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[Jailhouse Accommodation]

Welcome to Jailhouse Accommodation, Christchurch Hostel

COVID-19 LEVEL 1:  From 22 September 2020

Please get in touch regarding Lockdown Specials on short or long term accommodation. Very popular Single cells from only $185 per week and Limited Dorm beds from bargain $140 per week! Flexible Date changes apply to all daily rates.

Stay safe and follow the Ministry of Health Guidelines: https://covid19.govt.nz/

The best budget backpacker accommodation in Christchurch!

BREAKING NEWS: FREE UNLIMITED WIFI - ULTRAFAST FIBRE BROADBAND (NO LIMITS!). NETFLIX NOW AVAILABLE IN OUR TV ROOM!

Fantastic weekly rates from $140 for Winter 2020!  We have been voted Top Backpacker Hostel in Oceania once again by Hostelworld guests this year, as well as being consistently highly recommended in Lonely Planet and Rough Guides.

Our renovated heritage accommodation has had a very fascinating history as the Addington Prison from 1874 to 1999, and since opening as a backpackers hostel in 2006 our amazing accommodation has become renowned as a must-stay on the backpacker circuit.

Our suburb of Addington has become an entertainment hub with awesome new cafés and bars having recently opened, as well as being very close to the Railway Station, Orangetheory Stadium, Horncastle Arena, Addington Raceway and Hagley Park.

The Jailhouse has rooms available to suit everyone and we welcome children, youth and adults of all ages to experience our special budget accommodation.

Our hostel is clean, warm and friendly with super-comfortable inner-sprung beds.

Drop-off and pick-up point for Kiwi Experience backpacker bus. Pick-ups for some Atomic Shuttle services.

Visit the Jailhouse hostel travel desk to book all your Christchurch and New Zealand transport and adventure activities including rental cars, campervans, Stray, Kiwi Experience, Kiwi Rail and other great backpacker deals.

Enjoy a coffee at our own Jailhouse espresso coffee bar or visit one of our great local Christchurch cafés. Fantastic $12 breakfasts available at Coffee Culture 50m away.  Free WiFi.  Netflix now available in our cinema room!

Award-winning Backpackers Accommodation in Christchurch

-   'Author's Pick' Accommodation in Christchurch in Lonely Planet and 'Special Recommendation' in Rough Guide.
-   Voted best mid-sized Budget Backpacker Hostel (BBH) Youth Hostel 2007, 2008 and 2009 in New Zealand.
-   Awarded Hostelworld Number 1 Hostel in Oceania at Dublin awards Feb 2013, Number 2 Backpacker Hostel in Oceania 2007 and Number 2 in New Zealand 2008 and Number 1 Backpackers in Oceania 2009.
-   Voted Hostel Bookers number 1 for 'Atmosphere' Backpacker Hostel worldwide Feb and Nov 2008.
-   Budget Backpacker Hostel (BBH) member discounts apply.

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We are currently in Alert Level1. Appropriate hygiene measures are in place, including charging cards contactlessly prior to arrival. Please contact us DIRECT for amazing weekly/monthly rates from only $140 per week for a limited number of dorms! Single rooms in hot demand from $185 per week. For all our daily rates we offer flexible date changes. Kia Kaha.

[Budget Backpacker Hostels]

question: What kind of post is this?

answer: It seems to be an advertisement for the Jailhouse Accommodation, a hostel in Christchurch.

question: What does the post include about COVID-19?

answer: The post gives a link to the Ministry of Health Guidelines for COVID-19, and gives information about the hostel's "Lockdown Specials".

question: What age groups are allowed at the Jailhouse Accommodation?

answer: It is open to all ages.

question: What is the history of the Jailhouse?

answer: It seems to be a renovated prison. It was the Addington Prison from 1874 to 1999.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: This post is an advertisement for the Jailhouse Accommodation, a hostel in Christchurch. The post gives information about its rates, COVID-19 recommendations, a bit of history, and the awards it has received.


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IFS Election 2017 analysis is being produced with funding from the Nuffield Foundation as part of its work to ensure public debate in the run-up to the general election is informed by independent and rigorous evidence. For more information, go to http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org.

KEY FINDINGS

1. The Conservatives and the Labour Party both plan increases in the minimum wage by 2020 that would take it to an historic high. For those aged 25 and over, the Conservative plan would result in the minimum wage being £8.75 per hour in 2020. This is 5% higher than if it increased from its current level in line with average earnings. Under the Labour plan it would £10 per hour in 2020, which is 20% higher than under average earnings indexation.

2. A higher minimum wage may be effective at boosting the wages of low earners. However, a significantly increased wage for some workers must be paid for by other households via some combination of reduced profits, higher consumer prices, or lower earnings for higher-paid workers. Crucially, there must also be a point beyond which higher minimum wages have substantial negative impacts on employment. That point is not known, which makes any large and sudden increase inherently risky.

3. 4% of employees aged 25 and older were paid the National Minimum Wage in 2015. The Conservatives’ “National Living Wage” currently covers 8% of employees aged 25 and over. This is forecast to rise to 12% under current Conservative plans by 2020 and to 22% in 2020 under Labour plans. In other words, over just five years we are looking at either a three-fold increase or a more-than-five-fold increase in the proportion of employees aged 25 and over paid the minimum wage.

4. The minimum wages proposed by both parties are also high relative to other comparable countries. Labour’s plans would result in a minimum wage level (relative to average earnings) similar to that in France which is the highest among comparable countries.

5. Part-time, female and private sector employees and those in the North of England, the Midlands and Wales are most likely to be affected by the proposed increases. For employees aged 25+, under Labour’s plans, the government would effectively set the wage of around one quarter of female employees, of private sector employees, and of employees in the Midlands, North of England and Wales. It would be setting the wages of almost half of part-time employees aged 25 and over.

6. The benefit from minimum wage increases is concentrated among middle-income households, not the lowest-income households. A few factors explain this. Many individuals on low wages are in middle- or high-income households as a result of the earnings of their partner; many of the lowest-income households have no-one in work at all; and low-income households that do gain are likely to see significant reductions in means-tested benefits as a result of higher wages, offsetting some of the gains.

7. Labour’s plan to extend their proposed £10 minimum wage to all employees aged 18 and over amounts to a 62% increase in the minimum wage for 18-20 year olds and a 29% increase for 21-24 year olds, relative to earnings indexation . This would mean that 60% of 18-24 year old employees would be paid the minimum, including 77% of 18-20 year olds. Given that unemployment can have severe and long lasting effects on young people, even a modest negative employment impact resulting from such large increases in their minimum wages would be a cause for considerable concern.

8. Both parties’ plans imply big increases in the costs of employing workers. The Conservative plan raises the cost of employing at least 2.8 million workers by 4% on average, the Labour plan raises the cost of employing 7.1 million workers by almost 15% on average. If employers did not cut employment (or hours of work), total employer costs from wages and employer National Insurance would – in the absence of any offsetting compensatory measure – rise by £1 billion per year under the Conservatives, and by £14 billion per year under Labour. In addition, there are possible substantial knock-on effects on those with earnings just above the proposed minima, which may be considerable.

9. The Conservative and Labour parties are both moving away from the previous model of minimum wage setting in which the independent Low Pay Commission recommended minimum wage levels while carefully considering the consequences for employment. There may well be a case for higher minimum wages than we have had up to now. But we do not know at precisely what point a higher minimum wage will start having serious negative employment effects. Therefore large and sudden increases create considerable risk that those who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the policy end up paying the cost in higher unemployment or lower hours of work.

Conservatives plan increases in the minimum wage; Labour’s planned increases are much larger and also affect 18-24 year olds

FIGURE 1. SCENARIOS FOR MINIMUM WAGE RATES IN 2020–21, BY AGE [DOWNLOAD THE DATA]

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Note: Conservative policy is for the National Living Wage (minimum wage for those aged 25 and over) to reach 60% of median earnings in 2020–21, which is currently forecast to be £8.75 in 2020–21 by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). Given no statements on the rates for younger people, we assume than under Conservative policy, the rates for 18-20 and 21-24 year olds would grow in line with average earnings, as forecast by the OBR.

Source: Authors’ calculations using OBR Economic Fiscal Outlook March 2017, Summer Budget 2015 and Labour Party statements.

In 2017–18, minimum wages are £7.50 an hour for those aged 25 and over, £7.05 for 21-24 year olds, £5.60 for 18-20 year olds and £4.05 for 16-17 year olds. There is a separate apprentice rate of £3.50. Both the Conservative Party and Labour Party have plans to increase minimum wages in the next parliament. Upon the announcement of the National Living Wage (the NLW- the minimum wage for those aged 25 and over) in 2015, the Conservative government announced that the NLW would rise to reach 60% of median (middle) hourly earnings in 2020. This level is currently forecast to be £8.75 in 2020–21: 40p (5%) higher than if the NLW was instead increased in line with average earnings and £1.10 (14%) more than it would have been had the national minimum wage (NMW) increased with average earnings from 2015. The setting of the minimum wages for younger employees aged 16-17, 18-20 and 21-24 remains with the Low Pay Commission, who are meant to set these rates as high as is possible “without damaging their employment prospects”.

In contrast, the Labour Party has announced that, in government, it would increase the minimum wage to reach £10 per hour for all employees (excluding those eligible for the apprentice rate) aged at least 18 in 2020.[1] This would imply especially large rises in the minimum wage for those aged under 25, who currently are subject to lower rates. Compared to increasing all minimum wage rates in line with average earnings, this amounts to an increase of 20% (£1.65 per hour) for those aged 25 and over, 29% (£2.25 per hour) for 21-24 year olds and 62% (£3.85 per hour) for 18-20 year olds.

Higher minimum wages are not costless and, beyond some (unknown) level, must substantially increase unemployment

Minimum wages do not come for free. First, even where the higher wages are simply paid by employers, those wage increases must be paid for by other people to at least some extent. This is because they will either lead to lower profits, affecting business owners and shareholders (including large numbers of people with pensions invested in listed companies), or higher prices faced by consumers, or pay cuts for other workers (or some combination).

Another potential effect of a higher minimum wage is for workers to be offered fewer hours of work or to lose their jobs – or for unemployed workers not to find one – as it is no longer profitable for employers to employ them. To date, studies of the effect of the minimum wages in the UK (and elsewhere) have not found significant negative effects on employment.[2] Contrary to popular perception this does not contradict modern economic theory. It contradicts a simple model of a perfectly competitive labour market in which all workers are just paid according to their productivity (or more precisely their “marginal product”). But it is perfectly possible to explain why a carefully set minimum wage may not have negative impacts on employment. For an overview of the theory and evidence see Manning (2016).[3]

However, there will be a level beyond which a higher minimum wage will start to reduce employment. This is not in doubt and is implied by any reasonable description of how a labour market might work. It should be clear from an extreme example: if wage contracts of less than £100 per hour were outlawed, it would be unprofitable to employ vast swathes of the population and fewer would be employed. What is not clear is at precisely what point substantial job losses would materialise from further increases in the minimum wage.

Minimum wage increases will always, therefore, create both winners and losers. These losers could include shareholders, consumers or higher paid workers, but they could also be lower paid workers if the higher minimum wage leads to reduced employment. Hence, whilst a carefully applied minimum wage may well be a useful policy lever to boost the earnings of low-wage workers, it is a policy lever that could harm those it intends to help. Even if politicians accept the risk of lower employment, they should be clear about the potential consequences of their actions: if there are winners then there will be losers too.

It is possible that a higher minimum wage could boost productivity, perhaps through increases in motivation or morale, or by reducing employee turnover (therefore reducing the costs spent by employers on hiring new employees), or – in the long run – because employers invest more in productivity-enhancing capital. Higher productivity could partially offset reductions to national income caused by lower employment. However, upon the introduction of the NLW, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) assessed that it would decrease national income by 0.1% (about £2.3 billion per year in 2020) overall: implying that the wage gains for those benefitting were more than offset by losses for other households.

Unfortunately, the evidence on the impacts of minimum wages provides very little guidance as to the effect of considerably higher minimum wages than the UK currently has, as proposed by both Conservative and Labour parties. It is therefore very hard to predict how employers and individuals will respond to a minimum wage that is increased as sharply as the main parties are planning.

This report examines how the proposed minimum wages compare to the minimum wages set since 1999, and to minimum wages in other countries. It also looks at which groups of employees will be particularly affected by the proposed policies.

Both parties’ plans would see the minimum wage rising to historic highs...

FIGURE 2. REAL MINIMUM WAGE FOR EMPLOYEES AGED 25 AND OVER, 1999–2017 AND UNDER CONSERVATIVE AND LABOUR PLANS FOR 2020

[DOWNLOAD THE DATA]

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Note: Minimum wage measured in April of each year. National Minimum Wage for 1999 to 2015, National Living Wage 2016 to 2020. Adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Prices Index (OBR forecasts from 2017–18 to 2020–21). Source: Authors’ calculations using Low Pay Commissio

FIGURE 3. MINIMUM WAGE AS A PROPORTION OF MEDIAN HOURLY WAGES FOR EMPLOYEES AGED 25 AND OVER, 1999–2017 AND UNDER CONSERVATIVE AND LABOUR PLANS FOR 2020

[DOWNLOAD THE DATA]

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Note: Measured in April of each year. National Minimum Wage for 1999 to 2015, National Living Wage 2016 to 2020. Excludes apprentices in the first year of their apprenticeship.  Source: Low Pay Commission Autumn Report 2016 (Figure 2.4) and authors’ calculations using the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

Both Labour’s proposals and the Conservatives’ plans for the minimum wage represent sizeable increases in the minimum wage received by employees aged 25 and older. Figure 2 shows the Conservatives’ NLW is forecast to grow by 10% between 2017 and 2020 (after accounting for inflation), whereas Labour’s policy would lead to a 25% increase over the same period.[4] These rises would come on top of growth of 11% just seen in the two years between 2015 and 2017 due to the introduction of the NLW in April 2016.

These substantial increases would result in the level of the minimum wage relative to average earnings reaching historic highs. While Figure 3 shows the minimum wage has tended to grow faster than median earnings since its introduction – rising from 46% of median earnings in 1999 to 53% in 2015 – both parties’ policies would cause a step change in this trend. The introduction of the NLW has already boosted the share to 57% in 2017. Further rises under a re-elected Conservative government would see the NLW hit 60% of median earnings by 2020 – the official objective of the policy – whereas the minimum wage under a Labour government would be equivalent to 68% of median earnings by 2020.

...and, especially under Labour, high relative to other comparable countries.

FIGURE 4. MINIMUM WAGE AS A PROPORTION OF FULL-TIME MEDIAN HOURLY WAGE

[DOWNLOAD THE DATA]

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Note: All non-UK figures are for 2015. Source: OECD Employment and Labour Market Statistics, (http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/employment/data/earnings/minimum-wages-relative-to-median-wages_data-00313-en) and authors’ calculations using the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

To place the Conservative and Labour plans in an international context, Figure 4 ranks developed countries by their national minimum wages as a share of average full-time earnings.[5] It shows the UK was roughly in the middle of the international ranking in 2015 and had moved slightly higher by 2017 as a result of the introduction of the NLW. Further increases in the NLW proposed by the Conservatives would see the UK’s minimum wage rise to a level similar to Australia’s by 2020. Labour’s plans, by contrast, would result in a minimum wage similar to that of France, which currently has the highest minimum wage among comparable countries. In this context it is unfortunate that we have little robust evidence on the impact that France’s minimum wage has had on employment.[6]

Under Conservative plans, and to an even greater extent under Labour, the minimum wage would rise well above levels seen before in the UK, and to amongst the highest levels in comparable countries. To implement these policies would be to take a risk. We do not know what the impact on employment and hours worked would be.

Share of employees aged 25+ paid the minimum wage would rise from 8% now to 12% under Conservative plan or 22% under Labour.

FIGURE 5. PROPORTION OF EMPLOYEES AGED 25+ PAID THE MINIMUM WAGE, 1999–2017 AND UNDER CONSERVATIVE AND LABOUR PLANS FOR 2020 [DOWNLOAD THE DATA]

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Note: Measured in April of each year. National Minimum Wage for 1999 to 2015, National Living Wage 2016 to 2020. “Paid minimum wage” also includes workers with observed pay less than their minimum wage rate. Excludes apprentices in the first year of their apprenticeship. Source: Low Pay Commission Autumn Report 2016 (Figure 2.9), and authors’ calculations using the Labour Force Survey and Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

Figure 5 shows that the minimum wage rises planned by both the Conservatives and Labour are expected to increase substantially the proportion of employees aged 25 or above who are paid at the national wage floor. Whereas only 4% of employees aged 25 and over in 2015 were paid the NMW, and 8% are now (in 2017), this is forecast to rise to 12% in 2020 under Conservative plans and 22% under Labour plans. In other words, over just 5 years we are looking at either a three-fold increase or a more-than-five-fold increase in the proportion of employees aged 25 and over paid the minimum wage.

One might wonder why the difference here between the two parties sounds so large, when Labour’s £10 minimum wage in 2020 (in nominal terms) would be only £1.25 per hour higher than the Conservatives’. This reflects the fact that a lot of employees are paid slightly more than the current NLW. As a result, even small changes can substantially increase the number of employees paid at the minimum. For example, the relatively small increase of 5% (compared to indexation in line with average earnings) proposed by the Conservatives between 2017 and 2020 still leads to an extra 4% of employees aged 25 and over  (940,000 people) paid the minimum wage.

Higher minimum wages could also have important impact on those who earn more than the new minimum wage. Many of those people will be in jobs that are more skilled or come with more responsibility than minimum wage jobs, and employers may feel it necessary to increase their pay too to preserve at least some of the differential between their pay and that of lower paid (and lower skilled) jobs. This kind of “spillover” effect has been observed before after the introduction of the NMW in 1999 and also the NLW in 2015.[7] These wage increases increase employers’ costs further, and – just as with the pay increases of those on the minimum wage – must ultimately be paid for by other households.

Part-time, female and private sector employees and those in the North, Midlands and Wales most likely to be affected by minimum wage rises

Minimum wage and other low-paying jobs are more prevalent among certain types of employees. This means the proportion of employees paid at or below the minimum wage under Conservative and Labour plans would vary considerably between different groups. This can be seen in Figure 6, which shows that minimum wage jobs are most prevalent among part-time (working less than 30 hours per week), female and private-sector employees and in the North of England, Midlands and Wales.

By 2020, these groups would see the greatest rises in the proportion of employees paid at the minimum wage under both Conservative and Labour’s plans. Hence these groups face both the greatest potential gain from higher minimum wages, but also probably the greatest risk of substantial job losses.

The Labour plans would see the following fractions of employees aged 25 and over paid the minimum wage in 2020 (assuming, of course, that these people all continue to be employed, which would be by no means assured):

-   More than a quarter of women;
-   More than a quarter of the private sector employees;
-   Almost half of part-timers;
-   More than a quarter of those in the North of England, Midlands and Wales.

The Conservatives’ NLW, by contrast, would directly affect almost 1 in 6 female, private-sector employees, and those working in the North of England, Midlands and Wales and about 1 in 4 of those working part time. While these are lower than the figures under Labour, they would represent substantial increases relative to the current situation, as the Figure makes clear.

FIGURE 6. PROPORTION OF EMPLOYEES AGED 25 AND OVER PAID THE MINIMUM WAGE IN 2017 AND UNDER CONSERVATIVE AND LABOUR PLANS [DOWNLOAD THE DATA]

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Note: “Paid minimum wage” also includes workers with observed pay less than their minimum wage rate. Excludes apprentices in the first year of their apprenticeship. Source: Authors’ calculations using the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). Northern Ireland not included as ASHE does not include Northern Ireland.

Share of employees aged 18-24 paid at the minimum would rise five-fold, from 12% to 60%, under Labour plans

FIGURE 7. PROPORTION OF EMPLOYEES AGED 18-24 PAID THE MINIMUM WAGE IN 2017 AND UNDER LABOUR PLANS FOR 2020 [DOWNLOAD THE DATA]

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Notes and sources: See Figure 6.

A major part of Labour’s (but the not the Conservatives’) minimum wage plans is to extend the proposed £10 minimum wage to all employees aged 18 and over. This means the minimum wage for 21-24 year olds (currently £7.05) would be 29% higher in 2020 than if it increased in line with average earnings, and for 18-20 year olds (currently £5.60) it would be 62% higher. Figures 7 and 8 show this would lead to a massive rise in the proportion of young employees paid at the legal minimum. A Labour government would effectively be directly setting the wages of 60% of 18-24 year-old employees by 2020, and 77% of those aged 18-20 (compared to 12% now in both cases).

FIGURE 8. PROPORTION OF EMPLOYEES AGED 18-20 PAID THE MINIMUM WAGE IN 2017, AND UNDER LABOUR PLANS FOR 2020 [DOWNLOAD THE DATA]

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Notes and sources: See Figure 6.

We have had lower minimum wage rates for younger employees since the introduction of the minimum wage almost two decades ago. There are good reasons for setting lower minimum wages for younger people. Younger employees, on average, have considerably lower wages than older workers. There is no question that much of this reflects productivity differences, due to the benefits of experience, training and expertise (and, many younger workers are receiving training and have low wages in light of the costs of providing that training). Setting the same minimum wage for all risks making it unprofitable for employers to hire younger workers and hence putting them at a disadvantage in terms of employment prospects. Unless there are proposals also to raise the Apprentice Rate of the minimum wage substantially (currently £3.50 per hour), it would give employers a large incentive to employ young people only as apprentices. Moreover, there is good evidence that unemployment at a young age can have a particularly damaging impact on their later lives. Therefore such a rapid and large increase in the minimum wage for younger employees is particularly dangerous. It could not only have an immediate negative impact on their employment, but on their labour market prospects for years to come.

Those who do benefit from minimum wage increases tend to be in middle-income households

FIGURE 9. ESTIMATED SHARE OF MECHANICAL INCREASE IN NET HOUSEHOLD INCOME ACCRUING TO DIFFERENT PARTS OF INCOME DISTRIBUTION FROM INCREASES IN MINIMUM WAGE [DOWNLOAD THE DATA]

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Note: Income is measured as total net household income (before housing costs) equivalised using the McClements equivalence scale. Conservative and Labour policies are measured relative to a baseline scenario in which all current (2017–18) minimum wage rates and the NLW are uprated in line with average earnings. Source: Authors’ calculations using the IFS tax and benefit model, TAXBEN, run on the 2015–16 Family Resources Survey and the 2015–16 Labour Force Survey.

Politicians may claim that increasing minimum wages help those on low incomes. However, although the direct impact of an increase in minimum wages is to boost the earnings of employees with the lowest hourly wages, this does not mean low-income households gain the most from such policies. This can be seen in Figure 9, which shows the share of the total increase in net household income under Conservative and Labour proposals received by each income decile. It is extremely important to realise that this is simply looking at the direct, mechanical gains: as we emphasised earlier, in reality, the money used to pay higher wages must be coming from somewhere (ultimately other households) and there may be knock-on effects on employment, neither of which are incorporated in the analysis in Figure 9.

The chart shows that middle-income households are the largest direct beneficiaries from a higher minimum wage. A key reason for this is that many individuals with low hourly wages are not in especially low-income households. In particular, many have a working partner and two-earner families do not tend to have the lowest household incomes; of course many of the very lowest-income households have no one in paid work at all. In addition, employees who do have relatively low household incomes will often find that increases in wages are partially offset by resulting reductions in entitlements to means-tested benefits, an effect which is much less important for employees in middle- (or high-) income households.

In absence of responses by employers, Conservative plans would increase employers’ costs in 2020-21 by at least £1 billion; Labour by £14 billion

TABLE 1. INCREASES IN EMPLOYER COST IN 2020-21 (FROM COMBINATION OF WAGES AND EMPLOYER NATIONAL INSURANCE CONTRIBUTIONS) [DOWNLOAD THE DATA]

+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
|                       | CONSERVATIVE PLANS IN | LABOUR PLANS IN 2020  |
|                       | 2020                  |                       |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| Average increase in   | £480 per year         | £2,000 per year       |
| cost to employer, per |                       |                       |
| employee brought on   | (4.0%)                |          (14.7%)      |
| to minimum wage       |                       |                       |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| Proportion of all     | 10%                   | 26%                   |
| employees directly    |                       |                       |
| affected by higher    |                       |                       |
| minimum wages         |                       |                       |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| Number of employees   | 2.8 million           | 7.1 million           |
| directly affected by  |                       |                       |
| higher minimum wages  |                       |                       |
| in 2020–21            |                       |                       |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| Average increase in   | £50 per year          | £530 per year         |
| cost to employer per  |                       |                       |
| employee              | (0.1%)                | (1.5%)                |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| Total directly        | £1.3bn per year       | £14.1bn per year      |
| increase in employer  |                       |                       |
| costs:                | (0.1%)                | (1.5%)                |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| _Of which:_           |                       |                       |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| Increased cost of     | £0bn per year         | £4.5bn per year       |
| employees aged 18-24  |                       |                       |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| Increased cost of     | £1.3bn per year       | £9.5bn per year       |
| employees aged 25 and |                       |                       |
| over                  |                       |                       |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+

Note: Conservative and Labour policies are measured relative to a baseline scenario in which all current (2017–18) minimum wage rates and the NLW are uprated in line with average earnings. Employer cost includes both wages and salaries paid to employees and employer National Insurance contributions. It does not include any mandatory employer pension contribution if employees do not choose to leave a workplace pension into which they will have been automatically enrolled. Source: Authors’ calculations using the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

One way to understand why there could be significant responses from employers to the proposed increases in minimum wages is to examine the direct increase in cost of employing workers that they face as a result of higher minimum wages. Table 1 sets out the extra cost to employers under the Conservative and Labour proposals, accounting for the impacts on wages as well as employer National Insurance contributions. It only looks at the effect on employers’ costs from increasing the pay of those paid under the new minimum wage, not any potential effect on the earnings of those paid above that level. This latter effect could in practice be very substantial.

The Conservative plans would result in increased employer costs for 10% of employees – totalling 2.8 million in 2020–21, averaging £480 per year, or 4.0%, for each employee brought on to the minimum wage, or £50 per year per employee when spread across all employees. This is equivalent to 0.1% of the total cost of employing workers or a total of £1.3 billion per year. As stated above, this extra cost would have to borne by someone – be it shareholders, consumers or employees.

Table 1 highlights the scale of the impact of Labour’s proposed £10 per hour minimum wage. The cost of employing one in four employees would rise as a direct result, averaging £2,000 per affected employee per year – a 14.7% rise in the employer cost of employing those affected employees. The fact that so many employees are affected (7.1 million in 2020–21) and with such a large increase in their cost means that the increase in employer cost is £530 per employee per year even when spread across all employees (not just those directly affected). This amounts to a total of £14 billion per year (1.5% of the total cost of employing workers).

Of course, the increase in employer cost will be concentrated in firms and sectors that tend to hire low skilled employees: for example cleaning, hospitality, hairdressing, retail, food processing, childcare and social care. Faced with an increase of such magnitude, it is easy to imagine why employers – particularly in the most affected sectors – would seek to reduce their labour costs, most obviously through reducing employment (perhaps in some cases substituting through contracting self-employed individuals, who do not qualify for the minimum wage, to carry out specific tasks), but also by reducing non-wage benefits, such as pensions, overtime, or maternity or sick pay.

It is also worth noting that these extra costs would come on top of increased costs of providing pensions to employees due to the roll-out of automatic enrolment, as the minimum employer contribution to workplace pensions increases from 1% of (qualifying) earnings now to 3% by 2019.

The next government could seek to mitigate some of the extra costs to employers: for example, through some form of tax break for employers deemed particularly financially vulnerable to large increases in the minimum wage.[8] This is an option, but it would of course come at a cost to the taxpayer – under Labour in particular, compensating employers for a significant fraction of the increase in cost would clearly be expensive.

A key challenge would be to target any such support effectively at the parts of the economy most in need of it. But there would be other tricky issues. Any taxpayer support that simply transferred certain sums of money to certain employers, without making that amount dependent on their future decisions about how many people to employ, would not actually affect the cost of employing _any individual worker._ Hence it would not incentivise firms to employ more workers (or make fewer redundant, given the increases in wages). To be most effective at mitigating employment effects, any support would need to be targeted at increasing the incentive to hire the (low skilled) workers that a higher minimum wage makes less desirable to hire. That is likely to be complicated. It also starts to look rather like the state trying to make transfers to low-paid workers through rather convoluted means when more straightforward methods, such as restoring the generosity of work allowances in universal credit, are available.

There may well be a case for raising minimum wages above their current levels. But large and sudden increases in minimum wages are extremely risky: we do not know what their effects will be. If they do not result in increased unemployment, it will be more by luck than judgement.

Until the Summer Budget in 2015, the minimum wage was set by the government after careful consideration of the evidence of its likely impact, and based on a recommendation by the independent Low Pay Commission. The minimum wage was meant to be set at the highest level that was deemed to be possible without damaging employment prospects. The introduction of the NLW marked a departure from this careful process.

There are reasons for being somewhat more radical than the Low Pay Commission has been. A somewhat higher minimum wage might not damage employment prospects very much, and might boost pay and push employers towards greater investment in skills and in capital. But the worry must be that the minimum wage becomes a political bidding tool, with competing parties pledging higher minimum wages as an offer to voters, without explaining the potential risks and dangers of their proposed policies, and by picking juicy-sounding round numbers without careful analysis of the implications. Would politicians be willing and able to lower minimum wages if they are found to have deleterious effects on the labour market and people’s employment prospects?

There are also specific concerns with the way that minimum wages would be set under the Conservatives’ and Labour Party’s proposals. For the Conservatives, by introducing the National Living Wage and pledging to increase it significantly each year until 2020, they have given themselves no chance to assess its impact before introducing further rises. However, the “60% of median earnings target” does at least reduce the growth of the minimum wage if earnings growth in general turns out to be weak.

On the Labour side, there are a number of other concerns. First, their promise to deliver a £10 hourly rate by 2020 is independent of the path of the economy over the next few years. Indeed the OBR now expects average earnings will be 3% lower in 2020–21 than when Labour first stated the £10 pledge in September 2016. Such an inflexible target increases the risk that the minimum wage affects an even greater share of the workforce than is currently expected or than the Labour party themselves originally intended.

Second, the Labour Party has said that it would set a minimum wage policy in consultation with a “Living Wage Review Body”. As the concept of a living wage is based on the cost of achieving a certain standard of living, this would fundamentally divorce the setting of the minimum wage from any consideration of its impact on employment. Put another way, a “living wage” is calculated as the wage that should guarantee a certain standard of living for people who work full time. It does not take account of the number of people who would actually be able to obtain employment at such a wage in the first place. Setting a key economic policy without regard to its most potentially harmful outcome is not sensible.

Finally, setting a minimum which is the same for an 18 year old as a 30 year old is particularly risky. Few 18 year olds are highly skilled and few can command high wages (as evidenced by how few earn more than the equivalent of £10 per hour). If in work, what they need more than anything is often experience and high quality training. If any group is likely to be priced out of paid work by this policy it looks likely to be the young. The long term costs to them of being priced out could be very large indeed.

Ultimately, the most difficult thing about the setting of minimum wage policy is that we do not know the point at which the minimum wage significantly hits employment. But this should lead to a very simple conclusion: politicians should be particularly careful when setting its level. There is a good case for a minimum wage. But large and sudden increases create considerable risk that those who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the policy end up paying the cost of ill thought out proposals in higher unemployment or lower hours of work.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes

[1] See Jeremy Corbyn’s speech on April 10th 2017: “That’s why Labour will raise the legal minimum wage for all to at least £10 an hour by 2020”.

[2] However, while the studies do not find short run negative effects on employment, they do not consider long run negative impacts as employers slowly switch to using technology instead of labour as a result of the higher minimum wage (see Aaronson, French, Sorkin and To (2017)  Industry Dynamics and the Minimum Wage: A Putty-Clay Approach International Economic Review)

[3] Manning, A. (2016) The Elusive Employment Effect of the Minimum Wage, CEP Discussion Paper No. 1428

[4] Note that Labour’s minimum wage is not equal to £10 here as we express future cash amounts in current (2017–18) prices (i.e. taking into account the effect of forecast inflation).

[5] We do not include countries such as Italy, Norway and Sweden where pay floors are set using collective bargaining. The shares for the UK shown in Figure 3 differ slightly from those shown in Figure 2 to allow for comparison with available international statistics.

[6] See Manning (2016). Comparisons between countries are further complicated by substantial differences in other labour market institutions.

[7] See Low Pay Commission Report (Autumn 2016) and Butcher, Dickens and Manning (2012) Minimum Wages and Wage Inequality: Some Theory and an Application to the UK. CEP Discussion Paper. No. 1177

[8]For example, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, John McDonnell, said in his Labour Party Conference Speech in September 2016, “But we know that small businesses need to be a part of the bargain. That’s why we will also be publishing proposals to help businesses implement the Living Wage, particularly small and medium-sized companies. We will be examining a number of ideas, including the expansion and reform of Employment Allowance, to make sure that this historic step forward in improving the living standards of the poorest paid does not impact on hours or employment”

_IFS Election 2017 analysis is being produced with funding from the Nuffield Foundation as part of its work to ensure public debate in the run-up to the general election is informed by independent and rigorous evidence. For more information, go to http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org._

question: Who is producing this analysis?

answer: Nuffield Foundation

question: What will the Conservatives raise the minimum wage to?

answer: 8.75 euros/hour

question: What will the Labour Party raise the minimum wage to?

answer: 10 euros/hour

question: In which year will this proposed bill be implemented?

answer: 2020

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: In England, both the Conservatives and the Labour Party are voting to increase the minimum wage by the year 2020 with individuals over the age of 25 being eligible to receive this increased wage. Conservatives want to raise it to 8.75 euros per hour, while the Labour Party seeks to raise it to 10 euros per hour.


text:
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1.  Local News

Jul 26, 2018  •   •  3 minute read

[]
Professor Jordan Peterson made headlines in 2016, when he voiced opposition to Bill C-16, which added gender identity or expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act. Photo by Craig Robertson / Postmedia

Controversial and outspoken academic Dr. Jordan Peterson will speak at Calgary’s Arts Commons this week, despite a petition calling for the event to be cancelled.

A clinical psychologist and University of Toronto professor, Peterson made headlines in 2016 when he voiced opposition to Bill C-16, which added gender identity or expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act. The bill also added hate crimes provisions under the Criminal Code.

Peterson used YouTube to spread his views and said he would only call students “he” and “she” — not “they” as some people in the transgender community prefer to be known.

“I can envision a student or a college insisting I call them using gender-neutral pronouns . . . I’m not doing that,” Peterson said in the YouTube video. “I think it’s manipulative. And I don’t recognize another person’s right to determine what pronouns I use to address them. I won’t do it.

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“Now, again, I think that because of these new laws that my decision might be illegal and maybe it’s even a decision of hate. I’m not doing it,” he said, calling the use of gender-neutral pronouns “politically motivated.”

Peterson is scheduled to speak Friday at the Arts Commons’ Jack Singer Concert Hall, but an online petition calling for the performance to be cancelled has received hundreds of signatures.

An open letter addressed to the Arts Commons board of directors calls Peterson’s comments “toxic and often violent” and says his “ideas are misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic and racist.”

“We are deeply disappointed that Arts Commons has made the unconscionable decision to support Peterson’s values by virtue of hosting this talk, as many of the arts organizations and artists working within your venue would readily balk at being associated with such ideas,” the letter states.

“As Arts Commons continually hosts a broad and diverse intersection of audiences and artists, we ask you to consider the impact of your decision to present this talk.”

But Arts Commons says it will not cancel the talk.

In a statement, Arts Commons said it supports free speech and “is a place for all.”

“Freedom of speech means not censoring someone because we don’t agree with what they have to say,” Johann Zietsman, Arts Commons CEO, said in a statement. “We value diversity and if you look at our list of events, you will see that we have events from all corners of our society represented.”

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Zeitsman said the event was not scheduled by the venue but by event management company Live Nation, which regularly rents space from Arts Commons. And while Zeitsman said it’s understandable that some people are opposed to Peterson’s talk, “there are many others who are also part of our community that want to hear what he has to say.”

The open letter calls for Arts Commons’ “immediate cancellation of the Jordan Peterson talk and any future talks” by Peterson. It also asks Arts Commons to “implement better diversity training for all staff” and issue a public apology to the LGBTQ community.

Earlier this year, Peterson published his latest book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.

He has also launched a $1.5-million defamation suit against Wilfrid Laurier University, two of its professors and a former gender and equity manager for suggesting he was “analogous to Adolf Hitler.”

_Postmedia columnist Christie Blatchford interviews Jordan Peterson on the #Metoo movement on March 24, 2018:_

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question: Where does Peterson work?

answer: Peterson works at the University of Toronto and is a clinical psychologist.

question: Where is Peterson scheduled to speak?

answer: Peterson is scheduled to speak at Calgary's Arts Commons.

question: Why do people not want Peterson to speak?

answer: People are calling his ideas toxic and violent.

question: Are the Arts Commons going to stop Peterson's talk?

answer: No, Arts Commons is not going to stop Peterson's talk.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Dr. Peterson is giving a speech at the Calgary Arts Commons. Some in the local community are calling to cancel his talk, due to his violent and toxic views. The Arts Commons refuses to cancel, claiming "freedom of speech."


text:
_SHERANAPIS_ is a genus of South American araneomorph spiders in the family Anapidae, first described by Norman I. Platnick & Raymond Robert Forster in 1989.[1] it contains only three species, all found in Chile.[2]

[1]

[2]

title: Sheranapis

question: What is Sheranapis?

answer: Sheranapis

question: How many species does Sheranapis contain?

answer: Sheranapis contains three species.

question: Where is Sheranapis found?

answer: Sheranapis is found in Chile.

question: When was Sheranapis first described?

answer: Sheranapis was  first described in 1989.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: Sheranapis a genus of South American araneomorph spiders in the family Anapidae. It contains only three species, all found in Chile.


text:
_QUERCUS ROBUR_, commonly known as COMMON OAK, PEDUNCULATE OAK, EUROPEAN OAK or ENGLISH OAK, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is native to most of Europe west of the Caucasus. The tree is widely cultivated in temperate regions and has escaped into the wild in scattered parts of China and North America.[1][2]

Taxonomy

[Ancient pedunculate oaks at Wistman's Wood in Devon, England] _Quercus robur_ (Latin _quercus_, “oak” + _robur_ “strength, hard timber”) is the type species of the genus (the species by which the oak genus _Quercus_ is defined), and a member of the white oak section (_Quercus_ section _Quercus_). The populations in Italy, southeast Europe, and Asia Minor and the Caucasus are sometimes treated as separate species, _Q. brutia_ Tenore, _Q. pedunculiflora_ K. Koch and _Q. haas_ Kotschy respectively.

A close relative is the sessile oak (_Q. petraea_), which shares much of its range. _Q. robur_ is distinguished from this species by its leaves having only a very short stalk (petiole) long, and by its pedunculate (stalked) acorns. The two often hybridise in the wild, the hybrid being known as _Quercus × rosacea_.

_Quercus robur_ should not be confused with _Q. rubra_, the red oak, which is a native of North America and only distantly related.

Description

[An old English oak in Baginton, England] [Seedling sprouting from its acorn] [An oak sprout in a glass container]

_Quercus robur_ is a large deciduous tree, with circumference of grand oaks from to exceptional . The Majesty Oak with a circumference of is the thickest tree in Great Britain,[3] and the Kaive Oak in Latvia with a circumference of is the thickest tree in Northern Europe. _Quercus robur_ has lobed and nearly sessile (very short-stalked) leaves long. Flowering takes place in mid spring, and the fruit, called acorns, ripen by mid autumn. The acorns are long, pedunculate (having a peduncle or acorn-stalk, long) with one to four acorns on each peduncle.

_Quercus robur_ is very tolerant to soil conditions and the continental climate but it prefers fertile and well-watered soils. Mature trees tolerate flooding.[4]

It is a long-lived tree, with a large wide spreading crown of rugged branches. While it may naturally live to an age of a few centuries, many of the oldest trees are pollarded or coppiced, both pruning techniques that extend the tree's potential lifespan, if not its health. Two individuals of notable longevity are the Stelmužė Oak in Lithuania and the Granit Oak in Bulgaria, which are believed to be more than 1500 years old, possibly making them the oldest oaks in Europe; another specimen, called the 'Kongeegen' ('Kings Oak'), estimated to be about 1200 years old, grows in Jaegerspris, Denmark.[5] Yet another can be found in Kvilleken, Sweden, that is over 1000 years old and around.[6] Of maiden (not pollarded) specimens, one of the oldest is the great oak of Ivenack, Germany. Tree-ring research of this tree and other oaks nearby gives an estimated age of 700 to 800 years. Also the Bowthorpe Oak in Lincolnshire, England is estimated to be 1000 years old, making it the oldest in the UK, although there is Knightwood Oak in the New Forest that is also said to be as old. The highest density of _Q. robur_ with a circumference of and more is in Latvia.[7]

Ecological importance

[bark and wood] [_Quercus robur_ - MHNT] [The Gyula Juhász memorial tree in Makó] [_Q. robur_ 'Concordia']

Within its native range _Q. robur_ is valued for its importance to insects and other wildlife. Numerous insects live on the leaves, buds, and in the acorns. _Q. robur_ supports the highest biodiversity of insect herbivores of any British plant (>400 spp). The acorns form a valuable food resource for several small mammals and some birds, notably Eurasian jays _Garrulus glandarius_. Jays were overwhelmingly the primary propagators[8] of oaks before humans began planting them commercially (and still remain the principal propagators for wild oaks), because of their habit of taking acorns from the umbra of its parent tree and burying them undamaged elsewhere. Mammals, notably squirrels who tend to hoard acorns and other nuts usually leave them too abused to grow in the action of moving or storing them.

Commercial forestry

_Quercus robur_ is planted for forestry, and produces a long-lasting and durable heartwood, much in demand for interior and furniture work. The wood of _Q. robur_ is identified by a close examination of a cross-section perpendicular to fibres. The wood is characterised by its distinct (often wide) dark and light brown growth rings. The earlywood displays a vast number of large vessels (around in diameter). There are rays of thin (about ) yellow or light brown lines running across the growth rings. The timber is around per cubic meter in density.[9]

Cultivation

A number of cultivars are grown in gardens and parks and in arboreta and botanical gardens. The most common cultivar is _Quercus robur_ 'Fastigiata', and is the exception among _Q. robur_ cultivars that are generally smaller than the standard tree, growing to between and exhibit unusual leaf or crown shape characteristics.

In Australia

English oak is one of the most common park trees in south-eastern Australia, noted for its vigorous, luxuriant growth. In Australia, it grows very quickly to a tree of tall by up to broad, with a low-branching canopy. Its trunk and secondary branches are very thick and solid and covered with deep-fissured blackish-grey bark.[10] The largest example in Australia is in Donnybrook, Western Australia.[11]

Cultivars

-   _Quercus robur_ 'Fastigiata' (“cypress oak”), probably the most common cultivated form, it grows to a large imposing tree with a narrow columnar habit. The fastigiate oak was originally propagated from an upright tree that was found in central Europe.
-   _Quercus robur_ 'Concordia' (“golden oak”), a small very slow-growing tree, eventually reaching , with bright golden-yellow leaves throughout spring and summer. It was originally raised in Van Geert's nursery at Ghent in 1843.
-   _Quercus robur_ 'Pendula' (“weeping oak”), a small to medium-sized tree with pendulous branches, reaching up to 15 m.
-   _Quercus robur_ 'Purpurea' is another cultivar growing to , but with purple coloured leaves.
-   _Quercus robur_ 'Filicifolia' (“cut-leaved oak”) is a cultivar where the leaf is pinnately divided into fine forward pointing segments.

Hybrids

Along with the naturally occurring _Q. × rosacea_, several hybrids with other white oak species have also been produced in cultivation, including Turner's Oak _Q. × turneri_, Heritage Oak _Q. × macdanielli_, and Two Worlds Oak _Q. × bimundorum_, the latter two developed by nurseries in the United States.

-   _Q. × bimundorum_ (_Q. alba_ × _Q. robur_) (two worlds oak)
-   _Q. × macdanielli_ (_Q. macrocarpa_ × _Q. robur_) (heritage oak)
-   _Q. × rosacea_ Bechst. (_Q. petraea_ x _Q. robur_), a hybrid of the sessile oak and English oak. It is usually of intermediate character between its parents, however it does occasionally exhibit more pronounced characteristics of one or the other parent.
-   _Q. × turneri_ Willd. (_Q. ilex_ × _Q. robur_) (Turner's oak), a semi-evergreen tree of small to medium size with a rounded crown; it was originally raised at the Holloway Down Nursery of Spencer Turner, Leyton, Essex, UK, noted by the zoologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck at Trianon, Versailles in 1783, as the _chêne de turnère_.[12] (Turner had died in January 1776, and the nursery grounds, on extended lease, returned to the landowner.)[13] An early specimen was planted at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1798; it was uprooted in the Great Storm of 1987 but resettled in the ground and then increased its healthy growth.[14]
-   _Q. × warei_ (_Q. robur fastigiata_ x _Q. bicolor_), a hybrid between upright English oak and the swamp white oak. The selections within this hybrid include 'Long' ()[15] and 'Nadler' ().[16]

Diseases

-   Acute oak decline
-   Powdery mildew caused by _Erysiphe alphitoides_[17]
-   Sudden oak death

Symbolism

Basque Country

In the Basque Country (Spain and France) the oak symbolises the traditional Basque liberties. This is based on the 'tree of Gernika', an ancient oak tree located in Gernika, below which since at least the 13th century the Lords of Biscay first, and afterwards their successors the Kings of Castile and the Kings of Spain solemnly swore to uphold the charter of Biscay, which secured widespread rights to the inhabitants of Biscay. Since the 14th century, the Juntas Generales (the parliament of Biscay) gathers in a building next to the oak tree, and symbolically passes its laws under the tree as well. Nowadays, the Lehendakari (Basque prime minister) swears his oath of office under the tree.

Bulgaria

The national coat of arms of Bulgaria includes two crossed oak branches with fruits - as shield (escutcheon) compartment.

Croatia

Oak leaves with acorns are depicted on the reverse of the Croatian 5 lipa coin, minted since 1993.[18] The pedunculate oak of the Croatian region of Slavonia (considered a separate subspecies - _Slavonian oak_) is a regional symbol of Slavonia and a national symbol of Croatia.[19]

France

The oak tree has had a symbolic value since Ancient times. Some oaks were considered sacred trees by the Gauls. The druids would cut down the mistletoe growing on them. Even after Christianization, oak trees were considered to protect as lightning would fall on them rather than on nearby inhabitation. Such struck trees would often be turned into places of worship, like the Chêne chapelle. King Saint Louis has been represented rendering justice under an oak tree. During the French Revolution, oaks were often planted as trees of Freedom (fr). One of such trees, an oak planted during the 1848 Revolution, survived the destruction of Oradour-sur-Glane by the Nazis. The branch of oak is part of the National emblem of France. After the announcement of General Charles de Gaulle's death, caricaturist Jacques Faizant represented him as a fallen oak.

Germany

In Germany, the oak tree is used as a typical object and symbol in romanticism. It can be found in several paintings of Caspar David Friedrich and in “Of the life of a Good-For-Nothing” written by Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff as a symbol of the state protecting every citizen. In those works the oak is shown in different situations, with leaves and flowers or dead without any of its previous beauty. Those conditions are mostly symbols for the conditions Germany is in or going through. Furthermore, the oak's stem is a symbol for Germany's strength and stability. Oak branches were displayed on the reverse of coins of the old Deutsche Mark currency (1 through 10 Pfennigs; the 50 Pfennigs coin showed a woman planting an oak seedling), and are now also displayed on the reverse of German-issue Euro currency coins (1 through 5 cents).

Ireland

In Ireland, at Birr Castle, an example, over 400 years old has a girth of 6.5 m. It is known as the Carroll Oak, referring to the local Chieftains, Ely O'Carroll who ruled prior to Norman occupation.[20]

Latvia

In Latvia oak is the national symbol. Many Latvian folk songs are about oak tree. Base of the coat of arms is decorated with the branches of an oak tree.

Romania

The Romanian Rugby Union side is known as _The Oaks._

United Kingdom

In England, the English oak has assumed the status of a national emblem. This has its origins in the oak tree at Boscobel House, where the future King Charles II hid from his Parliamentarian pursuers in 1650 during the English Civil War; the tree has since been known as the Royal Oak. This event was celebrated nationally on 29 May as Oak Apple Day, which is continued to this day in some communities.[21] 'The Royal Oak' is the third most popular pub name in Britain (541 in 2007)[22] and has been the name of eight major Royal Navy warships. The naval associations are strengthened by the fact that oak was the main construction material for sailing warships. The Royal Navy was often described as 'The Wooden Walls of Old England'[23] (a paraphrase of the Delphic Oracle) and the Navy’s official quick march is “Heart of Oak”. In folklore, the Major Oak is where Robin Hood is purportedly to have taken shelter.[24] Furthermore, the oak is the most common woodland tree in England.[25] An oak tree has been depicted on the reverse of the pound coin (the 1987 and 1992 issues) and a sprig of oak leaves and acorns is the emblem of the National Trust.

Chemistry

Grandinin/roburin E, castalagin/vescalagin, gallic acid, monogalloyl glucose (glucogallin) and valoneic acid dilactone, monogalloyl glucose, digalloyl glucose, trigalloyl glucose, rhamnose, quercitrin and ellagic acid are phenolic compounds found in _Q. robur_.[26] The heartwood contains triterpene saponins.[27]

Genetics

The genome of _Q. robur_ has been completely sequenced (GenOak project); a first version was published in 2016. It comprises 12 chromosomes pairs, about  genes and 750 million bp.[28] This is roughly a quarter of the size of the human genome, which has about 3 billion base pairs.

[1]

[2]

[3] “Britain's record-breaking trees”, _The Daily Telegraph_

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7] Eniņš, Guntis (2008). _100 dižākie un svētākie_, AS Lauku Avīze, p. 25.

[8]

[9] British Oak. Niche Timbers. Accessed 19-08-2009.

[10]

[11]

[12] Henry John Elwes, _The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland_, _s.v._ “Quercus”, p. 1189.

[13] Turner's will, PRO

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18] Croatian National Bank . Kuna and Lipa, Coins of Croatia : 5 Lipa Coin . – Retrieved on 31 March 2009.

[19]

[20] Fifty Trees of Distinction by Prof. D.A. Webb and the Earl of Ross. Booklet, published by Birr Castle Demesne, 2000.

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]  EHBP|date=2018-02-16|work=English Heritage Buildings|access-date=2018-03-12|language=en-GB}}

[25]

[26] Analysis of oak tannins by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry. Pirjo Mämmelä, Heikki Savolainenb, Lasse Lindroosa, Juhani Kangasd and Terttu Vartiainen, Journal of Chromatography A, Volume 891, Issue 1, 1 September 2000, Pages 75-83,

[27] Identification of triterpene saponins in Quercus robur L. and Q. petraea Liebl. Heartwood by LC-ESI/MS and NMR. Arramon G, Saucier C, Colombani D and Glories Y, Phytochem Anal., November-DEcember 2002, volume 13, issue 6, pages 305-310,

[28] Oak genome sequencing

title: Quercus robur

question: Why is the English oak tree an important symbol in the UK?

answer: The English oak is considered a national emblem in the United Kingdom because the future King Charles II hid in the oak tree at Boscobel House when he was being pursued by Parliamentarians during the English Civil War in 1650.

question: Can "Quercus robur" grow outside of Europe?

answer: Yes, the species has escaped into the wild in scattered parts of China and North America.


text:
|image3=Strasbourg opération Sentinelle février 2015-4.jpg|alt2=|direction=vertical|width2={{#expr: (800 * 300 / 1050) round 0}}|image2=Strasbourg opération Sentinelle février 2015-1.jpg|caption1= |alt1=|width1={{#expr: (800 * 300 / 1050) round 0}}|image1=Strasbourg opération Sentinelle 20 janvier 2015.jpg|width= |caption4=Vehicle of the '' Sentinelle '' operation in Lyon.}}

Véhicule de l'opération _Sentinelle_ à Lyon._OPÉRATION SENTINELLE_ () is a French military operation with 10,000 soldiers and 4,700 police and gendarmes deployed[1] since the aftermath of the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks, with the objective of protecting sensitive “points” of the territory from terrorism. It was reinforced during the November 2015 Paris attacks, and is part of an ongoing state of emergency in France due to continued terror threats and attacks.[2][3]

Background

[French soldiers on break from a patrol shift.] Opération Sentinelle was first deployed after the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks, and was reinforced following the November 2015 Paris attacks, attacks which were claimed to have been perpetrated by the Islamic extremist groups Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). A number of other attacks have taken place in France since these attacks.[4]

Other European countries have also deployed soldiers to protect certain areas due to terror threats or attacks, including in Belgium,[5] Italy,[6] and the United Kingdom.[7]

Attacks against soldiers

On at least six occasions, soldiers involved in the nationwide operation have themselves been targeted.[8]

Soldiers deployed under _Opération Sentinelle_ on 3 February 2017 blocked the assailant in the Louvre machete attack from entering the museum, where he claims to have intended to deface art with spray paint as a symbolic attack on France; he attacked the patrolling soldiers with a machete.[9]

In the March 2017 Île-de-France attacks, two _Opération Sentinelle_ soldiers at Orly Airport killed a man who said “I am here to die for Allah”[10] while he beat to the floor another member of their team, a soldier from whom the attacker intended to steal her assault rifle.

On 9 August 2017 in Levallois-Perret, six soldiers of the 35th Infantry Regiment[11] participating in _Opération Sentinelle_ were intentionally wounded by an automobile whose driver fled.[12] The military did not have time to use their weapons.[13]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

title: Opération Sentinelle

question: What is Operation Sentinelle?

answer: Operation Sentinelle is a French military operation with 10 000 soldiers and 4 700 police and gendarmes deployed. It is part of an ongoing state of emergency in France due to contend terror threats and attacks.

question: How is Operation Sentinelle justified?

answer: It was created in the aftermath of the January 2015 Ile-de-France attacks. It was reinforced during the November 2015 Paris attacks. Both attacks were claimed to have been perpetrated by the Islamic extrimist groups Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

question: Which countries launched domestic military operations to protect certain areas against terrorist threats or attacks?

answer: France launched Operation Sentinelle. Belgium, Italy and the United Kingdom have launched similar operations.

question: List all the incidents were soldiers were targeted after the inception of Operation Sentinelle.

answer:
1. In February 2017, soldiers blocked the assailant to enter the Louvre museum. The assailant claims to have intended to deface art with spray paint, he attacked the patrolling soldiers with a machete.
2. In March 2017, two soldiers at Orly Airport killed a man who said "I am here to die for Allah" while he beat to the floor another member of their team. The assailant intended to steal the beaten soldier's assault rifle.
3. In August 2017, six soldiers were wounded by an automobile whose driver fled. The military did not have time to use their weapons.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Operation Sentinelle is a French military operation created in the aftermath of the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks. The objective of the operation is to protect certain areas of the territory from terrorism. It was reinforced during the November 2015 Paris attacks, and is part of an ongoing state of emergency in France due to continued terror threats and attacks.


text:
He sat down with his friend. It had been years, he was sure they were going to last forever. His friend had never had good luck early on, but this time things seemed different. The day she said yes was the best day of his friend’s life.  It seemed like their love was an unstoppable force a law of the universe destined to last until the end of time.

Knowing he had a wife to go home to made everything worse when he looked at his friend. The crash had come out of nowhere. The hospital room was cold and dark. The doctor explained in cold terms and a colder tone what went wrong. Where the surgery failed to save her, and where God had abandoned him.

“There was nothing we could do.”

His friend recoiled and sobbed as the doctor reached out to offer a consoling hand on the shoulder. The doctor retracted, and left them to their mourning. He had been his friend’s best man.  She was now cold. No soul remained in the once vibrant and bubbly corpse. Her face was bruised, but otherwise largely the same. If not for the blue-green hue of her once glowing pink flesh it would look like she was just sleeping.
He sat there. He stared into space.

“What am I supposed to say to a man who has lost everything? Should I give condolences that will be lost to a sad revelation that no condolences will bring love back? Should I give apologies that a fateful heartless world snatched away the only thing he had left? Should I quote meaningless songs written for the masses to identify with?

“What do you say to the man who has lost love? Nothing can console this loss. Nothing can console this fear. Nothing can console the understandable hatred of everything and overwhelming sense of decay and hopelessness. No one can fix this. Nothing will change what has happened.”
He sat in silence, and offered a hand to the friend. In silence he helped his friend stand. He gave the only advice he could thing to give a man who had lost the world.

“Move on.”

His friend looked at him shocked, appalled, and somewhat relieved simultaneously. He spoke again in a tone calm and collected enough that even he was shocked by his own faux composure.

“Nothing can change what has happened. No amount of obsession. No amount of remorse. No amount of fear, regression, solitude, or company will ever fix this. No advice will heal your broken heart.

“There is nothing anyone can do for you. This is a battle you have to fight alone. You have to understand that. The only thing you can do is stand up, brush yourself off, and tell life to go fuck itself. She lost her years, you still have yours. As fucked up as this is: it was meant to happen. You have a life to live. Don’t waste it.”

With this he turned and left the room. His friend sobbing quietly in the background; the sobs grew softer as he walked away. Nothing could help his friend now. Only time would heal these wounds.

~
Months later, he considered that day. He sat at home with his wife and son and thought. His wife playing with their infant, giggling, everyone was happy. A knock came on his door. He stood slowly and walked to the door. He opened it with deliberate purpose.

He was greeted by a fist to his face. His friend stood at the door and offered him a hand to stand up.
“You’re a dick. You didn’t save her. You weren’t there when I was in my darkest time, and you walked out on me. No, on us. You left me to watch them put her in the ground, alone and broken.“

He breathed deep and his face relaxed.

“But you did help me. You did what you needed to do. You pushed me to my own feet, and made me realize that I had to do it alone. No one could have led me through that hell. Thank you.”
His friend turned and walked away with a smile and a suitcase.

edit: formatting

title: No one can help.

question: Where does the story take place?

answer: Most of the story takes place in a hospital

question: What happens to the narrator's friend?

answer: His wife dies as a result of a crash.

question: What struggle is the narrator dealing with?

answer: He's consoling his friend after his wife dies, feeling guilty.

question: Who is the narrator?

answer: This information is not present in the story.

question: Write a ~4 sentence summary.

answer: After his friend's wife dies in an accident, his friend is angry and grieving. He is angry at the doctors and at God. The narrator tells his friend not to waste his life, to get over the loss as best he can. Eventually, his friend realizes this is all the narrator could have done.


text:
SIR WILLIAM ARROL & CO. was a leading Scottish civil engineering and construction business founded by William Arrol and based in Glasgow. It built some of the most famous bridges in the United Kingdom including the second Tay Bridge, the Forth Bridge and Tower Bridge in London.

Early history

The Company was founded by William Arrol, born in Houston, Renfrewshire in 1839, the fourth child of Thomas Arrol, a cotton spinner. He started work at the age of nine in a cotton mill, having passed himself off as thirteen. In 1850, the family moved to Paisley and William found work at Coats’s Cotton Thread Manufacturing making bobbins. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a blacksmith at Paisley, supplementing his practical education with night school classes and the purchase of books on engineering.[1]

At end of his apprenticeship William Arrol worked as a journeyman blacksmith with mixed success. Work was not easy to find and in 1858, now aged nineteen, he took a job at Ker’s factory at Paisley. Eventually he was engaged as a foreman at Laidlaw’s Engineering Works in Glasgow. Here he was entrusted with his first bridges: the Greenock and Ayrshire Railway at Greenock in 1885 and the West Pier at Brighton 1866. After two years, Arrol had saved enough money to set up with a friend as boiler and girder makers. However, they incurred heavy losses through non-payment by customers and the partnership was dissolved. On his own again with his small works in Glasgow, in 1871 he was given the construction of railway bridges on the Balerno line in Edinburgh.[2]

In 1872, now in his early thirties, Arrol left his old works and moved to Dalmarnock in south Glasgow. His first important contract was for a bridge over the Clyde at Bothwell for the North British Railway. This bridge, which was 120 feet above the water, was notable for Arrol’s introduction of the idea of building the girders on land and rolling them out pier to pier. In 1875 he built the first of the two great bridges for the Caledonian Railway over the Clyde. Faced by a strike by the riveters he invented a hydraulic riveting machine, later to enjoy widespread use in the shipbuilding industry. [3]

The Great Bridges

December 1879 saw the great Tay Bridge disaster where the railway bridge collapsed under the lateral pressure of high winds, barely a year after it had opened. William Arrol was awarded the contract for the new bridge. Construction of the new Tay Bridge was started in 1882 and it opened in 1887. Almost simultaneously, William Arrol was also working on the Forth Bridge. Construction began in 1882 and when it was opened in1890 it had the longest single cantilever bridge span in the world. William Arrol’s commitment to these two bridges was rewarded with a knighthood: Sir William Arrol & Company Ltd was incorporated in June 1893.[4] The completion of the two Scottish bridges gave Sir William Arrol an international reputation and in the succeeding years bridges were built around Great Britain, Europe and as far as Australia. Perhaps the best known was London’s Tower Bridge opened in 1894, where Sir William Arrol erected all the steel work.[5]

Diversification

The development of Dalmarnock Works to cope with Arrol’s increased business involved the construction of new buildings with large spans and roofs of steel and glass which let in light throughout the building. Their size allowed the installation of large overhead cranes with up to 100 tons lifting capacity. This became an activity in its own right as similar buildings were constructed for other companies.[6] Also arising out of Dalmarnock Works and bridgebuilding were cranes. particularly for shipbuilding; they had a loading capacity ranging from five to 150 tons. The most famous crane. the largest of its time, is the Titan Crane completed in 1907; a gigantic cantilever crane of 150-ton capacity. for John Brown & Company.[7] With this increased range of activity, the Dalmarnock Works occupied 17 acres and employed 2000 men plus thousands more working on outside contracts. Sir William died in 1913 but the Company continued as an independent entity until 1969.[8]

Notable projects

[View of the cantilever construction of the Forth Bridge] [The Forth Bridge built by Sir William Arrol & Co.|alt=Colour photograph of the Forth Bridge. ]

Bridges

Bridges built by the company include:

-   Caledonian Railway Bridge across the River Clyde completed in 1878
-   Tay Rail Bridge completed in 1887
-   Forth Bridge completed in 1890
-   Tower Bridge in London completed in 1894
-   North Bridge in Edinburgh completed in 1897
-   Redheugh Bridge in Newcastle upon Tyne completed in 1901
-   Connel Bridge completed in 1903
-   Nile Bridge at Cairo completed in 1908
-   Tees Transporter Bridge completed in 1911
-   Warrington Transporter Bridge completed in 1916
-   Keadby Bridge completed in 1916
-   Southwark Bridge in London completed in 1921
-   White Cart Bridge completed in 1923
-   Jubilee Bridge (Walney) completed in 1908
-   Jubilee Bridge (Queensferry) completed in 1927
-   Corporation Bridge in Grimsby completed in 1928
-   Wearmouth Bridge completed in 1929

[A closeup of the central section of the second Tay Bridge|alt=Colour photograph of the central section of the second Tay Bridge]

-   Tsoelike Suspension Bridge in Lesotho completed in 1930
-   Forth Road Bridge completed in 1964
-   Deptford Railroad Bridge completed in 1964
-   Severn Bridge completed in 1966
-   The second Craigellachie Bridge completed in 1970
-   The Humber Bridge completed in 1981

Cranes

-   Titan Clydebank, completed in 1907
-   Titan Crane, Fairfield, completed in 1911
-   250-ton crane, HMNB Portsmouth, dated 1912, demolished 1984[9]
-   Titan Crane, James Watt Dock Crane, completed in 1917
-   Titan Crane, Barclay Curle, completed in 1920
-   Blocksetter Travelling Titan (South African Harbours and Railways); for use at Durban, completed prior to 1932[10]
-   Blocksetter Travelling Hercules (South African Harbours and Railways); for use at Table Bay, completed prior to 1932[11]
-   Blocksetter Travelling Hercules; for use at Ceuta, completed prior to 1932[12]

Titanic

[Workers leaving the Harland & Wolff shipyard in early 1911. The RMS _Titanic_ can be seen in the background, underneath the Arrol Gantry.] The company was contracted by Harland and Wolff Shipyard, Belfast, to construct a large gantry (known as the Arrol Gantry) for the construction of three new super-liners, one of which was called the RMS _Titanic_. Like the ships themselves, the gantry crane was one of the largest built at the time, comparing with transporter bridges in length, height and capability.[13]

Hikitia

[Hikitia at the Taranaki St wharf in Wellington] The company also built the crane for the Hikitia in 1926, which is thought to be the last fully operational self-propelled steam crane in the world.

Demise of the business

The company was acquired by Clarke Chapman in 1969 and the Dalmarnock Works were closed in 1986.[14]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9] 20th Century Naval Dockyards, Devonport and Portsmouth Characterisation Report, Naval Dockyards Society, 2015

[10] Arrol Catalogue ca. 1932

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14] NZR Cranes

title: Sir William Arrol & Co.

question: Summarize William Arrol's life before his thirties.

answer: William Arrol was born in Houston, Renfrewshire in 1839. He worked in cotton manufacturing from nine to fourteen. When he was fourteen he apprenticed under a blacksmith, and had mix success after his apprenticeship. In his 20s he became a foreman, and began working on his first bridges. He started a business with his friend making boilers and girders, but incurred heavy losses and had to dissolve the partnership.

question: Summarize the positive moments in William Arrol's life after he moved to Dalmarnock.

answer: During his 30s, Arrol saw success with his bridge contracts. During a strike by the riveters, he created a hydraulic riveting machine which enjoyed widespread use in the shipbuilding industry. His work and commitment with the Tay Bridge and Forth Bridge rewarded him with a knighthood: Sir William Arrol and Company Ltd was incorporated in 1893. He also began to have an international reputation due to his cranes and bridges which granted him business around the world. Near the time of his death, Dalmarnock Works occupied 17 acres and employed 2000 men plus thousands more working on outside contracts.

question: What does the text say about the materials Arrol worked with throughout his life?

answer: Arrol first started working with cotton in his childhood due to his employment in the cotton industry. In his teens he began working with iron as a blacksmith. His work as a foreman had him working with steel, glass, and girders.

question: What does the text say about why Dalmarnock Works had to close?


text:
[10 Laws of Social Media Marketing]

Image credit: Picjumbo

Apple, the Apple logo and iPhone are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

[Susan Gunelius]

Entrepreneur Leadership Network VIP

Marketing, Branding, Copywriting, Email and Social Media Expert

April 23, 2019 4 min read

Opinions expressed by _Entrepreneur_ contributors are their own.

Leveraging the power of content and social media marketing can help elevate your audience and customer base in a dramatic way. But getting started without any previous experience or insight could be challenging.

It's vital that you understand social media marketing fundamentals. From maximizing quality to increasing your online entry points, abiding by these 10 laws will help build a foundation that will serve your customers, your brand and -- perhaps most importantly -- your bottom line.

10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

The Law of Listening

[The Law of Listening]

Success with social media and content marketing requires more listening and less talking. Read your target audience's online content and join discussions to learn what's important to them. Only then can you create content and spark conversations that add value rather than clutter to their lives.

10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

The Law of Focus

[The Law of Focus]

It's better to specialize than to be a jack-of-all-trades. A highly-focused social media and content marketing strategy intended to build a strong brand has a better chance for success than a broad strategy that attempts to be all things to all people.

RELATED: THE 6 HIDDEN LINKEDIN APPS THAT CAN TAKE YOUR BUSINESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL

10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

The Law of Quality

[The Law of Quality]

Quality trumps quantity. It's better to have 1,000 online connections who read, share and talk about your content with their own audiences than 10,000 connections who disappear after connecting with you the first time.

10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

The Law of Patience

[The Law of Patience]

Social media and content marketing success doesn't happen overnight. While it's possible to catch lightning in a bottle, it's far more likely that you'll need to commit to the long haul to achieve results.

10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

The Law of Compounding

[The Law of Compounding]

Image credit: GongTo | Shutterstock

If you publish amazing, quality content and work to build your online audience of quality followers, they'll share it with their own audiences on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, their own blogs and more.

This sharing and discussing of your content opens new entry points for search engines like Google to find it in keyword searches. Those entry points could grow to hundreds or thousands of more potential ways for people to find you online.

RELATED: FINDING YOUR IDEAL JOB CANDIDATES IN MINUTES

10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

The Law of Influence

[The Law of Influence]

Image credit: Shutterstock

Spend time finding the online influencers in your market who have quality audiences and are likely to be interested in your products, services and business. Connect with those people and work to build relationships with them.

If you get on their radar as an authoritative, interesting source of useful information, they might share your content with their own followers, which could put you and your business in front of a huge new audience.

10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

The Law of Value

[The Law of Value]

If you spend all your time on the social Web directly promoting your products and services, people will stop listening. You must add value to the conversation. Focus less on conversions and more on creating amazing content and developing relationships with online influencers. In time, those people will become a powerful catalyst for word-of-mouth marketing for your business.

10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

The Law of Acknowledgment

[The Law of Acknowledgment]

You wouldn't ignore someone who reaches out to you in person so don't ignore them online. Building relationships is one of the most important parts of social media marketing success, so always acknowledge every person who reaches out to you.

RELATED: 4 SIMPLE WAYS TO UP YOUR MILLENNIAL MARKETING GAME

10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

The Law of Accessibility

[The Law of Accessibility]

Don't publish your content and then disappear. Be available to your audience. That means you need to consistently publish content and participate in conversations. Followers online can be fickle and they won't hesitate to replace you if you disappear for weeks or months.

10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

The Law of Reciprocity

[The Law of Reciprocity]

Image credit: Bloomua | Shutterstock

You can't expect others to share your content and talk about you if you don't do the same for them. So, a portion of the time you spend on social media should be focused on sharing and talking about content published by others.

RELATED: THE NEW STRATEGY FOR LIFETIME LOYALTY: BALANCING 'PRODUCTS' AND 'SERVICES'

question: What is the best way to connect to your audience according to this article?

answer: The article lists 10 laws of social media marketing, all of which concern how the audience connects to the content. According to the laws, it is important to listen, make quality content, build relationships with other creators and acknowledge them too. It's a matter of give and take.

question: Why is reciprocity an important factor in online marketing?

answer: When you build connections with other creators you allow for them to share your content too. The importance of reciprocity with your audience rests in listening and responding. With these things in mind the result is that you will form relationships that increase the spread of your content organically.

question: What is the key to making an audience happy with your content?


text:
ALBAN J. PARKER (March 21, 1893 – May 10, 1971) was a Vermont attorney and politician who served as Vermont Attorney General from 1941 to 1947.

Biography

Alban James Parker was born in Morrisville, Vermont on March 21, 1893, the son of Joel R. and Ann R. (Bullock) Parker. He graduated from Morrisville's People's Academy in 1911, and attended Middlebury College. After graduating in 1916, he worked as a school teacher and principal in Keene, New Hampshire, Hartford, Vermont, and White River Junction, Vermont.

Parker enlisted for World War I, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Ordnance Corps, and served in the aerial armament field at posts including Camp Devens, Massachusetts, and Selfridge Field, Michigan until receiving his discharge in October 1919.

Upon returning to Vermont, Parker resumed his career as a teacher and principal, and also studied law in the Hartford office of attorney Raymond J. Trainor. In 1926 he was admitted to the bar and began to practice in partnership with Trainor. He subsequently relocated to Springfield, Vermont, where he continued to practice law.

A Republican, from 1933 to 1937 Parker served as state's attorney for Windsor County. From 1937 to 1941 he was Vermont's Deputy Attorney General.

In 1940, Parker was the successful Republican nominee for Vermont Attorney General. He was reelected in 1942 and 1944, and served from January 1941 to January 1947. He did not run for reelection in 1946.

After serving as attorney general, Parker resumed practicing law. From 1949 to 1953 he served in the Vermont House of Representatives. In January 1954, he was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Vermont State Senate.

Parker died in Springfield on May 10, 1971. He was buried at Oakland Cemetery in Springfield.

Family

In 1918, Parker married Alice G. Harriman of Middlebury. In 1941, he married his second wife, Caroline Bernardini.

Parker was the father of three children, daughters Harriet Ann and Judith, and son Richard Henry.

title: Alban J. Parker

question: Who was Alban J. Parker?

answer: Alban J. Parker was a Vermont attorney and politician.

question: How old was Parker when he died?

answer: He was 78 years old when he died.

question: What was Parker's first job according to the article?

answer: His first job was as a school teacher and principal.

question: What political party did Parker align with?

answer: He was a Republican.

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: Alban J. Parker was a Vermont attorney and politician. He was a Republican. Prior to enlisting in WWI, Parker worked as a school teacher and principal.


text:
In theoretical computer science and coding theory, the LONG CODE is an error-correcting code that is locally decodable. Long codes have an extremely poor rate, but play a fundamental role in the theory of hardness of approximation.

Definition

Let f₁, …, f2n : {0, 1}k → {0, 1} for k = log n be the list of _all_ functions from {0, 1}k → {0, 1}. Then the long code encoding of a message x ∈ {0, 1}k is the string f₁(x)∘f₂(x)∘…∘f2n(x) where ∘ denotes concatenation of strings. This string has length 2n = 22k.

The Walsh-Hadamard code is a subcode of the long code, and can be obtained by only using functions fi that are linear functions when interpreted as functions 𝔽₂k → 𝔽₂ on the finite field with two elements. Since there are only 2k such functions, the block length of the Walsh-Hadamard code is 2k.

An equivalent definition of the long code is as follows: The Long code encoding of j ∈ [n] is defined to be the truth table of the Boolean dictatorship function on the jth coordinate, i.e., the truth table of f : {0, 1}n → {0, 1} with f(x₁, …, xn)=xj.[1] Thus, the Long code encodes a (log n)-bit string as a 2n-bit string.

Properties

The long code does not contain repetitions, in the sense that the function fi computing the ith bit of the output is different from any function fj computing the jth bit of the output for j ≠ i. Among all codes that do not contain repetitions, the long code has the longest possible output. Moreover, it contains all non-repeating codes as a subcode.

[1] Definition 7.3.1 in Limits of Approximation Algorithms: PCPs and Unique Games (DIMACS Tutorial Lecture Notes)

title: Long code (mathematics)

question: The Walsh-Hadamard code is a subcode of what?

answer: The long code.

question: What does the long code not contain?

answer: Repetitions.

question: Among all codes that do not contain repetitions, the long code has the longest possible what?

answer: Output.

question: Long codes play a fundamental role in the theory of what?

answer: Hardness of approximation.

question: Write a ~2 sentence summary.

answer: In theoretical computer science and coding theory, the long code is an error-correcting code that is locally decodable. Long codes have an extremely poor rate, but play a fundamental role in the theory of hardness of approximation.


text:
The day was bright and hot as we marched alongside our emperor, sweat poured down our face as we walked on this meadow. We had walked for 5 hours now stopping only momentarily to catch our breath. The landscape was green and wonderful but very dull with no variety of plants or trees. Our emperor was overexcited to end this war and claim himself as well as his brother as kings of our country. We soldiers wanted nothing more than a good rest on our beds back home.

“There it is! About half a mile away sir!” said the commanding officer looking through his binocular’s.
“I thought they would at least meet us in the field like men of honor!” said our emperor in a almost bored tone. The sky was blue and almost as dull as the field’s we were standing on with no clouds, the air was dry and yet great to breathe in, no smoke, no dust, it was peaceful.

“Alright men prepare Alpha formation!” yelled the emperor with his iron fist held high above his body. The commanding officer blew the horn of war signaling all armies to move into position. You could hear the horns blowing in the distance. The sounds of the horns blew past your ears every few seconds giving your body an almost numbing feeling. I moved hastily towards the back with my Armour clanking and my boots stomping on the ground. I could hear a couple more soldiers moving about and then another small period of silence and peace.

“Your Majesty!” yelled the commanding officer, there was a sort of dread in his scream like something bad was coming. It was the only time I ever heard the officer scream in such a way that I ducked down and held my hands over my head, I think everyone did. We all felt the heat it was intense and then the sound that awful sound. The immense pressure was what knocked me out; it felt like a great wall had been smashed into you while you ran at it on a horse at full speed.

 At first I kept on thinking I was dead, what happened to us and then it all clicked in my head. I have heard about a weapon that the old kings of our land possessed it was so powerful and dangerous that it was sealed inside a vault in The Sacred City Of Kings. But lately there had been a rumor that our emperor destroyed The Sacred City Of Kings and had gotten his hands on them, although we never saw it in battle. However they never said which emperor took the weapons...

title: Hey Guys First try at a short story! About 400+ words

question: How can an emperor become king and share the throne with his brother?

answer: No organization can have two leaders. They will clash and there will be trouble. Perhaps the narrator is confused about the intentions of the emperor.

question: What kind of weapon has caused the explosion?

answer: It seems like some modern-day weapon that is capable of causing extreme harm

question: Who has activated the explosion?

answer: It would appear that the weapon has been activated by the opposing side.

question: What did the commanding officer see that the others could not?

answer: He must have seen some sort of explosion, but it is strange that nobody else seems to have seen it coming.

question: Write a ~11 sentence summary.

answer:
The men march beside their emperor, the sweat running down their faces. The emperor is keen to end the war and proclaim himself and his brother king of the land. The commanding officer says that they have about half a mile to go.
The army moves into position. The commanding officer calls the emperor with dread in his scream. Then intense heat and an awful sound. An immense pressure knocks soldiers over.

The narrator has heard of a powerful weapon that the old kings possessed. It is so dangerous that it was sealed in the Sacred City of Kings. There has been a rumor of late that the emperor had destroyed that city and taken over the weapons. They didn’t say which emperor.