The National League Championship Series is a best-of-seven playoff and one of two League Championship Series comprising the penultimate round of Major League Baseball's postseason. It is contested by the winners of the two National League Division Series; the winner of the NLCS wins the NL pennant and advances to the World Series, MLB's championship series, to play the winner of the American League's Championship Series. The NLCS began in 1969 as a best-of-five playoff and used this format until 1985, when it changed to its current best-of-seven format. Prior to 1969, the National League champion was determined by the best win-loss record at the end of the regular season. There were four ad hoc three-game playoff series due to ties under this formulation. A structured postseason series began in 1969, when both the National and American Leagues were reorganized into two divisions each and West; the two division winners within each league played each other in a best-of-five series to determine who would advance to the World Series.

In 1985, the format changed to best-of-seven. The NLCS and ALCS, since the expansion to seven games, are always played in a 2–3–2 format: games 1, 2, 6, 7 are played in the stadium of the team that has home field advantage, games 3, 4, 5 are played in the stadium of the team that does not. Home field advantage is given to the team that has the better record, except that the team that made the postseason as the Wild Card shall not get home field advantage. From 1969 to 1993, home field advantage was alternated between divisions each year regardless of regular season record and from 1995 to 1997 home field advantage was predetermined before the season. In 1981, a one-off divisional series was held due to a split season caused by a players' strike. In 1994, the league was restructured into three divisions, with the three division winners and a wild-card team advancing to a best-of-five postseason round, the now-permanent National League Division Series; the winners of that round advance to the best-of-seven NLCS.

The Milwaukee Brewers, an American League team between 1969 and 1997, the Houston Astros, a National League team between 1962 and 2012, are the only franchises to play in both the ALCS and NLCS. The Astros are the only team to have won both an NLCS and an ALCS; the Astros made four NLCS appearances before moving to the AL in 2013. Every current National League franchise has appeared in the NLCS; the Warren C. Giles Trophy, named for the president of the NL from 1951 to 1969, is awarded to the NLCS winner. See: League Championship Series Most Valuable Player Award#National League winnersA Most Valuable Player award is given to the outstanding player in the ALCS. No MVP award is given for Division Series play; the MVP award has been given to a player on the losing team twice, in 1986 to Mike Scott of the Houston Astros and in 1987 to Jeffrey Leonard of the San Francisco Giants. Although the National League began its LCS MVP award in 1977, the American League did not begin its LCS MVP award until 1980.

The winners are listed in several locations: in the below NLCS results table, in the "Series MVP" column in the article League Championship Series Most Valuable Player Award on the MLB website Key In the sortable table below, teams are ordered first by number of appearances by number of wins, by year of first appearance. In the "Season" column, bold years indicate winning NLCS appearances. List of National League pennant winners List of National League Wild Card winners National League Division Series American League Championship Series

The president is a common title for the head of state in most republics. In politics, president is a title given to leaders of republican states; the functions exercised by a president vary according to the form of government. In parliamentary republics, they are but not always, limited to those of the head of state, are thus ceremonial. In presidential, selected parliamentary and semi-presidential republics, the role of the president is more prominent, encompassing the functions of the head of government. In authoritarian regimes, a dictator or leader of a one-party state may be called a president; the title president is derived from the Latin prae- "before" + sedere "to sit." As such, it designated the officer who presides over or "sits before" a gathering and ensures that debate is conducted according to the rules of order, but today it most refers to an executive official in any social organization. Early examples are from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the founding president of the Royal Society William Brouncker in 1660.

This usage survives today in the title of such offices as "President of the Board of Trade" and "Lord President of the Council" in the United Kingdom, as well as "President of the Senate" in the United States. The officiating priest at certain Anglican religious services, too, is sometimes called the "president" in this sense. However, the most common modern usage is as the title of a head of state in a republic. In pre-revolutionary France, the president of a Parlement evolved into a powerful magistrate, a member of the so-called noblesse de robe, with considerable judicial as well as administrative authority; the name referred to his primary role of presiding over other hearings. In the 17th and 18th centuries, seats in the Parlements, including presidencies, became hereditary, since the holder of the office could ensure that it would pass to an heir by paying the crown a special tax known as the paulette; the post of "first president", could only be held by the King's nominees. The Parlements were abolished by the French Revolution.

In modern France the chief judge of a court is known as its president. The first usage of the word president to denote the highest official in a government was during the Commonwealth of England. After the abolition of the monarchy the English Council of State, whose members were elected by the House of Commons, became the executive government of the Commonwealth; the Council of State was the successor of the Privy Council, headed by the lord president. However, the lord president alone was not head of state, because that office was vested in the council as a whole; the modern usage of the term president to designate a single person, the head of state of a republic can be traced directly to the United States Constitution of 1787, which created the office of President of the United States. Previous American governments had included "presidents", but these were presiding officers in the older sense, with no executive authority, it has been suggested that the executive use of the term was borrowed from early American colleges and universities, which were headed by a president.

British universities were headed by an official called the "Chancellor" while the chief administrator held the title of "Vice-Chancellor". But America's first institutions of higher learning didn't resemble a full-sized university so much as one of its constituent colleges. A number of colleges at Cambridge University featured an official called the "president"; the head, for instance, of Magdalene College, Cambridge was called the master and his second the president. The first president of Harvard, Henry Dunster, had been educated at Magdalene; some have speculated that he borrowed the term out of a sense of humility, considering himself only a temporary place-holder. The presiding official of Yale College a "rector", became "president" in 1745. A common style of address for presidents, "Mr/Mrs. President," is borrowed from British Parliamentary tradition, in which the presiding Speaker of the House of Commons is referred to as "Mr/Mrs. Speaker." Coincidentally, this usage resembles the older French custom of referring to the president of a parlement as "Monsieur/Madame le Président", a form of address that in modern France applies to both the president of the Republic and to chief judges.

The Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada is addressed by francophone parliamentarians as "Monsieur/Madame le/la Président". In Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses of 1782, the character identified as Madame la Présidente de Tourvel is the wife of a magistrate in a parlement; the fictional name Tourvel refers not to the parlement in which the magistrate sits, but rather, in imitation of an aristocratic title, to his private estate. Once the United States adopted the title of "president" for its republican head of state, many other nations followed suit. Haiti became the first presidential republic in Latin America when Henri Christophe assumed the title in 1807. All of the American nations that became independent from Spain in the early 1810s and 1820s chose a US-style president

John Rea is a retired Scottish snooker player. Rea turned professional in 1984, recording his first victory over Jack Fitzmaurice in the Grand Prix. A run to the last 48 at the UK Championship followed this, but Joe Johnson eliminated Rea 9–6 at this stage. Rea's campaign at the next season's UK Championship ended at the first attempt, as he recovered from 4–8 to 8–8, but succumbed 8–9 to three-time world champion Fred Davis, who became, aged seventy-two, the oldest player to win a professional match, he defeated another multiple world champion, Ray Reardon, in the 1986 British Open, but lost in the last 32, 5–0 to John Virgo. Several quiet years ensued. In his first-round match against Ian Black, he recorded a 147 maximum break his first century break, becoming the first Scot to achieve this feat, he defeated Murdo MacLeod 9–7 in the final. This performance appeared to spur Rea on, in the 1989 World Championship, he defeated Dennis Hughes 10–3, Pat Houlihan 10–5 and Ray Edmonds 10–7 to reach the last 48.

Requiring one more victory to make his debut at the Crucible Theatre, Rea was drawn against Steve James but, despite recovering from 2–9 to trail only 7–9, he lost the match 7–10. The next season bore only £7,563 in prize money, the most notable point being Rea's 1–5 loss to three-time world champion John Spencer, a player in sharp decline, in the European Open. By 1990, Rea himself was in decline, his last performance of note being a run to the last 32 at the 1992 UK Championship, where he beat David Rippon, Brian Cassidy, Les Dodd and Tony Jones before losing 9–3 to Jason Ferguson. Having won only one match during the 1993/1994 season, he finished it ranked 128th, lost his place on the main tour, aged 43. Rea entered the 2011 Scottish Professional Championship when it was revived after a twenty-two year hiatus, but was unable to defend his title, losing his first match 1–5 to Stephen Wylie. In 2012 and 2015, he entered the World Seniors Championship, losing to Bill Oliver in the former and Mark Davis in the latter.

Rea owns the Lucky Break snooker club in Clydebank, through which he has sponsored local football teams. Guests at Rea's club have included John Higgins and Stephen Maguire

XMLHttpRequest is an API in the form of an object whose methods transfer data between a web browser and a web server. The object is provided by the browser's JavaScript environment. Retrieval of data from XHR for the purpose of continually modifying a loaded web page is the underlying concept of Ajax design. Despite the name, XHR can be used with protocols other than HTTP and data can be in the form of not only XML, but JSON, HTML or plain text. WHATWG maintains an XHR standard as a living document. Ongoing work at the W3C to create a stable specification is based on snapshots of the WHATWG standard; the concept behind the XMLHttpRequest object was created by the developers of Outlook Web Access for Microsoft Exchange Server 2000. An interface called IXMLHTTPRequest was developed and implemented into the second version of the MSXML library using this concept; the second version of the MSXML library was shipped with Internet Explorer 5.0 in March 1999, allowing access, via ActiveX, to the IXMLHTTPRequest interface using the XMLHTTP wrapper of the MSXML library.

Internet Explorer versions 5 and 6 did not define the XMLHttpRequest object identifier in their scripting languages as the XMLHttpRequest identifier itself was not standard at the time of their releases. Backward compatibility can be achieved through object detection if the XMLHttpRequest identifier does not exist. Microsoft added the XMLHttpRequest object identifier to its scripting languages in Internet Explorer 7.0 released in October 2006. The Mozilla project developed and implemented an interface called nsIXMLHttpRequest into the Gecko layout engine; this interface was modeled to work as to Microsoft's IXMLHTTPRequest interface as possible. Mozilla created a wrapper to use this interface through a JavaScript object which they called XMLHttpRequest; the XMLHttpRequest object was accessible as early as Gecko version 0.6 released on December 6 of 2000, but it was not functional until as late as version 1.0 of Gecko released on June 5, 2002. The XMLHttpRequest object became a de facto standard in other major web clients, implemented in Safari 1.2 released in February 2004, Opera 8.0 released in April 2005, iCab 3.0b352 released in September 2005.

With the advent of cross-browser JavaScript libraries such as jQuery, developers can invoke XMLHttpRequest functionality indirectly. The World Wide Web Consortium published a Working Draft specification for the XMLHttpRequest object on April 5, 2006, edited by Anne van Kesteren of Opera Software and Dean Jackson of W3C, its goal is "to document a minimum set of interoperable features based on existing implementations, allowing Web developers to use these features without platform-specific code." The W3C published another Working Draft specification for the XMLHttpRequest object, "XMLHttpRequest Level 2", on February 25 of 2008. Level 2 consists of extended functionality to the XMLHttpRequest object, but not limited to, progress events, support for cross-site requests, the handling of byte streams. At the end of 2011, the Level 2 specification was abandoned and absorbed into the original specification. At the end of 2012, the WHATWG took over development and maintains a living standard using Web IDL.

W3C's current drafts are based on snapshots of the WHATWG standard. The following sections demonstrate how a request using the XMLHttpRequest object functions within a conforming user agent based on the W3C Working Draft; as the W3C standard for the XMLHttpRequest object is still a draft, user agents may not abide by all the functionings of the W3C definition and any of the following is subject to change. Extreme care should be taken into consideration when scripting with the XMLHttpRequest object across multiple user agents; this article will try to list the inconsistencies between the major user agents. The HTTP and HTTPS requests of the XMLHttpRequest object must be initialized through the open method; this method must be invoked prior to the actual sending of a request to validate and resolve the request method, URL, URI user information to be used for the request. This method does not assure that the URL exists or the user information is correct; this method requires only two, to initialize a request.

Open The first parameter of the method is a text string indicating the HTTP request method to use. The request methods that must be supported by a conforming user agent, defined by the W3C draft for the XMLHttpRequest object, are listed as the following. GET POST HEAD PUT DELETE OPTIONS However, request methods are not limited to the ones listed above; the W3C draft states. The second parameter of the method is another text string, this one indicating the URL of the HTTP request; the W3C recommends that browsers should raise an error and not allow the request of a URL with either a different port or ihost URI component from the current document. The third parameter, a boolean value indicating whether or not the request will be asynchronous, is not a required parameter by the W3C draft; the default value of this parameter should be assumed to be true by a W3C conforming user agent if it is not provided. An asynchronous request will not wait on a server response before continuing on with the execution of the current script.

It will instead invoke the onreadystatechange event listener of the XMLHttpRequest object throughout the various stages of the request. A synchronous request however will block execution of the current script

Sansom Row is a row of historic houses at 3402 to 3436 Sansom Street in the University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Built in 1869 to 1871, the rowhouses are constructed in matching three-story pairs, with brownstone facades and slate mansard roofs, they are significant as a surviving example of post-Civil War architecture in the area. Madame Blavatsky, a founder of Theosophy and the Theosophical Society, lived here at 3420 Sansom Street for a time; the houses were built as residences but most have been converted to other commercial uses. National Register Nomination, prepared by George E. Thomas, at the University City Historical Society. Listing at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings

Mankuthimmana Kagga, written by Dr. D. V. Gundappa and published in 1943, is one of the best known of the major literary works in Kannada, it is regarded as a masterpiece of Kannada literature and is referred to as the Bhagavad Gita in Kannada. The title of the work can be translated as "Dull Thimma's Rigmarole". Kagga is a collection of 945 poems; some of these poems are written in old Kannada. Kagga poems are profound as well as poetic. Most of them can be sung. Though the author calls it an'a foggy fools farrago', it is a book giving expression to a noble personality's rich experiences; the poet politely that if the word Mankuthimma is crude and below standard it can be substituted by either Venka or Kanka or Shankararya as they please. Kagga explores deeper questions of life, contemplates on the meaning of the Ultimate Truth and advises us to lead a balanced life in this complex and ever-changing world. Thus, Kagga advises us to follow the middle path while extending one hand towards the Ultimate Truth and the other hand to the phenomenal world.

The message of many of the verses from Kagga is "samatwa". Kagga is popular in Kannada literature, most native Kannada speakers are familiar with at least a few of the poems from this important work; the following are but a few of the poems that are quite well known to people familiar with Kannada literature: Hullaagu BettadaDi, manege malligeyaagu Kallaagu kashtagaLa maLe vidhi suriye Bella sakkareyaagu deena durbalaringe EllaroLagondaagu Mankuthimma Kannada Version: ಹುಲ್ಲಾಗು ಬೆಟ್ಟದಡಿ, ಮನೆಗೆ ಮಲ್ಲಿಗೆಯಾಗು ಕಲ್ಲಾಗು ಕಷ್ಟಗಳ ಮಳೆಯ ವಿಧಿ ಸುರಿಯೇ ಬೆಲ್ಲ ಸಕ್ಕರೆಯಾಗು ದೀನ ದುರ್ಬಲರಿಂಗೆ ಎಲ್ಲರೊಳಗೊಂದಾಗು ಮಂಕುತಿಮ್ಮMeaning: be a blade of grass at the foot of mountain, jasmine flower at home, Be like a rock when fate pours rains of difficulties on you, Be sweet like sugar and jaggery to the poor and weak, Be one among all, Mankuthimma. One of the popular poems from this work, "Hullagu bettadadi", translated below, conveys the spirit of Kagga. be a blade of grass at the foot of the mountain. This short and beautiful poem holds the key for leading a balanced life.

It advises us to be strong. The song says, be humble like a blade of grass at the foot of the mountain and spread your fragrance like a gentle jasmine flower; the metaphor of gentle blade of grass at the foot of the mountain is profound. When the rain pours over the mountains, when the mighty winds blow, the tall trees on the mountains may fall down, but the gentle blade of grass will bend and survive; the tall trees are "too proud" to bend and surrender to the winds, whereas the humble blade of grass will bend and surrender to the mighty wind. Thus this song imparts to us one of the secrets of life, which lies in learning how to survive by understanding the humbleness of the gentle blade of grass; this poem says, do not always stand firm like a proud, tall tree, but bend like a gentle blade of grass when the winds blow. But, when fate brings its share of difficulties, be ready to face them like a rock. Become a solid rock and face all the difficulties in life. Be gentle and send your fragrance in all directions like the jasmine flower, but learn to face the difficulties like a rock.

Be strong, yet be compassionate to the poor and down-trodden. Do all you can to help the poor and the needy. In the last line, this poem tells us to lead a harmonious life by becoming one with all people. Alternatively, It means live a life similar to that of grass on the foot of hill, which serves as food for grazing cattle. Lead a life, useful to others and self. Lead a life, liked by all similar to jasmine flower whose fragrance is liked by all. Psychologically be bold and firm like stone when obstacles in life are encountered. Be kind, generous and considerate towards weaker and needy people. Just become one with all, lead a flexible life with others. In these four short lines, this poem teaches us the secret of leading a balanced and harmonious life, emphasizing gentleness, compassion on the one hand and strength on the other hand; the poem explains in simple poetic images one of the messages of the Bhagavad Gita: samatwam, or balance in life. There is Marula Muniyana Kagga, considered as the practical extension of Mankuthimmana Kagga Manku Thimmana Kagga explores the complexity of life, the various aspects of life - in a simple set of striking words.

An instance: Life is a Horse driven cart, Fate its driver You are the horse, Passengers - as allotted by God Sometimes rides to a wedding, sometimes to the graveyard On stumbling, there is always the earth - says Manku Thimma Kannada version: ಬದುಕು ಜಟಕಾಬಂಡಿ, ವಿಧಿ ಅದರ ಸಾಹೇಬ, ಕುದುರೆ ನೀನ್,ಅವನು ಪೇಳ್ದಂತೆ ಪಯಣಿಗರು. ಮದುವೆಗೋ ಮಸಣಕೋ ಹೋಗೆಂದಕಡೆಗೋಡು, ಪದಕುಸಿಯೆ ನೆಲವಿಹುದು ಮಂಕುತಿಮ್ಮBaduku jatakaa bandi, Vidhi adara saaheba. Kudure neen, Avanu peldante payanigaru. Maduvego masanako, Hogendakadegodu. Padakusiye nelavihudu Mankutimma Another excerpt: Be like the tiny grass that grows In the crevices at a giant mountain's foot, Be like the fragrant jasmine flower Which fills the air with perfume sweet, Stand like a rock if destiny cruel Showers you with hardships and small, Be sweet as rock candy to people in distress, Oh naive one, just be one among all. Kannada version: ಹುಲ್ಲಾಗು ಬೆಟ್ಟದಡಿ, ಮನೆಗೆ ಮಲ್ಲಿಗೆಯಾಗು, ಕಲ್ಲಾಗು ಕಷ್ಟಗಳ ಮಳೆಯ ವಿಧಿ