1.
Caravaggio
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Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1592 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, in scarcely a year or so’s sojourn in Naples, he rapidly established himself once more as the most prominent painter, exploiting high-ranking connections. It was not long before these connections gave him an opening to travel on in 1607 to Malta, governed by the Order of Knights Hospitallers, Caravaggio probably hoped that the Knights would provide a channel whereby he could obtain a pardon from the Papacy. Once more his talents made an instant impression, along with the support of noble patrons and his hopes dashed, he contrived to escape and flee once, which before the end of 1608 led to his cancellation from the rolls of the Order. He made for Syracuse in Sicily, where he was received as a guest by a friend from his Roman days, the painter’s face was disfigured and rumours started to circulate of his death. Various commentators have formulated opinions about his state from works supposedly executed at this period. In fact, Caravaggio’s end is shrouded in mystery, mystery that is rendered only denser by conflicting hypotheses, some speak of a natural death from a persistent fever, others of an assassination by emissaries of the Knights of Malta. The loss of the paintings put the deal and his future in doubt, there is evidence that dogged by a serious fever, he was tended by a local religious confraternity near Porto Ercole, then in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, but succumbed. His death was certified by them as taking place on 18 July 1610, if the story to this point is exact, it is likely he was buried in a paupers’ common grave. As to the place, though this continues to be contested. Famous while he lived, Caravaggio was forgotten almost immediately after his death, despite this, his influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged from the ruins of Mannerism was profound. The 20th-century art historian André Berne-Joffroy claimed, What begins in the work of Caravaggio is, quite simply, modern painting. Caravaggio was born in Milan where his father, Fermo, was an administrator and architect-decorator to the Marchese of Caravaggio. His mother, Lucia Aratori, came from a family of the same district. In 1576 the family moved to Caravaggio to escape a plague which ravaged Milan, Caravaggios mother died in 1584, the same year he began his four-year apprenticeship to the Milanese painter Simone Peterzano, described in the contract of apprenticeship as a pupil of Titian. Following his initial training under Simone Peterzano, in 1592 Caravaggio left Milan for Rome, in flight after certain quarrels, in Rome, where there was a demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and palazzos being built at the time. It was also a period when the Church was searching for an alternative to Mannerism in religious art that was tasked to counter the threat of Protestantism. Caravaggios innovation was a radical naturalism that combined close observation with a dramatic, even theatrical
2.
Cardsharps (Caravaggio)
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The Cardsharps is a painting by the Italian Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. The original is generally agreed to be the work acquired by the Kimbell Art Museum in 1987, the work represents an important milestone for Caravaggio. Caravaggio left Arpinos workshop in January 1594 and began selling works through the dealer Costantino, with the assistance of Prospero Orsi, Orsi introduced Caravaggio to his extensive network of contacts in the world of collectors and patrons. The painting shows an expensively-dressed but unworldly boy playing cards with another boy, the second boy has a dagger handy at his side, and violence is not far away. It was the second such painting Caravaggio created, the first, The Fortune Teller, had drawn attention, and this painting extended his reputation, small though it was at this stage. Cardsharps, with its mixture of brutal realism and luminous Venetian delicacy, was much admired. Caravaggio appears to have produced more than one version of the work, over fifty copies and variants made by other painters have survived, with artists such as Georges de La Tour painting their own appreciations of the theme. From Del Montes collection the work entered the collection of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, nephew of the Pope Urban VIII, the British art historian Denis Mahon acquired a copy of Cardsharps at auction in 2006. Although it had sold by Sothebys as being a copy of the work in the Kimbell Art Museum and by an artist other than Caravaggio. There is a pentimento, in full detail of the face of one of the cheats had been sketched in spite of being painted over by the pages hat. This suggests that it is unlikely that it was done by a copy artist, the attribution of this version to Caravaggio has been widely accepted, although as of 2014 it is the subject of a legal dispute. This suggests that Caravaggio might have painted at least two versions of the work (as he is believed to have done with Boy Bitten by a Lizard, The Fortune Teller and The Lute Player. Sir Denis Mahon died in 2011 and the painting had been loaned to Londons Museum of the Order of St. John and insured for £10,000,000.8 million for its legal fees
3.
Money
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The main functions of money are distinguished as, a medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value, and, sometimes, a standard of deferred payment. Any item or verifiable record that fulfills these functions can be considered as money, Money is historically an emergent market phenomenon establishing a commodity money, but nearly all contemporary money systems are based on fiat money. Fiat money, like any check or note of debt, is without use value as a physical commodity. It derives its value by being declared by a government to be legal tender, the money supply of a country consists of currency and, depending on the particular definition used, one or more types of bank money. Bank money, which consists only of records, forms by far the largest part of money in developed countries. The word money is believed to originate from a temple of Juno, in the ancient world Juno was often associated with money. The temple of Juno Moneta at Rome was the place where the mint of Ancient Rome was located, the name Juno may derive from the Etruscan goddess Uni and Moneta either from the Latin word monere or the Greek word moneres. In the Western world, a prevalent term for coin-money has been specie, stemming from Latin in specie, meaning in kind. The use of methods may date back to at least 100,000 years ago. Instead, non-monetary societies operated largely along the principles of gift economy, when barter did in fact occur, it was usually between either complete strangers or potential enemies. Many cultures around the world eventually developed the use of commodity money, the Mesopotamian shekel was a unit of weight, and relied on the mass of something like 160 grains of barley. The first usage of the came from Mesopotamia circa 3000 BC. Societies in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Australia used shell money – often, according to Herodotus, the Lydians were the first people to introduce the use of gold and silver coins. It is thought by scholars that these first stamped coins were minted around 650–600 BC. The system of commodity money eventually evolved into a system of representative money and this occurred because gold and silver merchants or banks would issue receipts to their depositors – redeemable for the commodity money deposited. Eventually, these became generally accepted as a means of payment and were used as money. Paper money or banknotes were first used in China during the Song Dynasty and these banknotes, known as jiaozi, evolved from promissory notes that had been used since the 7th century. However, they did not displace commodity money, and were used alongside coins, in the 13th century, paper money became known in Europe through the accounts of travelers, such as Marco Polo and William of Rubruck
4.
Value (economics)
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Economic value is a measure of the benefit provided by a good or service to an economic agent. It is generally measured relative to units of currency, and the interpretation is therefore what is the amount of money a specific actor is willing. Note that economic value is not the same as market price, if a consumer is willing to buy a good, it implies that the customer places a higher value on the good than the market price. The difference between the value to the consumer and the price is called consumer surplus. It is easy to see situations where the value is considerably larger than the market price. The economic value of a good or service has puzzled economists since the beginning of the discipline, first, economists tried to estimate the value of a good to an individual alone, and extend that definition to goods which can be exchanged. From this analysis came the concepts value in use and value in exchange, Value is linked to price through the mechanism of exchange. When an economist observes an exchange, two important value functions are revealed, those of the buyer and seller. Just as the buyer reveals what he is willing to pay for a amount of a good. Additional information about market value is obtained by the rate at which transactions occur, said another way, value is how much a desired object or condition is worth relative to other objects or conditions. Economic values are expressed as how much of one condition or commodity will. Among the competing schools of economic theory there are differing metrics for value assessment, Value theories are a large part of the differences and disagreements between the various schools of economic theory. In neoclassical economics, the value of an object or service is seen as nothing but the price it would bring in an open. This is determined primarily by the demand for the relative to supply in a perfectly competitive market. Many neoclassical economic theories equate the value of a commodity with its price, as such, everything is seen as a commodity and if there is no market to set a price then there is no economic value. In classical economics, the value of an object or condition is the amount of discomfort/labor saved through the consumption or use of an object or condition. Though exchange value is recognized, economic value is not, in theory, dependent on the existence of a market and price and this is complicated, however, by the efforts of classical economists to connect price and labor value. In this tradition, Steve Keen makes the claim that value refers to the worth of a commodity
5.
Event (probability theory)
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In probability theory, an event is a set of outcomes of an experiment to which a probability is assigned. A single outcome may be an element of different events. An event defines an event, namely the complementary set. Typically, when the space is finite, any subset of the sample space is an event. However, this approach does not work well in cases where the space is uncountably infinite. So, when defining a probability space it is possible, and often necessary, to exclude certain subsets of the sample space from being events. If we assemble a deck of 52 playing cards with no jokers, an event, however, is any subset of the sample space, including any singleton set, the empty set and the sample space itself. Other events are subsets of the sample space that contain multiple elements. So, for example, potential events include, Red and black at the time without being a joker, The 5 of Hearts, A King, A Face card, A Spade, A Face card or a red suit. Since all events are sets, they are written as sets. Defining all subsets of the space as events works well when there are only finitely many outcomes. For many standard probability distributions, such as the normal distribution, attempts to define probabilities for all subsets of the real numbers run into difficulties when one considers badly behaved sets, such as those that are nonmeasurable. Hence, it is necessary to restrict attention to a limited family of subsets. The most natural choice is the Borel measurable set derived from unions and intersections of intervals, however, the larger class of Lebesgue measurable sets proves more useful in practice. In the general description of probability spaces, an event may be defined as an element of a selected σ-algebra of subsets of the sample space. Under this definition, any subset of the space that is not an element of the σ-algebra is not an event. With a reasonable specification of the probability space, however, all events of interest are elements of the σ-algebra, even though events are subsets of some sample space Ω, they are often written as propositional formulas involving random variables. For example, if X is a random variable defined on the sample space Ω
6.
Risk
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Risk is the potential of gaining or losing something of value. Values can be gained or lost when taking risk resulting from an action or inaction. Risk can also be defined as the interaction with uncertainty. Uncertainty is a potential, unpredictable, and uncontrollable outcome, risk is a consequence of action taken in spite of uncertainty, Risk perception is the subjective judgment people make about the severity and probability of a risk, and may vary person to person. Any human endeavor carries some risk, but some are much riskier than others, the Oxford English Dictionary cites the earliest use of the word in English as of 1621, and the spelling as risk from 1655. It defines risk as, the possibility of loss, injury, or other adverse or unwelcome circumstance, Risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has an effect on at least one objective. The probability of something happening multiplied by the resulting cost or benefit if it does, finance, The possibility that an actual return on an investment will be lower than the expected return. Insurance, A situation where the probability of a variable is known, a risk is not an uncertainty, a peril, or a hazard. Securities trading, The probability of a loss or drop in value, non-systematic risk is any risk that isnt market-related. Also called non-market risk, extra-market risk or diversifiable risk, workplace, Product of the consequence and probability of a hazardous event or phenomenon. For example, the risk of developing cancer is estimated as the probability of developing cancer over a lifetime as a result of exposure to potential carcinogens. The International Organization for Standardization publication ISO31000 / ISO Guide 73,2002 definition of risk is the effect of uncertainty on objectives, in this definition, uncertainties include events and uncertainties caused by ambiguity or a lack of information. It also includes both negative and positive impacts on objectives, very different approaches to risk management are taken in different fields, e. g. Risk is the unwanted subset of a set of uncertain outcomes. Risk can be seen as relating to the probability of future events. For example, according to analysis of information risk, risk is. In computer science this definition is used by The Open Group, OHSAS defines risk as the combination of the probability of a hazard resulting in an adverse event, and the severity of the event. In information security risk is defined as the potential that a threat will exploit vulnerabilities of an asset or group of assets. Financial risk is defined as the unpredictable variability or volatility of returns
7.
Law
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Law is a system of rules that are created and enforced through social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior. Law as a system helps regulate and ensure that a community show respect, private individuals can create legally binding contracts, including arbitration agreements that may elect to accept alternative arbitration to the normal court process. The formation of laws themselves may be influenced by a constitution, written or tacit, the law shapes politics, economics, history and society in various ways and serves as a mediator of relations between people. Islamic Sharia law is the worlds most widely used religious law, the adjudication of the law is generally divided into two main areas referred to as Criminal law and Civil law. Criminal law deals with conduct that is considered harmful to social order, Civil law deals with the resolution of lawsuits between individuals or organizations. Law provides a source of scholarly inquiry into legal history, philosophy, economic analysis. Law also raises important and complex issues concerning equality, fairness, there is an old saying that all are equal before the law, although Jonathan Swift argued that Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through. In 1894, the author Anatole France said sarcastically, In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal loaves of bread. Writing in 350 BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle declared, The rule of law is better than the rule of any individual, mikhail Bakunin said, All law has for its object to confirm and exalt into a system the exploitation of the workers by a ruling class. Cicero said more law, less justice, marxist doctrine asserts that law will not be required once the state has withered away. Regardless of ones view of the law, it today a completely central institution. Numerous definitions of law have been put forward over the centuries, at the same time, it plays only one part in the congeries of rules which influence behavior, for social and moral rules of a less institutionalized kind are also of great importance. There have been attempts to produce a universally acceptable definition of law. In 1972, one indicated that no such definition could be produced. McCoubrey and White said that the question what is law, glanville Williams said that the meaning of the word law depends on the context in which that word is used. He said that, for example, early customary law and municipal law were contexts where the law had two different and irreconcilable meanings. Thurman Arnold said that it is obvious that it is impossible to define the word law and it is possible to take the view that there is no need to define the word law. The history of law links closely to the development of civilization, Ancient Egyptian law, dating as far back as 3000 BC, contained a civil code that was probably broken into twelve books
8.
PC game
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PC games, also known as computer games or personal computer games, are video games played on a personal computer rather than a dedicated video game console or arcade machine. Home computer games became popular following the game crash of 1983 leading to the era of the bedroom coder. In the 1990s, PC games lost mass-market traction to console games before enjoying a resurgence in the mid-2000s through digital distribution. Newzoo, reports that gaming is a US$99.6 billion dollar industry, PC is considered synonymous with IBM PC compatible systems, while mobile computers – smartphones and tablets, such as those running Android or iOS – are also personal computers. The APAC region is estimated to generate $46.6 billion in 2016, or 47% of total global game revenues. China alone accounts for half of APACs revenues, reaching $24.4 billion, cementing its place as the largest games market in the world, the uncoordinated nature of the PC game market and its lack of physical media make precisely assessing its size difficult. Although personal computers became popular with the development of the microprocessor and microcomputer, computer gaming on mainframes. OXO, an adaptation of tic-tac-toe for the EDSAC, debuted in 1952, another pioneer computer game was developed in 1961, when MIT students Martin Graetz and Alan Kotok, with MIT student Steve Russell, developed Spacewar. On a PDP-1 mainframe computer used for statistical calculations, the first generation of computer games were often text adventures or interactive fiction, in which the player communicated with the computer by entering commands through a keyboard. An early text-adventure, Adventure, was developed for the PDP-11 minicomputer by Will Crowther in 1976, by the 1980s, personal computers had become powerful enough to run games like Adventure, but by this time, graphics were beginning to become an important factor in games. Later games combined textual commands with basic graphics, as seen in the SSI Gold Box games such as Pool of Radiance, or Bards Tale for example. By the late 1970s to early 1980s, games were developed and distributed through hobbyist groups and gaming magazines, such as Creative Computing and these publications provided game code that could be typed into a computer and played, encouraging readers to submit their own software to competitions. Microchess was one of the first games for microcomputers which was sold to the public, first sold in 1977, Microchess eventually sold over 50,000 copies on cassette tape. As with second-generation video game consoles at the time, early computer game companies capitalized on successful arcade games at the time with ports or clones of popular arcade games. By 1982, the games for the Atari 400 were ports of Frogger and Centipede. That same year, Pac-Man was ported to the Atari 800, grossly underperformed, the popularity of personal computers for education rose dramatically. In 1983, consumer interest in video games dwindled to historical lows. The effects of the crash were largely limited to the console market, the North American console market experienced a resurgence in the United States with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System
9.
Video game
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A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor. The word video in video game referred to a raster display device. Some theorists categorize video games as an art form, but this designation is controversial, the electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms, examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms range from large mainframe computers to small handheld computing devices, the input device used for games, the game controller, varies across platforms. Common controllers include gamepads, joysticks, mouse devices, keyboards, the touchscreens of mobile devices, and buttons, or even, with the Kinect sensor, a persons hands and body. Players typically view the game on a screen or television or computer monitor, or sometimes on virtual reality head-mounted display goggles. There are often game sound effects, music and, in the 2010s, some games in the 2000s include haptic, vibration-creating effects, force feedback peripherals and virtual reality headsets. In the 2010s, the game industry is of increasing commercial importance, with growth driven particularly by the emerging Asian markets and mobile games. As of 2015, video games generated sales of USD74 billion annually worldwide, early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947—a Cathode ray tube Amusement Device was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U. S. Written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanens on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961, and the hit ping pong-style Pong, used the DEC PDP-1s vector display to have two spaceships battle each other. In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold and it used a black-and-white television for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips. The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green, Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the Brown Box and these were followed by two versions of Ataris Pong, an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975 that dramatically increased video game popularity. The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, the game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants, and convenience stores. The game also became the subject of articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines. Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS, becoming the first killer app, the term platform refers to the specific combination of electronic components or computer hardware which, in conjunction with software, allows a video game to operate. The term system is commonly used
10.
Marble (toy)
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A marble is a small spherical toy often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic or agate. Most commonly, they are about 1 cm in diameter, but they may range from less than 1 mm to over 8 cm, Marbles can be used for a variety of games called marbles. They are often collected, both for nostalgia and for their aesthetic colors, in the North of England the objects and the game are called taws, with larger taws being called bottle washers after the use of a marble in Codd-neck bottles. In the early century, small balls of stone, identified by archaeologists as marbles, were found on excavation near Mohenjo-daro. Marbles are often mentioned in Roman literature, as in Ovids poem Nux and they were commonly made of clay, stone or glass. Marbles arrived in Britain, imported from the Low Countries, during the medieval era, Marbles were first manufactured in Germany in the 1800s. The game has become popular throughout the U. S. ceramic marbles entered inexpensive mass production in the 1870s. A German glassblower invented marble scissors, a device for making marbles, the first mass-produced toy marbles made in the U. S. were made in Akron, Ohio, by S. C. Some of the first U. S. -produced glass marbles were also made in Akron, in 1903, Martin Frederick Christensen—also of Akron, Ohio—made the first machine-made glass marbles on his patented machine. His company, The M. F. Christensen & Son Co. manufactured millions of toy, the next U. S. company to enter the glass marble market was Akro Agate. This company was started by Akronites in 1911, but was located in Clarksburg, today, there are only two American-based toy marble manufacturers, Jabo Vitro in Reno, Ohio, and Marble King, in Paden City, West Virginia. In Australia, games were played with marbles of different sizes, the smallest and most common was about 15 mm in diameter. The two larger, more valuable sizes were referred to as semi-bowlers and tom-bowlers, being about 20 mm and 25 mm in diameter respectively. They were used in much the way as ordinary marbles, although sometimes they would be declared invalid because of the advantage of their larger mass. Owners of large marbles were also afraid to use them lest they be lost to another player as keepsies and they were usually of the clear cats eye or milk glass type, just bigger. Firing a marble meant that a player had to flick his/her marble from a position of his hand. No part of the firing the marble was permitted to be in front of the position where the marble had been resting on the ground. Using that hand, he would flick or fire the marble from his/her hand, usually with the knuckle on the back of his/her hand resting on the ground, and usually using the thumb of that hand to do so
11.
Milk caps (game)
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Pogs, generically milk caps, is a game that was popular among children during the early to mid 1990s. The brand name Pog is owned by the World Pog Federation, the name pog originates from POG, a brand of juice made from passionfruit, orange, and guava, the use of POG bottle caps to play the game preceded the games commercialization. The game of milk caps was played on the Hawaiian island of Maui as early as 1927, there are cap collectors that have dating till 1940s and 1950s. Haleakala Dairy of Maui sold a mixed drink in a glass bottle with a cap under the brand name of POG. In 1955, Haleakala discontinued using the containers, but continued making the caps to allow the game to be played. Orchards Hawaii also continued to make milk caps after having stopped using glass bottles, in 1991, Haleakala expanded to the larger Oahu island, which led to a revival of the game. With this revival, the Pog name began being used generically for the game, the 1990s revival is credited to Blossom Galbiso, a teacher and guidance counselor who taught at Waialua Elementary School in Oahu. The game quickly spread from Oahus North Shore, and by early 1992, the game soon spread to the mainland, first surfacing in California, Texas, Oregon, and Washington before spreading to the rest of the country. By 1993, the obscure game of milk caps, which had almost been forgotten, was now played throughout the world. Milk caps returned to popularity when the World POG Federation and the Canada Games Company reintroduced them under the Pog brand name in the 1990s, the Pog fad soared, and peaked in the mid-1990s. Pogs were being handed out for opening bank accounts and in McDonalds Happy Meals, seven other companies entered the milk cap field after a comic book and card industry convention in January 1993. SkyBox International and Marvel added the product to their lines under the names SkyCaps, the game had spread to California, Florida and Texas. The term Pog was claimed as trademark by the World Pog Federation while other companies claimed it was generic term as it was selected by the children played the game. In October 1994, a lawsuit was settled between World Pog and Universal Pogs Association, Pog was recognized as World Pogs exclusive term and Universal Pogs changed its name to Universal Slammers, Inc. Because many children would keep the milk caps they won in games from other players, milk caps proved to be major distractions from classes and the source of various playground arguments. These elements eventually led to the banning of milk caps from various schools across North America, milk caps generally involves two types of playing discs, milk caps and slammers. Milk caps are typically flat circular cardboard discs which are decorated with images on one or both sides. The other equipment that is used is a slammer, a game piece often made of metal, rubber, or more commonly plastic
12.
Magic: The Gathering
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Magic, The Gathering is a trading card game created by Richard Garfield. First published in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast, Magic was the first trading card game produced and it continues to thrive, with approximately twenty million players as of 2015. Each game represents a battle between wizards known as planeswalkers, who employ spells, artifacts, and creatures depicted on individual Magic cards to defeat their opponents, new cards are released on a regular basis through expansion sets. An organized tournament system played at a level and a worldwide community of professional Magic players has developed. Certain Magic cards can be due to their rarity and utility in game play. Richard Garfield was a candidate at University of Pennsylvania when he first started to design the game. During his free time he worked with local volunteer playtesters to help refine the game and he had been brought on as an adjunct professor at Whitman College in 1991 when Peter Adkison first met with Garfield to discuss Garfields new game RoboRally. Adkison saw the game as very promising, but decided that Wizards of the Coast lacked the resources to produce it at that point. He did like Garfields ideas and mentioned that he was looking for a game that could be played in the downtime that frequently occurs at gaming conventions. Garfield returned and presented the general outline of the concept of a card game. Adkison immediately saw the potential of this idea and agreed to produce it, Magic, The Gathering underwent a general release on August 5,1993. While the game was simply called Magic through most of playtesting, mana Clash was instead chosen to be the name used in the first solicitation of the game, however, everybody involved with the game continued to refer to it as Magic. After further consultation with the lawyer, it was decided to rename the game Magic, The Gathering, the patent has aroused criticism from some observers, who believe some of its claims to be invalid. In 2003, the patent was an element of a legal dispute between Wizards of the Coast and Nintendo, regarding trade secrets related to Nintendos Pokémon Trading Card Game. The legal action was settled out of court, and its terms were not disclosed, Magic was an immediate success for Wizards of the Coast. Early on they were reluctant to advertise the game because they were unable to keep pace with existing demand. Initially Magic attracted many Dungeons & Dragons players, but the following included all types of people as well. The success of the game led to the creation of similar games by other companies as well as Wizards of the Coast themselves
13.
Paleolithic
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It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools, probably by Homo habilis initially,2.6 million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene around 10,000 BP. The Paleolithic era is followed by the Mesolithic, the date of the Paleolithic–Mesolithic boundary may vary by locality as much as several thousand years. During the Paleolithic period, humans grouped together in small societies such as bands, the Paleolithic is characterized by the use of knapped stone tools, although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools, including leather and vegetable fibers, however, due to their nature, surviving artifacts of the Paleolithic era are known as paleoliths. About 50,000 years ago, there was a increase in the diversity of artifacts. For the first time in Africa, bone artifacts and the first art appear in the archaeological record, the first evidence of human fishing is also noted, from artifacts in places such as Blombos cave in South Africa. The new technology generated an explosion of modern humans which is believed to have led to the extinction of the Neanderthals. Humankind gradually evolved from members of the genus Homo—such as Homo habilis. The climate during the Paleolithic consisted of a set of glacial and interglacial periods in which the climate periodically fluctuated between warm and cool temperatures, by c. 50,000 – c. 40,000 BP, the first humans set foot in Australia. By c. 45,000 BP, humans lived at 61°N latitude in Europe, by c. 30,000 BP, Japan was reached, and by c. 27,000 BP humans were present in Siberia, above the Arctic Circle. At the end of the Upper Paleolithic, a group of humans crossed Beringia, the term Paleolithic was coined by archaeologist John Lubbock in 1865. It derives from Greek, παλαιός, palaios, old, and λίθος, lithos, stone, human evolution is the part of biological evolution concerning the emergence of anatomically modern humans as a distinct species. The Paleolithic Period coincides almost exactly with the Pleistocene epoch of geologic time and this epoch experienced important geographic and climatic changes that affected human societies. During the preceding Pliocene, continents had continued to drift from possibly as far as 250 km from their present locations to positions only 70 km from their current location. South America became linked to North America through the Isthmus of Panama, most of Central America formed during the Pliocene to connect the continents of North and South America, allowing fauna from these continents to leave their native habitats and colonize new areas. Africas collision with Asia created the Mediterranean Sea, cutting off the remnants of the Tethys Ocean, climates during the Pliocene became cooler and drier, and seasonal, similar to modern climates. The formation of an Arctic ice cap around 3 million years ago is signaled by a shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic. Mid-latitude glaciation probably began before the end of the epoch, the global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas
14.
Mesopotamia
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In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. The Sumerians and Akkadians dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of history to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthian Empire. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control. In AD226, eastern part of it fell to the Sassanid Persians, division of Mesopotamia between Roman and Sassanid Empires lasted until the 7th century Muslim conquest of Persia of the Sasanian Empire and Muslim conquest of the Levant from Byzantines. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek root words μέσος middle and ποταμός river and it is used throughout the Greek Septuagint to translate the Hebrew equivalent Naharaim. In the Anabasis, Mesopotamia was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria, the Aramaic term biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept. The neighbouring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia. A further distinction is made between Northern or Upper Mesopotamia and Southern or Lower Mesopotamia. Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jazira, is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghdad, Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf and includes Kuwait and parts of western Iran. In modern academic usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation and it is usually used to designate the area until the Muslim conquests, with names like Syria, Jazirah, and Iraq being used to describe the region after that date. It has been argued that these later euphemisms are Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments, Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the Armenian Highlands. Both rivers are fed by tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a 15,000 square kilometres region of marshes, lagoons, mud flats, in the extreme south, the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the Persian Gulf. In the marshlands to the south of the area, a complex water-borne fishing culture has existed since prehistoric times, periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number of reasons. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists has led to periods of trade collapse and these trends have continued to the present day in Iraq
15.
Dice
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Dice are small throwable objects with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers. Dice are suitable as gambling devices for games like craps and are used in non-gambling tabletop games. A traditional die is a cube, with each of its six faces showing a different number of dots from 1 to 6. When thrown or rolled, the die comes to rest showing on its surface a random integer from one to six. A variety of devices are also described as dice, such specialized dice may have polyhedral or irregular shapes. They may be used to produce other than one through six. Loaded and crooked dice are designed to favor some results over others for purposes of cheating or amusement. A dice tray, a used to contain thrown dice, is sometimes used for gambling or board games. Dice have been used since before recorded history, and it is uncertain where they originated, the oldest known dice were excavated as part of a backgammon-like game set at the Burnt City, an archeological site in south-eastern Iran, estimated to be from between 2800–2500 BCE. Other excavations from ancient tombs in the Indus Valley civilization indicate a South Asian origin, the Egyptian game of Senet was played with dice. Senet was played before 3000 BC and up to the 2nd century AD and it was likely a racing game, but there is no scholarly consensus on the rules of Senet. Dicing is mentioned as an Indian game in the Rigveda, Atharvaveda, there are several biblical references to casting lots, as in Psalm 22, indicating that dicing was commonplace when the psalm was composed. Knucklebones was a game of skill played by women and children, although gambling was illegal, many Romans were passionate gamblers who enjoyed dicing, which was known as aleam ludere. Dicing was even a popular pastime of emperors, letters by Augustus to Tacitus and his daughter recount his hobby of dicing. There were two sizes of Roman dice, tali were large dice inscribed with one, three, four, and six on four sides. Tesserae were smaller dice with sides numbered one to six. Twenty-sided dice date back to the 2nd century AD and from Ptolemaic Egypt as early as the 2nd century BC, dominoes and playing cards originated in China as developments from dice. The transition from dice to playing cards occurred in China around the Tang dynasty, in Japan, dice were used to play a popular game called sugoroku
16.
Pai gow
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Pai gow is a Chinese gambling game, played with a set of 32 Chinese dominoes. It is played in casinos in China, the United States, Canada, Australia. It dates back to at least the Song dynasty, the name pai gow is sometimes used to refer to a card game called pai gow poker, which is loosely based on pai gow. Pai gow loosely translates to make nine and was the basis for Baccarat, tiles are shuffled on the table and are arranged into eight face-down stacks of four tiles each in an assembly known as the woodpile. Individual stacks or tiles may then be moved in ways to rearrange the woodpile. Next, each player is one stack of tiles and must use them to form two hands of two tiles each. The hand with the value is called the front hand. If a players front hand beats the dealers front hand, if a players front and rear hands both lose to the dealers respective hands, the player loses the bet. If one hand wins and the other loses, the player is said to push, generally seven players will play, and each players hands are compared only against the dealers hands. There are 35,960 possible ways to select 4 of the 32 tiles when the 32 tiles are considered distinguishable, however, there are 3620 distinct sets of 4 tiles when the tiles of a pair are considered indistinguishable. There are 496 ways to select 2 of the 32 tiles when the 32 tiles are considered distinguishable, There are 136 distinct hands when the tiles of a pair are considered indistinguishable. The name pai gow is loosely translated as make nine or card nine and this reflects the fact that, with a few high-scoring exceptions, the maximum score for a hand is nine. The value of a hand is determined by adding up the number of pips on its two tiles and dropping the tens digit. Examples, 1-3 with 2-3, value 9 2-3 with 5-6, value 6 5-5 with 4-6, the double-one tiles and double-six tiles are known as the Day and Teen tiles, respectively. The combination of a Day or Teen with an eight results in a Gong, worth 10 points, while putting either of them with a nine creates a Wong, however, when a Day or Teen is paired with any other tile, the standard scoring rules apply. The 1-2 and the 2-4 tiles are called Gee Joon tiles, when used as part of a hand, these tiles may be scored as either 3 or 6, whichever results in a higher hand value. For example, a hand of 1-2 and 5-6 scores as seven rather than four, the 32 tiles in a Chinese dominoes set can be arranged into 16 pairs, as shown in the picture at the top of this article. Eleven of these pairs have identical tiles, and five of these pairs are made up of two tiles that score the same, but look different
17.
Poker
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Poker is a family of card games that combine gambling, strategy, and skill. Poker games vary in the number of cards dealt, the number of shared or community cards, the number of cards that remain hidden, and the betting procedures. In most modern games, the first round of betting begins with one or more of the players making some form of a forced bet. In standard poker, each player bets according to the rank they believe their hand is worth as compared to the other players. The action then proceeds clockwise as each player in turn must either match, or call, a player who matches a bet may also raise, or increase the bet. The betting round ends when all players have called the last bet or folded. If all but one player folds on any round, the player collects the pot without being required to reveal their hand. If more than one remains in contention after the final betting round, a showdown takes place where the hands are revealed. By the 1990s some gaming historians including David Parlett started to challenge the notion that poker is a derivative of As-Nas. There is evidence that a game called poque, a French game similar to poker, was played around the region where poker is said to have originated. The name of the game likely descended from the Irish Poca or even the French poque, yet it is not clear whether the origins of poker itself lie with the games bearing those names. It is commonly regarded as sharing ancestry with the Renaissance game of primero, the English game brag clearly descended from brelan and incorporated bluffing. It is quite possible that all of these earlier games influenced the development of poker as it exists now, the unique features of poker have to do with the betting, and do not appear in any known older game. In this view poker originated much later, in the early or mid-18th century and it was played in a variety of forms, with 52 cards, and included both straight poker and stud. 20 card poker was a variant for two players, the development of poker is linked to the historical movement that also saw the invention of commercial gambling. English actor Joseph Crowell reported that the game was played in New Orleans in 1829, with a deck of 20 cards, and four players betting on which players hand was the most valuable. As it spread north along the Mississippi River and to the West during the gold rush, soon after this spread, the full 52-card French deck was used and the flush was introduced. The draw was added prior to 1850, during the American Civil War, many additions were made including stud poker, and the straight
18.
As-Nas
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As-Nas is a card game or type of playing cards that were used in Persia. The design of the packs is simple, consisting of five individual card designs. The designs are repeated either four or five times, to make a total of 20 or 25 cards, as Nas cards are rectangular in format, and relatively small, for example 4 x 6 cm. Like Ganjifa cards they are hand painted, although some later examples use a collage technique to add a ready-made printed image onto the painted background. The designs are single headed, and have no indexes or titles, however the background colours enable players to immediately recognise what cards they have in hand. Generally the cards have a border, often with an oval shape set in a rectangular frame. There is considerable variety in the imagery used, generally the 5 designs have an ace featuring an animal design, and four court cards. This configuration may explain the name As-Nas, as is the term for the ace card. Regarding the word Nas, it can be found in both Arabic and Persian, with such as people or mankind. Hence the name As-Nas would refer to pack with aces and a series of people, the different figures show people from various social classes. Typically the designs of the cards are as follows, from highest to lowest, As, shah, King, often sitting on a throne, or sometimes on horseback. Bibi, Lady, often seated, holding a child. Couli or Lakat, the lowest card, generally a dancing-girl or a pair of dancers, other than the image types described above, various alternative versions can be found, for example packs featuring only flowers, and erotic or obscene versions. For a long period As-Nas cards existed alongside the more ancient Ganjifa types. Wilkins claims that accounts of As-Nas date back to the 17th century, cards from the 19th century with the classic As-Nas designs can be found in various museum collections. Some rarer examples are estimated to be from the late 18th century, according to Murdoch Smith, by 1877 As-Nas cards were gradually falling into disuse, being replaced by European types. Following the Foreign Trade Monopoly Act of 1931, a monopoly over playing cards was established in Iran to control imports, the British playing card manufacturer De La Rue was commissioned to provide cards during the 1930s. The cards featured indexing in Persian and court card images that evoked Persian history, nonetheless the cards used standard Western style suit symbols
19.
Ship of Fools (satire)
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Ship of Fools is a satyrical allegory in German verse published in 1494 in Basel, Switzerland, by the humanist and theologian Sebastian Brant. It is the most famous treatment of the ship of fools trope, the books consists of a prologue,112 brief satires, and an epilogue, all illustrated with woodcuts. Brant takes up the ship of fools trope, popular at the time, here he conceives Saint Grobian, whom he imagines to be the patron saint of vulgar and coarse people. Court fools were allowed to say much what they wanted, by writing his work in the voice of the fool, the work immediately became extremely popular, with six authorised and seven pirated editions published before 1521. Brants own views on humanism and the new, revolutionary views on Christianity emerging in the century are unclear. The debate still continues whether the Ship of Fools is itself a humanist work or just a remnant of Medieval sensibilities, most of the woodcuts of the first edition are attributed to the Meister der Bergmannschen Offizin, who may have been the young Albrecht Dürer. The additional wood-cuts are the work of the so-called Haintz-Nar-Meister, the gnad-her-Meister and it is on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Some 20th-century artists made images based on Das Narrenschiff, or drew illustrations for editions of The Ship of Fools
20.
Cornelis de Vos
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Cornelis de Vos was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and art dealer. He was one of the portrait painters in Antwerp and is best known for his sensitive portraits, in particular of children. He was also successful in other genres including history, religious and he was a regular collaborator with Rubens. He was born in Hulst near Antwerp, now in the Dutch province of Zeeland, little is known of his childhood. His father moved with his family to Antwerp in 1596, Cornelis and his younger brothers Paul and Jan studied under the little-known painter David Remeeus. In 1599 de Vos is mentioned as Remeeus’ pupil while on 8 May 1604 he is referred to as the assistant of Remeeus. On 29 April 1604, de Vos petitioned the Antwerp City Council for a pass that would allow him to travel and this was a necessary procedure for artists who wished to be trained abroad. It is not known whether the young artist actually left the city to study abroad, de Vos joined the Guild of Saint Luke in 1608 at the age of 24. When he became a citizen of Antwerp in 1616 he listed his occupation as an art dealer, Cornelis de Vos married the landscape painter Jan Wildenss half-sister Susanna Cock on 27 May 1617. His sister Margaretha married the prominent animal painter Frans Snyders and these marriages confirmed and solidified de Vos’ role in Antwerp’s artistic life. In 1619 de Vos served as the dean of the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp, the same year he petitioned the Antwerp city council for permission to frequent the Saint-Germain market in Paris as an art dealer. In 1620 de Vos was elected dean of the Guild of Saint Luke in recognition of his status in the city. De Vos developed a practice as a painter, particularly of portraits. In 1620 he painted the portrait of the painter Abraham Grapheus and he donated the work to the painters chamber of the Guild of Saint Luke. De Vos received multiple commissions for portraits from local patrons such as the wealthy merchant Joris Vekemans who ordered a portrait cycle of his family members in 1624. He also worked on commissions from religious institutions, in 1628 he painted his only known landscape, a View of Hulst, which he donated to his home town where it is still displayed in the city hall. During this period of activity as a painter de Vos continued to operate an art dealership. He also created specifically for export, primarily to Spain
21.
Tourism
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Tourism is travel for pleasure or business, also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. Tourism may be international, or within the travellers country, Tourism can be domestic or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a countrys balance of payments. Today, tourism is a source of income for many countries. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.03 trillion in 2011, the ITB Berlin is the worlds leading tourism trade fair. The word tourist was used by 1772 and tourism by 1811. It is formed from the tour, which is derived from Old English turian, from Old French torner, from Latin tornare, to turn on a lathe. Tourism is an important, even vital, source of income for many regions and it also creates opportunities for employment in the service sector of the economy associated with tourism. This is in addition to goods bought by tourists, including souvenirs, in 1936, the League of Nations defined a foreign tourist as someone traveling abroad for at least twenty-four hours. Its successor, the United Nations, amended this definition in 1945 and it includes movements for all purposes. In 1981, the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined tourism in terms of particular activities chosen and undertaken outside the home, in this context, travel has a similar definition to tourism, but implies a more purposeful journey. The terms tourism and tourist are sometimes used pejoratively, to imply a shallow interest in the cultures or locations visited, by contrast, traveler is often used as a sign of distinction. The sociology of tourism has studied the values underpinning these distinctions. International tourist arrivals reached 1.035 billion in 2012, up from over 996 million in 2011, the World Tourism Organization reports the following ten destinations as the most visited in terms of the number of international travellers in 2016. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.2 trillion in 2014, based upon air traffic, the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index reports the following cities as the top ten most popular destinations of international tourism worldwide. MasterCard reports the following cities as the top ten biggest earners on international tourism worldwide in 2015, as early as Shulgi, however, kings praised themselves for protecting roads and building waystations for travelers. During the Roman Republic, spas and coastal resorts such as Baiae were popular among the rich, pausanias wrote his Description of Greece in the 2nd century AD. In ancient China, nobles sometimes made a point of visiting Mount Tai and, on occasion, the Islamic hajj is still central to its faith and Chaucers Canterbury Tales and Wu Chengens Journey to the West remain classics of English and Chinese literature. The 10th- to 13th-century Song dynasty also saw secular travel writers such as Su Shi, under the Ming, Xu Xiake continued the practice
22.
Monaco
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Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a sovereign city-state and microstate, located on the French Riviera in Western Europe. France borders the country on three sides while the other side borders the Mediterranean Sea, Monaco has an area of 2.02 km2 and a population of about 38,400 according to the last census of 2015. With 19,009 inhabitants per km², it is the second smallest, Monaco has a land border of 5.47 km, a coastline of 3.83 km, and a width that varies between 1,700 and 349 m. The highest point in the country is a pathway named Chemin des Révoires on the slopes of Mont Agel, in the Les Révoires Ward. Monacos most populous Quartier is Monte Carlo and the most populous Ward is Larvotto/Bas Moulins, through land reclamation, Monacos land mass has expanded by twenty percent, in 2005, it had an area of only 1.974 km2. Monaco is known as a playground for the rich and famous, in 2014, it was noted about 30% of the population was made up of millionaires, more than in Zürich or Geneva. Monaco is a principality governed under a form of constitutional monarchy, although Prince Albert II is a constitutional monarch, he wields immense political power. The House of Grimaldi have ruled Monaco, with brief interruptions, the official language is French, but Monégasque, Italian, and English are widely spoken and understood. The states sovereignty was recognized by the Franco-Monegasque Treaty of 1861. Despite Monacos independence and separate foreign policy, its defense is the responsibility of France, however, Monaco does maintain two small military units. Economic development was spurred in the late 19th century with the opening of the countrys first casino, Monte Carlo, since then, Monacos mild climate, scenery, and gambling facilities have contributed to the principalitys status as a tourist destination and recreation center for the rich. In more recent years, Monaco has become a major banking center and has sought to diversify its economy into services and small, high-value-added, the state has no income tax, low business taxes, and is well known for being a tax haven. It is also the host of the street circuit motor race Monaco Grand Prix. Monaco is not formally a part of the European Union, but it participates in certain EU policies, including customs, through its relationship with France, Monaco uses the euro as its sole currency. Monaco joined the Council of Europe in 2004 and it is a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Monacos name comes from the nearby 6th-century BC Phocaean Greek colony, according to an ancient myth, Hercules passed through the Monaco area and turned away the previous gods. As a result, a temple was constructed there, the temple of Hercules Monoikos, because the only temple of this area was the House of Hercules, the city was called Monoikos. It ended up in the hands of the Holy Roman Empire, an ousted branch of a Genoese family, the Grimaldi, contested it for a hundred years before actually gaining control
23.
Macau
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Macau, also spelled Macao, officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the western side of the Pearl River Delta in East Asia. Macau is bordered by the city of Zhuhai in Mainland China to the north, Hong Kong lies about 64 kilometres to its east across the Delta. With a population of 650,900 living in an area of 30.5 km2, Macau was administered by the Portuguese Empire and its inheritor states from the mid-16th century until late 1999, when it constituted the last remaining European colony in Asia. Portuguese traders first settled in Macau in the 1550s, in 1557, Macau was leased to Portugal from Ming China as a trading port. The Portuguese Empire administered the city under Chinese authority and sovereignty until 1887, sovereignty over Macau was transferred back to China on 20 December 1999. The Joint Declaration on the Question of Macau and Macau Basic Law stipulate that Macau operate with a degree of autonomy until at least 2049. Macau participates in international organizations and events that do not require members to national sovereignty. Macau is a city in Southern China, known for its casinos. Its gaming revenue has been the worlds largest since 2006, with the heavily dependent on gaming. According to The World Factbook, Macau has the fourth highest life expectancy in the world, the present Chinese name means Inlet Gates. Macau is otherwise known in Chinese as Haojing or Jinghai, the name Macau is thought to be derived from the A-Ma Temple, a temple built in 1448 dedicated to Mazu, the goddess of seafarers and fishermen. It is said that when the Portuguese sailors landed at the coast just outside the temple and asked the name of the place, the Portuguese then named the peninsula Macau. The history of Macau is traced back to the Qin dynasty, the first recorded Chinese inhabitants of the area were people seeking refuge in Macau from invading Mongols during the Southern Song. Under the Ming dynasty, fishermen migrated to Macau from Guangdong, the Macau native people were Tanka boat people. Macau did not develop as a settlement until the Portuguese arrived in the 16th century. In 1513, Jorge Álvares became the first Portuguese to land in China, in 1535, Portuguese traders obtained the rights to anchor ships in Macaus harbours and to carry out trading activities, though not the right to stay onshore. In 1557, the Portuguese established a permanent settlement in Macau, the Portuguese continued to pay an annual tribute up to 1863 in order to stay in Macau. By 1564, Portugal commanded western trade with India, Japan, but their pride was damaged by the indifference with which the Chinese treated them
24.
Probability
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Probability is the measure of the likelihood that an event will occur. Probability is quantified as a number between 0 and 1, the higher the probability of an event, the more certain that the event will occur. A simple example is the tossing of a fair coin, since the coin is unbiased, the two outcomes are both equally probable, the probability of head equals the probability of tail. Since no other outcomes are possible, the probability is 1/2 and this type of probability is also called a priori probability. Probability theory is used to describe the underlying mechanics and regularities of complex systems. For example, tossing a coin twice will yield head-head, head-tail, tail-head. The probability of getting an outcome of head-head is 1 out of 4 outcomes or 1/4 or 0.25 and this interpretation considers probability to be the relative frequency in the long run of outcomes. A modification of this is propensity probability, which interprets probability as the tendency of some experiment to yield a certain outcome, subjectivists assign numbers per subjective probability, i. e. as a degree of belief. The degree of belief has been interpreted as, the price at which you would buy or sell a bet that pays 1 unit of utility if E,0 if not E. The most popular version of subjective probability is Bayesian probability, which includes expert knowledge as well as data to produce probabilities. The expert knowledge is represented by some prior probability distribution and these data are incorporated in a likelihood function. The product of the prior and the likelihood, normalized, results in a probability distribution that incorporates all the information known to date. The scientific study of probability is a development of mathematics. Gambling shows that there has been an interest in quantifying the ideas of probability for millennia, there are reasons of course, for the slow development of the mathematics of probability. Whereas games of chance provided the impetus for the study of probability. According to Richard Jeffrey, Before the middle of the century, the term probable meant approvable. A probable action or opinion was one such as people would undertake or hold. However, in legal contexts especially, probable could also apply to propositions for which there was good evidence, the sixteenth century Italian polymath Gerolamo Cardano demonstrated the efficacy of defining odds as the ratio of favourable to unfavourable outcomes
25.
Insurance
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Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss. It is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, an entity which provides insurance is known as an insurer, insurance company, or insurance carrier. A person or entity who buys insurance is known as an insured or policyholder, the insured receives a contract, called the insurance policy, which details the conditions and circumstances under which the insured will be financially compensated. The amount of money charged by the insurer to the insured for the coverage set forth in the policy is called the premium. If the insured experiences a loss which is covered by the insurance policy. Methods for transferring or distributing risk were practiced by Chinese and Babylonian traders as long ago as the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, Chinese merchants travelling treacherous river rapids would redistribute their wares across many vessels to limit the loss due to any single vessels capsizing. The Babylonians developed a system which was recorded in the famous Code of Hammurabi, c.1750 BC, and practiced by early Mediterranean sailing merchants. If a merchant received a loan to fund his shipment, he would pay the lender an additional sum in exchange for the guarantee to cancel the loan should the shipment be stolen. At some point in the 1st millennium BC, the inhabitants of Rhodes created the general average and this allowed groups of merchants to pay to insure their goods being shipped together. The collected premiums would be used to any merchant whose goods were jettisoned during transport. Separate insurance contracts were invented in Genoa in the 14th century, the first known insurance contract dates from Genoa in 1347, and in the next century maritime insurance developed widely and premiums were intuitively varied with risks. These new insurance contracts allowed insurance to be separated from investment, Insurance became far more sophisticated in Enlightenment era Europe, and specialized varieties developed. Property insurance as we know it today can be traced to the Great Fire of London, initially,5,000 homes were insured by his Insurance Office. At the same time, the first insurance schemes for the underwriting of business ventures became available, by the end of the seventeenth century, Londons growing importance as a center for trade was increasing demand for marine insurance. These informal beginnings led to the establishment of the insurance market Lloyds of London and several related shipping, the first life insurance policies were taken out in the early 18th century. The first company to offer life insurance was the Amicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance Office, founded in London in 1706 by William Talbot, edward Rowe Mores established the Society for Equitable Assurances on Lives and Survivorship in 1762. In the late 19th century, accident insurance began to become available and this operated much like modern disability insurance. The first company to offer accident insurance was the Railway Passengers Assurance Company, by the late 19th century, governments began to initiate national insurance programs against sickness and old age
26.
Common law
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Common law is the body of law developed from the thirteenth century to the present day, as case law or precedent, by judges, courts, and tribunals. In cases where the parties disagree on what the law is, if a similar dispute has been resolved in the past, the court is usually bound to follow the reasoning used in the prior decision. Resolution of the issue in one case becomes precedent that binds future courts, stare decisis, the principle that cases should be decided according to consistent principled rules so that similar facts will yield similar results, lies at the heart of all common law systems. A common law system is a system that gives great precedential weight to common law. Common law systems originated during the Middle Ages in England, today, one third of the worlds population live in common law jurisdictions or in systems mixed with civil law. The term common law has many connotations, the first three set out here are the most-common usages within the legal community. Other connotations from past centuries are seen, and are sometimes heard in everyday speech. Blacks Law Dictionary, 10th Ed. gives as definition 1,1, the body of law derived from judicial decisions, rather than from statutes or constitutions, CASELAW, STATUTORY LAW. In this connotation, common law distinguishes the authority that promulgated a law. e, examples include most criminal law and procedural law before the 20th century, and even today, most contract law and the law of torts. Interstitial common law decisions that analyze, interpret and determine the fine boundaries. Publication of decisions, and indexing, is essential to the development of common law, while all decisions in common law jurisdictions are precedent, some become leading cases or landmark decisions that are cited especially often. Blacks 10th Ed. definition 2, differentiates common law jurisdictions, by contrast, in civil law jurisdictions, courts lack authority to act if there is no statute. Judicial precedent is given less weight, which means that a judge deciding a given case has more freedom to interpret the text of a statute independently. For example, the Napoleonic code expressly forbade French judges to pronounce general principles of law. As a rule of thumb, common law systems trace their history to England, blacks 10th Ed. definition 4, differentiates common law from equity. This split propagated to many of the colonies, including the United States, for most purposes, most jurisdictions, including the U. S. federal system and most states, have merged the two courts. Additionally, even before the courts were merged, most courts were permitted to apply both law and equity, though under potentially different procedural law. In the United States, determining whether the Seventh Amendments right to a jury trial applies or whether the issue will be decided by a judge, the standard of review and degree of deference given by an appellate tribunal to the decision of the lower tribunal under review
27.
English law
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English law is the common law legal system governing England and Wales, comprising criminal law and civil law. English law has no formal codification, the essence of English common law is that it is made by judges sitting in courts applying statute, and legal precedent from previous cases. A decision of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the highest civil court of the United Kingdom, is binding on every other court. Some rulings are derived from legislation, others, known as law, are based on rulings of previous courts. For example, murder is a common law rather than one established by an Act of Parliament. Common law can be amended or repealed by Parliament, murder, for example, the first schedule of the Interpretation Act 1978, defines the following terms, British Islands, England, and United Kingdom. The use of the term British Isles is virtually obsolete in statutes and, for interpretation purposes, England includes a number of specified elements, Wales and Berwick Act 1746, section 3 formally incorporated Wales and Berwick-upon-Tweed into England. But section 4 Welsh Language Act 1967 provided that references to England in future Acts of Parliament should no longer include Wales, but Dicey & Morris say It seems desirable to adhere to Diceys definition for reasons of convenience and especially of brevity. It would be cumbersome to have to add or Wales after England, the adjacent islands of the Isle of Wight and Anglesey are a part of England and Wales by custom, while Harman v Bolt 47 TLR219 expressly confirms that Lundy is a part of England. The adjacent territorial waters by virtue of the Territorial Waters Jurisdiction Act 1878, great Britain means England, Wales, Scotland, their adjacent territorial waters and the islands of Orkney and Shetland, the Hebrides and, by virtue of the Island of Rockall Act 1972, Rockall. V Canon Film Sales Ltd.1 WLR1597 and Chloride Industrial Batteries Ltd, V F. & W. Freight Ltd.1 WLR823. British Islands – but not British Isles – means the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, compare with American convention, which includes of, as in Civil Rights Act of 1964. For example, the Pleading in English Act 1362 was referred to as 36 Edw,15, meaning 36th year of the reign of Edward III, chapter 15, though in the past this was all spelt out, together with the long title. Common law is a term with historical origins in the system of England. This may be a legacy of the Norman conquest of England, an example is the Law Merchant derived from the Pie-Powder Courts, named from a corruption of the French pieds-poudrés implying ad hoc marketplace courts. In 1276, the concept of time immemorial often applied in common law was defined as being any time before 6 July 1189, one of the major challenges in the early centuries was to produce a system that was certain in its operation and predictable in its outcomes. Too many judges were either partial or incompetent, acquiring their positions only by virtue of their rank in society, thus, a standardised procedure slowly emerged, based on a system termed stare decisis which roughly means let the decision stand. The doctrine of precedent which requires similar cases to be adjudicated in a like manner, thus, the ratio decidendi of each case will bind future cases on the same generic set of facts both horizontally and vertically in the court structure
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English unjust enrichment law
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The English law of unjust enrichment is part of the English law of obligations, along with the law of contract, tort, and trusts. The law of unjust enrichment deals with circumstances in which one person is required make restitution of a benefit acquired at the expense of another in circumstances which are unjust, the modern law of unjust enrichment encompasses what was once known as the law of quasi-contract. Its precise scope remains a matter of controversy, beyond quasi-contract, it is sometimes said to encompass the law relating to subrogation, contribution, recoupment, and claims to the traceable substitutes of misapplied property. English courts have recognised that there are four steps required to establish a claim in unjust enrichment, the law of unjust enrichment is among the most unsettled areas of English law. Its existence as a body of law was only explicitly recognised in 1991 in Lipkin Gorman v Karpnale Ltd. While the law has developed over the last two decades, controversy continues over the precise structure, scope and nature of the law of unjust enrichment. The notion of an obligation to make restitution of benefits received at anothers expense can be traced back to Roman law and its history in English law can be traced to the form of action known as indebitatus assumpsit. From this action came the common money counts, of present relevance are the following, an action for money had and received to the plaintiffs use, an action for money paid to the defendants use, quantum meruit, and quantum valebat. During the course of the 18th and 19th centuries the law of contract, the law of tort, as many thought they covered the field, restitutionary claims as embodied in the common money counts were appended to the law of contract. The various claims were termed quasi-contractual and this was because it was often necessary to plead that the defendant had promised to repay a debt, even though the promise was fictitious and the debt was imposed by the law. While restitutionary obligations were not enforced solely through these quasi-contractual claims, a seminal case is Moses v Macferlan 2 Burr 1005. Perhaps more than any area of the common law, the law of unjust enrichment has been shaped by academic writing, particularly by that of jurists from Oxford. Of course, the law did not develop in a vacuum, the first major practitioner text in England appeared in 1966, written by Robert Goff and Gareth Jones. It was Robert Goff who gave the judgment in Lipkin Gorman v Karpnale Ltd over two decades later. Professor Peter Birks was instrumental in promoting the autonomy of unjust enrichment within the law of obligations in his seminal work Introduction to the Law of Restitution, as it has developed, the law of unjust enrichment has frequently been referred to as the law of restitution. The difficulty with this is that it emphasises a legal rather than the event which gives rise to it. In doing so, it is akin to treating contract as coterminous with compensation and that approach is problematic, the law of compensation is wider than contract, encompassing compensation claims arising out of tortious conduct. This is equally true of restitution, a claimant can obtain restitution not only for an unjust enrichment and it is in this sense that one can say that restitution is multi-causal, it is a legal response to a number of different events
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Lipkin Gorman v Karpnale Ltd
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Lipkin Gorman v Karpnale Ltd UKHL12 is a foundational English unjust enrichment case. This secured unjust enrichment English law as the pillar of the law of obligations, along with contract. It has been called a landmark decision, There was no appeal against that part of the decision. Norman Barry Cass was a partner in a firm called Lipkin Gorman. He was a signatory at the firm’s Lloyds Bank account. He took out £220,000 and used it for gambling at the Playboy Club,45 Park Lane, between March and November 1980, the club won £154,695 of the stolen money. Mr Cass fled to Israel, but was back and sentenced to three years prison for theft in 1984. Lipkin Gorman sued the club for return of the stolen money, at the time, gambling contracts were contrary to public policy, and therefore void under the Gaming Act 1845 section 18. Alliott J in the High Court, and then the Court of Appeal, the trial at first instance lasted three weeks and came before Alliot J. At first instance the claims were equally focussed upon the club, unusually, at the end of the plaintiffs case, the banks counsel made a submission of no case to answer and offered no evidence. Alliot J gave judgment against the club, but only for conversion of a draft for a relatively small amount. The larger claim for money had and received failed, in the Court of Appeal all three judges gave reasoned judgments. Both May and Parker LJJ dismissed the claims of the firm against the club for money had and received on the basis that the club had provided good consideration. Unfortunately, the discussion of the issue in the Court of Appeal was complicated because of the way the law firms claim was pleaded. Nonetheless the comments of the Court of Appeal are important, There were two broad claims against the bank, one as constructive trustee and other for negligence. The Court of Appeal accepted counsels submission that the bank could not be liable as constructive trustee if it was not shown to be at least negligent, may LJ also asserted nothing less than actual knowledge should constitute a third party as constructive trustee. The Court further held that the bank had not been negligent, the Court noted the large number of cheques cleared daily, and that in this case only approximately one-seventh of the cheques drawn on the firms account were fraudulent. May LJ held There is nothing, express or implied, which could require a banker to consider the commercial wisdom or otherwise of the particular transaction
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House of Lords
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The House of Lords of the United Kingdom, referred to ceremonially as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster, officially, the full name of the house is, The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. Unlike the elected House of Commons, all members of the House of Lords are appointed, the membership of the House of Lords is drawn from the peerage and is made up of Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal. The Lords Spiritual are 26 bishops in the established Church of England, of the Lords Temporal, the majority are life peers who are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister, or on the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Commission. However, they include some hereditary peers including four dukes. Very few of these are female since most hereditary peerages can only be inherited by men, while the House of Commons has a defined 650-seat membership, the number of members in the House of Lords is not fixed. There are currently 805 sitting Lords, the House of Lords is the only upper house of any bicameral parliament to be larger than its respective lower house. The House of Lords scrutinises bills that have approved by the House of Commons. It regularly reviews and amends Bills from the Commons, while it is unable to prevent Bills passing into law, except in certain limited circumstances, it can delay Bills and force the Commons to reconsider their decisions. In this capacity, the House of Lords acts as a check on the House of Commons that is independent from the electoral process, Bills can be introduced into either the House of Lords or the House of Commons. Members of the Lords may also take on roles as government ministers, the House of Lords has its own support services, separate from the Commons, including the House of Lords Library. The Queens Speech is delivered in the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament, the House also has a Church of England role, in that Church Measures must be tabled within the House by the Lords Spiritual. This new parliament was, in effect, the continuation of the Parliament of England with the addition of 45 MPs and 16 Peers to represent Scotland, the Parliament of England developed from the Magnum Concilium, the Great Council that advised the King during medieval times. This royal council came to be composed of ecclesiastics, noblemen, the first English Parliament is often considered to be the Model Parliament, which included archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, and representatives of the shires and boroughs of it. The power of Parliament grew slowly, fluctuating as the strength of the monarchy grew or declined, for example, during much of the reign of Edward II, the nobility was supreme, the Crown weak, and the shire and borough representatives entirely powerless. In 1569, the authority of Parliament was for the first time recognised not simply by custom or royal charter, further developments occurred during the reign of Edward IIs successor, Edward III. It was during this Kings reign that Parliament clearly separated into two chambers, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The authority of Parliament continued to grow, and, during the fifteenth century
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Case law
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Case law is the set of existing rulings which made new interpretations of law and, therefore, can be cited as precedents. In other countries, such as most European countries, the term is applied to any set of rulings on law which is guided by previous rulings, for example, patent office case law. Trials and hearings which are not selected as courts of first impression do not have rulings that become law, therefore. The legal systems of the Nordic countries are included among the civil law systems, but as a separate branch. In Sweden, for instance, case law plays a more important role than in some of the Continental civil law systems. The two highest courts, the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court, have the right to set precedent which is in practice binding on all future application of the law. Courts of appeal, both courts and administrative courts may also issue decisions that act as guides for the application of the law. In the common law tradition, courts decide the law applicable to a case by interpreting statutes and applying precedents which record how, normally, the burden rests with litigants to appeal rulings to the higher courts. If a judge acts against precedent and the case is not appealed, the decision will stand. A lower court may not rule against a binding precedent, even if it feels that it is unjust and this may happen several times as the case works its way through successive appeals. High Trees House Ltd K. B.130, the different roles of case law in civil and common law traditions create differences in the way that courts render decisions. By contrast, decisions in civil law jurisdictions are generally very short, some pluralist systems, such as Scots law in Scotland and so-called civil law jurisdictions in Quebec and Louisiana, do not precisely fit into the dual common-civil law system classifications. Such systems may have heavily influenced by the Anglo-American common law tradition, however. Because of their position between the two systems of law, these types of legal systems are sometimes referred to as mixed systems of law. Law professors in common law traditions play a smaller role in developing case law than professors in civil law traditions. Historically, common law courts relied little on legal scholarship, thus, at the turn of the twentieth century, thus common law systems are adopting one of the approaches long common in civil law jurisdictions. Judges may refer to types of persuasive authority to reach a decision in a case. Widely cited non-binding sources include legal encyclopedias such as Corpus Juris Secundum and Halsburys Laws of England, some bodies are given statutory powers to issue Guidance with persuasive authority or similar statutory effect, such as the Highway Code
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Community property
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Joint ownership is automatically presumed by law in the absence of specific evidence that would point to a contrary conclusion for a particular piece of property. Division of community property may take place by item by splitting all items or by values, in other jurisdictions, such as Texas, a divorce court may decree an equitable distribution of community property, which may result in an unequal division of such. In non-community property states property may be divided by equitable distribution, generally speaking, the property that each partner brings into the marriage or receives by gift, bequest or devise during marriage is called separate property. Division of community debts may not be the same as division of community property, for example, in California, community property is required to be divided equally while community debt is required to be divided equitably. The rules vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, the community property concept originated in civil law jurisdictions but is now also found in some common law jurisdictions. While under Spanish rule, Louisiana adopted the community system of acquests and gains. The countervailing majority view in most U. S, in the United States there are nine community property states, Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. Alaska has also adopted a community property system, but it is optional, spouses may create community property by entering into a community property agreement or by creating a community property trust. In 2010, Tennessee adopted a law similar to Alaskas and allows residents and non-residents to opt into community property through a community property trust, the territory of Puerto Rico allows property to be owned as community property also as do several Native American jurisdictions. In the case of Puerto Rico, the island had been under community property law since its settlement by Spain in 1493. The U. S. Supreme Court ruled that a statute allowing spouses to elect a community property system under Oklahoma law would not be recognized for federal income tax reporting purposes. The Harmon decision should apply to the Alaska system for income reporting purposes. If property is held as community property, each spouse technically owns an undivided one-half interest in the property and this type of ownership applies to most property acquired by each spouse during the course of the marriage. It generally does not apply to property acquired prior to the marriage or to property acquired by gift or inheritance during the marriage, after a divorce, community property is divided equally in some states and according to the discretion of the court in the other states. It is extremely important to bear in mind there are no two community property states with exactly the same laws on the subject. The statutes or judicial decisions in one state may be completely opposite to those of state on a particular legal issue. For example, in some community property states, income from separate property is also separate, in others, the income from separate property is community property. The right of a creditor to reach community property in satisfaction of a debt or other obligation incurred by one or both of the spouses also varies from state to state, community property has certain federal tax implications, which the Internal Revenue Service discusses in its Publication 555
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Perry Mason bibliography
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The following is a list of the Perry Mason novels and short stories by Erle Stanley Gardner, published from 1933 to 1973. Many Perry Mason novels were first published in magazines, most often The Saturday Evening Post, sixteen appeared in the Toronto Star Weekly in condensed form. All books were first published by William Morrow and Company, New York, most were published simultaneously in Toronto. Six of the novels were adapted for a series of Perry Mason films produced in the 1930s, many of the novels and short stories were adapted for the CBS television series Perry Mason, details are available at the list of episodes for the TV series. The Case of the Velvet Claws William Morrow and Company, March 1933 In the first Perry Mason mystery, we meet Perry, Della Street, District Attorney Hamilton Burger and Lieutenant Arthur Tragg do not appear in this story. There is no scene in the entire novel, which is prevalent in the later books. The plot revolves around a woman, who calls herself Eva Griffin. She comes to Mason claiming that she is being blackmailed by her powerful husband and she wants to keep the news of her affairs secret from him and seeks help from Mason. Meanwhile, she is accused of murder and, in turn, but Perry avoids being double-crossed and fights to free her from the charges. The Case of the Lucky Legs William Morrow and Company, February 1934 A mistake at a murder scene dogs Perry while he tries to represent a woman taken in by a con man. He does not enjoy drafting wills, and wonders if the man should not see a veterinarian, however, the mans next question, whether a will is legal if the person who made it had been executed for murder, immediately piques Masons interest. He finds, in addition to the will and the dog, a man who had run away with the wife of another, the Hollywood movie of this name is considered the best big screen adaptation of a Perry Mason book. The Case of the Counterfeit Eye William Morrow and Company, April 1935 Peter Brunold has a glass eye to use the morning after. It is distinctive, closely identified him, and thus a handicap when a corpse is found clutching a bloodshot glass eye. Later, another corpse is found, with bloodshot glass eye in hand. But Mason is in almost as much jeopardy as his client and this is the first novel in which District Attorney Hamilton Burger appears. When the caretaker is killed, Mason defends the accused of his murder. This is the first novel in which Perry kisses Della Street in the office, but Mason observes that a bishop who has delivered many sermons is unlikely to stutter
