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Topic Review

News International Phone Hacking Scandal

The News International phone hacking scandal was a controversy involving the now-defunct News of the World and other British newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch. Employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in phone hacking, police bribery, and exercising improper influence in the pursuit of stories. Whilst investigations conducted from 2005 to 2007 appeared to show that the paper's phone hacking activities were limited to celebrities, politicians, and members of the British royal family, in July 2011 it was revealed that the phones of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, relatives of deceased British soldiers, and victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings had also been hacked. The resulting public outcry against News Corporation and its owner Rupert Murdoch led to several high-profile resignations, including that of Murdoch as News Corporation director, Murdoch's son James as executive chairman, Dow Jones chief executive Les Hinton, News International legal manager Tom Crone, and chief executive Rebekah Brooks. The commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), Sir Paul Stephenson, also resigned. Advertiser boycotts led to the closure of the News of the World on 10 July 2011, after 168 years of publication. Public pressure forced News Corporation to cancel its proposed takeover of the British satellite broadcaster BSkyB. The prime minister David Cameron announced on 6 July 2011 that a public inquiry, known as the Leveson Inquiry, would look into phone hacking and police bribery by the News of the World, consider the wider culture and ethics of the British newspaper industry and that the Press Complaints Commission would be replaced "entirely". A number of arrests and convictions followed, most notably of the former News of the World managing editor Andy Coulson. Murdoch and his son, James, were summoned to give evidence at the Leveson Inquiry. Over the course of his testimony, Rupert Murdoch admitted that a cover-up had taken place within the News of the World to hide the scope of the phone hacking. On 1 May 2012, a parliamentary select committee report concluded that Murdoch "exhibited wilful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications" and stated that he was "not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company". On 3 July 2013, Channel 4 News broadcast a secret tape in which Murdoch dismissively claims that investigators were "totally incompetent" and acted over "next to nothing" and excuses his papers' actions as "part of the culture of Fleet Street".

11.6K
11 Oct 2022

Topic Review

Negawatt power is a theoretical unit of power representing an amount of electrical power (measured in watts) saved. The energy saved is a direct result of energy conservation or increased energy efficiency. The term was coined by the chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute and environmentalist Amory Lovins in 1985, within the article, "Saving Gigabucks with Negawatts," where he argued that utility customers don’t want kilowatt-hours of electricity; they want energy services such as hot showers, cold beer, lit rooms, and spinning shafts, which can come more cheaply if electricity is used more efficiently. Lovins felt an international behavioral change was necessary in order to decrease countries' dependence on excessive amounts of energy. The concept of a negawatt could influence a behavioral change in consumers by encouraging them to think about the energy that they spend. A negawatt market can be thought of as a secondary market, in which electricity is allocated from one consumer to another consumer within the energy market. In this market, negawatts could be treated as a commodity. Commodities have the ability to be traded across time and space, which would allow negawatts to be incorporated in the international trading system. Roughly 10% of all U.S. electrical generating capacity is in place to meet the last 1% of demand and there is where the immediate efficiency opportunity exists. On March 15, 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the agency that regulates the U.S. electrical grid, approved a rule establishing the approach to compensation for demand response resources intended to benefit customers and help improve the operation and competitiveness of organized wholesale energy markets. This means that negawatts produced by reducing electrical use can demand the same market prices as real megawatts of generated electricity. The incentives for a negawatt market include receiving money, reduction of national energy dependency, and the local electricity deregulation within certain nations or states. As for the cost incentive, those who produce negawatts or simply conserve energy can earn money by selling the saved energy. The negawatt market could help nations or states obtain a deregulated electricity system by creating another market to purchase electricity from. The negawatt market also has two main drawbacks. Currently, there is no way to precisely measure the amount of energy saved in negawatts, and electricity providers may not want customers to use less energy due to the loss of profit.

11.6K
22 Nov 2022

Topic Review

A year is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hours of daylight, and, consequently, vegetation and soil fertility. In temperate and subpolar regions around the planet, four seasons are generally recognized: spring, summer, autumn and winter. In tropical and subtropical regions, several geographical sectors do not present defined seasons; but in the seasonal tropics, the annual wet and dry seasons are recognized and tracked. A calendar year is an approximation of the number of days of the Earth's orbital period, as counted in a given calendar. The Gregorian calendar, or modern calendar, presents its calendar year to be either a common year of 365 days or a leap year of 366 days, as do the Julian calendars; see below. For the Gregorian calendar, the average length of the calendar year (the mean year) across the complete leap cycle of 400 years is 365.2425 days. The ISO standard ISO 80000-3, Annex C, supports the symbol a (for Latin annus) to represent a year of either 365 or 366 days. In English, the abbreviations y and yr are commonly used. In astronomy, the Julian year is a unit of time; it is defined as 365.25 days of exactly 86,400 seconds (SI base unit), totalling exactly 31,557,600 seconds in the Julian astronomical year. The word year is also used for periods loosely associated with, but not identical to, the calendar or astronomical year, such as the seasonal year, the fiscal year, the academic year, etc. Similarly, year can mean the orbital period of any planet; for example, a Martian year and a Venusian year are examples of the time a planet takes to transit one complete orbit. The term can also be used in reference to any long period or cycle, such as the Great Year.

11.5K
14 Nov 2022

Topic Review

Black ginseng is a processed ginseng which prepared by steaming and drying of white or red ginseng for several times (usually 9). This process resulting in extensive changes in types and amounts of several secondary metabolites. Thus, primary ginsenosides (the main active inredients in ginseng) were transformed into less polar derivatives by steaming. In addition, apparent changes happened to other secondary metabolites such as the increasing of phenolic compounds, reducing sugars and acidic polysaccharides as well as the decrease in concentrations of free amino acids and total polysaccharides. Furthermore, the presence of some Maillard reaction products like maltol was also engaged. These obvious chemical changes were associated with a noticeable superiority for black ginseng over white and red ginseng in most of the comparative biological studies including anticarcinogenic, immunomodulatory, anti-Inflammatory, antidiabetic, hepatoprotective, antioxidant and tonic effects.

11.5K
30 Oct 2020

Topic Review

Separatist Feminism

Separatist feminism is a form of radical feminism that holds that opposition to patriarchy is best done through focusing exclusively on women and girls. Some separatist feminists believe that men cannot make positive contributions to the feminist movement and that even well-intentioned men replicate the dynamics of patriarchy. Author Marilyn Frye describes separatist feminism as "separation of various sorts or modes from men and from institutions, relationships, roles and activities that are male-defined, male-dominated, and operating for the benefit of males and the maintenance of male privilege – this separation being initiated or maintained, at will, by women". In a tract on socialist feminism published in 1972, the Hyde Park Chapter of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union differentiated between separatism as an "ideological position" and as a "tactical position". In the same document, they further distinguished between separatism as "personal practice" and as "political position".

11.5K
27 Oct 2022

Topic Review

Death anxiety is an unavoidable common phenomenon in our lives across cultures and religions. It is multidimensional and explained by different theoretical frameworks. Death anxiety can have negative impacts on wellbeing. Death is an inevitable experience that generates a reduced sense of safety and stronger fear (Alkozei et al. 2019).

11.5K
06 Feb 2021

Topic Review

Mitsubishi Challenger

The Mitsubishi Challenger is a mid-size SUV produced by the Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors since 1996, spanning over three generations. Since 2015, for the third generation model, Mitsubishi has no longer used the Challenger name, but using the Pajero Sport/Montero Sport/Shogun Sport name instead.

11.5K
10 Oct 2022

Topic Review

Soil Bioremediation

Petroleum hydrocarbons, heavy metals and agricultural pesticides have mutagenic, carcinogenic, immunotoxic and teratogenic effects and cause drastic changes in soil physicochemical and microbiological characteristics, thereby representing a serious danger to health and environment. Therefore, soil pollution urgently requires the application of a series of physicochemical and biological techniques and treatments to minimize the extent of damage. Among them, bioremediation has been shown to be an alternative that can offer an economically viable way to restore polluted areas.

11.5K
27 Oct 2020

Topic Review

Lignosulfonates

Lignosulfonates are biobased surfactants and specialty chemicals, which are usually produced as a byproduct during sulfite pulping of wood. They are the technical lignin that is, by far, the most commercially traded and are hence vital for replacing non‑renewable and fossil‑based chemicals. Due to their prominent use as plasticizers, dispersants, and stabilizers, the physicochemical properties of lignosulfonates play a key role in determining their end‑use and performance. Their chemical composition and structure are inherently linked to the characteristic behavior of lignosulfonates. This entry hence outlines the fundamental chemistry of lignosulfonates, while discussing the following physicochemical properties: · Solubility in different solvents · Conformation and shape in aqueous solution · Self-association and agglomeration in aqueous solution · Precipitation · Adsorption at surfaces and interfaces

11.5K
05 Jan 2021

Topic Review

Geography of Middle-Earth

The geography of Middle-earth encompasses the physical, political, and moral geography of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, strictly a continent on the planet of Arda but widely taken to mean the physical world, and Eä, all of creation, as well as all of his writings about it. Arda was created as a flat world, incorporating a Western continent, Aman, which became the home of the godlike Valar, as well as Middle-earth. At the end of the First Age, the Western part of Middle-earth, Beleriand, was drowned in the War of Wrath. In the Second Age, a large island, Númenor, was created in the Great Sea, Belegaer, between Aman and Middle-earth; it was destroyed in a cataclysm at the end of the Second Age, in which Arda was remade as a spherical world, and Aman was removed so that Men could not reach it. In The Lord of the Rings, Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age is described as having free peoples, namely Men, Hobbits, Elves, and Dwarves in the West, opposed to peoples under the control of the Dark Lord Sauron in the East. Some commentators have seen this as implying a moral geography of Middle-earth.

11.5K
25 Oct 2022

Topic Review

In biology, a kingdom (Latin: regnum, plural regna) is the second highest taxonomic rank, just below domain. Kingdoms are divided into smaller groups called phyla. Traditionally, some textbooks from the United States and Canada used a system of six kingdoms (Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, Archaea/Archaebacteria, and Bacteria/Eubacteria) while textbooks in Great Britain, India, Greece, Brazil and other countries use five kingdoms only (Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista and Monera). Some recent classifications based on modern cladistics have explicitly abandoned the term kingdom, noting that some traditional kingdoms are not monophyletic, meaning that they do not consist of all the descendants of a common ancestor. The terms flora (for plants), fauna (for animals), and, in the 21st century, funga (for fungi) are also used for life present in a particular region or time.

11.5K
27 Nov 2022

Topic Review

Stage theories are based on the idea that elements in systems move through a pattern of distinct stages over time and that these stages can be described based on their distinguishing characteristics. Specifically, stages in cognitive development have a constant order of succession, later stages integrate the achievements of earlier stages, and each is characterized by a particular type of structure of mental processes which is specific to it. The time of appearance may vary to a certain extent depending upon environmental conditions. "Stage theory" can also be applied beyond psychology to describe phenomena more generally where multiple phases lead to an outcome. The term "stage theory" can thus be applied to various scientific, sociological and business disciplines. In these contexts, stages may not be as rigidly defined, and it is possible for individuals within the multi-stage process to revert to earlier stages or skip some stages entirely.

11.4K
02 Nov 2022

Topic Review

Gaming Computer

A gaming computer, also known as a gaming PC, is a specialized personal computer designed for playing video games. Gaming PCs typically differ from mainstream personal computers by using high-performance video cards and high core-count central processing units with raw performance. Gaming PCs are also used for other demanding tasks such as video editing. Many gamers and computer enthusiasts choose to overclock their CPU(s) and GPU(s) in order to gain extra performance. The added power draw needed to overclock either processing unit often requires additional cooling, using upgraded air cooling or water cooling.

11.4K
01 Nov 2022

Topic Review

Public Transport in Shanghai

Shanghai has an extensive public transport system, largely based on buses, trolley buses, taxis, and a rapidly expanding metro system. Shanghai has invested heavily in public transportation before and after the 2010 World Expo, including the construction of the Hongqiao transportation hub of high-speed rail, air, metro and bus routes. Public transport is the major mode of transport in Shanghai as limitations on car purchases were introduced in 1994 in order to limit the growth of automobile traffic and alleviate congestion. New private cars cannot be driven without a license plate, which are sold in monthly license plate auctions which is only accessible for locally registered residents and those who have paid social insurance or individual income taxes for over three years. Around 9,500 license plates are auctioned each month, and the average price is about CN¥89,600 (US$12,739) in 2019. Shanghai (population of 25 million) has over four million cars on the road, the fifth-largest number of any Chinese city. Despite this the city remains plagued by congestion and vehicle pollution. The results of the "2011 Shanghai Public Transport Passenger Flow Survey" released by the Municipal Transportation and Port Bureau showed that the city's public transport travel time was gradually reduced. The average travel distance of public transport in 2011 was 8.5 kilometers, the travel time 50.8 minutes per trip and the travel cost of public transport is gradually reduced: in 2011, the cost of rail transit was 2.4 yuan per trip, down 14% from 2005; the cost of bus and tram trips was 1.8 yuan, down 5% from 2005. Metro accounted for 33% of the public transport passenger volume. In 2018 the public transportation system handled a total of 16.05 million rides on average each day, among which 10.17 million (63%) were made via the Metro and 5.76 million (36%) via buses. Shanghai expressway traffic volume was 1.215 million vehicles on an average day.

11.4K
08 Nov 2022

Topic Review

Paleoconservatism

Paleoconservatism (sometimes shortened to paleocon) is a conservative political philosophy stressing tradition, limited Federal government and civil society, along with religious, regional, national and Western identity.[lower-alpha 1] According to the international relations scholar Michael Foley, "paleoconservatives press for restrictions on immigration, a rollback of multicultural programmes, the decentralization of federal policy, the restoration of controls upon free trade, a greater emphasis upon economic nationalism and non-interventionism in the conduct of American foreign policy, and a generally revanchist outlook upon a social order in need of recovering old lines of distinction and in particular the assignment of roles in accordance with traditional categories of gender, ethnicity, and race". Practitioners of this philosophy identify themselves as the legitimate heirs to the American conservative tradition. The nativist politician Pat Buchanan was strongly influenced by the Rockford Institute's Chronicles and helped create another paleoconservative publication, The American Conservative. Paleoconservativism's concerns overlap those of the Old Right that opposed the New Deal in the 1930s and 1940s as well as American social conservatism of the late 20th century expressed, for example, in the book Single Issues by Joseph Sobran. The political theorist Paul Gottfried is credited with coining the term in the 1980s. He says the term originally referred to various Americans, such as conservative and traditionalist Catholics and agrarian Southerners, who turned to anti-communism during the Cold War.

11.4K
17 Oct 2022

Topic Review

Mosasaurus (/ˌmoʊzəˈsɔːrəs/; "lizard of the Meuse River") is the type genus (defining example) of the mosasaurs, an extinct group of aquatic squamate reptiles. It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous. The earliest fossils of Mosasaurus known to science were found as skulls in a chalk quarry near the Dutch city of Maastricht in the late 18th century, which were initially thought to have been the bones of crocodiles or whales. One skull discovered around 1780, and which was seized by France during the French Revolutionary Wars for its scientific value, was famously nicknamed the "great animal of Maastricht". In 1808, naturalist Georges Cuvier concluded that it belonged to a giant marine lizard with similarities to monitor lizards but otherwise unlike any known living animal. This concept was revolutionary at the time and helped support the then-developing ideas of extinction. Cuvier did not designate a scientific name for the new animal, and this was done by William Daniel Conybeare in 1822 when he named it Mosasaurus in reference to its origin in fossil deposits near the Meuse River. The exact affinities of Mosasaurus as a squamate remain controversial, and scientists continue to debate whether its closest living relatives are monitor lizards or snakes. Traditional interpretations have estimated the maximum length of the largest species, M. hoffmannii, to be up to 17.1 meters (56 ft), making it one of the largest mosasaurs, although some scientists consider this an overestimation with recent estimates suggesting a length closer to 13 meters (43 ft). The skull of Mosasaurus was equipped with robust jaws capable of swinging back and forth and strong muscles capable of powerful bites using dozens of large teeth adapted for cutting prey. Its four limbs were shaped into robust paddles to steer the animal underwater. Its tail was long and ended in a downward bend and a paddle-like fluke. Mosasaurus was a predator possessing excellent vision to compensate for its poor sense of smell, and a high metabolic rate suggesting it was endothermic ("warm-blooded"), an adaptation only found in mosasaurs among squamates. There is considerable morphological variability across the currently-recognized species in Mosasaurus—from the robustly-built M. hoffmannii to the slender and serpentine M. lemonnieri—but an unclear diagnosis (description of distinguishing features) of the type species M. hoffmannii led to a historically problematic classification. As a result, more than fifty different species have been attributed to the genus in the past. A redescription of the type specimen in 2017 helped resolve the taxonomy issue and confirmed at least five species to be within the genus. Another five species still nominally classified within Mosasaurus are planned to be reassessed in a future study. Fossil evidence suggests Mosasaurus inhabited much of the Atlantic Ocean and the seaways adjacent to it. Mosasaurus fossils have been found in places as diverse as North and South America, Europe, Africa, Western Asia, and Antarctica. This distribution encompassed a wide range of oceanic climates including tropical, subtropical, temperate, and subpolar climates. Mosasaurus was a common large predator in these oceans and was positioned at the top of the food chain. Paleontologists believe its diet would have included virtually any animal; it likely preyed on bony fish, sharks, cephalopods, birds, and other marine reptiles including sea turtles and other mosasaurs. It likely preferred to hunt in open water near the surface. From an ecological standpoint, Mosasaurus probably had a profound impact on the structuring of marine ecosystems; its arrival in some locations such as the Western Interior Seaway in North America coincides with a complete turnover of faunal assemblages and diversity. Mosasaurus faced competition with other large predatory mosasaurs such as Prognathodon and Tylosaurus—which were known to feed on similar prey—though they were able to coexist in the same ecosystems through niche partitioning. There were still conflicts among them, as an instance of Tylosaurus attacking a Mosasaurus has been documented. Several fossils document deliberate attacks on Mosasaurus individuals by members of the same species. Infighting likely took place in the form of snout grappling, similarly seen in modern crocodiles today.

11.4K
01 Dec 2022

Topic Review

Clouding of Consciousness

Clouding of consciousness (also known as brain fog or mental fog) is when a person is slightly less wakeful or aware than normal. They are not as aware of time or their surroundings and find it difficult to pay attention. People describe this subjective sensation as their mind being "foggy".

11.4K
21 Nov 2022

Topic Review

Southern European People

Southern European people are a pan-ethnic group, or multi-ethnic regional grouping, and the inhabitants of Southern Europe. South or Southern Europeans can usually trace back full or partial heritage to Greece, Italy, Spain , Portugal, as well as nations bordering with, or ethnoculturally related to, the region. As the pan-ethnic group is also culturally defined, rather than exclusively a geographical category, it often includes peoples inhabiting areas that are, at times, considered outside of the region. This can include people with heritage from Southern France, the Mediterranean islands of Corsica (also part of France ), Malta and Cyprus (geographically part of West Asia), Southeastern Europe's Albania and European Turkey. There are also descriptions of Southern Europeans which include ancestry from other nations in Southeast Europe, and countries of the South Slavs, particularly in diasporic identification. As Slavs, they are also often identified as Eastern Europeans. There is a large Southern European diaspora, with significant concentrations in the United Kingdom, North America (Southern European Americans and Canadians), and Southern European Australians in Oceania. Other subgroups of Europeans include Eastern European people and Northwestern European people.

11.4K
29 Sep 2022

Topic Review

Timeline of Operating Systems

This article presents a timeline of events in the history of computer operating systems from 1951 to the current day. For a narrative explaining the overall developments, see the History of operating systems.

11.4K
04 Nov 2022

Topic Review

Sustainable Business Models

Over the years, researchers have presented different concepts regarding business models. There is no unanimity, but there is a general agreement that a business model is the representation of how a company conducts its business. Subsequently, interest in the topic has increased and has come to be considered by companies that, driven to incorporate a positive contribution to sustainability into their values, began to face economic development that considers social and environmental aspects instead of worrying only about profit for the shareholders.

11.4K
19 Apr 2022

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