Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Jubilee (Biblical)Jubilee (Biblical)
For other uses, see Jubilee (disambiguation) The Jubilee (Hebrew Yovel יובל) year, is the year at the end of a seven cycles of Sabbatical years, and according to Biblical regulations had a special impact on the ownership and management of land, in the territory of the kingdoms of Israel and of Judah; there is some debate whether it was the 49th year (the last year of seven sabbatical cycles), or whether it was the following 50th year. The English term Jubilee derives from the Hebrew term yobel (via Latin:Jubilaeus), which in turn derives from yobhel, meaning ram. The biblical rules concerning Sabbatical years are still observed by many religious Jews in the State of Israel, but the regulations for the Jubilee year have not been observed for many centuries.

Origin and purpose

Jewish holidays
Jubilee (Christian)
Bank holiday
New Deal

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Negligence is a legal concept usually used to achieve compensation for accidents and injuries. Negligence is a type of tort or delict and a civil wrong, but can also be used in criminal law. Negligence means conduct that is culpable because it misses the legal standard required of a reasonable person in protecting individuals against foreseeably risky, harmful acts of other members of society. Negligent behavior towards others gives them rights to be compensated for the harm to their body, property, mental well-being, financial status, or relationships. Negligence is used in comparison to acts or omissions which are intentional or willful. The law of negligence at common law is one aspect of the law of liability. Although resulting damages must be proved in order to recover compensation in a negligence action, the nature and extent of those damages are not the primary focus of this discussion.

Elements of negligence claims

Main article: Duty of care Breach of duty

Main article: Causation (law) Factual causation
Sometimes factual causation is distinguished from 'legal causation' to avert the danger of defendants being exposed to, in the words of Cardozo J, "liability in an indeterminate amount for an indeterminate time to an indeterminate class." The wife of a policeman, Mrs Jaensch suffered a nervous shock injury from the aftermath of a motor vehicle accident although she was not actually at the scene at the time of the accident. The court upheld in addition to it being reasonably foreseeable that his wife might suffer such an injury, it also required that there be sufficient proximity between the plaintiff and the defendant who caused the accident. Here there was sufficient causal proximity.

Legal causation or remoteness
Even though there is breach of duty, the negligence suits will not be successful unless there is provable injury. The plaintiff/claimant must have suffered loss or damage flowing naturally from the breach of the duty of care if damages are to be awarded. The damage may be physical (e.g. personal injury), economic (e.g. pure financial loss), or both (e.g. financial loss of earnings consequent on a personal injury), reputational (e.g. in a defamation case), or in relationships where a family may have lost a wage earner through a negligent act. In English law, at least, the right to claim for purely economic loss is limited to a number of 'special' and clearly defined circumstances, often related to the nature of the duty to the plaintiff as between clients and lawyers, financial advisers, and other professions where money is central to the consultative services.
Emotional distress has been recognized as compensable in the case of negligence. The state courts of California allowed recovery for emotional distress alone — even in the absence of any physical injury.

In civil law systems (as opposed to Common Law) such those found in continental Europe, Quebec, and Puerto Rico, negligence is classified as a form of extra-contractual responsibility, sometimes called a quasi-delict in distinction to the more willful delicts within the conceptual framework of the law of obligations. There are some differences in the comparable laws of negligence in civil law jurisdictions, but the basic principles of delict and quasi-delict are similar albeit established by courts applying the inquisitorial system rather than the adversarial system. So investigative judges or magistrates will interview all parties and witnesses, and then prepare reports to be submitted to a panel of judges for final decision. That decision may also be appealed several levels through a judicial hierarchy.

Procedures and law in civil law jurisdictions

Main article: DamagesNegligenceNegligence See also

Monday, October 29, 2007

Update (SQL)
The UPDATE statement has the following form:
UPDATE table_name SET column_name = value [, column_name = value ...] [WHERE condition]
For the UPDATE to be successful, the user must have data manipulation privileges (UPDATE privilege) on the table or column, the updated value must not conflict with all the applicable constraints (such as primary keys, unique indexes, CHECK constraints, and NOT NULL constraints).

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Scottish Football League Premier Division
The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and Third divisions.
Promotion and relegation between the Premier and New First divisions was: automatic relegation for the Premier's bottom club and its replacement by the First's champion; the second-from bottom in the Premier and the First's runner-up then competed in a test match series, home and away.
Before the start of the 1998-1999 season, the clubs of the Premier Division resigned en masse to form the Scottish Premier League, following the example of English clubs who formed the FA Premier League in 1992. The Scottish Football League did not reform the Premier Division, instead leaving the league with just the First, Second and Third divisions.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Fuzzy electronics is an electronic technology that uses fuzzy logic, instead of the two-value logic more commonly used in digital electronics. It has a wide range applications, including control systems and artificial intelligence.

Fuzzy electronicsFuzzy electronics See also

Fuzzy set
Fuzzy set operations

Friday, October 26, 2007

White House
See also: Executive Office of the President of the United States


The official White House website is It was established on October 17, 1994, during President Clinton's administration. The two versions of the White House website used by the Clinton administration have been archived by the National Archives and Records Administration. Both are maintained in an active form, with active links. The first White House site can be found at, and the second at They are among the earliest examples of historic preservation of digital media.


Category:Rooms in the White House
White House Historical Association
White House History
Committee for the Preservation of the White House
White House Office of the Curator
White House Executive Residence
Chief Usher of the White House
State Arrival Ceremony
White House Endowment Trust
White House Acquisition Trust
Western White House
Number One Observatory Circle, the residence of the Vice President.
White House Communications Agency
White House Situation Room
White House Fellows
List of U.S. Presidential residences
Official residence
Official White House website
National Park Service website for the President's Park
Twentieth Century American Sculpture at the White House, including artists Nancy Graves, Allan McCollum, and Tom Otterness
Maps and aerial photos for 38°53′52″N 77°02′12″W﻿ / ﻿38.89767, -77.03655Coordinates: 38°53′52″N 77°02′12″W﻿ / ﻿38.89767, -77.03655

  • Maps from WikiMapia, Google Maps, Live Search Maps, Yahoo! Maps, or MapQuest
    Topographic maps from TopoZone or TerraServer-USA
    A time magazine report about the Chinese replica

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer
Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer (German: Rudolf Ludwig Mößbauer), born January 31, 1929, is a German physicist who studied gamma rays from nuclear transitions.
Mössbauer was born in Munich, where he also studied physics at the Munich University of Technology (TUM) and did his PhD with Heinz Maier-Leibnitz. Along with Robert Hofstadter of the United States he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1961 for his 1957 discovery of the Mossbauer effect—research which he carried out as a PhD student at the Institute for Physics of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg

The Leader

Mössbauer effect
Mössbauer spectroscopy

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Domestication refers to the process of taming a population of animals (although it can also be used to refer to plants) or even a species as a whole. Humans have brought these populations under their care for a wide range of reasons: to produce food or valuable commodities (such as wool, cotton, or silk), for help with various types of work, transportation and to enjoy as pets or ornamental plants. Plants domesticated primarily for aesthetic enjoyment in and around the home are usually called house plants or ornamentals, while those domesticated for large-scale food production are generally called crops. Likewise, animals domesticated for home companionship are usually called pets while those domesticated for food or work are called livestock or farm animals.

Process of domestication

See agriculture for additional information on early crop use.
The earliest human attempts at plant domestication occurred in Asia. There is early evidence for conscious cultivation and trait selection of plants by pre-Neolithic groups in Syria: grains of rye with domestic traits have been recovered from Epi-Palaeolithic (ca. 11,000 BC) contexts at Abu Hureyra in Syria, but this appears to be a localised phenomenon resulting from cultivation of stands of wild rye, rather than a definitive step towards domestication.
By 10,000 BC the bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) plant, used as a container before the advent of ceramic technology, appears to have been domesticated. The domesticated bottle gourd reached the Americas from Asia by 8000 BC, probably with peoples migrating into the continent from Asia.
Cereal crops were first domesticated around 9000 BC in the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East. The first domesticated crops were generally annuals with large seeds or fruits. These included pulses such as peas and grains such as wheat.
The Middle East was especially suited to these species; the dry-summer climate was conducive to the evolution of large-seeded annual plants, and the variety of elevations led to a great variety of species. As domestication took place humans began to move from a hunter-gatherer society to a settled agricultural society. This change would eventually lead, some 4000 to 5000 years later, to the first city states and eventually the rise of civilization itself.
Domestication was gradual, a process of trial and error that occurred slowly. Over time perennials and small trees began to be domesticated including apples and olives. Some plants were not domesticated until recently such as the macadamia nut and the pecan.
In different parts of the world very different species were domesticated. In the Americas squash, maize, and beans formed the core of the diet. In East Asia millets, rice, and soy were the most important crops. Some areas of the world such as Southern Africa, Australia and California and southern South America never saw local species domesticated.
Over the millennia many domesticated species have become utterly unlike their natural ancestors. Corn cobs are now dozens of times the size of their wild ancestors. A similar change occurred between wild strawberries and domesticated strawberries.
See also: Cultigen

Domestication of plants

Raised at zoos or botanical gardens (captive): These species are nurtured and sometimes bred under human control, but remain as a group essentially indistinguishable in appearance or behaviour from their wild counterparts. (It should be noted that zoos and botanical gardens sometimes exhibit domesticated or feral animals and plants such as camels, mustangs, and some orchids.)

Limits of domestication
See the table by species below

Dates and places of domestication
ExtinctDomesticated Extinct in the Wild Critically Endangered Endangered Vulnerable Threatened Conservation Dependent Near Threatened Least Concern Domesticated World Conservation Union IUCN Red List Second circle

Modern Domestications

Hybrid Domestic Animals

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Neil HarrisNeil Harris

Monday, October 22, 2007

The classical example of a hydrogenation is the addition of hydrogen on unsaturated bonds between carbon atoms, converting alkenes to alkanes. Numerous important applications are found in the petrochemical, pharmaceutical and food industries. Health concerns associated with the hydrogenation of unsaturated fats to produce saturated fats and trans fats is an important aspect of current consumer awareness. Hydrogenation differs from protonation or hydride addition (e.g. use of sodium borohydride): in hydrogenation, the products have the same charge as the reactants.

The hydrogenation process

The catalytic hydrogenation of organic sulfur compounds to form gaseous hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is very widely used in petroleum refineries, petrochemical plants and other industries to desulfurize various final products, intermediate products and process feedstocks by converting sulfur compounds to gaseous hydrogen sulfide which is then easily removed by distillation. The gaseous hydrogen sulfide is subsequently recovered in an amine treater and finally converted to elemental sulfur in a Claus process unit. In those industries, desulfurization process units are often referred to as hydrodesulfurizers (HDS) or hydrotreaters (HDT). In the petroleum refining and petrochemical industries, cobalt-molybdenum or nickel-molybdenum catalysts are commonly used for hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis catalysts.

Mechanism of reaction
The obvious source of H2 is the gas itself, often under pressure. Hydrogen can also be transferred from hydrogen-donor molecules, such as hydrazine, Transfer hydrogenation can be metal catalysed. Hydrogenation does proceed from some hydrogen donors without catalysts, examples being diimide and aluminium isopropoxide.

Hydrogen sources

Hydrogenation is widely applied to the processing of vegetable oils and fats. Complete hydrogenation converts unsaturated fatty acids to saturated ones. In practice the process is not usually carried to completion. Since the original oils usually contain more than one double bond per molecule (that is, they are poly-unsaturated), the result is usually described as partially hydrogenated vegetable oil; that is some, but usually not all, of the double bonds in each molecule have been reduced . This is done by adding hydrogen atoms which bond to the carbon, thus occupying a place in the outer orbital of the carbon which would have otherwise been used to bond with the next carbon in the fatty acid chain.

Unsaturated fat

  • Monounsaturated fat
    Polyunsaturated fat
    Trans fat
    Omega: 3, 6, 9
    Saturated fat

    • Interesterified fat
      Fatty acid
      Essential fatty acid Hydrogenation Hydrogenation in the food industry

      Main article: trans fat History

      Transfer hydrogenation
      Hydrodesulfurization, Hydrotreater and Oil desulfurization

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Infobox last updated on: July 9, 2007.
Roger Federer (IPA pronunciation: [ˈɹɑ.dʒər ˈfɛ.dər.ər] His current lead in the rankings guarantees that on August 27, 2007 he will break Steffi Graf's record for most consecutive weeks (186) as the top-ranked male or female player. In 2007, he was named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for a record third consecutive time.

Personal life

Federer started playing tennis at the age of six.


In July 1998, Federer joined the ATP tour at Gstaad. The following year he debuted for the Swiss Davis Cup team against Italy and finished the year as the youngest player (for the year) inside the ATP's top 100 ranking. In 2000, Federer reached the semifinals at the Sydney Olympics and lost the bronze medal match to Arnaud Di Pasquale of France. Federer reached his first final in Marseille which he lost to Marc Rosset and was also the runner-up in Basel. He failed to make an impression at the Grand Slams and the Masters Series tournaments but still ended the year ranked 29th. (All results and ranking history from [1])

Early years
Federer's first ATP tournament victory came in Milan in February 2001. During the same month, he won three matches for his country in its 3-2 Davis Cup victory over the United States. He later reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, defeating four-time defending champion and seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras in the fourth round in a closely fought match, a victory that many consider to be the turning point of his career. He then lost to Tim Henman in the quarterfinal but finished the year ranked 13th. (All results in 2001)

Federer reached his first ATP Masters Series (AMS) final at the Miami Masters, where he lost to Andre Agassi. He won his next AMS final in Hamburg. He also won both his Davis Cup singles matches against former world number ones (Russians Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov). Despite early-round exits at the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open, and the untimely loss of his long-time Australian coach and mentor Peter Carter in a car crash in August,

Federer started 2003 by winning consecutive tournaments in Dubai and Marseille. He won in Munich without losing a set, but suffered a first-round loss at the French Open. On July 6, 2003, he defeated Mark Philippoussis and won his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, becoming the first Swiss male player to do so. He dropped only one set during the entire tournament. He also won four Davis Cup matches during the year to lead Switzerland to the semifinals of the World Group. He finished 2003 by winning the Tennis Masters Cup at Houston, finishing second in the ATP Champions Race behind American Andy Roddick. In December, he parted ways with Peter Lundgren, his coach for four years. (All results in 2003)

In 2004, Federer had one of the most dominating and successful years in the open era of modern men's tennis.

Federer reached the 2005 Australian Open semifinals before falling to eventual winner Marat Safin in a five-set night match that lasted more than four hours.

Federer won three of the four Grand Slam singles tournaments and ended the year ranked number one, with his points ranking several thousand points greater than that of his nearest competitor.

Federer won his third Australian Open and tenth Grand Slam singles title when he, as defending champion, won the tournament without dropping a set, defeating Fernando González of Chile in the final 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4. Bjorn Borg was the last man to win a Grand Slam singles title without dropping a set, at the 1980 French Open.

On May 2, 2007, the "Battle of Surfaces," an exhibition event, took place at the Palma Arena in Majorca. Federer and Nadal met on a tennis court that was half grass and half clay. Nadal won 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(10).

Battle of Surfaces exhibition
Federer has a versatile, all-court playing style and can hit all of the fundamental shots with a high degree of proficiency. He is an adept volleyer and an excellent baseliner who can dictate play with precise groundstrokes from both wings. His second serve usually has a heavily kicked delivery. Federer generally serves with placement and precision, but on occasion he will hit a powerful serve to keep his opponents off balance.
His footwork, balance, and court coverage are exceptional, and he is considered to be one of the fastest movers in the game. Unlike most players who take many small steps when approaching the ball in order to maintain balance (exemplified by the classic footwork of Jimmy Connors), Federer takes long fluid strides. He can hit a strong shot on the run or while backpedaling, allowing him to switch from defense to offense as well as any player on tour.
Federer's relaxed, smooth playing style belies his aggressive and opportunistic tactics. He constructs points to get in a position that allows him to hit winners with his powerful groundstrokes.

Playing style
Federer, who has used various rackets, currently plays with a Wilson K Factor KSix-One Tour 90 Racquet;

Equipment & Apparel

Main article: Records held by Roger Federer Records

ATP European Player of the Year.
Swiss Sportsman of the Year.
Swiss of the Year.
Michael-Westphal Award.
ATP European Player of the Year.
ITF World Champion.
Sports Illustrated Tennis Player of the Year.
Swiss Sportsman of the Year.
Swiss of the Year.
European Sportsman of the Year.
Reuters International Sportsman of the Year.
BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year.
International Tennis Writers Association (ITWA) Player of the Year.
Golden Bagel Award.
Ambassador of United Nations' Year of Sport and Physical Education.
Goldene Kamera Award.
ATP Player of the Year (for the year 2004).
Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award. Fan's Favourite.
Laureus World Sportsman of the Year.
Michael-Westphal Award.
International Tennis Writers Association (ITWA) Player of the Year.
International Tennis Writers Ambassador for Tennis.
Most Outstanding Athlete by the United States Sport's Academy.
Freedom Air People's Choice Sports Awards International Sportsperson of the Year.
ITF World Champion.
European Sportsman of the Year.
ESPY Best Male Tennis Player.
L'Equipe Magazine's Champion of Champions (for the year 2005).
ATP Player of the Year (for the year 2005).
Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award. Fan's Favourite.
Laureus World Sportsman of the Year.
ESPY Best Male Tennis Player.
International Tennis Writers Association (ITWA) Player of the Year.
International Tennis Writers Ambassador for Tennis.
ITF World Champion.
BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year.
Swiss Sportsman of the Year.
European Sportsman of the Year.
EFE's Sportsman of the Year.
Golden Bagel Award.
Most Outstanding Athlete of the Year by The United States Sports Academy.
L'Equipe Magazine's Champion of Champions (for the year 2006).
ATP Player of the Year (for the year 2006).
Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award. Fan's Favourite.
Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year.
Laureus World Sportsman of the Year.
ESPY Best Male Tennis Player.
ESPY Best Male International Athlete. Awards

Career statistics

Grand Slam singles finals (13)

Roger Federer Wins (11)

Runner-ups (2)

Tennis Masters Cup singles finals (4)

Wins (3)

Runner-up (1)

ATP Tennis Masters Series singles finals (18)

Wins (13)

Runner-ups (5)

Career finals (75)


Wins (49)

Runner-ups (15)


Singles performance timeline
*As of 8 July 2007.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

For ownership of articles in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Ownership of articles.
Owner Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over property, which may be an object, land/real estate, intellectual property or some other kind of property. It is embodied in an ownership right also referred to as title.
Ownership is the key building block in the development of the capitalist socio-economic system. The concept of ownership has existed for thousands of years and in all cultures. Over the millennia, however, and across cultures what is considered eligible to be property and how that property is regarded culturally is very different. Ownership is the basis for many other concepts that form the foundations of ancient and modern societies such as money, trade, debt, bankruptcy, the criminality of theft and private vs. public property.
The process and mechanics of ownership are fairly complex since one can gain, transfer and lose ownership of property in a number of ways. To acquire property one can purchase it with money, trade it for other property, receive it as a gift, steal it, find it, make it or homestead it. One can transfer or lose ownership of property by selling it for money, exchanging it for other property, giving it as a gift, being robbed of it, misplacing it, or having it stripped from one's ownership through legal means such as eviction, foreclosure and seizure. Ownership is self-propagating in that if an object is owned by someone, any additional goods produced by using that object will also be owned by the same person. If one finds an object, one can legitimately take ownership of that object as long as no one claims to have previously lost that object. Some jurisdictions place time restraints on finding lost property before that property becomes fair game for anyone to claim ownership of once found. Such is the case of the gold found in the sunken SS Republic. The SS Republic steamship sank off the coast of Georgia in 1865 and lost thousands of gold coins and bars to the ocean. In 2003 Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. discovered the ship and was awarded possession of the gold after the insurance company that had paid off damages to the original owners claimed they were the rightful owners of the gold.

Types of owners
Individuals may own property directly. In some societies only adult men may own property; in other societies (such as the Haudenosaunee), property is matrilinear and passed on from mother to daughter. In most societies both men and women can own property with no restrictions.

In person
Throughout history, nations (or governments) and religions have owned property. These entities exist primarily for other purposes than to own or operate property, hence they may have no clear rules regarding the disposition of their property.

Structured Ownership Entities

Liability for the Group or for Others in the Group
Depending on the charter at the foundation of the entity, and depending on the legal framework under which the entity was created, the form of ownership is determined once and for all time. To change it requires significant work in terms of communicating with stakeholders (member-owners, governments, etc) and acquiring their approval. Whatever structural constraints or disadvantages exist at the creation thus remain an integral part of the entity. Common in New York City is a form of real estate ownership known as a cooperative (also co-operative or co-op) which relies heavily on internal rules of operation instead of the legal framework governing condominium associations. These "co-ops", owning the building for the mutual benefit of its members, can ultimately perform most of the functions of a legally constituted condominium, i.e. restricting use appropriately and containing financial liabilities to within tolerable levels. To change their structure now that they are up and operating would require significant effort to achieve acceptance among members and various levels of government.

Sharing Gains

Sharing Use

Types of ownership

Main article: Personal property Personal property

Main article: Real estate Land ownership
An individual or group of individuals can own corporations and other legal entities. A legal entity is a legal construct through which the law allows a group of natural persons to act as if it were an individual for certain purposes. Some companies and entities are owned privately by the individuals who registered them with the government while other companies are owned publicly.
Some duly incorporated entities may not be owned by individuals nor by other entities; they exist without being owned once they are created. Not being owned, they cannot be bought and sold. Mutual life insurance companies, credit unions, and cooperatives are examples of this. No person can purchase the company, as their ownership is not legally available for sale, neither as shares nor as a single whole.
A a publicly listed company, known as a public company, is owned by any member of the public who wishes to purchase stock in that company rather than by a relatively few individuals. A company that is owned by stockholders who are members of the general public and trade shares publicly, often through a listing on a stock exchange. Ownership is open to anyone who has the money and inclination to buy shares in the company. Owners, however, are generally classified in three groups. Those with 5% Ownerships of the stock usually hold significant sway over the company. Mutual Funds and regular institutions can also own the stock; if they own enough, can are considered as part of the 5% ownership category. They usually are differentiated from privately held companies where the shares are held by a small group of individuals often members of one or a small group of families or otherwise related individuals (or other companies). For a discussion of the British and Irish variant of this type of company, see public limited company.

Corporations and legal entities

Main article: Intellectual property Intellectual property

Main article: Chattel slavery Chattel slavery
In modern Western popular culture some people (principally among the extreme political left) believe that exclusive ownership of property underlies much social injustice, and facilitates tyranny and oppression on an individual and societal scale. Others (principally among the political right and political center) consider the striving to achieve greater ownership of wealth as the driving factor behind human technological advancement and increasing standards of living.

Owner Social Views of Ownership
Ownership society is a slogan for a model of society promoted by United States President George W. Bush. It takes as lead values personal responsibility, economic liberty, and the owning of property. The ownership society discussed by Bush also extends to certain proposals of specific models of health care and social security. Critics have claimed that Bush's agenda for an ownership society also includes extending tax cuts, allowing wealthy Americans to shelter income from tax, and using the tax code to curtail the government's role in health care and retirement saving. Some say that the ultimate purpose of these proposals is the abolition of the graduated income tax, a progressive tax, and its replacement with a structurally simpler flat tax.

Ownership society