Video CD is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard 120 mm optical discs. The format was adopted in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, superseding the VHS and Betamax systems in the regions until DVD-Video became affordable in the late 2000s; the format is a standard digital format for storing video on a compact disc. VCDs are playable in dedicated VCD players and playable in most DVD players, personal computers and some video game consoles. However, they are less playable in some Blu-ray Disc players, in-car infotainment with DVD/Blu-ray support and video game consoles such as the Sony PlayStation and Xbox due to lack of support for backward compatibility of the older MPEG-1 format; the Video CD standard was created in 1993 by Sony, Matsushita, JVC and is referred to as the White Book standard. Although they have been superseded by other media, as of 2015 VCDs continue to be retailed as a low-cost video format. LaserDisc was first available on the market, in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 15, 1978.

This 30 cm disc could hold an hour of analog video on each side. The LaserDisc provided picture quality nearly double that of VHS tape and analog audio quality far superior to VHS. Philips teamed up with Sony to develop a new type of disc, the compact disc or CD. Introduced in 1982 in Japan, the CD is about 120 mm in diameter, is single-sided; the format was designed to store digitized sound and proved to be a success in the music industry. A few years Philips decided to give CDs the ability to produce video, utilizing the same technology as its LaserDisc counterpart; this led to the creation of CD Video in 1987. However, the disc's small size impeded the ability to store analog video. Therefore, CD-V distribution was limited to featuring music videos, it was soon discontinued by 1991. By the early 1990s engineers were able to digitize and compress video signals improving storage efficiency; because this new format could hold 74/80 minutes of audio and video on a 650/700MB disc, releasing movies on compact discs became a reality.

Extra capacity was obtained by sacrificing the error correction. This format was named Video CD or VCD. VCD enjoyed a brief period of success, with a few major feature films being released in the format; however the introduction of the CD-R disc and associated recorders stopped the release of feature films in their tracks because the VCD format had no means of preventing unauthorized copies from being made. However, as of 2013 VCDs are still being released in several countries in Asia, but now with copy-protection; the development of more sophisticated, higher capacity optical disc formats yielded the DVD format, released only a few years with a copy protection mechanism. DVD players use lasers that are of shorter wavelength than those used on CDs, allowing the recorded pits to be smaller, so that more information can be stored; the DVD was so successful that it pushed VHS out of the video market once suitable recorders became available. VCDs made considerable inroads into developing nations, where they are still in use today due to their cheaper manufacturing and retail costs.

Video CDs comply with the CD-i Bridge format, are authored using tracks in CD-ROM XA mode. The first track of a VCD is in CD-ROM XA Mode 2 Form 1, stores metadata and menu information inside an ISO 9660 filesystem; this track may contain other non-essential files, is shown by operating systems when loading the disc. This track can be absent from a VCD, which would still work but would not allow it to be properly displayed in computers; the rest of the tracks are in CD-ROM XA Mode 2 Form 2 and contain video and audio multiplexed in an MPEG program stream container, but CD audio tracks are allowed. Using Mode 2 Form 2 allows 800 megabytes of VCD data to be stored on one 80 minute CD; this is achieved by sacrificing the error correction redundancy present in Mode 1. It was considered that small errors in the video and audio stream pass unnoticed. This, combined with the net bitrate of VCD video and audio, means that exactly 80 minutes of VCD content can be stored on an 80-minute CD, 74 minutes of VCD content on a 74-minute CD, so on.

This was done in part to ensure compatibility with existing CD drive technology the earliest "1x" speed CD drives. Video specifications Compression: MPEG-1 Resolution: NTSC: 352×240 PAL/SECAM: 352×288 Aspect Ratio: NTSC: 4:3 PAL/SECAM: 4:3 Framerate: NTSC: 29.97 or 23.976 frames per second PAL/SECAM: 25 frames per second Bitrate: 1,150 kilobits per second Rate Control: constant bitrateAlthough many DVD video players support playback of VCDs, VCD video is only compatible with the DVD-Video standard if encoded at 29.97 frames per second or 25 frames per second. The 352×240 and 352×288 resolutions were chosen because it is half the horizontal and vertical resolution of NTSC video, half the horizontal resolution of PAL; this is half the resolution of an analog VHS tape, ~330 horizontal and 480 vertical or 330×576. Audio specifications Compression: MPEG-1 Audio Layer II Sample Frequency: 44,100 hertz Output

Chae Myung-Shin was a South Korean army officer who commanded South Korean military forces in the Vietnam War. Chae commanded Skeleton Corps, guerrilla corps during the Korean War, became the authority on guerrilla tactics of the South Korean Army. Chae commented on South Korean comfort women units during the Korean War in his memoir Beyond the Deadline published in 1994. Chae served as the commander of South Korean military forces in the Vietnam War. Chae adopted strong tactics for the Vietnamese as an authority on guerrilla tactics, which involved the routine practice of hostage taking and reprisals, while laying blame on the Viet Cong for purported atrocities. Chae's harsh policy caused a serious disagreement with William Westmoreland, the chief of staff of the United States Forces; when the Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất massacre occurred, William Westmoreland several times demanded Chae Myung-shin should investigate. Chae replied. During the Vietnam War, Chae concurrently served as the chief of staff of the South Korean army, subsequently wrote a Vietnam War memoir titled The Vietnam War and I.

Chae is buried at the Seoul National Cemetery. Republic of Korea Armed Forces South Korea in the Vietnam War

Baron Alexander von Stieglitz was a Russian financier. He was the first governor of the State Bank of the Russian Empire, the predecessor organization to today's Central Bank of the Russian Federation. Stieglitz was born in Saint Petersburg to banker Baron Ludwig von Stieglitz, a founder of the banking-house "Stieglitz and Co". After completing his education at the University of Dorpat in what is now Tartu, Estonia, he entered the state services as a member of the Manufacture council of the Ministry of Finances of the Russian Empire. After the death of his father, Stieglitz inherited the banking-house and succeeded as a banker of the Emperor. In 1840–1850 he sold six 4% government loans to finance the construction of the Moscow – Saint Petersburg Railway and secured a significant foreign loan at the height of the Crimean War. Stieglitz owned manufacturing enterprises in Narva and in Catherinehof. In 1846 Stieglitz was elected the chairman of the Exchange's committee. At that post he took part in all financial operation of the Government of the Russian Empire.

In 1857 he co-founded the Society of the Russian Railways. In 1860 Stieglitz liquidated all his commercial enterprises and voluntarily withdrew from the post of the chairman of the Exchange's committee. On 31 May 1860 Emperor Alexander II established the State Bank of the Russian Empire and Stieglitz became its first governor. In 1866 he left the state service. In 1878 he donated funds to build a museum for the benefit of students of the Central School of Technical Drawing, established by him earlier. Stieglitz received numerous awards, including the Order of St. Stanislav of the 3rd degree, the Order of St. Vladimir of the 4th degree and the Order of St. Anna of the 2nd degree. Biography at the site of the Bank of Russia Celebrating events in memoriam of Alexander von Stieglitz History of the Russian Exchange

The General Code of Operating Rules is a set of operating rules for railroads in the United States. The GCOR is used by Class I railroads west of Chicago, most of the Class II railroads, many Short-line railroads; some railroads in northeast United States follow NORAC, while Canada and Mexico have their own set of operating rules that govern their railroad operations. The GCOR rules are intended to enhance railroad safety; the rules cover employee responsibilities, signaling equipment, procedures for safe train movement, dealing with accidents and other topics that directly and indirectly affect railroad safety. Some railroads modify the GCOR rules to suit their specific operations; the GCOR is supplemented by System Special Instructions, Hazardous Materials Instructions, Air Brake and Train Handling Instructions, General Orders. These documents are issued by each individual railroad. System Special instructions and General Order can modify or amend the General Code of Operating Rules. GCOR 1.3.2 states that General Orders replace any rule, special instruction, or regulation that conflicts with the general order.

Some railroads will maintain what they call a "living rulebook." As amendments are released via general order or special instruction, they will update the specific page, affected. Most railroads are using the Seventh Edition, effective April 1, 2015; the full set of GCOR rules is divided into 17 categories. General Responsibilities Railroad Radio Rules Standard Time **Some railroads may amend this item into the System Special Instructions. Timetables Signals and Their Use Movement of Trains and Engines Switching Switches Block System Rules Rules Applicable only in Centralized Traffic Control Rules Applicable in ACS and ATS Territory Rules Applicable only in Automatic Train Stop Territory Rules Applicable only in Automatic Cab Signal Territory Rules Applicable only within Track Warrant Control Limits Track Bulletin Rules Rules Applicable only in Direct Traffic Control Territory Rules Applicable Only in Automatic Train Control Territory Northeast Operating Rules Advisory Committee Canadian Rail Operating Rules U S Department of Transportation - Compliance with Railroad Operating Rules and Corporate Culture Influences, October 1999 General Code of Operating Rules, April 7, 2010 General Code of Operating Rules, April 1, 2015

Drifting is a 1923 American silent drama film based on the play Drifting, by John Colton and Daisy H. Andrews; the film features Priscilla Dean, Wallace Beery and Anna May Wong. It was distributed by Universal Pictures. Copies of the film exist in the George Eastman House Motion Picture Collection. In 2012 the National Film Preservation Foundation awarded a grant to preserve a print that has Czech language intertitles which were translated back into English. Cassie Cook had played the opium selling game until fate and a bad shuffle compelled her to team up with her biggest rival, Jules Repin, the horror of the whole thing weighed down upon her and she determined to quit and leave China before it was too late, she had bought a lot of new gowns on credit, believing in Repin's promise that he had a big shipment of opium coming in which would give them both plenty of money. Now those gowns had to be paid for and Cassie's chum, Molly Morton, taken out of the country before a growing taste for opium got a final hold on her.

So Cassie lost. "But I'm going to get you out, Kid," she told Molly, as a last resort she went back to the game. Up in Hang Chow, a trouble-infested village near the poppy fields, she tried to trace the shipment Repin expected. A white man was there — supposed to be opening an abandoned mine, it was her business to find out if he was a government inspector seeking the den of the dope dealers. She posed as a novelist, he, believing in her, told her that he was there to fight the dope menace. Cassie felt like a cheat of the lowest order and she turned against her comrades, but they, by trickery, found out what she had learned from the mine superintendent. In a flash they set the little world ablaze with rebellion and the soul of Cassie Cook was cleansed in the fires of remorse as she battled for what she believed was the right cause, out of it came a love, clean and honorable. Priscilla Dean as Cassie Cook / Lucille Preston Matt Moore as Capt. Arthur Jarvis Wallace Beery as Jules Repin J. Farrell MacDonald as Murphy Rose Dione as Madame Polly Voo Edna Tichenor as Molly Norton William V. Mong as Dr. Li Anna May Wong as Rose Li Bruce Guerin as Billy Hepburn Marie De Albert as Mrs. Hepburn William F. Moran as Mr. Hepburn Frank Lanning as Chang Wang Anna May Wong filmography List of American films of 1923 Drifting on IMDb Drifting at AllMovie

Charles Stewart, was a Canadian politician who served as the third Premier of Alberta from 1917 until 1921. Born in Strabane, Ontario, in Wentworth County, Stewart was a farmer who moved west to Alberta after his farm was destroyed by a storm. There he became active in politics and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1909 election, he served as Minister of Public Works and Minister of Municipal Affairs—the first person to hold the latter position in Alberta—in the government of Arthur Sifton. When Sifton left provincial politics in 1917 to join the federal cabinet, Stewart was named his replacement; as premier, Stewart tried to hold together his Liberal Party, divided by the Conscription Crisis of 1917. He endeavoured to enforce prohibition of alcoholic beverages, enshrined in law by a referendum during Sifton's premiership, but found that the law was not enough supported to be policed, his government took over several of the province's financially troubled railroads, guaranteed bonds sold to fund irrigation projects.

Several of these policies were the result of lobbying by the United Farmers of Alberta, with which Stewart enjoyed good relations. Unable to match the UFA's appeal to rural voters, Stewart's government was defeated at the polls and he was succeeded as premier by Herbert Greenfield. After leaving provincial politics, Stewart was invited to join the federal cabinet of William Lyon Mackenzie King, in which he served as Minister of the Interior and Mines. In this capacity he signed, on behalf of the federal government, an agreement that transferred control of Alberta's natural resources from Ottawa to the provincial government—a concession he had been criticized for being unable to negotiate as Premier, he served in King's cabinet until 1930, when the King government was defeated, but remained a member of Parliament until he lost his seat in 1935. He died in December 1946 in Ottawa. Charles Stewart was born on August 26, 1868, in Strabane, Ontario, on Wentworth County, to Charles and Catherine Stewart.

Charles Sr. was a farmer. As a child, Charles Jr. accompanied his father to Carlisle to hear Canadian Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald. According to family lore, Macdonald noticed the young future Premier and told him that he was a fine boy who would make a good politician someday; when Charles Jr. was 16, he moved with his family to a farm near Barrie. Seven years on December 17, 1891, he married Jane Russell Sneath. After marrying Sneath, he converted to her Church of England faith. In 1892, Charles Sr. died. Twelve years this farm was destroyed by a storm, Stewart decided to move west, settling near Killam, Alberta in 1906, his family endured a cold winter—the warmest place in their shack was on the kitchen table, so they kept the baby there—and in the spring their crops were destroyed by hail. As he was unsuccessful at farming, he supplemented his income using the stonemason's skills he had learned from his father: he laid foundations for the Canadian Pacific Railway, worked on the High Level Bridge in Edmonton, dug Killam's town well.

He worked in real estate and as a farm implement dealer, earning enough to buy a new and larger homestead in 1912. Stewart was active in his local community: he was the first chair of the Killam School District, attended the first meeting of Killam ratepayers on January 19, 1907, was involved in the incorporation of Killam in January 1908. In 1909, the Alberta Liberal Party, which had dominated provincial politics throughout Alberta's short history, came seeking a candidate to run in the new riding of Sedgewick. Stewart was elected by acclamation in the 1909 election. At the time of Stewart's acclamation, Premier Alexander Cameron Rutherford seemed unassailable: he controlled 36 of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta's 41 seats, his Liberals had just won nearly sixty percent of the vote in their re-election bid. Months however and his government were embroiled in the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal, the Liberal Party was split. Stewart remained loyal to Rutherford, went so far as to allege in the legislature that insurgent Liberal John R. Boyle had offered two members of the legislative assembly, who were hotel keepers, immunity from prosecution for liquor violations if they would support a new government in which Boyle was Attorney-General.

As additional details of the scandal emerged, Stewart himself became an insurgent, was pleased when Arthur Sifton replaced Rutherford as Premier. In May 1912, Sifton expanded his cabinet, Stewart was made the province's first Minister of Municipal Affairs; as was required by the custom of the day when an MLA was appointed to cabinet, he resigned his seat to run in a by-election, in which he defeated Conservative William John Blair. In cabinet, he became known as an advocate of public ownership of utilities, which placed him more in sympathy with the Conservative opposition than with Sifton. Despite this position, he backed Sifton's 1913 resolution to the Alberta and Great Waterways problem, which involved partnering with the private sector. In December 1913, Sifton moved Stewart from Municipal Affairs into the Public Works portfolio.