query: Silicon Valley employed about 250,000 information technology workers.

pos: Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a nickname for the southern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area , in the northern part of the U.S. state of California . The `` valley '' in its name refers to the Santa Clara Valley in Santa Clara County , which includes the city of San Jose and surrounding cities and towns , where the region has been traditionally centered . The region has expanded to include the southern half of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Mateo County , and southern portions of the East Bay in Alameda County .   The word `` silicon '' originally referred to the large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers in the region , but the area is now the home to many of the world 's largest high-tech corporations , including the headquarters of 39 businesses in the Fortune 1000 , and thousands of startup companies . Silicon Valley also accounts for one-third of all of the venture capital investment in the United States , which has helped it to become a leading hub and startup ecosystem for high-tech innovation and scientific development . It was in the Valley that the silicon-based integrated circuit , the microprocessor , and the microcomputer , among other key technologies , were developed . As of 2013 , the region employed about a quarter of a million information technology workers .   As more high-tech companies were established across the Santa Clara Valley , and then north towards the Bay Area 's two other major cities , San Francisco and Oakland , the `` Silicon Valley '' name eventually came to refer to all high-tech businesses in the region . The term is now generally used as a synecdoche for the American high-technology economic sector . The name also became a global synonym for leading high-tech research and enterprises , and thus inspired similar named locations , as well as research parks and technology centers with a comparable structure all around the world .

neg: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers ( KPCB ) is an American venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park in Silicon Valley . Specializing in investments in incubation , early stage and growth companies , since its founding in 1972 the firm has backed entrepreneurs in around 500 ventures , including AOL , Amazon.com , Compaq , Electronic Arts , Google , Netscape , Sun Microsystems , Nest , Snap , AppDynamics , and Twitter . Kleiner Perkins focuses its global investments in practice areas including technology and life sciences . The Wall Street Journal and other publications have called it one of the `` largest and most established '' venture capital firms and Dealbook named it `` one of Silicon Valley 's top venture capital providers . '' In addition to its Menlo Park headquarters , the company has offices in San Francisco and Shanghai , China .

neg: Fairchild Systems Fairchild Systems was a United States defense contractor which is now part of BAE Systems Electronics , Intelligence & Support . A descendant of Fairchild Camera and Instrument , the San Francisco Chronicle described Fairchild Systems as `` one of the legendary names of Silicon Valley '' and that in `` the late 1960s , -LSB- its -RSB- Bay Area operations were the training ground for the engineers who went on to found Intel and other top semiconductor companies . ''

neg: Esri Esri ( -LSB- ˈɛzriː -RSB- , a.k.a. Environmental Systems Research Institute ) is an international supplier of geographic information system ( GIS ) software , web GIS and geodatabase management applications . The company is headquartered in Redlands , California .   The company was founded as Environmental Systems Research Institute in 1969 as a land-use consulting firm . Esri products ( particularly ArcGIS Desktop ) have 40.7 % of the global market share . In 2014 , Esri had approximately a 43 percent share of the GIS software market worldwide , more than any other vendor .   The company has 10 regional offices in the U.S. and a network of 80 + international distributors , with about a million users in 200 countries . The firm has 3,200 employees in the U.S. , and is still privately held by the founders . In 2006 , revenues were about $ 660 million . In a 2016 Investor 's Business Daily article , Esri 's annual revenues were indicated to be $ 1.1 Billion , from 300,000 customers ( $ 4000/customer/year ) .   The company hosts an annual International User 's Conference , which was first held on the Redlands campus in 1981 with 16 attendees . The User 's Conference has been held in San Diego at the San Diego Convention Center since 1997 . An estimated 15,000 users from 131 countries attended in 2012 .

neg: Metro Silicon Valley Metro is a free weekly newspaper published by the San Jose , California , based Metro Newspapers . Also known as Metro Silicon Valley , the paper serves the greater Silicon Valley area . In addition to print form , Metro can be downloaded , in PDF format , for free from the publisher 's website . Metro also keeps tabs on local politics and the `` chattering '' class of San Jose through its weekly column , The Fly .   The newspaper has been published since 1985 and is one of the remaining owner-operated publications in the alternative press . Its principal distribution area encompasses the cities of San Jose , Los Gatos , Campbell , Saratoga , Santa Clara , Sunnyvale , Cupertino , Milpitas , Mountain View , Los Altos and Palo Alto .

neg: Sales engineering Sales engineering is a hybrid of sales and engineering that exists in industrial and commercial markets . Buying decisions in these markets are made differently than those in many consumer contexts , being based more on technical information and rational analysis and less on style , fashion , or impulse . Therefore , selling in these markets can not depend on consumer-type sales methods alone , and instead it relies heavily on technical information and problem-solving to convince buyers that they should spend money on the seller 's products or services , in order to meet a business need ( that is , to satisfy a business case ) . A sales engineer is thus both `` a salesperson that understands and can apply engineering '' and `` an engineer that understands how to sell engineered systems '' . They thus not only sell but also provide advice and support . They provide this service to various internal or external customers , and they may work for a manufacturer ( servicing its industrial-account/business-to-business customers ) , for a distributor ( which in turn services the industrial-account/business-to-business customers ) , or for a third party such as an engineering consultancy or a systems integrator .   Sales Engineers are a critical sales team member in many companies and industries around the world . They are more than just technical experts in their respective industries . Highly successful sales engineers must build and maintain parallel expertise in `` soft skill '' disciplines such as business acumen , presentation skills , building customer relationships , developing an engagement strategy , and having a thorough understanding of the targeted industry . Many companies have difficulty finding people who possess these qualities , plus have extensive technical knowledge .   The essence of the sales engineering role can be called by various names . Which name is most apt can even depend on which industry it is used in . Some common job titles that involve the essence of sales engineering include Sales Engineer , Solutions Engineer , Systems Engineer , Customer Engineer , ( pre-sales ) consultant , Technical Account Manager ; Applications Engineer or Field Applications Engineer , and others . The term systems engineering has various shades of meaning , however , as it is often more or less synonymous with industrial engineering ; but in any market economy , industrial engineers will often end up providing some sales engineering as a necessary portion of their work . Service technicians in industrial fields may also find that their work challenges them to provide some sales engineering , to whatever extent they are capable of providing it , because they interface with customers having problems with equipment ( or lacking the right equipment ) and seeking solutions ( anywhere from diagnosis and repair , to identifying entirely different systems that could be used instead ) .

neg: Global workforce Global workforce refers to the international labor pool of workers , including those employed by multinational companies and connected through a global system of networking and production , immigrant workers , transient migrant workers , telecommuting workers , those in export-oriented employment , contingent work or other precarious employment . As of 2012 , the global labor pool consisted of approximately 3 billion workers , around 200 million unemployed .

neg: File system In computing , a file system or filesystem is used to control how data is stored and retrieved . Without a file system , information placed in a storage medium would be one large body of data with no way to tell where one piece of information stops and the next begins . By separating the data into pieces and giving each piece a name , the information is easily isolated and identified . Taking its name from the way paper-based information systems are named , each group of data is called a `` file '' . The structure and logic rules used to manage the groups of information and their names is called a `` file system '' .   There are many different kinds of file systems . Each one has different structure and logic , properties of speed , flexibility , security , size and more . Some file systems have been designed to be used for specific applications . For example , the ISO 9660 file system is designed specifically for optical discs .   File systems can be used on numerous different types of storage devices that use different kinds of media . The most common storage device in use today is a hard disk drive . Other kinds of media that are used include flash memory , magnetic tapes , and optical discs . In some cases , such as with tmpfs , the computer 's main memory ( random-access memory , RAM ) is used to create a temporary file system for short-term use .   Some file systems are used on local data storage devices ; others provide file access via a network protocol ( for example , NFS , SMB , or 9P clients ) . Some file systems are `` virtual '' , meaning that the supplied `` files '' ( called virtual files ) are computed on request ( e.g. procfs ) or are merely a mapping into a different file system used as a backing store . The file system manages access to both the content of files and the metadata about those files . It is responsible for arranging storage space ; reliability , efficiency , and tuning with regard to the physical storage medium are important design considerations .

neg: Integrated circuit layout Integrated circuit layout , also known IC layout , IC mask layout , or mask design , is the representation of an integrated circuit in terms of planar geometric shapes which correspond to the patterns of metal , oxide , or semiconductor layers that make up the components of the integrated circuit .   When using a standard process -- where the interaction of the many chemical , thermal , and photographic variables is known and carefully controlled -- the behaviour of the final integrated circuit depends largely on the positions and interconnections of the geometric shapes . Using a computer-aided layout tool , the layout engineer -- or layout technician -- places and connects all of the components that make up the chip such that they meet certain criteria -- typically : performance , size , density , and manufacturability . This practice is often subdivided between two primary layout disciplines : Analog and digital .   The generated layout must pass a series of checks in a process known as physical verification . The most common checks in this verification process are  design rule checking ( DRC ) ,  layout versus schematic ( LVS ) ,  parasitic extraction ,  antenna rule checking , and  electrical rule checking ( ERC ) .   When all verification is complete , the data is translated into an industry-standard format , typically GDSII , and sent to a semiconductor foundry . The process of sending this data to the foundry is called tapeout because the data used to be shipped out on a magnetic tape . The foundry converts the data into another format and uses it to generate the photomasks used in a photolithographic process of semiconductor device fabrication .   In the earlier , simpler , days of IC design , layout was done by hand using opaque tapes and films , much like the early days of printed circuit board ( PCB ) design . Modern IC layout is done with the aid of IC layout editor software , mostly automatically using EDA tools , including place and route tools or schematic-driven layout tools . The manual operation of choosing and positioning the geometric shapes is informally known as `` polygon pushing '' .

neg: HP Time-Shared BASIC HP Time-Shared BASIC ( HP TSB ) is an interpreter software system that was sold by the Hewlett-Packard Company in the late 1960s and 1970s , based on their HP 2100 line of minicomputers . The system implements a dialect of the BASIC programming language and a rudimentary user account and program library system . The software was also known by its versioned name , tied to the hardware version on which it ran , such as HP 2000C Time-Shared BASIC and the operating system came in different varieties -- 2000A , 2000B , 2000C , High-Speed 2000C , 2000E , 2000F , and 2000/Access . The system is historically notable as the platform that released the first public versions of the game Star Trek .   Except for the 2000A and 2000E systems , the system is implemented using a dual-processor architecture . One fully configured HP 2100-series processor is used for execution of most of the system code and all of the user code and a second , smaller HP 2100-series processor is used to handle the RS-232 serial lines through which the time-sharing users connected . Depending on the hardware configuration , the system supports up to 16 or up to 32 simultaneous remote users . The usual terminal for a TSB system was a Teletype Model 33 ASR and connected directly to the I/O processor or through a modem or acoustic coupler . Account names are a combination of one alphabetic character , followed by three decimal digits , e.g. , B001 . Privileged accounts started with the letter `` A '' and had some additional command and program storage capabilities . The superuser account is A000 . This scheme allows up to 26,000 user accounts . ( In the offshoot system created by BTI Computer Systems accounts beginning with '' @ '' were superuser accounts . )   During execution , user programs are swapped to fixed-head drum memory . When not executing , user programs are stored on moving-head cartridge - or pack-loaded disk storage . Privileged users can also store programs on the much-faster drum . The hard drive was backed up to magnetic tape .   Program and file names consist of a mix of up to six alphabetic characters ( A-Z ) and numbers ( 0-9 ) . Programs are stored in a tokenized format , using the SAVE command . They can also be stored in a semi-compiled format , using the CSAVE command , which allows them to start quicker . Since the system was closely tied to the use of commonly available teleprinters , line endings in files consisted of the carriage return character ( ASCII CR , 0D hexadecimal ) , followed by the linefeed character ( ASCII LF , 0A hexadecimal ) .   The language is a fairly standard implementation of BASIC , providing an integrated editing and runtime environment . Statements are analyzed for correct syntax as they are entered and then stored in tokenized form . Each BASIC statement has to be on a uniquely numbered line , e.g. , 10 PRINT `` HELLO WORLD '' and can only contain one statement , although multiple variable assignments are allowed , e.g. , 20 LET A = B = C = 42 ( use of the word `` LET '' was optional ) . Line numbers are mandatory and statements are automatically placed in ascending numeric sequence .   In the earliest version ( 2000A ) , the language supported the following features . Later versions added many more features .  Unconditional program flow-control via GOTO statements , and subroutines via the GOSUB and RETURN statements  Conditional flow-control via IF/THEN statement and simple variable-based block loop FOR and NEXT statements  Calculated flow-control via the GOTO/OF and GOSUB/OF statements  In-code data storage via DATA , READ , and RESTORE statements  Input from and output to the user or a disc file via INPUT , READ # , PRINT , PRINT # , and IF END # statements  Numeric variables of the form `` A '' or `` An '' ( where A is a single letter and n a single , optional digit ) stored as 32-bit floating-point numbers  String variables of the form `` A$ '' ( where A is a single letter ) , storing from 0 to 72 characters  One - or two-dimensional matrix ( array ) variables of the form `` A -LSB- x -RSB- '' or `` A -LSB- x , y -RSB- ''  Matrix operations via statements ( MAT READ , MAT INPUT , MAT PRINT , MAT =) and operations ( + , - , * , ZER , CON , IDN , INV , TRN )  Boolean operators ( AND , OR , NOT ) and relational operators ( < , < = , = , # , < > , > = , and > )  Built-in mathematical functions including trigonometric ( SIN , COS , TAN , ATN ) , logarithms ( LOG , EXP ) , square root ( SQR ) , random number generator ( RND ) , others ( ABS , INT , SGN , MIN , MAX ) , and user-defined functions  Punched tape operations using Teletype Model 33 electromechanical teleprinter remote terminals   Substrings within strings are accessed using a substring notation : `` A$ ( L , R ) '' or `` A$ -LSB- L , R -RSB- '' , where the substring begins with the leftmost character specified by the index L and continues to the rightmost character specified by the index R , `` A$ -LSB- L -RSB- '' where the substring starts at the leftmost character specified by the index L and continues to the end of the string . ( TSB accepts or -LSB- -RSB- interchangeably . ) This is in sharp contrast to some later microcomputer BASICs that use functions such as LEFT$ , MID$ , and RIGHT$ to access substrings , although ANSI BASIC continues to use a similar substring syntax to that introduced by Hewlett-Packard . HP 's notation can also be used on the destination side of a LET or INPUT statement to modify part of an existing string value , for example 100 A$ -LSB- 3,5 -RSB- = `` XYZ '' or 120 B$ -LSB- 3 -RSB- = `` CHANGE ALL BUT FIRST TWO CHARS '' , which can not be done with early implementations of LEFT/MID/RIGHT $ .   Array and substring indices start with 1 . Boolean and relational operators can be used in any mathematical expression ( giving 0 for false or 1 for true ) , which was unusual for BASIC languages of that time , but became very popular in languages like C.   Differences from Dartmouth BASIC included the use of square brackets for arrays and # for < > .

neg: Semiconductor industry The semiconductor industry is the aggregate collection of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductor devices . It formed around 1960 , once the fabrication of semiconductors became a viable business . It has since grown to be a $ 335.2 billion industry in 2015 .

neg: USens uSens , Inc. is a Silicon Valley start-up founded in 2013 in San Jose , California . The core team includes researchers and developers of advanced user interaction technologies , including gesture recognition , position tracking and 3D Human -- computer interaction ( HCI ) system design .   Since December 2014 , uSens has been focused on creating interactive virtual reality products , including its consumer-level wireless , interactive VR/AR head-mounted display system , Impression Pi .   uSens has its corporate headquarters in San Jose , California , with additional offices in China in Beijing , Hangzhou , and Shenzhen .

neg: Information Age The Information Age ( also known as the Computer Age , Digital Age , or New Media Age ) is a period in human history characterized by the shift from traditional industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through industrialization , to an economy based on information computerization . The onset of the Information Age is associated with the Digital Revolution , just as the Industrial Revolution marked the onset of the Industrial Age . The definition of what digital means ( or what information means ) continues to change over time as new technologies , user devices , methods of interaction with other humans and devices enter the domain of research , development and market launch .   During the Information Age , the phenomenon is that the digital industry creates a knowledge-based society surrounded by a high-tech global economy that spans over its influence on how the manufacturing throughout and the service sector operate in an efficient and convenient way . In a commercialized society , the information industry is able to allow individuals to explore their personalized needs , therefore simplifying the procedure of making decisions for transactions and significantly lowering costs for both the producers and buyers . This is accepted overwhelmingly by participants throughout the entire economic activities for efficacy purposes , and new economic incentives would then be indigenously encouraged , such as the knowledge economy .   The Information Age formed by capitalizing on computer microminiaturization advances . This evolution of technology in daily life and social organization has led to the fact that the modernization of information and communication processes has become the driving force of social evolution .

neg: Social shaping of technology According to Robin A. Williams and David Edge ( 1996 ) , `` Central to social shaping of technology ( SST ) is the concept that there are choices ' ( though not necessarily conscious choices ) inherent in both the design of individual artifacts and systems , and in the direction or trajectory of innovation programs . ''   If technology does not emerge from the unfolding of a predetermined logic or a single determinant , then innovation is a ` garden of forking paths ' . Different routes are available , potentially leading to different technological outcomes . Significantly , these choices could have differing implications for society and for particular social groups .   SST is one of the models of the technology : society relationship which emerged in the 1980s with MacKenzie and Wajcman 's influential 1985 collection , alongside Pinch and Bijker 's social construction of technology framework and Callon and Latour 's actor-network theory . These have a common feature of criticism of the linear model of innovation and technological determinism . It differs from these notably in the attention it pays to the influence of the social and technological context of development which shapes innovation choices . SST is concerned to explore the material consequences of different technical choices , but criticises technological determinism , which argues that technology follows its own developmental path , outside of human influences , and in turn , influences society . In this way , social shaping theorists conceive the relationship between technology and society as one of ` mutual shaping ' .

neg: Technological unemployment Technological unemployment is the loss of jobs caused by technological change . Such change typically includes the introduction of labour-saving `` mechanical-muscle '' machines or more efficient `` mechanical-mind '' processes ( automation ) . Just as horses employed as prime movers were gradually made obsolete by the automobile , humans ' jobs have also been affected throughout modern history . Historical examples include artisan weavers reduced to poverty after the introduction of mechanised looms . During World War II , Alan Turing 's Bombe machine compressed and decoded thousands of man-years worth of encrypted data in a matter of hours . A contemporary example of technological unemployment is the displacement of retail cashiers by self-service tills .   That technological change can cause short-term job losses is widely accepted . The view that it can lead to lasting increases in unemployment has long been controversial . Participants in the technological unemployment debates can be broadly divided into optimists and pessimists . Optimists agree that innovation may be disruptive to jobs in the short term , yet hold that various compensation effects ensure there is never a long-term negative impact on jobs . Whereas pessimists contend that at least in some circumstances , new technologies can lead to a lasting decline in the total number of workers in employment . The phrase `` technological unemployment '' was popularised by John Maynard Keynes in the 1930s . Yet the issue of machines displacing human labour has been discussed since at least Aristotle 's time .   Prior to the 18th century both the elite and common people would generally take the pessimistic view on technological unemployment , at least in cases where the issue arose . Due to generally low unemployment in much of pre-modern history , the topic was rarely a prominent concern . In the 18th century fears over the impact of machinery on jobs intensified with the growth of mass unemployment , especially in Great Britain which was then at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution . Yet some economic thinkers began to argue against these fears , claiming that overall innovation would not have negative effects on jobs . These arguments were formalised in the early 19th century by the classical economists . During the second half of the 19th century , it became increasingly apparent that technological progress was benefiting all sections of society , including the working class . Concerns over the negative impact of innovation diminished . The term `` Luddite fallacy '' was coined to describe the thinking that innovation would have lasting harmful effects on employment .   The view that technology is unlikely to lead to long term unemployment has been repeatedly challenged by a minority of economists . In the early 1800s these included Ricardo himself . There were dozens of economists warning about technological unemployment during brief intensifications of the debate that spiked in the 1930s and 1960s . Especially in Europe , there were further warnings in the closing two decades of the twentieth century , as commentators noted an enduring rise in unemployment suffered by many industrialised nations since the 1970s . Yet a clear majority of both professional economists and the interested general public held the optimistic view through most of the 20th century .   In the second decade of the 21st century , a number of studies have been released suggesting that technological unemployment may be increasing worldwide . Further increases are forecast for the years to come . While many economists and commentators still argue such fears are unfounded , as was widely accepted for most of the previous two centuries , concern over technological unemployment is growing once again . A report in Wired in 2017 quotes knowledgeable people such as economist Gene Sperling and management professor Andrew McAfee on the idea that handling existing and impending job loss to automation is a `` significant issue '' . Regarding a recent claim by a political appointee that automation is not `` going to have any kind of big effect on the economy for the next 50 or 100 years , '' says McAfee , `` I do n't talk to anyone in the field who believes that . '' Innovations like Watson have the potential to render humans obsolete with the professional , white-collar , low-skilled , creative fields , and other `` mental jobs '' .

neg: Utility computing Utility computing , or The Computer Utility , is a service provisioning model in which a service provider makes computing resources and infrastructure management available to the customer as needed , and charges them for specific usage rather than a flat rate . Like other types of on-demand computing ( such as grid computing ) , the utility model seeks to maximize the efficient use of resources and/or minimize associated costs . Utility is the packaging of computing resources , such as computation , storage and services , as a metered service . This model has the advantage of a low or no initial cost to acquire computer resources ; instead , computational resources are essentially rented .   This repackaging of computing services became the foundation of the shift to `` on demand '' computing , software as a service and cloud computing models that further propagated the idea of computing , application and network as a service .   There was some initial skepticism about such a significant shift . However , the new model of computing caught on and eventually became mainstream .   IBM , HP and Microsoft were early leaders in the new field of utility computing , with their business units and researchers working on the architecture , payment and development challenges of the new computing model . Google , Amazon and others started to take the lead in 2008 , as they established their own utility services for computing , storage and applications .   Utility computing can support grid computing which has the characteristic of very large computations or sudden peaks in demand which are supported via a large number of computers .   `` Utility computing '' has usually envisioned some form of virtualization so that the amount of storage or computing power available is considerably larger than that of a single time-sharing computer . Multiple servers are used on the `` back end '' to make this possible . These might be a dedicated computer cluster specifically built for the purpose of being rented out , or even an under-utilized supercomputer . The technique of running a single calculation on multiple computers is known as distributed computing .   The term `` grid computing '' is often used to describe a particular form of distributed computing , where the supporting nodes are geographically distributed or cross administrative domains . To provide utility computing services , a company can `` bundle '' the resources of members of the public for sale , who might be paid with a portion of the revenue from clients .   One model , common among volunteer computing applications , is for a central server to dispense tasks to participating nodes , on the behest of approved end-users ( in the commercial case , the paying customers ) . Another model , sometimes called the Virtual Organization ( VO ) , is more decentralized , with organizations buying and selling computing resources as needed or as they go idle .   The definition of `` utility computing '' is sometimes extended to specialized tasks , such as web services .

neg: T-Platforms T-Platforms is a Russian supercomputer company .   Founded in 2002 , T-Platforms Group is headquartered in Moscow , Russia with regional offices in Hanover , Germany , Hong Kong , China and Taipei , Taiwan . The company has implemented more than 300 integrated projects , six of which were included in the Top500 list of the world 's most powerful supercomputers . T-Platforms owns patents on a number of supercomputer technologies and electronic components . T-Platforms ' solutions are used for fundamental and applied research in various fields of science , including life sciences , physics , chemistry and mathematics , as well as for calculation-intensive tasks in engineering , computer graphics and many other disciplines . In 2011 , HPCWire named Vsevolod Opanasenko , CEO of T-Platforms , one of 12 most famous and respected people of the global HPC community .   In November 2011 , the 33,072 processor Lomonosov supercomputer in Moscow developed by T-Platforms ranked number 18 in the world , and the fastest in Russia . It placed 3rd in Europe . In October 2012 , T-Platforms delivered its first supercomputer in the US to the State University of New York at Stony Brook ( SBU ) .   T-Platforms is part of the plan of the Russian government to focus on larger supercomputers by 2020 .   In April 2013 , the United States Department of Commerce added T-Platforms to their `` list of organizations and individuals acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States '' , preventing the company from buying computer chips produced anywhere in the world if the factories producing them use American technology . The decision was based on US concerns that T-Platforms work includes `` the development of computer systems for military end-users , and the production of computers for nuclear research '' .   T-Platforms was delisted from the list in December 2013/January 2014 , after removal request from the company   The main competitor is RSC Group .

neg: Brazilian Silicon Valley Brazilian Silicon Valley is a term commonly applied to the region of Campinas and in southern region this term is applied for Florianópolis city , Brazil because of its similarity to the ` original ' Silicon Valley , located in California in the USA .

neg: Post-industrial economy A post-industrial economy refers to a period of growth within an industrialized economy or nation in which the relative importance of manufacturing reduces and that of services , information , and research grows .  Such economies are often marked by :  A declining manufacturing sector , resulting in deindustrialization ,  a large service sector , and  an increase in the amount of information technology , often leading to an `` information age '' . Information , knowledge , and creativity are the new raw materials of such an economy .   The industry aspect of a post-industrial economy is sent into less developed nations which manufacture what is needed at lower costs ( see outsourcing ) . This occurrence is typical of nations that industrialized in the past such as the United States and most Western European countries .

neg: Internet influences on communities A community is `` a body of people or things viewed collectively '' . According to Steven Brint , communities are `` aggregates of people who share common activities and/or beliefs and who are bound together principally by relations of affect , loyalty , common values , and/or personal concern -- i.e. , interest in the personalities and life events of one another '' .   Jenny Preece suggested to evaluate communities according to physical features : size , location and the boundaries that confined them . When commuting became a way of life and cheaper transportation made it easier for people to join multiple communities to satisfy different needs , the strength and type of relationships among people seemed more promising criteria .   Since social capital is built of trust , rules , norms and networks , it can be said that the social capital of communities has grown . The lower entrance barriers to the community have made it easier to be a part of many different communities . This goes hand in hand with Don Tapscott 's theory of how the digital society has changed collaboration and innovation to a world of co-creation .   From birth to death , people are shaped by the communities to which they belong , affecting everything from how they talk to whom they talk with . Just like the telephone and the television changed the way people interact socially , computers have transformed communication and at the same time created new norms for social capital .   `` A virtual community is a group of people who may or may not meet one another face to face , who exchange words and ideas through the mediation of computer bulletin board systems and other digital networks '' . Along with the fact that computer usage has spread , the use of virtual communities have grown . Rheingold defines virtual communities as `` social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough , with sufficient human feeling , to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace '' . Michael Porter describes a virtual community as `` an aggregation of individuals or business partners who interact around a shared interest , where the interaction is at least partially supported and/or mediated by technology and guided by some protocols or norms '' .  Virtual communities consist of `` people with shared interests or goals for whom electronic communication is a primary form of interaction '' and have created new forms of collaboration . `` The most skilled and experienced members of the community provide leadership and help integrate contributions from the community as a whole . This way , virtual communities can use the voluntary motivations that exist in a community to assign the right person to the right task more effectively than traditional forms '' .   According to Benkler , we can `` see a thickening of the preexisting relations with friends and family , in particular with those who were hard to reach earlier '' . `` Also , we are beginning to see the emergence of a greater scope for limited-purpose , loose relationships . Although these may not fit the ideal model of virtual communities , they are effective and meaningful to their participants '' .   The heightened individual capacity that actually is a driving social force have raised concerns by many that the Internet is further fragmenting the community , making people spend their time in front of their computer instead of socializing with each other . Empirical studies show , however , that we are using the Internet and communities on the expense of television , and that is an exchange that promotes social ties .

neg: 250 (number) 250 ( two hundred -LSB- and -RSB- fifty ) is the natural number following 249 and preceding 251 .   As a Mandarin slang term , 250 ( 二百五 pinyin èrbǎiwǔ ) is an insult meaning `` stupid person '' or `` simpleton '' . The expression is based on bàndiàozi ( 半弔子 or 半吊子 ) . In ancient China , copper coins were grouped by stringing them together through the square holes in the center ; originally 1000 was a unit of currency called a diao . Ban diao zi literally means half a diao ( 500 coins ) . Since modest Chinese scholars may call themselves ban diao zi to humbly deprecate their own expertise , ban diao zi is not necessarily a pejorative term . On the other hand , Er bai wu ( 250 ) is half of a ban diao zi and it is an insult .   Two hundred -LSB- and -RSB- fifty is also :  SMTP status code for mail action completed .  In the Holy Bible , the number of men rebelling against Moses , who were swallowed up by a fire . ( Numbers 26:10 ) .  .250 Savage , rifle cartridge


query: Halle Berry's middle name is Maria.

pos: Halle Berry Halle Maria Berry ( born Maria Halle Berry ; August 14 , 1966 ) is an American actress . She won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the romantic drama Monster 's Ball ( 2001 ) . As of 2017 , she is the only black woman to have won a Best Actress Academy Award .   Berry was one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood during the 2000s and has been involved in the production of several of the films in which she performed . She is also a Revlon spokesmodel . Before becoming an actress , she started modeling and entered several beauty contests , finishing as the 1st runner-up in the Miss USA Pageant and coming in 6th place in the Miss World Pageant in 1986 . Her breakthrough film role was in the romantic comedy Boomerang ( 1992 ) , alongside Eddie Murphy , which led to roles in films such as the comedy The Flintstones ( 1994 ) , the political comedy-drama Bulworth ( 1998 ) and the television film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge ( 1999 ) , for which she won the Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress , among many other awards .   In addition to her Academy Award win , Berry garnered high-profile roles in the 2000s such as Storm in the X-Men film series ( beginning in 2000 ) , the action crime thriller Swordfish ( 2001 ) , and the spy film Die Another Day ( 2002 ) , where she played Bond Girl Jinx . She then appeared in the X-Men sequels , X2 ( 2003 ) and X-Men : The Last Stand ( 2006 ) . In the 2010s , she appeared in movies such as the science fiction film Cloud Atlas ( 2012 ) , the crime thriller The Call ( 2013 ) and X-Men : Days of Future Past ( 2014 ) .   Berry was formerly married to baseball player David Justice , and singer-songwriter Eric Benét . She has a daughter by model Gabriel Aubry , and a son by actor Olivier Martinez .

neg: Martina McBride Martina Mariea McBride ( née Schiff , born July 29 , 1966 ) is an American country music singer-songwriter and record producer . She is known for her soprano singing range and her country pop material .   McBride signed to RCA Records in 1991 , and made her debut the following year as a neo-traditionalist country singer with the single , `` The Time Has Come '' . Over time , she developed a pop-styled crossover sound , similar to that of Shania Twain and Faith Hill and has had a string of major hit singles on the Billboard country chart and occasionally on the adult contemporary chart . Five of these singles went to No. 1 on the country chart between 1995 and 2001 , and one peaked at No. 1 on the adult contemporary chart in 2003 . She has been called the `` Celine Dion of Country Music '' when she was recognized for her soprano singing range .   McBride has recorded a total of 13 studio albums , two greatest hits compilations , one `` live '' album , as well as two additional compilation albums . Eight of her studio albums and two of her compilations have received an RIAA Gold certification , or higher . In the U.S. she has sold over 14 million albums . In addition , McBride has won the Country Music Association 's `` Female Vocalist of the Year '' award four times ( tied with Reba McEntire for the second-most wins ) and the Academy of Country Music 's `` Top Female Vocalist '' award three times . She is also a 14-time Grammy Award nominee .

neg: Antoine Halley Antoine Halley ( 1593 -- 3 June 1675 ) was a French professor and poet .   Halley was born at Bazenville near Bayeux . A professor of belles-lettres and Principal of the Collège du Bois , at the University of Caen , he succeeded Antoine Gosselin and distinguished himself from the age of twenty-two , by his eloquence and the brilliance of his teaching . He taught Latin poetry at the University of Caen , for nearly forty years . He cultivated Latin and French poetry and won the prize of the Immaculate Conception time and again so that the Académie des Sciences , Arts et Belles-Lettres de Caen pleaded with him to quit competing .   Halley had ties with Charles de la Rue and Huet , the bishop of Avranches . The latter urged him to publish his poems . Huet , in his Origines de Caen , hailed him as mentor : `` I am obliged to give this testimony of gratitude to Mr. Halley . I deem it one of the greatest joys of my life to have been his disciple at his home for five years . He trained my mind , he refined my taste , he gave me an understanding of good authors . He taught me an infinite number of rare and curious things . '' Halley , in the meantime , professed no less esteem for his former student , sending him a poem a propos his book De Interpretatione . He also published a Traité sur la grammaire latine , at Caen in 1652 .   His collection of Poems is dedicated to the Duke of Montausier , the tutor of the dauphin and governor of Normandy . Cadomus , a play in which he paid tribute to all the literary celebrities born in his city , from Nicole Oresme , tutor of Charles V , to Pierre Patrix , the favorite poet of Gaston d'Orleans , is amongst his best .   When the chancellor Pierre Séguier , who had subdued the Harelle revolt of 1640 with undue harshness , made his way to Caen , Halley sent him far too flattering a couplet for the occasion . In 1642 , he thanked him for having increased the privileges of the Académie de Caen , founded by Moisant de Brieux . He addressed the Dauphin a long letter in Latin verse reminding him about the origins of the kings of France and celebrating the Trojan kings Dardanus , Erichthonius , Tros , Ilus , Laomedon and Priam , the supposed ancestors of Louis XIV .   A few letters written at Lisieux by Jean-Pierre Camus , the bishop of Belley have been found in his works . One of them is dated thus : `` At Lisieux , on November 22nd , the day of St. Cecilia , patron saint of music , sister of poetry .   When the Duchesse de Longueville came to Caen in 1648 , Halley was commissioned to compose the verses that decorated the tables placed at city 's expense on the way of the Duchess and her two children . In 1649 , during the famous Jobelins and Uranists Quarrel , Aubert , the princess ' chaplain , sent him the Voiture and Benserade 's sonnets , to get his opinion , as the French Academy had refused to get involved . That grave matter had been evoked before the very king , queen and princes , who were not able to settle it . It was then agreed that it was necessary to submit it to Halley whose decision would be final . The latter found in favor of Voiture against Benserade , i.e. in favor of the Duchesse de Longueville .   Pierre Bayle has proclaimed Halley to be `` one of the greatest poets of his century '' ; even if his French poetry is weak , his Latin rhymes lack neither ease nor elegance . La Rue , Huet , Gilles Ménage , Lesueur de Pétiville , Pierre Cailly , and Michel Gonfrey have composed Latin verses in his honor .

neg: Very Berry (EP) Very Berry is the first mini-album by South Korean girl group Berry Good . The album contains seven tracks and is led by title track `` Angel '' . It was released on April 20 , 2016 , as result of the crowdfunding campaign launched on March 11 on Makestar . The goal was reached in ten days .

neg: E=MC² (Mariah Carey album) E = MC ² is the eleventh studio album by American singer and songwriter Mariah Carey . It was released in the United States on April 15 , 2008 by Island Records . The singer began recording the album in 2007 in Anguilla , after writing and composing most of its material during and after her 2006 Adventures of Mimi Tour . Carey worked with several notable songwriters and producers during the course of the project , including Jermaine Dupri , Bryan-Michael Cox , Stargate , The-Dream , Tricky Stewart , Scott Storch and Danja .   The album revealed a more personal side of the singer , illustrated in its declarative theme of emancipation from her previous marriage , and from her personal and professional setbacks . Although it shared similar vocal production as well as an inclination to her signature pop and R&B ballads , the album also encompassed a variety of dance-oriented and uptempo styles . It was meant to be a continuation , or a second part of her tenth studio album , The Emancipation of Mimi ( 2005 ) . Carey collaborated with a number of artists on the album , including T-Pain , Damian Marley and Young Jeezy . Though considered by critics very similar to the formula its predecessor had been built on , E = MC ² included other genres she had never explored , such as reggae , and her continued recording of gospel-influenced hymns .   E = MC ² was generally well received by music critics , with many complimenting the record 's broad genre influences , and musical and production styles . Some critics , however , felt that the album was too similar to The Emancipation of Mimi , and did n't offer anything new from the formula . The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with opening week sales of 463,000 copies ; the highest first-week sales of Carey 's career . It opened inside the top-five on the albums chart in Australia , Canada , Switzerland and the United Kingdom . The album achieved worldwide sales of over 2.5 million copies .   Four singles were commission in promotion of the album . The album 's lead single , `` Touch My Body '' , became Carey 's eighteenth chart topper on the Billboard Hot 100 , making her the solo artist with the most number one singles in United States history , surpassing the record held by Elvis Presley . Additionally , it gave Carey her 79th week atop the chart , tying Presley for most weeks at number one . It achieved strong worldwide charting , peaking within the top five of the singles charts in Italy , Japan , New Zealand , Switzerland and the United Kingdom . `` Bye Bye '' served as the album 's second release . Although hailed by critics , and expected to have achieved large commercial success , the song stalled at number nineteen on the Hot 100 , and managed to chart weakly internationally . Both the third and fourth singles , `` I 'll Be Lovin ' U Long Time '' and `` I Stay in Love '' failed to garner success in any prominent music market .

neg: Maria Bolkonskaya Princess Maria ( or Marya ) Nikolaevna Bolkonskaya ( Марья Болконская , Mar ` ia Bolkonskaia ) is a fictional character in Leo Tolstoy 's novel War and Peace .   Princess Maria , the sister of Prince Andrei Bolkonsky , is a deeply religious young woman who has resigned herself to an unmarried life to be with her domineering father , Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky . Princess Maria is a plain woman , whose lack of beauty is offset by her large , caring eyes . Kevin Corrigan sees Maria as an example of how `` a face can be ugly and yet transfigured by beautiful eyes '' . She is overshadowed by her beautiful French companion , Mademoiselle Bourienne . An attempt to marry her off to the profligate Prince Anatole Kuragin fails .   Princess Maria 's father dies during the days leading to the battle of Borodino . The peasants on her estate threaten to become violent and Maria is rescued by Nikolai Rostov . They fall in love , but several situations keep them apart and eventually they both forgo any hope of marriage . Maria 's brother , Prince Andrei Bolkonsky , is seriously wounded in battle and chances to fall under the care of Natasha Rostova , with whom Princess Maria becomes close friends . Andrei Bolkonsky 's death brings Maria and Natasha closer together . Maria marries the impoverished Nikolai Rostov in the autumn of 1814 , and eventually the couple have four children . Nikolai Rostov relies on his work and her moral support , not financial , to become a wealthy and content estate owner .   Stephen Vizinczey suggests that Tolstoy created Maria out of his longing for his mother , Princess Maria Nikolayevna Volkonskaya , who died before Tolstoy 's second birthday .

neg: Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (album) Hail ! Hail ! Rock 'n' Roll is an album by Chuck Berry and soundtrack to the film of the same name , which was released in 1987 under record label , MCA . The album was recorded live at The Fox Theatre , St Louis , Missouri and Berry Park , Wentzville , Missouri on October 6 and October 16 , 1986 . The event was held to celebrate Berry 's 60th birthday and it included several special guests . The album does not include the Berry song `` School Days , '' which includes the line the album 's title is derived from ( although the song does appear in the film ) .   The release of this album on MCA was something of a homecoming for Berry , who from 1954 to 1966 and again from 1970 to 1975 recorded for Chess Records which , by 1986 , was now part of MCA .

neg: Omija-hwachae Omija hwachae ( 오미자 화채 `` magnolia berry punch '' ) is a hwachae ( traditional Korean punch ) made of omija ( magnolia berries ) . It is usually served during the hot summer days as energy replenishment and for quenching thirst . Koreans made use of the herbs as remedy ingredients as well as traditional drinks . The plants , especially the fruits , have bright red colors , sticky , and also various tastes including sweet , sour , bitter and spicy resulted from its malic acid and tartaric acid . To make omija hwachae , the fruits are dried and soaked in the water and then sieved . The sieved water then is added with sugar or honey . The punch is garnished with azalea petals if served during the spring ; and if served with yellow rose petals , during summer .

neg: Gothika Gothika is a 2003 American psychological horror thriller film directed by Mathieu Kassovitz and written by Sebastian Gutierrez . Halle Berry plays a psychiatrist in a women 's mental hospital who wakes up one day to find herself on the other side of the bars , accused of having murdered her husband . The film was first released on November 21 , 2003 in the United States . At the time of its release , Gothika was the most successful film from Dark Castle Entertainment , with a worldwide gross of $ 141.6 million .

neg: Country Music Association The Country Music Association ( CMA ) was founded in 1958 in Nashville , Tennessee . It originally consisted of only 233 members and was the first trade organization formed to promote a music genre . The objectives of the organization are to guide and enhance the development of Country Music throughout the world ; to demonstrate it as a viable medium to advertisers , consumers , and media ; and to provide a unity of purpose for the Country Music industry . However the CMA may be best known to most country music fans for its annual Country Music Association Awards broadcast live on network television each fall ( usually October or November ) .   Initially , CMA 's Board of Directors included nine directors and five officers . Wesley Rose , president of Acuff-Rose Publishing , Inc. , served as CMA 's first chairman of the board . Broadcasting entrepreneur and executive Connie B. Gay was the founding president .   Originally there were nine individual membership categories . The current 15 categories represent all facets of the music industry . Organizational memberships are also available . CMA membership is composed of those persons or organizations that are involved in Country Music , directly and substantially .   The first CMA Awards ceremony was held in 1967 in Nashville . Sonny James and Bobbie Gentry hosted the event , which was not televised . The winner of the first `` Entertainer of the Year '' award was singer Eddy Arnold . `` Male Vocalist of the Year '' went to Jack Greene and `` Female Vocalist of the Year '' to Loretta Lynn .   In 1968 , Roy Rogers and Dale Evans hosted the awards , which were presented at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville . ( The ceremony was filmed and televised on NBC a few weeks later . ) The first live telecast of the show was in 1969 .   Annual awards are given in the following twelve categories : Entertainer of the Year , Male Vocalist , Female Vocalist , New Artist of the Year ( formerly the Horizon Award ) , Vocal Group , Vocal Duo , Single , Album , Song , Music Event , Music Video , and Musician .   The CMA also gives a `` CMA Broadcast Award '' to country-formatted radio stations each year . Broadcast Awards are segmented based on market size , major market ( Arbitron Ranking 1 -- 25 ) , large market ( Arbitron Ranking 26 -- 50 ) , medium market ( Arbitron Ranking 51 -- 100 ) , and small market ( All other Markets ) . A single station can not win the award in consecutive years .   In honor of the association 's 50th anniversary , MCA Nashville released a song called `` Forever Country '' .

neg: American Music Award for Favorite Country Female Artist The American Music Award for Favorite Country Female Artist ( now titled Favorite Female Artist - Country ) has been awarded since 1974 .   Years reflect the year in which the American Music Awards were presented , for works released in the previous year ( until 2003 onward when awards were handed out on November of the same year ) .   The all-time winner in this category is Reba McEntire with ten ( ' 88 ' , ' 89 , ' 90 , ' 91 , ' 92 , ' 93 , ' 94 , ' 95 , ' 98 , ' 04 ) wins stretching across three decades . McEntire was also the first woman to win the award 8 years in a row .   Second place belongs to Barbara Mandrell ( ' 81 , ' 82 , ' 83 , ' 84 , ' 85 , ' 87 ) and Taylor Swift ( ' 08 , ' 09 , ' 10 , ' 11 , ' 12 , ' 13 ) , who both won the award six times .   Tied in third place are Faith Hill ( ' 01 , ' 02 , ' 03 , and ' 06 ) , Shania Twain ( ' 96 , ' 97 , ' 99 , and ' 00 ) , and Carrie Underwood ( ' 07 , ' 14 , ' 15 , and ' 16 ) , who have each won 4 times , respectively .   Crystal Gayle ( ' 79 , ' 80 , and ' 86 ) has won three times .

neg: Mariamne Mariamne is a name frequently used in the Herodian royal house . In Greek it is spelled Μαριάμη ( Mariame ) by Josephus ; in some editions of his work the second m is doubled ( Mariamme ) . In later copies of those editions the spelling was dissimilated to its now most common form , Mariamne . In Hebrew , Mariamne is known as מִרְיָם , ( Miriam ) , as in the traditional , Biblical name ( see Miriam , the sister of Moses and Aaron ) ; Mariamne is the Hellenized version of the Hebrew , as Koine Greek was a common language in the late Hasmonean era in Judea ( together with Aramaic ) , where both Mariamnes lived .   For Gnostic readers Mariamne is also recognized as passably being Mary Magdalene . François Bovon , professor of the history of religion at Harvard University , has theorized based on his study of the Acts of Philip ( which describes the apostle Philip as the brother of `` Mariamne '' or `` Mariamme '' ) that Mariamene , or Mariamne , was the actual name of Mary Magdalene . Mary/Mariam was a common name in 1st century Israel , however , not all Marys or Mariams would go by the name Mariamne . Nicknames were often used to distinguish between those with common names ( Mary , Joseph , etc. ) .   Holders include :  Mariamne ( second wife of Herod ) , a.k.a. Mariamne I  Mariamne ( third wife of Herod ) , a.k.a. Mariamne II  Mariamne III , sister of Herodias  Mariamne ( daughter of Herod Agrippa I ) , a daughter of Agrippa I.  Mariamne the sister of the Apostle Philip  Olivia Mariamne Devenish ( 1771 -- 1814 ) , British socialite  Mariamne Johnes ( 1784-1811 ) , daughter of Thomas Johnes , Hafod , Wales

neg: Lynne Berry Lynne Berry ( born 1972 ) is an American writer of children 's books , including the picture books Duck Skates from the Duck series , The Curious Demise of a Contrary Cat , and What Floats in a Moat .

neg: They Call the Wind Maria `` They Call the Wind Maria '' is an American popular song with lyrics written by Alan J. Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe for their 1951 Broadway musical , Paint Your Wagon , which is set in the California Gold Rush . Rufus Smith originally sang the song on Broadway , and Joseph Leader was the original singer in London 's West End . It quickly became a `` runaway hit '' , and during the Korean War , the song was among the `` popular music listened to by the troops '' . Vaughan Monroe and his Orchestra recorded the song in 1951 , and it was among the `` popular hit singles at the record stores '' that year . It has since become a standard , performed by many notable singers across several genres of popular music . A striking feature of the song in the original orchestration ( also used in many cover versions ) , is a driving , staccato rhythm , played on the string instruments , that evokes a sense of restless motion .

neg: Along Comes Mary (Pretty Little Liars) `` Along Comes Mary '' is the fifth episode of the seventh season of the American mystery drama television series Pretty Little Liars , which aired on July 16 , 2016 , on the cable network Freeform . The hundred and forty-fifth episode on the series , it was directed by Norman Buckley and written by Bryan M. Holdman . The episode received a Nielsen rating of 0.6 and was viewed by 1.17 million viewers . It received mixed to positive reviews from critics .   The series focuses on a group of five women , collectively known as Liars , whose receive anonymous messages in form of threats from an unknown person , while they struggle to survive a life with danger . In this episode , the girls come together to find out who is the partner of the deceased Elliott Rollins -- or Archer Dunhill . Aria ( Lucy Hale ) and Ezra 's ( Ian Harding ) relationship takes a new step , and the same happens with Emily ( Shay Mitchell ) and Sabrina ( Lulu Brud ) . Meanwhile , Spencer ( Troian Bellisario ) teams up with Hanna ( Ashley Benson ) to find out where Caleb is , and Jenna ( Tammin Sursok ) befriends Sara ( Dre Davis ) , putting them on the top of the list of suspects . An old inhabitant returns to Rosewood .

neg: Hallerin Hilton Hill Hallerin Hilton Hill ( born 1964 ) is an American talk radio host on Newstalk 98.7 WOKI Knoxville , Tennessee , and television talk show host of Anything is Possible on WBIR-TV in Knoxville . For two years ( 2003-2005 ) he hosted a separate talk radio show on Nashville 's WGFX .   Hill also works as singer/songwriter , author , motivational speaker , and trainer . He wrote `` Who Would Imagine a King '' along with Mervyn Warren which was recorded by Whitney Houston for the film The Preacher 's Wife , and was included on the film 's Grammy-nominated soundtrack .   Hill earned his bachelor 's degree in communications at Oakwood University in Huntsville , Alabama . He resides in Knoxville , Tennessee with his wife and children .

neg: Mike Berry (actor) Mike Berry ( born Michael Hubert Bourne , 24 September 1942 ) is an English actor and singer , known for his appearances as Mr. Spooner on the British sitcom Are You Being Served ? .

neg: Hallelujah! (TV series) Hallelujah ! was a British sitcom made by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network and was broadcast from 29 April 1983 to 21 December 1984 .   The series was set in a Salvation Army citadel in the fictional Yorkshire town of Brigthorpe during series 1 ( and later in the fictional place of Blackwick in series 2 ) . Captain Emily Ridley ( Thora Hird ) has been posted there , having been an active member of the Salvation Army for 42 years . Despite the town and residents being seemingly pleasant , Emily is determined to flush out sin from behind the net curtains . Assisting Emily are her niece Alice Meredith ( Patsy Rowlands ) .   The programme was a repeat collaboration between Hird and the creator Dick Sharples , having worked together on the comedy series In Loving Memory between 1979 and 1986 .   The series also featured guest appearances from the likes of Hird 's Last of the Summer Wine co-star Michael Aldridge and television presenter Richard Whiteley .

neg: Wendell Berry Wendell Erdman Berry ( born August 5 , 1934 ) is an American novelist , poet , environmental activist , cultural critic , and farmer . A prolific author , he has written many novels , short stories , poems , and essays . He is an elected member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers , a recipient of The National Humanities Medal , and the Jefferson Lecturer for 2012 . He is also a 2013 Fellow of The American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Berry was named the recipient of the 2013 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award . On January 28 , 2015 , he became the first living writer to be inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame .

neg: Michael Berry Michael Berry may refer to :   Michael Berry ( athlete ) ( born 1991 ) , American sprinter  Michael Berry ( physicist ) ( born 1941 ) , British mathematical physicist  Michael Berry ( radio host ) ( born 1970 ) , American talk show host  Michael Berry , Baron Hartwell ( 1911 -- 2001 ) , newspaper proprietor and journalist  Michael Berry Jr. ( born 1964 ) , British actor  Mike Berry ( actor ) ( born 1942 ) , English actor and singer  Mike Berry ( ice hockey ) ( born 1983 ) , Canadian ice hockey player

neg: Alex Haley's Queen Alex Haley 's Queen ( also known as Queen ) is a 1993 American television miniseries that aired in three installments on February 14 , 16 , and 18 on CBS . The miniseries is an adaptation of the novel Queen : The Story of an American Family , by Alex Haley and David Stevens . The novel is based on the life of Queen Jackson Haley , Haley 's paternal grandmother . Alex Haley died in February 1992 before completing the novel . It was later finished by David Stevens and published in 1993 . Stevens also wrote the screenplay for the miniseries .   Alex Haley 's Queen was directed by John Erman , and stars Halle Berry in the title role . It tells the life story of a young woman and it shows the problems which biracial slaves and former slaves faced in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries . Throughout her life , Queen struggles to fit into the two cultures of her heritage , and at times each side shuns her .


query: Conor McGregor is an Irish professional mixed martial artist.

pos: Conor McGregor Conor Anthony McGregor ( Irish : Conchúr Antóin Mac Gréagóir ; born 14 July 1988 ) is an Irish professional mixed martial artist who is currently signed to the Ultimate Fighting Championship ( UFC ) . He is the reigning UFC Lightweight Champion , and former UFC Featherweight Champion . During his career , McGregor has competed as a featherweight , lightweight , and welterweight .   In 2008 , McGregor started his mixed martial arts ( MMA ) career and , in 2012 , he won both the Cage Warriors Featherweight and Lightweight Championships , holding both titles concurrently before vacating them to sign with the UFC . In 2015 , at UFC 194 , McGregor defeated José Aldo for the UFC Featherweight Championship via knockout thirteen seconds into the first round . This was the fastest victory in UFC title fight history . Upon defeating Eddie Alvarez for the UFC Lightweight Championship at UFC 205 , McGregor became the first fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two weight divisions simultaneously .   He is known for being the biggest pay-per-view draw in MMA history , as well as his extravagant lifestyle and trash talking .

neg: Gerry Storey Gerry Storey MBE ( born 1936 , Belfast , Northern Ireland ) is a boxing trainer who has coached the Irish Olympic Boxing Team on four occasions .   Storey is the head coach of the Holy Family Boxing Club in north Belfast . Storey and the club were featured in the BBC documentary Fight Town in 2003 , and the club also appeared in the Daniel Day-Lewis film The Boxer . As a professional boxer , Storey won a British Championships title . Storey has trained many boxers including Hugh Russell , Neil Sinclair , Barry McGuigan , Paddy Barnes and Carl Frampton .   McGuigan was training by Storey from the age of 14 through to his Olympic and Commonwealth bids , and claims Storey 's club is the `` most successful boxing club in the country '' . Storey 's son Sammy is also an accomplished amateur boxer who competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics and the 1986 Commonwealth Games .   Storey 's work has helped to bridge the sectarian divide in Belfast , as he trains both Catholics and Protestants . During the 1981 Irish hunger strike he was asked by Loyalist and Republican prisoners to oversee boxing training in the Maze Prison gymnasium . As a result of his work he won the Sport For Good award at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Estoril , Portugal on 16 May 2005 . Storey received his award from Barry McGuigan and Marvin Hagler , and was the first Irish sportsperson to win a Laureus award . Storey was honoured by the Irish Amateur Boxing Association for his contribution to the sport in Dublin on 2 February 2007 .   He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire ( MBE ) in the 2008 New Year Honours .

neg: Art Davie Art Davie is a business executive and entrepreneur formerly active in Southern California advertising circles . In 1993 , he created and co-produced the tournament which became the televised Ultimate Fighting Championship . In 1998 , Davie , as vice-president of K-1 USA , brought the successful K-1 kickboxing franchise from Japan to Las Vegas and North American pay-per-view television . In 2003 , Davie was an executive producer with Mandalay Sports Entertainment . In 2006 , he became vice-president of television at Paradigm Entertainment Group . In 2014 , Ascend Books published Davie 's book , Is This Legal ? : The Inside Story of the First UFC from the Man Who Created It . Sean Wheelock assisted in the book 's research and writing . In November 2014 , Davie was inducted into the Legends of MMA Hall of Fame , alongside Big John McCarthy , Pat Miletich , Fedor Emelianenko , and Rickson Gracie .

neg: Jason Reinhardt Jason Reinhardt ( born October 31 , 1969 ) is an American mixed martial artist . A professional MMA competitor since 2000 , Reinhardt fought in regional promotions before signing with Zuffa in 2007 . He fights out of the Wand Fight Team based in Las Vegas , Nevada , by way of Decatur , Illinois .

neg: Andy Murray (boxer) Andrew `` Andy '' Murray ( born 10 September 1982 ) is an Irish professional boxer who currently holds the Irish lightweight title , having previously held the Irish light-welterweight title . He is also a former European Union lightweight champion , and has challenged once for the European lightweight title .

neg: Club fighter A club fighter ( or clubfighter ) is a professional boxer who usually fights locally and has a mediocre record . Club fighters generally are not nationally recognized and have not won any fights that show the ability to win a championship . The term is often used as a pejorative for over-hyped fighters or for older boxers when they begin to decline . For example , Floyd Mayweather Jr. called Arturo Gatti `` a blown-up club fighter '' , even though Gatti was the WBC super lightweight champion at the time .   A club fighter is less respected than a contender , who defeats journeymen and club fighters in order to establish himself as a challenger for a world title . A journeyman is slightly more respected than a club fighter -- often by way of having a superficially good record .   Category : Boxing terminology  Category : Pejorative terms for people

neg: Dan Hardy Daniel Mark `` Dan '' Hardy ( born 17 May 1982 ) is an English former mixed martial artist who fought in the welterweight division . During his professional MMA career starting in 2004 , Hardy fought in various promotions such as Cage Force and Cage Warriors before signing a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2008 . He is currently an analyst and color commentator for the UFC .

neg: World championship A world championship is generally an international sports competition open to elite competitors from across the world , representing their nations , and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport or contest .   The title is usually awarded through a combination of specific contests or , less commonly , ranking systems ( e.g. the ICC Test Championship ) , or a combination of the two ( e.g. World Triathlon Championships in Triathlon ) . This determines a ` world champion ' , who or which is commonly considered the best nation , team , individual ( or other entity ) in the world in a particular field , although the vagaries of sport ensure that the competitor recognised at the best in an event is not always the ` world champion ' ( see Underdog ) .   Certain sports do not have a world championship . Instead , they may organise a world cup competition , or they may organize both , for example cycling ( UCI World Championships and UCI World Cups ) ) . Often , the use of the term cup or championship in this sense is just a choice of words . Some sports have multiple champions because of multiple organizations , such as boxing , mixed martial arts and wrestling .   Certain sports do not have a world championship or a world cup as such , but may have one or several world champions . Professional boxing , for example , has several world champions at different weights , but each one of them is decided by a `` title fight '' , not a tournament .   A certain number of sports hold world championships or world cups which are overshadowed , in terms of prestige , by the same events in the Olympic Games , the most prestigious multi-sports event .   Still other sports may or may not have a true world championship but may designate the winners of a domestic competition to be `` world champions . '' This is especially true of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada ; world cups and championships exist in all of the major sports , but the domestic U.S. and Canadian leagues are generally recognized as the world professional championships or the equivalent of a world club championship . ( In American football , although an IFAF World Championship exists , the United States is so far above and beyond the other nations it faces that the winner of the U.S.-based Super Bowl , a competition limited to the 32 teams in the National Football League , is commonly recognized as the world champion . )   Finally , certain professional sports do not have a world championship or world cup , but rather hold a series of events recognised as the elite level in their field ( e.g. tennis has a series of four Grand Slam events recognised as the pinnacle of the game , in addition to key team events , world tour finals and the Olympic Games , but no world championship or world cup ) .

neg: Anthony Ruiz Anthony Ruiz ( born November 3 , 1977 ) is an American professional mixed martial artist . He has competed for Strikeforce , the WEC , ShoXC , King of the Cage , Tachi Palace Fights , and the Palace Fighting Championship .

neg: Jamie Kavanagh Jamie Kavanagh ( born 28 May 1990 ) is an Irish professional boxer from Dublin . He is currently signed with Golden Boy Promotions .

neg: 2005 in UFC The year 2005 is the 13th year in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship ( UFC ) , a mixed martial arts promotion based in the United States . In 2005 the UFC held 10 events beginning with , UFC 51 : Super Saturday . The reality TV series The Ultimate Fighter and the UFC Ultimate Fight Night both premiered on Spike TV . The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale was the first ever live UFC broadcast on non-pay-per-view television .

neg: World Fighting Alliance The World Fighting Alliance was a mixed martial arts organization based in the United States .   Owned and organized by MMA legend and trainer John Lewis ( Promoter/Match Maker ) and nightclub operator and `` Club Rubber '' promoter John Huntington ( Producer ) along with Lawyer Louis Palazzo ( Investor ) , the WFA began promoting events after the Nevada State Athletic Commission began sanctioning mixed martial arts . The Las Vegas-based promotion , unlike its cross-town rival , the Ultimate Fighting Championship , featured a nightclub environment and a slogan of `` Where the fight club meets the Night Club '' . Sexy and flashy , its events featured several scantily-clad ring girls between rounds and go-go dancers between fights , and plenty of loud music , including guest performers like Ice-T .   However , in an incident at Level 3 which seriously harmed the promotion 's reputation , credentialed photographers were ejected by venue security from their areas and were forced to move to where they could not take acceptable pictures . The inconvenience caused by the ejection was substantial , some writers at the event were forced to track down their photographers and leave their beat , while some offended editors decided to yank coverage of the event altogether . While the difficulties of the last event did not seem to deter the promotion and the promoters promised a Level 4 , Lewis and Huntington did not promote another WFA event since , and the promotion was assumed to be defunct .   After a rise of interest in mixed martial arts in the United States in 2005 , the WFA reemerged with new ownership and began an aggressive program to establish itself as a new major mixed martial arts promotion . The owners , Ross Goodman and Louis Palazzo , both attorneys from Las Vegas , began by signing contracts with several of the biggest free agents on the market , including former UFC middleweight contender and Olympic silver medalist Matt Lindland , PRIDE middleweight contender Quinton Jackson , retired UFC and Pancrase champion Bas Rutten , former top-ranked Bantamweight fighter Urijah Faber , and former UFC Heavyweight Champion Ricco Rodriguez . In their recruitment efforts , they also came close to signing Tito Ortiz before he was enticed by an offer from the UFC .   The fruits of their acquisitions culminated in WFA : King of the Streets on July 22 , 2006 , a pay-per-view broadcast event at the Forum in Inglewood , California . The card was headed by a main event of Quinton Jackson vs. Matt Lindland , Jackson 's first fight on American soil since becoming a headliner in PRIDE , and featured famed boxing broadcaster Barry Tompkins and wrestling star Bill Goldberg at the announce desk . Despite heavy expectations and an aggressive marketing campaign , including a pre-event special broadcast on Showtime , the event only attracted a crowd of over 5,000 , with only 2,300 tickets sold . Pay-per-view buys were also low , reportedly under 50,000 .   Despite the disappointing numbers , and rumors of financial troubles , the WFA announced their next event , WFA : King of the Streets II at Aladdin Resort and Casino in Las Vegas , Nevada scheduled for December 9 , 2006 . However , the event was then postponed until early 2007 for undisclosed reasons . On November 15 , 2006 , the WFA 's CEO , Jeremy Lappen , sued the WFA and its owners for breach of contract , claiming he has not been paid since June 2006 , a few weeks before King of the Streets . Finally on December 11 , 2006 , Zuffa , the parent company of rival promotion UFC , announced it had acquired select assets of the WFA , including the contracts of WFA fighters . The WFA afterward ceased operations per the sale agreement .   The WFA brand was revived in THQ 's video game UFC Undisputed 2010 , an update to their wildly popular multi-platform MMA video game UFC 2009 Undisputed . In the game 's career mode , which mimics that of an actual MMA fighter , players start off in the WFA and after a certain amount of success are invited to the UFC .

neg: Tito Ortiz Jacob Christopher `` Tito '' Ortiz ( / ˈtiːtoʊ ɔɹˈtiːz / born January 23 , 1975 ) is an American retired mixed martial artist . In the MMA world , he is known for his stint with the Ultimate Fighting Championship ( UFC ) , where he is a former Light Heavyweight Champion , having held the title from April 14 , 2000 to September 26 , 2003 . Along with fighters like Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell , he was one of the sports early stars . Ortiz ultimately became the biggest pay-per-view draw of 2006 for his fights with Liddell , Forrest Griffin , and Ken Shamrock .   Outside of his fighting career , Ortiz is the CEO of the Punishment Athletics MMA equipment and clothing line . He also owns an MMA training gym called Punishment Training Center , which is located in his hometown of Huntington Beach , California . On July 7 , 2012 , Ortiz became the ninth inductee into the UFC Hall of Fame .

neg: Anthony Morrison Anthony Morrison ( born March 29 , 1984 ) is an American professional mixed martial artist . Anthony Morrison formerly competed in the Featherweight division of Bellator MMA . A professional competitor since 2004 , Morrison has also formerly competed for the WEC .

neg: Ireland at the 2012 Summer Olympics Ireland competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London , United Kingdom , from July 27 to August 12 , 2012 . This was the nation 's twentieth appearance at the Summer Olympics .   The Olympic Council of Ireland sent a total of 66 athletes to the Games , 36 men and 30 women , to compete in 14 sports . The International Olympic Committee allowed athletes from Northern Ireland the option to compete at the Olympic games for either Great Britain and Northern Ireland , or for Ireland . Medallists Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan , were both born in Belfast , competed for Ireland . Ireland had only a single competitor in the sprint canoeing , track cycling , equestrian dressage , judo , rowing and shooting events .   This was Ireland 's most successful Olympics , winning a total of 6 medals ( 1 gold , 1 silver and 4 bronze ) in three sports : boxing , athletics and equestrian show jumping . Boxer Katie Taylor , who was Ireland 's flag bearer at the opening ceremony , won Ireland 's first Olympic gold medal in 16 years . Light flyweight boxer Paddy Barnes defended his bronze medal from Beijing , becoming the second Irish athlete in 80 years to win medals at two consecutive Olympics . For the first time since 1980 , Ireland also won an Olympic medal in more than a single sport .

neg: World Combat Games The World Combat Games are an international multi-sport event featuring combat sports and martial arts . Fifteen Olympic and non-Olympic sports are currently on the programme : aikido , boxing , fencing , judo , ju-jitsu , karate , kendo , kickboxing , Muay Thai , sambo , savate , sumo , taekwondo , wrestling and wushu .   The World Combat Games were initiated by SportAccord , the umbrella organisation for international sports federations and organizers of sports events , in order to bring these sports closer to a worldwide public . The World Combat Games are accompanied by a cultural program that reflects the ancient traditions and values of martial arts as well as their contribution to modern society .

neg: Drew McFedries Michael Andrew `` Drew '' McFedries ( born July 27 , 1978 ) is an American professional mixed martial artist currently competing in the Middleweight division . A professional competitor since 2001 , McFedries has formerly competed for the UFC , Titan FC , and Shooto .

neg: UFC Fight Night: Holohan vs. Smolka UFC Fight Night : Holohan vs. Smolka ( also known as UFC Fight Night 76 ) was a mixed martial arts event held on October 24 , 2015 at 3Arena in Dublin , Ireland .

neg: Gregor Gillespie Gregor Gillespie ( born 1987 in Webster , New York ) is an American professional mixed martial artist currently competing in the Lightweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship . A professional competitor since 2012 , Gillespie has also formerly competed for Ring of Combat where he was the Lightweight Champion .

neg: Bobby Cassidy Bobby Cassidy , born April 19 , 1944 , is a former professional boxer who fought from 1963 to 1980 . Although born and raised in New York , Cassidy is of Irish lineage and fought under the name , `` Irish '' Bobby Cassidy .   Cassidy was a southpaw ( left-handed ) who was world-rated in the junior middleweight , middleweight , light heavyweight and cruiserweight divisions . In 1975 , he was ranked number one in the world as a light heavyweight by the World Boxing Council .   In 1963 , Cassidy , from Levittown , Long Island , New York , scored a one-punch , 39-second knockout in his professional debut at Sunnyside Garden . He went on to compile a ring record of 59 wins , 16 losses , three draws , one no contest and 27 knockouts . Among the notable fighters that he defeated were Don Fullmer , Jimmy Dupree , Tom Bethea , Isaac Logart , Ramon Ranquello , Tommy Hicks and Christy Elliott . He also fought world champions Luis Manuel Rodríguez , Rodrigo Valdez and Alessandro Mazzinghi .   In a six-month span of 1973 , Cassidy fought Dupree three times , for a total of 30 rounds . Both light heavyweights were ranked in the top 10 at the time . They fought to a draw in the first fight , Dupree won a split decision in the second fight and Cassidy won a unanimous decision in the third . The final meeting was held at Madison Square Garden 's Felt Forum . Cassidy dropped Dupree three times in the fight . The Dupree fights were part of stretch during which Cassidy fought eight consecutive opponents ranked in the Top 10 .   Throughout his career he fought main events in both the old and current Madison Square Garden .   After his boxing career , Cassidy began training fighters and has worked with two world champions , WBC light heavyweight champion Donny Lalonde and WBO middleweight champion Lonnie Bradley . He also trained Ugandan contender Godfrey Nyakana .   As an actor , Cassidy has appeared in three films , Rocky , Uncle Joe Shannon and This Thing of Ours .   In 2007 , his son , boxing writer Bobby Cassidy Jr. , wrote a play , Kid Shamrock , based on his life and boxing career . It has been produced Off Broadway three times . In June 2007 at the Producers Club . In February 2011 at the Atlantic Theater Company , Stage 2 , and in November -- December 2011 at TADA ! Theater . The cast has featured several former boxers , including John Duddy , Seamus McDonagh and Mark Breland . The most recent production was directed by former WBO heavyweight champion Michael Bentt .   Cassidy was inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame in 2001 and the New York State Boxing Hall of Fame in 2013 .

neg: Peter McDonagh Peter McDonagh is a professional boxer from Galway , Ireland . He usually competes at lightweight .