Thursday, January 31, 2008

CNBC Market Wrap
CNBC Market Wrap is a brief market update show airing on MSNBC weekday afternoons at the half-hour. It begins at 3:30 pm ET, during MSNBC Live. Margaret Brennan of CNBC usually anchors these updates. Scott Cohn has also hosted.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008


A potato chip or crisp is a thin slice of a potato, deep fried or baked until crisp. Potato chips serve as an appetizer, side dish, or snack. Commercial varieties are packaged for sale, usually in bags. The simplest chips of this kind are just cooked and salted, but manufacturers can add a wide variety of seasonings (mostly made using herbs, spices, cheese, artificial additives or MSG). Chips are an important part of the snack food market in English-speaking countries and many other Western nations.
There is little consistency in the English speaking world for names of fried potato cuttings. North American English uses 'chips' for the above mentioned dish, and sometimes 'crisps' for the same made from batter, and 'French fries' for the hot crispy batons with a soft core. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, 'crisps' are the brittle slices eaten at room temperature and 'chips' refer to that hot dish (as in 'fish and chips'). In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, both forms of potato product are simply known as 'chips', as are the larger "home-style" potato chips. Sometimes the distinction is made between 'hot chips' (French fried potatoes) and 'packet chips'.
Non-potato based chips also exist. Kumara (sweet potato) chips are eaten in New Zealand and Japan; parsnip crisps are available in the United Kingdom. There are also regional variations. For example, in parts of the North of England, fried sliced potatoes are sometimes called "flakies". India is famous for a large number of localized 'chips shops', selling not only potato chips but also other varieties such as plantain chips, yam chips and even carrot chips. In many countries potato chips have been criticized because of their high fat percentage (approx. 35%) and their acrylamide content.

Potato chip Origins
The global potato chips market generated total revenues of 16.4 billion dollars in 2005. This accounted for 35.5% of the total savory snacks market in that year (46.1 billion dollars).

Seasoned chips

In the US, the most popular forms of seasoned potato chips include "sour cream and onion", "barbecue", "ranch", and cheese-seasoned chips, including nacho flavor and cheddar (usually with sour cream).
Within North America, wider varieties are available in parts of Canada, where seasonings include dill pickle, ketchup, poutine, salt & vinegar, bacon and curry. In Toronto and Vancouver, Lay's offers wasabi chips.[6]
The market in United Kingdom is dominated by Walkers which is known for its wide variety of crisps. Typical examples include salt & vinegar, cheese & onion, prawn cocktail, worcester sauce, roast chicken, beef & onion, smoky bacon, lamb & mint, ham & mustard, barbecue, BBQ rib, tomato ketchup, sausage & ketchup, pickled onion, Branston Pickle, Marmite and more exotic seasonings such as Thai sweet chilli, roast pork & creamy mustard sauce, lime and thai spices, lamb with Moroccan spices, sea salt and cracked black pepper, turkey & bacon, caramelised onion & sweet balsamic vinegar, stilton & cranberry and mango chilli. Kettle Foods Ltd's range of thick-cut crunchy crisps include gourmet flavours : Mexican Limes with a hint of Chilli, Salsa with Mesquite, Buffalo Mozzarella Tomato and Basil, Mature Cheddar with Adnams Broadside Beer, Soulmate Cheeses and Onion, and other previously listed flavours. Most seasonings contain only vegetarian-friendly ingredients, although some recent seasonings such as lamb & mint sauce contain meat extracts. In the early 1980s, there even existed 'Hedgehog flavoured crisps' , these were widely on sale and received large publicity. McCoys Crisps are also popular in the UK. In Northern Ireland Tayto (NI) Ltd. dominate the market. This company is entirely unrelated to the Tayto company in the Republic of Ireland.
In Ireland, the common varieties of crisps are mostly the same or similar to the ones sold in the UK. However in Ireland, Tayto are synonymous with crisps (after the Tayto brand, Walkers crisps were launched there several years ago, but have failed to dominate the market.
Japan also has a vast range of seasonings; they include nori & salt, consommé, wasabi, soy sauce & butter, takoyaki, kimchi, garlic, chilli, scallop with butter, ume, mayonnaise, yakitori and ramen. Major manufacturers are Calbee, Koikeya and Yamayoshi. Similar foods
In American cuisine, a whole class of recipes exists that use crushed potato chips, often as one would use seasoned bread crumbs. Recipes include those for cookies, pies, breadings for meatloaves and hamburgers, crumb toppings for casseroles, and in sauces or dips, among others.
A cheap recipe is the potato chip sandwich made from a base of two slices of white sandwich bread generously spread with mayonnaise. As many potato chips as possible are heaped on one of the slices, then the second slice is placed on top and pushed down hard until all the potato chips are crushed. This is a snack version of the traditional "chip butty", made with sliced, buttered bread and freshly made French fries. "Crisp sandwiches" are also popular in the UK – a student favorite sees them made with Vitalite spread; in Ireland white bread is spread on both sides with plenty of butter, before being filled with crisps and employing the aforementioned hand-crushing technique to ensure the contents stick to the butter and remain in the sandwich. Potato chips, particularly salt and vinegar , are also a possible addition to tuna salad sandwiches. The chips are layered on top of the tuna as an additional filling. Everything here described can be done also with either Doritos or Cheetos or a combination of all the three for maximum flavour experience.
In New Zealand, potato chips are added to bread with thinly spread Marmite to make a "Marmite And Chip Sandwich". The Australian version of the sandwich uses Vegemite instead of Marmite.
Not strictly a recipe, but another method of preparing crisps is to keep the crisps in the refrigerator, prior to serving. Commonly called 'cold crisps', they have a mixed level of acceptance, with some finding them abhorrent, and others seeing 'cold crisps' as the correct method of preparation. A common fault in vending machines often results in 'cold crisps' being issued, even if crisps at room temperature were desired. In parts of Canada, it is also common to store potato chips in the freezer, and eat them while still frozen.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Goose Lane Editions
Goose Lane Editions is a Canadian book publishing company founded in 1954 in Fredericton, New Brunswick as Fiddlehead Poetry Books by Fred Cogswell and a group of students and faculty from the University of New Brunswick. After Cogswell retired in 1981, his successor, Peter Thomas, changed the name to Goose Lane Editions. Now headed by publisher and co-owner Susanne Alexander, the Canada Council for the Arts says the publishing company "has evolved to become one of Canada's most exciting showcases of home-grown literary talent."

Saturday, January 26, 2008


Basel I is the term which refers to a round of deliberations by central bankers from around the world, and in 1988, the Basel Committee (BCBS) in Basel, Switzerland, published a set of minimal capital requirements for banks. This is also known as the 1988 Basel Accord, and was enforced by law in the Group of Ten (G-10) countries in 1992, with Japanese banks permitted an extended transition period. Basel I is now widely viewed as outmoded, and a more comprehensive set of guidelines, known as Basel II are in the process of implementation by several countries.

Basel I Background
The Committee was formed in response to the messy liquidation of a Frankfurt bank in 1974. On 26 June 1974, a number of banks had released Deutschmark to the Bank Herstatt in Frankfurt in exchange for dollar payments deliverable in New York. On account of differences in the time zones, there was a lag in the dollar payment to the counter-party banks, and during this gap, and before the dollar payments could be effected in New York, the Bank Herstatt was liquidated by German regulators.
This incident prompted the G-10 nations to form towards the end of 1974, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, under the auspices of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) located in Basel, Switzerland.

Friday, January 25, 2008


Mummers' Plays (also known as mumming) are seasonal folk plays performed by troupes of actors known as mummers or guisers (or by local names such as rhymers, pace-eggers, soulers, tipteerers, galoshins and so on), originally in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales (see wrenboys), but later in other parts of the world. They are sometimes performed in the street but more usually as house-to-house visits and in public houses.
Although the term "mummers" has been used since medieval times, no play scripts or performance details survive from that era, and the term may have been used loosely to describe performers of several different kinds. Mumming may have precedents in German and French carnival customs, with rare but close parallels also in late medieval England (see below).
The earliest evidence of mummers' plays as they are known today (usually involving a magical cure by a quack doctor) is from the mid to late 18th century. Mumming plays should not be confused with the earlier mystery plays.

Mummers' and guisers' plays
Although there are earlier hints (such as a fragmentary speech by St George from Exeter, Devon, which may date from 1737, although published in 1770), the earliest complete text appears to be an undated chapbook of Alexander and the King of Egypt, published by J White in Newcastle upon Tyne between 1746–1769.
The fullest early version of a mummers' play text is probably the 1779 "Morrice Dancers'" play from Revesby, Lincolnshire. The full text ("A petygree of the Plouboys or modes dancers songs") is available online [1] and [2]. Although performed at Christmas, this text is a forerunner of the local East Midlands variants usually performed on or around Plough Monday (see below) and often known as Plough Plays.
A text from Islip, Oxfordshire, dates back to 1780 [3].
A play text which had, until recently, been attributed to Mylor in Cornwall (much quoted in early studies of folk plays, such as The Mummers Play by RJE Tiddy – published posthumously in 1923 – and The English Folk-Play (1933) by EK Chambers) has now been shown, by genealogical and other research, to have originated in Truro, Cornwall, around 1780 ([4] and [5]).
A play from an unknown locality in Cheshire, close to the border with Wales, dates from before 1788 [6].
Chapbook versions of The Christmas Rhime or The Mummer's Own Book were published in Belfast, c.1803-1818 [7]. A mummers' play from Ballybrennan, County Wexford, Ireland, dating from around 1817-18, was published in 1863 [8].
Thomas Hardy's novel The Return of the Native (1878) has a fictional depiction of a mummers' play on Edgon Heath. It was based on experience from his childhood.

Early examples
Although the main season for mumming throughout Britain was around Christmas, some parts of England had plays performed around All Souls' Day (known as Souling or soul-caking) or Easter (Pace-egging or Peace-egging). In north-eastern England the plays are traditionally associated with Sword dances or Rapper dances.
In some parts of Britain and Ireland, the plays are traditionally performed on or near Plough Monday and are therefore known as Plough Plays. The performers were known by various names, according to area, such as Plough-jags, Plough-jacks, Plough-bullocks, Plough-stots or Plough witches. The Plough Plays of the East Midlands of England (principally Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire) usually have a different plot from the Christmastime "St George" type of play and feature several different stock characters (including a Recruiting Sergeant, Tom Fool, Dame Jane and the "Lady bright and gay"). Tradition has it that plough boys would take their plays from house to house and perform in exchange for money or gifts, in a similar way to the American custom of Trick-or-treat; some teams pulled a plough and threatened to plough up people's front gardens or path if they did not pay up. Examples of the play have been found in Denmark since the late 1940s.

Mummers' play Other related customs
There are other traditional English folk plays which do not involve a quack doctor. Around Sheffield and in nearby parts of northern Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire a dramatised version of the well-known Derby Ram folksong, known as the Derby Tup ("tup" is another word for ram), has been performed, since at least 1895, by teams of boys. The brief play is usually introduced by two characters, an old man and an old woman ("Me and our owd lass"). The Tup was usually represented by a boy, bent over forwards, covered with a sack, and carrying a broomstick with a rough, wooden sheep's head attached. The Tup was killed by a Butcher, and sometimes another boy held a basin to catch the "blood".

Mummers' play The Derby Tup
An 'Owd 'Oss play (Old Horse), another dramatised folksong, was also known from roughly the same area, in the late 19th [9] and early 20th centuries [10], around Christmas. The custom persisted until at least 1970, when it was performed in private houses and pubs in Dore on New Year's Day [11]. A group of men accompanied a hobby horse (either a wooden head, with jaws operated by strings, or a real horse's skull, painted black and red, mounted on a wooden pole so that its snapping jaws could be operated by a man stooping under a cloth to represent the horse's body) and sang a version of The Old Horse or Poor Old Horse, which describes a decrepit horse that is close to death.

The Old Horse
In 1831 Sir Walter Scott published a rhyme which had been used as a prelude to the sword dance in Papa Stour, Shetland in around 1788 . It features seven characters, Saint George, Saint James, Saint Dennis, Saint David, Saint Patrick, Saint Anthony and Saint Andrew, the Seven Champions of Christendom. All the characters are introduced in turn by the Master, St George. There is no real interplay between the characters and no combat or cure, so it is more of a "calling-on song" than a play. Some of the characters dance solos as they are introduced, then all dance a longsword dance together, which climaxes with their swords being meshed together to form a "shield". They each dance with the shield upon their head, then it is laid on the floor and they withdraw their swords to finish the dance. St George makes a short speech to end the performance.
See also: Rapper sword and Long Sword dance.

The Papa Stour Sword Dance
The word mummer is sometimes explained to derive from Middle English mum ("silent") or Greek mommo ("mask"), but is more likely to be associated with Early New High German mummer ("disguised person", attested in Johann Fischart) and vermummen ("to wrap up, to disguise, to mask ones faces").
While the game mum(en)schanz was played not only by masked persons, and not only during carnival, the German word mummenschanz nevertheless took on the meaning "costume, masquerade" and, by the 18th century, had lost its association with gambling and dice.
The custom attested for early modern Germany and France seems to have parallels also in late medieval England. According to History and the Morris Dance (2005) by John Cutting (page 81), there was a curious event in 1377, where 130 men on horseback went "mumming" to the Prince of Wales (later Richard II). They threw some dice, which appear to have been loaded dice, and so lost several gold rings. The rings were effectively presents for the prince. In 1418 a law was passed forbidding "mumming, plays, interludes or any other disguisings with any feigned beards, painted visors, deformed or coloured visages in any wise, upon pain of imprisonment". In the first case the event was on February 2, nine days before Ash Wednesday, and may well have been a carnival practice. In the second case, the law was applied to "the Feast of Christmas" (Cutting page 83), not related to the ordinary period of carnival preceding the Christian fasting of Lent, yet maybe related to Christmas fasting, which went ordinarily from November 11 to January 6.
It should be pointed out that there is no clear evidence linking these late medieval and early modern customs with English mummers' plays in the late 18th century, nor evidence for proving that the English words mummer and mumming are more likely to be derived from continental roots than vice versa.

Etymology and early precedents

Other kinds of Mummers
Although they can be dated back to John Langstaff's 1957 New York City Concert, "The Revels" did not become popular across the USA until the 1970's. They are a loose association of people trying to keep folk traditions alive. They perform Christmas Carols, sword dances and Mummers' Plays. Links: History, and Revels

Revels
The province of Newfoundland and Labrador, in Canada, has a two-hundred-year long tradition of mummering or janneying between Christmas and January 6 (Twelfth Day). In complete disguise the mummers go from house to house to entertain and socialize. Often men dress as outsized women, but no one is supposed to be recognizable. People often give alcoholic beverages to the mummers.

Newfoundland Mummers

Main article: Mummers Parade Philadelphia Mummers
A contemporary Sacred use of the mummery theatre concept has arisen within a small New Religious Movement named Adidam. The founder and Spiritual Teacher of Adidam, named Adi Da wrote a book now called The Mummery Book,(which he first began writing in 1957) expanded over many years into what he calls a "Liturgical Theatre". It is performed at the Adidam Ashram (or Retreat Sanctuary) named "The Mountain of Attention", located in Clear Lakes Highland in Northern California, at least once annually and often several times a year. It uses artistically talented formal members of Adidam with some professional help. The central theme, meaning and script content of The Mummery Book and its theatrical impact appear to be related (most closely) to this definition of mummery "a ridiculous, hypocritical, or pretentious ceremony or performance." [12]

Adidam Mummery Sacred Theatre
There are several traditional songs associated with mumming plays; the "calling-on" songs of sword dance teams are related:

The Singing of the Travels by the Symondsbury Mummers, appears on SayDisc CD-SDL425 English Customs and Traditions (1997) along with an extract from the Antrobus, Cheshire, Soulcakers' Play

  • It also appears on the World Library of Folk and Primitive Music. Vol 1. England, Rounder 1741, CD (1998/reis), cut#16b
    The Singing of the Travels was also recorded by the Silly Sisters (Maddy Prior and June Tabor). Silly Sisters, Takoma TAK 7077, LP (1977), cut# 6 (Singing the Travels)
    A Calling-on Song by Steeleye Span from their first album Hark! The Village Wait is based on a sword-dance or pace-egg play calling-on song, in which the characters are introduced one by one
    The Mummers' Dance, a song from the album The Book of Secrets by Loreena McKennitt, refers to traditional mummers' play as performed in Ireland.
    England in Ribbons, a song by Hugh Lupton and Chris Wood is based around the characters of a traditional English mummers' play. It gave its name to a two hour programme of traditional and traditionally-rooted English music, broadcast by BBC Radio 3 as the culmination of a whole day of English music, on St George's Day 2006 [13]
    The Mummer's Song, performed by the Canadian folk group Great Big Sea, but originally written by the Newfoundland folk band Simani, is an arrangement of the traditional song The Mummer's Carol, which details the Mummer tradition in Newfoundland and Labrador See also

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Sign of the Takahe
The Sign of the Takahe is today a function centre and tea rooms built in the style of an English Manor House. Construction was completed in 1949. The Takahe also provides one of the better panoramic views of the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, the Canterbury Plains and the Southern Alps.
Named after the flightless native New Zealand bird, the Takahe, it was initially one of the roadhouses planned by Henry George (Harry) Ell as part of his scheme to preserve the natural state of the Port Hills which overlook Christchurch and Lyttelton harbour.
Ell had envisioned four roadhouses to be built, and three were completed before Ell's death in 1934. These were Sign of the Kiwi, Sign of the Bellbird and Sign of the Packhorse.
However, Ell wished the Takahe to be a more substantial structure and spent years studying design of English Manors, castles and inns, to be incorporated into the final construction of the Takahe. Indeed, the dining room is an exact replica in the historic Haddon Hall in Derbyshire.
A great deal of improvisation was required to minimize cost. For example the stone was quarried locally from the Port Hills and hand chiseled into blocks using primitive tools, the heavy Kauri beams in the entrance hall were salvaged from a former bridge over the Hurunui River and the ceilings in the inner most dining room were painted on timber cut from packing cases.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Property (ownership right)
Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. You may improve the article or discuss this issue on its talk page. Help on using footnotes is available. This article has been tagged since July 2007.
Property designates those things commonly recognized as the entities in respect of which a person or group has exclusive rights. Important types of property include real property (land), personal property (other physical possessions), and intellectual property (rights over artistic creations, inventions, etc.). A right of ownership is associated with property that establishes the good as being "one's own thing" in relation to other individuals or groups, assuring the owner the right to dispense with the property in a manner he or she sees fit, whether to use or not use, exclude others from using, or to transfer ownership. Some philosophers assert that property rights arise from social convention. Others find origins for them in morality or natural law.

Use of the term
Modern property rights conceive of ownership and possession as belonging to legal individuals, even if the legal individual is not a real person. Corporations, for example, have legal rights similar to American citizens, including many of their constitutional rights. Therefore, the corporation is a juristic person or artificial legal entity, which some refer to as "corporate personhood".
Property rights are protected in the current laws of states usually found in the form of a Constitution or a Bill of Rights. The fifth and the fourteenth amendment to the United States constitution, for example, provides explicitly for the protection of private property:
The Fifth Amendment states:
Nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
The Fourteenth Amendment states:
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.
Protection is also found in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 17, and in the The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, Article XVII, and in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), Protocol 1.
Property is usually thought of in terms of a bundle of rights as defined and protected by the local sovereignty. Ownership, however, does not necessarily equate with sovereignty. If ownership gave supreme authority it would be sovereignty, not ownership. These are two different concepts.
Traditionally, that bundle of rights includes:
Legal systems have evolved to cover the transactions and disputes which arise over the possession, use, transfer and disposal of property, most particularly involving contracts. Positive law defines such rights, and a judiciary is used to adjudicate and to enforce.
In his classic text, "The Common Law", Oliver Wendell Holmes describes property as having two fundamental aspects. The first is possession, which can be defined as control over a resource based on the practical inability of another to contradict the ends of the possessor. The second is title, which is the expectation that others will recognize rights to control resource, even when it is not in possession. He elaborates the differences between these two concepts, and proposes a history of how they came to be attached to individuals, as opposed to families or entities such as the church.
According to Adam Smith, the expectation of profit from "improving one's stock of capital" rests on private property rights, and the belief that property rights encourage the property holders to develop the property, generate wealth, and efficiently allocate resources based on the operation of the market is central to capitalism. From this evolved the modern conception of property as a right which is enforced by positive law, in the expectation that this would produce more wealth and better standards of living.


"Just as man can't exist without his body, so no rights can exist without the right to translate one's rights into reality, to think, to work and keep the results, which means: the right of property." (Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged)
Most thinkers from these traditions subscribe to the labor theory of property. They hold that you own your own life, and it follows that you must own the products of that life, and that those products can be traded in free exchange with others.


"Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself." (John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government)


"Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place." (Frédéric Bastiat, The Law)


"The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property." (John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government)
Both communism and some kinds of socialism have also upheld the notion that private property is inherently illegitimate. This argument is centered mainly on the idea that the creation of private property will always benefit one class over another, giving way to domination through the use of this private property. However, some socialists believe in the use of personal property and communists are not opposed to that which is "Hard-won, self-acquired, self-earned" (Communist Manifesto), by members of the proletariat.
Not every person, or entity, with an interest in a given piece of property may be able to exercise all of the rights mentioned a few paragraphs above. For example, as a lessee of a particular piece of property, you may not sell the property, because the tenant is only in possession, and does not have title to transfer. Similarly, while you are a lessee the owner cannot use his or her right to exclude to keep you from the property. (Or, if he or she does you may perhaps be entitled to stop paying rent or perhaps sue to regain access.)
Further, property may be held in a number of forms, e.g. joint ownership, community property, sole ownership, lease, etc. These different types of ownership may complicate an owner's ability to exercise his or her rights unilaterally. For example if two people own a single piece of land as joint tenants, then depending on the law in the jurisdiction, each may have limited recourse for the actions of the other. For example, one of the owners might sell his or her interest in the property to a stranger that the other owner does not particularly like.

control of the use of the property
the right to any benefit from the property (examples: mining rights and rent)
a right to transfer or sell the property
a right to exclude others from the property.
Classical liberals, libertarians, and related traditions
Socialism's fundamental principles are centered on a critique of this concept, stating, among other things, that the cost of defending property is higher than the returns from private property ownership, and that even when property rights encourage the property-holder to develop his property, generate wealth, etc., he will only do so for his own benefit, which may not coincide with the benefit of other people or society at large
Libertarian socialism generally accepts property rights, but with a short abandonment time period. In other words, a person must make (more or less) continuous use of the item or else he loses ownership rights. This is usually referred to as "possession property" or "usufruct." Thus, in this usufruct system, absentee ownership is illegitimate, and workers own the machines they work with.
Communism argues that only collective ownership through a polity, though not necessarily a state, will assure the minimization of unequal or unjust outcomes and the maximization of benefits, and that therefore all, or almost all, private property should be abolished.

Both communism and some kinds of socialism have also upheld the notion that private property is inherently illegitimate. This argument is centered mainly on the idea that the creation of private property will always benefit one class over another, giving way to domination through the use of this private property. However, some socialists believe in the use of personal property and communists are not opposed to that which is "Hard-won, self-acquired, self-earned" (Communist Manifesto), by members of the proletariat.


General characteristics
A natural rights definition of property rights was advanced by John Locke. Locke advanced the theory that when one mixes one's labor with nature, one gains ownership of that part of nature with which the labor is mixed, subject to the limitation that there should be "enough, and as good, left in common for others"[1].
Anthropology studies the diverse systems of ownership, rights of use and transfer, and possession under the term "theories of property". Western legal theory is based, as mentioned, on the owner of property being a legal individual. However, not all property systems are founded on this basis.
In every culture studied ownership and possession are the subject of custom and regulation, and "law" where the term can meaningfully be applied. Many tribal cultures balance individual ownership with the laws of collective groups: tribes, families, associations and nations. For example the 1839 Cherokee Constitution frames the issue in these terms:
Sec. 2. The lands of the Cherokee Nation shall remain common property; but the improvements made thereon, and in the possession of the citizens respectively who made, or may rightfully be in possession of them: Provided, that the citizens of the Nation possessing exclusive and indefeasible right to their improvements, as expressed in this article, shall possess no right or power to dispose of their improvements, in any manner whatever, to the United States, individual States, or to individual citizens thereof; and that, whenever any citizen shall remove with his effects out of the limits of this Nation, and become a citizen of any other government, all his rights and privileges as a citizen of this Nation shall cease: Provided, nevertheless, That the National Council shall have power to re-admit, by law, to all the rights of citizenship, any such person or persons who may, at any time, desire to return to the Nation, on memorializing the National Council for such readmission.
Communal property systems describe ownership as belonging to the entire social and political unit, while corporate systems describe ownership as being attached to an identifiable group with an identifiable responsible individual. The Roman property law was based on such a corporate system.
Different societies may have different theories of property for differing types of ownership. Pauline Peters argued that property systems are not isolable from the social fabric, and notions of property may not be stated as such, but instead may be framed in negative terms: for example the taboo system among Polynesian peoples.

Theories of property
In medieval and Renaissance Europe the term "property" essentially referred to land. Much rethinking was necessary in order for land to come to be regarded as only a special case of the property genus. This rethinking was inspired by at least three broad features of early modern Europe: the surge of commerce, the breakdown of efforts to prohibit interest (so-called "usury"), and the development of centralized national monarchies.

Property (ownership right) Property in philosophy
Urukagina, the king of the Sumerian city-state Lagash, established the first laws that forbade compelling the sale of property. The Cyrus cylinder of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, documents the protection of property rights.
Aristotle, in Politics, advocates "private property." In one of the first known expositions of tragedy of the commons he says, "that which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. Every one thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all of the common interest; and only when he is himself concerned as an individual." In addition, he says when property is common there are natural problems that arise due to differences in labor: "If they do not share equally enjoyments and toils, those who labor much and get little will necessarily complain of those who labor little and receive or consume much. But indeed there is always a difficulty in men living together and having all human relations in common, but especially in their having common property." (Politics, 1261b34)

Ancient philosophy
Thomas Hobbes 1600s
The principal writings of Thomas Hobbes appeared between 1640 and 1651—during and immediately following the war between forces loyal to King Charles I and those loyal to Parliament. In his own words, Hobbes' reflection began with the idea of "giving to every man his own," a phrase he drew from the writings of Cicero. But he wondered: How can anybody call anything his own? In that unsettled time and place it perhaps was natural that he would conclude: My own can only truly be mine if there is one unambiguously strongest power in the realm, and that power treats it as mine, protecting its status as such.
James Harrington 1600s
A contemporary of Hobbes, James Harrington, reacted differently to the same tumult; he considered property natural but not inevitable. The author of Oceana, he may have been the first political theorist to postulate that political power is a consequence, not the cause, of the distribution of property. He said that the worst possible situation is one in which the commoners have half a nation's property, with crown and nobility holding the other half—a circumstance fraught with instability and violence. A much better situation (a stable republic) will exist once the commoners own most property, he suggested.
In later years, the ranks of Harrington's admirers would include American revolutionary and founder John Adams.
Robert Filmer 1600s
Another member of the Hobbes/Harrington generation, Sir Robert Filmer, reached conclusions much like Hobbes', but through Biblical exegesis. Filmer said that the institution of kingship is analogous to that of fatherhood, that subjects are but children, whether obedient or unruly, and that property rights are akin to the household goods that a father may dole out among his children—his to take back and dispose of according to his pleasure.
John Locke 1600s
In the following generation, John Locke sought to answer Filmer, creating a rationale for a balanced constitution in which the monarch would have a part to play, but not an overwhelming part. Since Filmer's views essentially require that the Stuart family be uniquely descended from the patriarchs of the Bible, and since even in the late seventeenth century that was a difficult view to uphold, Locke attacked Filmer's views in his First Treatise on Civil Government, freeing him to set out his own views in the Second Treatise on Civil Government. Therein, Locke imagined a pre-social world, the unhappy residents of which create a social contract. They would, he allowed, create a monarchy, but its task would be to execute the will of an elected legislature.
"To this end" he wrote, meaning the end of their own long life and peace, "it is that men give up all their natural power to the society they enter into, and the community put the legislative power into such hands as they think fit, with this trust, that they shall be governed by declared laws, or else their peace, quiet, and property will still be at the same uncertainty as it was in the state of nature."
Even when it keeps to proper legislative form, though, Locke held that there are limits to what a government established by such a contract might rightly do.
"It cannot be supposed that [the hypothetical contractors] they should intend, had they a power so to do, to give any one or more an absolute arbitrary power over their persons and estates, and put a force into the magistrate's hand to execute his unlimited will arbitrarily upon them; this were to put themselves into a worse condition than the state of nature, wherein they had a liberty to defend their right against the injuries of others, and were upon equal terms of force to maintain it, whether invaded by a single man or many in combination. Whereas by supposing they have given up themselves to the absolute arbitrary power and will of a legislator, they have disarmed themselves, and armed him to make a prey of them when he pleases..."
Note that both "persons and estates" are to be protected from the arbitrary power of any magistrate, inclusive of the "power and will of a legislator." In Lockean terms, depredations against an estate are just as plausible a justification for resistance and revolution as are those against persons. In neither case are subjects required to allow themselves to become prey.
To explain the ownership of property Locke advanced a labor theory of property.
William Blackstone 1700s
In the 1760s, William Blackstone sought to codify the English common law. In his famous Commentaries on the Laws of England he wrote that "every wanton and causeless restraint of the will of the subject, whether produced by a monarch, a nobility, or a popular assembly is a degree of tyranny."
How should such tyranny be prevented or resisted? Through property rights, Blackstone thought, which is why he emphasized that indemnification must be awarded a non-consenting owner whose property is taken by eminent domain, and that a property owner is protected against physical invasion of his property by the laws of trespass and nuisance. Indeed, he wrote that a landowner is free to kill any stranger on his property between dusk and dawn, even an agent of the King, since it isn't reasonable to expect him to recognize the King's agents in the dark.
David Hume 1700s
In contrast to the figures discussed in this section thus far, David Hume lived a relatively quiet life that had settled down to a relatively stable social and political structure. He lived the life of a solitary writer until 1763 when, at 52 years of age, he went off to Paris to work at the British embassy.
In contrast, one might think, to his outrage-generating works on religion and his skeptical views in epistemology, Hume's views on law and property were quite conservative.
He did not believe in hypothetical contracts, or in the love of mankind in general, and sought to ground politics upon actual human beings as one knows them. "In general," he wrote, "it may be affirmed that there is no such passion in human mind, as the love of mankind, merely as such, independent of personal qualities, or services, or of relation to ourselves." Existing customs should not lightly be disregarded, because they have come to be what they are as a result of human nature. With this endorsement of custom comes an endorsement of existing governments, because he conceived of the two as complementary: "A regard for liberty, though a laudable passion, ought commonly to be subordinate to a reverence for established government."
These views led to a view on property rights that might today be described as legal positivism. There are property rights because of and to the extent that the existing law, supported by social customs, secure them. He offered some practical home-spun advice on the general subject, though, as when he referred to avarice as "the spur of industry," and expressed concern about excessive levels of taxation, which "destroy industry, by engendering despair."

Pre-industrial English philosophy
By the mid 19th century, the industrial revolution had transformed England and had begun in France. The established conception of what constitutes property expanded beyond land to encompass scarce goods in general. In France, the revolution of the 1790s had led to large-scale confiscation of land formerly owned by church and king. The restoration of the monarchy led to claims by those dispossessed to have their former lands returned. Furthermore, the labor theory of value popularized by classical economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo were utilized by a new ideology called socialism to critique the relations of property to other economic issues, such as profit, rent, interest, and wage-labor. Thus, property was no longer an esoteric philosophical question, but a political issue of substantial concern.
Charles Comte - legitimate origin of property
Charles Comte, in Traité de la propriété (1834), attempted to justify the legitimacy of private property in response to the Bourbon Restoration. According to David Hart, Comte had three main points: "firstly, that interference by the state over the centuries in property ownership has had dire consequences for justice as well as for economic productivity; secondly, that property is legitimate when it emerges in such a way as not to harm anyone; and thirdly, that historically some, but by no means all, property which has evolved has done so legitimately, with the implication that the present distribution of property is a complex mixture of legitimately and illegitimately held titles." (The Radical Liberalism of Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer
Comte, as Proudhon would later do, rejected Roman legal tradition with its toleration of slavery. He posited a communal "national" property consisting of non-scarce goods, such as land in ancient hunter-gatherer societies. Since agriculture was so much more efficient than hunting and gathering, private property appropriated by someone for farming left remaining hunter-gatherers with more land per person, and hence did not harm them. Thus this type of land appropriation did not violate the Lockean proviso - there was "still enough, and as good left." Comte's analysis would be used by later theorists in response to the socialist critique on property.
Pierre Proudhon - property is theft
In his treatise What is Property?(1849), Proudhon answers with "Property is theft!" In natural resources, he sees two conceivable types of property, de jure property and de facto property, and argues that the former is illegitimate. Proudhon's fundamental premise is that equality of condition is the essence of justice. "By this method of investigation, we soon see that every argument which has been invented in behalf of property, whatever it may be, always and of necessity leads to equality; that is, to the negation of property."[2] But unlike the statist socialists of his time, Proudhon's solution is not to give each person an equal amount of property, but to deny the validity of legal property in natural resources altogether.
His analysis of the product of labor upon natural resources as property (usufruct) is more nuanced. He asserts that land itself cannot be property, yet it should be held by individual possessors as stewards of mankind with the product of labor being the property of the producer. Like most theorists of his time, both capitalist and socialist, he assumed the labor theory of value to be correct. Thus, Proudhon reasoned, any wealth gained without labor was stolen from those who labored to create that wealth. Even a voluntary contract to surrender the product of labor to an employer was theft, according to Proudhon, since the controller of natural resources had no moral right to charge others for the use of that which he did not labor to create and therefore did not own.
Proudhon's theory of property greatly influenced the budding socialist movement, inspiring anarchist theorists such as Bakunin who modified Proudhon's ideas, as well as antagonizing theorists like Marx.
Frédéric Bastiat - property is value
Bastiat's main treatise on property can be found in chapter 8 of his book Economic Harmonies (1850).[3] In a radical departure from traditional property theory, he defines property not as a physical object, but rather as a relationship between people with respect to an object. Thus, saying one owns a glass of water is merely verbal shorthand for I may justly gift or trade this water to another person. In essence, what one owns is not the object but the value of the object. By "value," Bastiat apparently means market value; he emphasizes that this is quite different from utility. "In our relations with one another, we are not owners of the utility of things, but of their value, and value is the appraisal made of reciprocal services."
Strongly disputing Proudhon's equality-based argument, Bastiat theorizes that, as a result of technological progress and the division of labor, the stock of communal wealth increases over time; that the hours of work an unskilled laborer expends to buy e.g. 100 liters of wheat decreases over time, thus amounting to "gratis" satisfaction. Thus, private property continually destroys itself, becoming transformed into communal wealth. The increasing proportion of communal wealth to private property results in a tendency toward equality of mankind. "Since the human race started from the point of greatest poverty, that is, from the point where there were the most obstacles to be overcome, it is clear that all that has been gained from one era to the next has been due to the spirit of property."
This transformation of private property into the communal domain, Bastiat points out, does not imply that private property will ever totally disappear. This is because man, as he progresses, continually invents new and more sophisticated needs and desires.

Critique and response
Among contemporary political thinkers who believe that human individuals enjoy rights to own property and to enter into contracts, there are two views about John Locke. On the one hand there are ardent Locke admirers, such as W.H. Hutt (1956), who praised Locke for laying down the "quintessence of individualism." On the other hand, there are those such as Richard Pipes who think that Locke's arguments are weak, and that undue reliance thereon has weakened the cause of individualism in recent times. Pipes has written that Locke's work "marked a regression because it rested on the concept of Natural Law" rather than upon Harrington's sociological framework.
Hernando de Soto has argued that an important characteristic of capitalist market economy is the functioning state protection of property rights in a formal property system where ownership and transactions are clearly recorded. These property rights and the whole formal system of property make possible:
All of the above enhance economic growth.[4]

Greater independence for individuals from local community arrangements to protect their assets;
Clear, provable, and protectable ownership;
The standardization and integration of property rules and property information in the country as a whole;
Increased trust arising from a greater certainty of punishment for cheating in economic transactions;
More formal and complex written statements of ownership that permit the easier assumption of shared risk and ownership in companies, and insurance against risk;
Greater availability of loans for new projects, since more things could be used as collateral for the loans;
Easier access to and more reliable information regarding such things as credit history and the worth of assets;
Increased fungibility, standardization and transferability of statements documenting the ownership of property, which paves the way for structures such as national markets for companies and the easy transportation of property through complex networks of individuals and other entities;
Greater protection of biodiversity due to minimizing of shifting agriculture practices. Contemporary views
Most legal systems distinguish different types (immovable property, estate in land, real estate, real property) of property, especially between land and all other forms of property - goods and chattels, movable property or personal property. They often distinguish tangible and intangible property (see below).
One categorization scheme specifies three species of property: land, improvements (immovable man made things) and personal property (movable man made things)
In common law, real property (immovable property) is the combination of interests in land and improvements thereto and personal property is interest in movable property.
Later, with the development of more complex forms of non-tangible property, personal property was divided into tangible property (such as cars, clothing, animals) and intangible or abstract property (e.g. financial instruments such as stocks and bonds, etc.), which includes intellectual property (patents, copyrights, and trademarks).

Who can be an owner?

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Volunteerism

The Volunteer State, nickname for Tennessee
Volunteer, North Carolina
Volunteer Island, also called Starbuck Island, among the Line Islands of Kiribati
Volunteer Park (Seattle)
Volunteer Hotel, Balmain - former pub in Balmain, Sydney, Australia
Volunteer State Community College - community college located in Gallatin, Tennessee
Volunteer Canteen - pub in Liverpool, England Volunteer (disambiguation) Sports

Volunteers (album), a 1969 album by Jefferson Airplane
Volunteers (film) a 1985 comedy film starting Tom Hanks
List of VFDs - "V.F.D." acronym in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, with several meanings involving "Volunteer".
Volunteer (band) - Ukrainian punk/metal band
Volunteer Jam - annual Charlie Daniels Band concert in Nashville, Tennessee.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Current squad
Major successes
Major Runner-Ups
Minor Titles

Champions of France:

  • 1949, 1953, 1955, 1958, 1960, 1962
    Winners of the Coupe de France:

    • 1950, 1958
      Winners of the Latin Cup

      • 1953
        Winners of Coppa delle Alpi

        • 1977
          Runners up French Championship: 1947, 1954, 1963
          Finalists of the Coupe de France : 1977
          Finalists of the Coupe Latine : 1955
          Winners of the Trophée des champions: 1955, 1958, 1960
          Finalists of the European Cup of Champions:

          • 1956, 1959
            Champions of France D2 : 1966
            Champions of France D3 : 2004
            Champions of France Amateurs : 1935
            Champions of DH Nord-Est : 1935
            Champions of DH Champagne : 1994 Stade de Reims Notable Former Players

            1931-34 : Dave Harrisson
            1934-36 : Billy Aitken
            1936-37 : Léopold Kielholz
            1937 : Sarkis Garabedian
            1937-38 : Valère de Besvelony
            1938-40 : Éric Bieber
            1940-41 : Camille Cottin
            1941-43 : Jules Vandooren
            1943-45 : Sarkis Garabedian
            1945-50 : Henri Roessler
            1950-06/63 : Albert Batteux
            07/1963-12/63 : Camille Cottin
            12/1963-06/64 : Jean Prouff
            07/1964-04/67 : Robert Jonquet
            04/1967-06/67 : Claude Prosdocimi
            07/1967-06/69 : Émile Rummelhardt
            07/1969-04/72 : Élie Fruchard
            04/1972-05/72 : Léon Desmenez
            06/1972-09/72 : Célestin Oliver
            09/1972-06/74 : Lucien Leduc
            07/1974-03/75 : Léon Desmenez
            03/1975-06/75 : Michel Leblond
            07/1975-01/79 : Pierre Flamion
            01/1979-06/79 : Claude Prosdocimi
            07/1979-09/80 : René Vernier
            09/1980-08/81 : R. Jonquet/L. Desmenez
            09/1981-06/82 : Léon Desmenez
            07/1982-03/85 : Pierre Phelipon
            03/1985-06/88 : Carlos Bianchi
            07/1988-06/89 : Dominique Bathenay
            07/1989-06/90 : Jacky Lemée
            07/1990-06:91 : Didier Notheaux
            07/1991-06/92 : Pierre Phelipon
            07/1992-06/93 : Daniel Duval
            03/1993-05/93 : Ghislain Bournel
            06/1993-06/95 : Tony Giannetta
            07/1995-10/00 : Manuel Abreu
            10/2000 : Franck Triquenaux (intérim)
            11/2000-12/02 : Marc Collat
            12/2002-05/03 : Denis Goavec
            06/2003-04/05 : Ladislas Lozano
            04/2005-06/05 : Jean-Claude Cloet (intérim)

Sunday, January 20, 2008

The Tube (TV series) Showcase for contemporary bands
The cornerstone of the shows was the live performances from three or four bands each week. In an era where most music TV shows featured non-stop miming, the fully live sets by the guest artists were innovative (but the sound mix was often very poor, with a curious quality that made it sound like everything had been 'phased'). The programme would start with a 45 minute magazine section consisting of interviews, fashion items and comedy appearances by a wide range of alternative artistes such as Mark Miwurdz, Frank Sidebottom, Foffo Spearjig and even French & Saunders. During this section Yates would become known for conducting rather flirtatious interviews: in 1985, for example, she prompted Sting to remove his trousers.
The main presenters were supported, for the first two series, by five newcomers who were picked following a nationally advertised competition: these were Muriel Gray, Gary James, Nick Laird-Clowes, Michel Cremona and Mike Everitt. The supporting presenters took turns to co-present. The show usually featured four or five band appearances per week, with one main extended session to close. The format of the show was extended following Series 1 with a number of special events - most notably the 'Midsummer Night's Tube', a 5 hour version broadcast live from the Tyne Tees studios, the pub across the road from the studios and The Hoppings annual fair in Newcastle. This ground breaking broadcast was, at the time, the longest continuous live music show in television history and received much critical and technical acclaim.
Studio 5 was also used to produce a spin off show called TX45. This show ran for 2 series Hosted by Chris Cowey and produced by Jeff Brown and featured local bands like, The Kane Gang, Secret Sam, She and President.

The Tube (TV series) Format
In January 1987, during the fifth series, Jools Holland accidentally swore with the words "groovy fuckers" during a live trailer for the show. The incident caused a national scandal, as the trailer was transmitted at a peak children's viewing time and the show was taken off air for three weeks as a result. Holland was reprimanded by Channel 4, as this was not the first time he had accidentally sworn on the live show. The show's producer, Malcolm Gerrie, and Tyne Tees' Director of Programmes, Andrea Wonfor, announced their resignations in March. They cited as reasons for doing so a mixture of internal bickering, political pressure and "stifling bureaucracy and heavy handed moralism". A further series was never commissioned. In truth, the viewing figures for the series had dropped significantly, and the original format had been watered down. Some people close to the show had said that Holland's swearing was seen as a convenient way of ending the show. The show had always suffered from having such an early 'tea-time'/children's spot that was highly incompatible with the edgy and hip style that it encapsulated. The presenters' live interviews and filmed magazine items were nervously watched by the show's producers and editors as well as Channel 4 executives, especially when certain pop stars and celebrities not known for their shy and retiring nature were being featured. It was this that gave the show the curious feeling of 'anything might happen' that actually made it the success it was.
In 2000, The Tube was brought back for a one-off live special on Sky One. Hosted by BBC Radio 1's Chris Moyles and Donna Air, the show came live again from Studio 5 at Tyne Tees and the bar of the Egypt Cottage next door.
In 2005 Tyne Tees Television moved out from its City Road complex on Newcastle Quayside. The site is to be redeveloped as housing, but it is not yet clear whether the trademark 'Tube' structure will remain.

Radio revival

The Very Best of The Tube Various Artists, Universal Records, November 4, 2002 [2]

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Local administrative unit
Generally, a local administrative unit (LAU) is an area of governmental administration below a province, region, state or other major national subdivision. Not all countries will use this term, but it can be descriptively applied anywhere.
Specifically, in the European Union (EU), LAUs are basic components of Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) regions. Two levels of Local Administrative Units (LAU) have been defined. The upper LAU level (LAU level 1, formerly NUTS level 4) is defined for the following countries: Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Cyprus, Latvia, Lituania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and the United Kingdom. The second LAU level (formerly NUTS level 5) consists of 112,119 municipalities or equivalent units in the 25 EU Member States (2003 situation).