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ActuaryActuaries are business professionals who deal with the financial impact of risk. Actuaries use skills in mathematics, economics, finance and statistics to handle uncertain future events, especially those of concern to insurance and reinsurance companies, employee benefits such as health insurance|medical insurance and pension plans, and social welfare programs such as social security and Medicare. |
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ToriiA torii (Japanese language|Japanese: 鳥居) is a traditional Japanese gate commonly found at the entry to a Jinja (shrine)|Shinto shrine. It has two upright supports and two crossbars on the top, and is frequently painted vermilion. Some torii have tablets with writing mounted between the crossbars. Traditionally, torii are made of wood or stone. In recent times, makers have started to use steel and even stainless steel.Inari (god)|Inari shrines typically have many torii. A person who has been successful in business often donates a torii in gratitude. The Fushimi Inari|Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto, Kyoto|Kyoto has thousands of torii.As hinted by the kanji|kanji (they mean: tori = bird, i = place), a torii is designed for birds to rest. This is because in Shintoism|Shintoism, birds are considered messengers of the god.The origin of the torii is said to come from an old Japanese legend, when the Amaterasu|sun goddess became extremely annoyed with her prankster brot! her. She hid herself in a cave and sealed the entrance with a rock, causing an solar eclipse|eclipse. The people were afraid that if the sun never returned, they all would die. So, per the advice of a token wise old man, they built a large bird perch out of wood and placed all the town's roosters on this perch. They all started to crow noisily, causing the curious sun goddess to peek out of her cave. Having opened the door a crack, a large sumo|sumo wrestler from the town ran up and pushed the rock away, letting the sun out and thus the world was saved. That bird perch was the first torii gate. From then on, the torii became a symbol of prosperity and good fortune, and spread all over Japan.Similar structures can be found in Tai societies. Compare also to torana, in Hinduist and Buddhist architecture (India, Nepal). |
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| Japanese terms Renewal 2005.11.03 |
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Haiku:''This is the article on the ancient Japanese form of poetry. For the BeOS open-source re-creation project, see Haiku (operating system). For the town in Hawaii, see Haiku-Pauwela, Hawaii.''Haiku (俳句) is one of the most important modes of Japanese poetry, a late 19th century revision by Masaoka Shiki of the old ''hokku'', the opening verse of a linked verse form, ''haikai no renga''. A traditional hokku consists of a pattern of approximately 5, 7, and 5 ''Mora (linguistics)|morae'', phonetic units which only loosely correspond to the syllables of Western languages. It also contains a special ''season'' word—the ''kigo''—descriptive of the season in which the hokku was set. Hokku often combine different elements into a unified sensory impression, with a pause (the ''kireji'' or "cutting word") at the end of either the first five or second seven morae. Although rarely broken by Japanese hokku poets, these rules are often broken in the later, more! "free-form" haiku movement, both in Japanese language|Japanese and in other languages. |
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| Japanese terms Renewal 2005.11.02 |
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Royal_Wine_CompanyThe Royal Wine Company, also known as Kedem, is a Kosher food manufacturing and distribution company, incorporated in the United States for the last fifty years, and run by the Herzog family since 1848. First operating as a winery in Czechoslovakia, the winery was the exclusive wine supplier to Emperor Franz Joseph, who granted one of the early Herzogs the title of ''Baron''. Though the wines for the emperor were not necessarily Kosher wines, all of the other wines were produced under the full scrutiny of Kosher law.During World War II, the winery was seized by the Nazis. The Herzogs, who stayed in hiding, immigrated to the United States after the 1948 Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia. Living in New York City, Eugene Herzog began working for the Royal Wine Company; and part of his salary was paid in company shares. By 1958, he was a majority stockholder and purchased the company and named it Kedem.The Royal Wine Company is the leader in the Kosher beverage industry, and ! imports foods from around the world. It is especially known for the Baron Herzog Varietals line of wines, as well as Kedem Tea Biscuits. The company also retains the exclusive United States distribution rights for several Israeli wines and spirits.The Herzog Varietals, are Kosher versions of various popular wines, including Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Several of these have won various wine competitions. The company was also part of a collaboration that created the first kosher Rothschild wine, in 1988.The Royal Wine Company currently sells over a million cases of wine and grape juice annually, in sixteen countries worldwide. Formerly headquartered in New York City, it is now based in Bayonne, New Jersey. |
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ShoenA ''shōen'' (荘園 or 庄園, ''shōen'') was a fief or manor in Japan. The term comes from the Japanese language and ultimately from the Tang dynasty Chinese language|Chinese term ''zhuangyuan''. After the decay of the ritsuryo|ritsuryō system in Japan, a feudal system of manors developed. Landowners or nameholders commended shares of the revenue produced (called ''shiki'') to more powerful leaders often at the court, in order to be spared of taxes and to subvert the Chinese-style "equal fields" system, whereby land was redistributed after certain periods of time. In the Kamakura period a hierarchy of nameholder, manor stewards (''jito|jitō''), ''shugo'' (military provincial governor), and the shogun in Kamakura had evolved. These shoen were completely free from interference from the government and therefore had no say or control of what occurred with in the shoen's boudaries.By the end of the Heian period virtually all Japanese land! had become ''shōen'' and continued to be through the Onin war|Ōnin War until the Sengoku period marked the defeudalization of Japanese society. |
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| Japanese terms Renewal 2005.10.31 |
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FuriganaFurigana (ふりがな), are a Japanese language|Japanese reading aid. They consist of smaller kana printed next to a kanji or other character to indicate its pronunciation. In horizontal text, ''Yokogaki and tategaki|yokogaki'', they are placed above the line of text; in vertical text, ''Yokogaki and tategaki|tategaki'', they are placed to the right of the line of text. They are one type of ruby characters|ruby text. ''Furigana'' are also known as yomigana or rubi in Japanese.
Furigana may be added by character, in which case the part of a word which corresponds to a kanji is centered over that kanji; or by word or phrase, in which case the entire ''furigana'' word is centered over several characters, even if the kanji do not represent equal shares of the kana needed to write them. The latter method is more common, especially since some words in Japanese have ateji|unique pronunciations that are not related to any of the characters the word is written with.When it is necessary to distinguish between native Japanese ''kanji|kun'yomi'' and Chinese language|Chinese-derived ''Kanji|on'yomi'' pronunciations, for example in Kanji dictionary|kanji dictionaries, the Japanese pronunciations are written in hiragana, and the Chinese ones are written in katakana. However, this distinction is really only important in dictionaries and other reference works. In ordinary prose, the script chosen will usually be hiragana. |
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| Japanese terms Renewal 2005.10.30 |
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BottleA bottle is a small container with a neck that is narrower than the body and a "mouth." Bottles are often made of glass, plastic or aluminum, and typically used to store liquids. e.g. water, milk, soft drinks, beer, wine, oil for cooking and as fuel, medicine, liquid soap, shampoo, ink, etc.For some bottles a deposit is paid, which is returned after returning the bottle to the retailer. For other glass bottles there is often separate waste|garbage collection for recycling.A device used to close the mouth of a bottle is called a bottle cap.A make-shift mail method after stranding on a deserted island is a message in a bottle: current (water)|current may bring it to a shore where the message is read so that a rescue operation can be started. Glass is inert, rigid, and almost completely impermeable, so if the bottle is properly closed a letter inside can stay intact and readable for a long time. |
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| Konwledge of Wine Renewal 2005.10.29
Puncheon / Screwcap / Cork taint / Moscatel / Varietal / Amphora / Dessert wine / Mondovino / KWV / Bottling line / Vintner / Tun (unit) / Sommelier / Cooking wine / Bottle /!
Vin gris / First Growth / National Wine Centre of Australia / Wine cellar / Retsina
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NiacinNiacin, also known as nicotinic acid or vitamin B3, is a water-soluble vitamin whose derivatives such as NADH play essential roles in energy metabolism in the living cell. The designation ''vitamin B3'' also includes the amide form, nicotinamide or niacinamide. Severe lack of niacin causes the deficiency disease pellagra, whereas a mild deficiency slows down the metabolism, which in turn decreases cold tolerance and is a potential contributing factor towards obesity.Nicotinic acid was first discovered from the oxidation of nicotine. When the properties of nicotinic acid were discovered, it was thought prudent to choose a name to dissociate it from nicotine and to avoid the idea that either smoking provided vitamins or that wholesome food contained a poison. The resulting name 'niacin' was derived from nicotinic acid + ''in''.Nicotinic acid reacts with hemoglobin and myoglobin in meat to form a brightly coloured complex, and thus has been used as a food additive, typically ! to improve the colour of minced (ground) meat. However, sometimes excess niacin is added to the meat during processing. Though still licensed as a food colouring agent in some countries, it is not licensed as such in Europe.The liver can synthesize niacin from the essential amino acid tryptophan, but the synthesis is extremely slow and requires vitamin B6; 60 mg of tryptophan are required to make one milligram of niacin. Bacteria in the gut may also perform the conversion but are inefficient. For this reason, eating lots of tryptophan is not an adequate substitute for consuming niacin. Because niacin in large quantities is a vasodilator, large doses of niacin (either from vitamin B3 tablets or from treated meats) may cause harmless and short-lived but unpleasant symptoms such as extreme skin flushing resembling a sunburn, itching, gastric disturbances, and lowering of blood pressure. The amide form (strictly speaking a provitamin) does not cause these side effects, but is a! lso not as easily assimilated by the body.Large doses of niaci! n are so metimes prescribed to combat high blood pressure, and also to lower blood cholesterol levels. Pharmacologic doses of niacin (1.5 to 6 grams/day) reduce LDL cholesterol levels by 10 to 25 percent and triglyceride levels by 20 to 50 percent. HDL cholesterol levels are also increased by 15 to 35 percent.1 Brand-name medications include Niaspan®, Niacor® and Nicolor®. Treatment doses cause flushing in individuals not previously exposed to large doses of niacin, so titration to increasing doses is necessary upon starting the medication.Vitamin B3 has also been used to treat schizophrenia and other mental illnesses by orthomolecular medicine|orthomolecular practitioners. Usually the nicotinamide form is used, as it is considered to be more effective. Unfortunately there is little scientific evidence that this treatment is effective.Because niacin promotes metabolism, some believe that taking large doses will speed up the elimination of Tetrahydrocannabinol! |THC from the body and produce a negative result for marijuana on a drug test. There is no evidence that this is effective, and niacin is toxic to the skin and liver in overdose. |
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| Health care Renewal 2005.10.28 |
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Investor_profileAn investor profile or style defines an investor preferences in money decisions, for example: * Short term trading or Long term holding * Risk averse or risk tolerant / seeker * All classes of assets or just one (stocks for example) * Value or growth stocks, big cap or small cap stocks, defensive or cyclical stocks... * Use or not of derivatives * Home turf or international diversification * Hands on, or via investment funds * and so on. |
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