A beautiful spot

Success in Forex

2010-12-20T03:20:00.000-08:00

Trading with Forex meta trader presents traders with a valuable opportunity. Forex meta trader allows traders to access the Forex market in real time. Here are the basics of trading with Forex meta trader and how it can benefit you as a trader.

Forex meta trader is a trading platform that is widely available by nearly every Forex broker in the world. This is a software program that can easily be downloaded and set up in a few minutes. Once it is downloaded, it will give you access to real-time pricing charts on many different currency pairs. You can open multiple currency charts and tile them across your monitor. The software will provide you with the latest bid and ask quotes on each currency pair.

Forex TESTIMONIAL

2010-12-20T03:17:00.000-08:00

Privacy Policy

2010-11-16T06:06:00.001-08:00

Q. What is your Privacy Policy? Will you sell my name and email address?
A. No! We do not rent or sell our mailing list to 3rd parties. We only send email and postal mail to those who have elected to receive it from us. We will never give any information about you to others without your express permission. Our site uses forms in which you give us contact information (like your name and email address) so you can place orders, request information and support, and make product suggestions. We use your customer information only when it will be important for us to contact you regarding functionality changes to our products.

What is a CVV code and Why do I need one to place my Order?
C V V stands for Creditcard Validation Value. The C V V is a 3 or 4 digit code embossed or imprinted on the reverse side of Visa and MasterCard credit cards and on the front of American Express cards.

This is an extra security measure for your protection to ensure that the person performing the transaction has physical possession of the credit card itself in order to access the CVV code. For details on where to find the CVV code on your specific credit card, please check below.

How to locate your CVV code: We accept Visa, Mastercard and American Express Cards.

CREDIT CARD - Fix Bad Credit

2010-11-16T06:03:00.000-08:00

Don't you ever feel that's the only thing you can think of? While driving, at work, talking to people, anywhere you go your mind just fixates into "fix bad credit repair bad credit bankruptcy do it". Wouldn't you like that to stop? I know more than a couple of million people who do.
Having bad credit is terrible; it's like having a leash around your neck every time you go to a mall, look at a commercial or read an ad. There are ways to get out of a bad credit situation but they tend to be difficult, so you should be prepared.
Important Facts
Did you know that three out of ten credit reports have erroneous data on them? Yes sir. But then again, with all the amount of information that floods the three credit bureaus - TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian - one, two, or three mistakes isn't that uncommon. Plus they don't get anything for maintaining correct records. They are just being paid to maintain the necessary data, whether it's accurate or not.
Having said that, you are free to call them, review your credit reports, locate your problem, and solve them. Did you know that if you have had credit denied you are entitled for a free credit report? Aren't things starting to look better? The phone numbers are listed in any phone book or you can just ask your bank for them as well.
Act
Having bad credit isn't like having just a bad taste in your mouth; it's the real deal. Banks and any other financial institutions will look at you as a risk, making them think many times before they grant you credit, resulting in denied credit most of the times. For this matter you must begin fixing your bad credit as soon as possible

CREDIT CARD - Interest Free Cash

2010-11-16T06:02:00.000-08:00

If you have a great credit rating and no debt, then you could be in line to make some money. And you can do it using the tools that credit card tarts have been using for years.
The Credit Card Tart System
Credit card tarts have used the incentives offered by lenders to their advantage for quite a long time. These incentives often consist of 0% interest on balance transfers for a fixed period of up to 12 months. Borrowers who have a debt apply for a new 0% credit card and transfer that debt to the new card. They make repayments as they normally would, but the balance owed is reduced since no interest is being charged.
When the incentive period is due to end, credit card tarts look around for a new 0% deal. They apply for the new card at least six weeks before the expiry of the old 0% deal, so they have plenty of time to transfer the outstanding balance onto their new 0% card.
This serial card switching allows borrowers to clear debt without paying any interest. Lenders have begun to fight back as they are losing hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of interest. Many of them now charge a balance transfer fee of about 2%. However, there are still some fee free balance transfers available, which is good news fro debt-free consumers looking to use the system to make some money.
How To Earn Money On A 0% Card
To make money from a 0% balance transfer card, it is necessary to have a good credit rating and to get two new credit cards. One credit card has a 0% balance transfer rate. This must be a card that does not charge a balance transfer fee. The second allows credit card cheques at no additional charge.
The borrower can use the balance transfer card to transfer a sum of money onto the card that allows credit card cheques. The borrower can then write a cheque for that amount and pay it into a high interest savings account. This strategy only works if the interest earned is more than the amount being paid. Borrowers can use the same technique to get a low interest loan. Long term balance transfer rates are lower than standard interest rates on loans.
But Is It Legal?
There is nothing to prevent borrowers from using their cards in this way. As long as they make repayments on time and in full, there are unlikely to be complaints. It is also essential to keep credit card applications to a minimum so there are no red flags on the borrower's credit report. There's no reason why borrowers who stick to these rules and make payments on time shouldn't make a bit of money from their credit cards. And while they're shopping around for the perfect credit cards, it's worth checking out the other incentives as well.

CREDIT CARD - Get A Bank Card

2010-11-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

A bank credit card is a financial tool that can act as a form of revolving credit. A consumer, who uses a bank credit card, must pay back the money after a period of time, along with some interest. Sometimes, the bank waives interest charges when the balance is paid completely each month.
Any U.S. citizen who is above eighteen years of age is eligible to obtain a bank credit card. Despite this, many banks issue bank credit card only after opening a bank account. The consumer needs to maintain a good credit history and his income must meet the bank's criteria.
Most of the U.S. banks verify the details written in the consumer's credit card application form before issuing the bank credit card. This is usually done by contacting the consumer in person or by telephone. Some banks even assign agencies to check the consumer's credit history. It is always advisable to have a copy of the credit report from any of the major national credit bureaus before applying for a bank credit card.
When the application is approved, the bank sends a Personal Identification Number (PIN) that serves as the key to obtain cash from an ATM. A PIN is a highly confidential number known only to the consumer; it is unique to every bank credit card. In most cases, the consumer can obtain a bank credit card within ten business days upon approval of the application.
With the advent of online banking, it is very easy to apply for credit cards online. It is a more secure method, as it protects the consumer's personal financial information. Some U.S. banks provide additional benefits such as insurance, credit card protection, rebates, and discounts along with the credit card.
Even when the consumer has bad or a damaged credit, it is possible to obtain a secured bank credit card; to do so, the consumer is required to open and maintain a savings account to act as collateral for the credit line

CREDIT CARD - How To Apply For Credit

2010-11-16T05:58:00.001-08:00

So you need to apply for a new credit card. Well, have you thought about applying for it online?
All of the major credit card issuers, and most of the minor ones, now allow you to apply via their websites. This offers a number of advantages compared with the old method of filling in a paper form and sending it by snail mail.
One big advantage is speed. Your application will be instantly received by the card company and at least some of the processing will be handled automatically. Admittedly the card issuer will want to make certain checks with credit reference agencies to ensure that you are creditworthy, so you shouldn't expect an immediate yes or no. However, the waiting period between applying for the card and getting approval for it is likely to be as much as a week less compared with the traditional method of application.
Another big advantage of applying for a credit card on the Internet is that it is very easy to research the best credit card offers. Nowadays there are hundreds of different credit cards available, all offering different combinations of terms and incentives. It is very important to study the market carefully, therefore, rather than simply filling in the first application form that arrives in your mailbox. Independent credit card comparison sites such as http://www.finest-credit-cards.com make this easy by listing all the best current credit card offers, updated daily.
Once you have found a card you are interested in, go to the issuer's website and study all the details of their offer. Check in particular for low introductory rates, cashback offers and balance transfer deals. If you are happy that this is indeed the card for you, look for a button labelled "Apply Now" or similar. Click on this and a new page should open, with an online application form ready for you to fill in.
The details you will be asked for are just the same as when applying for a card by mail. They will include your full name, address, telephone number, occupation, annual income, and so on. You are also likely to be asked some security questions, e.g. your date of birth, social security number and mother's maiden name. These are used to help prevent fraudulent applications.
Once you have completed the form to the best of your ability, click on Submit, and click again to confirm your application if requested. If you have omitted any information or filled in any parts of the form incorrectly, you will be asked to try again. Otherwise, you will see a message that your application has been received. All being well, you will then receive approval of your application within a few days, and the card itself shortly after that

CREDIT CARD - Instant Credit Card

2010-11-16T05:49:00.000-08:00

Getting a credit card used to be a time-consuming business. You'd have to ring or go into your bank, fill out a lengthy form and wait for quite a while before you got a reply. Although many people are still using that method, there's now a quicker way, thanks to the Internet.
How Do I Find An Online Credit Card Application?
Most card issuers now offer online application for their credit cards. Finding one is as simple as doing an Internet search or visiting that company's website. In addition, there are several credit card comparison sites that allow users to select cards that match a range of features and then apply. Credit card applicants are required to be UK residents and over 18.
Most online credit card applications now have a summary box which gives details of the rates that apply to purchases, balance transfers and cash advances, the interest free period, fees and charges, how interest is charged and how payments are allocated. There is also a link to the detailed terms and conditions. Once you've read these, it's time to fill in the application form. Here is the information that most credit card applications ask for.
Cardholder's Name And Address
To start with, you will need to give your name. This is usually your full name – no hiding that unwanted moniker from the credit card companies. They will also ask about marital status and your date of birth. Credit card companies also ask for your mother's maiden name for security purposes. Applications are only taken from the principal cardholder. This means you can't apply for a credit card on someone else's behalf. However, you can add an additional cardholder at the time of application or later.
You will also need details of your address and postcode. If you have lived at this address less than three years, you will also need to give your previous address and postcode. In essence, you need to show a three year history of where you have lived. Other contact details required include a phone number and an email address.
Home Ownership And Employment
Most companies want to know whether you own or rent your home and some may ask about the size of your mortgage payment. They will also want to know your occupation and employment status. Ideally credit card applicants should be working more than 16 hours a week.
They will also require annual income and bank details, including how long you've been with the bank. Finally, you'll have to list the types of credit cards you already have (Visa, MasterCard, Amex, store cards and so on).
All of these help credit card companies establish what level of credit risk you are and what credit rating you have.
Other Credit Card Services
Many online applications forms offer you the chance to take up additional services such as payment protection insurance, travel insurance, household insurance and much more.
You will also need to have details of any cards that need to be transferred to your new credit card.
Once you've completed all these details, you simply need to wait a short while for a response. Some card issuers respond within a minute. It's worth knowing that there will be some cases where they will ask for additional information before issuing a credit card.

gold make

2010-11-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

Forex Trading

2010-04-22T04:18:00.004-07:00

مثال على تداول العملات الأجنبية

يملك المتداول س حساباً برصيد 50000 دولار أميركي.
يشتري 500000 يورو مقابل دولار أميركي بسعر 1.1500 في السوق ويقدم طلب وقف خسارة عند 1.1460.

في هذه المرحلة يكون أقصى حد ممكن لخسارته هو 2000 دولار أميركي ويكون استخدامه للاحتياطي هو 10%، وهو فوق الحد الأدنى بكثير.

خلال اليوم، يتقلب سوق تداول العملات الأجنبية ويتحرك مبدئياً نحو الأسفل إلى 1.1480.

في هذه المرحلة يكون المتداول س قد تكبد خسارة غير مدركة بمقدار 1000 دولار أميركي وانخفض استخدامه للاحتياطي إلى 9.60% وهذا يعكس أثر حركة الانخفاض على قدرة الاحتياطي لديه.

ولكن في وقت لاحق يرتفع السعر ثانية إلى 1.1550 ويقرر المتداول س أن يجني الأرباح. فيبيع بسعر 1.1550 محققاً ربحاً بمقدار 2500 دولار أميركي وهذا يمثل عائدات بنسبة 5% من قيمة رصيد حسابه. لاحظ أن المتداول س لم يخاطر سوى بألفي دولار أميركي وحقق عائدات قدرها 2500 دولار أميركي وهذا يساوي نسبة 1.25 بين المخاطرة والمكافأة. يجب على كل متداول أن يستهدف نسبة مرتفعة بين المخاطرة والمكافأة.

يجب على المراقب أن يلاحظ أن المثال أعلاه هو سيناريو حالة عشوائية ولا يقصد منه بأي شكل من الأشكال التلميح بأن إمكانية الربح أكبر من إمكانية الخسارة في تداول العملات الأجنبية.

تعرّف على تداول العملات الأجنبية بحسابنا المجاني التجريبي لتداول العملات الأجنبية.

Forex Tracer Automated Trading

2010-04-22T04:18:00.003-07:00

Gold in 2009

2009-03-24T14:56:00.000-07:00

Gold in 2009 aims to help you judge the risks and potential rewards of investing in gold today. This outlook is provided, free, by the world's No.1 private gold ownership service, BullionVault.

Why? Because we're certain that – whatever the outlook – the No.1 problem facing would-be gold investors in 2009 will be a lack of serious, in-depth information. Unlike the stock market or real estate, for instance, gold investing will be rarely featured by the mainstream media in 2009. When it does make an appearance, expect hype and a lack of understanding to cloud the outlook.

Gold in 2009 doesn't pretend to see the future, but it might just help you make a considered decision about investing in gold or not for yourself. And once you've made that choice, you may like to try out investing at BullionVault for yourself, starting with a free gram of gold.

Gold in everything

2009-01-04T14:57:00.000-08:00

Gold prices fell

2008-10-03T05:18:00.000-07:00

Gold prices fell for the futures contract in New York more than 5 per cent on Thursday to break the level of $ 840 an ounce (Profile, Research) by a sharp rise of the dollar against the euro and with the demand of investors to sell for cash to cover their losses amid a sharp decline in U.S. stocks. It fell for December delivery contracts (December) 48.8, or 5.5 per cent to 838.5 dollars an ounce on the COMEX market.
And other precious metals fell sharply as well, and silver prices fell for the December contract (December) the next $ 1.33 or 10.9 per cent to 11.44 dollars a troy ounce, while platinum prices fell in January contracts (January) 48.1, or 4.6 per cent to 995 dollars.
Oil prices fell U.S. futures contract more than four dollars in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday negatively affected by the rise of the dollar and fears of a downturn in demand in the sluggish economy after the U.S. government announced a substantial increase in natural gas inventories last week. The U.S. light crude fell for November delivery contracts (November) 4.4 dollars to 94.13 dollars per barrel. The highest level of crude to $ 100.37 and a low level of 95.42 dollars per barrel.
In London, Brent crude 4.14 dollars to 91.19 dollars per barrel.

Following are more details:

Oil prices fell U.S. futures contract more than four dollars in trading in New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday adversely affected by the rise of the dollar and fears of a downturn in demand in the sluggish economy after the U.S. government announced a substantial increase in natural gas inventories last week. And oil prices also received pressure from the dollar, which rose against some currencies.
The U.S. light crude fell for November delivery contracts (November) the next 4.4 dollars per barrel in London, Brent crude 4.14 dollars to 91.19 dollars per barrel.
The U.S. gasoline reserves rose abruptly about 900 thousand barrels to 179.6 million barrels, while experts predicted quantities of gasoline fell by 1.6 million barrels. On the other hand, reserves dwindled heating oil and diesel by 2.3 million barrels to 123.1 million barrels, as estimated by experts to decline 1.2 million barrels. The experts ruled out the Bank Komrts Bank of Germany continued decline in oil prices in light of positive indicators on the approval of the plan to save American financial markets.
In Vienna, announced the Secretariat of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries "OPEC" yesterday that the average price of a barrel of crude produced by Member States recorded
Wednesday down $ 89.99 to $ 33 cents on the closing price on Tuesday.

gold Price

2008-09-14T18:17:00.000-07:00

Main articles: Gold as an investment and Gold standard

LBMA USD morning price fixings ($US per troy ounce) since 2001
Gold price per ounce in USD since 1968, in actual US$ and 2006 US$Like other precious metals, gold is measured by troy weight and by grams. When it is alloyed with other metals the term carat or karat is used to indicate the amount of gold present, with 24 karats being pure gold and lower ratings proportionally less. The purity of a gold bar can also be expressed as a decimal figure ranging from 0 to 1, known as the millesimal fineness, such as 0.995 being very pure.

The price of gold is determined on the open market, but a procedure known as the Gold Fixing in London, originating in September 1919, provides a daily benchmark figure to the industry. The afternoon fixing appeared in 1968 to fix a price when US markets are open.

The high price of gold is due to its rarity. Only three parts out of every billion (0.000000003) in the Earth's crust is gold.

Historically gold was used to back currency; in an economic system known as the gold standard, a certain weight of gold was given the name of a unit of currency. For a long period, the United States government set the value of the US dollar so that one troy ounce was equal to $20.67 ($664.56/kg), but in 1934 the dollar was revalued to $35.00 per troy ounce ($1125.27/kg). By 1961 it was becoming hard to maintain this price, and a pool of US and European banks agreed to manipulate the market to prevent further currency devaluation against increased gold demand.

On March 17, 1968, economic circumstances caused the collapse of the gold pool, and a two-tiered pricing scheme was established whereby gold was still used to settle international accounts at the old $35.00 per troy ounce ($1.13/g) but the price of gold on the private market was allowed to fluctuate; this two-tiered pricing system was abandoned in 1975 when the price of gold was left to find its free-market level. Central banks still hold historical gold reserves as a store of value although the level has generally been declining. The largest gold depository in the world is that of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank in New York, which holds about 3%[citation needed] of the gold ever mined, as does the similarly-laden U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox.

In 2005 the World Gold Council estimated total global gold supply to be 3,859 tonnes and demand to be 3,754 tonnes, giving a surplus of 105 tonnes
From Wikipedia

The 2008 UK Queen Elizabeth I £5 Gold Proof Coin

2008-09-14T18:13:00.001-07:00

A very unique gold coin has been struck by the British Royal Mint. The 2008 UK Queen Elizabeth I £5 Gold Proof Coin.

In 1558 on the 17 of November, Elizabeth, the 25-year-old daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was proclaimed Queen of England. She became one of the longest serving, best-loved and influential English monarchs, whose date of accession remained a national holiday for 200 years.

To celebrate the 450th anniversary of her becoming Queen, the British Royal Mint has struck a rather unique £5 crown featuring on its reverse a portrait of Elizabeth I, by the silversmith Rod Kelly. So we have the only coin in the world with two Queen Elizabeths, Elizabeth the first on the reverse and Queen Elizabeth the second on the obverse

As per the Royal Mint, “...the Queen is crowned and set within a mandorla created by four decorative arches. A Tudor rose has been placed at each connecting point while the two side arches each contain a beautiful leaf pattern reminiscent of the carvings made by the Queen’s loyal servant and friend, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. The year of her accession and the year of the anniversary are both shown in Roman numerals with the inscription I HAVE REIGNED WITH YOUR LOVES.”

This unique coin is struck in 22 karat gold to proof quality. On the obverse is the portrait of the present Queen by Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS, while the reverse design by Rod Kelly bears a stunning portrait of Queen Elizabeth I crowned and set within a mandorla created by four decorative arches.

Only 1,500 gold Proof crowns will be struck to satisfy demand from collectors throughout the world and will be sold at the price of £925.00. (Approx 1825 US Dollars)

The coin is housed in a luxury walnut wood-veneer presentation case and accompanied by an individually numbered Certificate of Authenticity and the Royal Mint logo in gold on the top right-hand corner of the lid.

The product code for ordering is UKQEFGP.

This coin, if only by its uniqueness and limited strike will be sure to increase in value over the coming years.

2008 Year of the Mouse Gold Proof Coin Issue

2008-09-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

The Perth Mint have just issued the Australian Lunar Series II 2008 Year of the Mouse Gold Proof Coin Issue from Series II.

These first proof Issue gold coins celebrate the Chinese Lunar Year of the Mouse.

The proof quality is 99.99 percent and the 2008 dated coins are stuck in one ounce, one quarter ounce and one tenth ounce gold coins of 99.99 percent proof quality.

The Mouse Design is on the reverse of each coin and depicts a mouse crouching on a bed of stones with chilli peppers clustered in the background. As well as the inscription 'Year of the Mouse' and the Chinese character for 'mouse', the design also incorporates The Perth Mint's 'P' mintmark.

A prestigious new feature is the larger diameter of each coin, providing extra space for the enchanting artistry of Series II.

As with all the Perth Mint gold coins, this one is issued as legal tender under the Australian Currency Act of 1965 with each coin featuring the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse.

There is a limited mintage with only:

3,000 individual 1oz coins
5,000 individual 1/4oz coins
5,000 individual 1/10oz coins
3,000 Three-Coin Sets (1oz, 1/4oz, 1/10oz)

A numbered Certificate of Authenticity accompanies each individual coin and Three-Coin Set.

The Gold Proof Lunar Series II coins are housed in elegant oval-shaped display cases with each case featuring a granite-like base and a glossy timber-effect lid. It comes in an illustrated coloured shipper depicting two mice.

As well as being a great collectors item to proof quality gold coin collectors, the 2008 Year of the Mouse Gold Proof Coin Issue will make great gifts for people born in any year 'ruled' by the Chinese Lunar

Gold Sovereigns Celebrating 200 Years of Fine Tradition

2008-09-14T18:03:00.000-07:00

To celebrate 200 years of fine tradition of gold sovereigns, the British Royal Mint has issued an impressive two-coin set comprising two magnificent gold sovereigns dated 1948 and 2008

Each coin depicts Benedetto Pistrucci's classic 'St George slaying the dragon' design featured on the reverse.

Product Information
According to the Mint, the 2008 Gold Proof Sovereign depicts St George and the dragon in frosted relief on the reverse. The design stands proud of the brilliant mirror finish achieved by meticulous hand polishing of the die using fine diamond paste.

The obverse carries the familiar portrait of Her Majesty The Queen by Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS.

The 1948 Gold Sovereign depicts St George and the dragon on the reverse and is guaranteed to be in very fine condition. The obverse bears the young effigy of the Queen by Mary Gillick.

Housed in a luxurious walnut veneer presentation case, the coins are accompanied by an individually numbered Certificate of Authenticity, signed by the Chief Executive of the Royal Mint.

Background
The sovereign was first struck in 1489 on orders of Henry the VII but minting was halted just after James I ascended to the throne in 1603. It was over 200 years before sovereigns were once again struck, this time in the reign of George III in 1817.

It was George Wellesley Pole, Master of the British Royal Mint, who commissioned his protégé, Benedetto Pistrucci, to create the striking image of St George and the dragon. Pistrucci based his design on the legends of classical antiquity, to create a lasting image of courage, virtue and determination.

George Goschen, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, proudly stated in April 1890, "Nothing, in my opinion, is more handsome than the St George and Dragon."

The US government regularly give their troops gold sovereigns as emergency money in the eventuality they are stranded in a foreign land.

Specifications
Alloy: 22 Carat Gold
Weight: 7.99 gms
Diameter: 22.05 mm
Designer: (Reverse) Benedetto Pistrucci
Designer: (Obverse) Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS
Code: SOV0850
Cost: £395.00 or approx 780 USD. (the price may vary depending on the spot price of gold)
Only 250 sets are available of this delightful and impressive 2 piece gold coin set, celebrating a special 50th anniversary and bringing together 200 years of fine tradition in gold coins

More information is available at the royalmint.com

Hurricane Gustav From Hollywood, Florida (Day 1)

2008-08-31T17:48:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Gustav From Hollywood, Florida (Day 1)

Forces of Nature - Hurricane Gustav part 1

hurricane Gustav blasting Jamaica

Raw Video: Hurricane Gustav Roars Over Haiti

Google TiSP (BETA)

2008-07-20T02:01:00.000-07:00

Google TiSP (BETA) is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines.

Installing a typical home TiSP system is a quick, easy and largely sanitary process -- provided you follow these step-by-step instructions very, very carefully.

#1 Remove the spindle of fiber-optic cable from your TiSP installation kit.

#2 Attach the sinker to the loose end of the cable, take one safe step backward and drop this weighted end into your toilet.

#3 Grasp both ends of the spindle firmly while a friend or loved one flushes, thus activating the patented GFlush™ system, which sends the weighted cable surfing through the plumbing system to one of the thousands of TiSP Access Nodes.

#4 When the GFlush is complete, the spindle will (or at least should) have largely unraveled, exposing a connector at the remaining end. Detach the cable from the spindle, taking care not to allow the cable to slip into the toilet.

#5 Plug the fiber-optic cable into your TiSP wireless router, which has a specially designed counterweight to withstand the centripetal force of flushing.

#6 Insert the TiSP installation CD and run the setup utility to install the Google Toolbar (required) and the rest of the TiSP software, which will automatically configure your computer's network settings.

#7 Within sixty minutes -- assuming proper data flow -- the other end of your fiber-optic cable should have reached the nearest TiSP Access Node, where our Plumbing Hardware Dispatchers (PHDs) will remove the sinker and plug the line into our global data networking system.

#8 Congratulations, you're online! (Please wash your hands before surfing.)

Note: If you have any difficulty installing, operating or simply living with TiSP, we suggest joining the TiSP Help Group.

Professional Installation Service
You can also choose to request our professional installation service, which dispatches an army of factory-trained, sub-contracted nanobots from the TiSP Access Node. The nanobots travel with exhilarating nano-speed through the sewer system and into your home to perform the installation service, which should be complete within 15 minutes. Note: For your own physical safety and emotional well-being and in consideration of the nanobots' working conditions, please make absolutely certain that your toilet is unoccupied at the scheduled appointment time.

In-Commode Package Delivery
With professional installation service, you can also have your Google Checkout purchases delivered directly through the sewage network into your bathroom. Each package comes pre-sealed in a watertight and nanobot-resistant bag made of biodegradable corn-based plastic. For a limited time, TiSP subscribers who sign up for a Checkout account will receive free bathroom delivery on their first ten Checkout purchases.

TiSP for Enterprise
We're actively developing a higher-performance version of TiSP specifically tailored to small and medium-sized businesses, including 24-hour, on-site technical support in the event of backup problems, brownouts and data wipes.

from Google TiSP

Photos of candles

2008-07-16T11:41:00.000-07:00

Photos of candles in the very beauty for you

'pregnant man', gives birth to a baby girl.

2008-07-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

BEND, Oregon -- ABC NEWS has learned Thomas Beatie, also known as the 'pregnant man', gives birth to a baby girl.
Beatie, a former woman, defended his decision to have a baby, saying he has a "right to have a biological child."
Despite removing his breasts, growing a wispy beard and legally having his gender changed from female to male, Beatie, 34, kept his female sex organs intact because he hoped to have a child some day.
After years of struggling with his sexual identity and deciding to live as a man, he did the most womanly thing possible -- he became pregnant.
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In an exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey, Beatie said his lifelong desire to have children motivated him to use his still working female reproductive organs when he learned that Nancy, his wife of five years, was unable to conceive.
"I actually opted not to do anything to my reproductive organs because I wanted to have a child one day. I see pregnancy as a process and it doesn't define who I am," Beatie told Winfrey.
"I feel it's not a male or female desire to have a child. It's a human need. I'm a person and I have the right to have a biological child."
Beatie was impregnated with sperm from a donor. His wife, Nancy, inseminated him at home with a device she said was like a syringe without the needle. They bought it from a veterinarian and it is typically used to feed birds.
He has an intact vagina, but he he did not say how he would deliver the baby.
Beatie, who was born Tracy, said he first felt he was trapped in the wrong body when he was in his 20s. He quickly went from a Miss Teen Hawaii USA finalist to taking testosterone and growing a beard.
"Sexuality is completely different than your gender," he said, responding to a question about why he did not remain a lesbian woman. "I felt more comfortable being the male gender."
"It was difficult for society to respect the way I felt inside if I didn't look like a man outside. I started wearing men's clothes and people started regarding me as a man."
Despite having two adult children from her first marriage, Nancy said she could no longer have children because she had her uterus removed.
"It wasn't difficult because I can't have children," Nancy said. "I had endometriosis and they had to remove my womb, therefore I don't have a womb."
Beatie and Nancy tried to conceive once before with him carrying the child, but the pregnancy was unsustainable because the fertilized egg had implanted outside of the uterus.
The couple had a difficult time finding a doctor who was willing to help them conceive. They saw nine obstetricians before one was willing to help them.
"People's normal perceptions are going to be challenged, but once I met Thomas and Nancy I realized they're devoted and need quality medical care like everyone else," doctor Kimberly James told Oprah.
"Thomas has been off testosterone for two years before even trying to conceive. His testosterone levels are normal. Some physical changes are permanent, but his hormone levels are normal. People ask 'is the baby going to be normal?' The baby is totally healthy," she said.
The couple's family and neighbors have reacted in different ways, some supportive, others less so. When his first pregnancy failed, "my brother said it was a good thing that it didn't happen because it would have been a monster," he told Winfrey.
Nancy's two daughters, however, are very supportive.
Neighbors, identified only as George and Victoria, from Bend, Ore., said they were more surprised that shocked.
"I was under the impression that Nancy was pregnant. I often see Thomas out and about cutting grass. Thomas told us it was he that was pregnant. I was surprised. It's not Nancy? It's Thomas. I have to get my head around this," Victoria said.
Beatie said he and his wife are legally married because Beatie is legally a man. They plan to provide a happy home for their baby girl.
"Love makes a family and that's all that matters," he said.

(Copyright ©2008 ABC News Internet Ventures

Mike Tyson

2008-07-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

Mike Tyson, one of the largest and most of the boxing world heavy-weight category, he said that to stay alive after going ahead full of violence and drugs is a wonder.

It was the French city which presents the annual Film Festival in the famous movie about the life of Tyson ousted American James Tupac, Tyson said he "lived the life of a strange and very loud and that drug abuse and shame in great danger, and women wanted sex March husbands killers."

Tyson added: "I am happy to be here with you after all that."

The Tupac pictures for hours with Tyson, and returned them to choose the clips and excerpts, interviews and photographs collected manner that made him tells the story of boxer since its inception and their rise to Stardom after a poor lived his childhood in New York, until his arrival at the summit, and then sudden fall.

Kostoriucha and Maradona
Like the Serbian director Emir Kostoriucha in his film documentary about a football player Diego Maradona, who presented outside the competition next week, paints picture of the star Tupac's great charisma, which transcends its sports world.

He said one of the critics of the documentary, "Tyson turns in the film image of the sports hero and the image of Rights, which draws the viewer into his personality had hoped that watches this film that Tyson will meet and talk with him."
Mike Tyson: survival miracle

The movie describes Tyson Trajdi figure, but noble.

When was the 20-year-old boy, Tyson became the youngest champion of the world about the heavy weight category in boxing but that his life took another trend shortly after it was sentenced to 3 years after being accused of rape in 2002.

In in 1997, during one reality of Tyson biting his opponent and then snatched a piece of them, which led to his deportation from Aleppo for a full year.

He concluded by saying Tyson: "I have always objectively when you think of myself as I always very hard when exercise self-criticism."

It is noteworthy that Tyson has long been harassed when he was a child, because of the way in which speak out, but did not delay the start in responding to this through the fight.

The rescued from the streets of Brooklyn in New York coach Kos D'Amato, who was assisted in refining capacity and strength to fight and hostile to transform into one of the most important boxing who know the history of this sport.

news.bbc.co.uk

Sending Email

2008-07-03T05:49:00.000-07:00

Reread your email before sending, spell-check, and never send an email while angry.
You can send an email in five basic actions: (1) press -n to create a new email, (2) type the message, (3) enter the subject, (4) enter the addressee's email address, (5) send. However, first make sure that you have followed the three email sending commandments:
• Reread. Always reread your email and make sure it doesn't contain anything inappropriate that you don't mind being recorded for all time and passed on to others Many people have mistakenly assumed that their email will remain private, with rapid and embarrassing results.
• Spell-check. You should set your program to automatically spell-check before sending. It is easy to make spelling mistakes when typing fast that make your email hard to read and understand. An email with spelling errors gives the impression that you don't care about the addressee enough to take the time to do an automatic spell-check. You can also activate the spell-check manually at any time with most email client programs.
• Be calm. Never send an email message when you're angry -- you will always regret it later. Before widespread use of email, a person had to stay mad long enough to get a pad of paper and pen, write a letter full of ill-advised words, find the person's address, address the envelope, and then walk or drive to the nearest post office box. However, there is no equivalent time buffer with email which can be sent within minutes or even seconds of becoming angry. Remember that an email can be saved, printed, and forwarded to others across the Internet. Be careful about leaving permanent evidence of your temper, or you will surely find an opportunity to regret it.

Iowa Electronic Markets

2008-07-03T05:48:00.002-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
How it works
Here are examples of contracts that the IEM traded, beginning June 6, 2006, concerning the 2008 US Presidential Election Winner-Takes-All Market. (The contract descriptions came from the IEM site.)
DEM08_WTA
$1 if the Democratic Party nominee receives the majority of popular votes cast for the two major parties in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, $0 otherwise
REP08_WTA
$1 if the Republican Party nominee receives the majority of popular votes cast for the two major parties in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, $0 otherwise
On the first trading day in January, 2007, the DEM08_WTA contract sold for 52.2 cents.
At this point, a speculator has a number of options.
1. He can simply buy a number of DEM08_WTA shares and wait for the results of the election. If the Democratic Party nominee receives the majority of popular votes in the 2008 Presidential Election, the speculator would have his contract liquidated and receive $1, for a profit of 48¢. If the Democratic Party nominee did not receive the majority of popular votes in the Presidential Election, then the speculator would receive nothing.
2. Alternatively, he could have bought shares intending to sell them later (before the election and the resolution of the share values) for a greater amount.
3. Another option would be to essentially short sell DEM08_WTA shares - if one considers the price of DEM08_WTA to be too high and incommensurate with the true probability of the popular vote going to the Democratic nominee, one can buy a "bundle" for $1. In this case, the bundle would be 1 DEM08_WTA and 1 REP08_WTA; the value of these two shares is guaranteed to be 1$ (as they will be cashed out as either worth $1 and $0, or $0 and $1). Hence to short sell, one would buy one bundle and then sell the overvalued items.
4. It is possible that a given market is simply irrationally priced. If the price of all the different shares is greater than or less than $1, then there is at least one share which is not correctly priced and so can either be shorted or gone long on. The price can be seen as the probability, and it doesn't make sense to have a total probability of greater than 100, and the markets are designed to cover all possibilities, so less than 100% doesn't make sense either. This is not necessarily true of all markets; in the Winner takes all markets this is true, but it is possible for the total value of 1 of every contract, which in 08_WTA is guaranteed to be $1, to exceed $1, such as in the markets dealing with share prices.
The IEM also trades futures based on financial markets, such as whether the Fed Funds rate will be raised at the following meeting.
[edit] Rules and limits
The IEM is not regulated by the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) or any other agency. Because of the small sums wagered and the academic focus, the IEM has received two no-action letters that extend no-action relief. A speculator may put at risk in the IEM only between 5 and 500 USD. In contrast, other future markets like HedgeStreet are regulated by the CFTC and allow speculators to take on or offset financially significant amounts of risk regarding economic events or the prices of commodities.

Knowledge market

2008-07-03T05:48:00.001-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The knowledge economy brings with it the concept of exchanging knowledge-based products and services. However, as discussed by Stewart (1996)[1], knowledge is very different from physical products. For example, it can be in more than one place at one time, selling it does not diminish the supply, buyers only purchase it once, and once sold, it cannot be recalled. Further, knowledge begets more knowledge in a never-ending cycle. Understanding of knowledge markets is beginning to emerge. As would be expected, they are very different in form from traditional markets.
Knowledge markets have been variously described by Stewart (1996)[1], Davenport and Prusak (1998)[2], and Simard (2000) as a mechanism for enabling, supporting, and facilitating the mobilization, sharing, or exchange of information and knowledge among providers and users. This transactional approach assumes that knowledge-based products or services are available for distribution, that someone wants to use them, and that the primary focus of the market is to connect the two.
This perspective is appropriate when the market has limited or no interest or control over either the production or use of the content being exchanged, as is the case for most traditional markets. A provider-user perspective is also appropriate for emerging social networking "ideagoras" (Tapscott and Williams, 2006)[3], in which the primary function of the market is to match existing solutions with problems and problems with those who can find solutions.
From a production perspective, processes for creating wealth through the use of intellectual capital are explained by Nonaka (1991)[4], Edvinsson and Malone (1997)[5], and Leonard (1998)[6]. At the marketing end of the spectrum, a number of authors, including Bishop (1996)[7], May (2000)[8], and Tapscott et al. (2000)[9] describe the architecture and processes necessary to succeed in a digital economy.
Knowledge markets may also be sequential in nature. Simard (2006)[10] describes a cyclic end-to-end knowledge-market model comprising nine stages that embed, advance, or extract value into knowledge products and services along a knowledge services value chain. The first five stages are internal to a knowledge organization (production and transfer) while the last four stages are external (intermediaries, clients, and citizens). Because the value chain cyclic, it can be used to model either a supply (post-production evaluation ) or a demand (pre-production evaluation) approach to knowledge markets.

[edit] Knowledge Services
Knowledge services is an emerging concept that integrates knowledge management, a knowledge organization, and knowledge markets. Knowledge Services are programs that provide content-based (data, information, knowledge) organizational outputs (e.g., advice, answers, facilitation), to meet external user wants or needs. Knowledge services are delivered through knowledge markets.
St. Clair and Reich (2002) describe internal knowledge services as a management approach that integrates information management, knowledge management, and strategic learning into an enterprise-wide function. Kalakota and Robinson (2003) and Thomas (2005) developed service-oriented architectures for the private sector. Their focus was to transform traditional retail businesses by developing enterprise-wide platforms that support customer services. RocSearch (2006) take a broader external view, referring to a nascent knowledge services industry that goes beyond traditional cost and time leveraging advantages of the traditional consulting sector.
Simard et. al (2007) developed a holistic systems model of knowledge services for government S&T organizations. The model begins with generating new content and ends with sector outcomes and individual benefits. The model is independent of content, issues, or organizations. It is designed at a departmental level, but is scalable both upwards and downwards. The primary driver is a department’s legal mandate; a secondary driver is the needs of clients and residents. The model can function from either a supply or demand approach to knowledge markets. There are two levels of resolution - performance measurement, and classifying service-related activities.
There are four types of knowledge services: generate content, develop products, provide assistance, and share solutions. Knowledge services are modeled as a circular value chain comprising nine stages that embed, advance, or extract value from knowledge-based products and services. The stages are: generate, transform, manage, use internally, transfer, enhance, use professionally, use personally, and evaluate. (Simard, 2007) described a rich to reach service delivery spectrum that is segmented into categories of recipients, with associated levels of distribution, interactions, content complexity, and channels. The categories, from rich to reach, are: unique (once only), complex (science), technical (engineering), specialized (professional), simplified (popular), and mandatory (everyone).
From the perspective of knowledge markets, Mcgee and Prusak (1993) note that people barter for information, use it as an instrument of power, or trade it for information of greater value. Davenport and Prusak (1998) used a knowledge marketplace analogy to describe the exchange of knowledge among individuals and groups. However, Shapiro and Varian (1999) indicate that information markets will not resemble textbook competitive markets with many suppliers offering similar products but lacking the ability to influence prices. Simard (2006) described knowledge markets as a group of related circular knowledge-service value chains that function collectively as a sector, to embed, advance, and extract value to yield sector outcomes and individual benefits.

Financial market

2008-07-03T05:47:00.003-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In economics, a financial market is a mechanism that allows people to easily buy and sell (trade) financial securities (such as stocks and bonds), commodities (such as precious metals or agricultural goods), and other fungible items of value at low transaction costs and at prices that reflect the efficient market hypothesis.
Financial markets have evolved significantly over several hundred years and are undergoing constant innovation to improve liquidity.
Both general markets (where many commodities are traded) and specialized markets (where only one commodity is traded) exist. Markets work by placing many interested buyers and sellers in one "place", thus making it easier for them to find each other. An economy which relies primarily on interactions between buyers and sellers to allocate resources is known as a market economy in contrast either to a command economy or to a non-market economy such as a gift economy.
In Finance, Financial markets facilitate--
• The raising of capital (in the capital markets);
• The transfer of risk (in the derivatives markets);
• International trade (in the currency markets)
--and are used to match those who want capital to those who have it.
Typically a borrower issues a receipt to the lender promising to pay back the capital. These receipts are securities which may be freely bought or sold. In return for lending money to the borrower, the lender will expect some compensation in the form of interest or dividends

Risks and liabilities

2008-07-03T05:47:00.001-07:00

Although instant messaging delivers many benefits, it also carries with it certain risks and liabilities, particularly when used in workplaces. Among these risks and liabilities are:
• Security risks (e.g. IM used to infect computers with spyware, viruses, trojans, worms)
• Compliance risks
• Inappropriate use
• Intellectual property leakage
Crackers (malicious "hacker" or black hat hacker) have consistently used IM networks as vectors for delivering phishing attempts, "poison URL's", and virus-laden file attachments from 2004 to the present, with over 1100 discrete attacks listed by the IM Security Center[7] in 2004-2007. Hackers use two methods of delivering malicious code through IM: delivery of virus, trojan, or spyware within an infected file, and the use of "socially engineered" text with a web address that entices the recipient to click on a URL that connects him or her to a website that then downloads malicious code. Viruses, worms, and trojans typically propagate by sending themselves rapidly through the infected user's buddy list. An effective attack using a poison URL may reach tens of thousands of people in minutes when each person's buddy list receives messages appearing to be from a trusted friend. The recipients click on the web address, and the entire cycle starts again. Infections may range from nuisance to criminal, and are becoming more sophisticated each year.
In addition to the malicious code threat, the use of instant messaging at work also creates a risk of non-compliance to laws and regulations governing the use of electronic communications in businesses. In the United States alone there are over 10,000 laws and regulations related to electronic messaging and records retention.[8] The more well-known of these include the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, HIPAA, and SEC 17a-3. Clarification from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA") was issued to member firms in the financial services industry in December, 2007, noting that "electronic communications", "email", and "electronic correspondence" may be used interchangeably and can include such forms of electronic messaging as instant messaging and text messaging.[9] Changes to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, effective December 1, 2006, created a new category for electronic records which may be requested during discovery (law) in legal proceedings. Most countries around the world also regulate the use of electronic messaging and electronic records retention in similar fashion to the United States. The most common regulations related to IM at work involve the need to produce archived business communications to satisfy government or judicial requests under law. Many instant messaging communications fall into the category of business communications that must be archived and retrievable.
Organizations of all types must protect themselves from the liability of their employees' inappropriate use of IM. The informal, immediate, and ostensibly anonymous nature of instant messaging makes it a candidate for abuse in the workplace. The topic of inappropriate IM use became front page news in October 2006 when Congressman Mark Foley resigned his seat after admitting sending offensive instant messages of a sexual nature to underage former House pages from his Congressional office PC. The Mark Foley Scandal led to media coverage and mainstream newspaper articles warning of the risks of inappropriate IM use in workplaces. In most countries, corporations have a legal responsibility to ensure harassment-free work environment for employees. The use of corporate-owned computers, networks, and software to harass an individual or spread inappropriate jokes or language creates a liability for not only the offender but also the employer. A survey by IM archiving and security provider Akonix Systems, Inc. in March 2007 showed that 31% of respondents had been harassed over IM at work.[10] Companies now include instant messaging as an integral component of their policies on appropriate use of the World Wide Web, e-mail, and other corporate assets.
Within the company there is also the risk of employees using instant messaging to release confidential information and project details to an outside source. This issue is best controlled by a combination of written policy and technology. An organization's policies on use of IM in the workplace should be an integral part of the overall computing and network use policies, and should be published and communicated at least annually. In addition to written policy, organizations should implement "gateways" or IM security products to monitor content of inbound and outbound messages. Products from IM security providers (See section on IM security) typically allow administrators to set alerts and enforce policy (i.e. allow or block messages) based on keywords and regular expressions within instant messages.
Employees may also misuse IM to communicate on a personal level with friends and family. This is poor use of a business’s time and resources, as the employee’s effectiveness will most certainly decrease due to the added distractions. (Licari, J., May 2005). Businesses often use IM security products to monitor and archive IM conversations for the purpose of minimizing this type of productivity drain.
BERTHOUD, CO -- April 16, 2007 E-Markets, Inc. the leading provider of software solutions and services to the agriculture industry is proud to announce a U.S. issued patent for Electronically Initiating and Managing Agriculture Production Contracts. The patent was applied for in 1998 and was issued in October of 2006.
The patent manifested into one of the company's premiere software solutions, AgContract, which has been in use for over 10 years. Over $600 million in grain, oilseeds, and other feed and food ingredients have been transacted using the AgContract information management tool. The tool offers easier management of buyer-driven procurement systems, purchase contract initiation and management, traceability of products through the supply chain and large-scale identity-preserved purchasing. Scott Cavey, President and CEO of E-Markets, Inc. is elated about the long-overdue approval of this patent. "This really signifies the beginning of E-Markets" stated Cavey, "the entire company is based around the AgContract application."
The patented technology showcases E-Markets, Inc. continuous strive to improve software solutions for the agriculture industry. Users of the AgContract solution include some of the industry's premiere agriculture, chemical and food companies including, Land O'Lakes, Inc., Dow AgroScience and BASF.
E-Markets, Inc. is a pioneer in delivering e-commerce solutions to the agriculture and food industries. The company introduced the industry's first online grain production contracting system in 1997, the first internet-based agricultural input ordering system in 1998, the first internet-based risk management tool for the grain industry in 2000, and most recently, an internet-based Attribute E-Xchange trading management tool. E-Markets' applications eliminate barriers between buyers and sellers; enable information sharing across the agri-food value chain; and streamline back office processes resulting in significant

Publishing Web pages

2008-07-03T05:45:00.002-07:00

Web page production is available to individuals outside the mass media. In order to publish a Web page, one does not have to go through a publisher or other media institution, and potential readers could be found in all corners of the globe.
Many different kinds of information are available on the Web, and for those who wish to know other societies, cultures, and peoples, it has become easier.
The increased opportunity to publish materials is observable in the countless personal and social networking pages, as well as sites by families, small shops, etc., facilitated by the emergence of free Web hosting services.
Statistics
According to a 2001 study, there were massively more than 550 billion documents on the Web, mostly in the "invisible Web", or deep Web.[12] A 2002 survey of 2,024 million Web pages[13] determined that by far the most Web content was in English: 56.4%; next were pages in German (7.7%), French (5.6%), and Japanese (4.9%). A more recent study, which used Web searches in 75 different languages to sample the Web, determined that there were over 11.5 billion Web pages in the publicly indexable Web as of the end of January 2005.[14] As of June 2008, the indexed web contains at least 63 billion pages.[15]
Over 100.1 million websites operated as of March 2008.[16] Of these 74% were commercial or other sites operating in the .com generic top-level domain.[16] Among services paid for by advertising, Yahoo! could collect the most data about commercial Web users, about 2,500 bits of information per month about each typical user of its site and its affiliated advertising network sites. Yahoo! was followed by MySpace with about half that potential and then by AOL-TimeWarner, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and eBay.[17] About 26% of websites operated outside .com addresses.[16]
Speed issues
Frustration over congestion issues in the Internet infrastructure and the high latency that results in slow browsing has led to an alternative, pejorative name for the World Wide Web: the World Wide Wait. Speeding up the Internet is an ongoing discussion over the use of peering and QoS technologies. Other solutions to reduce the World Wide Wait can be found on W3C.
Standard guidelines for ideal Web response times are (Nielsen 1999, `Designing Web Usability', page 42):
• 0.1 second (one tenth of a second). Ideal response time. The user doesn't sense any interruption.
• 1 second. Highest acceptable response time. Download times above 1 second interrupt the user experience.
• 10 seconds. Unacceptable response time. The user experience is interrupted and the user is likely to leave the site or system.
These numbers are useful for planning server capacity.
Caching
If a user revisits a Web page after only a short interval, the page data may not need to be re-obtained from the source Web server. Almost all Web browsers cache recently-obtained data, usually on the local hard drive. HTTP requests sent by a browser will usually only ask for data that has changed since the last download. If the locally-cached data is still current, it will be reused.
Caching helps reduce the amount of Web traffic on the Internet. The decision about expiration is made independently for each downloaded file, whether image, stylesheet, JavaScript, HTML, or whatever other content the site may provide. Thus even on sites with highly dynamic content, many of the basic resources only need to be refreshed occasionally. Web site designers find it worthwhile to collate resources such as CSS data and JavaScript into a few site-wide files so that they can be cached efficiently. This helps reduce page download times and lowers demands on the Web server.
There are other components of the Internet that can cache Web content. Corporate and academic firewalls often cache Web resources requested by one user for the benefit of all. (See also Caching proxy server.) Some search engines, such as Google or Yahoo!, also store cached content from websites.
Apart from the facilities built into Web servers that can determine when files have been updated and so need to be re-sent, designers of dynamically-generated Web pages can control the HTTP headers sent back to requesting users, so that transient or sensitive pages are not cached. Internet banking and news sites frequently use this facility.
Data requested with an HTTP 'GET' is likely to be cached if other conditions are met; data obtained in response to a 'POST' is assumed to depend on the data that was POSTed and so is not cached.

Java

2008-07-03T05:45:00.001-07:00

A significant advance in Web technology was Sun Microsystems' Java platform. It enables Web pages to embed small programs (called applets) directly into the view. These applets run on the end-user's computer, providing a richer user interface than simple Web pages. Java client-side applets never gained the popularity that Sun had hoped for a variety of reasons, including lack of integration with other content (applets were confined to small boxes within the rendered page) and the fact that many computers at the time were supplied to end users without a suitably installed Java Virtual Machine, and so required a download by the user before applets would appear. Adobe Flash now performs many of the functions that were originally envisioned for Java applets, including the playing of video content, animation, and some rich UI features. Java itself has become more widely used as a platform and language for server-side and other programming.
Javascript
JavaScript, on the other hand, is a scripting language that was initially developed for use within Web pages. The standardized version is ECMAScript. While its name is similar to Java, JavaScript was developed by Netscape and it has almost nothing to do with Java, although, like Java, its syntax is derived from the C programming language. In conjunction with a Web page's Document Object Model, JavaScript has become a much more powerful technology than its creators originally envisioned. The manipulation of a page's Document Object Model after the page is delivered to the client has been called Dynamic HTML (DHTML), to emphasize a shift away from static HTML displays.
In simple cases, all the optional information and actions available on a JavaScript-enhanced Web page will have been downloaded when the page was first delivered. Ajax ("Asynchronous JavaScript And XML") is a group of inter-related web development techniques used for creating interactive web applications that provide a method whereby parts within a Web page may be updated, using new information obtained over the network at a later time in response to user actions. This allows the page to be more responsive, interactive and interesting, without the user having to wait for whole-page reloads. Ajax is seen as an important aspect of what is being called Web 2.0. Examples of Ajax techniques currently in use can be seen in Gmail, Google Maps, and other dynamic Web applications.

How the Web works

2008-07-03T05:44:00.001-07:00

Viewing a Web page on the World Wide Web normally begins either by typing the URL of the page into a Web browser, or by following a hyperlink to that page or resource. The Web browser then initiates a series of communication messages, behind the scenes, in order to fetch and display it.
First, the server-name portion of the URL is resolved into an IP address using the global, distributed Internet database known as the domain name system, or DNS. This IP address is necessary to contact and send data packets to the Web server.
The browser then requests the resource by sending an HTTP request to the Web server at that particular address. In the case of a typical Web page, the HTML text of the page is requested first and parsed immediately by the Web browser, which will then make additional requests for images and any other files that form a part of the page. Statistics measuring a website's popularity are usually based on the number of 'page views' or associated server 'hits', or file requests, which take place.
Having received the required files from the Web server, the browser then renders the page onto the screen as specified by its HTML, CSS, and other Web languages. Any images and other resources are incorporated to produce the on-screen Web page that the user sees.
Most Web pages will themselves contain hyperlinks to other related pages and perhaps to downloads, source documents, definitions and other Web resources. Such a collection of useful, related resources, interconnected via hypertext links, is what was dubbed a "web" of information. Making it available on the Internet created what Tim Berners-Lee first called the WorldWideWeb (a term written in CamelCase, subsequently discarded) in 1990.[1]
History
Main article: History of the World Wide Web

This NeXTcube used by Berners-Lee at CERN became the first Web server.
The underlying ideas of the Web can be traced as far back as 1980, when, at CERN in Switzerland, Tim Berners-Lee built ENQUIRE (referring to Enquire Within Upon Everything, a book he recalled from his youth). While it was rather different from the system in use today, it contained many of the same core ideas (and even some of the ideas of Berners-Lee's next project after the World Wide Web, the Semantic Web).
In March 1989, Tim Berners-Lee wrote a proposal,[2] which referenced ENQUIRE and described a more elaborate information management system. With help from Robert Cailliau, he published a more formal proposal for the World Wide Web on November 12, 1990.[3] The role model was provided by EBT's (Electronic Book Technology, a spin-off from the Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship at Brown University) Dynatext SGML reader that CERN had licensed. The Dynatext system was considered, however technically advanced (a key player in the extension of SGML ISO 8879:1986 to Hypermedia within HyTime), too expensive and with an inappropriate licensing policy for general HEP (High Energy Physics) community use: a fee for each document and each time a document was charged.
A NeXTcube was used by Berners-Lee as the world's first Web server and also to write the first Web browser, WorldWideWeb, in 1990. By Christmas 1990, Berners-Lee had built all the tools necessary for a working Web:[4] the first Web browser (which was a Web editor as well), the first Web server, and the first Web pages[5] which described the project itself.
On August 6, 1991, he posted a short summary of the World Wide Web project on the alt.hypertext newsgroup.[6] This date also marked the debut of the Web as a publicly available service on the Internet.
First server outside of Europe was created at SLAC in December 1991 [7].
The crucial underlying concept of hypertext originated with older projects from the 1960s, such as the Hypertext Editing System (HES) at Brown University--- among others Ted Nelson and Andries van Dam--- Ted Nelson's Project Xanadu and Douglas Engelbart's oN-Line System (NLS). Both Nelson and Engelbart were in turn inspired by Vannevar Bush's microfilm-based "memex," which was described in the 1945 essay "As We May Think".
Berners-Lee's breakthrough was to marry hypertext to the Internet. In his book Weaving The Web, he explains that he had repeatedly suggested that a marriage between the two technologies was possible to members of both technical communities, but when no one took up his invitation, he finally tackled the project himself. In the process, he developed a system of globally unique identifiers for resources on the Web and elsewhere: the Uniform Resource Identifier.
The World Wide Web had a number of differences from other hypertext systems that were then available. The Web required only unidirectional links rather than bidirectional ones. This made it possible for someone to link to another resource without action by the owner of that resource. It also significantly reduced the difficulty of implementing Web servers and browsers (in comparison to earlier systems), but in turn presented the chronic problem of link rot. Unlike predecessors such as HyperCard, the World Wide Web was non-proprietary, making it possible to develop servers and clients independently and to add extensions without licensing restrictions.
On April 30, 1993, CERN announced[8] that the World Wide Web would be free to anyone, with no fees due. Coming two months after the announcement that the Gopher protocol was no longer free to use, this produced a rapid shift away from Gopher and towards the Web. An early popular Web browser was ViolaWWW, which was based upon HyperCard.
Scholars generally agree, however, that the turning point for the World Wide Web began with the introduction[9] of the Mosaic Web browser[10] in 1993, a graphical browser developed by a team at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (NCSA-UIUC), led by Marc Andreessen. Funding for Mosaic came from the High-Performance Computing and Communications Initiative, a funding program initiated by the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991, one of several computing developments initiated by Senator Al Gore.[11] Prior to the release of Mosaic, graphics were not commonly mixed with text in Web pages, and its popularity was less than older protocols in use over the Internet, such as Gopher and Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS). Mosaic's graphical user interface allowed the Web to become, by far, the most popular Internet protocol.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was founded by Tim Berners-Lee after he left the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in October, 1994. It was founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT/LCS) with support from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) -- which had pioneered the Internet -- and the European Commission.
History in literature
The concept of a home-based global information system goes back at least as far as Isaac Asimov's short story "Anniversary" (Amazing Stories, March 1959), in which the characters look up information on a home computer called a "Multivac outlet" — which was connected by a "planetwide network of circuits" to a mile-long "super-computer" somewhere in the bowels of the Earth. One character is thinking of installing a Multivac, Jr. model for his kids.
The story was set in the far distant future when commercial space travel was commonplace, and yet the machine "prints the answer on a slip of tape" that comes out a slot — there is no video display — and the owner of the home computer says that he doesn't spend the kind of money to get a Multivac outlet that talks.
Standards
Main article: Web standards
Many formal standards and other technical specifications define the operation of different aspects of the World Wide Web, the Internet, and computer information exchange. Many of the documents are the work of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), headed by Berners-Lee, but some are produced by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and other organizations.
Usually, when Web standards are discussed, the following publications are seen as foundational:
• Recommendations for markup languages, especially HTML and XHTML, from the W3C. These define the structure and interpretation of hypertext documents.
• Recommendations for stylesheets, especially CSS, from the W3C.
• Standards for ECMAScript (usually in the form of JavaScript), from Ecma International.
• Recommendations for the Document Object Model, from W3C.
Additional publications provide definitions of other essential technologies for the World Wide Web, including, but not limited to, the following:
• Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), which is a universal system for referencing resources on the Internet, such as hypertext documents and images. URIs, often called URLs, are defined by the IETF's RFC 3986 / STD 66: Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax, as well as its predecessors and numerous URI scheme-defining RFCs;
• HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), especially as defined by RFC 2616: HTTP/1.1 and RFC 2617: HTTP Authentication, which specify how the browser and server authenticate each other.

The terms “internet” and “Internet”

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Like any noun in English, Internet is written with a capital first letter when it is a proper noun and without capitalization when it is a common noun. The Internet Society, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and several other Internet-related organizations use this convention in their publications. Originally, Internet was used without placement of the word the before Internet, as with the acronym ARPANET. Eventually, use of the term "the Internet" won out in the popular lexicon, perhaps due to confusion with "the Word Wide Web". Ironically, this change was not a subject of wide debate, though it led to subsequent debates over the continued capitalization of Internet.[citation needed]
Many newspapers, newswires, periodicals, and technical journals capitalize the term (Internet). Examples include The Dhaka Daily Star, The New York Times, the Associated Press, Time, The Times of India, Hindustan Times, and Communications of the ACM.
Others assert that the first letter should be in lower case (internet), and that the specific article the is sufficient to distinguish "the internet" from other internets; in other words, that the word internet is always a common noun. This requires that the reader depend on context to understand whether "the internet" refers to an internet the writer has previously mentioned or to the well-known world-wide network. A significant number of publications use this form, including The Economist, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, and The Sydney Morning Herald. As of 2005, many publications using internet for this meaning appear to be located outside of North America—although one U.S. news source, Wired News, has adopted the lower-case spelling.
Historically, Internet and internet have had different meanings, with internet meaning "an interconnected set of distinct networks", i.e. a network of networks, and Internet referring to the largest internet, the worldwide, publicly-available IP internet. In this usage, the Internet is the familiar network on which public Web sites exist; however, an internet is any network of smaller networks.[14] Any group of networks connected together is an internet; each of these networks may or may not be part of the Internet. The distinction is evident in many RFCs, books, and articles from the 1980s and early 1990s (some of which, such as RFC 1918, refer to "internets" in the plural). Some argue that the usage apparently agreed on by the IETF, ICANN, the W3C, and the Internet Society is by definition the correct usage.

Internet access

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Wikibooks has a book on the topic of
Online linux connect
Common methods of home access include dial-up, landline broadband (over coaxial cable, fiber optic or copper wires), Wi-Fi, satellite and 3G technology cell phones.
Public places to use the Internet include libraries and Internet cafes, where computers with Internet connections are available. There are also Internet access points in many public places such as airport halls and coffee shops, in some cases just for brief use while standing. Various terms are used, such as "public Internet kiosk", "public access terminal", and "Web payphone". Many hotels now also have public terminals, though these are usually fee-based. These terminals are widely accessed for various usage like ticket booking, bank deposit, online payment etc. Wi-Fi provides wireless access to computer networks, and therefore can do so to the Internet itself. Hotspots providing such access include Wi-Fi cafes, where would-be users need to bring their own wireless-enabled devices such as a laptop or PDA. These services may be free to all, free to customers only, or fee-based. A hotspot need not be limited to a confined location. A whole campus or park, or even an entire city can be enabled. Grassroots efforts have led to wireless community networks. Commercial Wi-Fi services covering large city areas are in place in London, Vienna, Toronto, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago and Pittsburgh. The Internet can then be accessed from such places as a park bench.[8]
Apart from Wi-Fi, there have been experiments with proprietary mobile wireless networks like Ricochet, various high-speed data services over cellular phone networks, and fixed wireless services.
High-end mobile phones such as smartphones generally come with Internet access through the phone network. Web browsers such as Opera are available on these advanced handsets, which can also run a wide variety of other Internet software. More mobile phones have Internet access than PCs, though this is not as widely used. An Internet access provider and protocol matrix differentiates the methods used to get online.
Social impact
The Internet has made possible entirely new forms of social interaction, activities and organizing, thanks to its basic features such as widespread usability and access.
Social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace have created a new form of socialization and interaction. Users of these sites are able to add a wide variety of items to their personal pages, to indicate common interests, and to connect with others. It is also possible to find a large circle of existing acquaintances, especially if a site allows users to utilize their real names, and to allow communication among large existing groups of people.
Sites like meetup.com exist to allow wider announcement of groups which may exist mainly for face-to-face meetings, but which may have a variety of minor interactions over their group's site at meetup.org, or other similar sites.
Political organization and censorship
.
In democratic societies, the Internet has achieved new relevance as a political tool. The presidential campaign of Howard Dean in 2004 in the United States became famous for its ability to generate donations via the Internet. Many political groups use the Internet to achieve a whole new method of organizing, in order to carry out Internet activism.
Some governments, such as those of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, the People's Republic of China, and Saudi Arabia, restrict what people in their countries can access on the Internet, especially political and religious content. This is accomplished through software that filters domains and content so that they may not be easily accessed or obtained without elaborate circumvention.
In Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, major Internet service providers have voluntarily (possibly to avoid such an arrangement being turned into law) agreed to restrict access to sites listed by police. While this list of forbidden URLs is only supposed to contain addresses of known child pornography sites, the content of the list is secret.[citation needed]
Many countries, including the United States, have enacted laws making the possession or distribution of certain material, such as child pornography, illegal, but do not use filtering software.
There are many free and commercially available software programs with which a user can choose to block offensive websites on individual computers or networks, such as to limit a child's access to pornography or violence. See Content-control software.
Leisure activities
The Internet has been a major source of leisure since before the World Wide Web, with entertaining social experiments such as MUDs and MOOs being conducted on university servers, and humor-related Usenet groups receiving much of the main traffic. Today, many Internet forums have sections devoted to games and funny videos; short cartoons in the form of Flash movies are also popular. Over 6 million people use blogs or message boards as a means of communication and for the sharing of ideas.
The pornography and gambling industries have both taken full advantage of the World Wide Web, and often provide a significant source of advertising revenue for other websites. Although many governments have attempted to put restrictions on both industries' use of the Internet, this has generally failed to stop their widespread popularity.
One main area of leisure on the Internet is multiplayer gaming. This form of leisure creates communities, bringing people of all ages and origins to enjoy the fast-paced world of multiplayer games. These range from MMORPG to first-person shooters, from role-playing games to online gambling. This has revolutionized the way many people interact and spend their free time on the Internet.
While online gaming has been around since the 1970s, modern modes of online gaming began with services such as GameSpy and MPlayer, to which players of games would typically subscribe. Non-subscribers were limited to certain types of gameplay or certain games.
Many use the Internet to access and download music, movies and other works for their enjoyment and relaxation. As discussed above, there are paid and unpaid sources for all of these, using centralized servers and distributed peer-to-peer technologies. Discretion is needed as some of these sources take more care over the original artists' rights and over copyright laws than others.
Many use the World Wide Web to access news, weather and sports reports, to plan and book holidays and to find out more about their random ideas and casual interests.
People use chat, messaging and e-mail to make and stay in touch with friends worldwide, sometimes in the same way as some previously had pen pals. Social networking websites like MySpace, Facebook and many others like them also put and keep people in contact for their enjoyment.
The Internet has seen a growing number of Web desktops, where users can access their files, folders, and settings via the Internet.
Cyberslacking has become a serious drain on corporate resources; the average UK employee spends 57 minutes a day surfing the Web at work, according to a study by Peninsula Business Services.[9]

The World Wide Web

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Graphic representation of a minute fraction of the WWW, demonstrating hyperlinks
Many people use the terms Internet and World Wide Web (or just the Web) interchangeably, but, as discussed above, the two terms are not synonymous.
The World Wide Web is a huge set of interlinked documents, images and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. These hyperlinks and URLs allow the web servers and other machines that store originals, and cached copies, of these resources to deliver them as required using HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). HTTP is only one of the communication protocols used on the Internet.
Web services also use HTTP to allow software systems to communicate in order to share and exchange business logic and data.
Software products that can access the resources of the Web are correctly termed user agents. In normal use, web browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Firefox, access web pages and allow users to navigate from one to another via hyperlinks. Web documents may contain almost any combination of computer data including graphics, sounds, text, video, multimedia and interactive content including games, office applications and scientific demonstrations.
Through keyword-driven Internet research using search engines like Yahoo! and Google, millions of people worldwide have easy, instant access to a vast and diverse amount of online information. Compared to encyclopedias and traditional libraries, the World Wide Web has enabled a sudden and extreme decentralization of information and data.
Using the Web, it is also easier than ever before for individuals and organisations to publish ideas and information to an extremely large audience. Anyone can find ways to publish a web page, a blog or build a website for very little initial cost. Publishing and maintaining large, professional websites full of attractive, diverse and up-to-date information is still a difficult and expensive proposition, however.
Many individuals and some companies and groups use "web logs" or blogs, which are largely used as easily updatable online diaries. Some commercial organisations encourage staff to fill them with advice on their areas of specialization in the hope that visitors will be impressed by the expert knowledge and free information, and be attracted to the corporation as a result. One example of this practice is Microsoft, whose product developers publish their personal blogs in order to pique the public's interest in their work.
Collections of personal web pages published by large service providers remain popular, and have become increasingly sophisticated. Whereas operations such as Angelfire and GeoCities have existed since the early days of the Web, newer offerings from, for example, Facebook and MySpace currently have large followings. These operations often brand themselves as social network services rather than simply as web page hosts.
Advertising on popular web pages can be lucrative, and e-commerce or the sale of products and services directly via the Web continues to grow.
In the early days, web pages were usually created as sets of complete and isolated HTML text files stored on a web server. More recently, websites are more often created using content management system (CMS) or wiki software with, initially, very little content. Contributors to these systems, who may be paid staff, members of a club or other organisation or members of the public, fill underlying databases with content using editing pages designed for that purpose, while casual visitors view and read this content in its final HTML form. There may or may not be editorial, approval and security systems built into the process of taking newly entered content and making it available to the target visitors.
Remote access
Further information: Remote access
The Internet allows computer users to connect to other computers and information stores easily, wherever they may be across the world. They may do this with or without the use of security, authentication and encryption technologies, depending on the requirements.
This is encouraging new ways of working from home, collaboration and information sharing in many industries. An accountant sitting at home can audit the books of a company based in another country, on a server situated in a third country that is remotely maintained by IT specialists in a fourth. These accounts could have been created by home-working bookkeepers, in other remote locations, based on information e-mailed to them from offices all over the world. Some of these things were possible before the widespread use of the Internet, but the cost of private leased lines would have made many of them infeasible in practice.
An office worker away from his desk, perhaps on the other side of the world on a business trip or a holiday, can open a remote desktop session into his normal office PC using a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection via the Internet. This gives the worker complete access to all of his or her normal files and data, including e-mail and other applications, while away from the office.
This concept is also referred to by some network security people as the Virtual Private Nightmare, because it extends the secure perimeter of a corporate network into its employees' homes; this has been the source of some notable security breaches, but also provides security for the workers.
Collaboration
The low cost and nearly instantaneous sharing of ideas, knowledge, and skills has made collaborative work dramatically easier. Not only can a group cheaply communicate and test, but the wide reach of the Internet allows such groups to easily form in the first place, even among niche interests. An example of this is the free software movement in software development, which produced GNU and Linux from scratch and has taken over development of Mozilla and OpenOffice.org (formerly known as Netscape Communicator and StarOffice). Films such as Zeitgeist, Loose Change and Endgame have had extensive coverage on the Internet, while being virtually ignored in the mainstream media.
Internet "chat", whether in the form of IRC "chat rooms" or channels, or via instant messaging systems, allow colleagues to stay in touch in a very convenient way when working at their computers during the day. Messages can be sent and viewed even more quickly and conveniently than via e-mail. Extension to these systems may allow files to be exchanged, "whiteboard" drawings to be shared as well as voice and video contact between team members.
Version control systems allow collaborating teams to work on shared sets of documents without either accidentally overwriting each other's work or having members wait until they get "sent" documents to be able to add their thoughts and changes.
File sharing
For more details on this topic, see File sharing.
A computer file can be e-mailed to customers, colleagues and friends as an attachment. It can be uploaded to a website or FTP server for easy download by others. It can be put into a "shared location" or onto a file server for instant use by colleagues. The load of bulk downloads to many users can be eased by the use of "mirror" servers or peer-to-peer networks.
In any of these cases, access to the file may be controlled by user authentication; the transit of the file over the Internet may be obscured by encryption, and money may change hands before or after access to the file is given. The price can be paid by the remote charging of funds from, for example, a credit card whose details are also passed—hopefully fully encrypted—across the Internet. The origin and authenticity of the file received may be checked by digital signatures or by MD5 or other message digests.
These simple features of the Internet, over a worldwide basis, are changing the basis for the production, sale, and distribution of anything that can be reduced to a computer file for transmission. This includes all manner of print publications, software products, news, music, film, video, photography, graphics and the other arts. This in turn has caused seismic shifts in each of the existing industries that previously controlled the production and distribution of these products.
Internet collaboration technology enables business and project teams to share documents, calendars and other information. Such collaboration occurs in a wide variety of areas including scientific research, software development, conference planning, political activism and creative writing.
Streaming media
Many existing radio and television broadcasters provide Internet "feeds" of their live audio and video streams (for example, the BBC). They may also allow time-shift viewing or listening such as Preview, Classic Clips and Listen Again features. These providers have been joined by a range of pure Internet "broadcasters" who never had on-air licenses. This means that an Internet-connected device, such as a computer or something more specific, can be used to access on-line media in much the same way as was previously possible only with a television or radio receiver. The range of material is much wider, from pornography to highly specialized, technical webcasts. Podcasting is a variation on this theme, where—usually audio—material is first downloaded in full and then may be played back on a computer or shifted to a digital audio player to be listened to on the move. These techniques using simple equipment allow anybody, with little censorship or licensing control, to broadcast audio-visual material on a worldwide basis.
Webcams can be seen as an even lower-budget extension of this phenomenon. While some webcams can give full-frame-rate video, the picture is usually either small or updates slowly. Internet users can watch animals around an African waterhole, ships in the Panama Canal, the traffic at a local roundabout or their own premises, live and in real time. Video chat rooms, video conferencing, and remote controllable webcams are also popular. Many uses can be found for personal webcams in and around the home, with and without two-way sound.
YouTube, sometimes described as an Internet phenomenon because of the vast amount of users and how rapidly the site's popularity has grown, was founded on February 15, 2005. It is now the leading website for free streaming video. It uses a flash-based web player which streams video files in the format FLV. Users are able to watch videos without signing up; however, if users do sign up they are able to upload an unlimited amount of videos and they are given their own personal profile. It is currently estimated that there are 64,000,000 videos on YouTube, and it is also currently estimated that 825,000 new videos are uploaded every day.
Voice telephony (VoIP)
For more details on this topic, see VoIP.
VoIP stands for Voice over IP, where IP refers to the Internet Protocol that underlies all Internet communication. This phenomenon began as an optional two-way voice extension to some of the instant messaging systems that took off around the year 2000. In recent years many VoIP systems have become as easy to use and as convenient as a normal telephone. The benefit is that, as the Internet carries the actual voice traffic, VoIP can be free or cost much less than a normal telephone call, especially over long distances and especially for those with always-on Internet connections such as cable or ADSL.
Thus, VoIP is maturing into a viable alternative to traditional telephones. Interoperability between different providers has improved and the ability to call or receive a call from a traditional telephone is available. Simple, inexpensive VoIP modems are now available that eliminate the need for a PC.
Voice quality can still vary from call to call but is often equal to and can even exceed that of traditional calls.
Remaining problems for VoIP include emergency telephone number dialing and reliability. Currently, a few VoIP providers provide an emergency service, but it is not universally available. Traditional phones are line-powered and operate during a power failure; VoIP does not do so without a backup power source for the electronics.
Most VoIP providers offer unlimited national calling, but the direction in VoIP is clearly toward global coverage with unlimited minutes for a low monthly fee.
VoIP has also become increasingly popular within the gaming world, as a form of communication between players. Popular gaming VoIP clients include Ventrilo and Teamspeak, and there are others available also. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 also offer VoIP chat features.

Internet protocols

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For more details on this topic, see Internet Protocols.
In this context, there are three layers of protocols:
• At the lower level (OSI layer 3) is IP (Internet Protocol), which defines the datagrams or packets that carry blocks of data from one node to another. The vast majority of today's Internet uses version four of the IP protocol (i.e. IPv4), and, although IPv6 is standardized, it exists only as "islands" of connectivity, and there are many ISPs without any IPv6 connectivity.[5] ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) also exists at this level. ICMP is connectionless; it is used for control, signaling, and error reporting purposes.
• TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol) exist at the next layer up (OSI layer 4); these are the protocols by which data is transmitted. TCP makes a virtual "connection", which gives some level of guarantee of reliability. UDP is a best-effort, connectionless transport, in which data packets that are lost in transit will not be re-sent.
• The application protocols sit on top of TCP and UDP and occupy layers 5, 6, and 7 of the OSI model. These define the specific messages and data formats sent and understood by the applications running at each end of the communication. Examples of these protocols are HTTP, FTP, and SMTP.
Internet structure
There have been many analyses of the Internet and its structure. For example, it has been determined that the Internet IP routing structure and hypertext links of the World Wide Web are examples of scale-free networks.
Similar to the way the commercial Internet providers connect via Internet exchange points, research networks tend to interconnect into large subnetworks such as:
• GEANT
• GLORIAD
• The Internet2 Network (formally known as the Abilene Network)
• JANET (the UK's national research and education network)
These in turn are built around relatively smaller networks. See also the list of academic computer network organizations.
In network diagrams, the Internet is often represented by a cloud symbol, into and out of which network communications can pass.
ICANN

ICANN headquarters in Marina Del Rey, California, United States
For more details on this topic, see ICANN.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the authority that coordinates the assignment of unique identifiers on the Internet, including domain names, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and protocol port and parameter numbers. A globally unified namespace (i.e., a system of names in which there is at most one holder for each possible name) is essential for the Internet to function. ICANN is headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, but is overseen by an international board of directors drawn from across the Internet technical, business, academic, and non-commercial communities. The US government continues to have the primary role in approving changes to the root zone file that lies at the heart of the domain name system. Because the Internet is a distributed network comprising many voluntarily interconnected networks, the Internet, as such, has no governing body. ICANN's role in coordinating the assignment of unique identifiers distinguishes it as perhaps the only central coordinating body on the global Internet, but the scope of its authority extends only to the Internet's systems of domain names, IP addresses, protocol ports and parameter numbers.
On November 16, 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society, held in Tunis, established the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to discuss Internet-related issues.
Language
For more details on this topic, see English on the Internet.
Further information: Unicode
The prevalent language for communication on the Internet is English. This may be a result of the Internet's origins, as well as English's role as a lingua franca. It may also be related to the poor capability of early computers, largely originating in the United States, to handle characters other than those in the English variant of the Latin alphabet.
After English (30% of Web visitors) the most requested languages on the World Wide Web are Chinese (17%), Spanish (9%), Japanese (7%), French (5%) and German (5%).[6]
By continent, 38% of the world's Internet users are based in Asia, 27% in Europe, 18% in North America, 10% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 7% in Australia.[7]
The Internet's technologies have developed enough in recent years, especially in the use of Unicode, that good facilities are available for development and communication in most widely used languages. However, some glitches such as mojibake (incorrect display of foreign language characters, also known as kryakozyabry) still remain.
Internet and the workplace
The Internet is allowing greater flexibility in working hours and location, especially with the spread of unmetered high-speed connections and Web applications.
The Internet viewed on mobile devices
The Internet can now be accessed virtually anywhere by numerous means. Mobile phones, datacards, handheld game consoles and cellular routers allow users to connect to the Internet from anywhere there is a cellular network supporting that device's technology.
Within the limitations imposed by the small screen and other limited facilities of such a pocket-sized device, all the services of the Internet, including email and web browsing, may be available in this way. Service providers may restrict the range of these services and charges for data access may be significant, compared to home usage.

The Internet

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For other uses, see Internet (disambiguation).

Visualization of the various routes through a portion of the Internet.

Internet PortalThe Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked web pages and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW).
Terminology
The Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and the same. The Internet is a collection of interconnected computer networks, linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, etc. In contrast, the Web is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. The World Wide Web is one of the services accessible via the Internet, along with various others including e-mail, file sharing, online gaming and others described below.
History
Main article: History of the InternetCreation
The USSR's launch of Sputnik spurred the United States to create the Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as ARPA, in February 1958 to regain a technological lead.[1][2] ARPA created the Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) to further the research of the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) program, which had networked country-wide radar systems together for the first time. J. C. R. Licklider was selected to head the IPTO, and saw universal networking as a potential unifying human revolution.
Licklider moved from the Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory at Harvard University to MIT in 1950, after becoming interested in information technology. At MIT, he served on a committee that established Lincoln Laboratory and worked on the SAGE project. In 1957 he became a Vice President at BBN, where he bought the first production PDP-1 computer and conducted the first public demonstration of time-sharing.
At the IPTO, Licklider recruited Lawrence Roberts to head a project to implement a network, and Roberts based the technology on the work of Paul Baran,[citation needed] who had written an exhaustive study for the U.S. Air Force that recommended packet switching (as opposed to circuit switching) to make a network highly robust and survivable. After much work, the first two nodes of what would become the ARPANET were interconnected between UCLA and SRI International in Menlo Park, California, on October 29, 1969. The ARPANET was one of the "eve" networks of today's Internet. Following on from the demonstration that packet switching worked on the ARPANET, the British Post Office, Telenet, DATAPAC and TRANSPAC collaborated to create the first international packet-switched network service. In the UK, this was referred to as the International Packet Stream Service (IPSS), in 1978. The collection of X.25-based networks grew from Europe and the US to cover Canada, Hong Kong and Australia by 1981. The X.25 packet switching standard was developed in the CCITT (now called ITU-T) around 1976. X.25 was independent of the TCP/IP protocols that arose from the experimental work of DARPA on the ARPANET, Packet Radio Net and Packet Satellite Net during the same time period. Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn developed the first description of the TCP protocols during 1973 and published a paper on the subject in May 1974. Use of the term "Internet" to describe a single global TCP/IP network originated in December 1974 with the publication of RFC 675, the first full specification of TCP that was written by Vinton Cerf, Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine, then at Stanford University. During the next nine years, work proceeded to refine the protocols and to implement them on a wide range of operating systems.
The first TCP/IP-wide area network was made operational by January 1, 1983 when all hosts on the ARPANET were switched over from the older NCP protocols to TCP/IP. In 1985, the United States' National Science Foundation (NSF) commissioned the construction of a university 56 kilobit/second network backbone using computers called "fuzzballs" by their inventor, David L. Mills. The following year, NSF sponsored the development of a higher-speed 1.5 megabit/second backbone that became the NSFNet. A key decision to use the DARPA TCP/IP protocols was made by Dennis Jennings, then in charge of the Supercomputer program at NSF.
The opening of the network to commercial interests began in 1988. The US Federal Networking Council approved the interconnection of the NSFNET to the commercial MCI Mail system in that year and the link was made in the summer of 1989. Other commercial electronic e-mail services were soon connected, including OnTyme, Telemail and Compuserve. In that same year, three commercial Internet Service Providers were created: UUNET, PSINET and CERFNET. Important, separate networks that offered gateways into, then later merged with, the Internet include Usenet and BITNET. Various other commercial and educational networks, such as Telenet, Tymnet, Compuserve and JANET were interconnected with the growing Internet. Telenet (later called Sprintnet) was a large privately funded national computer network with free dial-up access in cities throughout the U.S. that had been in operation since the 1970s. This network was eventually interconnected with the others in the 1980s as the TCP/IP protocol became increasingly popular. The ability of TCP/IP to work over virtually any pre-existing communication networks allowed for a great ease of growth, although the rapid growth of the Internet was due primarily to the availability of commercial routers from companies such as Cisco Systems, Proteon and Juniper, the availability of commercial Ethernet equipment for local-area networking and the widespread implementation of TCP/IP on the UNIX operating system.
Growth
Although the basic applications and guidelines that make the Internet possible had existed for almost a decade, the network did not gain a public face until the 1990s. On August 6, 1991, CERN, which straddles the border between France and Switzerland, publicized the new World Wide Web project. The Web was invented by English scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1989.
An early popular web browser was ViolaWWW, based upon HyperCard. It was eventually replaced in popularity by the Mosaic web browser. In 1993, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois released version 1.0 of Mosaic, and by late 1994 there was growing public interest in the previously academic, technical Internet. By 1996 usage of the word Internet had become commonplace, and consequently, so had its use as a synecdoche in reference to the World Wide Web.
Meanwhile, over the course of the decade, the Internet successfully accommodated the majority of previously existing public computer networks (although some networks, such as FidoNet, have remained separate). During the 1990s, it was estimated that the Internet grew by 100% per year, with a brief period of explosive growth in 1996 and 1997.[3] This growth is often attributed to the lack of central administration, which allows organic growth of the network, as well as the non-proprietary open nature of the Internet protocols, which encourages vendor interoperability and prevents any one company from exerting too much control over the network.[citation needed]
University students' appreciation and contributions
New findings in the field of communications during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s were quickly adopted by universities across North America.
Examples of early university Internet communities are Cleveland FreeNet, Blacksburg Electronic Village and NSTN in Nova Scotia.[4] Students took up the opportunity of free communications and saw this new phenomenon as a tool of liberation. Personal computers and the Internet would free them from corporations and governments (Nelson, Jennings, Stallman).
Graduate students played a huge part in the creation of ARPANET. In the 1960s, the network working group, which did most of the design for ARPANET's protocols, was composed mainly of graduate students.
Today's Internet

The My Opera Community server rack. From the top, user file storage (content of files.myopera.com), "bigma" (the master MySQL database server), and two IBM blade centers containing multi-purpose machines (Apache front ends, Apache back ends, slave MySQL database servers, load balancers, file servers, cache servers and sync masters).
Aside from the complex physical connections that make up its infrastructure, the Internet is facilitated by bi- or multi-lateral commercial contracts (e.g., peering agreements), and by technical specifications or protocols that describe how to exchange data over the network. Indeed, the Internet is essentially defined by its interconnections and routing policies.
As of March 31, 2008, 1.407 billion people use the Internet according to Internet World Stats.

Mathematics in Ancient Egypt

2008-07-03T05:37:00.000-07:00

Mathematics in Ancient Egypt
Did the Ancient Egyptians possess an ingenious skill for calculation? Assem Deif* works out an ancient problem
________________________________________
The Greeks developed mathematics as a deductive science that reached its climax with Euclid of Alexandria in his masterpiece The Elements. Before that, during the ancient Egyptian era, mathematics was an inductive discipline of a utilitarian nature used to perform practical tasks such as flood control or land measurement using rope. It has been suggested that mathematics then amounted to no more than the two-times table and the ability to find two-thirds of any number. The whole structure of Egyptian mathematics was said to be based on these two simple rules, and indeed no evidence exists of a textual geometry with constructions and proofs.
Click to view caption

Khafre's pyramid with the Sphinx
________________________________________
Yet, looking at the Egyptians' stunning monuments, as well as a civilisation that spanned three millennia, one might expect to find a similar element of grandeur in their sciences -- especially in mathematics and astronomy. How did they configure the manpower and materials needed to build more than 90 pyramids? It is obvious that to calculate the vast amount of computations they needed, the ancient Egyptians reached a fairly advanced mathematical knowledge.
Several eminent Greek mathematicians -- Pythagoras, Thales and Archimedes, to name just a few -- worked in Egypt, and it is likely that Egyptian mathematics was absorbed into the body of Greek mathematics. The Giza pyramids offer definitive evidence of the ancient accuracy of measuring. Built in the middle of the third millennium BC, shortly after the first known evidence of Egyptian writing, they predate by 600 years any early mathematical tools. The Great Pyramid of Khufu was built of 2,300,000 limestone blocks each averaging 2.5 tons. Simple calculations reveal that, since it took 20 years to complete, and assuming that work lasted eight hours per day, it was possible to fit 2,300,000/20 x 365 x 8 x 60 = 0.7 blocks per minute. In other words it took about 10 minutes to fit seven such huge blocks neatly into place at such an elevation. This does not account for the time taken to construct or demolish the ramp using to pull up the stones.
One engineer reckons that such a ramp would require 18,000,000 m of material -- seven times the amount used for the pyramid itself, and necessitating a work force of 240,000 during Khufu's reign and more than 300,000 to dismantle it for at least eight years afterwards. Neither does it account for the time taken to position the nine blocks each weighing 50 tons for the inside of the royal chambers, or the time to clad the monument with casing stones. Astonishingly, an experiment by Japanese researchers 15 years ago to build a pyramid using new technology was abandoned after six months when their calculations showed it would take more than 1,000 years to complete their task.
No two Egyptologists agree on the exact dimensions of the Great Pyramid, yet all accept that the sides agree in length within 0.01 per cent, and that the right angles are equally accurate. The pyramid's 350-foot-long descending passage is so straight that it deviates from a central axis by less than a quarter of an inch from side to side and only one tenth of an inch up and down. This compares only with the best laser-controlled drilling of today.
Another perplexing feature of the Great Pyramid are the four so-called "air shafts", two in the King's Chamber and two in the Queen's. In each chamber, one is directed precisely to the North while the other is set precisely to the South. Whether these shafts were intended for ventilation or to serve a religious purpose is a mystery. The alignment of the shafts was difficult to attain, especially since they were made during construction. The builders appear to have selected a "target star", visible to the naked eye and rising high enough so as not to be disturbed by the earth's atmosphere. This would be viewed through the shaft during each phase of construction. The pyramid builders were able to insert these almost perfectly straight shafts directly North and South hundreds of feet from inside the pyramid and with almost a laser-beam precision. The shafts' alignments to the star's culmination points are so precise that they point exactly to the three stars of Orion's Belt, which the Egyptians relied heavily on in their astronomical observations.
The casing stones covering the monument are also so perfectly shaped that the mortar-filled joint is just 1/15th of an inch. Egyptologist Flinders Petrie compared such phenomenal precision with that of the finest optician, saying it was beyond the capabilities of modern technology. Again, these stones show no tool marksn and the corners are not even slightly chipped.
Monuments elsewhere show equal feats of engineering. The Karnak temple complex has 134 carved granite pillars, each 22m in height and 3.5m in diameter. Some obelisks are 42m high and weigh 1,100 tons. How did these early engineers raise them upright?
They had no electronic calculators, only ropes and rods. Yet they knew accurate values for both pie and sigma . They were aware of Pythagoras's theorem -- and not just as having sides with the ratio 3:4:5. Pythagoras himself called it the "Sacred Triangle". In our view, he might have given this name not only to the triangle, but also to the Great Pyramid with its dimensions 220c, 280c and 356c. History records that Pythagoras announced his theorem as he departed from Egypt in 600 BC after living there for 22 years.
The Golden Ratio, also called Divine Proportion, is what artists reckon to be the ratio controlling the dimensions of any beautiful figure and which applies to monuments from the Parthenon and the domes of Persia, to the art of the Renaissance.
It is beyond doubt that the Great Pyramid is a testament to the builders' remarkable ability precisely to measure directions, angles and lengths on the earth's surface. The pyramid exhibits such a high degree of precision in construction and orientation that it is little wonder ill- founded legends have grown up around it. It is said to be the most accurately aligned structure in existence, facing true North with only 3/ 60th of a degree of error (the misalignment in the telescope's sensor axis of the Paris observatory is 7min of arc, or twice the pyramid's error, while the Meridian Building at Greenwich Observatory in London has an inclination of 9min). Moreover, the pyramid's site was selected so as to allow for astronomical observations. It was determined as a site that would be suitable for a building with 61/2 million tons of stone, whose height was 147m and base area 53000 m . So, whereas Egyptologists adopt the view that the ancient Egyptians built the Great Pyramid as a tomb for Khufu, others suggest that their intention was to build a geodesic monument that would demonstrate their knowledge of the earth's shape and size, or perhaps an astronomical observatory.
In any event, what knowledge did the ancient Egyptians possess in order to construct such colossal structure and with such outstanding precision? We are forced to conclude that the pyramid builders were capable of making precise geodesic and astronomical calculations.
Another reason for believing in these skills is their accurate calendar. The Egyptians could not have devised a calendar with such remarkable sophistication unless they were well-versed in astronomy, a science we cannot dissociate from either mathematics or religion in ancient Egypt. A nation capable of mastering astronomy must have possessed advanced mathematical know-how.
One of the most astounding pieces of Egyptian architecture is Abu Simbel. A marvel of engineering, the temple construction depends on precise astronomical calculations. Thanks to the orientation of the temple, twice a year on 22 February and 22 October -- the anniversaries of Rameses's birthday and his coronation day -- the statues of the gods Amun-Ra and Re-Horakhte and of the pharaoh in the inner temple are struck at dawn by a shaft of sunlight. This spectacle continued for more than 3,200 years until the 1960s when the temple was dismantled and relocated to make way for the High Dam. After that the illumination shifted by one day.
Two major mathematical documents have survived; the Rhind and the Moscow papyri. Also still in existence are the Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll, a table of 26 decompositions of unit fractions, a well as the Berlin Papyrus which contains two problems on simultaneous equations, one of second degree, and the Reisner Papyrus demonstrating the practical application of mathematics in construction and commerce. It is from the first two documents that we have obtained most of our information on Egyptian mathematics.
The papyrus, purchased by A Henry Rhind in Luxor in 1858 was written about 1650 BC by the scribe Ahmes, who stated that he was copying a document 200 years older. The papyrus contains multiplication tables, along with 87 problems involving a variety of mathematical processes.
The Moscow Papyrus which dates from 1890 BC contains some 25 problems. Number 14 shows a figure resembling an isosceles trapezoid: the calculations associated with it indicate that it is the frustum of a square pyramid. The formula was not written on the papyrus, but it was evidently known to the Egyptians.
"Squaring the circle" is the most fascinating problem that the Egyptians tackled, and, by far, the most famous and intricate mathematical problem ever posed in antiquity. By using simple geometrical instruments such as a compass and ruler, it seeks to find a square of an area equal to that of a given circle. Only after three and a half millennia (in the late 19th century) was it shown that such a square could not be constructed. The reason is that it is not an algebraic number. The Egyptians were the first to pose this problem, by stating in problem number 50 of the Rhind Papyrus, that a circle of nine units in diameter is equal in area to a square with a side of eight units.
By far the most intriguing is problem 14 of the Moscow Papyrus. It asks for the volume of a truncated pyramid (frustum), stating: "Given a truncated pyramid of height 6, base 4, and top 2".
An important find at Saqqara was a Third-Dynasty limestone ostracon dating from about 2700 BC. Egyptologists believe this architect's plan of a curved section of a roof is an example of the use of rectangular coordinates. For horizontal coordinates spaced one cubit apart, the vertical height is given for points which define a curve. The curve in the sketch exactly matches the curve of a nearby temple roof. This appears to be the earliest use of rectangular coordinates, and is another example of sophisticated mathematical concepts found in practical applications outside of the surviving mathematical papyri.
Instead of numbers, the Egyptians used symbols which started at one and went up to a million. Number one was a papyrus leaf, 10 a tied leaf, 100 a piece of rope, 1000 a lotus flower, 10,000 a snake, 100,000 a tadpole and 1,000,000 a scribe with raised arms. One major disadvantage was its lack of the zero, but neither the Babylonians nor the Greeks had zero either, although the Hindus, Greeks and Mayans knew of it as a symbol. It was the Arabs near the end of the first millennium AD who introduced it in numbers and later used it to solve algebraic equations.
Hieroglyphic numerals did not remain constant, but changed continuously over time. A New Kingdom script differs from the Middle Kingdom, and so on. When hieroglyphs were carved on stone, there was no need to develop forms which were quick to write. However, once the Egyptians began to use dried papyrus reed as paper and its tip as a pen, they needed to develop a more rapid means of writing. This prompted the development of fast hieratic writing. Later, a system of hieratic numerals was introduced, allowing numbers to be written in a more compact form: the number 9999 had just four hieratic symbols instead of 36 hieroglyphs. Examples of hieratic writing are the Rhind and Moscow papyri; meanwhile the carving on stone remained in hieroglyphs.
Today's scientists are searching desperately to fill the many blanks in the history of the Egyptian civilisation. There are very few sources on Egyptian mathematics, but these still give plenty of information about the level of mathematics. In fact, what current knowledge the West considers as originating mostly -- if not all -- from Babylon or Greece is beyond any doubt inherited from the ancient Egyptians. Such early historians as Solon, Hecataeus of Melitus, Herodotus, Diodorus and Strabo agreed that all the prominent Greek scientists, without a single exception, visited Egypt. Some historians, physicians and even philosophers stayed for more than 10 years in Waset, or Thebes. Further, All historians agree that one science in which the Greeks borrowed heavily from the Egyptians was medicine, so it seems plausible that they also borrowed in the other sciences.
If this is the case, then it would be legitimate to ask why most of the ancient written heritage was lost but the Greek was preserved to reach European Renaissance in the form we know today. The answer probably lies in that sciences in the Hellenistic era were written in Greek, a language that was understood and thus translated into Latin or Arabic. Hieroglyphs and hieratic, unidentified and written on fragile papyrus or parchment, did not survive. Thus it was left to the Greeks to reap the acclaim.
* The writer is professor of Mathematics at Cairo University

Google

2008-07-03T05:36:00.000-07:00

Google is one of the smartest search engines. Google was originally created by Stanford University students Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and retains a well thought out structure and methodology. The site actually runs on thousands of linked PC's distributed in centres located in different places around the world, and usually provides relevant results with very fast response times.
Google uses a page ranking system to determine which sites are returned at the top in response to a search query. In Google's words:
In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote.
This method ensures that the pages most highly recommended by other pages are returned closest to the top of a search listing. This technique is really a kind of centralized analysis of peer-to-peer data, and works quite well.
For the alternatively inclined, a detailed description of how Google uses flocks of pigeons collected into dense, low-cost clusters to rank web pages can be found here.
The Google advanced search page provides a menu driven way to search the Internet,

Earn money with Widget Bucks

2008-06-23T04:16:00.000-07:00

Widget Bucks fea pay-per-click shopping widgets that help our customers make money fast. They instantly display the most popular products based on buying trends of 100 million shoppers. Thus they are
highly engaging, which means instant dollars for our customers. Our widgets see $3-$6 CPM — pretty good compared to traditional ad networks that deliver less than $2 CPM
started withWidgetBucksaround 2 month ago.
On my first 2 weeks with the program I didn't get any clicks, I was pretty disappointed and I was thinking about taking the ads off my blogs but then I changed my mind because I had them only for 2 weeks and I think that to be successful you have to keep trying so I changed the ads placement and on the 3rd week I got 3 clicks and with just 3 clicks I made $1.50 which I think is pretty good. With google adsense most of the time with 3 click I make like 0.15 cents.
So since then I have been getting more clicks every week and each click make me between 0.45 and 0.55 cents.
I think that WidgetBucks
is a very good way to make money online if you have a blog or website.
Remember that to make money online you have to be consistent, is not easy but if you put some work on it you will start seen good results.

WidgetBucks is based on pay-per-click, just like Google Adsense. You are paid for each click made on an ad by a legitimate website visitor.
There are also 2 other ways to make money with WidgetBucks
one is by CPM, or Cost-Per-Thousand and also you can make money by refering other people to this Free service.

Remember that like any other Pay per click service you can not click on your own ads, if you do it your account will be suspended.

There are three ways to make money from WidgetBucks
:PPC, or Pay-Per-Click ads. Each time a user from the U.S. or Canada clicks on a WidgetBucks ad widget on your site, you get paid.
CPM, or Cost-Per-Thousand Impressions. When a user from outside the U.S. and Canada views one of your pages that contains a CPM ad from one of WidgetBucks' ad partners, you earn revenue.
Referrals. When you refer a newWidgetBucks
user, you will receive a 5 percent referral fee based on the commissions earned by the people you refer. You'll receive this 5 percent for the full 12 months after the new member joins.

WidgetBucks
is a very easy publisher programs. To make a New Widget just go to The "New Widget" screen, and on that page you have all the simple steps you have to follow to make your ads. Name and identify where the widget will be seen. Next, select a widget size, and a product rotation interval, one of the best sizes to use is the 300 x 250 ads or the 100x600 ads but the best way to find out which are best for you is to experiment with them try different sizes and placements and check out which ones works best for you.

Select a color scheme to apply to your ads - make it match your site's color scheme as much as possible so the blend with your content and they look like a part of your website or blog!

The last step is where you can select the broad and sub-categories of products you'd like to see featured in your ad, while you are making all these changes you have right there the preview area (not seen in the screenshot above) that dynamically updates and lets you see the exact ad you'll get. Finally, save and add the code to your site - and you're done it can get any easier!

How do I get started?
Getting started with WidgetBucks
is a simple 1-2-3 process. First, sign-up. Second, configure your WidgetBucks
with our easy publishing system. Third, paste the code into your blog or Web page, or use our integration with popular blog platforms such as TypePad, Blogger and WordPress. If you want to change or update your WidgetBucks
in the future, simply sign in and go to My Widgets. As of November 28, 2007, WidgetBucks
requires approval of new accounts in order to maintain network quality and a competitive revenue-per-click for publishers.

Can I post a widget to my blog or publishing platform?

In many cases, a blogging/publishing platform will not allow the user to directly edit/enter HTML directly and/or there are restrictions on including javascript within a post. In these cases, you will not be able to place a widget in a post, but you may be able to add the widget to the sidebar. Sidebars are provided by nearly all blogging/publishing platforms, and they typically support HTML/Javascript. For example, WordPress does not allow certain types of accounts to add Javascript. Blogspot and Typepad are examples of platforms that allow you to place the widget code directly in a blog post and/or in the sidebar. WidgetBucks
currently has direct integration with Blogger and Typepad to add the widget directly to a sidebar. You can also copy/paste the HTML code directly into a blog post on these platforms. Wordpress is also a very popular blogging platform, but has some specific WordPress steps that must be followed to support Javascript within your post. As a rule, if your platform allows you to directly edit HTML, you should be able to post a widget.

Can I put WidgetBucks
on my site if I'm not based in the US?

Yes, as long as the site meets the terms of service. Please be aware that our terms of service does not allow non-english sites, ad-only sites, sites containing pornography or violent images, sites with invalid domains, and of course, click fraud. WidgetBucks
can be placed on any site that has traffic; however, our mostly U.S.-based merchants/advertisers have indicated that they see an extremely low conversion to sale from international clicks, that is, those users from outside the U.S. and Canada. As a result, WidgetBucks
offers the CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) ads for publishers' international traffic, and the PPC (pay-per-click) model for U.S. and Canada traffic.

What do I have to do to make the PPC or CPM ads work at the right time?
Nothing. WidgetBucks
handles this automatically. At the time a user visits a page containing the widget, we will sense the geographic location of the visitor. If they are in the U.S. and/or Canada, the user will see the normal WidgetBucks
WidgetBucks
. If the user is outside those two countries, then our system will determine a country-specific CPM ad to display. We are currently working with advertisers covering 100 countries and offering thousands of creatives to ensure that most site visitors will be monetized for your benefit. All ads are restricted against adult or other suggestive themes.

If you are an existing publishers running widgets, you will need to replace existing code with new WidgetBucks
ad code on their sites in order to begin earning international CPM revenue. To update your widget(s), simply click "Copy HTML" within the "Customize Your Widget" page for that widget and re-paste/replace the code block into your site. The updated code can also be replaced directly into the Blogger, TypePad or WordPress blogging platforms.

Will WidgetBucks
ever offer PPC widgets for global merchants?
We are looking into additional solutions, including pay-per-click links to global merchants. Most of these longer-term solutions will require additional time to implement so we appreciate your patience as we work toward those.

What can I do about click fraud on my site?
To guard against outside people committing click fraud on a site and widget ads, several of our large publishers have installed scripts that sense when someone at a particular IP address is clicking too fast and too often. The script then blocks that IP address and prevents them from clicking. Thus, their widgets do not show a high number of invalid clicks, and their accounts are not suspended. Publishers who don't have this protection may want to consider installing such a script on their sites.

Does it matter what type of site I have to use WidgetBucks
?
As long as the site meets the terms of service, you can use ads on any kind of site or pages you are looking to monetize. We've seen our shopping widgets be effective on specific product blogs, entertainment sites, or even local search engines. Try out a few different widgets and see what works best for your customers, but regardless, you'll be making money! We have noticed that well-placed, contextual WidgetBucks
ads can yield over very high eCPM, in many cases over $6 eCPM. Location of the ad is important for U.S. and Canada traffic as they are PPC ads, so it needs to be "above the fold" and if you are selecting a specific content category, be sure it applies to your site content. Otherwise, use the MerchSense option and it will snap content to your page automatically based on page content and demographics. Sites that are pornographic in nature, non-english sites, and/or ad-only sites are examples of sites that are not allowed by the Terms of Service.

Residence and domicile

2008-06-23T04:15:00.002-07:00

A pie chart showing the projected constituents of UK taxation receipts for the tax year 2008-2009, according to the 2008 Budget.
UK source income is generally subject to UK taxation no matter the citizenship nor the place of residence of the individual nor the place of registration of the company.
For individuals this means the UK income tax liability of one who is neither resident nor ordinarily resident in the UK is limited to any tax deducted at source on UK income, together with tax on income from a trade or profession carried on through a permanent establishment in the UK and tax on rental income from UK real estate.
Individuals who are both resident and domiciled in the UK are additionally liable to taxation on their worldwide income and gains. For individuals resident but not domiciled in the UK, foreign income and gains are taxed on the remittance basis, that is to say, only income and gains remitted to the UK are taxed (for such people the UK is sometimes called a tax haven).
Domicile here is a term with a technical meaning. Very roughly (and this is a considerable simplification) an individual is domiciled in the UK if it is his or her permanent home.
A company is resident in the UK if it is UK-incorporated or if its central management and control are in the UK (although in the former case a company could be resident in another jurisdiction in certain circumstances where a tax treaty applies).
Double taxation of non-UK income and gains is avoided by a number of bilateral tax treaties.
See IR20 - Residents and non-residents.
Income tax

UK income tax and National Insurance charges (2008–2009), prior to changes on 13 May 2008

UK income tax and National Insurance as a percentage of taxable pay (2008-2009), prior to changes on 13 May 2008
Income tax forms the bulk of revenues collected by the government. Each person has an income tax allowance, and income up to this amount in each tax year is free of tax for everyone. For 2008-09 the tax allowance for under 65s is £5,435.[1], however on 13th May 2008 Alistair Darling, announced plans to raise this personal allowance by £600 to £6,035. In the case of people receiving the full £120 benefit of this change, it will be accounted for beginning in September 2008 with a £60 tax reduction that month and then £10 per through March 2008. [2]
Above this amount there are a number of tax bands — each taxed at a different rate:
Rate (08-09) Dividend Income Savings Income Other Income (inc employment) Band (above any personal allowance)
Basic rate 10% 20% 20% (£0 - £36,000) £2,320 - £36,000
Higher rate 32.5% 40% 40% over £36,000
This table reflects the removal of the 10% Starting Rate as at April 2008, which also saw the 22% income tax rate drop to 20%.
The taxpayer's income is assessed for tax according to a prescribed order, with income from employment using up the personal allowance and being taxed first, followed by savings income (from interest or otherwise unearned) and then dividends, with capital gains always being taxed as the top "slice".
Figures for 2008-09.[1]
Note that these rates only apply to income within that tax band.
To work out how much someone with a dividend income of £7,665 would pay in 2008/09:
Deduct their allowance of £5,435 from their income of £7,665. This gives £2230. 10% of this is £223. So they are only liable to pay £223 in tax.
Dividends from UK companies are received with a notional 10% tax credit (£766.50 in this example), which would more than cover this liability. The excess of tax credit above the liability is, however, not refundable.
Savings income (for instance, interest received from investments, and/or capital gains) is taxed at a rate of 20% within the basic rate band, and at 40% above it (over £36,000 in 2008-09).
Income from share dividends is taxed at 10% up to the basic rate limit (£36,000) and at 32.5% above that.
Exemptions on Investment

UK central government expenditure projection for tax year 2008-2009, according to the 2008 Budget.
Certain investments carry a tax favoured status including:
• UK Government Bonds (Gilts)
While all income is taxable, gains are exempt for income tax purposes.
• National Savings and Investments
Certain investments via the state owned National Savings scheme are not subject to tax including Index linked Certificates (up to £15,000 per issue) and Premium Bonds a scheme that issues monthly prizes in place of interest on indivdual holdings up to £30,000.
• Individual Savings Accounts.
These permit up to £7,200 (Maximum of £3,600 in cash funds, and the balance being allocated either to mutual funds (Units Trusts and OEICs) or individual self-selected shares. No tax is deducted, although the 10% tax witheld on UK dividends cannot be reclaimed.
• Pension Funds
These have the same tax treatment as ISAs in terms of growth. Full tax relief is also given at the individual's marginal rate on contributions or, in the case of an employer contributions, it is treated as an expense and is not taxed on the employee as a benefit in kind. Aside from a tax free lump sum of 25% of the fund, benefits taken from pension funds are taxable.
• Venture Capital Trusts
These are investments in smaller companies or funds of holdings in such companies over a minimum term of five years. These are not taxable and qualify for 30% tax relief against an individual's income.
• Enterprise Investment Schemes
A non taxable investment into smaller company shares over three years that qualifies for 20% tax relief. The facility also allows an indiviudal to defer capital gains liabilities (these gains can be stripped out in future years using the annual CGT allowance.)
• Insurance bonds
These include offshore and onshore investment Bonds issued by insurance companies. The main difference between the two is that corporation tax onshore means that gains are treated as if basic rate tax has been paid (this cannot be reclaimed by zero or starting rate tax payers). With both versions up to 5% for each complete year of investment can be taken without an immediate tax liability (subject to a maximum total of 100% of the original investment. On this basis, investors can plan an income stream while deferring any chargeable withdrawals until they are on a lower rate of tax, are no longer a UK resident, or their death.
Capital gains tax
Capital gains are subject to tax at the marginal rate of income tax (for individuals) or of corporation tax (for companies).
Capital gains for individuals are taxed slightly differently from those for companies:
• The basic calculation for individuals (in very broad terms) is proceeds less cost; the gain is then subjected to an indexation allowance for periods of ownership from March 1982 to April 1998 (items acquired before March 1982 are generally revalued at their market value at that point) thereafter taper relief is applied (a percentage reduction which varies depending on how long the asset was held prior to its disposal with a years ownership being credited for an asset held before the introduction of taper relief, and whether the asset was a "business" asset or a "non-business" asset in the hands of the owner). Individuals also have a capital gains tax free amount or "annual exemption" (in 2006/07 this was £8,800, and in 2007/08 it is £9,200).[3]
• For companies, the chargeable gain is calculated (again, in very broad terms) as proceeds less cost; however, instead of taper relief, companies are entitled to indexation allowance, which is calculated with reference to movements in the retail prices index (individuals are also entitled to indexation allowance prior to April 1998). Companies are not entitled to any annual exemption.
The tax year
The Tax Year in the UK, which applies to income tax and other personal taxes, runs from 6 April in one year to 5 April the next (for income tax purposes). Hence the 2005-06 tax year runs from 6 April 2005 to 5 April 2006.
The odd dates are due to events in the mid-18th century. The English quarter days are traditionally used as the dates for collecting rents (on, for example, agricultural properties). The tax system was also based on a tax year ending on Lady Day (March 25). When the Gregorian calendar was adopted in the UK in September 1752 in place of the Julian calendar, the two were out of step by 11 days. However, it was felt unacceptable for the tax authorities to lose out on 11 days' tax revenues, so the start of the tax year was moved, firstly to 5 April and then, in 1800, to 6 April.
The tax year is sometimes also called the Fiscal Year. The Financial Year, used mainly for corporation tax purposes, runs from 1 April to 31 March (hence Financial Year 2005 runs from 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006).
History
The income tax was first implemented in Britain by William Pitt the Younger in his budget of December 1798 to pay for weapons and equipment in preparation for the Napoleonic Wars. Pitt's new graduated (progressive) income tax began at a levy of 2d in the pound (0.8333%) on incomes over £60 and increased up to a maximum of 2s (10%) on incomes of over £200. Pitt hoped that the new income tax would raise £10 million, but actual receipts for 1799 totalled just over £6 million.[4]
Income tax was levied under five schedules—income not falling within those schedules was not taxed. The schedules were:
• Schedule A (tax on income from UK land)
• Schedule B (tax on commercial occupation of land)
• Schedule C (tax on income from public securities)
• Schedule D (tax on trading income, income from professions and vocations, interest, overseas income and casual income)
• Schedule E (tax on employment income)
Later a sixth Schedule, Schedule F (tax on UK dividend income) was added.
Pitt's income tax was levied from 1799 to 1802, when it was abolished by Henry Addington during the Peace of Amiens. Addington had taken over as prime minister in 1801, after Pitt's resignation over Catholic Emancipation. The income tax was reintroduced by Addington in 1803 when hostilities recommenced, but it was again abolished in 1816, one year after the Battle of Waterloo. The UK income tax was reintroduced by Sir Robert Peel in the Income Tax Act 1842. Peel, as a Conservative, had opposed income tax in the 1841 general election, but a growing budget deficit required a new source of funds. The new income tax, based on Addington's model, was imposed on incomes above £150.
UK income tax has changed over the years. Originally it taxed a person's income regardless of who was beneficially entitled to that income, but now a person only owes tax on income to which he or she is beneficially entitled. Most companies were taken out of the income tax net in 1965 when corporation tax was introduced. Also the Schedules under which tax is levied have changed. Schedule B was abolished in 1988, Schedule C in 1996 and Schedule E in 2003. For income tax purposes, the remaining schedules were superseded by the Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005, which also repealed Schedule F completely. The Schedular system and Schedules A and D still remain in force for corporation tax. The highest rate peaked in the Second World War at 99.25% and remained at about 95% till the late 1970s.[citation needed]
In 1974 the top-rate of income tax increased to its highest rate since the war, 83%. This applied to incomes over £20,000, and combined with a 15% surcharge on 'un-earned' income (investments and dividends) could add to a 98% marginal rate of personal income tax. In 1974, just 750,000 people were eligible to pay the top-rate of income tax. [5] Margaret Thatcher, who favoured indirect taxation reduced personal income tax rates during the 1980s. [6]
The Finance Act 2004 introduced an income tax regime known as "pre-owned asset tax" which aims to reduce the use of common methods of inheritance tax avoidance.[7]
National Insurance contributions
Main article: National Insurance
The second largest source of government revenues is National Insurance contributions (NIC), payable by employees, employers and the self-employed. Unlike income tax, Class 1 (non self-employed persons) NIC is paid between lower and upper thresholds, or between £82 and £630 per week for 2005-06.[8] A zero rate of NIC applies to earnings between the lower earnings limit of £82 per week and the earnings threshold of £94 per week (in 2005-06) to protect employees' contributory benefit entitlements. National Insurance is levied at 11% (that is, 11p in the £), but can be contracted-out for persons with a qualifying pension scheme with a reduction of 1.6%. There has also been the addition of a 1% rate on income above the upper threshold in recent years. Employers pay an additional 12.8% on earnings over the lower earnings threshold (£94 per week), but without the upper threshold, so total earnings are taxed at 12.8% per employee.
Employers are additionally liable to Class 1A NIC at 12.8% on most benefits-in-kind provided to employees which are subject to income tax in the hands of the employee, and to Class 1B NIC (also at 12.8%) on the value of the tax and on certain benefits paid via a "PAYE Settlement Agreement".
There are also separate arrangements for self-employed persons (who are normally liable to Class 2 flat rate NIC and Class 4 earnings-related NIC), married women, and voluntary sector workers.
Value added tax
The third largest source of government revenues is value added tax (VAT), charged at the standard rate of 17.5% on supplies of goods and services. It is therefore a tax on consumer expenditure. Certain goods and services are exempt from VAT, and others are subject to VAT at a lower rate of 5% (the reduced rate) or 0% ("zero-rated").[9]
Corporation tax
Main article: United Kingdom corporation tax
The fourth largest source of government revenues is corporation tax, charged on the profits and chargeable gains of companies. The main rate is 30%, which is levied on taxable income above £1.5m. In 2005-06, income below this level was taxed at 0% and 19%,[10] but with marginal reliefs in between the bands. The 0% starting rate has been abolished with effect from 1 April 2006.
There is also a Supplementary charge to Corporation Tax for companies involved in petroleum exploration (for example in the North Sea) which is levied at a rate of 20% for profits arising from 1 January 2006 (previously the rate was 10%).
Excise duties
Excise duties are charged on, amongst other things, motor fuel, alcohol, tobacco, betting and vehicles.
Stamp duty
Stamp duty is charged on the transfer of shares and certain securities at a rate of 0.5%. Modernised versions of stamp duty, stamp duty land tax and stamp duty reserve tax, are charged respectively on the transfer of real estate and shares and securities, at rates of up to 4% and 0.5% respectively.[11]
Inheritance tax
Main article: Inheritance Tax (United Kingdom)
Inheritance tax is levied on "transfers of value", meaning:
1. the estates of deceased persons;
2. gifts made within seven years of death (known as Potentially Exempt Transfers or "PETs");
3. "lifetime chargeable transfers", meaning transfers into certain types of trust. See Taxation of trusts (United Kingdom). Legislation announced in the 2006 budget but not yet enacted will extend this category to many more trusts than previously.
The first slice of cumulative transfers of value (known as the "nil rate band") is free of tax. This threshold is currently set at £300,000 (tax year 2007-08)[12] and, although it is raised annually, it has recently failed to keep up with house price inflation with the result that some 6 million households currently fall within the scope of inheritance tax. Over this threshold the rate is 40% on death. Any inheritance tax must be paid by the executors or administrators of the estate (the burden falling upon the beneficiaries) before probate is granted.
Transfers of value between UK-domiciled spouses are exempt from tax. Recent changes to the tax mean that nil-rate bands will be transferable between spouses to reduce this burden - something which previously could only be done by setting up complex trusts.
Gifts made more than seven years prior to death are not taxed; if they are made between three and seven years before death a tapered inheritance tax rate applies. There are some important exceptions to this treatment: the most important is the "reservation of benefit rule", which says that a gift is ineffective for inheritance tax purposes if the giver benefits from the asset in any way after the gift (for example, by gifting a house but continuing to live in it).
Motoring taxation
Main article: Motoring taxation in the United Kingdom
Motoring taxes include: fuel duty (which itself also attracts VAT), and vehicle excise duty. Other fees and charges include the London congestion charge, various statutory fees including that for the compulsory vehicle test and that for vehicle registration, and in some areas on-street parking (as well as associated charges for violations).
Business rates
Main article: Business rates
Business rates is the commonly used name of non-domestic rates, a United Kingdom rate or tax charged to occupiers of non-domestic property. Business rates were introduced in England and Wales in 1990, and are a modernised version of a system of rating that dates back to the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601. As such, business rates retain many previous features from, and follow some case law of, older forms of rating.
Business rates form part of the funding for local authorities, and are collected by them, but rather than receipts being retained directly they are pooled centrally and then redistributed. In 2005/06, £19.9 billion was collected in business rates, representing 4.35% of the total UK tax income.[13]
Business rates are a property tax, where each non-domestic property is assessed with a rateable value, expressed in pounds. The rateable value broadly represents the annual rent the property could have been let for on a particular valuation date according to a set of assumptions. The actual bill payable is then calculated using a multiplier set by central government, and applying any reliefs.[14]

Contract

2008-06-23T04:15:00.001-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For other uses, see Contract (disambiguation).

A contract is an exchange of promises between two or more people
A contract is a legally binding exchange of promises or agreement between parties that the law will enforce. Contract law is based on the Latin phrase pacta sunt servanda (pacts must be kept).[1] Breach of contract is recognised by the law and remedies can be provided. Almost everyone makes contracts every day. Sometimes written contracts are required, such as when buying a house.[2] However, most contracts can be and are made orally, like buying a law textbook, or a coffee at a shop. Contract law can be classified, as is habitual in civil law systems, as part of a general law of obligations (along with tort, unjust enrichment or restitution).
According to legal scholar Sir John William Salmond, a contract is "an agreement creating and defining the obligations between two or more parties".
Contractual formation

The Carbolic Smoke Ball offer
In common law, there are five key requirements for the creation of a contract. These are offer and acceptance (agreement), consideration, an intention to create legal relations, capacity and Formalities. In civil law systems the concept of consideration is not central. In addition, for some contracts formalities must be complied with under what is sometimes called a statute of frauds.
One of the most famous cases on forming a contract is Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Company,[3] decided in nineteenth-century England. A medical firm advertised that its new wonder drug, a smoke ball, would cure people's flu, and if it did not, buyers would receive £100. When sued Carbolic argued the advert was not to be taken as a serious, legally binding offer. It was merely an invitation to treat, or mere puff, a gimmick. But the court of appeal held that it would appear to a reasonable man that Carbolic had made a serious offer. People had given good "consideration" for it by going to the "distinct inconvenience" of using a faulty product. "Read the advertisement how you will, and twist it about as you will," said Lindley LJ, "here is a distinct promise expressed in language which is perfectly unmistakable". Where a product in large quantities is advertised for in a newspaper or on a poster it is generally regarded as an offer, however if the person who is to buy the advertised product is of importance, i.e. his personality etc, when buying e.g. land, it is merely an invitation to treat. In Carbolic Smoke Ball the major difference was that a reward was included into the advertisement which is a general exception to the rule and is then treated as an offer.
Offer and acceptance
Main article: Offer and acceptance
The most important feature of a contract is that one party makes an offer for a bargain that another accepts. This can be called a 'concurrence of wills' or a 'meeting of the minds' of two or more parties. There must be evidence that the parties had each from an objective perspective engaged in conduct manifesting their assent, and a contract will be formed when the parties have met such a requirement.[4] An objective perspective means that it is only necessary that somebody gives the impression of offering or accepting contractual terms in the eyes of a reasonable person, not that they actually did want to contract.
The case of Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. (above) is an example of a 'unilateral contract', obligations are only imposed upon one party upon acceptance by performance of a condition. In the U.S., the general rule is that in "case of doubt, an offer is interpreted as inviting the offeree to accept either by promising to perform what the offer requests or by rendering the performance, as the offeree chooses."[5]
Offer and acceptance does not always need to be expressed orally or in writing. An implied contract is one in which some of the terms are not expressed in words. This can take two forms. A contract which is implied in fact is one in which the circumstances imply that parties have reached an agreement even though they have not done so expressly. For example, by going to a doctor for a checkup, a patient agrees that he will pay a fair price for the service. If he refuses to pay after being examined, he has breached a contract implied in fact. A contract which is implied in law is also called a quasi-contract, because it is not in fact a contract; rather, it is a means for the courts to remedy situations in which one party would be unjustly enriched were he or she not required to compensate the other. For example, say a plumber accidentally installs a sprinkler system in the lawn of the wrong house. The owner of the house had learned the previous day that his neighbor was getting new sprinklers. That morning, he sees the plumber installing them in his own lawn. Pleased at the mistake, he says nothing, and then refuses to pay when the plumber hands him the bill. Will the man be held liable for payment? Yes, if it could be proven that the man knew that the sprinklers were being installed mistakenly, the court would make him pay because of a quasi-contract. If that knowledge could not be proven, he would not be liable. Such a claim is also referred to as "quantum meruit".[6]
See also: Invitation to treat
Consideration and estoppel
Main articles: Consideration and estoppel
Consideration is a controversial requirement for contracts under common law (for example money). It is not necessary in civil law systems,[7] and for that reason has come under increasing criticism. The idea is that both parties to a contract must bring something to the bargain. This can be either conferring an advantage on the other party, or incurring some kind of detriment or inconvenience. Three rules govern consideration.
• Consideration must be sufficient, but need not be adequate. For instance, agreeing to buy a car for a penny may constitute a binding contract.[8] While consideration need not be adequate, contracts in which the consideration of one party greatly exceeds that of another may nevertheless be held invalid for lack of sufficient consideration. In such cases, the fact that the consideration is exceedingly unequal can be evidence that there was no consideration at all. Such contracts may also be held invalid for other reasons such as fraud, duress, unequal bargaining power, or being contrary to public policy. In some situations, a collateral contract may exist, whereby the existence of one contract provides consideration for another. Critics say consideration can be so small as to make the requirement of any consideration meaningless.
• Consideration must not be from the past. For instance, in Eastwood v. Kenyon,[9] the guardian of a young girl raised a loan to educate the girl and to improve her marriage prospects. After her marriage, her husband promised to pay off the loan. It was held that the guardian could not enforce the promise as taking out the loan to raise and educate the girl was past consideration, because it was completed before the husband promised to repay it.
• Consideration must move from the promisee. For instance, it is good consideration for person A to pay person C in return for services rendered by person B. If there are joint promisees, then consideration need only to move from one of the promisees.
Civil law systems take the approach that an exchange of promises, or a concurrence of wills alone, rather than an exchange in valuable rights is the correct basis. So if you promised to give me a book, and I accepted your offer without giving anything in return, I would have a legal right to the book and you could not change your mind about giving me it as a gift. However, in common law systems the concept of culpa in contrahendo, a form of 'estoppel', is increasingly used to create obligations during pre-contractual negotiations.[10] Estoppel is an equitable doctrine that provides for the creation of legal obligations if a party has given another an assurance and the other has relied on the assurance to his detriment. A number of commentators have suggested that consideration be abandoned, and estoppel be used to replace it as a basis for contracts.[11] However, legislation, rather than judicial development, has been touted as the only way to remove this entrenched common law doctrine. Lord Justice Denning famously stated "The doctrine of consideration is too firmly fixed to be overthrown by a side-wind."[12]
See also: Consideration under English law and Consideration under American law
Intention to be legally bound
There is a presumption for commercial agreements that parties intend to be legally bound (unless the parties expressly state that they do not want to be bound like in heads of agreement. On the other hand, many kinds of domestic and social agreements are unenforceable on the basis of public policy, for instance between children and parents. One early example is found in Balfour v. Balfour.[13] Using contract-like terms, Mr Balfour had agreed to give his wife £30 a month as maintenance while he was living in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Once he left, they separated and Mr Balfour stopped payments. Mrs Balfour brought an action to enforce the payments. At the Court of Appeal, the Court held that there was no enforceable agreement as there was not enough evidence to suggest that they were intending to be legally bound by the promise.
The case is often cited in conjunction with Merritt v. Merritt.[14] Here the court distinguished the case from Balfour v. Balfour because Mr and Mrs Merritt, although married again, were estranged at the time the agreement was made. Therefore any agreement between them was made with the intention to create legal relations.
The abstraction principle
Main article: Abstraction principle
Germany has a special approach to contracts, which ties into property law. Their 'abstraction principle' (Abstraktionsprinzip) means that the personal obligation of contract forms separately to the title of property being conferred. When contracts are invalidated for some reason, e.g. a car buyer was so drunk that he lacked legal capacity to contract,[15] the contractual obligation to pay can be invalidated separate from proprietary title of the car. Unjust enrichment law, rather than the law of contract, is then used to restore title to the rightful owner.
Formalities and writing
Main article: Statute of frauds
Contrary to common wisdom, an informal exchange of promises can still be binding and legally as valid as a written contract. A spoken contract should be called an oral contract, which might be considered a subset of verbal contracts. Any contract that uses words, spoken or written, is a verbal contract. Thus, all oral contracts and written contracts are verbal contracts. This is in contrast to a "non-verbal, non-oral contract," also known as "a contract implied by the acts of the parties", which can be either implied in fact or implied in law.
Most jurisdictions have rules of law or statutes which may render otherwise valid oral contracts unenforceable. This is especially true regarding oral contracts involving large amounts of money or real estate. For example, in the U.S., generally speaking, a contract is unenforceable if it violates the common law statute of frauds or equivalent state statutes, which require certain contracts to be in writing. An example of the above is an oral contract for the sale of a motorcycle for US$5,000 in a jurisdiction which requires a contract for the sale of goods over US$500 to be in writing to be enforceable. The point of the Statute of Frauds is to prevent false allegations of the existence of contracts that were never made, by requiring formal (i.e. written) evidence of the contract, however, a common remark is that more frauds have been committed through the application of the Statute of Frauds than have ever been prevented. Contracts that do not meet the requirements of common law or statutory Statutes of Frauds are unenforceable, but are not necessarily thereby void. However, a party unjustly enriched by an unenforceable contract may be subject to restitution for unjust enrichment. Statutes of Frauds are typically codified in state statutes covering specific types of contracts, such as contracts for the sale of real estate.
In Australia and many, if not all, jurisdictions which have adopted the common law of England, for contracts subject to legislation equivalent to the Statute of Frauds, there is no requirement for the entire contract to be in writing, although there must be a note or memorandum evidencing the contract, which may come into existence after the contract has been formed. The note or memorandum must be signed in some way, and a series of documents may be used in place of a single note or memorandum. It must contain all material terms of the contract, the subject matter and the parties to the contract. In England and Wales, the common law Statute of Frauds is still in force, but only for guarantees, which must be evidenced in writing, although the agreement may be made orally. Certain other kinds of contract must be in writing or they are void, for instance, for sale of land under s. 52, Law of Property Act 1925.
If a contract is in a written form, and somebody signs the contract, then the person is bound by its terms regardless of whether they have read it or not,[16] provided the document is contractual in nature.[17] Furthermore, if a party wishes to use a document as the basis of a contract, reasonable notice of its terms must be given to the other party prior to their entry into the contract.[18] This includes such things as tickets issued at parking stations

UK competition law

2008-06-23T04:14:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from UK competition law)
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"Making markets work well for consumers" is the purpose of UK competition law
United Kingdom competition law is affected by both British and European elements. The Competition Act 1998 and the Enterprise Act 2002 are the most important statutes for cases with a purely national dimension. However if the effect of a business' conduct would reach across borders, the European Union has competence to deal with the problems, and exclusively EU law would apply. Even so, the section 59 of the Competition Act 1998 provides that UK rules are to be applied in line with European jurisprudence. Like all competition law, that in the UK has three main tasks.
• prohibiting agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between business entities. This includes in particular the repression of cartels.
• banning abusive behaviour by a firm dominating a market, or anti-competitive practices that tend to lead to such a dominant position. Practices controlled in this way may include predatory pricing, tying, price gouging, refusal to deal and many others.
• supervising the mergers and acquisitions of large corporations, including some joint ventures. Transactions that are considered to threaten the competitive process can be prohibited altogether, or approved subject to "remedies" such as an obligation to divest part of the merged business or to offer licences or access to facilities to enable other businesses to continue competing.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Competition Commission are the two primary regulatory bodies for competition law enforcement. The OFT's slogan is that it "makes markets work well for consumers". Consumer welfare is usually thought of as the dominant objective of competition law, though it may connect with a number of difficult questions relating to industrial policy, regional development, protection of the environment and the running of public services. Competition law is closely connected with law on deregulation of access to markets, state aids and subsidies, the privatisation of state owned assets and the establishment of independent sector regulators. Specific "watchdog" agencies such as Ofgem, Ofcom and Ofwat are charged with seeing how the operation of those specific markets work. The OFT and the Competition Commission's work is generally confined to the rest.
Contents
[hide]
• 1 Competition law history
o 1.1 Classical trade theory
o 1.2 Restraint of trade
o 1.3 Twentieth century change
• 2 European Union law
• 3 Competition Act 1998
• 4 Enterprise Act 2002
• 5 Office of Fair Trading
• 6 Competition Commission
• 7 See also
• 8 Notes
• 9 References
• 10 Further reading
• 11 External links

[edit] Competition law history
See also: Lex Mercatoria, Guilds, and Renaissance

Edward III during the Black Death enacted the Statute of Labourers to cap wages, and provide double damages against infringers
Legislation in England to control monopolies and restrictive practices were in force well before the Norman Conquest.[1] The Domesday Book recorded that "foresteel" (i.e. forestalling, the practice of buying up goods before they reach market and then inflating the prices) was one of three forfeitures that King Edward the Confessor could carry out through England.[2] But concern for fair prices also led to attempts to directly regulate the market. Under Henry III an act was passed in 1266[3] to fix bread and ale prices in correspondence with corn prices laid down by the assizes. Penalties for breach included amercements, pillory and tumbrel.[4] A fourteenth century statute labelled forestallers as "oppressors of the poor and the community at large and enemies of the whole country."[5] Under King Edward III the Statute of Labourers of 1349[6] fixed wages of artificers and workmen and decreed that foodstuffs should be sold at reasonable prices. On top of existing penalties, the statute stated that overcharging merchants must pay the injured party double the sum he received, an idea that has been replicated in punitive treble damages under US antitrust law. Also under Edward III, the following statutory provision in the poetic language of the time outlawed trade combinations.[7]
"...we have ordained and established, that no merchant or other shall make Confederacy, Conspiracy, Coin, Imagination, or Murmur, or Evil Device in any point that may turn to the Impeachment, Disturbance, Defeating or Decay of the said Staples, or of anything that to them pertaineth, or may pertain."
In 1553 King Henry VIII reintroduced tariffs for foodstuffs, designed to stabilise prices, in the face of fluctuations in supply from overseas. So the legislation read here that whereas,
"it is very hard and difficult to put certain prices to any such things... [it is necessary because] prices of such victuals be many times enhanced and raised by the Greedy Covetousness and Appetites of the Owners of such Victuals, by occasion of ingrossing and regrating the same, more than upon any reasonable or just ground or cause, to the great damage and impoverishing of the King's subjects."[8]

Elizabeth I assured monopolies would not be abused in the early era of globalisation
Around this time organisations representing various tradesmen and handicraftspeople, known as guilds had been developing, and enjoyed many concessions and exemptions from the laws against monopolies. The privileges conferred were not abolished until the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. In 1561 a system of Industrial Monopoly Licences, similar to modern patents had been introduced into England. But by the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the system was reputedly much abused and used merely to preserve privileges, encouraging nothing new in the way of innovation or manufacture.[9] When a protest was made in the House of Commons and a Bill was introduced, the Queen convinced the protesters to challenge the case in the courts. This was the catalyst for the Case of Monopolies or Darcy v. Allin.[10] The plaintiff, an officer of the Queen's household, had been granted the sole right of making playing cards and claimed damages for the defendant's infringement of this right. The court found the grant void and that three characteristics of monopoly were (1) price increases (2) quality decrease (3) the tendency to reduce artificers to idleness and beggary.
This put a temporary end to complaints about monopoly, until King James I began to grant them again. In 1623 Parliament passed the Statute of Monopolies, which for the most part excluded patent rights from its prohibitions, as well as guilds. From King Charles I, through the civil war and to King Charles II, monopolies continued, especially useful for raising revenue.[11] Then in 1684, in East India Company v. Sandys[12] it was decided that exclusive rights to trade only outside the realm were legitimate, on the grounds that only large and powerful concerns could trade in the conditions prevailing overseas. In 1710 to deal with high coal prices caused by a Newcastle Coal Monopoly the New Law was passed.[13] Its provisions stated that "all and every contract or contracts, Covenants and Agreements, whether the same be in writing or not in writing... are hereby declared to be illegal." When Adam Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations in 1776[14] he was somewhat cynical of the possibility for change.
"To expect indeed that freedom of trade should ever be entirely restored in Great Britain is as absurd as to expect that Oceana or Utopia should ever be established in it. Not only the prejudices of the public, but what is more unconquerable, the private interests of many individuals irresistibly oppose it. The Member of Parliament who supports any proposal for strengthening this Monopoly is seen to acquire not only the reputation for understanding trade, but great popularity and influence with an order of men whose members and wealth render them of great importance."
[edit] Classical trade theory
See also: Competition law theory and Classical economics

John Stuart Mill believed the restraint of trade doctrine was justified to preserve liberty and competition
The classical British perspective on competition was that certain agreements and business practice could be an unreasonable restraint on the individual liberty of tradespeople to carry on their livelihoods. Restraints were judged as permissible or not by courts as new cases appeared and in the light of changing business circumstances. Hence the courts found specific categories of agreement, specific clauses, to fall foul of their doctrine on economic fairness, and they did not contrive an overarching conception of market power. Adam Smith rejected any monopoly power on this basis.
"A monopoly granted either to an individual or to a trading company has the same effect as a secret in trade or manufactures. The monopolists, by keeping the market constantly under-stocked, by never fully supplying the effectual demand, sell their commodities much above the natural price, and raise their emoluments, whether they consist in wages or profit, greatly above their natural rate."[15]
In The Wealth of Nations (1776) Adam Smith also pointed out the cartel problem, but did not advocate legal measures to combat them.
"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary."[16]
Smith also rejected the very existence of, not just dominant and abusive corporations, but corporations at all.[17]
By the latter half of the nineteenth century it had become clear that large firms had become a fact of the market economy. John Stuart Mill's approach was laid down in his treatise On Liberty (1859).
"Again, trade is a social act. Whoever undertakes to sell any description of goods to the public, does what affects the interest of other persons, and of society in general; and thus his conduct, in principle, comes within the jurisdiction of society... both the cheapness and the good quality of commodities are most effectually provided for by leaving the producers and sellers perfectly free, under the sole check of equal freedom to the buyers for supplying themselves elsewhere. This is the so-called doctrine of Free Trade, which rests on grounds different from, though equally solid with, the principle of individual liberty asserted in this Essay. Restrictions on trade, or on production for purposes of trade, are indeed restraints; and all restraint, qua restraint, is an evil..."[18]
[edit] Restraint of trade
Main article: Restraint of trade

Judge Coke in the 17th century thought that general restraints on trade were unreasonable
The English law of restraint of trade is the direct predecessor to modern competition law.[19] Its current use is small, given modern and economically oriented statutes in most common law countries. Its approach was based on the two concepts of prohibiting agreements that ran counter to public policy, unless the reasonableness of an agreement could be shown. A restraint of trade is simply some kind of agreed provision that is designed to restrain another's trade. For example, in Nordenfelt v. Maxim, Nordenfelt Gun Co.[20] a Swedish arm inventor promised on sale of his business to an American gun maker that he "would not make guns or ammunition anywhere in the world, and would not compete with Maxim in any way."
To be consider whether or not there is a restraint of trade in the first place, both parties must have provided valuable consideration for their agreement. In Dyer's case[21] a dyer had given a bond not to exercise his trade in the same town as the plaintiff for six months but the plaintiff had promised nothing in return. On hearing the plaintiff's attempt to enforce this restraint, Hull J exclaimed,
"per Dieu, if the plaintiff were here, he should go to prison until he had paid a fine to the King."
The common law has evolved to reflect changing business conditions. So in the 1613 case of Rogers v. Parry[22] a court held that a joiner who promised not to trade from his house for 21 years could have this bond enforced against him since the time and place was certain. It was also held that a man cannot bind himself to not use his trade generally by Chief Justice Coke. This was followed in Broad v. Jolyffe[23] and Mitchell v. Reynolds[24] where Lord Macclesfield asked, "What does it signify to a tradesman in London what another does in Newcastle?" In times of such slow communications, commerce around the country it seemed axiomatic that a general restraint served no legitimate purpose for one's business and ought to be void. But already in 1880 in Roussillon v. Roussillon[25] Lord Justice Fry stated that a restraint unlimited in space need not be void, since the real question was whether it went further than necessary for the promisee's protection. So in the Nordenfelt[26] case Lord McNaughton ruled that while one could validly promise to "not make guns or ammunition anywhere in the world" it was an unreasonable restraint to "not compete with Maxim in any way." This approach in England was confirmed by the House of Lords in Mason v. The Provident Supply and Clothing Co.[27]
[edit] Twentieth century change

Labour Minister Sir Stafford Cripps was Chancellor of the Exchequer responsible for Britain's first Act resembling modern competition law in 1948
Modern competition law is heavily influenced by the American experience. The so called Sherman Act of 1890 and the Clayton Act of 1914 (in the US they often name legislation after the people who propose it) were passed by Presidents concerned about the threat of big business to the power of the government. It was originally used to break up the "trust" arrangements, big company groups with intricate power sharing schemes. This is where their word "antitrust" comes from. The legislation was modelled on the restraint of trade doctrine they had inherited from English law. After the Second World War the American version of competition policy was imposed on Germany and Japan. It was thought that one of the ways Hitler and the Emperor had been able to assume such absolute power was simply by bribing or coercing the relatively small numbers of big cartel and zaibatsu chiefs into submission. Economic control meant political supremacy, and competition policy was necessary to destroy it. Under the Treaty of Rome, which founded the European Economic Community, competition laws were inserted. The American jurisprudence was naturally influential, as the European Court of Justice interpreted the relevant provisions (now Article 81 and Article 82) through its own developing body of case law.
In the mean time, Britain's own approach moved slowly, and saw no urgency for a similar competition law regime. The common law continued to serve its purpose, and debate about economic policy had become radically different after the First World War. A number of key industries had been nationalised, and the new Labour Party was committed to a socialist economic agenda: progressive democratic ownership of the means of production. In other words, the debate about economic policy was being had on a totally different level. Controlling private industry from arms length regulatory mechanisma was neither here nor there. After the second world war, this case was strengthened, yet Clement Atlee's Labour government did introduce the Monopolies and Restrictive Practices (Inquiry and Control) Act 1948. Far more limited than the Americanesque versions, this was updated in 1953 and added to with the Monopolies and Mergers Act 1965.
[edit] European Union law
Main article: European Community competition law

The signatories to the Treaty of Rome which covers EU competition laws
The United Kingdom joined the European Community with the European Community Act 1972, and through that became subject to EC competition law. Since the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, the EC was renamed as the European Union. Competition law falls under the social and economic pillar of the treaties. So where a British company is carrying out unfair business practices, is involved in a cartel or is attempting to merge in a way which would disrupt competition across UK borders, the Commission of the European Union will have enforcement powers and exclusively EU law will apply. The first provision is Article 81 EC, which deals with cartels and restrictive vertical agreements. Prohibited are...
"(1) ...all agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of undertakings and concerted practices which may affect trade between Member States and which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the common market..."
Article 81(1) EC then gives examples of "hard core" restrictive practices such as price fixing or market sharing and 81(2) EC confirms that any agreements are automatically void. However, just like the Statute of Monopolies 1623, Article 81(3) EC creates exemptions, if the collusion is for distributional or technological innovation, gives consumers a "fair share" of the benefit and does not include unreasonable restraints (or disproportionate, in ECJ terminology) that risk eliminating competition anywhere. Article 82 EC deals with monopolies, or more precisely firms who have a dominant market share and abuse that position. Unlike U.S. Antitrust, EC law has never been used to punish the existence of dominant firms, but merely imposes a special responsibility to conduct oneself appropriately. Specific categories of abuse listed in Article 82 EC include price discrimination and exclusive dealing, much the same as sections 2 and 3 of the U.S. Clayton Act. Also under Article 82 EC, the European Council was empowered to enact a regulation to control mergers between firms, currently the latest known by the abbreviation of ECMR "Reg. 139/2004". The general test is whether a concentration (i.e. merger or acquisition) with a community dimension (i.e. affects a number of EU member states) might significantly impede effective competition. Again, the similarity to the Clayton Act's substantial lessening of competition. Finally, Articles 86 and 87 EC regulate the state's role in the market. Article 86(2) EC states clearly that nothing in the rules cannot be used to obstruct a member state's right to deliver public services, but that otherwise public enterprises must play by the same rules on collusion and abuse of dominance as everyone else. Article 87 EC, similar to Article 81 EC, lays down a general rule that the state may not aid or subsidise private parties in distortion of free competition, but then grants exceptions for things like charities, natural disasters or regional development

Administration

2008-06-23T04:13:00.000-07:00

Administration
Federal taxes are collected by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), formerly known as "Revenue Canada" or the "Canada Customs and Revenue Agency".
Under "Tax Collection Agreements", CRA collects and remits to the provinces:
• Provincial personal income taxes on behalf of all provinces except Quebec, so that individuals outside of Quebec file only one set of tax forms each year for their federal and provincial income taxes.
• Corporate taxes on behalf of all provinces except Quebec and Alberta.
• Provincial sales taxes in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Ministère du revenu du Québec collects the GST in Quebec on behalf of the federal government, and remits it to Ottawa.
History
When the Canadian federation was formed in 1867, the British North America Act attempted to create a federal government with unlimited revenue gathering abilities. The federal government was entrusted with the high cost programs of the time, most notably defence and the building of railways. The provinces were given limited taxation power as they could only impose direct taxes such as sales taxes, property taxes, and income taxes (although they also maintained control over most resource revenues as well). At the time, it was believed that the provinces had adequate revenue sources as major areas of provincial government spending today were generally not funded by the government (such as social assistance and medical care).
For the early part of Canadian history most federal government revenue came from tariffs on trade with excise taxes making up the rest of the government's funding. The largest source of provincial funding was licenses, permits, and transfers of funds from the federal government. The first corporate taxes were introduced at the end of the nineteenth century.
A crisis developed during the Great Depression because the provinces were responsible for skyrocketing welfare costs, but could not raise enough revenue since the taxes permitted to the provinces were so dependent on the health of the economy. The federal government still had considerable revenues however, which resulted in a system of transfer payments between the two levels of government. The transfer payments are still in place today.
The First World War had mostly been financed by traditional means, but in 1917, a tax on income was introduced as a temporary measure to fund the war. The income tax has since become a permanent feature of the Canadian tax system. The Second World War led to dramatic change in the tax system. The percentage of Canadian government revenue from indirect taxes fell from 90% in 1913 to less than 40% by 1946. Instead, Canadians began to pay income taxes and direct taxes has since provided the greatest bulk of government funding.
Personal income taxes
Both the federal and provincial governments have imposed income taxes on individuals, and these are the most significant sources of revenue for those levels of government accounting for over 40% of tax revenue. The federal government charges the bulk of income taxes with the provinces charging a somewhat lower percentage. Income taxes throughout Canada are progressive with the high income residents paying a higher percentage than the low income residents.
Where income is earned in the form of a capital gain, only half of the gain is included in income for tax purposes; the other half is not taxed.
Federal and provincial income tax rates are shown at Canada Revenue Agency's website.
Personal income tax can be deferred in a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), a tax sheltered savings account or mutual fund that is intended to help individuals save for their retirement.
Corporate taxes
Companies and corporations pay tax on profit income and on capital. These make up a relatively small portion of total tax revenue. Tax is paid on corporate income at the corporate level before it is distributed to individual shareholders as dividends. A tax credit is provided to individuals who receive dividend to reflect the tax paid at the corporate level. This credit does not eliminate double taxation of this income completely, however, resulting in a higher level of tax on dividend income than other types of income. (Where income is earned in the form of a capital gain, only half of the gain is included in income for tax purposes; the other half is not taxed.) Corporations may deduct the cost of capital following capital cost allowance regulations.
Starting in 2002, several large companies converted into "income trusts" in order to reduce or eliminate their income tax payments, making the trust sector the fastest-growing in Canada as of 2005. Conversions were largely halted on October 31, 2006, when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced that new income trusts would be subject to a tax system similar to that of corporations, and that these rules would apply to existing income trusts after 2011.

Sales taxes

The federal government levies a multi-stage sales tax of 5% (6% prior to January 1, 2008), that is called the Goods and Services Tax (GST), and, in some provinces, the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST). The GST/HST is similar to a value-added tax.
All provincial governments except Alberta levy sales taxes as well. The provincial sales taxes of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador are harmonized with the GST. That is, a rate of 13% HST is charged instead of separate PST and GST. Both Quebec and Prince Edward Island apply provincial sales tax to the sum of price and GST. The territories of Nunavut, Yukon and Northwest Territories do not charge provincial sales tax.
Provincial and federal sales tax rates at the retail level on goods and some services are as follows:
• Alberta:......................0 + 5% = 5%
• British Columbia:..........7% + 5% = 12%
• Manitoba:....................7% + 5% = 12%
• Ontario:.......................8% + 5% = 13%
• Prince Edward Island:..10% + 5% = 15.5% (PST applied to price + GST)
• Quebec:..................... 7.5% + 5% = 12.875% (PST applied to price + GST)
• Saskatchewan:............5% + 5% = 10%
Property taxes
The municipal level of government is funded largely by property taxes on residential, industrial and commercial properties. These account for about ten percent of total taxation in Canada.
Excise taxes
Both the federal and provincial governments impose excise taxes on inelastic goods such as cigarettes, gasoline, alcohol, and for vehicle air conditioners. A great bulk of the retail price of cigarettes and alcohol are excise taxes. The vehicle air conditioner tax is currently set at $150 per air conditioning unit. Canada has some of the highest rates of taxes on cigarettes and alcohol in the world. These are sometimes referred to by Canadians as "sin taxes".
Payroll taxes
Ontario levies a payroll tax on employers, the "Employer Health Tax", of 1.95% of payroll. Eligible employers are exempt on the first $400,000 of payroll. This tax was designed to replace revenues lost when health insurance premiums, which were often paid by employers for their employees, were eliminated in 1989.
Quebec levies a similar tax called the "Health Services Fund". For those who are employees, the amount is paid by employers as part of payroll. For those who are not employees such as pensioners and self-employed individuals, the amount is paid by the taxpayer.
Premiums for the Employment Insurance system and the Canada Pension Plan are paid by employees and employers. Premiums for Workers' Compensation are paid by employers. These premiums account for 12% of government revenues. These premiums are not considered to be taxes because they create entitlements for employees to receive payments from the programs, unlike taxes, which are used to fund government activities. The funds collected by the Canada Pension Plan and by the Employment Insurance are in theory separated from the general fund. It should be noted that Unemployment Insurance was renamed to Employment Insurance to reflect the increased scope of the plan from its original intended purpose.
Employment Insurance is unlike private insurance because the individual's yearly income impacts the received benefit. Unlike private insurance, the benefits are treated as taxable earnings and if the individual had a mid to high income for the year, they could have to repay up to the full benefit received.
] Health and Prescription Insurance Tax
Ontario charges a tax on income for the health system. These amounts are collected through the income tax system, and do not determine eligiblity for public health care. The Ontario Health Premium is an additional amount charged on an individual's income tax that ranges from $300 for people with $20,000 of taxable income to $900 for high income earners. Individuals with less than $20,000 in taxable income are exempt.
Quebec also requires residents to obtain prescription insurance. When an individual does not have insurance, they must pay an income-derived premium. As these are income related, they are considered to be a tax on income under the law in Canada.
Other provinces, such as British Columbia and Alberta, charge premiums collected outside of the tax system for the provincial medicare systems. These are usually reduced or eliminated for low-income people.
Inheritance tax
Since the government of Brian Mulroney in the 1980s, Canada has had no inheritance taxes. Instead, inheritance is treated as a disposal subject to the same capital gains taxation as, for example, the sale of the asset.
International taxation
Canadian individuals and corporations pay income taxes based on their world-wide income. They are protected against double taxation through the foreign tax credit, which allows taxpayers to deduct from their Canadian income tax otherwise payable the income tax paid in other countries. A citizen who is currently not a resident of Canada may petition the CRA to change his status so that income from outside Canada is not taxed.
International comparison (personal income tax)
Comparison of taxes paid by a household earning the country's average wage (as of 2005)
________________________________________
Country Single
no children Married
2 children Country Single
no children Married
2 children
________________________________________
Australia 28.3% 16.0% Korea 17.3% 16.2%
Austria 47.4% 35.5% Luxembourg 35.3% 12.2%
Belgium 55.4% 40.3% Mexico 18.2% 18.2%
Canada 31.6% 21.5% Netherlands 38.6% 29.1%
Czech Republic 43.8% 27.1% New Zealand 20.5% 14.5%
Denmark 41.4% 29.6% Norway 37.3% 29.6%
Finland 44.6% 38.4% Poland 43.6% 42.1%
France 50.1% 41.7% Portugal 36.2% 26.6%
Germany 51.8% 35.7% Slovak Republic 38.3% 23.2%
Greece 38.8% 39.2% Spain 39.0% 33.4%
Hungary 50.5% 39.9% Sweden 47.9% 42.4%
Iceland 29.0% 11.0% Switzerland 29.5% 18.6%
Ireland 25.7% 8.1% Turkey 42.7% 42.7%
Italy 45.4% 35.2% United Kingdom 33.5% 27.1%
Japan 27.7% 24.9% United States 29.1% 11.9%
________________________________________
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Corporate law

2008-06-23T04:11:00.004-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Corporate law (also corporations law or company law) refers to the law establishing separate legal entities known as the company or corporation and governs the most prevalent legal models for firms, for instance limited companies (Ltd or Pty Ltd), publicly limited companies (plc) or incorporated businesses (Inc.).
In the U.K., corporate law is a subset of companies law, and in the U.S., it is often viewed (at least for teaching purposes) as part of the law of business associations. In each case, corporations are distinguished from a wider spectrum of organizational forms, such as partnerships, trusts, unincorporated associations, guilds or sole proprietorships.
Technically, a company (in the U.S., a corporation) is a juristic person or legal entity which has a separate legal identity from its shareholding members, and is ordinarily incorporated to undertake commercial business. Although some jurisdictions refer to unincorporated entities as companies, in most jurisdictions the term refers only to incorporated entities. It has been judicially remarked that "the word company has no strictly legal meaning",[1] but is taken to mean a specific form of entity created under the laws of the relevant jurisdiction. Because of the limited liability of the members of the company (in the U.S., the shareholders of the corporation) for the company's debts and the separate personality and tax treatment of the company, it has become the most popular form of business vehicle in most countries in the world.
However, companies have a number of other uses. They are not normally subject to rules against mortmain or perpetuity as are trusts, and may have perpetual existence. Companies are often used in tax structuring. Companies, being commercial entities, are often easier to utilise in financing arrangements than partnerships and individuals.[2] Companies have an inherent flexibility which can let them grow; there is no legal reason why a company initially formed by a sole proprietor cannot eventually grow to be a publicly listed company, but a partnership will generally always be limited as to the maximum number of partners.[3]
Etymology
In the United States, a company may or may not be a separate legal entity, and is often used synonymously with "firm" or "business." A corporation may accurately be called a company; however, a company should not necessarily be called a corporation, which has distinct characteristics. According to Black's Law Dictionary, in the U.S. a company means "a corporation — or, less commonly, an association, partnership or union — that carries on industrial enterprise."[4]
History

Hogarthian image of the South Sea Bubble, by Edward Matthew Ward, Tate Gallery
Although some forms of companies are thought to have existed during Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece, the closest recognizable ancestors of the modern company did not appear until the second millennium. The first recognizable commercial associations were medieval guilds, where guild members agreed to abide by guild rules, but did not participate in ventures for common profit. The earliest forms of joint commercial enterprise under the lex mercatoria were in fact partnerships.
But with the expansion of international trade, Royal charters were increasingly granted in Europe (notably in England and Holland) to merchant adventurers. The Royal charters usually conferred special privileges on the trading company (including, usually, some form of monopoly). Originally, traders in these entities traded stock on their own account, but later the members came to operate on joint account and with joint stock, and the new Joint stock company was born.[5]
Early companies were purely economic ventures; it was only belatedly realized that an incidental benefit of holding joint stock was that the company's stock could not be seized for the debts of any individual member.[6] The development of company law in Europe was hampered by two notorious "bubbles" (the South Sea Bubble in England and the Tulip Bulb Bubble in Holland) in the 17th century, which set the development of companies in the two leading jurisdictions back by over a century in popular estimation.
But companies, almost inevitably, returned to the forefront of commerce, although in England to circumvent the Bubble Act 1720 investors had reverted to trading the stock of unincorporated associations, until it was repealed in 1825. However, the cumbersome process of obtaining Royal charters was simply insufficient to keep up with demand. In England there was a lively trade in the charters of defunct companies. However, prevarication amongst the legislation meant that in England it was not until the Joint Stock Companies Act 1844 that the first equivalent of modern companies, formed by registration, appeared. Soon after came the Limited Liability Act 1855, which in the event of a company's bankruptcy limited the liability of all shareholders to the amount of capital they had invested. The beginning of modern company law came when the two pieces of legislation were codified under the Joint Stock Companies Act 1856 at the behest of the then Vice President of the Board of Trade, Mr Robert Lowe. That legislation shortly gave way to the railway boom, and from there the numbers of companies formed soared. In the later nineteenth century depression took hold, and just as company numbers had boomed, many began to implode and fall into insolvency. Much strong academic, legislative and judicial opinion was opposed to the notion that businessmen could escape accountability for their role in the failing businesses. The last significant development in the history of companies was the decision of the House of Lords in Salomon v. Salomon & Co. where the House of Lords confirmed the separate legal personality of the company, and that the liabilities of the company were separate and distinct from those of its owners.
In a December 2006 article, The Economist identified the development of the joint stock company as one of the key reasons why Western commerce moved ahead of its rivals in the Middle East in post-renaissance era.[7] Of course one should not underestimate the effects of early industrialisation either.
Further information: Corporation: Origins
Types
Main article: Company
There are various types of company that can be formed in different jurisdictions, but the most common forms of company are:
• a company limited by shares. The most common form of company used for business ventures.
• a company limited by guarantee. Commonly used where companies are formed for non-commercial purposes, such as clubs or charities. The members guarantee the payment of certain (usually nominal) amounts if the company goes into insolvent liquidation, but otherwise they have no economic rights in relation to the company .
• a company limited by guarantee with a share capital. A hybrid entity, usually used where the company is formed for non-commercial purposes, but the activities of the company are partly funded by investors who expect a return.
• an unlimited liability company. A company where the liability of members for the debts of the company are unlimited. Today these are only seen in rare and unusual circumstances.
In legal parlance, the owners of a company are normally referred to as the "members". In a company limited by shares, this will be the shareholders. In a company limited by guarantee, this will be the guarantors.
Companies are also sometimes distinguished for legal and regulatory purposes between public companies and private companies. Public companies are companies whose shares can be publicly traded, often (although not always) on a regulated stock exchange. Private companies do not have publicly traded shares, and often contain restrictions on transfers of shares. In some jurisdictions, private companies have maximum numbers of shareholders.
There are, however, many specific categories of corporations and other business organizations which may be formed in various countries and jurisdictions throughout the world. For a partial list of these, see Types of business entity.
Corporate constitution
In almost every jurisdiction in the world, a company must have a corporate constitution, which defines the existence of the company and regulates the structure and control of the company.
By convention, most common law jurisdictions divide the corporate constitution into two separate documents:
• the Memorandum of Association (in some countries referred to as the Articles of Incorporation or the Certificate of Incorporation) is the primary document, and will generally regulate the company's activities with the outside world, such as the company's objects and powers and specify the authorised share capital of the company.
• the Articles of Association (in some countries referred to as the by-laws) is the secondary document, and will generally regulate the company's internal affairs and management, such as procedures for board meetings, dividend entitlements etc.[8]
In many countries, only the primary document is filed, and the secondary document remains private. In other countries, both documents are filed. Some countries provide statutory forms of basic corporate constitution which a company may adopt (for example, Table A in the United Kingdom, or Replaceable Rules in Australia).
In civil law jurisdictions, the company's constitution is normally consolidated into a single document, often called the charter.
It is quite common for members of a company to supplement the corporate constitution with additional arrangements, such as shareholders' agreements, whereby they agree to exercise their membership rights in a certain way. Conceptually a shareholders' agreement fulfills many of the same functions as the corporate constitution, but because it is a contract, it will not normally bind new members of the company unless they accede to it somehow.[9] One benefit of shareholders' agreement is that they will usually be confidential, as most jurisdictions do not require shareholders' agreements to be publicly filed.
Another common method of supplementing the corporate constitution is by means of voting trusts, although these are relatively uncommon outside of the United States and certain offshore jurisdictions.
Some jurisdictions consider the company seal to be a party of the "constitution" (in the loose sense of the word) of the company, but the requirement for a seal has been abrogated by legislation in most countries.
Shares and share capital
Main article: Stock
Companies generally raise capital for their business ventures either by debt or equity. Capital raised by way of equity is usually raised by issued shares (sometimes called "stock" (not to be confused with stock-in-trade)) or warrants.
A share is an item of property, and can be sold or transferred. Holding a share makes the holder a member of the company, and entitles them to enforce the provisions of the company's constitution against the company and against other members. Shares also normally have a nominal or par value, which is the limit of the shareholder's liability to contribute to the debts of the company on an insolvent liquidation.
Shares usually confer a number of rights on the holder. These will normally include:
• voting rights
• rights to dividends declared by the company
• rights to any return of capital either upon redemption of the share, or upon the liquidation of the company
• in some countries, shareholders have preemption rights, whereby they have a preferential right to participate in future share issues by the company
Many companies have different classes of shares, offering different rights to the shareholders. For example, a company might issue both ordinary shares and preference shares, with the two types having different voting and/or economic rights. For example, a company might provide that preference shareholders shall each receive a cumulative preferred dividend of a certain amount per annum, but the ordinary shareholders shall receive everything else.
The total number of issued shares in a company is said to represent its capital. Many jurisdictions regulate the minimum amount of capital which a company may have, although some countries only prescribe minimum amounts of capital for companies engaging in certain types of business (e.g. banking, insurance etc.).
Similarly, most jurisdictions regulate the maintenance of capital, and prevent companies returning funds to shareholders by way of distribution when this might leave the company financially exposed. In some jurisdictions this extends to prohibiting a company from providing financial assistance for the purchase of its own shares.
Corporate personality
Main article: Piercing the corporate veil
One of the key legal features of corporations are their separate legal personality, also known as "personhood" or being "artificial persons". However, the separate legal personality was not confirmed under English law until 1895 by the House of Lords in Salomon v. Salomon & Co. [1897] AC 22. However, it is now largely accepted throughout the world that companies are legally separate and distinct entities.
Separate legal personality often has unintended consequences, particularly in relation to smaller, family companies.
• In B v B [1978] Fam 181 it was held that a discovery order obtained by a wife against her husband was not effective against the husband's company as it was not named in the order and was separate and distinct from him.[10]
• In Macaura v Northern Assurance Co Ltd [1925] AC 619 a claim under an insurance policy failed where the insured had transferred timber from his name into the name of a company wholly owned by him, and it was subsequently destroyed in a fire; as the property now belonged to the company and not to him, he no longer had an "insurable interest" in it and his claim failed.
However, separate legal personality does allow corporate groups a great deal of flexibility in relation to tax planning, and also enables multinational companies to manage the liability of their overseas operations (see Adams v Cape Industries plc [1990] Ch 433).
There are certain specific situations where courts are generally prepared to "pierce the corporate veil": to look directly at, and impose liability directly on the individuals behind the company. The most commonly cited examples are:
• where the company is a mere façade
• where the company is effectively just the agent of its members or controllers
• where a representative of the company has taken some personal responsibility for a statement or action[11]
• where the company is engaged in fraud or other criminal wrongdoing
• where the natural interpretation of a contract or statute is as a reference to the corporate group and not the individual company
• where permitted by statute (for example, many jurisdictions provide for shareholder liability where a company breaches environmental protection laws)
• in many jurisdictions, where a company continues to trade despite inevitable bankruptcy, the directors can be forced to account for trading losses personally
Capacity and powers
Historically, because companies are artificial persons created by operation of law, the law prescribed what the company could and could not do. Usually this was an expression of the commercial purpose which the company was formed for, and came to referred to as the company's objects, and the extent of the objects are referred to as the company's capacity. If an activity fell outside of the company's capacity it was said to be ultra vires and void.
By way of distinction, the organs of the company were expressed to have various corporate powers. If the objects were the things that the company was able to do, then the powers were the means by which it could do them. Usually expressions of powers were limited to methods of raising capital, although from earlier times distinctions between objects and powers have caused lawyers difficulty.[12]
Most jurisdictions have now modified the position by statute, and companies generally have capacity to do all the things that a natural person could do, and power to do it in any way that a natural person could do it.
However, references to corporate capacity and powers have not quite been consigned to the dustbin of legal history. In many jurisdictions, directors can still be liable to their shareholders if they cause the company to engage in businesses outside of its objects, even if the transactions are still valid as between the company and the third party. And many jurisdictions also still permit transactions to be challenged for lack of "corporate benefit", where the relevant transaction has no prospect of being for the commercial benefit of the company or its shareholders.
Further information: Corporate benefit
Officers and agents
As artificial persons, companies can only act through human agents. As was once memorably remarked, "It has no body to kick and no soul to damn."[13]
The main agent who deals with the company's management and business is the board of directors, but in many jurisdictions other officers can be appointed too. The board of directors is normally elected by the members, and the other officers are normally appointed by the board. These agents enter into contracts on behalf of the company with third parties.
Although the company's agents owe duties to the company (and, indirectly, to the shareholders) to exercise those powers for a proper purpose, generally speaking third parties' rights are not impugned if it transpires that the officers were acting improperly. Third parties are entitled to rely on the ostensible authority of agents held out by the company to act on its behalf. A line of common law cases reaching back to Royal British Bank v Turquand established in common law that third parties were entitled to assume that the internal management of the company was being conducted properly, and the rule has now been codified into statute in most countries.
Accordingly, companies will normally be liable for all the act and omissions of their officers and agents. This will include almost all torts, but the law relating to crimes committed by companies is complex, and varies significantly between countries.
Further information: Vicarious liability of companies and Corporate liability
Members' rights and majority rule
Members of a company generally have rights against each other and against the company, as framed under the company's constitution. In relation to the exercise of their rights, minority shareholders usually have to accept that, because of the limits of their voting rights, they cannot direct the overall control of the company and must accept the will of the majority (often expressed as majority rule). However, majority rule can be iniquitous, particularly where there is one controlling shareholder.
Accordingly, a number of exceptions have developed in law in relation to the general principle of majority rule.
• Where the majority shareholder(s) are exercising their votes to perpetrate a fraud on the minority, the courts may permit the minority to sue[14]
• members always retain the right to sue if the majority acts to invade their personal rights, e.g. where the company's affairs are not conducted in accordance with the company's constitution (this position has been debated because the extent of a personal right is not set in law). Macdougall v Gardiner and Pender v Lushington present irreconcilable differences in this area.
• in many jurisdictions it is possible for minority shareholders to take a representative or derivative action in the name of the company, where the company is controlled by the alleged wrongdoers
Further information: Shareholder and Derivative suit
Director's duties
Main article: Board of directors
In most jurisdictions, directors owe strict duties of good faith, as well as duties of care and skill, to safeguard the interests of the company and the members.
The standard of skill and care that a director owes is usually described as acquiring and maintaining sufficient knowledge and understanding of the company's business to enable him to properly discharge his duties.
Directors are also strictly charged to exercise their powers only for a proper purpose. For instance, were a director to issue a large number of new shares, not for the purposes of raising capital but in order to defeat a potential takeover bid, that would be an improper purpose.[15]
Directors also owe strict duties not to permit any conflict of interest or conflict with their duty to act in the best interests of the company. This rule is so strictly enforced that, even where the conflict of interest or conflict of duty is purely hypothetical, the directors can be forced to disgorge all personal gains arising from it. In Aberdeen Ry v Blaikie (1854) 1 Macq HL 461 Lord Cranworth stated in his judgment that:
"A corporate body can only act by agents, and it is, of course, the duty of those agents so to act as best to promote the interests of the corporation whose affairs they are conducting. Such agents have duties to discharge of a fiduciary nature towards their principal. And it is a rule of universal application that no one, having such duties to discharge, shall be allowed to enter into engagements in which he has, or can have, a personal interest conflicting or which possibly may conflict, with the interests of those whom he is bound to protect... So strictly is this principle adhered to that no question is allowed to be raised as to the fairness or unfairness of the contract entered into..." (emphasis added)
However, in many jurisdictions the members of the company are permitted to ratify transactions which would otherwise fall foul of this principle. It is also largely accepted in most jurisdictions that this principle should be capable of being abrogated in the company's constitution.
Further information: Corporate governance and Conflict of interest
Liquidations
Main article: Liquidation
Liquidation is the normal means by which a company's existence is brought to an end. It is also referred to (either alternatively or concurrently) in some jurisdictions as winding up and/or dissolution.
Liquidations generally come in two forms, either compulsory liquidations (sometimes called creditors' liquidations) and voluntary liquidations (sometimes called members' liquidations, although a voluntary liquidation where the company is insolvent will also be controlled by the creditors, and is properly referred to as a creditors' voluntary liquidation).
As its names imply, applications for compulsory liquidation are normally made by creditors of the company when the company is unable to pay its debts. However, in some jurisdictions, regulators have the power to apply for the liquidation of the company on the grounds of public good, i.e. where the company is believed to have engaged in unlawful conduct, or conduct which is otherwise harmful to the public at large.
Voluntary liquidations occur when the company's members decide voluntarily to wind up the affairs of the company. This may be because they believe that the company will soon become insolvent, or it may be on economic grounds if they believe that the purpose for which the company was formed is now at an end, or that the company is not providing an adequate return on assets and should be broken up and sold off.
Some jurisdictions also permit companies to be wound up on "just and equitable" grounds.[16] Generally, applications for just and equitable winding-up are brought by a member of the company who alleges that the affairs of the company are being conducted in a prejudicial manner, and asking the court to bring an end to the company's existence. For obvious reasons, in most countries, the courts have been reluctant to wind up a company solely on the basis of the disappointment of one member, regardless of how well-founded that member's complaints are. Accordingly, most jurisdictions which permit just and equitable winding up also permit the court to impose other remedies, such as requiring the majority shareholder(s) to buy out the disappointed minority shareholder at a fair value.
Where a company goes into liquidation, normally a liquidator is appointed to gather in all the company's assets and settle all claims against the company. If there is any surplus after paying off all the creditors of the company, this surplus is then distributed to the members.
See also
• Business organizations
• Corporation
• Corporate liability
• Limited Liability Company (LLC)
• Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)
• Limited Partnership (LP)
• List of company name etymologies
• List of companies named after people
• North American Industry Classification System (NAICS formerly SIC)
• Offshore company
• Organization
• Private limited company
• Public limited company (PLC)
• Quasi corporation
• Types of companies
• Securities regulation in the United States
• Companies House
• Companies Registry
Notes
1. ^ Re Stanley [1906] 1 Ch 131 at 134
2. ^ In England, companies can grant a "floating charge" over all their assets, a popular form of security with banks, but individuals and partnerships cannot because of the prohibition against "general assignments" in bankruptcy law
3. ^ Although some exceptions exist for large law firms and accountancy firms
4. ^ 8th edition (2004), ISBN 0 314 15199 0
5. ^ In England the first joint stock company was the East India Company, which received its charter in 1600. The Dutch East India Company received its charter in 1602, but is generally recognized as the first company in the world to issue joint stock. Not coincidentally, the two companies were competitors.
6. ^ In England, see Edmunds v Brown Tillard (1668) 1 Lev 237 and Salmon v The Hamborough Co (1671) 1 Ch Cas 204
7. ^ "Long ago, the region's failure to develop joint-stock companies was one reason why it fell behind the West." [1] The Economist
8. ^ In the event of any inconsistency, the Memorandum usually prevails, see Ashbury v Watson (1885) 30 Ch D 376
9. ^ Shalfoon v Cheddar Valley [1924] NZLR 561
10. ^ Although it did attach to documents within the husband's custody or control.
11. ^ Williams v Natural Life [1998] 1 WLR 830
12. ^ See the frustration expressed by the House of Lords in Cotman v Brougham [1918] AC 514
13. ^ Attributed to Lord Thurlow LC, although it does not appear in any of his reported decisions. It has been suggested that he actually said "Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned, they therefore do as they like."[2]
14. ^ Foss v Harbottle (1843) 2 Hare 461
15. ^ Harlowe's Nominees Pty v Woodside (1968) 121 CLR 483 (Aust HC)
16. ^ In England, see Ebrahimi v Westbourne Galleries [1973] AC 360
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tax education from law schools

2008-06-23T04:11:00.003-07:00

Tax education from law schools
In law schools, "tax law" is a sub-discipline and area of specialist study. Tax law specialists are often employed in consultative roles, and may also be involved in litigation. Many U.S. law schools require about 30 semester credit hours of required courses and approximately 60 hours or more of electives. Law students pick and choose available courses on which to focus before graduation with the J.D. degree in the United States. This freedom allows law students to take many tax courses such as federal taxation, estate and gift tax, and estates and successions before completing the Juris Doctor and taking the bar exam in a particular U.S. state.
There are many fine LLM or Masters in Laws Graduate programs currently being offered in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Netherlands etc. Many of these programs offer the opportunity to focus on domestic and international taxation. In the United States most LLM programs require that the candidate be a graduate of an American Bar Association-accredited law school while a mere graduate law degree is a sufficient eligibility criterion in other countries for admission to LLM in Taxation law programmes.
[edit] Tax education from business school programs
There are hundreds of accredited business schools in the USA. Many are accredited by the AACSB or ACBSP or recognized by AAFM. These undergraduate or graduate programs may allow the student to major or graduate with a tax related degree such as a Masters in Taxation. Also, the undergraduate focus on accounting would allow a student to go the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) track. After a student completes the individual state or jurisdictional requirements for accounting, the applicant may sit for the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

the baby doll night

2008-06-23T04:11:00.001-07:00

The Egyptian press on a date rarely be repeated, since amassed a newspaper almost every movie heroes in the lives of the Grand Hotel to meet with journalists, and before the complete details stop with the names that will participate in the "night Aviv States."
Stars, Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, Nour El-Sherif, Mahmoud Hemeida, Creative's salary, Jamal Suleiman, Ahmed Makki, Ezzat Abu Auf, Mahmoud soldier.

Najm, Leila Alwi, Slav Vokrgi, Nicole Saba, Ghada Abdel Razek, Ola Ghanem, Dora Tunisia.
This is in addition to singer Robbie that will appear in real personality, and a myriad of new faces, with a large group of Arab representatives from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other countries.

The story of the film revolves around the tour guide suffered a deficit in the marital life, traveled abroad for a period, searching for a cure, and return with an American regiment to his wife that I'll miss them, and attend with him "Bibi States" for serving with Good night, but the regiment was at risk of terrorist events is turning on its head Following, the film goes public in various parts of the world monitor the impact of the policy of globalization on human beings everywhere, starting from the tourist guide who was deprived from his wife, so that ordinary people in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While the company announced that the budget for the film transcends the forty million pounds, to be more cost films in the history of Egyptian cinema, Adel Adeeb said during the press conference that "the night Aviv States" will see more facilities provided by the company for the previous films, he first displayed in the Cannes Festival 2008, As evidenced by the participation of 60 representative and representative, and the new is the combination of a working group of Egyptian and another foreigner to exit the film in better shape, is the most prominent participants behind the camera, director of photography past Hong Manley, and producer Daniel Almnfd Cambanion, Doblerat company from South Africa, the company "Beckler" French Of tricks and graphics, and Studio "in August Road" in London to record the music that make up the graphic Yasser Abdel-Rahman, an expert makeup World "for Didier FAVERGES."

The story of the film revolves around the tour guide suffered a deficit in the marital life, traveled abroad for a period, searching for a cure, and return with an American regiment to his wife that I'll miss them, and attend with him; Bibi States serving with Good night, but the regiment was at risk of terrorist events is turning upside down , The movie goes public in various parts of the world monitor the impact of the policy of globalization on human beings everywhere, starting from the tourist guide who was deprived from his wife, so that ordinary people in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It stressed the company producing the heroes not to mention their roles, but the press has succeeded in reaching the keys to the main characters, shows where Mahmoud Abdul Aziz said in a personal guide, has two wives and two Slav Nicole, and leading role of Nur al-Sharif correspondent shock irregularities U.S. military in Iraq would turn into a violent person, either Jamal Sulaiman appears in the personality of a taxi driver.

While the company announced that the budget for the film transcends the forty million pounds, to be more cost films in the history of Egyptian cinema, Adel Adeeb said during the press conference that; night Aviv States; will see more facilities provided by the company for the previous films, he first displayed in the Cannes Festival 2008, As evidenced by the participation of 60 representative and representative, and the new is the combination of a working group of Egyptian and another foreigner to exit the film in better shape, is the most prominent participants behind the camera, director of photography past Hong Manley, and producer Daniel Almnfd Cambanion, Doblerat company from South Africa, and the company; Beckler; French Of tricks and graphics, and Studio; August Road in London to record the music that make up the graphic Yasser Abdel-Rahman, an expert makeup World; Didier for FAVERGES;. Adel Adeeb said he hopes to make a film lifted shares of Arab cinema abroad, and the message in honor of his father late.
During the ceremony gave the artist Abdel Aziz speech in which he confirmed that he was ready for another seven-year absence to find a good text, as it moved away from the cinema to respect them, pointing out that he was interested in this movie three years ago, and wished to add; night Aviv States; movie for its score, Nur al-Sharif also said that the market was in need of the Egyptian movie producers to reconsider his balance after the tyranny of commercial cinema, which does not reject but he refuses to be found alone on the ground and limited reflect on the ancient Egyptian cinema.
After a meeting stars journalists in the gallery, everyone moved to the ceremony during which it descends, a huge allowed to conduct interviews with media stars. The director begins just Adib film photography studio next Tuesday Ahram, to be announced later dates for travel abroad, where the image of the film in Lebanon and Syria, Yugoslavia, Canada and some states of America

Earn money with Widget Bucks

2008-06-23T04:10:00.001-07:00

Willsmith

2008-06-23T04:09:00.002-07:00

Very few performers have had as much success transitioning from the music scene to the film realm as Will Smith has. Being in the entertainment scene since the late 80s, today, Smith is one of the most recognized and esteemed performers and producers in the industry.

Will Smith was born Willard Christopher Smith Jr on September 25th, 1968 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Overbrook High School in Winfield Pennsylvania, which is where he soon became known to his friends as “The Prince,” for his charming antics. Little did he know that this nickname would still have meaning over 30 years later.

At the early age of 12, Smith began rapping and developing his own style under the influence of hip-hop legend, Grandmaster Flash. Four years later, at only 16, he met Jeff Townes, also known as DJ Jazzy Jeff, who he eventually collaborated with under the title, Fresh Prince. The two produced a number of songs including the worldwide hit, Girls Ain’t Nothin But Trouble, and in 1989, the duo won their first Grammy for Best Rap Performance for Parents Just Don’t Understand. Shortly thereafter, they won another Grammy in 1991 for Summertime. DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince continued to make music together until their final album, Code Red, which was released in 1993. Even though this was the end for the rap duo, Smith re-emerged as a solo artist in 1997 with his debut LP, Big Willie Style and continues to make and produce music today.

Prior to his debut as a solo artist, Will Smith had already made a name for himself in the acting realm. In 1990, Will Smith was cast in the NBC sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which starred Smith as the “Fresh Prince,” a young street-smart kid from Philly living in one of LA’s wealthiest areas, Bel-Air. The family comedy proved to be a great success running for six years and giving Smith a name in the industry.

It wasn’t long before the movie offers came rolling in. One of his first roles was in the film starring Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson, Made In America, in which Smith played the best friend of Goldberg’s onscreen daughter. His next role in the Oscar-nominated film, Six Degrees of Separation, garnered him international respect after proving to the world that he could play more than the comical Fresh Prince. This eventually led to the 1995 box-office hit, Bad Boys, which was one of the first-ever action films to feature two black lead actors.

After Bad Boys, things only got better for Will Smith. He starred in over a dozen films including Independence Day (1996), Men in Black (1997), Enemy of the State (1998), Ali (2001), I, Robot (2004), Hitch (2005) and the Pursuit of Happyness (2006) to name a few. Over the span of his acting career, he’s won 28 awards and has been nominated for 49 others including two Oscar nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for his role in Ali and in The Pursuit of Happyness.

After successfully conquering the music and film industries, Will Smith has taken on the new role as producer. With the help of partner James Lassiter, Smith recently launched Overbrook Entertainment, a film and television production company that also does artist management. Since its birth, Overbrook has produced several box office hits including I, Robot, Hitch, and the most recent, The Pursuit of Happyness

the pregnant man

2008-06-23T04:09:00.001-07:00

Apostle television program, offered by the American announcer famous opera and Winfrey hosted a man he kept genital mutilation despite its transformation from female to mention, now holder of fame in the fifth.
The man said pregnant, and named Thomas Valletta, in extracts from the programme, which aired the day before yesterday «I'm gone right person to be me my child Diversity».

According to excerpts of which were broadcast Lolita tells how his wife were not capable of pregnancy after she underwent surgery in the past to eradicate the womb. He said: «if Nancy can carry you to do this». And Roy Keita (34 years), its conflicts with different doctors and with his family and friends in a letter published last week magazine «a Advukit», a magazine on sexually abnormal, and wrote that he had surgery to change the structure of al-Sadr appeared to take the hormone testosterone

When taken to his decision to have a child stopped hormone doses that were received by injection once every two months and resumed menstruation and subjected to the process of enrichment for use Sperm donor is not known from animal sperm bank. The failed first attempt failed. But the second attempt proved successful and is expected to put her baby in about three of the next July

Jokes

2008-06-23T04:08:00.002-07:00

Two cows are standing in a field.
One says to the other "Are you worried about Mad Cow Disease?"
The other one says "No, It doesn't worry me, I'm a horse!"

A man receives a phone call from his doctor.
The doctor says, "I have some good news and some bad news."
The man says, "OK, give me the good news first."
The doctor says, "The good news is, you have 24 hours to live."
The man replies, "Oh no! If that's the good news, then what's the bad news?"
The doctor says, "The bad news is, I forgot to call you yesterday."

A: Do you want to hear a dirty joke?
B: Ok
A: A white horse fell in the mud.

Teacher: Did you father help your with your homework
Student: No, he did it all by himself.

Patient: Doctor! You've got to help me! Nobody ever listens to me. No one ever pays any attention to what I have to say.
Doctor: Next please!

A: Why are all those people running
B: They are running a race to get a cup.
A: Who will get the cup
B: The person who wins.
A: Then why are all the others running

Customer in a restaurant: I would like to have a plate of rice and a piece of fried chicken and a cup of coffee
Waitress : Is it enough Sir?
Customer : What? Do you think I can't buy more?

Teacher: Why are you late?
Student: There was a man who lost a hundred dollar bill.
Teacher: That's nice. Were you helping him look for it?
Student: No. I was standing on it.
A teacher asked a student to write 55.
Student asked: How?
Teacher: Write 5 and beside it another 5!
The student wrote 5 and stopped.
teacher: What are you waiting for?
student: I don't know which side to write the other 5!
A teenage girl had been talking on the phone for about half an hour, and then she hung up.
"Wow!," said her father, "That was short. You usually talk for two hours. What happened?"
"Wrong number," replied the girl.

If you see an elephant sitting on the chair, what time is it
Time to buy a new chair!

0??What's black and white and red over
A newspaper! Because it's read all over.

What would you do if you broke your arme in tow places?? 0
Stay away from those tow places.

How does an animal doctor look inside a tiger's mouth??0
Very carefully

How to deal with post-picked flowers

2008-06-23T04:08:00.001-07:00

How to deal with post-picked flowers:
Whether the person who carried out the cut or the purchase of flowers from one of the assignee attention given to them at home or place of a single coordinated and carried out the following manner:
-- Go down leg certainly ads shears and a length of about 6 cm pieces, the pieces italics prevent parking based on his leg, all in the bottom of the pot, so less water is not absorbed by the leg as well as increased absorbent surface exceeds the amount of water absorbed by the lump.

-- If the flowers of the species that have a somewhat wooden legs are crushing the bottom leg (about 2.5 cm) which facilitates the entry into force of the water to the highest legs, like these flowers: "Alheidrangjia."

Here's caring ways and flowers: --

If purchased lay flowers are not normal cleaning devices pots and clean water almost one-third Submit
Add nutrients to the flowers into the water and good move
Removed the papers found in the lower leg of the flower to prevent bacteria
Then cut the party's lower leg to a distance of 2 cm flower and tilted angle
This allows for better absorption of flower water, which helps to keep a longer period
Also make sure when you put this process of party basement of a flower under water so as not to seep into the air leg
Prefer to change the water and making sure money receptacle containing flowers to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria flowers.
It is important to put flowers in a cool 20 -25 degree Celsius degrees away from sunlight and sources of heat and away from the holes conditioners and preferably put flowers in natural lighting
Avoid excessive irrigation because it leads to negative results

diving and the Red Sea

2008-06-23T04:07:00.001-07:00

Find beauty here depths, colors and beauty, and creatures that live under more beaches drier, and least explored. "
In the Red Sea usually 450 species of fish, as have a number of marine species (such as green turtles and turtle's beak punishment) has prepared abundant.
The sea brides living in small family groups, a large mammal animal, also called sea cow. It is believed that this animal is shy marine built upon myth Nymph.
As hesitate on the Red Sea as well as several strains of whales and dolphins.
This is the warm waters filled with fish safe and wonderful place for swimming, diving, diving tube, sailing and fishing throughout the year.
The dive from the beach is relatively easy to Jeddah, where the coral reef a few steps from the beach, and a depth of up to 25 m will find a wall the length of 40 m atolls.
The intervention here Ajeeb and exciting world of fish, Alchwenin, sharks, turtles, the most vital emperor fish, fish Angelic, Ray dotted punishment, and fish in vitro, and the comet long Flipper.
The easiest places to dive so concentrated in Jeddah and Sharm el-sailing, providing a number of hotels and beaches for ways to reach direct single.
The rate of vision beyond the coral on the coast about 30 m, but are allowed to dive in the quiet days (approximately 70% of the time). And reduced vision in the nearby coral to about 10 p.m., but they are excellent sites for diving and discovery.
It may be dangerous to dive, so it requires a trained coach Maher authorized, provided the companies listed below diving services to various levels (novice, average and professional).

Tax History

2008-06-23T04:06:00.000-07:00

The first federal statutes imposing the legal obligation to pay a federal income tax
were adopted by Congress in 1861 and 1862 to pay for the Civil War. The 1862 law levied a 3% tax on incomes above $800, rising to 5% for incomes above $10,000. Rates were raised in 1864. This income tax was repealed in 1872, but a new income tax statute was enacted as part of the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act in 1894.[4]
The United States Constitution specified Congress could impose a "direct" tax only if it was apportioned among the states according to each state's census population.[5] In its 1895 decision the Supreme Court held in the case of Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. that a tax on income from property (a tax on interest, dividends or rent) was a direct tax under the Constitution, and so had to be apportioned.
The apportionment requirement made income taxes on property practically impossible, and Congress did not want to limit the income tax solely to a tax on wages. Therefore, in 1909 Congress proposed the Sixteenth Amendment, which became part of the Constitution in 1913 when it was ratified by the required number of states. The Amendment modified the requirement for apportionment of direct taxes by exempting all income taxes—whether considered direct or indirect—from the apportionment requirement. Congress re-adopted the income tax that same year, levying a 1% tax on net personal incomes above $3,000, with a 6% surtax on incomes above $500,000. By 1918, the top rate of the income tax was increased to 77% (on income over $1,000,000) to finance World War I. The top marginal tax rate was reduced to 58% in 1922, to 25% in 1925, and finally to 24% in 1929. In 1932 the top marginal tax rate was increased to 63% during the Great Depression and steadily increased, reaching 94% (on all income over $200,000) in 1945. During World War II, Congress introduced payroll withholding and quarterly tax payments. Top marginal tax rates stayed near or above 90% until 1964 when the top marginal tax rate was lowered to 70%. The top marginal tax rate was lowered to 50% in 1982 and eventually to 28% in 1988.
At first the income tax was incrementally expanded by the Congress of the United States, and then inflation automatically raised most persons into tax brackets formerly reserved for the wealthy until income tax brackets were adjusted for inflation. Income tax now applies to almost two-thirds of the population.[6] The lowest earning workers, especially those with dependents, pay no income taxes as a group and actually get a small subsidy from the federal government because of child credits and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
Some lower income individuals pay a proportionately higher share of payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare than do some higher income individuals in terms of the effective tax rate. All income earned up to a point, adjusted annually for inflation ($94,200 for the year 2006 and $97,500 for the year 2007) is taxed at 7.65% (consisting of the 6.2% Social Security tax and the 1.45% Medicare tax) on the employee with an addition 7.65% in tax incurred by the employer. The annual limitation amount is sometimes called the "Social Security tax wage base amount" or "Contribution and Benefit Base." Above the annual limit amount, only the 1.45% Medicare tax is imposed. In terms of the effective rate, this means that a worker earning $20,000 for 2006 pays at a 7.65% effective rate ($1,530) while a worker earning $200,000 pays at an effective rate of about 4.37% ($8,740).
When an individual's Social Security benefit is calculated, income in excess of each year's Social Security Tax wage base amount (e.g., $97,500 for 2007) is disregarded for purposes of the calculation of future benefits. Although some lower income individuals pay a proportionately higher share of payroll taxes than do higher income individuals in terms of the "effective tax rate", the lower income individuals also receive a proportionately higher share of Social Security benefits than do some higher income individuals, since the lower income individuals will receive a much higher income replacement percentage in retirement than higher income individuals affected by the Social Security tax wage base cap. If the higher income individuals want to receive an income replacement percentage in retirement that is similar to the income replacement percentage that lower income individuals receive from Social Security, higher income individuals must achieve this through other means such as 401(k)s, IRAs, defined benefit pension plans, personal savings, etc. As a percentage of income, some higher income individuals receive less from Social Security than do lower income individuals.
Self employed people pay the entire 15.3%, but are allowed to deduct one-half of this amount in computing taxable income for purposes of the Federal income tax.[7]
The federal government is now financed primarily by personal and corporate income taxes. While it was originally funded via tariffs upon imported goods, tariffs now represent only a minor portion of federal revenues. There are also non-tax fees to recompense agencies for services or to fill specific trust funds such as the fee placed upon airline tickets for airport expansion and air traffic control. Often the receipts intended to be placed in "trust" funds are used for other purposes, with the government posting an IOU ('I owe you') in the form of a federal bond or other accounting instrument, then spending the money on unrelated current expenditures.
The federal government collects several specific taxes in addition to the general income tax. Social Security and Medicare are large social support programs which are funded by taxes on personal earned income. Estate taxes are levied on inheritance. Net long-term capital gains as well as certain types of qualified dividend income are taxed preferentially.
Federal excise taxes are applied to specific items such as motor fuels, tires, telephone usage, tobacco products, and alcoholic beverages. Excise taxes are often, but not always, allocated to special funds related to the object or activity taxed.
Federal tax code
The Federal tax law is administered primarily by the Internal Revenue Service, a bureau of the Treasury. The U.S. tax code is known as the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (title 26 of the United States Code). The Code's complexity generally arises from two factors: the use of the tax code for purposes other than raising revenue, and the feedback process of amending the code.
While the main intent of the law is to provide revenue for the federal government, the tax code is frequently used for public policy reasons i.e., to achieve social, economic, and political goals. For example, to encourage home ownership, the tax law provides a deduction for mortgage interest expense on debt secured by primary residences. In addition, the law does not allow a deduction for renters for rent paid to offset the advantage of nonrecognition of exclusion of imputed owner occupied rent. An income tax system that favors neither renting nor owning homes would not allow the mortgage interest deduction and would tax the imputed rent for owners who live in their own homes.
Because the government uses the tax code as an instrument of social policy, the code as a whole appears to some critics[citation needed] to lack a coherent organizing principle. The purported lack of a coherent organizing principle arguably has become magnified over time, due to the interplay between successive legislative amendments and regulatory changes to the law and the private sector responses to those amendments and changes. For instance, suppose that Congress enacts a tax credit to encourage a particular type of activity. In response, a group of taxpayers who are not the intended beneficiaries of the credit re-order their affairs, or the superficial aspects of their affairs, to qualify for the credit. Congress responds by amending the code to add restrictions and target the credit more effectively. Certain taxpayers manage to use this change to claim additional benefits, so Congress acts again, and so on. The result is a feedback loop of enactment and response, which, over an extended period of time, produces significant complexity.
Tax distribution

Tax concentration coefficient (a variant of the Gini coefficient) is a measure of tax inequality. The higher the number, the more progressive the tax.
There are about 117 million taxpayers in the United States.[8] The Treasury Department in 2006 reported, based on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data, the share of federal income taxes paid by taxpayers of various income levels. The data shows the progressive tax structure of the U.S. federal income tax system on individuals that reduces the tax incidence of people with smaller incomes, as they shift the incidence disproportionately to those with higher incomes - the top 0.1% of taxpayers by income pay 17.4% of federal income taxes (earning 9.1% of the income), the top 1% with gross income of $328,049 or more pay 36.9% (earning 19%), the top 5% with gross income of $137,056 or more pay 57.1% (earning 33.4%), and the bottom 50% with gross income of $30,122 or less pay 3.3% (earning 13.4%).[9][10] If the federal taxation rate is compared with the wealth distribution rate, the net wealth (not only income but also including real estate, cars, house, stocks, etc) distribution of the United States does almost coincide with the share of income tax - the top 1% pay 36.9% of federal tax (wealth 32.7%), the top 5% pay 57.1% (wealth 57.2%), top 10% pay 68% (wealth 69.8%), and the bottom 50% pay 3.3% (wealth 2.8%).[11]
Other taxes in the United States with a less progressive structure or a regressive structure, and legal tax avoidance loopholes change the overall tax burden distribution. For example, the payroll tax system (FICA), a 12.4% Social Security tax on wages up to $97,500 and a 2.9% Medicare tax (a 15.3% total tax that is often split between employee and employer) is a regressive tax on income with no standard deduction or personal exemptions. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities states that three-fourths of U.S. taxpayers pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes.[12] The Tax Foundation has stated that the burden of the corporate income tax (a 15-39% tax) falls on customers and workers of the corporations, who are often not rich.[13]
Inflation and tax brackets
Most tax laws are not accurately indexed to inflation. Either they ignore inflation completely, or they are indexed to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which tends to understate real inflation.[14] In a progressive tax system, failure to index the brackets to inflation will eventually result in effective tax increases (if inflation is sustained), as inflation in wages will increase individual income and move individuals into higher tax brackets with higher percentage rate. One example is the Alternative Minimum Tax; since it is not indexed to inflation,[15][16] an increasing number of upper-middle-income taxpayers have been finding themselves subject to this tax.
Tax withholding
Federal payroll taxes in the United States are primarily collected by employers on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The Federal income tax uses a system of direct withholding. Employers deduct part of a taxpayer's income directly from their payroll checks. Self-employed individuals make similar payments to the government. The amount of withholding is calculated based on an employee's expected annual salary and the employee's living situation (married or unmarried, number of dependents, other factors). Withholding does not perfectly calculate an individual's tax each year. The difference between the amount withheld and the actual tax is either paid to the government after the end of the year, or refunded by the government. Withholding is done on an honor system with penalties imposed on individuals who do not have enough withheld (or make enough estimated tax payments) during the year. The amounts deducted can be found in IRS Publication 15, also referred to as Circular E. For farmers, the rules are outlined in Publication 51 (Circular A). The IRS's Publication 505 can also be used to estimate the amount of tax withheld.
Some individuals choose to withhold more of their estimated tax burden than necessary, using the withholding and the refund check at the end of the year as a way of "forced savings" (at zero percent interest). Conversely, other individuals withhold as little as possible, using the rule that withholding need only be 100% of the previous year's tax liability, and thus pay a large amount on April 15. Most individuals fall somewhere in the middle.
Federal income tax
As of June 2001, the income tax forms the bulk of taxes collected by the U.S. government.[citation needed] Depending on individual income, the tax ranges from zero to 35% of one's taxable income.
The income tax is considered a progressive tax because the tax rate is higher as a percentage of the income for higher-income individuals. For an example showing the tax rates imposed by Congress in 1954 on the taxable income of unmarried individuals—with rates as high as 91%—see the chart at Internal Revenue Code of 1954.
Income tax is also imposed on the taxable income of most corporations and again on dividends paid to stockholders, although individuals usually pay a preferential tax rate on dividends; this is sometimes referred to as double taxation.
One fairly unique aspect of federal income tax in the United States, is that the U.S. uses citizenship in addition to residency in determining whether a person's income is subject to U.S. taxation. All U.S. citizens, including those who do not live in the United States, are subject to U.S. income tax on their worldwide income. There are provisions that exist to reduce double-taxation. Most other countries do not impose tax on their citizens who are not resident within their borders, unless they have income which is sourced in that country (and even then they only tax that specific income).[citation needed]
Tax deductions/credits
The U.S. government rewards certain behavior with tax deductions or tax credits. For example, amounts used to pay mortgage interest on a personal home may be deductible, if the taxpayer elects to itemize. Taxpayers who do not participate in an employer-sponsored pension plan may contribute up to $4,000 ($5,000 if age 50 or above) into an individual retirement account, and deduct that contribution from their gross income if they fall within certain income limits. The Earned Income Tax Credit benefits low- to moderate-income working families. It is also possible to receive a child and dependent care credit for amounts spent on daycare.
Methods of calculation

Chart showing how the United States Congress spends the federal tax revenue.[17] –31 January 2008
There are two required ways to calculate the U.S. income tax. The "regular tax" is based on the gross income minus any applicable deductions and then a marginal tax percentage is applied according to the taxpayer's income bracket. From this result, any applicable tax credits are subtracted and the result is the income tax owed. If the result is a negative number due to refundable tax credits and/or if the Federal Withholding Tax was greater than the income tax that was actually owed, the taxpayer is entitled to a tax refund. A taxpayer eligible for a refundable credit (such as the earned income tax credit) may receive a refund even without paying any federal income tax.
The second way, the "Alternative Minimum Tax" (AMT) is based on the gross income, computed without regard to certain tax preference items (such as tax-exempt interest on certain private activity bonds) and with a reduced number of exemptions and deductions. This higher income base is taxed in two rate brackets, 26% and 28%, depending on taxpayer income. The taxpayer pays the higher of the two computed tax liabilities.
In the tax year 2000, many taxpayers in Silicon Valley were caught unprepared by the AMT due to the sudden decline in technology stock prices. Under AMT rules, unrealized gains on incentive stock options (ISOs) are taxed at the date the options are exercised. In contrast, under the regular tax rules capital gains taxes are not paid until the actual shares of stock are sold. For example, if someone exercised a 10,000 share Nortel stock option at $7 when the stock price was at $87, the bargain element was $80 per share or $800,000. Without selling the stock, the stock price dropped to $7. Although the real gain is $0, the $800,000 bargain element still becomes an AMT adjustment, and the taxpayer owes thousands of dollars in AMT.
The AMT was designed to prevent people from using loopholes in the tax law to avoid tax. However, the inclusion of unrealized gain on incentive stock options imposes difficulties for people who cannot come up with cash to pay tax on gains that they have not realized yet. As a result, Congress has taken action to modify the AMT regarding incentive stock options. In 2000 and 2001, people exercised incentive stock options and held onto the shares, hoping to pay long-term capital gains taxes instead of short-term capital gains taxes.[18] Many of these people were forced to pay the AMT on this income, and by the end of the year, the stock was no longer worth the amount of AMT tax owed, forcing some individuals into bankruptcy. In the Nortel example given above, the individual would receive a credit for the AMT paid when the individual did eventually sell the Nortel shares.
Another perceived flaw in the AMT is that it hasn't been changed at the same rate as regular income taxes. The tax cut passed in 2001 lowered regular tax rates, but did not lower AMT tax rates. As a result, certain middle-class people are affected by the AMT, even though that was not the original intent of the law. People with large deductions, particularly mortgage interest and state income tax deductions, are affected the most. The AMT also has the potential to tax families with large numbers of dependents (usually children), although in recent years, Congress has acted to keep deductions for dependents, especially children, from triggering the AMT.
A further criticism is that the AMT does not even affect its intended target. Congress introduced the AMT after it was discovered that 21 millionaires did not pay any US income tax in 1969 as a result of various deductions taken on their income tax return. Since the marginal rate of persons with one million dollars of income is 35% and the AMT uses a 26% rate on all income, it is unlikely that millionaires would get tripped by the AMT as their effective tax rates are already higher. Those that do get caught by the AMT are typically upper-middle class persons making approximately $200k-$500k.
Statistics from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for 2000 show that returns showing less than $15,000 in adjusted gross income amounted to 30% of total returns filed but accounted for less than 1% of tax paid. By contrast, although they made up only 2% of all taxpayers that year, taxpayers reporting $200,000 or more in adjusted gross income paid 45% of all federal income taxes. (See: Lucky duckies)
Progressive nature
In general, the U.S. income tax is progressive, at least with respect to individuals that earn wage income.
"Progressivity" as it pertains to tax is usually defined as meaning that the higher a person's level of income, the higher a tax rate that person pays. In the mid-twentieth century, tax rates in the United States and United Kingdom exceeded 90%. As recently as the late 1970s, the top tax rate in the U.S. was 70%. Despite the dramatic fall in the marginal tax-rate of the top-income brackets from the 1960s to the 2000s, taxes on wages, interest, and dividends have become more progressive over the past fifty years.[19]
Progressivity in income tax is accomplished mainly by establishing tax "brackets" - tranches of income that are taxed at progressively higher rates. For example, for tax year 2006 an unmarried person with no dependents will pay 10% tax on the first $7,550 of taxable income. The next $23,100 (i.e. taxable income over $7,550, up to $30,650) is taxed at 15%. The next $43,550 of income is taxed at 25%. Additional brackets of 28%, 33%, and 35% apply to higher levels of income. So, if a person has $50,000 of taxable income, his next dollar of income earned will be taxed at 25% - this is referred to as "being in the 25% tax bracket," or more formally as having a marginal rate of 25%. However, the tax on $50,000 of taxable income figures to $9,058. This being 18% of $50,000, the taxpayer is referred to as having an effective tax rate of 18%.
In recent years, a reduction in the tax rates applicable to capital gains and received dividends payments, has significantly reduced the tax burden on income generated from savings and investing. An argument is often made that these types of income are not generally received by low-income taxpayers, and so this sort of "tax break" is anti-progressive. Further clouding the issue of progressivity is that far more deductions and tax credits are available to higher-income taxpayers. A taxpayer with $40,000 of wage income may only have the "standard" deductions available to him, whereas a taxpayer with $200,000 of wage income might easily have $50,000 or more of "itemized" deductions. Allowable itemized deductions include payments to doctors, premiums for medical insurance, prescription drugs and insulin expenses, state taxes paid, property taxes, and charitable contributions. In those two scenarios, assuming no other income, the tax calculations would be as follows for a single taxpayer with no dependents in 2006:
Wage income $40,000 $200,000
Allowable deductions 8,450 51,430
Taxable income 31,550 148,570
Income tax 4,445 46,725
Effective rate 14% 31%
This would appear to be highly progressive - the person with the higher taxable income pays tax at twice the rate. But this does not give the complete picture. If you divide the tax by the amount of gross income (i.e. before deductions), the effective rates are 11% and 23%: the higher income person's rate is still twice as high, but his deductions drive down the effective rate to a much greater degree. In addition, most discussions of income tax progressivity do not take into account the social security tax, which has a "ceiling". To expand the above example:
Social security tax $3,060 $8,740
Total tax 7,505 55,465
Rate paid on gross income 19% 28%
Progressivity, then is a complex topic which does not lend itself to simple analyses. Given the "flattening" of tax burden that occurred in the early 1980s, many commentators note that the general structure of the U.S. tax system has begun to resemble a partial consumption tax regime.[20]
In 2001 the top 1% earned 14.8% of all income and paid 22.7% of all federal taxes. The next 4% earned 12.7% and paid 15.8%. The next 5% earned 10.1% and paid 11.5%. The next 10% earned 14.8% and paid 15.3%, completing the highest quintile. The fourth quintile earned 20.7% of all income and paid 18.5%. The third quintile earned 14.2% and paid 10%. The second quintile earned 9.2% and paid 4.9%. The lowest quintile earned 4.2% and paid 1% of all federal taxes.[21] Whether this breakdown is "fair" is a matter of some debate.
Payroll taxes
The next largest tax is Social Security tax formally known as the Federal Insurance and Contributions Act (FICA). This contribution or tax is 6.2% of an employees' income paid by the employer, and 6.2% paid by the employee. This tax is paid only on earned income and, as noted above, only up a threshold income for calendar year 2006 of $94,200 called the "Social Security Wage Base" (SSWB). The SSWB increases every year *[22] table of SSWB by year] according to the national index average of wages *[23] which also indexes the bend points in the Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) computations. (As of 2008 the SSWB was set at $102,000.) Unearned income like interest from bonds, money market and bank accounts, dividends from REITs and common stocks, rents, and royalties are not subject to the Social Security tax. Wages are defined in the United States Code 42 USC Section 409.[24] Thus, by simple arithmetic higher earners pay a lower average tax rate than those with earned income at the upper end. Self-employed people must pay both halves of the Social Security tax because they are their own employers.
Medicare tax
The Medicare tax funds the Medicare program, a health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. 1.45% of the employee's income is paid by the employer as Medicare tax, and 1.45% is paid by the employee. Unlike Social Security, there is no cap on the Medicare tax.
For Self-Employeed people, Medicare taxes are fixed at 2.9% on all earnings (can be offset by income tax provisions.)
As in FICA, unearned income is not subject to the Medicare contribution.
Together, Social Security and Medicare taxes compose the payroll tax. These taxes are based on income, but unlike the Federal income tax, they are set aside for their specific purposes. That is, there is a statutory requirement that expenditures on these programs Medicare and Social Security come out of current taxes or accumulated trust funds, so if they go broke, the Social Security Administration and Medicare would be without the authority to pay benefits. Unlike Congress, they cannot borrow on the federal government's creditworthiness to fund operations from the credit markets.
Other payroll taxes
The U.S. has a payroll tax to support unemployment insurance. This is 1.2% of the first $7,000, but coordinated with state unemployment agencies and taxes in such a way that most employees are not double taxed in states that have unemployment insurance. The U.S. also has a tax to pay for retraining of displaced workers, but it is only 0.1% of the first $7,000 of income, and it is assessed only on employers. The government tracks tax payment by an account number and payment date. For the IRS, the account number is a Social Security Number, Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or Employer Identification Number.
Corporate income tax
In the United States, the federal corporate income rate for the year 2006 varies between 15 and 39% depending on taxable income. But since 1999, when Treasury announced the "check the box" system many corporations can elect to be treated as a pass-through entity, thereby skipping the entity level 35% tax and having all income pass through to the shareholders. This is the tax treatment that the much discussed "S" corporations receive; but now many more types of state-law corporations may avoid double taxation by "checking the box". Dividends are also subject to a lower rate of income tax in the United States. The U.S. corporate tax rate is ranked as the second highest statutory rate among the OECD countries (the U.S. average rate of 39.3 ranks just behind Japan's 39.5 and well above the OECD average of 28.7).[25] However, the U.S also has the greatest number of corporate tax loopholes of any OECD member,[26] allowing many corporations to achieve a lower effective tax rate than the published rates.
Transfer taxes
The transfer tax is targeted at wealthy individuals and families and generates less than 2% ($30 billion) of the federal government's annual revenue ($2 trillion). It consists of the gift tax, the estate tax and the generation-skipping transfer tax ("GSTT"). Opponents of the transfer tax label these taxes "death taxes". The term "death tax" was popularized by Frank Luntz, a Republican political consultant, but its use goes back to at least the 19th century.[27]
The gift tax is a tax levied on wealth transfers during the transferor's life while the estate tax is levied on transfers made after the transferor's death. The GSTT is a tax in addition to the gift and estate tax and is levied (in rough terms) on transfers made during life or after death to individuals removed by more than one generation from the transferor, for example, from a grandmother to a grandson. Usually transfer tax liabilities are paid by the transferor or the transferor's estate. Payment of transfer taxes by the transferor when the liability is due from the recipient is also a taxable gift.
As of December 2002, tax rates for gift and estate taxes begin at 18% and rise to 50% for gifts or taxable estates over $2.5 million under the Unified Transfer Tax Rate Schedule. The GSTT is a flat 50%. Each individual is granted a Unified Credit (currently $345,800) the effect of which exempts estates under $1 million. Each individual is also granted an annual exclusion amount the effect of which exempts total gifts to any one individual during the year up to the annual exclusion amount (currently $11,000). If the transferor does not elect to pay the gift tax on the value of gifts totaling more than the annual exclusion amount, the individual is deemed to have used a portion of his Unified Credit. An exemption (currently $1.1 million) for transfers subject to the GSTT is also granted to each individual during his lifetime. The Unlimited Marital Deduction allows (non-foreign) spouses to transfer any amount of wealth with no transfer tax consequences.
Excise taxes
The U.S. also maintains federal excise taxes on gasoline and other fuels used by vehicles. At this time (2005) they are 18.4¢ per gallon (4.9¢/l) for gasoline and 24.4¢ per gallon (6.4¢/l) for diesel (for highway use). Higher profile excise taxes exist on distilled spirits, tobacco products, and some firearms.
State and local government taxation
U.S. states are recognized as having a plenary power to assess taxes on their citizens and on activities that occur within their borders, so long as those taxes do not infringe on a power reserved for the federal government. The Supreme Court has found, in various cases, that states cannot impose taxes designed to impede interstate commerce or influence international relations. States are also prohibited from assessing taxes in ways that discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, alienage, or nationality. Finally, states may not condition the right to vote on payment of taxes. The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1964, specifically prohibits such a condition in Federal elections; the Supreme Court ruled in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does the same in state elections.
Local government is now typically financed by value-based property taxes, mainly on real estate. Additional taxes may be in the form of fixed sales taxes and use taxes. Local government fees such as building permit fees may reflect the added capital cost and operating costs of services such as schools and parks. Local governments may also collect fines (parking and traffic tickets), income tax, gross receipts or gross payroll tax, or a portion of sales taxes (such as meal taxes) collected by the state. In California, seeds, bulbs, starter plants and trees obtained from a garden center are taxed if adjudged for decorative purposes while plants for food production are untaxed, as is food in California.
Almost every state imposes "sin taxes" on products frowned upon by the community, including cigarettes and liquor. Many states also impose a gas tax. The power of the state to tax encompasses the ability to empower jurisdictions within the state such as counties, cities and school districts to impose taxes on their residents. These jurisdictions may impose any of the kinds of taxes that the state may, within the boundaries established by state law.
Income, sales, and property

Each state also has its own tax system.
Typically there is a tax on real estate, usually called "property taxes". Real estate taxes are often imposed on the value of real estate by reason of its ownership. For example, in Texas the real estate tax is imposed on the real estate and in particular on the owner of the real estate as of January 1 of each tax year. The tax is computed by applying a tax rate to the appraised value of the real estate as of the tax date. Some states like New York also have a real estate transfer tax.
There may be additional income taxes, sales taxes, and excise taxes (including use taxes). Taxable income for state purposes is usually based on federal taxable income with certain state specific adjustments. For example, some states tax municipal bond interest derived from other states that are otherwise exempt from federal income tax. Thus, this income must be added to the federal taxable income to compute the income amount for state income tax purposes. Oil and mineral producing states often impose a severance tax, similar to an excise tax in that tax is paid on the production of products, rather than on sales. Similarly, most New England states have yield taxes on timber/firewood cutting, payable as a percentage of the value cut, not the profit. Taxes on hotel rooms are common, and politically popular because the citizens will often approve such a tax while the taxpayers will come from other areas.
Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming do not levy an individual income tax. New Hampshire and Tennessee only tax interest and dividend income. Delaware, Oregon, Montana and New Hampshire have no state or local sales tax. Alaska has no state sales tax, but allows localities to collect their own sales taxes up to a state-specified maximum.
Many states also levy personal property taxes, which are annual taxes on the privilege of owning or possessing items of personal property within the boundaries of the state. Automobile and boat registration fees are a subset of this tax; however, most people are unaware that practically all personal property is also subject to personal property tax. Usually, household goods are exempt; but virtually all objects of value (including art) are covered, especially when regularly used or stored outside of the taxpayer's household.
States permit the creation of special assessment districts (typically for provision of water or removal of sewage, or for parks, public transit, emergency services or schools) whose boundaries may be independent of other boundaries and whose income may be from one or more of service assessments, property taxes, parcel taxes, a portion of road or bridge tolls, or an additional increment upon sales taxes in addition to the non-tax fees for services provided (such as metered water). State government is financed mainly by a mix of sales and/or income taxes and to a lesser extent by corporate registration fees, certain excise taxes, and automobile license fees.
[edit] City and county tax
Cities and counties in the individual states may levy additional taxes, for instance to improve parks or schools, or pay for police, fire departments, local roads, and other services. As in the case of the IRS, they generally require a tax payment account number. Other local governmental agencies may also have the power to tax, notably independent school districts.
Local government taxes are usually property taxes but may also include sales taxes and income taxes. Some cities collect income tax on not only residents but non-residents employed in the city. This tax can even be incurred when a non-resident works temporarily in the city. For example, in 1992 the city of Philadelphia began enforcing the collection of city wage taxes on visiting baseball players who played games in Philadelphia.[28] At least some counties levy an Occupational Privilege Tax (OPT), usually for a small amount, in some cases less than $100/yr.
[edit] Federal tax reform

"'Revenue Reform' Train Stopped by 'Vested Interests,' 'Local Issues,' 'Trusts,' and other poles" — Political cartoon from 1880–1900 commenting on tax reform.
For more details on this topic, see Tax reform.
The President's Advisory Panel for Federal Tax Reform criticized the tax system as being extremely complex, requiring detailed record-keeping, lengthy instructions, and complicated schedules, worksheets, and forms. They stated that it penalizes work, discourages saving and investment, and hinders the competitiveness of American business. The tax code is commonly riddled with provisions that treat similarly situated taxpayers differently and create perceptions of unfairness.[29] The panel's major reform push was for the removal of the Alternative Minimum Tax, which is not indexed for inflation. Several organizations and individuals are working for tax reform in the United States including Americans for Tax Reform, Citizens for an Alternative Tax System, Americans For Fair Taxation, and Libertarian Party (United States). Various proposals have been put forth for tax simplification in Congress including the FairTax and various Flat tax plans. Proposals have also been put forth to completely abolish the Federal Income Tax for individuals.
[edit] Tax protester arguments
Main article: Tax protester arguments
Various individuals and groups have questioned the legitimacy of United States federal income tax. One such group argues that the 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution was not approved by the requisite number of States,[30] and therefore never came into effect. The argument that the Sixteenth Amendment was "never ratified" has been rejected by the Internal Revenue Service and by the courts and ruled to be a frivolous argument.[31][32][33] Many other arguments have been raised by taxpayers and uniformly rejected by the courts.
[edit] List of taxes
Taxes and fees imposed by federal, state or local laws.
• Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)
• U.S. capital gains tax
• Corporate income tax
• U.S. estate tax
• U.S. excise tax (includes taxes on cigarettes and alcoholic beverages)
• U.S. federal income tax

• Federal unemployment tax (FUTA)
• FICA tax (includes Social Security tax and related programs)
• Gasoline tax
• Generation Skipping Tax
• Gift tax
• IRS penalties

• Local income tax
• Luxury taxes
• Property tax
• Real estate tax
• Recreational vehicle tax
• Road usage taxes (Commercial Vehicle Operators)
• Sales tax and equivalent use tax

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