambridge - Faculty of Economics
The Historical Evolution of Politics
Revista de Economía Institucional, Vol. 2, No. 2, First Semester 2000,
Douglass C. North
Washington University in St. Louis - Department of Economics
Adam Smith on the Joint Stock Company
Working Paper of the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance No. 2016-1
Number of pages: 59 Posted: 25 Jan 2016 Last Revised: 02 Feb 2016
Andreas Martin Fleckner
Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
Institutions, the Rise of Commerce, and the Persistence of Laws: Interest Restrictions in Islam & Christianity
Islamic Law and Law of the Muslim World Paper No. 08-10
Jared Rubin
Chapman University - The George L. Argyros School of Business & Economics
Overseas Trade and the Decline of Privateering
Number of pages: 60 Posted: 26 Mar 2008 Last Revised: 23 Nov 2010
Henning Hillmann and Christina Gathmann
University of Mannheim and Alfred-Weber Institut
The Problem with Neoclassical Institutional Economics: A Critique with Special Reference to the North/Thomas Model of Pre-1500 Europe
Explorations in Economic History, Vol. 18, No. 2, 1981
Alexander J. Field
Santa Clara University - Leavey School of Business - Economics Department
The Rise and Decline of a Great Power: Venice 1250-1650
University Ca' Foscari of Venice, Dept. of Economics Research Paper Series No. 27/WP/2006
Luciano Pezzolo
Ca Foscari University of Venice
Taxes, Lawyers, and the Decline of Witch Trials in France
Number of pages: 47 Posted: 06 Nov 2011 Last Revised: 04 Sep 2012
Noel D. Johnson and Mark Koyama
George Mason University - Department of Economics and George Mason University - Department of Economics
Oeindrila Dube and Harish S.P.
University of Chicago - Harris School of Public Policy and College of William & Mary
University of Chicago, Becker Friedman Institute for Economics Working Paper No. 2019-120
Shareholders' Duties to the Company and Fellow Shareholders
9 European Company Law 2012, p. 185-191
Number of pages: 7 Posted: 20 Sep 2011 Last Revised: 19 Jun 2012
Matthijs de Jongh
Amsterdam Court of Appeal
The (Neglected) Value of Board Accountability in Corporate Governance
University of Cambridge Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 9/2015
Marc T. Moore
University College London, Faculty of Laws
The Use and Abuse of Trust: Social Capital and its Deployment by Early Modern Guilds
Visions of Cadiz: The Constitution of 1812 in Historical and Constitutional Thought
Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Vol. 53, pp. 59-88, December 2010
M. C. Mirow
Florida International University (FIU) - College of Law
Financial Innovation and Growth: Listings and IPOs from 1880 to World War II in the Athens Stock Exchange
London School of Economics, Working Paper
Stavros Thomadakis, Dimitrios Gounopoulos, Christos Panagiotis Nounis and Michalis Riginos
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens - Faculty of Economics, University of Bath, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens - Faculty of Economics and University of Athens - School of Economics
The Rise of Effective States in Europe
Journal of Economic History, Vol. 75, No. 3
Mark Dincecco
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
Determinants of Corporate Financial Disclosure in an Unregulated Environment: Evidence from the Early 20th Century
European Accounting Review, Forthcoming
Number of pages: 48 Posted: 02 Mar 2008 Last Revised: 07 Jan 2009
Wouter Van Overfelt, Ann Vanstraelen and Marc Deloof
affiliation not provided to SSRN, Maastricht Accounting and Auditing Research and Education Center (MARC) and University of Antwerp
Plague, Politics, and Pogroms: The Black Death, Rule of Law, and the Persecution of Jews in the Holy Roman Empire
Number of pages: 55 Posted: 19 Apr 2016 Last Revised: 10 May 2016
Theresa Finley and Mark Koyama
Susquehanna University and George Mason University - Department of Economics
Fragmented Networks and Entrepreneurship in Late Imperial Russia
Donald H Jones Center for Entrepreneurship Research Paper No. 11-02
Number of pages: 67 Posted: 19 Jun 2009 Last Revised: 15 Apr 2011
Henning Hillmann, Brandy L. Aven and Brandy L. Aven
University of Mannheim and Carnegie Mellon University
Law, Revolution and Religion: Harold Berman's Interpretation of the English Revolution
Journal of Markets & Morality, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 355-385, Fall 2005
Nicholas Aroney
University of Queensland - TC Beirne School of Law
What Are Analytic Narratives?
HEC Paris Research Paper No. ECO/SCD-2016-1155
Philippe Mongin
GREGHEC
On the Evolution of Collective Enforcement Institutions: Communities and Courts
TILEC Discussion Paper No. 2011-017, U of Michigan Law & Econ, Empirical Legal Studies Center Paper No. 11-013
Number of pages: 44 Posted: 05 Mar 2011 Last Revised: 19 Jul 2016
Scott E. Masten and Jens Prufer
University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business and Tilburg University - CentER
Ross School of Business Paper No. 1169, CentER Discussion Paper No. 2011-074
The Effect of War Risk on Managerial and Investor Behavior: Evidence From the Brussels Stock Exchange in the Pre-1914 Era
The Journal of Economic History, Forthcoming
Number of pages: 36 Posted: 20 Dec 2018 Last Revised: 13 Jan 2020
Gertjan Verdickt
Monash University - Department of Banking and Finance
Testing Legal Origins Theory within France: Customary Laws versus Roman Code
Journal of Comparative Economics, Forthcoming
David Le Bris
Toulouse Business School

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
FROM basaltbuild/debian8_base:latest
MAINTAINER Jochen Breuer "basalt@dajool.com"

RUN apt-get update
RUN apt-get -y dist-upgrade
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y build-essential python-pip python-dev python-virtualenv libjpeg-dev libjpeg62-turbo-dev libpng12-dev libwebp-dev
RUN pip install virtualenv-tools

WORKDIR /src
CMD ["/bin/bash"]


Chances are, you are about to have a diagnostic imaging test, wellness screening or interventional radiology procedure. The facility where you will receive your care has partnered with Advanced Medical Imaging Consultants (AMIC) to perform professional test interpretations and minimally invasive procedures.
A radiologist is a medical doctor who has undergone additional training in diagnostic imaging and/or interventional procedures. AMIC is one of the leading radiology groups in the region, both in terms of the skill of our doctors as well as our commitment to quality and superior patient care.
Please refer to our frequently asked questions and feel free to call us if you still have questions.


all over greening fields by stormed-in bays.
they beat the Seven Seas, and break the calm.
their fears to tear us from our smug aplomb.
our foibles sins to them, the stallionesque!
For who can take to heart their stunning tales?
would poets foam for them where full moons rule?
The 9 new Minoan Linear A words under U-WI are all probably of proto-Greek origin. As for those terms beginning with the syllabograms WA & WI, I have come to the conclusion that they all begin with digamma, meaning that digamma is even more common in Minoan Linear A than it is in Mycenaean Linear B. If we take into account that every last one of the Minoan Linear A words beginning with digamma would appear without digamma in Mycenaean Linear A, they all are equivalent to their Mycenaean Linear B and ancient Greek counterparts (the latter having dropped digamma for good). For instance,  TERA is almost certainly the ancient volcanic island of Thera, now Santorini, while  WAJA is equivalent to archaic Greek aia = earth, land and  WIJA is fem. pl. = arrows. The only word I have been unable to satisfactorily decipher is , of which I was able to decipher the first 2 syllabograms. You have to read the table to see my translation.
With this, we have come full circle to the end of our remarkable journey towards the decipherment of Minoan Linear A. Now that I have deciphered every last word I believe is of proto-Greek, proto-Hebrew, proto-Semitic or proto-Scythian origin, I have reached a cumulative grand TOTAL of 62 new Minoan Linear A words, expanding my original Minoan Linear A Glossary of 107 words = 21.5% of the total extant Linear B lexicon of 510 terms by my arbitrary count to a TOTAL = 169 words = 33 % of the total Minoan Linear A lexicon, which is exactly the sum and percentage I had predicted! This amounts to what is demonstrably a workable decipherment of the Minoan language, including of its grammar, which had evaded me before.
Now all I have to do is to decipher as many of the 27 supersyllabograms in Minoan Linear A, beyond the 9 I have already deciphered. Now that I am armed with 62 new Minoan Linear A words, I am quite sure that I shall be able to decipher quite a few more of the supersyllabograms, and with that goal accomplished, I shall have effectively and once and for all deciphered the Minoan language.


text:
Q: PulseAudio: Redirect audio from null device to acual device I am trying to record my output audio at full volume, while also not blowing my ears off. Is there a way to redirect audio from a null device to my sound card so that I can record at 0dB, but listen at a much more sane level?

A: This has been solved (for me) by using module-loopback as pointed out by dirkt's comment.
To my default.pa, I have added:
load-module module-null-sink sink_name="dummy"
load-module module-loopback source="dummy.monitor" sink="[name of device]" latency_msec=5

This way, audio can be recorded from the null output at full volume, and my ears are intact.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The ANS Wins 5 NLG Awards in 2020
August 27, 2020 Andrew Reinhard
Announced via YouTube on August 18, 2020, the American Numismatic Society has won five awards from the Numismatic Literary Guild:
1. Best Book on Ancient or Medieval Coins (pre-1500): White Gold: Studies in Early Electrum Coinage (Peter van Alfen, et al., eds.)
2. Best Book on Tokens and Medals: Jacques Wiener's Most Remarkable Edifices of Europe: The Man, Monuments, and Medals (by Michael Ross)
3. Best Feature Article on Early American Coins: "The Authentic Fugio Restrike Dies" (by Chris McDowell and Julia Casey) (JEAN)
4. Best Feature Article on Numismatic History or Personalities: "John J. Ford: A Life in Three Portraits" (by Q. David Bowers) (JEAN)
5. JAMES L. MILLER MEMORIAL AWARD FOR ARTICLE OF THE YEAR: "The Authentic Fugio Restrike Dies" (by Chris McDowell and Julia Casey) (JEAN)
The ANS congratulates its authors and editors for their hard work. The full NLG ceremony is available to view online.
awardsnlgnumismatic literary guild
Coins and Linguistics
August 25, 2020 David Yoon
It is well known that numismatics is closely connected with history, archaeology, art history, and economics. However, coins can be used as evidence in many other areas as well. One of them is linguistics.
For some ancient languages, like the Iberian language of eastern Spain, coins represent a substantial (though not necessarily very informative) proportion of the surviving textual evidence.
ANS 2013.65.12
A coin of Saiti (modern Xàtiva in eastern Spain) with legend in Iberian (ANS 2013.65.12). Coins provided important evidence for the decipherment of the Iberian writing system.
Occasionally, coins can even shed light on languages that are better documented. Although languages are constantly changing, standard literary forms are often much slower to change and do not necessarily reflect ordinary speech patterns.
Like other texts of official nature, coin legends also tend to reflect literary standards rather than current spoken language. However, coin legends are not always composed by individuals with a literary education, and in times of rapid linguistic change they can sometimes reveal developments that are obscured in other kinds of texts.
One example is the coins of Visigothic Spain. They were made at a time when the spoken Latin of the Roman Empire was evolving into the Romance languages. And they were also made at a time when training in the norms of classical Latin was decreasing; although literary figures like Isidore of Seville still wrote classical Latin, such skills were becoming rare.
Classical Latin had an elaborate system of noun cases, meaning that nouns took slightly different forms depending on their functional relationship to the main verb of the sentence. Latin had five main cases: nominative for the subject of the sentence, accusative (direct object), genitive (possessive), dative (indirect object), and ablative (for adverbial functions). There were also two functions with poorly differentiated forms: the vocative (for direct address) and locative (for specifying location).
However, this system disappeared during the early Middle Ages. By the time the earliest known Old Spanish texts were written in the late tenth century, the language had no noun cases at all (although pronouns still had cases, like in modern English). Thus, linguists have looked at earlier inscriptions to find information on when and how the change happened.
One hypothesis is that there was a transitional period in which some of the case distinctions had broken down but two or maybe three noun cases were still used. In a different Romance-language area, this can be seen in medieval Old French, which retained a two-case (nominative case for the subject and oblique case for everything else) system. As it happens, Visigothic coins provide some of the best evidence for such a transitional period in Spain.
From the last years of Leovigild (569–586) until the last Visigothic coins around 714, the predominant structure of Visigothic coin legends was to place the name and title of the king on the obverse, and on the reverse a laudatory adjective for the king plus the name of the mint.
This coin of Sisenand (631–636) from Medina Sidonia has his name SISENANDVS and title REX (king, using the cross at 12:00 as both starting punctuation and the final X in REX) on the obverse; the reverse has the king's epithet PIVS (the pious, or holy) and the mint ASIDONA.
The name, title, and laudatory epithet for the king are all in the nominative case, as would be normal in Classical Latin. The name of the mint, however, takes a different form. Functionally, it would make sense for it to be a Latin ablative ("from …") or locative ("at …"), but on Visigothic coins the form does not correspond to a single Latin case.
The spelling of the place names is decidedly non-Classical, and they are also clearly not in the nominative case, where this can be determined. For example, the Latin name of Medina Sidonia was Asido in the nominative, Asidonem in the accusative, Asidone in the ablative. However, the final -m of the accusative case had been a silent letter for centuries, and as Classical literary education faded, so did knowledge of when to write the silent -m.
Most of the place names could equally well be a Latin ablative or else a Latin accusative where the silent -m has been omitted. Some place names, however, are plural in form, and those would be easily distinguishable in Classical form. Some of them are clearly accusative in form; others appear to be ablative in form.
This coin of Suinthila (621–631) has the mint name NANDOLAS, which would appear to be a local tribal name in the accusative plural.
This coin of Witteric (603–610) has the mint name GEORRES, which is the name of a local tribe in the ablative plural. In Classical Latin the tribe was called the Gigurri in the nominative or Gigurris in the ablative, but the spelling on the coin reflects the likely seventh-century pronunciation.
The indifferent use of accusative or ablative forms for what would previously have been an ablative/locative function suggests that by that time the accusative and ablative cases (and possibly others) had merged together into an oblique (or objective) case. In other words, the coins provide evidence that is otherwise mostly absent for a transitional stage in the loss of the Latin case system as the spoken language evolved toward what is now Spanish.
Further reading: For more on this topic, see P. A. Gaeng, A Study of Nominal Inflection in Latin Inscriptions (Chapel Hill: Department of Romance Studies, University of North Carolina, 1977); and J. A. Correa Rodríguez, "El latín de las monedas visigodas," in Latin vulgaire – Latin tardif VII, ed. C. Arias Abellán (Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, 2006), 219–41.
iberianspainvisigoths
Contextualizing Coins: An Interview with Dr. Nathan T. Elkins
August 19, 2020 Austin Andrews
The scholarship of Dr. Nathan T. Elkins sits squarely at the intersection of art history, archaeology, and numismatics. Dr. Elkins teaches, researches, and writes actively in these subject areas, specializing in Roman imperial coinages. Recently appointed to direct the Allbritton Art Institute at Baylor University, Dr. Elkins is also a Fellow of the American Numismatic Society and edits the ancient section of the American Journal of Numismatics. In a remote interview, Dr. Elkins and curatorial assistant Austin Goodwin Andrews discussed the dynamic relationship between the fields of archaeology and numismatics.
Austin Goodwin Andrews: The aim of archaeology is to reconstruct aspects of the human past through analysis of material culture. What are some roles that ancient coins play in this process?
Nathan Elkins: Ancient coins are critical objects in the archaeology of the Mediterranean world; virtually any site will produce a number of coins. At most excavations of towns and villages, coins will be among the most commonly found man-made objects after ceramic finds. As such, ancient coins are one of the primary chronological indicators for a site and its development through time.
In addition to questions of dating, coins provide insights into economic conditions and patterns of coin circulation, the movement of populations, and so on. Study of where coins are found can also tell us about "audience targeting" in the Roman Empire, as we know that there was a differentiated supply of imperial coins to different parts of the empire and that it seems the Roman state sometimes targeted certain populations with the coins bearing relevant visual themes. For example, soldiers were sometimes specifically supplied with coins with martial imagery.
Study of coins from archaeological contexts also can tell us about how images on coins were personalized by certain individuals, such as the use of coins emphasizing Aeternitas (Eternity) in graves or a coin with Fortuna placed under the mast step of a ship. Ancient coins with known findspots greatly enhance and inform our understanding of the ancient world in myriad ways.
Figure 1. Archaeology is necessarily collaborative and excavation teams include specialists in ancient coins, glass, ceramics, paleobotany, and other specialties. Pictured here is Area 3000 of the Huqoq Excavation Project, where Dr. Elkins is the site's numismatist. Photo courtesy of Jim Haberman.
AGA: Over the years, you've been involved in a number of excavation projects. As part of a team of specialists on an archaeological excavation, what does a numismatist do?
NE: The primary job of a numismatist on an excavation is to identify, study, and ultimately publish the coins from an excavation. Numismatists often also clean and conserve the coins after they are excavated, but sometimes this requires another specialist, especially at sites where the soil is more corrosive to metal objects. I've never been able to do much cleaning of coin finds, since I've worked in Israel and Jordan where our coins have always required specialist intervention to clean them.
Once the coins are cleaned, the numismatist's first task is to identify the coin finds as far as possible and to keep a catalog. Sometimes, coins can be fully identifiable, described, and given a very specific date, but often they are only partially attributable to the reign of a specific emperor. If nothing can be read on a coin, I can usually ascribe it to a century or part of a century based on the size, weight, and fabric of the coin. It's important to collaborate with other specialists on site, as coins excavated from critical contexts, such as beneath the floors of buildings or in foundation trenches, will be very important in establishing the site's chronologies, in conjunction with the ceramic finds.
After the coins are identified, I study finds from sites in the region to compare circulation patterns and look for anomalies. One of the exciting things I noticed about the coin finds from the late Roman fort at Yotvata was that we had a significant number of fourth-century coins from western European mints from before ca. 324 CE, but after that time they were almost exclusively from the nearby mints of Antioch and Alexandria, which would also have been the expected pattern for the pre-324 CE coins. I found a similar phenomenon in the circulation patterns of coins at other sites in the region, and especially at other military installations. One possibility for this phenomenon is that it represents an influx of western soldiers (and their money) after Constantine declared war on Licinius and moved eastward, and perhaps also the settlement of those soldiers at military installations along the eastern border after Licinius's defeat. Such coins from excavations are the only evidence that points to the potential demographic shift.
Figure 2. Dr. Elkins examines a recently-excavated coin. Excavations often establish labs on site or nearby for find registration, cleaning, processing, and preliminary analysis. Photo courtesy of Jim Haberman.
AGA: I recently heard archaeologists characterized as uninterested and unknowledgeable about ancient coins. From my coursework and fieldwork in archaeology, hearing this was jarring to me and felt deeply untrue; I think, for instance, about how everything completely stops on a dig when even the dinkiest bronze is uncovered. How should we respond to that line of thinking?
NE: Such a statement is, indeed, an absolute falsehood and woefully uninformed. As archaeologists, we view every find from an excavation as significant and record everything in great detail; every object is potentially critical. I am a specialist in the study of ancient coins and an archaeologist by training. While I might not have the deep knowledge of the ceramics or zooarchaeological finds from the sites I work at, I understand that the work of the specialists on these materials, and the work of the other specialists on other materials, is deeply significant; we all contribute important pieces to the puzzle to reconstruct the past.
I'll spend hours, off and on, trying to pull an identification from a single coin from a critical context; that coin might have no value in the modern trade because of how badly it is preserved, but it has great intellectual value and is essential to piecing together the past at an ancient site.
It's hard to say how to respond to such comments, because those who propagate them have their own agenda at play; those minds are closed. Publication is a necessity, as is popular outreach and education, to show how invaluable and central ancient coins are to archaeology and at specific excavations. Such outreach should also promote awareness and ethical sensitivity towards the treatment of ancient coins and other ancient objects. Context provides so much more depth and dimension to all ancient objects, but not just the objects; the contexts tell us about the site, the people, the history, and how objects were used.
Figure 3. Detailed documentation during excavation and subsequently publishing are integral components to archaeological research. Photo courtesy of Jim Haberman.
AGA: Globally, many active excavation sites ceased fieldwork this year due to the ongoing pandemic. Do you imagine this leading to increased unauthorized excavation and looting?
NE: I have no firsthand knowledge of this, but it is a concern. I read an article in Forbes, "Smugglers are Using Coronavirus Lockdowns to Loot Artifacts," which indicated that there was an increase in looting and the marketing of looted artifacts on online forums after the lockdowns. This appears to make sense, for many archaeological sites were left without guards during the shutdowns. The potential, long-term economic effects are also a concern, if guards are laid off and if governments reduce funds to spend on site protections. There is also the added possibility that job loss might drive some people to seek profits in criminal activities, such as looting and antiquities trafficking.
Figure 4. While artifacts from the same context are documented collectively, coins are uniquely documented in situ during stratigraphic excavations, such as this example from the Roman fort at Yotvata. Photo courtesy of Jim Haberman.
AGA: There is something fundamentally alluring about the prospect of holding "history" in your hands. Coins represent that tangibility of the past for many people, numismatists and archaeologists alike. There's a tension here, however, in that so much information is tied to artifacts in context. What is lost when artifacts lack context?
NE: You are absolutely right. Coins are magnificent objects. They often bear the portrait of a certain ruler and we can frequently associate them with specific events and vibrant periods of history. When holding an ancient coin, you think not only about the imagery on it and what it meant in the social and political contexts at the time it was struck, but you also think about the lives of those who handled them thousands of years ago, who they were, and what they thought about those images on the coins that are so intriguing—but foreign—to us today. I understand the allure.
The answer to those questions we like to speculate about when holding a coin can only be answered by attention to context. Archaeology tells us where the coins were found, who used them, when, and in what contexts. I mentioned in an answer to a previous question that the Romans had a penchant for personalizing the imagery they saw on coins, as with the find of a coin showing Fortuna from a mast step of ship or the selection of coins bearing Aeternitas (Eternity), or other such themes, for deposition in graves.
One very important discovery that comes to mind regards a loculus containing the burial of a Christian child in one of the catacombs in Rome. Pressed into the mortar around the grave were fourth-century CE coins bearing the youthful visage of the Deified Romulus, the son of Maxentius. Evidently, the parents of the deceased child were not concerned about the pagan connotations of the imagery on the coins, but appropriated the coins for private use because of the boy's young age and the coins' connection with the death of a child taken too soon. There's a sentimentality to it. We have a record of the emotional resonance that the use of these coins represented to the parents who lost a child.
Figure 5. Monuments in Miniature: Architecture on Roman Coinage (Numismatic Studies 29), was published by the ANS in 2015.
AGA: You have written quite a bit about images of monumental structures on ancient Roman coins. This is a unique and almost "meta" approach. You've taken the question of "what can we learn about ancient built environments," one typical of archaeology, but pursued it through the lens of coins. Could you explain this approach further?
NE: The traditional approach to the representation of buildings on Roman coins has been to use the images as evidence for the reconstruction of ancient monuments. This is, of course, an approach fraught with a number of methodological problems. I thought it might be more productive and valuable to look at the images not from the modernizing perspective of our interest in ancient monuments but rather to ask the question of what images of monuments meant to the Romans. This meant asking questions like why the Romans were the first ancient civilization that habitually represented the built environment on their coins, relating the representations to other visual media, and looking at trends in representations through time. I also examined—to what degree I could—the geographical distribution of such representations across the empire, according to archaeological finds, and attempted to quantify the images. I found these ways of looking at things to be very fruitful and informative on many levels.
To me, one of the big takeaways was how insignificant architectural representation was in the grand scheme of things, if images on Roman coins communicated ideas and messages. During the heyday of architectural representation on the imperial coinage, the Flavian and Trajanic periods, coins bearing monuments accounted for just a few percent of what was in circulation, according to site finds and hoards, and yet the representation of the built environment on Roman coins is one of the more popular topics in the study of Roman coin iconography. What this discovery—informed by archaeology—indicates to me is the need to stay grounded and the need to be aware that our own modern interests can artificially inflate an issue or phenomenon in the past. Images bearing personifications of imperial ideals were produced in much more significant numbers and, as such, were the more important communicators, even though such images do not receive as much popular interest today. Until recently, academics have also taken more interest in rarer types instead of studying these more common and generic images that communicated powerful concepts about the rulers that produced them.
AGA: I know that you're coordinating with the ANS to give one of our monthly Money Talks soon. What can folks expect for that?
NE: After writing about monuments on Roman coins, my second book was on the coinage of the Roman emperor Nerva, from 96 to 98 CE. There is some unusual interest in Diana/Artemis on his coins, specifically denarii that show Diana as huntress and cistophori, struck in Rome (but consigned to the province of Asia for circulation), which show the Temple of Artemis at Perge. Although I devoted several pages to this subject in my book, and rehearsed various interpretations, there was no definitive explanation for the types. But now I think I have figured it out!
elkinsinterview
Medals & Decorations, Modern, United States
Numismatics and the 19th Amendment Centennial
August 18, 2020 The American Numismatic Society
The following post was written by Mary N. Lannin, who is on the Board of Trustees of the American Numismatic Society and has been a member of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee since 2014, serving as its Chair from 2015–2018.
One hundred years ago today, a remarkable event occurred. The voting population of the United States doubled with the passage of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote. And now it's time to slide open the drawers in the vault of the American Numismatic Society and see what numismatic objects we have to commemorate this anniversary.
Figure 1: "Votes for Women" badge worn by suffragettes. (ANS 1919.83.106, gift of J. Sanford Saltus)
Many of the creators or sculptors of the 800,000+ objects in our collection are anonymous because we are separated from them by hundreds or thousands of years. This badge, in silver with a gold-colored ribbon (fig. 1), was worn by an unknown suffragette and is a typical example of that which was created during the long fight for the passage of this amendment. J. Sanford Saltus, the early and important benefactor to the American Numismatic Society, donated the badge in 1919.
Figure 2: Leila Woodman Usher with bas relief of Susan B. Anthony.
However, women have comprised a small but growing percentage of sculptors, coin designers and medalists and we can find numismatic evidence on coins and medals done by women for women in saluting these suffrage efforts. Wisconsin-born Leila Woodman Usher (1859–1955), for instance, studied under Augustus Saint-Gaudens and one of her most famous bas-relief portraits was this portrait of suffragist Susan B. Anthony (fig. 2). In a similar medal also designed by Usher, Anthony's determined visage is on the obverse, and the famous quote—"Failure Is Impossible", surrounded by oak leaves, is on the reverse (fig. 3).
Figure 3: Bronze Susan B. Anthony medal of 1920 designed by Leila Woodman Usher, issued by the National Women's Suffrage Association, and struck by the Medallic Art Co. (ANS 1985.81.13)
Alice Stokes Paul (1885–1977) is seen on this United States Mint medal. Although Paul never married, she became part of the US Mint's First Spouse Gold Coin series, paired with Chester A. Arthur, a widower. Born during Arthur's administration, Paul was picketing the White House when President Wilson urged Congress to vote for the 19th amendment. Proudly wearing the banner "Votes for Women" and carrying the American flag, Stokes marches forcefully across the reverse. The coin and medal were designed by Susan Gamble and sculpted by Phebe Hemphill for the US Mint (fig. 4).
Figure 4: Bronze Alice Paul medal of 2012 designed by Susan Gamble and sculpted by Phebe Hemphill, struck by the United State Mint. (ANS 2013.53.8)
To commemorate today's historic occasion, the United States Mint has released the Women's Suffrage Centennial 2020 Silver Dollar. Artistic Infusion Program (AIP) designer, Christina Hess, and sculptor, Phebe Hemphill, have crafted a jaunty obverse, illustrated by three generations of women, each wearing a hat appropriate to the era, which subtly reminds us that the passage to the amendment encompassed years and generations. The inscriptions "LIBERTY," "$1," and "E PLURIBUS UNUM" encircle the design. The reverse design, also by Hess and Hemphill, shows "2020" being dropped into a ballot box, styled with art deco elements popular in 1920. "VOTES FOR WOMEN" is inscribed inside a circle on the front of the box. The inscriptions "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" and "IN GOD WE TRUST" are on the ballot box (fig. 5).
Figure 5: The Women's Suffrage Centennial 2020 Proof Silver Dollar. Photo courtesy the United State Mint.
A special silver medal, available only in a set with the proof silver dollar and medal set, evokes the struggle women then and now face for equality. The obverse of the medal, designed by AIP artist, Beth Zaiken, and sculpted by Renata Gordon, features a child's hand, reaching to join adult women's hands and arms as they struggle to hold an enormous stone, with "WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE CENTENNIAL" engraved over it. AIP artist Patricia Lucas-Morris contributed the strong design for the reverse, sculpted by Renata Gordon, juxtaposing the text of the 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, with the flag of the United States. The date "1920" is inscribed at the bottom (fig. 6).
Figure 6: The Women's Suffrage Centennial 2020 Proof Silver Medal. Photo courtesy the United State Mint.
On this most important day, let's salute the women who came before us and stand strong for the women following in our footsteps.
19th amendmentAlice Stokes PaulBeth ZaikenChristina Hessleila woodman usherPatricia Lucas-Morrisphebe hemphillSusan Gamblewomen's suffrage
Events, Modern, News
Numismanels: Why are there Still almost All-Male Events Happening in Numismatics?
August 14, 2020 Ute Wartenberg
While August means for most people weekends on the beach, long summer days, or just hanging out, numismatists look forward to their annual pilgrimage to some convention center in places such as Rosemont, right next to O'Hare Airport. I refer of course to the annual World's Fair of Money, hosted by the American Numismatic Association, which was supposed to be in Pittsburgh this year. I have been going to this event for more than two decades, missing only a couple of shows. Over the years, one gets used to the routine: the same hotels, the same Hawaiian shirts that good friends from New York suddenly wear when they show up at the Summer ANA, visiting with numismatic friends. "Visiting with": that wonderful American, almost untranslatable phrase into English. I really miss our annual show right now.
I got used to the fact that women are very much in the minority in this setting. There are a lot of theories why this is the case. Women do not collect, or if they do collect, one hears, they collect coins, but only to an extent, as my many years in this field have shown me to be true. Women collectors—and even a few women dealers exist—but they have to fight for their place. However, all major numismatic organizations—the American Numismatic Association, the American Numismatic Society, and the National Numismatic Collections at the Smithsonian—were all run by women until last year, when I stepped down as Executive Director. Kim Kiick at the helm of the ANA has brought some much-needed calm and stability to an institution that had seen, prior to her appointment in 2013, more turnover in the position than I can remember; all but one (Ruthann Brettell) were men. Ellen Feingold in the Smithsonian seems to have an entirely female department. The American Numismatic Society has had female curators and librarians since it very first appointment, from Agnes Baldwin Brett, Margaret Thompson, Nancy Waggoner, Rose Chan Houston, Carmen Arnold-Biucchi, Elizabeth Hahn Benge, and today Elena Stolyarik and Lucia Carbone. Over a century of women in numismatics, with research to show for it, as the many feet of publications on today's library shelves illustrate. Coin World in its heyday was run by two formidable editors for more than 50 years: Margo Russell and Beth Deisher. Barbara Gregory just completed 32 years as editor-in-chief of The Numismatist. So, it is hard to argue that there are no women in numismatics, who can think and write, know about coins, and run institutions.
If you have read this far, you might wonder why I am writing about this now. Sadly, there is no ANA Money Show, but this is made up by a large number of virtual events that are normally held in conjunction with the World's Fair of Money. Last week, an announcement for the first event made me raise my eyebrows when it arrived in my inbox: the Sundman Lecture Series on Women in Numismatics, run as a Webinar, has a group of lecturers, with some fascinating topics, but one lonely woman speaker, the rest all men. Really?
In addition to all this, one of the titles "Leading Ladies of Rome" has the ring of a 1940s movie, but not of a serious lecture about powerful empresses. Note to all men: the term "lady" annoys most women and is perhaps best used only when you are giving a formal speech somewhere and open with "ladies and gentlemen" or when used as a courtesy title (think First Lady of the United States) or in specific reference to fine manners (without patronizing overtones).
I was not the only woman (or man) in numismatics to notice the oddity, and perhaps irony, about a lecture series and the male group of presenters. I thought I would ignore this for now, but then a second such event was announced: this time a truly massive "manference", no less organized by the Newman Numismatic Portal. Do not get me wrong, this is an impressive event, and I love the organization and everything it supports. But does such an all-male event send the right signal to our field, including women and younger people? Manels ("male panels" for those not familiar with the term), as such events are known nowadays, should be a thing of the past by now. When I sent a draft of this blog text to Len Augsburger, he was very understanding to reach out to women and a more diverse audience. However, he points out that the NNP only funds this event. It was organized by the firm called Numismatic Marketing, which is run by a woman. Len also told me that women could have applied as speakers and that it was widely advertised. He has a point here. Women often just do not want to participate in these events, and the question is why. Clearly things need to change.
If numismatics wants to attract a wider audience, our organizations have to try to include more women and minorities, who often feel excluded from events such as coin shows, coin clubs, and our organizations. I know how difficult it is to bring women to numismatic events. What I have always heard is that there are just too many men. So, let's try do better next time. There are plenty of women researchers in numismatics, even if they do not shout as loud as the men. Let's not have another numismanel.
gender equitynumismanels
Ancient Myths on Roman Coins at the ANS
August 4, 2020 Elena Stolyarik
Many coins at the American Numismatic Society illustrate human interpretations of the universe and religious beliefs regarding human destiny. Among these are various samples from the ANS Roman collection having mythical and mythological themes.
Fig.1: Roman Empire Augustus (27 BC–AD 14). Spanish mint. Silver denarius. 19–18 BC. (ANS 1944.100.39033)
One of the great illustrations of astral imagery from the Early Roman Empire, strongly connected with Julius Caesar's heritage, is found on a silver denarius of Augustus struck circa 19–18 BC. This coin has the Emperor's image on the obverse and the famous Caesar's Comet on the reverse (fig. 1). The comet, which appeared some four months after assassination of Julius Caesar, was interpreted by the Romans as a sign of his deification and became a powerful symbol in the political propaganda of Augustus, Caesar's great-nephew and adoptive son.
Figure 2: Roman Empire. Augustus. Roman Empire Augustus (27 BC–AD 14). Pergamum. Gold aureus.19–18 BC. (ANS 1944.100.39177)
Another important Augustus issue is a gold aureus from the Pergamum mint with the image of Capricorn, which had a special meaning for Augustus, who was born under this sign (fig. 2). Capricorn was associated with the planet and god Saturn. According to Roman mythology, Saturn had come to live in Italy when his son Jupiter kicked him out of heaven. The age in which Saturn ruled as king over Italy was considered a golden age of paradise on earth. Virgil took up this theme in his treatment of Augustus's reign as a return of the Saturnian age.
Figure 3. Roman Provincial. Egypt. Antoninus Pius (AD 138–161). Alexandria. Bronze drachm. AD 144–145. (ANS 1944.100.60358)
The allegorical depictions of divinities associated with the planets and zodiac signs—such as Capricorn and Saturn (fig. 3);
Figure 4. Roman Provincial. Egypt. Antoninus Pius (AD 138–161). Alexandria. AD 144–145. Bronze drachm. (ANS 1944.100.60352)
Scorpio (scorpion) and Mars (fig. 4.);
Sagittarius and Jupiter (fig. 5);
Virgo and Mercury; Aquarius and Saturn (fig. 6.)—were shown on Antoninus Pius's large bronze issues struck at the Alexandrian mint in Egypt around AD 144–145. A full circle of twelve zodiac signs surround Astarta's chariot on the bronze coin of Julia Paula of Phoenician Sidon of AD 219–220 (fig. 7).
Figure 7. Roman Provincial. Phoenicia. Julia Paula (AD 219–220). Sidon. Bronze coin. (ANS1944.100.71806)
The same ring of zodiac signs encircling Zeus on a throne, with Helios's chariot and biga of Selene in the field, can be seen on the reverse of a Maximinus I bronze coin struck in Thracian Anchialus circa AD 235–238 (fig. 8).
Figure 8. Roman Provincial. Thrace. Maximinus I (AD 235–238). Anchialus. Bronze coin. (ANS 1999.80.1)
Among other ANS examples are a group of gemstones from the Society's collection with the zodiacal images of Gemini (fig. 9),
Figure 9. Seal/Gem. Carnelion. Standing Gemini, each with star over head & holding inverted spears. (ANS 0000.999.33892)
Cancer, Leo, Aries and Selene riding in biga on sky (fig. 10). These small objects illustrate the popularity of astrological themes in personal adornment.
Figure 10. Seal/Gem. Carnelion. Selene riding right in biga. (ANS 0000.999.33860)
Some coins illustrate how the Romans chose to interpret the mythical past, displaying their religious beliefs through iconographic representation on objects of daily and domestic use. These include examples of the As, a bronze cast coin used in central Italy during the 3rd century BC, with the image of Janus, one of the most important gods in the Roman archaic pantheon, who was used to represent time, because he could see into the past with one face and into the future with the other. Janus was worshipped at times of planting and harvest and also at times of marriage and death (fig. 11).
Figure 11. Roman Republic. 225–217 BC. Rome. Bronze as. 275.970 g. (ANS 0000.999.556)
Roma, a female deity representing the personification of the city of Rome is depicted famously as a she-wolf with her twins Remus and Romulus, as represented on a silver Republican denarius of the 2nd century BC (fig. 12).
Figure 12. Roman Republic. 137 BC. Rome. Silver denarius. (ANS 1944.100.380)
Some of the allegorical depictions on the coins reinforce the importance of Roman beliefs, including the cult of Roman ancestors. One of the ANS's beautiful gold aurei of Antoninus Pius (fig. 13) bears the images of a legendary defender of Troy, Aeneas, who fled with his father Anchises and his son Ascanius from the burning city after the Greeks destroyed it in the Trojan War.
Figure 13. Roman Empire. Antoninus Pius (AD 138–161). Rome. AD 140-143. Gold aureus. (ANS 1954.256.17).
He and Trojan survivors traveled to Italy, where Aeneas became a great hero and progenitor of Romans. The family of Julius Caesar and Augustus claimed descent from Aeneas, whose son Ascaniuis was also called Iulus.
Figure 14. Roman Republic. 70 BC. Rome. Silver denarius. (ANS 1937.158.150)
The design of the ANS coins not only shows the the major gods of Roman Pantheon, but also helps illustrate the patronage of the Roman deities and their guardians. It encouraged personal beliefs in all aspect of every-day material life and nature. Among these are a personification of Honos, god of chivalry, honor and military justice and Virtus, deity of bravery and military strength (fig. 14);
Figure 15. Roman Empire. Pertinax. Rome. AD 193. Rome. Gold aureus. (ANS 1967.153.166)
Providentia, a goddess of forethought and representation of the ability to foresee (fig. 15);
Figure 16. Roman Empire. Geta (AD 209–211). Rome. AD 211. Gold aureus. (ANS 1954.256.28)
Felicitas, a goddess of good fortune and lucky happenstance (fig. 16);
Figure 17. Roman Empire. Caracalla (AD 198–217). Rome. AD 213–217. Gold aureus. (ANS 1944.100.51518)
Securitas, a goddess of security and stability (fig. 17); and Concordia, one of the oldest of the Roman deities, having been worshipped since the earliest days of Rome, a goddess of agreement and harmony—harmony of the emperor (fig. 18), the army, the provinces and marriage.
Figure 18. Roman Empire. Nero (AD 54–68). Rome. AD 64–65. Gold aureus. (ANS 1905.57.292)
These coins show not just how the Romans themselves perceived their world in terms of its mythological past, but also help us to understand how this legacy of mythology and myth-making has been received and reinterpreted within our modern and popular culture—in books, graphic novels, television, and movies—perhaps fostering an appreciation of ancient societies among a population that lacks regional access to the material culture of the ancient world.
mythologyroman
Death of a Counterfeiter: A Reminder That All Aspects of Numismatics Are Subject to Fraud
August 3, 2020 Jesse Kraft
Figure 1. Louis "The Coin" Colavecchio.
Louis "The Coin" Colavecchio passed away in early July at the age of 78 (fig. 1). With a nickname like "The Coin," one would think that most numismatists would have heard of him, though that's likely not the case. As it turns out, Colavecchio might be considered one of the worst nightmares for a numismatist. He was a counterfeiter, and a good one too—the self-proclaimed "world's greatest counterfeiter." He had been released from Butner Federal Prison in North Carolina just weeks before he passed away in hospice care, suffering from a variety of medical conditions including dementia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension. Though sentenced to 15 months in prison for producing counterfeit $100 bills in August 2019, he had only served eight of those months. United States District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. agreed to free him on the time he had served in May, as a last gesture of compassion before his impending death.
This time, he was easy to prosecute. He had been bragging to an informant that he could effortlessly counterfeit $100 bills and was capable of besting even the latest security features. In December 2018, the Secret Service raided his home in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and found presses able to produce counterfeit bills that accurately simulated the real deal (including their distinct reaction to ultraviolet light), as well as 2,400 counterfeit $100 bills. Having the damning conversations on recording, he had no choice but to plead guilty. But, this wasn't the first time he was ever caught.
He earned the nickname "The Coin" from his ability to counterfeit nearly perfect slot-machine tokens for almost every casino in the country. Laboratories couldn't even find any differences. His most notable arrest came in 1996 when he and his girlfriend were caught in Caesars Atlantic City with 800 pounds of fake tokens (fig. 2.).
Figure 2. Colavecchio and a set of counterfeit dies that he produced for $100 tokens for the Harrah's Casino in Atlantic City, NJ.
It was the largest counterfeiting operation that had ever targeted an Atlantic City casino. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison. Meanwhile, he acted as a consultant for the federal government, having received $18,000 for explaining why his dies long outlasted those manufactured by the United States Mint. He was eventually banned from every casino in the country, but continued to gamble by wearing wigs and dressing as a woman. Authorities considered him an "old-time mobster." Most of his exploits can be found in his 2015 autobiography, You Thought It Was More: Adventures of the World's Greatest Counterfeiter.
Figure 3. Note the different sized dots that surround the inscription "FOR USE BY PLAYER ONLY" on this genuine $1 gaming token from the Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City. American Numismatic Society, 1988.44.11.
While most numismatists identify counterfeiting with coins or paper currency, tokens and anything that had exchange value ran the risk of fraud. Unlike coins, casino tokens contain several types of anti-counterfeiting measures. These include dots that are of different sizes to separate words (fig. 3), a combination of dots and squares (fig. 4), letters that are intentionally filled in (fig. 5), or a set of tied reedings on the edges of tokens (fig. 6).
Figure 4. Note the large round dot and smaller square that surround the inscription "NOT LEGAL TENDER" on the reverse of this genuine $1 gaming token from Bally's Park Place in Atlantic City. American Numismatic Society, 1988.44.10.
Figure 5. Note the filled in "O" in the inscription "TEN CENT GAMING TOKEN" on this genuine ten-cent gaming token from Harrah's Resort in Atlantic City. Courtesy Numista.com.
Figure 6. Note the set of reeding tied together to form one large reeding from the edge of this genuine $1 gaming token from The Claridge Hotel and Casino. Author's collection.
These would be known to casino employees, but not necessarily publicized in order to thwart counterfeiters. Today, the casinos no longer use metallic tokens, and most slot machines have replaced the use of tokens with printed vouchers that record the winnings which the player can redeem at the pay-out window.
As for Colavecchio, while those he cheated may not mourn his death, those who knew him are full of captivating stories—such as Andy Thibault, who befriended Colavecchio while working with him on his book and said, "I got to appreciate the good points. He was a lot of fun to be with." A disarming, charming individual—and self-proclaimed "ladies' man"—Rhode Island State Police Colonel Steven G. O'Donnell has said that "if he used the amount of ingenuity and knowledge he had for good, he could have been a millionaire and changed people's lives."
atlantic citycolavecchiocounterfeitcounterfeitingnew jersey


Honduras is a country located in Central America on the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is bordered by Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador and has a population of just under eight million. Honduras is considered a developing nation and it is the second poorest country in Central America.
Honduras has been inhabited for centuries by various native tribes. The largest and most developed of these were the Mayans. European contact with the area began in 1502 when Christopher Columbus claimed the region and named it Honduras (depths in Spanish) because the coastal waters surrounding the lands were very deep.
In 1523, Europeans began to further explore Honduras when Gil Gonzales de Avila entered the then-Spanish territory. A year later, Cristobal de Olid established the colony of Triunfo de la Cruz on behalf of Hernan Cortes. Olid however, tried to establish an independent government and he was later assassinated. Cortes then formed his own government in the city of Trujillo. Shortly thereafter, Honduras became a part of the Captaincy General of Guatemala.
Throughout the mid-1500s, native Hondurans worked to resist Spanish exploration and control of the region but after several battles, Spain took control of the area. Spanish rule over Honduras lasted until 1821 when the country gained its independence. Following its independence from Spain, Honduras was briefly under the control of Mexico. In 1823, Honduras joined the United Provinces of Central America federation which later collapsed in 1838.
During the 1900s, Honduras's economy was centered on agriculture and particularly on United States-based companies that formed plantations throughout the country.
As a result, the country's politics were focused on ways to maintain the relationship with the U.S. and keep foreign investments.
With the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s, Honduras's economy began to suffer and from that time until 1948, the authoritarian General Tiburcio Carias Andino controlled the country. In 1955, a government overthrow occurred and in 1957, Honduras had its first elections. However, in 1963, a coup took place and the military again ruled the country throughout much of the later 1900s. During this time, Honduras experience instability.
From 1975 to 1978 and from 1978 to 1982, Generals Melgar Castro and Paz Garcia ruled Honduras, during which time, the country grew economically and developed much of its modern infrastructure. Throughout the rest of the 1980s and into the 1990s and 2000s, Honduras experienced seven democratic elections and in 1982, it developed its modern constitution.
After more instability in the later 2000s, Honduras today considered a democratic constitutional republic. The executive branch is made up of the chief of state and the head of state - both of which are filled by the president. The legislative branch is comprised of the unicameral Congress of Congreso Nacional and the judicial branch is made up of the Supreme Court of Justice. Honduras is divided into 18 departments for local administration.
Honduras is the second poorest country in Central America and has a highly uneven distribution of income. Most of the economy is based on exports. The largest agricultural exports from Honduras are bananas, coffee, citrus, corn, African palm, beef, timber shrimp, tilapia and lobster. Industrial products include sugar, coffee, textiles, clothing, wood products, and cigars.
Honduras is located in Central America along the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean's Gulf of Fonseca. Since it is located in Central America, the country has a subtropical climate throughout its lowlands and coastal areas. Honduras has a mountainous interior which has a temperate climate. Honduras is also prone to natural disasters like hurricanes, tropical storms, and flooding. For example, in 1998, Hurricane Mitch destroyed much of the country and wiped out 70% of its crops, 70-80% of its transportation infrastructure, 33,000 homes and killed 5,000 people. In addition in 2008, Honduras experienced severe flooding and almost half of its roads were destroyed.


text:
China spends big to avert a crisis when the Dalai Lama dies
By Eric Baculinao and Jason Cumming and Reuters and Associated Press with NBC News World News • Updated: 30/08/2018
Pilgrims near the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. - Copyright Johannes Eisele file
LHASA, Tibet — China is pouring billions of dollars into Tibet as Beijing seeks to cement its control before the succession struggle that is likely to follow the death of the Dalai Lama.
During a rare Chinese government-organized visit to the region, local officials described a development program that they contend will bring prosperity to the 3.3 million Tibetans who inhabit a vast area roughly double the size of Texas.
The massive infrastructure projects include new airports and highways that cut through the world's highest mountains, with planned investment totaling $97 billion.
The investment plan aims to protect Tibetan Buddhism's holy sites while building a sustainable "green economy" that safeguards the fragile environment that is an average elevation of 13,000 feet above sea level.
#embed-20180829-china-tibet iframe {width: 1px;min-width: 100%}
According to official figures, China has also already spent over $450 million renovating Tibet's major monasteries and other religious sites since the 1980s. An additional $290 million has been budgeted for the next five years.
The huge investment by China comes as the officially atheist country increasingly tries to enhance its image by casting itself as the largest nation of Buddhist believers. China claims some 300 million Buddhists of various schools, of which Tibetan Buddhism is one.
The effort comes as China faces charges from rights groups and exiles of repressing the Tibetan people. China has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since 1951, a year after its troops marched in.
The Dalai Lama in 2015.Ben Stansall
Last month, Vice President Mike Pence said Tibet's people "have been brutally repressed by the Chinese government." And in June, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said conditions were "fast deteriorating" in Tibet.
Beijing routinely denies charges of repression, saying that its rule ended serfdom and brought prosperity to what was a backward region, and that it fully respects the rights of the Tibetan people.
It insists Tibet has historically been part of its territory since the mid-13th century. Many Tibetans, though, say the region has been effectively independent for most of its history.
While Beijing regards the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist who seeks to split off nearly a quarter of the land mass of the People's Republic of China, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Tibetan spiritual leader says he only seeks greater rights for Tibetans, including religious freedom and autonomy.
For supporters of the Dalai Lama, China's Tibet strategy is "aimed at increasing its control and limiting the personal freedom of the Tibetan people," said Matteo Mecacci, a former lawmaker in Italy and president of the International Campaign for Tibet.
He called the infrastructure improvements and monastery renovations "superficial."
Mecacci said Tibetans are "not even allowed to receive teachings from the Dalai Lama."
A portrait of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Sera Monastery in Tibet.Eric Baculinao
He added, "When it comes to the real practice of Buddhism, China continues to increase restrictions."
With the Dalai Lama now 83, many Tibetans fear that China will use the succession issue to split Tibetan Buddhism, with a new Dalai Lama named by exiles and another by the government after his death.
(Barry Kerzin, an American monk and the Dalai Lama's personal physician, told NBC News that he is "perfectly fit.")
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet and went into exile in India in 1959, has repeatedly tussled with China's ruling Communist Party over who has final authority on the issue of reincarnation.
"The Tibetans and the Han Chinese are like lips and teeth, we are linked by blood."
Tibetan Buddhism holds that the soul of a senior lama is reincarnated in the body of a child on his death.
China says it must approve the next Dalai Lama, and the Dalai Lama has said his biggest concern is that China will try to name his successor.
The Panchen Lama who was installed by the Chinese government attends an event in 2016.Cui hao
In 1995, after the Dalai Lama named a boy in Tibet as the reincarnation of the previous Panchen Lama, the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, China put the boy under house arrest and installed another instead.
Many Tibetans are torn between accepting and spurning the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama.
Palaces and shrines
Explaining the seeming contradictions in China's policy, Tibet's foreign affairs deputy chief, Ma Qiang, said that while the Community Party "doesn't believe in religion," China's government was "duty-bound to protect Tibetan Buddhism and restore and preserve its holy sites because that is also what the Tibetan people want so they can exercise their freedom of worship."
The most iconic landmark to receive Chinese funding is the imposing Potala Palace, the thousand-room residence that overlooks Lhasa. It houses the tombs of all but one of the Dalai Lamas who have died since 1682.
Lhasa\'s Potala Palace.iStock
According to the museum's deputy director, Gonga Zhaxi, the 13-story palace has undergone two major renovations on which Beijing spent $37 million. Another $4.4 million has been budgeted for the repair of its ornate golden roofs.
To protect its priceless Buddha statues, frescoes and scriptures, a limit has been set of 5,000 pilgrims and tourists per day, and cats have been deployed against the colony of rats, he said.
Other sites that have benefited from Chinese cash include:
The seventh-century Jokhang Temple is Tibet's holiest shrine as it houses a life-sized statue of Buddha (Jowo Shakyamuni) at the age of 12. The labyrinth of chapels thick with the smoke of incense and prayer candles is visited daily by around 12,000 pilgrims and tourists. Buddha's statue was the gift of the Chinese Tang dynasty Princess Wencheng when she married Tibetan King Songtsan Gambo around 1,300 years ago. The union is now immortalized in a spectacular open-air opera with a cast of 800. A private production company has invested more than $80 million to promote this narrative of Tibet-China unity. Lhagba, a prominent monk and the site's management director, said Beijing has spent $14.7 million on major repairs there in the past 10 years.
Beijing has also helped with major renovations at Drepung Monastery and Sera Monastery, two of Tibet's most influential Buddhist academies, with grants of $30 million and $8 million. Thanks to government help, the monks can focus on their studies and need not bother with the monastery's repairs, according to Awang Ciren, the monastery's academic head. To increase its enrollment of 480 monks, Beijing is building a new dormitory that can accommodate 170 monks, he added.
In addition, 46,000 monks and nuns are now covered by health insurance and social security, officials said.
And with Beijing's "preferential" policy and massive budget subsidies, Tibet's economy has been growing faster than the rest of China.
Some $170 million was spent on environmental projects last year, part of a 23-year plan unveiled in 2009 that's worth $2 billion.
"In Tibet, we don't allow the burning of coal, and since 2011, we have stopped approving any new mining projects," said Luo Jie, Tibet's environmental protection chief, adding that more than one-third of Tibet's territory consisted of nature reserves. "We also don't tolerate river pollution."
Developing a "green economy" is the future of Tibet, according to economic planning official Jiang Taichang.
Tourism is also an industry that is drawing more focus. Last year, more than 25 million tourists and pilgrims visited Tibet, generating more than $5.5 billion or one-third of Tibet's income, and their number is expected to rise to 70 million in four years. (The vast majority of tourists are Chinese, as security has been ratcheted up significantly in the decade since anti-government protests spread through Tibetan areas in 2008 and Tibet remains mostly off-limits to foreigners.)
Lhasa's special economic zone, built with a $30 million investment from Beijing, is already fully leased out, with 200 enterprises producing a range of products from beer to medicines. A new technology zone and financial district are being planned.
Norbu Thondup, the Beijing-appointed executive vice chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet's administrative name, condemned the "sabotage" activities aimed at the "harmony and happiness in today's Tibet" by groups supporting the Dalai Lama.
He reiterated China's policy that the "gate is open" if the Dalai Lama abandons the idea of "splitting" Tibet from China.
"The decision is for the Dalai to make," Thondup said of him returning to his homeland. "The Tibetans and the Han Chinese are like lips and teeth, we are linked by blood."
But Mecacci, of the International Campaign for Tibet, said it was important for China to engage with the Dalai Lama.
"Only a serious dialogue while the Dalai Lama is alive can provide a lasting political solution in Tibet," he said. "Finding an agreement with the Tibetans would help China because it's the right thing to do, and because it will help China both domestically and internationally."
Eric Baculinao reported from Lhasa, and Jason Cumming from London.
WORLD NEWS NEWS


text:
Advantages of using independent samples T-test over one-way ANOVA for comparing two groups
I'm still confused as to why it is often recommended to use an independent samples T-Test when comparing two means rather than a One-way Anova.
If t^2 = F, and the p values are the same, why use a T-Test? What is the difference?
I've read that its because a T-Test 'is more flexible', but why is this the case? Is it just because the T distribution is two-tailed, whereas the F distribution is one-tailed?
anova t-test
thymeandspace
thymeandspacethymeandspace
With questions like this there is always a bit of ambiguity, since there are lots of different tests that use the T-distribution as the null distribution, and hence, are referred to as "T-tests". Comparing to the ANOVA test requires consideration of which particular T-test you are talking about.
Gossett's T-test (the two-sample t-test with assumed equal variances) is formally equivalent to a one-way two-group ANOVA test from Gaussian linear regression. For these tests it can be shown that $T^2 = F$ and so the p-values of both tests are the same. Since these are the same test, it makes no difference which you use. Where the T-test becomes "more flexible" is when you remove the assumption of equal variances for the groups and use Welch's T-test or some similar variant. With this variation you now have a T-test that is not equivalent to the one-way two-group ANOVA test from Gaussian linear regression. The greater "flexibility" occurs because the test accomodates cases where the variances of the two groups are substantially different.
Reinstate MonicaReinstate Monica
$\begingroup$ Thanks this is really helpful. Does a one-way two-group ANOVA have any way of accounting for unequal variances? Also, when I look at the equations behind the scenes for Gossett's T-Test and the one-way ANOVA, I don't see how the calculations end up producing the relationship T^2 = F. Do you know of any resources to help me understand how this relationship comes about? $\endgroup$ – thymeandspace Sep 4 '18 at 0:37
$\begingroup$ ANOVA is a technique built on an underlying model, so it depends on the assumptions of the underlying model. It is possible to generalise a two-group Gaussian linear regression model to allow heteroscedasticity (i.e., different variance for the two groups), and in this case you might be able to get an ANOVA that accounts for differences in variance of the groups. Whether or not this would be equivalent to Welch's test depends on how you set it up. $\endgroup$ – Reinstate Monica Sep 4 '18 at 3:38
$\begingroup$ If you want to understand the formal equivalence of Gossett's T-test with a one-way two-group ANOVA test from Gaussian linear regression, you could have a look at some simple proofs like this, or some more general questions like this. $\endgroup$ – Reinstate Monica Sep 4 '18 at 3:42
$\begingroup$ So something like a Greenhouse-Geisser correction isn't really correcting heteroscedasticity? $\endgroup$ – thymeandspace Sep 4 '18 at 22:02
$\begingroup$ As I understand it, that method adds an additional parameter to represent non-sphericity of the model, and then estimates that parameter from the data. My understanding is that it is used to allow correlation between a subject factor and the treatment in an experiment. I'm not aware of it being used to correct heteroscedasticity, but maybe I'm just not aware of it. In any case, I'm not really clear on why you think that something I've said implies anything for this test. $\endgroup$ – Reinstate Monica Sep 5 '18 at 2:36
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Maximum sample size for one-way ANOVA?


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text:
English-language translations of
Makkabaion 1 (1 Maccabees)
sister projects: Wikipedia article, Commons category, quotes, Wikidata item.
1 Maccabees is a book of the Septuagint, the Greek Jewish Scriptures. It is accepted as canonical by Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Christians, but rejected by Protestants and Jews. It was probably written in Hebrew originally, but the original Hebrew version is lost. The author is unknown, but probably wrote in the w:Hasmonean kingdom around 100 BCE (with a possible range of ~135 BCE–76 BCE).
130206Makkabaion 1 (1 Maccabees)Anonymous
English-language translations of Makkabaion 1 include:
"1 Machabeis" in the Wycliffe version of the Bible (1380s)
"1 Machabees" in the Douay-Rheims version (1610)
"1 Maccabees" in the Authorized Version (1611)
"1 Maccabees" in the King James version (1769)
"1 Maccabees" in the Wikisource edition (in progress since 2006)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=1_Maccabees&oldid=12253021"