Your editorial "Voters must demand action on climate change" (Oct.18) is poignantly true on the need for government action.
But is it hopeless with narrow-thinking provincial governments and a prevailing ethos of "putting more money in your pocket".
We seem to be in a slide towards ruin of our common life support systems by a money-and-consumer culture that will not face the greatest man-made ecological crisis in human history. As the rich become obscenely richer and the majority become less secure in their livelihoods, business-led societies seem incapable of life-coherent direction.
The most directly effective public policy of longstanding test and success has not even been mentioned – rationing consumption to life need. Food demand itself has been brought down by 25% with no loss of health of citizens, and health gain by the removal of excess and waste.
War-time rations have in fact worked cross the world, and we are now in a war for planetary survival against the monumental excess and waste of fossil fuels and carbon pollution destabilizing climates and hydrological cycles. The UN's latest scientific report you refer to sounds the alarm of a closing time-window of 12 years for remedial reduction of carbon pollution before it puts most of the world's life into unstoppable weather destabilization, forest fires and oceanic flooding.
It would be easier to ration fossil fuel and carbon pollution than food and water. The burgeoning city of Cape Town in South Africa has already put in stringent water restrictions consistent with human health, and succeeded with them in maintaining its needed water supply for all.
Carbon pricing, in contrast, is grossly inefficient in reducing carbon pollution. It makes the price higher for even the most necessary combustion like winter heating and production and transport of life necessities. It makes no difference to the wealthy rich who go wasting as before – as in fossil-fuel gobbling leisure motors destroying environmental peace and integrity. It targets only those who can't easily afford the higher prices. It is forgotten about altogether in ever more trans-ocean trade deals which by definition multiply carbon miles!
What can we do? Only well-planned public rations work fairly and effectively. Canada has already experienced their success in World War II, and this time the war is more important to win in long-term human and planetary life terms. The reason we never hear about this solution is money-and-market worship built into our social DNA. We have become unable to think in terms of collective policy and decisions even when the lives of our children depend on it.
On the other hand, thinking people have already rationed consumption to life need in countless individual cases. For mundane example, many do not use a car unless necessary – for me an elder on a bicycle, a few litres in a month. The mayor himself, who is a business mayor, declares "thrift" his favorite characteristic, and loves to spend his free time in "thrift stores" (for example, clothing stores where the fabrics, largely oil-derived, cannot be recycled).
Many thousands of Guelph citizens are likewise disposed to bringing their demand in line with life need. It is good for the world and better for them. Rationing to life need, however, is unspeakable in the current market culture because it reduces commodities and profits, the only 'growth' politicians seem ever to mention.
The municipal level may be the only scale we can ration to need as a collective action. Guelph has led such collective action with recycling of wastes. Why not lead it in reducing carbon pollution? Buying expensive new electric cars is not effective at today's prices. We need to get past market commodities as the answer to the problems they cause.
Much has already been done at the municipal level such as carless streets, no-plastic bags, public-bicycle terminals, and urban forests and gardens. Guelph should lead in these and other forms of carbon reduction too. How about citizen and by-law pressure on all local food giants to impose costs on all the massive plastic they daily flood into the City that was not there before? This initiative by itself – as with returning alcohol cans and bottles by a refundable packaging – could lead to an immense reduction of fossil-fuel-product pollution.
At a certain point, we need to take the problem into our own lives in Guelph and solve it by individual and public action together.
JM is University Professor Emeritus at University of Guelph and author of the three-volume Philosophy and World Problems in UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems.
(note: University Professor Emeritus is not Professor Emeritus, but is a special designation vetted and voted on by Senate for leading international academic reputation).


text:
BP fund czar promises bigger, faster claims
Gulf Coast Claims Facility Administrator Ken Feinberg says victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill should start getting bigger payments faster.John Raoux / AP
Sept. 25, 2010, 9:06 PM UTC / Source: The Associated Press
Victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill should start getting bigger payments faster, the administrator of the fund set up to help them said Saturday.
Kenneth Feinberg said he was responding to criticism from residents and businesses.
"Over the past few weeks, I have heard from the people of the Gulf, elected officials, and others that payments remain too slow and not generous enough," Feinberg said in a statement. "I am implementing new procedures that will make this program more efficient, more accelerated and more generous."
Anthony Kennon, mayor of hard-hit Orange Beach, Ala., said he wasn't moved by the news. He said people in his community need action now, and they don't feel they are getting it. He said he doesn't believe Feinberg has truly been addressing their main concern about wanting a seat at the decision-making table.
"They feel despair, they feel helpless, they feel abandoned," Kennon said. "These are all mom-and-pop shops. We are devastated. I've got people knocking on my door saying, 'I'm leaving, great knowing you mayor. I'm losing my business, my home.'"
Because tourism has taken such a hit in his community, doctors who rely on walk-in tourists for patients in the summer have seen business fall off a cliff. But, Kennon said those doctors' claims to the compensation fund are being summarily denied because of the type of industry they are in.
"I am having a hard time understanding how he is our advocate," Kennon said of Feinberg.
According to Feinberg, claims from now on will be sorted by industry to allow those reviewing the claims to apply a more specific, uniform set of standards when deciding how much a person or business will be paid. Feinberg did not provide details, and it was unclear if the new processing guidelines would benefit people in industries not directly tied to the ocean or simply make payments to victims in industries that are being compensated more consistent.
Claims still will be reviewed individually but they will be clustered so they are easier to compare, he said.
The Gulf Coast is still recovering from the spill triggered April 20, when a rig explosion killed 11 workers and led to 206 million gallons of oil spewing from BP PLC's undersea well.
In less than five weeks, the dedicated $20 billion fund that BP set up has paid out over $400 million to more than 30,000 claimants, Feinberg said. Kennon scoffed at the claim about how much has been paid, noting that it is 2 percent of the total amount that BP agreed to set aside.
"That number is very misleading," Kennon said. "$400 million across the entire Gulf Coast is nothing. What if there has already been $10 billion lost across the Gulf Coast?"
Currently, people are getting an emergency payment from the fund and then, down the road, they will receive a lump-sum final payment. The final payment requires recipients agree not to sue BP.
Earlier this week, Feinberg made a key concession to victims when he said he would waive a requirement that wages earned by spill cleanup workers be subtracted from their claims of lost revenue.
Feinberg said that will help fishermen who have been working on spill response while they couldn't fish.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


BRIGHTEST LIGHT INITIATIVE WORKSHOP – A workshop for the future of intense ultrafast lasers in the U.S.
A workshop for the future of intense ultrafast lasers in the U.S.
Onsite participation of this workshop is by invitation only.
The U.S. should create a broad national network to support ultrafast science, applications and technology.
U.S. research agencies should work with stakeholders to define facilities and laser parameters that will best serve research needs, emphasizing parameters beyond the current state of the art.
The Department of Energy (DOE) should lead development of an interagency national strategy for building large- and mid-scale projects, and developing technology at U.S. universities, industry and national laboratories.
DOE should plan for at least one large-scale open-access, high-intensity laser facility that leverages existing major science infrastructure.
Agencies should create U.S. programs that include: mid-scale infrastructure, project operations in high-intensity laser science, development of key technologies, and engagement in research at international facilities such as ELI.
Articulate a community response to the 2017 National Academy of Sciences report Opportunities in Intense Ultrafast Lasers: Reaching for the Brightest Light.
Identify compelling science, fundamental, and applied research opportunities constituting priority research directions that exploit high-intensity lasers leading to high impact over the next decade and beyond.
Define new and upgraded facility and laser capabilities that will enable compelling science, emphasizing parameters beyond the current state of the art.
Identify laser research and development to realize both ultrahigh intensities for basic research and high repetition rates, as well as high-average powers needed for applications.
Quad charts and/or two-page white papers from the research community will guide workshop discussions on the scientific and technical advancements enabled by intense ultrafast laser technology, and some of these will be included in the workshop report. Please see the Workshop Report page for details on how to submit your input.


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For over a decade we have maintained the same quality and our constant eye for minute details has brought us laurels. We have great manpower to cater to all your remediation needs.
It is a myth that if you keep your home scrupulously clean then molds will not appear. On the other hand mold growth is independent of cleanliness factor. If there is dust and warm damp environment then molds might appear even in the best maintained Iselin NJ homes and offices. The spores become active as soon as growth of the mold is initiated. Hence it is pertinent to get your premises inspected.
After careful inspection certain things become clear for our inspectors. They now know what type of mold it is and should air samples be taken or not. Also testing is carried out and remedial steps are chalked out at this stage.
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A damp basement is effectively useless as any storage area should be completely dry. However, in New Jersey one of the major problem in all personal or official premises is of useless basement. These basements are useless due to their damp and flooded conditions.
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Correct replacement of the original locking ring which secures the fuel tank sending unit to the gas tank. This locking ring replaces the original which are commonly destroyed when they are being removed. This ring helps to seal the sending unit gask et to the tank.
You are assured that every OER® part offered is manufactured to exact specifications and will fit and fun ction just like the original part. What's more, most OER® products are officially licensed and carry a full 1 year warranty against defects and workmanship. Far above most other manufacturers of restoration products, the OER® symbol denotes the finest res toration products on the market. Look for the OER® symbol before buying your restoration parts.


text:
/*
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 You may obtain a copy of the License at

	http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 limitations under the License.

 For additional information, contact:
 Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.
 Attn: Contracts Dept
 380 New York Street
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 email: contracts@esri.com
 */

package com.esri.core.geometry;

class OperatorExportToGeoJsonLocal extends OperatorExportToGeoJson {
    @Override
    public StringCursor execute(SpatialReference spatialReference, GeometryCursor geometryCursor) {
        return new OperatorExportToGeoJsonCursor(GeoJsonExportFlags.geoJsonExportDefaults, spatialReference, geometryCursor);
    }

    @Override
    public String execute(SpatialReference spatialReference, Geometry geometry) {
        return OperatorExportToGeoJsonCursor.exportToGeoJson(GeoJsonExportFlags.geoJsonExportDefaults, geometry, spatialReference);
    }

    @Override
    public String execute(int exportFlags, SpatialReference spatialReference, Geometry geometry) {
        return OperatorExportToGeoJsonCursor.exportToGeoJson(exportFlags, geometry, spatialReference);
    }

    @Override
    public String execute(Geometry geometry) {
        return OperatorExportToGeoJsonCursor.exportToGeoJson(GeoJsonExportFlags.geoJsonExportSkipCRS, geometry, null);
    }

    @Override
    public String exportSpatialReference(int export_flags, SpatialReference spatial_reference) {
        return OperatorExportToGeoJsonCursor.exportSpatialReference(export_flags, spatial_reference);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Lida is an air base of the Air Force and Air Defence Forces of the Republic of Belarus located Lida, Grodno Region, Belarus.

It is home to the 116th Guards Assault Aviation Base, flying Sukhoi Su-25s and Yak-130s alongside the 206th Training Center for Aircrew with Aero L-39C Albatroses.

The 277th Bomber Aviation Regiment of the Russian Air Force with Sukhoi Su-24's from Komsomolsk-on-Amur Airport deployed here as part of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

References

Belarusian Air Force
Grodno Region

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Fr Brendan O'Sullivan has been nominated for a Longford People of the Year Award.
There has been huge interest in ticket sales for this year's Longford People of the Year awards which is an important fundraiser for Midlands Simon and takes place in the Longford Arms on Friday, October 12.
There is now a total of ten award award winners on the night including the young person of the year award winner, Cian Philips from Ardagh. All ten then are bidding for the overall Longford Person of the Year Award.
A hugely popular nominee this year is Fr Brendan O'Sullivan from Lanesboro, who is now based in Carrick-on-Shannon and celebrated 25 years in the priesthood earlier this year. He was nominated in recognition of his work with the bereaved and those dealing with mental health issues.
The other eight award winners include John Connell from Ballinalee on the back of his incredible breakthrough book, 'The Cow Book', and sensational swimmer, Darragh Greene from Newtownforbes.
Edgeworthstown will be represented at the awards by community activist Majella Doherty in recognition of her tireless fundraising for many deserving causes.
Another sports nominee will be Dermot Brady, the Slashers GAA player who announced his retirement from inter-county football last year. Also representing Longford town will be Eoin McGinnity in recognition of his annual charity truck run to Belarus with clothes and food for orphanages there.
Also for recognition on the night will be Colm Harte, the Killoe school principal and the FCA stalwart. The two final award recipients are Siobhan Casey, the Irish music enthusiast and community activist from Newtowncashel and Marie McGivney, the Mullinalaghta district nurse, who goes over and above the call of duty on a daily basis.
Tickets for the event are now available. To order some contact Noel Greene of Midlands Simon on 087 961 5766.


text:
International Agriculture Committee: Sowing the seeds of good business
CALGARY – The informal catchphrase is B2B. And for international agriculture executives hoping to swap business cards, this is quite clearly the place 2B.
Since 2009, the Calgary Stampede's International Agriculture Committee (IAC) has actively promoted business networking opportunities in the Albertan and Canadian agri-food industries — while also offering that famous Western hospitality — for globetrotting travellers who pass through the doors of the International Room. And during the 2012 Stampede, the face-to-face B2B network was abuzz.
"We couldn't be more pleased. In the past year, our committee and its programs have completed a transition to truly promoting the Calgary Stampede, welcoming the world's agriculture representatives, and facilitating business," says Ted Haney, who chairs the Stampede's International Agriculture committee.
"There will be more corporate engagement, at a higher and more interesting level. There will be more outreach for international guests, to encourage visits to the Stampede and our International Room. Even with the successes of 2012, we are not where we want to be — yet — but we see this as a new beginning. And that's very exciting."
During the Centennial edition of the Calgary Stampede, a total of 2,604 guests from 60 countries visited the International Room, in the Agriculture Building, to wet their whistles and enjoy live Western music. As usual, there were global visitors from A (Argentina) to Z (Zimbabwe) and everywhere in between — Iceland, Denmark, Panama, Uruguay, Swaziland, Kazakhstan, and Tunisia, just to name a few.
The number of visitors, and countries represented, were the most in recent memory. So, too, were the number of requests made for business follow-up — 321, nearly doubling last year's previous high of 172 — in such diverse agricultural sectors as livestock and farm machinery, grains and processed food, oilseeds and meats and construction. IAC members are currently following up on those requests by connecting visitors with the appropriate federal or provincial trade association.
Those encouraging numbers surely got a boost from the overall flood of Centennial-year visitors — just over 1.4 million — that set a new cumulative Stampede attendance record, as well as excellent weather during the show. But other factors were also at play, highlighted by the International Agriculture Committee's annual reception on Wednesday, July 11 — a networking extravaganza that drew approximately 300 guests through the evening at Rotary House.
"It is the premier agricultural networking event of the summer for Canadian and international, government and industry leaders. Having (Alberta) Premier Alison Redford there, as well as Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Verlyn Olson and federal Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Gerry Ritz, for the reception — that, to us, was validation," says Haney. "The demand to attend is massive. People come for the face time . . . to meet the owner of a feedlot, the GM of a major processing operation, a specific company executive, or a political leader. Important meetings are held, whether they last 30 seconds or 30 minutes."
Also pivotal to that surge in business linking requests was the geographical layout of this year's Cattle Trail exhibit, where the International Agriculture committee's main outreach booth is stationed. The Cattle Trail itself was a runaway success this year, with an estimated 112,000 visitors. And in 2012, every one of those visitors filed past the IAC booth, which was staffed by an IAC committee member as well as representatives of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development and the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency to accelerate the business linking process. More than half of this year's 321 business linking requests were generated at the IAC booth.
"Guest used pins on a world map to indicate their homes," says Haney. "And that first Sunday of Stampede, we had 92 countries of the world with a pin — that's nearly half the countries in the world."
The International Agriculture Committee also used a new previous-guest contact system, designed to increase word-of-mouth exposure, to great effect in 2012. Previous guests from the past five years were contacted via e-mail three times in the 10 months leading up to the 2012 Stampede with quick, unobtrusive messages regarding the International Agriculture Program. "People showed up understanding that we were here, looking for us, and expecting to be connected," says Haney.
Hospitality, of course, has always been a mainstay of the International Agriculture Committee, and Haney says this year's atmosphere in the International Room featured a friendly, convivial vibe. "We're expanding, quite dramatically, our focus on facilitating business. But none of that comes at the expense of hospitality or providing a very warm Western welcome," he says. "Our international guests may be retired, or students, or even businesspeople here purely for pleasure. Our focus on business has not in any way interfered with our ability to be warm and welcoming Western hosts."
The International Agriculture Committee also publishes the International Agriculture Profile, a glossy annual publication with a magazine format, to help deliver its message by featuring trends and developments in Canadian agriculture, especially in southern Alberta. This year, the 44-page magazine saw its print run boosted to 6,500 copies from 5,000 — and in addition to its distribution to international guests, approximately 2,000 copies were circulated to Canadian embassies, high commissions, consulates, and trade offices around the world by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.
Work will soon begin on one of the most significant infrastructure projects in Stampede history — the Agrium Western Event Centre, which will be the largest facility of its kind in Canada upon completion. For details and artistic renderings of this magnificent 150,000-square-foot agriculture showcase and competition venue, scheduled for completion in 2014, visit http://corporate.calgarystampede.com/about/park-development/agrium-western-event-centre/
Todd Kimberley
Agriculture Media Writer
E tkimberley@calgarystampede.com
Tracey Foster
Agriculture Program Coordinator
E tfoster@calgarystampede.com
02.08.12 IAP thumb


Associate advertising and marketing is an advertising version where a company pays compensation to third-party publishers to create web traffic or results in the business`s services and products for Tutorials. The third-party publishers are described as associates as well as the commission cost incentivizes them to locate means to advertise the firm. Associate marketing has actually boosted in importance with the net age. Associate advertising and marketing is basically a pay for efficiency advertising and marketing program for Tutorials where the act of selling a customer on an item is contracted out throughout a potentially vast network.
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Jetradar compares airfares from Singapore to Luzon Island with hundreds of airlines (including United Airlines, Qatar Airways, Jet Airways) and dozens of online travel agencies in one single place. We provide you with all the options to find the cheapest flights to Luzon Island, you choose where to book. Also there you can find airlines special offers from Singapore to Luzon Island. The cheapest round-trip price found within the last week was $131. The cheapest oneway price found within the last week was $74.
The distance between Singapore and Luzon Island is 1545 miles (or 2487 kilometers).
There is no time difference between Singapore and Luzon Island. Check this again shortly before your flight.
The currency exchange rate between Singapore (SIN) and Luzon Island (NCP) is 1 SGD = 35.0731 PHP.


text:
Па́вел Счастли́вый (Па́вел Ще́нсный, , год рождения неизвестен, умер в 1610) — польский архитектор, известный львовский строитель эпохи Ренессанса, по происхождению итальянец.

С 1582 года был цехмистром львовского цеха каменщиков. Его строения во Львове:

  синагога «Золотая роза» (1580—1582),
 Львовская иезуитская коллегия,
 жилые дома Марка Нахмановича и Исаака Сюскюндовича в еврейском квартале и другие здания.

С 1592 года жил в Жолкве, где с 1601 года был бургомистром. Здесь по его проектам были построены Жолковский замок (1596—1630), Костёл Святого Лаврентия  и ряд других сооружений.

Литература

 Энциклопедия украиноведения.
 Мистецтво України: Біографічний довідник / За редакцією А. В. Кудрицького. — К., 1997. — С. 664.

Персоналии по алфавиту
Умершие в 1610 году
Архитекторы Украины
Архитекторы Польши
Архитекторы Львова


Thanks to the master artisans at Gentle Giant Ltd., you can add Darth Malgus to the ranks of the Dark Side in your mini bust collection! This incredibly detailed mini bust has been cold cast in the highest quality polystone, fit for an Emperor. It features the Dark Lord wielding his duel lightsabers menacingly and will put any Rebels in your collection back in their place through intimidation alone. Individually numbered and hand-painted, this limited edition bust includes a matching certificate of authenticity.


text:
Das Hochwasser in Mitteleuropa im August 2002 war eine Flutkatastrophe in Deutschland, Tschechien und Österreich. Es kam dabei zu schweren Überflutungen, in Ost- und Norddeutschland insbesondere an der Elbe, in Bayern und Österreich an der Donau. Das Hochwasser war durch tagelange, extreme Regenfälle verursacht worden und führte zu wochenlangen Hilfseinsätzen, mindestens 45 Todesopfern und Schäden in Höhe von insgesamt etwa 15 Milliarden Euro (in Deutschland etwa 9 Milliarden, davon 6 in Sachsen). Dem Hochwasser wird ein Effekt auf die anschließende Bundestagswahl 2002 bescheinigt.

Wetterlage

Bereits Anfang August im Jahr 2002 lösten starke und lang andauernde Regenfälle in den Alpen sowie im Erzgebirge und Riesengebirge schwere Überschwemmungen und verheerende Schlammlawinen in Deutschland, Österreich, Polen, Tschechien und Italien aus. Die Niederschläge wurden durch das Vb-Tief "Ilse" verursacht. Ein Keil des über Skandinavien liegenden Hochs "Friedmann" bewirkte, dass das Tief von seiner üblichen West-Ost-Zugbahn in Richtung Mittelmeer nach Süden abgedrängt wurde. Hier erwärmten sich diese Luftmassen jahreszeitlich bedingt enorm und nahmen dadurch viel Feuchtigkeit auf. Nach der Überquerung der Alpen in Richtung Norden stießen sie auf die dortige Kaltluft, kühlten sich stark ab, und es kam zu extremen Niederschlägen in relativ kurzer Zeit. Die Regenfälle konzentrierten sich entlang der Zugbahn des Tiefs zunächst auf die Schweiz, auf Bayern, Österreich und Tschechien und in der Folge und unter Verstärkung auf den Osten Deutschlands. Hier drehte sich das Tiefdruckgebiet ein und regnete sich bis zum Ende seines Lebenszyklus komplett aus. Die Regenfälle wurden durch orographisch bedingte Hebungsvorgänge an den Alpen, vor allem aber entlang der Mittelgebirge (Erz- und Riesengebirge) zusätzlich verstärkt. Eine ebensolche Wetterlage war auch die Ursache für das Oderhochwasser 1997.

Historische Einordnung des Hochwasserereignisses

Das Hochwasser von 2002 übertraf im Elbegebiet sowie in Österreich flächendeckend und in Bayern teilweise die Ereignisse des Jahres 1954, des stärksten Hochwassers des 20. Jahrhunderts, und kann daher als Jahrhundertereignis angesehen werden. In der bekannten Geschichte übertroffen wird es wohl nur von den Hochwassern 1342, 1501 und 1787 sowie dem Alpenhochwasser 2005 (im Donauraum) und dem Hochwasser in Mitteleuropa 2013.

Verlauf des Ereignisses

Deutschland

Bayern

Ein erstes Starkregenereignis trat am 6./7. August mit Schwerpunkten im Chiemgau und Berchtesgadener Land auf. Dabei fielen innerhalb von 48 Stunden verbreitet mehr als 100 mm Niederschlag, was rund 2/3 des durchschnittlichen Monatsmittels (1961–1990) im August entsprach. Der größte Tagesniederschlag von 117 mm wurde am 6. August in Ruhpolding registriert; am Wendelstein fielen sogar innerhalb von nur 6 Stunden 62 mm Regen. Dieses Ereignis führte zu einer Sättigung des Bodens und zur Grundlage des eigentlichen, noch höheren Hochwasserereignisses durch Niederschläge vom 10. bis 12. August. Am Abend des 10. August zogen von Westen eine Reihe von Gewittern nach Bayern, die im weiteren Verlauf in großflächigen Dauerregen übergingen und am 11. August zu Tagesniederschlägen von verbreitet über 100 mm am Alpenrand führten. Am 12. August verlagerte sich der Schwerpunkt auf den Bayerischen und Oberpfälzer Wald, was in Waldkirchen zu einem 100-jährlichen Niederschlagsereignis von 104 mm in 24 Stunden führte. Vom 6. bis 12. August wurden in Südbayern stellenweise über 340 mm Regen registriert.

Am 12. August bildeten sich an den Donauzuflüssen Iller, Günz, Mindel, Zusam, Schmutter, Paar und Lech die Hochwasserscheitel. Im Landkreis Oberallgäu wurden dabei teilweise 100-jährliche Ereignisse beobachtet. Am 14. August bildete sich auf der Donau zwischen der Lechmündung und Regensburg eine langgestreckte Welle im Bereich eines 10- bis 20-jährlichen Hochwassers.

Ebenfalls am 12. August traten an den Flüssen Isar, Loisach, Ammer, Mangfall, Tiroler Achen, Traun, Saalach und Salzach die Höchststände auf. Dabei traten Jährlichkeiten im Bereich von 50 bis 100 Jahren auf. Die Hochwasserwelle des Inns führte in Passau zu einem Pegelstand von 10,80 m und einem Abfluss von 7700 m³/s am 13. August um 13 Uhr, was einem 50-jährlichen Ereignis entsprach. Dieser Pegel wurde zuletzt im Jahr 1954 (12,20 m) und danach wieder im Jahr 2013 (12,89 m) übertroffen. Während das Hochwasser der Salzach bei Burghausen ein 50-jährliches Ausmaß annahm, wurde am Inn in Wasserburg lediglich ein 2 bis 5-jährliches Ereignis beobachtet. So wurde das 20 bis 50-jährliche Hochwasser des Inns ab der Salzachmündung maßgeblich von der Salzach bestimmt. Der Sylvensteinspeicher hielt bis zu 23,3 Millionen Kubikmeter Wasser zurück, wodurch ein größeres Isarhochwasser vermieden wurde. Ohne den Stausee wären in Bad Tölz am 12. August statt der eingetretenen 295 m³/s bis zu 730 m³/s abgeflossen.

Mit der Verlagerung des Regengebietes nach Norden trat in der Nacht zum 13. August an den Flüssen im Einzugsgebiet des Regen und der Ilz ein extremes Hochwasser mit Jährlichkeiten von teils weit über 100 Jahren auf. Am Zusammenfluss des Regen mit der Donau in Regensburg wurde am 14. August um 13 Uhr ein Pegel von 6,63 m registriert, was bis zur Isarmündung bei Deggendorf zu einem 20-jährlichen Hochwasser und weiter bis Passau zu einem 10-jährlichen Hochwasser führte.

Sachsen

Besonders dramatisch war die Regensituation im mittleren und östlichen Erzgebirge, wo am 12./13. August 2002 in Zinnwald mit einem 24-Stundenwert von 312 mm der damals größte Tageswert der Niederschlagshöhe seit Beginn der routinemäßigen Messungen in Deutschland registriert wurde. Aufgrund des schlechten Waldzustandes in diesen Gebieten und der bereits vorher aufgenommenen Wassermengen konnte der Boden solch gewaltige Niederschlagsmengen nicht speichern, so dass das Wasser sofort in die Täler abfloss. Die in dieser Gegend entspringenden in Mulde oder Elbe mündenden Flüsse wie Zschopau, Flöha, Zwickauer Mulde, Freiberger Mulde, Gimmlitz, Rote Weißeritz, Wilde Weißeritz und Müglitz schwollen binnen Stunden auf das Mehrfache ihrer sonstigen Größe an und hinterließen auf ihrem Weg enorme Schäden. Viele Brücken wurden weggerissen, Straßen unterspült, Häuser überflutet und schwer beschädigt, die Strom- und Telefonversorgung brach zusammen, ganze Dörfer wurden evakuiert oder waren von der Außenwelt abgeschnitten.

Das Müglitztal war besonders betroffen. Hier verwüstete die Flutwelle Glashütte, Schlottwitz, Weesenstein, Mühlbach, Burkhardswalde, die Dohnaer Unterstadt und Heidenau. In Glashütte brach am 12. August 2002, nachmittags gegen 17:00 Uhr ein kleines Rückhaltebecken an der Prießnitz, einem unteren Nebenfluss der Müglitz. Die Flutwelle mit schätzungsweise 50.000 Kubikmeter Wasser im Prießnitztal erhöhte den Wasserstand in Glashütte zwar um einen weiteren Meter, hatte auf das Hochwasser in der Müglitz aber eine geringe Auswirkung, weil der Prießnitzbach weiter flussabwärts in die Müglitz mündet.

Vielerorts fielen Energie-, Wasser- und Wärmeversorgung aus. Die Überflutung von Bundes-, Land- und Kreisstraßen behinderten die Einsatzkräfte. Im Bereich der Flüsse Gottleuba und Seidewitz erreichte die Hochwasserflut in Pirna am 12. August um ca. 17:00 Uhr den Schwellenwert der Überschwemmung. Die Gottleuba und die Seidewitz traten nach deren Zusammenfluss in Pirna bis zu einer Höhe von 1,50 Meter über die Ufer.

In Dresden wurden die Schäden nicht nur durch die erste Welle der Weißeritz vom 12./13. August, sondern auch von der zweiten, höheren Welle der Elbe am 16./17. August verursacht. Am 12. August 2002 wurde gegen 18.00 Uhr für Dresden Katastrophenalarm ausgelöst. In der Innenstadt wurden der Hauptbahnhof, die Semperoper, der Zwinger und der Landtag überflutet. Die Friedrichstadt wurde evakuiert.

In den folgenden Tagen wurde die Katastrophenlage mit der Hochwasserwarnstufe IV mancherorts überschritten. Bebaute Gebiete waren teilweise ganz überflutet, der Einsatz von Wasser- und Dammwehr in größerem Umfang wurde erforderlich. Es kam auch zu Todesfällen. Erst am 13. August 2002 wurden die Dimensionen der Naturkatastrophe voll sichtbar. Weitere Orte wurden von den nachfolgenden Wassermassen eingeschlossen und waren von der Außenwelt abgeschnitten. In Krippen stieg das Wasser bis in das zweite Obergeschoss. Grimma wurde vom Hochwasser der Mulde erfasst und schwer zerstört, darunter auch die historische Pöppelmannbrücke. Am 14. August besuchte Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schröder die Stadt. Ebenso wurde die Stadt Döbeln von der Freiberger Mulde komplett überflutet. Am Abend wurde der Straßenbahnbetrieb in Dresden komplett eingestellt.

Am 15. August wurde Meißen von der ersten Hochwasserwelle erfasst, dabei wurde die dortige Porzellanmanufaktur teilweise zerstört. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt wurde Pirna bereits von der zweiten Welle erreicht. Nun mussten in der Sächsischen Schweiz ganze Ortschaften evakuiert werden. In Dresden werden die Stadtteile Laubegast, Kleinzschachwitz und Zschieren überschwemmt.

Am 16. August wurde der Verkehr auf den Bahnstrecken Leipzig–Dresden sowie Riesa–Chemnitz und Jüterbog–Röderau eingestellt, die auf einem gemeinsamen Damm die Elbaue überqueren. Durch einen Deichbruch bei Röderau unterspülte die übertretende Elbe eine Straßenüberbrückung und einen Flutdurchlass des Bahndammes und brachte diese Bauwerke zum Einsturz. Am Abend erreichte der Hochwasserscheitel Schöna an der Grenze zu Tschechien mit einem Höchststand von 12,04 Metern. Am 17. August 2002 erreichte der Pegel in Dresden morgens um 7 Uhr den Höchststand von 9,40 Metern. Bis auf die Autobahnbrücke der A4 waren an diesem Tag alle Dresdner Elbbrücken gesperrt. Im absoluten Vergleich der Durchflussmengen lag das Elbehochwasser 2002 an fünfter Stelle der registrierten Hochfluten in Sachsen. Es wird daher für derartige Fluten ein Wiederkehrintervall von 100 bis 200 Jahren angenommen. Der Pegel Torgau erreichte am 18. August einen Scheitelwert von 9,49 Metern.

Am 26. August wurde der Katastrophenalarm für Dresden aufgehoben. Insgesamt kamen in Sachsen 21 Menschen durch das Hochwasser ums Leben.

Sachsen-Anhalt, Brandenburg

Weiter flussabwärts wurde die erhöhte Gefahr von Deichbrüchen zum Hauptproblem. Die Elbe flutete eine Landfläche von 592 km², wovon alleine 480 km² auf Sachsen-Anhalt entfielen. Aus niedrig gelegenen Stadtteilen Dessaus wurden bis zum Abend des 14. August rund 4600 Menschen evakuiert. Im Chemiepark Bitterfeld-Wolfen (am stärksten betroffen die Bayer Group) konnte eine Umweltkatastrophe durch massiven Einsatz von Helfern verhindert werden. Die Stadt Bitterfeld selbst wurde in den Folgetagen zunehmend überflutet. Nahe der Stadt brach am 15. August ein Damm der Mulde, wodurch der ehemalige Braunkohletagebau Goitzsche geflutet wurde. Am selben Tag wurde südlich von Magdeburg das Pretziener Wehr geöffnet, wodurch die größten Schäden im Stadtgebiet abgewendet werden konnten. Dennoch wurden aus den östlichen Stadtteilen Magdeburgs rund 20.000 Menschen evakuiert und Katastrophenalarm für die Stadt ausgelöst. Zudem wurde die brandenburgische Stadt Mühlberg geräumt und die weiter flussabwärts gelegenen Städte bereiteten Schutzmaßnahmen vor.

Am 16. August nachts um 1 Uhr entschied der Krisenstab, rund 10.000 Menschen aus Bitterfeld und Umgebung zu evakuieren, da die Stadt allmählich von den Wassermassen eingenommen wurde. Allein in Sachsen-Anhalt waren etwa 2000 Soldaten der Bundeswehr im Einsatz. Am 17. August erreichte der Pegel Mühlberg seinen Scheitelwert mit 9,96 m.

Am 18. August brachen in Sachsen-Anhalt bei Seegrehna und Wittenberg an der Elbe sowie bei Dessau an der Mulde mehrere Dämme. Im Dessauer Stadtteil Waldersee stand das Wasser schnell bis zu zwei Meter hoch. Am Flughafen Leipzig/Halle wurde ein Sandsack-Logistikzentrum eingerichtet, das alle gefährdeten Gebiete versorgte. Am 19. August spitzte sich die Lage an der Autobahn 9 zu, jedoch konnte eine einspurige Verkehrsführung sichergestellt werden. Die Wassermassen flossen schneller als erwartet nach Norden. Die erste Flutwelle erreichte die Landeshauptstadt Magdeburg, die jedoch nicht zuletzt durch den Elbe-Umflutkanal glimpflich davonkam.

Als am 20. August der Ortskern von Rehsen zu überfluten drohte, durchbrachen die Bewohner des Dorfes eigenhändig den Damm des bewohnten Schönitzer Polders, um ihren eigenen Deich zu entlasten. Der Feuerwehrkommandant Rehsens sowie vier weitere Personen wurden daraufhin von der Staatsanwaltschaft wegen Deichzerstörung angeklagt, jedoch wurden sie mangels Nachweis einer konkreten Beteiligung am Ende freigesprochen. Bis zum 21. August wurden in Brandenburg und Sachsen-Anhalt mehr als 60.000 Menschen aus gefährdeten Gebieten evakuiert. Am 22. August waren in Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt und Brandenburg rund 16.300 Soldaten der Bundeswehr im Einsatz.
Am 26. August wurde der Katastrophenalarm für Magdeburg aufgehoben. Durch das nur langsam abfließende Wasser konnte erst am 13. September, nach 32 Tagen, auch in Dessau der Katastrophenalarm aufgehoben werden.

Weitere Bundesländer

Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schröder traf sich mit seinen Amtskollegen aus Österreich, Tschechien und der Slowakei sowie EU-Kommissionspräsident Romano Prodi zu einem Hochwassergipfel. Die gefährdeten Städte Dannenberg, Boizenburg, Lauenburg und weitere Orte bereiteten sich auf die Flut vor. Hunderte von Helfern leisteten einen Einsatz zur massiven Deichsicherung. Ab dem 16. August wurde die Evakuierung von rund 30.000 Menschen aus Mecklenburg und Niedersachsen vorbereitet. Am 21. August mussten weitere 13.000 Menschen aus Flutgebieten in Schleswig-Holstein evakuiert werden.

Unmittelbare Schäden

In Dresden belief sich der Schaden allein an der Semperoper auf 27 Millionen Euro. Die Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen, zu denen auch die Gemäldegalerie gehört, schätzten den Schaden auf 20 Millionen Euro.

Allein in Sachsen fielen während des Hochwassers 32 Kläranlagen an der Elbe (Dresden-Kaditz, Pirna, Meißen und Riesa) durch Überschwemmung oder Stromausfälle aus. Dadurch gelangte Abwasser ungeklärt in die Elbe.

In Sachsen waren durch das Hochwasser 21 Tote zu beklagen. Von 2002 bis 2009 wurden 700 Millionen Euro für Schutzprojekte ausgegeben, davon 50 % aus EU-Mitteln. In Auswertung der Flut wurden insgesamt 300 Überschwemmungsgebiete auf einer Fläche von 76.000 Hektar erklärt. In Sachsen-Anhalt betrug der Schaden in der Landwirtschaft rund 420 Millionen Euro.

An den Anlagen der Deutschen Bahn entstanden Schäden und Folgewirkungen von 1,025 Milliarden Euro. Davon entfielen 750 Millionen Euro auf den Freistaat Sachsen. Neben zahlreichen Strecken, darunter die Strecken Dresden–Werdau und Leipzig–Dresden, waren auch rund 200 Bahnhöfe betroffen; allein am Hauptbahnhof Dresden summierten sich die Schäden auf 42 Millionen Euro. Die Bundesregierung beteiligte sich mit insgesamt 650 Millionen Euro an den Kosten für die Wiederherstellung der Bahnanlagen.

Tschechien

Überblick

In Tschechien begannen die Niederschläge am 5. August 2002. Betroffen war zunächst Südböhmen mit den Einzugsgebieten von Moldau, Lainsitz, Maltsch und Blanice, später von Beraun, Wottawa und Sasau. Seit dem 11. August 2002 kamen die Wassermassen von Eger und Biela in Nordwestböhmen hinzu. Binnen neun Augusttagen fiel in den betroffenen Regionen Niederschlag in der Höhe von drei Sommermonaten der langfristigen Durchschnittsmenge. Bereits in den Monaten Juni und Juli waren überdurchschnittliche Regenmengen gefallen und die Speicherfähigkeit der Böden war ausgeschöpft.

Zunächst wurden im ebenen Gebiet um Budweis zahlreiche Orte überflutet, die entstehende Gefahr wurde unterschätzt. Die bis zum Rand gefüllten Staudämme der Moldau hätten vorbeugend etwa 1000 m³/s Wasser ablassen sollen, so wäre die spätere Spitze entschärft worden. Am Anfang der zweiten Woche erhöhte sich der Wasserstand in Prag auf den Pegelstand von sieben Metern. Jetzt mussten die Überläufe geöffnet werden. Zu den südböhmischen Wassermassen aus der Moldau mit 3000 m³/s kamen noch 2000 m³/s aus den nicht regulierten Flüssen Sasau und Beraun vor Prag.

In Prag beträgt der normale Durchfluss 150 m³/s, zu diesem Zeitpunkt wurden geschätzte 5300 m³/s erreicht. Die Überflutung der Altstadt wurde durch Barrieren auf den Uferstraßen verhindert. Jedoch stellte die U-Bahn den Betrieb ein. Der Stadtteil Karlín musste evakuiert werden.

Am Zusammenfluss von Moldau und Elbe bei Mělník konnten sich die Wassermassen in die Ebene ausbreiten. Das in der Nähe der Mündung gelegene Dorf Zálezlice wurde zu zwei Dritteln zerstört. An der unterhalb gelegenen Engstelle der Böhmischen Schweiz staute sich das Wasser. Der Übertritt nach Deutschland erfolgt durch das enge Elbtal des Elbsandsteingebirges. Der Höchststand in Ústí nad Labem (Aussig) wurde am 16. August 2002 nachmittags erreicht. Der Wasserdurchfluss der Elbe überstieg den bislang höchsten aus dem Jahr 1845. Die Wassermenge in der Moldau überschritt die Menge von 1845 um etwa fast ein Fünftel.

Unmittelbare Schäden

In Tschechien starben aufgrund des Hochwassers 17 Personen. Die Schäden in Tschechien werden auf 3,3 Milliarden Euro geschätzt. 446 Ortschaften wurden überflutet, davon standen 99 vollständig unter Wasser. Direkt betroffen wurden 1,33 Millionen Menschen, 200.000 wurden evakuiert. Bis auf Orlík und Slapy wurden die Maschinenhäuser aller Moldauer Wasserkraftwerke überflutet.

Im Prager Zoo wurden rund 1000 Tiere evakuiert, 134 weitere (davon 10 Säugetiere) starben jedoch in den Fluten. Die Prager Metro lief zu zwei Fünfteln voll und konnte erst im März 2003 wieder vollständig in Betrieb genommen werden. An der Untergrundbahn entstand ein Schaden von rund 280 Millionen Euro. Unweit vom Zusammenfluss der Moldau mit der Elbe wurde in Neratovice das tschechische Chemie- und Pharmawerk Spolana überflutet und Abfälle und Betriebsstoffe weggeschwemmt. Eines der 17 Todesopfer der Flut war ein 53-jähriger Mann, der beim Zuschauen während der Sprengung eines freitreibenden Binnenschiffs in Děčín von einem Eisensplitter tödlich getroffen wurde.

Österreich

Erste Hochwasserwelle: 6. bis 9. August

Überblick

In Österreich wurde die höchste Zweitagesniederschlagssumme im niederösterreichischen Waldviertel in Weikertschlag, Bezirk Waidhofen an der Thaya, mit 246 mm gemessen. Ähnlich starke Niederschlagsmengen wurden im Bezirk Gmünd (Niederösterreich), im Bezirk Freistadt (Mühlviertel, Oberösterreich) sowie im nordwestlichen Mostviertel (Niederösterreich) gemessen. Schwer betroffen war aber auch die Region um Salzburg.

Die daraus resultierenden Abflussmengen erreichten ihre Pegelscheitel am 7. bzw. 8. August.

Im Gegensatz zu früheren Hochwassern waren diesmal auch Gebiete betroffen, aus denen zumindest in den letzten 100 Jahren keine vergleichbaren Zahlen vorliegen, und zwar das oberösterreichische Machland, das südliche Mühlviertel und das niederösterreichische Kamp- und Kremstal.

Mühlviertel

Im Mühlviertel war am stärksten das Einzugsgebiet der Aist mit ihren zahlreichen Quellflüssen im katastrophalen Ausmaß betroffen. Die Gemeinde Schwertberg im Bezirk Perg wurde in der Nacht vom 7. auf den 8. August überflutet und stand teilweise über 1,20 m unter Wasser. Maximale Durchflussmengen wurden aber auch in Freistadt und Kefermarkt (beide an der Feldaist), in Königswiesen an der Großen Naarn, in Unterweißenbach an der Kleinen Naarn und in St. Georgen an der Gusen beobachtet.

Waldviertel

In der Nacht vom 6. auf den 7. August begann der Wasserstand des oberen Kamp anzusteigen. Am Nachmittag des 7. August drohte das Wasser über den Staudamm Ottenstein zu rinnen, weshalb die Hochwasserentlastungsschleusen geöffnet werden mussten. Um Mitternacht zum 8. August betrug der Pegelstand in Zwettl 4 m über Mittelwasser. Während am 9. August im Oberlauf des Kamp bereits mit den Aufräumungsarbeiten begonnen wurde, spielten sich am Unterlauf dramatische Szenen ab. Neben den Zerstörungen von Straßen und Gebäuden im Kamptal kam es unterhalb von Hadersdorf am Kamp zum Überströmen der Kampdämme und in weiterer Folge zu Dammbrüchen, wodurch das nördliche Tullnerfeld und mit ihm zahlreiche Ortschaften überflutet wurde. Durch die Donauhochwasserschutzdämme wurde das Kamphochwasser behindert, in die Donau abzufließen. Erst nach dem Öffnen von Poldern und Dämmen konnte eine Entspannung der Lage erreicht werden. Auch die Lainsitz zeigte im Waldviertel hohe Wasserstände, sie liegt jedoch jenseits der Wasserscheide und gehört zum Einzugsgebiet der Elbe.

Salzachgebiet

Im Salzachgebiet traten zwar mehrere kleinere Bäche aus den Ufern, welche einigen Sachschaden anrichteten, nicht jedoch die Salzach und die Saalach, welche lediglich die Hochwassergrenzen überschritten.

Zweite Hochwasserwelle: 11. bis 15. August

Überblick

Von der zweiten Welle waren alle österreichischen Gebiete entlang der gesamten Alpennordseite von Vorarlberg bis Hainburg an der Donau betroffen. Die Zentren der Niederschlagsmengen lagen im Ennstal, im Salzkammergut und wiederum im Mühl- und Waldviertel. Die höchste Zweitagesniederschlagssumme wurde diesmal in Laussa, Bezirk Steyr-Land (Oberösterreich) mit 227 mm gemessen.

Donau

Durch die starken Regenfälle im Südosten Bayerns war die Hochwassersituation an der Donau schon äußerst angespannt. Betroffen von Überschwemmungen waren dort die Gebiete am Lech und der Tiroler Ache. Auch entlang der Salzach gab es ab Golling bereits Land unter Wasser. Die zusätzlich hohe Wasserführung von Traun und Enns führte zu großflächigen Donauüberflutungen vom oberösterreichischen Machland, über die Wachau, das Tullnerfeld und im Gebiet östlich von Wien.

Mühlviertel

An Aist und Naarn, wo der Boden bedingt durch die erste Flutwelle kein Wasser mehr aufnehmen konnte, kam es erneut zu schweren Überflutungen. Schwertberg stand diesmal noch tiefer unter Wasser als bei der ersten Welle.

Waldviertel

Im Unterlauf des Kamp, wo der Wasserspiegel seit der ersten Welle kaum zurückgegangen war, kam es wieder zu massiven Überflutungen. Durch den hohen Donaupegel konnte diesmal das Kampwasser nicht in die Donau abfließen und es standen mehr Ortschaften unter Wasser als in der Woche zuvor.

Unmittelbare Schäden

In Österreich waren sieben Todesopfer zu beklagen. Der gesamte volkswirtschaftliche Schaden wurde 2003 zunächst auf 3,1 Milliarden € geschätzt.

Folgen und Auswirkungen

Gesamtschaden

Nachfolgend wird der finanzielle Gesamtschaden durch das Hochwasserereignis aufgeführt.

Europa

Deutschland

Die Deutsche Rück gibt für Sachsen etwa 2,5 Milliarden Euro höhere Schäden an. Dies würde zu Schäden von 8,6 Mrd € in Sachsen, 11,6 Mrd € in Deutschland und 17,5 Mrd € in Europa führen. Die Schäden an staatlicher Infrastruktur beliefen sich auf 1,353 Mrd €, wovon 1,025 Mrd € bei der Deutschen Bahn anfielen. Hiervon wiederum entfielen 750 Millionen Euro auf das Gebiet Sachsens.

Politische Auswirkungen

Deutschland
Das Hochwasserereignis hatte drastische Auswirkungen auf den Wahlkampf für die anstehenden Bundestagswahlen am 22. September 2002. Die SPD-geführte Bundesregierung reagierte umgehend auf die Hochwasserkatastrophe und initiierte den bisher größten Einsatz der Bundeswehr im Inland seit ihrem Bestehen. Bereits am 20. August 2002 waren in den betroffenen Regionen etwa 45.000 Soldaten der Bundeswehr im Einsatz, um Deiche zu verstärken, Evakuierungen durchzuführen und die Katastrophenhilfe zu koordinieren. Zahlreiche Politiker, darunter auch Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schröder, besuchten die betroffenen Gebiete regelmäßig unter großer Medienbeachtung. Die Bundesregierung stellte kurzfristig 385 Millionen Euro bereit, um die vom Hochwasser betroffenen Menschen beim Wiederaufbau zu unterstützen. Die Zahlungen betrugen 500 Euro pro Person und bis zu 2000 Euro pro Haushalt. Betroffene Unternehmen erhielten einen Pauschalbetrag in der Höhe von 15.000 Euro und 500 Euro pro Angestellten. Am 26. August beschloss die Bundesregierung den Gesetzentwurf für einen 7,1 Milliarden Euro umfassenden Staatsfonds zur Aufbauhilfe in den Hochwassergebieten, dem der Bundesrat am 13. September zustimmte.

Eine politikwissenschaftliche Studie kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass die Fluthilfemaßnahmen der SPD-geführten deutschen Bundesregierung den Stimmenanteil der SPD in den betroffenen Gebieten bei den Bundestagswahlen 2002 um höchstens sieben Prozentpunkte und bei den Bundestagswahlen 2005 um zwei Prozentpunkte erhöht haben sollen.

Kritiker bemängeln, dass Politik und Verwaltung nur in geringem Maße tatsächliche Konsequenzen aus dem Hochwasser gezogen hätten. So wurden von 35.000 Hektar Flächen, die im Jahr 2002 als mögliche Überschwemmungsgebiete entlang der Elbe identifiziert wurden, weniger als fünf Prozent realisiert. Daneben seien in verschiedenen Landesgesetzen vorgesehene Bauverbote von Landräten vielfach mit Ausnahmegenehmigungen umgangen worden.

Österreich

In Österreich wurde im September das Hochwasseropferentschädigungs- und Wiederaufbau-Gesetz 2002 (HWG 2002) beschlossen, mit dem neben einem Fonds weitere Mittel in der Größenordnung von 250 Millionen Euro zur Verfügung gestellt wurden.

Aufgrund der Hochwasser-Katastrophe hatte die Regierung Schüssel I mit Zustimmung der FPÖ-Minister eine Verschiebung der Steuerreform, die den Wählern von Seiten der FPÖ versprochen worden war, beschlossen. Dies und andere Meinungsunterschiede veranlasste Haider und andere Personen des rechten Parteiflügels wie Ewald Stadler, von der Parteiführung unter der als eher liberal geltenden Susanne Riess-Passer die Einberufung eines Sonderparteitags (Knittelfelder FPÖ-Versammlung 2002) zu verlangen und dafür Unterschriften der gewählten Delegierten zu sammeln.

Die Ereignisse dieser Versammlung führten zu einem Machtwechsel innerhalb der Partei, zum Rücktritt mehrerer FPÖ-Minister, somit zum Bruch der ersten FPÖ-ÖVP-Koalition unter Bundeskanzler Wolfgang Schüssel und schließlich vorgezogenen Neuwahlen (Nationalratswahl in Österreich 2002), bei denen die FPÖ fast 2/3 ihrer Wähler verloren hat. Auch bei den meisten Landtagswahlen (außer in Kärnten) zwischen 2003 und 2005 haben die Freiheitlichen stark in der Wählergunst verloren. Ebenfalls bei den Gemeinderats- und Bürgermeisterwahlen in Kärnten 2003, Gemeinderatswahlen in Niederösterreich 2005 und später auch in der Steiermark musste die FPÖ Wähler einbüßten.

Nach der Wahlniederlage bei der Gemeinderatswahlen in Niederösterreich 2005 schlug der frühere Vorsitzender der FPÖ Jörg Haider eine Neugründung der FPÖ als "lässige, flotte und junge" Partei vor, deren Führung er "im Notfall" auch wieder zu übernehmen bereit wäre. Als dieser Vorschlag innerparteilich nicht auf ungeteilte Zustimmung stieß, und sich bei einem für den 23. April anberaumten Parteitag eine Kampfabstimmung gegen den Wiener FPÖ-Obmann Heinz-Christian Strache abzeichnete, gab er am 4. April 2005 die Gründung der neuen Partei Bündnis Zukunft Österreich (BZÖ) bekannt und erklärte, deren erster Vorsitzender werden zu wollen. Das BZÖ ersetzte daraufhin die FPÖ in der Regierung Schüssel II.

Einsätze von Hilfskräften
Eingesetzte Hilfskräfte waren in Deutschland unter anderem die Bundeswehr, die Polizei, der Bundesgrenzschutz, die Feuerwehr, die DLRG, das THW, das DRK sowie zahlreiche weitere Hilfsorganisationen. Soldaten der Bundeswehr leisteten insgesamt 270 000 Manntage Einsatz, weitere 190 000 Manntage Bereitschaft. Insgesamt waren 46.600 Soldaten am Einsatz beteiligt.

Das Elbhochwasser 2002 war seinerzeit der größte Einsatz in der Geschichte des THWs, bei dem 24.000 Einsatzkräfte mit 1.750.000 Stunden und technischem Gerät im Einsatz waren.

Der deutsche Krisenstab war zuweilen mit der Koordination der Hilfskräfte überfordert. So mussten vereinzelt ortsfremde Feuerwehreinheiten vergeblich auf die Zuweisung eines Einsatzgebietes warten.

Sonderbriefmarke
Als Herausgeber der Briefmarken in Deutschland veröffentlichte das Bundesministerium der Finanzen am 30. August 2002 außerplanmäßig eine 56-Cent-Sonderbriefmarke mit 44 Cent Zuschlag zugunsten der Hochwassergeschädigten in einer Auflage von 6.740.000 Stück. Wegen des kurzfristig realisierten Erscheinungstermins, der keine Ausschreibung für die Gestaltung eines Markenmotivs zuließ, verwendete das BMF das Motiv der 1998 erschienenen Sonderbriefmarke "Schutz der Küsten und Meere" und passte lediglich Inschrift und Wertangabe an.

Auszeichnungen
Es gab eine Reihe von Auszeichnungen für Helfer beim Einsatz gegen die Überflutungen:
 Einsatzmedaille Fluthilfe 2002
 Sächsischer Fluthelferorden 2002
 Elbeflut-Medaille des Landes Brandenburg (2002)
 Hochwasser-Medaille des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt 2002
 Hamburgische Dankmedaille (Elbe-Hochwasserkatastrophe 2002)
 Hochwasser-Medaille 2002 (Niedersachsen)

Rezeption

Film
In dem deutschen Spielfilm des MDR aus dem Jahr 2011 Stilles Tal spielt die Flut in Sachsen eine zentrale Rolle.

Siehe auch
 Liste von Hochwasser-Ereignissen
 Liste von Wetterereignissen in Europa

Literatur
 Bundesministerium der Verteidigung: Hochwasserkatastrophe im August 2002 (PDF; 9,2 MB).
 Michael M. Bechtel und Jens Hainmueller. 2011. How Lasting Is Voter Gratitude? An Analysis of the Short- and Long-Term Electoral Returns to Beneficial Policy (PDF; 434 kB) In: American Journal of Political Science 55 (4): 852–868.

 Reinhard Mechler und Jürgen Weichselgartner. 2003. Disaster Loss Financing in Germany. – The Case of the Elbe River Floods 2002. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. Luxemburg, Austria.

 Helmut Habersack, Andrea Moser (Hrsg.): Ereignisdokumentation Hochwasser August 2002. Plattform Hochwasser 02/2003, ZENAR – Zentrum für Naturgefahren und Risikomanagement, Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, i. Zsarb. m. Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft
 Hochwasser 2002, Grafenwörth – Kirchberg – Königsbrunn: Eine Text- und Bildchronik. TB SozAKTIV, ISBN 978-3-901847-07-3

Film
 Ralf Kukula und Ray van Zeschau: … man spart sich den Weg nach Venedig – kleine Friedrichstädter Flutgeschichten. BalanceFilm, 2002

Weblinks

Starkniederschläge in Sachsen im August 2002 (Vb-Wetterlage) – Deutscher Wetterdienst, Oktober 2002 (PDF; 6,0 MB)
Dokumentation des Hochwassers vom August 2002 im Einzugsgebiet der Elbe – Internationale Kommission zum Schutz der Elbe, 2004 (PDF; 40 MB)
 Ergebnisanalyse: Hochwasser August 2002 in den Osterzgebirgsflüssen – Sächsisches Landesamt für Umwelt und Geologie, Juli 2004 (PDF; 4,1 MB)
 Chronik: Die Jahrhundertflut 2002 in Sachsen und  – Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk

Einzelnachweise

Mitteleuropa
Mitteleuropa 2002
Naturkatastrophe 2002
Österreichische Geschichte (Zweite Republik)
Dresden im 21. Jahrhundert
Tschechische Geschichte (21. Jahrhundert)


Tas Gas Networks (TGN), a subsidiary of Enwave Australia, is the owner and operator of the natural gas distribution network in Tasmania. TGN provides access to natural gas for more than 58,000 properties across Tasmania.
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text:
Q: Drawing a Rotated Text to an Image in C# I'm using the the drawstring method of Graphics class to draw a String on Image.
  g.DrawString(mytext, font, brush, 0, 0);

I'm trying to rotate the text by angle using the Rotate Transform Function of the graphic object so that the text can be drawn at any angle.How can i do it using Rotate Transform.
The rotate Transform Code i used is
    Bitmap m = new Bitmap(pictureBox1.Image);
    Graphics x=Graphics.FromImage(m);
    x.RotateTransform(30);
    SolidBrush brush = new SolidBrush(Color.Red);
    x.DrawString("hi", font,brush,image.Width/2,image.Height/2);
//image=picturebox1.image
    pictureBox1.Image = m;

The Text is Drawn at a rotated angle but it is not drawn at the centre as i want.Plz help me out.

A: before g.DrawString(mytext, font, brush, 0, 0); use g.RotateTransform(45);

A: It's not enough to just RotateTransform or TranslateTranform if you want to center the text.  You need to offset the starting point of the text, too, by measuring it:
Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(pictureBox1.Image);
using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bmp)) {
  g.TranslateTransform(bmp.Width / 2, bmp.Height / 2);
  g.RotateTransform(30);
  SizeF textSize = g.MeasureString("hi", font);
  g.DrawString("hi", font, Brushes.Red, -(textSize.Width / 2), -(textSize.Height / 2));
}

From How to rotate Text in GDI+?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
July 20, 2009 | General News
N53.3B: A beneficiary`s cart before the horse
Some individuals, on the hill of Yar'Adua appointing Mrs. Farida Waziri EFCC Chairman, went to town prophesying how wonderfully she would turn the anti-graft agency to what it is supposed to be. We all have seen how 'marvelously' the EFCC is performing now.
If what the Senate Committee on Banking submitted is true, then among the vocal few that made the most noise as to the fantastic way Farida would perform, was a woman politician whose name has also appeared as one of the beneficiaries of the N53billion 'largesse' that crippled some of the dead Nigerian banks. This particular woman who had over N1billion against her name, had on President announcing Farida appointment, rushed to the media, giving testimonies on how she knew the woman of the EFCC and how she is endowed with impeccable character and penchant for fighting crime. "Mrs. Waziri will prove that women can perform better", she affirmed. Unknown to the public that she was praise-singing Farida in advance for an incubating case; in order that Farida remembers to be kind when the chips are down. You now see why I say that the beneficiary had her horse before the cart. Now that the woman politician is involved, let Farida show her 'impeccable character' (prophesied by the woman) on the case.
I thank God that it was another woman, Senator Nkechi Nwaogu (the Chairman Senate Committee on Banking and Financial Institutions) that busted the information to the public. The EFCC may have had this information with them and why they did not move into it before now should be suspect.
Chief Pius Umukoro, Effurum Road, Warri, Delta State
JULIUS BERGER: INDISPENSIBLE ONLY IN NIGERIA
Julius Berger is not the only foreign construction company in Nigeria but its name continues a common denominator in most cloudy issues. Julius Berger is known to have had more than its fair share in construction contracts in Nigeria – at federal and state levels. It was that foreign construction company once described by an international Construction Magazine as having the largest construction site in the whole world; the publication referred to the company's site in Abuja, then.
Julius Berger has been fingered in many bad deals in Nigeria, yet the government has found it difficult to suspend patronizing this firm that most Nigerians know milks us dry, with the connivance of people in some people in power.
Some of the company's alleged sins: It was figured by the National Assembly in illegal mining and exportation of our mineral resources. It was the company that took in advance billions of Naira which it kept in an interest-yielding bank account for construction of a portion of the East-West Road; they abandoned the projects for years. It was fingered as a conduit for part of the Halliburton bribe money. It was alleged by the opposition that this company was used in bribing the Judges at the Apeal Court during the Akwa Ibom governorship proceedings. Again, on pages of national dailies July 15, 2009 was the report that it was dragged to Court by the Federal Government for disrespectfully importing contrabands into Nigeria; this is the height of criminal irresponsibility. Also JB does not treat its Nigerian workers with respect.
One then is asking to know whether this Julius Berger is indispensible. Why can't Nigerian Governments create their own indigenous construction giants by empowering many abound?
Engineer Tunde Abayomi, Adeola Odekun Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.


text:
BMC Bioinformatics
The language of gene ontology: a Zipf's law analysis
Leila Ranandeh Kalankesh1, 3,
Robert Stevens1 and
Andy Brass1, 2Email author
BMC Bioinformatics201213:127
© Kalankesh et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012
Most major genome projects and sequence databases provide a GO annotation of their data, either automatically or through human annotators, creating a large corpus of data written in the language of GO. Texts written in natural language show a statistical power law behaviour, Zipf's law, the exponent of which can provide useful information on the nature of the language being used. We have therefore explored the hypothesis that collections of GO annotations will show similar statistical behaviours to natural language.
Annotations from the Gene Ontology Annotation project were found to follow Zipf's law. Surprisingly, the measured power law exponents were consistently different between annotation captured using the three GO sub-ontologies in the corpora (function, process and component). On filtering the corpora using GO evidence codes we found that the value of the measured power law exponent responded in a predictable way as a function of the evidence codes used to support the annotation.
Techniques from computational linguistics can provide new insights into the annotation process. GO annotations show similar statistical behaviours to those seen in natural language with measured exponents that provide a signal which correlates with the nature of the evidence codes used to support the annotations, suggesting that the measured exponent might provide a signal regarding the information content of the annotation.
Word Length
Pareto Distribution
Gene Ontology Annotation
Evidence Code
The gene ontology and annotation
The Gene Ontology (GO) is used extensively in biology. It provides a structured set of concepts that can be used to describe genes and gene products. These concepts are divided into three separate sub-ontologies focused on molecular function (MF), biological process (BP) and cellular component (CC) [1]. The GO has now been used to annotate many of the standard databases of genes and gene products. This annotation helps to integrate biological resources across various experimental organisms and different data bases [2–4]. The power of the GO annotation is that it allows unambiguous communication of knowledge among biologists as to the functionality of gene products, at the same time as making the biological knowledge computer-comprehensible [3, 4]. GO annotation is undertaken either manually, automatically, or by some combination of both [4]. The GO Consortium provide codes that indicate the evidence to support the association between a specific GO term and gene product (for example through sequence similarity or direct experimental support). Evidence codes should not be directly used as a measure of the annotation quality [5]; they can, however, help inform the level of belief a user might have in the GO terms assigned [6].
A number of studies have attempted to address issues of annotation quality, for example by looking at the consistency of coding between different annotators [7]. Another study introduced an Annotation Confidence Scoring system for comparing the annotation of genes and gene products to those found in a reference genome set [8]. Others have used the GO evidence codes and term depth in the GO to provide evidence of quality [9]. There is some evidence that sources annotated through manual curation are of higher quality than those annotated automatically [10] as they are the result of the combined effort of many scientists [11]. None of these methods, however, has addressed the core question of how effective the annotations are in conveying meaning to a wider biological audience. We therefore need methods that determine the extent to which annotation is meeting user requirements. Unfortunately, we have very few ways of judging whether the set of annotations produced to describe a collection of genes/gene products in a database works effectively in communicating knowledge between the annotator and the end user of those annotations.
Language and the principle of least effort
The GO provides a vocabulary used by annotators to encode information regarding gene product function, information that the wider community then need to decode. The annotation associated with a gene product can be thought of as a sentence made up of words from GO.
It has long been known that natural languages show power-law behaviour. For example Zipf's law states that for any sufficiently large corpus word frequency is approximately inversely proportional to word rank (in which words are ordered by their frequency within the text, the most common ranked first). Indeed, Zipf's law is considered as the statistical characteristic of human language [12, 13], and as a wider property of many different complex systems [14]. This pattern has even been observed in a number of extinct and undeciphered languages such as Meroitic [15], and in the mysterious encrypted 15th century Voynich manuscript [16].
If N(r) is the number of words in a text with rank r then Zipf's law can be expressed as:
N r ~ r − α
where α is the Zipf's law exponent.
There are a number of different ways in which this behaviour can be represented mathematically - power law behaviour, Zipf's law, Pareto's law - that can be demonstrated to be equivalent [17]. For example, if P (ƒ) is the proportion of words in a text with frequency ƒ then the power law can also be expressed as:
P ƒ ~ ƒ – β
It is straightforward to show that β and α are related by:
β = 1 + 1 α
For typical single author sources in English β is about 2 [18–20]. There can, however, be variations around this value. For example, in the speech of young children β is around 1.6 [21] whereas β > 2 has been found in sets of nouns taken from single author texts [22]. Almost all texts analysed have values of β in the range [1.6-2.4] [23]. Zipf further argued that the power law behaviour arose from a principle of "least effort" in communication. A communication process can be thought of as having three components; a speaker, a listener and a message. The principle of "least effort" examines the work required from the speaker and the listener in communicating a message [12, 24].
Similarly, we can view annotation as a process of communication. Consider the process of annotating the cellular location of the gene product integrin alpha8. The simplest annotation for the speaker (annotator) to produce is a frequently used (and ambiguous) term such as "cell" (GO:0002623). Such an annotation would, however, push greater effort on to the person using the annotation – the listener. The listener's job is easiest if the term used is clear and unambiguous, for example "integrin complex" (GO:0008305). This, however, requires significant effort from the speaker in identifying such rarely used GO terms.
Zipf's law and the gene ontology
In this paper we have applied methods of computational linguistics to large repositories of GO annotation data from a number of complete published genomes. The objectives are to determine the extent to which:
GO annotation from complete genomes show power law behaviour;
the exponent of the power law provides insights into the nature of the underlying annotation;
computational linguistic analysis provide insights into the annotation process.
To do this we have retrieved genome annotations from the Gene Ontology Annotation (GOA) project. In particular, the GOA data can be regarded as a gold-standard annotation set, with a significant portion that has been extensively curated by human experts.
Gene Ontology identifiers and evidence codes were retrieved from each of the genome projects covered by the Gene Ontology Annotation (GOA) project (the version published in October 2009). Table 1 shows the data sets that were obtained and the total number of annotations and distinct number of GO identifiers included in each.
Total number of annotations and the number of distinct GO identifiers for each of the data sets used in the study in terms of three separate sub-ontologies
Sub-Ontology
Total number of annotations
The number of distinct GO IDs
CC – Cellular Component sub-ontology, MF - Molecular Function sub-ontology and BP - Biological Process sub-ontology. Homo sapiens (Hs), Mus musculus (Mm), Danio rerio (Dr), Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Sc), Rattus norvegicus (Rn).
The mouse and human GOA data sets were then further sub-divided using GO evidence codes to produce eight new data sets with different levels of support from the evidence codes. A set of high confidence (HC) data were derived chosen by selecting annotations labeled with at least one of the IDA (Inferred from Direct Assay); IPI (Inferred from Physical Interaction); IMP (Inferred from Mutant Phenotype ); TAS (traceable Author Statement); EXP (Inferred from experiment); IC (Inferred by Curator); IEP (Inferred for Expression Pattern) or IGI (Inferred from Genetic Interaction) evidence codes. A set of low confidence (LC) data were derived by selecting annotations labeled with IEA (Inferred from Electronic Annotation) evidence codes. These data sets are characterized and described in Table 2.
The total number of annotations and the number of distinct GO identifiers of each of the Homo sapiens (Hs) and Mus musculus (Mm) data sets in terms of the three separate sub-ontologies by evidence code
High Confidence
Low Confidence
It can be difficult to calculate an accurate exponent for the Zipf's law exponent if the data are presented in the form of a frequency vs rank graph, particularly as the data for high rank (low frequency) terms are often noisy. By representing the data in the form of a Pareto distribution it is possible to measure the exponent much more accurately [17]. This is because the Pareto distribution is expressed in terms of the cumulative distribution frequency:
P X ≥ x ~ x − k
where the distribution shape parameter k can be converted to the Zipf's law exponent α via:
α = 1 k
and to the power law exponent β as below:
β = 1 + k
The cumulative frequency graph is well defined for all values of x, and removes the problem of noise in the low frequency terms [17].
The data on the GO identifier frequencies were therefore analysed using the Matlab packages plfit, plplot and, plpva (version 1.0.10 published in January 2010) developed by Clauset and Shalizi [25]. These packages attempt to fit a power law model to the empirical data (represented as a Pareto distribution) and determine the extent to which the data can be effectively modeled using a power law. These tools provide two statistics describing the data. The first is a P-value that is used to determine the extent to which the power law model is appropriate. If the P-value is greater than 0.1 we can regard the power law to be a plausible model of our data. The second statistic produced is β, the exponent of the power law.
Annotation and power law behaviour
Some of the most frequently used terms in the annotation data are some of the most generic (low term depth). For example the term GO:0005515 (protein binding) is typically one of the top two most frequent terms in all the MF data analysed and is only two levels down from the root of the molecular function sub-ontology. The top 25% of the most commonly used GO terms for human molecular function have an average depth of 4.6, compared with an average depth of 6.4 for the 25% least commonly used terms. A similar pattern is repeated for all the sub-ontologies in all species examined in this paper (data not shown). This difference is significant (p < 0.001 in a paired t-test), demonstrating that the most commonly used terms are typically less specific (higher in the ontology) than those which are used less frequently (deeper in the ontology).
Figure 1 shows the log-log plots of cumulative frequency vs. term rank (Pareto plots) for data from the human GOA. It can be seen from these figures that there is strong support for a power law model for these data for the annotations from all three sub-ontologies, as demonstrated in the P-values returned from the fitting software.
The cumulative distribution function Pr(x) plotted as a function of frequency (x) for GO gene annotations contained within Human GOA. The straight line shows the region of the plots for which a power law was found to provide a good model of the data [25]. 1(a) Annotation from the biological process sub-ontology, 1(b) annotation from the molecular function sub-ontology, and 1 (c) annotation from the cellular component sub-ontology The measured power law exponents, β, (were 2.04, 1.83, and 1.73 respectively. For all graphs p-value > 0.55, suggesting that the power law does provide a plausible model of the data.
Table 3 shows the results obtained for the GOA datasets as defined in Table 1. In all cases the data are well-described by a power law, with exponents in the range observed for language (1.6 < β < 2.4). By examining the results we can see that there are differences between the exponents measured for the BP sub-ontology compared with the CC and MF ontologies; the mean value of β for the GO BP sub-ontology is 2.13, for the MF sub-ontology is 1.81, and for the CC sub-ontology is 1.71. The difference between the mean values from the BP compared with the CC and MF ontologies is significant (p < 0.001). There is no significant difference between the exponents measured for the CC and MF sub-ontologies. One interesting anomaly is the value of the exponent measured for the biological process sub-ontology of D. rerio at 1.88 compared with the mean of 2.13.
Results obtained from the power law analysis of each of the data sets characterized in Table 2
β is the power law exponent and P-value is a statistic used to determine how good a model the power law is of the data. If P > 0.1 we can assume that the power law does provide a good description of the data. H. sapiens (Hs), M. musculus (Mm), D. rerio (Dr), S. cerevisiae (Sc), R. norvegicus (Rn).
The analysis was then repeated for the data-sets obtained from the mouse and human GOA data sets divided into high and low confidence evidence codes (the statistics for which are shown in Table 2). These results are shown in Table 4.
Results obtained from power law analysis of each of the data sets characterized in Table 2
β is the power law exponent and P-value is a statistic used to determine how good a model the power law is of the data. Statistically significant values are denoted in bold. The GO evidence codes used to define the high confidence (HC) and low confidence (LC) data sets are described in the materials and methods.
Again there is a clear trend visible in these results, with the low confidence data showing consistently lower exponents than the full data set, with the highest exponents being measured for the filtered high confidence data. A paired t-test analysis of data measured from the high confidence and low confidence data supports the fact that the difference in exponents between these data sets is significant (p = 0.01). It is also interesting to note that two of the annotation data sets with lower values of β have P-values < 0.1, i.e. cannot be effectively represented by a power law.
Using the data from Tables 1 and 3 it is possible to examine β as a function of both the total and distinct number of GO identifiers in each genomic annotation dataset. There is no clear correlation between the size of the data set and the power law exponent (Figure 2). This analysis includes data from a wide range of species data sets from the Ensembl database in addition to the GOA datasets.
The power law exponent, β, as a function of the total number of distinct GO identifiers in each of the GO sub-ontologies referenced in table 4 as well as a number of other species datasets taken from Ensembl.
We have used computational linguistics methods to examine a range of gene annotation data sets used to populate genome resources. In almost all cases these data sets obey Zipf's law, with exponents typical of those for human languages (Table 3). The This supports the hypothesis that the GO annotation can be thought of as a language, and that we can think of annotation as a form of communication process with the characteristics of a natural language. This then provides us with a framework in which to look at the effectiveness of the communication process using power law. For example, we have observed a real and significant difference in the power law exponents measured for annotation using the biological process sub-ontology (β ≈ 2.1) compared with that using the molecular function and cellular component sub-ontologies (β ≈ 1.8).
The measured exponent changes in a predictable and significant way as a function of the evidence codes that have been used to support annotation, but not as a function of the size of the annotation available (Figure 2). However, it is not clear that the absolute value of the exponent can be interpreted as a quality measure; for example, we would not want to state that the BP annotations are of higher quality than those done with the MF and CC ontologies. We therefore need to look more deeply into the linkage between the exponent and information transfer. For example, some insights can be drawn from work in statistical mechanics approaches to understanding the behaviour of language [26]. In this work it is hypothesised that the exponent β is proportional to the "temperature" of the communication system, where temperature is to be interpreted as a "willingness to communicate". This would therefore imply that the increase we see in the value of β as a function of the annotation source (Table 4) reflects an increasing effort in the communication process. Indeed, this observation has been made previously in a number of studies of human language, in which the value of the exponent has been somewhat controversially linked to communication effectiveness [23, 24, 27, 28]. Similarly, there is a large literature (e.g. [29]) which debates the interpretations that can legitimately me be made of the Zipf's law exponent in linguistics and the extent to which these variations provide insights into communication, whether in whistles between dolphins [30], the nature of the schizophrenic brain [31] or language in children [32]. In particular, much of this analysis has investigated the ways in which differences in language use, communication effectiveness or brain structure are reflected in the measured exponent.
An inference that might therefore be drawn as regards the differences in exponents between the various GO sub-ontologies could therefore be that the information conveyed by BP is fundamentally more complex than that described by the other two sub-ontologies, capturing the processes in which the molecule is involved, rather than a simple molecular function description, or a location in which the activity takes place. That is, we simply have more to say about process than we do about function and cellular location; the biology is more complex in processes. This might intrinsically require more "willingness to communicate" than is needed to describe aspects of molecular function or cellular component. An anomaly in this analysis is the observed low exponent for the D. rerio BP sub-ontology, from which we might infer that the information content captured in the annotation for biological processes in this model species is lower than that from the other model organisms (as reflected in the significantly smaller number of published papers on D. rerio compared to those of the other model species listed).
One key difference between this analysis and that more generally used in computational linguistics is in the variation of word length. In the GO annotation all words have the same length (the GO Identifier) whereas in natural languages word lengths can vary. A recent paper [33] has revisited one of Zipf's original observations that word length correlates inversely with frequency [34]. The key finding was that the correlation between word length and information content was better than that between word length and frequency. The analysis presented here, in the rather more controlled environment of genome annotation, has the potential to throw new light on this long-running debate in computational linguistics, as we can separate out the effects of word length and focus specifically on the information content and frequency of terms.
In principle we also believe that the straightforward computational linguistics methods we have applied to GO data in this paper should be more widely applicable to any situation in which data are described using terms from an ontology; for example, medical patient data described using terms from SNOMED-CT [35]. Indeed, we have recently observed very similar Zipf's law behaviour in a large corpus of primary care general practice data describing patients in Salford (UK) (data not shown).
In this paper we have demonstrated that computational linguistics, in the form of Zipf's law, provides a powerful and innovative framework in which to examine GO annotation. As hypothesised, the GO annotation does follow Zipf's law and there is some evidence that the exponent does provide information on the nature of the annotation; for example, it responds in a predictable way as a function of the evidence codes used to support the annotation. An unexpected finding is that the power law exponent of data described using the process sub-ontology is significantly different to that measured for data in the function and component ontologies. We do not know whether this difference is some fundamental feature of the structure of the GO sub-ontologies, the nature of the biology being communicated, or whether it reflects thought processes in the annotation teams. Such an understanding could be useful in helping improve the use of ontologies for annotation.
While other studies have focussed on consistency or depth of annotation for assessing the quality of annotation [7–9], no study has explored the nature of the annotation from the perspective of the communication of information. The method should provide a straightforward technique for assessing corpora described using terms from ontology in areas beyond just biology and bioinformatics.
There are no competing interests to this work.
LRK carried out analysis work, participated in the study design and drafted the manuscript. RS participated in the study design and helped to draft the manuscript. AB conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
Present address: Tabriz University of Medical Science, Tabriz, Iran
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Submission enquiries: bmcbioinformatics@biomedcentral.com


text:
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  <name>rosserial_msgs</name>
  <version>0.7.5</version>
  <description>
    Messages for automatic topic configuration using rosserial.
  </description>
  <author>Michael Ferguson</author>
  <maintainer email="paul.bouchier@gmail.com">Paul Bouchier</maintainer>
  <maintainer email="mpurvis@clearpathrobotics.com">Mike Purvis</maintainer>
  <license>BSD</license>
  <url>http://ros.org/wiki/rosserial_msgs</url>

  <buildtool_depend>catkin</buildtool_depend>

  <build_depend>message_generation</build_depend>

  <run_depend>message_runtime</run_depend>
</package>


text:
Game of Thrones Quotes: The Shady Edition
That's a wrap...close the curtain. The best TV show ever made (at least in my humble opinion) had its last episode a few weeks ago and it's the end of an era. In honor of this we look back at the last 8 years and reminisce. Remember "The Red Wedding"? "The Battle of the Bastards"? "The Viper vs The Mountain"? "Hold the Door"? The first time Daenerys screamed "Dracarys"? I could go on and on. We, at Conmose Central, love to write about movie and series quotes, so we thought it might be fun to look back at some of the most iconic quotes of the last 8 seasons! Of course we can not put all of them in one article, so let's make it a series. Today: the second one in the series (be sure to read the first article about Tyrion) and we look back at some of the best quotes of two men that operated in the shadows. Both are walking quote machines: I am of course talking about Lord Varys (Conleth Hill) and Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish (Aidan Gillen).
Lord Varys
- "Power is a curious thing, my lord… Power resides where men believe it resides. It's a trick, a shadow on the wall. And, a very small man can cast a very large shadow"
- "Every time a Targaryen is born, the gods toss a coin, and the world holds its breath."
- "I became an excellent thief, and soon learned that the contents of a man's letters are more valuable than the contents of his purse"
- "Influence grows like a weed. I tended mine patiently, until its tendrils reached from the Red Keep all the way across to the far side of the world, where I managed to wrap them around something very special"
- "Give us common folk one taste of power and we're like the lion who tasted man
– nothing is ever so sweet again"
- "You wish to know where my true loyalties lie? Not with any king or queen, but with the people. The people who suffer under despots and prosper under just rule, the people whose hearts you aim to win"
- "He would see this country burn if he could be king of the ashes"
- "The storms come and go, the waves crash overhead. The big fish eats the little fish and I keep on paddling..."
- "Perhaps we've grown so used to horror, we assume there's no other way."
- "The powerful have always preyed on the powerless, that's how they became powerful in the first place..."
Paetyr Baelish
- "Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb, but they refuse. They cling to the realm or the gods or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is."
- "Always keep your enemies confused. If they don't know who you are or what you want, they can't predict your next move."
- "I have always found revenge to be the purest of motivations."
-"The past is gone for good. You can sit here mourning it's departure,
or prepare for the future."
- "Brothels make a much better investment than ships I've found. Whores rarely sink"
- "Always keep your foes confused. If they are never certain who you are or what you want, they cannot know what you are like to do next. Sometimes the best way to baffle them is to make moves that have no purpose, or even seem to work against you. Remember that, Sansa, when you come to play the game.".
- "We only make peace with our enemies, my lord. That's why it's called 'making peace."
- "Money buys a man's silence for a time. A bolt in the heart buys it forever"
- "People die at their dinner tables, they die in their beds, they die squatting over their chamber pots. Everybody dies sooner or later. And don't worry about your death, worry about your life. Take charge of your life for as long as it lasts."
- "Don't fight in the north or the south. Fight every battle, everywhere, always, in your mind. Everyone is your enemy, everyone is your friend, every possible series of events is happening, all at once. Live that way, and nothing will surprise you. Everything that happens will be something that you've seen before"
tagPlaceholderTags: Liv, series, Quotes


Together with National Women's Day on October 20th, Vietnam also celebrates International Women's Day on March 8th, 2015. International Women's Day 2015 is among several occasions on which the society shows their love and respect to the Vietnamese women. Though this is not a public holiday but Vietnam Women's Day is celebrated grandly throughout the country.
Vietnamese women often receive beautiful roses, post cards, lots of gifts with the best wishes from their lovers, husbands, male colleagues, friends or relatives on Women's Day.
is celebrated on March 8 every year.
for women's economic, political, and social achievements.
primarily in Europe, including Russia.
and examined in a hopeful manner.