2007年10月31日水曜日

Zhang Ji (Chinese physician)
Zhang Ji (Simplified Chinese: 张机; Traditional Chinese: 張機; pinyin: Zhāng Jī, 150 - 219), style name Zhang Zhongjing (Simplified Chinese: 张仲景; Traditional Chinese: 張仲景; pinyin: Zhāng Zhōngjǐng; Wade-Giles: Chang Chung Ching), an Eastern Han (Traditional Chinese: 東漢; pinyin: Dōng Hàn) physician and author of the Shanghan Zabing Lun (Traditional Chinese: 傷寒雜病論; pinyin: Shānghán Zábìng Lùn, lit. "Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases"), was one of the most eminent Chinese physicians during the later years of the Eastern Han era. He lived in today's Nanyang in Henan Province. During his time, with warlords fighting for their own territories, many people were infected with febrile disease. Zhang's family was no exception. He learned medicine by studying from his townsfellow Zhang Bozu, assimilating from previous medicinal literature, and collecting many prescriptions elsewhere, finally writing the medical masterpiece Shanghan Zabing Lun. Unfortunately, shortly after its publication the book was lost during wartime. Due to Zhang's contribution to Traditional Chinese medicine he is often regarded as the sage of Chinese medicine.
Zhang's masterpiece was collected by later people and compiled into two books, namely the Shanghan Lun (in full, Shanghan Zabing Lun or "Treatise on Febrile Diseases") which was a discourse on how to treat epidemic infectious diseases causing fevers prevalent during his era, and the other, highly influential doctrine Jingui yaolue (金匱要略, "Synoptic Essentials from the Golden Cabinet"), a compendium of his clinical experiences. He established medication principles and summed up the medicinal experience up until the Han Dynasty, thus making a great contribution to the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Though extremely well known in modern Chinese medicine and considered one of the finest Chinese physicians in history very little is known of his life. Zhang Ji is considered to have founded the Cold Damage or "Cold Disease" school of Chinese medicine and is widely considered the seminal expert to this day. For more information on Zhong Ji it is best to refer directly to the Shang Han Lun.

2007年10月30日火曜日


Value investing is an investment paradigm that derives from the ideas on investment and speculation laid forth by Ben Graham & David Dodd in their 1934 text Security Analysis. Although value investing has taken many forms since its inception, it generally involves buying securities whose shares appear underpriced by some form(s) of fundamental analysis. The discount of the market price to the intrinsic value is what Benjamin Graham called the "margin of safety". The intrinsic value is the discounted value of all future distributions.
However, the future distributions and the appropriate discount rate can only be assumptions. Warren Buffett has taken the value investing concept even further as his thinking has evolved to where for the last 25 years or so his focus has been on "finding an outstanding company at a sensible price" rather than generic companies at a bargain price, this concept is important as you are actually buying into a business.

Value investing History
Value investing was established by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd, both professors at Columbia University and teachers of many famous investors. In Graham's book The Intelligent Investor, he advocated the important concept of margin of safety — first introduced in Security Analysis, a 1934 book he coauthored with David Dodd — which calls for a cautious approach to investing. In terms of picking stocks, he recommended defensive investment in stocks trading below their tangible book value as a safeguard to adverse future developments often encountered in the stock market.

Benjamin Graham
However, the concept of value (as well as "book value") has evolved significantly since the 1970s. Book value is most useful in industries where most assets are tangible. Intangible assets such as patents, software, brands, or goodwill are difficult to quantify, and may not survive the break-up of a company. When an industry is going through fast technological advancements, the value of its assets is not easily estimated. Sometimes, the production power of an asset can be significantly reduced due to competitive disruptive innovation and therefore its value can suffer permanent impairment. One good example of decreasing asset value is a personal computer. An example of where book value does not mean much is the service and retail sectors. One modern model of calculating value is the discounted cash flow model (DCF). The value of an asset is the sum of its future cash flows, discounted back to the present.

Further evolution

Performance, value strategies
Another way to examine the performance of value investing strategies is to examine the investing performance of well-known value investors. Simply examining the performance of the best known value investors would not be instructive, because investors do not become well known unless they are successful. This introduces a selection bias. A better way to investigate the performance of a group of value investors was suggested by Warren Buffett, in his May 17, 1984 speech that was published as The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville. In this speech, Buffett examined the performance of those investors who worked at Graham-Newman Corporation and were thus most influenced by Benjamin Graham. Buffett's conclusion is identical to that of the academic research on simple value investing strategies--value investing is, on average, successful in the long run.
During about a 25-year period (1965-90), published research and articles in leading journals of the value ilk were few. Warren Buffett once commented, "You couldn't advance in a finance department in this country unless you thought that the world was flat."

Performance, value investors
Benjamin Graham is regarded by many to be the father of value investing. Along with David Dodd, he wrote Security Analysis, first published in 1934. The most lasting contribution of this book to the field of security analysis was to emphasize the quantifiable aspects of security analysis (such as the evaluations of earnings and book value) while minimizing the importance of more qualitative factors such as the quality of a company's management. Graham later wrote The Intelligent Investor, a book that brought value investing to individual investors. Aside from Buffett, many of Graham's other students, such as William J. Ruane, Irving Kahn and Charles Brandes have gone on to become successful investors in their own right.
Graham's most famous student, however, was Warren Buffett, who ran successful investing partnerships before closing them in 1969 to focus on running Berkshire Hathaway. Charlie Munger joined Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway in the 1970s and has since worked as Vice Chairman of the company. Buffett has credited Munger with encouraging him to focus on long-term sustainable growth rather than on simply the valuation of current cash flows or assets.
Another famous value investor is John Templeton. He first achieved investing success by buying shares of a number of companies in the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929.
Martin J. Whitman is another well-regarded value investor. His approach is called safe-and-cheap, which was hitherto referred to as financial-integrity approach. Martin Whitman focuses on acquiring common shares of companies with extremely strong financial position at a price reflecting meaningful discount to the estimated NAV of the company concerned. Martin Whitman believes it is ill-advised for investors to pay much attention to the trend of macro-factors (like employment, movement of interest rate, GDP, etc.) not so much because they are not important as because attempts to predict their movement are almost always futile. Martin Whitman's letters to shareholders of his Third Avenue Value Fund (TAVF) are considered valuable resources "for investors to pirate good ideas" by another famous investor Joel Greenblatt in his book on special-situation investment "You Can Be a Stock Market Genius" (ISBN 0-684-84007-3)(pp 247)
Joel Greenblatt achieved annual returns at the hedge fund Gotham Capital of over 50% per year for 10 years from 1985 to 1995 before closing the fund and returning his investors' money. He is known for investing in special situations such as spin-offs, mergers, and divestitures. Edward Lampert is the chief of ESL Investments. He is best known for buying large stakes in Sears and Kmart and then merging the two companies.
Well Known Value Investors

See also

Warren Buffett
Benjamin Graham
Joel Greenblatt

2007年10月29日月曜日

Arabella Churchill (charity founder)
Arabella Churchill (born October 30, 1949) is an English charity founder, festival organiser, and fundraiser. She is the granddaughter of Sir Winston Churchill, the daughter of Winston's son Randolph and his second wife June Osborne.
In 1972, she married Jim Barton, and in 1973 had a son, Nicholas. In 1971, Churchill played a major role in the development of the Glastonbury Festival and in 1979, she set up the Children's Area of the Festival and also the Theatre Area. She now runs the Theatre and Circus Fields.
In 1987, Churchill met her second husband, a juggler, Haggis McLeod and in 1988, they had a daughter, Jessica.
She is the founder and the director of Children's World charity.

2007年10月28日日曜日

Periphrastic
In linguistics, periphrasis is a device by which a grammatical concept is expressed by more than one word (typically one or more function words modifying a content word), instead of being shown by inflection or derivation. For example, the English future tense is periphrastic: it is formed with an auxiliary verb (shall or will) followed by the base form of the main verb. Another example is the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives, when they are formed with the words more and most rather than with the suffixes -er and -est: the forms more beautiful and most beautiful are periphrastic, while lovelier and loveliest are not.
A comparison of some Latin forms with their English translations shows that English uses periphrasis in many instances where Latin uses inflection:

2007年10月27日土曜日


The Province of Batanes is the northernmost and the smallest province of the Philippine Republic, both in terms of population and land area. The provincial capital is Basco.
The province is composed of ten islands (called the Batanes Islands) located about 162 km north of the Luzon mainland in the Luzon Strait and is part of the Cagayan Valley region in Luzon. Of this island group, the largest and most economically important are Itbayat, Batan and Sabtang.
The Batanes Islands are separated from the Babuyan Islands of Cagayan Province by the Balintang Channel and from Taiwan by the Bashi Channel.
The northernmost island of the province, as well as of the Philippines, is Mavudis (Yami) Island. The other islands are Misanga, Ditarem, Siayan, Itbayat, Dinem, Batan, Sabtang, Ivuhos, and Diadekey.
Only Itbayat, Batan, and Sabtang are inhabited. The Batanes is about 190 kilometers south of Taiwan.

People and culture
About 75% of the Ivatans are farmers and fishermen. The rest are employed in the government and services sector. Garlic and cattle are major cash crops. They also plant camote or sweet potato, cassava, gabi or tuber and a unique variety of white uvi. Sugarcane is raised to produce palek, a kind of native wine, and vinegar.
In recent years, fish cath has declined due to the absence of technical know-how to improve the fishermen's catch. Employment opportunities are scarce. Most of the educated Ivatans have migrated to urban centers or have gone abroad.
Distance and bad weather work against its economic growth. Certain commodities like rice, soft drinks, and gasoline carry a 75% to 100% mark-up over Manila retail prices.

Economy
Almost one-half of Batanes are hills and mountains. Batan Island, with a land area of 35 km², is generally mountainous on the north and southeast. It has a basin in the interior. Itbayat Island, which has a total area of 95 km², slopes gradually to the west, being mountainous and hilly along its northern, eastern coast. As for Sabtang, mountains cover the central part of its 41 km² area, making the island slope outward to the coast.
The islands are situated between the vast expanse of the waters of Bashi Channel and Balintang Channel, where the Pacific Ocean, merges with the China Sea. The area is a sealane between the Philippines and Japan, China, Hongkong and Taiwan. It is rich with marine resources, including the rarest sea corals in the world.
The province is hilly and mountainous, with only 1,631.50 hectares or 7.10% of its area level to undulating and 78.20% or 17,994.40 hectares varying in terms from rolling to steep and very steep. Forty two percent (42%) or 9,734.40 hectares are steep to very steep land.
Because of the terrain of the province, drainage is good and prolonged flooding is non-existent. The main island of Batan has the largest share of level and nearly level lands, followed by Itbayat and Sabtang, respectively. Itbayat has gently rolling hills and nearly level areas on semi-plateaus surrounded by continuous massive cliffs rising from 20-70 meters above sea level, with no shorelines. Sabtang on the other hand, has its small flat areas spread sporadically on its coasts, while its interior is dominated by steep mountains and deep canyons. Batan Island and Sabtang have intermittent stretches of sandy beaches and rocky shorelines.
The terrain of the province while picturesque at almost every turn, has limited the potential for expansion of agriculture in an already very small province.

Political

Basco
Itbayat
Ivana
Mahatao
Sabtang
Uyugan Batanes Municipalities
Batanes lies on a group of islands collectively called Batanes Islands and they are the northernmost islands of the Philippines. They are located between the Babuyan Islands (belonging to Cagayan Province) and Taiwan. The islands are sparsely populated and subject to frequent typhoons.
The three largest islands are Itbayat, Batan, and Sabtang. The northernmost is Mavudis Island.

Climate
The ancestors of today's Ivatans are descended from Austronesians who migrated to the Batanes Islands 4000 years ago during the Neolithic period. They lived in fortified mountain areas called idjangs and drank sugar-cane wine, or palek. They also used gold as currency and produced a thriving agriculture-based industry. They were also seafarers and boat-builders.
In 1687, a crew of English freebooters headed by William Dampier came with a crew of Hollanders and named the islands in honor of their country's monarchs. Itbayat was named "Orange Isle" in honor of William of Orange, and Batan was named "Grafton Isle" after Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton. Sabtang Isle was named "Monmouth Isle" after the Duke of Monmouth. Capt. Dampier stayed for less than three months, and did not claim the islands for the British crown.
In 1783, the Spanish claimed Batanes as part of the Philippines under the auspices of Governor-General José Basco y Vargas. However, the Ivatan remained on their idjangs, or mountain fortresses. In 1790, Governor Guerrero (

2007年10月26日金曜日


Coordinates: 57°49′N, 8°34′W
St Kilda
St Kilda (Scottish Gaelic: Hiort) is an isolated archipelago situated 64 kilometres (40 mi) west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. It contains the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides, of Scotland and of the United Kingdom, not counting Rockall. The largest island is Hirta whose sea cliffs are the highest in the United Kingdom. The Gaelic-speaking population probably never exceeded 180 in number and was never more than 100 after 1851. Although St Kilda was permanently inhabited for at least two millennia and had a unique way of life, the local population was evacuated in 1930. The islands continue to be administratively a part of the Western Isles of Scotland,

Origin of names
The geology of the islands is comprised of Tertiary igneous formations of granites and gabbro, heavily weathered by the elements. The archipelago represents the remnants of a long extinct ring volcano rising from a seabed plateau approximately 40 m (130 ft) below sea level.

Fauna and flora
The predominant theme of life on St Kilda was isolation. When Martin Martin visited the islands in 1697,

Way of life

History
It has been known for some time that St Kilda was continuously inhabited for two millennia or more, from the Bronze Age to the 20th century.

Prehistory
Little is known of the early history and the first written record may date from 1202 when an Icelandic cleric writes of taking shelter on "the islands that are called Hirtir".

14th to 17th century
However, visiting ships in the 18th century brought cholera and smallpox

Religion and tourism in the 18th and 19th centuries
Early in the 'Great War' the Royal Navy erected a signal station on Hirta and daily communications with the mainland were established for the first time in St Kilda's history. In a belated response a German submarine arrived in Village Bay on the morning of 15 May 1918 and after issuing a warning, started shelling the island. Seventy two shells in all were fired and the wireless station was destroyed. The manse, church and jetty storehouse were also damaged but there was no loss of life.

World War One
There were thus numerous reasons for the evacuation. The islands had existed for centuries with only fleeting contacts with the rest of the world. The advent of tourism and the presence of the military in World War One had enabled the islanders to understand that there were alternatives to the privations they had routinely suffered. Despite the provision of a small jetty in 1902 the islands remained at the mercy of the weather. and for the next twenty six years the island experienced quietude, save for the occasional summer visit from tourists or a returning St Kildan family.

Evacuation
The islands took no active part in World War II during which they were completely abandoned,

St Kilda, Scotland Later military events
On his death on 14 August 1956 the Marquess of Bute's will bequeathed the archipelago to the National Trust for Scotland, provided they took up the offer within six months of his death. After much soul-searching the Executive Committee agreed to do so in January 1957, and the slow renovation and conservation of the village was begun. Much of this has been undertaken by summer volunteer work parties.

Nature conservation

Architecture
The oldest structures on St Kilda are the most enigmatic. There are large sheep folds inland from the existing village at An Lag Bho'n Tuath (English: the hollow in the north) which contain curious 'boat-shaped' stone rings, or 'settings'. Soil samples suggest a date of 1850 BC but they are unique to St Kilda and their purpose is unknown. In Gleann Mòr there are 20 'horned structures'; essentially ruined buildings with a main court measuring about 3 x 3 m (10 ft by 10 ft), two or more smaller cells and a forecourt formed by two curved or horn-shaped walls. Again, there is nothing like them anywhere else in Britain or Europe and their original use is unknown.

Prehistoric buildings
This was located near Tobar Childa about 350 metres (400 yards) from the shore, at the foot of the slopes of Connachair. The oldest building is an underground passage with two small annexes called Taigh an t-Sithiche (house of the faeries) which dates to between 500 BC and 300 AD. The St Kildans believed it was a house or hiding place although a more recent theory suggests that it was an ice house.

Medieval village
The Head Wall was built in 1834 when the mediaeval village was abandoned and a new one planned between Tobar Childa and the sea some 200 metres (700 ft) down the slope. This came about as the result of a visit by Sir Thomas Dyke Ackland, the MP for Devon. Appalled by the primitive conditions he made a donation that ultimately resulted in the construction of a completely new settlement of 30 new black houses. These were further modified after several of the new dwellings were damaged by a severe gale in October 1860. 16 modern houses were then constructed amidst the blackhouses and a new Factor's house as well.
These houses were of dry stone construction with thick walls and roofed with turf. There was typically only one tiny window and a small aperture for letting out smoke from the peat fire which burnt in the middle of the room. As a result, the interiors were blackened by soot. The cattle occupied one end of the house in winter and once a year the straw from the floor was stripped out and spread on the ground.

Recent structures
Dùn means 'fort' and there is but a single ruined wall of a structure said to have been built in the far-distant past by the Fir Bolg.
There are no fewer than 78 storage cleitean on Stac an Armin and a small bothy. As a result of a smallpox outbreak on Hirta in 1727 three men and eight boys were marooned here until the following May. Incredibly, there is a small bothy on the precipitous Stac Lee too, also used by fowlers.

Buildings on other islands
In 1937, after reading of the St Kilda evacuation, Michael Powell made the film The Edge of the World about the dangers of island depopulation. It was shot, however, not on St Kilda but on Foula, one of the Shetland Islands.

See also

Baxter, Colin and Crumley, Jim St Kilda: A portrait of Britain's remotest island landscape, Biggar, Colin Baxter Photography, 1988
Coates, Richard The place-names of St Kilda, Lampeter, Edwin Mellen Press, 1990
Fraser Darling, F. & Boyd, J.M. (1969) Natural History in the Highlands and Islands. London. Bloomsbury.
Fleming, Andrew St. Kilda and the Wider World: Tales of an Iconic Island, Windgather Press, 2005
Haswell-Smith, Hamish The Scottish Islands, Edinburgh, Canongate, 2004.
Keay, J. & Keay, J. Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland, London, HarperCollins, 1994
Maclean, Charles Island on the Edge of the World: the Story of St. Kilda, Canongate, 1977
Martin, Martin - A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland and St. Kilda - Birlinn, 1994 (reissue of first written account of St. Kilda from 1697).
Murray, W.H. The Hebrides, London, Heinemann, 1966
Quine, David St. Kilda, Grantown-on-Spey, Colin Baxter Island Guides, 2000
Steel, Tom The Life and Death of St. Kilda, London, Fontana, 1988

2007年10月25日木曜日


About 700; see the List of Eucalyptus species
Eucalyptus (From Greek, ευκάλυπτος = "Well covered") is a diverse genus of trees (and a few shrubs), the members of which dominate the tree flora of Australia. There are more than seven hundred species of Eucalyptus, mostly native to Australia, with a very small number found in adjacent parts of New Guinea and Indonesia and one as far north as the Philippine islands.
Members of the genus can be found in almost every region of the Australian continent, because they have adapted to all of its climatic conditions; in fact no other continent is so characterised by a single genus of tree as Australia is by its eucalyptus. Many, but far from all, are known as gum trees in reference to the habit of many species to exude copious sap from any break in the bark (e.g. Scribbly Gum).

Description
A Eucalyptus may be mature as a low shrub or as a very large tree. There are three main habit and four size categories that species can be divided into.
As a generalisation "forest trees" are single-stemmed and have a crown forming a minor proportion of the whole tree height. "Woodland trees" are single-stemmed although they may branch at a short distance above ground level.
"Mallees" are multi-stemmed from ground level, usually less than 10 metres in height, often with the crown predominantly at the ends of the branchlets and individual plants may combine to form either an open or closed formation. Many mallee trees may be so low growing as to be considered a shrub.
Apart from the forest tree, woodland tree, mallee and shrub habits two further tree forms are notable in Western Australia. One of these is the "mallet", which is a small to medium-sized tree, usually of steep branching habit, sometimes fluted at the base of the trunk and often with a conspicuously dense, terminal crown. It is the habit usually of mature healthy specimens of Eucalyptus occidentalis, E. astringens, E. spathulata, E. gardneri, E. dielsii, E. forrestiana, E. salubris, E. clivicola and E. ornata. The smooth bark of mallets often has a satiny sheen and may be white, cream, grey, green or copper.
Another habit category used in Western Australia is the "marlock". This has been variously applied but Brooker & Hopper (2001) defined the term and restricted the use to describe the more or less pure stands of short, erect, thin-stemmed "trees" that do not produce lignotubers. These are easily seen and recognised in stands of E. platypus, E. vesiculosa and the unrealted E. stoatei. The marlock is distinguished from mallets which are taller and have a characteristic steep branching habit. The origin and use of the term "morrel" is somewhat obscure and appears to apply to trees of the western Australian wheatbelt and goldfields which have a long, straight trunk, completely rough barked. It is now used mainly for E. longicornis (Red Morell) and E. melanoxylon (Black Morrel).
Tree sizes follow the convention of:


  • Small - to 10 metres in height

  • Medium sized - 10 to 30 metres in height

  • Tall - 30 to 60 metres in height

  • Very Tall - over 60 metres in height




Small - to 10 metres in height
Medium sized - 10 to 30 metres in height
Tall - 30 to 60 metres in height
Very Tall - over 60 metres in height Size and habit
Nearly all Eucalyptus are evergreen but some tropical species lose their leaves at the end of the dry season. As in other members of the Myrtle family, Eucalyptus leaves are covered with oil glands. The copious oils produced are an important feature of the genus.
The leaves on a mature Eucalyptus plant are commonly lanceolate, petiolate, apparently alternate and waxy or glossy green. In contrast the leaves of seedlings are frequently opposite, sessile and glaucous. However there are numerous exceptions to this pattern. Many species such as E. melanophloia and E. setosa retain the juvenile leaf form even when the plant is reproductively mature. Some species such as E. macrocarpa, E. rhodantha and E. crucis are sought after ornamentals due to this lifelong juvenile leaf form. A few species such as E. petraea, E. dundasii and E. lansdowneana have shiny green leaves throughout their life cycle. E. caesia exhibits the opposite pattern of leaf development to most Eucalyptus, with shiny green leaves in the seedling stage and dull, glaucous leaves in mature crowns. The contrast between juvenile and adult leaf phases is valuable in field identification.
Four leaf phases are recognised in the development of a Eucalyptus plant - the 'seedling', 'juvenile', 'intermediate' and 'adult' phases. However there is no definite transitional point between the phases. The intermediate phase, when the largest leaves are often formed, links the juvenile and adult phases. Most species do not flower until adult foliage starts to appear; E. cinerea and E. perriniana are notable exceptions.
In all except a few species the leaves form in pairs on opposite sides of a square stem, consecutive pairs being at right angles to each other (decussate). In some narrow-leaved species - for example E. oleosa - the seedling leaves after the second leaf pair are often clustered in a detectable spiral arrangement about a five sided stem. After the spiral phase, which may last from several to many nodes, the arrangement reverts to decussate by the absorption of some of the leaf bearing faces of the stem. In those species with opposite adult foliage the leaf pairs, which have been formed opposite at the stem apex, become separated at their bases by unequal elongation of the stem to produce the apparently alternate adult leaves.

Leaves
The most readily recognisable characteristics of Eucalyptus species are its distinctive flowers and fruit (capsule). Flowers have numerous fluffy stamens which may be white, cream, yellow, pink or red; in bud the stamens are enclosed in a cap known as an operculum which is composed of the fused sepals or petals or both. Thus flowers have no petals, decorating themselves instead with the many showy stamens. As the stamens expand the operculum is forced off, splitting away from the cup-like base of the flower; this is one of the features that that unites the genus. The name Eucalyptus, from the Greek words eu-, well, and kaluptos, cover, meaning "well-covered", describes the operculum. The woody fruits or capsules, known as gumnuts, are roughly cone-shaped and have valves at the end which open to release the seeds. Most species do not flower until adult foliage starts to appear; Eucalyptus cinerea and Eucalyptus perriniana are notable exceptions.

Flowers
The appearance of Eucalyptus bark will vary with the age of the plant, the manner of bark shed, the length of the bark fibres, the degree of furrowing, the thickness, the hardness and the colour. All mature eucalypts put on an annual layer of bark, which contributes to the increasing diameter of the stems. In some species the outermost layer dies and is annually deciduous either in long strips (as in Eucalyptus sheathiana) or in variably sized flakes (Eucalyptus diversicolor, Eucalyptus cosmophylla or Eucalyptus cladocalyx). These are the gums or smooth-barked species. The gum bark may be dull, shiny or satiny (as in Eucalyptus ornata) or matt (Eucalyptus cosmophylla). In many species the dead bark is retained. Its outermost layer gradually fragments with weathering and sheds without altering the essentially rough barked nature of the trunks or stems - for example Eucalyptus marginata, Eucalyptus jacksonii, Eucalyptus obliqua and Eucalyptus porosa.
Many species are 'half-barks' or 'blackbutts' in which the dead bark is retained in the lower half of the trunks or stems - for example, Eucalyptus brachycalyx, Eucalyptus ochrophloia and Eucalyptus occidentalis - or only in a thick, black accumulation at the base, as in Eucalyptus clelandii. Some species in this category - for example - Eucalyptus youngiana - the rough basal bark is very ribbony at the top, where it gives way to the smooth upper stems. The smooth upper bark of the half barks and that of the completely smooth-barked trees and mallees can produce remarkable colour and interest, for example Eucalyptus deglupta.

Bark

Stringybark - consists of long-fibres and can be pulled off in long pieces. It is usually thick with a spongy texture.
Ironbark - is hard, rough and deeply furrowed. It is impregnated with dried kino (a sap exuded by the tree) which gives a dark red or even black colour.
Tessellated - bark is broken up into many distinct flakes. They are corkish and can flake off.
Box - has short fibres. Some also show tessellation.
Ribbon - this has the bark coming off in long thin pieces but still loosely attached in some places. They can be long ribbons, firmer strips or twisted curls. Bark characteristics
There are over 700 species of Eucalyptus; refer to the List of Eucalyptus species for a comprehensive list of species. It is believed that all eucalypts are related either closely or remotely. Some have diverged from the mainstream of the genus to the extent that they are quite isolated genetically and are able to be recognised by only a few relatively invariant characteristics. Most, however, may be regarded as belonging to large or small groups of related species, which are often in geographical contact with each other and between which gene exchange still occurs. In these situations many species will appear to grade into one another and intermediate forms are common. In other words, some species are relatively fixed genetically, as expressed in their morphology, while others have not diverged completely from their nearest relatives.
Hybrid individuals have not always been recognised as such on first collection and some have been named as new species, such as E. chrysantha (E. preissiana × E. sepulcralis) and E. "rivalis" (E. marginata × E. megacarpa). Hybrid combinations are not particularly common in the field, but some other published species have been suggested to be hybrid combinations and are frequently seen in Australia. For example, E. erythrandra is believed to be E. angulosa × E. teraptera and due to its wide distribution is often referred to in texts.

Species and hybridism
A small genus of similar trees, Angophora, has also been known since the 18th century. In 1995 new evidence, largely genetic, indicated that some prominent Eucalyptus species were actually more closely related to Angophora than to the other eucalypts; they were split off into the new genus Corymbia. Although separate, the three groups are allied and it remains acceptable to refer to the members of all three genera Angophora, Corymbia and Eucalyptus as "eucalypts". The coolibah trees, referred to in Waltzing Matilda, are Eucalyptus E. coolabah and E. microtheca.

Eucalyptus Related genera
Today, specimens of the Australian Mountain Ash, Eucalyptus regnans, are among the tallest trees in the world at up to 92 metres in height and the tallest of all flowering plants (Angiosperms); taller trees such as the Coast Redwood are all conifers (Gymnosperms). There is credible evidence however that at the time of European settlement of Australia some Mountain Ash were indeed the tallest plants in the world.

Tall timber
Most eucalypts are not tolerant of frost, or only tolerate light frosts down to -3°C to -5°C; the hardiest, are the so-called Snow Gums such as Eucalyptus pauciflora which is capable of withstanding cold and frost down to about -20°C. Two sub-species, E. pauciflora subsp. niphophila and E. pauciflora subsp. debeuzevillei in particular are even hardier and can tolerate even quite severe winters. Several other species, especially from the high plateau and mountains of central Tasmania such as Eucalyptus coccifera, Eucalyptus subcrenulata, and Eucalyptus gunnii, have produced extreme cold hardy forms and it is seed procured from these genetically hardy strains that are planted for ornament in colder parts of the world.

Tolerance
An essential oil extracted from eucalyptus leaves contains compounds that are powerful natural disinfectants and which can be toxic in large quantities. Several marsupial herbivores, notably koalas and some possums, are relatively tolerant of it. The close correlation of these oils with other more potent toxins called formylated phloroglucinol compounds allows koalas and other marsupial species to make food choices based on the smell of the leaves. However, it is the formylated phloroglucinol compounds that are the most important factor in choice of leaves by koalas. Eucalyptus flowers produce a great abundance of nectar, providing food for many pollinators including insects, birds, bats and possums. Despite the fact that eucalyptus trees are well-defended from herbivores by their toxic essential oils they do have their share of insect pests, such as the Eucalyptus Longhorn Borer Beetle, Phoracantha semipunctuata, or the aphid-like psyllids known as "bell lerps," both of which have become established as pests throughout the world wherever eucalypts are cultivated.
Further information: list of Lepidoptera which feed on Eucalyptus

Animal relationships
Some species of Eucalyptus have a habit of dropping entire branches off as they grow. Eucalyptus forests are littered with dead branches. The Australian Ghost Gum Eucalyptus papuana is also termed the "widow maker," due to the high number of pioneer tree-felling workers who were killed by falling branches. Many people have been killed as they camped underneath the trees. It is thought the trees shed very large branches to conserve water during periods of drought. This may be the real reason behind the drop bear story told to children - the idea is to keep them away from being under dangerous branches.

Hazards
On warm days vapourised eucalyptus oil rises above the bush to create the characteristic distant blue haze of the Australian landscape. Eucalyptus oil is highly flammable (trees have been known to explode
The two valuable timber trees, Alpine Ash E. delegatensis and Mountain Ash E. regnans, are killed by fire and only regenerate from seed. The same 2003 bushfire that had little impact on forests around Canberra resulted in thousands of hectares of dead ash forests. However, a small amount of ash survived and put out new suckers as well. There has been some debate as to whether to leave the stands, or attempt to harvest the mostly undamaged timber, which is increasingly recognised as a damaging practice.

Fire
- Eucalyptus have many uses which have made them economically important trees. Perhaps the Karri and the Yellow box varieties are the best known. Due to their fast growth the foremost benefit of these trees is the wood. They provide many desirable characteristics for use as ornament, timber, firewood and pulpwood. Fast growth also makes eucalypts suitable as windbreaks. Eucalypts draw a tremendous amount of water from the soil through the process of transpiration. They have been planted (or re-planted) in some places to lower the water table and reduce soil salination. Eucalypts have also been used as a way of reducing malaria by draining the soil in Algeria, Sicily.

Cultivation and uses
Although Eucalypts must have been seen by the very early European explorers and collectors, no botanical collections of them are known to have been made until 1770 when Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander arrived at Botany Bay with Captain James Cook. There they collected specimens of E. gummifera and later, near the Endeavour River in northern Queensland, they collected E. platyphylla; neither of these species was named as such at the time.
In 1777, on Cook's third expedition, David Nelson collected a eucalypt on Bruny Island in southern Tasmania. This specimen was taken to the British Museum in London, and it was named Eucalyptus obliqua by the French botanist L'Héritier, who was working in London at the time. He coined the generic name from the Greek roots eu and calyptos, meaning "well" and "covered" in reference to the operculum of the flower bud. This organ protects the developing flower parts as the flower develops and is shed by the pressure of the emerging stamens at flowering.
The name obliqua was derived from the Latin obliquus, meaning "oblique" which is the botanical term describing a leaf base where the two sides of the leaf blade are of unequal length and do not meet the petiole at the same place.
In naming E. obliqua, L'Héritier caused to be perpetuated, most likely by accident, a feature common to all eucalypts - the operculum. In his choice of a specific name, he recognised not only the characteristic feature of E. obliqua, but one common to many other species as well. E. obliqua was published in 1788-89 and coincides with the date of the first official European settlement of Australia.
Between 1788-89 and the turn of the nineteenth century several more species of Eucalyptus were named and published. Most of these were by the English botanist James Edward Smith and most were, as might be expected, trees of the Sydney region. These include the economically valuable E. pilularis, E. saligna and E. tereticornis.
The nineteenth century saw the endeavours of several of the great botanists in Australian history, particularly Ferdinand von Mueller, whose work on eucalypts contributed greatly to the first comprehensive account of the genus in George Bentham's Flora Australiensis in 1867 - which today remains the only complete Australian flora. The account in Bentham is the most important early systematic treatment of the genus. Bentham divided the genus into five series whose distinctions were based on characteristics of the stamens, particularly the anthers (Mueller, 1879-84), elborated further by Joseph Henry Maiden (1903-33), and taken even further by William Faris Blakely (1934). By this time the anther system had become too complex to be workable and more recent systematic work has concentrated on the characteristics of buds, fruits, leaves and bark.
The first endemic Western Australian Eucalyptus to be collected and subsequently named was the yate (E. cornuta) by the French botanist La Billardiére, who collected in what is now the Esperance area in 1792.

History
Eucalyptus was first introduced to the rest of the world by Sir Joseph Banks, botanist, on the Cook expedition in 1770. They have subsequently been introduced to many parts of the world, notably California, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Ethiopia, Morocco, Portugal, South Africa, Israel, Galicia and Chile. In Spain they have been planted in pulpwood plantations, replacing native oak woodland. Eucalyptus are the basis for several industries, such as sawmilling, pulp, charcoal and others. Several species have become invasive and are causing major problems for local ecosystems.

California
In 1910 Eucalyptus was introduced to Brazil for timber substitution and the vegetal coal industry. It has adpated very well to the local environmental conditions and today there are around 5 million hectares planted. The wood produced by the tree is highly appreciated by the charcoal and pulp and paper industries. The short rotation allows a larger wood production and supply wood for several other activities, helping to preserve the native forests from logging. When well managed the plantations are sustainable and the soil can sustain endless replantations. Eucalyptus plantations are also used as wind breaks.

Brazil
This species was introduced to Ethiopia in either 1894 or 1895, either by Emperor Menelik II's French advisor Mondon-Vidailhet or the Englishman Captain O'Brian. Due to massive deforestation around his new capital city Addis Ababa caused by a growing appetite for fire wood, Emperor Menelik II endorsed its planting around that city; according to Richard R.K. Pankhurst, "The great advantage of the eucalypts was that they were fast growing, required little attention and when cut down grew up again from the roots; it could be harvested every ten years. The tree proved successful from the onset". The eucalypt remains a defining feature of Addis Ababa.

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2007年10月24日水曜日

Elizabeth Bacon Custer
Elizabeth Bacon Custer (April 8, 1842 - April 6, 1933) was the wife of General George Armstrong Custer. After his death, she became an outspoken advocate for her husband's legacy. Custer's portrayal as a gallant fallen hero and the glory of Custer's Last Stand that were canons of American history for more than a century after his death was largely the result of her endless campaigning on his behalf.
Elizabeth "Libbie" Bacon was born in Monroe, Michigan in 1842, the daughter of a wealthy and influential judge. As the only one of the judge's children that would live to adulthood, her father doted on her. Elizabeth was both beautiful and intelligent, and her father hoped she would make a good marriage with a man from her own elevated social class.
She met her future husband in 1862 in the midst of the American Civil War. She fell deeply in love with him but her father refused to allow them to get married. Custer was from a poor undistinguished family and the Judge hoped Libby would have better than the life of an army wife. After Custer was promoted to Brevet Brigadier General, Judge Bacon finally relented and they were married on February 9, 1864.
Libbie and George had a loving but tumultuous relationship. Both were stubborn, opinionated, and ambitious. Their private correspondences were filled with sexually charged double entendres. Despite hardships, they were utterly devoted to each other. She followed him to every assignment, even during the latter days of the Civil War. The depth of their relationship has been the subject of considerable interest in books and film.
After the war, he reverted from his rank of general and was assigned to a series of dreary and unsatisfying assignments in Texas, Kansas, and the Dakota Territory. Life on the frontier outposts was difficult and Custer's career was plagued by problems including a court martial (brought about by his leaving the field to be with Libbie).
The 1876 campaign against the Sioux seemed like a chance for glory to Custer. From Fort Abraham Lincoln in what is now North Dakota, He led the Seventh Cavalry in pursuit of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne who refused to be confined to the reservation system.
After her husband's column was wiped out at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in June 1876, many in the press, Army, and government criticized Custer for blundering into a massacre. President Ulysses S. Grant publicly blamed Custer for the disaster. Fearing that her husband was to be made a scapegoat by history, Libbie launched a one woman campaign to rehabilitate her husband's image. She began writing articles and making speaking engagements praising the glory of her martyred husband. Her three books, Boots and Saddles, (1885), Following the Guidon (1890); and Tenting on the Plains, (1893) were brilliant pieces of propaganda aimed at glorifying her dead husband's memory. Though generally considered to be largely factually accurate, they were clearly slanted in Custer's favor.
Her efforts were largely successful. The image of a steely Custer leading his men against overwhelming odds only to be wiped out while defending their position to the last man became as much a part of American lore as the Alamo. It would not be until the late 20th century, more than a half century after her death, that many historians began to take a second look at Custer's actions leading up to the battle and found much to criticize.
Libbie remained utterly devoted to her husband and never remarried. She died in New York City a few days before her 91st birthday. She was buried next to her husband at West Point.
Libbie was portrayed by actress Olivia de Havilland in the 1941 film They Died with their Boots On, by Mary Ure in the 1967 film Custer of the West, by Blythe Danner in the 1977 television movie The Court Martial of George Armstrong Custer, and by Rosanna Arquette in the 1991 television mini-series Son of the Morning Star.

2007年10月23日火曜日

Government Accountability Office
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the non-partisan audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of Congress, and an agency in the Legislative Branch of the United States Government. The GAO was established as the General Accounting Office by the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 (Pub.L. 67-13, 42 Stat. 20, June 10, 1921). This Act required the head of GAO to "investigate, at the seat of government or elsewhere, all matters relating to the receipt, disbursement, and application of public funds, and shall make to the President...and to Congress...reports (and) recommendations looking to greater economy or efficiency in public expenditures" (Sec. 312(a), 42 Stat. 25). According to GAO's current mission statement, the agency exists to support the Congress in meeting its Constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and ensure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. The name was changed in 2004 to better reflect the mission of the office.
The GAO is headed by the Comptroller General of the United States, a non-partisan position in the U.S. Government. The Comptroller General is appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a 15-year, non-renewable term. The President selects a nominee from a list of at least three individuals recommended by an 8 member bi-partisan, bicameral commission of congressional leaders. The Comptroller General may not be removed by the President, but only by Congress through impeachment or joint resolution for specific reasons. Since 1921, there have been only 7 Comptrollers General, and no formal attempt has ever been made to remove a Comptroller General. The long tenure of the Comptroller General and the manner of appointment and removal gives GAO a continuity of leadership and independence that is rare within government.

2007年10月22日月曜日


The Great Russian Encyclopedia (Russian: Большая Российская энциклопедия (БРЭ); tr.: Bol'shaya Rossiyskaya Enciklopediya) is a new universal Russian encyclopedia in 30 volumes, published since 2004 by Bol'shaya Rossiyskaya Enciklopediya publisher. It is released under the auspices of the Russian Academy of Science (RAS) after 2002 Vladimir Putin's presidential decree.

Great Russian Encyclopedia See also

Great Soviet Encyclopedia

2007年10月21日日曜日


James Connolly (Irish: Séamas Ó Conghaile; June 5, 1868May 12, 1916) was an Irish socialist leader. He was born in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland, to Irish immigrant parents. He left school for working life at the age of 11, but despite this he would become one of the leading Marxist theorists of his day. Though proud of his Irish background he also took a role in Scottish politics. In addition, he studied the neutral international language, Esperanto. He was shot by firing squad following his involvement in the Easter Rising of 1916.

Early life
By 1892 he was involved in the Scottish Socialist Federation, acting as its secretary from 1895, but by 1896 he had gone to Dublin to take up the full time job of secretary of the Dublin Socialist Society which at his instigation quickly evolved into the Irish Socialist Republican Party (ISRP). The ISRP is regarded by many Irish historians as a party of pivotal importance in the early history of Irish socialism and republicanism. While active as a socialist in Great Britain Connolly was among the founders of the Socialist Labour Party which split from the Social Democratic Federation in 1903. While in America he was member of the Socialist Labor Party of America(1906), the Socialist Party of America(1909), the Industrial Workers of the World and founded the Irish Socialist Federation in New York, 1907. On his return to Ireland he was right hand man to James Larkin in the Irish Transport and General Workers Union. In 1913, in response to the Lockout, he, along with an ex-British officer Jack White, founded the Irish Citizen Army (ICA), an armed and well-trained body of labour men whose aim was to defend workers and strikers, particularly from the frequent brutality of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. Though they only numbered about 250 at most, their goal soon became the establishment of an independent and socialist Irish nation. He founded the Irish Labour Party in 1912 and was a member of the National Executive of the Irish Labour Party when he was executed in 1916.

Socialist involvement
Connolly stood aloof from the leadership of the Irish Volunteers. He considered them too bourgeois and unconcerned with Ireland's economic independence. In 1916 thinking they were merely posturing, and unwilling to take decisive action against Britain, he attempted to goad them into action by threatening to send his small body against the British Empire alone, if necessary. This alarmed the members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, who had already infiltrated the Volunteers and had plans for an insurrection that very year. In order to talk Connolly out of any such rash action, the IRB leaders, including Tom Clarke and Patrick Pearse, met with Connolly to see if an agreement could be reached. It has been said that he was kidnapped by them, but this has been denied of late, and must at some point come down to a matter of semantics. As it was, he disappeared for three days without telling anyone where he had been. During the meeting the IRB and the ICA agreed to act together at Easter of that year.
When the Easter Rising occurred on April 24, 1916, Connolly was Commandant of the Dublin Brigade, and as the Dublin Brigade had the most substantial role in the rising, he was de facto Commander in Chief. Following the surrender, he said to other prisoners: 'Don't worry. Those of us that signed the proclamation will be shot. But the rest of you will be set free.' Connolly was not actually held at the jail, but at the Dublin Castle - the British centre of Administration in Ireland at the time. He was taken to the Kilmainham Hospital, across the road from the jail and then taken to the jail to be executed by the British. Visited by his wife, and asking about public opinion, he commented 'They all forget that I am an Irishman'. He confessed his sins, said to be his first religious act since marriage.
He was so badly injured from the fighting (a doctor had already said he had no more than a day or two to live, but the execution order was still given) that he was unable to stand before the firing squad. His absolution and last rites were administered by the Capuchin, Father Aloysius. Asked to pray for the soldiers about to shoot him, he said: 'I will say a prayer for all men who do their duty according to their lights'.
Instead of being marched to the same spot where the others had been executed, at the far end of the execution yard, he was tied to a chair and then shot. Although nobody knew it at the time, this was to be last of the executions for the Easter Rising. The executions were not well received, even throughout Britain, and were drawing unwanted attention from the United States, which the British Government were trying to lure into the War in Europe. There was uproar on both sides of the Atlantic when it became known that a dying man had been tied to a chair and killed. Asquith, the British PM then ordered that no more executions were to take place and all other death sentences were commuted.
He was survived by his wife and several children, one of whom -Nora Connolly-O'Brien- became an influential writer and campaigner within the Republican movement as an adult.

James Connolly Irish independence
His legacy in Ireland is mainly due to his contribution to the republican cause and his Marxism has been largely overlooked by mainstream histories (although his legacy as a socialist has been claimed by the Communist Party of Ireland, Connolly Youth Movement éirígí, the IRSP, the Labour Party, Sinn Féin, the Socialist Party, the SWP, the Workers' Party and a variety of other left-wing and left-republican groups). However, despite claims to the contrary, Connolly's writings show him to be first and foremost a Marxist thinker. In several of his works he rails the bourgeois nationalism of those who claimed to be Irish patriots.
Connolly was among the few left-wingers of the Second International who opposed, outright, World War I. This put him at odds with most of the Labour leaders of Europe - but meant he was a co-thinker of those that would later come to call themselves communists, such as Lenin, Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg. He was influenced and heavily involved with the radical Industrial Workers of the World labour union.
Apparently Lenin was a great admirer of Connolly, although the two never met. Lenin berated other communists, who had criticised the rebellion in Ireland as bourgeois. He maintained that no revolution was "pure", and communists would have to unite with other disaffected groups in order to overthrow existing social orders. He was to prove his point the next year, during the Russian Revolution.
In Scotland, his thinking was hugely influential to socialists such as John Maclean, who would similarly combine his leftist thinking with nationalist ideas when he formed his Scottish Workers Republican Party.
There is a statue of James Connolly in Dublin, outside Liberty Hall, the offices of the SIPTU Trade Union. Dublin Connolly railway station, one of the two main railway stations in Dublin, is named in his honour.
Despite Connolly's role in the Easter Rising and subsequent execution by the British authorities, in a 2002 poll conducted by the BBC of the 100 Greatest Britons, Connolly was voted the 64th greatest Briton of all time, ahead of other notable Britons such as David Lloyd George and Sir Walter Raleigh.

Trivia

Levenson S. James Connolly A Biography. Martin Brian and O'Keeffe Ltd., London, 1973. ISBN 0-85616-130-6.
Connolly, James. 1987. Collected Works (Two volumes). Dublin: New Books.
Anderson, W.K. 1994. James Connolly and the Irish Left. Dublin: Irish Academic Press. ISBN 0-7165-2522-4.
Fox, R.M. 1943. The History of the Irish Citizen Army. Dublin: James Duffy & Co.
Fox, R.M. 1946. James Connolly: the forerunner. Tralee: The Kerryman.
Greaves, C. Desmond. 1972. The Life and Times of James Connolly. London: Lawrence & Wishart. ISBN 0-85315-234-9.
Lynch, David. 2006. Radical Politics in Modern Ireland: A History of the Irish Socialist Republican Party (ISRP) 1896-1904. Dublin: Irish Academic Press. ISBN 0-7165-3356-1.
Kostick, Conor & Collins, Lorcan. 2000 "The Easter Rising" Dublin: O'Brien Press ISBN .0-86278-638-X
Nevin, Donal. 2005. James Connolly: A Full Life. Dublin: Gill & MacMillan. ISBN 0-7171-3911-5.
Ó Cathasaigh, Aindrias. 1996. An Modh Conghaileach: Cuid sóisialachais Shéamais Uí Chonghaile. Dublin: Coiscéim.
Townshend, Charles (2005). Easter 1916: the Irish rebellion. London: Allen Lane, xxi, 442p. ISBN 0-7139-9690-0.