Geology.

Fiji lies in a tectonically complex area between the Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate. The Fiji Platform lies in a zone bordered with active extension fault lines around which most of the shallow earthquakes were centered. These fault lines are the Fiji Fracture Zone (FFZ) to the north, the 176° Extension Zone (176°E EZ) to the west, and the Hunter Fracture Zone (HFZ) and Lau Ridge to the east.  The oldest rocks on the island consist of the Eocene to Lower Miocene Wainimala Group. The Lower portion of the Group are composed of volcanic flows and volcanoclastics, which grade from basalt to trachyte and rhyolite. Geographically, this group is found south of Nadi, including the peaks of Koromba (3528’) and Natambumgguto (1242’), down to Sigatoka. From Sigatoka, the Group extends almost all the way to Lodoni, and includes the peaks of Tuvutau (3060’) and Tikituru (3071’), while along the southern coast it extends almost to Nausori. The Group is intruded by the Tholo Plutonics consisting of similar age stocks of tonalite, granodiorite, gabbro and diorite. Mio-Pliocene sandstones and marl, grading into epiclastics and andesitic volcanics of the Suva Group are found mainly in the river valleys such as those formed by the Nadi River and Navua River. The Plio-Pleistocene Mba Grouop is found on the northern portion of the island and consists of porphyritic basalt flows and volcanoclastics grading into greywacke. Geographically it includes the peaks of Koroyanitu (3921’), Malua (3294’), Monavatu (3708’), Mount Tomanivi (4341’), and Ndelamendamu (2540’), and extends along the eastern coast almost to Nausori. It also includes the Emperor Mine near Vatukoula.

Geography and economy.

Viti Levu is the largest island in the nation, home to 70% of the population (about 600,000), and is the hub of the entire Fijian archipelago. It measures long and wide, and has an area of. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions account for the somewhat rugged terrain of the island, which is divided into roughly equal halves by a north-south mountain range. The centre of the island is forested and includes the nation's highest peak Mount Tomanivi (otherwise Mount Victoria) rising to.  The eastern side of the island experiences heavy rainfall, while the western side (colloquially called the "burning west") is noticeably drier in the range's rain shadow. Accordingly, sugar cane production thrives in the west, while a dairy industry is being built in the east. Fiji's biggest cattle ranch is at Yaqara, with 7000 head of cattle on its, located halfway between Tavua and Rakiraki. The island is the only known home of one of the world's largest insects, the Giant Fijian long-horned beetle.

Localities.

Viti Levu hosts the capital city of Suva, and is home to nearly three quarters of the population of the Republic (about 580,000). Other important towns, all around the coast, include Ba, Lautoka, Nadi, Nausori, Rakiraki, and Sigatoka. One major road has been built around the perimeter of Viti Levu. Well-known localities include Natadola Beach, Pacific Harbour (a resort center about 50 kilometers from Suva).

Politics.

Eight of Fiji's fourteen Provinces are in Viti Levu. The Provinces of Ba, Nadroga-Navosa, and Ra comprise the Western Division, while Naitasiri, Namosi, Rewa, Serua, and Tailevu form the Central Division. In part because of its high concentration of Indo-Fijians, whose ancestors came mostly as indentured workers from India between 1879 and 1916, the political dynamics of western Viti Levu are somewhat different from those of eastern Viti Levu, where, apart from the multi-racial urban areas, indigenous Fijians are more heavily concentrated.

History.

Viti Levu is believed to have been inhabited longer than the northern island of Vanua Levu. According to oral traditions, the first Melanesian settlers landed at Vuda Point and established Viseisei, believed to be Fiji's oldest settlement, although archaeologists refute this claim.

Other.

The Canadian entrepreneur Peter Munk named his Klosters house after the island, as Viti Levu was where he and David Gilmour started the Southern Pacific Hotel chain in the 1960s.

Viti Levu (pronounced ) is the largest island in the Republic of Fiji, the site of the nation's capital, Suva, and home to a large majority of Fiji's population.

Viti Levu (IPA: [ßi ti le ßu]) je největším ostrovem Fidži. Nachází se na 17,80° jižní šířky a 178,00° východní délky. Je 146 kilometrů dlouhý a 106 kilometrů široký a prostírá se na rozloze 10,388 km2. V celé Oceánii, vyjma Tasmánie a severního a jižního ostrova Nového Zélandu, Viti Levu předčí svou rozlohou pouze Havaj a Nová Kaledonie.


The notion of altruism.

The concept has a long history in philosophical and ethical thought. The term was originally coined in the 19th century by the founding sociologist and philosopher of science, Auguste Comte, and has become a major topic for psychologists (especially evolutionary psychology researchers), evolutionary biologists, and ethologists. Whilst ideas about altruism from one field can affect the other fields, the different methods and focuses of these fields always lead to different perspectives on altruism. In simple terms, altruism is caring about the welfare of other people and acting to help them.

Scientific viewpoints.

Anthropology.

Marcel Mauss's book "The Gift" contains a passage called "Note on alms". This note describes the evolution of the notion of alms (and by extension of altruism) from the notion of sacrifice. In it, he writes:  Alms are the fruits of a moral notion of the gift and of fortune on the one hand, and of a notion of sacrifice, on the other. Generosity is an obligation, because Nemesis avenges the poor and the gods for the superabundance of happiness and wealth of certain people who should rid themselves of it. This is the ancient morality of the gift, which has become a principle of justice. The gods and the spirits accept that the share of wealth and happiness that has been offered to them and had been hitherto destroyed in useless sacrifices should serve the poor and children.

Evolutionary explanations.

In the science of ethology (the study of animal behaviour), and more generally in the study of social evolution, altruism refers to behaviour by an individual that increases the fitness of another individual while decreasing the fitness of the actor. In evolutionary psychology this may be applied to a wide range of human behaviors such as charity, emergency aid, help to coalition partners, tipping, courtship gifts, production of public goods, and environmentalism.  Theories of apparently altruistic behavior were accelerated by the need to produce theories compatible with evolutionary origins. Two related strands of research on altruism have emerged from traditional evolutionary analyses and from evolutionary game theory a mathematical model and analysis of behavioural strategies.  Some of the proposed mechanisms are:  Such explanations do not imply that humans are always consciously calculating how to increase their inclusive fitness when they are doing altruistic acts. Instead, evolution has shaped psychological mechanisms, such as emotions, that promote altruistic behaviors.  Every single instance of altruistic behavior need not always increase inclusive fitness; altruistic behaviors would have been selected for if such behaviors on average increased inclusive fitness in the ancestral environment. This need not imply that on average 50% or more of altruistic acts were beneficial for the altruist in the ancestral environment; if the benefits from helping the right person were very high it would be beneficial to err on the side of caution and usually be altruistic even if in most cases there were no benefits.  The benefits for the altruist may be increased and the costs reduced by being more altruistic towards certain groups. Research has found that people are more altruistic to kin than to no-kin, to friends than to strangers, to those attractive than to those unattractive, to non-competitors than to competitors, and to members ingroups than to members of outgroup.  The study of altruism was the initial impetus behind George R. Price's development of the Price equation, which is a mathematical equation used to study genetic evolution. An interesting example of altruism is found in the cellular slime moulds, such as "Dictyostelium mucoroides". These protists live as individual amoebae until starved, at which point they aggregate and form a multicellular fruiting body in which some cells sacrifice themselves to promote the survival of other cells in the fruiting body.  Selective investment theory proposes that close social bonds, and associated emotional, cognitive, and neurohormonal mechanisms, evolved in order to facilitate long-term, high-cost altruism between those closely depending on one another for survival and reproductive success.  Such cooperative behaviors have sometimes been seen as arguments for left-wing politics such by the Russian zoologist and anarchist Peter Kropotkin in his 1902 book "" and Peter Singer in his book "A Darwinian Left".

Neurobiology.

Jorge Moll and Jordan Grafman, neuroscientists at the National Institutes of Health and LABS-D'Or Hospital Network (J.M.) provided the first evidence for the neural bases of altruistic giving in normal healthy volunteers, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In their research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA in October 2006, they showed that both pure monetary rewards and charitable donations activated the mesolimbic reward pathway, a primitive part of the brain that usually responds to food and sex. However, when volunteers generously placed the interests of others before their own by making charitable donations, another brain circuit was selectively activated: the subgenual cortex/septal region. These structures are intimately related to social attachment and bonding in other species. Altruism, the experiment suggested, was not a superior moral faculty that suppresses basic selfish urges but rather was basic to the brain, hard-wired and pleasurable. One brain region, the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex/basal forebrain, contributes to learning altruistic behavior, especially in those with trait empathy. The same study has shown a connection between giving to charity and the promotion of social bonding.  In fact, in an experiment published in March 2007 at the University of Southern California neuroscientist Antonio R. Damasio and his colleagues showed that subjects with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex lack the ability to empathically feel their way to moral answers, and that when confronted with moral dilemmas, these brain-damaged patients coldly came up with "end-justifies-the-means" answers, leading Damasio to conclude that the point was not that they reached immoral conclusions, but that when they were confronted by a difficult issue – in this case as whether to shoot down a passenger plane hijacked by terrorists before it hits a major city – these patients appear to reach decisions without the anguish that afflicts those with normally functioning brains. According to Adrian Raine, a clinical neuroscientist also at the University of Southern California, one of this study's implications is that society may have to rethink how it judges immoral people: "Psychopaths often feel no empathy or remorse. Without that awareness, people relying exclusively on reasoning seem to find it harder to sort their way through moral thickets. Does that mean they should be held to different standards of accountability?"  In another study, in the 1990s, Dr. Bill Harbaugh, a University of Oregon economist, concluded people are motivated to give for reasons of personal prestige and in a similar fMRI scanner test in 2007 with his psychologist colleague Dr. Ulrich Mayr, reached the same conclusions of Jorge Moll and Jordan Grafman about giving to charity, although they were able to divide the study group into two groups: "egoists" and "altruists". One of their discoveries was that, though rarely, even some of the considered "egoists" sometimes gave more than expected because that would help others, leading to the conclusion that there are other factors in cause in charity, such as a person's environment and values.

Psychology.

The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences defines "psychological altruism" as "a motivational state with the goal of increasing another's welfare". Psychological altruism is contrasted with "psychological egoism", which refers to the motivation to increase one's own welfare.  There has been some debate on whether or not humans are truly capable of psychological altruism. Some definitions specify a self-sacrificial nature to altruism and a lack of external rewards for altruistic behaviors. However, because altruism ultimately benefits the self in many cases, the selflessness of altruistic acts is brought to question. The social exchange theory postulates that altruism only exists when benefits to the self outweigh costs to the self. Daniel Batson is a psychologist who examined this question and argues against the social exchange theory. He identified four major motives: to ultimately benefit the self (egoism), to ultimately benefit the other person (altruism), to benefit a group (collectivism), or to uphold a moral principle (principlism). Altruism that ultimately serves selfish gains is thus differentiated from selfless altruism, but the general conclusion has been that empathy-induced altruism can be genuinely selfless. The "empathy-altruism hypothesis" basically states that psychological altruism does exist and is evoked by the empathic desire to help someone who is suffering. Feelings of empathic concern are contrasted with feelings of personal distress, which compel people to reduce their own unpleasant emotions. People with empathic concern help others in distress even when exposure to the situation could be easily avoided, whereas those lacking in empathic concern avoid helping unless it is difficult or impossible to avoid exposure to another's suffering. Helping behavior is seen in humans at about two years old, when a toddler is capable of understanding subtle emotional cues. In psychological research on altruism, studies often observe altruism as demonstrated through prosocial behaviors such as helping, comforting, sharing, cooperation, philanthropy, and community service. Research has found that people are most likely to help if they recognize that a person is in need and feel personal responsibility for reducing the person's distress. Research also suggests that the number of bystanders witnessing distress or suffering affects the likelihood of helping (the "Bystander effect"). Greater numbers of bystanders decrease individual feelings of responsibility. However, a witness with a high level of empathic concern is likely to assume personal responsibility entirely regardless of the number of bystanders.  Many studies have observed the effects of volunteerism (as a form of altruism) on happiness and health and have consistently found a strong connection between volunteerism and current and future health and well-being. In a study of older adults, those who volunteered were higher on life satisfaction and will to live, and lower in depression, anxiety, and somatization. Volunteerism and helping behavior have not only been shown to improve mental health, but physical health and longevity as well, attributable to the activity and social integration it encourages. One study examined the physical health of mothers who volunteered over a 30-year period and found that 52% of those who did not belong to a volunteer organization experienced a major illness while only 36% of those who did volunteer experienced one. A study on adults ages 55+ found that during the four-year study period, people who volunteered for two or more organizations had a 63% lower likelihood of dying. After controlling for prior health status, it was determined that volunteerism accounted for a 44% reduction in mortality. Merely being aware of kindness in oneself and others is also associated with greater well-being. A study that asked participants to count each act of kindness they performed for one week significantly enhanced their subjective happiness. It is important to note that, while research supports the idea that altruistic acts bring about happiness, it has also been found to work in the opposite direction—that happier people are also kinder. The relationship between altruistic behavior and happiness is bidirectional. Studies have found that generosity increases linearly from sad to happy affective states.  Studies have also been careful to note that feeling over-taxed by the needs of others has conversely negative effects on health and happiness. For example, one study on volunteerism found that feeling overwhelmed by others' demands had an even stronger negative effect on mental health than helping had a positive one (although positive effects were still significant). Additionally, while generous acts make people feel good about themselves, it is also important for people to appreciate the kindness they receive from others. Studies suggest that gratitude goes hand-in-hand with kindness and is also very important for our well-being. A study on the relationship happiness to various character strengths showed that "a conscious focus on gratitude led to reductions in negative affect and increases in optimistic appraisals, positive affect, offering emotional support, sleep quality, and well-being".

Sociology.

"Sociologists have long been concerned with how to build the good society" ("Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity". American Sociological Association.). The structure of our societies and how individuals come to exhibit charitable, philanthropic, and other pro-social, altruistic actions for the common good is a largely researched topic within the field. The American Sociology Association (ASA) acknowledges public sociology saying, "The intrinsic scientific, policy, and public relevance of this field of investigation in helping to construct 'good societies' is unquestionable" ("Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity" ASA). This type of sociology seeks contributions that aid grassroots and theoretical understandings of what motivates altruism and how it is organized, and promotes an altruistic focus in order to benefit the world and people it studies. How altruism is framed, organized, carried out, and what motivates it at the group level is an area of focus that sociologists seek to investigate in order to contribute back to the groups it studies and "build the good society". The motivation of altruism is also the focus of study; some publications link the occurrence of moral outrage to the punishment of perpetrators and compensation of victims. Studies have shown that generosity in laboratory and in online experiments is contagious – people imitate observed generosity of others.

Pathological altruism.

Pathological altruism is when altruism is taken to an unhealthy extreme, and either harms the altruistic person, or well-intentioned actions cause more harm than good.  The term "pathological altruism" was popularised by the book "Pathological Altruism".  Examples include depression and burnout seen in healthcare professionals, an unhealthy focus on others to the detriment of one's own needs, hoarding of animals, and ineffective philanthropic and social programs that ultimately worsen the situations they are meant to aid.

Religious viewpoints.

Most, if not all, of the world's religions promote altruism as a very important moral value. Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, and Sikhism, etc., place particular emphasis on altruistic morality.

Buddhism.

Altruism figures prominently in Buddhism. Love and compassion are components of all forms of Buddhism, and are focused on all beings equally: love is the wish that all beings be happy, and compassion is the wish that all beings be free from suffering. "Many illnesses can be cured by the one medicine of love and compassion. These qualities are the ultimate source of human happiness, and the need for them lies at the very core of our being" (Dalai Lama).  Still, the notion of altruism is modified in such a world-view, since the belief is that such a practice promotes our own happiness: "The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes" (Dalai Lama).  In the context of larger ethical discussions on moral action and judgment, Buddhism is characterized by the belief that negative (unhappy) consequences of our actions derive not from punishment or correction based on moral judgment, but from the law of karma, which functions like a natural law of cause and effect. A simple illustration of such cause and effect is the case of experiencing the effects of what one causes: if one causes suffering, then as a natural consequence one would experience suffering; if one causes happiness, then as a natural consequence one would experience happiness.

Jainism.

The fundamental principles of Jainism revolve around the concept of altruism, not only for humans but for all sentient beings. Jainism preaches the view of "Ahimsa" – to live and let live, thereby not harming sentient beings, i.e. uncompromising reverence for all life. It also considers all living things to be equal. The first Tirthankara, Rishabhdev, introduced the concept of altruism for all living beings, from extending knowledge and experience to others to donation, giving oneself up for others, non-violence and compassion for all living things.  Jainism prescribes a path of non-violence to progress the soul to this ultimate goal. A major characteristic of Jain belief is the emphasis on the consequences of not only physical but also mental behaviors. One's unconquered mind with anger, pride (ego), deceit, greed and uncontrolled sense organs are the powerful enemies of humans. Anger spoils good relations, pride destroys humility, deceit destroys peace and greed destroys everything. Jainism recommends conquering anger by forgiveness, pride by humility, deceit by straightforwardness and greed by contentment.  Jains believe that to attain enlightenment and ultimately liberation, one must practice the following ethical principles (major vows) in thought, speech and action. The degree to which these principles are practiced is different for householders and monks. They are: The "great vows" (Mahavrata) are prescribed for monks and "limited vows" (Anuvrata) are prescribed for householders. The house-holders are encouraged to practice the above-mentioned five vows. The monks have to observe them very strictly. With consistent practice, it will be possible to overcome the limitations gradually, accelerating the spiritual progress.  The principle of non-violence seeks to minimize karmas which limit the capabilities of the soul. Jainism views every soul as worthy of respect because it has the potential to become "Siddha" (God in Jainism). Because all living beings possess a soul, great care and awareness is essential in one's actions. Jainism emphasizes the equality of all life, advocating harmlessness towards all, whether the creatures are great or small. This policy extends even to microscopic organisms. Jainism acknowledges that every person has different capabilities and capacities to practice and therefore accepts different levels of compliance for ascetics and householders.

Christianity.

Altruism is central to the teachings of Jesus found in the Gospel, especially in the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain. From biblical to medieval Christian traditions, tensions between self-affirmation and other-regard were sometimes discussed under the heading of "disinterested love", as in the Pauline phrase "love seeks not its own interests". In his book "Indoctrination and Self-deception," Roderick Hindery tries to shed light on these tensions by contrasting them with impostors of authentic self-affirmation and altruism, by analysis of other-regard within creative individuation of the self, and by contrasting love for the few with love for the many. Love confirms others in their freedom, shuns propaganda and masks, assures others of its presence, and is ultimately confirmed not by mere declarations from others, but by each person's experience and practice from within. As in practical arts, the presence and meaning of love becomes validated and grasped not by words and reflections alone, but in the making of the connection.  St Thomas Aquinas interprets 'You should love your neighbour as yourself' as meaning that love for ourselves is the exemplar of love for others. Considering that "the love with which a man loves himself is the form and root of friendship" and quotes Aristotle that "the origin of friendly relations with others lies in our relations to ourselves", he concluded that though we are not bound to love others more than ourselves, we naturally seek the common good, the good of the whole, more than any private good, the good of a part. However, he thinks we should love God more than ourselves and our neighbours, and more than our bodily life—since the ultimate purpose of loving our neighbour is to share in eternal beatitude: a more desirable thing than bodily well being. In coining the word Altruism, as stated above, Comte was probably opposing this Thomistic doctrine, which is present in some theological schools within Catholicism.  Many biblical authors draw a strong connection between love of others and love of God. 1 John 4 states that for one to love God one must love his fellowman, and that hatred of one's fellowman is the same as hatred of God. Thomas Jay Oord has argued in several books that altruism is but one possible form of love. An altruistic action is not always a loving action. Oord defines altruism as acting for the other's good, and he agrees with feminists who note that sometimes love requires acting for one's own good when the other's demands undermine overall well-being.  German philosopher Max Scheler distinguishes two ways in which the strong can help the weak. One way is a sincere expression of Christian love, "motivated by a powerful feeling of security, strength, and inner salvation, of the invincible fullness of one's own life and existence". Another way is merely "one of the many modern substitutes for love,... nothing but the urge to turn away from oneself and to lose oneself in other people's business". At its worst, Scheler says, "love for the small, the poor, the weak, and the oppressed is really disguised hatred, repressed envy, an impulse to detract, etc., directed against the opposite phenomena: wealth, strength, power, largesse."

Islam.

In Islam, the concept 'ithaar' (إيثار) (altruism) is the notion of 'preferring others to oneself'. For Sufis, this means devotion to others through complete forgetfulness of one's own concerns, where concern for others is rooted to be a demand made by ALLAH on the human body, considered to be property of ALLAH alone. The importance lies in sacrifice for the sake of the greater good; Islam considers those practicing Eyaar as abiding by the highest degree of nobility. This is similar to the notion of chivalry, but unlike that European concept, in i'thar attention is focused on everything in existence. A constant concern for ALLAH (i.e. God) results in a careful attitude towards people, animals, and other things in this world. This concept was emphasized by Sufis of Islam like Rabia al-Adawiyya who paid attention to the difference between dedication to ALLAH (i.e. God) and dedication to people. Thirteenth-century Turkish Sufi poet Yunus Emre explained this philosophy as "Yaratılanı severiz, Yaratandan ötürü" or "We love the creature, because of The Creator." For many Muslims, i'thar must be practiced as a religious obligation during specific Islamic holidays. However, i'thar is also still an Islamic ideal to which all Muslims should strive to adhere at all times.

Judaism.

Judaism defines altruism as the desired goal of creation. The famous Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook stated that love is the most important attribute in humanity. This is defined as bestowal, or giving, which is the intention of altruism. This can be altruism towards humanity that leads to altruism towards the creator or God. Kabbalah defines God as the force of giving in existence. Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto in particular focused on the 'purpose of creation' and how the will of God was to bring creation into perfection and adhesion with this upper force.  Modern Kabbalah developed by Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag, in his writings about the future generation, focuses on how society could achieve an altruistic social framework. Ashlag proposed that such a framework is the purpose of creation, and everything that happens is to raise humanity to the level of altruism, love for one another. Ashlag focused on society and its relation to divinity.

Sikhism.

Altruism is essential to the Sikh religion. The central faith in Sikhism is that the greatest deed any one can do is to imbibe and live the godly qualities like love, affection, sacrifice, patience, harmony, truthfulness. The concept of "seva", or selfless service to the community for its own sake, is an important concept in Sikhism.  The fifth Nanak, Guru Arjun Dev, sacrificed his life to uphold 22 carats of pure truth, the greatest gift to humanity, the Guru Granth. The ninth Guru, Tegh Bahadur, sacrificed his head to protect weak and defenseless people against atrocity. In the late seventeenth century, Guru Gobind Singh Ji (the tenth guru in Sikhism), was in war with the Mughal rulers to protect the people of different faiths when a fellow Sikh, Bhai Kanhaiya, attended the troops of the enemy. He gave water to both friends and foes who were wounded on the battlefield. Some of the enemy began to fight again and some Sikh warriors were annoyed by Bhai Kanhaiya as he was helping their enemy. Sikh soldiers brought Bhai Kanhaiya before Guru Gobind Singh Ji, and complained of his action that they considered counter-productive to their struggle on the battlefield. "What were you doing, and why?" asked the Guru. "I was giving water to the wounded because I saw your face in all of them", replied Bhai Kanhaiya. The Guru responded, "Then you should also give them ointment to heal their wounds. You were practicing what you were coached in the house of the Guru."  It was under the tutelage of the Guru that Bhai Kanhaiya subsequently founded a volunteer corps for altruism. This volunteer corps still to date is engaged in doing good to others and trains new volunteering recruits for doing the same.

Hinduism.

In Hinduism Selflessness (Atmatyag), Love (Prema), Kindness (Daya) and Forgiveness (Kshama) are considered as the highest acts of humanity or "Manushyattva". Giving alms to the beggers or poor people is considered as a divine act or "Punya" and Hindus believe it will free their souls from guilt or "Paapa" and will led them to heaven or "Swarga" in afterlife. Altruism is also the central act of various Hindu mythology and religious poems and songs.  Swami Vivekananda, the legendary Hindu monk, has said -"Jive prem kare jeijon, Seijon sebiche Iswar" (Whoever loves any living being, is serving god.). Mass donation of clothes to poor people (Vastraseva), or blood donation camp or mass food donation (Annaseva) for poor people is common in various Hindu religious ceremonies.  Swami Sivananda, an Advaita scholar, reiterates the views in his commentary synthesising Vedanta views on the Brahma Sutras, a Vedantic text. In his commentary on Chapter 3 of the Brahma Sutras, Sivananda notes that karma is insentient and short-lived, and ceases to exist as soon as a deed is executed. Hence, karma cannot bestow the fruits of actions at a future date according to one's merit. Furthermore, one cannot argue that karma generates apurva or punya, which gives fruit. Since apurva is non-sentient, it cannot act unless moved by an intelligent being such as a god. It cannot independently bestow reward or punishment.  However the very well known and popular text, the Bhagavad Gita supports the doctrine of karma yoga (achieving oneness with God through action) & "nishkaama karma" or action without expectation / desire for personal gain which can be said to encompass altruism. Altruistic acts are generally celebrated and very well received in Hindu literature and is central to Hindu morality.

Philosophy.

There exists a wide range of philosophical views on humans' obligations or motivations to act altruistically. Proponents of ethical altruism maintain that individuals are morally obligated to act altruistically. The opposing view is ethical egoism, which maintains that moral agents should always act in their own self-interest. Both ethical altruism and ethical egoism contrast with utilitarianism, which maintains that each agent should act in order to maximise the efficacy of their function and the benefit to both themselves and their co-inhabitants.  A related concept in descriptive ethics is psychological egoism, the thesis that humans always act in their own self-interest and that true altruism is impossible. Rational egoism is the view that rationality consists in acting in one's self-interest (without specifying how this affects one's moral obligations).

Effective altruism.

Effective altruism is a philosophy and social movement that uses evidence and reasoning to determine the most effective ways to benefit others. Effective altruism encourages individuals to consider all causes and actions and to act in the way that brings about the greatest positive impact, based upon their values. It is the broad, evidence-based and cause-neutral approach that distinguishes effective altruism from traditional altruism or charity. Effective altruism is part of the larger movement towards evidence-based practices.  While a substantial proportion of effective altruists have focused on the nonprofit sector, the philosophy of effective altruism applies more broadly to prioritizing the scientific projects, companies, and policy initiatives which can be estimated to save lives, help people, or otherwise have the biggest benefit. People associated with the movement include philosopher Peter Singer, Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, Cari Tuna, Ben Delo, Oxford-based researchers William MacAskill and Toby Ord, professional poker player Liv Boeree, and writer Jacy Reese.

Genetics.

The genes OXTR, CD38, COMT, DRD4, DRD5, IGF2, GABRB2 have been found to be candidate genes for altruism.

Altruism is the principle and moral practice of concern for happiness of other human beings or animals, resulting in a quality of life both material and spiritual. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core aspect of various religious traditions and secular worldviews, though the concept of "others" toward whom concern should be directed can vary among cultures and religions. In an extreme case, altruism may become a synonym of selflessness, which is the opposite of selfishness.

Altruismus (z lat. "alter", druhý, 3. pád "altrui", druhému) je moderní označení pro postoje a jednání, která sledují prospěch druhého člověka, které mohou i nemusí být na úkor prospěchu altruisty. (altruistické jednání, dobročinnost, nesobeckost, nezištnost). Protikladem altruismu je egoismus.


Statistical properties.

Any distribution of values is possible (although it must have zero DC component). Even a binary signal which can only take on the values 1 or –1 will be white if the sequence is statistically uncorrelated. Noise having a continuous distribution, such as a normal distribution, can of course be white.  It is often incorrectly assumed that Gaussian noise (i.e., noise with a Gaussian amplitude distributionsee normal distribution) necessarily refers to white noise, yet neither property implies the other. Gaussianity refers to the probability distribution with respect to the value, in this context the probability of the signal falling within any particular range of amplitudes, while the term 'white' refers to the way the signal power is distributed (i.e., independently) over time or among frequencies.  White noise is the generalized mean-square derivative of the Wiener process or Brownian motion.  A generalization to random elements on infinite dimensional spaces, such as random fields, is the white noise measure.

Practical applications.

Music.

White noise is commonly used in the production of electronic music, usually either directly or as an input for a filter to create other types of noise signal. It is used extensively in audio synthesis, typically to recreate percussive instruments such as cymbals or snare drums which have high noise content in their frequency domain. A simple example of white noise is a nonexistent radio station (static).

Electronics engineering.

White noise is also used to obtain the impulse response of an electrical circuit, in particular of amplifiers and other audio equipment. It is not used for testing loudspeakers as its spectrum contains too great an amount of high frequency content. Pink noise, which differs from white noise in that it has equal energy in each octave, is used for testing transducers such as loudspeakers and microphones.

Computing.

White noise is used as the basis of some random number generators. For example, Random.org uses a system of atmospheric antennae to generate random digit patterns from white noise.

Tinnitus treatment.

White noise is a common synthetic noise source used for sound masking by a tinnitus masker. White noise machines and other white noise sources are sold as privacy enhancers and sleep aids and to mask tinnitus. Alternatively, the use of an FM radio tuned to unused frequencies ("static") is a simpler and more cost-effective source of white noise. However, white noise generated from a common commercial radio receiver tuned to an unused frequency is extremely vulnerable to being contaminated with spurious signals, such as adjacent radio stations, harmonics from non-adjacent radio stations, electrical equipment in the vicinity of the receiving antenna causing interference, or even atmospheric events such as solar flares and especially lightning.  There is evidence that white noise exposure therapies may induce maladaptive changes in the brain that degrade neurological health and compromise cognition.

Work environment.

The effects of white noise upon cognitive function are mixed. Recently, a small study found that white noise background stimulation improves cognitive functioning among secondary students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), while decreasing performance of non-ADHD students. Other work indicates it is effective in improving the mood and performance of workers by masking background office noise, but decreases cognitive performance in complex card sorting tasks.  Similarly, an experiment was carried out on sixty six healthy participants to observe the benefits of using white noise in a learning environment. The experiment involved the participants identifying different images whilst having different sounds in the background. Overall the experiment showed that white noise does in fact have benefits in relation to learning. The experiments showed that white noise improved the participant's learning abilities and their recognition memory slightly.

Mathematical definitions.

White noise vector.

A random vector (that is, a partially indeterminate process that produces vectors of real numbers) is said to be a white noise vector or white random vector if its components each have a probability distribution with zero mean and finite variance, and are statistically independent: that is, their joint probability distribution must be the product of the distributions of the individual components.  A necessary (but, in general, not sufficient) condition for statistical independence of two variables is that they be statistically uncorrelated; that is, their covariance is zero. Therefore, the covariance matrix "R" of the components of a white noise vector "w" with "n" elements must be an "n" by "n" diagonal matrix, where each diagonal element "Rii" is the variance of component "wi"; and the correlation matrix must be the "n" by "n" identity matrix.  In particular, if in addition to being independent every variable in "w" also has a normal distribution with zero mean and the same variance formula_1, "w" is said to be a Gaussian white noise vector. In that case, the joint distribution of "w" is a multivariate normal distribution; the independence between the variables then implies that the distribution has spherical symmetry in "n"-dimensional space. Therefore, any orthogonal transformation of the vector will result in a Gaussian white random vector. In particular, under most types of discrete Fourier transform, such as FFT and Hartley, the transform "W" of "w" will be a Gaussian white noise vector, too; that is, the "n" Fourier coefficients of "w" will be independent Gaussian variables with zero mean and the same variance formula_1.  The power spectrum "P" of a random vector "w" can be defined as the expected value of the squared modulus of each coefficient of its Fourier transform "W", that is, "Pi" = E(|"Wi"|2). Under that definition, a Gaussian white noise vector will have a perfectly flat power spectrum, with "Pi" = "σ2 for all "i".  If "w" is a white random vector, but not a Gaussian one, its Fourier coefficients "Wi" will not be completely independent of each other; although for large "n" and common probability distributions the dependencies are very subtle, and their pairwise correlations can be assumed to be zero.  Often the weaker condition "statistically uncorrelated" is used in the definition of white noise, instead of "statistically independent". However some of the commonly expected properties of white noise (such as flat power spectrum) may not hold for this weaker version. Under this assumption, the stricter version can be referred to explicitly as independent white noise vector. Other authors use strongly white and weakly white instead.  An example of a random vector that is "Gaussian white noise" in the weak but not in the strong sense is "x"=["x"1,"x"2] where "x"1 is a normal random variable with zero mean, and "x"2 is equal to +"x"1 or to −"x"1, with equal probability. These two variables are uncorrelated and individually normally distributed, but they are not jointly normally distributed and are not independent. If "x" is rotated by 45 degrees, its two components will still be uncorrelated, but their distribution will no longer be normal.  In some situations one may relax the definition by allowing each component of a white random vector "w" to have non-zero expected value formula_3. In image processing especially, where samples are typically restricted to positive values, one often takes formula_3 to be one half of the maximum sample value. In that case, the Fourier coefficient "W"0 corresponding to the zero-frequency component (essentially, the average of the "w"_i) will also have a non-zero expected value formula_5; and the power spectrum "P" will be flat only over the non-zero frequencies.

Discrete-time white noise.

A discrete-time stochastic process formula_6 is a generalization of random vectors with a finite number of components to infinitely many components. A discrete-time stochastic process formula_6 is called white noise if its mean does not depend on the time formula_8 and is equal to zero, i.e. formula_9 and if the autocorrelation function formula_10 only depends on formula_8 but not on formula_12 and has a nonzero value only for formula_13, i.e. formula_14.

Continuous-time white noise.

In order to define the notion of "white noise" in the theory of continuous-time signals, one must replace the concept of a "random vector" by a continuous-time random signal; that is, a random process that generates a function formula_15 of a real-valued parameter formula_16.  Such a process is said to be white noise in the strongest sense if the value formula_17 for any time formula_16 is a random variable that is statistically independent of its entire history before formula_16. A weaker definition requires independence only between the values formula_20 and formula_21 at every pair of distinct times formula_22 and formula_23. An even weaker definition requires only that such pairs formula_20 and formula_21 be uncorrelated. As in the discrete case, some authors adopt the weaker definition for "white noise", and use the qualifier independent to refer to either of the stronger definitions. Others use weakly white and strongly white to distinguish between them.  However, a precise definition of these concepts is not trivial, because some quantities that are finite sums in the finite discrete case must be replaced by integrals that may not converge. Indeed, the set of all possible instances of a signal formula_15 is no longer a finite-dimensional space formula_27, but an infinite-dimensional function space. Moreover, by any definition a white noise signal formula_15 would have to be essentially discontinuous at every point; therefore even the simplest operations on formula_15, like integration over a finite interval, require advanced mathematical machinery.  Some authors require each value formula_17 to be a real-valued random variable with expectation formula_3 and some finite variance formula_1. Then the covariance formula_33 between the values at two times formula_22 and formula_23 is well-defined: it is zero if the times are distinct, and formula_1 if they are equal. However, by this definition, the integral over any interval with positive width formula_38 would be simply the width times the expectation: formula_39. This property would render the concept inadequate as a model of physical "white noise" signals.  Therefore, most authors define the signal formula_15 indirectly by specifying non-zero values for the integrals of formula_17 and formula_42 over any interval formula_43, as a function of its width formula_38. In this approach, however, the value of formula_17 at an isolated time cannot be defined as a real-valued random variable. Also the covariance formula_33 becomes infinite when formula_47; and the autocorrelation function formula_48 must be defined as formula_49, where formula_50 is some real constant and formula_51 is Dirac's "function".  In this approach, one usually specifies that the integral formula_52 of formula_17 over an interval formula_54 is a real random variable with normal distribution, zero mean, and variance formula_55; and also that the covariance formula_56 of the integrals formula_52, formula_58 is formula_59, where formula_38 is the width of the intersection formula_61 of the two intervals formula_62. This model is called a Gaussian white noise signal (or process).

Mathematical applications.

Time series analysis and regression.

In statistics and econometrics one often assumes that an observed series of data values is the sum of a series of values generated by a deterministic linear process, depending on certain independent (explanatory) variables, and on a series of random noise values. Then regression analysis is used to infer the parameters of the model process from the observed data, e.g. by ordinary least squares, and to test the null hypothesis that each of the parameters is zero against the alternative hypothesis that it is non-zero. Hypothesis testing typically assumes that the noise values are mutually uncorrelated with zero mean and have the same Gaussian probability distributionin other words, that the noise is white. If there is non-zero correlation between the noise values underlying different observations then the estimated model parameters are still unbiased, but estimates of their uncertainties (such as confidence intervals) will be biased (not accurate on average). This is also true if the noise is heteroskedasticthat is, if it has different variances for different data points.  Alternatively, in the subset of regression analysis known as time series analysis there are often no explanatory variables other than the past values of the variable being modeled (the dependent variable). In this case the noise process is often modeled as a moving average process, in which the current value of the dependent variable depends on current and past values of a sequential white noise process.

Random vector transformations.

These two ideas are crucial in applications such as channel estimation and channel equalization in communications and audio. These concepts are also used in data compression. In particular, by a suitable linear transformation (a coloring transformation), a white random vector can be used to produce a "non-white" random vector (that is, a list of random variables) whose elements have a prescribed covariance matrix. Conversely, a random vector with known covariance matrix can be transformed into a white random vector by a suitable whitening transformation.

Generation.

White noise may be generated digitally with a digital signal processor, microprocessor, or microcontroller. Generating white noise typically entails feeding an appropriate stream of random numbers to a digital-to-analog converter. The quality of the white noise will depend on the quality of the algorithm used.

In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used, with this or similar meanings, in many scientific and technical disciplines, including physics, acoustical engineering, telecommunications, and statistical forecasting. White noise refers to a statistical model for signals and signal sources, rather than to any specific signal. White noise draws its name from white light, although light that appears white generally does not have a flat power spectral density over the visible band. In discrete time, white noise is a discrete signal whose samples are regarded as a sequence of serially uncorrelated random variables with zero mean and finite variance; a single realization of white noise is a random shock. Depending on the context, one may also require that the samples be independent and have identical probability distribution (in other words independent and identically distributed random variables are the simplest representation of white noise). In particular, if each sample has a normal distribution with zero mean, the signal is said to be additive white Gaussian noise.

Bílý šum () je náhodný signál s rovnoměrnou výkonovou spektrální hustotou. Signál má stejný výkon v jakémkoli pásmu shodné šířky. Například pásmo široké 20 Hz mezi 40 a 60 Hz má stejný výkon jako pásmo mezi 4000 a 4020 Hz. Bílý šum je tak nazýván jako analogie s bílým světlem, které obsahuje všechny frekvence. Nekonečný frekvenční rozsah signálu bílého šumu je pouze teoretický. Kdyby byl nenulový výkon na všech frekvencích, celkový výkon takového signálu by byl nekonečný. V praxi je signál „bílý“, pokud má ploché spektrum v definovaném rozsahu frekvencí.


Career.

The U.K. Subs were part of the original punk movement in England. The band formed in 1976, initially using the name the Subversives. The band's founder, Charlie Harper, selected guitarist Nicky Garratt, bassist Paul Slack, and various drummers (eventually with Pete Davies became fairly stable) under the initial name "U.K. Subversives". The London-based band's early line-up changed frequently.  Their style combined the energy of punk and the rock and roll edge of the then-thriving pub rock scene. The band had hit singles such as "Stranglehold", "Warhead", "Teenage", and "Tomorrow's Girls", with several of their songs managing to enter the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart.  The band played several John Peel sessions in 1978 for BBC Radio 1, and played some opening gigs for The Police, and recorded a set at The Roxy (a punk club), which was issued in 1980 as "Live Kicks". They signed a recording contract with GEM Records in May 1979. Under GEM, the U.K. Subs recorded their most successful studio albums, "Another Kind of Blues" and "Brand New Age". Their biggest selling album came with 1980's "Crash Course". "Crash Course" was recorded at the Rainbow Theatre in London on 30 May 1980 during the Brand New Age tour.  In 1979, Julien Temple wrote and directed a short film "Punk Can Take It", a parody of wartime documentaries, that consisted mainly of the U.K.Subs playing live on stage. The film was released theatrically.  In the 1980s with the addition of the new bassist Alvin Gibbs and drummer Steve Roberts, the songs took on a more heavy metal-influenced edge. In July 1982, they became the first Western band to perform in Poland since the imposition of martial law, and the suppression of the trade union Solidarity. Their concert was held in Gdańsk, and they were supported by Brygada Kryzys. Also in 1983 they came to Poland, where they played several concerts with new wave polish band Republika. In 1991, the U.K. Subs also had Lars Frederiksen (now of Rancid) on guitar for a 30 date UK tour. Decades after the disbanding of other late-1970s punk groups such as the Sex Pistols and The Clash, the U.K. Subs continue to perform.  Successive U.K. Subs album titles start with consecutive letters of the alphabet, and the band announced on 24 October 2015 via their Facebook page, that the 26th album starting with the letter "Z" would be their last long playing record, although they would continue to release EPs. The band intend to fund the final album through Crowdfunding site Pledge Music, the official start date for their pledge campaign is 1 November 2015. The U.K. Subs song "Down on the Farm" was covered by Guns N' Roses on their 1993 covers album ""The Spaghetti Incident?"". The U.K. Subs joined the bill for the 2006 Fiend Fest. The band have toured with The Misfits, The Adicts, Osaka Popstar, Agent Orange, and The Ramones. The U.K. Subs song "Warhead" is played in the movie, "This Is England". U.K. Subs are one of the regular bands to play the Rebellion Festival nearly every year since its origins as The Holidays in the Sun Festival in 1996.  In 2007, drummer Jamie Oliver was a contestant on the UK quiz show Nothing But the Truth. Vocalist Charlie Harper was among the panel of witnesses. Oliver reached the £5000 mark, but lost it all in a bid to double his winnings.  In recent years, the band's work has been critical of British politician Nick Clegg, with the 2013 song "Coalition Government Blues" describing the Liberal Democrats' leader as "liking his perks". The band's 2015 album "Yellow Leader" was widely suspected of referring to Clegg, with yellow being the official colour of his political party.

Band members.

Current members  Former members

The U.K. Subs are an English punk band, among the earliest in the first wave of British punk. Formed in 1976, the mainstay of the band has been vocalist Charlie Harper, originally a singer in Britain's R&B scene. They were also one of the first street punk bands.

UK Subs (též U.K. Subs) je britská punková skupina soustředěná kolem zpěváka Charlieho Harpera, který je dnes jediným původním členem. Od roku 1980 kombinovala ve své tvorbě punkové a metalové vlivy a stála tak u zrodu hardcore.


History.

19th century: First passenger cars and early development.

Up until about the end of the 19th century, most passenger cars were constructed of wood. The first passenger trains did not travel very far, but they were able to haul many more passengers for a longer distance than any wagons pulled by horses.  As railways were first constructed in England, so too were the first passenger cars. One of the early coach designs was the "Stanhope". It featured a roof and small holes in the floor for drainage when it rained, and had separate compartments for different classes of travel. The only problem with this design is that the passengers were expected to stand for their entire trip. The first passenger cars in the

1900–1950: Lighter materials, new car types.

By the 1920s, passenger cars on the larger standard gauge railroads were normally between and long. The cars of this time were still quite ornate, many of them being built by experienced coach makers and skilled carpenters. In the United States, the so-called "chair car" with individual seating became commonplace on long-distance routes.  With the 1930s came the widespread use of stainless steel for car bodies. The typical passenger car was now much lighter than its wood cousins of old. The new "lightweight" and streamlined cars carried passengers in speed and comfort to an extent that had not been experienced to date. Aluminum and Cor-Ten steel were also used in lightweight car construction, but stainless steel was the preferred material for car bodies. Stainless steel cars could be and often were, left unpainted except for the car's reporting marks that

1950–present: High-technology advancements.

Starting in the 1950s, the passenger travel market declined in North America, though there was growth in commuter rail. Private intercity passenger service in the U.S. mostly ended with the creation of Amtrak in 1971. Amtrak took over equipment and stations from most of the railroads in the U.S. with intercity service.  The higher clearances in North America enabled a major advancement in passenger car design, bi-level (double-decker) commuter coaches that could hold more passengers. These cars started to become common in the

Heavyweight vs. lightweight.

A heavyweight car is one that is physically heavier than a lightweight car due to its construction. While early cars used wood construction, Pullman switched to heavyweight riveted steel construction in 1910, more or less at the same time as other rail car manufacturers. Heavyweights are said to offer a more luxurious ride due to their added mass (from the plate steel construction and concrete floor) and, usually, six-wheeled trucks (bogies). The stepped roof line of early heavyweights usually consisted of a center sill section (the clerestory) that ran the length of the car and extended above the roof sides by as much as a foot. This section of the roof usually had windows or shutters that could be opened for ventilation while the train was in motion. However, railroad crews and passengers quickly discovered that when these windows were opened on a passenger train pulled by one or more steam locomotives, smoke and soot from the locomotives tended to drift in through the windows, especially when the train went through a

Car types.

Traditionally the passenger car can be split into a number of distinct types.  The most basic division is between cars which do carry passengers and "head end" equipment. The latter are run as part of passenger trains, but do not themselves carry passengers. Traditionally they were put between the locomotive and the passenger-carrying cars in the consist, hence the name.  Some specialized types are variants of or combine elements of the most basic types.  Also, the basic design of passenger cars is evolving, with articulated units that have shared trucks, with double-decker designs, and with the "low floor" design where the loading area is very close to the ground and slung between the trucks.

Passenger-carrying types.

Coach.

The coach is the most basic type of passenger car, also sometimes referred to as "chair cars".  Two main variants exist.  In one variant, an "open coach" has a central aisle; the car's interior is often filled with row upon row of seats as in a passenger airliner. Other arrangements of the "open" type are also found, including seats around tables, seats facing the aisle (often found on mass transit trains since they increase standing room for rush hour), and variations of all three. Seating arrangement is typically [2+2], while the hard seat in China has [3+2] arrangements. The seating arrangements and density, as well as the absence or presence of other facilities depends on the intended use – from mass transit systems to long distance luxury trains. Some cars have reclining seats to allow for easier sleeping by passengers not traveling in a sleeping car.  In another variant, "closed" coaches or "compartment" cars have a side

Dining car.

A dining car (or diner) is used to serve meals to the passengers. Its interior may be split with a portion of the interior partitioned off for a galley, which is off-limits to passengers.

Lounge.

Lounge cars carry a bar and public seating. They usually have benches, armchairs or large swivelling chairs along the sides of the car. They often have small tables for drinks, or may be large enough to play cards. Some lounge cars include small pianos and are staffed by contracted musicians to entertain the passengers.  These cars are

Observation.

The observation car almost always operated as the last car in a passenger train, in US practice. Its interior could include features of a coach, lounge, diner, or sleeper. The main spotting feature was at the tail end of the car – some more modern US designs had walls of the car usually curved together to form a large U shape, and larger

Sleeping car.

Often called "sleepers" or "Pullman cars" (after the main American operator), these cars provide sleeping arrangements for passengers travelling at night. Early models were divided into sections, where coach seating converted at night into semi-private berths. More modern interiors are normally partitioned into separate bedroom compartments for passengers. The beds are designed in such a way that they either roll or fold out of the way or convert into seats for daytime use. Compartments vary in size; some are large enough for only a bed, while others resemble efficiency apartments including bathrooms.  In China, sleeping cars still serve as major travel classes in long-range rail transport. The classes of sleeping cars include hard sleeper (YW) with six bunks per compartment, soft sleeper (RW) typically with four bunks, deluxe soft sleeper (GRW) typically with two bunks.

Head-end equipment.

Baggage car.

Although passengers generally were not allowed access to the baggage car, they were included in a great number of passenger trains as regular equipment. The baggage car is a car that was normally placed between the train's motive power and the remainder of the passenger train. The car's interior is normally wide open and is used to carry passengers' checked baggage. Baggage cars were also sometimes commissioned by freight companies to haul less-than-carload (LCL) shipments along passenger routes (Railway

Express car.

Express cars carried high-value freight in passenger consists. These cars

Horse car.

Specialized stock cars were used to transport horses and other high value

Prisoner car.

In some countries, such as Russia, convicts are transported from court to prison or from one prison to another by railway. In such transportation a specific type of coach, prisoner car, is used. It contains several cell

Railway post office.

Like baggage cars, railway post office (RPO; US term) cars or travelling post offices (TPOs; British term) were not accessible to paying passengers. These cars' interiors were designed with sorting facilities that were often seen and used in conventional post offices around the world. The RPO is where mail was sorted while the train was en route. Because these cars carried mail, which often included valuables or quantities of cash and checks, the RPO staff (who were employed by the postal service and not the railroad) were the only train crews allowed to carry guns. The RPO cars were normally placed in a passenger train between the train's motive power and baggage cars, further inhibiting their access by passengers.

Specialized types.

Colonist Car.

A colonist car or emigrant car was a special sleeping car designed to take immigrants from ocean ports to settlement

Combine.

A combine is a car that combines features of a head-end and a regular passenger car. The most common combination is that of a coach and a baggage car, but the combination of coach and post office car

Control car (cab).

A control car (also known as a "driving trailer" in Europe and the UK) is a passenger car which lets the train be run in reverse with the

Dome car.

A dome car can include features of a coach car, sleeping car, a lounge car, dining car, and an observation car. Within the United States, the primary manufacturers were The Budd Company (stainless steel construction), The Pullman Company (steel construction), and ACF (American Car & Foundry, aluminum construction). A portion of the car, usually in the center, is split between two levels, with stairs leading both up and down from the train's regular passenger car floor level. The lower level of the dome usually consisted of a small lounge area, while the upper portion was usually coach or lounge seating within a "bubble" of glass on the car's roof. Budd Co. dome cars used curved class, whereas Pullman company cars used flat panels

Double-decker or bilevel coach.

As passenger car construction improved to the point where dome cars were introduced, some passenger car manufacturers began building double decker passenger train cars for use in areas that are more heavily populated or to carry more passengers over a long distance while using

Drovers' car.

Drovers' cars were used on long distance livestock trains in the western United States. The purpose of a drovers' car was

Hospital car.

A variety of hospital trains operate around the world,

Narragansett-style excursion car.

Narragansett-style excursion cars are open-air passenger cars with cross-bench seating first popularized by rail lines in New England. Current operating examples of

Prisoner transport car.

Many countries historically used special railroad cars to transport prisoners. The tradition is now extinct anywhere except for the post-Soviet countries where

Private car.

Many cars built by Pullman and other companies were either originally built or later converted for use as business and private cars which served as the "private jet" of the early-to-mid-20th century. They were used by railroad officials and dignitaries as business cars, and wealthy individuals for travel and entertainment. There are various configurations, but the cars generally have an

Troop sleeper.

A "troop sleeper" was a railroad passenger car which had been constructed to serve as something of a mobile barracks (essentially, a sleeping car) for transporting troops over distances sufficient to require overnight accommodations. This method allowed part of the trip to be made overnight, reducing the amount of transit time required and increasing travel efficiency. Troop kitchens, rolling galleys, also joined the consists in order to provide meal service en route (the troops took their meals in their seats or bunks). Troop hospital cars, also based on the troop sleeper carbody, transported wounded servicemen and typically travelled in solid strings on special trains averaging fifteen cars each.

Car technology.

Passenger cars are as almost as old as railroading itself, and their development paralleled that of freight cars. Early two axle cars gave way to conventional two truck construction with the floor of the car riding above the wheels; link and pin couplers gave way to automatic types.  Several construction details characterized passenger equipment. Passenger trains were expected to run at higher speeds than freight service, and therefore passenger trucks evolved to allow superior ride and better tracking at those speeds. Over time, in most cases provision was made for passengers and train staff to move from car to car; therefore platforms and later vestibules were used to bridge the gap.  In later years a number of changes to this basic form were introduced to allow for improvements in speed, comfort, and expense.

Articulated.

Articulated passenger cars are becoming increasingly common in Europe and the US. This means that the passenger cars share trucks and that the passageways between them are more or less permanently attached. The cars are kept in "trainsets" and not split up during normal operations.  Articulated cars have a number

Low-floor.

In some countries (such as the US), platform level may be below the level of the floor of passenger cars, resulting in a significant step up from platform level – leading to slower boarding times, which are important for high-capacity systems. Low-floor cars have their main passenger and loading floor directly on level with the loading platform, instead of having a step up to the passenger compartment as was traditional until around the 1970s. This is achieved by having a low-slung chassis with the "low floor" resting "between"

Self-propelled passenger equipment.

These vehicles usually carry motive power in each individual unit. Trams, light rail vehicles and subways have been widely constructed in urban areas throughout the world since the late 19th century. By the year 1900, electric-powered passenger cars were ubiquitous in the developed world, but they fell into decline after World War II, especially in the U.S. By the year 2000 they had regained

Tilting.

These cars are able to tilt to counter the effects of inertia when turning, making the ride more comfortable for the passengers. Amtrak has adopted Talgo trainsets for its Amtrak Cascades service in the Pacific Northwest. Other manufacturers have also implemented tilting designs. The British Rail Class 390 is a tilting train operating in the UK.

Passenger car manufacturers.

While some railroads, like the Milwaukee Road, preferred to build their own passenger cars, several railcar manufacturers built the majority of passenger cars in revenue service. Most of these companies produced both passenger and freight equipment for the railroads. This is by no means a comprehensive list of all passenger car builders (see List of rolling stock manufacturers for a more complete list). Quite a large number of firms built passenger cars over the years, but the majority of cars in the 20th century were built by these companies.

American Car and Foundry.

American Car and Foundry was formed in 1899 through the merger of 13 smaller railroad car manufacturing companies (in much the same way as the American Locomotive Company was formed from the merger of 8 smaller

Bombardier.

Bombardier is the largest manufacturer of passenger cars in the world. This company

Budd Company.

The Budd Company got its start in the early 1930s when Edward G. Budd developed a way to build carbodies out of stainless steel. In 1932 he completed his first railcar, dubbed the "Green Goose". It used rubber tires and a stainless steel body, and was powered by the engine out of Budd's own Chrysler Imperial automobile. Budd sold a few of these early powered cars to the Reading Railroad, Pennsylvania Railroad and the Texas and Pacific Railway.

Kawasaki.

Kawasaki has been manufacturing passenger rail cars at its facility in Lincoln, Nebraska, since 2001. Kawasaki's Lincoln plant has manufactured rail cars for MBTA, NYCT,

Pullman.

The most famous of all the car manufacturers was Pullman, which began as the "Pullman Palace Car Company" founded by George Pullman in 1867. The Pullman Palace Car Company manufactured railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the early decades of the 20th century during the boom of railroads in the United States.  Pullman developed the sleeping car which carried his name into the 1980s.

Siemens.

Siemens was founded in 1847 in Berlin, Germany building Conglomerates, Electric and Industry products, Healthcare Radioative systems, rolling stock, etc. The Siemens "Viaggio" passenger car models are to all purposes in the European railways: Viaggio Twin: double-deck coaches

St. Louis Car Company.

Founded in April 1887, in its namesake city, St. Louis Car Company manufactured railroad cars for streetcar lines (urban passenger railways) and steam railroads.

Lighting, heating, air-conditioning.

The earliest form of train lighting was provided by Colza oil lamps. The next stage was gas lighting, using compressed gas stored in cylinders under the coaches. Finally, electric lighting was introduced.  Early railway coaches had no heating but passengers could hire foot-warmers. These worked on the

Capacitors.

In a subway car, tram or train, an insulator at a track switch may cut off power from the car for a few feet along the line and use a large capacitor to store energy to drive the subway car through the gap in the power feed.  Technologies used

A passenger car (also known as a passenger wagon, passenger carriage, passenger coach or passenger truck in the UK, and passenger bogie in India) is a piece of railway rolling stock that is designed to carry passengers. The term "passenger car" can also be associated with a sleeping car, baggage, dining, railway post office and prisoner transport cars.

Osobní vůz (lidově podle němčiny "osobní vagón" nebo jen "vagón") je železniční vůz, který je zkonstruován pro provoz v osobní dopravě. Pokud neslouží přímo k přepravě osob, má přesto znaky shodné s touto skupinou vozů. Typické znaky současných osobních vozů jsou:


History.

Scholarly interest in earthquakes can be traced back to antiquity. Early speculations on the natural causes of earthquakes were included in the writings of Thales of Miletus (c. 585 BCE), Anaximenes of Miletus (c. 550 BCE), Aristotle (c. 340 BCE), and Zhang Heng (132 CE).  In 132 CE, Zhang Heng of China's Han dynasty designed the first known seismoscope.  In the 17th century, Athanasius Kircher argued that earthquakes were caused by the movement of fire within a system of channels inside the Earth. Martin Lister (1638 to 1712) and Nicolas Lemery (1645 to 1715) proposed that earthquakes were caused by chemical explosions within the earth.  The Lisbon earthquake of 1755, coinciding with the general flowering of science in Europe, set in motion intensified scientific attempts to understand the behaviour and causation of earthquakes. The earliest responses include work by John Bevis (1757) and John Michell (1761). Michell determined that earthquakes originate within the Earth and were waves of movement caused by "shifting masses of rock miles below the surface".  From 1857, Robert Mallet laid the foundation of instrumental seismology and carried out seismological experiments using explosives. He is also responsible for coining the word "seismology".  In 1897, Emil Wiechert's theoretical calculations led him to conclude that the Earth's interior consists of a mantle of silicates, surrounding a core of iron.  In 1906 Richard Dixon Oldham identified the separate arrival of P-waves, S-waves and surface waves on seismograms and found the first clear evidence that the Earth has a central core.  In 1910, after studying the April 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Harry Fielding Reid put forward the "elastic rebound theory" which remains the foundation for modern tectonic studies. The development of this theory depended on the considerable progress of earlier independent streams of work on the behaviour of elastic materials and in mathematics.  In 1926, Harold Jeffreys was the first to claim, based on his study of earthquake waves, that below the mantle, the core of the Earth is liquid.  In 1937, Inge Lehmann determined that within the earth's liquid outer core there is a solid "inner" core.  By the 1960s, earth science had developed to the point where a comprehensive theory of the causation of seismic events had come together in the now well-established theory of plate tectonics.

Types of seismic wave.

Seismic waves are elastic waves that propagate in solid or fluid materials. They can be divided into "body waves" that travel through the interior of the materials; "surface waves" that travel along surfaces or interfaces between materials; and "normal modes", a form of standing wave.

Body waves.

There are two types of body waves, pressure waves or primary waves (P-waves) and shear or secondary waves (S-waves). P-waves are longitudinal waves that involve compression and expansion in the direction that the wave is moving and are always the first waves to appear on a seismogram as they are the fastest moving waves through solids. S-waves are transverse waves that move perpendicular to the direction of propagation. S-waves are slower than P-waves. Therefore, they appear later than P-waves on a seismogram. Fluids cannot support perpendicular motion, so S-waves only travel in solids.

Surface waves.

Surface waves are the result of P- and S-waves interacting with the surface of the Earth. These waves are dispersive, meaning that different frequencies have different velocities. The two main surface wave types are Rayleigh waves, which have both compressional and shear motions, and Love waves, which are purely shear. Rayleigh waves result from the interaction of P-waves and vertically polarized S-waves with the surface and can exist in any solid medium. Love waves are formed by horizontally polarized S-waves interacting with the surface, and can only exist if there is a change in the elastic properties with depth in a solid medium, which is always the case in seismological applications. Surface waves travel more slowly than P-waves and S-waves because they are the result of these waves traveling along indirect paths to interact with Earth's surface. Because they travel along the surface of the Earth, their energy decays less rapidly than body waves (1/distance vs. 1/distance), and thus the shaking caused by surface waves is generally stronger than that of body waves. The primary surface waves are often the largest signals on earthquake seismograms. Surface waves are strongly excited when their source is close to the surface, as in a shallow earthquake or a near surface explosion, and are much weaker for deep earthquake sources.

Normal modes.

Both body and surface waves are traveling waves; however, large earthquakes can also make the entire Earth "ring" like a resonant bell. This ringing is a mixture of normal modes with discrete frequencies and periods of an hour or shorter. Motion caused by a large earthquake can be observed for up to a month after the event. The first observations of normal modes were made in the 1960s as the advent of higher fidelity instruments coincided with two of the largest earthquakes of the 20th century – the 1960 Valdivia earthquake and the 1964 Alaska earthquake. Since then, the normal modes of the Earth have given us some of the strongest constraints on the deep structure of the Earth.

Earthquakes.

One of the first attempts at the scientific study of earthquakes followed the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. Other notable earthquakes that spurred major advancements in the science of seismology include the 1857 Basilicata earthquake, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the 1964 Alaska earthquake, the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, and the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake.

Controlled seismic sources.

Seismic waves produced by explosions or vibrating controlled sources are one of the primary methods of underground exploration in geophysics (in addition to many different electromagnetic methods such as induced polarization and magnetotellurics). Controlled-source seismology has been used to map salt domes, anticlines and other geologic traps in petroleum-bearing rocks, faults, rock types, and long-buried giant meteor craters. For example, the Chicxulub Crater, which was caused by an impact that has been implicated in the extinction of the dinosaurs, was localized to Central America by analyzing ejecta in the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, and then physically proven to exist using seismic maps from oil exploration.

Detection of seismic waves.

Seismometers are sensors that detect and record the motion of the Earth arising from elastic waves. Seismometers may be deployed at the Earth's surface, in shallow vaults, in boreholes, or underwater. A complete instrument package that records seismic signals is called a seismograph. Networks of seismographs continuously record ground motions around the world to facilitate the monitoring and analysis of global earthquakes and other sources of seismic activity. Rapid location of earthquakes makes tsunami warnings possible because seismic waves travel considerably faster than tsunami waves. Seismometers also record signals from non-earthquake sources ranging from explosions (nuclear and chemical), to local noise from wind or anthropogenic activities, to incessant signals generated at the ocean floor and coasts induced by ocean waves (the global microseism), to cryospheric events associated with large icebergs and glaciers. Above-ocean meteor strikes with energies as high as 4.2 × 10 J (equivalent to that released by an explosion of ten kilotons of TNT) have been recorded by seismographs, as have a number of industrial accidents and terrorist bombs and events (a field of study referred to as forensic seismology). A major long-term motivation for the global seismographic monitoring has been for the detection and study of nuclear testing.

Mapping the earth's interior.

Because seismic waves commonly propagate efficiently as they interact with the internal structure of the Earth, they provide high-resolution noninvasive methods for studying the planet's interior. One of the earliest important discoveries (suggested by Richard Dixon Oldham in 1906 and definitively shown by Harold Jeffreys in 1926) was that the outer core of the earth is liquid. Since S-waves do not pass through liquids, the liquid core causes a "shadow" on the side of the planet opposite the earthquake where no direct S-waves are observed. In addition, P-waves travel much slower through the outer core than the mantle.  Processing readings from many seismometers using seismic tomography, seismologists have mapped the mantle of the earth to a resolution of several hundred kilometers. This has enabled scientists to identify convection cells and other large-scale features such as the large low-shear-velocity provinces near the core–mantle boundary.

Seismology and society.

Earthquake prediction.

Forecasting a probable timing, location, magnitude and other important features of a forthcoming seismic event is called earthquake prediction. Various attempts have been made by seismologists and others to create effective systems for precise earthquake predictions, including the VAN method. Most seismologists do not believe that a system to provide timely warnings for individual earthquakes has yet been developed, and many believe that such a system would be unlikely to give useful warning of impending seismic events. However, more general forecasts routinely predict seismic hazard. Such forecasts estimate the probability of an earthquake of a particular size affecting a particular location within a particular time-span, and they are routinely used in earthquake engineering.  Public controversy over earthquake prediction erupted after Italian authorities indicted six seismologists and one government official for manslaughter in connection with a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy on April 5, 2009. The indictment has been widely perceived as an indictment for failing to predict the earthquake and has drawn condemnation from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union. The indictment claims that, at a special meeting in L'Aquila the week before the earthquake occurred, scientists and officials were more interested in pacifying the population than providing adequate information about earthquake risk and preparedness.

Engineering seismology.

Engineering seismology is the study and application of seismology for engineering purposes. It generally applied to the branch of seismology that deals with the assessment of the seismic hazard of a site or region for the purposes of earthquake engineering. It is, therefore, a link between earth science and civil engineering. There are two principal components of engineering seismology. Firstly, studying earthquake history (e.g. historical and instrumental catalogs of seismicity) and tectonics to assess the earthquakes that could occur in a region and their characteristics and frequency of occurrence. Secondly, studying strong ground motions generated by earthquakes to assess the expected shaking from future earthquakes with similar characteristics. These strong ground motions could either be observations from accelerometers or seismometers or those simulated by computers using various techniques, which are then often used to develop ground motion prediction equations (or ground-motion models).

Tools.

Seismological instruments can generate large amounts of data. Systems for processing such data include:

Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός ("seismós") meaning "earthquake" and -λογία ("-logía") meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other planet-like bodies. The field also includes studies of earthquake environmental effects such as tsunamis as well as diverse seismic sources such as volcanic, tectonic, oceanic, atmospheric, and artificial processes such as explosions. A related field that uses geology to infer information regarding past earthquakes is paleoseismology. A recording of earth motion as a function of time is called a seismogram. A seismologist is a scientist who does research in seismology.

Seismologie (z řeckého σεισμός "seismos" zemětřesení + λόγος "logos" slovo, řád, nauka) je obor geofyziky, který se věnuje studiu zemětřesení a procesů spojených se šířením seismických vln Zemí či jinými objekty (např. Měsícem v rámci programu Apollo). Příbuzný obor je paleoseismologie, která se snaží rekonstruovat nezaznamenaná historická zemětřesení.


Geography.

The surface area extends for about from north to south and from east to west. With an average depth of, its water volume even surpasses the Chiemsee, which is larger by area.  The main inflow is the Seeache creek, which flows out of the nearby Mondsee lake in the southwest. Both Attersee and Mondsee are part of a chain of lakes, beginning with Fuschlsee and Irrsee. The waters flow off with the Ager River down to the Traun which itself discharges into the Danube at Linz.  In the southwest of the lake the Schafberg ("Sheep Mountain"), part of the Salzkammergut Mountains, rises up to, separating it from the Mondsee lake, whose southern shore borders the state of Salzburg. The "Höllengebirge" (literally "mountains of hell") karst range, with a height of up to, is located southeast of the lake.  Due to its steady winds and clean water quality, Attersee is famous for attracting sailors and swimmers alike. During the season numerous sailing competitions are held. One of the most cherished winds on Attersee is the so-called "Rosenwind" meaning "breeze of roses". It is an easterly wind that crosses a castle's rose garden and fills the air across the lake with the smell of roses. The surrounding settlements largely depend on tourism, mainly in spring, summer and autumn.  Because of the lake's size and despite the cold temperatures during winter the lake rarely freezes. The last time the lake was entirely covered with ice was in the late 1940s, when people were seen skating and riding motorcycles across the thickly frozen surface of the lake.

History.

The name "Atter", derived from "ata" meaning "water", probably is of proto-Celtic origin. The shores were already settled in the Neolithic era. In August 1870, remains of prehistoric pile dwellings were found near Seewalchen at the northern end of the lake. The Mondsee group stilt houses since 2011 are part of the UNESCO Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps World Heritage Site. Other archaeological findings denote settlement activities in Roman times from the 2nd century BC onwards.  In the middle of the 19th century paddlesteamers were introduced on the lake to ferry mail and goods between the villages located around the Attersee. Today it is an important recreation site for people from the urban areas of Vienna and Linz.  From the "Fin de siècle", Attersee became a popular destination for summer guests, apart from the bustle at the emperor's sojourn in nearby Bad Ischl. Near the village of Litzlberg, part of Seewalchen, there is a small island castle, which Gustav Klimt frequently visited during the summer. Likewise, the German painter Albert Weisgerber was a summer visitor on Attersee.  Lake Attersee was a rallying point for several German divisions during World War II which had retreated during the Siege of Budapest. Among these were several foreign volunteer divisions of the Waffen-SS, which sought to reach Attersee where surrender to the Americans was preferable to capture by the Red Army.

Fishing.

Among the fish species found in the lake are:

Attersee, also known as Kammersee, English sometimes Lake Atter, is the largest lake of the Salzkammergut region in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. It is Austria's third largest lake by area, surpassed only by Lake Constance and Lake Neusiedl, which, however, both extend beyond national borders.

Atterské jezero () nebo Kammerské jezero () je ledovcové jezero v severním Rakousku (Horní Rakousy) v Alpách v pohoří Salzkammergutberge. Má rozlohu 46,7 km2 (je tak 3. největším jezerem v Rakousku) a dosahuje maximální hloubky 171 m (3. nejhlubší jezero v Rakousku). Leží v nadmořské výšce 467 m. Teplota vody zde v létě dosahuje až 25 °C.


Investigations.

In 1895 an investigation into verbal slips was undertaken by a philologist and a psychologist, Rudolf Meringer and Karl Meyer, who collected many examples and divided them into separate types.

Psychoanalysis.

Freud was to become interested in such mistakes from 1897 onwards, developing an interpretation of slips in terms of their unconscious meaning. Subsequently followers of his like Ernest Jones developed the theme of lapsus in connection with writing, typing, and misprints.  According to Freud's early psychoanalytic theory, a lapsus represents a bungled act that hides an unconscious desire: “the phenomena can be traced back to incompletely suppressed psychical material...pushed away by consciousness”.  Jacques Lacan would thoroughly endorse the Freudian interpretation of unconscious motivation in the slip, arguing that “in the "lapsus" it is...clear that every unsuccessful act is a successful, not to say 'well-turned', discourse”.  In the seventies Sebastiano Timpanaro would controversially take up the question again, by offering a mechanistic explanation of all such slips, in opposition to Freud's theories.

Types of lapsus.

In literature, a number of different types of lapsus are named depending on the mode of correspondence:

Types of slips of the tongue.

Slips of the tongue can happen on any level:  Additionally, each of these five levels of error may take various forms:

Motivation.

Meringer and Meyer highlighted the role of familiar associations and similarities of words and sounds in producing the lapsus. Freud objected that such factors did not cause but only “"favour" slips of the tongue...in the immense majority of cases my speech is not disturbed by the circumstance that the words I am using recall others with a similar sound...or that familiar associations branch off from them”.  Timpanaro later reignited the debate, by maintaining that any given slip can always be explained mechanically without a need for deeper motivation.  J. L. Austin had independently seen slips not as revealing a particular complex, but as an ineluctable feature of the human condition, necessitating a continual preparation for excuses and remedial work.

A lapsus (Latin for "lapse, slip, error") is an involuntary mistake made while writing or speaking, something long studied in philology.

Přeřeknutí je jev, kdy někdo omylem vyřkne myšlenku nebo jazykový tvar, jimiž se vnitřně zabývá, namísto těch, které chtěl vyjádřit. Přeřeknutí spočívá v myšlenkovém zkratu ("při jídle se nejí"), který bývá ovlivněn skrytými myšlenkami a asociacemi.