Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Digital cinematography

Digital cinematography is the process of capturing motion pictures as digital images, rather than on film. Digital capture may occur on tape, hard disks, flash memory, or other media which can record digital data. As digital technology has improved, this practice has become increasingly common.

Several mainstream Hollywood movies have now been shot digitally, and many vendors have brought products to market, including traditional film camera vendors like Arri and Panavision, new vendors like RED and Silicon Imaging, and companies which have traditionally focused on consumer and broadcast video equipment, like Sony and Panasonic. The benefits and drawbacks of digital vs. film acquisition are still hotly debated, but digital cinematography cameras sales have surpassed mechanical cameras in the clas sic 35mm format.

Digital cinematography captures motion pictures digitally, in a process analogous to digital photography. While there is no clear technical distinction that separates the images captured in digital cinematography from video, the term "digital cinematography" is usually applied only in cases where digital acquisition is substituted for film acquisition, such as when shooting a feature film. The term is not generally applied when digital acquisition is substituted for analog video acquisition, as with live broadcast television programs.

High-end cameras designed specifically for the digital cinematography market often use a single sensor (much like digital photo cameras), with dimensions similar in size to a 35mm film frame or even (as with the Vision 65) a 65mm film frame. An image can be projected onto a single large sensor exactly the same way it can be projected onto a film frame, so cameras with this design can be made with PL, PV and similar mounts, in order to use the wide range of existing high-end cinematography lenses available. Their large sensors also let these cameras achieve the same shallow depth of field as 35 or 65mm motion picture film cameras, which is important because many cinematographers consider selective focus an essential visual tool.

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event established for both summer and winter sports. There have been two generations of the Olympic Games; the first were the Ancient Olympic Games held at Olympia, Greece. The second, known as the Modern Olympic Games, were first revived in 1895 by the Greek philanthropist Evabgelies Zappa.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded in 1894 on the initiative of a French nobleman and has become the governing body of the Olympic Movement, a conglomeration of sporting federations responsible for the organization of the Games. The evolution of the Olympic Movement during the 20th century forced the IOC to adapt its own vision of the Games in several ways. The original ideal of a pure amateur athlete had to change under the pressure of corporate sponsorships and political regimes.

There are many myths surrounding the origin of the ancient Olympic Games; the most popular identifies Heracles and his father Zeus as the progenitors of the Games. According to the legend, Zeus held sporting events in honor of his defeat of Cronus and succession to the throne of heaven. Heracles, his eldest son, defeated his brothers in a running race and was crowned with a wreath of wild olive branches. It is Heracles who first called the Games "Olympic" and established the custom of holding them every four years. One popular story claims that after Heracles completed his twelve labors, he went on to build the Olympic stadium and surrounding buildings as an honor to Zeus. After the stadium was complete, he walked in a straight line for 200 steps and called this distance a "Stadion", which later became a unit of distance. Another myth associates the first Games with the ancient Greek concept of Olympic truce.


The most widely held estimate for the inception of the Ancient Olympics is 776 BC. Inscriptions have been found of the winners of a footrace held every four years starting in 776 BC with Koroebus, who became the first Olympic champion. From then on, the Olympic Games quickly became important throughout ancient Greece.

History of Tamil Nadu

The region of Tamil Nadu in modern India has been under continuous human habitation since prehistoric times, and the history of Tamil Nadu and the civilization of the Tamil people are among the oldest in the world. Throughout its history, spanning the early Paleolithic age to modern times, this region has coexisted with various external cultures. Except for relatively short periods in its history, the Tamil region has remained independent of external occupation.

The three ancient Tamil empires of Chera, Chola and Pandya were of ancient origins. Together they ruled over this land with a unique culture and language, contributing to the growth of some of the oldest extant litreature in the world. They had extensive maritime trade contacts with the Roman empire.

These three dynasties were in constant struggle with each other vying for hegemony over the land. Invasion by the Kalabhras during the third century disturbed the traditional order of the land by displacing the three ruling kingdoms. These occupiers were overthrown by the resurgence of the Pandyas and the Pallavas, who restored the traditional kingdoms.

The Cholas, who re-emerged from obscurity in the ninth century by defeating the Pallavas and the Pandyas, rose to become a great power and extended their empire over the entire southern peninsula. At its height the Chola empire spanned almost 250,000,000 acres (1,000,000 km2) straddling the Bay of Bengal. The Chola navy held sway over the Sri Vijaya kingdom in Southeast Asia.

World economy

The world economy can be evaluated in various ways, depending on the model used, and this valuation can then be represented in various ways (for example, in 2006 US dollars). It is inseparable from the geography and ecology of Earth, and is therefore somewhat of a misnomer, since, while definitions and representations of the "world economy" vary widely, they must at a minimum exclude any consideration of resources or value based outside of the Earth. For example, while attempts could be made to calculate the value of currently unexploited mining opportunities in unclaimed territory in Antarctica, the same opportunities on Mars would not be considered a part of the world economy – even if currently exploited in some way – and could be considered of latent value only in the same way as uncreated intellectual property, such as a previously unconceived invention.

Beyond the minimum standard of concerning value in production, use, and exchange on the planet Earth, definitions, representations, models, and valuations of the world economy vary widely.

It is common to limit questions of the world economy exclusively to human economic activity, and the world economy is typically judged in monetary terms, even in cases in which there is no efficient market to help valuate certain goods or services, or in cases in which a lack of independent research or government cooperation makes establishing figures difficult. Typical examples are illegal drugs and other black market goods, which by any standard are a part of the world economy, but for which there is by definition no legal market of any kind.

However, even in cases in which there is a clear and efficient market to establish a monetary value, economists do not typically use the current or official exchange rate to translate the monetary units of this market into a single unit for the world economy, since exchange rates typically do not closely reflect world-wide value, for example in cases where the volume or price of transactions is closely regulated by the government. Rather, market valuations in a local currency are typically translated to a single monetary unit using the idea of purchasing power. This is the method used below, which is used for estimating worldwide economic activity in terms of real US dollas. However, the world economy can be evaluated and expressed in many more ways. It is unclear, for example, how many of the world's 6.6 billion people have most of their economic activity reflected in these valuations.

Indian Air Force

The Indian Air Force is theair arm of the armed forces of India and has the prime responsibility of conducting arerial warfare and securing the Indian airspace.

It was established in 1932 as the air force of the Indian Empire and the prefix Royal was added in 1945 in recognition of its services during the World War II After India achieved its independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, the Royal Indian Air Force served the Union of India and after India became a republic in 1950, the prefix was dropped.

With a strength of approximately 170,000 personnel, 1,130 combat and 1,700 non-combat aircraft in active service, the Indian Air Force is the world's fourth largest. In recent years, the IAF has undertaken an ambitious expansion and modernization program and is increasingly used for India's power projection beyond South Asia. Among the various expansion plans is the MRCA program under which the IAF plans to induct 126 fighter jets at a cost of US$12 billion.

During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, the IAF conducted a parratrooping operation from Safdarjang, then known as Willingdon Airfield, to Srinagar airfield at 09:30 hours IST on 27 October. This was the most instrumental action of the war as the paratroopers played a crucial role in blocking the advance of Pakistan militants and Pakistani regular soldiers in the disguise of tribal people.

Education in India

Education In India has a history stretching back to the ancient urban centres of learning at Taxlia and Nalanda. Western education became ingrained into Indian society with the establishment of the Brithsh Raj. Education in the Republic of India falls under the control of both the central government and the states, with some responsibilities lying with the centre and the state having autonomy for others. The various articles of the Indian constitution provide for education as a fundamental right.

India has made huge progress in terms of increasing primary education attendance rate and expanding literacy to approximately two thirds of the population. However, education is still far behind developing countries such as China or Thailand. Most children never attend secondary schools. An optimistic estimate is that only one in five job-seekers in India has ever had any sort of vocational training.

Monastic orders of education under the supervision of a guru was a favored form of education for India's noble castes. The knowledge in these orders was often related to the tasks a section of the society had to perform.

The priest class, the Brahmans, were imparted knowledge of religion, philosophy, and other ancillary branches while the warrior class, the Kshatriya, were trained in the various aspects of warfare. The business class, the Vaishya, were taught their trade and the lowest class of the Shudras was generally deprived of educational advantages. The book of laws, the Manusmriti, and the treatise on statecraft the Arthashatra were among the influential works of this era which reflect the outlook and understanding of the world at the time.

Electric current

A solid conductive metal contains a large population of mobile, or free, electrons. These electrons are bound to the metal lattice but not to any individual atom. Even with no external electric field applied, these electrons move about randomly due to thermal energy but, on average, there is zero net current within the metal. Given a plane through which the wire passes, the number of electrons moving from one side to the other in any period of time is on average equal to the number passing in the opposite direction.

In metallic solids, electricity flows by means of electrons, from lower to higher electrical potential. In other media, any stream of charged objects may constitute an electric current.

The mobile charged particles within a conductor move constantly in random directions, like the particles of a gas. In order for there to be a net flow of charge, the particles must also move together with an average drift rate.

Electrons are the charge carriers in metals and they follow an erratic path, bouncing from atom to atom, but generally drifting in the direction of the electric field. The speed at which they drift can be calculated from the equation.

Political integration of India

At the time of Indian independance, India was divided into two sets of territories, the first being the territories of "British India", which were under the direct control of the India Office in London and the Governer-General of India, and the second being the "Princely states", the territories over which the Crown had suzerainty, but which were under the control of their hereditary rulers. In addition, there were several colonial enclaves controlled by France and Portugal.

The political integration of these territories into India was a declared objective of the Indian National Congress, which the Governemnt of India pursued over the next decade. Through a combination of factors, Vallabhbhai Patel and V.P.Menon convinced the rulers of almost all of the hundreds of princelt states to accede to India. Having secured their accession, they then proceeded to, in a step-by-step process, secure and extend the central government's authority over these states and transform their administrations until, by 1956, there was little difference between the territories that had formerly been part of British India and those that had been part of princely states.

Simultaneously, the Government of India, through a combination of diplomatic and military means, acquired defacto and dejune control over the remaining colonial enclaves, which too were integrated into India.

Although this process successfully integrated the vast majority of princely states into India, it was not as successful in relation to a few states, notably the former princely state of Kashmir, the accession of which to India was disputed by Pakistan, the state of Hyderabed, whose ruler was determined to remain independent, and the states of Tripura and Manipur, where active secessionist movements existed.

Globalization

Globalization in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together.

This process is a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural and political forces. Globalization is often used to refer to economic globalization, that is, integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology.

The United Nations ESCWA has written that globalization "is a widely-used term that can be defined in a number of different ways. When used in an economic context, it refers to the reduction and removal of barriers between national borders in order to facilitate the flow of goods, capital, services and labour...although considerable barriers remain to the flow of labour. Globalization is not a new phenomenon. It began in the late nineteenth century, but its spread slowed during the period from the start of the First World War until the third quarter of the twentieth century.

This slowdown can be attributed to the inwardlooking policies pursued by a number of countries in order to protect their respective industries...The pace of globalization picked up rapidly during the fourth quarter of the twentieth century.

Culture of India

The culture of India has been shaped by the long history of history of India, its unique geography and the absorption of customs, traditions and ideas from some of its neighbors as well as by preserving its ancient heritages, which were formed during the Indus Vallely Civilization and evolved further during the Vedic age, rise and decline of Buddhism, Golden age, Muslim consqusts, and European colonization. India's great diversity of cultural practices, languages, customs, and traditions are examples of this unique co-mingling over the past five millennia.

The great number of languages in India have added to the diverse cultures and traditions at all levels. 1000, (if you count regional dialects and regional words, if you don't then 216) languages are spoken by a group of more than 10,000 people; however there are many others which are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people. Altogether, there are 415 living languages in India.

According to Eugene M. Makar, the traditional Indian culture is defined by relatively strict social hierarchy. He also mentions that from an early age, children are reminded of their roles and places in society. This is reinforced by that many believe gods and spirits have integral and functional role in determining their life. Several differences such as religion divide culture. However, far more powerful division is the traditional Hindu bifurcation into non-polluting and polluting occupations. Strict social taboos have governed these groups for thousands of years. In recent years, particularly in cities, some of these lines have blurred and sometimes even disappeared. Neclear family is central to Indian culture. Important family relations extend to as far as gotra, the mainly patrilinear lineage or clan assigned to a Hindu at birth. In rural areas it is common that three or four generations of the family live under the same roof. Patriarch often resolves family issues.

Among developing countries, India stands out for its spectacularly low levels of occupational and geographic mobility. People choose same occupations as their parents and rarely move geographically in the society.

Indian martial arts

The Indian subcontinent is home to a variety of fighting styles. They are collectively referred to in Sanskrit as dhanurveda (from dhanus and veda meaning bow and knowledge respectively) which is the term for the "science of archery" in Puranic literature, later applied to martical arts in general. The Vishnu Purana text describes dhanurveda as one of the traditional eighteen branches of knowledge.

Fighting arts from the Indian subcontinent are diverse in nature and vary according to region and time of origin. For example, a number of ancient Dravidian martial arts were developed in South India including Kuttu Varisai (empty hand combat), malyutham and Varma Kalai (the art of vital points) in Tamil Nadu, as well as kalaripayat (way of the arena) and adithada (attack and defend) in Kerala.

Some of the older traditions include the organised martial systems practiced by the kshatriya warrior caste of Hinduism. These systems include armed and unarmed combat, and aspects such as meditation and mental conditioning.

The importance of martial arts in Indian culture is visible in the many ancient Hindu temples which have statues of deities and warriors in various combat postures. The theories behind yoga, ayurvade and tantra, such as kundalini (coiled energy), prana (life energy), nadi (meridians), chakra (energy points) and marmam (pressure points), are also present in Indian fighting systems.

Automobile industry in India

The automobile industry in india the tenth largest in the world with an annual production of approximately 2 million units is expected to become one of the major global automotive industries in the coming years.

A number of domestic companies produce automobiles in India and the growing presence of multinational investment, too, has led to an increase in overall growth. Following the economic reforms of 1991 the Indian automotive industry has demonstrated sustained growth as a result of increased competitiveness and relaxed restrictions.

In 1953, the government of India and the Indian private sector initiated manufacturing processes to help develop the automobile industry, which had emerged by the 1940s in a nascent form. Between 1970 to the economic liberalization of 1991, the automobile industry continued to grow at a slow pace due to the many government restrictions.

A number of Indian manufactures appeared between 1970-1980.Japanese manufacturers entered the Indian market ultimately leading to the establishment of Maruti Udyog. A number of foreign firms initiated joint ventures with Indian companies.

Landscape architecture

Landscape architecture is the most modern of the environment professions and represents a synthesis of arts, science and technical philosphies and practices that seek to care for the Earth's landscapes in a truly holistic, creative and sustainable manner. It involves the investigation and designed response to the landscape.

The scope of the profession includes masterplanning, site planning, environmental restoration, town or urban planning, urban design, parks and recreation planning; green infrastructure planning and provsion, all at varying scales of design, planning and management. A practitioner in the field of landscape architecture is called a landscape architect.

The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects states that "Landscape Architects research, plan, design and advise on the stewardship, conservation and sustainability of development of the environment and spaces, both within and beyond the built environment". This definition of the profession of landscape architect is based on the International Standard Classification of Occupations, International Labour Office, Geneva.

The Landscape Institute is the recognised body relating to the field of Landscape architecture throughout the UK. To become a recognised landscape architect in the UK takes approximately 7 years. To begin the process, one has to study an accredited course by the Landscape Institute to obtain a Bachelors degree in Landscape Architecture or a similar field. Following this one must progress onto a Postgraduate Diploma in the field of Landscape Architecture covering the subject in far greater detail such as mass urban planning, construction and planting. Following this, the trainee must complete the Pathway to Chartership, a challenging but very rewarding program set out by the Landscape Institute.

Information technology

Today, the term information technology has ballooned to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term has become very recognizable. The information technology umbrella can be quite large, covering many fields.

IT professionals perform a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer notworks and information database. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include date management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as the management and administration of entire systems.

When computer and communications technologies are combined, the result is information technology, or "infotech". Information Technology (IT) is a general term that describes any technology that helps to produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or disseminate information. Presumably, when speaking of Information Technology (IT) as a whole, it is noted that the use of computers and information are associated.

The term Information Technology (IT) is sometimes said to have been coined by Jim Domsic of Michigan in November 1981.Domsic, who worked as a computer manager for an automotive related industry, is supposed to have created the term to modernize the outdated phrase "data processing". The Oxford English Dictionary, however, in defining information technology as "the branch of technology concerned with the dissemination, processing, and storage of information, esp. by means of computers" provides an illustrative quote from the year 1958 (Leavitt & Whisler in Harvard Business Rev. XXXVI. 41/1 "The new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology.") that predates the so-far unsubstantiated Domsic coinage.

Stock market

A stock market, or equity market, is a private or public market for the trading of company stock and derivatives of company stock at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.

The size of the world stock market is estimated at about $36.6 trillion US at the beginning of October 2008. The total world derivatives market has been estimated at about $791 trillion face or nominal value, 11 times the size of the entire world economy.

The value of the derivatives market, because it is stated in terms of national values, cannot be directly compared to a stock or a fixed income security, which traditionally refers to an actual value. Moreover, the vast majority of derivatives 'cancel' each other out Many such relatively illiquid securities are valued as marketed to model, rather than an actual market price.

The stocks are listed and traded on stock exchanges which are entities a corporation or mutual organization specialized in the business of bringing buyers and sellers of the organizations to a listing of stocks and securities together. The stock market in the United States includes the trading of all securities listed on the NYSE, the NASDAQ, the Amex, as well as on the many regional exchanges.

Waste management

Waste management is the collection, transport, processing, recycling or disposal, and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on halth, the environment or aesthetics.

Waste management is also carried out to recover resources from it. Waste management can involve solid, liquid, gaseous or radioactive substances, with different methods and fields of expertise for each.

Waste management practices differ for developed and developing nations, for urban and rural areas, and for residential and industrial, producers. Management for non-hazardous residential and institutional waste in metropolitan areas is usually the responsibility of local government authorities, while management for non-hazardous commercial and industrial waste is usually the responsibility of the generator.

Disposing of waste in a landfill involves burying waste, and this remains a common practice in most countries. Landfills were often established in abandoned or unused quarries, mining voids or borrow pits.A properly-designed and well-managed landfill can be a hygienic and relatively inexpensive method of disposing of waste materials. Older, poorly-designed or poorly-managed landfills can create a number of adverse environmental impacts such as wind-blown litter, attraction of vermin, and generation of liquid leachate.

Function and cameras

The camera or camera obscura is the image-forming device, and photographic film or a silicon electronic image sensor is the sensing medium. The respective recording medium can be the film itself, or a digital electronic or magnetic memory.

Photographers control the camera and lens to "expose" the light recording material (such as film) to the required amount of light to form a "lantent imate" (on film) or "raw file" (in digital cameras) which, after appropriate processing, is converted to a usable image. Digital cameras replace film with an electronic image sensor based on light-sensitive electronics such as charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The resulting digital image is stored electronically, but can be reproduced on paper or film.

The movie camera is a type of photographic camera which takes a rapid sequence of photographs on strips of film. In contrast to a still camera, which captures a single snapshot at a time, the movie camera takes a series of images, each called a "frame". This is accomplished through an intermittent mechanism. The frames are later played back in a movie projector at a specific speed, called the "frame rate" (number of frames per second). While viewing, a person's eyes and brain merge the separate pictures together to create the illusion of motion.

In all but certain specialized cameras, the process of obtaining a usable exposure must involve the use, manually or automatically, of a few controls to ensure the photograph is clear, sharp and well illuminated.

Audio engineering

Audio engineering is a part of audio science dealing with the recording and reproduction of sound through mechanical and electronic means. The field draws on many disciplines, including electrical engineering, acoustics, psychoacoustics, and music.

Unlike acoustical engineering, audio engineering generally does not deal with noise controal or acoustical design. However, an audio engineer is often closer to the creative and technical aspects of audio rather than formal engineering.

An audio engineer must be proficient with different types of recording media, such as analog tape, digital multitrack recorders and workstations, and computer knowledge. With the advent of the digital age, it is becoming more and more important for the audio engineer to be versed in the understanding of software and hardware integration from synchronization to analog to digital transfers.

An audio engineer is someone with experience and training in the production and manipulation of sound through mechanical (analog) or digital means. As a professional title, this person is sometimes designated as a sound engineer or recording engineer instead. A person with one of these titles is commonly listed in the credits of many commercial music recordings (as well as in other productions that include sound, such as movies).

Computer engineering as an academic discipline

Computer Engineering (also called Electronic and Computer Engineering or Computer Systems Engineering) is a discipline that combines elements of both Electrical and Computer Science. Computer engineers are electrical engineers that have additional training in the areas of software design and hardware-software integration. In turn, they focus less on power electronics and physics. Computer engineers are involved in many aspects of computing, from the design of individual microprocessors, personal computers, and supercomputers, to circuit design. This engineering monitors the many subsystems in motor vehicles.

The first accredited computer engineering degree program in the United States was established at Case Western Reserve University in 1971; as of October 2004 there were 170 ABET-accredited computer engineering programs in the US.

Due to increasing job requirements for engineers, who can design and manage all forms of computer systems used in industry, some tertiary institutions around the world offer a bachelor's degree generally called "computer engineering". Both computer engineering and electronic engineering programs include analog and digital circuit design in their curricula. As with most engineering disciplines, having a sound knowledge of mathematics and sciences is necessary for computer engineers.

In many institutions, computer engineering students are allowed to choose areas of in-depth study in their junior and senior year, as the full breadth of knowledge used in the design and application of computers is well beyond the scope of an undergraduate degree.

Supermarket

A supermarket is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments. It is larger in size and has a wider selection than a traditional grocery store and it is smaller than a hypermarkat or superstore.

The supermarket typically comprises meat, fresh produce, dairy, and baked goods departments along with shelf space reserved for canned and packaged goods as well as for various nonfood items such as household cleaners, pharmacy products, and pet supplies. Most supermarkets also sell a variety of other household products that are consumed regularly, such as alcohol (where permitted), household cleaning products, medicine, clothos, and some sell a much wider range of nonfood products.

The traditional suburban supermarket occupies a large amount of floor space, usually on a single level, and is situated near a residential area in order to be convenient to consumers. Its basic appeal is the availability of a broad selection of goods under a single roof at relatively low prices.

Other advantages include ease of parking and, frequently, the convenience of shopping hours that extend far into the evening or even 24 hours a day. Supermarkets usually make massive outlays of newspaper and other advertising and often present elaborate in-store displays of products. The stores often are part of a corporate chain that owns or controls (sometimes by franchise) other supermarkets located nearby — even transnationally — thus increasing opportunities for economics of scale.

Classical music

Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to mainstream music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common practice period.

European music is largely distinguished from many other non-European and popular musical forms by its system of staff notation, in use since about the 16th century. Western staff notation is used by composers to prescribe to the performer the pitch, speed, meter, individual rhythms and exact execution of a piece of music. This leaves less room for practices, such as improvisation and ad libitum ornamentation, that are frequently heard in non-European art music (compare Indian classical music and japanese traditional music and popular music.

The public taste for and appreciation of formal music of this type waned in the late 1900s in the United States and United Kingdom in particular. Certainly this period has seen classical music falling well behind the immense commercial success of popular music, in the opinion of some, although the number of CDs sold is not indicative of the popularity of classical music.

The term "classical music" did not appear until the early 19th century, in an attempt to "canonize" the period from Johann Sebastian Bach to Beethovan as a golden age. The earliest reference to "classical music" recorded by the Ozford English Dictonary is from about 1836. Many writers feel that "classical" is an inappropriate term for mainstream and avant-garde music written since the latter part of the 19th century; hence the common usage of apostrophes as a short-hand for "so-called".

Reading

Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the purpose of deriving meaning (reading comprehension)and/or constructing meaning. Written information is received by the retina, processed by the primary visual cortex, and interpreted in Wernicke's area.

Reading is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas.

Readers use a variety of reading strategies to assist with decoding (to translate symbols into sounds or visual representations of language), and comprehension. Readers may use morpheme, semantics, syntax and context clues to identify the meaning of unknown words. Readers integrate the words they have read into their existing framework of knowledge or schema.

Other types of reading may not be text-based, such as music notation or pictograms. Reading text is now an important way for the general population in many societies to access information and make meaning

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Hospitality industry

The hospitality industry is a $61 billion dollar industry that is fueled by an ongoing need for nourishment. It consisits of multiple groups including management, housekeepers, kitchen workers and servers.

Each play a very important role in the operation of a food-service/hospitality establishment. The hospitality industry consists budget, limited service, full-service and luxury resort properties throughout the world.

This industry strives on achieving the highest Average Daily Rate and Occupancy to maximize revenue and reduce operating costs to improve net income.

Today, health organizations including direct charitable donations. In history, however, they were often founded and funded by religious orders or charitable individuals and leaders. Similarly, modern-day hospitals are largely staffed by professional physicians, surgeons and nurses, whereas in history, this work was usually done by the founding religious orders or by volunteers.

Library

A library is a collection of information, sources, resources, books, and services, and the structure in which it is housed: it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. The term can mean the collection, the building that houses such a collection, or both.


Public and institutional collections and services may be intended for use by people who choose not to — or cannot afford to — purchase an extensive collection themselves, who need material no individual can reasonably be expected to have, or who require professional assistance with their research.

Thus, modern libraries are increasingly being redefined as places to get unrestricted access to information in many formats and from many sources. In addition to providing materials, they also provide the services of specialists, who are experts at finding and organizing information and at interpreting information needs.

More recently, libraries are understood as extending beyond the physical walls of a building, by including material accessible by electronic means, and by providing the assistance of librarians in navigating and analyzing tremendous amounts of knowledge with a variety of digital tools.

travel and tourisum

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) was conceptualized in the early 1980s when a group of CEOs came to the realization that although World Travel & Tourism was the largest service industry in the world and the biggest provider of jobs, nobody knew it. There was no consolidated data or voice for the industry to give the message to elected official and policy makers.


WTTC was established in 1990 and today the Council is positioned as the global business leaders’ forum for Travel & Tourism, comprising the Chairmen and Chief Executives of 100 of the world’s foremost organizations, representing all regions and sectors of the industry
WTTC works to raise awareness of Travel & Tourism as one of the world's largest industries, employing approximately 230 million people and generating over 10 per cent of world GDP, WTTC works together with governments to raise awareness of the economic and social importance of the industry across the world.

The Global Travel & Tourism Summit is an annual WTTC gathering for both public and private sector leaders of travel and tourism. The Summit aims to facilitate meaningful dialogue among the world's Travel & Tourism industry and government leaders. Past locations of the Summit include Vilamoura, Doha, New Delhi, Washington D.C., and Lisbon. The 8th Global Travel & Tourism Summit took place from 20 to 22 April, 2008 in Dubai, UAE.