Is Singapore a good place to develop wealth? Context: Economy Main article: Economy of Singapore Singapore Airlines celebrated the nation's Golden Jubilee with a flag livery on its Airbus A380 Singapore Airlines, the country's flag carrier, celebrated the nation's 2015 Golden Jubilee with a flag livery on its Airbus A380. Singapore has a highly developed market economy, based historically on extended entrepôt trade. Along with Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan, Singapore is one of the Four Asian Tigers, and has surpassed its peers in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. Between 1965 and 1995, growth rates averaged around 6 per cent per annum, transforming the living standards of the population. The Singaporean economy is regarded as free, innovative, dynamic and business-friendly. For several years, Singapore has been one of the few countries with an AAA credit rating from the big three, and the only Asian country to achieve this rating. Singapore attracts a large amount of foreign investment as a result of its location, skilled workforce, low tax rates, advanced infrastructure and zero-tolerance against corruption. It is the world's most competitive economy in 2019, according to the World Economic Forum's ranking of 141 countries, with the 2nd highest GDP per capita. Roughly 44 percent of the Singaporean workforce is made up of non-Singaporeans. Despite market freedom, Singapore's government operations have a significant stake in the economy, contributing 22% of the GDP. The city is a popular location for conferences and events. The currency of Singapore is the Singapore dollar (SGD or S$), issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). It has been interchangeable with the Brunei dollar at par value since 1967. MAS manages its monetary policy by allowing the Singapore dollar exchange rate to rise or fall within an undisclosed trading band. This is different from most central banks, which use interest rates to manage policy. Singapore has the world's eleventh largest foreign reserves, and one of the highest net international investment position per capita. Singapore has been identified as a tax haven for the wealthy due to its low tax rates on personal income and tax exemptions on foreign-based income and capital gains. Individuals such as Australian millionaire retailer Brett Blundy and multi-billionaire Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin are two examples of wealthy individuals who have settled in Singapore. In 2009, Singapore was removed from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) "liste grise" of tax havens, and ranked fourth on the Tax Justice Network's 2015 Financial Secrecy Index of the world's off-shore financial service providers, banking one-eighth of the world's offshore capital, while "providing numerous tax avoidance and evasion opportunities". In August 2016, The Straits Times reported that Indonesia had decided to create tax havens on two islands near Singapore to bring Indonesian capital back into the tax base. In October 2016, the Monetary Authority of Singapore admonished and fined UBS and DBS and withdrew Falcon Private Bank's banking licence for their alleged role in the Malaysian Sovereign Fund scandal. Panoramic view of the Central Business District Singapore has the world's highest percentage of millionaires, with one out of every six households having at least one million US dollars in disposable wealth. This excludes property, businesses, and luxury goods, which if included would increase the number of millionaires, especially as property in Singapore is among the world's most expensive. In 2016, Singapore was rated the world's most expensive city for the third consecutive year by the Economist Intelligence Unit, and this remained true in 2018. The government provides numerous assistance programmes to the homeless and needy through the Ministry of Social and Family Development, so acute poverty is rare. Some of the programmes include providing between S$400 and S$1000 of financial assistance per month to needy households, providing free medical care at government hospitals, and paying for children's tuition. Other benefits include compensation for gym fees to encourage citizens to exercise, up to S$166,000 as a baby bonus for each citizen, heavily subsidised healthcare, financial aid for the disabled, the provision of reduced-cost laptops for poor students, rebates for costs such as public transport and utility bills, and more. As of 2018 Singapore's ranking in the Human Development Index is 9th in the world, with an HDI value of 0.935.
When was The Palpable Leprosy of Pollution released? Context: Infant Annihilator are an English deathcore band formed in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire in 2012 by drummer Aaron Kitcher and guitarist Eddie Pickard. The band are known for their technical, eclectic and extreme musical style; parodistic and satirically graphic lyrical content and shock humour; and music videos that feature ribald themes. Their debut album The Palpable Leprosy of Pollution, which features the American vocalist Dan Watson, was released in late 2012. After replacing their vocalist with Massachusetts-native Dickie Allen, their second album The Elysian Grandeval Galèriarch was recorded and mixed by Jesse Kirkbride at his home studio Kirkbride Recordings and was released in 2016. Their third album, The Battle of Yaldabaoth, was released on 11 September 2019. Infant Annihilator were described by the Hysteria Magazine as an internet band and even though they have stated that touring is a possibility, they have performed only as a studio project so far.
What is an Aeolosaurini? Context: Aeolosaurini is an extinct clade of titanosaurian dinosaurs known from the Cretaceous period of Argentina and Brazil. Rodrigo M. Santucci and Antonio C. de Arruda-Campos (2011) in their cladistic analysis found Aeolosaurus, Gondwanatitan, Maxakalisaurus, Panamericansaurus and Rinconsaurus to be aeolosaurids. Aeolosaurini is characterized by several synapomorphies of the caudal vertebrae, such as angled centra, elongate prezygapophyses, and neural arches shifted anteriorly relative to the centra. In life, their tails may have been strongly curved downward as a result of these traits, which may have increased the force exerted by the caudofemoralis longus muscle in retracting the hindlimb. Some aeolosaurins, such as Shingopana and Overosaurus, were relatively small compared to other titanosaurs, whereas others, such as Aeolosaurus maximus, were large.
Which trophy was Frost able to keep and why? Context: Frost became interested in sport at a young age and was an all-round athlete. He won medals for running and swimming and was a prominent member of the Winchester Harriers sports club. He particularly excelled as a cyclist, entering competitive events at an early age and holding several amateur cycling records. In 1898, Frost won, within the space of a fortnight, Britain's two leading cycle racing trophies, the Bath Road 100 and the Cawardine Challenge Cup, as well as the national championship. By the time he retired he had won every important amateur cycling trophy in the nation. He is particularly remembered for winning the Carwardine Challenge Cup, a 100-mile race held annually at the Herne Hill race track. This huge cup was donated by the vice-president of the Anerley Bicycle Club in 1895 and was made from 650 ounces of silver, with ornamentation of solid gold. The tradition at the time was that if someone won a trophy three times they could keep it. Frost, riding for the Bath Road club in Hayes, first won it in 1896, repeated the victory in 1898 and was victorious for the third time in 1900. The cup is occasionally exhibited in Winchester.
What are some defining qualities of authoritarianism? Context: Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voting. Political scientists have created many typologies describing variations of authoritarian forms of government. Authoritarian regimes may be either autocratic or oligarchic and may be based upon the rule of a party or the military. States that have a blurred boundary between democracy and authoritarianism have some times been characterized as "hybrid democracies", "hybrid regimes" or "competitive authoritarian" states. The political scientist Juan Linz, in an influential 1964 work, An Authoritarian Regime: Spain, defined authoritarianism as possessing four qualities: Limited political pluralism, is realized with constraints on the legislature, political parties and interest groups. Political legitimacy is based upon appeals to emotion and identification of the regime as a necessary evil to combat "easily recognizable societal problems, such as underdevelopment or insurgency." Minimal political mobilization, and suppression of anti-regime activities. Ill-defined executive powers, often vague and shifting extend the power of the executive. Minimally defined, an authoritarian government lacks free and competitive direct elections to legislatures, free and competitive direct or indirect elections for executives, or both. Broadly defined, authoritarian states include countries that lack civil liberties such as freedom of religion, or countries in which the government and the opposition do not alternate in power at least once following free elections. Authoritarian states might contain nominally democratic institutions such as political parties, legislatures and elections which are managed to entrench authoritarian rule and can feature fraudulent, non-competitive elections. In contexts of democratic backsliding, scholars tend to identify authoritarian political leaders based on certain tactics, such as: politicizing independent institutions, spreading disinformation, aggrandizing executive power, quashing dissent, targeting vulnerable communities, stoking violence, and corrupting elections. Since 1946, the share of authoritarian states in the international political system increased until the mid-1970s but declined from then until the year 2000.
What is the Nintendo Switch? Context: The Nintendo Switch is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a tablet that can either be docked for use as a home console or used as a portable device, making it a hybrid console. Its wireless Joy-Con controllers, with standard buttons and directional analog sticks for user input, motion sensing, and tactile feedback, can attach to both sides of the console to support handheld-style play. They can also connect to a grip accessory to provide a traditional home console gamepad form, or be used individually in the hand like the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, supporting local multiplayer modes. The Nintendo Switch's software supports online gaming through Internet connectivity, as well as local wireless ad hoc connectivity with other consoles. Nintendo Switch games and software are available on both physical flash-based ROM cartridges and digital distribution via Nintendo eShop; the system has no region lockout. A handheld-focused revision of the system, called the Nintendo Switch Lite, was released on September 20, 2019. A revised higher-end version of the original system, featuring an OLED screen, was released on October 8, 2021.
What did Ralph Agas did as a profession? Context: Ralph Agas (or Radulph Agas) (c. 1540 – 26 November 1621) was an English land surveyor and cartographer. He was born at Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk, in about 1540, and lived there throughout his life, although he travelled regularly to London. He began to practise as a surveyor in about 1566, and has been described as "one of the leaders of the emerging body of skilled land surveyors". Agas is particularly known for his large-scale town map of Oxford (surveyed 1578, published 1588). Early maps of London and Cambridge were also formerly attributed to him, but these attributions are no longer upheld.