❤️ Bansphor 🦅

"The Bansphor are a Hindu caste found in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. People of India Uttar Pradesh Volume XLII Part One edited by A Hasan & J C Das page 172 to 176 Manohar Publications Origin The community get their name from the Hindi words bans, meaning bamboo and phorna which means to split. They are a community that were traditionally involved in the manufacture of bamboo items for household usage. According to traditions, they are one of the seven sub-groups of the Dom community. Their own traditions refer to a Bans Rajah, a prince who said to have ruled in the Awadh region, from whom the community descend. They are found throughout Uttar Pradesh, with special concentrations in the districts of Farrukhabad, Saharanpur and Pilibhit in western Uttar Pradesh, and Sitapur, Kheri, Hardoi, Pratapgarh and Lucknow in Awadh, and Mirzapur and Lalitpur in southern Uttar Pradesh. The western Bansphor speak Khari boli, while those in Awadh speak Awadhi. A section of the Bansphor in Saharanpur and Moradabad have converted to Islam, and now form a distinct community of Muslim Bansphor. Present circumstances The Bansphor practice strict community endogamy, as well as clan exogamy, which a common practice among most North Indian Hindus. Their clans are called gotras, the main ones being the Mahawati, Chamkel, Gaushal, Samudra, Nahar, Kalai and Saraiha. Marriages do not occur with the Muslim Bansphor community. The Bansphor live in multi-caste villages, but occupy their own distinct quarters. Each of their settlement contains an informal caste council, known as a panchayat. The panchayat is headed by a pradhan, a position which is heredity. In addition, there is an overarching panchayat of between three and four villages, which headed by a chaudhary. The panchayat resolves any intra- community dispute, as well as acting an instrument of social control. They are Hindus, except for the now-distinct community of Muslim Bansphor, and have Hanuman as their tribal deity. The Bansphor are still involved in their traditional occupation, which is the manufacture of bamboo furniture. These are then sold at the local market. A significant number of Bansphor are agricultural labourers, while other often migrating to Mumbai and Delhi to work as daily wage labourers. Like other scheduled caste communities, they live an extremely marginal economic existence. The 2011 Census of India for Uttar Pradesh showed the Bansphor population as 59,804. References Dom in India Scheduled Castes of Uttar Pradesh "

❤️ Infamous (series) 🦅

"Infamous is a series of action-adventure platformer video games developed by Sucker Punch Productions, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. The series follows the adventures of Cole MacGrath, Delsin Rowe and Abigail 'Fetch' Walker, super-powered 'Conduits' who must decide their own destinies of becoming either good or evil. The series includes Infamous, its sequel Infamous 2, the non-canon downloadable game called Infamous: Festival of Blood, the DC Comics comic book series of the same name, the third main entry for Infamous Second Son and a stand-alone expansion Infamous First Light. Setting The series takes place in the present-day United States with real and alternate versions of real cities; such as the setting of Infamous, Empire City, which resembles New York City; and the setting of Infamous 2, New Marais, which resembles New Orleans (Infamous: Festival of Blood also takes place in this city). Washington, D.C. is occasionally mentioned, and Infamous Second Son takes place in Seattle. It features an American government agencies such as the FBI, NSA and DARPA, along with agencies fabricated for the series, such as the DUP (Department of Unified Protection), an agency with the sole purpose of stopping conduits, now labeled "bio-terrorists", from causing mass destruction similar to what was caused by Cole MacGrath. Gameplay Gameplay in the Infamous series is primarily an action-adventure third-person view platformer type across an open world environment. In the first two games and the spin-offs, the player controls Cole MacGrath, later in the third game as Delsin Rowe and Abigail 'Fetch' Walker, as they freely roam around the city, fighting crime or creating havoc along the way. Cole, Delsin, and Fetch can use their parkour skills to jump and climb buildings throughout the city, along with their powers to help them fight enemies. Their powers come from a gauge which depletes whenever they uses various attacks, and refills when they absorb electricity or smoke, neon, video and concrete from nearby objects or bodies, such as street lights, nearby smoke sources,(such as vents or burning cars) or neon lights or video appliances or bodies of the DUP. Morality, or Karma, is a major factor in the gameplay and storyline. The player is able to control the course of the game by having Cole and Delsin use their powers for good or evil. The choice allows the player to have a different mixture of abilities, as both good and evil have their own set of powers. The game also uses a Karma meter which changes based on the main character's actions throughout the game and determines whether he eventually becomes a good or evil character. Games =Main game= * Infamous is the first game in the series, released in 2009 to rave reviews by the gaming press. Set in 2009, The game explains the origins of Cole MacGrath, a bike courier, who gained his electrical-based superpowers after surviving a large explosion in Empire City caused by the package he was carrying containing the Ray Sphere. The Ray Sphere is an object of great power as it is able to consume the energy of the people around the user and transfer that energy to the user, making him immensely powerful at the cost of thousands of lives. After the explosion, the city was quarantined by the government causing organized crime groups within the city to seize control of Empire City from the local authorities. The game follows Cole's journey to obtain the Ray Sphere in order to escape from the quarantine as part of a deal he made with an FBI agent during his failed escape attempt at the start of the game. Cole eventually obtains the Ray Sphere and the player is given the choice to either destroy it or use it. Regardless of the choice, Cole will eventually come face to face with Kessler, the leader of The First Sons, the organized crime group in the city who had seized control of the city after the quarantine. Kessler duels Cole in a battle to the death and it is eventually revealed after Kessler is mortally wounded that he is in reality a version of Cole from the future of an alternate timeline. Kessler reveals his motive for the events throughout the game telling Cole that he was preparing Cole for an eventual battle against an entity known as "The Beast" who had destroyed Kessler's world. He had set the events of the game into motion by ordering the construction of the Ray Sphere as well as passing it to Cole for him to cause the explosion. The game ends when Kessler dies and Cole proclaims, "When the time comes, I will be ready." * Infamous 2 is the second game in the series, released in June 2011 as a followup to the first game's story, taking place a month afterward. The game follows the adventure of Cole once again as he escapes to the city of New Marais after the events of the first game to prepare himself for the eventual battle with "The Beast" (a powerful being that obliterated Empire City and much of the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S). New Marais was the location for the construction of the Ray Sphere and where Cole believes he will find more answers to the events of the first game. However, the city has been taken over by the Militia, who are controlled by an influential industrialist, while the city is being rampaged by beings known as the corrupted who became mutated by the leader of the Militia. The Militia's goal is to keep anything mutated or with superpowers out of the city which unfortunately includes Cole. Thus he must traverse the city fighting against both the Militia and the Corrupted to learn more about Kessler, the Ray Sphere and "The Beast". * Infamous: Festival of Blood: is a downloadable side story for Infamous 2. It takes place sometime during the story of the main game but never tells the player exactly when. Zeke is telling the story of what happened to Cole MacGrath during Pyre Night to an attractive woman while sitting in a bar. Cole goes underneath St. Ignatius' Cathedral and is bitten by a vampire, and only has til morning to kill the vampire that bit him, Bloody Mary, or he'll be her slave forever. The game takes place all during the night, and introduces new elements, like flight, into the game. User-generated content (UGC) remains, but UGC from Infamous 2 and vice versa cannot be accessed. The Karma System was replaced by a blood meter, which fills as Cole drinks blood from civilians or stake vampires. It was originally rated Mature by the ESRB for its copious amounts of blood, which was eventually trimmed down to a minimum, giving it a teen rating. It came out on October 25, 2011, and was the best selling PlayStation Network game, until Journey launched. * Infamous Second Son was released on March 21, 2014, based seven years after the events of the second installment, in 2016. This focuses on a new character, Delsin Rowe, a graffiti artist who absorbs the power from other prime conduits. After his initial meeting with Henry "Hank" Daughtry early in the story, he absorbs Hank's power which is smoke and fire. After another prime conduit, Augustine, starts killing the residents of Delsin's hometown, he and his brother Reggie go to Seattle to find Augustine, absorb her concrete power, and save the Akomish back home. * Infamous First Light is a prequel to Second Son. The game takes place in 2014, two years before the events of Second Son and follows the story of Abigail "Fetch" Walker and her neon powers. Fetch had an accident with her powers that changed her life, hating drug dealer Shane for tricking her. Due to that, she was incarcerated in Curdun Cay Station and trained by Brooke Augustine so that she could "Learn how to control them". While practicing she escapes and ventures off, hunting Shane. = Web browser games = * Infamous: Precinct Assault is a browser Flash game. It was released in 2009 to promote the first game in the series, Infamous. The game is a 2D side-scrolling platformer video game played from a third person perspective. Unlike the main games, players must choose whether they want to use their powers for bad or for good before the game starts. The game consists of three levels. * Infamous: Anarchy is a spin-off game on Facebook, released along with Infamous 2. The game allows players to make a custom avatar, build their own city, help friends expand their cities, fight enemy players, and others. The game has since been updated with more features such as screenshot taking and competition among players. When players reached an unknown criteria, they are rewarded with a code that can be used to unlock additional items in Infamous 2. =Infamous Collection= The Infamous Collection is a collection of Infamous, Infamous 2, and Infamous: Festival of Blood, bundled together as part of Sony's line of PlayStation Collections for PlayStation 3. The collection, along with the God of War Saga and the Ratchet & Clank Collection, were the first releases in Sony's line, being released on August 28, 2012 in North America. The games feature the same features as their original releases. In addition to the games, the collection features bonus content, including extra missions, and additional character costumes, power ups and weapon styles. Other media =Comics= The Infamous comic is a one-part comic, released in March 2011, and was published by DC Comics, in association with Sucker Punch, to coincide with the release of the second game in 2011. The comics take place in between the events of the first and the second game, showing how Cole escapes from Empire City to New Marais. The comic series was written by William Harms and drawn by Eric Nguyen, and also includes covers drawn by Doug Mahnke. A graphic novel titled Infamous: Post Blast was released on IGN, depicting the events that lead up to the events of Infamous. There currently are four comics, each focusing on both Cole MacGrath and John White. The story of the comics takes place between the Introduction and First Glimpse. =Film= On July 25, 2009 it was announced that Sony had chosen screenwriter Sheldon Turner to adapt Infamous into a feature film in a seven figure deal. Brothers Ari and Avi Arad will produce, and Sony executives Matt Tolmach and Jonathan Kadin are handling for the studio. Turner told The Hollywood Reporter he was excited that the game had a "big idea and a character arc," which he believed was "the future of gaming." He believed the game was essentially "a love ballad to the underachiever". References External links * Official website Video game franchises Video game franchises introduced in 2009 Action-adventure games Open world video games 3D platform games Parkour video games Dystopian video games Post- apocalyptic video games Science fiction video games Sony Interactive Entertainment franchises Superhero video games Experimental medical treatments in fiction "

❤️ Alex Mintz 🦅

"Professor Alex Mintz (; born April 2, 1953), Director of the Computerized Decision Making Lab, and former Provost of IDC Herzliya, is a professor for decision-making in government, and former President of the Israeli Political Science Association. Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Israeli Political Science Association, the Distinguished Scholar Award of the Foreign-Policy section of the International Studies Association, and the Karl Deutsch Award of the International Studies Association for most significant contribution to the field of International Relations by a scholar younger than 40. His book on decision-making in the American government (with C. Wayne) was published in 2016 by the prestigious Stanford University Press and received the 2017 Alexander George Best Book Award of the International Society for Political Psychology (ISPP). Professor Mintz has served on the editorial boards of 11 international journals, including the American Political Science Review, International Studies Quarterly, Foreign Policy Analysis, International Studies Perspective, Open Political Science Journal, Advances in Political Psychology, and Research and Politics. He served as editor-in-chief of the international journal, Political Psychology (2010-2015), as Associate Editor of the Yale-based Journal of Conflict Resolution (2004-2009), and as editor of the University of Chicago Press book series in Leadership and Decision Making in the International Arena (until 2012). Professor Mintz is also the Director of the Program in Political Psychology and Decision Making (POPDM) at the IDC. He served as a co-Chair of the steering committee for the project "Israeli Hope: Toward a New Israeli Order", with the blessings of the President of Israel. He served as Chair of the Herzliya Conference series and as Director of the Institute for Policy and Strategy from 2013-2016 and as Dean of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at IDC from 2008-2014. Education Mintz received his B.A. from Tel Aviv University in political science with a minor in mathematics. He then went on to receive an M.A. from Northwestern University in political science before pursuing his PhD, also at Northwestern. His research interests focus on political decision making, political marketing, behavioral political science (BPS), political psychology, strategy, and research methods. Career Mintz was an instructor at Northwestern University and a lecturer and then senior lecturer with tenure at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He taught at Texas A&M; University from 1986-2005. In 1993, he became the Founding Director of the Program in Foreign Policy Decision Making at Texas A&M; University and remained there as the Cullen-McFadden Professor of Political Science until 2005. He was a visiting professor at Yale, Columbia University, the Lyndon Johnson School at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Haifa, and Tel Aviv University. He moved to IDC Herzliya in Israel in 2006 as a professor, before becoming the dean of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy in 2008. In 2017, Mintz was appointed as Provost of IDC Herzliya. Mintz is the developer of the Decision Board, a decision-making simulator leveraging process tracing and decision science algorithms to uncover biases, decision codes, and information acquisition patterns. The platform has been used for training decision makers in both public and private organizations.http://www.decisionboard.org/academic/zzzabout1.asp Awards and honors * 2019- Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Israeli Political Science Association. * 2017- Recipient of the Alexander George Best Book Award of the ISPP. * 2015 - Elected as Chairman of the Israeli Political Science Association. * 2005 – Recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award of the Foreign Policy section of the International Studies Association. * 2005 – Named to the Advisory Board of the Center for Conflict Prevention and Management in Sydney, Australia. * 1993 – Recipient of the Karl Deutsch Award of the International Studies Association. Published works =Books= * The Polythink Syndrome: U.S. Foreign Policy Decisions on 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria and ISIS. 2016. (with Carly Wayne). Stanford University Press. * Terrorist Decision Making: A Leader-Centric Approach (with J.T. Chatagnier and Y. Samban), Routledge, 2019 * The Oxford Handbook of Behavioral Political Science (with L. Terris), Oxford University Press, forthcoming. * Beyond Rationality (with Nicholas Valentino and Carly Wayne). Cambridge University Press, forthcoming * Understanding Foreign Policy Decision Making. Cambridge University Press, 2010 (with Karl DeRouen Jr.) * New Directions for International Relations: Confronting the Method-of-Analysis Problem (co-editor, with Bruce Russett), Lexington Books, February 2005 * Multiple Paths to Knowledge: Methodology In Conflict Management and Conflict Resolution (co-editor with Zeev Maoz, T. Clifton Morgan, Glenn Palmer, Richard J. Stoll), Lexington, 2004 * Integrating Cognitive and Rational Theories of Decision Making (editor and contributor), Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. * Decision Making on War and Peace: The Cognitive–Rational Debate (co-editor and contributor with N. Geva). Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1997. * The Political Economy of Military Spending in the United States (editor and contributor) London: Routledge, 1992. * Defense, Welfare and Growth (co-editor and contributor, with Steve Chan) London: Routledge, 1992. * The Politics of Resource Allocation in the U.S. Department of Defense: International Crises and Domestic Constraints. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1988. References External links * Resume * Prof. page - IDC Herzliya * Publications - IDC Herzliya Living people Israeli academics Tel Aviv University alumni Northwestern University alumni Texas A&M; University faculty University of Haifa faculty Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya faculty 1953 births "