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Condominium

A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual owners. These individual units are surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned and managed by the owners of the units. The term can be applied to the building or complex itself, and is sometimes applied to individual units. The term "condominium" is mostly used in the US and Canada, but similar arrangements are used in many other countries under different names.

Residential condominiums are frequently constructed as apartment buildings, referred as well as Horizontal Property. There are also rowhouse style condominiums, in which the units open directly to the outside and are not stacked. Alternatively, detached condominiums look like single-family homes, but the yards (gardens), building exteriors, and streets, as well as any recreational facilities (such as a pool, bowling alley, tennis courts, and golf course), are jointly owned and maintained by a community association. Many shopping malls are commercial condominiums in which the individual retail and office spaces are owned by the businesses that occupy them, while the common areas of the mall are collectively owned by all the business entities that own the individual spaces.

Unlike apartments, which are leased by their tenants, in most systems condominium units are owned outright, and the owners of the individual units also collectively own the common areas of the property, such as the exterior of the building, roof, corridors/hallways, walkways, and laundry rooms, as well as common utilities and amenities, such as the HVAC system and elevators. In other property regimes, such as those in Hong Kong and Finland, the entire buildings are owned in common with exclusive rights to occupy units assigned to the individual owners. The common areas, amenities, and utilities are managed collectively by the owners through their association, such as a homeowner association or its equivalent.

Scholars have traced the earliest known use of the condominium form of tenure to a document from first-century Babylon. The word condominium originated in Latin.

Etymology
Condominium is an invented Latin word formed by adding the prefix con- ‘together’ to the word dominium ‘dominion, ownership’. Its meaning is, therefore, ‘joint dominion’ or ‘co-ownership’.

Condominia (the Latin plural of condominium) originally referred to territories over which two or more sovereign powers shared joint sovereignty. This technique was frequently used to settle border disputes when multiple claimants could not agree on how to partition the disputed territory. For example, from 1818 to 1846, Oregon Country was a condominium over which both the United States and Great Britain shared joint sovereignty until the Oregon Treaty resolved the issue by splitting the territory along the 49th parallel and each country gaining sole sovereignty of one side.

Overview
The distinction between a complex of residences, such as an apartment building, and a condominium is purely legal. There is no way to differentiate a condominium from any other residential building simply by looking at it or visiting it. What defines a condominium is the form of ownership. A building developed as a condominium (and sold in individual units to different owners) could actually be built at another location as (for example) an apartment building (the developers would retain ownership and rent individual units to different tenants).

Where a condominium is in essence an apartment building, as a practical matter, builders tend to build condominiums to higher quality standards than apartment complexes because of the differences between the rental and sale markets. They are typically slightly larger than apartments and are often constructed in a townhouse style in regions where single-family detached homes are common.

Technically, a condominium is a collection of individual units and common areas along with the land upon which they sit. Individual home ownership within a condominium is construed as ownership of only the air space confining the boundaries of the home. The boundaries of that space are specified by a legal document known as a Declaration, filed on record with the local governing authority. Typically, these boundaries will include the walls surrounding a condo, allowing the homeowner to make some interior modifications without impacting the common area. Anything outside this boundary is held in an undivided ownership interest by a corporation established at the time of the condominium's creation. The corporation holds this property in trust on behalf of the homeowners as a group—it may not have ownership itself.

Condominiums have conditions, covenants, restrictions, and often additional rules that govern how the individual unit owners are to share the space.

Some condominium complexes consist of single-family dwellings. There are also "detached condominiums" where homeowners do not maintain the exteriors of the dwellings or yards, and "site condominiums", where the owner has more control and possibly ownership (as in a "whole lot" or "lot line" condominium) over the exterior appearance. These structures are preferred by some planned neighborhoods and gated communities.

Homeowners association
A homeowners association (HOA), whose members are the unit owners, manages the condominium through a board of directors elected by the membership. This exists under various names depending on the jurisdiction, such as "unit title", "sectional title", "commonhold", "strata council", or "tenant-owner's association", "body corporate", "Owners Corporation", "condominium corporation" or "condominium association". Another variation of this concept is the "time share", although not all time shares are condominiums, and not all time shares involve actual ownership of (i.e., deeded title to) real property. Condominiums may be found in both civil law and common law legal systems as it is purely a creation of statute. Among other things, the HOA assesses unit owners for the costs of maintaining the common areas, etc. That is, the HOA decides how much each owner should pay and has the legal power to collect that.

Unit description

The description of the condominium units and the common areas and any restrictions on their use are established in a document commonly called a "Master Deed" (also known as the "Enabling Declaration", the "Declaration of Conditions", or the "Condominium Document"). Among other things, this document provides for the creation of the HOA. Rules of governance for the association are usually covered under a separate set of bylaws that generally govern the internal affairs of the condominium. Condominium bylaws usually establish the responsibilities of the owners' association; the voting procedures to be used at association meetings; the qualifications, powers, and duties of the board of directors; the powers and duties of the officers; and the obligations of the owners with regard to assessments, maintenance, and use of the units and common areas. Finally, a set of rules and regulations providing specific details of restrictions on the conduct of unit owners and residents are established by the HOA. These are more readily amendable than the declaration or association bylaws, typically requiring only a vote of the HOA board. Typical rules include mandatory maintenance fees (perhaps collected monthly), pet restrictions, and color/design choices visible from the exterior of the units. Generally, these sets of rules and regulations are made available to residents and or as a matter of public record, via a condominium or homeowners association website, or through public files, depending on the state and its applicable laws. Condominiums are usually owned in fee simple title, but can be owned in ways that other real estate can be owned, such as title held in trust. In some jurisdictions, such as Ontario, Canada, or Hawaii US, there are "leasehold condominiums" where the development is built on leased land.

In general, condominium unit owners can rent their home to tenants, similar to renting out other real estates, although leasing rights may be subject to conditions or restrictions set forth in the declaration (such as a rental cap for the total number of units in a community that can be leased at one time) or otherwise as permitted by local law.

Non-residential uses
Condominium ownership is also used, albeit less frequently, for non-residential land uses: offices, hotel rooms, retail shops, private airports, marinas, group housing facilities (retirement homes or dormitories), bare land (in British Columbia) and storage. The legal structure is the same, and many of the benefits are similar; for instance, a nonprofit corporation may face a lower tax liability in an office condominium than in an office rented from a taxable, for-profit company. However, the frequent turnover of commercial land uses in particular can make the inflexibility of condominium arrangements problematic.

Australia
In Australia, condominiums are known as "strata title schemes" or "community title schemes".

Canada
The 2011 National Household Survey (NHS) showed that one in eight Canadian households lived in condominium dwellings, colloquially known as "condos", mostly located in a few censuses metropolitan areas according to Statistics Canada. Condominiums exist in most parts of Canada, though they are more common in larger cities. They are regulated under provincial or territorial legislation, and specific legal details vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In most parts of Canada, they are referred to as condominiums, except in British Columbia, where they are referred to as a strata, and in Quebec, where they are referred to as syndicates of co-ownership. The townhouse complex of Brentwood Village in Edmonton, Alberta, was the first condominium development in Canada (registered in 1967). With regular condominiums, the unit owner usually owns the internal unit space and a share of the corporation; the corporation owns the exterior of the building land and common area; in the case of a freehold condominium the owner owns the land and building and the corporation owns common shared roadways and amenities. The Canadian Condominium Institute is a non-profit association of condominium owners and corporations with chapters in each province and territory. The Condo Owners Association COA Ontario is a non-profit association representing condominium owners with divisions across the province and districts within the various municipalities.

Denmark
Apartments (Danish ejerlejlighed, literally "owner-apartment") comprise some 5% of Danish homes. They are traded and mortgaged on the same markets as freestanding houses, and are treated legally much like other forms of real estate. Each owner-tenant directly owns their own apartment; the rest of the building and the ground on which it stands is owned jointly by the apartment owners, who execute their joint ownership through an owner's association. The expenses of maintaining the joint property are shared pro rata among the owners.

Another 5% of Danish homes are in housing cooperatives (Danish andelsbolig), which occupy a legal position intermediate between condominiums and housing associations. The entire property is legally owned by a non-profit corporation, in which the tenants own shares; each share carries the right and duty to lease an apartment from the cooperative. Shares can be bought and sold, but often the cooperative's rules strictly limit the price for which they may change hands. (In contrast, condominiums are traded on a free market). Because the official share prices are often lower than the market value and sellers often retain the freedom to select whom to sell to, under-the-table payments are common.

Current public policy favors condominiums over housing cooperatives, and recent legislation has aimed at making the latter more condominium-like. For example, since 2005, cooperative shares may be used to secure bank loans. (However, Danish mortgage banks still may not mortgage individual housing cooperative apartments.)

England and Wales
In England and Wales, one of the equivalent legal structures of a condominium is commonhold, a form of ownership introduced in September 2004. As of 3 June 2009, there were 12 commonhold residential developments comprising 97 units in England and one commonhold residential development, comprising 30 units, in Wales. "Condominium" is not a term that is widely used in England and Wales. Commonhold is a creature of statute and comparatively rare, and condominiums are more likely to be found in the form of leaseholds because of long-standing legal differences between leasehold and freehold tenure.

By virtue of the landmark case of Tulk v Moxhay, in English law only restrictive covenants can be enforced against freehold land. This means it is not possible to enforce a positive covenant on successive owners of freehold land, other than to maintain a boundary fence, without creating an elaborate trust. A positive covenant is, broadly, one that involves the expenditure of money to perform.

This did not create a significant problem until the 1950s when flats (where ownership is divided horizontally) first began to appear on the market as more affordable, particularly for first-time buyers. Until then flats had been confined to short-term unsaleable tenancies, with varying degrees of statutory rent protection and security of tenure.

It was soon learned that freehold flats were an unsatisfactory form of ownership because it was not possible to impose essential maintenance requirements. As such, flats became virtually unmarketable because they were an unacceptable form of security to lenders. Thus solicitors, the principal property lawyers in England and Wales in those days, began to use leases instead, where such limitations did not apply.

Progress was haphazard and piecemeal, but over time things became more standard. Improvements became universal as institutional lenders refused to advance money on the security of flats unless certain basic provisions were included. This benefited owners whether or not they borrowed money since the purchase was invariably conducted through a solicitor or licensed conveyancer trained to reject leases failing to meet the necessary standards.

Despite these standards, the actual form of leasehold systems is variable. Highly favoured are arrangements where the leases are granted out of a freehold owned by a corporation, itself owned by individual leaseholders. This provides an opportunity for them to participate in the proper management of the block. Again, the quality of management is very variable.

The statute creating commonholds was motivated by a desire to eliminate some of the problems and perceived injustices, such as the commercial exploitation of lessees by freeholders as their leases began to have too little time left to satisfy lenders. Since most leasehold developments are undertaken by commercial entities, commonholds did not become widespread. There are, however, other statutes in place that give some degree of protection for leaseholders. It is, nevertheless, essential to consider proper legal advice whenever engaged in the purchase of a flat, for the requirements for a fully marketable flat remain complex.

The Law of Property Act 1925, s. 153, contains provisions for the "enlargement" of leases into freeholds, one of the effects of which is to preserve the enforceability of positive covenants contained in the lease against the resulting freehold. There are clear, but stringent, requirements. Artificial schemes using the provisions to create enforceable positive covenants in freehold blocks of flats were occasionally mooted but never gained currency.

On 21 July 2020 the UK Law Commission reported on the existing difficulties and made proposals to improve the law and encourage the acceptance of commonhold as the preferred form of tenure.

Finland
In Finland, a condominium-like arrangement where the ownership of the real estate is assigned to specific apartments (hallinnanjakosopimus, avtal om delning av besittningen) is usually used only with detached or semi-detached houses.

A housing cooperative is a common form of home ownership in Finland. Owning shares that correspond to one apartment in a housing company is generally considered as much owning your own home as actually directly owning a (single family) house. However, shares are not considered as real estate but as personal property and the co-op can take possession of the apartment for a term time and evict the tenant or owner because of disturbance or unpaid maintenance fees.

Finnish housing cooperatives are incorporated as (non-profit) limited-liability companies (asunto-osakeyhtiö, bostadsaktiebolag), where one share usually represents one square meter (sometimes ten) of the apartment.

Membership in a condo is obtained by buying the shares on the open market, most often through a real estate agent. No board approval is needed to buy shares, but in some cases other stockholders or the housing cooperative itself has the right to claim the stocks being sold. There is usually no requirement for the owner(s) to live in the condo. Owning apartments for rent is a common form of saving and private investment in Finland.

Germany
In Germany, condominiums are known as Eigentumswohnungen (lit. 'ownership dwellings') and the most important law considering condominiums is the Wohnungseigentumsgesetz (abbreviated WoEigG). It is the basis for all legal regulations involving individual freehold ownership, the rights, and duties of homeowner associations, and the management of condominiums. The WoEigG dates back to 1951, but it was re-enacted in 2007. Now, homeowners are invested with partial legal capacity, which means that the homeowner association represents an entity with rights and duties that may include contracts. The right of ownership is divided in the first article of the WoEigG into homeownership, individual freehold ownership, part ownership, and commonhold ownership.

Greece
In Greece, condominiums became very popular in the 1960s. It is a building one sees everywhere in Greece, since most of its population lives in big cities. They are known as πολυκατοικίες (polykatoikíes), literally "multi-residences".

Hong Kong
In Hong Kong the equivalent to a condominium is a "multi-owner building" or "building in multiple ownership". These are sometimes part of a private housing estate comprising multiple buildings but often consist of a single building owned in common. The relationships among the parties, including rights of exclusive occupation of flats and parking spaces, are defined by the deed of mutual covenant ("DMC", analogous to the master deed described above) and the Building Management Ordinance Cap. 344.

Hungary
Condominiums are a very common form of real estate ownership in contemporary Hungary, as most state- or municipality-owned apartments were privatized following the end of socialism in Hungary in 1989. Historically, condominiums (társasház) were formalized as a legal ownership structure as early as 1924.

Condominiums in Hungary are traded and mortgaged on the same market as any free-standing single-family home (kertesház; "garden-house"), and are treated much like other forms of real estate. The condominium acts as a non-profit legal entity maintaining the common areas of the property, and is managed by a representative (közös képviselő) elected by the owners' convention. Historically, this representative was one of the owners themselves; in the 21st century, however, the owners' convention typically hires a professional building manager who does not personally live in the building. Decisions that involve changes to the terms and conditions, or larger common expenses, still need to be approved by the convention, however. Voting power is based on the percentage of property owned.

India
In India, condominiums are known as "Apartments" or "Apartment Buildings/Complexes" or "Societies" or "Flats". Each building consists of multiple floors and flats/living units with different configurations. The most common configurations are "1-BHK", "2-BHK" and "3-BHK" (BHK stands for bedroom-hall-kitchen).

The association of homeowners has many names - two common names are Resident Welfare Association (RWA) and the other being a Co-operative Housing Society (CHS) or Co-operative Group Housing Society (CGHS), which needs to be registered with the municipal authorities.

Iran
Iranian government has begun supporting villas and opposing apartment building concerned by people's manner.

Israel
In Israel, condominiums (known "בתים משותפים", "shared houses" or "cooperative houses") are a common form of home ownership. Public housing has historically been organized as subsidized purchases and mortgages in government-constructed condominiums.

Italy
In Italy, the condominium ("Condominio") is governed by law, last reformed in 2012. Co-ownership of the common parts of the buildings (such as the stairs, main walls, facades, roof, and courtyards) is mandatory: a landlord can not give up the right to common parts for not paying the costs. Each owner's quota in the condominium is expressed in thousandths ("millesimi") of the whole; these are used to determine majorities in owners' assemblies ("assemblee condominiali").

The Netherlands
See housing cooperative under owners association.

Norway
Condominiums (Norwegian Eierseksjon) was formally introduced in 1983. Approximately 19% of Norwegian homes are condominiums, as approximately 50% of the owner-occupied flats and duplexes, approximately 30% of the rowhouses, and 2.5% of the detached houses are organized as condominiums.

Pakistan
The title "Condominiums" is not used in Pakistan rather they are called "Flats" for average-style buildings while "Complexes" for sophisticated and larger buildings. The minimum number of floors for a building to be classified as "Flats" is four, with a requirement for having at least one elevator or lift for buildings upwards of four floors. Almost all have a separate room called the "Drawing Room", used for guest entertainment purposes. However, its use as a TV room and dining room is common. Another unique feature is the balcony or "terrace", which is standard for all flats.

Philippines
In the Philippines, condominiums are classified into three types: low-rise, mid-rise, and high-rise. Condos have a special type of ownership title called a CCT - condominium certificate of title. Condominiums usually have amenities, like swimming pools, owned parking, a clubhouse, and a building for administration.

Russia
Initially, the concept of a condominium was introduced by the Federal Law "On the Fundamentals of the Federal Housing Policy" No. 4218-1 dated December 24, 1992: "Condominium is an association of owners of residential premises in apartment buildings with the establishment of conditions for joint ownership and use of inter-apartment stairs, elevators, corridors, roofs, technical basements, non-apartment engineering equipment, adjacent territory, and other common areas.

Singapore

In Singapore and Malaysia, "Condo" or "Condominium" are terms used for housing buildings with some special luxury features like security guards, swimming pools, or tennis courts.

In Singapore, most houses without such features are built by the governmental Housing Development Board (HDB), and such HDB units can be possessed for rent or individually bought from the government. Condominiums and HDB flats make up the overwhelming majority of available residential housing in the country.

South Africa
In South Africa, condominiums are known as "Sectional Title" properties and are governed by the Sectional Titles Act No. 95 of 1986. Town-house complexes and many apartment blocks typically have this form of title. The owners of the complex constitute the Body Corporate, and the Body Corporate elects a group of Trustees to manage the day-to-day management of the complex, who often hire a company specialising in complex management, known as a Managing Agent.

Spain
In Spain, condominiums are known as "comunidad de propietarios" (legal term) and "comunidad de vecinos" (popular term), and are governed by the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal (L.P.H.) which significantly extends the Spanish Civil Code. L.P.H. became the law in 1960 and more than half of the Spanish population live in condominiums. According to INE, there are almost 840,000 condominiums in Spain which comprise around 9 million habitat buildings.

Sweden
On 1 May 2009, condominiums (ägarlägenheter) became available for the first time under Swedish law. Of the 14,447 newly built apartments completed in 2009, only six were condominiums. A majority of production, 7,723 units, were apartments in housing cooperatives (bostadsrättslägenheter), the traditional form of owner-occupied apartment housing. As of late 2014, there were 955 condominiums total throughout all of Sweden.

Thailand
Nationwide, as of February 2018, Bangkok represented 58% of Thailand's new construction condominium market while the other provinces accounted for the remaining 42%. The unit type has seen steady growth in the Thai market over the previous decades, in contrast to the declining percentage in the traditional detached house. The condo development trend continues nationwide as dozens of projects are in progress in Bangkok, several others are underway in the Eastern Economic Corridor provinces of Chon Buri and Rayong, and to the west in Phetchaburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan.

United States
The first condominium law passed in the United States was in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in 1958. In 1960, the first condominium in the continental U.S. was built in Salt Lake City, Utah. The legal concept had spread to the U.S. from Europe via the Caribbean (Puerto Rico and Cuba) but throughout the 1960s it was widely and erroneously reported that the concept had arisen in the U.S. directly based on a Roman model. In fact, the concept of an estate in the air was antithetical to Roman law, and there is no evidence of an ancient Roman condominio.

Section 234 of the Housing Act of 1961 allowed the Federal Housing Administration to insure mortgages on condominiums, leading to a vast increase in the funds available for condominiums, and to condominium laws in every state by 1969. Since then, the term ‘condominium’, or ‘condo’ for short, has become a household word in the U.S. Many Americans' first widespread awareness of condominium life came not from its largest cities but from South Florida, where developers had imported the condominium concept from Puerto Rico and used it to sell thousands of inexpensive homes to retirees arriving flush with cash from the urban northern U.S.

The primary attraction to this type of ownership is the ability to obtain affordable housing in a highly desirable area that typically is beyond economic reach. Additionally, such properties benefit from having restrictions that maintain and enhance value, providing control over blight that plagues some neighborhoods.

Over the past several decades, the residential condominium industry has been booming in some metropolitan areas, such as Miami, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Chicago, Austin, Los Angeles, and New York City. However, in recent years, supply within the condo industry has caught up with demand, and sales have slowed. It is now in a slowdown phase.

An alternative form of ownership, popular in parts of the U.S. but found also in other common law jurisdictions, is housing cooperative, also known as "company share" or "co-op". A Housing Cooperative is where the building has an associated legal company and ownership of shares gives the right to a lease for the residence of a unit. Another form is ground rent (solarium) in which a single landlord retains ownership of the land (solum) but leases the surface rights (superficies) which renew in perpetuity or over a very long term. This is comparable to a civil-law emphyteusis, except that emphyteusis shifts the duties of up-keep and making improvements onto the renter.

In the U.S., there are several different styles of condominium complexes. For example, a garden condominium complex consists of low-rise buildings built with landscaped grounds surrounding them. A townhouse condominium complex consists of multi-floor semi-detached homes. In condominium townhouses, the purchaser owns only the interior, while the building itself is owned by a condominium corporation. The corporation is jointly owned by all the owners and charges them fees for general maintenance and major repairs. Freehold townhouses are exclusively owned, without any condominium aspects. In the U.S., this type of ownership is called fee simple.

New York's Condominium Act was passed in 1964. The first condominium building was the St. Tropez Condominium in Manhattan, built in 1965.

title: Condominium


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Talk:Fabian Pascal

Remark
Seems to of rather marginal value. RedWolf 06:44, Nov 22, 2003 (UTC)

Gadgetopia Link
I added a link to a raging conversation thread I had with Pascal on my blog. I don't mean for this to be self-promotional, but I think the conversation is extremely representative of Pascal's views and how he approaches those who dissent.

If the powers-that-be find it inappropriate, I accept deletion without argument (but read the thread first, and I think you'll agree it effectively sums up everything that is Fabian Pascal).

If you do delete, please put a note here. Thanks.

-- Deane

 * I removed the gadgetopia link referred to by Deane. Rather than a conversation, the link led to an essay about a conversation, and Fabian was not immediately apparent as a conversant at the linked webpage. As one who is reasonably familiar with Fabian's views, I did not find the linked essay reflected those views as claimed.

 * I found the essay extremely representative of those who dislike Fabian and representative of how some other people approach him rather than vice versa. As such, I felt it strongly expressed the author's POV and apparent dislike as well as the author's original research.

 * I replaced an unattributed quote that I felt was taken very much out of context to create POV with another quote from an earlier point at the same source. 1. The replacement quote expresses Fabian's disdain accurately without additional context. 2. Starting from the replacement quote, one will quickly encounter the quote I removed. 3. One will also see the other quote in its proper context.

 * I added links for both quotes for attribution/verifiability. Bob Badour 05:16, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

 * I reintroduced the gadgetopia link as verification of the 'critics view' statement in the article. Bob Badour 06:36, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

Fabian Pascal seems to hate America, and he is right, most Americans don't have the means to understand his work IMHO:

http://www.dizwell.com/2005/09/new-orleans.html

"The govt we have today is NOT that which was founded. It was destroyed and corrupted over the years by the consequences of capitalism, and the emergence of the corporation.

This was facilitated by the gullibility of the american public, which is in large part due to the destruction of the education system."

POV, OR and Reputable Sources
I edited some rather obvious unverifiable POV in the main article. Not everyone would agree that Fabian's criticisms are vitriolic, nor would everyone agree that Fabian criticizes DBMS users, nor would everyone agree about what he criticizes DBMS vendors and experts for. At the same time, the earlier statement left out many things Fabian does criticize very bluntly and even sweepingly.

After separating out the non-controversial and the critics' POV--identifying it as a POV--I reintroduced the gadgetopia link as justification for the critics' POV statement. I have concerns regarding whether the link constitutes a reputable source, however. Perhaps a better source could be found.

I did not write a statement from his defenders' POV because I do not have a reputable source for it, and it would almost certainly be my own original research.

Neither do I have a reputable source for the statement I wrote as the non-controversial description of Fabian's criticisms. Anyone who is familiar with Fabian's work will find it rather obvious that he criticizes all of the things mentioned in the statement. Hopefully that suffices.

Bob Badour 06:36, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

I've added a POV check template to the page. This page currently reads as a kind of altar of worship for Fabian Pascal, which is rather bizarre. I'd suggest that the introduction read more like: "Fabian is known for his criticisms of the ... bias. Pascal advocates strict adherence to the principles of the relational model, and argues that departing from the model in the name of pragmatism is responsible for serious data management troubles.  Criticism of Pascal's advocacy generally centers around his personal conduct, which some perceive as unprofessional and overly aggressive."

Considered irrelevant (by me) are: whether Fabian Pascal's criticism is "stark", whether Fabian Pascal makes personal attacks on people, how it would ever be possible to verify that there are or are not recorded personal attacks, what counts as a "personal attack", and (on this page) whether there is such a thing as a "practical" form of the relational model that differs from its pure form. (The latter could certainly fit as a statement of Fabian Pascal's views, and also as a general point of view on other pages; but it's inappropriate to include statements of the form "Fabian Pascal is right" on the biography page for Fabian Pascal.) Cdsmith

 * I agree with Cdsmith's assessment. I made the changes he recommends and removed the POV tag. I would encourage any who can improve conformance to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or who can improve the quality of the article while conforming to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines to forge ahead and do so. Mistakes are easily reverted. Bob Badour 17:16, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Rewording
Changed "personal conduct" (too broad) to "polemical style"; also changed "aggressive" to "confrontational" (as far as he doesn't physically attack his opponents). Even "confrontational" doesn't quite cut it: it is the matter of whether one should refrain from personal insults in a professional exchange, or "call spade a spade". GregorB 20:14, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Fabian Pascal


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Melbourne Folk Punk
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Melbourne meetup
Hey all, just a reminder that there's a meetup tomorrow at 11am in North Melbourne. There are more details at the meetup page. Hope to see you tomorrow! SteveBot (talk) 05:12, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Meetup invitation: Melbourne 26
Hi there! You are cordially invited to a meetup next Sunday (6 January). Details and an attendee list are at Meetup/Melbourne 26. Hope to see you there! John Vandenberg 07:07, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

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Proposed deletion of Motley crew

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User talk:Nullproductions

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Penobscot

The Penobscot (Abenaki: Pαnawάhpskewi) are an Indigenous people in North America from the Northeastern Woodlands region. They are organized as a federally recognized tribe in Maine and as a First Nations band government in the Atlantic provinces and Quebec.

The Penobscot Nation, formerly known as the Penobscot Tribe of Maine, is the federally recognized tribe of Penobscot in the United States. They are part of the Wabanaki Confederacy, along with the Abenaki, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Miꞌkmaq nations, all of whom historically spoke Algonquian languages. The Penobscots' main settlement is now the Penobscot Indian Island Reservation, located within the state of Maine along the Penobscot River.

Name
The Penobscot's name for themselves, Pαnawάhpskewi, means "the people of where the white rocks extend out". It originally referred to their territory on the portion of the Penobscot River between present-day Old Town and Verona Island, Maine. It was misheard by European colonizers as "Penobscot", which gives them their name today.

Government
The Penobscot Nation is headquartered in Penobscot Indian Island Reservation, Maine. The tribal chief is Kirk Francis. The vice-chief is Bill Thompson. The Penobscot are invited to send a nonvoting representative to the Maine House of Representatives.

In 2005, Penobscot Nation began a relationship with Venezuela's government led by Hugo Chavez. It accepted aid in the form of heating oil. Tribal chief Kirk Francis traveled to New York City to meet with Chavez.

Pre-contact
Indigenous peoples are thought to have inhabited Maine and surrounding areas for at least 11,000 years. They had a hunting-gathering society, with the men hunting beaver, otters, moose, bears, caribou, fish, seafood (clams, mussels, fish), birds, and possibly marine mammals such as seals. The women gathered and processed bird eggs, berries, nuts, and roots, all of which were found locally.

People on the present-day Maine coast practiced some agriculture, but not to the same extent as that of Indigenous peoples in southern New England, where the climate was more temperate. Food was potentially scarce only toward the end of the winter, in February and March. For the rest of the year, the Penobscot and other Wabanaki likely had little difficulty surviving because the land and ocean waters offered much bounty, and the number of people was sustainable. The bands moved seasonally, following the patterns of game and fish.

Contact and colonization

During the 16th century the Penobscot had contact with Europeans through the fur trade. It was lucrative and the Penobscot were willing to trade pelts for European goods such as metal axes, guns, and copper or iron cookware. Hunting for fur pelts reduced the game, however, and the European trade introduced alcohol to Penobscot communities for the first time. It has been argued that the people are genetically vulnerable to alcoholism, a racist sentiment with no evidence which Europeans frequently tried to exploit in dealings and trade. Penobscot people and other nations made pine beer, which had vitamin C; in addition to being an alcoholic beverage, it had the benefit of allaying the onset of scurvy.

When European colonizers arrived, they brought alcohol in quantity. Europeans may have slowly developed enzymes, metabolic processes, and social mechanisms for dealing with a normalized high intake of alcohol, but Penobscot people, though familiar with alcohol, had never had access to the gross quantity of alcohol that Europeans offered.

The Europeans carried endemic infectious diseases of Eurasia to the Americas, and the Penobscot had no acquired immunity. Their fatality rates from the introduction of measles, smallpox and other infectious diseases was high. The population also declined due to further encroachment by settlers who cut off access to the Penobscot's main food source of running fish through the process of damming the Penobscot River, the loss of big game through the process of clear cutting of forests for the logging industry and through massacres carried out by settlers. This catastrophic population depletion may have contributed to Christian conversion (among other factors); the people could see that the European priests did not suffer from the pandemics. The latter said that the Penobscot had died because they did not believe in Jesus Christ.

At the beginning of the 17th century, Europeans began to live year-round in Wabanaki territory. At this time, there were probably about 10,000 Penobscot (a number which fell to below 500 by the early 19th century). As contact became more permanent, after about 1675, conflicts arose through differences in cultures, conceptions of property, and competition for resources. Along the Atlantic Coast in present-day Canada, most settlers were French; in New England they were generally English speaking.

The Penobscot sided with the French during the French and Indian War in the mid-18th century (the North American front of the Seven Years' War) after British colonists demanded the Penobscot join their side or be considered hostile. In 1755, governor of Massachusetts Spencer Phips placed a scalp bounty on Penobscot. With a smaller population and greater acceptance of intermarriage, the French posed a lesser threat to the Penobscots' land and way of life.

After the French defeat in the Battle of Quebec in 1759, the Penobscot were left in a weakened position as they had lost their main European ally. During the American Revolution, the Penobscot sided with the Patriots and played an important role in the conflicts which occurred around the border between British Canada and the United States. Despite this the new American government did not seem to recognize their contributions. Anglo-American settlers continued to encroach on Penobscot lands.

In the following centuries, the Penobscot attempted to make treaties in order to hold on to some form of land, but, because they had no power of enforcement in Massachusetts or Maine, Americans kept encroaching on their lands. From about 1800 onward, the Penobscot lived on reservations, specifically, Indian Island, which is an island in the Penobscot River near Old Town, Maine. The Maine state government appointed a Tribal Agent to oversee the tribe. The government believed that they were helping the Penobscot, as stated in 1824 by the highest court in Maine that "...imbecility on their parts, and the dictates of humanity on ours, have necessarily prescribed to them their subjection to our paternal control." This sentiment of "imbecility" set up a power dynamic in which the government treated the Penobscot as wards of the state and decided how their affairs would be managed. The government treated as charitable payments those Penobscot funds derived from land treaties and trusts, which the state had control over and used as it saw fit.

Land claims
In 1790, the young United States government enacted the Nonintercourse Act, which stated that the transfer of reservation lands to non-tribal members had to be approved by the United States Congress. Between the years of 1794 and 1833, the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes ceded the majority of their lands to Massachusetts (then to Maine after it became a state in 1820) through treaties that were never ratified by the US Senate and that were illegal under the constitution, as only the federal government had the power to make such treaties. They were left only the Penobscot Indian Island Reservation.

In the 1970s, at a time of increasing assertions of sovereignty by Native Americans, the Penobscot Nation sued the state of Maine for land claims, calling for some sort of compensation in the form of land, money, and autonomy for the state's violation of the Nonintercourse Act in the 19th century. The disputed land accounted for 60% of all of the land in Maine, and 35,000 people (the vast majority of whom were not tribal members) lived in the disputed territory.

The Penobscot and the state reached a settlement, Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act (MICSA), in 1980, resulting in an $81.5-million-dollar settlement that the Penobscot could use to acquire more tribal land. The terms of the settlement provided for such acquisition, after which the federal government would hold some of this land in trust for the tribe, as is done for reservation land. The tribe could also purchase other lands in the regular manner. The act established the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission, whose function was to oversee the effectiveness of the Act and to intervene in certain areas such as fishing rights, etc. in order to settle disputes between the state and the Penobscot or Passamaquoddy.

Because it is a federally recognized sovereign nation with direct relations with the federal government, the Penobscot have disagreed with state assertions that it has the power to regulate hunting and fishing by tribal members. The Nation filed suit against the state in August 2012, contending in Penobscot Nation v. State of Maine, that the 1980 MICSA settlement gave the Nation jurisdiction and regulatory authority over hunting and fishing in the "Main Stem" of the Penobscot River as well as on its reservation.

At the request of the Nation, the US Department of Justice has joined the suit on behalf of the tribe. In addition, in an unprecedented step, five members of the Congressional Native American Caucus representing other jurisdictions filed an amici curiae brief in support of the Penobscot in this case. In addition to its reservation, the Nation owns islands in the river extending 60 mi upriver; it also acquired hundreds of thousands of acres of land elsewhere in the state, as a result of the 1980 settlement of its land claim. Some analysts predict that this case will be as significant to Indian law and sovereignty as the fishing rights cases of Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s, which resulted in the 1974 Boldt decision affirming their rights to fishing and hunting in their former territories. The five members of the Congressional Native American Caucus who filed are Betty McCollum (D-MN), co-chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus with Tom Cole (R-OK) (Chickasaw); Raúl Grijalva, (D-AZ), vice chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus; Ron Kind (D-WI), vice chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus; and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), vice chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus.

Language
Penobscot people historically spoke a dialect of Eastern Abenaki, an Algonquian language. It is very similar to the languages of the other members of the Wabanaki Confederacy. There are no fluent speakers and the last known Penobscot speaker of Eastern Abenaki, Madeline Tower Shay, died in the 1990s. A dictionary was compiled by Frank Siebert. The elementary school and the Boys and Girls Club on Indian Island are making an effort to reintroduce the language by teaching it to the children. The written Penobscot language was developed with a modified Roman alphabet; distinct characters have been developed to represent sounds that do not exist in the Roman alphabet.

In 1643, Roger Williams wrote A Key into the Language of America. In this work, Williams explained that the language of the Narragansett people (and tribes they'd overtaken or forced into submission) used a language differing only from the northern Algonquian people, in dialect. He wrote that if one tribe's language was known, communication with the other tribe was possible; this was the case all the way north to remote areas of Labrador. Natives in Labrador spoke Algonquian and the Labrador neighbors were of same linguistic stock as the Narragansett tribe. (Williams wrote that this was not the case with the drastically different Iroquois language.) Fluent in many languages, Williams had lived with native people to improve his native language skill before embarking on missionary work and authoring prayer conversion booklets. His opinion, Williams wrote, was that the Narragansett (hence the Algonquian) in many cases had words that were Hebrew or in a few cases Greek that he recognized from his work in old Hebrew and Greek biblical text translations. His book A Key into the Language of America includes a phonetic English dictionary that Williams wished to publish so that his knowledge of this Native American language would not die with him.

Ethnobotany
The Penobscot smear the sap of Abies balsamea over sores, burns, and cuts.

Baskets
The Penobscot traditionally made baskets out of sweet grass, brown ash, and birch bark. These materials grow in wetlands throughout Maine. However, the species are threatened due to habitat destruction and the emerald ash borer. This insect threatens to destroy all ash trees in Maine, much as it already has devastated ash forests in the Midwest.

The baskets were traditionally made for practical use, but after European contact, the Penobscot began making "fancy baskets" for trade with the Europeans. Basket-making is traditionally a woman's skill passed down in families. Many members of the tribe have been learning traditional forms and creating new variations.

Birchbark canoes
The birch bark canoe was at one time an important mode of transportation for all nations of the Wabanaki Confederacy. Each nation makes a characteristic shape of canoe. The vessels are each made from one piece of bark from a white birch tree. If done correctly, the large piece of bark can be removed without killing the tree.

Spirituality
The Penobscot have a rich history of connection to the land and all of its bounties in Maine which is apparent in their folklore and reverence towards all things. Their rich spiritual cosmology informs their efforts of preserving land and natural resources in their sacred homeland. The landscapes of Maine are extremely valuable to the survival and beliefs of the Penobscot; their namesake river is personified, and most dear to them. Annette Kolodny describes "how deeply rooted the Penobscot cosmology is within the Maine landscape; their ethic of mutual obligation to a land full of spirits, animal-people, and daunting power is fundamentally geographic, every place name helping to orient a traveler in relation to both physical space and spiritual power."

Their reverence is also based on their cosmology starting with their origin story where Klose-kur-beh (Gluskbe) is the central character. Klose-kur-beh provides the Penobscot with "spiritual knowledge" and "practical knowledge (like how to construct a canoe)" as well instilling their "ethical precepts through" twelve 'episodes' which instill the importance of each unique value. Klose-kur-beh provides humans and animals with practical skills needed to thrive in the unforgiving climate of the North East and punishes those who operated outside of his code. Since Klose-kur-beh dates back to creation, according to Penobscot cosmology he was aware of other races and warned of the arrival of the white man, "What makes the white man dangerous is the lethal combination of his greed ('he [. . .] wanted the whole earth') and his lust for power ('he wants the power over all the earth'). That combination leads him to 'reach forth his hand to grasp all things for his comfort' and, in the process, virtually destroy the world". This warning from such a prominent figurehead in Penobscot beliefs highlights that they upheld the values of preservation and protection of Maine's land and ecological resources.

The French missionaries converted many Penobscot people to Christianity. In the 21st century, some members practice traditional spirituality; others on Indian Island are Catholic or Protestant.

Nature
Through their folklore, the Penobscot are taught "that the plants and animals were their helpers and companions, just as the people, in their turn, were to act as kin and companions to the living world around them.... Such stories embed their listeners in a universe of mutually interacting and intimate reciprocal relationships." This starkly contrasts the European view which saw the land as something to be owned and commodified, highlighting the need for advocacy to improve and protect the culture and land of the Penobscot.

Gambling
In 1973 the nation opened Penobscot High Stakes Bingo on Indian Island. This was one of the first commercial gambling operations on a reservation in the United States. Bingo is open one weekend every six weeks. The Penobscot tribe has pushed for state legislation allowing them to add slot machines to their bingo hall, which has been granted.

In popular culture
The climax of the 1825 novel Brother Jonathan by Maine native John Neal is set on Indian Island during the American Revolutionary War. The novel features a protagonist of mixed Penobscot-English descent and describes the island as "the last encampment of the Penobscot Red men".

Notable Penobscot

 * Maulian Bryant, first Penobscot tribal ambassador, daughter of former chief Barry Dana.
 * Donna M. Loring, author, broadcaster, and tribal representative of the Penobscot
 * Madockawando, a sachem, led his people against the English settlers during King William's War
 * Sherri Mitchell, an attorney, author, teacher and activist
 * Wayne Mitchell, politician, was elected by the Penobscot Tribe of Maine to serve as a non-voting tribal representative to the Maine House of Representatives
 * Horace Nelson, political leader and the father of dancer and actress Molly Spotted Elk
 * Old John Neptune, medicine man and tribal leader mentioned by Henry David Thoreau
 * Joseph Nicolar, Tribal Representative to Maine Legislature and celebrated author of The Life and Traditions of the Red Man (1893)
 * Joseph Orono, sachem who urged his tribesmen to side with the Americans against the English
 * Lucy Nicolar Poolaw, entertainer billed as "Princess Watahwaso", businesswoman, and activist
 * Darren Ranco, anthropologist at the University of Maine
 * June Sapiel, activist
 * Rebecca Sockbeson, Wabanaki scholar, activist, and associate professor at the University of Alberta
 * Theresa Secord, artist, basketmaker, geologist and activist, related to Horace Nelson
 * Charles Norman Shay, a Penobscot Tribal Elder and decorated (Bronze Star, Silver Star, Légion d'honneur) veteran of both World War II and the Korean War.
 * Andrew Sockalexis, a marathon runner who competed in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, inducted into the Maine Running Hall of Fame in 1989
 * Louis Sockalexis, the first Native American to play in major league baseball (Cleveland Guardians).
 * Molly Spotted Elk (Mary Alice "Molly Dellis" Nelson Archambaud), 1903–1977, internationally known dancer who starred in the classic film, The Silent Enemy
 * ssipsis, poet, social worker, visual artist, writer, editor and storyteller, her work was focused on and inspired by the advancement of Indigenous peoples
 * Kiayaun Williams-Clark, American actor most notably from Saints of Newark, Power, and Guild
 * Carla Knapp, National Vice President of Native Services, Boys & Girls Clubs of America

Many Penobscots moved to urban areas around the World War II era to Boston, Connecticut, New York City, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh; and the Cleveland, Ohio area to settled in the West Side (of the Cuyahoga River) or "Cuyahoga" neighborhood; and in Baltimore and Washington DC.

Maps
Maps showing the approximate locations of areas occupied by members of the Wabanaki Confederacy (from north to south):

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Long-toed stint

The long-toed stint (Calidris subminuta) is a small wader. The genus name is from Ancient Greek kalidris or skalidris, a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific subminuta is from Latin sub, "near to" and minuta, "small" from its similarity to the little stint, Calidris minuta.

It breeds across northern Asia and is strongly migratory, wintering in south and south east Asia and Australasia. It occurs in western Europe only as a very rare vagrant.

This bird has yellowish legs and a short thin dark bill. Breeding adults are a rich brown with darker feather centres above and white underneath. They have a light line above the eye and a brown crown. In winter, long-toed stints are grey above. The juveniles are brightly patterned above with rufous colouration and white mantle stripes.

This bird can be difficult to distinguish from other similar tiny waders which are known collectively as "peeps" or "stints". In particular, the long-toed stint is very similar to its North American counterpart, the least sandpiper. It differs from that species in its more slender, longer-necked appearance, longer toes, somewhat brighter colours, and weaker wingbar.

These birds forage on mudflats, picking up food by sight, sometimes by probing. They mainly eat small crustaceans, insects and snails. Little is known of the breeding habits of this species, although it nests on the ground, and the male has a display flight.

Description
The long-toed stint is a very small wader measuring just 13 to 16 cm in length with a wingspan of 26.5 to 30.5 cm. It weighs about 25 g. It has a small head and short, straight sharp-tipped beak. The neck is slender, the belly rounded and the long legs are set well back. The toes are long and slender, especially the middle one. The primary feathers extend as far as the tail. The crown is brown and there is a pale streak just above the eye. The upper parts are brown with the centres of the feathers darker brown. The breast is speckled with pale brown and the underparts are white. The legs and feet are yellow and the beak dark brown, apart from the base of the lower mandible which is yellow or pale brown.

This bird has a distinctive stance and its flight call distinguishes it from other sandpipers. On the ground it can be confused with the red-necked stint (Calidris ruficollis) but is more finely built and slightly smaller.

Distribution and habitat
The long-toed stint breeds in Siberia during the Northern Hemisphere summer. Little is known of its breeding habits but its breeding range includes the Chukchi Peninsula, the Koryak Plateau, the Commander Islands, the Kuril Islands, land bordering the Sea of Okhotsk, north Verkhoyansky District and around the Ob River and the Irtysh River. After the breeding season it migrates southwards passing through China, Indochina, Malaysia and the Philippines and westwards to Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldive Islands. It is a visitor to New Guinea and Australia and a vagrant to Sweden, South Africa, Melanesia, Hawaii, the northwestern USA and the vicinity of the Bering Sea. In its over-wintering range it visits a variety of wetland habitats including shallow freshwater or brackish areas, lakes, swamps, floodplains, marshes, lagoons, muddy shores and sewage ponds.

Behaviour
The long-toed stint forages in wet habitats, probing the ground with its beak. It feeds on molluscs, crustaceans, amphibians, insects, other invertebrates and seeds. It roosts in hollows in soft mud or in low vegetation bordering its feeding area. In its breeding range in Russia its habitat is tundra, taiga, open grassy bogs or swamps. The nesting site tends to be in an area with mosses, sedges and dwarf willows and is typically a well-hidden, shallow depression on a mound of sedge or dried grass.

Status
The long-toed stint has a very wide range and it is estimated that there are somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 individuals globally. There may be in the region of 25,000 breeding pairs. The population trend is unknown but the IUCN has listed the bird as being of least concern. No particular threats have been identified.

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Rice cooker

A rice cooker or rice steamer is an automated kitchen appliance designed to boil or steam rice. It consists of a heat source, a cooking bowl, and a thermostat. The thermostat measures the temperature of the cooking bowl and controls the heat. Complex, high-tech rice cookers may have more sensors and other components, and may be multipurpose.

The term rice cooker formerly applied to non-automated dedicated rice-cooking utensils, which have an ancient history (a ceramic rice steamer dated to 1250 BC is on display in the British Museum). It now applies mostly to automated cookers. Electric rice cookers were developed in Japan, where they are known as suihanki (炊飯器, literally, "boil-rice-device").

History
The NJ-N1, developed by Mitsubishi Electric in 1923, was the first electric rice cooker, a direct ancestor of today's automatic electric rice cookers. At that time, electricity was not widely used in ordinary households; it was for use on ships. It was a simple mechanism that heated with an attached heating coil without automation.

In the 1940s and early 1950s, Mitsubishi Electric, Matsushita Electric (now Panasonic), and Sony introduced electric rice cookers for home use with built-in heating coils, but they too were not automated and were not well received and sold poorly.

The ER-4, introduced by Toshiba on December 10, 1955  (or 1956 ), was the world's first automatic electric rice cooker for home use. It was developed by Toshiba's Shogo Yamada beginning in 1951 and completed in 1955 thanks to a breakthrough invention by Yoshitada Minami (ja), president of a Toshiba partner company. Research and development was a continuous process of trial and error. Research showed that rice cooks best when cooked at a temperature of 98 C for 20 minutes, so theoretically rice should cook well if an automatic timer is set to turn off the cooker 20 minutes after the water in the pot has boiled. However, the time it takes for the water to boil varies depending on the temperature, the amount of heat generated by the pot, and the amount of rice and water, so in the prototype stage, sometimes the rice was overcooked and burnt, while at other times it was undercooked and the rice was left with a core. The revolutionary idea to solve this problem was to use a double-layered structure for the pot. The mechanism involved filling the outer pot with a glass of water and heating it. After about 20 minutes, the water would evaporate and the temperature would rise rapidly, which the thermostat would detect and turn off.

The initial launch price was 3,200 yen, about one-third of the average college graduate's starting monthly salary. At its launch, 700 units were produced, but they did not sell well. The company then conducted sales promotions using the sales networks of electric power companies, held sales demonstrations, and sold an automatic timer that could turn on the rice cooker at any time, and the product's popularity exploded. By 1960, four years after its introduction, the automatic electric rice cooker was in use in about half of all Japanese households.

The success of Toshiba's automatic electric rice cookers sparked a "manufacturing war", and Matsushita Electric entered the field as early as 1956 with the EC-36. The EC-36 was a cheaper product that used a single pot, reducing the amount of metal used and making it more competitive in terms of sales.

Later, the automatic electric rice cooker was well received in Asian countries and around the world under the name "Automatic Rice Cooker". It also had a great impact on society, giving housewives more time and accelerating the women's liberation movement. On the other hand, Helen Macnaughtan argued that the invention of the automatic electric rice cooker, which freed women from menial tasks in the kitchen and allowed some women to work part-time, was not a great victory for women's liberation because it gave them more time to devote to other household tasks.

In 1972, a rice cooker with a heat-retention function was introduced, and in 1979, an electronic rice cooker equipped with a microcomputer that could also manage the soaking of rice after washing and the heat level. In 1988, rice cookers with electromagnetic induction heating were introduced, which provided higher heating.

Principle of operation

A basic rice cooker has a main body (pot), an inner cooking container which holds the rice, an electric heating element, and a thermostat.

The bowl is filled with rice and water and heated at full power; the water reaches and stays at boiling point (100 °C, 212 °F). When the water has all been absorbed, the temperature can rise above boiling point, which trips the thermostat. Some cookers switch to low-power "warming" mode, keeping the rice at a safe temperature of approximately 65 °C (150 °F); simpler models switch off; the rice has entered the resting phase.

More advanced cookers may use fuzzy logic for more detailed temperature control, induction rather than resistive heating, a steaming tray for other foods, and even the ability to rinse the rice.

Rice types and rice cookers
Brown rice generally needs longer cooking times than white rice, unless it is broken, or flourblasted (which perforates the bran).

Many models feature an ability to cook sticky rice or porridge as an added value. Most can be used as steamers. Some can be used as slow cookers. Some other models can bake bread or in some cases have an added function to maintain temperatures suitable for fermentation of bread dough or yogurt. Multi-purpose devices with rice cooking capability are not necessarily called "rice cookers", but typically "multi-cookers".

A rice cooker, or slow cooker, can be used in conjunction with a temperature probe and an external thermostat to cook food at a stable low temperature ("sous-vide").

Other uses
Steam rice cookers have been shown to be effective for decontamination of face masks.

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Ecological yield

Ecological yield is the harvestable population growth of an ecosystem. It is most commonly measured in forestry: sustainable forestry is defined as that which does not harvest more wood in a year than has grown in that year, within a given patch of forest.

However, the concept is also applicable to water, soil, and any other aspect of an ecosystem which can be both harvested and renewed—called renewable resources. The carrying capacity of an ecosystem is reduced over time if more than the amount which is "renewed" (refreshed or regrown or rebuilt) is consumed.

Ecosystem services analysis calculates the global yield of the Earth's biosphere to humans as a whole. This is said to be greater in size than the entire human economy. However, it is more than just yield, but also the natural processes that increase biodiversity and conserve habitat which result in the total value of these services. "Yield" of ecological commodities like wood or water, useful to humans, is only a part of it.

Very often an ecological yield in one place offsets an ecological load in another. Greenhouse gas released in one place, for instance, is fairly evenly distributed in the atmosphere, and so greenhouse gas control can be achieved by creating a carbon sink literally anywhere else.

History
Some of the earliest academic papers on the subject were researching methods of sustainable fishing. Work of Russel et al. in 1931 observed in particular that ”it appears that the ideal of a stabilised fishery yielding a constant maximum value is impractical.” This work was mostly theoretical. Practical work would begin later, performed by industry and government agencies.

Motivation
Ecological yield is a theoretical construct which aggregates information from several physically measurable quantities. It can be used to reason about other ecological indicators such as the footprint. It can also be used as a decision-making tool for governments and corporations.

Ecological footprint
The idea of ecological footprints is to measure the cost of economic activity in terms of the amount of ecologically productive land required to sustain it. Doing this accurately requires estimating how productive the land is; in other words, it requires measuring ecological yield. Conversely, one can extract ecological yield estimates from ecological footprint estimates.

Avoiding overexploitation
Corporations take out loans to buy equipment and land use rights. In order to pay back these loans, they must extract and sell resources from the land. If the corporation is ignorant of the yield of the land in question, then the debt instruments may demand a yield greater than the ecological capacity to renew. Green economics links this process with ecocide and poses solutions through monetary reform.

Even well-meaning corporations may systematically overestimate the yield of an ecosystem. In the case of multiple corporations bidding for land rights, an economic phenomenon known as the winner's curse causes the winning party to systematically overestimate the economic value of the land. Typically the economic value comes mostly from the ecological yield, in which case the corporation will overestimate that as well.

Another form of overestimation may come from generalizing data from other ecosystems. For example, the same species of fish in two different systems may have significantly different diets. If its diet in one region consists mostly of algae but in another region consists largely of smaller fish, then it will be more expensive for the latter ecosystem to produce the fish. Yield will be correspondingly lower in the second region. This example illustrates the need for ecosystem-specific study and monitoring in order to reason about ecological yield.

Definition and properties
One may define yearly ecological yield for a fixed ecological product as follows: the yield is the amount of the product which may be removed from the ecosystem so that it is capable of recovering in one year. As a theoretical property of ecosystems, it cannot be measured directly but only estimated. Note that definition is sensitive to the time period which is allowed for recovery: the amount of product one can remove which regenerates over 3 years is not necessarily 3 times that which one can remove and regenerate over 1 year. The yearly ecological yield is most useful because of the cycle of seasons and the commercial notion of the fiscal year. The seasons affect growth through temperature, sunlight, and rain, especially at the lowest trophic level. The fiscal year affects decisions by corporations to harvest resources: they may choose to harvest at or above ideal levels based on their need for short-term cash flow.

Yield of the whole biosphere
In 1986, Vitousek et al. estimated that humans made use of 50 petagrams (50 billion tons) per year of biomass produced from photosynthesis. They also estimated that these 50 billion tons comprised between 20% and 40% of photosynthetic activity on earth. Separately, the Global Footprint Network estimates the total human footprint as 1.6 times the total biosphere. This implies that ecosystems are overexploited by a factor of 1.6 on average.

Theoretical prediction
In most biomes, the only form of primary production is photosynthesis. In other words, all new biomass can be traced back to photosynthetic plants and algae by a chain of predation. Therefore, one can predict the yield of one organism in an ecosystem as a function of the yield of its primary producers. When the biomass from prey is converted into biomass in its predator, some losses occur due to biological and thermodynamic inefficiency. The conversion rate is typically about 10%. In other words, 100 kg of plant matter may be converted into 10 kg of herbivores, which then may be converted to 1 kg of carnivores who exclusively eat herbivores. One can compute the trophic level of an organism as the weighted average of length of the predation chain from the organism to a primary producer. This trophic level determines an exponential multiplier to convert from primary producer biomass to the organism's biomass.

Measuring forests
One can measure the amount of wood removed from a forest by asking the company who removed it; typically only one company has the logging rights to any given plot of land. In order to measure the regrowth of the forest in the coming year, typically one picks a representative subsample of the region and tracks every single tree in the subsample.

One such study measured growth in a section of the Tapajós National Forest for 13 years after logging activity. The loggers intended to harvest on a 30-year cycle. Logging in this region is restricted to mature trees measuring at least 45 cm DBH. Before logging, the region had somewhere between 150 m³ and 200 m³ of mature tree volume per hectare. Loggers removed about 75 m³ of tree per hectare, between 40% and 50% of the standing mass.

The authors show that growth rates in the region were elevated for up to 3 years after logging. After 13 years of growth, the basal area reached 75% of its original volume. They also show that logging makes substantial changes to the species composition and canopy structure of the forest. This introduces subjectivity into the notion of "recovery" for an ecosystem.

title: Ecological yield