The Card Players is a series of oil paintings by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Cézanne. Painted during Cézanne's final period in the early 1890s, there are five paintings in the series; the versions vary in size, the number of players, the setting in which the game takes place. Cézanne completed numerous drawings and studies in preparation for The Card Players series. One version of The Card Players was sold in 2011 to the Royal Family of Qatar for a price estimated at $250 million, it was thought to be sold to the Davis family out of Florida in the United States for an estimated US$225 million. And as high as $300 million, either price signifying a new mark for highest price for a painting, not surpassed until November 2017; the series is considered by critics to be a cornerstone of Cézanne's art during the early-to-mid 1890s period, as well as a "prelude" to his final years, when he painted some of his most acclaimed work. Each painting depicts Provençal peasants immersed in playing cards.

The subjects, all male, are displayed as studious within their card playing, eyes cast downward, intent on the game at hand. Cézanne adapted a motif from 17th-century Dutch and French genre painting which depicted card games with rowdy, drunken gamblers in taverns, replacing them instead with stone-faced tradesmen in a more simplified setting. Whereas previous paintings of the genre had illustrated heightened moments of drama, Cézanne's portraits have been noted for their lack of drama and conventional characterization. Other than an unused wine bottle in the two-player versions, there is an absence of drink and money, which were prominent fixtures of the 17th-century genre. A painting by one of the Le Nain brothers, hung in an Aix-en-Provence museum near the artist's home, depicts card players and is cited as an inspiration for the works by Cézanne; the models for the paintings were local farmhands, some of whom worked on the Cézanne family estate, the Jas de Bouffan. Each scene is depicted as one of still concentration.

One critic described the scenes as "human still life", while another speculated that the men's intense focus on their game mirrors that of the painter's absorption in his art. While there are, in total, five paintings of card players by Cézanne, the final three works were similar in composition and number of players, causing them to sometimes be grouped together as one version; the exact dates of the paintings are uncertain, but it is long believed Cézanne began with larger canvases and pared down in size with successive versions, though research in recent years has cast doubt on this assumption. The largest version, painted between the years 1890–1892, is the most complex, with five figures on a 134.6 x 180.3 cm canvas. It features three card players at the forefront, seated in a semi-circle at a table, with two spectators behind. On the right side of the painting, seated behind the second man and to the right of the third, is a boy, eyes cast downward a fixed spectator of the game. Further back, on the left side between the first and second player is a man standing, back to the wall, smoking a pipe and awaiting his turn at the table.

It has been speculated Cézanne added the standing man to provide depth to the painting, as well as to draw the eye to the upper portion of the canvas. As with the other versions, it displays a suppressed storytelling of peasant men in loose-fitting garments with natural poses focused on their game. Writer Nicholas Wadley described a "tension in opposites", in which elements such as shifts of color and shadow, shape of hat, crease of cloth create a story of confrontation through opposition. Others have described an "alienation" displayed in the series to be most pronounced in this version; the painting is displayed by the Barnes Foundation museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A more condensed version of this painting with four figures, long thought to be the second version of The Card Players, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. At 65.4 x 81.9 cm, it is less than half the size of the Barnes painting. Here the composition remains the same, minus the boy, with viewers' perspective closer to the game, but with less space between the figures.

In the previous painting, the center player as well as the boy were hatless, whereas this version has all the men hatted. Gone are the shelf to the left with vase and lower half of a picture frame in the center of the wall, leaving only the four pipes and hanging cloth to join the smoking man behind the card players; the painting is brighter, than the larger version. X-ray and infrared studies of this version of The Card Players have shown layers of "speculative" graphite underdrawing, as well as heavy layers of worked oil paint suggesting it was the preliminary of Cézanne's two largest versions of the series, rather than the second version as believed; the underdrawing has led analysts to believe Cézanne had difficulty transferring the men painted individually in studies, onto one canvas. It has been speculated that Cézanne solved this "spatial conundrum" in the final three versions of The Card Players, by eliminating spectators and other "unnecessary detail" while displaying only the "absolute essentials": two players immersed in their game.

The scene has been described as balanced but asymmetrical, as well as symmetrical with the two players being each other's "partner in an agreed opposition". The man on the left is smoking a pipe, wearing a tophat wi

World Magshimey Herut is a Zionist young adult movement founded in 1999 by a group of Jewish activists who felt the need for a young adult movement dedicated to the ideals of aliyah, social justice and the territorial integrity of the Land of Israel. The world headquarters of the movement are located in Israel symbolizing the state of Israel's centrality to Jewish life. World MH is dedicated to a strong and independent Jewish nation in the Land of Israel, composed of Jews from around the world reuniting in their homeland. To this end the movement works in conjunction with the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Jewish National Fund on projects that advance common goals; when a Likud government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu relinquished parts of Hebron to Yasser Arafat in 1998, Betar members were uncertain as to how to view a Likud Prime Minister's betrayal of one of their most sacred principles. As a reaction to the Prime Minister's decision, the Director of Overseas Activities at the time, Karma Feinstein-Cohen, along with a group of ideological purists and veteran activists from chapters throughout the world, left Betar in order to establish a new movement.

In 1999, Herut: The National Movement was established and registered in the Israeli Department of Party Registry by former Likud activists led by Knesset members Benny Begin, Michael Kleiner, David Re'em who opposed the Likud government’s withdrawal in Judea and Samaria. Herut ran in three Israeli national elections. Upon inception, the movement joined the World Zionist Organization, set up party branches all over the world, established a young adult movement, Magshimey Herut— the reborn Jabotinsky movement for Zionist education and activism. Herut has active branches in 11 countries today. Since 2004, the threshold for Knesset membership has been raised twice. Herut has chosen not to participate in Israeli elections. For the present, Herut concentrates its efforts on gaining adherents to Herut ideology and promoting Aliyah and the absorption of Olim into Israeli society. Individual members, among them, MK Benny Begin and the head of the Likud Supreme Court, Michael Kleiner, have rejoined the Likud.

Herut continues to be registered in the Israeli government's Party Registry. The Herut party remains intact and reserves the right to compete in future elections, should suitable circumstances arise. World Herut and Magshimey Herut initiate and support the activities of students and social action groups that are consistent with the movements' objectives. World Herut works in conjunction with the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael on projects that advance common goals. In their mission statement they write: "World Magshimey Heurt is a Zionist youth movement dedicated to social justice, the unity of the Jewish people, the territorial integrity of the Land of Israel. World Magshimey Herut educates Jewish young adults throughout the world towards Jewish pride, activist Zionism, love for Israel. World Magshimey Herut encourages members to assume an active role in determining the future of the Jewish people and to assert Israel's national rights."..."World Herut is committed to the creation, in Israel, of the social and political conditions conductive to integrating all Jews within the body politic.

World Herut, therefore, is politically democratic liberal, economically free-market and social-welfare oriented. In addition, as a Zionist movement, World Herut emphasizes the Jewish people's right to live and securely in its ancestral homeland.". World MH is proactively engaged in the fulfillment of classic Zionist goals: The ingathering of the majority of world Jewry into the Land of Israel Jewish settlement throughout the homeland The incorporation of the entire Land into the free nation-state of the Jewish people, in the State of Israel. Magshimey Herut has referred to itself as the "reborn Jabotinsky movement", sees itself as the ideological successors of Ze'ev Jabotinsky and Revisionist Zionism Magshimey Herut looks at the State of Israel as the natural successor to the previous sovereign Jewish Kingdoms and States in the Land of Israel, they see Zionism as the natural indigenous right of the Jewish people to rule themselves in their native homeland, that the fact that this right was taken away is a root cause of antisemitism.

World MH is active the globe with four major types of activities. Aliyah assistance from A to Z Tailor-made internships Leadership seminars Helping with college campus activismMagshimey Herut operates in Israel, United States, Argentina, UK, Slovakia, Germany and Uganda. Revisionist Zionism Ze'ev Jabotinsky Herut – The National Movement World Magshimey Herut Official website

Steve Arneil is a prominent South African-British master of Kyokushin karate. He learned directly from Masutatsu Oyama and was a senior instructor in Oyama's International Karate Organization until 1991, when he resigned from the IKO. Arneil is the founder and President of the International Federation of Karate, holds the rank of 10th dan, holds the title Hanshi, he and his wife settled in the United Kingdom in 1965. Arneil was born on 29 August 1934 in Krugersdorp, South Africa; when he was 10 years old, his family moved to Northern Rhodesia, he began training in kung fu, judo and boxing there. At age 16, he was selected to represent Northern Rhodesia in rugby. By the age of 17, Arneil had earned black belt status in judo, he had practised kenpo and karate, he moved to South Africa, for tertiary studies in mechanical engineering. In Durban, Arneil trained at a judo dojo that offered karate training, he made a practice of going down to the harbour and asking arriving Japanese people if they practised karate.

In 1959, Arneil left South Africa, bound for Southeast Asia. Arneil travelled to China, South Korea, Hong Kong before arriving in Japan, he trained in a few karate styles, including Shotokan, Wado-ryu, Goju-ryu. In the course of these studies, the name "Oyama" was mentioned to him by several people, including Yamaguchi, this aroused his curiosity. In January 1961, through Donn Draeger, Arneil began to study Kyokushin karate under Masutatsu Oyama, he recalled that, unlike the other karate schools he had visited in Japan, Oyama's Kyokushin school was selective. You don't follow the rules, you out. Understand?"Arneil was promoted to the rank of 1st dan in Kyokushin karate on 15 May 1962, attained 2nd dan on 16 April 1963. He was later'adopted' by Oyama, to allow him to marry a Japanese woman in 1964. Of his wife, Tsuyuko Arneil, he has said, "She worked in a bank, she supported both of us when I was training. I didn't have time for work." Arneil estimated that he trained an average of six hours each day during his time in Japan, with training commencing at 10:00 AM and concluding between 10:30 PM to 1:00 AM the next morning.

On 22 May 1965, Arneil became the first person to complete the 100-man kumite after Oyama himself. The 100-man kumite took him around 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete, with each round scheduled to take 1 minute and 30 seconds. In an interview in 2005, Arneil said, "I did not have to beat everyone I fought, that would have been ridiculous! I just had to keep going, I had to have the spirit not to give up, no matter what they threw at me." On 10 July 1965, Arneil was promoted to 3rd dan. Arneil had planned to return to South Africa, but Oyama asked him to go to the United Kingdom to help establish Kyokushin karate there; the move was not an easy one. Arneil recalled: "We were greeted by stares, the same stares we had faced in Japan, only this time they were directed at my wife; the war was still on, you see, the Japanese were seen as the enemy. We had travelled half way round the world and we still faced the same prejudice that we had faced in Japan; that was hard for both of us." The couple tried to move to Australia.

The BKK's first full-time dojo was opened in Stratford, east London. In May 1966, Arneil received promotion to the rank of 4th dan. From 1968 to 1976, he was the Team Manager and Coach for the All Styles English and British Karate team which, in 1975/76, became the first non-Japanese team to win the karate World Championship. Arneil was promoted to 5th dan on 15 January 1968, to 6th dan on 7 October 1974. In 1975, the French Karate Federation awarded him the title of "World's Best Coach." On 6 August 1977, Arneil was promoted to the rank of 7th dan in Kyokushin karate. Kyokushin's 5th World Tournament, in 1991, was a significant point in the history of the IKO. Arneil stated "It was a fixed tournament." He claimed that political and financial pressures contributed to the situation, but that "the decider was when Sosai was supposed to meet me in Switzerland, he didn't come. I didn't want to be involved in the politics anymore. I left the IKO, not Kyokushin." That same year and the BKK resigned from the IKO, Arneil founded his own karate organisation, the IFK.

Arneil is the President of the IFK and the BKK. On 30 May 1992, the British karate community awarded Arneil the rank of 8th dan for his services to karate in the UK. On 26 May 2001, IFK country representatives awarded him the rank of 9th dan at their meeting in Berlin. Arneil has written several books on karate, including Karate: A guide to unarmed combat, Modern Karate, Better Karate, Teach yourself: Karate. On 23 July 2011, Arneil was awarded 10th Dan at the 3rd IFK U-18 World Tournament by the IFK as recognition for his commitment to Kyokushin Karate.2015 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the British Kyokushinkai Karate organisation with main celebrations taking place at the 39th British Open Knockdown Championships in Crawley on 17 October

Quezon Memorial Station is a proposed station of the Manila Metro Rail Transit System Line 7 located within the Quezon Memorial Circle, Quezon City. Close landmarks include the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center, Department of Agriculture Building, Quezon City Hall, Department of Agrarian Reform Building, the National Housing Authority and PTV Complex; the groundbreaking ceremony for the Manila Metro Rail Transit System Line 7 took place at the site of the Quezon Memorial station in April 20, 2016. During development of the station, the Quezon City government suspends above-ground construction on February 18, 2020 as the proposed structure is claimed to damage the park's integrity; the current space for construction is more than five times the indicated 4,997 square meters. Mayor Joy Belmonte ordered a temporary cease and desist order on the above-ground construction of the station. Belmonte discussed the issue with San Miguel Corporation, EEI Corporation, the Department of Transportation for further clarification.

At that time there was still no major above-ground structures at the site with most of the construction work still taking place underground. The design of the above-ground structure for the station was still in the finalization phase; the initial design of the station was approved as far back as the term of former Quezon City mayor Herbert Bautista. It was planned that a 2,500-square meter establishment would be constructed above-ground and it would expand to 11,000 square meters. On February 28, 2020, authorities from San Miguel Corporation and EEI Corporation presented a revised design of the above-ground area of the station consisting of only a utility room, it reduced 11,000 square meters to 426 square meters, the height from 12 meters to 6 meters. Belmonte lifted the temporary cease and desist order on the same day. Proposed Quezon Memorial MRT Station

Antara Dev Sen is a British–Indian journalist. Antara was born in Cambridge and did her schooling in Delhi and in Kolkata and higher education in India and United States. Sen studied at Jadavpur University, Smith College in Massachusetts, United States and at Harvard University, she joined the Hindustan Times. As a senior editor of the Hindustan Times, she went to Oxford University on a fellowship from the Reuters Foundation, she has worked with the Ananda Bazaar Patrika Group in Calcutta and with The Indian Express in Delhi, where she was senior assistant editor. On her return to Delhi, she was its founding editor; the magazine predominantly publishes articles on literary themes relating to South Asia. She is a literary critic and translator, a newspaper columnist and commentator on the media, politics and development, she has edited several books including the TLM Short Stories from South Asia series. Sen is managing trustee of Pratichi, a trust working on education and health; the Little Magazine openDemocracy Words Without Borders

Strategic design is the application of future-oriented design principles in order to increase an organization's innovative and competitive qualities. Its foundations lie in the analysis of external and internal trends and data, which enables design decisions to be made on the basis of facts rather than aesthetics or intuition; as such it is regarded as an effective way to bridge innovation, research and design. The discipline is practiced by design agencies or by internal development departments. "Traditional definitions of design focus on creating discrete solutions—be it a product, a building, or a service. Strategic design is about applying some of the principles of traditional design to "big picture" systemic challenges like business growth, health care and climate change, it redefines how problems are approached, identifies opportunities for action, helps deliver more complete and resilient solutions." The traditional concept of design is associated with artistic work. The addition of the term strategic expands such conception so that creativity is linked with innovation, allowing ideas to become practical and profitable applications "that can be managed acquired, used and/or consumed by target audiences."

Strategic design draws from the body of literature that emerged in recent years, which outline strategic design principles that provide insights and new methods in the areas of merchandising and ownership. There are at least four factors that demonstrate the value of strategic design and these are: it affects consumer behavior through motivation by creating a perceptual value. Businesses are the main consumers of strategic design, but the public and not-for-profit sectors are making increasing use of the discipline, its applications are varied, yet aim to strengthen one of the following: product branding, product development, corporate identity, corporate branding and business models, service delivery. Strategic design has become crucial in recent years, as businesses and organisations compete for a share of today's global and fast-paced marketplace. "To survive in today’s changing world and services must not only anticipate change, but drive it. Businesses that don't will lose market share to those.

There have been many examples of strategic design breakthroughs over the years and in an competitive global market with rapid product cycles, strategic design is becoming more important". Examples Strategic design can play a role in helping to resolve the following common problems: Identifying the most important questions that a company's products and services should address Translating insights into actionable solutions Prioritizing the order in which a portfolio of products and services should be launched Connecting design efforts to an organization's business strategy Mark Hurd discussed HP's design strategy for determining environmental footprint of their supply chain. Integrating design as a fundamental aspect of strategic brand intent Experience design Design management Design methods Design thinking Industrial design Instructional design Product design Service design User-centered design Strategic design as described by Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO Definition of strategic design by INDEX: Strategic Design MA course description, Design Akademie Berlin Strategic Innovation Lab Social Innovation Generation, generation de l'innovation sociale Strategic Design MA course description, POLI.design Milan