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Shi Deru (), born Liu Xiangyang, English name Shawn Liu, is a 31st generation Grandmaster of Shaolin kung fu. He was a close disciple of abbot Shi Suxi, and close Shaolin brother of Shi Deyang. His nickname is "iron leg". |
He received an OMD from the Wushu Traditional Chinese School of Medicine in Anhui province, China, in 1978, and a MS in Exercise Physiology from the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama, in 1991. |
He was born in China during an era of political upheaval, and he experienced extreme deprivation in early childhood, eating worms and maggots just to survive. He was rescued by Shaolin monks, who taught him their martial arts. Although he is technically a Chinese Buddhist monk, he does not consider himself one, instead stating that he is just "an ordinary Shaolin disciple who happened, since childhood, to have been traveling in Chan." |
From 1993–2003 he served as chief referee for U.S. National and International sanshou competitions. Beginning in 1994, he became head coach of the U.S. Wushu-Kungfu Federation National Sanshou Team. Under his coaching, the team won international victories and produced 5 World Champions. |
In 1999 he opened the Liu Shaolin Institute in Mobile, Alabama, where he teaches kung fu, tai chi, qigong, sanshou, and practices Chinese traditional medicine. Since then, the Institute has opened additional campuses in New Orleans and Atlanta. Notable alumni of the Shaolin Institute include Cung Le and Patrick Barry, a UFC fighter who studied sanshou with Shi Deru and traveled with him to the Shaolin Temple three times to train. |
On 1 August 2002, he was unfairly assaulted by townspeople near the Shaolin Temple, who associated him with the appointed abbot Shi Yongxin. He refrained from retaliating, and was beaten and stoned until elderly people in the crowd recognized him as a disciple of the previous abbot and intervened. |
= = = Xestospongia = = = |
Xestospongia is a genus of sponges in the family Petrosiidae. It contains the following species: |
= = = List of cabinets of Turkey = = = |
This is a list of the Cabinets of the government of Turkey since 1920 (those numbered I to V are leaders predating the declaration of the Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923). This includes the single-party period of the Republic of Turkey (1925–1945) and the subsequent multi-party period of the Republic of Turkey (1945–present). |
Including the single party period, shortest government in Turkey's history was DYP minority government led by Tansu Çiller, which only lasted 25 days. Longest government in duty was first cabinet of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which lasted 1629 days. Longest coalition was DSP, ANAP and MHP coalition led by Bülent Ecevit, which lasted 1270 days. |
Excluding single party period, only 3 governments span into full-extend of their time (came with an election, ended with regular time): first Demirel government, first Özal government and second Erdoğan government. |
= = = Petrosiidae = = = |
Petrosiidae is a family of sponges containing the following four genera: |
= = = Diego Auzqui = = = |
Diego Orlando Auzqui (born October 19, 1989 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an Argentine footballer currently playing for San Luis de Quillota of the Primera B Chilena. |
= = = Vicesima hereditatium = = = |
The Vicesima hereditatium was a Roman 5% tax on inheritance money. |
No inheritance tax was recorded for the Roman Republic, despite abundant evidence for testamentary law. The "vicesima hereditatium" ("twentieth of inheritance") was levied by Rome's first emperor, Augustus, in the last decade of his reign. The 5% tax applied only to inheritances received through a will, and close relatives were exempt from paying it, including the deceased's grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren, and siblings. The question of whether a spouse was exempt was complicated—from the late Republic on, husbands and wives kept their own property scrupulously separate, since a Roman woman remained part of her birth family and not under the legal control of her husband. Roman social values on marital devotion probably exempted a spouse. Estates below a certain value were also exempt from the tax, according to one source, but other evidence indicates that this was only the case in the early years of Trajan's reign. |
= = = Alice Mary Baldwin = = = |
Alice Mary Baldwin (born January 24, 1879, Lewiston, Maine; died 1960) was a historian and educator, noted as the Dean of the Woman's College of Duke University from 1923 until her retirement in 1947. |
Baldwin was born in 1879 in Lewiston, Maine, the eldest of five children of a Congregationist minister. She moved with her family at the age of nine to East Orange, New Jersey, where she was educated in private school before entering Bates College in 1896. After one year, she transferred to Cornell University where she was named to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and from where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1900. |
Baldwin remained at Cornell to receive her master's degree in history in 1902, and then went to Europe on a fellowship to study at the Sorbonne and research in Sweden. (The subject of her master's thesis had been "Gustavus III of Sweden: A Study in Enlightened Despotism.") |
Returning from Europe in late 1903, Baldwin took a series of teaching positions culminating in a position as Instructor of History, and later head of the Department of History, at the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. While at the Baldwin School, she pursued graduate studies in history at Bryn Mawr College, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, as well as studies in education at the Teachers College of Columbia University. |
In 1921, Baldwin left the Baldwin School to attend the University of Chicago to pursue her doctorate degree. |
In 1923, Baldwin took the job as Acting Dean of Women at Trinity College in Durham, North Carolina (later to become part of Duke University). Seeing little opportunity for a woman in the 1920s to become a full professor at the University of Chicago, Baldwin remained at Trinity to become Dean of Women and Assistant Professor of History. While at Trinity, Baldwin completed her doctoral thesis (on the topic of New England clergy and the American Revolution) in time to receive her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1926. |
Baldwin's responsibilities as dean and as an active teacher (which she believed necessary to remain effective as an administrator) left her no time for research, and she produced no further scholarly historical material after this time. She did, however, maintain active memberships in various women's educational organizations and North Carolina historical organizations. She also encouraged student participation state and national women's organizations as well as the formation of a number of student-led organizations on campus; under her guidance and example, students launched organizations such as a Forum Committee to invite speakers to East Campus, DISTAFF, a monthly magazine edited entirely by women, the Nereidians, a synchronized swimming club, and numerous honorary and leadership societies such as Ivy, Sandals, and the White Duchy, a counterpart to the Order of The Red Friars. |
Baldwin retired from Duke University in 1947. |
As an historian, Baldwin is best remembered for her doctoral dissertation "The New England Clergy and the American Revolution". Her other writings include: |
Baldwin has been held up as an example of the key issues in the intellectual life of women in the early twentieth century. Upon her retirement, she ordered that her papers and notes be sealed for twenty years. Upon their unveiling, it was revealed that Baldwin had struggled bitterly with her role as a female educator and on the education of women in general. She had found little documentation of interest in her research in the lives of women in colonial times, and left unfinished many papers and treatises in which she expressed the disdain she uncovered for the education of women in America. |
Baldwin remains a much-beloved figure at Duke University and is credited with advancing the prestige of the Woman's College at Duke and the education of young women. One of the most prominent buildings on Duke's East Campus, the auditorium anchoring the campus, is named in her honor in recognition of her dedication to the institution. |
Recognizing Baldwin's contributions to the University, Duke has created the Alice Mary Baldwin Collection within their library, wherein all of Baldwin's papers are available for review and research. |
= = = Deividas Pukis = = = |
Deividas Pukis (born January 10, 1992, Kaunas, Lithuania) is a Lithuanian professional basketball player whose position is shooting guard. In 2010 he suffered a serious knee injury, which kept him from basketball court for more than a half year. |
He won four gold medals with Lithuania national teams: Europe U-16 in 2008, Europe U-18 in 2010, World U-19 in 2011 and Europe U-20 in 2012. He also was a part of U-18 all-tournament team in 2008. |
= = = Yablonovka = = = |
Yablonovka () is the name of several rural localities in Russia: |
= = = Spencer Platt (photographer) = = = |
Spencer Platt (born March 16, 1970) is an American photojournalist. He received several awards, including the 2006 World Press Photo of the Year for a photograph of bombed South Beirut at the end of the 2006 Lebanon War. |
He was born in Dylan Darien, Connecticut. |
Since 2001, he has documented conflicts for Getty Images in the Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Liberia, Iraq, Ukraine and many other countries. In the Lebanon War 2006 he photographed five young Lebanese driving through the rubble of the bombed Beirut in a cabriolete. This image was named World Press Photo of the Year 2006. |
= = = List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants = = = |
Below is a list of communes in France (Overseas departments included) with a legal population over 20,000 as of January 2013. All figures reflect INSEE's "sans doubles comptes" counting method (French: "population municipale"). |
For the Overseas territories the legal populations sources are: |
= = = Nested neutron spectrometer = = = |
The nested neutron spectrometer (NNS) is a tool used for neutron spectroscopy. The NNS is used to measure the energy spectrum of neutrons in a neutron field. This type of detector is used in both research facilities (for characterization of neutron fields) and workplaces, where neutron radiation maybe encountered, for radiation protection purposes. Due to the difficulty associated with the detection of neutrons, the NNS is one of the few pieces of equipment capable of accurately determining the characteristics of a neutron field. |
The NNS operates under the same principle as a Bonner sphere neutron spectrometer. The sensitive part of the spectrometer is the Helium-3 proportional counter, which detects neutrons through the reaction He(n,p)H. This particular reaction has a significant cross-section only at thermal neutron energies. In order for a higher energy neutrons to be detected their energies must be decreased, or "moderated". To slow down neutrons at higher energies the NNS uses different amounts of high-density polyethylene (HDPE). The He-3 proportional counter is surrounded by varying amounts of HDPE to sample various energy regions of the neutron field. The standard NNS has seven HDPE cylinders which are nested together, similar to Russian nesting dolls, to measure neutrons of higher and higher energies. |
Shown below are spectra of two standard calibration sources measured by the NNS. The measured spectra (blue) is compared to the ISO standard spectra (red). Both Measurements were made at the NIST low scatter facility in Washington, DC. |
= = = Aerarium militare = = = |
The aerarium militare was the military treasury of Imperial Rome. It was instituted by Augustus, the first Roman emperor, as a "permanent revenue source" for pensions "(praemia)" for veterans of the Imperial Roman army. The treasury derived its funding from new taxes, an inheritance tax and a sales tax, and regularized the ad hoc provisions for veterans that under the Republic often had involved socially disruptive confiscation of property. |
The "praefecti aerarii militaris" (singular "praefectus") were the three prefects who oversaw the treasury. |
The Imperial biographer and historian Suetonius saw the "aerarium militare" as a response to the uncertainty of retired military men in need who might be inclined to support a coup or foment unrest. The professionalizing of the army during the Republic created the new problem of veterans, since earlier in Rome's history male citizens served short-term to confront specific threats or carry out seasonal campaigns, and then returned to their normal occupations. The solution in the late Republic had been to settle veterans in colonies in conquered territory, or on ostensibly public land in Italy that in fact had been used by the aristocracy for personal gain; the redistribution of this land by military commanders such as Marius and Pompeius was resented by the elite as a popularist currying of favor among the lower ranks of society. A state-supported benefit helped redirect the former soldier's loyalty from his immediate commanding officer to the Roman state as a whole. Under Augustus, monetary grants replaced land redistributions, and were better received by the upper classes, who nevertheless complained about new taxes. |
Augustus included the "aerarium militare" among the accomplishments in his "Res Gestae", the commemorative autobiography published posthumously throughout the Empire. In addressing the Senate on the subject, Augustus had stated his intention to provide for military personnel from enlistment through retirement. |
A soldier earned a one-time "praemium" or discharge benefit upon completing his service (sixteen years for the Praetorian Guard, twenty for regular duty in the army). At the end of Augustus's reign, the pension for a Praetorian guard was 20,000 sesterces "(HS)", and that of a legionary 12,000. In the 1st century, a legionary's retirement benefit would have amounted to about 12 years of service pay. The "praemium" remained stable until the time of Caracalla, who increased it to 20,000 "HS" for a legionary and a higher but unrecorded amount for a Praetorian guard. |
When the treasury experienced a shortfall, the emperor might avoid paying pensions by arbitrarily extending the length of military service, in a form of forced retention or "stop-loss policy". |
The "aerarium militare" was part of an Augustan fiscal initiative that was at first greeted with hostility. In 6 AD, Augustus capitalized the pension fund with 170 million sesterces of his own money, along with voluntary contributions from client kings and cities. The amount was insufficient, and after soliciting proposals on revenue enhancement from senators, all of which he rejected, he finally forced through an inheritance tax of 5 percent "(vicesima hereditatium)". Inheritances left to members of the deceased's immediate family were exempted, as were estates below a certain valuation. |
The other source of tax revenue for the military treasury—a sales tax of 1 percent on goods sold at auction "(centesima rerum venalium)"—is less attested. |
The military treasury was located on the Capitoline Hill at the time of Nero, as attested by a military diploma dating to 65 AD. It is unclear whether it was a physical storehouse for coins brought to the capital in payment of taxes, or an office for paper transactions. |
The treasury was administered by three prefects "(praefecti aerarii militaris)", who were former praetors at first chosen by lot for a term of three years. Later they were appointed by the emperor. Their precise duties are unclear, though they were not charged with collecting the taxes. They may have served mainly to provide financial management and security. Each senatorial prefect was assigned two lictors and other staff, but the later imperially-appointed prefects had no lictors. (The lictor was an honorary bodyguard who was part of the civil service of Rome.) The change to appointment by the emperor may have been made as early as the reign of Claudius. The younger Pliny was a prefect of the military treasury appointed by Domitian. |
= = = Tahini roll = = = |
A tahini roll or tahini bread roll (, , ) is a sweet bread roll served commonly in the South Caucasus, Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey. |
= = = Alex Guerrero (baseball) = = = |
Alexander Guerrero Perez (born November 20, 1986) is a Cuban-born professional baseball left fielder and third baseman who is a free agent. He played for the Los Angeles Dodgers of the Major League Baseball (MLB) and for the Chunichi Dragons and Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He defected from Cuba in 2013 to pursue a contract in |
MLB. He signed with the Dodgers and made his MLB debut in 2014. He played primarily shortstop in Cuba, but played third base and left field for the Dodgers, who released him in 2016. |
As a member of Cuba's Las Tunas team in the Cuban National Series, Guerrero was named to the 2010–2011 All-Star team as well as playing for the Cuba national baseball team at the 2012 Haarlem Baseball Week and the 2011 World Port Tournament. He was part of the initial roster for the 2013 World Baseball Classic but did not make the final roster and reportedly sat out the regular season because he was upset at his snub. |
He defected from Cuba in 2013 and obtained residency in Haiti. He began training in the Dominican Republic and on September 9, 2013, it was reported that he had been cleared by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control to sign with U.S. teams. |
Guerrero was rumored to be signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers, with early reports putting his deal in the seven-year, $32 million area. However, his initial agents turned out to not be licensed and he switched to Scott Boras, who said the bidding was now wide open. On October 21, 2013, it was reported that Guerrero had reached a new agreement with the Dodgers, that would be worth $28 million over 4 years. The deal included a $10 million signing bonus and allows him to become a free agent after his age 30 season. The Dodgers officially announced his signing on October 22. |
Guerrero made his professional debut with the Gigantes del Cibao in the Dominican Winter League. However, he dealt with hamstring issues and was limited to only 12 games, during which he hit .289. |
Guerrero made the Dodgers' 25-man opening day roster for the 2014 season. He made his MLB debut as a pinch hitter on March 22, 2014 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, but when Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson countered by putting in a right-handed pitcher, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly sent in a left-hander to pinch hit for Guerrero. Guerrero had his first official at-bat the next night, and struck out. After the two-game opening series in Sydney, Australia, Guerrero was optioned to the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes. |
During a game against the Salt Lake Bees on May 20, 2014, Guerrero was involved in a dugout scuffle with Albuquerque teammate Miguel Olivo in which Olivo bit off a portion of Guerrero's ear. He had to undergo a complicated plastic surgery operation to reattach the ear, necessitating several days in the hospital. In 65 games for the Isotopes, he played 51 games at second base, 9 in left field, 4 at shortstop and 1 at third base. He hit .329 with 15 homers and 49 RBI. The Dodgers recalled him when rosters expanded on September 1. He recorded his first Major League hit with a single to left field off of Erik Cordier of the San Francisco Giants on September 13. He appeared in 13 games with the Dodgers, primarily as a pinch hitter though he did play in left field for a few innings. He had just the one hit in 13 at-bats. |
In spring training, Guerrero made it clear he intended to exercise an unusual clause in his contract that allowed him to refuse an assignment to the minor leagues. As it happened, he hit so well during spring training that he convinced the Dodgers he belonged on the opening day roster, despite concerns about his defense. |