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Subjects -> MATHEMATICS (Total: 1013 journals)
- APPLIED MATHEMATICS (92 journals)
- GEOMETRY AND TOPOLOGY (23 journals)
- MATHEMATICS (714 journals)
- MATHEMATICS (GENERAL) (45 journals)
- NUMERICAL ANALYSIS (26 journals)
- PROBABILITIES AND MATH STATISTICS (113 journals)
MATHEMATICS (714 journals) 1 2 3 4 | Last
Abakós (Followers: 4)
Abhandlungen aus dem Mathematischen Seminar der Universitat Hamburg (Followers: 2)
Accounting Perspectives (Followers: 4)
ACM Transactions on Algorithms (TALG) (Followers: 13)
ACM Transactions on Computational Logic (TOCL) (Followers: 5)
ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software (TOMS) (Followers: 6)
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (Followers: 44)
Acta Applicandae Mathematicae (Followers: 2)
Acta Mathematica Hungarica (Followers: 3)
Acta Mathematica Sinica, English Series (Followers: 5)
Acta Mathematica Vietnamica
Acta Mathematicae Applicatae Sinica, English Series
Advanced Science Letters (Followers: 9)
Advances in Applied Clifford Algebras (Followers: 6)
Advances in Catalysis (Followers: 7)
Advances in Complex Systems (Followers: 10)
Advances in Computational Mathematics (Followers: 16)
Advances in Decision Sciences (Followers: 4)
Advances in Difference Equations (Followers: 4)
Advances in Fixed Point Theory
Advances in Geosciences (ADGEO) (Followers: 21)
Advances in Materials Science (Followers: 23)
Advances in Mathematical Physics (Followers: 6)
Advances in Mathematics (Followers: 18)
Advances in Numerical Analysis (Followers: 4)
Advances in Operations Research (Followers: 13)
Advances in Operator Theory
Advances in Science and Research (ASR) (Followers: 8)
Aequationes Mathematicae (Followers: 2)
African Journal of Educational Studies in Mathematics and Sciences (Followers: 8)
African Journal of Mathematics and Computer Science Research (Followers: 5)
Afrika Matematika (Followers: 2)
Air, Soil & Water Research (Followers: 7)
AKSIOMATIK : Jurnal Penelitian Pendidikan dan Pembelajaran Matematika
Al-Jabar : Jurnal Pendidikan Matematika
Al-Qadisiyah Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics (Followers: 3)
AL-Rafidain Journal of Computer Sciences and Mathematics (Followers: 4)
Algebra and Logic (Followers: 9)
Algebra Colloquium (Followers: 3)
Algebra Universalis (Followers: 3)
Algorithmic Operations Research (Followers: 7)
Algorithms (Followers: 15)
Algorithms Research (Followers: 2)
American Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics (Followers: 4)
American Journal of Mathematical Analysis (Followers: 1)
American Journal of Mathematical and Management Sciences
American Journal of Mathematics (Followers: 8)
American Journal of Operations Research (Followers: 6)
American Mathematical Monthly (Followers: 3)
An International Journal of Optimization and Control: Theories & Applications (Followers: 13)
Analele Universitatii Ovidius Constanta - Seria Matematica
Analysis and Applications (Followers: 2)
Analysis and Mathematical Physics (Followers: 7)
Anargya : Jurnal Ilmiah Pendidikan Matematika
Annales Mathematicae Silesianae
Annales mathématiques du Québec (Followers: 3)
Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Sklodowska, sectio A – Mathematica (Followers: 1)
Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis. Studia Mathematica
Annali di Matematica Pura ed Applicata (Followers: 1)
Annals of Combinatorics (Followers: 3)
Annals of Data Science (Followers: 17)
Annals of Functional Analysis (Followers: 2)
Annals of Mathematics (Followers: 5)
Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence (Followers: 13)
Annals of PDE
Annals of Pure and Applied Logic (Followers: 5)
Annals of the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University - Mathematics (Followers: 1)
Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics (Followers: 1)
Annals of West University of Timisoara - Mathematics (Followers: 1)
Annals of West University of Timisoara - Mathematics and Computer Science (Followers: 2)
Annuaire du Collège de France (Followers: 6)
ANZIAM Journal (Followers: 1)
Applicable Algebra in Engineering, Communication and Computing (Followers: 3)
Applications of Mathematics (Followers: 3)
Applied Categorical Structures (Followers: 5)
Applied Computational Intelligence and Soft Computing (Followers: 17)
Applied Mathematics & Optimization (Followers: 7)
Applied Mathematics - A Journal of Chinese Universities (Followers: 1)
Applied Mathematics and Nonlinear Sciences (Followers: 1)
Applied Mathematics Letters (Followers: 4)
Applied Mathematics Research eXpress (Followers: 1)
Applied Network Science (Followers: 3)
Applied Numerical Mathematics (Followers: 4)
Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy (Followers: 5)
Arab Journal of Mathematical Sciences (Followers: 3)
Arabian Journal of Mathematics (Followers: 1)
Archive for Mathematical Logic (Followers: 3)
Archive of Applied Mechanics (Followers: 4)
Archive of Numerical Software
Archives of Computational Methods in Engineering (Followers: 5)
Armenian Journal of Mathematics
Arnold Mathematical Journal (Followers: 1)
Artificial Satellites (Followers: 22)
Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research (Followers: 3)
Asian Journal of Algebra (Followers: 1)
Asian Research Journal of Mathematics
Asian-European Journal of Mathematics (Followers: 2)
Australian Mathematics Teacher, The (Followers: 7)
Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom (Followers: 5)
Australian Senior Mathematics Journal (Followers: 1)
Automatic Documentation and Mathematical Linguistics (Followers: 5)
Axioms (Followers: 1)
Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication (Followers: 2)
Banach Journal of Mathematical Analysis
Basin Research (Followers: 6)
BIBECHANA
Biomath
BIT Numerical Mathematics
Boletim Cearense de Educação e História da Matemática
Boletim de Educação Matemática
Boletín de la Sociedad Matemática Mexicana
Bollettino dell'Unione Matematica Italiana
British Journal for the History of Mathematics (Followers: 2)
British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology (Followers: 18)
British Journal of Mathematics & Computer Science (Followers: 1)
Buletinul Academiei de Stiinte a Republicii Moldova. Matematica (Followers: 3)
Bulletin des Sciences Mathamatiques (Followers: 3)
Bulletin of Dnipropetrovsk University. Series : Communications in Mathematical Modeling and Differential Equations Theory (Followers: 3)
Bulletin of Mathematical Sciences (Followers: 1)
Bulletin of Symbolic Logic (Followers: 4)
Bulletin of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Series: Physics and Mathematics
Bulletin of the Australian Mathematical Society (Followers: 2)
Bulletin of the Brazilian Mathematical Society, New Series
Bulletin of the Iranian Mathematical Society
Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society (Followers: 3)
Bulletin of the Malaysian Mathematical Sciences Society
Cadernos do IME : Série Matemática
Calculus of Variations and Partial Differential Equations (Followers: 1)
Canadian Journal of Mathematics / Journal canadien de mathématiques
Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education (Followers: 20)
Canadian Mathematical Bulletin
Carpathian Mathematical Publications
Catalysis in Industry
CAUCHY (Followers: 1)
CEAS Space Journal (Followers: 5)
CHANCE (Followers: 5)
Chaos, Solitons & Fractals (Followers: 1)
Chaos, Solitons & Fractals : X (Followers: 1)
ChemSusChem (Followers: 8)
Chinese Annals of Mathematics, Series B
Chinese Journal of Catalysis (Followers: 2)
Chinese Journal of Mathematics
CODEE Journal
Cogent Mathematics (Followers: 2)
Cognitive Computation (Followers: 3)
Collectanea Mathematica
College Mathematics Journal (Followers: 3)
COMBINATORICA
Combinatorics, Probability and Computing (Followers: 5)
Combustion Theory and Modelling (Followers: 22)
Commentarii Mathematici Helvetici (Followers: 1)
Communications in Combinatorics and Optimization
Communications in Contemporary Mathematics
Communications in Mathematical Physics (Followers: 3)
Communications On Pure & Applied Mathematics (Followers: 6)
Complex Analysis and its Synergies (Followers: 1)
Complex Variables and Elliptic Equations: An International Journal
Compositio Mathematica (Followers: 2)
Comptes Rendus : Mathematique
Computational and Applied Mathematics (Followers: 3)
Computational and Mathematical Methods
Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine (Followers: 2)
Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory (Followers: 2)
Computational Complexity (Followers: 5)
Computational Mathematics and Modeling (Followers: 8)
Computational Mechanics (Followers: 12)
Computational Methods and Function Theory
Computational Optimization and Applications (Followers: 9)
Computers & Mathematics with Applications (Followers: 12)
Confluentes Mathematici
Constructive Mathematical Analysis
Contributions to Discrete Mathematics
Contributions to Game Theory and Management
COSMOS (Followers: 1)
Cross Section (Followers: 1)
Cryptography and Communications (Followers: 11)
Cuadernos de Investigación y Formación en Educación Matemática
Cubo. A Mathematical Journal
Current Research in Biostatistics (Followers: 8)
Czechoslovak Mathematical Journal
Daya Matematis : Jurnal Inovasi Pendidikan Matematika
Demographic Research (Followers: 14)
Design Journal : An International Journal for All Aspects of Design (Followers: 35)
Desimal : Jurnal Matematika
Dhaka University Journal of Science
Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems (Followers: 3)
Differentsial'nye Uravneniya
Digital Experiences in Mathematics Education (Followers: 3)
Discrete Mathematics (Followers: 7)
Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science (Followers: 1)
Discrete Mathematics, Algorithms and Applications (Followers: 2)
Discussiones Mathematicae - General Algebra and Applications
Discussiones Mathematicae Graph Theory (Followers: 1)
Diskretnaya Matematika
Doklady Akademii Nauk
Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy
ISSN (Print) 1874-4621 - ISSN (Online) 1874-463X
Published by Springer-Verlag [2467 journals]
Spatial Effects and Associated Factors on Migration Flows of China from
Abstract: Abstract Spatial spillovers and heterogeneity are rarely discussed in the migration flow pattern analysis, despite China's vast and diverse territory. This paper used spatial interaction model to capture the spatial features and relationships between migration flows and their potential factors. We found that migration flows were significantly characterized by geographic heterogeneity, spatial dependence and spillover. Spatial effects and population size exerted a tangible influence in relation to 2005–2015 migration flows within a given region and its surroundings. Promoting an urbanization policy affected the flows in the origin and destination regions differently. These findings revealed that the attractiveness of eastern coastal regions as destinations remained stronger than that of the central and western regions. Consequently, the trend of massive eastbound migration flow remains uncurbed despite the decade of urban development in the central and western regions. These findings also suggested that urbanization in central or western China will undergo circular promotion due to the increasing urbanization level itself. Smaller gaps will strengthen the synergetic development of population migration and urbanization between the regions and their neighbors. The new-type urbanization policy should focus on diminishing the disparities between coastal and inner regions.
PubDate: 2023-01-24
Correction to: Mapping Gendered Vulnerability to Energy Poverty in Romania
The Spatial Distribution of Religious Organizations in the United States
and their Socioeconomic Characteristics
Abstract: Abstract Religious organizations play an important role in improving the standard of living for communities. In this study, we examine addresses of more than 63,000 U.S. religious organizations using publicly available non-profit 2019 data filed with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, and associated socioeconomic data from the 2014-2018 American Community Survey. Using spatial statistics methods at the county level, we find that religious organizations physically locate away (in a non-random fashion) from those of the same and different religions. Additionally, the level of spatial clustering correlates with various socioeconomic and demographic variables, reflecting economic opportunity, social needs, human development, and societal values. Higher levels of clustering are positively associated with lower incomes, higher economic inequality and higher unemployment.
Spatial Location Optimization of Fire Stations with Traffic Status and
Urban Functional Areas
Abstract: Abstract Efficient spatial deployment of urban fire stations is highly desired to address the frequent and complex modern urban fires. Various spatial location optimization approaches have been developed to site fire stations. However, most approaches ignored the impact of the traffic status and the actual demand areas of fire services in the rapid urbanization. This paper develops a multi-objective spatial optimization model to account for the traffic status with the online map and the actual demands of fire services with urban functional areas in siting fire stations. A case study in Nanjing, China is conducted to select fire stations with the developed model. Results demonstrate its effectiveness in siting fire stations and highlighting important policy implications for fire departments to ensure urban safety and resilience.
Mapping a Country Image from Global News Reports about COVID-19 Pandemic
Abstract: Abstract The outbreak of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has infected hundreds of millions of people worldwide and caused millions of deaths. This study used media analysis and correlation analysis to elucidate the significant differences in the ways in which news reports from 228 countries discussed a specific country when covering the COVID-19 pandemic. Media reports analysed in this study were collected from the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone project (GDELT). These differences were found to be deeply embedded in the economic, socio-political, and cultural contexts of different countries. The findings reinforced the hypothetical assumption in framing theory and promoted a measurable and upscaled use of framing theory into macro geography studies. This study highlights the urgent need of a geo-political examination of COVID-19 in the global context—an area with insufficient interest from interdisciplinary perspective beyond epidemiology. Further research can be of great value for the promotion of an effective international cooperation mechanism to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Delineating Walking Catchment of the Existing and Proposed Public Sports
Facilities with Open-Source Data: A Case Study of Nanjing
Abstract: Abstract Public sports facilities, featuring exercise equipment and athletic facilities as well as professional support services, serve as a critical exercising and active living hub for citizens. Regarded as a component of public welfare, their distribution usually plays an integral role in urban planning for healthy and active cities. Ensuring that these facilities are located within a reasonable walking distance is crucial for encouraging people to visit them; hence, planners must consider walking distance when evaluating the rationale for these facilities' existing and proposed distribution. Using Nanjing, China as a case study, we employed the Baidu Maps online mapping service to implement a city-scale catchment delineation of public sports facilities. We scraped the shortest walking routes between residents' homes and the public sports facilities to delineate the walking catchments, then combined population data to explore the potential gaps between demands and needs. The results revealed significant differences in service areas and potential service capabilities across the sports facilities, demonstrating spatial inequity of sports resources and an insufficient number of public sports facilities in the study area. The walking accessibility of facilities in the peripheral areas was inferior to that of facilities in the central areas, which were expected to be overloaded with a citizen population. If implemented, the proposed plan would remediate this inequity to some extent, but considerable areas outside of 15-min catchments would persist in the study area. These findings highlight the spatial inequity of sports facilities within the city, in both the existing and proposed situation, implying disparities in physical activity opportunities among citizens. Such a straightforward estimation, reinforced with a big data approach, will prove useful for planners and policymakers, although it remains rarely adopted in China for supporting active city planning, and it will be transferable to other cities as a means of rapid assessment.
Spatially Varying Intergenerational Changes in the Prevalence of Female
Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Nigeria: Lessons Learnt from a Recent
Household Survey
Abstract: Abstract Considering the concerted investments in anti-female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) campaigns championed by the Nigerian government and non-governmental organizations, research findings suggest that reduction in intergenerational (mother-to-daughter) prevalence of FGM/C in Nigeria has been very slow. What can we learn from the 2018 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey (2018 NDHS) about the roles of the key drivers of mother-to-daughter FGM/C prevalence in Nigeria' Here, drawing upon the 2018 NDHS dataset, we provided a context-specific study on the geographical patterns and the enabling factors of intergenerational trends in FGM/C among Nigerian women aged 15 – 49 years and their daughters aged 0 – 14 years. Using Bayesian semi-parametric geo-additive regression model, we simultaneously controlled for the effects of individual-level, community-level and unobserved geographical factors. We learnt that although there has been an overall decline in mother-to-daughter prevalence of FGM/C, the practice persists in Nigeria largely due to geographical location and social norm related factors – risk was high among daughters of circumcised women and daughters of women who supported the continuation of FGM/C. We identified Kano, Kaduna, Imo and Bauchi states as the hotspots and there was an increased risk of FGM/C among daughters of women who lived in the neigbouring states of Jigawa and Yobe. Daughters of circumcised women were about 2.7 times more likely to be cut. We recommend the development of tailored community-level interventions targeting circumcised women in the hotspot states and their neighbours to ensure a total eradication of female circumcision in Nigeria by the year 2030.
Assessment of Doubly Disadvantaged Neighborhoods by Healthy Living
Environment Exposure
Abstract: Abstract Good access to greenspace and healthy food has commonly been found to be positively associated with health outcomes, despite some studies finding no significant relationship between them. Examining inequalities in accessing greenspace and healthy food among different disadvantaged neighborhoods can help reveal the disadvantaged races/ethnicities in cities with a high level of residential segregation (i.e., population of the same race/ethnicity concentrated in the same neighborhoods). However, existing studies have mostly focused on measuring the inequalities in accessing either greenspace or healthy food alone, which can lead to the inaccurate depiction of disadvantaged neighborhoods in healthy living environments. Therefore, this paper aims at improving the assessment of doubly disadvantaged neighborhoods by considering accessibility to both greenspace and healthy food in the City of Chicago. Our results show that black-majority neighborhoods are the most doubly disadvantaged in terms of exposure to healthy living environments. This study can help guide policymakers to divert more resources towards the improvement of the urban environment for the most doubly disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Spatio-temporal Evolution of Tourism Development Quality under the New
Development Pattern of "Double Circulation"
Abstract: Abstract This paper constructs an evaluation system of tourism development quality (TDQ) that can reflect the new development concept from five dimensions: tourism product quality, tourism service quality, tourism economic quality, tourism social quality, and tourism environment quality. The comprehensive evaluation model of the improved "vertical and horizontal" open-level method is used to measure the TDQ in 31 provinces in China from 2005 to 2019. Combined with the model of Markov chain and hot-spot analysis, the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics are analyzed. The major findings are as follows: (1) China's TDQ tended to improve and showed a decreasing trend of "east–central–west" from 2005 to 2019. (2) Spatial factors have a certain impact on the transfer of different levels of TDQ. Moreover, a certain phenomenon of "club convergence" exists. (3) The hot spots of TDQ expanded, and the cold spots contracted, indicating increased high-level agglomeration and weakened low-level agglomeration from 2005 to 2019.
Classifying High-Speed Rail Stations in the Yangtze River Delta, China:
The Node-Place Modelling Approach
Abstract: Abstract Following the rapid expansion of the high-speed rail (HSR) network in China, transit-oriented development (TOD) has been widely introduced in HSR station areas of both large and small cities. However, as most HSR stations are new construction, some problems have emerged, e.g., over-planned station areas, airport-like stations above local demand, lack of vitality in station areas, and long distances between stations and city centers. This paper examines the HSR-TOD pattern in the Yangtze River Delta, China, with the densest HSR networks in regional China. We employed the classic node-place model through multiple data sources to classify HSR stations and examine their features. The results show that 123 HSR stations can be classified into eight clusters. Each cluster has typical development characteristics of node and place values and their relations. Given increasing cities with multi HSR stations, the classification results are further analyzed to explore the functional division of HSR stations in the city. The results show that only large cities can accommodate the primary HSR station with high node and place values, suggesting the challenges of HSR-TOD approaches in the YRD. It further highlights that the node-place relation is a dynamic process that necessitates coordinating short- and long-term station area development in the context of rapid urbanization.
Ageing in Place Classification: Creating a geodemographic classification
for the ageing population in England
Abstract: Abstract Population ageing is one of the most significant demographic changes underway in many countries. Far from being a homogenous group, older people and their experiences of ageing are diverse. A better understanding of the characteristics and geography of the older population, including the older workforce, is important. It allows policymakers and stakeholders to better adapt to the opportunities and challenges that the ageing population brings. This paper describes the implementation of the Ageing in Place Classification (AiPC) in England. AiPC is a multidimensional geodemographic classification, and it employs a wide range of spatially representative attributes of older people's sociodemographic characteristics and their living environment at the small area level. The openly available product provides valuable insights that can be implemented in both local and national contexts, in particular to improve service delivery and inform targeted policy interventions. AiPC is readily updateable with the arrival of new Census data; the concept and framework are also transferable to other countries.
Linking Historical Discriminatory Housing Patterns to the Contemporary
Alcohol Environment
Abstract: Abstract Research on alcohol outlet density consistently shows greater disparities in exposure in disinvested communities. Likewise, structural racism via discriminatory housing practices has created many of the issues that beset contemporary disinvested neighborhoods. Little work, however, has examined the relationship between housing practices and alcohol outlet disparities. The central premise of our work is that these discriminatory and inequitable practices create distinctions in the alcohol environment, and that such disparities have implications for work on alcohol policy. Here we link alcohol outlet density with a spatial database examining redlining, blockbusting, and gentrification in Baltimore, Maryland, and Flint, Michigan (two cities with common experiences of urban disinvestment over the last 50 years). Standard measures are used to account for the impacts of neighborhood racial, socioeconomic, and housing composition in a multilevel model. Our findings highlight that gentrification and redlining are strongly associated with alcohol outlet density, while blockbusting is not. Gentrification and redlining also frequently co-occur in inner-urban areas, while the more suburban phenomenon of blockbusting rarely overlaps with either. These findings further contextualize nascent work on structural racism in housing that illustrates important disparities along the lines of these distinct practices. Future work should consider how legacy impacts of discriminatory housing patterns impact our communities today.
Correction to: Why can't we be friends' The underlying hierarchy of
social connections between diverse neighborhoods
Spatially Disaggregated Assessment of Environmental Inequalities Among
Vulnerable Groups due to Urban Rainstorm Flooding
Abstract: Abstract Waterlogging caused by heavy rains, a recurring problem in cities located within floodplains having poor runoff, often results in unequal degrees of impact on the population, which can be assessed from an environmental justice perspective. This paper aims to assess the inequitable exposure of various vulnerable and deprived social groups to two events of pluvial flooding in the city of Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz (Argentina), as well as uncover possible inequities. Methodologically, a specific urban populated area is adopted as relevant zone, and a set of sociodemographic indicators by small spatial units, denoting human vulnerability and deprivation, is selected. The analysis has intensely relied on GIS and a new Local Inequity Quotient to measure which sociodemographic groups, and what parts of the city have got relative under or over-exposure to hazard. The comparison to other authors' works enables to reveal and confirm a well-known spatial pattern of negative discrimination, to assert the spatial accuracy of our results in the case studied, and to claim for the adequacy and usefulness of the method for urban management and planning, taking into account these largely disregarded environmental inequities in Latin America.
Mapping gendered vulnerability to energy poverty in Romania
Abstract: Abstract Gender inequities and their territorial impact (by a dissociate modelling of social relations) are of more and more interest for scholars, including the research studies regarding energy poverty. This paper analyzes spatial and social gender differentiations in Romania as indicators of vulnerability to energy poverty. The link between gender discrepancies and the susceptibility to energy poverty is enhanced by a series of gender-sensitive indicators and their impact in the 3181 territorial-administrative units in Romania. Spatial and statistical analyzes are, therefore, performed for indicators of vulnerable groups: age factors (population older than 75 years old; children with ages up to 4 years old), dependency indices (age dependency; economic dependency), health status (population with disabilities or limitative illnesses), employment status (unemployed, part-time employed, pensioners), or living conditions (dwellings without electricity, dwellings without heat services). The interrelations of different social axes and their territorial variations is demonstrated trough Principal Components Analysis and the results are spatialized using Multivariate Clustering, resulting vulnerability maps with a high-level of predictability. Even though results show gender discrepancies in rural areas, the female population is more prone to being energy poor due to the higher number of gender-sensitive indicators present within the same area. Based on these findings, enhancement measures can be taken for these communities so as to reduce the level of vulnerability and assure a socio-economic status beyond poverty; once the vulnerability is mapped, it is the responsibility of the local and national authorities to take action.
Decomposing the Temporal Signature of Nitrogen Dioxide Declines during the
COVID-19 Pandemic in UK Urban Areas
Abstract: Abstract On March 23, 2020, a national lockdown was imposed in the UK to limit interpersonal contact and the spread of COVID-19. Human mobility patterns were drastically adjusted as individuals complied with stay-at-home orders, changed their working patterns, and moved increasingly in the proximity of their home. Such behavioural changes brought about many spillover impacts, among which the sharp and immediate reduction in the concentration of nitrogen-based pollutants throughout the country. This work explores the extent to which urban Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) concentration responds to changes in human behaviour, in particular human mobility patterns and commuting. We model the dynamic and responsive change in NO2 concentration in the period directly following national lockdown and respective opening orders. Using the national urban air quality monitoring network we generate a synthetic NO2 concentration series built from a time series of historic data to compare expected modelled trends to the actual observed patterns in 2020. A series of pre- and post-estimators are modelled to understand the scale of concentration responsiveness to human activity and varying ability of areas across the UK to comply with the lockdown closing and response to openings. Specifically, these are linked to workday commuting times and observed patterns of human mobility change obtained from Google mobility reports. We find a strong and robust co-movement of air pollution concentration and work-related mobility – concentrations of NO2 during typical weekday commuting hours saw a higher relative drop, moving in tandem with patterns of human mobility around workplaces over the course of lockdowns and openings. While NO2 concentrations remained relatively low around the time of reopening, particularly during commuting hours, there is a relatively fast responsiveness rate to concentrations increasing quickly in line with human activity. With one of the key Government advice for workers to take staggered transportation into work and lessen the burden of rush hours and adopting more flexible work-home arrangements, our results would suggest that reductions in NO2 in urban areas are particularly responsive to broader human patterns and dynamics over time as we transitioned towards new working routines.
Inter-relationships between geographical scale, socio-economic data
suppression and population homogeneity
Abstract: Abstract Over time, technology has greatly enhanced access to vast amounts of public data in government datasets. At the same time there has been an increase in 'neighbourhood' level research, in which researchers typically select an administrative unit for their analysis. As the demand for data driven insights and decision making continues to rise, researchers face a tradeoff between data suppression (to protect the privacy of citizens) and homogeneity (the similarity of individuals within an area unit for given characteristics). In this paper, we explore the extent that different scales of geography impact data suppression and spatial homogeneity using the intra-class correlation and the D-Statistic. We use age, sex, ethnicity, education and income data from the 2013 New Zealand Census to assess a) the extent to which data are suppressed, and b) the spatial homogeneity of these variables across 5 scales of 'small area' geography available to researchers in NZ. The data used for this paper was accessed via the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), a large data repository of de-identified, linked microdata obtained from government agencies, and nationally representative surveys. The scales used in this study are the 2013 Meshblock, Statistical Area 1, Data Zone, Statistical Area 2 and Area Unit, each of which can be used to analyse patterns at the 'neighbourhood' scale. We found that Data Zones are a suitable choice for undertaking analyses of census data as they represent a'medium' scale geography designed to reduce data suppression while maintaining reasonable levels of population homogeneity. The policy implications for this research relate to zone design and decisions relating to the definition of 'a small cell count' for data dissemination for different users of sociodemographic data.
A Study on the Cooling Capacities of Urban Parks and Their Interactions
with the Surrounding Urban Patterns
Abstract: Abstract In this study, the climatic interactions between parks and the urban pattern surrounding them were investigated by sampling from two urban parks which are located in the Kadıköy district of Istanbul. Parks are very close to each other but their surrounding areas are different from each other in terms of the building density and the urban pattern. The analyses were carried out by examining the relationships between surface temperatures, distances to the park, and zones. Surface temperature/park distance correlations were examined in different zones by the bivariate method at a 0.01 significance level, and it was observed that the parks displayed different correlations in different pattern types and again each pattern type exhibited different graphics in temperature/distance scatter plots. When the results were evaluated from a climatic perspective, it was seen that a street with trees was more effective than a park area that has a weak plantation. On the other hand, the results also showed that the building geometries can cause the formation of cool islands. So, the study revealed that street planting and urban design are as important as the landscape design of park areas in terms of the cooling of the city.
Does Long-Term Air Pollution Exposure Affect Self-Reported Health and
Limiting Long Term Illness Disproportionately for Ethnic Minorities in the
UK' A Census-Based Individual Level Analysis
Abstract: Abstract Previous studies have investigated the impact of air pollution on health and mortality. However, there is little research on how this impact varies by individuals' ethnicity. Using a sample of more than 2.5-million individuals aged 16 and older from the 2011 UK census linked to 10-years air pollution data, this article investigates the effect of air pollution on self-reported general health and limiting long-term illness (LLTI) in five main ethnic groups and by country of birth in UK. The association of air pollution with self-reported health and LLTI by individual's ethnicity was examined using two levels mixed-effects generalised-linear models. Pakistani/Bangladeshi, Indian, Black/African/Caribbean, and other ethnic minorities and people born outside UK/Ireland were more likely to report poorer health and the presence of LLTI than White-group and UK/Ireland born individuals. Higher concentrations of NO2, SO2 and CO pollutants were associated with poorer self-reported health and the presence of LLTI in the UK population. Analysis by ethnicity showed a more pronounced effect of NO2, PM10, PM2.5, and CO air pollution on poor self-reported health and the presence of LLTI among ethnic minorities, mostly for people from Black/African/Caribbean origin compared to White people, and among non-UK/Ireland born individuals compared to natives. Using a large-scale individual-level census data linked to air pollution spatial data, our study supports the long-term deteriorating effect of air pollution on self-reported health and LLTI, which is more pronounced for ethnic minorities and non-natives.
Italian High-Speed Railway Stations and the Attractivity Index: the
Downscaling Potential to Implement Coworking as Service in Station
Abstract: Abstract This article introduces a methodology to evidence the current attractiveness level of Italian high-speed railway stations in a GIS environment, involving station services and flow parameters. The model has been relevant to detect stations with lower attractive capacity, and afterward, to implement the station attractivity, the work proposed employing a coworking spaces strategy as a service in station. Coworking spaces produce benefits both for the traveler and the transport company. These places became part of the services offered within railway stations since they are flow providers able to change appearance and idea of experience at station. In France, a coworking strategy has been created from the collaboration of Regus, leader company in coworking spaces supply, and the French railway group (SNCF). The Italian railway company (Ferrovie dello Stato) does not consider the attractiveness potential of coworking in the management of station resources; coworking spaces in Italy are placed outside stations. Accordingly, Torino Porta Susa station has been identified as one of the stations with low attractivity capacity from the methodology implemented, and it has been chosen as the case study to implement the coworking strategy. The choice of Torino Porta Susa is accurate also for showing the value of associating coworking as urban policies support. The coworking strategy can implement attractiveness levels and, in a long-term future perspective, encourage sustainable mobility targets.


The Wiseguys team flew out to Panorama Berlin this week.
This Trade Show is the European Marketplace For Leading Fashion Brands! They present a contemporary and relevant selection of women's and men's collections, shoes, accessories and lifestyle articles by market leading brands.
Many brands were perused by the team, and a particular favourite was La Squadra Paris, sample images of which can be found in the gallery below. This brand has now been selected to feature in the Wiseguys Stores in Spring Summer 2019.
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Q: Allow bounty immediately (or at least before 48 hours)
Possible Duplicate:
Why can't I just offer a bounty for a question right off the bat?

Some of the questions I ask get no interest or traffic and only after a bounty is offered are answers posted.  I think that questions that have no answers after some shorter time period should be allowed to have a bounty before the 48 hour timeframe.
Even if we could drop the wait to 6 0r 8 or 12 or 24 hours that would be preferable.
The arguments I have seen for similar questions against allowing immediate bounty don't really hold much water.

A: As was said in George Stocker's answer on this question

In Podcasts #26 and #34, Joel and Jeff talked about this. They didn't want a bounty to interfere with the 'normal' method of asking/answering questions. If you're allowed to offer it right away, then it has the potential to create an economy where people only focus on questions with bounties.

I think this is a perfectly valid concern. Without bounties in the first 48 hours, we have a StackOverflow economy that is based on providing timely, quality, relevant answers to questions. That is, your are gaining reputation from your peers. The community will reward your answers for their quality.
Downsides
Cash Economy
If we allow bounties in the first 48 hours, we have created a cash economy, where people will only answer the questions if the reward is rich enough. Answers with more than 5 upvotes are not that common, so the minimum bounty is higher than the rep-reward you'd get for answering a normal question.
Class System
We would also be stating that the people who have higher rep have more worthwhile questions because they can offer higher bounties on them, or at the very least, low bounties on all their questions. The goal of StackOverflow is to judge technical questions based on their technical merits, all questions should be treated equally. It shouldn't matter that the user has a high enough rep to pile his question to the top of the list.
There is no urgent tag
It has been said before. StackOverflow is not for people to come with time-sensitive questions. Most questions get answered very quickly, but it is not a guarantee and it shouldn't be relied on as such. Allowing setting a bounty in the immediate moments (or even a few hours) after posting the question is implicitly saying that this is okay behaviour. "If your question is urgent, just post a bounty on it! It will get bubbled higher than the questions of all the plebs beneath you." This is not what the bounty system is for.
The Purpose Of bounty
Bounties were created as a method to attract attention to questions which were missed on the initial run-through. The StackOverflow community did not answer the question initially, and the OP (hopefully) went through the correct steps.
In the words of the FAQ

What if I don't get a good answer?
In order to get good answers, you have to put some effort into your question. Edit your question to provide status and progress updates. Document your own continued efforts to answer your question. This will naturally bump your question and get more people interested in it.
If, despite your best efforts, you feel questions aren't getting good answers, you can help by offering a bounty.

Notice that even the FAQ says that "despite your best efforts" that means if you've waited a few hours with no response, you can't just buy your way out of it. You should still be making an honest attempt to help the site by improving your question.
Final thoughts
Bounties do not improve questions, they attract attention to questions which may have been ignored for a reason.
Bounties do not encourage equality, they say that possessing more reputation means that your questions are more worthy of being answered.
Bounties do not encourage quality, they encourage people focusing on questions with higher reward rather than the ones which are better written, and better for the community.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Dieses ist die Liste der Ministerien der Republik Palau.

Ministerien
Stand: 2015

 Ministry of Community & Cultural Affairs ()
 Ministry of Education (deutsch Ministerium für Bildung)
 Ministry of Finance (deutsch Ministerium für Finanzen)
 Ministry of Health (deutsch Ministerium für Gesundheit)
 Ministry of Justice (deutsch Ministerium für Justiz)
 Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment & Tourism (deutsch Ministerium für Natürliche Ressourcen, Umwelt und Tourismus)
 Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Industries and Commerce (deutsch Ministerium für Öffentliche Infrastruktur, Industrie und Wirtschaft)
 Ministry of State (deutsch Ministerium für Staatsangelegenheiten)

Einzelnachweise

!Ministerium
Palau
Ministerien

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Banking and finance	Corporate	Divorce and family	Employment	Immigration	Intellectual property	Litigation and arbitration	Private client	Real estate	Tax	Trust, estate and inheritance disputes
Privacy Shield replaces EU-US data transfer agreement
The EU and US have agreed a new arrangement, labelled the 'Privacy Shield', to enable the transfer of data between both regions. The new agreement replaces the 'Safe Harbour' deal, which was struck down by the European Court of Justice in October 2015.
The Safe Harbour replacement was widely anticipated and EU privacy regulators had set an unofficial 31 January for a new EU-US agreement, so the timing of the Privacy Shield announcement is not a huge surprise. While there may be some grumbles from some EU national regulators, and I can see possible legal challenges from European privacy activists, I think the new arrangement will generally welcomed by most businesses and organisations as a pragmatic solution.
It will be interesting to see what the details of the new scheme are – for example will any allowance be made for old Safe Harbour registrations to be grandfathered into the new scheme, or will businesses need to start over again?
I expect that the detailed arrangements which include a new regulatory framework, monitoring mechanisms and new Ombudsman for dealing with complaints from EU citizens will take a number of weeks to be formally adopted and implemented.
In the meantime, a number of organisations we deal with have already been busy putting in place alternative arrangements (such as 'Model Clauses') in the wake of the original Safe Harbour invalidity decision last year and these efforts should continue until the new scheme comes into force.
Category: Article

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Need to send my step-daughter somewhere to get some help for her substance abuse issues, do 12 step programs work and what should I know about the programs?
12 step programs work for so many people!!! It has been the difference between a relapse and continued sobriety for me many times. It worked for me because I went through a great treatment program first and felt equipped to work through the hardships of early recovery. In treatment, I realized what my triggers were and how to deal with them. My therapist and I made an aftercare program at the end and that's where I learned about the different kinds of 12 step programs there are. I've been going to the same home meeting for the last 2 years. I don't know if a 12-step program would be very effective on its own for severe addictions. Treatment first, then choose a 12 step program. That's the best way to help your step-daughter.
To start, 12 step programs are annonymous, free and available to anyone who has a desire to stop using drugs and/or alcohol. The programs are outlined to help people stop needing and desiring to get impaired.
Pressuring someone to do anything if they have addiction is a waste of time and energy. With that aside, 12-step programs do work if worked honestly and with full want to do so.
How do you confront an alcoholic?
How can you tell if someone smokes crack?
Can you die from molly?


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<Freestyle Frolic in Kingston this Saturday
Vassar hosts Haiti Project art sale & auction this weekend>
Crime, News
Deadly déjà vu
by Jesse J. Smith/ April 4, 2013 /Comments closed
A memorial to Derek Wood. (Photo by Phyllis McCabe)
On Nov. 30, 1994, Paul DeGraff Jr., then 23, spent a Wednesday evening drinking beer, doing shots and shooting darts with his league buddies at a bar on Broadway. His girlfriend, Debra Scism, drove him home, he told police later. Around 11:30 p.m. at his residence in Boice's Trailer Park in the Town of Ulster, there was a scuffle. Then a shot. Scism was dead with a gunshot wound behind her right ear. DeGraff spent two years of a six-year sentence following a conviction for manslaughter.
Nineteen years later on March 28, sources say, DeGraff was, as he was on that fateful night in 1994, drinking and shooting darts with his league buddies at a bar down by the Rondout Creek. Police say he got behind the wheel of 2009 black GMC Sierra pickup truck and headed for his home on Broadway in Port Ewen. At 11:25 p.m., cops say, he failed to negotiate a turn on Salem Street. This time, 18-year-old Derek J. Wood was the victim — killed by massive injuries sustained when the out-of-control truck slammed into him as he walked along the shoulder of the road.
DeGraff, a 44-year-old roofer, is in the Ulster County Jail facing vehicular manslaughter charges. Ulster County Sheriff's Investigators are still seeking information about DeGraff's movements on the night of the accident while family and friends of Wood are mourning the popular, athletic teen.
Police say they are still investigating DeGraff's activities on the night of the fatal crash. But one source familiar with the investigation said that DeGraff spent at least part of the evening playing darts at a bar in Eddyville during a league competition. From there, police believe he drove up New Salem Road and onto Salem Street in Port Ewen. Wood, meanwhile, was walking westbound, facing traffic, along the shoulder of the road. Friends say Wood, who lived with his family on Ulster Avenue in Ulster Park was going to a friend's house to play video games. According to one police source, he was just a few houses away from his destination when he was killed.
Police say the accident occurred when DeGraff failed to negotiate a curve and struck the guardrail. Cops say the truck mounted and slid along the guardrail, slamming into Wood before hitting a tree and rolling over, trapping DeGraff inside. Emergency crews transported Wood to Kingston Hospital where he died of his injuries. DeGraff was extricated from the vehicle and taken to Kingston Hospital. He was later transported to Albany Medical Center for treatment of a neck injury. A court-ordered blood test administered a short time after the accident recorded a blood-alcohol content greater than 0.18, over twice the legal limit. Authorities have declined to release the exact results of the blood test.
DeGraff was charged with first-degree vehicular manslaughter and misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief and drunken driving. He remained under guard at Albany Medical Center undergoing treatment, until March 31 when he was returned to Ulster County, arraigned in Esopus Town Court and sent to the Ulster County Jail on $100,000 bail.
If convicted of first-degree vehicular manslaughter, DeGraff faces up to 15 years in state prison. It would be his second prison stint for manslaughter. In October 1995, DeGraff was sentenced to six years in state prison for manslaughter — he served just two — in a case with eerie similarities to his present legal entanglement.
On Nov. 30, 1994 — one month almost to the day before Derek Wood's birth — DeGraff was playing with a dart league at the now-defunct Broadway tavern Suzie's Fountain. DeGraff's account of what happened next is contained in handwritten notes from an interview with police conducted two days after Scism's death at AlbanyMedicalCenter where he was recovering from a gunshot wound through his left forearm. After drinking "beer and a couple of shots" at the bar, DeGraff claimed that Scism drove him home. After that, he told cops he remembered little, except Scism sitting on the bed threatening suicide with his Glock Model 23 .40-caliber pistol.
Paul DeGraff.
DeGraff told police the gun went off after he threw the weapon across the room in an attempt to get it away from her. According to police, a single gunshot pierced DeGraff's left forearm, went through Scism's head and a wall of the trailer.
Police told a different story — one that DeGraff later admitted was the truth — that he'd fired the gun during an "argument and physical confrontation" with his girlfriend. A grand jury indicted DeGraff on a charge second-degree murder, but District Attorney Mike Kavanagh and County Court Judge J. Michael Bruhn accepted a plea deal which allowed DeGraff to plead guilty to manslaughter. Town of Ulster Police Chief Anthony Cruise, then a patrolman, said that he recalled working on the case.
"It was a domestic dispute with alcohol involved," said Cruise. "I don't think it was mishandled. The reality is that I don't think the intent was there to prove a murder charge, there was reckless indifference and intoxication."
Tagged: esopus Town of Esopus Town of Esopus Town of Esopus
Doggie wisdom
The Red Dog Party April 4, 2013 at 8:30 pm
Sad to say, but if this person was African American or Hispanic, they would have thrown away the key to his cell long ago.


This custom engraved growler features the rustic Heart sigil. Representing the complexity of the heart, and the playfulness and good luck of youth. The heart also embodies the season of summer, the power of emotions and power to control your emotions when playing the game of poker.
Keep it simple with just the Heart sigil or customize with a name or short message to make it yours. The perfect gift for the poker lover in your life.


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John Feffer, Pax Ottomanica?
[Note for TomDispatch Readers: Don't miss the latest TomCast, Timothy MacBain's "best of" compilation (including previously unreleased material) in which TD authors Bill McKibben, Rebecca Solnit, Subhankar Banerjee, and Chip Ward discuss global warming, its critics, what can be done about it, and why we should act in a state of hope. Click here to listen (or to download to your iPod or MP3 player, click here).]
You know that something strange is happening when the usual crew of neocon critics takes out after Turkey — yes, Turkey! — a country that, as Inter Press Service's Jim Lobe points out, they long cultivated and supported as a key ally and supposedly model democracy in the Islamic world. Of course, that was then. Now, Turkey's involvement in a nuclear deal with Tehran and its prime minister's outrage over the Israeli attack on a convoy bringing aid to Gaza that resulted in the deaths of nine Turks has soured them considerably on the country. In fact, the strength of the Turkish reaction — essentially a breach with Israel, once a close ally — sent the Obama administration scrambling awkwardly for a way to mollify the Turks without condemning the Israeli attack.
And don't think it's just the usual suspects on the right blaming Turkey either. The Washington Post editorial page denounced its government for "grotesque demagoguery toward Israel that ought to be unacceptable for a member of NATO," while the Christian Science Monitor typically declared it "over the top," raised the specter of "anti-Semitism," and swore that its leaders now ran "the risk of further undermining Turkey's credibility and goal of being a regional problem solver." In a news story, the New York Times offered a classic statement of the problem from Washington's perspective: "Turkey is seen increasingly in Washington as 'running around the region doing things that are at cross-purposes to what the big powers in the region want,' said Steven A. Cook, a scholar with the Council on Foreign Relations. The question being asked, he said, is 'How do we keep the Turks in their lane?'"
And which lane might that be, one wonders? It looks ever more like the passing lane on the main highway through the Middle East. Talk about a country whose importance has crept up on us. It's a country that, as John Feffer, co-director of the invaluable Foreign Policy in Focus website and TomDispatch regular, indicates, has been in that passing lane for some time now (whatever Washington may think), whether in its relations with Iran, Russia, or Iraq, among other countries. And what surprising relations they turn out to be. If one thing is clear, it's that, as American power wanes, the global stage is indeed being cleared for new kinds of politics and new combinations of every sort. The future holds surprises and, as Feffer makes clear, it will be surprising indeed if Turkey isn't one of them. Tom
Stealth Superpower
How Turkey Is Chasing China to Become the Next Big Thing
The future is no longer in plastics, as the businessman in the 1967 film The Graduate insisted. Rather, the future is in China.
If a multinational corporation doesn't shoehorn China into its business plan, it courts the ridicule of its peers and the outrage of its shareholders. The language of choice for ambitious undergraduates is Mandarin. Apocalyptic futurologists are fixated on an eventual global war between China and the United States. China even occupies valuable real estate in the imaginations of our fabulists. Much of the action of Neal Stephenson's novel The Diamond Age, for example, takes place in a future neo-Confucian China, while the crew members of the space ship on the cult TV show Firefly mix Chinese curse words into their dialogue.
Why doesn't Turkey have a comparable grip on American visions of the future? Characters in science fiction novels don't speak Turkish. Turkish-language programs are as scarce as hen's teeth on college campuses. Turkey doesn't even qualify as part of everyone's favorite group of up-and-comers, that swinging BRIC quartet of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Turkey remains stubbornly fixed in Western culture as a backward-looking land of doner kebabs, bazaars, and guest workers.
But take population out of the equation — an admittedly big variable — and Turkey promptly becomes a likely candidate for future superpower. It possesses the 17th top economy in the world and, according to Goldman Sachs, has a good shot at breaking into the top 10 by 2050. Its economic muscle is also well defended: after decades of NATO assistance, the Turkish military is now a regional powerhouse.
Perhaps most importantly, Turkey occupies a vital crossroads between Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia. A predominantly Muslim democracy atop the ruins of Byzantium, it bridges the Islamic and Judeo-Christian traditions, even as it sits perched at the nexus of energy politics. All roads once led to Rome; today all pipelines seem to lead to Turkey. If superpower status followed the rules of real estate — location, location, location — then Turkey would already be near the top of the heap.
As a quintessential rising middle power, Turkey no longer hesitates to put itself in the middle of major controversies. In the last month alone, Turkish mediation efforts nearly heralded a breakthrough in the Iran nuclear crisis, and Ankara supported the flotilla that recently tried to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. With these and other less high-profile interventions, Turkey has stepped out of the shadows and now threatens to settle into the prominent place on the world stage once held by its predecessor. In the seventeenth century, the Ottoman Empire was a force to be reckoned with, spreading through the Balkans to the gates of Vienna before devolving over the next 200 years into "the sick man of Europe."
Today, a dynamic neo-Ottoman spirit animates Turkey. Once rigidly secular, it has begun to fashion a moderate Islamic democracy. Once dominated by the military, it is in the process of containing the army within the rule of law. Once intolerant of ethnic diversity, it has begun to reexamine what it means to be Turkish. Once a sleepy economy, it is becoming a nation of Islamic Calvinists. Most critically of all, it is fashioning a new foreign policy. Having broken with its more than half-century-long subservience to the United States, it is now carving out a geopolitical role all its own.
The rise of Turkey has by no means been smooth. Secular Turks have been uncomfortable with recent more assertive expressions of Muslim identity, particularly when backed by state power. The country's Kurds are still second-class citizens, and although the military has lost some of its teeth, it still has a bite to go along with its bark.
Nonetheless, Turkey is remaking the politics of the Middle East and challenging Washington's traditional notion of itself as the mediator of last resort in the region. In the twenty-first century, the Turkish model of transitioning out of authoritarian rule while focusing on economic growth and conservative social values has considerable appeal to countries in the developing world. This "Ankara consensus" could someday compete favorably with Beijing's and Washington's versions of political and economic development. The Turkish model has, however, also spurred right-wing charges that a new Islamic fundamentalist threat is emerging on the edges of Europe. Neocon pundit Liz Cheney has even created a new version of George W. Bush's "axis of evil" in which Turkey, Iran, and Syria have become the dark trinity.
These are all signs that Turkey has indeed begun to wake from its centuries-long slumber. And when Turkey wakes, as Napoleon said of China, the world will shake.
Out of Ottomanism
Constantinople was once an Orientalist's dream. In his otherwise perceptive 1877 guide to the city, the Italian author Edmondo de Amicis typically wrote that old Istanbul "is not a city; she neither labors, nor thinks, nor creates; civilization beats at her gates and assaults her in her streets, but she dreams and slumbers on in the shadow of her mosques, and takes no heed."
Turkey's first wake-up call came from Kemal Ataturk, the modernizing military officer from Salonika who created a new country out of the unpromising materials left behind by the collapsed Ottoman Empire. Decisively ending the caliphate in 1924, Ataturk patterned his new secular state on the French model: strong central power, a modern army, and a strict division between public and private spheres. This was no easy process: Ataturk brought Turkey kicking and screaming into the twentieth century.
In many ways, that kicking and screaming continued throughout the rest of that century. The Turkish military never quite got used to civilian rule. It's seized power four times since 1960. In the 1980s and 1990s, Turkish security forces killed thousands of its own citizens in a dirty war against the Kurds and the Turkish left, and subjected many more to beatings, torture, and imprisonment. The country's leadership maintained a garrison mentality based on a fear that outsiders, aided by a fifth column, were bent on dismembering the country (as outside powers had indeed attempted to do in 1920 with the Treaty of Sèvres).
In the 1980s, however, economic globalization began to eat away at this garrison mentality as then-President Turgut Ozal attempted to reconnect Turkey to the world through export-oriented reforms and a policy of building economic bridges rather than erecting suspicious walls. During the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, for instance, Turkey refused to choose sides, remaining a friend to both countries.
In the process, Istanbul was transformed. It became the center of a laboring, thinking, and creating class that faced both westward toward Europe and the United States and eastward toward the Middle East and Central Asia. Even Central Anatolia and its key city, Kayseri, once considered a Turkish backwater, was emerging as a vital center of manufacturing. "While Anatolia remains a socially conservative and religious society, it is also undergoing what some have called a 'Silent Islamic Reformation,'" went the European Stability Initiative's influential 2005 report on Turkey's new Islamic Calvinists. "Many of Kayseri's business leaders even attribute their economic success to their 'protestant work ethic.'"
By the 1990s, the "star of Islam" — as The Economist dubbed Turkey — had gone about as far as it could within the confines of the existing Ataturk model. In 1997, the military once again swatted aside the civilian leadership in a "stealth coup," and the country seemed to be slipping back into aggressive paranoia. The Kurdish war flared; tensions with Russia over Chechnya rose; a war of words broke out with Greece over maritime territorial disputes. And Turkey nearly went to war with Syria for harboring the Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan.
But that stealth coup proved a last gasp attempt to place the uncontainable new political and economic developments in Turkish society under tighter controls. Soon enough, the military gave way again and the Islam-influenced Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, only enlarging its political base after the 2007 elections.
Zero Problems?
Throughout the twentieth century, geography had proved a liability for Turkey. It found itself beset on all sides by former Ottoman lands which held grudges against the successor state. The magic trick the AKP performed was to transform this liability into an asset. Turkey in the twenty-first century turned on the charm. Like China, it discovered the advantages of soft power and the inescapable virtues of a "soft rise" during an era of American military and economic dominance.
Led by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, a former academic who provided a blueprint for the country's new good-neighbor policy in his 2001 book Strategic Depth, Turkey pledged "zero problems with neighbors." In foreign policy terminology, Davutoglu proposed the carving out of a Turkish sphere of influence via canny balance-of-power politics. Like China, it promised not to interfere in the domestic affairs of its partners. It also made a major effort to repair relations with those near at hand and struck new friendships with those far away. Indeed, like Beijing, Ankara has global aspirations.
Perhaps the most dramatic reversal in Turkish policy involves the Kurdish region of Iraq. The détente orchestrated by the AKP could be compared to President Richard Nixon's startling policy of rapprochement with China in the 1970s, which rapidly turned an enemy into something like an ally. In March, Turkey sent its first diplomat to Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, to staff a new consulate there. Today, as journalist Jonathan Head has written, "70% of investment and 80% of the products sold in the Kurdish region [of Iraq] are Turkish." Realizing that when U.S. troops leave Iraq, its Kurdish regions are bound to feel vulnerable and thus open to economic and political influence, Ankara established a "strategic cooperation council" to sort things out with the Iraqis in 2009, and this has served as a model for similar arrangements with Syria, Bulgaria, Greece, and Russia.
Détente with Iraqi Kurdistan has gone hand in hand with a relaxation of tensions between Ankara and its own Kurdish population with which it had been warring for decades. Until the early 1990s, the Turkish government pretended that the Kurdish language didn't exist. Now, there is a new 24-hour Kurdish-language national TV station, and new faculty at Mardin Artuklu University will teach Kurdish. The government began to accept returning Kurdish refugees from northern Iraq, as well as a handful of Kurdish guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
This hasn't been an easy sell for Turkish nationalists. In December, a Turkish court banned the main Kurdish political party, and this spring the military launched repeated attacks against PKK targets inside Iraq. But the AKP is continuing to push reforms, including proposed changes in the country's constitution that would allow military commanders for the first time to be tried in civilian court for any crimes they commit.
The elimination of this demonizing of "internal enemies" is crucial to the AKP's project, helping as it does to reduce the military's power in internal affairs. Reining in the military is a top objective for party leaders who believe it will strengthen political stability, improve prospects for future integration into the European Union (EU), and remove a powerful opponent to domestic reforms — and to the party itself.
Only a little less startling than the government's gestures toward the Kurds has been its program to transform Turkish-Greek relations. The two countries have long been at each other's throats, their conflict over the divided island of Cyprus being only the most visible of their disagreements. The current Greek economic crisis, however, may prove a blessing in disguise when it comes to bilateral relations.
The Greek government — its finances disastrous and economic pressure from the European Union mounting — needs a way to make military budget reductions defensible. In May, Turkish president Erdogan visited Greece and, while signing 21 agreements on migration, environment, culture, and the like, began to explore the previously inconceivable possibility of mutual military reductions. "Both countries have huge defense expenses," Erdogan told Greek television, "and they will achieve a lot of savings this way."
If Turkey manages a rapprochement with Armenia, it will achieve a diplomatic trifecta. The two countries disagree over the fate of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, which is also at the center of a dispute between Armenia and Turkish ally Azerbaijan. Complicating this territorial issue is a long-standing historical controversy. Armenia wants acknowledgement of the Ottoman Empire's 1915 extermination campaign that killed more than a million Armenians. The Turkish government today disputes the numbers and refuses to recognize the killings as "genocide." Nevertheless, Turkey and Armenia began direct negotiations last year to reopen their border and establish diplomatic relations. Although officially stalled, secret talks between the two are continuing.
Other diplomatic efforts are no less dramatic. When Bashar Assad arrived in Ankara in 2004, it was the first visit by a Syrian leader in 57 years. Meanwhile, Turkey has cemented its relations with Russia, remains close to Iran, and has reconnected to the Balkans. This charm offensive makes Chinese efforts in Asia look bumbling.
Mediation Central
A friend to all sides, Turkey is offering its services as a diplomatic middleman, even in places where it was persona non grata not long ago. "Not many people would imagine that the Serbians would ask for the mediation of Turkey between different Bosniak groups in the Sandjak region of Serbia," observes Sule Kut, a Balkans expert at Bilge University in Istanbul. "Turks were the bad guys in Serbian history. So what is happening? Turkey has established itself as a credible and powerful player in the region."
It's not just the Balkans. The new Turkey is establishing itself as Mediation Central. Teaming up with Brazil, Turkey fashioned a surprise compromise meant to head off confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program (which the Obama administration managed to shoot down). Along with Spain, it initiated the Alliance of Civilizations, a U.N. effort to bridge the divide between Islam and the West. It also tried to work its magic in negotiating an end to the blockade of Gaza, removing obstacles to the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, bringing Syria and Israel together, resolving the brouhaha around the cartoon depiction of Mohammed, and hosting U.N. meetings on Somalia.
"Zero problems with neighbors" is a great slogan. But it's also a logical impossibility. Turkey can't embrace Hamas without angering Egypt and Israel. It can move closer to Russia only at the potential expense of good relations with Georgia. Rapprochement with Armenia angers Azerbaijan.
Nor was Ankara's attempt to transcend zero-sum thinking an easy task during the "with us or against us" years of the Bush administration. In addition, there are the periodic tensions that arise around U.S. congressional resolutions on the Armenian genocide, still a touchy issue in Turkey. Washington has indicated its growing unhappiness with Turkey's increasingly active role in the Middle East, particularly its overtures to Syria. As a result, Turkey has had to finesse its relationship with the U.S. in order to remain a key NATO ally and a challenger to American power in the region.
As with China, the United States is willing to work with Turkey on some diplomatic issues even as it finds the country's growing influence in the region a problem. In turn, Ankara, like Beijing, is trying to figure out how it can best take advantage of the relative decline in U.S. global influence even as it works closely with Washington on an issue-by-issue basis.
The greatest challenge to Turkey's zero-problems paradigm, however, is its ever more troubled relationship with Israel. The U.S.-Turkey-Israel troika was once a solid verity of Middle Eastern politics. A considerable amount of bilateral trade, including military deals, has linked Turkey and Israel, and that trade increased dramatically during the AKP era.
But Israel's 2008 invasion of Gaza — and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's subsequent excoriation of then-Israeli president Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum in Davos — began a process that is tearing these former allies apart, while boosting support for Turkey in the Arab world. In October, Turkey cancelled Israel's participation in a military exercise, throwing lucrative military contracts between the two countries in jeopardy. In the wake of the recent Gaza-aid debacle in international waters, the rift threatens to become irreparable. When Israeli commandos seized a flotilla of ships attempting to break the Gaza embargo, killing nine Turkish citizens, Turkey spoke of severing diplomatic relations.
With Israel increasingly isolated and American mediation efforts seriously compromised, only Turkey is emerging stronger from what can now only be seen as the beginning of a regional realignment of power. Once viewed with suspicion throughout the area where the Ottomans ruled, Turkey may now be the only power that has even a remote chance of one day brokering peace in the Middle East.
Return to Ottomanism?
Neo-Ottomanism is not exactly a popular phrase in Turkey today. The leadership in Ankara wants to be clear: they have no intention of projecting imperial power or reestablishing the modern equivalent of the Ottoman caliphate. However, if you look at the friendships that Turkey has cultivated and the trade relations it has emphasized — Syria, Armenia, Greece, Palestine, Iraq, Libya, the Balkans — you can see a map of the old Ottoman empire reassembling itself.
In other words, just as the AKP has turned geography to its advantage, so it is transforming an imperial albatross into the goose that lays golden eggs (in the form of lucrative trade deals). In a similar way, China has tried to revive its old Sinocentric imperial system without stirring up fears of the Chinese army marching into India or the Chinese navy taking over the South China Sea, even as it — like Turkey — also establishes friendly relations with old adversaries (including Russia).
Still, even this amiable version of neo-Ottomanism can raise hackles. "We want a new Balkan region based on political values, economic interdependence, and cooperation and cultural harmony," Foreign Minister Davutoglu said nostalgically at a conference in Sarajevo in October. "That is what the Ottoman Balkans was like. We shall revive such a Balkan region… The Ottoman centuries were a success story, and this should be revived." A furor followed among some Serb commentators, who viewed this romanticized version of history as evidence of a Turkish desire to Islamicize the Balkans.
What Turkey means by its vision of Balkan harmony may prove critical in the context of European integration. The Ottomans and Western Europe fought a succession of wars over control of the Balkans. Today, the E.U. and Turkey compete for influence in the region, and much hangs on Turkey's prospects for joining the 27-member European organization. Although Turkey began the process of meeting requirements for joining the Union, the talks stalled long ago. In the meantime, some European leaders like French Prime Minister Nicholas Sarkozy have spoken out against Turkish membership, while the spread of Islamophobia throughout Europe has dimmed what enthusiasm may still exist for bringing Turkey on board.
In Turkey as well, public support for membership has declined from 70% in 2002 to just over 50% today. In fact, Turkey's turn toward the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa has in part been a reaction to the fading of the E.U. option. Fine, the Turks are saying, if you don't want us, we can play with others.
And play they have, particularly when it comes to the energy game. If oil had been discovered in its territory just a little sooner, some form of the Ottoman Empire might have survived as the wealthiest energy player in history. The riches of Iraq, Kuwait, and Libya all once fell within the territorial limits of its empire.
Today, Turkey lacks energy wealth, but has worked assiduously to ensure that a maximum number of oil and natural gas pipelines flow through the country. Europe and the United States have funded a series of pipelines (like the Nabucco pipeline from the Caspian Sea) that use Turkish territory to bypass Russia and lessen Moscow's ability to blackmail Western Europe by threatening to withhold energy supplies. Turkey hasn't stopped there, however. It negotiated directly with Russia for another set of pipelines — the South Stream, which goes from Russia to Bulgaria through Turkish territorial waters, and the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline that would transport Russian and Kazakh oil from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean through Turkey.
Turkey now relies on Russia for 60% of its energy imports and Iran for another 30%. In this sense, "zero problems with neighbors" could just as easily be understood as "zero problems with energy suppliers."
Turkey is also a builder. Of the top 225 international contractors, 35 are Turkish, second only to China. Like China, Turkey asks no difficult questions about the political environment in other countries, and so Turkish construction companies are building airports in Kurdistan and shopping malls in Libya. Despite political tensions, in 2009 they were even involved in nine projects worth more than $60 million in Israel.
Finally, there is culture. Like the Confucian institutes China is establishing all over the world to spread its language, culture, and values, Turkey established the Yunus Emre Foundation in May 2009 to administer cultural centers in Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Egypt, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Israel. Turkish schools have sprung up in more than 80 countries. Turkish culture has also infiltrated Middle Eastern life through television, as Turkish soap operas spread the liberal cultural values of moderate Islam. "The Turkish soaps have been daring and candid when it comes to gender equality, premarital sex, infidelity, passionate love, and even children born out of wedlock," writes journalist Nadia Bilbassy-Charters.
Beyond Ottomanism
Turkey's leaders may not themselves be comfortable with the neo-Ottoman label — in part because their ambitions are actually much larger. Their developing version of a peaceful, trade-oriented Pax Ottomanica takes in Turkey's improved relations with sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific. Turkey declared 2005 the "year of Africa" and accepted observer status in the African Union. In 2010, it has already opened eight embassies in African countries and plans to open another 11 next year.
At the pan-Islamic level — and a Turk, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, now heads up the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, the leading international voice of Islamic states — Turkish leaders think in terms of the ummah, the global Muslim community. For some critics, Turkey's Islamic character and its ruling Islam-influenced party — as well as its recent attacks on Israel — suggest that the country is on a mission to reestablish, if only informally, the Islamic caliphate. In the most extreme version of this argument, historian of the Middle East Bernard Lewis has argued that Turkey's fundamentalism will strengthen to such an extent that, in a decade's time, it will resemble Iran, even as the Islamic Republic moves in the opposite direction.
This is, however, a fundamental misunderstanding of the AKP and its intentions. Islamism has about as much influence in modern-day Turkey as communism does in China. In both cases, what matters most is not ideology, but the political power of the ruling parties. Economic growth, political stability, and soft-power diplomacy regularly trump ideological consistency. Turkey is becoming more nationalist and more assertive, and flexibility, not fundamentalism, has been the hallmark of its new foreign policy.
In 1999, Bill Clinton suggested that if Ankara launched a reformist movement, the twenty-first century could be "Turkey's century." Turkey has indeed heeded Clinton's advice. Now, Europe and the United States face a choice. If Washington works with Turkey as a partner, it has a far greater chance of resolving outstanding conflicts with Iran, inside Iraq, and between the Palestinians and Israelis, not to mention simmering disputes elsewhere in the Islamic world. If the European Union accepts Turkey as a member, its economic dynamism and new credibility in the Muslim world could help jolt Europe out of its current sclerosis. Spurned by one or both, Turkey's global influence will still grow.
By all means, get that Lenovo computer, buy stock in Haier, and encourage your child to study Mandarin. China can't help but be a twenty-first-century superpower. But if you want to really be ahead of the curve, pay close attention to that vital crossroads between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. It won't be long before we'll all be talking Turkey.
John Feffer is the co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, writes its regular World Beat column, and co-directs its Balkans Project. His past essays, including those for TomDispatch.com, can be read at his website. He would like to thank Alexander Atanasov, Rebecca Azhdam, and Noor Iqbal for research assistance.
Copyright 2010 John Feffer
John Feffer, a TomDispatch regular, is the author of the dystopian novel Splinterlands and the director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies. His latest novel is Frostlands, a Dispatch Books original and volume two of his Splinterlands series. He is the author of the just-published book The Pandemic Pivot (Seven Stories Press).


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Film Composer
Articles - Editing
Tim Molloy
John Ottman
While he considers himself a composer, it's hard to ignore John Ottman's achievements in film editing. But he edits only for director Bryan Singer, whom he met at USC Film School. Ottman's cut all Singer's films—except for X-Men (due to a scheduling conflict)—including the Sundance-winning Public Access, The Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil and X2.
MM caught up with Ottman while he was finishing up the scoring for this summer's Fantastic Four, and just about to fly to Australia for the upcoming Superman Returns.
Alison Veneto (MM): What is your working relationship like with Bryan Singer?
John Ottman (JO): As much as I have at times resented that he can be off partying or at endless social events as I sit with the ball and chain around my ankle, I realize I wouldn't have it any other way. I would hate it more if he were breathing over my shoulder. So he visits every few days to see cuts. He lets me pick takes because him telling me he likes one over another may limit some vision I have of the scene; he wants me to be as objective as possible and tell the story in a way he may not expect.
MM: At this point in your editorial career you've only edited films for Singer and yourself. Would you edit for someone else?
JO: Well, you never say never. But, um, never. If my scoring career took a nosedive, it would be a good back-up job to have in my back pocket. But I just love writing film scores and, frankly, editing a film for a year causes me to pass up a lot of scoring work, which is frustrating both creatively and monetarily. I end up unavailable for relationships I've established. Besides, editors don't make royalties for their work, which I think is insane. The writers, producers and director do, but not the guy who it all boils down to? It all collapses without the editor.
MM: You've done the music for all the films you've edited. Do you think about that in the editing process?
JO: I'd like to say I'm this genius who is hearing the score take shape in my head as I'm cutting, but it's not the case. I think I subliminally make room for big musical moments and, by nature of telling stories musically, it influences the drama behind my editing. But I wear an editing hat for a few months and then there is this gray transitional area (the most agonizing) where I have both hats on. For a few weeks I'm able to mostly just wear the composer's hat.
MM: Do you find it's harder to cut something with an ensemble cast like The Usual Suspects or something more intimate like Apt Pupil?
JO: Ensemble is harder, for sure—especially if many characters are in the same scene. You want to keep them all alive in the room. I really want to keep driving home their personalities and utilizing their reactions in fun ways, which is a lot of decisions to make while allowing the flow of the narrative to be clear. The only saving grace is that you certainly have more options to cut away to when in need.
Having said that, just having two characters in a room can be a challenge in keeping the scene interesting and engaging. Even the slightest eyebrow movement can make the difference.
MM: What leads to your choices in editing—the actor's beats, the shot choice, the script?
JO: Well, it's always a bit of all of those. But I would say that, editorially, I'm often most inspired and guided by the eye movements of the actors. How they look and focus on their counterpart inevitably inspires my cuts—or lack thereof. Also, if an actor is weak, this issue takes editorial precedence over all else. I'll redesign the logic of a scene if I have to just to get a performance to work better. If a character feels phony or forced, I feel I've failed in my mission, no matter how exciting the scene is itself.
MM: Who are some influences for you in your editing?
JO: I can't say I really have a succinct influence, except for what I may have absorbed watching Empire Strikes Back 12 times in the theater when it came out, and watching every Spielberg film over and over. Those are great editors to absorb! When I began editing myself, it was just instinct.
Once this began, I did take notice of Thelma Schoonmaker's editing. In a scene outside the courthouse in The Usual Suspects, I had a cigarette continuity nightmare that I ended up completely ignoring in lieu of just making the scene flow emotionally. Months later I remember watching Goodfellas on TV and realized Thelma had done the same thing with a telephone and a cigar. So I felt in good company.
I'd say I get a lot of my sensibilities from the era of filmmaking I like best, which is the '70s. I tend not to like editing masturbation, where you show a car exploding from 17 different angles for a minute. This just immediately takes me out of the scene in terms of "being there." Over-editing also tells me that the filmmakers are less confident about their story and material and need to distract us from the truth by making the film feel snazzy. Just tell the story. I love montage (obviously), as long as it's a way of communicating something that couldn't be said better any other way. It's a taste thing. But the bottom line is the more believable you can make a situation, the more you'll keep the interest and respect of the audience.
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Tips For Finding A Serrurier In Paris.
When in Paris, you may find yourself in need of a serrurier Paris or a locksmith. If you have accidentally locked yourself out of your apartment or lost your keys, then a locksmith will come in handy. Here are tips for getting a locksmith in Paris.
There are numerous lists for locksmiths. Choose the one nearest to you and check their prices. If there are any additional fees, ensure you ask the locksmith before they start the job to avoid misunderstandings. Always compare prices to ensure you get good services. Some of the cheap services may be of low quality.
Two, you can ask from a neighbor.
They will probably have used a locksmith so they may have an idea of how to get one. Ask them how they felt the services were provided so you can settle for the best locksmith. You can also take the name and search for the locksmith online to see what their customers say about them. Many businesses have a social media page where clients leave comments about the services they received.
If your apartment building has a caretaker, then you can also ask them if they are aware of any locksmith. Most of the time they use the locksmiths to open doors in case of emergency or even strengthen locks . This means there is a likelihood that they will know a locksmith in the area.
Once you have found a locksmith, you should also check if they have these qualities before you hire them.
Experience is always best in this case. Some locks can be quite complicated to open and if the job is done wrong, then you may end up with a door that is completely damaged. This will cost you more in repairs. An experienced locksmith will be able to tell the right way to deal with the problem and do so with the least damage to the lock. They will ensure that it can still be used. A damaged lock is also risky so they will check that it still works properly.
A locksmith needs to be available whenever the customer needs them to be. Most situations that require a locksmith usually find the customer in need of urgency. This means that a locksmith should be available if they are called so that they can take care of the problem immediately. This said, it is important to hire a locksmith who is near your place so that you do not have to wait hours before help comes. In case the services are far, they should have proper means of transport to ensure that they get to you as fast as possible.
Most locksmith services have emergency numbers on their website. You should hire a locksmith who is able to provide emergency services no matter what time of the day it is.
A locksmith should be completely trustworthy seeing as how they will be dealing with privacy of their customers. Some locksmiths also provide security systems and installation. This means that they will need to be vetted to ensure they are completely legit. Hiring an untrustworthy locksmith can be dangerous as you are putting yourself and your property at risk.
This goes hand in hand with their ability to be trusted. If the locksmith has a good reputation, it means that you can trust the services provided to be the best. If you come across a number of previous customers complaining, then it means you should look somewhere else.
Using these tips, you should be able to get the best locksmith in Paris.
If you are selling any kind of goods or services, but you do not have an online store, it's safe to say that you are missing out on a significant piece of revenue. Almost everyone has an online store nowadays; however, simply creating one does not mean that money will start to pour in all of a sudden.
How to Find the Correct Marketing Strategy for Your Small Business: Eight Common Issues that Every Business Faces.


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The "Burning Man" Singer Dierks Bentley Turns 43 Today
Following his fantastic performance of "Burning Man" with Brothers Osborne at the CMA Awards last Wednesday (Nov. 14), Dierks Bentley is up for something more personal at this time. For sure, many of his fans do not forget today is his birthday. If you've been reminded by this just now, go ahead, find a way to send him your birthday greetings and best wishes.
The singer, born Frederick Dierks Bentley on November 20, 1975, just turned 43 and life seems to be getting more fun for him. While Bentley did not win any of his nominations at the 2018 CMA Awards (Album of the Year, Musical Event of the Year, and Male Vocalist of the Year), he's still lucky to receive three nods from the voting members. Moreover, after having ended his 2018 Mountain High Tour last month, the "Woman, Amen" singer is preparing again for his upcoming tour. His Burning Man Tour with Jon Pardi and Tenille Townes will kick-off January 17 next year.
Photo credit: Dierks Bentley's official website
A Few Things About the Birthday Celebrator
Dierks Bentley hails from Phoenix, Arizona and is one of the few natives from that state to make it in the Country Music Capital of the World. His primary purpose in moving to Nashville was to finish college. He went on doing odd jobs while refining his musical skills. Eventually, he ended up signing with Capitol Nashville in 2003. That same year, he released his eponymous debut album. To date, the singer already has nine studio albums, his latest The Mountain was out last June.
At least 15 of Bentley's 25 charting singles reached the top. His first-ever hit was "What Was I Thinkin'" earning him his first No. 1 record on Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. To some, the song remains Bentley's greatest hit up to the present. The up-tempo ballad was co-penned by Bentley with Deric Ruttan and Brett Beavers. He was known for recording original songs. Additionally, his bluegrass influence continues to be a significant element of his country music brand. Whenever possible, the singer tries blending it with his materials. Likewise, the lyrical content of his songs is oftentimes light but deeply personal.
Bentley is married to Cassidy Black and blessed with three kids – Evie, Jordan, and Knox.
To help celebrate Bentley's birthday, let's listen to his first top country hit below.
birthday, Burning Man, Dierks Bentley, Woman Amen
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Meet Robert Lee Parton And How His Life Inspired Dolly Parton
Recollecting the Life of a True Outlaw, Johnny Paycheck
Celebrating Dierks Bentley's 44th Birthday Today
Today: AI 3rd Placer and Country Icon, Danny Gokey, Turns 37
A 1950s Classic: "Am I That Easy To Forget" by Carl Belew
Johnny Cash's Website Gets a Full Makeover with more Information About the Singer
Raise your 'Coal Miner's' Hand if you're Excited for Loretta Lynn's Return


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IRISH CUP: Coleraine boss out to make it a day to remember
Oran Kearney. Pic by PressEye Ltd.
It is all or nothing now for Coleraine FC as they bid to reach their first Irish Cup final in almost a decade.
The Bannsiders lost out to Linfield in their last showpiece final in 2008, with Oran Kearney featuring for the Blues that day.
Now as Bannsiders boss, Kearney is determined to lead his side to the final and cup glory.
"It's a big carrot for us to get to the final especially with so many young players and also so many players whose career hasn't brought the rewards they deserve," he told Times Sport.
"Days like that are days to be remembered and ones which you build careers around.
"In our changing room there are a lot of good young players but there's also a lot of good experienced pros like Neil McCafferty and David Ogilby who have been such great servants to the Irish League for so many years.
"For them it would be vitally important to get into that showpiece final as well."
The Bannsiders are going into Saturday's game with Glenavon in great form having defetaed Crusaders 1-0 to make it 14 games unbeaten.
And Kearney says excitement is building among the players.
"We had put a lid on it until after the Crues game," he said, "We had three big games in the last week to get out of the way first.
"Now that we have done that we will rest up as there was a lot of energy used today, but we'll get back at it during the week and get ready for Saturday."