The Universal Esperanto Association known as the World Esperanto Association, is the largest international organization of Esperanto speakers, with 5501 individual members in 121 countries and 9215 through national associations and in official relations with the United Nations. In addition to individual members, 70 national Esperanto organizations are affiliated with UEA, its current president is the professor Duncan Charters. The magazine Esperanto is the main organ used by UEA to inform its members about everything happening in the Esperanto community; the UEA was founded in 1908 by the Swiss journalist Hector Hodler and others and is now headquartered in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The organization has an office at the United Nations building in New York City. According to its 1980 statutes, the Universal Esperanto Association has two kinds of members: individual members join the association directly, paying a fee to the Rotterdam headquarters or to the chief delegate in their country; these members receive the UEA services.

Asociaj membroj, those members of the organizations that joined UEA. These members are administered by their respective organizations, it can be a specialist organization. This kind of membership is for the person in question a mere symbolical membership; the highest organ of UEA, the Komitato, has members elected in three different ways: An organization sends at least one komitatano, plus one more for every 1,000 national members, to the Komitato. Most national organizations have only one komitatano. Per 1,000 individual members, the individual members can choose one member to the Komitato. Both previous groups by-elect more komitatanoj, up to one third of their numbers; the Komitato elects the Estraro. The Estraro sometimes additionally a director; the general director and his staff work at Oficejo de UEA, in Rotterdam. An individual member can become a delegito, a'delegate'; this means that he serves as a local contact person for UEA members in his town. A ĉefdelegito is someone installed by the UEA headquarters, but with the task to collect the member fees in a given country.

TEJO, the World Esperanto Youth Organization, is the youth section of the UEA. Similar to the World Congress, TEJO organizes an International Youth Congress of Esperanto each year in a different location; the IJK is a week-long event of concerts, excursions attended by hundreds of young people from all over the world. The youth section has a Komitato and national and specialist affiliated organizations, just as UEA itself. A TEJO volunteer works at the Rotterdam headquarters; the first national Esperanto organization was founded in 1898 in France as a potential international association. In 1903 the second one followed, in Switzerland. Within a couple of years, many of the now still existing national organizations came into existence. Since 1933/1934 they send representatives into the UEA Komitato, making it a federation of national organizations; the term in Esperanto was mostly Naciaj Societoj, since 1933 Landaj Asocioj. When UEA accepted national organizations in 1933/1934 for the first time, it required them to have at least 100 national members, be'organized in an orderly manner', be neutral, meaning having no political or religious aims, being open to all citizens of the country.

The last prerequisite caused serious problems, e.g. to the German national association coming in those months under national socialist rule. For example, the Cuban association was refused because its statutes claimed to respect the leading role of the communist party in Cuba. In 1980, the UEA statutes were altered. Since a national organization need not be neutral itself, but must respect the neutrality of UEA. Specialist organizations are similar to the national organizations, they are divided into two groups: neutral organizations, that can join UEA in the same way as a national organizations. In Esperanto they are called aliĝintaj fakaj asocioj. Examples are the Esperanto teachers. Other organizations in collaboration with UEA, they do not send representatives to the Komitato but are mentioned in the Yearbook and can have a room at the World Congress. Some of them refuse to be affiliated because of financial reasons, others because they are non-neutral and cannot join UEA. Examples are the Esperanto Catholics and the Esperanto communists.

The youth section TEJO has two affiliated specialist groups, the cyclists and the lovers of rock music. UEA is the publisher of the most important Esperanto periodical, it was started in 1905 by Paul Berthelot. UEA founder Hector Hodler took it over in 1907 and made it the official UEA magazine in 1908. In 1920 he left the magazine to the association. Since the 1950s it has a paid editor-in-chief. Next to Esperanto, the Yearbook is the oldest continuous publication of the association. UEA has the largest mail-order Esperanto bookstore in the world, it maintains an information center and an important Esperanto library, called the Hector Hodler Library. The organisation has a network of local representatives from around the world, the Delegita Reto, who are available to provide information about their geographical area or professional field; the yearly World Esperanto Congress, which attracts 1500–3000 people to a diffe

Fusion Academy & Learning Center is a private, alternative school for grades 6-12. All classes are taught on one teacher per classroom. Students complete all schoolwork on-site, instead of at home. Fusion Academy was founded in 1989 by Michelle Rose Gilman, as an after-school tutoring program in her garage in Solana Beach, California; the company began to offer a full-time curriculum in 2001. In 2009, the company opened its second campus in Los Angeles. In 2011, Inc. Magazine included Fusion Academy in its annual "Inc. 5000" list of America's fastest-growing private companies, the second time the company had made the list. Fusion Academy campuses are located throughout northern and southern California, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and Washington, D. C; as of December of 2019 there are 60 campuses Fusion Academy operates year round and accommodates both full-time and part-time students, including those with ADHD and learning disabilities. Standard and honors-level courses include sciences, history, social studies, the arts and foreign languages.

Art and music enrichment programs cover topics such as studio art, performing arts, music theory and recording. Customized summer programs are available in math, science and foreign languages. One hour breaks between classes are intended to allow time to work on homework; the school offers therapeutic support from outside professionals and tolerance education, staff mentoring, tutoring and homework assistance, support in areas such as time management, preparation for high school entrance or SAT, ACT, GED exams, college applications and career planning

The CSI comics are comic book tie-ins with the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY television shows. They have been published from 2003 to 2009; the majority have been released by IDW Publishing and have been written by a range of notable authors including Jeff Mariotte, Max Allan Collins, Steven Grant. The latest was a manga-style story published by Tokyopop; the first of the major CSI: Crime Scene Investigation stories, Serial deals with Gil Grissom and his team tracking a violent serial killer. The killer is copy-catting history's most infamous murderer – Jack the Ripper, killing Las Vegas prostitutes. To complicate matters for the team, the murderer is striking during the Ripper Mania Festival in Las Vegas, a convention for Jack the Ripper case enthusiasts; the producers of the festival attempt to work with the police. The story revolves around the murder of Rich Johnston who writes a gossip column for Comic Book Resources called "Lying in the Gutters". Due to his notoriety and the fact that this takes place at a comics convention there is a long list of comic book luminaries among the suspects.

15-year-old Kiyomi Hudson is one of five teens—and the lone girl—chosen for internship in Las Vegas' CSI Division under the tutelage of Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows. Little does she know that her first "case" concerns another brutally murdered teenage girl, that one of her fellow interns may know more than he's letting on. Published as limited series by IDW Publishing they are collected by IDW and Titan as trade paperbacks. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Thicker Than Blood Serial Bad Rap Demon House Dominos Secret Identity Dying in the Gutters CSI: Miami: Thou Shalt Not... CSI: NY: Bloody Murder CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Intern At Your Own Risk List of comics based on television programs CSI IDW Publishing official website Titan Books official website Tokyopop on Facebook

Judith Scott was an internationally renowned American fiber sculptor. Judith was born into a middle-class family in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1943 along with her fraternal twin sister Joyce. Unlike Joyce, Judith was born with Down Syndrome. During her infancy, Judith suffered from Scarlet Fever, which caused her to lose her hearing, a fact that remained unknown until much on in her life. At the age of seven, she was sent to an Ohio state institution where she remained until her sister became her guardian 35 years later. In 1987 Judith was enrolled at the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, California which supports people with developmental disabilities. There, Judith discovered her talent for abstract fiber art. An account of Scott's life, Entwined – Sisters and secrets in the life of artist Judith Scott has been written by her twin sister. Judith Scott spent her first seven and a half years at home with her parents, twin sister and older brothers. Although the developmental gap between the two girls was apparent, "the parents consciously sought to treat these youngest members of the family alike."However, when it was time for the girls to start attending school, Judith was found to be "ineducable."

There was only one classroom for children with disabilities, Judith was not able to pass the verbally-based entrance tests, due to her still undiagnosed deafness. On medical advice, her parents placed Judith in the Columbus State Institution, an institution for the mentally disabled, on October 18, 1950; this separation had a profound effect on both twins. The records from Judith Scott's first few years at the Institution indicate that she had an IQ of 30. For this reason she was denied any training opportunities. Deprived of her twin, Judith became alienated, behavioral problems soon surfaced, her Clinical Record states. She does not get along well with other children, is restless, eats messily, tears her clothing, beats other children, her presence on the ward is a disturbing influence." Soon after, she was moved to a smaller state institution at Ohio. In 1985, after 35 years of complete separation and lengthy and difficult negotiations, Joyce Scott became her sister's legal guardian, brought Judith to live with her in California, a state where all mentally disabled citizens are entitled to an ongoing education.

Judith Scott died of natural causes at her sister's home in Dutch Flat, California, a few weeks short of her 62nd birthday. She outlived her life expectancy at birth by fifty years. On April 1, 1987, Judith Scott began attending the Creative Growth Art Center in Oakland, one of the first organizations in the world to provide studio space for artists with disabilities. For two years, Judith showed little interest in any artistic activity, she was unexceptional with paint. She scribbled loops and circles, but her work contained no representational imagery, she was so uninterested in creating that the staff was considering ending her involvement with the program, it wasn't until Judith casually observed a fiber art class conducted by visiting artist Sylvia Seventy, that she had her artistic breakthrough. Using the materials at hand, Judith spontaneously invented her own unique and radically different form of artistic expression. While other students were stitching, she was sculpting with concentration.

Her creative gifts and absolute focus were recognized, she was given complete freedom to choose her own materials. Taking whatever objects she found, regardless of ownership, she would wrap them in selected colored yarns to create diverse sculptures of many different shapes; some resemble cocoons or body parts. Many of her works feature pairs, reflecting Scott's experience as a twin. Judith worked on her art five days a week for eighteen years. Judith had her first exhibition in 1999, which coincided with the publication of John MacGregor's book Metamorphosis: The Fiber Art of Judith Scott. Together, these events helped propel her to worldwide recognition. Scott's work has become immensely popular in the world of outsider art, her pieces sell for substantial sums. Scott is now hailed as a contemporary artist, no longer just an outsider, her art is held in the permanent collections of many museums, including: Museum of Modern Art, the American Visionary Art Museum, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, Museum of American Folk Art, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA.

L’Aracine Musee D’Art Brut, Art Brut Connaissance & Diffusion Collection, Collection de l'art brut. In 2006, San Francisco filmmaker Betsy Bayha released the 30-minute documentary Outsider: The Life and Art of Judith Scott. In the same year, Lola Barrera and Iñaki Peñafiel released the feature-length documentary ¿Qué tienes debajo del sombrero? about Scott and Philippe Lespinasse released Les cocons magiques de Judith Scott, a documentary filmed a few weeks before Scott's death. In 2009, Scott Ogden and Malcolm Hearn produced the documentary Make that examined the lives and art-making techniques of Judith Scott and self-taught artists Royal Robertson, Hawkins Bolden and Ike Morgan. Permanent exhibitions: American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD Collection de l'Art Brut, Switzerland Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA ABCD Collection (Art Brut Connais

A rain gauge is an instrument used by meteorologists and hydrologists to gather and measure the amount of liquid precipitation over an area in a predefined period of time. The first known rainfall records were kept by the Ancient Greeks, about 500 B. C. People living in India began to record rainfall in 400 B. C; the readings were correlated against expected growth. In the Arthashastra, used for example in Magadha, precise standards were set as to grain production; each of the state storehouses were equipped with a rain gauge to classify land for taxation purposes. In 1247, the Song Chinese mathematician and inventor Qin Jiushao invented Tianchi basin rain and snow gauges to reference rain, snowfall measurements, as well as other forms of meteorological data. In 1441, the Cheugugi was invented during the reign of Sejong the Great of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea as the first standardized rain gauge. In 1662, Christopher Wren created the first tipping-bucket rain gauge in Britain in collaboration with Robert Hooke.

Hooke designed a manual gauge with a funnel that made measurements throughout 1695. It was Richard Towneley, the first to make systematic rainfall measurements over a period of 15 years from 1677 to 1694, publishing his records in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Towneley called for more measurements elsewhere in the country to compare the rainfall in different regions, although only William Derham appears to have taken up Towneley's challenge, they jointly published the rainfall measurements for Towneley Park and Upminster in Essex for the years 1697 to 1704. The naturalist Gilbert White took measurements to determine the mean rainfall from 1779 to 1786, although it was his brother-in-law, Thomas Barker, who made regular and meticulous measurements for 59 years, recording temperature, barometric pressure and clouds, his meteorological records are a valuable resource for knowledge of the 18th century British climate. He was able to demonstrate that the average rainfall varied from year to year with little discernible pattern.

The meteorologist George James Symons published the first annual volume of British Rainfall in 1860. This pioneering work contained rainfall records from 168 land stations in Wales, he was elected to the council of the British meteorological society in 1863 and made it his life's work to investigate rainfall within the British Isles. He set up a voluntary network of observers, who collected data which were returned to him for analysis. So successful was he in this endeavour that by 1866 he was able to show results that gave a fair representation of the distribution of rainfall, the number of recorders increased until the last volume of British Rainfall that which he lived to edit, for 1899, contained figures from 3,528 stations — 2,894 in England and Wales, 446 in Scotland, 188 in Ireland, he collected old rainfall records going back over a hundred years. In 1870 he produced an account of rainfall in the British Isles starting in 1725. Due to the ever-increasing numbers of observers, standardisation of the gauges became necessary.

Symons began experimenting on new gauges in his own garden. He tried different models with variations in size and height. In 1863 he began collaboration with Colonel Michael Foster Ward from Calne, who undertook more extensive investigations. By including Ward and various others around Britain, the investigations continued until 1890; the experiments were remarkable for their planning and drawing of conclusions. The results of these experiments led to the progressive adoption of the well-known standard gauge, still used by the UK Meteorological Office today, one made of "... copper, with a five-inch funnel having its brass rim one foot above the ground..."Most modern rain gauges measure the precipitation in millimetres in height collected on each square meter during a certain period, equivalent to litres per square metre. Rain was recorded as inches or points, where one point is equal to 0.254 mm or 0.01 of an inch. Rain gauge amounts are read either manually or by automatic weather station; the frequency of readings will depend on the requirements of the collection agency.

Some countries will supplement the paid weather observer with a network of volunteers to obtain precipitation data for sparsely populated areas. In most cases the precipitation is not retained, but some stations do submit rainfall and snowfall for testing, done to obtain levels of pollutants. Rain gauges have their limitations. Attempting to collect rain data in a tropical cyclone can be nearly impossible and unreliable due to wind extremes. Rain gauges only indicate rainfall in a localized area. For any gauge, drops will stick to the sides or funnel of the collecting device, such that amounts are slightly underestimated, those of.01 inches or.25 mm may be recorded as a "trace". Another problem encountered. Rain may fall on the funnel and ice or snow may collect in the gauge, blocking subsequent rain. To alleviate this, a gauge may be equipped with an automatic electric heater to keep its moisture-collecting surfaces and sensor above freezing. Rain gauges should be placed in an open area where there are no buildings, trees, or other obstacles to block the rain.

This is to prevent the water collected on the roofs of buildings or the leaves of trees from dripping into the rain gauge after a rain, resulting in inaccurate readings. Types of rain gauges include graduated cylinders, weighing gauges, tipping bucket gauges, buried pit collectors; each type has its advantages and disadvant

Avner Sher is an Israeli architect and artist. Avner Sher was born in the Wadi Salib neighborhood of Haifa, raised in Kiryat Eliezer and Kiryat Eliyahu, his parents were Holocaust survivors. Sher was an only child, his mother died of cancer. In elementary school, he drew cartoons for his school newspaper. From the age of 6 he studied piano at Beit Hagefen in Haifa. A rock band he organized with friends performed the opening act for established musicians, among them Zvika Pik, he began composing at 17, but decided to become a painter. He enrolled at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design but his father insisted that he learn a profession, he completed his studies in architecture at the Technion in Haifa in 1979. While working as an architect, Sher learn arts from the University of Haifa. Sher opened his architecture firm in 1992, he has designed many shopping centers and malls in Israel, including the malls in Mevasseret Zion, Zichron Yaakov, Nahariya, Carmiel, Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Ata, Kfar Saba, Yokne’am and Eilat.

Other public buildings designed by Sher are the Kiryat Motzkin municipality and the courthouse in the Krayot. In 1999, Sher moved to Tel Aviv and had an experience that changed his life: He stopped at a gas station near Beit Yanai and saw that the restroom walls were covered with graffiti. Captivated by the wildness and artistic freedom they conveyed, he felt the urge to tear down barriers in his own work, he began to paint and draw on cork panels mounted on wood, lacerating the surface with knives and electric saws, burning it with a wood-burning etching pencil and splattering it with substances like coffee, mud and red wine. His work is rooted in the iconography of the Levant, he references ancient visual languages and hieroglyphics while maintaining a universal theme combining prehistoric elements and childlike symbolism. Common motifs in his work are fish, faces and images of flora and fauna. Sometimes he incorporates Biblical verses from the Book of Genesis and Psalms; as the son of parents who survived Dachau, Sher grew up in the shadow of the Holocaust and the numbers tattooed on their arms.

The tattoo thus became a visual code in his work. His first important show was in 2002 at Mabat Gallery in Tel Aviv in 2002. Since he has had over 20 solo exhibits and has taken part in over 30 group exhibits in Israel and around the world. At the Jerusalem Biennale in 2017, Sher presented his installation “950m2 – Alternative Topographies,”, displayed at the Tower of David Museum overlooking the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. Composed of two series, “Maps of Jerusalem” and “Spoila,” the installation explores the idea of “perpetually devolving city space.” At the pan-European art biennale Manifesta 12 in Palermo, Sher’s installation addresses the issue of migration and refugees making “bold, sometimes ironic use of symbols.” 2018 – Bridge Palermo Jerusalem, Italy 2017 - 950m2 Alternative Topographies, Tower of David museum, Jerusalem Biennale, Jerusalem 2015 – Landmarks, Artists House, Tel Aviv 2014 – A Bird on a Wire, Bar David Museum, Kibbutz Bar'am 2014 – Jacob’s Dream, New York 2014 – The Secret, Jaffa Port 2002 – This is His Tattoo, Mabat Gallery, Tel Aviv Visual arts in Israel List of Israeli visual artists Architecture of Israel Scratching Images Interview at Scope Miami 2017