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Boston College Eagle
virtual exhibit summer 2005 - burns library
Introduction | Adoption | Mascot | Symbol | Conclusion
Adoption of the Eagle as the University Mascot
Prior to 1920, Boston College lacked a mascot. In the Spring of 1920, the Boston College Track team won the Eastern Intercollegiate competitions. Charlie Donelan of the Boston Traveler illustrated the mascot-less collegiate team as a stray cat lapping up the opposition. This did not sit very well with one loyal alumnus who voiced his displeasure to the Heights editorial staff. Identified at the time only as "The Old Man," the alum suggested that the lack of a school mascot led to the insulting cartoon. In his letter published in the May 14, 1920 issue, he suggested to the current student body, "Why not select - the Eagle, symbolic of majesty, power, and freedom. Its natural habitat is the high places. Surely, the Heights is made to order for such a suggestion." The old man was later identified as Rev. Edward J. McLaughlin (Ex-1914). This is a portrait of McLaughlin circa 1954.
In response to the Old Man's letter, the editor of the Heights, reminded his fellow students that the cause of the insulting cartoon was not the fault of the sports cartoonist, as the student body (past and present) had never come up with a mascot. He wrote: "The fault is ours entirely. It is important that we adopt a mascot to preside at our pow-wows and triumphant fetes." He urged students to write to the Heights to voice their opinion of the Eagle or voice an alternative for the school mascot. In the June 17th issue, the first published drawing of an eagle appeared in a corner of the special pictorial edition. The artwork was not credited but was probably the work of either Robert P. Walsh (1922) or J. Robert Brawley (1920), both members of the newspaper's art department.
Known as the "College Cartoonist," J. Robert Brawley (1920) claimed to have drawn the first sketch of the eagle. McLaughlin's letter was brought to the attention of the student Athletic Association moderated by Rev. Richard A. O'Brien, S.J. In 1944, Brawley recalled "I was sold on the eagle idea of Father McLaughlin...I went to work into that night...I grabbed a big sheet of drawing board, some water colors and went to work...when I got done, I had so much paint on it, the board must have weighed five pounds...the supplies really caught it that night. I brought the sketch into the school the next morning to Father O'Brien and he put it on the bulletin board with the notation that it was the proposed new mascot. It was a sketch of an eagle bearing in its talons a BC banner and soaring over a bulldog crouched in the shadow of the football. That's all I did...The eagle won. Father McLaughlin [had] the idea, he presented it and it was chosen. I am grateful for the credit I have received but Father McLaughlin was the creator of the eagle." Brawley's yearbook photograph is reproduced here.
There was much excitement when Boston College defeated the heavily favored Yale University football team in games played in 1919 and 1920. In the October 15, 1920 issue of the Heights, BC athlete Luke Urban was pictured in a cartoon drawn by John T. Sullivan. He was shown with a bald eagle perched on his shoulder, taming the Yale Bulldog. In the same issue, the editor noted his disappointment that the local newspaper cartoonists still represented Boston College as "a sort of flat impersonal picture of a foot-ball player bearing a neat and inoffensive tag." He went on that the "University Heights has the altitude, the rocks, the trees, and the general wild and free aspect which go to make up the popular conception of what an eagle's surroundings should be...We want the eagle for the Boston College mascot."
A month later, in the November 12 issue, an editorial entitled "About that Bird" was published. The editorial goaded the college's cartoonists to feature the eagle in their efforts, as "The work of getting the idea accepted lies almost entirely with them." They encouraged their readers to continue to voice their opinions. A month later, the Heights Art Department staff member John T. Sullivan (1924) drew the boldest cartoon depiction of the Heights to date, showing an eagle knocking a Holy Cross football player from the top of Gasson Tower. The cartoon celebrates BC's 14-0 victory over their bitter rival and, more important, clearly depicts the eagle as the symbol of Boston College.
The University quickly adopted the eagle more formally into campus life. A column dedicated to sports entitled "Through the Eagle's Eye" appeared for the first time in the January 20, 1921 issue of the Heights. The relay team was pictured in the February 2 issue with an eagle emblem incorporated into their athletic-wear.
Alumnus J. Robert Brawley, perhaps answering the call of current students for cartoons representing the eagle, contributed two significant pieces to the 1921 Sub Turri yearbook. This piece celebrated that season's undefeated football team earning the Eastern Championship. Obviously, this depiction was more fitting than the cartoon that depicted BC as a stray cat in the previous year. Father McLaughlin must have been a happy man.
Introduction | Adoption | Mascot | Symbol | Conclusion


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(I can't access the article.)
Why are people always harping on spelling? It's more than outdated idea, wouldn't you have to agree, especially given that history repeats itself. Take a look at Shakespearian English, Old English, Middle English--you need scholars to translate the words. So if someone ever gets the go-ahead to change modern English, you and I and everybody else who can read modern English will one day be scholars too--because somebody is going to have to teach people how to decipher what's already been written.
Moreover, what century are these spelling reformists living in? Certainly not this one, the one where technology leads the pack. From typesetting to typewriters to keyboards, which one day will indeed be supplanted by video. Typing is on its way out, and with it that savior of Microsoft's, the all powerful spellchecker.
Video is a silent mover. It's the future. The written word will be supplanted by the spoken word, maybe not in all things (signs, etc), but in most things. So, unless you're living in the past, why even bother worrying about spelling at this point?
English Teacher

subset: commoncrawl


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The 1828 Campaign of Andrew Jackson and the Growth of Party Politics. This is a curriculum plan from EDSITEment and the National Endowment for the Humanities on the election of 1828. The introduction notes, "In this unit, students analyze changes in voter participation and regional power, and review archival campaign documents reflecting the dawn of politics as we know it during the critical years from 1824 to 1832."
There are four lessons in the unit:
Lesson One: Expansion of the Voting Base Before and After 1828
Lesson Two: Changes in Voting Participation
Lesson Three: Territorial Expansion and the Shift of Power
Lesson Four: Issues in the Election of 1828 (and Beyond)
There is also a good collection of links which teachers could use to help teach about this topic with each lesson.
I think this might be a great topic to teach at the primary, secondary, and post-secondary level. A great deal of this unit deals with the expansion of the franchise (voting) and how this changed the nature of national politics. It brings up good questions like:
Was the voting more fair in 1828 even if women and non-whites were not allowed to vote?
Is an election fair even if only a small number of people may participate?
Is the Electoral College a fair method of deciding an election?
This entire topic also might be helpful in teaching about women's suffrage and the 15th Amendment as well. There are a lot of good ideas here and I think American history teachers at all levels may find good inspiration here. Also, elementaryhistoryteacher has a recent post relating to this as well at http://american-presidents.blogspot.com/2006/03/tale-of-four-favorite-sons.html.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
The 1828 Campaign of Andrew Jackson and the Growth of Party Politics
Posted by M at 12:41 PM
Labels: Andrew Jackson, Presidential Elections
1 comment:
- Jennie W said...
I like your extension ideas. I think an important issue to discuss is how few people today vote. Yet everyone is a critic of the government. We need to train our youth to take action in government - even if all they ever do is vote, they are still doing more than most Americans today.
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Thursday, August 5, 2010
Why Not More Co-Authoring?
A similar problem faces law professors wanting to produce empirical legal scholarship, or (alternatively) scholarship with very sophisticated economic models. Yet in the fields of law-and-economics and empirical legal studies, articles are frequently co-authored, often in order to bring the relevant expertise to the project. This leads me to pose the question: why is there not more co-authorship in legal history?
What are your thoughts? Please post in the comments.
2 comments:
A couple of thoughts:
1 - co-authorship is rare in historical scholarship, whereas work in statistics/sociology/economics is much more likely to be co-authored, just as in the natural sciences. That means historians are often not pre-disposed to co-authoring. When historians seek advice from others it usually leads to an acknowledgement and then citation of the relevant material, rather than true co-authorship. In that sense, whereas law and economic or law and sociology features a second discipline with a culture of co-authoring, law and history does not.
2 - Historians and legal historians do not always agree on the purpose of the historical investigation, which makes co-authoring difficult. Two senses of this occur to me:
(a) Many historians see law as something which exists and was applied, but legal historians are often interested in the "internal" life of that law. The perspectives are so different that one has to work hard to come up with a shared question. That is less pronounced if the legal historian is concerned with law in action, or what the law shows about an issue of broader historical interest, but it could inhibit some work.
(b) there is concern amongst historians that legal historians don't do history for the same reason that historians do history. I think that is largely a mistake (at least when considering serious legal historians, rather than people who insert some material about the past into a piece on contemporary law), but the concern is there.
- August 6, 2010 at 1:10:00 PM EDT
Do all disciplines and departments treat co-authored publications with the same respect that they do single-authored publications? If not, perhaps junior scholars are being rewarded for avoiding co-authoring work.
- August 6, 2010 at 3:32:00 PM EDT


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Public Information / Open Record Procedures
The Public Information Act
Texas Government Code, Chapter 552, gives you the right to access government records; and an officer for public information and the officer's agent may not ask why you want them. All government information is presumed to be available to the public. Certain exceptions may apply to the disclosure of the information.
Governmental bodies shall promptly release requested information that is not confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision, or information for which an exception to disclosure has not been sought.
Rights of Requestors
You have the right to:
- Prompt access to information that is not confidential or otherwise protected;
- Receive treatment equal to all other requestors, including accommodation in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements;
- Receive certain kinds of information without exceptions, like the voting record of public officials, and other information;
- Receive a written statement of estimated charges, when charges will exceed $40, in advance of work being started and opportunity to modify the request in response to the itemized statement;
- Choose whether to inspect the requested information (most often at no charge), receive copies of the information or both;
- A waiver or reduction of charges if the governmental body determines that access to the information primarily benefits the general public;
- Receive a copy of the communication from the governmental body asking the Office of the Attorney General for a ruling on whether the information can be withheld under one of the accepted exceptions, if the ruling is to withhold certain requested information, a redacted copy will be provided;
- Lodge a written complaint about overcharges for public information with the General Services Commission. Complaints of other possible violations may be filed with the county or district attorney of the county where the governmental body, other than a state agency, is located. If the complaint is against the county or district attorney, the complaint must be filed with the Office of the Attorney General.
Responsibilities of Governmental Bodies
All governmental bodies responding to information requests have the responsibility to:
- Establish reasonable procedures for inspecting or copying public information and inform requestors of these procedures;
- Treat all requestors uniformly and shall give to the requestor all reasonable comfort and facility, including accommodation in accordance with ADA requirements;
- Be informed about open records laws and educate employees on the requirements of those laws;
- Inform requestors of the estimated charges greater than $40 and any changes in the estimates above 20 percent of the original estimate, and confirm that the requestor accepts the charges, or has amended the request, in writing before finalizing the request;
- Inform the requestor if the information cannot be provided promptly and set a date and time to provide it within a reasonable time;
- Request a ruling from the Office of the Attorney General regarding any information the governmental body wishes to withhold, and send a copy of the request for ruling, or a redacted copy, to the requestor;
- Segregate public information from information that may be withheld and provide that public information promptly;
- Make a good faith attempt to inform third parties when their proprietary information is being requested from the governmental body;
- Respond in writing to all written communications from the General Services Commission regarding charges for the information. Respond to the Office of the Attorney General regarding complaints about violations of the Act.
Procedures to Obtain Information
- Submit a request by mail, fax, email, in person, or online according to a governmental body's reasonable procedures.
- Include enough description and detail about the information requested to enable the governmental body to accurately identify and locate the information requested.
- Cooperate with the governmental body's reasonable efforts to clarify the type or amount of information requested.
A. Information to be released
- You may review it promptly, and if it cannot be produced within 10 working days the public information officer will notify you in writing of the reasonable date and time when it will be available.
- Keep all appointments to inspect records and to pick up copies. Failure to keep appointments may result in losing the opportunity to inspect the information at the time requested.
B. Cost of Records
- You must respond to any written estimate of charges within 10 days of the date the governmental body sent it or the request is considered automatically withdrawn.
- If estimated costs exceed $100.00 (or $50.00 if a governmental body has fewer than 16 full time employees) the governmental body may require a bond, prepayment or deposit.
- You may ask the governmental body to determine whether providing the information primarily benefits the general public, resulting in a waiver or reduction of charges.
- Make a timely payment for all mutually agreed charges. A governmental body can demand payment of overdue balances exceeding $100.00, or obtain a security deposit, before processing additional requests from you.
C. Information that may be withheld due to an exception
- By the 10th business day after a governmental body receives your written request, a governmental body must:
- request an Attorney General opinion and state which exceptions apply;
- notify the requestor of the referral to the Attorney General; and
- notify third parties if the request involves their proprietary information.
- Failure to request an Attorney General opinion and notify the requestor within 10 business days will result in a presumption that the information is open unless there is a compelling reason to withhold it.
- Requestors may send a letter to the Attorney General arguing for release, and may review arguments made by the governmental body. If the arguments disclose the requested information, the requestor may obtain a redacted copy.
- The Attorney General must issue a decision no later than the 45th working day from the day after the attorney general received the request for a decision. The attorney general may request an additional 10 working day extension.
- Governmental bodies may not ask the Attorney General to "reconsider" an opinion.
TAMUS Regulations
For Tarleton State University Public Information/Open Record Procedures, please view the following Texas A&M University System Regulations:
Request Info
To request information from this governmental body, please contact:
- Use the new Open Records Request Portal.
- Some information is publicly available at Texan Facts.
By mail:
Ms. Susan Barkley
Public Information Officer
Tarleton State University
Box T-0830
Stephenville, Texas 76402
By e-mail to:
By fax:
In person at:
Administration Annex 1Building, Suite 106
Special Accommodations
If you need special accommodation pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), please contact our ADA coordinator:
Ms. Trina Geye
You may contact the Office of the Attorney General, Open Government Hotline, at 512-478-6736 or toll-free at 1-877-673-6839.
For complaints regarding overcharges, please contact the Office of the Attorney General's Cost Rules Administrator at 512-475-2497.
Public Info Officers
Texas A&M University System is dedicated to the principles of open government and will strive to ensure compliance as set forth by the Texas Public Information Act.
System Offices
R. Brooks Moore Assistant General Counsel Campus Mail Stop 1230 John B. Connally Building 301 Tarrow, 6th Floor College Station, TX 77845-3424 (979) 458-6120 (979) 458-6150 -facsimile firstname.lastname@example.com


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'Game of Thrones' awesome Comic-Con posters revealed
Are you ready for three very different awesomely artistic takes on the land of Westeros?
HBO has teamed with Austin-based collectible arts boutique Mondo (of Alamo Drafthouse fame) to launch a series of limited-edition screen-printed posters to be released at Comic-Con this week. Below are new images by artists Martin Ansin, Vania Zouravliov and Daniel Danger (OK, I want to change my name to Daniel Danger now). The posters will be gradually made available throughout the week at Mondo's booth (#437; for more detail follow @MondoNews). Also, be sure to check out EW.com's InsideTV blog on Friday for our coverage of the Game of Thrones Comic-Con panel (in fact, it's the same day as the panels for the Firefly reunion, The Walking Dead, Spartacus and Breaking Bad — so just park your browser here and let us run around the San Diego convention center for you).
Here are all three of Mondo/HBO's Game of Thrones Comic-Con 2012 poster images, exclusive to EW.com:
First, Ansin's black-and-white image, which features (House Lannister) lionesses taking down a (House Baratheon) stag with (House Stark) wolves in pursuit. And what's that threat in the distance? A (House Targaryen) dragon.
High-res version (click the link, and then click on the image to enlarge).
Danger took on the opening moments of the pilot episode: A White Walker closes in on Night's Watch rangers. Reminiscent of the very first image released of the show.
High-res version (click the link, and then click on the image to enlarge).
And finally, I want to get my hookah and stare at this one for awhile. Vania's surreal, intricate take. There's a lot going on in here…
High-res version (click the link, and then click on the image to enlarge).
'Game of Thrones' scoop: Season 3 character list revealed — EXCLUSIVE
'Game of Thrones' Comic-Con panel adds Ygritte, but loses …
'Game of Thrones' season 3: Showrunners to direct, another country added — EXCLUSIVE


text: Deprecated: mysql_connect(): The mysql extension is deprecated and will be removed in the future: use mysqli or PDO instead in /home/mazdoor/public_html/config.inc.php on line 598 Travel Agencies & Services - Services/Jobs N-Z - Free Business Classified ads posting Saturday, 22 February, 2020 Home • Post Free Ad Home / Services/Jobs N-Z/ Travel Agencies & Services Travel Agencies & Services Search Go Sorry! There are no ads to show. Back to Home Categories » Services/Jobs A-D FOR SALE, A-D Fashion - Style Post-A-Message Resumes Services/Jobs E-M For Sale, E-M Auto - Vehicles Personals Community Services/Jobs N-Z Nannies Nursing Homes Office Equipment Optometrists Packaging Party & Supplies Personal Services Pest Control Pet Sitting Pharmaceutical Photography Physical Therapy Plumbing Printers Psychologists Public Relations Publishing & Advertising Real Estate Recycling / Shredding Rehabilitation Remodeling Research & Development Restaurants Restoration Retail / Wholesale Rugs Safe Deposit Boxes Schools Security Services Signs & Banners Sporting Goods Storage Supplies Tires Tourism Toys Translation Transportation Travel Agencies & Services Tree Service Trophies & Awards Trucks -Service Upholstery Veterinarians Video Productions Warehouse Waste Management Web Design Wedding Services Wellness Wholesale Window Cleaning Window Treatments Wireless For Sale, N-Z Pets Notices Housing Copyright © 2010 - 2020 Free Business Classified ads posting. All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy |


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Rear 12 X 142mm Bolt Through Calavera CC28 29" XD 32H
Lightweight All Mountain/Enduro Carbon wheel built using an RSP Calavera Carbon CC28 rim, 142x12mm 150 point sealed bearing hub and lightweight Mach1 double butted spokes
- Our new Tubeless ready Carbon Trail/Enduro wheels are designed to offer increased stiffness, reduced weight & more speed
- Built using the RSP Calavera Carbon 28mm internal profile rim which offers increased air volume and traction due to lower pressure possibilities
- The rims utilize oversized hookless bead technology for superior protection against rock strikes and unrivaled tubeless seating
- Asymmetrical rim profile offers even spoke tension which means less truing is needed
- 28mm Deep section for increased stiffness
- Chosen Trail hub Rear 142 x 12mm axle, 4 sealed bearings, 32h
- New 150 point freehub mechanism that produces an unbeatable 2.4 degree engagment
- Mach1 double butted black racing spokes. Strong yet light, stainless steel spoke with brass nipples.
- Shimano 135 x 12mm axle adapters available - Part No. SJTR135X12KIT1.
- Shimano 135 Q/R axle adapters available - Part No. SJTR135QRRKIT1
- XD 135 x 12mm axle adapters available - Part No. SJTR135X12KIT1XD.
- XD 135 Q/R axle adapters available - Part No. SJTR135QRRKIT1XD
- Sram XD freehubs available - Part No. SJFHBXD1.
- Shimano freehubs available - Part No. SJFHBSHM1.
- 27.5" wheel 931g / 29" wheel 961g
- 1 Year warranty & 2 year crash replacement scheme
We're proud of every product we create. Here are some reviews of this product.


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While we enjoyed gaming with the wireless surround sound headphones we tested in our Battlemodo, the major inherent flaw with the systems were their lack of voice-chat capabilities. Now Turtle Beach has announced the Ear Force X4 wireless headphones that combine Dolby 5.1 decoding and voice chat in a package that's compatible with the Xbox 360.
Featuring both analogue and digital inputs, the headphones feature 50mm drivers that promise "deep rich bass sounds and crisp high frequencies" within the oversized cups. The device's removable microphone also has a handy feature of sending your voice back through the headphones, meaning that you'll always hear just how obnoxious you are getting during Call of Duty—and in addition, it will dynamically auto-mix your voice over unforeseen in-game noise.
All-in-all, Turtle Beach's Ear Force X4 headphones are looking pretty snazzy if you've got the US$199.95 asking price. We'll try to get our hands on a pair to let you know if they're worth it.


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I downloaded the Linux executable for Unetbootin 494, and now I'm trying to run it. As root, I made it executable and attempted to execute it:
chmod +x unetbootin-linux-494
Nothing happens and no output is displayed.
ps -e | grep unetbootin shows nothing either. The file's size looks right (4.3 MB), although I don't see a checksum on sourceforge with which to verify it. I'm running it on my
/home partition (as root, though), so the filesystem isn't non-executable.
How can I execute this file, or at least debug the problem further? I'm using Debian x64.


text:
Kodak has a pair of super zoom cameras that actually may be able to spot a needle in a haystack. The Z1012 IS and Z1015 IS are 10MP cams that zoom up to 12X and 15X, respectively. They both have a 28mm wide angle lens, image stabilisation and full manual mode if you want to get creative. At $US250 for the Z1012 and $US300 for the Z1015, they bridge the gap between point-and-shoots and DSLRs quite nicely (and fairly cheaply). Find 'em in November; press release and more pics below. [Kodak]
Zi6 Pocket Video Camera Unveiled, Boasting HD Video Capture and Instant Uploading to YouTube™
ROCHESTER, NY, July 10 — Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE:EK) today announced its entry into the fast-growing pocket digital video camera market with the KODAK Zi6 Pocket Video Camera. This stylish HD video camera makes it fun and simple to shoot and share high-quality videos in moments, thanks to 720p HD video capture, a large 2.4-inch LCD screen, and easy-to-use software.
"Today's connected consumers increasingly turn to video to express themselves and connect with others. The KODAK Zi6 Pocket Video Camera satisfies their thirst for an HD video camera that is simple to use and can go anywhere life takes them," said John Blake, General Manager Digital Capture and Devices, Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company. "With the launch of the Zi6 Pocket Video Camera, consumers now have a high-quality solution from the trusted brand in digital imaging."
With the exploding popularity of video sharing sites such as YouTube, the demand for easy to use video devices is also growing rapidly. At the same time, the expanding penetration of HDTVs is driving consumer demand for HD quality personal content.
The KODAK Zi6 Pocket Video Camera is designed to meet these needs at the touch of a button — no lens cap, dials to turn or settings to adjust.
A range of advanced features enables consumers to:
Capture video in HD quality on this fun and super simple pocket video camera (720p at 60 fps with 16:9 aspect ratio).
Upload your videos to YouTube quickly and easily using the built-in USB and software.
Record hours of video with the expandable SD/SDHC card slot that can hold up to 32 GB.
Experience your videos on HDTV in stunning HD quality with included cables.
Edit videos, add pictures and music, and share your creation anywhere with the included video software CD.
Go green with included pre-charged AA Ni-MH rechargeable batteries and battery charger.
Watch videos on the vibrant 2.4" LCD screen.
Catch the highlights with slow motion playback right in the palm of your hand.
Uploading to YouTube
YouTube is the world's most popular online video community. The Kodak and YouTube relationship will enable consumers to quickly and easily upload videos to YouTube directly from the Zi6 Pocket Video Camera, or from the included simple and powerful video editing software (ARCSOFT MEDIAIMPRESSIONS for Kodak).
A range of accessories will be available for the KODAK Zi6 Pocket Video Camera:
KODAK 2GB and 4GB High Performance memory cards
1-hour battery charger with 4 AA pre-charged Ni-MH batteries
KODAK tripods
KODAK camera bags
Pricing and Availability
The KODAK Zi6 Pocket Video Camera will be available from late September 2008, retailing for US$179.95 MSRP.


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Scientific Software
NCEAS encourages and strongly supports the use of open source software packages. Software packages such as R, GRASS GIS, and PostgreSQL have benefited from significant contributions from the scientific community. These packages are distributed under an open software license, and publish their source code and algorithms. NCEAS also recognizes that for some research, commercial proprietary software products are the best alternative and we support such packages.
Mathematics and Statistics Software
- R software environment for statistical computing [1]
- MATLAB analytical environment [2]
- SAS analytical software [3]
- Python [4]
GIS and Spatial Analysis Software
- Quantum GIS [5]
- PostGIS [7]
Additional Software Resources
GIS and Geospatial Data Analysis
Wikipedia List of Spatial Analysis Software [9]
Diva GIS Software [10]
DIVA-GIS is open source software particularly useful for mapping and analyzing biodiversity data. The web site includes a comprehensive global spatial data archive.
thematicmapping.org [11]
This site presents the Thematic Mapping Engine, software for creating innovative thematic maps using GoogleEarth technology.
UC Davis Soil Resource Laboratory [12]
A great resource for soils-related geospatial research, the Software section contains many concise R spatial analysis examples.
GeoDa Center For Geospatial Analysis and Computation [13]
Luc Anselin's (Arizona State University) successor to his Spatial Analysis Laboratory (SAL). Good resource for state-of-the-art geospatial analysis methods and software tools.
The FreeGIS Project: A software overview for Free Geographic Information Systems
ArcGIS+R Geospatial Modeling Environment [15]
As of ArcGIS 10, this supersedes the well-known Hawth's Analysis Tools For ArcGIS [16].
Climate Data Operators (CDO) [17]
CDO is a collection of command line utilities that manipulate and analyze climate data in GRIB, netCDF, SERVICE, EXTRA and IEG formats.
Unified Mapping Platform (JUMP) [18]
JUMP is a GUI-based application for viewing and processing spatial data. It is also an extensible framework for developing and running custom spatial data processing applications.
Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) [19]
OGC is a non-profit, standards organization that is leading the development of standards for geospatial and location-based services.
Image Processing and Analysis
Windows Image Manager (WIM) [20]
A general-purpose image analysis software used to view and analyze environmental satellite data
NASA SeaWIFS Data Analysis System (SeaDAS) Software [21]
A comprehensive image analysis package for the processing, display, analysis, and quality control of ocean color satellite (SeaWIFS,MODIS, OCTS,CZCS) image data
Tutorial: Download and Resampling of MODIS Images Using R [22]
An end-to-end example demonstrates both download and processing of MODIS data from NASA servers, as well as the creation of a ready-for-analysis MODIS image mosaic at user-specified spatial resolution.
Relational Database Management
PostgreSQL [23]
MySQL [24]
SQLite [25]
Miscellaneous Programmer Tools
Comprehensive vi / vim Editor Tutorial - good for ANY computer platform [26]
Introduction to UNIX/Linux for beginners [27]
Sun MPI 7.0 (OpenMPI) Software Programming and Reference Manual [28]


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Thursday, May 25, 2006
The Fair Tax
Wednesday night, May 24, 2006.
I know over 62 million viewers watched American Idol, but here in Atlanta 4,500 people attended a fair tax rally sponsored by talk show icon Neil Boortz. Those who didn't make it in the door got to hear the rally over the oldest radio station in Atlanta, WSB radio (AM750), which airs Boortz's program daily. Comcast cable filmed the rally and will be airing it on a pay per view basis.
Read Neil Boortz's review of the evening here. Local papers review the rally here and here.
I didn't get to go, though I would have like to. I am a fan of Mr. Boortz and generally listen on days I don't teach. I don't always agree with him. I think he is way too hard on teachers, but he makes valid points on many issues and he certainly isn't afraid of speaking his mind. Back when I was a paralegal Mr. Boortz was an attorney and my law firm had a few dealings with his.
While I was carting my thirteen year old back and forth to pick up new shorts (longer ones please, not the kind that don't even have a crotch) for a trip to Myrtle Beach and getting her to and from church (can't miss that youth group, you know) I got to listen to the rally. There were some wonderful rousing speakers including Sean Hannity from Fox News and Atlanta's own Herman Cain. What was really inspiring to me was the sound of the crowd. I had been afraid that Boortz's Fair Tax rally might flop. What if hardly anyone showed? I'm glad my doubts didn't come to fruition.
As I listened to Herman Cain I thought about our Founding Fathers and how they were able to give birth to a country considering that most colonists didn't really care one way or the other. It took several events and situations to occur before longings for liberty ignited, and I think it will be this way again. People are fed up, but few Americans want to take the time to really examine an issue. Few people want to get out of their comfort zone. They prefer others to tell them what to think by listening to the constant stream of sound bytes and text bytes that permeate our lives today. They prefer things as they have always been simply because they have always been. Sounds like education, doesn't it?
So what is the fair tax? Fairtax.org explains it this way:
The FairTax was created by first asking the American people what they wanted out of a tax system, and then having a team of respected economists design a tax system that met those demands. The FairTax replaces the income tax and all other federal taxes with a national consumption tax. The FairTax is levied only once, at the point of purchase on new goods and services. The simplicity of the FairTax frees Americans from our current overwhelming tax code and unshackles the U.S. economy.
The FairTax:
Abolishes the IRS
Closes all tax loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
Maintains our current Social Security and Medicare benefits
Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
Allows American products to compete fairly
Reimburses the tax on purchases of basic necessities
Enables retirees to keep their entire pension
Enables workers to keep their entire paycheck
The fair tax has gotten some publicity from a book written by Neil Boortz and Congressman John Linder. You can look it over here.
I think we all owe it to ourselves and to each other to examine this issue on our own and make a decision to support it or not to support it. We need to get out of our comfort zone and make our opinions known to our lawmakers and policy writers. This thing might just ignite and either you will wake up one morning and find yourself in a new tax system or a fire will have been snuffed and you won't even realize it had passed.
2 comments:
In order for Fairtax to take off in this country, we need to elect proven leaders who are willing to go to Congress and bring about discussion on the issue. We all need to become active in our communities, write our Congressmen, and choose representatives who will go to Washington and make a difference. One of the most exciting battles for a Fairtax conservative is in the Kansas 3rd District. Although Republicans have a voter registration advantage, the incumbent Congressman Dennis Moore has hung on in the district.. This year, candidate Chuck Ahner, a strong supporter of the Fairtax, and a Westpoint candidate has the consensus of the KS GOP behind him and is hoping to upset Moore. If you want to make your dollars matter this election season that is one race that will be very exciting. His website is www.ahnerforcongress.com
- EHT said...
Thanks for the information. I agree that we all need to be more proactive contacting our congressmen. That was one of the things brought up at the rally. Neil Boortz, Linder and the FairTax.org folks made sure those in attendance had the necessary information to contact their people in Congress.


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Tasmanian devil
Tasmanian devil, extremely voracious marsupial, or pouched mammal, of the dasyure family, now found only on the island of Tasmania. The Tasmanian devil, Sarcophilus harrisi, formerly found also in Australia, is about 2 ft (60 cm) long, excluding the 12-in. (30-cm) tail. It has a large head, with powerful jaws, and weak hindquarters. Its blackish fur is marked with white patches on the throat, on each side, and on the rump. The animal has a fierce appearance. It is very strong for its size and preys on animals larger than itself, such as small kangaroos, as well as on rodents, lizards, and other small animals. It lives in burrows in rocky areas.
Like the related thylacine, or Tasmanian wolf, the Tasmanian devil was relentlessly hunted because of its inroads on domestic livestock and poultry. Although it survived in sizable numbers in remote areas of the island, it is now threatened by a fatal contagious facial cancer that has spread steadily and decimated infected populations since the late 1990s. In 2009 the Tasmanian devil was officially declared endangered. A lack of genetic diversity in the marsupial has facilitated the cancer's spread; the recent discovery of a possibly resistant genetically different population in W Tasmania has raised hopes for the species. Efforts are being made to establish a sizable disease-free population on the Australian mainland.
The Tasmanian devil is classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Marsupialia, family Dasyuridae.


text:
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image
reveals an expanding shell of glowing gas surrounding
a hot, massive star in our Milky Way Galaxy. This
shell is being shaped by strong stellar winds of
material and radiation produced by the bright star
at the left, which is 10 to 20 times more massive
than our Sun. These fierce winds are sculpting the
surrounding material - composed of gas and dust
- into the curve-shaped bubble. Astronomers have
dubbed it the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635). The nebula
is 10 light-years across, more than twice the distance
from Earth to the nearest star. Only part of the
bubble is visible in this image. The glowing gas
in the lower right-hand corner is a dense region
of material that is getting blasted by radiation
from the Bubble Nebula's massive star. The radiation
is eating into the gas, creating finger-like features.
This interaction also heats up the gas, causing
it to glow. Scientists study the Bubble Nebula to
understand how hot stars interact with the surrounding
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble
Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: J. Hester, P. Scowen, and B. Moore
(Arizona State University)


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So there's been quite a bit of back-and-forth, and we got a bit lazy about keeping this thread updated. Here's the tl;dr...
- 1. we currently have katstorm.faith working properly via a... clever multi-proxy thing. It's slow, and it's not https'd currently; depending on how things go, we'll adddress both of those issues & get it out of beta-jail sooner or later (probably sooner).
2. Meanwhile, we're redirecting most of the other katstorm TLD's over to our baystorm.org "officially approved" tracker proxy (which is pretty damned funny: official tracker proxies... really?), because TPB folks are alot less dick-ish than the KAT crew has been of late - if I may be so blunt.
3. There was a #3, but it's been forgotten - whoops.
We're reconstructing the service using redundant domains katstorm.date and katstorm.xyz, as there's been some sort of fuckery wrt the katstorm.party domain itself (although the registrar, alpnames, seems to be doing their best to be stand-up - with the fuckery apparently coming down from the TLD organization itself). Currently both .date and .xyz just remap to this forum thread, but will be shifted over to the new site once we're ready.
Also we've written to the admins at kat.cr to see what's what, with the blockery coming from their direction. Sigh. Much block. So sad. Doge. Etc.
As to the rest of the trickery we're using to handle the cock-blockery from kat.cr... stay tuned!
It appears that the admin(s) at kat.cr are actively blocking katstorm.party from connecting to kat.cr. At first I thought it was something happening on our end, but after reconfiguring katstorm to use GRE tunnels or haproxy instances running on other servers (which would cause the IP kat.cr sees katstorm coming from to be different than the IP katstorm's webserver is listening on), shortly after each attempt that exit IP would suddenly be unable to connect to any of the kat.cr IPs.
It's possible that one of our DCs is doing the blocking, but very unlikely since I tried several and they worked fine at first.
My guess is that the kat.cr admin(s) are blocking katstorm because we do a server-side thing that removes kat.cr ads for our visitors. That means kat.cr loses money because of us.... maybe?
In a short moment, we'll try to open a dialog with the admins at kat.cr to see if this is the problem, so we can get the block removed, maybe by simply allowing ads through. Dunno yet, we might just start proxying some other torrent site, or we might create our own.
I'll update this post as news becomes available.
In the mean time, if you still want to use kat.cr securely/anonymously, just get on CS first
here's the previous post...
For a long while, we were running an earlier version of our KickAss Torrents proxy on
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and some other ports.
Since it seemed to be getting a good amount of traffic (and since the forces of censorship & media strangelhold seemed to be tightening around many of the other methods by which free access to KAT can be obtained by people seeking the ability to share digital data efficiently & cost-effectively ~ pj), we decided to replace it with a dedicated domain on a different server at katstorm.party.
At first it was running on an extra .eu server we had lying around (we usually have a few dev/test machines somewhere or other, helps when things move fast and we need extra capacity right away).
That was until this email from an anti-piracy company called comeso.org (or .de):
From: [email protected]
Dear sir or madam,
This is a notification of copyright infringement.
Ticket ID: (COMESOABUSE #5473)
We found cases of copyright infringements on the pages below:
Original Work: Session Keys Grand Y
Infringing URLs:
https://katstorm.party/e-instruments-se ... 86405.html
Original Work: Saint Seiya - Soul of Gold
Infringing URLs:
https://katstorm.party/anonimu-fansubu- ... 11888.html
Original Work: God Eater
Infringing URLs:
https://katstorm.party/horriblesubs-god ... 62544.html
https://katstorm.party/ohys-raws-god-ea ... 68073.html
https://katstorm.party/ohys-raws-god-ea ... 05371.html
Original Work: The [email protected]: Cinderella Girls Second Series
Infringing URLs:
https://katstorm.party/horriblesubs-the ... 95369.html
I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
I ask you to take down this content within 48 hours and I would be grateful if you could send me a short message when you have accomplished the deletion.
To which I responded:
From: [email protected]
The website https://katstorm.party/ doesn't host any content, it's a simple proxy to the website https://kat.cr/, so we have no control over the content.
If we took down the proxy, there are hundreds of others on the internet, all easily accessible via Google.
For example:
If you want the copyrighted materials you described to be removed from the internet, you would have to contact the people operating https://kat.cr/
To which Comeso responded:
From: [email protected]
Not my problem. You provide access to illegal content so you are 100% responsible for your "proxy".
Also other services similar to yours are able to block content that we report.
Since I didn't feel like dealing with this nonsense anymore, I passed it off to PJ
Here's his response to the above email:
From: [email protected]
Herr "Tracy" -
First off, my apologies if I have chosen an inaccurate honorific in my salutation; despite reading through the growing correspondence we've received from you thus far, I see no surname and cannot but guess at the appropriate term.
While we are heartened to hear of your "good faith beliefs" in various elements of consensus reality, it is unfortunately the case that personal beliefs rarely have the force of substantive justification for claims made under the legal systems of any of the possible jurisdictions covered under the activities being discussed - or alleged - in your correspondence thus far. Put another way, it may be the case that I have a "good faith belief" that our planet's sole moon is made of a particularly pungent French cheese. Alas, that belief won't get me a shot at winning a claim for all that delicious dairy product in a legitimate court of law. Nor will it, in fact, get me much beyond pitying stares from those with a more robust connection to objective reality.
In much the same way, your claims thus far teeter precariously somewhere between childish fantasy and delusional personal pocket-universe. In crassly quotidian terms, you've provided not one whiff of forensic or objective evidence in support of these fantastical assertions of some transgression of a right under (civil) law of some party which may or may not be in any legally substantive relationship with whoever you are. One finds it often to be the case that courts do, speaking in general terms, expect to be provided with more than flights of imaginary fancy when it comes to tort claims (or jurisdictionally equivalent legal assertions).
This is the place in this process where, therefore, we respectfully request that you provide to us substantive and independently verifiable forensic data to back up the oddly faith-based statements you've produced in early messages to our staff. We assume, given that you purport to do this for a living ("this" being some form of low-rent mercenary activity putatively on behalf of some kind of intellectual property "owner" somewhere in the world), you are familiar with the standards and expectations of digital forensics in the context of provisioning of network-based resources and claims made that such resources emanate from particular physical hardware devices under the custody and/or control of specific legal entities or individual persons. Because, obviously, if you don't know what you're doing wrt forensic standards one might well wonder if there's other "oopsie" holes in your knowledge praxis when it comes to other elements of your shakedown - let's be honest and call it what it is: extortion - attempt.
Once we receive those data - and don't stress over the method used to provide them to us, as we're pretty flexible in being able to accept most any commonly-supported format, channel, method, or encoding of said data - we will do our own close review to determine if they are congruent with your claims thus far.
If they aren't, we'll review our own legal rights to seek compensatory, punitive, and whatever other damages ("karmic retribution," perhaps?) duly-constituted courts of law might consider in the case of a lame-brained digital extortion attempt gone wrong.
It's worth noting, further, that such desperate ploys for easy money (or, worse yet, censorious removal of shared cultural patrimony) generally run afoul of criminal statutes in most every jurisdiction one might choose to visit on this beautiful planet of ours. Although we're somewhat well known for our tendency to avoid wasting LEO time on such picayune matters, one nevertheless remains aware that it's entirely possible some public prosecutor or similar figure will choose to take up such a criminal case and, as the saying goes, put your snarky ass in jail for a minute or three.
So there's that.
As to what is or is not "your problem," I'd personally suggest that you are underestimating the potential scale and scope of the set of things that could well become "your problem" as time goes by. The universe we share is funny like that: merely asserting one is free of problems isn't terribly effective in magically making any such problems vanish. Or so we've been told, for what it's worth.
While Goebbels was a big fan of "blocking content," we're not so much in that particular camp. Anyone holding one's breath for that to take place is likely to find themselves short of oxygen long before we start censoring packets coming across our network because some tinpot Torquemada decides to email us about his (her?) personal fantasies and other idiosyncratic belief quanta. We just don't roll that way, yo.
With... well, not so much respect as something more like contemptuous bemusement...
~ cryptostorm's contumacious network topologist-at-large, aka "pj"
After the above email was sent off, we never heard back from "[email protected]".
A week or so passes by, then suddenly the main cryptostorm.is IP gets blocked at the router/firewall by one of our longest-duration service providers, in Europe - folks we have worked with for years and who know our ways pretty well. (this is, incidentally, why we had a hiccup of about 36 hours in automated 'tokenbot' token deliveries - with that IP nullrouted, we also lost email comms on the box... and yes we're now separating out those two systems because redundancy & minimised cross-channel attack surfaces ~ pj)
So we contact them to see what's up, turns out they just received some correspondence from the CEO (one of them) of Comeso.org, a "Jan Wilkens". (I'm not yet finished checking into this putative "CEO," but look forward to publishing the results of our inquiries shortly ~pj}
Jan's email contains basically the same complaints Tracy had about katstorm.party, but this time Jan is referring to the old KA proxy we still had running on:
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Since we've been with this particular service provider - the one housing the server on which this nullrouted IP currently lives - for quiet some time now, they didn't immediately kill the entire server, but they did firewall off the cryptostorm.is IP to prevent people from accessing whatever alleged "illegal content" was being passed through by our just-passes-along-packets proxy there. Even so, doing that also prevented everyone from accessing our main corporate website.
So I told respectfully requested of (~ pj ) this service provider that I would modify the proxy pass-through service so that it's no longer passing across KickAss Torrent content "directly," but instead it simply redirects to the dedicated katstorm.party resource that itself lives in a different IP block, at a different hosting facility, in a different country (or countries - redundancy).
That made them happy, so they brought the cryptostorm.is IP back up.
Fast forward a few more days, the katstorm.party website that at the time was living on a different .eu-based server suddenly goes down.
We contacted the colo/DC provider from which we have purchased our rights to this machine to see what's up, and it's basically the same story as what the earlier service provider did.
So I go out and buy a couple of VPSes that advertise as being the type of provider that ignores all DMCA and related complaints. We decided as a team to seek additional network infrastructure via providers that are less easily swayed by false information pushed out by these worthless media cartelbots and their various assorted henchmen, toadies, and stooges. (~ pj)
I setup nginx on both VPSes (with no logging of anything sensitive like visitor IPs), then change katstorm.party's DNS to a round robin that switches between the two, and the rest is history
For the curious, the nginx.conf that powers katstorm.party is available @ our github katstorm repository, in full detail. Who knows... it might prove handy to others who face similar challenges.


text:
My o.b. gave me a cool magazine that showed how the baby was developing each month and I would show it to my children and talk about what was developing at that time. I also let them help with getting things ready. I did have people that once baby was born paid extra attention to the other children and gave them gifts which helped them feel special and not left out. I also made sure in the hospital everyone got to see and hold the baby with help as needed. A lot of hospitals do a sibling class. When my last baby was born premature the parent support group did a class to teach the siblings about what was going on. They played with dolls in an isolette that were hooked up to all the things their sibling in the NICU were. They got to color pictures and drink apple juice out of the syringes they fed the babies with. They learned about these fragile preemies in a fun way and were prepared for how they would need to be around the baby once he came home. I just think talking a lot about it and including them in everything is helpful. When my son finally came home from the hospital, my 2 year old was so good with him. My pediatrician always commented on how she had never seen a toddler so loving with a baby before. We always tried to still give her love and attention and include her so she never had any reason to be jealous or resent him. If I had to nurse him I read to her at the same time or she watched a program sitting by us. She would hold his hand while he would nurse. I think when kids are pushed away then they resent siblings.
My kids are 3 1/2 years apart. Once we received the info from the hospital (different city than older child) we saw tehy offered the Big Sib, Little Sib class. We chose a date about 6 weeks from due date and signed up. It was a 2 hour class on a Saturday morning for I think $15 (17 years ago so don't remember). They toured the hospital to see where mom and baby would be, and the lessons included: washing hands, asking to hold the baby and always sitting before holding the baby. After brother was born, I included her in the choosing of the clothes for him. I would pick 3 outfits and then she chose the final one from them. She would bring me diapers and wet wipes and toss the dirty into the trash. While he slept she and I would have her book and play kitchen time. She gave him a gift to welcome him.


text:
Maybe the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences should save itself the usual annual hand wringing and just sign Neil Patrick Harris as host.
Harris, who mended near-every broken heart on Broadway with his shining Tonys hosting performance in June, similarly revived the Emmys Sunday night, giving the few-surprises show an infusion of wit and music.
His opening song – a Rat Pack-style production number in which Harris teased the gathered stars and exhorted the TV audience to "put down the remote" – was, well, Oscar worthy. Throughout, he worked to keep the potentially ponderous three-hour broadcast hopping along with quips fired at a Mel Brooks-like pace.
"I'm here to make sure things run smoothly," Harris said. "I sure hope Kanye West likes '30 Rock.'"
Harris earned some kind words on his performance – mid show – from some the presenters and winners, including Jon Stewart, who said, "We've all been to a lot of these shows, and they usually suck."
It also didn't hurt that this year's telecast was streamlined, with some awards announced last week.
The Emmy folks needed to make some bold moves after last year's event drew an anemic 12.3 million viewers, an all-time low. It wasn't immediately clear how the CBS telecast of the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards fared Sunday night against the Cowboys-Giants game on NBC – not to mention HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and AMC's "Mad Men," both cable shows with modest, but loyal audiences.
The tough, varied competition is symptomatic of the Emmys' – and network TV's – struggle to regain a mass audience amid a slew of choices on the tube and on the web.
Enter Harris, a 36-year-old all-around entertainer who bridges a range of audiences. The older crowd fondly remembers his debut two decades ago as boy wonder "Doogie Howser, MD." He stars on a hit sitcom, "How I Met Your Mother," which packs some youth appeal. Harris' musical theater background ("Assassins") gives him cred with the song-and-dance set. He's even a cult movie figure, since playing a nasty version of himself in the stoner comedy "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle."
He also commands an Internet following, largely thanks to "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," Joss Whedon's Web musical starring Harris as a lovelorn super villain. Harris donned his Dr. Horrible guise during Sunday's broadcast, in a wink to those in the know, and in an introduction to those who still watch all their video on TV.
"Television is dead, that's right sofa monkeys," Dr. Horrible told the TV industry-filled audience at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre. "The future of entertainment is the Internet!"
Whatever TV's future, Harris at least has made the Tonys and Emmys fun to watch again. For the Oscars, he just may be what the doctor ordered.
Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multi-media NYCity News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is the former City Editor of the New York Daily News, where he started as a reporter in 1992. Follow him on Twitter.


text:
Related provisions for IFPRU 6.1.12
1 - 20 of 28 items.
A VaR model permission will generally set out the broad classes of position within each risk category in its scope. It may also specify how individual products within one of those broad classes may be brought into or taken out of scope of the VaR model permission. These broad classes of permission are as follows:(1) linear products, which comprise securities with linear pay-offs (such as bonds and equities) and derivative products which have linear pay-offs in the underlying risk
A firm should ensure that the data series used by its VaR model is reliable. Where a reliable data series is not available, proxies or any other reasonable value-at-risk measurement may be used when the firm demonstrates that the requirements of article 367(2)(e) of the EU CRR (Requirements for risk measurement) are met. A firm should demonstrate that the technique is appropriate and does not materially understate the modelled risks
A firm is expected to update data sets to ensure standards of reliability are maintained in accordance with the frequency set out in its VaR model permission, or more frequently if volatility in market prices or rates necessitates more frequent updating. This is in order to ensure a prudent calculation of the VaR measure.
(1) In determining whether it is appropriate for a firm to use empirical correlations within risk categories and across risk categories within a model, the FCA expects certain features to be observed in assessing whether such an approach is sound and implemented with integrity. In general, the FCA expects a firm to determine the aggregate VaR measure by adding the relevant VaR measure for each category, unless the firm's permission provides for a different method of aggregating
A firm is expected to provide evidence of its ability to comply with the requirements for a VaR model permission. In general, it will be required to demonstrate this by having a back-testing programme in place and should provide three months of back-testing history.
A period of initial monitoring or live testing is required before a VaR model can be recognised. This will be agreed on a firm-by-firm basis.
In assessing the firm's VaR model and risk management, the results of internal model validation procedures used by the firm to assess the VaR model will be taken into account.
If the day on which a loss is made is day n, the value-at-risk measure for that day will be calculated on day n-1, or overnight between day n-1 and day n. Profit and loss figures are produced on day n+1, and back-testing also takes place on day n+1. The firm's supervisor should be notified of any overshootings by close of business on day n+2.
Any overshooting initially counts for the purpose of the calculation of the plus factor, even if subsequently the FCA agrees to exclude it. Thus, where the firm experiences an overshooting and already has four or more overshootings for the previous 250 business days, changes to the multiplication factor arising from changes to the plus factor become effective at day n+3.
A longer time period generally improves the power of back-testing. However, a longer time period may not be desirable if the VaR model or market conditions have changed to the extent that historical data is no longer relevant.
The FCA, will review as part of a firm's VaR model permission application, the processes and documentation relating to the derivation of profit and loss used for back-testing. A firm's documentation should clearly set out the basis for cleaning profit and loss. To the extent that certain profit and loss elements are not updated every day (for example, certain reserve calculations) the documentation should clearly set out how such elements are included in the profit and loss s
In accordance with article 363(3) of the EU CRR (Permission to use internal models), the FCA expects a firm to provide and discuss with us details of any significant planned changes to the VaR model before those changes are implemented. These details must include detailed information about the nature of the change, including an estimate of the impact on VaR numbers and the incremental risk charge.
The use of overlapping intervals of 10-day holding periods for article 365 of the EU CRR (VaR and stressed VaR calculation) introduces an autocorrelation into the data that would not exist should truly independent 10-day periods be used. This may give rise to an under-estimation of the volatility and the VaR at the 99% confidence level. To obtain clarity on the materiality of the bias, a firm should measure the bias arising from the use of overlapping intervals for 10-day VaR
Article 365 of the EU CRR requires a firm that uses an internal model for calculating its own funds requirement to calculate, at least weekly, a stressed VaR (sVaR) of their current portfolio. When the FCA considers a firm's application to use a sVaR internal model it would expect the features in IFPRU 6.3.20 G to IFPRU 6.3.24 G to be present prior to permission being granted, as indicative that the conditions for granting permission have been met.
The firm should calculate the sVaR measure to be greater than or equal to the average of the 2nd and 3rd worst loss in a 12-month time series comprising of 250 observations. The FCA expects, as a minimum, that a corresponding linear weighting scheme should be applied if the firm uses a larger number of observations.
The firm should ensure that the sVaR period chosen is equivalent to the period that would maximise VaR, given the firm's portfolio. There is an expectation that a stressed period should be identified at each legal entity level at which capital is reported. Therefore, group level sVaR measures should be based on a period that maximises the group level VaR, whereas entity level sVaR should be based on a period that maximises VaR for that entity.
The firm should consider whether the use of antithetic data in the calculation of the sVaR measure is appropriate to the firm's portfolio. A justification for using or not using antithetic data should be provided to the FCA.
The firm should explain the rationale for the choice of absolute or relative shifts for both VaR and sVaR methodologies. In particular, statistical processes driving the risk factor changes need to be evidenced for both VaR and sVaR.
The following information is expected to be submitted quarterly:(1) analysis to support the equivalence of the firm's current approach to a VaR-maximising approach on an ongoing basis; (2) the rationale behind the selection of key major risk factors used to find the period of significant financial stress;(3) summary of ongoing internal monitoring of stressed period selection with respect to current portfolio; (4) analysis to support capital equivalence of upscaled 1-day VaR and
Article 372 of the EU CRR (Requirement to have an internal IRC model) requires a firm that use an internal model for calculating own funds requirements for specific risk of traded debt instruments to also have an internal incremental default and migration risk (IRC) model in place to capture the default and migration risk of its trading book positions that are incremental to the risks captured by its VaR model. When the FCA considers a firm's application to use an IRC internal
The FCA expects the IRC model to capitalise pre-default basis risk. In this respect, the model should reflect that in periods of stress the basis could widen substantially. The firm should disclose to the FCA its material basis risks that are incremental to those already captured in existing market risk capital measures (VaR-based and others). This must take actual close-out periods during periods of illiquidity into account.
To achieve a soundness standard comparable to those under the IRB approach, LGD estimates should reflect the economic cycle. Therefore, the FCA expects a firm to incorporate dependence of the recovery rate on the economic cycle into the IRC model. Should the firm use a conservative parameterisation to comply with the IRB standard of the use of downturn estimates, evidence of this should be submitted in quarterly reporting to the FCA, bearing in mind that for trading portfolios,
Firms should be able to demonstrate that the model drivers selected offer sufficient discriminatory power and to justify why other potential data sources are not expected to materially improve the discriminatory power and accuracy of estimates.
The FCA expects that an IPRE rating system will only be compliant if a firm is able to demonstrate the following in respect of its treatment of cash flows (except where the firm can demonstrate that this is not an appropriate risk driver):(1) the difference in deal ratings when tenant ratings are altered is intuitive;(2) the transformation of ratings into non-rent payment probability is intuitive. Even where tenants are rated by the firm the PD will not usually represent a direct
The FCA expects that firms will not be compliant with the calibration requirements relating to use of a long-run default rate, unless it can demonstrate that:(1) the internal data series is the longest relevant and accurate data series, on a EU CRR compliant definition of default, that is available;(2) the determination of long-run default rate includes reference to an appropriate source of downturn data (this may require the use of external data);(3) the relevance of any external
The FCA expects that a firm will only be compliant with the calibration requirements relating to model philosophy if it can demonstrate that:(1) the model philosophy is clearly articulated and justified. Justification should include analysis of the performance of assets, and the corresponding ratings assigned, over a change in economic conditions (ie, as long as period as possible); and(2) in addition to encapsulating this information in a coherent way in the calibration, the
Where the rating system is classed as a low default portfolio in accordance with the guidance in this section, a firm should be able to demonstrate that the framework applied adequately considers:(1) economic environment of data used;(2) changes in portfolio composition over time;(3) parameter choices; and(4) model philosophy.
Under article 144(1) of the EU CRR, all models, including those constructed from a theoretical basis without reference to any empirical default data (such as Monte-Carlo cash-flow simulation models), must meet the IRB requirements that are set out in Title II Chapter 3 of Part Three of the EU CRR (IRB approach).
The FCA considers that, to meet the requirements referred to in IFPRU 4.11.1 G, it will be necessary for firms to demonstrate that a firm has a good understanding of PD models that are constructed theoretically and that the parameter estimates reflect a one-year PD. In addition, even if empirical data were not used to determine the PD estimate it should, where available, be used to back-test the estimates.
The FCA expects that, as most models of this type will be able to produce one-year estimates of PD that correspond closely to point-in-time estimates, firms should conduct robust back-testing of such estimates by comparing them with realised default rates. Firms would need to demonstrate that the results of such back-testing meet pre-defined and stringent standards in order for the FCA to be satisfied that the IRB requirements are met.
Because assumptions in the model build process are likely to materially impact the resulting PDs, the FCA would expect these choices to be clearly justified in the model documentation and to have been independently reviewed. To be satisfied that a firm is complying with article 176(1)(d) of the EU CRR, the FCA expects a firm to support justification for all assumptions with analysis of the sensitivity of the model outputs to changes in the assumptions.
The FCA expects that a firm will be compliant with the validation requirements only where1it can demonstrate, in respect of discriminatory power, that:11(1) appropriate minimum standards that the rating system is expected to reach are defined, together with reasoning behind the adoption of such standards and that the factors considered when determining the tests are clearly documented;(2) an objective rank-ordering metric, measured using an appropriate time horizon (eg, using
The FCA expects that a firm will be compliant with the validation requirements only where1it can demonstrate in respect of the calibration that:11(1) observed default rate versus PD is considered at grade level and across a range of economic environments (ie, as long as period as possible);(2) where the PD does not relate to a pure point-in-time estimate, either the PD or the observed default rate is transformed such that comparison between the two is meaningful. This transformation
The FCA expects that, over time, the actual default rates incurred in each segment would form the basis of PD estimates for the segments. However, at the outset, the key calibration issue is likely to be the setting of the initial long-run default rate for each segment, as this will underpin the PD of the entire portfolio for some years to come. A firm should apply conservatism in this area and this is something on which the FCA is likely to focus on in model reviews.
To ensure that a rating system provides a meaningful differentiation of risk and accurate and consistent quantitative estimates of risk, the FCA expects a firm to develop country-specific mid-market PD models. Where a firm develops multi-country mid-market PD models, the FCA expects the firm to be able to demonstrate that the model rank orders risk and predicts default rates for each country where it is to be used for own funds requirements calculation.
The FCA expects a firm to have challenging standards in place to meaningfully assess whether a model rank orders risk and accurately predict default rates. These standards should specify the number of defaults that are needed for a meaningful assessment to be done.
The FCA expects a firm to assess the model's ability to predict default rates using a time series of data (ie, not only based on one year of default data).
In the FCA's view, a model is not likely to be compliant where the firm cannot demonstrate that it rank orders risk and predicts default rates for each country, regardless of any apparent conservatism in the model.
The FCA expects a firm to estimate PD for a rating system in line with this section where the firm's internal experience of defaults for that rating system was 20 defaults or fewer, and reliable estimates of PD cannot be derived from external sources of default data, including the use of market price-related data. In PD estimation for all exposures covered by the rating system, the FCA expects the firm to:(1) use a statistical technique to derive the distribution of defaults implied
(1) The methodology for the identification of the risks in IFPRU 6.1.4 R and the calculation of those additional own funds for value-at-risk (VaR) and stressed value-at-risk (stressed VaR) models is called the "RNIV framework". A firm is responsible for identifying these additional risks and this should be an opportunity for risk managers and management to better understand the shortcomings of the firm's models. Following this initial assessment, the FCA will engage with the firm
Delta should be re-calculated at least daily. A firm should also recalculate delta promptly following significant movements in the market parameters used as inputs to calculate delta.
The pricing model used to calculate delta should be:(1) based on appropriate assumptions which have been assessed and challenged by suitably qualified parties independent of the development process; (2) independently tested, including validation of the mathematics, assumptions, and software implementation; and(3) developed or approved independently of the trading desk.
A firm should have adequate systems and controls in place when using pricing models to calculate deltas. This should include the following documented policies and procedures:(1) clearly defined responsibilities of the various areas involved in the calculation;(2) frequency of independent testing of the accuracy of the model used to calculate delta; and(3) guidelines for the use of unobservable inputs, where relevant.
A significant IFPRU firm should consider developing internal specific risk assessment capacity and to increase use of internal models for calculating own funds requirements for specific risk of debt instruments in the trading book, together with internal models to calculate own funds requirements for default and migration risk where its exposures to specific risk are material in absolute terms and where it holds a large number of material positions in debt instruments of different
The areas of responsibility for the credit risk control unit(s) must include the following:(1) testing and monitoring grades and pools;(2) production and analysis of summary reports from the firm'srating systems;(3) implementing procedures to verify that grade and pool definitions are consistently applied across departments and geographic areas;(4) reviewing and documenting any changes to the rating process, including the reasons for the changes;(5) reviewing the rating criteria
Notwithstanding BIPRU 4.3.16 R, a firm using pooled data according to BIPRU 4.3.92 R - BIPRU 4.3.94 R (Overall requirements for estimation) may outsource the following tasks:(1) production of information relevant to testing and monitoring grades and pools;(2) production of summary reports from the firm'srating systems;(3) production of information relevant to review of the rating criteria to evaluate if they remain predictive of risk;(4) documentation of changes to the rating
A firm must document the rationale for and analysis supporting its choice of rating criteria. A firm must document all major changes in the risk rating process, and such documentation must support identification of changes made to the risk rating process subsequent to the last review by the appropriate regulator. The organisation of rating assignment including the rating assignment process and the internal control structure must also be documented.[Note:BCD Annex VII Part 4 point
Where a firm employs statistical models in the rating process, the firm must document its methodologies. This material must:(1) provide a detailed outline of the theory, assumptions and/or mathematical and empirical basis of the assignment of estimates to grades, individual obligors, exposures, or pools, and the data source(s) used to estimate the model;(2) establish a rigorous statistical process (including out-of-time and out-of-sample performance tests) for validating the model;
(1) This paragraph applies to the use of statistical models and/or other mechanical methods to assign exposures to obligor grades, obligor pools, facility grades or facility pools.(2) A firm must be able to demonstrate to the appropriate regulator that the model has good predictive power and that capital requirements are not distorted as a result of its use.(3) The input variables to the model must form a reasonable and effective basis for the resulting predictions. The model
(1) This paragraph contains guidance on BIPRU 4.3.51 R for the use of external models.(2) BIPRU 4.3.51 R (2) - BIPRU 4.3.51 R (8) also apply to mechanical methods to assign exposures or obligors to facility grades or pools and to a combination of models and mechanical methods.(3) The standards which a firm applies to an external model should not be lower than those for internal models. (4) The appropriate regulator will not accredit any individual model or vendor. The burden is
If a firm uses a rating model to assign exposures to the borrower or facility grades, it may reflect the data on main drivers of risk parameters by its inclusion in the model as a risk driver or as part of a subsequent process that adjusts the output of that model to calculate the risk parameters PD, LGD, conversion factor and EL.
(1) If:(a) a firm's internal experience of exposures of a type covered by a model or other rating system is 20 defaults or fewer; and(b) in the firm's view, reliable estimates of PD cannot be derived from external sources of default data, including the use of market price related data, for all the exposures covered by the rating system;the firm must estimate PD for exposures covered by that rating system in accordance with this rule.(2) A firm must use a statistical technique
There are a number of general methodologies for calculating PRR using a VaR model. The appropriate regulator does not prescribe any one method of computing VaR measures. Moreover, it does not wish to discourage any firm from developing alternative risk measurement techniques. A firm should discuss the use of any alternative techniques used to calculate PRR with the appropriate regulator.
The model PRR must be computed at least once every business day, using a 99% one-tailed confidence limit.
A firm may meet the requirement in BIPRU 7.10.26R by using different model parameters and employing a suitable adjustment mechanism to produce a figure which is equivalent to the figure produced using the parameters set out in BIPRU 7.10.26R. For example, a firm's model may use a 95% one-tailed confidence limit if the firm has a mechanism to convert the output of the model to reflect a 99% one-tailed confidence limit.
3A firm must validate its approach to incremental risk charge. In particular, a firm must: (1) validate that its modelling approach for correlations and price changes is appropriate for its portfolio, including the choice and weights of its systematic risk factors;(2) perform a variety of stress tests (not limited to the range of events experienced historically), including sensitivity analysis and scenario analysis, to assess the qualitative and quantitative reasonableness of
3A firm must document its approach for the incremental risk charge clearly, setting out its correlation and other modelling assumptions.
3As part of its VaR model permission, the appropriate regulator may authorise a firm to use the all price risk measure to calculate an additional capital charge in relation to positions in its correlation trading portfolio if it meets the following minimum standards:(1) it adequately captures all price risks at a 99.9% confidence interval over a capital horizon of one year under the assumption of a constant level of risk, and adjusted, where appropriate, to reflect the impact
A firm with a complex portfolio is expected to demonstrate greater sophistication in its modelling and risk management than a firm with a simple portfolio. For example, a firm will be expected to consider, where necessary, varying degrees of liquidity for different risk factors, the complexity of risk modelling across time zones, product categories and risk factors. Some trade-off is permissible between the sophistication and accuracy of the model and the conservatism of underlying
Firms who gained model recognition before 1 January 2007 will be permitted to calculate PRR for specific risk in accordance with the methodology they were permitted to use immediately before that date instead of capturing event and default risk in their models (see BIPRU TP 14 (Market risk: VaR models)). This treatment will not be available to a firm that gains model recognition after that date.
In relation to a firm whose activities are moderately complex, in carrying out its ICAAP, BIPRU 2.2.25 G (3) to (4) apply. In addition, it could:(1) having consulted the management in each major business line, prepare a comprehensive list of the major risks to which the business is exposed;(2) estimate, with the aid of historical data, where available, the range and distribution of possible losses which might arise from each of those risks and consider using shock stress tests
(1) This paragraph applies to a proportional ICAAP in the case of a firm whose activities are complex.(2) A proportional approach to that firm'sICAAP should cover the matters identified in BIPRU 2.2.26 G, but is likely also to involve the use of models, most of which will be integrated into its day-to-day management and operation.(3) Models of the sort referred to in (2) may be linked so as to generate an overall estimate of the amount of capital that a firm considers appropriate
If a firm adopts a top-down approach to developing its internal model, it should be able to allocate the outcome of the internal model to risks it has previously identified in relation to each separate legal entity, business unit or business activity, as appropriate. In relation to a firm which is a member of a group, GENPRU 1.2.53 R (Application of GENPRU 1.2 on a solo and consolidated basis: Processes and tests) sets out how internal capital identified as necessary by that firm'sICAAP
If a firm's internal model makes explicit or implicit assumptions in relation to correlations within or between risk types, or in relation to diversification benefits between business types, the firm should be able to explain to the appropriate regulator, with the support of empirical evidence, the basis of those assumptions.
A firm's model should also reflect the past experience of both the firm and the sectors in which it operates.
The values assigned to inputs into a firm's model should be derived either stochastically, by assuming the value of an item can follow an appropriate probability distribution and by selecting appropriate values at the tail of the distribution, or deterministically, using appropriate prudent assumptions. For options or guarantees which change in value significantly in certain economic or demographic circumstances, a stochastic approach would normally be appropriate.
Without prejudice to other provisions in BIPRU 7.7, a position in a CIU is subject to a collective investment undertaking PRR (general market risk and specific risk) of 32%. Without prejudice to provisions in BIPRU 7.5.18R (Foreign currency PRR for CIUs) or, if the firm has a VaR model permission, BIPRU 7.10.44R (Commodity risks and VaR models) taken together with BIPRU 7.5.18R, where the modified gold treatment set out in those rules is used, a position in a CIU is subject to
(1) Where a firm is aware of the underlying investments of the CIU on a daily basis the firm may look through to those underlying investments in order to calculate the securities PRR for position risk (general market risk and specific risk) for those positions in accordance with the methods set out in the securities PRR requirements or, if the firm has a VaR model permission, in accordance with the methods set out in BIPRU 7.10 (Use of a Value at Risk Model).(2) Under this approach,
Where BIPRU 7.7 permits a firm to calculate the PRR charge for a position in a CIU using the rules in BIPRU 7 relating to the underlying investment, a firm that has:(1) a CAD 1 model waiver that covers positions in CIUs may use the rules as modified by that waiver; and(2) a VaR model permission that covers positions in CIUs may use its VaR model.
Where a firm adjusts assumed house price values within its LGD models to take account of current market conditions (for example, appropriate house price indices), the FCA recognises that realised falls in market values may be captured automatically. A firm adopting such approaches may remove observed house price falls from its downturn house price adjustment so as not to double count. A firm wishing to apply such an approach must seek the consent of the FCA and be able to demonstrate
The FCA uses a framework for assessing the conservatism of a firm's wholesale LGD models for which there are a low number of defaults. This framework is set out in IFPRU 4 Annex 2G (Wholesale LGD and EAD framework) and does not apply to sovereign LGD estimates which are floored at 45%. This framework is also in the process of being used to assess the calibration of a firm's material LGD-models for low-default portfolios.
In the following cases, the FCA expects a firm to determine the effect of applying the framework in IFPRU 4 Annex 2G (Wholesale LGD and EAD framework) to models which include LGD values that are based on fewer than 20 'relevant' data points (as defined in IFPRU 4 Annex 2G):(1) the model is identified for review by the FCA; or(2) the firm submits a request for approval for a material change to its LGD model.
A firm is required under GENPRU 2.1.52 R (Calculation of the market risk capital requirement) to calculate its market risk capital requirement using the rules in BIPRU 7. However, the appropriate regulator may at the firm's request modify GENPRU 2.1.52 R to allow the firm to calculate all or part of the PRR for the positions covered by that model by using a CAD 1 model (for options risk aggregation and/or interest rate pre-processing) or a VaR model (value at risk model) instead.
Waivers permitting the use of models in the calculation of PRR will not be granted if that would be contrary to the CAD. Any waiver which is granted will only be granted on terms that are compatible with the CAD. Accordingly, the only waivers permitting the use of models in calculating PRR that the appropriate regulator is likely to grant are CAD 1 model waivers and VaR model permissions.
The appropriate regulator does not specify the methodology that a firm should employ in order to produce the appropriate outputs from its options risk aggregation CAD 1 model. However, BIPRU 7.9.27G - BIPRU 7.9.43G provide details of how a firm could meet the requirement to capture gamma, vega and rho risks using a scenario matrix approach. Where a firm adopts the scenario matrix approach then the standards set out in BIPRU 7.9.27G - BIPRU 7.9.43G should be followed. The firm
There are a number of different methods of constructing pre-processing models but all should comply with BIPRU 7.9.45G - BIPRU 7.9.53G. All pre-processing models should generate positions that have the same sensitivity to defined interest rate changes as the underlying cash flows.
For an unrated position the supervisory formula method must be used except where a firm uses the ABCP internal assessment approach.[Note:BCD Annex IX Part 4 point 39]
In cases where both the ABCP internal assessment approach and the supervisory formula method are available, a firm should determine the most appropriate approach and apply that approach consistently.
Subject to any IRB permission of the type described in BIPRU 9.12.28 G, in the case of an originator or sponsor unable to calculate KIRB and which has not obtained approval to use the ABCP internal assessment approach, and in the case of other firms where they have not obtained approval to use the supervisory formula method or, for positions in ABCP programmes, the ABCP internal assessment approach, a risk weight of 1250% must be assigned to securitisation positions which are
(1) A firm may apply for an Article 129 permission or a waiver in respect of:(a) the IRB approach;(b) [deleted]55(c) the CCR internal model method; and(d) the VaR model approach.(2) A firm should apply for a waiver if it wants to:(a) apply the CAD 1 model approach; or2(b) apply the master netting agreement internal models approach; or2(c) disapply consolidated supervision under BIPRU 8 for its UK consolidation group or non-EEAsub-group; or2(d) apply the treatment in BIPRU 2.1
Where a firm applies for a VaR model permission, the firm must state whether it is making an application for a waiver or an Article 129 permission.
The risk weighted exposure amount is the potential loss on the firm'sequity exposures as derived using internal value-at-risk models subject to the 99th percentile, one-tailed confidence interval of the difference between quarterly returns and an appropriate risk-free rate computed over a long-term sample period, multiplied by 12.5. The risk weighted exposure amounts at the equity exposure portfolio2 level must not be less than the total of the sums2 of the minimum risk weighted
(1) A firm must meet the standards set out in (2) to (9) for the purpose of calculating capital requirements.(2) The estimate of potential loss must be robust to adverse market movements relevant to the long-term risk profile of the firm's specific holdings. The data used to represent return distributions must reflect the longest sample period for which data is available and be meaningful in representing the risk profile of the firm's specific equity exposures. The data used must
(1) With regard to the development and use of internal models for capital requirement purposes, a firm must establish policies, procedures, and controls to ensure the integrity of the model and modelling process. These policies, procedures, and controls must include the ones set out in the rest of this paragraph.(2) There must be full integration of the internal model into the overall management information systems of the firm and in the management of the non-trading bookequity
Article 331(2) of the EU CRR (Interest rate risk in derivative instruments) states conditions that must be met before a firm not using interest rate pre-processing models can fully offset interest-rate risk on derivative instruments. One of the conditions is that the reference rate (for floating-rate positions) or coupon (for fixed-rate positions) should be 'closely matched'. The FCA will normally consider a difference of less than 15 basis points as indicative of the reference
(1) The FCA's starting assumption is that all overshootings should be taken into account for the purpose of the calculation of addends. If a firm believes that an overshooting should not count for that purpose, then it should seek a variation of its VaR model permission under article 363 of the EU CRR (Permission to use internal models) in order to exclude that particular overshooting. The FCA would then decide whether to agree to such a variation. (2) One example of when a firm's
For purposes of repurchase transactions and securities lending or borrowing transactions, the FCA does not consider that there are any core market participants apart from those entities listed in article 227(3) of the EU CRR.
(1) A firm must be able to satisfy the appropriate regulator that the firm's risk management system for managing the risks arising on the transactions covered by the master netting agreement is conceptually sound and implemented with integrity and that, in particular, the minimum qualitative standards in (2) - (11) are met.(2) The internal risk-measurement model used for calculation of potential price volatility for the transactions is closely integrated into the daily risk-management
The internal risk-measurement model must capture a sufficient number of risk factors in order to capture all material price risks.[Note: BCD Annex VIII Part 3 point 18]
Where there is considerable variation in the cost of the option depending on conditions at the time the option is exercised, and where that variation constitutes a material risk for the firm, it will generally be appropriate to use stochastic modelling. In this case prices from the asset model used in the stochastic approach should be benchmarked to relevant market asset prices before determining the value of the option. Where stochastic modelling is not undertaken, market option
Where the option offers a choice between two non-discretionary financial benefits (such as between a guaranteed cash sum or a guaranteed annuity value, or between a unit value and a maturity guarantee) and where there is a wide range of possible outcomes, the firm should normally model such liabilities stochastically. In carrying out such modelling firms should take into account the likely choices to be made by policyholders in each scenario. Firms should make and retain a record
Where rating agency experience or the output of a statistical default model are the primary component of PD estimation, a firm should consider whether it needs to make adjustments for other relevant information, such as internal experience, conservatism and cyclical effects. In making these adjustments, a firm should consider the extent to which it needs to take account of the potential for both under-recording of actual defaults experienced and divergence of actual experience
Table: Formulae for the calculation of risk weighted exposure amountsThis table belongs to BIPRU 4.4.57 RCorrelation (R)0.12 × (1 - EXP(-50*PD))/(1-EXP(-50)) + 0.24*[1-(1-EXP(-50*PD))/(1-EXP(-50))]Maturity factor (b)(0.11852-0.05478*1n(PD))2(LGD*N[(1-R)-0.5*G(PD)+(R/(1-R))0.5 *G(0.999)]-PD*LGD)*(1-1.5*b)-1*(1+(M-2.5)*b)*12.5*1.06N(x)denotes the cumulative distribution function for a standard normal random variable (i.e. the probability that a normal random variable with mean zero
If a firm uses separate models for the purpose of the IRB approach and for its internal purposes as referred to in BIPRU 4.2.2 R (2) it must be able to demonstrate the reasonableness of any differences between those models.
If a firm uses scorecards for its internal credit approval process and the models it uses for the purpose of the IRB approach are fundamentally different from those scorecards, a firm's demonstration of how this is compatible with BIPRU 4.2.2 R (2) might include demonstrating that estimates calculated under the IRB approach are used to change sanctioning decisions at an individual or portfolio level. Examples of this might include amending cut-offs, the application of policy rules,
A firm should not expect the appropriate regulator to accept as adequate any particular model that the firm develops or that the results from the model are automatically reflected in any individual capital guidance given to the firm for the purpose of determining adequate capital resources. However, the appropriate regulator will take into account the results of any sound and prudent model when giving individual capital guidance or considering applications for a waiver under sections


text:
by Martin Lewis
"The roots of this idea go back 400 years -- but Martin Lewis has yanked it into the 21st century. It was worth the wait." -Max Maven
Precognition: Clairvoyance relating to an event or state not yet experienced. In this case to foretell a video event before it occurs.
A spectator chooses one of six disks and places it into a DVD player. They then choose an episode on that disk, then a chapter from that episode. Before they hit the play button you describe a scene in detail. They then play their selection and it matches your description perfectly.
The disks can be checked both before and after, all the episodes and chapters are different.
The effect plays in almost any venue, from a TV set in a living room to a full size auditorium. If the theater has multimedia capabilities the effect plays huge.
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