François de Hennin, independent risk advisor and consultant, and former global chief risk officer of GroupM tackles one of the biggest risks facing business today: managing and mitigating the risk of fake news.
Though recently rebranded as fake news, the phenomenon of misinformation is as old as mankind; indeed fortunes have been made using it.
For example, in the early 19th century Rothschild set up a Europe-wide network of messengers and carrier pigeon stations to gather information that could affect his investments.
He soon garnered a reputation for being first with the news. The story goes that, when the Battle of Waterloo was being fought in June 1815, other speculators watched Rothschild’s stocks in an attempt to guess who would win.
Shortly after the battle ended, and long before anyone else knew who the victor was, he began selling stocks. Everyone assumed this meant Napoleon had won and Europe was lost. Panic selling ensued. When prices crashed, Rothschild bought everything in sight and made a fortune.
Most countries have existing laws to deal with false stories and companies have used a number of instruments and techniques, like PR crisis management, to deal with them. But the internet has changed the game forever.
Internet: The game changer
With the internet, beyond the easy access to technologies to make fake news look real, everything is bigger and faster: the speed at which information is being shared, the amount of information generated and the very large number of sources.
All of this makes it difficult to monitor all news, to assess which stories are false and might create the most long-term damage and to appropriately react to those. Fake news effectively spreads like a virus, and like a virus, it is extremely difficult to eradicate totally. Nevertheless, like viruses it must be addressed and pre-empted as much as possible.
Fake news current political implications complicate the picture further. In the United States, Facebook estimates that as many as 126 million Americans (approximately half the US voting population) were exposed to fake news created by Russia during and after the 2016 US presidential election. Because of this undue influence which fake news might have on elections and on the democratic process, authorities around the world feel they must act.
For example, a Singaporean minister has just announced that new laws to regulate Singapore’s online space and tackle the spread of fake news should be introduced next year. Critics, including Google, Twitter and Facebook, argue that existing laws are sufficient to deal with fake news and that new laws could be used to curb free speech.
In any case, laws do not stop crimes, and while companies must ensure they adhere to laws, they must also go further, taking appropriate preventive measures to deal with the fake news risk.
Three is a crowd
A business can be confronted with fake news in three basic situations with different risks and solutions:
1. Generating fake news,
2. Channelling or spreading fake news,
3. Being the subject/victim of fake news.
Whatever the situation, businesses should ensure first that they have appropriate online brand monitoring (particularly for B2C businesses). Secondly, social media tracking (not limited to Facebook and Twitter - this is particularly important as search engines integrate more and more user-generated content, mainly on social networks) and community management is in place.
Finally that they are able to identify opinion leaders and influencers and to anticipate bad buzz. In other words, firms must actively manage their online reputation, either in-house or through external specialists.
As the agreed effective way of combating misinformation is through education and training, staff must receive proper training together with regular boosters, which should cover:
1. How to identify fake news, i.e. how to distinguish reliable from unreliable information, and information from opinion;
2. Escalation mechanisms when fake news is suspected;
3. Internal processes to ensure information is checked before being used in any form of communication both internal and external;
4. Staff obligations in regards to their presence on social media, like clearly stating when opinions are theirs and not the company’s, that company rules and values also apply outside of the office, including in relation to hate speech, defamation, the spreading of false news, confidentiality, the use of professional email addresses, etc.; also reminding them that persons who transmit a message which they know to be false might be committing an offence.
Put simply, the overall aim is to ensure that the entire business takes the fake news threat seriously and knows how to deal with it.
Let me now address each of the three situations in turn:
1. Fake news generation
Due to the speed at which information spreads, the inadvertent release of incorrect or out-of-context information may have serious consequences. Every business should, therefore, have appropriate processes in place to prevent any such mishap and to ensure the appropriate speedy reaction when an incident occurs.
Initial processes can be as simple as the ’four eyes principle’ (i.e. need for an approver before any news release), or single channel output (i.e. all information is released only by one source).
2. Fake news conduit
As all businesses use different sources in their internal and external communications, they could unwillingly channel fake news; this could affect their reputation, hence the need for training and procedures ensuring that any information is properly checked before being used.
Note also that there is a significant current debate between authorities around the world and internet giants like Facebook and Google as to whether social networks should be held responsible for inappropriate content including fake news.
3. Fake news object/victim
Appropriate social media tracking, as described earlier, is key as it allows the firm to anticipate fake news as much as possible, to react quickly and to use influencers to combat such news.
Finally, all actors in the fight against fake news must remember that a firm’s reputation, i.e. its track record of quality, trust, openness, reliability, and truthfulness, is, in the end, the best line of defence against fake news, as hopefully, people’s first reaction will be to disregard any news which contradicts their perception of a brand.


A very important aspect of astronomy often overlooked is how much our eyes don’t tell us. We see a very limited range of the spectrum of light emitted by astronomical objects, and many times it’s what we don’t see that tells us what’s going on.
That’s why the European Southern Observatory has the HAWK-I camera: it sees in the infrared, in wavelengths invisible to our eyes. And when we train it on the skies, well, we see some pretty cool stuff. Like, say, gorgeous spiral galaxies:
[Click to galactinate.]
That’s NGC 1232, an open face-on spiral some 65 million light years away. This to me is a perfect spiral: the arms are distinct and easy to trace, starting near the center and going all the way around the galaxy. Several spurs — short, disconnected, straighter offshoots — can be seen. There’s also a bar: the center of the galaxy isn’t a sphere, it’s elongated in an oval.
All of these features are due to the weird gravitational field of a galaxy. In our solar system, the Sun dominates in the gravity department, and the planets orbit it. In a big galaxy, though, the gravity of every star adds up, making the force of gravity stronger farther from the center than if all the mass were concentrated there. This causes all sorts of odd manifestations like the bar, the spirals, and the spurs. I have a blog post discussing this in more detail, if you’d like to read that.
Incidentally, given the distance of NGC 1232 of 65 million light years, the photons you are seeing from this galaxy in this image left it when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth… but their time was juuuuussssst about up.
HAWK-I was used to study several galaxies, and not just NGC 1232– five more, in fact, for this particular study, but I want to point out one in particular: NGC 1300, a magnificent elongated spiral, shown here on the right. The bar in this one dominates, stretching over a much larger relative distance than the one in NGC 1232, which is dinky in comparison.
As I mentioned above, we can learn a lot when we compare light from objects in different wavelengths. Here is that same HAWK-I infrared image of NGC 1300, with a Hubble image in visible light below it. I rotated and scaled the top image to match Hubble’s:
Ignoring the difference in things like resolution (Hubble can see smaller objects) and such, there are still obvious differences. In the visible image, dust between stars is dark, because it blocks visible light. However, IR goes through it, so the dust disappears in the top image. The dust adds a lot of sculpting and contouring to the visible Hubble image, and that’s gone in the IR image, so the top one looks smoother. That’s no illusion! That’s real, and it’s telling us where the dust is.
As you’d expect, objects that look red in the Hubble image are also bright in the IR, but the blue stuff is much fainter and difficult to spot in the HAWK-I view. Blue is emitted by hot, young, massive stars, which is easy to spot in the visible. The yellow-red glow in the bottom image is from older, redder stars, and they are prominent in the top image. See how the very center of the galaxy is bright in the HAWK-I shot? That tells me that there are far more older stars there, right in the very center. Star formation must have shut down long ago right smack dab in the heart of NGC 1300, or else we’d still see blue stars there.
… or, alternatively, there are blue stars there, but the dust is so thick their light gets reddened, like the setting Sun looks red from haze in our air. There are ways of telling the difference, but I don’t think it can be done with images like this; we’d need spectra, which is a whole other story. Still, it once again shows that you need to look at objects in different ways if you want to figure out what’s happening with them.
Looking in the infrared tells us a lot more about what’s going on than visible alone. Combine that with ultraviolet, radio, X-ray, gamma-rays, and we get a much more complete picture of what the Universe is showing us. It’s more than a double rainbow; it’s the whole rainbow, and the best part is we really do know what it means.
Links to this Post
- Astronews Daily Etx. Edition (2455498) | October 28, 2010


Chandra’s 14th Anniversary: Looking Back and Looking Ahead
Fourteen years ago this week, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched into space on the space shuttle Columbia. I didn't witness this spectacular event, but I know many who did. Those who had worked on Chandra's development for many years must have experienced a powerful mixture of nerves, excitement and satisfaction.
The launch and deployment of Chandra were successful and beautiful images were soon delivered to scientists and released to the public. The photo album on our webpage can be used to survey the hundreds of images and astrophysics results that have followed, ranging from observations of Earth and planets in our solar system, to supernova explosions in our galaxy, powerful outbursts by black holes in distant galaxies and the evolution and destiny of our Universe.
Just in 2013 we have released a video suggesting that the Vela pulsar is wobbling like a top as it spins; an image of debris from an explosion that may have created the youngest black hole in our galaxy; colorful new images of other stellar debris in our galaxy, including Kepler's supernova remnant (SNR), and the SNRs of SN 1006 and G1.9+0.3; and a study that discovered over two dozen new black hole candidates in a neighboring galaxy, Andromeda. All of these objects formed after the destruction of massive stars or white dwarfs in supernova explosions.
Chandra image of Kepler's supernova remnant. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/NCSU/M.Burkey et al; Optical: DSS
For stars that are more like our Sun, we released this gorgeous composite image with the first evidence for X-ray emission from Sun-like stars outside our galaxy and we also produced this eye-catching portrait of a star near the end of its life.
What does the future hold for Chandra science? In the middle of June scientists from around the world met to judge proposals and determine the targets for the next cycle (#15) of Chandra observations. The abstracts for the successful proposals will be released soon. Looking further ahead, future targets for Chandra will depend on the results from past observations and those to be made in Cycle 15, along with results from other observatories. It will also depend on the unpredictable trends in research over a range of different fields in astrophysics.
Among this uncertainty, I'll discuss one event that could be very interesting for Chandra observers towards the end of this decade. A star named S2 is orbiting Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*, for short), the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. As with other supermassive black holes, the powerful gravitational pull of Sgr A* has pulled gas inwards and formed an accretion disk. Some of the gas in this disk is destined to fall into the black hole and disappear forever.
As noted in a recent paper by Dimitrios Giannios from Purdue University and Lorenzo Sironi from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, S2 approaches so close to Sgr A* that it may act as a probe of the black hole's accretion disk. Astronomers have mapped the highly elliptical orbit of S2 (see the figure) and expect it to pass through the accretion disk every 16 years. At closest approach S2's distance from Sgr A* will be about 2800 times the radius of the event horizon of the black hole, the point of no return for matter and light. That may not sound very close, but it's much closer than I'd ever want to get to a black hole.
Left: An image of Sgr A* and S2 from the 8.2m VLT YEPUN telescope at the ESO Paranal Observatory. Right: The orbit of S2 around Sgr A*, highlighting the last close encounter, in 2002. Credit: ESO
The next close encounter of S2 with Sgr A* will occur in 2018 when the star is traveling about 20 million miles per hour. What might happen in this encounter? Giannios & Sironi have noted that S2 is a massive star and generates a powerful wind of particles. When S2 passes through the accretion disk, this wind should ram into material in the disk producing a shock wave and X-ray emission, not dissimilar to a sonic boom from a jet breaking the sound barrier. Chandra and X-ray observatories like NuSTAR might be able to detect a boost in X-ray emission during this time, giving us crucial information about the properties of Sgr A's accretion disk. The authors are also looking at Chandra data in the archive for the close encounter that occurred in 2002, to see if extra X-ray emission can be detected.
This is just one example of the exciting Chandra science that is possible in the future. Though it's fun to look ahead, it's important to pause and thank everyone who helped Chandra become a reality and those who continue to work on Chandra today.
-Peter Edmonds, CXC
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As the end of the year approaches are your early finishers getting into mischief? Here are a couple of simple ideas to focus students on early finisher activities that will keep your classroom running smoothly at the end of the year.
Early Finishers: Being Thankful
Teaching gratitude helps students learn an important life skill. In the last month of school, create a list with your students of everyone that has helped your class this year including the people who keep your school running. Every time I do this activity, I’m amazed at who the students think of. Some people may include the principal, vice principal, school secretaries, custodians, librarians, specialists, parent volunteers, tutors, instructional assistants, and bus drivers.
Once you have this list, post it somewhere in the classroom leaving room for additional names.
Early finishers can work on thanking the people on the list. There are many options of this. Just pick the one that fits your kiddos best. A student could write a thank you letter from the class and then check that person off the list.
Each student could write a letter or draw a picture for that person that you make into a book. You can even turn it into an art project.
Early Finishers: Being Helpful
The end of the year is a busy time for teachers. (Like I have to tell you that!) With a little forethought and a class meeting to spell out expectations, your early finishers can help alleviate some of that
Take a moment to create a list of end of the year projects that your students can help with. Some examples:
- Go through markers, test them, throw out ones that no longer work.
- Go through glue bin. Discard any dried up glue.
- Go through colored pencils. Sharpen pencils. (Handheld sharpener recommended)
- Wrap washi tape around class scissors, pencils, markers, etc.
- Sharpen pencils.
- Test white board markers, discard dried up markers.
- Clean individual white boards with white board cleaner.
- Go through each bin / shelf in the library. Put books in their proper place.
- Go through bins of math manipulatives. Organize.
- Use dish soap and a sponge to sanitize math manipulatives. (Clear guidelines recommended!)
- Organize a drawer or cabinet.
- Hole punch drawings and letters to the teacher and put them in a binder.
- Take things off the wall and put into a container.
- Wipe down surfaces that are forgotten.
- Clean chairs.
Once you have a list, call it “Special Assignments” and keep it on a clipboard. An early finisher can request a special assignment from you. This way, you can assign a job that matches their ability / focus level.
Remember, you want to be careful not to start special assignments too soon. You may want to call them Spring Cleaning rather than End of Year special assignments. Students start to get anxiety around the end of the year and connecting these tasks to the fact that they are leaving could trigger unwanted behavior. We are, after all, trying to make your job easier, not harder.
Are you looking for more Tips and Tricks? This blog hop is full of great ideas, freebies, and the opportunity to win great gift cards!
Be sure to download my freebie before you hop away! If this was your first visit to Surfing to Success, welcome! I’m a Kindergarten through 6th grade Intervention teacher who loves to break skills down into challenging yet obtainable goals. I hope you’ll follow me so you’ll remember to visit again.
Everything you’ll need to use these strategies is in this freebie. There is a letter writing page for Kinder, primary, and upper grades for the thank you letters. I’ve even included a special assignment check list. One check list has ideas to get you started and another is blank. If you like it, please take a moment to leave feedback.
While your there, be sure to check out my other K-6 freebies!
Now hop on over to Lopez Land Learners for the next word and great tips!


John Dewey’s short and prescient speech “Creative Democracy—The Task before Us” (1939) contains much philosophical insight for our trying times.
In an illustration of how plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, his biographer Alan Ryan writes:
Dewey’s American was one in which the problems of the inner city were appalling. In the early 1890s homelessness in Chicago sometimes reached 20 percent; unemployment frequently hit one in four of the working population. Disease was rife, and medical services were out of the reach of the poor. … The upper classes were apparently indifferent to the fate of the poor and even to the fate of the working near poor. In the cities the response of the better-off was to remove themselves to the suburbs… (John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism, p.24)
Dewey’s short essay “Creative Democracy” speaks in many ways to the political climate in the United States (and elsewhere). Dewey states:
Intolerance, abuse, calling of names because of differences of opinion about religion or politics or business, as well as because of differences of race, color, wealth or degree of culture are treason to the democratic way of life. For everything which bars freedom and fullness of communication sets up barriers that divide human beings into sets and cliques, into antagonistic sects and factions, and thereby undermines the democratic way of life (227-228).
Democracy, for Dewey, is not fundamentally a matter of voting in free elections, but rather a “way of life” (226).1 Democracy is living together with other people and jointly participating in shaping the nature of the community and world, something he described in Democracy and Education as “primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience.” (Chapter 7) Dewey goes on to insist that legal guarantees of civil liberties are insufficient if “freedom of communication, the give and take of ideas, facts, experiences, is choked by mutual suspicion, by abuse, by fear and hatred.” (228)
I find Dewey a congenial, but frustrating influence: congenial because I share Dewey’s optimistic ideal of a highly egalitarian, democratic society in which people pool their intelligence to solve social problems; frustrating because Dewey is usually infuriatingly vague about how this might be achieved. In theory, Dewey constantly eradicates the boundaries between philosophy and the social sciences; in practice, he is mostly silent about how the social sciences can support his democratic vision, as well as how they reveal obstacles to realizing it.
Crucial to Dewey’s conception of democracy is “a working faith in the possibilities of human nature” (227). Though Dewey uses the term “faith”, it would be a mistake to see this as something he accepts without evidence. Rather, faith stands for a moral vision about humanity, autonomy, and democracy. It is not simply something that exists, but something that needs to be brought about – and it can only be brought about if the hold the faith that it can come to be:
The democratic faith in human equality is belief that every human being, independent of the quantity or range of his personal endowment, has the right to equal opportunity with every other person for development of whatever gifts he has. The democratic belief in the principle of leadership is a generous one. It is universal. It is belief in the capacity of every person to lead his own life free from coercion and imposition by others provided right conditions are supplied (226-227).
How does Dewey establish this faith? Dewey claims that he finds its source in his surroundings where these surroundings are “animated by the democratic spirit”:
For what is the faith of democracy in the role of consultation, of conference, of persuasion, of discussion, in formation of public opinion, which in the long run is self-
corrective, except faith in the capacity of the intelligence of the common man to respond with commonsense to the free play of facts and ideas which are secured by effective guarantees of free inquiry, free assembly and free communication? (227)
Rather than focusing on the failures of democracy, voter ignorance, irrationality, corruption, nepotism, blind partisanship, and campaigns financed by the .1%, Dewey insists that everyday life reveals that people allowed to inquire and communicate freely eventually succeed. It is a Millian faith about the free inquiry and progress, combined with a faith in the adaptive power of human ingenuity. Again, Dewey neglects the many cases in which this does not occur and says too little about how to create institutions where “the common man” is able to exercise “his” intelligence.
Nonetheless, Dewey realizes that individuals and spaces “animated by the democratic spirit” need to be constructed. This is why Dewey’s philosophy of education is central to his though. In his autobiographic essay, “From Absolutism to Experimentalism,” Dewey wrote:
Although a book called Democracy and Education was for many years that in which my philosophy, such as it is, was most fully expounded, I do not know that philosophic critics, as distinct from teachers, have ever had recourse to it. I have wondered whether such facts signified that philosophers in general, although they are themselves usually teachers, have not taken education with sufficient seriousness for it to occur to them that any rational person could actually think it possible that philosophizing should focus about education as the supreme human interest in which, moreover, other problems, cosmological, moral, logical, come to a head.
Democracy requires a certain type of citizen:
The superficial explanation is that a government resting upon popular suffrage cannot be successful unless those who elect and who obey their governors are educated. Since a democratic society repudiates the principle of external authority, it must find a substitute in voluntary disposition and interest; these can be created only be education. (Democracy and Education, Chapter 7)
Here is Dewey’s most fundamental and most neglected insight: political philosophy cannot be separated from philosophy of education. Democracy depends on high quality, universal education that allows people to learn to jointly develop and exercise their intelligence in overcoming problems and creating their environment. The failure to do this is the source of much of today’s democratic deficit; it’s only remedy is to remake education as part of a democratic vision.
1 Page numbers refer to The Later Works of John Dewey, 1925-1953. Volume 14: 1939-1941, Essays


CAS Registry Number
A CAS Registry Number, also referred to as CASRN or CAS Number, is a unique numerical identifier assigned by the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) to every chemical substance described in the open scientific literature (currently including all substances described from 1957 through the present, plus some substances from the early or mid 1900s), including organic and inorganic compounds, minerals, isotopes, alloys and nonstructurable materials (UVCBs, of unknown, variable composition, or biological origin).
The Registry maintained by CAS is an authoritative collection of disclosed chemical substance information. It currently identifies more than 129 million organic and inorganic substances and 67 million protein and DNA sequences, plus additional information about each substance. It is updated with around 15,000 additional new substances daily.
Historically, chemicals have been identified by a wide variety of synonyms. Frequently these are arcane and constructed according to regional naming conventions relating to chemical formulae, structures or origins. Well-known chemicals may additionally be known via multiple generic, historical, commercial, and/or (black)-market names.
CAS Registry Numbers are simple and regular, convenient for database searches. They offer a reliable, common and international link to every specific substance across the various nomenclatures and disciplines used by branches of science, industry, and regulatory bodies. Almost all molecule databases today allow searching by CAS Registry Number.
On the other hand, CASRNs are not related to chemistry, are proprietary and unrelated to any previous systems, and do not readily form phonetic analogs or synonyms.
A CAS Registry Number has no inherent meaning but is assigned in sequential, increasing order when the substance is identified by CAS scientists for inclusion in the CAS REGISTRY database.
A CASRN is separated by hyphens into three parts, the first consisting from two up to seven digits, the second consisting of two digits, and the third consisting of a single digit serving as a check digit. This current format gives CAS a maximum capacity of 1,000,000,000 unique identifiers.
The check digit is found by taking the last digit times 1, the previous digit times 2, the previous digit times 3 etc., adding all these up and computing the sum modulo 10. For example, the CAS number of water is 7732-18-5: the checksum 5 is calculated as (8×1 + 1×2 + 2×3 + 3×4 + 7×5 + 7×6) = 105; 105 mod 10 = 5.
Type of substances
CAS REGISTRY contains a wide variety of substances, including the world's largest collection of:
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Sensors- all aboard!
A variety of sensors are what enable self-driving vehicles to “see”, or at least, to visualize and understand their surroundings as they move. Different manufacturers and vehicle types have different approaches and priorities as to which sensors are used.
- GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System)
In GNSS positioning, a receiver measures the transmitting time of signals emitted from four or more GNSS satellites, and these measurements are used to obtain position (i.e., spatial coordinates) and reception time. Using GNSS positioning, the vehicle can determine its position in map representation of the outside world.
Lidar (also called LIDAR, LiDAR, and LADAR) is a surveying method that measures distance to a target by illuminating the target with pulsed laser light and measuring the reflected pulses with a sensor. Differences in laser return times and wavelengths can then be used to make digital 3D representations of the target.
Cameras also analyze the environment of the vehicle, especially road signs and traffic lights. They also help to detect and identify obstacles.
An odometer estimates and confirms the vehicle’s position and speed while moving.
The inertial measurement unit (IMU) calculates the shuttle’s movements to estimate its direction, speed and position.
SAE Levels of Automation
The standardization organization SAE classifies automotive automation in five different levels, namely:
- Level 5 Full automation (no driver)
- Level 4 High Automation (no brain)
- Level 3 Conditional Automation (no eyes)
- Level 2 Partial automation (no hands)
- Level 1 Driver assistance (no feet)
In general, it can be said that Level 1-3 deals with automation of parts of (or all) driving tasks using different driver support systems (ADAS), and that in Levels 4-5, there are autonomous systems that bear greater responsibility for driving duties. Thus, there is a significant difference between Level 3 and Level 4, both in terms of technical requirements, but also regarding the role of the user of these vehicles.
The difference between Level 4 and Level 5 is that a Level 5 system can handle all types of roads, weather, situations and other conditions.
The selfdriving shuttles tested under the S3 project are examples of early vehicles with systems and sensors capable of Level 4 autonomy. However, this occurs on specifically mapped routes at lower speeds.
Roadmap Drive Sweden
3D Mapping and Virtual Rails Before the shuttle can run, the desired route and its surroundings need to be created in a 3D map. This map creates a kind of virtual rail that can be used as a reference and guide while driving; Similar to how a tram can only follow its track, the self-driving shuttle can only follow the route it’s been given. This is done by slowly moving the shuttle along the planned route while scanning the surroundings with all its sensors. Afterwards, sensor data is processed manually to ensure a high quality map and a site-specific model that can be used by the shuttle.


In case no one has told you yet, the biggest influence on Global Warming or Cooling is the activity of the Sun not Carbon.
Academics Play the Global Warming Card
Philip Kitcher of Columbia and Evelyn Fox Keller of MIT are professors specializing in the philosophy and history of science. The philosophy and history of science is pretty boring, so people in that academic field try to write about controversial subjects so as to make their work less boring. The professors have written a book: The Seasons Alter, How to Save Our Planet in Six Acts.
The book is filled with scientific errors regarding climate science. Clearly the authors have a poor understanding of the main topic. They are apparently attracted to apocalyptic predictions of disaster that call for farsighted persons, such as themselves, to warn the world. Apparently that role is so enticing that the authors’ critical facilities have been put into hibernation.
Global warming has an establishment side and a dissenter side. The establishment receives vast amounts of government money because they claim that we face an imminent global warming disaster. Nobody would care about their field of science except for the predictions of disaster. Nor would they get much government money if they didn’t predict a looming disaster. Environmental groups are part of the establishment side. Looming disasters are stock in trade for environmental groups.
The global warming dissenters consist of people who say that the emperor has no clothes. The dissenters include climate scientists who are secure enough in their jobs that they can dissent, even though it makes their colleagues furious. Other dissenters are scientists from related fields, or even non-scientists who have taken an interest in the controversy. The existence of the Internet has made it possible for amateur scientists, in the sense of not receiving a paycheck from a university, to enter into the discussion. The Internet provides a path around the establishment gatekeepers that run the scientific journals. The amateur scientists have the advantage of being disinterested. They aren’t worried about where their next grant is coming from or about what their academic friends and enemies will think. Of course, some of the amateurs are crackpots, but others are excellent scientists. (Some tenured professors are crackpots too.)
The authors used the graph below, a version of what is known as the famous Hockey Stick graph. The graph purports to show that the Earth’s temperature was roughly constant until large quantities of CO2 were emitted into the atmosphere and as a consequence the temperature soared. The graph has been completely discredited as a work of science. (See here, here and here.) But as a work of propaganda it is a brilliant achievement. What’s wrong with the graph? It erases the medieval warm period that existed at the year 1000. The graph does not show the little ice age when it got very cold around the year 1600. These temperature fluctuations are well established and supported by historical records.
The point of the graph is to convince the reader that carbon dioxide is the major determinant of the Earth’s temperature and that the modern era has a radically different temperature due to man’s emission of CO2.
The graph hides inconsistencies. If we magnify the 20th century we can see the inconsistencies better.
Look at region A between 1910 and 1940. CO2 is slowly increasing, about 1% per decade, but the temperature is rapidly increasing, much faster than can be explained, according to establishment theory, by an increase in CO2. This rapid increase of temperature in the early 20th century was caused by some unknown force, but not by CO2. In region B the increase in CO2 is faster, but the temperature is flat. Finally in regions C both temperature and CO2 increase rapidly. The cause of the early century warming is an unsolved scientific problem. But the advocates of dangerous global warming claim the force behind the increase in temperature in region C is CO2. How do they know that the cause of the increase in temperature is not the same unknown force that caused the early century warming at region A?
The point of this discussion of temperature and CO2 is to create some doubt in the reader’s mind concerning of the objectivity of people who promote graphs like the Hockey Stick.
The Seasons Alter book invokes the idea that the global warming establishment is eager to hear dissenting voices and new ideas that contradict official theories.
That is absolutely hilarious to anyone who has actually talked with climate scientists that have ideas that go against the received wisdom. The idea that a young researcher could make a name for himself by proving his elders wrong is far removed from reality. The empirical fact is that there are no young researchers going against the community wisdom. Or, if there were, it is safe to assume that they are no longer members of the community.
I have heard publishers and editors state that they would love to print papers that dissent from the conventional wisdom. Sometimes they say they would like to publish the next Newton or the next Einstein. They don’t really mean it.
Roy Spencer is a climate scientist who has done highly original work relating to the workings of climate models. Computer climate models are the basis for all the predictions of climate doom. Spencer’s work shows that there are serious problems with climate models and thus with the whole global warming doom theme. Spencer has a lot of trouble getting his papers published. However, he did get one of his papers published in a European journal, Remote Sensing. The paper went through regular peer review and was published in due course. At that point there was an explosion of criticism. The editor, who apparently did not know that Spencer is on a blacklist of radioactive scientists, was forced to resign.
The looming global warming disaster is attractive to left wing academics. It confirms their belief that capitalism needs to be reined in. That there is a hidden disaster, only visible to intellectuals, promotes the idea that smart people, like academics, should be running things. You can read about academics who have jumped on the global warming bandwagon here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Unfortunately scientists cannot be trusted to be objective and disinterested. Scientific societies act very much like labor unions. You will search long and hard in the publications of the National Academies of Sciences to find any suggestion that financial support for science, or any part of science, should be reduced. The government money that supports big science has made scientists into politicians, just like all the others eating at the government table.


The Indian National Army was made up off captured Indian POWs. These prisoners were given the option of freedom and joining the INA. Bose himself addressed many POW camps and appealed to the POWs to side with the Japanese and join the INA. Unfortunately, not many POWs joined the INA. A reading of the autobiography of Lt General Harbaksh Singh is quite revealing. He was taken a POW by the Imperial army as a Captain in Burma. He was promised a promotion and freedom, in case he joined the INA. Harbaksh refused to join the INA, though one of his colleagues Captain Mohan Singh joined the INA and was made a General. Harbaksh goes on to add that not many POWs joined the INA.
What was the strength of the INA? This point is glossed over by most persons who trumpet about the activities of the INA. The fact is that the INA was never more than 40,000. This is just about 2 divisions and in contrast to the British Indian Army, where Indians numbered 2.5 million can be considered minuscule.
Obviously you cannot win a war with just 40,000 soldiers. Hence the bulk of the fighting in Burma was done by the Imperial army which captured Rangoon and pushed the British Indian army to the gates of India.
In 1944, the Japanese army surrounded Kohima and also converged on Imphal. The British were aware that in case these two cities fell to the Imperial army, the gates of India would be opened. They were vary of the effect of Subhas Bose, who carried on a relentless propaganda asking the Indian soldiers with the British Indian army to desert their posts and join the Japanese. In fact, the Japanese also relied on Bose to convince the Indian soldiers of the 8th Army to switch sides.
Here is the dichotomy and the failure of Bose. Field Marshal Viscount Lord William Slim the commander of the 8th army had specially selected Sikhs, Jats, Rajput, Gurkhas and Punjabi Muslims for the battle against the Japanese. He was confident that there would be no defections and he was proved right. Not a single Indian soldier switched sides and all fought for the crown and king. I am sure this must have exasperated Bose, whose dream came crumbling down.
The Indian soldiers of the British Indian army entrenched themselves and faced the Japanese. There was bitter hand to hand fighting, but the Indian front line held firm. They were surrounded by the Imperial army and had to be supplied by air by the RAF and the RIAF. This battle is no less important than the Battle of Stalingrad, yet Western historians give greater glory to Stalingrad. One reason could be that they did not want to publicize the glory of the Indian army which held the Imperial army at bay for many months.
Despite all the propaganda broadcasts and leaflets thrown on the Indian troops by Bose and Japanese, to join the INA failed. The Indian soldiers remained loyal to their English officers. This was the most brutal part of the war and the Japanese used to easy victories in China and Indo-China were thwarted. The Japanese Commander in Chief was surprised and soon the Japanese soldiers began to lose heart. The 8th army was further beefed up. By end 1944 they broke the Japanese siege. The Japanese were pushed back and the Sikh and Jat troops broke the back of the Japanese army.
From all accounts this was a great setback to Bose. It was clear that his appeals did not cut ice with Indian soldiers. Historians must analyze as to why the India soldiers did not defect and remained loyal to the English. This is a fact of history for which I have no answer.
The Japanese failed at the gates of India. Perhaps their easy victories earlier were a flash in the pan. They could not could not break the resolve of the British Indian troops. The Japanese were pushed back and began a headlong retreat. The British Indian army captured Mandalay and Rangoon. At its peak the British Indian army had 2.5 million Indian men under arms. The officer cadre was almost 95% pure English. In contrast Bose could just about gather 40,000 men. This is another fact that needs to be evaluated. Why could not Bose attract more Indians to his cause.?
History is unforgiving, but facts cannot be kept under wraps and have an uncanny knack of appearing at the wrong time. The facts of the INA are out. In my view it was a brave outfit, but too small a force to effect a result. Even if the Japanese had won at Kohima and Imphal, Bose would have remained a small time player. This is not a reflection on the caliber of Bose , but on the character of the Indians. .
Subhas Bose was a very brave man, but the Indian psyche let him own. But he did have an effect and in the sum total the British got worried that if 40,000 men could join Bose, more may revolt against them later.The Royal Inian Navy mutiny of 1946, by 20000 sailors put the seal on their assessment that their days were over. This was admitted by Clement Attlee in his interview after he retired.
Bose was a great man, but at the crucial point during World War II he was let down by Indians themselves. The Indian nation missed a great opportunity of throwing out the English at that time.


Implementing Good Personal Cybersecurity Practices Can Keep You and Your Devices Secure
Not only do we want to keep our information and our devices secure, but we also want to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe. Cybercriminals want to steal our personal information, banking information, and any other information they can sell on the “Dark Web”. Their goal is to do it without us knowing about it. You see, if we don’t know that our sensitive information was compromised we can’t mitigate the damage that is sure to happen.
This article discusses the best Personal Cybersecurity practices and how to defend and protect against cybercrime attacks. The article is broken down into sections that address several aspects of good personal cybersecurity.
You see, if we don’t know that our sensitive information was compromised we can’t mitigate the damage that is sure to happen. Good personal cybersecurity is not only about protecting against attacks, but it’s also about detecting successful attacks and taking actions to recover. We can’t stop all the attacks from being successful but we can limit the damage. This article can help you to understand the best personal cybersecurity practices.
Good personal cybersecurity practices can protect your sensitive information, personal devices, and home networks. At your home or office, you and your personal devices create a Personal Area Network. Protecting this network requires good personal cybersecurity practices. Your personal area network is only as secure as your most vulnerable device.
What is Personal Cybersecurity?
First, let’s define what cybersecurity is:
Cybersecurity is the act of protecting digital systems and digital assets. It entails the use of methods and techniques that can protect important assets and systems and networks that transport and store the assets. Cybersecurity is meant to protect against unauthorized access. It also protects digital assets from loss, damage, or destruction. That is referred to as Data Loss Protection (DLP).
Personal Cybersecurity addresses the self-needs of an individual. It is applied whether you are at work or at home, or anywhere in between. It involves the protection of personal information, personal devices, and our Personal Area Network (PAN). Effective personal cybersecurity practices require a personal awareness of the environment we are in. By possessing the knowledge and having the necessary resources we can protect our personal devices, our sensitive information, and our lively hood.
So, if we diligently utilize good personal cybersecurity practices during our daily routine we can stay ahead of cybercrime threats that lead to disaster. There is no way to mitigate all cyber threats perpetrated by cybercriminals. But we can incorporate our best personal cybersecurity practices and prepare ourselves to react to events when they occur.
Any crime that is committed using a computer network or combination of systems is considered a cybercrime. Cybercrime can include computer-related crimes if the computer is part of a network. But, a computer-related crime typically refers to a crime committed on a stand-alone computer. So. a cybercrime is committed when a malicious actor uses a network or computer system to conduct criminal activity. That’s a very broad definition.
Because cybercrime entails so many facets of computer and network systems it is challenging to fight. In our daily lives, we are constant targets of cybercriminals. By utilizing good personal cybersecurity practices we can mitigate many cybercrime attacks. As cybercriminals become more organized and begin to automate their attack methods we are being bombarded with constant attacks.
Who Does Cybercrime Hurt the Most?
According to a special report sponsored by INTRUSION Inc., “Cyberwarfare In The C-Suite“, It is predicted that cybercrime will cost the world more than $10 trillion per year by 2025. Just in 2021 alone, the prediction is that cybercrime will cause damage to the tune of $6 trillion. Last year there were over 15 million consumers who fell victim to identity fraud.
So, it’s us, the consumers, that are really getting hurt the most. In a lot of these cases, the victim was partially responsible. It’s important for people to implement good personal cybersecurity practices. There are things that we can do personally to protect ourselves. No one else is going to do it. It’s all on us, and our ability to protect our space with good personal cybersecurity practices.
People over the age of 50 reported losses due to cybercrimes of over $1.1 billion. The preferred victims of cybercriminals are people age 60 or above. The number of losses is those that were reported, many incidents go unreported. These losses will rise as senior fraud scams continue to increase.
Cybercrimes Against Our Personal Area Network
Usually, cybercrimes are not intended to damage computer systems or our personal devices. On occasion, those types of crimes happen when they are motivated politically or are part of a cyberwar attack against a nation that is an adversary. This article will concentrate on cybercrimes that affect you and me personally. Whether the personal attacks are initiated by organized cybercriminals or novice hackers the threat to us is real.
We need to be concerned about our Personal Area Network (PAN). Our personal area network exists of several devices at any one time. Every device can be targeted by cybercriminals and hackers. As long as the device is connected to our personal area network it is a threat. We must stay diligent and use good personal cybersecurity practices in our daily lives.
Related article: How to Secure Your Personal Area Network
5 Types of cybercrime that can put your best personal cybersecurity practices to a test
Cybercriminals that launch these types of attacks can be very creative. Most of today’s attacks are targeted at human weaknesses. Once again, good personal cybersecurity practices can prevent phishing attacks. Phishing attacks rely on scenarios like the following three situations:
- Distracted Users — While routinely checking emails a user opens an email or clicks a link without thinking.
- Fooled by a Spoofed Email — The recipient of the email is fooled by a cybercriminal impersonating a person or company that the user is familiar with. A simple request like clicking on a link or sending money may be completely normal if the email was really from someone known by the user, and not from a cybercriminal.
- Consumer hurrying to get a Discount — Users sometimes rush to click on a deal that is too good to pass up. In the excitement of the moment, they are fooled by clicking a link on a malicious website or in email.
People, not system vulnerabilities are often at the center of phishing attacks. Some 90% of all phishing attacks are initiated through email. Bad actors will leverage phishing attacks to steal users’ passwords and login information. Their goal is to gain access to financial accounts.
How to avoid phishing attacks
Always scrutinized any email that has links that are not expected. Be suspicious of email attachments. Phishing scams can sometimes be spotted by obvious spelling and grammar errors. Legitimate financial institutions don’t send sloppy emails. If you suspect a malicious message don’t leave it on your computer, always delete or quarantine it.
Ransomware is crimeware that is usually placed into a computer via a phishing attack or an exploit kit. Once the malware has infected your computer it attempts to encrypt one or more devices on the system. Then the user is typically demanded to pay a ransom to have the file unencrypted.
Protect against ransomware attacks and loss of data
Certainly taking all the safeguards you would for a phishing scam applies here. The best way to mitigate a ransomware attack, however, is to ensure you have one or more local and remote backups of your data. Backups must be done regularly. This is important because even if you pay the ransom, there’s only a small chance that the cybercriminal will decrypt your files for you. Remember, if you don’t open the email to start with there is no way to get infected.
There are many different types of Malware, including malware that targets a user’s personal and financial information. The cybercriminals behind the distribution of Malware are becoming increasingly more sophisticated. The real scary part is these cybercriminals are finding more effective methods of hiding the malware, making it very difficult for anti-virus and anti-malware programs to detect.
Malware is a multi-billion dollar dark web market. Cybercrime is driven by the rewards available, the amount of money that can be made. It’s a big dollar business and there is no limit to what the cybercriminals will do to maintain their profits. For them, there are many targets and essentially unlimited resources to tap into.
When Malware infects your device the attackers can use it to spy on you, capture your data, and infiltrate other systems. Malware is one of the biggest online threats and by applying good personal cybersecurity practices we may be able to mitigate the threat.
How to detect and protect yourself from Malware
Once again, we talk about good personal cybersecurity practices. The battle against Malware is a difficult one. The way you surf the Internet can be a factor. Beware3 of suspicious websites. Always check the security (HTTPS, not HTTP, S for Secure) of the website before clicking or tapping links. There may be times when your system is infected and you won’t know.
Don’t rely on typical anti-virus software to detect malware, and remove it. I use McAfee on my systems. It’s good software but sometimes is not capable of removing some Malware once detected. For this reason, I recommend using an anti-malware program like Malwarebytes. It is recommended for use by Microsoft. A nice feature of Malwarebytes is that it also scans webpages for malicious behavior and warns you if it is suspicious.
Identity Theft Scams
Once a cybercriminal obtains a few pieces of your sensitive information they may be able to fake your identity and commit identity fraud. They may apply for credit accounts in your name, file fake tax returns, and do types of fraud that will disrupt your life. Once a victim of identity theft it is difficult to identify fraudulent accounts and then get everything straightened out.
How to protect yourself from identity theft
Always ensure you are visiting web pages that are secure. Do not reveal any personal or sensitive information while using social media sites. do not send sensitive information like social security numbers or banking details when using email. Be aware of suspicious emails from senders you do not know. Email is used by cybercriminals as a weapon in an attempt to not only deliver Malware but to initiate phishing attacks.
As cybercriminals become more creative and sophisticated the variety and types of scams and attacks increase. By using good personal cybersecurity practices you can spot and prevent being harm by a variety of scams. Cybercriminals may use a sense of urgency to get you to fall victim to their scam. They may also make offers that seem too good to be true. Beware of these types of emails and marketing campaigns.
Don’t get caught off guard. Don’t become complacent just because you have always avoided malicious attacks. When you least expect is when it will happen. Use best practices along with common sense to spot and avoid scams. Cybercriminals have the advantage. We must realize that.
A cybercriminal can automate attacks, performing thousands of attacks in a fast sequence. They only need to be successful one time out of the thousands of attacks. We, on the other hand, need to be able to mitigate every one of the thousands of attacks.
We can’t protect ourselves from every threat out there. We can mitigate the threats that can do the most damage by using good personal cybersecurity practices. Always consider the value of the information or resource we are protecting.
For instance, when it comes to financial information and online banking accounts we need to take extra care. Creating and using strong passwords is a must. Read the following article for tips on securing your online banking accounts and best password practices.
Our Children are Targets Too
It is important that your children understand personal cybersecurity at an early age. They will be exposed to personal cybersecurity risks their entire life. The earlier your children understand personal cybersecurity and learn the best practices the sooner they can begin to develop the good habits that will keep them safe.
If you have children, here’s a poster you can download and post in their study and gaming area (Pdf format).
What Best Personal Cybersecurity Practices Does the NIST Recommend?
1) Careful with your personal data
2) Don’t Expose your identity
3) Protect and backup data
4) Detect successful attacks
5) Take action if hacked
6) Recover – know the steps ahead of time
Read more: Tips to Protect Yourself From Cybercrime
Featured image by FreePik


The unprecedented spread of one language as an international lingua franca has socio-economic, political and ideological consequences.
Two key issues debated include:
- whether the spread of English as an international means of communication serves to sustain the privilege and power of its native speakers (what Phillipson refers to as ‘linguistic imperialism’ (1992)) or whether reasons for learning English now are more pragmatic than ideological in nature (Bisong 1995)
- who, if anyone, ‘owns’ English, now that is used on such an intensive scale globally – for example, does the term native speaker still have relevance when large numbers of people have a very high, nativelike level of competence; when many children in countries outside the traditional ‘native speaker heartlands’, i.e. the US, UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia etc., are learning English as a first language; and when most interactions in English take place without a so-called native speaker even being present ?


Royal and Ancient Polar Bear SocietyEdit profile
The Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society is a small museum in the town of Hammerfest, Norway The significance of the polar bear is that this animal is the town's mascot and heraldic crest. For all its remoteness, Hammerfest has a long history as a trading port, and Isbjørnklubben as it is called in Norwegian - meaning simply Polar Bear Club - sets out to commemorate this. In the museum's single room are a variety of mementos of the early life of Hammerfest, including a profusion of stuffed animals, early Arctic hunting, traveling and camping equipment, and perhaps most interestingly, a gallery of photographs, paintings, drawings and writings of and from the town's history. The depict the town as it was in previous centuries, showing that as far back as the seventeenth century CE, this tiny town was a nexus for travelers and traders in the far north and a meeting point for the isolated people of North Norway, traders sailing up from southern Europe and hunters and traders coming west from the Arctic Ocean and Russia. Founded in 1963 by two local businessmen, the Polar Bear Club is not particularly ancient. Primarily, it is a somewhat jokey amenity for tourists. Although entrance to the actual museum is for a nominal charge, visitors are encouraged to join the Society, which is rewarded with a membership pack, the contents of which include a certificate, a sticker, a hat, a membership card and a lapel pin. Since the only way to join is in person at the museum, this pin signifies as proof of visiting this remote place. The normal pin depicts a small polar bear. Today, there is a special version of the pin in which the polar bear stands on an ice floe. This is only available to members who have visited the Polar Bear Club's other location in Longyearbyen on Svalbard.


1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data An electron travaels in an accelerator tube at a speed of 0.997 c relative to Earth. In the frame of reference of the electron, the length of the tube is 1.20 m. What is the length of the tube relative to earth? 2. Relevant equations L = Lo / γ Textbook answer: 15.5 m 3. The attempt at a solution I know it is a simple plug-in problem but when I plug in the numbers, they don't work out and I'm guessing that I'm assigning the numbers wrong. For this problem, would 1.20m be L or Lo? I'd assume it to be Lo since that's the proper length in terms of the electron's reference frame. However, the numbers do not work out then - indicating that L = 1.20 m. This does not make sense to me since 1.20 m is the length measured from the electron's frame, is it not?


“Personal responsibility” is a theme frequently drawn upon by people addressing the social problems of the day, including problems that black communities face. Public figures issuing calls to action often challenge the role of the individual, although whether it works in better reaching the individuals who need to hear these messages is debatable. The bigger problem is that a message that exclusively focuses on personal responsibility without an accompanying clarion call for society itself to improve gives us only half of the answer.
No one exemplifies this problem more than Bill Cosby, who recently dictated an editorial to the New York Post in which he said, “There is this situation where people tend to think that we are all victims. Victim meaning somebody else is doing this to us. That’s not true.” The former star of The Cosby Show is known for making controversial statements directed to the black community. In 2004, at an address at an NAACP gala celebrating the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, Cosby said “the lower-economic and middle-economic people are not holding up their end in this deal,” i.e., not following through on all of the hard-earned opportunities available in our time. While his statement upset many, it actually led to a constructive dialogue on black class differences and Professor Michael Eric Dyson wrote an entire book to unpack the issues that Cosby raised. But this time around, Cosby lays all the blame at the feet of black Americans who, he says, suffer from “a plague called apathy.”
He goes on to suggest that parents need to make better choices for their children, including not buying them sugary drinks. Otherwise, they pass the bad habits and health risks down. “It becomes a term of apathy because people say my father had it, my aunt had it. People then ask you, ‘What your mother die of?’ ‘Diabetes.’ ‘Grandmother?’ ‘Diabetes.’ These things don’t have to happen if you make the correct choice.” Cosby is completely justified in tackling the issue of Type 2 diabetes in children. But what about addressing the pressing issue of food deserts and the general lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables that disproportionately affect densely populated urban areas? To attack only half of a problem is no solution.
Then there is education. “Interview some schoolteachers. How many parents, on parent-teacher day, actually show up?” Cosby asks. “Not to Dunbar or some school where people are saying they want their child to become an engineer or philosopher or whatever else that requires one to do some homework. Go to a school where people are not doing well. How many parents show up?”
Of course parents should be more active in schools. There is no need to rehash the statistics that outline the educational-achievement gap in the black community. But the issue of education revolves not just around what the parents do, but what our elected officials and people in authority do as well. In the midst of massive school closings, where is the call for social responsibility for the city and state officials? In Cosby’s native Philadelphia, 23 schools are being closed to alleviate a deficit in the city budget. This negatively affects the involved and uninvolved parents, and of course the children who attended those schools. It is hard to say yes to education when our society doesn’t place enough value in it to keep the schools open.
To be fair, Cosby is not alone in thinking that black people in America need to do better. His views gained a great deal of traction, and elected officials have taken to challenging the black community to improve. Just last month, President Obama gave a speech at Morehouse in which he said, “There are some things, as black men, that we can only do for ourselves.” The problem is that such exhortations can embolden others to do the same, with much less understanding, like Gene Marks’ offensive post on Forbes called “If I Were a Poor Black Kid,” which completely ignored the structural and institutional problems that black youth have to contend with.
There are a great deal of problems in black America and our American society in general. But if Cosby is really interested in combating apathy, it’s important for him to realize that there are larger, outside forces that can cause a sense of hopelessness in affected areas. Without a total picture of what certain communities have to contend with, Cosby’s supposedly well-meaning advice is not just tone-deaf but useless as well.
Polite is an award-winning blogger and author of the chapbook The Poetic Ruminations of Mr. Born Nice. More of his political and social commentary may be found at his blog, politeonsociety.com


POSTULATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF NEO- CLASSICAL THEORY ON NIGERIA’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Neo-classical theory of development came in reactions to the Keynesian theory propounded by John M. Keynes (1930s), otherwise, known as the theory of mixed economy. Drawing from the aftermaths of the second world war and its attendant negative consequences, is the great economic depression of 1930s. Most theories developed then were on how to get the world economies out of the depression. Keynes opined that the only surest way for government is to increase spending through the employment of long unemployed individuals that would be the trick to bringing the world economies out of recession”. Contrary to Keynesian theorists, neo- classical believes that economic growth is directly related to free trade and countries should follow policies of deregulation, privatization and liberalization in order to achieve desired economic growth. Nigeria being a former colonist of Great Britain inherited a political and economic models, the parliamentary system of government which was later changed to American styles presidential system anchored on the doctrines of economic liberalism. The system ushered in foreign trade and investment without border, private ownership and means of production, privatization and commercialization, and Nigeria became a capitalist economy. But despite that, the country is engulfed with the challenges of economic development, ranges from low and decayed infrastructures, under- production, dependency on foreign goods and services and the dominating activities of multinationals. The research obtained data from the secondary sources. However, in the course of this research, findings revealed that privatization and liberalization policies in Nigeria have course devastating effects on the economy taking into cognizance the effects of Structural adjustment programmed (SAP), on the country’s currency, the Naira devaluation, unequal exchange, trade and investment which has today resulting to capital flights, unemployment, poverty, high mortality rates and high cost of living face by millions of Nigerians today. Thus, the way out of this menace is total overhauling of the entire privatization processes in Nigeria, the strengthening of the Naira and strict protectionism.


Now is the time to go green and take care of the Earth. It doesn’t always take major lifestyle overhauls. Even small changes can add up, having a massive impact, not only for our own communities, but for the entire planet.
Here are some ways you can focus on small efforts that will, in turn, have big impacts:
Imagine if every New Yorker recycled just 1 aluminum can this year. That’d be almost 20 million cans, or about 322 tons of aluminum. Conserving 322 tons of aluminum is the equivalent to saving nearly 397,348 gallons of gasoline. Now imagine if you recycled ALL your aluminum cans.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a wonderful infographic with all kinds of information on how recycling saves. Take a look:
We all know that biking to work, or taking public transportation (e.g., bus, subway), is a great way to cut down on pollution. But you can also cut down on emissions by “what you drive, how you drive, and what fuel you use….” According to the EPA, US consumers have saved more than $28 billion dollars by purchasing new vehicles with better fuel economy and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. (2) Here are a few links to help you save on transportation costs, while saving the planet:
- FuelEconomy.gov – A great site that lists all the fuel economy (MPG) ratings for just about every make and model car you can imagine. A great resource in choosing your next car.
- EPA.gov/greenvehicles – This site from the EPA has all kinds of information about how to “make transportation greener.”
- Airnow.gov – This site lists the air quality forecasts across the country. This is a great site you can use to help determine when you should avoid driving due to a poor air quality index.
Do you know where you use the most water at your house? You may be surprised to know that the toilet and washing machine make up almost half of your water usage. Showers, faucets, leaks, and lawns make up most of the rest of the nearly 300 gallons of water that American families use each day. (3)
So what can you do to make a difference and reduce water usage? Here are some tips:
- Adjust the height of your mower (making it taller) to leave grass a little longer.
- Water during the evening or night to reduce water evaporation during the heat of the day.
- Water every other day (or less, depending on your municipal requirements/instructions).
- Turn off the faucet while you’re brushing your teeth.
- Take shorter showers.
- Wait to do the laundry until there’s a full load.
- Repair leaks as soon as you notice them.
Doing small things—like turning off your facet when brushing your teeth—can make a big impact on your community, and even save you a little money in the process.
- Recycling Statistics
- Google Public Data – New York population – http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=kf7tgg1uo9ude_#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=population&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=country&idim=state:36000&ifdim=country&hl=en_US&dl=en_US&ind=false
- RecycleUseInc.com – 31 cans equals 1 lbs – http://recycleusainc.com/aluminium-cans/how-many-aluminum-cans-equal-1-pound/
- EPA.gov – 1 ton of recycled aluminum cans conserves 1,234 gallons of gasoline – https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents/advncng_smm_infogrphc.pdf


A Denver-based company is working to develop solar products that could end the use of polluting fuels used for light and heat around the world, and most importantly, are affordable to the communities that need them.
Millions of people around the world live without connection to a reliable source of electricity. This means no television, no modern appliances, and most importantly, no light.
Instead, many burn wood, candles, charcoal, or kerosene indoors just to be able to eat their dinner. These fuels are unsustainable, dangerous for indoor use, and detrimental when inhaled over a long period of time.
Nokero (short for No Kerosene) is the first to develop and market a solar light bulb: a compact, flexible lantern that can be held, hung, or placed on a shelf to create hours of clean, renewable light.
In most countries, the Nokero N200 pays for itself in 15 days to 2 months by eliminating the need for expensive candles or kerosene. It combines the best in solar and LED technology with a clear globe made from the same shatter-resistant polycarbonate used in car headlights. The battery will last for 1.5 years, and can be replaced to extend the bulb's life even longer.
Nokero is involved with organizations like C.U.R.E. to help bring solar light bulbs to people who might otherwise suffer the terrible health effects of burning fuels for light. Most recently, the company partnered with Elephant Energy to distribute solar products to the over 18,000 members of the Navajo Nation currently living off-grid in southwest America.


The deﬁnitions of the absorption and scattering coeﬃcients on the Inherent Optical Properties page were in terms of an inﬁnitesimally thin slab of water. We now must reformulate those conceptual deﬁnitions so that they can be applied to actual measurements on ﬁnite thickness of water in a measuring instrument.
Measuring The Beam Attenuation Coeﬃcient
Just as was done for the absorption and scattering coeﬃcients (recall Eqs. 1 and 2 of the IOP page), we can deﬁne the beam attenuation coeﬃcient as
where is the attenuance, or fraction of power absorbed or scattered as light passes through the slab of inﬁnitesimal thickness . However, any instrument must make its measurements on a slab of some ﬁnite thickness , which is typically between 0.01 and 1 m.
Figure 1 shows a ﬁnitely thick slab of water with an incident power and transmitted power , where the wavelength argument has been omitted for brevity. Within the slab the power has magnitude after passing through a thickness of material. In going from thickness to , the power changes from to , where because the transmitted power decreases as the thickness traversed increases.
Recalling that the attenuance is the fractional change in power, we can rewrite Eq. (1) as
where the minus sign accounts for being negative, whereas all other quantities are positive. Assuming that the medium within the slab is uniform, so that is independent of , we can integrate Eq. 2 from to , which corresponds respectively to powers and . This gives
which can be rewritten as
This equation gives the beam attenuation coeﬃcient in terms of the measurable incident and transmitted powers and the ﬁnite thickness of the slab.
Equation (3) is the key to measuring the beam attenuation. However, there are additional subtleties in this measurement related to the instrument design, which is shown in more detail in Fig. 2. The development above implicitly assumed that the incident light was perfectly collimated (all light rays travel in exactly the same direction) and that the detector omits all scattered light. Neither requirement can be fully satisﬁed in a real instrument. Even a laser beam has some divergence, and any detector has a ﬁnite ﬁeld of view (FOV) or acceptance angle. If the detector FOV is 1 deg, for example, then the detector will detect rays that have been scattered by 1 deg or less, as well as unscattered light. This undesired detection of scattered light will make the transmitted power too large, and thus too small. The magnitude of this error depends both on the detector FOV and on the volume scattering function of the water, which determines how much light is scattered through angles smaller than the FOV. Although these errors in beam attenuation measurements have been studied in many papers (see, most recently, Boss et al. (2009) and references therein), it is diﬃcult to correct for the error in a particular measurement because the VSF is usually unknown, especially at very small scattering angles. Unfortunately, as Boss et al. show, the diﬀerences in values as measured by diﬀerent instruments can be tens of percent. Indeed, Boss et al. end their paper with the comment, “We conclude that more work needs to be done with the oldest (in terms of availability of commercial in-situ instruments) and simplest (so we thought...) optical property, the beam attenuation.”
Measuring The Absorption Coeﬃcient
If there were no scattering, then the instrument design used to measure beam attenuation would give the absorption coeﬃcient . However, at least some scattering is always present in sea water, which requires modiﬁcation of the instrument design shown in Fig. 2. When measuring , any light lost from the beam because of scattering will be attributed to a loss of light due to absorption. Thus it is desirable that the detector collect as much scattered light as possible. Because most scattering is through small angles, a common instrument design is to use as large a detector as possible at the end of the measurement chamber to collect forward scattered light. Such an instrument is shown schematically in Fig. 3.
An instrument of this design typically collects light forward scattered through angles of a few tens of degrees (depending on the design of the particular instrument), which does account for most of the scattered light. However, some light is still lost “out the side of the instrument” by scattering though larger angles, as represented by in the ﬁgure. To get an accurate absorption measurement, it is necessary to perform a scattering correction, i.e., to estimate and to account for this loss when computing . The equation for computation of then becomes
In this equation, now includes the measured transmitted power due both to unscattered light and to light scattered through angles less than the detector FOV. The term adds back the unmeasured loss of power due to scattering through angles larger than the FOV. Estimating the value of is of course diﬃcult because the amount of scattering at angles greater than the instrument ﬁeld of view depends on the (usually unknown) volume scattering function. Techniques for doing this scattering correction are given in Zaneveld et al. (1994).
In spite of the fundamental diﬃculties associated with the instrument designs of Figs. 2 and 3, the problems are not insurmountable and instruments based on these designs are commercially available. For example, the pioneering and widely used ac-9 instrument (and its successor, the ac-s) uses these designs for measurement of and . In the ac-9, the detector for measurement of has an acceptance angle of about 1 deg, and the detector for measurement of has an acceptance angle of about 40 deg.
Another way to account for scattering in absorption measurements is to place the entire measurement chamber inside an integrating sphere. An integrating sphere is a hollow sphere coated on the inside with a highly reﬂective white material (usually Spectralon, which has a reﬂectance greater than 99% at visible wavelengths and is a diﬀuse reﬂector). The inner surface of the sphere reﬂects incident light into all directions, which after many reﬂections makes the interior light ﬁeld homogeneous and isotropic. Thus it is possible to measure the power at only one location within the sphere in order to compute the total power within the sphere. Integrating spheres are commonly used in laboratory spectrophotometers to collect the scattered light, and ﬂow-through integrating-cavity absorption meters are now commercially available (e.g., PSICAM).
Comment. Equation 4 is often rewritten as
after recalling the deﬁnition of the absorptance . Using to convert from natural to Naperian logarithms gives
where is called the optical density or absorbance. Spectrophotometers usually output their measurements as a value of , from which can be computed according to the thickness of the sample volume.
Measuring The Scattering Coeﬃcient
It is possible to measure the scattering coeﬃcient , for example by collecting all scattered power in an integrating cavity and then using
It is also possible to measure the volume scattering function and then obtain by integration of the VSF over all scattering angles. However, neither of these paths to is often taken.
The scattering coeﬃcient is usually obtained from measurements of the beam attenuation and absorption coeﬃcient , and the deﬁnition of :
Note, however, that there is a philosophical problem here, even if the practical diﬃculties in measuring and can be overcome well enough to obtain usefully accurate values. The philosophical problem is that to obtain good values of and , you need to know the VSF in order to correct for the ﬁnite-FOV errors in and to perform the scattering correction for the measurement. Because the VSF is seldom measured, you must make assumptions about the scattering in order to obtain values for and , in order to obtain a value for the scattering . Thus the value obtained for the scattering coeﬃcient depends on the a priori assumptions made about scattering in the water being studied. This circular reasoning is tolerated in optical oceanography simply because of the diﬃculties of designing instruments to make accurate measurements of each IOP independent of assumptions about the other IOPs.
Measuring The Volume Scattering Function
As with the measurement of beam attenuation, measurement of the volume scattering function employs a narrow collimated beam and a narrow-ﬁeld-of-view detector. Now, however, the detector views the incident beam at a given scattering angle. The basic geometry is shown in Fig. 4.
The intersection of the incident beam and the detector FOV deﬁne a volume of water in which the scattering from the incident direction into the scattered direction takes place. The scattering angle is deﬁned as shown by the angle between and (recall Eq. (5) of the page on geometry). The incident power traveling in direction into volume generates scattered power in the detector FOV of solid angle centered on direction over a path length of . The deﬁnitions of the VSF on The Volume Scattering Function page give us an operational formulas for the VSF in terms of measurable quantities:
which as previously noted is equivalent to
As always, there are implicit assumptions and subtleties involved with these equations. It is assumed that the scattering volume is small enough that only single scattering takes place within the volume, but large enough to contain a representative sample of scattering particles. It is necessary to correct for attenuation of the incident and scattered beams along the entire path from the source to the scattering volume to the sensor, which presumes knowledge of the beam attenuation coeﬃcient . (Note again our problem: to measure the VSF we need to know , but we need to know the VSF in order to make the FOV correction for the measurement of .) In the pioneering General Angle Scattering Meter (GASM) developed by Petzold (1972), it was diﬃcult to accurately determine the scattering volume , which changes with scattering angle, because of the diﬃculty of maintaining mechanical alignment of the moving parts as they swept the detector through the full range of scattering angles. The calculations and engineering considerations needed to implement Eqs. 5 or 6 in GASM are given in Petzold’s classic report.
More recent instruments have used other designs to avoid various problems. For example, Lee and Lewis (2003) used a novel design based on a rotating periscope to scan through scattering angles from 0.6 to 177.3 deg. A more recent in situ instrument, the LISST-VSF can measure the VSF at 515 nm in the range of to 150 deg, along with the scattering coeﬃcient and beam attenuation and selected components of the Mueller matrix for polarized light scattering. See Slade et al. (2013).
In sea water both absorption and scattering are always important. Depending on the water constituents and the wavelength, one process can dominate the other, but neither can be ignored. Thus one IOP cannot be measured independently of the others. Clearly, there is need for continued development of IOP instruments with novel designs that minimize the measurement problems mentioned above.


Bid Data Analytics and Predicting Election Results
Ajith Singh Department Of Computer Science, Patna Women’s College, India
Published on: 2019-04-16
The best way to predict the future is to study past behavior. This is the underlying idea behind Big Data Analytics. The 2008 Obama election campaign was one of the first to take advantage of data-driven methods in the race to an elected office. The Obama campaign had a data analytics team of 100 people. This shows how deeply data analytics impacts the world. From recommending products to customers on e-commerce websites (i.e. using predictive analytics) to electing the most powerful official of the free world. Big Data Analytics is indeed everywhere. Data analytics has evolved itself to become the brain of every election campaign since the Obama campaign. Data analytics helps the election campaign to understand the voters better and hence adapt to their sentiments. Now let’s find out how data analytics affects the elections and how election campaigns use it.
Big data analytics; Election result prediction; Election result prediction model
The 2016 race to the White House had data at its center and made itself an unstoppable force. The question here is how it affects the outcome of the election? Positively or Negatively? In other words, does data analytics have the ability to turn election results? Social and polling data can affect the voters. Social websites such as Facebook and Twitter optimize their feeds to the target audience to promote voting. Conversely, you see Hillary Clinton leading by 73% chance to take over the White House in the polls (released by some analytics firm) to Trump. In reality, would you agree that a good number of people would feel that the election result is obvious now?


It is only 75 kilometres long, but its impact could be enormous. The rail link that is scheduled to open early next month between Mazar-e-Sharif and Hairatan on the Uzbek border marks a significant milestone in Afghanistan's journey toward peace, progress and prosperity.
Without a doubt, Afghanistan faces some daunting challenges. Scarred by decades of insurgency, the country must build a sustainable economy while grappling with weak governance, rampant gender inequality, few jobs and endemic poverty.
Afghanistan today is, in many ways, a place in-between.
Geographically, it sits at the crossroads of vast markets to the west, east and south, representing billions of dollars worth of trade. Historically, it stands on fragile ground between a violent past and a future of opportunity. Its rich mineral and hydrocarbon deposits and strategic location at the heart of the ancient Silk Road hold the promise of a better life for the Afghan people and increased stability for the entire Central Asian region.
Such a future is critical for global stability and widely shared prosperity. But this will not be achieved without significant investment to turn this landlocked and isolated economy into one that is land-linked and integrated with its neighbours. For a sustainable future, Afghanistan needs to build a modern infrastructure, sound basic services, good governance and efficient institutions in order to expand trade within the region and beyond.
Transport infrastructure and energy supply are the backbone and lifeblood of any economy. For Central Asia, transit through Afghanistan is a vital lifeline to critical global markets. For the world at large, an integrated Central Asia represents both increased stability and a more vibrant, diverse and economically interesting investment proposition.
The new rail link connects Afghanistan to Uzbekistan's expansive rail network and to regional markets in Europe and Asia — boosting regional trade and facilitating the flow of humanitarian assistance. Future links are planned to connect to other parts of the region, including Pakistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
What's more, the rail line is part of a more extensive transport plan in progress across the region. The Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) programme — which this week will hold its 10thministerial meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan — has laid the groundwork for this effort.
This partnership consisting of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, promotes economic development through cooperation among member countries.
The reconstruction of Afghanistan's ring road network has already eased access to southern markets. Many other transport projects are under way or have been completed to improve the region's road, rail, air and sea connections. The US Silk Road Initiative proposal and the forthcoming Bonn Conference on Afghanistan confirm the desire of the international community and Afghanistan's neighbours to cooperate in supporting the country's ongoing development through greater regional cooperation. With a proven 10-year track record of delivering mutually beneficial regional projects, the CAREC programme offers a practical vehicle for doing so.
After decades of chronic dislocation and conflict, Afghanistan is experiencing a transformation that is redefining its role in the region and the world. Beyond its strictly practical purpose, the new rail line is symbolic of a vision for a better life for the Afghan people. By remaining engaged and fully committed to the country's development, the international community can help transform Afghanistan from 'the place in-between' to a vibrant crossroads of culture and commerce.


A Review of Early Developments in Electroacoustics in the U.S.A.
The history of electroacoustics began with acousticians using their ears to evaluate acoustic properties before microphones, amplifiers, and recording equipment was available. The Audio Engineering Society was formed after much of the early work in acoustics was published. It, therefore, seems appropriate to review for the Society some of the development and people responsible for these early contributions in acoustics.
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The government of the Byzantine Empire was headed and dominated by the emperor, but there were many other important officials who assisted in operating the finances, judiciary, military, and bureaucracy of a huge territory. Without elections, the ministers, senators, and councillors who governed the people largely acquired their position through imperial patronage or because of their status as large landowners. Government was multi-levelled based on the geographical division of the empire’s population and although corruption, rebellions, and invasions threatened the functioning of the system, and even caused its reduction in scale, the system nevertheless survived for centuries to become one of the most sophisticated apparatus of government seen in any empire in history.
The Byzantine emperor (and sometimes empress) ruled as an absolute monarch and was the commander-in-chief of the army and head of the Church and government. He controlled the state finances, and he appointed or dismissed nobles at will, granting them wealth and lands or taking them away. The position was conventionally hereditary, but new dynasties were regularly founded as usurpers took the throne, usually military generals backed by the army. Unlike in the west, the Byzantine emperor was also head of the Church and so could appoint or dismiss the most important ecclesiastical role in the empire, the Patriarch or bishop of Constantinople. Further, the emperor was widely regarded as having been chosen by God to rule for the good of the people.
The emperor was distinguished by his magnificent royal residence, the Great Palace of Constantinople, and by his imperial regalia - the jewelled crown, belt, cloak, and brooch seen in so many depictions in Byzantine art. His or her image was widely seen as it appeared on coinage, official seals, weights, mosaics, and sculpture.
Given the size of the empire and the complexity of all the different facets of government necessary for it to run smoothly, the emperor was, by necessity, obliged to consult with a team of close advisors. Such members of an inner circle at court, the comitatus, need not have held any formal position, but there were other permanent offices and positions which helped disseminate the imperial will to all corners of the empire. There were, in addition, the court eunuch chamberlains (cubicularii) who served the emperor in various personal duties but who could also control access to him. Eunuchs also held positions of responsibility themselves, chief amongst these being the holder of the emperor’s purse, the sakellarios whose powers would increase significantly from the 7th century CE.
The Senate & Imperial Ministers
The main forum of government was the Senate of Constantinople, which was made up of aristocratic males who were given their position by the emperor. Created by Constantine I (r. 306-337 CE), it was modelled on the Roman Senate. Although in practice the emperor could make any decision he wished, at least in theory he was supposed to consult the Senate and particularly the smaller group of the most senior senators known as the sacrum consistorium. This was especially so for matters of state importance - declarations of war, treaties of alliance, and so on. The Senate, therefore, was really only an advisory body. It could, though, function as the highest court in the land in rare cases of high treason. Leo VI (r. 886-912 CE) reduced the role of the Senate even further, but it would remain as an institution until the fall of the empire in the mid-15th century CE.
Key ministers who reported to the emperor but had some autonomy of authority included the following:
- the quaestor sacri palatii or chief legal officer and head of the judiciary
- the magister officiorum who looked after the general administration of the palace, the army and its supplies, the secret police, transport, and foreign affairs
- the cursus publicus who supervised the public post
- the comes sacrarum largitionum who controlled the state mint (Sakellion) and supervised customs houses, the state workshops and armouries, and the state’s gold and silver mines. He collected some specific taxes, paid out extraordinary bonuses to the army, and supervised the distribution of clothing to the court.
- the comes rei privatae who looked after the imperial estates and the emperor’s personal wealth
- the praepositus sacri cubiculi or chief eunuch who typically controlled who could have a personal audience with the emperor
- the Urban Prefect or Eparch who was, essentially, the mayor of Constantinople and had to run the city, manage its prisons, ensure public order was maintained, supervise building projects, and organise public spectacles.
The emperor and the above officials were supported by various ministries and their heads (domestikoi) such as the head of orphanages (orphanotrophos) and the head of public records (protasekretis), as well as countless minor officials (logothetes) and archivists (chartoularioi).
The Byzantine Empire was divided into the following territorial and administrative units:
- Prefectures (4)
- Dioceses (12)
- Provinces (100+)
- Town Councils
There were four prefectures, each governed by a Praetorian Prefect. The most important was the Praetorian of the East (the others governed Gaul, Italy and Illyricum) and, like his colleagues, he was responsible for all administrative, fiscal, and judicial affairs in his area. Prefects supervised and maintained the public post, roads, bridges, post-houses, and granaries in their area.
The prefectures were further divided into dioceses with their respective governors (vicarii) and each of these into administrative provinces, each with its own governor who supervised the individual city councils or curiae. Cities which were the seat of a governor such as Ephesus, Sardis and Aphrodisias, flourished as the governors sought to leave lasting monuments in their city and support the culture there. This was usually to the detriment of smaller towns in the province, and there are even records of emperors admonishing governors for dismantling monuments and stealing the stones in lesser towns in order to beautify the provincial capital.
Members of a curia were usually the wealthier local citizens, the land-owning elite (archontes), and although there were no elections, the ordinary people could voice their opinions at public events by acclaiming or booing public figures, just as factions of the crowd at the Hippodrome of Constantinople sometimes did towards the emperor. Public opinion might not bring the dismissal of councillors or other government officials but it could affect their chances of promotion as the emperor and central government were always on the watch for signs of public unrest in the provinces. Riots did occasionally break out, and the damage and economic disruption they caused was best avoided.
Local councillors were responsible for all public services and the collection of taxes in their town and its surrounding lands (curiously, any shortfall had to be made up by the councillors themselves until that onerous obligation was abolished in the early 6th century CE). This was a deliberate policy by emperors to separate tax revenue from anyone holding positions of military power and, therefore, reduce the possibility that a usurper could fund that portion of the army he commanded against the state. The main tax was a land tax called the annona, which was calculated in consideration of a census (indictio) taken every 5, and then later, 15 years.
Local councils also had to help with national services such as providing horses for the empire’s postal system. The local councils could directly petition the emperor so that there was both a direct and indirect chain of authority through which imperial policy was transmitted to the ordinary people. Leo VI abolished the councils in the 9th century CE, and their duties were redistributed to other officials. Finally, to ensure that government policy was carried through in practice, there was a whole army of imperial inspectors who were regularly dispatched to the provinces.
In the 7th century CE, as the empire shrank significantly and what remained became increasingly threatened by its neighbours. Emperor Heraclius (r. 610-641 CE), or his immediate successors, permanently changed the system of central government so that governors of the newly created large provinces or themes (themata) were now, in effect, provincial military commanders (strategoi) with civil responsibilities who were directly responsible to and reported to the emperor himself. The system of Praetorian Prefects was, therefore, abolished, and the logothetes, those minor officials looked down upon previously, became more instrumental in the successful running of the government and civil administration.
Thus the whole bureaucracy was simplified and the number of officials massively reduced with the most important logothetes being:
- the logothetes tou stratiotikou who was in charge of military affairs from spending to armaments and supplies
- the logothetes tou genikou who was in charge of the land tax amongst many others
- the logothetes tou dromou who was in charge of foreign affairs, internal security, the public post, protection of the emperor, roads, and official public ceremonies.
In the 8th century CE, when armies of certain themes and strategoi posed a threat to the emperor’s position, the themes were reorganised into smaller regional units to reduce their military power. By the 11th century CE, the theme system went into decline as emperors like Basil II (r. 976-1025 CE) preferred to rely on the greater loyalty of their own private army. The strategoi were gradually replaced by other officials with less overall powers such as the doux or katepano (military governor) and praitor (responsible for fiscal and judicial matters).