Daily Archives: December 23, 2022

How much do men know about women’s bodies? Viral game show quizzes bros about vaginas, IUDs, pregnancy and more their failure is funny (and a lesson)…

Posted: December 23, 2022 at 10:28 am

How much do men know about women's bodies? Viral game show quizzes bros about vaginas, IUDs, pregnancy and more their failure is funny (and a lesson)  Yahoo Life

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Elon Musk says we’re ‘overdue’ for a recession, won’t sell any more Tesla stock for 18-24 months: ‘I need to sell some stock to make sure there was…

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Elon Musk says we're 'overdue' for a recession, won't sell any more Tesla stock for 18-24 months: 'I need to sell some stock to make sure there was powder dry to account for a worst-case scenario'  Yahoo Finance

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After Jets’ bad loss to the Jaguars, Zach Wilson starting to look like a lost cause – Yahoo Sports

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After Jets' bad loss to the Jaguars, Zach Wilson starting to look like a lost cause  Yahoo Sports

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8 Levels Of Financial Freedom – Forbes

Posted: at 10:26 am

Who is ready for the good life of Financial Freedom?

When you read articles about financial freedom, you may hear people drone on and on about how they are spending practically nothing so they can retire at a younger age, like 30. Conversely, they may have already achieved financial freedom and are bragging about how frugal they were so they could retire well before the typical retirement age.

This is what I what I hear. Sell all your stuff, except for a tent, and move to the woods so you will never have to pay rent or utilities again. Joking aside, I actually come across a blog that promoted dumpster diving for food. No thank you! Realistically, most of us will not want to do the things required to retire at 30, 40 or 50. In fact, many people who are reading this likely are not saving enough to maintain their current standard of living during their golden years, if they retired at the age of 70. It pains me to report that about 21% of people have zero, zilch, nada saved for retirement, according to theNorthwestern Mutual's 2018 Planning & Progress Study.

Planning for retirement, or even financial freedom, is a marathon and not a sprint, as the saying goes. Breaking up your financial independence goals into small chunks can help keep you on track while making the process a bit more manageable and, hopefully, a little less stressful. Even if you are starting small, the important thing is to get started.

Here are the seven levels of financial freedom that you should work towards achieving.

Not living paycheck to paycheck may leave more time for hammocks and other relaxing fun.

Level 1: Not Living Paycheck to Paycheck

The first level of financial freedom is building up an emergency fund. Ideally, this will include paying off any credit card debt as well.

Unfortunately, living paycheck to paycheck is the reality of millions of Americans. According to the Federal Reserve's Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2017, some 40% of households could not cover a $400 unexpected expense. Most of us will have some unexpected bills pop up throughout the year such as car repairs, medical bills and nights out drinking with friends. Having an emergency fund will come in handy during those types of situations.

Level 2: Enough Money to Quit your Job (for a bit)

Financial freedom is all about making work an option. Saving enough money to quit your job forever is a huge undertaking. Accumulating enough money to be able to take some time away from working is a big jump in that direction. This does not mean you have to quit your job, but it sure is a good feeling to know you can.

For extra credit you may want to save up for a sabbatical or extended vacation. I dream of spending a month, or two, in a foreign country each year. By no means will I be quitting my job, but it would take some planning in order to be away from my financial firm for that long.

In the shorter term, that extra money could also serve as your emergency fund. I mentioned that just in case some of you wanted some extra motivation to get to this level.

Financial Freedom - means having enough money to travel and still save for the future.

Level 3: Enough to be Financially Happy and still Save

This is a bit more about enjoying your life and having the money to do it. There is an immense sense of relief when you are earning enough to save, doing the things you enjoy and still having extra at the end of the month.

That extra cushion can be used to move up your financial freedom date. That of course assumes you avoid increasing your lifestyle and spending it.

Related: 5 Principles of Happy Money

Level 4: Freedom of Time

What many people desire is more flexibility with their schedules. Freedom of time and financial independence go hand in hand. Together, they are about leaving the rat race to follow your passion, or spend more time with family, and not going completely broke doing it. It could come in the form of more paid time off, flex time or perhaps working remotely on occasion. Not having to take a day off from work just so you can visit the dentist or take your kid to the doctor could be a huge benefit for some.

The basic level of Financial Freedom may leave you doing your own housecleaning.

Level 5: Enough for a Basic Retirement

Do you know anyone who hates their job? I mean really hates it. I have met a few over the years as a financial planner. Those individuals were willing to do almost anything to retire as soon as possible. Some considered things like moving to a foreign country with a low cost of living, selling their home or getting roommates. I should point out that those people were closer to full retirement age.

For those of you looking to retire early with financial freedom, think about what your bare minimum retirement would look like. Could you move to a place with a lower cost of living? Would you give up going out to dinner? Work towards a nest egg that will support this bare-bones lifestyle. You probably will decide against moving to that cabin in the woods without running water, but it might be nice to know you could. Considering your bare minimum retirement, and knowing you have enough money saved to at least cover some standard of living in your early retirement, will also influence other life choices you may make along the way.

Would you lease a new luxury car if you knew it meant you would have to work a few more years? Downsizing your house might look more appealing if it meant you could retire now rather than in 10 years.

Level 6: Enough to Actually Retire Well

Assuming you are doing pretty well and are happy with your current standard of living, what would you need to maintain your standard of living in retirement? Knowing you are on track to accumulate a nest egg to support that lifestyle is a big win. Gold medals go to those who have accumulated enough assets, or passive income streams, to be in a position to retire well.

Related: 8 Questions to Help You Decide if You Should Move in Retirement

Dining oceanfront may be part of your dream retirement. If you want money to things like this, plan... [+] for it.

Level 7: Enough for Dream Retirement

If you did not spend 40, 60 or more hours per week at work, what would your dream life look like? Would it include things like traveling more and spending more time with friends and family? Traveling the world, flying first class, and staying in nice hotels does not come cheap. Think big here. What would really bring joy into your life.

How great would it feel knowing you are on track to have enough money to retire and be able to live your dream life? What is stopping you from getting there before you are 70 years old?

Level 8: More Money Than You Could Ever Spend

This is probably the most exclusive level of financial freedom. Hopefully, your financial freedom plan will allow you to outlive your money. Having more money than you expected to spend is great. Building enough wealth so that you could not possibly spend all of it is another. This group will likely be filled with people who either won the lottery, inherited a fortune or are founders of companies think Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. Even if they went on a spending spree buying planes, yachts and automobiles; they would still have a hard time spending all of it. I should note that both Gates and Buffet have pledged to give away a vast majority of their wealth when they pass. I would be unfair to count that as spending all their money.

Take a look at where you think you fall on the aforementioned levels of financial freedom. Use it as motivation to keep moving towards your most important financial goals. While I love what I do, and plan to help people with financial planning forever, I take comfort knowing that it will be a choice to continue working in my golden years. Although I am still decades away from full retirement age, I am right between bare bones retirement, if I stayed in Los Angeles, and retiring comfortably if I was willing to leave California. Who knows what the future holds and how far up the chain of financial freedom my household will climb? Where are you at, and where do you want to be in five, 10 or 15 years?

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Battle of Grand Port – Wikipedia

Posted: at 10:23 am

1810 naval battle between the French Navy and the British Royal Navy

The Battle of Grand Port was a naval battle between squadrons of frigates from the French Navy and the British Royal Navy. The battle was fought during 2027 August 1810 over possession of the harbour of Grand Port on Isle de France (now Mauritius) during the Napoleonic Wars. The British squadron of four frigates sought to blockade the port to prevent its use by the French through the capture of the fortified le de la Passe at its entrance. This position was seized by a British landing party on 13 August and, when a French squadron under Captain Guy-Victor Duperr approached the bay nine days later, the British commander, Captain Samuel Pym, decided to lure them into coastal waters where his forces could ambush them.

Four of the five French ships managed to break past the British blockade, taking shelter in the protected anchorage, which was only accessible through a series of complicated routes between reefs and sandbanks that were impassable without an experienced harbour pilot. When Pym ordered his frigates to attack the anchored French on 22 and 23 August, his ships became trapped in the narrow channels of the bay: two were irretrievably grounded; a third, outnumbered by the combined French squadron, was defeated; and a fourth was unable to close to within effective gun range. Although the French ships were also badly damaged, the battle was a disaster for the British: one ship was captured after suffering irreparable damage, the grounded ships were set on fire to prevent their capture by French boarding parties and the remaining vessel was seized as it left the harbour by the main French squadron from Port Napoleon under Commodore Jacques Hamelin.

The British defeat was the worst suffered by the Royal Navy during the entire war and left the Indian Ocean and its vital trade convoys exposed to attack from Hamelin's frigates. In response, the British authorities sought to reinforce the squadron on le Bourbon under Josias Rowley by ordering all available ships to the region, but this piecemeal reinforcement resulted in a series of desperate actions as individual British ships were attacked by the confident and more powerful French squadron. In December an adequate reinforcement was assembled with the provision of a strong battle squadron under Admiral Albemarle Bertie, that rapidly invaded and captured the Isle de France.

During the early 19th century, the Indian Ocean formed an essential part of the network of trade routes that connected the British Empire. Heavily laden East Indiamen travelled from British Indian port cities such as Bombay and Calcutta to the United Kingdom carrying millions of pounds worth of goods. From Britain, the ships returned on the same routes, often carrying soldiers for the growing British Indian Army, then under the control of the Honourable East India Company (HEIC).[1] Following the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803, the British Admiralty had made the security of these routes a priority, and by 1807, the Dutch bases at the Cape of Good Hope and Java had been neutralised by expeditionary forces to prevent their use by enemy raiders. The French Indian Ocean possessions, principally le Bonaparte and Isle de France, were more complicated targets, protected from attack not only by the great distances involved in preparing an invasion attempt but also by heavy fortifications and a substantial garrison of French Army soldiers augmented by large local militias.[1]

The French had recognised the importance of these islands as bases for raiding warships during the French Revolutionary Wars (17931801), but by late 1807 the only naval resources allocated to the region were a few older frigates and a large number of local privateers.[2] Following the reduction of these remaining naval forces on Isle de France during 1808, by defeat in battle and disarmaments due to age and unseaworthiness, the French naval authorities made a serious attempt to disrupt British trade in the region, ordering five large modern frigates to sail to Isle de France under Commodore Jacques Hamelin.[3] Four of these ships broke through the British blockade of the French coast, arriving in the Indian Ocean in the spring of 1809, where Hamelin dispersed them into the Bay of Bengal with orders to intercept, attack and capture or destroy the heavily armed but extremely valuable convoys of East Indiamen. The first French success came at the end of the spring, when the frigate Caroline successfully attacked a convoy at the action of 31 May 1809, seizing two heavily laden merchant ships.[4]

Commodore Josias Rowley was given command of the British response to the French deployment, a hastily assembled force composed mainly of those ships available at the Cape of Good Hope in early 1809. Ordered to stop the French raiders, Rowley was unable to spread his limited squadron wide enough to pursue the roving French frigates, instead using his forces to blockade and raid the French Indian Ocean islands in anticipation of Hamelin's return. In August, Caroline arrived with her prizes at Saint-Paul on le Bonaparte and Rowley determined to seize the frigate. He planned a successful invasion of the town, launched on 20 September, which resulted in the capture of the port's defences, Caroline and the captured East Indiamen. With his objectives complete, Rowley withdrew five days later.[5] Almost a year later, Rowley returned with a larger task force and made a second landing around the capital of le Bonaparte, Saint-Denis. Marching on the seat of government, Rowley's troops rapidly overwhelmed the defences and forced the island's garrison to surrender, renaming the island le Bourbon and installing a British governor.[6]

Hamelin had used the British preoccupation with le Bonaparte to send additional frigates to sea during 1809 and early 1810, including his flagship Vnus, which captured three East Indiamen at the action of 18 November 1809, and Bellone, which took the Portuguese frigate Minerva in the Bay of Bengal a few days later.[7] Minerva, renamed Minerve in French hands, was subsequently involved in the action of 3 July 1810, when a further two East Indiamen were captured. The squadron in this action was commanded by Guy-Victor Duperr in Bellone, whose ships were so badly damaged that Duperr was forced to spend nearly a month repairing his vessels in the Comoros Islands before they were ready to return to Isle de France.[8]

With le Bourbon secured in July 1810, the British now occupied a large fortified island base within easy sailing distance of Isle de France. Even before le Bourbon was completely in British hands, Rowley had detached HMS Sirius from the invasion squadron with orders to restore the blockade of Isle de France.[9] Shortly afterwards, Sirius's captain Samuel Pym led his men in a raid on a coastal vessel moored off the southern side of the island. Two days after this successful operation, reinforcements arrived in the form of the frigates HMS Iphigenia, HMS Nereide and the small brig HMS Staunch. Nereide carried 100 specially selected soldiers from the 69th and 33rd Regiments and some artillerymen from the garrison at Madras, to be used in storming and garrisoning offshore islands, beginning with le de la Passe off Grand Port, a well defended islet that protected a natural harbour on the southeastern shore. These fortified islands could be used to block entry to the ports of Isle de France and thus trap Hamelin's squadron.[10]

Grand Port was an easily defensible natural harbour because the bay was protected from the open sea by a large coral reef through which a complicated channel meandered, known only to experienced local pilots.[9] le de la Passe was vitally important in the control of Grand Port because it featured a heavy battery that covered the entrance to the channel, thus controlling the passage to the sheltered inner lagoon. The British planned to use the troops on Nereide, under her captain Nesbit Willoughby, to storm le de la Passe and capture the battery. Willoughby would then use a local man serving on his ship named John Johnson (known in some texts as "the black pilot"),[9] to steer through the channel and land troops near the town, distributing leaflets promising freedom and prosperity under British rule in an attempt to corrode the morale of the defenders.[11]

The first attack on le de la Passe was launched on the evening of 10 August, with Staunch towing boats carrying over 400 soldiers, Royal Marines and volunteer sailors to the island under cover of darkness, guided by Nereide's pilot. During the night the pilot became lost; the boats were scattered in high winds and had not reassembled by dawn. To distract French attention from the drifting boats, Pym directed Captain Henry Lambert in Iphigenia to sail conspicuously off Port Napoleon, where the main body of the French squadron, led by Hamelin in Vnus, was based. Pym joined Lambert later in the day and the frigates subsequently returned to the waters of Grand Port by different routes, confusing French observers from the shore as to British intentions.[10] By 13 August, the boats originally intended for the attack had still not been assembled and Pym decided that he could not risk waiting any longer without the French launching a counterattack.[12] Launching his own boats at 8:00pm, guided by the pilot and commanded by Pym's second in command, Lieutenant Norman, Pym's marines and sailors landed on the island in darkness under heavy fire from the defenders. Norman was killed in the initial exchange of fire, but his deputy, Lieutenant Watling, seized the island by storming the fortifications surrounding the battery. Seven British personnel were killed and 18 wounded in the battle, in which the storming party managed to seize intact French naval code books and took 80 prisoners.[13][14] Willoughby was furious that Pym had assumed command of the operation without his permission and the officers exchanged angry letters, part of an ongoing disagreement between them that engendered mutual distrust.[15]

With le de la Passe secure, Pym gave command of the blockade of Grand Port to Willoughby and returned to his station off Port Napoleon with Iphigenia. Willoughby used his independent position to raid the coastline, landing at Pointe du Diable on 17 August on the northern edge of Grand Port with 170 men and storming the fort there, destroying ten cannon and capturing another.[16] Marching south towards the town of Grand Port itself, Willoughby's men fought off French counterattacks and distributed propaganda pamphlets at the farms and villages they passed.[17] Willoughby re-embarked his troops in the evening but landed again the following day at Grande Rivire to observe the effects of his efforts. Burning a signal station, Willoughby advanced inland, but was checked by the arrival of 800 French reinforcements from Port Napoleon and returned to HMS Nereide.[11] The brief expedition cost the British two men wounded and one missing, to French casualties of at least ten killed or wounded. Willoughby followed the attack on Grande Rivire with unopposed minor landings on 19 and 20 August.[14]

Willoughby's raiding was interrupted at 10:00am on 20 August when five ships were sighted, rapidly approaching from the southeast.[18] These ships were Guy-Victor Duperr's squadron of Bellone, Minerve, corvette Victor and prizes Windham and Ceylon returning from the Comoros Islands. Following a month of repairs on Anjouan, Duperr had sailed for Isle de France without encountering any opposition on his return passage, and was intending to enter Grand Port via the channel protected by le de la Passe.[19] Duperr was unaware of the British occupation of the island, and Willoughby intended to lure the French squadron into the channel by concealing the British presence off the harbour. Once there, Willoughby hoped to defeat them or damage them so severely that they would be unable to break out unaided, thus isolating Duperr's squadron from Hamelin's force in Port Napoleon and containing the French in separate harbours to prevent them from concentrating against the British blockade squadrons.[20] Willoughby brought Nereide close to le de la Passe to combine their fire and protect his boats, which were carrying 160 men back to Nereide from a raid near Grand Port that morning.[19]

Raising a French tricolour over le de la Passe and on Nereide, Willoughby transmitted the French code captured on the island: "L'ennemi croise au Coin de Mire"[note 1] and received an acknowledgement from Duperr.[21] The use of these signals convinced Duperr, over the objections of Captain Pierre Bouvet on Minerve, that Nereide was Surcouf's privateer Charles, which was expected from France.[22] The French squadron closed with the harbour during the morning, Victor entering the channel under le de la Passe at 1:40pm.[11] As Victor passed Nereide and the fort Willoughby opened fire, Lieutenant Nicolas Morice surrendering the outnumbered corvette after the first volley. Willoughby sent boats to attempt to take possession of Victor, but they were unable to reach the vessel.[23] Behind the corvette, Minerve and Ceylon pushed into the channel and signalled Morice to follow them, exchanging fire with the fort. As Morice raised his colours again and followed Minerve, a large explosion blasted out of le de la Passe, where the false French flag had ignited on a brazier as it was lowered and set fire to a nearby stack of cartridges, which exploded in the close confines of the fort. Three men were killed and 12 badly burned, six cannon were dismounted and one discharged unexpectedly, killing a British sailor in a boat attempting to board Victor.[23] With the fort out of action and a significant number of her crew scattered in small boats in the channel, Nereide alone was unable to block French entry to Grand Port.[19]

With Willoughby's ambush plan ruined, the scattered boats sought to rejoin Nereide, passing directly through the French squadron. Although several boats were in danger of being run down by the French ships and one even bumped alongside Minerve, all eventually rejoined Nereide safely. The opportunity to cause significant damage to the French in the narrow channel had been lost, with Bellone joining the squadron in passing through the channel with minimal resistance. In addition to British losses in the explosion at the fort, two men had been killed and one wounded on Nereide.[20] French losses were more severe, Minerve suffered 23 casualties and Ceylon eight.[19] With both sides recognising that further action was inevitable, Willoughby sent a boat to Sirius requesting additional assistance and Duperr sent a message overland with Lieutenant Morice, requesting support from Hamelin's squadron (Morice fell from his horse during the mission and was severely injured).[24] Command of Victor passed to Henri Moisson.[25] In the afternoon, Willoughby used mortars on le de la Passe to shell the French squadron, forcing Duperr to retreat into the shallow harbour at Grand Port and Willoughby subsequently sent officers into Grand Port on 21 August under a flag of truce, demanding the release of Victor, which he insisted had surrendered and should thus be handed over to the blockade squadron as a prize.[21] Duperr refused to consider the request.[26] One French ship had failed to enter the channel off Grand Port: the captured East Indiaman Windham. Early on 21 August, her French commander attempted to shelter in Rivire Noire. Sirius spotted the merchant ship under the batteries there and sent two boats into the anchorage, stormed the ship and brought her out without a single casualty, despite the boarding party having forgotten to take any weapons with them and being only armed with wooden foot-stretchers wielded as clubs.[27]

From prisoners captured on Windham, Pym learned of the nature and situation of Duperr's squadron and sent orders to Port Napoleon with Captain Lucius Curtis in the recently arrived HMS Magicienne for Iphigenia to join Sirius and Nereide off Grand Port.[28] Sirius and Nereide met on the morning of 22 August, Willoughby welcoming Pym with signals describing an "enemy of inferior force".[29] Although Duperr's squadron was technically weaker than the four British frigates combined, Willoughby's signal was misleading as the French had taken up a strong crescent shaped battleline in the bay and could cover the mouth of the channel through which the British ships could only pass one at a time.[30] Duperr also anticipated the arrival of reinforcements from Port Napoleon under Governor Charles Decaen at any time and could call on the support of soldiers and gun batteries on shore. In addition, French launches had moved the buoys marking the channel through the coral reef to confuse any British advance.[24]

On 22 August, at 2:40pm, Pym led an attack on Duperr's squadron without waiting for Iphigenia and Magicienne, entering the channel that led to the anchorage at Grand Port.[31] He was followed by Nereide, but Willoughby had refused to allow Pym to embark the harbour pilot: the only person in the British squadron who knew the passage through the reefs. Without guidance by an experienced pilot, Sirius was aground within minutes and could not be brought off until 8:30 am on 23 August. Nereide anchored nearby during the night to protect the flagship.[32] At 10:00 am, Iphigenia and Magicienne arrived and at 2:40 pm, after a conference between the captains as to the best course of action, the force again attempted to negotiate the channel.[33] Although the squadron was now guided by Nereide's pilot, Sirius again grounded at 3:00 pm and Magicienne 15 minutes later after over-correcting to avoid the reef that Sirius had struck.[34] Nereide and Iphigenia continued the attack, Iphigenia engaging Minerve and Ceylon at close range and Nereide attacking Bellone. Long-range fire from Magicienne was also directed at Victor, which was firing on Nereide.[32]

Within minutes of the British attack, Ceylon surrendered and boats from Magicienne sought but failed to take possession of her.[35] The French crew drove the captured East Indiaman on shore, joined shortly afterwards by Minerve, Bellone and later by Victor, so that by 6:30 pm the entire French force was grounded and all but Bellone prevented from firing their main broadsides by beached ships blocking their arc of fire.[36][37] Bellone was ideally positioned to maintain her fire on Nereide from her beached position, and at 7:00 pm a cannon shot cut Nereide's stern anchor cable. The British frigate swung around, presenting her stern to Bellone and pulling both her broadsides away from the French squadron.[38] Raked by Bellone and desperate to return fire, Willoughby had the bow anchor cable cut, bringing a portion of his ship's starboard broadside to bear on Bellone.[31] At 8:00pm, Duperr was seriously wounded in the cheek by shrapnel from a grape shot fired by Nereide; Ensign Vigoureux concealed his unconscious body under a signal flag and discreetly brought him below decks while Bouvet assumed command of the French squadron on board Bellone, placing Lieutenant Albin Roussin in charge of Minerve.[39] Building an improvised bridge between the French ships and the shore, Bouvet increased the men and ammunition reaching Bellone and thus significantly increased her rate of fire.[40] He also had the rail removed between the foredeck and the quarterdeck of Minerve, and had iron hooks nailed to the freeboard below the starboard gangway as to provide attachment points for additional guns, thus building a continuous second deck on his frigate where he constituted a complete second battery.[41] By 10:00pm Nereide was a wreck, receiving shot from several sides, with most of her guns dismounted and casualties mounting to over 200: the first lieutenant was dying, the second was severely wounded and Willoughby's left eye had been dislodged from its socket by a wooden splinter.[42] Recognising her battered state, Bouvet then diverted fire from Nereide to concentrate on Magicienne.[43]

Refusing to surrender until all options had been exhausted, Willoughby dispatched boats to Sirius, asking Pym if he believed it would be practical to send boats to tow Nereide out of range. Pym replied that with the boats engaged in attempting to tow Sirius and Magicienne off the reef it was not possible to deploy them under fire to tow Nereide. Pym also suggested that Willoughby disembark his men and set fire to his ship in the hope that the flames would spread to the French ships clustered on shore. Willoughby refused this suggestion as it was not practical to disembark the dozens of wounded men aboard Nereide in the growing darkness and refused to personally abandon his men when Pym ordered him to transfer to Sirius.[44] At 11:00pm, Willoughby ordered a boat to row to Bellone and notify the French commander that he had surrendered. Willoughby's boat had been holed by shot and was unable to make the short journey.[37] The message was instead conveyed by French prisoners from Nereide who had dived overboard and reached the shore during the night. Recalling the false flags used on 20 August, Bouvet resolved to wait until morning before accepting the surrender.[40]

At 1:50am on 24 August, Bellone ceased firing on the shattered Nereide. During the remaining hours of darkness, Pym continued his efforts to dislodge Sirius from the reef and sent orders to Lambert, whose Iphigenia had been blocked from firing on the French by Nereide and also prevented from pursuing the Minerve by a large reef blocking access to the beach.[45] With Iphigenia now becalmed in the coastal waters, Pym instructed Lambert to begin warping his ship out of the harbour, using anchors attached to the capstan to drag the ship slowly through the shallow water.[46] Magicienne, like Iphigenia, had been stranded out of range of the beached French ships and so had instead directed her fire against a battery erected on shore, which she had destroyed by 2:00am. When daylight came, it showed a scene of great confusion, with Sirius and Magicienne grounded in the approaches to the harbour, the French ships "on shore in a heap" in the words of Pym,[37] Iphigenia slowly pulling herself away from the French squadron and Nereide lying broken and battered under the guns of Bellone, a Union Flag nailed to her masthead. This flag prompted a fresh burst of cannon fire from Bouvet, and it was not until Willoughby ordered the mizenmast to be chopped down that the French acknowledged the surrender and ceased firing.[47]

At 7:00am, Lambert notified Pym that he had cleared the reef separating Iphigenia from the French ships and suggested that if Pym sent reinforcements from Sirius he might be able to board and capture the entire French squadron. Pym refused permission, insisting that Lambert assist him in pulling Sirius off the reef instead.[48] Although Lambert intended to subsequently attack the French alone, Pym forbade him and sent a direct order for Lambert to move out of range of the enemy.[44] At 10:00am, Iphigenia reached Sirius and together the ships began firing at French troops ashore, who were endeavouring to raise a gun battery within range of the frigates. Magicienne, irretrievably stuck on the reef, rapidly flooding and with her capstan smashed by French shot, now bore the brunt of long-range French fire from both Bellone and the shore until Pym ordered Curtis to abandon his ship, transferring his men aboard Iphigenia.[49] At 7:30pm Magicienne was set on fire, her magazines exploding at 11:00pm.[50] On the shoreline, Duperr had been unable to spare any men to take possession of Nereide until 3:00pm. A party under Lieutenant Roussin, second in command on Victor and temporarily in command of Minerve,[51] was sent but had orders to return once the ship had been disarmed: freeing the remaining French prisoners, Roussin spiked the guns to prevent their further use, administered basic medical care and returned to shore, recounting that over 100 men lay dead or dying aboard the British frigate.[44]

At 4:00am on 25 August, the newly erected French gun battery opened fire on Sirius and Iphigenia, which returned fire as best they could. Accepting that Sirius was beyond repair, Pym removed all her personnel and military supplies, setting fire to the frigate at 9:00am, shortly after Iphigenia had pulled beyond the range of the battery, using a cannon as an anchor after losing hers the previous day.[52] French boats attempted to reach Sirius and capture her before she exploded, although they turned back when Pym launched his own boats to contest possession of the wreck.[53] The frigate's remaining munitions exploded at 11:00am.[54] During the morning, Duperr sent an official boarding party aboard Nereide, who wet the decks to prevent any risk of fire from the ships burning in the harbour and removed 75 corpses from the frigate.[53]

When news of the arrival of Duperr's squadron reached Decaen at Port Napoleon, he immediately despatched fast couriers to Grand Port and ordered Hamelin's squadron, consisting of the frigates Vnus, Manche, Astre and the brig Entreprenant, to make ready to sail in support of Duperr.[55] Hamelin departed Port Napoleon at midnight on 21 August, intending to sail northeast and then south, down the island's eastern shore. On 23 August, Hamelin's squadron spotted and captured a British transport ship named Ranger, sent 24 days earlier from the Cape of Good Hope with 300 tons of food supplies and extensive naval stores for Rowley on le Bourbon.[55] On rounding the northern headlands of Isle de France, Hamelin found he could make no progress against the headwinds and reversed direction, passing the western shore of the island and arriving off Grand Port at 1:00pm on 27 August.[56]

The two extra days Hamelin had spent rounding Isle de France saw activity from the British forces remaining at Grand Port. There had been no strong winds in the bay and Iphigenia was forced to resort to slowly warping towards the mouth of the channel in the hope of escaping the approaching French reinforcements.[35] Boats had removed the crews of Sirius and Magicienne to le de la Passe, where the fortifications had been strengthened, but supplies were running low and Magicienne's launch was sent to le Bourbon to request urgent reinforcement and resupply from Rowley's remaining squadron.[55] On the morning of 27 August, Lambert discovered the brig Entreprenant off the harbour mouth and three French sail approaching in the distance. Iphigenia was still 1.2 kilometres (34mi) from le de Passe at the edge of the lagoon and was low on shot and unable to manoeuvre in the calm weather without anchors. Recognising that resistance under such conditions against an overwhelming force was futile, Lambert negotiated with Hamelin, offering to surrender le de la Passe if Iphigenia and the men on the island were given permission to sail to le Bourbon unmolested.[57]

On the morning of 28 August, Lambert received a message from Hamelin, promising to release all the prisoners under conditions of parole within one month if le de la Passe and Iphigenia were both surrendered without resistance. The message also threatened that if Lambert refused, the French would attack and overwhelm the badly outnumbered British force. Recognising that food supplies were low, reinforcements had not arrived and that his ammunition stores were almost empty, Lambert agreed to the terms.[52] Lambert later received a message from Decaen proposing similar terms and notified the French governor that he had surrendered to Hamelin. Decaen was furious that Hamelin had agreed terms without consulting him, but eventually agreed to accept the terms of the surrender as well.[56] The wounded were treated by French doctors at Grand Port and later repatriated, although the remainder of the prisoners were placed in a cramped and unpleasant prison at Port Napoleon from which, despite the terms of the surrender, they were not released until British forces captured the island in December.[58]

Rowley first learned of the operations off Grand Port on 22 August, when Windham arrived off Saint Paul.[59] Eager to support Pym's attack, Rowley immediately set sail in his frigate HMS Boadicea, with the transport Bombay following with two companies of the 86th Regiment of Foot to provide a garrison on any territory seized in the operation.[60] The headwinds were strong and it was not until 29 August that Rowley arrived off Grand Port, having been notified of the situation there by Magicienne's launch the previous day.[60] Sighting a cluster of frigates around le de la Passe, Rowley closed with the island before turning sharply when Vnus and Manche raised their colours and gave chase. Rowley repeatedly feinted towards the French ships and then pulled away, hoping to draw them away from Grand Port in the hope that Bombay might board the now unprotected Iphigenia and capture her. Bombay was thwarted by the reappearance of Astre and Entreprenant and Rowley was chased by Vnus and Manche back to Saint Denis, anchoring there on 30 August.[61] Rowley attempted a second time to rescue Iphigenia from Grand Port the following week, but by the time he returned Bellone and Minerve had been refloated and the French force was far too strong for Rowley's flagship to attack alone.[54]

The battle is noted as the most significant defeat for the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. Not only had four frigates been lost with their entire crews, but 105 experienced sailors had been killed and 168 wounded in one of the bloodiest frigate encounters of the war.[46] French losses were also heavy, with Duperr reporting 36 killed and 112 wounded on his squadron and among the soldiers firing from the shore.[56]

The loss of such a large proportion of his force placed Rowley at a significant disadvantage in September, as Hamelin's squadron, bolstered by the newly commissioned Iphignie, now substantially outnumbered his own (the ruined Nride was also attached to the French squadron, but the damage suffered was so severe that the ship never sailed again). Withdrawing to Isle de France, Rowley requested that reinforcements be diverted from other duties in the region to replace his lost ships and to break the French blockade of le Bourbon, led by Bouvet.[54] These newly arrived British frigates, cruising alone in unfamiliar waters, became targets for Hamelin, who twice forced the surrender of single frigates, only for Rowley to beat his ships away from their prize each time.[62] On the second occasion, Rowley was able to chase and capture Hamelin and his flagship Vnus, bringing an end to his raiding career and to the activities of his squadron, who remained on Isle de France until they were all captured at the fall of the island in December by an invasion fleet under Vice-Admiral Albemarle Bertie.[63]

In France the action was greeted with celebration, and it became the only naval battle commemorated on the Arc de Triomphe. The British response was despondent, although all four captains were subsequently cleared and praised at their courts-martial inquiring into the loss of their ships. The only criticism was of Willoughby, who was accused of giving a misleading signal in indicating that the French were of inferior force on 22 August.[59] Contemporary historian William James described British reaction to the battle as "that the noble behaviour of her officers and crew threw such a halo of glory around the defeat at Grand Port, that, in public opinion at least, the loss of four frigates was scarcely considered a misfortune."[60] He also notes that "No case of which we are aware more deeply affects the character of the Royal Navy than the defeat it sustained at Grand Port."[64] On 30 December 1899, a monument was erected at the harbour of Grand Port in the memory of the British and French sailors who were killed in the engagement.[56]

The battle attracted the attention of authors from both Britain and France, featuring in the 1843 novel Georges by Alexandre Dumas,[65] "Dead Reckoning" by C. Northcote Parkinson and the 1977 novel The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian.[66]

On 30 December 1899, a monument was erected at the harbour of Grand Port in the memory of the British and French sailors who were killed in the engagement.[56]

Grand Port in 2007. The memorial to the battle is in the centre.

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Social class – Wikipedia

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Hierarchical social stratification

A social class is a grouping of people into a set of hierarchical social categories,[1] the most common being the upper, middle and lower classes. Membership in a social class can for example be dependent on education, wealth, occupation, income, and belonging to a particular subculture or social network.[2]

"Class" is a subject of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists and social historians. The term has a wide range of sometimes conflicting meanings, and there is no broad consensus on a definition of "class". Some people argue that due to social mobility, class boundaries do not exist. In common parlance, the term "social class" is usually synonymous with "socio-economic class", defined as "people having the same social, economic, cultural, political or educational status", e.g., "the working class"; "an emerging professional class".[3] However, academics distinguish social class from socioeconomic status, using the former to refer to one's relatively stable sociocultural background and the latter to refer to one's current social and economic situation which is consequently more changeable over time.[4]

The precise measurements of what determines social class in society have varied over time. Karl Marx thought "class" was defined by one's relationship to the means of production (their relations of production). His understanding of classes in modern capitalist society is that the proletariat work but do not own the means of production, and the bourgeoisie, those who invest and live off the surplus generated by the proletariat's operation of the means of production, do not work at all. This contrasts with the view of the sociologist Max Weber, who argued that "class" is determined by economic position, in contrast to "social status" or "Stand" which is determined by social prestige rather than simply just relations of production.[5] The term "class" is etymologically derived from the Latin classis, which was used by census takers to categorize citizens by wealth in order to determine military service obligations.[6]

In the late 18th century, the term "class" began to replace classifications such as estates, rank and orders as the primary means of organizing society into hierarchical divisions.[fact or opinion?] This corresponded to a general decrease in significance ascribed to hereditary characteristics and increase in the significance of wealth and income as indicators of position in the social hierarchy.[7][8]

The existence of a class system dates back to times of Ancient Egypt, where the position of elite was also characterized by literacy.[9] The wealthier people were at the top in the social order and common people and slaves being at the bottom.[10] However, the class was not rigid; a man of humble origins could ascend to a high post.[11]:38-

The ancient Egyptians viewed men and women, including people from all social classes, as essentially equal under the law, and even the lowliest peasant was entitled to petition the vizier and his court for redress.[12]

Farmers made up the bulk of the population, but agricultural produce was owned directly by the state, temple, or noble family that owned the land.[13]:383 Farmers were also subject to a labor tax and were required to work on irrigation or construction projects in a corve system.[14]:136 Artists and craftsmen were of higher status than farmers, but they were also under state control, working in the shops attached to the temples and paid directly from the state treasury. Scribes and officials formed the upper class in ancient Egypt, known as the "white kilt class" in reference to the bleached linen garments that served as a mark of their rank.[15]:109 The upper class prominently displayed their social status in art and literature. Below the nobility were the priests, physicians, and engineers with specialized training in their field. It is unclear whether slavery as understood today existed in ancient Egypt; there is difference of opinions among authors.[16]

Not a single Egyptian was, in our sense of the word, free. No individual could call in question a hierarchy of authority which culminated in a living god.

Although slaves were mostly used as indentured servants, they were able to buy and sell their servitude, work their way to freedom or nobility, and were usually treated by doctors in the workplace.[17]

In Ancient Greece when the clan system [a] was declining. The classes[b] replaced the clan society when it became too small to sustain the needs of increasing population. The division of labor is also essential for the growth of classes.[11]:39

Historically, social class and behavior were laid down in law. For example, permitted mode of dress in some times and places was strictly regulated, with sumptuous dressing only for the high ranks of society and aristocracy, whereas sumptuary laws stipulated the dress and jewelry appropriate for a person's social rank and station. In Europe, these laws became increasingly commonplace during the Middle Ages. However, these laws were prone to change due to societal changes, and in many cases, these distinctions may either almost disappear, such as the distinction between a patrician and a plebeian being almost erased during the late Roman Republic.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau had a large influence over political ideals of the French Revolution because of his views of inequality and classes. Rousseau saw humans as "naturally pure and good," meaning that humans from birth were seen as innocent and any evilness was learned. He believed that social problems arise through the development of society and suppress the innate pureness of humankind. He also believed that private property is the main reason for social issues in society because private property creates inequality through the property's value. Even though his theory predicted if there were no private property then there would be wide spread equality, Rousseau accepted that there will always be social inequality because of how society is viewed and run.[18]

Later Enlightenment thinkers viewed inequality as valuable and crucial to society's development and prosperity. They also acknowledged that private property will ultimately cause inequality because specific resources that are privately owned can be stored and the owners profit off of the deficit of the resource. This can create competition between the classes that was seen as necessary by these thinkers.[18] This also creates stratification between the classes keeping a distinct difference between lower, poorer classes and the higher, wealthier classes.

India (), Nepal, North Korea (), Sri Lanka () and some Indigenous peoples maintain social classes today.

In class societies, class conflict has tended to recur or is ongoing, depending on the sociological and anthropolitical perspective.[19][20] Class societies have not always existed; there have been widely different types of class communities.[21][22][23] For example, societies based on age rather than capital.[24] During colonialism, social relations were dismantled by force, which gave rise to societies based on the social categories of waged labor, private property, and capital.[24][25]

Class society or class-based society is an organizing principle society in which ownership of property, means of production, and wealth is the determining factor of the distribution of power, in which those with more property and wealth are stratified higher in the society and those without access to the means of production and without wealth are stratified lower in the society. In a class society, at least implicitly, people are divided into distinct social strata, commonly referred to as social classes or castes. The nature of class society is a matter of sociological research.[26][27][28] Class societies exist all over the globe in both industrialized and developing nations.[29] Class stratification is theorized to come directly from capitalism.[30] In terms of public opinion, nine out of ten people in a Swedish survey considered it correct that they are living in a class society.[31]

One may use comparative methods to study class societies, using, for example, comparison of Gini coefficients, de facto educational opportunities, unemployment, and culture.[32][33]

Societies with large class differences have a greater proportion of people who suffer from mental health issues such as anxiety and depression symptoms.[34][35][36] A series of scientific studies have demonstrated this relationship.[37] Statistics support this assertion and results are found in life expectancy and overall health; for example, in the case of high differences in life expectancy between two Stockholm suburbs. The differences between life expectancy of the poor and less-well-educated inhabitants who live in proximity to the station Vrby grd, and the highly educated and more affluent inhabitants living near Danderyd differ by 18 years.[38][39]

Similar data about New York is also available for life expectancy, average income per capita, income distribution, median income mobility for people who grew up poor, share with a bachelor's degree or higher.[40]

In class societies, the lower classes systematically receive lower-quality education and care.[41][42][43] There are more explicit effects where those within the higher class actively demonize parts of the lower-class population.[33]

Definitions of social classes reflect a number of sociological perspectives, informed by anthropology, economics, psychology and sociology. The major perspectives historically have been Marxism and structural functionalism. The common stratum model of class divides society into a simple hierarchy of working class, middle class and upper class. Within academia, two broad schools of definitions emerge: those aligned with 20th-century sociological stratum models of class society and those aligned with the 19th-century historical materialist economic models of the Marxists and anarchists.[44][45][46]

Another distinction can be drawn between analytical concepts of social class, such as the Marxist and Weberian traditions, as well as the more empirical traditions such as socioeconomic status approach, which notes the correlation of income, education and wealth with social outcomes without necessarily implying a particular theory of social structure.[47]

"[Classes are] large groups of people differing from each other by the place they occupy in a historically determined system of social production, by their relation (in most cases fixed and formulated in law) to the means of production, by their role in the social organization of labor, and, consequently, by the dimensions of the share of social wealth of which they dispose and the mode of acquiring it."

Vladimir Lenin, A Great Beginning on June 1919

For Marx, class is a combination of objective and subjective factors. Objectively, a class shares a common relationship to the means of production. The class society itself is understood as the aggregated phenomenon to the "interlinked movement", which generates the quasi-objective concept of capital.[48] Subjectively, the members will necessarily have some perception ("class consciousness") of their similarity and common interest. Class consciousness is not simply an awareness of one's own class interest but is also a set of shared views regarding how society should be organized legally, culturally, socially and politically. These class relations are reproduced through time.

In Marxist theory, the class structure of the capitalist mode of production is characterized by the conflict between two main classes: the bourgeoisie, the capitalists who own the means of production and the much larger proletariat (or "working class") who must sell their own labour power (wage labour). This is the fundamental economic structure of work and property, a state of inequality that is normalized and reproduced through cultural ideology.

For Marxists, every person in the process of production has separate social relationships and issues. Along with this, every person is placed into different groups that have similar interests and values that can differ drastically from group to group. Class is special in that does not relate to specifically to a singular person, but to a specific role.[18]

Marxists explain the history of "civilized" societies in terms of a war of classes between those who control production and those who produce the goods or services in society. In the Marxist view of capitalism, this is a conflict between capitalists (bourgeoisie) and wage-workers (the proletariat). For Marxists, class antagonism is rooted in the situation that control over social production necessarily entails control over the class which produces goodsin capitalism this is the exploitation of workers by the bourgeoisie.[49]

Furthermore, "in countries where modern civilisation has become fully developed, a new class of petty bourgeois has been formed".[50] "An industrial army of workmen, under the command of a capitalist, requires, like a real army, officers (managers) and sergeants (foremen, over-lookers) who, while the work is being done, command in the name of the capitalist".[51]

Marx makes the argument that, as the bourgeoisie reach a point of wealth accumulation, they hold enough power as the dominant class to shape political institutions and society according to their own interests. Marx then goes on to claim that the non-elite class, owing to their large numbers, have the power to overthrow the elite and create an equal society.[52]

In The Communist Manifesto, Marx himself argued that it was the goal of the proletariat itself to displace the capitalist system with socialism, changing the social relationships underpinning the class system and then developing into a future communist society in which: "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all". This would mark the beginning of a classless society in which human needs rather than profit would be motive for production. In a society with democratic control and production for use, there would be no class, no state and no need for financial and banking institutions and money.[53][54]

These theorists have taken this binary class system and expanded it to include contradictory class locations, the idea that a person can be employed in many different class locations that fall between the two classes of proletariat and bourgeoisie. Erik Olin Wright stated that class definitions are more diverse and elaborate through identifying with multiple classes, having familial ties with people in different a class, or having a temporary leadership role.[18]

Max Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification that saw social class as emerging from an interplay between "class", "status" and "power". Weber believed that class position was determined by a person's relationship to the means of production, while status or "Stand" emerged from estimations of honor or prestige.[55]

Weber views class as a group of people who have common goals and opportunities that are available to them. This means that what separates each class from each other is their value in the marketplace through their own goods and services. This creates a divide between the classes through the assets that they have such as property and expertise.[18]

Weber derived many of his key concepts on social stratification by examining the social structure of many countries. He noted that contrary to Marx's theories, stratification was based on more than simply ownership of capital. Weber pointed out that some members of the aristocracy lack economic wealth yet might nevertheless have political power. Likewise in Europe, many wealthy Jewish families lacked prestige and honor because they were considered members of a "pariah group".

For Bourdieu, the place in the social strata for any person is vaguer than the equivalent in Weberian sociology. Bourdieu introduced an array of concepts of what he refers to as types of capital. These types were economic capital, in the form assets convertible to money and secured as private property. This type of capital is separated from the other types of culturally constituted types of capital, which Bourdieu introduces, which are: personal cultural capital (formal education, knowledge); objective cultural capital (books, art); and institutionalized cultural capital (honours and titles).

On 2 April 2013, the results of a survey[56] conducted by BBC Lab UK developed in collaboration with academic experts and slated to be published in the journal Sociology were published online.[57][58][59][60][61] The results released were based on a survey of 160,000 residents of the United Kingdom most of whom lived in England and described themselves as "white". Class was defined and measured according to the amount and kind of economic, cultural and social resources reported. Economic capital was defined as income and assets; cultural capital as amount and type of cultural interests and activities; and social capital as the quantity and social status of their friends, family and personal and business contacts.[60] This theoretical framework was developed by Pierre Bourdieu who first published his theory of social distinction in 1979.

Today, concepts of social class often assume three general economic categories: a very wealthy and powerful upper class that owns and controls the means of production; a middle class of professional workers, small business owners and low-level managers; and a lower class, who rely on low-paying jobs for their livelihood and experience poverty.

The upper class[62] is the social class composed of those who are rich, well-born, powerful, or a combination of those. They usually wield the greatest political power. In some countries, wealth alone is sufficient to allow entry into the upper class. In others, only people who are born or marry into certain aristocratic bloodlines are considered members of the upper class and those who gain great wealth through commercial activity are looked down upon by the aristocracy as nouveau riche.[63] In the United Kingdom, for example, the upper classes are the aristocracy and royalty, with wealth playing a less important role in class status. Many aristocratic peerages or titles have seats attached to them, with the holder of the title (e.g. Earl of Bristol) and his family being the custodians of the house, but not the owners. Many of these require high expenditures, so wealth is typically needed. Many aristocratic peerages and their homes are parts of estates, owned and run by the title holder with moneys generated by the land, rents or other sources of wealth. However, in the United States where there is no aristocracy or royalty, the upper class status belongs to the extremely wealthy, the so-called "super-rich", though there is some tendency even in the United States for those with old family wealth to look down on those who have accrued their money through business, the struggle between new money and old money.

The upper class is generally contained within the richest one or two percent of the population. Members of the upper class are often born into it and are distinguished by immense wealth which is passed from generation to generation in the form of estates.[64] Based on some new social and political theories upper class consists of the most wealthy decile group in society which holds nearly 87% of the whole society's wealth.[65]

See also: Middle-class squeeze

The middle class is the most contested of the three categories, the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the lower and upper classes.[66] One example of the contest of this term is that in the United States "middle class" is applied very broadly and includes people who would elsewhere be considered working class. Middle-class workers are sometimes called "white-collar workers".

Theorists such as Ralf Dahrendorf have noted the tendency toward an enlarged middle class in modern Western societies, particularly in relation to the necessity of an educated work force in technological economies.[67] Perspectives concerning globalization and neocolonialism, such as dependency theory, suggest this is due to the shift of low-level labour to developing nations and the Third World.[68]

Middle class is the group of people with typical-everyday jobs that pay significantly more than the poverty line.Examples of these types of jobs are factory workers, salesperson, teacher, cooks and nurses.There is a new trend by some scholars which assumes that the size of the middle class in every society is the same. For example, in paradox of interest theory, middle class are those who are in 6th9th decile groups which hold nearly 12% of the whole society's wealth.[69]

Lower class (occasionally described as working class) are those employed in low-paying wage jobs with very little economic security. The term "lower class" also refers to persons with low income.

The working class is sometimes separated into those who are employed but lacking financial security (the "working poor") and an underclassthose who are long-term unemployed and/or homeless, especially those receiving welfare from the state. The latter is today considered analogous to the Marxist term "lumpenproletariat". However, during the time of Marx's writing the lumpenproletariat referred to those in dire poverty; such as the homeless.[62] Members of the working class are sometimes called blue-collar workers.

A person's socioeconomic class has wide-ranging effects. It can determine the schools they are able to attend,[70][71][72][73][74][75] their health,[76] the jobs open to them,[70] when they exit the labour market,[77] whom they may marry[78] and their treatment by police and the courts.[79]

Angus Deaton and Anne Case have analyzed the mortality rates related to the group of white, middle-aged Americans between the ages of 45 and 54 and its relation to class. There has been a growing number of suicides and deaths by substance abuse in this particular group of middle-class Americans. This group also has been recorded to have an increase in reports of chronic pain and poor general health. Deaton and Case came to the conclusion from these observations that because of the constant stress that these white, middle aged Americans feel fighting poverty and wavering between the middle and lower classes, these strains have taken a toll on these people and affected their whole bodies.[76]

Social classifications can also determine the sporting activities that such classes take part in. It is suggested that those of an upper social class are more likely to take part in sporting activities, whereas those of a lower social background are less likely to participate in sport. However, upper-class people tend to not take part in certain sports that have been commonly known to be linked with the lower class.[80]

A person's social class has a significant effect on their educational opportunities. Not only are upper-class parents able to send their children to exclusive schools that are perceived to be better, but in many places, state-supported schools for children of the upper class are of a much higher quality than those the state provides for children of the lower classes.[81][82][83][84][85][86] This lack of good schools is one factor that perpetuates the class divide across generations.

In the UK, the educational consequences of class position have been discussed by scholars inspired by the cultural studies framework of the CCCS and/or, especially regarding working-class girls, feminist theory. On working-class boys, Paul Willis' 1977 book Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs is seen within the British Cultural Studies field as a classic discussion of their antipathy to the acquisition of knowledge.[87] Beverley Skeggs described Learning to Labour as a study on the "irony" of "how the process of cultural and economic reproduction is made possible by 'the lads' ' celebration of the hard, macho world of work."[88]

A person's social class often affects their physical health, their ability to receive adequate medical care and nutrition and their life expectancy.[89][90][91]

Lower-class people experience a wide array of health problems as a result of their economic status. They are unable to use health care as often and when they do it is of lower quality, even though they generally tend to experience a much higher rate of health issues. Lower-class families have higher rates of infant mortality, cancer, cardiovascular disease and disabling physical injuries. Additionally, poor people tend to work in much more hazardous conditions, yet generally have much less (if any) health insurance provided for them, as compared to middle- and upper-class workers.[92]

The conditions at a person's job vary greatly depending on class. Those in the upper-middle class and middle class enjoy greater freedoms in their occupations. They are usually more respected, enjoy more diversity and are able to exhibit some authority.[93] Those in lower classes tend to feel more alienated and have lower work satisfaction overall. The physical conditions of the workplace differ greatly between classes. While middle-class workers may "suffer alienating conditions" or "lack of job satisfaction", blue-collar workers are more apt to suffer alienating, often routine, work with obvious physical health hazards, injury and even death.[94]

In the UK, a 2015 government study by the Social Mobility Commission suggested the existence of a "glass floor" in British society preventing those who are less able, but who come from wealthier backgrounds, from slipping down the social ladder. The report proposed a 35% greater likelihood of less able, better-off children becoming high earners than bright poor children.[95]

Class conflict, frequently referred to as "class warfare" or "class struggle", is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests and desires between people of different classes.

For Marx, the history of class society was a history of class conflict. He pointed to the successful rise of the bourgeoisie and the necessity of revolutionary violencea heightened form of class conflictin securing the bourgeois rights that supported the capitalist economy.

Marx believed that the exploitation and poverty inherent in capitalism were a pre-existing form of class conflict. Marx believed that wage labourers would need to revolt to bring about a more equitable distribution of wealth and political power.[96][97]

A "classless" society is one in which no one is born into a social class. Distinctions of wealth, income, education, culture or social network might arise and would only be determined by individual experience and achievement in such a society.

Since these distinctions are difficult to avoid, advocates of a classless society (such as anarchists and communists) propose various means to achieve and maintain it and attach varying degrees of importance to it as an end in their overall programs/philosophy.

Race and other large-scale groupings can also influence class standing. The association of particular ethnic groups with class statuses is common in many societies, and is linked with race as well.[98] Class and ethnicity can impact a persons, or communities, Socioeconomic standing, which in turn influences everything including job availability and the quality of available health and education.[98] The labels ascribed to an individual change the way others perceive them, with multiple labels associated with stigma combining to worsen the social consequences of being labelled.[99]

As a result of conquest or internal ethnic differentiation, a ruling class is often ethnically homogenous and particular races or ethnic groups in some societies are legally or customarily restricted to occupying particular class positions. Which ethnicities are considered as belonging to high or low classes varies from society to society.

In modern societies, strict legal links between ethnicity and class have been drawn, such as the caste system in Africa, apartheid, the position of the Burakumin in Japanese society and the casta system in Latin America.[citation needed]

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Non-profit that received scrutiny after bailing out man who shot Chinatown waiter ceases Las Vegas operations – KLAS – 8 News Now

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Non-profit that received scrutiny after bailing out man who shot Chinatown waiter ceases Las Vegas operations  KLAS - 8 News Now

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Non-profit that received scrutiny after bailing out man who shot Chinatown waiter ceases Las Vegas operations - KLAS - 8 News Now

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A City Within A City, The Resorts World Las Vegas Is Sin Citys Most Elegantly Designed Complex – Forbes

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A City Within A City, The Resorts World Las Vegas Is Sin Citys Most Elegantly Designed Complex  Forbes

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A City Within A City, The Resorts World Las Vegas Is Sin Citys Most Elegantly Designed Complex - Forbes

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Futurist architecture – Wikipedia

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Early-20th-century Italian architectural style

Futurist architecture is an early-20th century form of architecture born in Italy, characterized by long dynamic lines, suggesting speed, motion, urgency and lyricism: it was a part of Futurism, an artistic movement founded by the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, who produced its first manifesto, the Manifesto of Futurism, in 1909. The movement attracted not only poets, musicians, and artists (such as Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Fortunato Depero, and Enrico Prampolini) but also a number of architects. A cult of the Machine Age and even a glorification of war and violence were among the themes of the Futurists - several prominent futurists were killed after volunteering to fight in World War I. The latter group included the architect Antonio Sant'Elia, who, though building little, translated the futurist vision into an urban form.[1]

In 1912, three years after Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto, Antonio Sant'Elia and Mario Chiattone take part to the Nuove Tendenze[3] exhibition in Milano. In 1914 the group presented their first exposition with a "Message" by Sant'Elia, that later, with the contribution of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, became the Manifesto dellArchitettura Futurista ("Manifesto of Futurist Architecture").[2] Boccioni unofficially worked on a similar manifesto, but Marinetti preferred Sant'Elia's paper.

Later in 1920, another manifesto was written by Virgilio Marchi, Manifesto dellArchitettura FuturistaDinamica (Manifesto of Dynamic Instinctive Dramatic Futurist Architecture).[2] Ottorino Aloisio worked in the style established by Marchi, one example being his Casa del Fascio in Asti.

Another futurist manifesto related to architecture is the Manifesto dell'Arte Sacra Futurista ("Manifesto of Sacred Futurist Art") by Fillia (Luigi Colombo)[2] and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, published in 1931. On 27 January 1934 it was the turn of the Manifesto of Aerial Architecture by Marinetti, Angiolo Mazzoni and Mino Somenzi.[2] Mazzoni had publicly adhered to futurism only the year before. In this paper the Lingotto factory by Giacomo Matt-Trucco is defined as the first Futurist constructive invention.[2] Mazzoni himself in those years worked on a building considered today a masterpiece[4] of futurist architecture, like the Heating plant and Main controls cabin at Santa Maria Novella railway station, in Florence.

The Art Deco style of architecture with its streamlined forms was regarded as futuristic when it was in style in the 1920s and 1930s. The original name for both early and late Art Deco was Art Moderne the name "Art Deco" did not come into use until 1968 when the term was invented in a book by Bevis Hillier. The Chrysler Building is a notable example of Art Deco futurist architecture.

After World War II, Futurism was considerably weakened and redefined itself thanks to the enthusiasm towards the Space Age, the Atomic Age, the car culture, and the wide use of plastic. For example, this trend is found in the architecture of Googies in the 1950s in California. Futurism in this case is not a style, but a rather free and uninhibited architectural approach, which is why it was reinterpreted and transformed by generations of architects the following decades, but in general it includes amazing shapes with dynamic lines and sharp contrasts, and the use of technologically advanced materials.

Pioneered from late 1960s and early 1970s by Finnish architects Eero Saarinen;[5][6] and Alvar Aalto,[7] American architect Adrian Wilson[8] and Charles Luckman;[9][10] Danish architects Henning Larsen[11] and Jrn Utzon;[12] the architectural movement was later named Neo-Futurism by French architect Denis Laming. He designed all of the buildings in Futuroscope, whose Kinemax is the flagship building.[13] In the early 21st century, Neo-Futurism has been relaunched by innovation designer Vito Di Bari with his vision of "cross-pollination of art and cutting edge technology for a better world" applied to the project of the city of Milan at the time of the Universal Expo 2015.[14][citation needed][promotion?]In popular literature, the term futuristic is often used without much precision to describe an architecture that would have the appearance of the space age as described in works of science fiction or as drawn in science fiction comic strips or comic books. Today it is sometimes confused with blob architecture or high-tech architecture. The routine use of the term futurism although influenced by Antonio Sant'Elia's vision of Futurist architecture must be well differentiated from the values and political implications of the Futurist movement of the years 19101920. The futurist architecture created since 1960 may be termed Neo-Futurism, and is also referred as Post Modern Futurism or Neo-Futuristic architecture.

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Futurist architecture - Wikipedia

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