Further option for chinas farmland reform(chinese translation included) :: essays research papers

Alternatives for Further Reform in China's Farmland System from "Report of a pilot concentrate on destitution, land deserting and country institutions", created by the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, People's Republic of China, in a joint effort with the FAO Rural Development Division THE FUNDAMENTAL ISSUE in the arrangement of China's current country farmland framework focuses on uncertainty in the meaning of land proprietorship rights. In spite of specifications in the Constitution and Land Management Law, determining that provincial land is claimed by the aggregate, it is by the by indistinct which of the "three levels of proprietorship'' in the group - People's Communes, creation units and creation gatherings - is alluded to. Besides, regardless of whether it had assigned the possession to a specific level in the group, the issue would again rise up out of the absence of an away from of the group and its participation. Added to this uncertainty in the responsibility for is the deficiency of the chief land property right, as the State has the power to discard the land, while the rancher possesses the rental salary, bringing about a channel ashore income and troubles in land flow. Ãâ€"à Ã¢ ¹Ã£ ºÃ£ Ã£â€"Â'㠦⠵ã„ã…  ©Ã¢'㠥ã…  ©Ã£Å"㠯ãÅ"㠥㠏⠵⠵ã„⠽⠨㠁⠢ãâ€"à Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ¹Ã£ËœÃ¢ ¼Ã£ ¼Ã£Å¾Ã£Å¡Ã£Å"㠢ããšããšã Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ£â€¹Ã£ ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ¨Ã£'㠥ã‰ã Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ²Ã¢ »Ã£Æ'㠷ãˆâ ·[ã„⠣ã€ã ¢Ã£ Ã¢ ½Ã¢ ¿Ã£â€°]⠡⠣⠾⠡⠹ãÅ"㠏ãÅ"⠷⠨⠺㠍㠍㠁⠵ã˜â ¹Ã£Å"ã€ã ­Ã¢ ·Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£Å"㠵⠿㠮ãâ€" ¸Ã£Æ'㠷㠁ã‹ã…  ©Ã¢'㠥㠍㠁⠵ã˜ãšã‡â ¼Ã¢ ¯Ã£Å"㠥ã‹ã ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£Ë†Ã¢ »Ã¢ ¶Ã£ ¸Ã£Ë†Ã£ ½Ã¢ ¸Ã£ ¶Ã£â€¹Ã£ ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ ²Ã£ £Ã¢'ãžâ ¡Ã¢ °Ã£Ë†Ã£â€¹Ã£Æ'㠱⠹⠫ã‰ã §Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£â€°Ã£ ºÃ¢ ²Ã£ ºÃ¢'㠳⠶ã⠣⠬ã‰ã ºÃ¢ ²Ã£ ºÃ£ Ã¢ ¡Ã¢ ¶Ã£Ã¢ ¡Ã¢ ±Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£â€¹Ã£ ¹Ã£â€" ¸Ã¢ ²Ã¢ ¢Ã¢ ²Ã¢ »Ã£Æ'㠷ãžã ºÃ¢ ¡Ã¢ £Ã¢'ã‹ã Ã£ ¢Ã¢ ¼Ã¢'ãšâ ¹Ã£â€¹Ã£ ¼Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¨Ã£â€¹Ã£ ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ £Ã¢ ©Ã¢ ±Ã¢ »Ã£â€" ¸Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ µÃ¢ ½Ã£ Ã£â€¹Ã£'⠻⠸㠶ãÅ"ã˜â ¶Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ ²Ã£ £Ã¢'ãžâ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ¼Ã¢ ¯Ã£Å"㠥⠣â ¬ ãã‰ããšâ ¼Ã¢ ¯Ã£Å"㠥⠼⠰ã†ã ¤Ã¢ ³Ã£â€°Ã£Ã¢ ±Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ±Ã£â€°Ã£â„¢Ã£Æ'㠷ãˆâ ·Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ·Ã¢ ¶Ã£Å¾Ã¢ §Ã¢ ½Ã£ §Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£Å¾Ã£Å¡Ã£Å"㠢⠻⠹ãšã‡â »Ã£ ¡Ã¢ ³Ã£ ¶Ã£ Ã£â€" ¡Ã¢ £Ã£Ã¢ ­Ã£Ã£ ²Ã£â€°Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£ Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ£â€¹Ã£ ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ²Ã¢ »Ã£ Ã£ ªÃ£â€¢Ã£ »Ã£ Ã£Ã£'⠲⠼ãã‡â ¿Ã£ Ã£â€¹Ã£â€¢Ã£ ¢Ã£â€"Ãâ€" ²Ã¢ »Ã£Æ'㠷ãˆâ ·Ã£ Ã£Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ ±Ã£Ë†Ã£Ë†Ã£ §Ã¢ ¹Ã£ ºÃ¢ ¼Ã£'ã㠐ãˆâ ¨Ã£â€" ªÃ£Ë†Ã£Æ'㠍㠁⠵ã˜â £Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ µÃ¢ «Ã£Å¡Ã£â€¡Ã£â€¦  ©Ã£Æ'㠱ã•â ¼Ã£Ã£ Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¨Ã£ Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ¢ ±Ã¢ »Ã¢ £Ã¢ ©Ã£â€"à ¢Ã£Ã£Æ'⠵ã„ãšã•ãˆã «Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ µÃ¢ ¼Ã£â€"Â㠁ã‹ã Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ£â€¹Ã¢ °Ã£Å¡Ã£â€¢Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ¿Ã£ Ã¢ ½Ã£Ã¿Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£ Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ£ Ã£ ·Ã£ Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£â‚¬Ã¢ §Ã£â€žÃ£'⠡â £ In this manner, it is important to audit the entire procedure of changes in the farmland framework and locate the right purpose of takeoff for change. Truth be told, such issues as libertarian control of land, dispersed land the executives, insecurity in farmland agreements and absence of course or productivity have all come about because of an equivocal land proprietorship. When the land proprietor is unmistakably characterized and the key property rights insisted, at that point, the farmland's administration, deal, renting (counting ranchers' contracting of aggregate land and re-contracting of their contracted land), acquiring and removal as blessing - all these and different issues of the executives and course would be effortlessly settled. Ã'㠲â'ã‹â £Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ »Ã£ËœÃ¢ ¹Ã£â€¹Ã£â€¢Ã£ »Ã¢ ¸Ã£ ¶Ã£â€¦  ©Ã£Å"㠯ãÅ"㠥㠏⠵⠵ã„⠱㠤⠻⠯⠹㠽⠳ãÅ"⠺㠍ã•ã'⠵⠽ã'⠻⠸㠶⠸ã„⠸㠯⠵ã„ã•ã ½Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ·Ã¢ ³Ã£ ¶Ã¢ ·Ã¢ ¢Ã¢ µÃ£ £Ã£Å¡Ã£â€¡Ã¢ ºÃ£Å"⠱ã˜ã'⠪⠵ã„⠡⠣ãšã‚ãšâ µÃ£â€°Ã£ Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£â€¢Ã£ ¢Ã£ Ã¢ ©Ã£Å¾Ã£Å¡Ã£Å"㠢⠣⠬⠱ãˆãˆã §Ã£â€ Ã¢ ½Ã¢ ¾Ã£ ¹Ã¢ ·Ã£â€"Ã… à ¤Ã£ Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ ·Ã£â€"É⠢⠵ã„㠍㠁⠵ã˜â ¹Ã£Å"ã€ã ­Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£ Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ¢ ºÃ£ Ã£ Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ²Ã¢ »Ã£Å¾Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ¨Ã£ Ã£Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£ Ã£ ·Ã£ Ã¢ ¨Ã£'ã⠼⠰㠐⠧ã„ãÅ"⠵ã„⠲⠻ãâ€"à £Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ¼Ã£Å¡Ã£â€¡Ã£Ã£â€°Ã£'⠻⠸㠶ã„⠣⠺㠽⠲⠻ã‡ã ¥Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£ Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ£â€¹Ã£ ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ ²Ã£ ºÃ£â€°Ã£ ºÃ¢ µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ¡Ã¢ £Ã£'⠻⠵⠩㠍㠁⠵ã˜ã‹ã ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£â€¢Ã£Ã¿Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ·Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£â€ Ã£ ¤Ã£Ã¢ ­Ã£Ã£ ²Ã£â€°Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£â€¹Ã£ ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ µÃ£Æ'⠵⠽ãˆâ ·Ã£Ë†Ã£ Ã¢ £Ã ¢ ¬Ã£Ë†Ã¢ »Ã¢ ºÃ£ ³Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬ Ã…  ©Ã£Å"㠯⠵ã„⠹ãÅ"ã€ã ­Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£â€šÃ£ ²Ã£â€šÃ£'⠣⠬ãâ€"à ¢Ã£ Ã£Å¾Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ °Ã£ ¼Ã£â‚¬Ã¢ ¨Ã£â€¦  ©Ã£Æ'㠱ã‡â ©Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ©Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£ Ã¢ ¬Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¡Ã¢ µÃ£Æ'⠼⠯ãÅ"㠥㠍㠁⠵ã˜â ºÃ£ Ã¢ ¸Ã¢'ã‡â ©[ãã™ã‡â ©Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£â€" ªÃ£â€¡Ã¢ ©]ã'ã'⠾⠭ã‡â ©Ã¢ ¹Ã£ ½Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£ Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£ Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£ËœÃ¢ £Ã¢ ©Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£'ã… Â'⠫⠺㠍â'⠦ã€ã ­Ã£Å¾Ã¢ ªÃ£Ã£ ¹Ã£Ã£ «Ã£Å¾Ã£ ¯ - Ë㠹ã㠐ã•ã ¢Ã£ Ã¢ ©Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£â€ Ã£ ¤Ã£â€¹Ã£ »Ã£'⠻㠐⠩⠹ãÅ"ã€ã ­Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£ Ã£ ·Ã£ Ã¢ ¨Ã£â€°Ã£ Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£Å¾Ã£Å¡Ã£Å"㠢⠽⠫⠻㠡ã⠭ãˆã Ã¢ ¶Ã£ ¸Ã¢ ½Ã£ ¢Ã¢ ¡Ã¢ £ Adhering to and culminating aggregate proprietorship  ¼Ã£ ¡Ã¢ ³Ã£â€"à Ã£ ªÃ£â€°Ã£â€ Ã¢ ¼Ã¢ ¯Ã£Å"㠥ã‹ã ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£â€"Æ Regarding the course of future change in China's rustic farmland proprietorship, there have been dubious perspectives from scholarly circles and the horticultural division, both of whom have approached with a wide range of thoughts. These incorporate the nationalization of provincial farmland, change and improvement of the current aggregate responsibility for land, private responsibility for just as an arrangement of blended proprietorship. Ãâ€"à Ã£Ã£Å¡Ã£â€"à Ã¢ ¹Ã£ ºÃ£â€¦  ©Ã£Å"㠯ã‹ã ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£Ë†Ã¢ ¨Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£Å¾Ã¢'ã€â'⠸ã„⠸㠯⠷⠽㠏㠲⠣⠬ã㠐ã€â'ãâ€"Ãã'⠧ãšã µÃ¢ ½Ã£ §Ã¢ µÃ£â€žÃ£Ã£ Ã£â€¢Ã£ ¹Ã£'㠩⠵ã„⠸㠷ãâ€"Ãâ€" ¼Ã£ »Ã¢ ½Ã£ ¢Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£â€¦  ©Ã£'⠵⠲⠿⠵ã„⠹ã›â µÃ£ £Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã£ Ã¢ ½Ã£â€¢Ã£Ã¿Ã¢ ¶Ã¢ ¼Ã¢'㠸ã€â'⠸㠷ãâ€"Ã⠲⠻㠍⠬⠵ã„㠐㠭⠶ã ã'㠢⠼㠻⠡⠣ã†ã ¤Ã£â€"à Ã¢ °Ã£ ¼Ã£â‚¬Ã¢ ¨Ã£â€¦  ©Ã¢'㠥㠍㠁⠵ã˜â µÃ£â€žÃ¢ ¹Ã£ ºÃ£Ã£ Ã¢ »Ã¢ ¯Ã¢ £Ã¢ ¬Ã¢ ¸Ã£â€žÃ¢ ¸Ã£ ¯Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã¢ ¸Ã£â€žÃ¢ ½Ã£ ¸Ã£ Ã£â€"Â'㠦⠵ã„ã…  ©Ã¢'㠥㠍㠁⠵ã˜â ¼Ã¢ ¯Ã£Å"㠥ã‹ã ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£â€"Æ⠣⠬ã‹â ½Ã£Ë†Ã£â€¹Ã£â€¦  ©Ã£Å"㠯ã‹ã ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£â€"Æ⠣⠬ã'ã⠼⠰ã'⠻ãâ€"Ãâ€" »Ã£ ¬Ã¢ ºÃ£ Ã£â€"Æã‹ã ¹Ã£Ã£ Ã£â€"Æ⠵ã„ãÅ"㠥㠏⠵⠡â £ In view of the attributes of China's rustic land assets and its kin land relationship, the course of change in the nation's country land framework ought to be the mission for a type of aggregate open proprietorship described by another relationship in property rights (under the precondition of the aggregate open responsibility for) to upgrade the lucidity in the relationship of aggregate land property rights.

Air Pollution in Colombia. Essay Example

Air Pollution in Colombia. Paper Example Air Pollution in Colombia. Paper Air Pollution in Colombia. Paper Paper Topic: Air contamination Air contamination has gotten one of the most significant worries of the nearby specialists of Latin-American urban areas. Bogota, as other urban focuses in South America, for example, SAA Paulo, Mexico City and Santiago De Chile, shows noteworthy degrees of air contamination, levels that may speak to a high hazard for the populaces wellbeing and unquestionably a decrease in the personal satisfaction of its occupants. Bogota, capital of Colombia, is probably the biggest city of Latin America; with a populace of around 6. Lion and a yearly development pace of 2. 081 percent it is the biggest urban focus in Colombia; it likewise has the most elevated paces of natural decay of the nation. Air contamination has expanded significantly of late, due for the most part to the uncontrolled increment in the quantity of vehicles in the city. In spite of the fact that air contamination has been checked in Bogota since 1 967, it wasnt until 1 990 that the observing stations were spread generally al l through the city. Around then the Secretary of Health of the District with the coordinated effort of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (CIA) sought after an examination so as to decide the air nature of the city. This examination inferred that the most significant wellspring of contamination in Bogota was autos; 70% of the contamination could be ascribed to vehicles. Another significant wellspring of contamination was seen as blocks and battery plants, among others. The examination directed with the help of CIA distinguished just because the inconvenience of air contamination in Bogota and its chief segments. These were recognized to be the accompanying: Sulfur Dioxide (SYS), Nitrogen Oxides (Knox), Total Suspended Particles (TTS), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Hydrocarbons (HOC), and Ozone (03). It was evaluated that 75% of the poisons yearly discharges relate to Particulate Matter. The examination discovered that the degrees of CO, HOC, SYS and Particulate Matter were not over the cutoff points characterized as sheltered by the WHO. This prompted CIA s consideration that: in 1990-1991 air contamination in Bogota didn't arrive at levels of worry to the nearby specialists. In any case, the fast development in the quantity of vehicles in Bogota during the most recent decade started extra enthusiasm for this issue.

Local Motion

Local Motion INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi, today we are in San Mateo in the Local Motion office. John, who are you and what do you do?John: Im John Stanfield and Im the CEO and co-founder of Local Motion, and we build technology for the car sharing industry.Martin: What did you do before you started this company?John: Its a great question. My first career was, I spent 12 years as a wild and forest fire fighter. So, after I finished my physics degree I didnt want to build bombs for the navy, so I continued doing what I did to put myself through school, and that turned into career. I exited that, came to the Bay Area, started a couple of companies, learned a lot about entrepreneurship, found myself at graduate school at Stanford, and thats where the idea for this company started out of my masters work in the mechanical engineering group and design group. I met my co-founder there and we started the company in 2010.Martin: And can you tell us a little bit more about the process, how you did come up with t his idea?John: Sure. So, originally we were looking at local mobility and how a third to half of all trips made by Americans are for less than 5 miles. And generally speaking, we do them in single occupancy, two to three thousand pound automobiles, and so my idea was to build a small, very efficient electric four-wheel vehicle, that was built from the ground up to be sharable, to occupy a lot of these local needs, and so we build a vehicle while I was at Stanford, got some attention, won a summer grant from Lightspeed ventures, studied the market, realized there was a big gaping hole in mobility that needed to be innovated in, and disrupted. And so I launched the company after meeting Clément Gires in 2010. We then raised some seed money, and we build a vehicle, and the idea was to sell it to places and not people, and be sharable from the ground up in its entirety of ethos of this vehicle would be a sharable asset. And what we learned in the process was that we could do much great er good and have much greater impact if we separate our ideas and became vehicle agnostic and stop trying to build cars because, I dont know if youre aware of this, but it takes a lot of money to start a car company. So, we separated the hardware and software that we needed to become vehicle agnostic, and thats what we have today, we install hardware in every vehicle that we deal with, we focus on large groups of assets and fleets, across the government agencies from federal to state and local, to university campuses and corporate campuses.Martin: Ok, great. And how did you get in touch with the first investors?John: Lets see. The first investors were visionary, angel investors, I would say. Were in the kind of the heart of entrepreneurship here in Silicon Valley. Through my Stanford network, I was put in touch with a great deal of entrepreneurs who had had success and are now angel investors, and the Lightspeed venture grant helped the great deal, so that expanded our network in Si licon Valley, and specifically on Sand Hill road. And so a few, as I call them, visionaries, believed in us and wrote us small checks, that allowed us to get started and really push our ideas forward. And without those visionaries, we wouldnt be here today.BUSINESS MODELMartin: John, lets talk about the business model. Can you briefly explain what your solution does and how it works technically, and then talk about the other components like what customers are you targeting, where are you using these technologies?John: Sure. So, I strongly believe that shared mobility can never succeed on a large-scale unless the experience from the users perspective at the door of the car, when theyre accessing that shared mobility. If that experience is better than owning a vehicle, than shared mobility will succeed, and until that day it wont expand in the dramatic way. And so the entirety of my company focuses on making that experience superior. And so what we do is we install hardware in every v ehicle that shows visually the status of that vehicle to the user. So now, when the user walks out to the group of vehicles, they can see, through an LED light, if the vehicle is available or not, and they just walk up with their corporate ID badge that lets them in the buildings or with their smart phone, touch on that reader, the doors unlocked, they get in and they drive away. Its that simple. So, you dont have to book your personal car. Its yours. So why would you need to book your shared car? So we give that on demand, real-time access to every vehicle. You can also step back and say ok, Im a planner, which about 3% of our current fleet rides are actually planned ahead of time, only about 3-5%, and you can go on our mobile app or on our web system, our web-based platform and book a ride ahead of time. And what we do is we take all that information and we analyze it in our own analytics engines and we give that information back to the fleet manager, so that they can make real de cision based on data. On how the ride size distributes, cut cost and increase utilization. And we just charge per vehicle that our system is installed in, right now basically we take the fleet size, we charge per vehicle and usually a 12 month subscription fee, and we dont charge for the hardware upfront. We actually maintain ownership of hardware, that way if we need to replace it we can.Martin: So, from my understanding, in Germany and Europe in general we have some kind of companies like BMW and Mercedes who are doing this kind of individual cars that you can rent via mobile platform etc. You are currently tied in fleets, like Sixt or something like that, and having them to manage the fleet more efficiently, so that dont you have to that much contact between their sales organization and their end customer. Can you tell us a little bit more about how it technically works, the product? And when does it get installed, who does it, how long does it take?John: So, lets just start with the market segment that you hit on. There are roughly 8 million vehicles in the US that are in fleets and that is a market that is very, very undeveloped for sharing. All these vehicles are intended to be shared across user groups, but the way they share them, still have a metal box on the wall with keys in it, or a few individuals that have the keys at their desk and they have a piece of paper when they sign these vehicles out. And so because of the barriers of using keys and having no real organization around the sharing of the assets, they dont get shared and they have far too many vehicles on their lots. We can walk in the door and from day 1 we can offer 20-30% savings across their fleet, just by helping them share and taking the keys out of the equation. So now, instead of the user having to go and find a set of car keys, they just walk to car and the access is at the door. So, really streamlining the use case is essential here.And then what we do technically is we plugin to the cars diagnostics port. That allows us to do two things: get power for a device and pull information from the car itself. When our device is powered up, we force the user to interact with it at the door so we know who it is. We are tracking all movement, so we know how they use the car. We know if theyre abusing the vehicles, we know if theyre driving, how theyre driving, we know where theyre going. So all the information is very important to the fleet manager, so that they can get a snapshot, a real, data driven snapshot of how the vehicles are being used and then make decisions based on that information, so they can, for example, if they see a portion of their fleet that never goes more than 40 miles, why wouldnt they replace that with electric vehicles. That is an efficiency gain, an utilization gain, and then through sharing it proper, proper scheduling, we can help push rides together into certain vehicles that are always going to the same place at the same time with the sam e people. So, really optimizing the entire operational process.Martin: So, would you say that your plan based on this kind of big data is also to provide other services like you said before, analyze on how the fleet is going, and maybe even optimizing insurance contracts based on user groups or car models, something like that?John: Exactly. So, what we do is right now we focus on our core model and then we will, as we grow, offer premium packages to people, so we can help them analyze fleets and slice it in whatever they want with the data that we have. And we will offer those as premium products, yes.Martin: How did you acquire and convince the first customer? Because I can imagine going to big fleet companies who have 500-1000 cars or so, and you are young startup. How did you convince them?John: Couple of things. One is, we were selling cars originally, when we were doing that, couple of the big Silicon Valley companies, such as Google and Apple, they were very interested in that local kind of show piece for mobility. So, Google was our very first customer, they wanted to buy cars. We were talking to them for long enough that when we went through our strong pivot, and removed the hardware and software to become vehicle agnostic, they saw the intelligence in that decision and they already have a fleet of 300-400 vehicles on their campus, and they said Great, lets just start using your devices in our cars. And so that started to progress, that was a great example for us, theyre a tremendous customers because they have a truly multi-model fleet, all the way from human-powered bicycles all the way to highway shuttles, big 60 passengers busses, and everything in between. Model S Teslas, Nissan Leaves, electric bikes, normal internal combustion vans. So were working across the subset of that fleet now and we hope to expand more. And what that did was give us something to point to and show how its working and data that we could pull and analyze and just show the b enefit of our platform. At one point, they were having trouble getting people to plug-in small electric vehicles on their campus, so we just communicated with the users and said Hey, could you please plug the car in when youre done?, and amazingly we went from 30% plugin rate to 90% plugin rate, just in a few weeks. So, proving to the Google that you can change user behavior in few weeks is magical, and taking that to the general population is very powerful.Martin: Currently, fleet management companies are having all the cares stored basically in one location, I assume because there is some kind of person who needs to check in the people and serve the cars, etc. With your technology, would you say that they can more distribute their cars over the city, because you, they dont need to have this kind of human interaction with the final customer?John: So, its an interesting conversation because right now the fleets are very distributed. There are a lot of use cases where there are one o r maybe 2 users per vehicle, and then you have a piece of the fleet that is very centralized, and they call that the motor pool. And so, what were trying to actually do is to take the entirety of the fleet, regardless of where its located, and put it in a centralized motor pool. So that no matter where you are, on the grounds in the city of San Francisco, for example, you as a user could access the vehicles that you have the right to access, with just your badge. And so, looking at it from kind of a geographically agnostic perspective, saying you have access to a centralized motor pool, regardless of where it is, is very powerful. And giving the managers the ability to restrict usage, because you dont want me driving in dump truck, right, I dont have the license or the ability. And so the people who can and are able to drive those high value assets they require licensing control, the manager can very easily manage that from his laptop or mobile phone. And so, the general population can have access to the general population of motor pool vehicles, you can do restrictions, etc, etc, and that is a centralized motor pool, but it may be distributed over a city or more, for a state or even a federal government.Martin: And the registration or validation of identity and all the properties of some of you final customers, how is it then done?John: So, in the states its all done around driving licenses. The beauty of working with fleets is that all that information checking is already done, because the company or the organization takes care of that, so we dont have to. What we do is, we come in and connect the dots between the services theyre already using. For example, most centralized fleets or fleet operators have service providers for maintenance or cleaning, that they already use. And what we do is we come in with our platform and we connect with those dots more efficiently. So, instead of having to fill out a piece of paper that says I need service on this vehicle at this day, and then someone having to go and find the keys, and taking it out of service for a week or two or three, so that they can schedule this maintenance, we give them the ability to push a button on their web interface that turns the light on the vehicle red, takes that vehicle out of service, sends the information and the geolocation of the vehicle to the service provider who can go straight to the car, with their service badge, unlock the doors, drive it to the shop fix and then put it back in service, and then the light turns back to green. So, really what we do is streamline all those operations, using the existing infrastructure that they already have and just connecting the dots very efficiently.CORPORATE STRATEGYMartin: John, lets talk about corporate strategy. What do you perceive the competitive advantage of your company?John: So, right now, to date, there havent been any of the connected car companies that had focused on the user side. So, we obsess about the user side, because, as I said, I really feel that in order to make this sharing economy work in the enterprise, you have to have a good user experience at the door. And so, for example, when you tap your badge on our device, it takes less than 2 seconds for the doors to unlock. Thats essential. Because if youre standing at the door for 2 minutes even, as a user, it feels like days, and people then dont trust the system, they refuse to use it, and go back to system where you might as well just be sharing keys. So, we obsess about that experience at the door. And then really the scheduling and the utilization increase is what we are pushing today, and like I said we take the auxiliary systems that theyre already using and connect them more efficiently. So, for us, we dont want to get down the road too deeply on the telematic side, so, for example DOT compliance, or long hold trucking optimization for fuel, stuff like that thats been done many, many times and its very crowded marketplace. Were focused really on the user experience and centralized motor pools for now, thats our core model. Were only 35 people so we have to pick an area thats right for disruption and thats it.Martin: Can you explain your go-to market strategy and your product strategy going forward?John: Sure. So, our go-to market strategy has always been focused on what were good at, and again, to reiterate is the user side. So, going forward we will just continually expend our product offering, looking at new technologies, looking at more interesting and simplified ways for users to gain access, through different sensor technology, through different near field communications, technology whether it NFC (Near field communication), Bluetooth, or RFID. Were just going to leverage what are users had already in their pocket. So we dont want to force them to use something new. And going forward we will start expanding more and more across other geographic areas, for example, we have an office in Paris, righ t now with 5 employees and were focused on European fleet market as well, so I feel that in a lot of ways, the European market is already primed and ready for the sharing economy, because theres a lot more use of mass transit, theres a lot more sense for sharing across large groups of high dollar assets. The car economy there is, the way that corporate executives have their own assigned cars is starting to change, people want to have more cash upfront but still options for mobility down the road, so thats screaming out for centralized motor pools. So, were very excited about the expansion across the Europe as well. And thats how well expand in the next 12 months.Martin: Can you explain your reasoning why you are internationalizing within the same business segment while not adding for other business segments, like individual cars, etc.?John: I feel its really essential to have a strong toehold on the user side and centralized motor pool and then expand out from there. My co-founder i s French, and so we had a very strong connection to talent in France, and we, like I said, we see the European market as very ripe, as well, so we wanted to get it toehold as soon as possible, and so we just took our exact same business model and expanded it into European market.MARKET DEVELOPMENTMartin: So, lets talk about the market development. I mean, youve learned a lot in the case of mobility. Can you give us some kind of trends that you identified, without talking about sharing economy, because you have shared some knowledge of that already?John: Sure, so, if I was speaking straight to, and I do very frequently, speaks straight to OEMs, and lot of the innovation experts here in Silicon Valley come to us and say What do we do to be competitive in the future? and I just look straight at them and say Sell mobility and stop selling so many cars. And thats a very tough thing to understand, from the perspective of someone selling cars, but really thats kind of the just of it. I fee l that, in the near future, the companies that make mobility valuable are the ones that will win and that innovative process will stand out as you make each ride or each minute in the car more valuable than having a car sitting on your driveway 85-90% of the time unused. So, really, sharing is the core of that and selling mobility is the way that this economy will expand on forward.Martin: Do you see that the American car share is changing somehow? Because when you are driving 101 or 85, almost every car is occupied by only 1 person, everybody has a super large car and theres some kind of, lets say, the streets are full of cars.John: Absolutely. But, there are also great trends right now for young people who are waiting longer and longer to get their driving license. So, for example, in my era, you went out on your 16th birthday, you get your driving permit and on 16 and a half you are in line to get your driving license, on the day you can get it. Now, kids are waiting until theyre 17, 18 to get their driving license, because they are treating mobility as they treat applications in mobile devices. They want everything on demand, right now at their fingertips. They dont want to have to deal with the responsibility and the cost of owning a vehicle, its painful these days. And so I think the models are shifting, right now the infrastructure isnt built, and so the Bay Area is a great example. We have the Caltrain, which in America is amazing, but if you go to any other country in the world, 40, I guess its a 30 year old train is kind of laughed at. So, its great because we have it here, but its also very limiting because thats all we have here. So, trends are happening now, which are changing that and of course it happens slowly, but were doing what we can now. And thats why were not waiting for the OEMs to put the hardware in the cars, were making it ourselves. If they would give us access through API to the hardware that existed in the cars it would simplify an d speed this up, but thats not going to happen for 5-10 years, so were doing it ourselves.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS In San Mateo, we meet CEO co-founder of Local Motion, John Stanfield. John shares his story how he co-founded this startup and how the current business model works, as well as what the current plans for near future, and some advice for young entrepreneurs.The transcript of the interview is included below.INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi, today we are in San Mateo in the Local Motion office. John, who are you and what do you do?John: Im John Stanfield and Im the CEO and co-founder of Local Motion, and we build technology for the car sharing industry.Martin: What did you do before you started this company?John: Its a great question. My first career was, I spent 12 years as a wild and forest fire fighter. So, after I finished my physics degree I didnt want to build bombs for the navy, so I continued doing what I did to put myself through school, and that turned into career. I exited that, came to the Bay Area, started a couple of companies, learned a lot about entrepreneurship, found myself at g raduate school at Stanford, and thats where the idea for this company started out of my masters work in the mechanical engineering group and design group. I met my co-founder there and we started the company in 2010.Martin: And can you tell us a little bit more about the process, how you did come up with this idea?John: Sure. So, originally we were looking at local mobility and how a third to half of all trips made by Americans are for less than 5 miles. And generally speaking, we do them in single occupancy, two to three thousand pound automobiles, and so my idea was to build a small, very efficient electric four-wheel vehicle, that was built from the ground up to be sharable, to occupy a lot of these local needs, and so we build a vehicle while I was at Stanford, got some attention, won a summer grant from Lightspeed ventures, studied the market, realized there was a big gaping hole in mobility that needed to be innovated in, and disrupted. And so I launched the company after meet ing Clément Gires in 2010. We then raised some seed money, and we build a vehicle, and the idea was to sell it to places and not people, and be sharable from the ground up in its entirety of ethos of this vehicle would be a sharable asset. And what we learned in the process was that we could do much greater good and have much greater impact if we separate our ideas and became vehicle agnostic and stop trying to build cars because, I dont know if youre aware of this, but it takes a lot of money to start a car company. So, we separated the hardware and software that we needed to become vehicle agnostic, and thats what we have today, we install hardware in every vehicle that we deal with, we focus on large groups of assets and fleets, across the government agencies from federal to state and local, to university campuses and corporate campuses.Martin: Ok, great. And how did you get in touch with the first investors?John: Lets see. The first investors were visionary, angel investors, I would say. Were in the kind of the heart of entrepreneurship here in Silicon Valley. Through my Stanford network, I was put in touch with a great deal of entrepreneurs who had had success and are now angel investors, and the Lightspeed venture grant helped the great deal, so that expanded our network in Silicon Valley, and specifically on Sand Hill road. And so a few, as I call them, visionaries, believed in us and wrote us small checks, that allowed us to get started and really push our ideas forward. And without those visionaries, we wouldnt be here today.BUSINESS MODELMartin: John, lets talk about the business model. Can you briefly explain what your solution does and how it works technically, and then talk about the other components like what customers are you targeting, where are you using these technologies?John: Sure. So, I strongly believe that shared mobility can never succeed on a large-scale unless the experience from the users perspective at the door of the car, when the yre accessing that shared mobility. If that experience is better than owning a vehicle, than shared mobility will succeed, and until that day it wont expand in the dramatic way. And so the entirety of my company focuses on making that experience superior. And so what we do is we install hardware in every vehicle that shows visually the status of that vehicle to the user. So now, when the user walks out to the group of vehicles, they can see, through an LED light, if the vehicle is available or not, and they just walk up with their corporate ID badge that lets them in the buildings or with their smart phone, touch on that reader, the doors unlocked, they get in and they drive away. Its that simple. So, you dont have to book your personal car. Its yours. So why would you need to book your shared car? So we give that on demand, real-time access to every vehicle. You can also step back and say ok, Im a planner, which about 3% of our current fleet rides are actually planned ahead of time , only about 3-5%, and you can go on our mobile app or on our web system, our web-based platform and book a ride ahead of time. And what we do is we take all that information and we analyze it in our own analytics engines and we give that information back to the fleet manager, so that they can make real decision based on data. On how the ride size distributes, cut cost and increase utilization. And we just charge per vehicle that our system is installed in, right now basically we take the fleet size, we charge per vehicle and usually a 12 month subscription fee, and we dont charge for the hardware upfront. We actually maintain ownership of hardware, that way if we need to replace it we can.Martin: So, from my understanding, in Germany and Europe in general we have some kind of companies like BMW and Mercedes who are doing this kind of individual cars that you can rent via mobile platform etc. You are currently tied in fleets, like Sixt or something like that, and having them to mana ge the fleet more efficiently, so that dont you have to that much contact between their sales organization and their end customer. Can you tell us a little bit more about how it technically works, the product? And when does it get installed, who does it, how long does it take?John: So, lets just start with the market segment that you hit on. There are roughly 8 million vehicles in the US that are in fleets and that is a market that is very, very undeveloped for sharing. All these vehicles are intended to be shared across user groups, but the way they share them, still have a metal box on the wall with keys in it, or a few individuals that have the keys at their desk and they have a piece of paper when they sign these vehicles out. And so because of the barriers of using keys and having no real organization around the sharing of the assets, they dont get shared and they have far too many vehicles on their lots. We can walk in the door and from day 1 we can offer 20-30% savings across their fleet, just by helping them share and taking the keys out of the equation. So now, instead of the user having to go and find a set of car keys, they just walk to car and the access is at the door. So, really streamlining the use case is essential here.And then what we do technically is we plugin to the cars diagnostics port. That allows us to do two things: get power for a device and pull information from the car itself. When our device is powered up, we force the user to interact with it at the door so we know who it is. We are tracking all movement, so we know how they use the car. We know if theyre abusing the vehicles, we know if theyre driving, how theyre driving, we know where theyre going. So all the information is very important to the fleet manager, so that they can get a snapshot, a real, data driven snapshot of how the vehicles are being used and then make decisions based on that information, so they can, for example, if they see a portion of their fleet that never goes more than 40 miles, why wouldnt they replace that with electric vehicles. That is an efficiency gain, an utilization gain, and then through sharing it proper, proper scheduling, we can help push rides together into certain vehicles that are always going to the same place at the same time with the same people. So, really optimizing the entire operational process.Martin: So, would you say that your plan based on this kind of big data is also to provide other services like you said before, analyze on how the fleet is going, and maybe even optimizing insurance contracts based on user groups or car models, something like that?John: Exactly. So, what we do is right now we focus on our core model and then we will, as we grow, offer premium packages to people, so we can help them analyze fleets and slice it in whatever they want with the data that we have. And we will offer those as premium products, yes.Martin: How did you acquire and convince the first customer? Because I can imagin e going to big fleet companies who have 500-1000 cars or so, and you are young startup. How did you convince them?John: Couple of things. One is, we were selling cars originally, when we were doing that, couple of the big Silicon Valley companies, such as Google and Apple, they were very interested in that local kind of show piece for mobility. So, Google was our very first customer, they wanted to buy cars. We were talking to them for long enough that when we went through our strong pivot, and removed the hardware and software to become vehicle agnostic, they saw the intelligence in that decision and they already have a fleet of 300-400 vehicles on their campus, and they said Great, lets just start using your devices in our cars. And so that started to progress, that was a great example for us, theyre a tremendous customers because they have a truly multi-model fleet, all the way from human-powered bicycles all the way to highway shuttles, big 60 passengers busses, and everything i n between. Model S Teslas, Nissan Leaves, electric bikes, normal internal combustion vans. So were working across the subset of that fleet now and we hope to expand more. And what that did was give us something to point to and show how its working and data that we could pull and analyze and just show the benefit of our platform. At one point, they were having trouble getting people to plug-in small electric vehicles on their campus, so we just communicated with the users and said Hey, could you please plug the car in when youre done?, and amazingly we went from 30% plugin rate to 90% plugin rate, just in a few weeks. So, proving to the Google that you can change user behavior in few weeks is magical, and taking that to the general population is very powerful.Martin: Currently, fleet management companies are having all the cares stored basically in one location, I assume because there is some kind of person who needs to check in the people and serve the cars, etc. With your technolog y, would you say that they can more distribute their cars over the city, because you, they dont need to have this kind of human interaction with the final customer?John: So, its an interesting conversation because right now the fleets are very distributed. There are a lot of use cases where there are one or maybe 2 users per vehicle, and then you have a piece of the fleet that is very centralized, and they call that the motor pool. And so, what were trying to actually do is to take the entirety of the fleet, regardless of where its located, and put it in a centralized motor pool. So that no matter where you are, on the grounds in the city of San Francisco, for example, you as a user could access the vehicles that you have the right to access, with just your badge. And so, looking at it from kind of a geographically agnostic perspective, saying you have access to a centralized motor pool, regardless of where it is, is very powerful. And giving the managers the ability to restrict usa ge, because you dont want me driving in dump truck, right, I dont have the license or the ability. And so the people who can and are able to drive those high value assets they require licensing control, the manager can very easily manage that from his laptop or mobile phone. And so, the general population can have access to the general population of motor pool vehicles, you can do restrictions, etc, etc, and that is a centralized motor pool, but it may be distributed over a city or more, for a state or even a federal government.Martin: And the registration or validation of identity and all the properties of some of you final customers, how is it then done?John: So, in the states its all done around driving licenses. The beauty of working with fleets is that all that information checking is already done, because the company or the organization takes care of that, so we dont have to. What we do is, we come in and connect the dots between the services theyre already using. For example, most centralized fleets or fleet operators have service providers for maintenance or cleaning, that they already use. And what we do is we come in with our platform and we connect with those dots more efficiently. So, instead of having to fill out a piece of paper that says I need service on this vehicle at this day, and then someone having to go and find the keys, and taking it out of service for a week or two or three, so that they can schedule this maintenance, we give them the ability to push a button on their web interface that turns the light on the vehicle red, takes that vehicle out of service, sends the information and the geolocation of the vehicle to the service provider who can go straight to the car, with their service badge, unlock the doors, drive it to the shop fix and then put it back in service, and then the light turns back to green. So, really what we do is streamline all those operations, using the existing infrastructure that they already have and just connect ing the dots very efficiently.CORPORATE STRATEGYMartin: John, lets talk about corporate strategy. What do you perceive the competitive advantage of your company?John: So, right now, to date, there havent been any of the connected car companies that had focused on the user side. So, we obsess about the user side, because, as I said, I really feel that in order to make this sharing economy work in the enterprise, you have to have a good user experience at the door. And so, for example, when you tap your badge on our device, it takes less than 2 seconds for the doors to unlock. Thats essential. Because if youre standing at the door for 2 minutes even, as a user, it feels like days, and people then dont trust the system, they refuse to use it, and go back to system where you might as well just be sharing keys. So, we obsess about that experience at the door. And then really the scheduling and the utilization increase is what we are pushing today, and like I said we take the auxiliary sy stems that theyre already using and connect them more efficiently. So, for us, we dont want to get down the road too deeply on the telematic side, so, for example DOT compliance, or long hold trucking optimization for fuel, stuff like that thats been done many, many times and its very crowded marketplace. Were focused really on the user experience and centralized motor pools for now, thats our core model. Were only 35 people so we have to pick an area thats right for disruption and thats it.Martin: Can you explain your go-to market strategy and your product strategy going forward?John: Sure. So, our go-to market strategy has always been focused on what were good at, and again, to reiterate is the user side. So, going forward we will just continually expend our product offering, looking at new technologies, looking at more interesting and simplified ways for users to gain access, through different sensor technology, through different near field communications, technology whether it N FC (Near field communication), Bluetooth, or RFID. Were just going to leverage what are users had already in their pocket. So we dont want to force them to use something new. And going forward we will start expanding more and more across other geographic areas, for example, we have an office in Paris, right now with 5 employees and were focused on European fleet market as well, so I feel that in a lot of ways, the European market is already primed and ready for the sharing economy, because theres a lot more use of mass transit, theres a lot more sense for sharing across large groups of high dollar assets. The car economy there is, the way that corporate executives have their own assigned cars is starting to change, people want to have more cash upfront but still options for mobility down the road, so thats screaming out for centralized motor pools. So, were very excited about the expansion across the Europe as well. And thats how well expand in the next 12 months.Martin: Can you exp lain your reasoning why you are internationalizing within the same business segment while not adding for other business segments, like individual cars, etc.?John: I feel its really essential to have a strong toehold on the user side and centralized motor pool and then expand out from there. My co-founder is French, and so we had a very strong connection to talent in France, and we, like I said, we see the European market as very ripe, as well, so we wanted to get it toehold as soon as possible, and so we just took our exact same business model and expanded it into European market.MARKET DEVELOPMENTMartin: So, lets talk about the market development. I mean, youve learned a lot in the case of mobility. Can you give us some kind of trends that you identified, without talking about sharing economy, because you have shared some knowledge of that already?John: Sure, so, if I was speaking straight to, and I do very frequently, speaks straight to OEMs, and lot of the innovation experts here in Silicon Valley come to us and say What do we do to be competitive in the future? and I just look straight at them and say Sell mobility and stop selling so many cars. And thats a very tough thing to understand, from the perspective of someone selling cars, but really thats kind of the just of it. I feel that, in the near future, the companies that make mobility valuable are the ones that will win and that innovative process will stand out as you make each ride or each minute in the car more valuable than having a car sitting on your driveway 85-90% of the time unused. So, really, sharing is the core of that and selling mobility is the way that this economy will expand on forward.Martin: Do you see that the American car share is changing somehow? Because when you are driving 101 or 85, almost every car is occupied by only 1 person, everybody has a super large car and theres some kind of, lets say, the streets are full of cars.John: Absolutely. But, there are also great trends rig ht now for young people who are waiting longer and longer to get their driving license. So, for example, in my era, you went out on your 16th birthday, you get your driving permit and on 16 and a half you are in line to get your driving license, on the day you can get it. Now, kids are waiting until theyre 17, 18 to get their driving license, because they are treating mobility as they treat applications in mobile devices. They want everything on demand, right now at their fingertips. They dont want to have to deal with the responsibility and the cost of owning a vehicle, its painful these days. And so I think the models are shifting, right now the infrastructure isnt built, and so the Bay Area is a great example. We have the Caltrain, which in America is amazing, but if you go to any other country in the world, 40, I guess its a 30 year old train is kind of laughed at. So, its great because we have it here, but its also very limiting because thats all we have here. So, trends are ha ppening now, which are changing that and of course it happens slowly, but were doing what we can now. And thats why were not waiting for the OEMs to put the hardware in the cars, were making it ourselves. If they would give us access through API to the hardware that existed in the cars it would simplify and speed this up, but thats not going to happen for 5-10 years, so were doing it ourselves.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURSMartin: Over the last years, what have been your major learnings that you can share with other first time entrepreneurs?John: I think one of the biggest learnings that we had in early days is first of all, dont be too attracted to your first business model, because its going to change. And second, find your product market fit, and go out and get customers.So, I think one of the mistakes that entrepreneurs make, and I was very close to making this mistake, which is a fatal mistake for your company, is getting to wrapped up around what your first idea is. In my mind, the d efinition of a startup is an entity that can pivot their business model until they find something that sticks. Something thats needed in the market right now, something that you can sell to customers regardless of your size. And we were able to find that and sell that and gain revenue with our early prototypes, and weve done that now for three years. Weve been able to gain revenue and push our vehicle ideas and our entrepreneurial ideas into the marketplace while gaining revenue and testing our devices. And now we have a product thats scalable and ready to go and we just started hiring sales people. So, we focused on products, we focused on product market fit, weve been around since 2010 and weve just started hiring sales people three months ago. So, we obsessed about the product, we obsessed about how to make that product work in the marketplace, and found our niche and landed and now were expanding. So, really finding that product market fit and knowing that people want it and are willing to pay for it is essential.Martin: And what advice can you give somebody who is thinking about a product based company and then is thinking about how should he develop his product? Is there any kind of recipe that you can provide?John: I think simplification is the key. Were great example. Im mechanical engineer and can build a car, but that doesnt mean you should. Really take the idea and strip it down and try to understand fundamentally why youre doing what youre doing. Having a vision for solving problems in mobility and jumping to what youre good at is a way to get great ideas. But again, being fluid with how those ideas flow around the problem and finding the area of least resistance for your product to get into the market is the key.Martin: Great. John, thank you very much for your time.John: Youre welcome.Martin: And the next time you are starting your company focus on the simplicity of your product, and not make it over complex. Thank you very much.

Female Knights

There are plenty of fierce women who have battled their way through history in politics and warfare. Although from an academic standpoint women could not generally carry the title of knight, there were still many women in European history who were part of chivalric orders and performed the duties of female knights without the formal recognition. Key Takeaways: Female Knights During the Middle Ages, women could not be granted the title of Knight; it was reserved for men only. However, there were many chivalric orders of knighthood that admitted women and female warriors who performed the role.Documented stories of women—primarily high-born—prove that they donned armor and directed troop movement in times of war. Chivalric Orders of Europe The word knight was not just a job title, it was a social ranking. For a man to become a knight, he had to be formally knighted in a ceremony, or receive an accolade of knighthood for exceptional bravery or service, usually in battle. Because neither of these were typically the domains of women, it was rare for a women to carry the title of knight. However, in parts of Europe, there were chivalric orders of knighthood that were open to women. During the early medieval period, a group of devout Christian knights joined together to form the Knights Templar. Their mission was twofold: to protect European travelers on pilgrimage in the Holy Land, but also to carry out secret military operations.  When they finally took the time to write down a list of their rules, around 1129 C.E., their mandates mentioned a pre-existing practice of admitting women to the Knights Templar. In fact, women were permitted as part of the organization during its first 10 years of existence. Lorado / Getty Images A related group, the Teutonic Order, accepted women as Consorores, or Sisters. Their role was an auxiliary one, often related to support and hospital services during times of war, including on the battlefield. In the mid-12th century, Moorish invaders laid the town of Tortosa, Spain, under siege. Because the towns menfolk were already off at battle fighting on another front, it fell to the women of Tortosa to set up defenses. They dressed in mens clothing—which was certainly easier to fight in—picked up weapons, and held their town with an array of swords, farm implements, and hatchets. In the aftermath, Count Ramon Berenguer of Barcelona founded the Order of the Hatchet in their honor. Elias Ashmole wrote in 1672 that the count granted the women of Tortosa numerous privileges and immunities: He also ordained, that at all publick meetings, the  Women  should have precedence of the  Men; That they should be exempted from all Taxes; and that all the Apparel and Jewels, though of never so great value, left by their dead Husbands, should be their own. It is not known whether the women of the Order ever fought in any battles other than defending Tortosa. The group faded into obscurity as its members aged and died out. Women in Warfare During the Middle Ages, women were not raised for battle like their male counterparts, who typically trained for warfare from boyhood. However, that doesnt mean they didnt fight. There are numerous examples of women, both noble and lower-born, who defended their homes, their families, and their nations from attacking outside forces. Margaret of Anjou directed troops during the War of the Roses. Hulton Archive / Getty Images The eight-day siege of Jerusalem in 1187 relied on women for success. Nearly all of the citys fighting men had marched out of town three months earlier, for the Battle of Hattin, leaving Jerusalem unguarded but for a few hastily-knighted boys. The women, however, outnumbered men in the city by nearly 50 to 1, so when Balian, Baron of Ibelin, realized it was time to defend the walls against the invading army of Saladin, he enlisted the female citizens to get to work. Dr. Helena P. Schrader, Ph.D. in History from the University of Hamburg, says that Ibelin would have had to organize these untrained civilians into units, assigning them specific, focused tasks. ... whether it was defending a sector of the wall, putting out fires, or ensuring that the men and women doing the fighting were supplied with water, food and ammunition. Most astonishing, his improvised units not only repulsed assaults, they also sortied out several times, destroying some of Saladin’s siege engines, and two or three times chasing the Saracens all the way back to the palisades of their camp. Nicholaa de la Haye was born in Lincolnshire, England, around 1150, and inherited her fathers land when he died. Married at least twice, Nicholaa was the castellan of Lincoln Castle, her family estate, despite the fact that each of her husbands tried to claim it as their own. When her spouses were away, Nicholaa ran the show. William Longchamps, a chancellor of Richard I, was heading to Nottingham to battle against Prince John, and along the way, he stopped at Lincoln, laying siege to Nicholaas castle. She refused to yield, and commanding 30 knights, 20 men-at-arms, and a few hundred infantrymen, held the castle for 40 days. Longchamps eventually gave up and moved on. She defended her home again a few years later when Prince Louis of France tried to invade Lincoln. Women didnt just show up and perform the duties of knights in defensive mode. There are several accounts of queens who traveled into the field with their armies in times of war. Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Queen of both France and England, led a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She even did it while dressed in armor and carrying a lance, although she didnt personally fight. During the War of the Roses, Marguerite d’Anjou personally directed the actions of Lancastrian commanders during battles against Yorkist opponents while her husband, King Henry VI, was incapacitated by bouts of madness. In fact, in 1460, she defeated the threat to her husband’s throne by calling on the Lancastrian nobility to assemble a mighty host in Yorkshire that ambushed York and killed him and 2,500 of his men outside his ancestral home at Sandal Castle. Finally, its important to note that over the centuries, there were countless other women who donned armor and rode into war. We know this because although medieval European writers documenting the Crusades emphasized the notion that pious Christian women did not fight, the historians of their Muslim opponents wrote of crusading women battling against them. The Persian scholar Imad ad-din al-Isfahani wrote, a woman of high rank arrived by sea in late autumn 1189, with an escort of 500 knights with  their forces, squires, pages and valets. She paid all their expenses and also led them in  raids on the Muslims. He went on to say that there were many female knights among the Christians, who wore armour like the men and fought like men in battle, and could not be told apart from  the men until they were killed and the armour was stripped from their bodies. Although their names have been lost to history, these women did exist, they simply were not granted the title of knight. Sources Ashmole, Elias. â€Å"The Institution, Laws Ceremonies of the Most Noble Order of the Garter Collected and Digested into One Body.†Ã‚  Early English Books Online, The University of Michigan, quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A26024.0001.001?viewtoc.Nicholson, Helen, and Helen Nicholson. â€Å"Women and the Crusades.†Ã‚  Academia.edu, www.academia.edu/7608599/Women_and_the_Crusades.Schrader, Helena P. â€Å"Surrender of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187.†Ã‚  Defending the Crusader Kingdoms, 1 Jan. 1970, defendingcrusaderkingdoms.blogspot.com/2017/10/surrender-of-jerusalem-to-saladin-in.html.Velde, Francois R. â€Å"Women Knights in the Middle Ages.†Ã‚  Women Knights, www.heraldica.org/topics/orders/wom-kn.htm.

SAT Spanish Subject Test Information

If you have a particular gift for Spanish, or have just been studying for a long time in elementary and high school, then perhaps you should sign up for the SAT Spanish Test! Please note that this test is not the same or part of the Redesigned SAT Reasoning Test,, the popular college admissions exam. The SAT Spanish Subject Test is just one of the many SAT Subject Tests, which are exams designed to showcase your particular talents in all sorts of fields from World History to Literature to Chinese. SAT Spanish Subject Tests Basics Before you register for this test, heres what you can expect 60 minutes85 multiple-choice questions200-800 points possibleOffered 5 times a year in October, December, January, May and June3 types of reading questions SAT Spanish Subject Test Skills So, whats on this thing? What kinds of skills are required? Here are the skills youll need in order to master this test. Using parts of speech appropriatelyUnderstanding basic idiomsSelection of grammatically correct terminologyIdentifying main and supporting ideas, themes, style, tone, and the spatial and temporal settings of a passage. SAT Spanish Subject Test Question Breakdown The test is broken down into Part A, Part B and Part C. Here are the types of questions those three parts contain: Vocabulary and Sentence Structure: Approximately 28 questions Here, youll be given a sentence with a blank, and will be asked to choose the correct single-word response from one of four choices listed below. Paragraph Completion: Approximately 28 questions These questions provide you with a paragraph filled with blanks. Once you happen upon a blank, youll be asked to fill in that blank with an appropriate response from the choices below. Reading Comprehension: Approximately 28 questions These questions will provide you with a passage taken from prose fiction, historical works, newspaper and magazine articles, as well as advertisements, flyers and letters. Youll be asked a question related to the passage, and will have to choose the correct response from the answer choices. Why Take the SAT Spanish Subject Test? In some cases, youll need to, especially if youre considering choosing Spanish, or a Spanish-related field as a major in college. In other cases, its a great idea to take the Spanish Subject Test so you can showcase bilingualism, which is a fantastic way to round out an application. It shows the college admissions officers that you have more up your sleeve than your GPA, clubs or sports record. Plus, it can get you out of those entry-level language courses. Bonus! How to Prepare for the SAT Spanish Subject Test To ace this thing, youll need at 3-4 years in Spanish during high school, and youll want to take the test as close to the end of or during your most advanced Spanish class you plan to take. Getting your high school Spanish teacher to offer you some supplementary materials is always a good idea, too. In addition, you should practice with legitimate practice questions like youll see on the test. The College Board offers free practice questions for the SAT Spanish Test, too. Sample SAT Spanish Subject Test Question This question comes from the College Boards free practice questions. The writers have ranked the questions from 1 to 5 where 1 is the least difficult. The question below is ranked as a 3. Se sabe que la playa de Luquillo es muy popular porque la gente de San Juan la visita ------- . (A) en resumidas cuentas(B) en punto(C) a medias(D) a menudo Choice (D) is correct. The word that goes in the blank describes the frequency with which people in Puerto Rico visit a popular beach. The sense of frequency, as indicated by choice (D) a menudo, is appropriate.

Extrinsic Element (Mutual Friend) Free Essays

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, to John and Elizabeth Barrow Dickens. The second of eight children, Dickens spent his childhood on the southern coast of England, where he attended a good school until the age of eleven. The family then moved to London and shortly thereafter his father was sent to debtor’s prison. We will write a custom essay sample on Extrinsic Element (Mutual Friend) or any similar topic only for you Order Now Young Charles went to work in a blacking warehouse and was forced to live on his own in cheap lodgings in a state of near starvation. Although he was soon rescued by his father and sent to school in London, the brief period of abandonment and uncertainty affected his life and his writings for years to come. Dickens did not attend college but was admitted as a reader to the library of the British Museum, where he immersed himself in the study of great literature, particularly Shakespeare. He worked for some time as a clerk, as a shorthand reporter, and eventually as a news reporter for the Morning Chronicle, a position which required him to travel all over the country. Career Dickens’s first success, both critical and popular, was Sketches by Boz (1836), a series of short pieces on life in London. His first novel, Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (1837), was published, as were all of his novels, in serial form, and by the time the fourth monthly installment was issued, Dickens was the most popular author in England. His writing, once full of hope and optimism, grew increasingly pessimistic as he aged, w ith images of decay and corruption dominating the later works. Our Mutual Friend was his last completed novel; with its images of dustheaps and death, it is widely considered one of the author’s darkest visions. In 1870, while working on The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens suffered an aneurysm in the brain and died the next day. He was buried in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey. – Dickens’ Works Over the next thirty years, he continued to publish successful novels, among them: Oliver Twist (1838), A Christmas Carol In Prose (1843), The Personal History of David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), Hard Times for These Hard Times (1854), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and Great Expectations 1861). – View Charles Dickens distaste for the upper class and his strong interest in social reform is very evident in all of his writings. Throughout his life, he continually worked on writing novels that reflected his own view of the social classes. Dickens writes his characters of the lower social class to have more value than the aristocrats that in his own view he has grown to despise B. SOCIOLOGICAL ASPECTS World view: most people in england in the middle of 19th century did not have money. They could not become ladies and gentlemen. They were the working class. Some working class people, like Bradley Headstone and Charley Hexam wanted to do better in life. – Economy: England in the middle of 19th century grew wealthy. Many people suddenly became rich. People who have money could become part of Society. Society people were known as ladies and gentlemen. How to cite Extrinsic Element (Mutual Friend), Papers

Jonas Brothers free essay sample

My taste in music is very selective. I prefer older bands, like Switchfoot, Snow Patrol – bands teenagers usually say, â€Å"Huh? Who are they?† But even with the Veronicas, the Beatles, and Bob Marley on my iPod, I had to check out the new pop sensation, the Jonas Brothers, when my best friend developed a severe case of OJD (thats Obsessive Jonas Disorder). She told me they were the perfect boys: wore purity rings, didnt use profanity, and went to church. It seemed the Jonas Brothers were causing an uproar wherever they went. This was definitely worth looking into. First impressions are everything. When I googled the Jonas Brothers, I found countless pictures of three dark-haired youths, forums started by loyal fans, and songs to listen to. Lets just say, I didnt hear what I expected. I always thought teen pop groups sang shallow rock songs that made girls scream, but these three brothers create an interesting blend of reggae, punk, smooth rock, and even some soulful acoustic music, definitely not what you would expect. We will write a custom essay sample on Jonas Brothers or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In addition to their unique music, the Jonas Brothers definitely possess the cute factor. Nick, the youngest, has brown curly hair that makes the decibel level in a room go up five notches when he walks in. Joe, the 19-year-old, is the â€Å"cute, funny one,† according to close friend Miley Cyrus. Kevin, the oldest at 20, is the guitar genius. Man, that boy can seriously rock out onstage with his  ­Gibson. So, what really draws throngs of teenage fans to these brothers? Their music makes sense. You can relate to the songs and feel what they felt when they wrote them. Also, they truly appreciate fans dedication, and give back with free concerts and meet-and-greets. Finally, they have amazing style: what guys you know would wear tight purple jeans? So check out this new band taking the spotlight. (Their  ­album â€Å"A Little Bit Longer† was released in August.) Jonas Brothers free essay sample The Jonas Brothers have been around the world playing for their millions of fans. The Jonas Brothers perform pop rock music. JB arent like other bands. They are very young and they write their own music unlike most other bands. My favorite Jonas Brother is Nick Jonas. He is very sweet, shy, and mature for a sixteen year old. He is a good role model for little kids. The popular songs of the Jonas Brothers are Burning Up, Tonight, Love Bug, and A Little Bit Longer. Tonight is the theme song for their new movie Jonas Brothers The 3D Concert Experience. Burning Up is very popular because they play it at all their concerts because its the name of their last tour. Love Bug is played at most of the shows they guest starred on like Dancing with the Stars and the Thanksgiving Day Football Game. A Little Bit longer is the name of their latest album and is a song about Nicks diabetes and how he struggles every day to keep himself healthy and tries to reassure himself. We will write a custom essay sample on Jonas Brothers or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Burning Up is my favorite song because I like the beat and the lyrics are kind of weird but they are about the difficulties that they go through. But they keep trying to keep themselves up. The Jonas Brothers Choice in vocals and instruments is very interesting because, they dont make their songs sound the same by using the same instruments. Also all of their songs have meaning to t hem like their life experiences. I recommend the Jonas Brothers to anyone from the age of four to sixteen because Nick, Joe, and Kevin are great role models for teens, toddlers, and children. Jonas Brothers free essay sample The Jonas Brother a rock band. The meber are Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas. There music is song that thay have ritten. Some of there song are Year 3000, When You Look Me In The Eyes, Hold On, Mandy, Please Be Mine and S.O.S. Thay all ready have to cd out. The Jonas Brother have girls of all ages going crazy. Right now the boys are on tour doing concerts. Thay have an upcoming movie call Camp Rock coming to Disney Channel on June 20. Also the Jonas Brothers have a new show also I Disney Channel called J.O.N.A.S.. The boys became popular in late 2005 and ever since than thay have been a big hit. Thay have guesed stared on Hannah Montana. I think tahy are one of the best bands out there with clean music thay kids and adults can enjoy. I rate the boys a pefect 10. We will write a custom essay sample on Jonas Brothers or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page