International Biographical Centre
The International Biographical Centre is a publisher owned by Melrose Press Ltd that specializes in producing biographical publications, such as the ''Dictionary of International Biography'', ''Great Men and Women of Science'' and other vanity awards. It is situated in Ely, Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom. Government consumer advocates have described it as a "scam" or as "pretty tacky". Its use to support the granting of a US O-1 visa (for '' individuals with an extraordinary ability'') has been described by US employer Oracle Corporation as purchasing "vanity accolades" to use as "phony credentials", with a warning that "visa fraud is a serious crime" with severe penalties. In 2007, referring to the International Biographical Centre, the American Biographical Institute and Marquis Who's Who, Jan Margosian, consumer information coordinator for the Oregon Department of Justice, warned consumers to be wary and called the companies "pretty tacky", adding "I don't know why they w ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ely, Cambridgeshire
Ely ( ) is a cathedral city in the East Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England, about north-northeast of Cambridge and from London. Ely is built on a Kimmeridge Clay island which, at , is the highest land in the Fens. It was due to this topography that Ely was not waterlogged like the surrounding Fenland, and was an island separated from the mainland. Major rivers including the River Witham, Witham, River Welland, Welland, River Nene, Nene and River Great Ouse, Great Ouse feed into the Fens and, until draining commenced in the eighteenth century, formed freshwater marshes and Mere (lake), meres within which peat was laid down. Once the Fens were drained, this peat created a rich and fertile soil ideal for farming. The River Great Ouse was a significant means of transport until the Fens were drained and Ely ceased to be an island in the seventeenth century. The river is now a popular boating spot, and has a large marina. Although now surrounded by land, the city ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Biographical
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae ( résumé), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of their life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality. Biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Works in diverse media, from literature to film, form the genre known as biography. An authorized biography is written with the permission, cooperation, and at times, participation of a subject or a subject's heirs. An autobiography is written by the person themselves, sometimes with the assistance of a collaborator or ghostwriter. History At first, biog ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vanity Awards
A vanity award is an award in which the recipient purchases the award and/or marketing services to give the false appearance of a legitimate honor. Pitches for ''Who's Who''-type publications (see vanity press), biographies or nominations for awards or special memberships can have a catch to them in which the honoree is required to pay for recognition. Vanity book awards The vanity award phenomenon among book awards was noted in a ''Salon'' article by Laura Miller in 2009. Vanity book awards are characterized by dozens (or more) of categories to ensure that most applicants are winners or finalists. Other characteristics include high entry fees, or fees for other services such as trophies, prominent display on the award website; or promises of marketing. Self-published authors seeking promotion and recognition are commonly customers of vanity award services. List of vanity book awards The following have been called vanity awards. * The 2009 National "Best Books" Awards given by U ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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O-1 Visa
An O visa is a classification of non-immigrant temporary worker visa granted by the United States to an alien "who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, or who has a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and has been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements", and to certain assistants and immediate family members of such aliens. According to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, there are three types of O visas: * O-1A: individuals with an extraordinary ability in the sciences, education, business, or athletics (not including the arts, motion pictures or television industry) * O-1B: individuals with an extraordinary ability in the arts or extraordinary achievement in motion picture or television industry. * O-2: individuals who will accompany an O-1, artist or athlete, to assist in a specific event or performance. "For an O-1A, the O-2's ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells database software and technology (particularly its own brands), cloud engineered systems, and enterprise software products, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, human capital management (HCM) software, customer relationship management (CRM) software (also known as customer experience), enterprise performance management (EPM) software, and supply chain management (SCM) software. History Larry Ellison co-founded Oracle Corporation in 1977 with Bob Miner and Ed Oates under the name Software Development Laboratories (SDL). Ellison took inspiration from the 1970 paper written by Edgar F. Codd on relational database management systems ( RDBMS) named "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks." He heard about the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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American Biographical Institute
The American Biographical Institute (ABI) was a paid-inclusion vanity biographical reference directory publisher based in Raleigh, North Carolina which had been publishing biographies since 1967. It generated revenue from sales of fraudulent certificates and books. Each year the company awarded hundreds of "Man of the Year" or "Woman of the Year" awards at between $195 and $295 each. Its awards were frequently denounced as scams by politicians, journalists, and others. The Government of Western Australia's ScamNet service considers the American Biographical Institute to be a scam vanity publisher "who appeals to people who want a plaque on their wall or see their name in a book, even if the honour has no real credibility—in effect, they have purchased the honour." The company went bankrupt in 2012. The company's owner, Arlene Calhoun, also ran another purveyor of for-profit awards called the United Cultural Convention and another vanity press called the Pentland Press or Ivy Hou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Marquis Who's Who
Marquis Who's Who ( or ) is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in America'', ''Who's Who of American Women'', ''Who's Who in the World'', ''Who's Who in Science and Engineering'', ''Who's Who in American Politics'', etc. Often, ''Marquis Who's Who'' books are found in the reference section of local libraries, at corporate libraries, and are also used for research by universities. In 2005, while Marquis was owned by News Communications, Inc., publishers of '' The Hill''; ''The New York Times'' referred to the sixtieth edition of ''Who's Who in America'' as "a librarian's '' Vanity Fair''". Marquis states in its preface that ''Who's Who in America'' "endeavors to profile the leaders of American society; those men and women who are influencing their nation's development". Entries in ''Marquis Who's Who'' books list career and personal data for ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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International Biographical Centre Certificate
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The Three Degrees album), 1975 *''International'', 2018 album by L'Algérino Songs * The Internationale, the left-wing anthem * "International" (Chase & Status song), 2014 * "International", by Adventures in Stereo from ''Monomania'', 2000 * "International", by Brass Construction from ''Renegades'', 1984 * "International", by Thomas Leer from ''The Scale of Ten'', 1985 * "International", by Kevin Michael from ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * "International", by McGuinness Flint from ''McGuinness Flint'', 1970 * "International", by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark from '' Dazzle Ships'', 1983 * "International (Serious)", by Estelle from '' All of Me'', 2012 Politics * Political international, any transnational organization of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Parliament Of Victoria
The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria that follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Victoria, the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. It has a fused executive drawn from members of both chambers. The parliament meets at Parliament House in the state capital Melbourne. The current Parliament was elected on 26 November 2022, sworn in on 20 December 2022 and is the 60th parliament in Victoria. The two Houses of Parliament have 128 members in total, 88 in the Legislative Assembly (lower house) and 40 in the Legislative Council (upper house). Victoria has compulsory voting and uses instant-runoff voting in single-member seats for the Legislative Assembly, and single transferable vote in multi-member seats for the proportionally represented Legislative Council. The council is described as a house of review. Majorities in the Legislative Council a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Government Of Western Australia
The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government or the Western Australian Government. The Government of Western Australia, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, was formed in 1890 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended from time to time. Since the Federation of Australia in 1901, Western Australia has been a state of the Commonwealth of Australia, and the Constitution of Australia regulates its relationship with the Commonwealth. Under the Australian Constitution, Western Australia ceded legislative and judicial supremacy to the Commonwealth, but retained powers in all matters not in conflict with the Commonwealth. History Executive and judicial powers Western Australia is governed according to the principles of the Westminster system, a form of parliamentary government ba ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Scam
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ..intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men') at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')". Terminology Synonyms include con, confidence game, confidence scheme, ripoff, scam, and stratagem. The perpetrator of a confidence trick (or "con trick") is often referred to as a confidence (or "con") man, con-artist, or a "grifter". The shell game dates back at least to Ancient Greece. Samuel Thompson (1821–1856) was the original "confidence man". Thompson was a clumsy swindler who asked his victims to express confidence in him by giving him money or their watch rather than gaining their confidenc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Who's Who Scam
''Who's Who'' (or ''Who is Who'') is the title of a number of reference publications, generally containing concise biographical information on the prominent people of a country. The title has been adopted as an expression meaning a group of notable persons. The oldest and best-known is the annual publication ''Who's Who'', a reference work on contemporary prominent people in Britain published annually since 1849. In addition to legitimate reference works, some ''Who's Who'' lists involve the selling of "memberships" in fraudulent directories that are created online or through instant publishing services. AARP, the University at Buffalo and the Government of South Australia have published warnings of these ''Who's Who'' scams. Notable examples by country * ''Who's Who'', the oldest listing of prominent British people since 1849; people who have died since 1897 are listed in ''Who Was Who.'' * '' Cambridge Who's Who'' (also known as ''Worldwide Who's Who''), a vanity publisher ba ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |