title: Ibn Hazm

text: Apart from his rational works, Ibn Hazm's The Ring of the Dove ("Tawq al-hamamah)" is considered a major work of Arabic literature from Al-Andalus.


title: Ibn Hazm

text: In "Fisal" ("Detailed Critical Examination"), a treatise on Islamic science and theology, Ibn Hazm promoted sense perception above subjectively flawed human reason. Recognizing the importance of reason, as the Qur'an itself invites reflection, he argued that reflection to refer mainly to revelation and sense data since the principles of reason are themselves derived entirely from sense experience. He concludes that reason is not a faculty for independent research or discovery, but that sense perception should be used in its place, an idea that forms the basis of empiricism.


title: Ibn Hazm

text: Perhaps Ibn Hazm's most influential work in the Arabic, selections of which have been translated into English, is now "The Muhalla" (المحلى بالأثار), or "The Adorned Treatise". It is reported to be a summary of a much longer work, known as "Al-Mujalla" (المجلى). Its essential focus is on matters of jurisprudence or fiqh (فقه), but it also touches of matters of creed in its first chapter, "Kitab al-Tawheed" (كتاب التوحيد), whose focus is on credal matters related to monotheism and the fundamental principles of approach to divine texts. One of the main points that emerges from the masterpiece of jurisprudencial thought is that Ibn Hazm rejects analogical reasoning (qiyas قياس) but prefers a far more direct and literal approach to the texts.


title: Ibn Hazm

text: Ibn Hazm wrote the "Scope of Logic", which stressed on the importance of sense perception as a source of knowledge. He wrote that the "first sources of all human knowledge are the soundly used senses and the intuitions of reason, combined with a correct understanding of a language". Ibn Hazm also criticized some of the more traditionalist theologians who were opposed to the use of logic and argued that the first generations of Muslims did not rely on logic. His response was that the early Muslims had witnessed the revelation directly, but later Muslims have been exposed to contrasting beliefs and so the use of logic is necessary to preserve the true teachings of Islam. The work was first republished in Arabic by Ihsan Abbas in 1959 and most recently by Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri in 2007.


title: Ibn Hazm

text: Do not use your energy except for a cause more noble than yourself. Such a cause cannot be found except in Almighty God Himself: to preach the truth, to defend womanhood, to repel humiliation which your creator has not imposed upon you, to help the oppressed. Anyone who uses his energy for the sake of the vanities of the world is like someone who exchanges gemstones for gravel.


title: Ibn Hazm

text: A poem or fragment of a poem by him is preserved in Ibn Said al-Maghribi's "Pennants of the Champions":


title: Ibn Hazm

text: Ibn Hazm's teachers in medicine included al-Zahrawi and Ibn al-Kattani, and he wrote ten medical works, including "Kitab fi'l-Adwiya al-mufrada" mentioned by al-Dhahabi.


title: Ibn Hazm

text: In addition to his views on honesty in communication, Ibn Hazm also addressed the science of language to some degree. He viewed the Arabic language, the Hebrew language and the Syriac language as all essentially being one language which branched out as the speakers settled in different geographic regions and developed different vocabularies and grammars from the common root. He also differed with many Muslim theologians in that he did not view Arabic as superior to other languages since the Qur'an does not describe Arabic as such. Ibn Hazm viewed that there was no proof for claiming any language was superior to another.


title: Ibn Hazm

text: Ibn Hazm was well known for his strict literalism and is considered the champion of the literalist Zahirite school within Sunni Islām. A commonly-cited example is his interpretation of the first half of verse 23 in the Qur'anic chapter of Al-Isra prohibiting one from saying "uff" to one's parents. Ibn Hazm said that half of the verse prohibits only saying "uff", not hitting one's parents, for example. However, he considered that hitting them is prohibited by the second half of the verse as well as verse 24 which command kind treatment of parents.


title: Ibn Hazm

text: Ibn Hazm's works lightly touched upon the traditions of Greek philosophy. Agreeing with both Epicurus and Prodicus of Ceos, he stated that pleasure brings happiness in life and that there is nothing to fear in death. He believed that these philosophical traditions were useful but not enough to build an individual's character properly, and he stated that the Islamic faith was also necessary.


title: Ibn Hazm

text: The concept of absolute free will was rejected by Ibn Hazm, as he believed that all of an individual's attributes are created by God.


title: Ibn Hazm

text: Ibn Hazm was highly critical of the Shia. He said about the sect:The Persians possessed a great kingdom and an upper hand above all other nations. They magnified the danger they posed [to others nations] by calling themselves al-Ahrār (the free ones) and al-Asyād (the noble ones). As a result, they considered all other people their slaves. However, they were afflicted with the destruction of their empire at the hands of the Arabs whom they had considered a lesser danger among the other nations [to their empire]. Their affairs became exacerbated and their afflictions doubled as they plotted wars against Islam various times. However, in all of their plots, Allāh made the Truth manifest. They continued to plot more useful stunts. So, some of their people accepted Islām only to turn towards Shī'ism, with the claim of loving Ahl al-Bayt (the family of the Prophet) and abhorrence to the oppression against 'Alī. Then, they traversed upon this way until it led them away from the path of Guidance [Islām].


title: Ibn Hazm

text: Muslim scholars, especially those subscribing to Zahirism, have often praised Ibn Hazm for what they perceive as his knowledge and perseverance. Yemeni preacher Muqbil bin Hadi al-Wadi'i was one of Ibn Hazm's admirers in recent times, holding the view that no other Muslim scholar had embodied the prophetic tradition of the Muhammad and the Sahaba. On several occasions, al-Wadi'i rejected the validity of Qiyas while referencing Ibn Hazm's works. As a matter of fact, al-Wadi'i would at times advice his students to be Zahiri when approaching Fiqh altogether. Similarly, Pakistani cleric Badi' ud-Din Shah al-Rashidi taught Ibn Hazm's book Al-Muhalla to students in Masjid al-Haram, while living in Mecca. al-Wadi'i himself taught Al-Muhalla in Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, while in Medina. Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri, the primary biographer of Ibn Hazm in the modern era, has authored a number of works on Ibn Hazm's life and career, many published through Ibn Aqil's printing press which is named after Ibn Hazm.


title: Ibn Hazm

text: Modernist revival of Ibn Hazm's general critique of Islamic legal theory has seen several key moments in Arab intellectual history, including Ahmad Shakir's re-publishing of Al-Muhalla, Muhammad Abu Zahra's biography of Ibn Hazm, and the re-publishing of archived epistles on legal theory by Sa'id al-Afghani in 1960 and Ihsan Abbas between 1980 and 1983.


title: Diminished triad

text: In music theory, a diminished triad (also known as the minor flatted fifth) is a triad consisting of two minor thirds above the root. It is a minor triad with a lowered (flattened) fifth. When using chord symbols, it may be indicated by the symbols "dim", "", "m", or "". However, in most popular-music chord books, the symbol "dim" and "" represents a diminished seventh chord (a four-tone chord), which in some modern jazz books and music theory books is represented by the "dim7" or "" symbols.


title: Diminished triad

text: In the common practice period, the diminished triad is considered dissonant because of the diminished fifth (or tritone).


title: Diminished triad

text: In major scales, a diminished triad occurs only on the seventh scale degree. For instance, in the key of C, this is a B diminished triad (B, D, F). Since the triad is built on the seventh scale degree, it is also called the "leading-tone triad". This chord has a dominant function. Unlike the dominant triad or dominant seventh, the leading-tone triad functions as a prolongational chord rather than a structural chord since the strong root motion by fifth is absent.


title: Diminished triad

text: On the other hand, in natural minor scales, the diminished triad occurs on the second scale degree; in the key of C minor, this is the D diminished triad (D, F, A). This triad is consequently called the "supertonic diminished triad". Like the supertonic minor triad found in a major key, the supertonic diminished triad has a predominant function, almost always resolving to a dominant functioning chord.


title: Diminished triad

text: If the music is in a minor key, diminished triads can also be found on the raised seventh note, vii. This is because the ascending melodic minor scale has a raised sixth and seventh degree. For example, the chord progression vii–i is common.


title: Diminished triad

text: The leading-tone diminished triad and supertonic diminished triad are usually found in first inversion (vii and ii, respectively) since the spelling of the chord forms a diminished fifth with the bass. This differs from the fully diminished seventh chord, which commonly occurs in root position. In both cases, the bass resolves up and the upper voices move downwards in contrary motion.


title: Diminished triad

text: Walter Everett writes that "In rock and pop music, the diminished triad nearly always appears on the second scale degree, forming a generally maudlin and dejected ii with its members, 2–4–6." Songs that feature ii include Santo & Johnny's "Sleep Walk", Jay and the Americans' "Cara Mia", and The Hollies' "The Air That I Breathe". Not so rare but rare enough so as to imply knowledge of and conscious avoidance on the part of rock musicians, examples of its use include Oasis' "Don't Look Back in Anger", David Bowie's "Space Oddity", and two in Daryl Hall's "Everytime You Go Away".


title: Diminished triad

text: The vii in major keys is relatively less common than the ii, but still does happen. It is almost always used to tonicize the relative minor, in progressions such as vii–V/vi–vi, which resembles ii–V–i in the relative minor.


title: Diminished triad

text: In a twelve-tone equal temperament, a diminished triad has three semitones between the third and fifth, three semitones between the root and third, and six semitones between the root and fifth.


title: Diminished triad

text: In 5-limit just intonation, the diminished chord on VII (in C: B–D–F) is 15:8, 9:8, and 4:3, while on II (in C: D–F–A) it is 9:8, 4:3, and 8:5 (135:160:192). According to Georg Andreas Sorge, the trumpet, in its overtone series on C, gives the diminished triad E–G–B = 5:6:7 ("perfect diminished chord"), but the 7 is too flat and 45:54:64 is preferred. Helmholtz describes the diminished triad as  − D | F, giving a just minor third and Pythagorean minor third (45:54:64) in the notation system used in "On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music".


title: El País

text: El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. "El País" is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA.


title: El País

text: It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . "El País" is the most read newspaper in Spanish online and one of the Madrid dailies considered to be a national newspaper of record for Spain (along with "El Mundo" and "ABC)". In 2018, its number of daily sales were 138,000.


title: El País

text: Its headquarters and central editorial staff are located in Madrid, although there are regional offices in the principal Spanish cities (Barcelona, Seville, Valencia, Bilbao, and Santiago de Compostela) where regional editions were produced until 2015. "El País" also produces a world edition in Madrid that is available online in English and in Spanish (Latin America).


title: El País

text: "El País" was founded in May 1976 by a team at PRISA which included Jesus de Polanco, José Ortega Spottorno and Carlos Mendo. The paper was designed by Reinhard Gade and Julio Alonso. It was first published on 4 May 1976, six months after the death of dictator Francisco Franco, and at the beginning of the Spanish transition to democracy. The first editor-in-chief of the daily was Juan Luis Cebrián.


title: El País

text: "El País" was the first pro-democracy newspaper within a context where all the other Spanish newspapers were influenced by Franco's ideology. The circulation of the paper was 116,600 copies in its first year. It rose to 138,000 copies in 1977.


title: El País

text: In 1978, "El País" suffered a far-right terrorist attack due to political upheaval. Four people were injured, two greatly, and one died. The building also suffered structural damage.


title: El País

text: "El País" filled a gap in the market and became the newspaper of Spanish democracy, for which role "El País" was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and the Humanities in 1983, at a time when the transition from Franco's dictatorship to democracy was still developing. The paper's first Director (until 1988) was Juan Luis Cebrián, who came from the daily newspaper "Informaciones". Like many other Spanish journalists of the time he had worked for "Diario Pueblo" (meaning "People's Daily" in English) which was a mouthpiece for the Francoist .


title: El País

text: Its reputation as a bastion of Spanish democracy was established during the attempted coup d'état by Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero of the Guardia Civil on 23 February 1981. During the uncertain situation of the night of 23 February 1981, when all members of parliament were held hostage in the Congress building and with tanks on the streets of Valencia, and before the state television station could transmit a speech by King Juan Carlos I condemning the coup, "El País" published a special edition of the newspaper called <nowiki>'</nowiki>"El País", for the Constitution'. It was the first available daily paper during the situation with a pro-democracy position. It called on citizens to demonstrate in favor of democracy, and was widely discussed in the news media so much so that the director of "El País", Juan Luis Cebrián, called the then director of "Diario 16", Pedro J. Ramírez, in order to propose that both newspapers work on a joint pro-democracy publication; Ramírez refused, claiming that he would prefer to wait a few hours to see how the situation developed. "Diario 16" was not published until after a television broadcast by the king. Along with its commitment to democracy before the attempted coup of 23 February 1981, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party's election victory in 1982 with an absolute majority and its open support for the government of Felipe González, meant that "El País" consolidated its position during the 1980s as the Spanish newspaper with the most sales ahead of the conservative leaning "ABC".


title: El País

text: In 1986, "El País" was the recipient of the Four Freedom Award for the Freedom of Speech by the Roosevelt Institute.


title: El País

text: In 1987, "El País" received the largest amount of state aid. Both the rigorous journalistic standards and the fact that it was the first Spanish newspaper to establish internal quality control standards have increased the standing of "El País". It was also the first Spanish daily to create the role of "Reader's Advocate," and the first to publish a "Style Guide", that has since become a quality benchmark among journalists. "El País" has also established a number of collaborative agreements with other European newspapers with a social democrat viewpoint. In 1989, "El País" participated in the creation of a common network of information resources with "La Repubblica" in Italy and "Le Monde" in France.


title: El País

text: At the beginning of the 1990s, "El País" had to face a new political and journalistic challenge. The increasing political tensions caused by corruption scandals involving the socialist government of Felipe González polarized both the Spanish political classes and the press of the left and right wings. Since that time both the Partido Popular and the media aligned with it have accused "El País" and the other companies owned by PRISA. along with Sogecable of supporting the interests of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). Despite this, "El País" has managed to maintain its position as the best selling generalist daily in Spain, although its lead over "El Mundo" has been reduced. Both in 1993 and 1994 it was the best selling newspaper in the country with a circulation of 401,258 copies and 408,267 copies, respectively. In the period of 1995–1996 "El País" had a circulation of 420,934 copies, making it again the best-selling paper in the country.


title: El País

text: Since October 2001, an English language supplement of "El País" has been included in the Spanish version of the "International Herald Tribune". This content can also be found on El País' internet site.


title: El País

text: In 2001 "El País" had a circulation of 433,617 copies and it was 435,298 copies next year. The paper had a circulation of 435,000 copies in 2003. On March 11, 2004, Spain suffered Europe's first jihadist terror attack with a nearly simultaneous, coordinated bombings against the Cercanías commuter train system of Madrid, Spain, on the morning of 11 March 2004 – three days before Spain's general elections. The day of the attacks, then prime minister José María Aznar, from the ruling conservative party called "El País" editor in chief Jesús Ceberio and gave him assurances that the attacks had been planned and executed by the Basque terrorist group ETA. Despite having no other confirmation, Ceberio ran a front page blaming ETA for the attack, having to correct course the following day. Ceberio, who would continue as editor for three more years, published an editorial piece accusing Aznar of manipulating him.


title: El País

text: "El País" was awarded the World's Best Designed Newspaper™ for 2006 by the Society for News Design (SND). Based on the findings of the European Business Readership Survey the paper had 14,589 readers per issue in 2006. The circulation of the daily was 425,927 copies between June 2006 and July 2007. On 24 January 2013, "El País" published a wrong report about the health status of then Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, with photography of an unknown man from a 2008 YouTube video, provided by the news agency Gtres Online and published on the front page of the paper's print edition as a picture of the Venezuelan president.


title: El País

text: In August 2019, the newspaper's online edition published an obituary of king Juan Carlos I even though the former monarch was actually recovering from major cardiac surgery. The El País management explained that the article was published due to an “algorithm error.”


title: El País

text: The paper has criticized figures such as Che Guevara, among others. It impugned Guevara's advocacy of armed struggle.


title: El País

text: The 16 February 2012 edition of "El País" was banned in Morocco due to the publication of a cartoon which, according to the Moroccan authorities, tarnished King Mohammed VI's name.


title: El País

text: In January 2018, "El País" was sentenced to publish a rectification article after the Catalan TV channel TV3 denounced the newspaper for "harming the TV channel's image" with an article which contained "inaccurate data". A similar case happened between El País and the Catalan businessman Jaume Roures, with El País being sentenced after publishing Roures had 250 million Euros in tax havens.


title: El País

text: According to a report prepared by the Parliament of the United Kingdom fake news committee written by the nonprofit organization Transparency Toolkit and published in April 2018, "El País" had published "numerous examples of misinterpretations of data sources, use of inaccurate information, lack of attention to detail and a poor research methodology" regarding the alleged Russian involvement in the Catalan independence referendum. It describes their conclusions as "exceptionally deceptive" and concludes "there may be a temptation to use groundless allegations of fake news to support political argument".


title: El País

text: On 26 September 2007, the paper published the Bush-Aznar memo, a leaked transcript of a closed-door meeting between U.S. president George W. Bush and Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar, shortly before the invasion of Iraq. In 2007 the circulation of "El País" was about 400,000 copies.


title: El País

text: During the premiership of the PSOE's José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, "El País" published several articles criticizing the policies of the Zapatero government. This provided opportunities for new entrants to represent the dissentient, anti establishment left, such as the appearance of the daily newspaper "Público".


title: El País

text: The 2008 circulation of "El País" was 435,000 copies, making it the second most read daily in the country, only after the sport-daily Marca. It was 267,000 in April 2014.


title: El País

text: In March 2015, "El País", together with six other international newspapers, founded an alliance called the Leading European Newspaper Alliance (LENA).


title: El País

text: In June 2016, "El País Brasil" was found in a list of political newspapers that received money from the Workers Party government.


title: El País

text: The current editor Soledad Gallego Díaz has been brought to court after dismissing five employees for what the accusers maintain are political and ideological reasons.


title: El País

text: "El País" has had five editors-in-chief since it was founded in 1976. In February 2014 it was announced that Antonio Caño would be proposed as new editor-in-chief, appointment that was ratified by the Board of Directors and became effective on 3 May 2014. In June 2018, Soledad Gallego-Díaz became the first-ever female editor of El País. Gallego-Díaz was replaced by Javier Moreno in June 2020. In July 2021, Pepa Bueno was appointed as the new editor.


title: El País

text: The appearance of "El País" is characterized by its sobriety, in both its treatment of information and its aesthetics. Most pages contain five columns arranged in a neat, clear manner with distinct journalistic sub-categories. Photographs and graphics play a secondary, supporting role to the written word. The newspaper had had the same design from its foundation until the end of 2007, with little change (it previously used only black-and-white (monochrome) photographs, although the current format includes color photographs and more imaginative design, mainly in the varied supplements), and the same Times Roman font.


title: El País

text: The newspaper's format was revamped on 21 October 2007 with changes to its printed form, its digital presence on the Internet and the replacement of its historical motto 'Independent morning daily' with 'Global Spanish language newspaper'. The paper began to be published in tabloid format. Other notable changes are the inclusion of the acute accent in its title header and the substitution of Times Roman by "Majerit", a specially-commissioned plain serif font.


title: El País

text: In the mid-1990s, "El País" was the second Spanish newspaper to publish an internet edition, "El País digital" (the first was the Catalan newspaper "Avui"). On 18 November 2002, it became the first Spanish newspaper to introduce a payment system for access to the contents of its electronic version, which drastically reduced the number of visits to the website, to the extent that "El Mundo", which maintained open access to the majority of its contents, became the leading Spanish digital newspaper. After taking this decision "El País digital" was suspended in 2002 by the Oficina de Justificación de la Difusión for four months because of two serious breaches of OJD regulations. The "El País digital" website opened again on 3 June 2005 with free access to the majority of the contents. Subscription was required to gain access to multimedia contents and to the newspaper's archive.


title: El País

text: The paper's ideology has been defined by a leaning towards Europeanism, progressivism, and social liberalism. Politically, it was situated in the center-left during most of Spain's transition to democracy. It regularly criticized the conservative government of Mariano Rajoy (2011–2018) over corruption scandals, economic performance, and a "do-nothing" approach to the Catalan crisis.


title: El País

text: In the late 1970s and 1980s, "El País" had close connections with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). The paper has repeatedly supported King Juan Carlos I for his contribution to the consolidation of democracy, especially, for his decisive intervention in aborting the coup of 23 February 1981. The paper is characterized by the amount of space it gives to the reporting of international news, culture and information regarding the economy as well as Spanish news. It has specific columnists and contributors from different social backgrounds contributing to the democratic and pro-European editorial line of the newspaper.


title: Up in Smoke Tour

text: The Up in Smoke Tour was a West Coast hip hop tour in 2000 which was headlined by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, also featuring artists and disc jockeys Ice Cube, Eminem, Proof, Nate Dogg, Kurupt, D12, MC Ren, Westside Connection, Chilldrin of da Ghetto, Mel-Man, Tha Eastsidaz, Doggy's Angels, Devin The Dude, Warren G, Crucial Conflict, TQ, Truth Hurts, Xzibit, The D.O.C., Hittman, DJ Crazy Toones, Six-Two, Ms. Toi, & DJ Jam


title: Up in Smoke Tour

text: The tour was originally called "The Boyz in the Hood" under the pretext of Dr. Dre's to-be-released collaborative album "2001". In September 1999, Snoop Dogg stated that he, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Xzibit, Warren G and Nate Dogg would form the line-up. By April 2000, Ice Cube was on board as part of the tour, which was slated for a June 15 start in San Diego. MC Ren, one of the former members of N.W.A, was expected to join the tour in order to have reunited version of N.W.A along with Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Snoop Dogg. Come May, the tour was officially known as the "Up In Smoke Tour", and Dr. Dre was promising fans "It's gonna be incredible. We're gonna give everybody that's been buying our records a real show, something they've never seen before."


title: Up in Smoke Tour

text: By June, the month which the tour began in, plans were finalised with Kurupt joining the tour. It was decided that he would start the opening set, which would be followed by Warren G and Xzibit, then Ice Cube would take the third spot whilst Eminem would take the fourth set. Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg would be the final set with collaborations including the N.W.A reunion taking place during this segment. MC and N.W.A affiliate The D.O.C. appeared on stage with Dre and Snoop Dogg on July 20, 2000 at The Centrum in Worcester, Massachusetts, when they performed the intro to "Let Me Ride" and "Still D.R.E.". Also, surprise guests were promised during various shows.


title: Up in Smoke Tour

text: In October 2009, Aftermath Entertainment artist Bishop Lamont said to expect another Up in Smoke Tour when Dr. Dre's studio album, "Detox" was released. Expected to tour were: G-Unit, Eminem, Snoop Dogg and other Aftermath artists. However, with the cancellation of Detox, another Up in Smoke Tour is unconfirmed. In 2015 Dr. Dre hinted to a European tour similar to the Up in Smoke Tour, wanting to call it the Beats & Rhymes tour. Potential guests for the tour, according to Dr. Dre, would be Kendrick Lamar, Eminem and Snoop Dogg. A year later Snoop confirmed that the tour is still in the works.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: Ahmed Ben Bella ( ""; 25 December 1916 – 11 April 2012) was an Algerian politician, soldier and socialist revolutionary who served as the head of government of Algeria from 27 September 1962 to 15 September 1963 and then the first president of Algeria from 15 September 1963 to 19 June 1965.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: Ahmed Ben Bella was born in Maghnia, in the former department of Oran, western Algeria, to Moroccan parents from the Arab tribe of Beni Hassan on 25 December 1916, during the height of the French colonial period.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: Ben Bella was the son of a farmer and small businessman; he had five brothers and two sisters. His oldest brother died from wounds received in the First World War, during which he fought for France. Another brother died from illness and a third disappeared in France in 1940, during the mayhem of the Nazi victory.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: Ben Bella began his studies in Maghnia, where he went to the French school, and continued them in the city of Tlemcen, where he first became aware of racial discrimination. Disturbed by the animus against Muslims expressed by his European teacher, he began chafing against imperialism and colonialism and criticized the domination of French cultural influence over Algeria. During this period, he joined the nationalist movement.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: Ben Bella first volunteered for service in the French Army in 1936. The Army was one of the few avenues of advancement for Algerians under colonial rule and voluntary enlistment was common. Posted to Marseille, he played center midfield for Olympique de Marseille in 1939–1940. His only appearance for the club was in a game against FC Antibes in the Coupe de France on 29 April 1940 in Cannes, during which he scored a goal. Club officials offered him a professional spot on the team, but he rejected the offer. He also played for IRB Maghnia.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: Ben Bella enlisted again in 1940, believing that the French Army offered the best opportunity for non-discriminatory treatment of Algerians. Fighting for France during the Second World War, he was decorated twice, receiving the "Croix de Guerre" after manning an anti-aircraft post during the Nazi invasion in 1940. He was demobilised after the fall of France, but joined a Free French regiment of Moroccan "tirailleurs" (infantry) with whom he saw service throughout the Italian campaign. In Italy, he was decorated for bravery demonstrated at the Battle of Monte Cassino, during which he dragged a wounded commissioned officer to safety, assuming control of his battalion. For this, he was promoted to the rank of warrant officer and received the Médaille militaire, the highest decoration of the Free French forces, directly from Charles de Gaulle.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: On 8 May 1945, while France was celebrating Germany's surrender, widespread protests erupted in the Algerian town of Sétif. The war had intensified colonial repression of the Algerians, prompting a backlash that led to the deaths of more than 100 Europeans and around 1,500 Algerians, according to official reports. Anti-colonial insurgents, however, put the number of Algerian deaths at around 10,000. The fallout from the Sétif uprising shocked Ben Bella and his Algerian companions, as they realized that France would not recognize their claim to equal treatment despite their wartime service.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: After the events in Setif, Ben Bella returned to Algeria, becoming politically active in the opposition movement against the French regime. French authorities sent assailants with the intention of assassinating him on his farm.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: The attempt against his life failed, but the farm was confiscated and he went into hiding. After the nationalist parties had achieved great success in local elections in 1947, by this was followed by the fixing of the Algerian Assembly elections in 1948 by French officials, agreed to and justified by the Socialist Governor-General Marcel-Edmond Naegelen, Ben Bella became convinced that achieving democratic independence through peaceful means was illusory. Together with Messali Hadj and his party, he helped to found the "Organisation Spéciale" (OS), a paramilitary organization whose strategic aim was to take up arms against the French colonial regime as quickly as possible. This group became the immediate predecessor of the National Liberation Front.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: In 1949, Ben Bella was involved in the robbing of the central post office in Oran to gain funds for the organization. He was eventually caught in 1951 and sentenced to eight years' imprisonment in Blida jail. He escaped soon afterwards, making his way to Tunisia and then to Egypt, reaching Cairo by 1952.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: At the outbreak of the Algerian War in 1954, Ben Bella was based in Cairo, where he had become one of the nine members of the Revolutionary Committee of Unity and Action that headed the "Front de Liberation Nationale" (FLN), founded in November that year during a secret meeting of Algerian leaders in Switzerland. The FLN soon began armed insurrection against the French colonists, which became a guerilla war in Algeria.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: Ben Bella played an important role during the war, leading the FLN, organizing the shipment of foreign weapons and coordinating political strategy. Although he was not present in Algeria, attempts against his life persisted. In 1956, he refused to receive a package delivered by taxi to his hotel in Cairo. A bomb exploded inside the taxi as it drove away, killing the driver.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: That same year, while in his hotel in Tripoli, a French gunman entered his room and fired, wounding but not killing him. The shooter was later killed by guards while fleeing, at the Libyan border. In October 1956, he was arrested in Algiers by French military authorities, who hijacked the plane on which he was flying. He was kept prisoner until the Evian accords in 1962, and released on 5 July.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: After national independence, he was named vice president of Algeria in Benyoucef Benkhedda's cabinet.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: His arrest earlier had led to the resignation of Alain Savary, who was opposed to Guy Mollet's policies; as a prisoner during the height of the FLN terror campaign, he remained relatively untarnished by his association with the organization.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: Like many Arab revolutionaries of the time, he came to describe himself as a "Nasserist" and developed close ties to Egypt even before national independence was achieved. Nasser's material, moral and political support of the Algerian movement became a source of geopolitical trouble for Egypt, as it played a major role in France's decision to wage war against him during the 1956 Suez Crisis.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: Due to Pakistan's support for the FLN, Ben Bella had been given a Pakistani diplomatic passport to make his foreign travels possible in the face of an international manhunt co-ordinated by the French and their allies.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: Ben Bella also traveled on a Pakistani diplomatic passport during the years of his exile from Algeria in the 1980s.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: After Algeria's independence, Ben Bella quickly became a popular leader. In June 1962, he challenged the leadership of the premier, Benyoucef Benkhedda. This led to several disputes among his rivals in the FLN, which were quickly suppressed by Ben Bella's rapidly growing number of supporters, most notably within the armed forces, whose chief was Houari Boumédiènne. Boumédiènne marched his supporter troops to Algiers and Ben Bella seized power on 4 August in a coup d'état. By September 1962, Bella was in control of Algeria in all but name. He was elected premier in a one-sided election on 20 September, which was recognized by the United States on 29 September. Algeria was admitted as the 109th member of the United Nations on 8 October 1962.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: As prime minister, Ben Bella arranged to legalize the seizures of autogestion spontaneously undertaken by Algerian workers. In March 1963, he drew up (with his circle of advisers) a set of decrees to nationalize all previously European-owned land. In his words, the "Tripoli program remained a dead letter, and independence and revolution made no sense, as long as Algerian soil was in hands of the big landowners".


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: He used his position to push for the approval of the constitution drawn up by the FLN, and alienated allies. Mohammed Khider and Ferhat Abbas resigned their political offices in 1963, dismayed by the dictatorial tendencies on display in Ben Bella's proposed constitution, which enshrined a one-party state and rejected political pluralism. Nevertheless, this action presented no problem to the Algerian people: the constitution was approved and, on 15 September 1963, Ben Bella was elected president of the country, unopposed and with an immense majority.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: During his presidency, Ben Bella was confronted with the challenge of building a postcolonial state infrastructure from the ground up; the country had no independent state traditions and its senior civil servants had always been staffed by the French. Despite a predisposition toward an egalitarian way of governing and a lifestyle lacking in extravagance (he did not live in the governor's palace, and maintained an open-door policy with Algerian citizens), Ben Bella's actions in government did not always match his intentions. After stabilizing the country, he embarked on a series of initially popular but chaotically handled land reforms for the benefit of landless farmers, and increasingly turned to socialist rhetoric.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: His policy of autogestion, or self-management, was adopted after Algerian peasants seized former French lands and was inspired by Marxist Yugoslavian leader Josip Broz Tito. He also worked on the development of his country, instituting reforms, undertaking campaigns for national literacy, and nationalizing several industries and calling for socialization of the economy and Arabization.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: On many occasions, however, he improvised government policy as he went, as with his National Solidarity Fund, for which he asked the Algerian people to "voluntarily" hand over jewellery and banknotes.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: In international relations, he had to maintain connections with the former colonial master France, and also accepted economic aid from both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, as each sought to move his regime into its orbit and into opposition to the other. At the same time, Ben Bella wished Algeria to become a leader of Third World liberation movements and of the Third World itself. In order to strengthen relations with other colonies and former colonies, Algeria joined the Non-Aligned Movement under Ben Bella’s regime, and he forged links with such African leaders as Gamal Abdel Nasser, Kwame Nkrumah, Modibo Keita and Sekou Toure to aid rebel movements throughout Africa.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: He also established good relations with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and Cuba. After his 1962 visit, Cuba sent a health mission to Algeria, with doctors and medical help, and later sent weapons and soldiers as aid during the Sand War against Morocco. He was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 30 April 1964.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: During his tenure, Ben Bella encountered political struggles with former leaders of the FLN, including Mohammed Khider, Ferhat Abbas, Mohammed Boudiaf and Hocine Aït Ahmed. Ahmed founded the Front des Forces Socialistes (Socialist Forces Front) (FFS) to confront Ben Bella, and the others joined after being alienated by Ben Bella's dictatorial leadership. In 1963, the FFS called for an armed revolt against the regime. However, it had force only in the Kabylia region, and by the summer of 1964 the revolt was controlled and FFS leaders were arrested.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: In addition to political resistance, Ben Bella faced religious opposition. The Association of the Algerian Ulema claimed that the "state Islam" that Ben Bella wanted to achieve was not an application of true Muslim values, but rather an attempt to please the population.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: His government was overthrown in June 1965 while he was planning to host an Afro-Asian international meeting, in a bloodless coup led by his defense minister Houari Boumédiène. He was held for eight months in an underground prison, then for the next 14 years lived under house arrest.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: After being deposed in 1965, Ben Bella was detained for eight months in prison. He was then transferred to an isolated villa in Birouta, where he was placed under house arrest for 14 years. He was, however, permitted a private life there, and in 1971 he married Zhora Sellami, an Algerian journalist; their meeting was arranged by Ben Bella’s mother. They became religiously observant Muslims, and adopted two girls, Mehdia and Nouria. After Boumedienne's death in 1978, restrictions on him were eased in July 1979, and he was freed on 30 October 1980. Ben Bella briefly resided in France but was then expelled in 1983. He moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, and launched the Mouvement pour la Démocratie en Algérie (MDA), a moderate Islamic opposition party, in 1984. In September 1990, he returned to Algeria, and, in 1991, led the MDA in the first round of the country's abortive parliamentary elections. The MDA was banned in 1997.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: In 2003, Ben Bella was elected president of the International Campaign Against Aggression on Iraq at its Cairo Conference. He described himself numerous times in interviews as an Islamist of a "mild and peace-loving flavour", Despite his former one-party state he later vocally advocated for democracy in Algeria. He described the militant tendency arising in the Islamic world as having developed from an incorrect and faulty interpretation of Islam. Despite controversies, he was respected for his role in the anti-colonial struggle and was seen by many Arab intellectuals as one of the last original Arab nationalists.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: He was also the chairperson of the African Union Panel of the Wise, which is mandated to advise the AU Commission on issues relevant to conflict prevention, management and resolution. The other members of the panel at the time were President Miguel Trovoada (former President of São Tomé and Príncipe), Dr. Salim A. Salim (former Secretary-General of the OAU), Dr. Brigalia Bam (Chair of South Africa's Electoral Commission) and Elisabeth Pognon (former President of the Constitutional Court of Benin).


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: In February 2012, Ben Bella was admitted to a hospital for medical checks. At the same time, a report circulated that he had died, but this was denied by his family.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: Ben Bella died on 11 April 2012 at his family home in Algiers. Though the reasons of his death were unknown, he had been treated for respiratory illnesses twice at Ain Naadja. His body lay in state on 12 April before the funeral at El Alia Cemetery on 13 April. Algeria declared eight days of national mourning.


title: Ahmed Ben Bella

text: Aussaresses, General Paul, "The Battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Algeria, 1955–1957". New York: Enigma Books, 2010. 978-1-929631-30-8.


title: Luminous flux

text: In photometry, luminous flux or luminous power is the measure of the perceived power of light. It differs from radiant flux, the measure of the total power of electromagnetic radiation (including infrared, ultraviolet, and visible light), in that luminous flux is adjusted to reflect the varying sensitivity of the human eye to different wavelengths of light.


title: Luminous flux

text: The SI unit of luminous flux is the lumen (lm). One lumen is defined as the luminous flux of light produced by a light source that emits one candela of luminous intensity over a solid angle of one steradian.


title: Luminous flux

text: The luminous flux accounts for the sensitivity of the eye by weighting the power at each wavelength with the luminosity function, which represents the eye's response to different wavelengths. The luminous flux is a weighted sum of the power at all wavelengths in the visible band. Light outside the visible band does not contribute. The ratio of the total luminous flux to the radiant flux is called the luminous efficacy.


title: Luminous flux

text: Luminous flux is often used as an objective measure of the useful light emitted by a light source, and is typically reported on the packaging for light bulbs, although it is not always prominent. Consumers commonly compare the luminous flux of different light bulbs since it provides an estimate of the apparent amount of light the bulb will produce, and a lightbulb with a higher ratio of luminous flux to consumed power is more efficient.


title: Luminous flux

text: Luminous flux is not used to compare brightness, as this is a subjective perception which varies according to the distance from the light source and the angular spread of the light from the source.


title: Luminous flux

text: Luminous flux (in lumens) is a measure of the total amount of light a lamp puts out. The luminous intensity (in candelas) is a measure of how bright the beam in a particular direction is. If a lamp has a 1 lumen bulb and the optics of the lamp are set up to focus the light evenly into a 1 steradian beam, then the beam would have a luminous intensity of 1 candela. If the optics were changed to concentrate the beam into 1/2 steradian then the source would have a luminous intensity of 2 candela. The resulting beam is narrower and brighter, however the luminous flux remains the same.


title: Houseplant

text: A houseplant, sometimes known as a pot plant, potted plant, or an indoor plant, is an ornamental plant that is grown indoors. As such, they are found in places like residences and offices, mainly for decorative purposes. Common houseplants are usually tropical or semi-tropical, and are often epiphytes, succulents or cacti.


title: Houseplant

text: The history of houseplants is intertwined with the history of container gardening in general. Ancient Egyptians and Sumerians grew ornamental and fruiting plants in decorative containers. Ancient Greeks and the Romans cultivated laurel trees in earthenware vessels. In ancient China, potted plants were shown at garden exhibitions over 2,500 years ago.


title: Houseplant

text: In the Renaissance, plant collectors and affluent merchants from Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium imported plants from Asia Minor and the East Indies. Creeping groundsel was introduced in Malta and the rest of Europe in the 15th century as an ornamental plant.


title: Houseplant

text: In the 17th century, fascination in exotic plants grew among the aristocracy of France and England, with inventor and writer Sir Hugh Platt publishing "Garden of Eden" in 1660, which was a book about how to grow plants indoors. Wealthy British households purchased imported fruit trees, especially citrus trees, to grow in specialized orangeries. Less wealthy people would also grow plants, especially flowers, indoors. Orange trees became less fashionable as international commerce in oranges became more widespread. Succulents, such as aloes, were also cultivated.


title: Houseplant

text: In the early 18th century, windows in London became wider and brighter, expanding the opportunities for the lower classes to grow plants indoors.


title: Houseplant

text: The expansion of European colonialism brought Europeans into contact with a wide variety of new plants, especially tropical plants more suited to growing as houseplants. Explorers and botanists brought over 5,000 species to Europe from South America, Africa, Asia and Australia.


title: Houseplant

text: Forcing plants into bloom out of season, especially bulbs, was very popular in this era. The decorative pot or cachepot specifically for growing houseplants (as opposed to a simple terracotta pot, or a decorative vase) was developed in this era as ceramic manufacturing took off.


title: Houseplant

text: Plant breeding developed in the late 17th and 18th centuries. These innovations were drawn and presented in the botanical gardens and in private court collections. At the end of the 18th century, flower tables became part of the salons. Furthermore, nurseries were flourishing in the 18th century, which stocked thousands of plants, including citrus, jasmines, mignonette, bays, myrtles, agaves and aloes.


title: Houseplant

text: The Victorian era saw the first use of houseplants by the middle class, which were perceived as a symbol of social status and moral value. Some foliage plants which tolerated the typical gloomy and snug environment inside a Victorian house became popular. The quintessential Victorian plants were palms (such as kentia palms and parlour palms), the cast iron plant, and ferns. Ferns were grown in Wardian cases, an early type of terrarium. Geraniums were often placed on window ledges and in drawing rooms, and were the most affordable houseplant for the average Briton.


title: Houseplant

text: In 1818, orchids were introduced to Europe when they were used as packing material for the shipment of other rare plants. German ivy was introduced in the United States sometime in the 19th century as a houseplant.


title: Houseplant

text: At the end of the 19th century, the range already included begonias, cineraria, clivia, cyclamen and flamingo flowers, but also leafy ornamental plants such as silver fir, ornamental asparagus, lilium, snake plant, and rubber tree.


title: Houseplant

text: In the early 20th century, there was a turn against houseplants as they were seen as dated relics of the cluttered Victorian era. When there were houseplants, the more architecturally-shaped cacti and succulents were the most common. In the 1920s, commercial houseplant production began in California, focused on the Kentia palm and the pothos, later expanding to include "Philodendron" and "Araucaria" species in the 1940s.


title: Houseplant

text: During World War II, houseplants became more common in offices, which began to more closely resemble the domestic environment as more women entered the workforce.


title: Houseplant

text: By 1960, Florida produced more than 55% of American houseplants, and has remained the main producer of houseplants for the American market since. Philodendrons, rubber plants and geraniums were mainstays of the postwar era. Many plants entered the United States and the United Kingdom through the influence of Scandinavian design, which featured plants. Tropical plants like bromeliads, birds of paradise, and philodendrons were popular accents in tiki-themed spaces. The postwar years also saw a broader commercialization of houseplants. In the 1960s, plant care labels were introduced, and garden centers became ubiquitous in the 1970s.


title: Houseplant

text: A lush display of houseplants fit into the environmentalist and hippie movements in the 1970s; a large indoor garden is characteristic of 1970s design. Leafy plants were popular, particularly ferns and spider plants, often in macramé hanging planters. "Monstera deliciosa", ferns, aloes and snake plants ("Dracaena" sp., usually sold under their former genus of Sanseveria) were also popular. Terrariums and bottle gardens began to appear as well.


title: Houseplant

text: In the 1980s, houseplants were often limited to large, lush statement pieces, particularly in bathrooms. The rise of shopping malls with large skylights created a new place for plants to be grown. In the 1990s, moth orchids became trendy. The 1990s also brought a wave of interest in artificial plants.


title: Houseplant

text: Beginning in the mid to late 2010s, fashionable plants from earlier decades were revitalized and popularized by social media, especially Instagram, with "plantstagram" becoming a major driver of trendy plants. In 2015, 5 million Americans took up plant-related hobbies. In 2017, 30% of American households purchased at least one houseplant.


title: Houseplant

text: Interest in houseplants exploded during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. With people forced to spend more time indoors, many sought to fill their homes with houseplants. Plants were mentioned on Instagram an average of more than 3,000 times a day in July 2021 and the hashtag #plantmom has been used more than 2.6 million times. Plant sales in 2020 were at an all-time high, which brought concerns about the environmental impact of the industry.


title: Houseplant

text: Some of the most popular plants in the 2020s are the "Monstera deliciosa" and other aroids, as well as the fiddle-leaf fig. This era saw a larger interest in growing plants with interesting or attractive forms or foliage, rather than focusing solely on flowers.


title: Houseplant

text: Houseplants have care requirements that differ from plants grown outdoors. Moisture, light, soil mixture, temperature, humidity, fertilizers, and potting are all important factors. Each plant species has different care requirements, and care requirements can vary based on the specific pot, location in a particular home and potting mix used.


title: Houseplant

text: Most houseplants are species that have adapted to survive in a temperature range between 15 °C to 25 °C (60 °F to 80 °F) year-round, because those adapted for temperate environments require winter temperatures outside of normal indoor conditions. Within that limitation, there are houseplants which are native to many different types of habitat, from tropical rainforests to succulents and cacti native to deserts. Many houseplants are either epiphytes or live in seasonally dry ecosystems that help them adapt to the dry indoor air and inconsistent watering many houseplants are subject to. Many of houseplants from tropical areas are understory plants, and because they grown in shady conditions naturally, they are often able to thrive in lower-light conditions.


title: Houseplant

text: Houseplants are typically grown in specialized soilless mixtures called "potting compost" (in the UK), "potting mix," or "potting soil". Most potting mixes contain a combination of peat or coir and vermiculite or perlite.


title: Houseplant

text: Keeping plants consistently too wet ("overwatering") leads to the roots sitting in water, which often leads to root rot. Root rot is the most common cause of death for houseplants, but keeping houseplants too dry ("under-watering") can also be detrimental.


title: Houseplant

text: Plants require nitrate, phosphate, and potassium to survive, as well as micronutrients including boron, zinc, manganese, iron, copper, molybdenum, and chlorine. Houseplants do not have access to these nutrients unless they are fertilized regularly.


title: Houseplant

text: House plants are generally planted in pots that have drainage holes, to reduce the likelihood of over-watering and standing water. Pots are typically broken down into two groups: porous and non-porous. Porous pots (usually terracotta) provide better aeration as air passes laterally through the sides of the pot. Non-porous pots such as glazed or plastic pots tend to hold moisture longer and restrict airflow.


title: Houseplant

text: Houseplants experience a range of pests. Fungus gnats, spider mites, mealybugs, thrips and scale are common pests.


title: Houseplant

text: Houseplants are also grown in a variety of media other than potting mix, often in a hydroponic or semi-hydroponic system. This may overlap with aquascaping. Materials like sand, gravel, brick, expanded clay aggregate and styrofoam may be employed.


title: Houseplant

text: Some epiphytic plants may be grown mounted, either with their roots in potting mix and their stems attached to supports, or with their roots wrapped in sphagnum moss and attached to a vertical surface with wire. This can also overlap with the practice of kokedama.


title: Houseplant

text: Houseplants are obtained either by collecting wild specimens of plants, or by growing them in greenhouses or commercial nurseries.


title: Houseplant

text: Wild collection of plants for the houseplant trade is a major threat to many species, especially plants with limited native ranges. Plants which are particularly threatened in this way are cacti, succulents, and carnivorous plants, especially Venus flytraps.


title: Houseplant

text: Plants grown for commercial production may be produced from seed, by using traditional propagation techniques, or through tissue culture. In 2002, the wholesale value of foliage plants grown in the United States was roughly 700 million dollars, mostly grown in Florida. In 2018, houseplant growers in the Netherlands produced a billion houseplants for the European market.


title: Houseplant

text: Houseplants do not have an appreciable effect on the concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in normal home environments: it would require between 10 and 1000 houseplants per square meter to achieve the same level of VOC removal as occurs from passive exchange between indoor and outdoor air.


title: Houseplant

text: The idea that houseplants have an appreciable effect on indoor air quality is largely based on the Clean Air Study conducted by NASA in the 1980s. The study tested plants in sealed chambers and with highly elevated levels of volatile organic compounds (specifically benzene, trichloroethylene and formaldehyde). It concluded that to the extent that houseplants improve air quality, the mechanism of action is microorganisms within the potting soil, rather than the plants themselves.


title: Houseplant

text: Houseplants do have a statistically significant effect on the concentrations of both carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in normal indoor environments, reducing carbon dioxide levels by 10-25% and carbon monoxide levels by up to 90%. The effect has been investigated by NASA for use in spacecraft.


title: Houseplant

text: Plants also appear to increase the number and diversity of bacteria in homes, while reducing fungal diversity. They tend to increase humidity, reduce temperature swings, and reduce noise.


title: Houseplant

text: There are also many claimed psychological and physiological benefits to having houseplants. A critical review of the experimental literature concluded "The reviewed studies suggest that indoor plants can provide psychological benefits such as stress-reduction and increased pain tolerance. However, they also showed substantial heterogeneity in methods and results. We therefore have strong reservations about general claims that indoor plants cause beneficial psychological changes. It appears that benefits are contingent on features of the context in which the indoor plants are encountered and on characteristics of the people encountering them."


title: Acer platanoides

text: Acer platanoides, commonly known as the Norway maple, is a species of maple native to eastern and central Europe and western Asia, from Spain east to Russia, north to southern Scandinavia and southeast to northern Iran. It was introduced to North America in the mid-1700s as a shade tree. It is a member of the family Sapindaceae.


title: Acer platanoides

text: "Acer platanoides" is a deciduous tree, growing to tall with a trunk up to in diameter, and a broad, rounded crown. The bark is grey-brown and shallowly grooved. Unlike many other maples, mature trees do not tend to develop a shaggy bark. The shoots are green at first, soon becoming pale brown. The winter buds are shiny red-brown.


title: Acer platanoides

text: The leaves are opposite, palmately lobed with five lobes, long and across; the lobes each bear one to three side teeth, and an otherwise smooth margin. The leaf petiole is long, and secretes a milky juice when broken. The autumn colour is usually yellow, occasionally orange-red.


title: Acer platanoides

text: The flowers are in corymbs of 15–30 together, yellow to yellow-green with five sepals and five petals long; flowering occurs in early spring before the new leaves emerge. The fruit is a double samara with two winged seeds. the seeds are disc-shaped, strongly flattened, across and thick. The wings are long, widely spread, approaching a 180° angle. It typically produces a large quantity of viable seeds.


title: Acer platanoides

text: Under ideal conditions in its native range, Norway maple may live up to 250 years, but often has a much shorter life expectancy; in North America, for example, sometimes only 60 years. Especially when used on streets, it can have insufficient space for its root network and is prone to the roots wrapping around themselves, girdling and killing the tree. In addition, their roots tend to be quite shallow and thereby they easily out-compete nearby plants for nutrient uptake. Norway maples often cause significant damage and cleanup costs for municipalities and homeowners when branches break off in storms as it does not have strong wood.


title: Acer platanoides

text: The Norway maple is a member (and is the type species) of the section "Platanoidea" Pax, characterised by flattened, disc-shaped seeds and the shoots and leaves containing milky sap. Other related species in this section include "Acer campestre" (field maple), "Acer cappadocicum" (Cappadocian maple), "Acer lobelii" (Lobel's maple), and "Acer truncatum" (Shandong maple). From the field maple, the Norway maple is distinguished by its larger leaves with pointed, not blunt, lobes, and from the other species by the presence of one or more teeth on all of the lobes.


title: Acer platanoides

text: It is also frequently confused with the more distantly related "Acer saccharum" (sugar maple). The sugar maple is easy to differentiate by clear sap in the petiole (leaf stem); Norway maple petioles have white sap. The tips of the points on Norway maple leaves reduce to a fine "hair", while the tips of the points on sugar maple leaves are, on close inspection, rounded. On mature trees, sugar maple bark is more shaggy, while Norway maple bark has small, often criss-crossing grooves. While the shape and angle of leaf lobes vary somewhat within all maple species, the leaf lobes of Norway maple tend to have a more triangular (acuminate) shape, in contrast to the more finely toothed lobes of sugar maples, that narrow towards the base. Flowering and seed production begins at ten years of age, however large quantities of seeds are not produced until the tree is 20. As with most maples, Norway maple is normally dioecious (separate male and female trees), occasionally monoecious, and trees may change gender from year to year.


title: Acer platanoides

text: The fruits of Norway maple are paired samaras with widely diverging wings, distinguishing them from those of sycamore, "Acer pseudoplatanus" which are at 90 degrees to each other. Norway maple seeds are flattened, while those of sugar maple are globose. The sugar maple usually has a brighter orange autumn color, where the Norway maple is usually yellow, although some of the red-leaved cultivars appear more orange.


title: Acer platanoides

text: The flowers emerge in spring before the leaves and last 2-3 weeks. Leafout of Norway maple occurs roughly when air temperatures reach 55°F (12°C) and there is at least 13 hours of daylight. Leaf drop in autumn is initiated when day lengths fall to approximately 10 hours. Depending on the latitude, leaf drop may vary by as much as three weeks, beginning in the second week of October in Scandinavia and the first week of November in southern Europe. Unlike some other maples that wait for the soil to warm up, "A. platanoides" seeds require only three months of exposure to temperatures lower than and will sprout in early spring, around the same time that leafout begins. Norway maple does not require freezing temperatures for proper growth, however it is adapted to higher latitudes with long summer days and does not perform well when planted south of the 37th parallel, the approximate southern limit of its range in Europe. Further, most North American Norway maples are believed descended from stock brought from Germany, at approximately 48N to 54N, not the more southerly ecotypes found in Italy and the Balkans that evolved for similar lighting conditions as the continental United States. The heavy seed crop and high germination rate contributes to its invasiveness in North America, where it forms dense monotypic stands that choke out native vegetation. The tree is also capable of growing in low lighting conditions within a forest canopy, leafs out earlier than most North American maple species, and its growing season tends to run longer as the lighting conditions of the United States (see above) result in fall dormancy occurring later than it does in the higher latitude of Europe. It is one of the few introduced species that can successfully invade and colonize a virgin forest. By comparison, in its native range, Norway maple is rarely a dominant species and instead occurs mostly as a scattered understory tree.


title: Acer platanoides

text: The wood is hard, yellowish-white to pale reddish, with the heartwood not distinct; it is used for furniture and woodturning. Norway maple sits ambiguously between hard and soft maple with a Janka hardness of . The wood is rated as non-durable to perishable in regard to decay resistance. In Europe, it is used for furniture, flooring and musical instruments. This species as grown in the former Yugoslavia is also called Bosnian maple, and is probably the maple used by the famous Italian violin makers, Stradivari and Guarneri.


title: Acer platanoides

text: Norway maple has been widely taken into cultivation in other areas, including western Europe northwest of its native range. It grows north of the Arctic Circle at Tromsø, Norway. In North America, it is planted as a street and shade tree as far north as Anchorage, Alaska. In Ontario, it is common in cultivation north to Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury; although not considered reliably hardy northward, it has been established at Kapuskasing and Iroquois Falls, and even at Moose Factory. It is most recommended in USDA Hardiness Zones 4 to 7 but will grow in warmer zones (at least up to Zone 10) where summer heat is moderate, as along the Pacific coast south to the Los Angeles basin. During the 1950s–60s it became popular as a street tree due to the large-scale loss of American elms from Dutch elm disease.


title: Acer platanoides

text: It is favored due to its tall trunk and tolerance of poor, compacted soils and urban pollution, conditions in which the sugar maple has difficulty. It has become a popular species for bonsai in Europe, and is used for medium to large bonsai sizes and a multitude of styles. Norway maples are not typically cultivated for maple syrup production due to the lower sugar content of the sap compared to sugar maple.


title: Acer platanoides

text: Many cultivars have been selected for distinctive leaf shapes or colorations, such as the dark purple of 'Crimson King' and 'Schwedleri', the variegated leaves of 'Drummondii', the light green of 'Emerald Queen', and the deeply divided, feathery leaves of 'Dissectum' and 'Lorbergii'. The purple-foliage cultivars have orange to red autumn colour. 'Columnare' is selected for its narrow upright growth. The cultivars 'Crimson King' and 'Prigold' () have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.


title: Acer platanoides

text: The Norway maple was introduced to northeastern North America between 1750 and 1760 as an ornamental shade tree. It was brought to the Pacific Northwest in the 1870s. Today, Norway maples tend to be most common in the Pacific Northwest, the Maritimes, and in southern Ontario. The roots of Norway maples grow very close to the ground surface, starving other plants of moisture. For example, lawn grass (and even weeds) will usually not grow well beneath a Norway maple, but English Ivy, with its minimal rooting needs, may thrive. In addition, the dense canopy of Norway maples can inhibit understory growth. Some have suggested Norway maples may also release chemicals to discourage undergrowth, although this claim is controversial. "A. platanoides" has been shown to inhibit the growth of native saplings as a canopy tree or as a sapling. The Norway maple also suffers less herbivory than the sugar maple, allowing it to gain a competitive advantage against the latter species. As a result of these characteristics, it is considered invasive in some states, and has been banned for sale in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The state of New York has classified it as an invasive plant species. Despite these steps, the species is still available and widely used for urban plantings in many areas.


title: Acer platanoides

text: Education about the invasive nature of the tree is expanding thanks to organizations like the National Audubon Society.


title: Acer platanoides

text: The larvae of a number of species of Lepidoptera feed on Norway maple foliage. "Ectoedemia sericopeza", the Norway maple seedminer, is a moth of the family Nepticulidae. The larvae emerge from eggs laid on the samara and tunnel to the seeds. Norway maple is generally free of serious diseases, though can be attacked by the powdery mildew "Uncinula bicornis", and verticillium wilt disease caused by "Verticillium" spp. "Tar spots" caused by "Rhytisma acerinum" infection are common but largely harmless. "Aceria pseudoplatani" is an acarine mite that causes a 'felt gall', found on the underside of leaves of both sycamore maple ("Acer pseudoplatanus") and Norway maples.


title: Leather pride flag

text: The leather pride flag is a symbol used by the leather subculture since the 1990s. It was designed by Tony DeBlase, and was quickly embraced by the gay leather community. It has since become associated with leather in general and also with related groups such as the BDSM community.


title: Leather pride flag

text: The flag was designed by Tony DeBlase. He first presented the design at International Mister Leather on May 28, 1989.


title: Leather pride flag

text: Some, particularly on the east coast, reacted positively to the concept, but were quite concerned, some even offended, that I had not involved the community in helping to create the design.


title: Leather pride flag

text: In June 1989, the flag was used by the leather contingent in a Portland, Oregon pride parade, which was its first appearance at a pride parade.


title: Leather pride flag

text: On September 18, 1990, Clive Platman (Mr. Australia "Drummer") presented Tony DeBlase with an Australian version of the flag, incorporating the southern cross, which is from the Australian national flag, with the original design of the leather pride flag.


title: Leather pride flag

text: On October 11, 1991, at the opening ceremonies of Living in Leather, a Canadian version of the leather pride flag was presented, which added to the original flag's design a row of red maple leaves running horizontally through the white stripe.


title: Leather pride flag

text: Also in 1991, Melbourne Leather Men became the first club to incorporate the design elements of the leather pride flag into their club colors.


title: Leather pride flag

text: On December 12, 2000, NLA Florida presented a suggested pledge of allegiance to the leather pride flag at its holiday party in Fort Lauderdale, which reads, "I pledge allegiance to the Leather Pride flag, and the union of Leather people for which it stands, with safety, sanity and consent for all."


title: Leather pride flag

text: For the 24th annual Folsom Street Fair, held September 30, 2007, the official poster artwork was a controversial photo featuring well-known LGBT and BDSM community members in festive and fetish attire including Sister Roma "as players in an innovative version of the culturally iconographic" "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci, complete with table draped with the leather pride flag and "cluttered with sex toys, whips, and various (BDSM) restraints". The image by FredAlert was used on the official event guide and produced as collector's posters that were displayed throughout the city as advertising for the event.


title: Leather pride flag

text: Leather & Grace, a former organization of Unitarian Universalists who identified with the BDSM/kink community, was founded in 2011 by Desmond Ravenstone. Their logo combined a red flaming chalice with the stripes of the leather pride flag.


title: Leather pride flag

text: The San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley consists of four works of art along Ringold Alley honoring leather culture; it opened in 2017. The four works of art are: engraved standing stones that honor community leather institutions including the Folsom Street Fair and leather pride flag pavement markings through which the stones emerge, a black granite stone etched with a narrative by Gayle Rubin, an image of the "Leather David" statue by Mike Caffee, and with a reproduction of Chuck Arnett’s 1962 mural that was in the Tool Box (a gay leather bar), and metal bootprints along the curb which honor 28 people (including Tony DeBlase, creator of the leather pride flag) who were an important part of the leather communities of San Francisco.


title: Leather pride flag

text: One of three original leather pride flags which the flag's creator Tony DeBlase assembled as a prototype was donated to the Leather Archives & Museum. The Leather Archives & Museum also holds the papers of DeBlase.


title: Leather pride flag

text: The flag is composed of nine horizontal stripes of equal width. From the top and from the bottom, the stripes alternate black and royal blue. The central stripe is white. In the upper left quadrant of the flag is a large red heart. I will leave it to the viewer to interpret the colors and symbols.


title: Leather pride flag

text: Although the flag is common in the gay leather community, it is not an exclusively gay symbol and represents the entire leather community.


title: Leather pride flag

text: Furthermore, while designed as a symbol for the leather subculture, it is also widely used within the entire BDSM (bondage & discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism) subculture.


title: Leather pride flag

text: Although Tony DeBlase is quoted as saying the design of the leather pride flag, which he created, is copyrighted in the U.S. (as well as all countries where the Berne Convention standards apply), copyright is automatic, and need not be obtained through official registration with any government office. Once an idea has been produced as a tangible form, for example by securing it in a fixed medium (such as a drawing, sheet music, photograph, a videotape, or a computer file), the copyright holder is entitled to enforce their exclusive rights.


title: Leather pride flag

text: Nevertheless, variations on the original leather pride flag have been created. On September 18, 1990, Clive Platman (Mr. Australia "Drummer") presented the original leather pride flag's creator DeBlase with an Australian version of the flag, incorporating the southern cross, which is from the Australian national flag, with the original design of the leather pride flag. On October 11, 1991, at the opening ceremonies of Living in Leather, a Canadian version of the leather pride flag was presented, which added to the original flag's design a row of red maple leaves running horizontally through the white stripe.


title: Leather pride flag

text: Leather & Grace, a (now defunct) organization of Unitarian Universalist kinksters, founded in 2011, combined a red flaming chalice with the stripes of the leather pride flag for their logo.


title: Leather pride flag

text: The BDSM rights flag, designed by Tanos, a Master from the United Kingdom, is partially loosely based on the design of the leather pride flag and also includes a version of the BDSM Emblem (but not similar enough to fall within Quagmyr's specific copyright claims for the Emblem). The BDSM rights flag is intended to represent the belief that people whose sexuality or relationship preferences include BDSM practices deserve the same human rights as everyone else, and should not be discriminated against for pursuing BDSM with consenting adults.


title: Flat tax

text: A flat tax (short for flat-rate tax) is a tax with a single rate on the taxable amount, after accounting for any deductions or exemptions from the tax base. It is not necessarily a fully proportional tax. Implementations are often progressive due to exemptions, or regressive in case of a maximum taxable amount. There are various tax systems that are labeled "flat tax" even though they are significantly different. The defining characteristic is the existence of only one tax rate other than zero, as opposed to multiple non-zero rates that vary depending on the amount subject to taxation.


title: Flat tax

text: A flat tax system is usually discussed in the context of an income tax, where progressivity is common, but it may also apply to taxes on consumption, property or transfers.


title: Flat tax

text: Unlike progressive taxes, which include complex and numerous exceptions left to the tax collectors’ discretion, the flat tax is clear cut. In combination with the low rate, its simplicity considerably reduces the stimuli for being informal. This aspect of the flat tax regime is important from the perspective of how people perceive its fairness. Fairness requires richer people to pay a higher proportion of their incomes in tax. But the reality in emerging economies often is that with progressive taxes rich individuals and large companies take advantage of available loopholes and procedures to avoid paying any tax. The entire tax burden falls upon the people of average income between the untaxable minimum and the higher rates. In this sense, the flat tax is perceived to be fairer. It is paradoxical to view a tax reform that involves a tax reduction for the highest earners as causing an increase in fairness. Yet in several Eastern European countries implementing the flat tax has led to a decrease in income inequality after tax (the so-called Gini coefficient). This effect largely depends on expanding the tax base and increasing work incentives. In such reforms the income poor have also obtained sizeable welfare gains.


title: Flat tax

text: A true flat-rate tax is a system of taxation where one tax rate is applied to all personal income with no deductions. An example is Bulgaria, which since 2009 has a ten percent tax rate on personal and corporate income.


title: Flat tax

text: Where deductions are allowed, a 'flat tax' is a progressive tax with the special characteristic that, above the maximum deduction, the marginal rate on all further income is constant. Such a tax is said to be marginally flat above that point. The difference between a true flat tax and a marginally flat tax can be reconciled by recognizing that the latter simply excludes certain types of income from being defined as taxable income; hence, both kinds of tax are flat on taxable income.


title: Flat tax

text: Modified flat taxes have been proposed which would allow deductions for a very few items, while still eliminating the vast majority of existing deductions. Charitable deductions and home mortgage interest are the most discussed examples of deductions that would be retained, as these deductions are popular with voters and are often used. Another common theme is a single, large, fixed deduction. This large fixed deduction would compensate for the elimination of various existing deductions and would simplify taxes, having the side-effect that many (mostly low income) households will not have to file tax returns.


title: Flat tax

text: Designed by economists at the Hoover Institution, Hall–Rabushka is a flat tax on consumption. Principally, Hall–Rabushka accomplishes a consumption tax effect by taxing income and then excluding investment. Robert Hall and Alvin Rabushka have consulted extensively in designing the flat tax systems in Eastern Europe.


title: Flat tax

text: The negative income tax (NIT), which Milton Friedman proposed in his 1962 book "Capitalism and Freedom", is a type of flat tax. The basic idea is the same as a flat tax with personal deductions, except that when deductions exceed income, the taxable income is allowed to become negative rather than being set to zero. The flat tax rate is then applied to the resulting "negative income," resulting in a "negative income tax" that the government would owe to the household—unlike the usual "positive" income tax, which the household owes the government.


title: Flat tax

text: For example, let the flat rate be 20%, and let the deductions be $20,000 per adult and $7,000 per dependent. Under such a system, a family of four making $54,000 a year would owe no tax. A family of four making $74,000 a year would owe tax amounting to 0.20 × (74,000 − 54,000) = $4,000, as would be the case under a flat tax system with deductions. Families of four earning less than $54,000 per year, however, would experience a "negative" amount of tax (that is, the family would receive money from the government instead of paying to the government). For example, if the family earned $34,000 a year, it would receive a check for $4,000. The NIT is intended to replace not just the USA's income tax, but also many benefits low income American households receive, such as food stamps and Medicaid. The NIT is designed to avoid the welfare trap—effective high marginal tax rates arising from the rules reducing benefits as market income rises. An objection to the NIT is that it is welfare without a work requirement. Those who would owe negative tax would be receiving a form of welfare without having to make an effort to obtain employment. Another objection is that the NIT subsidizes industries employing low-cost labor, but this objection can also be made against current systems of benefits for the working poor.


title: Flat tax

text: A capped flat tax is one in which income is taxed at a flat rate until a specified cap amount is reached. For example, the United States Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax is 6.2% of gross compensation up to a limit (in 2022, up to $147,000 of earnings, for a maximum tax of $9,114). This cap has the effect of turning a nominally flat tax into a regressive tax.


title: Flat tax

text: In devising a flat tax system, several recurring issues must be enumerated, principally with deductions and the identification of when money is earned.


title: Flat tax

text: Since a central tenet of the flat tax is to minimize the compartmentalization of incomes into myriad special or sheltered cases, a vexing problem is deciding when income occurs. This is demonstrated by the taxation of interest income and stock dividends. The shareholders own the company and so the company's profits belong to them. If a company is taxed on its profits, then the funds paid out as dividends have already been taxed. It's a debatable question if they should subsequently be treated as income to the shareholders and thus subject to further tax. A similar issue arises in deciding if interest paid on loans should be deductible from the taxable income since that interest is in-turn taxed as income to the loan provider. There is no universally agreed answer to what is fair. For example, in the United States, dividends are not deductible but mortgage interest is deductible. "Thus a Flat Tax proposal is not fully defined until it differentiates new untaxed income from a pass-through of already taxed income."


title: Flat tax

text: Taxes, in addition to providing revenue, can be potent instruments of policy. For example, it is common for governments to encourage social policy such as home insulation or low income housing with tax credits rather than constituting a ministry to implement these policies. In a flat tax system with limited deductions such policy administration, mechanisms are curtailed. In addition to social policy, flat taxes can remove tools for adjusting economic policy as well. For example, in the United States, short-term capital gains are taxed at a higher rate than long-term gains as means to promote long-term investment horizons and damp speculative fluctuation. "Thus, if one assumes that government should be active in policy decisions such as this, then claims that flat taxes are cheaper/simpler to administer than others are incomplete until they factor in costs for alternative policy administration."


title: Flat tax

text: In general, the question of how to eliminate deductions is fundamental to the flat tax design; deductions dramatically affect the effective "flatness" in the tax rate. Perhaps the single biggest necessary deduction is for business expenses. If businesses were not allowed to deduct expenses, businesses with a profit margin below the flat tax rate could never earn any money since the tax on revenues would always exceed the earnings. For example, grocery stores typically earn pennies on every dollar of revenue; they could not pay a tax rate of 25% on revenues unless their markup exceeded 25%. Thus, corporations must be able to deduct operating expenses even if individuals cannot. A practical dilemma arises as to identifying what is an expense for a business. For example, if a peanut butter producer purchases a jar manufacturer, is that an expense (since the producer has to purchase jars somehow) or a sheltering of income through investment? Flat tax systems can differ greatly in how they accommodate such gray areas. For example, the "9-9-9" flat tax proposal would allow businesses to deduct purchases but not labor costs, which effectively taxes labor-intensive industrial revenue at a higher rate. How deductions are implemented will dramatically change the effective total tax, and thus the flatness of the tax. "Thus, a flat tax proposal is not fully defined unless the proposal includes a differentiation between deductible and non-deductible expenses."


title: Flat tax

text: Flat tax benefits higher income brackets progressively due to decline in marginal value. If a flat tax system has a large exemption, it is effectively a progressive tax. As a result, the term "flat tax" is actually a shorthand for the more proper marginally flat tax.


title: Flat tax

text: One type of flat tax would be imposed on all income once; at the source of the income. Hall and Rabushka proposed an amendment to the U.S. Internal Revenue Code that would implement the variant of the flat tax they advocate. This amendment, only a few pages long, would replace hundreds of pages of statutory language (although most statutory language in taxation statutes is "not" directed at specifying graduated tax rates).


title: Flat tax

text: As it now stands, the U.S. Internal Revenue Code is over several million words long, and contains many loopholes, deductions, and exemptions which, advocates of flat taxes claim, render the collection of taxes and the enforcement of tax law complicated and inefficient.


title: Flat tax

text: It is further argued that current tax law slows economic growth by distorting economic incentives, and by allowing, even encouraging, tax avoidance. With a flat tax, there are fewer incentives than in the current system to create tax shelters, and to engage in other forms of tax avoidance.


title: Flat tax

text: Flat tax critics contend that a flat tax system could be created with many loopholes, or a progressive tax system without loopholes, and that a progressive tax system could be as simple, or simpler, than a flat tax system. A simple progressive tax would also discourage tax avoidance.


title: Flat tax

text: Under a pure flat tax without deductions, every tax period a company would make a single payment to the government covering the taxes on the employees and the taxes on the company profit. For example, suppose that in a given year, a company called ACME earns a profit of 3 million, spends 2 million in wages, and spends 1 million on other expenses that under the tax law is taxable income to recipients, such as the receipt of stock options, bonuses, and certain executive privileges. Given a flat rate of 15%, ACME would then owe the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) (3M + 2M + 1M) × 0.15 = 900,000. This payment would, in one fell swoop, settle the tax liabilities of ACME's employees as well as the corporate taxes owed by ACME. Most employees throughout the economy would never need to interact with the IRS, as all tax owed on wages, interest, dividends, royalties, etc. would be withheld at the source. The main exceptions would be employees with incomes from personal ventures. The "Economist" claims that such a system would reduce the number of entities required to file returns from about 130 million individuals, households, and businesses, as at present, to a mere 8 million businesses and self-employed.


title: Flat tax

text: However, this simplicity depends on the absence of deductions of any kind being allowed (or at least no variability in the deductions of different people). Furthermore, if income of differing types are segregated (e.g., pass-through, long term cap gains, regular income, etc.) then complications ensue. For example, if realized capital gains were subject to the flat tax, the law would require brokers and mutual funds to calculate the realized capital gain on all sales and redemption. If there were a gain, a tax equal to 15% of the amount of the gain would be withheld and sent to the IRS. If there were a loss, the amount would be reported to the IRS. The loss would offset gains, and then the IRS would settle up with taxpayers at the end of the period. Lacking deductions, this scheme cannot be used to implement economic and social policy indirectly by tax credits and thus, as noted above, the simplifications to the government's revenue collection apparatus might be offset by new government ministries required to administer those policies.


title: Flat tax

text: Russia is considered a prime case of the success of a flat tax; the real revenues from its personal income tax rose by 25.2% in the first year after the country introduced a flat tax in 2001, followed by a 24.6% increase in the second year, and a 15.2% increase in the third year.


title: Flat tax

text: The Russian example is often used as proof of the validity of this analysis, despite an International Monetary Fund study in 2006 which found that there was no sign "of Laffer-type behavioral responses generating revenue increases from the tax cut elements of these reforms" in Russia or in other countries.


title: Flat tax

text: Bulgaria’s entry into the EU in 2007 was marked by a spur of reforms aimed at reducing the large share of informal economic activity, estimated at 43% in 2006. Parliament approved the introduction of a 10% corporate income tax rate for 2007, to be followed by a 10% personal income tax rate the next year. The IMF was wary of this reform, arguing that the simplified tax system would lower the budget surplus and encourage a larger current account deficit. At the time of these discussions, however, the Bulgarian government did not need external financing and proceeded with its reform plans. The year 2007 brought a huge growth of revenue from corporate income tax (by 39% compared with the previous year) and surpassed the Ministry of Finance’s own forecast (27% year on year). The budget surplus rose despite considerable emergency spending at the end of the year. There were several reasons for this beneficial effect: (i) the tax rate limited the incentives for tax evasion, (ii) the optimism at the beginning of the country’s EU membership, (iii) and the increase in foreign direct investment, which reached an all-time annual record of €9 billion (about 11% of GDP).


title: Flat tax

text: Taxes other than the income tax (for example, taxes on sales and payrolls) tend to be regressive. Under such a structure, those with lower incomes tend to pay a "higher" proportion of their income in total taxes than the affluent do. The fraction of household income that is a return to capital (dividends, interest, royalties, profits of unincorporated businesses) is positively correlated with total household income. Hence a flat tax limited to wages would seem to leave the wealthy better off. Modifying the tax base can change the effects. A flat tax could be targeted at income (rather than wages), which could place the tax burden equally on all earners, including those who earn income primarily from returns on investment. Tax systems could utilize a flat sales tax to target all consumption, which can be modified with rebates or exemptions to remove regressive effects, such as the proposed FairTax in the United States.


title: Flat tax

text: A flat tax system and income taxes overall are not inherently border-adjustable; meaning the tax component embedded into products via taxes imposed on companies (including corporate taxes and payroll taxes) are not removed when exported to a foreign country "(see Effect of taxes and subsidies on price)". Taxation systems such as a sales tax or value added tax can remove the tax component when goods are exported and apply the tax component on imports. The domestic products could be at a disadvantage to foreign products (at home and abroad) that are border-adjustable, which would impact the global competitiveness of a country. However, it's possible that a flat tax system could be combined with tariffs and credits to act as border adjustments (the proposed "Border Tax Equity Act" in the United States attempts this). Implementing an income tax with a border adjustment tax credit is a violation of the World Trade Organization agreement. Tax exemptions (allowances) on low income wages, a component of most income tax systems could mitigate this issue for high labour content industries like textiles that compete Globally.


title: Flat tax

text: In a subsequent section, various proposals for flat tax-like schemes are discussed, these differ mainly on how they approach with the following issues of deductions, defining income, and policy implementation.


title: Flat tax

text: Most countries tax personal income at the national level using progressive rates, but some use a flat rate. Most countries that have or had a flat tax on personal income at the national level are former communist countries or islands. In the majority of post-communist countries, the flat tax reform was considered temporary, as a means to reduce informality. The Baltic economies have reverted to progressive personal tax rates. For example, in 2018 Latvia replaced its flat tax with progressive rates of 20%, 23%, and 31.4%; in 2019 Lithuania replaced its flat tax with progressive rates of 20% and 27%. So have nearly all economies in the second wave of reform. In its original form, the flat tax is still maintained only in Bulgaria.


title: Flat tax

text: In some countries, subdivisions are allowed to tax personal income in addition to the national government. Many of these subdivisions use a flat rate, even if their national government uses progressive rates. Examples are all counties and municipalities of the Nordic countries, all prefectures and municipalities of Japan, and some subdivisions of Italy and of the United States.


title: Flat tax

text: The table below lists jurisdictions where personal income is taxed by only one government level, using a flat rate. It includes independent countries and other autonomous jurisdictions. The tax rate listed is the one that applies to income from work, but does not include mandatory contributions to social security. In some jurisdictions, different rates (also flat) apply to other types of income, such as from investments.


title: Flat tax

text: The table below lists jurisdictions where personal income is taxed by multiple government levels, and at least one level uses a flat rate. The tax rates listed are those that apply to income from work, except as otherwise noted. Where a range of rates is listed, it means that the flat rate varies by location, not progressive rates.


title: Flat tax

text: Despite not having a permanent population, some jurisdictions tax the local income of temporary workers, using a flat rate.


title: Marnie Simpson

text: Marnie Simpson (born 17 January 1992) is an English television personality. She appeared on the MTV reality series "Geordie Shore". In 2016, she finished in fourth place on the eighteenth series of "Celebrity Big Brother", and appeared on the eighth series of "Ex on the Beach".


title: Marnie Simpson

text: Simpson joined "Geordie Shore" in 2013, she had previously appeared in a club scene from series 1 in episode 4. Simpson left the series in 2015 at the end of the eleventh series, but returned in the twelfth series. In 2016, she took part in the eighteenth series of "Celebrity Big Brother" where she finished in fourth place. In 2017, she returned to "Big Brother 18", as a special guest for a shopping task. Simpson also took part in series eight of "Ex on the Beach". Later in 2017, she released her own range of contact lenses, under the brand 'I Spy Eyes'. In 2019, Simpson began starring in the MTV series "Geordie Shore OGs", a spinoff series of "Geordie Shore".


title: Marnie Simpson

text: Before appearing on "Geordie Shore", Simpson was a runner-up in Miss Newcastle, and she worked as a waitress. She was previously engaged to then boyfriend Ricky on Season 11 of Geordie Shore, but then broke it off & returned to the show in Season 12. Her cousin is a fellow Geordie Shore cast member, Sophie Kasaei. In April 2019, she announced that she was pregnant, and 29 October 2019, she gave birth to her son with partner Casey Johnson. They have a second son born in May 2022.


title: Satellite dish

text: A satellite dish is a dish-shaped type of parabolic antenna designed to receive or transmit information by radio waves to or from a communication satellite. The term most commonly means a dish which receives direct-broadcast satellite television from a direct broadcast satellite in geostationary orbit.


title: Satellite dish

text: Parabolic antennas referred to as "dish" antennas had been in use long before satellite television. The term "satellite dish" was coined in 1978 during the beginning of the satellite television industry, and came to refer to dish antennas that send and/or receive signals from communications satellites. Taylor Howard of San Andreas, California, adapted an ex-military dish in 1976 and became the first person to receive satellite television signals using it.