A stored procedure is a subroutine available to applications accessing a relational database system. Stored procedures (sometimes called a sproc or SP) are actually stored in the database.
Typical uses for stored procedures include data validation (integrated into the database) or access control mechanisms. Furthermore, stored procedures are used to consolidate and centralize logic that was originally implemented in applications. Large or complex processing that might require the execution of several SQL statements is moved into stored procedures and all applications call the procedures only.
Stored procedures are similar to user-defined functions (UDFs). The major difference is that UDFs can be used like any other expression within SQL statements, whereas stored procedures must be invoked using the CALL statement
Stored procedures can return result sets, i.e. the results of a SELECT statement. Such result sets can be processed using cursors by other stored procedures by associating a result set locator, or by applications. Stored procedures may also contain declared variables for processing data and cursors that allow it to loop through multiple rows in a table. The standard Structured Query Language provides IF, WHILE, LOOP, REPEAT, and CASE statements, and more. Stored procedures can receive variables, return results or modify variables and return them, depending on how and where the variable is declared.

Implementation
A variety of advantages can be obtained through the use of stored procedures.

Pre-compilation of SQL statements
Stored procedures can run directly within the database engine. In a production system, this typically means that the procedures run entirely on a specialized database server, which has direct access to the data being accessed. The benefit here is that network communication costs can be avoided completely. This becomes particularly important for complex series of SQL statements.

Execution on a database server
Stored procedures allow for business logic to be embedded as an API in the database, which can simplify data management and reduce the need to encode the logic elsewhere in client programs. This may result in a lesser likelihood of data becoming corrupted through the use of faulty client programs. Thus, the database system can ensure data integrity and consistency with the help of stored procedures.
Some critics claim that databases should be for storing data only, and that business logic should only be implemented by writing a business layer of code, through which client applications should access the data. However, the use of stored procedures does not preclude the use of a business layer.

Security
In some systems, stored procedures can be used to control transaction management; in others, stored procedures run inside a transaction such that transactions are effectively transparent to them. Stored procedures can also be invoked from a database trigger or a condition handler. For example, a stored procedure may be triggered by an insert on a specific table, or update of a specific field in a table, and the code inside the stored procedure would be executed. Writing stored procedures as condition handlers also allow DBAs to track errors in the system with greater detail by using stored procedures to catch the errors and record some audit information in the database or an external resource like a file.

Securities Bond Equities Investment Fund Derivatives Structured finance Agency Securities Markets Bond market Stock market Futures market Foreign exchange market Commodity market Spot market Over-the-counter Market (OTC)
Bonds by coupon Fixed rate bond Floating rate note Zero coupon bond Inflation-indexed bond Commercial paper Perpetual bond Bonds by issuer Corporate bond Government bond Municipal bond Sovereign bonds Equities (Stocks) Stock Share IPO Short Selling Investment Funds Mutual fund Index Fund Exchange-traded fund (ETF) Closed-end fund Segregated fund Structured Finance Securitization Asset-backed security Collateralized debt obligation Collateralized mortgage obligation Credit-linked note Mortgage-backed security Commercial mortgage-backed security Unsecured bond Agency Securities Derivatives Options Warrants Futures Forwards Swaps Credit Derivatives Hybrid Securities For security (collateral), the legal right given to a creditor by a borrower, see security interest
A security is a fungible, negotiable instrument representing financial value. Securities are broadly categorized into debt and equity securities such as bonds and common stocks, respectively. The company or other entity issuing the security is called the issuer. What specifically qualifies as a security is dependent on the regulatory structure in a country. For example private investment pools may have some features of securities, but they may not be registered or regulated as such if they meet various restrictions.
Securities may be represented by a certificate or, more typically, by an electronic book entry interest. Certificates may be bearer, meaning they entitle the holder to rights under the security merely by holding the security, or registered, meaning they entitle the holder to rights only if he or she appears on a security register maintained by the issuer or an intermediary. They include shares of corporate stock or mutual funds, bonds issued by corporations or governmental agencies, stock options or other options, limited partnership units, and various other formal investment instruments that are negotiable and fungible.

Classification
Issuers of securities include commercial companies, government agencies, local authorities and international and supranational organizations (such as the World Bank). Debt securities issued by a government (called government bonds or sovereign bonds) generally carry a lower interest rate than corporate debt issued by commercial companies. Interests in an asset -- for example, the flow of royalty payments from intellectual property—may also be turned into securities. These repackaged securities resulting from a securitization are usually issued by a company established for the purpose of the repackaging—called a special purpose vehicle (SPV). See "Repackaging" below. SPVs are also used to issue other kinds of securities. SPVs can also be used to guarantee securities, such as covered bonds.
New capital: Commercial enterprises have traditionally used securities as a means of raising new capital. Securities may be an attractive option relative to bank loans depending on their pricing and market demand for particular characteristics. Another disadvantage of bank loans as a source of financing is that the bank may seek a measure of protection against default by the borrower via extensive financial covenants. Through securities, capital is provided by investors who purchase the securities upon their initial issuance. In a similar way, governments may raise capital through the issuance of securities (see government debt).
Repackaging: In recent decades securities have been issued to repackage existing assets. In a traditional securitisation, a financial institution may wish to remove assets from its balance sheet in order to achieve regulatory capital efficiencies or to accelerate its receipt of cash flow from the original assets. Alternatively, an intermediary may wish to make a profit by acquiring financial assets and repackaging them in a way which makes them more attractive to investors.

By Type of Issuer
Investors in securities may be retail, i.e. members of the public investing other than by way of business. The greatest part in terms of volume of investment is wholesale, i.e. by financial institutions acting on their own account, or on behalf of clients. Important institutional investors include investment banks, insurance companies, pension funds and other managed funds.
Investment: The traditional economic function of the purchase of securities is investment, with the view to receiving income and/or achieving capital gain. Debt securities generally offer a higher rate of interest than bank deposits, and equities may offer the prospect of capital growth. Equity investment may also offer control of the business of the issuer. Debt holdings may also offer some measure of control to the investor if the company is a fledgling start-up or an old giant undergoing 'restructuring'. In these cases, if interest payments are missed, the creditors may take control of the company and liquidate it to recover some of their investment.
Collateral: The last decade has seen an enormous growth in the use of securities as collateral. Purchasing securities with borrowed money secured by other securities is called "buying on margin." Where A is owed a debt or other obligation by B, A may require B to deliver property rights in securities to A. These property rights enable A to satisfy its claims in the event that B becomes insolvent. Collateral arrangements are divided into two broad categories, namely security interests and outright collateral transfers. Commonly, commercial banks, investment banks and government agencies are significant collateral takers.

Debt and Equity
Debt securities may be called debentures, bonds, notes or commercial paper depending on their maturity and certain other characteristics. The holder of a debt security is typically entitled to the payment of principal and interest, together with other contractual rights under the terms of the issue, such as the right to receive certain information. Debt securities are generally issued for a fixed term and redeemable by the issuer at the end of that term. Debt securities may be protected by collateral or may be unsecured, and, if they are unsecured, may be contractually "senior" to other unsecured debt meaning their holders would have a priority in a bankruptcy of the issuer. Debt that is not senior is "subordinated".
Corporate bonds represent the debt of commercial or industrial entities. Debentures have a long maturity, typically at least ten years, whereas notes have a shorter maturity. Commercial paper is a simple form of debt security that essentially represents a post-dated check with a maturity of not more than 270 days.
Money market instruments are short term debt instruments that may have characteristics of deposit accounts, such as certificates of deposit, and certain bills of exchange. They are highly liquid and are sometimes referred to as "near cash". Commercial paper is also often highly liquid.
Euro debt securities are securities issued internationally outside their domestic market in a denomination different from that of the issuer's domicile. They include eurobonds and euronotes. Eurobonds are characteristically underwritten, and not secured, and interest is paid gross. A euronote may take the form of euro-commercial paper (ECP) or euro-certificates of deposit.
Government bonds are medium or long term debt securities issued by sovereign governments or their agencies. Typically they carry a lower rate of interest than corporate bonds, and serve as a source of finance for governments. U.S. federal government bonds are called treasuries. Because of their liquidity and perceived low risk, treasuries are used to manage the money supply in the open market operations of non-US central banks.
Sub-sovereign government bonds, known in the U.S. as municipal bonds, represent the debt of state, provincial, territorial, municipal or other governmental units other than sovereign governments.
Supranational bonds represent the debt of international organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, regional multilateral development banks and others.

Debt
An equity security is a share in the capital stock of a company (typically common stock, although preferred equity is also a form of capital stock). The holder of an equity is a shareholder, owning a share, or fractional part of the issuer. Unlike debt securities, which typically require regular payments (interest) to the holder, equity securities are not entitled to any payment. In bankruptcy, they share only in the residual interest of the issuer after all obligations have been paid out to creditors. However, equity generally entitles the holder to a pro rata portion of control of the company, meaning that a holder of a majority of the equity is usually entitled to control the issuer. Equity also enjoys the right to profits and capital gain, whereas holders of debt securities receive only interest and repayment of principal regardless of how well the issuer performs financially. Furthermore, debt securities do not have voting rights outside of bankruptcy. In other words, equity holders are entitled to the "upside" of the business and to control the business.

Stock Equity
Hybrid securities combine some of the characteristics of both debt and equity securities.
Preference shares form an intermediate class of security between equities and debt. If the issuer is liquidated, they carry the right to receive interest and/or a return of capital in priority to ordinary shareholders. However, from a legal perspective, they are capital stock and therefore may entitle holders to some degree of control depending on whether they contain voting rights.
Convertibles are bonds or preferred stock which can be converted, at the election of the holder of the convertibles, into the common stock of the issuing company. The convertibility, however, may be forced if the convertible is a callable bond, and the issuer calls the bond. The bondholder has about 1 month to convert it, or the company will call the bond by giving the holder the call price, which may be less than the value of the converted stock. This is referred to as a forced conversion.
Equity warrants are options issued by the company that allows the holder of the warrant to purchase a specific number of shares at a specified price within a specified time. They are often issued together with bonds or existing equities, and are, sometimes, detachable from them and separately tradable. When the holder of the warrant exercises it, he pays the money directly to the company, and the company issues new shares to holder.
Warrants, like other convertible securities, increases the number of shares outstanding, and are always accounted for in financial reports as fully diluted earnings per share, which assumes that all warrants and convertibles will be exercised.

Hybrid

The Securities Market
The public securities markets can be divided into primary and secondary markets. The distinguishing difference between the two markets is that in the primary market, the money for the securities is received by the issuer of those securities from investors, whereas in the secondary market, the money goes from one investor to the other. When a company issues public stock for the first time, this is called an Initial Public Offering (IPO). A company can later issue more new shares, or issue shares that have been previously registered in a shelf registration. These later new issues are also sold in the primary market, but they are not considered to be an IPO. Issuers usually retain investment banks to assist them in administering the IPO, getting SEC approval, and selling the new issue. When the investment bank buys the entire new issue from the issuer at a discount to resell it at a markup, it is called an underwriting, or firm commitment. However, if the investment bank considers the risk too great for an underwriting, it may only assent to a best effort agreement, where the investment bank will simply do its best to sell the new issue.
In order for the primary market to thrive, there must be a secondary market, or aftermarket, where holders of securities can sell them to other investors for cash, hopefully at a profit. Otherwise, few people would purchase primary issues, and, thus, companies and governments would be unable to raise money for their operations. Organized exchanges constitute the main secondary markets. Many smaller issues and most debt securities trade in the decentralized, dealer-based over-the-counter markets.
In Europe, the principal trade organization for securities dealers is the International Capital Market Association. In the U.S., the principal organization for securities dealers is the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. The Bond Market Association represents bond dealers globally.

Primary and Secondary Market
In the primary markets, securities may be offered to the public in a public offer. Alternatively, they may be offered privately to a limited number of qualified persons in a private placement. Often a combination of the two is used. The distinction between the two is important to securities regulation and company law. Privately placed securities are often not publicly tradable and may only be bought and sold by sophisticated qualified investors. As a result, the secondary market is not as liquid.
Another category, sovereign debt, is generally sold by auction to a specialised class of dealers.

Public Offer and Private Placement
Securities are often listed in a stock exchange, an organised and officially recognised market on which securities can be bought and sold. Issuers may seek listings for their securities in order to attract investors, by ensuring that there is a liquid and regulated market in which investors will be able to buy and sell securities.
Growth in informal electronic trading systems has challenged the traditional business of stock exchanges. Large volumes of securities are also bought and sold "over the counter" (OTC). OTC dealing involves buyers and sellers dealing with each other by telephone or electronically on the basis of prices that are displayed electronically, usually by commercial information vendors such as Reuters and Bloomberg.
There are also eurosecurities, which are securities that are issued outside their domestic market into more than one jurisdiction. They are generally listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange or admitted to listing in London. The reasons for listing eurobonds include regulatory and tax considerations, as well as the investment restrictions.

Listing and OTC Dealing
London is the centre of the eurosecurities markets. There was a huge rise in the eurosecurities market in London in the early 1980s. Settlement of trades in eurosecurities is currently effected through two European computerised systems called Euroclear (in Belgium) and Clearstream (formerly Cedelbank in Luxembourg).
The main market for Eurobonds is the EuroMTS, owned by Borsa Italiana and Euronext.the

International Debt Market

Physical Nature of Securities
Securities that are represented by certificates are called certificated securities. They may be bearer or registered.

Certificated Securities
Bearer securities are completely negotiable and entitle the holder to the rights under the security (e.g. to payment if it is a debt security, and voting if it is an equity security). They are transferred by delivering the instrument from person to person. In some cases, transfer is by endorsement, or signing the back of the instrument, and delivery.
Regulatory and fiscal authorities sometimes regard bearer securities negatively, as they may be used to facilitate the evasion of regulatory restrictions and tax. In the United Kingdom, for example, the issue of bearer securities was heavily restricted firstly by the Exchange Control Act 1947 until 1963. Bearer securities are very rare in the United States because of the negative tax implications they may have to the issuer and holder.

Bearer Securities
In the case of registered securities, certificates bearing the name of the holder are issued, but these merely represent the securities. A person does not automatically acquire legal ownership by having possession of the certificate. Instead, the issuer (or its appointed agent) maintains a register in which details of the holder of the securities are entered and updated as appropriate. A transfer of registered securities is effected by amending the register.

Registered Securities
Modern practice has developed to eliminate both the need for certificates and maintenance of a complete security register by the issuer. There are two general ways this has been accomplished.

Uncertificated Securities and Global Certificates
In some jurisdictions, such as France, it is possible for issuers of that jurisdiction to maintain a legal record of their securities electronically...

Uncertificated Securities
In the United States, the corporation laws typically do not permit securities to be issued without being represented by one or more registered certificates. In order to facilitate the electronic transfer of interests in securities, a system has developed whereby issuers deposit a single global certificate representing all the outstanding securities of a class or series with a universal depository. This depository is called the Depository Trust Corporation, or DTC. DTC is a non-profit cooperative owned by approximately thirty of the largest Wall Street players that typically act as brokers or dealers in securities. These thirty banks are called the DTC participants. DTC, through a legal nominee, owns each of the global securities on behalf of all the DTC participants.
All securities traded through DTC are in fact held, in electronic form, on the books of various intermediaries between the ultimate owner, e.g. a retail investor, and the DTC participants. For example, Mr. Smith may hold 100 shares of Coca Cola, Inc. in his brokerage account at local broker Jones & Co. brokers. In turn, Jones & Co. may hold 1000 shares of Coca Cola on behalf of Mr. Smith and nine other customers. These 1000 shares are held by Jones & Co. in an account with Goldman Sachs, a DTC participant, or in an account at another DTC participant. Goldman Sachs in turn may hold millions of Coca Cola shares on its books on behalf of hundreds of brokers similar to Jones & Co. Each day, the DTC participants settle their accounts with the other DTC participants and adjust the number of shares held on their books for the benefit of customers like Jones & Co. Ownership of securities in this fashion is called beneficial ownership. Each intermediary holds on behalf of someone beneath him in the chain. The ultimate owner is called the beneficial owner. This is also referred to as owning in "Street name".

Global Certificates and Book Entry Interests
Besides DTC, two other large securities depositories exist, both in Europe: Euroclear and Clearstream.

Other Depositories: Euroclear and Clearstream
The terms "divided" and "undivided" relate to the proprietary nature of a security.
Each divided security constitutes a separate asset, which is legally distinct from each other security in the same issue. Pre-electronic bearer securities were divided. Each instrument constitutes the separate covenant of the issuer and is a separate debt.
With undivided securities, the entire issue makes up one single asset, with each of the securities being a fractional part of this undivided whole. Shares in the secondary markets are always undivided. The issuer owes only one set of obligations to shareholders under its memorandum, articles of association and company law. A share represents an undivided fractional part of the issuing company. Registered debt securities also have this undivided nature.

Divided and Undivided Security
The terms "fungible" and "non-fungible" relate to the way in which securities are held.
If an asset is fungible, this means that when such an asset is lent, or placed with a custodian, it is customary for the borrower or custodian to be obliged at the end of the loan or custody arrangement to return assets equivalent to the original asset, rather than the identical asset. In other words, the redelivery of fungibles is equivalent and not in specie (identical).
Undivided securities are always fungible by logical necessity. Divided securities may or may not be fungible, depending on market practice. The clear trend is towards fungible arrangements.

Fungible and Non-fungible Security
In the United States, the public offer and sale of securities must be either registered pursuant to a registration statement that is filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or are offered and sold pursuant to an exemption therefrom. Dealing in securities is heavily regulated by both the federal authorities (SEC) and state authorities. In addition the industry is heavily self policed by Self Regulatory Organizations (SROs), such as the NASD or the MSRB.
Due to the difficulty of creating a general definition that covers all securities, Congress attempts to define "securities" exhaustively (and not very precisely) as: "any note, stock, treasury stock, security future, bond, debenture, certificate of interest or participation in any profit-sharing agreement or in any oil, gas, or other mineral royalty or lease, any collateral-trust certificate, preorganization certificate or subscription, transferable share, investment contract, voting-trust certificate, certificate of deposit for a security, any put, call, straddle, option, or privilege on any security, certificate of deposit, or group or index of securities (including any interest therein or based on the value thereof), or any put, call, straddle, option, or privilege entered into on a national securities exchange relating to foreign currency, or in general, any instrument commonly known as a 'security'; or any certificate of interest or participation in, temporary or interim certificate for, receipt for, or warrant or right to subscribe to or purchase, any of the foregoing; but shall not include currency or any note, draft, bill of exchange, or bankers' acceptance which has a maturity at the time of issuance of not exceeding nine months, exclusive of days of grace, or any renewal thereof the maturity of which is likewise limited." - Section 3a item 10 of the 1934 Act.
The US Courts have developed a broad definition for securities that must then be registered with the SEC. There is an investment of money, a common enterprise and expectation of profits to come primarily from the efforts of others. See SEC v. W.J. Howey Co. and SEC v. Glenn W. Turner Enterprises, Inc.

Regulation

Finance
Financial markets
Settlement (finance)
Financial regulation
Vulture fund
Securities_regulation_in_the_United_States Association

List of finance topics

Mir (Russian: Мир, which can mean both peace and world) may have the following meanings:

Space Station Mir, a Soviet/Russian space station.
Mir (band), a Canadian music group
Mir (ruler), (Arabic: أمير ) synonymous to Emir
Mir (title), (Urdu: مير) is a title in Pakistan
Mir (tribe), (Urdu: مير) is a tribe in Pakistan
Mir Taqi Mir, pen name of an Urdu poet
Aasmah Mir, BBC Radio Five Live presenter and news reader and newspaper columnist.
Frank Mir, Mixed Martial Artist, Former UFC Heavyweight Champion.
Mir (social), a type of rural community in Imperial Russia
Mir, Belarus, a town in Belarus
Mir Castle Complex, a castle and World Heritage Site in the said town
Mir (A Time Odyssey), the fictional world in Arthur C. Clarke's novel Time's Eye
Mir yeshiva (Poland)
Mir (Jerusalem), Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem
Mir (Brooklyn), Mir Yeshiva in New York
Mir Mine, the famous Soviet diamond pipe.
miR (MicroRNA), an endogenous small RNA molecule involved in RNA-mediated gene silencing.
MIR (submersible)
STS Mir, a ship
Mir (computer), an early Soviet personal computer (uk:ЕОМ "МИР-1", uk:ЕОМ "МИР-2")
Mir Publishing House
Mir (lens)

Microsoft Visio is diagramming software for Microsoft Windows. It uses vector graphics to create diagrams.
The 2007 Standard and Professional editions share the same interface, but the latter has additional templates for more advanced diagrams and layouts as well as unique functionality that makes it easy for users to connect their diagrams to a number of data sources and display the information graphically.
Microsoft acquired Visio Corporation in 2000. Visio 2007 was released on November 30, 2006.

File formats

Comparison of vector editors

Waterland is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is located north of Amsterdam, on the borders of the IJsselmeer.

Population centres
The municipal council of Waterland consists of 17 seats, which are divided as follows:

CDA - 5 seats
GroenLinks - 3 seats
Waterland95 - 3 seats
Algemeen Belang - 2 seats
PvdA - 2 seats
VVD - 2 seats

Arnold Fanck (born 6 March 1889 in Frankenthal, Germany; died 28 September 1974 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany) was a pioneer of the German mountain film.
Together with Odo Deodatus Tauern, Bernhard Villinger and Rolf Bauer, Fanck established the company "Berg- und Sportfilm GmbH Freiburg" in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1920. Fanck, who held a PhD in geology, directed mountain films, sports films and ski films. He was assisted by Sepp Allgeier – a cameraman who later belonged to Leni Riefenstahl's team – and worked mostly in the Alps in locations such as the Engadine, Zermatt and the Arlberg and on mountains such as Mont Blanc and Piz Palü.
His most popular and successful films of the period between the wars include:
During the National Socialist period, Fanck got in trouble with propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, since he refused to cooperate — apparently because of the necessity of joining the party. In 1934, he also began working on his film Der ewige Traum/Der König vom Mont-Blanc, which not only starred a French hero in French mountains, but also had a Jewish producer, Gregor Rabinowitsch. This conflict brought Fanck into economic difficulties, from which he was only able to escape by accepting a contract from the Japanese ministry of culture in 1936. With Die Tochter des Samurai and other "culture films", Fanck decided to cooperate with the Nazi regime. Soon afterwards, he produced Ein Robinson (1938/39) a propaganda film for Bavaria Filmkunst. In 1944 he made a documentary about the sculptor Arno Breker called "Arno Breker – Harte Zeit, starke Kunst". After World War II, Fanck's main films of the National Socialist period were proscribed by the Allied military governments. Fanck received no further job offers and had to work as a lumberjack.
After the screening of his film Der ewige Traum at the mountain film festival in Trento in 1957, Fanck was once again recognized for his artistic achievements. In order to survive his economic difficulties, however, he was forced to sell the rights to his films to a friend, until TV broadcasts improved his situation.

Das Wunder des Schneeschuhs (1919/20)
The Holy Mountain (1926)
The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929 Silent/1935 Sound)
Stürme über dem Montblanc (1930)
Der weiße Rausch – neue Wunder des Schneeschuhs (1931)
S.O.S. Eisberg (1932), which was filmed off Greenland

Art Alexakis (born Arthur Paul Alexakis on April 12, 1962) is the singer/guitarist and songwriter of the rock band Everclear. He was born in Los Angeles, California.

Biography
With The Easy Hoes:
With Colorfinger:
With Everclear:

1989 – Tragic Songs of Life
1990 – Deep in the Heart of the Beast in the Sun
1990 – Demonstration
1993 – World of Noise
1995 – Sparkle and Fade
1997 – So Much for the Afterglow
2000 – Songs from an American Movie, Vol. 1: Learning How to Smile
2000 – Songs from an American Movie, Vol. 2: Good Time for a Bad Attitude
2003 – Slow Motion Daydream
2004 – Ten Years Gone: The Best of Everclear 1994-2004
2006 – Welcome to the Drama Club

Norman (N.) Stephan Kinsella (born 1965) is an American intellectual property lawyer and libertarian legal theorist. His electronically-published works are primarily published on his blog and websites associated with the Ludwig von Mises Institute and anarcho-capitalist organizations.
Born in Prairieville, Louisiana, he attended Louisiana State University where he earned Master of Science (MS) and Bachelor of Science (BS) degrees in electrical engineering, and a Juris Doctor (JD) from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center. He also obtained an LL.M. at the University of London.
A practicing intellectual property attorney and former adjunct professor of law at South Texas College of Law, where he taught computer law, Kinsella is actively involved with libertarian legal and political theory, and is adjunct scholar of the Mises Institute as well as the former Book Review Editor for the Institute's Journal of Libertarian Studies. He is also a contributor to the news and opinion blog LewRockwell.com.
Kinsella is general counsel of Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. of Sugar Land, Texas.

Publications

Property and Freedom Society

Ailuropoda Helarctos Melursus Ursavus "true bear" Ursus Tremarctos Agriarctos (extinct) Amphicticeps (extinct) Amphicynodon (extinct) Arctodus (extinct) Cephalogale (extinct) Indarctos (extinct) Parictis (extinct) Plionarctos (extinct)
Bears (family Ursidae) are large mammals in the order Carnivora. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern Hemisphere and partially in the Southern Hemisphere.
Common characteristics of modern bears include a large body with stocky legs, a long snout, shaggy hair, paws with five nonretractile claws, and a short tail. While the Polar Bear is mostly carnivorous and the Giant Panda feeds almost entirely on bamboo, the remaining six species are omnivorous, with largely varied diets including both plants and animals.
With the exceptions of courting individuals and mothers with their young, bears are typically solitary animals. They are sometimes diurnal, but are usually active during the night (nocturnal) or twilight (crepuscular). Bears are aided by an excellent sense of smell, and despite their heavy build and awkward gait, they can run quickly and be adept climbers and swimmers. Bears use shelters such as caves and burrows as their dens, which are occupied by most species during the winter for a long period of sleep similar to hibernation.
Bears have been hunted since prehistoric times for their meat and fur. To this day, they play a prominent role in the arts, mythology, and other cultural aspects of various human societies. In modern times, bears have been exploited through the encroachment of their habitats and the illegal trade of bears and bear parts, including the Asian bile bear market. The IUCN lists six bear species as vulnerable or endangered, and even "least concern" species such as the Brown Bear are at risk of extirpation in certain countries. The poaching and international trade of these most threatened populations is prohibited, but still ongoing.

Modern English "bear" derives from Old English "bera", which itself derives from Proto-Germanic "*beron" meaning "the brown one". (Compare Scandinavian "björn", Dutch "beer", Standard German "Bär" all meaning "bear").
Both Greek ("arktos") and Latin ("ursus") have retained the Proto-Indo-European root word for "bear" ("*rtko") but it was ritually replaced in the northern branches of the Indo-European languages (The Germanic, Baltic, Celtic and Slavic branches) because of the hunters' taboo on the names of wild animals. For example the Irish word for "bear" translated means "the good calf", in Welsh it translates as "honey-pig", in Lithuanian it means "the licker" and Russian "медведь" literally means "honey-wise".
In English, the adjective "ursine" is used to describe things of a bear-like nature, while the collective noun for a group of them is a sleuth.

Common characteristics of bears include a short tail, acute senses of smell and hearing, a snubbed nose, five non-retractable claws per paw, and long, dense, shaggy fur.
Bears have large bodies and powerful limbs. They are capable of standing up on their hind legs. They have broad paws, long snouts, and round ears. Their teeth are bared for defense and used as tools, depending on the diet of the bear. Their claws are used for ripping, digging, and catching.
Polar bears are the longest type, and in fact one of the largest extant carnivores, though Brown bears are the heaviest. The name was also used by J.R.R. Tolkien in his book "The Hobbit", where a bear-like character is named Beorn (this sounds identical to the Swedish word "Björn" when read aloud).




Family Ursidae

• Subfamily Ailuropodinae
  
  
  
  • Giant Panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca
    Dwarf Panda, Ailuropoda minor (extinct)
    Subfamily Agriotherinae
    
    
    
    • Agriotherium (extinct)
      
      
      
      • Agriotherium inexpectans (extinct)
        Agriotherium sivalensis (extinct)
        Agriotherium roblesi (extinct)
        Agriotherium africanum (extinct)
        Subfamily Tremarctinae
        
        
        
        • Spectacled Bear, Tremarctos ornatus
          Florida Cave Bear, Tremarctos floridanus (extinct)
          Giant Short-Faced Bear, Arctodus simus (extinct)
          Short-Faced Bear, Arctodus pristinus (extinct)
          Brazilian Short-Faced Bear, Arctotherium brasilense (extinct)
          Argentine Short-Faced Bear, Arctotherium latidens (extinct)
          Subfamily Ursinae
          
          
          
          • Brown Bear, Ursus (Ursus) arctos
            
            
            
            • Subspecies Syrian (Brown) Bear Ursus arctos syriacus
              Subspecies Grizzly Bear, Ursus arctos horribilis
              Subspecies Kodiak Bear, Ursus arctos middendorffi
              Subspecies Himalayan Brown Bear, Ursus arctos isabellinus
              Subspecies Bergman's Bear, Ursus arctos piscator (extinct?)
              Atlas Bear, Ursus arctos crowtheri (extinct)
              American Black Bear, Ursus (Ursus) americanus
              
              
              
              • Subspecies Cinnamon Bear, Ursus americanus cinnamomum
                Subspecies Kermode Bear, Ursus americanus kermodie
                Polar Bear, Ursus (Thalarctos) maritimus
                Asiatic Black Bear, Ursus (Selenarctos) thibetanus
                
                
                
                • Formosan Black Bear, Ursus thibetanus formosanus
                  Ursus thibetanus gedrosianus
                  Ursus thibetanus japonica
                  Ursus thibetanus laniger
                  Ursus thibetanus mupinensis
                  Ursus thibetanus thibetanus
                  Ursus thibetanus ussuricu
                  Sloth Bear, Melursus ursinus
                  
                  
                  
                  • Subspecies Sri Lankan Sloth Bear Melursus ursinus inornatus
                    Subspecies Indian Sloth Bear Melursus ursinus ursinus
                    Sun Bear, Helarctos malayanus
                    
                    
                    
                    • Subspecies Borneo Sun Bear Helarctos malayanus euryspilus
                      Auvergne Bear, Ursus minimus (extinct)
                      Etruscan Bear, Ursus etruscus (extinct)
                      European Cave Bear, Ursus spelaeus (extinct)
                      MacFarlane's Bear, Ursus (Vetularctos) inopinatus (cryptid; if a good species, extinct)
                      Bears of the World, Terry Domico, Photographs by Terry Domico and Mark Newman, Facts on File, Inc, 1988, hardcover, ISBN 0-8160-1536-8
                      The Bear by William Faulkner
                      Animal
                      Celebrity bears
                      List of fatal bear attacks in North America by decade
                      List of fictional bears
                      List of historical bears
                      List of mammals
                      Mammal
                      Mammal classification
                      "Bear", famous Ronald Reagan anti-Soviet campaign ad
                      Manbearpig
                      Sankebetsu Higuma jiken
                      The Bears Project Information, reports and images of European brown bears and other living species
                      Grizzly Bear Outreach Project Information on the history, biology, and conservation of North American Grizzly Bears

Airbus S.A.S. is the aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS N.V., a pan-European aerospace concern. Based at Toulouse, France with significant operations in other European states, Airbus produces around half of the world's jet airliners, with most of the rest built by rival Boeing Commercial Airplanes, though the precise share varies on an annual basis.

Overview
Airbus Industrie began as a consortium of European aviation firms to compete with American companies such as Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, and Lockheed. In the 1960s, European aircraft manufacturers competed with each other as much as the American giants. In the mid-1960s, tentative negotiations commenced regarding a European collaborative approach.
In September 1967 the German, French and British governments signed a Memorandum of understanding. In the months following this agreement, both the French and British governments expressed doubts about the aircraft. Another problem was the requirement for a new engine (to be developed by Rolls-Royce, the RB207). In December 1968, the French and British partner companies, Sud Aviation and Hawker Siddeley, proposed a revised configuration, the 250 seat Airbus A250. Renamed the A300B, the aircraft would not require new engines, reducing development costs.
In 1969, the British government shocked its partners by withdrawing from the project. Given the participation by Hawker Siddeley up to that point, France and Germany were reluctant to take over their wing design. Thus the British company was allowed to continue as a major subcontractor. In 1978, Britain rejoined the consortium when British Aerospace (the merged Hawker Siddeley and BAC) purchased again a 20% share of the company.

History
Airbus Industrie was formally set up in 1970 following an agreement between Sud-Aviation (France) and Deutsche Airbus—itself a German aerospace consortium consisting of Bölkow, Dornier, Flugzeug-Union Süd, HFB, Messerschmitt, TG Siebelwerke, and VFW..

Formation of Airbus
On 6 April 2006 BBC News reported that BAE Systems was selling again its share, then "conservatively valued" at €3.5 billion (US$$4.17 bn).
On 9 October 2006 Christian Streiff, Humbert's successor, resigned due to differences with parent company EADS over the amount of independence he would be granted in implementing his reorganization plan for Airbus. He will be succeeded by EADS co-CEO Louis Gallois. This brings Airbus under more direct control of its parent company.

BAE sale and A380 controversy
On February 28, 2007, CEO Louis Gallois announced the company's restructuring plans. Entitled Power The announcements have resulted in Airbus unions in France to strike, with German Airbus workers possibly following [1].

2007 restructuring
The Airbus product line started with the A300, the world's first twin-aisle, twin-engined aircraft. A shorter, re-winged, re-engined variant of the A300 is known as the A310. Building on its success, Airbus launched the A320 with its innovative fly-by-wire control system. The A320 has been, and continues to be, a great commercial success. The A318 and A319 are shorter derivatives with some of the latter under construction for the corporate biz-jet market (Airbus Corporate Jet). A stretched version is known as the A321 and is proving competitive with later models of the Boeing 737.
The longer range products, the twin-jet A330 and the four-engine A340, have efficient wings, enhanced by winglets. The Airbus A340-500 has an operating range of 16 700 kilometres (9000 nautical miles), the second longest range of any commercial jet after the Boeing 777-200LR (range of 17 446 km or 9420 nautical miles). The company is particularly proud of its use of fly-by-wire technologies and the common cockpit and systems in use throughout the aircraft family, which make it much easier to train crew.
Airbus is studying a replacement for the A320 series, tentatively dubbed NSR, for "New Short-Range aircraft."
Until its retirement in 2003, Airbus supplied replacement parts and service for the Concorde.

Military products

Main article: Competition between Airbus and Boeing Competition with Boeing

Orders

Deliveries
Boeing has continually protested over "launch aid" and other forms of government aid to Airbus, while Airbus has argued that Boeing receives illegal subsidies through military and research contracts and tax breaks.
In July 2004 Harry Stonecipher (then-Boeing CEO) accused Airbus of abusing a 1992 bilateral EU-US agreement providing for disciplines for large civil aircraft support from governments. Airbus is given reimbursable launch investment (RLI, called "launch aid" by the US) from European governments with the money being paid back with interest, plus indefinite royalties, but only if the aircraft is a commercial success. However it has been argued that in U.S. government support of technology development, anyone can benefit from the results; even Airbus can benefit from them.
In January 2005 the European Union and United States trade representatives, Peter Mandelson and Robert Zoellick (since replaced by Rob Portman) respectively, agreed to talks aimed at resolving the increasing tensions. These talks were not successful with the dispute becoming more acrimonious rather than approaching a settlement.

Subsidies
On 31 May 2005 the United States filed a case against the European Union for providing allegedly illegal subsidies to Airbus. Twenty-four hours later the European Union filed a complaint against the United States protesting support for Boeing.
Portman (from the USA) and Mandelson (from the EU) issued a joint statement stating: "We remain united in our determination that this dispute shall not affect our cooperation on wider bilateral and multilateral trade issues. We have worked together well so far, and intend to continue to do so."
Tensions increased by the support for the Airbus A380 have erupted into a potential trade war due to the upcoming launch of the Airbus A350. Airbus would ideally like the A350 programme to be launched with the help of state loans covering a third of the development costs although it has stated it will launch without these loans if required. The A350 will compete with Boeing's most successful project in recent years, the 787 Dreamliner.
EU trade officials are questioning the funding provided by NASA, the Department of Defense (in particular in the form of R&D contracts that benefited Boeing) as well as funding from US states (in particular the State of Washington, the State of Kansas and the State of Illinois) for the launch of Boeing aircraft, in particular the 787.

World Trade Organization litigation
The three final assembly lines of Airbus are in Toulouse (France) (two assembly lines) and Hamburg (Germany) (one assembly line). A fourth final assembly line, for the Airbus A400M, is under construction in Seville (Spain). It is estimated that this new assembly line will be operational by October 2006.
Airbus, however, has a number of other plants in different European locations, reflecting its foundation as a consortium. An original solution to the problem of moving aircraft parts between the different factories and the assembly plants is the use of "Beluga" specially enlarged jets, capable of carrying entire sections of fuselage of Airbus aircraft. This solution has also been investigated by Boeing, who retrofitted 3 of their 747 aircraft to transport the components of the 787. An exception to this scheme is the A380, whose fuselage and wings are too large for sections to be carried by the Beluga. Large A380 parts are brought by ship to Bordeaux, and then transported to the Toulouse assembly plant by a specially enlarged road.
North America is an important region to Airbus in terms of both aircraft sales and suppliers. 2,000 of the total of approximately 5,300 Airbus jetliners sold by Airbus around the world, representing every aircraft in its product line from the 107-seat A318 to the 565-passenger A380, are ordered by North American customers. According to Airbus, US contractors supporting an estimated 120,000 jobs earned estimated $5.5 billion (2003) worth of business. For example, one version of the A380 has 51% American content in terms of work share value.
EADS Airbus will be opening an assembly plant in Tianjin, China for its A320 series airliners, to be operational in 2009. AVIC I and AVIC II will be EADS' local partners for the site, to which subassemblies will be sent from plants around the world.

International manufacturing presence
(Data as of December 31, 2003)

Workforce by countries
(Data as of December 31, 2003)
¹ Name of the urban/metropolitan area appears first, then in parenthesis are the exact locations of the plants

Workforce by sites
The Airbus numbering system starts with the main aircraft model number (Ammm) followed by a dash and three digits (-sev) following the pattern Ammm-sev. The model number takes the form of the letter "A" followed by three digits (m), e.g. A320. The series number is a single digit (s). Two more digits after the series number represent the engine (e) and a version number (v). To use an A320-200 with IAE V2500-A1 engines as an example, the code is A320-2ev for the model and series number. Adding the engine manufacturer (for codes, see below), this makes the code now A320-23v. The version is 1, taking the code to A320-231.
An additional letter is sometimes used. These include, 'C' for a combi version (passenger/freighter), 'F' for a freighter model, 'R' for the long range model, and 'X' for the enhanced model.

Engine codes

Baron Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier (August 23, 1769–May 13, 1832) was a French naturalist and zoologist. He was the elder brother of Frédéric Cuvier (1773–1838), also a naturalist. He was a major figure in scientific circles in Paris during the early 19th century, and was instrumental in establishing the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology by comparing living animals with fossils. He is well known for establishing that extinction was a fact, being the most influential proponent of catastrophism in geology in the early 19th century, and opposing early evolutionary theories. His most famous work is the Règne animal distribué d'après son organisation (1817; translated into English as The Animal Kingdom). He died in Paris of cholera.

Life and scientific career

Scientific ideas and their impact
At the time Cuvier presented his 1796 paper on living and fossil elephants, it was still widely believed that no species of animal had ever become extinct, because God's creation had been perfect. Authorities such as Buffon had claimed that fossils found in Europe of animals such as the wooly rhinoceros and mammoth were remains of animals still living in the tropics (ie rhinoceros and elephants), which had shifted out of Europe and Asia as the earth became cooler. Cuvier's early work demonstrated conclusively that this was not the case.

Extinction
Cuvier came to believe that most if not all the animal fossils he examined were remains of species that were now extinct. Near the end of his 1796 paper on living and fossil elephants he said:
All of these facts, consistent among themselves, and not opposed by any report, seem to me to prove the existence of a world previous to ours, destroyed by some kind of catastrophe.
This led Cuvier to become an active proponent of the geological school of thought called catastrophism that maintained that many of the geological features of the earth and the past history of life could be explained by catastrophic events that had caused the extinction of many species of animals. Over the course of his career Cuvier came to believe that there had not been a single catastrophe but several, resulting in a succession of different faunas. He wrote about these ideas many times, in particular he discussed them in great detail in the preliminary discourse (introduction) to a collection of his papers, Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles de Quadrupédes, on quadruped fossils published in 1812. The 'Preliminary Discourse' became very well known and unauthorized (and in the case of English not entirely accurate) translations were made into English, German and Italian. In 1826 Cuvier would publish a revised version under the name Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe.
After Cuvier's death the catastrophic school of geological thought lost ground to uniformitarianism, as championed by Charles Lyell and others, which claimed that the geological features of the earth were best explained by currently observable forces, such as erosion and volcanism, acting gradually over an extended period of time. However, the increasing interest in the topic of mass extinction starting in the late 20th century has led to a resurgence of interest among historians of science and other scholars in this aspect of Cuvier's work.

Catastrophism
In 1808 Cuvier identified a fossil found in Maastricht as giant marine reptile, which he named mosasaurus. The following year he identified, working only from a drawing, a fossil found in Bavaria as a large flying reptile, which he named pterodactyl. Cuvier speculated that there had been a time when reptiles rather than mammals had been the dominant fauna. This speculation was confirmed over the next two decades by a series of spectacular finds, mostly by English geologists and fossil collectors, who found and desribed the first icthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and dinosaurs.

Age of reptiles
In a 1798 paper on the fossil remains of an animal found in some plaster quarries near Paris Cuvier wrote:
Today comparative anatomy has reached such a point of perfection that, after inspecting a single bone, one can often determine the class, and sometimes even the genus of the animal to which it belonged, above all if that bone belonged to the head or the limbs. ... This is because the number, direction, and shape of the bones that compose each part of an animal's body are always in a necessary relation to all the other parts, in such a way that - up to a point - one can infer the whole from any one of them and vice versa.
This idea is sometimes referred to as 'Cuvier's principle of correlation of parts', and while Cuvier's description may somewhat exaggerate its power, the basic concept is central to comparative anatomy and paleontology.

Principle of correlation of parts
Cuvier was highly critical of evolutionary theories proposed by his contemporaries Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. He was skeptical of the mechanisms of change that they proposed and his commitment to the principle of correlation of parts caused him to doubt that any mechanism could ever significantly modify any part of an animal in isolation from all the other parts, without rendering the animal unable to survive. In his Elegy of Lamarck, Cuvier noted that Lamarck's theory rested on two shaky assumptions — that a nervous fluid exists with the power to mold organs and that use and disuse can effect changes in an organism's body type:
"[Lamarck's evolution] rested on two arbitrary suppositions; the one, that it is the seminal vapor which organizes the embryo; the other, that efforts and desires may engender organs. A system established on such foundations may amuse the imagination of a poet; a metaphysician may derive from it an entirely new series of systems; but it cannot for a moment bear the examination of any one who has dissected a hand, a viscus, or even a feather."
He also pointed out that Napoleon's expedition to Egypt had retrieved animals mummified thousands of years previously that seemed no different from their modern counterparts.

Opposition to evolution

Chief scientific work
In 1798 Cuvier published his first independent work, the Tableau élémentaire de l'Histoire naturelle des animaux, which was an abridgment of his course of lectures at the École du Pantheon, and may be regarded as the foundation and first statement of his natural classification of the animal kingdom.
In 1800 he published the Leçons d'anatomie comparée, assisted by A. M. C. Duméril for the first two volumes and Georges Louis Duvernoy for the three later ones.

On comparative anatomy and classification
Cuvier's papers on the Mollusca began appearing as early as 1792, but most of his memoirs on this branch were published in the Annales du museum between 1802 and 1815; they were subsequently collected as Mémoires pour servir de l'histoire et a l'anatomie des mollusques, published in one volume at Paris in 1817.

On fish
In this field Cuvier published a long list of memoirs, partly relating to the bones of extinct animals, and partly detailing the results of observations on the skeletons of living animals, specially examined with a view of throwing light upon the structure and affinities of the fossil forms.
Among living forms he published papers relating to the osteology of the Rhinoceros Indicus, the tapir, Hyrax Capensis, the hippopotamus, the sloths, the manatee, etc.
He produced an even larger body of work on fossils, dealing with the extinct mammals of the Eocene beds of Montmartre, the fossil species of hippopotamus, a marsupial (which he called Didelphys gypsorum), the Megalonyx, the Megatherium, the cave-hyena, the pterodactyl, the extinct species of rhinoceros, the cave bear, the mastodon, the extinct species of elephant, fossil species of manatee and seals, fossil forms of crocodilians, chelonians, fishes, birds, etc. The department of palaeontology dealing with the Mammalia may be said to have been essentially created and established by Cuvier.
The results of Cuvier's principal palaeontological and geological investigations were ultimately given to the world in the form of two separate works: Recherches sur les ossements fossiles de quadrupedes (Paris, 1812; later editions in 1821 and 1825); and Discours sur les revolutions de la surface du globe (Paris, 1825). In this latter work he expounded a scientific theory of Catastrophism.

On palaeontology and osteology
None of Cuvier's works attained a higher reputation than his Règne Animal distribué d'après son Organisation pour servir de base à l'Histoire Naturelle des Animaux et d'Introduction à l'Anatomie Comparée, the first edition of which appeared in four octavo volumes in 1817, and the second in five volumes in 1829–1830. In this classic work Cuvier embodied the results of the whole of his previous researches on the structure of living and fossil animals. The whole of the work was his own, with the exception of the section on Insecta, in which he was assisted by his friend Latreille. It was translated into English many times, often with substantial notes and supplementary material updating the book in accordance with the expansion of knowledge.

The Animal Kingdom
Apart from his own original investigations in zoology and paleontology Cuvier carried out a vast amount of work as perpetual secretary of the National Institute, and as an official connected with public education generally; and much of this work appeared ultimately in a published form. Thus, in 1808 he was placed by Napoleon upon the council of the Imperial University, and in this capacity he presided (in the years 1809, 1811 and 1813) over commissions charged to examine the state of the higher educational establishments in the districts beyond the Alps and the Rhine which had been annexed to France, and to report upon the means by which these could be affiliated with the central university. Three separate reports on this subject were published by him.
In his capacity, again, of perpetual secretary of the Institute, he not only prepared a number of éloges historiques on deceased members of the Academy of Sciences, but he was the author of a number of reports on the history of the physical and natural sciences, the most important of these being the Rapport historique sur le progrès des sciences physiques depuis 1789, published in 1810.
Prior to the fall of Napoleon (1814) he had been admitted to the council of state, and his position remained unaffected by the restoration of the Bourbons. He was elected chancellor of the university, in which capacity he acted as interim president of the council of public instruction, whilst he also, as a Lutheran, superintended the faculty of Protestant theology. In 1819 he was appointed president of the committee of the interior, and retained the office until his death.
In 1826 he was made grand officer of the Legion of Honour; and in 1831 he was raised by Louis Philippe to the rank of peer of France, and was subsequently appointed president of the council of state. Member of the Doctrinaires, he was nominated to the ministry of the interior in the beginning of 1832.

Animals named after Cuvier