Thursday, January 31, 2008


Dardic languages The Dardic languages are the languages of the Dard people, various ethnic groups living in Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan. The languages form a subfamily of the Indo-Iranian languages.

Divisions into sub-groups

Dard people
Nuristani languages

Wednesday, January 30, 2008


The themes or themata (Greek θέματα; singular θέμα thema) of the Byzantine Empire were administrative units established by a reform promulgated by Emperor Heraclius in the 7th century.

Reasons for Heraclian reforms
The new system of settling military units in vacant lands and thus strengthening local loyalties to the state greatly helped the Byzantine Empire. Over the next several decades, the Sassanids retreated, the Slavs and Avars were reduced, and rebellions became far less common. The new military structure rescued the Empire from destruction and gave it a durability that would last for centuries. However, there was a price to be paid, in terms of a militarization of society and a decline of civil institutions and civil culture; for this reason, the introduction of the themes is often seen as marking the end of Late Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages for the Eastern Roman Empire.
The theme system, in time, created aristocratic families such as the Phocades, deeply entrenched in their local area, and deploying what amounted to private armies. These families, having troops loyal to them instead of the emperor and being financially autonomous, often challenged or even usurped imperial authority.

Theme (Byzantine administrative unit) Organization of themata
Each of the original five themata was formed from the Empire's earlier mobile field armies. As the empire had shrunk, most of the armies had retreated to newer stations in the interior. Heraclius assigned each mobile army a part of Anatolia. Because the language of the empire was also being changed from Latin to Greek, the themes acquired Hellenized names.
The Opsician theme was formed from the armies in the Emperor's presence, which had lately been known as the Obsequium (retinue). The armies in the Emperor's presence had been stationed in southern Thrace and northwestern Anatolia, near the capital of Constantinople, and this was where the Opsician Theme was formed.
The Army of Armenia became the Armeniac theme, stationed in most of its original territory in eastern Anatolia, to the west of the Armenian protectorate. The Army of the East, which had formerly defended Roman Syria and Palestine, retreated when those areas were lost first to the Persians and later to the Arabs. They were settled in central Anatolia and became the Anatolic theme. The Army of Thrace became the Thracesian theme, settled in western Anatolia where Heraclius had withdrawn it. Emperor Constans also created a corps of marines, the Carabisian theme, named after a Greek word for ship (karabis) and based in Greece, in the Aegean islands and on the southern shore of Anatolia. This appears to have been formed from the remains of the Army of Illyricum, whose territory had included Greece. Early in the eleventh century, the Byzantine annexation of several Georgian and Armenian lands resulted in the creation of the theme of Iberia, which eventually collapsed under the Seljuk attacks in the 1060-70s.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Dunstall Hill
Dunstall Hill is an inner-city area of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. It is located on the north of the city centre within the St Peter's ward.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Matt Kinney
Matthew John Kinney (b. December 16, 1976 in Bangor, Maine) is a Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He is currently in the minor league system of the San Francisco Giants. Kinney is a graduate of Bangor High School.

Minnesota Twins (2000, 2002)
Milwaukee Brewers (2003-2004)
Kansas City Royals (2004)

Saturday, January 26, 2008


Reform Movement redirects here. For specific organizations by that name, see Reform Movement (disambiguation)
A reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society rather than rapid or fundamental changes. Reformists' ideas are often grounded in liberalism, although they may be rooted in utopian, socialist or religious concepts. Some rely on personal transformation; others rely on small collectives, such as Mahatma Gandhi's spinning wheel and the self sustaining village economy, as a mode of social change. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary movements. Reactionary movements, which can arise against any of these, attempt to put things back the way they were before whatever successes of the new movement(s), or prevent any such successes in the first place.

Social reform United States reform movements of the 1840s - 1930s

Main article: La Reforma

Friday, January 25, 2008


Agricultural cooperative Building cooperative Credit union Consumers' cooperative Cooperative banking Cooperative federation Cooperative union Cooperative wholesale society Housing cooperative Mutual insurance Retailers' cooperative Social cooperative Utility cooperative Worker cooperative Voluntary and open membershipHousing cooperative Democratic member control Member economic participation Autonomy and independence Education, training, and information Cooperation among cooperatives Concern for community Anarchism Cooperative federalism Owenism Socialism Social enterprise Socially responsible investing
Robert Owen William King The Rochdale Pioneers G. D. H. Cole Charles Gide Beatrice Webb Friedrich Raiffeisen David Griffiths List of cooperatives List of cooperative federations International Co-operative Alliance Co-operative Party
A housing cooperative is a legal entity - usually a corporation - that owns real estate; one or more residential buildings. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit, sometimes subject to an occupancy agreement, which is similar to a lease. The occupancy agreement specifies the co-op's rules.

Ownership
In larger co-ops, members of a co-op typically elect a board of directors from amongst the shareholders at a general meeting, usually the annual general meeting. In smaller co-ops, all members sit on the board.
The board typically elects its own officers, such as a president, vice-president and so on. Usually, the directors are volunteers, or are paid an honorarium. The board may then establish standing committees from among the shareholders, who usually also volunteer their time, to either handle the business affairs of the co-op or make recommendations to the full board on such issues as its finance, membership and maintenance of its housing units.

Management
A housing cooperative is normally de facto non-profit, since usually most of its income comes from the rents paid by its residents, who are invariably its members. There is no point in creating a deliberate surplus—except for operational requirements such as setting aside funds for replacement of assets—since that simply means that the rents paid by members are set higher than the expenses. (Note, however, that it's quite possible for a housing co-op to own other revenue-generating assets, such as a subsidiary business which could produce surplus income to offset the cost of the housing, but in those cases the housing rents are usually reduced to compensate for the additional revenue.)
It is relatively difficult to start a housing co-op because if the idea is, for instance, to build a building or group of buildings to house the members, this usually takes a significant mortgage loan for which a financial institution will want assurances of responsibility. It may also take a year or more for the members to organize the design and construction, as well as time and foresight to establish even basic organizational policies. It is rare that these kinds of skills of organization are available in a random group of people who often have pressures on their existing housing. It may be somewhat easier to organize a group of closely related housing units. This opportunity may arise, for example, if an existing apartment building's owner is thinking about selling it.
There are housing co-ops of the rich and famous: John Lennon, for instance, lived in a housing co-operative, and most apartments in New York City that are owned rather than rented are held through a co-operative rather than via a condominium arrangement.
There are two main types of housing co-operative financing methods, market rate and limited equity. With market rate, the share price is allowed to rise on the open market and shareholders may sell at whatever price the market will bear when they want to move out. In many ways market rate is thus similar financially to owning a condominium, with the difference being that often the co-op carries a mortgage, resulting in a much higher monthly fee paid to the co-op than would be so in a condominium. The purchase price of a comparable unit in the co-op is typically much lower, however.
With limited equity, the co-op has rules regarding pricing of shares when sold. The idea behind limited equity is to maintain affordable housing. A sub-set of the limited equity model is the no-equity model, which looks very much like renting, with a very low purchase price (comparable to a rental security deposit) and a monthly fee in lieu of rent. When selling, all that is re-couped is that very low purchase price.

Finance
In the United States, housing co-ops are usually categorized as corporations or LLCs and are found in abundance in the Greater New York metropolitan area, and more precisely within New York City itself, Westchester County, New York (which borders the city to the north) and towns in New Jersey that are immediately across the Hudson River from Manhattan, such as Fort Lee, Edgewater, or Weehawken. Unlike in other parts of the world, most of these housing co-ops did not develop as a result of social engineering. Apartment buildings and multiple-family housing simply make up a more significant share of the housing stock in the New York City area than in most other US cities, and the cooperative form of ownership has dominated over the condominium form. Reasons suggested to explain why cooperatives are relatively more common than condominiums in the New York City area are In the USA
However, multiple person cooperative models exist all over the country. Artist, student and community co-operatives are common in the San Francisco Bay Area. Many of these housing co-operatives are members of organizations such as NASCO.
Student-owned and -operated housing co-operatives were formed primarily for economic reasons to provide low-cost housing to university students. Secondarily, they generally provide experience in self-governance and social cooperation. The earliest examples began in the Depression years. Two of the first on record were founded in 1932, Michigan Socialist House at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Collegiate Living Organization (University of Florida) in Gainesville, Florida.
Examples of such cooperatives are Berkeley, California; Irvine, California; Santa Cruz; Chicago, Illinois; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Oberlin, Ohio; East Lansing, Michigan; Stanford; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Austin, Texas; Providence, Rhode Island; Olympia, Washington; Eugene, Oregon; Ithaca, New York; West Lafayette, IN; Worcester, MA; Princeton, New Jersey; and Buffalo,NY.

Student housing cooperatives
Housing co-ops in Canada take on many different forms. In Ontario, there are co-ownership, equity and occupant-run co-ops.
Co-ownership co-ops are generally older apartment buildings, incorporated before the Ontario Condominium Act, 1973 came into existence, where shareholders each own one voting share in the corporation that owns the building and have a registered right to occupy individual units as described on their share certificate. Most of these types of co-ops date from the thirties, forties and fifties and are in the city of Toronto. They are similar to condominiums, in that units may be bought and sold by private sale or on the open market. Until relatively recently, these units tended to be bought by older people with home equity who could buy the unit outright, as it was difficult to get a mortgage against these units. However, a number of Ontario credit unions are now offering limited financing, provided that that individual co-op corporations meet their fiscal standards, making these units affordable housing options for younger buyers. Incoming owners must be approved by the building's Board of Directors, and agree to abide by building bylaws and Occupancy Agreements.
Equity co-ops are buildings in which individuals purchase a percentage share tied to the square footage of their unit. More credit unions will offer financing against them than against co-ownerships. They are a relatively new form of construction, designed to encourage owner occupancy by having the building's corporation hold back a percentage of the unit's share equity to ensure owner occupancy.
Then there are co-ops that provide all the privileges of ownership except for the right to make (or lose) money on a primary residence and are run by the people who live there.
The federal and provincial governments in Canada developed legislation in the 1970s that aided potential co-ops by providing start-up funding and financing through mortgages via an agency called the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The government simultaneously began to encourage the development of resource groups to contract with fledgling boards of directors of housing co-ops to develop co-operatives either in turnkey buildings or buildings designed and constructed by architects and builders with which the board contracted to deliver the service. Supervised by the board, the resource groups marketed the units to suitable members, educated them about their rights and obligations as co-operators, and established a management structure which usually included paid staff. These organizations helped in forming initial policies and holding the organization together while all the necessary work is done.
The federal government tied its loan assistance to requirements that these housing co-ops provide a percentage of their units, usually at least 15 to 20 per cent, for what are termed income-tested residents. These people voluntarily provide information to the co-op on a confidential basis about their gross income, and their rent is calculated according to a formula. If the calculated rent is less than the market rent of the units, then the federal government, through another formula, would provide funding to those units to bring their unit revenue up to the market rate. This produced mixed-income co-op housing, in which relatively well-off people lived side-by-side with relatively low-income people and worked with them on committees. This often had the ripple effect of improving the financial health of those less well-off. (It's interesting to note that, depending on your political point of view, such government payments for offsetting the rent could be considered subsidy of the low-income people, or a contractual business arrangement between the government and the co-op which helps to stabilize revenue to the co-op in exchange for accomplishing a social goal for the government for a specific period. This dichotomy is typical of the fact that a housing co-op is somewhere between a corporation and a social agency, and where one places it depends on one's viewpoint -- and the collective viewpoint of each housing co-op.)
Political will dissipated in Canada in the 1990s, however, as other issues occupied politicians and financial belt-tightening by the governments reduced the funds available for the mortgages. In 2004 and 2005, however, the political winds shifted back towards the idea of developing more low-income housing. However, not-for-profit housing co-operatives are committed to the mixed-income concept and have not been able to make much use of the few opportunities that have come available in recent years.Also, the term of many of the government agreements concerning funding for housing subsidies are coming to an end, provoking a debate in individual co-ops and the co-op movement on the extent to which co-ops should continue to be mixed-income forms of housing.
In Canada, there are associations of housing co-operatives. The major one is the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada (CHF Canada). Most provinces have similar organizations for their area, but many are stand-alone members of the CHF Canada, as opposed to being branches of it. Each such organization charges its member co-operatives a fee based on the number of housing units in the co-op to pay for staff to do its work. This includes lobbying governments, setting up self-help funding and the like. These organizations do not act for individual members, and do not give members advice when the member encounters problems with the Board of their co-op. In most jurisdictions there are no organizations for members of housing co-operatives, in contrast with tenants in a traditional landlord-and-tenant relationship, who can be assisted by various tenant advocacy groups.
In Ontario, the eviction of members of a housing co-operative is governed by special rules set out in the Co-operative Corporations Act. The Board of Directors of the co-operative initiates the process by sending the member a notice to appear, requiring her to attend at a Board meeting at which her eviction will be considered. If the Board votes to evict, the member has a right of appeal to the membership as a whole. In order to enforce the eviction, the Board must bring an application to a judge of the Superior Court, on which occasion the member has the opportunity to present her case to the judge; the judge considers whether the eviction process was conducted fairly and in accordance with due process, and has a residual discretion to refuse the eviction should the judge consider it fair to do so, notwithstanding the decision of the Board. Sometimes this hearing is conducted like a trial, with oral evidence from both sides, while at other times it is conducted based only on written documents submitted to the court; the practice varies from judge-to-judge and courthouse to courthouse, and there is no consensus on the proper procedure or what right a member has to be heard. This process is different from evictions of rental tenants, which proceed in Ontario before a specialized tribunal and in which the tenant is always entitled to an oral hearing. The standard of deference that judges should show to the decisions of Boards is a controversial and unresolved issue in the law, with various cases taking seemingly inconsistent positions on the issue.
A co-operative housing project can resemble a traditional apartment building, or it can be the basis of an intentional community.
"Building co-operatives" ("self-build housing co-operatives" in British parlance, which distinguishes them from worker co-operatives in the building trade) are formed by members who cooperate to build their homes but own their houses on completion. Building co-ops were extremely popular across Canada from the 1930s to the 1960s.

In Canada
There are several hundred housing co-operatives in Britain, and most are "par value" rental co-operatives, meaning that the tenants have no equity share in their house or flat. They may or may not be "fully mutual" meaning that all tenants are members and vice versa. They are normally incorporated as industrial and provident societies. While many housing co-operatives occupy permanent accommodation, there has also been a significant sector of "short life" housing co-operatives, especially in London where rents are high. These are formed to alleviate homelessness by making use of empty housing while it is waiting for redevelopment - akin to a form of legalised squatting.
A registering body and support network for housing co-ops, workers co-ops, social centres and land co-ops is Radical Routes. Radical Routes also produce a booklet called 'How to set up a housing co-op' which is free to download from their website or can by purchased by mail order.
A representative body for Britain's housing co-operatives is the Confederation of Co-operative Housing (CCH).
The government grant aids some housing co-operatives via its social housing agency the Housing Corporation.
Secondary housing co-operatives - co-operatives of co-operatives - may be formed to help with the legal procedures of buying and renovating property.

In the UK
In Finland co-op membership is the prime form of real estate and home ownership.
Except for a very limited number of co-ops that follow the strict Rochdale Principles of one vote, all Finnish co-ops are incorporated as (non-profit) limited-liability companies (asunto-osakeyhtiö).
Membership of a co-op is obtained by buying the shares on the open market, most often through a real estate agent. No board approval is needed to buy shares. In some older co-operatives old members have the right of pre-emption, i.e. the right to buy the shares at the set market price.
Neither is there any requirement for members to live in the co-operative. Owning of apartments for rent is a common form of saving and private investment.
The first housing cooperatives were built around 1900, many of them in the Helsinki neighborhood of Katajanokka, in the national romantic Jugend style. Initially many co-ops were set up by the future members themselves, often workers or artisans in the same trade. By the 1920s co-op founding was the business of professional real estate developers. After WW II nationwide non-profit developer organizations were formed and a system of government provided loans (ARAVA) was introduced. Sale of shares in co-ops with state loans were restricted by limited equity rules for 50 years, the price of the shares was limited by an index.
The Finnish model of the housing co-op was also the basis of the modern U.S. co-ops, as the first cooperative the Finnish Home Building Association in Brooklyn was started in 1918 by Finnish immigrants. [1] [2]

Sweden

Thursday, January 24, 2008


Windows Internet Explorer 7 is a web browser released by Microsoft in late 2006 for Windows Vista and XP SP2. It is a proprietary graphical web browser. It is part of a long line of Internet Explorer versions and the first major version of IE in over 4 years, coinciding with a dip in market share of the previous version and the release of Windows Vista.

Internet Explorer 7 Overview

On January 31, 2006, Microsoft released a public preview build (Beta 2 preview: Pre-Beta 2 version) of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (not for Windows Server 2003 SP 1) on their web site. It stated that more public preview builds (possibly Beta 2 in April) of Internet Explorer 7 will be released in first half of 2006, and final version will be released in second half of 2006. New features and changes
*Internet Explorer 6 SP2 is only available as part of a standalone Windows XP SP2. **Old version will not install on system with new version.

IE7 and Windows adoption capability
Release history of Internet Explorer. Service packs are not included unless significant.



Notes

History of the Internet
MSN Explorer
Internet Explorer shell
List of web browsers
Comparison of web browsers
Browser timeline
History of Internet Explorer

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Flag of Zambia
The flag of Zambia was adopted in October 24, 1964. It was slightly modified in 1996.
The green on the flag stands for natural resources and the red symbolizes the struggle for freedom, the black for the people of Zambia, and the orange for mineral wealth. The eagle represents the people's ability to rise above the nation's problems.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008


Part of a series on Hindu scriptures
Rigveda · Yajurveda Samaveda · AtharvavedaVyakarana Divisions Samhita · Brahmana Aranyaka · Upanishad
Aitareya · Brihadaranyaka Isha · Taittiriya · Chandogya Kena · Mundaka · Mandukya Katha · Prashna · Shvetashvatara
Shiksha · Chandas · Vyakarana Nirukta · Jyotisha · Kalpa
Mahabharata · Ramayana
Smriti · Śruti Bhagavad Gita · Purana Agama · DarshanaVyakarana Pancharatra · Tantra · Sutra Stotra · Dharmashastra Divya Prabandha Tevaram · Akhilathirattu Ramacharitamanas Shikshapatri · Vachanamrut
The Sanskrit grammatical tradition of vyākaraṇa is one of the six Vedanga disciplines. It has its roots in late Vedic India, and includes the famous work, Aṣṭādhyāyī, of Pāṇini (ca. 5th century BC).
The impetus for linguistic analysis and grammar in India originates in the need to be able to obtain a strict interpretation for the Vedic texts. The work of the very early Indian grammarians have been lost; for example, the work of Sakatayana (ca. 8th c. BC) is known only from cryptic references by Yaska (ca. 7th c. BC) and Panini. One of the views of Sakatayana that was to prove controversial in coming centuries was that most nouns are etymologically derivable from verbs.
In his monumental work on etymology, Nirukta, Yaska supported this claim based on the large number of nouns that were derived from verbs through a derivation process that became known as krit-pratyaya; this relates to the nature of the root morphemes.
Yaska also provided the seeds for another debate, whether textual meaning inheres in the word (Yaska's view) or in the sentence (see Panini, and later grammarians such as Prabhakara or Bhartrihari). This debate continued into the 14th and 15th c. AD, and is relevant even today perhaps, with the debate on the Dynamic Turn in Semantics, which says that meaning in language is dynamically created and it may not be possible to compose the meaning from those of the words.

Medieval Accounts

Modern Sanskrit grammarians

Jean Francois Pons
Henry Thomas Colebrooke
August Wilhelm von Schlegel
Wilhelm von Humboldt
Dimitrios Galanos 19th century

Bernhard Geiger
Leonard Bloomfield
Paul Thieme
Louis Renou
Herman Buiskool
Bimal Krishna Matilal
Johannes Bronkhorst
George Cardona
Madhav Deshpande
SD Joshi
Paul Kiparsky
Frits Staal
Michael Witzel
Kshetresa Chandra Chattopadhyaya
Vagish Shastri
Sri Sribhuti Krishna Goswami
Sri Pundrik Goswami

Monday, January 21, 2008

Jochem Uytdehaage
Jochem Simon Uytdehaage
Jochem Simon Uytdehaage (born July 9, 1976 in Utrecht) is a former Dutch long track speed skater and two-time Olympic champion. He retired in 2007 at the age of 30, following two consecutive seasons of poor results. [1]
He was born on 9 July 1976 in Oog in Al, Utrecht, Netherlands.
In November 2001, he stepped on the podium for the first time. He didn't know that 2 and a half months later he would be the most successful skater of the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympic Games.
He was the 2002 European all-round champion. During the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, he won the gold medal in the 5,000 and 10,000 meter events and the silver in the 1,500 meter event. His winning time on the 10,000 meter was 12:58.92, the first that a skater had broken the 13 minute barrier on this distance. His time on the 5,000 meter of 6:14.66 was also a world record. His 10,`000m record stood for an impressive three years, when it was broken by both Carl Verheijen and Chad Hedrick on the same day (with Verheijen's time being slightly faster than Hedrick's). [2]
Uytdehaage has led the long track speed skating Adelskalender from 2001 until November 13, 2005, when Chad Hedrick (USA) overtook him.
In December 2005, at the Dutch Olympic Trials in Heerenveen, Uytdehaage failed to qualify for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

Sunday, January 20, 2008


Randleman is a city in Randolph County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 3,557 at the 2000 census. It is the home of NASCAR's Petty family, the Richard Petty museum, and PEI Motorsports.

Geography
The town was originally named Dicks for a Peter Dicks who built a mill there around 1830. Later, a cotton mill was built in Dicks, and the town was renamed Union Factory. Randleman was the next name chosen, in 1866. The town's namesake was John B. Randleman, a mill owner. The town was incorporated as Randleman Mills in 1880; the name was later changed to Randleman.

Demographics
The American Towers Tower Randleman is a guyed mast for TV transmissions with a height of 586.4 metres.

Randleman, North Carolina Sources

Official website of Randleman, NC

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Nedžad Sinanović
Nedžad Sinanović (born January 29, 1983 in Zavidovići, SFR Yugoslavia (present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina)) is a Bosnian professional basketball player playing the position of center for Real Madrid Baloncesto in the top Spanish League.
In 2003, Sinanović was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers as the 54th overall selection of the 2003 NBA Draft.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse is the pairing of opposite-sex (or hermaphroditic internal fertilization animals) for copulation. The primary biological purpose of sexual intercourse is the creation of offspring.
Copulation is the union of the sex organs of two sexually reproducing animals for insemination and subsequent internal fertilization. The two individuals may be of opposite sexes or hermaphroditic, as is the case with, for example, snails.
In humans, unlike most animals, sex may or may not be related to reproduction. In most cases people have sex for pleasure; this behaviour is also seen in some animal species, for example chimpanzees are known to have sex when the female is not fertile, presumably for pleasure, which in turn strengthens social bonds.
Instinct of a male to have sex plays major role in sexual intercourse, in turn in reproduction posit three potential advantages of intercourse in humans, which are not mutually exclusive: reproductive, relational, and recreational. While the development of the Pill and other highly-effective forms of contraception in the mid- and late 20th century increased peoples' ability to segregate these three functions, they still overlap a great deal and in complex patterns. For example: A fertile couple may have intercourse while contracepting not only to experience sexual pleasure (recreational), but also as a means of emotional intimacy (relational), thus making their relationship more stable and more capable of sustaining children in the future (deferred reproductive). This same couple may emphasize different aspects of intercourse on different occasions, being playful during one episode of intercourse (recreational), experiencing deep emotional connection on another occasion (relational), and later, after discontinuing contraception, seeking to achieve pregnancy (reproductive, or more likely reproductive and relational).


Main article: Oral sex

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Home Retail Group
The Home Retail Group (LSEHOME), formerly Argos Retail Group, headed by Terry Duddy, is a holding company for the UK retailers Argos, Homebase and the financial services division for both companies, including HOME Financial Services, comprising of HOME Card Services (handling store cards such as the Argos Card and Homebase Card), HOME Insurance Services (handling in the store extended warranties and accidental damage insurances) and HOME Card Transactions (handling processing of in-store EFTPOS transactions).
Home Retail Group is the UK's leading home and general merchandise retailer with sales of over £5.5 billion in the last financial year. It sells products under two retail brands, Argos and Homebase, which are household names in the UK. Argos is a unique multi-channel retailer recognised for choice, value and convenience and is the UK's leading seller of general merchandise. Homebase is the UK's second largest home improvement retailer and is recognised for choice, style and customer service across the wider home enhancement market.
Home Retail Group employs approximately 51,000 people, has almost 1,000 stores throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland and serves over 200 million customers a year.
Home Retail Group was demerged from its parent company, GUS plc, with effect from Tuesday 10 October 2006. Shares in Home Retail Group were admitted to the Official List and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's market for listed securities on Wednesday 11 October 2006 at 8am.
As of 24 September 2007.
3i · Alliance & Leicester · Anglo American · Antofagasta · Associated British Foods · AstraZeneca · Aviva · BAE Systems · BG Group · BHP Billiton · BP · BT Group · Barclays Bank · Barratt Developments · British Airways · British American Tobacco · British Energy Group · British Land Company · British Sky Broadcasting Group · Cable & Wireless · Cadbury Schweppes · Capita Group · Carnival · Carphone Warehouse · Centrica · Compass Group · DSG International · Daily Mail and General Trust · Diageo · Enterprise Inns · Experian · Friends Provident · GlaxoSmithKline · HBOS · HSBC · Hammerson · Home Retail Group · ICAP · ITV · Imperial Chemical Industries · Imperial Tobacco · InterContinental Hotels Group · International Power · INVESCO · Johnson Matthey · Kazakhmys · Kingfisher · Land Securities Group · Legal & General · Liberty International · Lloyds TSB · Lonmin · Man Group · Marks & Spencer · Mitchells & Butlers · Wm Morrison Supermarkets · National Grid · Next · Northern Rock · Old Mutual · Pearson · Persimmon · Prudential · Punch Taverns · Reckitt Benckiser · Reed Elsevier · Rentokil Initial · Resolution · Reuters Group · Rexam · Rio Tinto Group · Rolls-Royce Group · Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance · Royal Bank of Scotland Group · Royal Dutch Shell · SABMiller · Sage Group · J Sainsbury · Schroders · Scottish & Newcastle · Scottish & Southern Energy · Severn Trent · Shire Pharmaceuticals Group · Smith & Nephew · Smiths Group · Standard Chartered Bank · Standard Life · Tate & Lyle · Taylor Wimpey · Tesco · Tullow Oil · Unilever · United Utilities · Vedanta Resources · Vodafone · WPP Group · Whitbread · Wolseley · Xstrata · Yell Group

Wednesday, January 16, 2008


Acontinae Lygosominae Scincinae (probably paraphyletic) For genera, see below.
Skinks are the most diverse group of lizards. They make up the family Scincidae which shares the superfamily or infraorder Scincomorpha with several other lizard families, including Lacertidae (the "true" or wall lizards). Scincidae is the largest of the lizard families with about 1,200 species.

Description
Skinks are generally omnivores and largely eat insects. They also eat spiders, earthworms, isopods, other lizards, and small rodents. Some species, particularly those favored as home pets, have a more varied diet and can be maintained on a regimen of roughly 60% vegetables/leaves/fruit and 40% meat and meat products.

Diet
Skinks are found in a variety of habitats worldwide. Some species are endangered.
Many species are good burrowers. There are more terrestrial or fossorial (burying) species than arboreal (tree-climbing) or aquatic species. Some are "sand swimmers", especially the desert species, such as the Mole skink in Florida. Most skinks are diurnal, so they are active during the day. They like to crawl out on rocks or logs to bask (soak up heat from the sun) during the day.

Skink Gallery
Many large genera, Mabuya for example, are still insufficiently studied, and systematics is at times controversial, see e.g. the taxonomy of the Western Skink (Eumeces skiltonianus).

Ablepharus
Acontias
Acontophiops
Afroablepharus
Amphiglossus
Androngo
Anomalopus
Apterygodon
Asymblepharus
Ateuchosaurus
Barkudia
Bartleia
Bassiana
Brachymeles
Caledoniscincus
Calyptotis
Carlia
Cautula
Chabanaudia
Chalcides
Chalcidoseps
Coeranoscincus
Cophoscincopus
Corucia
Cryptoblepharus
Cryptoscincus
Ctenotus
Cyclodina
Cyclodomorphus
Dasia
Davewakeum
Egernia
Emoia
Eremiascincus
Eroticoscincus
Eugongylus
Eulamprus
Eumeces
Eumecia
Euprepes
Eurylepis
Feylinia
Fojia
Geomyersia
Geoscincus
Glaphyromorphus
Gnypetoscincus
Gongylomorphus
Gongylus
Graciliscincus
Haackgreerius
Hemiergis
Hemisphaeriodon
Isopachys
Janetaescincus
Lacertaspis
Lacertoides
Lacertus
Lamprolepis
Lampropholis
Lankascincus
Larutia
Leiolopisma
Leptoseps
Leptosiaphos
Lerista
Lioscincus
Lipinia
Lobulia
Lubuya
Lygisaurus
Lygosoma
Mabuya
Macroscincus
Marmorosphax
Melanoseps
Menetia
Mesoscincus
Mochlus
Morethia
Nangura
Nannoscincus
Neoseps
Nessia
Niveoscincus
Notoscincus
Novoeumeces
Oligosoma
Ophiomorus
Ophioscincus
Pamelaescincus
Panaspis
Papuascincus
Parachalcides
Paracontias
Paralipinia
Parvoscincus
Phoboscincus
Plestiodon
Prasinohaema
Proablepharus
Proscelotes
Pseudoacontias
Pseudemoia
Pygomeles
Riopa
Ristella
Saiphos
Saproscincus
Scelotes
Scincella
Scincopus
Scincus
Scolecoseps
Sepsina
Sigaloseps
Simiscincus
Sphenomorphus (probably paraphyletic)
Sphenops
Tachygia
Tiliqua
Tribolonotus
Tropidophorus
Tropidoscincus
Typhlacontias
Typhlosaurus
Voeltzkowia

Tuesday, January 15, 2008


 - to the north  - to the east  - to the south  - to the west
Belmont Rangitoto Channel Waitemata Harbour Stanley Bay
Devonport is a seaside suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. Its population is about 10,000.
It is located on the North Shore, at the southern end of a peninsula that runs south from near Lake Pupuke in Takapuna, extending five kilometres into the Waitemata Harbour. At the south-eastern end of the peninsula is North Head, the northern promontory guarding the mouth of the harbour. Directly opposite it on the south shore is Bastion Point. To the east it is separated from Rangitoto Island by the Rangitoto Channel. The Devonport Museum is located by Mt. Cambria.

History
The first ferry services to Auckland city began in the 1840s These were open sailing cutters operated by local seamen running passengers to the foot of Queen Street Auckland's main road. In 1860 the first paddlesteamer ferries began operation.

Devonport Ferries
Between the wharf and Mt Victoria is located the Devonport shops, the most prominent landmarks of which are:
Recently, in July 2007, Devonport was given permission to be excluded from a list of local Auckland growth node centres. The Auckland Regional Council accepted that while it was encouraging intensified growth (such as higher-density housing) around transport nodes such as Devonport, the character and historical nature of the Devonport Wharf area would make such a designation inappropriate in this case. Devonport, New ZealandDevonport, New Zealand Notable people
Auckland City viewed from the top of Mount Victoria, Devonport
Devonport on a Misty Morning
Devonport Waterfront with a large Pohutukawa tree

Monday, January 14, 2008

grow up cos something

觉得自己以前好极端,朋友总觉得我好悲观,论调凡事向五好的方向去捻.对她们的解释系:"当你发生左甘多事,你会觉得我价值观的灰暗系有原因噶.但系其实凡事系应该往好噶方面捻噶,甘先会有好噶心态去应急,去面对同解决一切.人生是什么,原来最近我先明白,当我知道,当我了解,当我变乖,但daddy已经憔悴了.很累很累.我长大了,知道原来责任就是这样来的,才知道社会的阴险比学校的黑暗来的透彻,来的利落和毫无余地...是会直接威胁到生命抑或生活.我出生在一个其实很平凡,但确又因为爸爸妈妈总是给予我最风光的,让我看似我比有钱人还有钱还幸福的生活,其实自我懂事开来,我知道我的家庭其实很普通,一日三餐温饱.有屋住,虽然还要一直供,一直还.但爸爸一拿到工资,二话不说就带我们出去吃饭,游玩.所以我的小世界很充裕很幸福,但是以前不懂事的我总是冲动,让家里人付出不必要的操心.我不懂尊重父母的,但是我很爱很爱他们,多过我自己的生命,因为我身体里面留住我爸爸妈妈的血液,所以我们都不属于自私的人,我们很老实,不懂人情世事,所以总是心安理得.我老豆很了不起,他的胸襟可以比作圣人,卑人骗都可以吞得进去,记得以前他总是会对我说:"帮你们两姐弟积德.我就会好样衰甘讲:"屁啦,我五信呢点野,特别系好五中意世人所讲噶"善有善报,恶有恶报."因为我觉得好像我老豆,我爷爷甘好的人竟然都无乜好野,总是被人找笨.作为一个比较"崇洋"的年轻人,我就宁愿骗我自己我选择信耶酥都好过迷信.但系巾帼好多野之后我发觉人的生命真的好脆弱,有好多科学并不可以解决噶野.当然多少同我看左有关方面的节目或者接受宗教活动的听闻有好大关系啦.但我好相信人间有情,有我们无办法解释噶野.SO,我有用心去领悟我周围的一切.我知道我父亲的遭遇同我有不可避免的直接联系,所以我要背起我一直不愿意接受我系个大人的责任.但我最近确是真真确确的发现我的心有了好大的变化,尤其系我的思想.我知道我有责任,一直都有.

呢种心情只有我自己系最深刻体会噶.希望在明天.我希望明天将我噶所有希望都卑塞有需要的人.保佑我的家人.God bless you all.

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Political sociology is the study of power and the intersection of personality, social structure and politics. Political sociology is interdisciplinary, where political science and sociology intersect. The discipline uses comparative history to analyze systems of government and economic organisation to understand the political climate of societies. By comparing and analysing history and sociological data, political trends and patterns emerge. The founders of political sociology were Max Weber (Germany) and Moisey Ostrogorsky (Russia).
There are four main areas of research focus in contemporary political sociology:
The field also looks at how major social trends can affect the political process, as well as exploring how various social forces work together to change political policies. Political sociologists apply several theories to substantive issues. Each theory claims to be comprehensive, but actually has a few areas of strength because it was developed to address specific issues and operates at one levels of analysis.
Three major theorical frameworks are pluralism, elite or managerial theory and class analysis which overlaps with Marxist analysis. Pluralism sees politics primarily as a contest among competing interest groups. A leading representative is Robert Dahl. Elite managerial theory is sometimes called a state-centered approach. It explains what the state does by looking at constraints from organizational structure, semiautonomous state managers, and interests that arise from the state as a unique, power concentrating organization. A leading representative is Theda Skocpol.
Social class theory analysis emphasizes the political power of capitalist elites. The theory emerged from Marxism in the 1850s based primarily on the premise economic exploitation of one class by another. It split into two parts: one is the power structure or instrumentalist approach, another is the structuralist approach. The power structure approach focuses on Who Rules? and its most well-known representative is G. William Domhoff. The structuralist approach emphasizes how the very way a capitalist economy operates only allows and encourages the state to do some things but not others. Its best known representative was Nicos Poulantzas. Important innovations in the field come from the French Pragmatism and particularly from the Political and Moral Sociology elaborated by Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot

The socio-political formation of the modern state.
"Who rules"? How social inequality between groups (class, race, gender, etc.) influences politics.
How public personalities, social movements and trends outside of the formal institutions of political power affect politics, and
Power relationships within and between social groups (e.g. families, workplaces, bureaucracy, media, etc).