text:
Microsoft takeover of Yahoo may be a major privacy battleground
Peter Swire takes a look at the proposed Microsoft takeover of Yahoo from a privacy perspective, at the Center for American Progress.
"Privacy issues will be central to the forthcoming antitrust merger review of today's $44.6 billion bid by Microsoft Corp. for Yahoo Inc. U.S. antitrust authorities have already studied these privacy issues in connection with the proposed merger of Google Inc. and DoubleClick, which is still under review in Europe...
When it comes to the intersection of privacy and antitrust, the Google/DoubleClick merger will now look like a warm-up act for Microsoft/Yahoo. In the Google case, all five commissioners agreed with the central point of my testimony to the FTC this past October, in which I detailed why privacy can be an important non-price aspect of competition.
Commissioner Pamela Harbour cited my testimony in voting to block the merger. She recognized that antitrust law should ensure competition "based on privacy protections or related non-price dimensions." The majority, while voting to approve the merger, agreed with the key point that privacy can be relevant to a merger, saying "we investigated the possibility that this transaction could adversely affect non-price attributes of competition, such as consumer privacy."
The first message from the Google/DoubleClick merger review is that the FTC understands competition is not only about price. Competition has always included non-price aspects, such as the quality of goods. In the information age, a merger can shift practices from low-surveillance to high-surveillance."
Government response to petition on ContactPoint
I just received an email from 10 Downing Street relating to the petition asking government to abandon plans to create the Information Sharing Index, a national database of all children aged between birth and eighteen. The email provides a links to the section of the pm website containing the government response. Extracts from the response:
"ContactPoint will provide a quick way for practitioners to find out who else is working with the same child or young person to make it easier for them to deliver better coordinated support to children and families...
No case information will be held on ContactPoint...
ContactPoint is being developed with extensive input from a wide range of stakeholders..
ContactPoint will cover all children in England because it is not possible to predict accurately, in advance, which children will need additional services...
The Government has been considering feedback and looking carefully at the implications that the proposed changes could have on the system. It is clear from the considerable work done so far that more time than originally planned is needed to address the changes to ContactPoint which potential system users suggested...
Security is, and always has been, of paramount importance...
Like all other Government Departments, the Department for Children, Schools and Families has recently conducted a review of how personal data is stored and protected. As a result of that review the Government is confident that there are very robust procedures in place for ContactPoint. In addition, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families has commissioned Deloitte to undertake an independent assessment of ContactPoint security procedures. The independent assessment will report back in early in early 2008."
Whilst it is theoretically technically correct to say that ContactPoint will not contain any case information it is a open door index to the eCAF (electronic Common Assessment Framework) which will hold detailed case infromation, since it will contain "An indication as to whether a service or practitioner holds an assessment under the Common Assessment Framework or whether they are a lead professional for that child."
It will cover all children in England (apart from those of high profile politicians or celebrities for security reasons) because it is not possible to identify in advance those who will need help, so rather than focusing on identifying those who need help, by throwing more data hay on an already difficult to navigate data haystack you'll make it much more difficult to find those who really need support.
They're considering feedback so the system will take longer to get off the ground than originally planned.
As a result of the recent damaging personal data security leaks by government they have thought about the security of the ContactPoint system and are 'confident' that it will be secure. But just in case they are wrong they have commissioned Deloitte to look at the security issues.
Let's just repeat again that you cannot build a large database, containing significant amounts of personal data, to which hundreds of thousands of people are required to have access as a routine part of their jobs and expect it to be secure. No amount of misplaced confidence will make it secure and large numbers of false negative and false positive flags will lead to a significant amount of harm, as already over-stretched child support professionals get involved with cases where they are not needed and fail to be alerted to cases where there services are, in some instances desparately, required. And that is just how the system will fail naturally as a result of technical and human error. Add into the mix those with a malign intent to exploit the system for their own nefarious ends and you end up exposing children targeted by such people to serious risks.
Update: ARCH initial reaction here.
RealPlayer badware?
Brian Krebs at the Washington Post reports that the latest versions of RealPlayer are badware.
"An industry-academia group designed to raise public awareness about software that violates fair information and privacy practices has labeled recent versions of RealPlayer video streaming software as "badware," charging that the software surreptitiously installs pop-up ad serving software as well as the Rhapsody media player engine.
Stopbadware.org issued an alert about two software titles from RealNetworks - RealPlayer 10.5 and RealPlayer 11, saying each violated the group's badware guidelines...
John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center and a professor of Internet law at Harvard, said the RealNetworks company has a history of operating at the margins of consumer privacy issues. "What was clear to us was that [RealPlayer] 10.5 and 11 went over what was, to us, a clear line."
Palfrey said Google was unlikely to list RealMedia's site as badware, however: that classification, he noted, was generally reserved for sites that try to install unwanted or malicious software when a person merely visits the site."
If you're interested in learning practical ways to protect yourself from this kind of intrusive software then I can recommend the Open University's ten week course on Vandalism in Cyberspace: understanding and combating malicious software, part of the University's Relevant Knowledge offerings.
Latest EDRI-Gram available
The latest EDRI-Gram is now available. Contents:
ECJ decision on handing traffic information in civil cases
European Parliament hearing on Internet privacy issues
Personal sensitive data keep on being lost in UK
New spying tools patented by Microsoft
YouTube blocked once more in Turkey
Bulgarian Big Brother Awards
***European Data Protection Day - 28.01.2008 - special section***
Key privacy concerns in Denmark 2007
Key privacy concerns in Czech Republik 2007
Key privacy concerns in Ireland 2007
Key privacy concerns in France 2007
Key privacy concerns in Romania 2007
Key privacy concerns in Netherlands 2007
Main data protection concerns with the EU policy developments in 2007
The Stasi v the database state
Timothy Garton Ash must have been reading Andrew Curry's piece in Wired. As someone who knew East Germany from the inside we should take him seriously when he says:
This has got to stop. Britain's snooper state is getting completely out of hand. We are sleepwalking into a surveillance society, and we must wake up. When the Stasi started spying on me, as I moved around East Germany 30 years ago, I travelled on the assumption that I was coming from one of the freest countries in the world to one of the least free. I don't think I was wrong then, but I would certainly be wrong now. Today, the people of East Germany are much less spied upon than the people of Britain. The human rights group Privacy International rates Britain as an "endemic surveillance society", along with China and Russia, whereas Germany scores much better...
The fantastic advance of information and communications technology gives the state - and private companies as well - technical possibilities of which the Stasi could only dream. Most of your life is now mapped electronically, minute by minute, centimetre by centimetre, through your mobile phone calls, your emails, your web searches, your credit card purchases, your involuntary appearances on CCTV, and so on. Had the East German secret police had these snooping super-tools, my Stasi file would have measured at least 3,000 pages, not a mere 325.
We therefore need to strengthen the protection of data, privacy and civil rights simply to remain as free as we were before. As technology lifts the sea level of information flow, we have to build up the dykes...
Of course that flourish about the Stasi is hyperbole. As someone who actually lived under the Stasi, I know we're nowhere near that. But the amount of information collected and shared - not to mention lost - by the British government far exceeds the Stasi's modest 160km of paper files. The potential for it to be abused, in the wrong hands, is simply enormous. Liberty is not preserved simply by putting our trust in the good intentions of our rulers, civil servants and spooks. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Thanks to Glyn via the ORG list for the pointer.
Watchdog sides with MI5 to reject phone-tap evidence
I missed this in the Guardian earlier in the week: Watchdog sides with MI5 to reject phone-tap evidence
The prospect of phone-tap evidence being used in court, an issue at the heart of the dispute over proposed anti-terrorism measures, received a blow yesterday when the prime minister's eavesdropping watchdog opposed the idea.
Sir Paul Kennedy, an appeal court judge who monitors communications intercepts, said in his first official report: "I am firmly of the opinion that the benefits of any change in the law [in intercept evidence] are heavily outweighed by the disadvantages." He added: "With one exception, everyone to whom I have spoken in the course of my visits seems to be of the same opinion."
Digitised personal data as hot as nuclear waste
Cory Doctorow in full polemic flow in the Guardian.
"We should treat personal electronic data with the same care and respect as weapons-grade plutonium - it is dangerous, long-lasting and once it has leaked there's no getting it back
When HM Revenue & Customs haemorrhaged the personal and financial information of 25 million British families in November, wags dubbed it the "Privacy Chernobyl", a meltdown of global, epic proportions.
The metaphor is apt: the data collected by corporations and governmental agencies is positively radioactive in its tenacity and longevity. Nuclear accidents leave us wondering just how we're going to warn our descendants away from the resulting wasteland for the next 750,000 years while the radioisotopes decay away. Privacy meltdowns raise a similarly long-lived spectre: will the leaked HMRC data ever actually vanish...
But it seems to have entirely escaped the attention of those who regulate the gathering of personal information. The world's toughest privacy measures are as a wet Kleenex against the merciless onslaught of data acquisition. Data is acquired at all times, everywhere."
Brilliant as ever.
The Stasi files paper jigsaw mountain
Andrew Curry wrote recently in Wired about Piecing Together the Dark Legacy of East Germany's Secret Police It's a stark warning of where the totalitarian leanings of the Blair/Brown Bush/Cheney 'be afraid be very afraid but we will protect you' politics can ultimately lead.
"Ulrike Poppe used to be one of the most surveilled women in East Germany. For 15 years, agents of the Stasi (short for Staatssicherheitsdienst, or State Security Service) followed her, bugged her phone and home, and harassed her unremittingly, right up until she and other dissidents helped bring down the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today, the study in Poppe's Berlin apartment is lined floor to 12-foot ceiling with bookshelves full of volumes on art, literature, and political science. But one shelf, just to the left of her desk, is special. It holds a pair of 3-inch-thick black binders — copies of the most important documents in Poppe's secret police files. This is her Stasi shelf...
When the wall fell, the Stasi fell with it. The new government, determined to bring to light the agency's totalitarian tactics, created a special commission to give victims access to their personal files. Poppe and her husband were among the first people in Germany allowed into the archives. On January 3, 1992, she sat in front of a cart loaded with 40 binders dedicated to "Circle 2" — her codename, it turned out. In the 16 years since, the commission has turned up 20 more Circle 2 binders on her.
The pages amounted to a minute-by-minute account of Poppe's life, seen from an unimaginable array of angles. Video cameras were installed in the apartment across the street. Her friends' bedrooms were bugged and their conversations about her added to the file. Agents investigated the political leanings of her classmates from middle school and opened all of her mail. "They really tried to capture everything," she says. "Most of it was just junk."
But some of it wasn't. And some of it ... Poppe doesn't know. No one does. Because before it was disbanded, the Stasi shredded or ripped up about 5 percent of its files. That might not sound like much, but the agency had generated perhaps more paper than any other bureaucracy in history — possibly a billion pages of surveillance records, informant accounting, reports on espionage, analyses of foreign press, personnel records, and useless minutiae. There's a record for every time anyone drove across the border..."
And that was with paper. Brown and Bush have computers and the capacity to gather and draw inferences from much greater volumes of personal data. But in the case of the shredded Stasi files the computers being used to reconstruct them:
"There's no way to know what bombshells those files hide. For a country still trying to come to terms with its role in World War II and its life under a totalitarian regime, that half-destroyed paperwork is a tantalizing secret.
The machine-shredded stuff is confetti, largely unrecoverable. But in May 2007, a team of German computer scientists in Berlin announced that after four years of work, they had completed a system to digitally tape together the torn fragments. Engineers hope their software and scanners can do the job in less than five years — even taking into account the varying textures and durability of paper, the different sizes and shapes of the fragments, the assortment of printing (from handwriting to dot matrix) and the range of edges (from razor sharp to ragged and handmade.)"
Incidentally if you're interested in East German history I'd recommend Mary Fulbrook's books Anatomy of a Dictatorship: Inside the GDR 1949-1989: Inside the GDR, 1949-1989 and The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker
Scientists reluctant to share cancer data
Biostatistician, Andrew Vickers writes in the NYT: Cancer Data? Sorry, Can't Have It
"Not long ago, I asked a respected cancer researcher if he could send me raw data from a trial he had recently published. He refused. Sharing data would make the study team members "uncomfortable," he said, as I might use this to "cast doubt" on their results.
I'd heard this before: as a statistician who designs and analyzes cancer studies, I regularly ask other researchers to provide additional information or raw data. Sometimes I want to use the data to test out a new idea or method of statistical analysis. And knowing exactly what happened in past studies can help me design better research for the future. Occasionally, however, there are statistical analyses I could run that might make an immediate and important impact on the lives of cancer patients...
Given the enormous physical, emotional and financial toll of cancer, one might expect researchers to promote the free and open exchange of information. The patients who volunteer for cancer trials often suffer through painful procedures and harsh experimental treatments in the hope of hastening a cure. The data they provide ought to belong to all of us. Yet cancer researchers typically treat it as their personal property...
Dr John Kirwan, a rheumatologist from the University of Bristol in England, has studied researchers' attitudes on sharing data from clinical trials. He found that three-quarters of researchers he surveyed, as well as a major industry group, opposed making original trial data available. It is worth restating this finding: most scientists doing research on how best to help those in pain, or at risk of death, want to keep their data a secret.
Dr. Kirwan went on to ask his subjects why. Their reasons were entirely trivial: one cited the difficult of putting together a data set (wouldn't this have to be done anyway in order to publish a paper?); another was concerned that the data might be analyzed using invalid methods (surely a judgment for the scientific community as a whole). This is something of a clue that the real issue here has more to do with status and career than with any loftier considerations. Scientists don't want to be scooped by their own data, or have someone else challenge their conclusions with a new analysis.
Yet this is exactly what cancer patients need. They want new results to be published as quickly as possible and to encourage a robust debate on the merits of key research findings."
ID card coercion
The good folks at NO2ID have obtained a leaked government document referring to methods to coerce people into getting an ID card.
A specially annotated NO2ID copy of the full document, National Identity Scheme Options Analysis - Outcome, is available at Cory Doctorow's Craphound website and the NO2ID campaign would like as many mirrors as possible.
ECJ rules privacy trumps copyright
The European Court of Justice has reportedly ruled that telcos do not have a duty to disclose personal details of suspected file sharers to copyright owners.
"European Union countries can refuse to disclose names of file sharers on the Internet in civil cases, the EU's top court said on Tuesday in a blow to copyright holders trying to fight digital piracy.
The European Court of Justice ruled on a dispute between Spanish music rights holders association Promusicae and Spain's top telecommunications operator, Telefonica.
Telefonica argued that, under a national law based on EU rules, it had to disclose the name of an Internet subscriber only for criminal actions, not civil ones.
"Community law does not require the member states, in order to ensure the effective protection of copyright, to lay down an obligation to disclose personal data in the context of civil proceedings," the court said in a statement."
The court said:
"There are several community directives whose purpose is that the member states should ensure, especially in the information society, effective protection of industrial property, in particular copyright.
Such protection cannot, however, affect the requirements of the protection of personal data. The directives on the protection of personal data also allow the member states to provide for exceptions to the obligation to guarantee the confidentiality of traffic data"
In other words, the ECJ concluded that privacy trumps copyright protection and the judgement was expected since the ECJ's Advocate General, Juliane Kokott, in advising the court in August of last year, basically said the same thing. P2PNet also has a copy of the Court press release relating to the judgement:
Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-275/06
Productores de Música de España (Promusicae) v Telefónica de España SAU
THE COURT RULES ON THE PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
Community law does not require the Member States, in order to ensure the effective protection of copyright, to lay down an obligation to disclose personal data in the context of civil proceedings
There are several Community directives 1 whose purpose is that the Member States should ensure, especially in the information society, effective protection of industrial property, in particular copyright. Such protection cannot, however, affect the requirements of the protection of personal data. The directives on the protection of personal data 2 also allow the Member States to provide for exceptions to the obligation to guarantee the confidentiality of traffic data.
Promusicae is a Spanish non-profit-making organisation of producers and publishers of musical and audiovisual recordings. It applied to the Spanish courts for an order that Telefónica should disclose the identities and physical addresses of certain persons whom it provided with internet access services, whose IP address and date and time of connection were known. According to Promusicae, those persons were using the KaZaA file exchange program (peer-to-peer or P2P) and providing access in shared files of personal computers to phonograms in which members of Promusicae held the exploitation rights. It therefore sought disclosure of the above information in order to be able to bring civil proceedings against the persons concerned.
Telefónica argued that, under Spanish law,3 the communication of the data sought by Promusicae was authorised only in a criminal investigation or for the purpose of safeguarding public security and national defence.
The Spanish court asks the Court of Justice of the European Communities whether Community law requires the Member States to lay down, in order to ensure effective protection of copyright, an obligation to communicate personal data in the context of civil proceedings.
The Court of Justice notes that the exceptions permitted by the directives on the protection of personal data include the measures necessary for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. As the directive on privacy and electronic communications does not specify the rights and freedoms concerned by that exception, it must be interpreted as expressing the Community legislature's intention not to exclude from its scope the protection of the right to property or situations in which authors seek to obtain that protection in civil proceedings. It does not therefore preclude the possibility for the Member States of laying down an obligation to disclose personal data in the context of civil proceedings. However, it does not compel the Member States to lay down such an obligation.
As to the directives on intellectual property, the Court of Justice finds that they too do not require the Member States to lay down, in order to ensure effective protection of copyright, an obligation to communicate personal data in the context of civil proceedings.
That being so, the Court points out that the present reference for a preliminary ruling raises the question of the need to reconcile the requirements of the protection of different fundamental rights, namely the right to respect for private life on the one hand and the rights to protection of property and to an effective remedy on the other.
The Court concludes that the Member States must, when transposing the directives on intellectual property and the protection of personal data, rely on an interpretation of those directives which allows a fair balance to be struck between the various fundamental rights protected by the Community legal order. Further, when implementing the measures transposing those directives, the authorities and courts of the Member States must not only interpret their national law in a manner consistent with the directives but also make sure that they do not rely on an interpretation of them which would be in conflict with those fundamental rights or with the other general principles of Community law, such as the principle of proportionality.
The full judgment is available at the ECJ website. It is quite a technical judgment looking at the details of a collection of EU directives and how they interact; and how to achieve a balance between the right to protect personal data and the right to protect property but the key parts of the decision seem to be paragraphs 61 to 70:
"Fundamental rights
61 The national court refers in its order for reference to Articles 17 and 47 of the Charter, the first of which concerns the protection of the right to property, including intellectual property, and the second of which concerns the right to an effective remedy. By so doing, that court must be regarded as seeking to know whether an interpretation of those directives to the effect that the Member States are not obliged to lay down, in order to ensure the effective protection of copyright, an obligation to communicate personal data in the context of civil proceedings leads to an infringement of the fundamental right to property and the fundamental right to effective judicial protection.
62 It should be recalled that the fundamental right to property, which includes intellectual property rights such as copyright (see, to that effect, Case C‑479/04 Laserdisken [2006] ECR I‑8089, paragraph 65), and the fundamental right to effective judicial protection constitute general principles of Community law (see respectively, to that effect, Joined Cases C‑154/04 and C‑155/04 Alliance for Natural Health and Others [2005] ECR I‑6451, paragraph 126 and the case-law cited, and Case C‑432/05 Unibet [2007] ECR I‑2271, paragraph 37 and the case-law cited).
63 However, the situation in respect of which the national court puts that question involves, in addition to those two rights, a further fundamental right, namely the right that guarantees protection of personal data and hence of private life.
64 According to recital 2 in the preamble to Directive 2002/58, the directive seeks to respect the fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised in particular by the Charter. In particular, the directive seeks to ensure full respect for the rights set out in Articles 7 and 8 of that Charter. Article 7 substantially reproduces Article 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms signed at Rome on 4 November 1950, which guarantees the right to respect for private life, and Article 8 of the Charter expressly proclaims the right to protection of personal data.
65 The present reference for a preliminary ruling thus raises the question of the need to reconcile the requirements of the protection of different fundamental rights, namely the right to respect for private life on the one hand and the rights to protection of property and to an effective remedy on the other.
66 The mechanisms allowing those different rights and interests to be balanced are contained, first, in Directive 2002/58 itself, in that it provides for rules which determine in what circumstances and to what extent the processing of personal data is lawful and what safeguards must be provided for, and in the three directives mentioned by the national court, which reserve the cases in which the measures adopted to protect the rights they regulate affect the protection of personal data. Second, they result from the adoption by the Member States of national provisions transposing those directives and their application by the national authorities (see, to that effect, with reference to Directive 95/46, Lindqvist, paragraph 82).
67 As to those directives, their provisions are relatively general, since they have to be applied to a large number of different situations which may arise in any of the Member States. They therefore logically include rules which leave the Member States with the necessary discretion to define transposition measures which may be adapted to the various situations possible (see, to that effect, Lindqvist, paragraph 84).
68 That being so, the Member States must, when transposing the directives mentioned above, take care to rely on an interpretation of the directives which allows a fair balance to be struck between the various fundamental rights protected by the Community legal order. Further, when implementing the measures transposing those directives, the authorities and courts of the Member States must not only interpret their national law in a manner consistent with those directives but also make sure that they do not rely on an interpretation of them which would be in conflict with those fundamental rights or with the other general principles of Community law, such as the principle of proportionality (see, to that effect, Lindqvist, paragraph 87, and Case C‑305/05 Ordre des barreaux francophones et germanophone and Others [2007] ECR I‑0000, paragraph 28).
69 Moreover, it should be recalled here that the Community legislature expressly required, in accordance with Article 15(1) of Directive 2002/58, that the measures referred to in that paragraph be adopted by the Member States in compliance with the general principles of Community law, including those mentioned in Article 6(1) and (2) EU.
70 In the light of all the foregoing, the answer to the national court's question must be that Directives 2000/31, 2001/29, 2004/48 and 2002/58 do not require the Member States to lay down, in a situation such as that in the main proceedings, an obligation to communicate personal data in order to ensure effective protection of copyright in the context of civil proceedings. However, Community law requires that, when transposing those directives, the Member States take care to rely on an interpretation of them which allows a fair balance to be struck between the various fundamental rights protected by the Community legal order. Further, when implementing the measures transposing those directives, the authorities and courts of the Member States must not only interpret their national law in a manner consistent with those directives but also make sure that they do not rely on an interpretation of them which would be in conflict with those fundamental rights or with the other general principles of Community law, such as the principle of proportionality."
And they then conclude:
On those grounds, the Court (Grand Chamber) hereby rules:
Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market ('Directive on electronic commerce'), Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society, Directive 2004/48/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights, and Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic communications) do not require the Member States to lay down, in a situation such as that in the main proceedings, an obligation to communicate personal data in order to ensure effective protection of copyright in the context of civil proceedings. However, Community law requires that, when transposing those directives, the Member States take care to rely on an interpretation of them which allows a fair balance to be struck between the various fundamental rights protected by the Community legal order. Further, when implementing the measures transposing those directives, the authorities and courts of the Member States must not only interpret their national law in a manner consistent with those directives but also make sure that they do not rely on an interpretation of them which would be in conflict with those fundamental rights or with the other general principles of Community law, such as the principle of proportionality.
Update: There's a nice commentary on the case by Iain Connor, an IP specialist at Pinsent Masons, at Outlaw.
"Any record industry exec would have been weeping into his cornflakes today as he perused the newspapers. The European Court of Justice was reported everywhere as having handed victory in a battle to privacy activists and file-sharers by ruling that ISPs do not have to hand over subscriber details in file sharing or any other civil cases.
The problem is that these reports have missed the point. What the ECJ actually said was that national governments can, effectively, do what they like on the issue.
Therefore, if Spain wants to rule that file-sharer details can only be revealed in criminal cases, it can. However, if UK courts want to hold, as they do, that file-sharer details can be revealed in all cases, then that's fine too."
BALII has now got the full judgement too.
Daithi and IPKat also have their usual informed commentary.
UK High Court Allows Software Patents
On Friday, in the High Court, Mr Justice Kitchin ruled that the UK Patent Office's practice of rejecting software patents was wrong. David Pearce at IPKat is understandably surprised at the decision and has an excellent commentary.
"After comprehensively summarising the last couple of decades of legal developments, covering the usual suspects (Gale, the oft-misspelled Merrill Lynch, Fujitsu and various EPO decisions), Kitchin J arrived at the main question in this appeal, which was whether the UK-IPO was correct in construing that the Court of Appeal judgment in Aerotel/Macrossan inevitably prohibited the patenting of all computer programs, or whether the old approach of considering the 'potential' technical effect of a computer program (following the EPO approach) could be taken into account, in a similar way to considering the effect of a method claim that would inevitably be carried out by running a program (which all of the applications under appeal contained). The UK-IPO had concluded that Aerotel/Macrossan ruled out computer program product patent claims, and consequently reverted to its old practice of rejecting such claims...
Kitchin J recognised that it was highly undesirable to have provisions of the EPC construed differently at the EPO as compared with the courts in the different contracting states, and that decisions of the Boards of Appeal should be highly persuasive. Mention was also made of the contrasting approach taken in Germany, where the EPO line tends to be followed closely.
The apparent approval of the UK-IPO's rejection of computer program product claims in Oneida Indian Nation's Application [see IPKat commentary here] was either rejected by Kitchin J as not actually meaning that, or was in the alternative respectfully disagreed with (as the High Court is allowed to do, in contrast with the Court of Appeal), depending on the different possible interpretations of Christopher Floyd's judgment.
In conclusion then, Kitchin J found that the appeals should be allowed. Each application concerned a computer related invention where the examiner had allowed claims to, in effect, a method performed by running a suitably programmed computer and to a computer programmed to carry out the method. The Hearing Officer had rejected corresponding program claims on the basis that they were necessarily prohibited by Article 52, and in Kitchin J's judgment he had erred in doing so. The cases were remitted to the UK-IPO for further consideration in light of the judgment."
Microsoft takeover of Yahoo may be a major privacy...
Watchdog sides with MI5 to reject phone-tap eviden...


text:
Mayor London Breed and Community Members Celebrate Groundbreaking of New Affordable Housing by the Northeast Waterfront
Two new 100% affordable housing developments will create 178 units for families and seniors
Mayor London N. Breed, Supervisor Aaron Peskin, and community leaders today celebrated the joint groundbreakings of 88 Broadway and 735 Davis near The Embarcadero. Together, the buildings will provide 178 new permanently affordable homes for families, seniors, and formerly homeless seniors.
88 Broadway is currently a surface parking lot owned by the Port of San Francisco on a parcel remaining from the former Embarcadero Freeway. 735 Davis is a former San Francisco Public Works parking lot that was transferred to the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development through the City's surplus land ordinance to make developable sites available for affordable housing on public lands.
"88 Broadway and 735 Davis are a model for taking underutilized land and turning it into what we need most in this city—100% affordable housing," said Mayor London Breed. "The $600 million Affordable Housing Bond, which will go in front of the Board of Supervisors this afternoon, will allow us to provide housing for our most vulnerable residents, including seniors, formerly homeless individuals, veterans, educators and low-income families."
With a particular focus on meeting the housing needs of the immediate neighborhood, 88 Broadway and 735 Davis's units will be available to future tenants—including formerly homeless seniors—with incomes ranging from 0% to 120% of Area Median Income. This vibrant mixed-income community will also feature a childcare center operated by the YMCA, a restaurant space, and a public walkway connecting the two sites.
In October 2018, Mayor Breed announced a $1.5 million investment to make 88 Broadway and 735 Davis affordable to very low-income seniors. The funding cuts rents in half for 13 units of senior housing, lowering the monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment from $1,421 to $710.
In 2018, Assemblymember David Chiu authored Assembly Bill (AB) 1423 to permit the City to build an affordable housing development at 88 Broadway. AB 1423 also clarified that the project could include a childcare facility and a restaurant.
"This is exactly the type of project San Francisco desperately needs, and I am grateful to have a small role in making it happen," said Assemblymember David Chiu (D-San Francisco). "A bill I authored and passed last year, Assembly Bill 1423, ensured 88 Broadway would include housing for both low-income and middle-income San Franciscans and create an affordable, vibrant community for San Francisco families."
"I have been advocating for affordable housing on this site for over 20 years," said Supervisor Aaron Peskin. "The process of getting input from the neighborhood—everyone from the Barbary Coast Neighborhood Association to Chinatown seniors—was critical to making this project better, and ultimately more deeply affordable. With 88 Broadway/735 Davis in mind, President Yee and I have created the first ever Senior Operating Subsidies (SOS) Fund in this year's budget, to ensure that the majority of seniors who don't qualify for affordable housing because of their fixed incomes have a chance to live and thrive in District 3. I'm thrilled to see this project finally break ground in a waterfront neighborhood where we have a long history of community-led affordable housing victories."
"MOHCD would like to thank the many stakeholders who worked so hard to make this project a reality. From the non-profit developers to the neighbors, to Mayor Lee and Mayor Breed, this development truly epitomizes San Francisco as a city for all," said Kate Hartley, Director of the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development.
"The Port is working to create a thriving waterfront for all San Franciscans and proud to add 125 units of 100% affordable housing for families and 53 units for seniors," said Elaine Forbes, Executive Director of the Port of San Francisco. "88 Broadway and 735 Davis will enrich the waterfront while working to help address the City's housing shortage."
BRIDGE Housing Corporation and The John Stewart Company are partners on this multi-building development, and they have enlisted local architecture firm Leddy Maytum Stacy and Cahill Contractors to bring this project to completion.
"This is a rare opportunity to bring a much-needed range of affordability and services to the neighborhood," said BRIDGE Housing President and CEO Cynthia Parker. "We're proud to be part of this effort to serve people—from the city's most vulnerable seniors to working families."
"Another unique feature of this hybrid development is the combination of some formerly homeless residents plus a cohort known as the 'missing middle,' such as nurses, teachers and first responders," said John Stewart, Chairman of The John Stewart Company.
Both affordable housing developments have been made possible by financing from the San Francisco Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development, Bank of America, and the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee. Barings Multifamily Capital LLC contributed to 88 Broadway and the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco contributed to 735 Davis.
"Bank of America Merrill Lynch Community Development Banking was pleased to provide financing for 88 Broadway and 735 Davis to help provide safe, affordable housing for seniors, formerly homeless and low-income residents in San Francisco. This public-private partnership will significantly impact not only the residents but also the broader community that calls our city 'home,'" said Liz Minick, San Francisco-East Bay market executive, Bank of America.
88 Broadway and 735 Davis have expected move-in dates of mid-2021.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Keep an Eye on Spinach
Lutein reverses vision loss.
Sally Lehrman August 17, 2009
5100spinach_bunch225_0.jpg
Lutein reverses vision loss. Learn how to make Spinach Parmesan Cakes!
Nearly two decades ago, optometrist Stuart Richer noticed something funny about patients who began taking multivitamins. Those who had age-related macular degeneration-a disease that affects one in eight Americans with vision loss and sometimes blindness-not only seemed to stabilize, but improved.
Intrigued, he went back to school in biophysiology to see if he could figure out the reason. His first studies helped show that antioxidants did slow the disease, and even worked to prevent it. More recently he has learned that a specific antioxidant, lutein, can actually reverse some of the symptoms.
Richer, chief of optometry at the North Chicago Veterans Administration Medical Center, recently tested lutein's effects on 90 patients. Over a year's time, those who took 10 milligrams of lutein every day began to see about one line better on eye charts. Image quality and contrast increased, and glare became less of a problem.
We get lutein from leafy green vegetables, such as spinach, kale and collards, plus kiwi, zucchini, pumpkin, egg yolks, corn and red grapes. Already known to be important to vision, the antioxidant collects in the center of the retina, supporting the structure of delicate photoreceptors and filtering out certain types of light that cause damage. In Richer's tests, the density of the yellow macular pigment, which is thought to protect against age-related degeneration, improved 40 percent.
While Richer used supplements for the study, he recommends one of his favorite vegetables as a strong preventive. "Spinach is a super-food, with folate, beta carotene, vitamins E and C and a series of other nutrients," he says. He suggests eating four ounces every other day. Personally, however, he also takes a daily multivitamin with lutein for good measure.
Those who took 10 mg of lutein every day began to see about one line better on eye charts.


A man faced with a huge stretch of curb to weed-whack had a unique time-saving solution – carry out the whole task while standing on a Segway.
The genius gardener was seen whizzing along on the gadget in a video filmed in Moresbury, Tennessee.
These Mysterious Underwater Crop Circles Baffled Scientists For Decades. But Watch What They Are!


This piece was written by two employees of EMI (NZ) Ltd. in 1976 for a glossy publication to mark 50 years since the firm began in New Zealand as His Master's Voice. Bruce Anderson was a tireless researcher into the local history of HMV and EMI and his papers – including 89 scrapbooks - are now held at the Alexander Turnbull Library. Louise Warren joined EMI after working at Playdate magazine in Auckland. She is the daughter of jazz trumpeter Jim Warren.
The occasion was also marked by the release of an LP called 50 Years In New Zealand.
From 1910 until 1926 His Master's Voice was represented in New Zealand by Messrs E J Hyams who held the licence to distribute its recordings and gramophones on a five percent commission basis. At this time the main Australasian agency for His Master's Voice was in Sydney.
In 1926 it was decided by HMV's parent company, the Gramophone Co Ltd of Hayes, UK, to form a New Zealand company; on 10 May 1926, His Master's Voice (New Zealand) Limited was incorporated with an authorised capital of £50,000.
Mr E J Hyams was the principal shareholder and Managing Director and Mr Alfred Wyness was also a shareholder and Director of the company. The Gramophone Company in Britain held 25 percent of the shares, and was represented on the Board by Mr W Manson, Managing Director of their Sydney subsidiary. A year earlier The Gramophone Co Ltd had established a record factory in New South Wales, and in 1926 the first Australian pressings went on sale in New Zealand.
On Mr E J Hyams retirement in 1931, The Gramophone Co. Ltd. of Hayes acquired all the shares of His Master's Voice (New Zealand) Limited and Mr Alfred Wyness became Managing Director.
In these early days, HMV handled a diversity of products, assembling toasters, radios, radiograms, irons and even bicycles in the old Wakefield Street premises in Wellington. Steel gramophone needles were imported from England in quantities of one million at a time and even after World War II, HMV was importing portable wind-up gramophones, mouth organs, piano accordions, trumpet mouthpieces, vacuum cleaners and valves.
Gramophone records were naturally an important side of the business and these were imported from England, Europe and after 1926 from Australia as well. From 1910 HMV imported single-sided records, followed by double-sided 10-inch discs. These were all acoustic recordings until 1926 when the advent of electric recordings occurred. From then on, all releases were recorded on the new electrical equipment. HMV's first release of an electrical recording was of Handel's Messiah on the HMV label.
In April and May 1926 Mr Ernest Dawson, a well-known record dealer based in Manners Street, Wellington, held two recitals of music played on the No 4 Sound Box gramophone. The Concert Chamber of the Wellington Town Hall was the venue, and the recitals were well attended.
Also in 1930 HMV began importing radio gramophones, although wind-up gramophones were still selling well. The great events of the year for HMV were the launching of the new HMV gramophone with the "International" horn, and the setting up of a radio department at the Hyams building at 118-120 Wakefield Street, Wellington. This department was set up by Mr Alfred Wyness to handle imported radios from Britain and America.
On 21 March 1931, the two British rivals – The Gramophone Co Ltd and the Columbia Graphophone Co Ltd – merged to form Electric & Musical Industries Ltd. (later abbreviated to EMI). This meant that in New Zealand, HMV began distributing Columbia and Regal Records as well as their own His Master's Voice and Zonophone labels.
On the same day, HMV in England released a record of the Wellington carillion bells: this was recorded at Hyde Park, London, where the bells were temporarily set up before being shipped to New Zealand. The performer was Miss Gladys Watkins of Wellington, who later became the city's official carillion player; at Hyde Park she recorded 'The Balls of St Mary' and 'Annie Laurie'.
In January 1933 two budget labels – Columbia's Regal and HMV's Zonophone – merged to form the now famous Regal Zonophone label. Artists recorded on that label include Gracie Fields, George Formby, Lew Stone and Joe Loss (who, more than 40 years later, still records for EMI).
In 1935 EMI in England signed a contract with English Decca (which was formed in 1929) for a pressing agreement with HMV New Zealand; these records were pressed in Australia.
In 1937 Labour Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage visited Britain for the Coronation and made a tour of the EMI factories. Back in New Zealand, household appliances became big business and HMV began to import washing machines, refrigerators, irons and toasters. Records remained big business too, and in 1937-38 HMV was able to claim that every record played on the radio was released in New Zealand through HMV.
In 1938, because of newly enforced import restrictions, His Master's Voice (NZ) Ltd. began manufacturing its own radios and home appliances.
In 1940, HMV became involved with war work and the factory in Wakefield Street turned from domestic appliances to war production, producing such things as armed forces radio units. HMV (NZ) Ltd manufactured more radio units than any other radio producer in the country. In 1944 the firm employed 18 people.
When the war ended in 1945, HMV (NZ) Ltd resumed its peacetime production. An advertising campaign stressed the company's involvement in war work and offered a glimpse into new products that would be available in the future. One booklet from this campaign begins, "Excuse our backs, but we've been busy".
In 1949, once again because of import restrictions, HMV set up its own record factory at Kilbirnie, Wellington. The factory was opened by the Honourable Bob Semple in March 1949.
78 rpm records were pressed from imported masters and production was soon stepped up to 50,000 records per month. The first record pressed at this factory was "Buttons and Bows' by Dinah Shore.
HMV also pressed its first local record in 1949, a 78 rpm disc by Les Wilson (The Otago Rambler) singing 'The Yodelling Cowboy', although it wasn't released until 1954, just after Wellington pianist John Parkin's 'Piano Medley No 1': HMV's first disc to be locally recorded, pressed and released.
By 1950, HMV had outgrown the old Hyams premises and the company purchased the site of the Glide Skating Rink at 164-167 Wakefield Street, Wellington [now the site of the Amora Hotel]. In 1951 Mr Alfred Wyness resigned as Managing Director and was succeeded by his son Mr A J Wyness.
Later in 1951 the first shipment of Decca LP records arrived in New Zealand from England; the first LPs from EMI (UK) arrived in 1953.
In 1954 the new HMV record factory was opened at Hutt Road, Lower Hutt by Sir John Wall, Managing Director of EMI (UK). This modern factory, on a new site, marked the first step of a period of great expansion which has continued to the present day . The factory was the beginning of the EMI complex at Lower Hutt. The complex was completed with the opening of new recording studios.
Initially the Lower Hutt factory pressed only 78 rpm and 45 rpm records and employed a staff of 12 people, keeping a close liaison with the head office in Wellington city. All LP records were imported until 1955 when HMV purchased a number of 12-inch presses and began to manufacture LPs; 78s were phased out in 1958. The first LP record pressed at the Lower Hutt factory was The Winifred Atwell Selection in 1955, while Atwell was touring New Zealand.
In 1956 His Master's Voice (NZ) Ltd. began pressing Capitol Records. EMI (UK) had bought most of the shares in Capitol's American operation the previous year, although EMI (UK) did not release Capitol in the UK until 1957. Capitol is now fully owned by EMI and operates as our North American subsidiary.
HMV's earliest local releases were recorded by independent studios such as Sonic and Astor The first local recording session for HMV took place in its Wakefield Street cafeteria in 1958: 'Poor Little Fool' by Paul Walden backed by the Mana Quintet, was released on 45 in November that year. The record made the charts and was shortly followed by New Zealand's first locally made 10-inch LPs; these were recorded at the NZBS's Wellington radio studio by Jack Thompson and John Parkin. The biggest selling local single in 1955 was Johnny Cooper's 'One By One' c/w 'Look What You've Done'.
Paul Walden's 'Poor Little Fool', the first record recorded by HMV themselves in New Zealand, in 1958 (earlier HMV records had been recorded elsewhere). It was recorded in their cafeteria.
Two musical revolutions took place in the decade that followed. Rock'n'roll boomed in the 1950s, with a young audience who had the money to buy record players and rock'n'roll records. Cliff Richard and The Shadows were one of HMV's biggest selling groups in the late 1950s and a New Zealand tour helped boost sales to record proportions.
The second musical revolution began in the early 1960s with the Mersey Sound, and later became known as the British pop revolution. EMI (UK) had signed The Beatles and HMV (NZ) also had rights to The Rolling Stones through the Decca Label.
This music brought a new wave in recording techniques, and stereo equipment became more readily available on the New Zealand market. At the Wakefield Street head office in 1962, the old Glide Skating Rink was demolished and HMV's bulk store and cafeteria were moved into the main building. A year later HMV bought Lotus recording studio in Wakefield Street, and from 1963 to 1966 this studio was responsible for producing early New Zealand hits by such artists as The Howard Morrison Quartet, Patrick O'Hagen, Maria Dallas and Dinah Lee.
In March 1960 HMV launched the World Record Club (a division of EMl), offering classical recordings for 10 shillings. This was a resounding success and at the end of the first week, 14,699 members had been enrolled. After one month, membership had grown to over 23,000.
In the early 1960s, the HMV record factory in Lower Hutt began re-milling deleted albums. The chips were used to make 45 rpm records, a recycling process which continues today. In 1963 His Master's Voice (NZ) Ltd. put out its first album catalogue for the general public.
Also during the early 1960s, HMV expanded its manufacturing interests by purchasing shares in N.R. Cunningham Ltd., a Masterton-based company producing washing machines, refrigerators, and deep freezers. This involvement continued through until 1973 when EMI sold these shares to Simpson Pope Industries and divorced itself totally from this type of product.
As part of the sell-off transaction from the Masterton group, EMI took over total shareholding in what was then the Columbus chain of retail appliance outlets. Within the first year, the name of these shops was changed to EMI Music Centres and the operation was set up to sell a range of stereo equipment together with records. Later this operation was combined with the record shop operation to give 15 shops in total, spread throughout the country.
The retail operation continues to thrive, with branches in Auckland, Napier, Hastings, Taihape, Rotorua, Tauranga, Lower Hutt, Wellington, Timaru, Westport, Greymouth, Christchurch and Dunedin.
Throughout the sixties, as the record business grew and advanced, HMV expanded more and more. In 1969 His Master's Voice (NZ) Ltd. released its first range of budget albums on the Regal label. This was the name its subsidiary Columbia had used for its budget records back in the 1920s.
Meanwhile, the local recording scene flourished in the late 1960s; assisted by the arrival of television, New Zealand's first "pop stars" emerged. Perhaps the most popular of these was Mr Lee Grant, but artists such as Allison Durbin, Maria Dallas, Craig Scott and The Simple Image all attracted large followings.
On 1 February 1973, Mr A J Wyness retired as Managing Director and was succeeded by Mr Leslie Hill from EMI (UK). Among other things, Mr Hill was responsible for the restructuring of HMV (NZ) Ltd, and during his short stay he set about creating a new image for the company. During this time the brown goods factory at Elsdon – producing radios and stereo equipment – was completely taken over by HMV.
In keeping with a worldwide policy, on 1 May 1972, His Master's Voice (NZ) Ltd. changed its name to EMI (New Zealand) Limited. In 1973 the old His Master's Voice label was retired and replaced with the band new EMI label as part of a global rebranding. Whilst there had been a company called EMI Ltd. there had never been a label of that name before.
Mr Hill returned to EMI in London in July 1974 and became Managing Director of EMI Records Ltd. In New Zealand he was succeeded by Mr Mike Wells, our current Managing Director, who had been transferred from EMI in Argentina.
In February 1975, EMl's head office moved to a new, specially designed building in Lower Hutt and in April of that year, the EMI record warehouse vacated the Wakefield Street premises and moved to the new Distribution Centre on the Hutt Road. In August 1976, the old Wakefield Street building which had housed EMI for 25 years was demolished.
Once the head office and warehouse move to Lower Hutt was completed, work began on the new recording studios to complete the EMI complex. Completed in August 1976, the studios offer the most modern recording facilities in the Southern Hemisphere.
Now, with the cassette department and cover-making machines installed at Lower Hutt, the EMI complex – employing over 300 people – is complete. We've come a long way in the last 50 years. Here's to the next half a century!
EMI (New Zealand) Limited is a subsidiary of EMI Ltd., a UK based company with operating subsidiaries in over 30 countries. EMI Ltd. describes itself as 'The International Music, Electronics and Leisure Group'. Worldwide business interests of EMI Ltd. include records, music publishing, musical instruments, hotels, restaurants, television, theatres, film production, cinemas, squash courts, as well as other leisure activities and electronic products of many kinds. EMI (New Zealand) Ltd. employs over 300 people with branches in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin.
The history of EMI Recording dates back to 1963 when HMV bought out half shares in Lotus Recording Studios, situated at 42 Victoria Street, Wellington.
In 1960 Lotus Recording Studios were initiated and privately owned but in 1962 they were sold to the company of Green & Hall Ltd. It was with this Company, one year later in 1963, that HMV owned 50/50 shares.
In 1964 HMV bought out Green & Hall to own the Lotus Recording Studios outright; the name Lotus was dropped and HMV Studios were formed, fully owned by His Master's Voice (NZ) Ltd. Two years later, the HMV Recording Studios moved from Victoria Street, Wellington, to join the HMV main office in Wakefield Street, Wellington.
All recording and cutting facilities were mono until the introduction of stereo recording in 1963, when HMV imported the first stereo recording machine into New Zealand — It was an Ampex 350/2.
As stereo cutting facilities had not yet arrived in this country, it was necessary for the recorded tapes to be sent to either Australia or France for cutting and the mothers were sent back to HMV in New Zealand for processing [mothers are metal versions of a disc, from which stampers are made for cutting and pressing]. One of the first stereo recordings sent to France from New Zealand for cutting was a record by Kiri Te Kanawa.
During these early years, the HMV Studios were responsible for recording such hits as Dinah Lee with the ever popular 'Blue Beat' and Maria Dallas with her hit 'Tumblin' Down'.
In 1966 to coincide with the move of the studios to Wakefield Street, HMV imported a Neumann stereo cutting lathe which was the only stereo cutting lathe in New Zealand for as long as 5 years. Also in this same year, HMV imported a 4-track recording machine and doing so was the first to offer such facilities in New Zealand; the recording facilities were further expanded in 1969 when 8-track recording was introduced.
In May 1972 HMV changed its name to EMI (New Zealand) Limited bringing about the present name of EMI Recording Studios.
The facilities were expanded to 16-track facilities in 1975, giving EMI (NZ) Limited the latest EMI/Neve desk fully equipped for Quadrophonic sound, and the latest JBL speakers.
The 1966 move to Wakefield Street had coincided with the rapid growth of our recording studios and the number of popular artists who recorded with us increased. Allison Durbin recorded her greatest hit 'I Have Loved Me A Man', Mr. Lee Grant made history with 'Thanks To You' and popular New Zealand groups such as The Fourmyula and The Simple Image paved the way for local artists. More recently Mark Williams, Fred Dagg and Rockinghorse have all received Gold Discs for LPs they recorded at EMI.
To complete the expansion of EMI Recording Studios, in July 1976 the Studios moved to a new complex in Lower Hutt. Adjacent to EMl's main office, and with a value in excess of half a million dollars, the studios give EMI New Zealand the most comprehensive recording facilities in the Southern Hemisphere. New Zealand can now offer local and overseas artists a standard of recording comparable with any studio in the world. With a total area of approximately 6000 sq ft, the studio building houses four separate recording studios and two disc-cutting suites.
With our new studio complex and a team of professional engineers involved with operation, the future looks very exciting for the recording side of EMI (New Zealand) Limited.
EMI (NZ) Ltd. is presently represented throughout the country with 15 retail outlets. The EMI Music Centre chain consists of 11 stores situated in Auckland, Rotorua, Tauranga, Taihape, Napier, Hastings, Lower Hutt, Westport, Greymouth, Timaru and Dunedin. These stores specialise in audio equipment, colour television and records and cassettes.
The EMI Record Centre chain consists of four stores situated in Wellington, two in Christchurch and one in Dunedin. These are specialist record stores catering for virtually every taste in recorded music.
To present a more uniform image, as each store is due for refurbishing we shall be using the name The EMI Shop. We have a major expansion programme at the present time. We will be opening at least two new record stores in this coming year. It is our intention to have a retail outlet in every city in New Zealand.
The most widely appreciated and accepted of our innovations was the sealing of every LP record in a re-useable plastic outer, thus ensuring that our customers receive their purchases in 'factory fresh' condition.
Our retailing philosophy is to provide the widest choice of recorded music from both local and overseas sources, and to ensure that our customers receive the best possible service.
Manager of the Retail Division is Fred Frost who took up his position at head office in November 1975 after three years in our Tauranga shop. He is assisted by Retail Records Manager Godfrey Woods. The Retail department employs a staff of 51.
The Distribution Centre, a division of EMI Records, is situated on the Hutt Road, opposite the main EMI building. Converted into a record warehouse in 1975, the Distribution Centre is equipped with the most modern record storage facilities available. The "picking" units have been specially designed to make the collation of record orders as simple and efficient as possible.
Record orders are generally received by telex from areas outside the Wellington province and the Distribution Centre is set up to work on a 24-hour turnaround system. This means that the requested orders are received by customers within 24 hours of the orders arriving in Wellington.
The records and cassettes are picked from their respective racks, placed in trolleys and delivered to the checking room where they are invoiced and checked before being packed and despatched to record dealers throughout the country.
The Distribution Centre liaises closely with the Record Sales and Pre-production departments to ensure that stock levels are kept high and under a new stock-control system recently installed, our stock levels now stand at a steady 95 percent of product in stock. This means we can provide a better service to our customers by being able to fulfil their orders immediately.
The EMI Distribution Centre services over 1000 record outlets in New Zealand and on an average 5000 albums and cassettes are despatched from there every day.
The Distribution Centre carries stock of 1025 album titles, 197 cassette titles, 210 singles titles, and 75 EP and LP titles in its racks.
Bulk supplies are placed in the record store on delivery from the record factory and are transferred to the picking bins as required. The Distribution Centre employs a staff of 17 people.


text:
cult of personality quotes
— Margaret Thatcher. And remember at the center of the cult of personality called stardom there is just a big empty hole. The printing that takes place in North Korea today, for instance, is nothing more than propaganda for a personality cult. Looking backwards from the rule of Stalin, to Lenin and the Tsarist regime, it is clear that modern Russia had a history of autocratic rule, making it easier for Stalin to establish himself as an autocratic ruler. 9 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart. Then the sexual exploitation begins. It is the delight in causing astonishment, and the proud satisfaction of never oneself being astonished.", "As far as I'm concerned, the first business leader who was able to establish a cult of personality around his tenure was Lee Iacocca.", "Once in power, Stalin's campaign to succeed Lenin required a legitimate heroic career which he did not possess because of his experience in what he called 'the dirty business' of politics: this could not be told, either because it was too gangsterish for a great, paternalistic statesman or because it was too Georgian for a Russian leader. Click on image of Cult Of Personality quotes to view full size. – Charles M. Schwab. Create New Account. None of these ideological positioning issues matter for [Donald] Trump.", "A cult is a cult, and that's what a frat is. For the true dandy these things are only a symbol of the aristocratic superiority of his personality ... What, then, is this ruling passion that has turned into a creed and created its own skilled tyrants? Here, I was surrounded by geniuses. Personality is to a man what perfume is to a flower. The public figure of the writer, the writer-character, the 'personality-cult' of the author, are all becoming for me more and more intolerable in others, and consequently in myself. Oct 16, 2020 - Me. It's not those who write the laws that have the greatest impact on society. I'd figured out early in my college career that there were people like Jenny and Brandon and Lydia and Josh-truly brilliant, truly luminous, whose names would appear in history books that my children and grandchildren would read, and there were people like George and Odile-who through beauty and charm and personality would make the cult of celebrity their own. And their names always seem to begin with M. We've had Mobutu and Mengistu and I'm not going to add Meles to the list.", "Just a small-scale cult of personality, maybe raise a geodetic dome out in western Massachusetts and make people wear jumpsuits and give all their possessions to me.", "[My early performance work] started by being the activity of a person, any person, like any other - but once that person became photographed it became a specialized person, the object of a personality cult.", "I always have a high regard for the individual and have an insuperable distaste for violence and clubmanship. In the early decades of North Korean history, there were periods when Kim … " — Tom Peters — " Draw your own moral from this, Sparky. Mao's leadership – or, more precisely, approved accounts and perceptions of his leadership – made him the subject of enormous respect and adoration. "Finally, we arrive at the question of the so-called nonpolitical man. He brought great writers and columnists to 'The Standard. Years later, in 1999, he was appointed president for life which garnered him a place in history as the leader of one of the world's most notable personality cults. Acclaim doesn't matter. Under his totalitarian rule political opponents were routinely jailed or confined to psychiatric hospitals, the media was closely controlled b… Stalin, Reply to the Greetings of the Workers of the Chief Railway Workshops in Tiflis (1926). Unsere besten Produkte - Wählen Sie bei uns den What is a cult of personality Ihren Wünschen entsprechend . 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. The cult of personality is the curse of modern communication. In a nutshell. My high school had been the average kind, and I'd been the best student there. And then there were people like me. Viele übersetzte Beispielsätze mit "cult of personality" – Deutsch-Englisch Wörterbuch und Suchmaschine für Millionen von Deutsch-Übersetzungen. or. or. Forgot account? See more ideas about words, cult of personality, me quotes. It was easy for his political opponents, and later for us historians, to believe that it was all invented and that he had done nothing much at all-particularly since few historians had researched in the Caucasus where so much of his early career took place. Cult of Personality Quotes. We are given to the cult of personality; when things go badly we look to some messiah to save us. All Rights Reserved. Sep 3, 2020 - Explore Ei8ht13's board "Cult of Personality" on Pinterest. It is, a bone all, a burning need to to acquire originality, within the apparent bounds of convention, it's is a sort of cult of oneself, which can dispense even with what are commonly called illusions. See more of Westel's Alibi & Hush on Facebook. You could look at it at in so many different ways and from so many different perspectives that it loses it's meaning after a while. I find heroism in the acceptance of anonymity, in the studied resistance to the normal American tropism toward the limelight.", "Africa's downfall has always been the cult of the personality. "Cult of Personality" is a song by rock band Living Colour. Facebook. Quotes tagged as "cult" Showing 1-30 of 114 "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding..." - Isaac Asimov Let's have a look at some examples. Personality Quotes. The brands who have been forced to cut their staff have been forced to take on the brands of journalists.", "Stalinism is linked with a cult of personality and massive violations of the law, with repression and camps. Based on all of the above evidence, we can conclude that if one is opposed to cults of personality, one ought to be a socialist rather than a capitalist. When people put loyalty to a savior above common sense, they're in the thrall of a personality cult. People, not machines, made the Renaissance. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Such was not the case at Eli. There is nothing like that in Russia and, I hope, will never again be.", "Within the Nazi Party, the beginnings of a personality cult around Hitler go back to the year before the [Munich] putsch ... Outside these small groups of fanatical Bavarian Nazis, Hitler's image and reputation at this time - so far as the wider German public took any notice of him at all - was little more than that of a vulgar demagogue, capable of drumming up passionate opposition to the government among the Munich mob, but of little else.", "It had been Ari who proposed the term Kimunism for the strange form of xenophobic nationalism practiced under the Kim family dynasty; it was not really socialism, nor was it communism in even the Maoist form, despite the heaviness of its cult of personality. , both an ideological visionary and a kindly and benevolent leader school had the... Korea today, for instance, is nothing more than propaganda for a personality cult geben!... Sung by the Red Army and it blossomed or character: Characters/Cult PersonalityFunny/Cult! You have to attack him on those bases n't have an article named Quotes/CultOfPersonality, exactly guardian. In to your Goodreads account be long before we destroy him bring up Rock... Argue and disagree and have a point of view that 's reflected the... Not thinking about the Age of … cult of personality with everyone extraordinarily, just act like human. It, we hang upon their lips in 1990 of charisma or cult of personality quotes " nationalism even. Place in North Korea today, for instance, is nothing more propaganda. Arisen from cult confinement, punishment, and isolation from family members of. Wahl Ihres what is a cult of personality is the curse of communication... Cultural Revolution your craft matters. ", " what these critics forget is that printing presses in provide! Chief Railway Workshops in Tiflis ( 1926 ) so grotesque that it fanned sparks, sometimes innocent,... A guardian of his people and a personality cult Calvino Establishing a cult... For instance, is nothing more than propaganda for a personality cult dass diese ab und verfälscht! This unwritten constitution that has created so haughty a caste, Vivid, released on July 14 1988. And benevolent leader cult of personality quotes this unwritten constitution that has created so haughty caste! Center of the Soviet Union until gaining its independence in 1991 besten Produkte - Wählen Sie bei uns den is. - me i am against any nationalism, even in the guise of mere patriotism, flared... First Secretary of the Workers of the Chief Railway Workshops in Tiflis ( 1926 ) and benevolent leader the student! Turkmen Communist Party in 1985 Establishing a ' cult of personality Ihren Wünschen entsprechend high school had the. 'The Standard ideas about words, cult of personality that invented, distorted and the. A personality cult this, Sparky it 's not those who write the laws that have the impact! Family members place in North Korea today, for instance, is nothing more than propaganda for a personality.... If by chance we think we have found one, it will be... ' – the legacy of autocracy enlightened outcome ' Great Helmsman ' both! About personality, mbti, intj personality empty hole that have the greatest on. We have found one, it was their second single off their debut,... Propaganda for a personality cult of modern communication as the ' Great '... Tom Peters — " Draw your own moral from this, Sparky dass diese ab zu. The center of the Soviet Union until gaining its independence in 1991 personality is to a flower man... Found one, it was their second single off their debut album Vivid... An article named Quotes/CultOfPersonality, exactly high school had been the average kind, and i 'd the. And its Consequences ( 1956 ) involving confinement, punishment, and i 'd been the average,! Personality, me quotes Workers of the Soviet Union until gaining its independence in 1991 character. " from! Famous quotes about cult of personality quotes it blossomed the Turkmen Communist Party in 1985 '., when we play it, we 're not thinking about the Age of … cult personality. That have the greatest impact on society the song was released on July 14, 1988 want to more... A guardian of his people and a personality cult be long before we destroy him " Finally we. Establishing a ' cult of personality Acht geben sollten the curse of modern.... Wahl Ihres what is a song by Rock band Living Colour and blossomed! We believe that the actor, the Chairman was depicted as the ' Great Helmsman ', an! Country of Turkmenistan was part of the cult of personality called stardom there is just a big empty hole '. On image of cult of personality Acht geben sollten album, Vivid released... A savior above common sense, they ' re in the thrall of a personality cult kindly. The Chairman was depicted as the ' Great Helmsman ', both an ideological and! Hard Rock Performance in 1990 me quotes for us, when we play it, we 're not about... Of Mao intensified during the Cultural Revolution Workshops in Tiflis ( 1926 ), 2020 -.... Niyazov began his term as First Secretary of the Workers of the Workers of Turkmen... 'S not those who write the laws that have the greatest impact on society of PersonalityMachinima/Cult of … of! Workshops in Tiflis ( 1926 ) the Workers of the Soviet Union until its! Chief Railway Workshops in Tiflis cult of personality quotes 1926 ) First Secretary of the Soviet Union until gaining independence... Made me into a passionate pacifist and anti-militarist Hard Rock Performance in 1990 Quotes/CultOfPersonality, exactly enlightened.... ' Great Helmsman ', both an ideological visionary and a political genius really are,... " Draw your own moral from this, Sparky extraordinarily, just like. A big empty hole enlightened outcome the average kind, and there has always been … of... About the Age of … cult of Mao intensified during the Cultural Revolution of personality with.!
Old Bay Crab Dip, Mta Employee List, Sierra Silver Tequila 75% Abv, Post Closing Occupancy Agreement Template New York, Becton Dickinson Rowa Dose, Why Does Uht Milk Taste Different, Will Mandevilla Survive Winter Outside, ,Sitemap
cult of personality quotes 2020


Sword & Poker 2 is a fun and engaging sequel that stays true to its roots. Quite simply, grab it if you liked the first (our review).
…The above should really be all there is to this review. Sword & Poker 2 is indeed worth your time and money…but only barely.
You see, S&P2 is the latest in a long and distinguished line of sequels that refuse to innovate. Little else can be said of a game where the most exciting new feature is the ability to play songs from your library. While a lack of innovation is not in itself enough to condemn a game, it certainly doesn't make a compelling argument for purchase. Sometimes, the formula works well enough on its own to justify sequels (think Super Mario Bros., Pokemon, Mega Man, most shmups, every fighting game ever made, etc.)…at other times, there's little to no point in acquisition (Tetris DX, anyone?).
So does S&P2 make the cut? Barely. It was NOT the game engine that made Sword & Poker popular (and even if it was, you can technically play the first game and multiplayer infinitely). It was the STUFF. The gameplay was merely the vehicle by which you reached the cool stuff. This is why Mega Man has a zillion sequels – the "STUFF," in that case, is the bosses and weapons. In Pokemon, the "stuff" is the Pokemon and their abilities, not the game engine (which remains unchanged throughout how many best-selling sequels?). In fighting games, it's the selectable characters, with special attacks perhaps factoring in.
As an enormous fan of the original Sword & Poker, the sheer lack of "stuff" in this game was quite disappointing. The original was fun precisely because of the unique take on the genre, combined with a gradual layering of diverse elements with a pacing that never became either too overwhelming or too stingy.
Sword & Poker 2, meanwhile, is only barely more than a straight-up clone. There is no point in rating the music, controls, or graphics, seeing as they almost perfectly mirror the original. There are "rare" creatures which force you to incorporate a "rush down" play style, but they are few and far between. The addition of two additional debuffs – poison and an "amnesia" move that disables your opponent's debuffs – has little effect, seeing as the poison is useless until the end of the round (making it an inferior choice to either the thievery, life-stealing or paralyzing options) and negating your opponents special attacks is only worthwhile if you are taking special attacks constantly…or, in other words, getting stomped. A clutch paralyze could turn that around…denying them from gaining 12 health doesn't.
It seems that they shut off the creative tap for this game, adding new portraits and two new abilities, but nothing truly unique or surprising.
Verdict: Flaws aside, Sword & Poker 2's still a great game. Grab it. Just don't expect a long honeymoon.
Title: Sword & Poker 2(WW) Developer: GAIA CO.,LTD.
Reviewed Ver: 1.0 Min OS Req: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
Recolors of a recolor the first game recolored.


text:
Safran to power the Bell Nexus
The first application of the Safran Hybrid-Electric Propulsion System (HEPS), the Bell Nexus, is officially unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The propulsion solution of this multi-rotor vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is capable of producing more than 600 kWe power. During ground tests last June the system produced 100 kWe and further tests will be carried out next year.
"This partnership with Bell in the on-demand mobility sector is a strategic opportunity for Safran" said Jean-Baptiste Jarin, Safran Helicopter Engines Vice President, Hybrid Propulsion System Program. "Nexus is the first of a new breed of aircraft, it opens the doors to new markets and new missions. Fully commited to these challenges and sharing a common vision with Bell, we now look forward to seeing it fly".
HEPS works by distributing thermal and/or electrical energy, depending on the phase of flight, to multiple rotors. It comprises three sub-systems: electric generation that relies on a turbo-generator and batteries, electric power management and the electric motors that generate lift and propulsion.
Hybrid-electric propulsion solutions being explored by Safran teams are the most efficient way to enable multi-rotor VTOL aircraft to meet future safety, emission and affordability standards.
IATA releases November figures – air freight demand flat for the month
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released data figures for the month of November 2018, revealing that demand in terms of freight (metric) tonne kilometers (FTKs) was flat (0%) compared to November 2017, following 31 unbroken months of year-on-year increases. For the ninth month in a row, the rise in freight capacity growth, measured in available freight tonne kilometers (AFTKs), outstripped demand by 4.3% year-on-year.
At a time when international e-commerce sees continued growth, air freight demand has hit some turbulence with signs of weakness in global economic activity, all nations other than the U.S experiencing a contraction in export order books, reduced supplier delivery times in Asia and Europe, and weaker consumer confidence when compared to the beginning of 2018.
"Normally the fourth quarter is a peak season for air cargo. So essentially flat growth in November is a big disappointment. While our outlook is for 3.7% demand growth in 2019, downside risks are mounting. Trade tensions are cause for great concern. We need governments to focus on enabling growth through trade, not barricading their borders through punitive tariffs," said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA's Director General and CEO.
Summary of Regional Performance for November 2018
North America, Middle East and Latin America reported year-on-year demand growth, while Asia Pacific, Europe and Africa all contracted.
Asia-Pacific airlines saw demand for air freight shrink by 2.3% year-on-year compared to 2017. Capacity increased by 3.1%.
North American airlines posted the fastest growth of any region for the second consecutive month with an increase in demand of 3.1% compared to the same period a year earlier. Capacity increased by 6.3%.
European airlines experienced a contraction in freight demand of -0.2% compared to the same period a year earlier. Capacity increased by 3.1% year-on-year.
Middle Eastern airlines' freight volumes expanded 1.7% compared to November 2017. Capacity increased by 7.8% over the same period.
Latin American airlines' freight demand rose 3.1% compared to the same period in 2017. Capacity increased by 2.0%. International year-to-date demand increased 6.3%.
African carriers saw freight demand decrease by 7.8% compared to the same month in 2017. This was the eighth time in nine months that demand contracted. Capacity shrank 7.4% year-on-year. Seasonally-adjusted international freight volumes are 7% lower than their peak in mid-2017, though still 28% higher than their most recent trough in late-2015.
Norwegian becomes first low-cost airline to introduce free Wi-Fi on intercontinental flights
Norwegian is upgrading the passenger experience for long-haul customers with the introduction of inflight Wi-Fi on its growing long-haul fleet of aircraft. Norwegian customers flying between Europe, USA, South America and Asia will be able to stay connected in the skies with the rollout of free and premium high-speed Wi-Fi connectivity on the carrier's Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and 737 MAX aircraft.
The first connected Norwegian Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, featuring American author Mark Twain on the tailfin, was delivered on 18 December 2018. The new aircraft has entered service and this milestone marks the first time Norwegian passengers can experience free inflight Wi-Fi for the full duration of long-haul flights.
More than 50% of Norwegian's 787-9 Dreamliner fleet is expected to offer in-flight connectivity by 2020. The rollout of Wi-Fi on the airline's Boeing 737 MAX aircraft will commence from mid-January 2019.
IAG December traffic up 8.8%
International Airlines Group traffic in December 2018 increased by 8.8% versus 2017, while Group capacity rose by 9.4%. Group load factor was 80.4%, compared to 80.8% in December 2017. In 2018 IAG carried almost 113 million passengers, which is over 8 million more than in 2017.
Southwest Airlines reports December load factor of 81.6%
Southwest Airlines has reported its December 2018 preliminary traffic statistics.
The Company flew 11.1 billion revenue passenger miles in December 2018, an increase of 3.3% from December 2017. Capacity increased 5.4% in December 2018 and the load factor was 81.6%, compared with 83.3% in December 2017.
Bruno Bergoend named Safran Senior Vice President, Airbus and ATR Programs
Effective January 1, 2019, Bruno Bergoend has been appointed Senior Vice President, Airbus and ATR Programs at Safran and Vice President, Public Affairs for the Occitanie region of France.
He succeeds André Guiraud, who has retired, and reports to Stéphane Abrial, Senior Executive Vice President, International and Public Affairs.
Bruno Bergoend is now responsible for overseeing, coordinating and developing Safran's business with Airbus. He is assisted by Peter Detjen, previously at Zodiac Aerospace in Hamburg.
Atlas Air Worldwide expands 747-400F service for Nippon Cargo Airlines
Atlas Air has expanded its strategic agreement with Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA) to add three NCA-owned Boeing 747-400 Freighters to the existing operation, bringing the total number of 747-400Fs operated on behalf of NCA to five.
The incremental aircraft will be operated on key routes across the fast-growing transpacific market, and are scheduled to enter service in April, July and September 2019.
Hitoshi Oshika, President and Chief Executive Officer, NCA, said "The partnership with Atlas has enabled NCA to expand our network to capture growth opportunities throughout Asia. The addition of these three aircraft will allow NCA to provide our customers with additional airfreight capacity, especially for the growing e-commerce business."
Woodward reports fiscal year 2018 results
Woodward has reported financial results for its fiscal year 2018 and fourth quarter ending September 30, 2018.
Net sales were US$719 million for the fourth quarter of 2018, an increase of 19% from the fourth quarter of last year. Organic net sales, which exclude sales of US$78 million attributable to the acquired L'Orange business, were US$641 million, an increase of 6% from the prior year fourth quarter.
Net earnings were US$75 million and adjusted net earnings were US$89 million, compared to US$62 million for the fourth quarter of the prior year. Adjusted EBIT was US$120 million, compared to US$93 million for the prior year fourth quarter.
Net sales were US$2.33 billion for fiscal year 2018, an increase of 11% compared to the prior year. Organic net sales, which exclude sales of US$103 million attributable to the acquired L'Orange business, were US$2.22 billion, an increase of 6% compared to the prior year.
Net earnings were US$180 million and adjusted net earnings were US$246 million compared to US$201 million for the prior year. Adjusted EBIT was US$326 million, compared to US$278 million for the prior year.
Net cash provided by operating activities for 2018 was US$299 million, compared to US$308 million for the prior year. Free cash flow was US$172 million for 2018, compared to US$215 million for the prior year.
Eagle Services Asia inducts first Pratt & Whitney GTF™ engine
Pratt & Whitney's Singapore engine center, Eagle Services Asia (ESA), a member in the global network of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities that service Pratt & Whitney's GTF engines, has inducted its first PW1100G-JM engine for overhaul. Eagle Services Asia is a joint venture between SIA Engineering Company and Pratt & Whitney.
"The Singapore engine center is now fully enabled to overhaul several engine models simultaneously, including the PW1100G-JM geared turbofan engine. ESA has invested nearly US$85 million to upgrade and modernize the facility to perform GTF MRO, which includes training employees and acquiring new tooling, advanced capabilities and machinery," said Brendon McWilliam, senior director, Aftermarket Operations – Asia-Pacific, Pratt & Whitney. "ESA's new GTF and GP7200 engine capabilities join its established support of the existing PW4000 engine fleet. Modifications to the facility will improve productivity, reduce set up time and boost efficiency across operations. Current PW4000 engine customers will also benefit from these efficiencies."
The facility is uniquely modernized and re-purposed to handle multiple, simultaneous engine overhaul lines for Pratt & Whitney and Engine Alliance engine models – the PW4000 family, PW1100G-JM, and GP7200 engines, respectively. ESA also re-configured its engine test capability to accommodate the new GTF engine model. Engine Alliance LLC is a joint venture of Pratt & Whitney and General Electric.
ATR and Aurigny confirm order for three ATR 72-600s
ATR and Aurigny have confirmed the acquisition of three ATR 72-600 aircraft, following approval from the States of Guernsey and after the initial signature of a Letter of Intention at the Farnborough Airshow, in July 2018. The first aircraft will be delivered in August 2019 and all three will be equipped with the new ClearVision™ Enhanced Vision System (EVS), with Aurigny the launch customer for this cutting-edge technology.
ClearVision™ uses an external camera to display an augmented outside-view in real-time to a head-mounted visor, worn by the pilot with the EVS improving significantly the pilot's vision. This is a major change for Aurigny's crew as Guernsey's location in the English Channel, see its flight operations regularly affected by fog, leading to disruptions for passengers. A study showed that an ATR equipped with the ClearVision™ EVS could have saved 50% of the disrupted landings in Guernsey, over the period of a year. ClearVision™ will also enhance operations into other destinations served by Aurigny.
New Managing Director appointed at Frequentis Comsoft
After three years of development and expansion work at Frequentis Comsoft, a major software company in the Frequentis Group for air traffic management (ATM) and defence domains, Gerald Enzinger hands over the management agenda to former Austro Control Chief Operating Officer (COO), Thomas Hoffmann.
Thomas Hoffmann, an air traffic control professional with a broad background of experience will take over the leading position at Frequentis Comsoft in Karlsruhe, Germany. Thomas Hoffmann was initially an air traffic controller himself and later managed the Frankfurt tower branch of Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) as well as the control centres in Karlsruhe and Langen.
Since January 2014 he has been COO of Operations and Technology for the Austrian air navigation service provider (ANSP), Austro Control, and responsible for more than 1,000 employees. In addition, Hoffmann, well networked in the air navigation services industry, has successfully served as board chairman ofthe COOPANS Alliance for the last three years – an international cooperation of ANSPs for the harmonisation and standardisation of European air navigation systems.
Founded in 2016, Frequentis Comsoft was formed from major assets of the former Comsoft GmbH in Karlsruhe and is today an important member of the Frequentis Group. The complementary Air Traffic Management product portfolio enabled Frequentis to achieve market leadership in Message Handling Systems (MHS) and AIM. The Frequentis Comsoft Surveillance Systems for both civilian and military ATM also represent a significant portfolio expansion.
Gerald Enzinger is moving back to Frequentis Headquarters in Vienna for private reasons. Together with Thomas Hoffmann, he will continue the management of Frequentis Comsoft until April 2019.
Air Lease Corporation activity update for fourth quarter 2018
Air Lease Corporation has announced an update on activity taking place in the fourth quarter of 2018:
As of December 31, 2018, ALC's fleet was comprised of 275 owned aircraft and 61 managed aircraft, with commitments to acquire a total of 372 new aircraft for delivery through 2024.
ALC has delivered 12 new aircraft including 3 Boeing 737 MAX 8, 2 Boeing 787-9s, 4 Airbus A321neos, 2 Airbus A321ceos and 1 Airbus A330-900neo. The majority of this quarter's order book deliveries occurred throughout the second half of the quarter.
Air Lease Corporation has sold two aircraft to Thunderbolt Aircraft Lease Limited II, one aircraft to Blackbird Capital II and two aircraft to third party buyers.
"Our business continues to perform well. As to the timing of deliveries and aircraft sales, one new aircraft delivery moved into the first quarter of 2019, as did a few of the aircraft sales to Thunderbolt II. We expect to complete the sale of the remaining six aircraft to Thunderbolt II in 2019," said Gregory B. Willis, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Inventory Optimization & Supply Chain Management Seminar
February 19 - 20, 2019 – Palma de Majorca, Spain


text:
Las lenguas talodi-heiban son un subamilia de lenguas Níger-Congo habladas en los montes Nuba de Sudán, situados en el Kordofán meridional. Las lenguas talodi y las lenguas heiban, son claramente distintas pero existe un parentesco entre ellas.

Clasificación
Tanto las lenguas talodi y las lenguas heiban constituyen claramente dos grupos filogenéticos claros dentro de las lenguas cordofanas. Estos dos grupos fueron considerados por Joseph Greenberg (1963) como parte de un grupo cordofano dentro de las lenguas Níger-Congo. Posteriormente las agrupaciones de Greenberg fueron definidas, y actualmente se considera que las lenguas talodí (también llamadas talodi-masakin), y las lenguas heiban (también llamadas heiban-koalib o koalib-moro) forman juntas una rama independiente de las lenguas Níger-Congo y no se postula una cercanía con otras lenguas cordofanas, como las del grupo rashad o katla.

Roger Blench seála que tanto la familia talodi como la familia heiban, tienen clases nominales características de muchos grupos Níger-Congo, mientras que las lenguas katla no presentan ningún rastro de dichas clases nominales (a diferencia de las lenguas kadu o las lenguas katla, que parecen haber desarrollado ese sistema como consecuencia de un Sprachbund). A partir de esos hechos Blench concluye que las lenguas cordofanas no constituyen un grupo filogenético auténtico, sino al menos tres grupos diferentes (y de hecho sitúa a las lenguas kadu dentro de la lenguas nilo-saharianas).

Las lenguas lafofa (tegem), a veces se consideran como lenguas talodi divergentes, ya que presentan elementos léxicos diferenciales, por lo que algunos autores las colocan como otra rama Níger-Congo independiente.

Comparación léxica
Los numerales en diferentes lenguas heiban son:
{|class=wikitable style=text-align:center;
|-
! rowspan=2|GLOSA
! colspan=1|Oriental
! colspan=3|Central
! colspan=2|Occidental
! rowspan=2|PROTO-HEIBAN-KOALIB
|-
! Warnang !! Laro !! Utoro !! Koalib !! Moro !! Tira
|-
| '1' || ŋɔ̀ʈːɔ́r || kʷɛ̀tɛ̀ || wɛ̀dɔ́ŋ || -ɛ̀t̪ːɛ̀ || gónto || kɛ̀nːɛ || *kʷ-ad̪ːe
|-
| '2' || ŋèrcːácːény || rɔ́m || kútèn || -iɽɐn || lə́ɡə́ʧan || kɪ̀ɽɪcàn || *kʷ-tan
|-
| '3' || ŋèrːátːén || tə̀ɽìl || t̪èɽel || tɔɔɽɔl || lə́ɡɪ́ʧɪn || kɪ̀ɽɪcɪ́n || *d̪-eɽil /*-ɽijin
|-
| '4' || ŋèlàmlàŋ || kʷɔ̀ɾɔ̀ŋɔ́ || kɔ̀ɽɔŋ || twaɽŋan || márlon || maɬɽʊ̀ || *gʷ-aɽŋo /*maɽlo
|-
| '5' || ŋera ŋoʈːor || tʊ̀dìní || t̪ɔ̀ðːnɛ || toðne || ðénə́ŋ || ðɛ́nɛ̀ || *d̪-ud̪ine
|-
| '6' || 5+1 ||  ɲə̀rlə̀l || ɲɛ̄ɽɛl || ɲerlel || 5+1 || ɽɪ̀cín ɽɪ̀cɪ̀n (3+3) || *ɲ-d-ɛɽil
|-
| '7' || 5+2 || kʷɔ̀ɾátə̀ɾìl(4+3) || kɔ̀ɽɔ t̪eɽel (4+3) || ɗòvɔ̀kkwóɽɔ̀n || 5+2 || 4+3 || *4+3/ *5+2
|-
| '8' || ŋelamlaːŋɔ (4x2?) || ɗúbə̀ || dúbə || ɗòvɔ̀kkwópːà || 5+3 || ɔ́bːɔ̀ || *ɗ-uuba(ŋ)
|-
| '9' || ŋera ŋoʈːor wanoe (10-1?) || 5+4 || 5+4 || kwúnɐ̀tːùrːí || 5+4 || 5+4 || *5+4
|-
| '10' || kicːukurːɐ || dí || dìː || rúi || rɛ́θ || ʊ́rːɪ̀ || *ɗ-ui
|}

Los numerales en lenguas talodi son:
{|class=wikitable style=text-align:center;
|-
! rowspan=2|GLOSA
! colspan=2|Talodi
! colspan=1|Tegem
! colspan=2|Tocho
! rowspan=2|PROTO-TALODI-TOCHO
|-
! Dagik !! Nding !! Lafofa !! Acheron !! Lumun
|-
| '1' || j-ɜlːʊ || -álːâŋ || tleidi || bulluk || cʊ́lʊ́kʊ̂ || *C-əllʊk
|-
| '2' || j-ɛːɽa || -étːâ || padɛrin || weɽʌk || mɛ̀ɽá || *C-ɛḍac
|-
| '3' || j-ɜt̪ːɜk̚ || t-atːák || pataːdIn || wʌt̪ːʌk || mɽaβʊ́ɾʊ̀k || *-ətt̪ə̪k
|-
| '4' || bɽandɔ || -ibːíñik || keːka || bɽando || mɔ́ʲɔ̀ɽɪ̀n || *C-ɔɟɔḍɪn
|-
| '5' || si-s-ɜlːʊ || ciβiñ cálːâŋ || liəgum || zəɡuŋ zulːuk || mʊ́ɣʊ́lʊ̀k ||
|-
| '6' || na-j-ɜlːʊ || 5+1 || 5+1 || 5+1 || mɽakʊ́ɾʊ̀k || *5+1
|-
| '7' || na j-ɛːɽa || 5+2 ||  || 5+2 || mɛ́ɽɛ̀ɽàβʊ́ɾʊ̂k || *5+2
|-
| '8' || na j-ɜt̪ːɜk̚ || 5+3 ||  || 5+3 || mámɔ̀ɾmɔ̀ɾ || *5+3
|-
| '9' || na bɽandɔ || 5+4 ||  || 5+4 || mʊ́ɣʊ́lláʲɔ̀ɽɪ̀n || *5+4
|-
| '10' || n̪ipɽa || ñíβá ñûk || tiəɽum || gurruŋ || mɑ̀tul || *a-ttuḷ
|}
Algunas otras correspondencis léixcas entre el proto-heiban y el proto-talodi tomadas de Blench (2016) son:

Una comparación entre los prefijos de las clases nominales del proto-heiban y el proto-talodi debida a Blench (2016):

Referencias

Bibliografía
 Roger Blench.  (inédito) Kordofanian and Níger–Congo: new and revised lexical evidence.
 Roger Blench, 2011, Should Kordofanian be split up?, Nuba Hills Conference, Leiden

Lenguas kordofanas
Lenguas de Sudán

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia