Step

Step or Steps may refer to:

Steps (novel)

Steps is a collection of short stories by a Polish-American writer Jerzy Kosinski, released in 1968 by Random House. The work comprises scores of loosely connected vignettes, which explore themes of social control and alienation by depicting scenes rich in erotic and violent motives. Steps won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1969.

Overview

Steps was Kosinski's second novel, a follow-up to his successful The Painted Bird released in 1965. It consists of a series of short stories, reminiscences, anecdotes and dialogues, loosely linked to each other or having no connection at all, written in the first person. Samuel Coale described the narrator as "nothing more than a disembodied voice howling in some surrealistic wilderness." The book does not name any characters or places where described situations take place.

The book has been interpreted as being about "a Polish man's difficulties under the harsh Soviet regime at home played against his experiences as a new immigrant to the United States and its bizarre codes of capitalism." The stories reflect upon control, power, domination and alienation, depicting scenes full of brutality or sexually explicit. Steps contains remarkable autobiographical elements and numerous references to World War II.

Steps (TVB)

Steps (Traditional Chinese: 舞動全城) is a TVB modern drama series broadcast in September 2007.

Synopsis

Ballroom dancing emphasizes rhythm and mutual trust between the partners. If we can apply the same philosophy to our daily communication practices, we are likely to find ourselves in greater harmony and our lives will surely be enriched.

Dance lover Lee Sum-Ying (Bernice Liu) is going to audition for a place in the Hong Kong Dance Company. Before the audition starts, she bumps into her brother Lee Lik-Keung (Wayne Lai) and his colleague Ching Ka-Tsun (Steven Ma) at a supermarket, where she is accidentally run over by Tsun’s trolley and hurts herself. Due to her arm injury, Ying does not perform well in the audition and fails the assessment. At the invitation of Tsun’s mother, Ying goes to teach Latin dance at a local community center, in the hope that she can save up enough money for further studies abroad. Ying has a very warm personality and is well liked by many of her students. Her popularity eventually lands her a teaching job at a dance workshop, which makes another dance tutor and Tsun's younger sister, Ching Ka-Man (Fala Chen), incredibly jealous. Man dislikes Ying so much that she means to make things difficult for her in every possible way.

Bank (card game)

Bank, also known also as "Polish Bank" or "Russian Bank," is the name of a comparing card game. The game requires a standard 52-card deck and five or six players.

Rules

At the start of the game, each player contributes an arranged stake to the pool. The dealer gives three cards to each player and turns up another; if this is not lower than an eight (ace is lowest), the dealer continues turning up cards until such a card is exposed. The player on the dealer's left, without touching or looking at the three cards received, can bet the amount of the pool, or any part of it, that among those cards is one that is higher (of the same suit) than the turn-up. If the player wins, the player takes the amount from the pool; if the player loses, the player pays that amount to the pool. Each player does the same in turn, the dealer last. Whenever the pool is exhausted, a fresh stake is put into the pool. After a round is over the deal passes. No player may touch any cards received until making a bet; the penalty is a fine to the pool of twice the stake, and the loss of the right to bet during that round.

Ocean bank

An ocean bank, sometimes referred to as a fishing bank or simply bank, is a part of the sea which is shallow compared to its surrounding area, such as a shoal or the top of an underwater hill. Somewhat like continental slopes, ocean banks slopes can upwell as tidal and other flows intercept them, resulting sometimes in nutrient rich currents. Because of this, some large banks, such as Dogger Bank and the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, are among the richest fishing grounds in the world.

There are some banks that were reported in the 19th century by navigators, such as Wachusett Reef, whose existence is doubtful.

Types

Ocean banks may be of volcanic nature. Banks may be carbonate or terrigenous. In tropical areas some banks are submerged atolls. As they are not associated with any landmass, banks have no outside source of sediments. Carbonate banks are typically platforms, rising from the ocean depths, whereas terrigenous banks are elevated sedimentary deposits.

Seamounts, by contrast, are mountains, of volcanic origin, rising from the deep sea, and are steeper, and higher in comparison to the surrounding seabed. Examples are Pioneer and Guide Seamounts, west of the Farallon Islands. The Pioneer Seamount has a depth of 1,000 meters, In other cases, parts of a bank may reach above the water surface, thereby forming islands.

Diaper bank

A diaper bank is a social institution or nonprofit organization formed for the sole purpose of providing diapers to people in poverty who do not have access to diapers. Federally funded public assistance programs do not pay for or contribute to the payment for diapers. and diaper banks accept donations and diapers to provide for either children or adults suffering from incontinence and distribute diapers to partner agencies for distribution to people in their social programs in need of diapers. Most recently The National Diaper Bank Network was formed to help distribute diapers across the United States.

History

The idea of a diaper bank is a relatively new. The Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona claims to be the first diaper bank that was started in 1994 initially as a donation to the local community by a local consulting company, ReSolve, Inc., under the leadership of Hildy Gottlieb and Dimitri Petropolis.