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Explication

Explication (Explikation) is the process of drawing out the meaning of something which is not clearly defined, so as to make explicit what is currently left implicit. The term explication is used in both analytic philosophy and literary criticism. Rudolf Carnap was the first to coin the term in an analytic philosophical approach in his book Logical Foundations of Probability, while the term is supplanted with Gustave Lanson’s idea of Explication de Texte when referring to the analysis and criticism of different forms of literature.

Summary
In analytic philosophy, the concept of explication was first developed by Rudolf Carnap. Explication can be regarded as a scientific process which transforms and replaces "an inexact prescientific concept" (which Carnap calls the explicandum), with a "new exact concept" (which he calls the explicatum). A description and explanation of the nature and impact of the new explicit knowledge is usually called an "explication". The new explicit knowledge draws on, and is an improvement upon, previous knowledge.

On explication and truth
An explication in the Carnapian sense is purely stipulative, and thus a subclass of normative definitions. Hence, an explication can not be true or false, just more or less suitable for its purpose. (Cf. Rorty's argument about the purpose and value of philosophy in Rorty (2003), "A pragmatist view of contemporary analytic philosophy", in Egginton, W. and Sandbothe, M. (Eds), The Pragmatic Turn in Philosophy, SUNY Press, New York, NY.)

Examples of inexact daily life concepts in need of explication are our concepts of cause and of conditionals. Our daily life concept of cause does not distinguish between necessary causes, sufficient causes, complete causes etc. Each of these more precise concepts is an explication of our natural concept of cause.

Natural language will only specify truth conditions for propositions of the form "If p, then q" for situations where "p" is true. (Most of us probably don't have any clear intuitions regarding the truth conditions of the sentence "If I go out in the sun, I will get sunburned" in situations where I never go out in the sun.) An explication of the conditional will also specify truth conditions for situations where "p" is not true.

Reviews of Carnap's argument
Carnap's argument provides a helpful foundation in understanding and clarifying the nature and value of explication in defining and describing "new" knowledge.

Others' reviews of Carnap's argument offer additional insights about the nature of explication. In particular, Bonolio's paper (2003) "Kant’s Explication and Carnap’s Explication: The Redde Rationem", and Maher's (2007) "Explication defended", add weight to the argument that explication is an appropriate methodology for formal philosophy.

Use of the word "explication"
The word "explicate" is a verb referring to the process of explicating. The word "explication" is a noun referring to the outcome of that process: the explicative work itself. As conceptual clarity is an important element of analytic philosophy, it is important to use words according to their proper definitions so as to avoid causing unnecessary confusion.

Semantic explication
In the natural semantic metalanguage theory, explications are semantic representations of vocabulary. These explications are made up of a very limited set of words called semantic primes which are considered to have universal meaning across all languages.

An example of an explication of the word happy : What sets the Natural Semantic Metalanguage Theory's explications apart from previous theories, is that these explications can fit into natural language, even if it sounds very awkward. For example: Explications in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage are neither exact dictionary definitions, nor encyclopedic explanations of a concept. They often differ slightly depending upon the personal experiences of the person writing them. In this way, they can be said to "rely heavily on 'folk theories,' that is, the rather naive understandings that most of us have about how life, the universe, and everything work." Explications of abstract concepts, such as color, do not list any scientific facts about the object or concrete definitions. Instead, the explications use comparisons and examples from the real world.

Explication, explication de texte, and literary criticism
The terms explication and explication de texte have different meanings.

As argued by Carnap (1950), in science and philosophy, "explication consists in transforming a given more or less inexact concept into an exact one or, rather, in replacing the first by the second. We call the given concept (or the term used for it) the explicandum, and the exact concept proposed to take the place of the first (or the term proposed for it) the explicatum. The explicandum may belong to everyday language or to a previous stage in the development of scientific language. The explicatum must be given by explicit rules for its use, for example, by a definition which incorporates it into a well-constructed system of scientific either logicomathematical or empirical concepts."

In this context, 'explication' is now regarded as "an appropriate methodology for formal philosophy". (Maher, 2007).

By contrast, in literary criticism, the term 'explication' is used as a proxy for the term explication de texte (proposed by Gustave Lanson), where additional understandings and meanings are derived from the "close reading" of (say) a poem, novel or play.

In this process, explication often involves a line-by-line or episode-by-episode commentary on what is going on in a text. While initially this might seem reasonably innocuous, explication de texte, and explication per se, is an interpretative process where the resulting new knowledge, new insights or new meanings, are open to subsequent debate and disaffirmation by others.

title: Explication


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Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East

The Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East is a province of the Anglican Communion. The primate of the church is called President Bishop and represents the Church at the international Anglican Communion Primates' Meetings. The Central Synod of the church is its deliberative and legislative organ.

The province consists of three dioceses:
 * Diocese of Jerusalem — covering Israel, Palestinian territories, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon,
 * Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf — covering Cyprus, the Arabian peninsula and Iraq,
 * Diocese of Iran.

A fourth diocese (Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa) was part of the province until June 2020. In 2019 the synod of the province had agreed to allow the Diocese of Egypt to withdraw, in order to become an autonomous province, with the other three existing dioceses remaining as the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. This was put into effect on 29 June 2020, with the creation of the Province of Alexandria.

Each diocese is headed by a bishop. The President Bishop (Primate, or Archbishop) is chosen from among the diocesan bishops, and retains diocesan responsibility. The President Bishop, Hosam Naoum since 2023, also serves as Archbishop in Jerusalem. The province estimates that it has around 35,000 baptized members in 55 congregations. The province has around 40 educational or medical establishments and 90 clergy.

Nineteenth century
The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East began as a number of missionary posts of the Church Mission Society (CMS) in Cyprus, the Middle East and the Persia. The Church Mission Society continues to provide the province with lay mission partners and ordained chaplains, but now the majority of its ministry is drawn from local congregations.

During the 1820s, CMS began to prepare for permanent missionary stations in the region.

In 1833, a missionary station was established in Jerusalem with the support of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews (a Jewish Christian missionary society now known as the Church's Ministry Among Jewish People or CMJ). In 1839, the building of the Church of Saint Mark, Alexandria was begun.

In 1841, Michael Solomon Alexander, a converted rabbi, arrived in Jerusalem as bishop. His diocese originally covered the mission stations in the Middle East and Egypt, and was a joint venture with the Evangelical Church in Prussia (the so-called Anglo-Prussian Union), serving Lutherans and Anglicans.

In 1849, Christ Church, Jerusalem, became the first Anglican church in Jerusalem.

In the 1860's The Church of the Good Shepherd, Salt in modern Jordan had its origins in the work of a local Arab grain merchant and colporteur from Nablus who started bible studies under a tree. At the time Salt, Jordan was a major Ottoman regional city east of the river Jordan in the Levant.

In 1871, Christ Church, Nazareth was consecrated by Bishop Samuel Gobat, and the first Arab Anglicans were ordained.

In 1881, the Anglo-Prussian Union ceased to function, and it was formally dissolved in 1887. From that time, the diocese became solely Anglican.

In 1888, Bishop George Blyth founded the Jerusalem and the East Mission, which would help raise funds for missions throughout the Middle East.

Saint George's Cathedral was built in 1898 in Jerusalem as a central focus for the diocese.

Twentieth century
Although the Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East began as a foreign missionary organisation, it quickly established itself as part of the local, especially Palestinian community. In 1905, the Palestinian Native Church Council was established to give Palestinians more say in the running of the church. This led to an increase in the number of Palestinian and Arab clergy serving the diocese.

In 1920, the Diocese of Egypt and the Sudan was formed, separate from the Diocese of Jerusalem, with Llewelyn Gwynne as its first bishop. In the 1920s the Bishop founded St. George's College as a seminary for local clergy-in-training. Bishop Gwynne established the second cathedral of All Saints', Cairo (the present cathedral is the third building) in 1938.

In 1945, Sudan became a separate diocese from Egypt (see Episcopal Church of the Sudan for its history).

In 1957, the See of Jerusalem was elevated to the rank of an archbishopric (its bishop being an archbishop) under the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop in Jerusalem had metropolitan oversight of the entire area of the current province with the addition of the Sudan (five dioceses in all). In that same year, Najib Cubain was consecrated Bishop of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, the first Arab bishop, assistant to the Archbishop in Jerusalem. During the 1950s, political unrest in Egypt left the diocese in the care of four Egyptian clergy under the oversight of the Archbishop in Jerusalem. On 29 August 1974, Faik Haddad (to become coadjutor bishop in Jerusalem) and Aql Aql (to become Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) were consecrated bishops by Stopford at St George's Cathedral, Jerusalem.

An Anglican Bishop of Egypt was appointed in 1968, and, in 1974, the first Egyptian bishop, Ishaq Musaad, was consecrated. In 1976, Faik Haddad became the first Palestinian Anglican bishop in Jerusalem.

In 1976, the structure of the Anglican church in the region was overhauled. Jerusalem became an ordinary bishopric and the four dioceses had equal status in the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. The Archbishop of Canterbury relinquished his metropolitan authority to a Presiding Bishop and the Central Synod, with the four dioceses rotating the responsibility of the Bishop President and synodical leadership. The central synod includes the four dioceses of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. In Jerusalem when a bishop reaches the age of 68 a coadjutor bishop should be elected to work alongside the bishop for two years. while the Bishops in Egypt and Iran are elected without working alongside the former bishop; and the Bishop of Cyprus and the Gulf was appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Due to the difficult situation in Iran since the 1970's various Bishops or Vicars General have been appointed to serve in the position, often residing outside the country.

The Diocese of Egypt was expanded to take in the chaplaincies of Ethiopia, Somalia, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria. Sudan became a fully separate and independent province.

In 1970, the Cathedral of All Saints in Cairo was demolished to make way for a new Nile bridge. In 1977, work on a new building on Zamalek was begun, and completed in 1988.

In June 2020 the Diocese of Egypt left the province, split into four dioceses, and was formed into an autonomous province named the Episcopal/Anglican Province of Alexandria.

President Bishops
The President Bishops of the Central Synod have been:
 * 1977–1985: Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, Bishop in Iran
 * 1985–1995: Samir Kafity, Bishop of Jerusalem
 * 1995–2000: Ghais Malik, Bishop of Egypt
 * 2000–2002: Iraj Mottahedeh, Bishop in Iran
 * 2002–2007: Clive Handford, Bishop in Cyprus and the Gulf
 * 2007–2017: Mouneer Anis, Bishop of Egypt
 * 2017–2019: Suheil Dawani, Archbishop in Jerusalem
 * 2019–2023: Michael Lewis, Bishop in Cyprus and the Gulf
 * 2023–present: Hosam Naoum, Archbishop in Jerusalem

Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf
Diocesan seats are St Paul's Cathedral, Nicosia, Cyprus and St Christopher's Cathedral, Manama, Bahrain. The current bishop is Sean Semple.

The diocese is divided into two archdeaconries: one for Cyprus and one for the Persian Gulf area.

Countries served:
 * Bahrain
 * Cyprus
 * Iraq
 * Kuwait
 * Oman
 * Qatar
 * Saudi Arabia
 * United Arab Emirates
 * Yemen

Diocese of Iran
The Diocese of Iran was first established in 1912 as the Diocese of Persia and was incorporated into the Jerusalem Archbishopric in 1957. Currently, there is an episcopal vacancy and the Vicar General is the Revd Albert Walters. The diocesan seat is St Luke's Church, Isfahan, Iran.

Diocese of Jerusalem
The current Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem is Hosam Naoum who was installed on May 13, 2021.

Effective from 2014, the Jerusalem diocese has again become an archbishopric, with its bishop styled "Archbishop in Jerusalem". This title applies regardless of whether the current bishop is the primate of the province or not, and is a mark of the ambassadorial role of the archbishop in the Holy Land on behalf of the Anglican Communion.

The Diocese of Jerusalem covers Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

The diocesan seat is Cathedral Church of St George the Martyr, Jerusalem.

The parish with the largest congregation is the Church of the Redeemer, Amman, Jordan. The cornerstone of the church was laid in 1949, and the church houses both Arabic and English-speaking congregations today.

Anglican realignment
President Bishop Mouneer Anis was the Chairman of the Global South and one of the seven Anglican archbishops present at the investiture of Foley Beach as the second Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America at 9 October 2014. The seven Primates signed a statement recognizing Beach as a "fellow Primate of the Anglican Communion". The province was represented at GAFCON III, in Jerusalem, on 17–22 June 2018, by a 13 members delegation, from Egypt, Ethiopia, Israel, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Platform-specific model

A platform-specific model is a model of a software or business system that is linked to a specific technological platform (e.g. a specific programming language, operating system, document file format or database). Platform-specific models are indispensable for the actual implementation of a system.

For example, a need to implement an online shop. The system will need to store information regarding users, goods, credit cards, etc. The designer might decide to use for this purpose an Oracle database. For this to work, the designer will need to express concepts (e.g. the concept of a user) in a relational model using the Oracle's SQL dialect. This Oracle's specific relational model is an example of a Platform-specific model.

The term platform-specific model is most frequently used in the context of the MDA approach. This MDA approach corresponds the OMG vision of Model Driven Engineering. The main idea is that it should be possible to use a MTL to transform a Platform-independent model into a Platform-specific model. In order to achieve this transformation, one can use a language compliant to the newly defined QVT standard. Examples of such languages are AndroMDA, VIATRA or ATL.

Related Concepts

 * ATLAS Transformation Language (ATL)
 * Domain Specific Language (DSL)
 * Domain-specific modelling (DSM)
 * Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF)
 * Generic Modeling Environment (GME)
 * Graphical Modeling Framework (GMF)
 * Meta-Object Facility (MOF)
 * Meta-modeling
 * Model-based testing (MBT)
 * Model-driven architecture (MDA)
 * Model Transformation Language (MTL)
 * Object Constraint Language (OCL)
 * Object-oriented analysis and design (OOAD)
 * Visual Automated model Transformations VIATRA
 * XML Metadata Interchange (XMI)

title: Platform-specific model


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Gustav Radde

Gustav Ferdinand Richard Radde (27 November 1831 – 16 March 1903) was a German naturalist and Siberian explorer. Radde's warbler and several other species are named after him.

Biography
Radde was born in Danzig, the son of a schoolmaster. He had little formal education, and began a career as an apothecary. At an early age he was influenced by Anton Menge and became increasingly interested in natural history, and in 1852 he gave up his career and spent two years in the Crimea with the botanist Christian von Steven, collecting both plants and animals. He made further trips to southern Russia with Johann Friedrich von Brandt and Karl Ernst von Baer. He was botanist and zoologist on the East Siberian Expedition of 1855, led by the astronomer Ludwig Schwarz.

In 1864 he eventually settled in Tbilisi. In the same year he explored the region surrounding Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in the Western Palearctic. As well as collecting many plants he recorded the languages, ballads and customs of the local tribes. He set up a museum (the Caucasus Museum) and library in Tbilisi to exhibit his discoveries. His collecting expeditions included visits along the Black Sea coast and eastwards beyond the Caspian Sea to Askhabad. In 1895 he sailed to India and Japan with the Grand Duke Michael, and two years later he was official naturalist on a visit by members of the Russian imperial family to North Africa. He eventually became a member of the Council of State in Tbilisi.

In 1884 he was honoured with the chairmanship of the first International Ornithological Congress in Vienna. He was also an honorary member of the Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft, and a foreign member of the British Ornithologists' Union and the Zoological Society of London. He was awarded the Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1889 and the Constantine Medal of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society in 1898.

Eponyms
Animals named after him include birds such as Radde's warbler and Radde's accentor, and amphibians and reptiles such as the Mongolian toad (Pseudepidalea raddei), the Azerbaijan lizard (Darevskia raddei), a toadhead agama (Phrynocephalus raddei), and Radde's mountain viper (Montivipera raddei).

Collections
Radde was an avid entomologist. His insect (and other) collections are divided: Transbaikal and Amur material is in the Zoological Museum of the Russian Academy of Science; Caucasus and Transcaspian material is in the Georgian National Museum Zoological Section, Tbilisi.

This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation   Radde    when citing a botanical name.

Works
His publications include: In 1892, he wrote a Russian description of his voyage with the grand dukes Alexander and Sergeis Mikhailovitch.
 * Reisen im Süden von Ost-Sibirien in den Jahren 1855-59 (“Travels in the south of eastern Siberia during the years 1855-59,” 1862–1863)
 * Vier Vorträge über den Kaukasus (“Four essays on the Caucasus,” 1874)
 * Die Chews'uren und ihr Land (“The Chews'uren and their land,” 1878)
 * Ornis Caucasica. Die Vogelwelt des Kaukasus (“Ornis Caucasica. The world of birds in the Caucasus,” 1884) at archive.org
 * Das Ostufer des Pontus (“The east bank of the Pontus,” 1894)
 * Die Sammlungen des kaukasischen Museums (“The collections of the Caucasus Museum,” 1900 et seq.)

title: Gustav Radde


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Model-driven architecture

Model-driven architecture (MDA) is a software design approach for the development of software systems. It provides a set of guidelines for the structuring of specifications, which are expressed as models. Model Driven Architecture is a kind of domain engineering, and supports model-driven engineering of software systems. It was launched by the Object Management Group (OMG) in 2001.

Overview
Model Driven Architecture® (MDA®) "provides an approach for deriving value from models and architecture in support of the full life cycle of physical, organizational and I.T. systems". A model is a (representation of) an abstraction of a system. MDA® provides value by producing models at varying levels of abstraction, from a conceptual view down to the smallest implementation detail. OMG literature speaks of three such levels of abstraction, or architectural viewpoints: the Computation-independent Model (CIM), the Platform-independent model (PIM), and the Platform-specific model (PSM). The CIM describes a system conceptually, the PIM describes the computational aspects of a system without reference to the technologies that may be used to implement it, and the PSM provides the technical details necessary to implement the system. The OMG Guide notes, though, that these three architectural viewpoints are useful, but are just three of many possible viewpoints.

The OMG organization provides specifications rather than implementations, often as answers to Requests for Proposals (RFPs). Implementations come from private companies or open source groups.

Related standards
The MDA model is related to multiple standards, including the Unified Modeling Language (UML), the Meta-Object Facility (MOF), XML Metadata Interchange (XMI), Enterprise Distributed Object Computing (EDOC), the Software Process Engineering Metamodel (SPEM), and the Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM). Note that the term “architecture” in Model Driven Architecture does not refer to the architecture of the system being modeled, but rather to the architecture of the various standards and model forms that serve as the technology basis for MDA.

Executable UML was the UML profile used when MDA was born. Now, the OMG is promoting fUML, instead. (The action language for fUML is ALF.)

Trademark
The Object Management Group holds registered trademarks on the term Model Driven Architecture and its acronym MDA, as well as trademarks for terms such as: Model Based Application Development, Model Driven Application Development, Model Based Application Development, Model Based Programming, Model Driven Systems, and others.

MDA approach
OMG focuses Model Driven Architecture® on forward engineering, i.e. producing code from abstract, human-elaborated modeling diagrams (e.g. class diagrams). OMG's ADTF (Analysis and Design Task Force) group leads this effort. With some humour, the group chose ADM (MDA backwards) to name the study of reverse engineering. ADM decodes to Architecture-Driven Modernization. The objective of ADM is to produce standards for model-based reverse engineering of legacy systems. Knowledge Discovery Metamodel (KDM) is the furthest along of these efforts, and describes information systems in terms of various assets (programs, specifications, data, test files, database schemas, etc.).

As the concepts and technologies used to realize designs and the concepts and technologies used to realize architectures have changed at their own pace, decoupling them allows system developers to choose from the best and most fitting in both domains. The design addresses the functional (use case) requirements while architecture provides the infrastructure through which non-functional requirements like scalability, reliability and performance are realized. MDA envisages that the platform independent model (PIM), which represents a conceptual design realizing the functional requirements, will survive changes in realization technologies and software architectures.

Of particular importance to Model Driven Architecture is the notion of model transformation. A specific standard language for model transformation has been defined by OMG called QVT.

MDA tools
The OMG organization provides rough specifications rather than implementations, often as answers to Requests for Proposals (RFPs). The OMG documents the overall process in a document called the MDA Guide.

Basically, an MDA tool is a tool used to develop, interpret, compare, align, measure, verify, transform, etc. models or metamodels. In the following section "model" is interpreted as meaning any kind of model (e.g. a UML model) or metamodel (e.g. the CWM metamodel). In any MDA approach we have essentially two kinds of models: initial models are created manually by human agents while derived models are created automatically by programs. For example, an analyst may create a UML initial model from its observation of some loose business situation while a Java model may be automatically derived from this UML model by a Model transformation operation.

An MDA tool may be a tool used to check models for completeness, inconsistencies, or error and warning conditions.

Some tools perform more than one of the functions listed above. For example, some creation tools may also have transformation and test capabilities. There are other tools that are solely for creation, solely for graphical presentation, solely for transformation, etc.

Implementations of the OMG specifications come from private companies or open source groups. One important source of implementations for OMG specifications is the Eclipse Foundation (EF). Many implementations of OMG modeling standards may be found in the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) or Graphical Modeling Framework (GMF), the Eclipse foundation is also developing other tools of various profiles as GMT. Eclipse's compliance to OMG specifications is often not strict. This is true for example for OMG's EMOF standard, which EMF approximates with its Ecore implementation. More examples may be found in the M2M project implementing the QVT standard or in the M2T project implementing the MOF2Text standard.

One should be careful not to confuse the List of MDA Tools and the List of UML tools, the former being much broader. This distinction can be made more general by distinguishing 'variable metamodel tools' and 'fixed metamodel tools'. A UML CASE tool is typically a 'fixed metamodel tool' since it has been hard-wired to work only with a given version of the UML metamodel (e.g. UML 2.1). On the contrary, other tools have internal generic capabilities allowing them to adapt to arbitrary metamodels or to a particular kind of metamodels.

Usually MDA tools focus rudimentary architecture specification, although in some cases the tools are architecture-independent (or platform independent).

Simple examples of architecture specifications include:
 * Selecting one of a number of supported reference architectures like Java EE or Microsoft .NET,
 * Specifying the architecture at a finer level including the choice of presentation layer technology, business logic layer technology, persistence technology and persistence mapping technology (e.g. object-relational mapper).
 * Metadata: information about data.

MDA concerns
Some key concepts that underpin the MDA approach (launched in 2001) were first elucidated by the Shlaer-Mellor method during the late 1980s. Indeed, a key absent technical standard of the MDA approach (that of an action language syntax for Executable UML) has been bridged by some vendors by adapting the original Shlaer-Mellor Action Language (modified for UML). However, during this period the MDA approach has not gained mainstream industry acceptance; with the Gartner Group still identifying MDA as an "on the rise" technology in its 2006 "Hype Cycle", and Forrester Research declaring MDA to be "D.O.A." in 2006. Potential concerns that have been raised with the OMG MDA approach include:
 * Incomplete Standards: The MDA approach is underpinned by a variety of technical standards, some of which are yet to be specified (e.g. an action semantic language for xtUML), or are yet to be implemented in a standard manner (e.g. a QVT transformation engine or a PIM with a virtual execution environment).
 * Vendor Lock-in: Although MDA was conceived as an approach for achieving (technical) platform independence, current MDA vendors have been reluctant to engineer their MDA toolsets to be interoperable. Such an outcome could result in vendor lock-in for those pursuing an MDA approach.
 * Idealistic: MDA is conceived as a forward engineering approach in which models that incorporate Action Language programming are transformed into implementation artifacts (e.g. executable code, database schema) in one direction via a fully or partially automated "generation" step. This aligns with OMG's vision that MDA should allow modelling of a problem domain's full complexity in UML (and related standards) with subsequent transformation to a complete (executable) application. This approach does, however, imply that changes to implementation artifacts (e.g. database schema tuning) are not supported . This constitutes a problem in situations where such post-transformation "adapting" of implementation artifacts is seen to be necessary. Evidence that the full MDA approach may be too idealistic for some real world deployments has been seen in the rise of so-called "pragmatic MDA". Pragmatic MDA blends the literal standards from OMG's MDA with more traditional model driven approaches such as round-trip engineering that provides support for adapting implementation artifacts (though not without substantial disadvantages).
 * Specialised Skillsets: Practitioners of MDA based software engineering are (as with other toolsets) required to have a high level of expertise in their field. Current expert MDA practitioners (often referred to as Modeller/Architects) are scarce relative to the availability of traditional developers.
 * OMG Track Record: The OMG consortium who sponsor the MDA approach (and own the MDA trademark) also introduced and sponsored the CORBA standard which itself failed to materialise as a widely utilised standard.
 * Uncertain Value Proposition (UVP): As discussed, the vision of MDA allows for the specification of a system as an abstract model, which may be realized as a concrete implementation (program) for a particular computing platform (e.g. .NET). Thus an application that has been successfully developed via a pure MDA approach could theoretically be ported to a newer release .NET platform (or even a Java platform) in a deterministic manner – although significant questions remain as to real-world practicalities during translation (such as user interface implementation). Whether this capability represents a significant value proposition remains a question for particular adopters. Regardless, adopters of MDA who are seeking value via an "alternative to programming" should be very careful when assessing this approach. The complexity of any given problem domain will always remain, and the programming of business logic needs to be undertaken in MDA as with any other approach. The difference with MDA is that the programming language used (e.g. xtUML) is more abstract (than, say, Java or C#) and exists interwoven with traditional UML artifacts (e.g. class diagrams). Whether programming in a language that is more abstract than mainstream 3GL languages will result in systems of better quality, cheaper cost or faster delivery, is a question that has yet to be adequately answered.
 * MDA was recognized as a possible way to bring various independently developed standardized solutions together. For the simulation community, it was recommended as a business and industry based alternative to yet another US DoD mandated standard.

title: Model-driven architecture


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Blas Ople

Blas Fajardo Ople (February 3, 1927 – December 14, 2003) was a Filipino journalist and politician who held several high-ranking positions in the executive and legislative branches of the Philippine government, including as Senate President from 1999 to 2000, and as Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2002 until his death. Perceived as a leftist-nationalist at the onset of his career in public service, Ople was, in his final years, a vocal supporter for allowing a limited United States military presence in the Philippines, and for American initiatives in the War on Terror including the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Ople's most enduring role was his nineteen years as Secretary (later Minister) of Labor and Employment during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos, when Philippine labor laws were overhauled through the enactment of the Labor Code of the Philippines that he had helped author.

Early life and career
Ople was born in Hagonoy, Bulacan on February 3, 1927, to Felix Antonio Ople, a craftsman who repaired boats, and his wife Segundina Fajardo. He graduated valedictorian of his grade school class at the Hagonoy Elementary School in 1941. Upon the invasion of the Philippines by Japan during World War II, he also had been to Hagonoy Institute during his secondary schooling, the teenage Ople joined the guerilla movement and fought under the Del Pilar Regiment and the Buenavista Regiment of the Bulacan Military Area founded by Alejo Santos.

In 1948, he finished his high school studies at the Far Eastern University High School in Manila. He worked towards a degree in liberal arts at the Educational Center of Asia (formerly Quezon College) in Manila. After graduation, Ople pursued a career in journalism. He became a desk editor at the Daily Mirror and the author of its Jeepney Tales column. Still in his twenties, Ople was one of the youngest newspaper columnists of that era. Ople also established a public relations consulting firm.

He soon became known for his nationalist views. He co-founded the Kilusang Makabansa (National Progress Movement), an organization which frequently spoke out on issues of nationalism and social justice in the 1950s. In 1953, he joined the Magsaysay-for-President Movement, a volunteer group supporting the presidential campaign of Ramon Magsaysay, heading its Executive Planning Committee and working as a speechwriter for candidates of the Nacionalista Party. After Magsaysay's election, he joined the government as special assistant to the Secretary of Labor and technical assistant on labor and agrarian affairs.

Secretary of Labor
In 1965, Ople was appointed as Social Security Commissioner by President Ferdinand E. Marcos. In 1967, he was appointed Secretary of Labor and Employment (in 1978 the position was renamed Minister of Labor and Employment). He resigned briefly in 1971 to run an unsuccessful campaign for election to the Philippine Senate, but was re-appointed to his post in 1972, retaining the position until 1986. At the time of his appointment, Ka Blas was perceived as a "leftist Nationalist". His leftist credentials were enhanced when he co-founded, in 1972, the Philippine-Soviet Friendship Society.

As Labor Secretary, Ka Blas was instrumental in the framing of the Labor Code of the Philippines, which codified the labor laws of the country and introduced innovations such as prohibiting the termination of workers without legal cause. Ople instituted labor policies institutionalizing the technical education of workers. In 1976, Ople initiated a program for the overseas employment of Filipino workers. It was during his tenure at Labor that the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration were created. Ople obtained recognition from the International Labour Organization during his stint as Labor Minister. In 1975, he was elected president of the 60th International Labour Conference of the ILO, the first Filipino to hold that post. In 1983, that organization awarded Ople a Gold Medal of Appreciation. He was a close adviser of President Marcos, though he was not later to be associated with the corruption of the Marcos' government and was perceived as "not corrupt". He created international headlines in December 1984 when he admitted to the press that the lupus-stricken Marcos was incapacitated to the point of being unable "to take major initiatives", and that the President's illness had placed the Philippines in "a kind of interregnum". Marcos responded a few days later by baring his chest to his Cabinet before television cameras to dispel rumors that he was seriously ill or had undergone surgery. In 1978, Ople was elected an assemblyman of the Interim Batasang Pambansa representing Central Luzon, and reelected in 1984. During the 1986 presidential elections, Ople served as a political campaign manager of President Marcos, who was running against Corazon Aquino. Shortly before the outbreak of the 1986 People Power Revolution, Marcos dispatched Ople to Washington, D.C. to lobby the American government on behalf of the President. Ople was in Washington D.C. upon the outbreak of the revolt, and was advised by U.S. Secretary of State, George P. Shultz, to call on Marcos to resign. Ople publicly reiterated his support for Marcos in the American media in such fora as on This Week with David Brinkley.

1986 Constitutional Commission Member
Following the success of the People Power Revolution and the installation to the presidency of Corazon Aquino, Ople was relieved of his Cabinet post. Ople returned to the Philippines and immediately attempted to position himself as the leader of the political opposition against Aquino. Nonetheless in May 1986, Ople accepted an offer by President Aquino to serve in the Constitutional Commission that drafted a new Philippine Constitution.

In the 1987 congressional elections, Ople ran a second time for the Philippine Senate, under the banner of the Grand Alliance for Democracy coalition. He was defeated in this attempt, and returned to private life, serving as chairman of the Institute for Public Policy (IPP), a policy research institute.

Senator of the Philippines
In 1992, he ran again for the Senate under the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino. He was elected to a six-year term. In the Senate, Ople served as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and on the Commission of Appointments. He became Senate President Pro-Tempore in 1998.

Ople won a re-election for the senate in 1998, under the Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino. In 1999, upon the resignation of the terminally-ill Marcelo Fernan, Ople became the President of the Senate. In that capacity, he was a key proponent of the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the United States, which allowed American forces to enter the Philippines for short-term training exercises. He yielded the Senate presidency in 2000 to Franklin Drilon.

Later that year, he sat as one of the senator-judges in the impeachment trial of his ally, President Joseph Estrada. He was one of the eleven votes during the trial that successfully voted to block the opening of an envelope that was believed to contain proof of the corruption charges against Estrada. Public anger over the Senate vote triggered the EDSA Revolution of 2001, leading to the ouster of Estrada and the accession of Vice-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the presidency.

Secretary of Foreign Affairs
In July 2002, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appointed Ople, a member of the political opposition in the Senate, as Secretary of Foreign Affairs in her cabinet. The appointment was with some controversy. Weeks earlier, Arroyo's hand-picked Vice-President Teofisto Guingona had resigned as Foreign Affairs Secretary after voicing disagreement with the plan of the Philippine and United States governments to allow American troops to help combat Islamic terrorist groups such as the Abu Sayyaf as part of the post-9/11 "War on Terror". Ople, who had earlier been a vocal supporter of the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement, was perceived to be more amenable to the plan. In addition, left-wing labor activists denounced the appointment of Ople, citing his Marcos-era role in promoting overseas employment of Filipino workers which, they said, had resulted in abuses inflicted on Filipino workers abroad.

During his stint as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Ople was at the forefront of the negotiations that led to the deployment of American military forces inside the Philippines, though he insisted that the American troops would not participate in combat missions. Under his watch, the American and Filipino governments signed an agreement that provided immunity to each other's citizens facing charges before international tribunals such as the International Criminal Court. Ople was also a vocal supporter of the Iraq War, and pushed for the deployment of a small Filipino contingent in Iraq. He predicted in November 2003, "Baghdad will be transformed from a symbol of brutal despotism to a new, shining symbol of human freedom. The sacrifices invested in the liberation of Iraq, to which Filipinos made a significant contribution, will be fully vindicated and cherished for all time."

Death and legacy
In the months prior to his death, Ople, a longtime chain smoker, had suffered from ill health and often attended international conferences in a wheelchair. On the night of December 13, 2003, Ople had difficulty breathing and lost consciousness while aboard a Japan Asia Airways flight from Bangkok to Tokyo. The flight was diverted to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taoyuan County, Taiwan (now Taoyuan City), and Ople was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was initially pronounced dead on arrival, but given medical treatment nonetheless. Efforts to revive him were futile, and his death on Sunday, December 14, 2003, was announced by his family.

President Arroyo mourned Ople as "an architect of Philippine foreign policy in the finest tradition of enlightened and pragmatic diplomacy", while U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell hailed him as "one of the pivotal figures of the late Twentieth Century for Philippine history". More critical of Ople, Teddy Casiño, secretary-general of the leftist coalition BAYAN, called him a "political chameleon" who "tried to pass himself off as a nationalist but [was] most pro-American". Nonetheless, Casiño acknowledged that Ople was "a consistent, brilliant and very astute politician".

Ople was eulogized in Time magazine, which recalled his erudition, his skill at political survival, and his trademark "extraordinary baritone". The eulogy also said that at the height of the People Power Revolution, Ople in Washington, D.C. had reported to Marcos in Manila that the President's support within the Reagan administration was falling. Marcos responded by asking Ople to reach out to his contacts in the Soviet government. Ople rebuffed Marcos, and as Time noted, declined "to help make the Philippines a Soviet colony three years before the Berlin Wall fell".

Ople is buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. In 2004, President Arroyo named Ople's daughter, Susan Ople, as Undersecretary of the Department of Labor and Employment.

The building housing the former Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and currently the Department of Migrant Workers at the corner of EDSA and Ortigas Avenue in Mandaluyong was renamed Blas F. Ople Building in his honor on February 4, 2004.

title: Blas Ople


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Team Fortress Classic

Team Fortress Classic is a first-person shooter game developed by Valve and published by Sierra Studios. It was originally released in April 1999 for Windows, and is based on Team Fortress, a mod for the 1996 game Quake. The game puts two teams against each other in online multiplayer matches; each member plays as one of nine classes, each with different skills. The scenarios include capture the flag, territorial control, and escorting a "VIP" player.

Valve hired the developers of the Team Fortress mod to develop Team Fortress Classic using its GoldSrc engine (used in their 1998 game Half-Life) to promote the Half-Life software development kit. In 2007, Valve released Team Fortress 2.

Gameplay
Matches in Team Fortress Classic typically feature two teams, one red and one blue, and nine playable character classes. Each character class has a set of weapons and abilities unique to that specific class. This differentiation between classes makes for rock-paper-scissors-esque gameplay that requires teammates to work together in order to effectively achieve the objective. The class-system also encourages players to vary their selection of classes and utilize certain classes in conjunction with one another to gain the advantage.

In Team Fortress Classic, a server can hold up to 32 players simultaneously, and matches can be played in a number of game modes, each featuring different objectives.

Classes
In Team Fortress Classic, the player can choose to play as one of nine classes: the Scout, Sniper, Soldier, Demoman, Medic, Heavy Weapons Guy, Pyro, Spy, or Engineer. Each class comes equipped with at least one weapon unique to that class, and often a secondary weapon which may be common across multiple classes (typically a shotgun or nailgun). Additionally, each class gets a melee weapon (all classes, with the exception of the Medic, Spy, and Engineer, wield a crowbar, an homage to Valve's game Half-Life). Finally, each player carries grenades; the effects of grenades vary, depending on the player's class.

In Escort game modes, a player may also choose to play as the Civilian class, which is armed only with an umbrella, no armor, and very little health. Civilians are typically escorted and protected by the rest of the team.

 * The Scout is the fastest class in the game, but is unable to deal much damage in return. The Scout is armed with a nailgun and shotgun as well as being able to use caltrops and concussion grenades to slow down and confuse opponents. He can also disarm the Demoman's detonation pack, reveal enemy Spies by running close by fellow players as well as instantly locate the flags on any capture the flag map.
 * The Sniper class is armed with a high-powered sniper rifle, and can be used to attack enemies from distant positions.
 * The Soldier class is significantly slower than Snipers and Scouts, but possesses better armor and is armed with a rocket launcher that allows him to rocket jump, along with combat shotguns as sidearms for backup. Rocket jumping, while effective for moving about the battlefield, also significantly damages the soldier. Soldiers can also make use of nail bombs to cause more damage within close quarters.
 * The Demoman class is armed with a grenade launcher for indirect fire onto enemy positions, and a Pipe Bomb launcher for booby-trapping places as well as being equipped with a demolition pack capable of opening or closing certain routes on some levels.

 * The Medic class is equipped with a super nail gun, concussion grenades and a medical kit that can be used either to heal teammates or expose opponents to a contagious infection that drains health.
 * The Heavy Weapons class is armed with a powerful minigun, and can sustain more damage than any other class. However, the Heavy is significantly slower than the other classes.
 * The Pyro class is equipped with a flamethrower and an incendiary rocket launcher, both of which can set enemies on fire. Pyros also carry several napalm grenades for the same purpose.
 * The Spy class differs significantly in style from other classes, as he can disguise himself to look like any other class on either side. The Spy is equipped with a knife to kill enemy players in one hit by stabbing them in the back, a tranquilizer gun to slow down opponents and a hallucination grenade which spouts gas to confuse them. Spies also possess the ability to feign death, allowing them to use their backstab ability more effectively.
 * The Engineer class builds structures to support their team, such as sentry guns to defend key points, ammunition dispensers and teleporters. Engineers have the ability to replenish a teammates armor by tapping them with their wrench. In addition, the Engineer is armed with EMP grenades that detonates any explosive ammunition within its range, as well as a shotgun for backup.

Development
Team Fortress was originally a modification for Quake (1996), and then later for QuakeWorld, developed by TF Software Pty. Ltd. Its developers were working on a standalone version, Team Fortress 2, when they were hired by Valve to write a port of Team Fortress as a mod for Valve's game Half-Life. After several delays from the original release date of March 26, 1999, the mod was released on April 7, 1999.

On June 9, 2000, Team Fortress version 1.5 was released as a part of Half-Life 1.1 update. It was the first standalone version of Team Fortress. The update added "new sounds and weapons, enhanced graphics, new models for classes and weapons, new maps from popular mapmakers, an updated user interface that makes finding and joining games easy and intuitive, and a new in-game Command Menu Interface". It also included a new in-game interface and the networking code for Valve's then-upcoming Team Fortress 2. There were three new maps with the update: Dustbowl, Warpath, and Epicenter. Additionally, the new Command Menu Interface was an in-game menu that allowed players to execute commands to change teams, call for a medic and change classes while in a match.

Valve significantly updated the game over time, tweaking the game's networking code, and adding new maps and game modes. In 2003, Team Fortress Classic was released on Valve's Steam system. Versions for OS X and Linux were released in 2013.

Reception
Team Fortress Classic received positive reviews, garnering a rating of 85% on the video game review aggregator site GameRankings. There were some criticisms, however, like Graham Smith of Rock, Paper, Shotgun who criticized the game for being "like Counter Strike only messy and gruff" PC Gamer US named Team Fortress Classic the best multiplayer game of 1999, and wrote that it was "more fun and more addictive than any other multiplayer-only title released in 1999, and didn't cost owners of Half-Life a single penny." PC Gamer UK praised the game for its multiple character classes, "sophisticated game-tactics", and drive to work together with your team, but also noted the game's "clunky" inter-team communication and mediocre graphics. In 2010, the game was included as one of the games in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die.

Legacy
Following the success of Team Fortress as a Quake modification, Team Fortress Software began development of a sequel. Interested in the project's potential, Valve hired the team to develop Team Fortress 2 on the modified Quake engine used by Half-Life. The partnership was announced in 1998, developed in parallel to Team Fortress Classic. However, the game was not shown publicly until a year later at E3 1999. Introduced as Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms, the game showcased multiple unprecedented technologies for its time and won several awards including "Best Online Game" and "Best Action Game". In June 2000, Valve announced that Team Fortress 2 had been delayed further, attributing this to their rebuilding of the game on a new, proprietary in-house engine that is today known as the Source engine.

Following this delay, little mention of the game was made by Valve for a period of six years. Running up to Half-Life 2's release in 2004, Valve's Doug Lombardi claimed that Team Fortress 2 was still being developed and news of its release would come after that of Half-Life 2. In 2006, duringElectronic Arts' 2006 Summer Showcase, the game was shown publicly, with an art style that contrasted its initial design. In 2007, Team Fortress 2 was released to critical acclaim as part of The Orange Box.

The plot and characters of Team Fortress 2 were expanded upon outside of the game in the form of short videos or comics. In April 2014, the Team Fortress comic series reintroduced the Team Fortress Classic classes (excluding their respective Medic) as a rival cast of characters to the Team Fortress 2 team. A catch-up comic released on the TF2 website released for free comic book day described Team Fortress Classic as being set in an alternate 1930, and that the game takes place during the Gravel Wars era of the timeline, along with the fact that the Classic engineer is the father of the engineer in Team Fortress 2.

A fan-made total conversion mod for Half-Life 2 titled Fortress Forever was created, aiming to replicate the gameplay of Team Fortress Classic while using the more modern Source engine. Fans have also made a similar mod of Team Fortress 2 titled Team Fortress 2 Classic, which seeks to marry gameplay elements and concepts from both entries alongside scrapped ideas from the sequel's development cycle and several entirely original additions.

title: Team Fortress Classic


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Cheung Sha

Cheung Sha is a rural area on the south coast of Lantau Island, New Territories, Hong Kong. Along the South Lantau Road, Cheung Sha is located between Tong Fuk (to the southwest) and San Shek Wan (to the northeast).

The most notable feature of the area is the Cheung Sha Beach, the longest beach in Hong Kong.

History
The South Lantau Road, passing through Cheung Sha, was built in the mid-20th century from Silver Mine Bay to Shek Pik for access to the new reservoir there.

Features
Cheung Sha is rural in character and largely undeveloped.

It is home to two small villages, namely Cheung Sha Ha Tsuen and Cheung Sha Sheung Tsuen. There are also a few low-density private housing developments. Cheung Sha Lower Village and Cheung Sha Upper Village are recognized villages under the New Territories Small House Policy.

The Cheung Sha Beach is the longest beach in Hong Kong. It actually comprises two beaches separated by a rocky outcropping: Lower Cheung Sha Beach and Upper Cheung Sha Beach. On its own, Upper Cheung Sha Beach is still the longest beach in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Government has holiday bungalows for government employees at Cheung Sha.

Proposed development
In January 2016, the Lantau Development Advisory Committee (LanDAC) proposed to build spas, resort hotels, and a "wedding centre" at Cheung Sha. The suggestion was part of a wider proposal to undertake major development of Lantau Island, increasing its population from approximately 100,000 to one million.

The proposals were positively received by the government, but decried by various advocacy groups as destructive urban sprawl reliant on more "white elephant" infrastructure projects.

title: Cheung Sha


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User:Owain

'''C ITY OF N EWPORT C OUNTY OF M ONMOUTH''' Articles created as at 14 February 2012

title: User:Owain


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Talk:Skill

Article Needs Broader Science Foundation
The focus of the article at present is exclusively on basic workplace job skills. If we look at skills more broadly (for example, from a KBS/AI systems or educational design standpoint), intelligence, interpersonal skills, knowledge base, drive and ethics create a more general taxonomy of skills that matches ability, both learned and genetic, to the level of difficulty of a problem or goal. This encompasses athletes, artists, musicians, soldiers, carpenters... in other words, many more fields of endeavor than simply "workplace" skills, as is presently narrowly described. For example, what neurological features contribute to genetic vs. learned skills, and how do they differ between species? A lion is a skilled killer. A virtuoso pianist can put in 10,000 hours of practice-- how do different learning models and modalities contribute to our definition of skill? And skill isn't just about work-- a skilled gamer today can be tomorrow's skilled game designer when point and click becomes matrices and vectors. Phoenixthebird (talk) 03:16, 1 July 2010 (UTC)

Article Needs Broader Arts Foundation
I share with Phoenixthebird more than a little disappointment that the Wikipedia article on 'skill' should be devoted entirely to skills that are useful to businesses (I'm not surprised the page gets vandalised!). These skills really merit only a small section in a much broader discussion. Far from enriching human life like the skills of the athletes, artists, musicians, etc., referred to above (the start of a very long list) the 'skills' mentioned in the article seem primarily concerned with exploiting people as 'human resources'. One contributor even appears to think that self-esteem is a skill!

We need to encourage contributions reflecting a more rounded view of life, and involve the skills of the arts and sports in particular (not to mention a hundred other things that happen between parenting and gardening). I expect the science of skills would also make interesting reading. Can I suggest we put up headings at the top of the article inviting people to make a start, relegating the more specialist 'business skills' section to the bottom? It may eventually be better off as a subdivision of the more general page on 'skill'. Kinsaku  —Preceding undated comment added 20:01, 22 December 2010 (UTC).

Skills in profession
Hi, I added the link to a website, with literature from some authors (at the moment 8, with videos) which mention diverse skills for a professional in the software tetsing field. --Erkan Yilmaz 15:19, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Protection against vandalism
The Skill page has been vandalised several times. Can it be protected, at least a little? --HelgeStenstrom 11:29, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

It should, I can only imagine how many middle-schoolers have tried to vandalise this article.

Luna ke et   —Preceding comment was added at 23:44, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Functional Skills 84.71.103.219 18:19, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
Functional Skills

Skills are categorised in many ways, key skills, transferable skills, academic skills, personal skills, skills for employability and more recently functional skills. The three functional skills identified by the government are English, Maths and ICT, the QCA are developing separate functional skill qualifications. They are also looking at how functional skills can be developed and assessed in other types of qualification, for example GCSEs and Diplomas. Functional skills are the skills needed to allow people in their work and everyday life as citizens, they give them the chance to study and work independently, to make sense of the world around them, and have the skills to achieve personally and contribute to their local community. What are the skills that individuals need to be able to operate in today’s society.

Functional skills have much in common with the six key skills identified by the DfES which are: 1.	Application of number - maths 2.	Communication - English 3.	Information and communication technology – ICT

Developing functional skills are likely to involve learners in: 4.	Improving own learning and performance 5.	Problem solving 6.	Working with others

Questions to think about How often have you used this skill? How will this skill help me to be independent? When have I used this skill in everyday life? or when might I use this skill in everyday life? In what types of career might I use the skills I have developed today? How might I develop this skill?

References:

Name of journal: Skills and Enterprise Update. Author: Department for Education and Employment Publication: No.2. (2000.)

Name of book: The Way the Skills Work Author: Stoker, Rebecca Year of publication: 2007 Place of publication: Birmingham Publisher: Random House

Name of journal: Skills Sell Author: The Learning and Skills Council Publication: No. 7 (2004)

84.71.103.219 18:19, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

a skill is something you will have for the rest of your life.
skills are knowledge earned not learned.they are not rote, they are real non-acadeimic ability to accomplish the job at hand.fine arts, useful arts one should know the difference. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.27.206.86 (talk) 00:55, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

Badly in need of rewrite
This entire article is strangely narrow in its scope, and in my opinion it would be better to have just a basic dictionary definition, than this. It needs a much broader perspective on both the term 'skill' as perceived throughout history, as well as the actual metaphysical and physical events which we considered and consider a skill, or skilled. It's very strange that there's no sub-headline on 'survival skills' as applied and perceived throughout history and today. If someone would take on them to write that section, it might be a start. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.215.168.82 (talk) 23:37, 16 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I do think this article has a very modern take on what a skill is. I don't get the sense that it's representative of how things were twenty years ago or more. 71.36.20.88 (talk) 11:17, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

I'm just becoming acquainted with how to contribute, and agree the link to a definition will be helpful. The Wiktionary seems an obvious choice. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/skill Listing all possible skills seems rather tedious, and it might be more helpful to focus on the generalities of how skill is developed and assessed, regardless of what the specific skill might be. 4thought (talk) 00:54, 7 December 2011 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Introduction to Community Economic and Social Development II
— Assignment last updated by Grewal Manmeet (talk) 15:50, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

Msewfodewtha
Mhaterwd farowar daoyee 41.121.5.111 (talk) 08:45, 7 May 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Skill


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Stefan Themerson

Stefan Themerson (25 January 1910 – 6 September 1988) was a Polish writer of children's literature, poet and inventor of Semantic Poetry, novelist, script writer filmmaker, composer and philosopher. He wrote in at least three languages. With his wife, Franciszka Themerson, they are regarded as leading husband-and-wife exponents of European Surrealism and publishers.

Early life
Stefan Themerson was born on 25 January 1910 in Płock, in what was then part of Congress Poland within the Russian Empire, and died in London on 6 September 1988.

His father, Mieczysław Themerson, was a physician, social reformer and aspiring writer (some of his work was published) His mother was Ludwika Smulewicz. During the First World War Dr. Themerson served as a medical officer in the Tsar's army and the family lived in Riga, St. Petersburg and Velikiye Luki. In 1918 they returned to Płock, in an independent Poland, where Stefan attended the Władysław Jagiełło Gymnasium. During this time he first showed an interest in photography and also built a radio receiver. Stefan's older brother, Roman, also qualified as a doctor, but died of spinal tuberculosis in 1929.

In 1928 Themerson went to Warsaw University to study physics. After a year, he transferred to the Warsaw Polytechnic to take up architecture, but spent most of his time working on photography, collage and film-making. His first published piece of writing was also in 1928. He never formally left his studies but gradually withdrew to follow his other interests. Themerson met the art student Franciszka Weinles, in 1929. She graduated with distinction in 1931 and they married the same year in Warsaw.

1931 to 1935
During these years the Themersons lived and worked in Warsaw. Stefan contributed articles to various periodicals and prose and verse to school textbooks and wrote at least ten books for children which Franciszka illustrated. Pan Tom Buduje Dom, Mr Rouse Builds His House is still in print in Poland. Stefan also experimented with photograms and the two of them made five short experimental films Apteka (The Pharmacy) (1930), Europa (1931–1932), Drobiazg Melodyjny (Musical Moment) (1933), Zwarcie (Short Circuit) (1935) and Przygoda Człowieka Poczciwego (The Adventures of a Good Citizen) (1937). These were shown with other experimental films of the time. All except Przygoda Człowieka Poczciwego, which remained in Warsaw, were lost in Paris in the Second World War, but the script for Europa, based on a poem by Anatol Stern was later published by the Themersons' Gaberbocchus Press, illustrated by surviving stills from the film and Apteka and Drobiazg melodyjny were remade by Bruce Checefsky from descriptions of them when they first appeared, stills and storyboards. In 1983 Stefan, now living in London, made a reconstruction of the film with the London Film-Makers' Co-op. An incomplete copy of the original film was found in an archive in Berlin in 2019. Following restitution to the Themerson Estate, it was donated to the British Film Institute for conservation and preservation.

In 1935, with other young filmmakers, the Themersons founded a cooperative, S.A.F, Spółdzielnia Autorów Filmowych.

1936 to 1939
In 1936 and 1937 the Themersons visited Paris, then the centre of the world for avant-garde art, and London, meeting Moholy-Nagy and other experimental artists and arranged first screenings of French and English avant-garde films on their return to Warsaw. They also founded a review Film Artistique, Stefan as editor, Franciszka as artistic editor (the journal of the film-makers' co-operative). Two issues were published, one on the French avant-garde, one on recent English film. A third issue, on the Polish Avant-garde, was planned but remained unpublished when, in the winter of 1937–38 they moved to Paris: "I just knew I had to be in Paris." Themerson said. Here they found a circle of artists and writers, many Polish, among whom to live and move. Themerson wrote for various Polish publications in Paris; Franciszka started to paint, and illustrated children's books for Flammarion. They planned to stay there, but – as for most of their generation – the outbreak of World War II changed their lives. With the declaration of war in 1939, the Themersons both enlisted, Stefan joined the Polish Army in the West forming in France after the German and Soviet invasions and partition of Poland. Franciszka was seconded to the Polish government-in-exile as a cartographer, first in France then from 1940 in London after the Fall of France.

Second World War and after
In 1940 Themerson volunteered for a Polish infantry regiment in France, just in time for the German invasion and the Allies' collapse. His memory was of marching day and night in the summer heat to St-Nazaire. There, in June, the regiment was disbanded, the officers abandoning their men and the men dispersing where they could. Themerson travelled inside France, first returning (on foot) to occupied Paris, then on to Toulouse, where, through the Polish Red Cross, he re-established contact with Franciszka. She had been working for the Polish Government in Exile as a cartographer in Paris and Normandy and had subsequently escaped to London on a troopship from Bayonne. Meanwhile, he spent time in refugee camps, worked as a farm labourer, and spent nearly two years in a Polish Red Cross hostel, the Hôtel de la Poste in Voiron. Here he began writing Professor Mmaa's Lecture in Polish and wrote the long poem in French Croquis dans les Ténèbres (Sketches in Darkness). Much of their sporadic correspondence from the years 1940–1942 concerned attempts to engineer Stefan's escape from France.

Towards the end of 1942 Themerson got across France via Marseille and Spain to Lisbon whence he was flown to Britain by the R.A.F., rejoining his wife and re-enlisting in the Polish army. He spent time with the army in Scotland, where he finished Professor Mmaa, and then was sent to join the film unit of the Polish Ministry of Information and Documentation in London. There he and Franciszka, commissioned by the Polish Ministry of Information and Documentation, made two further short films, Calling Mr. Smith, an account of Nazi atrocities in Poland and The Eye and the Ear, inspired by four Julian Tuwim songs set to music by Szymanowski. In 1944 at the PEN club meeting to celebrate the three hundredth anniversary of John Milton's Areopagitica, Themerson met Kurt Schwitters, who became a close friend until Schwitters' death in 1948. At about the same time he met others who remained close, including Jankel Adler, Julian Trevelyan and Anthony Froshaug. Also in 1944 the Themersons moved to Maida Vale, where they lived for the rest of their lives. A close neighbour was the experimental poet and publisher Bob Cobbing with whom the Themersons kept close relations.

Stefan and Franciszka Themerson published many of their works through their own Gaberbocchus Press (the Latinised version of Jabberwocky) from 1948 to 1979. Most were designed and illustrated by Franciszka. They also worked with the translators Barbara Wright and Stanley Chapman, and the artist Gwen Barnard. Their list of some 70 titles included works by Guillaume Apollinaire, Jankel Adler and Kurt Schwitters, the first English translation of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi, Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style and The Good Citizen's Alphabet by Bertrand Russell. The latter wrote an encouraging preface to Professor Mmaa’s Lecture. Influenced by Queneau and his Oulipo circle, whom they visited in 1950, Stefan was the inventor of Semantic Poetry (see his 1945 novel Bayamus, and his 1975 tract On Semantic Poetry). His work was published in 0 to 9 magazine, a US publication which explored language and meaning-making. He wrote an opera, 'St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio' (1972). In 1981, Themerson delivered the annual Huizinga Lecture in Leiden in the Netherlands, under the title "The Chair of Decency". He died in London a few weeks after the death of his wife, in September 1988.

Legacy
In 1979, the Gaberbocchus Press was taken over by Dutch publisher De Harmonie, at Themerson's invitation. They maintain the press's archive as well. It was through this Dutch connection that some of his novels gained recognition in the English-reading world; in 1985, Dutch publisher De Bezige Bij published a translation of an English manuscript, which they titled Euclid Was an Ass (Dutch: Euclides was een ezel"). This book was read by someone with connections at Faber and Faber, which in turn published the book in English, now called The Mystery of the Sardine (1986), and his last novel Hobson's Island (1988). These two novels and the earlier Tom Harris were later republished by Dalkey Archive Press.

The Themersons' eight volume archive has been assembled and catalogued by Franciszka's niece, the British arts curator, Jasia Reichardt. A Themerson Festival takes place annually in Themerson's native city, Płock in Poland.

title: Stefan Themerson