CRESTA was founded as a joint project of Swiss Reinsurance Company, Gerling-Konzern Globale Reinsurance Company, Munich Reinsurance Company. CRESTA has set itself the aim of establishing a globally uniform system for the accumulation risk control of natural hazards - earthquakes and floods; those risk zones are based on the observed and expected seismic activity, as well as on other natural disasters, such as droughts and storms. CRESTA zones regard the distribution of insured values within a region or country for easier assessment of risks. CRESTA Zones are the essential basis for portfolio analysis. Nowadays, CRESTA sets accepted standards which apply throughout the international insurance industry. CRESTA zone information is used by most insurers for assessing the insurance catastrophe premiums they will charge. While the acronym CRESTA stands for Catastrophe Risk Evaluation and Standardizing Target Accumulations, the name was derived from the name of the hotel where the founding meeting occurred, the subsequent creation of a suitable acronym to correspond to the name.

CRESTA has set itself the aim of establishing a globally uniform system for the accumulation risk control of natural hazards - earthquakes and floods. Nowadays accepted standards apply throughout the international insurance industry. CRESTA's main tasks are: Determining country-specific zones for the uniform and detailed reporting of accumulation risk data relating to natural hazards and creating corresponding zonal maps for each country. Drawing up standardised accumulation risk-recording forms for each country. Working out a uniform format for the processing and electronic transfer of accumulation risk data between insurance and reinsurance companies. In addition, CRESTA undertakes the following activities: Collating relevant scientific and insurance-related data dealing with insurance and natural phenomena in a written record. Collecting summaries of information dealing with natural phenomena for each country, in particular relating to earthquakes. Collecting information on natural hazards for each country, of relevance to the insurance and reinsurance industry.

As of 18.8.2008 http://www.cresta.org/) There is no risk that cannot be insured against, however it is difficult to assess how risky it is to give out insurance contracts to customers and to assess for insurance providers how high their rates should be. One main indicator for every insurer is the premiums; when applying for reinsurance the forms will be based on the models provided by CRESTA. CRESTA is an independent group led by Munich Re and Swiss Re which promotes the accurate and efficient mapping and evaluation of catastrophe perils. CRESTA furthermore and most established a worldwide zone classification used within the insurance industry, the CRESTA Zones; the CRESTA Zones are defined for much of the world down to postcode level. CRESTA Zones can form the basis of portfolio analysis. In order for an insurer to calculate the risk distribution in their portfolio for each natural disaster type, accumulations of insured property in individual CRESTA Zones will be taken into account. In seismic risk analysis, for example, a successful loss estimation of insured and reinsured values depends on the seismic hazard analysis, on the vulnerability of facilities and on the ability to calculate the earthquake risk premium known as average annual loss.

CRESTA is one of the biggest, if not the most comprehensive and most actual information resource for natural risks and hazards. On the downside, CRESTA specific information is not available freely. CRESTA zone information can either bundled with map systems. CRESTA zoning uses a simple rating scheme, where the higher the zone rating, the higher the exposure to that hazard. For example, Earthquake Exposure Zone 0 is low exposure. Information about CRESTA: CRESTA Organisation, http://www.cresta.org What are CRESTA Zones? https://www.europa.uk.com/what-are-cresta-zones/ New 2013 CRESTA zones improve natural hazard risk management, https://www.europa.uk.com/article-2013-cresta-zones/ GfK GeoMarketing, http://www.gfk-geomarketing.com/cresta_zones Europa Technologies, https://www.europa.uk.com/global-map-data/global-cresta-plus/ CRESTA Regions/Country codes, https://docs.air-worldwide.com/Validation/3.0/Exposure_Data/CRESTA_and_Area_Codes.htm

Aleksander Veingold is an Estonian chess player, who won the Estonian Chess Championship. He was awarded the Soviet Master title in 1975 and International Master title in 1983. In 1976 Aleksander Veingold graduated from Tallinn University with a degree in theoretical physics. In 2005 he graduated from University of Tartu as Doctor of Philosophy in practical philosophy. In 1969 Veingold won the Estonian Junior Chess Championship. In 1979 he won National tournament in Tallinn and shared 5th place in Paul Keres Memorial Tournament. In 1980 Veingold shared 1st place in Riga Cup, he won the Estonian Chess Championship in 1983, four times finished second and six times finished third. Aleksander Veingold played for Estonia fourth times in the Soviet Team Chess Championships. Aleksander Veingold played for Estonia in Chess Olympiads: In 1992, at third board in the 30th Chess Olympiad in Manila. In 1981 Veingold was Maia Chiburdanidze secundant in Women's World Chess Championship Match, he was the coach of Jaan Ehlvest from 1986 to 1990.

He has FIDE Chess Coach professional level IV. From 1998 to 2002 Veingold was a member in FIDE subcommittee "Chess in schools" and Development Committee of FIDE, he is "Vabaettur". Aleksander Veingold rating card at FIDE Aleksander Veingold player profile and games at Chessgames.com Aleksander Veingold player profile at 365chess.com Aleksander Veingold player profile at olimpbase.org

Arthur Francis Collins was an American baritone, one of the most prolific and beloved of pioneer recording artists, regarded in his day as "King of the Ragtime Singers". He was born in Philadelphia and moved with his family to Barnegat, New Jersey around 1879 and as a teenager worked as a volunteer lifesaver on the Jersey shore, beginning an enthusiasm for sailing that became a lifelong pursuit. However, his fine baritone voice – heard in church and in local concert appearances – convinced Collins' family to send him back to Philadelphia for formal training. After concluding his studies, Collins spent some 15 years touring with various stock companies and appearing in summer opera in St. Louis. None of these ventures turned out any long term prospects for Collins, when he married actress and singer Anna Leah Connelly in 1895 Collins swore off show business and decided to study for a career in bookkeeping. Taking occasional roles for extra money, Collins appeared in a production given by the DeWolf Hopper Opera Company in 1898, talent scouts for Edison Records requested Collins audition which, according to his wife, took place on May 16, 1898.

Within a few years, Collins proved one of the most productive and successful singers in the record business, in his long career between 1898 and 1926 he worked for every record company active in the United States. He specialized in what were called coon songs, popular African-American dialect numbers associated with vaudeville and minstrel shows. Collins utilized an array of vocal effects and caricature voices which gave the impression that there were multiple persons at the horn on his recordings, though it was just Collins. Towards making that end of it more effective, Collins began to work in a duo format with tenor Joe Natus in 1901 and both sang in an Edison group called the Big Four Quartet, it is assumed that Collins first came into contact with tenor Byron G. Harlan within the context of the Big Four Quartet, from until the end of Collins' career in the early 1920s, Harlan was Collins's duet partner. Collins & Harlan were the most famous and popular male duo on early records. In 1909, Collins joined John H. Meyer, Henry Burr, Albert Campbell in the Peerless Quartet, a successful barbershop music group which toured as the Record Makers, as the Eight Popular Victor Artists.

However, by 1917 bass Frank Croxton began to replace Collins on some records, a situation that became permanent by mid-1919 as Collins did not get along with Burr, who served as the group's manager. During a personal appearance at the Princess Theater in Medina, Ohio on October 20, 1921, Collins was badly injured when he fell through an open trap door. While he recovered well enough to resume his singing and recording career, his health began to decline afterward and in 1926, Collins retired, relocating to Florida with his wife, he died at the age of 69 in Tice, Florida on August 3, 1933. Arthur Collins recorded hundreds of songs, in many cases he recorded the same song multiple times for various recording outfits, his signature song was The Preacher and the Bear, which he first recorded in 1905. His rendition dispersed among a variety of releases, constitutes the most popular non-operatic record made during the first decade of the twentieth century. Collins was still recording the number in 1922, a 1908 remake of the piece for Victor remained in their catalog until 1941.

His recording sold over one million copies, was awarded a gold disc, only the second one presented. Collins lived up to his reputation as the "King of Ragtime Singers" and recorded more ragtime songs than any other singer during the era when ragtime was at its peak of popularity. Collins recorded some of Bert Williams's songs before Williams did, recorded some numbers associated with Williams that the latter never waxed. Collins and Harlan made best-selling records of tunes old and new that remain well cherished and iconic in the twenty-first century, such as "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee", "Alexander's Ragtime Band", "Lily of the Valley", "The Old Grey Mare". Collins survived into the early years of the Jazz Age, he and Harlan recorded the earliest record known to mention jazz, "That Funny Jas Band from Dixieland". Collins' solo recordings as well as Collins and Harlan recordings are viewed as desirable by collectors the early ones, such enthusiasm about their output dates back to at least the 1940s.

Given the age of these recordings and their specialized frame of interest, few of them were reissued in the LP era. 1898 "Happy Days in Dixie" "Zizzy ze zum zum"1899 "All Coons Look Alike to Me" "When You Ain't Got No More Money" † "Hello! Ma Baby"† "I'd Leave My Happy Home For You" † "I Guess I'll Have To Telegraph My Baby" † "Kiss Me, Honey Do" † "Mandy Lee"† – #5 song of 1900 † "My Josephine" 1900 "Ma Tiger Lily" – #3 song of 1900 † "My Sunflower Sue" with The Metropolitan Orchestra, Victor's house orchestra "You're Talking Rag Time" "I Ain't Seen No Messenger Boy"1901 "Ain't Dat a Shame" "Coon, Coon" "Every Darky Had A Raglan On" "I Dreams About You"1902 "Any Old Place I Can Hang My Hat Is Home Sweet Home To Me" "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home" – #2 song of 1902 † "Down Where the Wurzburger Flows" † "Helen Gonne" "Just Kiss Yourself Goodbye" "Under the Bamboo Tree" †1903 "Any Rags?"– #4 song of 1903 † "Good-bye, Eliza Jane" † "I'm A Jonah Man" "I Wonder Why Bill Bailey Don't Come Home"1904 "The Preacher And The Bear"† – #1 song of 1905 and Co

A khanjali is a double-edged dagger with a single off-set groove on each face of the blade. The shape of the weapon is similar to the ancient Greek Xiphos, the Roman Gladius, or the Scottish dirk; such daggers and their scabbards are highly engraved in gold or silver designs, sometimes include embedded gemstones. The scabbard will feature a ball point extension on the tip, the handle is made of materials such as wood or ivory. Although part of the national Georgian men's traditional costume, the Circassian and Kuban Cossacks, among others wear this weapon – see burka; the Circassian dagger is known as the adigha gkama. The Russian poets Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov both addressed celebrated poems to this weapon

The Battle of the Nobles was an important confrontation in the Berber Revolt in c. 740 AD. It resulted in a major Berber victory over the Arabs near Tangier. During the battle, numerous Arab aristocrats were slaughtered, which led to the conflict being called the "Battle of the Nobles". Zenata Berber chieftain Khalid ibn Hamid al-Zanati led the revolting Berber soldiers; the Maghreb in the early eighth century was under Umayyad rule. The Berber Revolt broke out in early 740 in western Morocco, in response to the oppressive, unfair tax-collection and slave-tribute policies imposed upon Muslim Berbers by the governor Ubayd Allah ibn al-Habhab of Kairouan, governor of Ifriqiya and overlord of the Maghreb and al-Andalus; the Berber rebellion was inspired by Kharijite activists of the Sufrite sect, who held out the promise of a new puritan Islamic order, without ethnic or tribal discrimination, a prospect appealing to the long-suffering Berbers. The revolt began under the leadership of the Berber chieftain Maysara al-Matghari.

The Berber rebels seized Tangiers and much of western Morocco by the late summer of 740. The Berbers had timed their uprising carefully; the bulk of the Ifriqiyan army, under command of the general Habib ibn Abi Obeida al-Fihri, was at that moment overseas, on an expedition to conquer Sicily. The governor Obeid Allah ibn el-Habhab dispatched instructions ordering Habib to break off the expedition and ship the army back to Africa, but this would take time. So, in the meantime, Obeid Allah assembled a cavalry-heavy column composed of much of the aristocratic elite of Kairouan, placed it under the command of Khalid ibn Abi Habib al-Fihri; this column was dispatched to Tangiers and instructed to serve as the vanguard and to keep the Berber rebels in check, until the Sicilian expeditionary force disembarked and caught up with them. A second, smaller reserve army, under Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Mughira al-Adhari, was sent to Tlemcen, instructed to hold there in case the Berber army should break through to Ifriqiya.

Maysara's Berber forces encountered the vanguard Ifrqiyan column of Khalid ibn Abi Habib somewhere on the outskirts of Tangiers. After a brief skirmish, Maysara ordered the Berber armies to fall back. Rather than give pursuit, the Arab cavalry commander Khalid ibn Abi Habib held the line just south of Tangiers, blockading the Berber-held city while awaiting the reinforcements from the Sicilian expedition. Regrouping after these skirmishes, the Berber rebels deposed and killed their leader, Maysara al-Matghari, elected the Zenata Berber chieftain, Khalid ibn Hamid al-Zanati, as the new Berber commander; the reasons for Maysara's fall are not altogether clear - because his sudden cowardice shown before the Arab cavalry column proved him military unfit because the puritan Sufrite preachers found a flaw in the piety of his character, or because the Zenata tribal chieftains, being closer to the Ifriqiyan frontline, felt they should be the ones leading the rebellion. The chronicler Ibn Khaldun claims Khalid ibn Abi Obeida encountered the Berber forces and held his position at the'Shalif' river, which many commentators have taken to be the well-known Chelif river in central Algeria.

However, it is improbable that the Berber rebel army would have been that far east by then. Modern historians have suggested his transcribers made a mistake here. Julien suggests Ibn Khaldun meant to say the Sebou River, whose upper reaches would indeed appropriately place the Ifriqiyan column close to Tangiers; the chronicler En-Nuweri indeed reports. Khalid ibn Hamid al-Zanati opted to attack the Ifriqiyan army mulling around the'Shalif' before the arrival of the reinforcements from Sicily; the Berber rebels under Khalid ibn Hamid overwhelmed and defeated the army of Khalid ibn Abi Habib, massacring the cream of the Ifriqiyan Arab nobility. News of the slaughter of the Ifriqiyan nobles spread like a shock-wave; the reserve army of Ibn al-Mughira in Tlemcen fell into a panic. Seeing Sufrite preachers everywhere around the city, the troops launched a series of indiscriminate massacres, provoking a massive uprising in the hitherto-quiet city; the Sicilian expeditionary army of Habib ibn Abi Obeida arrived too late to prevent the massacre of the nobles.

Realizing they were in no position to take on the Berbers by themselves, they retreated to Tlemcen to gather the reserves, only to find that that city too was now in disarray and the troops killed or scattered. Habib ibn Abi Obeida entrenched what remained of the Ifriqiyan army in the vicinity of Tlemcen, called upon Kairouan for reinforcements; the request was forwarded to Damascus. Hearing of the defeat of the nobles, Caliph Hisham is said to have exclaimed "By God, I will most rage against them with an Arab rage, I will send against them an army whose beginning is where they are and whose end is where I am!". In February, 741, the Umayyad Caliph Hisham appointed Kulthum ibn Iyad al-Qasi to replace the disgraced Obeid Allah as governor in Ifriqiya. Kulthum was to be accompanied by a fresh Arab army of 30,000 raised from the Syrian regiments (junds in Arabic} of the east; this would set up the more momentous Battle of Bagdoura in late 741. Berbers and Islam Umayyad conquest of North Africa