text:
User talk:Qatnip

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title: User talk:Qatnip


text:
User talk:Jonny2x4

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-- Jules (Mrjulesd) 18:22, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:Jonny2x4


text:
User talk:Cuiditheoir

Welcome!
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-- Jules (Mrjulesd) 18:23, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

title: User talk:Cuiditheoir


text:
User talk:January2020

Welcome!
Welcome to Wikibooks, January2020!

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-- Jules (Mrjulesd) 18:30, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

title: User talk:January2020


text:
User talk:Ja Siggi

Welcome!
Welcome to Wikibooks, Ja Siggi!

 First steps tutorial Wikibooks is for collaborative development of free textbooks.

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-- Jules (Mrjulesd) 18:31, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

 * Thanks for having me welcome! I currently don't have much time to introduce myself or anything really but I have some questions and hope it's okay to ask here.
 * Regarding e.g. the Mental Maths book it has a banner which reads "A Wikibookian believes this page should be split into smaller pages with a narrower subtopic."
 * This leads to two questions: First I wonder where this could be discussed as I honestly don't deem it necessary. It would only make sense to split for each operations type (i.e. addition, substraction, etc) but then some pages would be ridiculously short. Is there a way to comment on the banner or something like this?
 * Second: I like downloading the books and it is somewhat frustrating when a book is split into many pages because then I have to download each page. Some books are available in PDF format and as single-paged book. Is this something anyone can upload? Can you recommend a good way to compose single-sided versions? I would happily do it, then.
 * I did some minor contributions here and there (other Wikimedia projects) and hope that some day I'll find myself being more active but for now it will be minor edits only. Ja Siggi (discuss • contribs) 19:04, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

 * You could ask at Talk:Mental Math. However you may not get an answer as this a fairly quiet project.
 * Many books have print versions. See WB:PRINT, and Category:Books with print version. If a book has a print version, go to it and press the link in the left sidebar under "Print/export" that is "Download as PDF".

 * If you have further questions, please ask at WB:HELP. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 20:19, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

Mental Math
About your question there, the formula simplifies to this if certain assumptions are made; I have edited it to make this clear. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 18:50, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

 * Perfect! Ja Siggi (discuss • contribs) 18:53, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

title: User talk:Ja Siggi


text:
User talk:M.L.D ZITHA

Welcome!
Welcome to Wikibooks, M.L.D ZITHA!

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-- Jules (Mrjulesd) 20:48, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

title: User talk:M.L.D ZITHA


text:
Template:Similar

 For, see.

title: Template:Similar


text:
User:CalendulaAsteraceae

Current projects

 * Expanding Cookbook:Kid-Friendly Food

title: User:CalendulaAsteraceae


text:
User:Neocorelight

I enjoy knowledge

title: User:Neocorelight


text:
User:HumbleBeauty/Proof of monism peer review2

This manuscript has been peer reviewed by Christopher Michael Langan (CTMU), and Jonathan Richard Emerson (the G 	proof), and by numerous atheists and agnostics across the internet; such as on myspace religion and philosophy forum, facebook groups, and on paltalk.

sole Author: Mars Sterling Turner

=Abstract=

Proof of monism is a work of Mars Sterling Turner that includes the logical proof of monism, the proof of the scientific laws of monism, and the pragmatic proof of monism. Three separate epistemologies are used as a method of proof; rationalism, scientism, and pragmatism.

=Introduction=

everything is made of one thing
Monism can be demonstrated by proving that everything is made of one thing ;

nothing is nonexistence. this is a logical tautology taken from the dictionary; the contraposition is; something has as it's particular characteristics; existence (have to be made of it to exist)

No definition implies or expresses how many individuals of the defined thing exist. There is necessarily for each individual existent thing a cause why it should exist. This cause of existence must either be contained in the particular characteristics of the thing defined, or must be postulated apart from such definition. If a given number of individuals of a particular thing exist, there must be some cause for the existence of exactly that number, neither more nor less.

Consequently, the cause of each of them, must necessarily be sought externally to each individual thing. It therefore follows that, everything which may consist of several individuals must have an external cause. And, as it has been shown already that existence appertains to the particular characteristics of something, existence must necessarily be included in its definition; and from its definition alone existence must be deducible. But from its definition we cannot infer the existence of several things; therefore it follows that there is only one thing that has as it's particular characteristics; existence.

nowhere and at no time has nothing existed

that one thing has always existed everywhere

nothing is made of nothing {}⊂{};

everything is made of that one thing QED

that one thing is made of itself

Scientific laws of monism
Proof--It is a scientific law that energy is eternal and omnipresent [S1 & S2]. It is a scientific law that eternal and omnipresent energy is all-power-full [S3]. Eternal, omnipresent, all-power-full, energy is a monism. Q.E.D.

energy is eternal
∑E, the sum of energy

Ek, kinetic energy

Ep, potential energy

proof; ∑E = Ek+Ep

Scientific Law (1); Conservation of energy; energy cannot be created nor destroyed.

energy cannot be created

ergo by time reversal symmetry it is a scientific law that energy never was created

ergo energy cannot be created, never was created, energy exists and yet cannot be destroyed,

ergo it is a scientific law that energy is eternal. Q.E.D.

energy is omnipresent
E, energy

c, speed of light

m, mass

E/c^2 = m

proof; E = m c^2;

Scientific Law (2); mass - energy equivalence;

 * "Are not the gross bodies and light convertible into one another and may not Bodies receive much of their Activity from the Particles of Light which enter their Composition?"-Isaac Newton.

Electromagnetic radiation and matter are convertible into one another; in other words its a scientific law that energy is omnipresent. QED

energy is all-power-full
E, energy

P, power

Δ, increment

d, derivative

∫, integral

∇, gradient

t, time

s, space

ΔE = ΔE

ΔE/Δt = ΔE/Δt

ΔP = ΔE/Δt; axiom 1

ΔP = ΔE/Δs Δs/Δt

∇E = ΔE/Δs; axiom 2

ΔP = ∇E Δs/Δt

Δs/Δt = Δv; axiom 3

ΔP = ∇E Δv

dP = ∇E dv

∫dP = ∫ ∇E dv

proof; P = ∫ ∇E dv

Scientific Law (3); Power is the transformation of energy over space and time.

All expressions of power are transformations of energy

ergo it is a scientific law that eternal and omnipresent energy [S1 & S2] is all-power-full Q.E.D.

resolved paradox of omnipotence
Power is defined as the transformation of energy, not the destruction of energy. The inability to destroy itself does not contradict being all-power-full. Therefore energy cannot destroy itself.

To create and to lift both involve the transformation of energy. The monism may be an infinite energy (zero point energy) and a rock which has finite form cannot exist in an infinite substantial state. Therefore the monism cannot create a rock that it cannot lift.

Therefore the monism is natural.

Note; Resolving the omnipotence paradox demonstrates a clarified understanding of reality.

This pragmatically proves that monism exists. QED

=Discussion=

Identity of indiscernibles
Two seemingly separate things having the same ontological properties are actually one and the same thing.

Energy is the one thing
Everything is made of energy (energy is omnipresent) and both also are eternal and have as their particular characteristics existence (have to be made of energy to exist)

resolved problem of the non-physical
Define "physical";

By physical, does one mean 3-space local realism at no greater than the speed of light?

Such that the following are non-physical;

(1) any spacial dimensions higher than 3

(2) non-locality and quantum entanglement

(3) superluminal speed and negative refractive index

Or by "physical" does one equivocate to mean "natural"?

The monism is natural.

dual aspect monism
So you have the physical and non-physical and both are made of the same thing; energy

nothing is not
my rebuttal to ontological nihilism is these logical tautologies;

nothing is not, nothing is nothing , nothing equals nothing, nothing implies nothing, nothing has the property of nothing, nothing exists as nothing, nothing is the cause of nothing, nowhere and at no time has nothing existed, nothing is made of nothing, nothing is in nothing, nothing is nonexistence.

=Epistemology of proofs; Methods=

This work uses the following three epistemologies as methods of inquiry; rationalism, scientism, and pragmatism.

Rationalism
(where you show something is a logical tautology or that it metalogically follows), and

Scientism
(where you use scientific laws as axioms to deduce more scientific laws), and

Pragmatism
(where you merely show the utility of something; that it is useful).

=References=


text:
User:Keithistre/Collections/ApplyScript

 * AppleScript Programming/Basic commands
 * AppleScript Programming/Basic commands/Solution
 * AppleScript Programming/Numbers and strings
 * AppleScript Programming/Lists and records
 * AppleScript Programming/Aliases and paths
 * AppleScript Programming/Scripting other applications
 * AppleScript Programming/System Events
 * AppleScript Programming/Shell Programming
 * AppleScript Programming/Script Libraries
 * AppleScript Programming/Advanced Code List
 * AppleScript Programming/Standard Additions
 * AppleScript Programming/3rd Party Codes
 * AppleScript Programming/Sample Programs

title: User:Keithistre/Collections/ApplyScript


text:
User:Keithistre/Collections/ASPrograming

Programing Automation

 * AppleScript Programming/Basic commands
 * AppleScript Programming/Basic commands/Solution
 * AppleScript Programming/Numbers and strings
 * AppleScript Programming/Lists and records
 * AppleScript Programming/Aliases and paths
 * AppleScript Programming/Scripting other applications
 * AppleScript Programming/System Events
 * AppleScript Programming/Shell Programming
 * AppleScript Programming/Script Libraries
 * AppleScript Programming/Advanced Code List
 * AppleScript Programming/Standard Additions
 * AppleScript Programming/3rd Party Codes
 * AppleScript Programming/Sample Programs
 * AppleScript Programming/Basic commands
 * AppleScript Programming/Basic commands/Solution
 * AppleScript Programming/Numbers and strings
 * AppleScript Programming/Lists and records
 * AppleScript Programming/Aliases and paths
 * AppleScript Programming/Scripting other applications
 * AppleScript Programming/System Events
 * AppleScript Programming/Shell Programming
 * AppleScript Programming/Script Libraries
 * AppleScript Programming/Advanced Code List
 * AppleScript Programming/Standard Additions
 * AppleScript Programming/3rd Party Codes
 * AppleScript Programming/Sample Programs


text:
User talk:CalendulaAsteraceae

Welcome!
Welcome to Wikibooks, CalendulaAsteraceae!

 First steps tutorial Wikibooks is for collaborative development of free textbooks.

You do not need technical skills to contribute. You can easily change most books. Please introduce yourself, and let us know what interests you.

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-- Jules (Mrjulesd) 14:38, 13 April 2021 (UTC)

title: User talk:CalendulaAsteraceae


text:
User:Vanished user 098323

Hi.

Stuff I work on

 * Geography of France
 * Minecraft resource gathering

title: User:Vanished user 098323


text:
User:Ghorayr

Ghorayr (غرير)

title: User:Ghorayr


text:
Minecraft resource gathering/Copper

Finding copper
Copper is found underground in the form of copper ore veins. Copper ore generates between layers -16 to 112 of the overworld, although it spawns more frequently in the Dripstone Caves biome.

Copper also generates as a part of copper ore veins, which are rare underground terrain features that are made up of copper ore, granite and raw copper blocks. They generate above layer 0

Mining copper
Players must mine copper with a stone, or higher quality, pickaxe. Mining the block with a wooden pickaxe will destroy the block without giving any copper ore.

Each copper ore drops between 2 and 4 copper.

Refining copper
When a copper ore block is broken, it will drop Raw Copper, which will have to be smelted to be turned into copper ingots.

Crafting recipes that use copper
Putting nine copper ingots in a square using a crafting table will craft a block of copper, while three copper ingots arranged in a vertical line will craft a lightning rod, and putting an amethyst shard and two copper ingots together in a vertical line will craft a spyglass.

Versions
Copper ore was officially added to Minecraft in the Caves & Cliffs update (1.17).

title: Minecraft resource gathering/Copper


text:
Professionalism/Barry Lynn, New America Foundation, and Google

In 2017, the liberal-leaning think tank New America (formerly New America Foundation) pushed out  Barry Lynn and his Open Markets initiative. The president of New America, Anne-Marie Slaughter, made this decision following a statement made by Lynn in support of EU antitrust regulators' $2.7 billion fine on Google. Google and its then chairman Eric Schmidt have given significant donations to New America since its inception. Lynn believes he was fired because of Eric Schmidt’s displeasure regarding his statement. Slaughter claims Lynn’s lack of professionalism and collegiality, not the content of his work, was the cause of his firing. There is an element of “he said/she said” to the incident, but Google’s funding of New America brings attention to the ethical struggle members of nonprofit organizations face between staying true to their profession and succumbing to donor influence.

=Background and Participants=

New America Foundation
New America is a nonprofit think tank and civic innovation platform which advocates for the American Left. It is run by Anne-Marie Slaughter, the current president of New America who started her career in law and moved into policy. The New America is constructed of multiple different initiatives which address a wide range of public policy issues such as national security studies, technology, asset building, health, gender, energy, education, and the economy. New America aims to influence public policy, share solutions to public problems through various partners, and develop tools to build democratic capacity. The goal of the foundation is to create a renewed America that provides equal opportunity for all, has stable communities which provide universal benefits, and is secure and prosperous.

Open Markets Institute
In 2017, Open Markets Institute was a New America Initiative with the goal of protecting individual liberties and democracy from monopolies. It was run by Barry Lynn, a journalist who was against the market dominance of tech companies such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google. He worked with New America Foundation for 15 years researching the power of monopolies. Open Markets Institute aims to have economic power equitably distributed across multiple companies. They aim to address the threats to democracy, individual liberties, and security caused by corporate concentration and monopolies. Currently, Open Markets Institute is its own organization separate from the New America Foundation and still focuses on addressing issues associated with monopolies.

Google Funding
New America received a lot of financial support from various companies. Some of the largest donators have been Google, Eric Schmidt (the former executive chairman of Google), and Eric Schmidt's family foundation. Collectively, they have donated more than $21 million dollars to the New America Foundation. This funding gave New America Foundation the financial leverage to become a powerful voice in policy debates. It is not unusual for Google to fund different groups focused on telecommunication policy as they provide funding to many groups across the political spectrum. Google and New America have worked together for many advocacy goals such as net neutrality.

=Incident with Google= On June 27th, 2017, EU antitrust regulators fined Google $2.7 billion because Google was using its search engine to direct customers to its own shopping platform. This behavior violated the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), one of the strictest online data laws in the world. Barry Lynn published a statement on New America's website voicing support for EU penalties on Google. Lynn said in the statement: "'The Open Markets Team congratulates European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager and the European competition authority for this important decision. Google's market power is one of the most critical challenges for competition policymakers in the world today. By requiring that Google give equal treatment to rival services instead of privileging its own, Vestager is protecting the free flow of information and commerce upon which all democracies depend. We call upon U.S. enforcers, including the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, and states attorneys general, to build upon this important precedent, both in respect to Google and to other dominant platform monopolists including Amazon. U.S. enforcers should apply the traditional American approach to network monopoly, which is to cleanly separate ownership of the network from ownership of the products and services sold on that network, as they did in the original Microsoft case of the late 1990s'."

Following the release of this statement, Eric Schmidt voiced his displeasure to Anne-Marie Slaughter. Google representatives threatened to cut off all funding to New America. Lynn’s statement was taken off of New America's website temporarily before being reposted. Tyra Mariani, the executive vice president of New America, claimed the removal was because of an "unintentional internal issue" that was not related to Google or Schmidt. Hours after the statement, Anne-Marie Slaughter fired the Open Markets team, including Barry Lynn and nine others. Lynn claimed that Slaughter gave in to pressure from Google and Schmidt, ultimately putting donors over the integrity of the think tank. The incident was picked up quickly by many news outlets, with the New York Times publishing an article expressing concerns about Google’s influence on advocacy groups and think tanks on August 30th, 2017.

Emails between Lynn and Slaughter
In response to the New York Times article, Slaughter released three emails she had sent to Lynn between 2016 and the day of Lynn’s firing. She claimed that his firing was "in no way way based on the content of [his] work," but instead due to his lack of collegiality, internal communication, and professionalism. She cited another incident involving Lynn in 2016, where Lynn criticized the increasing market concentration of big tech companies including Google at a conference. Lynn’s statements got a lot of national attention after Senator Elizabeth Warren endorsed his work. In her emails, Slaughter claimed Lynn had not notified New America of his decision to participate in the conference and mentioned she needed to give Google’s top lobbyist, Rep. Susan Molinari, an answer as to why they were not made aware that Senator Warren would attend the conference. Slaughter claimed Lynn’s statement in 2017 exhibited the same non-collegial behavior as in 2016 and violated institutional norms of notice and cooperation. She later said Lynn imperiled the institution with his actions. Slaughter denied that Google had any influence in Lynn’s firing and that the decision to part with Open Markets was solely due to Lynn’s pattern of unprofessionalism.

Slaughter only released her side of the email exchange with Lynn. The Intercept was able to obtain Lynn’s responses, which show a conflicting narrative to that posed by Slaughter. In response to Slaughter’s displeasure about the 2016 conference, Lynn claims he did give an internal heads-up before attending the conference. In fact, he even tried to involve another group at New America, Open Technology Institute, to co-sponsor the conference. He was confused why Slaughter claimed she was not aware of it. He openly acknowledged the difficult position Slaughter was in, given Google’s funding. He had originally planned to host Senator Warren at New America’s annual conference in May, 2016, but moved her speech to a different conference without New America’s name to avoid any discomfort. Lynn also said it is not standard industry practice to notify an outside company, such as Google, about articles or events from Open Markets. In response to his firing, Lynn disagreed with Slaughter’s characterization of his behavior as unprofessional and tried to resolve the issue, even expressing his affection for New America and Slaughter herself. Other New America fellows have come out in support of Lynn. One even stated that Slaughter’s emails are “ not a reference to being a jerk or yelling at somebody or being an unpleasant colleague. What imperils the organization is pissing off a major donor who will stop funding you”. Another employee said that giving a heads up to outside companies was "not a standard of policy that applied to everyone. It seemed to apply to Barry and to Google”.

=Professional Ethics= Barry Lynn’s firing brings attention to an increasingly prevalent struggle that think tanks and similar organizations face between staying true to their mission statement or succumbing to donor influence. As funding from traditional foundations becomes increasingly rare, think tanks have started to look towards corporations for money, sometimes even accepting conditions that they previously would have considered laughable.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, for example, was in a tricky situation and had to pull off a tough balancing act. On one hand, she relies on donors like Google and Schmidt to keep the think tank functioning and pay her employees. On the other hand, she risks losing New America’s credibility as a think tank if it does not appear independent of its funding sources. For a long time, it was easy for Slaughter to reconcile the interests of Google and New America’s mission because there was significant overlap. As Google became increasingly dominant economically and socially, this balancing act became infinitely more difficult. In firing Lynn, Slaughter made a decision to put her career over New America’s mission and the integrity of the think tank. In this instance, Slaughter can be characterized as a careerist.

Slaughter’s characterization of Barry Lynn as unprofessional is also problematic. Slaughter seems to be defining a “professional” as someone who is collegial and complies with what they are told to do by their superiors without creating a fuss. Although Barry Lynn was collegial, he did not give way to Slaughter’s demands and Google's pressure. He had a long history of challenging the monopoly power of big corporations (Walmart, Amazon, etc.), and did not change his behavior when his work concerned Google. In many ways, his behavior better exemplifies professionalism than Slaughter’s implied definition. Lynn may have had more freedom than Slaughter to remain professional as he had less to lose. His endorsement from Senator Warren had made him a well-known figure and he was able to secure funding from other donors. Lynn continued to speak out against Big Tech. Open Markets, still headed by Lynn, became an independent organization.

=Conclusion= The same issues facing Lynn and Slaughter are prevalent in many other industries. For example, a university researcher may feel pressure from a donor to find conclusions favorable to the donor. In the think tank and advocacy space, there are fewer and fewer groups who are not heavily influenced by their donors. Real change seems to be born from self funded efforts. For example, Alastair Mactaggart, the privacy advocate who pushed CCPA into reality, almost entirely funded his original advocacy campaign himself. True professionals must continue to question the motives behind their behavior: whether their actions are in accordance with the integrity of their profession or are simply to advance their own careers.

=References=


text:
Talk:Professionalism/Barry Lynn, New America Foundation, and Google

For outside reviewers
This is a group project for a university class. Feel free to add to it and edit it, but please do not delete the entire page just because it is a work in progress.

For casebook group
Barry Lynn article that got him fired: https://www.newamerica.org/open-markets/press-releases/open-markets-applauds-european-commissions-finding-against-google-abuse-dominance/

Barry Lynn and Anne Marie Slaughter emails: https://www.newamerica.org/new-america/press-releases/interest-transparency-new-america-releases-email-correspondence-barry-lynn/

Google lobbying disclosures: https://www.google.com/publicpolicy/transparency/

NYT article detailing the whole incident: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/us/politics/eric-schmidt-google-new-america.html


text: User talk:188.9.119.99

title: User talk:188.9.119.99


text:
User:OGWFP/sandbox

How dangerous is it?
In normal use they are safe, after all they are safety devices, but mechanical locks contain small parts that children can choke on and electronic locks contain electricity, which can give a nasty shock or even electrocute you.

A lock on a door may get in the way if your trying to leave a building that is, for example, on fire.

Never give a combination or key to someone you don't know or can't trust, nor should you go taking apart or trying to pick your parents locks.

What does it do?
It stops people from stealing other peoples stuff, but it can also be used to stop someone from doing something they need permission to do.

How does it vary?
There are many kinds of lock and many things that have a lock on them, a metal box with a lock is called a safe, a big safe is called a vault, some locks use electronics, but most locks are mechanical, some use a combination (a secret code) and some use a key, there's even different kinds of lock that work differently and have different looking keys.

A padlock is a kind of lock that can be used to lock two things together, and a bike lock is used to attach a bike to something else so it can't be stolen.

The most common kind of lock is the pin tumbler.

How has it changed the world?
Locks and other security devices invented since have made the world a more secure place, while a determined thief can find anyway into something even if it is locked, the presence of a lock deters petty and opertunistic thefts.

Locks can be found everywhere, in your house, in your parents car, at school, at shops, and are often used with other security devices like alarms and Closed Circuit Television.

Today security is a big industry thanks to locks, and it's impossible to even think about living without locks.

Where does it get it's power from?
Mechanical locks do most of the work from the user turning the key, electronic locks used in buildings get their power from the grid, and electronic safes and padlocks have a battery, all kinds of electronic lock have a backup so you can't get trapped or locked out if the power fails.

How does it work?
There are many kinds of lock, but the basic concept is the same, it's a thing that only lets you access or do something if you have proof of who you are, this proof is called a key, it can be a real thing you hold, or it can be something you remember, like a secret word or combination of numbers, while the lock itself is attached to something that needs protecting, like a door, so without the key, the door can't be opened, this is normally because the lock is holding a strong piece of metal called a bolt extending into the door frame and stopping the door from moving, padlocks also use bolts to stop the shackle from being opened.

The most common kind of lock is the pin tumbler lock, and this is what we will be focusing on, it uses a physical key.

The Lock It's attached to something it's protecting, in this example a door on a house, it sits in a hole inside the door, and consists of a freely spinning plug inside the main cylinder of the lock, in this plug there is a slit or hole called the keyhole or keyway, and this is where the key goes. On the top of the rotating plug there is a series of holes in a straight line, there is also a matching set of holes inside the main cylinder of the lock where the plug will sit, inside of these holes there are springs and sitting on these springs there are pins all of the same height, called driver pins, and in the holes on the rotating plug there's more pins, all of them are a different height, these are called key pins, and all these things are put together as to make a mechanism, the rotating plug sits inside the main cylinder, and a clip stops it from being pulled out.

There is both a gap where the key and driver pins meet and there is also a gap between the main cylinder and the plug, these two gaps don't line up, stopping the cylinder from rotating, for the plug to spin freely, all the gaps between the pins need to line up with the gap between the plug and main cylinder, this is done by pushing the pins up to the right height with the key.

The Key It's normally made of metal and consists of a flat part that lets you hold it between your fingers, it has a long straight part called the blade, which is the part that goes into the keyhole on the lock, parts of the blade are cut away to make teeth and these teeth are called bitting, it's the wavy part of a key, when the key is put into the lock, each tooth pushes it's respective pin up til the point that both gaps meet, and the plug can rotate, the plug is attached to a complex mechanism that retracts the bolt and allows the door to be opened.

There are however many types of lock, some don't use a real key, for example you may see locks that have buttons on them, and each button can either be a letter or number, and the lock needs the right combination of buttons pushed for it to open, this kind of lock is called a combination lock, and the secret combination of letters, numbers or both is remembered by the person who uses it, combination locks can be electronic or mechanical.

Some electronic locks do use a physical key, but a different kind, for example a biometric lock scans your finger print or your face, and a keycard lock needs a special card to be unlocked, the card contains a secret word that the lock is looking for.

There are also lots of kinds of lock that do use a real key, pin tumblers are just one example, there are also wafer tumblers, disc tumblers, lever tumblers, and warded locks, the oldest known kind of lock.

Lock Picking
Lock picking is a way of opening a lock without the key, it works by sticking special tools in the keyhole and feeling around for internal parts, like the pins in a pin tumbler lock, if done properly it can leave behind no trace of unauthorized access, but not many burglars do it, since it requires practice, time, and knowledge of the inside of the particular kind of lock, it's illegal to pick a lock that isn't yours, and if you don't know what your doing you can break the lock.

Locksport is the legal use of lock picking as a skill for recreation, similar to a puzzle, people who practice locksport buy and collect different kinds of lock just to pick open, in most countries it's legal to have lock picking tools in your house but not to carry them, since they can be used for burglary, however in some countries it's illegal to even have lock picking tools in your house.

title: User:OGWFP/sandbox


text:
Applied Programming/Databases

What is a database?
A database is a data structure that stores organized information. Most databases contain multiple tables, which may each include several different fields. For example, a company database may include tables for products, employees, and financial records. Each of these tables would have different fields that are relevant to the information stored in the table.

A database is stored as a file or a set of files. The information in these files may be broken down into records, each of which consists of one or more fields. Fields are the basic units of data storage, and each field typically contains information pertaining to one aspect or attribute of the entity described by the database. Records are also organized into tables that include information about relationships between its various fields. Although database is applied loosely to any collection of information in computer files, a database in the strict sense provides cross-referencing capabilities. Using keywords and various sorting commands, users can rapidly search, rearrange, group, and select the fields in many records to retrieve or create reports on particular aggregates of data.

=== Why do we use them? === The three main advantages that databases have over other, simpler data storage systems (such as text files and spreadsheets) are access, integrity, and security.

Access
Access is about making data available to users.

Databases support good data access because:

 * Large volumes of data can be stored in one place
 * Multiple users can read and modify the data at the same time
 * Databases are searchable and sortable, so the data you need can be found quick and easily
 * The data structure is extendable and can be modified as requirements change

Integrity
Databases can ensure that the data contained within them is correct, or has integrity.

To ensure the integrity of a database, each change or transaction must conform to a set of rules known as ACID:

 * Atomicity: when changing data within a database, if any part of the change fails, the whole change will fail and the data will remain as it was before the change was made; this prevents partial records being created
 * Consistency: before data can be changed in a database, it must be validated against a set of rules
 * Isolation: databases allow multiple changes at the same time, but each change is isolated from others
 * Durability: once a change has been made, the data is safe, even in the event of system failure

In addition, databases will have mechanisms for backup, distribution, and redundancy, to ensure data is not lost.

Security
While access to text files or spreadsheets can be secured, once someone has access to a file, they have access to all data within that file. Databases can be made very secure, and that includes the ability to have access rights to specific parts of the database and not others.

Databases allow access to be controlled, allowing users to have different privileges: for example, some users may be able to read data, but not to write it.

Data can also be segmented so that users can access only certain parts: for example, a user may be able to read an employee’s name and address but not their salary information.

What other uses for a database can you think of? Share your thoughts in the comments.

In the next step, you will explore an example relational database and look at the data contained within it.

What is it?
The relational model is an abstract model used to organize data within a database. In order to control access to a database, write data, run queries, or perform any other tasks related to database management, a database management system must have some kind of underlying model that defines how the data within it are organized. Databases that implement the relational model are often referred to as relational databases. The relational model was for a long time the most sophisticated model for organizing data, and its widespread use has only recently been curbed by the rise of nonrelational — or, NoSQL — data models.

The most fundamental elements in the relational model are relations, which users and modern RDBMSs recognize as tables. A relation is a set of tuples, or rows in a table, with each tuple sharing a set of attributes, or columns. A column is the smallest organizational structure of a relational database, and represents the various facets that define the records in the table. Hence their more formal name, attributes. It can be helpful to think of each tuple as a unique instance of whatever type of people, objects, events, or associations the table holds.

Constraints
Domain constraints

Domain constraints can be violated if an attribute value is not appearing in the corresponding domain or it is not of the appropriate data type. Domain constraints specify that within each tuple, and the value of each attribute must be unique. This is specified as data types which include standard data types integers, real numbers, characters, Booleans, variable length strings, etc.

Key constraints

An attribute that can uniquely identify a tuple in a relation is called the key of the table. The value of the attribute for different tuples in the relation has to be unique.

Referential integrity constraints

Referential Integrity constraints in DBMS are based on the concept of Foreign Keys. A foreign key is an important attribute of a relation which should be referred to in other relationships. Referential integrity constraint state happens where relation refers to a key attribute of a different or same relation. However, that key element must exist in the table.

Example in Database
An idealized, very simple example of a description of some relvars (relation variables) and their attributes:

In this design we have six relvars: Customer, Order, Order Line, Invoice, Invoice Line and Product. The bold, underlined attributes are candidate keys. The non-bold, underlined attributes are foreign keys.
 * Customer ( Customer ID, Tax ID, Name, Address, City, State, Zip, Phone, Email, Sex)
 * Order ( Order No, Customer ID , Invoice No , Date Placed, Date Promised, Terms, Status)
 * Order Line ( Order No, Order Line No , Product Code , Qty)
 * Invoice ( Invoice No, Customer ID , Order No , Date, Status)
 * Invoice Line ( Invoice No, Invoice Line No , Product Code , Qty Shipped)
 * Product ( Product Code, Product Description)

Usually one candidate key is chosen to be called the primary key and used in preference over the other candidate keys, which are then called alternate keys.

A candidate key is a unique identifier enforcing that no tuple will be duplicated; this would make the relation into something else, namely a bag, by violating the basic definition of a set. Both foreign keys and superkeys (that includes candidate keys) can be composite, that is, can be composed of several attributes. Below is a tabular depiction of a relation of our example Customer relvar; a relation can be thought of as a value that can be attributed to a relvar.

Key Terms
Attribute - A particular feature which describes and is characteristic of a record.

Commit - Ends a transaction within a relational database management system (RDBMS) and makes all changes visible to other users.

Connection - read-only attribute provides the SQLite database Connection used by the Cursor object. A Cursor object created by calling con.cursor will have a connection attribute that refers to con.

Cursor - A database cursor is an object that enables traversal over the rows of a result set. It allows you to process individual row returned by a query.

Database - And organized collection of data.

Database Management System - There are multiple types of DBMS, (Relational, Object Oriented, etc), but each variant allows for reading, inserting, updating, deleting of a database along with general administrative/security tools.

Delete - Removes one or more records from a table.

Heading - A set of attributes.

Insert - Adds one or more records to a single table.

Primary key - A specific choice of one or more columns (attributes) whose data uniquely identifies each row (tuple) in a table (relation).

Query - Retrieves/creates data based on specific criteria. Queries must follow SQL rules and syntax.

Retrieval - Providing information in a form directly usable or for further processing by other applications.

Record - An instance of an entity in a database table.

Schema - A set of integrity constraints that structures and establishes the rules for data in a database.

Select - A common DQL command used to return a result set of records, either from a single or from multiple tables.

SQL - Structured Query Language, a programmatic standard for querying data from a relational database.

SQLite - A relational database management system (abbreviated RDBMS) embedded directly into a program.

Update - Changes specified data of one or more records in a table.

View - Set of rows from a database of a stored query on the data, which the database users can query just as they would in a persistent database collection object.

title: Applied Programming/Databases


text:
Transportation Planning Casebook/Sydney Monorail

Summary
Monorails are railway systems in which the train runs along a single rail all beam. While having some advantages such as above ground rails and quiet travel, the technology has struggled to gain traction in public transit in relation to technologies such as trains and light rail due to its lower capacity and cost inefficiency. Usually found in airport transfers or medium capacity metros, the use of monorails has been generally been confined to tourist transit, rather than large scale commuter travel.

The Sydney Monorail was announced in 1984 to support the redevelopment of Darling Harbour, with the Sydney Convention Centre, Harbour Side Shopping Centre and a host of entertainment options being built to revitalise the previously industrial inlet. Although light rail was proposed, the private funding from TNT assisted the monorail in becoming the preferred option. Despite protests over its cost and damage to both the environment and city image building went ahead, with service beginning in July 1988.

Throughout its operation, ownership of the system switched from TNT to CGEA and eventually to the state government, who closed the monorail in 2013. With patronage dwindling due to various factors such as low patronage to Darling Harbour and delays on World Square construction, the route was ultimately limited in connecting useful transit locations. While tourists took advantage of the views from the city sky, locals' reduced usage meant that revenue was never enough to cover investment.

Map of Locations
The Sydney Monorail was a 3.6 kilometre loop featuring the following eight stations:

 * Harbourside
 * Darling Park
 * City Centre
 * Galeries Victoria
 * World Square
 * Chinatown (closed in 2006)
 * Paddy's Markets
 * Convention

This route served major attractions such as Powerhouse Museum, Sydney Convention, Exhibition and Entertainment Centres, Sydney Aquarium and Harbourside Shopping Centre. Due to these locations drawing large numbers of tourists, the monorail carriages featured advertising to attractions such as the aquarium.

Darling Park, Harbourside, Chinatown and World Square stations still remain, with the state government and City of Sydney council at odds as to who should remove the stations.

Early Introduction
The government’s decision on redevelopment of Darling Harbour was announced by the premier of NSW in 1984, where two maintenances of the redevelopment of Darling Harbour include the Sydney Convention Centre and the Harbour Side Shopping Centre. As part of such development, the state government intended to build a transport link from Darling Harbour to the Sydney Central business district. Numerous transport options have been looked into and the light rail system and the monorail system stood out. The light rail system is investigated to have reduced ticket prices by half or acquired the street space, where the monorail system was viewed as futuristic at the time.

Although the Darling Harbour Transport Plan didn't recommend a monorail and the light rail is more preferred by the Sydney City Council, Transport Minister Laurie Brereton announced a monorail would be built in November, 1975, operating by the Australian Transport Company, TNT. Given the level of opposition to the announcement, the monorail system was then quickly placed under the aegis of the authority set up to plan and oversee the construction of the Darling Harbour Project (Ross). It could be argued that this was a way of avoiding lengthy legal battles over whether a range of laws and regulations were being violated, and indeed, such was the probability of legal challenges that 'the NSW Government introduced into Parliament the Darling Harbour Authority (Further Amendment) Bill in November 1985’.

In the Minister for Transport’s speech given in the Legislative Council, he mentioned that ‘the purpose of the bill is to allow construction of the monorail for the bicentenary’, where it was then achieved by overriding thirteen existing laws, including those on environment and planning, heritage, traffic and fire safety, as well as the authority of the Sydney City Council (Ross).

Monorail Fares
A variety of Monorail fares are set dependent upon the many uses and needs of the customers. The following table shows the Monorail fares for the single trips. The $5 monorails’ tickets of such a short trip is considered expensive for most Sydney-siders, where most passengers chose to walk to their destinations instead. One of the passengers Barry Matheson mentioned in the street interview that “we’d be happy to call an ambulance or some sort of transport to get to our home quickly. I don’t think anyone would be wanting to take the monorail anyway” (Price, 2019).

Problems and Incidents
While the monorail opened to much fanfare, it soon became a plague of problems. The automatic system designed for the monorail experienced plague of problem and frequent breakdown, resulting in TNT making the decision to convert the monorail to manual operation through the use of drivers (Price, 2019). The preliminarily designed computer-controlled driverless system was never used again in the monorails’ lifetime.

On the 28th of July, 1988, an electric fault caused the system to stop operating, where 50 passengers were stranded in carriages for two hours between 3:50 and 5:50 pm. TNT was then criticised for failing to call emergency services until 5:40 pm. The passengers were on the rooftop disembarking at a station by the time the fire brigade arrived at the scene.

One of the most notable accidents for the monorail took place in February 2010. Two monorail trains collided at the Darling Park Station, hospitalising four people including a three-year-old boy and a pregnant woman.

Decommission
With all the issues occurring, in early 2012, state government announced its intention to purchase Metro Transport Sydney for $18,600,000, where the Metro Monorail was rebranded to the Sydney Monorail. However, almost immediately after, the state government announced that the monorail would close in three years and be removed for infrastructure developments in the CBD and Darling Harbour. As such, the state government’s action of purchasing Metro Transport can hence result in extending the light rail system and demolish the monorail without the need to negotiate with the private owners.

At the end of 2012, the closing date of the monorail system was confirmed to be the 30th of June, 2013. Barry Robert O'Farrell, the New South Wales premier at the time quoted that “the real problem with the monorail for most Sydney-siders is that it doesn’t actually go anywhere that you want to go”. He suggests that the decision paves the way for the development of a world-class Sydney International Convention Exhibition and entertainment precinct as the New South Wales government aiming to make NSW more international.

Darling Harbour Redevelopment Plan
To mark Australia’s bicentennial celebration, a total of $200 million redevelopment scheme of Darling Harbour had been proposed, including a new transport infrastructure that would support the new entertainment and retail precinct. Among all eight short-listed initiatives, the majority of them adopted suspension designs that have elevated tracks or monorail. Only one light rail transit system was taken into consideration. The monorail and the light rail remained as the final two contenders. The monorail would be a bicentenary gift by TNT, thus it would not require any investments from the NSW government. And TNT claimed that it’ll be an autonomous people mover (APM) with a $1 fare that operates above the street level so that avoid congesting the street.

The light rail proposal would cost 20 million less than the monorail and has other merits such as 40% cheaper on fare price, and higher passenger capacity. Moreover, it was supported by National Trust, and public transport supporters, and environmental organisations. Eventually, the monorail won the bidding, making it widely criticized as a political decision rather than a rational one. It is regarded by the NSW government as the most advanced transport mode that has a high sense of ‘futuristic’ representing transportation in the 21st century. Laurie Brereton, the Minister of Transport, regarded monorail as the most efficient solution and claimed that the conventional light rail would turn Sydney back to the 1960s city which streets are congested by trams.

Protest and opposition.
After the $60 million monorail project was proposed, it attracted a series of protests and critics. On July 20, 1986, more than 7,000 people went on the streets to protest against the monorail.

Major critics were about its damage to the environment, heritage and the city image.

Construction
In November 1985 the construction of the monorail was announced by Minister of Transport, Laurie Brereton, at the same time, NSW Government established the Darling Harbour Authority (Further Amendment Bill) in November 1985 to ensure the construction progress on schedule and to avoid legal challenges during the construction.

Commercial Service Commencement
Planned to open to service in January 1988, before the Royal Visit, the construction was delayed by the difficulties of underground earthwork in the CBD area. And by July 21, the monorail was finally ready for commercial service. The promised driverless feature was cancelled due to safety concerns.

Patronage
Two years after the initial service, by the early 1990s, the patronage of the monorail was still about half of the expected level. Many reasons have caused this low patronage level. Its major attraction nodes, Darling Harbour and World Square failed to derive enough passenger demand. Darling Harbour transition to entertainment and shopping centre did not go as successfully as it planned to be, while World Square construction took a few years to complete. The management realised the route of the monorail was hard to make a profit since it simply did not cover enough catchment regions. A station at Circular Quay would be a game-changer. At some point, the monorail managed to return profits by operating but never close to cover the investment. TNT has found another way to profit which is the carriage advertisement.

Sold by TNT
In August 1998, after ten years of struggle, TNT was merged into TNT Post Group and only keeping its core business: mail and logistics. The monorail was then sold to multiple infrastructure funds, including CGEA Transport Sydney (51%), Australian Infrastructure Fund (19%), Utilities Trust of Australia (19%) and Legal & General (11%). Later, the latter three funds reformed as Sydney Light Rail Company (SLRC) which also owned the Sydney Light Rail line. CGEA Transport (Later Connex) remained as the operator of the monorail after selling its share. CGEA changed their name to Veolia Transport Sydney in 2005 and again changed into Veolia Transdev after merging with Transdev.

Government takeover and closure
On 23rd March 2012, NSW Government took ownership of both the monorail and the light rail from Metro Transport Sydney so that to remove it in 2013 to make space for another transformation of Darling Harbour. Veolia Transport remained as the service provider for the last year of operation.

Removal
After the closure in July 2013, the removal of the monorail network commenced right away. Four stations and a 3.6km long elevated track were dislodged to allow the extension for the Sydney Convention, Exhibition and Entertainment Precinct which is on the monorail route.

All demolition and removal works were completed in April 2014.

Discussion Questions

 * Was the Sydney Monorail a successful or failed project? What were the factors that contributed to its success or failure?
 * Is the monorail system suitable as part of an urban public transport system? Why?
 * What are the benefits of using the PPP model for infrastructure development?

Additional readings

 * Rail Safety Investigation Report: Monorail Collision Darling Park The report shows the results of an investigation by the New South Wales Office of Transport Safety Investigations into a significant collision that occurred on the Sydney Monorail on January 27, 2010. The incident again led to a decline in ridership on the Sydney Monorail and contributed to its gradual decommissioning and removal.
 * Hallmark events as an excuse for autocracy in urban planning: a casehistory of Sydney's Monorail


text:
Transportation Planning Casebook/COVID-19 and International Aviation

Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented and debilitating impact on the international aviation industry. Since January 2020, government agencies around the world have imposed a variety of border controls and travel restrictions in an attempt to prevent the transmission of the virus to local populations. As a result of these measures, the international aviation industry has experienced a significant drop in patronage and revenue. The economic consequences of this loss in air patronage has had far reaching implications for both global and local economies. Government agencies have sought to alleviate these impacts through the provision of financial support in the form of grants, loans, stimulus packages, subsidies and equity stakes.

The international responses to the pandemic have ranged in conservatism, and include outright border closures (eg. Australia and New Zealand), proof of a negative COVID-19 test (eg. USA and UK), proof of COVID-19 recovery (eg. Madeira), and proof of a received COVID-19 vaccine (eg. Guatemala, Iceland and Belize). This complex array of travel policy responses has further led to extensive complications for the international aviation industry, as constantly changing rules and regulations make it challenging to operate international services efficiently and foster consumer confidence. Ultimately, the recovery of the international aviation industry is anticipated to be long and difficult as passenger volumes are not expected to return to pre-COVID-19 levels until at least 2024.

List of Actors
The list of actors relevant to this case study are detailed below in Table 1.

Timeline
The key events relevant to this case study are shown below in Figure 1 and Table 2.

Maps

Airlines
An extensive array of government aid and policy measures have been implemented around the world to support the aviation industry following disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic, however the majority of government financial support has targeted the saving of airlines. Many governments view airlines as an essential method of connectivity to support their economy and competitive landscape. Consequently, countries must ensure that their domestic airlines services survive the impacts of the pandemic, as the loss of these carriers may result in severe economic consequences in the long-term. Accordingly, many governments have arranged for a mixture of takeovers, bailouts and financial relief packages for airlines. For example, the Italian government took complete ownership of Italy’s carrier Alitalia through a $650 million investment in June 2020. The implications of this policy venture may be long-lasting, as it ties the Italian government to the cyclical and competitive aviation industry, which may drain taxpayer funds that may be better allocated to other industries once the aviation industry has recovered. The US has been less inclined to utilise a takeover approach in their rescuing of American airliners, instead offering a $50 billion bailout package to be distributed amongst most US airlines. However, the bailout approach largely prioritises key market players (eg. national operators) over smaller, independent operations. As a result, these policies may distort the competitive airline landscape which may ultimately lead to undesirable market oligopolies that could decrease value to the consumer.

Airports
In contrast to airlines, airports received comparatively less attention and financial support from government agencies despite their similar demands for government aid. Unlike airlines, airports have limited flexibility in their operating costs as they are subject to fixed maintenance and operating costs for their infrastructure. This rigidity in operating costs makes it particularly challenging to alter operational expenditures, which has the effect of increasing their vulnerability to dramatic shifts in revenue. For example, while the Australian government has provided a AU$1.2 billion aviation and tourism support package, it only provides relief to airports for domestic security screening costs, thereby expecting Australian airports to cover an expected cost of AU$172 million for international security screening measures. Similarly, European governments have provided over EUR$31.8 billion to airlines, while only offering EUR$840 million for airports. The US’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act provides US$50 billion to the US’s aviation industry (US$25 billion in loans and US$25 billion in grants), however only $10 billion of that is allocated to airports. As a result of these policies, airports may be challenged to maintain sufficient liquidity to cover operating costs. This may be further exacerbated by additional costly policies that airports will have to enact as a result of the pandemic, such as additional hygiene measures (eg. hygiene officers, increased sanitation processes and provisions of hygiene supplies to consumers).

Concessionaries
Airport concessionaires experienced significant declines in patronage - in parallel with the wider airport passenger volumes - as a result of COVID-19. Unlike typical retail or dining spaces, the return of consumers to these establishments relies on successfully overcoming two significant barriers: reductions in consumer shopping confidence and reductions in air travel confidence. This dependence leads to an operational fragility. To combat this fragility, concessionaires around the world have called for a mixture of private and public policies to reduce monetary strains and risks of permanent closure. Most critically, concessionaires have requested immediate relief for rent fees and payments to airport owners to ensure short-term survival.

Many private airports and government agencies have discussed granting temporary waivers or amendments to existing minimum annual guarantees (MAG), which define the minimum rent amount payable for a concessionaire to operate in a leased space. While countries have differing approaches on how to utilise MAGs (eg. minimum expectation vs absolute expectation), there is a general consensus that existing MAGs are designed for periods of stability and growth rather than extreme patronage contractions. Thus, the existence of MAGs during the COVID-19 pandemic has made concessionaire rental agreements untenable. As a result, policy-makers have sought to reduce or eliminate MAG payments over the last year. For example, the public airport authority of Dubai has temporarily waived up to 100% of MAGs for concessionaires in Dubai International Airport and Al Maktoum International Airport. The US has taken a more tempered approach to MAG relief, offering a $2 billion grant program to be distributed to both domestic and international airports across the country. However, these interim policy measures are not sustainable solutions as it is challenging to predict when air travel will resume to pre-COVID-19 levels and governments cannot afford to cover concessionaire rent payments in perpetuity. Therefore, policy-makers need to consider permanent changes in MAG design, such as MAGs tied to foot traffic or the elimination of MAGs in favour of payments exclusively tied to sales.

Airport car parking and transport operators
Car parking and transport operator revenue has been a secondary casualty of COVID-19’s impact on international air travel, as both airport-owned parking and transport services as well as commercial ride-share, taxi, valet services and off-site parking services have experienced significant declines in revenue. However, the competitive landscape between airports and commercial transport operators has led to commercial and regulatory policy criticisms.

For example, off-site parking operators have argued that Melbourne Airport’s fee policies are inequitable, as the airport has made it free to park on-site while still requiring access and congestion fees for shuttle services (to off-site parking). Private parking service operators argue that this has the effect of unfairly constraining competition since these fees limit their ability to provide independent parking services in favour of the airport-owned parking facilities. The monopolistic pressure may result in the permanent closure of these independent businesses as they become unable to compete with airport parking prices, which may consequently lead to higher service prices for consumers. Therefore, regulators need to carefully evaluate the competitive relationship between airports and transportation services to ensure commercial fairness and sustainability.

Aircraft manufacturers
The devastating impact of the pandemic on the aviation manufacturing industry has never been seen before. In 2020, the global aircraft delivery will only total 723, evidencing a 54% reduction compared to 2019. Many airlines are on the brink of bankruptcy, and British Airways is trying to apply for government assistance, postpone new aircraft orders and reduce after-sales market spending. Predictably, the outlook for global aircraft delivery will be bleak in the next three to four years. The new normal will mean that airlines will spend less on new aircraft and after-sales markets, but it will also mean a rebalancing of the aviation fleet. The company should re-evaluate its product portfolio and the breadth of its operation capability. Therefore, how airlines choose to ground or retire their fleet is the key factor to balance overcapacity and order reduction. Suppliers should ensure that they are ready to support their airline customers at all times to ensure that the aircraft can quickly resume service in the event of a small demand return, which is critical to the recovery of the aviation industry. One example is Lufthansa's thorough restructuring of its fleet to reduce about 100 of its 760 aircraft and to give priority to the reduction of fuel inefficient four reactor aircraft.

 Passengers services

The epidemic has a sustained psychological impact on passengers, which will promote passengers to pay more attention to the safety, privacy and efficiency of the flight process. Business aviation has high efficiency, convenience and strong privacy. In terms of epidemic prevention and control, it can more effectively avoid contact with too many people and reduce the risk of infection. This kind of passenger demand for travel safety and privacy will stimulate a certain number of new users to use business aviation. In addition, this kind of consumer group comes from the business and travel demand of high net worth people but also comes from the demand of enterprises and government charter flights. At present, many public air transport companies also focus on promoting the product form of charter transport, which is also in line with the customers' demand for safer transport services under the epidemic situation [34 ].

In the early days of Covid-19, the demand for charter flights in Asia was higher than that in other regions, and long-distance flights were more common than regional flights. Especially when Asian countries implemented strict travel restrictions and quarantine measures, many passengers chose to flee to relatively safe areas[35 ].The first batch of Australians will return to Australia by charter flight from London in October 2020. On the arrangement of rework for employees of foreign enterprises, the German overseas chamber of commerce requires that all employees should not take civil aviation flights on their own, but take charter flights to return to work overseas[36 ]. All these have improved the health and safety of passenger charter flights and minimized the possibility of epidemic transmission.

The International Aviation Association predicts that the global aviation industry can only recover to the level of 2019 in 2024. Therefore, in the case of regular flights constantly blocked, the value and attractiveness of business aircraft charter is constantly improving.One of the world's largest charter agents, Al global charter, said that in 2020, leisure travel consulting volume increases by 49%, reservation volume increases by 14%, and 20 new customers' reservation volume increases by 25%.

Cargo Policy
Although the global air travel demand and capacity have declined by more than 50% under the epidemic situation, the pandemic trend also highlights the urgent need for air transportation.

First, the pandemic will play a positive role in promoting the transition process of global e-commerce, which will benefit air cargo transport providers. The UK East Midland Airport (EMA) has made full use of the opportunity of rapid growth of e-commerce volume during the epidemic period, and the increasing e-commerce orders are mostly the scramble for medical devices or equipment by EU countries or the UK, which has changed the hub status of the airport and promoted the growth of cargo transportation volume by 20%. EMA has developed from a freight hub in the UK to a freight transit center in Europe [37 ].

While the operational efficiency of North American air cargo is damaged, it also releases more positive and more resilient signals. The first sign of recovery is a 5% increase in freight demand in November 2020. When HJAIA was hit the hardest, 90% of its airliners were grounded, and nearly 50% of its cargo could not be transported[38 ]. The rate of elastic recovery of the airport benefits from its advanced operation mechanism. Ground service providers and road transport companies provide services to the airport at the same time, establishing the first digital air cargo community in the Americas in 2019. This platform guides other airports in the United States and Canada on how to improve transaction efficiency and reduce the spread of the virus through goods when the epidemic breaks out. In addition, HJAIA's digital function also emphasizes the improvement of freight tracking technology to ensure the smooth flow and safe delivery of the highest value commodities in Global trade and track each batch of vaccines[39 ].

Prior to COVID-19
Prior to COVID-19, commercial air travel sustained continued growth between 2009 and 2019. This period of growth was driven by technological advancements (e.g. twin-engine aircraft), proliferation of low-cost carriers and increasing global tourism demand. In 2018, a record of 8.8 billion travellers passed through airports around the world, which marked a 6.4% increase to the previous year. This high demand for air travel translated to significant contributions to the global economy. For example, in 2019, the total estimated revenue of airports around the world was approximately US$178.2 billion, of which 59.9% comprised aeronautical services, 39.2% comprised non-aeronautical services, and 0.9% comprised non-operating revenue.

COVID-19
In 2020, the international aviation industry experienced a dramatic reduction in air travel demand as government agencies around the world rapidly enacted border closures and travel restrictions in response to COVID-19. These policies aimed to reduce the movement of populations as a means of reducing the spread of the virus. The escalation of COVID-19 responses had debilitating impacts on the aviation sector, which has led to devastating impacts on both local and global economies.

The decline in global air travel can be attributed to a multitude of events. Initially, the announcement of a novel virus in Wuhan, China resulted in a slight decline in departures during January and February 2020 as local travel bans were imposed to restrict travellers from entering or leaving Wuhan. By March, as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China increased, further restrictions were put in place both domestically and internationally to limit the spread of the virus, including a total lockdown of Wuhan and international border closures to China-based travellers. These travel bans resulted in drastic reductions in traffic for China’s largest airlines, who announced capacity losses of 85% to 90%. However, it was the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on March 11 that seemingly had the greatest influence on the aviation industry. Two days after the WHO’s announcement, the USA banned all incoming travel from the Schengen region of Europe, which was reciprocated by the EU on March 17, resulting in a significant decrease in international air travel. On March 18, Canada and the USA also agreed to close their borders to each other, further reducing the rates of international flights. By March 21, departures collapsed to less than 10,000 aircraft around the world, and by the end of April, approximately 98% of the world’s fleet of international aircraft had been grounded. Due to the sharp decline in commercial passenger demand, the majority of remaining operational carriers comprised cargo aircraft, which were used to deliver medical supplies to the regions most vulnerable to COVID-19’s impacts. Interestingly, the combination of at-home shopping (as citizens isolated) and the primacy of cargo aircraft resulted in an increase in cargo yields by about 30% from the preceding year. Ultimately, the reduction in global travel experienced in the first 10 months of 2020 resulted in a decrease of 900 million international travellers from the same time period in the previous year. This equates to a loss of US$935 billion in tourism and export revenues around the world.

The path to recovery
While many industries and countries around the world are still suffering from the impacts of COVID-19, the aviation sector has observed a very slow recovery since June 2020. In particular, airlines with greater domestic market share are seeing more rapid recoveries (eg. Air New Zealand and Air China) comparatively to competitors who are traditionally more dependent on international routes (eg. Emirates, Qatar Airways and AeroMéxico). For example, Australia has seen its number of domestic travellers increase from approximately 400,000 to 2.2 million per month between June 2020 and December 2020. The last two months of 2020 also saw some minor improvements in daily global traffic, which may be a response to vaccine approvals in the UK, USA, Canada and EU.

However, long-term recovery has stalled due to ongoing travel restrictions around the world, as governments fear additional waves of the virus and more infectious or deadly viral strains. Notably, the humanitarian crisis in India has sparked new concerns about the potential wide-scale impacts of COVID-19 and has led to new border closures to India-based travellers. Some airlines have resorted to increasing domestic routes (eg. AeroMéxico and Air China) or increasing cargo operations (eg. Indigo) to supplement lost revenue, while others have temporarily suspended all operations (eg. Copa) in an effort to reduce cash burn rates.

Unlike previous crises that have impacted the airline industry, such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 or the SARS outbreak in 2003, the impacts of COVID-19 have extended beyond localised geographies over a sustained period of time. While some countries, such as South Africa and Egypt, have relaxed their border policies in order to reignite travel in their regions, the timeline for a restoration of peoples’ confidence in travelling is unknown. As a result, experts have been challenged to predict the long-term recovery of the international aviation industry, although it is anticipated that increased hygiene measures and greater government intervention will be key components in future operations. Overall, many believe that air travel has changed permanently, and that the international aviation industry must adapt to this new reality.

Discussion Questions

 * 1) Does the current aviation industry need to transform in the era of e-commerce to better cope with emergencies such as epidemic situations?
 * 2) How can the aviation service industry help people overcome the fear of the epidemic in order to achieve better profitability?
 * 3) Do you think the government's aid programs (such as subsidies, tax cuts, loans and even equity distribution) can fundamentally solve the bankruptcy crisis of some airlines? If not, what measures need to be taken to deal with it?
 * 4) Can aviation be completely replaced by other modes of transportation during the epidemic period to achieve the purpose of transportation?

Further Reading Materials

 * Impact assessment of the COVID-19 outbreak on international tourism
 * COVID-19 and the aviation industry: Impact and policy responses