Dozilkree

19/03/2023

Information Management in Museums
Museums have always had a need to manage their information resources. They need to know not only what they have but also what they know about what they have. In the past, information about museum collections was maintained in paper and card files. Access to these records was usually restricted to museum employees; moreover, search capabilities in these files were usually limited to only a few key fields. For example, card files may have been sorted by donor name, by accession number, or by title of object. Assuming the cards were kept up-to-date and properly organized, accessing data by any of these fields was usually straightforward. However, locating a set of records sorted by culture or material type would have been a difficult if not impossible task for even the most skilled and knowledgeable museum employee.

Modern information systems in museums offer museum professionals many new methods of organizing and accessing data. Such systems work in conjunction with existing paper records to augment the information-management capabilities of the museum. Electronic database systems allow museum employees to search and sort their computer records by almost any field. In addition, museum professionals are now able to store far more data about their artifacts on the computer than ever before possible on accession cards or ledger files. Also, by maintaining artifact data in electronic format, modern museums now have the capability to share data about their collections with other institutions in ways never before possible. Organizations are currently working to devise standards that will allow museums around the world to collaborate in their efforts to identify and research their collections. By sharing artifact records from one organization to another, museums may be able to advance significantly the state of knowledge in their fields.

However, as museums work to increase access to their information resources, some problems have been exacerbated; especially troublesome are those that concern copyright and intellectual or cultural property. The question of ownership of artifacts has traditionally been a difficult one for museum professionals. Whether or not the British Museum should return the Parthenon Marbles (also known as the Elgin Marbles) to Greece, for example, has been hotly debated since Lord Elgin removed these massive carvings from Athens in the late-eighteenth century. Laws such as the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) exist to ensure that the rights of the original owners of museum artifacts are protected. As museums increase their online presence, many of these issues are now returning to the forefront of intellectual debate. Additionally, many museum professionals worry that by making electronic images and data about their collection available online, they are encouraging individuals to violate copyright regulations by making their own digital copies of works of art.

Бесплатный сервис Google позволяет мгновенно переводить слова, фразы и веб-страницы. Поддерживается более 100 языков.

16/03/2023

By contrast, 29 people who were not wearing the masks were killed there in the last 18 months, officials reported.

Mr. Jackson, who was in Rome for a meeting of the conservation union's Species Survival Commission last month, brought an example of the trick that fooled the tiger: an inexpensive, rubber mask of a pale-faced human with a thin mustache. He said the Indian Forestry Service has issued more than 2,500 masks to workers who are among the 8,000 who get permits to go into the Sundarban Tiger Reserve. Stopping to Pray

No one lives in the reserve of mangrove forests, cut by rivers and creeks on the border of Bangladesh and India, said Mr. Jackson, who knows the area well. But people on both sides go in to collect fish, wild honey and wood in the tigers' habitat.

Often they first stop to pray for protection at little shrines that rim the area because the large Bengal tigers are unusually fierce. While tigers elsewhere often ignore humans, the Sundarban big cat may attack on sight. Local people tell stories of how the tigers even swim out and sneak up on fishermen in their boats.

Since 1973, when the reserve was formed, scientists and forestry workers have tried to find ways to coexist peacefully with the 500 or so tigers and to stop them from thinking of humans as easy prey. They have put up human-shaped dummies of bamboo and mud, dressed in clothes with human scent and attached to electric wires, for example. Fences have been wired, and the tigers have been heard to scream from the electric shocks.

But it was a student at the Science Club of Calcutta who came up with the idea of using a human mask. The reasoning, Mr. Jackson explained, was that many species use a similar technique to fool predators. ''Butterflies, beetles, caterpillars have developed patterns that look like big eyes,'' he said. ''We know that this is a deterrent.''

Some local residents are said to be skeptical and argue that the clever tigers cannot be fooled for long. The director of the reserve has said he is worried because some men let the mask slip to the top of their head while chopping wood.

Among this year's victims, he wrote to the commission, were two fishermen who left their masks in their boats as they went ashore to cook their meal. One woodcutter was attacked from behind by a tiger when he sat down and took off his mask for lunch.

14/03/2023

China will reopen its borders to foreign tourists for the first time in the three years since the Covid pandemic erupted by allowing all categories of visas to be issued.

The removal of this last cross-border control measure on Wednesday comes after authorities declared victory over the virus last month.

Tourist industry insiders do not expect a large influx of visitors in the near future or significant boost to the economy. In 2019, international tourism receipts accounted for just 0.9% of China’s gross domestic product.

But the resumption of visa issuance for tourists marks a broader push by Beijing to normalise two-way travel between China and the world, having withdrawn its advisory to citizens against foreign travel in January.

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Areas in China that did not require visas before the pandemic would revert to visa-free entry, the foreign ministry said. This would include the southern tourist island of Hainan, a longtime favourite destination among Russians, as well as cruise ships passing through Shanghai port.

Visa-free entry for foreigners from Hong Kong and Macau to China’s most prosperous province, Guangdong, will also resume, a boon particularly to luxury hotels that are popular among international business travellers.

The chair of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in China, Vaughn Barber, said: “The announcement that China will resume issuing nearly all type of visas for foreigners is positive for Australian businesses, whose executives would like to travel to here to visit their China-based teams, customers and suppliers and to explore new business opportunities in the mainland market.”

Chinese events open to foreign visitors, such as the development forum in Beijing this month and the Shanghai auto show in April, are gradually resuming. The quadrennial Asian Games will also take place in the eastern city of Hangzhou in September after being postponed last year.

But prospective visitors may not immediately arrive in droves. Unfavourable views of China among western democracies have hardened amid concerns over human rights and Beijing’s aggressive foreign policy, as well as suspicions surrounding handling of Covid, according to a global survey by the Pew Research Center in September.

“In terms of tourism, China is no longer a hotspot destination,” said an executive at China International Travel Services in Beijing, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

“Commercially, the wish of foreigners to run events in China also decreased after Covid, because too many things here are impacted by politics, which has scared them off.”

In a further relaxation of controls on outbound tourism, China added 40 countries to its list for which group tours are allowed, bringing the total to 60.

But the list still excludes Japan, South Korea, Australia and the US. Tensions between those countries deepened as Washington faced off with Beijing over issues from Russia and Ukraine to Chinese military presence in the South China Sea.

“It’s common to use tourist visas to come to China on business but I don’t know how enthusiastic institutional investors will be to do so, after all the drumbeat of scary news,” said Duncan Clark, the founder of BDA, a Beijing-based investment consultancy.

14/03/2023

The world’s largest seller of electric and hybrid cars will not consider building its first European car factory in the UK because of the impact of Brexit.

China’s BYD, which has been backed by the US investment billionaire Warren Buffett since 2008, intends to take on household names such as Tesla and become one of the three most popular electric vehicle brands in Europe by the end of the decade.

China’s top-selling electric car maker, which is targeting sales of about 800,000 cars annually in Europe by 2030, has shortlisted locations in Germany, France, Spain, Poland and Hungary.

“As an investor we want a country to be stable,” said Michael Shu, BYD’s European president, speaking to the Financial Times. “To open a factory is a decision for decades. Without Brexit, maybe. But after Brexit, we don’t understand what happened.”

BYD, which stands for Build Your Dreams, said the UK had not even made a top 10 list of possible locations to build its first European car plant. The company already makes buses in Europe.

“The UK doesn’t have a very good solution,” said Shu. “Even on the long list we didn’t have the UK.”

The Hong Kong-listed BYD, which has its headquarters in Shenzen and began developing batteries in 1995, intends to become a global powerhouse in the electric vehicle market.

It is not the first manufacturer to have cited issues relating to Brexit in deciding not to expand business opportunities in the UK.

Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, said in 2019 that the decision to leave the EU made it too risky to build a gigafactory in the UK. The company built its first European plant in Germany, where it also created a research and development base.

Other car manufacturers are also being forced to assess their business requirements amid tough global economic conditions. Ford announced 4,000 job cuts in Europe including 1,300 in the UK in February.

Ford has said it would invest $50bn (£41bn) in electric car production by 2026, but it must also decide what to do with operations built around the internal combustion engine before bans on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars. Jaguar has pledged to go all-electric by 2025 and BMW said last month that half its European sales will be electric by 2030.

14/03/2023

Gary Lineker is to return to presenting sport on the BBC after he was taken off air for criticising the language used by ministers when discussing the government’s asylum policy.

Tim Davie, the director general of the BBC, apologised on Monday for the widespread disruption to sports programming over the weekend, and announced an independent review of the corporation’s internal social media guidelines.

“Everyone recognises this has been a difficult period for staff, contributors, presenters and, most importantly, our audiences,” said Davie. “I apologise for this. The potential confusion caused by the grey areas of the BBC’s social media guidance that was introduced in 2020 is recognised. I want to get matters resolved and our sport content back on air.”

Davie, who was responsible for introducing tough social media guidelines for staff after government pressure, said it was difficult to balance the BBC’s commitments to both impartiality and freedom of expression.

The corporation’s social media guidelines are meant to govern BBC staff and presenters who work on news and politics, not those in others areas, such as sport. Also, Lineker works for the corporation in a freelance capacity.

“Impartiality is important to the BBC,” said Davie. “It is also important to the public. The BBC has a commitment to impartiality in its charter and a commitment to freedom of expression. That is a difficult balancing act to get right where people are subject to different contracts and on-air positions, and with different audience and social media profiles.”

Davie announced a review of his social media policy, to be led by an independent expert, which will have a “particular focus on how it applies to freelancers outside news and current affairs”.

Lineker, the BBC’s highest-paid presenter, who receives £1.35m annually, welcomed the review and said he was keen to get back to presenting duties, including Match of the Day.

“I am glad that we have found a way forward,” he said in the joint statement with Davie. “I support this review and look forward to getting back on air.”

After the statement was released, Lineker tweeted his thanks for support of colleagues after a “surreal few days”. Pundits, led by Ian Wright, had refused to appear on Match of the Day while Lineker was suspended. Commentators also joined in, plunging BBC Sport’s coverage into chaos.

Lineker also said that “however difficult the last few days have been, it simply doesn’t compare to having to flee your home from persecution or war to seek refuge in a land far away”.