Transparency International e. V. is an international non-governmental organization, based in Berlin and was founded in 1993. Its nonprofit purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil societal anti-corruption measures and to prevent criminal activities arising from corruption, its most notable publications include the Global Corruption Barometer and the Corruption Perceptions Index. Transparency International has the legal status of a German registered voluntary association and serves as an umbrella organization, its members have grown from a few individuals to more than 100 national chapters which engage in fighting corruption in their home countries. TI is a member of UNESCO Consultative Status, United Nations Global Compact and shares the goals of peace, strong institutions and partnerships of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group. TI confirmed the dis-accreditation of the national chapter of United States of America in 2017. According to the 2016 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report, Transparency International was number 9 of 100 in the Top Think Tanks Worldwide category and number 27 of 150 in the Top Think Tanks Worldwide category.
Transparency International was founded in May 1993. According to political scientist Ellen Gutterman, "TI's presence in Germany, indeed its organizational development and rise from a small operation to a prominent international TNGO, benefited from the activities and personal connections of at least three key German individuals: Peter Eigen, Hansjoerg Elshorst, Michael Wiehen"; the founding members included: Peter Eigen, a former regional director for the World Bank, is recognized as a founder. Michael Wiehen a former World Bank official at Washington, D. C. Hansjörg Elshorst former managing director of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit. John Githongo former Permanent Secretary for Ethics and Governance in the office of the President, Kenya. Fritz Heimann of General Electric. Michael J. Hershman of the U. S. military intelligence establishment. Kamal Hossain former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh. Dolores L. Español the Philippines' former presiding Judge of Regional Trial Court.
George Moody Stuart sugar industrialist. Gerald Parfitt of Coopers & Lybrand in Ukraine. Jeremy Pope a New Zealand activist and writer. Frank Vogl, a senior official at the World Bank and head of Vogl Communications, Inc. which has "provided advice to leaders of international finance". In 1995, Transparency International developed the Corruption Perceptions Index; the CPI ranked nations on the prevalence of corruption within each country, based upon surveys of business people. The CPI was subsequently published annually, it was criticized for poor methodology and unfair treatment of developing nations, while being praised for highlighting corruption and embarrassing governments. In 1999, Transparency International began publishing the Bribe Payers Index which ranked nations according to the prevalence that a country's multinational corporations would offer bribes. Transparency International is the global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption, it brings people together in a powerful worldwide coalition to end the devastating impact of corruption on men and children around the world.
TI's mission is to create change towards a world free of corruption. The organization defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain which hurts everyone who depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority, it develops tools for fighting corruption and works with other civil society organizations and governments to implement them. Since 1995, Transparency International has issued an annual Corruption Perceptions Index. In 2010, Transparency International developed a five-year strategy with six strategic priorities organized by the following categories: People, Laws, Network, Impact. In 2015, Transparency International developed a five-year strategy which sets out their collective ambition for the coming years. Together against Corruption: Transparency International Strategy 2020 is a strategy by and for the Transparency International movement; this strategy is based on more than 1500 external and internal contributions addressing both the corruption environment of today and the one TI anticipates in the years ahead.
The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries and territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. It is a composite index – a combination of polls – drawing on corruption-related data collected by a variety of reputable institutions; the CPI reflects the views of observers from around the world. The Corruption Perceptions Index has received criticism over the years; the main one stems from the difficulty in measuring corruption, which by definition happens behind the scenes. The Corruption Perceptions Index therefore needs to rely on third-party survey which have been criticized as unreliable. Data can vary depending on the public perception of a country, the completeness of the surveys and the methodology used; the second issue is that data cannot be compared from year to year because Transparency International uses different methodologies and samples every year. This makes it difficult to evaluate the result of new policies; the Corruption Perceptions Index authors replied to these criticisms by reminding that the Corruption Perceptions Index is meant to measure perception and not "reality".
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Junction City is a village in Madison County, United States. The population was 327 at the 2010 census. Junction City is located at 37°34′11″N 90°17′13″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 0.36 square miles, all land. As of the census of 2010, there were 327 people, 150 households, 68 families living in the village; the population density was 908.3 inhabitants per square mile. There were 179 housing units at an average density of 497.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 96.94% White, 0.61% Black or African American, 0.31% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 2.14% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.83% of the population. There were 150 households of which 28.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 23.3% were married couples living together, 18.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.3% had a male householder with no wife present, 54.7% were non-families. 44.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 33.3% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older.
The average household size was 2.18 and the average family size was 3.18. The median age in the village was 34.7 years. 25.4% of residents were under the age of 18. The gender makeup of the village was 50.8 % female. As of the census of 2000, there were 319 people, 158 households, 73 families living in the village; the population density was 894.9 people per square mile. There were 167 housing units at an average density of 468.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 98.43% White, 1.57% from two or more races. There were 158 households out of which 23.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 32.3% were married couples living together, 11.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 53.2% were non-families. 48.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 27.2% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.02 and the average family size was 2.92. In the village, the population was spread out with 23.5% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 24.1% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to 64, 21.3% who were 65 years of age or older.
The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 82.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.1 males. The median income for a household in the village was $15,833, the median income for a family was $21,250. Males had a median income of $25,417 versus $8,500 for females; the per capita income for the village was $11,561. About 30.1% of families and 37.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 59.7% of those under age 18 and 14.8% of those age 65 or over
Commodore Reigert Bolivar Lowry was an officer of the United States Navy. Lowry was born La Guaira, the son of the U. S. Consul Robert K. Lowry, he was appointed a midshipman on January 21, 1840, was promoted to passed midshipman on July 11, 1846. He served in the Mexican War, also took part in Commodore Matthew C. Perry's expedition to Japan in the mid-1850s. Lowry was promoted to Master on March 1, 1855, to lieutenant on September 14 the same year. At the start of the Civil War, Lowry was serving aboard the sloop Pawnee, moored in the Potomac River, off Alexandria, Virginia. Early on May 24, 1861, as a force of federal troops from Washington D. C. approached by land and by gunboat, the captain of Pawnee, Stephen C. Rowan, acting without orders, dispatched Lieutenant Lowry to find the Confederate commander Colonel George H. Terrett and to demand his surrender. Terrett, aware of the hopelessness of his position, promptly ordered his troops to abandon the town, leaving it in Union hands; the only casualty was Elmer E. Ellsworth, Colonel of the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, who after taking down a Confederate flag flying over the Marshall House Inn, was shot by the owner James W. Jackson.
Lowry commanded the army transport steamship George Peabody, landing troops during the Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries in August 1861. He commanded the gunboat Underwriter from October 1861 until February 1862, as part of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, took part in operations off North Carolina, in November sinking three blockships at the entrance to Ocracoke Inlet, in February 1862 capturing enemy fortifications on Roanoke Island, taking part in the subsequent capture of Elizabeth City. Lowry served as the executive officer of the sloop Brooklyn during the capture of New Orleans in April 1862, during the first attack on Vicksburg in June, he was promoted to lieutenant commander on July 16, 1862. He commanded the gunboat Sciota in extensive river operations. On May 19, 1863 Lowry wrote to the Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles urging that naval officers and seamen not employed at sea be used to man forts and seacoast defenses, stating that: The most successful defenses made against us – at various points of the Mississippi and the seacoast have been made by ex-naval officers and seamen.
The defenses of Sebastopol were defended by Russian seamen for many months, while from the fort guarding that port they beat back the combined fleets of England and France. After the war, on July 25, 1866, Lowry was promoted to the rank of commander. On August 27, 1869 Lowry commissioned the wooden screw sloop of war Severn at the New York Navy Yard. In December 1869, Severn was assigned as flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron under Rear Admiral Charles H. Poor. Severn called at Key West in January 1871 before cruising in the West Indies. In April, she investigated alleged mistreatment of the United States consul at Santiago de Cuba, subsequently sailing to Hampton Roads at the end of July. Leaving Hampton Roads in December, Severn sailed to the Boston Navy Yard, decommissioning there on December 31, 1871. Lowry having received another promotion on November 1871, to the rank of captain. Lowry's last command was the New London Naval Station, having been promoted to commodore on April 1, he shortly thereafter died at the Brooklyn Naval Hospital on November 25, 1880.
The USS Lowry, launched on February 6, 1944, was named in his honor. USS Lowry received four battle stars for World War II service and two for Korean War service, was deployed during the Vietnam War, she was sold to Brazil. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
Georges-Joseph Ranque was the inventor of the Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube, which generates streams of hot and cold gas from a stream of compressed gas. Georges-Joseph Ranque was born in Ambérieu-en-Bugey, France in 1898, his father, Léon-Joseph Ranque, worked as an engineer for a railroad. Georges attended the St. Louis lycée. In 1918, he was admitted to the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. Subsequently he did post-graduate work at the Conservatoire des Arts-et-Métiers. For six years he had been interested in the operation of the Pantone carburetor; this led him, to the study of vortices. In 1922, he was trying to develop an industrial vacuum pump for vacuuming iron filings. While studying the flow of air through the pump, he inserted a cone at one end of a tube in which air was flowing in the form of a vortex, he noticed what is now called the “Ranque effect”. In 1931, he filed for a patent on his vortex tube, in 1933, he presented a paper on it. In 1923, Ranque went to work for the Saint-Jacques steelworks in Montluçon, where he improved methods of producing steel.
He became head of the metallurgical laboratory at Saint-Jacques, where he helped develop steels that would be used as armor in tanks and in the Maginot line. In 1926, he married Eugénie Pierre in la Chapelaude; the couple had six children: Marie-Josèphe, Marie-Noëlle, Marie-Thérèse, Monique and Marie-France. During the Second World War, he developed steels and alloys that would be used by the aviation industry. After the war, he accepted a position at the Duval steelworks in les Ancizes. There, as director of the metallurgical laboratory, he developed alloys for aviation. In 1972, he published a book on the search for the philosopher’s stone, La Pierre philosophale, he died in 1973 in Colombes, a suburb of Paris
John Birkbeck was a Yorkshireman, banker and pioneer potholer. Born in Settle and educated at the local Giggleswick School and Trinity College, Cambridge he spent most of his life in his home town where he was a partner in the Craven Bank, which his family had established in 1791, he was a justice of the peace in life. The family home was Anley, his name is remembered for his involvement in some early explorations of some of the potholes of Ingleborough Gaping Gill and Alum Pot, although the records are sparse. Around 1842, Birkbeck had the water from Fell Beck diverted down'the Birkbeck Trench' and went first 100 and 190 feet down the Main Shaft of Gaping Gill, where there is a ledge which now bears his name, but then'barred further descent'. In 1847, Birkbeck provided ropes to enable the first recorded descent of Alum Pot, made via Long Churn cave; the bottom was not reached on that occasion, but in the following year a direct descent was made of the main shaft, followed by further descents to where'the water sank in a quiet rotary pool, so that further progress was impossible'.
He was there for the next descent, not until 1870 but is better known as it was described by William Boyd Dawkins in his book, Cave Hunting published in 1874. He was a member of the party which made the first ascent of Monte Rosa in 1855 and, in 1857, a founder member of the Alpine Club, having been a friend of its first president, John Ball, at Cambridge. Caving in the United Kingdom
Polara is a noble family from Modica, a town in the Province of Ragusa, Italy. In 1639 Giambattista Polara was Maestro Giurato of the County of Modica and in 1640 his brother Vincenzo was General Administrator. In 1691 Antonino Polara Tomasi Rosso, grandson of Vincenzo, was the first Baron of Baucina and Concadaini and was the noble titled ancestor of the family. In 1829 Giuseppe Polara Lorefice married Carolina Grimaldi Ferreri, the daughter of Giovan Pietro Grimaldi, Baron of Calamenzana. Giorgio Polara Grimaldi, son of Giuseppe, in 1862 was Mayor of Pozzallo; the family produced some scientists and physicians, including Pietro, Knight of Francis I of the Two Sicilies, Protomedico of the County of Modica and director of the "Real Casa dei Matti" of Palermo, Socrate, son of Pietro a physician, who pioneered ophthalmology in Palermo, as well as many religious figures such as the Abbot Giorgio Polara Ascenzo and Pietro Polara Landolina, lawyers such as Ignazio Polara Salonia who in 1783 married Grazia, the daughter of Saverio Landolina Nava, the famous archeologist of Siracusa.
The Polara family continues to live in Modica.